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Screaming “With our blood and soul, we will defend you, Islam,” jihadists stormed the Virgin Mary Church in northwest Cairo last weekend. They torched the Coptic Christian house of worship, burned the nearby homes of two Copt families to the ground, attacked a residential complex, killed a dozen people, and wounded more than 200: just another day in this spontaneous democratic uprising by Muslim hearts yearning for freedom.
In the delusional vocabulary of the “Arab Spring,” this particular episode is known as a sectarian “clash.” That was the Washington Post’s take. Its headline reads “12 dead in Egypt as Christians and Muslims clash” — in the same way, one supposes, that a mugger’s fist can be said to “clash” with his victim’s face.
Unlike Al Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood has evolved and learned the hard way that the use of violence will be met with superior violence by state actors. The clever thing to do, it now turns out, was to be patient and invest in a bottom-up movement rather than a commando structure that risked being wiped out by stronger forces. Besides, the gradualist approach is far more likely to win the prize of state power. All that Khomeini did before he came to power in Iran was to preach the merits of a society based on Islamic law. He did not engage in terrorism. Yet he and his followers took over Iran – a feat far greater than bin Laden ever achieved. In Iran the violence came later.2. Reuel Marc Gerecht: "Whither Jihad? Islamic militancy preceded Osama bin Laden. Unfortunately, it will probably outlast him, too."
The excesses of al Qaeda and allied Islamic groups in spilling blood in Muslim lands since 9/11—especially in Iraq—have created considerable unease and sometimes even fire-and-brimstone disgust among Muslims. The Great Arab Revolt is altering how Arabs see themselves. It’s still much too early to know where this awakening is going—whether it will lead to democracy or back to dictatorship—but it’s not too early to see how the turbulence that started in Tunisia has discombobulated the holy-warrior set. Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri fell silent when these popular pro-democracy eruptions started. Both Iran’s ruling elite and al Qaeda finally described the Arab Revolt, surreally, as an Islamic movement that mirrored their most cherished principles.3. "Egypt’s Other Extremists - While the Muslim Brotherhood gets all the ink, the Salafists go on a rampage." Salafism is Islamism of Saudi Arabian ancestry, while the Muslim Brotherhood is an Egyptian product. A joke in the Middle East is that a Muslim Brother is a Salafist who has learned how to read and write. In Egypt recently,
Some Salafists joined the demonstrations in Tahrir Square, and others have said they will enter politics—in many cases by supporting the Brotherhood. Often the two groups have been opposed to one another, with the Salafists accusing the Brotherhood of compromise, but in the March 19 constitutional referendum, Salafi clerics urged their followers to support the Brotherhood in campaigning for a “yes” vote.4. Muslim author Irshad Manji: "Islam Needs Reformists, Not 'Moderates' - Bin Laden's followers represent a real interpretation of Islam. Why don't more Muslims challenge it?" Manji's point is the "moderate" Muslims are the problem, not the solution.
Perhaps thinking that these more extreme Islamist currents make it appear relatively moderate, the Brother-hood condemned the killing of Osama bin Laden. Already before that, it had become more outspoken about its own desire for an Islamic state.
On April 14, at a forum in Cairo, the Brotherhood’s deputy supreme guide, Mahmoud Ezzat, said his group wanted to establish an Islamic state when they achieved sufficient support through their Freedom and Justice party. At the same forum, another Brotherhood leader, Saad al-Husseiny, stated that they aimed to apply Islamic law and establish Islamic rule. On April 22, a senior spokesman, Sobhi Saleh, said the Brotherhood wished to apply “Islamic legislation.”
in announcing bin Laden's demise, the president fudged a vital fact. Echoing George W. Bush, he insisted that al Qaeda's icon "was not a Muslim leader."
But this is untrue. Bin Laden and his followers represent a real interpretation of Islam that begs to be challenged relentlessly and visibly. Why does this happen so rarely?
