Mumbai Massacre: A Deeper Look

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Fatah: The Negotiating Partner of the West and Israel Boasts About Massacres of Israelis

Perhaps President Obama and his predecessors (Clinton, Bush) never got the memo that Palestinian Authority members have also condoned and funded atrocities against Israelis.

Here is a translation:

Fatah student taunts Hamas: "Since Hamas seized power, we haven't heard of any Martyrdom operation (suicide-bombing).

Hamas teacher: "It's called 'fighter's rest.'"

Fatah student: "A Hamas fighter needs rest, but a Fatah fighter doesn't need rest?!"

Hamas teacher: "Every fighter has the right to rest."

Fatah student: "Why is it that when Fatah stops fighting, you (Hamas) say they're cowards, but when Hamas stops fighting, you say it's 'fighters' rest'?"

Hamas teacher: "I don't know much about resistance (terror) and fighters. ..."

Fatah student: "The first shot was fired by the PLO; the first Jihad was carried out by the PLO (audience applauds), with all the other factions – but Hamas always opposed.

Hamas student: "What do you say about Hamas having kidnapped the (Israeli) soldier Shalit (still held hostage – Ed.)?"

Hamas teacher: "Ahaaa!"

Student: "By Allah, it's good."

Hamas student: "Did Fatah ever capture a soldier?!"

Fatah student: "It was the (other) brigades who captured him (Shalit) and sold him to you (Hamas). It's a deal that you (Hamas) made for your own benefit, not for the (Palestinian) people's benefit. (Applause)

Fatah student: Remember, in Ramallah the (PA-Fatah) police arrested two soldiers – have you forgotten, teacher?!"

Obama Increasing Aid to Jordan, Other Muslim States

More U.S. aid to Jordan and other Islamic countries? Ridiculous....

(IsraelNN.com) In the latest in a recent series of increased American assistance efforts for Arab and Muslim states, U.S. President Barack Obama has allocated an additional $150 million to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The regimes leading Egypt, the Palestinian Authority, the United Arab Emirates and even Saudi Arabia have all benefited from recent American policy shifts....

On another front, in March of this year, it was reported that the Obama administration planned to dramatically increase funding to the Palestinian Authority for security training, which is conducted by Jordanian police under the supervision of U.S. General Keith Dayton. The U.S. allocated $75 million for the PA police training in 2008, but reports indicated that the Obama administration was planning to pump up to $130 million into the program in 2009. In any event, the U.S. has already pledged $600 million in funds to the Palestinian Authority, with another $300 million for humanitarian aid to the Hamas regime in Gaza.

Elsewhere in the region, the U.S. is set to help the United Arab Emirates become the first Arab nation with a developed nuclear power infrastructure. President Obama gave his official support and authorization for the $41 billion project, allowing private U.S. companies to compete for construction contracts.

In Pakistan, the U.S. president proposed $2.8 billion in aid for that nation's military, alongside civilian aid of $1.5 billion a year for the next five years. The military aid is ostensibly to allow the Pakistanis to more effectively fight jihadist and al-Qaeda terrorism emanating from the Swat Valley and along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border....

Read it all here.

Iran has most journalists in jail

Not surprising. The Islamic Republic of Iran jails more journalists than any other country:

Iran's media crackdown since protests over the disputed election earlier this month means more journalists are in jail there than in any other country, including China or Cuba, according to Reporters Sans Frontières.

The press freedom campaigning body said that more than 33 journalists were in jail in Iran, up from just a handful before 14 June, when protests over the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad began. Iran has leapfrogged China and Cuba, according to RSF.

At least 25 journalists arrested since the disputed election remain in prison, the Paris-based organisation said on Friday.

This clampdown has also seen Iran jump above Burma, which RSF claims has 14 journalists in jail, Eritrea, which has 17 jailed reporters, Cuba with 24 and even China, where 30 reporters – out of the 166 that RSF claims are imprisoned worldwide – are jailed. China was previously the biggest international jailer of reporters, according to RSF.

The press freedom organisation said it feared for the safety of those imprisoned in Iran. "Several witness accounts make us fear that torture and ill-treatment are being systematically inflicted on prisoners who have demonstrated against the regime," RSF added.

"Several journalists and bloggers were brutally treated by the guards and by men employed by the state prosecutor, Saaed Mortazavi."

Amnesty International today called for the Iranian authorities to release the journalists arrested since the elections. Journalists are at risk of torture in detention, the human rights organisation said, adding that the location of most remained unknown.

"It is shocking that journalists whose job it is to provide information to others are being detained, on top of all the other draconian measures the authorities have taken to restrict the free flow of information about what is really happening in Iran," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, the deputy director of Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa programme.

"Rather than trying to investigate alleged abuses, the only message the authorities are sending is that they are seeking to hide the truth, both from their own citizens and the rest of the world."

Read more here.

Battagram Hindus told to embrace Islam or pay tax

Here is an excerpt from Dawn Media about the subjugation of ethnic minorities, such as Hindus:

Chief of the Hindu community in Battagram said on Sunday that the Taliban had threatened them to pay Jazia (tax) or accept Islam.

‘It depends on you to choose between Jazia and Islam otherwise you would face abduction and suicide attacks,’ Dr Oam Parkash quoted the Taliban as saying.

While talking to Dawn after receiving the threats on telephone, he said that so far he had received two calls during the last two days: first by a Taliban commander and then by a militant. ‘They demanded Rs6 million from me,’ the Hindu leader added.

The Taliban threatened that ‘if you or any other member of your community were kidnapped then we will not release the kidnapped person even after payment of Rs10 million as ransom’.

Dr Parkash said that he had made clear to both callers that the Hindus in the region were not in a position to pay such a huge amount. The Hindus had been living in Battagram for centuries. ‘My father and grandfather served the people of Battagram as hakeems and now I am also serving the people,’ he said.

Read more here.

Bahrain Offers Women No Protection from Spousal Rape

Suad Hamada has this story for The Wip:

Getting a divorce and custody of one’s children is very difficult in Bahrain, even in cases where a husband sexually attacks his wife. The issue was exposed to the public last year, when an Arab woman married to a Bahraini was granted a divorce by the courts after she lost part of her breast during a violent sexual encounter with her spouse. A medical report submitted during the case citing the need for corrective surgery was valid enough evidence for the judge to call off the marriage. Though such cases are rarely highlighted in the media here, the plight of this woman made top headlines in many regional newspapers.

Similar to almost all Arab and Islamic countries, Bahrain offers women no protection from their sexually abusive husbands. Only in cases of physical injury will the courts grant a divorce. For those who bear no physical marks, victims of sexual abuse feel helpless, as marital rape isn’t penalized in this part of the world.

In a region that still considers sex a taboo, spousal rape remains in the dark as most families fear even acknowledging its existence. Many women live in pain and humiliation because they were raised to believe that their bodies belong to their husbands who have the right to enjoy them as objects.

In many parts of the Islamic world, hardliners and social misconceptions promote this submission - wives are instructed to never deny the sexual demands of their husbands, as disobedience is perceived as a violation of Islamic principles. But there is something terribly wrong with this interpretation of Islam – no woman should have to tolerate sexual abuse from her husband or be told that she won’t get into heaven if she doesn’t.

An internet-based survey conducted by a Saudi newspaper reveals that 93% of women surveyed admitted experiencing sexual problems in their marriage. According to female activist Dr. Madeha Al-Ajroosh, socially conservative Saudi Arabia lacks any formal or comprehensive survey about partner rape. She told Arab News that it is difficult to carry out any scientific survey, as “few women are willing to open up and discuss their sexual lives.”

The situation isn’t much better in Egypt. According to a study by the Al Nadeen Center for Psychological Rehabilitation, 29% of Egyptian wives surveyed throughout the country are subjected to sexual violence. The study also reveals that many husbands choose physically and psychologically inappropriate timing to engage in sexual relations. Women confessed that their husbands become monsters in bed, especially with the affordable and widespread availability of sexual supplements for men. The study highlights that most of this violence can’t be proven for the court to take action.

And as the entire world now knows, in Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai recently authorized a law that legalizes spousal rape among Shiite couples, denying women the right to say no to their husbands.

At the local level, Bahrain’s penal code doesn’t criminalize spousal rape for many religious and social reasons. There is no legislation that tackles the issue so many wives suffer their humiliation in silence. Dr Bana Buzabon, president of the Batelco Anti-Domestic Violence Center, says some women feel they have to live with the abuse because of their husband’s psychological problems. Others who want to fight for their dignity and physical safety “are shattered when they realize that the legal system cannot help them,” she says.

Dr. Buzabon’s center fielded 8,111 cases of domestic violence in 2008 – nearly 50% of which she says involved spousal sexual abuse. “We cannot help in most of the cases as the courts ask for evidence. And even if there are [physical] signs judges feel that women, to some extent, allow their husbands to abuse them.” Dr. Buzabon says that most women don’t ask for help fearful of the humiliation that comes with being disrespected in a society that positions men as masters over women.

