Anti-war protesters demonstrate outside the Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool before a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice March 31, 2006.



School children and parents demonstrate against the visit of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to their school, Pleckgate High School on 31 March 2006, Blackburn, England. The US Secretary of State is visiting the north west for two days after an invitation by British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.



School children and parents demonstrate against the visit of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to their school, Pleckgate High School on 31 March 2006, Blackburn, England. The US Secretary of State is visiting the north west for two days after an invitation by British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.

Permanent Link posted by J @ 10:46 pm 4 comments

"Suicide" bombings have begun again.

Four young Israelis were murdered Thursday evening in one such attack at a gas station near the Samarian settlement of Kedumim.

The terrorist was an Arab believed to have been dressed as an orthodox Jew.

He had apparently hitched a ride from his Jewish victims before blowing himself up and destroying them and their car.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction claimed responsibility for the attack, which it said was carried out by a 24-year-old Arab from Hebron.

It was the first attack claimed by any group other than the Palestine Islamic Jihad since Hamas and Fatah agreed to observe a ceasefire in February 2005.

And it came just minutes after the final results of Israel's general election were announced.
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Permanent Link posted by J @ 7:02 pm 3 comments

Posters with the phrase "America's latest hero is a Muslim straight out of jail" has been banned from the Tube by London Underground (LU).

LU said it will not show the posters from a £1m advertising campaign for new TV series Sleeper Cell until creators remove the word Muslim from the text.

It claims it will offend people and it is trying to be sensationalist.

A spokesman for the digital channel FX series said it had consulted with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

He said the poster was meant to sum up the show's plot and would still appear in newspapers.

"It is in no way intended to cause offence or upset to Muslims," the FX spokesman said.

"We ran the creative by the ASA who advised us we were not in breach of the British Code of Advertising so it has come as a real surprise that the London underground have refused to run it."

The channel described the show, starring Michael Ealy as FBI agent Darwyn Al Sayeed, as the first American drama to feature a Muslim as the lead heroic character.

The character poses as a prisoner in order to infiltrate a fundamentalist group.

An LU spokeswoman said: "Following consultation with Viacom, who manage advertising on the Tube, it was decided to ask for the words 'is a Muslim' to be removed.

"This decision was taken in line with our standard policies, which seek to avoid gratuitously insulting large groups of Londoners."

An ASA spokesman said: "If London Underground wants to do this, it is entirely at its discretion."
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Permanent Link posted by J @ 6:20 pm 0 comments

One of the rare Belgian churches that is packed every weekend is the church of Saint Anthony of Padova in Montignies-sur-Sambre, one of the poorest suburbs of Charleroi, a derelict rust belt area to the south of Brussels. Holy Mass in Montignies is conducted in Latin and lasts up to four hours. Yesterday over 2,000 people attended the service by Father Samuel (Pere Samuel). The priest's sermon dealt with his persecution. The Belgian authorities are bringing the popular priest to court on charges of racism.

Father Samuel has been prosecuted for "incitement to racist hatred" by the Belgian government's inquisition agency, the so-called Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism (CEOOR), because of a remark he made in a 2002 television interview when he said:

"Every thoroughly islamized Muslim child that is born in Europe is a time bomb for Western children in the future. The latter will be persecuted when they have become a minority."

Last Thursday the Belgian judiciary decided that the priest will have to stand trial before the penal court in Charleroi. He reacted by repeating his time bomb statement and added that he would be honoured if he had to go to jail for speaking his mind. He added that Jesus, too, had been convicted. During yesterday’s sermon he called upon the faithful to accompany him to court. "We will turn this into an excursion, driving there in full buses."

Father Samuel's passport gives his name as Charles-Clement Boniface. That is not entirely correct. He was born in 1942 in Midyat, Turkey, as Samuel Ozdemir. The latter is a surname the priest dislikes because, he explains, it was imposed on his family by the Turks. Samuel was a Christian: "At home we spoke Aramaic, the language of Jesus." The Aramaics are a Catholic minority in Syria and Turkey. They speak an old Semitic language, which Jesus and the apostles used and which Mel Gibson had his actors use in his movie The Passion of the Christ.

