Jihadist who blew himself up on Saudi prince's private jet hid explosives in his anus

From Gulf Daily News:

Saudi Arabia has tightened security at oil facilities after the country's anti-terror chief, Deputy Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, escaped a suicide attack, guards at Abqaiq, the world's biggest oil processing plant, said yesterday.

"Thursday night we received a call to tighten security and car inspection at all gates," one guard said. "Even Aramco employees undergo inspection. There's a lack of trust as militants disguised in Aramco's cars attacked the facility in 2006," he said.

Interior Minister Prince Nayef yesterday defended the policy of enticing "repentant" militants after one tried to assassinate his son, but warned there could be more attacks ahead.

"The security efforts and strategy that the country is following will not change," Prince Nayef said in Jeddah. "This incident will not change this policy by which we open the door for those who repent."

Al Qaeda, meanwhile, claimed responsibility for the suicide attack and said that the bomber, Abdullah Hassan Taleh Al Asiri, had managed to pass security checkpoints and board a private aircraft, Site Intelligence said yesterday.

A statement posted on jihadist forums by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula said Al Asiri passed through checkpoints at Najran airport, near the Yemeni border, and Jeddah airport, the US monitoring service said.

He then boarded Prince Mohammed's private jet with his explosives, according to the statement, which said he finally blew himself up amongst the prince's guards. The site also published a picture of Asiri.

Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV said Asiri was a 23-year-old Saudi whose brother Ibrahim was also on the wanted list.

It said the attacker concealed the explosives in his anus, allowing him to evade detection.

The network also quoted an expert as saying that the method of concealment aimed the blast away from the target, while blowing the bomber to bits

Prince Nayef, believed to be 76, was appointed second deputy prime minister earlier this year, leaving him in charge of the country when King Abdullah and Crown Prince Sultan - who are both in their 80s - are abroad.

Prince Sultan has been out of the country since November because of unspecified illness and surgery.

King Abdullah has set up an "Allegiance Council" of senior princes to vote on future kings and their deputies.

According to analysts, the attack is expected to strengthen the position of Prince Nayef....

Hamas condemns Holocaust lessons

Of course fanatics will say that the Holocaust is studied in order to give "credit" to Israel. This is rubbish. But a little known fact is that the majority of Israelis are actually native Middle Easterners. Unlike America and Europe where many Jews are of European origin, the vast majority of Israelis are Middle Eastern Jews. They were driven out of their homes and became refugees, with the majority eventually fleeing to Israel. Holocaust studies is important in today's society considering the genocide in Rwanda and Sudan. However, the Holocaust is not the reason for Israel's creation in a inhabitable, arid region. Maybe the UN will teach Arab kids about the connection between Haj Amin al-Husseini (who provided troops for the Nazis) to Adolf Hitler.

From the BBC:

Gaza's ruling Islamist movement Hamas has resisted suggestions that Palestinian children should be taught about the Holocaust in UN-run schools.

The head of its education committee in Gaza, Abdul Rahman el-Jamal, told the BBC that the Holocaust was a "big lie".

He said that to teach it would be to "grant a big favour" to Israel, which has been fighting Hamas for years.

The UN, which runs most Gazan schools, recently asked local groups whether the Holocaust should be taught.

It uses local textbooks and, in Gaza, that means using material from neighbouring Egypt, the BBC's Tim Franks reports.

But over the past seven years the UN has added its own coursework about human rights.

Mr Jamal told the BBC that the UN should, instead, teach about the Naqba, the term Palestinians use to describe the establishment of the state of Israel and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees.

A spokesman for the UN said that no final decision on this year's curriculum had yet been made. Some 200,000 children are taught in schools run through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

During the Holocaust, Nazi Germany murdered some six million Jews.

However, the event's significance is often disputed in parts of the Middle East where Israel is seen as the enemy and the Holocaust is seen as a tool used by Israel to justify its actions.

'Islamization' of Pakistan Takes Toll on Christians

From crosswalk.com:

In Pakistan, months of violence at the hands of Taliban militants has left Christians on edge, humanitarian aid workers fearing for their safety and the Pashtun culture heavily damaged.

Observers say the stage was set for the violence when Pakistan's former dictator Zia ul-Haq, a militant Sunni, forced the "Islamization" of the country, aggressively pushing an intolerant form of Islam in the 1980s.

Years later, the country's citizens are witnessing a violent uptick in the effort as minorities are targeted as infidels and imams call for their killings.

Pakistani police arrested 13 suspected militants in two raids that they said foiled several terrorist attacks Aug. 24, including a plan to attack several places of worship in Punjab: Shiite mosques, churches belonging to Christians and a place of worship for a sect the government considers not Muslim, The New York Times reported.

The terrorists, with links to al-Qaida and the Taliban, were found with suicide vests and explosives along with heroin, which has been used to finance their terrorist activities. Also Monday, gunmen killed an Afghan television reporter and severely wounded another in northwestern Pakistan.

Recently in Gojra's Christian Colony, in rural Punjab, a Muslim mob heard a rumor that a Christian had desecrated a copy of the Koran, and more than 50 houses and a church were set on fire, leaving at least 14 Christians dead. The rumor later was found to be false....

Read it all here.

Lockerbie bomber: Jack Straw admits Government caved in to Libya

From the UK's Telegraph:

The Justice Secretary said that he originally wanted Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi omitted from the agreement, but then relented, deciding the bomber should be eligible.

He said that the Libyans deserved “something” in return for giving up their nuclear weapons programme, but vehemently denied striking a “backdoor deal” over Megrahi.

Shortly after the reversal of Britain’s stance, a multi-billion pound oil exploration agreement between Libya and BP was rubber-stamped.

Mr Straw insisted that the disclosures were a “red herring” as Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish justice minister, made the final decision on Megrahi’s release.

Alex Salmond, Scotland’s First Minister, stressed that Libya’s prisoner transfer agreement (PTA) application had been rejected, and the terminally ill bomber was freed on compassionate grounds.

However, Opposition parties increased their demands for a full inquiry into suspicions that the PTA was a “terrorist-for-trade” deal.

In a leaked letter from 2007, Mr Straw argued that it was in Britain’s “overwhelming interests” that Magrahi be eligible for return to Libya. In a BBC interview on Sunday, the Justice Secretary said that he originally wanted a “carve-out” for Megrahi in the PTA.

“The Libyans resisted this on the grounds that it was wholly unnecessary,” he said. “Yes, there were of course wider issues of relations with Libya. I gave instructions we should agree a PTA in standard form.”

Mr Straw said Britain forced Libya to give up its nuclear weapons programme in 2003, and “obviously, they had to have something for that”. “But the suggestion that at any stage there was some kind of backdoor deal done over Mr Megrahi’s transfer because of trade is simply untrue,” he said.

“All this, however, is academic as Mr Megrahi was not released under the PTA treaty but quite separately by the Scottish Executive on compassionate grounds.”

The son of the Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has claimed that Libya used trade as a bargaining chip for the bomber’s return during the PTA negotiations.

In a letter to Mr MacAskill, written in December 2007, Mr Straw said: “The wider negotiations with the Libyans are reaching a critical stage and, in view of the overwhelming interests for the United Kingdom, I have agreed that in this instance the [PTA] should be in the standard form and not mention any individual.” Six weeks after the PTA was agreed, Libya ratified a £15 billion deal with BP.

Edward Davey, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, said: “Labour ministers will not now escape the suspicion of a terrorist-for-trade deal unless they agree to the transparency of a full inquiry.”

David Lidington, a Tory foreign affairs spokesman, said: “We need a select committee inquiry so ministers and officials can be questioned about exactly what was said and done over relations with Libya.” Frank Duggan, of the Victims of Pan Am Flight 103 group, said: “If there was a direct connection with trade, particularly oil, then the connection is with Britain not with Scotland, and I think the Brits will have something to answer for.”

Shortly after the reversal of Britain’s stance, a multi-billion pound oil exploration agreement between Libya and BP was rubber-stamped.

Mr Straw insisted that the disclosures were a “red herring” as Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish justice minister, made the final decision on Megrahi’s release.

Alex Salmond, Scotland’s First Minister, stressed that Libya’s prisoner transfer agreement (PTA) application had been rejected, and the terminally ill bomber was freed on compassionate grounds.

However, Opposition parties increased their demands for a full inquiry into suspicions that the PTA was a “terrorist-for-trade” deal.

In a leaked letter from 2007, Mr Straw argued that it was in Britain’s “overwhelming interests” that Magrahi be eligible for return to Libya. In a BBC interview on Sunday, the Justice Secretary said that he originally wanted a “carve-out” for Megrahi in the PTA.

