Francois Lenoir/Reuters Women lit candles on Wednesday in memory of victims at the site of a gun and grenade attack in Liege, Belgium.
On Tuesday, after the grenade attack in Belgium, Loonwatch exposed Robert Spencer’s feeble attempt to pin it on Muslims here. He immediately jumped to the conclusion that the perpetrator, Nordine Amrani, was a Muslim with sinister Islamic motives. Spencer wasn’t alone.
All the usual suspects also jumped the gun: Belgium, Islam and the Boomerang of “Multiculturalism” (Frontpage Magazine – thanks for the title idea), Belgium Grenade Attack by Muslim[s] 4 Dead, 75 wounded (Atlas Shrugs), Belgium: Honor Killing Trial Causes Jihad With Hand Grenades (Winds of Jihad).
Apparently the loons are unaware that Amrani is typically a Mizrahi Jewish surname. It is reckless to guess because names can be deceiving, but if Amrani’s Jewish origin is confirmed, will the loons suddenly agree with us that the religious and ethnic heritage of the perpetrator shouldn’t be relevant?
As the bigots are fond of pointing out, Nordine Amrani is of Moroccan extraction, though he was born and raised in Belgium. According to an article in the New York Times, Amrani considered himself Belgian, didn’t speak a word of Arabic, and was not a Muslim.
In the absence of facts, it seems anti-Muslim bigots just manufacture whatever sensational headlines suit their hateful agenda. Authorities say the attack is not religiously motivated:
‘No religious motive in Liege rampage’
The Belgium grenade attack which killed three people and injured 123 has sent shockwaves through the country. However, Glyn Ford, a former Member of the European Parliament, stresses that individual motives are the key to understanding such attacks.
After Nordine Amrani, who also died in the blast, went on a rampage in a central square in the city of Liege on Tuesday, there has been much speculation as to what led him to throw three hand grenades toward a bus shelter and opening fire on the crowd.
Speaking with RT, Glyn Ford said that despite earlier reports, this was not a repeat of the July 22 Norwegian massacre that left 77 dead.
Well, we don’t know, but it would appear that it was an individual incident. Earlier reports that there were three or four gunmen involved have since been discredited and it equally appears that he wasn’t targeting anybody in particular… so in a sense it’s not a replica of what happened in Norway.
Ford was also quick to counter any allegations that Amrani’s attack was religiously motivated.
Earlier reaction in many senses seems to be rather racist. He was not being identified as a Belgium when he was a Belgian citizen. Because of his Moroccan origins, people are talking about killing the Muslims; it’s all the fault of the Muslims, and the new socialist government that’s been in office now for nearly a week is being blamed for being soft on immigrants and not reacting hard enough.
It was also reported that a rightwing extremist had gone on a shooting spree in Florence, Italy, killing two African traders and wounding three others before taking his own life. While Ford recognizes that these tragic events in Europe are a cause for concern, he argues that the European Union has done a much better job of curbing such violent crimes than the United States.
In a sense, the European track record is far better than that in the United States. The United States has these kinds of rampage attacks happening fairly regularly in schools and elsewhere. I think it’s the rather tougher gun laws that we actually have in the European Union that’s kept it down to the low level that it is, because essentially Europeans are no different than American. It’s the lack of weapons that’s kept this under control to a degree.
Ultimately, Ford says that when confronted with such events, it is better to investigate individual motives rather than jump to any immediate conclusions.
****************************
The latest Europol Data confirms that less than 1% of terrorist attacks in Europe are perpetrated by Muslims. Shooting sprees and violent rampages are usually said to be the work of a “lone wolf” with no religious motive, and they don’t count as terrorism, unless the perpetrator is Muslim. In that case, it’s terrorism done “in the name of Islam,” regardless of actual motive.
