Good News Via Stupid Enemy

[Annie]

http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=2234582005

Sun 13 Nov 2005
Al-Qaeda on defensive as bombs begin to backfire
IAN MATHER DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT [email protected]

AFTER years of al-Qaeda terror attacks in which thousands have been killed, many of them Muslims - the people they wish to recruit - voices of dissent are starting to be heard in the Middle East.

As moderate Muslims dare to protest at daily death tolls, even the prospect of one of Osama bin Laden's most feared cohorts, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, being handed over is being discussed.

Faced with the unprecedented outburst of fury among Muslims over its latest atrocity, al-Qaeda's concern about reaction in the Middle East was evident last week when it came the closest yet to an apology.

It offered an "explanation" for one of worst attacks to hit Jordan in modern history, in which suicide bombers turned wedding parties into scenes of destruction, killing at least 60 people and injuring 96 at international hotels in Amman.

At first al-Qaeda announced that "a group of our best lions" had carried out the attacks to punish Jordan for supporting "the Jews and Crusaders".

Then late at night it posted a second statement on the internet "to explain to Muslims part of the reason the holy warriors targeted these dens." It said it had ordered the suicide attacks on the hotels "only after becoming confident that they were centres for launching war on Islam and supporting the Crusaders' presence in Iraq and the Arab peninsula and the presence of the Jews on the land of Palestine."

A third statement on Friday also had a defensive tone. It said the bombers were four Iraqis, who had chosen the hotels "after a month of surveillance and information gathering".

Al-Qaeda's volte-face was caused by an unprecedented emotional outpouring of anger against the terrorist organisation in Jordan. On Thursday thousands of Jordanians protested across the country to denounce the head of the al-Qaeda terrorist group in Iraq, Zarqawi, America's most wanted enemy. They marched through Amman chanting: "Burn in hell, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi!"

There were even larger demonstrations on Friday after the weekly midday mosque sermons in Amman and at a mass funeral for victims. "We came to support our nation and our unity," said Ibrahim Haniya, 22, who marched with a group of friends. "These bombers didn't differentiate between Muslims, Christians or Jews. They were against the world."

"The country is experiencing solidarity," said Mustafa Hamarneh, director of the Centre for Strategic Studies in Amman. "On the TV, on the radio, everyone is condemning the attacks in the strongest terms, including the Muslim Brotherhood, to show their solidarity with the rest of the population."

Diplomats say a key question is whether al-Qaeda has over-reached itself. "They have clearly been stung by the reaction on the streets in Jordan," said one diplomat with knowledge of the region.

"Until now they have been impervious to the deaths of ordinary Muslims. This time, the fact that they savaged two wedding parties was bad enough. But even worse is the fact that among the dead were Palestinians. Palestinians not only make up the majority of the population of Jordan, but they have iconic status in the Arab world, where they are seen as victims of Israel."

An immediate result of the Jordan attacks may be a split between al-Qaeda and Palestinian militants, he said, adding that it was significant that Palestinians in Gaza had moved immediately to put daylight between themselves and al-Qaeda.

Nafez Azzam, of the Islamic Jihad group, said: "We condemn the style, the random killings. We condemn the killing of innocents anywhere regardless of belief and religion."

Hamas urged al-Qaeda to limit itself to striking against the US in Iraq and to avoid killing Arabs and Muslims.

"Such condemned bombings will be at the expense of Iraqi and Palestinian causes," said Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri.

Al-Qaeda's 'explanation' of its attacks in Jordan was its second within days. Last week two Indonesians arrested over the bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta in August, which killed 12, also expressed remorse in the face of a huge wave of popular revulsion.

Significantly, one of them said sorry not only to the victims and their relatives, but to other Muslims. The man, known as Tohir, whom police say is a member of Jemaah Islamiyah, the South-east Asian branch of al-Qaeda, said on television: "I apologise to families of the victims sincerely and to the Muslim community, who have felt the slander and negative impact of my actions."

A Western intelligence official said: "The bombings in Amman will do a lot of damage to the reputation of al-Qaeda. Until now al-Qaeda has had some success. Many Muslims have been alienated from the US because of the invasion of Iraq and its support for Israel. The idea of violent jihad has spread to parts of the world far from Iraq, and there is even talk of a global Islamist insurgency.

"But there is evidence of a backlash. Most of the bombings attributed to al-Qaeda kill far more Muslims than Westerners, and it will not be able to carry the bulk of Arab opinion with it when so many Muslims are dying as a result of its activities."

The aim of al-Qaeda is to drive the Americans and other "Crusaders" from Muslim lands and overthrow governments such as those of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey which it sees as lackeys of the West, and replace them with umma, a community which would follow the 'pure' brand of Islam.

However, anti-Americanism has not been translated into the collapse of any of these governments.

Even in Iraq al-Qaeda may have overreached itself, according to Eric Margolis, author of War at the Top of the World: the Struggle for Afghanistan, Kashmir and Tibet. "I think it remarkable that Zarqawi has not been caught yet. But I think it's even more likely that he will soon be either caught or betrayed, possibly by his own people.

"In Iraq there's a lot of anger and fury at Zarqawi, even among the Iraqi resistance forces who are fighting the Americans. They say that Zarqawi is polluting and defaming their struggle by terrorist attacks, which are just brutal and bloodletting, and giving them a bad name."

