Mosaik des Terrorismus, 1. Teil

Geschrieben von Badland Warrior am 24. November 2002 13:52:14:

Als Antwort auf: Hat gestern jemand zufällig... geschrieben von Hybris am 24. November 2002 12:32:53:

Irakische Bombe, Terrorismus, etc.

Hallo, Leute!

Hier einige Sachen mal zusammengefasst (sorry, ist etwas länger).

1. Besuch Bin Ladens vor einigen Monaten im Irak von westlichen Geheimdiensten behauptet.
2. Kontakt von Mohammed Atta mit irakischem Geheimdienstmann in Istanbul.
3. Wahhabitische Gruppe, deren Führer sehr ausweichend antwortete, bestätigte Kontakte zwischen irakischen Wahhabitenextremisten und Al Qaeda. Nach Aussagen gefangener Wahhabiten (die von Kurden gefangen genommen wurden) ließ Al Qaeda Außenposten im Irak bauen.
4. Einige der Verbindungen Al Qaedas sowohl logistischer als auch finanzieller Art liefen über Saudi-Aabien und Irak.
5. Der erste Anschlag auf das WTC geschah von einem Extremisten aus, welcher zur Al Qaeda gehörte. Arabische Dokumente, die bei ihm gefunden wurden, blieben lange Zeit nicht übersetzt, da es zu technischen und menschlichen Pannen kam, es an Übersetzern fehlte und es wahrscheinlich auch zu Kompetenzgerangel innerhalb der verschiedenen Geheimdienste der USA gab. Es wäre nicht das erste Mal, dass etwas Wichtiges in einer Behördenmaschinerie verloren geht. Da gibt es genug Beispiele. Und im Bau von Bomben, dem Einsatz von Sprengsätzen und der Entführung von Flugzeugen sind islkamische extremisten schon immer Weltmeister gewesen.
6. Mohammed Atta war auf mehreren Videobändern zu sehen, als er ins Flugzeug stieg. In seinem Zimmer wurden Bekennerschreiben und anderes Beweismaterial gefunden. Die Spuren in Deutschland führten zu Al Qaeda. Ferner belegten sowohl er als auch noch jemand anderes, dem nachgegangen wurde, Flugstunden, wobei waghalsige Flugmanöver geflogen wurden und auf das Landen selbst kein Wert gelegt wurde. Atta war ebenfalls Architekturstudent. Auch bei den anderen auf den Videobändern zu erkennenden Leuten, denen man nachging, war ein Zusammenhang mit Geldüberweisungen aus Al Qaeda-Quellen nachweisbar.
7. Auch Iraker waren bei den Taliban und Al Qaeda.
8. Chemische Waffen wurden vom Irak gegen kurdische Dörfer eingesetzt. Das Potential, die Gerätschaften und das Know how waren vorhanden.
9. Nach der Nichteinnahme Bagdads wäre es verständlich, wenn sofort erneut wieder mit der Produktion von aromaren, biologischen oder chemischen Waffen begonnen worden wäre, da Aufrüstung auch trotz Verbotes üblich ist. Nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg wurde dis auch n Deutschland gemacht.
10. Nach mehreren Irakkriegen wäre es psychologisch nachvollziehbar, wenn Saddam Hussein eine beschleunigte Weiterforschung und Aufrüstung vollzogen hätte.
11. Überläufer berichten von Versuchen mit chemischen und atomaren Waffen.
12. In der islamischen Welt herrscht allgmein kein gutes Einvernehmen mit den westlich orientierten Staaten. Da macht es auch nichts, wenn die beteiligten Gruppen verschiedenen Richtungen angehören, schließlich wird ein Teil der sunnitischen "Palästinenser" von den schiitischen Iranern und ein anderer Teil von den wahhabitischen Saudis unterstützt, welche auch Osama Bin Laden mit Petro-Dollars unterstütz(t)en. Dass einige der Gruppen auch vom Irak finanziert wurden, ist ebenfalls bekannt. Ebenso bejubelten "Palästinenser" die Zerstörung des WTC. Es gibt also eine Internationale des islamistischen (man achte auf das "istischen") Terrors. Die Angehörigen moslemischer Gruppen, welche kurz nach beginn des Bombardements gegen Afghanistan und der israelischen Polizeiaktionen jüdische Einrichtungen in Europa angriffen oder zerstörten und Menschen jüdischen Glaubens misshandelten, waren mit Sicherheit nicht unbedingt alles Wahhabiten. Die extremistischen Gruppen und Staaten sind sich in zwei Dingen einig: Den Hass auf die USA und den Hass auf Israel (Dollars werden trotzdem gern genommen).
13. Es wurden nach dem WTC-Desaster von 2001 eine Reihe von Anschlägen vereitelt, wobei Tonbänder und Tonnen belastenden Materials sichergestellt wurden. Die Geldquellen zeigen einen Zusammenhang mit Al Qaeda. Ebenfalls in dem Zusammenhang kann die Explosion in der Chemiefabrik von Toulouse gesehen werden, die merkwürdig schnell zu den Akten gelegt wurde, und nach der ein Araber spurlos verschwand, der kontakte zu Al Qaeda hatte. Der Anschlag in Djerba ist das Werk von Al Qaeda, welche sich dazu bekannten. Ebenso berichten aufgezeichnete Telefonate aus der entführten Maschine, welche in Pennsylvania abstürzte, vo einer Entführung und die einzigen, die dafür in Frage kamen waren ebenfalls die im Nachhinein festgestellten Täter, deren Vorgeschichte zu Al Qaeda führte. Al Qaeda hatte Monate vor dem Attentat auch neue Anschläge angekündigt. Siehe auch Posting von Manuel Batez am 24. Juni 2001 hier im Forum. Leider funktioniert der Link nicht. Der Mossad, welcher Näheres durch nachrichtendienstliche Aufklärung wusste, informierte den CIA, welcher jedoch entweder das Ganze nicht ernstnahm, oder wo die Information in der Bürokratie verschütt ging.
14. Eine fanatische islamistische Gruppe hat sich in Deutschland organisiert. Sie ist USA-feindlich (wie sollte es anders sein?) und plant die Errichtung eines westeuropäischen Kalifats und die Zerstörung Israels. Nachzulesen im SPIEGEL Nr. 47, vom 18. 11. 02. Da laufen die Stränge wider zusammen.

