Women Against Shariah: February 2010

Bishop of Mosul: Hundreds of Christian Families Fleeing Violence

Mosul (AsiaNews) - Mosul is experiencing a veritable "humanitarian emergency" in just one day, yesterday, "hundreds of Christian families" left the city in search of shelter, leaving behind their homes, property, commercial activities: the situation "is dramatic". Bishop Emil Shimoun Nona, Chaldean archbishop of Mosul, confirmed to AsiaNews about the exodus of the faithful from the city. Meanwhile, Mgr. Louis Sako, archbishop of Kirkuk, will launch "a demonstration and a fast", to sensitize the international community to the "massacre of Iraqi Christians" and stop the violence in the country.

The archbishop of Mosul is concerned about the many families, "hundreds" in one day yesterday, leaving the city. Bishop Nona speaks of an " unending via Crucis” and denounces the "change in methods" operated by the armed gangs. "In the past we said to the Christians to remain closed in the house – he remembers - but now they are even attacked in their own homes”. The reference is to the murder took place last February 23: commandos entered the house of Aishwa Marosi, a Christian of 59, killing the man and two boys. His wife and daughter witnessed the murder but were spared by the criminals.

Bishop Nona confirms the risk that "Mosul will be emptied completely of Christians”, who are fleeing towards the plain of Nineveh and other places considered safer. "Yesterday I visited some families – he continues - I have tried to bring comfort, but the situation is dramatic. The people fled without taking anything with them”. This is why the local archdiocese has launched an initial emergency response, trying to provide "essential supplies and relief", but the danger of "a humanitarian crisis is real."

The archbishop of Mosul plans to travel to Baghdad to meet with politicians and the central government, to demand their intervention. It is difficult to maintain the Christian presence, he continues, and it is likely that the general elections - scheduled for March 7 - no one will vote. The confining of Iraq’s Christians in the Nineveh Plain, victims of a power struggle between Arabs and Kurds, seems an increasingly concrete likelihood, although the Church leaders have always been opposed to this "ghettoisation". So far, the warring factions have used the excuse of religion and armed gangs to drag the Christians into the conflict. "For this - concluded Mgr. Nona – we now need to find a 'political response' to the conflicts, the struggle for power.”

Archbishop Louis Sako, archbishop of Kirkuk, plans to launch – in the next few days - "a demonstration and a fast", to sensitize the international community to the "massacre of Iraqi Christians" and stop the violence in the country. The policy that aims to see Mosul emptied of Christians must be stopped, negotiations with the central government and local parliament started to enhance "the idea of national unity" that is lost in the conflicts between different ethnicities, religions and influences foreign in a shattered Iraq. The prelate confirms the will of the Christian community to "participate in the political life of the country", while there is an increasingly concrete danger that they will be considered "second-class citizens."

The general elections scheduled for March 7 will cause an even greater escalation of violence. The warring parties - Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds – are sparing no methods or use of force to gain control of the territory. Baghdad, like Mosul and Kirkuk, is tempting for its many rich deposits of oil. Sectarian violence in Mosul, also does not seem linked to al Qaeda, but rather confirms the infiltration in the army and police of "big powers" that are aligned to political parties, religious denominations, or to the tribes. They are a clear indication of the failure to create a unitary state, the "Republic of Iraq" mentioned in the Constitution, but never born because of internal divisions. Added to this the external pressures from neighbouring countries including Iran: Baghdad AsiaNews sources confirm that "Tehran has both hands in the internal politics of Iraq" and is an influence that touches the economic, political and religious sphere.

"There is a state, a home - underlines Msgr. Sako - and sectarian divisions are an obvious fact. Christians who are not interested in power games, economic hegemony, but the creation of a State in which the different ethnic groups can live together peacefully. " An objective to be achieved, must begin first of all with "the unity of the Christian community and Church leaders, who must make their unity a strength at the bargaining table with the central government and the political forces of the country ".

Egyptian Cleric Wagdi Ghoneim: "We Pray to Allah That We Be Terrorists, If Terror Means Jihad"

The following is a transcript from MEMRI:

Wagdi Ghoneim: God did not say that there was only one way to conduct Jihad, and if you missed it – that's it. No, Jihad is a huge issue. Surat Al-'Ankaboot ends with: "Those who strive in our [cause] – We will guide them to Our paths." Our paths, not our path. "Path" would have meant that there is only one. But there are "paths."

What are the paths of Jihad? One is the Jihad of the soul. If you cannot get up in time for morning prayer – you are hopeless. Hopeless. How will you sacrifice your life, if you can't sacrifice a few hours of sleep? If you are asleep and snoring during morning prayer – will you sacrifice your life? That is why the accursed Zionist Jews said that so long as the number of Muslims who pray in the morning prayer is less than the number of Muslims who pray in the Friday prayer, the Zionist entity is safe.

[...]

We are a nation that excels in the production of the art of death. Sheik Hassan Al-Bana said that we are a nation that excels... "To excel" means that we are very good at... At what? At the production of the art of death. I will die anyway, so I should be creative to make sure my death is for the sake of Allah. We should think how to die for the sake of Allah, rather than be run over by a car on the highway.

[...]

We are a nation that excels in the production of the art of death. That's why our enemies are terrified of us. Don't our enemies say that we are a backward nation? Don't they say that our countries are not clean? That we don't have proper science? So why are they afraid of us? Why are they terrified of us?

It is because we have something that they don't have: faith. They do not believe in God. Their God is the dollar. That's why the moment Qadhafi told them that he would withdraw the money from Switzerland... When his son was in Switzerland, he beat up his servant. The servant decided to play it tough, so he went to the police, and filed a complaint, because over there, the law, the rule of law, freedom, democracy, mulukhiya soup, and whatever... They caught Qadhafi's poor son and threw him into jail for two days. His father said: That's how you want it? Fine. I will withdraw my money from your banks and will stop pumping oil.

The president of Switzerland himself went to apologize to him in Libya. People criticized him and said: "You shouldn't have done that. You are the president of Switzerland, why are you apologizing to him?!" The president said: "If he asked me to apologize again and again – I would." Why? Because he touched the god they worship – the dollar.

[...]

We are a Jihad-fighting nation, and we should guide all the people to this path. I am sorry to tell you that some preachers and scholars are ashamed to utter the word "Jihad." They do not use the word "Jihad." They are all afraid. They ask you not to use the word "Jihad." Why not? "So that they won't say that we are terrorists." A mujahid is called a "terrorist" nowadays. Brothers, we pray to Allah that we be terrorists, if terror means Jihad for the sake of Allah.

[...]

[In the West] they say: "Ladies, Mademoiselles, and Gentlemen..." The men come at the end – that is, if they have real men over there at all. We should start with "Gentlemen," then "Ladies" and finally, the unmarried women. I said this when I was lecturing in Japan in English. I said to them: "Gentlemen and Ladies..." They said: "What is this?!" I said to them: I know what you're thinking, but this is our religion. This is Islam. Men are the guardians of women.

[...]

February 14, 2010:

Wagdi Ghoneim: For women, Islamic law permits things that are compatible with their nature as females, as well as things that are compatible with the work they are required to do. What is the work you should do? It is the work God created you for.

Think about it. I am a man. Anything you women can do, I can do better, because I am a man, and I am stronger than you. My body is stronger. For example, I can put out a fire. I can climb the ladder and hold the hose, but you can't, because you are a woman. You are weak. I can work as a night guard. I have a pistol, a gun, or even a baseball bat. If I hear anyone coming, I say: "Where are you?" But you? You're a female. You are startled if a mouse gets near you.

[...]

Therefore, there are jobs you women cannot do – like being judges. You cannot be a judge, because your heart will not allow you to sentence someone to death. Can you sentence someone to death? As a man, I can sentence a person to death – even by hanging. But you – if a murderer brings his children to court, and he holds his newborn child in front of you... If you sentence him to death – who will raise this child? Your soul will not let you sentence him to death.

[...]

