The http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7d9_12066- 24103 link was the gateway to Fitna, the film by Dutch politician Geert Wilders, but now it has an official statement explaining the removal of the online film, blaming the British media as one of the factors.
While watching the film before its removal from the website, I kept waiting for the “substance” that will provide judgement for all the media frenzy plus strong reactions from political leaders to a move from one of their own creed.
“Fitna,” meaning “strife” is nothing but a 15- minute assorted montage of a parochial politician bent upon serving a stale dish of stolen works of journalists and photo-journalists sprinkled with verses from the Koran, which is sacred to millions of Muslims.
Being a Christian myself, I can vouch for many verses from the Bible, which can be as vicious as ones quoted in the short “assortment.” I refuse to call it a film. I actually felt cheated as having gotten the promise of a “film,” and all those statements from prime ministers and presidents with a heightened security alert and the finale: just 15 minutes of sick stolen works.
Just to give an example: Imagine stills of Muslim demonstrations showing people with “God bless Hitler” placards. There is a lack of historical factual statement here because it’s a known fact that when Jews were being persecuted in Europe, they were living safely in Muslim countries where they were free to practice their faith.
Add to that the scrolling messages at the end of the film reading; “The government insists that you respect Islam, but Islam has no respect for you ... Nazism was defeated in Europe ... Communism was defeated in Europe. Now the Islamic ideology has to be defeated ... Stop Islamisation. Defend our freedom.”
And on top of it all, the clipping of the little Palestinian girl was nothing but simply straight out of a sick mind as one could see she’s completely indoctrinated with hatred and she spoke at that age without even understanding what hate means as love is the emotion that comes naturally to children that age.
Even the dumbest person in the world knows that every Muslim is not a terrorist, a jihad supporter, as not all Christians can be labeled crusaders. Actually, I can imagine Osama bin Laden laughing his head (or turban) off watching this film because Wilders generated a media hype and failed to live up to it while highlighting al-Qaeda propaganda that to be a good Muslim one needs to be a believer in terror tactics.
Result: in the future, even if you do have a vicious product to generate hatred between communities, there won’t be many buyers at projected value and people won’t flock to the Internet to check it out.
Another by-product came free: Wilders got some more cheap notoriety (not popularity) reinforcing the notion that manipulation and dishonesty prevails in the different strata of politics and among politicians.
Moreover, I am happy that Kurt Westergaard, the Danish cartoonist who drew the original Prophet Mohammed cartoons, is pushing for legal action as he felt that the cartoons were taken out of context.
Jan Peter Balkenende, the Dutch Prime Minister aptly rejected it all with a statement on the Dutch Television saying that “the film equates Islam with violence. We reject this interpretation. The vast majority of Muslims reject extremism and violence.”
Final word: Fitna, “the film” can still be seen at Google Video at http://video.google.com- /videoplay?docid=3369102968312745410
Showing posts with label Osama bin Laden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Osama bin Laden. Show all posts
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Saturday, January 19, 2008
No knowledge of whereabouts of Osama bin Laden: NATO
Osama bin Laden remains as elusive today as he was at thestart of US-led NATO operations in Afghanistan six years ago.“We have no knowledge of the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden,” said Brigadier General Rodney Anderson, the Deputy Commander General for Support for Regional Command East in Bagram, Afghanistan.
Speaking to Brussels-based journalists during a video teleconference, General Anderson elaborated on the mountainousTora Bora area from where bin Laden was supposed to have escaped years ago, “In the Tora Bora area the Afghan NationalArmy has recently partnered with coalition forces, conductedsome operations in the area. There are still Afghan National Army forces in the area. And this is all to provide a level of safety and security for the people of the province of Nangarhar. But there were really no major operations, so to speak, conducted there over the last several months.”
With the recent assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and a spate of terrorist attacks across the country, the situation in the key state of Islamic Republic of Pakistan seems to have gone from bad to worse.
Although the NATO commander hesitated “to speculate on what is essentiallya political matter in Pakistan,” the General did call the FATA, the Federal Administered Tribal Area a challenge saying,“We recognise it as a challenge and the Pakistan military has responsibility for that area. We do not conduct any operationsor the like across the border.”