"Moderate" Muslims are part of the problem. As Martin Luther King Jr. taught many white Americans, in times of moral crisis, moderation cements the status quo. Today, what Islam needs is not more "moderates" but more self-conscious "reformists." It is reformists who will bring to my faith the debate, dissent and reinterpretation that have carried Judaism and Christianity into the modern world. ...
It is time for those who love liberal democracy to join hands with Islam's reformists. Here is a clue to who's who: Moderate Muslims denounce violence committed in the name of Islam but insist that religion has nothing to do with it; reformist Muslims, by contrast, not only deplore Islamist violence but admit that our religion is used to incite it.
Syrian presidential adviser Bouthaina Shaaban blamed a renowned Sunni Muslim cleric for the unrest in Latakia, saying Qatar-based Sheik Youssef al-Qaradawi had incited Latakia's Sunnis to revolt with his sermon in Doha on Friday. Al-Qaradawi, who has millions of followers around the world and is seen as one of most influential voices in Sunni Islam; told his audience that, "Today the train of revolutions arrived at a station that was inevitable it would reach: the station of Syria."Egyptian al-Qaradawi is one of the top intellectuals of Islam whose theology is a guiding light of the original Islamist movement, the Muslim Brotherhood. He has an immense audience in the Arab world for his al-Jazeera regular broadcasts. Significantly, Qaradawi is Sunni Muslim while Syrian dictator Bashar Assad is Alawite Muslim, a small, mystical sect that is an offshoot of Shia Islam. If there is anything that Sunnis generally and the Brotherhood specifically despise, it's Shiites. So no wonder Qaradawi preached against Assad.
"Syria is like the others — and it is more deserving than others of these revolutions," he said. "When there are those who are killed, know that the revolution has been victorious!"
Shabaan said those words were responsible for the unrest in Latakia.
"There was nothing (in Lattakia) before Qaradawi's sermon on Friday," she told reporters in Damascus. "Qaradawi's words were a clear and honest invitation for sectarian strife."
Military troops opened fire during protests in the southern part of Syria on Friday and killed peaceful demonstrators, according to witnesses and news reports, hurtling the strategically important nation along the same trajectory that has altered the landscape of power across the Arab world. ...Note that last sentence: the government "would not let foreign news media into the country." This is the key point to understanding the fury the West has unleashed against Libya compared to the yawn we are not even stifling concerning Syria.
Human rights groups said that since protests began seven days ago in the south, 38 people had been killed by government forces — and it appeared that many more were killed on Friday. Precise details were hard to obtain because the government sealed off the area to reporters and would not let foreign news media into the country. ...
Human rights groups said that since protests began seven days ago in the south, 38 people had been killed by government forces — and it appeared that many more were killed on Friday. Precise details were hard to obtain because the government sealed off the area to reporters and would not let foreign news media into the country.
"I know that the nightly news cannot cover a humanitarian crisis that thankfully did not happen, but it is important to remember that many, many Libyans are safer today because the international community took action," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday.Assad, on the other hand, is not the fool that Qaddafi proved to be. Assad's father, Hafez, slaughtered 20,000 people in in 1982 in the city of Hama for resisting his rule. Absolutely no foreign coverage was done because no reporters were there - and for sure Assad didn't send out a press release afterward. Bashar has obviously learned this lesson well.The corpses will mount in Syria quite out sight from the never-blinking eye of the international media. And the Western governments will therefore be able to to pretend they don't know.
The Libyan opposition website Libya al-Youm is reporting fighter jets from what is being called the "Free Libyan Air Force" (never heard of it before today) has attacked the Libyan Navy off Ajdabiya, and 2 Libyan warships are on fire - sinking, while a third warship is said to have been damaged.More at the link.
If this report by the rebel opposition turns out to be true, this is a very interesting development in the Libyan civil war. I think I speak for many of us when saying I am very curious who this "Free Libyan Air Force" is.
I would not be surprised to learn it is not Libyan at all, or not only Libyan.