Anything you can do I can do better, with four exceptions. Even the manliest man cannot do these four things. First, pregnancy and childbirth. Second, raising and serving the children. Third, nurturing the husband. You might be thinking that I got it wrong, but no, I said it intentionally: nurturing the husband. Four, taking care of the home. These are the four things women are good at.

As a man, I cannot do any of these. I may help my wife a little, and sweep the floor here and there, but not all the time, because it is not natural for me. I cannot forget that once, one of my children was vomiting, and my wife or mother-in-law – I think it was my wife – she put her hands like that, and... He's my son, but by God, I could never do such a thing. Or when the child smells, I say to her: Look what he's done, change him. I am a man. This is not for me.

These are the things you excel in. You can take the child and clean him up. That's your job, Allah be praised.

Click here to watch the video.

Nine Christians Arrested in Iran

From Adnkronos:

Tehran, 26 Feb. (AKI) - An evangelical priest was among nine Christians arrested in central Iran on Friday as authorities continued a crackdown against Christians in the Islamic country. The Christians' evangelical church in the city of Isfahan was closed down last month, according to advocacy group International Christian Concern.

"Iranian Christians are under constant threat of discrimination, imprisonment, torture, and even execution by the Iranian government," said Washington DC-based ICC president Jeff King, quoted by Christian news agency BosNewsLife.

"This severely restricts religious freedom," King added.

Reverend Wilson Issavi was arrested by Iranian state security agents in Isfahan, some 340 kilometers south of the capital Tehran, King said.

"Reverend Issavi, his hosts and others were apprehended by the security agents and immediately taken to prison. Friends and family are deeply concerned as they are unable to contact Reverend Issavi," King stated.

Christian and opposition groups say Christians are the target of oppression by the Iranian government. Iranian intelligence services arrested six Christians accused of proselytism on 15 January, according to the opposition website 'Rah-e sabz'.

Hundreds of thousands of Christians have left Iraq since 2003 to escape the violence and the economic crisis caused by the war sparked by the American invasion. Many fled to neighbouring Iran.

There are at least 100,000 Christians in Iran currently, compared with less than 500 in 1979, according to Elam Ministries, an organisation supporting churches in Iran.

Elam Ministries believes Iran's conservative clerical leadership is concerned about the spread of Christianity in the Islamic nation.

King said he could not reveal the names of eight people who had been arrested, citing security concerns.

Issavi was visiting a friend’s home in Isfahan's Shahin Shahr area when state security raided the house unannounced, King said.

The location where the nine Christians are being held and their physical condition is unknown, he said.

King said before Issavi’s church, the Evangelical Church of Kermanshah, was closed down on 2 January, it was among the few remaining churches still open in Iran.

Iran's hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has come under international pressure to improve religious rights but he has denied wrongdoing.

The Vatican has urged the government of neighbouring Iraq to uphold the rights of religious minorities in the country amid a spate of attacks on Christians in the multi-ethnic northern city of Mosul that has caused hundreds of families to flee the area.

Palestinian Arabs Threaten Third Intifada

Israel, the West Bank and Gaza is filled with Jewish history that predates any other history. But Palestinian leadership resent that history and attempt to destroy it. These Arab leaders don't want Israel to call the Cave of Patriarchs in Hebron a "heritage" site. The objection is strange considering that Hebron is a city that has had a continuous Jewish presence since biblical times.

Let's not forget how Palestinians respect Jewish holy sites. They respect them so much they vandalize them. Could this be just another excuse for the Palestinian governments to rally their people and initiate violence against Israel? Probably.

From CNSNews.com:

(CNSNews.com) – A decision by the Israeli government to include a location with an almost 4,000 year-old link to the origins of Judaism in a list of 150 national heritage sites has sparked an uproar among Muslims – and drawn the disapproval of the Obama administration.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu insisted Thursday that the decision to include the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron on the list would not in any way change the status quo at the site, which has long been shared by Jews and Muslims.

He called accusations being made by Palestinians and others “an artificial attempt to distort reality and sow discord.”

Two days after Palestinian Authority (P.A.) chairman Mahmoud Abbas warned during a visit to Brussels that it could ignite a “religious war,” Palestinians clashed Thursday with Israeli soldiers in Hebron. The radical Palestinian group Islamic Jihad has called for a “day of anger” on Friday.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the administration regarded the move as “provocative,” and that U.S. diplomats had conveyed that message to Israeli officials.

On Thursday the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) weighed in, demanding that the United Nations act against “this Israeli unilateral aggression.”

Earlier, a spokesman for U.N. secretary-general Ban Ki-moon said he raised with visiting Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak his concerns about “the inclusion of holy sites in the occupied West Bank on an Israeli heritage list.”

In announcing the expansion of an existing list of sites with religious and national significance to ancient and modern Israel, Netanyahu on Sunday mentioned that they would include the Cave of the Patriarchs and another site in territory claimed by the Palestinians – Rachel’s Tomb between Jerusalem and nearby Bethlehem, the traditional burial site of Rachel, the wife of the biblical patriarch, Jacob.

It is the site in Hebron, about 20 miles south of Jerusalem, that is causing the most unhappiness.

Although a predominantly Arab city today, Hebron’s importance to Jews goes back to the foundation of their faith. According to the Old Testament (Genesis 49), Abraham bought a cave known as Machpela at the site to bury his wife, Sarah and was himself also buried there, along with Isaac and Jacob, as well as Isaac’s wife Rebecca, and Jacob’s first wife, Leah.

The Old Testament also records that Hebron was the capital of the kingdom of Israel for seven years before King David moved to Jerusalem (2 Samuel 5). Rabbis consider the Cave of the Patriarchs the second holiest site in Judaism, after the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Hebron as a city is also one of Judaism’s four holy cities, the others being Jerusalem, Tiberias and Tzfat.

Historians say Hebron had a small, almost continuous Jewish presence for thousands of years until 1929, when it ended abruptly after 67 members of the then 800-strong Jewish community were killed during three days of Arab riots.

Shortly after Israel captured the West Bank during the 1967 Six Day War Jews began to return to Hebron in small numbers and today some 500 are reported to live in the historic Jewish Quarter, amid tight security.

In 1994 a deranged Israeli opened fire on Muslims in a mosque at the site, killing at least 29 people before he was overpowered and killed.

The Muslim claim to the Cave of the Patriarchs is based on the Islamic precept that major biblical figures, from Adam to Jesus, were Muslim prophets. Thus the mosque at the site is known as Ibrahimi (Abraham) mosque.

Novel claims

In recent days, new claims about the Islamic significance of the site have appeared in Palestinian media.

In a press report Thursday, the Palestinian Ma’an news agency described the Ibrahimi mosque as Islam’s “fourth holiest” site.

The P.A. news agency WAFA cited a London-based organization called the Palestine Return Center as describing the Ibrahimi mosque as “a mosque that Abraham built and is buried in.”

According to the Encyclopedia Judaica, The structure surrounding the cave and still standing today was built by King Herod some 2,000 years ago. Islam reached Hebron with the Muslim conquests in the 7th century AD.

According to the left-wing Middle East scholar Juan Cole, the five holiest sites in Islam are, in order, in Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem, Najaf and Karbala (although others have called the city of Kairouan in northern Tunisia the fourth holiest in Islam.) An online list of the 15 “holiest sites in Islam” does not include Hebron.

At a press conference in Ramallah Wednesday, veteran PLO activist Hanan Ashrawi called Netanyahu’s decision a “direct attack on Palestinian heritage and a crime against Palestinian culture.”

The Cave of the Patriarchs is divided into Jewish and Muslim sections, and for most of the year, Jews and Muslims have free access to their designated spaces. For two 10-day periods each year, each group has access to the entire site while the other is barred from entering.

“We know that it is also a holy place for Muslims,” Netanyahu said Thursday. “We honor both.”

“We are not changing the status quo at the site and we will not, in any way, harm freedom of worship for Muslims, just as we will preserve freedom of worship for Jews.”

The U.N. body known as the Bureau of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People slammed the Israeli move.

“Laying official claims to religious and historical places throughout the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem and attempts by the Government of Israel purporting itself to be the sole custodian of those sites is yet another measure aimed at consolidating Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian lands,” it said in a statement.

