TERRORISM

Ask a Terrorist

A 9/11 mastermind invites journalists for an online chat? Behind Al Qaeda's latest publicity tactic.

By Vivian Salama | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Dec 20, 2007

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  • Posted By: American_Patriot @ 01/16/2008 2:41:28 AM

    Faminchin, you call what the Iraqis are experiencing "Freedom"? You obviously have no idea what freedon s seeing that you have never experienced the lack thereof. American arrogance is wha has caused mot of the anti-ameicanism so profound across the world,Western europea and South American countries included. The sad thing is that Americans have not suffered the pain of war on our own lands since the Civil War. Americans just jam their fat asses into Suvs and gripe about the prce of gas. Some people act like 9/11 was the worst thing that ould have happened to America, and although tragic, it was not near the caliber of horror that has gone on in places like Darfur, Bosinia, and Iraq. If we were the occupied country things would be a whole lot different. Its so disgusting how people who are figting against the ocupation of their land by foreign entities are called insurgents or by their fellow country men patriots. They are doing what any proud patriot of any nation would do. The right winged fanatic Americans jusify their mass murder by makingi some kind of crusade. I used to be proud of this counry, but Bush and his cowboy crusaders have left little to envy. I am ashamed of America's moden Colonization of foreign lands.They only procede to villanze muslims so that no one contests the America brand of terrorism. So much for the land of the free and the home of the brave. I have lost all faith in our leaders and fellow citizens who breed hate in order to make material gains. What makes American soldiers' lives more valualble than the soldiers of other nations or Christans lives more valuable that those of other faiths? Wake up and smell the truth people, what we are doing is wrong, and we have no one to blame but ourselves for our ignorant complacency.

  • Posted By: shoegen @ 12/30/2007 1:26:47 AM

    Al Qaeda is succeding in one thing and that is highlighting all the ugliness of a religeon that claims to be a beautiful gift to the world. HUH. If we could see into the hearts of men we would see an evil darkness in these so-called devout followers of Mohammed and he would be looking back at us like a demon who wants only to destroy the good and have the world flow with the blood of all the non-believers.

  • Posted By: KevB @ 12/28/2007 6:31:30 AM

    I cannot believe some of the things I'm reading. Blaming Democrats and the "liberal" media for our woes? The media ebbs and flows in it's coverage. FOX tends to be a little to the right and CNN a little to the left. Overall it depends on the timing. I would like to think that the press is overall fair and honest in it's reporting, but alas we are all only human and sometimes get swept up in this moment or that movement. The press these days, okay always, has had to consider what sells so that they can stay in business, so you'll always see trashy tabloid journalism. That's just the way it is. Most however try to do a good job of keeping people informed. Stories like this do give free press to the bad guys, but I'd like to think, and hope that people understand why reporting on the bad guys is a good thing. It helps you understand why people do the things they do. An educated person will read between the lines, especially if it's a well produced story. It really bothers me when people get so wrapped up in their cause that they can't see things any other way than their own. Ignorance is one step on the stairway to stupidity, Intolerance is one step on the stairway to anarchy.

    Kevin B

    • Posted By: faminchin @ 12/28/2007 9:18:53 AM

      Your say, "I'd like to think, and hope that people understand why reporting on the bad guys is a good thing".

      I say it's one thing to report on the bad guys, and it's totally another to make the bad guys out to be good guys. ABC evening news compared the terrorist to our founding fathers.......really? I just don't remember reading in the history books about our founding fathers blowing up children and killing innocent civilians...do you?

      I heard the highjackers that were responsible for killing over 3000 innocent civilians referred to as "somebody's son". Nothing but an attempt to humaize these demons.

      We are dealing with sub human individuals here. Demons with no soul or consience. Those who are bent on world domination, and have repeatedly declared that their journey to world domination consist of killing everyone that does not bow down to Islam.

