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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: zonder who wrote (67042)12/11/2002 1:38:20 PM
From: Rollcast...  Respond to of 70976
 
In Praise of Bin Laden
Some Saudi Schools Teach Students to Hate the U.S., Love Osama

Reporter's Notebook
By Jim Sciutto

abcnews.go.com

Dec. 10 — The Saudi government insists religious extremism is not sanctioned in the kingdom, and that it's not taught in schools. But it is easy to find teachers who speak out against the United States with a surprisingly deep hatred — a sentiment many are passing on to their students.



Getting these teachers to speak on the record, and especially on camera, is difficult.
On a trip to Riyadh, ABCNEWS producer Hoda Abdel-Hamid and I met three teachers who work at a private high school for boys just outside the capital. And although we've frequently witnessed the depth of anti-American feeling in this part of the world, both of us were amazed at what we heard from these men during our interview.

All three teachers are personally connected to the terror war. Each has a brother in U.S. custody at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, suspected of supporting terrorism.

"I do not know if he was with al Qaeda or not," said Saad al-Shabbani, whose 20-year-old brother, Fahad, is a detainee at Guantanamo. "He is a young man, I don't think he was part of any group specifically. But with the events unfolding he wanted to serve Islam."

‘If Someone Kills My Muslim Brother, I Can Kill Him’

Whether their brothers are actually tied to al Qaeda, all three teachers are teaching their students — Saudi teenagers — that al Qaeda is a noble cause. Here's an exchange with Mohammed Al-Osman, another teacher:

ABCNEWS' Jim Sciutto: Do you believe Osama bin Laden is a good man?

Mohammed Al-Osman: Undoubtedly.

Sciutto: He's a good man, even for planning these attacks on civilians in the U.S., and the Koran says attacks on civilians are not justified?

Al-Osman: Three thousand Americans were killed, but many Muslims also died in Afghanistan. I tell my students the Koran allows self-defense, so if the U.S. kills civilians, then sometimes we have to kill civilians.

Sciutto: What I'm hearing from you is that you're telling your students they can kill people because they're angry.

Al-Osman: If someone kills my Muslim brother, I can kill him.

Sciutto: The people in the World Trade Center, they didn't kill your brothers.

Al-Osman: If I can't target the enemy who did wrong, then I can sacrifice other people.

Al-Shabbani echoed this sentiment.

Sciutto: "You have described to me a very sad future. If someone attacks you, you attack them. They attack you, you attack them. What future are you teaching your students — about violence, about killing, constant killing?"

Al-Shabbani: I teach my students that sometimes you have to do injustice to people who have done an injustice to you.

Pointing Fingers at Israel

When confronted with statements like these, Saudi officials say they're the views of a small minority. But they concede these views are being promoted by extremist religious teachers, and even in some school textbooks.

During a visit to Saudi Arabia this summer, ABCNEWS' 20/20 came across one high school textbook with a passage reading: "Judgment Day will come only when Muslims kill Jews in a great war."

Saudi officials say they've identified parts of the official school curriculum that are inflammatory and that they're changing them. But they also say that the root of anti-American feeling here is not in the schools, but in U.S. Mideast policy. Specifically, says Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal, the Bush administration's unflagging support for Israel and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

"The schools are teaching the same subjects that they did 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago," said al-Faisal. "What has changed is American policy. It is perceived that America is standing unjustly with Mr. Sharon."

The teachers we met, like many people in the Arab world, hold the United States responsible for Palestinian civilian deaths in the Israeli conflict, because Israel buys its weapons from the United States and also receives financial support from Washington.

Many here also frequently point out that the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan left civilians dead — justification, they say, for al Qaeda's attacks on American civilians.

Al-Osman attempted to justify the World Trade Center attacks in the following exchange:

Sciutto: There were civilian casualties in Afghanistan. But the American goal was not to kill civilians. They wanted to go after soldiers and accidently killed civilians. Osama bin Laden's goal was to kill civilians. His plan was to kill civilians. Isn't that a difference?

Al-Osman: Bin Laden wanted to hit a building, the World Trade Center, that represented the American economy.

Sciutto: Yes, but that building happened to be filled by civilians. He drove the plane into the building to kill civilians. Do you deny that?

Al-Osman: Al Qaeda was going after a symbol.

