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| On our side... |
| 2003-01-06 |
Kathy points to this excellent article by Jake Tapper in The Weekly Standard. It illustrates the fact that there are Muslims in this world who can't accept the wahhabi line and who have their suspicions of guys with turbans who want to be khalifa:IN THE EARLY 1990s, during Algeria's brief flirtation with democracy, [Reda] Hassaine was part of the growing opposition to the government. "They were corrupt and only working for themselves," Hassaine says. In 1990, he was elected a party official in the populist hodgepodge of opposition known as the Islamic Salvation Front, or FIS. But a few days later he resigned, after realizing that FIS leader Abassi Madani was a megalomaniac who "saw himself as the new caliph"--meaning a successor to the Prophet Muhammad and political, military, and administrative leader of the Muslim world.He details the rise of the FIS and the GAI in Algeria, and the influence of Abu Hamza and Abu Qatada in the war the organization — the GAI is the armed wing of the "legit" FIS — has been carrying out against Algerians. Explosions, rapes, slaughters. Algeria was destroyed from the inside out. More than 120 foreign citizens were killed in the early days. Monks, church dignitaries, a bishop--murdered. Factories, schools, bridges--destroyed. A car bomb was driven into the national police headquarters in 1995, killing 42 and wounding 265. Entire villages were massacred. "They started to kill everyone," says Hassaine. "Kill, kill, as much as you can."It's a sad story, but it's also a story of bravery, because Hassaine is on our side, and he literally risked his life to help the French and MI5 gather evidence. I don't know how many people there are like Hassaine, but I hope there are lots of them, but we won't know until the war's over or, as in Hassaine's case, their covers have been blown. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #5 Actually it does very well : "un singe qui mange du fromage et qui se rend". So, another *long* (last) post; btw, I'm commenting myself on an archive...: - The algerian civil war or the occasionnal Kabyle antigvt riots are pretty well covered by France media ("... three killed by an armed groups at a fake roadblock near Tizi Ouzou. Now, on a sadder note, soccer player Frank Leboeuf has strained his ankle..."), it being a client-state and all (2003 = "year of Algeria"), plus the majority of our muslims originate from North Africa, so it's familiar to anyone willing to pay attention. A bit like Sierra Leone or Zimbabwe for GB (french media hardly mentionned the brits intervention in SL or Mugabe's ethnic cleasing). I doubt US mains news outlets had much interest in this until 9/11. - Recently, the usual apoligists have been busy trying to blame the GI 1995 subway bombings on the Algiers military clique, Djamel Zitouni supposedly being a puppet of the army intelligence; most of the revelations turned out to emanate from London-based islamists (such as Hassine Ouaguenoune, ex special forces/FIDA mole). The algerian gvt really is a kleptocracy and a dictatorship diguised in multipartism, each "general" his power structure, no doubts, and their "war on terror" DOES allow them to remain in power and crush any opposition, but this is yet an another attempt to exonerate islamists from their crimes. Plus, if theses speculations are true, the bearded-throatcutters are the sorriest guerilla fighters in history, because they kept snarling, taking credits, and walking in circles in the mountains for 10 yrs, while the nasty militaries did all the bad things. - Algeria was, and is, a jihad hotspot; algerian/franco-algerians were supposed to be quite present among foreign fighters in Afghan training camps; seems like they brought their hatred of France along (our gvt has been supportive of their's since the Marseilles-Marignane plane hijacking rescue, and we being hated-colonial power). That's why we are supposed to be N°3 on the hate list, after USA/GB (Russia is certainly working his way up). Hence the police/counter intelligence services working overtime and to good effects (they have a special interest in islamo-terrorism since the 1986 Paris bombings, decent relationships with some of their arabs buddies, so they have a whole lot of experience in this) - As a final note, the public opinion here is massively anti-US, pro-palestinians, anti-globalization, pro-appeasment,... Not that this is bad by itself, but it is disgustingly, arrogant, fashionble and self-righteous (and I consider myself a liberal); sometimes I feel like I'm stranded in 1938... Only positive point, our leaders are cynical enough not to buy their own PR. Now I've had my 15 mn of fame, I'll restrain from commenting again from now on. I'm here to try and learn something, not to boast (at least, not too openly). |
| Posted by: Some vain french guy , bis 2003-01-07 17:13:10 |
