Iraq: Two Christians Murdered, Eight Injured In Grenade And Roadside Bomb Attacks

From The Guardian (UK):

Two people were killed yesterday and at least eight injured in a series of bomb attacks on Christian homes in Baghdad.

The grenade and bomb attacks came a week after Islamist militants linked to al-Qaida threatened a wave of violence against Iraq's beleaguered Christian community.

In an attack in the south-west of the city, two grenades were thrown into the home of a Christian family, killing two people and injuring five, Iraqi police said.

In eastern Baghdad, two people were injured when a grenade was thrown into another Christian home.

In western Baghdad, a roadside bomb exploded near a Christian house, injuring one member of the family and a passing motorist.

The deaths were confirmed by Iraq's military spokesman, Major General Qassim al-Moussawi, who added: "The aim of these attacks is to prevent Christians from celebrating the new year's holiday."

Thousands of Iraqi Christians have fled to northern Iraq since October when at least 68 people were killed when militants stormed a Baghdad church and took the congregation of about 100 worshippers hostage.

Last week, al-Qaida warned there would be further violence against the Christian community, leading many Christians to tone down their Christmas celebrations and cancel events such as evening mass and appearances by Santa Claus.

Christian leaders estimate that there are between 400,000 and 600,000 Christians still living in Iraq. Before the war, some estimated the number was 1.4 million.

Father Mukhlis, a priest at Our Lady of Salvation church in Baghdad, where the hostage incident in October occurred, called yesterday's attacks "direct oppression" against Iraqi Christians.

The Christmas holidays coincide this year with Muslim month of Muharram, which is particularly important as a period of mourning for Shias.

Some Christians said they were playing down the Christmas holiday this year out of respect for their Shia neighbours.

However, others reported intimidation by members of the Mahdi Army, a Shia militia backed by the anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who pressured them not to celebrate publicly.

Pakistanis Want To Keep Blasphemy Law

Muslim Pakistanis are happy to keep the status quo and selectively enforce "blasphemy" laws which oppress minorities.

This is related to this story.

From BBC:

A 24-hour strike organised by Sunni Muslim clerics is taking place across Pakistan to protest against possible changes to blasphemy laws.

Rallies were staged in Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta after Friday prayers.

The government has distanced itself from a bill to change the law, which carries a mandatory death sentence for anyone who insults Islam.

Rights groups say the law is often used to persecute religious minorities.

The legislation returned to the spotlight in November when a Pakistani Christian woman, Asia Bibi, was sentenced to death.

Although no-one convicted under the law has been executed, more than 30 accused have been killed by lynch mobs.

'Over our dead bodies'

The Pope has led international calls to show mercy on Ms Bibi, who denies insulting the Prophet Muhammad during an argument with other farmhands in a Punjab province village in June 2009.
Friday's strike saw businesses shuttered and transport workers walking out in towns and cities across the country.

There was no public transport in the southern city of Karachi, where demonstrators blocked traffic as part of the industrial action.

The BBC's Ilyas Khan says bus owners in the Sindh province capital may have feared their vehicles could be torched if put on the road.

Quetta, the capital of the southern province of Balochistan, also ground to a halt.

There was a partial shutdown in the national capital of Islamabad, the north-western city of Peshawar and Lahore, capital of Punjab.

One Sunni cleric in Islamabad warned in his Friday sermon that any change to the blasphemy law would happen "over our dead bodies".

The strike was held to protest against a private member's bill submitted to parliament.

It seeks to amend the law by abolishing the death sentence and by strengthening clauses which prevent any chance of a miscarriage of justice.

The bill has been drafted by a member of the ruling Pakistan People's Party and by a former Information Minister, Sherry Rehman.

This led religious groups, who are demanding that Ms Rehman quit, to conclude the government was behind it.

On Wednesday, Pakistan's religious affairs minister told parliament the bill did not reflect government policy.

"I state with full responsibility that the government has no intention to repeal the blasphemy law," Syed Khurshid Shah said.

"If someone has brought in a private bill, it has nothing to do with the government."

Federal Law Minister Babar Awan told reporters that Friday's strike was simply the latest attempt to revive a once powerful alliance of religious parties.

The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal emerged as the third largest vote-winner in the 2002 elections held by the regime of President Pervez Musharraf, but the grouping had broken apart by the time of polls two years ago.

Our correspondent says the government is hoping to placate shrill religious protest at a time when it is in difficulty with two coalition partners.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement this week withdrew two ministers from the federal cabinet, blaming corruption and rising prices.

The Jamiat-i-Ulema Islam party, a smaller coalition partner, withdrew from the government earlier in December after one of its ministers was sacked.

Many believe the two parties are acting at the behest of the security establishment to undermine the country's political system.

Dubai: Quran Teacher Gets 5 Months For Raping Student

Where are the protests? In Dubai platonically kissing a man on the cheek warrants jail time. And consensual sex might get a person life in prison. But a Quran instructor can rape a child for months and receive a joke of a jail sentence.

Beyond the glitz and glamour, Dubai is a territory that has not advanced into the modern age.

From Emirates 24/7:

A Dubai court has sentenced a Pakistani religious teacher to five years in jail for repeatedly raping a 11-boy he was teaching.

The 23-year-old man identified as ZB was found guilty by the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance for raping the boy over a period of seven months during which he was assigned to give him Quran lessons, The National reported.

The boy had earlier told prosecutors that the man would come home to teach him Quran five days a week since February 2009. Intimidated by the man, the boy was unable to speak out to anyone about his ordeal, prosecutors were told.

His mother however said she began to notice changes in the boy’s demeanour after the classes started. He revealed everything when she cajoled him to speak the truth.

She then lodged a complaint with the police on January 11 after which ZB was taken for questioning at the Jebel Ali police station.

UAE: Court Rules Male Worth More Than Female, Even In Womb

From Emirates 24/7:

The UAE Supreme Court has ruled that the blood money to compensate the death of a foetus in a road accident be calculated as if the newborn would have been a girl baby.

While the blood money compensation for a man is Dh200,000, the amount is Dh100,000 for a woman.

The landmark ruling made on Wednesday was in response to an appeal in a case where a Fujairah woman was hit by a lorry in 2007, reports The National.

While she suffered serious injuries, the baby she was carrying in her womb died.

While upholding the lower court’s verdict that asked the insurance company to pay Dh1.2 million in damages, the apex court however ruled that the compensation must include Dh100,000 as blood money. The blood money for a foetus dead in a road accident is calculated at 10 per cent of that of an adult woman – which would be Dh10,000.

Some eight months ago, the President of the Federal Supreme Court Dr Abdul Wahab Abdul had called for reforms in the blood money laws to make it same for males and females.

Several experts had argued for parity on the grounds that the traditional justification for lesser compensation for women does not apply in the modern world where members of both sexes are equal.

Turkey Detains 10 Suspected Militants Thought To Plan New Year Attack

From the Telegraph (UK):

Turkish police have detained 10 suspected al Qaeda militants who they believe were planning an attack ahead of New Year, according to reports.

The suspects, eight of whom were detained in anti-terror raids in the northwestern city of Bursa on Wednesday, were expected to be brought before a court on Friday, according to state media.

A further two people were detained in Istanbul and taken to Bursa. Bursa police said in a statement that eight suspects linked to a terror group had been detained.

Turkish police often arrest suspected Islamist militants and describe them as having links to al Qaeda, though details seldom emerge. Around 120 al Qaeda suspects were rounded up last January in raids mostly carried out in the southeast.

In October, police held five male students suspected of providing support to al Qaeda militants fighting Nato forces in Afghanistan.

One was believed to have been designing computer programmes to jam the flight controls of drone aircraft and the others were involved in fund-raising for militants.

Al-Qaeda Linked Extremist On Trial For Terror Charges

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

JAKARTA: An Islamist extremist linked to the militant group al-Qaeda in Aceh, which plotted to kill Westerners in Indonesia, has gone on trial facing multiple terrorism-related charges.

