Why was Daniel Pearl Murdered by Pakistanis

[Simon]

I have been following up on the murder of Daniel Pearl in Pakistan. It is widely known in Indian circles that Pakistani military, through its intelligence wing, the ISI, orchestrated the murder of Daniel Pearl as he was getting close to establish the links between the Pakistani military, its Intelligence agency-ISI, the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

Here are some links that I came across recently.

http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1...468224,00.html
January 23, 2003
PAGE ONE

Killing of Pearl Fit Into Web Of Radical Islam in Pakistan

Probe Into Reporter's Slaying Has Netted Many Suspects in Nation's Wave of Terror

By STEVE LEVINE
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

A year after the abduction and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Karachi, Pakistan, Pakistani police have yet to determine exactly who ordered the killing and the names of those who carried it out. But the police, who now have additional details of Mr. Pearl's detention, say that some of the militants involved in his death have turned up as participants in other terrorist acts in the country, forming a loose network of radicals that is now weakened.

Indeed, Pakistani officials believe their broad probe of both Mr. Pearl's murder and other terrorism has solved last May's killing of a group of French engineers in Karachi, the June bombing of the U.S. consulate there and a five-year murder spree against Pakistan's Shiite Muslim minority.

One person familiar with the cases says that, while individual terrorists and militant groups remain active, the intense manhunt by Pakistani and U.S. investigators has changed the freewheeling atmosphere in which radicals previously operated in Karachi. If so, it would be a significant accomplishment for the government of President Pervez Musharraf, a vital U.S. ally in a volatile region.
In the Pearl case, authorities have convicted four men who arranged the Jan. 23, 2002, kidnapping. The cases are on appeal, which may take another year or more. Police have also detained but not formally charged four men alleged to have guarded Mr. Pearl, The Wall Street Journal's South Asia bureau chief.

Authorities are still looking for the owner of a compound in northern Karachi where the reporter's body was found in May. They are also still pursuing three unidentified Arabic-speaking men who police say appeared at the compound, videotaped Mr. Pearl and then killed him.

The abduction and eight subsequent attacks on Westerners in Pakistan followed the U.S. assault in Afghanistan that ousted the Taliban regime and scattered Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. The Pakistani government, newly allied with the U.S., was simultaneously cracking down on indigenous militant groups backing radical causes in Kashmir, Afghanistan and at home. Many of the groups went underground in Karachi, a sprawling and chaotic city of 12 million where sectarian killings were terrorizing the minority Shiite Muslim population.

Ferreting out these militant groups became a prime goal of the Musharraf government, the stability of which was critical to the U.S. as it attacked al Qaeda in Afghanistan. Mr. Musharraf's control over the nuclear-armed nation is even more vital to the U.S. today as it prepares for a possible war in Iraq that could further polarize the region.
The kidnapping of Mr. Pearl, who was 38 years old, both accelerated the crackdown on militant groups in Karachi and brought them to international attention. Meanwhile, Pakistani and U.S. investigators and others connected with the Pearl case have been able to piece together a clearer account of Mr. Pearl's entrapment, confinement and murder. They have employed multiple interviews with suspects and other witnesses, some of whose accounts may be colored by self-interest, along with telephone and e-mail records.

On Jan. 6, Mr. Pearl, working in Islamabad, read a story in the Boston Globe about Richard Reid, a Briton accused of trying to blow up an American Airlines jet over the Atlantic with a bomb in his shoe. The story said Mr. Reid had studied under a Pakistani Islamic leader named Sheik Mubarik Ali Gilani, the reclusive head of a largely U.S.-based group called al Fuqra.

Mr. Pearl began seeking an interview with Mr. Gilani to discuss Mr. Reid or, failing that, with someone who knew the cleric. A man with whom Mr. Pearl had been in contact, calling himself Arif, phoned to say he knew such a person. According to Mr. Pearl's assistant in Islamabad, the caller said a meeting with himself and the person who knew Mr. Gilani could take place the evening of Jan. 11 at the Akbar International hotel in Rawalpindi, a city about 25 miles west of Islamabad.

