In the Shadow of the Knights Templar

"In his manifesto, the gunman said he was not a direct member of any organisation or group... 'No group ordered my attack, I make the decision myself,' he said. 'Though I did contact the reborn Knights Templar for a blessing in support of the attack, which was given'. Dr Roose said little was known about membership of the reborn Knights Templar, originally a Christian fighting force active in the medieval era. But he said the movement harked back to 'a time of perceived Western superiority'." (From 'vocal ratbags' a deadly threat emerges, Andrew Burrell, Paul Maley, The Australian, 16/3/19)

American singer/songwriter David Rovics, in his brilliant 2011 song, Breivik, could equally have been writing about our own, home-grown Knight Templar/Anders Breivik, the thoroughly medieval Brenton Tarrant: 

They say he acted alone for a Europe white and free
A sick and twisted man from an otherwise sane society
The image of Aryan blond, almost iridescent
With a manifesto quoting from the Crusades to the present
But he stood on many shoulders, of this we can be sure
A millenia of xenophobes who slaughter to be pure
Since before the First Crusade, when a mighty Christian band
Hacked and stabbed and burned their way to the Holy Land

They say he acted alone but in his mind he was another
Of those who came before him, his mighty Christian brothers
Who rode, covered in armour, and served their masters well
They vowed to chastity, they vowed to kill the infidel
They marauded west and east in the name of Christendom
They killed Jews, Muslims, pagans, fellow Christians by the thousand
In the name of Jesus, from the Jordan to the Rhine
The red cross on their chest plates, their terrifying sign
In the Shadow of the Knights Templar

They say he acted alone, no one said this of the Pope
Whose victims were left burning or hanging from a rope
The Lord's own Inquisition for six centuries
The ethnic cleansing of a continent, a Christian tyranny
European Jews and European Muslims
Fled the Christian Caliphate to be protected by the Sultan
For five hundred years they prospered beneath the Turkish sky
For those left behind: convert or die
In the shadow of the Knights Templar

They say he acted alone but he's living in a country
Where the xenophobic right is the second-biggest party
And he's living on a continent that is over-run
With Prime ministers who tell us multiculturalism is done
They brag of their traditions, they swell with Christian pride
For their civilization built on genocide
Anders Breivik pulled the trigger but he didn't write the play
That script was being written a thousand years ago today
In the shadow of the Knights Templar

They say he acted alone and they want us to believe
That moderating rhetoric is the best we can achieve
But moderating rhetoric will bring us nowhere near
To the understanding that the problem is right here
European empires, European greed
European Christians, poison European seeds
European racists running European states
European tolerance for European hate
In the shadow of the Knights Templar

Look it up on YouTube.

'Israel Mourns'

The arch-terrorist who presides over a worse-than-apartheid state never misses a trick:

"Israel mourns the wanton murder of innocent worshipers in Christchurch and condemns the brazen act of terror in New Zealand. Israel sends its condolences to the bereaved families and its heartfelt wishes for a speedy recovery to the wounded." (Tweet @netanyahu, 15/3/19)

Seldom has the stench of hypocrisy been so rank.

As it happens, 19 of the 50 slain were reportedly of Palestinian origin, and hence, in one form or another, already the victims of Israel's ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

And this, just before, or after  - I don't know which, and it hardly matters - Netanyahu ordered 100 airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.

Greg Sheridan: Today & Yesterday

A most interesting response to the mosque massacres in New Zealand comes from the foreign editor of The Australian, Greg Sheridan. Suddenly, uncharacteristically, this knee-jerk defender of Israeli apartheid and genocide, is all sweetness and light when it comes to Muslims:

"Today we are all Muslims... Like almost all right-wing terrorism, it was motivated by filthy racism and racial hatred... Everyone involved in politics and online activism should reflect on the dangers of exaggerated rhetoric, exaggerated grievance, exaggerated resentment... Decent social democrats, conservatives, liberals and others do not see race when they interact with other human beings... Yet throughout the West we are in the process of re-emphasising race as the central consideration in our politics." (In face of racist terror, we are all Muslims today, The Australian, 16/3/19)

But MERC has a long memory when it comes to Sheridan. Just cop a load of this Islamophobic dog-whistling:

"Uncontrolled Muslim immigration into Europe has been a public policy failure, if not an outright disaster. This is the view of most Europeans, as measured by opinion polls, and of a large number of European officials and politicians. Having just spent a month in Europe, talking to dozens of officials, politicians and immigrants, it is a view I reluctantly share. This is given sharp relief by the illegal immigration crisis Australia is experiencing to its north. The spike now in boat arrivals involves Sri Lankans, but this is primarily a route that would be used by Muslim illegal immigrants. There is nothing wrong with Muslim immigration. It goes without saying that the vast majority of Muslim immigrants are good Australians and perfectly law-abiding citizens. However, it is simply denying reality to pretend that the cultural distinctiveness and assertiveness of Islam, and of the propensity for a small but distinctively substantial minority to be attracted to extremism, does not pose problems." (Europe looks Down Under for answers on immigration, Greg Sheridan, The Australian, 24/10/09)

That's right, "today we are all Muslims," but what about yesterday? And tomorrow?