Abdullah Sunata, 32, was part of an ''evil conspiracy'' and had organised the cell's military-style training in Aceh province last year, the prosecutor Asep Aminudin said yesterday. He also supplied firearms to the group, Mr Aminudin said.

''The accused … attempted or assisted in carrying out terrorist acts, with the use of violence to stir up an atmosphere of terror and widespread fear,'' he told the East Jakarta district court.

Dangerous ... Abdullah Sunata is surrounded by his family after arriving at the East Jakarta court yesterday to begin his trial. Photo: AFP
Sunata was released from jail in 2009 for good behaviour after serving only a small fraction of a seven-year sentence for his role in the 2004 Australian embassy attack, which killed 10 people.

''After he was released, the accused was active in preaching about jihad and the obligation of people to carry out jihad,'' Mr Aminudin said. Several times Sunata met the Islamist militant leader Dulmatin and also received 195 million rupiah ($21,300) from other terrorist suspects to buy firearms, he said. Dulmatin, who planned the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings, was killed in March after police discovered the group's training camp in Aceh.

He faces the death penalty if convicted of the charges.

Police had rearrested Sunata in central Java in June on suspicion of planning attacks on the Danish embassy in Jakarta and a police parade, which he denied.

Wearing a maroon shirt and white cap, Sunata said there was a ''stigma'' associated with convicted terrorists.

''That's their accusation. Actually, the term terrorist is neutral, can be positive or negative … it depends on whose definition,'' he told reporters from his court cell. ''I'll leave to Allah to decide the outcome.''

Denmark: Five Arrested In "Imminent" Jihad Attack On Motoons Paper Intended To Shoot As Many People As Possible

From Jihad Watch:

Priorities: Imagine if all of the time and energy poured into Muslim outrage and plots for violent revenge over a cartoon had been channeled into something productive. You might be driving, say, a small, sporty, efficient Afghan car. For that matter, you might be driving a small, sporty, efficient, flying Afghan car. An update on this story. "Denmark Arrests 5 Suspected of Planning Terror Attack," from the Associated Press, December 29:

COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- Five men planning to shoot as many people as possible in a building housing the newsroom of a paper that published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad were arrested Wednesday in an operation that halted an imminent attack, intelligence officials said.

Denmark's intelligence service said it arrested four men in two raids in suburbs of the capital, Copenhagen, and seized an automatic weapon, a silencer and ammunition. Swedish police said they arrested a 37-year-old Swedish citizen of Tunisian origin living in Stockholm.

"An imminent terror attack has been foiled," said Jakob Scharf, head of the Danish Security and Intelligence Service, or PET. He described some the suspects as "militant Islamists with relations to international terror networks" and said that more arrests were possible.

PET said it seized a 44-year-old Tunisian, a 29-year-old Lebanese-born man and a 30-year-old who were living in Sweden and had entered Denmark late Tuesday or early Wednesday. The fourth person detained was a 26-year-old Iraqi asylum-seeker living in Copenhagen.

Maybe Sweden could've taken him instead, having made a little room forcibly repatriating Iraqi Christians fleeing persecution.

The Danish intelligence service said the group had been planning to enter the building where the Jyllands-Posten daily has its Copenhagen newsdesk and had wanted "to kill as many of the people present as possible." The four men face preliminary charges of attempting to carry out an act of terrorism. They will face a custody hearing Thursday.

Zubair Butt Hussain, a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Denmark, called the plan "extremely worrying."

The organization "absolutely condemns any act of terrorism regardless of the motives and motivations that may lie behind," Hussain said. [...]

There remains a problem of a collective lack of anger management rooted in Islamic supremacism and the Qur'an's own endorsement of violence to achieve it.

In early 2006, reaction to the drawings sparked violent protests in Muslim countries where demonstrators said the drawings had profoundly insulted Islam. Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the prophet, even favorable, for fear it could lead to idolatry.

Scharf said "there was no need to raise the terror threat alert level" in Denmark.

The men were arrested in Greve, south of Copenhagen, and Herlev, west of the Danish capital.

Danish Justice Minister Lars Barfoed described the plot as "terrifying."

"The group's plan to kill as many as possible is very frightening and is probably the most serious terror attempt in Denmark," he said....

Muslim Population Has Grown From 1.65 Million To 2.87 Million Since 2001, Say Researchers. What Does This Mean For Liberal Britain?

By Damian Thompson for The Telegraph (UK):

There is a remarkable statistic in today’s main Daily Telegraph leader:

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life estimates that there are 2,869,000 Muslims in Britain, an increase of 74 per cent on its previous figure of 1,647,000, which was based on the 2001 census. No demographic statistics are reliable in an era of open borders, but such an expansion is unprecedented.

The figure of 2.87 million was first published by Pew in a little-noticed press release last September, announcing a report on Muslim Networks and Movements in Western Europe. The Pew Centre, based in Washington DC, is one of the most respected demographic research bodies in the world; its methodology is scrupulous and its approach non-partisan. The new total for British Muslims means that, so far as this country as concerned, Pew’s major 2009 report Mapping the Global Muslim Population is already spectacularly out of date. Here’s a map showing the updated distribution of the Muslim population in Europe:

The material about global Islam in the 2010 report is fascinating, but it’s the revision of British figures that took me by surprise. Why was it not more widely reported in the autumn? And what are the implications for society? For an analysis that puts the statistics in context, let me recommend this article from the British Religion In Numbers website, which makes the point that the 2001 figure was probably an underestimate.

Pew’s UK figure for 2010 is 2,869,000, which is equivalent to 4.6% of the population. In absolute terms, the UK has the third largest Muslim community on the continent, after Germany (4,119,000) and France (3,574,000).

In percentage terms, the UK is in ninth position, after Belgium (6.0%), France, Austria and Switzerland (5.7%), The Netherlands (5.5%), Germany (5.0%), Sweden (4.9%) and Greece (4.7%). UK Muslims account for 16.8% of all Muslims in Western Europe.

There have been other indications of a dramatic increase in the numbers of British Muslims: the UK Labour Force Survey recorded a rise from 1,870,000 in 2004 to 2,422,000 in 2008. So Pew’s findings aren’t unsupported by independent data. Common sense suggests explanations for the increase: a high Muslim birth rate and large-scale immigration. But I’m not sure that common sense tells us what this demographic earthquake means in practice for British public life.

Setting aside for the moment the topics of Muslim ghettos and jihadist Islam, let’s ask another question. How will the rapid growth of a conservative religion affect British social attitudes towards women’s rights, marriage, divorce, homosexuality and abortion? Liberal commentators are busy making fools of themselves in the Guardian and on Twitter accusing the mild-mannered Coalition of behaving like Nazis for trimming state spending. But I suspect that nothing politicians do will, in chattering terminology, “set back” social attitudes as drastically as the growth among young people of a faith that, even in its moderate incarnations, is resolutely non-liberal on many moral issues. What do you think?

Palestinian Family Sends Mentally Ill Son To Infiltrate Israeli Territory In Hope IDF Would Shoot Him

The boy is reportedly unharmed.

From Haaretz (Israel):

A Palestinian caught trying to infiltrate a settlement Wednesday night claims he was sent by his family members, who had hoped he would be killed by soldiers during the infiltration.

Israel Defense Forces soldiers patrolling the central West Bank near the settlement of Beit El on Wednesday spotted a Palestinian walking toward the settlement and subsequently arrested him.

According to the investigation into the incident, the boy was behaving in a strange manner and the soldiers originally thought that he was drunk. Later on in the investigation, it was clarified that he was actually suffering from a mental illness.

The boy told investigators that his family wanted him dead. He said they threatened him at gunpoint, forcing him to walk towards the settlement with the hope that soldiers would think he was trying to infiltrate and would shoot him.

IDF scouts who searched the area confirmed the boy's version of events and found four family members who had tried to flee the area.

