Wednesday, July 13, 2005

ISLAM TODAY. Remember the man who killed film maker Theo van Gogh in Amsterdam, Netherlands, in 2004? Yesterday he confessed in court to murder. Mohammed Bouyeri shot van Gogh, slashed his throat and pinned a note to his body with a knife. The note threatened the writer of van Gogh’s movie, which was critical of Islam’s tolerance of violence against women.

During his confession, Bouveri said “I did what I did purely out my beliefs. I want you to know that I acted out of conviction and not that I took his life because he was Dutch or because I was Moroccan and felt insulted. “If I ever get free, I would do it again." He went on to tell the victim’s mother he did not sympathize with her loss.

There are almost 1 million more of these guys living in the Netherlands.

England is still working to recover from the attack on London. British police raided six homes yesterday, searching for explosives and computer files. They appear to have decided this was a suicide bombing. The police also arrested a relative of one of the suspected bombers. The Associated Press reported that at least three of the presumed suicide bombers were British citizens of Pakistani ancestry.

Evidently, this is not the first attempt. Pakistan's interior minister said an attack was prevented before the elections in May and several suspects were arrested in several countries, all with the help of Pakistan.

Some people thing the attack in England is the beginning of new activity. They expect an attack on the U. S. soon. Juval Aviv, a Counterterrorism expert, predicts, based on information from Europe and the Middle East, that a terrorist “event” is imminent in the United States. Juval Aviv used to be a Counterterrorism Intelligence Officer in Israel. He served as a consultant to the U.S. Congress on terrorism. He thinks an attack will happen no later than ninety days from now. He believes they will hit six to eight cities simultaneously and that they will hit rural America in order to cause the maximum psychological impact.

The same group that claimed credit for the bombings in London threatened Italy and Denmark with attacks if they do not withdraw from Iraq. Denmark should send some Vikings to take care of this problem.

Islamic Arabs continue to attack Israel, of course. A Palestinian suicide bomber detonated explosives strapped to his body outside a mall in the West Bank Tuesday. He killed himself and three Israeli women. The 18 year old detonated 22 pounds of explosives outside the HaSharon Mall, which was bombed twice before. (Palestinians particularly hate shoppers.) This bomb was packed with ball bearings and other bits of metal to create a shrapnel effect.

On February 25, a Palestinian blew himself up outside the Stage Club in Tel Aviv and killed five people. Israel closed the West Bank. It also threatened reprisals. It should be noted that Palestinian leaders condemned the bombing.

It's just another day.

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