Muslims no longer are too blind to see
Charleston Daily Mail ^ | 7/28/5 | Don Surber
The reign of terror finally receives some resistance
In the wake of the bombing of London, Soumayya Ghannoushi had her Coolio moment. May her words mark the tipping point in the War on Terrorism.
Coolio is a rap singer whose song about the ghetto, "Gangsta Paradise," touched a nerve in the 1990s with its haunting refrain: "Tell me why are we, too blind to see, that the ones we hurt are you and me?"
Ghannoushi is a researcher in the history of ideas at the School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London. The bombing of that city forced her to confront the violence promulgated by Muslims.
She wrote a column that was posted on al-Jazeera's English-language Web site.
"How can the murder of the innocent be perpetuated in the name of a religion that likens the loss of one human life to the loss of humanity at large?" she asked. "How can Islam be said to sanction such acts of aggression when it openly forbids revenge and declares in no less than five Koranic chapters that no bearer of a burden bears the burden of another?"
Most Muslims denounce the carnage in the Middle East. No sane person approves of random attacks aimed at civilians. But their protests have not been very loud.
The weekend bombing of an Egyptian resort changed that. It made no sense. Egypt had no troops in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Anti-terror protesters gathered on the 6th of October Bridge over the Nile between Zamalek and Tahrir.
They gathered in Baghdad, where two attacks killed 105 people, including 32 children.
They gathered in Copenhagen, where a filmmaker was slaughtered.
Slowly the world realizes the War on Terrorism is not about the United States. Every nation will have its Sept. 11th. Terrorists targeted commuters in Spain and England. In Russia, terrorists targeted schoolchildren.
Those who compare this to the American Revolution sadden me. George Washington never targeted civilians.
The real comparison is the Reign of Terror in France. The guillotine beheaded thousands of people for no apparent reason. The king had already capitulated before he was decapitated.
Al-Qaida also favors beheading. Reuters casually reported that one-third of its captives are killed.
Amnesty International's Irene Khan had the gall to compare Guantanamo Bay to a gulag in Siberia.
Imagine my surprise when her organization this week denounced the terrorists in Iraq as war criminals.
Amr Moussa, the head of the Arab League, announced this week that it wants to break a nine-year deadlock with the United Nations and accept the definition of terrorism as any intentional maiming or killing of civilians, "regardless of the cause."
Those last four words were the hang-up because they denounce bombings by Palestinians.
Calling terrorists "insurgents" is inaccurate. They may want the United States out but only because the terrorists want to rule a nation that yearns to be free.
On Jan. 30, more than 8 million Iraqis defied the terrorists and voted. Now the terrorists are killing Iraqis by the score. Al-Qaida apparently wants the Iraqis to get out of Iraq.
The realization that al-Qaida is everyone's enemy has been slow in coming. And it does not solve the problem. But it is a start. Maybe someday Soumayya Ghannoushi's Coolio moment will be remembered.
dailymail.com
Thanks, Brian, for finding this. |