      Where are the articles telling us what they really are and what they are really saying? Instead all we get are articles of how Bush is a demon, articles on how Bush must be destroyed.

      You say Fox leans to the right? But from where I sit, FOX is centered. It just because all of our other media is so far left, being centered makes them appear to be on the right.

      But it should be the media's job to report the facts! Tell us what's going on, without allowing their political adjenda to influence their reporting. What happened to those days? Now all we get are talk shows with the press giving us their opinions and to hell with the facts.

      I believe, if Americans were allowed to see the beheadings and all the savage killings these terrorist committ, America would be more resolved to hunt them down. But these things aren't shown to our country. All we see and hear is how our troops are murders and savages......when our troops have done a stellar job and should be commended for their efforts!

      We are more concerned with waterboarding the savages we fight, than the beheadings they commit! We are more concerned with getting Bush, than getting the savages that have forced us into this war we fight!

      • Posted By: jeromemmm @ 12/29/2007 1:21:08 PM

        You just shot yourself in the foot. If someone who killed is to be demonized, what about the troops who go into Iraq to do mass killings. Today, more than 50,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed by American troops.

        • Posted By: faminchin @ 12/29/2007 11:23:10 PM

          To attempt to compare these cowardly terrorist that hide behind women and children to the United State Military is a complete joke! You have one group that blows themselves up, killing anybody and everybody around them, and you have the US Military that does everything in their power to avoid killing while upholding the peace and hunting down these savages. You sound like a Democratic Congressman! Why do you hate these brave men and women who volunteered to serve in the military? What is so hard about giving them the credit they deserve. Remember how people like yourself said we could never invade Iraq, the streets would run with blood? Yet in about a week our troops walked freely down the streets of Bagdad.

          The American troops are in Iraq, building hospitals, schools, homes...repairing the instructure that the cowardly terrorist continue to destroy....and you try to compare the two........your warpped!

      • Posted By: jeromemmm @ 12/29/2007 1:25:33 PM

        You just shot yourself in the foot. If someone who kills lots of people needs to be demonized, then the same can be said of the American troops.

  • Posted By: Markwri @ 12/29/2007 9:45:01 PM

    My first question would be:
    How does osama like the weather and life within the Pushton and Yamoudi Networks on the SE edge of the kari kum bowl in Turkmanistan? About 100 mile strait N of Herat, Afghanistan.

  • Posted By: onefriendforyoutoday @ 12/28/2007 3:13:36 AM

    Treason? That is a good word from a former soldier to describe our Media and our liberal Democrats. Actually the Democratic Party of the United States of America besides being a treasonous entity and an asset to Bin Laden's war of terror is also a bigger menace to America's survival than Bin Laden and the entire islamic world could ever hope to be. All great nations fall because the disintegrate from within. by the Democratic Party launching warfare against America's Christian heritage, morality, freedom, and living for the visions of socialism and godlessness they are the infective poison that is killing us from within. On top of that they feel they are holier than thou and God put together and are on a crusade to get thepower to eliminate Christ from America. They have just about won their war... but there is not much to celebrate in a victory that yields the benefit of temporal and eternal damnation... but the joy of sef coronation seems to be what makes them oblibvios to reality as it often does to all of us when we sin... in a self righteous sort of way.

    • Posted By: okie_magic @ 12/28/2007 8:41:33 PM

      Religious wingnuts are responsible for most of the killing in the Middle East. Think about that before you point the finger.

  • Posted By: ryanh_07 @ 12/28/2007 1:48:17 PM

    I agree with faminchin 100%. Why oh why does our media and those that follow tend to want to humanize monsters and demonize anything or anyone that stands up for freedom and equality? In other words why are we not highley agitated that our enemies violently kill (by beheading) and torture innocents with drills and electric shock etc. daily and purposley with a world domination goal. Lets crush them like the disgusting insects they are and stop trying to discrminate against our own nation (The best nation on the face of this planet). We are spoiled wrotten over here and have nothing to do but complain about our own government which offers fantastic quality of life and most importantly.....FREEDOM..People need to wake up

  • Posted By: Controversial Brit @ 12/28/2007 12:30:36 PM

    I have the answer to all of the worlds ills, 'PUT WOMEN IN CHARGE' it's the age old measuring game that men play that will be the downfall of us all....

