Austin Bay has an interesting review of Syria’s Assad clan rulers and the “secret” religion they practice, Alawite.

The Alawites are usually described as a Shia sect. Note this reference (at absoluteastronomy) says the Alawites origin is “in dispute.”

His take on the embassy burnings in Damascus is that it defers the heat Syria is taking at the UN over Lebanon’s Rafik Hariri’s murder. A couple of commenters to this post put together something else that seems plausible, seeing Iran’s fingerprints all over these attacks against Denmark and Norway.

8. And all on cue from Iran.

Comment by Gandalf — 2/4/2006 @ 6:09 pm

9. The Danish embassy in Syria houses the Swedish embassy.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4681294.stm

Norway and Sweden both sit on the IAEA board of Governors.

http://www.iaea.org/About/Policy/Board/

Comment by Soldier’s Dad — 2/4/2006 @ 6:16 pm

14. So the cartoons were in the newspaper last November but it wasn’t until now that the outrage broke out, the same week that it became clear that the EU 3 were ready to refer Iran to the security council? What am I missing?

Comment by Graham — 2/5/2006 @ 12:01 am

In a follow-up post, Bay describes the Cartoon War as a collision of values.

Islamists are using the cartoons as a propaganda vehicle, but then they used Newsweek’s “Koran flushing” article. An implacable, unappeaseable enemy can use anything and everything as propaganda.

The Cartoon War is complex. It pits free speech against violent mobs. It also pits provocation against faith.

AP reports that the Danish embassy in Beirut, Lebanon was burned last night, so this Cartoon War is escalating.

Thousands of Muslims rampaged Sunday in Beirut, setting fire to the Danish Embassy, burning Danish flags and lobbing stones at a Maronite Catholic church as violent protests over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad spread from neighboring Syria.

Troops fired bullets into the air and used tear gas and water cannons to push the crowds back after a small group of Islamic extremists tried to break through the security barrier outside the embassy. Flames and smoke billowed from the building. Security officials said at least 30 people were injured.

The Danish Foreign Ministry urged Danes to leave Lebanon as soon as possible, while Danes and Norwegians heeded a similar call in Syria, where violent protests broke out on Saturday.

“It is a critical situation and it is very serious,” Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller said Sunday on Danish public radio.

Protesters also took to the streets by the thousands elsewhere in the Muslim world, a day after demonstrators in Syria charged security barriers outside the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus and sent the buildings up in flames.

Those attacks earned widespread condemnation from European nations and the U.S., which accused the Syrian government of backing the protests.

The Danish foreign minister said: “enough is enough.”

Lebanon’s President called for calm, and seems to be indicating that ourside influences are trying to destabilize the country. Could those destabilizers be from Syria, or from its recently acknowledged new buddy Iran? Even one of Lebanon’s Grand Mufti think something from elsewhere is involved.

Lebanon’s Grand Mufti Mohammed Rashid Kabbani denounced the violence and appealed for calm, accusing infiltrators of sowing the dissent to “harm the stability of Lebanon.”

So, once again, back to Iran, a close Syrian ally and exporter and supporter of terror with a strong desire to acquire nuclear weapons. The entire world hasn’t yet lost its collective mind, as the IAEA has voted to send the issue of Iran ignoring the International community and resuming the enrichment of uranium to the UN Security Council. Iran Focus quotes Ahmadinejad’s reactions to the 27 out of 35 member approved IAEA vote to turn Iran over to the UN Security Council for its breaking IAEA seals on its questionable nuclear facillities and imediate starting up of uraniun enrichment.

“The era in which the large powers would make the decisions for our nation from their glass castle is over”, Ahmadinejad said in Tehran, the state-run news agency ISNA reported.

“With its [1979 Islamic] revolution our nation brushed aside the humiliators and no longer allowed the Arrogance (United States) and imperialism to make the decisions for them. This is the greatest capital and the biggest strike at the [U.S.]”, he said. (…)

“The enemies of the revolution have tried many times over the past 27 years so ensure that the Iranian nation was unable to realise the true goals of the revolution. But today, when they realised that they could not reach their goals, they started to put pressure. They cannot believe that our nation is able to obtain the highest level of science and education”.

“Our enemies cannot do a damn thing. We do not need them at all. It is them who need the Iranian nation” (…) “You can issue as many resolutions as you like and dream on. But you cannot prevent the Iranian nation’s progress”. [build nuclear weapons] (emph mine)

India is taking a lot of heat from Shia Muslims and it own Communist Party for voting with the IAEA majority. Of course, since Bush has praised India for its vote, the Left here in the U.S. can’t be far behind in leveling some kind of condemnation.

Over at Kos, I found only one post about the violence over the Cartoon War, and reading through the comments is kinda fun, for a minute — for every one of the kids that seem to have some understanding of what Europe is facing, there are a dozen or so that melt down into Leftist conspiracies, mis-guided sentiments about the MSM or just more Bush hatred. Typical.

Already this AM Iran is speaking out of both sides of its mouth, now saying that Iran will resume negotiations with Russia to purchase enriched uranium from Russia.

Kinda makes you wonder if this is Ahmadinejad’s favorite movie! (db)

Technorati Tags: Cartoon War, Austin Bay, Ahmadinejad, nuclear Iran, India, Danish embassy, Beirut

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 5th, 2006 at 12:59 pm and is filed under G.W.O.T., Iran Threat, Islam. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.  |   Print This Post  |   Email This Post

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