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Europe
Arabs in Denial Over Madrid Attacks - Ain’t Just a River In Egypt
2004-03-13
Caught at Powerline - posting their take:
The BBC has translated reactions to the Madrid bombings by a number of Arab newspapers. As usual, the Arab world appears to be in denial:
  • Arabs and Muslims cannot commit such an act. We therefore condemn the act and hope that the Spanish government will be able to find out the truth.
    London Al-Arab al-Alamiyah

  • What draws our attention is the fact that those who are supporting the Eta separatist movement rushed to conclude that the ’Arab opposition’ was responsible for the terrorist act in Spain. This is a clear attempt to brand Arabs with terrorism.
    Jordan’s Al-Ra’y

  • It is illogical to accuse al-Qaeda before getting accurate information... The Spanish government was aware of this and moved fast to blame Eta before anyone else. Perhaps al-Qaeda was only used to deceive Spanish and world public opinion.
    Saudi Arabia Al-Riyadh

  • A mass demonstration was staged in the streets of Madrid in protest against these attacks. However, it reflected the resentment against the Spanish government’s policy in supporting the war on Iraq... It is hoped that the Madrid bombings will open the eyes of the coalition, led by the US... so that it can look into its mistakes and find a way to rectify them.
    London Al-Quds Al-Arabi

  • Terrorist acts everywhere, the latest being two days ago in Spain, prove that containment, not confrontation, will stop bloodshed in this world... the crazy policies being applied in many places worldwide bring more losses, destruction and disaster.
    Saudi Arabia Ukaz

  • Whether the bombings were carried out by Eta or al-Qaeda, the reality is that terrorism today is a deadly threat to all human beings... What is needed is prompt action by the UN to set up an international conference to combat terrorism, as well as drafting clauses for an international and comprehensive agreement to combat it.
    Egypt’s Al-Ahram
"It must be the Joooos or ETA, anyone, cuz we’re too stoopid"
Posted by:Frank G

#5  "prompt action by the UN to set up an international conference to combat terrorism,

Someone call Osama... I am sure that the U.N. will need him to chair this conference.....
Posted by: CrazyFool   2004-3-14 12:56:35 AM  

#4  "Arabs and Muslims cannot commit such an act"

Forty years of the slaughter of innocents says 'yes they can' & 'yes they do'.

"This is a clear attempt to brand Arabs with terrorism"

Funny... with the disappearance of the 80's terror groups in Germany, Japan and Ireland terrorism is most certainly now an exclusively Arab 'brand' entering it's 4th decade.

"Spanish government" "moved fast to blame Eta before anyone else"

This is ironic comedy as it was the UN that "moved fast to blame Eta before anyone else" and the street marchers squeal "coverup" in support of terrorists.

"It is hoped that the Madrid bombings will open the eyes of the coalition, led by the US"

Because it really is Spains fault for agreeing with the USA that terrorism is bad.

"Terrorist acts everywhere"..."prove that containment, not confrontation, will stop bloodshed in this world"

Classic Orwellian NewSpeak... 'ignorance is strength'.

"prompt action by the UN to set up an international conference to combat terrorism, as well as drafting clauses for an international and comprehensive agreement to combat it"

As if the UN could act promptly except to serve the tyrannies it serves? As if there needs to be... or even could be... an 'agreement' to 'combat' 'terrorism'.
Posted by: DANEgerus   2004-3-13 9:17:16 PM  

#3  Great post DaveD. It is a "filthy" religion and the only way to correct this is from within which is highly unlikely. Poor people brought up with this BS. Kill the religion and we are at peace.
Posted by: Jack is Back!   2004-3-13 9:14:21 PM  

#2  
Nice Post, Dave D., and your fear of what happens down the road is mine also.
Posted by: Traveller   2004-3-13 8:42:24 PM  

#1  Though I don't go there much anymore, I began reading www.arabnews.com regularly after 9/11 and continued for over a year.

I came away from that year of daily "Arabism" doses with the solid conviction that these people are as different from us as if they were from another planet.

It took me a while to put my finger on it, but what it comes down to is this: for the most part, we Westerners tend to live at an empirical level. We observe; we form hypotheses and we test them against other observations we make; and we thereby refine them into an understanding of the truth (or as close as we can approximate it). Sometimes the search for understanding is difficult and painful, for not all truths are easy to accept; as M. Scott Peck pointed out in The Road Less Travelled, revising one's "map" of reality is sometimes a terribly painful thing to do. But the bottom line is, we all seem to recognize, at a very deep level, that it is our responsibility to do so.

Reading www.arabnews.com for over a year convinced me that this orientation toward reality is absolute anathema to Arabs. They appear not to feel the least obligation to seek an understanding of the world around them; rather, they seek to define, and re-cast, the world around them in terms of their religious convictions- and their apparently very deep conviction that they themselves, in all matters, are utterly blameless.

Arabs live in belief. And this places them in a profoundly irresponsible position. Literally, they see themselves as having no responsibility whatsoever for understanding the world around them and coming to terms with it; on the contrary, they see the world as having the primary responsibility: we must conform to their beliefs, we must submit to Allah.

When I read stuff like the snippets posted in this item, I despair: times like this, I am all but convinced that a few years down the road we're going to have an all-out fight to the finish with these people.

Bah.
Posted by: Dave D.   2004-3-13 8:12:53 PM  

00:00