The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, April 06, 2004, Image 10

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    a
10 bad arguments
against religion
»»
Wednesday, April 7
7:00 pm
First Baptist Church - CS
2300 Welsh Ave.
Greg Koilkl - president of Stand to Reason Ministry, author,
and radio personality.
sponsored by ResWeek and Expression College Ministry
Resweek.tamu.edu or eXpressionministry.com
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10
Tuesday, April 6, 2004
n
THE BATH
Religious edicts, anti-American sentimei
likely fueling bombings around the wotli
By Paul Alexander
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Recent attacks tied to al-Qaida
MANILA, Philippines -
Religious edicts from al-Qaida
leaders and anger over the U.S.
occupation of Iraq are more
likely behind a rash of bomb
ings around the world than
direct orders from Osama bin
Laden’s organization, govern
ment officials and terrorism
experts say.
And the string of blasts —
from Madrid to Tashkent to
Manila — may be fueling
momentum for more attacks
from like-minded terror
groups, raising concerns for the
U.S. handover in Iraq, the
Athens Olympics and upcom
ing elections in Europe, Asia
and the United States.
Officials said they likely
averted major bombings with
arrests and confiscations of
TNT in Manila and 1,000
pounds of ammonium nitrate, a
fertilizer compound frequently
used as a bomb ingredient,
in London.
There’s no evidence of a
worldwide terror organization
or that al-Qaida is calling the
shots, perhaps even setting off
the wave of violence with key
words or phrases in messages
from the network’s top leaders,
officials and terrorism experts
told The Associated Press.
“If only it were that sim
ple,” said Magnus Ranstorp,
director for the Study of
Terrorism and Political
Violence at the University of
St. Andrews in Scotland.
“There is still a belief that all
of these activities are coordi
nated by an omnipresence of
al-Qaida from above, and that
is simply not the case.”
Al-Qaida is thought to be
decentralized now with bin
Laden and other leaders on the
run since 2001. While it may
be working on a big operation
like another Sept. 11, “you
have a second tier of local
atomized cells working away
on their own time scale and
their own initiative, carrying
out different activities,”
Ranstorp said. “Sometimes
they are linked, but often they
are not.”
A U.S. counterterrorism
official said that if there is a
trigger, it’s anti-American,
anti-Western sentiments among
militant Muslims.
In addition to the occupa
tion of Iraq, the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict has fueled
anger against Washington,
which is seen as pro-Israel.
And religious edicts, called fat-
was, from bin Laden and other
al-Qaida officials have encour
aged attacks on Americans and
their allies.
Four jailed Malaysians said
Friday that attacks against
churches and other targets in
Southeast Asia — including
bombings in Bali that killed
202 people in 2002 — were
inspired by a fatwa issued by
bin Laden.
Religious edicts from al-Qaida and anti-American sentimenlo
Iraq are more likely behind the rash of bombings worldwide!
direct orders from Osama bin Laden’s organization, officials^
March 30
London
April 5
Paris
Atlantic
Ocean
March 28-30
Tashkent,
Uzbekistan
March 11
Madrid
Terror
incidents
(since Feb. 27)
March 2
Baghdad and
Karbala, Iraq
Indian Ocean
—
26-!S
Want
Feb. 27
Manila Bay
Feb. 27: Manila Bay
Fire aboard the
Superferry 14, kills
more than 100
people; Abu Sayyaf
claims responsibility.
than 800.
police kill dozens
March 2: Baghdad
and Karbala
Coordinated blasts
strike Shiite Muslim
shrines killing at
least 181 people.
March 28-29:
Manila
Abu Sayyaf mem
bers arrested with
80 pounds of TNT
that they allegedly
planned to use on
trains, malls and
Western embassies.
March 30: Lon®
Police seize
ton of ammonium
nitrate, a bomb
ingredient.
March 11: Madrid
Train bombings kill
191, injure more
March 28-30:
Tashkent,
Uzbekistan
Suicide bombings
and shootouts with
April 5: Paris
Police nab 13
suspected niari
in connection wl
the 2003 Moroco:
attack that killed a
mi con
Viol
heir as
nore e;
roman
The edict told Muslims to
kill “Americans wherever they
are, irrespective of whether
they are armed or not. whether
they are soldiers or civilians or
women, elderly people or chil
dren,” said Mohamed Nasir
Abbas, one of four men inter
viewed by Malaysia’s TV3.
Rodolfo Mendoza, a
Philippine police intelligence
official w ho has done extensive
research on Asian Muslim
extremist groups, said such fat-
was have pitted Islamic
extremists against the West.
“It means there is an ongo
ing war,” Mendoza said. “If we
say that there is a war on ter
rorism, they say there is a war
on infidels.”
Former Malaysian Prime
Minister Mahathir Mohamad
said the March 1 I attacks
that killed 191 people in
Madrid illustrated how terror
ists want to “hit back in some
way” against Washington and
its allies.
“The war in Iraq has wors
ened the terrorism problem,”
Mahathir told AP. “By attack
ing the Iraqis, you enlarge
the front and add enemies
to yourself.”
All of the groups that have
been blamed or have claimed
responsibility for recent bomb
ings have ties to al-Qaida,
which has fostered and nur
tured other terror groups since
at least the late 1980s with
money, training, ideological
indoctrination and targets.
Some, like the brutal Abu
Sayyaf in the Philippines, are
like wind-up toys that can be
turned loose to wreak havoc,
experts say. Strategies and
timetables may differ, but the
erate t
Unfi
)oil ovi
Two
rate tb
’ro-ch(
idvantz
roman
ted tht
ultimati
rimesti
Let':
woman
cally b;
hat an
inborn
goal does not: Muslimdonphe mo
lion of a region or the wotli
“We're seeing a newt
of fanaticism in the woo^hiikI
said Philippine Nai
Security Adviser Rottr
Gonzales. “You’re seeini
zoming together of like-it:
ed twisted minds.”
The Madrid blasts
been seen as the start of
recent w ave of attacks, ta
first may have happene
weeks earlier, several
/ones away in Manila Bay
Philippine officialsinit
scoffed at the Abu Sayy
claim of responsibility
fire that killed more th
people on a ferry. Butwii®
es told a maritime
inquiry an explosion occiiii
where the Abu Sayyaf sail
planted explosives.
Then. President
Macapagal Arroyo, a keyi^nade d
porter of the U.S. war on
rorism, announced
the arrests of four Abu Say
members with
TNT that allegedly wastais
ed for use against trains,
and Western embassies.
One suspect
stashed eight pounds
explosives in a television
that he slipped pastsnifferi
and detonated on the si
true, it would be
Philippines’ worst terror®
A week later came a i
of suicide bombings, m
barrages and explosions
killed at least 181 peop
Baghdad and the Shiite
city of Karbala, targetingSli
Muslims on a religious hoi
U.S. officials have bln ;ventu .
fighters from outside I
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