Sciutto: But that building, that symbol, happened to be full of people. Is that right?

Al-Osman: It's not necessary to give a warning of the attack so that people could flee the building that day.

Sciutto: So you're saying that it's OK to surprise civilians in the building.

Al-Osman: In this case, yes.

As for the men ABCNEWS interviewed, we were told privately many times that a crackdown on teachers like them would anger powerful religious extremists here. And so many Saudi students are still being taught to hate Americans, and even to kill them.



To: zonder who wrote (67042)12/11/2002 1:39:58 PM
From: Rollcast...  Respond to of 70976
 
From the holy mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia:

"O God, support our brother mujahidin for your sake in Palestine and elsewhere. O God, we ask you to save Al-Aqsa Mosque from the aggressor and usurper Jews. O God, deal with the Zionist Jews for they are within your power. O God, disperse them and make them a lesson for others and booty for Muslims. O God, inflict your might on the criminal ones."
From the Shaykh Zayid Bin-Sultan Al Nuhayyan Mosque in Gaza:

Shaykh Dr. Muhammad Mustafa Najm delivers the sermon, which he begins by thanking God for "cursing the brothers of apes and pigs" until doomsday and warning Muslims "of their evil and arrogance." He cites the Koranic verse that refers to "Jews" as the most hostile. He also hails Prophet Muhammad, "the imam of the mujahidin and strugglers, who fought Jews and expelled them from the Arabian Peninsula."

Continuing, the imam says it is not strange for Jews to carry out massacres and invasions even on Muslim religious holidays. This, he adds, has always been their hostile attitude toward Muslims, who only demand their rights. He also says that it is not strange for Jews, who tried to kill the prophet, to kill Palestinians after placing them under siege, beginning with their leader. "Our leader," the imam adds, "is unfairly besieged not only by our enemies, but also by those who provide them with political, military, economic, cover."

The imam says that the United States sponsors world terrorism and practices all methods of terrorism, especially against Muslims. So what is required of us in the Holy Land and the Arab and Islamic nation is to unite and fight solidly, he says. We must rise above our differences, he adds.

The imam emphasizes the need for unity and says: "Muslims are being besieged, killed, and butchered. Our kinfolk and brothers in Iraq are being besieged. The so-called United States fabricates allegations and lies in order to wage war on them. If Muslims do not support their brothers in Palestine and Iraq, there will come a day when it would be too late to regret our inactivity. For they will swallow us up one by one, Muslim after Muslim, country after country, and seize our resources."
From president Hafiz al-Asad’s mosque in Damascus, Syria:

The imam asks Muslims as they celebrate the feast to think about the ones "displaced by imperialism and sinful, criminal Zionism" in Palestine. The Islamic and Arab nation, he adds, is "waging a very serious battle and passing through an important and critical phase, the phase of life or death. The enemies have attacked the lands, desecrated holy places, violated sanctities, and sowed corruption on earth." "Jihad," he affirms, "has become a duty for everyone who can help with his or her soul and money. Every individual must be ready to become a soldier fighting with his soul. Sacrifice of spirit is the most expensive thing for the best aim of saving the countries and freeing the holy lands from the occupier tyrants. Every rich person has a duty to spend his money as much as possible in order to supply the resistance with the modern weapons that will help them remain steadfast against the enemies and end their aggression." Arabs and Muslims have never succumbed to invaders, he adds.

"Our nation, will not be intimidated by the United States and those who help Israel openly and secretly," the imam says, adding: "Let Israel expel peaceful people from their homeland and let it drop its bombs and fire on peaceful villages. It will only face steadfastness, firmness, and bravery, as we believe in our just cause and our right to a free, respectable life."

The imam says: "Muslims and Arabs in all their countries, and the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque which is part of their belief, are called upon to rise as one man and fight with their funds and souls for the sake of freeing their countries and saving Al-Aqsa Mosque and other holy places from the tyrannical Jews."
From Shaykh Abd-al-Qadir al-Jaylani mosque in Baghdad, Iraq:

"In our jihad against the administration of tyranny and evil today, we represent faith. In its present jihad, Iraq represents faith while the United States represents infidelity. We appeal to our Muslim brothers and tell them the camp of faith is here and the camp of infidelity is in the United States. The faithful is the one who joins the camp of faith under the flag of Allahu Akbar. The hypocrite is the one who fails to express an opinion and the infidel is the one who stands with evil and tyranny. We shall triumph by our dependence on God. Come closer to God as much as you can, because victory is no doubt coming. History is full of lessons."

