GROZNY, Russia: The bullnecked president of Chechnya emerged from afternoon prayers at the mosque and with chilling composure explained why seven young women who had been shot in the head deserved to die.
Ramzan Kadyrov said the women, whose bodies were found dumped by the roadside, had "loose morals" and were rightfully shot by male relatives in honor killings.
"If a woman runs around and if a man runs around with her, both of them are killed," Kadyrov told journalists in the capital of this Russian republic.
The 32-year-old former militia leader is carrying out a campaign to impose Islamic values and strengthen the traditional customs of predominantly Muslim Chechnya, in an effort to blunt the appeal of hardline Islamic separatists and shore up his power. In doing so, critics say, he is setting up a dictatorship where Russian laws do not apply.
Some in Russia say Kadyrov's attempt to create an Islamic society violates the Russian constitution, which guarantees equal rights for women and a separation of church and state. But the Kremlin has given him its staunch backing, seeing him as the key to keeping the separatists in check, and that has allowed him to impose his will.
"Kadyrov willfully tries to increase the influence of local customs over the life of the republic because this makes him the absolute ruler of the republic," said Yulia Latynina, a political analyst in Moscow.
Kadyrov's bluster shows how confident he is of his position. "No one can tell us not to be Muslims," he said outside the mosque. "If anyone says I cannot be a Muslim, he is my enemy."
Few dare to challenge Kadyrov's rule in this southern Russian region of more than a million people, which is only now emerging from the devastation of two wars in the past 15 years. The fighting between Islamic separatists and Russian troops, compounded by atrocities on both sides, claimed tens of thousands of lives and terrorized civilians.
Kadyrov describes women as the property of their husbands and says their main role is to bear children. He encourages men to take more than one wife, even though polygamy is illegal in Russia. Women and girls are now required to wear headscarves in all schools, universities and government offices.
Some Chechen women say they support or at least accept Kadyrov's strict new guidelines.
"Headscarves make a woman beautiful," said Zulikhan Nakayeva, a medical student whose long dark hair flowed out from under her head covering, her big brown eyes accentuated by mascara.
But many chafe under the restrictions.
"How do women live in Chechnya? They live as the men say," said Taisiya, 20, who asked that her last name not be used for fear of retribution. She was not wearing a headscarf while shopping in central Grozny, which she said was her way of protesting.
Most women now wear headscarves in public, though the scarves rarely fully cover their hair and in some cases are little more than colorful silk headbands. Women who go out without a headscarf tend to tuck one into their bag for use where headscarves are required.
Many people suspect Kadyrov is branding the seven late November slayings honor killings to advance his political agenda. He said the women were planning to go abroad to work as prostitutes, but their relatives found out about it and killed them.
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Muslim Man Arrested for Allegedly Targeting Obama With HIV-Infected Blood
A man from President Obama's hometown of Chicago has been arrested for allegedly sending Obama and his staff envelopes containing HIV-infected blood, in the hopes of killing or harming them.
It's only the second time ever that HIV-infected blood has been sent with malicious intent through the U.S. mail system, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service said.
In the weeks leading up to Obama's inauguration, Saad Hussein, an Ethiopian refugee in his late 20s, sent an envelope addressed to "Barack Obama" to offices of the Illinois government in Springfield, Ill., according to court documents.
The envelope contained a series of curious items, including a letter with reddish stains and an admission ticket for Obama's election-night celebration in Chicago's Grant Park. Court documents said Hussein, who takes drugs to treat a mental illness, later told FBI agents he is "very sick with HIV" and cut his fingers with a razor so he could bleed on the letter.
Hazmat teams were called in after the envelope was opened, and offices of the Illinois Department on Aging and the Department of Revenue were locked down for nearly two hours, locking 300 staffers in their offices, court documents said.
Hussein, with his brother acting as an interpreter, told FBI agents he was actually "an admirer" of Obama and was "seeking help from the government," according to court documents. He also told them he was hoping to obtain tickets to the Inaugural ceremonies in Washington, the documents said.
Days after sending the letter to Obama, Hussein allegedly placed two more letters in the mail, one addressed to "Emanuel," an apparent reference to Obama's current Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel. The two letters contained what appeared to be dried blood, the court documents said.
Hussein, who has never held a job in the three years he's been in the United States, was arrested last month. He was charged with "knowingly" mailing letters "containing HIV-infected blood, with the intent to kill or injure another," in violation of federal law.
The charging documents do not address whether the letters could have actually killed or injured anyone. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HIV is spread only through sexual contact with an infected person, through sharing needles with an infected person, or through blood transfusions of infected blood.
The spokesman for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Peter Rendina, expressed confidence that the U.S. mail system is safe.
"To me the U.S. Postal Service is the most secure form of communication in the world," he said. "In no way are we seeing a trend."
Hussein is currently being detained in a Chicago correctional facility. A judge ordered he receive a mental examination to see if he's fit for trial, but as of two weeks ago the court couldn't locate a translator to conduct the examination, according to court documents.
A publicly-appointed attorney representing Hussein declined comment, saying he was "not at liberty to discuss pending criminal matters."
This is not the first time law enforcement officials have had to take Hussein into custody. He was arrested by police in 2006 after starting a fire in the middle of a crowded Chicago intersection. When officers arrived on the scene, he was waving the Koran in the air and yelling"Allah Akbar," or "God is Great" in Arabic. Court documents say he was transported to a hospital, where he called President Bush a terrorist and criticized American foreign policy. He was not formally charged, but he did spend time in the mental health unit of the hospital.
The latest case marks the second time HIV-infected blood has been sent through the U.S. mail. In 2006 a "disturbed individual" placed a plastic vial of HIV-infected blood in the mail, according to Rendina. The unidentified individual was arrested and charged, and is now receiving psychiatric treatment at a federal medical detention center, Rendina said.
It's only the second time ever that HIV-infected blood has been sent with malicious intent through the U.S. mail system, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service said.
In the weeks leading up to Obama's inauguration, Saad Hussein, an Ethiopian refugee in his late 20s, sent an envelope addressed to "Barack Obama" to offices of the Illinois government in Springfield, Ill., according to court documents.
The envelope contained a series of curious items, including a letter with reddish stains and an admission ticket for Obama's election-night celebration in Chicago's Grant Park. Court documents said Hussein, who takes drugs to treat a mental illness, later told FBI agents he is "very sick with HIV" and cut his fingers with a razor so he could bleed on the letter.
Hazmat teams were called in after the envelope was opened, and offices of the Illinois Department on Aging and the Department of Revenue were locked down for nearly two hours, locking 300 staffers in their offices, court documents said.
Hussein, with his brother acting as an interpreter, told FBI agents he was actually "an admirer" of Obama and was "seeking help from the government," according to court documents. He also told them he was hoping to obtain tickets to the Inaugural ceremonies in Washington, the documents said.
Days after sending the letter to Obama, Hussein allegedly placed two more letters in the mail, one addressed to "Emanuel," an apparent reference to Obama's current Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel. The two letters contained what appeared to be dried blood, the court documents said.
Hussein, who has never held a job in the three years he's been in the United States, was arrested last month. He was charged with "knowingly" mailing letters "containing HIV-infected blood, with the intent to kill or injure another," in violation of federal law.
The charging documents do not address whether the letters could have actually killed or injured anyone. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HIV is spread only through sexual contact with an infected person, through sharing needles with an infected person, or through blood transfusions of infected blood.
The spokesman for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Peter Rendina, expressed confidence that the U.S. mail system is safe.
"To me the U.S. Postal Service is the most secure form of communication in the world," he said. "In no way are we seeing a trend."
Hussein is currently being detained in a Chicago correctional facility. A judge ordered he receive a mental examination to see if he's fit for trial, but as of two weeks ago the court couldn't locate a translator to conduct the examination, according to court documents.
A publicly-appointed attorney representing Hussein declined comment, saying he was "not at liberty to discuss pending criminal matters."
This is not the first time law enforcement officials have had to take Hussein into custody. He was arrested by police in 2006 after starting a fire in the middle of a crowded Chicago intersection. When officers arrived on the scene, he was waving the Koran in the air and yelling"Allah Akbar," or "God is Great" in Arabic. Court documents say he was transported to a hospital, where he called President Bush a terrorist and criticized American foreign policy. He was not formally charged, but he did spend time in the mental health unit of the hospital.
The latest case marks the second time HIV-infected blood has been sent through the U.S. mail. In 2006 a "disturbed individual" placed a plastic vial of HIV-infected blood in the mail, according to Rendina. The unidentified individual was arrested and charged, and is now receiving psychiatric treatment at a federal medical detention center, Rendina said.
On Hizbullah TV: Iranian Attorney-General Qorban 'Ali Najaf-Abadi Explains the Different Types of Executions in Iran
Following are excerpts from an interview with Iranian Attorney General Qorban 'Ali Najaf-Abadi, which aired on Hizbullah's Al-Manar TV on February 11, 2009.
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Chopping Off Thieves' Hands "Is Very Rare; Cases of Qisas [Executions in Retaliation For Murder] Are More Common"
Qorban 'Ali Najaf-Abadi: "Chopping off the hands of thieves is very rare. Cases of qisas [executions in retaliation for murder] are more common. Qisas is the individual prerogative of the victim's family, and the government does not intervene in this matter.
"One of the issues protested by the West is the qisas. They confuse qisas with the death penalty. The qisas is not up to the government. It is the prerogative of the victim's family. For example, if a person is killed, and the [killer's] father requests it, we may ask the victim's family to absolve... Excuse me, the family of... This is within my authority, but we have no right to pressure them. It is up to the family whose member was killed - sometime with extreme brutality.
"The world should know that in the Islamic Republic of Iran, the qisas is the prerogative of the victim's family. It is not the prerogative or business of the government, and therefore the government cannot revoke it or refrain from carrying it out. It is different with regard to the death penalty. Qisas, as I said, is the prerogative of individuals, and when a person is killed in a qisas execution, it is not called a 'death penalty.' When it comes to the death penalty - we have judges, and the courts issue a verdict according to the shari'a." [...]
"Islam Wants to Abolish the Lack of Financial and Economic Safety, And Therefore It Orders The Chopping Off Of Hands..."
"As for chopping off hands - these sentences are meant as a deterrent. Islam wants to abolish the lack of financial and economic safety, and therefore it orders the chopping off of hands. This prevents the thief form stealing again. We should not have mercy on someone who steals repeatedly.
[...]
"This punishment is better than prisons, with all their negative effects, especially when prisons like Guantanamo and Abu Ghuraib are concerned. The [Americans] who committed all those crimes in Guantanamo - how come nobody takes a look at their barbaric deeds? This torture is hundreds of times worse than the chopping off of hands. How come they do not face trial? It is not that we want to chop off hands, but we don't say that we won't. If necessary, we will chop off the hands of thieves, just like we carry out death penalties." [...]
"These Islamic Punishments Are Meant to Warn and Punish... They Are Better Than" Prison
"Imprisonment and the divine punishments are two different things. We have, unfortunately, adopted prisons from the West. Sometimes prisons do not yield positive results. Quite the opposite. It is not desirable to impose prison sentences. There is no such thing in Islam.
"Take, for example, the punishment of flogging. Since this punishment ruins a person's reputation, it has a positive effect in terms of deterrence. These Islamic punishments are meant to warn and punish, not to torture. They are better than sentencing a person to years in prison, especially considering the corruption and all the bad things he learns there. In prison, a person learns new crimes. We see this happening all over the world."
Kashmir: Young converts from Islam pray for Benedict XVI
by Nirmala Carvalho
After a group of Muslims from North Africa and the Middle East, young converts from Kashmir join in the prayers for the pope launched by AsiaNews for this Lent. The three converts are offering their suffering and marginalization, together with the sacrifice of their father Bashir, murdered by Muslim extremists because he had converted to Christianity. There is also participation from Italy, where the humiliations suffered by John Paul II are also being remembered.
Some young former Muslims who converted to Catholicism are joining in the prayers for the Pope this Lent. Shabnam (21), Saira (17), and Adil (16), together with their mother Ameena, who still lives in Kashmir, want Benedict XVI to know that they are praying for him and offering their sufferings and humiliations for his mission. "We pray that he may be strong," Shabnam he says, "and may continue to be the beacon of truth and love for the whole world."