Morrison & Tarrant: Six Degrees of Separation?

Scott Morrison 2011:

"The opposition immigration spokesman, Scott Morrison, urged the shadow cabinet to capitalise on the electorate's growing concerns about 'Muslim immigration', 'Muslims in Australia' and the 'inability' of Muslim migrants to integrate." (Morrison sees votes in anti-Muslim strategy, Lenore Taylor, Sydney Morning Herald, 17/2/11)

Scott Morrison 2019:

"I'm horrified by the reports I'm following of the serious shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand. The situation is still unfolding but our thoughts and prayers are with our Kiwi cousins." (Tweet @ScottMorrisonMP, 14/3/19)

Note that Morrison cannot even bring himself to use the word terrorism ("serious shooting"), or Muslims ("Kiwi cousins").

In the mold of the Norwegian white supremacist terrorist Anders Breivik, the white supremacist perpetrator of the New Zealand massacres, Brenton Tarrant, had stated in a manifesto that his aim was "to take revenge for the thousands of deaths caused by foreign invaders in European lands throughout history."

This is arguably only a matter of degrees away from the real Scott Morrison, so beautifully summed up by Sydney Morning Herald journalist Tony Wright. (Remember that, before becoming immigration minister, Morrison was the managing director of Tourism Australia, trying to persuade people to visit Australia through an international advertising campaign starring model Lara Bingle, exclaiming, 'Where the bloody hell are you?'):

"His job these days," wrote Wright, "is to persuade would-be visitors to stay away from Australia. The old tourism chief has reversed his talent for propaganda by launching an international advertising campaign warning that the boat borne will find themselves in a concentration camp in the malarial jungles of Manus Island or the sweat box of Nauru, not a Lara in sight, if they so much as think of climbing aboard a leaky craft. Being an enthusiastic Christian, he declares that his concern is for the safety of what he calls 'illegals'." (Morrison keeps House in dark, 14/11/13)

Great Moments in Qur'anic Commentary

Oh wow:

"Tamim Khaja, 20, who has pleaded guilty to doing an act in preparation for, or planning a terrorist act, had scoped out potential target buildings in Sydney including the Parramatta District Court precinct and Timor Army Barracks... Khaja had said he was motivated not by watching YouTube videos but 'straight from the verses of Koran... Khaja [also] said he would keep in mind that 'it's happening for the sake of Allah' if anyone comes in his way. 'So I'm not going to stop firing. I'm not going to stop firing wallahi [I swear to Allah]. If there's like a two-month-old baby... I wouldn't buckle in that situation, akhi'. " (Terrorist talk was like 'planning a picnic', says judge, AAP/ Sydney Morning Herald, 17/2/18)

Hey, all of you illustrious Qur'anic commentators of the past, it's time to move over! Yes, that includes you Sahl at-Tustari of Basra (d. 896), Ibn al-'Arabi of Andalus (d. 1092), and 'Imad ad-Din Isma'il b. Kathir of Damascus (d. 1373).

There's a new boy on the block from Sydney, Australia, and his Qur'anic commentary is, like, amaaazing.. I mean, who'd have thought you could get the Parramatta District Court precinct, the Timor Army Barracks and distracting, two-month-old babies out of the Qur'an? All that, and he wears a reverse baseball cap too.

Spain's Tony Blair

What a piece of work is (this) man:

"This time it was Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. I am especially aggrieved at the brutal violence that has left dozens dead and injured in one of Europe's most important cities and one of the places I love the most... ," writes former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar in yesterday's Australian (For us not to be defeated, we must defeat terrorists).

Aznar, you'll recall, Spain's prime minister from 1996-2004, joined the 2003 Bush, Blair, Howard jihad against Iraq, which opened that country up to al-Qaida, led directly to the Madrid train bombings of March 2004  (192 killed and over 1,800 wounded), and contributed to his massive defeat in the 2004 Spanish elections.

"A personal responsibility is linked with a political purpose within those who voluntarily sign up for this jihad in its different manifestations. Any anti-terrorist policy that wishes to be successful must actively address these two aspects. In this respect, any self-blame, any reasoning designed to ignore the underlying political purpose, any desire to excuse the terrorist or blame the societies that suffer terrorism - including those with Muslim majorities - is completely out of place." (ibid)

But for Aznar there was no "personal responsibility" attached to "voluntarily signing up" to Bush's jihad in Iraq, nor one iota of "self-blame":

"I am going with my head held high and proud of the job I have done," he declared after being booted out of office in 2004. (Spain's Aznar: No regrets on Iraq War, foxnews.com, 22/3/04)

And, when asked how he felt about the carnage in Madrid, he uttered these words:

"Calm, serene, fulfilling my responsibilities and obligations as always... I see a lot of light in hope and in the future."

Maybe that explains why this war criminal is now a director of News Corp and opining in Murdoch's Australian.