Einen wichtigen Hinweis gab jemand Hochrangiges, bezüglich Bomben, die schon in den USA seien:

November 15 , 2002 'Apocalypse Now' Could Happen By Pepe Escobar, Asia Times

At a time when a tape handed over to the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television station has received widespread expose for its purported comments by Osama bin Laden in praise of recent terror events around the world, another al-Qaeda message released to the same station has received little coverage.
Al-Jazeera was granted an interview with one Mohammed al-Usuquf, allegedly
al-Qaeda's number three. Al-Usuquf is said to be a doctor in physics and to hold a masters degree in international economics. A copy of the interview was sent to the prestigious Arab-language daily Al Quds Al Arabi, edited in London, but it was not printed.

Asia Times Online has obtained a copy of the interview, and reproduces excerpts here, with the caveat that the identity of the man has not yet been confirmed, nor has his membership within al-Qaeda.

Al-Usuquf says that al-Qaeda's Kuwaiti spokesman, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, and bin Laden himself, suggested that he grant the interview. Bin Laden, he says, is "alive and healthy, along with his commanders Mohammed Atef, Khalid Shaik Mohammed and Mullah Omar".

Al-Usuquf starts by criticizing Washington's disrespect of the Kyoto Protocol on climatic change, the International Criminal Court and the Palestinian cause, as well as the "financial greed" engendering speculative gains over Third World countries. He also criticizes the manner in which America wastes wealth, like US$80 billion a year on gambling. "They [have] lost the notion of spirituality and only live in sin."

For this reason, America must be destroyed, and al-Usuquf insists that "aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines and spy satellites will be worthless in the next war".

