“Mysterious Shadowy Groups” from the ‘restive south of Thailand’ to Mindanao in the Philippines and from Syria to Timbuktu. The deliberate stupidity on display in the lame-stream media is nauseating:

Shadowy Islamic Terror Group Emerges In Syria: ‘From Their World View, Democracy Is a Religion’

Update:

• Iran: West behind deadly Syria blasts (yes yes yes, and GWB did 9/11 all by himself…)
• Syrian protesters: “Christians to Beirut, Alawites to the coffin”

DAMASCUS, Syria (The Blaze/AP) — Syria is in shambles, as the country continues to experience incessant instability. As terror rips through the nation’s streets, a mysterious, new jihadist group called Jabhat al-Nusra (Al-Nusra Front) is claiming responsibility for much of the carnage. Little is currently known about the cell, although some experts suspect that the al-Qaida either set the groundwork for the organization or served as the inspiration for its creation.

In the most recent example of terror and violence (though it’s not yet known if the group was involved), two suicide car bombs ripped through the Syrian capital Thursday, killing 55 people. The explosions also shaved the facade off a military intelligence building in the deadliest explosions since the country’s uprising began 14 months ago, the Interior Ministry said.

Residents told an Associated Press reporter that the blasts happened in quick succession during morning rush hour, with an initial small explosion followed by a larger bomb that appeared aimed at onlookers and rescue crews arriving at the scene. Paramedics wearing rubber gloves collected human remains from the pavement as heavily damaged cars and pickup trucks smoldered.

There was no claim of responsibility for Thursday’s blasts. But with the Al-Nusra Front claiming responsibility for several past explosions, its involvement is certainly being questioned.

The latest attack adds to raising fears that terrorist groups are entering the fray and exploiting Syria’s chaos. In addition to the 55 dead, the ministry also said there were 15 bags of human remains, meaning the death toll was likely to rise.

Four Corners

By Jonathan Miller and Channel 4

Kerry claims “Fisk covered the region with distinction”

Fisk, an old drunk who always gets it wrong, not only gives us the Arab narrative,  he is also a master of immoral equivalence and a Jew hater from way back when. In this vid he tells us that Deputy Prime Minister of Israel,  Avigdor Lieberman is just as crazy as the genocidal crackpot Mahound Ahmadinejad of Iran.

Click here for the video

It’s a program that raises many questions, not least how can any country support the regime of President Bashar al-Assad? How can the United Nations resist calls for al-Assad to be charged and prosecuted for war crimes? But if this happens, and the President leaves office, what will it mean for Syria and the balance of power in the Middle East?

As unrest grows in Syria, President Bashar al-Assad continues to insist the violence is being driven by criminals and gangs of bandits, encouraged by forces outside Syria.

Now reporter Jonathan Miller travels to Syria to investigate what’s really going on inside the country. There, he finds a government that employs what can only be described as a “torture machine” to stop dissent. His report features devastating video evidence of men, women and children being subjected to brutal beatings, whippings and more elaborate torture. They tell how, after being detained by the police, they are passed through various levels of interrogation overseen by the secret police, or Mukhabarat.

Much of this brutality has been captured on mobile phones by Syrian civilians and activists, and uploaded to the internet every week, because they are desperate to show the world what’s happening. But the most confronting images come from videos that have been filmed by the torturers themselves.

The report takes us to Syria and Lebanon where we hear from victims and activists who have experienced or witnessed torture at the hands of President al-Assad’s forces. Their stories, and the video evidence of torture and killing, build a dossier of systematic abuse conducted by the Syrian government.

Responding to the issues raised in the story, Four Corners presenter Kerry O’Brien speaks with a leading expert in the region about Syria’s future and the consequences if Bashar al-Assad were to leave office either through force or his own choice.

“Syria Exposed”, reported by Jonathan Miller for Channel 4 in the UK and presented by Kerry O’Brien, goes to air on Monday 20th February at 8.30pm on ABC1. The program is repeated on Tuesday 21st February at 11.35pm. It can also be seen on ABC News 24 on Saturdays at 8.00pm, and online on ABC iview.

Robert Fisk  

  

(source)

• Robert Fisk - The man who is always wrong.
• The man after whom the old LGF named their “Idiotarian of the Year” award, since otherwise he would win it every year.
• The man after whom the verb “fisking” was invented – one of the true new words of the blog world.
• Afghanistan
  • If Bush wants an invasion [of Afghanistan], it could become more costly than Vietnam, Robert Fisk, The Independent, 18 September 2001.
    • 58,000 American soldiers died in Vietnam. North Vietnam never fell. Rather, it won the war.
    • In the 2001 Afghan war, the Taliban regime fell before a single US soldier died from hostile fire.
    • Essentially all US deaths in Afghanistan have been caused by nation building, not by the war itself. Same in Iraq.
    • As at 2009, after 8 years of nation building, 750 American soldiers have died in Afghanistan.
  • Do you want the facts … or Fisk’s version? by Eoghan Harris, November 25, 2001 - “Fisk has now been wrong about three wars in a row. In the Gulf War he told us the Republican Guard would give the Americans a hard time: in fact, they folded. In the Kosovo War he said American bombing would not work: today Slobodan Milosevic is on trial for war crimes. And Fisk has been wrong about the Afghan War from first to last.”
  • For Fisk’s predictions during the first Gulf War see [From the Embassy, George Dempsey, 2004].

   

• Iraq
  • It’s four in a row now. See Robert Fisk’s ignorant statements on Iraq.
  • Anglo-American Lies Exposed - whining wartime propaganda from Robert Fisk, 24 March 2003. He laughs at the idea that the allies are winning the Iraq war: “So far, the Anglo-American armies are handing their propaganda to the Iraqis on a plate. First, on Saturday, we were told … that Umm Qasr, the tiny Iraqi seaport on the Gulf, had “fallen”. … Then we were told … that Nassariyah had been captured. Then its “embedded ” correspondent informed us – and here my old journalistic suspicions were alerted – that it had been “secured”. … All in all, then, this has not been a great weekend for Messers Bush and Blair. … One of our own Tornadoes is shot down by the Americans … and we haven’t even totally captured the first town over the border from Kuwait. … this weekend, the quick and easy war, the conflict of “shock-and-awe” … doesn’t seem so realistic. Things are going wrong. We are not telling the truth. And the Iraqis are riding high on it all.”
  • Fisk propaganda, 1 April 2003 laughs at the allied effort: “Even the “siege of Baghdad” – a city that is 30 miles wide and might need a quarter of a million men to surround it – is fading from the diary. … I have a suspicion that what’s gone wrong has nothing to do with plans. Indeed, I suspect there is no real overall plan.”
  • Fisk propaganda, 2 April: “Anyone who doubts that the Iraqi army is prepared to defend its capital should take the highway south of Baghdad. How, I kept asking myself, could the Americans batter their way through these defences?”
  • On 9 April, Baghdad fell.
  • And yet still this ignorant man appears constantly on my radio set. Doesn’t it matter that he was wrong? Surely it counts for something??
  • Blog Irish
  • The prose of Robert Fisk by Norman Geras, July 05, 2004 – On Fisk’s sympathy for Saddam at his trial.

