Showing posts with label Arabs honoring Bin Laden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Arabs honoring Bin Laden. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
YNET: J'lem imam: Obama will soon hang (Video) Al-Aqsa Mosque imam vows to avenge killing of Osama bin Laden in Youtube video. 'Dogs should not rejoice too much for killing lions'
VIDEO - An imam from the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem vowed to take revenge over "the western dogs" for killing Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan on Sunday.
In a Youtube video uploaded by the imam he said: "The western dogs are rejoicing after killing one of our Islamic lions. From Al-Aqsa Mosque, where the future caliphate will originate with the help of God, we say to them – the dogs will not rejoice too much for killing the lions. The dogs will remain dogs and the lion, even if he is dead, will remain a lion."
"We are a nation of billions, a good nation. We'll teach you about politics and military ways very soon, with god's help," he vowed.
Some two dozen Palestinians gathered in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday to pay tribute to slain al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
About 25 people holding pictures and posters of bin Laden rallied outside a Gaza City university. The crowd included al-Qaeda sympathizers as well as students who said they opposed bin Laden's ideology, but were angry at the US for killing him and consider him a martyr.
Hamas police did not interfere in the demonstration.
The al-Qaeda leader was not armed when United States Special Forces stormed his compoundin Pakistan but he did resist before he was shot, White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Tuesday.
Carney said the killing of bin Laden was not likely to affect the US timetable for bringing American troops out of Afghanistan.
TIME: Among the Palestinians, Some Sympathy for Bin Laden By Karl Vick / Ramallah
If reactions to the death of Osama bin Laden run the gamut among Palestinians — and do they ever — one end of the spectrum is occupied by Issam Marbough, selling used cell phones from an overturned cardboard box on a sidewalk of downtown Ramallah. Five in the afternoon finds him oblivious to the news of the day and, even after hearing it, he is more inclined to discussion of his financial situation than talking about a man known for "injuring women and children." He's not broken up about it. "There's no good to what he's doing, so he's useless," Marbough says of bin Laden. "There's no point to his existence."
The other end of the spectrum turns out to be located conveniently just around the corner, where a man steps out of a mosque from afternoon prayers. "This is another vicious crime from America against the Islamic movement," he says, giving his name as Abu Samir. "Whether he's been killed or not, this does not end the struggle." Asked to clarify what he means, the man declares, "One belief, one cause, one struggle. Against America." (See pictures of Osama bin Laden's Pakistan hideout.)
His beard is black-going-to-gray and nearly brushes the chest of his charcoal sweater. He is 40, civil but reserved, and incredulous at the suggestion that the typical American, while well aware of what bin Laden opposed, has no firm notion what he was for. He makes me say it: Undoing the nation state and re-establishing the caliphate to govern Muslims worldwide. "Yes, what's the problem?" he says. "End the borders and end everything. Let it all be Islamic like it was."
Relatively few Palestinians may share his utopian fundamentalism — even though Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, can come close. On Monday, its top man in Gaza mourned the loss of an "Arab holy warrior" while noting differences in "interpretation." On the West Bank, the ruling Fatah faction said his death was good for peace, but among Palestinians who admitted feeling anything, it was something like solidarity. In a new Pew Global Attitudes poll, regard for bin Laden was down sharply across all eight Muslim populations surveyed but was highest among Palestinians, with 34% expressing confidence in him to "do the right thing in world affairs." (See pictures of people celebrating Osama bin Laden's death.)
"Even though he's gone, a thousand leaders will take his place," says a young man named Samir, in a circle of men who gather to talk in the city's main vegetable market. A bald man declares that Arab countries should impose a three-day mourning period. "What is America doing for the people?" he asks. "They just stick their nose in where they don't need to stick their nose in, like Afghanistan and like Iraq. They don't do anything for the Middle East." The group erupts in applause.
In a cell phone shop on the main street, two women enter. "All this is bullshit," says the first, named Shair, 27. "His death didn't affect me, to be honest." But it did affect her friend Zeina, 25. "This is a loss for the Arab people," she says. "It is a loss because he stood up against the Americans and did something about it. "
It is as if time stood still. Nearly 10 years after 9/11, the same notes of frustration, disbelief and powerlessness that were sounded in the wake of al-Qaeda's attacks are greeting news of the death of its founder. "I don't think Osama bin Laden is dead," says Amal in idiomatic English, having attended the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. "I think it's an American story, and he's going to come back stronger than ever. It's a matter of time." And, she adds, "by the way 9/11 has nothing to do with Osama bin Laden. It's an Israeli operation, Mossad. They accused bin Laden and he accepted but there is no way an Arab is capable of doing this. If we were capable of doing this, we would've gotten rid of the Israeli soldiers a long time ago." (See Osama bin Laden's obituary.)
The daily reality of the Israeli occupation across more than four decades continues to inform a good deal of Palestinians' feelings. "The United States and the world regard him as a terrorist," says Victoria Khaseeb, shopping with her daughters on Ramallah's main street. "And when you talk about people here they identify us as terrorists too. But we're fighting for a cause, to end the Israeli occupation."
Their discussion then grows convoluted. Bin Laden's justification was always harder to fathom. By his own account, he attacked Americans because Saudi Arabia invited U.S. troops onto soil Muslims consider sacred. And the U.S. Invaded Iraq... "Why?" Khaseeb asks. "What's the reason they are doing that?" Her daughter Haneen, 20, says it's not really a matter of logic. Taking off her sunglasses, she says, "Let the Americans feel what we're feeling." Her little sister nods. Their mother picks it up. "We like anyone who is a freedom fighter and a leader, regardless if he is Pakistani, Saudi, whatever."