“The Libyans resisted this on the grounds that it was wholly unnecessary,” he said. “Yes, there were of course wider issues of relations with Libya. I gave instructions we should agree a PTA in standard form.”

Mr Straw said Britain forced Libya to give up its nuclear weapons programme in 2003, and “obviously, they had to have something for that”. “But the suggestion that at any stage there was some kind of backdoor deal done over Mr Megrahi’s transfer because of trade is simply untrue,” he said.

“All this, however, is academic as Mr Megrahi was not released under the PTA treaty but quite separately by the Scottish Executive on compassionate grounds.”

The son of the Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has claimed that Libya used trade as a bargaining chip for the bomber’s return during the PTA negotiations.

In a letter to Mr MacAskill, written in December 2007, Mr Straw said: “The wider negotiations with the Libyans are reaching a critical stage and, in view of the overwhelming interests for the United Kingdom, I have agreed that in this instance the [PTA] should be in the standard form and not mention any individual.” Six weeks after the PTA was agreed, Libya ratified a £15 billion deal with BP.

Edward Davey, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, said: “Labour ministers will not now escape the suspicion of a terrorist-for-trade deal unless they agree to the transparency of a full inquiry.”

David Lidington, a Tory foreign affairs spokesman, said: “We need a select committee inquiry so ministers and officials can be questioned about exactly what was said and done over relations with Libya.” Frank Duggan, of the Victims of Pan Am Flight 103 group, said: “If there was a direct connection with trade, particularly oil, then the connection is with Britain not with Scotland, and I think the Brits will have something to answer for.”

A 40-year-old Afghan farmer tries to recover after his nose and ears were cut off by Islamic fundamentalists as punishment for casting a vote

From Reuters:

Lal Mohammad, a 40-year-old Afghan farmer, was one of millions of people who defied Taliban threats against voters and set out to cast his ballot in this month's presidential election. But he soon regretted his defiance.

Fighters ambushed Mohammad as he was walking to a polling station and cut off part of his nose and his ears.

The Taliban vowed to disrupt the Aug. 20 vote, threatening reprisals against voters and staging scores of rocket attacks and several bombings across the country on election day.

The threats and violence failed to stop the election from taking place, but they do seem to have hurt turnout in some areas, especially the Taliban heartland in the south.

Mohammad, speaking haltingly in a hospital in the capital, Kabul, described how militants stopped and searched him while he was on his way to a polling booth.

They beat him with the butt of an assault rifle after they found his voting card.

Then they took out a knife.

"I saw one reaching my nose with a knife. I asked him to stop, but it was useless," Mohammad said.

Read the horrific story here.

Muslim woman told to remove scarf sues Mich. judge

As usual, a Muslim feels that they should receive preferential treatment and decides to capitalize from a perceived slight.

From the Star Telegram:

A Muslim woman on Wednesday sued a Michigan judge for telling her to remove her headscarf in his courtroom, claiming he violated her First Amendment right to practice her religion.

Raneen Albaghdady, 32, says she felt humiliated when Wayne County Circuit Judge William Callahan ordered her to remove her hijab at a June 16 hearing in his Detroit courtroom. The headscarf, which does not cover the face, is worn by many Muslims in the U.S.

"This is the country and the land of freedom, and we're not supposed to be treated like this for the scarf," the Dearborn Heights woman said at a news conference Wednesday at the Southfield headquarters of the Council on American-Islamic Relation's Michigan chapter, which joined in the federal lawsuit against Callahan and Wayne County.

A courtroom video of the hearing shows Albaghdady appearing before Callahan wearing a loose headscarf.

"No hats allowed in the courtroom," Callahan told her.

"This one?" she asked, touching her scarf. "Ah, OK. It doesn't matter."

Albaghdady pushed back her headscarf for the rest of the hearing on her request to change her name. Callahan denied the request on technical grounds.

"Judge Callahan and the court have the greatest respect for spiritual practices and all religious preferences," Callahan said in a statement released by the court. "Had he been informed that the head covering had some religious significance, the judge would have permitted Ms. Albaghdady to continue wearing it in court."

Albaghdady, a native of Iraq, said Wednesday she was intimidated by Callahan and feared she would be arrested if she refused to remove her hijab.

"I come from a country where you can't say no to a judge in a courtroom," she said.

Some Muslims believe Islamic law requires women to wear a headscarf, veil or burqa in the presence of a man who is not a close relative....

Indonesian teacher burns students in lesson on hell

In the hadith, Muhammad notes that the majority of dwellers in hell are women. Therefore this teacher's observations are no different from the norm of ultra-orthodox Muslims.

Muhammad said, "I was shown the Hell-fire and that the majority of its dwellers are women."

From the Times of India:

An Indonesian teacher has been suspended after she allegedly burned her students with matches to make a point that hell is much hotter than match fire, a media report said on Thursday.

The teacher at a junior high school in the West Java city of Bandung lit matchsticks and placed the flames close to her students' hands during an Islamic religious lesson Tuesday.

"She said hell was mostly occupied by women. That's why we were targeted," Detik.com quoted one of the students, Siti Nurjanah, as saying.

The teacher pressed the matchstick on the cheek of one of the students who blew the flame out because she was scared, the student reportedly said.

School principal Erik Sudeni said the teacher had been suspended pending an internal investigation.

Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim country with more than 85 percent of its 230 million people following Islam.

Medical advice on Libyan bomber 'in doubt'

A few days ago the Lockerbie bomber was freed from serving a life-sentence for his barbaric crime on "compassionate" grounds. Now the medical information which allowed this murderer to be freed is in doubt. From the Scotsman:

JUSTICE secretary Kenny MacAskill was last night under pressure to reveal more details of the medical evidence that led to the release of the Lockerbie bomber, after it emerged that only one doctor was willing to say Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi (pictured, left) had less than three months to live.

Labour and Conservative politicians have demanded the Scottish Government publish details of the doctor's expertise and qualifications, amid suggestions he or she may not have been a prostate cancer expert.

The parties have also raised questions over whether the doctor was employed by the Libyan government or Megrahi's legal team, which could have influenced the judgment.

The evidence provided by the doctor is crucial as compassionate release under Scots law requires that a prisoner has less than three months to live.

Doubts about Megrahi's life expectancy have already been raised by American relatives of the 270 victims of the bomb that blew up Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie on 21 December, 1988. But last night the Scottish Government said it would not publish details of the individual who gave the crucial advice.

Mr MacAskill has said he based his decision to release Megrahi on the opinions of a range of experts.

But this is contradicted by a decisive report sent to Mr MacAskill on 10 August.

While it noted that four prostate cancer specialists – two oncologists and two urologists – were consulted, the summary said: "Whether or not prognosis is more or less than three months, no specialist would be willing to say."

The report suggests that only one doctor was willing to support the claim that Megrahi had just weeks to live.

The medical report stated that the "less than three months to live" prognosis was: "In the opinion of Megrahi's (the name or title of the individual was then blanked out] … who has dealt with him prior to, during and following the diagnosis."

There was also a suggestion that Megrahi might not be as ill as had been claimed. The report said: "Clinicians who have assessed Mr Megrahi have commented on his relative lack of symptoms when considering the severity and stage of underlying disease."

And suggestions that the doctor who gave the prognosis may have been employed by the Libyan government emerged in the report's notes. It said that a professor from Libya had been involved in Megrahi's care and the medical officer who wrote the report had been "working with clinicians from Libya over the past ten months".

The report also said Megrahi met the conditions for early release, but fell short of making a specific recommendation.

Opposition parties claimed this left important question marks over the quality of the medical advice. They now want clarification on the doctor's expertise and qualifications, and whether he or she was employed by the NHS, the Libyans or Megrahi's legal team.

Last night a spokesman for the Conservatives said that the Scottish Government must now identify the doctor....

Read it all here.

Muslims banned from attending concert in Malaysia

From the Thaindian News:

(ANI): The Malay government has banned Muslims from attending a Black Eyed Peas concert because it has Irish beer giant Guinness as its sponsor.

The US hip-hop group are due to take to the stage near Kuala Lumpur on September 25 as part of global celebrations marking the 250th anniversary of Guinness’ flagship brewery in Dublin.

The gig’s official website reads “the party is only open to non-Muslims aged 18 years and above”, reports the Daily Express.

A Ministry of Information, Communication and Culture official explained that the show would have been completely scrapped under normal circumstances because government regulations forbid alcohol companies from sponsoring events.

Muslim man jailed in slaughter of Ramadan lamb

From the Chicago Sun Times:

A liquor store clerk arrested Sunday after he slaughtered a lamb in his North Park garage says he got pinched because police did not understand he had a good reason for having an SUV packed with livestock.

