The Syrian 9-11 Black Saturday proved we were right

Did it really need 17 killed in Damascus and anywhere between 14 to 40 injured for the West to realize that Syria was not bluffing when it repeatedly warned that it was under threat of Islamic fundamentalism?

All the terrorist attacks that failed in Syria since 2003 were not hoaxes invented by the Syrians to create a common enemy in “Islamic” fundamentalists with the United States. The blast took place just before 8 am on September 27, 2008, at the Sidi Miqdad neighborhood on the road to Damascus International Airport. Preliminary investigations proved that the blast was conducted by a suicide bomber, described as a “takfiri” through a GMC Sedan with a non-Syrian license plate (coming either from Iraq or Lebanon). If anything, it also proved that Syria had been right all along.
The US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003 fueled militant Islam in the region, making it no surprise that the suicide bomber on September 27 was a religious fundamentalist, coming in either from the wilderness of Iraq or the mayhem of Tripoli in Lebanon. Back in April 2004, terrorists (who had come from Iraq) struck at an abandoned UN building in the Mezzeh neighborhood, killing a policeman and a young schoolteacher. Shortly afterwards, a group of terrorists were apprehended, after a shooting that caused panic among picnickers, in July 2005 on Mount Qassioun, overlooking the Syrian capital. Earlier in the summer of 2005, Syria announced that it had arrested one man and killed another who had been planning an attack in Damascus on behalf of Jund al-Sham, believed to be directly linked to Syrian al-Qaeda member Abu Musaab al-Souri, who is a former member of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood. A suicide bomber then struck at the Syrian-Lebanese border, blowing himself up before being arrested by Syrian police. President Bashar al-Assad acknowledged in an interview with “The New York Times” in 2005 that authorities had apprehended a terrorist wanting to carry out an attack at the Palace of Justice. In June 2006, terrorists tried to take the TV headquarters in the Umayyad Square. Later in September, they tried to attack the US Embassy in Damascus, but were also, apprehended by Syrian security. These kinds of attacks were common in Syria in the late 1970s and early 1980s, carried out by another deadly group, the Muslim Brotherhood.

The cowardly attack of September 27 was horrific and disgusting. So was the fact that it had been carried out by a deranged fundamentalist, who thought that by killing 17 innocent civilians, and terrorizing another 18 million, he was actually doing the Creator a service. Equally troubling was the absolute silence that echoed throughout Saudi Arabia—not a single word of support to Syria or condemnation of the terrorist act—although world leaders had hurried to extend their support to Damascus. The Saudis after all. are to blame for the rise in ‘Islamic’ fundamentalism in the region.
What comes out of the entire ordeal are two facts: terror has put Syria on the map, and no efforts should be spared at rooting out Islamic fundamentalists from Syria. As far as we are concerned, Sidi Miqdad, the site of the bombing, is our World Trade Center. Al-Qaeda and all its sister organizations, are now threatening the heart of peaceful and stable Damascus. Those killed on “Black Saturday” September 27, 2008 are worth every ounce of blood as the poor souls murdered by Osama Bin Laden in New York City and Washington DC on September 11, 2001. I blame the Americans for not taking us seriously since 2003, when we loudly told the world that we too were under threat of a fundamentalist “Islamic” attack. I also blame the Saudis for fanning the flames of fundamentalism for years, until it turned into a monster that now threatens to devour us all.
This is a wake-up call for the international community, and particularly, the United States. Don’t let this happen again to Syria. Rather than try to destabilize Syria, the US should help Syria remain strong to fight off the Islamic threat. The Syrians are very angry and they will do all that is in their power to make sure that the “Islamists” are kept at bay, as we wage our own “War on Terror.”