As much of the world paused Wednesday to mourn the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, a group of Islamic fundamentalists praised the "positive outcomes" of the violence they claim to reject, and offered support to the aims of Usama bin Laden.

The fundamentalists, in what appeared to be the most radical Muslim gathering on the anniversary of the terrorist atrocities, said Al Qaeda had a "rational justification" for the attacks, but denied having ties to bin Laden's terror network.

"The attack in New York was a counterattack for the attacks in Iraq and Palestine," said Muhammad al-Massari, a Saudi dissident who attended the meeting at Finsbury Park Mosque in north London.

"One Muslim decided to take action ... He took one eye for a hundred. He still has 99 eyes to go," al-Massari added and praised bin Laden as a hero "fighting for his beliefs."

A dozen or so men with kaffiyehs over their faces stood on the steps of the north London mosque, barring about 50 journalists from entering the building, which is widely regarded as a center of radical Islam in Britain.

Sheik Omar Bakri Mohammed said the meeting at Finsbury Park Mosque, titled "Sept. 11, 2001: A Towering Day in History," argues that the attacks were justified because Muslims must defend themselves against armed aggression.

"I don't believe in using violence," Mohammed told journalists before the meeting. "Definitely Al Qaeda has got rational justification for what they did on Sept. 11."

Mohammed heads Al-Muhajiroun, a militant group that recruits on university campuses and encourages members to join armed struggles abroad. It says its goal is to make Britain an Islamic state.

A statement issued at the end of the meeting condemned "any and all aggression against the government of the Taliban" -- the ousted Afghan regime.

. . .

"Know thy enemy..."

    - The first maxim of Sun Tzu's  "Art of War"

The attack on El Quida is right and just.  It's retaliation.  But until we honestly examine why they would want to attack us, we will find ourselves endlessly counter-attacking.

Do they hate us because we are essentially a Christian nation?  There are a lot of Christians between us and them.  Why didn't they attack a logistically easier target?

Do they hate us because we had a Renaissance and they didn't?  Again, there are a lot of western countries between us and them.

Do they hate us because we prop up unpopular regimes in their area to further our economic and military interests?
Hmmm?

Do they hate us because of our very stong support of Israel?
Hmmm? again.

We need to look at root causes and frame our actions accordingly.  Otherwise we will keep bumping into unintended consequences.

Just my (anything but) humble opinion.

If you understand the history of Islam and in particular, Mohammed, you would realize that what the Muslims are doing is not new. Mohammed did the same things, acts of brigandage, robbery, and terror, to convert Mecca and the Arabian peninsula. Islam is a religion of conquest and control. It's followers are demanded absolute obedience. The only reason many Christians and Jews survived the brutal Muslim hordes is that they were given 3 choices. One, convert to Islam; two, pay tribute, relinquish any political authority, abandon any sort of military, and give up proselytizing; or three, be killed. To preserve the valuable manuscripts, icons, and relics, the Christians chose to pay tribute. Some of the Jews remained and paid tribute, some were enslaved, and most fled to Europe and Central Asia.

The Koran is a very inspirational religious work but within it are the very dogmas that are creating the problems for the world now. The Muslim goal is conquest of the entire world and the eventual elimination of all of other beliefs.

Politically, it adheres to a tyranny or totalitarian system of absolute obedience from all subjects and the current Islamic governments reflect this. Most Muslim scholars agree that Islam is not compatible with any form of Democracy except an extreme Socialist one. A good example is the Baath party of Syria and Iraq.

Most of your ordinary Muslims are good moral people. The Koran does provide a good moral foundation for living. It is the evil corrupt Muslim political leaders and evil Muslim scholars that are pushing an agenda of conquest, death, and destruction towards the West. Because the truth is often distorted and surpressed in the Muslim world, ordinary Muslims feel they have no choice but to violently hate the West. The view being put forth is the whole world is against Islam.

A more disturbing thing is that the Socialist Left in the West is surpressing the truth about the evil brutality of the Muslim agenda and its adherents. Europe seems to be the most blinded from the evidence of Muslim hatred. Political correctness and the arrogant Soclialist utopian view of a "higher" tolerance is stymieing action against the Muslim terrorist agressors. Even the Bush administration is white-washing the truth about some of its so-called Middle-East "friends" and spouting Islam as a religion of peace and tolerance. Unfortunately, many Westerners will probably have to be killed before this falsehood is erased and action is taken to put the Muslims under control. This is the only solution for a lasting tolerant peace. The alternative is the complete destruction of all human life on Earth. Radical Islam will bring this about if they are allowed to.

There is no need to bash or harm individual Muslims. A policy of strength and compassion is necessary to deal with the Muslim problem. Many Muslims are ready to sacrifice their children in order to attack the West. To them, killing Jews, Christians, and Hindus is an expression of devotion to Allah. The homicide bombings in Israel are a good example. We must love their children more than they do.

-blm

The way I see it, religion in so many ways has been the enemy to peace and love. It is the vehicle that humans use to get fellow humans to ignore common sense and to weild destruction without remorse.

Christianity  which started out as pure in intent when in it's infancy ultimately became a tool for power and not love. It has made great strides from its dark roots of the past that are disgraceful. My concerns with the Muslim faith is that it's roots are in violence. Can they ever evolve in a timely fashion from this past?

When you have a religion that promotes hatred and the followers are indeed that, (followers--not thinking individuals) you have a real problem on your hand - and it can come to be destroyed or destroy.

No doubt, certain Muslim factions want this and believe that they ultimately can not fail as Ala is on their side.

When I was in Turkey and met a Ukrainian lady there - I heard Muslim chanting in the night. I asked a local about such and was surprised to find that they did not know what they were chanting, as it was not in Turkish, they just did it because they were supposed to do this in their religion.

I was in a bit of disbelief. If I spent that much time in religious chants, I would want to know what it was an what it meant.  No thinking involved just follow and obey.

-blm

So, yeah, I guess even this "out of place" political discussion is a slightly positive change.

It is human nature to point the finger at the other guy to the point of not being able to be responsible about seeing our role in all of this.

Now, just by saying this, you can get people upset because they are exactly in the state that I mentioned. In that sense they are no different than those that attacked the World Trade Center.

And, in me saying this, they most likely will become even more upset - because they simply do not understand what is being said by you or me and will decide to come to a conclusion that I am not upset about what happened as much as them or that I must not be a good American.

When truth is spoken on emotional issues - he who speaks the truth is not uncommonly attacked because the truth is not always wanted to be looked at.

I only pray that an end will come to all of this. However, it does not seem to be the nature of man to love - but to hate. Love only seems to be relegated to those that are close or of no threat.

If anyone attacks me on this, I know that they are an idiot or a bigot.

You were brave to make that post and wise to drop it.