H. R. McMaster Quotes

Some of the Prophet’s followers by modern standards were very violent and urged attacks on innocent people in order to intimidate others. He was expelled from his Egyptian university and arrested, tried and found guilty of “holding religion in contempt”. Which is a crime in most Islamic countries. He also “insulted” the President. He is the first blogger to have been jailed in Egypt for the contents of his blog. See {585058}.

See {586916} for a passage from the Koran supporting his point.

In September of 2005 a Danish Newspaper published some political cartoons showing the hypocrisy of some Muslims who use Islam to justify murder of innocents and terrorism. Many in the Middle East protested vehemently because the Prophet Muhammad's visage was depicted against Islamic tradition. Many Muslim leaders claimed that insulting religion was an “abuse” of freedom of speech including those from nations which regularly publish material that is virulent against Christians and Jews. Momani reprinted the cartoons and wrote this editorial arguing that the cartoons insulted Islam far less than the terrorism and murder—especially a recent murder of Muslims in Amman attending an Islamic wedding ceremony, He was fired by the newspaper owners and then actually arrested by the Jordanian authorities for “Insulting Religion.”

Language differences and code words of different cultures are not always understood by other cultures. In this case the Sheikh wanted to condemn terrorism which was the official position of the Saudi Arabian government. However, Saudi Arabia, because it contains Mecca the Islamic Holy City, has a preeminent place in the Muslim world has a position of leadership which no other Islamic country has. While people in the West applauded the statement, it had little or no impact in the Muslim world. The reason is that the Arabic word he used for terrorism was a heinous one—a word which Islamic Terrorists (and most other Muslims) believe does not refer to their activities. Terrorism culturally means only acts of violence which are not morally justified. Not only do most Muslim terrorists perceive that they are Morally justified, but most have been given various fatwas (religious legal rulings) that says that their acts are required by God. For example, in a perversity of logic, Hamas—the Palestinian terrorist organization—sees Israeli acts like assassinating the suicide bomb engineers as terrorism while their behavior is a legitimate, moral struggle for national liberation. Few Islamic religious leaders speak out against terrorism, and those who do are often not understood to apply to Islamic terrorists.

The column was written in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist murder of hundreds of school children and adults in Russia. The newspaper was the largest Arab newspaper in the world.

“Martyrdom” is the euphemism that fundamentalist Muslims use to denote being killed while “fighting for Islam” or on a suicide mission for same. Many believe that such people ascend directly to Paradise where they are given a bevy of virgins and other “perks.” Ironically, this was the last interview that he gave before he himself was “martyred”—he was killed by coalition troops. This mental perspective is one of the reasons that fighting fundamentalist Islamic terrorists is so difficult. They perceive victory whichever way the battle or even the war comes out.