Picture of the Week: Christmas And Islam

From The Religion of Peace:

So far this Christmas, Religion of Peace devotees have bombed a church in the Philippines, blown up 45 waiting in line for Western food aid, plotted to bomb a Christmas tree lighting in Oregon and a recruitment center in Maryland, massacred 86 innocents in attacks on Nigerian churches, plotted to poison American food buffets, implant bombs in human bodies, and slaughter civilian populations in Holland, London and a newspaper office in Denmark... and even set off the first suicide blast in Sweden, which was intended for Christmas shoppers.

So when do we stop pretending that Islam is just another religion?

India Issues Nationwide Terror Alert After Warnings Of Jihad Plot

From Jihad Watch:

Not surprisingly, there is a possible connection to the Pakistani government: "In his interrogation, Headley claimed that he frequently combined missions for Lashkar-e-Taiba with missions for the main Pakistani spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI)."

"India issues nationwide terror alert," by Jason Burke in the Guardian, December 28 (thanks to David):

Indian authorities have deployed thousands of security personnel following warnings that Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistan-based militant group, is planning an attack over the New Year weekend.

Police officers and paramilitaries were on high alert across the country, including in India's financial capital, Mumbai, Indian officials said. House-to-house searches were under way in some areas of the city, which was attacked by Lashkar-e-Taiba in November 2008. Airports and railway stations, the city of Ahmedabad in the western state of Gujarat and the popular beach resort state of Goa were also on high alert following the warning, said to be based on "human" intelligence and received in recent days.

Most of the locations covered by the alert had been visited by David Headley, a Pakistani-American and member of Lashkar-e-Taiba who travelled widely in India before the Mumbai attack, one official told the Guardian. Headley was tasked by the extremist group with surveillance of targets in Mumbai itself but also visited Goa and the city of Pune, where there was a blast in February.

Mumbai residents at a candlelit vigil near the Oberoi hotel, one of the luxury hotels targeted by terrorists on 26 November 2008. Photograph: Uriel Sinai/Getty Images

According to a secret report by Indian investigators of their interrogation of Headley in June, the undercover militant brought back film and notes on potential targets in India such as Jewish centres and tourist resorts favoured by Israelis which he passed on to his handlers.

In his interrogation, Headley claimed that he frequently combined missions for Lashkar-e-Taiba with missions for the main Pakistani spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI). His last trips to India before his arrest in Chicago in October last year were on behalf of a veteran Pakistani militant with links to al-Qaida called Ilyas Kashmiri, he said....

Muslim Group Claims Responsibility For Attacks On Two Nigerian Cities That Killed 86 People

This is an update on this story.

From Bloomberg.com:

A Muslim group in Nigeria identifying itself as Jama’atu Ahlus-Sunnah Lidda’Awati Wal Jihad said it carried out Christmas Eve attacks on the cities of Jos and Maiduguri that killed at least 86 people.

The group is “avenging the atrocities committed against Muslims in those areas, and the country in general,” according to a statement on its website. “Therefore we will continue with our attacks on disbelievers and their allies and all those who help them.”

Multiple bomb blasts in Jos, capital of the central state of Plateau, targeted public places, including a Catholic church, killing at least 80 people, according to Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency. Two churches were also attacked by gunmen on the same day in Maiduguri, capital of Borno state in northeast Nigeria, killing six people, said Mohammed Abubakar, the commissioner of police.

Africa’s top oil producer and most populous country of more than 140 million people, roughly split between a mainly Muslim north and a predominantly Christian south, has suffered periodic outbursts of sectarian violence. At least 14,000 people have died in ethnic and religious violence since 1999 in Nigeria, according to the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.

Sectarian Violence

Sectarian violence between Christians and Muslims in Jos has left hundreds of people dead this year. At least 492 people were killed in an attack on a predominantly Christian village by Muslim Fulani herders near Jos on March 7, according to Civil Rights Congress, a rights group based in the northern city of Kaduna.

Police blamed the attack on churches in Maiduguri Boko Haram, an Islamic sect opposed to western education and modeled after Afghanistan’s Taliban.

The attacks in Jos sparked reprisal violence by rival gangs, prompting additional police and military reinforcements to the city. At least four people were killed and 20 houses burned in different parts of the city, Abdulrahman Akano, the police commissioner in charge of the city, told reporters yesterday.

A special military task force deployed to help quell the violence yesterday arrested three men who were trying to attack buildings with dynamite in the Dogon-Karfe district of the city, Captain Charles Okocha, a military spokesman, said at a news conference yesterday.

Indianapolis Grandma And Wife Of German Jihadist Under Investigation For Suspected Terrorist Ties

From Fox/ 59/WXIN (Indianapolis affiliate):

Indianapolis — FoxNews.com is reporting an Indiana grandmother, who is a Muslim convert, has caught the attention of federal investigators after she was seen in a recent pro-jihadist video.

Kathie Smith of Indianapolis is a U.S. Citizen who married a suspected German jihadist last year. According to Fox News, she has been flying back and forth between the U.S. and Germany.

The Indiana Intelligence Fusion Center is taking a look at the video which features Smith and her husband, along with members of the Islamic Jihad Union who have been charged with plotting failed terror attacks.

"Certainly, it's being looked at and evaluated by Indiana State Police, which runs Indiana Intelligence Fusion Center, " Indiana Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Emily Norcross told FoxNews.com, adding that the video would be passed along to appropriate law enforcement for further investigation.

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security would neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation.

Smith has been emailing back and forth with FoxNews.com, claiming she has repeatedly been subjected to lengthy interrogations and searches when she travels.

Click here to read the entire FoxNews.com report.

Click here for link to video on YouTube.

Islamic Clerics Reject South Sudan Referendum, Demand Islamic Laws

From Sudan Tribune:

(KHARTOUM) – A group of radical Muslim clerics on Friday overtly faulted the Sudanese government for accepting south Sudan’s referendum on independence, and demanded imposition of Islamic Shar’iah law in the entire country whether citizens of the mainly Christian region of south Sudan like it or not.

South Sudan, whose population mostly follows Christianity or traditional beliefs, is bound for secession from the Muslim-ruled north in a referendum vote due in January 2011, a plebiscite stipulated by the 2005’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which in 2005 ended nearly half a century of intermittent civil war between north and south Sudan.

Under the CPA, north Sudan maintained Islamic laws whereas the south was given extensive autonomy under a secular government led by the former southern rebels Sudan People’s Liberation Movement [SPLM].

The legitimate League of Muslim Preachers and Clerics (LLMPC), a group of radical clerics existing in parallel to the official clerical body known as the Association of Muslim Scholars, marched in protest on Friday, 24 December, and held a press conference in which the group’s leaders declared rejection to south Sudan’s referendum on independence and called on the government to implement Shari’ah law in full.

The group’s prominent member Mohamed Abdel-Karim addressed the protestors and demanded the government in the north fulfills its long-standing promise to implement Shari’ah Islamic law regardless of what southerners want.

Abdel-Karim, whose name is often cited in association with Al-Qaidah branch in the Land of the Two Niles, said that the implementation of Islamic Shari’ah was currently incomplete in Sudan as evidenced by the fact that president Al-Bashir said he would adopt an Islamic constitution after south Sudan secession.

Sudan president Al-Bashir last week sparked a nationwide controversy when declared that the north would change the constitution to make Shari’ah the only source of lawmaking and Arabic the only language if the south decided to part ways with the north.

“If god forbids, the South separates [then] the constitution will be amended [and] a lot of things relating to the South will go away,” he said in a speech in the eastern state of Al-Gadarif.

“But the opaque talk [about] the Sudanese people I don’t know what…is multi-racial and multi-religious, the [Islamic] Shari’a will be the main source for lawmaking….and Arabic language will the official language of the state as will be stipulated in the upcoming constitution,” Al-Bashir added.

The group’s leaders declared south Sudan’s referendum on independence as “null and void” and part of a “Zionist-Western” plot to divide Sudan into five frail states, implying that the government was already aware that signing the CPA would pave the way for the south to secede.