Wage Jihad Against Infidel and Obscene Switzerland, Muslims Urged

From Zopag.com:

London, February 26: In response to Switzerland’s plan to ban the construction of minarets on mosques, Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi has called for jihad against one of the most peaceful nations in the world.

“Any Muslim in any part of the world who works with Switzerland is an apostate, is against the Prophet Muhammad, God and the Koran,” ‘The Times’ quoted Colonel Gaddafi, as saying at a rally broadcast on television made on Prophet’s birthday.

In November, an overwhelming majority of the Swiss population voted against the construction of new minarets resulting in a national referendum to ban the construction of minarets.

He said Switzerland, ‘an infidel, obscene state which is destroying mosques’, was at the very least an ideological enemy.

Gaddafi also clarified that he was not calling for an al-Qaeda-like jihad – an organisation he described as a ‘a psychological disease’.

“There is a big difference between terrorism and jihad,” he pointed out.

“The masses of Muslims must go to all airports in the Islamic world and prevent any Swiss plane landing, to all harbours and prevent any Swiss ships docking,” he added, apparently unaware that Switzerland does not have a coast.

Gaddafi’s call of holy war is being seen as the latest low point in his relationship with Switzerland, which has been deteriorating since 2008 when his son Hannibal was detained in Geneva after allegedly beating his servants.

When Hannibal Gaddafi and his wife were held by Swiss police, the Libyan authorities cut oil supplies to Switzerland, withdrew several billion dollars from Swiss banks and held two Swiss businessmen. One was allowed to leave this week, but the second, Max Göldi, is in prison.

Complaint Over Head-Scarf Firing at Store

Devout Muslim women who accept jobs at trendy, western shops like Hollister or Abercrombie & Fitch are nothing but disingenuous when they decide to sue the store for "religious discrimination."

Last year a British-Muslim woman sued a bar because she said she had to dress provocatively. Realistically, she wore a modest dress in accordance with her position as a cocktail waitress. She accepted the position, which included the serving of alcohol, knowing what her duties would be. A few months after she received money from a court, she proved her hypocrisy when she posted photos of herself, wearing a tiny t-shirt and showing her cleavage, on Facebook.

These Muslim females should know better. Devout Hindu or Jewish women don't expect special treatment at these shops (and probably don't apply to work at such stores if their religion means so much to them). CAIR spokeswoman Zahra Billoo attacked Hollister and claimed religious persecution, proving that this CAIR official is like the rest who claim religious discrimination for anything and everything. Many places of work have dress codes which must be adhered to. There may be rules about hair, clothing and so on. This has nothing to do with religious discrimination on the part of the Hollister company and everything to do with Muslims expecting special treatment over other people. Besides, why would a devout Muslim girl be around posters featuring scantly clad men and women all day long?

From the San Francisco Chronicle via Scripps News:

SAN MATEO, Calif. - A Muslim college student has lodged a complaint with federal officials after she said she was fired from her job at a clothing store for refusing to remove her hijab, or head scarf.

Hani Khan, 19, said she was terminated from her job Monday at a Hollister clothing store. Her firing came a week after a district manager visited the store, called her into a meeting and said she was not supposed to wear the scarf while at work, said Khan, who is of Indian and Pakistani descent.

A representative from human resources joined the meeting by phone, and Khan said she was told that she was in violation of the store's "look policy."

"I thought it was quite unfair," Khan said in an interview Wednesday. "It was really surprising, especially in the Bay Area, because everybody's so open-minded and accepting of everybody. It's really surprising to see blatant discrimination against someone who is of an Islamic state who is wearing a hijab."

Khan contacted the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, a Muslim advocacy group. On Tuesday, the organization filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against Abercrombie & Fitch, which operates Hollister stores.

The commission cannot confirm or deny the existence of a complaint, a spokesman said Wednesday. Abercrombie & Fitch officials did not respond to requests for comment.

Khan, a political-science student at the College of San Mateo, said she wore her hijab to her job interview before she was hired as a part-time stockroom worker in October. She said her direct supervisors had no problem with her headwear, so long as they were of the company's colors -- navy, gray and white -- which she said they were.

CAIR spokeswoman Zahra Billoo said it was "unconscionable" for Abercrombie & Fitch to treat Khan this way. "Firing someone explicitly for a religious reason or practice is, in our view, against the law," Billoo said.

In September, the EEOC filed a civil suit against Abercrombie & Fitch for allegedly discriminating against a 17-year-old Muslim in Oklahoma by refusing to hire her because she wore a hijab. The case is pending.

(E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee(at)sfchronicle.com.)

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)

Must credit the San Francisco Chronicle

Egyptian State Security Accused of Torturing Christian Youth

From the Assyrian International News Agency:

(AINA) -- Egyptian State Security has been accused by lawyers, rights activists and victims' families of torturing the Christian youths arrested in the aftermath of the Christmas Eve shootings of Copts on January 6, 2010. The shooting in the southern town of Nag Hammadi resulted in the death of six and the injury of nine Christians (AINA 1-7-2010).

Two days after the shootings, nearly 100 Coptic teenagers as young as 15 were arrested randomly without warrants from the streets and their homes in Nag Hammadi and the neighboring villages (AINA 1-13-2010).

The arrests were intensified after Anba Kyrollos, Coptic Bishop of Nag Hammadi, heavily criticized the role of the security forces in the massacre, and the demonstrations that took place in Nag Hammadi by the angry Copts against the security forces. Gen. Mahmoud Gohar, Security Director Qena, explicitly threatened Copts and said that he will deal firmly and strongly with any protests.

The arrested youngsters were tortured and released without charges after nearly one week, except for 15 who were charged with "rioting and resisting the authorities" on January 24, and sent to detention camps; 13 went to the New Valley Camp, 700 km south of Cairo and 2 went to Alexandria. It is not known how they are being treated there. "When we visit them, there is always supervision," said one relative.

Those that were released confirmed that they were beaten and subjected to electrocution. They were asked by security forces to falsely testify against Bishop Kyrollos that he incited them to make demonstrations.

Activist Wagih Yacoub of the Middle East Christian Association carried out interviews on February 19 with two Copts who were tortured. The young men were arrested randomly from the street and kept incarcerated 4-7 days before being released. They have now both left Nag Hammadi for fear of being re-arrested....

Read it all here.

Terrorists to be 'De-Radicalised' in NSW Supermax

In almost all cases, Islamic terrorists are not rehabilitated.

From ABC News (Australia):

The New South Wales Government says five men sentenced for terrorism offences earlier this month will be put through a "de-radicalisation" program in prison.

The men are serving lengthy sentences in Goulburn's supermax jail, but Premier Kristina Keneally has told Parliament they still pose a danger and the Government wants to make sure they do not plot another attack while in prison.

Corrective Services Minister Phil Costa has asked his department to fast-track the development of the course that will try to deprogram radical tendencies in prisoners convicted of terrorism offences.

Specialist staff and psychologists will be brought in to take the prisoners through intensive one-on-one sessions in which they will confront the reasons why they turned to extremism.

They will also be encouraged to replace radical religious beliefs with more moderate ones.

The program will incorporate elements from similar schemes being run in US prisons.

Christian Father and Sons Killed in Their Mosul Home

From the Catholic News Agency:

Mosul, Iraq, Feb 24, 2010 / 06:32 pm (CNA).- The persecution of Christians in Iraq escalated on Tuesday, as three relatives of a Syro-Catholic priest were killed in their own home in the city of Mosul.

Bishop Georges Casmoussa of Mosul told SIR news agency that unknown men entered the home of the father and two brothers of Fr. Mazen Ishoa, in the neighborhood of Hay Al Sahaon on Feb. 23. After the house was broken into, the priest's father and two young brothers were murdered.

Fr. Ishoa was previously abducted in 2007 and later released. The latest reports do not mention anything about the fate of Fr. Ishoa.

The killings come amid increasing chaos in Mosul as targeted attacks against Christians continue to rise.

