Category Archives: Terrorism Issue

From Pamela Geller to Anders Behring Breivik

Islam in Europe, Islamophobia 101, Terrorism Issue


From Pamela Geller to Anders Behring Breivik — how Islamophobia turned deadly in Norway

By Paul Woodward, War in Context, July 23, 2011

When terrorism has a white face it invariably gets marginalized in the popular narrative. The lone wolf, the outsider, the sociopath — in many cases these portraits of misanthropic, isolated individuals who turn to violence are quite accurate.

The Oslo killings, however, should be seen in a different light since there is a wealth of evidence to suggest that the perpetrator of this atrocity, even if it turns out he was acting alone, was very much part of a political movement — a movement whose leading ideologues regularly appear on Fox News and have high public profiles.

Anders Behring Breivik, the 32-year-old Norwegian man widely assumed to be responsible for the mass murder that took place in Oslo yesterday, is being referred to as a Christian fundamentalist in many press reports. Continue reading From Pamela Geller to Anders Behring Breivik →

Love in a Time of Torture

"Arab Spring", Gender and Sexuality, Syria, Terrorism Issue


A young man’s account of sadistic torture in a Syrian secret prison, and how a girl’s note helped him through his pain.

Hugh Macleod and Annasofie Flamand, Al Jazeera, June 6, 2011

Arrested during a protest in the first days of the Syrian uprising, a young man endured acts of sadism and torture at the hands of Bashar al-Assad’s secret police.

As his body was beaten, whipped, electrocuted and worse; the prisoner could think only of the girl he loves, clenching a note from her in his hand as the torturers did their worst.

Told largely in his own words, this is his remarkable personal story of endurance and hope in a place filled with darkness and despair.

A small piece of paper held tight in a clenched fist. A lifeline to a better place.

Days become nights become days. The kicks, the punches, the questions, the insults, the humiliation and the pain.

“She was always on my mind in the toughest moments during the torture. The only thing that relieved the pain was my belief that, at that moment, she was comfortable in her bed.”

The beatings begun on the police bus driving arrested protesters to one of Syria’s most notorious secret police branches.

“Your mother is a whore!” screamed one of the policemen, as he slammed the butt of his rifle into the prisoner’s face. “We will f*** her and your sister!”

But the young man wasn’t listening.

“In the first five minutes I was only thinking of her. I was so afraid for her. But when the bus drove off I saw her trying to phone somebody, so I was so happy that she’s wasn’t under arrest. I didn’t know then that they arrested her a few minutes later. Continue reading Love in a Time of Torture →

Crisis Hopping

"Arab Spring", Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran, Iraq War, Syria, Terrorism Issue, Yemen


As someone who has a long standing interest in the peoples and cultures of the region geographically maligned as the “Middle East,” I am beyond being overwhelmed by the daily turn of events. To see the streets of Yemen turned into bloody confrontation after three months of amazingly peaceful protests is so sad. I had always wondered if Ali Abdullah Salih was really trying to be a father-of-his-country figure (despite the widespread corruption and nepotism) or if it was mainly his inability to be a brutal dictator in the Ben Ali mode that ruled the day. His recent flirtation with leaving office, only to back down each time, suggests that he has no intention of leaving and is looking for any way to prolong his rule. The Al Qaeda on the doorsteps alibi has not fooled anyone, including the U.S. terrorism money machine. So it seems his latest insane step, right out of a really bad thriller movie, is to foment civil strife. Today’s news about his attempt to alienate the leader of the Hashid confederacy has indeed plunged the capital into street fighting. One thing is clear: Ali Abdullah Salih loves Ali Abdullah Salih and the country he has ruled over for over three decades be damned.

Then there is Syria, where Bashar al-Asad, once thought to be a rather weak version of his towering (at least in all the statues strewn about the former Umayyad enclave) father, has decided to be the old-fashioned Stalinesque strongman. Not content to believe that the mere 96.7% of the votes in his last presidential referendum meant anything other than the normal one-man-rule politics, he is apparently trying to get rid of anyone who opposes him by whatever mean means work. To protest in Syria, as in Libya, means to risk life and limb. Continue reading Crisis Hopping →

Detained in Syria

"Arab Spring", Syria, Terrorism Issue

[Webshaykh’s Note: There is a definite frost on the Arab Spring in Syria. Read the chilling report by reporter Dorothy Parviz, who was detained and describes the horrors of those held in detention and beaten.]

Inside Syria’s secret prisons

by Dorothy Parviz, Al Jazeera, May 18, 2011

I was standing in two fist-sized pools of smeared, sticky blood, trying to sort out why there were seven angry Syrians yelling at me. Only one of them – who I came to know as Mr Shut Up during my three days in a detention center, where so many Syrians ‘disappeared’ are being kept – spoke English.