Abdulsalam Alawi, 38, was charged with four counts of possession of animals for slaughter, a city ordinance violation. Police responding to a neighbor's complaint found Alawi in his garage in the 3200 block of West Ardmore with four lambs. One of them was already dead.

Alawi says he can explain.

He was on his way home from a Canton, Wis., farm where he bought four live lambs for $400. He tied their hooves, packed them in his Suzuki SUV and was headed to a Chicago butcher shop where the animals would be slaughtered in accordance with Islamic law.

Alawi, a Muslim originally from Yemen, planned to give lamb meat as gifts to friends during Ramadan -- the Islamic holiday when believers fast and pray from sunrise to sundown every day for a month.

Before he could make it to the slaughterhouse, one of the lambs appeared to be near death, Alawi said. So he stopped at his apartment to give the beast some water to keep it alive until it could be properly butchered. A lamb cannot be dead before being butchered according to Islamic law, or Halal.

"I had to kill it before it died. If it dies you can't eat it. I'd have to just throw it away," Alawi said.

That's at least $100 worth of meat Alawi didn't want to lose. So he took out a sharp knife, slit the animal's throat and got ready to take the animals to the butcher shop.

That's when dozens of police cars showed up. "It was crazy," he said. "Like I killed someone."

Alawi spent the next eight hours in a police lockup. Alawi said he asked to be released from his handcuffs.

The officer who arrested him refused. She asked Alawi what it feels like to be "tied up like a lamb," Alawi said.

"I said, 'I am not a lamb ... I am a man, you know,' " Alawi said. "I tied up lamb, otherwise they move in car ... they can get away."

A police spokesman declined to comment.

Alawi is angry about how he was treated and how long police held him in custody. But what really has him steamed is that he's out $400 in tasty lamb meat.

"They not pets. It's meat. Good meat," he said.

The surviving lambs are currently being held by Animal Care and Control....

Saudi Arabia: Child Bride Turned Over to 80-Year-Old Husband

From ANSAmed:

A 10-year-old bride was returned last Sunday to her 80-year-old husband by her father who discovered her at the home of her aunt with whom she has been hiding for around 10 days. A Saudi local newspaper said the husband, who denies he is 80 in spite of claims by the girl's family, accused the aunt of meddling in his affairs.

"My marriage is not against Shariah. It included the elements of acceptance and response by the father of the bride," he said. He added that he had been engaged to his wifés elder sister and that this broke off as she wanted to continue with her education. "In light of this, her father offered his younger daughter. I was allowed to have a look at her according to Shariah and found her acceptable," he said.

Maatouq Al-Abdullah, a member of the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR), said there is no system in place regulating the marriage of young girls, something that he said results in adverse psychological, health and social effects. "Such marriages are considered a gross violation of charters on the rights of children, which the Kingdom has signed and which set the age of adulthood at 18," he added.

Pakistan Jails Christian Teenager for “Blasphemy”

From BosNewsLife:

A Pakistani Christian teenager was behind bars Wednesday, August 26, after being beaten on "false" charges of "blasphemy" and several Muslims have demanded a death sentence for him, his family and supporters, rights investigators said.

The group International Christian Concern (ICC) said 18-year-old Safian Masih, who lives in a mixed neighborhood of both Christians and Muslims, is held in a prison of the city of Gujranwala, in Pakistan's Punjab province. “His family has fled their home because they fear for their safety” after a mob “also threatened to kill anyone who helped Safian or his family,” ICC added.

ICC linked the imprisonment to an incident August 8 when the young daughter of one of his Muslim neighbors demanded that Safian bring her items from the grocery store. When Safian refused she reportedly slapped him, and the young man apparently slapped her back, escalating the argument to include both families.“

After the altercation, the girl’s parents allegedly accused Safian of trying to rape their daughter. "When other Muslims heard this, they gathered and severely beat him. After beating him, they submitted a report to the police accusing Safian of rape, and had him handed over to police custody and jail,” Christians said....

Read the full report here.

Cabinet Nominees Criticized In Iran

From the Washington Post:

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's decision to nominate three women as Iran's first female cabinet members since the 1979 Islamic revolution faced stiff criticism Saturday from clerics and lawmakers, as well as from women's rights activists.

Several prominent clerics said the move was counter to Islamic beliefs and urged parliament to reject the nominations.

"If a woman becomes minister, then she must constantly stay in contact with men and deputies, so she could not carry out her religious duties to the full," Ayatollah Yousef Tabatabaeinejad said during Friday prayers, according to the Khabaronline Web site. "We expect that the parliamentarians should keep their wits and prevent this heresy."

Women's rights activists, most of whom are based in the capital, said they doubted the nominees would work to give Iranian women the same rights as men.

"These women are just like him, only female," said activist Parvin Ardalan, referring to Ahmadinejad. "This is just an act to gain legitimacy among women."

Read it all here.

Christians accuse Nigerian state of complicity in murders

From Religious Intelligence:

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has accused the government of Northern Nigeria’s Borno State of complicity in the murders of 12 Christians by members of the ‘Nigerian Taliban’ the Boko Haram last week. Twenty churches, including Immanuel Anglican Church, Gamboru-Ngala in the Diocese of Maiduguri were destroyed in the uprising by members of the militant Muslim sect.

The security services put down the uprising after five days of fighting on Aug 6 after the sect’s leader Ustaz Muhammed Yusuf was killed while attempting to escape from the police. Approximately 700 people died in the clash.

However, the state and federal government was warned on July 21 by CAN that Boko Haram would be staging a coup, with the aim of establishing a strict Islamist state. The regional secretary of CAN Elder Saidu Dogo told a press conference on Aug 7 in Kaduna CAN leaders “alerted the appropriate security agencies, expressing their fears about the activities of the Islamic sect, but they were assured that the Christian community was not the target of the blood thirsty hoodlums.”

Fr Heladuwa John William, the Administrator of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Maiduguri reported that fears of violence were sparked by a Boko Haram rally on July 19 at the Maiduguri railway station.

Boko Haram, which means “Western education is a sin,” was founded in 2002 by Yusuf, and seeks to impose its strict interpretation of Sharia law across Nigeria. In a July 2009 BBC interview, Yusuf stated he opposed modern science and education as being antithetical to Islam.

The Daily Trust newspaper quoted him as saying he and his followers were ready to die in the quest for a pure Islamic state in Nigeria. “Democracy and [the] current system of education must be changed, otherwise this war that is yet to start would continue for long," he said.

In response to the concerns of local Christians, the governor of Borno, Modu Sheriff on July 25 promised CAN leaders their security would be guaranteed and urged citizens “to go about their normal duties.” The next day “at about 11 pm, Christians and their churches were attacked by the Islamic fundamentalists as they set our churches and vehicles ablaze,” Dogo said.

Boko Haram also attacked police stations and government offices, seeking to ignite a jihad against the government. In the violence that ensued which quickly spread across four northeastern Nigerian states, 12 Christians were seized by Boko Haram and commanded to renounce their faith and convert to Islam. When they refused, nine laymen and three Evangelical ministers: Pastor Sabo Yakubu, the Rev Sylvester Akpan and the Rev George Orji, were beheaded.

At the Kaduna press conference, Dogo urged the government to reject Muslim demands for Sharia law. Where Sharia law had already been implemented the “fundamental rights of Christians were being violated by the Sharia enforcement committees,” the Hisba, he said.

The Hisba had been given free reign by some state governments to persecute the Christian minority, Dogo said, called upon the country’s “National Assembly to act fast on this issue of Sharia before other fundamentalists plunge Nigeria into more serious trouble.”

Dogo appealed “to all Christians to be their brothers’ keepers, by assisting all those innocent people who have been displaced in Maiduguri with relief materials and food items” and asked for prayers for “peace and stability in Nigeria”.

IRAN: Officials blame alleged rape victim for his own jailhouse attack

From the Los Angeles Times:

Iranian officials interviewed an alleged victim of jailhouse rape at the hands of security personnel. But instead of consoling him, they asked him embarrassing questions and blamed him for the violence.

They said it was the young man's own fault for protesting the results of Iran's June 12 presidential elections, according to a fresh account of the alleged rape published on the website of a prominent reformist politician.

"I asked them why I and others were raped in prison," the young man says he asked two interrogators and a judge who had agreed to hear his story, according to the website of former parliamentary speaker Mehdi Karroubi.

One of the three replied, "'When the supreme leader confirmed the election result, everyone should have recognized it."

The young man's tale of rape, the latest in a series of gruesome stories emerging from Iran's detention centers, was published today on the website of Karroubi's political party, Etemad Melli. (The website is in Persian.)

The young man said he was raped by guards after being locked up in Tehran's now notorious Kahrizak detention center.