“Those who say that the agreement [CPA] was consented by all sides and that they are surprised that the people of the south [will] choose secession have deceived the nation because the agreement works in favor of secession,” Abdel-Karim was quoted by the daily newspaper Al-Sahafah.

Abdel-Karim further warned that secession would reflect negatively on the Islamic gains in the south under a strong secular drive to boot Islam out of the region.

In August 2009, Mohamed Abdel-Karim and his group sparked concerns of raising religious extremism when they issued a Fatwa branding members of the Sudanese communist party as infidels and instructed that they should be divorced from their spouses and their children to be deemed children of adultery.

Separately, the leader of the National Umma Party Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi, who is also the leader of Al-Ansar religious sect, poured scorn on the LLMPC, saying that their demands would tear Sudan into pieces.

Comedy Show Causes Religious Row After Characters Dress Up In Burkas On Boxing Day Special

Another comedy show backfires because of Muslim extremist complaints. One has to wonder whether Italians will claim offense over shows portraying Italians as mafia-types. Or perhaps Jews will protest Hollywood films for poking fun at their customs and Catholics will threaten holy-war over anything remotely insensitive to their faith.

From Daily Mail (UK):

From Daily Mail:Jeremy Clarkson and his Top Gear co-stars have sparked religious outrage after dressing up in burkas on the Boxing Day special.

Clarkson and Richard Hammond decided to dress in niqabs, a form of the burka where everything but the eyes are covered, in order to disguise themselves on the road.

They also got James May in on the act when they greeted him from hospital after he fell and hit his head on rocks in the Syrian desert.

But their joke backfired after they were slammed by Muslims for mocking their religion.

Islamic extremist Anjem Choudary, said: 'The burka is a symbol of our religion and people should not make jokes about it in any way.

'It would have been equally bad even if they’d not been in a country mainly populated by Muslims.'

On the Boxing Day episode of the show, the trio were driving across the Middle East to follow the path of the Three Wise Men.

In the episode, which was watched by six million people, they drove specially customised sports cars to Bethlehem via Turkey, Syria and Jordan.

While in Syria, their cars got stuck in the sand and as Clarkson was trying to tow Hammond out, May, who was holding the rope between the two cars, was knocked to the ground when it went taut, cutting open his head in the process.

With blood pouring from his head, he was taken to hospital and Clarkson and Hammond carried on when they had an idea to disguise themselves as women in burkas so not to be seen diverting from the sands of the desert to a road.

They then greet May from hospital dressed head to toe in niqabs before hitting the road again.

But their choice of attire caused a storm online on Twitter and other discussion sites.

On the Yahoo! forum, someone wrote, 'Death to America', which another, called Rebecca Liberty, said mocking burkas is 'ugly'.

But a user called BussW spoke up for the show and said: 'Why are so many people offended. it's just a piece a clothing. the Burka is not in the Quaran at all. if people are so offended why dont they switch over the TV?'

Some viewers also took to Twitter to blast the burka stunt with one saying: This is probably the worst top gear special. Y the f*** r they wearing burkas!!?’

Another added: 'Top gear – the burka joke wasn’t funny.'

But one Tweeter user came to the show's defence and wrote: 'Top gear was one of the best bits of tv this Christmas, if you don't like it . TURN IT OFF!!! Don't go on tv and moan about it.'

Last night the BBC said it had not yet assessed viewer reaction and a spokesman for the show would not comment.

This is not the first time Clarkson has caused a storm over a burka. In July this year he told Top Gear viewers that he had seen a Muslim woman wearing saucy underwear beneath her gown.

PA Daily Demonizes Israel As "A Country Whose Aim Is Destruction And Ruin Of Humanity"

From Jihad Watch:

But deep down, they really, really want peace. "PA daily demonizes Israel as 'a country whose aim is destruction and ruin of humanity,'" by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik for Palestinian Media Watch, December 28:

The PA continues to demonize and incite hatred of Israel. An article in the official PA daily described Israel this way:

Israel is a country -
"whose aim is destruction and ruin of humanity"
"which disseminates destruction, ruin and weapons in the world"
"which acts to kill nations, to threaten them and to occupy their land"
"which acts to disseminate the culture of hatred and racism among human beings"

This article appeared in the sports section of the official PA daily in an article about Qatar being chosen as host of World Cup in 2022. Israel was presented as the example of evil in the world in contrast to Qatar's excellence.

The article also denied the legitimacy of Israel's existence when it labeled the Israeli Carmel Mountains "the occupied Palestinian Carmel Mountains."...

Read it all.

Los Angeles Submits To Dhimmitude

From Weasel Zippers:

Is anyone really surprised by this?

(Los Angeles Daily News) — Without serious debate or examination, the Los Angeles City Council recently passed a resolution that opposes “Islamophobia” and “repudiates” random acts of violence against Muslims.

This admittedly ceremonial resolution apparently accepts the premise that residents of the city commit acts of hate against Muslims so often that it warrants an official resolution from city leaders condemning and repudiating these acts. Is this really the case?

According to the latest hate crime report from the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations, 88 percent of all religiously based hate crimes in 2009 were against Jews. Hate crimes that targeted Muslims (3 percent) ranked slightly above those directed at Scientologists (1 percent). In fact, the commission found that attacks against Christians (8 percent) outnumbered attacks against Muslims.

In any case, the actual number of reported hate crimes based on religion is quite small. In a county that has more than 10 million highly diverse residents, only a total of 131 crimes based on religion took place in all of 2009. Of course, this in no way takes away from the emotional or physical harm that each and every one of these attacks causes.

Since only 3 percent of 131 hate crimes during 2009 was directed against Muslims, it’s difficult to understand why city leaders would pass a resolution that zeroes in on the category that has the next-to-lowest numbers recorded by the County’s Human Relations Commission.

It appears that the City Council simply took information provided by an advocacy group, one that’s hardly unbiased, and uncritically spat out a resolution opposing “Islamophobia” and “random acts of violence against Muslim-Americans.”

This begs the question: Except for some Islam-hating cretins with sub-zero levels of intelligence, exactly who is in favor of random acts of violence against Muslims?

The term “Islamophobia” has crept into popular use, drummed into our consciousness by a sensationalized Time magazine cover story, and activists who exaggerate anti-Islamic bias for the causes they espouse. The term dominated the often angry debates that swirled around the plan to build a mosque 600 feet from Ground Zero in New York. While there are extremists at both the left and right ends of the political spectrum, the issues surrounding this controversial building project are far more complex than anti-Islamic bigotry.

Factually, there is no alarming number of attacks against Muslim-Americans.

Read the rest here....

U.K.: Police Say Nine Misunderstanders Of Islam Researched Targets, Tested Incendiary Material

From Jihad Watch:

An update on this story. "9 charged in British terror case held without bail," from CNN, December 27:

London (CNN) -- The alleged bombing targets of nine men arrested on terror charges in the United Kingdom a week ago included the London Stock Exchange and the U.S. embassy in London, a prosecutor said in court Monday.

The men, ages 19 to 28, appeared before a senior district judge in the City of Westminster Magistrates Court Monday. They were remanded into custody until their next appearance at Central Criminal Court -- London's Old Bailey -- on January 14.

The suspects were ordered them held without bail on charges of conspiracy to cause explosions and other terrorism offenses, West Midlands police said Monday.

"I have reviewed the evidence provided to me by the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit and I am satisfied there is sufficient for a realistic prospect of conviction, and it is in the public interest that these men should be charged with these offenses," said Sue Hemming, head of the Crown Prosecution Service Counter Terrorism Division.

They were arrested in Cardiff in Wales, and London and Stoke-on-Trent in England during raids on December 20. Three others arrested in the raids were released without charges.

The defendants are charged with "unlawfully and maliciously" conspiring to cause an explosion or explosions "likely to endanger life or cause serious injury to property in the United Kingdom," according to a police statement. They are also accused of conducting research, agreeing on potential targets and testing incendiary material....