Police would later determine that, unknown to Mr. Pearl, Arif was actually Hashim Kadir, an operative of Harkat ul-Mujahedin. That is a Kashmiri group with a history of kidnapping Westerners, and one of the groups then coming under U.S. and Pakistani pressure.

A second deception occurred at the hotel, where Arif and Mr. Pearl, along with Mr. Pearl's assistant, met a man calling himself Bashir. He was actually Omar Ahmed Saeed Sheikh, a British-reared Pakistani who once attended the London School of Economics but had a religious awakening in 1993 after seeing Muslims persecuted in the Balkans. Investigators say Mr. Saeed uses Punjabi and British accents interchangeably and can be highly personable, a trait that helped him lure four Westerners into a kidnapping in India in 1994.

Mr. Saeed, 29, later told investigators he hadn't been looking for someone to abduct but coincidentally ran into Mr. Kadir, who told him that an American journalist was seeking an interview with Mr. Gilani. Mr. Saeed decided to meet Mr. Pearl himself. He chatted with Mr. Pearl for two hours at the hotel, at which time Mr. Pearl asked whether Mr. Saeed could arrange the interview with Mr. Gilani. They agreed to exchange e-mails and discuss the matter.

According to someone familiar with his interrogation, Mr. Saeed said he felt that Mr. Pearl was falling into his trap, and "I might as well do it." His primary interest in Mr. Pearl was that he was an American journalist, Mr. Saeed explained, and kidnapping him would receive wide attention, strike a blow against the U.S. and embarrass Pakistan's government.

According to e-mail traffic retrieved from Mr. Pearl's computer, Mr. Pearl three days later e-mailed "Bashir" a sampling of his published stories that the Pakistani had requested. On Jan. 16 Bashir -- Mr. Saeed -- replied, praising the stories and saying he had conveyed them to Shah Saab, the name he began using for Mr. Gilani. "I am sure that when he returns we can go and see him," says the note. It ends, "I am sorry to have not replied to you earlier. I was pre-occupied with looking after my wife who has been ill. Please pray for her health. Looking forward to seeing you."

Mr. Pearl replied that evening, "I wish a speedy recovery for your wife, and look forward to seeing you soon in Islamabad. I'll be back Friday. Best regards, Daniel Pearl." Receiving no reply after three days, Mr. Pearl, who was traveling with his wife, Mariane, followed up on Jan. 19: "Hello. How is everything? Are you back from Karachi? Is your wife okay? We're in Islamabad again, will be leaving Pakistan early Thursday. Hope to meet with you and with Sheikh Gilani before then."
"Bashir" replied later Jan. 19 with a long message. He apologized for having misplaced Mr. Pearl's phone number, related a story of small-time Pakistani corruption in which he would pay off "relevant people" to obtain a phone line at his home, and told of his wife's difficult hospital experience. "The poor people who fall ill here and have to go to hospital have a really miserable and harassing time. It made me realize once again that our family has a lot to be grateful for. The Shaikh says that gratitude is the essence of faith," he wrote, referring to Mr. Gilani. In fact, Mr. Gilani, detained later by police, told authorities that he didn't know Mr. Pearl was seeking an interview with him until after the kidnapping was publicized.

Kidnapper's Strategy

Mr. Saeed later told police that his e-mails and discussion of his wife were meant to develop a relaxed relationship with his victim -- a strategy he'd learned in previous kidnappings. On Jan. 19, Mr. Saeed, possibly intending to increase the comfort level, went so far as to imply that Mr. Pearl need not meet Mr. Gilani in person, that answers to his questions could be gotten via e-mail. "I spoke to the Shaikh's secretary yesterday and he told me that Shaikh-Saab has read your articles and that you are welcome to meet him. However it will be a number of days before he returns from Karachi," said an e-mail from the man Mr. Pearl knew as Bashir. "If Karachi is in your program you are welcome to see him there. Or if you want to put some questions to him you can mail them to me and I will pass the printout to his secretary. Or if you want to wait until he returns here that is fine also. Wish you the best and look forward to hearing from you."

