To Martin Patience who wrote this article on the BBC with the most absurd title I’ve read in a long time.
Interviewing one Sheik who calls Zarqawi a “hero”, a Salafi sheik no less, and then placing “City of martyrs salutes Zarqawi” as the title of the article is such an absurd and misleading statement. Unless you conducted interviews with every person in Salt to get their opinion I think you’d find many would disagree with you saying that they salute Zarqawi.
Gimmie a break.
Not the first time a BBC writer has spun controversy and distorted fact… Overall I like them though.
Nas, the city this article referred to was Al-Salt, not Al-Zarqa. I think Al-Salt is one of the main cities in Jordan from which men went to Afghanistan to fight against Russia. That’s why I guess it’s called the city of martyrs.
I think such articles are a necessity in our time. An article such as this should give the people of Al-Salt enough motivation to speak against these uninformed few who are tarnishing the city’s name and shaming the honor of those who truely died for their fellow muslims in the past when they fought the Russians. There is a huge difference between a Mujahid who fought against occupying troops in Afghanistan and a gangster who terrorized the local population in a neighboring muslim country and probably never faced an American soldier in his life.
I say send an angry letter to the mayor of Al-Salt. Ask him to demonstrate the city’s dissatisfaction with the statements made by people like this “Shaikh”. Ask him to make a louder message than these people so that the world would hear that news instead of this one on BBC.
Hamzeh, thanks for pointing out the typo.
do you think the people of Salt are going to read this article?
Nas, are you referring to the BBC article? I’m sure some people in Al-Salt have internet access and do check English news sites, but probably only a few will actually read this.
But I’m not sure what that has to do with it!
HOW ON EARTH DID BBC FIND THIS GUY!!!!
Is it a coincidence that they picked a random guy in sult and he gave them exactly the content they are looking for to pair Islam and Zarqawi in the same sentance????
The danger is not what this guy said, its what BBC and many other western media chose to report and what chose to conceal.
Hamzeh, it has everything to do with it. read the last paragraph in your first post. now tell me thats not a bit idealist? 😉
you know how the country works…it’s not based on pick up the phone and call your congressman 😀
Nas, well it doesn’t hurt to try, does it?
I think it might actually not be so impossible to start a campaign on behalf of the city of Zarqa to demand its name be disassociated with this terrorist. Why should Al Zarqa have to have its name only known by being associated with a terrorist?
You know, in times like these I wish Jordan had a good PR campaign like Israel does. It would make sure this terrorist is referred to by his real name instead of associating him with Al Zarqa which has almost a million people none of them like him. They would make sure the BBC don’t make a mistake like the one they did, coz afterall not all the people in Al Salt salute Zarqawi, it’s just the shaikh of one of the local mosques.
Hamzeh, lol come on man, you know our society better than that. lets not kid ourselves. 😀
ditto on the PR wishes.