mEDIAfRONT

A Question to Muslims (#468)

2007-06-27T23:59:00.000+02:00

"Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued."

The "People of the Book" are primarily Jews and Christians.

What should Muslims say to Muslims who include Jews and Christians among "those" who should be "fought" on the basis of this verse?

Cultural Diversity and Social Customs

2007-06-27T23:56:00.000+02:00

thenews - Two killed over Karo-Kari.

June 24, 2007 ◊ A man and a woman were gunned down and three others, including an eight-year-old girl, injured seriously by armed persons over Karo-Kari in the Bello Banglani village near Thull on Sunday.

Khamiso Banglani, along with his accomplices, allegedly gunned down his wife Zarina (25) and her alleged paramour Gahi (15), and injured two women, Jamali Khatoon, Jannat Khatoon, and an eight-year-old girl, Zahida.

The injured were shifted to a local hospital in critical condition.

Police have registered a case against five attackers identified as Khamiso Banglani, Fazil, Bahadur, Ghulam Rasool and Suhrab.

Separately, a policeman was put to death over a minor issue in Gambat late on Saturday night.

Ashiq Hussain Thebo, who was a police constable at the Gambat police station, was attacked with wooden sticks by unidentified persons, injuring him seriously. He succumbed to his injuries at a Gamat hospital. Police have arrested an accused, Sarwar Shaikh, and are investigating the matter.

anp - 24-yr-old woman shot dead.

June 25, 2007 ◊ Alkmaar Station was evacuated and shut by police on Monday morning after a shooting just after 10 am this morning. One person was killed and another seriously injured.

The reason for the shooting may have been the result of an argument in a relationship. RTV Noord-Holland reports that the male gunman tried to kill himself immediately after shooting a 24-year-old woman. He has been taken to hospital in serious condition.

Eye witnesses say the gunman and the victim exchanged words in Turkish before the shooting.

At about 10.30 am two ambulances were called and a trauma helicopter was on hand. One of the 2 had been shot in the head. Witnesses say the woman was shot as she ascended the steps to platform 5.

Limited train service to and from Alkmaar has resumed. Travellers should still expect delays.

calsun - Repentant honour-killer asks court for early release.

June 26, 2007 ◊ Triple-murderer Daljit Singh Dulay has renounced the culture of honour-killings that led him to commit his crimes and deserves a chance at early release, his lawyer argued yesterday.

Dulay, 43, who gunned down his sister Kulvinder, her husband Gary Dulay and their friend Mukesh Sharma outside a Marlborough strip mall on March 19, 1991, is seeking a Section 745 hearing -- the so-called faint-hope clause -- that would shorten his 25-year life sentence.

His lawyer, Richard Cairns, told Court of Queen's Bench his client, who has served 16 years in prison, takes full responsibility for his acts and rejects the concept of honour-killing derived from his native India.

"He's taken treatment and programs, he has come to challenge his Sikh beliefs," said Cairns.

"He willingly says he denounces his cultural violence and believes Canadian culture is much more compassionate ... the course of his length of imprisonment has affected the change."

His sister Kulvinder's marriage to her husband, who was considered a relative before their union, enraged Dulay and shamed his family.

Crown prosecutor Steve Koval argued the scope of Dulay's crimes and his lack of remorse make the likelihood of early release remote.

"At the end of the day, he has no reasonable hope -- he's a violent man," said Koval.

Justice Sandy Park is to rule on whether Dulay will get his Section 745 hearing July 30.

Religion of Peace strikes Spain

2007-06-27T23:50:00.000+02:00

ap - Spain: 3 suspected al-Qaida recruiters arrested.

Spanish police have arrested three men on suspicion of having links with al-Qaida, authorities said Tuesday.

Mohamed Laksir, 23, Mohamed Akazim, 32, and Moulay Lahoucine Miftah Idrissi, 27, were detained in the northeastern port city of Barcelona on suspicion of belonging to and recruiting volunteers for a terror organization, the Interior Ministry said.

Recruits would have been sent for training in terror activities in Africa's dry Sahel region, south of the Sahara Desert, the ministry said.

The two suspects are believed to have belonged to a cell which also promoted radical Islam, the statement said.

Abbas issues Decree forbidding Problems

2007-06-27T23:47:00.001+02:00

jpost - Abbas issues decree forbidding weapons carrying.

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abba signed a presidential decree on Tuesday forbidding the brandishing of weapons without a license in the West Bank.

While the decree is aimed mostly at Hamas, Abbas-affiliated Fatah groups, such as the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, will also be expected to follow the new law.

Terrorbusiness as usual

2007-06-27T23:44:00.000+02:00

jpost - 'Hamas is trying to create a humanitarian crisis'

A security source said that Hamas was trying to create a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which was why it was consistently trying to target border crossings, Israel Radio reported. The source added that Hamas's objective was to generate international pressure on Israel.

Security sources said that Gazans had an 80-day supply of food, water and fuel.

jpost - Peace Now: Remove unnecessary W. Bank checkpoints.

A report published by Peace Now on Wednesday morning called on the IDF to remove dozens of checkpoints in the West Bank, saying they were not vital to Israel's security and were causing unnecessary difficulties for the Palestinians.

The organization noted that of the 93 manned checkpoints, only 35 were located on the Green Line, with 15 in Hebron and the surrounding area and 43 in other areas of the West Bank.

"More than half of the manned checkpoints (and almost all of the roadblocks) are internal, and are not the last point before entry into Israel," the report said. "As such, no Palestinian can pass through these roadblocks/checkpoints without passing another checkpoint before entering Israeli territory. Thus, there is no immediate security necessity in order to prevent a terror infiltration into Israel."

In addition, the report said, "the checkpoint is a dangerous place for the soldiers manning it. Soldiers are required to man one area for lengthy periods of time and come in close contact with the Palestinian population, raising the risk of a suicide attack. Each checkpoint requires at least six soldiers per shift for many hours of the day, using a large portion of the army's personnel."

ap - EU aid chief urges opening of Israel-Gaza border.

The European Union appealed Tuesday for the opening of border crossings between Israel and the Gaza strip to allow in more humanitarian aid supplies.

"The needs are increasing all the time," EU Aid Commissioner Louis Michel said. "€30 million (US$40 million) in supplies and funding from the EU are ready and waiting, give us the tools to get on with the job."

International aid officials say the number of people in relying on food handouts has grown since Hamas seized control in Gaza two weeks ago.

The World Food Program in Geneva said about 60 commercial trucks and 11 carrying food aid were passing through the Sufa cargo crossing into Gaza Tuesday, but mortar fire forced the closure of another crossing point Monday.

Separation of Faith and Culture in Britain

2007-06-27T23:41:00.000+02:00

bbc - 'Honour' violence 'terror-linked'

There are links between some cases of "honour" violence in Britain and extremist groups abroad, a BBC investigation has been told.

Victims of such attacks are alleged by their families to have disgraced them.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said Islamist terror groups were behind one murder, as well as a case where a woman was threatened and is in hiding.

But the Muslim Council of Britain said "honour" violence was a cultural practice, and nothing to do with faith.

The CPS pointed to the death five years ago of Heshu Yones, 16, who was stabbed to death by her father.

Nazir Afzal, the CPS's national lead on honour crime, told BBC Radio 4's File on 4 programme the threats to kill a woman known as Miss B, who is now in hiding, came from her family but originated in an Egyptian terrorist group.

He said: "They told her husband that if he didn't put his wife in her place then they would do it themselves."

Heshu Yones was stabbed to death by her father, Abdalla Yones, who had associations with a Kurdish nationalist organisation, says Mr Afzal.