President of the Bahrain Women’s Union, Mariam Al Ruwai, says that 43% of the country’s divorce cases have been filed because of violence. “There is an average of 4,000 marriages taking place in Bahrain annually and only an average of 1,000 divorces. That doesn’t mean we don’t have marital problems, but many women fear the maltreatment they might face by conservative judges if they sue their husbands [for divorce].”

Noora is one of the many women who suffer in silence. Her nightmare is far from over - for the past 23 years, she has tolerated her husband’s sexual disorders to avoid disgracing the name of her family.

“When I secretly told my elders about his tough and frequent sexual desires when I was newly wed, I was told to be patient as we were both young,” she explains. “[I was told that] he would become gentle over time, but that never happened. My three children are working now and his sexual desire remains unaffected,” she says.

“I was instructed by my parents to not open my mouth and told that good wives don’t discuss such topics. I listened to them but all I got is heartache and a weak body in return,” Noora says bitterly.

Many of the country’s scholars maintain the opposite stance when it comes to spousal rape. Scholar and judge at the Shariah courts, Shaikh Mohsin Al Asfoor says men have the right to demand sexual relations with their wives as the word “rape” doesn’t exist between couples. He says that Shariah courts don’t penalize men for forcing their wives to have sex with them, but press charges of abuse – not rape – only when physical injuries occur.

“Shariah courts have declined many cases filed by women against their husbands because they forced them to have sex, especially females who signed the marriage contracts but were waiting to be wedded, because Islamic regulations are clear in the right of men to have sex with their wives whenever they wish,” he explains.

Religious educator Fatima Busandel agrees with Shaikh Al Asfoor saying that women can’t say no to their husbands and that if they tolerate hardship in their sexual relations they will receive God’s blessing for trying to protect their homes. “I don’t mean to ask women to keep quiet about their sexually violent men, but try to change them. 50% of violence against females is because they don’t know how to deal with men.” She says that she’s come across many cases in which women succeeded in changing their husbands with patience.

Female activist Afaf Al Jamri doesn't see it that way. She says that many women tolerate this sexual violence because of distorted interpretations of Islamic regulations, mainly Hadhith (or the oral traditions passed down from the teachings of Prophet Mohammed). She calls on society to focus exclusively on the Quran and its verses since she feels they are clear and can’t be misinterpreted.

The Ministry of Justice released statistics to parliament in May highlighting that there are currently 1,231 marital cases not yet closed in the country’s Shariah courts. A study conducted by the Bahrain’s Women Union reveals that some of these women have been fighting to end their marriages for the past ten years.

Spousal rape is an issue that must be addressed in the Gulf region as there is no religion that accepts or promotes the humiliation and suffering of its followers. Sex isn’t just for men – mutual satisfaction and understanding should be an integral part of all spousal sexual relations. Women must be empowered to fight for their rights and say no to spousal rape. The next generation of women is watching.

Royal Marines abused as they are returned home by protesters

From the Daily Mail:

A homecoming march by Royal Marines returning after a bloody tour of Afghanistan was hijacked yesterday by anti-war protesters.

Five militants waving Iraqi flags screamed 'genocide' and 'not in my name' at soldiers from 3 Commando as they marched from Buckingham Palace to Parliament.

Some of the protesters also tried to use a megaphone to drown out the Royal Marines band but were beaten when onlookers began to clap and cheer to overcome them.

One of the militants had to be restrained by police until the 120 servicemen and women had gone into the House of Commons, where they were met by Armed Forces Minister Bill Rammell and other dignitaries.

However, it proved the only slight on what was a special day for 3 Commando, which has suffered more fatalities than any other brigade on their last tour.

Some 33 of the 3,500 elite unit died, and hundreds more were injured on the gruelling six-month winter tour in southern Helmand province.

Despite the demonstrations, the soldiers were cheered on by dozens of well-wishers and tourists who gathered outside Wellington barracks in London.

Lance Corporal Frank Wyatt, 25, from Oxford, said: 'People are increasingly appreciating what we do and it's a real boost to know the country is behind you.'

Police said the five protesters maintain a constant presence in Parliament Square.

3 Commando Brigade Royal Marines is the elite fighting force of the Royal Navy.

The 3,500-strong brigade is an amphibious rapid reaction force, highly trained for combat in extreme weather conditions and on difficult terrain.

Read more here.

85 sharia courts in UK, says report

Sharia in the UK- and as many as 85 sharia courts operating in Britain. From the Guardian:

There are as many as 85 sharia courts operating in Britain, according to a new report.

Academic Denis MacEoin, the report's author, said the existence of the courts practising Islamic law could lead to different legal standards being applied to Muslim and non-Muslim citizens.

He said many of the courts operate out of mosques and their rulings are closed off to non-Muslims.

In previous reports it was claimed there were only five sharia courts in the UK, working in London, Manchester, Bradford, Birmingham and Nuneaton.

He said: "This is not a matter of eating halal meat or seeking God's blessing on one's marriage. It is a challenge to what we believe to be the rights and freedoms of the individual, to our concept of a legal system based on what parliament enacts, and to the right of all of us to live in a society as free as possible from ethnic-religious division or communal claims to superiority and a special status that puts them in some respects above the law to which we are all bound."

His report, published by the think-tank Civitas, includes a list of previous sharia judgements which he believes give an indication of the type of ruling being handed down by the courts working in the UK.

Among the examples quoted are laws banning a Muslim woman from marrying a non-Muslim unless he converts to Islam and the removal of a wife's property rights in the event of divorce.

The report states: "Among the rulings ... we find some that advise illegal actions and others that transgress human rights standards as they are applied by British courts."

Three dead, 15 hurt in Philippines blast

Another Islamic terror attack in the Philippines:

Bombs have ripped through a cafe in the southern Philippines, killing three people and wounding 15, the military and witnesses have said.

The three dead included a man seen placing one of the devices in a garbage bin at a coffee shop near the town of Datu Saudi Ampatuan on Monday, an overwhelmingly Muslim section of Mindanao island, one witness said, quoting local police.

"(One) bomb exploded prematurely. Among those killed was the bomb courier," said Major Randolph Cabangbang, military spokesman for the region.

He blamed a hardline Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) faction for the attack, which he said also injured 15 civilians.

"Military bomb experts told me that two bombs simultaneously exploded and they are still looking for the third explosive," said Eduardo Vasquez, a Roman Catholic priest who witnessed the attack.

The MILF, a group that has been waging a decades-old separatist campaign in the region, denied involvement and suggested government forces were to blame.

"Villagers saw soldiers arrive in the area at dawn and there was an explosion several hours later," MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu told reporters by telephone.

It was the second bombing in the region in three days, after nine people were wounded in a bus depot blast in the city of Tacurong. Local police said that was also carried out by the MILF.

A hardline MILF faction launched a series of raids on Christian settler communities across Mindanao in August 2008 that left dozens of civilians dead and displaced more than half a million people, according to aid agencies.

They followed a Supreme Court ruling that outlawed a draft peace agreement offered by President Gloria Arroyo to the MILF to end decades of rebellion in the south of the largely Roman Catholic nation.

The treaty would have given the large Muslim minority political control over large swathes of the south, which Christian politicians alleged would have been disproportionate to Muslim population numbers.

Fatwa: Bangladeshi woman brutally whipped

Horrific persecution of a woman, according to sharia law:

A widow was whipped 202 times and a man 101 times following a fatwa by a religious leader for their alleged involvement in "anti-social activity" in a village in southeastern Bangladesh, prompting local protests and action by the police.

Piara Begum, a widow of 40, and Mamun Miah, 25, were whipped before hundreds of people at Khaiyar in Comilla district Saturday night.

The woman fell unconscious and was rushed to hospital. Doctors said she was critically injured and needed to be given intensive treatment.

Miah was whipped 101 times, The Daily Star newspaper said Monday.

Punishment under a fatwa is held illegal as per a high court ruling of 2001 in Bangladesh that has a predominant Sunni Muslim population.

The police arrested six people, including Moulana Mohammed Manirul Islam, a religious leader working in the local madrassa.

Piara Begum filed a case with the Debidwar police station under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act.

Couple shot dead for eloping

Another honor killing in Pakistan. This time a couple is murdered by family members for eloping:

RELATIVES of a Pakistani teenager who eloped and married without parental consent shot her dead in a raid on her new home which also killed her husband and in-laws, police said.

Dressed in police uniforms, dozens of relatives attacked the bridegroom's house in the district of Charsadda, in North West Frontier Province.

"The assailants took the bridegroom out while some of the attackers climbed the wall and entered the house. They killed the bride, the mother and sister of the bridegroom,'' said Charsadda district police official Saleem Jan.

"They beat them first and then shot them dead,'' he told AFP.

The groom's father was also killed, another police official told AFP from Sardheri village in
Charsadda.

The bride was aged 18 to 19 and the groom 29 to 30.

Police said the teenager, from the deeply conservative Mardan district next to Charsadda, had run away and recently married without telling her parents.

"Both the girl and man married some weeks ago,'' the bridegroom's uncle Misal Khan told reporters at the scene.

"The attackers were headed by the (paternal) uncle, cousin and maternal uncle of the girl. One of the attackers left his police uniform at the site. They also left one mobile phone in a pocket of the uniform,'' he added.