Christmas Eve Explosions Kill 32 People In Nigeria After Two Churches Are Targeted

From the Daily Mail:

Explosions in Nigeria's central region killed 32 people on Christmas Eve and six people died in attacks on two churches in the northeast of Africa's most populous nation, officials said on Saturday.

On Friday night, a series of bombs were detonated during Christmas Eve celebrations in villages near the central city of Jos, killing at least 32 people while 74 were in a critical condition, the state police commissioner said.

Nigeria's army chief said the blasts were not part of religious clashes which flare up sporadically as tensions bubble under the surface in a country where the population is split roughly equally between Muslims and Christians.

'It (Jos explosions) was caused by a series of bomb blasts. That is terrorism, it's a very unfortunate incident,' Azubuike Ihejirika said in the southern city of Port Harcourt.

The attacks come at a difficult time for President Goodluck Jonathan, who is in running a controversial campaign ahead of the ruling party's primaries on January 13.

A ruling party pact says that power within the People's Democratic Party (PDP) should rotate between the mostly Muslim north and largely Christian south every two terms.

Jonathan is a southerner who inherited office when President Umaru Yar'Adua, a northerner, died during his first term this year and some northern factions in the ruling party are opposed to his candidacy.

Jonathan faces a challenge from former Vice President Atiku Abubakar for the ruling party nomination, and some fear any unrest in Africa's most populous nation will be exploited by rivals during campaigning.

'What happened (in Jos) was not religious it was political ... the aim of the masterminds is to pit Christians against Muslims and start another round of violence,' the governor of Plateau state said.

In a separate incident, at least six people were killed in what appeared to be religiously motivated attacks on two churches in the northeastern city of Maiduguri.

Attackers threw petrol bombs late on Friday at a church in the city, killing five people, including a Baptist pastor. A security guard at a nearby church died in a similar assault.

'This is a worrisome situation and the government will do all it can to fish out the perpetrators of this evil act,' the governor of Borno State, Ali Sheriff, said on Saturday.

'We must ensure that adequate security is provided for all citizens to worship freely without fear of molestation.'

Hundreds of people died in religious and ethnic clashes at the start of the year in the 'Middle Belt', the central region where the mostly-Muslim north meets the predomnantly Christian south.

There have been localised outbreaks of violence since then.

The tension is rooted in decades of resentment between indigenous groups, mostly Christian or animist, who are vying for control of fertile farmlands and for economic and political power with migrants and settlers from the north.

Pakistan’s Elite Pay Few Taxes, Widening Gap

From The New York Times:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Much of Pakistan’s capital city looks like a rich Los Angeles suburb. Shiny sport utility vehicles purr down gated driveways. Elegant multistory homes are tended by servants. Laundry is never hung out to dry.

But behind the opulence lurks a troubling fact. Very few of these households pay income tax. That is mostly because the politicians who make the rules are also the country’s richest citizens, and are skilled at finding ways to exempt themselves.

That would be a problem in any country. But in Pakistan, the lack of a workable tax system feeds something more menacing: a festering inequality in Pakistani society, where the wealth of its most powerful members is never redistributed or put to use for public good. That is creating conditions that have helped spread an insurgency that is tormenting the country and complicating American policy in the region.

It is also a sorry performance for a country that is among the largest recipients of American aid, payments of billions of dollars that prop up the country’s finances and are meant to help its leaders fight the insurgency.

Though the authorities have tried to expand the net in recent years, taxing profits from the stock market and real estate, entire swaths of the economy, like agriculture, a major moneymaker for the elite, remain untaxed.

“This is a system of the elite, by the elite and for the elite,” said Riyaz Hussain Naqvi, a retired government official who worked in tax collection for 38 years. “It is a skewed system in which the poor man subsidizes the rich man.”

The problem starts at the top. The average worth of Pakistani members of Parliament is $900,000, with its richest member topping $37 million, according to a December study by the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency in Islamabad.

While Pakistan’s income from taxes last year was the lowest in the country’s history, according to Zafar ul-Majeed, a senior official in the Federal Board of Revenue, the assets of current members of Parliament nearly doubled from those of members of the previous Parliament, the institute study found.

The country’s top opposition leader, Nawaz Sharif, reported that he paid no personal income tax for three years ending in 2007 in public documents he filed with Pakistan’s election commission. A spokesman for Mr. Sharif, an industrialist who is widely believed to be a millionaire, said he had been in exile and had turned over positions in his companies to relatives.

A month of requests for similar documents for Pakistan’s president and prime minister went unanswered by the commission; representatives for the men said they did not have the figures.

“Taxes are the Achilles’ heel of Pakistani politicians,” said Jahangir Tareen, a businessman and member of Parliament who is trying to put taxes on the public agenda. He paid $225,534 in income tax in 2009, a figure he made public in Parliament last month. “If you don’t have income, fine, but then don’t go and get into a Land Cruiser.”

The rules say that anyone who earns more than $3,488 a year must pay income tax, but few do. Akbar Zaidi, a Karachi-based political economist with the Carnegie Endowment, estimates that as many as 10 million Pakistanis should be paying income tax, far more than the 2.5 million who are registered.

Out of more than 170 million Pakistanis, fewer than 2 percent pay income tax, making Pakistan’s revenue from taxes among the lowest in the world, a notch below Sierra Leone’s as a ratio of tax to gross domestic product.

Mr. Zaidi blames the United States and its perpetual bailouts of Pakistan for the minuscule tax revenues from rich and poor alike. “The Americans should say: ‘Enough. Sort it out yourselves. Get your house in order first,’ ” he argued. “But you are cowards. You are afraid to take that chance.”

Much of the tax avoidance, especially by the wealthy, is legal. Under a 1990s law that has become one of the main tools to legalize undocumented — or illegally obtained — money made in Pakistan, authorities here are not allowed to question money transferred from abroad. Businessmen and politicians channel billions of rupees through Dubai back to Pakistan, no questions asked.

“In this country, no one asks, ‘How did you get that flat in Mayfair?’ ” said Shabbar Zaidi, a partner at A. F. Ferguson & Company, an accounting firm in Karachi, referring to an affluent area of London. “It’s a very good country for the rich man. Chauffeurs, servants, big houses. The question is, who is suffering? The common man.”

Then there are the tax-free goods supposedly meant for Afghanistan. Mr. Zaidi said much stayed in Pakistan illegally, including 50,000 tons of black tea that were imported last year. Afghans drink green tea.

“As per our information, not a single cup of black tea was drunk in Afghanistan,” he said.

Tax collectors try to be tough. When Mr. Naqvi headed the tax authority, he tried to conduct a broad audit, prompting howls of protest. Lawyers from the Lahore High Court Bar Association — also evaders — even issued a ruling against him.

Mr. Majeed said his collectors now use individual electric bills to track down rich evaders, on the assumption that high bills mean air-conditioning, which means wealth. They recently issued hundreds of warnings to rich houses in Islamabad. But going after politicians, he said, is tricky. “Not while they’re in power,” he said, smiling.

Tax collection has risen by about 20 percent a year recently, he said, though it barely registers as an increase because more than half of Pakistan’s economy is off the books.

Lacking the political will to collect income tax, Pakistan resorts to easier measures, like the sales tax, considered less fair because it hits the poor as hard as the rich. Muhamed Azhar, 26, a chauffeur in Karachi with a $123-a-month salary, pays the same sales tax rate as a National Assembly member who makes $1,400 a month with benefits. Earnings from real estate and land are rarely declared.

“The big people ruling us have houses and servants, and they should pay taxes,” Mr. Azhar said, watching motorcades of sport utility vehicles zip by, en route to the local Parliament. He sometimes wonders whether they are even going to work at all. With all the tinted windows, guards and fuss, he has never actually seen them.

The overwhelming majority of Pakistan’s tax burden is carried by the manufacturing sector for the domestic market, which, according to Mr. Majeed, makes up only 19 percent of Pakistan’s economy but pays 51 percent of its taxes.

