| |
|
24. april 2006
|
|
China's military has banned "fashionable tattoos" and heavy snorers. This begs the question:
The report does not say how the army will test for chronic snoring
His fellow soldiers will know, but then I guess it's too late.
11:19:52 PM 
|
|
Walid Phares has written a thorough and detailed analysis of Osama Bin Laden's latest audio tape. This one, he says, is worth some extra attention.
This is not just another audiotape or videotape of a renegade in some cave. Regardless of who is the speaker and his whereabouts, the 30 minutes long read statement is a declaration, probably as important as the February 1998 declaration of war against America, the Crusaders and their allies.
Read it all.
Osama Bin Laden's list of targets is ever increasing. We could argue his range of targets, from Danish cartoonists to Sudan, shows that he has lost the plot. Unfortunately, there are Jihadis around the world listening to his voice.
Speaking of which: Terrorists have hit Egypt, again targetting tourist resorts, this time Dahab in southern Sinai.
Three explosions rocked Egypt's Sinai resort town of Dahab on Monday night, leaving at least 30 people dead and 160 wounded.
One blast hit a hotel, a second a restaurant and the third explosion rocked a supermarket in the resort town's tourist area about 7:15 p.m. local time (1715 GMT). Egyptian authorities said the blasts were likely not caused by suicide bombers but rather bombs that had been planted.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak called the explosions a "wicked terrorist act".
The hotel alone had 18 dead and hundreds wounded. Still no confirmation of claims of responsibility, but the land that originated the Islamic Brotherhood is not exactly short of suspects.
Bombings in the resorts of Taba and Ras Shitan, near the Israeli border, killed 34 people in October 2004. Last July, suicide attackers in the resort of Sharm el-Sheik killed at least 64 people, mainly tourists.
The Egyptian government has said the militants who carried out the bombings were locals without international connections, but other security agencies have said they suspect al-Qaida.
Israel has raised its readiness. The area is a popular holiday resort for Israelis, but the nationalities of the victims are not yet known.
10:28:58 PM
|
|
This serious problem came up on a Danish Muslim message board (which I just posted about in my Norwegian blog): What if you think you broke wind during wudu (ritual ablution before prayer) but aren't really sure? Breaking wind, as well as more drastic events, invalidates a wudu.
An answer was given, from an authoritative source (for Sunnis anyway):
I have just started praying recently this year and i now have this problem when ever i start doing whudu i seem to feel little bubbles trying to leave, sometimes it comes out whilst im doing whudu or whilst im praying. I would like to know if my whudu is broken?
This apparently exposes one to all sorts of problems, of which the smell and embarrassment is the least of your concerns. But, no fear, the prophet himself, and the countless legal scholars in the different traditions of Islamic law, has actually treated this problem with the seriousness it deserves.
IF YOU ARE NOT SURE that you passed wind (after performing wudu''), then you assume that you did not pass wind. [Ibn `Abidin, "Radd al-Muhtar," and Ibn Nujaym, "Al-Ashbah"]
Thus, if you are in the process of making wudu'' at the time, then you continue with your wudu''; or if you already made wudu; and had started praying, then continue with the salah. As long as it is mere doubt, and you are not certain that any wind has exited, you should not heed it, for it is likely to be Satan trying to distract you from the worship.
Satan, undoubtedly! Sneaky guy, interfering with bowel movements. An infidel may well believe such events are caused by the peas you ate for dinner, but that just demonstrates ignorance.
In case you should think the above quotation is private speculation, no, there is an authoritative hadith explaining the Satanic origins of false wind-breaking during wadu.
And in another hadith we find:
"Satan may come to one of you in salah and blow air in his bottom, making him imagine that he has lost his wudu. So, when one experiences that, he should not turn away [from the salah] unless he hears a sound or smells an odour." [Narrated by Bazzar as in Bulugh al-Maram]
Now, I would hate to live in a society where people actually were allowed to make up their own opinions about breaking wind.
6:04:34 PM
|
|
Al-Jazeera has aired parts of a new, and quite recently made, audio tape from Osama Bin Laden. The al-Qaeda leader had quite a few things on his mind.
On the tape, bin Laden says "the opposition to the Hamas government is proof of the crusade against Muslims."
Bin Laden and other al Qaeda figures use the term "crusaders" to refer to Christians.
More specifically, he said "Zionist-crusader war", reiterating the anti-Semitic conspiracy theories that are bread and butter for the Salafi-Jihadist movement.
He also says on the new tape that any such war "is the joint responsibility of the people and the government."
To justify, again, the killing of civilians. For the Jihadists, this is a total war. For the west, it is fought one arm behind the back (and a lot of voices on the left are trying to twist that arm).
Responding to the tape, Hamas spokesman Sam Abu Zuhri said Hamas has "a different ideology" than that of al Qaeda.
Good PR move from Hamas. And, indeed, Bin Laden referred negatively to Hamas' decision to go the democratic route.
Bin Laden also had a few words on the Sudan-Darfur conflict (Sudan was his old refuge and homeland):
The speaker also criticised Western involvement in the troubled Darfur region of Sudan, saying it was part of the "crusades against Islam" and called for militants to journey there to join the fight.
"I call on mujahideen and their supporters, especially in Sudan and the Arab peninsula, to prepare for long war again the crusader plunderers in Western Sudan," the voice said. "Our goal is not defending the Khartoum government but to defend Islam, its land and its people."
That is an interesting choice of words in an ethnic conflict that has Muslim Arabs waging a genocide against Muslim black Africans. He did not condemn nor endorse any action. His concern is keeping all non-Muslims out of Muslim lands, even as the non-Muslims actually try to stop a genocide against Muslims. Bin Laden doesn't object to some genocides here and there (his one criticism of Khartoum is relinquishing control of the south to the infidels). Religious purity is his sole concern.
Finally, Bin Laden condemned the infamous Mohammad cartoons, saying the cartoon artists must be expelled to face shariah-style "justice." Ever the politician, Bin Laden presses a lot of buttons to gain a larger following in the Muslim world.
The BBC has more excerpts from the tape.
12:58:15 AM
|
|
|
© Copyright 2006 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.05.2006; 13:05:21.
|
|
|