   

• Lebanon
  • Fisk, the Lebanon, and Syria

   

• Fisking
  • Eoghan Harris coined the verb “to fisk” in 1999, meaning to do what Fisk does (sloppy, biased, one-sided argument; hopelessly wrong predictions, lack of embarrassment about said predictions, etc.).
  • The dangers of Fisking by David Pryce-Jones, uses this meaning of “fisking”.
    • Pryce-Jones talks of Fisk’s “hysteria and distortion” in his reporting on the Middle East. He describes Fisk as an enemy of the Iraqi people posing as their champion: “Perverting American purposes and practices in Iraq, fisking helps to bring about the doom that it anticipates with such glee and relish. … The Iraqis are his real victims.”
  • This definition of “fisking” has not caught on, though. The verb “to fisk” has been popularised by the blogosphere to mean “to clinically dissect someone’s shoddy argument piece by piece”. Robert Fisk is not a practitioner of “fisking”. Fisking is what is done to Robert Fisk. Also here.
  • Discussion of Fisking and Pilgerisms

   

• In 2001, Robert Fisk was attacked and beaten up by ignorant pro-jihad Afghans close to the Afghan-Pakistan border. He responded with sympathy to his own assault!
  • My Beating is a Symbol of this Filthy War, Robert Fisk, 10 Dec 2001. He is sympathetic to their attack on a filthy infidel. “And even then, I understood. I couldn’t blame them for what they were doing. In fact, if I were the Afghan refugees of Kila Abdullah, close to the Afghan-Pakistan border, I would have done just the same to Robert Fisk. Or any other Westerner I could find.”
  • “Many of these Afghans, so we were to learn, were outraged by what they had seen on television … A villager [said] they had seen the videotape of CIA officers “Mike” and “Dave” threatening death to a kneeling prisoner at Mazar.” They are outraged by rough words to a captured jihadist. But they are not outraged by the Taliban’s long oppression and butchery, or the 9/11 attacks. And Fisk thinks these are reasonable people!
  • He had a glimpse of enlightenment, but he pulled back: “Did I catch the word “kaffir” — infidel? Perhaps I was was wrong.” He sticks to his belief that they are motivated by geopolitics rather than religion.
  • He says his attackers are not responsible for their actions: “there were all the Afghan men and boys who had attacked me who should never have done so but whose brutality was entirely the product of others, of us — of we who had armed their struggle against the Russians and ignored their pain and laughed at their civil war”. Because Muslims would never be violent if left alone by the West.

   

• Success Has A Thousand Fathers: But who would have guessed that one of them was Robert Fisk? - Fisk says in 2003 that “We have captured Saddam”. Fisk! One of the people who did more than almost anyone to prevent the capture of Saddam! Now he pretends he is part of the movement that liberated Iraq!

• Review by Efraim Karsh of Fisk’s The Great War for Civilisation

• Good stuff by Fisk:
  • Let’s give credit where it is due. Fisk has not made the mistake of many leftists of supporting the vile Iraqi resistance.
  • And my attention was drawn to this article: Conspiracy of silence in the Arab world, 10 February 2007, where he complains that Arabs do not protest Arab-on-Arab violence, only violence by the West and Israel. He complains at the silence of the Arab world about the Iraqi resistance as it slaughters Muslims. In among his usual attacks on the west and Israel, he has a good point: “When the Hama massacre occurred, neighbouring Arab states were silent. … Just as the imams and scholars of Islam were silent when the Algerians began to slaughter each other in a welter of head-chopping and security force executions in the 1990s. Just as they are silent now over the mutual killings in Iraq. … where are the sheikhs of Al-Azhar and the great Arabian kingdoms when the Iraqi dead are fished out of the Tigris and cut down in their thousands in Baghdad, Kerbala, Baquba? They, too, are silent. Not a word of criticism. Not a hint of concern. … But when does Arab blood become less sacred? Why, when it is shed by Arabs. It’s not just a failure of self-criticism in the Arab world. In a landscape ruled by monsters whom we in the West have long supported, criticism of any kind is a dodgy undertaking. But can there not be one small sermon of reprobation for what Iraqi Muslims are doing to Iraqi Muslims?”
  • Good for him. However, one could argue that Fisk’s entire career is based on an excessive focus on violence by westerners, instead of violence by non-westerners.

 Which puts him in the Pilger camp. Yvonne Ridley sends her regards…..

The Muslim Brotherhood ‘s goals include world conquest in the name of Allah.  They use the motto  “Jihad is our way; dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope” –

For Obama spin-doctor Clapper the Brotherhood is “moderate.” “Extremists” would have killed 88. (at least!)

More on this story. “Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood claims responsibilty for deadly blasts,” from AFP, December 25 (thanks to The Religion of Peace and JW):

SYRIA’S Muslim Brotherhood has claimed responsibility for suicide bombings in Damascus that killed 44 people, saying they were the first step in liberating the capital and that more attacks were to come.

Related links:

• Nigeria: Another day, another Boko Haram shootout, 24 dead
• Iraq: Midnight Masses canceled because of concerns about jihadists
• In Egypt, Christians endure their ‘Kristallnacht’– Genocide Warning for Christians in the ME

The claim on Saturday contradicted assertions by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad that the blasts, which also wounded 166 people, were the work of al-Qa’ida and of the opposition Syrian National Council that the regime carried them out.

”One of our victorious Sunni brigades was able to target the state security building in Kfar Suseh in the heart of the … capital Damascus in a successful operation carried out by four of our kamikazes drawn from the best of our glorious men, leaving many dead and wounded from the ranks of the Assad gangs,” it said on its official website.

”We as defenders of the Syrian people and the sanctity of this nation send a message to Assad’s gangs: This is the beginning of the liberation of Damascus and the tip of the iceberg,” the statement added.

”Hence we warn our fellow citizens and advise them not to approach government centres or security branches … because our martyrdom brigades are in a state of maximum readiness to carry out quality operations in Aleppo, Damascus, and the blessed land of Syria in the next 10 days.”

The statement was signed by the ”Muslim Brotherhood’s media committee inside Syria”.

The bombings, the first against the powerful security services in central Damascus since an uprising against Assad began in March, came a day after the arrival of an advance group of Arab League monitors who are to oversee a deal to end the bloodshed.

After the attacks, Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Meqdad said ”this is the gift we get from the terrorists and al-Qa’ida, but we are going to do all we can to facilitate the Arab League mission”….

Syria’s exiled Islamists offer to quit politics

In the German version of Little Red Riding Hood the wolf eats chalk to make his voice softer in order to convince the lambs to open the door …

(Source)

Syria’s banned Muslim Brotherhood in exile has offered to halt its political activities in exchange for their return home, a Qatari newspaper reported on Sunday.

The appeal follows the toppling of Tunisia’s strongman Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in a popular revolt.

“If we are allowed to go back to Syria, we will devote ourselves to preaching and religious activities only,” the Brotherhood’s secretary general, Mohammed Riad al-Shaqfa, told Al-Sharq daily.

(Wonder what they’ve been doing before in order to get thrown out…?)

Shaqfa appealed to Damascus to “allow us to work in our … towns only and no more,” the Arabic-language daily quoted him as saying, and said the Brotherhood was also willing to give up its name.

“We are not after power,” added the Islamist leader. “We are asking for freedom, justice and equality. If [Syrian] President Bashar al-Assad does this, then we are with him.”

Translation: Freedom means forcing everyone to live under Islamic rule, justice means sharia and equality means the removal of  the ruling class and all obstacles to the rule of the Islamic clerics.

Shaqfa called for the government to abolish emergency Law 49, laying down the death penalty for membership of the Brotherhood, to reveal the fate of the missing, secure the return of political exiles and to free political detainees.

The Muslim Brotherhood has been banned in Syria since unprecedented bloody clashes in the early 1980s. (Not only: Membership in the Syrian Brotherhood became a capital offence in Syria in the 1980 (under Emergency Law 49) and remains so…)

Remember:

The Ikhwan must understand that all their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and “sabotaging” their miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all religions.

Terry Plamondon: Islamist   threat is most insidious of all

We are aware of the radical Muslim terrorist threat. We are aware of the leftist/progressive/socialist threat to our constitutional republic. Very few of us are aware of the Islamist threat, the most insidious  of all.

Many Muslims in America are American citizens and want nothing to do with Sharia, the sacred law of  Islam.

