November 6, 2003
THESE GUYS SURE LOVE RAISINS:
Al Qaeda Suspects Blow Selves Up in Mecca (Fox News, November 06, 2003)
Two suspected militants blew themselves up Thursday in the holy city of Mecca when security forces attempted to arrest them, a security official said.The official said the two likely belonged to a terror cell that had clashed with Saudi police in Mecca on Monday. [...]
The latest clashes come during one of the most sacred periods for Muslims, the month of Ramadan. Muslims believe their holy book, the Quran, was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad during a Ramadan 1,400 years ago.
Mecca, birthplace of Muhammad, also has great significance for Muslims. During the last 10 days of Ramadan, some 2 million Muslims are expected to perform the "omra," or minor pilgrimage, to Mecca.
The legitimacy of Saudi rulers rests partly on their custodianship of Mecca, which is off-limits to non-Muslims. A strike on Mecca could be seen as a strike on the regime.
Al Qaeda is likely to successfully strike the West again at some point, but for now they're reduced to killing Muslim pilgrims and themselves. Posted by Orrin Judd at November 6, 2003 10:22 AM
This at least gives cover to any alleged democracy-loving, moderate Muslims to stand up and be counted with the modern part of the world. We'll see if that happens.
I'm betting against.
Yesterday, I read an Iraqi blogger who stated that Muslims (or at least Iraqis) have no tradition of public protest, so we shouldn't expect them to pour into the streets to protest the killings of US occupiers.
I would never expect such a thing. But beside the Iraqi blogger ignorance of his own culture, I do expect them to pour into the streets to stand up for their own political program, if any.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at November 6, 2003 12:11 PMMr. Eager;
Here we get to the fun of how the word "public" has mutated over the years. In the sense of "public" meaning "government controlled" Iraq has had plenty of public protests. In the sense of "public" meaning "the people" (which is how the Iraqi blogger is using it) there haven't been any public protests in Iraq for at least thirty years, if not longer.
Posted by: Annoying Old Guy at November 6, 2003 1:19 PMDoes the headline have to do with the possibility that the "72 virgins" was a mistranslation of "crystal fruit bowl" ?
Posted by: Michael Herdegen at November 6, 2003 4:51 PM