  • Posted By: Sambo85 @ 12/24/2007 12:13:48 PM

    First, I'd like to apologize to you for the rudeness of my first comment. I was angry about other things, and anonymity is an enabler, or something like that.

    Second, I am going to guess that the first is Pelosi and the second is Bin Laden. Although, I admit, that if not for the words 'the Americans,' 'fate,' and 'ideological downfall' I would not be so confident about my choice. What I should have said in my first post is that comparing selected lines drawn out of context, however similar, does not prove anything. I dont think that Nancy Pelosi and Bin Laden have the same things in mind when they say these things. Although, it may be that our presence in Iraq is not good for either of us.

    I guess I differ with your assessment here because I do not believe a member of congress calling the president a fool is treasonous, especially when a majority of Americans seem to have feelings along those lines. I???m not so sure about the ethicality of calling the Speaker of the House a traitor though. It is detrimental to the goals of any operation to attack leadership. However, after a certain amount of time when goals are still not established, thousands of lives have been lost, massive amounts of resources have been consumed, little tangible progress has been made, and no end is in sight top leadership must be brought to blame. Especially in a case like this where leadership has lied and refused to alter its course.

    I know Ill catch hell for arguing semantics, but most definitions of terrorist groups require that they are sub national. So your quotes don't show terrorists celebrating Democratic victories. I???m not going to cite this but you can Google it. And besides, I don???t think that it is wise to base our political choices on whether they are anti-Iranian enough. Anyway, I don???t take much stock in the Iranian's declaring 'victories.' I think they would declare any minor gain, real or percieved, a victory over America just for PR. The fact that Dems are less likely to go to war with Iran does not mean that Iran has gained much. The Dems will still be very tough on them.

    Send q-tips.

    • Posted By: faminchin @ 12/26/2007 9:59:33 AM

      I believe you get my point anyway. And I honestly believe, if we were to sit down and chat, we would have much more in common than you might think.

      I have been to Iraq 3 seperate times on mission trips. On my last visit I couldn't help but notice that things are better in Iraq right now than they have ever been. What people seem to want to forget is that Saddam was a murdering dictator thug that ruled by fear. That is why his own people hung him. Having Saddam gone is a plus for this region of the world.

      Now the Iraqi people are experiencing "freedom" for the first time in over two thousand years. I believe it is Americans that have expectations set too high. We expect the Iraqi's to develop into a democracy over night, while it has taken us over 200 years to get there ourselves. May I remind you that we had slavery in our own country. It was over 100 years before women were allowed to vote. So in many ways, Iraq is way ahead of where we started ourselves.

      But you don't see the things our troops are doing in Iraq in our media. They aren't showing us the hospitals and schools our troops have built. They don't report on the instructure that our troops are repairing. They don't tell us how the terrorist destroyed the instructure, they instead imply that it's been destoyed by us being there. Our media continues to try to "humanize" these demons that kill innocence. They want us to relate to these murders that blow up children and teach them to hate. Why is that? I believe it's just because they hate Bush so much, they are willing to side with our enemies.

      Believe me when I tell you, the terrorist take comfort in our media's reports on Iraq, and they take comfort in the words of our politicians. The whole idea that our country is split, give them hope. I used the word "treason", because providing aid and comfort to our enemies is the defination of the word.........and that's what's happening.

      If the United States presented a united front, determined to wipe out these radical islamic terrorist, they wouldn't be able to recruit new members. Being divided, gives them hope that if they hold out long enough, eventally they can win. And all they have to do to claim victory......is survive.

