US's Rice: Iran, Syria stoke Muslim cartoon anger

[sabra]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/WBT004751.htm

US's Rice: Iran, Syria stoke Muslim cartoon anger


WASHINGTON, Feb 8 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused Iran and Syria on Wednesday of deliberately stoking Muslim anger in a dispute over cartoons satirizing Islam's Prophet Mohammad that has sparked deadly protests.

[bloom]

1. So she blames the two countries she wants the US to invade

Well - that a surprise. :eyes: NOT !! :grr:

[tatertop]

2. soon the dummy american will be in a rage over Muslim rage

then we MUST start nuking 'em to git her done.
americans don't understand much, but they DEFINITELY understand
'git her done'!

[Bassic]

22. On this perticular point however,

it seems she may have right. I've heard several reports that the people were excited by different political leaders and that the riots were somewhat encouraged. At least in Syria where even the police basically let them do whatever they wanted to the danish embassy.

[drdtroit]

3. Condi baby, come on home,

I found that rock you crawled out from under.
:patriot:

[applegrove]

4. Thanks for changing 'stroking' into an art form. Iran & Syria have been

taking notes.

[Renew Deal]

5. She's right.

:hide:

[Karenina]

7. Certainly about Syria.

What I DON'T GET is what SYRIA'S agenda is here. :shrug:

[radfringe]

14. Syria is caught in the middle

doesn't matter what their agenda is - they are physically in the way

syria is between Iraqi oil and Israel. Israel is on the Mediterranean sea. cheaper to build a pipeline through Syria into Israel and tank the oil from there instead of going through the persian gulf and around africa

[allemand]

16. Robert Fisk is not so sure about Syrian involvement:

Now Lebanon is Burning
By Robert Fisk
(...)

Yesterday's violence may have been inspired by the previous day's assaults on the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus--or were perhaps encouraged by the same Baath party which must have originally permitted the Syrian demonstrations to take place.

More likely, the crowds in both cities were allowed by the authorities to stage protests, but the demonstrators quickly became overwhelmed as Sunni extremists--in Lebanon, perhaps from the Salafist Hezb al-Tahrir party in Tripoli, and equally Wahhabi-minded Palestinians from the Ein el-Helweh refugee camp--arrived with sticks and stones to assault the Danish property and then to attack the St Maroun church and march on the Lebanese foreign ministry.

If this is true, it shows how quickly two nationalist Arab governments can be challenged by Islamists within their own countries. The 2,000-strong Lebanese security forces had to be deployed in east Beirut to fire tear gas and live rounds into the air to hold back the rioters.

http://www.counterpunch.org/fisk02072006.html

In the last election the Sunni extremists were part of the Hariri camp.

[Karenina]

17. Thanx for your post!

Trying to put the puzzle pieces together here truly boggles the mind.

[Taxloss]

6. BBC: Iran, Syria "incited violence"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4694876.stm

The US secretary of state has accused Iran and Syria of fuelling anti-Western sentiment, in a row over cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad.

Condoleezza Rice said both countries went out of their way to exploit Muslim anger at the caricatures.

The accusation came as the UK embassy in Iran came under attack. Western embassies in Syria and Lebanon were burnt down over the weekend.

Protests continue elsewhere, with four killed in an Afghan demonstration.

[stepnw1f]

8. How Dare the Towel Get So Upset!!!

duh.....

[jus_the_facts]

9. I just DO NOT believe the propaganda about CARTOONS causing this.....

....what a load of SHIT..in my opinion. :eyes:

[malaise]

10. If you saw over 100,000 of your neighbours slaughtered

in an illegal invasion, a cartoon insulting your deity being republished daily may just be the straw to break the camel's back. I don't blame one Muslim for believing that the Crusades are on in earnest.

Further, I have a real feeling that this is being stoked by interests in the West. How convenient for Condi that she can now blame the two countries whose citizens she and her goons are planning to murder next.

