Those reading this thread may be interested to know that over in Israel, Jewish fundamentalists decided that burning the Christian Bible is a good thing. Warning: The article is from 2008 but it has also been in the news more recently. Google is your friend.
Messianic Jews in Israel demand inquiry into burning of bibles by Orthodox Jews
Brilliant, WingNut! Glad to see Chris Floyd's excellent article from Empire Burlesque posted by NoDifference.
From Eric Margolis:
The White House and media were quick to blame Muslims who hated America’s lifestyle and values, launching the concept of “Islamic terrorism” – i.e. that the Muslim faith, not political issues, prompted the attacks.
This dangerous canard has infected America, leading to a rising tide of Islamophobia. This week’s continued uproar over a Muslim community center in downtown New York, and a Florida preacher’s threat to burn Korans, are the latest doleful example of cultivated religious hatred.
The suicide team that attacked New York and Washington made clear its aim was: a. to punish the US for backing Israel’s repression of Palestinians; and b. what they called US “occupation” of Saudi Arabia. Though they were all Muslims, religion was not the motivating factor.
As the CIA’s former bin Laden expert Michael Scheuer rightly observed, the Muslim world was furious at the US for what it was doing in their region, not because of America’s values, liberties or religion.
These motives for the 9/11 attack have been largely obscured by the whipping up hysteria over “Islamic terrorism.”
http://www.ericmargolis.com/political_commentaries/--the-mother-of-all-c...
Though they were all Muslims, religion was not the motivating factor. As the CIA's former bin Laden expert Michael Scheuer rightly observed, the Muslim world was furious at the US for what it was doing in their region, not because of America's values, liberties or religion.
This is obvious to anyone who has bothered to investigate the attackers' motives.
I find it odd that the US can invade Afghanistan and Iraq with the stated purpose of changing the cultures there, yet one never hears a peep about how the US hates Muslim values.
If you create a monolith, there can be no subtle divisions. They get banned from discussion groups that like to keep it neat. Otherworldly neat.
That's right, the question then is who exactly is creating the monolith ... do you have examples of any US MSM that portray the "terrorists" as attacking the USA for other than "hating our freedom"?
Even people like Keith Oebermann and Rachael Madow, who are considered the looney left in the USA, while do usually use "insurgency" instead of Al Qaeda or terrorists, are still using the narratives of "hate us for our freedoms" and "the terrorists are religious extremists" ... How could anyone hear those narratives and not be lead to wrongly believe that it was "their religion" and "our freedoms" that caused the terrorists to attack?
P.S. I may be misreading your statement and we're saying basically the same thing, if so then just take this as a confirmation rather than any form of "rebuttal".
As tragic as the loss of life due to a terrorist attack on US soil on September 11, 2001, this date makes me mourn and despair over the thousands upon thousands of Afghan and Iraqi lives lost and destroyed by the outcome. My first reaction to the terrorist attacks was "f*ck, Bush is in power. This is going to end brutally for the Middle Eastern region." These days I'm not so sure if it would have ended up any less brutal with Gore or Obama in power.
Though they were all Muslims, religion was not the motivating factor. As the CIA's former bin Laden expert Michael Scheuer rightly observed, the Muslim world was furious at the US for what it was doing in their region, not because of America's values, liberties or religion.
This is obvious to anyone who has bothered to investigate the attackers' motives.
It's not obvious to me or very many other people that a single person from Afghanistan or Iraq flew suicide missions on 9/11. This may be the false narrative on 9/11 terror as explained by dubya and Rummy, Cheney etc to gullible rich people and military types attending $5000 dollar a plate Republican Party fund raisers. But there is no hard proof of "al-Qaeda" or any such invisible army of darkness. Afghanistan may have been attacked and invaded over the course of two centuries by various vicious empires, but Afghans themselves have never retaliated against any other nation or exported terror to those nations in any way. And they probably never will.
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v697/rabblerabble/isi_and_cia_director...
Front row, from left: Major Gen. Hamid Gul, director general of Pakistan's
Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI), Director of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
Willian Webster; Deputy Director for Operations Clair George; an ISI colonel; and senior CIA official,
Milt Bearden at a mujahedeen training camp in North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan in 1987.(source RAWA)
Extremist EducationThe Reagan administration sensed the most hard-line elements of the resistance were less likely to reach negotiated settlements, but the goal was to cripple the Soviet Union, not free the Afghan people. Recognizing the historically strong role of Islam in Afghan society, they tried to exploit it to advance U.S. policy goals. Religious studies along militaristic lines were given more importance than conventional education in the school system for Afghan refugees in Pakistan. The number of religious schools (madrassas) educating Afghans rose from 2,500 in 1980 at the start of Afghan resistance to over 39,000. The United States encouraged the Saudis to recruit Wahhabist ideologues to come join the resistance and teach in refugee institutes.
They destroyed secular socialism and secular education in Afghanistan and replaced/expanded the madrassa system in order to establish militant Islam in Central Asia. Sibel Edmonds says that this is still happening today with continuing support financed by US taxpayers.
These days I'm not so sure if it would have ended up any less brutal with Gore or Obama in power.
Both parties of warmongering plutocrats were directly responsible for 9/11. Both wings of the exact same party of Wall Street and Military-Industrial interests are responsible for creating militant Islam in Central Asia and Balk-Qaeda. They continue funding the CIA-SAudi expansion of the fundamentalist education system comprised of tens of thousands of madrassas in Central Asia.
Clinton-Approved Iranian Arms Transfers Help Turn Bosnia into Militant Islamic Base http://rpc.senate.gov/releases/1997/iran.htm
The Kosovo Liberation Army: Does Clinton Policy Support Group with Terror, Drug Ties?
From 'Terrorists' to 'Partners' http://rpc.senate.gov/releases/1999/fr033199.htm
[url=http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8533]Clinton and Albright's bosom friends, Thaci et al in Kosovo, are drug-dealing war crims[/url] (retired) Maj. General Lewis Mackenzie
And none of this was mentioned during or after the phony bipartisan charade, "The 9/11 Commission" Cover-up.
There is, of course, a Canadian, branch plant version of American Islamophobia. Here is the latest toxic waste by the lickspittling literati and obedient servant to the Imperial court, Robert Fulford.
Lessons of 9/11
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/09/11/robert-fulford-lessons-of...
"Nine years ago this morning, the Islamist wing of the Muslim religion, a gigantic and merciless force, declared war on the West...Many of us worry more about the rights of Islamists than about preserving our traditions...The West now lacks the conviction our way of life needs and deserves defending...It is as if Islamists were saying to the world: Don't offend us or we'll kill a lot of our people...But in the timorous way we think about Islam, far too much remains just as it was when we saw planes fly into the Twin Towers.."
Awful hateful stuff.
Awful hateful stuff.
150% in agreement NoDifference.
And here's Harper's contribution to the same incitement
Terrorism Threat 'Very Much a Global Reality'..
"Sadly the threat of terrorism is till very much a global reality, including right here at home,' Harper said. 'No country is immune. International and home=grown groups continue to pose a real danger to our safety, and we must remain ever vigilant.."
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/breakingnews/terrorism-threat-ve...
Closing for length.