The three young people and their mother are participating in the proposal made by AsiaNews yesterday, that during Lent Christians should pray for the pontiff, who is at the center of a media "war" against his ministry. The proposal originated from a suggestion sent to AsiaNews by a group of several hundred former Muslims in North Africa and the Middle East, who have launched prayer novenas for the pope, whom they see as a "sign of Jesus' love and a defender of the weak."
Adil, the youngest son, who this year will take his final year school exams, sees a profound unity between the sufferings and humiliations of converts from Islam, and the humiliations suffered by the pope: "I was baptized when I was very young, and it has always been very difficult: criticism, sarcasm, threats, discrimination, and social ostracism have caused us great suffering. But every suffering teaches us something, and our faith is strengthened, we rely on Christ and it is he who guides us in difficult times.
Click to read more.
After a group of Muslims from North Africa and the Middle East, young converts from Kashmir join in the prayers for the pope launched by AsiaNews for this Lent. The three converts are offering their suffering and marginalization, together with the sacrifice of their father Bashir, murdered by Muslim extremists because he had converted to Christianity. There is also participation from Italy, where the humiliations suffered by John Paul II are also being remembered.
Some young former Muslims who converted to Catholicism are joining in the prayers for the Pope this Lent. Shabnam (21), Saira (17), and Adil (16), together with their mother Ameena, who still lives in Kashmir, want Benedict XVI to know that they are praying for him and offering their sufferings and humiliations for his mission. "We pray that he may be strong," Shabnam he says, "and may continue to be the beacon of truth and love for the whole world."The three young people and their mother are participating in the proposal made by AsiaNews yesterday, that during Lent Christians should pray for the pontiff, who is at the center of a media "war" against his ministry. The proposal originated from a suggestion sent to AsiaNews by a group of several hundred former Muslims in North Africa and the Middle East, who have launched prayer novenas for the pope, whom they see as a "sign of Jesus' love and a defender of the weak."
Adil, the youngest son, who this year will take his final year school exams, sees a profound unity between the sufferings and humiliations of converts from Islam, and the humiliations suffered by the pope: "I was baptized when I was very young, and it has always been very difficult: criticism, sarcasm, threats, discrimination, and social ostracism have caused us great suffering. But every suffering teaches us something, and our faith is strengthened, we rely on Christ and it is he who guides us in difficult times.
Click to read more.
Critic calls for inquiry into Shia arrests
Riyadh, 25 Feb. (AKI) - A prominent Saudi intellectual has asked the government to hold an inquiry into the behaviour of religious police after nine Shia pilgrims were arrested during clashes in the holy city of Medina. Tawfiq al-Sayf called for probe because he believed the pilgrims' arrests occurred for no reason.Saudi authorities reportedly arrested at least nine Shia pilgrims after three days of violent clashes in the holy city. The first protest occurred on Friday and the last protest took place on Tuesday.
Jaafar al-Shaib, a leading figure among minority Saudi Shias, said the clashes occurred between Shia pilgrims and religious police near a mosque that houses the tomb of Prophet Mohammed.
"Some 1,500 Shia pilgrims gathered near the mosque for the commemoration of Prophet Mohammed's death," Jaafar told the media.
"We came here to celebrate the birth of Mohammed and the religious police charged at us. While we were in front of the mosque, plainclothes police charged at us with batons to disperse us."
Religious police often prevent pilgrims venerating tombs, seen as idolatry under the strict Saudi version of Islam.
According to Arab daily, al-Quds al-Arabi, there were as many as 1,500 pilgrims outside the mosque where they held a demonstration, shouting slogans against the government and accusing authorities of discrimination.
Some pilgrims were injured in a stampede after police fired into the air to disperse the crowd, Jaafar said.
He also said some shops owned by Shias were attacked.
An interior ministry spokesman for security affairs described the incident as "a quarrel between visitors and worshippers".
Relations are tense between Saudi Arabia's majority Sunnis and the Shia, who are a minority of the country's 22 million people.
The Shia are regarded as infidels under the fundamentalist Wahabi interpretation of Islam followed in Saudi Arabia and often complain of discrimination.
Many Shia critics have been jailed, and others claim to have been banned from jobs in the religious police and teaching religion.
Religious Leaders in Yemen Announce Fatwa on Minimum Marriage Age
Some religious leaders in Yemen have launched a "fatwa" against a recently approved law in Parliament fixing the minimum age for marriage at 17, reports AsiaNews.The statement, signed by the Vice-Chancellor of the Al-Eman, Sheikh Abdul-Majid al-Zindani University and by representatives of the Islamic Islah party, aims at eliminating this age limit as it is held to be too high. The marriage age issue in Yemen was brought into the world spotlight in April 2008 following the case of Nojud Mohammed Ali, who was forced to marry a 30-year-old man when she was 8. She then later asked for and obtained a divorce from him.
The 17 signees of the fatwa, according to News Yemen, stated that the law has no foundation in Islam and violates Shariah, which the Constitution declares as the base for all laws, and on this basis, they have asked the government to repeal the law. Others, however, have asked for the minimum age be raised to 18. An Islamic issues researcher, AbdulAziz al Asali, although a member of the Islah party, believes that girls need to be given time to finish secondary school and that "at the age of 18 are physically and mentally ready for marriage". For its part, the Woman's National Committee (WNC) has asked Parliament to not respond to calls for the legal age for marriage to be set at 12.
It is, however, improbable that the issue be examined in the near future. Yemen's Parliament has decided to postpone political elections set to take place in April until 2011. Representatives in Parliament have approved a document will open the way for procedures necessary to modify the constitution, which sets the duration of parliamentary mandates. The decision was made to allow the introduction of amendments necessary "for political and electoral development", including a proportional system. The decision was made following threats from the opposition to boycott the vote if the electoral laws were not modified.
Attacks on nurses
RECENTLY the media have addressed the increasing number of assaults against Saudi nurses.Paradoxically, women commit most of these attacks against other women. It seems the chivalry of Saudi men prevents them from using their own hands to slap the weak nurses so they ask their wives or relatives to do it on their behalf. They want to give Saudi nurses a lesson on how to treat the “noble Saudi family.”
This of course is one aspect of the “specialty” of our dear Saudi society, which is coveted for its strict adherence to Islam and its refined ethics. As usual, there will be opponents and attackers to anyone who dares to criticize our “specialty” claiming that these are individual cases and not a phenomenon.
These cases, which some of us like to undermine by saying they are rare and isolated include, among others:
• Maltreatment of foreign housemaids, humiliating them and depriving them of their monthly payments.
• Financial scams by Saudi tenants that will neither pay rents nor evacuate the apartments.
• Abusing children and physically torturing them and their mothers.
• Addiction to drugs and the “very little problems” resulting from these addictions.
• The fatal traffic accidents that result from speeding and other violations.
This is enough. Everything else — thank God — is one hundred percent perfect. Even assaults against Saudi nurses are few and far between. These aggressions will, however, continue until the eradication of Saudi nurses. Then it will be the turn of the qualified foreign nurses. When these are done with, we will bring unqualified foreign nurses with fake certificates who will answer attacks verbally or physically.
One of the Saudi nurses who had been abused said she was astonished that some Saudi men will only allow Saudi nurses to examine their wives, yet they treat them with utter disrespect.
No doubt that this paradox is a characteristic of our “specialty.”
PA Officials Reiterate Warning of Renewed 'Armed Struggle'
by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz
A Palestinian Authority official reiterated on Wednesday the oft-repeated threat that Fatah will "return" to armed attacks against Israel if negotiations do not produce the results the movement wants.
Addressing a pro-Fatah rally of more than 100,000 people in the Samaria city of Shechem (Nablus), the PA Mayor Jamal Muhsein threatened: "Whoever thinks that negotiations are the only choice for Fatah is wrong. On the contrary, all options are open, including armed struggle, as long as we seek peace and others do not. Jerusalem is the gate to peace as well as the gate to war."
Another high-ranking local representative of Fatah, which is headed by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, told the crowd that his organization is "renewing its pledge to the PLO as it had done before."
Regarding reconciliation talks with the Hamas organization underway in Egypt at this time, the Fatah official said that his movement "seeks dialogue and real reconciliation," but first Hamas had to "give the Gaza Strip back to legitimate Palestinian [authority]." Clarifying his view of the relations between the two movements, he added, "We are ready for Hamas to join the PLO, not for the PLO to join Hamas."
Abbas Also Threatened 'Return to Armed Struggle'
The threat that the PA would "return" to the option of armed struggle is far from a new one. It has been made regularly, at least once a year, since the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993.
One year ago, almost to the day, in a February 27 interview with Jordan's Al-Dustour newspaper, PA leader Mahmoud Abbas was quoted as saying, "At present, I am against an armed struggle against Israel because we can't do it, but in the coming stages, things may change. ...I do not rule out a return to the way of armed struggle against Israel."
This is in line with the Fatah Constitution, which states (Article 19): "Armed struggle is a strategy and not a tactic, and the Palestinian Arab People's armed revolution is a decisive factor in the liberation fight and in uprooting the Zionist existence, and this struggle will not cease unless the Zionist state is demolished and Palestine is completely liberated."
A Fatah communique issued while the Fatah-led PA was in the midst of negotiations with Israel, in 2001 explained its pursuit of this struggle: "Fatah believes that... a legitimate Palestinian entity forms the most important weapon that Arabs have against Israel."
A Return to Terrorism?
Over the years, while Fatah spokespeople were threatening to return to terrorism, their operatives in the field never ceased their participation in terrorist attacks.
Most recently, on the first day of this month, Abbas's Fatah organization in Gaza claimed to have launched a short-range rocket towards Jewish targets in southern Israel. It was one of three launched that day.
Other examples of attacks perpetrated by Fatah during the ongoing negotiations with Israel include a double suicide bombing in February of last year. Three people were killed in the attack on an open-air mall in Dimona. In 2007, Fatah claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in the southern city of Eilat that killed three people.
A Palestinian Authority official reiterated on Wednesday the oft-repeated threat that Fatah will "return" to armed attacks against Israel if negotiations do not produce the results the movement wants.
Addressing a pro-Fatah rally of more than 100,000 people in the Samaria city of Shechem (Nablus), the PA Mayor Jamal Muhsein threatened: "Whoever thinks that negotiations are the only choice for Fatah is wrong. On the contrary, all options are open, including armed struggle, as long as we seek peace and others do not. Jerusalem is the gate to peace as well as the gate to war."
Another high-ranking local representative of Fatah, which is headed by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, told the crowd that his organization is "renewing its pledge to the PLO as it had done before."
Regarding reconciliation talks with the Hamas organization underway in Egypt at this time, the Fatah official said that his movement "seeks dialogue and real reconciliation," but first Hamas had to "give the Gaza Strip back to legitimate Palestinian [authority]." Clarifying his view of the relations between the two movements, he added, "We are ready for Hamas to join the PLO, not for the PLO to join Hamas."
Abbas Also Threatened 'Return to Armed Struggle'
The threat that the PA would "return" to the option of armed struggle is far from a new one. It has been made regularly, at least once a year, since the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993.
One year ago, almost to the day, in a February 27 interview with Jordan's Al-Dustour newspaper, PA leader Mahmoud Abbas was quoted as saying, "At present, I am against an armed struggle against Israel because we can't do it, but in the coming stages, things may change. ...I do not rule out a return to the way of armed struggle against Israel."
This is in line with the Fatah Constitution, which states (Article 19): "Armed struggle is a strategy and not a tactic, and the Palestinian Arab People's armed revolution is a decisive factor in the liberation fight and in uprooting the Zionist existence, and this struggle will not cease unless the Zionist state is demolished and Palestine is completely liberated."
A Fatah communique issued while the Fatah-led PA was in the midst of negotiations with Israel, in 2001 explained its pursuit of this struggle: "Fatah believes that... a legitimate Palestinian entity forms the most important weapon that Arabs have against Israel."
A Return to Terrorism?
Over the years, while Fatah spokespeople were threatening to return to terrorism, their operatives in the field never ceased their participation in terrorist attacks.
Most recently, on the first day of this month, Abbas's Fatah organization in Gaza claimed to have launched a short-range rocket towards Jewish targets in southern Israel. It was one of three launched that day.