      It's a horrible thing for me to say this, but it's also a horrible world in which we live.

  • Posted By: Sambo85 @ 12/24/2007 2:46:22 AM

    Faminchin, you say in your comment that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are saying the same things as Osama bin Laden and Zawahiri I wonder if you could post some examples of this, or cite some speeches. Also, please cite where learned that terrorists celebrate Democratic victories. I also celebrate them and what you said makes me worry that I am unpatriotic.

    The accusation that Democrats did not debate the issue of going to war adequately could be applied to Republicans as well. This was everyone's mistake. Oh, and we did not send or sons and daughters to die. We sent them to fight.

    I am glad that you know the answers to all of our political problems. This gives me great comfort. However, I will keep my head in my animals butt. It smells awful, but at least it muffles the sound of you talking.

    • Posted By: faminchin @ 12/24/2007 9:16:17 AM

      If you really want to play, who said this....lets go:

      "I believe that the president's leadership in the actions taken in Iraq demonstrate an incompetence in terms of knowledge, judgment and experience in making the decisions that would have been necessary to truly accomplish the mission."

      "If the Americans do not respond, then their fate will be that of the Soviets who fled from Afghanistan to deal with their military defeat, political breakup, ideological downfall, and economic bankruptcy."

      One is a statement made by Osama Bin Laden, the other is a statement made by Nancy Pelosi. Can you guess which is which?

      Here is a quote from the media shortly after our past elections:

      Iran???s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday called U.S. President George W. Bush???s defeat in congressional elections a victory for Iran. ??????This issue (the elections) is not a purely domestic issue for America, but it is the defeat of Bush???s hawkish policies in the world,??? Khamenei said in remarks reported by Iran???s student news agency ISNA on Friday.

      ???Since Washington???s hostile and hawkish policies have always been against the Iranian nation, this defeat is actually an obvious victory for the Iranian nation. ??? The result of this election indicates that the majority of American people are dissatisfied and are fed up with the policies of the American administration,??? the IRNA state news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.


      Now I have not called you unpatriotic, that is something you say you are feeling yourself, and most people that have taken the time to educate themselves about the topic can understand why your feeling this way. I didn't single out Democrats as the only ones that failed to debate the issues either, just as the ones that have chosen to undermine the mission afterwards.

      So if you ever decide to take your head out of the donkey's butt, don't forget to get some q-tips to clean all the donkey dung out of your ears.

  • Posted By: faminchin @ 12/22/2007 2:37:40 PM

    I just believe there is a fine line between dissent, and treason, when our country is at war and our troops are in harms way. Their are too many people today, so filled with hatred for Bush, that they are willing to side with our enemies in order to destroy him. Seriously, if you only had the text and not the audio, of some of the things being said today, you could not tell if it was Reid, Pelosi, Zawahiri, or Bin Laden speaking. Now I can't tell you if Reid and Pelosi are repeating what they hear Zawahiri and Bin Laden saying, or if Zawahiri and Bin Laden are repeating what they here Reid and Pelosi saying on CNN every day? But I know I would personally be concerned if my words and the words of our nations enemies were the same....wouldn't you? Why is it that terrorist around the world celebrated the Democrats victory in our past election?

    And the thing that disturbs me the most is, these are the same Democrats that voted to send our troops into harms way in the first place. Why didn't this discussion take place before they sent our sons and daughters to a forgien country to die?

    I already know the answer, but wonder if you can see it? It's all about political power. Not about what's best for our country, but what they see as best for their party. Both sides, Donkey's and Elephant's do it. They vote what they see as best for their party, without reguard to how it effects the people that they were sent to Washington to represent. If you can't see this, try removing your head from the donkey or elephant butt and take a look around once in awhile!

  • Posted By: Maurice-Movement Making The Peace-Brasil-Latin A. @ 12/22/2007 1:24:41 PM

    The Terror born in spirit and the mind mad, this is an ilusion not is real and these violence no is will the God; who is peace, entendiment, diplomacy, aggrement and respect.