(Just wondering why the author believes the disclaimer is necessary……?)

Islamists are fundamentalist Muslims who want to

establish Sharia throughout the world and are

supported by the Muslim Brotherhood, primarily

with Saudi money, through the Council on

American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Muslim Students

Association (MSA), North American Islamic Trust

(NAIT), Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and

many other Islamist organizations.

The Muslim Brotherhood was founded by Hassan al-

Banna (“the Guide”) in 1928 in Isma’iliyaa, Egypt, to

bring the world to heel under Sharia administered

by a world caliphate. The particular brand of Islam

promoted by Banna is Salafism, an archaic

fundamentalist form that decries rationalism and

promotes Islam as a religion and a political entity —

no separation of church and state.

During the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s, the Muslim

Brotherhood began sending Salafist Muslims into

Western countries to settle, spread Salafism, raise

families, establish mosques and Salafist

communities. This proceeded rather slowly until the

1960s, when Western countries — including the

United States and Canada — loosened their

immigration policies.

Just weeks after 9/11, Swiss authorities raided

Muslim Brotherhood member Youssef Nada’s villa

and found a 14-page plan to “establish an Islamic

government on Earth” known as “The Project.” This

plan corroborates the Muslim Brotherhood

memorandum “An Explanatory Memorandum on the

General Strategic Goal for the Group in North

America” uncovered by the FBI and presented in the

2007 Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing

trial.

The Muslim Brotherhood plan begins with educating and forming the Muslim person, then forming the

Muslim family as the basis for Muslim society with emphasis on preparation for martyrdom.

This would first happen in Muslim countries. When

Muslim countries are all governed by the caliphate

through Sharia, the umma (the Muslim collective)

would set its sights on one-time Muslim holdings in

Europe; when that is complete, the Muslim nation

would then achieve world dominance.

The first stage of this plan is “propaganda, communication and information” through classroom indoctrination (Muslim schools) to recruit activists and establish media outlets to spread the Islamist message and refute adversaries.

The second stage involves the “formation, selection and preparation” of charities, clinics, schools and

other services to endear themselves to the population.

This stresses military preparedness by creating

“rovers, battalions and secret apparatus” to

spearhead eventual revolution. This stage also

stresses martyrdom and identifies them as “the

troops of God” armed with “Islamic morality.”

The third and final stage is execution. Battalions in

Muslim communities would rise up to conquer

“every obstinate tyrant.”

Though the plan has violent overtones, the

emphasis is on influencing media, controlling

education and ingratiating the movement with an

unsuspecting population. This is being done today.

CAIR is used by the current administration to help

“educate the public in the greatness of Islam;”

schoolchildren are taking field trips to mosques and

being encouraged to participate in Muslim prayers.

Islamists attempt to influence American law with

Sharia. A judge used Sharia to adjudicate a case in

New Jersey; it was overturned on appeal. And

Oklahoma voters passed a proposition to keep

Sharia out of their state, an effort put on hold by a

federal judge.

The establishment of Sharia Muslim enclaves is

proceeding quite rapidly in Europe. There are more

than 700 sensitive urban areas or zones in France

where non-Muslims should not go. These are ruled

by Islamist thugs enforcing Sharia; the gendarmes

will only enter in force and only if they must.

Though the Muslim Brotherhood does not support

terrorism, it never has repudiated it when the time is

right. Only when powerful centers of trained

Islamists are in place will the time be right for

violent jihad and Islamist takeover of a country.

Terry Plamondon lives in Ruston.

There is No Such Thing as the Mafia Sharia

Islamic Countries Dominate Open Doors 2011 World Watch ListSANTA ANA, Calif., Jan. 5, 2011 /Christian Newswire/ — Despite Communist North Korea topping the annual Open Doors World Watch List (WWL) for the ninth consecutive year, the most dangerous countries in which to practice Christianity are overwhelmingly Islamic ones.

That paragraph should be printed on a little business card, convenient for us to hand out to Christian appeasers who fantasize that our friends in the henna beards are either

1. Victims of racism, poverty, and social exclusion (liberal Christian dhimmis)
2. Enraged by American policies and Zionist oppression (ultra-leftist and ultra-rightists) or
3. Our future allies in the war against the hedonist Culture of Death (frustrated theocrats sunk in impotent rage).

Perhaps on the other side of the card we can print the following sura from the Qur’an:

9:29. Fight against those who believe not in Allah, nor in the Last Day, nor forbid that which has been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger and those who acknowledge not the religion of truth (i.e. Islam) among the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians), until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued. Read more:  There is No Such Thing as the Mafia Sharia

Syria supported embassy attacks in cartoons row

(Source)

OSLO: Syria backed attacks on Scandinavian embassies in Damascus as violent protests erupted in early 2006 over the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), according to newly-leaked US government cables.

Ah yes. Our good old ‘friend’ Ahmed Hassoun. Remember him? This is the guy who was invited to speak at the EU parliament. He  promptly warned the EU dhimmies to restrict free speech, or else…..

Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Naji Otri “instructed the Grand Mufti Sheikh Hassoun to issue a strongly worded directive to the imams delivering Friday sermons in the mosques of Damascus without setting any ceilings on the type of language to be used,” a cable from the US embassy in Damascus read.

The document was obtained by WikiLeaks and published yesterday in English by Norwegian daily Aftenposten.

The information in the cable was provided to US officials in Syria by “one of the most influential Sunni religious figures in Damascus,” whose name is erased in the cable.

The religious figure told US officials the Syrian government had “allowed the rioting to continue for an extended period” and reacted with serious threats of force to stop it when it felt that “the message had been delivered.”

“This is what you will have if we allow true democracy and allow Islamists to rule,” was Damascus’ message to the West in doing so, the unnamed religious official told the US embassy.

But at the same time, the Syrian government wanted to show it was “protecting the dignity of Islam” and “allowing Muslims freedom on the streets of Damascus they are not allowed on the streets of Cairo, Amman or Tunis,” the cable said.

On February 4, 2006, the embassies of Norway and Denmark — which housed the Swedish and Chilean missions — in Damascus were set on fire by protesters voicing their anger at the publication of 12 caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) by a Danish daily.

Copenhagen had recalled its ambassador to protest the lack of protection given to the embassy by Syrian officials.

“If politeness and ceremony be observed toward Mohammedans, they imagine they are feared and become arrogant; but in showing severity and rudeness, they are impressed with fear and respect, and they are supple and manageable.”

–North China Herald,1867

It is mindboggling that headbangers like this Sheikh Ahmed Hassoun  are allowed to speak at the EU parliament. Creatures like this should be held in contempt by self-respecting, civilized Europeans:

Some examples here:

Grand Mufti of Syria: “a single civilisation unites us all..”

Religion of  bridge-builders….

Euro-dhimmies ban showing of FITNA

(after instructions from Syria’s grand mufti, of course…)

Syria’s Grand Mufti warns EU-Dhimmi’s to restrict Free Speech. Or else…

How  can Mohammedanism spread when infidels are allowed to insult the profit?

Robert Spencer has this:

Syria’s Mufti: “If Mohammed had commanded us to kill people, I would have told him he was not a prophet”

Here is a particularly audacious exercise in deception from Sheikh Ahmed Hassoun, the Mufti of Syria. I say deception because his assertions are so flagrantly at variance with the Qur’an and Sunnah that he simply must know that what he is saying is false. And while it is remotely possible that he is attempting to work a loophole by saying that Muhammad never said these things while knowing that the Qur’an does say them, on the pretext that Allah, not Muhammad, wrote the Qur’an, there is enough in the Hadith to show that Muhammad said the same things as well. Detailed explanations below.