While he was on remand, the group raised substantial amounts of cash to try to secure his release on bail.

Mr Afzal said honour violence was not confined to fathers and grandfathers, but was carried out by younger relations too.

"You have a second generation youth who have an exaggerated concept of what home is like," he said.

"They get their identity and their ethnicity from these traditions.

"We know they are bizarre and outdated but they get their identity from those traditions and they feel very strongly that how you treat your women is a demonstration of your commitment to radicalism and extremist thought."

However, Reefat Drabu of the Muslim Council of Britain told the BBC she disagreed with Mr Afzal's comments.

She said: "First and foremost there has to be clarity that this is nothing to do with any faith, in particular Islam.

"It is a cultural practice and there is nothing in any faith that would condone it or say that it is the right thing do it.

"This is to do with misguided notions of family honour. It has nothing to do with radicalism or terrorism."

Contract killers

According to the United Nations Population Fund, 5,000 women a year die in honour killings.

There were a dozen such murders recorded in the UK last year although some police officers and campaigners say there may be many more.

Two weeks ago, three men were found guilty of the murder of 20-year-old Banaz Mahmod who was found in a suitcase buried in a garden in Birmingham last year.

She had been strangled with a bootlace by contract killers on the wishes of her father because she had fallen in love with a man her family did not approve of.

Her case is now being reviewed by the Independent Police Complaints Commission after it emerged she made several attempts to warn police that her life was in danger.

Praying to the Gods of Earth, Wind & Fire

2007-06-27T23:32:00.001+02:00

ap - Blair, Schwarzenegger hold talks on environment.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger met on Tuesday to discuss the trans-Atlantic battle against global warming.

Schwarzenegger, a conservative who has put major emphasis on the fight against climate change, praised Blair's "great leadership" on the environment.

He said that during a decade in power, the British leader has "proven to the world that you can do both, you can protect the Earth and protect the economy."

Last year, Schwarzenegger signed legislation that imposed the first statewide cap on greenhouse gases. The move put California at odds with the administration of US President George W. Bush, which has resisted global agreements to limit emissions.

UNstoppable

2007-06-27T23:29:00.000+02:00

ap - UN team: Arms smuggling into Lebanon unstoppable.

Security along the Lebanon-Syria border is insufficient to prevent arms smuggling and Lebanon should quickly establish a mobile force to intercept any flow of weapons, a UN-appointed team said in a report obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press.

The 46-page "Report of the Lebanon Independent Border Assessment Team" said management of the border is currently shared by four different Lebanese security agencies that do not coordinate operations or planning, and do not share intelligence.

In addition, it said, most of Lebanon's border posts are far from the border, are not fenced or secured by gates, and operate with no obvious procedures to determine which goods to inspect -- and which people to question.

"Therefore, the ingenious smuggler may find it quite easy to conceal not only explosives, light weapons and ammunition, but also assembled and unassembled heavy weaponry, such as missiles and rockets into the country concealed in compartments and panels of cargo trucks and passenger vehicles," the team said.

Faces of Peace

2007-06-27T23:26:00.000+02:00

ap - Probe implicates Saudi religious police in death.

In a new blow to Saudi Arabia's powerful religious police, a member of the force has been implicated in the death of a man whose house was raided because he was suspected of possessing and consuming alcohol, an official statement said Wednesday.

The accusation leveled against the unnamed agent of the Commission for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, which employs the religious police, is the second such charge of police brutality targeting the governmental body. The commission is charged with enforcing the kingdom's strict Islamic lifestyle.

Last Saturday, a judge postponed the trial of three commission members allegedly involved in the death in custody of Ahmed al-Bulaiwi, a retired border patrol guard in his early 50s.

Al-Bulaiwi died shortly after his June 1 arrest in the northern town of Tabuk for being alone with a woman who was not a relative -- an act considered an offense in the kingdom. No date has been set for the new trial.

ap - Jordan: 2 men get 10 years for 'honor killings'

A Jordanian man who stabbed his sister to death in a premeditated "honor crime" was sentenced to ten years prison along with his cousin and accomplice, a court official said Wednesday.

Jordan's criminal court initially sentenced both men to death but then commuted the verdict because the father and the husband of the slain woman dropped the charges, said the official, who spoke on customary condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to talk to the press.

According to the indictment, the woman was killed with a kitchen knife by her brother while her cousin prevented her from fleeing as a punishment for having allegedly had a relationship with her husband before marrying him.

The indictment sheet said the brother did not approve this relationship and had intended to marry the victim to another man. It said he first planned to poison his sister, before stabbing her to death in September 2004. The knife broke during the killing, so he brought another knife and continued to hit until she died, it said.

Explaining Jews, Part V: Why are Jews liberal?

2007-06-27T23:23:00.000+02:00

jpost - 'Fatah gunmen are the best chance against Hamas'

Israel should consider stopping the arrests of fugitive Fatah gunmen on condition that they cease receiving funds from Iran and halt their attacks against Israel, a senior government official told Israel Radio Tuesday morning.

Among the fugitives are also Al Aksa Brigades operatives, the official said, adding that if they would be allowed to openly join Mahmoud Abbas's forces instead of operating clandestinely (for fear of being arrested by Israel), they would constitute Fatah's "best chance" against Hamas.

Liberal Parenting Skills

2007-06-27T23:20:00.000+02:00

cphpost - Au pairs affect children's language.

Working parents who hire au pairs to take care of their children during the day are helping to create an entire group of young people whose Danish language abilities are severely limited by the time they reach nursery school, reported 24timer newspaper Wednesday.

Existence of the phenomenon is supported by several language experts including Ulla Lahti Falkenberg, language acquisition expert at the University of Copenhagen, who said she encounters the problem regularly.

'We meet children that speak Danish with Thai or Latvian accents -- Danish children with severe accents primarily because of contact with their foreign au pairs,' said Falkenberg, who is also president of the Danish Speech Language Hearing Association. 'It's a problem that parents are so busy with their own lives and spend so little time with their children that they don't even realise the child speaks bad Danish.'

The problem is most common among wealthier parents that can afford au pairs and who themselves are well-educated and generally live in upper or upper-middle class neighbourhoods. Au pairs -- especially those from Asia and Eastern Europe -- rarely master the difficult Danish tongue and often only learn a few Danish phrases and speak limited English.

Lone Andersen, a speech and hearing consultant, has also encountered the problem in several areas in northern Zealand, where parents are generally well-to-do.

'It's of course practical to have an au pair, but when they often come from Eastern Europe it means that the children hear hardly any Danish in their most important learning years, and that negatively affects their language abilities,' said Andersen.

Maria, from the Phillipines, earns only DKK 2500 a month plus lodging and meals as an au pair. She said she is lucky that the oldest boy in the family she is employed by understands some English.

'The children get frustrated when I can't understand them. Sometimes I manage to handle the situation by getting different things and showing them to the children until I understand what it is they want,' she said.

Speech therapist Mariann Nysander said she believes parents are becoming busier outside the home. But she added most parents she has spoken with are motivated to help their children if a language problem exists, once they become aware of the situation.

'When there are Danish speaking adults who spend free time with the children, then the adults can read, relate and explain things to help develop the children's vocabularies. Those with another native language can't.'

Quota and Equal Rights for Women Plumbers

2007-06-27T23:17:00.000+02:00

local - Few women employed in top state jobs.

Since the new government came into power last October, only four out of fourteen top management positions in the state sector have been filled by women. This corresponds to 28 percent, Svenska Dagbladet reports.

