Category Archives: Terrorism Issue

9/11 Raised Unrealized Hopes in US-Iran Relations

Anthropology/Sociology, Iran, Osama Bin Laden


by William O. Beeman, New American Media, Sep 11, 2011

As the United States remembers the events of September 11, 2001 on their tenth anniversary, it is important to remember that the tragedy was commemorated around the world, not just in America. And one of the nations that expressed the most profound and sincere grief over the loss of life was Iran.

Candlelight vigils were held throughout Iran and professions of sorrow and sympathy for the United States citizens who lost family and friends were ubiquitous. This was even more impressive when one notes that these were not government organized events, but were the spontaneous outpouring of Iranian citizens. On an official level, many Iranian religious leaders condemned the attacks, despite their differences with the United States administration. It was also noteworthy that no Iranian was involved in any way with the 9/11 attacks.

The 9/11 tragedy also resulted in a brief thaw in U.S.-Iran relations as Iran offered its air space and landing fields to the United States in its attacks on al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. It created increased positive feeling on the part of ordinary Iranian citizens for the United States and its people.

It is a secondary tragedy that this brief halcyon period in U.S.-Iran relations did not last. Continue reading 9/11 Raised Unrealized Hopes in US-Iran Relations →

The Latino Ummah

Ethics, Islam and Christianity, Islam in America, Terrorism Issue


Latino Muslims Define Their Identity 10 Years After 9/11

by Jorge Luis Macias, The Huffington Post, September 9, 2011

It has been 10 years since the Sept. 11 terror attacks, but many Latino Muslims say there is still a lack of understanding about their religion and its practices.

A 2007 study conducted by the Pew Research Center showed that Latino Muslims accounted for an estimated 4 percent out of a total of about 2.5 million Muslims living in the U.S. But a look at the individuals behind those numbers reveals a group of people who say they have become ambassadors for Islam despite the common stereotypes they say are still leveled by many in the U.S.

According to the Pew findings recounted in a 2011 report, while 40 percent of the U.S. population believed Muslims in the U.S. support extremism, only 21 percent of U.S. Muslims said there is support for extremism among them in the U.S.

“The first misconception is to associate violence with Islam,” said Wilfredo Amr Ruiz, a Muslim chaplain and attorney born in Puerto Rico. “Another misconception is that somehow Islam aspires to some sort of world domination, and that his followers want to impose Islamic Law in the countries in which they live, which couldn’t be further from the truth.” Continue reading The Latino Ummah →

By their books, ye shall know them

Arab-Israeli Conflict, Ethics, Iraq War, Journalism and Media, Terrorism Issue


For 10 years, we’ve lied to ourselves to avoid asking the one real question

by Robert Fisk, The Independent, Saturday, 3 September 2011

By their books, ye shall know them.

I’m talking about the volumes, the libraries – nay, the very halls of literature – which the international crimes against humanity of 11 September 2001 have spawned. Many are spavined with pseudo-patriotism and self-regard, others rotten with the hopeless mythology of CIA/Mossad culprits, a few (from the Muslim world, alas) even referring to the killers as “boys”, almost all avoiding the one thing which any cop looks for after a street crime: the motive.

Why so, I ask myself, after 10 years of war, hundreds of thousands of innocent deaths, lies and hypocrisy and betrayal and sadistic torture by the Americans – our MI5 chaps just heard, understood, maybe looked, of course no touchy-touchy nonsense – and the Taliban? Have we managed to silence ourselves as well as the world with our own fears? Are we still not able to say those three sentences: The 19 murderers of 9/11 claimed they were Muslims. They came from a place called the Middle East. Is there a problem out there?

American publishers first went to war in 2001 with massive photo-memorial volumes. Their titles spoke for themselves: Above Hallowed Ground, So Others Might Live, Strong of Heart, What We Saw, The Final Frontier, A Fury for God, The Shadow of Swords… Seeing this stuff piled on newsstands across America, who could doubt that the US was going to go to war? And long before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, another pile of tomes arrived to justify the war after the war. Most prominent among them was ex-CIA spook Kenneth Pollack’s The Threatening Storm – and didn’t we all remember Churchill’s The Gathering Storm? – which, needless to say, compared the forthcoming battle against Saddam with the crisis faced by Britain and France in 1938.

There were two themes to this work by Pollack – “one of the world’s leading experts on Iraq,” the blurb told readers, among whom was Fareed Zakaria (“one of the most important books on American foreign policy in years,” he drivelled) – the first of which was a detailed account of Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction; none of which, as we know, actually existed. The second theme was the opportunity to sever the “linkage” between “the Iraq issue and the Arab-Israeli conflict”.

The Palestinians, deprived of the support of powerful Iraq, went the narrative, would be further weakened in their struggle against Israeli occupation. Pollack referred to the Palestinians’ “vicious terrorist campaign” – but without any criticism of Israel. He wrote of “weekly terrorist attacks followed by Israeli responses (sic)”, the standard Israeli version of events. America’s bias towards Israel was no more than an Arab “belief”. Well, at least the egregious Pollack had worked out, in however slovenly a fashion, that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict had something to do with 9/11, even if Saddam had not. Continue reading By their books, ye shall know them →

Why are the Gods absent?