“Syria’s Mufti: Islam commands us to protect Judaism,” from Haaretz, January 19 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Syria’s foremost Muslim leader declared on Tuesday that Islam commands its followers to protect Judaism, according to Army Radio.”If the Prophet Mohammed had asked me to deem Christians or Jews heretics, I would have deemed Mohammed himself a heretic,” Sheikh Ahmed Hassoun, the Mufti of Syria, was quoted as telling a delegation of American academics visiting Damascus.

Reality check:

• The Treatment of Jews  in Arab/Islamic Countries

“They indeed have disbelieved who say: Lo! Allah is the Messiah, son of Mary.” — Qur’an 5:17

“They surely disbelieve who say: Lo! Allah is the Messiah, son of Mary.” — Qur’an 5:72

“The Jews call ‘Uzair [Ezra] a son of Allah, and the Christians call Christ the son of Allah. That is a saying from their mouth; (in this) they but imitate what the unbelievers of old used to say. Allah’s curse be on them: how they are deluded away from the Truth!” — Qur’an 9:30

Of course, that is the Qur’an, not Muhammad. So here’s Muhammad:

“When the last moment of the life of Allah’s Apostle came he started putting his ‘Khamisa’ on his face and when he felt hot and short of breath he took it off his face and said, “May Allah curse the Jews and Christians for they built the places of worship at the graves of their Prophets.” The Prophet was warning (Muslims) of what those had done.” – Bukhari 1.8.427

“Once ‘Umar was informed that a certain man sold alcohol. ‘Umar said, ‘May Allah curse him! Doesn’t he know that Allah’s Apostle said, “May Allah curse the Jews, for Allah had forbidden them to eat the fat of animals but they melted it and sold it.”‘” –Bukhari 3.34.426

Hassoun may also be referring to the “true” Christians and Jews as envisioned by the Qur’an — the portion of the People of the Book who accept Muhammad as a prophet and become Muslim: “If only the People of the Book had faith, it were best for them: among them are some who have faith, but most of them are perverted transgressors” — Qur’an 3:110. In Islamic theology, the People of the Book who have faith are those who convert to Islam, while those who do not are the people who are known as Jews and Christians in the world today. So Hassoun could be slyly referring to these converts to Islam from Judaism and Christianity, saying that they are not heretics, while knowing that his hearers will understand him to be referring to the world’s Jews and Christians.

Hassoun, the leader of Syria’s majority Sunni Muslim community, also told the delegates that Islam was a religion of peace, adding: “If Mohammed had commanded us to kill people, I would have told him he was not a prophet.”

“And slay them wherever ye find them…” — Qur’an 2:191

“…and slay them wherever ye find them…” — Qur’an 4:89

“…slay the idolaters wherever ye find them…” — Qur’an 9:5

“Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.” — Qur’an 9:29

“Therefore, when ye meet the Unbelievers (in fight), smite at their necks…” — Qur’an 47:4

And Muhammad:

“Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him.” – Bukhari 9.84.57

“During the last days there will appear some young foolish people who will say the best words but their faith will not go beyond their throats (i.e. they will have no faith) and will go out from (leave) their religion as an arrow goes out of the game. So, wherever you find them, kill them, for whoever kills them shall have reward on the Day of Resurrection.” – Bukhari 9.84.64

“I have been ordered (by Allah) to fight against the people until they testify that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that Muhammad is Allah’s Apostle, and offer the prayers perfectly and give the obligatory charity, so if they perform a that, then they save their lives and property from me except for Islamic laws and then their reckoning (accounts) will be done by Allah.” – Bukhari 1.2.24

And there is much more in this vein.

Religious wars were the result of politics infiltrating systems of faith, he said, asking:”Was Moses of Middle Eastern or European descent? Was Jesus a Protestant or a Catholic? Was Mohammed Shi’ite or Sunni?”

1. Middle Eastern. 2. Neither. 3. Neither.

And so?

According to the Mufti, the conflict between Israel and its Arabs neighbors has nothing to do with an Islamic war against Judaism.

That’s not what Hamas or Hizballah or Islamic Jihad say. Has the Mufti ever strolled over to their Damascus offices and remonstrated with them?

“Before you got American citizenship, and I got Syrian citizenship, we were all brothers under the dome of God,” he said.Jews had once lived in Syria peacefully and with fair treatment, he added, explaining that his own grandfather had a Jewish partner.

“Jews lived in Syria for years and they still have a role in Syrian society,” he said.

As long as they knew their place as good submissive dhimmis.

Hugh Fitzgerald comments:

According to the Mufti, the conflict between Israel and its Arabs neighbors has nothing to do with an Islamic war against Judaism.”

Of course he would say that. Muslims are deeply worried that, as people in the Western world, on the receiving end of Muslim violence, aggression, and also non-violent but equally dangerous and sinister forms of Jihad,learn about the texts and tenets of Islam, they will, insensibly, come to re-think their view of the war being made by the Arabs and Muslims against Israel, the Lesser Jihad against Israel.

And as they begin to grasp the nature of Islam, they will inexorably come to understand several things.

To wit:
That the war against Israel is a Jihad, and the existence of the Infidel nation-state of Israel, on land once controlled by Muslims, must not, can not, be tolerated in the long run.

That the war against the Infidel nation-state of Israel cannot be lessened, much less brought to an end, by Israel’s further surrender of territory, and shrinkage into the “lines of Asuchwitz” (as Abba Evan described them).

That any further reductions in Israel’s tiny size — a place scarcely to be made out on a world map — will merely increase the belief, among Arabs and Muslims, that they can go in for the kill, and will increase the likelihood of open warfare.

That Israel, so reduced, may be able to hold on, just, but whether it does or not, the triumphalism that will be felt by the Arabs and Muslims can only increase to the extent that Israel approaches its final demise, and that triumphalism will naturally whet Arab and Muslim appetites elsewhere, but above all elsewhere, in the countries of Wesetern Europe.

It is this line of thinking, this understanding of Islam as explaining the Arab and Muslim war against Israrel, that the keenest Arabs and Muslims worry about. They hate it, for example, when Hamas and Fatah are described as the Fast Jihadists and the Slow Jihadists, differing only in matters of tactics and timing. They worry about the Western world coming to its senses too soon, and too comprehensively, about Islam.

That is what lies behind the nonsense and lies of the Mufti of Syria, to an audience of visiting Infidels whom, he is betting, will not do any study of their own, but be charmed by the deep sincerity of his gaze, and those stirring words — he wouldn’t fool us, would he? — given to a delegation of “American academics” — allowing one to think he would stand stoutly to protect Jews, or at least Judaism, and Christians, or at least Christianity.

Essentially Sheikh Ahmad Hassoun, Mufti of Syria, was giving an intelligence test. He despises those American academics, and thinks they are too stupid to find out for themselves what the texts, tenets, attitudes, atmospherics of Islam really are. He expects them to remain ignorant of 1400 years of history of Muslim conquest, and of the subjugation of non-Muslims, and of the treatment of those who, as Christians and Jews, were allowed to live (compare what happened to 60-70 million Hindus) but only under conditions of deliberate, systematic degradation, humiliation and, above all, permanent physical insecurity, sometimes greater and sometimes lesser, depending on the ruler.

He thinks they will be, and remain, gullible.

I think that some, or perhaps many of them, will at this point prove him wrong, and pass that intelligence test, and slough off his lies, and be even more wary than they were before.

I hope my faith in the good sense and intelligence of those American academics proves correct, and that the contempt secretly shown them by the Mufti of Syria turns out to be ill-founded.

We’ll see.

———————————————————————————————————————

Hugh Fitzgerald has more:

What the Mufti of Syria hopes you don’t know

“According to the Mufti, the conflict between Israel and its Arabs neighbors has nothing to do with an Islamic war against Judaism.” – from this story about the Mufti of Syria

Of course he would say that. Muslims are deeply worried that as people all over the Western world who find themselves on the receiving end of Muslim violence, aggression, and also non-violent but equally dangerous and sinister forms of Jihad, learn about the texts and tenets of Islam, they will, insensibly, come to re-think their view of the war being made by the Arabs and Muslims against Israel, the Lesser Jihad against Israel.