Confirming good communication across the border, “There are no disagreements that I am aware of between the Pakistan’s military and the coalition forces’ military as it relates to the border,” Anderson ruled out direct NATO action there saying, “We have no plans, no intentions, no instructions, noauthority to cross the border to conduct any sort of operations inside Pakistan.”
There have been repeated attacks on Pakistani army in thatarea and according to reports there is no tangible authority of the Pakistani government there. With such a hostile climate across the safe havens for the resurgent Taliban in the Western Pakistan where insurgents are able to regroup and attack NATO groups while the government of Hamid Karzai is struggling to keep them at bay, there is a humanitarian face of NATO, silent but steady at work in rebuilding Afghanistan.
The decade-long brutal Soviet occupation from 1979 to 1989 decayed the fragile economy and damaged the fabrics of Afghan society that it may take years and billions in aid to bring some kind of normalcy.
NATO Brigadier General Anderson went to great lengths explaining the significant progress guided by “a single unifying strategy, the Afghan National Development Strategy or ANDS.” Giving the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan credit to keep Afghanistan on path to progress, Anderson stressed the link between development and security situationsaying, “as they move forward there will be an increase in capability and capacity of the police and the army and likewise in the reduction in poverty, in the improvement in universal primaryeducation, gender equity and all of the other aspects of the Millennial Development Goals.”
He listed some statistical data like, “Schools have increased from 1,000 to 9,000 in the last years... in the area of health care, basic health care access has increased from eight percent six years ago, to 78 percent today ... In the area of roads, the Ring Road is 100 percent complete in Regional Command East and 73 percent paved around the country.”
Queried about the reliability of these data, the General told journalists, “The figures that we’re using are with inputs fromthe ministries, but from independent assessments that have been done and indicators from several different sources. And so we are fairly comfortable that we have not over-inflated the figures that I gave you.”
Outlining the NATO role as “just to assist where there’s a lack of knowledge of what government program might be available,” the General said, “Each province in Regional Command East has a PRT, a Provincial Reconstruction Team, and it is one of their responsibilities to assist the Provincial Development Council and the District Development Assembly and just partner with the entire development and governance framework at the provincial level... Every project completed is another step forward. This progress will not happen overnight, but Afghanistan, with international help, can meet the UN’s Millennial Development Goals.”
Monday, October 15, 2007
Wahhabism tightens grip over Kosovo
Ahtisaari’s plan for independence may help terrorism flourish
Islam has flourished in the Balkans over the centuries with a peaceful and modern outlook but over the last decade, especially now with the talk of Kosovo independence, there are questions being raised about the external influence in once-tranquil religious relations.
Wahhabism, a fundamental form of Islam with origins in Saudi Arabia has been rearing its ugly head of intolerance in the Balkans starting from Bosnia a decade ago. With the recent manifestation of its hardcore modus operandi in Kosovo, which has more than a 90 percent Muslim population, the ongoing impact of Wahhabism demands serious attention.
First, let’s look at origins of Wahhabism.In the deserts of the Middle East, Muhammad al-Saud, a tribal leader, had in 1750 formed an alliance with Muhammad bin Abd al-Wahhab, a religious leader and al- Wahhab’s name defines the Islamic interpretation that remains the Saudi Arabian kingdom’s ideology. The present Saudi Arabia was formed in 1902, when Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud captured the town of Riyadh but its greatest victory came in 1924, when it captured Mecca from the Hashemite dynasty that had controlled the city for centuries.
With the arrival of the 70s, the mud houses and camel caravans in Saudi Arabia started coexisting with the ultra-modern infrastructure. The newly found wealth of “Petro-dollars” brought phenomenal changes in a few decades. But like every “gift,” this one also came with a package and that has thrown young Saudis to face many nontraditional problems.
According to official estimates, the last two decades have seen the native-born population in Saudi Arabia doubling to nearly 18 million but on the other hand the per-capita income during the same period dwindled to almost half of what it was.