[Simon]

Mr. Pearl (same day): "Thanks for the speedy response, and happy to hear your hospital experience is over. Actually, it may be our good fortune that Sheikh Gilani is staying in Karachi, because my wife and I already had three reasons to go there. Are you in Karachi yourself? We could be there Tuesday and Wednesday if that works okay."

Bashir (Sun., Jan. 20): "It is sad that you are leaving Pakistan so soon -- I hope you have enjoyed your stay. I will arrange an appointment with the Shaikh in Karachi for you on Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on his time-table. His secretary is still here in Pindi so that should be no problem. He will give me the number of one of his mureeds [followers] whom you can call when you get there. The mureed will take you to see him. Please give the Sheikh my regards and respect and ask him to continue to remember me in his prayers. Tell him we miss him very much and hope to see him back soon. I will mail you again or phone you as soon as I get the appointment."

Bashir (Tues., Jan. 22): "I hope you are in excellent health and spirits. Shaikh Saab is expecting you at 7 p.m. on Wednesday and hopefully you will get at least half an hour with him, plus some time to speak to the mureeds staying with him if you wish. When you get to Karachi please contact Mr. Imtiaz Siddique [at] 0300-2170244 who will arrange to meet you and take you there. I am sure you will gain a lot from the meeting. Do tell me all the details. Looking forward to hearing from you."

By that time, Mr. Saeed had assembled a team and devised the kidnapping. According to Pakistani and U.S. authorities, the plot involved independent cells of people whose direct contact with one another consisted largely of mobile phones. Mr. Saeed used at least five different mobile phones to speak with his group. Everyone, including Mr. Saeed, used false names, in some cases more than one. Their phones were registered under fictitious names, and their e-mail addresses were similarly disguised.

There were two separate operations, isolated from each other, authorities say. Mr. Saeed organized the first cell and the preliminary trap. He asked an acquaintance whom police call "Haider," a longtime militant who formerly trained radical fighters in Afghanistan camps, to handle the second cell and the actual kidnapping. Apart from Mr. Saeed and Haider, it's possible no other member of the first operation knew any member of the second, authorities say.

Mr. Saeed held meetings in Karachi on Jan. 21 and 22 to make final his own operation. He assigned one person to buy a camera and scanner, another to photograph Mr. Pearl in captivity, and a third to deliver the photos to a person who would scan and transmit the material to media organizations. For his part, Haider readied the kidnapping group and asked a former student, who used the false name Abdul Samat, to lead it.

Arriving in Karachi

On Jan. 22, Mr. Pearl flew to Karachi with his wife to conduct two days of interviews on a variety of topics. He had planned to leave the country Jan. 24. According to phone-company records, on the afternoon of Jan. 23 Mr. Pearl received two phone calls from Mr. Siddique, the man "Bashir" had said would arrange for Mr. Pearl to see Mr. Gilani. In the second, 40-second call, Mr. Pearl said he would soon be on his way to a rendezvous point, according to someone who was sitting with Mr. Pearl at the time.

At about 7 p.m., Mr. Pearl arrived outside the Village Restaurant in downtown Karachi, according to the taxi driver who took him there and the appointment calendar stored on his computer. At 7:45, a local journalist who had been working with Mr. Pearl during his two days of interviews in Karachi called to check on a meeting scheduled for later in the evening, but Mr. Pearl's mobile phone had been switched off.

People familiar with the interrogations of suspects say they later revealed that a single, unarmed kidnapper driving a car awaited Mr. Pearl at the Village Restaurant, with one or two more apparently out of sight on a motorcycle. Mr. Pearl climbed into the vehicle and was driven for about 40 minutes to the northern outskirts of the city. The car, led by the motorcycle, pulled into a small compound with a two-room building, and Mr. Pearl stepped out of the car.