Young Samuel became a Catholic priest. In the mid-1970s he fled to Belgium, claiming that the Aramaic Christians were being persecuted in Turkey. He became a Belgian and adopted the surname of Boniface - "he who does good things." He was appointed to the diocese of Tournai, but soon became caught up in the culture war between Christians and secularists. Tournai is a thoroughly secularised, modernist diocese. Father Samuel clashed with the bishop, who suspended him in 2001. He then bought the St-Antoine-de-Padoue church in Montignies-sur-Sambre. There he conducts the Mass according to the traditional rites of the Catholic Church.

Hundreds of faithful from all over the country and even from the north of France attend Sunday Mass in Montignies-sur-Sambre. The congregation includes African immigrants, a large number of young people and many young families with small children. In his sermons and on his website Father Samuel speaks out against secularism, but also fights on another front of the three-way culture war, warning against "the islamic invasion" of the West. He says he has witnessed in Turkey what the future has in store for Europe. He claims Muslims are invading Europe and warns for an impending civil war. According to Father Samuel "so-called moderate Muslims do not exist."
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Permanent Link posted by J @ 5:13 pm 4 comments

Israel's Police have announced that the Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest site, is now closed to Jews. The decision followed threats of Muslim violence leveled by Islamist Mufti of Jerusalem and other Arab leaders, who promised they would not allow rabbis to ascend the mount as planned Monday.

The Movement for the Establishment of the Third Temple issued a statement in response to the decision. "The movement is not surprised by that the Kadima government continues its tradition of surrender to Hamas violence by closing the Temple Mount to Jews tomorrow. This surrender will be reflected in the ballot box, when the public sees its weakness in the face of the Arab enemy, while at the same time using an iron fist against those in the Jewish nation who want to ascend and pray at the holiest site to the Jewish people."
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Permanent Link posted by J @ 11:21 pm 1 comments

HERE'S a little test for you. We say a name and you try to decode its ethnic origin. Here goes. Oliver Finegold? Is Mr Feingold likely to be a) Muslim, b) Jewish, c) Chinese?

Feingold could, of course, be a member of any race or creed. We can change our names. It is possible that what sounds like an adenoidal white, middle class, middle aged male called, say, Ken Livingstone is in actuality an Australian aborigine herding sheep in Wagga Wagga.

But a name does create an instant impression, and congratulations to those of you who answered 'b'.

So let us try again. What does the name David Reuben suggest to you? Is it a) Iranian, b) Indian, c) Jewish? Think hard. And know the answer to be both 'b' and 'c'. David Reuben and his brother Simon Reuben are British Jews who were born in India.

Hard luck on you who got it wrong. And very hard luck if your mayor is Ken Livingstone, who understood the brothers to be of Iranian origin.

As the Times reports, Livingstone views the two property developers as hurdles to the 2012 Olympics’ building programme.

The Reubens are part of a group wanting to construct a shopping centre, car park and homes in Stratford, East London. A spokesman for the Reuben bother says Livingstone is "misinformed" and they have "worked ceaselessly to try to move the project forward for the benefit of London".

But this is Ken, the mayor of multiracial London, the man who heard the name Feingold and compared him to a concentration camp guard. The fool.

Surely he would not make the same error twice. So reporters attending the Mayor's Question Time at the hideous carbuncle that is City Hall were interested to learn that the Reubens were "bad news" for the London games.

Livingstone then suggested, "if they are not happy they can always go back and see if they can do better under the ayatollahs". Asked by a reporter to explain what he meant by that, Livingstone resisted the urge to compare the journalist to Hitler, and said, "To Iran."

Iran? But the Reubens are from India. And they are British. Look past any feeling of disbelief you have for Ken aligning the name Reuben with that of Khatami, Khomeini and Ahmadinejad (there are Iranian Jews) and know that Livingstone has not been accused of anti-Semitism.

This time his comments are viewed as being anti-immigrant. As Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain tells the Times: "It's an extremely unpleasant remark that no mayor should say to any immigrant. This isn't a Jewish issue but of treating citizens equally, irrespective of origin."

Indeed. That Livingstone should represent Londoners is a tragedy. That he refers to people's ethnic origin is shameful.

Next time London Assembly member Murad Qureshi differs in point of view to the mayor, will Ken invite him to see how far his argument goes in Pakistan, or wherever the name Qureshi is rooted?

And what would Ken say to Assembly member Robert Blackman, who is, incidentally, white?
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Permanent Link posted by J @ 7:33 pm 2 comments

Following are excerpts from an interview by Saudi cleric Musa Al-Qarni, the former Mufti of Bin Laden. The interview aired on Dubai TV, on March 18, 2006.