Al-Qaeda, according to him, has 5,000 first rank operatives and around 20,000 all over the world. Of all the prisoners in the US, only "20 or 30" are al-Qaeda, and all of them "second-rank". Confirming Asia Times Online information, he swears that there are no first-rank prisoners in Guantanamo in Cuba. Al-Usuquf says, "We have more than 500 first-rank and 800 second-rank [operatives] inside the US." "First rank" are considered ones that have lived in the US for more than 10 years, most of them married with children. "They have an idea about the plans, and they are just waiting for a call." "Second-rank" operatives arrived in the past five years and "have no idea about the plans". They are all willing to die.

Al-Usuquf insists that September 11 "was just the beginning. It was a way to call the world's attention to what's going to happen." He then details a plan to destroy the US by "attacking the heart of what they consider the most important thing in the world: money".

"The American economy is an economy of false appearances," says al-Usuquf.
"There's no real economic weight. American GNP is something around $10 trillion, but only 1 percent comes from agriculture, and only 24 percent from industry. So 75 percent of its GNP comes from services, and most of it is financial speculation. For someone who understands economics, and apparently America's Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill does not, or cannot, the US as a whole behaves like an immense dot.com, and dollars are its stocks. The value of stocks from a given company is directly proportional to its profitability. When a company only provides services, but does not produce goods, the value of its stocks depends on its credibility. What I'm saying is if US credibility is affected, its stocks - the US dollar - will fall at tremendous speed, and the whole American economy will collapse."

Al-Usuquf is absolutely positive, "because, in a smaller scale, this is exactly what big financial conglomerates do with Third World countries to collect profits in one month that no Swiss bank would guarantee in four to five years". Al-Usuquf says that al-Qaeda could do the same by "provoking a deficit of $50 to 70 trillion, the equivalent to five to seven years of the GNP of the US". How? By "destroying America's seven largest cities and some other measures". The means? "Atomic bombs." Al-Usuquf's most startling revelation is that the bombs "won't be launched, they are already there". "Seven nuclear heads have already been positioned on American soil, before September 11, and they are ready to be detonated. Before September 11, American security was a fiasco, and even later, if we needed, we could position the bombs there.
They arrived through seaports, as normal cargo. A nuclear head is not bigger than a fridge, so it can easily be camouflaged as one. Thousands of containers arrive at a seaport every day, and even with very efficient security, it's impossible to check and examine each one of them."

Al-Usuquf says that the bombs were bought on the black market: five from the former USSR and two from Pakistan. The five Russian heads "are from T-3 missiles, also known as RD-107, and their power is around 100 kilotons each, that is five times the Hiroshima bomb. The Pakistani ones are less powerful, something around 10 kilotons each."

Each of the Russian bombs would have cost around $200 million. Al-Qaeda was able to raise the money "because we have many sponsors. Many countries sponsor us, and also some very rich people." And not all of these are Arab countries. "Some European countries as well are also interested in the fall of the US." As to the "rich people", they are "people who are also tired of seeing the US bleeding the rest of the world."

And Iraq's Saddam Hussein, says Al-Usuquf, is not one of these people, "but just a collaborator, represented by Abdul Tawab Hawaish, his vice prime minister and responsible for Iraq's arms program".

Al-Usuquf says that the bombs cannot be detected by US authorities. "Even if they are old, they were modernized and are very well hidden. Even if they were located, they have autodetonation mechanisms in case something or someone gets close. Even an electromagnetic pulse is not capable of deactivating them." The bombs allegedly cannot be detected because "they are enveloped in thick layers of lead". They could be detonated "by various methods - cellphone call, radio frequency, seismic shock or by their regressive clock".

