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November 30, 2006

UK: Islamic Law Versus Secular Law In Britain

Britain has had a long struggle to ensure that there is one law for all, where all are equal under law. It is less than a century that women have been allowed the right to vote and be a participant in the political process. Britain's legal system is far from perfect and still contains archaic laws which in the hands of unscrupulous campaigners can create injustice.

In 1944 a spiritualist, Helen Duncan was tried under a 1735 witchcraft act and imprisoned for nine months, In 1977, anti-libertarian campaigner Mary Whitehouse mounted a prosecution under the Blasphemy Act of 1697, which had last been invoked in 1921. As a result, editor Denis Lemon was given a nine month suspended jail sentence and a heavy fine.

Britain's legal system is far from perfect, but it is formed under, and open to amendments by, national democratic process. People who may disagree with Britain's laws usually accept the principle of the rule of law, and the mechanisms by which such law is both founded and implemented. Most people, that is, except for a proportion of Britain's Muslims. Muslims only comprise 3% of the total populaton, and thus do not feel they can change the system without invoking "special minority status".

Last year, the Muslim Council for Britain effectively influenced the government to introduce laws to protect their religion from criticism. They had failed in getting Blair's government to amend the 1697 Blasphemy Act to incorporate Islam, but were compensated with a bill, the "Incitement to Religious Hatred Act". This actually passed through the lower house of parliament (the Commons), but was finally emasculated by the upper house (the Lords) on October 25.

Despite failing to see this law implemented on their terms, the unelected Muslim Council of Britain has still managed to affect Britain's legislation. For two years, the government had planned to outlaw forced marriages, but on June this year, the Home Office announced it abandoned its plans, following opposition from the Muslim Council of Britain.

In February this year, a poll was carried out by ICM, and this showed that 40% of Muslims wanted Sharia Law. Sharia, or Islamic Law, involves no democracy, and in its history, implementation and resistance to amendment, it is totally alien to British Law.

In Canada, the province of Ontario narrowly avoided introducing Sharia Law in September last year. Following international and national protests, the proposal to introduce sharia to issues of family law was dropped. It had been introduced following campaigning by an Islamist lawyer, Syed Mumtaz Ali, who in 1995 had said: "Do you want to govern yourself by the personal law of your own religion, or do you prefer governance by secular Canadian family law? If you choose the latter, then you cannot claim that you believe in Islam as a religion and a complete code of actualized life by a Prophet who you believe to be a mercy to all."

Following a proposal by a former attorney, Marion Boyd, the Ontario premier, Dalton McGuinty, had avoided the issue for nearly a year but, faced with losing his own popularity, he announced on September 11 that: "There will be one law for all Ontarians." He said he would move to scrap any faith based tribunals from being allowed to influence issues of divorce and family arbitration. Since 1991, Jews and Catholics had been allowed to have their faith considered in such cases in the province.

The issue of Islamic family law (issues of divorce, marriage and child custody) causes problems even when implemented in supposedly "Muslim" countries such as Malaysia. On December 25 last year, Malaysia passed a bill, the Islamic Family Law (Federal Territories) Bill 2005. This made polygamy more easy for a man, and under Section 107A allowed a man to freeze the assets of a wife or former wife. Under Section 23(9)(b), it allowed a man to seize property belonging to existing wives if he was planning a divorce or adding a new wife to his collection. The bill was widely condemned as discriminatory against women.

If Sharia Law only concerns issues of family law, it is allowed under Islam for a man to marry a woman who is not a Muslim, even though it is forbidden for a Muslim woman to marry a non-Muslim man. And here, where an inter-faith marriage has taken place, sharia law shows no mercy to the woman who is not "of the faith".

Even in Saudi Arabia the issue of Sharia law, when applied to families, discriminates against women and children. A woman in Saudi Arabia, where all laws are said to comply with Sharia, is allowed custody of a child only until that child reaches the age of seven. Then, the father has a right of custody, which supersedes any rights of the mother. In Saudi Arabia, people are beheaded every week, but a father who kills his child is not eligible for the death penalty. Issues of domestic abuse are not factored in to Saudi family law, allowing in some instances children to be handed to abusive fathers, and sometimes killed.

In countries which are not Muslim, suggestions to introduce Sharia Law usually only suggest that it should be introduced to deal with issues of family law. In western countries, most Muslims would rather be judged under Western law for issues of theft or rape. The traditional punishment for theft under Islamic law is amputation. And this act is brutal, as shown in the extremely graphic video which can be downloaded HERE (Warning - explicit violence).

Similarly, the Islamic punishment for "zina" - illegal intercourse, including adultery - is horrific. Men are buried up to their waists in earth, and women up to their breasts, and then they are pelted with small stones until dead. Another extremely graphic video, depicting people being stoned to death, can be viewed HERE (Warning - explicit violence).

Muslims who try to introduce the subject of implementation of Sharia Law in Western nations always emphasize that they are only trying to introduce 'family" law, because no sane Western public would countenance such barbaric punishments as stoning or amputation. But even to suggest introducing Islamic "family law" to a nation is an insult to the countries in which these mainly migrant Muslims have chosen to inhabit.

When Muslim leaders arrive from other countries (few Muslim leaders in Britain were born here) they know the laws are secular, and are part and parcel of the democratic system. Yet they seek to introduce laws based on a pre-Medieval Arab system, where bloodshed was rife, and democracy and women's rights were non-existent.

The ICM poll in February, which showed that 40% of Britain's Muslims wanted Sharia Law did not even differentiate between Islamic family law, and the whole package of Sharia. The result shocked the UK public. Muslim leaders made little or no comment on the findings. The respondents to the poll who wished for Sharia Law only wanted it in "predominantly Muslim areas". Those who opposed introduction of Sharia Law to "predominantly Muslim areas" were of a similar number - 41%. 91% of respondents said they were loyal to Britain, but by supporting the implementation of an alien and undemocratic legal system, one wonders what they really meant by "loyalty".

On August 15 this year, Britain's communities minister, Ruth Kelly, hosted a meeting of Muslim leaders. This meeting was held following the publication of a statement, which had appeared in organs of the national press on Saturday, August 12. The letter, signed by numerous Muslim groups and organizations, including three Muslim members of parliament, had hinted that Muslim terrorism in Britain was influenced by Britain's foreign policy.

It stated: "It is our view that current British government policy risks putting civilians at increased risk both in the UK and abroad."

Ruth Kelly had convened the meeting to state that both the government and the Muslim community needed to do more to "take on the terrorist and extremist elements that are sometimes found within it, not just in the Muslim community, but elsewhere as well." What emerged from the meeting that was any different from other conferences was a demand from one of the Muslim delegates for Sharia Law to be introduced to Britain. Worse, the delegate argued dishonestly that if British Muslims were allowed Sharia Law, then the threat of terrorism on British soil would vanish.

The delegate was Dr Syed Aziz Pasha, head of the Union of Muslim Organisations of the UK & Ireland (pictured). Media outlets which had reported on the conference, such as the Independent, the Khaleej Times and the BBC quoted Pasha selectively, carefully avoiding his call for Sharia. The Guardian ignored his statement altogether.

Pasha said: "In Scotland, they have a separate law. It doesn't mean they are not part of the UK. We are asking for Islamic law which covers marriage and family life. We are willing to co-operate but there should be a partnership. They should understand our problems then we will understand their problems."

Pasha, like many British Muslim leaders, has never been a committed "partner" in the war on terror. On April 18 he condemned the Terrorism Act 2006 shortly after it was finalized. He said then: "The Government is spending more time on anti terror legislation and is taking away Muslims' civil liberties and freedom." Pasha had claimed the anti-terror legislation targeted Muslims, and said its clause outlawing the glorification of terrorism would prevent Muslims from speaking about jihad.

Despite his refusal to accept British mores, Pasha was given an award by the Muslim Council of Britain in May this year, for his "invaluable services to Muslims". He was described by the MCB's then leader, Iqbal Sacranie, as a "towering figure" who had "dedication and commitment to the Muslim community".

The issue of Sharia Law in Britain has been perceived until this week as no more than a "pipe dream" of Islamists who seek to impose their religion upon the state. Very few people have taken it seriously.

One person who has warned of the threat of Sharia Law in Britain is Dr Patrick Sookhdeo (pictured, left). In March, he said that he had been canvassing opinions of British Muslim clerics about their opinions on the cartoons of Mohammed, which had caused world-wide riots, in which 50 people had been killed.

He said: "They think they have won the debate. They believe that the British Government has capitulated to them, because it feared the consequences if it did not. The cartoons, you see, have not been published in this country, and the Government has been very critical of those countries in which they were published. To many of the Islamic clerics, that's a clear victory."

"It's confirmation of what they believe to be a familiar pattern: if spokesmen for British Muslims threaten what they call 'adverse consequences' - violence to the rest of us - then the British Government will cave in. I think it is a very dangerous precedent."

Then, in an interview with journalist Alasdair Palmer, he said that "in a decade, you will see parts of English cities which are controlled by Muslim clerics and which follow, not the common law, but aspects of Muslim sharia law. It is already starting to happen - and unless the Government changes the way it treats the so-called leaders of the Islamic community, it will continue."

Dr Sookhdeo, who is now an Anglican cleric, knows about the Islamic mindset, as he was born in 1947 into a Muslim family in Guyana. He was sent to an Islamic madrassa there when he was four. He lectures on radical Islam to NATO and in 1989 he founded the Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity, and runs the Barnabus Fund, which supports Christians under persecution, particularly in Islamic societies. He opposes faith-based schools as they are "a block to integration".

He said in Australia in 2004: "The problem with Islam is greater than most in the West realise. One of the strengths of the West is the development of liberal societies based on pluralism. The difficulty with classical Islam is that, ultimately, it does not accept pluralism in that form."

In his book Islam in Britain, Dr Sookhdeo said that an "alternative parallel unofficial legal system" was operating in the Muslim community on a voluntary, unofficial basis.

In March, he said that the government should reverse its policies of multiculturalism and assert the "secular basis of British law and society. That is a non-negotiable condition of being here." He added: "If the Government does not do all of those things then I fear for the future, because Islamic communities within Britain will form a state within a state. Religion will occupy an ever-larger place in our collective political life. And, speaking as a religious man myself, I fear that outcome."

Dr Sookhdeo's prediction of Sharia Law, imposed by Muslim clerics upon their communities in defiance of Britain's secular law, is a reality already.

On Wednesday November 29, the Telegraph reported on a statement which had been made by Aydarus Yusuf on a BBC radio program, Law in Action. Yusuf, a 29-year old Somali-born youth worker, who has lived in Britain for 15 years, had said: "Us Somalis, wherever we are in the world, we have our own law. It's not Islamic, it's not religious - it's just a cultural thing."

He convenes an unofficial Somali court, or "gar" in south-east London. He presided over this kangaroo court when it dealt with a "trial" of a group of young men who were accused of stabbing a Somali.

He said: "When the suspects were released on bail by the police, we got the witnesses and families together for a hearing. The accused men admitted their guilt and apologised. Their fathers and uncles agreed compensation."

Dr Prakash Shah, of London's Queen Mary University supports such courts, saying: "Tribunals like the Somali court could be more effective than the formal legal system in maintaining social harmony."

Mohammed Shahid Raza, an Islamic scholar, said that having a pluralist legal system, including sharia, has a British precedent. He stated: "When Britain was ruling India, there was a separate legal code for Muslims, organised and regulated by British experts of law."

Already Sharia councils exist in Britain. One woman, Ayesha Begum, said that she applied to the Muslim Law Shariah Council in west London to get an "Islamic divorce". She said: "I had obtained a divorce in the secular courts - but my husband refused to divorce me Islamically. In English law I was seen as a single woman but by Islamic law I was still married to him."

Faisal Aqtab Siddiqi, a commercial law barrister and head of the Hijaz College Islamic University near Nuneaton in Warwickshire says that he has sat as an adjudicator in "Islamically resolved" contractual disputes.

He states: "Because we follow the same process as any case of arbitration, our decisions are binding in English law. Unless our decisions are unreasonable, they are recognised by the High Court."

Siddiqi told the Telegraph that his court had advantages: "It operates on a low budget, it operates on very small timescales and the process and the laws of evidence are far more lenient and it's less awesome an environment than the English courts."

Like Dr Sookhdeo, Siddiqi predicts that within a decade there will be a network of Islamic courts in the UK, within a decade.

Reactions to the "Law in Action" report caused the BBC to publish an "explanation", saying that although the Somali court, or "gar" deals with Muslim plaintiffs and defendants, it is not a "Sharia" court, nor is it legally recognized. However, it states that one of the sharia councils it contacted, Mahkamah Council of Jurists, settles civil law disputes on matters such as contract and negligence. The BBC said "Its decisions are recognised as enforceable in English law as long as they are reasonable."

But reactions to the notion of any form of alternative justice to the secular law which is originated by the people we vote for have been fierce. The Daily Express quotes from public figures who are outraged. The Tory spokesman for homeland security, Patrick Mercer, said: "This is complete nonsense. If you want to live under sharia law you should go to a country where it holds sway."

Dr Patrick Sookhdeo stated: "The Government has not been straight about this. It has its own sharia advisers and it has already introduced measures that are compliant with sharia law. Muslim communities are creating their own infrastructure based on sharia law. A Muslim community can now function within its own society on every level."

The Rev Keith Osmund-Smith, of the Heart of England Baptist Association, claimed: "It is almost like a stealthy change in the law and I'm very very much against it."

83-year old Dr Mohammed Naseem is chairman of Birmingham Central Mosque, He is seen by a moderate for his banning Hizb-ut Tahrir from his mosque, but on July 27 last year, he had made some bizarre claims at a public meeting, such as saying that Muslims "all over the world have never heard of an organisation called al-Qa'eda". Naseem also suggested that the DNA of the four perpetrators of the bombings of 7 July, which killed 52 people, had got there "accidentally".

When consulted this week about the issue of alternative Sharia Law being enforced in Britain, Naseem said: "Sharia law states that you respect the law of the land and therefore it cannot be enforced in this country."

Naseem is not being entirely honest. The respect for law of the land only holds when Muslims are in a minority. Once Muslims make up half of a population, it is Islamically acceptable for them to call for the entire country to be subject to Sharia Law.

A spokesperson from the UK Department for Communities and Local Government stated: "Sharia law will not be introduced to the whole or any part of the UK. We are absolutely clear that existing British law applies to everyone."

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 10:01 PM | Comments (0)

Somalia: Clashes Between Ethiopian Troops and the Islamic Courts

The Jihad continues in Somalia: Somalia accused of ambushing Ethiopian troops

Mogadishu, Somalia - Islamic fighters ambushed an Ethiopian convoy close to a camp where the Ethiopians are training troops loyal to the weak transitional government, witnesses said Thursday.

The Islamic fighters targeted the convoy with a
remote-controlled bomb, blowing up one of the vehicles, 35km south-west of Baidoa, the government's headquarters.

Islamic militia told The Associated Press around 20 Ethiopians were killed during the attack. The claim could not be independently verified. A Somali government official denied the attack took place.

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 7:09 AM | Comments (0)

November 29, 2006

Afghanistan: Teacher Ripped Apart For Educating Girls

The Independent and the New Zealand Herald carry a report by Kim Sengupta. This describes the grisly fate which befell a 46-year old schoolteacher from Ghazni, Afghanistan, who disobeyed Taliban orders and educated girls.

Mohammed Halim was taken from his home at night by gunmen. His body was partially disemboweled, and then his limbs were tied to motorbikes. As the vehicles accelerated away, his body was ripped apart. What remained of the teacher was then put on display as a warning to other teachers who dared to educate girls. Mr Halim was the fourth teacher to be killed in Ghazni recently.

Even though the Taliban were officially deposed at the end of 2001, their legacy of preventing girls from receiving education has persisted. On July 23 this year Michael Frastacky, a 56-year old carpenter from Vancouver, was shot dead. For four summers, he had labored to build a school in the remote Nahrin Valley, north of Kabul in the Hindu Kush. He had intended the school to provide education for boys and girls in equal numbers. In order to accommodate the strict faith of the communities in this remote region, he was working on placing a separate playground for the girls when he was killed.

Schooling for both boys and girls in Afghanistan has suffered from the actions of Islamists. On March 8, this year, on International Women's Day, president Hamid Karzai admitted: "From fear of terrorism, from threats of the enemies of Afghanistan, today as we speak, some 100,000 Afghan children who went to school last year, and the year before last, do not go to school."

This year, attacks upon teachers, students and schools have increased dramatically, particularly in the southern regions of Afghanistan. In January, there were 24 such attacks, in February there were 14, 8 attacks in March, 28 in April, 22 in May and 12 in June, states an August report from Human Rights Watch. In the first six months of this year, the highest number of such attacks took place in Kandahar (36 incidents), followed by Helmand (27), and then Ghazni and Khost with 16 cases each.

Human Rights Watch states that even before the Taliban assumed power in 1996, the Mujaideen who had been involved in factional disputes between 1992 and 1996 also opposed the education of girls. A report was published this week by the charity Oxfam, and claims that although 5 million children are now in school, compared to 3.1 million in 2003 and only 1 million during the reign of the Taliban regime, more than seven million children are currently not receiving education.

For girls, the situation is worse than boys, states the Oxfam report, which is entitled Free, Quality Education for Every Afghan Child. It can be found in pdf format HERE.

Only one in five girls are able to make their way to primary schools, but only one in 20 girls receive a secondary education. Human Rights Watch and Oxfam concur that the presence of accessible schools is a problem, and where there is access to education, it is often provided by poorly trained teachers working in run-down buildings, often comprising only one or two rooms. These schools can be in need of repair, and most have no clean drinking water or toilet facilities. Textbooks are few and far between.

The lack of nearby schools mean that more than half of Afghanistan's children do not have schooling, in denial of Article 43 (1) of the national Constitution, adopted on July 11 this year. This states: "Education is the right of all citizens of Afghanistan, which shall be provided up to secondary level, free of charge by the state."

Oxfam claims that 53,000 trained primary school teachers are needed immediately, with a further 64,000 in the next five years. There is a need for more women teachers, as only one in three are currently female. The report also states that there needs to be substantial investment to improve the situation. Teachers in Daikundi province in central Afghanistan only receive $38 per month. Sometimes these teachers have to pay bribes, just to receive their wages.

Apparently there are 20,000 "ghost" teachers who are paid salaries but do not attend schools. The international community, states Oxfam, must donate $563 million to rebuild 7,800 schools across the country. An additional $210 million is needed to print and distribute textbooks over the next five years. Currently, $125.6 million has been given to Afghan's education sector. The largest donors of these funds are USAID and the World Bank. Coalition military forces in Afghanistan also contribute towards education.

Afghanistan's Education Minister, Hanif Atmar, has tried to play down the findings of the Oxfam report. He told the BBC that even though more international funding was required, his government was committed to establishing more school places and improving the quality of teaching.

Atmar said: "The enrolment that we have in our schools today, at around six million children, we've never had in our history, so that's a great progress made. However, there are still challenges that need to be addressed. The critical issue is training of teachers, in particular female teachers, but for training we do need resources that we do not have adequately at the moment."

Education is not the only area in which girls are receiving a poor deal. Honor killings are on the increase, with more than 186 girls killed so far this year, a huge increase on figures for last year, states the NGO, the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC). Girls are still regarded as chattels, to be married off against their will.

A report from September last year by the US State Department revealed that "the UN special rapporteur on violence against women, between 60% and 80% of marriages in Afghanistan are forced marriages which give women no right to refuse. Many of those marriages, especially in the rural areas, involve girls below the age of 15."

With girls often married off while physically immature, despite the new Constitution stipulating that a girl must not be married below the age of 16, their health suffers. In 2004, two women in Afghanistan died every hour while giving birth, the highest maternal mortality rate in Asia.

Girls and women are also subject to domestic violence. AIHRC states that this year, there were 704 known cases of such abuse, with 89 cases of forced marriage and 50 cases of women or girls "burning themselves to death".

Proper education for today's children in Afghanistan is a priority, to ensure a future that is better than the present. But though children are now in need of schools the whole society in Afghanistan, which legally stipulates the death penalty for those leaving Islam, is in need of a massive re-education program.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 10:51 PM | Comments (3)

Morocco: German Man Jailed For Converting Muslims

While Muslims in the West make efforts to convert people to their faith, traditional Islamic countries have laws which prevent anyone trying to convert Muslims out of their faith. In Saudi Arabia and Malaysia, conversion of Muslims from their faith can lead to jail sentences. In Algeria on March 15, the parliament introduced a bill which prevents anyone from apostasising from Islam to another faith. The bill was passed into law, and allows imprisonment of from two to five years and a fine of from $6,000 to $12,000 (US) for anyone "urging or forcing or tempting, to convert a Muslim to another religion."

Morocco has a similar law, which states that "anyone who employs incitements to shake the faith of a Muslim or to convert him to another religion" can be given a fine, and imprisoned for a maximum of six months.

Today, according to the Washington Post, Moroccan authorities state that a 64-year old German tourist has been jailed for six months and fined 500 dirhams ($60). The German man, Sadek Noshi Yassa, who is of Egyptian extraction, was sentenced on Tuesday evening at a court in Agadir on the southwestern coast.

The conviction came after news that some Christians had launched a secret campaign to convert thousands of Muslims to Christianity.

In neighboring Algeria, the March anti-conversion law had been introduced following an increase in Christian conversions in al-Qabayel in the east of Algeria. Before its independence in 1962, Algeria had hundreds of thousands of Christians, with 110 priests and 170 monks. Now less than 11,000 Christians live there.

In other news from Morocco, an imam was arrested on Monday in the northern city of Tetouan, accused of recruiting young men to become suicide bombers in Iraq, states Associated Press. The imam, named as Abdelilah, led prayers at a mosque in Mezouak, a slum on the outskirts of Tetouan city.

The interior ministry in Morocco has claimed on Monday that authorities have arrested 317 suspected Islamic radicals since August this year.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 4:02 PM | Comments (0)

Indonesia: Islamist Sentenced To 12 Years' Jail

At the District Court in Semerang, Java, an Islamist who gave a gun to an individual who helped the fugitive Noordin Top to escape arrest was given a 12 year sentence. Joko Wibowo alias Abu Sayaf had been one of four people attending trials at separate courtrooms in the Indonesian court, charged under similar indictments.

The news is brought by Associated Press and other sources.

Last week, Subur Sugiarto (alias Abu Mujahid) was given a 12-year sentence for assisting Noordin Top at the same court on November 22. On the same day, another man who assisted Top was also given a six month jail sentence. This man, Ardi Wibowo, may be a relative of Joko Wibowo who was sentenced today.

Malaysian-born Noordin Mohammed Top was the main financier and recruiter for the Islamist terror group Jemaah Islamiyah. With another Malaysian, Azahari bin Husin, Top had masterminded several bombings, including the first Bali bombings of October 12, 2002, in which 202 people died, the Australian Embassy attack in Jakarta on September 9, 2004, in which 11 people died, and the last Bali bombing of October 1, 2005, in which 20 people were killed.

The charges of those who have been on trial in Semarang relate to Top's activities after the last Bali bombing. Top had been able to stay hidden in Indonesia long after the Bali attacks, due to a network of supporters who assisted him. He even produced a video, released on November 17 last year, in which he threatened the West. On the same tape are shown the three young men who carried out the Bali suicide attacks from October, 2005, who were reading out their farewell statements (pictured).

Top narrowly escaped death on April 29, when his hideout at Binangu village near Wonosobo, Central Java, was raided. Two of his "assistants", Jabir and Abdul Hadi, were killed in the raid. This was the last known location of Top, who is still a fugitive. According to the International Crisis Group, Top had built up a substantive terror network. Some analysts assume Top has left Jemaah Islamiyah to st up his own terror group in southeast Asia.

The man who was sentenced today, Joko Wiboyo, was convicted of violating anti-terror laws by giving a semiautomatic pistol to a Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist (33-year old Subur Sugiarto), which had been used in terrorist training.

Earlier this month the court was told by prosecutor Farda Nawawi that "The gun was used at physical training sessions at Mount Ungaran." Mount Ungaran is a 2050 meter high mountain above Semarang.

When Joko Wibowo had been arrested in January, the revolver and thirty bullets had been discovered in his home. Farda Nawawi had urged the court to impose a 20-year sentence upon Wibowo.

The defendant had then claimed that he had got the gun while he had been fighting Christians on the island of Ambon in the Moluccas. Ambon is capital of Malaku province. From 1999 to 2002 this region was the epicenter of the Moluccan War, in which 9,000 (mostly Christian) people were killed.

Prosecutor Farda Nawawi had earlier told the court that the gun had been used in a bank robbery in Central Java province.

25-year old Joko Wibowo is a member of the Majelis Mujahidin Indonesia, or MMI, whose name translates as "Holy Warriors of Indonesia" or Indonesian Mujahideen Council. This group is headed by the cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who was imprisoned for giving his consent to the Bali bombings of 2002. MMI wishes to have Indonesia as an Islamist state, under Sharia law.

During Wibowo's trial, a large contingent of his supporters from MMI have thronged the courtroom. These had chanted "Allahu Akbar" when the indictment had been read out in September, when his trial began. Today, about 30 members of MMI who were in the courtroom again cried out that Allah was great as presiding Judge Boedi Hartono read out Wibowo's sentence.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 8:00 AM | Comments (0)

November 28, 2006

UK: Members Of "Muslim Boys" Gang Guilty of Killing

The Muslim Boys

We first wrote of the Muslim Boys in September last year. At that time, Marcus Archer, Aaron Irving-Simpson and Marlon Stubbs, all aged 24 and from the gang called the "Muslim Boys", were on trial at the Old Bailey, accused of murdering 20-year old Adrian Marriott by shooting him in the head five times on June 8, 2004.

What distinguished this case from other black gang trials is that the victim was apparently killed after the Muslim Boys attempts to force him to convert to their brand of Islam had failed. The court heard that Adrian Marriott had known Marcus Archer for years, but had started to visit the house of the gang leader, Marcus Archer, accompanied by Marlon Stubbs.

Archer had decided that Adrian Marriott, his sister Tara and her friend Jade Okai were ripe for conversion. Jade and Tara agreed to wear the hijab or Muslim headscarf, but Adrian Marriott did not take the gang's demands seriously. In January this year, Adrian's mother Ruth told an inquest into her son's death, held at Southwark Coroner's Court, that she had heard the shots which killed her son. He had been killed at Loughborough station, south London, and his body had been dumped in parkland nearby.

"The thought did strike me that Adrian could be involved, but it was a fleeting thought. Then we heard from police the following evening what had happened," she said. "Adrian was told on the Sunday prior to his death that he would be killed if he did not become a Muslim by the Wednesday, which was the day he died."

When asked if Adrian had taken the threat to convert seriously, Ruth Marriott said: "I do not think he did."

Adrian Marriott, an accountancy student, was killed shortly before his 21st birthday.

The trial last year of Marcus Archer, Aaron Irving-Simpson and Marlon Stubbs heard evidence from the prosecution. Marlon Stubbs had telephoned Tara Marriott and told her: "Your brother is a little tadpole. He just messed with a big shark, a whale." The Old Bailey trial in the Marriott murder case last year ended abruptly, on September 9. Apparently new evidence was produced by police, and Irving-SImpson and Stubbs were allowed to go free. Charges against all three defendants were dropped.

However, due to a former arrest for possessing an illegal firearm, the leader of the three, Marcus Archer, was jailed for eight years. When he was arrested by armed police outside a Croydon mosque in July 2004, a loaded handgun was found in his pocket.

The Muslim Boys have managed to develop for themselves a fearsome reputation. They use Islam as a cover to justify doing whatever they wish. They are devout, in that they pray five times a day, but their version of Islam is one that follows the "caravan-raiding" of the "prophet" Mohammed and his followers, as described in Sura 8 of the Koran.

Last year, the Evening Standard wrote an interview with a member of the gang, called "Winston" on July 5, 2005. He said: "Knives is fuck-all. Later, my bruvs will be back from their robberies with our skengelengs [guns] and cream [money]. Later there be MACinside-10s [sub-machine guns] all over the floor, laid wall to wall. And moolah! We count it - 10 grand, 20 grand. Then, after midnight," he adds, matter-of-factly, "me and my bruvs go to mosque to pray."

In June 2005, Brixton and Stockwell mosques publicly distanced themselves from the gang, saying there are "criminals masquerading as Muslims" who threaten the good name of their religion. Abdul Haqq Baker, chairman of Brixton mosque, claimed: "What we are seeing is a new phenomenon that I have not seen in my 15 years as a Muslim.....Keep away from our mosques."

"Winston" was not happy at being denounced by the Brixton mosque. He told the Evening Standard reporter: "Fucking cheek!" he said. "Mocking us. There be retribution for this!"

He described his religious beliefs: "I converted when I was in prison. I found it relaxing, we got better food. Now we all go to mosque together. If I refuse, they blow [shoot] me, innit. I pray twice a day: before I do crime, and after. I ask Allah for a blessing when I'm out on the street. Afterwards, I apologise to Allah for what I done."

Prison seems to attract a lot of converts to Islam, and many converts join because from the example of early Muslims, their activities of robbery and killing do not differ too widely from the behavior of the founder of Islam and his followers. Replace "caravan-raiding" with " raiding drug-dealer's apartments" and "attacking infidels" with "anyone outside one's gang" and a simplistic interpretation of Islam appeals to disaffected, violent youth, who do not need to radically change their mindset to call themselves religious.

In prison, the "Muslim Boys" have been responsible for maintaining their religious beliefs through forced conversions. They fraudulently claim to be connected to Al Qaeda as that gives them some cachet, both inside prison and on the streets.

In April this year, the Muslim Boys' activities at the Category A prison, HMP Belmarsh, made the news. A member of the group was savagely attacked for his "apostasy" after he said he wanted to leave the gang. A group of eight members of the Muslim Boys cornered him in the lavatories, and "punished" him with a severe beating, causing serious injuries to his head. The attack took place on Good Friday (April 14) and only ended when prison officers intervened.

Four prisoners from the gang received "administrative action" from the prison authorities. Two leaders were transferred to other jails. Many members were sent to a segregation unit within the prison. The Home Office said the Good Friday attack had not been a major incident. A leaked prison report claimed the members of the Muslim Boys were recruiting for Al Qaeda within the jail. Other prisoners claimed to be in fear of their lives after the gang attacked victims with razor blades attached to toothbrushes (called shanks).

Last year, Detective Chief Superintendent John Coles, who heads Operation Trident, the Scotland Yard unit that targets gun crime in the black community, about 20 "hardcore" members of the group have been imprisoned, there are about 20 still on the streets, with other members who "attach themselves" as hangers-on.

The gang numbers on the street could be as high as 50 to 100 members. These groups, drawn from other local gangs with names such Peelden, the Stockwell Crew, the SMS (South Man Syndicate) and PDC (Poverty Driven Children), come from neighborhoods in Brixton, Peckham, Lambeth, and Streatham, in south London.

Tarique Ghaffur, a senior policeman and Muslim, said last year: "My priority is to sort out these thugs and reassure people that we will take a collective approach to ensuring no community is stigmatized. I would love to give these thugs an Islamic knowledge test. I doubt many would pass."

Wanoo Sheshmi, who runs a project to assist alienated young males in south London called the From Boyhood to Manhood Foundation, said: "We know that they are targeting young people, vulnerable young people who are receptive to this message because they themselves are empty, they need something to believe in."

Gun Possession

Marlon Stubbs, who had been cleared of killing Adrian Marriott a year ago, has today been jailed, along with two other members of the Muslim Boys gang, 23-year old Stefon Thomas and 20-year old Sanjit Webster.

The three were found guilty at the Old Bailey of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life, states IC South London.

They were arrested after a shooting incident which took place on October 10 last year, a month after Stubbs had been acquitted of Adrian Marriott's murder. Eyewitnesses had identified Stubbs and Thomas but a jury at the Old Bailey had cleared them of attempted murder.

The shooting incident had taken place at Condell Road in Battersea. Marlon Crooks was showing his family a BNW convertible outside their home. A gang, wearing Muslim-style headscarfs had fired upon Crooks, his eight-year-old daughter, his mother, grandmother, sister and brother. All individuals had escaped injury.

A week after the incident, Stefon Thomas was arrested in possession of a D-32 Derringer pistol. On November 3, the Old Bailey heard, Sanjit Webster and Marlon Stubbs were caught with a .44 caliber weapon, while traveling in a taxi from Brixton to Stratford. Webster and Stubbs had been going to Stratford to pick up the .44 pistol on the last day of Ramadan. They were overheard saying: "When Ramadan ends the snake is going to strike"

Stubbs, who lives in Kennington, has a previous conviction for rape, where two schoolgirls were his victims. He was told by the judge at the trial that he will serve at least four years in jail before being considered for parole, as will Thomas. Sanjit Webster will serve at least three and a half years. Additionally Thomas, of no fixed abode, will serve two concurrent sentences of six years' jail for possession of a prohibited weapon and four years for two counts of possession of prohibited ammunition.

Stubbs and Thomas were cleared on two charges of attempted murder and one of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.

Murder

Three more members of the Muslim boys were also convicted in a different courtroom today of killing a man, states IC South London. A 23-year old nursing assistant, Charles Anokye, had been stabbed to death on August 1, 2005. He had received 13 knife wounds in his chest and back after being attacked by five assailants. His attackers rifled through his pockets, taking his valuables, as he lay bleeding to death.

Anokye was at the Mass nightclub at St Matthew's Church, Effra Road, Brixton with a friend, James Idamakin. Both worked at the Rosedale Nursing Home in Tooting Broadway. Idamakin gave evidence to the court that Anokye had been dancing when another person had said to him "You're blocking my view".

Anokye knocked another dancer with his drink bottle, and Idamakin had excused his friend by saying that Anokye was drunk, and had not intended that to happen. When the pair left the nightclub at 4 am, Idamakin said that he saw the "Muslim Boys" running out of the club, and had to run for his life.

"I saw Charles with some boys.They were running after him. There were about six of them. hey were kicking and punching him. He was on his feet then he fell," Idamakin said.

The jury heard evidence from two eyewitnesses, who spoke after being placed under witness protection. Additionally, closed circuit television footage was shown to the court.

Two individuals from The Muslim Boys gang were convicted of manslaughter, and one was found guilty of murder. 17-year old Anwar Hussain was convicted of murder, and 18-year old Edwin Banfo and 20-year old Aaron Roberts were convicted of manslaughter.

Two others, 18-year old Rico Tracey and 17-year old Ben Jatto, were cleared of killing but were convicted of violent disorder.

Another individual, 18-year old Everald Howell, was cleared of wrongdoing, and was set free.

The jury failed to reach a verdict on two others, who will be facing a retrial. These are 20-year old Daniel Brown and a 16-year old who cannot be named.

All the individuals before the court, who lived in south London and belonged to the Muslim Boys gang had denied murder and violent disorder. During the trial, both Rico Tracey and Anwar Hussain had been allowed time off from the court to perform their prayers. The case has gone on for three months.

Judge Richard Hone adjourned sentencing until a date will be made next month. Hussain, Bamfo and Roberts will almost certainly get custodial sentences, and Hussain is guaranteed to receive a life sentence for murder.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 10:19 PM | Comments (0)

Saudi Arabia: Islamists Disrupt Play's Perrformance

News sites in Saudi Arabia reported today of violence which broke out at a performance of a play, states Reuters AlertNet. The drama presentation, entitled "Wasati Bila Wasatiya" (a moderate without moderation), was staged at the Yamama College in Riyadh on Monday. The drama was part of a cultural festival at the college.

The play's contents touched a nerve with Islamists in the audience, who converged on the stage to stop the performance from going ahead, leading to clashes. Islamists, students and actors hit at each other with sticks and threw chairs at each other. The confrontation only ended when Saudi police fired shots into the air. 17 men were arrested.

No cinemas or theater houses exist in Saudi Arabia, as a result of measures taken by hardline clerics during the 1970s and 1980s. Following the assassination of King Faisal, who was viewed as a "liberal" by some, for introducing television to the kingdom, clerics had campaigned against cinemas, often on grounds that they had to be gender segregated.

Last autumn, a hotel was allowed to show cartoons to children and their mothers for two weeks, following Ramadan. The move was seen as an experiment, a gesture of the reforms promised by King Abdullah when he came to power.

Videos are available in Saudi Arabia for watching at home, and this year Izidore K Musallam directed Saudi Arabia's first feature film, entitled Keif al-hal? (How Are You?).

Reuters suggests that the reaction against the play in Yamama college happened because hardline Islamists in Saudi Arabia are concerned that there is too much liberalism in the kingdom. In 2003, a campaign was started by Islamic militants to overthrow the monarchical regime, but following crackdowns, this has died down.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 10:52 AM | Comments (0)

November 27, 2006

Somalia: Islamic Courts Move to Disarm the Population

Incidentally, the United States refused to disarm the population after its victory over Saddam Hussein's Army. This was part of our desire to win "the hearts and minds" of the population. But winning "hearts and minds" is completely irrelevant to winning a war. If you intimidate the enemy, it doesn't matter whether they hate you. Unless we re-learn the lessons of history, we will continue to lose to inferior enemies. It is a sad commentary on the United States that the backward Islamic Courts of Somalia show a better understanding of human nature than our political leaders and intellectual opinionmakers do: Somalia's Islamic movement orders weapons ban in country

MOGADISHU, Somalia: Islamic leaders on Monday ordered Somalis to hand in their weapons, but did not say how they would enforce the directive in a heavily armed country some fear is about to go to war with its neighbor.

The directive, issued by senior Islamic leader Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed and announced on local radio stations, applies to all individuals and business leaders working in areas controlled by the Islamic group. Many businesses employ heavily armed local militia for security.

It is unclear what punishment will be meted out to those who do not hand in their weapons or why the directive was announced Monday. Fears are mounting the Islamic group and the Ethiopian-backed transitional government may go to war as they vie for control of the country. Only weapons carried by the militia under the control of the Islamic movement are allowed, said the directive.[...]

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 6:14 PM | Comments (0)

Iran: Cleric Authorizes the Murder of Journalist

The cleric is following the example of Muhammad, who ordered the murder of his critics: Iran cleric calls for the murder of Azeri journalist

Tehran (AsiaNews) - The fatwa pronounced against Salman Rushdie is not the only example of how Iran's Shia clergy claims the right to exert extra-territorial jurisdiction. A few days ago an Iranian cleric, Ayatollah Morteza Bani Fazl, said that Rafik Taghi, a journalist in Azerbaijan, should be killed and as an encouragement he has offered a house he has inherited from his father as a reward. Mr Taghi is accused of insulting Muhammad in an article published by Azeri paper Sanat, under the influence of "Western powers".

The ayatollah has also demanded that Azerbaijian apologises to the world's Muslims and take repressive measures against the paper and the writer.

Azerbaijian might not react to such calls, but they are bound to have unpredictable consequences in Iranian Azerbaijan, already shaken by popular unrest in May 2006 after the publication of an anti-Azeri racist cartoon in a Farsi-language newspaper.[...]

Thanks to reader "Giussani" for the link.

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 5:40 PM | Comments (1)

Philippines: Women Islamist Militants Hunted In South

Reuters AlertNet reports today that five women members of the Islamic terror group Jemaah Islamiyah are being hunted in the Muslim south.

The women are half of the complement of 10 Islamists who are being pursued by Philippine troops on the island of Jolo in the maritime province of Sulu. One of these is the wife of Umar Patek, who has a reward of $1 million on his head, from the US Rewards for Justice scheme. Umar Patek is believed to have been actively involved in the October 12, 2002 attack upon Bali, in which 202 people died.

Also on the run in Jolo is Dulmatin, a Javanese-Arabic member of Jemaah Islamiyah, who has a bounty of $10 million against him. he also goes under the name of Almar Usman, and is sometimes known as Joko Pitoyo, Joko Pitono, Abdul Matin, Pitono, Muktarmar, Djoko or Noval.

On Wednesday October 4 Dulmatin's wife, Istiada Binti Oemar Sovie, aka Amenah Toha, together with her two children, aged 6 and 8, had been arrested as she tried to enter Jolo illegally. She had been used by JI members on Jolo for logistic purposes. The militants got her to "do the marketing, to buy and cook food for them, attend to their needs, even nurse their wounds." She has undergone extensive interrogation before her deportation, and has revealed names of individuals who are hiding on Jolo. She is due to be deported to Indonesia in 10 days' time.

Lieutenant-General Romeo Tolentino said that despite Dulmatin's wife being in custody, it is still hard to find the Islamists on the island of Jolo, which is largely covered in forest.

Tolentino also said that it was hard to "go against the culture of the people in the area." He suggested that the residents on the island were not being deliberately obstructive, but were scared of retaliations, should they be seen to assist the authorities. One local leader of the terror group Abu Sayyaf on the island, the one-armed and horse-riding Radullan Sahiron. He has a fearsome reputation on the island of decapitating those he considers to be "collaborators".

Abu Sayyaf, formed in the 1980s is a Filipino group which is allied to Jemaah Islamiyah, but is less organized, and is more easily described as a "bandit group". Better known for kidnappings and beheadings, the group bombed a ferry in Manila bay on February 27, 2004. 116 people died in the attack. Au Sayyaf's leader, Khaddafy Janjalani, who has a $10 million bounty on his head from the US Rewards for Justice scheme, is also a fugitive being pursued by the army on Jolo.

After the October 1, 2005 Bali bombings, Dulmatin and Umar Patek had taken refuge in the Liguasan Marsh region of western Mindanao island, which is home territory for both Abu Sayyaf and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front or MILF. Now involved in attempts to secure peace and autonomous territory on Mindanao, MILF had been linked with Jemaah Islamiyah since the 1990s, when both groups took part in running the Hudaybiyah terror training camp in western Mindanao. The leader of Jemaah Islamiyah at that time was Hambali, or Nurjaman Riduan Ismuddin, who is now in Guantanamo. It is believed that at the end of last year, the Jemaah Islamiyah activists had found refuge with a senior MILF leader who was in conflict with his own group.

The Liguasan Marsh region was bombed by Filipino forces in November and again in January. About 20 Abu Sayyaf members, including the leader Khadaffy Janjalani and also Dulmatin and Umar Patek fled to the island of Jolo. Two other JI members, Zulkifli bin Hir and Abdul Rahman Ayub who were hiding with the Abu Sayyaf also fled. They took refuge in the south of the island.

The US has troops on Jolo, who are there to train Filipino forces, but they do not partake in military activities. However, they supplied aerial reconnaissance imagery, which led to the discovery of the hideout where the Jemaah Islamiyah and Abu Sayyaf fugitives were hiding. This location, on a forested mountainside, was bombed on August 1 by helicopter gunships and ground assault planes. 500 military were involved in the operation. SInce then periodic clashes have taken place, and at one stage, it was even believed that Umar Patek had been killed. In total, 20 soldiers have been killed and 90 wounded on Jolo since August 1. Around 50 Islamists are believed to have been killed, but only 13 bodies have been recovered.

There are four major terror groups in the Philippines - the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), founded in the 1970s, Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), which split from MILF in 1977, Abu Sayyaf, which first emerged in 1991 as a splinter group of MNLF, and the communist New People's Army (NPA). Additionally, there are smaller groups, Abu Sofia and also the group formed from Christian converts to Islamism, Rajah Solaiman.

With the exception of NPA, all these groups have loose relations to each other. On February 14 2005, members of Rajah Solaiman, Jemaah Islamiyah and Abu Sayyaf joined forces to carry out a series of multiple bombings, known as the Valentine's Day bombings. A bus in Makati city, Manila's financial district was bombed, killing four, and other bombs took place in Davao. Eight people died and more than 150 people were killed in the Valentine's Day attacks.

Today, AKI reports that MILF have announced in a statement that they blame the United States for the conflict in the south Philippines, which has lasted for decades. The statement by Jun Mantawil, who heads the peace negotiating team for MILF: "Our people had objected to joining the Filipinos in their quest for independence, but the United States government did not listen to our pleas and petitions to form a separate state or at least be treated as an American colony until our people would be ready for self-rule."

"The US could have prevented this conflict if they separated the Moros [the Muslims in the south] from the Filipinos, but they did not because greater US interests were better served by putting them together," he said.

Apparently in 1926, the US had consulted groups about Philippine independence, and the Moros had said they would rather live under US occupation than under Filipino rule, but this had been ignored. Eid Kabalu, spokesman for MILF, said that the late leader of the group, Salamat Hashim, had written to George W Bush in 2003. He had asked Washington for assistance in resolving the problems of Muslims in Mindanao. Bush had said that he would help, diplomatically and financially.

It seems that the US is now becoming more involved in peace negotiations. Until last month, MILF's peace talks with the government of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had been brokered by Malaysia, but talks had foundered over disputes on the smount of autonomous territory to be granted to MILF.