And as those people begin to grasp the nature of Islam, they will inexorably come to understand several other things as well.

To wit:

They will come to understand that as far as Muslims are concerned, the war against Israel is a Jihad, and the existence of the Infidel nation-state of Israel, on land once controlled by Muslims, must not and cannot, be tolerated in the long run.

They will come to understand that the war against the Infidel nation-state of Israel cannot be lessened, much less brought to an end, by Israel’s further surrender of territory, and shrinkage into the “lines of Auschwitz” (as Abba Evan described them).

They will come to understand that any further reductions in Israel’s tiny size — a place scarcely to be made out on a world map — will merely increase the belief, among Arabs and Muslims, that they can go in for the kill, and will increase the likelihood of open warfare.

They will come to understand that Israel, so reduced, may be able to hold on, just, but whether it does or not, the triumphalism that will be felt by the Arabs and
Muslims can only increase to the extent that Israel approaches its final demise. And that triumphalism will in turn naturally whet Arab and Muslim appetites elsewhere, but above all elsewhere, in Spain and the countries of Western Europe.

It is this line of thinking, this understanding of Islam as explaining the Arab and Muslim war against Israel, that the keenest Arabs and Muslims worry about. They don’t want Westerners to catch on to this. They hate it, for example, when Hamas and Fatah are described as the Fast Jihadists and the Slow Jihadists, differing only in matters of tactics and timing. They worry about the Western world coming to its senses too soon, and too comprehensively, about Islam and the Jihad that is currently being waged on so many fronts against the West.

That is what lies behind the nonsense and lies of the Mufti of Syria, which he delivered to an audience of visiting Infidels — a delegation of “American academics.” He is betting that those Infidels will not do any study of their own, but will instead be charmed by the deep sincerity of his gaze, and those stirring words — he wouldn’t fool us, would he? – that allow one to think that he would stand stoutly to protect Jews, or at least Judaism, and Christians, or at least Christianity.

Essentially Sheikh Ahmad Hassoun, Mufti of Syria, was giving an intelligence test. He despises those American academics, and thinks they are too stupid to find out for themselves what the texts, tenets, attitudes, and atmospherics of Islam really are. He expects them to remain ignorant of 1400 years of history of Muslim conquest, and of the subjugation of non-Muslims, and of the treatment of those who, as Christians and Jews, were allowed to live (compare what happened to 60-70 million Hindus) but only under conditions of deliberate, systematic degradation, humiliation and, above all, permanent physical insecurity, sometimes greater and sometimes lesser, depending on the ruler.

He thinks they will be, and remain, gullible.

I think that some, or perhaps many of them, will at this point prove him wrong, and pass that intelligence test, and slough off his lies, and be even more wary than they were before.

I hope my faith in the good sense and intelligence of those American academics proves correct, and that the contempt secretly shown them by the Mufti of Syria turns out to be ill-founded.

We’ll see.

From Harry’s Place:

A look at the land of the chinless ophthalmologist

An open letter to Viva Palestina!

Brothers and Sisters in the struggle for human rights and the crushing of apartheid!

When I discovered that you will be passing through Syria, my heart leapt with joy!

Once upon a time Syria had what we call civilization. Then came Islam….

Nothing would make me happier than to give you some background on the“fortress of the remaining dignity of the Arabs” and its people who stand as one in solidarity behind “the last Arab ruler”, Dr. Bashar Al Assad.

It would be an honour for me to guide you on your way, and share with you all some secrets that aren’t in the guidebooks.

It looks as if you’ll be taking the main North–South route which takes you through Aleppo, Hama, Homs and Damascus and then on to Jordan.

Once you’ve passed through the checkpoint at Turkey, it’s pretty much plain sailing. And if you have some free time (and can get away from your “escorts”), it’s worth taking a drive to surrounding areas in the north of the country.

In the upper northeast of Syria lies the Kurdish town of Qamishle. Syria’s 1.7 million Kurds reside mainly in the northeast.

Kurds? After all Syria is officially named the Syrian Arab Republic.

So how does Syria treat this minority?

Roughly 300,000 of them are denied citizenship thus denying them the right to education, employment, property ownership, and even marriage.

Nor are they allowed to speak, write or print their own language and their culture cannot be expressed openly.

Odd, isn’t it? Mind you, as everybody knows the Zionist Entity is much much worse. Palestinians have no access to education, cannot work, purchase property or get married. It even bans Palestinians outright from speaking, reading and writing Arabic.

Oh wait. I may be wrong here….

Stateless Kurds who try to leave the country for work risk torture and imprisonment.

To be honest, it reminds me of a two-tier political system in which one group in a country is denied the rights which another enjoys. Though I seem to have forgotten its name. Ap… App… Ah! Apartheid! That’s it!

Also it’s worth noting that the Syrian government removed Kurds from along the country’s northern and northeastern borders, and replaced them with Arab settlers.

Oh dear. This is a bit awkward isn’t it? Apartheid? Settlers?
Aren’t we supposed to be against this sort of thing? Maybe it’s best if we ignore it, as it seems to complicate things.

Here are some other things we maybe should ignore.

I know! Let’s change the subject. Do you like football? They love football in Syria. You should try and attend a game if possible.

In March of 2004 disturbances erupted at a football game in Qamishlo (its Kurdish name) over rivalry between Kurdish and Arab teams. Scores of people, probably over a hundred, were killed by Syrian police using live ammunition to fire on unarmed crowds (see Kurdish agony – the forgotten massacre of Qamishlo). Violence on a smaller scale has continued to erupt in Qamishlo.

A Kurd defaces a poster of the late Syrian dictator Hafez Al Assad during disturbances in Qamishlo in 2004

Here are photos of some of those killed by the Syrian security forces.

We’d better move on. This is making things difficult. We’re going to all this trouble to stand up against injustice and oppression and yet the Zionists may accuse us of turning a blind eye to much worse.

Ah! I know. Let’s go south. To Hama, you’ll be traveling through it. You will love it there.

It’s one of Syria’s most beautiful cities, famous for its water wheels sitting on the tree-lined Orontes River. Yet for such an old city strangely it looks so modern.

I tried asking people about that but nobody there was keen to give me an answer. I’m sure they have their reasons. Around 30,000 – 40,000 of them.

Passing through Homs, if you have a day off it’s worth traveling east to Palmyra, home of some of the world’s greatest historical sites.

It’s also home to a prison which carries Palmyra’s old name Tadmour. It’s rumoured that Lebanon’s abducted are imprisoned there.

Or they may be dead. Best not to think about it, it’s probably Zionist propaganda. Instead let’s go on to Damascus.

Twenty miles outside Damascus lies Saydnaya prison. Here, as you can see, conditions for prisoners are much better than those in Zionist Occupation prisons. Here prisoners have regular visits, human rights organisations have access and any accusation of ill treatment and torture is immediately dealt with.Or not.

When you get to Damascus, you will be pleasantly surprised by its openness and its citizens enjoy a level of freedom which is the envy of the world.

Bloggers flourish in this new atmosphere of openness.

If you get a chance do try and speak to Tariq Biasi or Karim ‘Arabji.

From Damascus it’s a relatively short journey to the Jordanian border.

I hope you’ll have as wonderful a time in Syria as I did. It changed my life. I met so many wonderful people in Syria– Arab, Sunni, Shia, Druze, Kurd, Armenian, and Assyrian– all of whom deserve the very same freedoms and rights which we take for granted.

