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| Europe |
| Four questions on al Qaeda's threat to Sweden |
| 2007-09-15 |
| By Walid Phares Posted on Jihadi web sites, a declaration by the commander of al Qaeda Iraq, Omar al Baghdadi promised to pay 100,000$ for anyone who would assassinate Swedish Cartoonist Lars Vilks, who published an "offensive cartoon" of Prophet Mohammed in the Nerikes Allehanda. Al baghdadi would add another 50,000$ if the artist is "slaughtered," and 50,000$ for the killing of the publication's editor. The "Cartoon Jihad" is back in Europe after the Danish affair last year. But as we are analyzing the far consequences of this threat, and independently from the discussion of the cartoon and the sensitivities it may have hurt (which are real and important on the emotional levels), following are questions to be raised: 1. Why would al Qaeda Iraq and not another branch offer such a bounty? The Cartoonist is Swedish and the al Qaeda Iraq fights against the US in Iraq. Where is the link here? Many voices in the debate on the War on Terror have been saying that al Qaeda came to Iraq just because the US invaded the country. What about Sweden? 2. Why is al Qaeda-Iraq offering a bounty for the killing of an editor in Scandinavia? Why offering money for Jihad? Well, when a Jihadi group begins to offer financial rewards, it means that the ideological reward isn't enough. 3. Will such a call be heeded in Sweden? Does al Qaeda have cells -dormant or not- that far north? Reports tells us that the Salafists are propagating this ideology across Scandinavia. Very few realized that an assassination of a film maker in Amsterdam was imaginable before Theo Van Gogh was killed. 4. Will al Qaeda or other Jihadists attack Swedish companies or individuals worldwide? In fact orders were given but it depends on whom would consider themselves the "infantry" and actually take action. It will also depend on what the Swedish Government and Multinational Corporations would state in public or do in private. Sweden has had decades of neutrality regarding many challenges in international relations, and its foreign policy wasn't comparable at all to NATO countries in their struggle against Terror. However, this is the greatest litmus test yet to be addressed. |
| Posted by:mrp |
| #5 I would not write of Swedes, yet. Not the politicos--they are beyond hope--but the ordinary Lars, Carl, Erik and Sven and their female counterparts. Time will come that despite the cooler environment their blood will start to boil. At that moment, they will sweep whatever stands in their way. Swedes were able to avoid wars for several centuries, but in this case, the enemy is already behind gates, inside, so they will have to fight if they want to survive as Swedes. The same applies to other western Euro nations. Not worried about easterners, they were not fucked up by gramscian whoredom. |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2007-09-15 18:39 |
| #4 It is a shame nothing is likely to seriously provoke the Swedes before they have all been raped and converted. One could fantasize about a Crusade run by Ikea. |
| Posted by: Excalibur 2007-09-15 18:23 |
| #3 I think the answer to question #1 is the meeting of the 22 Muslim diplomats with Swedish PM Reinfeldt. Taking place earlier this month, the sleek, well-fed diplomats took it upon themselves to speak indignantly on behalf of their 1.3 billion co-religionists. With their manicured fingernails, their excellencies waved a signed letter which demanded that the Swedish government make changes to its constitution so that future insults to the name of Mohammed might be prevented, and that infidels might know their place in the Ummah. Reinfeldt made suitable noises and subtle bows and scrapes, and afterwards most likely called his AQ was having none of that. For them, there's a matter of who really speaks for all Muslims; which organization is truly dedicated to the establishment of the universal Caliphate. And in Zawahiri's mind, those 22 diplomatic peacocks represented the corrupt, heretical tools of the Crusaders and Zionists. The ideal response for am Islamist warrior to a backroom deal between foreign emissaries and politicians was a roar for blood backed by a sack full of Benjamins. And so it was done. |
| Posted by: mrp 2007-09-15 18:22 |
| #2 Don't over-analyze Jihadi web site bravado. Talk is cheap and Omar al Baghdadi is just talkin'. It's not like he has put the $100,000 in escrow in a Swedish bank account. |
| Posted by: Darrell 2007-09-15 17:55 |
| #1 It's called a distraction. When you've stepped on your richard the way AQ has in Anbar you pick on a taget everyone (in your peer group) loves to hate, e.g., Saddam launching Scuds (remember them?) at Israel during Sandbox I. And I thought we read here a while ago that Omar Al Baddoggy was a fictional character made up by foreign AQ's to pretend an Iraqi was head of the lame stains. |
| Posted by: Blinky Sninesh8215 2007-09-15 17:47 |