The Telegraph compiled a list of similar incidents over the last 10 years, and it appears Amrani would be the token Muslim if the loons were right about his background:
Liege shooting and grenade attack: previous European incidents in last 10 years
September 27, 2001 – SWITZERLANDA man bursts into the local assembly in the central Swiss town of Zug and opens fire, killing 14 members of parliament and local government then turning the gun on himself. |
 Fredrich Leibarcher |
March 27, 2002 – FRANCEEight local councillors are killed and 19 injured when a man opens fire on members of the municipal council of Nanterre, outside Paris. He kills himself the next day while in police custody. The perpetrator in the shootings was Richard Durn, 33, who was originally from Slovenia. |
 Richard Durn |
April 26, 2002 – GERMANYSixteen people, including 12 teachers and two students, are gunned down at a school in Erfurt in eastern Germany by a 19-year-old former student, apparently in revenge for having been expelled, who then killed himself. |
 Robert Steinhuser |
November 7, 2007 – FINLANDAn 18-year-old goes on a shooting rampage in a school in the southern Finnish town of Tuusula, killing eight people before shooting himself. |
Pekka-Eric Auvinen |
September 23, 2008 – FINLANDEleven people, including the 22-year-old gunman, die in a massacre at a training school at Kauhajoki, Finland at the hands of Matti Juhani Saari |
|
March 11, 2009 – GERMANYNine pupils, three teachers and three passers-by are killed in a school shooting at Winnenden in southern Germanyby Tim Kretschmer a former pupil who then kills himself. |
 Tim Kretchmer |
June 2, 2010 – ENGLANDTwelve people are killed when Derrick Bird, a 52-year-old taxi driver, goes on a shooting spree in the English region of Cumbria, before killing himself. |
 Derrick Bird |
April 9, 2011 – THE NETHERLANDSA gunman opens fire in a packed mall in the Netherlands, killing six people before shooting himself dead. Lone gunman shoots six dead in Dutch shopping mall Van der Vlis left a farewell letter, found by his mother, in which he mostly talked about his suicidal feelings. But it did not give a clear motive for the killings, the town’s mayor Bas Eenhoorn told Dutch television. |
 Tristan van der Vlis |
July 22, 2011- NORWAYA bomb attack on government buildings in Oslo that kills eight is followed by a shooting which kills 69 at a summer holiday camp organised by the ruling Labour party on the island of Utoya, near to the capital. Anders Behring Breivik, a right-wing extremist is arrested for carrying out both attacks. |
 Anders Breivik |
December 13, 2011 – BELGIUMThree people, plus the gunman, are killed when a man, armed with grenades, opens fire on a square packed with children and Christmas shoppers in the eastern Belgian city of Liege. |
 Nordine Amrani |
December 13, 2011 – ITALYIn ITALY a far-right militant kills two Senegalese street vendors and wounds three people in a shooting spree in Florence after which he apparently kills himself. |
 Gianluca Casseri |
Among all the anti-Muslim hate sites, the most novel is the Roman Catholic Imperialist, which claims Anders Breivik is also a Muslim convert. Notice how frequently the word “Muslim” is repeated [emphasis mine]:
In the Belgian city of Liege known for its love of the Muslim – a Muslim kills 4 in a terrorist attack and wounded at least 75. It is not official that the terrorist is a Muslim, but all bets are that he is. The Modus operandi is the same as in all other Muslim terrorist attacks. This attack is similar to the attack in Norway by the Muslim convert Anders Behring Breivik.
First: the bomb.
Second: the gun.
The Muslim terrorist lobbed grenades into the crowd. After his hands were free the Muslim terrorist pulled out a hand gun and started firing. The Muslim aimed to kill.
The Belgian interior Ministry said the incident was not terrorism-related. Meaning of course that the man was most likely a Muslim.
No Muslims were killed ‘cept of course for the Muslim terrorist who later blew his brains out.
Breivik described himself in his Manifesto as a “culturally Christian” agnostic who wanted to restore the Knights Templar. Breivik despised Islam and viewed himself as a foot soldier in the war against the Muslim hordes. In fact, the site looks like something Brievik could appreciate.
So why does the Roman Catholic Imperialist say Breivik is a Muslim convert? An anonymous comment suggests, “All terrorists are Muslims, therefore all Muslims are terrorists.” Breivik is a terrorist, therefore Breivik is a Muslim.
Take another look at the photos above, folks. According to loon (il)logic, they’re all Moooslems!
December 15th, 2011 at 5:24 pm
May all the victims RIP
December 15th, 2011 at 5:28 pm
Glad to see Spencer has his name up there with the rest of the trash.
December 15th, 2011 at 5:30 pm
Vandals try to start fire in West Bank mosque
By Yolande Knell BBC News, Jerusalem
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16195605
Vandals have started a fire in a mosque in a West Bank village, in the second such attack in two days.