Palestine Can Wait

Not just criminal, cutthroat scum, but mega-delusional as well:

"Spain has been a serious target for Islamic State because of its five-centuries-old land claims to the territory of Melilla and Ceuta, on the African continent bordering Morocco. The Counter-Terrorism Project reports: 'Spain's current anxieties are exacerbated by ISIS, al-Qa'ida, and other Islamist groups' vows to 'reconquer' what they refer to as 'al-Andalus',' the historic Arabic name for the Iberian mainland. Up until the late 15th century, large parts of Spain and Portugal were under the control of an Islamic caliphate. Spain is thus considered part of 'occupied lands' by jihadists and a legitimate target for re-inclusion in a future Islamic Caliphate. A Spanish-speaking ISIS member declared in 2014, 'I tell you, Spain is the land of our forefathers, and, Allah willing, we are going to liberate it, with the might of Allah...'

"Last year Islamic State called on its followers to attack Spanish tourist sites to avenge the crimes committed by Spain against Muslims, referring to the bloody 1212 Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa where 60,000 Muslims were killed." (Tougher controls thwarted attacks, Jacqueline Magnay, The Australian, 19/8/17)

What's Asad Got to Do With It?

This is how the Australian's national security editor, Paul Maley, chooses to introduce his story on the alleged Islamic State plot to blow up a Sydney-Abu Dhabi flight last month:

"As Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad rained down chemical gas on the village of Khan Shaykhun... a senior Islamic State fighter in Syria sent a text message to his brother in Australia." (From Syria to Sydney: how plot unfolded, 5/8/17)

Portrait of a Grub

The Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior, protesting against French nuclear testing in the South Pacific, was blown up by French intelligence agents in Auckland harbour on July 10, 1985, killing Portuguese freelance photographer Fernando Pereira.

Christine Cabon was one of these agents and had been chosen to infiltrate the Greenpeace crew by posing as an environmental activist.

A vile grub by any standards. But note this particular twist in the tale:

"Retired [NZ] detective superintendent Allan Galbraith, who tracked Cabon to Israel, said he didn't expect to see her extradited. But he would like to talk to her: 'I'd be interested to know what she knew about what her information was leading to. Whether she knew there was going to be a sabotage of a ship...'... It was a surprise to find her in Israel,' Galbraith says now. 'I think the Israelis were very well aware she was an intelligence agent'." (No apology as spy tracked down, Cecile Meier, Sunday Star-Times/Sydney Morning Herald, 10/7/17)

The Angry Brigades

In a 9/2/15 post, Me, Myself & I in Raqqa & Melbourne, I featured a snapshot of wannabe Australian jihadi Musa Cerantonio.

Although French political scientist Olivier Roy's focus, in his essay Who are the new jihadis? (theguardian.com, 13/4/17), is on French jihadis, he could just as easily have been writing about the likes of Cerantonio. His essay is therefore as relevant here as in France.

He sees "contemporary jihadism, at least in the west," essentially as a "youth movement... constructed independently of parental religion and culture," and stresses, above all, its nihilistic character:

"The systematic association with death is one of the keys to understanding today's radicalisation: the nihilist dimension is central. What seduces and fascinates is the idea of pure revolt. Violence is not a means. It is an end in itself."

Crucially, he makes the point that contemporary jihadist terrorism "does not arise from the radicalisation of Islam, but from the Islamisation of radicalism."

"The typical radical," Roy points out, "is a young, second-generation immigrant or convert, very often involved in episodes of petty crime, with practically no religious education, but having a rapid and recent trajectory of conversion/reconversion, more often in the framework of a group of friends or over the internet than in the context of a mosque. The embrace of religion is rarely kept secret, but rather is exhibited, but it does not necessarily correspond to immersion in religious practice. The rhetoric of rupture is violent - the enemy is kafir, one with whom no compromise is possible - but also includes their own family, the members of which are accused of observing Islam improperly, or refusing to convert."

In addition to their ignorance of Islam, Roy finds that the type has zero engagement with, or interest in, the real problems and issues that afflict the Middle East:

"The Muslim community such terrorists are eager to avenge is almost never specified. It is a non-historical and non-spatial reality. When they rail against western policy in the Middle East, jihadis use the term 'crusaders'; they do not refer to the French colonisation of Algeria. Radicals never explicitly refer to the colonial period. They reject or disregard all Palestinian and religious movements that have come before them. They do not always align themselves with the struggle of their fathers; almost none of them go back to their parents' countries of origin to wage jihad. It is noteworthy that none of the jihadis, whether born Muslim or converted, has to my knowledge campaigned as part of a pro-Palestinian movement or belonged to any sort of association to combat Islamophobia, or even an Islamic NGO. These radicalised youths read texts in French or English circulating over the internet, but not works in Arabic.

"Oddly enough, the defenders of Islamic State never talk about sharia and almost never talk about the Islamic society that will be built under the auspices of Isis. Those who say they went to Syria because they wanted 'to live in a true Islamic society' are typically returnees who deny having participated in violence while there... Living in an Islamic society does not interest jihadis: they do not go to the Middle East to live, but to die. That is the paradox: these young radicals are not utopians, they are nihilists."

