Post by Dennis Wright on Feb 23, 2007 7:46:06 GMT 10
Some indications are found by analysing a collection of video and print statements by Arab government officials about the 9/11attack, including comments from Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak ("I find it hard to believe...."), Saudi princes ("It is impossible...."), Egyptian ("American agents did it.") Moreover, Lebanese legislators ("Osama Bin Laden is... popping up when needed.") - promoting theories that Arabs or Muslims were not at all involved in the September 11 attacks. A related theme appearing in various forms claims that Jews or Americans were directly or indirectly involved in the cataclysmic attacks on New York.
In one recent example from July 10, 2006, Egyptian cleric Abd Al-Sabour declares: "The 9/11 story is, in fact, a Zionist conspiracy intended to transform the American position and to incite the American people against the Muslims." The Arabic and Farsi media have been promoting such conspiracy theories for years, including repeating the claim that (in the formulation of Egyptian historian Zaynab Abd Al-Aziz on Saudi Arabia's Iqra TV, May 26, 2005) "4,000Jews caught influenza on that exact day."
In contrast, minority Arab reformist voices including condemnations of Arab conspiracy theories "have grown since 9/11 and are regularly seen on Arab TV and in the print media." In one example, former Kuwaiti minister Ahmad Al-Ruba'i said (September 11, 2004): I feel it requires a special effort to persuade them [students] to abandon this nightmare that has overcome the Arab mind. First, to fly a civilian airplane and crash into a building is not a great deed. A great deed is to manufacture an airplane and to build a trade centre, as they are doing now in New York. The Arabs must replace the mentality that glorifies destruction with a mentality that glorifies construction. I will say that the Arab mind is great when it builds a Boeing airplane, not when it blows it up, or when it builds a skyscraper. The truth is that the Arab mind is blinded by conspiracy theories.
Finally, in a fresh example of Middle Eastern reaction to 9/11, taken from one day before the 2006 anniversary of the attacks and not included in the documentary, MEMRI reported the accusations of Muhammad Al-Asi, affiliated with the Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought on Iran's Channel 2 television. Reiterating themes that appear repeatedly Al-Asi claims, "The events of 9/11 were planned by the American administration, to be used as a pretext and justification to fight terrorism."
Islam History Professor Moshe Sharon of Hebrew University told a counter-terrorism conference in September 2006, "There is no possibility of peace between Israel and the Palestinians whatsoever - ever.” Sharon, speaking at the annual conference of Herzliya’s Counter Terrorism Institute, said that Iran is dead serious about obtaining and using nuclear weapons in order to bring about its vision of an Islamic End of Days.
The veteran expert on Islam says that Western officials fail to grasp that the Arab and Islamic world truly see Israel’s establishment as a “reversal of history” and are therefore unable to accept peaceful relations with it. From Moslems’ perspective, “Islamic territory was taken away from Islam by Jews. You know by now that this can never be accepted, not even one meter. Therefore, everyone who thinks Tel Aviv is safe is making a grave mistake. Territory, which at one time was dominated by Islamic rule, now has become non-Moslem. Non-Moslems are independent of Islamic rule and Jews have created their own independent state. It is anathema. Worse, Israel, a non-Moslem state, is ruling over Moslems. It is unthinkable that non-Moslems should rule over Moslems.”
Sharon dismissed various peace treaties signed by Moslem and Arab officials over the years as "pieces of paper, parts of tactics and strategies… with no meaning." Sharon’s assessment focused on the danger posed by Iran. From studying Iranian culture, literature, newspapers, broadcasts and interviews with major players in the Islamic regime, Sharon concludes that a deep belief in a Shiite messiah is at the root of Iran’s nuclear project. “They truly believe that the Shiite messiah, the 12th Imam (also known as the Mahdi), is here, and that he will reveal himself… What moves the Iranian government and leadership today is first and foremost the wish to bring about the 12th Imam."
Addressing the theological doctrine of how exactly this Messiah will be revealed, Sharon explained: "How will they bring him? Through an apocalypse. He (the Mahdi) needs a war. He cannot come into this world without an Armageddon. He wants an Armageddon. The earlier we understand this the better. Ahmadinejad wants nuclear weapons for this!" Sharon has previously insisted that the Western world was engaging in great folly by differentiating between radical and peaceful Islam. “All of a sudden we see that the greatest interpreters of Islam are politicians in the Western world,” he wrote sarcastically. “They know better than all the speakers in the mosques, all those who deliver terrible sermons against anything that is either Christian or Jewish. These Western politicians know that there is good Islam and bad Islam. They know even how to differentiate between the two - except that none of them know how to read a word of Arabic.”
“The difference between Judaism, Christianity and Islam is as follows: Judaism speaks about national salvation - namely, that at the end of the story, when the world becomes a better place, Israel will be in its own land, ruled by its own king and serving G-d. Christianity speaks about the idea that every single person in the world can be saved from his sins, while Islam speaks about ruling the world. I can quote here in Arabic, but there is no point in quoting Arabic, so let me quote a verse in English: ‘Allah sent Mohammed with the true religion so that it should rule over all the religions.’ “The idea, then, is not that the whole world would necessarily become Moslem at this time, but that the whole world would be subdued under the rule of Islam.”