The previous government had set itself the stated aim of employing women in half of all top level state jobs. In 2005, 41 percent of available posts in this category were occupied by women.

The new government however removed this goal, a decision which Minister for Financial Markets Mats Odell still feels was the the correct one.

"If we were to take stock of our appointment policies now we would not see a satisfactory result. But our ambition is to improve this in the future and we will have to return to the matter to see how the situation has developed," he said.

Abtreibung Macht Frei

2007-06-27T23:14:00.000+02:00

paulbelien - Secularist Europe silences pro-lifers and creationists.

Last week, a German court sentenced a 55-year old Lutheran pastor to one year in jail for "Volksverhetzung" (incitement of the people) because he compared the killing of the unborn in contemporary Germany to the holocaust. Next week, the Council of Europe is going to vote on a resolution imposing Darwinism as Europe's official ideology. The European governments are asked to fight the expression of creationist opinions, such as young earth and intelligent design theories. According to the Council of Europe these theories are "undemocratic" and "a threat to human rights."

Without legalized abortion the number of German children would increase annually by at least 150,000 -- which is the number of legal abortions in birth dearth Germany. Pastor Johannes Lerle compared the killing of the unborn to the killing of the Jews in Auschwitz during the Second World War. On 14 June, a court in Erlangen ruled that, in doing so, the pastor had "incited the people" because his statement was a denial of the holocaust of the Jews in Nazi-Germany. Hence, Herr Lerle was sentenced to one year in jail. Earlier, he had already spent eight months in jail for calling abortionists "professional killers" -- an allegation which the court ruled to be slanderous because, according to the court, the unborn are not humans.

Other German courts convicted pro-lifers for saying that "in abortion clinics, life unworthy of living is being killed," because this terminology evoked Hitler's euthanasia program, which used the same language. In 2005, a German pro-lifer, Günter Annen, was sentenced to 50 days in jail for saying "Stop unjust [rechtswidrige] abortions in [medical] practice," because, according to the court, the expression "unjust" is understood by laymen as meaning illegal, which abortions are not.

Volksverhetzung is a crime which the Nazis often invoked against their enemies and which contemporary Germany also uses to intimidate homeschoolers. Soon, the German authorities will be able to use the same charge against people who question Darwin's evolution theory.

Indeed, next Tuesday, the Council of Europe (CoE), Europe's main human-rights body, will vote on a proposal which advocates the fight against creationism, "young earth" and "intelligent design" in its 47 member states.

According to a report of the CoE's Parliamentary Assembly, creationists are dangerous "religious fundamentalists" who propagate "forms of religious extremism" and "could become a threat to human rights." The report adds that the acceptance of the science of evolutionism "is crucial to the future of our societies and our democracies."

"Creationism, born of the denial of the evolution of species through natural selection, was for a long time an almost exclusively American phenomenon," the report says.
"Today creationist theories are tending to find their way into Europe and their spread is affecting quite a few Council of Europe member states. [...] [T]his is liable to encourage the development of all manner of fundamentalism and extremism, synonymous with attacks of utmost virulence on human rights. The total rejection of science is definitely one of the most serious threats to human rights and civic rights. [...] The war on the theory of evolution and on its proponents most often originates in forms of religious extremism which are closely allied to extreme right-wing political movements. The creationist movements possess real political power. The fact of the matter, and this has been exposed on several occasions, is that the advocates of strict creationism are out to replace democracy by theocracy. [...] If we are not careful, the values that are the very essence of the Council of Europe will be under direct threat from creationist fundamentalists."
According to the CoE report, America and Australia are already on their way towards becoming such undemocratic theocracies where human and civic rights are endangered. Creationism is "well-developed in the English-speaking countries, especially the United States and Australia," the report states.
"While most curricula in Europe today unashamedly teach evolution as a recognised scientific theory, the same does not apply to the United States. In July 2005, the Pew Research Center conducted a poll that showed that 64% of Americans favoured the teaching of intelligent design alongside the theory of evolution and that 38% would support the total abandonment of the teaching of evolution in publicly owned schools. The American President George W. Bush supports the principle of teaching both intelligent design and the theory of evolution. At the moment, 20 of the 50 American states are facing potential adjustments of their school curricula in favour of intelligent design. Many people think that this phenomenon only affects the United States and that, even if it is not possible to be indifferent to what is happening on the other side of the Atlantic, it is not the Council of Europe's role to deal with this issue. That, however, is not the case. On the contrary, it would seem crucial for us to take the appropriate precautions in our 47 member states."
Though one may disagree with people who take the Book of Genesis literally (believing that God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh), surely secularist political organizations telling people what they may or may not believe, constitute a far greater threat to human rights than religious institutions telling their faithful how to vote. In the voting booth people are free to do what they like, whilst in contemporary Europe people are no longer free to publicly voice their own, deeply felt opinions in public.

In Germany, believing abortion to be as murderous as the holocaust is a crime, and educating your own children is a crime too. In France, saying that "homosexual behaviour endangers the survival of humanity" is a crime, and so is the distribution of pork soup to the poor. In Belgium, speaking out against immigration is a crime.

In the latest issue of the Dutch conservative magazine Bitter Lemon the Dutch author Erik van Goor writes that European courts are silencing conservative and orthodox citizens. Freedom of speech no longer exist, says van Goor.
"While many in the West still idolize the second-hand fighters for free speech, such as [Ayaan] Hirsi Ali and Theo van Gogh, the true victims of curtailment are deliberately kept under wraps. Hirsi Ali, [Pim] Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh were not curtailed by the state or by court, Johannes Lerle is. The former voiced mere opinions -- expressions of a public opinion which one may or may not value or believe. The latter -- Dr Lerle -- shows that what is at stake is not merely opinions, but a moral order which is being questioned; a reality of life and death which is at risk."
Hirsi Ali, Fortuyn and van Gogh did not defend Europe's traditional Christian moral order. People such as Johannes Lerle and Christian Vanneste, the French parliamentarian who was convicted for "homophobia," do. The latter are being persecuted by Western Europe's political regimes -- a phenomenon which is ignored completely by the Western mainstream media, who participate in the persecution.

Update

A quote from Reuters, 25 June 2007:

Europe's main human rights body on Monday cancelled a scheduled vote on banning creationist and intelligent design views from school science classes, saying the proposed resolution was one-sided. [...]

Guy Lengagne, the French Socialist member of the Assembly who drew up the report, protested after the Parliamentary Assembly voted to call off the debate and vote, and [approved a proposal of the Flemish Christian-Democrat Luc Van den Brande] to send the report back to committee for further study. [...]

Deputies said the motion by the Christian Democratic group of parliamentarians also won support from east European deputies, who recalled that Darwinian evolution was a favorite theory of their former communist rulers. [...]

Kremlin: Cold War ruined Socialist Economy

2007-06-27T23:11:00.000+02:00

ap - Iran to launch English-speaking satellite TV.

Iran's state broadcasting company is launching an English-speaking satellite TV channel to counter the West's influence in covering news, the television's web site says.

The 24-hour PRESS TV news channel said its goal was to "break the global media stranglehold of western outlets," and "show the other side of the story" in the Mideast.

The English-speaking network has 26 correspondents around the world and is due to launch on July 2, Mohammad Sarafraz, the vice president of Iran's state broadcast company, told reporters.

Sarafraz accused western TV channels of being biased against Middle East nations and of spinning the news the way the US government wants.

jpost - Abbas's office condemns Israeli 'crimes' in Gaza.