Finally, he underlines his thesis that it is not Islam as such that motivates these troubled souls, but rather a form of narcissism:

"There is a temptation to see in Islam a radical ideology that mobilises throngs of people in the Muslim world, just as Nazism was able to mobilise large sections of the German people. But the reality is that Isis's pretensions to establish a global caliphate is a delusion - that is why it draws in violent youngsters who have delusions of grandeur."

Israel is a Democracy & Other Fairy Tales

In reacting against the hypocrisy of Americans (and Australia's little Americans) over Fidel Castro's death, Sydney Morning Herald columnist Ruby Hamad argues, with the best of intentions, that:

"Israel is both a democracy (flawed but a democracy nonetheless) and an oppressive occupier that gets away with shocking human rights abuse. Yasser Arafat was indeed resisting this Israeli oppression and occupation, and in doing so he turned a blind eye to terrorism and the victimisation of innocent Israelis." (All heroes have their dark side, no matter what side they're on, 30/11/16)

However, these two sentences are more fairy tale than fact:

1) Israel is a democracy. Palestine had an indigenous majority and a non-indigenous settler minority up to 1948. The settler minority then drove out the indigenous majority and has refused to allow them back in ever since. Only when those driven out (and therefore disenfranchised) in 1948 are allowed back and given the vote, will Palestine/Israel be a democracy. All it is now is an ethnocracy, just like white South Africa before apartheid was consigned to the dustbin of history.

2) Arafat is a terrorist. You simply cannot place the reactive, retail violence of an occupied, oppressed, and colonised people on the same level as the wholesale violence of those who occupy, oppress, and colonise them. International law rightly recognises the right of an occupied, oppressed, and colonised people to resist occupation and colonisation by any means. It does not, however, recognise anyone's right to occupy or colonise another people's land. Arafat was not a terrorist. He was a freedom fighter. The settler-colonial apartheid state of Israel is the only terrorist here.

His Advice & Mine

"The advice I have is that out of the last 33 people who have been charged with terrorist-related offences in this country, 27 of those people are from second and third-generation Lebanese-Muslim background." Peter Dutton, Immigration Minister, 21/11/16

The advice I have is that of the unknown number of people who have been charged (or should have been charged) with terrorist-related offences against the indigenous inhabitants of this country, just about every one is from a first, second, third, fourth, and fifth--generation Anglo-Christian background.

A Callow Youth

Zionists propagandists, of course, have a vested interest in misrepresenting the Palestinian struggle against Zionist colonisation and apartheid. However, ignoramuses with no vested interest whatever in misrepresenting it may also do their bit, albeit unconsciously, to peddle misrepresentations of the subject.

Ignoramuses such as BROOKLYN-based, prize-winning Indian novelist Karan Mahajan (32), for example, talking about his novel The Association of Small Bombs on Radio National's Books & Arts Program yesterday morning:

"I would use the word irrationality because when I researched terrorism and... got really deep into the history of terrorism, starting with Tsarist Russia all the way through the PLO and Palestine to the present day, you see that there's this battle ongoing between Western rationality and/in (?) science and between the kind of irrationality and religion, and I wanted to show the ways in which the irrational impulses of terrorism, and bombing in a way is a strange irrational event, it's a huge act of violence which seems kind of meaningless when it happens."

Where does one even begin to unpick such knotted, incoherent nonsense?

Is 'terrorism' a stand-alone subject which can be researched independently of its political and historical context? Who wrote the books and/or papers he read for his book? Could they perhaps have had an agenda? What then was their agenda? Did he have the wit to notice it anyway? What does he know, if anything, about the PLO and Palestine? (Rhetorical question.) Does he really think Israel vs Palestine reduces to science vs religion? And if, as I KNOW, he knows BUGGER ALL on the subject, what right has he got to utter such foolishness? Has he never heard of armed resistance to oppression, occupation and colonisation? Has he never heard of state terrorism? Does he know who pioneered terrorism in the Middle East? (Interesting how he has zip to say about Zionist terrorism and can only invoke the PLO.) And what is he on about with this 'Western rationality' shit? What's that all about? (Surely, he doesn't think that British colonialism was the best thing that ever happened to India?!) Etc, etc.

Sometimes, you find yourself wishing you'd never even turned on the bloody radio.

Multiple Choice

With respect to understanding the massacre in Nice, choose the most relevant of the following two texts:

a) "Truck terrorist Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel was an 'unlikely jihadist' who flouted every rule of Islam, his cousin told MailOnline today. The 31-year-old... drank alcohol, ate pork and took drugs. He never prayed or attended a mosque, and hit his wife... and was in the process of getting a divorce. Bouhlel, who had been known to the French police since January, had been on the radar for six months for petty criminality. It is understood he lost his job as a delivery driver when he fell asleep at the wheel and crashed into four cars and had also been involved in a bar brawl. Walid Hamou, a cousin of Bouhlel's wife Hajer Khalfallah, told MailOnline: 'Bouhlel was not religious. He did not go to the mosque, he did not pray, he did not observe Ramadan. 'He drank alcohol, ate pork and took drugs. This is all forbidden under Islam. 'He was not a Muslim, he was a s***. 'He beat his wife, my cousin, he was a nasty piece of work'." (MailOnline, 16/7/16)

b) "When will the West ever learn? Islamists are at war with the non-Muslim world. All Islamist terrorist attacks invoke Islam, notably by reciting words from the Koran. All Muslims declare nothing deserves worship except God and Mohammed is the messenger of God. And the Koran is revered as the word of God. To fail to obey its word is defined as apostasy punishable by death. Unless this is clearly understood we cannot win the war. Why does, for instance, China have few Islamist terror attacks? Because they deal summarily with terrorists and sympathisers." (Letter in The Australian from Peter Troy, Kingston, Tas., 16/7/16)