Other examples of attacks perpetrated by Fatah during the ongoing negotiations with Israel include a double suicide bombing in February of last year. Three people were killed in the attack on an open-air mall in Dimona. In 2007, Fatah claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in the southern city of Eilat that killed three people.
Supermarkets Torched in Sweden
Three supermarkets have been destroyed and a fourth damaged in central Sweden in what police say might have been a series of anti-American arson attacks.Police spokeswoman Kia Samrell said more than 100 firefighters were called in to put out the fires overnight at the Swedish supermarkets in Sodertalje.
Ms Samrell said the police were investigating whether the left-wing group, Global Intifada, was connected.
Global Intifada claimed responsibility for two fires in Sodertalje last year.
It has also said it was behind arson attacks on vehicles belonging to the Danish and Russian embassies in 2005, and an attack on a Polish consulate in 2004, according to the Swedish Security Service.
"The targets have primarily been countries that are participating in the war in Iraq and the Swedish defence industry," it said.
The supermarkets targeted on Thursday were branches of Willys, and Ica and Tempo. The chains are all Swedish, but sell American goods.
Swedish Radio reports that Global Intifada had recently distributed leaflets in Sodertalje encouraging the public to firebomb shops selling American products.
The US embassy in Stockholm has been in contact with the police and has advised people to exercise "caution while shopping and be attentive to suspicious behaviour", Swedish media report.
Sodertalje, an industrial town of 60,000 people, received worldwide attention in recent years after accepting nearly 6,000 Iraqi refugees.
Russian police: Islamic fanatics kill bowling alley owner
ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia: Police in the violence-plagued Russian republic of Ingushetia say a bowling alley owner was shot to death by suspected Islamic extremists who oppose games and some other forms of entertainment.Ingushetia, a predominantly Muslim region, sees near-daily attacks or clashes that authorities blame on insurgents inspired by the years of separatist fighting in neighboring Chechnya.
The Ingush Interior Ministry said the Wednesday night killing in the town of Karabulak was believed to be the work of "fanatics" who have also attacked owners of other entertainment facilities in recent months.
Also Thursday, the ministry said police killed three suspected militants who had stored a large arsenal at a sheep farm.
Gunmen ambush Pakistan school minibus: police
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) – Gunmen on Friday ambushed a minibus carrying children to school in remote northwest Pakistan, killing the driver, wounding two children and apparently kidnapping six others, police said.
The bus was ambushed outside the town of Hangu in the country's troubled North West Frontier Province, which borders Afghanistan and is plagued by sectarian violence as well as Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants.
"Unknown gunmen fired at the school van carrying Shiite students. The driver was killed, two children were injured, while six appear to have been kidnapped by the attackers," local police station chief Saeed Khan told AFP.
"Police are searching for the attackers in the nearby mountains," he added, saying he had no further details about the missing students.
Hangu, which has been a flashpoint for sectarian violence in the past, is located about 175 kilometres (110 miles) west of the capital Islamabad.
Shiite and Sunni Muslim groups signed a peace accord in Hangu last month after days of sectarian clashes in which at least nine people were killed.
Shiites account for about 20 percent of Pakistan's 160-million-strong, Sunni-majority population.
The groups usually coexist peacefully but outbreaks of sectarian violence have claimed more than 4,000 lives across Pakistan since the late 1980s.
The bus was ambushed outside the town of Hangu in the country's troubled North West Frontier Province, which borders Afghanistan and is plagued by sectarian violence as well as Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants.
"Unknown gunmen fired at the school van carrying Shiite students. The driver was killed, two children were injured, while six appear to have been kidnapped by the attackers," local police station chief Saeed Khan told AFP.
"Police are searching for the attackers in the nearby mountains," he added, saying he had no further details about the missing students.
Hangu, which has been a flashpoint for sectarian violence in the past, is located about 175 kilometres (110 miles) west of the capital Islamabad.
Shiite and Sunni Muslim groups signed a peace accord in Hangu last month after days of sectarian clashes in which at least nine people were killed.
Shiites account for about 20 percent of Pakistan's 160-million-strong, Sunni-majority population.
The groups usually coexist peacefully but outbreaks of sectarian violence have claimed more than 4,000 lives across Pakistan since the late 1980s.
Egypt: Over 20 lawyers attend court hearing for ex-Muslim to endorse his conviction and execution for apostasy
Muhammad commanded: "If anyone changes his religion, kill him (Bukhari vol. 9, bk. 84, no. 57)."
But they're keeping their grievances current, too: "Memos submitted by opposing lawyers asserted that cases such as El-Gohary’s form part of a U.S. Zionist attack on Islam in Egypt, that Christianity is an inferior religion to Islam and that Copts protect and defend converts from Islam at their own peril."
An update on this story. "Egypt - Islamic lawyers urge death sentence for convert," from Compass Direct News, February 26:
ISTANBUL, February 26 (Compass Direct News) – In the latest hearing of a Muslim-born Egyptian’s effort to officially convert to Christianity, opposing lawyers advocated he be convicted of “apostasy,” or leaving Islam, and sentenced to death.
More than 20 Islamic lawyers attended the hearing on Sunday (Feb. 22) in Maher Ahmad El-Mo’otahssem Bellah El-Gohary’s case to obtain identification papers with Christianity designated as his religious affiliation. Two lawyers led the charge, Ahmed Dia El-Din and Abdel Al-Migid El-Anani.
“[El-Din] started to talk about the Quran being in a higher position than the Bible,” one of El-Gohary’s lawyers, Said Fayez, told Compass. “[El-Din said] people can move to a higher religion but not down, so people cannot move away from Islam because it is highest in rank.”
That always raises the same question as the "people's paradises" behind the Iron Curtain (and in North Korea still): Really, how great are you if you have to kill people to keep them from leaving? It sure doesn't look good.
Memos submitted by opposing lawyers asserted that cases such as El-Gohary’s form part of a U.S. Zionist attack on Islam in Egypt, that Christianity is an inferior religion to Islam and that Copts protect and defend converts from Islam at their own peril.
“We received 150 pages from them that talked about religion,” said Fayez. “We are not in a position to talk about religion, we are only talking about the law.”
El-Gohary Beaten
El-Gohary was not present at the hearing, as attendance would put him at extreme personal risk. He had planned to obtain papers authorizing attorney Nabil Ghobreyal to act as his proxy representation in court, but staff members at the registry office swore at and beat him, lawyers said.
Judge Hamdy Yasin was forced to adjourn the case until March 28 because El-Gohary did not obtain the necessary proxy representation documents.
“I am now in a position where I can’t do anything else,” El-Gohary, who has been in hiding, told Compass. “I have to go [to court] despite the danger. I believe God will protect me. It’s a very hard decision, but I have to go.”
Copts and Christian converts have to face such systemic prejudice daily in the battle for their rights, he said.
“Our rights in Egypt, as Christians or converts, are less than the rights of animals,” El-Gohary said. “We are deprived of social and civil rights, deprived of our inheritance and left to the fundamentalists to be killed. Nobody bothers to investigate or care about us.”
El-Gohary, 56, has been attacked in the street, spat at and knocked down in his effort to win the right to officially convert. He said he and his 14-year-old daughter continue to receive death threats by text message and phone call.
But he also has received text messages, he said, of encouragement from other Muslim-born converts too fearful to take a similar stand.
“Everyday I get calls from people who have converted but are secret,” said El-Gohary. “They ask me every day about what is happening, because it affects their future....”
Muslim Gang Members Receive Lenient Sentences
By Chris Semple
A GANG who screamed racist abuse as they went on a violent rampage through Southampton city centre have escaped immediate jail terms.
Seven men were part of the group who left bystanders unconscious and bleeding.
They assaulted seven people during their drink and drug fuelled attacks, yet only one was jailed for drug offences.
One even waved a knife in the face of two terrified women shouting: "I'm from Afghanistan, I'm a Muslim. I'm going to stab every white person."
Deeply concerned' Today community leaders said they were deeply concerned at the "lenient" sentences.
The violence started on July 14 last year after the defendants left the Bambuu Bar at Southampton's LeisureWorld.
Witnesses said they saw the group hurling abuse at people waiting for taxis and one, Suraj Bhakar, kicked a cab.
Prosecutor Dale Sullivan said Bhakar then hurled racist remarks at two women, before producing a flick knife and pointing it in their direction.
The seven men then approached another group.
Southampton Crown Court heard Bhakar and two others, Harvinder Khurda and Dalvinder Gujra, kicked and punched one of the group, Glyn Richards, to the floor.
Tripinder Pattar kicked him unconscious and Mandeep Dalviar stamped on his head. Two passers-by were also kicked and punched.
The attackers found another victim at a bus stop, who they claimed called them "a Paki". He too was left bleeding and bruised after sustaining repeated punches and kicks from all but one of the gang, Gurdeep Potiwal.
Bhakar, 22, of Derby Road in Newtown, pleaded guilty to racially aggravated assault and two counts of affray but received only a 12-month suspended sentence and a community punishment order.
Dalvinder Gurja, 19, of Botley Road in Woolston and Harvinder Khurda, 19, of Brintons Road, Southampton, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Gurja was also handed a 12-month suspended sentence and community punishment order, while Khurda, who also admitted possession of crack cocaine and heroin with intent to supply, was jailed for four years.
Of the four others, Tripinder Pattar, 20, of Colebrook Avenue and Mandeep Dalviar, 19, of Clovelly Road in Newtown, both pleaded guilty to one charge of ABH and one of affray and received 12-month suspended sentences and community punishment orders.
Gurdeep Potiwal, 22, of Denzil Avenue, also admitted one count of affray and got a 12-month suspended sentence and community punishment order, while Hardev Phagura, 26, of Portswood Road admitted affray and possession of cannabis, though received the same sentence.
Despite the judge in the case, Recorder Richard Onslow, calling the violence a "disgraceful incident", today those living in the city have criticised the sentences.
Lorraine Barter, pictured right, of Polygon Residents' Association, said: "Although the levels of youth violence in this country are disgusting, I blame the Government, councils and courts for not clamping down on this behaviour earlier.
"Residents don't feel secure in their own neighbourhoods at the moment, and sentences like this will not help.
"Although I accept drink and drugs probably prompted this particular violence, it is no excuse and either way, failing to jail people for serious attacks like this is no deterrent to others nor an adequate form of punishment for their actions. It's disgraceful really."
Peter Wirgman, pictured below, of the Southampton Federation of Residents' Associations, added: "It's a very lenient sentence and very concerning.
"The fear of violence is one of the biggest worries our residents face, and keeps people in their homes at night instead of going out to enjoy themselves. Consequently violence like this must be punished and be seen to be punished if there is to be a deterrent against it."
A spokesman for the Muslim Council of Southampton said: "Given the violence they showed, the sentence is rubbish.
"It is unacceptable and anyone who breaks the law in this way should be taken to court and properly punished.
"In this case, the fact that they called themselves Muslims is particularly concerning given that they had been in a bar and had drugs with them. It shows their ignorance of our faith and leads me to question how much Islam they have in their hearts.
"This behaviour is damaging to our faith and damaging to the wider Southampton community and should have been properly punished."
A GANG who screamed racist abuse as they went on a violent rampage through Southampton city centre have escaped immediate jail terms.
Seven men were part of the group who left bystanders unconscious and bleeding.
They assaulted seven people during their drink and drug fuelled attacks, yet only one was jailed for drug offences.
One even waved a knife in the face of two terrified women shouting: "I'm from Afghanistan, I'm a Muslim. I'm going to stab every white person."
Deeply concerned' Today community leaders said they were deeply concerned at the "lenient" sentences.
The violence started on July 14 last year after the defendants left the Bambuu Bar at Southampton's LeisureWorld.
Witnesses said they saw the group hurling abuse at people waiting for taxis and one, Suraj Bhakar, kicked a cab.
Prosecutor Dale Sullivan said Bhakar then hurled racist remarks at two women, before producing a flick knife and pointing it in their direction.
The seven men then approached another group.
Southampton Crown Court heard Bhakar and two others, Harvinder Khurda and Dalvinder Gujra, kicked and punched one of the group, Glyn Richards, to the floor.
