While three major British newspapers published reports contradicting Israel's claims that its military was not responsible for the murder of seven members of the Ghalia family on a Gaza beach over a week ago, a German newspaper casts doubt on the authenticity of pictures taken soon after the bloody incident.

German daily Sued Deutsche, said pictures taken by Zakaria Abu Irbad, 36, a cameramen with the Palestinian independent news agency Ramattan, contradict Palestinian claims that an IDF shell killed the Ghalia family and point to the possibility that the event was staged to hold Israel responsible.

Irbad was the first journalist to arrive at the s cene after the attack and Ramattan sold footage of Hadil weeping on the beach by her dead father to all major news broadcasters.

The newspaper said in footage of the beach taken by an IDF drone at the time of the attack, five craters left by IDF artillery shells could be seen, but that 250 meters away people could also be seen.

The paper said it is strange that although shells exploded 250 meters away from a beach site where Palestinian families congregated, no one was seen running away or panicking.

Irbad told the newspaper he was told of the attack by paramedics who guided him to the scene.

But no paramedics are seen until later in the footage, raising suspicions that he was first to reach the scene.

Moreover, if Irbad was the first to get to the scene, why were most bodies covered by sheets? Who was there first to cover the bodies? The newspaper asked.

'Did girl give instructions to cameraman?'

The newspaper also doubts Irbad's claim that Hadil was not injured because she was in the water when the shell exploded. His footage show her dry and fully clothed.

Another question raised by the newspaper is a shot of a man carrying a rifle next to the dead body of Hadil's father. The newspaper said in earlier footage, the same man was seen lying on the beach among the injured.

The footage also shows paramedics in green clothes and a dozen of bearded men looking for evidence. The newspaper asks whether the men are Hamas affiliates and wonders why they were preoccupied with collecting evidence rather than helping the injured.

Did Hamas men hide evidence from the scene, as claimed by eyewitnesses interviewed by Israeli broadcasters?

The newspaper said Irbad evaded most of the questions addressed to him.

Asked why he didn't try to calm Hadil instead of filming her he said: "She asked me to film her. She wanted to be seen next to her father to show the world the crimes that Israel is committing."

The newspaper finally asks: "Did the shocked 10-year-old girl, who had lost her father minutes earlier, give the cameraman direction instructions?"
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Permanent Link posted by J @ 1:46 pm 2 comments

London, 13 June (AKI) - Britain's finance minister, Gordon Brown on Tuesday signalled he wants to make London a global centre for the rapidly expanding Islamic finance market - by offering a regulatory and tax environment that will support the creation of financial products for devout Muslims. Brown announced the move in a keynote speech to the Islamic Finance and Trade Conference in London, organised by the country's mainsteam Muslim grouping, the Muslim Council of Great Britain. The defining feature of the Islamic finance industry is that it offers products without interest payments to comply with the Koranic ban on usury.

It was a "realistic and realisable" ambition to make Britain "the gateway to Islamic finance and trade," Brown told the conference. His speech praised "the invaluable contribution of the whole of the Muslim community in Britain... to our prosperity, our society and our culture," and its "entrepreneurial vibrancy and dynamism." Muslims make an "enormous" contribution to the British economy, Brown said.

Islam is Britain's second largest faith and the country has one of the largest Muslim populations (upwards of 1.6 million) in Europe.

Brown's remarks came as investment banks based on the City of London are scrambling to capture a slice of a market estimated to be worth as much as 400 billion dollars worldwide and which is enjoying a a boom on the back of growing oil-wealth in the Middle East, heightened religious sentiment across the Muslim world, and the increasing use of Islamic compliant products such as bonds - sukuks - that are sold to investors globally to finance large banking projects in the Middle East.

"Already, Britain is the largest European trader with many Islamic countries - the largest European investor in Oman, the largest non-Arab investor in Egypt, and second largest global investor in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia," Brown noted.

Britain's trade with Arab countries has grown 60 per cent in the last five years, while at the same time its exports to Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan and Bangladesh grew to nearly 5.52 billion dollars in 2005 and to North Africa to over 1.84 billion dollars, Brown said.

"I, like you, would like Britain's strong economic ties with Muslim countries strengthen still further.. too often our relationship with the Muslim world is described through a prism of conflict and tension," he stated.

"Today British banks are pioneering Islamic banking - London now has more banks supplying services under Islamic principles than any other Western financial centre," Brown said.

Some in Britain hope that the growing involvement of British banks in the Islamic finance sector could provide a non-political platform for cooperation between the Muslim world and the West, according to unnamed officials quoted by Britain's Financial Times newspaper.

