Friday, September 01, 2006

A FATWA AGAINST A SPANISH POLITICIAN: Aaron Hanscom interviews Gustavo de Aristegui on Islam in Spain, the feelings of radical muslims for al-Andalus and, most worryingly, the death threats against him on al-Qaeda websites since he published his book The Jihad in Spain: The obsession to reconquer Al-Ándalus.

Gustavo de Arístegui is a Spanish MP and one of Europe's biggest experts on Jihad and Islamic terrorism. His father, Gonzalo de Arístegui, was the Spanish ambassador to Lebanon and was killed in the early 80s when a Syrian missile hit his residence in Beirut. Considering the Van Gogh and Pim Fortuyn precedents, the threats are indeed worrying. He's under the double whammy of being a target of both Islamic radicals and ETA -he's been under tight security measures for years- this one is potentially more dangerous, since apparently they're not generic criticism against him but a specific order to kill him. I spoke with him on the phone a few days ago and he was understandably concerned. And all people of good will are too. That of course leaves out radical leftists who, as usual, have aligned themselves with the fundamentalists. Gustavo explains it in the interview. Don't miss it.

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