On Saturday, November 25, a leading Islamist of Abu Sayyaf was arrested in the southern island of Basilan. Annik Abbas was riding a motorcycle when he was apprehended at a checkpoint.

Abbas is said to have been one of the people who beheaded an American citizen, Guillermo Sobero from California (pictured left), on Basilan island. On May 27, 2001, about 20 people were kidnapped from the resort of Dos Palmas on Palawan island by Abu Sayyaf. These individuals were in the main holidaymakers, including three Americans, and Filipinos of Chinese origin. An American couple, Gracia and Martin Burnham from Wichita, Kansas, were celebrating their 18th wedding anniversary when they were kidnapped.

Early accounts of the raid stated that the hostages had been separated into three groups and taken away. In June, 2001, Abu Sayyaf announced that they had beheaded Guillermo Sobero because Abu Sayyaf had wanted a military rescue operation to cease, and the newly instated government of Gloria Arroyo had not agreed to their demands. Four months after the kidnap, a skull was found on Monday October 8 on Basilan island.

The skull was discovered on a tree trunk. A pile of bones found which had been found nearby three days earlier were sent off for examination. On Friday October 12, it was confirmed that the skull and the bones belonged to Mr Guillermo.

The Wichita couple survived for longer than most of the kidnap victims, the majority of whom had been decapitated. Three had managed to escape their captors. A mission to rescue the Burnhams on June 7, 2002 ended in tragedy. Martin Burnham and one of the Filipino hostages, nurse Ediborah Yap, were killed. Gracia Burnham was rescued alive, but she had been shot in the thigh.

On Sunday March 12 this year, another Islamist believed to have been involved in the decapitation of Guillermo Sobero was captured. Burham Sali was caught in a raid on his hideout in Mindanao island. As well as being involved in the Dos Palmas kidnappings, Sali was also involved in the kidnapping of 29 people, including schoolteachers and 22 children, on the island of Basilan on 20 March, 2000.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 5:13 PM | Comments (0)

Turkey: Islamist Threats Cast Shadow Over Pope's Visit

Tomorrow, on November 28, Pope Benedict XVI will be making his first visit to a Muslim country when he arrives in Turkey. He will be staying until December 1. His visit will be viewed with interest by Muslims, Christians and non-Muslims alike. As Janet Daley writes in the Telegraph: "When Pope Benedict XVI flies to Turkey tomorrow, he will embody the most potentially incendiary confrontation between Islam and the West since the defeat of the Turks at Vienna in 1683 brought an end to Islamic conquest in Europe."

Background of Benedict's visit

The speech of Benedict XVI's address to Regensburg University on September 12, in which he called for a dialogue between Islam and Christianity, was widely seen by Muslims as an insult to their religion. Even though he cogently argued for faith to be tempered by reason, Benedict had also quoted from Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus, who in around 1391 had said "show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

He condemned violence associated with religion, saying: "Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul."

Benedict's forthright statements were never fully retracted, even though he apologized if any Muslims had taken offense. He invited about 20 Muslim representatives to Castel Gandolfo, his summer palace, on September 25. Here, he reiterated some of his Regensburg address, such as: "In a world marked by relativism and too often excluding the transcendence and universality of reason, we are in great need of an authentic dialogue between religions and between cultures, capable of assisting us, in a spirit of fruitful co-operation, to overcome all the tensions together." He reminded his audience of the words of John Paul II, his predecessor, who had said: "Respect and dialogue require reciprocity in all spheres."

Importantly, Benedict XVI mentioned the lack of religious freedom Christians have in Muslim countries.

By that time, Muslims had rampaged in Gaza, where several churches were attacked and a prominent cleric, Sheikh Abu Saqer, said that the green flag of Islam would soon be fluttering above the Vatican, and called the pontiff a "little racist".

Din Syamsuddin, chairman of Muhammadiyah, the second largest Islamic association in Indonesia, which has 30 million members, had said: "The pope's statements reflect his lack of wisdom. It is obvious from the statements that the pope doesn't have a correct understanding of Islam."

In Pakistan, demonstrations had been made throughout the nation. On September 21 at Lahore, Punjab province, clerics issued a joint statement, which said that Benedict XVI should be removed for "encouraging war and fanning hostility between various faiths" and "making insulting remarks" against Islam.

The declaration by Pakistani imams and scholars said the "Pope, and all infidels, should know that no Muslim, under any circumstances, can tolerate an insult to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)...If the West does not change its stance regarding Islam, it will face severe consequences."

On Sunday September 17, the British Islamist Anjem Choudary led a demonstration of fanatics outside Westminster Abbey, in which Choudary declared that the Pope should be executed for "insulting" Islam.

A few days before the Castel Gandolfo meeting, Sister Leonella Sgorbati was shot in the back three times in a hospital in Somalia on September 16. The Islamists of Somalia claimed she had been killed as a reaction to Benedict's Regensburg address. At Castel Gandolfo, Benedict reminded his Muslim visitors that the last words on Sister Leonella's lips were "forgiveness".

Forgiveness is not a quality usually associated with Muslims who feel their faith has been "insulted". At Regensburg, in the university at which he had formerly taught, the Pope had spoken of violent jihad as "ungodly". Muslim extremists seemed prepared to prove him right.

The clerics who had issued a declaration in Lahore, condemning the Pope, also called for Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, founder of both Jamaat ud Dawa and the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) to be released from house arrest. Shortly after his Castel Gandolfo meeting, Jamaat ud Dawa issued a fatwa against Benedict, which included the following:

Pakistan's Jamaat-ud-Dawa has issued a Fatwa asking the Muslim community to kill Pope Benedict for his blasphemous statement about Prophet Mohammad. The Jamaat-ud-Dawa has declared death to Pope Benedict  and said that in today's world blasphemy of the Holy Koran and the Prophet has become a fashion.

Jamaat ud Dawa is designated by the US as a terrorist organization, even though Pakistan refuses to outlaw the group.

In May, a US Christian missionary group released film of Islamists linked to Al Qaeda, who were using the headquarters of Jamaat-ud-Dawah in Mudrike, near Lahore, to traffick young Christian boys who had been kidnapped. These boys, imprisoned in chains, were kidnapped to be sold as slaves to gangs, who used them to gain money by begging.

On Friday, September 15, a Christian had been killed in Baghdad, apparently in response to Benedict's speech. In many Baghdad mosques, a poster was placed by a previously unknown group calling itself "Kataab Ashbal Al Islam Al Salafi", the Islamic Salafist Boy Scout Battalions. The posters said the group would kill all the Christians in Iraq if Benedict did not apologize for his comments.

On Monday, October 9, a Syriac-Orthodox priest, Father Paulos Iskander (Alexander), was kidnapped in Mosul, Iraq. His kidnappers demanded that notices be posted on Father Alexander's church door, apologizing for Benedict's speech, before any negotiations for release could begin. On Wednesday, Father Alexander's head was removed by his Muslim captors and his body dumped. A fourteen-year old boy was also crucified ("impaled") in the Christian neighborhood of Albasra.

On September 16, Turkey's Islamist prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan of the AKP (Justice & Development) party, criticized the Pope's Regensburg speech. He said: "The Pope spoke like a politician, not like a man of religion...In an era when a dialogue has been initiated between religions, values and civilisations, it is very unfortunate that these remarks have been made against Islam." He hinted that it would be unwise for Benedict to visit Turkey.

Earlier, Turkey's leading Islamic cleric, Ali Bardakoglu, head of the Religious Affairs Directorate, had condemned the Pope's Regensburg speech. He had said on Thursday, September 14, two days after the speech, that the Pontiff's comments were "extraordinarily worrying, saddening and unfortunate.". He said that if the Pope's words reflected the "spite, hatred and enmity" of others in the Christian world, then the situation was much worse. Bardakoglu said the speech had been full of "emnity and grudges".

Bardakoglu suggested that Benedict should not visit Turkey. He said: "I do not think any good will come from a visit to the Muslim world by a person who has such ideas."

Since then, Erdogan, who had earlier said that he would not be able to meet Benedict, because of a prior engagement at a NATA summit in Riga, arranged months before, has said that he will be meeting the Pope. He warned that "whoever comes here must show respect for the Prophet Muhammad." Ali Bardakoglu has also softened his stance, and he will be meeting the Pontiff on his visit. "Even if we don't agree with them, we always host our guests in a civilized manner," he said.

The Pope is also scheduled to meet Ahmet Necdet Sezer, the secularist president of Turkey.

Reactions within Turkey

The Pope's visit will also take in Ankara, the administrative capital, and also Istanbul, where he will visit the Blue Mosque. Benedict will briefly meet Erdogan at Ankara airport, and he will spend his first night at the Holy See embassy in Ankara. He will visit the Mausoleum of Kemal Ataturk, also at Ankara. Benedict will also visit a tiny shrine, said to be the place where Mary, the mother of Christ, lived out out her final years. This shrine, which I have visited, is a small building, the House of Mary, nestled amongst olive trees on a hillside above the ruins of the city of Ephesus, where St Paul preached in the library. This beautiful location, formerly a port before it became landlocked, is near the city of Izmir on the west coast.

The Pope is expected to make mention of the murder of Father Andrea Santoro, who was shot in the back by a Muslim teenager on Sunday February 5, at his church, Santa Maria, in Trabzon, on the Black Sea coast in the east of Turkey. The 16-year old killer shouted "Allahu Ackbar" as he shot Father Santoro. Santa Maria Church was built in the 19th century during the reign of the Ottoman Sultan Abdulmejid I. Father Santoro had just finished holding Sunday Mass when he was murdered.

The incident happened as the Muslim world exploded in anger at the Danish cartoons of the "prophet" Mohammed, in violence which saw around 50 people losing their lives.

Shortly after the shooting of Father Santoro in February, a Slovenian priest was seized by the throat by young Turkish nationalists, and thrown into a garden in the city of Izmir, on the Aegean coast. The assailants were shouting "We will kill you!" and "Allahu Akbar" (Allah is Great). Also in Izmir, a church was hit with a small firebomb thrown at its roof. The arsonist said he was outraged by the Danish cartoons. On July 2, Father Santoro's temporary replacement, French priest Father Brunissen, was stabbed in the leg in the town of Samsun, west of Trabzon.

Primed with anger by the Danish cartoons and the Regensburg address, extremist Muslims in Turkey have been making their protests known. Some have issued death threats. But radical Muslims are not the only Turks to be against Benedict's visit.

Ultra-nationalists, loyal to the secular and independent Turkey created by Kemal Ataturk in 1923, have also been voicing their concerns. On Wednesday (November 22), 40 members of an ultra-nationalist group, the Grey Wolves, made a protest at the Haghia Sofia mosque. They were dispersed with tear gas. Haghia Sofia, formerly a Christian church before it became a mosque, is the center of its own controversies. Benedict had earlier planned on visiting this building, but it has since been removed from his itinerary.

Last month, as Archbishop Pierlugi Celata, former papal ambassador to Turkey, was scouting the city of Istanbul in preparation for Benedict's visit, a man lunged at him. At the start of this month, a man fired a gun outside the Italian consulate in Istanbul, protesting the visit of the Pontiff.

From his prison, Mehmet Ali Agca, the man who tried to kill John Paul II in 1981, warned that an attempt will be made upon Benedict's life.

Concerns for the Pope's safety have been so intense that the Vatican has forbidden the use of the famous "popemobile". Benedict will instead travel in an armored car, and other vehicles of an identical nature will also be used as decoys. Benedict will be wearing a bullet-proof vest during his visit.

In Istanbul, the head of police, Celalettin Cerrah, has said that the city would have maximum security, and he would call on other cities' police forces if needed.

The Pope will be meeting with the Orthodox leader, Bartholomew I, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople (pictured) on St Andrew's Day (November 30). The formerly Byzantine Patriarchate has existed in Istanbul long before the time when the Ottomans conquered Istanbul in 1453. The Ottomans allowed the Ecumenical (the word means "universal") Patriarchate to continue under their rule.

Necmettin Erbakan, the leader of the Islamist Saadet (Happiness or Contentment) Party (SP) has scorned Erdogan for bothering to meet the Pontiff, accusing him of wanting to kiss the hand of the man who, along with Patriarch Barlolomeos, is intending to try to re-establish Byzantium.

The Saadet Party yesterday held a massive rally in Istanbul, attended by 20,000 people. Though in the last elections Saadet gained only 1.2% of the vote, they have grand ambitions to be seen as the protectors of Islam within Turkey. They laid on 2,000 coaches for yesterday's rally, and claimed they would attract 1 million people. Among the crowd were also Turkish nationalists, who demanded an end to the "Crusader Alliance".

Vatican sources have claimed that ahead of his visit, Pope Benedict XVI is both "worried" and "hopeful". His worries stem from the fear that protests could end up politicizing the visit, and diminishing its ecumenical value.

He is said to be optimistic that his visit will strengthen relations between the Catholic and Orthodox church, and is said to be strengthened by "expressions of appreciation from Orthodox Christians".

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 1:44 PM | Comments (0)

Pakistan: Two Christians Jailed Under Islamist Blasphemy Laws

Late on Thursday (November 23), the Pakistan Senate voted to ratify the decision made by the lower house on November 15, to make the Women's Protection Bill become law. This bill effectively removes from the 1979 "Hudood ordinances" the necessity of a woman who has been raped to provide four (Muslim) witnesses. President Musharraf is expected to sign the bill into law today.

The 1979 Hudood Ordinances were introduced by the Islamist dictator Zia ul-Haq, who controlled Pakistan from 1977 to his death in a plane crash in 1988. Another set of laws he introduced was the blasphemy laws, which entered the penal code in 1986.

Today, the Hindustan Times relates that two Christians have been jailed for 15 years on Saturday, November 25.

The defendants were tried at an Anti-Terrorism Court in Faisalabad, Punjab province, for an alleged offense carried out two months ago. Jamil alias James Masih and Boota Masih, members of the same family, were allegedly caught burning the pages of holy Quran on September 8, 2006, in the Nishatabad area.

Additionally, the pair, who are members of the same family, were fined 25,000 rupees ($411) each.

Pakistan's blasphemy laws are draconian in the extreme, and they are discriminatory. Members of the Muslim sect known as the Ahmadiyyah, for example, are banned under Articles 298-B and 298-C from calling themselves Muslims, from preaching and proselytizing as Muslims, with the threat of three years' imprisonment, as well as a fine.

Under Article 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), anyone who insults or sneers at the so-called "prophet" of Islam can be subjected to the death penalty. In the original wording of the law, Article 295-C gave judges the option of imposing the death penalty or a life sentence. In the early 1990s, Article 295-C was amended, making the death sentence the mandatory punishment.

One of these blasphemy laws, Article 295-B, has been frequently used to persecute Christians in Pakistan. This ruling states that "Defiling, etc, of copy of Holy Quran. Whoever will fully defiles, damages or desecrates a copy of the Holy Quran or of an extract therefrom or uses it in any derogatory manner or for any unlawful purpose shall be punishable for imprisonment for life."

A large proportion of those who are arrested under this law are Christians. Under the terms of the blasphemy laws, when anyone makes an accusation against another individual, the accused is immediately placed under arrest, before any investigation is made.

Frequently, false accusations are made against Christians of burning the Koran. Last year on November 11 a Christian man in Sangla Hill, Punjab province, Yousaf Maseh, was falsely accused of burning pages from a Koran. He was placed in police custody and was not released until February 23.

On November 12, a Muslim mob of hundreds of individuals ransacked churches in the Christian community of Sangla Hill. Christians only comprise 10% of the local population there. A priest's house, primary school, the Nazooli-i-Rooh Catholic church, a convent boarding house and medical centre, and two protestant churches were burned. Statues of Christ had their feet snapped off, crucifixes were bent, and habits of nuns burned. Three other churches were also attacked.

Following a similar accusation made in Sukkur in south Pakistan, on February 19 this year, 400 Muslims attacked Christian interests - the the St Saviours Church and St Xavier's Church and St Mary's school, which had been built in 1889.

On August 6 last year, a 60-year old illiterate Christian, Yousaf Masih, was released from custody after his arrest on June 28. He had been asked by his employers to burn rubbish, and was unaware that some of the papers he was asked to incinerate contained verses from the Koran. Mr Masih, who had learning difficulties and was in frail health, was given death threats upon his release, and had to go into hiding.

According to the National Commission for Justice and Peace, at least 23 people who have been involved in blasphemy cases have subsequently been murdered by Muslim fanatics. Even though Pakistan's Christian population is less than 2% of the whole, a quarter of those killed were Christian.

A large proportion of Pakistan's Christian minority live in Punjab province, and it is here that most Christian cases of blasphemy are tried. Because of the technicalities of the Blasphemy rulings, people have to remain in custody until their trials are heard. This month at the High Court in Lahore, Punjab province, one Pakistani Christian, Ranjha Masih (pictured, above right), was finally acquitted of blasphemy after spending eight and a half years in jail.

The presiding judge, Asif Saeed Khan Khausa, said that there was no solid evidence against Masih, and gave him a complete acquittal. Mr Masih had been accused of knocking down a signboard, which bore verses from the Koran, at a funeral of a Catholic Bishop in April 2003, states Compass News.

In 2003, a district court had sentenced Ranjha Masih to life imprisonment. There were glaring inconsistencies in his trial. The broken signboard was not produced until 20 days after the arrest. And though he should have been tried under Article 295-B, for defiling the Koran, he was charged under Article 295-C, which outlaws insults against Mohammed. Though this law carries a mandatory death penalty, Masih was given a life sentence.

The Hudood Laws discriminated against women and non-Muslims, and yet President Musharraf was able to finally have these laws amended by the introduction of the Women's Protection Bill. He was met with stiff opposition from the coalition of Islamist parties, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal or MMA, , the United Action Front. On Sunday in Karachi, 400 clerics issued a fatwa against the law. But when finally signed, it would be difficult to reintroduce such a bill which makes no differentiation between rape and adultery. Only a Muslim fanatic could consider such a law just.

It was revealed on July 31 by former chief justice of the Lahore High Court Dr Javaid Iqbal that when Zia ul-Haq introduced the Huddod Ordinances, legal procedure was never followed properly.

After Musharraf came to power, he tried to amend the Blasphemy Laws. He was threatened by Islamist groups with the prospect of widespread demonstrations and protests, so in May 2000, he announced that he would leave the blasphemy laws unchanged.

On May 6, 1998, John Joseph (pictured left), Catholic bishop of Faisalabad, Punjab, had shot himself dead in a protest against the blasphemy laws.

In June this year, Shahbaz Bhatti, the chairman of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA), appealed to the Chief Justice of Pakistan to amend the blasphemy laws. He said: "Blasphemy law is used as a weapon to settle personal scores. Many innocent people are killed and incarcerated due to its misuse of blasphemy laws. Similarly, in the cases of blasphemy the families of the accused are also threatened and they faced harassment and victimization."

Nothing has come of such appeals to rationality. Last November, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, head of the Anglican church, was in Pakistan for an official visit. He claimed that he was assured by those he met that the blasphemy laws would be placed under review. This never happened.

Instead of moving to amend or ban the blasphemy legislation, Musharraf has moved in the opposite direction. Following the February protests against the Danish cartoons, in which at least five people, including an eight-year old child, were killed in Pakistan, Musharraf tried to impose an international law against Muslim blasphemy.

Musharraf may be an ally of the West in its "war on terror". He has proved that it is possible to stand up to the fiercest proponents of Islamism and Islamist laws by amending the unjust Hudood Ordinances. Unless he seriously reviews the discriminatory blasphemy laws, and repeals them from their current form, there is no way Pakistan could be called a just or fair society.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 8:16 AM | Comments (0)

November 26, 2006

Yemen: Editor Jailed But Bailed Over Muslim Cartoons

News from Agence France Presse, BBC, Arab News, Gulf Times, News 24, Associated Press, the Jurist and News.com.au.

In September last year, the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published a series of 12 cartoon images of the founder of Islam, Mohammed. The paper had asked artists to submit pictures of Mohammed, and had published those it considered to be the best. The reason for their ddecision arose from the dilemma of a Danish author, Kare Blultgen, who had written a book for schoolchildren on the life of Mohammed. The author could not find any artists who were willing to illustrate his book. Most of those he approached were fearful of Muslim extremists.

The book was published, with illustrations, but this never attracted attention in the Muslim world. The issue of the printed newspaper cartoons were highlighted in the Muslim world after a Danish cleric Abu Laban, in conjunction with Ahmed Akkiri, formed a delegation to take the pictures to the Middle East. Dishonestly, they also brought along three other pictures, which had nothing to do with Jyllands-Posten. One of these additional images, which they told Muslim leaders was an image of Mohammed as a pig, was actually a picture of a winning contestant at a French "pig-squealing contest".

In the furore that followed, protests took place in February around the world. In Lebanon, Pakistan, Nigeria, Indonesia and "Palestine", the protests took on a violent dimension. At least five people were killed in Pakistan, and many more were killed in Nigeria, where churches were burned, and Christians attacked. In all about 50 people died as a result of Abu Laban's agitations.

The cartoonists themselves have lived in fear, under police protection, since the cartoon row exploded. In May, Al Qaeda announced that it had dispatched a group of assassins to travel to Denmark to kill the cartoonists.

Several editors lost their jobs, but prosecutions against editors and publishers in the West for showing the cartoons all came to nothing. In Yemen, however, a trial has continued since March, and it only ended on Saturday. Kamal al-Aalafi is editor-in-chief of the Arabic Language newspaper al-Rai al-Aam. He reprinted the Danish cartoons, claiming during his trial that he did it to inform his readership of what the fuss was about, and not to insult Muslims.

The editor-in-chief of the weekly newspaper was charged under Article 103 of Yemen's Press & Publications Law (1990). He was found guilty, and was sentenced to a year in jail, with the ordering of his newspaper to be closed down for six months. He has also been banned from writing for six months.

Two other editors of Yemini newspapers are also facing similar charges. The editors of the Yemen Observer and al-Hurriya also reproduced the images.

The president of Yemen, Ali Abdallah Saleh, has ordered that he will scrap any jail terms for journalists convicted of vilations in publishing. As a result of this decree, about two hours after Kamal al-Aalafi was convicted at the court in Sanaa, the capital, attorney general Abdullah al-Olfi ordered his release.

Both the al-Rai al-Aam newspaper and the English-lanfuage Yemen Observer were earlier suspended from publishing for six months by the Yemeni information ministry. Whether the suspension of publication by the information ministry will count as "time served" or whether the paper will now face another six months' ban is unclear.

What is clear is that Yemen, a so-called ally in the "war on terror", has effectively banned an editor from writing for six months, the sort of punishment once popular in Stalinist regimes. At least 100 journalists in Yemen have undergone harassment over the past year, states Yemen's Center of Training and Press Freedoms Protection, an independent body. These harassments have ranged from beatings and arrests to kidnappings. One editor was subjected to a letter-bomb which wounded him.

Kamal al-Aalafi has said that he will be appealing against the sentence.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 9:37 PM | Comments (0)

Islamic Palestine: Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Claim Rocket Attacks

Twelve hours after truce is declared, truce is broken. Sadly, I don't think it's a record: Hamas, Islamic Jihad claim post-truce rocket attacks

Gaza/Tel Aviv - The armed wings of the Islamic Jihad and the Hamas movement claimed responsibility Sunday for firing five rockets at the southern Israel town of Sderot after a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians was to have gone into effect.

'We claim responsibility for launching rockets as a natural reaction to what the Zionist occupation is doing, including incursions, assassinations and arrests in the West Bank,' a leaflet issued by the Islamic Jihad said.

'We reiterate that there is no space to speak about a truce amid the continuation of the Zionist aggression on all our territories,' the leaflet went on.

Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz said that the latest rocket attacks were a clear breach of the ceasefire agreement, and Israel would react harshly to every attack.[...]

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 2:21 PM | Comments (0)

Thailand: Schools, Buddhist Villagers, Targeted In Muslim South

Since our last update on November 20, the insurgency in Thailand's southern provinces, despite promises of deals and peace negotiations, seems to be getting worse.

The current insurgency began on 4 January, 2004. A military base in Narathiwat province was raided, with four soldiers killed. A large arsenal of weaponry, with more than 300 guns, including AK-47 and M16 rifles, was stolen. On the same night, twenty schools in the south were set ablaze, in what is called "the night of the fires". For many insurgents, schools are seen as symbols of authority, and as they promote the Thai language, rather than the Malay dialect (Yawi) of the local populace, even Muslim schools and teachers have become victims.

The three southern provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, as well as two districts of Songkhla province, formerly comprised an independent sultanate called Pattani. This was invaded by Siam (Thailand) in 1786. In 1902, the sultanate became officially annexed into Thailand. For fifty years, there have been movements to have the territory of Pattani secede from Thailand. Some insurgent factions desire a clean break from Thailand, while others merely wish to improve the conditions of Muslims in the southern provinces, who comprise 80% of the local population. The current insurgency has so far claimed the lives of at least 1,700 people.

There are several groups of insurgents in the south. Some of the main insurgent groups are: Pattani United Liberation Organisation (Pulo), New Pattani United Liberation Organisation, Barisan Revolusi National (BRN), Gerakan Mujahideen Islam Pattani (GMIP), United Front for the Independence of Pattani (Bersatu or Barisan Bersatu Kemerdekaan Pattani), Mujahideen Pattani Movement (BNP), Barisan National Pember-Basab Pattani (BNPP), and Mujahideen Islam Pattani.

Other groups which have recently become prominent are the Runda Kampulan Kecil (RKK) which is an offshoot of BRN (the Barisan Revolusi Nasional), and also Permuda, which is the youth wing of BRN. Most of the leadership of Pulo, a group which appears to have little involvement with the current insurgency, are in exile in Sweden. Pulo are nonetheless influential, and are involved in talks towards peace.

The main factions are engaged in the peace talks, which are being brokered by Malaysia's former prime minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his Perdana Global Peace Organisation. Some of the groups want a complete secession from Thailand, while others demand more rights for the Muslims in the south.

Wan Kadir Che Wan, the president of Barisan Bersatu Kemerdekaan Pattani (Bersatu), a coalition of five separatist groups, has said that Mahathir has helped create trust between Muslim leaders in the south and the Thai authorities. The five groups in Bersatu's coalition (which had been formed in August 1989) only seek a change in some government policies, rather than seeking independence from Thailand.

Other groups such as Runda Kampulan Kecil and Permuda, the youth wing of the Barisan Revolusi Nasional, seem to be acting as independent agents.

Some insurgents want to continue the mayhem, and plan to intensify the violence. A source told the Bangkok Post on November 19 that the groups funded by foreign money want to keep the insurgency going. During Ramadan, 6,000,000 baht ($163,908) of donations were sent to insurgents, the source said. The Muslim donors came from Egypt, Libya, Sweden, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

The Runda Kampulan Kecil (RKK) has no intentions of engaging with any peace deals. Its operatives have been celebrating at their success in driving Buddhists out of their homes in Than To and Bannag Sata districts of Yala province.

The issue of the funding of the insurgency has over the past week become a a source of contention between Malaysia and Thailand. Wan Kadir Che Wan, leader of the Bersatu coalition, said from his undisclosed location outside of Thailand on Tuesday (November 21) that the violence in the south was unlikely to end. He said this was because of younger separatists believing they have the advantage, and because they have spies within the Thai government.

He said to Al Jazeera: "As far as I understand ...they have been collecting the weapons for a long time in preparation and also the money. The main advantage of this situation is that.... they are inside the Thai government itself so they know many things."

"This new generation of people, they are very young and they are very determined," he claimed. "The old generation can compromise but this new generation seems to still want independence.....Not only independence but they want to establish an Islamic state of Pattani." The most alarming part of the Bersatu leader's claims was his suggestion that the younger radicals were being influenced by an infiltration of the Al-Qaeda linked terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah. This is the group responsible for numerous bombings in Indonesia, including the 2002 and 2005 Bali attacks in which respectively 202 and 20 people were killed. "I think that many of the group are there but maybe they are not directly involved," Wan Kadir Che Wan said.

The former leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, Hambali, alias Nurjaman Riduan Ismuddin, had been captured in Thailand on 15 August 2003. He is now in US custody in their detention facility at Guantanamo, Cuba.

To add to these claims, Surayud Chulanont, the premier of the government formed after the coup of September 19, has said that money is coming in from Malaysia. He claimed on Tuesday that Thai restaurants within Malaysia were contributing funds to the insurgency.

These restaurants were from the Tom Yum Kung chain, named after a Thai spicy shrimp soup. As well as funding from these restaurants, Surayud claimed that more funds arrived through extortion from businessmen in the Thai south. Surayud also said that the problem with the insurgency is that many of the leaders of groups currently engaged in a massive campaign, in denial of the current peace negotiations, are themselves unknown.

Surayud agreed with the Bersatu leader that Jemaah Islamiyah may have infiltrated the southern insurgent networks, but nonetheless claimed that funds from foreign Islamic radicals has been minimal.

Malaysia, for its part, denied Surayud's allegations. Deputy Security Minister Fu Ah Kiow said the claims were "baseless". "It is very imaginative of him. It is absolutely baseless. These restaurants are owned by Malaysians and Thais," the Malaysian minister said.

Surayud's claims of Thai foodshops in Malaysia supporting the insurgency were denied by Suthiphan Sririkanond, adviser to the Association of Thai Foodshop Owners in Malaysia. He said that the allegations would only damage the Thai food industry in Malaysia, which employs thousands. Suthiphan said that members of his association have merely contributed amounts from 300 Thai baht ($8.20) to 500 baht ($13.67) in monthly membership fees. This fee was not an extortion charge, he said.

Thailand's interior minister, Aree Wong-araya (a Muslim) claimed on Wednesday that Surayud's comments would not affect Malaysian/Thai relations. He said: "We've heard (rumours) for a long time about some overseas private sector businesses being a funding source for the insurgents but we couldn't provide the details."

Schools And Teachers As Targets

There are 861 schools in the three southern provinces, with 291,300 students being taught by 11,260 teachers. About 60 teachers have been killed, and many more wounded, since the current insurgency began. Some of the killings of teachers have been dramatic. On May 19, Muslim villagers descended on a school in Gujinruepo village, in Narathiwat's Rangae district. The villagers demanded to know which teachers were non-Muslim. Two women Buddhists, Juling Pongkunmul and Sirinat Thawornsuk, were identified. Ms Sirinat was dragged from a teashop, and Ms Juling was taken from a classroom.

The pair were led to a community center in the village and subjected to a prolonged beating with sticks which lasted for more than an hour. The villagers, mostly women, also prevented security forces from gaining access to Gujinruepo. When the two teachers were rescued, they had suffered horrific injuries. Ms Srinirat recovered, but Ms Juling had suffered brain lesions and had lapsed into a coma. Juling, a talented artist who had only recently begun teaching at the Gujinruepo village school, still remains in a coma, on a life support machine at Songkhlanagarin (Prince of Songhkla) Hospital in Hat Yai, Songkhla province.

On Wednesday (November 22), 50 schools reopened in Narathiwat province. The closing of the schools happened after an attack upon a woman teacher on November 14. She had been killed by two drive-by gunmen while riding her motorcycle home after work in Rueso district, Narathiwat province. The teacher, 33-year old Buddhist Kutilda Inchampa, was also an army sub-lieutenant and assistant principal at the school.

The day after Ms Kutilda had been killed, the school where she taught, Ban La Moh, was closed. Another school in the same district was also closed, as staff and parents were fearful of similar attacks. The Ban Baluka school lies on the same road where Kutilda Inchampa had been shot. On Friday November 17, 38 more schools in Rueso district in Narathiwat had officially closed.

While schools in Narathiwat re-opened, schools in Yala province were closed in Yaha district. The schools closed on Wednesday following a dispute which had erupted in two villages on the previous day. The villagers had been demanding the removal of troops and police from two temporary bases in the vicinity. Inhabitants of Ban Mapae village claimed that the Border Patrol Police had arrived in the district to assassinate villagers.

200 Muslim villagers had blocked roads, and though attempts were made to negotiate with them, it was decided that the villagers' demands could not be met. Citing security fears, 27 schools in seven sub-districts were closed down. They are expected to open tomorrow.

The crisis in schools escalated on Wednesday night, when Ban Tanyong Limor School in Rangae district, Narathiwat province, was subjected to a bomb attack. The intention appeared to be to set the school on fire. The bomb in the canteen damaged tables and chairs, and made a hole in the floor, but did not set off a blaze. A second bomb was found at the school, beside a flag-pole, but it had failed to go off.

On Thursday, 40-year old Suradet Wassadaeng, a teacher at Baan Don Rak School in Pattani was shot dead in Nong Chik district as rode his motorcycle home from school. His body was riddled with bullets. A sugar cane juice vendor, who had a stand beside the road, was also injured in the shooting incident.

In the early hours of Friday morning, Ban Bor Thong School in Rangae district, Narathiwat province, was set on fire (pictured). The entire building, including a nurse's room, a religious room and four classrooms, was destroyed.

On Friday, the headmaster of Ban Bang Kao Community School in Sai Buri district, Pattani province, 48-year old Nont Chaisuwan, was brutally killed as he sat in his pickup truck after classes. He was shot by drive-by insurgents, and as he was wounded but still alive in his vehicle, the truck was set ablaze, burning him to death.

As a result of the headmaster's murder, a meeting of Pattani teachers was held, and it was decided that all 336 schools in Pattani province would be closed indefinitely. Yesterday, Boonsom Thongsriplai, chairman of the Teachers' Federation in Pattani, said: "The decision will affect all 336 schools, ranging from elementary to high schools, in the province. The closure will start on Monday. We have to close the schools indefinitely because no one can guarantee teachers' safety."

"We have no choice. Teachers have become prime targets of the militants. We are well aware the closure will affect our students, but we believe that solving educational problems is easier than tackling the problem of our safety," he said.

In Narathiwat, schools will remain open next week, said Pairat Saengthong, director of Naratiwat Education Service Area Office 1. He said that for parents of children in high risk areas, they should accompany their offspring to school. He said the parents and children could travel with the groups of teachers who are already provided with military escorts. He added that Ban Bor Thong School, though gutted by fire, would also be open. He said teachers' offices and temporary shelters would serve as classrooms.

Tawat Saeham, head of the Narathiwat Teachers' Federation, said that the situation in the province was now "critical". He said that it was sometimes better to use the "stick rather than the carrot", referring to the current government's policy of appeasement. He said that by taking a position which compromised too much, insurgents may become emboldened.

At least 60 teachers have been killed in the current insurgency. So far in November, four teachers have been killed.

Killings

On Tuesday afternoon, November 21, an elderly couple were gunned down in Bannang Sata district, Yala province. 60-year old Lek Fuangfoo and his 64-year old wife Wilai Phetdee were riding home on their motorcycle from their rubber plantation to their village, Bannang Buto. Two attackers on another motorcycle followed them and shot the pair with an 11-mm pistol.

Later the same day, the body of an insurgent was discovered, following a shootout with security forces in the same province. The man, 26-year old Sugri Banhaning, was wanted on bomb-making chages. His body was discovered naked at the roadside where the shooting incident had happened. A police spokesman said: "Other militants may have taken off his clothes because they were afraid authorities would be able to trace them, or the victim may have been carrying bullets and they were hurrying to take them."

On Wednesday evening, a 16 year old youth was shot dead in a shootout between a group of young people and village defense volunteers in Than To district, Yala province. The shooting happened as the young people were riding motorcycles in the dark. The defense volunteers claimed that they were shot at first.

Following the incident, 50 women protesters marched on the Than To police station to demand that the police find the individual responsible for the teenager's death. A group of 300 villagers protested at the mosque in Pansuk village. On Thursday, as the youth's body was carried in a procession, protesters attacked cars and threw rocks at police. Some tried to attack a news cameraman. A gunmen also shot at the house of a villager in Pansuk, but no-one was injured.

In Bannang Sata district on Friday morning around 3 am, the Provincial Electricity Authority office was set on fire. Two cars, a truck and a crane were also set alight by insurgents. Before attacking the Electricity office, 10 gunmen shot at a security guard, and then poured oil into the building before igniting it.

In Yaha district of Yala province on Friday, a bomb was detonated at 4 pm at a food stand in front of a Buddhist temple, the Wat Yaha Pracharam. Several people were injured, one seriously.

Buddhist temples have become refuges for Buddhist villagers who are fleeing their homes after threats have been made. The trend began on November 8 when villagers from Bannang Sata and Than To districts fled to Wat Nirotsankharam temple in Muang district, Yala province. They fled after an incident on November 5, in which an elderly man and his daughter were shot and burned to death in their house in Santi Village 1. At least 200 villagers are staying inside the Wat Nirotsankharam temple.

On Friday, it was revealed that more Buddhists have fled their homes, this time in Rueso district, Narathiwat province. About 20 villagers have taken refuge in police accommodation where they have been since November 17. This week a note was left in their village of Lubokuwae, saying that if the Buddhists did not move out, their lives would be at risk.

In Rueso district, Narathiwat, about 11 Buddhists have fled the village of Supae, and have made their home in a Buddhist temple in Raman district. It is reported that Buddhists in other regions are planning to abandon their homes.

Buddhists comprise 20 of the population of the provinces in the Muslim south. When the insurgency began, individuals were the main targets of the insurgents. About 20 Buddhists were decapitated in the first year of the insurgency. Over the past year, as many Muslims as Buddhists have been killed, but following the coup of September 17, it appears that whole Buddhist communities have been placed under threat.

On Saturday, 500 Buddhist monks from 266 temples in Songkhla, Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat took part in a special prayer session for peace at Songkhla provincial hall.

While the monks and their supporters prayed for peace, killings escalated on Saturday. In Kabang district, Yala province, three Buddhist men were shot dead as they hunted for wild boar in a forest. The men had their throats cut.

In another incident in Muang district in Yala province, a grocery store was attacked by insurgent gunmen. Two teenage Buddhist boys, Thanakorn Khandam, 17, and Chaikorn Udnoon, 17, were injured.

At Muang district, a 78-year old Buddhist woman, Pongsri Charoensap, was injured when four gunmen opened fire on a group of villagers who were gathered outside a house.

The attacks and threats upon Buddhist homes and businesses are becoming more explicit. In Rangae district in Narathiwat province, many businesses have caved n to Buddhist demands to have their businesses close every Friday and Sunday. Yesterday, businesses in Tambon Tanyongmas, Rangae district, received a circular letter, signed by "Terrorist Group". This letter demanded that they close their shops on Sundays. The letter threatened that if the businesses did not comply and acknowledge Sunday as a holiday, their lives and property would be at risk.

Also in Yala province yesterday, a group of insurgents ambushed a unit of military rangers in Muang district. The exchange of gunfire lasted about 10 minutes until reinforcements arrived, and there were no reported casualties.

An intelligence official has predicted that there will be bombing attacks upon electricity generating facilities in villages, before other targets are attacked. This has happened before, in Yala in July 2005, and in Narathiwat on November 3 last year. The official said that the insurgents would be flying the "Pattani State" flags at villages where they were successful. The funding for these operations is said to come from the Bersatu group, even though the leader of this coalition, Wan Kadir Che Wan, has said Bersatu does not seek secession from Thailand.

The leader of the insurgents who are thought to be planning these attacks is Sapaeing Bazo, leader of the insurgent group Barisan Revolusi Nasional Coordinate. Sapaeing Bazo has been in hiding in Malaysia, and he has a bounty upon his head of 10 million baht ($256,227 US). Another prominent figure in the Barisan Revolusi Nasional is Masae Useng, who is believed to have organized the three-day mass bombing campaign which began on June 15. June 15 is regarded by many insurgents as the "national day of Pattani", as it is the anniversary of a meeting demanding independence, which took place in 1997. Masae Useng is believed to be in hiding in the Middle East.

Sapaeing Bazo founded the Thamma Wittaya school in Yala city, Yala province. This Islamic school has had six of its teachers dying as suspected insurgents in the current spate of unrest which began on January 4, 2004. In March this year, 19 teachers from the Thamma Wittaya were arrested, but they were later released.

Today, two soldiers were killed in Raman district, Yala province today. Lieutenant Corporal Ekkachai Polchai and Private Chakrin Thipchaksu were at a market, where they had stopped at a food stall. Two gunmen shot them both at point blank range. Two women villagers, 60-year old Aesoh Arwae and 38-year old Yaena Chapakeeya, were also injured in the shooting. The gunmen, who had entered the market barefoot, stole the soldiers' M-16 assault rifles before fleeing.

In Rueso district, Narathiwat, this morning, a 24-year old man, Adinan Mueyaebasor, was shot dead. The victim was riding his motorcycle, running errands, when two gunmen fired five times at him with a long-range shotgun.

In Muang district, Narathiwat (the district shares land in Yala), a 47-year old government employee, Udom Kulwichit , was shot dead by two gunmen. Udom was riding his motorcycle to go shopping. His wife, Chamreang Kulwichit, was also on the motorcycle, and she was injured in the gunfire.

General Surayud Chulanont, the prime minister, has promised a policy of reconciliation with the insurgents in the Muslim south. This policy appears to be bringing no rewards, and is not halting the misery of the inhabitants of the southern provinces.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 12:03 PM | Comments (0)

November 25, 2006

US: Islamist Barber Of Seattle In Somalia

News from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, World Net Daily and National Terror Alert states that Seattle barber who indoctrinated kids in jihadi ideology as he clipped their hair, has fled to Somalia.

Rubenn Shumpert is a black convert to Islam, also known as Amir Abdul Muhaimin, who had a barbershop at 7821 Rainier Ave, Rainier Valley in Seattle, showed children jihadist videotapes. Shumpert had been arrested two years ago by the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force. Though not convicted of terrorism, he faced charges including immigration and bank fraud.

Shumpert has been found guilty on federal counterfeiting and weapons charges, and was due to be sentenced on Tuesday. Shumpert was released from custody prior to being sentenced, and a condition of his release was for him to hand in his passport to federal authorities.

Shumpert, however, did not hand in his passport, but fled the country. He telephoned an FBI agent on the Joint Terrorism Task Force, to say that he was now in SOmalia, which has no extradition treaty to the United States.

Assistant US Attorney Bill Redkey told Seattle PI that it has been common in recent years for judges to allow defendants to submit their passports after their release from custody. He said that the US Attorney's Office is now reviewing the procedure in such instances.

Shumpert was never convicted on terrorism offenses, but the court documents maintain that his barber shop was a place of indoctrination, an "anti-American training ground for Muslims". The videos he showed children were of "fighting, shooting and killing with images on Shumpert's computer screen of al-Qaida and the Taliban."

With Somalia now about to become engaged in a war with its neighbor Ethiopia, Shumpert may yet witness jihadists at war, first hand, and may not be so enthusiastic when it he experiences it himself.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 9:23 PM | Comments (1)

US: Oklahoma Mosque Members Support Al Qaeda

News from Oklahoma, in the form of a video from News 9. Jamal Miftah (pictured) is a recent migrant to the United States. He wrote a letter to the Tulsa World newspaper after seeing a video by Ayman al-Zawahiri, the second in command of Al Qaeda.

His letter, entitled "Message of Islam is not jihad, fatwahs" was published in Tulsa World on October 29. In this letter, which we reproduce below, he stated that Zawahri and bin Laden were cowards, getting young and ignorant men to become suicide bombers to kill innocent civilians.

His letter was impassioned, but it was well-intentioned. He said that Muslims throughout the world should stand up to those who advocate jihad, and to decry such behavior as being against Islam. But the letter caused only recriminations at his mosque, the Islamic Center at Tulsa.

He was threatened by several members. He protested, and then was told by the management of the mosque that he cannot return until he has apologized.

Miftah was told by members of the congregation that he should never have criticized Islam in front of non-Muslims. The thing is - he did not criticize Islam, only the radicals who preach jihad. It is a sad testimony to the fact that many Muslims in the West make no distinction between Al Qaeda and Islam. There is a concept in Islam called takfeer, which is the action of condemning a Muslim as a heretic.

Takfeer is a Muslim "crime" if not made by a senior cleric. Islam is a club which welcomes any members into the Ummah, no matter how despotic or murderous they may be. If a person has said the Shahada, they are a Muslim. If they have killed non-Muslims, or even Muslims, they are still regarded as pat of the Ummah.

This bizarre reasoning was brought home to me on an internet forum, when Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the butcher of Baghdad, was killed in June. Several Muslims who had early said that Islam is peaceful refused to condemn Zarqawi for the obvious monster that he was. The victims whose heads he slowly sawed off, as they gurgled their last breaths through torrents of blood spurting from their throats, were non-Muslim and Muslim alike. Yet, for the Muslims on the forum, Zarqawi was a Muslim. Worse - he was a "good Muslim" even if he had killed other Muslims.

