The Weekend Argus (www.iol.co.za) has published an article that shows how certain Muslims have now shown their support of Palestinian homicide bombers in Cape Town, South Africa:

The cynical use of two young boys dressed as suicide bombers with cardboard cut-out dynamite sticks strapped to their chests to lead a march in support of the Palestinian cause through the streets of Cape Town has sent shockwaves around the country.

The boys, wearing Hezbollah headbands and dressed in black, marched with military-style precision and were followed by eight others carrying cardboard AK-47s as they led a crowd of about 300 people from the Muir Street mosque in District Six to the United States consulate at the foreshore. [...]

During Friday's march, the message from the children - between the ages of seven and 13 - leading the march was simple, but ominous: "Death to America, death to Israel," they shouted.

Earlier the marchers also shouted: "One American, one bullet." Later this changed to "One American tourist, one bullet" but the organisers then asked the marchers to stop chanting those words. [...]

At the consulate, an Israeli flag was hung on razor wire and set alight to chants of "Death to Israel, death to Sharon".

More love from our Muslim friends. I copy the full article below.

Outrage as 'suicide bombers' hit Cape Town
By Elliott Sylvester, the Weekend Argus, 11/29/2002
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?
set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=
ct20021129214338612B5162757

The cynical use of two young boys dressed as suicide bombers with cardboard cut-out dynamite sticks strapped to their chests to lead a march in support of the Palestinian cause through the streets of Cape Town has sent shockwaves around the country.

The boys, wearing Hezbollah headbands and dressed in black, marched with military-style precision and were followed by eight others carrying cardboard AK-47s as they led a crowd of about 300 people from the Muir Street mosque in District Six to the United States consulate at the foreshore.

The march came just 24 hours after the mindless attack on the Israeli-run Paradise Mombasa Hotel in Kenya in which 15 people, including three suicide bombers, were killed. An Israeli passenger jet leaving Mombasa airport at the same time narrowly escaped a missile attack.

During Friday's march, the message from the children - between the ages of seven and 13 - leading the march was simple, but ominous: "Death to America, death to Israel," they shouted.

Earlier the marchers also shouted: "One American, one bullet." Later this changed to "One American tourist, one bullet" but the organisers then asked the marchers to stop chanting those words.

The march, which started shortly after 2.30pm, was organised by radical Muslim group Qibla to celebrate International Quds day, the day of the oppressed. Its aim is to show solidarity with Muslims living in Palestine under Israeli occupation.

The South African Jewish Board of Deputies slammed the depiction of children as suicide bombers, saying it was shameful that children should be used to further the aims of terrorists.

Former board chairman Mervyn Smith said he was shocked to hear that the march was led by children in military-style, dressed as suicide bombers, some also sporting mock weapons.

And, in an even more shocking display, the children staged a mock attack on a bakkie draped in sheets and painted to look like an Israeli tank. After tearing the sheets from the bakkie, the group, including two girls, ripped apart an Israeli flag before returning to their neat rows to continue the march with cardboard guns in hand.

"It is scandalous that murderous thugs should be portrayed as heroes to young children. The sense of values appears to have been totally lost," Smith said.

It was hard to believe that the people of Cape Town could still believe that violence was an answer to the conflict in the Middle East.

"The whole world, including the Palestinian authorities, condemns the notion of suicide bombers. Why, in Cape Town, should they still be admired?" Smith said.

"Children should not be taught to continue the violence which is already claiming so many lives."

But co-ordinator of the march and Qibla member Abdullah Ederies said the children were vital in driving home the message that Palestinians were sacrificing their bodies to fight Israel, "one of the most powerful regimes in the world".

"We need to open people's eyes to the murder happening in Palestine.

"Using these children is completely justified. The media only covers the suicide bombings and they never report on Israeli gunships gunning down innocent Muslim men, women and children. It's time the world sat up and took note.

"By putting the children in the march we were hoping this message would be clear."

Ederies said South Africa had endured the same evil and brutality under apartheid.

Imam Gassan Solomon, a member of the Imarat, a special council of senior Muslim Judicial Council members, said it was irresponsible to expose children in a march of this kind.

But the march and its message was merely a symptom of a bigger problem that needed to be recognised.

"This is a sensitive matter around the world. I cannot condemn the march and the action taken, because I did not see it for myself, but we need to look at the bigger picture and that is that as Muslims we are duty bound to condemn terrorism.

"As Muslims we first have to sit down and try to talk our way towards a peaceful settlement. The fact that people react like this should make us question what sort of lives we are living."

The march to the American consulate, which was guarded by policemen in riot gear, was otherwise peaceful and culminated in a memorandum being handed to a consular official.

The document demanded, among other things, that the US ceased its attack on Muslim countries under the anti-terrorism banner.

It further stated that South Africa needed to take a stand against the British and American condemnation of Iraq and that US president George Bush should stop threatening world peace.

At the consulate, an Israeli flag was hung on razor wire and set alight to chants of "Death to Israel, death to Sharon".

Posted by David Melle
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