August 18, 2009
Good News: Al Qaeda Terrorist Breaks Out of Lebanese Jail!
I know Totten is always going on about how great Lebanon is, but I just don't share that view. To me, Lebanon will always be that country which has settled on peace at the cost of letting the terrorists in their midst get away with nearly anything they want.
Perhaps too much influence from their former French Colonial masters?
Taha al-Hajj Suleiman, a Syrian national and a member of the al Qaeda-linked Fatah al-Islam group, managed Tuesday to escape from prison in eastern Beirut, police said....So, a member of al Qaeda's local affiliate not only has a saw smuggled into his jail cell, but also a gun?The eight Fatah al-Islam members sawed the window bars and used blankets as ropes to descend from the second floor of the jail.
According to police Suleiman managed to successfully escape because he was the first to jump.
Lebanese media said Suleiman stopped a car next to the Forum de Beirut at the outskirts of the capital and pointed a gun at the female driver and ordered her to keep driving.
I wonder how much it took to bribe the guard? Or were Salafist sympathies enough?
UPDATE: This isn't to say that Lebanese aren't nice people. They are. I have a brother-in-law who's a Lebanese Christian. If Lebanese living in America are any indication of what Lebanon proper is like, I imagine a country full of hospitality coupled with generous portions of food.
Mmmmm, Lebanese food.
But being nice and hospitable is only a virtue on the individual level, not at the social level. I recall an episode of No Reservations where Anthony Bourdaine spends some time in Saudi Arabia. Every one seemed so nice.
Which I don't think is a misleading view of Saudi Arabia at all. Saudis are generally very nice people. At least this view meshes with my own experience with the Saudis I've known.
Going SCUBA diving in Saudi Arabia seems fun. Trying to give a Saudi family a Bible in public? Not so much.
In any event being nice and/or hospitable is the last thing I want from a people who have actual terrorists living openly in their society. It's one thing to nicely ask Hizbollah to disarm, but talk is cheap and tolerance becomes a crime when applied to evil.
While in this particular instance we are talking about Sunni extremists and not Shia extremists, it just reminded me of the problem some have of separating personal level interaction from social or political interaction.
It's why, over the years, I've stressed that I have no problem with Islam as a religious construct or of Muslims in general. I give no more thought to Muslims who think I'm a kuffar than I do to traditional Christians who think I'm going to hell.
What I have a problem with is political Islam (Islamism) and those who wish to impose it (Islamists).
Islamists in my mind are no different than Communists. Which brings us full circle: have you ever known a Communist? A real live card-carrying Communist? I have. Good people, for the most part. I'd let them watch my kids, no problem.
The problem isn't with Communists on the individual level, it's with Communists once they have political power.
A Communist will try to convince you that your love of Capitalism only shows that you are a victim of false consciousness.
A Communist government will do the same, but will send you to a reeducation camp to learn the lesson.
Only one of these two scenarios is truly evil.
So, too, with Islamists.
By all counts, Daniel Boyd was the perfect neighbor. A perfect neighbor, who also thought it was the individual duty of Muslims to engage in violent jihad in furtherance of political Islam.
On one level, a great guy. On another level, an enemy of Western Civilization.