I hate the leaders of this planet.
Edit - add

[EFerrari]

13. Neither do I. n/t

[HuffleClaw]

11. erm, she should have 'accused' the asshats who engineered those cartoons

but of course instead she whines about the two designated evildoers, only she forgot to mention venezuela!

[EFerrari]

12. If she is accusing Iran and Syria of inciting riots you have to know

according to the Laws of BushWorld, that BushCo is definitely doing it.

[pinniped]

15. Ya, I don't think it has anything to do....

with *'s illegal wars or any insignificant shit like that.

The Muslim people can't grow flowers fast enough to throw.

I think Condosleeza should go over there to quell the disturbances. Flowers for sure.

[daleo]

18. I think fear of U.S. invasion is behind a lot of this anger

I don't think a middle east government could incite this kind of behavior by itself, even if it wanted to. I think the Islamic populations' frustrations over weakness in the face of U.S. military power, and their fear of further U.S. military power are providing a lot of the emotional energy here.

[fedsron2us]

19. You are having a laugh

Middle East governments incite this kind of behaviour all the time. So does the USA through its proxies in countries such as Georgia and the Ukraine. The problem with the human race is that it is pathetically dependent on political and religious leaders of all kinds to tell it what to think and do.

[daleo]

20. Governments try to incite populations, I agree

Sometimes they are successful, sometimes not. The same goes for religious leaders.

This one seems to have a lot of genuine anger, though, from what I can tell.

[Bassic]

23. That is true, but bear in mind

the anger that the Fundies seem to live with every day. In my view it's sort of normal for religious extremists to be easily pissed-off and to go into a blind rage at what seems perfectly reasonable for, well.. normal, thinking people.


That kind of religious fervor is easily manipulated by leaders both political and religious (when they are not one and the same to begin with)

[allemand]

21. Juan Cole: "Rice and Bush are lying shamelessly to the American public".

In short, it simply is not true that Syria has whipped up sentiments in the Arab world about the Danish caricatures. Neither the CIA, nor the BBC monitoring, nor any of the wire services, noticed any Syrian official saying anything at all about this matter until the past week! Since Syria is ruled by a secular Arab nationalist Baath regime, this finding is not surprising. And what influence would Bashar al-Asad, a heterodox Alawite Shiite and a secular Baathist, have with his Sunni Muslim or orthodox Twelver Shiite neighbors?

It is being alleged that the Baath regime was behind the burning of the Danish embassy in Damascus, on the grounds that it could not have happened unless the police state allowed it. But things have gotten out of hand before in Syria, sometimes on a large scale. It is likely that the regime allowed the initial demonstration, which radical Sunni Muslims took advantage of to torch the embassy. The Syrian regime hates radical Islam and doesn't like disorder, either. We cannot assume that the embassy burning was directed by the Syrian state. There is no evidence for it, and it actually doesn't make any sense. What would Bashar have to gain from that?

Rice and Bush have decided to get Syria, and are using the current crisis as a stick with which to beat it, and are lying shamelessly to the American public. (...)

You can only imagine the Karl Rove memo: "Anythin' happens in the Middle East, blame it on Syria and Iran. Works every time!"

http://www.juancole.com/2006/02/condaleeza-rice-is-liar-blames-syria.html

Also, the Syrian government is currently trying to develop the tourism sector in Syria and attacks on foreign embassies are certainly not helpful in that regard.

[DoYouEverWonder]

24. Maybe Condi should buy a mask

because just the sight of her ugly face is enough to stoke Muslim anger.

[SOS]

25. Condi forgot Saudi Arabia again.

"On Jan. 26, in a key move, Saudi Arabia recalled its ambassador to Denmark. Saudi clerics began sounding the call for a boycott, and within a day, most Danish products were pulled off supermarket shelves." - NYT 2/9/06

After 4 months, the Saudis recall their ambassador and boycott Denmark. Within days violence erupts all over the world (except of course in Saudi Arabia itself).

How did Condi manage to overlook this?