Police said the main suspects were two uncles and a cousin.

Read more here.

Rape suspect gets ten years jail, Woman selling marijuana gets LIFE in prison

A rapist is sentenced to 10 years:

An Emirati, S.A.M.S, accused of raping a Filipino girl after posing as a criminal investigator was sentenced to ten years in prison.

The defendant, approached in his vehicle according to the victim’s testimony, and posed as a criminal investigator. “He showed me an ID card, but I couldn’t see it clearly as he was still in his driver’s seat and I was on the road,” she told presiding Presiding Judge Fahmi Mounir.

The 26-year-old victim identified as E.A., said that he pulled her by her hair and shoved her face towards his private parts, forcing her to perform oral sex, before raping her.

She was walking outside her working place in Lulu Hyper Market where she works as cashier, when the incident happened.

Following the incident, she informed her manager who then reported the incident to the police. Five days after she filed the complaint, the defendant’s wife visited her at her work place and tried to persuade her into dropping charges, “She told me if its money you want we will give you,” E.A. informed the court.

A woman who sold marijuana, however, got LIFE in prison:

A woman from Uganda was sentenced to life in prison after she was found guilty of possessing, consuming and selling marijuana.

Court records revealed that the 28-year-old woman S.N. was arrested with bags of marijuana cigarettes rolled and ready for sale after the police raided her place on receiving a tip-off about a woman using her residence for selling and consuming drugs.

The woman revealed that she sold each cigarette for Dh30, claiming that she stole the banned substance from her roommate.

Saudi Hate Film Draws (Private) State Department Fire

From IPT News:

While President Obama praises the "long history" of U.S.-Saudi "friendship" and the "strategic relationship" between the two countries, some State Department officials are privately unhappy over a Saudi-produced film blaming "Zionist gangs" for the suffering of the Palestinians. The film is "The Olive Dream," a soon-to-be-released Arabic-language movie produced by Saudi filmmaker Osama Khalifa.

"The narrative of 'the catastrophe of 1948' and the resulting 'Palestinian suffering' has long served as an incubator for violence and anti-American sentiment," an anonymous State Department official wrote in a June 16 "Counterterrorism Communication Alert" obtained by IPT News. "As the US government works to push the Israeli-Palestinian peace process forward, a significant obstacle to winning Arab public opinion and achieving lasting a lasting peace is the current narrative of the conflict."

But the Saudi-produced film, which "aims to teach children about the 'Palestinian Cause' from the viewpoint of a Palestinian refugee, may serve to further cement this narrative in a new generation of young Arabs and Muslims," the State Department official warned in the memo labeled "OFFICIAL USE ONLY."

Click here to read it all.

Father exchanges eight-year-old for a second bride

By Faraz Khan of Daily Times:

Police have detained a middle aged man alleged to have married his under age daughter in ‘Watta Satta’, along with the Qazi (cleric) who performed the nikah ceremony and the ‘husband’.

Zahida, 8, a minor belonging to a low-income Siraiki family that hails from Liaquat Pur, Punjab and is presently living in Azam Basti within the limits of Mehmoodabad police station (Jamshed Town). Her father, Abdul Rasool, 50, is a mason by profession and wanted to marry Haseena, 19. Haseena is a married woman, the mother of two children and happens to be related to him. Zahida is the eldest among Rasool’s three daughters. Rasool married his daughter to Haseena’s younger brother Dilshad, 17. Her nikah was performed on June 25 by Qari Naqeeb Ali Shah and her rukhsati was supposed to take place on July 1.

The police took action after her mother informed Union Council (UC) 3 Naib Nazim Aurangzaib about the incident. At first, the police detained Zahida’s father and then conducted a raid on a mosque from where they were able to detain Shah. The police also took Dilshad into the custody and is looking for the arrests of witnesses who were present at the nikah till the time this report was filed.

According to Zahida’s mother Perveen, her husband married Zahida in exchange for his marriage to Dilshad’s sister Haseena. The girl’s mother further said that her husband also played a role in breaking Haseena’s marriage and her divorce case is pending in court.

Naqeeb Shah, who is not a registered ‘nikah khawan’ has denied his involved with the case. “I did not see the girl while performing the nikkh. Before the nikah, the witnesses told me that the girl’s age is 16,” Shah said. He confirmed the presence of three witnesses and also the girl’s father at the time when the nikkah was performed.

Click here to read more.

Iraqis have second thoughts over June 30 date for US troops to leave

Iraq is still an unstable country. Reports show that Iraqis aren't quite ready for the U.S. to leave. Here is an excerpt from the Times Online:

For six years Iraqis in this restless provincial capital have been waiting for US forces to withdraw, in the hope that the area will return to being Iraq’s sleepy rural backwater.

However, with only days to go before the last American soldiers are due to pull out of Baquba and other Iraqi cities, the residentshaving doubts.

There are fears that a premature departure will lead to a return of sectarian violence or allow al-Qaeda to re-establish itself. Many would like the Americans to remain until security is restored permanently.

“After you guys pull out from the city I don’t know what our enemies are going to do,Thaban Hassan said. The head of an Iraqi Army battalion in Baquba, he told the American soldiers gathered in his office that “safety is not 100 per cent . . . why are the Americans leaving?”

“If it was up to me,” a US army captain said, “we would stay in the city, take a more active role, even.”

Colonel Burt Thompson, the commander of US forces in the area, whose troops still patrol Baquba, admitted that Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, had taken a gamble by insisting that his forces take control according to an agreed timetable.

In the past few days a bomb hit a mayor’s convoy, another hit an Iraqi army patrol and there was a revenge killing of an al-Qaeda militant.

In line with the status of forces agreement between the US and Iraqi governments, which came into effect at the beginning of this year, all US troops will cease patrolling Iraqi cities from June 30.

Despite the spike in violence Mr al-Maliki has insisted that the withdrawal will go ahead as planned.

Colonel Thompson called this insistence political and said that he would prefer to keep US soldiers in Diyala province, which remains a hub for insurgents coming into the country, until after elections next January.

That view is shared by residents. Dhea Taha, 32, who lives with her children near Baquba, said: “The security situation is not stable in the first place ... there is an increase in terrorist activity.”

Mohammad al-Obeidi, the chairman of the Security Council of Qais and Khalis, areas of Baquba which still have sectarian tensions, said that Mr al-Maliki’s reassurances did not ease concerns.

“Iraq is like a baby right now," he said. "It needs people to look after it.”

The religiously and ethnically diverse province was split by sectarian conflict during the turmoil after the invasion and never fully recovered. Remnants of Sunni groups, including al-Qaeda in Iraq and Shia militia, are still active.

Read more here.

Village Christians in Hiding after Clash in Egypt

More persecution against Egypt's Christians:

(Compass Direct News) - Nearly 1,000 Coptic Christians are hiding in their homes after clashes erupted Sunday (June 21) between them and their village's majority-Muslim population over the use of a three-story building belonging to the Coptic Church.

When on Sunday at 11 a.m. a group of 25 Christians from Cairo stopped in Ezbet Boshra-East, a village of about 3,000 people three hours south of Cairo by car, few villagers failed to take notice. Planning to visit local Christians and the Rev. Isaac Castor, the group had gathered outside the building owned by the Coptic Church, where the priest lives with his family.

Castor said only six of them had entered the building when Muslim neighbors approached the rest of the group waiting outside and began taunting them. A Muslim woman walked up to one of the visiting women, he said, and slapped her.

Soon village youths gathered and started throwing stones at the visitors and the building, and according to Castor within minutes hundreds of villagers, Muslims against Christians, were fighting each other in the streets of Ezbet Boshra-East. Castor's car was also vandalized.

"They were all over the streets hitting each other with sticks and their fists," Castor told Compass from his home by phone. "Some people were on top of buildings throwing stones; it was like a civil war."

Sectarian tensions have previously flared in the village. Last July, when Castor first moved to Ezbet Boshra-East with his family, Muslims vandalized Christians' farmlands and poisoned their domestic animals after services took place at the building owned by the church, according to International Christian Concern.

Since last July's incidents, authorities have stipulated that only two Christians at a time can visit the building, and according to Castor this was the source of the fighting that erupted in front of the building on Sunday. The neighbors thought he was conducting a prayer meeting and not adhering to the rule set by local authorities.

In the violent clash in front of the church-owned building, 17 Christians and eight Muslims were estimated to have been injured. According to various reports, nearly 19 Coptic Christians were arrested and released the following day, along with the injured Muslims.

So far there is no concrete information on how the Christians were treated while in prison. During the arrests of the Christians, police vandalized many of their homes. Egyptian sources told Compass that police often turn the homes of those whom they arrest "upside down."

Soon after the clashes, electricity and phone services were cut. Electricity was restored after 24 hours, but at press time telephones were still not operating. All communications happen via mobile phones.

Authorities also imposed a 6 p.m. curfew on the entire village, but Castor said Christians were too afraid to come out of their homes and were living off personal food stockpiles. He also said that a number of families had left the village to stay with friends and relatives in nearby towns and villages. Eyewitnesses visiting Ezbet Boshra-East yesterday confirmed that although there were Muslim villagers outside, there were no Christians walking on the streets.