Add to that unemployment figure of about 30 percent in the adult male population with no chance of finding a job in sight. Now, compare that to the average monthly stipend of about USD 30,000 for a low ranking hierarchy prince in the Saudi ruling family, and, according to rough estimates the number of them is as high as 25,000. In the process, the Saudi government gets about 50 percent of the oil revenue as the rest is pocketed by the Saudi royal family at source.
Ironically, most Saudis are aware of this fact and that fuels the unhappiness in the Vox Populi.It is thus not the lack of wealth but a disproportionate distribution system that is one of the major factors that attracts Saudi youth to terrorism which according to sources has the silent support of most people under 30.
Getting uncomfortable with domestic unrest, the Saudi ruling family in 1980s decided to export this home-grown militancy to Afghanistan to fight Soviets and the rest is history.Today, Wahhabism needs new breeding grounds along with training and survival fields. It will not be long after the “independence” of Kosovo that the Kosovoan version, of “Muttawa,” the religious police since 1926 of Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia that enforces prayer five times a day, monitors mobile SMS and arrests women for failing to cover themselves completely, will be a reality on the streets of Kosovo.
One look at the local media reports in Kosovo and neighbouring arena will suffice to convince any sceptic about the dangers of Wahhabism form of Islam. The UN and Kosovo police in the southern part of the divided town of Kosovska Mitrovica on September 19 arrested one of the leaders of the Wahhabite movement in southern Serbia and Kosovo, according to local media reports.
According to these reports the arrested man was Bajram Aslani, allegedly the main Kosovo connection with the recentlyarrested Wahhabi group in Novi Pazar, Southern Serbia. The local reports suggested that the Belgrade Special prosecution for Organised crime on September 14 pressed charges against a group of 15 Wahhabites from Novi Pazar for terrorism and unlawful possession of arms.Some of the defendants were arrested near Novi Pazar on March 16 and large quantities of weapons, ammunition and explosives were found during the operation.
Moreover, in late April reports stated that in the village of Donja Trnava near Novi Pazar, the police had a clash with two Wahabis, which resulted in the killing of one of them, Ismail Prentic, and the wounding of one police officer.
Two recent explicit cases involving Wahhabis in Kosovo can be put forward in addition to every day media reports of Wahhabis being arrested, exchanging fire with law-enforcing agencies or simply taking over mosques that have been there for hundreds of years in Turkish style and converting them to conform to Wahhabi way of architecture and worship.
The first case is in the Gazimestan area which has historic values with a famous medieval battlefield dating back to 1389, stretching from Pristina to Mitrovica. In addition to the remains of Serbian Prince Lazar and Ottoman Sultan Murad, there in the vicinity are two shrines called “Turbe” existing for hundreds of years and have never got disturbed until recently when these were vandalised.
According to local reliable sources who wanted to remain anonymous for obvious reasons, it was allegedly the work of Wahhabis as they believe tombs should not be kept as shrines. The allegations are strengthened by the fact that even in Saudi Arabia there have been such cases like the Jannatul- Baqi, the famous cemetery in Medina, also known as the “Tree garden of Heaven,” which is alleged to have been destroyed in order to keep up with the Wahhabi ideal of not worshipping graves.
Another important case that did stir strong local resentment happened in Prizren, an old historic town that has a history of multiethnic population represented by an Orthodox Church, a Catholic Church and a Mosque, more than 350 years old from the days of Ottoman Empire. According to local sources, the mosque was getting refurbished with Saudi money and the new Imam allegedly preaches Wahhabism. The local Muslim population is disgruntled with the actions of the new Imam who without consultations first made living quarters for himself as an extension of the ancient Mosque and then replaced “irreplaceable” decorative wooden work on the inside ceiling and other parts with new aluminium frames thus the Mosque lost forever its historic heritage.
Another practice that is prevalent in Kosovo today is Wahhabis allegedly paying poor people to wear visible signs of Islam. According to local sources the alleged rate today varies from 100 Euro to 300 Euro per month depending on how much of face or body is covered in Islamic clothing.Money talks and it sure does as is evident with its contribution to the replacement of moderate Islam in Kosovo with the financing of “Islamic studies” trips for youngsters. After a stint of such religious learning abroad in Saudi Arabia or Egypt, lasting around six to 12 months, the youngsters upon returning back in Kosovo sport Islamic beards and robes instead of their jeans.