Following a funeral service for the three victims this morning in Karakosh, Chaldean Bishop Emil Shimoun Nona told SIR that “Fear is great – it is the first time Christians are killed in their own homes. There are many families that are leaving the city, at least until the election of March 7th.”

Pope Benedict, who is continually receiving updates from the Apostolic Nuncio to Iraq, responded on Wednesday to news of the murders with “deep sorrow.”

The Holy See had urged respect and protection for Iraqi Christians in a January letter to country's prime minister, yet the violence against Christians in the city has continued.

Bishop Casmoussa called the current circumstances in Mosul a “situation that risks getting worse in the run-up to March 7th.” “We hope that the after-election period may be calmer and violence may decrease,” he added. “But that’s not very likely for the moment.”

In response to yesterday’s murders, Church leaders have organized a protest on Feb. 24. “The community will meet for a peaceful march in four areas of Mosul for a peaceful protest,” Bishop Casmoussa explained to SIR. “There will be no Masses in the city’s churches. This is done to press the institutions into taking care of the citizens’ security.”

Sheikh Barrack: Whoever Mixes the Sexes Should Be Killed

This is an update on this story.

From Al Arabiya:

A prominent Saudi cleric has issued an edict calling for opponents of the kingdom's strict segregation of men and women to be put to death if they refuse to abandon their ideas.

Shaikh Abdul-Rahman al-Barrak said in a fatwa the mixing of genders at the workplace or in education "as advocated by modernisers" is prohibited because it allows "sight of what is forbidden, and forbidden talk between men and women."

"All of this leads to whatever ensues," he said in the text of the fatwa published on his website (albarrak.islamlight.net).

"Whoever allows this mixing ... allows forbidden things, and whoever allows them is an infidel and this means defection from Islam ... Either he retracts or he must be killed ... because he disavows and does not observe the Shariah," Barrak said.

"Anyone who accepts that his daughter, sister or wife works with men or attend mixed-gender schooling cares little about his honor and this is a type of pimping," Barrak said.

Barrak, believed to be 77, does not hold a government position but he is viewed by Islamists as the leading independent authority of Saudi Arabia's hardline version of Sunni Islam, often termed Wahhabism.

Western diplomats believe that King Abdullah's push for reforms is resisted by a mainly older generation of clerics who still control the religious establishment.

The monarch dismissed a cleric from a top council of religious scholars in October after he demanded that religious scholars vet the curriculum at a new flagship mixed-gender university.

The kingdom, a major U.S. ally, is ruled by the al-Saud family in alliance with clerics from the strict Wahhabi school of Islam who oversee mosques, the judiciary and vast parts of education, and run a religious police body.

The Saudi government pays a morals police squad that roams streets and shopping malls to make sure unrelated men and women are kept apart, that women are covered from head to toe and search for alcohol and drugs under the kingdom's austere interpretation of Islam.

In 2008, Barrak issued a fatwa that two Saudi writers should be tried for apostasy for their "heretical articles" and put to death if they did not repent after the two wrote articles that questioned the Sunni Muslim view in Saudi Arabia that Christians and Jews should be considered unbelievers.

He has also denounced Shiite Muslims as "infidels" in another edict that coincided with sectarian tensions in Iraq.

The British Muslims Pictured Planning Jihad

This is an update on this story.

Terrorism is not a religion or ideology. Terrorism is a tactic. What these young men were "intoxicated by" was the evils of jihadism which is rooted in Islamic faith.

From the Daily Mail:

Brandishing machetes and guns, the young men pose for the video camera.

The three British Muslims filmed themselves as they prepared for a terrorist attack, a court was told yesterday.

They also recorded themselves crawling on their bellies through piles of leaves in a town centre park for a military-style training video, it was alleged.

The prosecution claimed that while the footage might appear 'almost comical in its amateurishness', in reality it showed a group 'intoxicated by the evil of terrorism'.

Styling themselves the Blackburn Resistance, the trio filmed themselves imitating Al Qaeda-style propaganda in broad daylight in the Lancashire town's Corporation Park.

One is shown apparently carrying a rifle as he executes a 'leopard crawl' beneath a clump of trees.

Along with another man, he then dashes across a track before appearing to aim his weapon at an imaginary enemy.

Yesterday the video was shown as part of the men's trial.

Edward Brown QC, prosecuting, told the jury: 'Some aspects of the material may at first blush seem almost comical in its amateurishness, but when you recall their purpose it is less funny.'

At first sight it might look like 'a group of young men larking around in a park in Blackburn', he added. But, he claimed, the men were in the process of educating themselves about guerilla warfare with the intention of engaging in terrorist activity.

The images were found on a mobile phone memory card hidden in 24-year-old Abbas Iqbal's suitcase when he was arrested at Manchester Airport in August 2008, the court has heard.

Also found were video clips of the trio holding and firing weapons while shouting 'Allahu Akbar' (God is Great) in a backyard, along with photos of them in camouflage clothing and carrying weapons as well as images of terrorist leaders including Osama Bin Laden.

Police later recovered a camcorder video tape from his home in Blackburn which showed Iqbal holding a young boy and raising a machete over his head in 'joking' fashion, saying he hoped one day to take a non-believer's 'head off'.

A weapons cabinet was also found, the court heard.

Mr Brown told Manchester Crown Court that Iqbal filmed the park footage - featuring his brother Ilyas and a third man - intending to take it abroad to spread their violent ideology.

He concluded: 'The prosecution say that as the Blackburn Resistance, the three defendants were acting together with their armoury or training equipment and with the information they had gathered, readying themselves for active preparation in the jihad, probably abroad.'

Abbas Iqbal denies dissemination of terrorist publications, preparation for terrorism acts and possession of a document likely to be useful to a terrorist.

Ilyas Iqbal, 23, also of Blackburn, denies preparation for terrorism acts and two counts of possession of a document likely to be useful to a terrorist. White Muslim convert Muhammed Ahmed, 26, denies the preparation for acts of terrorism.

The case continues....

DC Police Enforce Sharia, Eject Women From Main Prayer Hall in Mosque

Thanks to Jihad Watch for posting this.

From WAMU 88.5 FM:

Some women who protested at the Islamic Center of Washington, wanting to be able to worship in the main prayer hall with their male counterparts, were asked to leave by the police. But they say their struggle will continue.

Carpets with intricate designs cover the floors of the main prayer hall and turquoise tiles line the walls. But the source of contention is a small room created with seven foot high wooden walls. Jannah B'int Hannah describes how she feels in there where she cannot see the imam, or leader of the mosque, speak.

"Boxed in, stifling, suffocating and totally a second class citizen," says Hannah.

Over the weekend, Hannah and approximately 20 other women prayed in the main hall, but D.C. police were called. They asked them to leave or be arrested.

Syed Burmi, the imam of Islamic Society of Western Maryland, says the physical separation helps maintain women's privacy and modesty as well as keeps the focus on prayer.

"If I stand next to a lady or a woman stands next to me, maybe the focus will change and no longer be on God the Almighty. So that's why we put the partition," says Burmi.

In two out of every three American mosques, women of separate prayer spaces around the country.

Asra Nomani is a leading Islamic feminist who led a similar protest in West Virginia.

"We have this generation of American muslim women who are saying look you want us to go to Harvard, to rise to the highest level of Wall Street firms and you want us to sit where in the mosque?," says Nomani.

Women activists say they will continue to try to pray in the main hall until this policy changes.

Turkey Detains Top Generals in Islamist Terror Conspiracy Probe

From Euractiv:

Turkish police detained former heads of the air force and navy among 40 people held in an investigation into an alleged plot to undermine the Islamist-rooted government and trigger a military coup, the authorities announced yesterday (23 February).

The swoop, one of the largest against the secularist armed forces, added to a growing sense of foreboding in the Muslim nation, where a clash between the government and the judiciary had already raised fears of a political crisis.

Armed forces chief General Ilker Basbug postponed a trip to Egypt as a result of the detentions, state-run Anatolian news agency said.

Among those held, according to broadcasters, were former Air Force Commander Ibrahim Firtina, former Naval Commander Ozden Ornek and ex-Deputy Chief of the General Staff General Ergin Saygun.

