Dust in the wind
The official Death Toll is 88 now. It just keeps getting higher. I have just spoken to the owner of the Ghazala Gardens hotel Mr. Khalil, a family friend, just to make sure he was ok. Apparently he sold the hotel a few months ago ( good timing), but he still had some information to give. The suicidebombers apparently drove the car through the glass doors and blow the car inside the lobby, killing all the night shift people. He informed me that the number of the wounded is a lot more then they are announcing "500 at least", especially that there are others uncounted for under the wreakage of the hotels and with our government's habit of not reporting the egyptian casualties, cause , you know, they won't hurt our tourism reputation abroad. But foreigners, well, they immedietly get reported. They are human beings after all, made from some better material than the ones we egyptians are made of for some reason as far as our government is concerned. This reminds me how in the Khan El Khalilly bombing they took the foreign victims to the nice expensive hospital, while the egyptian victims were taken to another one. Makes sense, if the egyptians die, we have 70 million to replace them, and none of them sepnds Euros or dollars here. Bastards. In other news, both Italy and Germany have issued a travel ban on Sharm El Sheikh as far as their people are concerned. Flights were stopped, and some we rerouted and brought back. This should Kill Sharm El Sheikh, since its bread and butter comes from the italian and german tourists. Without them, well, any kind of recovery or rebuilding would take forever and would seem like a rather futile endeavor, for a while anyway. Anyway..... Now, let's ignore what happend and think ahead for a minute. Sharm El Sheikh is one of the most secure areas in Egypt: driving in you get stopped in about 3 checkpoints with ID's and car searches and shit like that, and it's easy to control because there is only road to it. This happend there and it wasn;t just one car: It was 3 cars. 3 armed cars passed through their inspections and security blocs and were able to inflict the carnage it inflicted. And again, this is in Sharm el sheikh, the fortress of Egyptian security ever since the Taba bombings. Now, can someone tell me what would stop such a car from blowing up inside of Cairo? Can you imagine such a car blowing up at Cairo Train station? The Egyptian Museum? Al Tahrir square in the middle of the rush hour traffic? Fuck it, in the middle of the 6th of October Bridge? Are we getting the picture here? Cause i am, and it sure ain't pretty! What the hell could they do to stop that? Put checkpoints in the middle of Cairo? Before you get on the bridge? GOOD LUCK trying to do that. Too much traffic, too many cars. Just wouldn't work. Well, what can we do? Kimo and Nagla both are pushing for the protest against the bombing idea, which you can find here, but I don't know exactly what it would accomplish and I honestly don't know personally anyone who would go to such a protest. You think american youth is apathetic? Ha, you haven't seen apathy till you've met you some egyptians. I was speaking to Izzy today and i told him about the idea and he was like "In this heat? You want me to stand outside in this goddamn weather with like 5 people screaming "No to terrorism"? Are you kidding me? What if someone I know saw me? I would be the AUC's joke!". So yeah, If anyone is gonna organize a vigil or something, then count me in. Hell, e-mail me and i will organize it. But like, what would it accomplish? Tell the outside world that I am against this kind of terrorism? Anyone who reads this blog knows this. I am not sure that protesting would do anything. But since i am fresh out of ideas on what exactly to do, sure, why the hell not? You know what the saddest part is? I took a cab today to a friend's house and the cab driver was telling me how it's the Mossad and the Jews behind those bombings, because who ever did them " can not possibly be a muslim or a follower of Islam". Guess that makes the jews automatically responsible. Sigh...
posted by The Sandmonkey @ 7/23/2005 10:00:00 AM
14 Comments:
It's so sad. I can't believe how little attention the Egyptian victims are getting. Italian and German tourists are the bread and butter of Egypt's tourism industry, especially in the Sinai. The Russians come en masse but don't spend that much. The French like the ancient sites more than most (but Germans and Italians like them too). I really hope Germany and Italy lift the travel ban to Sharm. It will hurt Sharm more than the terror attacks. Seriously, Italian tourists are probably every Egyptian's favorite tourists, and I'm not just saying that. Anyway, something must be done. Something must be done. Please organize the vigil. And please people ask the American outlets to report on this more. I'm wonder Stefania- how is la televisore Italiano treating this?
My sincerest condolences to the people of Egypt.
I read this in The Australian: The al-Qaeda Organisation in the Levant and Egypt said it carried out the multiple bombings as a "response against the global evil powers which are spilling the blood of Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Chechnya."
This is too much. Don't these fanatical Islamic jihadists see that they themselves are spilling the blood of their fellow Muslims? And worse, the blood of their own innocent children. Doesn't this make them evil according to their beliefs? Do they actually believe they are true Muslims?
I cannot understand their mindset, their complete inability to reason or even think at all. It is impossible to deal diplomatically and peacefully with people who can't think or who embrace murder, chaos, and terror as part of their religion. So all we can do is endure and persevere and fight back in what is going to be a very long, bloody war. Or maybe an unexpected miracle will happen. I wish. Really.
That’s not good enough Sam. You’re not realizing your own apathy here. You are a patriot and I know you love your country very much; else you wouldn’t spend so much time doing this. You get a lot of traffic and you can do more. Please.
I’m online on msn all day try to get on, we could really use your help. Make another mini post and try to encourage others. Thank you.
