May 11, 2005

Mennonite Terrorist, Ijju Sheikh, Arrested in India

Clinton Watson Taylor, who you may remember had me on his radio show, has this piece up at the American Spectator. What is so interesting about this is that I had never heard of Ijju Sheikh until today, but I should have. India is our natural ally in the GWOT. India has been fighting Islamist forces since the day it was granted indepence. Both Pakistan and Bangledesh were carved out of India and then largely ethnically cleansed of their Hindu and other religious minority communities. Unfortunately, though, the Cold War imperetive forced the U.S. to become allies with Pakistan:

While the recent arrest of Abu Faraj al-Libbi, Al Qaeda's number-three man, is a significant victory in the war on terror, another largely overlooked arrest gives even more reason to rejoice. Ijju Sheikh, a fugitive suspect in one of India's worst terrorist attacks, was arrested in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) on April 29. His capture shows that the noose is tightening on a sinister transnational mafia that both supports al Qaeda's existence, and imperils India's.

On March 12, 1993, a series of explosions ripped through the streets of Mumbai, killing 257 Indians and injuring 713. The serial attack, presaging Al Qaeda's coordinated-bombing modus operandi, involved nearly simultaneous detonation of car-bombs across the city in crowded bazaars and near major hotels and Mumbai's stock exchange. While India is no stranger to political violence, the attack has been retroactively dubbed "India's 9-11" for its shock and devastation.

Ijju Sheikh stands accused of smuggling the RDX explosives used in the bombing. Once a hotelier and sarpanch (city council chief) with political connections, Sheikh fled to Dubai after the bombing and only recently snuck back into India. He is also accused of smuggling gold and weapons, as well as being a top henchman to international gangster and terrorist Dawood Ibrahim.

Posted by: Rusty at 08:24 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 317 words, total size 2 kb.

May 04, 2005

Push on to Make Beheaded Hostage Saint

How can the same word mean something so different to two cultures? Take the word martyr for instance.

When Muslims speak of martyrs it is almost always in the context of referring to someone who was killed in battle or even blew himself up killing the Zionists/Crusaders/infidels.

When Christians speak of 'martyr' it is almost always in the context of referring to a person who is killed for the faith, but offers no resistance to those willing to kill them.

Same word, different meaning.

News INQ7:

FRIENDS of Father Rhoel Gallardo yesterday began the long and tedious process of gathering testimonies and documents to support his beatification as the "first Filipino martyr and saint of the new millennium."

Gallardo, a Claretian priest, was beheaded by the terrorist Abu Sayyaf group on May 3, 2000, after being held captive along with 56 teachers and students for almost two months in the jungles of Basilan province.

Then 34 years old, Gallardo was the first Catholic priest abducted and beheaded by the notorious al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group.

Yesterday, a group of Claretian priests and seminarians led by Fr. Bernardo Blanco, and Gallardo's relatives led by his parents Dominador and Raquel Gallardo, gathered at his tomb at the Himlayang Pilipino in Tandang Sora, Quezon City, to commemorate his 5th death anniversary and recall his heroic demise in the hands of terrorists.

Posted by: Rusty at 11:23 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
Post contains 239 words, total size 2 kb.

<< Page 1 of 1 >>
21kb generated in CPU 0.032, elapsed 0.1505 seconds.
118 queries taking 0.1307 seconds, 242 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.