Xenophobic Barbarism.

[den]

Nick Berg was killed, not because he was bad or evil or a criminal, but because he was an American. Hate crimes have no place in a civilized world but I don't have the words to express my feelings about this type of xenophobic barbarism. I haven't seen the videos. I don't want to see them. Just knowing what was done to him makes me ill.

What happened in the prison was nasty and to take photos was stupid, but to kill a man to make a point is evil of the worst sort. As level_head says "al-Zarqawi - remember the name"


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Several scholars from Al-Azhar, the world's highest Sunni religious authority, condemned the decapitation of an American civilian by unknown people in Iraq, saying Islam stands against such acts.

"Islam respects the human being, dead or alive, and cutting off the American's head was an act of mutilation forbidden by Islam," Ibrahim Al-Fayoumi, a member of Al-Azhar's Islamic Research Academy, told IslamOnline.net.
IslamOnline

"Hezbollah denounces this horrible act which does an immense wrong to Islam and Muslims by a group which falsely pretends to follow the precepts of the religion of pardon and essential human values," the party said in a statement.

Ezzedine Salim, this month's chief of the Iraq Governing Council, insisted that "decapitations and mutilations are unacceptable and have nothing to do with Islam".
SMH

Admittedly, Hezbollah are also upset that this barbarism has turned focus away from the prison abuses.

We'll be hearing for years from the talking heads on US cable news about how the Muslim world failed to condemn what was done to Berg. It would be as though a set of high-ranking cardinals in the Vatican condemned something unreservedly and then people kept saying the Church remained silent.
Juan Cole

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*sighs*

I dunno.

*edit* re-reading the condemnations, I notice they condemn the killing's link to Islam first, and the killing second.

Comments

[weibchenwolf.livejournal.com]

And they ignore the killing done by our wonderful "Coalition".

There's blood on both sides, blame on both sides.

[ounceofreason.livejournal.com]

Damn, dude. When freakin' Hezbollah condemns something, you know it must be bad. :P

[xenophon.livejournal.com]

Hezbollah's amazingly two sided. There's the "We hate America! Death to America!" group, then there's the group that funds schools, hospitals, clinics, all sorts of things like that. They're an interesting organization. Sort of makes me wonder which side is the propaganda side at times.

Also, a good point to notice is that Berg was American, Jewish, and wandering around Iraq mostly on his own. Hell, I don't care to go to Iraq as a US soldier, with a rifle, surrounded by OTHER people with rifles, attached to a group with TANKS, who're backed by helicopters.
All other things aside, what was he thinking? That's sort of like me showing up at College Park in Atlanta at night and being a member of the KKK. Not a way to live long.

[eozarth.livejournal.com]

I think it's a very nicely timed "stunt" to shift the world's attention away from the prison abuse and criticism of the American government. I'll even go so far as to put forward the possibility that it was organised and orchestrated by the American government in the first place for just that effect.

Stupid war games.

[makovette.livejournal.com]

That's insane. Sorry, but it is...

Mako

[eozarth.livejournal.com]

*shrug* I'll take on board your criticism if you can prove to me without a doubt that nothing like what I suggested has happened. We all just have opinions and theories on the stuff that happens on this mudball, but only the people who are there know the real truth.

But.. I don't actually care about any of it. Apathy is a godsend :)

[ursulav.livejournal.com]

Oh, I dunno...one could build a pretty elegant conspiracy theory based on the authorities first claiming that Berg was never in U.S. custody, then relenting, and saying "Okay, yeah, he was," and then claiming that he turned down offers of safe passage out of Iraq by the FBI, when all the e-mails he sent to his parents would indicate that he was, in fact, waiting on such passage at the time of his kidnapping. (I rather expect them to retract the second claim once they find the paperwork, myself.)

I don't happen to think that it WAS such a thing--I am a firm believer in bureaucratic snafus as a driving force in tragedy--but if one were particularly paranoid and had lost faith in our defense department to do the right thing, I can see how you could jump there.

[makovette.livejournal.com]

I am a firm believer in bureaucratic snafus as a driving force in tragedy

Precisely my feelings as well.

but if one were particularly paranoid and had lost faith in our defense department to do the right thing, I can see how you could jump there.

We have demonstrated gross incompetance on a grand scale certainly, but that level of barbarism being deliberately planned by GW as a publicity stunt? Please....

Mako

[lonita.livejournal.com]

I might have done the same, given similar circumstances - because you and I both know it'll be Islam as a whole that American talking heads, and others, will slam first - not the killers with no authorised connection to Islam.

[jenny_evergreen]

*nod of agreement* And it's important to remember that they are afraid for all the innocent Muslims out there, with VERY good reason. :( They are effectively saying, "Please, do not use this as a reason to kill or maim large innocent groups of our people. We are as horrified by this as you are."

[ursulav.livejournal.com]

Given that a fair chunk of the response to the prison abuses on our side was not a "That's barbaric! You shouldn't treat people like that!" but a "Great, now they're gonna go after OUR guys," with a rather chilling support of the Geneva convention, not because it's right and civilized and ethical, but with a definite so-that-they-won't-beat-up-OUR-soldiers bent, I think that kind've thing is pretty common on both sides of the war--"Think of the horrible consequences this will have for us! Oh, and it's uncivilized and bad and inhumane, yeah, sure."

S'not humanity's finest hour over there, that's for sure.

[ellipsedream.livejournal.com]

in the american media, I haven't personally seen any of those quotes, nor links directing readers toward them. thank you for sharing.

[weyrdbird.livejournal.com]

Well, for me, Nick Berg is the name to remember.His blood is on our hands. And the hands of the soldiers who made those photographs. And our president. Nick Berg was a civilian. I, like his parents, want to know what really happened in terms of his detention. And why Dubya hasn't addressed the issue.I haven't seen the video and don't plan to. Too sickening.

Our soldiers have a mighty burden which has not been made any easier. Many muslims here in the US have denounced what happened. Three Arab nations have expressed their disgust.Our president should go see the Bergs, get down on his knees and beg their forgiveness.If his WOMD campaign hadn'tve worked, maybe their son would be alive.

I don't trust *anybody* very much.

[sheramil.livejournal.com]

> Well, for me, Nick Berg is the name
> to remember.His blood is on our hands.


My hands are clean. All four of them.

[http://users.livejournal.com/crossfire_/]

re-reading the condemnations, I notice they condemn the killing's link to Islam first, and the killing second.

An important distinction that most people miss, or at best can only articulate as "a feeling that the condemnation wasn't sincere." The distinction underlines an essential difference between our two cultures.

[jenny_evergreen]

I agree with ursulav...I think the US, and everyone else, does it the same way.
I also stick by my first response. Were the US in the same position (and we are not by any true assessment of the situation), I don't doubt that the same kind of responses would be forthcoming.
(Of course, I also don't doubt for a second that if the US were the weaker, desperate, actually occupied country, USAns would be performing the exact same kind of horrific acts. I think it is frighteningly naive and sadly unrealistic to believe otherwise. Look what they do when they are in the advantageous position.)