"The crimes that were committed in the Gaza Strip by the Israeli occupation must be strongly condemned," read a statement released by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's office Wednesday.

The statement continued: "This bloody escalation, which was initiated by the Israeli government, is a distinct violation of the tahadiyeh, and will lead to a chain of retaliations and the prolongation of violence."

The PA chairman's office went on to say that "this aggression comes only a single day after the Sharm e-Sheikh summit and calls into question whether Israel really intends to seal an agreement and negotiate to end the occupation."

Separation of Church and State in Netherlands

2007-06-27T23:08:00.000+02:00

anp - 'Cut benefits to burqa wearers'

A majority in Parliament wants the government to allow municipalities to cut benefits if the recipients are unable to find a job because they wear a burqa.

A motion to this effect from Liberal VVD MP Atzo Nicolaï and Labour PvdA MP Hans Spekman was passed on Tuesday.

Coalition party PvdA and opposition party VVD are concerned about a verdict from the court in Amsterdam earlier this month. The court found in preliminary proceedings that the municipality Diemen had unlawfully docked the benefits of a Muslim woman who wears a burqa because she had been unable to find a job after four job applications.

If this verdict becomes a precedent, Spekman and Nicolaï want to know what state secretary for social affairs Ahmed Aboutaleb plans to do to ensure that municipalities will be able dock benefits in cases like this.

The state secretary first wants to wait for the final outcome of the court case before drawing conclusions. But he will "of course" inform Parliament of any steps he plans to take.

Aboutaleb has said in earlier debates with Parliament that the case in Diemen should be put in perspective. He says it is just "one case," while there have also been court verdicts that have found in favour of municipalities in cases where the behaviour of the job seeker prevented him or her from finding a job. One of these cases also concerned the wearing of a burqa.

Let's play "Guess the Ethnicity"

2007-06-27T23:05:00.000+02:00

dpa - Dramatic rise in school violence in Berlin.

Violence at schools in immigrant-dominated districts of Berlin has soared in recent months, with the opposition Christian Democratic Union Party (CDU) accusing the city government of turning a blind eye to the violence at the city's educational facilities.

The violence reached a peak recently when two masked youths burst into a classroom at the Dag Hammerskjoeld School in the city's Tempelhof district to attack a 58-year-old woman teacher.

One beat the terrified teacher about the head and body with a steel rod, while the other tried to make off with her handbag. Pupils intervened, driving the intruders from the classroom. Curiously, the teacher was discussing the great late Indian leader Mahatma Ghandi's political philosophy of "non-violence" at the time.

Later it transpired that a girl in the class, who had learned she was to be kept down a class, had urged the youths to carry out the attack.

In another act of violence, a 54-year-old male teacher at the Roentgen Secondary School in the city's Neukoelln district was beaten up by a 17-year-old Serbian-born youth who surfaced at the school, demanding to see his ex-girlfriend.

Ordered to leave the premises, the youngster went berserk, punching and kicking the teacher to the ground in the school yard, before fleeing, pursued by several school pupils.

Three other bouts of school violence have occurred in Berlin in the past few days, two of them at schools in the city's "problem" districts of Neukoelln and Wedding. A 10-year-old boy of Palestinian descent called Abdul, was set upon by a group of older pupils at the Kurt Tucholsky School.

Singled out for "mobbing" by older pupils on previous occasions according to witnesses, he was slapped and kicked as he lay on the ground while an 11-year-old boy filmed the events on a mobile phone camera, intending to show it on the internet.

The school's deputy director Gerd Combecher said the filmed sequences had since been studied by the police. Iris Pakulat, the school's headmistress, claimed those who had seized the boy in what started as a prank, but got wildly out of control, had now been identified.

The boy's mother says the incident was no surprise. "Our boy has been attacked by pupils in the past," she said, adding "there's no point in sending him to another school now because in the coming months we must return to Palestine."

Her husband said he'd visited the school several times to protest his son's treatment. "He (Abdul) is a very shy boy so perhaps he became an easy target," he said.

Despite his son's experiences in Berlin, Abdul's father said it would be difficult for the family going back to the Palestinian territories. "We will be strangers there, having lived in Berlin for 20 years, and Abdul being born here."

Two years ago a puerile "game" dubbed "Happy Slapping," which became popular in some English schools, spread to Germany. This involved older pupils grabbing a younger child for so-called "slapping" sessions -- with the scenes captured in mobile camera phone sequences.

Reports of "mobbing" of teachers and pupils by students became widespread as a result, with bullying sequences appearing on the internet. In one film extract in England, a pupil was seen to approach a teacher from the rear, to yank down his trousers.

In subsequent sequences in England and Germany, teachers were made to look ridiculous by the antics of out-of-control students.

In another recent Berlin incident, a 19-year-old pupil at the Mildred Harnack Comprehensive School in Berlin-Lichtenberg, threatened a teacher who had repeatedly ordered him to put away his mobile phone by screaming, "you will be dead by this evening!"

Even Berlin's renowned Humboldt University has not escaped violence. A 34-year-old former student recently assaulted a 40-year- old woman professor and Harvard graduate, thrusting her to the ground and spitting in her face. He'd allegedly harboured a two-year grudge against the lecturer for her "low" assessment of his doctoral thesis.

In March last year the city's Ruetli School, dominated by Arab and Turkish youths in the tough Neukoelln district, made international headlines when a teacher published a letter claiming conditions at the school had become so bad that it should be closed down.

She felt teachers had lost all authority and were now so afraid that they only entered classrooms with a mobile phone so they could call for help in an emergency. As a result of her plea for help, city authorities installed a new rector who made sweeping changes.

School psychologists were called in "help" problem pupils, especially Arab male students, some of whom refused to respect the authority of women teachers. Today, the Ruetli School no longer makes negative headlines, with pupils evidently happy in the "new" environment.

Surprising progress has been made here," claims a member of the school staff. Berlin's education senator, Juergen Zoellner does not see a serious situation developing but concedes violence prevention programmes at city schools will have to be expanded.

CDU politicians, on the other hand, claim he is not doing enough to stem school violence. Whereas, in the year 2001 to 2002, there were 250 cases of school-related violence, the figure leapt to 1,500 in 2005 to 2006, they say.

City prosecutors confirm they have files on 342 youths, aged between 14 and 20, who have been involved in recent criminal activity. In ten cases, serious crimes were committed, such as robbery or causing serious bodily harm. Of those apprehended, 144 remain in youth custody.

The Meaning of Jihad

2007-06-27T23:02:00.000+02:00

jpost - Islamic Jihad claims responsibility for Kassam.

Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the Kassam rocket that landed in the western Negev on Wednesday morning.

According to the group, the attack was in retaliation for the IDF's killing of two of its senior operatives.

aki - Mauritania: Five al-Qaeda suspects arrested in an internet cafe.

The recent arrest of five al-Qaeda suspects in an internet cafe in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott is the latest signal that the terror network is increasingly favouring the Web to recruit operatives and to communicate with its various cells in Africa, Arabic daily al-Watan reports.

The suspects -- two Algerians, two Moroccans, and Mauritanian -- were arrested on Sunday during raids of three Internet cafes close to the Palestinian embassy carried out by Mauritanian anti-terror police, the paper said.

The five suspects are members of the Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb -- formerly the GSPC (the Algerian Salafite Group for Preaching and Combat) -- and had recently entered Mauritania, according to police. Their role was to plan and carry out an attack in Noakchott on behalf of the group and also recruited several locals to the jihadi cause.

The GSPC pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda last year and changed its name to the Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb in January.

Meanwhile, in the Islamic Republic of Kosova ...