Tripinder Pattar kicked him unconscious and Mandeep Dalviar stamped on his head. Two passers-by were also kicked and punched.
The attackers found another victim at a bus stop, who they claimed called them "a Paki". He too was left bleeding and bruised after sustaining repeated punches and kicks from all but one of the gang, Gurdeep Potiwal.
Bhakar, 22, of Derby Road in Newtown, pleaded guilty to racially aggravated assault and two counts of affray but received only a 12-month suspended sentence and a community punishment order.
Dalvinder Gurja, 19, of Botley Road in Woolston and Harvinder Khurda, 19, of Brintons Road, Southampton, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Gurja was also handed a 12-month suspended sentence and community punishment order, while Khurda, who also admitted possession of crack cocaine and heroin with intent to supply, was jailed for four years.
Of the four others, Tripinder Pattar, 20, of Colebrook Avenue and Mandeep Dalviar, 19, of Clovelly Road in Newtown, both pleaded guilty to one charge of ABH and one of affray and received 12-month suspended sentences and community punishment orders.
Gurdeep Potiwal, 22, of Denzil Avenue, also admitted one count of affray and got a 12-month suspended sentence and community punishment order, while Hardev Phagura, 26, of Portswood Road admitted affray and possession of cannabis, though received the same sentence.
Despite the judge in the case, Recorder Richard Onslow, calling the violence a "disgraceful incident", today those living in the city have criticised the sentences.
Lorraine Barter, pictured right, of Polygon Residents' Association, said: "Although the levels of youth violence in this country are disgusting, I blame the Government, councils and courts for not clamping down on this behaviour earlier.
"Residents don't feel secure in their own neighbourhoods at the moment, and sentences like this will not help.
"Although I accept drink and drugs probably prompted this particular violence, it is no excuse and either way, failing to jail people for serious attacks like this is no deterrent to others nor an adequate form of punishment for their actions. It's disgraceful really."
Peter Wirgman, pictured below, of the Southampton Federation of Residents' Associations, added: "It's a very lenient sentence and very concerning.
"The fear of violence is one of the biggest worries our residents face, and keeps people in their homes at night instead of going out to enjoy themselves. Consequently violence like this must be punished and be seen to be punished if there is to be a deterrent against it."
A spokesman for the Muslim Council of Southampton said: "Given the violence they showed, the sentence is rubbish.
"It is unacceptable and anyone who breaks the law in this way should be taken to court and properly punished.
"In this case, the fact that they called themselves Muslims is particularly concerning given that they had been in a bar and had drugs with them. It shows their ignorance of our faith and leads me to question how much Islam they have in their hearts.
"This behaviour is damaging to our faith and damaging to the wider Southampton community and should have been properly punished."
Muslim teacher immature, court told
An "immature" teacher acting out unfulfilled teenage love when she hugged and kissed a student is likely to avoid a jail sentence.
But the two-week affair will almost certainly cost married science teacher Nazira Rafei, 26, her job.
She will also be required to report as a registered sex offender, possibly for life, after being found guilty of an indecent act with the 15-year-old boy.
Rafei's strict Muslim upbringing meant she never experienced teenage love, her lawyer Peter Morrissey told a pre-sentence hearing in the Victorian County Court on Thursday.
The highly regarded second-year Melbourne teacher failed to put an end to advances from the boy last February despite reporting them to a colleague the previous year, the court heard.
The pupil got her phone number and the pair began meeting outside school. The relationship then progressed to hugging and kissing.
Last week, a jury rejected claims by the boy that the teacher had sex with him.
The youth gave evidence that Rafei said to him: "I'm your sex slave" and "disrespect me".
The jury found Rafei did perform an indecent act when she hugged and kissed the boy.
The teacher admitted at the beginning of the trial to performing two other indecent acts on the child.
Mr Morrissey described his client as immature, having led a sheltered life and forbidden from mixing with boys at school and university.
"There was no question of having boyfriends or going out unescorted - that didn't occur," he said.
"Really what happened wasn't about sex at all, it was about adolescent teenage romance and an inability to deal with it."
The court heard Rafei was matched up with her husband on a visit to Lebanon.
She remained in love with him but the future of their relationship was unclear, the court was told.
Rafei's husband was in Lebanon during the trial, Mr Morrissey said.
The court heard there were no family members in court to support Rafei on Thursday.
Mr Morrissey urged the court not to convict his client.
"She has already paid a very significant price and will continue to pay a very significant price for what she did," he said.
Prosecutor Patrick Tehan, QC, said the breach of trust by Rafei was significant.
"It is an aggravation as a matter of law that the complainant was a student and the accused woman was a teacher," he said.
But he said a community-based order was within the range of sentencing options.
"This case does not warrant imprisonment, either actual or suspended," Mr Tehan said.
Judge Liz Gaynor said parents should feel they can trust teachers when they send their children to school.
She released Rafei on bail until her sentence next Thursday.
But the two-week affair will almost certainly cost married science teacher Nazira Rafei, 26, her job.
She will also be required to report as a registered sex offender, possibly for life, after being found guilty of an indecent act with the 15-year-old boy.
Rafei's strict Muslim upbringing meant she never experienced teenage love, her lawyer Peter Morrissey told a pre-sentence hearing in the Victorian County Court on Thursday.
The highly regarded second-year Melbourne teacher failed to put an end to advances from the boy last February despite reporting them to a colleague the previous year, the court heard.
The pupil got her phone number and the pair began meeting outside school. The relationship then progressed to hugging and kissing.
Last week, a jury rejected claims by the boy that the teacher had sex with him.
The youth gave evidence that Rafei said to him: "I'm your sex slave" and "disrespect me".
The jury found Rafei did perform an indecent act when she hugged and kissed the boy.
The teacher admitted at the beginning of the trial to performing two other indecent acts on the child.
Mr Morrissey described his client as immature, having led a sheltered life and forbidden from mixing with boys at school and university.
"There was no question of having boyfriends or going out unescorted - that didn't occur," he said.
"Really what happened wasn't about sex at all, it was about adolescent teenage romance and an inability to deal with it."
The court heard Rafei was matched up with her husband on a visit to Lebanon.
She remained in love with him but the future of their relationship was unclear, the court was told.
Rafei's husband was in Lebanon during the trial, Mr Morrissey said.
The court heard there were no family members in court to support Rafei on Thursday.
Mr Morrissey urged the court not to convict his client.
"She has already paid a very significant price and will continue to pay a very significant price for what she did," he said.
Prosecutor Patrick Tehan, QC, said the breach of trust by Rafei was significant.
"It is an aggravation as a matter of law that the complainant was a student and the accused woman was a teacher," he said.
But he said a community-based order was within the range of sentencing options.
"This case does not warrant imprisonment, either actual or suspended," Mr Tehan said.
Judge Liz Gaynor said parents should feel they can trust teachers when they send their children to school.
She released Rafei on bail until her sentence next Thursday.
Book on Sex Leaves Islamists Hot and Bothered
Fierce controversy has erupted in the Emirates over a book about the secrets of sex within marriage written by Wedad Lootah, a female lawyer who works on matrimonial cases at the court in Dubai. The book which came out about a month ago, includes several chapters on marriage within Islam, Islamic law on the issues of co-habiting and sex, and possible solutions to sexual problems. Arab News reports that it is mainly men who are against the book, maintaining that issues of this nature should not be discussed publicly. Some of the detractors have even gone so far as to accuse the author of being an infidel and sinner for writing the book. Supporters however say that there is a great need for published information on the issues and that until know Arab society has not wanted to recognize problems arising from ignorance in sexual matters. Lootah, who wears the Muslim veil, does not seem too surprised by the criticisms, and maintains that she based the book on Islamic sources, stressing that it was even approved by the mufti of Dubai. The book was suggested by her own six years of experience working on divorce cases, and from the knowledge that many of these cases come about because of a lack of preparation for couples in the matter.
Outcry as Muslim extremist is allowed to tour Britain to 'promote violence'
By Matthew HickleyThe Home Secretary came under fire last night for allowing a radical Lebanese propagandist with links to the extremist group Hezbollah to enter Britain for a national speaking tour.
The Conservatives urged Jacqui Smith to ban Ibrahim Moussawi (pictured, left) from the UK, warning that he was "likely to foment extremism or promote violence".
Mr Moussawi edits Hezbollah's newspaper and is former political editor of the Iranian-backed group's television station, which is banned in many countries including France, Spain and the U.S. where its output is seen as anti-Semitic.
He was recently barred from entering Ireland, where he was due to speak at anti-war meetings.
He is scheduled to appear at an event in London tonight organised by the Stop the War Coalition, with more events planned around the country over the coming week.
Shadow Security Minister Baroness Neville-Jones attacked the Government's record of allowing radical extremists into the UK, after ministers previously ignored calls to deny Mr Moussawi entry to the UK.
She said: "The Government has the power to deny entry to people whose presence is not conducive to the public good.
"Yet in the past they have let in extremists to preach hate.
"Jacqui Smith failed to stop Ibrahim Moussawi from coming last December, despite my specific request that she do so.
"Regardless of what Moussawi actually says when he is here, it is vital that the Government always makes the security of the UK its top priority.
"That means stopping those who are likely to foment extremism or promote violence from coming here to speak. Ibrahim Moussawi should not be allowed to return to the UK."
The Stop the War Coalition website describes Mr Moussawi as "Editor of the journal Al-Intiqad in Lebanon, linked to Hezbollah."
Last night, the Home Office would not comment on Mr Moussawi's case, although sources confirmed that his visa had been approved for the trip.
Al-Manar television - the Arabic word for "beacon" - where he worked until recently as foreign and political editor, is Hezbollah's main mouthpiece in the Middle East and around the world, broadcasting from Beirut.
It describes itself as the "station of resistance" and campaigns on behalf of Hezbollah and against the state of Israel, and American and British policy in the Middle East.
It routinely describes fighters who are killed and suicide bombers as "martyrs", and condemns Israeli forces as criminals.
The station has been widely condemned for anti-Semitism after it broadcast a 30-part series based on The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a forged document setting out a supposed secret Jewish conspiracy to take over the world.
Bosses at the station deny anti-Semitism, claiming they are merely anti-Israeli.
Last month, David Cameron accused Gordon Brown of failing to tackle the dangers from extremist preachers radicalising audiences in the UK.
The Home Office said last night that the Home Secretary uses powers to exclude foreign nationals whose presence is "not conducive to the public good" when it is justified and "based on all the available evidence".
A spokesman said: "Since July 2005, successive Home Secretaries have made robust use of this power to exclude 76 individuals from the UK.
"In the same period, a further 136 individuals have been excluded on grounds of national security."
Calls for Brent Sharia law councillor to resign
By Tara BradyPoliticians in Brent are calling for the resignation of a councillor after he advocated the introduction of Sharia law for British Muslims on a website, including the death penalty for women who commit adultery.
The remarks were a response to The Archbishop of Canterbury's comments made earlier this month in which he said the adoption of Sharia law in the UK seemed unavoidable.
Councillor Atiq Malik (pictured, left), (Democratic Conservative Group), wrote two blogs, one on the UK Polling Report website and one on the Conservative Home website. Both read: "If Muslims living in the UK are happy that disputes be decided by Sharia courts then what?
"The reason why male gets more share than women is that male members of the family have the responsibilty to provide living expenses to female members of the family.
"If an unmarried woman has an affair she is lashed 100 times. If a married woman has an affair she is stoned to death. What is wrong in it?"
But when the Observer contacted Mr Malik he backtracked on his original views and said he did not believe Sharia law should be introduced in the UK but that it was acceptable in Islamic states.
He said: "No I am not adovating Sharia Law in England. England is not a Muslim country. Sharia Law is the belief of Muslims and is part of Koran. In a Muslim majority country the Koran is the code of conduct. But it is not practical in England because it is not a Muslim country.
"Yes of course I believe in Sharia, it is our way of life. I don't see any harm in Muslims believing what is in the Koran."
But politicians from different parties have been outraged by the remarks and believe he should step down from his post.
Councillor Ann John, leader of the Labour group, said: "I was pretty shocked and I don't think he is fit to hold office. He should resign. He should be challenging his religion. It is disgusting.
