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Reporter: The fighters of the Afghani Taliban movement are in a real race against time. The spring offensive - for which the movement is preparing by means of training, surveillance, and reconnaissance, and with which the NATO forces threatened [the Taliban] – is imminent, according to the movement's leaders. This is a diligent movement, which operates at night more than by day, away from any surveillance or reconnaissance. The movement's leaders said that the attack would include all of Afghanistan, but that it would focus on the south, in order to take control of entire cities.

Taliban Military Commander Mullah Dadallah (translated into Arabic): There are 6,000 Taliban mujahideen ready to fight in the spring campaign, and the number will rise to 10,000. The greater the number of Jewish and Christian forces fighting us, the more this will encourage the people to join us.

Reporter: The Taliban says it has obtained a new anti-aircraft weapon, but it did not go into details. As proof, it presented Al Jazeera with footage in which one sees what they say is an American military helicopter burning, after it was downed in Kandahar about two months ago. [...]

Reporter: In a noteworthy development, the Afghani Taliban movement presented what it called its "new weapon," which will confront NATO's lethal weapons. This is the weapon of suicide operations. Taliban military commander [Mullah] Dadallah used this gathering to recruit over 500 suicide bombers for the coming spring campaign, which he promised would be bloody. He stressed that the Taliban is capable of multiplying their numbers.

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Chants: Oh Muslim, arise, there is a black-eyed virgin in Paradise.

Oh Muslim, arise, there is a black-eyed virgin in Paradise.

We will return to Kabul – neither Bush nor Powell – oh heresy, don't even try, there is a black-eyed virgin in Paradise.

Oh heresy, don't even try, there is a black-eyed virgin in Paradise.

Regards to the Taliban, oh blessings of the All-Merciful, the Sunna after the Koran, there is a black-eyed virgin in Paradise.

The Sunna after the Koran, there is a black-eyed virgin in Paradise.

Regards to the Taliban, oh blessings of the All-Merciful, the Sunna after the Koran, there is a black-eyed virgin in Paradise.

The Sunna after the Koran, there is a black-eyed virgin in Paradise.

You are sufficient, oh Bin Laden, don't sign a truce, you are sufficient, oh Bin Laden, there is a black-eyed virgin in Paradise.

You are sufficient, oh Bin Laden, there is a black-eyed virgin in Paradise.

The rule of Jihad today does not require much thought, oh Muslim, arise, there is a black-eyed virgin in Paradise.

Oh Muslim, arise, there is a black-eyed virgin in Paradise.

[...]

The plane flew above the clouds, and their tower was destroyed in two strikes.

Adonis: The difference between Europe and the Islamic world is in quality, not in degree. What I mean is that the Christian view of the world is not political, but humanistic. It is human beings who are the basis for politics. A Christian person has great liberty to separate his religious faith from his political activity. The mistake committed by the Church in the Middle Ages was rectified - obviously after a struggle and violent revolutions - and political rule was entirely separated from politics...

Interviewer: From religion...

Adonis: From religion, sorry. In our case, political rule was based... Ever since the struggle over who would inherit Prophet Muhammad's place, political rule was essentially based on religion.

Interviewer: But there were great revolutions in the Arab and Islamic world. Take, for example, the ideology of Arab nationalism. This ideology may be connected with Islamic culture, but it is still a man-made ideology.

Adonis: But the ideology of nationalism, in all its forms, is a religious ideology, in the sense that it has never raised any cardinal question concerning religion.

[...]

The Arabs have managed to turn democracy or the revolution into a dynastic or monarchic regime, which is handed down. Most Arab regimes are monarchic regimes, one way or another.

The following are excerpts from an interview with the Mufti of Mt. Lebanon, Muhammad Al-Jozo, which aired on Al-Arabiya TV on November 17, 2006.

Muhammad Al-Jozo: The operation carried out by Hizbullah was not agreed upon. They did not consult with anybody. This is not a normal thing to do. We are all in the same boat. We live in a country with several sects and several parties. Everybody must participate in such a decision. It is unacceptable for Hizbullah to make such a decision on its own.

Interviewer: Sheik Muhammad, you recently declared: "What victory? It is merely the firing of 5,000 missiles at Israel, without liberating a single inch of land." Are you saying that the declared goal of the July war was the liberation of occupied Lebanese land?

Muhammad Al-Jozo: First of all, I would like to say: Victory means either the liberation of occupied land or the occupation of enemy land. This did not happen. We defended our land with courage and steadfastness. True, the entire Lebanese people was steadfast in the face of the Israeli attack, but to say this was a divine victory is to blow it out of proportion.

[...]

How many of the enemy's people were killed, and what price did we, in Lebanon, pay? Lebanon was destroyed, the South was destroyed, the southern suburb of Beirut was destroyed, the bridges were destroyed, the airports were destroyed... Now we cannot... When we want to drive along a road, we face many difficulties in crossing the bridges that were attacked. So Lebanon is suffering a tragedy, in the full sense of the word. There are some 1,200 dead, a million wounded, and a million refugees, there is an economic crisis, there are heavy losses. All this happened because of this measure [by Hizbullah], which was not properly thought out.

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The Middle East Media Research Institute contributes a regular series of posts about media in the Middle East for Passport.