I am so overjoyed that you recognise that human rights are indivisible and must be applied to all. It’s great that you understand that selective indignation at abuses which fit a simple narrative of events– while ignoring the much worse crushing of human rights and people’s dignity because it doesn’t quite fit the script– is nothing other than the worst sort of cowardice and hypocrisy.

Keep fighting the good fight against oppression and apartheid in the Middle East wherever it may be.

It won’t be easy, there will be pressure on you to deny and ignore anything inconvenient and speaking out is not without consequence.

When you’re tempted to select the easy options of denial or rationalisation, please remember that we can speak out without fear of disappearing, or worse. Syrians can’t.

You’re their lifeline to outside word, a lifeline which cuts through all the propaganda, lies and denial.

For that I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability.

Yours in Solidarity,

DaveM

*  Jihad Watch under DOS attack, again…

* Yeah! But what about Michael Jackson?

After an increase of “wife-killings… on the pretext of adultery,” Syria allows for tougher penalties for honor killings — two years in prison!

• Continued below…

India: Dead Pig Kills Hindus

CNN:  Widespread violence broke out in Mysore Thursday after somebody threw a dead pig into the compound of an under-construction mosque, city police commissioner Sunil Agarwal told CNN.

• U.S. to block Iran sanctions at G8 summit
• UK: Muslim who left girlfriend to burn to death after car crash is jailed for six years
• SOUTH AFRICA: MUSLIM SLITS WIFE’S THROAT, ATTEMPTS TO SET HER ON FIRE
  
• MUSLIMS ATTACK FLEEING CHRISTIANS WITH ACID: 9 WOMEN, 4 CHILDREN INJURED BY RAMPAGE
  
• BBC pro-Israel? Don’t make me laugh!
  

Today’s PalArab news roundup July-5-09

Elder of Ziyon

Wife killings, honor killings:

Syria has scrapped a law limiting the length of sentences for honor killings, but “the new law says a man can still benefit from extenuating circumstances in crimes of passion or honour ‘provided he serves a prison term of no less than two years in the case of killing.’” Wow – two years for murder! You can serve more time than that for serial double parking.

Why is the penalty so light for honor killings in majority-Muslim Syria? After all, we are constantly told in the West that honor killing has nothing to do with Islam. So why can’t Islamic clerics agitate for stiffer penalties for honor killings? Well, because they are on the other side: a manual of Islamic law certified by Al-Azhar as a reliable guide to Sunni orthodoxy says that “retaliation is obligatory against anyone who kills a human being purely intentionally and without right.” However, “not subject to retaliation” is “a father or mother (or their fathers or mothers) for killing their offspring, or offspring’s offspring.” (‘Umdat al-Salik o1.1-2).

In other words, someone who kills his child incurs no legal penalty under Islamic law. In accord with this, in 2003 the Jordanian Parliament voted down on Islamic grounds a provision designed to stiffen penalties for honor killings. Al-Jazeera reported that “Islamists and conservatives said the laws violated religious traditions and would destroy families and values.”

“Syria amends honour killing law,” from the BBC, July 2 (thanks to Pamela, who has some interesting information about Assad and Obama at the same link):

Syria has scrapped a law limiting the length of sentences handed down to men convicted of killing female relatives they suspect of having illicit sex.Women’s groups had long demanded that Article 548 be scrapped, arguing it decriminalised “honour” killings.

Activists say some 200 women are killed each year in honour cases by men who expect lenient treatment under the law.

The new law replaces the existing maximum sentence of one year in jail with a minimum jail term of two years.

Justice Minister Ahmad Hamoud Younis said the change was made by the decree of President Bashar al-Assad, following a recent increase in “wife-killings… on the pretext of adultery”.

The new law says a man can still benefit from extenuating circumstances in crimes of passion or honour “provided he serves a prison term of no less than two years in the case of killing”.

The legislation covers any man who “unintentionally” kills his wife, sister, daughter or mother after catching her committing adultery or having unlawful sex. It also covers cases where the woman’s lover is killed.

Reports say women’s rights activists have given a cautious welcome to the change, with one group calling it a “small contribution to solving the problem”….

Very small.

* You knew this was coming, didn’t you?

MEMRI

Syrian Government Daily ‘Teshreen’: Swine Flu May Be Product of American Laboratories Specializing In Developing Viruses

* In 1982, Hafez al Assad, the father of the current President Bashar Assad, wiped out 20.000 Muslim Brotherhood members in Hama and had the place turned into a parking lot. In typical Arab fashion, Basher appeals to Western nutroots to condemn Israel in the latest PR-battle of the Dead Baby Jihad:

Why secular Arabs are unmoved by the plight of Hamas

Because unlike “gullible Westerners [who] can delude themselves that a Sharia (Islamic rule) state in Gaza will care only about itself and Israel,” they know better, know that the natural state of a sharia-state is to grow and expand, spilling into neighboring land. After all, though they may be “secular,” they do come from an Islamic background and know exactly how totalitarian Islamic law is. “Why Arab states are unmoved by plight of Hamas: most fear Muslim militancy despite their dislike of Israel,” by Tim Butcher for the Telegraph,via JW

In New York a United Nations human rights chief alleges Israel has committed war crimes in Gaza. In Geneva the normally silent International Committee of the Red Cross goes public to condemn the Jewish state. And in Kensington barriers have to be erected by police to stop protesters reaching the embassy of Israel.  By contrast, the reaction in the Arab world seems almost mute. There are a few rallies in countries such as Syria and Yemen where Israeli flags are burned but that happens after Friday prayers on high days and holidays anyway.

* Hamas “executes” fellow Palestinians

* Ban Ki Moonbat comes to the rescue of Hamas

* Hamas is getting back to business in Gaza, and the first order of business is rounding up and torturing Fatah ‘activists.’

* All those nice people who went out and demonstrated for Hamas shouldread the whole thing and see what nice people they were supporting.

* By the way, Fatah’s al-Aqsa Brigades claimed today that they shot 102 rockets and 35 mortars at Israel during the war.

* Europe Takes to the Streets: Tens of Thousands Demonstrate For and Against Israel

The Arab League splinters over which member state should host an emergency summit on Gaza. Even in the West Bank, just 40 miles from Gaza and home to 2.5 million fellow Palestinians, a call by militants for mass protest rallies dubbed “days of wrath” passes largely unheeded. Why is it that, as Israel prepared to announce a cessation of offensive operations in Gaza, the Arab Street remained so apparently unmoved by its assault on the tiny territory? The answer lies in the way many Arab regimes view militant Islam, as represented by Hamas. The West has come to view Muslim militancy as one of its biggest threats in the 21st century but for many Arab countries including Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia the same threat has existed for much longer. Egypt’s secular, military leaders have been struggling with the Muslim Brotherhood since the 1920s. They have tried arresting leaders, invoked emergency powers to stop popular demonstrations and banned members of “the Brothers” from standing in elections. President Hosni Mubarak’s dictatorship remains in power in Egypt but militant Islam remains one of the most clear and present dangers to his rule. The links between Hamas and “the Brothers” are strong, deep and long-standing. The Gaza Strip, which is the powerbase of Hamas, abuts Egypt and in the eyes of many the Palestinian movement is little more than the “North Sinai Branch” of the Muslim Brotherhood. So just as Cairo needs to keep “the Brothers” in check, it also has an interest in seeing Hamas weakened. As Amotz Asa-El, an Israeli commentator, put it: “Gullible Westerners can delude themselves that a Sharia (Islamic rule) state in Gaza will care only about itself and Israel. Mubarak evidently knows better than that.”[...] In 1982 Syria’s then president, Hafez al Assad, the father of the current president, Bashar al Assad, showed exactly how tolerant he would be towards his country’s Muslim Brotherhood. After the movement started to stage guerrilla attacks on Syrian state organs like the police force, he ordered his army to surround Hama, the town where the group had its de facto headquarters, and shell it with artillery. The death toll, mostly civilian, was never definitively established but some estimates put it as high as 20,000. So while regimes across the Arab world have condemned the huge loss of civilian life caused by Israel’s military assault on Gaza there are few regimes rushing to offer solidarity with Hamas…

*******  

SPIEGEL INTERVIEW WITH SYRIAN PRESIDENT BASHAR ASSAD

‘Peace without Syria Is Unthinkable’

In an interview with SPIEGEL, Syrian President Bashar Assad discusses the war between Israelis and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the threat of an Iranian nuclear bomb and his expectations for incoming United States President Barack Obama.

