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04/15/2004: Breaking News Breaking News

The Heat is On
from CNN

LONDON, England (CNN) -- European politicans have ruled out negotiations with Osama bin Laden after a tape purported to be of the al Qaeda leader offered a truce to European nations if they pulled out troops from Muslim countries.

In the audio tape, the speaker threatens revenge on the United States for the death of Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, who was killed March 22 in an Israeli targeted helicopter attack in Gaza City.

He also refers to the September 11, 2001 attack on the United States and the March 11, 2004 Madrid train bombings as examples of actions al Qaeda has taken in response to attacks on Muslims.

He offers a "truce" or "non-aggression" to any European country that stops "attacking Muslims," but excludes the United States from any such deal.

The speaker gives a three-month deadline, starting April 15, for countries to stop attacking Muslims. He mentions Iraq but not in the specific context of the U.S.-led war.

This could mean one of two things:

  • He can feel the noose slowly tightening around his neck and is desperately looking for a way out.
  • He is trying the "divide and conquer" routine.
I do not see any mention of the cheese eating surrender monkeys in there, but this would be a perfect opportunity for them to once again show why everyone hates them.


Thursday the 15th of April, CONTROL RISKS GROUP noted:


This would be the first time that bin Laden has offered to suspend hostilities against al-Qaida's enemies. In the tradition of the Prophet Mohammed, whose sayings and deeds are considered a model for radical Muslims such as bin Laden, there are precedents for temporary truces between Muslims and non-Muslims, though a permanent peace is, in this tradition, considered not only impossible but immoral. After his retreat from the city of Mecca to Medina, known as the hijra, the Prophet made a temporary alliance with the Jews of the city that held until he became strong enough to conquer them. It is likely to be within this frame of reference that bin Laden offered a ‘truce' to Europe – a tactical suspension of hostilities rather than lasting peace.


Thursday the 15th of April, Neville Chamberlain noted:


Pull 'em out!


Thursday the 15th of April, Wikipedia noted:


The term Hijra can have two meanings

* Hijra is an Arabic term referring to the flight of the Prophet Mohammed from Mecca.

* Hijra is a term for specific kind of sexual identification in Indian culture.

Hijra (Islam)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

For the social group in India with the same name, see Hijra (India).

The Hijra, or withdrawal, is the emigration of Muhammad and his followers to the city of Medina in 622 AD. Alternate spellings of this Arabic word in the Latin alphabet are Hijrah, or Hegira in Latin.

Muhammad, preaching the doctrines of one God (called Allah) and the threat of the Day of Judgment, did not at first have much success in the city of Mecca. His tribe, the Quraysh, which was in charge of the Kaaba (a shrine to Arabic pagan gods), persecuted and harassed him continuously.

He and his followers emigrated to the city of Yathrib, 320 km north of Mecca, in September 622 CE (Common Era). Yathrib was soon renamed Madinat un-Nabi, the City of the Prophet, Medina in English. The Muslim year during which the Hijra occurred was designated the first year of the Islamic calendar by Umar ibn al-Khattab in 638 CE, 17 AH (anno hegirae = "in the year of the hijra"). In the following chronology the city will be named Medina and the region surrounding it, Yathrib.

Chronology of the Hijra:

* Day 1: Thursday 26 Safar AH 1, 9 September 622 CE
o Left home in Mecca. Stayed three days in the Cave of Thawr near Mecca.
* Day 5: Monday 1 Rabi' I AH 1, 13 September 622 CE
o Left the environs of Mecca. Traveled to the region of Yathrib.
* Day 12: Monday 8 Rabi' I AH 1, 20 September 622 CE
o Arrived at Quba' near Medina.
* Day 16: Friday 12 Rabi' I AH 1, 24 September 622 CE
o First visit to Medina for Friday prayers.
* Day 26: Monday 22 Rabi' I AH 1, 4 October 622 CE
o Moved from Quba' to Medina.

The Muslim dates are in the Islamic calendar extended back in time.
The Western dates are in the Julian calendar.
1 Rabi' I is two months after 1 Muharram, the first day of the Muslim year.
Many writers confuse the first day of the year of the Hijra with the Hijra itself, erroneously stating that the Hijra occurred on 1 Muharram AH 1 or 16 July 622 CE.