Most economic activity takes place in the shadows. Merchants — the most vociferous opponents of a value-added tax, a tax the International Monetary Fund has pressed Pakistan to adopt largely because it would require documentation — make up a fifth of the economy, but carry 6 percent of its tax burden. Out of millions of shops in Pakistan, just 160,000 are now registered for a general sales tax, Mr. Majeed said.

Particularly galling for Pakistan’s middle class is the lack of a federal tax on agriculture, an industry that employs nearly half of Pakistan’s population and whose profits go largely to the wealthy landowners who pack local Parliaments. When the World Bank finally forced adoption of a modest provincial tax in 1997 as a condition for a loan, few paid.

Mr. Tareen, the member of Parliament, said that when he first tried to pay, tax collectors refused to take the money, not wanting to rock the boat. He had to write a letter to a senior official to have it accepted.

It was not always like this. Nasir Aslam Zahid, a former Supreme Court justice in his 70s, blames what he calls moral decay in Pakistani society, in which respect for rules has fallen, merit has been forgotten and cheating has become a way of life.

“In my time, it was considered a moral thing for a person to file a tax return,” he said. “Today, corruption has broken all records.”

West Java: Catholics Celebrate Christmas Mass In A Parking Lot

From Asia News:

An order by Bogor Regency prohibits members of the Saint John the Baptist Catholic Church from engaging in any public activity, ostensibly because they lack a proper place of worship. Muslim extremist groups increasingly threaten Indonesia’s Christians.

Hundreds of members of Saint John the Baptist Catholic Church in Parung (West Java) celebrated Mass under the sun and in a tent set up in the parking lot of the Marsudirini Elementary School. Bogor Regency chief’s prohibition of Christmas celebration was thus not repealed despite repeated attempts by Tulang Kuning Church leaders to negotiate with local authorities.

The latter justified their decision citing the lack of a permit to build a church. Without it, the local parish is not allowed to perform any public functions even on its own land.

According to Indonesia’s constitution however, no one has the right to prohibit any religious community from practicing its faith and celebrating its rites and services. Yet with the rising influence of Islamic radicals, the constitution has been repeatedly violated as local authorities kowtow to Muslim extremists and show greater hostilities towards Christians.

The Parish of Saint John the Baptist has at least 3,000 members. In April of this year, dozens of Muslim extremists threatened those from the community in Tulang Kuning, preventing them from celebrating Easter Mass.

Kidnapping, Killing Force Pakistani Hindus To Seek Political Asylum In India

From The Times of India:

ISLAMABAD: Hindu families living in Pakistan's restive Baluchistan province have approached the Indian High Commission in Islamabad, seeking visas and political asylum in India due to growing cases of kidnapping for ransom and target killing of members of their community, the Dawn newspaper reported.

This was revealed by the regional director for the federal ministry of human rights, Saeed Ahmed Khan, at a seminar on "Provincial Conference on Baluchistan Crisis", held in Quetta, the provincial capital.

Khan said that Hindus had been living in Baluchistan for centuries, but in recent weeks several members of the minority community had been kidnapped or murdered, forcing them to seek political asylum in India.

"As many as 27 Hindu families from Baluchistan have sent applications to the Indian embassy for asylum in India," he said.

According to statistics of the ministry of human rights, violation of human rights has been committed at a large scale in Baluchistan and people are being abducted for ransom.

Muslim Radicals Colonising The Country, Indonesian Bishops Say

From Asia News:

Jakarta (AsiaNews) – Mgr Mathinus D Situmorang, president of the Indonesian Bishops of Conference’s (KWI), warned Indonesian political elites on a potentially serious threat to the national interest. The prelate, who is the bishop of Padang (Western Sumatra), delivered his word of caution during the admission ceremony for new members of the Indonesian Catholic University Student Association (PMKRI). In his address, he criticised the state for its powerlessness in the face of dozens of attacks carried out by Islamic fundamentalist groups against churches and Christians.

“In the past, Indonesia was occupied and colonised by foreign rulers. However, the present situation is not much better even if we are ruled by fellow Indonesian citizens,” the bishop said. Here, he was referring to recent attacks carried out by the Islamic Defender Front (FPI), which stormed two places of worship in Rancaekek, Bandung Regency (West Java), forcing their closure. More broadly, he is deeply concerned that religious intolerance is spreading and taking rook among ordinary people.

Muslim extremists, he explained, had no legal right to interfere with the aforementioned places of worship even if they did not have a building permit. What is more, the situation is getting worse because law enforcement is not stopping the Islamists, and it is not clear why. Nonetheless, for the prelate, “A spirit of intolerance is finding fertile ground because of political interests”.

In Parung, Bogor Regency, local authorities issued a ban against the Saint John the Baptist Catholic Church to prevent Christmas celebrations.

“If some Christian communities in Indonesia hold religious ceremonies in the streets or in the open, it is out of necessity because they have been unable to secure a building permit for their place of worship, and this, for years,” Bishop Situmorang explained.

“If the [central] government and local authorities are stopped by every extremist Muslim group, the situation will get worse and the state’s sovereignty will be given away to illegal groups that will carry out actions against the law,” he lamented.

Still, the 3,000 parishioners who belong to the Saint John the Baptist Catholic Church will be able to celebrate Christmas at a local nuns’ compound.

Indonesia’s Defence Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro, who is Catholic, rejected the accusation, saying that any violent act would be punished.

Mgr Situmorang is not so sure. For him, the state is powerless and incapable of dealing with the problem. Yet, he is still “proud to belong to a multicultural society, where the spirit of intolerance is restrained”.

In the meantime, hours before the start of Christmas services, the country has been placed under tight security with thousands of police deployed near churches, 8,000 in Jakarta alone. In Bali, police has secured every strategic site, including churches.

A study by the Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace warns that whilst most violent actions are carried out by the infamous FPI, less noticeable actions by other radical Muslim groups are equally worrisome, especially since they are increasingly supported by ordinary people and are attracting even liberal groups and moderate clerics.

There are also rumours that radical elements have infiltrated the moderate Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI), the country’s most important organisation of Muslim clerics, which wields the greatest influence in moral and political terms.

According to the Setara report, beside the FPI, other important violent Islamist groups are the Islamic Reform Movement (Garis) and the Islamic People’s Forum (FUI).

The same study noted that in “2005, FUI’s chief Al Khaththath [. . .] made it to the MUI’s board of directors,” and at the organisation’s annual meeting that year, he was among those who “actively lobbied the MUI to issue an edict forbidding the practice of liberal Islam”.

Police Search Mumbai For 4 In Alleged Terror Plot

From the Associated Press:

MUMBAI, India – Police searched India's financial capital on Friday for four men who authorities believe entered Mumbai to carry out a terrorist attack, a top police official said.

Authorities issued a terror alert for the city, where a three-day terrorist seige in 2008 killed 166 people. Since then, police tend to take even minor threats seriously and have periodically raised the alarm, but there have been no subsequent attacks in the city. Despite checkpoints and some road closures, traffic and activity in most of Mumbai was normal on Friday.

Police have received credible information that at least four men belonging to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group have entered the city and were planning to strike during the holiday season, said Himanshu Roy, joint police commissioner of Mumbai Police. India blames Lashkar for the 2008 assaults.

"The four men are planning violent attacks that are going to cause destruction," Roy said. "The four have recently arrived in Mumbai. We believe the threat is serious."

Pakistani officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

On Friday, police set up checkpoints along major roads in the city, put additional men on patrol duty at public places and released computer photographs of the four suspects.

Roads were also closed near the Taj Mahal hotel and Mumbai's iconic landmark Gateway of India. In addition to being India's financial capital, Mumbai is also home to Bollywood, the country's prolific film industry.

He identified the four men but said their nationalities were not known.

In March, Mumbai police said they prevented a major terrorist strike after they arrested two Indian men, who, police said, were preparing to hit several targets in the city.

Then in September, police issued a terror alert for the city during a popular Hindu festival. Police said they had information that two Islamist militants were planning a terror strike and that the men were acting on directions from handlers in Pakistan.