Britain has backtracked from its belligerent military stance over Libya after the Obama administration publicly distanced itself from David Cameron's suggestion that Nato should establish a no-fly zone over the country and that rebel forces should be armed.US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates testified to a Congressional subcommittee,
As senior British military sources expressed concern that Downing Street appeared to be overlooking the dangers of being sucked into a long and potentially dangerous operation, the prime minister said Britain would go no further than contacting the rebel forces at this stage.
"Let's call a spade a spade," Gates said at a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing. "A no-fly zone begins with an attack on Libya to destroy the air defenses."Adm. Mullen seems unaware that Moammar Qaddafi's son, Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, has confirmed air raids against rebels at Brega.
He added that it couldn't be done by a single aircraft carrier off the coast.
"It's a big operation in a big country," Gates said.
On top of that, Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the same subcommittee that the Pentagon has no confirmation that Libyan strongman Muammar al Qaddafi is using his air force to kill civilians.
In an interview with Sky News, Saif said: "First of all the bombs (were) just to frighten them to go away. Not to kill them."Well, okay then!
Crater their runways from one end to the other and the problem is solved. Carriers, while desirable, useful and highly symbolic for long-term commitment, are not necessary to get this job done. Sky park a few Predator UAVs above the airfields so that if Libyan engineers try to repair the craters, we will know immediately - and the Predators can launch disincentives. For that matter, we can crater the runways again and maybe bomb a few pilots' barracks as encouragement.Or turn the runway-neutralization mission over to the US Air Force's 509th Bomb Wing with its B2 Stealth bombers. I think Libya's air defenses threat would be pretty much nil.
In any case, while a no-fly zone could presumably prevent Qaddafi's planes from firing on protesters or rebel forces, it would do nothing to stop his ground forces and mercenaries from continuing their assault. Given the limited utility then, the U.S. and its allies must now decide if all the trouble involved in setting up a zone -- including inevitable questions of legality -- are worth the risk.That is indeed a problem, but not the only one and not really even the main one, which is this, I think:
Dubai: The Libya Revolution Council in Benghazi on Monday warned the US against interfering in the political future of the country and said young revolutionaries will consider hostile any act or attempt to dictate to them who the future leader of the country should be.Who, exactly, is the "Libya Revolution Council?" We don't really know. However, today the imperative to intervene (if there ever really was one) may have passed. Qadaffi and his Venezuelan soulmate, Hugo Chavez, have apparently come up with a plan to end the war.
"There are indications about US efforts to find a new leadership for Libya that is close to the west or accepted by them. Libyans inside the country and abroad will consider such attempts hostile acts against Libyans and attempts to shape the political system in the future will not be tolerated," Ahmad Al Bara'asi, head of media at the newly formed revolutionary council, told Gulf News.
The Venezuelan plan would involve a commission from Latin America, Europe and the Middle East, along with talks between Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi and opposition forces.
"Libya accepts the proposal to work for a negotiated end to the conflict accompanied by an international commission. Venezuela will continue its contacts in the Arab world and elsewhere to find formulas for peace in Libya," Venezuela's Information Minister Andres Izzara tells Reuters.Unsurprisingly, "the chairman of the rebel National Libyan Council rejected proposed talks with Qaddafi," according to reports, whose spokesman said, "We will never negotiate with him."
Al-Jazeera reports that the plan was struck between Qaddafi and Chavez.
As President Nicolas Sarkozy prepares to use a historic London summit to announce the use of RAF jets off the Charles de Gaulle, his naval chiefs have told him she is no longer seaworthy.Presumably the problems with the carrier's propulsion systems have been fixed, as de Gaulle just completed combined exercises with USS Abraham Lincoln.
The Libyan army is one of the poorest and most neglected security sectors in the government. They are poorly fed , equipped, trained and paid. They are mostly ceremonial and Qaddafi does not trust them. So what we have here are private battalions with each of his sons owning the one named for him. So for example his son Khamees has a battalion belonging to him calling it “Kateebit Khamees.” Each is placed in private super huge barracks situated strategically around Tripoli for situations like these. These battalions are well-equipped, trained and paid and are extremely loyal not to the country but to the leader of their battalion.Qaddafi & Sons are protected by their own, private army and mercenaries imported from Africa's southern regions. The national army is unlikely to be a major factor in the outcome.