The imam recalls incidents from Islamic history showing how God backed the faithful with His angels in times of adversity and says God will not disappoint Iraq, the country of saints -- Imam Ali, Imam Al-Husayn, Imam Al-Abbas, Imam Abu-Hanifah, and Shaykh Abd-al-Qadir al-Jaylani. "If the clique of evil ones attacks," he says, "the whole universe will shake. The angels, the heavens, and the whole world will shake if Iraq is attacked, because our strength is from God's strength."

The imam calls on worshippers to depend on God and place their trust in God. "Do not weaken," he adds, "and do not listen to the media of evil and lies. They are not ashamed to tell lies. They have no scruples about telling lies. They tell lies unashamedly." He adds: "Let them threaten as they want and let them say what they want. We have barricaded ourselves with faith and depend on God."

The imam devotes the second sermon to a solemn prayer to God for support. He prays: "O God deal with the Americans for they are within your power. O God, shake the land under their feet. O God, fight them with your angels. O God, make their plans destroy them. O God, we ask you on this blessed hour to support and aid the intifadah people in Palestine. O God, support the mujahidin in the land of Palestine."
From the Al-Rifa'i mosque in Cairo, Egypt, Dr Ahmad Umar Hashim, the head of Al-Azhar University, supreme head of the world Muslim youth association and member of the Egyptian higher Sufi council, explains that Islam is a religion of tolerance.

After the conquering and converting/subjugating is finished, that is.

He adds that it is time for the Islamic nation to be united, and for those who claim that Islam is a strict religion to understand that Islam is a religion of tolerance. To support his earlier statements, Dr Hashim says that when the prophet and his followers won the last battle against the infidels and entered city of Mecca, he did not punish the infidels who fought against him and told his followers to call that day the day of mercy.

He says that when Islam achieves victory and its instructions spread, security prevails everywhere, even for its enemies. He also says: "You, who were unjust towards our religion, this is our religion. You who are ignorant of the call of Islam, this is the call of Islam. It is the call of mercy and bliss for all humanity. It is mercy for the entire world, with its east, west, north, and south, for Muslims and non-Muslims, and Arabs and foreigners." Dr Hashim continues to relate stories of Mecca's conquest that prove Islam's mercy towards enemies. He says that Islam with its tolerant instructions calls upon the world to understand the true Islam and to believe in and follow the prophet, as the prophet is the last messenger of God. He adds that God has ordered all nations on earth to follow the prophet so that peace and security prevail on earth. He also stresses that Islam is an international religion for the whole world.
Finally, words of relative moderation from martyr King Abdallah mosque in Amman, Jordan, where the king has told the imams to lower the volume:

The imam then calls for a generation of Muslims which believes in "enlightened" Islam rather than "fanaticism." He calls for a generation, which does not oppress, betray, attack, become arrogant, run after sedition, or get misled by mirages. He calls for "a generation whose conscience and feelings are filled with love for the higher ideals, virtues, and moral values, which the world lacks today in its international and domestic relations." He says that it was on the basis of such ideals and values that the state of Islam was established. But, before resolving the problems of the world, we must resolve our own problems, he adds....

imra.org.il



To: zonder who wrote (67042)12/11/2002 1:43:33 PM
From: Rollcast...  Respond to of 70976
 
In his speeches to Muslims in Sydney, the “spiritual leader” of the Jemaah Islamiah terror gang called for global jihad to establish a worldwide Islamic state—beginning with Australia.

In an audio-recording believed to feature his voice, and obtained by the Herald, the hardline cleric gives his broad support to jihad - the term for struggle - to bring Islamic law to the world, particularly Indonesia.

He backs conflict and war in defence of the faith and says it is an "abasement" for Muslims to live in a "non-believing nation".

But the speaker does not directly refer to the violent overthrow of the then Soeharto government or make any reference to terrorist actions.

"The Islamic faithful in Australia must endeavour to bring about an Islamic state in Australia, even if it is 100 years from now," he told the gathering.

smh.com.au