You MUST rebuild Sam, even if you have to rebuild with your own two hands. You can not, must not let them win. If you lay down and give up you are giving up your country forever. REBUILD!
It is not poverty that is the cause of this, it is hatred. If you allow hatred to grow unchecked this is what it produces. That cab driver is feeding the hatred and should be told that he is. These are murderous scum who show their disregard for life and because they disregard life, they disregard the author of life, God!
So, your friend doesn't want to go out in the heat? Ask him how hot he thinks that blast was and how much he'd like to be engulfed in THAT heat.
Sam, this is sickening carnage, and it is kill or be killed. These terrorists need their lights turned out and quick.
My condolences to all the killed, injured, and their families. It is just senseless wanton murder.
I bet Canadians could give the Egyptians a run for their money in the apathy department.
Keep safe - Joanne.
Sam,
I need you to hop online please. We can use your help to fight this. Please check Karim site.
http://onearabworld.blog.com/
Sandmonkey, if not you, then who? If not now, when? Do it.
The conspiracy theory is not as isolated as you think it may be. Try some moroccan forum in the Netherlands, and see: they won't even accept another answer - the mossad it is, no doubt about it...
(They must think OBL is a mossad agent or so - ) Try some Russian forums ... same thing..
Tse.
"But foreigners, well, they immedietly get reported. They are human beings after all, made from some better material than the ones we egyptians are made of for some reason as far as our government is concerned."
Yes, the material is called 'money.' The government loves it. I suspect this bombing was carried out with the aid of members of the security or military, how else could they have gotten in? It's the same as with Sadat.
Sam,
What about Karl Rove, the Americans, renewing the Patriot Act, and Bushhitler they have to be part of the Conspiracy too?
And did anyone whip out the standard Faiza Jarrar remark yet,
that Moslems would never do this sort of thing to other Moslems?
In response to Doubting Thomas, like many of the Saudi Bombings,
they obviously had inside help to negate the security, but it doesn't mean the Egyptian Military was compromised, not that I wouldn't rule out certain Jihadist Military types from being involved - but it's more likely the local security was bought and paid for.
Question for you all:
Many in the blogosphere have encourage Iraqi and other Arab/Muslim bloggers to organize mass public demonstrations against terorrism.
However, I am wondering this: Were there any such demonstrations in the USA after 9/11? I know here in my community there were memorial services for those murdered. The people of my living complex met the evening of 9/11, held candles, and sang patriotic songs. However, I do not recall a 10,000+ person gathering or demonstration.
Of course, we did not need to propel our leadership to act. President Bush took military action against Al Quaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan just days later on October 7, 2001.
you know that part about "Israel and all the wicked Jews and zionists did it" really pisses me off..
THE ISLAMIC TERRORISTS FUCKING ADMITTED IT?!
COULD THE ISSUE BE ANY MORE STRAIGHTFORWARD?!
COULD IT?! WHAT DO YOU WANT THEM TO DO TO BELIEVE THEM?! MAKE 'EM TATTO IT ON THEIR ASSES?! "I LOVE SHARM BOMBINGS"?!
COULD YOU BE ANY MORE DEAF?!
WHAT DOES BIN LADEN HAVE TO DO IN ORDER TO GET YOUR FUCKING ATTENTION AND GIVE HIM A LITTLE CREDIT FOR WHAT HE DID?!
THESE IDIOTS WON'T FUCKING REST TILL THE TERRORISTS PERSONALLY KNOCK AT THEIR DOORS!
EVEN THE AMBASSADOR THEY SOMEHOW DECIDED IT WAS "ISRAEL and the JEWS" FAULT.. DONT ASK ME HOW! AND I DONT WANNA KNOW!
GRRRR ... STUPIIIIIIIIIIID! >:(
The taxi driver may be right.
Those who do these things are NOT Moslems. Perhaps one of their favorite terms applies: 'apostates.' Unfortunately, they have plenty of company. Starting with all the "Islamic" religious leaders who reversed centuries of Islamic religious opinion against suicide and approved suicide bombings. Then there was the CPA poll in Iraq that showed that one deed of Saddam's that still commanded approval among Iraqis after the invasion was his firing of highly inaccurate Scud missiles (with chemical warheads?) into Israeli cities during the Gulf War.
Demonstrations, however small, might help. The terrorists, and even the Islamists (that is, those favoring some form of theocracy) opposed to terrorism, may need to be met on all fronts, including "the streets" and also with organized, grass-roots force. Note the qualifiers 'might' and 'may.' I have no qualms about the righteousness and prudence of peaceful demonstrations, but mobs and militias can lead into deep waters.
I agree with Jen. The mosques and religious leaders who provide religious justifications for terrorism must be opposed. I am not a lawyer. I note, however, that the theocratic ambitions of Islamists means that, when Islamist religious leaders issue fatwas and the like, they want their followers to regard them not only as moral advice, but also as legally binding. In this world, the leaders' dicta become a parallel system of law, in competition with public law, and, they hope, eventually superior to and replacing it. I think that the proper way to treat this may be as sedition and treason.
We in the US may have some of Jen's work to do, too. The media have reported that a majority of US mosques have received funds from Saudi Arabia on condition that they adopt a Wahabbite line.
Michael in Framingham
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