  • Posted By: faminchin @ 12/21/2007 8:56:29 AM

    Seriously, what's the difference between Al Qaeda's media strategy, and Newsweek's media strategy? Both obviously hate America......both seem to love it when American troops die....both have done everything humanly possible to destroy Bush....what's the difference between the two? What could we hear from Zawahiri that we haven't been reading in Newsweek, every week, for the past 6 years?

    • Posted By: arias1 @ 12/21/2007 9:26:32 PM

      Oh, and BTW, the media didn't destroy Bush any more than the media destroyed Clinton. Anyone that understands anything about American democracy (which you don't seem to grasp whatsoever) understands the role of the press is to provide a check on governmental powers and report when that power is abused. Bush destroyed himself many times over by first justifying taking America to war based on lies and deceit, and then continued to destroy all his credibility with scandal after scandal plaguing his administration after a democratic congress began providing proper oversight of the executive branch as is it's role to do. His incompetence, speciousness, and outright stupidity in not learning a wit about his mistakes is highlighted by his apocryphal saber rattling that Iran was actively making WMD even after the NIE had briefed him that they stopped in 2003. I seriously suggest you take a political science class so you may better understand how the American political system works.

      • Posted By: faminchin @ 12/22/2007 10:30:06 AM

        Not that I think you care or that I feel I have to justify my comments, but I believe, no matter who is in power, the American Media feels the need to destroy them. I would say that a stark contrast between what they did to Clinton vs Bush is this, our country wasn't at war with Clinton.

        Now just imagine with me for a moment, it's WWII, we have just broken Hitlers secret code and are able to know what Germany is doing now before they do it, suddenly the New York Times prints a front page story on how we have broken his secret code so that our achievement is null. Would you consider their actions to be treason? Yet that's exactly what they have done repeatedly, in their pursuit to destroy Bush. It's like our media feels it's their place to keep our enemy informed about what we are doing, so they can adjust their tactics. This I just don't understand?

        I can see from your post that you suffer from this "Bush Hatred Syndrome" yourself. While I don't believe anybody can call me a Bush fan, I see this hatred for Bush in our country as a sickness. The facts go totally ignored and the propaganda just continues to roll out of people's mouths.

        I believe in a Democracy, discussions are a healthy thing. But I also believe there is a time and place for these discussions to take place. It's before we send our troops into harms way, not after or during. I don't understand how Democrats voted to send our troops into a war zone, and right afterwards they try everything they can to take their legs out from under them?

    • Posted By: arias1 @ 12/21/2007 9:07:35 PM

      faminchin: You actually sound much more reasonable in your more recent posts than this specific rant and the one above it. Your claim that Newsweek 'obviously hates America' does make one question your sanity. It makes you sound like an Orwellian propaganda tool that prefers only to read and report the good news and ignore the bad. Dissent and criticism of the government are a natural part of the democratic process and your quickness to condemn dissenting opinions as haters of America, terrorist lovers, and enablers of the enemy to be a reflection of a very simple mind.

  • Posted By: Im4Darwin @ 12/21/2007 9:35:55 PM

    I find it hard to believe that in the first few years of the 21st Century that there are forces in the world who would want to destroy and murder entire populations simply because they refuse to a certian religious dicispline. Wheather Muslim, Christian, Jewish...what ever...almost every religion believes it has the one..and only path to eternal life and happiness.. This herein lies the problem. All of these religions suffer from the same exclusivness that their theological rivals exhibit. The fact still remains that each is willing to destroy the other...and everyone else in the world...simply for failing to embrace the ideaology that the perpetrators of this on going madness wants others to embrace. If this is the way of the world, and this is truely human nature to hate and want to destroy others simply because their neighbor will not accept a particular theology...than so be it. The human race is lost and will soon wipe it's self off the face of the Earth because humans cannot accept different versions of God than their own. When the last "pious" holy warrior is left standing he will see that all of his efforts were in vain...the only God and religion they really proved to exist in the world is that of Darwinism, and that Humanity could not pass the test of Survivability.