Read it all here.

'Hizbullah could hit US harder than al-Qaida'

Here's an excerpt from the Jerusalem Post:

Hizbullah has a greater capability of staging a mass casualty terrorist attack in the US than al-Qaida does, and military action against Iran might trigger exactly that, according to a top counter-terrorism official with the New York police.

"Hizbullah at the strategic level, with its state sponsors, more or less decided not to attack the United States interests directly in the continental United States at all," Deputy Commissioner for Counterterrorism Richard Falkenrath of the New York Police Department told the Washington Institute for Near East Affairs this week. "But our assessment is, if they ever change their minds, they have the capacity to inflict terrible damage on the United States, and I worry about that a lot. We haven't seen it yet, but I don't like to be in a position where our defense lies in the strategic decision of a terrorist organization."

Falkenrath added that he had seen various intelligence assessments on what would cause Hizbullah to change that strategic decision and that "direct US military operations against the Hizbullah leadership are regarded as one," as well as attacks against its state sponsor, Iran.

He suggested that the Lebanese terrorist group has focused its violent acts abroad because "they would have too much heat on them if they did attack the United States, and they can accomplish most of their interests without it."

Another terrorism expert, Daniel Byman of the Brookings Institution's Saban Center, said Hizbullah had so far calculated that it wouldn't be worth the blowback from the United States when its main agenda focuses on Israel.

"From their point of view, the United States is a place you raise money and can use for propaganda," he explained....

Read the rest here.

Turkish dad stabs his own 15-year-old daughter to death

Another honor killing in Germany:

Mehmet Ö. (45) sneaked into Bürsa’s bedroom at 3.30am and repeatedly struck the helpless teen with a knife.

Her grandparents called an ambulance but medics could not do anything for Buersa as she bled to death.

The kebab shop owner fled the crime scene in the town of Schweinfurt but was later arrested by a police patrol in the town centre after a judge issued a warrant.

Police spokeswoman Kathrin Reinhardt said: “He confessed in a hearing to the Criminal Investigation Department.”

As a motive behind the crime, she said: “Both had very dissimilar life outlooks which kept leading to differences between them.”

Bürsa wore a head scarf but she did not want her strict Muslim father to control her life.

Friends described how the western lifestyle of his daughter made Mehmet Ö angry.

Metush H., a friend of the family, said that Bürsa’s sister and mum also had to always wear a headscarf.

Yesterday at her school, the Olympia-Morata-Gymnasium, her classmates gathered in the library to pay tribute to her.

A tearful friend told BILD: “She was a fun-loving girl, loved hip hop music. But that is no reason to kill someone!”

Click here to read it all.

Captors want 'ridiculous amount' for hostage in Philippines

From the Earth Times:

Muslim militants holding captive an Italian volunteer for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) are demanding a "ridiculous amount" of money for his freedom, a local official said Thursday. Senator Richard Gordon, chairman of the Philippine National Red Cross, said he got the information from sources close to Muslim Abu Sayyaf rebels who have been holding captive Eugenio Vagni, 62, for over five months.

"I received reports they are now asking for a ransom but I could not confirm it yet," he said. "There was a ridiculous amount mentioned but I did not get it from the Abu Sayyaf rebels themselves so I don't want to mention it."

Vagni and two other ICRC workers were seized by the al-Qaeda-linked guerrillas on Jolo island, 1,000 kilometres south of Manila, on January 15.

Vagni's co-captives, the Swiss Andreas Notter and Filipino Mary Jean Lacaba, were released separately by the guerrillas in April.

Gordon said Vagni has not contacted the Red Cross or his family since June 2, when a fierce firefight between his Abu Sayyaf captors and government troops occurred in Indanan town on Jolo.

Various military and local officials on Jolo maintained that Vagni was still alive and was being held by the guerrillas in a populated area on the island.

Vagni is suffering from a hernia and needed immediate medical attention.

Lieutenant Colonel Edgard Arevalo, a military spokesman, said the armed forces would oppose paying a ransom to secure Vagni's freedom as it would encourage kidnapping.

The Abu Sayyaf is the smallest and most violent Muslim rebel group in the southern Philippines. The group has been blamed for some of the worst terrorist attacks and high-profile kidnappings in the country.

Jihadist Forum Thread Discusses If and When One May Eat the Flesh of U.S. Soldiers

From MEMRI:

A recent thread on the Al-Falluja jihadist forum discussed the case of whether a Muslim who has nothing else to eat may kill an infidel in order to eat him. The discussion was prompted by a recently published book by Abu Muhammad Al-Maqdisi, one of the most influential jihadist sheikhs active today.

The following is a summary of the discussion thread.

"Is It Permitted To Eat The Flesh of American Soldiers?"

On June 13, 2009, a member of the Al-Falluja forum who uses the moniker "Al-Maqdisi's Student" wrote a post based on this passage [in full report] titled "Is it permitted to eat the flesh of American soldiers? A quote from the illustrious Sheikh Al-Maqdisi, may Allah preserve him." He began by recounting an exchange between the early Muslim commander Khalid b. Al-Walid and the Byzantine commander at the battle of Yarmuk (in the year 636 C.E.) The Byzantine commander said to Khalid that the Muslims had only gone out from their land due to hunger, and offered to buy them off. Khalid responded: "It was not hunger that drove us out of our land, as you say; we are a people who drink blood, and we know that there is no blood more delicious than Byzantine blood. That is why we came."

"Al-Maqdisi's Student" then cites the aforementioned passage from Al-Maqdisi's Beginner's Guide [in full report], and follows up with the words: "The mujahideen should inform their belligerent [infidel] and apostate enemies of this exceptional law so that they can bring it up and study it at their conferences on human rights, counterterrorism, and so on! Then they in turn can proclaim that our soldiers lick their lips [at the thought of] eating the flesh of their hamburger- and Pepsi-eating soldiers!"

"If We... Eat Americans, Let's Make Them Into A Gunpowder-Flavored Kabsa With Some Hors D'oeuvres Made Of Apostates"

Most of the numerous responses to the post were off-topic. Some responses, however, did take up the flesh-eating issue. "Abu Hajir Al-Muqrin" wrote: "If we are forced to eat Americans, let's make them into a gunpowder-flavored kabsa with some hors d'oeuvres made of apostates."

"Muhammad Al-Baghdadi" wrote: "But the slaughtering needs to be according to the shari'a. He then wrote "perhaps this is the best way" above stills from the Nick Berg decapitation video.

"Al-Maqdisi's Student" weighed in again towards the end of the thread and wrote: "A true story: a group of mujahideen from one of the brigades was in the mountains during the jihad against the Russians. One of them was sent off on a mission; he went and came back, but he couldn't find any of the brothers. He saw a roasted calf leg that the brothers in the brigade left for him for dinner, and he ate of it until he was full. When he went back to the main camp, the brothers saw him and offered him dinner! He said: praise Allah, I already ate! They said: Where did you find dinner? He said: You left me roasted calf leg! They said: No, no, that wasn't calf, that was the leg of a Russian infidel! He answered: No matter, it's all Islamic slaughter! (smile)"

Iran: Cleric calls for 'savage' punishment for protesters

More threats from the fascists in Iran:

One of the most powerful clerics in Iran, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, has called for "ruthless and savage" punishment - implying the death penalty - for leaders of the protests that have erupted since the presidential election on 12 June. Khatami is very close to the re-elected president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

At a sermon broadcast nationally on Friday at Tehran University, Khatami said, "I want the judiciary to...punish leading rioters firmly and without showing any mercy to teach everyone a lesson.

"Based on Islamic law, whoever confronts the Islamic state... should be convicted as a 'mohareb' [one who wages war against god]...They should be punished ruthlessly and savagely."

Under Iran's Islamic law, punishment for people convicted of being a 'mohareb' is execution.

Khatami considers Ahmadinejad the official winner of the disputed presidential election on 12 June.

Official election results gave a landslide victory to Ahmadinejad but supporters of the defeated candidates including Mir Hossein Mousavi have disputed the result and taken to the streets of Tehran and other cities in the thousands.

It is the most dramatic upheaval seen in the country in more than 30 years since the Islamic revolution in 1979.

The two reformist candidates demanded an annulment of the election.

But Iran's top legislative body or Guardian Council said on Friday there would be no annulment of the election results because they found no evidence of fraud.

"After ten days of examination, we did not see any major irregularities," Abbasali Kadkhodai, a council spokesman, told Iran's official news agency IRNA.

"We have had no fraud in any presidential election and this one was the cleanest election we have had. I can say with certainty that there was no fraud in this election."

The Guardian Council made the announcement as the White House exchanged insults with Ahmadinejad and accused him of trying to blame the US for unrest following Iran's disputed election.

At least 17 people have reportedly been killed or injured in the nationwide protests following the presidential elections.

However, the figures are impossible to verify as the Iranian government has imposed severe restrictions on foreign media coverage.

In his sermon, Khatami said that protesters were responsible for the death of Neda Agha-Soltani, the iconic young woman killed during the clashes.