Memo to Dr Sabri Saidam

"Dr Saidam said the group repeatedly asked questions about Palestinians naming schools and venues after people who had killed Israeli civilians. I said that one man's hero is another man's terrorist." (Delegation to West Bank led by Christopher Pyne 'not well educated', local minister says, Sophie McNeill, abc.net.au/news, 17/12/15)

Memo to Dr Saidam:

'One man's hero is another man's terrorist' is way too subtle for most Australian politicians on the Rambam, OK?

Next time some cocksure, know-nothing, Zionist dupes like this show up and hit you with this particular Zionist talking point, simply hand them the following - far from complete - list of Israeli terrorist commemoration sites, quizz the buggers on the glorious careers of those commemorated, and sit back in amazement at the 'Jeez, I dunnos':

David Ben-Gurion Airport
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Ben-Gurion planned and oversaw the ethnic cleansing of 1 million Palestinians and the destruction of hundreds of Palestinian villages from 1948 to 1949.

Menachem Begin Heritage Centre, Jerusalem
Menachem Begin St, Tel Aviv

Begin commanded the murderous Irgun terrorists who massacred Palestinians (and Britons) in the 30s and 40s. Einstein referred to him as a "fascist."

Ariel Sharon Park, Tel Aviv

Sharon was responsible for the massacres of Qibya (1953) and Sabra & Shatila (1982).

Moshe Dayan Boulevard, Occupied East Jerusalem/ Rishon LeZion/ Ashdod
Rishon LeZion Moshe Dayan Railway Station; Moshe Dayan Interchange

Dayan was involved in the Qibya (1953) and Rafah (1956) massacres, and was the architect, as Defence [sic] Minister, of Israel's 1967 East Jerusalem, West Bank, Gaza Strip, Sinai and Golan Heights land grabs and subsequent colonization thereof.

The Yitzhak Rabin Center, Tel Aviv

Rabin was responsible for the ethnic cleansing of Lydda in 1948 and the 'break their bones' policy during the first intifada (1987-93).

The following comment by the indefatigable Vacy Vlazna on Guardian Australia's website, posted in response to Australian delegation asked 'rude' questions during 'explosive' West Bank meeting (Daniel Hurst, 16/12/15), could also be of use in creating cognitive dissonance in those bogans who insist on banging on about the matter:

"The bloody hide of a bunch of Liberals who flout international law, torture and detain innocent asylum seekers on offshore Guantanamos, quizzing the Palestinians for naming schools and venues after terrorists! What the ?????

"How about Macquarie University, Macquarie Park, Macquarie Bank etc, etc: Governor Lachlan Macquarie was a terrorist, not a freedom fighter like Palestinians defending their land and people: 'Governor Macquarie's response to the growing troubles was to set strict rules by proclamation as to how which Aborigines could interact with the colonial settlers. The Governor also launched 3 military excursions to punish the Aborigines. The soldiers were given directions that all Aborigines met with from Sydney onwards were to be made prisoners of war and that if they resisted they were to be shot and their bodies hung from trees in the most conspicuous places near where they fell, so as to strike terror into the hearts of the surviving natives. Many aboriginal women and children who had not been associated with any hostilities were killed.'

"Don't get me started on Governors Phillip, King, Stirling, Bourke, Gipps and so on."

Cheers.

'You Reap What You Sow'

Some "home truths" on the Islamic State phenomenon from Bruce Hearn Mackinnon (senior lecturer in the Department of Management at Deakin University) in yesterday's Age. While Mackinnon's opinion piece is inadequate in certain respects, it is probably the best commentary on the subject to have appeared thus far in the Australian ms press. Here's just the gist:

"First, the US and its allies armed, trained and supported Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda terrorist organisation in its dirty war, first against the leftist government in Afghanistan, and then against the Soviet Union who intervened in a doomed attempt to prop up the collapsing regime, which was at war with the Islamists, backed by Pakistan. This ultimately led to the September 11 attacks on the US itself. The Taliban today continues to be trained, financed and supported by forces within the Pakistan security and military establishment.

"Second, the West's support for Israel in its continued occupation of Palestinian territory and its constant and growing humiliation of Palestinian people, has been a festering sore, breeding resentment, frustration anger not only from Palestinians but the wider Muslim community, particularly in the Arab world. As if this wasn't bad enough, let's not forget that Israel was also happy to secretly fund and encourage the terrorist organisation, Hamas, in its early years, as a means of undermining the secular mainstream PLO, led by Yasser Arafat.