He said he was at first humiliated by the experience and suicidal, but was consoled by Karroubi, a cleric, who helped him regain his composure and self-esteem.

"He devoted himself like a psychiatrist to me to convince me that I was innocent," he said, according to the account. "He cited religious examples, and I was finally convinced that when someone is raped with his hands and feet tied is not a sinner and is on the contrary an oppressed."

On July 24, the alleged victim met with an official at the chief prosecutor's office, whom he described as respectful and sympathetic.

About four weeks later, the judge and two interrogators began cross-examining him, asking him to write down everything that had happened. They asked him embarrassing questions about the extent of penetration, and whether he enjoyed being raped.

But he said they appeared less interested in who the perpetrators were than why he went to Karroubi for help.

Karroubi's website described the young man's account as the first of other statements that might be published in coming days.

Iranian man to be stoned to death

From the UK's Telegraph:

Naghi Ahmadi was sentenced to death by stoning in June last year in the northern city of Sari, after he visited a married woman's home in the night while her husband was away working in another city, the Sarmayeh newspaper reported.

According to Ahmadi's lawyer, the verdict was declared after the woman and his client confessed to their adultery. The report did not explain why the woman was not convicted.

A year ago the judiciary said it would scrap the punishment in Iran's new Islamic penal code.

The outlines of the moratorium have been adopted by the Tehran parliament but are yet to be debated by its members.

In a similar case in February, Abdollah Farivar was hanged in Sari after being sentenced to death by stoning following his conviction for having illicit relations with a teenage girl.

Capital offences in Iran include murder, rape, armed robbery, apostasy, blasphemy, serious drug trafficking, repeated sodomy, adultery, prostitution, treason and espionage.

Under Iran's existing law, adultery is still punishable by stoning, which involves the hurling of stones in public at a partially buried convict. A man is buried up to his waist and a woman up to her shoulders.

Convicts are spared if they can free themselves.

Stoning has drawn international condemnation, with the United Nations and the European Union calling on Iran to abolish the sentence. Iranian human rights campaigners have also urged the Islamic republic to stop the punishment.

179 Acid Attacks Against Women in Bangladesh in a 2008

From ABC in Australia:

Fozila was attacked because she refused a marriage proposal. Hasina was set upon after an argument over a bucket of water. Two women in the seething Bangladesh capital Dhaka whose lives changed in a blinding flash. They were attacked with acid.

Last year in Bangladesh there were 179 recorded cases of acid attacks. Hydrochloric and nitric acid are cheap and readily available - used by the gallon in the grimy jewellery workshops in the backstreets of the city. In the wrong hands though, it can be devastating. Eating quickly through skin and bone and doing irreparable damage. The victims are targeted usually over land disputes or spurned advances.

And while women are the main targets of a despicable crime, children – even babies – are also often in the line of fire, attacked for being born female or boys splashed with acid because of petty inter-family jealousy.

In a powerful and confronting report South Asia correspondent Sally Sara investigates acid attacks in Bangladesh and asks what’s being done to arrest this shameful phenomenon.

Sara discovers Bangladesh is trying to reform itself. Police have been told to crack down on the acid throwers, and the death penalty has been introduced. The message is that these attacks should no longer be considered just family business.

‘Our face is our identity. When it is changed our whole identity is changed.
Women and girls are so cheap in this society, so men can destroy them’....

Read it all here.

Hamas executing its rivals in Gaza

Interesting how the international community has very little to say about Muslim on Muslim violence. From the J-Post:

Two Israeli television stations on Monday night broadcast a video showing Hamas forces "executing" Gaza rebels linked to al-Qaida during an armed confrontation earlier this month.

The video of the August 15 clash shows what appear to be black-clad Hamas gunmen shooting at rebels pinned in a mosque courtyard in a fierce exchange of fire.

In two scenes, Hamas gunmen appeared to be executing captives by shooting them at close range.

At least 24 people were killed in the daylong standoff in Rafah. Hamas forces surrounded a stronghold of Jund Ansar Allah, an extremist group that claims to be inspired by al-Qaida and charges that the Hamas is too liberal.

In the video, bodies are seen falling to the ground during the firefight. In one scene, a group of Jund Ansar Allah captives stand motionless against a wall a few meters away.

Channel 10 and Channel 2 said the blurred, jumpy video was taken by cellphone from across the street. Channel 2 said Hamas rival Fatah distributed the video. Channel 10 also broadcast a recording of what it said was the Hamas military communication channel, ordering Hamas forces to "execute everyone."

There was no immediate comment from Hamas officials.

Burqa-clad man armed with gun and axe steals £150,000 designer watches

Not the first time a burka was used as a disguise. It won't be the last either. From the Daily Mail:

Police are searching for a burkha-clad man who helped steal designer watches worth £150,000 in an armed robbery today.

The man and two accomplices, armed with a handgun and an axe, burst into Michael Jones Jewellers on the High Street in Banbury, Oxfordshire, at about 2.20pm.

They threatened four members of staff, a man and three women, with their weapons before making off with Rolex, Cartier and Breitling watches.

A man was waiting outside for the three suspects in a black Audi, which was later found abandoned.

Staff at the shop told police the offenders, including the one wearing the burkha, were all male.

The other two were wearing dark clothing and had their faces covered. All are thought to be Asian.

Detective Inspector Steve Duffy, leading the investigation, said: 'Thankfully, nobody was injured during the robbery but obviously the staff have been left very shaken by what has happened.

'The getaway car was found abandoned shortly before 2.45pm in Western Crescent in the Hightown Road area of Banbury.

'I appeal to anyone who was in Banbury town centre today and has any information, however insignificant you think it may be, to contact police immediately.'

No one at the shop, which also has two branches in Northampton, was available for comment this afternoon.

Anyone with information should call Det Insp Duffy via the Thames Valley Police enquiry centre on 0845 8 505 505.

Muslim extremists kill convert from Islam

From Compass Direct News:

Muslim extremists seeking evidence that a Somali man had converted from Islam to Christianity shot him dead Tuesday morning (Aug. 18) near the Somali border with Kenya, according to underground Christians in the war-torn nation. Al Shabaab rebels killed 41-year-old Ahmed Matan in Bulahawa, Somalia, according to Abdikadir Abdi Ismael, a former leader of a secret Christian fellowship in Somalia to which Matan belonged. Matan had been a member of the underground church since 2001. The early morning shooting comes at a time when Islamist groups led by al Shabaab are hunting down converts to Christianity as they seek to establish sharia (Islamic law) throughout Somalia. Ismael, who fled the area in 2005, said he received a telephone call from Matan two weeks ago in which the convert told him that monitoring by the Islamic extremists kept him from leaving his home and carrying out his small-trade business across the border in Mandera, in eastern Kenya. “I am afraid for my life – the al Shabaab want to get a proof that I follow the Christian faith,” Matan told Ismael. “They have not been seeing me in the mosque and seem to have realized that I am not part of them.”

Man kills wife, daughter and niece for 'illicit relationships'

From The News of Pakistan:

A man killed his wife, daughter, and niece on suspicion of loose character in the Surjani Town police limits.

The bullet-riddled bodies of Wazeeraan Bibi, 40, her daughter Asma, 17, and niece, Asiya, 18, bearing marks of physical torture, were found from Surjani Town police limits. The SHO Surjani Town, Mohammed Ghayoor, said that the incident was reported in a house situated near a Buffalo stockyard in Abdul Rahim Goth of Surjani Town and the triple murder was committed by Abdul Rasheed.

According to investigators, women’s screams were heard from Rasheed’s house around 9:30 am Sunday morning. Later, they heard gunfire and then accused Abdul Rasheed fleeing.

The residents of the neighbourhood called the police who entered the house, found the bodies of Wazeeran, Asma and Asiya, and shifted them to a hospital. In the meantime, Wazeeran’s young son, Qasim, informed his paternal uncle, Manzoor Ahmed, about the murders that Rashid had committed. Ahmed told the police that his brother had a criminal record and use to beat his wife and daughter, accusing them of illicit relations with other men.

Two children recovered: The Motorway Police N-5 South Zone foiled a kidnapping bid and recovered two children from a bus coming from Muzaffarabad to Karachi and arrested one accused.

The Motorway Police said that they received a call from a bus driver that one suspect was travelling along with two unconscious children in a bus (LWC-1444), and it seemed that the children had been abducted by the suspect.

The bus was intercepted and the motorway police recovered 13-year-old Fayaz Ahmed and eight-year-old Mohammed Qasim as well as accused Naeemullah. The accused, who is from Mianwali, confessed that he had kidnapped the boys from Lahore to use them for begging or other purposes. He was handed over to the local police of Karachi for investigation. The families of the abducted children were contacted who told the Motorway Police that the children were missing since Saturday night.