In conjunction with the Muslim Council of Great Britain, the government has already carried out tax and regulatory reform to support the development of finance that is compatible with Islamic (Sharia) law, Brown said. The Islamic mortage market grew almost 50 percent last year alone to more than 0.92 billion dollars, he pointed out.

The government has also provided comprehensive consumer protection for Islamic savings and borrowing (Ijara) products, Brown said. Last week, the parliament approved measures in the UK Finance Bill for diminishing musharaka (a form of leasing) and wakala (agency fees, for example on deposit accounts).

A growing number of London banks are involved in the Islamic bond (sukuk) market. "I am pleased that London was the financial centre chosen recently to advise on one of the largest sukuk deals ever done." The main banks invovled in this type of business include HSB, Citigroup, Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas and Standard Chartered, according to the Financial Times.

London is perceived to be the main centre for Islamic investment banking activity outside the Muslim world. However, it will have to fight off competition from centres such as Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, which are scrambling to transform themselves into new financial hubs.

Other conference speakers included Khalfan Karbash, United Arab Emirates finance and industry minister; Ebrahim bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, Bahrain minister of finance; Ahmed Mohammed Ali, president of the Islamic Development Bank; and Hussain Ali Al-Abdullah, of the Qatar Investment Authority.
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Permanent Link posted by J @ 5:56 pm 3 comments

Following are excerpts from an interview with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, which aired on Channel 2, Iranian TV on June 7, 2006.

Manouchehr Mottaki: We emphasize the peaceful nature of our nuclear weapons... I mean... of our nuclear power plant, and nuclear energy and activities. We have no need for nuclear weapons, as we've often said. Nuclear weapons are not part of our defense doctrine.

[...]

I told the Emir of Kuwait during my visit there that while Kuwait is 120 km away from Bushehr, the population of Bushehr itself is less than 2 km from the power plant. Our people are important to us. The structure of the power plant of Bushehr can withstand earthquakes. Its technical equipment is supervised by experts. It conforms to the most up-to-date standards, and it is under the supervision of the IAEA. In other words, they will supervise the plant when it becomes operative.
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Permanent Link posted by J @ 2:30 pm 3 comments

The dramatic growth of Islamic banking and finance appeared to have been confirmed during the recent World Economic Forum in Sharm al-Sheikh in Egypt.

One of Germany's biggest banks, Deutsche Bank, announced a joint venture with Ithmaar Bank of Bahrain and Abraaj Capital of Dubai to launch a $2bn (£1bn) Sharia-compliant financial fund.

The banks say the fund is designed to boost education initiatives and investment in media and energy companies, and infrastructure in the Middle East.

More and more conventional international banks, such as Citibank, HSBC and UBS, are converting some of their services to interest-free Islamic finance models.

Estimates of the value of Islamic banking internationally range from $200bn to $500bn.

Some financial analysts are concerned that the increase in Islamic banking opens Western financial institutions to influence informed by a conservative Islamic agenda.

But many bankers at the World Economic Forum were upbeat about a growing success story of banking services which they argue are a fairer and more ethical way to handle financial affairs.

No interest

"I am very proud our baby is growing," says Alexander Theocharides, a director with Faisal Finance, the first Islamic bank in Switzerland.

"The volume of Islamic Finance has now reached approximately $500bn and we are witnessing an annual growth of about 10%."

"We want to make the concept of this kind of ethical investment available to the West," Mr Theocharides explains. "Everybody, non-Muslims included, can take advantage of Islamic finance products."

Other than the Gulf region, Switzerland and Malaysia are now the hubs of Islamic finance.

Banks that are Sharia-compliant do not charge or pay interest and they do not finance projects that are considered not to comply with the principles of Sharia - such as investments in gambling, alcohol production and so on.

The business model of Islamic finance is based on partnership and not on "riba", usurious interest taking, which is forbidden in the Koran. However even though they don't charge interest, Islamic banks are generally not charity organisations.

The customer and the Islamic bank share the risk of any investment on agreed terms, and divide any profits between them.

Standard practice

Supporters of Islamic banking see a potential market of more than a billion Muslims in the world, many of them seeking financial institutions which reflect their religious beliefs.

Financial analysts say that Middle Eastern clients have over recent years transferred billions of dollars out of conventional Western banks. Many feared being caught up in strict new financial regulations being passed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

Islamic banks say they have benefited from this.

Another issue for investors has been the fact that so far there is no standard law or practice for Islamic finance and banking.

Scholars in Malaysia and other Islamic countries are working on building a consensus on practice.

It is also the case that in more conservative countries, such as Saudi Arabia, the taking and paying of interest is less accepted than in more liberal Islamic countries, such as Egypt or Jordan.

Many Middle Eastern Islamic banks are more social or co-operative banks in the West.

