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| Europe |
| NewsMaker: A different kind of Muslim |
| 2004-05-01 |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #3 ... the house of Saud, which promotes cultural Wahhabism, a belief that has anti-Semitism as one of its defining features. Until today, Saudis are using their oil money to promote anti-Semitism in the Arab world and beyond. ... Of course, many leaders understand that promoting hostility against Israel prevents the spread of democracy to their own countries. As long as those countries go on being dictatorial regimes, they need scapegoats, and it's easy to hold Israel responsible for everything that is wrong at home. I think that fighting democracy and spreading anti-Semitism are two sides of the same agenda. ... Prince al-Turki, former head of the Saudi secret service, is practically the founder of al-Qaida. The relatives of the victims of 9/11 sued him for damages [the suit was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction], but now that same sponsor of terrorism is the Saudi ambassador to Britain, where he publishes poems praising suicide terrorists in British newspapers. ... The area of Palestine is already divided into a Jewish Palestinian state, Israel, and an Arab Palestinian state, Jordan; creating a third Palestinian state for the PLO is neither in the interests of Israel nor in the interest of Jordan, and even less in the interests of those Palestinian Arabs who would be compelled to live under a barbaric regime. ... If President Bush claims that the war against terrorism is a global war, and that the solution is to spread democracy, Israelis have the same right to fight against Yasser Arafat and Sheikh Yassin [killed by Israel a week after this interview] as the United States has to fight against the Taliban, Saddam Hussein or al-Qaida. We need this courageous man's voice broadcast throughout the Arab world. Rarely have I seen such clear-eyed analysis of terrorism and Middle East politics. Islam must go to great pains in cultivating such voices of reason or they will justifiably become the international pariah that so many already see them as. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2004-05-01 6:33:02 PM |
| #2 Islam needs more of his kind. Much, much more. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-05-01 6:22:32 PM |
| #1 Sadly, very few Americans-- including American Jews-- are as clear-headed about the Arab-Israeli conflict as this fellow is. |
| Posted by: WUZZALIB 2004-05-01 3:17:04 PM |