Watching those alarming signs in Kosovo, socio-religious pundits and political observers warn that slow but steady moderate Islam with its Turkish roots is on its way out and with the talk of independence in Kosovo picking up, soon the days when girls sport western clothes will be history. The mix of Saudi Wahhabism with their oil money is proving dangerous to the world.
The question that comes to mind is: Was it a coincidence that 15 of the 19 hijackers of September 11 terrorist attacks on the US were Saudi citizens and so is the mastermind Osama bin Laden? In a Catch- 22 situation, the West is financing for spread of fundamental Islam in the form of Wahhabism which will boomerang to hurt them. By supporting the UN envoy for Kosovo, Martti Ahtisaari’s plan for Kosovo’s independence, many Western governments are unwittingly working to carve out a safe haven for criminality and fundamentalist Islam in the heart of Europe.
It’s time to rethink Kosovo independence: another Taliban in the making and this time right in the heart of European Continent from where it will be easier not only to strike in Europe but also travel across the Atlantic.
Islam has flourished in the Balkans over the centuries with a peaceful and modern outlook but over the last decade, especially now with the talk of Kosovo independence, there are questions being raised about the external influence in once-tranquil religious relations.
Wahhabism, a fundamental form of Islam with origins in Saudi Arabia has been rearing its ugly head of intolerance in the Balkans starting from Bosnia a decade ago. With the recent manifestation of its hardcore modus operandi in Kosovo, which has more than a 90 percent Muslim population, the ongoing impact of Wahhabism demands serious attention.
First, let’s look at origins of Wahhabism.In the deserts of the Middle East, Muhammad al-Saud, a tribal leader, had in 1750 formed an alliance with Muhammad bin Abd al-Wahhab, a religious leader and al- Wahhab’s name defines the Islamic interpretation that remains the Saudi Arabian kingdom’s ideology. The present Saudi Arabia was formed in 1902, when Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud captured the town of Riyadh but its greatest victory came in 1924, when it captured Mecca from the Hashemite dynasty that had controlled the city for centuries.
With the arrival of the 70s, the mud houses and camel caravans in Saudi Arabia started coexisting with the ultra-modern infrastructure. The newly found wealth of “Petro-dollars” brought phenomenal changes in a few decades. But like every “gift,” this one also came with a package and that has thrown young Saudis to face many nontraditional problems.
According to official estimates, the last two decades have seen the native-born population in Saudi Arabia doubling to nearly 18 million but on the other hand the per-capita income during the same period dwindled to almost half of what it was.
Add to that unemployment figure of about 30 percent in the adult male population with no chance of finding a job in sight. Now, compare that to the average monthly stipend of about USD 30,000 for a low ranking hierarchy prince in the Saudi ruling family, and, according to rough estimates the number of them is as high as 25,000. In the process, the Saudi government gets about 50 percent of the oil revenue as the rest is pocketed by the Saudi royal family at source.
Ironically, most Saudis are aware of this fact and that fuels the unhappiness in the Vox Populi.It is thus not the lack of wealth but a disproportionate distribution system that is one of the major factors that attracts Saudi youth to terrorism which according to sources has the silent support of most people under 30.
Getting uncomfortable with domestic unrest, the Saudi ruling family in 1980s decided to export this home-grown militancy to Afghanistan to fight Soviets and the rest is history.Today, Wahhabism needs new breeding grounds along with training and survival fields. It will not be long after the “independence” of Kosovo that the Kosovoan version, of “Muttawa,” the religious police since 1926 of Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia that enforces prayer five times a day, monitors mobile SMS and arrests women for failing to cover themselves completely, will be a reality on the streets of Kosovo.
