Article

2005-11-10 Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Jordan wedding joy turns to tragedy as bomber strikes

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Posted by phil_b 2005-11-10 00:00|| || Front Page|| [2 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Quick question. The marriage - Iraqi, Jordanian or what?
Any tie-ins from the wedding clans to Iraq?

Posted by 3dc 2005-11-10 00:08|| 2005-11-10 00:08|| Front Page Top

#2 Apparently a lot of Baathists in Amman throwing big money around. Possibly some personal payback here by Zhakawi.

Posted by phil_b 2005-11-10 00:21|| 2005-11-10 00:21|| Front Page Top

#3 Target of opportunity, maybe? Three hotels and one of them happened to be having a big shindig? Plus they were "mixing," which is very haram in the Salafist view of things.

Posted by 11A5S 2005-11-10 00:33|| 2005-11-10 00:33|| Front Page Top

#4 Right before the explosions, a fuel tanker caught fire on the outskirts of Amman warranting heavy deployment of police, firefighters and rescue teams, in what was seen by security officials as a "diversionary tactic".

I'd give that a strong probably.

Posted by Besoeker 2005-11-10 08:09|| 2005-11-10 08:09|| Front Page Top

#5 This article brings into focus an interesting imperative regarding US/Western-Arab/Middle East relations.

"I lost my father and my father-in-law on my wedding night," the groom Ashraf Mohammad said.

"The world has to know that this has nothing to do with Islam", he said.

A while back, some here were bitching about President Bush's strategy at calling Islam a "religion of peace." Bitch-bitch-bitch. (And I'm not going to name names--you know who you are). But here's the perfect example of WHY THAT'S SO IMPORTANT and WHY BUSH IS RIGHT. Many nominal Moslems have no grid for what the terrorists do as being at all "Islamic." This perception should be both recognized and strengthened. (Duh, all you deconstructionist anti-Bush people--if you're confused about what I'm saying, go to the archives). Anyway, the terrorists don't speak for Moslems in general, and the opportunity to increase positive relations because of these attacks should be taken advantage of. It's critical to realize that Islam can be defined and interpreted in many ways. Prosocial directions must be recognized, given legitimacy, and encouraged. The fact that the "Islamic" thugs are hurting even their own, is terrible, but is nevertheless a shared commonality with the West.

Posted by ex-lib 2005-11-10 11:04|| 2005-11-10 11:04|| Front Page Top

#6 "The world has to know that this has nothing to do with Islam", he said.
Betcha anything, he danced on the street on 9/11.

Posted by gromgoru 2005-11-10 11:09|| 2005-11-10 11:09|| Front Page Top

#7 You don't know that, grom. But even if so (which would suck), the fact reamins that NOW is the time to build alliances. NOW that they have a taste of what the terrorists are really all about. And as usual, the attempt to destabilize the existing government will backfire, methinks. By following the "palestinian" model of attacking average citizens to gain political advantage, they forget that those average citizens will 9 times out of 10 back the current government in a crisis. I wouldn't be surprised if the Gaza pullout didn't embolden the terrorists. They probably think Israel was "whooped" and they can do "the same thing" in Jordan.

Posted by ex-lib 2005-11-10 11:50|| 2005-11-10 11:50|| Front Page Top

#8 Ex-lib spracht
You don't know that, grom

Only in the sence that that I can't be 100% sure---only 99.99999999%

Posted by gromgoru 2005-11-10 15:00|| 2005-11-10 15:00|| Front Page Top

#9 ex-lib

I'm sure the now father-less fellow was sincere at the time he made his "This has nothing to do..." but if you know enough Moslems you realize they can sincerely believe contradictory things simultaneously (e.g., they can sincerely believe Israel was behind 9-11 and also sincerely believe the US had it coming and that it was the revenge of Allah).

You also have to realize that no other religion has terrorism supporters in anywhere near such numbers; no other religion produces Fatwas that justify suicide bombing; no other religion mass markets hate speech and antisemitic propaganda (on the last one that would not be true if you counted Communism as a religion).

Posted by mhw 2005-11-10 16:34|| 2005-11-10 16:34|| Front Page Top

#10 mhw/grom: I'm an old time poster, but not for a long time--busy with other stuff. But thanks mhw for the info on Islam. A lot of people read this site and it's a good idea to keep the dialogue going. Islam is a mixed-up soup to be sure, with contradicting "fatwas" being issued that are largely a reflection of what the power-broker imams are trying to accomplish regarding any given subject.

It's still an important to note that an average Moslem is disavowing the actions of terrorists as having anything to do with his religion. And right now 1,000s are protesting against Zark and his band of extremists.

The "rah-rah kill'em all" bandwagon that some ride on around here doesn't cut it in the real world. I hear all the time how our guys in Iraq admire the guts and courage of the MOSLEM Iraqis they're training. Things are a lot more complicated than they seem, and China and Russia are the wild cards in this game.

Posted by ex-lib 2005-11-10 23:07|| 2005-11-10 23:07|| Front Page Top

23:44 ex-lib
23:43 Bardo
23:36 DMFD
23:35 ex-lib
23:31 C-Low
23:24 CrazyFool
23:17 ex-lib
23:09 The Happy Fliegerabwehrkanonen
23:07 ex-lib
23:01 Bardo
22:48 Captain America
22:46 Barbara Skolaut
22:30 trailing wife
22:28 Bardo
22:17 Bardo
22:15 C-Low
22:12 trailing wife
22:11 Bobby
22:05 trailing wife
22:05 Bobby
22:01 trailing wife
22:00 Asymmetrical Triangulation
21:59 Bobby
21:55 Bright Pebbles