I pressed these apologists further, and reasoned that what Zarqawi did was wrong, even if he did it thinking he was doing it for Allah. Eventually, one of these individuals admitted Zarqawi had done monstrous things. I was told of takfeer and how they feared to criticize any Muslim, lest on Judgement Day they received punishment for denouncing another Muslim as bad.

Sadly, this blinded mentality is what is destroying the credibility of Islam in the eyes of any rational being. People who claim to be Muslim, people who claim to live in the West as "peaceful citizens" may condemn acts of terrorism. But press these individuals further - ask them if they condemn the perpetrators of terrorism by name, and you will be met with obfuscation or a stony silence. How many Muslims have carried placards denouncing Osama bin Laden? Very few. Those who denounce the actions of Al Qaeda will never name the individuals who commit Al Qaeda atrocities, such as Mohammed Atta, or others, as "bad Muslims".

This is a fundamental problem with logic. I suggest you try it. Next time you engage in a discussion with a Muslim who claims to denounce terrorism, name a specific Muslim terrorist, and see if the denouncer of terrorist acts has the moral fiber to denounce that named terrorist. I assure you, you will find the answers surprising.

This is the letter that Jamal Miftah sent to the Tulsa World:

Message of Islam is not jihad, fatwahs

By Jamal Miftah.

I moved to the United States in March 2003, with my four kids and wife from Pakistan bordering Afghanistan. There was a call by a local jihadi organization to fight the coalition forces in Afghanistan. One of my dearest friends, Mirza Kohistani, fell prey to that call and joined the group, despite my advice and that of his wife to him.

All the leaders of that organization returned safely after the fall of the Taliban empire, but they left behind the body of my friend and hundreds of other innocent people like him.

I am obliged to respond to Ayman al-Zawahri's recent video message, portraying himself as champion of Islam and others as liars.

My message to Ayman al-Zawahri and Muslims of the world: "Islam" means submission and is derived from a word meaning "peace." Islam, Christianity and Judaism have the same origin, the Prophet Abraham. The prophet of Islam has said that God has no mercy on someone who does not have mercy for others.

I ask that al-Zawahri look at his deeds and those of his master, Osama bin Laden, and other so-called Islamic jihadists.

Because of lack of knowledge of Islam, Muslim youth are misguided into believing by the so-called champions of the cause of Islam that the current spate of killings and barbarism, which has no equal in the recent civilized history, is jihad in the name of Islam. They are incited, in the name of Islam, to commit heinous crimes not pardonable by any religion and strictly forbidden in Islam.

Cowards like al-Zawahri and bin Laden are inciting the ignorant and innocent youths to commit suicide bombings to kill innocent civilians including children, women and the elderly, while they hide in spider holes and caves. They never send their own sons and daughters, born out of half a dozen of their wives, to get killed in the name of Islam. They are themselves hypo crites, cowards, thugs and liars. For 12 years they misappropriated aid received from the U.S. and the West to fight Russia. Now they are ensuring smooth flow of petro dollars from Arab countries in the name of jihad against the West.

Even mosques and Islamic institutions in the U.S. and around the world have become tools in their hands and are used for collecting funds for their criminal acts. Half of the funds collected go into the pockets of their local agents and the rest are sent to these thugs.

They are the reason for branding the peaceful religion of Islam as terrorism. The result, therefore, is in the form of Danish cartoons and remarks/reference by the Pope.

I appeal to the Muslim youth in particular and Muslims of the world in general to rise up and start jihad against the killers of humanity and help the civilized world to bring these culprits to justice and prove that Islam is not a religion of hatred and aggression.

I appeal to the Muslim clerics around the world that, rather than issuing empty fatwas condemning suicide bombing, they should issue a fatwa for the death of such scoundrels and barbarians who have taken more than 4,267 lives of innocent people in the name of Islam and have carried out more than 24 terrorist attacks on civilian installations throughout the world. This does not include the chilling number of deaths because of such activities in Iraq and Afghanistan, which is well over 250,000.

I appeal to al-Zawahri and his band of thugs to hand themselves over to justice and stop spreading evil and killing innocent humans around the world in the name of Islam. Their time is limited and Muslims of the world will soon rise against them to apprehend them and bring them to justice.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 7:25 PM | Comments (16)

November 24, 2006

UK: Muslim Veil Woman Is Sacked

There is no deliberate pun in the title of this posting. Aishah Azmi is a 23-year old who made headlines when she took her employers to a tribunal, following being suspended. Azmi was a teaching assistant at Headfield Church of England Junior School, Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.

This school has 529 children, many of whom are either Pakistani or Bangladeshi in origin. Azmi was employed to assist children aged 10 to 12 in Math and English, when for many pupils, English was not a first language. When she had her interview, she did not wear a face-veil (niqab), nor did she tell her future employers that she would insist upon wearing the veil.

Children at the school complained that they could not understand her, and she was asked by the school to remove her veil. She refused. As a result, she was sent home in November 2005, only a month after she had started her employment at Headfield school. In February 2006, she was suspended on full pay.

Her case against her employers became highlighted as it was reported after remarks were made by former foreign secretary Jack Straw, MP for Blackburn. Straw had written on October 5 that he asked Muslim constituents who visited him to remove their veils, in a column for the Lancashire Evening Telegraph.

The news of Azmi's tribunal became headline material, helped in no small part by Azmi herself, who appeared frequently in TV interviews, as evidenced in this video. Her own MP, Shahid Malik (a Muslim) supported the school's decision to suspend her. He said: "In schools the top priority has got to be the education of our children. I fully support the decision of the education authority and the school in requesting the classroom assistant remove her veil when teaching primary school children."

"I believe the education authority has bent over backwards to be accommodating and has been extremely reasonable and sensible in the decision it has come to. There is no religious obligation whatsoever for Muslim women to cover themselves up in front of primary school children."

On October 14, Britain's race and faith minister, Phil Woolas, said that Azmi should be sacked. Woolas said: "She cannot teach a classroom of children wearing a veil. You cannot have a teacher who wears a veil simply because there are men in the room. She is denying the right of children to a full education by insisting that she wears the veil. If she is saying that she won't work with men, she is taking away the right of men to work in schools."

"By insisting that she will wear the veil if men are there, she's saying: 'I'll work with women, but not men'. That's sexual discrimination. No head-teacher could agree to that."

"There are limits in a liberal democracy. There are boundaries in a democracy and this is one of them. It's a boundary we can't cross," Woolas concluded.

The following day, Shahid Malik, MP for Dewsbury, said: "The basic thrust of what Phil (Woolas) says is just common sense. If you are not able to fulfil your job requirements then obviously it will be difficult for you to continue in that particular role."

On October 17, the prime minister, Tony Blair, was asked for his opinions on the matter. He said the Muslim face-veil was a "mark of separation". He said of Azmi's education authority: "I simply say that I back their handling of the case. I can see the reason why they came to the decision they did. Difficult though these issues are, they need to be raised and confronted."

On October 19, Azmi lost her claims that she was subjected to harassment on religious grounds and religious discrimination. These claims had been brought under the terms of the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2004. However, she was awarded damages. Kirklees Council was ordered to pay her £1,100 ($2,074) as the tribunal ruled that she had been victimized as a result of the environment surrounding the case.

The tribunal said that its decisions had been made on October 6, and therefore had not been influenced by the comments made by politicians. Azmi was not happy with the verdict.

She said: "It is clear that discrimination has taken place and I am disappointed the tribunal has not been able to uphold that part of my claim. I am pleased the tribunal recognised the victimising way in which the school and local education authority have handled this matter and the distress that has caused me."

It was later revealed by the Daily Mail that Azmi regularly attended the Markazi mosque in Savile Town, Dewsbury, which is run by Tablighi Jamaat, the extremist Muslim political group. Her father Dr Mohammed Mulk had until recently headed the secondary school attached to the Tabighi Jamaat mosque.

This school was criticized by UK government schools inspectors as less a place of learning and more of a "madrassa". The report by Ofsted claimed that the school's "over-emphasis" on religion meant secular studies were neglected. It wrote: "Teachers showed limited understanding of pupils aptitudes, needs and prior attainments."

Azmi's father had responded to the Ofsted report by saying: "Parents send their children here for an Islamic education. They don't want their sons to take exams."

The Sunday Times revealed that Azmi had been acting under a fatwa made by a Tablighi Jamaat cleric, Mufti Yusuf Sacha, who had told her that a woman's duty was to wear a veil.

Since she became officially employed by the school in September 2005, 13 months ago, Azmi has actually spent no more than four weeks teaching. She has been receipt of full pay, and has tried to embarrass the school and Kirklees Education Authority into complying with her extremist politico-religious belief, even though she obtained the job by dishonestly failing to mention her veil-wearing.

Now, according to the BBC, the school has finally sacked Azmi. A spokesperson for Kirklees Council said that a hearing had taken place into "the circumstances that resulted in the suspension of a bilingual support worker at the school. As result of the hearing the committee decided to terminate the employment of the employee concerned."

Azmi has exploited this situation to promote her brand of Islam, at considerable public expense. Hopefully this will be the last one hears of her irritating and whining voice bleating on about her "rights", but somehow, I doubt it.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 10:43 PM | Comments (3)

Australia: Kids' Novel Dropped For Portraying Muslim Villain

John Dale is an Australian author. His first novel, a thriller called Dark Angel, was published in 1995, and won the Ned Kelly Crime Writing Award for best first novel. Crime Time described Dale as "one of the best latter-day hard boiled writers". Other books he has written are: "The Dogs are Barking", A Dangerous Life, which focused on the life and murder of real-life prostitute Salli-Anne Huckstepp, and Wildlife published in 2004, about the mysterious murder of his grandfather, Harvey Malcolm, who was shot in 1942.

In March 2004, Scholastic publishers commissioned John Dale to write a "tough, snappy, thriller" for children. The publishers wanted child readers to "break out in sweats and their eyes to bulge without giving them actual nightmares."

Dale is director of the Centre for New Writing at Sydney's University of Technology. He came up with a novel entitled Army of the Pure, in which four children are pursued by Afghan terrorists, after they discovered a plot to blow up the Lucas Heights experimental nuclear reactor in Sydney.

In a case of life imitating art, in late 2005, several Australian Muslims in Sydney and Melbourne were arrested for plotting to really blow up the reactor.

Scholastic were pleased with Dale's novel, Army of the Pure, describing it as a "gripping page-turner". They have described his writing as "almost flawless".

Now, however, Scholastic have ditched the children's thriller, states the Northern Territory News, because of the reactions from libraries and booksellers. The reasons why no-one seems to want to stock Army of the Pure is because the main villain is a Muslim.

Dale's agent, Lyn Tranter, said that the publisher's move was a "gutless" decision. She said: "I am appalled that this is censorship by the salesmen." John Dale himself has said the decision is "disturbing because it's the book's content they are censoring".

Dale originally wrote the book to be something that would be, for his son, "a book he could not put down." He said: "There are no guns, no bad language, no sex, no drugs, no violence that is seen or on the page," and claimed Scholastic made their decision to drop the book "100 per cent (on) the Muslim issue."

Andrew Berkhut, Scholastic's general manager of publishing claimed the company had presented the book outline to "a broad range of booksellers and library suppliers" who were concerned that the book involved a Muslim terrorist. Berkhut said: "They all said they would not stock it, and the reality is if the gatekeepers won't support it, it can't be published."

Such is the state of the Western world. While real Muslims plot real attacks upon Sydney's Lucas Heights nuclear reactor in the real world, a fictional tale involving how children might react if they knew something of a terror plot is banned.

It seems that despite the world in which today's children are growing up, where Muslim terrorists seem hell-bent on causing widespread publicity through acts of terror, politically-correct libraries and booksellers would rather delude everyone with the lie that there is no such thing as Muslim terrorism.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 8:24 PM | Comments (0)

US: The Ignorance of our Alleged Betters

Little Green Footballs points to a blog article by legal scholar Alan Dershowitz, in which Mr. Dershowitz takes President Jimmy Carter to task for his pro-Muslim views in the Jihad war against Israel. I wish to comment in one of the bullet points Dershowitz raises:

Carter emphasizes that "Christian and Muslim Arabs had continued to live in this same land since Roman times," but he ignores the fact that Jews have lived in Hebron, Tzfat, Jerusalem, and other cities for even longer. Nor does he discuss the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Jews from Arab countries since 1948.

This isn't true. The Roman Empire split in two in 395 A.D., which effectively ended "Roman" domination in the middle east. Furthermore, Roman times ended altogether in 476 A.D., when all pretension of a Roman Empire ended with the decisive fall of Rome. Muhammad, the self-proclaimed prophet, was born in 570 A.D. He didn't begin preaching until his forties. He didn't wage warfare until his fifties. The first Muslims to reach what is now Israel did so shortly after Muhammad's death, in the mid-630's, and they were not settlers, but first raiders (to terrorize the population and gain booty) and eventually conquerors who submitted the region. So, in short, we have an error of more than 150 years in Carter's description, coupled with a wholly unsuported vision of peaceful co-existence. It would be irresponsible to take historical lessons from Jimmy Carter when he cannot get historical timeline right.

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 7:59 PM | Comments (0)

November 23, 2006

Malaysia: Muslim Woman Arrested For SMS Incitement

Since Thursday, November 2, phone text messages began circulating in the Malaysian state of Perak. These SMS messages stated that there would be mass conversions of 600 Muslims to Christianity at a church in Ipoh, the main city of Perak.

A crowd of several hundred Muslims had gathered outside Church of Our Lady of Lourdes in Silibin, Ipoh, protesting at the supposed "mass conversion". It transpired that the event was a mass baptism of 98 children of Indian ethnic origin.

The messages had claimed that "several Malays will be baptised by Datuk Azhar Mansor". Azhar Mansor is the name of a man who sailed solo around the world in 1999. Azhar's elder brother, Azham, denied claims that the yachtsman had become an apostate.

Abdul Aziz Bulat, head of Perak police, said a week after the messages began circulating that he wanted to interview Harussani Zakaria, the Mufti of Perak. Bulat said: The Perak mufti might shed some light over the matter and assist in police investigations."

The mufti was at that time out of the country, visiting Syria. It had been alleged via SMS messages that on November 4 at the STate Mosque in Perak, the Mufti had made the announcement on the fictitious "conversions". Bulat also said he wanted to question Azhar Mansor.

The issue of race and religion in Malaysia has been made increasingly volatile, with the ruling UMNO party following a policy of ketuanan Melayu, the "Malay agenda" which dishonestly afirms that the Malays, who only arrived in the 14th century are the original and defining populace of Malaya, and thus should have special status and privileges.

Conversions from Islam are forbidden by law in the country. Those who have chosen to go to the courts to proclaim their desire to convert from Islam to Christianity, such as Lina Joy, have been threatened with death.

Even though the prime minister and head of UMNO, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, has promoted his Malays-first policies (despite Malays comprising only 50.8% of the population) and thereby increased racial and religious tensions in the nation, the SMS messages caused him to make a statement. On November 6, he said: "I spoke to the IGP (Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan) yesterday and he told me what was in the SMS. Actually, there were no Malays about to be baptised at the church. Police are investigating and those responsible must be severely punished because they did it with the intent to provoke anger and reactions that lead to racial tension."

"I have said all along that religion is a sensitive issue and cannot be made fun of. It cannot be used to scare or shock people or for fun. This is not a joke."

Badawi reiterated his condemnation of these SMS messages at the 57th annual conference of the UMNO party on November 15.

The implication of the famous yachtsman, Azhar Mansor, in the SMS messages has now proved to be false. This did not stop the Bernama news agency on November 9 headlining an article "Original Sender of 'Baptism SMS' Traced", referring to the innocent Azhar Mansor.

The case of the SMS messaging was being investigated under the Sedition Act of 1947, which had been introduced when the nation was British Malaya. The maximum penalty under the Sedition Act can be three years in prison, with an additional fine of up to 5,000 ringit or $1,350.

The Perak Islamic Religious Department (JAIP) held a meeting, and after this, the Menteri Besar (governor) of Perak state said that JAIP had been investigating apostasy among Muslims for some time, following a recommendation by the Mufti of Perak, Harussani Zakaria. The meeting concluded that the allegations that some Malay students of the Ungku Omar Polytechnic at Ipoh had converted to Christianity were false.

On November 10, the Mufti of Perak returned from Syria. On that date, the Menteri Besar of Perak, Seri Shahidan Kassim, announced that he had spoken personally with the round-the-world yachtsman, Azhar Mansor. Kassim said: "He still performs his daily prayers and also performed the Tarawih prayers the whole of last Ramadan and follows the teachings of Islam. How can it be said that he has changed his religion?"

49-year old Azhar also called a press conference in which he said that he had not changed his faith. He now resides in Australia. A week later, Azhar Mansor appeared at UMNO's 57th annual conference on November 17, in which he yet again was pressured to affirm that he and his wife had never changed their faith. Prime minister Badawi pointed out Azhar, sitting in the auditorium.

Badawi said: "Azhar Mansor has come to the assembly to declare that he still is a Muslim."

However, Azhar refused to state his "mengucap" (statement of Islamic faith, called the shahada or bismallah) for the benefit of the press. He protested: "You, you, you, did your mother ask you to "mengucap"? My father did not ask me to do so because we "mengucap" everytime we pray. I will not do it (mengucap). It is not doomsday when I will be questioned. We will not know where we will end up on doomsday."

"I live my life in Malaysia according to syarak (Sharia) laws and the laws of this country. I have never done anything wrong. If you want to ask whether a man is a Muslim or not ask those who commit rape. I only do my job and do not disturb anybody."

On Wednesday November 22, Perak state's police chief, Aziz Bulat announced that the person who had originally sent the text messages which caused such natonal concern had finally been found and arrested.

He said that the woman, in her 40s, and her 38-year old husband had been apprehended in the evening of Monday outside the Alor Star Hospital. Bulat said that the woman had become hysterical when approached by police officers, and had to be treated at the hospital before being brought in for questioning.

The information of the woman's identity had been revealed by the Mufti of Perak, following his return from Syria. Harussani Zakaria had said to the media that the woman had told him about the fictitious baptism of Muslims at the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes in Silibin, Ipoh. She had first made the allegations to the Mufti on October 22.

On Tuesday, the police had circulated a photograph of the woman (pictured), after she had failed to turn up to answer questions as requested. She has been identified as Raja Sherina, a woman who has been well-educated within Islamic colleges. She is a graduate of the International Islamic University of Malaysia and the Al-Azhar University in Cairo.

Bulat said that Raja Sherina's statement would be recorded after a remand order had been obtained. Magistrate Syamsul Rezal Mohammed Ariff ordered the woman and her husband to be remanded in custody for three days.

Yesterday, she was to be brought before the court, and once again became hysterical. Once again, she was sent by police to the Alor Star hospital to be tranquilized, and then driven back.

She has a son, and he was placed in the care of a relative at Alor Star. Raja Sherina has two houses, one at Sungai Petani near Ipoh, and another 50 miles away at Sitiawan. Raja Sherina is unemployed.

The results of this case will be interesting. Sherina seems well-educated in Islam, but her wearing of the burka (called a tudung in Malaysia) suggests that she is a fundamentalist. As such, it would be easy to imagine her wanting to stir up conflict between Christians and Muslims. Her bouts of hysteria, if authentic, could be from fear of being punished, or signs of being mentally unstable. If she is mentally unstable, her illness would almost certainly have manifested itself early in her life, and would have hindered her ability to complete studies at Al-Azhar in Cairo.

So far, until more details are known, any reasonings for her disseminating the texts, and initially making claims against a reputable yachtsman and national hero, can only be speculations.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 9:23 PM | Comments (0)

Egypt: FGM Is NOT Islamic, Say Scholars

News from the Daily Times, International Herald Tribune, Independent Online and BBC details a conference which has been held at the Al-Azhar University in Cairo, the largest and most prestigious center of Sunni learning.

The focus of the conference is female genital mutilation (FGM) sometimes euphemistically called "female circumcision". This involves either splitting the clitoral hood, excising the clitoris, excising the labia, or combinations of these procedures. Removing the clitoris entirely is the most common practice, but in no way compares to male circumcision. Its equivalent in the male would be the excision of the glans penis. Such a procedure essentially damages a girl's future enjoyment of sexual contact.

The practice has been traditional in several Islamic countries, such as Somalia and Sudan, as well as parts of the Middle East, and in regions where Muslims have migrated. There is nothing in the Koran to state that female circumcision is essentially "Islamic". In the Hadith of Sunan Abu Dawud there is the following statement in Book 41 (Kitab Al-Adab or "General Behavior"):

Book 41, Number 5251:

Narrated Umm Atiyyah al-Ansariyyah:

A woman used to perform circumcision in Medina. The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) said to her: Do not cut severely as that is better for a woman and more desirable for a husband.

This Hadith, unique among the six collections which are classed as "sahih" or authentic, is taken as a justification for Islamic FGM. However, it does not have the traditional "chain of transmitters" from the time of the prophet, so is called by some a "weak" Hadith.

In Egypt, rulings which banned female circumcision were overturned in July 1997, and were supported by individuals such as the anti-American Islamist Sheikh Youssef al-Badri, a proponent of female genital mutilation. In the 1950s, Egypt outlawed midwives from performing the procedure, and in 1996 they banned even doctors from carrying it out. Despite this, a recent study confirmed that 50% of Egyptian females aged 10 to 18 had been mutilated.

In 2000, a study found 80% of women aged 15 to 49 had undergone FGM. Unicef claims that 3 million females, varying in age from childhood to maturity, undergo FGM each year. An estimated 130 million women around the globe have been subjected to the procedure. Most of these are Africans.

A CNN broadcast from 1994, in which a 10-year old girl in Egypt was shown being "operated upon" by an unskilled practitioner, caused hostile reaction. Egypt sued CNN for $500 million for damaging its reputation, but the case was thrown out by courts.

In Indonesia, the Lashkar Jihad Islamists forced 3,928 non-Muslims on six islands in the Moluccas to become Muslims. This involved forcibly circumcising the men and women without anesthetics, according to the Sydney Morning Herald of January 27, 2001:

Christina Sagat, 32, said her mother, who is in her 70s, teenagers and children and her eight months pregnant niece were among people from her village on Kesui (Ambon) who were circumcised.

Sagat said that Muslim Ambonese women were not usually circumcised. "I don't understand these people ... they insisted on us being circumcised," she said.

Britain, Canada, France, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States have outlawed the practice. Countries such as Canada and Sweden also have laws which prevent children being taken abroad to undergo such an operation.

In Sweden, FGM on its own soil was outlawed in 1982, and in 1999 this was amended to include outlawing transportation of children abroad for FGM. In June this year, 41-year old Ali Elmi Hayow became the first person to be convicted for taking his daughter to Somalia in 2002 to undergo FGM. He was given a four-year jail sentence. He was also ordered to pay his daughter $41,000 in compensation.

The conference at Al-Azhar was attended by clerics from around the Islamic world. Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi, spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, was neither for nor against FGM. He acknowledged that there is no religious obligation for girls to be mutilated, but said some clerics support it. He said: "Also doctors confuse us, as some are with and some are against, the final say should be for them. I hope this conference will bring an end to arguments over this controversial issue."

Ali Gomaa, Egypt's senior cleric, said at the conference that Mohammed had not "circumcised" his four daughters. Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, the grand sheikh of Al-Azhar said: "In Islam, circumcision is for men only. From a religious point of view, I don't find anything that says that circumcision is a must (for women)." The edicts of these two clerics are considered binding.

The final statement of the conference was: "The conference appeals to all Muslims to stop practicing this habit, according to Islam's teachings which prohibit inflicting harm on any human being."

This is good news, to a point. It will take more than one edict to outlaw the practice in Islam, which appears to be more prevalent amongst Sunni Muslims. But Al-Azhar is the highest Sunni body, and in Egypt and neighbouring countries, the decision will be taken seriously by some Muslims.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 8:12 PM | Comments (0)

Germany: Mosques Proliferating

From Deutsche Presse Agentur, news that mosques in Germany have been increasing in number. Figures from the Central Institute of Islamic Archives show that where there were 141 mosques in the country in 2004, but now there are 159 mosques, with a staggering 128 more under construction.

The figures come from a report by the institute to be published next month. Salim Abdullah of the Soest-based institute said that in addition to the traditional mosques there were also hundreds of prayer rooms and halls where Muslim services were held.

Salim Abdullah said there were "around 1 million" Muslims in Germany, compared to 56,000 at the start of the 1980s. This figure is dubious - unless he is referring to those Germans who are actually citizens. Most figures state that there are at least three million Muslims in Germany, with 1.9 million of these being of Turkish origin.

While the Central Institute of Islamic Archives claims a proliferation of mosques, churches are declining in Germany, according to a survey by Dresdner Bank. The reasons for the decline are poor funding and dropping attendance rates.

The tabloid paper Bild stated that in Essen, poor attendance had caused services to be cancelled in 96 of the region's 350 churches.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 4:17 PM | Comments (0)

Argentina: Human Rights Icon Shills for Iran

Hebe de Bonafini is the President of the Association of Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, a politicized Human Rights group. She appears to have entered the Noam Chomsky stage of leftist delusion, in which she defends every enemy of her perceived great Satan, the United States. That's about as charitable as I can be, because the other reasonable explanation for her actions is rank antisemitism.

The story is here, in Spanish; my translation follows, with background information in brackets: Hebe de Bonafini Tambien Defiende a Iran en la Causa IMEA

Hebe de Bonafini Defends Iran in the IMEA Case

The President of the Association of Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, Hebe de Bonafini, spoke out against the policy of the [Argentinian] Government of supporting the decision of [Judge Rodolfo] Canicoba Corral regarding the capture order against former Iranian diplomats in the case AMIA [the bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association in 1994].

"The Association Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo is profoundly worried by the Argentinian Government's position against Iran in the AMIA bombing case. We do not accept investigations from the Mossad or from American intelligence", said Bonafini through a press release.

Bonafini also expressed respect for President Nestor Kirchner, but asked him to "please remember that the United States and the South American dictatorships in the 70's and 80's organized the terrible and sinister Operation Condor."

The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo expressed their condemnation of the "tragic attack, but respect for victims and their families", [they say], "demands that an investigation be carried out and Justice be served", without falling victim to "political manipulation in the service of American interests."

This is the second declaration of support in favor of Iran's position carried out by supporters of Kirchner coalition. The first was an act of support to said country which was attended by former piquetero [violent road-blocker] and former functionary Luis D'Elia, whose actions cost him his post.

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 12:58 PM | Comments (0)

Iraq: Catholic Charities Closes Due to Islamic Extorsion

Islam, religion of blackmail: Threats and extortion force Caritas Mosul to shut down

Mosul (AsiaNews) - Caritas Mosul has been forced to close its doors because of continued intimidation and insistent requests to fund the activities of a local Muslim group. AsiaNews heard this from one of its workers, who was compelled to leave the city for fear of reprisals. The woman, who has asked to remain anonymous, worked as a social researcher for the Catholic organization from 1995 to September, when the "agony" of Caritas started.

She said: "At the beginning of the month, our leader received a phone call at home from a Muslim group that was well aware that the telephone at the centre was not working as it needed to be repaired." The young woman continued: "The group did not identify itself by name. First the caller recited a verse from the Koran and then asked us to give the group money to support resistance to the American occupation of Iraq." The person talking took care to stress that he "knew all the activities of the centre perfectly well, the number of employees, their precise identity and he did not want to hear any fuss. We tried to explain to him that as Caritas, we do not have funds for our activities except donations from believers who help us to support only those who are most in need." But there was nothing to be done: "They told us that what we were saying was untrue and that the Church could give money, because the Church is rich."[...]

Thanks to reader "Giussani" for the link.

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 5:28 AM | Comments (1)

November 22, 2006

Malaysia: Ruling Party Uses Islam And Race To Incite Hate

On Wednesday November 15 the ruling party in Malaysia, UMNO ((United Malays National Organization), began its 57th three-day-long annual conference at the Putra Center, Kuala Lumpur. Issues brought up at the conference served to reinforce the racial apartheid which has been a bedrock of Malaysia's politics since its independence from Britain on August 31, 1957.

UMNO was founded on May 11, 1946. Its core belief is that of the "ketuanan Melayu" an ideology which states that the Malay people, who are all regarded as "Muslim" are the original and defining populace of Malaya, and thus should have special status and privileges. This is in defiance of logic, as native peoples, the "Orang Asli", have lived in the peninsula of Western Malaysia, particularly in Kelantan State, long before the Malay Muslims arrived in the 14th century.

UMNO cannot rule on its own. Despite its bias towards Malays and Islam, it has to share power in a coalition, called the Barisan Nasional or "National Front". This includes the MIC, the Malaysia Indian Congress, which has been in existence since 1946, and also MCA, the Malaysian Chinese Association, which has been the second largest partner in the Barisan Nasional coalition since 1996. There are ten other smaller parties in the Barisan Nasional (BN).

UMNO has ruled uninterrupted since independence, in association with other parties. Any political problems which beset Malaysia can therefore be laid at the door of UMNO.

Demographically, Malays comprise 50.8% of the population of 26 million, followed by Chinese 23.8%, Indigenous 10.9%, Indian 7.1%, and non-Malaysian citizens 6.8 %. In religious terms, 60% of the population is Muslim, with Buddhists comprising 19.2%, Christians 9.1%, Hindus 6.3%, and Confucians (Taoists) 2.6%. The other faiths comprise only 2.8% of the demographic.

Because of the bizarre apartheid of Malaysia, all citizens are given an identity card, called MyKad, at the age of 12. This card states the holder's race and religious status, details which are then held at the National Registration Department (NRD). All Malays are automatically classed as Muslims.

No Muslim is legally allowed to convert from Islam. The Islamic courts (Syariah Courts) control issues such as apostasy and issues of marriage and other issues. The NRD will not allow recognition of a person's conversion out of Islam, unless such a process has been authorized by the Syariah Courts. And so far, these courts have refused to allow any Muslims to apostasize.

Famous converts such as Lina Joy and Kamariah Ali are still battling with the courts for their rights to be acknowledged as "non-Muslims". Such rights do not exist in Malaysia. Article 11 of the country's constitution states that anyone can follow any religion of their choosing. However in 1988, an amendment (1A) was made to Article 121, which stated that the civil courts have no no jurisdiction over "any matter" which falls under the jurisdiction of the Islamic Courts.

The 13 states of Malaysia have mostly adopted the Control and Restriction Bill, which gives a fine of 10,000 ringit ($2,653) or imprisonment for up to one year for "persuading, influencing a Muslim to leave Islam for another religion." On August 23, a week before independence, Mohamed Nazri Aziz, the Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, ordered that the "constitutional law" which forbids others to spread religions other than Islam to the Muslims must be streamlined nationwide.

Aziz said that the states of Sarawak, Sabah, Federal Territory and Penang had not yet adopted the legislation, saying: "There is no reason for these states to delay adopting the law. The Federal Constitution must be fully adhered to but religion is a state matter which is under the purview of the respective state governments. Therefore, to enforce the Federal Constitution on religion would require all the government of the states to amend their constitutions and adopt the law first." He added: "Why (do we have) to interpret (the constitution) when it is clearly said that (non-Muslims) are not allowed to spread religions other than Islam to the Muslims?"

In March, Aziz had said that anyone who criticised Islam would be tried under the Sedition Act, a legacy of British colonial rule, which existed in Malaysia before its independence in 1957. The penalty for transgressing against the Sedition Act can be three years in prison, with an additional fine of up to 5,000 ringit or $1,350.

Article 3(1) of the constitution states that "other religions may be practiced in peace and harmony in any part of the Federation". For those of other religions, there is little sense of harmony, and many feel under attack both from politicians and Islamists.

On August 26, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who is head of UMNO and also is Minister of Internal Security said people should not even question the contradictions of the constitution. "My advice to everyone is to stop (raising such issues). Do not create a situation that can lead to difficulties. Difficulties will make everyone apprehensive," he said.

Badawi continued: "Adhering to the articles will not create any problem. Discussing these articles again.... this will cause a storm if left unchecked. I have stated that there is no necessity to amend Article 121 ... there is no necessity to amend Article 11. These cause problems between one side and the other." Badawi condemned the Article 11 Forum, a multi-faith grouping of eleven organizations, which had campaigned to change the Islamo-supremacist aspects of the constitution.

The issue of UMNO's adherence to the apartheid ideology of "ketuanan Melayu", despite its union with the Chinese MCA and the Hindu MIC, were bound to be exploited in its 57th annual conference.

The elderly head of the Youth Movement of UMNO (ABIM) made the biggest gesture of racial/religious supremacy. Last year, he waved a ceremonial sword, or keris at the conference. And this year he did the same (pictured). On the eve of the conference, Hishammuddin Tun Hussein pledged to defend the sovereignty of Islam and the rights of Malays. Hussein is also the Education Minister. Hussein condemned a proposal which had been made, to form an Inter-Faith Commission.

The president of ABIM, Yusri Mohamad, confirmed at the conference that UMNO Youth would "defend the sovereignty of Islam" as specified in the Federal Constitution's Article 11 and 121 (1A). Mohamad said: "His (Hishammuddin) caution to the Article 11 Group, and groups who are actively stirring religious and sensitive issues should have raised awareness that the Malay-Muslim community's status is constantly under threat."

Mohamad said that demand for freedoms, such as the right to change faiths and the formation of an Inter-Faith Commission showed no respect for Muslims' "sensitivity".

Another speaker on the first day of the conference, UMNO veteran Tan Sri Mohamed Rahmat, secretary-general of the party, also spelled out the racism and Islamofascism of UMNO. He warned the other affiliates within the Barisan Nasional to avoid testing the Malays' patience, and even invoked the threat of "amuk" - a Malay tradition of ritual insanity and killing.

He said: "Please, don't test the Malays; in another word that they know 'amuk'. We don't want to reach that level. In the present situation, the Malays can still take it but efforts to enhance the Malays' economy need to be intensified."

He said that members of other races and religions had to make sacrifices, until Malay Muslims were compensated for their (imagined sacrifices). The reference was a dig at the Chinese, who hold most of the wealth.

Rahmat said: "If the Malays' economic power cannot be balanced out, we will face worrying situations....Don't let it reach a situation where the Malays start questioning 'with the sacrifices we have made, what have we got?'. That's also the question that is very important to be answered."

He advised the other Barisan Nasional parties not to question the "Malay Agenda" or "ketuanan Melayu". He said: "We hope MCA and Gerakan (another Chinese party) adopt the BN spirit. There is no need for us to champion racial interests and be extremely racist, because they will not bring profits."

Rahmat said that meetings had resolved previous contentious issues. He said; "We didn't discuss sensitive matters outside, used the media and press. It would have appeared we were quarrelling. It's something not right."

The Prime Minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, also said that he would take strict action against any group which dared to question the status of Islam in Malaysia. He warned against any attempts to use Islam to promote intolerance, but also said that he would protect the Islamic (Syariah) courts from being undermined.

Badawi supports a notion of Islam which is called "Islam Hadhari", or "civilizational Islam", which believes that a quasi-moderate Islam can be used to promote culture and development in Malaysia, and could be exported as an example to other nations.

He said on Wednesday, November 15: "Unfortunately, some parties had misinterpreted Islam Hadhari as an excuse to become more conservative and more radical. Long-accepted cultural practices like wishing (well) other Malaysians of different religions in conjunction with their festivals had now been deemed taboo."

"Have we reached such a level of intolerance? Joint open houses are now condemned. When did we become ultra-conservative? This is not Islam Hadhari. Such an outlook threatens the unique tolerance for which Malaysian Muslims are renowned for and this should not be allowed to happen."

Badawi spoke of the issue of SMS messages which had recently been circulated, which had falsely alleged that mass Christian baptisms of Muslims had taken place. He said that "of late, we see increased polemics on issues related to race and religion. And it has reached a level where it is now worrying."

The following day, Badawi tried to reassure people that there was not a "worrying" level regarding race and religion. He told reporters on Thrsday, November 16: "Not worrying level as far as I am concerned but it is time to remind the people and to lay down the ground rule and that is exactly I have said (at the conference)."

"If it has come to such a level as has been described, it will be even more difficult to control at that time."

Badawi was asked about UMNO Youth's rejection of an Inter-Faith Commission. He replied that the cabinet had discussed the matter before. He said: "The word we used was we postpone. We've no plans to revive the matter. It is as good as not having it. To me, I will meet them, I also want to meet the (Islamic) religious groups. After that, I will meet the non-muslim groups. That's important."

On Saturday, November 19, the president of the Chinese MCA party, Ong Ka Ting, said that Badawi had given a "clear message that no one race can rule the country alone. The way we fought for Merdeka (independence) together, Umno, MCA and MIC, and the concept of kongsi kuasa (power sharing) as consented by our party veterans must be upheld."

Ong, who is the Housing and Local Government Minister, said: "The PM has again demonstrated the spirit of a leader for all Malaysians."

Despite such official support, the 57th annual conference on UMNO, which had been broadcast throughout Malaysia, has raised more questions than it has allayed fears.

Articles published by Reuters, Asia Times and Associated Press suggest that the issues of race and religion are creating more problems than UMNO and Barisan Nasional representatives will publicly admit.

Even Badawi's son-in-law has exploited racial divisions to subject the Chinese groups, already resented for their success in the economy, to further mistrust. 31year old Khairy Jamaluddin is deputy chief of UMNO's youth wing, ABID. In September, he said that Chinese political groups would exploit any splits within UMNO. When questioned about this, he had responded: "What is there to apologize for?...I am only defending my race."

The sight of Hishammudin Tun Hussein waving a keris in the air, broadcast through the nation, also raised concerns. One UMNO delegate at the conference, Hashim Suboh, had said: "Datuk Hisham has unsheathed his keris, waved his keris, kissed his keris. We want to ask Datuk Hisham, when is he going to use it?"

The threats made by Tan Sri Mohamed Rahmat to force the non-Muslims (Chinese) to make sacrifices financially to assist the Malay Muslims, who have failed to make economic progress, only highlights how destitute the ruling party's economic policies really are.

UMNO had formerly been led by Dr Mahathir Mohamad (Prime Minister from 1981 to 2003). He had been a hardliner who blamed Jews for Malaysia's problems, but still had encouraged economic development. This year Mahathir has been deliberately forced into the shadows by Badawi, seen as a liability with his rash statements and intrusions on matters of policy. Following a recent heart attack, Mahathir has become further marginalised.

In the face of rising Islamization, UMNO is failing to address the nation's problems realistically. Relying upon Hindus and Chinese to stay in power, its acceptance of the policies of destroying Hindu temples since April, and more recently the destruction of a Taoist temple in Bukit Mertajam, Penang, only serve to alienate the minorities in the so-called multi-racial state. The Nine Emperor Gods Taoist temple was relocated last year because its land had been sold to a property developer. It was demolished on Friday, November 18. Police fired shots at Chinese protesters as they supervised the destruction of the temple.

Today (Wednesday November 22), the cabinet questioned the wisdom of allowing the UMNO conference to be broadcast live. The Deputy Prime Minister, Najib Razak, said that at least three of the speeches from the conference could "be classified as extreme."

He told reporters: "The Cabinet has come to the opinion that there are more negative than positive implications in opening the proceedings to a live telecast. It paints an inaccurate picture of the general assembly."

On May 13, 1969, race riots between Chinese and Malays began in Kuala Lumpur. These only subsided in late July, after at least 196 people had been killed and many women had been raped. As a result of the riots, parliament was suspended until 1971.

The government had then blamed the introduction of the New Economic Policy, or NEP, for the conflict. This policy of affirmative action to promote Malay Muslims into jobs, at the expense of the Chinese, was intended to last for only 20 years, but has been indefinitely prolonged since then.

The speeches at the UMNO conference have only reminded the nation that the conditions which led to the 1969 racial situation are still in place.

Abdullah Badawi has asked for meetings with editors of Chinese-language and Malay editors of newspapers, where he is expected to ask them to "tone down" their reporting of religious and racial issues.

Lim Kit Siang, leader of the DAP (Democratic Action Party), the main opposition party, said on Friday, November 18: "If a Malaysian Chinese or Indian politician had warned of riots, being prepared to shed blood or even going amok, the Internal Security Act would have been invoked."

Malaysia's 49 years of independence have been marked by the Islamist and racist policies of UMNO. The Malay Muslims are given special rights in its policy of "ketuanan Melayu", the "Malay Agenda". It seems that only now is it starting to realize that such a racist agenda - when actual ethnic Malays only comprise 50.8% of the population - can only help to destroy a country, not to build it up.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 9:02 PM | Comments (1)

Jordan: Gunman Says Britain Is "Enemy Of Islam"

On September 4 a gunman shot at tourists in the old Roman amphitheater at Amman, Jordan. He had lain in wait for his victims, and injured five people and killed one other. Most of his victims were British tourists, who were on a package tour of the region. The dead man was 30-year old Christopher Stokes from Littleborough near Rochdale, northern England. A policeman who challenged the gunman was also shot twice.

The gunman was apprehended and he was on trial today, and showed no remorse for his crime. 38-year old Nabeel Ahmed Issa al-Jaourah was born in the Baqaa Palestinian refugee camp near the city, and had lived in Zarqa, the same slum town where terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had grown up. Jaourah is a blacksmith by trade, and is the father of five children.

Today, according to Associated Press, he told the court: "God blessed me when I killed a British man and hurt others, because they are fighting the Prophet and his soldiers since (the) Balfour Declaration. The British people.... insulted the honorable Koran and women who wear the head cover."

The Balfour Declaration was the 1917 decision by the British to support the creation of Israel. The issue of the British argument over the Muslim nikab/niqab, or face veil, had only become news in Britain a month after Jaourah had gone on his spree, so it is a fallacious argument.

Jaourah had said he was innocent of Christopher Stokes' murder, but his attempt to justify the killing caused the prosecutor to claim he had confessed. The prosecutor advised that Jaourah should receive "the harshest punishment".

The trial has been adjourned till next week. Jaourah could be hanged if found guilty.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 6:15 PM | Comments (0)

UK: Ramadan Swan Killer Given Jail Sentence

Under Britain's Wildlife and Countryside Act, swans are on a list of protected species. Contraventions of this act can invoke a fine of £5,000 ($9,573) or a jail term of six months. Swans may not be interfered with or touched unless it is for their welfare, and then only by authorized individuals. The swan has been classed as a "royal" bird since 1186, and was formally deemed the sole property of the monarch in 1482 under the Act of the Swans. Only in Orkney, under the old Norse Udal Law, is the swan regarded as the property of the people, as opposed to the property of the Crown.

One Muslim who hates both the queen and Britain was arrested on September 25 at a boating lake in Llanudno, North Wales. Shamsu Miah, aged 52, had white feathers stuck on his beard, and blood on his shirt, when he was arrested after midnight. A man who lived nearby had seen Miah and had called the police. The head of a swan was protruding from a plastic bag carried by the Muslim.

Miah (pictured) told police: "I am a Muslim, I am fasting, I needed to eat." It was then only two days into the Ramadan fast. He explained that he had said: "I was hungry, I had to eat the swan so I killed it, I stabbed it. I did nothing wrong, it was just a bird, I needed to eat."

When he was told that swans were the property of the Queen, Miah said: "I hate the Queen, I hate this country."

At Llandudno Magistrates Court today, Miah was given a two-month jail sentence, state Sky News, Telegraph and the Daily Mail. Judge Andrew Shaw told Miah: "You killed a swan at night. It was a cruel and reprehensible act. I don't know how it died, there seems to be some speculation that you bit it but I accept you killed it with a knife. It is a taboo act and the only sentence I can pass is one of imprisonment."

Because Miah has been remanded in custody, he was released. His lawyer, Elen Parry, said that a psychiatrist had found no trace of mental illness in her client.

If Miah really hates the Queen, and hates Britain, one wonders why he ever came to the country, and why he remains.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 5:12 PM | Comments (2)

Russia: Moscow to deport opponent of the Islamic regime back to Iran

Iranian dissident Zahra Kamalfar has been living with her two children in the transit area of Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport for almost 18 months, reports Russian media.

Since she and her family do not have valid Russian visas, they are left to live in Sheremetyevo and cannot cross the official border. Technically, they are not on Russian territory. Aeroflot, the company that flew them to Moscow, is supposedly answering for their fate and feeding them.

The Russian government is totally unsympathetic to their plight, and now wants to be rid of them and is ready to hand them over to its allies in Iran.

Zahra and her husband were involved in demonstrations in Iran in 2000. In July 8 2004, Zahra arrested and held in jail. Zahra was in jail for 8 months. Then she was released on a 48 hour pass to visit her family. She immediately fled Iran with her two children on April 6 2005, and they went to Turkey on a false Bulgarian passport. From Turkey, they transited through Russia to Germany, but when they arrived in Germany, the authenticity of their passports was questioned.