Charity is a core value, or pillar, of Islam. Every Muslim is obliged to pay "Zakat", a payment of 2.5% of his annual income to benefit the poor.

Engku Rabiah Adawiah Engku Ali, a professor of the International Islamic University of Malaysia hopes that growth of Islamic banking will help to create a better distribution of wealth in the Islamic world.

"Greed is a problem. We have to keep reminding ourselves not to follow greed", she says.
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Permanent Link posted by J @ 12:11 pm 2 comments

Poor Melanie Phillips. Her new book, Londonistan, which argues that the London attacks of 7 July 2005 were the culmination of a sinister Islamist conspiracy to infiltrate Britain and bring our civilisation to its knees, has hit the shelves just a few weeks after the government's report into the bombings revealed that, in fact, they were the work of four ordinary blokes with no clear links to al-Qaeda. What Phillips presents as the handiwork of "clerical fascism" looks increasingly like Britain's Columbine, a murderous stunt executed by four bored and overgrown adolescents who had nothing better to do.

Mohammad Siddique Khan confesses to London attacks. States that Islamic Jihadism, fighting for the Ummah, achieving Shahada, Islamic conquest [fighting the Kufr/non-believers] were his beliefs and ideology for the attacks. In other words, fundamental Islam [click the picture to watch the video - this article contains more information on the video and it's release]

Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri claims responsibility for the London attacks [click the picture to watch the video]

This is where I have to leave it for now, but if you read through the rest of O'Neill's article you'll see that it's one big whitewash for the Islamic terrorist ideologies, mindsets and activities that are blossoming right under our noses in the UK. The same ideologies that led directly to the July 7th attacks. [click here for the full article]

[cross posted at the Infidel Bloggers Alliance]

Permanent Link posted by J @ 6:53 pm 4 comments

The Central IntelligenceAgency took no action after learning the pseudonym and whereabouts of the fugitive Holocaust administrator Adolf Eichmann in 1958, according to C.I.A. documents released Tuesday that shed new light on the spy agency's use of former Nazis as informants after World War II.

The C.I.A. was told by West German intelligence that Eichmann was living in Argentina under the name Clemens - a slight variation on his actual alias, Ricardo Klement - but did not share the information with Israel, which had been hunting for him for years, according to Timothy Naftali, a historian who examined the documents. Two years later, Israeli agents abducted Eichmann in Argentina and flew him to Israel, where he was tried and executed in 1962.

The Eichmann papers are among 27,000 newly declassified pages released by the C.I.A. to the National Archives under Congressional pressure to make public files about former officials of Adolf Hitler's regime later used as American agents. The material reinforces the view that most former Nazis gave American intelligence little of value and in some cases proved to be damaging double agents for the Soviet K.G.B., according to historians and members of the government panel that has worked to open the long-secret files.

Elizabeth Holtzman, a former congresswoman from New York and member of the panel, the Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group, said the documents showed that the C.I.A "failed to lift a finger" to hunt Eichmann and "force us to confront not only the moral harm but the practical harm" of relying on intelligence from ex-Nazis.

The United States government, preoccupied with the cold war, had no policy at the time of pursuing Nazi war criminals. The records also show that American intelligence officials protected many former Nazis for their perceived value in combating the Soviet threat.

Holtzman, speaking at a news briefing at the National Archives on Tuesday, said information from the former Nazis was often tainted both by their "personal agendas" and their vulnerability to blackmail. "Using bad people can have very bad consequences," said Holtzman. She and other group members suggested that the findings should be a cautionary tale for intelligence agencies today.

As head of the Gestapo's Jewish affairs office during the war, Eichmann put into effect the policy of extermination of European Jewry, promoting the use of gas chambers and having a hand in the murder of millions of Jews. Captured by the United States Army at the end of the war, he gave a false name and went unrecognized, hiding in Germany and Italy before fleeing to Argentina in 1950.
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Permanent Link posted by J @ 6:23 pm 1 comments

"The Arab armies entered Palestine to protect the Palestinians from the Zionist tyranny but, instead, THEY ABANDONED THEM, FORCED THEM TO EMIGRATE AND TO LEAVE THEIR HOMELAND, imposed upon them a political and ideological blockade and threw them into prisons similar to the ghettos in which the Jews used to live in Eastern Europe, as if we were condemmed to change places with them; they moved out of their ghettos and we occupied similar ones. The Arab States succeeded in scattering the Palestinian people and in destroying their unity. They did not recognize them as a unified people until the States of the world did so, and this is regrettable".

