Jordan explodes: nice bookends

These grafs, lifted from Dennis Prager and Khaled Duzdar serve as near perfect bookends to the aftermath of the Amman, Jordan bombings. First, Mr. Duzdar, speaking from a position of authority as the Palestinian co-director of the strategic affairs unit at the Israel-Palestine Center for Research and Information in Jerusalem, begins to rally Muslims against these killers:

Last week's suicide attacks against innocent civilians in Amman shocked us all. It is unclear what message the suicide bombers were conveying and there is no logical cause justifying such insane acts. What could the aim of such attacks be, and what were the mad executioners aiming to achieve? For some time, they have claimed they are defenders and combatants of Islam and the Muslim world. However, Islam has no use for such people and their acts and ideologies - if we believe they have any ideology at all. They promote nothing more than killing and aim only to bring about a state of lawlessness and instability in the Middle East.

The targets are no longer just the West, its ideologies and other foreign cultures; no longer only imperialism and American global domination. The targets are now Muslims themselves, Arabs and Palestinians - not to mention Iraqis. These actions represent killing for the sake of killing and destruction for the sake of destruction.

When actions target innocent civilians - regular people celebrating the wedding of their children and friends - what are the aims and targets of such suicide actions? It is now more obvious than ever that whoever was responsible for the attacks against civilians in other parts of the Arab world, let's say a few months ago the hotels at Sharm al-Sheikh, was also responsible for the attacks in Amman. All these attacks serve only one purpose: to undermine security and stability in the region.

Muslims, the countries and Arab states now face a crucial challenge. There should be no excuse for neglecting and denying the dangerous reach of the carriers of a new and mad disease of violence. For that, serious actions should be undertaken to exterminate this spreading disease from our Muslim societies and from Islam itself. Muslims and Arabs should not only have better condemned the terrorist acts carried out everywhere around the world, but also should move to isolate the destructive, invented beliefs promoted by a group of insane people and carried out in the name of defending Islam.

Now is the time for us Muslims and Arabs to take over this responsibility. All Muslim and Arabs should unify in one mission, which is to fight the mad ideologies defended by those who have separated themselves from what Islam has really brought to the world and what Islam really wants to promote. Their acts only cause severe damage to Islam and Muslims. The false messages they are presenting in the name of Islam have resulted in a global misunderstanding about real Islamic belief. The evil belief of these mad people has sentenced Islam and Muslims to be tainted as evildoers, terrorists, savages and people with no mercy.

As a Palestinian, I also accuse such bombers of damaging our cause and destroying our struggle for freedom. They can't be allowed to take our cause as an excuse for their evil and insane beliefs. No matter where they are acting - in Baghdad or New York, in Istanbul or Paris, in Madrid or Amman, in Cairo or London, in Beirut or Jerusalem - their acts only do us harm; especially at a time when we Palestinians are searching for international support to bring to life to a Palestinian state.

Our condolences are not just for the four senior Palestinians killed in the last suicide attack in Amman; not just for the people we knew or for the families of the innocents whose only crime was attending the weddings of loved ones. Our condolences are for Islam and for what Islam should really represent. Our condolences are for ourselves, who have fallen into the mud of madness.

Second, Mr. Prager posits that it is only after Islamic fascists attack Arab Muslim civilians that the Arab world is outraged. These same killers are always given a pass when they attack Jews, Americans or practically anybody else. And while the recognition is welcome, it is also way overdue and point to what is at best a double standard, but at worst overt bigotry on the part of Muslim and Arab countries and culture.

Jordanians are shocked that Islamic terrorists would blow up families, including families celebrating a wedding. They are so shocked that for the first time in history, Muslims have taken to publicly demonstrating against Islamic terror.

And why are they shocked? Because the terrorists blew up Jordanians. As long as Islamic terrorists blew up men, women and children who are Jewish, Christian, Hindu, American, Australian and black Sudanese, the Arab and larger Muslim worlds were not particularly disturbed. In fact, Palestinians, who comprise the majority of Jordan's population, celebrated when Jews were blown up at Passover seders and at weddings. And they took to the streets and cheered in the Palestinian fashion, handing out candy, when Americans were incinerated in office buildings.

For some reason, Palestinians, most other Arabs and many Muslims around the world thought that the credulity-straining evil of targeting the most innocent for death, paralysis, blindness and brain damage would be confined to non-Arabs and non-Muslims. In fact, the idea that this Palestinian-made cancer would target Arab Muslims is so inconceivable to most Arabs that many now believe the terror attack in Amman was orchestrated by Jews (the Israeli Mossad)....

Now there is widespread condemnation of Zarqawi's terror in Jordan. There is even a fear that the name of Islam will suffer. Unfortunately, however, it is only because Zarqawi was foolish enough to massacre Jordanian civilians, and not confine his massacres to Iraqis and non-Arabs. What has aroused Arab voices against Zarqawi has nothing to do with the immorality of blowing up people celebrating at a wedding -- it has to do with the immorality of blowing up Muslims celebrating at a wedding.