Three dead in Pakistan city suicide blast

From the Agence France Presse, via the Khaleej Times:

Three passers-by were killed and 15 injured Sunday in a suicide bombing in Pakistan’s northwest city of Peshawar triggered by an apparent feud between rival militant groups, police said.

The attacker blew himself up outside the home of a brother of Mubeen Afridi, spokesman for Taleban-linked extremist group Ansar-ul-Islam, who was killed in a remote-controlled blast on Saturday night.

Sunday’s blast struck the residential neighbourhood of Momin in the centre of Peshawar, a hub of militant activity.

‘There was a man who came in Momin town and opened fire on a house,’ senior Peshawar police official Sefwat Ghayour told AFP.

‘There was retaliatory fire from the house, and in the cross-fire, the suicide bomber blew himself up. In the suicide blast, two ladies and one man were killed and 15 are injured. Among the 15 injured, four are children.’

Police officials said that the dead and injured were passers-by, with no one in the targeted home killed.

Afridi was killed along with his driver on Saturday when a remote-controlled bomb exploded in a car in Peshawar.

Police said they suspected rival militant group Lashkar-e-Islam was behind that bombing. Both groups operate out of the lawless Khyber tribal district which sits between Peshawar and the Afghan border.

Last year, the government launched a major operation against militant groups in Khyber after the rebels threatened to take over Peshawar, and the offensive sent their leaders running into the mountains bordering Afghanistan.

Pakistan has been beset by militant attacks over the past two years which have killed more than 2,000 people.

Peshawar is a frequent target, with at least nine people killed in a suicide attack on the five-star Pearl Continental hotel in early June.

There has been a lull in bombings, however, since the reported death on August 5 of Pakistan Taleban chief Baitullah Mehsud, and officials say there is intense infighting among the militants over who will succeed him.

Two Brothers Forced to Move By Muslims in the Netherlands

From Gay and Right:

The Amsterdam neighborhood Ymere, two brothers forced to move because their Muslim neighbor them a gay couple looketh and violence was threatened.

In late July the two men were at loggerheads with their neighbors. "Dirty gay people," said the man using one of the (heterosexual) brothers, "I take you off."

When he asked the man what exactly was going on, he came with a knife on him. When they wanted further explanation, the man returned to his home to its own words to get a gun. Then the brothers were abscond.

Thousands of Muslims Protest Women's Rights in Mali

From BBC:

Tens of thousands of people in Mali's capital, Bamako, have been protesting against a new law which gives women equal rights in marriage.

The law, passed earlier this month, also strengthens inheritance rights for women and children born out of wedlock.

The head of a Muslim women's association says only a minority of Malian women - "the intellectuals" as she put it - supports the law.

Several other protests have taken place in other parts of the country.

The law was adopted by the Malian parliament at the beginning of August, and has yet to be signed into force by the president.

One of the most contentious issues in the new legislation is that women are no longer required to obey their husbands.

Hadja Sapiato Dembele of the National Union of Muslim Women's Associations said the law goes against Islamic principles.

"We have to stick to the Koran," Ms Dembele told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme. "A man must protect his wife, a wife must obey her husband."

"It's a tiny minority of women here that wants this new law - the intellectuals. The poor and illiterate women of this country - the real Muslims - are against it," she added.

Muslim on Muslim Violence in Gaza

This time Jews aren't the targets of suicide bombers because the violence is Muslim on Muslim. From ANSAmed:

Suicide bombers have made a reappearance, but this time Palestinians are the ones to pay the price.

Sources in Gaza have reported that during the bloody clashes which broke out on Friday in Rafah (in the southern part of the Gaza Strip) between Hamas militants and fighters from the ultra-radical Salafite group Jund Ansar Allah ('God's Warriors'), allied with Al-Qaeda, the latter group made use of two suicide bombers. In the battle - the worst since Hamas took control of Gaza from its rival, Fatah, two years ago - and the subsequent hunting down of the Islamic extremists, 22 were killed - including five civilians and six Hamas militants - and over 120 injured.

According to ANSA sources, during the battle it was allegedly a suicide bomber who blew himself up before being able to strike against Hamas (Abu Abdallah al-Suri, a pro-Al-Qaeda militant who had escaped from Syria to Gaza) to kill the Jund Ansar Allah leader Abdelatif Mussa, a doctor-turned- Islamic preacher. Hamas sources instead say that Mussa chose to blow himself up along with some of his followers in his own home instead of giving himself up. The second suicide bomber was reportedly a Palestinian named Abdallah Awadallah, who was attempting to kill Hamas members but did not succeed.

Before the clashes began, Mussa gave rise to Hamas's fury in a Rafah mosque by proclaiming the establishment of an Islamic emirate and accusing Hamas of weakness in the application of Islamic laws, as well as acting in the manner of a secular government. Hamas reacted ruthlessly to what it saw as a challenge to its authority in the Gaza Strip. Militants surrounded the mosque where Abdelatif and his followers were, about a hundred of whom were armed, and ordered that they give themselves up. Instead, a battle broke out which continued for hours with much use of heavy weaponry, including machine guns and rockets. Rafah inhabitants spoke of a "day of horror".

The Palestinian organisation for human rights in Gaza Al-Dameer has requested a thorough inquiry and accused Hamas of using excessive force. Taher An-Nunu, spokesman in the de facto government of Hamas, said that Jund Ansar Allah was responsible for a series of attacks using explosives on internet cafes, restaurants, hairdressers and Western meeting places. Hamas, which prevented the press from closely following the battle and conducting interviews in hospitals, said that it would not tolerate the presence of rival Islamic groups and that it would use harsh measures to prevent any such groups constituting themselves.

According to Hamas, Jund Ansar Allah was also supported by other Arab regimes and elements connected with the secret services of the Palestinian Authority under Mahmoud Abbas. In Ramallah, the latter denied any such involvement.

A man killed his wife and a relative in the name of honour killing

From the Daily Times of Pakistan:

The slum where this incident took place is located near Bismillah Chowk, Labour Colony within the limits of Sukkhun police station. The victims were identified as Raheela, 38, wife of Lal Mohammad and Ajmal, 40, son of Abdul Rehman.

DSP Abdul Jabbar Qaimkhani said that Lal is a transporter by profession and had seven children from Raheela while Ajmal was their relative and used to drive Lal’s bus.

He said that Ajmal was a married man but he and Raheela had developed illicit relations. The victims had eloped two days before the incident took place. On Saturday, Raheela’s husband along with his brother Abdullah and nephew Saifullah got hold of the deceased and injured them with axes and other objects. “Ajmal died on the spot while Raheela died after sustaining severe injuries at a hospital. All three culprits managed to flee but we are in contact with their relatives in order to arrest them,” the DSP explained.

Woman Arrested for Chewing Gum During Ramadan

From the Arab Times:

A woman was arrested on the first day of Ramadan for breaking her fast by chewing gum.

According to sources, security officers from the Hawalli governorate spotted the woman chewing gum at 5:30 am while they were on patrol duty. When they questioned her about the act, she said she had the personal freedom to do as she pleased.

She was referred to the authorities and a case was registered....

Taliban cut off fingers of Afghan voters

From CNN:

Making good on a threat of election day violence, the Taliban sliced off the index fingers of at least two people in Kandahar province, according to a vote monitoring group.

After they cast their ballots, the fingers of Afghan voters are stained with ink to prevent them from voting multiple times. The fingers of the two women in Kandahar, a stronghold of the Taliban, were cut off because they voted, said Nader Naderi of the Free and Fair Election Foundation.

The Taliban had vowed to disrupt Thursday's election and the risk was too great for some Afghans to venture out, especially in the southern provinces that form the heartland of the radical Islamist group.

Just days ahead of the election, U.S. Marines and other NATO forces carried out military operations to clear and hold sectors that have long been in the Taliban grip, and free up the population to vote.

Sporadic attacks on election day killed 26 people and injured scores more. Still, Afghan officials hailed the voting as a success.

On Friday, the European Union echoed those sentiments and congratulated Afghanistan for holding elections under what it called challenging circumstances.

"While deploring the loss of life, we believe that the security measures successfully prevented any major disruptions of the elections," the E.U. said in a statement.

Preliminary results will be announced on a piecemeal basis from Tuesday to September 5, according to the Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan....

Read the full report here.

An overdraft? That'll be £200 at Lloyds TSB (but only £15 if you're a Muslim)

This isn't the fault of Muslims. It's the fault of the UK bank which gives preferential treatment to some over others because of their religion. From the Daily Mail:

Many Lloyds TSB customers are being hit with charges of up to £200 a month if they go into the red - while Muslims who use the bank are only being charged £15.