"By watching the film, any wise person can understand that rioters killed her," he said, accusing them of murdering her for "propaganda" purposes.

He then turned his attention to United Nations' secretary general, Ban-Ki Moon, who has expressed concern about the recent violence in Iran.

Click here to read more.

Brutality in Iran

Pakistan: Tortured Christian languishing on false charges

More persecution of Christians in Pakistan. From Compass Direct News:

Police maneuver to keep incapacitated son of preacher in jail – and out of hospital.

LAHORE, Pakistan, June 23 (Compass Direct News) – A 37-year-old Christian is languishing in a Sialkot jail after police broke his backbone because his father was preaching Christ, according to a local advocacy group.

Arshad Masih had been in a hospital – chained to his bed on false robbery charges – after police torture that began Dec. 28, 2008 left him incapacitated. He was discharged from General Hospital in Lahore on Saturday (June 20) and returned to jail despite efforts by the Community Development Initiative (CDI), a support group that is providing Masih legal assistance.

CDI Research Officer Napoleon Qayyum said that Hajipura police detained Masih on Dec. 28 on orders from the Sadar police station in Gujranwala, where Masih’s father, Iqbal Masih, had been preaching Christ. The elder Masih told Compass that objections to his efforts led to false accusations of robbery against his son. The complainant in the robbery case eventually testified that Arshad Masih hadn’t been among the robbers, and he was granted bail.

Before court orders reached the jail, however, Sialkot police informed Sadar police officers in Gujranwala, who arrived at the jail and had Masih remanded to them for a robbery case filed against “unidentified people.” Gujranwala police also threatened to kill Masih in a staged police encounter if he told the court that he had been tortured, according to CDI.

Honor-Killing in Afghanistan: Father Kills His Daughter and Her Lover

Another honor killing:

A father brutally murdered his daughter and a young boy for having love affairs in Samangan province, Northern Afghanistan. He stabbed them many times with a knife.

The girl was named Shakila and was 18 years old and the boy named Ghulam Sakhi was 22. This savage incident took place at 3 in the morning in Haji Umar Village of Aibak city (centre of Samangan).

Officer Amir Jan Istanikzai, police chief of Samangan, told PAN that the murder had been committed by Haji Gulbuddin, the girl’s father. He added that Haji Gulbuddin had called the police and the police went to his home and arrested him.

Stanikzai says that the he has taken the responsibility for the murder of the boy and girl so he is in custody and the case is under investigation.

Dr. Abdul Momin Frotan, in-charge in the Provincial Hospital of Samangan, said that the bodies of the boy and girl were brought to the hospital and that they both have been stabbed 50 to 60 times in their head, face and body.

Frotan claimed that according to the medical examinations, the girl has been raped.

Abdul Shukoor, Ghulam Sakhi’s uncle, said that his nephew had become an orphan at the age of one and had grown up in his home and was a shopkeeper. He added that they heard that Ghulam Sakhi had disappeared the last evening but today the police told them that his nephew had been killed.

He said that he knew nothing of the relations of the girl and the boy but some people in the area said that the girl and boy were consented with each other and planned to marry. Abdul Shukoor demanded prosecution and punishment for the murderer.

Haji Gulbuddin, the murderer, told PAN that he knows this is a crime but he has no regrets; his honor demanded this and he is proud of it and whatever punishment the government gives makes no difference to him.

He said, “At night my other daughter was giving birth so I sent her with her mother to the hospital. My sons slept in one room, my daughter in the other and I slept in the hall.”

He said that at three in the morning he woke up to pray and woke his daughter to tell her he was going to the mosque for ablution and prayers so that she opens the door. His daughter said there is no key so he prayed two Rakat (units of prayer) at home and noticed that there were unfamiliar shoes near his daughter’s door. He entered her room and saw no one but when he opened the bathroom he saw a young boy who was naked.

Haji Gulbuddin continued that he asked the boy what he was doing there and that if he wanted to have relations with his daughter he should have sent a proposal. The boy said that he had made a mistake and wants to send a proposal.

He said, “I told him to wear his shirt. Then I went to the kitchen and brought a knife. First I stabbed the boy countless times and then my daughter. I took out all my anger.”

Both the directorship of Women’s Affairs and Human Rights condemned both the acts.

Hanifa Aashna director of the Women’s Affair of Samangan said that according to the information the boy had an illegitimate physical relation with the girl. Aashna said both the acts were crimes and should be condemned; the father shouldn’t have murdered them but handed them to the law to make the decision.

She said the murder of the girl and boy were due to the emotions of the father. She said this year (solar year) 24 cases of violence had been recorded in the Women’s Affair which include beating and escape from home due to lack of sustenance, but the murder of a girl and boy has been seen for the first time.

Qazi Said Muhammad Samay, head of the Human Rights Commission in the Northern Zone called both acts crimes and said that the boy shouldn’t have raped the girl and sent a proposal.

Samay says that the father (Haji Gulbuddin) should have handed the boy to the law and he should be punished according to the law for the murder of the girl and boy....

Click here to read more.

Tehran morgue demands 'bullet fee' for release of body

The butchers who are busy killing Iranians on the streets are allegedly asking for families to pay a "bullet fee" to retrieve their dead. From USA Today:

The family of a 19-year-old Iranian killed during clashes between security forces and protesters says officials demanded a $3,000 "bullet fee" before they could claim his body at the morgue, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The fee was assessed to pay for the bullet that killed Kaveh Alipour, the newspaper says. The Journal says morgue officials agreed to waive the fee after Alipour's relatives argued that all their possessions together weren't worth $3,000.

But, according to relatives, the officials "demanded that the family do no funeral or burial in Tehran." Instead, Alipour's body was quietly transported to the city of Rasht, where there is family, the newspaper reports.

The paper quotes relatives and neighbors as saying Alipour, a doorman's son, was not politically active and apparently got caught in a crossfire at an intersection while returning home from acting classes on Saturday.

Details of alleged bomb plot revealed

New details about a bomb plot targeting Toronto. From the National Post:

Details unfolded yesterday at a sentencing hearing about a meticulous plan to bomb three buildings in the so-called Toronto 18 bomb plot of 2006.

In a statement of facts released yesterday in a Brampton courtroom, Saad Khalid, 22, admitted to playing a role in planning the foiled attacks, which co-conspirators allegedly said would be greater than the planned London subway bombings of 2005.

Khalid is the first accused to plead guilty in the case. The attack was allegedly set for a morning in mid-November 2006.

The statement alleges Khalid's co-conspirators planned to target the Toronto Stock Exchange, the CSIS headquarters on Front Street in Toronto, and an unidentified military base, off Highway 401 between Toronto and Ottawa.

Three U-Haul vans were to be rented with fake identification, packed with explosives and detonated remotely, the statement says. One of the co-accused made the detonators and tested them himself, the 37-page document reads. The bombings were to occur on three consecutive days, rather than simultaneously.

The group communicated using pagers and USB memory sticks to pass around instructions, the statement says, so they did not have to use emails or cellphones.

An undercover police agent was enlisted by the group to procure nitric acid and ammonium nitrate for the bombs, the statement says.

The statement also says one of Khalid's co-accused told the undercover agent that he wanted the attacks to occur on Sept. 11 2006, so the date would be remembered forever.

The co-accused allegedly said the attack's purpose was to affect the economy, and that he hoped the bombing would encourage Canada to pull troops from Afghanistan.

Four youths and 14 men were charged in a police bust under the Anti-Terrorism Act in the summer of 2006. Charges against seven of the suspects have since been stayed.

By pleading guilty, Khalid, of Mississauga, Ont., is the first member of the group to admit a bomb plot existed....

Click here to read it all.

Muslim Mob Attacks Church and Loots Christian Homes in Egypt

Yet even more attacks against Copts in Egypt:

(AINA) -- Fears of an impending massacre has gripped the Christian Copts in the village of Ezbet Boshra, El Fashn, which was scene to Muslim mob attacks on Copts on Sunday (AINA 6-22-2009).

Egyptian State Security has placed only Coptic villagers under curfew since the Muslim assaults on Sunday. According to correspondent Mary Bassit of Copts United, The terrified villagers fear that being confined to their homes, while Muslims are free, might encourage Muslim fanatics to massacre them, especially with the bias of the security forces.

Lawyer Makkar Watany, who was detained with the 19 other Copts after Sunday's events, told Coptic News Bulletin on 6/23/09 that they were mistreated during police detention, with several Copts suffering broken limbs and wounds. "I was singled out as the police knew that I am a Coptic activist and have connections with the NGOs in Cairo. I was beaten by a junior office, in spite of being a lawyer." he said. "The other Coptic detainees told the police that they 'are ready to die as they have nothing more to lose.'"

Watany also expressed his fear of a massacre saying that the village presently finds itself in an uncanny situation. "There are approximately 1500 security policemen in a small village with 500 inhabitants, among which there are only 200 poor Coptic villagers. I refrain from even looking out of the window for fear of getting shot."

Human rights organizations and the media are prevented by security to enter Ezbet Boshra village; telephone and Internet lines are disconnected; cell phones are working sporadically.

