Syrian fighter: “We have a big fight against the Jews ahead of us.”

Friday Update. What Others Are Saying.

SYRIA: Anti-Assad fighter, “We have a big fight against the Jews ahead of us.”

The Jewish Chronicle (UK) reports: “As Bashar al-Assad fights for his survival, a new threat to Israel is crystallising across its northern borders. What began in Syria as a limited but genuine people’s uprising against a dictatorship has become contaminated with Saudi-funded foreign mujahideen who are driven, among other things, by an intense hostility toward non-Muslims – and an implacable hatred of Jews and Israel. In Al Midan, a suburb in southern Damascus, Mateen, a fighter who claimed to have travelled from Afghanistan, shared his ideas for a post-Assad Syria: “We have to a build a society of respect and brotherhood in accordance with the Prophet’s commandments,” he said in Urdu. “We will treat non-Muslims kindly, but we have a big fight against the Jews ahead of us. We will take that up, God willing.”

LEBANON: Hezbollah supporters wave Iranian flags and carry pictures of Syrian President Bashar Assad

The Daily Star (Lebanon) reports: The opposition March 14 coalition Wednesday slammed Hezbollah’s organization of protests across the country against a film insulting the Prophet as an attempt to divert attention from the crisis in Syria.  The coalition statement praised President Michel Sleiman for demanding official clarification from Tehran over Jaafari’s remarks Sunday that the Revolutionary Guard had sent high-level military.

EGYPT: No need to amend Israel treaty

Gulf Today (Arab Emirates) reports: Egypt sees no reason to make changes to its peace treaty with Israel, presidential spokesman Yasser Ali said in statements carried on Thursday by the state-owned paper Al Ahram. “There is no need for the moment to amend the Camp David agreement,” said Ali who was accompanying President Mohammed Mursi in New York for the meetings of the UN General Assembly…Israel has watched with concern as Islamic parties were catapulted to the forefront of politics following a popular uprising that toppled president Hosni Mubarak. Mursi, who emerged from the powerful Muslim Brotherhood, has repeatedly said he would respect international treaties signed by Cairo.

TURKEY: Syria Muslim Brotherhood says Russia ‘an excuse’ for inaction

The Jordan Times:  Russia’s UN Security Council veto is “just an excuse” for world powers not to intervene in Syria, but the regime is going to fall without their help, the chief of Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood told AFP Thursday. “Russia is just an excuse for the rest of the great powers not to topple [Syrian President Bashar Al Assad’s] regime,” said Mohammed Riyad Al Shaqfa, complaining of an international unwillingness to “get sucked into” the conflict in Syria. The exiled chief of the hardline opposition group was referring to divisions in the Security Council, where permanent members Russia and China have so far vetoed three resolutions on Syria… Shaqfa repeated calls on the international community to provide the Syrian rebels with anti-aircraft missiles to fend off air attacks and with long-range missiles to use against tanks… Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood claims no direct links to the main Islamist movement that was established in 1928 in Egypt.

SAUDI ARABIA:  King Abdullah, “Stop abusing religions, prophets.”

Arab News (Saudi Arabia) reports: Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has urged people the world over to confront those who try to abuse divine religions and prophets of God. Addressing princes, ministers, religious scholars and other citizens who came to greet him at Taiba Palace on Tuesday night, King Abdullah urged Muslims to defend their Islamic faith and the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)… In his brief speech, King Abdullah described Islam as a religion that promotes tolerance, mercy and equality. Crown Prince Salman, deputy premier and minister of defense, attended the reception. . . Meanwhile, intellectuals in Madinah said King Abdullah’s arrival in the Prophet’s city after concluding his private vacation in Morocco was a symbolic reply to those who try to tarnish the image of the Prophet (peace be upon him). They also noted the king’s efforts to promote dialogue between the followers of different cultures and faiths.

EGYPT: “President Muhammad Mursi, must sever diplomatic ties with the United States and expel the US ambassador.” - Islamic Group’s Rifai Taha.

Asharq Al-Awsat (UK) reports: After the 25 January Revolution and the election of Muhammad Mursi to the presidency, the number of Islamic Group and Jihad Organization leaders who have been released from prison has risen significantly. One of the most prominent figures to be released is the Islamic Group’s Rifai Taha. After years of being on the run, followed by a lengthy prison sentence, Taha, the Islamic Group’s international representative, who in the past has been charged with planning the assassinations of presidents and government officials, has finally returned to his hometown in southern Egypt.