"To think that whipping and stoning women to death is okay is appaling. We live in a liberal and democratic society but we still have a long way to go. Saying that this is exceptable whether here or anywhere else is not right."
Mr Malik was expelled from the Brent Conservative group in May last year for voting against Tory policy.
Councillor Bob Blackman, leader of Conservative group, said: "We live in the UK and our system of law works well for us. We can tolerate people having different views but such extremism renders him unfit to be a politician. These comments confirm the wisdom of the group to expell him and if the group had not already told him to leave then it would do now."
Meanwhile, a group calling for the introduction of Sharia law in the UK, has advertised a conference in Wembley on Sunday (March 1).
On the Islam for UK website it says a talk on the Islamic state will take place at Vale Farm Sports Centre in Watford Road, north Wembley.
However, Brent Council has issued a statement on its website stating: "Brent Council would like to be clear that the conference entitled The Islamic State - Past, Present and Future is not taking place at Vale Farms Sports Centre on Sunday.
"The centre has not been booked to hold this event and promotions stating this are misleading and inaccurate. Please do not attend this venue for such an event."
British Muslims are Killing Our Troops
By John InghamBRITISH troops in Afghanistan are being killed by Muslim fanatics from the UK who have joined forces with the Taliban.
The radicals have linked up with insurgents in Helmand where thousands of British troops are fighting on the frontline of the war against terror. Only yesterday it claimed four more soldiers’ lives.
Last week on a visit to Afghanistan, Foreign Secretary David Miliband was shown Taliban bombs containing British-made components. They had either been sent from Britain or brought from the UK by a home-grown recruit.
Taliban fighters with Yorkshire and West Midlands accents have also been heard talking in intercepted communications, according to a security agency briefing.
Radicalised young British-born Muslims are known to have been going to Iraq and Afghanistan as “seemingly committed jihadists” to join the insurgencies.
One analyst said British soldiers were effectively in a “surreal civil war” being fought thousands of miles from home.
The evidence for British jihadists in Afghanistan is based on radio eavesdropping by British forces, both by troops on the ground and on RAF Nimrods above the war zone.
One senior military source said: “We have been hearing a lot more Punjabi, Urdu and Kashmiri Urdu rather than just Pashtu, so there appears to be more men from other parts of Pakistan fighting with the Taliban than just the Pashtuns who have tribal allegiances with the Afghan Pashtuns.
“It is this second group, the Urdu, Punjabi speakers etc, who fall back into English in, for example, Brummie accents. You get the impression that they have been told not to talk in English but sometimes simply can’t help it.”
The former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, Brigadier Ed Butler, said: “There are British passport holders who live in the UK who are being found in places such as Kandahar.
“There is a link between Kandahar and urban conurbations in the UK. This is something the military understands but the British public does not.”
Last night Tory MP and former infantry officer Patrick Mercer, chairman of the Commons counter terrorism sub committee, said: “I am aware from the troops I have spoken to that there are British-born insurgents working and fighting with the Taliban.
"The evidence is principally from intercepting their radio communications. But in Iraq British troops found bodies of insurgents and they were as certain as they could be that they were British.
“We know the problem we have with UK-based jihadists. We also know that a number of them have been arrested trying to leave the country.
“With the UK intelligence services at full stretch, it is not surprising some of these jihadists have ended up in Afghanistan.”
Tory defence spokesman Gerald Howarth said that Britons who joined the Taliban must be prosecuted but the actions of a minority should not threaten community relations in Britain. The numbers are thought to be in the dozens rather than hundreds, reflecting the fact that the vast majority of British Muslims want to live in peace.
Earlier this year the head of MI5, Jonathan Evans, said the number of extremists heading to Iraq had “tailed off significantly” as Britain prepared to withdraw. But there was “traffic” into Pakistan and Afghanistan.
“What happens in Afghanistan is extremely important because what happens there has a direct impact on domestic security in the UK,” he added.
Two women’s bodies found in Landikotal
LANDIKOTAL: The bodies of two unidentified women aged between 30 and 40 years were found in Landikotal on Tuesday. Sources said the women had been brutally tortured before being killed. They said the face of the younger woman had been disfigured and one of her hands had been cut off. Stray dogs had also bitten the bodies during the night. They said the bodies had been discovered on Monday night but the political administration had been unable to dispatch khasadars to retrieve them. The Khasadar Force kept the corpses in the emergency ward of the Landikotal hospital for identification on Tuesday morning, but no information has been obtained because the women’s faces were disfigured.
Source: Daily Times
Source: Daily Times
Taliban killed spy as gift to Barack Obama, say Pakistani police
TALIBAN militants beheaded an Afghan in Pakistan's lawless tribal region after accusing him of spying for the United States, local police said todayThe 35-year-old man was kidnapped one week ago and his body found today in Razmak some 65km south of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, an official said.
"He was slaughtered overnight. His headless body was put on the roadside," police official Munir Khan said.
A note found on the body of the man, identified as Shafiq Gul, said he was "spying for the US".
"Whoever spies for the US will face the same fate. This is a gift to (US President Barack) Obama," the note said.
Islamist militants frequently kidnap and kill local tribesmen and Afghans, on alleged charges of spying for the Pakistani government or for US forces, who are battling a Taliban-led insurgency across the border in Afghanistan.
Pakistan's rugged tribal regions have been wracked by violence since becoming a stronghold for hundreds of Taliban and al-Qaeda rebels who fled across the border to escape the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001.
The new Obama Administration is conducting a comprehensive strategy review in its war against Islamist extremists in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Berber Names Banned, Associations Protest
Human rights associations and Berber organisations in Morocco have condemned as a racist act the decision by the Rabat government to ban Berber names. The head of the administrative service of the Ministry for the Interior, Idriss Bajdi, confirmed that in January all registry offices apart from embassies and consulates received a list of banned Berber names because they violate law 99-37. In 13 cases the State offices refused to register newborns given a Berber name (such as Tilil, Sifoa, and Llelli), which invoked the anger of the people and human rights associations. 'Certain names have been banned because they go against the Moroccan identity'', said Bajdi, adding that 'the decision was also taken to put an end to the spread of meaningless names''. Law 99-37 states that an Arabic-Moroccan name must be chosen for newborns, it must not be a surname or composed of more than two names, it must not be the name of a city, village or tribé. (ANSAmed).
Muslim Cabbie stabbed wife after 'visit ban lifted', court hears
A TAXI driver stabbed his wife (pictured, left) to death just days after his second arrest for allegedly abusing her, a court has been told.Sabina Akhtar was murdered by Malik Mannan within five days of police cancelling bail conditions which banned him from contacting her, Manchester Crown Court heard.
Mr Mannan had been arrested for defying those conditions - imposed after Sabina told police she had been attacked by him as many as 25 times, the jury heard.
Sabina, 26, the mother of their three-year-old son, was found dead at the family home in Charlton Road, Levenshulme.
She died from a single stab wound to her chest which penetrated her heart. Mr Mannan, 36, of Meldon Road, Longsight, denies murder, claiming he acted in self-defence.
Sabina, from Bangladesh, had an arranged marriage with Mr Mannan, who was divorced, the court heard.
She became upset when she found he was having an affair with a woman she called his `other wife' and with whom Mr Mannan had two young children, the jury was told.
But Sabina decided to `suffer in silence' and stay with him.
After marrying in Bangladesh in 2003, Sabina learned of the affair in 2005.
Despite assurances it was over, Mr Mannan kept seein the woman, said prosecutor Paul Reid.
He said Mr Mannan subjected Sabina to a catalogue of threats and attacks - and last July she called police. But `owing to her confusion and language difficulties, no formal complaint was recorded'.
The next day, Mr Mannan slapped their son and he burned the marriage certificate, the jury was told.
The court heard he grabbed Sabina's throat and ordered her to read passages from the Koran. "This is your final hour," he is alleged to have told her.
The jury was also told he said to Sabina: "I am going to get a knife and when I return I am going to slaughter you."
Sabina made a second complaint to police and Mr Mannon was arrested that day and later released on bail, on condition he did not approach his wife or go to their home.
But the Crown says he continued to harass Sabina and was arrested on September 7 for defying his bail conditions.
The jury was told Mr Mannan was arrested after he put his hand through the letter box and shouted to Sabina to open the door.
After he was released without charge and his bail conditions cancelled, the court heard he sent a text to Sabina boasting: "I am a free man since 1.30. Case file closed. Isn't it great?"
Mr Mannan's family told police on September 12 they hadn't heard from him, so officers broke into Sabina's home and found her dead.
Likely intel pick: Muslims were here first
By Aaron Klein
© 2009 WorldNetDaily
TEL AVIV, Israel – The Obama administration's reported pick for a top intelligence post once peddled a book to U.S. public schools that falsely claims Muslims inhabited North America far before European explorers.
The book, funded by Saudi Arabia, also contains widely inaccurate anti-Israel Arab propaganda.
Charles "Chas" Freeman, the U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia during the first Gulf War, is slated to head the National Intelligence Council, according to multiple reports. Yesterday, it came to light Freeman has financial ties to the infamous bin Laden family – including dealings he defended after Sept. 11, 2001.
Freeman served as president of the Middle East Policy Council, a Washington-based Saudi backed nonprofit that received tens of thousands of dollars per year from the bin Laden family and other Saudi donors.
In 2003, Freeman's council joined with California-based Arab World and Islamic Resources in selling to U.S. schools the "Arab World Studies Notebook," set to be a textbook on Arab issues and history.
A report from that year by the Text Book League, an online resource on some 200 educational items for middle-school and high-school educators, highlighted major historical fabrications found in Freeman's schoolbook including the claim Muslims inhabited the New World in pre-Columbian times and also spread throughout the Caribbean, Central America, South America and even Canada.
English explorers met "Iroquois and Algonquin (Native American) chiefs with names like Abdul-Rahim and Abdallah Ibn Malik," the schoolbook claimed, without providing any evidence.
In actuality, the first Muslim to enter the historical record in North America was Estevánico of Azamor, who came with the Spanish in 1539. Islam is not believed to have taken root in Canada until the mid-19th century.
The book goes on to present Jesus as an "important figure" in Islam and states as fact it is "well known, the Quran was revealed through the Prophet Muhammad."
The schoolbook "present(s) Muslim myths as 'history,' endorse(s) Muslim religious claims, and propagat(es) Islamic fundamentalism," stated the Text Book League report.
An investigative article by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in 2005 further exposed some of the anti-Israel claims in the book Freeman was peddling.
The JTA found the book described Jerusalem as unequivocally "Arab," characterized Jewish residence in the holy city as "settlement"; labeled the "question of Jewish lobbying" against "the whole question of defining American interests and concerns"; and suggested the Quran "synthesizes and perfects earlier revelations."
Blogs and Israeli news media websites the past few days have been highlighting recent comments Freeman made that are perceived as heavily critical of Israel.
He told the Washington Institute of Foreign Affairs in 2007 that Israeli policy is generating anti-American sentiment while the Jewish state "no longer even pretends to seek peace with the Palestinians; it strives instead to pacify them."
"American identification with Israeli policy has also become total. Those in the region and beyond it who detest Israeli behavior, which is to say almost everyone, now naturally extend their loathing to Americans," Freeman claimed.
Freeman lauded Hamas as the only democratically elected government in the Arab world and claimed the terrorist group "is showing that if we offer it nothing but unreasoning hostility and condemnation, it will only stiffen its position and seek allies among our enemies. In both cases, we forfeit our influence for no gain."
"The Journal is filled with anti-Israel messages that are beyond even the broadest definition of mainstream of U.S. thinking on the region," wrote Sammy Benoit of the Yid with Lid blog.
Freeman has bin Laden ties
Yesterday, Ashley Rinsdberg, a Jerusalem-based researcher and blogger for the Daily Beast website dug up another issue that may cause even bigger worry for the likely Obama appointee – he had business ties to Osama bin Laden's family and strongly defended the connections after 9/11.
Rinsdberg documented how as chairman of Projects International, Inc., a company that develops worldwide business deals, Freeman declared in an Associated Press interview just after the 9/11 attacks he was still "discussing proposals with the Bin Laden Group – and that won't change."