Musa Al-Qarni: The concept of Jihad is a matter of faith and Islamic religious law, which lives in the mind of every Muslim on the face of this earth. The religious education we receive through our schools, through our religious jurisprudence, our thinking, and our tradition - Jihad is part of this.

[...]

When we used to read the books about the laws of Jihad, the laws about raids, and the laws about prisoners - at a time when the nation was not in a state of Jihad, but in a state of feebleness, apathy, and subordination - we used to think that reading the books on Jihad was a kind of entertainment, and that Jihad was a thing of the past. We used to study the laws of Jihad as if it were an issue of history, not of reality.

[...]

Interviewer: There was incitement from the pulpits and in the universities in Saudi Arabia.

Musa Al-Qarni: Of course. At that time...

Interviewer: You reached Afghanistan during that period. The young men you met back then - how old were the people who went to join the the Afghan mujahideen?

Musa Al-Qarni: Most of them were between 15 and 25 years old.

[...]

At no point in his life was Osama an ordinary man. That is something we must acknowledge.

[...]

He came from one of the richest families throughout the Gulf countries, a family known for its ties with the political regime here in Saudi Arabia, because of its construction projects and so on. In addition, he took with him [to Afghanistan] financial support. He brought his own money and the money of his family, and he also used his social influence here, as a preacher for Jihad for the sake of Allah, to collect contributions. In addition, he had exceptional ties with the decision-makers, and with society as a whole here.

Interviewer: I am asking about Afghanistan.

Musa Al-Qarni: He was prominent there.

[...]

Here in Saudi Arabia, the young men who were about to go to Afghanistan, would undergo mental and psychological preparation. They would be included in a group of people who would go together.

Let me give you an example. Now that Jihad has become a "crime", some people may be surprised by what I am about to say: At the Jedda airport there was a group of mujahideen whose job was to welcome those who arrived on their way to Pakistan. There were also offices in Jedda that would buy discount tickets for the people going to Afghanistan.

[...]

His ambition to wage Jihad preceded the war in Afghanistan. I have mentioned this in the past. Even as a young man Osama bin Laden had the ambition to wage Jihad. I have mentioned in several interviews, and it is a well known fact that when there were problems in Syria between the Syrian regime and the Muslim Brotherhood - and this was known throughout the world - Osama thought of going to Syria to join the Jihad of the Muslims there. The spirit of Jihad was deep in the soul of Osama bin Laden.

[...]

Interviewer: You used to be his mufti, his advisor on Islamic law?

Musa Al-Qarni: Perhaps he considered me something of the sort, but I...

Interviewer: Did the others also view you this way?

Musa Al-Qarni: Look, brother Daud, I am not looking for titles for myself. But let me tell you, my relations with Osama... He would definitely consult with me on matters of Islamic religious rulings.

[...]

Interviewer: You didn't participate in the battles of Jihad?

Musa Al-Qarni: Of course I did.

Interviewer: Did you fight?

Musa Al-Qarni: I participated in several battles. I fought together with Sheik Abdallah 'Azzam and with Osama bin Laden...

Interviewer: Did Osama bin Laden play any military role? or was his role primarily one of funding, guidance, and command?

Musa Al-Qarni: In the early stages of Jihad, Osama bin Laden's role was one of funding and mobilization. But once camps were set up especially for Arabs, Osama's role became more direct, and he personally took part in battles. He drew up the military plans, and appoint the commanders. He was the military supervisor over all of the camps. You might say, even if it wasn't that explicit, that he was the military commander of the Arab mujahideen in Afghanistan.

[...]

Interviewer: Why did Osama bin Laden choose 15 out of the 19 from Saudi Arabia?

[...]

Musa Al-Qarni: I do not mean to belittle other nations, but let me tell you, our experience of the Jihad in Afghanistan has shown that the Saudi youth are exceptional in terms of their sacrifice and their courage. They are exceptional in their love of Jihad, and in their desire to reach the world to come, to reach Paradise. They do not hesitate.

[...]

The Saudi youth are exceptional in their willingness to sacrifice. They long for Jihad. Look at Iraq now - who are most of the young men there? Are they not Saudis? Despite the difficulties and obstacles, the Saudi youth do not listen to any authority or to any call [to refrain from] Jihad for the sake of Allah.

Look at Bosnia-Herzegovina - the Saudi youth were most of those who were martyred there, weren't they?
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Permanent Link posted by J @ 7:17 pm 3 comments

A Jewish organization that monitors anti-Semitic activities in Canada said Wednesday the number of incidents last year was the second highest total in the 23-year history of their audit.