"Third, the US (supported by Australia) invasion and destruction of Iraq, justified by the lie about (we now know, non-existent) weapons of mass destruction, resulting in about half a million deaths, was the direct catalyst for for the formation of the Islamic State terrorist organisation - whose current military leaders are former generals from saddam Hussein's then predominantly secular Baathist regime.

"Fourth, the West's eagerness to destroy the largely secular Gaddafi regime has left Libya as a failed state, allowing criminals and terrorists a free rein to engage in violence on a mass scale.

"Fifth, the West's support for violent opposition to the Assad regime in Syria has left his country in ruins and allowed Islamo-Fascism to become the military opposition. All the talk about supporting 'moderate' opposition forces has been exposed as a lie. Syria is in the grip of a full-on sectarian war between the Shia-backed regime and the Sunni extremists, including IS and al-Nusra (al-Qaida). The West's support for the opposition in Syria has taken the form of support for Islamo-Fascism on the ground in Syria.

"Finally, the Islamo-Fascist movement, whether operating in Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Iraq or elsewhere, is known to have received financial, ideological, religious and military support from the West's key allies in the Middle East, the brutal Islamo-Fascist regimes of Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

"You reap what you sow." (After the Paris attacks: How to confront this Islamo-Fascist plague, 16/11/15)

Some Observations on the Carnage in Paris

by As'ad Abukhalil (aka The Angry Arab), 14/11/15

1) ISIS has gone on the offensive: in 10 days, they downed a Russian civilian airliner, massacred Hazara Shi'ites in Afghanistan, bombed the southern suburbs in Beirut and now Paris.

2) Western governments, the US and France in particular, along with their Saudi, Qatari and Turkish allies are directly responsible for the rise and expansion of ISIS through their policies in Syria, which have cradled and nurtured ISIS and its sister terrorist organizations.

3) There is no way on earth to stem the menace of ISIS and Al-Qa'idah-like organizations without going to their source in Saudi Arabia, which is the official headquarters of the Ibn Taymiyyah terrorist interpretation of Islam.

4) Ibn Taymiyyah* is the one thinker/theologian who has inspired and guided the thoughts and deeds of terrorists striking in the name of Islam.

5) Western governments AND media have been cynically silent about the victims of ISIS terrorism if the victims happen to be categorized as 'enemies.' Western governments AND media (just look at the dispatches from the New York Times and Washington Post over the last 4 years on Syria) have consistently ignored and even cheered sectarian massacres of Syrian and Lebanese civilians if they are perpetrated by foes of the Syrian regime.

6) Just as ISIS and Al-Qa'idah have brought terrorism to the heart of the West, Western governments have been exporting death and destruction to the Middle East and North Africa: from Mali to Libya to Egypt to Sudan to Somalia to Syria to Iraq to Pakistan to Afghanistan. Terrorism has been inflicted on people in those countries by ISIS and Al-Qaidah, and by the bombs and rockets and drones of Western governments.

7) All Arabs today have noticed something that cannot be ignored: how ISIS and Al-Qa'idah terrorists travel the world to inflict their terrorism but yet spare Israel and its interests. The relationship between the Zionist occupation entity and the Nusrah Front - the official branch of Al-Qa'idah in Syria - is no longer secret.**

8) ISIS cannot be defeated from the air as long as Western governments and their Gulf and Turkish allies assist it on the ground, directly or indirectly.

9) Just as Western powers created and nurtured the precursor of Al-Qa'idah in Afghanistan to defeat the communist regime there, those same powers have created and nurtured a deadly cocktail of the worst Middle Eastern terrorists ever in Syria in the hope that they would bring down the Syrian regime.

10) The story of ISIS terrorism began not only with the invasion of Iraq in 2003 but also with the creation of a vast safe haven for Islamist terrorism in Libya. Libya was the biggest gift to jihadi terrorism since the fall of the Taliban.

11) The US and France (along with the GCC countries) have been creating a culture of terrorism in the region by creating a terrorist haven in Syria in the name of fighting for 'democracy and secularism' - in the stupid language of John Kerry. They have done this by making dubious distinctions between various terrorists in Syria [and] through making allies of the Nusrah Front and its affiliates.

12) The myth of moderate Syrian rebels has to be discarded. The remnants of the Free Syrian Army are basically ISIS-in-waiting.

13) Western correspondents in Beirut in charge of covering the savage war in Syria are all guilty (with the exception of Patrick Cockburn) of misinforming and misguiding their leaders. They have been ignoring and JUSTIFYING the scores of car bombs and war crimes by Syrian rebels in Syria and Lebanon because they see them as fitting in with the struggle against the Syrian regime.

14) Western human rights organizations are also guilty of creating a culture of bogus human tights rhetoric which has belittled and even justified the war crimes of Syrian rebels (see the latest HRW report on the placing of Alawite women in cages).