The Bin Laden Group is a multinational construction conglomerate and holding company for the assets owned by the bin Laden family. It was founded in 1950 by Sheik Mohammed bin Laden, father of the terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden.
Freeman told the AP companies that have "had very long and profitable relationships are now running for public relations cover."
He said bin Laden remains "a very honored name" in the Saudi kingdom.
In a separate interview Sept. 28, 2001, Freeman told the Wall Street Journal he spoke at the time to two of Osama bin Laden's brothers following the mega terrorist attacks. He said they told him the FBI had been "remarkably sensitive, tactful and protective" of the family during the current crisis.
The Journal noted Freeman's ties to the bin Laden family went beyond admiration and business. He served as president of the Middle East Policy Council, a Washington-based Saudi backed nonprofit that at time was receiving tens of thousands of dollars a year from the bin Laden family.
Freeman maintained to the Journal that the bin Laden family company was closely aligned with American interests and that the group was part of the "establishment that Osama's trying to overthrow."
Osama bin Laden worked briefly in his family business and is reported to have inherited as much as $50 million from his father in cash and stock. The Saudi Bin Laden Group has invested in the Carlyle Group, a global private equity investment firm to which former President George H. W. Bush served as adviser. Former President George W. Bush sat on the board.
© 2009 WorldNetDaily
TEL AVIV, Israel – The Obama administration's reported pick for a top intelligence post once peddled a book to U.S. public schools that falsely claims Muslims inhabited North America far before European explorers.
The book, funded by Saudi Arabia, also contains widely inaccurate anti-Israel Arab propaganda.
Charles "Chas" Freeman, the U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia during the first Gulf War, is slated to head the National Intelligence Council, according to multiple reports. Yesterday, it came to light Freeman has financial ties to the infamous bin Laden family – including dealings he defended after Sept. 11, 2001.
Freeman served as president of the Middle East Policy Council, a Washington-based Saudi backed nonprofit that received tens of thousands of dollars per year from the bin Laden family and other Saudi donors.
In 2003, Freeman's council joined with California-based Arab World and Islamic Resources in selling to U.S. schools the "Arab World Studies Notebook," set to be a textbook on Arab issues and history.
A report from that year by the Text Book League, an online resource on some 200 educational items for middle-school and high-school educators, highlighted major historical fabrications found in Freeman's schoolbook including the claim Muslims inhabited the New World in pre-Columbian times and also spread throughout the Caribbean, Central America, South America and even Canada.
English explorers met "Iroquois and Algonquin (Native American) chiefs with names like Abdul-Rahim and Abdallah Ibn Malik," the schoolbook claimed, without providing any evidence.
In actuality, the first Muslim to enter the historical record in North America was Estevánico of Azamor, who came with the Spanish in 1539. Islam is not believed to have taken root in Canada until the mid-19th century.
The book goes on to present Jesus as an "important figure" in Islam and states as fact it is "well known, the Quran was revealed through the Prophet Muhammad."
The schoolbook "present(s) Muslim myths as 'history,' endorse(s) Muslim religious claims, and propagat(es) Islamic fundamentalism," stated the Text Book League report.
An investigative article by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in 2005 further exposed some of the anti-Israel claims in the book Freeman was peddling.
The JTA found the book described Jerusalem as unequivocally "Arab," characterized Jewish residence in the holy city as "settlement"; labeled the "question of Jewish lobbying" against "the whole question of defining American interests and concerns"; and suggested the Quran "synthesizes and perfects earlier revelations."
Blogs and Israeli news media websites the past few days have been highlighting recent comments Freeman made that are perceived as heavily critical of Israel.
He told the Washington Institute of Foreign Affairs in 2007 that Israeli policy is generating anti-American sentiment while the Jewish state "no longer even pretends to seek peace with the Palestinians; it strives instead to pacify them."
"American identification with Israeli policy has also become total. Those in the region and beyond it who detest Israeli behavior, which is to say almost everyone, now naturally extend their loathing to Americans," Freeman claimed.
Freeman lauded Hamas as the only democratically elected government in the Arab world and claimed the terrorist group "is showing that if we offer it nothing but unreasoning hostility and condemnation, it will only stiffen its position and seek allies among our enemies. In both cases, we forfeit our influence for no gain."
"The Journal is filled with anti-Israel messages that are beyond even the broadest definition of mainstream of U.S. thinking on the region," wrote Sammy Benoit of the Yid with Lid blog.
Freeman has bin Laden ties
Yesterday, Ashley Rinsdberg, a Jerusalem-based researcher and blogger for the Daily Beast website dug up another issue that may cause even bigger worry for the likely Obama appointee – he had business ties to Osama bin Laden's family and strongly defended the connections after 9/11.
Rinsdberg documented how as chairman of Projects International, Inc., a company that develops worldwide business deals, Freeman declared in an Associated Press interview just after the 9/11 attacks he was still "discussing proposals with the Bin Laden Group – and that won't change."
The Bin Laden Group is a multinational construction conglomerate and holding company for the assets owned by the bin Laden family. It was founded in 1950 by Sheik Mohammed bin Laden, father of the terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden.
Freeman told the AP companies that have "had very long and profitable relationships are now running for public relations cover."
He said bin Laden remains "a very honored name" in the Saudi kingdom.
In a separate interview Sept. 28, 2001, Freeman told the Wall Street Journal he spoke at the time to two of Osama bin Laden's brothers following the mega terrorist attacks. He said they told him the FBI had been "remarkably sensitive, tactful and protective" of the family during the current crisis.
The Journal noted Freeman's ties to the bin Laden family went beyond admiration and business. He served as president of the Middle East Policy Council, a Washington-based Saudi backed nonprofit that at time was receiving tens of thousands of dollars a year from the bin Laden family.
Freeman maintained to the Journal that the bin Laden family company was closely aligned with American interests and that the group was part of the "establishment that Osama's trying to overthrow."
Osama bin Laden worked briefly in his family business and is reported to have inherited as much as $50 million from his father in cash and stock. The Saudi Bin Laden Group has invested in the Carlyle Group, a global private equity investment firm to which former President George H. W. Bush served as adviser. Former President George W. Bush sat on the board.
FBI Director: "Mumbai attacks could happen in the US"
And, of course, they already have -- at a much grander scale via the devastating strikes of 9/11. It is good that Mueller is pointing out the obvious, but also troubling that this even needs to be pointed out in the first place. "Mumbai attacks could happen in the US: FBI," from AFP, February 24:
WASHINGTON (AFP) — Attacks that killed 172 people in Mumbai in November could happen in the United States, FBI Director Robert Mueller warned in a speech here.What, then, is it that they do share? What is the basis of their shared worldview -- their "ideology" -- and shouldn't that be emphasized and addressed appropriately?"How many other cities around the world could fall prey to such an attack? How many cities here, in the United States?" Mueller asked Monday in a presentation to the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.
Mueller, who took over the Federal Bureau of Investigation just days before September 11 2001, said the Mumbai attacks showed that terrorists "with large agendas and little money can use rudimentary weapons to maximize their impact."
"It again raises the question of whether a similar attack could happen in Seattle or San Diego, Miami or Manhattan," he said.
Mueller added that although Al-Qaeda remains a threat to the United States, US officials "must also focus on less well-known terrorist groups, as well as homegrown terrorists. And we must consider extremists from visa-waiver countries, who are merely an e-ticket away from the United States."
The FBI is "increasingly concerned with pockets of people around the world that identify with Al-Qaeda and its ideology. Some may have little or no actual contact with Al-Qaeda."
He also warned of homegrown threats: "A man from Minneapolis became what we believe to be the first US citizen to carry out a terrorist suicide bombing. The attack occurred last October in northern Somalia, but it appears that this individual was radicalized in his hometown in Minnesota," Mueller said.
International poll: Muslims support strict Sharia, Islamic supremacism
They differ with Al-Qaeda on the means, not on the goals.
Here is a pdf of the full report. See especially pages 27 through 30: "Islamist Groups and Shari'a." On page 27, the report says: "The Islamist goal of giving Shari'a a larger role in Islamic society is viewed positively."
And on page 29: "In Egypt 81 percent said they agreed with the al Qaeda goal of "requir[ing] a strict application of Shari'a law in every Islamic country" (65% strongly); only 12 percent disagreed. Pakistanis were similar with 76 percent agreeing with this goal (52% strongly); 5 percent disagreed. Indonesians, however, agreed by only a narrow plurality: 49 percent supported the goal (just 14% strongly), while 42 percent disagreed. In Morocco in late 2006, 76 percent agreed."
"Muslim Publics Oppose Al Qaeda's Terrorism, But Agree With Its Goal of Driving U.S. Forces Out" a press release (thanks to Jeffrey Imm for all links and info):
COLLEGE PARK, Md., Feb. 25 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A study of public opinion in predominantly Muslim countries reveals that very large majorities continue to renounce the use of attacks on civilians as a means of pursuing political goals. People in majority-Muslim countries express mixed feelings about al Qaeda and other Islamist groups that use violence, however, perhaps due to a combination of support for al Qaeda's goals and disapproval of its terrorist methods.Large majorities support allowing Islamist groups to organize parties and participate in democratic elections. In some majority-Muslim countries, Islamist groups, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, are forbidden from participating in elections....
The survey is part of an ongoing study of Egypt, Pakistan, and Indonesia, with additional polling in Turkey, Jordan, the Palestinian territories, Azerbaijan, and Nigeria. It was conducted July through September, 2008 by WorldPublicOpinion.org with support from the START Consortium at the University of Maryland. Margins of error range from +/- 3 to 4 percent.
In nearly all nations polled more than seven in 10 say they disapprove of attacks on American civilians. "Bombings and assassinations that are carried out to achieve political or religious goals" are rejected as "not justified at all" by large majorities ranging from 67 to 89 percent. There is a growing belief that attacks on civilians are ineffective, with approximately half now saying that such attacks are hardly ever effective....
Views of al Qaeda are complex. Majorities agree with nearly all of al Qaeda's goals to change U.S. behavior in the Muslim world, to promote Islamist governance, and to preserve and affirm Islamic identity. However only minorities say they approve of al Qaeda's attacks on Americans....
Palestinian Children's Show Character Vows to Become a Hamas Terrorist
The following is an excerpt from the Hamas show "Pioneers of Tomorrow," featuring the debut of a new character Nassur the teddy bear. The program aired on Al-Aqsa TV on February 13, 2009.
Senators Praise FBI's CAIR Freeze
Three United States Senators have written to FBI Director Robert Mueller praising a decision last year to cut off contacts with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and inquiring about other groups linked to a Hamas-support network in the U.S.Republicans Jon Kyl of Arizona, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and New York Democrat Charles Schumer signed the letter dated Tuesday, which asked Mueller for additional information about the decision.
The Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) broke the news last month that concerns over CAIR's roots in a Hamas-support network prompted FBI leadership to cut off contact with the advocacy group last summer.
In a letter obtained by the IPT, the head of the Oklahoma City field office cancelled a meeting with a group of local Muslim community outreach groups due to CAIR's involvement.
"[I]f CAIR wishes to pursue an outreach relationship with the FBI, certain issues must be addressed to the satisfaction of the FBI. Unfortunately, these issues cannot be addressed at the local level and must be addressed by the CAIR National Office in Washington, D.C.," the Oct. 8 letter from Special Agent in Charge James E. Finch said.
"We certainly support that action," the senators wrote, "and it would be helpful to us to understand the situation more fully." They asked whether the policy applies to FBI field offices as well as headquarters and whether there are exceptions. In addition, they asked whether the FBI has contacts with other organizations listed as un-indicted co-conspirators in the HLF case and whether other federal agencies knew about the Bureau's policy.
"Obviously, we believe this should be government-wide policy," they wrote.
Five House members also noted the FBI policy, sending their colleagues a letter warning them to "think twice before meeting with representatives of CAIR."
Evidence tying CAIR and its founders to the Hamas-support effort was disclosed during the prosecution of the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF). CAIR and its chairman emeritus, Omar Ahmad, were named un-indicted co-conspirators in the HLF case. Both Ahmad and CAIR's current national executive director, Nihad Awad, were revealed on government wiretaps as having been active participants in early Hamas-related organizational meetings in the United States. During testimony, FBI agent Lara Burns described CAIR as a front organization.