B'nai Brith Canada said 829 anti-Semitic incidents were reported to their anti-hate hot line and offices in 2005. A record 857 were documented in 2004.

"We were looking at numbers in the two hundreds a decade ago," said Ruth Klein, director of B'nai Brith's league for human rights. "We show almost the same figure as last year and last year was an all-time high."

Out of the total 829 incidents, 531 were classified as harassment, 273 as vandalism and 25 as violence. Out of the total, 35 were directed at synagogues and 19 at Jewish communal buildings, 113 targeted Jewish homes, 46 occurred in the workplace, 161 related to Internet hate - including 34 cases of targeted hate by e-mail.

The organization says many of the incidents are influenced by neo-Nazi groups and propagandists of the Middle East who are anti-Israel.

Klein said there has been an explosion of hate on the Internet.

"We really have to worry about the next generation because they are certainly not getting Canadian values of tolerance and respect through the Internet," Klein said.

Klein listed a number of examples of anti-Semitic incidents - including students at an exclusive high school in Toronto who created an anti-Semitic Web site and sent hate-filled e-mails to Jewish students who dared to complain - and three teenage girls who attacked an elderly Jewish man outside a synagogue in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

She said the defacing of buildings remains common.

"Sometimes the police don't take it that seriously because they are used to seeing that," Klein said. "It's become routine. You have to fight against that mind-set."

Klein said most of the anti-Semitic activity is reported to their anti-hate line, but they also get their information from police and from calls to their office.

Among other things, the organization is calling on the government to broaden the definition of a hate crime to include Holocaust denial and to fund initiatives designed to fight hatred.

"If we want to see a reversal, every sector of society and every minority group has to get up and say enough," Klein said
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Permanent Link posted by J @ 6:17 pm 0 comments

In a rare move, the New York State Assembly on Tuesday unanimously decided that New York State residents will not help the Hamas-led Palestinian government, Israel's leading newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, reported on Wednesday.

The Assembly's 150 members said they view with "contempt" Hamas' victory in the legislative elections "without being asked to denounce terror and recognize Israel's right to exist," and noted that since 2000 Hamas was responsible for 425 terror attacks in which 377 people were killed.

"We support and stand by Israel, in declaring the closest friendship," legislatures said. The Assembly quoted a similar law passed by the Washington State Senate which banned direct assistance to the Palestinian government so long it is calling for the destruction of Israel.

In a gesture of friendship, the Assembly invited Israel Consul-General in New York, Aryeh Mekel, to attend the session which was held in Albany.

A draft of the law will be presented to Mekel who will be asked to submit it to the Israeli government.
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Permanent Link posted by J @ 6:52 pm 2 comments

A British man, who admitted being a terrorist quartermaster, was jailed for a total of nine years at Snaresbrook Crown Court on 17 March 2006. Mohammed Ajmal Khan, aged 31, bought equipment for use in terrorist operations - some of which may have been used against Coalition Forces in Afghanistan.

The material was sent to the proscribed terrorist group Lashkar-e-Tayibba (LeT). Pakistan-based LeT is a Kashmiri separatist organisation closely affiliated to Al Qaeda. LeT was preparing for, and conducted operations in Afghanistan in 2002/2003, at a time when Coalition forces were heavily engaged in the region.

Khan also attended LeT training camps in Pakistan and by September 2001 held a senior role in the organisation with responsibility for foreign recruits. Khan was jailed for eight years for the terrorist related offences and was jailed for an additional 12 months, to run consecutively, for being in contempt of court.

Mohammed Ajmal Khan pleaded guilty to the following:

Conspiracy to enter into or become concerned in an arrangement as a result of which money or other property is made available or is to be made available for the purposes of terrorism, contrary to Section 1 of the Criminal Law Act 1977.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, head of the MPS Anti-Terrorist Branch, said:

"Mohammed Ajmal Khan is a terrorist. He has been trained in violence. He went to great lengths to buy terrorist equipment, some of which could well have been used against British forces. However, we might never know.

"Khan's conviction is very important. It sends a clear message to anyone prepared to train as a terrorist or support terrorism that they can expect to be prosecuted. We also want to reassure the public that we will continue to do everything possible to fight terrorism.