On the motorcycle was a man named Naeem Bukhari. He was the leader of the Karachi chapter of a militant group called Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, and sought in connection with dozens of murders of members of Pakistan's Shiite minority. Police say Mr. Bukhari got off the motorcycle, walked over to Mr. Pearl and put his arm around his shoulders as though in friendship, but then he used the other hand to put a gun to Mr. Pearl's ribs. "Now you are kidnapped," he said, according to the person familiar with the case, who adds: "Danny thought he was joking, but once they were inside they made him strip to check him. He was in his underwear."

Four days later, local and foreign news organizations received e-mails with photos showing a captive Mr. Pearl wearing a track suit. The e-mails included a range of demands, including better treatment for terrorism suspects held by the U.S. in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Mr. Pearl was guarded by men who in limited, broken English asked each day what he wanted to eat, the police say. Mr. Bukhari brought him his meals. On a trip to the toilet, Mr. Pearl tried to squeeze through a ventilator opening in the wall but was caught and chained to a car engine that was lying in the compound.

He subsequently tried to pull away from his captors during a walk within the compound. He shouted for help at least twice, once when someone came to the compound door and once after he'd been caught trying to get through the ventilator. For two days he refused to eat after hearing his captors speak of an "injection" and fearing that his food might be drugged. He finally agreed to eat a sandwich after a guard tasted it first.

Three Visitors Arrive

Police say that on approximately Jan. 31 or Feb. 1, a man named Saud Memon drove into the compound with three Arabic-speaking men who appeared to the kidnappers to be Yemeni. Mr. Memon, a garment manufacturer, owned the compound, the police say, and was a financier for militant groups, in association with a foundation called the Al-Rashid Trust. The Al-Rashid trust is one of several Islamic charities the U.S. has publicly identified as supporting militant activity. It later changed its name to al Akhtar Trust.

Mr. Bukhari directed all the guards but one to go outside and leave the Arabic-speaking men alone with Mr. Pearl, according to a person familiar with the case. The guard who stayed, this person says, was an employee of Mr. Memon's named Fazal Karim. Mr. Karim, who knew a little English, later told police that at least one of the visitors communicated with Mr. Pearl in a language the guard didn't understand. Mr. Pearl, who could speak French and Hebrew, responded with an angry outburst, his first conversation of any length since his capture.

After the interaction calmed, one of the visitors turned on a video camera, and another asked Mr. Pearl questions about his religious background. At least one major Pakistani newspaper had by then reported that Mr. Pearl was Jewish. After the videotaped statement by Mr. Pearl, in which he described where he was raised in the U.S., his family's religious heritage and his sympathy for individuals captured by the U.S. in Afghanistan and held in Guantanamo Bay, Mr. Pearl was blindfolded and killed.

On Feb. 5, Pakistani police arrested most of the first cell of kidnappers, those who had trapped Mr. Pearl. The police, in coordination with agents of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. consulate in Karachi, had traced phone and e-mail transmissions. A week later, police arrested Mr. Saeed, although he had actually been unofficially detained since Feb. 5 by Pakistan's Interservices Intelligence directorate, or ISI. The ISI is believed to have questioned him about the Pearl case, though it hasn't made a public accounting of the seven days it held Mr. Saeed.


During his police interrogation, Mr. Saeed predicted police would soon confront a new problem: attacks by small militant units independent of the larger groups that, under U.S. pressure, the Pakistani government was shutting down. Mr. Saeed was familiar with the loose-knit militant organizations and how they were splintering, changing their names and borrowing expertise from each other.

Six weeks later came evidence that he was right. On March 17, someone threw grenades into a Protestant church in Islamabad and killed five people, including two Americans. The attacker then used explosives to kill himself. It was one of five attacks on Christian churches and missionary hospitals over the next several months.