Al-Usuquf details the whole plan. "First, one head would be detonated, which would cause the deaths of 800,000 to 1 million people and a chaos never seen before. During this chaos, two or three planes, which are now disassembled inside barns near empty roads in the US countryside, would take off in suicide missions to pulverize another two or three big American cities with chemicals. Once the disease was identified, all seaports and airports would be quarantined. Land borders would also be closed. No plane, boat or car would enter or leave the US. This would be total chaos." The first target would be the city "that would offer the best conditions, for example bright sky and winds of eight or more miles an hour blowing towards the center of the country, so radioactive dust can contaminate the largest possible area".

This attack would not knock out the US, recognizes al-Usuquf, "But the process would be initiated. As with the World Trade Center, it would be just a question of time for the whole economic structure to be turned to dust. If the objectives are reached with one bomb and diseases, probably we will save the lives of other people, but it's risky, and probably six more bombs will be detonated, one a week, and more attacks with chemical weapons will be launched." According to estimates made by al-Usuquf "and Ayman al-Zawahiri", al-Qaeda's number 2, about 15 million people would die, victims of the bombs and the radiation. Among those contaminated by diseases, "25 percent will die, a figure around more than 5 million, plus many others due to the chaos and disorder".

Al-Usuquf does not fear an American military response. "Even if five or 10 cities are chosen at random to be destroyed, it will still be a small price to pay. The problem is that the economic despair will be so great that even if it saves [money] by not using weapons, American liquidity will be near zero, and the US will make more money selling a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier to Turkey or Italy for $5 billion, because they will urgently need to recapitalize. But it will be too late. Moreover, what will remain of an American soldier's morale to fight knowing that his whole family died and his country ceased to exist? To fight for what?"

The world economy would not collapse, says al-Usuquf, although "in the beginning, it will be very difficult. But without the US the world will soon rise in a more just and fraternal manner. Nothing can stop the plan."

And whatever America does, "it's too late". When will the attack begin? "I can't tell."

Man achte auch auf diese kopierte Nachricht:

A-Bombenanschlag geplant

New York - Einen Monat nach den Attentaten vom 11. September ist den US-Geheimdiensten eine Terrorwarnung vor einem Atombombenanschlag auf New York zugegangen. Die Information eines US-Agenten vom vergangenen Oktober sei aus Furcht vor einer Massenpanik aber streng geheim gehalten worden, berichtet das US-Magazin "Time" in seiner Ausgabe vom Montag. Die Attentäter hätten demnach eine Zehn-Kilotonnen-Atombombe in ihren Besitz gebracht und geplant, sie in New York detonieren zu lassen. Nur wenige ranghohe US-Regierungsbeamte waren dem Bericht zufolge in die Warnung eingeweiht. Selbst der damalige New Yorker Bürgermeister Rudolph Giuliani sei nicht informiert worden.

Übereinstimmung mit russischen Berichten

Die Information stammte laut "Time" von einem US-Agenten mit dem Codenamen "Dragonfire". Ihre Glaubwürdigkeit habe damals zunächst nicht eingeschätzt werden können. Sie habe aber übereingestimmt mit russischen Berichten aus den 90er Jahren über den Verlust von nuklearwaffenfähigem Material. Die Detonation einer solchen Atombombe in Manhatten könnte 100.000 Menschen das Leben kosten und weitere 700.000 verstrahlen.

Kommentar und weitere Infos:

Hinzu kommen Aussagen von Sehern. Ein Bekannter schrieb damals, er habe von einer versteckten A-Bombe in NYC geträumt, welche dort lagere und nur auf den Einsatz warte. Nachdem das im Internet an anderer Stelle gepostet worden war, gab es drei Tage oder so später die Nachricht auf allen Sendern und in den Zeitungen, dass das FBI fieberhaft in NYC nach einer Atombombe suche. Synchronizität oder Zufall? Oder steckt mehr dahinter?