Zahra made asylum claims but the Germans refused and they were sent back to Russia where authorities detained them. The mother and daughter claim to have been physically abused by Russian authorities. Now the Russian authorities want to send Zahra and her children back to Iran. Zahra is afraid to return to Iran as she believes she will be sent to jail and at risk of rape, torture and possibly death. She also fears her daughter will be at risk of being sexually assaulted and raped.

In an interview with Russia TV, Russian migration officials said they could not help her because she didn't register as a refugee within 24 hours of arriving in Russia.

Russian TV showed documents describing Kamalfar as an Orthodox Christian, which means that her punishment will be even more severe if she is deported to the Islamic country.

Kamalfar showed letters she wrote to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees asking for assistance, but it never responded.

Posted by at 4:26 PM | Comments (2)

Norway: Islamist Krekar Ordered Out, But Will Stay

Mullah Krekar (left) has been falsely pretending to be an asylum seeker in Norway for fourteen years. Originally from Kurdish Iraq, he claimed that he was "unsafe" in his homeland. Despite this, he made numerous trips to Iraq while officially an asylum seeker, showing his capacity for dishonesty.

On one of those trips, Krekar founded Ansar al-Islam fi Kurdistan or "Supporters of Islam in Kurdistan" in December 2001. In Kurdish Iraq, Ansar al-Islam has burned down beauty salons and a school for girls, and murdered women in the streets for refusing to wear the burqa. It has also launched several suicide attacks, including one against a US Department of Defense office in September 2003, which killed three people.

In March, Norwegian Minister of Labor and Social Inclusion, Bjarne Hakon Hanssen said that Krekar could be on a plane to Iraq "within two months", as long as a guarantee could come from Iraq that the Islamofascist would be "safe" upon his arrival.

An order had been made in February 2003 by Cabinet Minister Erna Solberg, stating he should be expelled from Norway.

Krekar is not a gracious guest of Norway. On August 31 2005, he made a veiled threat against the country when appearing on Al Jazeera TV. He said that if moved to Iraq, that would be " an offence that shouldn't be made without punishment." He continued: "I have faith in Allah. I defend my rights in their court just like Western people defend their rights. I am patient like they are patient. But if my patience runs out, I will react like Orientals do." He would not be pressed to reveal what reactions would be made."

In March, the Minister of Labor and Social Inclusion told Norwegian newspaer Dagbladet that there was no reason to wait for the Court of Appeals to deal with Krekar's complaints. When the new Iraqi government was sworn in, Hanssen said, there was only a need for a guarantee from the Iraqi government to not submit the Mullah, who openly supports bin Laden, to the death penalty upon his arrival.

As well as praising bin Laden, Krekar has also praised Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was notorious for his videos of people having their heads slowly sliced off. He said in an interview with a Kurdish-language newspaper, Awene: "I am proud of what he has done and that he has become a martyr."

In September 2005, an Oslo court ruled that Krekar could be deported, as he presented a risk to Norway's national security. Today, state Associated Press and Aftenposten, Krekar's case came before the Borgarting Court of Appeals in Oslo. It was ruled that Krekar must pay court costs of 290,000 kronor ($45,000), and that Krekar could be deported, upholding the earlier Oslo ruling.

Unfortunately, the court acknowledged the problems related to the practicalities of expelling the supporter of terror. It was said: "It is clear that the decision will not be implemented at the current time in that the conditions in Iraq are deemed such that he, considering Norway's obligations under international law, can not be returned there."

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 2:14 PM | Comments (3)

Glick: After the Muses Fall Silent

Caroline Glick reflects on Tony Blairs extraordinary appeasement campaign, and in the Media's evern more extraordinary reaction: After the Muses Fall Silent

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has gone on an appeasement spree and no one seems to mind. On Friday, Blair gave a marquis interview to Al-Jazeera's new psychological warfare platform -- its English-language channel -- to celebrate its launch.

It is unclear whether Blair meant to give the impression in that interview that he agreed with Al-Jazeera's Man-about-Town-in-Britain David Frost's assertion that the US-British war in Iraq is "pretty much a disaster." But Blair has made unmistakably clear that what he is suing for now is an ignominious American-British retreat from Iraq.

In his recent statements and actions, Blair has been unambiguous in communicating his belief that peace in Iraq begins with Israeli surrender to the Palestinians, Hizbullah and Syria. Blair sees in suicidal Israeli retreats from the Golan Heights, Judea and Samaria the key to unlocking the hearts of the mullahs in Teheran and the Ba'athists in Damascus. As Blair sees it, these enemies of Israel, the US, Britain and the entire Free World will suddenly become reliable friends of the non-Jewish West if Israel is left at their tender mercies. As friends, Iran and Syria will allow the US and Britain to surrender Iraq with their heads held high as they hand global jihadists their greatest victory since the Soviet retreat from Afghanistan.[...]

As I've said before, when your only plan for victory consists of "winning the hearts and minds" of the enemy, you will end up doing some pretty immoral things in the pursue of "victory"--such as betraying your friends.

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 12:31 PM | Comments (0)

Indonesia: Jail Terms For Men Who Sheltered Islamist

News from Xinhua reports that today an Islamic teacher was sentenced to a term of life imprisonment by a District Court in Semarang, Central Java.

33-year old Subur Sugiarto had been arrested in January, accused of sheltering the Islamist Noordin Mohammed Top. Top (pictured, right) was a leading member of Jemaah Islamiyah, and had helped in the logistics of the bombings at Bali on October 12, 2002 (202 dead), and October 1 2005 (20 dead). Top had also been a recruiter and financier for Jemaah Islamiyah.

Subur Sugiarto, who also uses the alias Abu Mujahid, was primarily convicted of sheltering Top, but additionally convicted of illegal arms possession. Sugiarto had been arrested on Tuesday, January 17 in Central Java, while on a bus in the town of Boyolali, destined for Jakarta.

Sugiarto is the latest of several individuals convicted of sheltering Noordin Mohammed Top. His sentence is the longest so far issued, reflecting the court's belief that he was a top henchman of the terrorist. He is also thought to have acted as a recruiter to Jamaah Islamiyah, and had recruited the three young men who carried out the 2005 Bali bombing (pictured from their "farewell videos").

At another trial in Semarang, Jakarta Post reports that another man, Ardi Wibowo, has been convicted of "acting as a liaison" between Noordin Mohammed Top and other militants. He was given a sentence of six years' imprisonment.

Judges said Wibowo, who was arrested in January, knew of Top's location before he had been apprehended by authorities, but had failed to inform authorities.

Malaysian-born Noordin Mohammed Top had, according to Dr Sidney Jones of the International Crisis Group, built up a substantive terror network during his time as a recruiter, financier and logistics expert for Jemaah Islamiyah.

Noordin Top's last confirmed location was Binangu village near Wonosobo, Central Java, which was raided on April 29 this year. Two of his henchmen, Jabir and Abdul Hadi, were killed in the raid, but Top fled. His current location is unknown and he is still a fugitive. It is believed by some analysts that Top had split from the Jemaah Islamiyah leadership over the issue of Muslims dying in Jemaah Islamiyah attacks. He is said to now be heading his own terror group.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 7:11 AM | Comments (0)

Somalia: Jihad Against Movie-Watching Continues

The totalitarian way of life continues its encroachment in the horn of Africa: More than 100 cinema-goers arrested

MARKA, Somalia Nov 21 (Garowe Online) - More than 100 people, including children, were arrested Tuesday by Islamic Courts militia in Lower Shabelle region of southern Somalia after Islamists stormed into a movie cinema.

The arrested people did not include the cinema-owners but the Islamists took away all the equipment the cinema had, witnesses reported.[...]

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 12:43 AM | Comments (2)

November 21, 2006

US: Two Boston Mosque Leaders Are Bailed

On Wednesday, November 15, two imams from the Boston area were arrested. Hafiz Aabdul Hannan was leader of the Islamic Society of Greater Lowell in Chelmsford, and Muhammad Masood was leader of the Islamic Center of New England in Sharon. Both of the imams came from Pakistan. Sharon had been in the US for 13 years, and Hannan had gained his visa in 1997.

Police said that their arrests had come as part of a nationwide inquiry into visa fraud, in which 33 people had been arrested. They affirmed that the arrests were not related to homeland security, and that members of other religions had been arrested. Muhammad Masood's 15-year old son Hassan was arrested.

The inquiry had concerned individuals who had arrived in the United States on visas for religious workers, but were subsequently being employed in secular jobs, against the terms of their visas.

The two imams have today been granted bail of $7,500 each, states Associated Press, after six days in custody. They should be released today.

The pair are alleged to be involved with Muhammad Khalil, convicted on September 23, 2004, of getting religious worker visas for immigrants who then worked in lay jobs. Khalil worked out of a basement mosque in Brooklyn, New York, and had been tried after a three-year investigation. His Dar Ehya Essunnah mosque was located beneath a greetings card store. SInce 1993, he had sponsored more than 200 fraudulent applications, charging from $5,000 to $8,000 for each sponsorship. He was said by prosecutors to have made $600,000 from abusing the visa system.

Khalil (pictured) was additionally said by prosecutors to be an admirer of Osama bin Laden and his philosophy of armed jihad. Prosecutors mentioned a tape in which Khalil had praised bin Laden and called upon Muslims to "arm themselves" for "another attack". Khalil had been arrested in February 2003, and his basement mosque was closed down. None of his mosque workers who received religious visas had any religious qualifications.

Hannan's attorney, WIlliam Friedman, said that his client had got his visa with the help of Khalil, and had also worked at the Brooklyn mosque officially for a while, but said the evidence against Hannan was "flimsy".

Masood is charged with not returning to Pakistan for two years, a condition of his religious worker visa. He may now be deported.

His attorney, William Joyce said to the Boston court hearing: "It's absolutely shocking the way he and his family have been treated. It certainly doesn't rise to the level of he and his family being hauled off."

Muslims have written letters and complained about the detention of the two imams.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 7:34 PM | Comments (0)

Canada: Muslim In Burka Commits Jewel Heist

News from the Toronto Star and Pakistan's Daily Times highlights the dangers of allowing all-covering garments such as burkas. In the Toronto suburb of Brampton, Pakistani-Canadian jewelry store owner Abdul Rasheed Khalid (pictured) was alone inside his store, Zaibi Jewellers. He was placing gold rings and necklaces into their display cases, with the door to the street locked.

There was a knock on the door, and Mr Khalid saw what appeared to be a Muslim couple - a man with a companion wearing a burka. Khalid opened the door, and greeted the "married couple" with the words "Salamu alaikum".

Instead of returning the greeting, the couple said nothing, pulled out a gun, and forced the 58-year old store keeper into a back room. There they bound him up with duct tape, and hit him several times. The lady in the burka was no lady. She was a guy. Once the pair had tied Mr Khalid up, they proceeded to take all of the items from the display cases. They told Mr Khalid: "Keep quiet, keep quiet, close your eyes." Khalid caught a glimpse of both people, and said they were either Indian or Pakistani.

There has been a spate of heists against shops owned by Pakistani/Indian jewellers in Peel police district. The attack against Mr Khalid's store took place on Friday, but was the latest in robberies which have used deceptive ploys to gain entry to stores. In at least two instances, the robbers posed as police officers.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 6:43 PM | Comments (0)

UK: School Mosque Trip Stopped By Parents

In a sign that the era of acceptance of multicultural propaganda may be nearing its end, a story is reported by the BBC today. Parents of 10-year olds at Atwood Primary School, Croydon, south London, objected to the children being taken to Croydon Mosque. The visit was planned as part of their religious education class.

When a significant number of these parents said that their children were too young to learn other faiths, the school decided that the trip would not be financially viable.

The principal of Atwood Primary, Alex Clark, said some parents did not want their children to experience a faith alien to their families, others believed the children were too young, and others wanted time spent on different subjects.

He said: "We very much regret having to cancel one of our Year 5 class's educational trips to the Croydon Mosque. It is important that children have a range of knowledge about cultures and religions to develop understanding and respect for each other. The withdrawal of a significant minority of pupils unfortunately made continuation of the visit unviable. This was done wholly on financial grounds."

A spokesman for Croydon Mosque, Shuaib Yusaf (pictured), said his mosque has hosted school trips in the past. He said: "It is therefore regretful that one school has cancelled a prearranged visit in light of the media attention currently focussed upon the mosque. Amongst the reasons cited to the mosque is that some parents do not wish their children to visit a mosque at the centre of "radical" activities."

Though Yusaf is sincere in his desire to rid Croydon Mosque of extremists, he has admitted on BBC Newsnight that the mosque was subject to an infiltration attempt by Hizb ut-Tahrir extremists. As well as filming Hizb ut-Tahrir activists threatening the camera crew on the mosque steps recently, journalist Richard Watson's documentary showed Shuaib Yusaf stating that these extremists have frequent fights outside the mosque. Yusaf had said that knives, and in one instance a sword, were employed in the radicals' fight.

In relation to the school visit, Yusaf said that the Croydon mosque caters to the spiritual needs of 18,000 Muslims in the borough of Croydon. He said the mosque was not engaged in any "radical" activities, even though the Newsnight documentary filmed a youth who said he had seen an extremist video at a back room of the Croydon mosque.

On the issue of radicalism, Yusaf said: "This is acknowledged by all concerned and the mosque is liaising with schools and the local education authorities to recommence school visits."

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 5:16 PM | Comments (2)

November 20, 2006

Russia: Islamist Editor Jailed For Five Years

News from Interfax, Moscow Times and Reuters AlertNet reports that a journalist editor was jailed today for five years for writing on terrorist atrocities, while simultaneously praising those who carried out acts of terror.

Boris Stomakhin was editor of the monthly newspaper Radikalnaya Politika. He also wrote for the Islamist rebel website Kavkaz Center, which is distributed from a server in Lithuania. He had frequently referred to Russia's involvement in Chechnya as an "occupation". He had first been investigated in December 2003, but his trial did not begin until last month. The reason for this was that Stomakhin had gone into hiding, and was only arrested in March this year.

Today, Stomakhin (pictured) was jailed for the crime of inciting religious hatred and calling for extremist actions. The state prosecutor said: "His actions were directed at destroying the Russian people as a nation."

In his trial, Stomakhin said that he had merely expressed an opinion, and said that an opinion was not a "call to action". His attorney, Alexei Golubev, said that Stomakhin would be appealing the sentence within 10 days. Golubev said
that compared to other recent cases, his client's sentence had been excessively harsh.

Last month the editor of web magazine Kursiv, Vladimir Rakhmankov, was fined 20,000 rubles ($750) for insulting a public official. He had described President Vladimir Putin as a "phallic symbol".

In February, states Moscow Times, Stanislav Dmitriyevsky, editor of Pravo-Zashchita, was given a two-year suspended sentence. He had published comments from Chechen rebel leaders. His publication was an organ of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, based in Nizhny Novgorod. The Society was dissolved by authorities last month.

Dmitry Kulakov, the prosecutor, said after Stomakhin's sentence that he was satisfied with the verdict.

Stomakhin's mother has disabilities. The court had taken her condition into account, states Interfax. Originally, the prosecutor had sought a seven-year jail term.

His indictment stated that "while writing about hostilities in the Republic of Chechnya, and about terror attacks carried out in Russia, Stomakhin expressed approval of the terrorists' crimes aiming to exterminate the Russian people as a nation."

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 6:32 PM | Comments (1)

Pakistan: Blair To Subsidize Muslim Madrassas

In one of the biggest wastes of British taxpayers' money in recent years, UK prime minister has announced that Britain will be donating $910 million to Pakistan (£480 million). Some of this money is to be spent on sanitation and delivery of health services, which may be acceptable. What is unacceptable is that a sizeable proportion of this phenomenal figure is to be spent on madrassas, the Islamic seminaries which exist throughout Pakistan.

And these donations are being made to a country which can afford its own nuclear bomb, and has no extradition treaty with Britain. Blair is on his way out - he has said he will not be standing in the next election as head of the Labour Party. The money will be donated in the financial years, 2008 to 2009 and also 2010 to 2011, when he will no longer be in office. If this is the sort of legacy he expects to bequeath, one only hopes he goes sooner rather than later.

The Pakistan Daily Times reports that the donations will be part of a "Long Term Development Partnership Arrangement", signed after Blair's meetings with Pakistan prime minister Shaukat Aziz. On Sunday, Blair announced that $38 million would be immediately released to help alleviate poverty in Pakistan.

Blair arrived in Pakistan at the weekend, and at a conference with President Musharraf in Lahore, the two leaders affirmed their co-operation in the war on terror. They agreed that southeastern Afghanistan needed to be developed, to avoid its return to the rule of the Taliban. Musharraf stated: "The Taleban problem is an Afghan problem. It is in the south-eastern region of Afghanistan, being supported by elements from this side. We need to put our house in order here on our side and make sure that this support is cut off. But the main battle is in Afghanistan."

In a commentary in today's Telegraph, it is stated: "In a crisis, a Labour politician's first instinct is to reach for his wallet - or, rather, for your wallet."

If Mr Blair thinks that Western aid will win over the Muslim world, he misunderstands human nature. One of the reasons that Iraqis distrust the West is that they had come to associate it, via the UN's oil for food racket, with their own corrupt officials.

The last thing we want is for a similar thing to happen in Pakistan. There are many things Mr Blair could usefully do to help that country, such as encouraging investment and trade and the opening of EU markets to Pakistani exports. Aid, in the final analysis, allows autocratic governments to spend more money without having to ask their peoples: in other words it makes them more irresponsible. This is in no one's interest.

Blair and his chancellor Gordon Brown, the dour individual likely to succeed the premier, have so far announced spending packages of £7,000,000,000 ($13,279,983,802) on Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan over the past three days.

This an additional cost, on top of the £5,000,000,000 ($9,485,702,716) spent on the Iraq war so far, and the £1,000,000,000 ($1,897,302,733) which has been spent on the military situation in Afghanistan.

The funding news came shortly after Blair had said on Al Jazeera television that the invasion of Iraq (which took place on March 19, 2003) had been a "disaster".

David Davies, Tory MP for Monmouth, said of Blair's decision to waste taxpayers money on Pakistani madrassas: "He does not seem to have grasped the fact that these people are not motivated by money. They are motivated by extremist religious ideology."

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 5:20 PM | Comments (1)

Somalia: Autonomous Region to Introduce Islamic Law

Several media outlets have called this move "surprising", but this only reveals their magnificent--so to speak--ignorance of history. Warlords, who fight for their personal benefit, have historically submitted to ideological warriors. Warlords want money, women, and power. If they can keep those by submitting to Islamic fanatics, the almost always do so. And it is not always warlords. We should be wary of our own leaders falling to this temptation: Somali region to switch to Sharia

The leader of Somalia's autonomous region of Puntland has agreed to introduce Islamic law in the territory.

Mohamed Adde Muse said a committee would decide how best to implement Sharia to replace the current Western-based system of civil laws.

Correspondents say the move follows intense pressure from local Muslim and clan leaders.[...]

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 3:37 PM | Comments (0)

UK: Muslims In Conflict At Wandsworth Prison

Wandsworth prison in south London, built in 1851, has an official capacity of 1416 prisoners, but is currently holding more prisoners than it was built for. A recent inspection report found that there had been "poor" and "abusive" behaviour from staff towards inmates. The chief inspector of prisons, Anne Owers, said that the prison is trying hard to improve the situation.

An unannounced visit in July found 12% of prisoners complaining about being physically assaulted by staff, and half of the inmates interviewed said they had suffered victimization. Four in ten of the Category B prison's population come from ethnic minorities. Most of the complaints of abuse came from ethnic minority inmates.

The most recent problem at the prison, according to the BBC involves the Muslim prisoners. The Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) said that a rift had developed between Muslim prisoners and the imam. The imam had encouraged radical Islam, the IMB report stated. The Prison Service has said that the imam has since been replaced.

The IMB report states: "There is a schism existing amongst Muslims in the prison about the imam. There have been petitions from two opposing sides on this subject to the governor. We are concerned that unless sensitively managed, this issue could become even more emotional and potentially explosive."

David Jamieson, the chairman of IMB, said: "There is a difference of views between the Asian Muslims and the North African and Afro-Caribbean Muslims."

The IMB report said that religious services at the prison had high attendance, because here drugs were being sold, and illegal mobile phones were traded. It also warned that drugs were managing to arrive in the jail with new prisoners.

The Times quotes the IMB report as stating that some Muslim inmates were putting pressure on others to "adopt more militant lifestyles and belief systems".

The report also stated: "Unless there is an effective preventative blanket introduced to curb the use of mobile phones, the situation is likely to get worse and the possible implications for security, drugs usage and bullying are very worrying. Surely it is time to introduce effective jamming of mobile phones’ use in all prisons?"

A prison Service spokeswoman said: "The recent Eid meal at Wandsworth was attended by 240 prisoners, representing virtually every Muslim prisoner and a number of non-Muslims, during which the imam was personally praised. .. Wandsworth has a good record on both mobile phone and drug finds."

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 2:53 PM | Comments (4)

Germany: Six Islamists Plotted To Destroy Aircraft

News from Der Spiegel and Deutsche Presse Agentur via Expatica reports that the Federal Prosecutor's Office in Germany has announced today that a terror plot to bomb an airliner has been foiled.

The plan had been plotted to take place in summer this year. Six suspects were temporarily taken into custody on Friday, after nine apartments were searched in Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse states. All the suspects save one was released on Saturday.

Information gathered during questioning showed that members of the group had met with an airport worker and offered money to smuggle a suitcase bomb aboard a passenger plane. The worker at the (un-named) airport had apparently been willing to place the bomb on the plane. What had caused the plot to fail had been the inability of the group to negotiate a suitable fee from their backers to pay the airport worker.

In Karlsruhe city, prosecutors did not say which airport, nor which sponsors were behind the plot. The nationalities of the suspects have not been confirmed.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 2:26 PM | Comments (1)

Saudi Arabia: False Imprisonment, Rape Are "Basic Muslim Behaviors"

On June 30 this year, a Saudi living in Arapahoe County, Colorado, was convicted of sexual abuse against his Indonesian maid. 37-year old Homaidan al-Turki (pictured, right) was studying for a linguistics doctorate at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He was found guilty of 12 felony counts of unlawful sexual contact with use of force and two misdemeanors, false imprisonment and conspiracy to commit false imprisonment. He had never paid the maid the paltry $150 per month that he had promised her when her "employment" had commenced.

For four years, he kept the 24-year old maid as a virtual slave in his home, confiscated her passport, and subjected to her to sexual assaults which culminated in her rape in late 2004. His attorney, John Richilano, had argued in court that there had been misunderstood cultural differences, which he described as "cynical Islamophobia". His wife, Sarah Khonaizan, who had obviously colluded with the maltreatment of the maid, who cooked and looked after their five children, was deported. The maid now lives in Aurora.

Al-Turki's followers and family caused havoc in the courtroom when the verdict was announced. He was sentenced on August 31. Additionally, he was given a further eight years' jail for theft, where he withheld the maid's wages. Even while being sentenced, Al-Turki, who had lived in the US for 14 years, still protested that he was "framed" by the prosecutors' Islamophobia.

"The state has criminalized these basic Muslim behaviors. Attacking traditional Muslim behaviors was the focal point of the prosecution," Al-Turki said to the judge. If you have read our special report on a Filipino maid who was similarly kept a prisoner in a Saudi imam's home in Riyadh, and subjected to frequent rape, then perhaps this sort of "Muslim behavior" comes naturally to Saudi Arabian men.

The Saudi press has described the case as one of Islamophobic oppression, with the US judiciary expressing their bias against Muslims. Many Saudis are convinced that Al-Turki would never have been convicted in Saudi Arabia. The experiences of Flora del Mindanao, who was even accused of theft by the imam who imprisoned and raped her, would suggest that this is true.

A US government report stated: "Foreign embassies continued to receive reports of employers abusing domestic servants. Such abuse included withholding of food, beatings and other physical abuse, and rape (see Section 5). The Government's figures for 1999 stated that 7,000 maids fled their place of employment, and the actual number presumably was higher. In 2001 the media reported additional stories of such incidents. The authorities in some cases forced such maids to return to their places of employment."

Women in Saudi Arabia are not allowed to work unless they have permission from a male relative, states Human Rights Watch. They are not allowed to drive, such is their second-class status. But for the imported maids, there is little redress when they are assaulted or raped by their Saudi employers.

In April 2005, a Saudi employer burned his Indonesian maid Suniati Binti Nibaran Sujari, who barely survived. When in March last year another Indonesian maid accused her employers of torture, she was placed in a hospital, a prison, and a women's rehabilitation center before being handed over to the Indonesian embassy.

Indian maids travelling to Saudi Arabia must first be registered before they leave, to avoid the potential abuse they may endure from their employers.

In April last year, Indonesian maid Nour Miyati had to have four fingers amputated. They were removed because they had developed gangrene, after she was tied up for a month by her Saudi employer. Her toes managed to remain attached to her body, even though these too had become affected.

600,000 Indonesian women are kept as "maids" in the kingdom. In 2004, it was reported that suicides had increased amongst Indonesian maids. Between January and June 2004, 32 Indonesians died, and six committed suicide in the kingdom. One maid drank detergent to end her life of misery. At that time, requests for help from maids were running at 10 a day at the Indonesian embassy and five to seven a day at each of the consulates. These were the ones who were lucky enough to be able to escape to seek help.

On Saturday in the Rocky Mountain News, the visit by Colorado Attorney, General John Struthers, to Saudi Arabia last week, paid for by the federal government, was justified.

Struthers had gone to reassure the Saudi authorities that Homaidan Al-Turki had been treated fairly. He met with King Abdullah and Crown Prince Sultan, as well as with Saudi journalists.

Deputy Attorney General Jason Dunn said on Friday: "There was a lot of public attention in Saudi Arabia on this case." He explained that Struthers had told the Saudis how the US judicial system works and that "in Colorado, crimes of this sort are dealt with severely. He wasn't apologizing for it, but he wanted them to understand why the result of the case was what it was."

It beggars belief that anyone should have to explain to the Saudis that imprisoning and raping a maid is illegal, and judged to be a serious crime in the United States. The necessity of such a visit only shows how barbaric, sexist and Medieval the Saudi kingdom really is.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 12:46 PM | Comments (3)

Thailand: A Week Of Muslim Murder And Mayhem

The provinces of the south of Thailand, Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani, as well as two districts of Songkhla province, are predominantly Muslim, and formerly comprised an independent sultanate called Pattani. This was invaded in 1786, and annexed within Siam (Thailand) in 1902. For five decades at least, there have been insurgencies and rebellions. The current insurgency began on January 4, 2004, when an army base was raided in Narathiwat province, with 300 weapons seized, and with 20 schools set alight. This insurgency has now claimed between 1,700 and 1,800 lives.

The three southern provinces are the poorest in the country, with high levels of unemployment. The national average of unemployment is 14%, but in Yala it is 35%, in Narathiwat it is 28%, and in Pattani the rate is 25%. The Muslims in the region speak Yawi, a dialect of Malay.

Our last report on the insurgency was on November 13. SInce then, the murders have continued.

On Tuesday, November 14, prime minister Surayud Chulanot urged the Central Islamic Committee of Thailand to assist in solving the unrest. At a meeting in Bangkok, he said the government would be willing to support a maternity project for southern Muslims, and also donated 200,000 baht ($5,463) to the Committee. This was to help them organize a three-day festival in Bangkok, which opened on Friday. This festival, called Maolid Klang, is annually held to celebrate the birthday of Mohammed (though his birthday is said to have happened in April).

On Wednesday morning, an assistant village headman, 36-year old Da-oh Kadasae, was shot in Yala province's Raman district when he went to drop his child off at a nursery school. Two gunmen fired at him four times, and he was hit in the body. He died at the scene, near the child's school. His five-year old daughter was found screaming beside him, with scratches "all over her face". Police said that Do-oh was killed because he had acted as an informant for the government.

In Narathiwat province on the same day, four soldiers had parked their vehicle to pick up teachers to take them to school. More than sixty teachers have been killed in the current insurgency, and police and soldiers now provide escorts for the majority. When the vehicle was parked, a bomb placed 30 feet away was detonated by mobile phone, wounding the most senior of the soldiers.

The national police chief, Pol. Gen. Kovit Wattana, visited automobile showrooms which had been hit by bombs in Yala city the week previously. He also visited the Buddhist villagers who had fled their homes on Wednesday November 8, and taken refuge in a Buddhist temple, Wat Nirotsankharam temple in Muang district, Yala province. At least 200 villagers from Bannang Sata and Than To districts had fled after an elderly man and his daughter had been killed. Insurgents had shot at their house and then set it on fire on November 5.

In the afternoon of November 14, a woman teacher was killed by two drive-by gunmen while riding her motorcycle home after work in Rueso district, Narathiwat province. The teacher, 33-year old Buddhist Kutilda Inchampa, was also an army sub-lieutenant and assistant principal at the school.

On Thursday, the school where she taught, Ban La Moh, was closed. Another school in the same district was also closed, as staff and parents were fearful of similar attacks. The Ban Baluka school lies on the same road where Kutilda Inchampa had been shot.

In the same province on Thursday, a rubber plantation in Rangae district was raided for weapons which been allegedly hidden there by members of the Runda Kumpulan Kecil insurgent group. AN AK-47 assault rifle and bullets were found buried.

General Surayud Chulanont visited Muang district in Narathiwat on Thursday, to discuss problems with 500 teachers and students. He said that students were worried about the lack of opportunities to pursue studies at higher levels in the region. His audience suggested initiating scholarships for bright pupils.

The following day, 38 more schools in Rueso district in Narathiwat were closed after Kutilda Inchampa's murder on Wednesday. They are believed to have re-opened today.

On Friday, one man was killed and 20 were wounded when insurgents set off two bombs. The first took place at a tea shop in Muang district in Narathiwat. 55-year old Abdul-royae Jaewar had been selling garlands at the shot and was hit by shrapnel. He died shortly afterwards. The first bomb was followed by another, in a nearby street. In the second blast, Theerapong Nararakwong, a Reuters journalist, was injured.

An hour before that blast, a 15 kilogram bomb, placed inside a fire extinguisher, went off in Sungai Padi district, Narathiwat around 7 am. Seven soldiers were injured.

Late on Friday evening, four insurgents threw a bomb into a tea shop in Muang district, Yala province. The shop was owned by a 77-year old woman. No-one was hurt. A 10 kilogram roadside bomb also went off at a repair shop in Than To district, Yala, about 20 meters from the local district police station. Nobody was injured.

A 27 year old Muslim was also shot dead while riding his motorcycle in Yala late on Friday evening. Earlier in the day at the same village, a 52-year old Buddhist ice cream seller was shot dead by two gunmen riding a motorcycle.

In Pattani province, a 35-year old Buddhist security guard was killed on Friday afternoon as he returned from work, riding a motorcycle, and a 33-year old Buddhist villager was shot dead later in the day, as he was shopping in a food market.

On Saturday, November 18, a police officer was shot and seriously injured in Muang district, Yala province, by two motorcycle gunmen. The officer, 30-year old Pol. Sgt-Maj. Lertchai Woharn, was hit after he had made a routine inspection of a local school. He was hit in the neck and back and was taken to Yala Central Hospital, where he was said to be in a critical condition.

Also on Saturday, weapons which had been buried by the Runda Kumpulan Kecil (RKK) group were recovered from a forest in Narathiwat, where they had been buried. One of the weapons, an M-16 ridle, was believed to have been one of those stolen in the raid on the military camp in Narathiwat in 2004, on the first night of the current insurgency.

Late on Saturday night, an elderly Buddhist man, 73-year old Nam Sriplo, a cow herder, was shot dead in Yala province. His body was set on fire.

On Sunday, a Buddhist man was shot dead in Yala province. After he was killed, his assailants then tried to decapitate him. Since May 29, 2004, there have been twenty decapitations in the current insurgency.

In Yala on Sunday, a 68-year old Buddhist owner of a motorcycle repair shop was shot dead outside his place of business. He was shot five times in the head and body by two militants who were on a motorcycle.

In Pattani province on Sunday, a 53-year old Buddhist taxi driver was shot dead as he stood by his vehicle outside a food market.

Late on Sunday night, three people were killed in a drive-by shooting in Rangae district, Narathiwat province. They were a group of friends drinking tea when a pick-up truck carrying four gunmen approached. The gunmen fired at them with AK-47 and M-16 assault rifles. 47-year old Abdulrohim Arwaebuesa and 44-year old Mahama Chekho died at the scene. Their companion, 50-year old Uma Nima, died shortly afterwards.

Abdulrohim Arwaebuesa and Uma Nima were members of the Tambon (borough) Bangosoto Administrative Organisation. The three men were killed as they drank outside Abdulrohim's house in Tradae village.

In Muang district on Sunday evening, Yaa province, 67-year old Prasong Rungrueng was shot in the back of the head by two attackers, who then slit his throat with a knife.

In Hat Yai district, Songkhla province, 31-year old Chainarong Pongsuwan was shot dead by two attackers, and his body was dumped in a ditch. Chainarong was the nephew of a mayor of Kuan Lang municipality.

Today, (Monday) a bomb was hidden in a motorcycle, placed near a motorcycle showroom in Sungai Kolok district, Narathiwat province. At around 10 am, the bomb was detonated by mobile phone. One soldier and a Muslim villager died in the blast. Three soldiers and 13 civilians were injured in the explosion. The shop is near a market. The bomb was set off when four soldiers arrived at the market.

The government following the coup of September 19 has extended many offers of peace to insurgents in the south. But it appears that the insurgents are unsure how to respond - whether to accept the peace deals, or whether or not to continue fighting.

Some insurgents want to continue the mayhem, and plan to intensify the violence. A source told the Bangkok Post yesterday that the groups funded by foreign money want to keep the insurgency going. During Ramadan, 6,000,000 baht ($163,908) of donations were sent to insurgents, the source said. The Muslim donors came from Egypt, Libya, Sweden, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

The Runda Kampulan Kecil (RKK) has no intentions of engaging with any peace deals. Its operatives have been elebrating at their success in driving Buddhists out of their homes in Than To and Bannag Sata districts of Yala province.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 11:46 AM | Comments (0)

UK: Muslim Made A "Grave Error" Financing Holocaust Denier

Asghar Bukhari was a founder of the Muslim Public Affairs Committee (MPAC or MPACUK), and he regularly appears on media debates with the BBC or Sky News complaining about Islamophobia. His group, MPACUK, has been banned on university campuses since 2004 on account of its antisemitism.

The Observer yesterday revealed that in 2000, Asghar Bukhari (pictured) made a donation of £60 ($114) to David John Cadwell Irving, who was at that time engaged in a libel case which he brought against Penguin Books. The latter had published Denying the Holocaust -The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory, by Professor Deborah Lipstadt. This book had said that Irving was a Nazi apologist, an admirer of Hitler and that he resorted to "distortion of facts and manipulation of documents to support his contention that the Holocaust did not take place."

Irving's denials that the Holocaust took place were common knowledge before the libel trial, even though Irving later retracted his claims after he lost the case. There is no way that Asghar Bukhari, whose role as a media pundit forces him to have an opinion of all aspects of UK society, could not have known that Irving denied the Holocaust.

Bukhari sent an email to Irving, stating: "You may feel like you are on your own but rest assured many people are with you in your fight for the Truth." Later, Bukhari followed this up with another saying: "Here is the cheque I promised. Good luck, if there is any other way I can help please don't hestitate to call me. I have also asked many Muslim websites to create links to your own and ask for donations."

For Bukhari, denying the Holocaust was his preferred version of "Truth". MPACUK's website had, typically, called the Observer's findings "just another Islamaphobic attack aimed at undermining and harming the brave individuals who support the Palestinian cause and the cause of Muslims within Britain."

When writing of this case, I thought the description of the reporting of Bukhari's open support for anti-semitism and denial of the Holocaust as "another Islamophobic attack" seemed so laughably removed from reality that it needed no comment.

It appears from today's Telegraph that MPAC(UK) has realized that they cannot defend Bukhari's position.

Yesterday, MPAC admitted yesterday that Bukhari had made a "grave mistake". Catriona Davies in the Telegraph states: "Mr Bukhari said he now realised that Irving held "despicable" views. He made the £60 donation on the basis of a "limited" number of articles he had seen because he believed then that Irving was a respectable historian standing up to Israel."

This is obviously a lie, unless Bukhari was living in a sensory deprivation tank for the period leading up to 2000. The Holocaust happened before Israel was founded. The MPAC is an openly anti-Israeli website, reflecting the antisemitism of the Koran and its author, the child-molester Mohammed.

The "acknowledgement" of Bukhari's errors as found on the website of MPAC (UK) is not immediately visible, as it is buried in an article entitled: <"http://www.mpacuk.org/content/view/3028/35/">Just Another Smear Campaign". The article states "If Asghar Bukhari had known of David Irving's holocaust denial and racism he would have condemned him, not given him any support!".

"Twisting an innocent gesture of support (even if gravely mistaken) into more than it is, is just another Islamaphobic attack aimed at undermining and harming the brave individuals who support the Palestinian cause and the cause of British Muslims."

There was nothing innocent about Bukhari's donation. Irving in 2000 was well-known as an anti-semite. If only Bukhari and MPAC would be honest and admit their anti-semitism, as we at Western Resistance openly admit our contempt for the sexist and fascistic religion of Islam and its founder - our "Islamophobia" as it is described (a phobia implies an "irrational fear" - there is nothing irrational about distrusting a religious/political ideology which aims to dominate and subjugate the planet). We oppose the spread of Islam into the West, but do not support racism, and we do not have contempt for those misguided souls who happen to be Muslims. We hope they will realize the error of their ways, and become apostates.

When Irving was jailed in Austria for holocaust denial in February this year, he was nabbed under a warrant which had been issued for him in 1989, for a speech he had made in that year denying the existence of Nazi gas chambers ad Auschwitz.

Today, MPAC (UK) carries another anti-Israeli article, written in its usual facile tones of anti-semitism, entitled We Will Not Be Silenced. "Israel is sad these days. Sad that things are just not going their way. Last week Olmert made a fool of himself in front of the entire American people, including the Jewish community. The weekend saw Israel again making a fool of itself, this time in front of the whole world, by having their Ambassador walk out of a UN meeting. Yesterday they were faced with the dilemma of to bomb or not to bomb hundreds of civilians protecting one of their brothers. As the illustration above shows... when Israel is sad, the rest of the world is happy. This should tell them something. Let's hope they finally get the message."

MPAC and Asghar Bukhari are anti-semites and liars. Hopefully Sky News and the BBC will not, in the near future, be giving them the oxygen of publicity they crave.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 4:54 AM | Comments (3)

November 19, 2006

Kuwait: Islam Is "Moderation, Peace and Understanding"

Just when you thought the myth that Islam is a religion of peace had been buried, the Kuwaiti Minister of Justice and Minister of Religious Endowments and Islamic Affairs has decided to exhume it. Speaking in Washington, Abdallah Al-Maatouq said yesterday that only moderation could stop Islamic societies from succumbing to lawlessness and extremism.

"Destruction can take place when scholars and intellectuals let go of their duties, allowing extremists to take the initiative and letting them take over leadership to enforce their narrow, defective perspective," he said, according to Arab Times. "We came here to say that the true leaders of the Islamic nation are the sane scholars and intellectuals, rather than the crazy insolent people."

He was speaking at the second Islamic Moderation Conference. It seems surprising that there has never been a need for a conference on Christian or Buddhist moderation. But these religions do not have such bizarre scriptures as the following: "But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war)." (Sura 9, verse 5).

"I will instil terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers: smite ye above their necks and smite all their finger-tips off them," states the Koran, Sura 8, verse 12. And Mohammed himself waged war on those he considered to be unbelievers. So when Abdallah Al-Maatouq calls for "moderation", is he really calling for true Islam to be followed, or some secularized heresy?

Adel Al-Fallah is the under-secretary of the Ministry of Religious Endowments and Islamic Affairs, and was the chairman of Saturday's conference. He stated: "Moderation is the core, banner and merit of Islam. We came from Kuwait, the dear country of moderation, with one message to the American Muslims, the American people and the residents in the United States saying 'let us all work together for spreading moderation and positive integration among the ranks of society'."

Dr Maasouma Al-Mubarak, Kuwait's Minister of Communications told the conference: "We as Muslims should tell others what real Islam is all about, a religion of moderation, peace and understanding." She appears to believe this. It is a shame that the holy book of Islam, the Koran, is so riddled with exhortations to violence.

Moderate Islam is a lovely idea, but for it to work, parts of the Koran would have to be censored, along with a large portion of the Hadiths. With Islam stripped of its messages of global domination and bloodshed, there would be very little of substance left.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 12:22 PM | Comments (3)

Somalia: Islamists Reveal Their Wider Agenda

News from Associatd Press and Shabelle reports that the Al Qaeda-linked leader of the Islamists in Somalia has announced his true agenda - expanding into neighboring countries.

Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, speaking on Shabelle Radio late on Friday night, said that his forces will be working to regain "lost territory", which has for more than a generation been incorporated into the national boundaries of Kenya and Ethiopia. He said: "It is unbelievable that a country population that is like one family to be divided into 10 parts. As Islamic Courts, we will not accept divisions and we will gain back the Somali provinces forcefully annexed to Ethiopia and Kenya."

"We will leave no stone unturned to integrate our Somali brothers in Kenya and Ethiopia and restore their freedom to live with their ancestors in Somalia,", the Islamist leader said. He referred to the expanded regions which he envisioned as "Greater Somalia".

Historically, when a nation decides it should be "greater", as in "Greater Serbia", wars and attrition have followed as a matter of course. Somalia's Islamists have made threats of war against Ethiopia already, on July 21 and again in October.

Aweys also denied that Islamists from Somalia had been sent to the Middle East recently, to fight alongside Hizbollah against Israel. He also defended the ban upon Khat, the narcotic which is popularly chewed in the Horn of Africa as a mild stimulant.

On Thursday in Bar Udah district of Mogadishu, a 13-year old boy was shot dead and others were wounded by Islamists firing on protesters in Mogadishu, who were agitating against the khat ban. Following the protest, a curfew was imposed on Mogadishu. In his interview with Shabelle Radio, Aweys did not specify how long the curfew would be maintained.

Aweys was one of the founders of the terror group Al-Ittihad al-Islami, which is placed on a British list of proscribed organizations. The United States maintains he is linked to Al Qaeda, a claim he denies. Aweys has a personal grudge against the leader of the transitional government as president Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed had driven out Al-Ittihad al-Islami from its base in Puntland, northern Somalia, in the 1990s.

Historically, Somalia in its current state has only existed since 1960. Italian Somaliland became rebranded as "Somalia" and given autonomy in 1956 and in 1960 this merged with British-ruled regions to become the modern independent state. Before then, it had not been an independent "nation" since the 19th century, and then it was a grouping of tribally-oriented states which had come into existence in the 16th century, following the disintegration of the Sultanate of Adel in 1542.

In the time of the Egyptians, the region now called Somalia was believed to be the Land of Punt. A bas-relief from the tomb of Queen Hatsheput (1516-1481 BC) depicts the King of Punt, Parihou, with his bizarrely-shaped wife, Queen Ati (pictured), commemorating an expedition to bring spices and herbs from the region.

One indigenous people of the Horn of Africa region, who have lived there for thousands of years, are the Oromo, who speak a Cushitic language. In the 11th century, the Darood Somali arrived from Arabia, under the leadership of Sheikh Ismail Jabarti. In the 13th century, Sheikh Isaaq arrived from Arabia, founding the Isaaq clan. The Darood and Isaaq gradually displaced the Oromo from the region now known as Somalia as they grew in numbers. The first mention of the name "Somali" comes from an Ethiopian poem from the 15h century.

In 1839, British forces took over Aden, and looked to take over the Somali coastal region. Though Egypt took over some regions of what is now the Somali coast, by 1887, the northern region of the Somali coast was under British control, with a protectorate proclaimed over Somaliland. France had taken over Djibouti on the coast, south of Eritrea, and looked to take over parts of Somalia, and the Italians took control of other parts of Somali territory.

The only region in Ethiopia which could be classed as ethnically "Somali" is Ogaden, which in 1977 suffered an invasion led by the socialist dictator Muhammad Siad Barre, who ruled from 1969 to 1991. In 1978, Ethiopia expelled the Somali military from the region of Ogaden with Cuban and Soviet assistance.

Siad Barre claimed one of the five points in the star of the Somali flag represented the "unredeemed" territories in Kenya's North East province, Ogaden and Djibouti.

There have been border disputes with Kenya stemming back to independence. Last month, Kenya reinforced its troops at the border, adjoining the Gedo region of Somalia at the El-Wakh border pass.

Siad Barre, whose ousting led to the 15 years of warlord-led tribal chaos (despite the August 2004 institution of a UN-sponsored "transitional" goverment) had tried to expand Somalia into a "Greater Somalia".

