Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Groundhog War

When the United States counter-attacked into Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks, liberal Americans joined those desperate to stop our offensive who came up with the ridiculous notion that it was an insult to Islam to fight during Ramadan. The notion dies hard.

After twelve years of fighting back against Islamist terrorists (and while our government shrinks from admitting we are at war, oddly they collect our telecommunications information and launch drone and commando raids against somebody), nonsense like this can be published:

Syrian air force jets and helicopters bombed rebel-held districts across the country on Tuesday, the first day of the Muslim festival of Eid al Adha, and rebel fighters fired rockets into the heart of Damascus.

President Bashar al-Assad, whose forces are battling a civil war which grew out of protests against his rule two years ago, was shown on state television attending morning prayers with ministers at a Damascus mosque at the start of the Eid holiday.

But there was no let-up in the violence which has torn Syria apart and divided the Middle East between Sunni Muslim supporters of the rebels and Shi'ite backers of Assad, despite a joint plea from regional Arab and Muslim organizations for both sides to mark the occasion with a ceasefire.

To be fair, the reporter is just reporting on what various people in the Moslem world are calling for.

But why not note that the ceasefire call has no basis in history for being a tenet of Islam? Indeed, how is it possible to even believe that a religion that grew out of military conquest and which honors martyrs who die in the jihad could even have such a deeply held belief?

If it was a part of the religion, why would Arab sources call the Egyptian- and Syrian-initiated October War (which took place 40 years ago this month) the Ramadan War?

UPDATE: Now here's some respect for Islam:

In Logar province (southeast of Kabul) the Taliban killed the provincial governor by planting a bomb in a copy of the Koran. The governor was giving a speech in a mosque at the start of a Moslem holy day.

Infidels can't touch a Koran, but jihadis can rip out the holy pages and put a bomb inside it. Got it.

UPDATE: More respect for Islam:

A barrage of car bomb and suicide bomb blasts rocked Baghdad and two northern Iraqi communities Thursday, killing at least 61 people during a major holiday period and extending a relentless wave of bloodshed gripping the country.

More COEXIST bumper stickers! Stat!