"Snaresbrook Crown Court heard that Khan had access to over £20,000 in cash to buy a vast array of equipment which taken together, could only have had one use - terrorism. Police have been unable to fully identify the source of these funds."
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Permanent Link posted by J @ 6:25 pm 4 comments

London (CNSNews.com) - As more and more British banks offer special services to Muslims, the government says its wants to make the United Kingdom the most Islam-friendly economy in Europe.

Treasury officials said they wanted to create a "level playing field" for banks selling financial products that comply with Islamic law (shari'a.)

In addition to providing for the 1.8 million Muslims who live in Britain, Treasury spokesman Tom Youldon said the government would continue to promote the country as a center of Islamic finance for Muslims based abroad.

According to government estimates, global assets controlled by Islamic banks stand at around $500 billion and are growing at a rate of 10-15 percent a year.

"Shari'a-compliant" finance forbids any form of interest - called "usury" in the Koran. Although a Muslim cannot earn interest, Islamic institutions can pay investors a share of profits, as earning a profit is not prohibited.

All partners in a business venture must share risk equally and Muslims cannot invest in businesses dealing in alcohol, gambling or pornography.

To get around these restrictions when selling mortgages, for example, a bank will buy a property and then rent it back to its customer for a set number of years.

Currently, the Islamic Bank of Britain is the only fully Islamic retail bank here, but several British banks have begun to offer a line of shari'a-compliant products in the last year or so.

Humayon Dar, an economist specializing in Islamic finance, said most British Muslims wanted Islamic banking, but only if it came with the convenience they were used to getting from other banks.

He said he personally favored Western banks offering shari'a-compliant services over the creation of small Islamic institutions.

Ashraf Piranie, financial director at the Islamic Bank of Britain, said many laws relating to purchasing and leasing commercial property were unfair to Muslim business owners.

They were either forced to pay a higher rate of tax when using shari'a-compliant business arrangements or to compromise their religion.

Piranie said his bank had been in talks with the government and predicted tax rules would be adjusted once Chancellor Gordon Brown unveils the government's 2006 budget on Wednesday.

"Thankfully the Treasury has been very keen to understand the issues facing the development of Islamic financial products," he said.

While analysts agree that the core of Islamic banking will probably remain in the Middle East, many argue that London is a natural magnet for such activity.

Rodney Wilson, a professor of economics at the University of Durham, said that since the city is already a major financial center, many Middle Eastern bankers were already comfortable with doing business there.

One problem Islamic financing in the West faced was the shortage of people knowledgeable in shari'a who were able to help structure complex deals, he said.

Another was that while a particular scholar may be qualified in terms of religion, his English may not be good enough to understand complicated contracts.

Hamid Yunis, a lawyer with the London firm of Taylor Wessing, said Islamic financing was flexible enough to tackle projects of almost any size.

Last year, his firm helped an international consortium buy a $250 million office complex in the heart of London in a shari'a-compliant deal that used a form of Islamic bonds as equity.

"In Islam, there's a saying that in matters of [business] dealings, everything is possible - unless it's prohibited," he said.
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Permanent Link posted by J @ 6:53 pm 2 comments

COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- A radical Islamic group spokesman has been charged with threatening the government for distributing a leaflet urging Muslims to "eliminate" rulers that prevent them from joining the Iraq insurgency, a Danish prosecutor said Monday.

The leaflets, from the Danish chapter of Hizb ut-Tahrir, called on Muslims to travel to Iraq to join the insurgents fighting coalition troops. They also urged Muslims to "eliminate your rulers if they stand in your way" - a phrase prosecutors interpret as a direct threat to the Danish government.

Denmark has 530 troops stationed in southern Iraq.

"We have now finished looking at the material and decided there are grounds to start formal charges," Deputy Regional Prosecutor Karen-Inger Bast told The Associated Press.

She said charges against Fadi Abdullatif, the spokesman of the Danish chapter of the group, were filed March 16.

Abdullatif also was charged with violating anti-racism laws for postings on the group's Web page encouraging the killings of Jews, Bast said.

Calls to Abdullatif's telephone were unanswered Monday, but he has previously said police and prosecutors are "twisting the meaning" of the leaflets, which were passed out in 2004.

In 2003, he was given a 60-day suspended jail sentence for another Internet posting that encouraged similar racist killings.

Hizb ut-Tahrir, founded half a century ago, wants to peacefully establish a Muslim state across the Middle East operating under religious laws in the Quran. It preaches that Western-style democracy is unacceptable.