The part-nationalised bank has been accused of religious discrimination over the disparity between overdraft charges on its standard current account and its Islamic account.

The Islamic account was set up by the high street bank to attract Muslim customers by allowing them to keep faithful to their religion.

Sharia law does not permit the payment of interest so the 'typical' Islamic account at Lloyds TSB has been set up without an overdraft facility.
If a Muslim customer who has insufficient funds in the account tries to make a payment, it is blocked and a 'return item fee' is charged.

However, on some Islamic accounts such a payment is authorised and an 'unplanned overdraft fee' of £15 is then levied.

The bank says this is a management fee, not a payment of interest, so does not contradict Sharia law.

Meanwhile, customers with standard current accounts who go into the red by at least £100 without authorisation are hit with an 'unplanned overdraft fee' of £20 a day for a maximum of ten days. This could mean a customer has to pay £200 in one month.

The Islamic account is available to all customers at Lloyds TSB. In theory, anyone who does not need a permanent overdraft facility could switch to this account to avoid being hit by interest charges for going into the red.

The disparity between the two accounts emerged after the bank sent its customers a booklet this month explaining its charges....

Read it all here.

Islamist Militants Restrict Somali Wedding Celebrations

From Turkish Weekly:

In a typical Somali wedding, women wear brightly colored gowns, gold jewelry and elaborate hairstyles. They dance with men to the tunes of Somali love songs, performed by a vocalist and a pianist.

But in recent months, traditional wedding celebrations have been banned. Islamist groups have seized control in several parts of Somalia and say the restrictions are in line with the teachings of Islam.

Music and dancing are no longer allowed. The groups say Islam forbids the mingling of women and men. Somali Islamist militants carry their weapons as they patrol the streets of northern Mogadishu

Convoys carrying family and friends of the couple have also been banned, . The Islamists allow only three cars at a wedding and check to make sure the vehicles are carrying only the immediate families of the couple.

Islamist militant groups are adamant about imposing Islamic Sharia law in Somalia and banning any form of entertainment they deem to be un-Islamic.

No dancing, no music

Hussein Yusuf Anabore a long time wedding planner remembers how weddings used to be elaborate....

Read it all here.

Iranian boy who defied Tehran hardliners tells of prison rape ordeal

This is a horrific account about the mistreatment of a 15-year-old in Iranian prison. It is interesting to note that while the U.S. clearly condemned the incident at Abu Ghraib which is not reflective of the U.S. military, the Islamists thrive on this kind of abuse of innocent people. From the Times Online:

The 15-year-old boy sits weeping in a safehouse in central Iran, broken in body and spirit. Reza will not go outside — he is terrified of being left alone. He says he wants to end his life and it is not hard to understand why: for daring to wear the green wristband of Iran’s opposition he was locked up for 20 days, beaten, raped repeatedly and subjected to the Abu Ghraib-style sexual humiliations and abuse for which the Iranian regime denounced the United States.

“My life is over. I don’t think I can ever recover,” he said, as he recounted his experiences to The Times — on condition that his identity not be revealed. A doctor who is treating him, at great risk to herself, confirmed that he is suicidal, and bears the appalling injuries consistent with his story. The family is desperate, and is exploring ways of fleeing Iran.

Reza is living proof of the charges levelled by Mehdi Karoubi, one of the opposition’s leaders, that prison officials are systematically raping both male and female detainees to break their wills. The regime has accused Mr Karoubi of helping Iran’s enemies by spreading lies and has threatened to arrest him.

The boy’s treatment also shows just how far a regime that claims to champion Islamic values is prepared to go to suppress millions of its own citizens who claim that President Ahmadinejad’s re-election was rigged.

Reza’s ordeal began in mid-July when he was arrested with about 40 other teenagers during an opposition demonstration in a large provincial city. Most were too young even to have voted. They were taken to what he believes was a Basiji militia base where they were blindfolded, stripped to their underwear, whipped with cables and then locked in a steel shipping container. That first night Reza was singled out by three men in plain clothes who had masqueraded as prisoners. As the other boys watched, they pushed him to the ground. One held his head down, another sat on his back and the third urinated on him before raping him.

“They were telling us they were doing this for God, and who did we think we were that we could demonstrate,” Reza said. The men told the other boys they would receive the same treatment if they did not co-operate when interrogated the next day.

Reza was then taken outside, tied to a metal pole and left there all night. The next morning one of the men returned. He asked whether Reza had learnt his lesson. “I was angry. I spat in his face and began cursing him. He elbowed me in the face a couple of times and slapped me.” Twenty minutes later, he says, the man returned with a bag full of excrement, shoved it in Reza’s face and threatened to make him eat it.

Reza was later taken to an interrogation room where he told his questioner he had been raped. “I made a mistake. He sounded kind, but my eyes were blindfolded. He said he would go look into it and I was hopeful,” Reza said.

Instead, the interrogator ordered Reza to be tied up and raped him again, saying: “This time I’ll do it, so you’ll learn not to tell these tales anywhere else. You deserve what’s coming to you. You guys should be raped until you die.”

He was subjected to further brutal sexual abuse — and locked up for three days of solitary confinement.

Reza was then forced to sign a “confession” in which he said that foreign forces had told him and his friends to burn banks and state media buildings. He was told to identify as the ringleader a 16-year-old friend who had been so badly beaten that he was in hospital.

“I was shaking so much I couldn’t even hear what they were saying,” said Reza. “I just signed whatever they put in front of me without looking at it. I was scared they would rape me again.”

The next day Reza and other detainees were transferred to a police detention centre, where he was held for a further week.

On the third day, police officers entered the cell in the middle of the night, blindfolded him and led him to the toilet, where he was again raped. “My hands began shaking, my legs were weak and I couldn’t stand up properly. I fell down and smashed my head hard on the ground to try and kill myself. I started screaming and shouting for them to kill me. I just couldn’t bear it anymore. I hated myself,” he said, weeping at the memory.

The following morning he was summoned by a police commander, who asked why he had been screaming the previous night. When he explained, he was asked to identify his rapist. The boy said he had been blindfolded, so the chief commander hit him and accused him of lying. He was forced to sign a letter admitting he had made baseless accusations against the security forces.

Reza’s ordeal was far from over. He was taken with about 130 other prisoners to the city’s Revolutionary Court, where they were herded into a yard. The judge told them that he would hang those who had violently resisted the Islamic revolution and read out the names of ten teenagers, including Reza. The message was clear: if they continued to say they had been raped they would be executed.

The judge sent them to the city’s central prison, where Reza was handcuffed and held in a small cell with six other boys for ten more days. In the evenings officers beat the boys and taunted them with the words: “You want to cause a revolution?.

Periodically, the most senior officer would take the boys away, three at a time. “When they returned they would be very quiet and uneasy,” Reza said. When his turn came he and the others were led into a small room and ordered to strip and have sex with each other. “He told us that with this we would be cleansed — we would be so shattered that we would no longer be able to look at each other. This would help calm us down.”

After 20 days Reza’s family finally secured his release on bail of about £45,000 — and with a final warning that he should say nothing about his treatment. His brother said: “A friend of mine who is a guard in the prison where Reza was being held had told me he was ill. The night he was released he was crying uncontrollably; then he broke down and told my mother everything.”

The family persuaded a hospital doctor they knew to treat him, despite the danger to herself. She has treated his physical injuries and given him antibiotics and sedatives but cannot perform an internal examination. Reza is deeply traumatised, terrified of being returned to prison and barely sleeps....

Read it all here.

Two Egyptian Christians Imprisoned After Reporting Attack

From Compass Direct News, via the Assyrian International News Agency:

Two Coptic Christians in Egypt have been arrested and are being held without charge after reporting to police they had been beaten by a mob, an attorney for the men said yesterday. On the evening of July 31, Reda Hnein, 35, his brother Nagi Hnein Fawzi, 27, and their uncle Youssef Fawzi Iskandar, 58, all Coptic farmers, were leading a cow down a road in the village of Al-Fashn when two Muslim men riding a motorbike crashed into the cow. An argument ensued, and a mob of about 10 other Muslim men joined into the disagreement and began beating the Copts with sticks, said attorney Ihab Ramzi. Reda Hnein and Iskandar received minor injuries. Fawzi, however, suffered a fractured skull and lacerations on his scalp. He was taken to Minya University Hospital, where he regained consciousness earlier this week but remains hospitalized. On the day of the incident, Hnein and Iskandar went to police to file a complaint. They were told to return the next day to file a report with an investigating attorney. But after they gave their report the next day, local police arrested the two men on orders of Egypt's State Security Investigations. A cousin said she is "boiling" with anger. "How can the police turn an innocent victim into a criminal?" she said. "How can they treat a victim like a criminal?"