Of Osama bin Laden, dead or alive, Khaseeb says, "We like him and respect him, because he aimed at targets and hit them. Innocent Americans that had nothing to do with this suffered. Let them suffer what we're suffering."
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
The mourners of bin Laden
Amid all the celebrations of the death of Osama bin Laden, it’s worth taking note of those who are loudly condemning the U.S. raid that eliminated him.
There is the Taliban, on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistani border. A spokesman for the Terik-e-Taliban, the Pakistan-based strand of the movement, told the Reuters news agency Monday that the group would seek revenge. “Pakistani rulers, President Zardari and the army will be our first targets. America will be our second target,” Ehsanullah Ehsan was quoted as saying.
An Afghan Taliban leader meanwhile told a reporter from Britain’s The Guardian that his organization would launch a special offensive, called Bader, to avenge the al-Qaeda leader. “Losing him will be very painful for the mujahideen, but the shahadat [martyrdom] of Osama will never stop the jihad,” the commander, named Qudos, reportedly said.
And then there is the Palestinian Hamas, whose top leader in the Gaza Strip mourned bin laden on Monday as an” Arab holy warrior.” Ismail Haniyeh, who is Hamas’s prime minister, told reporters that “we regard this as a continuation of the American policy based on oppression and the shedding of Muslim and Arab blood.”
“We condemn the assassination and the killing of an Arab holy warrior,” said the man who has assured former president Jimmy Carter, among other envoys, of Hamas’s peaceful intentions toward Israel and the United States. “We ask God to offer him mercy with the true believers and the martyrs.”
These may seem like predictable reactions by known terrorist organizations. But they ought to be deeply troubling for a host of Western diplomats who lately have been promoting the idea that both the Taliban and Hamas are suitable partners for peace negotiations.
The Obama administration has been showing renewed interest in proposals for peace talks in Afghanistan with the Taliban, hinting that it might soften previous conditions. Britain, among other European governments, has been pushing hard for such negotiations. But the premise of the strategy has been that the various Taliban factions are ready to make a decisive break with al-Qaeda.
Perhaps bin Laden’s death will eventually make it easier for the Taliban to cut its al-Qaeda ties. But an offensive in response to the leader’s death will not be a good way to start.
Haniyeh’s comments will be even more concerning, as they come days before a planned meeting in Cairo at which Hamas and the secular Fatah movement are to agree on a reconciliation. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas long ago renounced violence against Israel, and his West Bank security forces are funded and trained by the United States.
Now Abbas will find himself agreeing to form a joint Palestinian government with a man who has just condemned the U.S. killing of “Arab holy warrior” bin Laden. The broker of the deal, Egypt, has been pressing the Obama administration to accept the accord and to put forward a plan for Palestinian statehood in response.
Should the mourner of bin Laden be recognized as a worthy partner for peace with Israel, or a potential leader of a new Arab state? Haniyeh’s comments won’t leave the White House -- which has been weighing how to respond to the Palestinian unity deal -- with much of a choice.
Hamas denounces killing of Bin Laden The prime minister of the Gaza Strip government calls the Al Qaeda terrorist leader a "holy warrior."
"We condemn the assassination and the killing of an Arab holy warrior," Haniyeh told reporters, according to Reuters. "We regard this as a continuation of the American policy based on oppression and the shedding of Muslim and Arab blood."
His words were likely to do nothing for the reputation of the Islamist party, which popularized suicide bombings against Israel and is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union. Ironically, Hamas has battled more radical Islamic groups in the Gaza Strip in recent years.
For its part, Hamas' chief rival, the Palestinian Authority, which rules the West Bank, hailed Bin Laden's death.
"Getting rid of Bin Laden is good for the cause of peace worldwide, but what counts is to overcome the discourse and the methods -- the violent methods -- that were created and encouraged by Bin Laden and others in the world," Palestinian Authority spokesman Ghassan Khatib said, according to Reuters.
YNET: Jerusalem Arabs honor bin Laden Dozens of Arab residents hold rally in support of assassinated al-Qaeda leader in east Jerusalem's Silwan neighborhood; meanwhile, bin Laden's burial at sea prompts Muslim rage, Egypt imam says US violated Islamic custom
Some of the participants at the site hurled stones at Israel Police forces deployed in the area. Police officers responded with crowd dispersal means.
No reports of injuries or detainees were received following the rally.
Notably, bin Laden made various statements over the years in support of the Palestinians and against Israel.
In the past he declared that muslims were engaged in a war against Jews, and in March 2010 he slammed the United States for "its support of Israel and the ongoing occupation in Palestine."
Muslim anger over sea burial
Meanwhile, news of Bin Laden's sea burial ignited Muslim outcry worldwide, raising the possibility of wide backlash despite the apparent care the US military gave to his last rites.
A prominent imam in Egypt, Dr Ahmed El-Tayeb, said the US violated Islamic custom by not burying bin Laden on land, a move seen as a US attempt to prevent his resting place from becoming a shrine for extremist followers.
Islamist lawyer Montasser al-Zayat said bin Laden should have been buried in his native Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's holiest sites. The US said earlier that Saudi officials refused to accept the body for burial.
Instead, bin Laden's body was transported to the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, which brought him to his final resting place somewhere in the north Arabian Sea.
"The burial of bin Laden's remains was done in strict conformance with Islamist precepts and practices," said John Brennan, US President Barack Obama's top counter-terrorism adviser.
"The body was placed in a weighted bag. A military officer read prepared religious remarks which were translated into Arabic by a native speaker," the US official said. "After the words were complete, the body was placed on a prepared flat board, tipped up, whereupon the deceased's body eased into the sea."
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