The group has been outlawed by some countries amid fears its recruits could include terrorists.

Australia's government said two weeks ago it was investigating the activities of the Australian chapter of Hizb ut-Tahrir for distributing leaflets urging Muslims to rise up against coalition troops in Iraq.
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Permanent Link posted by J @ 6:39 pm 1 comments

"Youths" With No Connection To Islam Call For Bloody Murder On The Streets Of London

LONDON (Reuters) - Police charged three men with public order offences on Wednesday after they took part in a demonstration in London over the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad by European media.

They were charged after hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the Danish embassy in the capital on February 3, chanting and waving placards.

Some of those on the march had waved banners praising the July 7 London bombings which killed 52 people on the transport network last year.

London police said in a statement that Uman Javed, 26, from Birmingham had been charged with soliciting murder and will appear in court on Thursday.

Abdul Rahman Saleem, 31, from London, was charged with "using words likely to stir up racial hatred" while Omar Zaheer, 26, also from London, was charged under the Public Order Act. Both will appear in court on March 31.

Two other men, aged 39 and 23, were bailed to return to a police station in London on April 19.

The spontaneous demonstration attracted widespread political condemnation and the mainstream Muslim Council of Britain called for those involved to be prosecuted.

The controversial cartoons were first published in September in a Danish newspaper and were then reprinted by papers in other countries but not Britain.

The publication prompted uproar in the Islamic world, with thousands taking to the streets to protest. Many Muslims believe it is blasphemous to depict the Prophet.

London police said Wednesday's action came after detectives had studied footage of the protest and consulted with prosecutors over whether there was enough evidence to press criminal charges.
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Permanent Link posted by J @ 12:58 am 3 comments

Karachi, PAKISTAN: Pakistani Muslim women chant slogans against the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed during a protest in Karachi, 13 March 2006. Protesters marched on the streets to protest against the controversial publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. Twelve cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed were first published in Denmark's Jyllands-Posten newspaper in September 2005 and have since been reprinted elsewhere, igniting demonstrations throughout much of the Islamic world.

Permanent Link posted by J @ 8:36 pm 0 comments

THE deputy leader of the Scottish Tories has been criticised after calling on his party to embrace ideas reflecting the "Judaeo-Christian tradition".

Murdo Fraser, the Conservative MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, also said he could not support proposals for same-sex adoption.

He said his colleagues "shouldn't be afraid" to promote marriage through the tax and benefits system.

Fraser's remarks were made to the Sunday Herald as he talked about the Blue Book, a series of essays he published recently on the future of conservatism.

Although the collection included contributions from the libertarian and traditional wings of the party, Fraser counts himself as a social conservative.

He said that while the Tories should not "impose" a religious agenda, he thought his party's philosophy should be based on the "Judaeo-Christian tradition".

He called on colleagues to talk up marriage. "We should be arguing that marriage is good for society, " he said.

Fraser also risked alienating liberal colleagues by attacking Executive plans for homosexual couples to adopt children, saying he had "moral qualms" about proposals. "The best environment for adoption is by a married couple," Fraser said.

Fraser's comments put distance between Scottish Tories and the more liberal approach adopted by new UK leader David Cameron, who backs gay rights .

Osama Saeed, Scottish spokesman for the Muslim Association of Britain, said Fraser should pause before using the "Judaeo-Christian" description again. "It would be good if public figures like Murdo Fraser extended the hand of friendship to Islam," he added.

Green MSP Patrick Harvie said he hoped Fraser's comments about same- sex couples would not be reflected in Scottish Tory policy.
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Permanent Link posted by J @ 5:51 pm 1 comments

The United States Congress heard a damning report this week about U.S. aid being over-alotted due to deliberately inflated Palestinian population figures.

The findings of an exhaustive study on Palestinian Authority (PA) population statistics claims that the Palestinian Authority has deliberately misled U.S. and international humanitarian efforts by inflating their population figures to attract billions of dollars in relief funds.

Bennet Zimmerman, Project Leader of a recent study entitled "Arab Population in the West Bank and Gaza: The Million Person Gap," presented the findings to the Congress this week. Zimmerman addressed the House International Relations Subcommittee on the Middle East which has been investigating U.S. funding of the Palestinian Authority.

"American tax dollars and other international humanitarian aid have been based on inflated population numbers which have been accepted without question by governments and aid agencies," he said in an interview with the World Net Daily. "Our researchers pointed out that money has been spent to help Palestinians who were double-counted, never born or not present in the West Bank and Gaza."