Speaking in Madrid at the start of an official visit, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said more than 40 people were detained in the raids.

News channel CNN-Turk put the number at 49, including 17 retired generals, four serving admirals, 27 officers and one enlisted man.

Markets uneasy

The detentions would have been unthinkable in the past for a military that has ousted four governments since 1960.

But its powers have waned in recent years as a result of democratic reforms aimed at securing EU membership and most analysts doubt that the armed forces would mount a coup.

The suspects held in Ankara were flown to Istanbul for questioning over the 'Sledgehammer' plot after police raids in the cities of Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir.

According to media reports the plot, denied by the military, dated from 2003 and involved provoking a crisis with old foe Greece and planting bombs in mosques and museums in Istanbul to stir chaos and justify a military takeover.

"I don't know what the result of this is, but after the security forces have finished this process the judiciary will make its assessment," Erdogan told a news conference.

Turkish markets were rattled by the prospects. The lira weakened to 1.5265 lira in Tuesday-dated trade from an intrabank close of 1.5180 on Monday, the level at which it ended last week, and the main share index ended 1.36% lower, having begun the day nearly 1% higher.

"The government is now embroiled in an open and bitter power struggle with the judiciary and the military, raising the risk of a head-on confrontation that would badly damage political stability," Wolfango Piccoli from the Eurasia political risk consultancy said.

Referendum threat

Erdogan also said he would call a referendum on constitutional reform to overhaul the judicial system, if he fails to get parliament's backing for change to curb the power of judges and prosecutors.

The AK Party, which first swept to power in 2002 ending the secularists' decades-old grip, has enough votes in the 550-seat parliament to pass a bill calling for a referendum.

"The judicial system should be objective and independent at the same time," Erdogan said.

He did not give any timeframe for a possible referendum.

Turkey is due to hold its next general elections in 2011 and Erdogan has repeatedly denied he plans to call an early vote.

The clash with the judiciary followed the arrest of a prosecutor who had investigated Islamic groups.

That prosecutor has been accused of links to an alleged far-right militant network, 'Ergenekon'. More than 200 people, including military officers, lawyers and politicians, have been arrested in the case since it came to light 2.5 years ago.

Critics of the government say the Ergenekon investigation has also been used to hound political opponents.

Al-Qaradawi to BBC: "Freedom Is Produced by the Application of the Shari'ah"

From Translating Jihad:

This is from a BBC interview with Shaykh al-Qaradawi, which was published on BBC Arabic on 6 Feb, entitled "Al-Qaradawi to BBC: Freedom Is Produced by the Application of the Shari'ah." I saw bits and pieces of this translated to English on other news sites, but I never found the entire article, so here you go. I found the last two paragraphs to be the most interesting, where on one hand he compares the lack of freedom of religion in the Hijaz to the fact that the Vatican doesn't allow proselyting in its territory, but then on the other hand he goes on to say that there should be no proselyting of other faiths at all among Muslims. So why even waste the time with the Vatican comparison, if there's no freedom of religion in Islam at all?

[From BBC Arabic]:
The president of the International Union of Muslim Scholars Yousuf al-Qaradawi said that his opposition to building the wall (i.e. the wall between Egypt and Gaza) is rooted in his application of the principle of fiqh which prohibits the doing of something halal (permissible) when its end result is haram (forbidden).

Al-Qaradawi, in a meeting held with his colleague Hassan Mouawad aired on the BBC television program "At the Heart Of", added that the issue of building the steel wall between Egypt and the Gaza Strip is not just connected to Egypt's national security. He explained that Egypt also has an Arab and Islamic responsibility to defend the Gaza Strip, which it governed for a time, confirming that he does not want Egypt to withdraw from its Arab, national, and Islamic role.

Concerning the controversy which was caused after he called for the stoning of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, al-Qaradawi said that he was responding to a question about his opinion on "Abbas's invitation to the Israelis to raid Gaza," which occurred several months ago and was brought up recently by Abbas.

He clarified that his response was predicated on Abbas's remarks, and that it was not simply to rule that Abbas should be executed, but that he specifically should be stoned. For he is the president of all of Palestine, and "the president that calls for his own people to be attacked is not worthy to live, but must be stoned by his people."

Al-Qaradawi also responded to a question about the distribution of posters in the West Bank which showed him shaking hands with rabbis, saying that he does not deny the fact, for "the Jews are People of the Book, and we recognize them together with the Nazarenes (i.e. Christians)."

He added that he welcomes the Jews that stand against Zionism, but he is against dealing with Jewish rabbis if they are Israelis, for he rejects all Jews that accept Israel. On that vein, he refused to attended a Jewish-Christian-Islamic dialogue forum because he does not accept sitting on the same stage with Jews that recognize Israel.

"A Necessary Act"

Regarding suicide operations which some Palestinian factions have carried out, al-Qaradawi said that he sees them as a necessary act. He added that this is necessary because the Palestinians are unable to obtain effective weapons. He indicated that those that carried out these operations were trying to target Israeli soldiers and not civilians. However, concerning the suicide operations carried out in public markets, his response was that "they (i.e. the suicide bombers) are not flawless, and they may make mistakes."

The president of the International Union of Muslim Scholars said that he has evidence of what he describes as Shi'a raids. Al-Qaradawi explained that the Shi'a have not complied with what they agreed to in meetings between "leaders of the two sects" (i.e. Sunni and Shi'a) to not attempt to propagate their doctrine in a land that is purely of the other sect (i.e. Shi'a and Sunni leaders apparently agreed to not preach their doctrines in countries controlled by the other sect).

However, he confirmed that he sees no contradiction in this position and his invitation to get together with them, "for we call for a coming together with other religions, both those of the Book and those not of the Book, so therefore how can we not extend this same invitation to Muslims in whom we see some 'innovation' (i.e. Islamic term referring to apostasy)."

Regarding the contradiction between his call to support Hezbollah and his description of its general secretary Hassan Nasrallah as a Shi'a extremist, al-Qaradawi said that it was a response to "Nasrallah's failure to respond to the attacks on al-Qaradawi from the Shi'ites," when he accused them of not fulfilling their agreement in the reconciliation forums "Between the Two Sects." However, he acknowledged that Nasrallah was not among those extremists.

On issues of freedom, al-Qaradawi said that he does not see a contradiction between his faith in freedom of belief and religion, and his rejection of building (non-Muslim) churches in the Hijaz, "For the Hijaz is Islamic private property, and this property cannot be violated, just as mosques cannot be built in the Vatican."

He also confirmed that there is no contradication, in his opinion, between his faith that "freedom is produced by the application of the shari'ah," and his rejection of any proselytizing of other religions among Muslims, "and this should be the position of every Muslim." However, he does not oppose the conversion of a Muslim to another religion, but only after his being called to repent.

Palestinian Authority: Still Stealing "Hundreds of Millions," Hamas Taking Over

By Khaled Abu Toameh for the Hudson NY:

Donor countries have yet to respond to revelations by former Palestinian intelligence official Fahmi Shabaneh that top Palestinian Authority officials are continuing to pocket millions of dollars earmarked for financial aid to the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Shabaneh expressed frustration over the way the international media has been handling his exposures: “Don’t the Americans, Europeans and Arabs care about their money that is being stolen? If they continue to turn a blind eye to the corruption of the Palestinian Authority, Hamas will eventually take over the West Bank the same way they took the Gaza Strip.”

Nearly a month after Shabaneh, who headed the anti-corruption unit in the General Intelligence Service, revealed in an exclusive interview with The Jerusalem Post that some of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s close aides and loyalists had siphoned off hundreds of millions of dollars to private bank accounts, decision-makers in the US and EU continue to bury their heads in the sand.

The foreign media has continued to cover the story as if it were only a “sex scandal” in Abbas’s bureau - a reference to a videotape revealed by Shabaneh showing Rafik Husseini, director of the president’s bureau, naked in a woman’s bedroom.

Following are examples of some of how, according to Shabaneh, international aid to the Palestinians is being “hijacked” by “thieves and thugs in the inner circle of Mahmoud Abbas.”

