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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 behavi