Watching them searching my bags, and observing the set of handcuffs hanging from the bunk bed wedged behind the desk in the middle of the room, I guessed that I was being arrested – or, at the very least, processed for detention.

“Why are you doing this?” I asked.

“Shut up! SHUT UP!” said Mr Shut Up.

I’d arrived there moments before, dragged by a handful of hair from a car where I’d been wedged between two armed men. They’d tried to convince me that they were taking me to my hotel, but, of course, I knew that there was no way plain-clothed security personnel would be kind enough to escort me to my accommodation.

I did, however, manage to resist being forced to wear a blindfold, figuring that if they were going to shoot me, they really didn’t need a reason to do so.

After about 20 minutes, we pulled off the highway and through two checkpoints. By this point, the rather handsy security guard to my left had pulled my scarf over my eyes. Continue reading Detained in Syria →

Watery Grave, Murky Law

Islamic Rituals, Osama Bin Laden


by Leor Halevi, The New York Times, May 7, 2011

After Osama bin Laden’s corpse was slipped into the North Arabian Sea, the White House’s chief counterterrorism adviser declared that the United States had buried him “in strict conformance with Islamic precepts and practices.” According to a senior military official, the body was washed, shrouded and dispatched with a funeral prayer.

Despite its best efforts, the United States government still has much to learn about the intricacies of Muslim funerary law. Its strictures are more nuanced, and perhaps also more flexible, than it imagined.

According to the Koran, the origins of burial stretch back to the dawn of humanity. Cain, full of remorse after killing his brother, was inspired by a ground-scratching raven to hide the naked corpse in the earth. Islamic law insists on this ritual as the ideal one. Continue reading Watery Grave, Murky Law →

Geographers and Osama

Osama Bin Laden, Pakistan, Scholars

UCLA Geographers Weren’t Far Off the Mark in Predicting Bin Laden’s Location

By Ben Wieder, Wired Campus, The Chronicle of Higher Education, May 3, 2011

Osama bin Laden’s hiding place in Abbottabad, Pakistan, came as a surprise to many when U.S. forces located and killed the former Al Qaeda leader early Monday. It was less of a surprise to two geographers at the University of California at Los Angeles.

According to ScienceInsider, a geography class taught by Thomas W. Gillespie, an associate professor, and John A. Agnew, a professor, predicted in 2009 that there was an 88.9 percent chance Mr. bin Laden was hiding in a city less than 300 kilometers from Tora Bora, his last known location. That swath of Pakistan would include Abbottabad, Mr. bin Laden’s actual hiding place. Continue reading Geographers and Osama →

No dignity at Ground Zero

Ethics, Islam in America, Osama Bin Laden


by Mona Eltahawy, The Guardian, Tuesday 3 May 2011

I could hear the cheers as I got out of the taxi, two blocks away. I could hear them from right in front of Park 51, the site of a planned Islamic community centre and mosque that met ferocious opposition last year for being too close to the “hallowed ground” of Ground Zero. It was minutes after President Obama’s announcement that Osama bin Laden had been killed, and I was heeding a friend’s suggestion that we – both Muslims – take candles and stand in vigil where the World Trade Centre stood before Bin Laden’s footsoldiers took it down.

So it was a shock to find hundreds of others had turned that hallowed ground into the scene of a home crowd celebrating an away victory they hadn’t attended, the roots of which they were probably not there to experience or were too young to remember.

There was always something sickening about tourists taking pictures of themselves posing in front of that big gaping hole called Ground Zero. “Me at site of mass slaughter, NYC” as holiday photo caption is wrong in every language, surely. It didn’t take 10 minutes for the frat party atmosphere to sicken me. Olympic-style chants of “USA! USA!” I could just about take as a freshly minted American, as of Friday. But “Fuck Osama! Ole ole ole!” crushed any ambition of dignity for the thousands killed, many of whom had jumped hundreds of storeys to their deaths, their bodies shattered to pieces close to where we stood. Continue reading No dignity at Ground Zero →

To hell with Bin Laden?

Ethics, Islamic Law, Islamic Rituals, Osama Bin Laden


For the past decade it has been “Where the hell is Bin Laden?” Now that he is dead at last, the tabloid mantra is “ROT IN HELL,” at least for the medium of unsubtleness known as the NY Daily News. In less than 24 hours after his James Bond style killing a website appeared on Facebook called Osama Bin Laden is Dead. As can be seen from the screen shot below, the insults of revenge are having their day.


I have no sympathy for Bin Laden, whose obstinate hatred has resulted in an extraordinary waste of life both among Muslims and non-Muslims, but wishing him to hell makes about as much sense as a loony in Florida burning the “Koran.” Continue reading To hell with Bin Laden? →