* Thousands of civil servants whose names appear on the payroll of the Palestinian Authority either do not exist or have never reported for work. The Palestinian Authority has more than 150,000 registered civil servants whose salaries are paid by American, European and Arab governments. Shabaneh’s investigations showed that senior officials in the president’s office and the Palestinian Ministry of Finance have been “diverting” millions of dollars of these payments to their private bank accounts every month.

* Just before the January 2006 parliamentary election, the US gave $3.2 million to help Fatah boost its image among Palestinians. The goal was to prevent Hamas from winning the vote back then. [Hamas did win in the end]. Shabaneh says that his investigations showed that the money was given to an advertisement company owned by Abbas’s family and that most of the money had “vanished.”

* A former minister in the Palestinian Authority convinced Mahmoud Abbas and his predecessor, Yasser Arafat, to give him about $5 million of international aid so that he could purchase lands in Jerusalem before Jews lay their hands on them. Shabaneh’s investigations showed that the minister deposited most of the money in his private bank account and had built a huge and luxurious villa on the outskirts of Jerusalem.

* Shabaneh’s inquires also found that Azzam al-Ahmed, a senior Abbas advisor and Fatah official, took about $1.5 million from Arafat and Abbas under the pretext that he, too, wanted to purchase land that would otherwise end up in the hands of Jews. Ahmed’s brother, who served as the PLO’s lawyer in Jordan, is also suspected, according to Shabaneh’s files, of defrauding the Palestinian Authority into paying him millions of dollars for fictitious land deals.

* Shabaneh discovered that a former Finance Minister in the Palestinian Authority had deposited $8 million in his private bank account. When Shabaneh demanded explanations, he was told to mind his own business.

These are only a few samples of the hundreds of cases Shabaneh dealt with when he was in his job, according to the former Palestinian intelligence official, who is now “wanted” by the Palestinian Authority on charges of “collaboration with the Israeli enemy.” . He maintains that he has many of the documents and files to back up his charges that the Palestinian Authority and many of its leaders and representatives are continuing to steal financial aid.

“This is not only about a sex scandal,” Shabeneh stressed. The sex scandal is only the tip of the iceberg. Shabaneh says that since Abbas appointed him as the chief corruption-buster in the Palestinian Authority six years ago, he has collected incriminating evidence against dozens of senior officials, in addition to the president’s two sons, Yasser and Tarek. “I don’t know why most people in the West are treating this case as if it were only about a senior official caught naked in a woman’s bedroom.”

Abbas, meanhw[h]ile, has cut off Shabaneh's salary to punish him for speaking out against corruption -- as the international community and the media, through their silence, continue empowering Hamas.

More Hateful Death Fatwas From Saudi Arabia

From ANSAmed:

The death penalty should apply to those who advocate 'promiscuity' between men and women in Saudi Arabia. Such is the conviction of Sheikh Abdel Rahmad Barrak, one of Saudìs most popular imams, who today issued a 'fatwa' (a legally binding opinion) against "the modernisers" who are calling for the abolition of the strict boundaries imposed by Wahabi doctrine. From the pages of his blog hosted on the portal www.islamlight.net, the 78 year-old sheikh has been having a go at some of his colleagues in Saudi and abroad who have started talking about "reforms" in the application of Sharia law and asking for greater tolerance with regard to forms of promiscuity in schools and workplaces. "It's a corrupt practice that allows that which Islam forbids, namely that men and women should confide in each other", opined Barrak, who continued that "whoever allows this promiscuity is not only a panderer but also an infidel who distances himself from the path of Islam". Given this, the sheikh concluded that such people "without repentance, will be killed". In 2007, Barrak made news for a fatwa issued against Shiites, referred to as "infidels", and the following year for another fatwa against Christians and Jews, described as "unbelievers".

Ten Percent of British Gays Report Being Attacked

Thanks to Savage Infidel for posting this.

From the East London and West Essex Guardian Series:

LESBIAN, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) people in Waltham Forest are an “invisible” minority with many passing as straight to avoid harassment or attack, a report has found.

The findings, entitled Waltham Forest LGBT Matters, were commissioned by the council to gain a greater understanding of life in the borough for the LGBT community.

More than half of the 270 LGBT surveyed feel that homophobic or transphobic harassment is a problem in the borough.

One in three avoid certain areas for fear of homophobic attack, one in 10 have been attacked and a third verbally abused because of their sexuality.

The report comes weeks after the latest police figures show a sharp increase in the number of reported homophobic crimes in the borough.

There were 44 reported incidents in the 12 months leading up to January 2010, compared to just 14 in the previous year.

The findings also show that many LGBT people feel little sense of community in the borough, which the report describes as “exacerbated by the absence of LGBT community infrastructure” and by an absence of LGBT people in the council's promotional literature.

A significant minority of those interviewed also said they felt that many members of the large Muslim and evangelical communities in the borough were “critical of LGBT people”.

The report estimates there are between 7,000 and 10,000 lesbian, gay or bisexual people in the borough.

The council has promised to work harder to inform people on how to report hate crime and provide more opportunities to celebrate the LGBT community locally.

Cllr Marie Pye, communities cabinet member said: “We work hard in our schools and in the wider community to educate young people about celebrating differences.

“But perhaps we are not working hard enough to contact those who actually experience harassment”.

Pakistani Christian Beaten for Refusing to Convert to Islam

From Compass Direct News:

Brothers converted by Muslim cleric who raised them leave him for dead.

The four older Muslim brothers of a 26-year-old Christian beat him unconscious here earlier this month because he refused their enticements to convert to Islam, the victim told Compass.

Riaz Masih, whose Christian parents died when he was a boy, said his continual refusal to convert infuriated his siblings and the Muslim cleric who raised them, Moulvi Peer Akram-Ullah. On Feb. 8, he said, his brothers ransacked his house in this Punjab Province town 233 kilometers (145 miles) southwest of Islamabad.

“They threatened that it was the breaking point now, and that I must convert right now or face death,” Masih said. “They said killing an infidel is not a sin, instead it’s righteousness in the sight of Allah almighty.”

Masih begged them to give him a few minutes to consider converting and then tried to escape, but they grabbed him and beat him with bamboo clubs, leaving him for dead, he said.

“They vented their fury and left me, thinking that I was dead, but God Almighty resuscitated me to impart His good news of life,” he said.

Masih told Compass that his brothers and Akram-Ullah have been trying to coerce him to convert to Islam since his brothers converted.

“They had been coercing me to embrace Islam since the time of their recantation of Christianity,” Masih said, “but for the last one month they began to escalate immense pressure on me to convert.”

He grew up with no chance to attend church services because of his siblings’ conversion to Islam, he said, adding that in any event there was no church where he grew up. He knew two Christian families, however, and he said his love for the Christian faith in which he was originally raised grew as he persistently refused to convert to Islam.

He said Akram-Ullah and his brothers offered him 1 million rupees (US$11,790), a spacious residence and a woman of his choice to marry in order to lure him to Islam, but he declined.

The Muslim cleric had converted Masih’s brothers and sisters in like manner, according to human rights organization Rays of Development (ROD), which has provided financial, medical and moral support to Masih. ROD began assisting Masih after a chapter of the Christian Welfare Organization (CWO) brought the injured Christian to ROD.

A spokesman for CWO who requested anonymity told Compass that Akram-Ullah had offered Masih’s brothers and sister a large plot of residential land, as well as 500,000 rupees (US$5,895) each, if they would recite the kalimah, the profession of faith for converting to Islam.

“He never accepted the Islamic cleric’s invitation to Islam, although his newly converted Muslim sister and four elder brothers escalated pressure on him to convert, as well, and live with them as a joint family,” the CWO spokesman said.

Adnan Saeed, an executive member of ROD, told Compass that when Masih’s parents, carpenter George Albert and his wife Stella Albert, passed away, Masih and his siblings were tenants of Akram-Ullah, who cared for them and inculcated them with Islamic ideology.