Somalia is riven by tribal ties, and the Islamism of the Islamic Courts attempts to unify the fractured nation under one banner, even though this was described by Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed last month as a "jihadist wing.... under the banner of the black flag of the Taliban."

Backed by Islamists in Eritrea and Yemen, and also Al Qaeda, it appears that Somalia under Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys intends to revive the expansionist intentions of Siad Barre. And the Horn of Africa, which has been a target of Al Qaeda for several years, will become embroiled in a new war of Islamist imperialism.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 12:28 AM | Comments (0)

November 18, 2006

UK: Islamist Gave Money To Holocaust Denier

The worst act of genocide of the 20th century, the Holocaust, in which 6 million Jews were systematically exterminated, has been denied by Islamists and fascists alike. The tins shown left are cans of Zyklon B, which contained pellets which produced cyanide gas when exposed to air, and were used to slaughter untold numbers of Jews. The demented Islamo-fascist president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has marked his tenure of office by denying the Holocaust and threatening a new Holocaust against Israel.

Those who would deny the Holocaust always have an agenda. For the Islamists, it fits with their anti-semitism, ingrained within the Koran and the Hadiths. In the Koran, certain Jews were turned into apes and pigs (5: 60), and in Sura 5, verse 82, one finds the words: "Thou wilt find the most vehement of mankind in hostility to those who believe (to be) the Jews and the idolaters."

Islamic preachers make much of the Koranic description of Jews as apes and pigs, and also Mohammed's reported damnation of the Jews in the Hadith of Sahih Muslim, Book 041 (Kitab Al-Fitan wa Ashrat As-Sa'ah), Number 6985:

Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the tree Gharqad would not say, for it is the tree of the Jews.

For the demented leader of Iran, who follows the doctrines of Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi and his Hojjatieh Society, creating chaos in the world and creating war with Israel is part and parcel of the means to bring back the mythical "Twelfth Imam", the Mahdi, from his period of "grand occultation". It is believed that Abul-Qassem Mohammad disappeared in 941 AD, and when he returns he will inaugurate a period of peace for Islam. Mesbah-Yasdi has claimed: "Our revolution's main mission is to pave the way for the reappearance of the 12th Imam, the Mahdi."

In Britain, the Islamofascists of the Muslim Council of Britain have consistently refused to partake in the commemorations of Holocaust Memorial Day, ostensibly using the excuse that the so-called Palestinians are not included as victims, but more because Islam in its current state is incurably infected by anti-semitism.

During the period leading up to World War II, the so-called Palestinians wee actively involved in their own massacres of Jews. The Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husseini, engaged in slaughters of Jews in the 1930s, and went to Germany where he was welcomed by Hitler. Amin al Husseini then went on to found a regiment of Muslim Nazi soldiers in Bosnia. Details of his life and atrocities can be found HERE. Husseini is shown (right), meeting Heinrich Himmler, who with Adolf Eichmann had been an architect of the Holocaust.

So it comes as no surprise to find in the Observer that a leading British Islamist, Asghar Bukhari, has sent money to the Holocaust denier David John Cadwell Irving, and has urged Muslim websites to donate money to him.

In 2000, Irving was engaged in a disastrous libel case against Penguin Books, who had published Denying the Holocaust -The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory, by Professor Deborah Lipstadt. The book claimed that Irving was a Nazi apologist, an admirer of Hitler and that he resorted to "distortion of facts and manipulation of documents to support his contention that the Holocaust did not take place."

Irving lost this case, and in 2002, the exorbitant legal costs of the lengthy legal deliberations caused him to be become bankrupt. Irving was jailed for three years in Austria on February 20, 2006, for denying the Holocaust. The trial related to a speech he had made in Austria in 1989. During a one-day trial he said: "I made a mistake when I said there were no gas chambers at Auschwitz.....I said that then based on my knowledge at the time, but by 1991 when I came across the Eichmann papers, I wasn't saying that anymore and I wouldn't say that now. The Nazis did murder millions of Jews."

Irving had previously maintained that the Holocaust had been a hoax. This is something which has endeared him to Muslims and fascists alike, even though Irving now acknowledges that he was in error.

Asghar Bukhari (left) is a founder of the Muslim Public Affairs Committee (MPAC) and runs its website with three others (Zulfikar Bukhari, Tassadiq Rehman, and Madassar Ahmed). MPAC (MPACUK) has constantly produced articles in support of Palestinians and against Israel, which can be interpreted as anti-semitic. Bukhari is notorious for losing his cool in debates and trying to shout down anyone who disagrees with his Islamist perspective. As an example, see the video HERE.

He is regarded as a "Moderate" Muslim, only because he supports Muslims being involved in the political process. His website seems to be against any measures in Britain to protect against terrorism. He can be seen in a recent video debate claiming that most of the Muslims arrested on August 10 were not Muslims. In February, he was against the publication of cartoons of the so-called prophet Mohammed.

In 2004, MPAC was banned from university campuses on account of its anti-semitism. Western Resistance was recently mentioned as a "threat" on MPAC's forum.

In 2000, before Irving had officially changed his position on the Holocaust, Asghar Bukhari sent an email to Irving, saying: "You may feel like you are on your own but rest assured many people are with you in your fight for the Truth," and followed this up with another stating: "Here is the cheque I promised. Good luck, if there is any other way I can help please don't hestitate to call me. I have also asked many Muslim websites to create links to your own and ask for donations."

The website of MPAC called the Observer's findings "just another Islamaphobic attack aimed at undermining and harming the brave individuals who support the Palestinian cause and the cause of Muslims within Britain."

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 10:43 PM | Comments (0)

Egypt: Islamic Leaders Protest Minister's Veil Statement

It boils down to this: If you accept the premise that Muhammad was the "last guidance for mankind", as a general rule the "Islamists" have the better arguments. Not to mention that, regardless of who wins the intra-Islamic struggle, the "infidels" are oppressed under their power: Egypt's Muslim leaders lash out at culture minister over his anti-veil statements

CAIRO, Egypt: Muslim leaders on Friday lashed out at Egypt's culture minister who this week criticized the increasing popularity of women wearing the veil.

Culture Minister Farouk Hosni, said in an interview published in a local newspaper that women are "roses that are not to be covered or veiled" and said Egypt should return to a time when women didn't feel forced to wear the head scarf.

"Egypt has to return to being as graceful as it used to be and stop imitating Arabs who had considered Egypt as a piece of Europe," he said in the interview published Thursday the independent daily Al Masry Al Youm.

Egypt's largest Islamic political group, the Muslim Brotherhood, responded Friday in an Internet statement saying it demanded an immediate apology from Hosni, calling his remarks insults that were directed at Islam's religious leaders.

The statement posted the Brotherhood's Web site cited Hamdi Hassan, the spokesman for the group's parliament bloc, who said Hosni should have said whether his comments were as an official or his personal opinion. Hassan said the minister's remarks were against the constitution, which states Islam as a source of legislation.[...]

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 11:33 AM | Comments (0)

Italy: Leading Right-Wing Politician Wants Islam Taught in Public Schools

The first question, of course, is whether Gianfranco Fini has read the Koran at all (not likely.) The second question is why hasn't he advocated the optional teaching of other religious texts in state schools. (Answer: because other religions are not raising havoc as a prelude to taking over the country.) In other words; he's rewarding Islam for its violence and intolerance: ITALY: CONSERVATIVE LEADER RECOMMENDS TEACHING ISLAM IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Rome, 17 Nov. (AKI) - Islam should be taught in public schools, a leading conservative politician in Italy says. Gianfranco Fini, head of the right-wing National Alliance Party who served as foreign minister under the previous government of Silvio Berlusconi, told Italy's largest circulation magazine Panorama on Friday that a child wishing to study the Koran in school "has the right to do that as an optional course." "We need immigrants and they represent an opportunity, not a risk. Integration means first of all guaranteeing that immigrants have rights, the right to believe in their God and practice their religion," he added.[...]

But what if "God and their religion" tells them that it is their duty to fight for the supremacy of "God and their religion"?

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 10:52 AM | Comments (0)

UK: Muslim Fanatics On 25 Campuses

Last September, Professor Anthony Gees, who is director of the Brunel Center for Intelligence and Security Studies (BCISS) published a report through the right-wing think-tank the Social Affairs Unit, which stated that Islamic radicals were operating in 24 Universities across Britain.

His report warned then that University authorities were "ignoring the problem". His report dealt with Islamic Jihadist, but also listed animal rights activists and the British National Party. The BNP is hardly associated with bombings or acts of terror, in the same way as Islamists or animal rights fanatics.

Glees said to Radio 4 last year: "There is a culture of extremism and terrorism on Britain's campuses. It may not be very large in number but you do not need very large numbers of people in order to do terrorism and the university authorities have simply ignored the problem."

A spokesperson for Universities UK (UUK) said: "Universities UK has noted the report by Professor Glees. It appears to us that the report is based largely on anecdotal evidence and that university authorities were not involved or consulted in its preparation."

Following publication of his study last year, Glees found himself the target of a campaign of intimidation by university heads. Glees' boss at Brunel University, vice-chancellor Steven Schwartz, wrote him a letter, which stated: "Some (university vice-chancellors) complain about your research methods. Others seem to resent being lumped in with universities that might be inadvertent homes to people bent on terrorism. One v-c seems to think that I should (or could) shut you up."

In the year which has intervened between first publication of his report for the Social Affairs Unit, apparently little has been done to combat Islamic fundamentalism on campuses. Last month, Glees repeated his claims of radicalization at UK universities. One imam, chaplain of London Metropolitan University since 2002, Sheikh Musa Adami, runs a group called the Luqman Institute of Education and Development, which aims to steer radicals back to the fold of "moderate Islam".

One of his proteges is Jawad Syed, who became indoctrinated by radicals at Professor Glees' university, Brunel. In his first year, Syed knew no-one but was befriended by Muslim students. Gradually, they encouraged him to isolate himself from other students, including Muslims. He said: "They were very much anti-western with anti-western sentiments. And I clearly saw and experienced that they would use any means to achieve their aims, including violence."

His associates would discuss news events, but always in terms of confrontation. "Once they've established that basis of hatred they have you. And then you start working closely with them, under their political agenda, in achieving their greater aim," Syed claimed.

In today's Telegraph, Professor Glees has repeated his claims that 25 campuses (an increase on last year) have been infiltrated by fanatics who are recruiting for Jihad.

Glees' comments come at the same time as a 20-page report has been issued by the Department of Education and Skills which warns of the jihadist threat, and urges lecturers to report Muslim students whom they suspect of extremism.

An earlier draft of the report urged university staff to report concerns about "Asian-looking" or Muslim students to Special Branch. The report was leaked to the Guardian last month.

Wakkas Khan, president of FOSIS (Federation of Student Islamic Societies) claimed then: "It sounds to me to be potentially the widest infringement of the rights of Muslim students that there ever has been in this country. It is clearly targeting Muslim students and treating them to a higher level of suspicion and scrutiny. It sounds like you're guilty until you're proven innocent."

Last night, a spokesman for the Department of Education and Skills defended the report, stating: "This is not about spying on Muslims or targeting Muslim students. It is about improving community cohesion and responding to a small but real threat."

Universities UK president Drummond Bone said: "Not only is this unreasonable but it could be counterproductive."

The National Union of Students president, Gemma Tumelty, has said: "They are going to treat everyone Muslim with suspicion on the basis of their faith. It's bearing on the side of McCarthyism."

She additionally said: "All students have an interest in defeating terrorism, however, we are concerned that the steps that have been suggested may end up vilifying whole groups and communities."

The Telegraph presents a short video, in which the higher education minister, Bill Rammell spoke of the potential threat of radicalism on campuses. He states of the report's advice: "It is about all of us working together to identify and challenge what I think is a small minority who advocate extremism."

Professor Glees stated: "The guidance is a step in the right direction, but I don't think the threat has been taken seriously enough. From my research I would say this issue probably affects more than 25 universities, not the small handful they talk of. The fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan has radicalised many young men and I think an opportunity has been missed to take serious action against a very real threat."

The problem of radicalization on university campuses has been present for more than a decade, as we pointed out earlier. The genie of jihadism has been out of its bottle for so long, it will be hard for it to be contained.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 9:39 AM | Comments (0)

Russia: Devout Muslims Try to Reignite Jihad in North Caucasus

After suffering a number of major defeats in the past year against Russian security forces, the Islamic jihad in Russia's North Caucasus region is trying to regroup and instill a sense of mission in devout Muslims by calling for the murder and maiming of `infidels'. Indeed, what better way can devout Muslims show their love and devotion for Mohammed, the 7th century Arabian warlord, and the blood-thirsty Islamic deity, Allah.

In a video posted on the Internet, a man identifying himself as Emir Seyfullah, the nom de guerre of Anzor Astemirov, said he headed the Caucasus Front of Islamic fighters in Russia's republic of Kabardino-Balkariya. He called upon Muslims across Russia to unite and rise up against Moscow's rule, and that Muslims who cooperate with Russian authorities would be the first to be targeted.

"For some time we have put up with those who considered themselves Muslim, but now everything will be different,'' Astemirov warned on the video. "Now, we'll look closely at who is a Muslim in deed and not only in word.''

Speaking in Russian, with the occasional quote in Arabic, he said Islamic terrorists planned "large-scale operations'' soon in Kabardino-Balkariya.

``The only law we recognize is that of Allah, and those who don't want to submit to Allah and live by his laws will be punished,'' said Astemirov, who added that devout Muslims must ``wage jihad against the system of international satanism'' and he promised the ``fire of hell'' for those who stand against Allah.

Astemirov is thought to be the mastermind behind an Islamic attack against a federal drug agency office in Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkariya, in December 2004, as well as a bold daytime attack by rebels against police and security offices in that city in October 2005. At least 139 people died in that raid, including 94 Islamists, according to state officials.

This story about Astemirov is insightful for yet another reason. It's another expose of the duplicity of some western media. The video clearly shows that Astemirov and his ilk are merciless brigands who are willing to sacrifice their own people on an altar to the bloodthirsty deity, Allah.

However, the American news agency, Associated Press, whose pro-Islamic bias has long been a serious concern to human rights groups, gives us the impression that Astemirov and his kind are freedom fighters defending their way of life against Russian oppression, and who seek to rightfully punish lapsed Muslims.
(for instance, see the AP article in the International Herald Tribune)

Posted by at 2:56 AM | Comments (0)

November 17, 2006

Pakistan: Musharraf Widens Rift With Islamists

65 of the 344 seats in Pakistan's National Assembly are held by the Islamists of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal or MMA, the United Action Front, a coalition of six parties. The MMA's intentions are ultimately to install widespread sharia law and to destroy the tenuous democracy which exists in Pakistan.

For four years, President Musharraf has conducted a delicate balancing act with these groups who have openly called for his resignation, and even his death. When the MMA mounted their protests against the Danish cartoons in February this year, these became increasingly unruly, with several individuals killed, including an eight-year old child. Protests which began against cartoons became excuses for attacks upon American businesses, and calls for the removal of Musharraf.

On October 4 last year, the president of the MMA, Qazi Hussain Ahmad promised at a meeting in Nowshera to bring on a revolution when Ramadan ended (November 4). Ahmad's plans were thwarted four days later, when a massive earthquake hit northern Pakistan. At the Nowshera rally, Ahmad had said the nation would soon be "rid of the shameful American culture of vulgarity , unemployment, graft and bribery, lawlessness prevailing under the Musharraf regime."

Qazi Hussain Ahmad is also head of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, one of the six parties in the MMA coalition. This party was founded in 1941 by Sayyid Abul A'la Maududi (1903 - 1979), a former journalist who challenged the secular constitution of Pakistan which existed for barely two years after the nation was founded in 1947. Maududi (pictured above right) wrote a pamphlet in 1953 which declared the Muslim sect of Ahmadiyyas to be heretics, which led to riots in Pakistan, and he was accused of sedition. The battle of East Pakistan for independence, which led to the creation of Bangladesh in 1971, was violently opposed by Jamaat-e-Islami. Followers of the party in emergent Bangladesh slaughtered Hindus and Muslims alike. 3 million people died in the battle for Bangladesh's independence.

Maududi was, along with Sayyid Qutb of the Muslim brotherhood, one of the two leading figures to implement Islamic revivalism, and ultimately Islamism.

The uncompromising attitudes of Maududi, who claimed to be descended from Mohammed, are alive and well in Qazi Hussain Ahmad and the other leaders of the MMA. They take part in the democratic process, but ultimately wish to see it destroyed.

After Maududi's death, the dictator General Zia ul-Haq, who ruled from 1977 until his death in 1988, introduced laws based on the Islamist principles laid out by Maududi. In 1979, ul-Haq introduced the Hudood Ordinances, which made Islamic law applicable to cases of "zina" or prohibited intercourse. As a result, there was no distinction made between rape and adultery. A woman who was raped had to provide four witnesses to prove she had not engaged voluntarily. If she claimed she was raped but did not have four witnesses, she would be seen to have confessed to fornication. As a result, she could be punished for "zina" with death by stoning and 100 lashes.

In 1986, the dictator introduced laws against blasphemy, which included Maududi's definition of the Ahmadiyyas as being non-Muslims. Under Articles 298-B and 298-C of the penal code, anyone from the Ahmadiyya sect (also called Qadiani, Ahmadi) who claimed to be a Muslim, or who tried to preach, would be liable to a three-year jail term and/or a fine.

Under Article 295-B of the penal code, defiling a Koran can see an individual jailed for life, while 295-C states that anyone who insults the child-molesting "prophet" of Islam, Mohammed, can face the death penalty.

The Islamist parties of the MMA comprise, as well as the Jamaat-e-Islami, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam as led by Sami ul-Haq, head of the Deobandi madrassa at Haqqania in Northwest Frontier Privince, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam as led by Fazlur Rehman, popular in Baluchistan, Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan, which represents the Barelvi strand of Sunni Islam, Tehrik-e-Islami, a Shia group, and Jamiat-e-Ahle Hadith.

The MMA was formed as a group in 2002, to combat the alliance with the West in the "war on terror", promulgated by Pervez Musharraf. The Jamaat-e-Islami has openly supported Al Qaeda, and Sami ul-Haq of one of the two Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam factions educated most of the Afghanistan Taliban leadership at his madrassa.

These parties have sat in the National Assembly, but being avowedly "Islamic" in their nature, they have been able to call upon large groups to protest on the streets against issues put forward in the National Assembly. Musharraf has until recently appeased these groups. But recent events demonstrate that his tolerance for their threats of revolution and street violence has finally come to an end.

The MMA is firmly against any alliance of Pakistan with America and the West. They hold the majority of the seats in North-West Frontier Province's regional assembly. This province, adjoining Afghanistan, has over the past year succumbed to Islamist rule in Waziristan, which is now controlled by the "Pakistan Taliban". Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP) is in its border regions has been since late 2001 a place of refuge for members of the Afghanistan Taliban and also Al Qaeda.

80,000 troops have been stationed in the NWFP region for the past four years, but this has not stopped the rise of Pakistan's home-grown Taliban. On December 1, an explosion in the village of Haisori near Miranshah, North Waziristan, killed the third in command of Al Qaeda, Abu Hamza Rabia. Whether the explosion was caused by a US Predator drone is unknown.

On Friday January 13, a US strike at a house in the village of Damadola, in Bajaur agency, six miles from the Afghanistan border, aimed to hit a house where Ayman al-Zawahiri was holding a meeting. Zawahiri, the second in command of Al Qaeda, had not arrived when the Hellfire missiles struck. It later transpired that among the victims were four Al Qaeda members, including a senior Al Qaeda member, 52-year old Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar, alias Abu Khabab. The third in command of Al Qaeda, Midhat Mursi was a chemicals poisons and explosives specialist, who ran a terror training camp in Derunta, Afghanistan until the end of 2001, when the US invaded.

The US airstrike on the village in Bajaur Agency was met with widespread protests throughout Pakistan, with many of the demonstrations being mounted by the MMA. 2000 members of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal coalition marched toward the village of Damadola on January 23. At Yukka, 30 miles from Damadola, they were stopped by a police roadblock. Qazi Hussain Ahmad, president of the MMA, claimed: "We were going to Bajur to condemn the attacks and to prove that Pakistanis are against such acts against our sovereignty."

The following month, the issue of the Danish cartoons occupied the MMA, who led demonstrations in several parts of the country. On February 24, after five people had died and more than fifty people had been injured in various protests, Qazi Hussain Ahmad was detained for the second time in a week. He was seen as a threat to internal peace, as well as posing a threat to the visit of George W Bush to Pakistan in March.

Qazi Hussain Ahmad was kept under house arrest at his home in Lahore in Punjab province. He was accused of "trying to destabilise the government and also instigating people against the country"s elected government." He appealed against his detention on March 8, but his case was dismissed by Lahore High Court.

Shortly after this, the "Pakistan Taliban" took control of Waziristan. On March 26, the Taliban executed their first criminal at a court in Wana, capital of South Waziristan.

Qazi Hussain Ahmad has repeatedly praised Osama bin Laden.

On May 25, the federal minister for law, justice and human rights, Wasi Zafa, announced that the Hudood Ordinances would be repealed because they were being "misused". This led to fierce attempts from the MMA to prevent an changes to the Hudood laws, which they stated had been "written by Allah".

In September, the government was forced to compromise its proposed amendments to the Hudood Ordinances due to pressure from the MMA, who were threatening to walk out of the National Assembly. Despite the dilution of the amendment, the MMA caused enough threat for the bill, due to have been presented before the parliament on September 11, to be delayed.

At this time, Musharraf was in a weakened position. India had been suggesting that Pakistan was not doing enough to combat terror, and had implied that Pakistani agents had assisted in the Mumbai blasts of July 11. The situation between Pakistan and India has become warmer over the last few weeks, with agreements to work against terror.

The MMA in NWFP hold the majority of seats in the Regional Assembly. In July it had been announced that the Muttahida Majlis e-Amal were negotiating a peace settlement with the Taliban of Waziristan. The negotiations led to a peace accord, which was signed on September 5. The accord was thought to herald a new era of peace in the region, and the Taliban agreed not to send fighters across the border to fight in Afghanistan. US analysts expressed doubts that the deal would actually help the situation in southern Afghanistan.

In practice, the analysts were right. Within days of the accord being signed, the first person assumed to be a "US spy" was decapitated. After the deal, more Pakistani fighters were crossing into Afghanistan than had passed before.

Recent events have widened the gap between Musharraf and the Islamists of the MMA. Where he previously appeared reluctant to invoke their wrath, he seems to no longer care what the MMA thinks.

On Monday, October 30, the Pakistani military, accompanied by air support, attacked an Islamic seminary in the village of Chenagai in Bajaur agency. The madrassa had been run by Maulvi Liaquat Hussain of an extremist group called the Tanzim Nifaz Shariat Mohammadi, or Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM), the Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Laws. This group has links with the Taliban in Afghanistan. The army claimed that the madrassa had been a training center for terrorists. 80 students and their leader were killed in the attack.

Major General Shaukat Sultan, an army spokesman, said there was no US involvement. "It was done purely by the Pakistan authorities. There was no American involvement."

The MMA insisted that the United States had been involved in the attack, and called for widespread protests. Qazi Hussain Ahmad (pictured left) said: "It was an American plane behind the attack and Pakistan is taking responsibility because they know there would be a civil war if the American responsibility was known."

In Chenagai, an MMA-led protest saw demonstrators chanting: "Death to Musharraf! Death to Bush!"

Shortly after this attack, a suicide bomber killed 42 soldiers at a training camp in Dargai, Malakand district, in NWFP. This incident, on November 9, was done as an act of revenge for the attack on the seminary in Bajaur. On the same day, Musharraf publicly denounced the MMA. He told ministers: "The MMA has no right to criticise the operation as they give tickets of heaven to extremists while their own children sit in full comfort at home." He stressed that: "We are dealing with the Taliban and Al Qaeda separately and we will be successful in crushing terrorism at its very root."

On November 13, the MMA-led Regional Assembly in NWFP introduced an Islamic morality bill, the "Hisbah Bill" which enforced Sharia within the region. They had tried to introduce the law in July 2005, but it had been deemed unconstitutional. The bill will appoint an Islamic overseer, called a "Mohtasib" to enforce sharia compliance. The bill was called by opposition members of the NWFP assembly as a "maulvi's martial law".

The government defied the protests of the MMA two days ago, when they introduced the amendment to the Hudood Ordinances, the Protection of Women (Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill to the National Assembly on November 15.

Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman of the MMA said to the lower house of parliament: "This is an attempt to create a free sex zone in Pakistan. Existing laws are correct and should be maintained. There is no need for any amendment. The changes are not in line with Islamic teaching." The MMA walked out of the National Assembly before the bill was put to a vote by the lower house. The vote was passed. If approved by the upper house, the bill will become law, and for the first time since 1979, a woman who has been raped will no longer run the risk of being jailed for adultery.

In protest at the laws, the leader of the MMA in parliament, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, announced his resignation yesterday.

Today, the MMA said that it would resign en masse from the parliament. A statement from the MMA was read out, which said: "The meeting discussed President Gen Pervez Musharraf’s last night address to the nation, described it as a declaration of war against Islamic culture and civilisation and decided to accept this challenge of ideological polarisation."

"The MMA has decided to accept treading this clear warpath and deemed it necessary to come out in the field to safeguard the country’s ideological precincts, independence and democratic status. It, therefore, has decided to line up the entire nation against American hegemony, killing of innocent people in the tribal areas and crimes against humanity."

Qazi Hussain Ahmad, president of the MMA and also head of Jamaat-e-Islami, held a press conference yesterday. He confirmed that the MMA would resign from the government, but said the final decision would be taken after a meeting in Islamabad on December 6. Qazi Hussain had wanted the entire MMA block to leave forthwith, but Maulana Fazalur Rehman pressed for more time to "consult religious scholars and law experts" on whether the bill is against the teachings of Islam.

Maulana Abdul Malik of the Jamaat-e-Islami stated: "We believe the policies of the Musharraf led government are against the Muslim Ummah, and parliament also passed the Women's Protection Bill which is against the Quran and Sunnah. Therefore, this government should be deposed. The National Assembly passed the Women's Protection Bill because General Musharraf pressured the ruling coalition to please the US. The policies adopted by General Musharraf after the 9/11 episode are against Muslims."

Today, Musharraf enacted something which he had formerly said he was unable to do - the freeing of a British Muslim who had been sentenced to death by a Sharia Court. It has been suggested by the British media that this decision has been made as a result of the request made by Prince Charles, when he met Musharraf on Monday October 30. Recent developments in Pakistan suggest that the decision to free the man were made as an act of defiance to the Islamists.

Several times, Musharraf has been asked to commute the death sentence of Mirza Tahir Hussain, but it seems he previously had not wanted to enrage Islamic feeling by going against the decision of a Shariat (Sharia) court. Hussain had been acquitted of murder by a civil court 18 years ago, but then was re-tried by an Islamic court, which had sentenced him to death. Three times this year, Hussain was due to be hanged, but then had the execution delayed. Though only 36, the stress has caused him to become gray of beard and hair. Tonight, Mirza Tahir Hussain flew back home to Britain.

The decision had been made on November 15. Musharraf used his presidential prerogative to commute Hussain's sentence to life imprisonment. As the man had been in prison for so long he was released today.

18 years ago, Mirza Tahir Hussain went to Pakistan. He wanted to visit his ancestral home, and three days after his arrival in Islamabad hailed a taxi. The driver of the cab, Jamshed Khan, insisted on taking a man with him "for safety". Khan and his associate later tried to rape him at gunpoint. Mirza Tahir Hussain struggled with the taxi driver, and Khan was shot dead. The other man fled. Hussain drove the taxi to a police station and handed himself in.

Though acquitted by a civil court, the Islamic courts took over the case, and Hussain was sentenced to death. Hussain's family offered blood money to Khan's relatives, but this was turned down. Currently, the Khan family are said to be distraught, and are mounting an appeal to the Supreme Court. Khan's mother is threatening to set herself on fire.

With the increasing rift between the government and the Islamists of MMA, who support both the Taliban and Al Qaeda, there has also come the return of terrorist attacks in Pakistan. This morning, fifteen people were injured in Lahore, Punjab province by a bomb, left in a garbage can near a bus stop. The bomb was a home-made device, weighing 1 kilogram.

Hours later in Peshawar in NWFP, a 20-year old suicide bomber tried to attack a police van, but only managed to kill himself. He injured two policemen. The bomber's identity card was found, revealing him to be an electrician. His father and brother are helping police with their enquiries. Peshawar police chief Haji Habibur Rehman said that the police were not the original targets of the bomber. he said: "Nadeem attacked the police when they suspected his movement."

Today, the MMA appears to be having rifts within its own ranks. Qazi Hussain Ahmad told Maulana Fazlur Rehman, head of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-F faction: "Ask your MNAs to submit their resignations, otherwise allow other parties of the MMA to do what they want."

The JUI-F faction from Balochistan, led by Maulana Muhammad Khan Sherani, were not ready to resign, and Qazi insisted that the decision on resignations had been made at the last MMA supreme council meeting.

The rift between Musharraf and the MMA will never be healed. Musharraf likes to present his politics as a form of "enlightened moderation" regarding Islam. The MMA do not care about moderation. Their aim is to implement Islamic law in the nation, achieved by "whatever means necessary". They oppose any war on terror, and support Islamists such as the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Musharraf must stick to his guns to survive. Appeasing the MMA has brought no rewards. They do not care for democracy, they do not respect the parliament they sit within. Women across Pakistan protested against the MMA's interference with amendments to the Hudood laws. In Karachi in late August, thousands of women even called for their deaths.

If any group is leading Pakistan towards Talibanisation, it is the MMA. It only has political strength while it stays united. Hopefully, the ego and tribal nature of Qazi Hussain Ahmad, who has placed his family members in leading positions in Jamaat-e-Islami, will see their bonds unravel. Should the MMA break up, Pakistan would be a better place, both for its citizens and women, and for its allies.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 8:31 PM | Comments (0)

Iran: Women Face New Restrictions

The Talibanization of Iran continues: IRAN: MORE RESTRICTIONS IMPOSED ON WOMEN

Tehran, 16 Nov. (AKI) - The hardline administration of president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday introduced new restrictions on women. In Iran's National Security Council, women must now work in separate rooms from men, and may not attend meetings with their male colleagues. Segregation in the school system has been extended to teachers as well as pupils: at all levels, girls' schools may only be staffed by female teachers, who may not teach at boys' schools and institutes.

In universities, where male and female students have for some time sat in separate areas, CCTV cameras have been installed to monitor contact between the two sexes. The first woman-only hospitals are due to open soon, the health ministry has announced.

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 7:27 PM | Comments (0)

Netherlands: First EU Country To Ban Muslim Burka

The Netherlands has been threatening to ban the Muslim burka, the face-covering garment for a year, since MP Geert Wilders introduced questions to the Dutch parliament concerning the prospect of banning the item in October 2005.

On October 13 2005, the Times reported that the immigration minister, Rita Verdonk, had told parliament that she was investigating the circumstances in which the wearing of this garment could be prohibited. According to Expatica of 10 October 2005, Verdonk had said that she did not believe a complete ban could be possible. Issues of the Netherlands constitution, and its support for religious freedom, were cited, even though under its Article 6-2, freedom of religion can be limited, "in order to protect public health, in the interest of traffic and to counter or prevent disorder".

Verdonk said last year that the garments should be prohibited in "specific situations" citing public safety as a reason. Police had warned that the burka could be used by terrorists to avoid detection. A spokesman for the government then said: "We want to investigate when, how, in which places the burka should be banned. It is a safety measure - you don't see who is in it." In soccer stadiums, visitors are prohibited from covering their faces with scarves, as a response to hooligan activity.

In Utrecht last year, the City Council voted to reduce by 10% the benefits of women who habitually wore the burka. The move was made because two women at the unemployment benefit office in the city had claimed that they did not attend job interviews, as no-one would employ women wearing burkas. They each received 550 Euros a month in unemployment benefit. The Council had argued that such women were making themselves "unemployable", contravening the Work and Social Security Act.
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Maria van der Hoeven, the Dutch education minister, called for a ban of the burka being worn in schools. In December last year, the Dutch parliament voted by a majority to outlaw the wearing of the burka in public.

The decision to make the decision become law was delayed, as Verdonk set up a panel of "specialists" to investigate the legality of banning the item. Despite ordering an investigation into the legal and social ramifications of a ban of the burka, by March the results were still being awaited. Rita Verdonk was still waiting for the investigation's results on Thursday October 19, when the issue of the ban on burkas was again raised in parliament.

The commission of seven individuals, charged by Verdonk to comment on the legality of a ban, included lawyers, an imam and an Arab specialist. Verdonk told the group to have answers by the start of November.

On Friday, November 10, Verdonk told parliament that the cabinet was not in favour of women wearing a burka, but would still seek legal approval on the matter. She pointed out that in public transport and in education, there is already legislation banning the covering of the face, which also applies to face-concealing motorcycle helmets.

After much stalling and indecision, the government today agreed to a total ban on the wearing of the burka and face-covering Muslim veils in public. The cabinet agreed that burkas disturbed public order, citizens and safety. When made into law, the ban will be effective in all public places. As well as burkas, any items which cover the face, such as helmets with visors, will also be prohibited.

The news is carried by Reuters, Expatica, Associated Press, BBC and Deutsche Presse Agentur.

Verdonk announced: "The Cabinet finds it undesirable that face-covering clothing - including the burka - is worn in public places for reasons of public order, security and protection of citizens."

She told the broadcaster NOS: "From a security standpoint, people should always be recognizable and from the standpoint of integration, we think people should be able to communicate with one another."

Before the ban becomes full law, police will be able to enforce a ban on burkas being worn in buses, on grounds of security, or in education establishments, on grounds of communication hindrances.

Verdonk's committee had told her that the legislation would not conflict with laws protecting religious freedoms.

In five days time there will be a general election, and it is expected that the center-right coalition will be re-elected. There is a slim possibility that a swing to the left in the polls could cause the bill to be undermined. However, though this would create another headache for legislators, it is thought to be unlikely.

Institutions such as the Free University in Amsterdam ban the burka or the face-veil (nikab) on its grounds. The university also bans clothing which "does not show respect to fellow human beings" which included the British-made Lonsdale clothing brand. In the Netherlands, Lonsdale clothing is associated with young far-right activists.

No country in Europe has banned the Burka, but in Belgium, five Flemish towns have introduced bans on the garments. These are: Ghent, Antwerp, Sint-Truden, Lebbeke and Maaseik. The mayor of Maaseik, Jan Cleemers, said he acted after six women started wearing burqas, alarming local residents. On June 12, Khadija El Ouazzanik, a woman who had challenged the ruling in Maaseik magistrates' court lost her case. She launched the appeal after she had been fined 75 Euros ($95) in April 2005 for wearing the costume after the ban was enforced. She was told by the court that the town was legally within its rights to prevent the wearing of burkas.

When the bill is written into law, the Netherlands will be the first country in the European Union to have outlawed the Muslim face-coverings which have become such a political hot potato recently.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 3:11 PM | Comments (0)

Malaysia: More Bali Terrorists Set Free

More "wonderful news" from the "moderate Islamic state": Islamic terrorists set free

ALMOST 60 jailed Islamic extremists linked to such atrocities as the Bali bombings have been set free. They include 14 terrorists who have been quietly released in the past two months.

Many of those who walked free in October and this month had at least two months cut from their sentences under Indonesia's justice system.

They were convicted on charges linked to the two Bali bombings, attacks on the Australian Embassy and Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, and other atrocities.

The latest releases, and that in June of Jemaah Islamiah's spiritual leader Abu Bakar Bashir, have outraged families who lost loved ones in the 2002 and 2005 Bali terrorist strikes.[...]

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 5:45 AM | Comments (0)

November 16, 2006

UK: The Menace Of The Islamists Of Hizb ut-Tahrir

Special Report

Hizb ut-Tahrir, founded in 1953 in Jerusalem by an Islamic jurist, Taqiuddin al-Nabhani, has a mission to restore a Muslim Caliphate, a supreme body which advises on Islamic law. More importantly, they believe that this Caliphate should be set up as a replacement for national governments. The last Caliphate was that of the Ottomans, which was dissolved by Kemal Ataturk via an edict from the National Assembly of Turkey, on March 3, 1924.

Hizb ut-Tahrir's intention to obliterate sovereign governments means that their agenda is entirely against the principles of democracy. Their website, Khilafah.com states that they are against violence.

Yet the rhetoric of their spokespeople around the globe is always loaded with violence. In Australia last November, an Eid carnival in Melbourne had leaflets distributed. These stated that Muslims "enormously rejected their evil and corrupt rulers that the West have appointed over them, and they are looking forward to consigning them to the dustbins of history" and glorified terrorist atrocities overseas, where Muslims had "inflicted the most humiliating lesson on supposed superpowers". The leaflets exhorted Muslims to "Ally yourselves with those who work day and night to confront this war against Islam."

In April, Islamists from Hizb ut-Tahrir gathered outside Bankstown Town Hall, voicing their opposition to democratic values, secular society and Australia. Usman Badar announced: "Western values are not worthy of human subscription.....Democracy sounds nice enough - not to a Muslim....Sovereignty is for none but Allah. Allah did not say....whatever the people want, we'll have this." Badr said of secularism "it relegates Allah to the margins of public life and places human beings above him. This, to put it blatantly, is as blasphemous as it gets.....The overriding commitment of a Muslim is to Allah, and Allah alone."

In August last year, the Australian Attorney General, Philip Ruddock, had considered moves to have Hizb ut-Tahrir banned, but decided that the group was not "terrorist". Though the group may not actively involve itself in terrorist acts, it certainly supports and encourages them.

In Denmark, the local leader of Hizb ut-Tahrir, Fadi Abdullatif, was this year jailed on August 17 for three months. He was found guilty of threatening the government of Anders Fogh Rasmussen in leaflets which had been distributed in 2004. These fliers had called for the emlimination of any Western leaders who tried to prevent Muslims from going to Iraq to fight the coalition troops. He was additionally found guilty under anti-racism laws of calling for the killing of Jews on the Hizb ut-Tahrir website.

In October, 2002, Fadi Abdullatif had been given a suspended sentence of 60 days' jail for disseminating leaflets in a square in Copenhagen, and also at a mosque, in which it was written: "The Jews are a people of slander...a treacherous people... they fabricate lies and twist words from their right context." The leaflet quoted from the Koran urging Muslims to "kill them (Jews) wherever you find them, and turn them out from where they have turned you out."

The Hizb ut-Tahrir British website states that the group "also aims to bring back the Islamic guidance for mankind and to lead the Ummah into a struggle with Kufr, its systems and its thoughts so that Islam encapsulates the world."

There is nothing "non-violent" about calling for Muslims to fight with Kufr (kaffir, or "unbelievers"). In Bangladesh on February 10 this year, Hizb ut-Tahrir organized the protests against the Danish cartoons. Here, more than 5,000 Muslims in Dhaka carried banners which showed none of the "non-violence" which Hizb ut-Tahrir claims to espouse, such as "Death to those who degrade our beloved prophet!" and "Hang culprits". Other slogans stated: "Free speech symbolizes War on Islam" and "Free speech - Crusade against Islam."

Anyone in any doubt that Hizb ut-Tahrir condones violence should be reminded that followers of Hizb ut-Tahrir murdered a student, Ayotunde Obanubi, on the steps of Newham College of Further Education in East London on February 27, 1995, for "insulting Islam". This almost-forgotten incident was the first case of someone in Britain being killed for Islamic blasphemy. And as ISIC (the Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity) recorded:

"Hizb ut-Tahrir is strongly implicated in the killing of a Nigerian student at Newham College of Further Education, East London, on 27 February. The Nigerian, Ayotunde Obanubi, was stabbed by a group of Asians at 1.05 pm in the college grounds. The incident took place four days after Omar Bakri, the leader of Hizb ut-Tahrir had addressed a group of 200 students at the college to mark the end of Ramadan, and three days after another (non-fatal) knifing incident at the college. Fellow students believe that Obanubi may have insulted Ramadan.

In Indonesia, Hizb ut-Tahrir are involved with the Islamist groups Front Pembela Islam and the Anti-Apostasy Alliance in their campaigns to close churches.

On Tuesday evening, the BBC's Newsnight showed a short film by Richard Watson, which exposed the tactics currently employed by Britain's members and followers of Hizb ut-Tahrir. The entire video could be found HERE, but if this does not play, an audio file can be heard in mp3 format HERE.

Among the revelations of the video, Watson tried to interview a mild-mannered Hizb ut-Tahrir member who was distributing leaflets outside Croydon mosque. Two times, another Hizb supporter hit out at the cameraman, until warned off by a policeman.

Furthermore, Watson revealed that an undercover mole within Hizb ut-Tahrir showed that new recruits to the group are forced to engage in acts of crime, to "prove their worth". This individual, called "jay", told the BBC that new members were taught to hate "non-believers". He said: "These are people willing to beat you up and sell you drugs and make sure you die." He was urged to show loyalty by robbing kaffirs. "They said Allah says you have to go and intimidate those boys across the street and get money off them."

Hizb ut-Tahrir has protested against the claims made by the BBC. They have stated: "The radicalisation of Muslims, particularly young Muslims, is the product of their anger at the government's unjust and brutal war in Iraq."

There was no war in Iraq when Hizb ut-Tahrir supporters brutally murdered Ayotunde Obanubi in 1995.

Another part of the documentary showed how members of the group Vigil regularly monitor websites which glorify violence and indoctrinate young Muslims. Glen Jenvey of Vigil spoke of a "cyber-mosque" where Omar Bakri Mohammed, who founded Hizb ut-Tahrir in Britain 18 years ago, still preaches. Bakri praises Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his decapitation of "infidels". Bakri also says that Dublin's Shannon Airport should be attacked, as it is used by US flights to refuel, before going on to Iraq.

In November last year, one of Bakri's disciples, Anjem Choudary, told students a Trinity College, Dublin, that the airport could expect attacks. Choudary is involved in Ahl ul-Sunnah Wa al-Jamma, a group

The secret website of Ahl ul-Sunnah Wa al-Jamma Muntaada incited members to attend a demonstration at the Old Bailey on November 2, where Mizanur Rahman was on trial. In the demonstration which ensued, policemen and a cameraman were attacked, and four Muslims were arrested.

At Staffordshire University in Stoke-on-Trent, a debate was also advertised on the same website, by a woman who called herself "Mother of Terror". This debate was a lecture by a former member of Al-Muhajiroun, another group founded by Omar bakri Mohammed.

Musa Admani has been imam and chaplain at London Metropolitan University since 2002. When he started his post, he found that the Islamic Society at the university was dominated by former Al Mujahiroun and Hizb ut-Tahrir. He told the BBC that he was recently threatened with death by Muslim students from Imperial College.

Adamani runs a group which tries to reform Islamist radicals called Luqman Institute of Education and Development. Jawad is one of Admani's reformed Islamists. He was a former member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, and said told the BBC the group advises its members not to even discuss any issues with other Muslims.

At Croydon mosque, Hizb ut-Tahrir, has had influence for several years, against the wishes of the mosque administration. Shuaib Yusaf of the mosque told Richard Watson that members of Hizb ut-Tahrir had tried to make group memberships into the mosque, causing the mosque to amend its constitution. He spoke of fights incited by Hizb ut-Tahrir on the street outside Croydon mosque, which involved knives, and in one instance a sword. He called the conflicts "gang warfare".

Hizb ut-Tahrir is officially separate from groups like Ahl ul-Sunnah Wa al-Jamma, but in practice they appear to share the same followers. Both groups oppose democracy and wish to see a Caliphate established. They both use front groups which change their names.

Last year, Hizb ut-Tahrir used deception to hire rooms at the Quakers' Friends Meeting House in September. They hired out meeting rooms at the Friends' House in Euston, north London, employing the benign-sounding name "Salsa Bill's Publishing House". With the bookings in place, Hizb ut-Tahrir then produced leaflets announcing the event, which was to be entitled "Hizb-ut-Tahrir and the Vision of the Caliphate".

Hizb ut-Tahrir was reported in September this year to be using front groups named the East London Youth Forum and Cheetham Hill Youth Forum to organize paintball sessions, where youths are basically shown how to practice warfare. As always, the official body of Hizb ut-Tahrir denies that these groups are connected with it.

Other groups which act as "fronts" for Hizb ut-Tahrir are the Debate Society, the Muslim Women's Cultural Forum, the Islamic Society, the One Nation Society, the Millennium Society, the Pakistan Society and the 1924 Committee.

Where it is banned on university campuses, Hizb ut-Tahrir started operating last year under benign-sounding name of the "Stop Islamophobia" group.