According to Zimmerman, the current official population for the West Bank and Gaza, which is listed as 3,279,141, is a highly inflated figure that does not reflect the demographic reality, which he estimates at 1.4 million in the West Bank and 1 million in Gaza, totaling 2.4 million. "The U.S. and Europeans have for years accepted entirely exaggerated data. Now Congress has some very tough questions to ask, including how its own State Department and the CIA could have been duped and what do to regarding future aid," stated Zimmerman.

Israeli demographic analyst Yoram Ettinger concurs with the findings in Zimmerman's report and claims that there is no credence to the myth of a potential Arab majority in Israel. "And so it turns out that the demographic knife is not really hanging over our heads. In 1900 Jews constituted just eight percent of the population west of the Jordan, in 1948 it was 48 percent, and today we are 60 percent. Without Gaza, the Jewish majority is stable at 67 percent within [including] Judea and Samaria," Ettinger maintains.

Speaking at the Herzilyah Conference in January, Zimmerman stated, "Before the census in 1996, Israel estimated that there were 2.1 million Arabs living in the territories. At the same time, in the census conducted by the Palestinians, they announced their population was 600 thousand larger than what the Israelis claimed. 325,000 from these 600,000 were Palestinians who were living abroad. The Palestinians came up with an estimation of birth rate assumptions that exceeds 140,000 per year." Zimmerman contends that the Palestinian figures are inaccurate and in many cases citizens were recorded more than once. For example, the study claims that 230,000 Arab residents of Jerusalem were counted twice.

Zimmerman and his researchers discovered inconsistencies after they carefully compared the official Palestinian Authority statistics with Palestinian voting records, birth and death records published annually by the PA's Health Ministry, immigration and emigration data from Israel's Border Control, internal migration of Palestinians from the territories into Israel recorded by the Israeli Interior Ministry, Israeli Civil Administration population studies, U.N. population surveys, and surveys conducted by the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics and the World Bank.

Another fallacy regarding Palestinian population statistics has been the recording of an uncommonly high birth and growth rate. "It is important to follow the demographic activities of Israeli Jews, Israeli Arabs and Palestinians and update their activities. Jewish fertility is beginning to rise while Muslim birth rates are decreasing," Zimmerman noted. Zimmerman claims that actual Palestinian growth and birth rates have been declining, but that the PA has been retroactively tampering with its data, attributing a natural growth rate of 4 to 5 percent per year to the Palestinian population. Zimmerman's findings, based on the Palestinian Ministry of Health records published annually since 1996, contradict the PA's claims and place the actual growth rate at around 3 percent. PA figures indicate a rise in Palestinian fertility rates while the study revealed a dramatic decrease from 7.4 in 1997 to 3.89 in 2003.

Ettinger emphasizes how crucial it is for future policy decisions to be based on proven statistical facts reflecting the reality of the Palestinian population figures. "Only Palestinian immigration to the West Bank - and from there over the "green line" - will upset the demographic scales. Fateful policy decisions must be based on facts, not on statistics provided by the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics, and certainly not on superficial assumptions about demography that bear no relation to reality," Ettinger stated.
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Permanent Link posted by J @ 7:14 pm 1 comments

Following are excerpts from an interview with Palestinian Legislative Council member "Umm Nidal" Farhat, aired on Iqra TV, on February 19, 2006

Iqra TV Director-General Nabil Hammad : As you know, there are plans to strip the resistance of its meaning, and say it is terrorism. Even the resistance is now called "terrorism." You learn something new every day...

[...]

Umm Nidal : Ever since [my son] Muhammad was a little boy, he carried and used a weapon. This was natural for him. It is not that he all of a sudden took up a weapon, carried out operations, and so on. This was a gradual process for him, ever since he was little.

There was an operation that was about to take place - the same operation that he eventually carried out. [My eldest son] Nidal, may he rest in peace, said to me: "I want to give this operation to my brother Muhammad." He insisted on this because he loved Muhammad very much. He chose him. He chose him for the operation over the rest of the guys. Some of the guys were even a little mad at him for not considering them for this operation, but he said: "By Allah, this operation leads to Paradise, and I will choose nobody but my brother."

[...]

Allah be praised, we have thousands of young men. They all yearn for martyrdom for the sake of Allah. Some of them even cry when they do not get the chance to commit martyrdom. As long as we have such determination, we will prevail, Allah willing.