Saeed said that when they converted, Masih’s now 37-year-old sister, Kathryn Albert, adopted the Islamic name of Aysha Bibi; Masih’s brothers – Alliyas Masih, 35, Yaqoub Masih, 33, Nasir Masih, 31, and Gullfam Masih, 28 – adopted their new Islamic names of Muhammad Alliyas, Abdullah, Nasir Saeed and Gullfam Hassan respectively.

Masih’s family attempted to kill him, Saeed said. A ROD team visited Masih at an undisclosed location and, besides the support they have given him, they are searching for a way to provide him legal assistance as well, Saeed said.

Masih said that because of Islamist hostilities, it would be unsafe for him to go to a police station or even a hospital for treatment. A well-to-do Christian has given shelter to him at an undisclosed location.

In hiding, Masih said that his brothers and Akram-Ullah are still hunting for him.

“Since they have discovered that I was alive and hiding somewhere, they are on the hunt for me,” he said. “And if they found me, they would surely kill me.”

Australia Under Threat From Enemy Within

From ABC News (Australia):

Australians are now under a permanent and increased threat of attack from "homegrown" terrorists, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says.

Mr Rudd today released the Federal Government's counter-terrorism white paper which has identified the growing threat of attacks from militant Islamists from within Australia and overseas.

The Government will spend almost $70 million on new visa measures that will require visitors from 10 countries to provide fingerprints and facial scanning images on entry to Australia.

And a counter-terrorism agency will be established within ASIO to coordinate action against possible attacks.

Mr Rudd says Australia is a specific target of terrorism threats from groups such as Al Qaeda and those who take inspiration from it.

"Homegrown terrorism is now a reality in Australia that we have to accept," he said.

"That threat is not diminishing. The key threat comes from people who adhere to the distorted and militant interpretation of Islam that is espoused by such groups as Al Qaeda.

"Australia now faces an increased terrorist threat from people born or raised in Australia who take inspiration from international jihadist narratives."

While gains have been made against terrorist groups in South East Asia, they have been offset by a growing threat from countries such as Somalia and Yemen, Mr Rudd says.

Around 100 Australians have been killed in terrorist attacks since 2001.

Since that time 20 Australians have been convicted of various terrorism offences and 40 have had their passports revoked.

The release of the white paper - which was due last year - comes as Mr Rudd faces increasing pressure to sack Environment Minister Peter Garrett over the botched home insulation scheme.

But Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith denies its release today is being used as a distraction.

"The Government and the Opposition can carry two thoughts in their mind on one day," he said.

"They can deal with the prevailing domestic issues of the day but also deal seriously with our most significant priority as a Government and a nation."

The Government will not say which 10 countries will be on its list for increased visa checks, and Mr Rudd says it may be expanded.

Greens leader Bob Brown has criticised the new measure.

"It seems a very blunt instrument to be picking out 10 countries amongst 200 countries and saying 'if you come from one of those 10 you get the full check, if you don't, you don't'," he said.

"These things just don't stop at borders like that."

Iraqi Civilians and Minorities Slaughtered by Islamists

From the Telegraph (UK):

Fears of a downward spiral of violence in advance of the Iraqi elections worsened after the attacks.

In the first attack, a woman and her three daughters were shot dead overnight at their home in Al-Hurriyah, a Shia suburb of north Baghdad.

Then, at around 7am a family of eight including six children under the age of 12 were killed in the town of Al-Wehdah, 12 miles south-east of the capital.

Several of the victims were then beheaded, according to police.

The only groups to practise beheading widely in Iraq have been those claiming allegiance to al-Qaeda, which has targeted the majority Shia population.

With most of the parties standing in next month's elections sectarian, the greatest fear is that campaigning will reopen divisions between the religious communities. There has been a renewed wave of killing of Christians in northern Iraq in recent weeks.

A Sunni politician, Saleh al-Mutlaq, has pulled his party out of the election after he was banned from standing on the grounds of his past membership of the Ba'ath Party of the deposed president, Saddam Hussein.

A similar boycott is held to have contributed to Iraq's collapse into civil war after the last general election in Iraq, in 2005.

On top of the nine children killed in the shootings, a six-year-old boy was killed in a car bomb in the city of Ramadi, a city 60 miles west of the capital, in which his father and a policeman also died.

Four more policemen, two soldiers, a businessman and a professor were also killed in targeted shootings around the country.

Guilty Plea Made in Plot to Bomb New York Subway

From the New York Times:

The Afghan immigrant at the center of what the authorities described as one of the most serious threats to the United States since 9/11 pleaded guilty Monday to terrorism charges in what he said was a Qaeda plot to detonate a bomb in the New York subway.

The man, Najibullah Zazi, admitted that he came to New York last year near the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks to kill himself and others on the subway using a homemade bomb. He characterized the plot as a “martyrdom operation” that he was just days away from executing when he said he realized he was under government surveillance.

Mr. Zazi, 25, pleaded guilty in United States District Court in Brooklyn to charges that included conspiracies to use weapons of mass destruction and to commit murder in a foreign country, and to provide material support for a terrorist organization. He faces a possible life term when he is sentenced on June 25.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said at a news conference in Washington that the Zazi case represented one of the most serious threats to the United States since the 9/11 attacks.

“Were it not for the combined efforts of the law enforcement and intelligence communities it could have been devastating,” he said. “This attempted attack on our homeland was real, it was in motion, and it would have been deadly.”

Mr. Holder, who has faced criticism by some who favor prosecuting more terror suspects before military tribunals, also repeated his defense of the civilian court system as “an invaluable weapon for disrupting plots and incapacitating terrorists.” He said it “contains powerful incentives to induce pleas that yield long sentences and gain intelligence.”

Throughout the 45-minute proceeding on Monday, Mr. Zazi seemed unaffected by his circumstances, even smiling on several occasions. When he spoke, he did so in an unapologetic, matter-of-fact manner, explaining that he was driven to terrorism by his concerns about the United States’ actions in Afghanistan.

In recent weeks, Mr. Zazi — who was born in Afghanistan, raised in Pakistan and later attended high school in Queens — had begun providing information to prosecutors as part of the initial stages of an agreement that led to his guilty plea on Monday, according to two people with knowledge of the case.

There have been a number of additional arrests in the case, including his father, his uncle and two of his classmates at Flushing High School. Mr. Zazi agreed to cooperate in part out of concern that a widening inquiry would result in more charges against his family members, including his mother, said one person involved in the case. The 10-page plea agreement was sealed by Judge Raymond J. Dearie, but the arrangement suggested that prosecutors believe Mr. Zazi can be a valuable source of information.

On its own, though, the guilty plea marks the successful prosecution of a terrorist in an advanced plot in which explosive materials similar to those used in the 2005 London subway and bus attacks were actually brought into New York. In some other terror cases, plotters appeared to lack the materials or knowledge to make good on their threats.

Mr. Holder said the Zazi case is an “ongoing investigation” despite the disruption of the subway plot. He declined to say whether other suspects were being sought in the investigation in the United States or abroad.

Mr. Zazi told the court that he decided to go with friends to Pakistan in August 2008 to join the Taliban in fighting the United States invasion of Afghanistan.

While in Pakistan, he received training in making bombs, and was persuaded by Qaeda operatives to return to America to be a suicide bomber. They discussed possible targets, including the New York subway system.

“I would sacrifice myself to bring attention to what the United States military was doing to civilians in Afghanistan by sacrificing my soul for the sake of saving other souls,” he said.

After his return from Pakistan, he soon moved to Colorado, where he worked as an airport shuttle bus driver and began putting together the raw materials — including beauty products — for a bomb, working off notes he had e-mailed to himself while he was overseas. Mr. Zazi said he drove to New York on Sept. 10 with some explosives. He planned to set off the bombs in Manhattan subway lines as soon as they were ready, he said.

When he suspected he was under surveillance — his vehicle had been stopped while he drove across the George Washington Bridge — he decided to abort the operation, dumping out some of his homemade explosives and flying back to Colorado, where he was arrested on Sept. 19.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg praised the law enforcement effort, saying, “This is not an amateur operation. It was a very serious plot against New York City.”