Vigil provided the BBC with its information from Jay, an undercover individual who is within Hizb ut-Tahrir. He was recruited to be part of a cell. He spoke of there being 50 similar cells. To become a member of the cell, he had to recruit more members, in a pyramid structure. He states that the group, which makes recruits commit acts of crime, are Hizb ut-Tahrir. He was shown videos at the back room of Croydon mosque, designed to incite hatred against the West. One of those with him said "These Americans are fucking evil."

Patrick Mercer, Conservative MP and shadow secretary for Homeland security, said that the group should be banned, mentioning that in August 2005, Tony Blair said that Hizb ut-Tahrir was going to be proscribed. He later said: "We need legislation that allows us to deal with these groups in whatever guise they appear. If it can be proved that they are doing wrong they should be banned and any individuals associated with them prosecuted."

Home Office Minister Tony McNulty has said that Hizb ut-Tahrir's position of legality is "currently under review and if we think we need to take action it will be proscribed... We cannot ban an organisation on our own volition we have to operate under the rule of law" he said that the Home Office needed evidence of criminality or "glorification of terrorism" (an offense under the Terrorism Act 2006) before it could make the group illegal.

One of the leaders of Hizb ut Tahrir, Abid Javaid, works for the government, at the Home Office. He admits being a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, but says he is not a leader. He works in the Immigration and Nationality Directorate. He has also been given a grant to organize an event for Hizb ut-Tahrir. Javaid works in information technology.

A Home Office official refused to confirm if Abid Javaid worked at the Immigration and Nationality Directorate, but stated: "All Home Office civil servants are expected to abide by Home Office rules governing their conduct and are subject to the Civil Service Code."

During the making of the BBC video, Richard Watson heard from a source that Hizb ut-Tahrir was planning to firebomb a Croydon synagogue. They went to a site and found incendiary materials. Police arrived minutes later, and confirmed that the matter was the subject of an investigation.

The English section of the Hizb ut-Tahrir website carried several "refutations" of the allegations mentioned on the BBC Newsnight program. However, it appears to have become currently inaccessible.

However, before it went offline, it stated: "To suggest that Muslim organisations such as ours, rather than the Government's policies, have created anger within the Muslim community is disingenuous and irresponsible. It is organisations like ours that channel that anger into non-violent political activism in an attempt to repair the damage caused by government policies."

A refutation by Abdul Wahid of Hizb ut-Tahrir is shown on the BBC HERE. He says that the people on the show were not anything to do with his group. He called the statements on Richard Watson's report as being "so far off the radar of what's the truth" that they cannot be believed. He said that anyone who acted in such a manner as Jay or his associates would be removed from the group. He says his group has nothing to do with criminality. Wahid says that most mosques in south London support Hizb ut-Tahrir.

A member of Vigil has claimed that he had contacted the Metropolitan Police's anti-terrorist hotline, saying he had 100 hours of material recorded from the chatline in which Omar Bakri Mohammed was shown on the BBC Newsnight documentary. In a sign of the apathy of Britain's guardians against terror, the Vigil member was told to contact his local police station.

Today, the Telegraph reports that Hizb ut-Tahrir videos are widely available on the website YouTube. One particular video is entitled Age of Disorder, in which it is affirmed that "Force is used to protect the authority of Islam."

I have sat through the five parts of this "documentary", and though it uses authentic archive footage of real events, the commentary is facile and misleading. At stages it is downright inaccurate. The parts are available online thus Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5.

At the end of each segment, a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir appears to give a commentary. In Part Four, the break-up of Pakistan in 1971 into Pakistan and Bangladesh is blamed on the Hindus, not upon the Jamaat-e-Islami party and the forcing of Urdu to be the national language of West and East Pakistan. Pakistan under Jinnah had also started as a secular nation, until the Islamists had forced changes to its 1947 constitution. Such details are ignored. At the end of the segment, Salim Fredricks appears to talk about the "low intelligence" of nationalists. He seems unaware of how unintelligent he himself appears. One of the comments under this YouTube segment states "JUST A REMINDER 'A Kafir can NEVER be a friend or an advisor."

At the end of section three, which deals with communism, under Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot, an individual called Abdul Mu'iz appears,. After the misleading statements that the Khmer Rouge particularly targeted Muslims, where they targeted almost all classes of Cambodian society, Mu'iz flippantly mentions that Uzbekistan regularly boils Muslims alive. Muslims who do not follow the mainstream Islam approved by President Karimov are treated badly. There is only one instance of a Muslim being boiled. In August 2002, 35-year old Muzafar Avazov was killed in custody. His body showed, amongst other injuries, signs that boiling water had been poured on his middle body.

In Central Asia, there is religious repression from governments against "independent" Muslims. But there is also ample evidence to suggest that Hizb ut-Tahrir is involved with radical groups such as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. This group was founded in Kandahar, Afghanistan in 1998, with the intention of forming an Islamist state in Uzbekistan. It is led by Tahir Yuldosh, who gained permission in May 1999 from Afghanistan's Taliban to establish a base in the north of that country, where he is still thought to reside. A senior figure in the group, Juma Namangani, was made a "deputy" of Osama bin Laden in 2001. Namangani was killed recently,

In Kazakhstan today, eleven Islamists were arrested in Stepnogorsk, after an individual in Akmola region "formed a terrorist group of Wahhabi radicals with the goal of forming an Islamic Khalifate on the territory of Kazakhstan and subverting the territorial integrity and security of this country" according to Sergey Kim, the city prosecutor.

Hizb ut-Tahrir is illegal in all the Muslim nations of Central Asia - Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Tatarstan and Bashkortostan in the south Urals - and in all of these countries, the group is subjected to intense crackdowns. According to Kyrgyz officials, the group Hizb ut-Tahrir in the region has recently split into factions, with several members now supporting violence.

In 2003, about 34 Hizb ut-Tahrir members were jailed in Tajikistan. This increased to 70 in 2004, with nine receiving sentences in September of 13 to 15 years' jail for crimes of organising a criminal group, inciting national, racial, religious and ethnic strife. 99 were arrested in 2005.

In Russia, Hizb ut-Tahrir has been made illegal since February 2003. Yesterday, the Russian interior minister, Rashid Nuggaliev said that 45 cells of Hizb ut-Tahrir, with 247 members have been identified in Russia, particularly, in the Central, Northwestern, Volga, and Urals Federal Districts,

Today, Interfax reported that police have broken a cell of Hizb ut-Tahrir based in Tyumen region, Siberia, 1,340 miles east of Moscow.

In Russia, some of the members of Hizb ut-Tahrir who were jailed for distributing leaflets also had weapons in their homes. When three Hizb members were convicted in Nizhny Novgorod in November last year, grenades had been found with the leaflets.

The group has even been banned in January this year in Pakistan. It also banned in virtually all of the Muslim nations of the Middle East. In Europe, it is only banned in Germany and the Netherlands. The group claims to be active in Australia, Canada and the United States.

In August 2003, a Muslim leader told BBC's Newsnight: "I believe that if Hizb Ut Tahrir are not stopped at this stage, and we continue to let them politicise and pollute the youngsters minds and other gullible people minds, then what will happen in effect is that these terrorism acts and these suicide bombings that we hear going on around in foreign countries, we will actually start seeing these incidents happening outside our doorsteps."

On July 7 last year, the imam's prediction came true.

The main spokesman for Hizb ut-Tahrir is the obese Dr Imran Waheed (pictured), who led a rally of 8,000 Muslims in London last December. Waheed is recorded as saying that there can be "no possibility of harmonious co-existence between Islam and the West. Ultimately, one has to prevail."

Khalid Mahmood, Labour MP for Birmingham Perry Barr says of Hizb ut-Tahrir: "These people manage to get at young people. I have spoken to parents who say they 'lost' their sons and daughters as a result."

Omar Khan Sharif, who went to Israel with the intention of becoming a suicide bomber in April 2003, had Hizb Ut-Tahrir literature at his home in Derby. Sharif failed to get his bomb to detonate, while Asif Hanif, his companion succeeded, killing three people. Sharif was found drowned in the sea 12 days later.

In August 2005, Tony Blair announced that he wished to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir. His then-friends at the Muslim Council of Britain argued that they would only support the banning of the group if the government banned the British National Party. Hizb ut-Tahrir also responded with threats to bring young Muslims onto the street to riot, should the group be banned.

Blair still wanted the group banned, and wanted a clause in his Terrorism Act 2006 to outlaw the group. However, in November last year, the Association of Chief Police Officers argued that four of the Bill's fourteen clauses, including the plan to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir and successors to the group Al-Muhajiroun, should not become law. The Association argued that these would "risk alienating Muslims".

The clause to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir was never included in the final bill, which was made law in March this year.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 3:38 PM | Comments (0)

Indonesia: Three Years' Jail For Sheltering Islamist

The Jakarta Post reports that a man has been sentenced to three years' jail for sheltering Noordin Mohammed Top, the notorious financier of terror group Jemaah Islamiyah (pictured).

Top is a fugitive, who had helped with the finance and logistics of the bombings on Bali of October 12, 2002, which killed 202 people, including 88 Australian tourists, and also the last Bali bombing on October 1, 2005, which killed 2 people. The Malaysian-born terror leader had been responsible for other bombings, such as the September 9, 2004, bombing of the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, which killed 11 people.

His last confirmed location was Binangu village near Wonosobo, Central Java, which was raided on April 29 this year. Two of his henchmen, Jabir and Abdul Hadi, were killed in the raid, but Top fled. His current location is unknown.

According to Dr Sidney Jones of the International Crisis Group, Top relied upon Jabir and Abdul Hadi, and was dealt a blow by their loss. She claimed in a May report that Top had built up a substantive terror network in southeast Asia, involving members of Darul Islam (the group from which Jemaah Islamiyah was formed around 1995), and also graduates from the notorious Ngruki pesantren near Solo in Central Java.

Some analysts believe that Noordin Top has now split from Jemaah Ismaliyah and is now heading his own group.

The Ngruki school, also called the Al Mukmin pesantren was founded by Abu Bakar Bashir, spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah and Abdullah Sungkar, a co-founder of the terror group, more than 30 years ago. Sungkar, a former fighter against the Soviets in Afghanistan, died of natural causes in November 1999. About 30 known or suspected Islamic terrorists have attended the Ngruki pesantren, including Amrozi, who is currently awaiting imminent execution for his part in the 2002 Bali bombings. Amrozi said that the school was a "JI institution".

The man who was sentenced today, 25-year old Achmad Basyir Umar, is the latest of several people who have this year been sentenced to jail terms for providing assistance to Noordin Top.

The District Court court in Malang, East Java, was told that in July 2005 Umar met Top on several occasions, but did not report him to the police, in contravention of Indonesia's antiterrorism laws. Presiding Judge Sutoto Hadi disagreed with Umar's claims of innocence, and sentenced him to three years' jail.

Another leading Jemaah Islamiyah figure, Malaysian-born Azahari bin Husin, the "demolition man", who had meticulously planned the 2005 Bali bombings, was killed outside Malang on November 9 last year, shot through the heart by a police bullet. His accomplice blew himself up, in an attempt to destroy evidence, but a computer from the site revealed how intensely Azahari had planned the attack, even choosing the clothes the three suicide bombers would wear.

Achmad Basyir Umar told reporters that he would be appealing against his sentence.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 10:14 AM | Comments (0)

Azerbaijan: Two Jailed For "Insulting Islam"

Azerbaijan lies on the Caspian Sea, and is predominantly Muslim. It is officially a Western ally in the "war on terror", and is one of only two Muslim countries to have sent troops to Iraq. It is a poor country, despite its reserves of oil and gas, which in the form of hydrates can erupt in flames through cracks in the ground, and led the Zoroastrians to call it the "Land of Fire". These fuel reserves are being exploited by US and UK petroleum companies. BP is constructing a pipeline from the nation through Georgia to Turkey, to bypass politically volatile regions.

The problem of radical Islam has been met with strict reactions from the current president, Ilham Aliyev of Yeni Azerbaijan, who was reelected on November 6 last year. Officials claim that Islamism is being brought to the country from Chechnya and Iran.

Though officially democratic, there is little freedom of speech in Azerbaijan. This has been proved today with a ruling made by the Azerbaijan Prosecutor General's Office. This has ordered that an author and an editor shall be imprisoned for two years for insulting the child-molesting prophet of Islam in an article published on November 1.

In an article written by Rafiq Tagi, entitled "Europe and Us", which was published in a low-circulation newspaper called Senet, it was stated that Islam has impeded humanity's development. The article also said that all misunderstandings connected with Islam were the responsibility of Mohammed himself.

The edior-in-chief of Senet, Samir Sedagetolu, will also be jailed for two years, states RIA Novosti. Earlier, the pair had been arrested under a court warrant and charged with "inciting ethnic, racial or religious hatred through the mass media".

The spokesman for the prosecutor's office, Vugar Aliyev, told Interfax today: "Both were accused of instigating ethnic, racial and religious enmity using their office, and will spend two months in a detention facility."

The case had been investigated by the Department for Serious Crimes, the spokesman said. the prospects for the editor and author remain bleak. They have already been subject to death threats.

At the village of Nardaran, outside the capital of Baku, an unauthorized rally was held, where protesters demanded the death sentence. This habit of calling for the death of people who insult the so-called "prophet" of Islam is becoming increasingly common globally.

There is scriptural support for demanding death to those who "wage war" against the so-called prophet. The Koran, 5.33 states: - "The punishment of those who wage war against God and His Messenger, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter."

Samir Sedagetolu issued a public apology on Azeri television for any offence the article caused, but despite this, phoned death threats have been made to him and to his staff at Senet. He has asked prosecutors for protection.

The Russian press has reported on this case, but Russia itself is guilty of the same intolerance. In February, a Volgograd newspaper, Gorodskiye Vesti was closed down by the city mayor for depicting a cartoon of Mohammed.

In April, Anna Smirnova, editor of weekly newspaper Nash Region was fined 100,000 roubles ($3,609 US) by a Vologda city court for reproducing the Danish cartoons of Mohammed. She was found guilty of inciting religious strife.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 8:11 AM | Comments (0)

November 15, 2006

Pakistan: Islamic Rape Laws To Be Amended

Pakistan's laws on rape have been contentious, and attempts to amend them have foundered twice this year. Because they are based on Islamic Sharia Law, a woman who has been raped must provide four witnesses to the event, otherwise her reporting of rape is seen as a confession of "zina" or unlawful sexual intercourse, which can incur the death penalty and 100 lashes. So far, no-one has been executed, but several women victims of rape have been imprisoned as "adulterers".

The need for there to be four witnesses to "adultery" stems from the Koran, Sura 24 (An-Nur, "Light"), verse 13: "Why did they not produce four witnesses? Since they provide not witnesses, they verily are liars in the sight of Allah".

The punishment derives from the same Sura, verse 2: "The adulterer and the adulteress, scourge ye each one of them (with) a hundred stripes. And let not pity for the twain withhold you from obedience to Allah, if ye believe in Allah and the Last Day. And let a party of believers witness their punishment." (translations by Pickthall).

The so-called Hudood Ordinances are a set of laws which were introduced to Pakistan's Penal Code (PPC) on February 10, 1979. These laws were brought in by the dictator General Zia ul-Haq, who ruled from 1977 to 1988. He also introduced the notorious blasphemy laws in 1986, to appease Islamists. Under Section 295-C of the PPC, merely for defaming the prophet Mohammed, a person can be sentenced to death.

The Hudood Ordinances basically removed the distinction between rape and adultery. The full text of the Hudood laws can be found here. In both cases of zina (intercourse between people not validly married to each other) or zina-bil-jabr (illegal intercourse without consent) the perpetrator can be given a death sentence of being stoned publicly. Up to 100 lashes can also be given.

In article 8 of the Hudood laws, proof of zina or zina-al-jabr (rape) requires that either a) "the accused makes before a Court of competent jurisdiction a confession of the commission of the offence" or b): "at least four Muslim adult male witnesses, about whom the Court is satisfied, having regard to the requirements of tazkiyah al-shuhood, that they are truthful persons and abstain from major sins (kabair), give evidence as eye-witnesses of the act of penetration necessary to the offence: Provided that, if the accused is a non-Muslim, the eye-witnesses may be non-Muslims."

Very few cases of rape happen with four witnesses present, let alone four "reliable and truthful" Muslim witnesses. For this reason, there is currently a virtual epidemic of gang rape in Pakistan. According to HCRP, a woman is gang-raped every eight hours in Pakistan. Women are fearful of reporting cases of rape, as the law demands that she produces four witnesses. Unable to do so, she automatically is considered to have proved herself guilty of zina under clause 8 (a) by means of making a full confession.

Though no-one has yet received the ultimate punishment of "Hadd" and has been publicly stoned to death under these laws, at least 26 women have been sentenced to death for the crime of "zina", but in all these cases superior courts reversed the death sentences. However, the Hudood Ordinances are still enforced, and women are given lashes and sentenced to prison terms for "zina", even though they are rape victims.

In September last year, Sadia Sihail, who works as legal aid lawyer in Karachi women's prison, said: "About half of the women in this prison are here because of zina. Some of these women are here for enticing another woman into zina. Most of these cases are acquitted and many of the charges are false.

If a girl escapes from home and marries against the will of her family, they sometimes forge a prior marriage certificate to try and prove that she has married twice. By the time the case is heard and she is released, she could have spent years in jail.

These women are totally illiterate, hardly aware of their rights, they don't know about zina laws and know nothing of the problems that exist for women in Pakistan. Most of them are here without any support. Sometimes, their family is the cause of their plight."

On May 25, Pakistan's federal minister for law, justice and human rights, Wasi Zafar, announced that the Hudood Ordinances would be repealed. At that time, according to HCRP, of the 6,000 women and children being held in prison in Pakistan, the vast majority (80%) were imprisoned because of the Hudood Ordinances, most of these being charged with adultery.

Article 25 of Pakistan's Constitution guarantees equal rights for all, irrespective of sex, religion race and creed, but the Hudood Ordinances blatantly discriminate against women.

A small concession to the Hudood rulings was made in summer. Islam does not advocate the jailing of women, and some religious scholars argued that instead of prison, lashes would be a "less detrimental" punishment for women. With no consensus on the issue, the keeping of women in custody awaiting trial was abolished. Clause 497 of the Criminal Procedural Code (CrPC) which had refused women bail was revoked under the new "Law Reforms Ordinance" on July 7 this year. 1,500 women awaiting trial were ordered to be released. Only those accused of murder, drug trafficking and gangsterism were to be denied bail.

Many women were released, but for some, the stigma of being charged under the Hudood Ordinances made them too fearful to return to their homes. The government had made no provisions for such women, leaving them relying upon the assistance of NGOs to have roofs over their heads.

On August 2, a cabinet meeting approved in principle the removal of rape from the Hudood Ordinances, and bringing in a new law which would be within the secular laws of the PPC. The new bill was provisionally entitled the Protection of Women Bill, 2006. Yet on August 8, following opposition from Islamist politicians and leaders, this bill was delayed.

The main opposition to any changes in the Hudood laws has always come from the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal or MMA, a coalition of Islamist parties who have 65 members within the full complement of 344 representatives sitting in the National Assembly.

The issue divided, and still divides, the nation. At the end of August, thousands of women from the liberal Muttahida Qaumi Movement marched in protest at the intransigence of the MMA. In Karachi, women called for the death of the MMA leadership (pictured, above left).

The MMA's approach to the subject of rape has been intolerant and medieval. A leader of the MMA, Maulana Abdul Malik, said that the government wanted to give the right of presenting evidence in a rape case to non-Muslims, whereas Islam "only believed in the statements of pious Muslims".

The Women's Protection Bill suffered further obstacles, imposed by the MMA. The MMA announced that their members would all resign from the National Assembly if the bill went ahead. On September 5, Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman, secretary general of the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (pictured right) told a news conference: "We will render every sacrifice for the protection of Shariat laws."

The cabinet had hoped to introduce the amended Protection of Women Bill, 2006 by September 11, but with widespread protest by the MMA, it was delayed until Wednesday September 13. A rushed compromise was made to the bill. Under this compromise, a victim of rape could choose to have those they accused tried under either the Hudood Ordinance, by which she should provide four witnesses, or under the civil code (PPC). Senator S.M. Zafar said: "It's a compromise which doesn't make difference in the substance (of the law), but provides two different procedures for prosecuting a rape case." Hafiz Hussain Ahmed of the opposition MMA said: "Now they have acknowledged that the amendment was in conflict with the Quran."

The compromise went further than that, as it also allowed that adultery would be made a crime under civil law, the man-made laws described as "Tazeer". The government had also agreed to an overarching clause in the law, which stated that the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed would have effect "notwithstanding anything contained in any other law". The last-minute adjustments were condemned by Asma Jahangir of the HCRP. She called the amendments "the nail in the coffin.... They have hoodwinked women into believing that this is a law for the protection of women. It is a law for the protection of religious extremists."

The compromise amendment had introduced a new crime onto the civil code - that of "lewdness", which was described as "a man and a woman are said to commit lewdness if they wilfully have sexual intercourse with one and another."

The presentation of the bill was delayed, with its expected introduction on Thursday, September 14, but before that day arrived, the government decided that the bill should withdrawn.

Yesterday, it was announced that amendments were to be made to the Protection of Women (Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill, proposing that Section 496B in Clause 7 of the PPC should forbid lewdness. The punishments for lewdness would be a maximum of five years' imprisonment, and a maximum fine of 10,000 rupees ($165).

The government said that any one making any charge of lewdness, without substantiating the allegation, would be liable to be punished for qazf. This exists in the Hudood Ordinances, though is rarely imposed. Qazf, according to Sura 24, verse 4, should be punished by 80 lashes. Under the proposed civil code amendment, Section 496C of the PPC, qazf will be dealt with thus: "Whoever brings or levels or gives evidence of false charge of lewdness against any person, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to five years and shall also be liable to a fine not exceeding 10,000 rupees."

Despite the draconian nature of the amendment to the Protection of Women Bill, by placing "zina" under the civil law, the MMA were outraged. Earlier today, Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman of the MMA said to the lower house of parliament: "This is an attempt to create a free sex zone in Pakistan. Existing laws are correct and should be maintained. There is no need for any amendment. The changes are not in line with Islamic teaching."

The only advantage to this amended and emasculated Protection of Women (Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill is that finally, a woman who has been raped will not be forced to undergo the religious, Hudood Ordinance, trial by Islamism, where she would have to achieve the impossible by producing four witnesses, when four witnesses are rarely available in rape cases.

The vote has been made, and finally, according to Reuters and Agence France Presse, the removal of rape and adultery from the intransigent dictates of the Hudood Ordinances seems soon to become official law.

The lower house voted through the Women's Protection Bill amendments, and all that remains is for the bill to be approved by the upper house.

After the vote, prime minister Shaukat Aziz told the National Assembly: "It is a historic bill because it will give rights to women and help end excesses against them."

Before the vote took place, the members of the MMA stormed out of the parliament building.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 10:29 AM | Comments (0)

Syria: Famous Pastor Shills for the Enemy

The purpose-driven Jihad; kill the Jews, oppress the Chistians? You make the call: Purpose-Driven Terrorism

Syria's state-controlled media is lavishingly boasting that California mega-church pastor Rick Warren, during his visit in Damascus, has endorsed the Syrian pespective on the Middle East. Not only that; Warren has reportedly promised to carry that state sponsor of terrorism's propaganda message back to the U.S.

Warren, pastor of the 30,000 member Saddleback Church and author of the best-selling The Purpose-Driven Life (over 30 million copies sold), is increasingly drifting in a Religious Left direction.[...]

Note: Pastor Warren follows in the footsteps of (in)famous white supremacist David Duke, in volunteering to serve as a tool of Syrian propaganda.

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 9:45 AM | Comments (0)

Philippines: Islamist Bombing Campaign Aimed At Mindanao

News from the Manila Standard, Reuters AlertNet, International Herald Tribune, Zamboanga Sun Star, the Peninsula, Deutsche Presse Agentur and the Philippine Star and Manila Times details the current state of Islamic militancy in the Philippines.

This morning, police announced that they had arrested an alleged suspect involved in the string of bomb attacks which took place on October 10 and 11 in southwestern Mindanao. Six people were killed at Tacurong City in Sultan Kudarat, Makilala City in North Cotabato province and at Cotabato city. The governor of North Cotabato Province, Emmanuel Pinol, had said the bombs were the work of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), and for a while, charges were laid against Murad Ebrahim, leader of the MILF. These charges were later withdrawn. MILF is currently engaged in peace negotiations with the Filipino government, which had recently stalled.

The suspect for the October bombings has been named as Blah Platon . He was arrested near Tacurong City on Monday morning. Police spokesman Willie Dangane said: "We caught him carrying a bomb fashioned from a 105mm mortar and several blasting caps that were all placed in a black bag."

Blah, a resident of Miguandano, had been subject to a bounty of 175,000 Philippine Pesos ($3,490). He was captured after several days of police surveillance. Dangane said that Blah had revealed vital information and named other individuals during interrogation. He also said that Blah had been involved in blasts which took place in Koronadal City, South Cotabato, in 2003, which killed 12 and injured more than 50 others. At least four blasts took place. One on May 10 killed nine people and wounded 40. On July 11, another blast killed three, including an 11 year old girl. Most of the injured in the July attack had been children.

Blah had also been part of a group which had abducted several employees of the PNOC petrochemical company several years ago, and also a Chinese businessman in M'lang, North Cotabato province.

The information which Blah has revealed is disturbing for residents on Mindanao. he was trained by Jemaah Islamiyah, the mainly Indonesian terror group which carried out the Bali bombings of October 12, 2002, which killed 202 people, and on October 1 last year, which killed 20.

According to Chief Superintendent German Doria, a regional police chief, Blah Plaon has said that Jemaah Islamiyah is planning to carry out large-scale bomb attacks on the cities of Davao and Cotabato. Blah had said that 50 improvised bombs were to be shipped to the target areas within the year.

Intelligence reports have said that there are six foreign bombers from Jemaah Islamiyah who are hiding out with Muslim militants in the southern Philippines. These comprise four Indonesians, a SIngaporean and a Malaysian. The information on these individuals came from Istiada Binti Oemar Sovie, the wife of a leading Jemaah Islamiyah activist called Dulmatin. The woman is currently awaiting deportation for trying to enter the Philippines illegally. Her husband is currently hiding with Islamist militants on the island of Jolo in the maritime province of Sulu. He is accompanied by another leading Jemaah Islamiyah activist, Umar Patek.

According to Chief Supt. Romeo Ricardo, director of the National Police Intelligence Group, the intentions of Jemaah Islamiyah to mount a bombing campaign in the southern Philippines have been formulated for some time. He said that Dulmatin and Patek could not find potential suicide bombers from the Filipino militants. As a result, they were forced to look for suicide bombers from Indonesia who would be prepared to mount attacks in the Philippines.

Ricardo said: "Based on intelligence reporting around last year... Umar Patek was communicating with his contacts in Indonesia asking his contacts to recruit suicide bombers from among the militants in Indonesia."

The six people named by Istiada Binti Oemar Sovie, Dulmatin's wife, are believed to be mounting the recruitment of suicide bombers for the Philippines bombing campaign.

Ricardo said: "We learned that they were also seeking recruits from Java and Sulawesi to carry out suicide bomb attacks in the Philippines because they could not find any volunteer among Filipino rebels."

So farm in decades of Islamic militancy in the Philippines, there has never been a Filipino suicide bomber to date.

Ricardo also said that the authorities were monitoring the activities of Christian converts to Islam, from the Rajah Solaiman Movement, who appeared to be planning attacks upon Manila, the capital. These individuals had been monitored around Metro Manila and the nearby provinces of Cavite and Bulucan. Ricardo claimed that two or three members, who had been trained by Jemaah Islamiyah on Mindanao may be planning simultaneous bombings in densely populated areas.

However, Ricardo said that the Rajah Solaiman movement had been severely weakened and there were no more than 20 active militants left.

The problem of Islamic militancy in the Philippines has a complex history. In the south of the archipelago, on the large island of Mindanao, a large proportion of the population are Muslim, mostly of the Moro or Bangsamoro ethnic groups. Three million Muslims live on Mindanao. There were two sultanates in the south, one based at Sulu and the other at Miguandanao in the west of Mindanao, centered around the region which is now included within the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao or ARMM, near Cotabato. While the rest of the Philippines became Christian, these sultanates resisted and retained their Islamic identity.

The sultanate of Miguandanao still continues, but in name only. On January 11 this year, the 25th sultan of Miguandanao, Datu Amir Baraguir, was shot dead. He may have been killed by Islamists, as, prior to becoming the sultan in 2005, he ran a newspaper column, in which he encouraged Muslims and Christians to live together.

Historically, when the Spaniards under Miguel Lopez de Legazpi arrived in Manila Bay in the late 16th century, Muslim imperialism was already taking place in Maynilad (as the main center of Luzon island was then known), under the leadership of Rajah Soliman (Sulayman), who originally came from Borneo. Now, 84% of the population is Christian, and 7% is Muslim.

The term Bangsamoro means in Malay "Moro homeland", and is now used to define 11 ethnic groups. There have been two major movements to "liberate" the southern Moro peoples from Filipino rule. These are the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), traditionally based in the Liguasan marsh of Mindanao and formed in 1977, and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). The latter group are led by . When the ARMM was officially inaugurated on November 6, 1990, Nur Misauri, head of MNLF, was made its first governor. This followed a peace deal, signed on August 30, 1996, brokered by Indonesia.

After being governor of ARMM for five years, Misauri went back to his roots as a rebel. In November 2001, he ordered an attack upon an army base in Jolo (Sulu province) and then became a fugitive in Malaysia, thence deported back to the Philippines, where he is currently in jail. Despite his history as a trouble-maker, the OIC countries see Misauri as the representative of the Moro peoples.

MILF had an estimated 2,900 "soldiers" at the end of last year, but in December it seems they began a recruitment campaign which has swollen their numbers. They led a brief insurgency against the Philippines government in 1987, but have recently been engaged in protracted peace talks with the Filipino government, which have been brokered by Malaysia. Last month, the peace talks stalled over disputes about the size of territory to be under their control. Murad Ibrahim leads the MILF.

Historically, MILF had been linked with Jemaah Islamiyah since the 1990s, when they both took part in running the Hudaybiyah terror training camp in western Mindanao. The leader of Jemaah Islamiyah at that time was Hambali, or Nurjaman Riduan Ismuddin. Hambali was arrested in Thailand on August 15, 2003. He is now residing in Guantanamo.

To add to the mix of dissidents in the Philippines, there are the Islamist groups who use terrorism to achieve similar goals to the MNLF and MILF.

The group Abu Sayyaf, formed in the 1980s is more involved in banditry than political aims, and specializes in kidnappings and beheadings. It set bombs on a ferry carrying 900 passengers in the Bay of Manila on February 27, 2004. The ensuing fire on the ship saw 116 people killed. Abu Sayyaf's center of operations include Miguandanao and Mindanao, the island of Basilan, and also the island of Jolo. The leader of Abu Sayyaf is Khaddafy Janjalani, who has a $10 million bounty on his head from the US Rewards for Justice scheme.

A smaller group involved in insurgent activities is Abu Sofia. On January 2005 its leader Bebis Binago was killed but the group, which is allied to Abu Sayyaf, continues to exist. It has some links with MILF. In July, three Abu Sofia operatives were arrested in Sultan Kudarat in Miguandanao.

The other faction in Islamic radicalism is drawn from the tradition of "Balik Islam" - the converts from Catholicism who regard themselves as returning to their roots. They call themselves "reverts" and believe that if Miguel Lopez de Legazpi had not been successful, the Philippines would have been entirely Muslim by now.

The faction from these converts which is involved in terrorism is called Rajah Solaiman, after the 16th century Borneo-born ruler of Luzon. This group is small, but has allied itself with both Abu Sayyaf and the larger, al-Qaeda-linked terror group Jemaah Islamiyah.

On February 14 2005, members of Rajah Solaiman, Jemaah Islamiyah and Abu Sayyaf joined forces to carry out a series of multiple bombings, known as the Valentine's Day bombings. A bus in Makati city, Manila's financial district was bombed, killing four, and other bombs took place in Davao. Eight people died and more than 150 people were killed in the Valentine's Day attacks. Rajah Solaiman are active on Luzon (Manila) and also around the region of Zamboanga province on Mindanao, where they act as "couriers" for Abu Sayyaf. Last September Abu Sayyaf had mounted a recruitment campaign in the Zamboanga region, trying to attract Christian converts to it cause.

The groups listed above, sharing a common purpose of independence from the Philippines, have links with each other. From November 11, 2005 until a truce was made on January 20, members of MNLF joined with Abu Sayyaf on the island of Jolo, and mounted an insurgency against Filipino troops stationed on the island. Abu Sayyaf on Jolo is led by the one-armed horse-riding local leader Radullan Sahiron. The truce was brokered by MNLF leader Nur Misauri from his jail cell.

Some Abu Sayyaf members had been hiding on Mindanao, in the Liguasan Marsh on Mindanao, territory of the MILF. Last year, two Jemaah Islamiyah leaders, Dulmatin and Umar Patek had taken refuge there. It is believed they found refuge with a senior MILF leader who was in conflict with his group. Dulmatin (real name Amar bin Usman, pictured right) and Patek are wanted for their role in the October 12, 2002, bombings on Bali which killed 202 people. the US is offering a bounty of $10 million for Dulmatin, and $1 million for Umar Patek.

As a result, the Liguasan Marsh region was bombed by Filipino forces in November and again in January. About 20 Abu Sayyaf members, including the leader Khadaffy Janjalani and also Dulmatin and Umar Patek fled to the island of Jolo. Two other JI members, Zulkifli bin Hir and Abdul Rahman Ayub who were hiding with the Abu Sayyaf also fled. They took refuge in the south of the island.

There is an American presence on Jolo, though these are involved in training Philippines military rather than any active involvement in conflict. After US satellite imaging located the mountainside base, it was bombed by Filipino forces on August 1. The operation to capture or remove the Abu Sayyaf leadership and the JI activists on Jolo has continued since.

On October 6 it was announced that Dulmatin's wife, Istiada Oemar Sovie, aka Amenah Toha, had been captured as she tried to enter Jolo with her two children, aged 6 and 8.

Yesterday, It was announced by Associated Press that the names of the six Jemaah Islamiyah activists named by Dulmatin's wife appeared in a debriefing report. The Singaporean has been named as Manobo, and the four Indonesians have been identified as Baharin, Zae, Tom and Karim. The name of the Malaysian was not in the report. They are all believed to be with Dulmatin and Umar Patek in Sulu.

On Monday, a briefing attended by ambassadors from the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Japan was hosted by Lt. Gen. Eugenio Cedo, the command chief of Western Mindanao Armed Forces.

Cedo said that despite reports that Khadaffy Janjalani, head of Abu Sayyaf, and Dulmatin and Umar Patek had fled Jolo/Sulu to the island of Basilan, he said he was convinced that they remained in Sulu province. He said that troops were combing the jungles to find them. "As of now the operation is ongoing on the assumption that they are there in Sulu." he said.

Nine army and marine battalions, guided by US intelligence, have been engaged in the hunt for the terrorists.

An unnamed intelligence source has said that the terrorists have been looking for a fast boat that will take them out of Jolo without being noticed by the military. "There is a camp of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) at Puerto Santa Maria in Siocon [Zamboanga del Norte], aside from the Kalibugan tribesmen whom Janjalani could always rely on for protection while he and his group are in Zamboanga del Norte," the source said. "Janjalani is planning to retrace this escape route to Siocon, just the way they did when they transferred the Burnham couple out of Sulu."

The "Burnham couple" were Gracia and Martin Burnham, US missionaries, who were kidnapped on 27 May, 2001 from Dos Palmas resort on Palawan island, where they were on holiday, celebrating their 18th wedding anniversary. 20 people were kidnapped, including Guillermo Sobero from California. Within a month, the kidnappers announced that they had beheaded 40-year old Mr Guillermo, because Abu Sayyaf had wanted a military rescue operation to cease, and the new government of Gloria Arroyo had not capitulated to their demands.

On Monday October 8 a skull was found on a tree stump on the island of Basilan. Four days later it was confirmed that the skull, and bones discovered nearby, belonged to Guillermo Sobero. 12 Filipino hostages had been decapitated by the Abu Sayyaf by then. Three Filipinos had managed to escape. An attempt to rescue the Burnhams on June 7, 2002, ended in tragedy. Martin Burnham, who had been kept in chains, was shot dead, as was a Filipino nurse. Gracia Burnham was injured, but alive.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 8:14 AM | Comments (0)

November 14, 2006

UK: A Decade Of Radical Islam On College Campuses

On September 14 last year, Ruth Kelly addressed a conference of university leaders from Universities UK (UUK) at their headquarters in Tavistock Square. Kelly then was speaking in her capicity as education secretary. Only nine weeks earlier, on July 7, Hasib Hussain had detonated a rucksack full of triacetone triperoxide on board a Number 30 bus in the road outside, killing 13 people.

Kelly said to the university heads: "Following the London bomb attacks in July, we are all having to re-examine certain policies. I believe that higher education institutions need to identify and confront unacceptable behaviour on their premises and within their communities. That means informing the police where criminal offences are being perpetrated or where there may be concerns about possible criminal acts. Institutions have a duty to support and look after the moderate majority as they study, to ensure that those students are not harassed, intimidated or pressured."

The day before her meeting, the Social Affairs Unit had published a report detailing 24 universities where Islamic radicalism was said to be flourishing. These included: Birmingham, Brunel, Durham, Leeds, Leeds Metropolitan, Luton, Leicester, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Reading, Swansea, and Wolverhampton.

The main threat to university students was seen to come from Al Muhajiroun, a group led by radical cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed which had officially disbanded in 2004, and the international Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir. The first British branch of this movement, which despises democracy and wishes to establish a Caliphate, was founded by Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed. Both groups had been officially banned from university campuses.

Less than a week after Kelly's speech to university heads, Middlesex University became embroiled in a debate. The head of its Student Union, Keith Shilson, had invited representatives of Hizb ut-Tahrir to a question and answer session which it wanted to hold at its Trent Park campus on September 28, 2005. Even the notorious left wing National Union of Students (NUS) had officially banned Hizb ut-Tahrir from its unions because of their support for terrorism and for "publishing material that incites racial hatred".

Shilson was escorted from Middlesex University and had his studentship terminated. This evoked angry responses from Imran Waheed, spokesman for Hizb ut-Tahrir, who said: "Muslim students want to be able to engage in legitimate political expression at universities without fear of being branded 'extremist'." Faisal Hanjra of FOSIS (The Federation of Student Islamic Societies) said: "The recent media hype about extremism on campus has already done its damage, thanks to unfounded allegations linking 'Islamism' with individual universities."

The issue of Muslim extremism in Britain's colleges had been brewing for years, yet had rarely been objectively addressed. Though now the incident has been largely forgotten, the first outward sign of college radicalism manifested itself in 1995, more than a decade ago. The incident took place at Newham College of Further Education in east London, near where the extremist Islamic group Tablighi Jamaat currently wishes to construct a mega-mosque.

On Monday, February 27, 1995 at around 1 pm, an African student at the college was entering the building. A large group of Muslims were distributing leaflets. It is said that the student, Ayotunde David Obanubi, took a leaflet and then laughed. This caused the Muslims (of Pakistani/Bangladeshi origin) to pile onto him. About fifteen young Islamists, some of whom were already carrying knives and hammers, attacked Ayotunde. He was stabbed through the heart, and died on the college steps.

I remember the case I was living in east London at the time. This was the first time that I had heard of Muslim girl students being intimidated into wearing Muslim headscarfs, a practice carried out by the Muslims at Newham College. It was reported that the victim was also a Muslim, but did not agree with the ideology of his attackers.

The Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity (ISIC) reported in a pdf document from the time that: "Hizb ut-Tahrir is strongly implicated in the killing of a Nigerian student at Newham College of Further Education, East London, on 27 February. The Nigerian, Ayotunde Obanubi, was stabbed by a group of Asians at 1.05 pm in the college grounds. The incident took place four days after Omar Bakri, the leader of Hizb ut-Tahrir had addressed a group of 200 students at the college to mark the end of Ramadan, and three days after another (non-fatal) knifing incident at the college. Fellow students believe that Obanubi may have insulted Ramadan. Hizb ut-Tahrir followers have also been running Ramadan Radio, an FM station providing 20 hours a day of religious lectures and Middle East politics (but no music) for London Muslims.

The previous knife incident had involved Ayotunde Obanubi as the victim. On Friday February 24, he had received a light stab wound in the left arm from Abdul Qadir, brother of one of those accused of his murder.
In 1996, four Muslims stood trial at the Old Bailey for Ayotunde Obanubi's murder - Saeed Mustapha Nur, 27, Yusuf Sofu, 20, Umran Qadir, 17 and Kazi Rehman, 18. The prosecution claimed that Saeed Nur had inflicted the fatal knife wound. Nur had earlier said to Obanubi: "don't mess with Muslim boys and my religion."

Saeed Nur was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommendation of 15 years' imprisonment. Though not a student at the college, Nur had led the Muslims. Umran Wali Qadir was also found guilty of murder. He had struck Obanubi's head with a hammer during the attack. He had been 16 at the time of the attack. He was sentenced to be detained a Her Majesty's pleasure with a recommendation that he serve 10 years in jail.

Behind the intimidation and fanaticism on Newham College's grounds, there was Hizb-ut Tahrir, and the influence of Syrian-born Omar Bakri Mohammed. This man, a former member of the Muslim Brotherhood, had arrived as an asylum seeker into Britain in 1985, after he had been expelled from Saudi Arabia for being a member of a banned group - Al-Muhajiroun. He had set up this entity in 1983, as a cover for Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is banned in Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries.

Bakri remained in Britain, organizing Hizb ut-Tahrir and also ensuring that Al Muhajiroun flourished. In October 2004 Al-Muhajiroun was officially disbanded, after being proscribed by the government. Omar Khan Sharif, who had failed to blow up Mike's Bar in Tel Aviv on April 30, 2003, had been a follower of Hizb-ut Tahrir in his home town of Derby. His companion Asif Hanif had killed three and injured 65. It was widely believed that Al Muhajiroun had helped the two UK suicide bombers to link up with Hamas who organized the attack.

Bakri had supervised the formation of new groups from the former membership of Al Muhajiroun, the Saviour sect and Al Ghurabaa. The Saviour Sect soon changed its name to the Saved Sect, before being banned in September this year. They still operate under the same leaders, Abu Izzadeen and Anjem Choudary, though under the new name of Ahl ul-Sunnah Wa al-Jamma. This tactic of changing names to avoid attracting attention is also employed by Hizb-ut Tahrir.

Though banned from universities and colleges, Hizb-ut Tahrir last year began to operate on campuses under the name of Stop Islamophobia, as the Sunday Times reported on October 16 last year. In August 2005, Tony Blair announced that he wanted to ban Hizb-ut Tahrir, but to this date that has not happened.

Stop Islamophobia set up stalls at Luton University, two campuses of London University (the School of African and Oriental Studies and Queen Mary College) and also London Metropolitan University.

In November last year, Ann Cryer, Labour MP for Keighley announced that at one West Yorkshire University, Hizb ut Tahrir were still active, intimidating Muslim women into wearing the hijab, or Muslim headscarf. She did not mention the establishment by name, lest it dissudaed people from enrolling, but it appears to have been the University of Bradford. Cryer told MPs that she remained stunned by the radicals' attitudes. One young man denied bullying Muslim women about the way they dressed, saying he "merely explained what will happen to them in the afterlife if they continue to dress inappropriately", she said.

This weekend, the Sunday Times reported that at least four British universities have been infiltrated by Islamic extremists. Sheikh Musa Admani is a Muslim chaplain at London Metropolitan University, who runs a charity which tries to turn young Muslims away from radical groups. The charity he heads is the Luqman Institute of Education and Development.

He claims that the extremists manage to get around university bans by forming societies with alternative names, or by presenting themselves as "ordinary Muslims". He sends volunteers to different universities, and has had reports of radicals operating at Brunel University, Bedfordshire University in Luton, Sheffield Hallam University.

Unfortunately for Admani's vigilance on other campuses, he failed to recognize what was happening in his own college. The Islamic Society at London Metropolitan University was run by Waheed Zaman, a member of the Tablighi Jamaat. The Telegraph reported that inside the two portable cabins used by the Islamic Society, their reporters found audi cassettes produced by Al Muhajiroun, and other extremist, ati-Western propaganda. Zaman, a biochemistry student, was arrested on August 10 for his alleged involvement with the air terror plot, which would have seen transatlantic aircraft brought down by liquid explosives.

At Kingston University in southwest London, a Muslim cleric called Shakeel Begg had recently urged students to wage jihad in Palestine. In a clandestinely recorded speech, Begg said to students: "You want to make jihad? Very good...Take some money and go to Palestine and fight, fight the terrorists, fight the Zionists."

