Attackers have killed two border guards and injured another near Saudi Arabia's border with Iraq in a shooting and suicide assault, according to the kingdom's Interior Ministry.
The attackers opened fire on a border patrol near the city of Arar early on Monday, the ministry said.
When security officers responded, one of the attackers was captured and detonated an explosives belt, the ministry said in a brief statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.
It said another attacker was killed by security forces but did not specify the number of assailants.
That was a pretty good and thought worthy article. I can recommend it to anybody that doesn't know the overall Christian religious trends and how they reflect on what the west thinks need to happen with Islam in the future.
The west thinks that Islam needs to find a way to modern secularism. The article just states that western countries didnt transition to secularism without chopping a lot of heads off too and it took some centuries to get there. The implied "solution" of that article is that we just let them fight it out for themselves and not intervene at all because its none of our business.
Maybe sometimes we wish this could be a viable option but its not for reasons... 1. oil 2. instability in the region as a threat to Israel 3. Sharia law as a threat to the integration of muslims in European countries 4. terrorism 5. more refugees for Europe (6. moral reasons)
The only question is how can Islam become more secular and how can the West help? It's just our problem too in a globalized world and if we somehow want to make multiculturalism work.
The only problem with letting them fight it out is the Christians & other religious minorities who always get stuck in the middle start getting massacred
the same as happened during the thirty years' war and literally hundreds of times in the centuries before against nestorians, manicheans, gnostics in general, etc.
"minority" (any kind, racial, religious, political, economic, whatever) not being a synonym for "fair game" is a very new invention whose market share is still actually pretty small globally.
if the egypt thread were still around i'd have posted this there but it ties very much into the Islamic State and Islamic terrorism and racism and xenophobia in general:
I am referring here to the religious clerics. We have to think hard about what we are facing—and I have, in fact, addressed this topic a couple of times before. It’s inconceivable that the thinking that we hold most sacred should cause the entire umma [Islamic world] to be a source of anxiety, danger, killing and destruction for the rest of the world. Impossible!
That thinking—I am not saying “religion” but “thinking”—that corpus of texts and ideas that we have sacralized over the years, to the point that departing from them has become almost impossible, is antagonizing the entire world. It’s antagonizing the entire world!
Is it possible that 1.6 billion people [Muslims] should want to kill the rest of the world’s inhabitants—that is 7 billion—so that they themselves may live? Impossible!
I am saying these words here at Al Azhar, before this assembly of scholars and ulema—Allah Almighty be witness to your truth on Judgment Day concerning that which I’m talking about now.
All this that I am telling you, you cannot feel it if you remain trapped within this mindset. You need to step outside of yourselves to be able to observe it and reflect on it from a more enlightened perspective.
I say and repeat again that we are in need of a religious revolution. You, imams, are responsible before Allah. The entire world, I say it again, the entire world is waiting for your next move… because this umma is being torn, it is being destroyed, it is being lost—and it is being lost by our own hands.
It's very incredible for the leader of a Muslim country to say anything even remotely close to this. Even in Egypt where the secularists are ruling with an iron fist those are some bold comments.
An interview with the German author and former politician Jürgen Todenhöfer, who might be one of the most knowledgeable westerners, when it comes to this conflict:
In recent years he spent a lot of time in the region. He spoke to Assad, he spoke to moderate Syrian protesters, when the conflict began, and he recently spoke to ISIS supporters.
PARIS — The French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle and its fleet will be deployed to the Gulf to support operations against the Islamic State group, a military news site reported on Tuesday.
The deployment of the marine battle group is due to be announced by President Francois Hollande when he gives his annual new year’s speech to the armed forces onboard the Charles de Gaulle on January 14, according to the “Mer et Marine” news site.
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Fighting between the Islamic State (ISIS) and a joint force of the Iraqi army and tribal fighters continued Tuesday in Ramadi in Anbar province, with sources saying the jihadis were closing in on an air base where US troops are stationed.
A source inside Ramadi said that fighting raged street-to-street and alley-to-alley in the capital of Iraq’s largest province.
“Military forces, in coordination with tribal fighters in Ramadi, launched an assault on ISIS in the areas of Andalus, Mostaudah and Hoz in the city’s downtown, where the clashes continue,” said a tribal chief in Anbar.
“To control the city ISIS militants have targeted a military base in Ramadi with mortars,” he added. “At the same time, the military base of Ainoun Al-Assad has been besieged by ISIS fighters.”
That is where American military personnel, who Washington says are in Iraq on non-combat missions, are stationed.
Slow news day due to the massive storm hitting the area:
Opposition forces built on previous victories this week in Aleppo city by capturing areas surrounding the southwest entrance of regime-controlled Sheikh Najjar and killing a regime commander on Tuesday, according to the official Islamic Front Twitter account.