One look at the local media reports in Kosovo and neighbouring arena will suffice to convince any sceptic about the dangers of Wahhabism form of Islam. The UN and Kosovo police in the southern part of the divided town of Kosovska Mitrovica on September 19 arrested one of the leaders of the Wahhabite movement in southern Serbia and Kosovo, according to local media reports.
According to these reports the arrested man was Bajram Aslani, allegedly the main Kosovo connection with the recentlyarrested Wahhabi group in Novi Pazar, Southern Serbia. The local reports suggested that the Belgrade Special prosecution for Organised crime on September 14 pressed charges against a group of 15 Wahhabites from Novi Pazar for terrorism and unlawful possession of arms.Some of the defendants were arrested near Novi Pazar on March 16 and large quantities of weapons, ammunition and explosives were found during the operation.
Moreover, in late April reports stated that in the village of Donja Trnava near Novi Pazar, the police had a clash with two Wahabis, which resulted in the killing of one of them, Ismail Prentic, and the wounding of one police officer.
Two recent explicit cases involving Wahhabis in Kosovo can be put forward in addition to every day media reports of Wahhabis being arrested, exchanging fire with law-enforcing agencies or simply taking over mosques that have been there for hundreds of years in Turkish style and converting them to conform to Wahhabi way of architecture and worship.
The first case is in the Gazimestan area which has historic values with a famous medieval battlefield dating back to 1389, stretching from Pristina to Mitrovica. In addition to the remains of Serbian Prince Lazar and Ottoman Sultan Murad, there in the vicinity are two shrines called “Turbe” existing for hundreds of years and have never got disturbed until recently when these were vandalised.
According to local reliable sources who wanted to remain anonymous for obvious reasons, it was allegedly the work of Wahhabis as they believe tombs should not be kept as shrines. The allegations are strengthened by the fact that even in Saudi Arabia there have been such cases like the Jannatul- Baqi, the famous cemetery in Medina, also known as the “Tree garden of Heaven,” which is alleged to have been destroyed in order to keep up with the Wahhabi ideal of not worshipping graves.
Another important case that did stir strong local resentment happened in Prizren, an old historic town that has a history of multiethnic population represented by an Orthodox Church, a Catholic Church and a Mosque, more than 350 years old from the days of Ottoman Empire. According to local sources, the mosque was getting refurbished with Saudi money and the new Imam allegedly preaches Wahhabism. The local Muslim population is disgruntled with the actions of the new Imam who without consultations first made living quarters for himself as an extension of the ancient Mosque and then replaced “irreplaceable” decorative wooden work on the inside ceiling and other parts with new aluminium frames thus the Mosque lost forever its historic heritage.
Another practice that is prevalent in Kosovo today is Wahhabis allegedly paying poor people to wear visible signs of Islam. According to local sources the alleged rate today varies from 100 Euro to 300 Euro per month depending on how much of face or body is covered in Islamic clothing.Money talks and it sure does as is evident with its contribution to the replacement of moderate Islam in Kosovo with the financing of “Islamic studies” trips for youngsters. After a stint of such religious learning abroad in Saudi Arabia or Egypt, lasting around six to 12 months, the youngsters upon returning back in Kosovo sport Islamic beards and robes instead of their jeans.
Watching those alarming signs in Kosovo, socio-religious pundits and political observers warn that slow but steady moderate Islam with its Turkish roots is on its way out and with the talk of independence in Kosovo picking up, soon the days when girls sport western clothes will be history. The mix of Saudi Wahhabism with their oil money is proving dangerous to the world.
The question that comes to mind is: Was it a coincidence that 15 of the 19 hijackers of September 11 terrorist attacks on the US were Saudi citizens and so is the mastermind Osama bin Laden? In a Catch- 22 situation, the West is financing for spread of fundamental Islam in the form of Wahhabism which will boomerang to hurt them. By supporting the UN envoy for Kosovo, Martti Ahtisaari’s plan for Kosovo’s independence, many Western governments are unwittingly working to carve out a safe haven for criminality and fundamentalist Islam in the heart of Europe.
It’s time to rethink Kosovo independence: another Taliban in the making and this time right in the heart of European Continent from where it will be easier not only to strike in Europe but also travel across the Atlantic.
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