Saturday, December 20, 2008

Islamic "Knights in Support of the Invasion" Group on Facebook Shut Down: Censorship, or Common Sense?

In a recent post I said that I'm against censorship.

So, why am I glad that Facebook shut down a group of Muslims, Fursan Ghazawat Alnusra?

The New York Times and the BBC don't encourage their readers to kill people that their respective editorial boards don't approve of.

Fursan Ghazawat Alnusra, or "Knights in Support of the Invasion" does - either that, or they've been working very hard to give the wrong impression.

Some samples of the Facebook group's statements (translated, I'm pretty sure):
  • Purpose of the group:
    • "to support Jihad and Mujihadeen"
    • "to invade this Web site"
    • To ask "Allah to grant us Jihad and martyrdom"
  • "Today we invade your sites, tomorrow your lands and homes, o you cross worshippers[!]."
And, this beaut:
  • "Maybe the day will come when one of the martyrs is asked [by Allah] who urged you to Jihad, so he answers saying: a message came to me from Facebook asking me to support the Mujihadeen. The message impacted me therefore I went to Jihad to destroy the places of the cross worshippers[!]."
(From FOXNews)

Photos of group members included Al Qaeda leaders and prominent Saudi clerics.

An American president has said that "Islam is a peaceful religion." A number of people who say they follow Islam have told me essentially the same thing. I have no reason to doubt the word of any of them. I've also been told that "jihad" isn't violent: an idea that might be awkward to explain to the family of an "Egyptian "traitor" whose beheading was shown by Fursan Ghazawat Alnusra. I suppose killing him was okay, by some Muslim standards: somebody felt that he had helped Americans in Iraq.

So, Islam is a peaceful religion, and jihad isn't violent. Those ideas are easy enough to understand.

On the other hand, as a "cross worshiper," I'm a bit unsettled at how many members of this "peaceful religion" have expressed an interesting in waging jihad and invading the homes of Christians.

Related posts: Related discussion thread: In the news: Related posts, on censorship, propaganda, and freedom of speech.
Updated (sort of):

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Blogroll

Note! Although I believe that these websites and blogs are useful resources for understanding the War on Terror, I do not necessarily agree with their opinions. 1 1 Given a recent misunderstanding of the phrase "useful resources," a clarification: I do not limit my reading to resources which support my views, or even to those which appear to be accurate. Reading opinions contrary to what I believed has been very useful at times: sometimes verifying my previous assumptions, sometimes encouraging me to change them.

Even resources which, in my opinion, are simply inaccurate are sometimes useful: these can give valuable insights into why some people or groups believe what they do.

In short, It is my opinion that some of the resources in this blogroll are neither accurate, nor unbiased. I do, however, believe that they are useful in understanding the War on Terror, the many versions of Islam, terrorism, and related topics.