Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Jihad Bolognaise
From Stratfor's terror alert email this afternoon (blogging via Blackberry, so no link):
Italian authorities claim they foiled attacks against the Milan subway system and Bologna's Basilica of San Petronio, home of a 1415 fresco by Giovanni da Modena that depicts the Prophet Mohammed being tormented in hell, by deporting seven people linked to two Algerian militant groups. The suspects, who were returned to Morocco and Tunisia on March 20 following a six-month investigation, purportedly planned the Milan attack for around the time of the April 9 Italian parliamentary elections. The case highlights the alarming level of jihadist activity in Italy, and illustrates its attractiveness to militants who are seeking a safer place to operate.
The fact that the Italian Interior Ministry deported the suspects, rather than charging them with conspiracy, perhaps exemplifies an unofficial policy of avoiding trials that could be inconclusive or result in acquittals. By coordinating the expulsions with the Moroccan and Tunisian governments, which take a hard-line stance against militants and have less stringent requirements for the burden of proof, the Italians can practically ensure that the suspects will be detained in those countries as soon as they arrive.
Commentary
I have some questions.
If militant Christians plotted to blow up Muslim artistic treasures in Egypt and a commuter train in Cairo, who doesn't think we would hear about it on every network and read about it in every newspaper? Just askin'. The jihad is becoming so routine, these conspiracies to commit atrocities are barely news. Does that imply that Bush has overstated the terror threat, or understated it?
If it is just fine for the Italians to deport suspected jihadis to Algeria and Tunisia, precisely what is wrong with extraordinary rendition? Or chucking them in Gitmo? Just askin'.
UPDATE:
Here's a picture of the offending 15th century fresco by Giovanni da Modena. It is in the San Petronio basilica in Bologna, and depicts Mohammed in hell, tormented by demons. Apparently Muslims have been agitating to destroy the fresco for some time.
What is it with Muslim extremists and the destruction of antiquity? Or is it more than just the extremists? The top clerical authority in Egypt, arguably the most influential Arab country, has just outlawed sculpture. Egyptian artists aren't pleased:
Egypt's Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, the country's top Islamic jurist, issued the religious edict which declared as un-Islamic the exhibition of statues in homes, basing the decision on texts in the hadith (sayings of the prophet)....
The fatwa did not specifically mention statues in museums or public places, but it condemned sculptors and their work.
Still, many fear the edict could prod Islamic fundamentalists to attack Egypt's thousands of ancient and pharaonic statues on show at tourist sites across the country. [Gee. I can't imagine why they would be worried about that. - ed.]
"We don't rule out that someone will enter the Karnak temple in Luxor or any other pharaonic temple and blow it up on the basis of the fatwa," Gamal al-Ghitani, editor of the literary Akhbar al-Adab magazine, told AFP...
Gomaa's ruling overturned a fatwa issued over 100 years ago by then moderate and highly respected mufti Mohammed Abdu, permitting the private display of statues after the practice had been condemned as a pagan custom....
The wave of criticisms against the fatwa has put clerics on a collision course with intellectuals and artists, who say that such edicts only reinforce claims that Islam is against progress.
Read the whole thing. Apparently 19th century fatwas were too liberal for Egypt's top Islamic jurist. And it isn't just sculpture. Egypt's Grand Mufti has found the time to write a fatwa against the watching of solar eclipses but specifically refuses to condemn the mutilation of young girls. The Muft-meister is such an asshat that he has actually got me to agree with the Muslim Brotherhood:
The Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's main political opposition force, dismissed the fatwa.
"The people are more concerned with corruption. What they would like to see is a fatwa banning the presence of the same people at the helm of the country for 25 years and not against statues," the movement's spokesman Issam al-Aryan told AFP.
I couldn't have put it better myself.
3 Comments:
By 
Van Helsing, at
Tue Apr 04, 07:38:00 PM:
Why don't Italian Muslims just wait a generation or so? Then they will be the majority, and they can do to all that decadent infidel art in places like Florence what the Taliban did to those ancient Buddhist statues.
By Ed, at
Wed Apr 05, 03:04:00 AM:
The Egyptians have outlawed sculpture? I suppose that means they will be destroying the Sphinx and the Great Pyramids any day now.
By Cardinalpark, at
Wed Apr 05, 02:12:00 PM:
I wonder if newspapers around the world would publish a photograph of the fresco? Hmmm? Or perhaps not.
The Muslim Brotherhood comment points out something quite interesting -- freedom to express one's view has a moderating influence. Oppressed, the courageous dissenter is forced to be infinitely more radical than he or she might otherwise be once free.