2007-06-27T22:59:00.000+02:00

aki - Kosovo: Serbian FM asks NATO to protect Serbs as tensions rise.

Serbian foreign minister Vuk Jeremic on Wednesday asked NATO to protect minority Serbs in breakaway Kosovo province as tensions grew over the status of the province with majority ethnic Albanians, which has been under United Nations control since 1999.

Jeremic was quoted by Serbian media as telling NATO secretary-general Jaap de Hoop Schefer in Brussels that the situation in Kosovo was complex and asked the western military alliance, which has a contingent of 17,000 soldiers (Kfor) stationed in Kosovo, "to do everything to protect peace and security of Serbs in Kosovo".

"Regardless of political and diplomatic developments, maintaining peace and stability in Kosovo and the region must be absolute priority," Jeremic said. His warning came as thousands of Serbs were planning to commemorate 617th anniversary of the historic battle of Kosovo in which Serbian army was defeated by Ottoman invaders, opening doors to six centuries of Turkish occupation of the Balkans.

Western powers are pushing for Kosovo independence to sooth majority ethnic Albanians, but Belgrade and Russia oppose the move. Moscow has threatened to use a veto in the UN Security Council and demanded fresh negotiations which might lead to a negotiated settlement.

Ethnic Albanians, who outnumber the remaining Serbs in the province by 17 to one, have grown restless over independence project being stalled in the Security Council and have hinted they might resort to violence.

"Schefer has completely agreed that the situation was complex, but he underlined that Kfor would do everything in its power to completely protect peace and stability in Kosovo," Jeremic was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, a group of Serbian youths calling themselves "The Guard of emperor Lazar", who embarked on a two-week march from Belgrade to Kosovo on June 14, reached Kosovo on Tuesday and was ready to take part in the commemoration at Gazimestan, near Kosovo capital of Pristina.

Emperor Lazar led Serbian forces at the historic 1389 battle, and the Guard rallies Serbian youths irritated over prospective loss of Kosovo. On the other hand, veterans of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which started a rebellion against Serbian rule in 1998, have threatened to settle accounts "with the Guard of criminals" and warned Kfor not to try to protect them.

"Hands away from Kosovo and the provocations which might lead to new wars in the region," KLA veterans said in a statement.

Brain Drain in Africa

2007-06-27T22:56:00.000+02:00

jpost - 200 Sudanese refugees put on busses to Jerusalem.

200 Sudanese refugees have been put on busses by the Be'er Sheba municipality who announced Wednesday that they could no longer take care of the refugees' needs and that it was the responsibility of the Israeli government.

"The problem is that the government of Israel has not worked together with the municipality to deal with this crisis," a municipality spokesmen told the Jerusalem Post "so we've decided to take some of the refugees and leave them in the streets of Jerusalem."

The busses carrying the refugees are expected to arrive at the Rose Garden next to the Knesset by 6 p.m.

The gov't is set to discuss the policy on refugees on Thursday.

Main Stream Message: Iran needs Nukes

2007-06-27T22:53:00.000+02:00

ap - Iran: Fuel rationing begins, gas stations attacked.

Angry Iranians attacked several gas stations in protest after the government suddenly began long-threatened fuel rationing, while many others rushed to fill their tanks.

The Oil Ministry announced the start of rationing Tuesday night only three hours before it was due to begin at midnight. The sudden announcement sparked long lines at stations as Iranians tried to get one last fill-up before the limitations kicked in.

Several stations were attacked "by vandals," state radio reported early Wednesday. It did not say how many stations were damaged or give details.

The Iranian government had been planning for weeks to implement rationing, which was supposed to begin May 21 but was repeatedly put off. In May, the government reduced subsidies for gas, causing a 25 percent jump in the price.

Pakistan warns of Muslim "Explosion"

2007-06-27T22:50:00.000+02:00

danielpipes - Salman Rushdie and British Backbone.

Is the knighting of Salman Rushdie, 60, by the queen of England "a sign of the changing mood" toward British Muslims, as Observer columnist Nick Cohen wrote? Is it "a welcome example of ... British backbone," as Islamism specialist Sadanand Dhume described it in the Wall Street Journal?

I think not. Rather, the knighting, announced June 16, was done without heed of its implications.

Most of the uproar against the honor is taking place in Pakistan, as it did in 1988, when Sir Salman's novel, The Satanic Verses, was initially published. "We deplore the decision of the British government to knight him," a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said The lower house of parliament unanimously passed a government-backed resolution calling Rushdie a "blasphemer."

Most extraordinarily, Pakistan's minister of religious affairs, Mohammed Ijaz ul-Haq, endorsed suicide bombing against the United Kingdom. "If someone exploded a bomb on his body, he would be right to do so unless the British government apologizes and withdraws the 'sir' title." Ijaz ul-Haq later added that "If someone commits suicide bombing to protect the honor of the Prophet Muhammad, his act is justified."

A trade union offered a $160,000 reward to anyone who beheads Rushdie. Iran's speaker of parliament, Gholamali Haddadadel, threatened that Muslims "will not leave this imprudent and shameless act without response."

Islamists demonstrate in Pakistan.

Such reactions from on-high spurred Islamists to the streets in many cities, including London's, burning effigies of Rushdie and Queen Elizabeth and chanting slogans such as "Death to Rushdie! Death to the queen!"

Fortunately, some Muslims decried these reactions. Canadian writer Irshad Manji noted that the Pakistani government had nothing to say about "assaults on fellow believers" in Kabul and Baghdad, where Islamist terrorism killed more than 100 Muslims. "I am offended that amid the internecine carnage, a professed atheist named Salman Rushdie tops the to-do list," she wrote.

These Islamist threats extend a drama begun on Valentine's Day, 1989 when Ayatollah Khomeini issued his death edict against Rushdie, stating that "the author of the book entitled The Satanic Verses -- which has been compiled, printed, and published in opposition to Islam, the Prophet, and the Qur'an and all those involved in its publication who were aware of its content, are sentenced to death. I call on all zealous Muslims to execute them quickly."

That very day, I went on television and predicted that the novelist would never escape the edict. He, however, experimented with appeasement in 1990 and with self-delusion since 1998, when the Iranian foreign minister declared his government no longer intent on murdering him. Rushdie wishfully deemed this "a breakthrough," concluding that the Khomeini edict "will be left to wither on the vine."

I warned Rushdie in 1998 against his giddy insistence on being in the clear. For one, the edict remained in place; Iranian leaders do not believe themselves competent to undo it (a point reiterated by an ayatollah, Ahmad Khatami, just the other day). For another, freelancers around the globe could still nominate themselves to fulfill Khomeini's call to action.

But Rushdie and his friends ignored these apprehensions. Christopher Hitchens, for example, thought Rushdie had returned to normal life. That became conventional wisdom; such insouciance and naïveté -- rather than "backbone" -- best explains awarding the knighthood.

I welcome the knighting because, for all his political mistakes, Rushdie is indeed a fine novelist. I wish I could agree with Dhume that this recognition of him suggests "the pendulum has begun to swing" in Britain against appeasing radical Islam.

But I cannot. Instead, I draw two conclusions: First, Rushdie should plan around the fact of Khomeini's edict being permanent, to expire only when he does. Second, the British government should take seriously the official Pakistani threat of suicide terrorism, which amounts to a declaration of war and an operational endorsement. So far, it has not done that.

