Yet Another Brave Jihadi
Yet another case of a "fiery" islamist cleric who cheerfully preaches jihad then dresses up in women's clothing to try to run away when surrounded. The leader of the "Red Mosque" in Islamabad, Pakistan, Maulana Abdul Aziz, attempted to flee the siege of the mosque in a burqa. Pakistani authorities had a grand old time parading Aziz for the cameras - still dressed in his transvestite finery. (Don't tell me they didn't do that on purpose, either.)
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A radical cleric captured by security forces while fleeing in a woman's burqa said Thursday that the nearly 1,000 followers still inside his government-besieged mosque in Pakistan's capital should escape or surrender.
Sporadic gunfire, meanwhile, could be heard around the mosque, though no large-scale fighting was reported.
The comments from Maulana Abdul Aziz — head cleric of the Red Mosque, or Lal Masjid — indicated that the tense standoff in the heart of Islamabad might soon end without further bloodshed.
The Pakistani army surrounded the mosque Wednesday, a day after at least 16 people were killed in clashes between security forces and armed activists from the mosque, whose clerics have defied the government for months with a drive to impose Taliban-style Islamic law in the city.
In recent months, the clerics have challenged the government by sending students of the mosque to kidnap alleged prostitutes and police in an anti-vice campaign.
The tensions erupted into a daylong battle on Tuesday between security forces and student followers of the mosque — some of whom were heavily armed and masked. Officials have reported at least 16 people killed and scores injured.
In an interview on state-run television, Aziz said that as many as 700 women and about 250 men remained inside the mosque compound and an adjacent women's seminary, some armed with more than a dozen AK-47 assault rifles provided by "friends."
"If they can get out quietly they should go, or they can surrender if they want to," he said. "I saw after coming out that the siege is very intense … Our companions will not be able to stay for long."
Officials said over 1,100 militants had given up and more emerged early Thursday as police using loudspeakers urged the hold-outs to surrender.
The gray-bearded Aziz, still dressed in a burqa, appeared calm as he said his mosque has "a relationship of love and affection with all jihadist organizations" but no actual links with them.
As usual, he's more than willing to fight to the last drop of someone else's blood. His own, not so much.
World news | Gaius Thursday, 5 July , 2007
By Bleepless, Thursday, 5 July , 2007 @ 4:21 pm
No, no, no, Gaius. You got it wrong. There is a gay bar inside the mosque (The Throbbing Jihadi) and the hero simply forgot to undress after nine Fuzzy Navels. He even kept his false eyelashes and boobs, plus his spike heels. So let’s have no more of that evil Zionist propaganda.