'Ghost that lives nearby'

A message posted on Islamist websites close to al-Qaeda is urging jihadists to carry out a terrorist attack on the embassy of the Order of Malta in Cairo. AKI reports:

..The message urging the jihadi attack on the Order of Malta - nowadays a charitable organisation - follows the publication of an editorial in the United Arab Emirates daily al-Bayan, by Jordanian MP Jamal Muhammad Abidat entitled 'The Knights of Malta - more than a conspiracy'. In the article, Abidat gives a Muslim interpretation of the Order's history, describing the role played by the Knights of Malta during the Crusades. Abidat says the Order is playing the same role in the Middle East today, citing the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"The painful saga of modern Arab-Muslim history evokes the battles fought in Crusades of the 11th centry - when the Knights of Malta began their operations as a Christian militia whose mission it was to defend the land conquered by the Crusaders." "These memories return violently to mind with the discovery of links between the so-called security firms in Iraq such as Blackwater have historic links with the Order of Malta," Abidat argued..

Abidat accuses the Order of Malta of being run by men who are close to US president George W. Bush and neo-conservative political circles, taking a cue from a report transmitted on the Arab network, Al-Jazeera, on 24 April 2007..."You cannot exaggerate it. The Order of Malta is a hidden government or the most mysterious government in the world," said Abidat in the editorial. "We accept the definition given by one of the officials at their Cairo embassy, that defined it as 'ghost that lives nearby'."...