So to answer your question the regular army is non-compliant and has mostly sided with the people. Remember they are poorly-equipped and so can be of only limited help. However, the battalions belonging to the regime itself are very much in the fight and are killing people wholesale. Still their numbers are not so great to cover this huge country so it seems they are complemented by mercenaries.
"What we are witnessing today is unimaginable. Warplanes and helicopters are indiscriminately bombing one area after another. There are many, many dead," Adel Mohamed Saleh said.
Saleh, who called himself a political activist, said the bombings had initially targeted a funeral procession.However, thankfully, two of the pilots given the mission flew to Malta instead.
"Our people are dying. It is the policy of scorched earth." he said. "Every 20 minutes they are bombing."
Asked if the attacks were still happening he said: "It is continuing, it is continuing. Anyone who moves, even if they are in their car they will hit you."
Two high-ranking Libyan air force pilots have who fled to Malta in their aircraft are reported to have told officials they escaped rather than carry out orders to bomb civilians. ...So some of Qaddafi's fellow rats are fleeing his sinking ship. Well, I suppose a late change of heart is better than none, especially when the changed heart decides not to mass murder its fellow subjects.
The two Mirage F1 jets touched down in Malta after the pilots said they urgently needed to refuel and sought emergency clearance to land. The Times of Malta reported on its website the pilots had told officials they flew to the island after being ordered to bomb protesters occupying Libya's second-biggest city of Benghazi.
One report said they had also brought with them two other members of the Libyan armed forces. The pilots – both colonels – said that, after taking off from Okba Ben Nafi base, they flew low through Libyan air space to avoid radar detection.
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has fled Libya and may be heading for Venezuela, William Hague said today.If true, Qaddafi has left the country in the on-so-tender hands of his son, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, who "warns of "rivers of blood" in Libya."
The [British] Foreign Secretary said he had seen 'information' that suggests Gaddafi is on his way to the South American country - as Libya was up in flames amid increasingly bloody battles between protesters and security forces.
Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi's son warned early Monday that the country faces a bloody civil war if protesters refuse to accept reform offers, in a speech broadcast as gunfire rang out in the capital, saying that his father remained in charge with the army's backing and would "fight until the last man, the last woman, the last bullet."But don't worry, Libyans! President Barack Obama, who was so daily vocal about the Cairo demonstrators, is on top of the situation! Uh, right?,
President Obama urged restraint in a written statement Friday on Libya and two other countries, but he hasn't appeared on television to talk about the crisis.So what does "restraint" mean? "Please, Mr. Qaddafi, don't escalate to killing thousands instead of hundreds?" Or maybe, "Don't kill hundreds, kill only dozens."
Now here's a situation pretty much without precedent: The Libyan Ambassador to the U.S. just called on the Untied [sic] States to denounce his country's leaders -- and his employers -- more forcefully.Mr. Ojli vastly overestimates this administration's capability to understand what is in the United States' interests.
"I want the U.S. to tell the world and to work with the countries who love peace...they have to stop this," Ambassador Ali Ojli said, suggesting that he had resigned his post, in an interview with Al Jazeera English.
"I would never ask us to intervene physically in Libya," he said, but called on the Obama Administration to "take a strong position that what's happening in libya must be stopped now...and to avoid giving the impression to the Arab world that the West "has only a materialist mind -- they don't care about human rights...except when it comes to their own interest."
Tribal and religious leaders condemned Gaddafi for the attacks against civilians; some urged all Muslims to rise against him. Influential Muslim cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi told al-Jazeera television that he urged any Libyan soldier who has the opportunity to kill Gaddafi - and issued a religious decree to that effect.Managed to miss mentioning that al-Qaradawi is the public face of the Muslim Brotherhood and that he was cheered by a million Egyptians Feb. 18 in Cairo's Tahrir Square for promising Islamist rule in Egypt.
"I am issuing a fatwa now to kill Gaddafi," the cleric said. "To any army soldier, to any man who can pull the trigger and kill this man to do so."