[...]

Nabil Hammad : What is your message to all the Muslim mothers, who want to raise their sons, and hope they will attain worldly things, university degrees, luxurious palaces, and fancy cars?

[...]

Umm Nidal : A Muslim mother should raise her children on prayer, good deeds, and, of course, on Jihad, which is one of the duties on which we should raise our children.

[...]

Jihad in Islam is a duty that one cannot forego. It is like any other religious duty. If we understand the true meaning of Islam, the notion of Jihad will be included among the Islamic duties, and in Palestine - an individual duty. If we are remiss in this duty, we sin.
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Permanent Link posted by J @ 5:03 pm 5 comments

"The enemies of Islam know that when we come back to power we're gonna check 'em."

"Neo-cons are all Zionist Jews"

"Sooner or later, today's Muslim students will be the parents of Muslim children. And they should be militants."

Permanent Link posted by J @ 7:46 pm 0 comments

Women supporters of Islamic coalition Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal, or United Action Forum take part in a rally to condemn the publication of cartoons depicting Islamic Prophet Muhammad printed by some Western newspapers, Sunday, March 5, 2006 in Karachi, Pakistan. About 50,000 people, many chanting "Hang those who insulted the prophet," rallied in a southern Pakistani city to protest Prophet Muhammad cartoons. The headbands read: 'God is great.' [edit - the headbands more likely read "Allah is....", big difference]

Permanent Link posted by J @ 7:00 pm 2 comments

Greetings,

It is with great regret that I must go into hiding.

This is a result of the multiple death threats I have received for my comic book, which depicts the truth about the teachings of the prophet Mohammed. I am earnestly confused about this matter. I have spoken honestly and truthfully about Islam and its teachings. All quotes in the comic book are directly from the Qu'ran and the agreed Hadiths.

Why does a religion of peace seek to kill me for being honest? What do they have to hide?

I hope to return when I am free to speak once again.

Abdullah Aziz
(Author or the World Renowned Comic Book, "Mohammed's Believe It or Else!"

Permanent Link posted by J @ 6:07 pm 4 comments

Security was increased for the student forum Tuesday night at the University of California, Irvine, but police reported no violence.

Last week, members of the Muslim Student Union called upon College Republicans -- the student group co-sponsoring the event -- not to display the images, but the latter refused.

Another sponsor, the United American Committee, likened the demonstrations to "censorship by terrorism" in a statement on its Web site.

The discussion originally was set to focus on the fight against terrorism, but copies of the cartoons surfaced on campus, and the College Republicans said they decided to include the topic in the program.

The Muslim Student Union's Osman Umarji accused the evening program of inciting Islamophobia.

"They are discussing Islamic terrorism and how most Muslims are apologists for terror," Umarji said.

But Kristen Lucero, 21, president of College Republicans, said the discussion was about free speech and an understanding of the origin of Middle Eastern terrorist networks, not an attack on Islam.

Lucero said discussion topics included an examination of Islamic militancy on college campuses and whether some Islamic groups in the United States are apologists for terror.

Marya Bangee, a member of the Muslim group's board, said, "Displaying the cartoons at U.C. Irvine will only incite hatred against and deeply hurt its Muslim community. We do not believe in any violence."

Police removed two people from inside the auditorium for disrupting the discussion, but the unidentified men were not members of the Muslim Student Union.
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Permanent Link posted by J @ 6:38 pm 0 comments

A pair of British teenagers were handed three and four year jail sentences after being found guilty of perpetrating a series of anti-Semitic attacks on London school children.

The young criminals, aged 15 and 16-years old, were convicted after it was proved they were part of a gang which "terrorised" pupils from the Jews Free School London in June 2004. Their names can not be released for legal reasons.

JFS, the biggest Jewish school in Europe, moved to its new site in Kingsbury, north west London in 2002. There had been some problems of anti-Semitism from local school children at the previous site in Camden and the problem again raised its ugly head just a few years after the transfer to the new site.

Brent Youth Court heard how the youths committed a series of violent robberies on the nine Jewish students, using violence and anti-Semitic verbal threats to force the pupils to hand over mobile phones and money.

They were caught after the British Transport Police captured robberies which took place on the local underground trains using closed circuit television cameras.

After the police organised an operation at the local train station six suspected gang members were caught resulting in the sentencing of the pair.
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Permanent Link posted by J @ 6:25 pm 3 comments