       

DPA

Syrian President snake-oil salesman Bashar Assad: “Just this morning, I saw the picture of a three-year-old girl who was killed. Where is the West’s outcry?”

  SPIEGEL: Mr. President, the world community is protesting Israel’s aggression in Gaza, but they have also called upon Hamas to relent. No one in the Arab world has as much influence on Hamas as you do. Couldn’t you have tempered the fighters?

*

Assad: It always depends on how one uses one’s influence. Our most urgent objective is to stop the attack. The fighting must come to an end, and this applies to both sides. In addition, the Israeli embargo against Gaza must end, because sealing the borders is strangling the population. The blockade is a slow death. People don’t just die as a result of bombs, but also because their supplies of medications and food are cut off.

*

SPIEGEL: Israel will only lift the blockade once the rockets are no longer being fired at its cities.

Assad: If the people in Gaza have only the choice between a slow death caused by the blockade or death in battle, they will choose to fight. This is why lifting the embargo is an indispensable part of an agreement. We agree with Hamas on this point. Basically, Hamas is not the problem in this conflict, but Israel.

* So why didn’t the Spiegel reporter ask why “Israel is the problem?”

*SPIEGEL: Much of the world considers Israel’s military action to be disproportionate. But Hamas provoked it by shelling southern Israel. Each additional rocket results in more violent retribution and increases human suffering.

*

Assad: That sounds logical. But politics is about realities, not logic. The fact is that for six months Hamas complied with the cease-fire that had been agreed upon. The Israeli government, on the other hand, continued to constrict the Gaza Strip during that time. One has to be aware of this background information.

* For this turkey, reality is not logic?

SPIEGEL: The United States and the European Union see this background differently. They consider Hamas to be a terrorist organization that wants to destroy Israel. Assad: Oh, here we go with the same old labels and clichés. That’s the American way. Whether you call it terrorism or resistance, and whether you like Hamas or not, it is a political entity that no one can ignore. There is no truth to the notion that Hamas is holding the people hostage, as some people claim. Hamas captured an absolute majority of votes in the internationally recognized parliamentary election three years ago, a landslide victory. You cannot declare an entire people to be terrorists.

* What if they are?

SPIEGEL: Do you believe that all of the tools of resistance Hamas is using, which make it a terrorist organization in our view, are justified?

* Dead baby jihad:

*Assad: Definitely. There is no doubt about it. How can you accuse Hamas of terrorism without defining Israel’s actions as terror? During the most recent six-month ceasefire, Israel targeted and killed more than a dozen Palestinians, but no Israeli died. And yet Europe remained silent. More than 1,000 people have already died as a result of the Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip. Just this morning, I saw the picture of a three-year-old girl who was killed. Where is the West’s outcry?

*

SPIEGEL: We can understand the argument of justified resistance against a military power. But Hamas has acquired its reputation as a terrorist organization primarily through suicide bombings against Israeli civilians. Do you intend to excuse that, as well?

* The usual Arab BS:

Assad: I don’t want to talk about methods of killing. But what is the difference between a bomb worn on the body and one dropped from an airplane? Both of them kill people. Personally, I do not support the concept of suicide bombings. This is not part of our culture. But whether you condemn them or not, suicide bombings are a reality.

*

SPIEGEL: No Western politician wants to sit at the same table with Hamas. Assad: That’s not true at all. Many European officials have sought a dialogue with Hamas, especially recently.

*

SPIEGEL: With your mediation?  

       

DPA

              A United Nations worker tries to extinguish the fire billowing from Israeli bombardment at the United Nations headquarters in Gaza City on Jan. 15: “The fighting must come to an end, and this applies to both sides.”

*

Assad: The Europeans have learned from experience. That’s why they are now talking to the Hamas leadership here in Damascus — not publicly, of course. I don’t want to mention any names. But I do think it’s telling that they include people who are especially critical of Hamas in their speeches. We try to help where we can. 

*

SPIEGEL: The key Hamas representative abroad, Khaled Mashaal, was granted asylum in your country. He is at the very top of the Israelis’ hit list. Many consider him to be far more radical than the Hamas leadership in Gaza. Are there any conditions to your hospitality?

*

Assad: Mashaal has changed. He already mentioned the borders of 1967 in 2006. What does that mean? It means that he accepts a two-state solution. Besides, a few months ago he also said that he would sign anything that the Palestinian people see as the right thing to do.

*

SPIEGEL: That’s a very broad interpretation. In our view, it is little more than indirect recognition.

*

Assad: Talking about the 1967 borders means more than indirect recognition. We Syrians see it this way: We do not recognize Israel and Israel is still our enemy — it occupies part of our country, the Golan Heights. If the Israelis withdraw from Golan, we will recognize them. First comes peace, then recognition — not the other way around. We have been grappling with our relationship with Israel for more than 30 years now. With Hamas, the process began only three years ago. You have to exercise patience.

*

SPIEGEL: But the dramatic situation in Gaza requires more than thinking within a historic timeframe.

*

Assad: That’s why we are active here in Damascus and have made proposals and presented them to Hamas, the French, the Turks and the government of Qatar…

*

SPIEGEL: …which invited countries last week to an Arab crisis summit in Doha. What do you see as a solution?

*

Assad: This is my peace plan: First, there must be a cease-fire, and it must happen at the same time on both sides. In the ensuing 48 hours, but within no more than four days, the Israelis must withdraw completely from the entire Gaza Strip. During this time, negotiations to lift the embargo must take place. This could take a while, because controlling the borders is a very complicated issue, but it should take no more than a week. In addition, the people in Gaza need international guarantees that they will not be attacked again.   ‘The Situation in the World Has Worsened in Every Respect in the Last Eight Years’

*

  SPIEGEL: You make no mention of guarantees for Israel.

*

Assad: Then Israel will have to make peace, and not just with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas…

*

SPIEGEL: …whose moderate Fatah movement, following a bloody internal conflict with Hamas, now holds power in the West Bank only.

*

Assad: Hamas must be included. Nothing will work without Hamas. As the next major step, it will be important to establish unity with in the Palestinian people. There can be no peace without unity. How they manage to do that is the Palestinians’ business. I cannot and do not wish to apply pressure to Hamas in this context.

*

SPIEGEL: Then who should sign a treaty on behalf of the Palestinians?  

       

AP

 

Syrian children carry Palestinian and Syrian flags along with pictures of crying children during a sit-in protest against Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip.

****

Assad: Let’s look at the reality, which is what matters. Israel and Hezbollah went to war in 2006. At that time, the Israelis treated Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, as they do today. Nevertheless, they eventually signed an agreement that came about as a result of negotiations among the United States, France, Israel, Syria and Hezbollah. Like Hezbollah then, Hamas today must be part of an agreement. Otherwise, one cannot expect anything from them. 

*

SPIEGEL: Large segments of the Israeli government seem to believe that Hamas could be eliminated.

*

Assad: Hamas will not disappear. Hamas will not raise the white flag. Hamas has the trust of the people, and anyone who wishes to destroy it must destroy an entire people.

*

SPIEGEL: Do you believe the Palestinians and Israel are capable of complying with a possible agreement and stopping the smuggling of weapons for Hamas?