Hier die vollständige Vision:
"Gerade letzte Woche habe ich sehr real gesehen, wie Manhattan aussieht, wenn es von einer Nuklearwaffe in Schutt und Asche gelegt wurde.
Ich habe auch die Bombe gesehen und das Haus in dem sie liegt. Die 3 Personen, die dieses Haus scheinbar bewohnen und Wasser und Strom verbrauchen. Sie produzieren Müll und abonnieren Zeitungen. Alles normal, nur das in diesem Haus nichts ist außer einer Nuklearwaffe. Ich weis auch, woher sie ist, denn ich sah einen Fehlstart einer Rakete
und die Crew die voller Panik versuchte die Kapsel abzutrennen bevor sie die Selbstzerstörung auslösen. Das hat wohl auch geklappt, aber die Kapsel konnten sie nicht finden.
Naja, das Ding liegt schon viele Jahre da in dem Haus, denn jemand hat sie vorsorglich dort plaziert, der den USA mißtraut."

Der Waldviertler schrieb von einem Kastl, das in die Stadt fliegt, worauf sich die Häuser auf das Meer zuzubewegen scheinen.

Und haltet Euch auch bitte dieses vor Augen:

Islamic Terror: STATEMENT BY IBN WARRAQ ON THE WORLD TRADE CENTER ATROCITY

Given the stupefying enormity of the acts of barbarism of 11 September, moral outrage is appropriate and justified, as are demands for punishment. But a civilized society cannot permit blind attacks on all those perceived as "Muslims" or Arabs. Not all Muslims or all Arabs are terrorists. Nor are they implicated in the horrendous events of Tuesday. Police protection for individual Muslims, mosques and other institutions must be increased.

However, to pretend that Islam has nothing to do with Terrorist Tuesday is to wilfully ignore the obvious and to forever misinterpret events. Without Islam the long-term strategy and individual acts of violence by Usama bin Laden and his followers make little sense. The West needs to understand them in order to be able to deal with them and avoid past mistakes. We are confronted with Islamic terrorists and must take seriously the Islamic component. Westerners in general, and Americans in particular, do not understand the passionate, religious, and anti-western convictions of Islamic terrorists. These God-intoxicated fanatics blindly throw away their lives in return for the Paradise of Seventy Two Virgins offered Muslim martyrs killed in the Holy War against all infidels.

Jihad is "a religious war with those who are unbelievers in the mission of the Prophet Muhammad [the Prophet]. It is an incumbent religious duty, established in the Qur'an and in the Traditions as a divine institution, and enjoined specially for the purpose of advancing Islam and repelling evil from Muslims"[1].

The world is divided into two spheres, Dar al-Islam and Dar al-Harb. The latter, the Land of Warfare, is a country belonging to infidels which has not been subdued by Islam. The Dar al-Harb becomes the Dar-al Islam, the Land of Islam, upon the promulgation of the edicts of Islam. Thus the totalitarian nature of Islam is nowhere more apparent than in the concept of Jihad, the Holy War, whose ultimate aim is to conquer the entire world and submit it to the one true faith, to the law of Allah. To Islam alone has been granted the truth: there is no possibility of salvation outside it. Muslims must fight and kill in the name of Allah.

We read (IX. 5-6):"Kill those who join other gods with God wherever you may find them";

IV.76: "Those who believe fight in the cause of God";
VIII.39-42: "Say to the Infidels: if they desist from their unbelief, what is now past shall be forgiven; but if they return to it, they have already before them the doom of the ancients! Fight then against them till strife be at an end, and the religion be all of it God's."

Those who die fighting for the only true religion, Islam, will be amply rewarded in the life to come:

IV.74: "Let those who fight in the cause of God who barter the life of this world for that which is to come; for whoever fights on God's path, whether he is killed or triumphs, We will give him a handsome reward."