In May, a car blew up next to a bus in front of the Sheraton Hotel in Karachi, killing 11 French military engineers assisting the Pakistani navy. The car bomb was so powerful that pieces of the car landed on the roof of the 10-story Pearl Continental hotel across the street. Five weeks later, a truck bomb, which like the car bomb was made of fertilizer, went off at an entrance to the U.S. consulate in Karachi. It killed 12 Pakistanis.

[Simon]

A Key Arrest

Deeply embarrassed by the Pearl murder and these attacks, the government spread a wide net across Karachi. The police arrested more than 300 men following just the attack on the French engineers. These roundups brought the biggest break in the Pearl case since Mr. Saeed's arrest. At a mosque in the fundamentalist neighborhood of Nazimbad, the police detained Mr. Karim, the guard allowed to remain when the three Arabs killed Mr. Pearl. In the course of interrogation on his possible involvement in the attacks on Shiites, police say, Mr. Karim confessed to a role in the Pearl case.

He took police to the compound where Mr. Pearl was killed and buried, containing a two-room concrete-block building, and explained how the kidnapping and murder had taken place. Investigators say Mr. Karim produced the electronic chip from the reporter's cellphone, which enables phone companies to route calls. Mr. Karim also confessed to providing money to a small group of militants arrested in the grenade attack on the Islamabad church, though he said he didn't know what the men planned to do with the cash.

In the same sweep, Pakistani authorities caught almost all of the men who had guarded Mr. Pearl, including Mr. Bukhari, the driver of the motorcycle that led Mr. Pearl into captivity. Mr. Bukhari's arrest helped end the spree of murders of members of the minority Shiite Muslim sect.

Between Sept. 9 and Sept. 11, 2002, a joint team of Pakistani and FBI agents conducted a series of raids that brought in Ramzi Binalshibh, who is suspected of being a key planner of the U.S. hijack attacks a year earlier. During the raids, two suspects were killed and five taken into custody. All five, including Mr. Binalshibh, were later handed over to U.S. officials and are now being held in an undisclosed location.

Militants repeatedly struck back by threatening police investigators and their families. In October, eight mail bombs were sent to the authorities. One blew off a Pakistani investigator's hand. The sweeps continued, nonetheless.

The key figures still at large in the Pearl case are "Haider," the former militant trainer who police say set up the kidnapping group; Abdul Samat, who managed the guards and who police believe organized the bombing of the French engineers; a lower-level guard named Mussadiq; the unidentified driver who picked up Mr. Pearl; Mr. Memon, who owned the hideout and allegedly drove the Arabic-speaking killers there; and the three Arabic speakers themselves. Some police officials suspect that one or more of the killers may be among those picked up along with Mr. Binalshibh and subsequently turned over to U.S. agents.

The chief unanswered question is who ordered the killing. Police say Messrs. Saeed and Memon are two possible suspects, although Mr. Saeed has claimed he never meant to harm Mr. Pearl. Or it may be some unknown figure, whose identity might be revealed if Mr. Memon is captured. Police have sealed Mr. Memon's Karachi home, which also contains his garment business. Photos of him and the other alleged conspirators have been published throughout Pakistan, and a reward has been offered for information leading to their arrest.

[Simon]

Here is some more

http://www.guardian.co.uk/alqaida/st...942154,00.html
Pearl killed 'for finding terror links'

Paul Webster, Paris
Thursday April 24, 2003
The Guardian

The American journalist Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan because he uncovered links between the British terrorist Richard Reid and the Pakistani secret service, according to an investigation by the French philosopher and author Bernard-Henri Lévy.


http://www.expatica.com/france.asp?p...&item_id=30830
Pearl 'found Pakistan terror secret'
PARIS, April 28 (AFP) - Daniel Pearl, the US reporter beheaded in Karachi last year, was killed because he had discovered dangerous secrets about Pakistani involvement in Islamic extremism, according to an investigation by French philosopher and media personality Bernard-Henri Levy.
"He was the man who knew too much. His work as a journalist took him down trails which he should probably never have followed.