Arab-Israeli Conflict, Israel, Pakistan, Palestine, Terrorism Issue

There are times when I think that the most compelling reason for atheism, or perhaps belief only in a malevolent deity, is the action of those who claim to do outrageous acts in the name of some God. Last Friday a suicide bomber walled amidst some 300 Pakistani Muslims in the town of Khyber and set off a bomb laden with ball bearings that ripped through the bodies of perhaps as many as 80 Muslims who had just finished Friday prayers in the holy month of Ramadan. In the report today by al Jazeera, one local man was quoted as saying, “Whoever did it in the holy month of Ramadan cannot be a Muslim,” he said from a hospital bed in the main northwest city of Peshawar. “It is the cruelest thing any Muslim would do.” Sadly, history shows that acts of Muslims killing Muslims, Christians killing Christians and indeed members of any one religion killing those of their own faith are rampant in our species. Religion may not be the cause of the violence, but it is often the justification on the surface. There are perhaps no more odious words than “my God told me to do this” for acts of violence and hatred directed towards others indiscriminately.

These days the Middle East is a killing field in which dictatorial regimes propped up by outside powers even after the thawing of the Cold War turn arsenals of weapons against their own people. Muslims are killing Muslims in Libya, Syria and Yemen as they have been at times in Egypt, Tunisia and Bahrain. The numbers are chilling, especially in Libya and Syria, and in some cases the overt rationale is so political that religion is merely the background. In other cases Muslims are killing non-Muslims, such as the recent bus bombing in Israel, and non-Muslims killing Muslims, such as yesterday’s bombing raids by Israel in Gaza.

One of the most challenging questions for religion is why bad things should happen to good or at least innocent people if indeed there is a loving and merciful God out there who cares about the creation he (be it Yahweh, Jehovah or Allah) or she (Kali is hardly Mother Teresa) oversees. Continue reading Why are the Gods absent? →

Drones down the drain

Afghanistan, Pakistan, Terrorism Issue, Yemen


Former Intel Chief: Call Off The Drone War (And Maybe the Whole War on Terror)

by Noah Shachtman, Wired.com, July 28, 2011 |

Colorado — Ground the U.S. drone war in Pakistan. Rethink the idea of spending billions of dollars to pursue al-Qaida. Forget chasing terrorists in Yemen and Somalia, unless the local governments are willing to join in the hunt.

Those aren’t the words of some human rights activist, or some far-left Congressman. They’re from retired admiral and former Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair — the man who was, until recently, nominally in charge of the entire American effort to find, track, and take out terrorists. Now, he’s calling for that campaign to be reconsidered, and possibly even junked.

Starting with the drone attacks. Yes, they take out some mid-level terrorists, Blair said. But they’re not strategically effective. If the drones stopped flying tomorrow, Blair told the audience at the Aspen Security Forum, “it’s not going to lower the threat to the U.S.” Al-Qaida and its allies have proven “it can sustain its level of resistance to an air-only campaign,” he said. Continue reading Drones down the drain →

Where Are All the Islamic Terrorists?

Anthropology/Sociology, Islam in Europe, Islamophobia 101, Journalism and Media, Terrorism Issue


Islamic terrorism has not posed as strong a threat as many feared, in part because of the failure of most Muslims to join the movement. Above, a veiled Muslim woman was among those protesting against the deadly attacks that took place in Mumbai in 2008;
photo by Amit Dave, Reuters

By Charles Kurzman, The Chronicle Review, July 31, 2011

Last month, a few hours after a bomb exploded in downtown Oslo, I got a call from a journalist seeking comment. Why did Al Qaeda attack Norway? Why not a European country with a larger Muslim community, or a significant military presence in Muslim societies? I said I didn’t know.

A second media inquiry soon followed: Given NATO’s involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the number of disaffected Muslims in Europe, why don’t we see more attacks like the one in Norway? This question was more up my alley. I recently published a book asking why Islamic terrorism has been rarer than many of us feared after 9/11. Before answering, I checked the news. Norwegian officials were reporting that the attacker was not Muslim. I was no longer an authority on the incident.

A third reporter called the next morning: Has the focus on Islamic terrorism distracted us from the threat of non-Islamic extremism?
Continue reading Where Are All the Islamic Terrorists? →

Dueling Manifestos

Islam and Christianity, Islam in Europe, Islamophobia, Terrorism Issue


A manifesto for a Muslim-free Europe, an Infidel-free Middle East

by Imran Khan, Al Jazeera, July 24, 2011

I have just finished reading a terrifying document. It’s called 2083: A European declaration of Independence.

It’s full of advice for the budding Christian martyr. Handy tips on how to build bombs and make poisons; on how to use video games to hone your shooting skills.

I came across it on a far right website.

At 1511 pages long it’s a work of extreme prejudice – against Muslims predominantly.

Ultimately, the author wants a Muslim-free Europe.

The author’s name is Andrew Berwick. He datelines the document London 2011. He spent 3 years of his life writing it and clearly believes, with a passion, every single word.

The Norwegian media claim this document is written by Anders Behring Breivik, the suspect behind the brutal attacks in Norway.

At the end of the book are pictures of Breivik himself, dressed as a blond haired and blue eyed hero of the Knights Templar.

Christian crusaders, the book suggests, have returned and are alive, well and living in London.

His last diary entry is dated 22 July 2011. There seems to be little doubt that Berwick is Breivik.

I have covered extremists of all hues for a decade now. What worries me about this document is the parallels that exist between this and another document found in a Manchester, United kingdom flat in 2005.

That document was dubbed the ‘al-Qaeda military manual’. It has a similar theme to the 2083 document – An infidel-free Middle East; Handy tips on bomb making, etc. Continue reading Dueling Manifestos →