On the popular El Mehwar' TV, the Governor of Beni Suef, Dr. Ezzat Abdulla bluntly said that "Christians need a permit before being allowed to pray to avoid friction." He stated in the interview that he is ready to give them (the Copts) another place far away to use for prayer.

"The problem is that it starts with a place, then it is turned into a church; we have a role in the selection of a praying place which will not cause friction," he said. It is worth noting that the disputed Coptic Diocese building is near a mosque. The interviewer, Motaz El Demerdash, asked the Governor why Copts have to request permission to pray while Muslims do not; the governor did not answer. Mr. Demerdash commented that the only way to stop this escalating sectarian tension is by the enactment of a unified law for building places of worship.

Less than 24 hours after the Governor's TV interview, the director of the local council, overturned the aired Governor's promise of finding the Copts a nearby suitable praying place, not further than 800 meters from the previous one.[...]

"What is heartbreaking is that the moment the local council director statement was announced, all Muslims were ecstatic and went out in the streets, dancing and chanting 'Come to Jihad' and the 'Cross is the enemy of God," said Watany who lives in the village, "with the security forces chanting along with them! The terrified Copts are confined to their homes, while Muslims are celebrating outside," he said...

Read it all here.

Neda Soltan's family 'forced out of home' by Iranian authorities

The family of the Iranian woman who was killed by Basij militia has been forced out of their home. From the Guardian:

The Iranian authorities have ordered the family of Neda Agha Soltan out of their Tehran home after shocking images of her death were circulated around the world.

Neighbours said that her family no longer lives in the four-floor apartment building on Meshkini Street, in eastern Tehran, having been forced to move since she was killed. The police did not hand the body back to her family, her funeral was cancelled, she was buried without letting her family know and the government banned mourning ceremonies at mosques, the neighbours said.

"We just know that they [the family] were forced to leave their flat," a neighbour said. The Guardian was unable to contact the family directly to confirm if they had been forced to leave.

The government is also accusing protesters of killing Soltan, describing her as a martyr of the Basij militia. Javan, a pro-government newspaper, has gone so far as to blame the recently expelled BBC correspondent, Jon Leyne, of hiring "thugs" to shoot her so he could make a documentary film.

Soltan was shot dead on Saturday evening near the scene of clashes between pro-government militias and demonstrators, turning her into a symbol of the Iranian protest movement. Barack Obama spoke of the "searing image" of Soltan's dying moments at his press conference yesterday.

Amid scenes of grief in the Soltan household with her father and mother screaming, neighbours not only from their building but from others in the area streamed out to protest at her death. But the police moved in quickly to quell any public displays of grief. They arrived as soon as they found out that a friend of Soltan had come to the family flat.

In accordance with Persian tradition, the family had put up a mourning announcement and attached a black banner to the building.

But the police took them down, refusing to allow the family to show any signs of mourning. The next day they were ordered to move out. Since then, neighbours have received suspicious calls warning them not to discuss her death with anyone and not to make any protest.

A tearful middle-aged woman who was an immediate neighbour said her family had not slept for days because of the oppressive presence of the Basij militia, out in force in the area harassing people since Soltan's death.

The area in front of Soltan's house was empty today. There was no sign of black cloths, banners or mourning. Secret police patrolled the street.

"We are trembling," one neighbour said. "We are still afraid. We haven't had a peaceful time in the last days, let alone her family. Nobody was allowed to console her family, they were alone, they were under arrest and their daughter was just killed. I can't imagine how painful it was for them. Her friends came to console her family but the police didn't let them in and forced them to disperse and arrested some of them. Neda's family were not even given a quite moment to grieve."

Another man said many would have turned up to show their sympathy had it not been for the police.

"In Iran, when someone dies, neighbours visit the family and will not let them stay alone for weeks but Neda's family was forced to be alone, otherwise the whole of Iran would gather here," he said. "The government is terrible, they are even accusing pro-Mousavi people of killing Neda and have just written in their websites that Neda is a Basiji (government militia) martyr. That's ridiculous – if that's true why don't they let her family hold any funeral or ceremonies? Since the election, you are not able to trust one word from the government." A shopkeeper said he had often met Soltan, who used to come to his store.

"She was a kind, innocent girl. She treated me well and I appreciated her behaviour. I was surprised when I found out that she was killed by the riot police. I knew she was a student as she mentioned that she was going to university. She always had a nice peaceful smile and now she has been sacrificed for the government's vote-rigging in the presidential election."

Three Yemenite Jewish Families Arrive on Aliyah

More Yemenite Jews fleeing Yemen due to persecution. From Israel National News:

Sixteen Yemenite Jews, including three families, arrived on aliyah (immigration to Israel) late Sunday afternoon at Ben-Gurion International Airport. The group is expected to spend the initial stage of absorption in Jewish Agency absorbtion centers.

The Jewish Agency asked not to divulge the identity of the olim (new immigrants) for fear of attacks against the families they left behind. On Sunday, a Muslim extremist was sentenced to death in Yemen for murdering a Jewish community leader. The extremist has called on Yemeni Jews to convert to Islam.

Former Gaza Policeman Petitions Court to Stay in Israel

Palestinian asks Israel for help. From Israel National News::

A former member of the Palestinian Authority (PA) police force in Gaza petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court on Sunday to issue an order requiring Israel to let him stay because he fears for his life if he is returned to the Hamas-controlled area. Another option is for him to be released to Judea or Samaria.

Ynet reports that the 24-year-old Gaza resident is scheduled to be released from an Israeli jail next week after serving time for illegal infiltration. He claims that his case has not been reviewed by a Defense Ministry committee that deals in PA residents who are threatened.

The petitioner claims he escaped from Hamas imprisonment, where he was placed after being attacked a number of times after Hamas took over Gaza from Fatah. He infiltrated with the aim of turning himself into Israeli authorities, after Hamas members shot him in the hand in October 2008.

Iran Says “Chastity” is Key to “Preventing Violence Against Women”

From the UN Watch's blog:

During today’s annual full day discussion on women’s human rights at the U.N. Human Rights Council, opinions clashed on the role of culture and religion in violations of women’s rights.

Mr. Philip Alston, U.N. expert on Extrajudicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions argued that these elements have wrongly been raised to justify killing women, particularly in cases of “honor killings” and executions of alleged witches. “We can’t neglect cultural complexities,” he said. “Culture must never be used to perpetuate gender inequality.”

Regarding honor killings, Alston argued that States bare responsibility when they fail “to take preventive action, prosecute and punish those responsible,” especially in countries where “500 or 1,000 women are killed every year and the State does nothing but point to legislation.” Alston also claimed that 1,000s of women are killed every year on the grounds that they are witches. “It’s clearly unacceptable for women to be killed on the basis of an allegation, which is never usually substantiated in any detail, that they are practicing the so-called crime of witchcraft,” he said.

Yet, later in the session, Iran expressed a different perspective, saying that “historical, cultural, and religious backgrounds should be taken into account” when it comes to determining violations of women’s rights. The Mullahs’ regime said that “the role of chastity” was key in “preventing violence against women.”

Click here to read more

Muslim Cleric: Pepsi is "Zionist Plot"

More nonsense from Muslim clerics:

Extremist Moslems have not dropped their allegations that Pepsi Cola is essentially the code name for a Zionist plot.

MEMRI has released an English transcript of an address given by a Muslim religious leader in Egypt this past February, in which he explains that PEPSI is actually an acronym for "Pay Every Penny to Save Israel."

In addition, a member of the Hamas terrorist organization’s parliament in Gaza made similar accusations against Pepsi last year. Speaking with official Hamas TV station Al-Aqsa TV on April 23, 2008, Hamas MP Salem Salamah said, “There are companies established by the colonialists and occupiers - large companies with branches all over the world, like Pepsi, Pepsi Cola. This is a well-known company. Pepsi is an acronym. P-E-P-S-I - Pay Every Pence to Save Israel. Pay every pence - pence is one-hundredth of a dollar – to save Israel. Pay every pence to save Israel…”

Al-Aqsa TV promotes terrorist activity and incites hatred of Jews and Israelis, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

More recently, this past February, Egyptian cleric Hazem Abu Ismail made a similar accusation. Speaking on Al Nas TV – a Muslim religious channel in Egypt that provides Islamic programming for Muslim Muftis – Abu Ismail all but called for a Muslim boycott of Pepsi because it stands for ‘Pay Every Penny Saving Israel.’ Abu Ismail said a penny is “one-thousandth of a dollar.”

Click here to read more.

Mostly Muslim Immigrants Make Up 37% of Italy Prison Population

From ANSAmed:

According to data provided by the ISMU Foundation, an independent and autonomous scientific body promoting studies, research, and initiatives on multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society, 37% of the prison population in Italy is made up of foreigners.

The group reports that almost 22,000 foreign inmates were counted in Italy's prisons at the beginning of 2009. Of these, 6,000 are awaiting trial. Inmates making appeals and claims total 7,000, while 8,000 have been sentenced. For the Italian population, 0.7 per 1,000 individuals are in prison, while there is an eightfold increase for foreigners in Italy, with 5.5 per 1,000 individuals in prison.