India has called on Pakistan to crack down on terrorists thought to be operating from their soil. Lashkar-e-Taiba is banned by Pakistan's government but it still thought to have support in Pakistan's powerful military and intelligence community.

In the 2008 attack, several gunmen laid siege to two luxury hotels — including the Taj Mahal — a Jewish center, a popular restaurant and Mumbai's crowded main train station. The lone surviving gunman was captured and earlier this year sentenced to death.

New Delhi has repeatedly accused Islamabad of complicity in terrorist attacks against India. Pakistan denies the charge saying it only offers the militant groups political and diplomatic support.

American Muslim Indicted For Wanting To Join US Military To Kill Soldiers

From The Examiner (Vancouver):

American Muslim indicted for wanting to join US military to kill soldiers. A US-born Muslim from Staten Island, New York, has just been indicted for lying to the FBI about his true intentions to join the US military and then start killing US soldiers. 21-year-old Abdel Hameed Shehadeh faces three terrorism-related charges that involve his plan to join the US military only so he could fight against US soldiers. According to the complaint, Shehadeh plotted to deploy with the US military to Iraq, but once there to desert the military and then fight alongside Islamic terrorists against the US. Shehadeh is also an operator of multiple, radical and violent Jihadist websites that promote terrorism against the west.

The indictments from a federal grand jury only came down late yesterday, and they relate mostly to Shehadeh’s lying about his terrorist motives. Nonetheless, this is yet another case of a US-born Muslim—who you think should be…you know…assimilated and all that—rejecting his American nationality and choosing instead violent, Jihadist terrorism. The US Islamic community is always said to be better assimilated than the Islamic communities in other countries, and this is certainly true in that you don’t see many, for instance, of the kinds of violent Muslim protests in the US.

However, even the US Muslim community has its share of problems as not only Shehadeh’s arrest and indictment proves, but as the many, previous cases of American-born Muslims also prove. Just last month, there was the Oregon Christmas tree bomber, whom libertarians keep defending as being "set up" or "entrapped" into his terrorism inclination. Yeah, sure. Then, before that, there was the case of the Times Square Bomber, and while he wasn’t a US-born Muslim, he lived in the US for more than 12 years, more than enough time to assimilate. The fact that the US Muslim community is spawning these terrorists shows that they have problems, too.

A recent poll from only three years ago actually showed that up to 25% of young, US Muslims support suicide attacks in the "defense" of Islam. The same poll did find that about 80% of the US Muslim population is assimilated, but if even 20% to 25% of US Muslims are not, then that’s still a lot of Muslims within the US who may be a possible terrorist risk. Certainly, the arrest and the just-released charges against the Staten Island terrorist, Shehadeh, surely confirm that clear and present danger....

Read it all here.

Egypt Christian Threatened With Death Over Conversion

From BosNewsLife:

CAIRO, EGYPT (BosNewsLife)-- An Egyptian Christian faced another tense day December 25, fearful of leaving his home amid death threats, after he was charged with "defaming Islam" for converting from Islam to Christianity, Christians said.

Ashraf Thabet, 45, was released August 21 from prison but charges remain against him "with no indication of when the case will go to court," said Voice Of the Martyrs, an advocacy group closely monitoring the case. "He is extremely concerned about re-arrest."

Thabet, who lives in Port Said, northeast Egypt, has said he in Christ in 2004 after questioning his Muslim beliefs; Thabet reportedly learned about the Christian faith through a Christian friend, as well as websites and other media. During these years, reportedly shared his doubts about Islam and told others what he was learning about Jesus Christ.

Angry that he questioned Islam, Ashraf's Muslim friends arranged for him to meet with several Islamic leaders, according to investigators. During the meeting, the Islamic leaders also expressed anger toward him for his questions and turned in Ashraf to state security officials, Christians said. He has been interrogated multiple times and was told he could not talk to anyone about his religious views, according to Christians familiar with the case.

POLICE ACTION

One evening, police reportedly arrived at Ashraf's home, kicking down his front door and assaulting him in front of his crying wife and children. They confiscated his computer, books and CDs, and then took him to jail, according to VOM and other rights investigators. "He was repeatedly interrogated and spent time in solitary confinement,"VOM said.

After 132 days in jail, Ashraf was informed of the "defamation of religion" charge against him. He also learned that Muslim leaders in his neighborhood "bribed his wife to divorce him" and take away his 10-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son, local Christians said. BosNewsLife was not immediately able to confirm the alleged bribe independently....

Read more here.

Islamic Militants Murder Three In Southern Thailand

From the Agence France-Presse:

YALA, Thailand — Suspected Islamic militants shot and killed three people, including a married couple, in Thailand's restive south as authorities boost security for New Year celebrations, officials said Wednesday.

The husband, 49, and wife, 47, were gunned down at their stall selling pork at a weekly market in Pattani province on Tuesday evening.

Police said the man worked for the local authority.

Also in Pattani, a 43-year-old man employed as a construction worker at a Thai army base was killed in a drive-by shooting as he returned from buying food early Tuesday afternoon.

According to a Pattani security official, the local governor Wednesday instructed police and soldiers to intensify operations, including round-the-clock checkpoints, amid heightened fears of attacks over the New Year holiday.

"We are focused on risky areas such as roads, markets and security around teachers and high-profile people," he said.

Suspected Islamic insurgents have waged a violent campaign in Thailand's deep south near the border with Malaysia since January 2004, targeting Muslims and Buddhists, civilians and security personnel.

More than 4,400 people have died since the violence began, while over 7,000 have been injured, according to the non-governmental organisation Deep South Watch, which monitors the conflict.

Rape Victims Fear Being Jailed In Mauritania

From CNN:

Nouakchott, Mauritania (CNN) -- Mahjouba was raped in March on the nighttime streets of Mauritania's capital, but she will not bring charges against the man she says did it since she may be the one who ends up in prison. The 25-year-old says the legal advice she received was to not go to court, leaving her to suffer in silence.

There is no law in Mauritania that defines rape.

According to a local U.N.-funded group working with the victims, the law criminalizes the women instead of their rapists -- and society ostracizes the women.

Mahjouba [pictured], who asked not to use her real name, said: "I am sure that if I raise my voice I'm going to be criminalized by my society and I will pay the price harshly ... and as a result I may stay single for the rest of my life."

She added: "I consulted a lawyer secretly, and he advised me sincerely not to seek justice because that would throw me in jail. I know what happened to other girls who decided to go to court and face the community. Their lives were destroyed completely forever. So I already know what would happen to me if I had to follow that path.

"This Islamic republic has no place for rape victims like me."

Mauritanian laws are based on Sharia law and the penal code forbids relationships between both sexes outside marriage. That includes a consensual relationship between a boyfriend and girlfriend but can also criminalize a woman who is forced to have sex.

Sidi Athman Ould Sidi Salem, a law specialist and legal adviser to the government, said: "If raped women don't bring strong evidence, which is not easy, they would be accused of Zina -- an Arabic word meaning sex out of marriage -- and end up in jail. It's because the victims of rape are always accused of a Zina which make a lot of problems."

Sidi Athman added: "The rape issue has been one of the many taboos that haven't been investigated (by the government)."

UNFPA, which promotes health and equality issues, is working with local groups and the government to define rape in law and protect its victims.

Thierno Coulibaly, UNFPA assistant representative in Mauritania for its reproductive health program and population and development program, said he was not aware of any rape victim in the capital currently in jail but could not comment on what was happening outside the capital.

Even with legal protection, women victims of rape still face a social stigma that is hard to overcome. He said: "Women are still afraid to complain if they are victims of rape because there is an attitude from the society."

Coulibaly added: "There is no law to define rape but there will be one. And work is being done with police officers and judges ... to let them understand the problem is not the woman, but the perpetrator of the rape."

The U.N.-funded Mauritanian Association for Maternal and Child Health (known by its French acronym AMSME) is at the forefront of trying to change both the law and society.