Six killed, 21 wounded in Iraq attacks

From Yahoo News, via the AFP:

Six people, including four soldiers, were killed in two separate car bombings in Iraq on Friday, attacks that left 21 others wounded, police officials told AFP.

Two people died and 20 were hurt when a sticky bomb attached to a car exploded at a market in Dora, in southern Baghdad, at around 8.00 am (0500 GMT) as traders gathered at a wholesale market to buy fruit and vegetables.

In the second incident, two army officers and two soldiers were killed when a stationary car exploded on a road 120 kilometres (75 miles) north of the restive northern city of Mosul, police said. A fifth soldier was wounded.

The unrest came two days after twin truck bombs at the ministries of finance and foreign affairs left 95 people dead and around 600 wounded.

Wednesday was the worst day of violence in Iraq in 18 months and prompted the government to arrest 11 senior security officers after it admitted that the trucks should not have been allowed to pass nearby checkpoints.

Separately on Friday, a former Sunni Arab parliamentarian was wounded alongside his wife and son while driving near the disputed oil-rich city of Kirkuk, also north of Baghdad.

Ahmad Saleh, who had been a member of the Kurdish list, and his family were attacked by unknown gunmen close to Rabiah, 45 kilometres (28 miles) south of Kirkuk, police said.

Taliban’s latest threat: cutting off noses and ears to anyone who dares voting

From Asia News:

The latest threats issued by the Taliban to disrupt next Thursday’s presidential election include “suicide attacks against polling stations” and cutting off “noses and ears of those who vote”, this according to leaflets left in the southern part of the country, but also to a lesser extent in Kabul. Equally attacks have been stepped up against the military but especially the civilian population.

“We are using new tactics targeting election centres,” Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said.

Opinion polls indicate Karzai has a strong lead—around 45 per cent—but may not win the 50 per cent necessary to avoid a run-off against his strongest challenger.

For this reason Abdul Rashid Dostum, an exiled veteran Uzbek general, was allowed to return. His supporters gave him 10 per cent of the vote in the 2004 election.

Some 6,500 polling stations will be in operation on Election Day.

The number of registered voters is up, 16.7 million (41 percent women) against 12 million in the previous election in 2004.

Some 36 candidates are running for president, including two women.

The country’s 34 provincial councils are also being renewed. About 3,324 candidates are running; 342 of these are women. In 2005 they were 3,200, including 286 women.

The first results should be made public at the end of August.

The official announcement is scheduled for 7 September 2009.

Killing Germans is a duty, Sauerland cell terror suspect tells court

From Deutsche Welle:

Adem Yilmaz, part of a group of suspected militant Islamists arrested in Germany's Sauerland region in September 2007, told the court in one of Germany's largest terrorism trials since the 1970s that it didn't matter to him whether the soldiers were American, German or Turkish.

"For me they are all the same," said Yilmaz, who is himself Turkish. "Allah gave us the right to fight against those people who are fighting us," he said, adding that many Muslims had been attacked in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Yilmaz also said he stood by an earlier statement that he wanted to kill as many non-believers as possible.

Asked whether he would return to fighting armed jihad - holy war - after serving his sentence, the 30-year-old said, "I don't know yet."

Yilmaz belongs to the so-called Sauerland Group, together with fellow defendants Fritz Gelowicz, Daniel Schneider and Attila Selek.

Yilmaz arrived in Germany in 1986 and said he decided to join the armed "holy war" in 2004. His initial target had been Iraq. He added that the Americans were the "head of the team" fighting Islam.

Yilmaz was the second member of the group, arrested after intense police surveillance, to make an extensive confession. In return he's likely to be given a reduced sentence.

The case is expected to yield unprecedented details of militant Islamist training and recruitment methods in Pakistan....

Read it all here.

Suicide bombings 'almost unstoppable'

Many have argued that suicide bombers are crazy. They are not crazy. They are evil. From news.com.au:

AN Australian sociologist who has compiled a comprehensive database of suicide attacks claims bombers "are not mad" and there appears to be no set demographics for potential attackers.

Suicide attacks are usually carried out by young and vengeful men, who are completely sane, sociologist Professor Riaz Hassan says.

Prof Hassan has analysed every suicide attack in the world since 1981, seeking to explain the reasons behind the actions.

He found there were more than 1,200 suicide attacks since 1981 killing at least 5,766 people.

Iraq topped the list with 651 attacks occurring in the war-torn nation.

This was three times as many as Israel/Palestin[ians] with 217 incidents, followed by Sri Lanka (93) and Lebanon (48).

Prof Hassan, from South Australia's Flinders University, said after analysing the data, there appeared to be no set demographics for potential bombers.

The majority were young men, but their driving factors were widely varied, from personal motivations to societal conditions to being directed by others.

The study clearly refuted a common belief that suicide bombers were insane or mentally unbalanced, Prof Hassan said.

"It largely discredits explanations that (they) ... are acts of abhorrent violence, perpetrated by the psychologically impaired, morally deficient, bizarre, sick and crazy," he said.

"Suicide bombers are not mad."

Read it all here.

Court Expected to Send Runaway Teen Home Despite Muslim Honor Killing Fears

From Fox News:

A 17-year-old girl who fled to Florida after converting from Islam to Christianity will almost certainly be forced to return home to Ohio, experts say, despite her fears that she will become the victim of an honor killing for abandoning her parents' faith.

Rifqa Bary, who hitchhiked to an Ohio bus station earlier this month and took a charter bus to Orlando, remains in protective custody with Florida's Department of Children and Families. A judge is expected to rule Friday on the jurisdiction of the case, but several legal experts contacted by FOXNews.com say the girl is bound to be sent back to Ohio.

"She'll be returned to the original jurisdiction," said Katherine Hunt Federle, professor of law and director of the Justice for Children Project at Ohio State University's Moritz College of Law.

"She probably doesn't have a lot of options other than to return home."

Bary, a native of Sri Lanka who turned 17 earlier this month, is neither a U.S. citizen nor a resident of Florida, so if her parents want her returned to their home in New Albany, Ohio, that likely will occur, experts said.

"She's living and residing in Ohio," Federle said. "Typically, what happens is, if a child runs away and goes to another jurisdiction, she'll be returned to the original jurisdiction."

If she is sent back to Ohio, Bary will not be allowed to live on her own, since the state does not have an emancipation statute.

Florida has such a statute, but it requires parental consent, according to Fred Silberberg, a family law expert based in California who is familiar with the case.

Given that legal hurdle, Bary likely will be returned to Ohio, where authorities could intervene if they believe there is a threat or a basis to act, Silberberg said.

Rifqa fled to Florida after her parents, Mohamed and Aysha Bary, learned that she was baptized earlier this year without their knowledge. The parents reported her missing to Columbus Police on July 19. Weeks later, using cell phone and computer records, police tracked the girl to the Rev. Blake Lorenz, pastor of the Orlando-based Global Revolution Church. FOXNews.com's calls to Lorenz were not returned.

In an emotional six-minute interview with WFTV in Florida, Rifqa, who met Lorenz through an online Facebook group, said she expects to be killed if she is forced to return to Ohio.

"If I had stayed in Ohio, I wouldn't be alive," she said. "In 150 generations in family, no one has known Jesus. I am the first — imagine the honor in killing me.

"There is great honor in that, because if they love Allah more than me, they have to do it. It's in the Koran," said in the interview, which has been posted on YouTube.

Rifqa, who is seen wearing a large diamond cross during the interview, said she had to hide her Bible "for years," and she repeatedly "snuck out" to attend Christian prayer meetings. She referred to previous victims of so-called honor killings, in which young Muslim women were murdered for bringing dishonor to their families.

"They love God more than me, they have to do this," Bary told WFTV. "I'm fighting for my life. You guys don't understand. … I want to worship Jesus freely, that's what I want. I don't want to die."

Contacted by FOXNews.com, Mohamed Bary said he has no intentions of harming his daughter.

"I love my daughter and I want her to come back to the family," he said, declining further comment.

The Barys reportedly emigrated from Sri Lanka in 2000 to seek medical treatment for Rifqa, who lost the sight in her right eye following an accident at home.

Barbra Joyner, Mohamed Bary's lawyer, declined to comment on Rifqa's interview with WFTV but said transferring the case back to Ohio will be in the "best interest" of the girl.

Craig McCarthy, an attorney for Aysha Bary, agreed that the case should be moved back to Ohio and added that the girl's mother is afraid for her safety.

"[Aysha Bary] has shifted to downright frightened, scared of what might confront her publicly on Friday," McCarthy told FOXNews.com. "She is scared for her family, of losing her daughter, of never knowing the truth of what happened and for her own safety."