“Liberation of the Manashr al-Brej area and the killing of a number of Assad soldiers,” tweeted the Islamic Front, a coalition of Islamist rebel groups, on Tuesday.
The regime seized Sheikh Najjar, located northeast of Aleppo city, from the rebels last July, sparking fears that it would then capture the nearby Handarat and Castello road, thereby severing the main rebel supply route into the city.
Fighters from a number of local rebel brigades including Ahrar a-Sham participated in the attack, reported the pro-opposition news agency All4Syria.
They fought a regime force comprised of Iranian and Afghan militias, Syrian army soldiers and pro-Assad militias.
The attack reportedly killed at least 20 regime fighters and destroyed a tank, said pro-opposition news agency Halab News.
That was a pretty good and thought worthy article. I can recommend it to anybody that doesn't know the overall Christian religious trends and how they reflect on what the west thinks need to happen with Islam in the future.
The west thinks that Islam needs to find a way to modern secularism. The article just states that western countries didnt transition to secularism without chopping a lot of heads off too and it took some centuries to get there. The implied "solution" of that article is that we just let them fight it out for themselves and not intervene at all because its none of our business.
Maybe sometimes we wish this could be a viable option but its not for reasons... 1. oil 2. instability in the region as a threat to Israel 3. Sharia law as a threat to the integration of muslims in European countries 4. terrorism 5. more refugees for Europe (6. moral reasons)
The only question is how can Islam become more secular and how can the West help? It's just our problem too in a globalized world and if we somehow want to make multiculturalism work.
The only problem with letting them fight it out is the Christians & other religious minorities who always get stuck in the middle start getting massacred
the same as happened during the thirty years' war and literally hundreds of times in the centuries before against nestorians, manicheans, gnostics in general, etc.
"minority" (any kind, racial, religious, political, economic, whatever) not being a synonym for "fair game" is a very new invention whose market share is still actually pretty small globally.
if the egypt thread were still around i'd have posted this there but it ties very much into the Islamic State and Islamic terrorism and racism and xenophobia in general:
I am referring here to the religious clerics. We have to think hard about what we are facing—and I have, in fact, addressed this topic a couple of times before. It’s inconceivable that the thinking that we hold most sacred should cause the entire umma [Islamic world] to be a source of anxiety, danger, killing and destruction for the rest of the world. Impossible!
That thinking—I am not saying “religion” but “thinking”—that corpus of texts and ideas that we have sacralized over the years, to the point that departing from them has become almost impossible, is antagonizing the entire world. It’s antagonizing the entire world!
Is it possible that 1.6 billion people [Muslims] should want to kill the rest of the world’s inhabitants—that is 7 billion—so that they themselves may live? Impossible!
I am saying these words here at Al Azhar, before this assembly of scholars and ulema—Allah Almighty be witness to your truth on Judgment Day concerning that which I’m talking about now.
All this that I am telling you, you cannot feel it if you remain trapped within this mindset. You need to step outside of yourselves to be able to observe it and reflect on it from a more enlightened perspective.
I say and repeat again that we are in need of a religious revolution. You, imams, are responsible before Allah. The entire world, I say it again, the entire world is waiting for your next move… because this umma is being torn, it is being destroyed, it is being lost—and it is being lost by our own hands.
It's very incredible for the leader of a Muslim country to say anything even remotely close to this. Even in Egypt where the secularists are ruling with an iron fist those are some bold comments.
Sisi and the military saved the country from falling apart. Say what you want about them, but their are times where a country is better off without polarizing protests (has to be temporary). It's the reason that he has a 80% approval rating in Egypt. Even though it's partly their doctrine that's promoted wahabiism. Although i don't think he should stay any longer than a single term.
On January 06 2015 22:56 Maenander wrote: An interview with the German author and former politician Jürgen Todenhöfer, who might be one of the most knowledgeable westerners, when it comes to this conflict:
In recent years he spent a lot of time in the region. He spoke to Assad, he spoke to moderate Syrian protesters, when the conflict began, and he recently spoke to ISIS supporters.
Pretty much what I thought. The only hope to end this in this without ISIS in Syria is to back the Assad regime.
On January 06 2015 22:56 Maenander wrote: An interview with the German author and former politician Jürgen Todenhöfer, who might be one of the most knowledgeable westerners, when it comes to this conflict:
In recent years he spent a lot of time in the region. He spoke to Assad, he spoke to moderate Syrian protesters, when the conflict began, and he recently spoke to ISIS supporters.
Pretty much what I thought. The only hope to end this in this without ISIS in Syria is to back the Assad regime.
Take Todenhöfer´s words with a grain of salt. While you have to give him credit for travelling through IS territory, I´m still suspicious as to why he was allowed to tour their heartland and collect impressions. What did IS gain? Also, since his return, he has overstated the power of IS in several interviews (the CNN piece linked above, with the BBC or here (in German))
EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Z5hGgnt.png)
