Al-Assad to Receive Saudi FM

to those that thought that Harriri was held hostage to Syria… you are wrong. no one is being hostage to anyone. these elements are allied because they are going to attack Israel. Lebonnon has Saudi backing. the Saudis are getting chummy with Syria. this clipping was taken from a Palestinian website that is hostile to Israel

Damascus, January 5, 2010 (Pal Telegraph) – Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad is expected to host the Saudi foreign minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal in Damascus Tuesday, in a further sign of thawing relations between the two countries.

Faisal’s visit to the Syrian capital follows visits to Riyadh by Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Hamas political chief Khaled Meshaal.

Diplomats in Damascus said efforts to revive the Israeli- Palestinian peace process would be ‘near the top of the agenda’ in the talks between al-Assad and Prince Saud al-Faisal.

The two would also discuss conflicts in Yemen and Iraq, diplomats said.

Relations between the Saudis and Syria have thawed in recent months, particularly following Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdel-Aziz’s landmark visit to Damascus in October.

Agencies

via paltelegraph.com

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Moderate Islam in the News

At a demonstration near Ramallah Sunday night, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad told a crowd that a future Arab state in Judea and Samaria must be free of all Jews. Fayyad, who was never elected to his office democratically, was an economist for the International Monetary Fund until being handpicked by former United States President George W. Bush to lead the PA.

via israelnationalnews.com

Maybe President Obumbler’s attorney general can explain why that kind of statement and the ethnic cleansing that underlies it, which would not be tolerated in the United States, are okay for our region. I’m sure Eric Holder would tell you that it’s fine but there is no logical way to explain why.

via israelmatzav.blogspot.com

keep in mind that Fayyad is the one who is supposed to give Palestine a new way to think… through helping with economic issues…. apparently killing Jews has been thrown into his monetary system

Kurt Westergaard is known for controversial illustrations that have angered

(CNN) — The attack on a Danish political cartoonist “runs totally against the teachings and values of Islam,” the umbrella organization representing Muslim countries has said.

If the attack was a reaction to Kurt Westergaard’s drawing of the Muslim prophet Mohammed with a turban shaped as a bomb, “then it should be rejected and condemned by all Muslims,” the Organization of the Islamic Conference said in a statement Sunday.

via cnn.com

The students pay close attention as Sheik Ahmad Al-Jilani (not pictured) tries to sway them from the impulses of their belligerent pasts.

the Saudi government tends to explain its rehabilitation program in purely Islamic terms, as an effort to correct theological misunderstandings, the new program also addresses the psychological needs and emotional weaknesses that have led many young men to jihad in the first place. It tries to give frustrated and disaffected young men the trappings of stability — a job, a car, possibly a wife. Though international human rights groups continue to sound the alarm about Saudi Arabia’s habit of detaining suspects without charging them and of punishing certain crimes with floggings and amputations, these young men seem to have become the subjects of a continuing experiment in counterterrorism as a kind of social work.

“Of course we want to make God’s word highest, but not every Muslim leader has this as his goal. There are right jihads and wrong jihads, and we must examine the situation for ourselves. For example, if a person wants to go to hajj now, is it right?”

“I didn’t have the chance,” Azzam said, sounding defensive. “For months, we went from safe house to safe house. There wasn’t anything to do — no action, no training. Finally, they asked me to be a suicide bomber. But I know that suicide is forbidden in Islam, so I came back home.”

Many of the former jihadists seemed to feel unappreciated, their sense of injury plain. Jilani and his colleagues encourage the former militants to examine those feelings, even to think of themselves as victims. Yes, they were tricked and manipulated by deviant ideology (a favorite Saudi catchphrase for Islamic extremism), but now they have a chance to turn back.

Of all the concepts addressed in classes at the rehabilitation center, takfir is the one that tends to evoke the most anger among mainstream Saudi Muslims. The idea that there’s a slippery slope from jihad to takfir comes up regularly in discussions with Saudi clerics.

via nytimes.com

In Islamic law, takfir or takfeer (تكفير) refers to apostasy in Islam, or the practice of declaring oneself an unbeliever or kafir (pl. kuffār), previously considered Muslim. The act which precipitates takfir is termed themukaffir.

via en.wikipedia.org

“Some of our young people don’t listen to the right scholars,” Jilani told me. “First they start to think that they have the right to go to jihad at any time. After that, they start to think that we have the right to kill any non-Muslim.

“Then they start to say that our leaders are kuffar, infidels,” the sheik continued. “After that they start to say that our scholars, too, are kuffar. Before long, they’ve declared war against the whole world.”

via nytimes.com

So they say… but does their scripture say? http://xrl.us/Islamic

is this merely about timing? should these guys just check their calendar to murder Jews? And were Abdulmutallab just poor disaffected youth? The son of the chief of the Nigerian central bank is hardly ”middle class” in Africa. the poor are in touch with their element. it takes money to have the time to think about being unloved. it takes money to start looking for some kind of systematic love. and then it takes money to blame g-d on false religion. cloud 9. these kids want a taste of reality. the answers to terrorism is to be strong and not give them what they want. reality is like porn for these kids. don’t let them see you. they chase tangibility to their grave. they want to see you so they can martyr you. stand strong and attack them when they can’t see you. don’t give them what they obviously want. they don’t deserve to consume us.

via nytimes.com

A Lebanese Web site on Sunday quoted Saudi newspaper al-Madina as reporting that Iran nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili met with Hamas and Hizbullah officials, including Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal, in Damasucs and asked them to orchestrate “operations” against Israel.