| #4 I was impressed by his post. Kind of hope "cheese-eating-surrendering-monkey (tm)" doesnt translate well. |
| Posted by: flash91 2003-01-07 14:17:35 |
| #3 Some Vain French Guy: Your comments are very informative and your English quite good. I hope that you might post a guest article from time to time, and stay active in the comments. I also would like to express my appreciation for Fred Pruitt and Rantburg which is daily reading for me and indispensible for factual information about |
| Posted by: seafarious 2003-01-07 13:18:09 |
| #2 Interesting article. Let me show-off (sorry for the english, btw). As far as I know, being a cheese-eating-surrendering-monkey (tm) inclined to pay attention to this 100 000 -200 000 casualties civil war just acroos the meditteranea : - The GIA are more of an umbrella of small islamic/criminal gangs that splintered from the FIS in 1992, not its actual armed wing; that would have been the AIS (Islamic salvation Army). - The AIS was pre-existent in some aspect to the ban of the islamic party in 1992 (its leadership staffed with ex-jihadees against the soviets) and stuck mainly with its political goals, hitting armed forces and governement. - The salafist GIA and other smaller groups such as the FIDA have been commiting mass-scales atrocities unseen since the independance war (during which communist FNL fought against the traditionnalist messalists to control the movement and massacred a lot of people in the process), systematical rapes, skinning people alive, sawing babies, kidnapping missionaries, beheading them and putting their heads on display in a tree,... - On a chauvinistic note, the 1954-1962 war was WON the dirty way by the french army, leaving the FNL stranded in neighbouring countries or spewing propaganda from nordic states. The independance was inevitable (IMHO) because going on with the colonisation was political suicide. As soon as the FLN got hold of the country, it begans slaughtering french nationals and Harkis (algerian troops) despite the peace plans, leading to 30 000 killed at the minimum and a mass exode. Theses are the peoples still in charge of Algeria today, gives or takes a few coup and infightings, still continuing to arabize the country (tough lucks for the kabyles, the schleus, bedouins,...). - And all of this bloodshed was "legal", since a fatwa edicted by the London-based palestinian (?) islamic doctor Abou Koutadael-Falestini declared all non-GIA algerians "apostates" fit to be killed at will... - The two organizations (AIS & GIA) clashed frequently, and some civilians massacres (up to several hundred peoples slaughtered in one night, such as Bentalha in sept. 1997) were most certainly "turfs wars" between them. The armed forces stood by and enjoyed the show (almost literally). This civil war was fought w/o any mercy, from both sides. - The AIS has accepted the amnesty and is now out of business. - The fundamentalists seemingly have recovered a new political strenght, if in a "softened" tone (no more overthrowning the generals and respectable businessmen). The FNL has allowed some democracy, and the 1992 success of the FIS was a result of the 1990 failed "glasnost", when the general though using the islamists would help to control the process (the sharia-like family code edicted in 1988 was a gift to the islamist). - The GIA are quite weakened, partly thanks to the elimination of their emirs, first Djamel Zitouni in 1996 and then Antar Zouabri ("we'll steal your cattle and your women"; he had some nice doctors of the Law support him in his fondness of sabaya/female slaves) in feb. 2002 (with US intelligence ?). They have been driven out of the cities and are restrained to the mountains, where they continue to randomly kill villagers whenever they are bored. - The new leading armed group is supposed to be the GSPC, well financed from the Gulf, and strenghtened by the return of algerian "afghan fighters" fleeing the Taliban's fall; according to the algerian gvt, its ranks include more non-algerian muslims or european-born north-african than the AIS or GIA ever did. - There was some very large bomb attacks in Algiers in 2002, of the scale the GIA was never able to achieve (return of the AQ tech wizards ?) Oh, and Rantburg is a great blog, funny AND informative, especially for someone stuck with AFP. |
| Posted by: Some vain french guy 2003-01-07 10:54:00 |
| #1 There are many sects of Islam, unfortunately the Wahhabi and Qutr sects are sitting on most of the money and using it for schools and mosques staffed with haters and supplied with hate literature. Sunni aren't quite as bad, as a rule, if still inclined to put down 40-Times-Great-Grandpa's approach to social problems (Shar'ia) as unchangeble and non-Muslim people fit only to be taxed, enslaved, or slaughtered. Sufi believe in Sha'ria, but I think they also believe it can be changed. |
| Posted by: John Anderson 2003-01-06 23:15:40 |