*

Assad: They cannot prevent smuggling as a whole. But monitoring by a third party would certainly be helpful. I think that the Turks could take on this task. The Turks are highly trustworthy and influential, and they have good relations with Israel and the Arab world. On the other hand, the Egyptians share a border with Gaza, and the French are also very engaged.

*

SPIEGEL: And the Germans?

*

Assad: The German foreign minister is active in the region, but he hasn’t come to Damascus yet. We would be pleased to see him here, and we would welcome it if the Germans, in general, played a larger role.

*

SPIEGEL: Chancellor Angela Merkel blames Hamas alone for the Gaza war. Do you accept the notion that Germany, because of its history, gives special consideration to Israel?

*

Assad: No. We understand the feelings of guilt stemming from your past. And we see that they influence Germany’s Israel policies. . They shouldn’t anymore.

*

SPIEGEL: Despite all of your criticism of Israel, you yourself negotiated with the Israelis — with the help of Turkish mediators — until recently. Do you have hopes of regaining the Golan Heights, which were occupied in 1967?

*

Assad: There are no longer any negotiations, not with this Israeli government. We had no great hopes before, because it was a weak government. We need a strong party on the other side to be able to make peace.

*

SPIEGEL: Would your ideal partner be someone like hardliner Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom you have already negotiated in the past and who is a favorite to succeed (Prime Minister) Ehud Olmert in the election on Feb. 10?  

      
 

AP

            Syrian-based Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal: “Whether you like Hamas or not, it is a political entity that no one can ignore.”

*

Assad: He was already the prime minister once before, and he was not a strong man. Ehud Barak, the current Israeli defense minister, has also been the prime minister and was also too weak for an agreement. In his memoirs, then US President Bill Clinton wrote quite clearly that while we were willing to compromise, Barak was too fearful. As far as the coming Israeli government is concerned, we will not lose hope. However, the tendency seems to be for each successive generation in Israel to become more radicalized. Perhaps the next one won’t be interested in making peace at all, but just fighting. 

*

SPIEGEL: Isn’t that far more applicable to Hezbollah, the Shiite group in Lebanon with close ties to Iran and Syria?

*

Assad: Hezbollah presents no danger to anyone.

*

SPIEGEL: Did you lose your influence with Hezbollah because you withdrew from Lebanon?

*

Assad: Hezbollah is an independent organization that is part of the government today. And Lebanon is an independent nation, whose sovereignty we accept.

*

*SPIEGEL: Many say that this conciliatory attitude toward Beirut is the consequence of Syria’s involvement in the murder of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Damascus could face an international tribunal in this context.

*

Assad: We are not worried about the proceedings. All investigators have emphasized our cooperation. We hope that the real perpetrators will be exposed.

*

SPIEGEL: Nevertheless, Washington counts Syria among the rogue states, partly because of your close relations with Tehran and Iran’s nuclear bomb ambitions.  

       

AFP

            Assad and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during a visit in Tehran on August 3, 2008: “Good relations with Washington cannot mean bad relations with Tehran.”

*

Assad: I don’t believe that Iran is seeking to develop the bomb. Syria is fundamentally opposed to the proliferation of nuclear weapons. We want a nuclear-free Middle East, Israel included. 

*

SPIEGEL: Other Arab heads of state clearly see the threat of an Iranian bomb and are concerned about Iran’s growing influence. They fear dominance by the Shiite country.

*

Assad: The Americans are stoking these fears with their information policy. Washington is interested in the embargo, with which it hopes to weaken Iran. *

*

SPIEGEL: Israeli politicians have developed concrete plans to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities. What would such an attack mean for the Middle East?

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Assad: That would be the biggest mistake that anyone could make. The consequences would be catastrophic and would destabilize the region for the long term.

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SPIEGEL: You yourself experienced what Israel is capable of in the summer of 2007, when the Israeli air force leveled a complex of buildings in northeastern Syria. You reacted to this attack with great restraint. Why?

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Assad: We could have struck back. But should we really allow ourselves to be provoked into a war? Then we would have walked into an Israeli trap. The facility that was bombed was not a nuclear plant, but rather a conventional military installation.

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SPIEGEL: But inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency found traces of uranium during their inspection. How do you explain this?

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Assad: That uranium did not come from us. Perhaps, the Israelis dropped it from the air to make us the target of precisely these suspicions. If we had in fact had something to hide, we would not have allowed any inspectors into the country.

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SPIEGEL: The inspectors would like to take additional samples and inspect other Syrian facilities. Why are you no longer allowing the experts into the country?

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Assad: We gave them the opportunity to conduct their research. This is a political game. They are trying to pillory us. We will not let that happen.

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SPIEGEL: So you have no ambitions to produce weapons of mass destruction, not even chemical weapons?

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Assad: Chemical weapons, that’s another thing. But you don’t seriously expect me to present our weapons program to you here? We are in a state of war.

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SPIEGEL: Do you work closely together with countries like North Korea and Iran as part of these weapons programs?

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Assad: We work trustingly together with many countries on research programs.

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SPIEGEL: Do you expect greater cooperation from the new American president? Will you approach Barack Obama with your own proposals?

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Assad: We speak of hopes, not expectations. The Bush administration brought us two wars. The situation in the world has worsened in every respect in the last eight years. Everything has gotten worse, including economic development. The Americans must withdraw from Iraq. The new US administration must seriously commit itself to the peace process. We must help it to do so, together with the Europeans.

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*SPIEGEL: Wouldn’t rapprochement with Washington upset your Iranian friends?*

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 Assad: We are independent. No one can tell us what to do. Our actions are determined solely by our interests. Good relations with Washington cannot mean bad relations with Tehran.

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SPIEGEL: It is possible that President Obama will ask you to convince Iran not to build nuclear weapons.

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Assad: We would like to contribute to stabilizing the region. But we must be included and not isolated, as has been the case until now. We are willing to engage in any form of cooperation that is also helpful when it comes to America’s relations with other countries.

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SPIEGEL: Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton has indicated that she will seek dialogue with Syria and probably Iran, but she also said that Damascus would have to change its irresponsible, “dangerous” behavior.

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 Assad: It depends what she means by that. I define our responsibility by our national interest. If we can agree on that point, then I have no problem with her statement.

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SPIEGEL: Isn’t the lack of unity in the Arab world an even bigger problem?

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Assad: The Arab world is divided, no doubt. For example, we have had no direct dialogue with Egypt on the central problem of the Gaza war. We are not familiar with Cairo’s specific position, because we have been unable to come to terms with Egypt in the last two years. It is not necessarily easier for us to talk to France, for example. But at least the French are interested in talking to us.

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SPIEGEL: Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger once said that, in the Middle East, there can be no war without Egypt, no peace without Syria.

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Assad: This is truer than ever. Peace without Syria is unthinkable.

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SPIEGEL: Mr. President, we thank you for this interview. Interview conducted by Dieter Bednarz, Erich Follath and Mathias Müller von Blumencron. Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan.

      

ABOUT BASHAR ASSAD

Bashar Assad is considered one of the most influential heads of state in the Middle East. He studied medicine and trained in London to become an eye doctor. In 2000, he took over as president from his father, Hafis Assad. Originally, Hafis Assad had envisioned his elder son as his successor, but Bassil died in an accident. Bashar Assad deftly overcame resistence to his leadership from within the old guard in the military and the Syrian Unity Party, and he has held on to power far longer than many had expected.  Domestically, he initially positioned himself as a reformer, rudimentarily privatizing parts of the ossified state-managed economy. After a brief “Damascus Spring” of intense national political and social debate, he launched a severe crackdown on government opponents. In terms of foreign policy, 43-year-old Assad has maintained hardline policies against Israel and he has been a vociferous critic of Washington’s Middle East policies. President Assad is a member of the Islamic faith of the Alawites, a Shiite sect.