What should we make with these further unfortunate verses from the Qur'an:

*Torment to Non-believers->IV.56
*Only Islam Acceptable-> III.85
* No friends from outsiders->III.118
*No friends with Jews, Christians->V. 51
* No friends with non believers->IV.144, III.28
* No friends with parents/siblings if not believers->IX.23
* Fight non-believers->IX.123 *
Kill non-believers->IV.89
*Anti Jewish verses->V.82
* God a "plotter"->VIII.30
*Killing Idolators->IX.5
* Idolators are unclean just because they are idolator->IX.28
* Forcing non-believers to pay tax->IX.29
* The Torment of Hell->XLIV.43-58
* All except Muslims/Jews/Christians/Sabeans will go to hell->II.62, V.69
* Cast terror in the hearts, smite the neck and cut fingertips of unbelievers->VIII.12
* Smite the neck of unbelievers->XLVII.4
* Severe Punishment for atheists->X.4 ; V.10 ; V.86
* Severe Punishment for non-believers->XXII.19-22 ; LXXII.23, XCVIII.6
*Punishing non-believers of Hereafter->XVII.10
* Punishing for rejecting faith->III.91
* Non believers go to hell->IV.140
; VII.36 * Partial Believers go to hell too->IV.150-1
* Sadistic punishments->LVI.42-43
* Punishment for apostates->XVI.106 ; III.86-88 ; III.90 ; IV.137.
* Threat of punishement for not going to war->IX.38-39, XLVIII.16
*God making someone more sinful so he can be punished more->III178
*Intentionally preventing unbelievers from knowing the truth->VI.25 ; VI.110
* Intentionally preventing unbelievers from Understanding Quran->XVII.45-46
* It is God who causes people to err and He punishes them for that->XVII.97
* God could guide, if he chose to, but did not->VI.35
* Intentionally misguiding those whom he pleases to->XIV.4
* Willfully misguiding
some->XVI.93
* God causes human to err->IV.143 ; VII.178
* God deceiving humans->IV.142

It is surely time for us who live in the West and enjoy freedom of expression to examine unflinchingly and unapologetically the tenets of these fanatics, including the Qur'an which divinely sanctions violence. We should unapologetically examine the life of the Prophet, who was not above political assassinations, and who was responsible for the massacre of the Jews.

"Ah, but you are confusing Islam with Islamic fundamentalism. The Real Islam has nothing to do with violence," apologists of Islam argue.

There may be moderate Muslims but Islam itself is not moderate. There is no difference between Islam and Islamic fundamentalism: at most there is a difference of degree but not of kind. All the tenets of Islamic fundamentalism are derived from the Qur'an, the Sunna, and the Hadith - Islamic fundamentalism is a totalitarian construct derived by Muslim jurists from the fundamental and defining texts of Islam. The fundamentalists, with greater logic and coherence than so-called moderate or liberal Muslims, have made Islam the basis of a radical utopian ideology that aims to replace capitalism and democracy as the reigning world system. Islamism accounts for the anti-American hatred to be found in places far from the Arab-Israeli conflict, like Nigeria and Afghanistan, demonstrating that the Middle East conflict cannot legitimately be used to explain this phenomenon called Islamism. A Palestinian involved in the WTC bombings would be seen as a martyr to the Palestinian cause, but even more as a martyr to Islam.

"Ah, but Islamic fundamentalism is like any other kind of fundamentalism, one must not demonise it. It is the result of political, social grievances. It must be explained in terms of economics and not religion," continue the apologists of Islam.

There are enormous differences between Islamic fundamentalism and any other kind of modern fundamentalism. It is true that Hindu, Jewish, and Christian fundamentalists have been responsible for acts of violence, but these have been confined to particular countries and regions. Islamic fundamentalism has global aspirations: the submission of the entire world to the all-embracing Shari'a, Islamic Law, a fascist system of dictates designed to control every single act of all individuals. Nor do Hindus or Jews seek to convert the world to their religion. Christians do indulge in proselytism but no longer use acts of violence or international terrorism to achieve their aims.

Only Islam treats non-believers as inferior beings who are expendable in the drive to world hegemony. Islam justifies any means to achieve the end of establishing an Islamic world.