See also: sira, list of Islamic terms in Arabic

Paper reference:

* F. A. Shamsi, "The Date of Hijrah", Islamic Studies 23 (1984): 189-224, 289-323.

External link:

* http://islamicity.com/mosque/ihame/Sec2.htm


Friday the 16th of April, Middle East Media Research Institute noted:


Osama Bin Laden Speech Offers Peace Treaty with Europe, Says Al-Qa'ida 'Will Persist in Fighting' the U.S

MEMRI has obtained and translated a copy of the most recent speech by Osama bin Laden, purportedly offering a peace ["sulh"] treaty to European countries that withdraw soldiers from Arab countries, while still maintaining the United States as a legitimate target. The following are excerpts from the speech:(1)

'September 11 and March 11 is Your Own Merchandise Coming Back to You'

"This is a message to our neighbors north of the Mediterranean, with a proposal for a peace treaty, in response to the positive reactions which emerged there.

"What happened in September 11 and March 11 is your own merchandise coming back to you. We hereby advise you ... that your definition of us and of our actions as terrorism is nothing but a definition of yourselves by yourselves, since our reaction is of the same kind as your act. Our actions are a reaction to yours, which are destruction and killing of our people as is happening in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Palestine.

"It suffices to see the event that shocked the world - the killing of the wheelchair-bound old man Ahmad Yassin - Allah's mercy upon him - and we pledge to Allah to avenge [his murder] on America, Allah willing.

"By what measure of kindness are your killed considered innocents while ours are considered worthless? By what school [of thought] is your blood considered blood while our blood is water?

"Therefore, it is [only] just to respond in kind, and the one who started it is more to blame..."

We will Continue to Fight the U.S. and U.N.

"When you look at what happened and is happening, the killing in our countries and in yours, an important fact emerges, and that is that the oppression is forced on both us and you by your politicians who send your sons, against your will, to our country to kill and to be killed.

"Therefore, both sides have an interest in thwarting those who shed the blood of the peoples for their own narrow interests, out of vassalage to the White House gang...

"This war makes millions of dollars for big corporations, either weapons manufacturers or those working in the reconstruction [of Iraq], such as Halliburton and its sister companies...

"It is crystal clear who benefits from igniting the fire of this war and this bloodshed: They are the merchants of war, the bloodsuckers who run the policy of the world from behind the scenes.

"President Bush and his ilk, the media giants, and the U.N. ... all are a fatal danger to the world, and the Zionist lobby is their most dangerous member. Allah willing, we will persist in fighting them...

'I Hereby Offer [Europe] a Peace Treaty'

"Therefore, in order to thwart opportunities for the merchants of war, and in response to the positive developments that were expressed in recent events and in the public opinion polls, which determined that most European peoples want peace, I urge ... the establishment of a permanent commission to nurture awareness among Europeans regarding the justness of our causes, particularly the cause of Palestine, and that use be made of the vast media resources to this end.

"I hereby offer them a peace treaty, the essence of which is our commitment to halt actions against any country that commits itself to refraining from attacking Muslims or intervening in their affairs, including the American conspiracy against the larger Islamic world.

"This peace treaty can be renewed at the end of the term of a government and the rise of another, with the agreement of both sides.

"The peace treaty will be in force upon the exit of the last soldier of any given [European] country from our land.

"The door of peace will remain open for three months from the broadcast of this statement. Whoever rejects the peace and wants war should know that we are the men [of war], and whoever wants a peace treaty and signs it, we hereby allow this peace treaty with him.

"Stop shedding our blood in order to protect your own blood. The solution to this easy-difficult equation is in your own hands. You should know that the longer you delay, the worse the situation will become, and when that happens, do not blame us, blame yourselves...

"As for those who lie to people and say that we hate freedom and kill for the sake of killing - reality proves that we are the speakers of truth and they lie, because the killing of the Russians took place only after their invasion of Afghanistan and Chechnya; the killing of the Europeans took place only after the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan; the killing of the Americans in the Battle of New York took place only after their support for the Jews in Palestine and their invasion of the Arabian Peninsula; their killing in Somalia happened only after Operation Restore Hope. We restored [i.e. repelled] them without hope, by the grace of Allah."

Endnotes:
(1) Al-Jazeera TV (Qatar) and Al-Arabiyya TV (UAE), April 15, 2004.