In a press release, Kyl said the senators want to "clarify the FBI's decision-making process and new policy, and help determine if further action by other federal government agencies is necessary."
£9k 'terror aid'
By Simon Hughes
AN al-Qaeda terror suspect was given a taxpayers’ handout of £9,000 last year, an MP revealed yesterday.
The man, who can’t be named, is the subject of an anti-terror control order.
Tory MP Patrick Mercer said the Home Office had confirmed the man got £7,744 towards his accommodation, £891 for utilities like water and electricity, £429 for council tax and £88 towards phone line rental.
The news follows a European Court ruling last week that taxpayers must pay more than £70,000 to hate preacher Abu Qatada and eight other terror suspects.
Mr Mercer, a member of the Home Affairs Committee, has established that nine other suspects on UK control orders are also pocketing benefits.
He said: “In the current economic climate this is outrageous. After the Qatada revelations this adds insult to injury. I am furious about the handout of money to people who mean the British taxpayer nothing but harm.”
Meanwhile, it also emerged that freed Guantanamo Bay detainee Binyan Mohamed is due to receive benefits of £85 a week until his immigration status is resolved.
FIVE former Guantanamo inmates yesterday had their terrorism convictions overturned in France, despite admitting attending al-Qaeda training camps.
The Paris court ruled that the French nationals had confessions forced out of them.
AN al-Qaeda terror suspect was given a taxpayers’ handout of £9,000 last year, an MP revealed yesterday.
The man, who can’t be named, is the subject of an anti-terror control order.
Tory MP Patrick Mercer said the Home Office had confirmed the man got £7,744 towards his accommodation, £891 for utilities like water and electricity, £429 for council tax and £88 towards phone line rental.
The news follows a European Court ruling last week that taxpayers must pay more than £70,000 to hate preacher Abu Qatada and eight other terror suspects.
Mr Mercer, a member of the Home Affairs Committee, has established that nine other suspects on UK control orders are also pocketing benefits.
He said: “In the current economic climate this is outrageous. After the Qatada revelations this adds insult to injury. I am furious about the handout of money to people who mean the British taxpayer nothing but harm.”
Meanwhile, it also emerged that freed Guantanamo Bay detainee Binyan Mohamed is due to receive benefits of £85 a week until his immigration status is resolved.
FIVE former Guantanamo inmates yesterday had their terrorism convictions overturned in France, despite admitting attending al-Qaeda training camps.
The Paris court ruled that the French nationals had confessions forced out of them.
No terror talk: Homeland Security head's new tone
WASHINGTON – Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano avoids the terms "terrorism" or "9/11" in remarks prepared for her first congressional testimony since taking office, signaling a sharp change in tone from her predecessors.Napolitano is the first homeland security secretary to drop the term "terror" and "vulnerability" from remarks prepared for delivery to the House Homeland Security Committee, according to a copy obtained by The Associated Press.
Tom Ridge, who headed the agency when it was launched in 2003, mentioned terrorism 11 times in his prepared statement at his debut before the oversight committee in 2003. And in 2005 Michael Chertoff, the second secretary, mentioned terrorism seven times, according to an AP analysis of the prepared testimonies.
Napolitano, a former Arizona governor, instead charts a course in very different terms than Chertoff, who used law enforcement and military jargon — "intelligence," "analysis," "mission" — to describe the agency's objectives.
The department's top priorities are spelled out in legislation that created it after 9/11: preventing a terrorist attack in the United States; reducing the vulnerability for such an attack; and helping with the recovery if the U.S. is attacked.
Napolitano's prepared remarks also show her using the word "attacks" less than her predecessors, although she makes clear that the department's responsibility is protecting the nation against terrorism. She is the first secretary to use a Capitol Hill debut to talk about hurricanes and disasters, a sign of the department's evolving mission following Hurricane Katrina.
Homeland Security spokesman Sean Smith said the absence of the actual word, "terrorism" from her prepared testimony is not deliberate.
"Next time we'll send Cliffs Notes over with the testimony," Smith said. "Anyone who doesn't understand that she's talking about terrorism when she says her mission is to protect the American people from threats both foreign and domestic clearly needs a study guide."
Napolitano is not alone in her departure from terror talk.
President Barack Obama has largely avoided using the term "war on terror," although it has not been scrubbed from the White House lexicon.
The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee doesn't mention terrorism or 9/11 in his prepared remarks for Wednesday's hearing either. Securing the borders, responding to natural disasters, ensuring transportation safety, protecting critical infrastructure and administering grants are the priorities, Mississippi Democrat Bennie Thompson says.
The United States hasn't been attacked since 2001, and the color-coded threat alert system hasn't changed since 2006 when a U.S.-bound terrorist plot was thwarted in the United Kingdom. But intelligence officials still consider the potential for terrorist attack on the U.S. a serious concern and send messages of "not if, but when."
The committee's top Republican said he was struck that Napolitano's prepared remarks did not include terrorism, Sept. 11, new threats or a formula for distributing counterterrorism grants to states and cities — a topic near and dear to the New Yorker.
"This can't be the evil we don't speak about," Peter King said. "Any testimony on homeland security should be centered around the threat of terrorism and what we're doing to combat it."
Napolitano has talked about unifying a 218,000-strong department that includes agencies charged with protecting the country's borders, enforcing immigration laws, protecting the president, responding to disasters, keeping terrorists off of airplanes and preventing computer attacks.
Because the department is so large and has many missions that overlap other agencies', Napolitano wants to make the Homeland Security Department's role unique. She wants to focus on transportation security, guarding chemical plants and detecting weapons of mass destruction.
Security expert James Carafano calls this "a debate without a difference." All the department's missions deal with terrorism in one way or another, said Carafano, a fellow with the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
The department is six years old, and the secretary does not need to tell her employees to look for terrorists, he said. Employees know that and have been doing it.
When reporters asked last month why she doesn't talk about terrorism specifically, Napolitano said terrorism fits into what she calls "action directives" that she's issued over the past month.
In those directives, she mentions terrorism only once, and that is about a law that contains the word in its title. Her directives include reviewing the Gulf Coast recovery from Hurricane Katrina, information sharing, and immigration and border security programs.
Pressed further on the absence of terror vernacular, she said she has been working with members of President Barack Obama's national security team since the November election, and she's regularly briefed on "incidents around the world." She doesn't single out terrorism "because it's almost become part and parcel of what we do everyday."
The department's mission is straightforward, she says in her prepared testimony: "To protect the American people from threats both foreign and domestic, both natural and manmade — to do all that we can to prevent threats from materializing, respond to them if they do and recover with resiliency."
Muslim college staffer charged with $1.35m rip-off
An employee of the Kenwick-based Muslim Ladies College of Australia has been charged with defrauding governments of more than $1 million, and stealing $356,000 of school funds.Police Media's Ros Weatherall said Major Fraud Squad detectives had charged the 50-year-old man with four State counts of falsifying records and one of stealing as a director of a company.
The man will also face four Commonwealth charges of making false statements, including two in a statutory declaration.
Police will allege that between August 2005 and April 2007, the man falsified grant applications that he submitted to the Commonwealth and State governments in order to secure public funds for the school that it was not lawfully entitled to receive.
Ms Weatherall said the man allegedly defrauded the Commonwealth and State of more than $1,000,000.
In addition, it will also be alleged that while holding the position of a director of the college, the accused man stole $355,914.10 in school funds.
He is due to appear in the Perth Magistrates Court on March 3.
Egyptian Cleric Ahmad Abd Al-Salam: Jews 'Infect Food with Cancer and Ship it to Muslim Countries'
Following are excerpts from a speech delivered by Egyptian cleric Ahmad Abd Al-Salam, which aired on Al-Nas TV on January 28, 2009.
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The Jews "Invest Their Utmost Efforts... in Conspiring How to Corrupt the Islamic Nation... This Is Why We Hate Them"
Ahmad Abd Al-Salam: "The Jews 'will not fail to corrupt' the believers. What does this mean? The Jews are never remiss - they invest their utmost efforts, day and night, in conspiring how to corrupt the Islamic nation, the nation led by the Prophet Muhammad.
"I want you, Muslim viewers, to imagine the Jews sitting around a table, conspiring how to corrupt the Muslims, and how to destroy their worldly and religious affairs. The Jews 'will not fail to corrupt you,' and this is why we hate them."
The Jews "Infect Food with Cancer and Ship It to Muslim Countries"
"The Jews conspire day and night to destroy the Muslims' worldly and religious affairs. The Jews conspire to destroy the economy of the Muslims. The Jews conspire to infect the food of the Muslims with cancer. It is the Jews who infect food with cancer and ship it to Muslim countries."
"We Hate the Jews Because They Spare No Effort in Stripping Muslim Girls of their Clothes"; "Sexual Temptations... Were Conspired By the Jews"
"We hate the Jews because they spare no effort in stripping Muslim girls of their clothes. It is the Jews who conspire to have Muslim girls, and even married Muslim women, wear clothes that are tight, short, or see-through, or clothes that are open from the front, or the back, from the right or the left.
"The Jews 'will not fail to corrupt you,' and this is why we hate them. The Jews conspire to destroy Muslims. The Jews conspire to bring Muslim youth down to the pit of sexual temptation. The sexual temptations, which are prevalent worldwide, were conspired by the Jews."
Storm Over the Muslims 'With Up to Four Wives'
By Macer HallGROWING numbers of Muslim men are “marrying” up to four wives in Britain, a leading Muslim peer warned last night.
Tory Baroness Sayeeda Warsi (pictured, right) fears a sharp increase in polygamy in the UK is becoming a threat to community cohesion.
And she accused Labour ministers of turning a blind eye to the practice, which is common in some Islamic countries.
The Government must make it clear to Muslims that “in this country, one married man is allowed to marry one woman,” she said.
Most Muslim polygamous arrangements are not illegal because the “weddings” are private religious ceremonies that are not recognised by British law.
But Baroness Warsi, Tory spokesman on community cohesion, feared that multi-wife marriages could increase tensions between Muslims and non-Muslims in Britain.
There are also concerns that some Muslim men are claiming benefits for several wives.
“There has been a failure on the part of policymakers to respond to this situation,” she said.
“Some of it has been done in the name of cultural sensitivity and we’ve just avoided either discussing or dealing with this matter head on.
“There has to be a culture change and that has to brought about by policymakers taking a very clear stance on this issue.”
She urged ministers to consider introducing a system of registration for religious “weddings” to curb the growth in polygamy.
But her remarks provoked an angry backlash from some Islamic experts last night.
Manzoor Moghal, chairman of the Muslim Forum, said the Government should not interfere.
He said: “Why would you not allow Muslims to conduct their affairs in their cultural, religious framework, without interference from the state? Why should we take them to task for having a second, third and a fourth nikah [marriage] which is compatible with their religion?”
Islamic law only allows a man to marry up to four wives in very specific circumstances and he must treat them all equally.
Professor Haleh Afshar, professor in politics and women’s studies at the University of York, said: “Sadly it is increasing on the part of British-born men who... sometimes marry British-born girls, but more often... someone in the sub-continent then go back and abandon wife number one and take wife number two.”
A Ministry of Justice spokesman denied that polygamy was being ignored by the Government and insisted the practice was illegal in Britain.
But he added: “It is not the role of government to take a position on the rites, beliefs or practices of any particular religious faith, other than where these give rise to conflict with the common law.”
Whither Swat’s women?
By Qurat ul ain Siddiqui
WHAT happened with Shikarpur’s Maria Shah, a recent victim of an acid attack, may be considered as a random act of violence but the degree of resolve and perfection with which misogyny is being systematized in Swat is simply unprecedented in Pakistan.
Banning education for females and specifically targeting girls’ schools was, to look at the current situation on the ground, only the prelude to what is turning out to be a conscious establishment of a system of violence and sadism.
With the destruction of over 180 schools in the valley, thousands of female teachers are without a source of income and some 80,000 female students are no longer getting an education.
However, it is not ‘only’ women’s education and livelihood that are at stake here. Women can also no longer venture outside their homes without a male relative (definitely a mehram) and it is mandatory for couples to carry their nikah-namaas or they are asking for trouble. The Swat Taliban have also announced that families with unmarried females should come forward in mosques so that the women/girls may be married off – to the Taliban. Or else, they are to be forcibly married (read raped).