IRAN: Iranian FM warns Nationals against travelling to Canada

Fars News Agency (Iran): The Iranian foreign ministry in a statement warned the country’s nationals against visiting Canada due to the growing wave of Iranophobia and Islamophobia in the British colony. “According to evidence, the wave of Islamophobia and Iranophobia has not stopped but has considerably increased over the past few years and this approach has affected the country’s governmental and nongovernmental authorities,” the ministry said in its statement issued on Wednesday. The statement added that the arrest and deportation of Iranian nationals under different pretexts continues and they are deprived of basic rights such as accessing their bank accounts or conducting financial transactions.”The performance of Canadian police shows that the country’s government does not have sufficient resolve or capability to pursue crimes committed against Iranian residents.”

FRANCE: Vows not to tolerate Islamic ‘radicalism’

Gulf Times  (Qatar): France’s Socialist government vowed to do more to integrate the country’s Muslims but warned that it would not tolerate the country becoming a hotbed of Islamic radicalism. In a speech marking the inauguration of the Strasbourg Grand Mosque, the biggest Islamic place of worship ever built on French soil, Interior Minister Manuel Valls pledged to come down hard on extremists, warning that foreign activists trying to stir up trouble would be immediately deported… He warned yesterday that he would not “hesitate to expel those who claim to follow Islam and represent a serious threat to public order and, as foreigners in our country, do not respect our laws and values.”  He also made it clear that the Muslim community as a whole had to accept responsibility for tackling extremism, which he linked to a re-emergence of antisemitism in the country. ”If all religions have their share of fundamentalists, it is in Islam that this raises fears. It was on French soil and with a French passport that Mohamed Merah killed in the name of Islam. Antisemitism is a terrible scourge and its resurgence cannot be disguised.”

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Where Are the Muslim Protests for… ?

COMMENT

by Khaled Abu Toameh   

They are driven by their blind hatred for the US and all non-Muslims.

Muslims who are outraged by an amateur film produced by an Egyptian Christian do not seem to be equally offended when many crimes are committed in the name of Islam.

There are only three reasons why Muslims could not be speaking out against the terrorists. First, fear of retaliation. Second, indifference to what is happening. Third, identification with the goals of the terrorists.

For these radical Muslims who are rioting in Cairo, Tunis, Khartoum and Sydney, the film was just an excuse to vent their anger and hatred toward the US, Israel and the entire Western world and civilization.

What has been happening in most of the Arab and Islamic countries in the past few days is more about hating the US and Israel than defending Islam and Prophet Mohamed.

The violent protests should serve as a reminder that radical Islam, which has been hugely boosted by the “Arab Spring,” remains a strategic threat to all those who believe in freedom, democracy and equality.

The anti-US protests were just another episode in the war that radical Islam has declared on the West. The US is hated mostly because of its support for Arab dictatorships as well as its support for Israel. The extremists also hate the US because they see it as an obstacle to their efforts to conquer the world and establish an Islamic caliphate.

Instead of staging demonstrations against Muslim extremists who kill innocent civilians every day, Muslims are directing all their anger against a poorly produced trashy film instead of protesting against terrorists who have hijacked Islam, committing some of the most heinous crimes.

Shouldn’t Muslims be more worried about all the jihadi groups that have sprung up in the Arab and Islamic countries in recent years and whose members are imposing a reign of terror and intimidation on moderate and peaceful Muslims?

When was the last time Muslims took to the streets to protest against suicide bombings that have killed thousands of innocent civilians in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan?

When did Muslims ever stage demonstrations to protest against Al-Qaeda’s 9/11 attacks, in which nearly 3,000 civilians were killed in the name of Islam? Perhaps because many Muslims do not believe that Muslims carried out 9/11, or because they believe it is alright to kill infidels.

Why aren’t Muslims demonstrating in the streets of Cairo and Benghazi over the daily massacres that are being perpetrated in Syria by Muslim jihadis and the regime?

What happened to those Western-educated liberal Muslims who reportedly triggered the “Arab Spring” protests in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt? How come they haven’t taken to the streets to demand an end to the violence and crimes that are being perpetrated every day in the name of Islam?

What are Muslims doing to protect the rights of women in Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Afghanistan, Iran, Somalia and the Gaza Strip?

What have Muslims done to stop the phenomenon of young Syrian girls who are being sold for “pleasure marriages” to wealthy men from the Gulf?

Where are the street protests against human rights and media violations in the Arab and Islamic countries? Aren’t most of these violations and abuses being committed in the name of Islam?

Most of the Muslims who have been protesting the defaming of Islam and Prophet Mohamed in the Arab and Islamic countries have most likely not even seen the film; they are driven by their blind hatred for the US and all non-Muslims.

Khaled Abu Toameh, an Arab Muslim, is a veteran award-winning journalist who has been covering Palestinian affairs for nearly three decades. He studied at Hebrew University and began his career as a reporter by working for a PLO-affiliated newspaper in Jerusalem. Abu Toameh currently works for the international media, serving as the ‘eyes and ears’ of foreign journalists in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

 The above article is reprinted with kind permission of Gatestone Institute.

(Photo credit: Hizb ut Tahrir)

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