Forest Jihad: Life is like a box of molotovs

Here’s an interesting article to ponder with your morning coffee …

Josh Gordon September 7, 2008
AUSTRALIA has been singled out as a target for “forest jihad” by a group of Islamic extremists urging Muslims to deliberately light bushfires as a weapon of terror.

US intelligence channels earlier this year identified a website calling on Muslims in Australia, the US, Europe and Russia to “start forest fires”, claiming “scholars have justified chopping down and burning the infidels’ forests when they do the same to our lands”.

The website, posted by a group called the Al-Ikhlas Islamic Network, argues in Arabic that lighting fires is an effective form of terrorism justified in Islamic law under the “eye for an eye” doctrine.

The posting — which instructs jihadis to remember “forest jihad” in summer months — says fires cause economic damage and pollution, tie up security agencies and can take months to extinguish so that “this terror will haunt them for an extended period of time”.

“Imagine if, after all the losses caused by such an event, a jihadist organisation were to claim responsibility for the forest fires,” the website says. “You can hardly begin to imagine the level of fear that would take hold of people in the United States, in Europe, in Russia and in Australia.”

With the nation heading into another hot, dry summer, Australian intelligence agencies are treating the possibility that bushfires could be used as a weapon of terrorism as a serious concern.

Fear might be an initial reaction. But it would quickly be followed by outrage and retribution. I would not be surprised to see vigilante justice if a PC-paralyzed government failed to take appropriate actions. Aurora commented on the Victoria wildfire thread …

The lowlifes who lit those fires may find themselves in a bit of trouble of their own once they get rounded up. Causing whole families to be fried alive is not exactly smiled upon around here!

More: Firebugs blamed for blazes.

Update: Think it couldn’t happen in the States? Think again. It’s not a new threat.

Update 2: More from Herald Sun

• Victoria’s bushfires: Message board: Help find loved ones
• Elation: Missing survivors reunited online
• Burns victims: It’s worse than Bali
• Yackandandah: Hundreds battle to control blazes
• Horrifying tour: Looking down on a war zone
• Not giving up: Veteran actor, partner presumed dead
• Ignored pleas: Sisters perish saving horses
• News Ltd pledge: Our $1m pledge to help victims
• Brumby’s vow: We will rebuild, says Brumby
• Bushfire victims: Those we have lost
• Burst water main: Shock for Kinglake refugees
• Arsonists: Firebugs blamed for blazes
• Supporting victims: Sporting bodies pitch in for bushfire funds
• Arson probe: Royal commission on bushfires
• Fund: Millions flow in for bushfire victims

(h/t George)

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