It should be noted what kind of statements have been produced by previous OIC summits. In their 2003 gathering, Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir said:
The Europeans killed 6 million Jews out of 12 million, but today the Jews rule the world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them.
We are up against a people who think. They survived 2000 years of pogroms not by hitting back but by thinking. They invented Socialism, Communism, human rights and democracy so that persecuting them would appear to be wrong, so that they can enjoy equal rights with others.
With these they have now gained control of the most powerful countries and they, this tiny community, have become a world power.
1.3 billion Muslims cannot be defeated by a few million Jews. There must be a way.
Er, ah... thanks for the compliment. What has changed since that time?
Some 26,000 Iraqi civilians, mostly Shiite, have been murdered by Islamist terrorists. Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has survived at least 2 assassination attempts by Muslim radicals. Saudi Arabia has suffered a slew of terror attacks -- smack-dab in the heart of Islam. And, course, there was al-Qaeda's attack against a Muslim wedding.
The list goes on and on and on and on... The victims of Islamic terror are mostly Muslims.
What else has changed? Afghanistan's Taliban and Iraq's Butcher of Baghdad have been knocked over, creating a strong wind blowing against the Middle East's dictators. The United Arab Emirates just announced plans for its first elections. Millions of Afghans have voted twice, millions of Iraqis have voted twice, Lebanon is free of Syrian occupation (and has held elections), Kuwait has granted women the right to vote, and Saudi Arabia has held municipal elections — and the Saudis allowed women to vote and stand as candidates in an election held last week.
Maybe Middle Eastern populations are starting to look for some accountability from their "leaders" – e.g., protection from terrorists. As Michael Rubin puts it:
Long home to farfetched conspiracy theories and a political culture of victimization, the Arab world is now being swept by a new emphasis on accountability. While commentators and pundits debate the merits, drawbacks and sincerity of the Bush administration's drive for democracy, events across the Middle East suggest that the relationship between rulers and the governed has been significantly transformed.
But talk is cheap, and action in the Arab/Muslim world rarely follows suit. After all this senseless murder, one would hope that at least a modicum of a desire for self-preservation would crop up. Sadly, many Arab/Muslim regimes have fueled the terror they now suffer from -- to keep their citizens preoccupied with hatred, instead of the oppressive regimes they suffer under. Let us hope that's changing a little.
I like the words, but eagerly await the action.
Cross-posted at IsraPundit and http://netwmd.com/blog/2005/12/09/221
Hat tip to lignaeus
Organization of the Islamic Conference Vows to Fight Extremism
By Andrew L. Jaffee, netwmd.com
I couldn't believe my eyes while reading the Haaretz article, "Muslim nations vow to combat extremist religion, rein in terror." The 50 "nations" referred to include Algeria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. They met in Mecca, Islam's holiest city. Together, the members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) issued a manifesto declaring:
It should be noted what kind of statements have been produced by previous OIC summits. In their 2003 gathering, Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir said:
Er, ah... thanks for the compliment. What has changed since that time?
Some 26,000 Iraqi civilians, mostly Shiite, have been murdered by Islamist terrorists. Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has survived at least 2 assassination attempts by Muslim radicals. Saudi Arabia has suffered a slew of terror attacks -- smack-dab in the heart of Islam. And, course, there was al-Qaeda's attack against a Muslim wedding.
The list goes on and on and on and on... The victims of Islamic terror are mostly Muslims.
What else has changed? Afghanistan's Taliban and Iraq's Butcher of Baghdad have been knocked over, creating a strong wind blowing against the Middle East's dictators. The United Arab Emirates just announced plans for its first elections. Millions of Afghans have voted twice, millions of Iraqis have voted twice, Lebanon is free of Syrian occupation (and has held elections), Kuwait has granted women the right to vote, and Saudi Arabia has held municipal elections — and the Saudis allowed women to vote and stand as candidates in an election held last week.
Maybe Middle Eastern populations are starting to look for some accountability from their "leaders" – e.g., protection from terrorists. As Michael Rubin puts it:
But talk is cheap, and action in the Arab/Muslim world rarely follows suit. After all this senseless murder, one would hope that at least a modicum of a desire for self-preservation would crop up. Sadly, many Arab/Muslim regimes have fueled the terror they now suffer from -- to keep their citizens preoccupied with hatred, instead of the oppressive regimes they suffer under. Let us hope that's changing a little.
I like the words, but eagerly await the action.
Cross-posted at IsraPundit and http://netwmd.com/blog/2005/12/09/221
Hat tip to lignaeus
Posted by Andrew Jaffee at December 9, 2005 01:20 PM