Asif Hanif, who blew himself up at Mike's Bar in Tel Aviv in 2003, had attended Kingston University.

Shakeel Begg is himself a Muslim Chaplain at Goldsmiths College, London University. At Staffordshire University, a discussion claiming to be about "God's Word" transpired to be a lecture by a former member of Al-Muhajiroun.

Spokespeople for the colleges listed by the Luqman Institute have said that they will act to prevent extremism being preached on their campuses. In practice, when groups change their names and re-brand themselves, it is hard to keep track of all that goes on on a busy campus.

Musa Admani said: "We are dealing with people filled with hatred. It's hatred for the white man and the West in particular, because they have read the works of Qutb and Maududi who set Muslims apart from everyone else."

Dhiren Barot was recently sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 40 years behind bars for plotting terror attacks, had used a forged pass to do research at Brunel University.

Last week, Dame Eliza Manningham-Uller, the head of the intelligence agency MI5 made a speech about the UK terror threat, in which she said that young people are particularly vulnerable to the influences of extremist Islam. She claimed: "It is the youth who are being actively targeted, groomed, radicalized and set on a path that frighteningly quickly could end in their involvement in mass murder of their fellow citizens or their early death in a suicide attack or on a foreign battlefield."

Paul WIlkinson is a professor at the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at St Andrews University, Scotland. He echoes Dame Eliza's sentiments. He says that security agencies are concerned "that there are considerable efforts being made by the extremist organizations to recruit further young people into the groups that are being trained and indoctrinated to carry out terrorist attacks. I think that in the long term the most important thing we can do is to make sure that young people are not being lured into this."

Bob Ayers, a terror analyst from Chatham House, says that with a population of 1.6 million Muslims in Britain, it is not hard for extremists to recruit for their own ends. He said: "Out of a population that large, it's easy to identify a hundred or a thousand or two thousand people that have extremist tendencies, extremist sentiments."

There is no doubt that Muslim radicalism is flourishing on Britain's university campuses, as it flourishes in the communities from which Muslim students hail from. Last year, on July 7, this radicalism found its natural outlet. Four young British Muslims attacked London Transport and killed 52 people. The events of 7/7 sounded alarm bells and analysts rushed to examine where such hatred had originated.

This virulent antipathy towards Western values has been nurtured over a long period. Where 7/7 was seen as a "wake-up" call, the signs had been there for more than a decade, but nothing had been done.

When supporters of Hizb-ut Tahrir knifed Ayotunde Obanubi through the heart in February 1995, all signs were pointing to the negative influence of Islamists upon the young. Yet the extremists were not taken seriously. Before I left London in 1998, Channel 4 did a feature documentary on Omar Bakri Mohammed, where the Islamist sheikh was portrayed as a buffoon, a figure of fun. The sheikh, shown going on a fishing trip with his acolytes, played along with the charade.

The young men who followed Bakri like fawning whelps have matured. Now aged 49, Anjem Choudary is free to announce his own death fatwas against people who insult Islam, including Pope Benedict XVI. In 1995, Obanubi was the first person in Britain to be executed for "insulting Islam", but no-one took notice. The event was seen as an aberration, not the first blood in a war that will eventually engulf the hearts and minds of British subjects, Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

Hizb-ut Tahrir has been in existence since 1952, when it was founded in Jerusalem by an Islamic jurist, Taqiuddin al-Nabhani. It is banned in most Middle Eastern countries, and is proscribed in all Central Asian states, in the Netherlands, in Germany, and it has been outlawed in Russia since 2002. It is even banned in Pakistan. Omar Bakri Mohammed may be caricatured as a buffoon, but he is no such thing. He started Hizb ut Tahrir in Britain with a reason - as a means to overthrow the government. A decade ago, people laughed at his pretension, instead of taking him seriously, as a threat.

In April 2004, he said: "We don't make a distinction between civilians and non-civilians, innocents and non-innocents. Only between Muslims and unbelievers. And the life of an unbeliever has no value. It has no sanctity."

Even today in Lebanon, where he fled to last summer, fearing prosecution, Omar Bakri Mohammed is still taking part in web forums where he eulogizes acts of terror carried out in the name of jihad. Hizb ut Tahrir followers are to be shown on BBC Newsnight this evening (November 14), engaged in a acts of mugging and intimidation in south London. The official organization denies responsibility for these Muslim gangsters who claim to be Hizb ut Tahrir.

But the indoctrination which Omar Bakri Mohammed brought to his young followers never involved condemnation of acts of violence. Bakri was "spiritual leader" to the Saviour Sect and Al Ghurabaa. A month after 7/7, the Sunday Times reported that one of its undercover reporters had witnessed seven members of the Saviour Sect beating up a young Muslim on a street in East London, for "insulting" their version of Islam. The victim was described by the sect as a "Kaffir" (unbeliever). The group was taught to live off state benefits, as the prophet Mohammed had lived off the state while simultaneously attacking it.

Hizb ut-Tahrir's spokesman, Dr Imran Waheed, has said that the can be "no possibility of harmonious co-existence between Islam and the West. Ultimately, one has to prevail."

It is easy to say that Hizb ut Tahrir are "extremists" which they undoubtedly are. But all that they, or the former Al Muhajiroun members in Al Ghurabaa, the Saved Sect and now Ahl ul-Sunnah Wa al-Jamma believe in, ultimately derives from the Koran and the Hadiths. To label groups within Islam as "extremists", "radicals" or "fundamentalists" is to subscribe tacitly to the notion that these are an aberration, that they do not represent "true" Islam.

On Friday the head of the BNP, Nick Griffin, was cleared by a jury of 12 people of "inciting racial hatred" for calling Islam a "wicked, vicious faith". Within hours of the jury's verdict (in a retrial), Gordon Brown the chancellor, and Lord Falconer of Thoroton, the Lord Chancellor, were talking of amending the law to make it easier to prosecute people who make similar statements. Islam is a religion, but it is also a political ideology. Its ethos is to dominate. To ignore that, is to deny the truth of our predicament.

Laboring under the illusion that Islam is a religion like Christianity, Buddhism or Judaism, and inherently peaceful at heart, politicians like Gordon Brown are upholding a falsehood. Most Muslims are peaceful law-abiding citizens. But this is in spite of, and not because of Islam.

As Hizb ut Tahrir states on its own website, the formation of a Caliphate is only a first step to global domination. "It (Hizb ut Tahrir) also aims to bring back the Islamic guidance for mankind and to lead the Ummah into a struggle with Kufr, its systems and its thoughts so that Islam encapsulates the world."

Eleven years ago, when Ayotunde Obanubi was stabbed and beaten to death by angry young Muslims influenced by Omar Bakri Mohammed and Hizb ut Tahrir, something could have been done to have countered the proliferation of jihadist ideology. But Bakri was allowed to preach, as was Abdullah el-Faisal, as was Omar Bakri Mohammed. As their sermons became more threatening of Western values, they became more popular among the young. And those who had listened to them, such as Richard Reid, the four bombers of 7/7, went on to commit acts of terror.

A new young generation of Muslims is being reared for slaughter and the promise of a few virgins in Jannah (Heaven). There is nothing in place now to stop the domino effect of militancy, spreading through the young of Britain's Muslim communities. There is no such thing as "moderate Islam". "Moderate" Islam is a dream, clung to by the desperate. Moderate Islam is heretical Islam. The guardians of the true words of Islam, the inheritors of the mission set out by the "prophet" who declared "I am made victorious through terror", are those who are now being portrayed as being on the outside edge of Islam. Unlike the nominal "moderate"" Muslims who may go to mosque once a week, these "outsiders" know the Koran implicitly, they know the Hadiths, they know what they represent. They stand at the heart of Islam, the ideology whose very name means "Submission."

As long as we delude ourselves that the Islam preached by extremists and potential terrorists is not a pure and undiluted form of Islam we will be subsumed, and forced to submit to its rule faster than we may think.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 4:12 PM | Comments (1)

Serbia: Grenade Attack At Muslim Activist's Home

News from Focus, B92 and Associated Press reports that a grenade was thrown into the bedroom of a Muslim political activist of the Democratic Action Party (SDA) early this morning. The attack happened in Novi Pazar, Sandzak, around 3 am while the activist and his wife were sleeping. Mahmut Hajrovic was injured in the blast, but his wife Zumreta suffered serious injuries.

Zumreta Hajrovic received injuries all over her body, but particularly in her abdomen. Both were admitted to hospital, and Mrs Hajrovic was operated upon. Though her condition is said to be serious, it is not thought to be life-threatening. The unknown assailant broke the window of their bedroom before throwing the grenade.

The two sons of the family live in the same house as their parents, with their own families, but they were unharmed. Police in Novi Pazar are investigating.

Novi Pazar is the main town in the mainly agricultural Sandzak region of southwest Serbia. Sandzak is a Muslim enclave. Novi Pazar has a population of 52,000 and has an established textile industry and is the business hub of Sandzak.

There has been talk of recent strife between Muslim political parties, which can occasionally erupt into episodes of shootings, but whether the assailant's motives were political, or religious, is not known. The party which Mahmut Hajrovic supports, the SDA, is led by a Muslim, Dr Ibrahim Rugova. The SDA has long campaigned to have the region of Sandzak made into a republic, independent of Serbia.

Novi Pazar is in many ways isolated from the mainstream of Serbian life. An apartment here costs 750 Euros ($960) per square meter, compared to 400 Euros ($512) in central Serbian cities such as Kraljevo and Kragujevac.

Over the last few years, the actions of the SDA have been blamed for an exodus of the minority population of ethnic Serbs from the city of Novi Pazar to other regions of Serbia. Where Serbs formerly comprised 22% they are now only 17% of the population of the city. There are fears that this will increase the demands of the SDA and others for independence, perhaps provoking a civil conflict. Some of the SDA members also wish to have themselves incorporated into Bosnia. The local Muslims in the Sandzak region describe themselves as "Bosniaks".

Moves to join Montenegro into the political region of Serbia are not helped by Bosniak desires for secession from the nation, as Sandzak lies along the border of Montenegro.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 10:54 AM | Comments (0)

Russia: A Mosque At Baba Yaga's Birthplace

Interfax-Religion reports that a mosque is to be opened at Furmanov, in the region of Ivanovo Oblast in Central Russia, this month. What marks this location as special in the eyes of Russians and Slavs is that it is the legendary birthplace for the figure of Baba Yaga, the mythical witch, who is herself a symbol of the old religion of Russia, predating Orthodox Christianity.

In folklore, Baba Yaga is described as an emaciated hag with iron teeth, who could ride in a mortar, steered with a pestle, dragging her broomstick to sweep away the traces of where she would fly. Her home was a hut, which stood on stilts. Some tales say the hut stood on chicken's legs, and could spin around, making screeching noises as it turned. The hut was surrounded by a fence of bones. Though said to consume humans, Baba Yaga is an incarnation of the Earth Mother, and was said to have wisdom.

Fyarit Lyapin, head of the local Muslim Religious Center says the Mosque at Baba Yaga's birthplace will be able to house several dozen worshippers. He said: "We are convinced that the mosque would not stand empty even on weekdays. We open it at the request of Muslims living in the town who have no place to worship."

When asked about whether he felt embarrassed with his mosque located in the region of a "fairy tale" character, Lyapin said: "We firmly believe that those who trust the one God are stronger than any fairly tale character allegedly endowed with bewitching powers."

Baba Yaga is more than just a fairy tale figure. She is a memory of a pagan goddess who controlled nature, and as the wizened crone who can sometimes transform into a young woman, she inhabits the realm of Jungian archetype. She has been powerful enough to hold the imagination of children long after she was first worshipped as an elemental goddess by the early Slavs. Her mythology will continue long into the future, whether mosques inhabit her region or not.

The illustration shown is by Russian folk artist and stage designer Ivan Bilibin (August 16, 1876 - February 7, 1942), from the book Vassilisa The Beautiful.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 9:18 AM | Comments (2)

UK: Cardiff Mosque Blaze

A mosque in Cardiff has been on fire this morning. A blaze began on the second floor (first floor US) and then spread to the roof. Fire crews were called at 8.25 am. The BBC states that police are looking for a man of Middle Eastern appearance who was seen in the area. The man is in his 20s, and wearing a dark hat and coat.

The Medina Mosque in Woodville Road, Cathays, Cardiff, has been the scene of previous controversy. The mosque cost £5 million to build, and was designed by architects from Cairo, Egypt. The Medina Mosque is the largest in Wales, with room for 3,000 worshippers.

Cardiff is no stranger to mosques. The very first registered mosque in Britain was one in Cardiff, from 1860. Currently there is a large Muslim community in Cardiff, the regional capital of Wales, with members coming from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Yemen and Somalia.

Last month, the Charity Commision launched a preliminary investigation into funds which had been gathered at the Medina Mosque for victims of the Pakistan earthquake of October 8, 2005.

£56,000 ($106,248) had been gathered for relief operations, with £33,000 ($62,610) used to purchase medical equipment, including a ventilator, for two hospitals, £14,000 ($26,561) for buying jackets and £9,000 ($17,076) was sent to the Pakistani High Commission in London for relief aid.

The mosque trustees said that all of the money had been accounted for, and were putting together an internal audit. The Charity Commission had become involved because there appeared to be little transparency about the accumulation and distribution of funds.

The Charity Commission had brought in by some members of the mosque, as they claimed the mosque trustees had not been open about the donations and their eventual destinations. The complainants had said they wanted independent auditors to be brought in to resolve the issue.

In September there was another controversy at the Mosque where a meeting was called to decide if a motion of no-confidence in the mosque's elected committee could be brought.

With a history of internal dispute and the reporting of a man of "Middle Eastern" appearance being spotted near the scene, it appears highly probable that this mosque fire was neither an accident, nor an act of racism or Islamophobia.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 7:06 AM | Comments (0)

November 13, 2006

UK: Love Is A Many Wrinkled Thing (If You're a Muslim Terror Suspect)

This morning, BBC Breakfast News showed an interview with a very sad old woman, who claims to be very happy, because Cupid has shot his dart and hit her in the brain. The old age pensioner, who calls herself Farzana, wears a nikab or face-veil.

She can be found here, where the BBC provides a link to a video clip. Here, the elderly lady, a convert to Islam, explains how she fell in love with a man who is regarded by the government as a terrorist with Al Qaeda connections. Her inamorata is a middle-aged Algerian known only as "P". He is one of 27 foreign nationals whom the government wants to deport.

"P" has already been in prison, but now he is allowed out, under very strict conditions. He is on a curfew which means he can only leave his home in a London suburb for three hours a day. He is electronically tagged, so the authorities can check where he is at all times. P is said to have been involved in a plan to bomb Strasbourg in 2000.

This plot involved several North Africans who plotted to bomb Strasbourg Christmas Market, under the leadership of Mohammed Bensakhria. Nine people have already been convicted of this plot in 2004 in France.

P is also linked to Abu Hamza al-Masri, who was jailed for seven years for incitement to murder on February 7.

A Home Office spokesman has said: "Where a foreign national living in the UK poses a threat to this country, we will seek to remove them. The circumstances of our national security have changed. It is vital that we act against those who threaten it which is why the government has signalled a new approach to deportation orders under existing grounds."

P told the BBC that before he met "Farzana", whose real name is Anne, that his life under government restrictions was "unbearable".

Anne/Farzana has said of the object of her affections: "He is no terrorist. I am 100% sure he is innocent. My family were horrified. They accused me of marrying a terrorist and I am trying to tell them he is not a terrorist."

And in a romantic style worthy of the worst B-movie, the pair have become "married". And the romance is so real that this Islamic wedding took place over the telephone. Farzana describes this magical moment: "I was just asked over the phone if I would marry him and of course I said yes."

Farzana's family have refused to speak to her since she embarked on married life with Mr P. The wedding is not legally binding, and certainly will not prevent the suspected terrorist's eventual deportation. The couple have applied for permission to have a formal, legal wedding.

If a real wedding takes place, then the chances are that P could argue against deportation. Farzana does not seem to consider the possibility that she is being used. She says: "I had no doubts and still have no doubts. He means everything to me, otherwise I would not have given up my previous life."

There is an old English saying, which here seems applicable - "There is no fool like an old fool."

The BBC report makes no mention of whether this marriage has been consummated. Perhaps it would be better not to think about that......

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 4:12 PM | Comments (0)

Bosnia: Muslims Upset By Wahhabi Leaders

The problem of Wahhabism, the Salafist doctrine which originated in Saudi Arabia, which makes few compromises with anything other than its own doctrines, has led to conflict with the Muslims of Bosnia. Wahhabism was an alien ideology to the Muslims of former Yugoslavia, though in the Bosnian war of 1992 - 1995, it became imported by radical Muslims. These had been invited to the region by then-president Alija Izetbegovic. Muslim fighters had flocked from various Muslim countries, including Middle Eastern countries such as Syria, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

Izetbegovic was president of Bosnia-Hercegovina from 1990 onwards. When the civil war began in 1992, he invited Mujahideen fighters to the region, incorporating them into the Bosnian amy. They formed the majority of the 7th Muslim Brigade when it was founded on November 19, 1992, and in August 13, 1993 foreign Mujahideen formed the "El Mujahed" Unit.

Izetbegovic was portrayed by the Clinton administration as a moderate, though it was recently revealed that he was in the pay of a Saudi Al Qaeda operative, Yassin al-Khadi (Yassin al Qadi). Izetbegovic was also in direct communication with Osama bin Laden, according to British journalist Eve-Ann Prentice.

When the Dayton agreement officially ended the civil conflict in 1995, the Mujahideen remained. They have caused conflict with Muslims in Bosnia, and also in neighboring Serbia, as they deem the "liberalism" of the Muslims who lived in Tito's Yugoslavia to be heretical.

Today, states AKI, an unofficial leader of the Bosnian Wahhabis, Imad al-Husin, has resigned. Husin, a Syrian who also goes under the name "Abu Hamza", has said that he is unable to "express himself in the Bosnian language in order to be understood correctly".

Recently, al-Husin's comments, which were made on local television, drew sharp reactions from local Muslims. He said their leaders followed a "communist Islam" which had been introduced by General Tito.

On Friday, November 10, leaders of Bosnia's Muslims read out out a resolution in all of the nation's mosques, according to the newspaper Nezavisne Novine. This resolution "condemns and finds undesirable in Bosnia those who bring unrest into mosques under the excuse of implementing the 'real' faith."

The resolution was drafted by the official Islamic Community. The head of this group, Reiss-ul-Ulema Mustafa Ceric, said: "One who cannot accept and understand it, does not have to stay, and does not have to come." The acceptance refers to Bosnian moderate Islam.

40% of the population of the country is Muslim. Orthodox Christian Serbs comprise 31% and Catholic Croats comprise 10% of the population of 3.8 million. The horrors of the civil war still lie beneath the surface. At the weekend, it was announced that another mass grave, containing 100 bodies of Muslims murdered in the Srebrenica massacre, was uncovered in Snagovo village, about 31 miles north of Srebrenica. About 8,000 Muslims were killed in this atrocity, which took place in July 1995, when Serbs led by Ratko Mladic and Radnan Karadic overran the UN enclave of Srebrenica on July 11.

Many of the Wahhabis settled in Bosnia after the civil war, marrying local women, but also a sizeable number were granted citizenship by Izetbegovic in exchange for their fighting in the Bosnian civil war. In September, 50 of these individuals had their citizenship status revoked. SInce then 100 more individuals have been prevented from claiming citizenship rights. 250 more were under investigation, while the body which is charged to reconsider the citizenship status of these former Mujahideen states that 1,500 cases will eventually be examined.

Reiss-ul-Ulema Mustafa Ceric of Bosnia's Islamic Community has condemned the stripping of 150 people's citizenship, saying that "the state doesn't have the right to discriminate based on religion, appearance, nationality or origin."

The Wahhabis are blamed for setting up terror camps and encouraging Bosnian Muslims into radicalism. In February, one particular case of Wahhabi indoctrination shocked the nation. A 23-year old convert to Wahhabism tried to get his mother to come to morning prayers. When she refused, he murdered her. Still stained in blood, the young convert went to his "Wahhabi" mosque and proudly announced that he had just made "a sacrifice to God".

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 1:52 PM | Comments (0)

Indonesia: Law Student Claims Divorce Possible Via Email

I don't think this is what our naive politicians meant by the "modernization of the Islamic world": Divorce Under Sharia Via Email is Okay

Jakarta, 13 Nov. (AKI) - Divorcing by email is possible under Islamic law or Sharia, according to an Indonesian researcher. Said Fierza Luthfyana, a law student at the Ubaya University in the country's second-largest city Surabaya, was quoted by Indoneisan news agency Antara as saying that a man can send an email to an attorney or a friend stating he wants to divorce his wife and simply ask the person he has chosen to read it to his spouse in front of a Sharia tribunal for the deed to be done.

Under Sharia, a man has to tell his wife he wants to divorce her in person, Luthfyana noted.

For this reason, according to the researcher, "the husband needs to send the email to someone else and not directly to his wife. He can send it to a friend, a family member or anyone he trusts."[...]

Note: Yes, I understand that this is just a "law researcher" stating his opinion. But the original injustice of Islamic Law, in which a man may divorce a woman just by saying "Talaq" (I divorce thee), is bad enough as it is.

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 1:52 PM | Comments (0)

UK: Blair to Call on the U.S. to Make Nice with Iran, Syria

Let me say this outright: has Blair gone out of his mind? Iran and Syria are fueling the insurgency. You don't call on your enemies to help you, you defeat them. This proposal is stupid, deranged, and dangerous: Britain to Call for Rapprochement with Syria, Iran

British Prime Minister Tony Blair is expected to call for bringing Iran and Syria out of political isolation to help resolve the growing violence and turmoil in Iraq.

Quotes from Mr. Blair's address were widely available in the British media, hours before the actual foreign policy speech at historic Guildhall in central London.

And the prime minister himself has given plenty of hints. In a recent speech to his Labor Party, he said he would devote much of his last year in office to Middle East issues. He has repeatedly called for addressing broader issues of regional peace as a way to improve the situation in Iraq.

Mr. Blair is expected to repeat that message and say that the evolving situation in Iraq requires a new, more regional approach. The prime minister is expected to call for a rapprochement of sorts with Iran and Syria, and urge them to help find solutions.[...]

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 1:45 PM | Comments (1)

Pakistan: Islamists Pass a Sharia Bill In North-West Frontier Province

The Regional Assembly of North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) is dominated by members of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal or MMA, a coalition of six parties which are all Islamist in nature. In the National Assembly of Pakistan, the opposition is led by Maulana Fazlur Rahman of the MMA. In May, Rahman made a speech demanding that Sharia law should be instituted in Pakistan. Rahman leads the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Islamic Party of Religious Leaders or JUI), one of the MMA parties, and threatened that if Sharia was not instituted, members of the MMA would take to the streets. They did this in February in protest at the Danish cartoons, causing violence in which at least three people, including a child, were killed.

Today, Xinhua News reports that the Regional Assembly of Northwest Frontier Province has yet again voted in an Islamist bill, called the "Hisbah" or "accountability" Bill.

In July 2005, the local government of North-West Frontier Province first tried to introduce this sharia-based set of laws, which would be enforced by a "morality police", led by an Islamic official called a Mohtasib. The bill was passed unanimously by the NWFP Assembly, mainly populated by MMA members, on July 14.

In August, President Musharraf tried to stop this hisbah (accountability) bill being passed, according to the Guardian. The bill would have allowed the closure of cinemas and businesses at prayer time, with the morality police empowered to interrogate people about their relationships, and to arrest beggars.

The bill needed to be signed by the governor of NWFP before it could be passed into law. The Pakistan Supreme Court said that many of its clauses were "unconstitutional" in an August ruling. Finally the Supreme Court, under Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, declared the Hizbah bill to be unconstitutional and therefore illegal.

Despite the previous failure of the regional assembly in NWFP to make the Hisbah Bill become binding law, the move today is a sign of defiance of the government. Following the bombing on October 30 of an Islamic seminary in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) region of NWFP, there has been increasing anger from the MMA. The attack upon the madrassa in Chenagai village near the town of Khar, Bajaur agency led to protests by MMA members. The madrassa was governed by the Tanzim Nifaz Shariat Mohammadi, or Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM), the Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Laws. It had tried to impose strict Islamic rules on Bajaur agency in the 1990s, and is an ardent supporter of the Taliban.

Similarly, the MMA wish to impose Islamic rules, and also support the Taliban, both inside Afghanistan and their home-grown Taliban who now control Waziristan, one of the regions within North-West Frontier Province.

After the attack upon the TBSM madrassa, a suicide attack was made on army members in Dargai, NWFP, took place on November 9 last week.

It is highly unlikely that the governor of NWFP will be allowed to sign his agreement to the Hisbah Bill, without being removed from office by Musharraf. The president has shown increasing exasperation at the undemocratic antics of the MMA recently. He said after the Dargai attack: The MMA has no right to criticise the operation as they give tickets of heaven to extremists while their own children sit in full comfort at home." He condemned the MMA for spreading false propaganda. They had claimed that the Bajaur madrassa attack was carried out by the US, with Musharraf's approval, an assertion he strenuously denies.

The current Hisbah Bill appears to be identical to that which was passed unanimously on July 14 last year. These are a few details cherry-picked from the original bill's 24 Articles:

Article 3 - Appointment of Mohtasib.-(1) There shall be a Mohtasib for the North-West Frontier Province, who shall be appointed by the Governor of the North-West Frontier Province in consultation with the chief minister of the province. (2) A mohtasib shall be a person who is a qualified religious scholar and is eligible to be appointed as judge of the Federal Shariat Court. (3) Before entering upon office, the mohtasib shall take an oath before the chief minister in the form set out in the Schedule. (4) The mohtasib shall, in all matters, perform his functions and exercise his powers independently, honestly and diligently and all executive authorities throughout the province shall act in aid of the mohtasib.

The Mohtasib shall govern for four years, and shall receive the pay rate of a Judge of the Federal Shariat (Sharia) Court. Article 10 states that the Mohtasib is responsible for (a) Enquiries into the allegations of maladministration against any agency or its employees; (b) Protect/watch the Islamic values and etiquettes; (c) Watch the media established by Government or working under the administrative control of Government to ensure that its publications are useful to the purpose of upholding Islamic values; (d) Forbid persons, agencies and authorities working under the administrative control of government to act against Shariah and to guide them to good governance; (e) Formulate such directives and principles which may help in making the conduct of authorities working under this section to be effective and purposeful.

Article 13 states that the Mohtasib or members of his "Hisba Force" (Islamic morality police) can enter any government office and examine all documents, and can remove any documents, as long as a receipt is provided.

Article 14 deals with contempt against the Mohtasib - any ridicule of his person or obstruction of his powers renders the offender liable to the same powers as are enacted by the High Court (i.e. imprisonment and/or a fine).

And Article 23 details the exact nature of the Mohtasib's duties and powers. He shall be required: (i) To monitor adherence of moral values of Islam at public places; (ii) To discourage exhibition of extravagance, particularly at the time of marriages and other family functions; (iii) To follow code of Islam in giving dowry; (iv) To discourage beggary; (v) To monitor adherence of Islamic values and its respect and regard at the times of iftar and traveh; (vi) To discourage entertainment shows and business transaction at the time of Eids and Friday prayers around mosques where such prayers are being held; (vii) To remove causes of dereliction in performance and proper arrangement of Eid and Friday prayers; (viii) To discourage employment of under-age children; (ix) To remove unnecessary delay in discharge of civil liability which is not disputed between the parties; (x) To prevent cruelty to animals; (xi) To remove causes of negligence in maintenance of mosques; (xii) To observe decorum of Islam at the time of Azan and Fardh prayers; (xiii) To prevent misuse of loud-speakers and sectarian speeches; (xiv) To discourage un-Islamic and inhuman customs; (xv) To check the tendency of indecent behaviour at public places including harassment of women; (xvi) To eradicate the deal as profession in Taweez, palmistry, magic, etc; (xvii) To protect the rights of minorities, particularly to regard the sanctity of their religious places and sites where they perform their religious ceremonies; (xviii) To eliminate un-Islamic traditions, which affect the rights of women, particularly taking measures against their murders in the name of Honour, to remove the tendency of depriving them of their right of inheritance, to eliminate the tradition of Cirri, and to protect their rights guaranteed by Sharia and law; (xix) To monitor weight and measures and eliminate adulteration; (xx) To eliminate artificial price hike; (xxi) To protect government properties; (xxii) To eliminate bribery from government offices; (xxiii) To incite feeling of service to people at large amongst government functionaries; (xxiv) To advise those who are found to be disobedient to their parents; (xxv) To perform any other functions which the Provincial Mohtasib determines from time to time in consultation with the Advisory Council; (xxvi) To mediate amongst parties and tribes in matters pertaining to murders, attempts to murder and similar other crimes threatening to law and order situation.

The last clause, (xxvi) is disturbing, as it encourages the custom of jirga justice, where murders can be forgiven their crime by making compensation under the agreement of a jirga or village council. In NWFP, such jirgas have condoned the barbaric custom of swara or vani marriage, where a murderer or any other criminal can get off scot free by promising a female relative in marriage to the family of the person he has committed a crime against. Vani marriage was officially made illegal in the beginning of 2005, but it is a common practice among the Pashtun peoples of NWFP. Often, underage girls are given away in such "compensation" deals.

Hopefully, the governor of North-West Frontier Province will not be so unwise as to sign this Hisbah Bill into law.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 11:02 AM | Comments (0)

UK: Muslim MP's Son In Bomb Attack

It appears that Muslims in Scotland are angry at Glasgow Labour MP, Mohammed Sarwar, for his assistance in helping to bring to justice the Muslims who killed 15-year old white schoolboy Kriss Donald.

Kriss Donald was snatched from a Glasgow street on March 15, 2004. He was then beaten, stabbed, and finally set on fire while still alive. His attackers were Daanish Zahid, who was convicted in 2004. Another man who admitted to abducting and beating Kriss, but who claimed he was not present when the schoolboy was killed, was Zahid Mohammed. He had been sentenced in 2004 to five years' jail, but was released early, in a deal which saw him giving evidence against the other three Muslims.

On November 8, Imran "Baldy" Shahid, Mohammed "Beck" Mushtaq and Zeeshan "Crazy" Shahid were found guilty of Kriss' murder, and were sentenced to life terms which should be for no less than 22 years for Mushtaq, 23 years for Zeeshan Shahid, and 25 years for Imran Shahid.

The Sunday Times yesterday revealed that a BMW car was blown up in the car park of the Sarwar family's cash-and-carry (wholesale distribution) business. This event happened five days before the three men convicted last week were extradited back to Britain from Pakistan in late 2005.

The BMW was similar to the one driven by Sarwar's 28-year old son Athif. Earlier, a plot to kidnap Sarwar's youngest son, 23-year old Anas, was thwarted by detectives. The south Glasgow constituency office of Mohammed Sarwar was vandalised, and the MP received numerous death threats on his landline and on his mobile phone.

The attacks and threats were believed to have been carried out by associates of the men who were extradited in 2005 and given life sentences last week. The three men were part of a gang called "The Shielders" which was headed by Imran Shahid.

The men had fled to Pakistan because it has no extradition treaty with Britain. Numerous criminals and perpetrators of hit-and-run accidents have fled to Pakistan, confident that they would not be returned to face justice.

The MP Mohammed Sarwar, however, insisted on persuading the Pakistani authorities extraditing the three murderers. He made four visits to Pakistan, where he met president Musharraf and the interior minister Aftab Sherpao, arguing for the men to be returned to face justice. The three men were arrested, and were returned to Britain on October 5, 2005.

The Sun newspaper reported on Saturday that a jail source has said that the three killers are currently targeted for prison "justice" by other convicts. Apparently drugs barons have also put up a bounty on their heads, with some prisoners on life sentences being paid in advance with high quality drugs.

The press makes much of incidents where white people commit racist attacks, but is relatively silent when white people are victims. Last month, data obtained from the Home Office under the Freedom of Information Act revealed that of 58 racially motivated killings which took place over the past decade, 24 of these (nearly half of the total) involved white victims.

In the charged atmosphere of political correctness, one of the first casualties is objective truth.

The British Crime Survey, states the Sunday Times showed that in 2004, 87,000 people of an ethnic group other than white were victims of what they described "racially motivated crime", with 49,000 violent attacks and with 4,000 being wounded.

In the same period, 92,000 white people suffered "racially motivated crime", with 77,000 violent attacks and 20,000 being wounded.

It seems that the media would prefer to peddle the patronising myth that ethnic minorities are always the underdogs and the victims. An attack upon a black or Asian victim is seen as a horrific crime, where the racism of the attack is amplified and condemned by the press. Statistically, as ethnic minorities are fewer in number than whites, yet are committing more attacks than their white counterparts, a member of an ethnic minority is more likely to commit a racist crime than a member of the white majority.

If this is the truth, why is it so hard for the media to acknowedge?

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 9:48 AM | Comments (1)

Indonesia: Muslim's Bomb Attack Was Not An Islamist Bomb Attack

On Saturday (November 11) a bomb went off at an American-franchised A & W fast food outlet in Plaza Kramat Jati Indah shopping mall, in the eastern subdistrict of Bidara Cina, in Jakarta, Indonesia's capital. The bomber was burned in the blast, which was caused by a pipe-bomb filled with gunpowder and buckshot pellets.

Reuters and Antara News quote Senior Commander I Ketut Untung Yoga Ana, a Jakarta police spokesman, who maintains that the bombing was not an act by the known Islamist groups who have bombed in the past, most notably Jemaah Islamiyah, who carried out the Bali bombings of 2002 and 2005.

Yoga said: "He did it alone because none of the explosive materials are the same as in other previous bombings....Investigators are coordinating with the medical team about when (they) can interrogate him."

The 36-year old man's motives were unknown, though he was reported to have acted strangely before the bomb went off, at around 6 pm. He pretended to faint. Latest reports state that he had asked staff at the A & W restaurant for medical help. The Jakarta Post and AKI report that the security in other public spaces has been stepped up.

The bomber, who is known by his neighbors in East Jakarta's Bidara Cina as a quiet electronics repairman, regained consciousness on Saturday evening. Yoga claims that the suspect did not intend to be a suicide bomber, as the device was not strapped to his body.

11 people have so far even questioned by police, including the bomber's relatives. One relative said that the man had been upset and had been acting strangely since his mother died earlier in the year.

President George W. Bush is due to visit Indonesia in a week's time, a move which has proved to be deeply unpopular with many Muslims in Indonesia, whose population is 85% Muslim. It will be the US president's second visit to Indonesia. He visited then-president Megawati Soekarnoputri in Bali in 2003. President Bush's current visit is a courtesy visit, reciprocating that of Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who visited the White House last year.

The latest news is that the bomber has earlier today spoken from his hospital bed. According to Jakarta police chief Major General Adang Firman, the man has said that he was trying to commit suicide.

Firman announced: "He was trying to cause a sensation. He said if he killed himself in a normal way it would not be cool."

A police representative said that the man will be given a psychiatric analysis.

It seems that despite causing alarm amongst security agencies, Saturday's bomb blast was more a desperate act by a distressed Muslim man, who wanted his suicide to be seen as a an act of Islamic defiance against the superpower that Muslims love to hate.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 6:44 AM | Comments (1)

Thailand: Killings Continue In Muslim South

On Wednesday November 8, 122 Buddhists from villages in than To and Bannang Sata districtc, Yala province, fled their homes to take refuge in the grounds of the Wat Nirotsankharam temple in Muang district, Yala. They had fled following threats of violence from Muslim insurgents. On November 5, an elderly man and his daughter were killed by gunmen at their roadside home and set fire to the house in Bannang Sata district.

Since the initial exodus, more villagers have taken refuge in the temple, bringing the number of refugees to at least 200. Those at the temple have received donations from Queen Sirikit, and private well-wishers have sent gifts of goods and money. A mobile medical team from Yala Central Hospital has also visited the refugees.

On Monday, Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn will be meeting with the refugees, and the prime miinister, Surayud Chulanont, has said that he will be returning soon to the south, and will be visiting the Wat Nirotsankharam villagers. Chulanont said: "I understand that some Muslim people have gone to visit this (Thai Buddhist) group of people already. I believe that unity and mutual understanding among people of different cultures are vital to our society. We have to respect others' beliefs."

Since the coup of September 19, the leaders of the coup, as well as members of the puppet government, have promised to make life easier for Muslims in the south and to avoid the confrontational methods employed by ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra of the Thai Rak Thai party. The new prime minister, Surayad Chulanot, has visited the south and has even promised Muslims the hope of Sharia law. Yet despite these concessions, and peace negotiations brokered by neighbouring Malaysia, the violence seems to be intensifying, rather than lessening.

In Narathiwat province, monks have decided to abandon their regular alms rounds. On October 22, five monks were seriously injured when a bomb detonated as they went on their traditional alms-gathering promenade. One of their police escorts died in the blast, in Muang. This attack seems to have spurred the monks to have come to their decision, which was taken after a meeting at Wat Prachum Cholthara in Sungai Padi district. They have said that people wishing to donate alms must now go to the temples to present offerings.

Attacks in the south proliferated over the weekend. On Friday night, (November 10) the house of a group of teachers from Ban Ya Ba Uoopakarn Witaya School was set on fire in Rueso district, Narathiwat province. No-one was in the house at the time of the attack.

On Saturday morning at 7.55 am in Yaha district in Yala province, two police officers who were on a motorcycle were attacked by a group of four insurgents. The assailants shot the police officers dead with M-16 automatic rifles. When their victims, Srichan Ayeyawan and Prasert Piddam, lay on the ground, the insurgents then hacked at their faces and heads with knives, mutilating them. The insurgents then fled with the police officers' weapons.

On Saturday in Bacho district at 6.45 am, Narathiwat, a remote controlled bomb went off at a roadside, as a patrol of seven Thai marines was passing. Two soldiers, chief Petty Officer 1st Class Songkran Kudwongkaew, 36, and Seaman Chokechai Maithong, 23, were injured, though their wounds were not considered serious. The bomb had been detonated by a mobile phone.

In Sai Buri district, Pattani province, a 48-year old farmer, Jemudor Phma, was on his way home when two gunmen shot him near a mosque in tambon Troh Bon. He died in hospital.

In Rueso district, Narathiwat province, two men shot an assistant to a village head man. 59-year old Saari Yuso was riding his motorcycle from his home in Ban Koksator village when he was shot. He died in hospital. Police later said that Saari had acted as a government informant, which is why he was killed.

Late on Saturday evening, Muslim insurgents on a motorcycle attacked a teashop in Baluka village in Rueso district, Narathiwat. Six men were inside the teashop, watching television, when the gun attack happened. 23-year old Mahama Toluboh and his brother Sofi Toluboh, aged 30, were hit several times by fire from an M 16 rifle. After the initial shooting, another motorcycle drew up and more gunshots were made. Then the first motorcycle returned and an M79 grenade was fired at the teashop. Mahama Tolubog died at the Rueso hospital.

In a separate insurgent attack in Rueso, a man was killed and his wife was injured.

The army in the south (the Fourth Army as it is known) has been introducing new technology to boost the confidence of soldiers in the region. This includes communication jamming equipment, bomb suits to be worn by defusing units, bullet-proof clothing and vehicles, and solar power generators for use in remote military camps.

Lt Gen Apichai Timsuwan said that unmanned aerial reconnaissance vehicles would be introduced to the south within the coming months, and the development of bomb-clearing robots, already under way, would be speeded up. Better quality bomb suits should be ready for use by June next year.

Meanwhile, support for the coup, though still high, appears to be waning, according to a poll by ABAC Assumption University in Bangkok. The poll surveyed 3,224 people nationwide on November 3 to Novmber 11. 80% of respondents wanted the government to resolve the insurgency in the Muslim-majority south. This insurgency, which began on January 4, 2004, has already claimed more than 1,700 lives.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 12:24 AM | Comments (0)

November 12, 2006

UK: "Muslims Not Doing Enough Against Terror" - Police Chief

Sir Ian Blair, the head of the Metropolitan Police, was in Germany, where he gave a speech at a conference on cities. The Sunday Telegraph also reports that he gave an interview to the German newspaper der Taggespiegel. He was asked in the interview how much help Muslims were giving to anti-terrorism operations. He answered: "We're getting more, but we're not getting enough."

He continued: "The first reaction of the Muslim communities, as with almost every other immigrant community, is to withdraw and say, 'This is nothing to do with us.' This will be a slow process. It's an extremely delicate one."

In his speech at the conference, Blair made mention of poll results, which suggested that 40,000 to 120,000 British Muslims felt that the attacks upon London Transport on July 7 last year, in which 52 people died and hundreds were injured, were "justified".

He also said he was shocked that the Muslim suspects in the airline terror plot (Operation Overt), revealed on August 10, involved people who "were converted from what appeared to be ordinary lives - in a matter of weeks and months, not years - to a position where some were allegedly prepared to commit suicide and murder thousands of people."

He agreed with many Muslims that Britain's involvement in the Iraq war may have turned many Muslims against the West. He also bemoaned the lack of central leadership of Britain's Muslims, and said he wanted to recruit more Muslims into the Metropolitan Police. Already there are 300 Muslim out of a total of 300,000 officers.

He brought up the issue of detention of suspects. On Novermber 9 last year, the prime minister's hope to have terror suspects detained for up to 90 days was defeated in the House of Commons by 322 votes against, and 291 votes for the proposal. The Commons had a second vote, and agreed to limit a terror suspect's time in detention before being charged to 28 days. This was passed by 323 votes for the proposal, with 290 votes against.

Ian Blair said: "In the recent alleged airline plot, we needed all the 28 days in respect of some of the 24 suspects. If there had been more people, we would probably have run out of time. I believe that an extension to the 28 days' time for detention will have to be examined again."

He also spoke of the need for a change in the law on contempt of court to permit reporting of trials. Currently, judges can place a block on reporting, if it is thought that this could prejudice future trials. Blair said the law as it stands "prevents the public - including in communities from where the suspects come - from seeing justice done."

Additionally, Sir Ian Blair said that police should be allowed to question suspects after charges have been brought against them, and he also repeated his wish for phone-tap evidence to be admissible in court. A senior Muslim police officer, Tarique Ghaffur, recently said that at demonstrations, there should be a ban on protesters covering their faces or burning flags. Sir Ian Blair said he agreed with these suggestions.

Blair has made some strange decisions recently, which owe more to political correctness than they do to effective law enforcement. On September 24, it was revealed that Sir Ian Blair had given his approval to a plan to consult a panel of Muslims before any terror raids which involved Muslims. This decision effectively means that unelected Muslims, with no police qualifications, must be rounded up and consulted before mounting raids, potentially delaying what should be speedy responses.

Controversially, Blair also decided that "no substantive offences" were committed when about 100 Muslims. led by Anjem Choudary, heckled worshippers outside Westminster Cathedral on September 17, even though there were threats that the Pope, and anyone else who was seen to "insult" Islam should be killed.

Last year, there were calls for Sir Ian Blair to resign, after he publicly lied about the events surrounding the death of Jean Charles de Menezes, the Brazilian student who was shot dead at Stockwell Underground station on July 22, 2005. He suggested that the "suspect" had acted in a suspicious manner, which warranted him being shot seven times in the head at close-range, and once in the shoulder.

When the truth was leaked to ITV news, that Menezes had not jumped over a ticket barrier, as had been claimed, Blair then ensured that the woman who had leaked the evidence of what really happened in "Operation Kratos" was suspended from her job at the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).

A report in the Sunday Times today states that Sir Ian Blair is likely to be cleared of lying to the public. The report by the IPCC will be finished in the coming week. Claims that Blair lied when he said that the first he knew of Menezes' killing came 24 hours after the event appear to be dismissed, even though senior officers have said that Sir Ian knew of the killing long before the time he stated.

A second inquiry by the IPCC, which is to ascertain if there was a cover-up over the killing of the Brazilian student, will also be completed this week.

The report will not be officially published until January 2007.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 11:23 PM | Comments (0)

Algeria: Islamists Still Active

Deutsche Presse Agentur reported that accounts in Algerian newspapers yesterday detailed a battle between Islamists and the army. At least seven soldiers were killed, and 13 were wounded. The attacks took place at Bourira, 75 miles east of the capital, on Wednesday.

The newspaper El Watan, also reported that members of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) beheaded a shepherd near the town of T'Kout in the east. The victim's head was placed on a pole, and his sheep were stolen. GSPC is now officially linked with Al Qaeda, as announced by Ayman al-Zawahiri on a jihadist website on September 11.

The aim of GSPC is to establish an Islamic state in Algeria, though it is active in terror plots in Europe. It has active cells in France, Italy, Belgium and Spain and has had operatives (Yamine Bouhrama and Khaled Serai) active in Norway. The September 11 message from Al Qaeda's second-in-command warned that the group would be making an attack soon upon France.