Islamic fundamentalists recruit among Muslim populations, they appeal to Islamic religious symbols, and they motivate their recruits with Islamic doctrine derived from the Qur'an. Economic poverty alone cannot explain the phenomenon of Islamism. Poverty in Brazil or Mexico has not resulted in Christian fundamentalist acts of international terror. Islamists are against what they see as western materialism itself.
Their choice is clear: Islam or jahiliyya. The latter term is redefined to mean modern-style jahiliyya of modern, democratic, industrialised societies of Europe and America, where man is under the dominion of man rather than Allah. They totally reject the values of the West, which they feel are poisoning Islamic culture. So, it is not just a question of economics, but of an entirely different worldview, which they wish to impose on the whole world.
Sayyid Qutb, the very influential Egyptian Muslim thinker, said that "dominion should be reverted to Allah alone, namely to Islam, that holistic system He conferred upon men. An all-out offensive, a jihad, should be waged against modernity so that this moral rearmament could take place. The ultimate objective is to re-establish the Kingdom of Allah upon earth..."[2]

It is surely time for moderate Muslims to stand up and be counted. I should like to see them do three things:

1.All moderate Muslims should unequivocally denounce this barbarism, should condemn it for what it is: the butchery of innocent people, 2. All moderate Muslim citizens of the United States should proclaim their Americanness, their patriotism, and their solidarity with the families of the victims. They should show their pride in their country by giving blood and other aid to victims and their families. 3. All moderate Muslims should take this opportunity to examine the tenets of their faith; should look at the Qur'an, recognize its role in the instigation of religious violence, and see it for what it is, a problematical human document reflecting 7th or perhaps 8th Century values which the West has largely outgrown.

While it should not be too difficult for moderate Muslims to accept the need to denounce the violence of Terrorist Tuesday, I am not at all optimistic about their courage or willingness to proclaim their love for their chosen country, the USA, or examine the Qur'an critically.

Too many Muslims are taught from an early age that their first allegiance is to Islam. They are exhorted in sermons in mosques, and in books by such Muslim intellectuals as Dr Siddiqui of the Muslim Institute in London, that if the laws of the land conflict with any of the tenets of Islam, then they must break the laws of the infidels, and only follow the Law of God, the Shari'a, Islamic Law.

It is a remarkable fact that at the time of the Gulf War, a high proportion of Muslims living in the West supported Saddam Hussein. In the aftermath of the WTC terror, it is now clear from reports in the media that many Muslims, even those living in the West, see these acts of barbarism as acts of heroism; they give their unequivocal support to their hero, Usama bin Laden.

Few Muslims have shown themselves capable of scrutinising their sacred text rationally. Indeed any criticism of their religious tenets is taken as an insult to their faith, for which so many Muslims seem ready to kill (as in the Rushdie affair or the Taslima Nasreen affair). Muslims seem to be unaware that the research of western scholars concerning the existence of figures such as Abraham, Isaac and Joseph or the authorship of the Pentateuch applies directly to their belief
system. Furthermore, it is surely totally irrational to continue to believe that the Qur'an is the word of God when the slightest amount of rational thought will reveal that the Qur'an contains words and passages addressed to God (e.g. VI.104; VI.114; XVII.1; XXVII.91; LXXXI.15-29;
LXXXIV.16-19; etc.); or that it is full of historical errors and inconsistencies.

Respect for other cultures, for other values than our own, is a hallmark of a civilised society. But Multiculturalism is based on some fundamental misconceptions. First, there is the erroneous and sentimental belief that all cultures, deep down, have the same values; or, at least, if different,
are equally worthy of respect. But the truth is that not all cultures have the same values, and not all values are worthy of respect.
There is nothing sacrosanct about customs or cultural traditions: they can change under criticism. After all, the secularist values of the West are not much more than two hundred years old.

If these other values are destructive of our own cherished values, are we not justified in Fighting them both by intellectual means, that is by reason and argument, and criticism, and by legal means, by making sure the laws and constitution of the country are respected by all? It becomes a duty to defend those values that we would live by. But here western intellectuals have sadly failed in defending western values, such as rationalism, social pluralism, human rights, the rule of law, representative government, individualism (in the sense that every individual counts, and no individual should be sacrificed for some utopian future collective end), freedom of expression, freedom of and from religion, the rights of minorities, and so on..




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