McCarthy said Rifqa's account of how she traveled to Florida has "holes in it," but declined to elaborate. He also declined to respond to allegations that Bary's father abused the girl when he learned of her conversion to Christianity.

Dr. Phyllis Chesler, an author and professor of psychology at the Richmond College of the City University of New York, said she believes Bary will be in danger if she is sent back to her parents.

"Anyone who converts from Islam is considered an apostate, and apostasy is a capital crime," Chesler wrote FOXNews.com. "If she is returned to her family, if she is lucky, they will isolate her, beat her, threaten her, and if she is not 'persuaded' to return to Islam, they will kill her. They have no choice."

Chesler, who wrote "Are Honor Killings Simply Domestic Violence?" for Middle East Quarterly, said the tradition of such slayings is not fully understood by most Americans, including those in law enforcement.

"She escaped from her family's brutal tyranny and shamed her family further through public exposure," Chesler said. "Muslim girls and women are killed for far less."

Lockerbie Bomber Freed From Prison on Compassionate Grounds

This monster wasn't compassionate to the 270 people he murdered. As expected Abdel Baset al-Megrahi is being received in Libya as a "martyr" for massacring innocent people. From Fox News:

The man responsible for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing returned home to Libya on Thursday to cheering crowds, and throngs of people waving posters of the convicted killer, who flew to his native country to die after Scotland released him from prison.

Scotland's decision to free Abdel Baset al-Megrahi outraged some relatives of the 270 people killed when the jetliner blew up over a Scottish town.

Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, 57, spent roughly 11 days behind bars for each victim in the bombing. President Barack Obama said the decision to free the terminally ill bomber on compassionate grounds was a mistake and warned Libya not to give him a hero's welcome.

But thousands were on hand to greet him warmly when his plane from Scotland touched down at a military airport in Tripoli. There was a festive atmosphere with some wearing t-shirts with al-Megrahi's picture. Others waved Libyan and Scottish flags while Libyan songs blared.

The White House declared it "deeply" regretted the Scottish decision as Abdel Baset al-Megrahi left prison and flew to Libya on an Airbus dispatched to Glasgow Airport.

Scotland's justice secretary said freeing the bomber was an expression of the Scottish people's humanity but U.S. family members of Lockerbie victims expressed outrage.

"I think it's appalling, disgusting and so sickening I can hardly find words to describe it," said Susan Cohen of Cape May Court House, New Jersey, whose 20-year-old daughter, Theodora, died in the attack. "This isn't about compassionate release. This is part of give-al-Qaddafi -what-he-wants-so-we-can-have-the-oil."

Some men outside the prison made obscene gestures as al-Megrahi's prison van drove by toward the airport.

Al-Megrahi, who had served only eight years of his life sentence, was recently given only months to live after being diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer....

Read it all here.

Report: Al-Qaeda groups say Hamas "abdicated from Islam"

Two despicable Islamic terror groups are at odds with one another. From the Maan News Agency:

Websites linked to Al-Qaeda criticized Hamas’ operation against the Salafi group Jund Ansar Allah (Soldiers for God) in the Gaza Strip on Friday, accusing the de facto government of “abdicating from Islam,” CNN Arabic reported on Wednesday night.

The unnamed websites, which the report said were closely affiliated with Al-Qaeda, urged the group's followers to take action against Hamas. They specifically called on Osama Bin Laden and his assistant Ayman Al-Zawahiri.

A statement on the website from unnamed sources, groups expressed condolences for the death of Sheikh Abdul Latif Moussa, the leader of Jund Ansar Allah. Moussa lead hundreds of supporters to a Rafah mosque on Friday and declared the area an "Islamic emirate." Hamas-allied fe facto government police and members of Hamas' armed wing said they were forced to react to the group when shots were fired in a civilian area. Clashes broke out culminating in 24 dead including six government officers, six civilians including two young girls, and 12 Jund Ansar Allah gunmen.

The Al-Qaeda groups' statement called Moussa a “martyr,” saying he was killed by “the bullets and the rockets of Hamas government.” Hamas sources said the ultra-Islamist leader detonated explosives that were strapped to his body.

The statement linked the Hamas action, termed a “massacre” against Jund Ansar Allah, with clashes that took place last summer between Hamas police and members of another radical group, the Army of Islam, in the Ash-Shyjayyiah area of Gaza City.

Hamas was further accused of working against Islamic groups and “Serving the Jews who occupy Palestine, and the Christians who fight against Iraq, Afghanistan Somalia and Chechnya.”

Islamic Fanatics Cheer Death of UK Soldiers

From the Daily Express:

BRITISH Muslim fanatics sparked fresh fury last night by praising Taliban “heroes” for sending our troops back from Afghanistan in body bags.

Dozens of homegrown “jihadis” have posted website messages cheering last weekend’s carnage in Helmand province that saw Britain’s death toll rise to 204 soldiers.

Last night there were calls by senior politicians for the Home Office to crack down on the hate-filled rants that will distress even further the relatives of troops who gave their lives fighting the Taliban.

The shameful website involved stoked up hatred as it emerged that one of two soldiers killed trying to save their mortally wounded commander had recently got married before deploying to Afghanistan.

The commander had got engaged while home on leave in June.

The tragedies were revealed yesterday as the Ministry of Defence named the three soldiers, all from 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, who died on Sunday.

The gloating jihadi website, Islamic Awakening, is a forum for Islamic extremism, prompting a slew of vile attacks on the efforts of British troops to rescue Afghanistan from the grip of fundamentalists.

The first messages were posted within minutes of the news of the latest outrage in Helmand on Sunday.

“Isma’eel”, said: “Man, they really are dropping like flies over there lol [laugh out loud].”

Another, calling himself “AbuJunayd”, said: “Inshallah [God-willing] the more the kuffs [non-Muslims] deploy, the more the bros will send em back in body bags, or crutches or with serious psychological problems.”

“Waziri” said: “By command of Allah, the invading forces will be forced to withdraw humiliated and defeated by a group of men who between them do not possess even one transport helicopter.”

“Noorah”, said: “They are really getting whooped. Don’t know how they think they can win.”

Senior Tory MP Patrick Mercer, chairman of the Commons counter-terrorism committee and a former Army officer, said: “It’s deeply distasteful and clearly the last thing that relatives of the dead want to see or hear.”

Last night the Daily Express informed the Office for Security and Counter Terrorism at the Home Office of the website’s content.

A spokeswoman said: “The role of the internet in radicalisation is an area of concern to Government.”

Read it all here.

Italy: Mayor bans burkini

Finally someone with some sense. From Islam in Europe:

A mayor of a northern Italian town decided on Wednesday to slap a hefty fine on women seen wearing the Islamic head-to-toe swimsuit or 'burkini' in local pools.

Gianluca Buonanno, the mayor of Varallo Sesia in the northwestern region of Piedmont, said the sight of "a masked woman could cause dismay, especially among children" enjoying a day at the pool.

Buonanno, who is also an MP with the devolutionist Northern League party, said he was similarly concerned that the costume might pose "hygienic problems".

"We're always very respectful of the customs and habits of those who are not of our culture but we mustn't always be tolerant," said the mayor, whose party has been accused of being anti-immigrant. "Let's try to imagine what would happen if a western went swimming in a Muslim country wearing a bikini: she might be decapitated, sent to jail or expelled from the country."
"We are simply banning it and if this decision upsets anyone they can simply take a dip in a burkini in their own bathtub," said the mayor, who said women seen wearing it would be fined 500 euros.

Read the entire article here. Read more from Islam in Europe here.

Iran Threatens To Ban Haj

From iran-daily.com:

Iran says pilgrimage to holy cities in Saudi Arabia would be banned unless Saudi officials agree to change their disrespectful and offensive behavior toward Iranian pilgrims.

“The future pilgrimage of Iranians to Saudi Arabia will depend on whether the government in that country would treat them with the respect they deserve,“ said Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, Presstv reported on Tuesday.

Mottaki made the remarks in a meeting with the outgoing Saudi ambassador, Osama bin Ahmad Al-Sonousi, while condemning the systematic mistreatment of Iranian pilgrims in Saudi Arabia.

The warning comes after a series of shocking reports shed light on the serious misconduct of Saudi police in dealing with Iranian pilgrims.

The controversy surfaced publicly in 2007 when the Saudi police started fingerprinting Iranian pilgrims--a move that caused an outcry in the Tehran government.

Mohammad Taqi Rahbar, a senior parliamentarian, earlier condemned the move, proposing to boycott the Haj pilgrimage until the Saudis provide an explanation....

Read it all here.