On January 1 2009, reports showed that the group with the most individuals in Italy's prisons are Moroccan nationals (4,700), followed by Romanians (2,700), Albanians (2,600), and Tunisians (2,500). For the Romanian population, the percentage of the population in prison is relatively low (3.5 per 1,000), while the Albanian population has a higher percentage (6.0 per 1,000), as well as Moroccans (11.8 per 1,000), and Tunisians (25 per 1,000).

Woman Raped in UAE Given Jail Time

An Australian woman was jailed for eight months in the United Arab Emirates for reporting that she was raped by three men after her drink was spiked in a hotel bar. The woman was given jail time not only for the rape, but for consuming alcohol which was sold in the bar of the hotel. Here's the story:

Amanda, interviewed on ABC radio this morning, said she was arrested after reporting her rape to police and later sentenced to 11 months' jail for having illicit sexual relations and one month for consumption of alcohol.

"I don't remember anything except for having that drink ... in one way that's a good thing but from what happened following, it's still an extremely traumatising,'' she said.

She was released five months ago after securing a royal pardon after serving eight months, and is now home in Australia.

She said the jails were overcrowded, inmates were often beaten and the water was frequently turned off.

Amanda said she had extensively researched the customs of the largely Muslim country before living there, but was not aware of the laws surrounding women and sex and drinking.

"It was such a glamorous lifestyle and at the moment there are so many Australians working over there,'' she said.

"It is a very glamourous lifestyle and you can make a lot of money but unfortunately there's the other side that people just aren't aware of.''

She said four high-ranking muslim men had to witness penetration to prove a rape charge, so women who reported rapes were typically seen as confessing to illicit sexual relations or prostitution.

"I can move on, and I'm working on that, part of my process is to help other people with awareness of what's going on and making changes,'' she said.

Amanda met with several state MPs this week to tell her story.

Amnesty International's Michael Hayworth said he sent a letter to United Arab Emirates officials, asking them to comply with United Nation's Women's Rights Conventions and remove discriminatory laws.

Read more here.

Two get 5-year jail for sending youths to Afghan jihad

Just five years for two Islamists who sent youths to commit acts of jihad. From the Arab Times:

KUWAIT CITY: The Criminal Court Wednesday found two Kuwaiti men guilty of recruiting youths to go to Afghanistan to fight the US forces in Kabul and sentenced them to five years in jail.

Case papers indicate the arresting officer’s investigations revealed the main accused, identified only as Abdullah E., worked for the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs and met the second accused, Mohammed A., inside a mosque in the suburb of Dhahr.

According to the arresting officer, the men are members of groups who consider the governments and rulers infidel....

Muslim countries lead in human trafficking

Israel National News reports that Muslim countries are leading in human trafficking:

Muslim countries in the Middle East and north-central Africa lead the world in human trafficking, according to a new U.S. State Department report. Of the 17 countries that were given the "Tier 3" listing reserved for the worst offenders, nine were Muslim countries or countries with a large Muslim population from these two regions. Tier 3 countries are defined as those “whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards" of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 and "are not making significant efforts to do so.”

The Middle Eastern countries with Tier 3 status are Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Syria. The north-central African countries are Mauritania, Chad, Sudan, Niger, and Eritrea, all of which have very large Muslim populations.

Radical Saudi Cleric Goes to Germany for Health Treatment

A Saudi cleric visits a hospital in Germany. This is the same cleric who calls for violence against non-Muslims. He apparently has no problem visiting one of those non-Muslim countries so that they can save his miserable life:

A prominent Saudi cleric who has extolled Osama bin Laden and preached violence against Shiites, Jews and Christians slipped quietly into Germany for medical treatment in April and even received police protection in the hospital before his departure last month, government and medical officials acknowledged Wednesday.

The disclosure has set off a fierce political debate here because the cleric’s diatribes are considered a crime in this country, where hate speech is illegal.

The cleric, Sheik Abdullah ibn al-Jebreen, believed to be in his mid-70s, is one of the most influential clerics in Saudi Arabia and a devotee of Wahhabism, a strict form of Islam. American and European counterterrorism officials say he has supported radical Islam and condoned violence against Jews and Christians. Some of his followers are under surveillance by the German intelligence services.

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Polish Muslims make demands

Under Islamic leadership, non-Muslims certainly don't have any right to practice their religion (or to not practice) unmolested by militant governments. Muslims have the right to practice their religion in Poland, but they want more. From Earth Times:

Warsaw - Polish Muslims want to change a 1936 law that requires them to pray for Poland and the country's president, Polish Radio reported Wednesday. The Muslim community also want days off for Islamic religious holidays, in the predominantly Catholic country, and to recognise weddings in mosques.

The current law requires all Polish Muslims to mention the Republic of Poland and the president during Friday prayers, and regulates relations between the state and the Muslim Religious Association.

"A Muslim religious wedding still doesn't have civil effects," said Pawel Borecki, of the Religious Law faculty at the University of Warsaw. "Followers of Islam also still do not have a guaranteed right to celebrate their holidays."

Poland's Foreign Ministry is currently working with Polish Muslims on a draft bill that will abolish the required prayer for Poland and change the legal status of the country's Muslims.

The new law would allow Muslims to take days off for religious holidays and would make a marriage in a mosque equal to a civil marriage, reported the broadcaster TVP Info.

Settlements of Poland's first Muslims date back to the 14th century, when Tatars made their home in the Poland-Lithuania Commonwealth and practiced Islam freely in exchange for military service.

Today most estimate there are some 30,000 Muslims in Poland including some 2,000 Tatars. Muslims make up less than 0.1 per cent of the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic population.

Italy: MP in court to defend herself against death 'fatwa'

Women's rights advocate is threatened with death by radical Muslims:

An Italian MP and Muslim women's rights activist was due to give evidence to a court on Thursday over death threats allegedly made against her in a 'fatwa' or religious edict. Souad Sbai, MP for the ruling conservative People of Freedom party, was due to attend the court in the northern Italian city of Bologna as witness.

"I am today in Bologna to defend myself against a death 'fatwa' issued against me, for which I had to live in fear for quite some time," said Sbai in an interview with Adnkronos International (AKI).

Akrane H., is accused of having issued the death threat in 2007 and accused Sbai of taking advantage of immigrants for personal gain.

"I call on God to act against you, in a way that he will expose you. You are a very bad woman, begin to pray to God, leave work for men.

"I have heard very bad things about you and you have thus been exposed as a 'massihia' (Christian)," Akrane wrote in a letter to Sbai.

The claim by Akrane is an accusation of apostasy, which under Islamic law calls for the death penalty, which can be carried out by any Muslim at any time.

Click here to read more.

Police arrest 'homosexuals' at party

Police in Saudi Arabia arrest suspected homosexuals. From Adnkronos:

Saudi Arabian police are reported to have arrested 71 foreigners accused of homosexuality in the capital Riyadh. According to a report in the Arab daily, al-Quds al-Arabi, police raided a party in the al-Manar district of the capital and arrested the group.

Several residents are reported to have notified police about people who were doing things that did "not conform" with Islamic sharia law.

When police arrived they reportedly found people wearing "indecent" clothes and conducting themselves in an "indecent" manner.

Seventy Filipinos and one Yemeni were arrested by police.

A few weeks ago police arrested 55 young men accused of homosexuality at a party at a farm in the Sihat area.

Homosexuality and cross-dressing are widely seen as immoral acts and are treated as serious crimes.

While the kingdom has faced criticism from human rights organisations, it insists that it always acts in accordance with Sunni Islamic law.

Rescue of Coptic Girl Causes Muslim Attacks

Police randomly arrest Copts as ploy to portray symmetry in ‘sectarian clash.’ Islamists are also upset a Coptic girl was rescued from Islamization and forced conversion. From Compass Direct News:

(Compass Direct News) – Egyptian news sources report security forces have wrongly detained two Christians for nearly a month as part of a ruse to cast a Muslim attack on Copts as “sectarian violence.”

Violence broke out last month in the village of Toma, near El-Mahalla El-Kubra in the middle of the Nile Delta, when local Muslims attacked Copts who had rescued Nermeen Mitry, 16; Muslims had kidnapped the Coptic girl and tried to convert her to Islam, according to Assyrian International News Agency (AINA).

Some 150 Muslims attacked five of Mitry’s family members as they drove home to their village following her rescue after the May 21 kidnapping. Police arrested 14 Muslims and 11 Copts. In the course of the violence, a carton recycling warehouse owned by her father was burned down.

Most of the perpetrators have been released, Copts said, while two Muslims and two randomly selected Copts are still detained – a ruse to disguise the one-sided nature of the attack and to keep both sides from causing further disturbances. Hany Haziz, a local watchmaker who participated in reconciliation meetings, asserted that the Minister of Interior ordered the detentions for 45 days to create a false sense of symmetrical “community strife,” according to Coptic News Bulletin.

Coptic activists concurred that the state uses arrests of Copts when Muslims instigate sectarian violence to create a false sense of equivalence.

