Friday, October 23, 2009

One story that didn't really make the news, one that did,

and both involve the same religion.
PEORIA, Ariz. — Police in a Phoenix suburb are looking for a father suspected of running down his daughter because she was becoming too "Westernized" and was not living according to their traditional Iraqi values.

Police say 48-year-old Faleh Hassan Almaleki of Glendale allegedly ran his daughter down Tuesday at an Arizona Department of Economic Security parking lot in Peoria.

The victim, 20-year-old Noor Faleh Almaleki of Surprise, remains hospitalized with life-threatening injuries.

A second woman, 43-year-old Amal Edan Khalaf, also of Surprise, suffered non-life threatening injuries. Police say the women are roommates
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We have the 'honor' murders in Texas, now this; how many more we don't know about, at least as yet?


According to authorities, a friend of Mehanna's who is cooperating with the investigation but is not accused of participating in the alleged plot said Mehanna told him it was "unfathomable" that the United States has military bases in the "heart of the Muslim world" and that the "land of Mohammad ... is being used as a military base to attack Muslims."

Mehanna also told the friend that in the United States he feels "like a fish out of water," according to an affidavit filed in court.

Prosecutors say Mehanna and his friends used code words such as "peanut butter and jelly" for fighting in Somalia and "culinary school" for terrorist camps, and talked extensively of their desire to "die on the battlefield."

He was allegedly part of a conspiracy between 2001 and 2008 that intended to "kill, kidnap, maim or injure" soldiers and two politicians who were members of the executive branch but are no longer in office. Authorities refused to identify the politicians, who they said were never in danger.

Acting U.S. Attorney Michael Loucks said the men justified the planned attacks on malls because U.S. civilians pay taxes to support the government and are "nonbelievers," Loucks said. He refused to identify the targeted malls
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The family and friends all assure us this is a mistake, of course. Fact is, they may not know about these activities, or- in bits they did know- couldn't believe it really was this; jihadis have demonstrated great ability to hide things from family and friends who don't share the opinion.

One interesting point, Authorities said Wednesday that Mehanna and the other alleged conspirators had contacted Maldonado about getting automatic weapons for their planned mall attacks, but he told them he could only get handguns. Well, of COURSE that's bull; machineguns and hand grenades are so common they're smuggled by the thousands into Mexico! The Brady Group told us so! Etc.


An ongoing problem has been the willingness of the major media to avoid reporting on muslims with, lets us say, attitude problems; I wonder if they've ever considered the long-term problem with that? Yes, it allows them to try to protect muslims from dealing with some nasty questions, but in doing so it has helped keep them from dealing with nasty problems. When you help someone keep saying "Yes, we disapprove of this, but..." over and over with as little attention as possible, or with condemnation of anyone who yells about it, it causes a lot more problems in the long run. If they were having to deal with the nasty questions more openly it would put a lot more of them in the position of answering the question: Which side are you on? And you can't say 'both'. It'd mean more yelling and noise now, but might prevent a lot more later. And just might cause a lot of muslims who've been willing to 'yes, but' for the terrorists to put a lot more thought into what that 'but' winds up meaning, for them and for this country where they live.

2 comments:

Windy Wilson said...

That last paragraph is very perceptive and gets to the heart of the problem. If the same sort of policies were in effect with the news media 70 and 100 years ago the United States could never have been the melting pot that it was so it could become as strong as it is, to be a beacon for the world.
It is only by having a short-term view of things that one is able to say that only muslim immigrants or Hispanic immigrants have had trouble assimilating or brought cultural baggage with them that made assimilation difficult.

Firehand said...

Yeah, it's been a messy process all the way along; and the current 'protected species' attitude by much of the media and far too many in gummint is just making this worse.