So would any Pakistani woman want to wake up the following morning only to find out she’s in Swat? Hopefully not.
The government has done little, if not nothing, to address this ‘institutionalisation’ of gender-specific violence in the once idyllic valley. And while a visit to the region by some in the national cabinet was in the offing, the NWFP government’s recent decision to implement ‘sharia’ in the area seems highly unlikely to rescue the population from this despotic setup.
What was done to Bakht Zeba, a 45-year-old resident of Mingora and a former member of the Swat district council, should have been enough to serve as a wake up call for those entrusted with the security of our lives and properties.
Zeba's criticism of the Swat Taliban's anti-women measures was more than enough to incur the Talibs' wrath. On Nov 26, Bakht Zeba was dragged out of her Mingora home and was shot in the head after being brutally flogged.
A mere three hour drive (less than 200 miles) from Islamabad, Swat has transmogrified into a horrific embodiment and just when one dares to think that it can’t get any worse, a whole new horrible bunch of stunts is pulled only to keep one’s optimism in check.
The rather recent decree regarding bringing unmarried girls/women to give them away in marriage to the Taliban is a truly shocking one. Going a few more steps ahead than the Afghan Taliban, this group has clearly expressed its disregard for anything and everything with a semblance of civilised behaviour. So really, what form of the sharia will satiate their appetite for brutality?
Despite the 'military operation' before the ‘ceasefire,’ the government failed to tackle the militants, nor could it effectively address the problems that these criminal elements, bent upon destroying the region's social fabric, have been posing.
What bigger horror is needed to realise that what began in Swat (a firmly settled area, mind you!) might as well penetrate inside the rest of the state?
The terror that the women in Swat have experienced is appalling enough and if this trend that has captured the valley is not dismantled, it is likely to advance itself, putting at risk a healthy and respectable survival of at least 50 per cent of the country's population.
The recent murderous attacks against women in Kohat, an pronouncement ordering Quetta women to cover their faces, and of course how can we forget — right in the middle of Islamabad — the Red Mosque's self-styled executioners of God's law, were not actions working themselves about in isolation. Swat, at present, appears to be the culmination of all the madness that has gone on, that is ensuing, and that, if not eliminated, is logically bound to get only worse.
We, and especially the modern urban women amongst us, painstakingly working it up in our cubicles, can no longer remain in denial of what may very well be in store for us.
While one expected the government to support and defend women development initiatives in the region (taken up by community workers such as Bakht Zeba), the government has instead made the Swatis even more vulnerable to exploitation. Who knows what version of religious law will Swat be governed under? And while Mr Hoti, the mayor of Peshawar, just barely, has slapped aside suggestions that Swat may end up turning into Taliban’s Afghanistan, his sanguinity is no longer compelling. This ‘sharia’ deal directly involves an organization that the government of Pakistan banned in Jan 2002. And strangely enough, that ban has not been lifted to this day.
These ‘political’ developments have only strengthened the militants, when simultaneously, a show of the righteous’ strength was also witnessed in Karachi on Feb 14 — resulting in the postponement of a perfectly innocent musical evening. However, it is, as some of us hope, highly unlikely that a system of force and repression, along the lines of the one in Swat, can be made operational in the country's metropolitan centres and while several women amongst the urban, educated lot have strongly expressed their censure of the military operations in the northwest, they are not going to allow neither criminals nor the holier than thou(s) to dictate their lifestyles.
Given a closer look, the so-called isolated acid attacks, rapes and other gender-specific acts of violence are not so isolated. The Swat Taliban's crusade against women is not some alien system that sprang up out of nothing. It exists in relation to a certain worldview at large — a worldview that power must be exercised and sustained as extremely as it can.
At this point in time, not only has the government of Pakistan almost-officially disowned Swat, it has also isolated its women even further. But what it must not forget is that today when the Taliban are strongly entrenched in the region (more than ever before), Islamabad is not far away.
WHAT happened with Shikarpur’s Maria Shah, a recent victim of an acid attack, may be considered as a random act of violence but the degree of resolve and perfection with which misogyny is being systematized in Swat is simply unprecedented in Pakistan.
Banning education for females and specifically targeting girls’ schools was, to look at the current situation on the ground, only the prelude to what is turning out to be a conscious establishment of a system of violence and sadism.
With the destruction of over 180 schools in the valley, thousands of female teachers are without a source of income and some 80,000 female students are no longer getting an education.
However, it is not ‘only’ women’s education and livelihood that are at stake here. Women can also no longer venture outside their homes without a male relative (definitely a mehram) and it is mandatory for couples to carry their nikah-namaas or they are asking for trouble. The Swat Taliban have also announced that families with unmarried females should come forward in mosques so that the women/girls may be married off – to the Taliban. Or else, they are to be forcibly married (read raped).
So would any Pakistani woman want to wake up the following morning only to find out she’s in Swat? Hopefully not.
The government has done little, if not nothing, to address this ‘institutionalisation’ of gender-specific violence in the once idyllic valley. And while a visit to the region by some in the national cabinet was in the offing, the NWFP government’s recent decision to implement ‘sharia’ in the area seems highly unlikely to rescue the population from this despotic setup.
What was done to Bakht Zeba, a 45-year-old resident of Mingora and a former member of the Swat district council, should have been enough to serve as a wake up call for those entrusted with the security of our lives and properties.
Zeba's criticism of the Swat Taliban's anti-women measures was more than enough to incur the Talibs' wrath. On Nov 26, Bakht Zeba was dragged out of her Mingora home and was shot in the head after being brutally flogged.
A mere three hour drive (less than 200 miles) from Islamabad, Swat has transmogrified into a horrific embodiment and just when one dares to think that it can’t get any worse, a whole new horrible bunch of stunts is pulled only to keep one’s optimism in check.
The rather recent decree regarding bringing unmarried girls/women to give them away in marriage to the Taliban is a truly shocking one. Going a few more steps ahead than the Afghan Taliban, this group has clearly expressed its disregard for anything and everything with a semblance of civilised behaviour. So really, what form of the sharia will satiate their appetite for brutality?
Despite the 'military operation' before the ‘ceasefire,’ the government failed to tackle the militants, nor could it effectively address the problems that these criminal elements, bent upon destroying the region's social fabric, have been posing.
What bigger horror is needed to realise that what began in Swat (a firmly settled area, mind you!) might as well penetrate inside the rest of the state?
The terror that the women in Swat have experienced is appalling enough and if this trend that has captured the valley is not dismantled, it is likely to advance itself, putting at risk a healthy and respectable survival of at least 50 per cent of the country's population.
The recent murderous attacks against women in Kohat, an pronouncement ordering Quetta women to cover their faces, and of course how can we forget — right in the middle of Islamabad — the Red Mosque's self-styled executioners of God's law, were not actions working themselves about in isolation. Swat, at present, appears to be the culmination of all the madness that has gone on, that is ensuing, and that, if not eliminated, is logically bound to get only worse.
We, and especially the modern urban women amongst us, painstakingly working it up in our cubicles, can no longer remain in denial of what may very well be in store for us.
While one expected the government to support and defend women development initiatives in the region (taken up by community workers such as Bakht Zeba), the government has instead made the Swatis even more vulnerable to exploitation. Who knows what version of religious law will Swat be governed under? And while Mr Hoti, the mayor of Peshawar, just barely, has slapped aside suggestions that Swat may end up turning into Taliban’s Afghanistan, his sanguinity is no longer compelling. This ‘sharia’ deal directly involves an organization that the government of Pakistan banned in Jan 2002. And strangely enough, that ban has not been lifted to this day.
These ‘political’ developments have only strengthened the militants, when simultaneously, a show of the righteous’ strength was also witnessed in Karachi on Feb 14 — resulting in the postponement of a perfectly innocent musical evening. However, it is, as some of us hope, highly unlikely that a system of force and repression, along the lines of the one in Swat, can be made operational in the country's metropolitan centres and while several women amongst the urban, educated lot have strongly expressed their censure of the military operations in the northwest, they are not going to allow neither criminals nor the holier than thou(s) to dictate their lifestyles.
Given a closer look, the so-called isolated acid attacks, rapes and other gender-specific acts of violence are not so isolated. The Swat Taliban's crusade against women is not some alien system that sprang up out of nothing. It exists in relation to a certain worldview at large — a worldview that power must be exercised and sustained as extremely as it can.
At this point in time, not only has the government of Pakistan almost-officially disowned Swat, it has also isolated its women even further. But what it must not forget is that today when the Taliban are strongly entrenched in the region (more than ever before), Islamabad is not far away.
French teen killed by Cairo bomb was on class trip
By Maggie MichaelCAIRO (AP) — A French teenager killed in a bombing at a landmark Cairo bazaar was on a school trip with several dozen classmates, many of whom were wounded, the mayor of her hometown said Monday.
Sunday night's explosion from a homemade bomb hit the busy main square of the sprawling Khan el-Khalili market, which was packed with tourists, including the French high school tour group. The 17-year-old girl from a Paris suburb was killed, and at least 24 people were wounded, most of them French students.
The girl, whose name has not been released, was on a trip with 41 other teenage students, said Patrick Balkany, mayor of her hometown, Levallois-Perret, a suburb on Paris' northwest edge.
The students were nearing the end of their trip when the attack occurred, Balkany told RTL radio on Monday. He said some of the students has serious wounds, and other students suffered psychological shock from the "horror" of the experience.
"We are faced with a dreadful drama," Balkany said.
France's prime minister, Francois Fillon, denounced what he called an "odious attack."
"There are people who want to destabilize Egypt, which is one of the moderate countries in the region," Fillon told journalists in Paris. "It is an illustration of the violence that we must eradicate."
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing. Islamic extremists have in the past attacked tourists in an attempt to hurt Egypt's biggest source of income. Sunday's attack — the first on tourists in three years — comes as the tourist industry is already suffering under the global financial crisis, which has meant fewer visitors to the country.
The Khan el-Khalili, a 650-year-old bazaar of narrow, winding alleys. Dotted with old mosques and Islamic monuments and shops, is one of the top tourist spots in Cairo, often crowded with foreigners coming to shop and hang out in its numerous cafes. In April 2005, a suicide bomber in the market killed himself, two French citizens and an American.
Sunday's bomb was packed with TNT and explosive black powder, said Egypt's state-run news agency, MENA. A government statement said it was placed under a bench in a busy square in front of one of Cairo's most revered shrines, the Hussein mosque. Some security officials, however, said the explosive had been thrown into the square, and it was unclear which version was correct.
Security officials said three people were in custody. Authorities safely detonated a second bomb that was found. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.
Among the wounded were 19 French youths, a German, three Saudis and an Egyptian, according to a hospital report. Three French teenagers remained in the intensive care unit Monday. One had a lung injury, another broken legs and the third suffered a ruptured ear drum.
One of the injured Saudis said he and his two friends were heading toward the Hussein mosque when the blast went off behind them.
"The minute we stepped out of the taxi and walked a few steps, an explosion rocked the area," said Mohammed Behees, a 31-year-old teacher from Riyadh who was injured by shattered glass.
Egypt fought a long war with Islamist militants in the 1990s, culminating in a massacre of more than 50 tourists in Luxor in 1997. The rebels were largely defeated, and there have been few attacks since then in the Nile valley.
But from 2004 to 2006, a string of bombings against resorts in the Sinai Peninsula killed 120 people, including in the Sinai's main resort of Sharm el-Sheik.
Still, tourism has proven resilient after those attacks, with foreigners still pouring in for Egypt's resorts and antiquity. Tourism brought in $10.8 billion in fiscal 2007-2008, making it Egypt's top money earner.
Sunday's attack as well is likely to have little long-term impact, said officials at tour operator Travco Group and analysts at Cairo-based investment banks EFG-Hermes and Beltone Financial.
More damaging is the world economic meltdown, which is making many in Egypt's prime European markets decide to stay home rather than travel for vacation. Tourist arrivals are expected to decline by 18 percent in 2009 to roughly 10.5 million visitors, EFG-Hermes said.
Associated Press writers Tarek el-Tablawy in Cairo and Angela Charlton and Christine Ollivier in Paris contributed to this report.
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