munk said:
I wish like hell the vast majority of Moslems would denounce the violence.
Actually munk, the vast majority of Muslims DO denounce violence. I'm always somewhat curious as to why people inadvertantly assume that Muslims and Arabic people prefer 'violence' over 'peace'. There have been numerous statements from various Islamic and Arabic organisations that have denounced violence. Unfortunately, few people from the West like to report it. Usually when such statements are reported, they are buried within another report that actually focuses on violence. There is always an intermingling of violence and culture when reporting on Islam and Arabs. As if the two are somehow linked. Personally, I don't know of any other religion or culture that is so systematically reported upon in this way. If anybody is interested, I would suggest reading the late Edward Said's book, 'Covering Islam' for a greater understanding of the 'relationship' between the Western media and Islam.
I guess munk, that the important question that needs to be asked is which violence are you talking about? As I stated earlier, there is no justification for the mutilation of dead bodies. However, the mutilations WERE denounced. Were their deaths denounced? As far as I'm aware, no they weren't but seeing as we don't know the details of the situation leading up to their deaths I'm not sure if such a 'denunciation' is even justified. Given that they were ostensibly 'military men', their deaths are not, to put it bluntly, surprising.
One must also remember that whatever else is said, the Anglo-American coalition
is the aggressor in Iraq. The coalition is also an occupying power and under international law, it is considered a basic right to resist occupation. Lofty words about bringing democracy and freedom to the Iraqi people
may have
some truth to them, but given the history of the West in the Middle East, surely it isn't too much of a stretch of the imagination to believe that there just may be some people in Iraq who don't believe the intent behind the words?
If it is true that Arabs and Muslims do not wish to 'denounce violence', then
perhaps this apparent 'acceptance of violence' by Arabic and Muslim people could be understood within this framework of supporting resistance.
Just some food for thought.
Sleiman Azizi
PS: On a side note, one that is more appropriate to this forum, if anybody has any advice or leads on historical Arabic or 'Islamic' knives, this would be highly appreciated