GSPC came into being after the decision by the Algerian army to prevent a democratically-elected Islamist government from taking power in 1992. Since that time, various groups, including GSPC, have mounted bloody campaigns, in which 150,000 to 200,000 people have died in Algeria. The majority of these were civilians.

In 2003, a cell of GSPC, led by former Algerian army paratrooper Amari Saifi kidnapped European tourists in the Algerian Sahara. The kidnap victims were mostly German, with Austrian, Swedish, Swiss and Dutch citizens. These were ransomed for $6 million. Saifi was captured in Chad in 2004, and was later sentenced to life imprisonment by the Algerian authorities.

A referendum was ordered by the government, to see if the public were willing to "forgive and forget" the previous atrocities and allow an amnesty for Islamists. The referendum was held on September 29 last year. Two days later, within hours of the vote showing that the public wanted to give Islamists an amnesty, a message appeared on a jihadist website on October 1. This message came from GSPC's leader Abou Mossab Abdelouadoud (Abdelmalek Droukdel). It read: "The Jihad will go on ... we have promised God to continue the Jihad and the combat."

In February, the terms for an amnesty were laid out by the Algerian government, which included the release of 2,200 Islamists residing in Algeria's jails. In June, interior minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni announced that 200 Islamists had already surrendered themselves to the government, but he said that a further 800 could gain from the deal.

The deadline for the amnesty of Islamists to give themselves up was set at August 31. In the weeks leading up to the deadline, attacks by the GSPC and other groups increased.

On October 30, Islamists attacked two police stations in separate towns east of Algiers, the capital. GSPC were widely blamed for the simultaneous truck bombings which killed three people and wounded 24. The attacks were the first to be made upon police stations in five years.

It seems that amnesties from a democratically-elected government mean nothing for those who are pledged to create an Islamist state.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 7:54 AM | Comments (0)

India: Man Killed Five People At Mosque For $20

On Friday in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, a man threw a grenade into a mosque compound in the village of Tahab, in Pulwama district, south Kashmir. Several hundred mosque worshippers had gathered for Friday morning prayers. Four people died instantly, and another died while being transported to the hospital at Srinigar, 25 miles away. 55 people were injured, some seriously.

Among the dead were four girls. Later there was another explosion at a high street market in Hari SIngh, Srinigar, which injured six people. This attack too was caused by a hand grenade being lobbed. Three of those injured in the market blast were security officials.

The man who threw the grenade at the mosque in Tahab village was pursued and captured by the congregation. He was handed over to Indian security. Reuters via the Daily Times and Rediff.com report that the man has confessed to the bombing. What is sad about this is how cheap human life was to this man - he said that he agreed to throw the grenade for a mere 1,000 rupees ($20). The lives of his victims were effectively worth $4 each.

The man, Ghulam Nabi Mir was a member of Hizbul Mujahideen, one of the twenty or so groups which seek to have Jammu & Kashmir state seceded from India and either become a Muslim state or another province of Pakistan.

Mir was brought before a press conference, where he said: "Forgive my mistake. I wouldn't make such a mistake again."

The Inspector General of Police for Kashmir, S. M. Sahai, said that the man that the Hizbul Mujahideen wished to target was the preacher Maulana Abdul Rashid Dawoodi, who is of the Barelvi sect. The preacher was among the 55 people who were injured.

The Barelvi strand of Sunni Islam was founded by Ahmad Raza Khan (1856-1921) of Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh state, India. Like the ultra-othodox Deoband strand of Islam (that followed by the Afghanistan Taliban), Barelvi belongs to the Hanafi school of Islamic jurisprudence. Where the two differ markedly is in the emphasis given by the Barelvi to the Prophet Mohammed, imparting to him supernatural powers - and claiming that his essence still remains on earth. The Barelvi incorporate Sufi beliefs into their ideology, and consider some forms of music to be spiritually enlightening. The extremists of Deoband frown upon music and art.

The grenade attack on the Tahab mosque was officially condemned by the Hizbul Mujahideen, though denial is a tactic of many of the Kashmir-based militants. When 59 people were killed by Lashkar-e-Taiba in Delhi on October 29 last year, the militant group denied its involvement, and even sympathized with the victims' families.

On Saturday (November 11) an army convoy was attacked by militants using grenades and automatic weapons in Qazigund, south Kashmir. Here, Lashkar-e-Taiba did claim responsibility for their actions. A soldier and a pedestrian were injured in the attack.

Lashkar-e-Taiba ("Army of the Pure") was founded by Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, who is now the head of the group Jamaat ut-Dawa, which was placed on a US list of designated terrorist entities on April 28 this year. Jamat-ud Dawa has been involved with kidnapping Christian children who are then sold to begging gangs, but the Pakistani authorities refuse to outlaw the group.

Today's edition of the Pakistan Daily Times reports that a co-founder of Jamat-ud-Dawa and a close associate of Hafiz Mohammed Saeed was shot dead yesterday. Abdullah Mujahid was returning home from morning prayers at a mosque in Taj Bagh near Lahore in Punjab province, Pakistan.

Police claim that the co-founder of Jamat-ud-Dawah (which has its headquarters at Mudrieke near Lahore) was attacked in killed in an attempted robbery. The Jamaat ud-Dawa has released a statement, claiming that Mujahid was killed by three "terrorists". One of the three men who had attacked Mujahid, a man named Safdar, died after being shot.

Keywords: Jamat-ud-Dawah Jamaat ut-Dawa, Jama'at-ud Da'awah, Lashkar-e-Toiba, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Lashkar-e-Toyba, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 5:05 AM | Comments (0)

November 11, 2006

Egypt: Court Says No-One Can Ban Muslim Veil

The issue of the wearing of the veil has taken on political dimensions in Egypt. The religious affairs minister, Mohammad Hamdi Zaqzouq, said on October 14 that the face-covering veil was not a religious object. He said: "or is the niqab a duty deriving from the Sharia. I know I will be criticised for my words but I think some Muslims are committing a fundamental error, focusing on external and superficial aspects, without exploring more relevant themes, and hence providing a distorted image of Islam."

He was speaking as a row was then brewing over the decision by Abdel Hay Ebeid (Abdel al-Hadi Ebaid), dean of Helwan University in Cairo, to ban female students from entering their dormitory areas of the university while wearing the niqab, or face-veil.

The decision was met with guarded approval from Sheikh Sayed Al Tantawi, who said that as long as the women in Helwan University did not have to remove their hijabs (Muslim headscarves), there was no violation of Islamic values. Tantawi is from Al-Azhar University, the largest Sunni theological college in the world, which is based in Cairo.

Until very recently, the dean of the women's faculty of Islamic studies at Al-Azhar was Soad Saleh, who still lectures on Islam. She recently told AFP that: "I don't agree that the veil should be compulsory, and I don't like it." Saleh said she wishes to "purge Islam of false concepts: the Quran does not say women have to cover their faces, it's an old Bedouin tradition."

The face-veil, as argued by Amnah Nousir, a female professor of Islamic philosophy was "common in the Arabian Peninsula centuries before Islam and was not imposed by this religion. The face is one's mirror. So why should the woman hide herself behind this black veil?"

Mahmoud Refaat, a director at Helwan University, said of the decision to ban face-veils in halls of residence: "The university will not rescind this decision because it would be blamed if a man, veiling his face behind the niqab, walked into the female-only dormitories."

Abdel al-Hadi Ebaid, the dean of Helwan University said: "What I want is to protect students against those individuals who might worm their way in, disguised under a face veil. Their parents would kill me if a man infiltrated the women's halls."

Another university official said: "The niqab has been grossly misused by criminals and even terrorists. We should not forget that over a year ago two veiled women were involved in a foiled attack on a tourist bus in Cairo."

There were demonstrations last month against the ban. One student, 21-year old Rihan Sami, said: "This ban restricts my freedom. The veil is my choice, and that of Islam, in battling against the shamelessness that abounds here."

Soad Saleh recently fell foul of the country's Islamists when on the privately owned satellite channel Egyptian Dream she said that she felt disgusted each time she saw a face-veil. As a result of this comment, Yussef Badri, a member of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, filed a lawsuit against her. Dream TV is also being sued. As is so often the case in matters of Islamic criticism, Saleh has also received death threats from Muslims for making her remarks.

Ebrahim Zakaria, a member of the banned but tolerated Muslim Brotherhood and one of its 55 MPs in the government, filed a complaint with the Prosecutor-General questioning the legality of women wearing niqabs being excluded from government-run universities.

Yesterday, AKI reported that an administrative court has issued a binding ruling, which effectively prevents anyone banning a woman from her "right" to wear the face-veil. Judge Abdel Qadeer Qandil, deputy president of the Council of State, has ruled that: "Wearing a niqab is a woman's right and noone can therefore ban her from entering a certain area. Behind the choice of a woman to wear the full veil there are personal and ideological principles that cannot be violated according to the law."

Qandil's ruling continued: "The civil law code does not ban the niqab nor does Sharia Islamic Law disapprove of it. The constitution, which protects all citizens, does not force anyone to dress in a certain way, nor deprive of their rights those who are opposed to the niqab or the hijab."

The ruling came after the American University in Cairo, which imposes a face-veil ban its library, asked for clarification. Judge Qandil is of the opinion that a woman in a face-covering veil is still recognisable. He stated that women attendants should check on the identities of women wearing veils.

Despite this, there are still some Muslim scholars in Egypt who think, like Soad Saleh, that the face-veil has nothing to do with Islamic obligation. Jamal Al Bana, a liberal Muslim thinker, recently said in an interview that "the niqab is an insult and he who calls for it is backward."

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 11:04 AM | Comments (2)

Netherlands: Government Moves To Ban Muslim Face-Veils

Last year, on October 10, following questions tabled by Geert Wilders, the immigration and integration minister Rita Verdonk told the Dutch parliament that she was examining the possibility of banning the face-covering burka. Verdonk was not sure if a full ban would be legally allowed, and announced that she had ordered officials to investigate the possibility of imposing such a ban.

In December, the Dutch parliament voted overwhelmingly to outlaw the burka in public. The Christian Democrats, the VVF and the LPF parties supported the banning of face-coverings in public. Already, at soccer stadiums, visitors are not allowed if their faces are covered, a ruling introduced to prevent hooliganism.

Though passed by parliament, the bill did not come into effect as Rita Verdonk was awaiting clarification of the legal situation. There were fears that the ban would contravene the institution, even though Article 6, section 2 of this allows limits of religious freedom if it is "in order to protect public health, in the interest of traffic and to counter or prevent disorder."

The Free University in Amsterdam bans the burka or the face-veil (nikab) on its grounds. The university also bans clothing which "does not show respect to fellow human beings" which includes clothing brands such as Lonsdale, which are associated with far-right racist groups.

In March, the results of legal inquiries were still not forthcoming, and last month, Rita Verdonk ordered that the commission charged to investigate the legal ramifications must issue its verdict by the start of November.

It is now more than a week into the month, and the commission has still not issued clarification. The commission includes lawyers, an Arab specialist and an imam, though what an imam is doing considering legal technicalities is not made clear. Even though the parliament as it stood last December had voted for a ban, it seems that the current cabinet is divided about the wisdom of a burka ban.

Last year, Muslim lawyer Famile Arslan said: "We are probably talking about less than 100 women in a population of 16 million (wearing the burka). What I am concerned about is if it starts with the burqa, where will it end?" Arslan fears "another regulation aimed against Muslims."

The full burka is only thought to be regularly worn by about 50 women in the Netherlands. Haci Karacaer, head of the Islamist group Milli Gorus said last year: "I agree that women who walk around in the burqa do not have a great future in this country but I think they should be allowed to dress as they want in a constitutional state. People should have the right to choose to exclude themselves from society."

At a recent cabinet meeting, Rita Verdonk announced: "The cabinet finds the wearing of a burka undesirable...but cannot at present enforce a total ban." She said: "The government will search for the possibility to provide a ban."

The reasons for not banning the garment outright appear, according to the Jurist to be based on a fear of infringing religious freedoms.

On Friday, state Reuters, the Guardian, Al Jazeera, Expatica and the Australian Verdonk told parliament that the cabinet is not in favour of women wearing a burka, but cannot impose a ban at this time. She insisted that the government was seeking legal approval to impose the ban, and said that she believed there was legal room to impose a general ban on the garment.

She noted that in public transport and in education, there is already legislation banning the covering of the face, which also applies to face-concealing motorcycle helmets.

The fact that it has taken almost a year to get to exactly the same point of indecision as existed last December says a lot about the commission set up by Verdonk. All the commission has done is prevaricate, and has acted as a hindrance to implementation of parliament's will. And placing an imam on a legal body is, unless the individual is a specialist in constitutional issues, a sign of grand folly.

Timidity and indecision never made for good government, and this farce about a simple matter such as banning a burka is exposing the inherent weaknesses of coalition governments.

The Dutch newspaper der Telegraaf reported on Friday, before Verdonk's announcement, stated that it will become more difficult for women to wear the burka in public, as they would be seen to threaten public order and security. The newspaper confidently stated on its front page that women wearing burkas will be asked for their identity papers, and if they do not have these, they will risk a fine or imprisonment. At the lethargic rate at which this issue is being dealt with, such an outcome may remain in the distant future.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 8:42 AM | Comments (0)

US: Five Worst; Unbearable Nonsense at the Wall Street Journal

Well, what can I say; I didn't expect any better from the Wall Street Journal. They may be "right-wing" in most economic issues, but when it comes to Islam, they are as rabidly P.C. as the New York Times. Of the five books recommended today, I cannot comment on the first and the fifth, but I've read the three middle ones; let's look at them:

2. "Muhammad" by Karen Armstrong (HarperCollins, 1992).

This is a supremely propagandistic book, which would mislead anybody reading it who isn't familiar with Islam's original sources. (That is; most everybody.) Armstrong whitewashes Muhammad's crimes, ascribes to him the best of motives, and paints his opponents in the worst light. It isn't worth the paper it is printed on.

3. "What Went Wrong? by Bernard Lewis (Oxford, 2002).

Lewis may well be most knowledgeable man about Islam, unfortunately, he's not the most honest. He paints Islam as more tolerant than it is, giving Muslims the benefit of the doubt when no doubt about Islam's intentions should remain. The book, however, is valuable to learn about Islam, with those caveats.

4. "The Koran Interpreted" translated by A.J. Arberry (Macmillan, 1955).

This is a fine translation of the Koran, although I'm partial to N.J. Dawood's translation for its sheer--at the translator puts it--"respect for the English language." I believe however, that Arberry's translation is recommended for its supremely P.C. introduction, in which the translator gushes over the "beauty" and "poetry" of the Koran.

So, in short; the WSJ doesn't show any spine, but it is not as if they showed any beforehand.

Link: Sense of Ummah

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 8:30 AM | Comments (0)

US: Florida Congresswoman Stands up to CAIR

Good for Congresswoman Brown-Waite, even if the St. Petersbourg Times sides with the creepy Islamists: Brown-Waite blisters Muslim

U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite on Thursday angrily refused calls by a Muslim advocacy group to condemn a prominent Hernando County Republican who called Islam a "hateful, frightening religion."

Brown-Waite instead criticized Gov. Jeb Bush and the head of the Republican Party of Florida, both of whom last week demanded an apology from Commissioner Tom Hogan and his wife, Mary Ann Hogan.

On Friday, Gov.-elect Charlie Crist severed Mary Ann Hogan's relationship with his campaign.

"Mrs. Hogan expressed in her statements the views of many of my constituents, and while they do not encourage harmony in the community, they should demonstrate to you how many United States citizens perceive your faith," Brown-Waite wrote, responding to a Nov. 3 letter from the Council on American-Islamic Relations asking her to denounce the Hogans' remarks.

In her three-page reply, Brown-Waite blasted the leader of CAIR's Tampa chapter, accusing him of anti-Catholic comments, saying he staged a 2004 political "ambush" of her meeting with a local doctor and has done little to condemn terrorism by Muslim extremists.[...]

Little Green Footballs has published Congresswoman's Brown-Waite's letter. Read it all, and appreciate how deceptive newspaper "articles" can be: "You may recall our meeting, in May 29, 2004..."

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 12:01 AM | Comments (2)

November 10, 2006

UK: BNP Victory Could Lead To Islam Protection Bill

Today, Nick Griffin and Mark Collett were cleared of inciting racial hatred. This trial was in itself a retrial, brought because a jury were undecided on four of the six charges the pair had faced in February. They had been cleared on two charges in February. The retrial mounted by West Yorkshire Police was less about justice for the society and more about an exercise in touchy-feely political correctness.

Today, when Messrs Grriffin and Collett were cleared, the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, and Lord Falconer, the Lord Chancellor, spoke about amending Britain's race laws to outlaw any criticism of religion.

Should these politically correct lunatics get their way, Britain's freedom of speech will be eroded in one fell swoop. Brown expects to lead the party when Tony Blair steps down, yet is happy to return the party to its totalitarian left-wing roots.

Previous attempts to outlaw criticism of religion nearly became law, after the Labour Party, influenced by the Muslim Council of Britain, introduced a bill last year called the "Incitement to Religious Hatred Act". Instead of being thrown out, the House of Commons (the Lower House) passed this bill last summer. Fortunately, following a campaign led by comedian Rowan Atkinson and supported by George Carey, former Archbishop of Canterbury, the bill was thrown out by the House of Lords (the Upper House). It had been defeated by a majority of 149.

On Tuesday October 26 2005, the controversial bill was re-written in such a way as to make its original intentions severely restricted. The bill, as it was originally formulated, would have basically outlawed "contempt" for a religion. This was in accordance with the motives of the Muslim Council of Britain, who sought to have Islamic "blasphemy" added to the controversial Blasphemy Act of 1697.

Joshua Rosenburg in the Telegraph of October 27 wrote: "As originally drafted, the Government's Bill would have made it an offence in England and Wales for a person to use threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour if this was likely to stir up religious hatred.

Note that there was no need to prove that a defendant intended to stir up hatred: it was sufficient if this was merely likely. And note that there was no need to prove that the defendant used threatening words: all you needed to do to risk seven years' imprisonment was to use abusive or insulting words that were likely to stir up religious hatred."

When the House of Lords threw out the controversial "Incitement to Religious Hatred Act" they had argued that it undermined fundamental principles of freedom of speech. By allowing an assumption that comments were intended to incite religious hatred, without a need for proof, the law as proposed had defied basic principles of justice. Lord Hunt of Wirral argued: "It is the bedrock of any tolerant, liberal and free society that we must all learn to live according to certain first principles. One of the most fundamental of those is that, from time to time, we must tolerate other people expressing sentiments or engaging in activities that we ourselves find unappealing or even distasteful."

The rewritten law introduced a clause of "freedom of expression" in which it was made clear that any religion could be exposed to ridicule, abuse or insult, without constituting an offense.

At the time of the bill's tortuous path to ultimate defeat the MP for Henley, Boris Johnson, wrote in his Telegraph column that if any book should be banned for inciting religious hatred, then the first one to go would be the Koran.

The intentions of Gordon Brown and Lord Falconer are once again attempting to undermine a basic political freedom. When the BNP started, as Nick Griffin himself admitted during his recent court case, it was racist. He has worked hard to rebrand and realign the BNP, to the point that its main focus is to challenge and confront Islam, which he describes, rightly, as a "wicked, vicious faith".

Falconer and Brown are seeking, basically, to outlaw the British National Party. And in a democracy, such a measure is not only against democratic principles, it is the first move of a totalitarian regime.

The right to criticize a religion is a fundamental right of a free society. As Boris Johnson highlighted, the Koran (and Islam) is hardly a manual of peace and love for those who are not of the Islamic faith, and would be the first item to be outlawed under a "religious intolerance" bill.

To tamper with basic freedoms, merely because a jury of 12 citizens upheld existing laws and did not condemn two individuals that Brown and Falconer do not like, is not acceptable. Democratic principles evolved only over the last three hundred years because they had been freed from the shackles of religious tyranny. The freedom from religious tyranny has not been fully achieved - the 1697 Blasphemy Act remains in force, and has not been repealed.

Unfortunately, there is currently no freedom from Gordon Brown. He was never chosen by the electorate to be anything other than a Chancellor, ensuring the economy did not overheat. He has little personal charisma, and his views on policy have never been presented to the public. Yet he is likely to head the Labour Party during its current term of office. His ill-timed suggestion that the laws must be changed to accord with his own personal prejudice is a warning sign that he is not fit to run a government.

In a free society, one must accept the rights of others to express views that may offend one. If Gordon Brown does not understand this, Britain's liberties would not be safe in his hands.

Speaking on the BBC's News 24, Brown said: "I think any preaching of religious or racial hatred will offend mainstream opinion in this country and I think we have got to do whatever we can to root it out from whatever quarter it comes. And if that means we have got to look at the laws again, we will have to do so."

Lord Falconer of Thoroton states: "We should look at (the laws) in the light of what has happened because what is being said to young Muslim people of this country is that we as a country are anti-Islam and we have got to demonstrate without compromising freedom that we are not."

Lord Falconer of Thoroton may not be against Islam, but if the country needs to have laws to reflect what he thinks, he should have faith in the electorate and put the matter to a referendum. It is almost certain that a referendum would not seek greater protection for "Islam"

Muslims are already protected as individuals as any other person is under British law. Their religion has led to suicide bombings on London Transport, but the Muslim individuals are free to act as any other citizen.

If Gordon Brown and Lord Falconer feel that the religious ideology of Islam, which is innately political, should be given further protection in Britain, then perhaps they should simultaneously campaign for non-Islamic faiths to be protected in countries such as Saudi Arabia. Here, no Bibles, crucifixes are allowed into the country, and holding a Christian religious service can land one in jail.

Niick Griffin, during his trial, said: "This isn't a racial thing. It's not an Asian thing. It's a cultural and religious thing." On the issue of Islam, he said: "It's the duty of someone who sees a fire in a crowded theatre to shout 'fire' and not so sit there analysing the properties of fire."

His trial was not based on comments made to the public. What he said was spoken to other members of his party at the Reservoir Tavern, Keighley, West Yorkshire, on January 19, 2004. A BBC reporter, acting as a BNP supporter, had infiltrated the meeting, and secretly recorded his words. The comments were then screened on "The Secret Agent", a documentary for the BBC. Following the trial, he today branded the BBC as "cockroaches".

The BBC had no objections to assisting West Yorkshire police in their securing evidence to place Nick Griffin and Mark Collett on trial. Yet last year, when the BBC Newsnight team had broadcast footage of members of the Saviour Sect and Al Ghurabaa which showed blatant treason, the BBC refused to hand over all of their footage to the Metropolitan Police and the Crown Prosecution Service.

The Guardian, in its "Comment is Free" section, invited a woman called Laura Smith to argue that there was somehow a double standard in Britain's laws. She said that the clearing of Griffin and Collett contrasted with that of Mizanur Rahman, a member of the Al Ghurabaa/Saviour Sect coalition. Rahman had been convicted of inciting racial hatred, when he called for Americans to be killed. Even though Rahman carried placards calling for the "annihilation" of people who insulted Islam, the jury remained undecided on a charge of incitement to murder.

Laura Smith's dishonest argument implied that Muslims were victimized by British Law. The reporting of Nick Griffin's acquittal, and the attempts by Brown, Lord Falconer, and potentially John Reid, the Home Secretary, assume one fundamental precept which defies logic and reason.

Brown and Falconer are attempting to change RACE laws to protect Islam. The Independent states: "Despite undercover evidence from a BBC documentary which showed Mr Griffin abusing and mocking Islam and the Koran, an all-white jury in Leeds yesterday cleared him and Mark Collett, his party's head of publicity, of stirring up racial hatred."

There is no "despite" about this. Islam is a religion. A religion is an ideology, which one can choose to ascribe to, or (in non-Muslim countries) one that a person can choose to abandon. A race is something one is born with, defined by one's DNA and genetic heritage, and cannot be changed (even if one is Michael Jackson).

If lawmakers cannot see that fundamental difference, they should not be allowed to tamper with existing race-hate laws. Islam is not, nor can it ever be a race. It is a political, and highly dangerous, religious ideology. The day when Islam becomes legally treated as a "race" is the day when common sense has finally abandoned British democracy.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 9:57 PM | Comments (2)

Commentary: The Stunning Admission of the Next Speaker of the House

In a recent interview with Fox News Channel's Brit Hume, the next speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nanci Pelosi, said the following in response to a question about whether she wanted to win the Iraq war, or just end it (emphasis mine):

"This isn't a war to win, its a situation to be solved, and you define winning any way you want, but you must solve the problem."

She has been criticized for those remarks, but, mostly, I think the criticism misses the mark. Critics have pounded on the first part of her sentence "This isn't a war to win, its a situation to be solved", and expose her ridiculous thinking. But that's just an instance of the kind of thinking the woman routinely employs. The more serious problem is evident in the bold phrase above "you defined winning any way you want." The woman believes that; she believes that if we define winning any way we want, we would have "won." It seems that after we "won" the Vietnam war and "redeployed" the forces, absolutely no negative consequences followed, because, we "defined victory any way we wanted." What are a couple of million of dead Cambodians and a renewed advanced of Communism, when you have defined victory to your heart's content.

There is a more general problem with Ms. Pelosi's views; they make it impossible to conduct a rational discourse. She has, for example, promised to "work in a bipartanship manner", but then, what happens if she decides to define bipartanship any way she wants? She has promised to "make the rich pay their fair share" (soak the high-wage earners); what happens if she decides to define "rich" any way she wants? (Never mind; this happens already.)

Ms. Pelosi has accepted dishonesty on principle. She can never be taken at her word.

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 2:43 PM | Comments (1)

UK: MI5 Warns Of A "Generation" Of Muslim Terror

Yesterday, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller made a speech at Queen Mary College, London, in which she outlined the current scale of the threat of terrorism looming over Britain. Manningham-Buller is head of MI5, the intelligence agency which is dedicated to homeland threats, as opposed to MI6, which deals with offshore threats. MI5 was founded in 1909, when it was called then the "Home Section" of the Secret Service Bureau. It gained its title "MI5" during World War One, in 1916, when it became "Military Intelligence, Section 5". Manningham-Buller has held her post since October 2002, and is not used to hyperbole or drama.

What she said in her speech was disturbing. She claimed that British authorities are investigating 30 major terror plots, and 200 cells which involve 1,600 individuals. In some ways, this is "old news". In July, MI5 revealed that it was tracking 1,200 suspects, from a larger pool of 400,000 extremist "sympathisers".

Since last year, MI5 has been increasing its workforce. It has doubled its numbers since November. In April, MI5 had been trying to recruit 800 people for their "G-unit" the Islamic terrorism branch. In April, MI5 had used additional funding to open offices in Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Birmingham and Glasgow. There were plans to open offices in Wales and the southwest. Recent information suggests that four new centers in the south-west, Wales, the east and the south-east will be operational by year's end.

Manningham-Buller had revealed in April that there were at least 400 al-Qaeda terror suspects in Britain, though if that figure were broadened to include those who had attended jihadist training camps in Pakistan, the true figure would be 600.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner at Scotland Yard, Peter Clarke, had confirmed in July that police officers are currently engaged in the investigation of 70 terror plots in Britain and abroad. He claimed that the majority of these investigations related to "the activities of British citizens against their fellow countrymen".

Dame Eliza's speech, which we will be reproducing in its entirety below, states that "Today we see the use of homemade improvised explosive devices, but I suggest tomorrow's threat will include the use of chemicals, bacteriological agents, radioactive materials and even nuclear technology."

She also warned that terror plots "often have linked back to al-Qaida in Pakistan, and through those links al-Qaida gives guidance and training to its largely British foot soldiers here on an extensive and growing scale."

Manningham-Buller does at least acknowledge that the terror threat is one created by Muslims. She states: "The extremists are motivated by a sense of grievance and injustice driven by their interpretation of the history between the West and the Muslim world. This view is shared, in some degree, by a far wider constituency. If the opinion polls conducted in the UK since July 2005 are only broadly accurate, over 100,000 of our citizens consider that the July 2005 attacks in London were justified."

She only mentions the word Muslim twice, she mentions the term "anti-Muslim" once.

She says: "We also need to understand some of the differences between non-Western and Western life-styles; and not treat people with suspicion because of their religion, or indeed to confuse fundamentalism with terrorism. We must realise that there are significant differences between faiths and communities within our society, and most people, from whatever origin, condemn all acts of terror in the UK. And we must focus on those values that we all share in this country regardless of our background: Equality, Freedom, Justice and Tolerance. Many people are working for and with us to address the threat precisely for those reasons. Because all of us, whatever our ethnicity and faith, are the targets of the terrorists."

Yet at no stage does she mention the word "Islam" in her speech. This is an ommission which skirts around the essence of the terror threat to the West. Islam, as a religion, is also a political ideology. And its modus operandi is this, as stated by Omar Ahmed, co-founder of the Council of American-Islamic Relations: "Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faiths, but to become dominant. The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth."

Manningham-Buller speaks of the long-term prospects of the battle to counter terrorism. She says of the threat from Al Qaida: "That threat is serious, is growing and will, I believe, be with us for a generation. It is a sustained campaign, not a series of isolated incidents. It aims to wear down our will to resist."

As this terrorism of Al Qaida is based on Islam, which aims to wear down all opposition until it becomes dominant, the terrorism threat will not go away until Islam has "gone away", and this will not happen without conflict. It seems that Manningham-Buller has bought into the myth that Islam is essentially peaceful. The vast majority of Muslims are peaceful, but their ideology is not. It is a religion of war and conflict, and domination.

To ignore this fundamental truth is to really ignore the seriousness of our condition in the world. There is no compromise with Islam. There is no "moderate, true" version of Islam, in constant opposition to "jihadist Islam". As the late Oriana Fallaci said: "There is but one Islam." And Islam is not a religion of peace. It is a religion of war.

Islam divides the world into two halves - "Dar ul-Harb" - "The House of War" and "Dar ul-Islam" "The House of Submission". The lands forced into submission by Islam comprise Dar ul-Islam. The rest of the world is Dar ul-Harb - the land of war.

To even consider that Islam is a "religion of peace" is to ignore the texts of the Koran (translations by Yusufali).

Sura 8, verse 12 states: "Remember thy Lord inspired the angels (with the message): "I am with you: give firmness to the Believers: I will instil terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers: smite ye above their necks and smite all their finger-tips off them."

Sura 3, Verse 151 states: "Soon shall We cast terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers, for that they joined companions with Allah, for which He had sent no authority: their abode will be the Fire: And evil is the home of the wrong-doers! "

Sura 9, Verse 5 reads: "But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, an seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war); but if they repent, and establish regular prayers and practise regular charity, then open the way for them: for Allah is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful. "

Sura 9, Verse 29 states: "Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued. "

Jizya is a tax which was imposed upon Christians and Jews living in Muslim lands, designed to force them to accept their second-class status under Islam, unless they of course converted.

The Hadiths are the recorded examples of Mohammed's life. There are many Hadiths, by various authors. Only two authors, Muslim and Bukhari, are regarded as unassailably "authentic", or "Sahih". Bukhari (810 to 870 AD) collected 300,000 Hadiths over a period of 16 years, but only confirmed 2,062 of these to be authentic ("sahih"). Similarly his student Muslim collected a similar number and deemed just over 2,000 to be authentic. And within the Hadith, the full horror of Mohammed's plan for the world is revealed.

Book 52 of Bukhari's collection is entitled "Fighting for the cause of Allah" (Jihaad). Volume 4, Book 52, Number 220 reads: Narrated Abu Huraira - Allah's Apostle said, "I have been sent with the shortest expressions bearing the widest meanings, and I have been made victorious with terror (cast in the hearts of the enemy), and while I was sleeping, the keys of the treasures of the world were brought to me and put in my hand." Abu Huraira added: Allah's Apostle has left the world and now you, people, are bringing out those treasures (i.e. the Prophet did not benefit by them).

The words "I have been made victorious with terror" are the essence of Jihad. According to Robert Spencer, these words were spoken by Mohammed on his deathbed. The legacy of Mohammed in the modern world can be found in New York on September 11, 2001, in Casablanca on May 16, 2003, in Madrid on March 11, 2004, in Beslan on September 1-3, 2004, in London on July 7, 2005, and in Mumbai on July 11, 2006.

In Britain there are 1.6 million Muslims, a mere 3% of the population. Yet though Muslims are a small minority, the jihadist element within this community is devouring MI5's funds. The Times of August 9 revealed that a record amount of the intelligence agency's annual budget of £200 million ($381.62 million) is being allocated to terror cases.

MI5 switched £16 million ($30.53 million) of its budget to counter-terrorism operations and protective security, bringing its total spend on such work to 87% or £174 million ($332 million) per year.

6% is spent on counter-espionage - £12 million ($22.89 million)
4% on external assistance - £8 million ($15.26 million)
2.5% on counter-proliferation - £5 million ($9.54 million)
0.5% on emerging terrorism and other threats - £1 million ($1.9 million).

The vast majority of the cases are tracking the activities of Muslim terrorists. The problem of Muslim terrorism is less to do with Muslims themselves, the majority of whom live their lives peacefully, but with Islam itself. Islam is an ideology which can be followed in a "nominal" manner, with Muslims rarely consulting Islamic texts in any detail. But many young Muslims are not following a casual form of Islam - they are consuming the radical texts which are an integral part of both the Koran and the Hadith. And while this continues, Britain's minority of Jihadists within the minority community of Muslims will continue to drain public money and resources, with no end in sight.
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This is the speech by Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, from the MI5 website:

"THE INTERNATIONAL TERRORIST THREAT TO THE UK"

SPEECH BY THE DIRECTOR GENERAL OF THE SECURITY SERVICE, DAME ELIZA MANNINGHAM-BULLER, AT QUEEN MARY'S COLLEGE, LONDON, 9 NOVEMBER 2006

I have been Director General of the Security Service (MI5) since 2002. Before that I was Deputy Director General for five years. During that time, and before, I have witnessed a steady increase in the terrorist threat to the UK. It has been the subject of much comment and controversy. I rarely speak in public. I prefer to avoid the limelight and get on with my job. But today, I want to set out my views on the realities of the terrorist threat facing the UK in 2006; what motivates those who pose that threat; and what my Service is doing, with others, to counter it.

I speak not as a politician, nor as a pundit, but as someone who has been an intelligence professional for 32 years.

Five years on from 9/11, where are we? Speaking in August, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, the head of the Anti-Terrorist Branch of the Metropolitan Police, described the threat to the UK from Al-Qaida-related terrorism as "real, here, deadly and enduring". Only last week the Home Secretary said the threat will be "enduring - the struggle will be long and wide and deep." Let me describe more fully why I think they said that.

We now know that the first Al-Qaida-related plot against the UK was the one we discovered and disrupted in November 2000 in Birmingham. A British citizen is currently serving a long prison sentence for plotting to detonate a large bomb in the UK. Let there be no doubt about this: the international terrorist threat to this country is not new. It began before Iraq, before Afghanistan, and before 9/11.

In the years after 9/11, with atrocities taking place in Madrid, Casablanca, Bali, Istanbul and elsewhere, terrorists plotted to mount a string of attacks in the UK, but were disrupted. This run of domestic success was interrupted tragically in London in July 2005. Since then, the combined efforts of my Service, the police, SIS and GCHQ have thwarted a further five major conspiracies in the UK, saving many hundreds (possibly even thousands) of lives.

Last month the Lord Chancellor said that there were a total of 99 defendants awaiting trial in 34 cases. Of course the presumption of innocence applies and the law dictates that nothing must be said or done which might prejudice the right of a defendant to receive a fair trial. You will understand therefore that I can say no more on these matters.

What I can say is that today, my officers and the police are working to contend with some 200 groupings or networks, totalling over 1600 identified individuals (and there will be many we don't know) who are actively engaged in plotting, or facilitating, terrorist acts here and overseas. The extremists are motivated by a sense of grievance and injustice driven by their interpretation of the history between the West and the Muslim world. This view is shared, in some degree, by a far wider constituency. If the opinion polls conducted in the UK since July 2005 are only broadly accurate, over 100,000 of our citizens consider that the July 2005 attacks in London were justified.

What we see at the extreme end of the spectrum are resilient networks, some directed from Al-Qaida in Pakistan, some more loosely inspired by it, planning attacks including mass casualty suicide attacks in the UK. Today we see the use of home-made improvised explosive devices; tomorrow's threat may include the use of chemicals, bacteriological agents, radioactive materials and even nuclear technology. More and more people are moving from passive sympathy towards active terrorism through being radicalised or indoctrinated by friends, families, in organised training events here and overseas, by images on television, through chat rooms and websites on the Internet.

The propaganda machine is sophisticated and Al-Qaida itself says that 50% of its war is conducted through the media. In Iraq, attacks are regularly videoed and the footage downloaded onto the Internet within 30 minutes. Virtual media teams then edit the result, translate it into English and many other languages, and package it for a worldwide audience. And, chillingly, we see the results here. Young teenagers being groomed to be suicide bombers.

We are aware of numerous plots to kill people and to damage our economy. What do I mean by numerous? Five? Ten? No, nearer thirty - that we know of. These plots often have links back to Al-Qaida in Pakistan and through those links Al-Qaida gives guidance and training to its largely British foot soldiers here on an extensive and growing scale. And it is not just the UK of course. Other countries also face a new terrorist threat: from Spain to France to Canada and Germany.

A word on proportionality. My Service and the police have occasionally been accused of hype and lack of perspective or worse, of deliberately stirring up fear. It is difficult to argue that there are not worse problems facing us, for example climate change... and of course far more people are killed each year on the roads than die through terrorism. It is understandable that people are reluctant to accept assertions that do not always appear to be substantiated. It is right to be sceptical about intelligence. I shall say more about that later.

But just consider this. A terrorist spectacular would cost potentially thousands of lives and do major damage to the world economy. Imagine if a plot to bring down several passenger aircraft succeeded. Thousands dead, major economic damage, disruption across the globe. And Al-Qaida is an organisation without restraint.

There has been much speculation about what motivates young men and women to carry out acts of terrorism in the UK. My Service needs to understand the motivations behind terrorism to succeed in countering it, as far as that is possible. Al-Qaida has developed an ideology which claims that Islam is under attack, and needs to be defended.

This is a powerful narrative that weaves together conflicts from across the globe, presenting the West's response to varied and complex issues, from long-standing disputes such as Israel/Palestine and Kashmir to more recent events as evidence of an across-the-board determination to undermine and humiliate Islam worldwide. Afghanistan, the Balkans, Chechnya, Iraq, Israel/Palestine, Kashmir and Lebanon are regularly cited by those who advocate terrorist violence as illustrating what they allege is Western hostility to Islam.

The video wills of British suicide bombers make it clear that they are motivated by perceived worldwide and long-standing injustices against Muslims; an extreme and minority interpretation of Islam promoted by some preachers and people of influence; and their interpretation as anti-Muslim of UK foreign policy, in particular the UK's involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Killing oneself and others in response is an attractive option for some citizens of this country and others around the world.

What Intelligence can do

As I said earlier, I have been an intelligence officer for some 32 years. And I want again to describe what intelligence is and is not. I wish life were like 'Spooks', where everything is (a) knowable, and (b) soluble by six people. But those whose plans we wish to detect in advance are determined to conceal from us what they intend to do. And every day they learn. From the mistakes of others. From what they discover of our capabilities from evidence presented in court, and from leaks to the media.

Moreover, intelligence is usually bitty and needs piecing together, assessing, judging. It takes objectivity, integrity and a sceptical eye to make good use of intelligence: even the best of it never tells the whole story. On the basis of such incomplete information, my Service and the police make decisions on when and how to take action, to protect public safety.

Wherever possible we seek to collect evidence sufficient to secure prosecutions, but it is not always possible to do so: admissible evidence is not always available and the courts, rightly, look for a high standard of certainty. Often to protect public safety the police need to disrupt plots on the basis of intelligence but before evidence sufficient to bring criminal charges has been collected.

We are faced by acute and very difficult choices of prioritisation. We cannot focus on everything so we have to decide on a daily basis with the police and others where to focus our energies, whom to follow, whose telephone lines need listening to, which seized media needs to go to the top of the analytic pile. Because of the sheer scale of what we face (80% increase in casework since January), the task is daunting. We won't always make the right choices. And we recognise we shall have scarce sympathy if we are unable to prevent one of our targets committing an atrocity.

And the Service?

As I speak, my staff, roughly 2,800 of them, (an increase of almost 50% since 9/11, 25% under 30, over 6% from ethnic minorities, with 52 languages, with links to well over 100 services worldwide), are working very hard, at some cost to their private lives and in some cases their safety, to do their utmost to collect the intelligence we need.

The first challenge is to find those who would cause us harm, among the 60 million or so people who live here and the hundreds of thousands who visit each year. That is no easy task, particularly given the scale and speed of radicalisation and the age of some being radicalised.

The next stage is to decide what action to take in response to that intelligence. Who are merely talking big, and who have real ambitions? Who have genuine aspirations to commit terrorism, but lack the know-how or materials? Who are the skilled and trained ones, who the amateurs? Where should we and the police focus our finite resources?

It's a hard grind but my staff are highly motivated: conscious of the risks they carry individually; and aware that they may not be able to do enough to stop the next attack. We owe them a tremendous debt of gratitude and I thank them.

On July 8 last year I spoke to all my staff. I said that what we feared would happen had finally happened. I reminded them that we had warned that it was a matter of when, not if, and that they were trained to respond - indeed many had been up all night, from the intelligence staff to the catering staff. I told them that we had received many messages of support from around the world, and that we, along with our colleagues in the police and emergency services, were in the privileged position of being able to make a difference. And we did. And we have done so since.

My Service is growing very rapidly. By 2008 it will be twice the size it was at 9/11. We know much more than we did then. We have developed new techniques, new sources, new relationships. We understand much better the scale and nature of what we are tackling but much is still obscure and radicalisation continues. Moreover, even with such rapid growth, we shall not be able to investigate nearly enough of the problem, so the prioritisation I mentioned earlier will remain essential but risky. And new intelligence officers need to be trained. That takes time as does the acquisition of experience, the experience that helps one with those difficult choices and tough judgements.

What else can others do?

That brings me on to my final point. None of this can be tackled by my Service alone. Others have to address the causes, counter the radicalisation, assist in the rehabilitation of those affected, and work to protect our way of life. We have key partners, the police being the main ones and I'd like today to applaud those police officers working alongside us on this huge challenge, those who collect intelligence beside us, help convert it into evidence for court, and face the dangers of arresting individuals who have no concern for their own lives or the lives of others. The scale and seriousness of the threat means that others play vital roles, SIS and GCHQ collecting key intelligence overseas, other services internationally who recognise the global nature of the problem, government departments, business and the public.

Safety for us all means working together to protect those we care about, being alert to the danger without over-reacting, and reporting concerns. We need to be alert to attempts to radicalise and indoctrinate our youth and to seek to counter it. Radicalising elements within communities are trying to exploit grievances for terrorist purposes; it is the youth who are being actively targeted, groomed, radicalised and set on a path that frighteningly quickly could end in their involvement in mass murder of their fellow UK citizens, or their early death in a suicide attack or on a foreign battlefield.

We also need to understand some of the differences between non-Western and Western life-styles; and not treat people with suspicion because of their religion, or indeed to confuse fundamentalism with terrorism. We must realise that there are significant differences between faiths and communities within our society, and most people, from whatever origin, condemn all acts of terror in the UK. And we must focus on those values that we all share in this country regardless of our background: Equality, Freedom, Justice and Tolerance. Many people are working for and with us to address the threat precisely for those reasons. Because all of us, whatever our ethnicity and faith, are the targets of the terrorists.

I have spoken as an intelligence professional, describing the reality of terrorism and counter terrorism in the UK in 2006. My messages are sober ones. I do not speak in this way to alarm (nor as the cynics might claim to enhance the reputation of my organisation) but to give the most frank account I can of the Al-Qaida threat to the UK. That threat is serious, is growing and will, I believe, be with us for a generation. It is a sustained campaign, not a series of isolated incidents. It aims to wear down our will to resist.

My Service is dedicated to tackling the deadly manifestations of terrorism. Tackling its roots is the work of us all.

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Commentaries on the speech can be found from Manchester Evening News, Channel 4.com, the International Herald Tribune, the Telegraph, Reuters, the Independent and all national print media in Britain.

Tony Blair has spoken of the speech, and has warned of the "long and deep struggle" against terrorism. The Guardian quotes Blair as saying Britain must "stand up and be counted" to counter the "poisonous propaganda" available to the young.

The Independent quotes him as saying: "I have been saying for several years this terror threat is very real. It has been building up over a long period of time."

The BBC samples reactions to Dame