Other than an ambassadorial statement of "deep concern," Whitehall insists that the minister's threat will not harm a "very good relationship" with Pakistan. It has even indicated that Ijaz ul-Haq is welcome in Britain if on a private visit. (Are suicide bombers also welcome, so long as they are not guests of the government?) Until the Pakistani authorities retract and apologize for Ijaz ul-Haq's outrageous statement, London must not conduct business-as-usual with Islamabad.

Now that would constitute "British backbone."

The Inshallah Factor

2007-06-27T22:47:00.000+02:00

ap - Ten die, thousands flee as cyclone hits Pakistan.

Ten people drowned and thousands fled to higher ground Tuesday as a tropical cyclone lashed Pakistan's coastline with heavy rains and high winds, officials said.

At least three small boats were reported to have sunk and 18 fishing boats were missing as the navy sent a warship and two helicopters to scour the rough seas in search of vessels caught up in the storm.

Cyclone Yemyin hit parts of the coastline of Baluchistan province at about noon with winds of up to 57 miles (91 kilometers) an hour, said Qamaruz Zaman, director-general of the Pakistan Meteorological Department.

Rain-swollen rivers flooded several coastal districts, killing at least ten people, including four children, said Raziq Bugti, spokesman for the provincial government.

Islam is a Religion of Peace

2007-06-27T22:44:00.000+02:00

ap - Lebanese official: 300 killed, wounded in clashes.

Some 300 Islamic militants have been killed or wounded in the month-long battle with Lebanese troops in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon, leaving only a few dozen fighters hiding in the besieged camp, Defense Minister Elias Murr said Tuesday.

In an interview with the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television, Murr said that the Lebanese army has cornered the remaining members of the al-Qaida-inspired Fatah Islam group in a small section of the camp.

The military now controls 80 percent of the Nahr el-Bared camp, the minister said.

jpost - Top Iraqi university official shot and killed.

A top Baghdad University official was shot to death in front of his daughter in a predominantly Sunni neighborhood in the capital, police said.

Nihad Mohammed al-Rawi, a Sunni Arab in his mid-50s, was killed after gunmen intercepted the car that was carrying him home, a police official said, adding that al-Rawi's daughter and two bodyguards were in the car but were not harmed.

Al-Rawi, the deputy in charge of administrative affairs and head of the chemical engineering department at Iraq's main university, was the latest in a string of academics and students targeted by both sides of the sectarian divided as extremists see universities as bastions of Western, non-Islamic thought.

More than 200 university professors have been killed since the US-led invasion in March 2003. Thousands have fled abroad, according to the Ministry of Higher Education.

bangkokpost - Sadao market reduced to ashes.

A wet market went up in smoke, a petrol station worker was killed in a drive-by shooting, a teacher escort unit had a narrow escape from a bomb and a pick-up truck was set on fire in incidents throughout in the far South yesterday. Police suspected arson was behind the blaze which reduced about 90% of the wet market in Songkhla's Sadao district to ashes.

The other incidents occurred in Pattani and Yala, further south.

The cabinet yesterday approved a budget of 271 million baht for the Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre to improve living standards in Yala, Satun, Pattani, Narathiwat and four districts of Songkhla.

Assistant government spokesman Natthawat Sutthiyothin said the money would be spent on educational, agricultural, vocational and religious projects.

The cabinet also approved an extra pension equivalent to that of a C-11 level retired official for the family of the late district chief of Pattani's Mai Kaen, Chaipat Raksayod, who was killed in a bomb blast in Pattani on June 19.

Police estimated the losses from the blaze at Sadao's Kobkul market, which housed up to 200 shops and stalls on two-and-a-half rai of property, at 100 million baht.

The fire began about 1.45am somewhere in the middle of the market. Firefighters from four neighbouring districts took four hours to douse the flames.

The market and shops had no insurance for losses from fire.

Police initially suspected arson and posited two theories _ an insurgent attack or retaliation by gamblers or gangs of racers who were earlier been arrested.

Since April, there have been at least five cases of arson at schools, shops and prayer sites in Pangla municipality. All told, about 11 places have been torched.

In Yala, a pick-up truck belonging to the tambon Lidol administration organisation was set on fire near its offices in Muang district. Shortly afterwards, nearby Ban Taloh school was torched, but damage was minor.

In Pattani, petrol station attendant Matorhae Mama, 27, was killed in a drive-by shooting at a tea shop in Muang district about 12.30am. Four other customers were wounded.

A teacher escort team narrowly escaped death when a bomb exploded in Khok Pho district yesterday morning.

Eight suspected insurgents were transferred from Surat Thani to the custody of Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc) Region 4 in Songkhla.

They had been in hiding in the province since June 22 following an attack on soldiers. They were apprehended and a pick-up truck riddled with bullet holes and three mobile phones seized in a raid on a vehicle repair shop on Monday.

Out of the eight, Humdee Bueraheng, 19, a resident of Narathiwat's Rueso district, was identified as a member of the Runda Kumpulan Kecil, which authorities say is a leading organiser of violence.

A Question to Muslims (#467)

2007-06-25T23:59:00.000+02:00

Quran 009:029 says:

"Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued."

The "People of the Book" are primarily Jews and Christians.

What should Muslims say to Muslims who include Jews and Christians among "those" who should be "fought" on the basis of this verse?

Cultural Diversity and Social Customs

2007-06-25T23:56:00.000+02:00

dailytimes - Girl crosses LoC to avoid marriage.

June 22, 2007 ◊ An 18-year-old Pakistani girl felt so strongly about being made to marry a man against her will that she fled to Indian-held Kashmir (IHK) in a high-altitude trek across the Line of Control (LoC), reports said on Thursday.

Anida Khan was arrested by Indian authorities after having successfully crossed the de facto divide -- one of the world's deadliest borders. The English-language Excelsior newspaper said that during questioning, Khan "revealed that her parents wanted her to marry against her wishes".

dailytimes - Church slams rape of 14-year-old.

June 22, 2007 ◊ The Women Desk Church of Pakistan condemned the alleged gang rape of a 14-year-old Christian girl and urged the government to immediately arrest the culprits and provide security to the victim's family, said a statement issued by the church on Thursday.

Mohammad Asif, Rizwan alias Khusri and Muhammad Nawaz allegedly raped Sumaira Rafiq Masih, 14, on May 14 in Nazampura Chak 2 Patoki.

The statement said they gave tea mixed with intoxicants to the victim and the three women had it without knowing. After the incident, it said, the victim allegedly was raped. An FIR numbered 250/07 U/S 376/337J was lodged on June 19 at the City Patoki police station, but no one had been arrested yet.

dailytimes - Blair hates Muslims, says Shujaat.

June 22, 2007 ◊ Pakistan Muslim League President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain said on Thursday one should not be surprised by the British government's decision to award a knighthood to author Salman Rushdie, APP reported.

"(British prime minister) Tony Blair is personally against the Muslims," Hussain told the National Assembly while speaking on a point of order.

The PML president castigated Rushdie in the strongest possible words. "He is a mad man. He is a thief and he is a scoundrel," he said. He suggested the author should only be called Rushdie as Salman is a holy name and it is not appropriate to bracket it with Rushdie.

Earlier, the MMA's Farid Ahmed Paracha said the house should once again pass a resolution urging the British government to strip Rushdie of his knighthood. He said the British government, despite the strong Muslim protests across the world, had not apologised and what it only said was "it felt sorry because the sentiments of Muslims have been hurt". "To award Rushdie is an insult to Muslims."

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan Niazi said the house had passed a unanimous resolution in this context. "The government has strongly protested and told the British high commissioner that Pakistanis have been deeply hurt by their action," Afgan said.