In one recent example from July 10, 2006, Egyptian cleric Abd Al-Sabour declares: "The 9/11 story is, in fact, a Zionist conspiracy intended to transform the American position and to incite the American people against the Muslims." The Arabic and Farsi media have been promoting such conspiracy theories for years, including repeating the claim that (in the formulation of Egyptian historian Zaynab Abd Al-Aziz on Saudi Arabia's Iqra TV, May 26, 2005) "4,000Jews caught influenza on that exact day."
In contrast, minority Arab reformist voices including condemnations of Arab conspiracy theories "have grown since 9/11 and are regularly seen on Arab TV and in the print media." In one example, former Kuwaiti minister Ahmad Al-Ruba'i said (September 11, 2004): I feel it requires a special effort to persuade them [students] to abandon this nightmare that has overcome the Arab mind. First, to fly a civilian airplane and crash into a building is not a great deed. A great deed is to manufacture an airplane and to build a trade centre, as they are doing now in New York. The Arabs must replace the mentality that glorifies destruction with a mentality that glorifies construction. I will say that the Arab mind is great when it builds a Boeing airplane, not when it blows it up, or when it builds a skyscraper. The truth is that the Arab mind is blinded by conspiracy theories.
Finally, in a fresh example of Middle Eastern reaction to 9/11, taken from one day before the 2006 anniversary of the attacks and not included in the documentary, MEMRI reported the accusations of Muhammad Al-Asi, affiliated with the Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought on Iran's Channel 2 television. Reiterating themes that appear repeatedly Al-Asi claims, "The events of 9/11 were planned by the American administration, to be used as a pretext and justification to fight terrorism."
Islam History Professor Moshe Sharon of Hebrew University told a counter-terrorism conference in September 2006, "There is no possibility of peace between Israel and the Palestinians whatsoever - ever.” Sharon, speaking at the annual conference of Herzliya’s Counter Terrorism Institute, said that Iran is dead serious about obtaining and using nuclear weapons in order to bring about its vision of an Islamic End of Days.
The veteran expert on Islam says that Western officials fail to grasp that the Arab and Islamic world truly see Israel’s establishment as a “reversal of history” and are therefore unable to accept peaceful relations with it. From Moslems’ perspective, “Islamic territory was taken away from Islam by Jews. You know by now that this can never be accepted, not even one meter. Therefore, everyone who thinks Tel Aviv is safe is making a grave mistake. Territory, which at one time was dominated by Islamic rule, now has become non-Moslem. Non-Moslems are independent of Islamic rule and Jews have created their own independent state. It is anathema. Worse, Israel, a non-Moslem state, is ruling over Moslems. It is unthinkable that non-Moslems should rule over Moslems.”
Sharon dismissed various peace treaties signed by Moslem and Arab officials over the years as "pieces of paper, parts of tactics and strategies… with no meaning." Sharon’s assessment focused on the danger posed by Iran. From studying Iranian culture, literature, newspapers, broadcasts and interviews with major players in the Islamic regime, Sharon concludes that a deep belief in a Shiite messiah is at the root of Iran’s nuclear project. “They truly believe that the Shiite messiah, the 12th Imam (also known as the Mahdi), is here, and that he will reveal himself… What moves the Iranian government and leadership today is first and foremost the wish to bring about the 12th Imam."
Addressing the theological doctrine of how exactly this Messiah will be revealed, Sharon explained: "How will they bring him? Through an apocalypse. He (the Mahdi) needs a war. He cannot come into this world without an Armageddon. He wants an Armageddon. The earlier we understand this the better. Ahmadinejad wants nuclear weapons for this!" Sharon has previously insisted that the Western world was engaging in great folly by differentiating between radical and peaceful Islam. “All of a sudden we see that the greatest interpreters of Islam are politicians in the Western world,” he wrote sarcastically. “They know better than all the speakers in the mosques, all those who deliver terrible sermons against anything that is either Christian or Jewish. These Western politicians know that there is good Islam and bad Islam. They know even how to differentiate between the two - except that none of them know how to read a word of Arabic.”
“The difference between Judaism, Christianity and Islam is as follows: Judaism speaks about national salvation - namely, that at the end of the story, when the world becomes a better place, Israel will be in its own land, ruled by its own king and serving G-d. Christianity speaks about the idea that every single person in the world can be saved from his sins, while Islam speaks about ruling the world. I can quote here in Arabic, but there is no point in quoting Arabic, so let me quote a verse in English: ‘Allah sent Mohammed with the true religion so that it should rule over all the religions.’ “The idea, then, is not that the whole world would necessarily become Moslem at this time, but that the whole world would be subdued under the rule of Islam.”