[andak01]

.

[Simon]

Looks like someone was about to suggest a zionist conspiracy behind Danny Pear's murder or perhaps that he might have actually shot himself in the head, a few times, and then retained enough energy to dismember himself into little pieces, dig several holes and bury himself. Then perhaps thought better of it, as it might have really blown his cover.



Here is a Compilation of Islamic Terrorism emanating from the Islamic Capital of the World: ISLAM-A-BAD, the capital of Pakistan.

http://terrorism.freeservers.com/

This is part of the speech that Musharraf, the Paki prez gave when he betrayed his own creation the Taliban and justified it using an example from the Koran. Surely, the Paki prez knows his Koran, does'nt he?


"Some ulema are trying to react on pure emotions. I want to remind them of Islam's early history. The moved from Mecca to Medina (hijrat). Was this (God forbid) cowardice? This was wisdom to save Islam.

Then when the Jews saw that Islam was getting stronger they started to conspire against the muslims. When the Prophet (PBUH) saw this happening he signed a no war pact with his enemies in Mecca. I want to remind you of that pact. At the end of the pact, where his signature was required, the Meccans demanded that he cannot sign it as Prophet Mohammed. The Prophet (PBUH) agreed.

The Prophet explained later that its best for Islam, and it?s the right thing to do. And time proved him right. Six months later there was a war with the Jews and the Meccans did not support the Jews and the Muslim forces won. And some time after that Mecca also fell to Islamic mujahideen."

[Simon]

http://terrorism.freeservers.com/


The Rise in Terrorism (from Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Middle-East)
The World Trade Center (1) and Oklahoma City bombings marked two very sad events in American history. Apart from these two events, the United States and most of the West has not seen many large scale terrorist attacks while the rest of the world has been wallowing in the wake of increased terrorist activities. Russia, India, Indonesia, Israel, Philipines, Serbia, and much of Central Asia is constantly under the brow of terrorism. As the world looks to bring peace to the middle-east region, terrorist elements have moved to other areas to spread their menace. South-Central Asia and parts of Africa are the new hotbeds of terrorism in the 21st century.

One can trace the roots of many current terrorist organizations to the American support of the 'mujahideen' ("holy warriors") in Afganistan. Money and publicity ensured that the mujahideen were adequately equipped, tranined by Pakistan's ISI and given a cinderella image of freedom fighters. After the Soviet withdrawl, the CIA had little use for these fighters and left the dangereously armed religious fanatics to find their own fight. Though this whole act was just a political move to counter the Soviet invasion of Afganistan, the 'blowback' is yet to be fully experienced around the world.


pakistan terrorism,terrorist,islamic fundamentalist
The Soviet withdrawl from Afganistan was promplty followed by start of violence in the Kashmir (2) valley in India. Kashmir, an integral part of India was the only muslim majority state in the union and seperatist elements supported by Pakistan and terrorist elements in Afganistan took the task of putting their 'expertise' to use. Their new challenge was the Indian people in Kashmir, more precisely the minority Hindus, Bhuddists, and Sikhs who had lived peacefully along side the Muslims for ages. With active help from Pakistan in training, money, weapons and bases; the violence in Kashmir has claimed over 30,000 casualties in a little over a decade and continues to ravage the once peaceful and serene land.

Coming out of the shadows of the Afgan conflict were the Taliban ("Knowledge Seekers"). The west first felt the wrath of their Islamic fundamentalism in Somalia in December 1992. The gruesome image of dead, naked US Army Rangers from downed Black Hawk helicopters being dragged was seen by millions, but few knew of the soldiers who had their throats slit. It was a snowy evening in Febuary of 1993 when a truck bomb blasted through the basement of the World Trade Center in New York City. The FBI uncovered leads in Detroit, London, Pakistan and Afganistan; finally apprehending the mastermind Ramzi Yousef in Pakistan. Bombings of American barracks in Riyadh (1995 - 5 killed) and Dhahran (1996 - 19 killed) followed by the recent embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya led to hundreds of casualties. The only American response was a few Tommahawk strikes into Afganistan that killed a few terrorist trainees. There has been no desire to reach to the root of the problem by identifying the countries actively supporting terrorism, just lobbing a few thousand pounds of high explosives into the barren badlands.