When a woman reports a rape, police contact AMSME and the woman is taken to the El Wafa center.

Zeinebou Mint Taleb Moussa, a former midwife and president of the organization, set up the El Wafa center in 2001 to provide help for rape victims.

Mint Taleb Moussa said: "There is no mention of the words 'rape,' or 'sexual violence' in the Mauritanian laws which left a growing number of women as victims ... All the words that are related to sex are extremely taboo and can never be mentioned publicly."

Mint Taleb Moussa said there were 308 rape cases registered by her organization in 2008 and 205 in 2009, but she noted that "what has been reported is only the tip of the iceberg."

She said they mainly deal with cases in the capital, Nouakchott, but there remain many unreported rapes in the city and the country.

She said rape victims bring shame to their families and the woman's reputation, and few women have the courage to report the crime and be registered.

Mint Taleb Moussa added: "We focus basically on the capital Nouakchott, but we think of covering the interior regions as well."

Mint Taleb Moussa has tried in vain for a decade to get her message into the national media to assist rape victims.

"I requested having a program in the state mass media -- radio and TV -- but my request was turned down. Recently, the national TV hosted me for the first time on a program, but it was censored without giving any justification ... It's a big problem here to defend rape victims," she said.

AMSME is also working with government and religious leaders in a bid to get a new rape law.

Sidi Ould Beyade, spokesman for the Ministry of Welfare, Children and Family, said the ministry has begun work on the issue to help end the ordeal of rape victims.

"For the first time, the ministry is now in touch with NGO activists, lawyers and opinion makers with the purpose of studying the situation, first, and then trying to act."

Indonesia: "Radical" Islamic Groups Advancing Agenda Through Alliances With "Moderates," Seeking Membership In Country's Highest Islamic Authority

From Jihad Watch:

A study in stealth jihad: as Muhammad said, "War is deceit." This report also lends broader context to a recent offer by the thuggish Islamic Defenders Front to "protect" churches at Christmas. While the offer was a poor and obvious ruse to intimidate and gather information for future persecution, it was nonetheless part of a broader (and familiar) pattern of attempts to put a friendly face on a decidedly unfriendly agenda.

"Radical Islamic Groups Gain Strength on the Sly: Setara," by Ulma Haryanto for Jakarta Globe, December 23 (thanks to Twostellas):

While the antics of the hard-line Islamic Defenders Front frequently make headlines, other radical groups are working quietly behind the scenes to build a wide base of support, a nonprofit has said.

The Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace on Wednesday released a report detailing how radical Muslim groups were shoring up their support by forging political alliances and embracing more liberal groups and moderate clerics.

Another tactic highlighted in the report was for the groups to get their members appointed to the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI), the country's highest Islamic authority, in an effort to steer Shariah jurisprudence.

The seven groups identified in the Setara report included the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), headed by Rizieq Shihab; Islamic Reform Movement (Garis), led by Chep Hermawan; and the Islamic People's Forum (FUI), helmed by Muhammad Al Khaththath.

It was the FUI, a relatively new group founded in 2005, that appeared to be particularly adept at courting politicians and infiltrating the MUI, the report said. Al Khaththath, its secretary general, was described as "an expert lobbyist."

Al Khaththath started out with Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia, and was one of its chairmen when the HTI formed the FUI along with eight other organizations, including the FPI, Nahdlatul Ulama, Muhammadiyah, Indonesian Islamic Propagation Council (DDII), Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and Crescent Star Party (PBB).

NU and Muhammadiyah are the nation's two biggest Islamic organizations and are considered moderate. The conservative PKS is the fourth-biggest political party in the country.

"In 2005, Al Khaththath and the HTI's Ismail Yusanto made it onto the MUI board," the report said. "By the end of that year, he had been appointed to the counterterrorism team formed by Religious Affairs Ministry and the MUI."

The report also said that during the MUI's national caucus in 2005, Al Khaththath was among those who "actively lobbied the MUI to issue an edict forbidding the practice of liberal Islam."

The council would go on to issue an edict "forbidding religious pluralism, liberalism and secularism." It also outlawed the minority Ahmadiyah sect, branding it "outside Islam, false and misleading, and the followers can no longer be called Muslims."

That same year, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono unofficially endorsed the MUI's religious authority, saying his administration would "embrace the views, recommendations and edicts of the MUI."

The Setara report concluded this had made the MUI an appealing body to infiltrate for radical groups, which have little authority themselves.

Under Al Khaththath's leadership, the FUI in 2008 attempted to widen its support significantly by holding a meeting of 200 influential clerics from across the archipelago. "They were invited to establish a Union of Ulema Council for the FUI," the report said.

One of the clerics invited was Salim bin Umar Al Attas, who boasts 10,000 followers and is based in South Jakarta. He has since allied himself with the FUI. "The FUI is a forum for Muslims, which makes us a member organization," he said. "We have the same agenda: To uphold Shariah law, fight evil and spread goodness. That's why we joined them."

This is how the building of "common ground" so often proceeds. No one in a position of power wants the political liability of being cast as being against things like "fighting evil" and "spreading goodness." In the West as in Indonesia, many are similarly cowed by the semantic blackmail of unexamined, glowing generalities. The devil, of course, is in the details.

Penn State Student Posts Jihadist Musical Tribute To Swedish Suicide Bomber

This is related to this story.

From BigPeace.com:

A Penn State student that has previously posted audio clips of songs praising Osama bin Laden has now published a tune in tribute to the Swedish suicide bomber, Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly. Emerson Begolly, who operates online under his nom de jihad, Asadullah Alshishani and is listed on the Penn State directory as an undergrad in the Letters, Arts and Sciences department, posted his nasheed (Islamic chant) on the infamous Ansar AlJihad forum last week – just two days after al-Abdaly’s attempted terror attack. Begolly’s song vows to “blow their heads right off their shoulders” and that “martyrdom is what I wanted best”.

Jihadist crooner Emerson Begolly
This is not the budding jihadist crooner’s first foray into the music publishing world. In June the Jawa Report noted Begolly’s posted a song praising Osama bin Laden, ending with the refrain:

Osama bin Ladin
O, how I love you!
You sold your soul for Jannah
To Allah you are true
You sold your soul for Jannah
To Allah you are true

They call us “terrorists”
And terrorists we are!
Allah commands us to
Terrorize the kuffar

They call us “terrorists”
And terrorists we are!
Allah commands us to
Terrorize the kuffar
Allah commands us to
Terrorize the kuffar

A few days later he posted another song entitled, “When the Jew’s Blood Reds My Knife,” following the Israeli commando assault on a Turkish blockade-busting ship:

When the Jew’s blood reds my knife
Then my life is free from strife

Hiding behind rocks and trees
I’ll find them with greatest ease
Make them get down on their knees
Slaughter them despite their pleas

Throw them in the ovens hot
Soap and lampshades sold and bought
Made of the Jews that we shot
Mercy’s something I have not

With the bomb and machinegun
Blast at them and watch them run
We will have a lot of fun
Shoot and kill Jews one by one

The Jawa Report subsequently did a little research and posted a picture they discovered of Begolly wearing a Nazi uniform. They also found that he is a long-time contributor on the Axis History Forum, and described himself as “Assistant Deputy Reichsleiter” while he was in high school.

Photo credit: The Jawa Report

Emerson Begolly has also shown up in the Penn State newspaper. In January 2009, which the Israelis were conducting Operation Cast Lead against Hamas in Gaza, Begolly participated in an anti-Israel rally on campus and was interviewed by the Daily Collegian:

Kassis stressed that not all of the protestors were of Palestinian descent. Emerson Begolly (sophomore-religion) said he is Chechen, a people currently under Russian rule. He attended because he said he sympathized with Palestine’s situation.

Contrary to his assertion, he isn’t from Chechnya; he was raised in Pittsburgh, growing up in Natrona Heights northeast of the Steel City. But when you’re singing the praises of Osama bin Laden and Swedish suicide bombers, and penning odes about butchering Jews, why not fudge some facts?