In Washington, Mr. Holder said that the Zazi case “is a demonstration of the facts. This is not some kind of partisan political attempt to shape something for the purposes of an election.” Asked about plans for a trial for Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four other men accused of plotting 9/11, he declined to say whether a new site has been chosen after New York officials objected to the cost and disruption the trial would cause in Lower Manhattan.

He said the Justice Department would consider the views of local leaders and residents at any prospective trial site, he said.

“But in making that determination, people should keep in mind that we’re talking about doing things that we have done safely over the years — that is, trying people accused of terrorist crimes, ” Mr. Holder said.

Jordanian Man Jailed for Killing Sister in "Honor" Crime

The murderer received ten years for his crime. Jordanian sentencing for the killers of women in so-called honor killings is downright appalling.

From the Straits Times:

AMMAN - A JORDANIAN on death row for the murder of his married sister who used her mobile too often in an apparent 'honour killing' has had his term commuted to 10 years in jail, a judicial official said on Monday.

'The man confessed to the crime after he was arrested shortly after the crime,' the official told AFP.

The defendant said 'he stabbed his sister, who was in her 40s, in the stomach, back and chest because she frequently talked over her mobile phone and allegedly had suspicious behaviour,' said the official, on condition of anonymity.

The man, 21, was charged with premeditated murder, which is punishable by death, but the court reduced the sentence on Sunday after the family dropped all legal claims against him, the official said. He said the 2007 killing took place in Jabal Akhdar, near the centre of Amman.

Between 15 and 20 women are murdered each year in Jordan in so-called honour crimes, in which male relatives kill female kin they suspect of illicit behaviour with men.

In September, the US-based Human Rights Watch urged the kingdom to reform its penal code, which it says condones the murder of women in the name of honour crimes.

United States' Islamist Envoy

From investors.com:

Infiltration: What a tangled web Islamist appointees weave. When his pro-terrorist quotes surfaced, a new White House envoy dismissed them as someone else's. A recording says otherwise.

Now Rashad Hussain, President Obama's pick as special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, has changed his story. He admits he did indeed call the indictment of a now-convicted terrorist a "travesty of justice."

Politico.com has provided the quotes from a recording of the 2004 event attended by Hussain to the White House for review. In it, Hussain defended confessed terrorist Sami Al-Arian, suggesting the government had railroaded him. A Florida professor, Al-Arian was running a U.S. beachhead for Palestinian terrorists. In a plea deal, he copped to a reduced charge of conspiracy to provide material support to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a federally designated terror group. In a speech at a Cleveland mosque, Al-Arian once thundered: "Let's damn America, let's damn Israel, let's damn their allies until death."

When the controversy first broke, the White House deferred to the spin of Hussain and the Mideast outfit that scrubbed the offending statements from its Web site. Turns out the Washington Report for Middle East Affairs, a Saudi-tied, anti-Israel journal that sells Intifada trinkets, deleted his remarks after receiving a phone call from Hussain. WRMEA once employed Al-Arian's daughter as a staffer. Thanks to the recording, there's now no denying what Hussain said. After this deception, Obama should change his pick for envoy, who would join the OIC, a 57-government Islamic bloc, the largest voting bloc in the U.N.

The OIC is waging an international campaign against "Islamophobia," calling it the real "terrorism." The bloc's assault on free speech includes pressuring the West into passing laws criminalizing criticism of Islam, including motives of jihadists like Al-Arian.

It's plain that Hussain, who also has bashed the Patriot Act and other key anti-terror tools, cannot be trusted to represent U.S. interests vis-a-vis the OIC.

What's more, there are reports linking him to the radical Muslim Brotherhood, of which Al-Arian is a senior member. The Brotherhood has hatched a secret plot to infiltrate the U.S. government and "destroy" it "from within," and has erected an impressive infrastructure supporting terrorism inside America.

In a raid of Al-Arian's home, federal agents seized a document in Arabic revealing a Brotherhood plan for "spying" on U.S. agencies.

"Members of the group should be able to infiltrate the sensitive intelligence agencies or the embassies in order to collect information and build close relationships with the people in charge in these establishments," the paper advises Brotherhood leaders in America.

So far with this White House, the bad guys are finding it shockingly easy to put their agents in place.

Egypt: Device Planted in Cairo Synagogue, One Arrest

From ANSAmed:

The alleged author of last Sunday's attack in a synagogue located in the centre of Cairo has been arrested. The report was made by Egypt's public television network Nile News. On Sunday a Molotov cocktail was launched against the door of the Shàar Hashamayin Jewish temple without generating any damage or casualties. The device, hidden in a backpack, was thrown from a hotel facing the synagogue, the largest in Egypt. A statement of the ministry of the Interior disseminated by Mena agency reported that the man is a 49-year-old tailor residing in the city's working-class neighbourhood. He was arrested early this morning in Garden City, where the US embassy is located and where the man tried to ask for political asylum. The statement reported that the man was identified thanks to some personal belongings that were found in the room the attacker had booked on the fourth floor of the Panorama hotel. The man had thrown the backpack from one of the hotel's reception windows before making an escape. The homemade device consisted of four containers containing sulphuric acid, cotton, matches and lighters.

The Saudi Pedophile Chronicles

By Jamie Glaslov for Pajamas Media:

The Saudis really need to get an infomercial out there — and the Nation magazine and other leftist sites that apologize for Islamic gender apartheid can feature it on their webpages. It would go something like this:

A Saudi sheikh dressed slickly in Saudi garb would be sitting confidently in a chair, looking into the camera with an excited smile. He would then begin asking, with earnestness and an encouraging tone:
Are you a pedophile? Do you like underage girls? Would you like to rape one of them — or several? And get away with it? Even have it legally sanctioned? Then Saudi Arabia is for you.
The screen then shifts to a shopping mall filled with niqab-covered women (only the slit of the eyes showing) walking up and down in front of stores. It remains unclear what message this is supposed to denote, but the camera stays focused on these shrouded women for about ten seconds. Then a warning appears that all infidels who are interested must first convert to Islam. This is followed by a phone number appearing over a black background, indicating a contact person who can be reached. A voice then explains that this person lurks within the Saudi religious police and that he will connect interested parties to Saudi fathers intent on selling their underage girls into marriage — a standard practice in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi fathers, you see, they know what’s up: it’s better to sell one’s daughter at a very young age to get raped under the sanctioning of Islamic law than to risk her getting older and bringing shame to the family — which can happen in a million ways in Saudi Arabia (i.e., she might go outside without permission or attempt to run out of a burning building unveiled). This all gets too needlessly complicated — as you then have to kill her. So why go through all the trouble when you can make some cash while she’s young and get rid of the problem?

After the phone number is flashed on the screen, the infomercial ends with a little talk from Jasem Muhammad al-Mutawah, Saudi Arabia’s infamous “expert” on Islamic “family matters.” He’s holding one of his favorite rods and begins to explain and gleefully demonstrate with it how a husband should use it to beat his wife — as he has done on Saudi instructional TV programs on wife beating on Iqraa TV.

These kinds of Saudi infomercials could really capitalize on a grotesque, barbaric, and nightmarish reality within the kingdom — to which the international community responds with a deafening silence and shameless paralysis. The other day, for instance, a typical news report emerged out of Saudi Arabia: a 12-year-old girl was sold by her father into marriage with an 80-year-old man. The Saudi father sold her to his cousin, who had previously married three other young girls, for the equivalent of $22,600 U.S. currency.

After the “wedding,” the girl was taken to the hospital because of horrible physical injuries she sustained in the rape that followed the “festivities” — which involves the “wife” and all women forced into a closet and the men “celebrating” in a large room, spending most of the time staring into each other’s eyes. If an outsider was present at this function and didn’t know the “culture,” he would definitely think that a gay wedding, of one form or another, was underway. But not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Eman Al Nafjan, a Saudi blogger and women’s rights advocate, is one of the few courageous voices speaking out against this vicious injustice of child rape in Saudi Arabia. Her voice fills the void left by the shameless silence of the “progressive” left in the West, which dares not speak a word of criticism against Islam, lest doing so might put its anti-Americanism and solidarity with jihadists into jeopardy....