Officials in Burka, east of Ramallah, said that carpets and chairs were burnt in the local mosque and Hebrew graffiti saying “war” was scrawled on the wall.
On Tuesday, a fire was started in a 12th Century mosque in Jerusalem.
The incidents are being blamed on Jewish settlers angry at what they see as Israeli government attempts to restrict settlement building.
“This is a cowardly, despicable act by settlers,” the head of Burka council, Abdelqadr Sumrean, told the BBC. “They want us to leave our land but we will never do that.”
No-one saw the perpetrators of the attack in Burqa, which took place in the middle of the night. However, it is located within a kilometre of Migron, a settlement outpost which is due to be demolished early next year under an order from Israel’s Supreme Court.
‘Price tag’
The village has previously seen so-called “price tag” violence. This is a policy of attacks on Palestinians or their property carried out by Jewish extremists in repose to any action taken by the Israeli government or security forces against settlement expansion.
There has been a rise in such attacks across the West Bank and in Israel in recent weeks.
The words “price tag” were sprayed on the walls of the disused, Nebi Akasha, mosque in central Jerusalem after attempts were made to set it alight early on Tuesday.
The attack on the historic site, where fighters from Saladin’s army are believed to be buried, was condemned by the mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Birkat.
“We must show zero tolerance toward violence in any shape or form and continue to maintain coexistence in the city,” he said in a statement.
Attacks by settlers have also targeted Israeli soldiers, based in the West Bank to protect Jewish settlers but responsible for carrying out demolition orders.
Overnight on Wednesday, troops demolished two structures in another settlement outpost near the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
Graffiti was then sprayed on what is believed to have been an IDF post at Tapuach Junction, near Nablus. One arrest was made.
On Wednesday, following an assault on an Israeli military base, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved measures to clamp down on extremists.
Under the new regulations, the army will now have the authority to detain offenders, as well as the police, and they will be tried in military courts rather than in civilian courts.
December 15th, 2011 at 9:42 pm
At least these loons are agreeing that Islam has a great impact on the minds of people regardless whether it is bad (as loons claim) or good (real moral ethic of Islam).
December 16th, 2011 at 2:12 am
Ahhhh… I do enjoy reading ‘Winds of Jihad’ from time to time, reminds me how desperate these people get. Our masterful sheik and scholar with oodles of years of ‘Islamic education’ writes:
“One of the attackers was named Nordine Amrani. (Thanks to Robert for the link.) This is a Muslim name. Nordine = nur deen, light of the religion, and Amrani is related to Imran, the father of Moses according to the Qur’an (cf. sura 3, “The Family of Imran,” ahl-e-Imran).”
Oh dear my dear sheik, Arabic causing you trouble again? Who’d have thunk it…
Jack
December 16th, 2011 at 3:05 am
same happened here in Norway when Breivik had just detonated the bomb downtown- there were several idiots who were calling for muslims to be rounded up as they were _clearly_ the ones behind the attacks…/
December 16th, 2011 at 4:32 am
I hate it when my fellow Jews act hateful
December 16th, 2011 at 5:39 am
JD, Please do not copy and paste articles that are not relevant to the discussion. Thank you.
December 16th, 2011 at 5:45 am
Nordine Amrani was NOT a practicing Muslim and that is not surprising. The notion of his Moroccan roots makes him “Muslim” demonstrates how “Muslim” is treated almost as a race, where it’s a permanent fixture, like skin color. The problem with “counting Muslims” by their national-ethnic background is that many don’t care about practicing Islam and might even be atheist altogether. This is the case with many “Muslims” living in the Netherlands. Nordine Amrani was apparently one of those that did not care about Islam. It could also be that the current dehumanizing and hateful climate in the Low Countries spawned by the like of Robert Spencer and also Geert wilders caused him to snap.
To try and say that this is some sort of “jihadist attack” by Spencer, et all, indicates the sheer ignorance and level of bigotry of these “experts” – who are not experts only in manufacturing hate and selling it to an equally ignorant public!
You have several shooting here – but that worst apparent terrorist attack in the Netherlands – the real Dutch 9-11 – occurred on April 30, Koninginnedag (Queen’s Birthday) parade in Apeldoorn by a suspected right wing extremist named Karst Tates. Tates drove his black Honda through a crowd of parade watchers with 8 dead and 10 injured, including the Tates, who said before he died that Prince William was a “fascist” (common among the Dutch radical right) and that he was attacking the Queen Beatrix, who was riding in an open air bus. So- not a terrorist attack?
