Jihadi Du Jour

Thursday, December 28, 2006

3 million Muslims begin annual hajj pilgrim in Mecca

You "spin" me right round, baby right round...

MECCA, Saudi Arabia: Nearly 3 million Muslims from around the world, chanting "I am here, Lord" and raising their hands to heaven, marched through a desert valley outside Mecca on Thursday in the first day of the annual hajj pilgrimage.

Dressed in seamless white robes symbolizing the equality of mankind under God, the pilgrims hiked through the 13-kilometer (8 miles) valley to Mina, starting a series of rituals in which they cleanse themselves of sin.

"The hajj is a school for teaching unity, mercy and cooperation."

For pilgrims streaming in from all continents, the hajj is a crowning moment of faith, a duty for all able-bodied Muslims to carry out at least once. On Thursday morning, as they have for the past few days, hundreds of thousands opened their pilgrimage by circling the Kaaba, the black cubic stone in Mecca, Islam's holiest site, which Muslims face when they perform their daily prayers.

"For us it is a vacation away from work and daily life to renew yourself spiritually," said Ahmed Karkoutly, an American doctor from Brownsville, Texas. "You feel you part of a universe fulfilling God's will. It's a cosmic motion, orbiting the Kaaba."

Remember the days of God is Dead? Or the povwer of myth? Or when anything Christian was vigorously attacked as fairy tale and "the opiate of the masses"?

The AP article above impresses me in the matter of fact way it assumes the reality of the Hajj without any question or objection. Does the media care to analyze why Islam is so violent when the rituals observed at the Hajj culminate in a stoning of the devil?

Muslims throwing rocks at giant phallic symbol. what's that about Mr. Freud?

Saudi Arabia spent more than $1 billion over the past year on a project to renovate the stoning site, where the massive crowds of pilgrims file past three stone walls symbolizing the devil to pelt them with stones. New entrances and exits were added around the walls to ease the flow of traffic, and this year authorities made repeated announcements to pilgrims not to bring luggage to the site.

On Thursday, the crowds filtered out of Mecca toward Mina through the desert valley, chanting, "Labbeik, allahum, labbeik," Arabic for "I am here, Lord."

They will spend the night in a tent city in Mina before heading Friday for Mount Arafat, the site where Muhammad gave his final sermon in 632. There they spend the day and night in prayer and meditation before returning the Mina for the stoning ritual.

It is easy to confuse the difference between a "devil" and "a person of the devil". Christians went through a period of burning heretics and drowning accused witches, and grew out of it. The Muslims are only acting out their fight with evil when they behead or stone sinners. This year 3 million Muslims will have a chance to blur the lines again.

Labels: Christianity vs Islam, Hajj, Islam, Kaaba, Main Stream Media, Mecca, Mohammed

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Posted by Joe S. at 9:00 AM Permalink || |

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Al Qaida Attempts to Lay Hands on Nuclear Weapons

Being reported in Bulgaria:

Al Qaida and other Islamic extremists want to acquire chemical or radiological weapons in order to attack a Western country, a senior British official has said on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of his work.

Britain's Foreign Office has evidence that terrorist groups have attempted to purchase chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear materials, the official has said.

The warning comes after last week MI5's head Eliza Manningham-Buller said the authorities have identified 30 major terrorist plots being devised in the UK and involving over 1,600 individuals.

"We know the aspiration is there, we know the efforts to get the materials are there, we know the efforts to get the technology are there", a spokesperson of Britain's Foreign Office said.

The senior official said that an attack with radiological or chemical weapons would be based on unsophisticated technology and would cause mass panic rather than mass casualties.

The official added that Britain's Foreign Office is more concerned about legitimate substances and biological weapons that could be used to create weapons such as anthrax or smallpox.

Evil? Evil? EVIL...

Labels: al-Qaida, American Hiroshima, Mecca, Nuclear Terrorism, Nuclear Threat

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Posted by Joe S. at 6:08 AM Permalink || |

Thursday, October 12, 2006

On Nuking Mecca

We've been receiving a number of hits at JDJ from searches for "Ramadan Attack on Friday the 13th"- that's tommorrow. Do they know something we don't?

Leonard Magruder is a guest writer who has the idea that deterrence of the Nuclear threat should include the threatened annihilation of Mecca.

The message is, just don't try it. This is a conditional plan, of the nature, "If you do that -we will be forced to do this." Nothing actually need happen. If it does, they will be responsible - for the destruction of their own people.

We must be prepared to use our power to end this threat to the world now, or live with it for decades to come during which time there will be successes by the terrorists. They will get through on occasion and destroy our cities one by one. After their first success, the loss of our first city to a nuclear device, there will be a terrible outcry for retaliation and millions could die in a spasm of unplanned nuclear response. Why not think this out and put a threat of retaliation in place now, in hopes of averting even that first attack?

Do we think the jihadists are ready to enter into diplomacy? Maybe if we threaten their cube in the desert...they will.