15) French policy under the socialist government has even elevated its relationship with the Saudi and Qatari regimes - the two governments most responsible for sponsoring, financing and arming the cocktail of dangerous terrorists in Syria.

16) It is high time for Western governments to give up on their policies and wars in Syria, not to preserve the Syrian regime (as Iran and Russia would like), but to exclude from the future both sets of war criminals there.

17) I don't like Bashar Al-Asad one bit and I have wanted the overthrow of that regime since 1976 when its army invaded Lebanon and smashed my dreams of a progressive, leftist revolution in Lebanon, but who can now disagree with the warnings given by him 3 years ago that those terrorists that the West are now supporting would one day strike at the heart of Europe? Syrian regime supporters are today reprising those words and re-airing them.

18) The Saudi and Qatari regime media (Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiyya in particular, but others as well) have created a culture of terrorism in which crimes against civilians who happen to be Shi'ites or Alawites or Christians or Sunnis who happen to reside in 'regime-dominated areas of Syria' are justified on a daily basis. Just yesterday, for example, Saudi and Qatari regime media provided ample justification and rationalization for the crimes, and lionized the terrorists who perpetrated them. This culture of terrorism is responsible for the climate in which the crimes in Paris have taken place.

19) Western governments can't have it both ways; they can't continue to support Gulf regimes and arming them while claiming to want to fight terrorism.

20) US and Western governments and media are responsible for a culture of selective denunciations and condemnations: they are silent about the daily crimes committed by that key Western ally, the terrorist state of Israel, against Palestinians.

21) Arabs/Muslims can't reach an agreement against all manner of terrorism as long as Western governments and Arab regimes continue to be selective in condemning terrorism.

22) Western support for dictatorships in the Arab world is responsible in many ways for the creation of ISIS and other terrorist groups.

23) Terrorist groups in the Middle East have been used and misused by local regimes, Western powers and Israel for decades.

24) Yes, the Iraq invasion of 2003 has proven to be exactly what Jacques Chirac warned it would be: a dangerous Pandora's box.

25) Obama has really not deviated from the dangerous policies of Bush, and his expansion of wars in the Middle East has fueled ISIS.

26) The Islam of Arab regimes is a dangerous and conservative Islam. It cannot be changed by Western military commanders, but it can be changed by the people of the region if they are allowed to think freely and choose: but neither the West nor the Arab regimes want the Arabs to think freely. Al-Azhar University has become, through bribes, a tool of the Saudi Wahhabi regime.

27) It is not sectarian to declare Saudi Wahhabi doctrine as the official doctrine of jihadi terrorism. Wahhabiyeh is not a sect: it is a school of fanatical thought and terrorist practice.

28) How do Western powers fight ISIS? They foolishly rely on a royal buffoon in Jordan and on the UAE regime to engage in the promotion of a kinder Islam in social media. The fools in DC who think that those potentates have any standing among young Muslims need to have their heads examined.

29) Western powers and media are all hypocrites: they still cheer or cover up the war crimes of ISIS and Nusrah in Syria if the affected victims happen to reside in Syrian regime-controlled areas.

30) There should be a categorical end to external support of ALL Syrian rebels and to the Syrian regime by all sides.

31) Finally, why does the media coverage portray these massacres as West-vs-Islam when many of the victims in Paris are likely to be Muslims, and when ISIS in the Middle East kills far more Muslims than non-Muslims, despite the fact that members of the US Congress only see Jews and Christians as victims?

[*Ibn Taymiyyah's (1263-1328) writings are a major source for the wahhabi/salafi movements in Islam, which reject modernity and advocate that society should emulate that of Muhammad and the early believers, as literally described by the Qur'an and the hadith;**See my 3/7/15 post Those Rebels, That Hospital, Our Ambassador & His Wife.]

George Galloway's 5-Point Plan for Combating ISIS

As you may or may not know, George Galloway is currently campaigning for the position of London's lord mayor, a matter to be decided next year.

Mindful of the weekend's murder of British tourists in Tunisia, he has just tweeted the following thought:

"It is only a matter of time before the Death Cult ISIS attacks us here at home. We are locked into a conflict our leaders chose for us."

While LibLab here has little to offer except more military involvement in Iraq and less civil liberties at home, Galloway, who accurately predicted the consequences of the Bush/Blair invasion of Iraq, followed the above with 5 more tweets, outlining a five-point plan of action to combat ISIS.

Here it is:

1) End involvement, direct and indirect, in wars on Arab countries.

2) Back the Syrian and Iraqi States as they fight for the existence of their countries.

3) Employ a single, not double, standard towards political violence. Stop Islamophobia at home.

4) Stop propping up and arming Israel and the Arab dictators we approve of whilst attacking those we don't.

5) Protect our borders at all costs. National unity, smart policing, intelligent intelligence, determination.

Let the discussion begin...