The Dutch government is probably covering up the Apeldoorn attack, as the report claims that “the past year of Tates live was unknown.” Baloney – if the Dutch intelligence service AIVD “knows about jihadists in the Netherlands,” why not Karst Tates who was not supposedly hiding? Also, it has been said that Tristan van der Vlis was a PVV voter and supporter.
This has nothing to do with “multiculturalism” and living in a democratic and free society. People like Robert Spencer would like us to live in a society where the Progressive Left is criminalized, along with the practice of Islam. People of color are excluded and are under heavy watch by security – as is now the case for Muslims and Leftist activists in the Netherlands. A pluralistic democracy is the only way to live in peace and freedom. Blaming the noble goal of multiculturalism is to deflect the fact that the under-educated and violent world occupied by Islamophobes and their right wing ilk commits more acts of violent crime than do “Muslims.”
December 16th, 2011 at 12:04 pm
@jack
yeah I remember all that guy did to refute loonwatch was copy and paste an entire article and did nothing to about any of your points and just bitched about how he has 40 years of studies of islam under his belt (credentials he showed no proof of by the way) and taqiyya and when I came to him about his support to the lra he just rambled on about timbucktu and goats milk, which only cements what kind of jackass he is in fact im betting this is what he does for a living http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etLE3ALWZaM
December 16th, 2011 at 12:54 pm
Wait, he goes on to say that shootings in the EU are rare when compared to the USA yet in ther past 10 years there have been as many mass shootings in the EU as there have in the USA, and the EU has some of the most draconian gun laws in the world!
Major fail.
December 16th, 2011 at 10:03 pm
Jack writes; Oh dear my dear sheik, Arabic causing you trouble again? Who’d have thunk it…
Who was that “Our masterful sheik and scholar with oodles of years of ‘Islamic education’”?
December 16th, 2011 at 11:13 pm
@Shaykh al-Hajj Dawud Ahmad
Here is a previous article and discussion about Sheik YerMami:
http://www.loonwatch.com/2011/10/jihad-watch-university-jwu-graduates-another-pseudo-scholar-sheik-yermami-declares-himself-scholar-of-islam/
December 17th, 2011 at 12:40 am
Ilisha provides the Loon’s source of revelatory inspiration: @Shaykh Dawud
Here is a previous article and discussion about Sheik YerMami
Ah, so. Before my time (here). Reminds me of “Sheik YerBooty” from the Sixties. The loons don’t even have the wit to call their leader “Sheik Yo’Mama” (rhymes with Obama and plays into the Sixties myth that “Christianity is for civilized white folk, Islam is fo da niggas).
Those people are so lame they make the rest of the “Islarmists” look as stupid as they are.
Is an effort to spread the mental disease called “Islamophobia” properly called bi-illogical warfare?
One of the interesting aspects of all this, overall, is the public reaction in America to the Cordoba House (“Ground Zero Mosque”) campaign issue ~ how many who jumped on the loony bündwagon won/lost their elections? And now we’re going to watch a year’s worth of the same pig slop?
I think Neuter Gang-rich would make a fine Republican doormat for the Obamanation. But I suspect that the plan is to bring Ron Paul up, as an empty suit with no Congress to work with, to at least give Obama a run for his money and just possibly play the Kerensky role for a new October Revolution in a couple of Novembers. (Students of history will recall that the Russians supported a “liberal socialist” Menshevik party to throw out the Czarist regime, then prove unable to govern, which brought the Bolsheviks to power in October.)
Perhaps the most effective way to defeat the loons (and the enemies of humanity that have fielded them) may be with humor. What they do is certainly slapstick, they put Inspector Clouseau to shame.
December 17th, 2011 at 3:49 am
Hmm…Winds of Jihad
more like Winds from Ass
December 17th, 2011 at 10:01 am
Hi All
For those who say Muslims hate Christians or that Christians and Muslims cannot get along, please take a look at who has the keys to the Holy Sepulcher Church, in Jerusalem.
The keys are held by a Muslim family and have been held by Muslims since the time of the second Caliph Umar (R.A) and was reinsated by Salahuddin (Saladin) in 1192 AD. This practice is done with the support of the Christian clergy and is practiced till this day.