The minister said Rushdie had made no contribution to literature and in fact, the British government had negated its own traditions by knighting him. "In Britain only those are knighted who have won a Nobel Prize." He, however, said he would not favour a second resolution in the house.

Dr Attaur Rehman of the MMA said Pakistan should withdraw as a frontline state in the "war on terrorism," because it also includes Britain and the US.

Staff report adds: Former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif and Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain came under fire when Dr Farid Paracha, without naming these leaders, regretted their silence over the issue.

thenews - I'll kill Rushdie: Punjab speaker.

June 22, 2007 ◊ Punjab Assembly Speaker Afzal Sahi has said that he will kill controversial writer Salman Rushdie if he comes across him.

"Death is the only punishment for a blasphemer," said the speaker when Rana Sanaullah of the PML-N asked the chair on a point of order to clarify the government's position on the federal religious affairs minister's statement about the award of knighthood to Rushdie.

The Euro-Arab Axis of Evil

2007-06-25T23:38:00.000+02:00

aki - Syria: Italian senators visit.

A delegation of Italian senators visiting Syria has met with top officials in Damascus to discuss ways of how to relaunch a peace process in the Middle East. The head of the delegation, former Italian prime minister Lamberto Dini, held talks on Monday afternoon with Syria's deputy president, Faruq al-Sharaa. Sharaa said he appreciated Italy's efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflicts in the Middle East.

Dini and members of his delegation, who arrived in Syria over the weekend, earlier met Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and the country's parliamentary speaker Mahmud al-Abrash. The discussion focused on bi-lateral relations and development initiatives.

According to Syrian sources, the issue of the return to Syria of the Golan Heights which were occupied by by Israel in 1967 were also discussed.

The Italian senators' visit follows one by Italian foreign minister Massimo D'Alema earlier this month in which he urged Damascus to play a postive role in creating stability in neighbouring Lebanon.

Helpless: Muhammad's Children

2007-06-25T23:35:00.000+02:00

aki - Baghdad orphanage scandal raises concerns.

Parents who have had to leave their children at care institutions have expressed outrage at the discovery of over 20 severely malnourished boys who had been left without proper care in a Baghdad orphanage last week.

The 24 boys -- most of whom are mentally handicapped and aged 3-15 -- were found on 10 June naked in a dark room without windows by US and Iraqi soldiers on a routine patrol. Many of the children were tied to their beds and too weak to stand once released.

In a nearby locked room, the soldiers discovered food and clothing which should have been used for the children. Three women, claiming to be the caretakers, and two men, the orphanage director and a guard, were on site when the soldiers arrived.

The case has infuriated parents of the children. "If we were living in a normal country, I would have sued these criminals," said the father of two of the boys. "But we are living in complete chaos," he added.

The father refused to be identified. He left his children in the orphanage after becoming a displaced person nearly two years ago.

"What can we do? They became a heavy burden on us. We decided to send them there and we still can't take them back because of our harsh living conditions," said the father.

Ahmed Nasser Abdullah, 44, father of a mentally handicapped boy in another Baghdad orphanage, shared the same sentiments. "I'm totally shocked," he said.

Abdullah, a day labourer, left his son at the orphanage about three years ago as he could not afford his son’s treatment, but now he has decided to get him back.

"Living in severe hardship is better than leaving him in those uncaring hands. Now I understand why they insisted I made an appointment before visiting my son. They make sure the kids are in good shape before a visit," Abdullah added.

"Two members of staff have been arrested," said Hamid al-Zaidi, the Labour and Social Affairs Ministry's inspector-general. Arrest warrants were also issued for three employees of the orphanage who have gone into hiding and remain at large, according to al-Zaidi.

Two probes were under way -- one ordered by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and one by the Labour Ministry, a government statement said last week.

"The incompetent employees will be severely punished and even imprisoned," al-Zaidi said.

He acknowledged that some caretakers had been negligent, but said the orphanage had been doing its best to provide care for the children under difficult circumstances. He said the caretakers had to take off the orphans' clothes to cool them down as the place had no electricity and thus no cooling systems.

"The handicapped children were abandoned by their families and we are trying to save them from death, but the whole of Iraq is undergoing difficult circumstances," he said.

Al-Zaidi said the manager of the boys' home had requested generators and pay rises but these had been rejected.

The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs declined to say how many orphans were in its facilities.

On 22 June the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) urged the Iraqi government to address the plight of orphans and vulnerable children in Iraq.

UNICEF also called for a transparent monitoring system for the management of such institutions, and measures to improve staff skills and boost community-based childcare alternatives.

"The ongoing conflict and displacement are now putting the welfare of all children at risk, particularly orphans. Families struggling to feed and educate their own children are increasingly unable to take on others," the UNICEF statement said.

The Principle of "free and undistorted Competition"

2007-06-25T23:20:00.000+02:00

reuters - Blair presses Sarkozy on EU competition clause.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair told French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday that a new European Union treaty must provide clarity on the bloc's free-market competition policy, Blair's spokesman said.

"The prime minister is talking to President Sarkozy at the moment about it. ... We have to have a situation where there is clarity over the EU's attitude to competition," he told reporters at an EU summit.

Sarkozy's spokesman said France was satisfied with a German EU presidency draft mandate for a new reform treaty, which removed the principle of "free and undistorted competition" from EU objectives as set out in its defunct constitution.

Nestling in Hell

2007-06-25T23:17:00.000+02:00

aki - Iran: Festival honours headscarf and chastity.

Iran's first festival to celebrate the Muslim headscarf and chastity, entitled 'A pearl nestling in its shell' is due to take place in Birjand in the western Khorasan region.

There will be close to 200 talks and over 60 poetry readings, as well as 43 photo exhibitions and viewings of the work of 13 painters, as well as 5 multimedia installations.

The event will close with a fashion show of more than five hundred garments which in the eyes of the organisers will show that chastity and elegance are not incompatible.

Democracy: The God that Failed

2007-06-25T23:08:00.000+02:00

cphpost - Ministry accused of stonewalling UN investigation.

Authorities investigating corruption charges stemming from the UN's Oil for Food Programme are finding their progress slowed by the Foreign Ministry.

The National Serious Fraud Division is running up against a wall of silence in its attempts to investigate into the government's role in the discredited United Nation's Oil for Food Programme.

For the past 18 months, investigators have not been allowed to interview four Foreign Ministry employees who were involved with the programme nor to make copies of pertinent ministry documents, according to Jens Madsen, head of the Serious Fraud Dvision.

The foot dragging comes despite criticism this May by Per Stig Møller, the foreign minister, that the investigation into whether companies had abused the programme intended to help provide Iraqis with food and medicine after the first Gulf War was moving to slowly. At that time, he said it it was 'crucial that the national authorities are given the possibility to review' materials relating to the case.

The Oil for Food Programme -- which ran from 1996-2003, allowed Iraq, then under UN sanctions, to sell oil on the world market in exchange for food, medicine and other humanitarian items. A 2005 investigation found that of the 4500 companies that participated in the programme, nearly half, from some 40 countries, had colluded with Saddam's regime to bilk the humanitarian program of $1.8 billion in illegal surcharges and kickbacks.

Up to 17 Danish companies, including pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk and pump manufacturer Grundfos, are under investigation for their role in the scandal.

Madsen said he has not been given a reason for the ministry's procrastination over the request.

'That has means that a part of the investigation remains incomplete and we'd very much like to get things in place.'

Peter Taksøe-Jensen, the Foreign Ministry's under-secretary for legal affairs, denied that the ministry was stymieing the investigation, but acknowledged the office had not yet finished 'considering the principal aspects of the request'.