“This was a balance game; the security services play this every single instance,” said Helmy Guirguis, president of the U.K. Coptic Association. “They must take an equal number, and sometimes they snatch people on the street.”

International and Egyptian news agencies quoted state security forces saying that Mitry was engaged to local Muslim youth Hossam Hamouda, and that their relationship resulted in fierce clashes in the village of 2,000 people.

In addition, a report on Thursday (June 11) from the Egyptian Association for Democracy included quotes from local Muslims who repeated the statements of state security forces. But the authors of the report were not allowed to interview Mitry’s sister.

Some Copts, however, said that Muslim residents of Toma were angry that the kidnapping and attempted forcible conversion of Mitry had failed, as the perpetrators stood to earn money from Islamic groups that pay substantial sums for such conversions.

“The Muslims were angry that the girl escaped Islamization,” an Egyptian journalist told Compass. “There is a lot of money involved in Islamization of Coptic girls, as much as thousands of U.S. dollars, funded mainly by Saudi Arabia and Gulf states.”

Read more here.

Man arrested for firebombing Yale power plant, says he did it for "Allah"

Here is an excerpt from the Yale Daily News:

Police arrested a West Haven man Friday night for, among other things, throwing a Molotov cocktail at Yale’s Central Power Plant on June 7. No one was hurt in the ensuing fire, which workers quickly extinguished.

Robert Thompson, 30, told police that he was glad about being arrested so he could tell them what he did.

According to news reports, Thompson told police that he was trying to “melt down” the plant, which is located next to Swing Space and actually happened to melt itself down last year. He explained that Allah told him to steal the fuel from a North Haven hobby store in order to carry out the firebombing.

Click here to read more.

Parcel bomb critically injures Christians in Pakistan

More gruesome persecution of Pakistani Christians:

A Christian colony was the subject of a parcel bomb blast in Pakistan in the latest of a series of incidents targeting the minuscule community.

According to a source, at least 10 Christians were injured when a parcel bomb exploded in Hasilpur, Bahawalpur district.

The injured, including four women and two children are said to be in a very critical condition.

Nazir S Bhatti, chief of Pakistan Christian Congress (PCC), condemned the heinous incident and said, "the news was not highlighted in media due to Christians being targets".

He said the Pakistan government censors such incidents to avoid international pressure and mounting human rights violations.

Even the presence of Christian internally displaced persons (IDPs) in refugee camps, he said, were not revealed for the same reason.

The incident comes close on the heels of a Christian man hacked to death for using a cup designated for Muslims.

Click here to read more from Christian Today.

Turkey: Iranian Refugee Beaten Because of His Faith

Convert to Christianity loses another job as co-workers learn he’s not Muslim:

(Compass Direct News) – Since Iranian native Nasser Ghorbani fled to Turkey seven years ago, he has been unable to keep a job for more than a year – eventually his co-workers would ask why he didn’t come to the mosque on Fridays, and one way or another they’d learn that he was a convert to Christianity. Soon thereafter he would be gone. Never had anyone gotten violent with him, however, until three weeks ago, when someone at his workplace in Istanbul hit him on the temple so hard he knocked him out. When he came back to his senses, Ghorbani was covered in dirt, and his left eye was swollen shut. It hurt to breathe; his whole body was in pain. He had no idea what had happened. “I’ve always had problems at work in Turkey because I’m a Christian, but never anything like this,” Ghorbani told Compass.

Taliban Kidnapping Children, Using them as Suicide Bombers

In yet another depraved action, the Taliban is using children they've kidnapped as suicide bombers. From the Kuwait News Agency:

Pakistani Federal Minister Monday said that militants were using kidnapped children as suicide bombers across the country.
Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik talking to newsmen here said that the militants were buying innocent children for few hundred thousand rupees and using them to carry out suicide attacks.

He further said that the militants are getting weapons and ammunition from Afghanistan, adding that the government of Pakistan has taken up the matter with Afghan President Hamid Karazai.

3 foreign women dead in Yemen, al-Qaida suspected

Al Qaeda in Yemen is suspected of massacring kidnapped victims:

Shepherds found the mutilated bodies on Monday of two German nurses and a South Korean teacher who were kidnapped while picnicking in an area of Yemen known as a hideout for al-Qaida.

Experts said the killings bore the hallmarks not of local tribesmen but of jihadist militants who had returned home after fighting in conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere.

The dead women disappeared in the remote northern province of Saada Friday while on an outing with six other foreigners, including a German doctor, his wife and their three young children. The whereabouts of the six were unknown, the Yemeni government said.

Yemeni authorities announced a state of high alert in the area and were "conducting extensive searches and investigations," according to a government statement. Besides the German family, a British man was also missing. They all worked for World Wide Services Foundation, a Dutch aid group helping with medical care in the province.

The incident is the latest attack against foreigners in this impoverished Arab nation on the tip of the Arabian peninsula where al-Qaida has a firm foothold in its remote areas.

The government blamed the kidnapping on a Shiite rebel group that has been leading an uprising in the province for the past several years, but the group denied it had anything to do with it. Initially, Yemeni security officials had reported all nine were killed, but the government later said six were still missing.

Nearly all past fatal attacks against foreigners in Yemen have been by Islamist militants.

Read more here.

Pakistan Taliban Threatens To Kill, Rape, Non Muslims

More threats from Islamists:

LAHORE, PAKISTAN (Worthy News)-- A loose Pakistan-based umbrella group of factions linked to the militant Taliban organization has threatened to kill or rape all non-Muslims to enslave their children and take away their properties, unless they meet tough conditions.

In a letter, seen by Worthy News Monday, June 15, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) said non-Muslims should “embrace Islam”, or pay an Islamic tax known as 'Jaziva Tax' [jizya] to Muslim rulers, or leave Pakistan “forever”, if they don't want to be harmed.

Click here to read more.

Kissing Couples Arrested in Kuwait

A kissing couple is considered a threat in Kuwait. From the Arab Times:

The security has arrested two Egyptians for committing immoral activities while driving on the 7th Ring Road. Sources said a concerned citizen who spotted the two “love birds”, who are music teachers in a very compromising manner in which they kiss each other openly inside a moving car called the Southern Road security command. The suspects have been referred to the Public Prosecution.

Pakistan Authorities “Attack” Christian Cemetery, Church

Pakistan continues to persecute its Christian minority:

Amid rising Islamic extremism, Pakistani Christians have demanded a halt to the destruction of a Christian cemetery in Punjab province and the return of a seized church in the provincial capital Lahore, BosNewsLife monitored Thursday, June 11.

Local authorities approved the recent bulldozing and digging up of Christian graves in the Pakistani city of Okara to build a recreational park there, said advocacy group All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA) and a Christian legislator.

Last month, Christians prevented further destruction and "the scattering of remains of Christians", by forcing workers of the regional Tehsil Municipal Authority (TMA) to leave their bulldozers and cranes behind, said APMA’s Okara Zone Chief Boaz Amir.

Amir and Punjab Christian legislator Tahir Naveed Chaudhary told BosNewsLife they condemned "the heinous crime committed by TMA and accomplices." They urged Okara Police to launch a criminal investigation against TMA staff and a Muslim legislator and private school owner who were allegedly involved in planning the recreational park on the Christian cemetery site.

Click here to read more.

Lawsuit Against CAIR for Fraud

Here is an excerpt from PR Newswire:

According to the complaint filed by former CAIR clients in November 2008, Goraya was directly involved in the fraud and cover-up. Goraya apparently resigned from CAIR sometime after the fraudulent scheme was fully underway and moved back to her home state of California. There she took a job as District Director for California State Senator Carol Liu. Goraya was served with the summons and complaint at Senator Liu's Glendale offices. She has until June 30th to file her response with the court.

The federal racketeering (or RICO) lawsuit was filed November 18, 2008 in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia by four former CAIR clients. The complaint alleges criminal fraud and racketeering against CAIR, a self-described Muslim public interest civil rights law firm. The lawsuit also names CAIR's national leadership, including Goraya, as individual defendants.

The lawsuit alleges that Morris Days, who served as the "Resident Attorney" and "Manager for Civil Rights" at the now defunct CAIR chapter in Herndon, Virginia, was in fact not an attorney and that he defrauded hundreds of CAIR clients by failing to provide legal services for which they had paid.

While attorney David Yerushalmi represents the four plaintiffs in this particular lawsuit, two of whom are African American Muslims, the complaint alleges that according to CAIR internal documents, there are hundreds of victims of the CAIR-Days fraud scheme.

According to the complaint, CAIR failed to conduct a background check on Days prior to hiring him and when they did discover his massive fraud, rather than inform their clients and authorities, they immediately set about to conspire with Days to continue the fraud and to cover it up. CAIR officials purposefully concealed the truth about Days from their clients, law enforcement, the Virginia and D.C. state bar associations, and the media. When CAIR began fielding irate calls from clients about Days' failure to provide competent legal services, CAIR fraudulently deceived their clients about Days' relationship to CAIR, suggesting he was never actually employed by CAIR, and even concealed the fact that CAIR finally fired him for criminal fraud.

Read it all here.