December 17th, 2011 at 11:35 am
SAD Ahmed
Humour vs Hate is a key idea I think .
To reply with hate makes you as bad as they
December 17th, 2011 at 11:36 am
sorry that should be SAD Ahmad
December 17th, 2011 at 12:23 pm
Sir David notices … sorry that should be SAD Ahmad
THANK YOU! I had assumed the misspelling was inadvertent, no “sorry” necessary.
December 17th, 2011 at 5:13 pm
yeah I was looking at the link in the chirstiphor hitchens article and apparently the moron who runs that fart joke website winds of jihad and I found this load of crap Loonwatch:Amrani was a Jew!, a Jew! a Jew! what a moron.
December 17th, 2011 at 5:58 pm
@Corey
Notice that he just added an inflammatory headline and didn’t actually address what I wrote.
What I really want to know is how did he get my photo?
http://sheikyermami.com/2011/12/16/loonwatch-amrani-was-a-jew-a-jew-a-jew/
December 17th, 2011 at 6:36 pm
llisha
this article did not even say he was jewish at all and even if he was then as this article says the crime he commited and his religion shouldnt be connected besides thats what the “sheik”, and his idol robert spencer love doing connecting islam and a persons crime even if islam had nothing to do with it, besides it is really stupid to connect ones religion because of names for instance I knew a guy named matthew in an event that if he went on a rampage should he be considred a christian because he has the same name as one of the four writers of the gospels answer would be an obvious no, and I have said this before that “sheik” is an idiot on so many levels that looking at a wall is more enlighting then his “knowledge” or lack there of about islam in fact I think I’ll do that.
December 17th, 2011 at 8:26 pm
Oh God! that “Sheik” YorMama really cracks me up, he had me at “EUro dhimmies”, apparently he has an objection when the perpetual serf saracens try “dhimmifying” him LOL.
December 17th, 2011 at 10:59 pm
@geji
you think that guy does drugs before doing any of his articles?
December 18th, 2011 at 2:21 am
Shaykh al-Hajj Dawud Ahmad, M.S.J.D. & others;
Indeed, we have clashed a number of times, all of which culminated in myself being blocked from the comments section when I asked some inconvenient questions. Such as how a man who had 40 years of self declared Islamic education was unable to explain to me what ‘Fiqh’ was…
I have no time for his childishness ranting, he is just someone on an ego trip and his whole site has that sort of smell about it. There is nothing in there of any substance, this article is a prime example of what we will generously call his ‘work’. I wrote a brief paper on his tactics and how they are similar to the cult like tactics of similar sites, he just does it more openly.
Other than that, I can’t see the point in spending any time ‘refuting’ his ‘work’. For one thing, the site at most has a few dozen active commentators, even if we take in the ‘law of hundred’ (for every active member there are a hundred inactive members) that is only a few thousand. I have bigger fish to fry, including the salmon for my dinner tonight.
And to ‘Kaw’ since I know you read this; no I won’t be killing myself since I am still waiting for you to come and line me against a wall so I can be shot. Sorry old chap, I won’t do your ‘job’ for you. Bloody coward, and still not aware of the meaning of irony I see (‘Like most muslims they provide evidence of their stupidity every time they open their mouths or write a blog piece’).
Jack
December 18th, 2011 at 2:38 am
Corey
either he does drugs or needs them
December 18th, 2011 at 5:25 am
“Wait, he goes on to say that shootings in the EU are rare when compared to the USA yet in ther past 10 years there have been as many mass shootings in the EU as there have in the USA, and the EU has some of the most draconian gun laws in the world!”
Even if there were the same number of massings in the EU and in the US, the EU has more than 1.5 tiesm the population of the US.
December 18th, 2011 at 9:29 am
@Corey
“this article did not even say he was jewish…”
Agreed. The article is carefully worded, and I’m certain of that because I wrote it.
I’m not upset that Sheik YerMami made the spectacularly foolish decision to post the article on his site. He failed in his attempt to frame it as paranoid and anti-Semitic, and instead undermined his own agenda.
The anti-loon baboon with the red devil eyes was a nice touch of whimsy. Otherwise it was just brash stupidity.
If a loon wants to shoot himself in the foot, why should that bother us?
December 23rd, 2011 at 3:02 am
@iangould: Many international travelers and expats like to claim that Europe is safer than the USA. It turns out it’s not, especially with all those bombings and shooting going on over there.