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by Alphonse
Tuesday, May. 24, 2005 at 11:06 PM
The violence by muslims over the Newsweek thing wasn't caused by purely religious zeal or even western hate.
Outrageous behaviour hurts all Muslims
Written by Salim Mansur
This week’s news of organized Muslim mobs on the rampage in Afghanistan, Pakistan and various other parts of the Muslim world—in the wake of the erroneous Newsweek report that copies of the Koran were desecrated by American interrogators at Guantanamo Bay—is as stale and tiresome as another round of suicide bombing in Iraq.
There would be news of much interest if we learned of demonstrations in those countries against the regular desecration of Islam by leaders of fundamentalist Muslim organizations who preach the politics of intimidation and violence in the name of religion to their fanatical followers.
The Newsweek story, since retracted, was irresponsible and mischievous. It had as much merit—and was about as well investigated before going to print—as was Dan Rather’s discredited reporting on U.S. President George Bush’s service with the Texas National Air Guard.
But it was seized upon by political opportunists such as Imran Khan—a former Pakistani cricket star and opponent of General Musharraf, Pakistan’s military dictator—for a show of force by unleashing a mob in quest of their own ambitions.
These mob rampages—some 16 dead and many more injured, with considerable property damages in Afghanistan and elsewhere as well—only confirm mob psychology as being readily inflammable and destructive.
The more revealing aspect of such events is the role of those igniting mob passion in the name of Islam. The damages that result are always disproportionately higher than excuses which trigger them.
In November 2002, for instance, Nigeria was convulsed by a violent protest led by Muslim fundamentalists causing death and destruction over a newspaper story mischievously speculating on what Prophet Mohammed’s response might be to a Miss World pageant being staged in the country. Some 200 people were killed.
It is no mystery that in societies where widely prevalent illiteracy and poverty leave people’s minds and bodies vulnerable, political opportunists can readily find a rent-a-mob for their purposes.
Yet there has been little or no effort by Muslim leaders within the Arab-Muslim world, or in the West, to protest the widely witnessed mounting horrors perpetrated by some Muslims who have done irreparable harm to Islam’s reputation.
The shameful silence of most Muslims in respect to regular kidnappings and murders—e.g., Margaret Hassan, an aid worker in Iraq; Danny Pearl, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal in Pakistan—or over the destruction of the Bamiyan statues of Buddha in Afghanistan, reveals their twisted thinking and selectively hollow sense of outrage concerning the desecration of Islam.
It is violence done by Muslims under whatever pretext, politics or religion, that continues to cause greater harm to Islam than any real or imagined insult hurled by non-Muslims towards Muslim faith or culture.
As a Muslim, I find exceedingly abhorrent the continuing silence of the Muslim world in respect to the genocide unfolding in the Darfur region of a Muslim-majority Sudan.
This thundering silence is not an exception. It has, rather, become the rule of Muslim sensibility—turning a blind eye to horrors perpetrated by Muslims with justifications offered by references to the Koran or the traditions of the prophet.
It is only if, and when, Muslims take responsibility for their own reprehensible conduct—the record is too long to list—that others might genuinely consider any merit in Muslim grievances arising from any alleged insult against Islam by non-Muslims.
In the meantime, Muslims should remind themselves that those who greatly defame Islam’s message of belief in a merciful God of all creation come from within their midst and, as the Koran instructs, upon them rests a mighty burden of repentance and warnings of eternal damnation.
©2005 - Salim Mansur, BA, MA, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Western Ontario. He is also a columnist at Canada’s Sun Medi
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by Western Violence VS Muslim violence
Wednesday, May. 25, 2005 at 12:49 AM
Yes, I agree with Salim Mansur. If the Moslem people are killed, tortured and raped in Iraq, Afghanistan or Guantanamo, and their sacred book put down the toilet bowl, they should show the other check to their enemies and not retaliate.
They should let the invaders do their business in the Middle East which is to plunder the riches of other countries without any consequences to them.
Yes, I agree with Mr. Mansur. I dare those Moslem to have to audacity to retaliate to torture in Abu graib, and to the killing of 100,000 Iraqis civilians in the last two years.
I am sure,Mr. Mansur that President Bush would be pleased with what you wrote. Your are a good good boy for spreading the US government propaganda.
Now please go back to your sand box or get back on sucking on your peacemaker. And please don’t get back on this website. Get your trash published in the mainstream media.
I can see how the mainstream media can use your moslem name to pacify your brothers in the western world.
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by Western Violence VS Muslim violence
Wednesday, May. 25, 2005 at 12:50 AM
Yes, I agree with Salim Mansur. If the Moslem people are killed, tortured and raped in Iraq, Afghanistan or Guantanamo, and their sacred book put down the toilet bowl, they should show the other check to their enemies and not retaliate.
They should let the invaders do their business in the Middle East which is to plunder the riches of other countries without any consequences to them.
Yes, I agree with Mr. Mansur. I dare those Moslem to have to audacity to retaliate to torture in Abu graib, and to the killing of 100,000 Iraqis civilians in the last two years.
I am sure,Mr. Mansur that President Bush would be pleased with what you wrote. Your are a good good boy for spreading the US government propaganda.
Now please go back to your sand box or get back on sucking on your peacemaker. And please don’t get back on this website. Get your trash published in the mainstream media.
I can see how the mainstream media can use your moslem name to pacify your brothers in the western world.
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by all well and good
Wednesday, May. 25, 2005 at 2:42 AM
"I dare those Moslem to have to audacity to retaliate to torture in Abu graib, and to the killing of 100,000 Iraqis civilians in the last two years."
All well and good but for two points.
One. If what we did at Abu Graib was done by ANY other muslim state it would be considered a huge leap forward for them in the field of human rights.
Two. The VAST, VAST, VAST majority of the Iraqis killed have been slaughtered at the hand of islamic terrorists.
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by KPC
Wednesday, May. 25, 2005 at 1:19 PM
yeah, I'm proud that we are not really as good at torture as the Saudis are...but hell we trained 'em to be the best!
...shitpile, your apologies and VASTLY VAST, VAST, VAST, VAST, VAST lies are getting VASTLY more flimsy every fuckin' day...
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by LOL! Hardly
Wednesday, May. 25, 2005 at 2:19 PM
"but hell we trained 'em to be the best!"
C'mon asshole, even your middleclass, privileged, leftist addled mind knows that savage torture and barbarism have been a time honored tradition in the islamic world since Mohhamed was eating BLT's.
Now we may have taught them how to get oil out of the ground instead of simply squatting in bewilderment and hitting the sand with sticks, but that's about it.
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by KPC
Wednesday, May. 25, 2005 at 2:49 PM
KPC
...as usual, da shitpile is either stupid or a liar...
...or both.
Many in Saudi Arabia view the National Guard as palace guard whose main mission is to crack down on internal dissenters. While the American military provides direct assistance to the mainstream Saudi army, virtually all of the National Guard training is contracted by Vinnell, an American CIA front company.
I wonder what they are training them to do....I mean the Saudis are such savage barbarians and torturers already?
Maybe they are training them to be more efficient savage barbarians and torturers.....
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by Meyer London
Wednesday, May. 25, 2005 at 5:03 PM
The Newsweek claim was not false, despite their cowardly retraction under pressure. Many prisoners have stated that pages form the Koran have been flushed down toilets as a deliberate insult and provocation.
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