The Insufferable Hypocrisy (& Short Memory) of Murdoch's Australian

Here's the Australian's editorialist, lashing the ABC for allowing the clearly troubled, ill-informed and attention-seeking Zaky Mallah to strut his stuff on its Q&A program last Monday night:

"In allowing Mallah the floor, Q&A went far beyond its previous efforts allowing Julian Assange and David Hicks to question Julia Gillard and John Howard." (ABC's blunder of judgment, 24/6/15)

Now here's Martin Chulov, a former Middle East correspondent for the Australian, disclosing, in his 2006 book, Australian Jihad, that his paper threw money at Mallah. (The colleague mentioned was fellow journalist Louise Perry):

"Mallah hadn't told us outright the target of his proposed attack, but from the tone of his letter, ASIO looked a likely prospect. There was a stark conflict between our roles as journalists and our duties as citizens to disclose information we had about a planned offence, especially something as serious as a potential act of terrorism. Mallah had told us he would be in touch again shortly to arrange a screening of his [suicide] video... Within a few days, Mallah called again, inviting us to his home...

"'I've got the video now. You can have a look at it, if you want. How much do you think it would be worth?'

 "'I don't know, Zak. Why do you want to sell it, anyway?' I asked.

"'Islamicaly we have to clear our debts before we die. I need about $4000 to do that and then I'm sweet.'

"We had earlier arranged with The Australian to offer Mallah several hundred dollars for several of his jihadi photos. We knew the paper wasn't interested in buying his suicide video, but we decided not to refuse his request there and then." (Australian Jihad: The Battle Against Terrorism from Within & Without, p 173)

One Man's Terrorist...

Imagine you're an Australian army officer, on location as a war of resistance between an occupied people and a brutal occupying power rages around you. (I'm speaking here of the 1982-2000 war of resistance waged by the occupied Lebanese against the Israeli occupiers of their land.)

But here's the kicker:

You haven't the faintest as to what the hell is really going on around you. In fact, you probably think the occupying Israelis are the goodies, and you certainly think the resisting Lebanese are the baddies, or 'terrorists', as you and the Israelis routinely call them.

Just the right (captain's?) pick for a seat in federal parliament and a spot on its Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence & Security, right?

Meet Andrew Nikolic, MP (Bass, Tasmania).

Now check out the opening paragraphs of his opinion piece, which appeared in The Australian on February 16:

"The terrorist's answer was so matter-of-fact that its full meaning crept into my consciousness only gradually. It was September 1991 in South Lebanon and the captured terrorist leader responded calmly to my question about his team's mission. It was a mission they would never achieve after their small boat was seized by my United Nations colleagues. The boat was crammed with AK-47s, hand grenades, knives, explosives and rocket-propelled grenades.

"He said their mission was to land on the Israeli side of the border, near the beautiful town of Nahariya, and kill as many Jews as possible before they themselves were killed.

"When not working in South Lebanon as Team Leader of UN Mobile Team Zulu, I lived in Nahariya with my wife and two young daughters - a street away from the terrorists' planned landing point. I asked how his thee-man team would distinguish between Jews and overseas visitors. He confidently put that question in the hands of God.

"At the time I thought how lucky we were not to have such irrational, indiscriminate killers in Australia. Those days are gone." (Let's confront passports to terror)

What a pity young Andrew didn't get to discuss these matters with the Lebanese guy quoted below - but then his words would probably have gone way over Andrew's head:

"You look at it with a Western mentality. You regard it is barbaric and unjustified. We, on the other hand, see it as another means of war, but one which is also harmonious with our religion and beliefs. Take, for example, an Israeli warplane or, better still, the American and British air power in the Gulf War. They dropped tons of bombs on their targets. The goal of their mission and the outcome of their deeds was to kill and damage enemy positions just like us, except our enemy is Israel. The only difference is that they have at their disposal state-of-the-art and top-of-the-range means and weaponry to achieve their aims. We have the minimum basics, but that does not bother us because we know that if and when required we also have ourselves to sacrifice. They get medals and titles for their feats of bravery and victories. We, on the other hand, do not seek material rewards, but heavenly ones in the hereafter. But in truth there is no difference between their attacks and ours. Both of us have one thing in common - to annihilate the enemy. The rest is mere logistics and differences in techniques. Whether one attacks by planes or by car bombs the objective is the same. Who is to say that they are better or more civilised just because they use twentieth-century equipment? Who decides that it is more right or correct or even more acceptable to kill one's enemy by warplanes rather than by car bombs?" ('Hasan', quoted in Hezbollah: Born With a Vengeance, Hala Jaber, 1997, pp 92-3)

For more on Andrew Nikolic, try Bernard Keane's post at crikey.com.au: Andrew Nikolic's Middle Eastern vision provides something for everyone. Here's how it begins: "Following Andrew Nikolic's logic on the Middle East is quite a challenge but it seems he never saw a Middle Eastern country he didn't want to attack." I don't know why Keane neglected to tack on the words, 'except Israel', though.

Want more on clueless Australian soldiers with 'experience' in the Middle East? Of course you do! See my posts Onward Christian Soldiers (9/8/10), featuring Brigadier Jim Wallace; Mike Kelly's Mission Impossible (19/1/13), featuring Clanking Colonel Mike Kelly; and Operation Get Goldstone (4/10/09), featuring Major General Jim Molan.