Iran doesn’t believe Israel intends to give Obama the time he has requested for sanctions against Iran to take effect. Obviously Mahmoud knows that can’t be.

The report said that Jalili also traveled to Beirut and urged Hizbullah and Amal representatives to launch attacks.

Jalili reportedly also asked Hamas and Hizbullah to coordinate their attacks.

via jpost.com

once we figure out it is Islam we are dealing with that is the problem, then we can strategize that Islam has division from within and we can use one enemy against the other in such a way that they will do our fighting for us. Islam has always been broken. there is no moderate and orthodox fundamentalism. there are no good guys or bad guys. there is only keeping out of their way. If we can acknowledge that essence then we will know that there is no reason to permanently occupy an entire country. our goals should be little bases through out the middle east to be seconds away from an arial attack. ground troops just give our enemy an immediate reason to suspect a power that they fear. we should be invisible but always there. They might not be afraid to die, but the little villages will learn to free themselves of this element if they know that there is immediate responses to any terrorism. we should not be anxiety ridden every time we decide to strike back. we should always be ready as a routine in the future. the lesson Israel learned from 2006 in Lebanon and 2008 in Gaza is that while there is an immediate public relations problem from returning fire… that it does contain the violence. our bases need to be balanced with a public relations war.

I believe we are not fighting. We are nothing but Saud henchmen. this is no way to win. We must not be leashed by the Saudis. We must have little bases through out the Islamic world… and we must not occupy whole countries. Invisibility is the only way to fight an enemy. they will blame whatever power that is visible. let them destroy themselves. the people will learn to reject these regimes if they feel these regimes cause the wrath of missiles. why are we sending ground troops? why are we spilling our blood to nation build countries that can not be rebuilt? they need to evolve themselves. We merely need to exercise Pavlovian technique. the rats and mice don’t know where the shock comes from. invisibility is how you destroy a reactionary enemy. let them live in fear of the concept of the west if they must… there is nothing we can do about that. but why send our own bodies out there?

U.S. cruise missile strike targets al-Qaeda in Yemen – Jihad Watch

Obama is attempting to seem serious about fighting the war against terrorism, but this is the same war his friends the Saudis are fighting. Obviously they are probably America’s enemy too, but don’t get excited about a change of heart from the Obama administration. They are still in the pocket of Faisal

Obama turns his attention to the jihadist “bus station” that is Yemen. “Obama Ordered U.S. Military Strike on Yemen Terrorists,” by Brian Ross, Richard Esposito, Matthew Cole, Luis Martinez, and Kirit Radia for ABC News, December 18:

via jihadwatch.org

On orders from President Barack Obama, the U.S. military launched cruise missiles early Thursday against two suspected al-Qaeda sites in Yemen, administration officials told ABC News in a report broadcast on ABC World News with Charles Gibson.

ABC’s Brian Ross details missile strike on al-Qaeda militants in Afghanistan.

One of the targeted sites was a suspected al Qaeda training camp north of the capitol, Sanaa, and the second target was a location where officials said “an imminent attack against a U.S. asset was being planned.”

The Yemen attacks by the U.S. military represent a major escalation of the Obama administration’s campaign against al Qaeda.

via abcnews.go.com

Al Jazeera English – Middle East – Saudi builds war refugee homes

Saudi builds war refugee homes

King Abduallah has ordered the biggest military operations in Saudi Arabia since the Gulf war [AFP]

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has ordered the construction of 10,000 new housing units for nationals who fled a border conflict in the south-west of the kingdom.

According to the SPA news agency on Thursday, the announcement came as the king visited front-line troops in the southern province of Jizan, where Saudi forces have been battling Yemeni rebels for over four weeks.

Thousands of nationals who live along the mountainous border have been relocated to tent camps inland as the Saudis aim to set up 10 kilometre buffer zones on either side of the border.

The order to build new housing appears to confirm reports that Riyadh intends the buffer to be permanent, at least on the Saudi side.

It is the king’s first visit to the area since the army began shelling the rugged border with northwest Yemen in early November.

Large deployment

The Saudi military is undertaking its largest mobilisation since the 1990-91 Gulf War following a minor border incursion by the Huthis, deploying fighter bombers, heavy artillery, special forces and naval vessels against the rebels.

The Saudis say they are acting to prevent the Huthis and other threats from crossing into Saudi territory, after a band killed a Saudi border guard and temporarily occupied two Jizan villages on November 3.

Analysts say the Saudis are also closely assisting Yemen’s government in its effort to crush the rebellion.

Saudi-owned regional daily Asharq al-Awsat reported on Wednesday that bombers and artillery continued to hit Huthi positions this week and that ground troops using armoured vehicles were patrolling the region to search for rebels.

Ten Saudi soldiers have died in the conflict, according to an unofficial toll.

via english.aljazeera.net

this is basically a Sunni Proxy war with Iran and the Shia. It is a religious war and since Islam is all about authoritarian power it is about control and resources. Where is the international community to condemn this war?

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