Al Qaeda continues war against Muslims

Al Qaeda conntinued to make war against other Muslims today by setting off three powerful bombs in the Egyptian city of Dahab.

Three nearly simultaneous explosions rocked the Egyptian resort city of Dahab on Monday, killing at least 22 people and wounding more than 150 in a terror attack at the height of the tourist season.

Police said the explosions hit the central part of the city where there are many shops, restaurants, bars and guesthouses. The blasts ripped through the town at 7:15 p.m., shortly after nightfall, when the streets would have been jammed with tourists mainly Egyptians, Europeans, Israelis and expatriates living in Egypt.

The attackers struck a day after al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden issued a taped warning that ordinary Western citizens had become legitimate targets of his terrorist organization because of their support of governments that he said were conducting a "crusader war against Islam."

Al Qaeda’s war is not only against the West; in fact, I say that they are not even principally fighting against the West. Their primary war is against other Muslims. What is at stake are lives, human freedom and the very definition of Islam itself. As I pointed out in August 2002, the Muslim world is faced with defining what Islam really is. If al Qaeda is not in fact the keeper of the true faith, then the rest of the Muslims must unite to destroy al Qaeda just to ensure the survival of Islam itself. They need to understand that the present crisis is not primarily that of Islamists against the West, it is the Islamists against everybody who does not toe their line.