[andak01]

Originally posted by Simon
[B]Looks like someone was about to suggest a zionist conspiracy behind Danny Pear's murder or perhaps that he might have actually shot himself in the head, a few times, and then retained enough energy to dismember himself into little pieces, dig several holes and bury himself.

Wow. You can imply all that from a period? What a genius.

[Leon Uris]

"Some ulema are trying to react on pure emotions. I want to remind them of Islam's early history. The moved from Mecca to Medina (hijrat). Was this (God forbid) cowardice? This was wisdom to save Islam.

Then when the Jews saw that Islam was getting stronger they started to conspire against the muslims. When the Prophet (PBUH) saw this happening he signed a no war pact with his enemies in Mecca. I want to remind you of that pact. At the end of the pact, where his signature was required, the Meccans demanded that he cannot sign it as Prophet Mohammed. The Prophet (PBUH) agreed.

The Prophet explained later that its best for Islam, and it?s the right thing to do. And time proved him right. Six months later there was a war with the Jews and the Meccans did not support the Jews and the Muslim forces won. And some time after that Mecca also fell to Islamic mujahideen."

When one knows what to look for, it does not take a genius to spot filth.

[Gilgamesh]

Uris, according to the Islamic quote you've brought, the emergance of Islam is the Jews undoing. We should have learned our painful experiance with Christians, and had to finish these muslems off, first, once they were still small.

It's never too late. Aspecialy once one doesn't have any other choises. We will win, in combine forces, although our Islamist enemies are multiplaying.

Our problem is only to convince our brotherens with the seriousness of the situation.

[andak01]

Originally posted by Gilgamesh
Uris, according to the Islamic quote you've brought, Islam is the Jews undoing.

Spoken by General Musharraf. Does that count as a religious scholar?

[Gilgamesh]

Originally posted by andak01
Spoken by General Musharraf. Does that count as a religious scholar?

Thanks, I've edited my last post. I hope now you'll like it better.

[andak01]

Originally posted by Simon
One can trace the roots of many current terrorist organizations to the American support of the 'mujahideen' ("holy warriors") in Afganistan. Money and publicity ensured that the mujahideen were adequately equipped, tranined by Pakistan's ISI and given a cinderella image of freedom fighters. After the Soviet withdrawl, the CIA had little use for these fighters and left the dangereously armed religious fanatics to find their own fight. Though this whole act was just a political move to counter the Soviet invasion of Afganistan, the 'blowback' is yet to be fully experienced around the world.

This much I am in total agreement with. The other cause, I believe is the segregation of secular learning from the Islamic schools. By forcing people to either have an Islamic education OR a secular education, the colonialists created a class of people with jobs and secular aspirations who no longer entered the madrasas and a second class of unemployed people whose only education was religious. As this system declined, the students became more and more radical. Throw guns into this mix and it is a recipe for disaster.

The answer is to reestablish quality school systems. And yes, if the people demand it, there could be religious education as PART of that system. The Moroccan school system, which was never touched by colonialism is much like that today. My sister-in-law studies calculus and geology and French and has a class of religious studies as well. We do not seek to abolish Catholic Universities or Jewish Universities. Islamic Universities where there is the same mix of secular and religious studies can work as well. At one time, the European royalty wanted to send their own children to the madrasas of Moorish Spain.

[Illuminatus]

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed proudly confessed to a U.S. military tribunal that he "decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew, Daniel Pearl,"

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,258907,00.html


^_^

[ShimonG]

Looks like my namesake starting this thread was way ahead of his time.