  • Posted By: Singh @ 12/21/2007 3:02:06 PM

    To all those here who say they have read the Koran and that Muhammed was evil and perverse, I'd like to know what you think of the Bible? Especially the old testament, many of the ppl mentioned in the old testament had more than one wife (not to mention servents who sometimes were used as sexual partners), and some of the wars that took place involved killing men women and children, what would be the need in killing women and children and this all was done by men who were Godly and told to do these things by God. I'm not trying to speak against the Bible but it seems strange to me that people are so quick to speak against the Koran without looking at what the Bible says, of course it is impossible to ignore the glaring differances in the predominantly Judeo/Christian based nations in comparison to the Islamic nations.

    • Posted By: 2cents @ 12/21/2007 6:05:24 PM

      Yes all of those stories are in the bible, but they are not the cornerstone of the religion. They are part historical, part fictional accounts of peoples lives used to show examples of justice, kindness, love, etc. The stories of wars, violence, and subjugation do not make the cornerstone of christianity or Islam.

      One only need to look to the rights and ceremonies of a religion to understand its underpinnings. These rituals are used to solidify the essence of the belief in the minds of the believers. Islam has many rituals that are aimed at subjugation (of its own believers and of women) as well as hating nonbelievers and devils. I wrote previously how Islam defines who is and is not a devil quite liberaly allowing for almost anyone or anything to be evil in the eyes of the believers. More importantly Islam practices rituals that teach people to act violently towards what is percieved to be evil. Whether these rituals were designed for this effect is inconsiquential. They do however lead to violence.

      Christian groups, from time to time, do preach these things in a manner that makes it OK to hate and this is also wrong, but hate is nowhere in the traditional rights and sacraments as it is in Islam.

  • Posted By: Singh @ 12/21/2007 4:16:18 PM

    Hmmm... well, I can see we don't agree on some issues such as the use of war and I was a Christian most of my life before I became a Sikh so I know there are differances in our religions, but ultimately I believe our religions teach the same thing and I believe we agree on the most important issue, things like loving others, devotion to the one and only God, and the fact that we do not need to fear death because we can be sure of what lies ahead, God! =) and what could be better than God. Thank you for the discussion, I will continue to think of what you said, and I'm sure if I am wrong in any of my beliefs God will point them out to me in his good time.

  • Posted By: jackiesmith1011 @ 12/21/2007 2:59:11 PM

    Maybe we should take another approach to get rid of the trash from the MidEast. Not all of them are bad, but the ones that are radicals need to be taken care of. They are ruining our world

    • Posted By: manbearpig @ 12/21/2007 4:02:50 PM

      Running the risk of being branded a tree-hugging commie mullah, I say that we root out the bad guys' support structures. Let's actually be good to the people we pledge to bring to glorious Freedom in Iraq, Afghanisatan and elsewhere. When the common man in the middle-east doesn't have a reason to think that we are the bad guys, the local support that AQ-like groups enjoy today will be harder to come by. Let's not cavort with evil dictators in this region beside whom Pol Pot looks like a saint, and simultaneously harp about how freedom and democracy in the world is what we stand for. Look at Jordan, Qatar, Turkey, and to a lesser extent Egypt and UAE. AQ doesn't have any standing in these countries because the people in those countries don't hate us as much as the oppressed peoples of the middle east. When they think we are ruining their world, they will root for the guys who want to ruin our world. I think we have the stature to lead the world and stop playing tit-for-tat.

  • Posted By: faminchin @ 12/21/2007 3:40:22 PM

    Singh....to answer your question, Jesus said, "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this; that he lay down his life for his friends".