- by Abu Mazen, from the article titled: "What We Have Learned and What We Should Do", published in Falastin el Thawra, the official journal of the PLO, of Beirut, in March 1976

The following are three statements corroborating that Arabs fled Israel, under instructions of the Arab leaders:

1. Woman who fled Israel in 1948

"We heard sounds of explosions and of gunfire at the beginning of the summer in the year of the Nakbah [1948]. They told us: The Jews attacked our region and it is better to evacuate the village and return, after the battle is over. And indeed there were among us [who fled Israel] those who left a fire burning under the pot, those who left their flock [of sheep] and those who left their money and gold behind, based on the assumption that we would return after a few hours."
[Asmaa Jabir Balasimah Um Hasan, Woman who fled Israel, Al-Ayyam, May 16, 2006]

2. Son and grandson of those who fled in 1948

An Arab viewer called Palestinian Authority TV and quoted his father and grandfather, complaining that in 1948 the Arab District Officer ordered all Arabs to leave Palestine or be labeled traitors. In response, Arab MK Ibrahim Sarsur, then Head of the Islamic Movement in Israel, cursed the leaders who ordered Arabs to leave, thus, acknowledging Israel's assertion.

Statement of son and grandson of man who fled:

"Mr. Ibrahim [Sarsur]. I address you as a Muslim. My father and grandfather told me that during the "Catastrophe" [establishment of Israel in 1948], our district officer issued an order that whoever stays in Palestine and in Majdel [near Ashkelon- Southern Israel] is a traitor, he is a traitor."

Response from Ibrahim Sarsur, Head of the Islamic Movement in Israel:

"The one who gave the order forbidding them to stay there bears guilt for this, in this life and the Afterlife throughout history until Resurrection Day."
[PA TV April 30, 1999].

3. Article by senior PA journalist

Fuad Abu Higla, then a regular columnist in the official PA daily Al Hayat Al Jadida, wrote an article before an Arab Summit, which criticized the Arab leaders for a series of failures. One of the failures he cited, in the name of a prisoner, was that an earlier generation of Arab leaders "forced" them to leave Israel in 1948, again placing the blame for the flight on the Arab leaders.

"I have received a letter from a prisoner in Acre prison, to the Arab summit:
To the [Arab and Muslim] Kings and Presidents, Poverty is killing us, the symptoms are exhausting us and the souls are leaving our body, yet you are still searching for the way to provide aid, like one who is looking for a needle in a haystack or like the armies of your predecessors in the year of 1948, who forced us to leave [Israel], on the pretext of clearing the battlefields of civilians... So what will your summit do now?"
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah, March 19, 2001]

Conclusion

It is clear from these statements that there is general acknowledgement among Palestinians that Arab leaders bear responsibility for the mass flight of Arabs from Israel in 1948, and were the cause of the "refugee" problem. Furthermore, the fact that this information has been validated by public figures and the media in the Palestinian Authority confirms that this responsibility is well-known - even though, for propaganda purposes, its leaders continue to blame Israel publicly for "the expulsion."
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Permanent Link posted by J @ 8:14 pm 3 comments

A free course on Islam run from Birmingham has gone nationwide in the face of increased demand from nonMuslims who want to learn about the religion.

The Islamic Correspondence Course covers the basic teachings of the Muslim faith and is aimed at people of all religions.

It is designd to allow people to learn about Islam from their own home and at their own pace.

Course founder Tahir Selby said it had been running for more than four years in the region and was now generating interest across the UK.

"Particularly in light of world events, there does seem to be increasing curiosity about Islam," he said.

There is plenty of demand for information that is simple and accessible. There is plenty of demand for information that is simple and accessible, and this initiative is one way of meeting it."

The course includes sections on Jihad, women in Islam, aand how the Big Bang theory and evolution fit into the religion.
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Permanent Link posted by J @ 7:24 pm 6 comments

The Islamic mortgage market has grown considerably over the past few years, with more Muslim borrowers now able to take out a mortgage in the UK, compliant with Sharia law.

Following a period where Muslim borrowers were under represented in the market, a host of lenders and intermediaries alike are beginning to realise the need to appeal to this market, despite its significant differences from the conventional mortgage market.

Market differences

Sharia law forbids the paying or receiving of interest, or Riba, making most of the mainstream mortgage products unsuitable for Muslim borrowers. However, due to increasing demand in this area, lenders have changed their product designs and adopted specific Sharia principles to the market to give Muslim borrowers the opportunity to buy a property, while complying with Muslim law. Under Sharia law, two options are available to potential homeowners: Ljara and Murabaha loans.

[..]

Bristol & West, West Bromwich Building Society, Lloyds TSB, Bank of Ireland and HSBC have all launched Islamic Sharia mortgage offerings.
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Permanent Link posted by J @ 7:19 pm 1 comments