 

[Annie]

I do wonder why it took this carnage of Palestinians to get their attention. Most of al Queda's victims have been Muslim all along.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1131367079021&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull

The head of Indonesia's largest Muslim organization condemned suicide bombings on Sunday, and warned that terrorism was hurting the reputation of Islam as well as making life difficult for its followers.

The remarks by Hazyim Muzadi will cheer proponents of Islamic moderation in the world's most populous Muslim nation, where some clerics resist denouncing terrorism for fear of being seen as subservient to the United States.

"Killing is only justified in war," said Muzadi, the head of the Nahdatul Ulama, in remarks carried by the state news agency Antara on Sunday. "Terrorists who are acting in the name of Islam are ruining the religion's reputation as a blessing to the universe. Islam's followers both in Indonesia and abroad are being cornered as a result," he said.

Nahdatul Ulama was established in the 1920s and claims some 40 million followers.

 

[Gunny]

Too bad this won't amount to much more than noise. It would be refreshing to see Islam take out its own trash for once.

The first thing that came to my mind however is once again the double standard applied by the left. They become incensed when ALL Muslims are stereotyped as extremists/terrorists; yet, anytime ONE nutjob Christian opens his mouth, the left represents that person as reflective of ALL Christians.

For some reason, that "logic" escapes me.

 

[Annie]

Too bad this won't amount to much more than noise. It would be refreshing to see Islam take out its own trash for once.

The first thing that came to my mind however is once again the double standard applied by the left. They become incensed when ALL Muslims are stereotyped as extremists/terrorists; yet, anytime ONE nutjob Christian opens his mouth, the left represents that person as reflective of ALL Christians.

For some reason, that "logic" escapes me.

Hope:

Links at site

http://www.geopoliticalreview.com/archives/001289terrorist_attacks_in_jordan.php

November 10, 2005

Terrorist Attacks in Jordan

It will be interesting to see if the terrorist attacks that predominantly killed Jordanian Muslims will effect the support of suicide bombers among Jordanians. I wager that it will and this is why. In a poll taken in portions of the Muslim world earlier this year, support for Osama bin Laden and the tactic of suicide bombing in defense of Islam had declined remarkably (proving that the U.S. is winning the battle for the "minds" of Muslims). The most precipitous drops were, not surprisingly, in countries that had directly endured the brunt of Islamic suicide bombings, such as Indonesia and Morocco.

Of the countries surveyed, however, Jordan was the only country where the majority surveyed (57%) still supported terrorist acts in defense of Islam, something attributed to the majority Palestinian population that makes up Jordan. To date, although Islamofascists have tried numerous times before the Iraq War to attack Jordan, they had not successfully carried out a terrorist bombing inside the country. That changed yesterday as Jordan felt the full effects of suicide bombings. Now that Jordanians are not immune from the murderous intentions of terrorists using suicide bombings in the name of Islam, look for that 57% figure to drop the next time this poll is taken. Indications are this shift has begun to occur already, as the Jordanians start to learn what their brethern in the Muslim world increasingly realize: that Bin Laden's Jihad against the West is a fraud, further exposed with attacks such as these.

And for the record, although it is true that Zarqawi is Jordanian, keep in mind that he does not consider himself Jordanian, but Palestinian, a subtle, but noteworthy difference.
Posted by Jeff at November 10, 2005 06:52 PM | TrackBack | eMail this entry

Comments

Is the US winning hearts and minds or is Al-Quaeda losing them?

 

[ThomasPaine]

hearts and minds. However the Islamic mindset is so dead against the United States, due to our support of Israel, that it will probably take more than this attack to change it. Additionally, of course, Bin Laden etal refer to our presence in the Middle East as a "crusade"; that historic reference being fresh in Islamic thinking as if it were yesterday. In the West history has changed so much in the last 600 years that the Crusades are all but forgotten. To the Arabs it is an open festering sore.

 

[Annie]

hearts and minds. However the Islamic mindset is so dead against the United States, due to our support of Israel, that it will probably take more than this attack to change it. Additionally, of course, Bin Laden etal refer to our presence in the Middle East as a "crusade"; that historic reference being fresh in Islamic thinking as if it were yesterday. In the West history has changed so much in the last 600 years that the Crusades are all but forgotten. To the Arabs it is an open festering sore.

Israel is the strawman that the West is all too happy to buy into. Some go along, saying the US has supported, ignoring the general condemnation of the West in accordance with the Muslims.

 

[LuvRPgrl]

hearts and minds. However the Islamic mindset is so dead against the United States, due to our support of Israel, that it will probably take more than this attack to change it. Additionally, of course, Bin Laden etal refer to our presence in the Middle East as a "crusade"; that historic reference being fresh in Islamic thinking as if it were yesterday. In the West history has changed so much in the last 600 years that the Crusades are all but forgotten. To the Arabs it is an open festering sore.

HOPEFULLY, the newer generations will become more interested in having a happy family and life, than being bent on destruction and revenge. I think as more and more middle easterners become sucessful in the US, the message goes back home, and the more desirous the kids will be of an affluent life. Then maybe they will come to the conclusion, in great enough numbers, to realize its in their best interest to just leave Israel alone.

But since I am a firm believer in the Bible, and it predicts that wont happen, I dont really think it will, hmmm, kinda weird eh? Well, Im actually hoping that the Bible doesnt really predict that, my knowledge on that subject is pretty weak. So, I hope Im right/wrong/right , in that order