    So to sacrifice your life for another is most honorable and rightous.

    Now, would I ask you to committ murder to save my life? Not a chance. I have faith and knowledge of where I am going after this life and do not fear death. It's all in God's hands, and while we are discussing two different books, The Bible and the Koran, I believe there is but one God, and we worship the same God.

    Now I can go on and on about The Trinity and my belief on that subject, but I seriously believe there is too much focus on differences between religions, and not enough focus on the similaries. To say you don't believe Jesus was against war is wrong. Take a look at the history of his time. His country was invaded and ruled by a forgien power, the Romans. Jesus had multiple opportunities to rally support for war and oppose the Romans, but he didn't do so. Instead, when asked, he said, "Give unto Cesaer, what is Cesaer's, and give unto the Lord, what is the Lords."

    I have to confess, I am not very familiar with the Sikh religion. I have done much research and study on Islam during the past 6 years. But I say to you my friend, we shouldn't argue about our differences. We should instead focus on our simlaries and allow God to bind us together. I have always said that religions and denominations are all man made, and it is possible to find God in all of them. It's not important whats on the outside, but whats in your heart that counts with God. Jesus came and taught us what's really important, and there is nothing in this world worth killing over, when our true treasure awaits us in another life. I hope this helps you to understand where I am coming from. Jesus came, and died on the cross, because God's people had gone astray. Without the sacrifice Jesus made, none of us would be worthy to come into God's presence.

  • Posted By: jackiesmith1011 @ 12/21/2007 2:58:01 PM

    Unforutanely, I think that Islam has been hijacked. I think we need to take care of the "trash" in a more strategic way. Maybe Hitler chose the wrong group

  • Posted By: manbearpig @ 12/21/2007 1:51:13 PM

    faminchin - won't we be better human beings if we are able to make informed decisions after knowing both sides of the story, rather than being shepherded around? We may support our government even when we know that a few of the government's actions are not very wise. But it is dangerous if we have "faith" in our government in the same way as we have faith in God. One of the reasons Al Qaeda and other assorted extremist Muslim organizations in the world are so hated and hateful is that they have completely closed their minds to a different point of view. If we do the same mistake we will just be fanatics on the other side of the pond. Because we read Newsweek or hear Pelosi on CSPAN doesn't mean we support their points of view. Same way if we hear an interview with Zawahiri doesn't mean we support him or his organization. In war, knowing how the enemy thinks is a tremendous advantage.

  • Posted By: Singh @ 12/21/2007 1:21:32 PM

    I don't believe Jesus was against war, but like any sane person I'm sure he hated war. The reason Jesus did not fight back is because he was supposed to be a sinless sacrifice (I'm a Sikh so I don't really believe Jesus was God but I do understand what Christians believe. I think Jesus would approve of self defense and the protection of others as long as violence was used as last resort. Faminchin...if a man pointed a gun to your head and was going to kill you and I just happened to be there at the time and I was able to stop him let's say I tried to talk him out of what he was doing but he refused and lets say I also had a gun (hidden in my coat), I tried to resolve the problem in a nonviolent way which didn't work so what else could I do? I could try to save myself and run away and let him kill you, or I could shoot him before he kills you. What would be the right thing to do? I think the right thing to do would be to shoot the attacker even if I knew I'd have to die in order to save your life, if the attacker was still alive obviously I'd try to save his life as well, but even if he did die it would not be my fault, he chose to follow evil...
    I believe the only time to use violent force is to protect myself and others as a last resort, I believe that Jesus would have no problem with this. If you look at the lives of the Sikh gurus and there deaths, you will see many similarities to Jesus, as well as other major Biblical figures.
    I'm willing to die for others, and I'm willing to fight for the protection of others, I've held this belief before I ever even found out about Sikhism, although becoming a Sikh has really helped to allow me to escape the fear of death.
    I'm sorry, I'm getting off topic.

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