Taksøe-Jensen said the investigators have been allowed to view the documents they requested, but not to make copies for use as evidence.

The fraud division is seeking to obtain evidence that would support its confiscation of income received by Danish companies through improprieties committed during the Oil for Food Programme. According to Jyllands-Posten newspaper, the Foreign Ministry became aware of illegal activities in the programme in 2001, but has taken no action.

Lars Bo Langsted, a law expert at Aarhus University, said the ministry's refusal to co-operate with the fraud division's requests smells of a cover-up.

'It is incredibly difficult to understand why the Foreign Ministry does not wish to help resolve this case,' he said. 'It seems as if they could be interested in hiding their own role.'

Tactics of the Crescent Moon

2007-06-25T23:05:00.000+02:00

aki - U.S.: Officer tells how Daniel Pearl was murdered.

The US security officer who investigated the the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan has absolved al-Fuqra leader Sheikh Gilani of involvement in the killing. In a highly unusual move, the US State Department posted an interview with the officer, Randall Bennett, on the front page of its website this weekend.

Bennett was the US Regional Security Officer in Karachi during the time Pearl was kidnapped and later murdered in 2002. Bennett was one of the last people to see Pearl alive.

The interview coincided with the release of a film "A Mighty Heart," which depicts the kidnapping and murder of the Wall Street Journal reporter. Bennett's character, played by actor Will Patton, was featured prominently in the film, which also stars actress Angelina Jolie in the lead role of Pearl's wife, Marianne.

Sheikh Omar, who has quite a history involved in the kidnapping -- the hijacking of airplanes out of India and affiliations with various hardcore jihadi organisations -- had very carefully plotted and planned this kidnapping of Danny," said Bennett.

"He had set it up where he had given Danny information and promised this interview with Sheikh Gilani. Sheikh Gilani, as it turned out, had no idea his name was even being used."

Bennett said that Sheikh Omar used the interview to bait Daniel Pearl. "He would throw the bait out and he would reel it back in. So over a period of two weeks, Danny was enticed and then lost the opportunity for the interview."

The US officer said Pearl had been looking forward to this interview because it was a very "hot item."

The so-called shoe-bomber, Richard Reed, who tried to bomb a Chicago-bound plane in 2002 with explosives hidden in his shoes, dominated the US media in those days and Pearl hoped to get some exclusive information about the bomber from this interview."So when it came time, after two weeks of baiting and switching, Danny was at the Metropol Hotel standing outside the Village restaurant. His meeting was at 1900 hours. At 1911 hrs, he received a phone call. The phone call lasted till 1916 hrs.

"So in those five minutes, the investigation later revealed that Sheikh Omar, who was using the name of Bashir at this time, told Danny that 'I'm sorry, he cannot come to see you again.' This was maybe the sixth or seventh time they had baited and switched Danny on a meeting.

"They said, 'He just cannot get away and we've tried and tried and it just hasn't worked out. If you want the interview, he's at the madrassa. We'll pick you up and bring you here and then we'll take you back, but he's not going to be able to come and see you there,'" said Bennett.

He said Pearl had asked him earlier if he could go to a madrassa to interview Sheikh Gilani, as his fixer had suggested and "I told him that that was definitely a no-go."

He said he explained to Pearl that all madrassas were essentially in dangerous locations. They typically had affiliations to the more radical elements. And for Pearl to go to one of those meant he would be completely cut off from his communication and any safe haven or recourse.

"And I guess at that moment, Danny had a tough decision to make and he made the decision that he was going to go and do the interview."

Bennett said that during the same period three other American citizens were also kidnapped in Karachi and his team and the Karachi Citizen-Police Liaison Committee were able to recover each of them within 24 hours.

But they could not recover Pearl because they learned about it 12 hours after the kidnapping, which gave the kidnappers the time to take Pearl out of the city.

In the interview, Bennett also explains how they detained Sheikh Omar's relatives in Karachi and Rawalpindi to force him to surrender.

Ultimately, Sheikh Omar surrendered to a relative, a retired intelligence officer, in Lahore who gave him to police after 15 days "and of course, we let (Sheikh Omar's) family go back to their house immediately."

The Liberal Dictionary: F - Freedom of Information

2007-06-25T22:47:00.000+02:00

local - Prison porn for rapists approved by court.

Sweden's convicted rapists are entitled to have pornography in their cells, the Supreme Administrative Court (Regeringsrätten) judged on Monday.

The decision is the final word in a case that began when the Swedish Prison and Probation Service banned a man serving an eight year sentence for rape in Härnosand jail from receiving pornographic material.

The prison authorities argued that the use of pornography would disrupt the treatment being given to sex offenders. It was also claimed that porn would be a security risk at the jail.

In March 2006 the district administrative appeals court (kammarätten) in Sundsvall ruled that the principle of freedom of information was more important than the potential threat posed by the prisoners being allowed access to pornography.

The Prison and Probation Service appealed against that judgement but the Supreme Administrative Court upheld all the findings in the initial verdict.

Gays in Love for Right-Wing Moral Values

2007-06-25T22:38:00.000+02:00

ap - Religious groups lead New York gay pride parade.

Religious groups including Christians, Jews and Buddhists led the New York gay pride parade on Sunday, lending gravity to the often outrageous event that celebrates the 1969 Stonewall riots when patrons at a Greenwich Village gay bar fought back against a police raid.

"We stand for a progressive religious voice," said Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum of New York City's Congregation Beth Simchat Torah. "Those who use religion to advocate an anti-gay agenda I believe are blaspheming God's name."

Kleinbaum, who heads the world's largest predominantly gay synagogue, and the Rev. Troy Perry, founder of the Metropolitan Community Church, were the parade's grand marshals, waving from his-and-hers convertibles.

The march took place days after the New York State Assembly passed a bill legalizing same-sex marriage, which Governor Eliot Spitzer supports. Although the bill is unlikely to pass the Republican-controlled state Senate any time soon, parade-goers said they were cheered by the Assembly's action.

"This is one very important step toward full equality for all New Yorkers," Kleinbaum said.

Tens of thousands of people attended the march, including NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The Abu Mazen Fantasy

2007-06-25T22:32:00.001+02:00

fpm - Why reward a failed illusion?

Once again a center-left government of Israel has seized on a fantasy it views as a panacea for the deadlocked Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in a speech at an Israeli Naval base said, "An opportunity has arisen which we have not had for 40 years" to make peace with the Palestinians. In a meeting with President Bush at the White House this week Olmert vowed to support and strengthen Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) in the hopes that Abu Mazen's Fatah organization will combat the Islamist radicals of Hamas, and be a genuine peace-partner. President Bush and Secretary of State Rice expressed their hopes for the revival of the Road Map, and both Bush and Olmert viewed this week's declaration by Abu Mazen, that he is forming a new government and firing the Hamas Prime Minister Ismael Hanyia, as a very positive development.

These machinations -- counting on one Palestinian faction to do the bidding of the USA or Israel have failed miserably in the past, and are likely to fail again for the simple reason that the difference between the so called "secular" Fatah and the Islamist Hamas is merely tactical and not strategic in nature. The end game for both Fatah and Hamas is the elimination of the Jewish State and its replacement with an Arab-Muslim state. Hamas seeks a state governed by Sharia Islamic laws, while Fatah follows the vision of the Palestinian Covenant and Constitution drafted as a Palestinian Liberation Organization document in 1968.

In 1976, then Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin and Defense Minister Shimon Peres permitted Saudi funds to pass to pre-Hamas Islamists in order to offset the near certain election of PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) approved nationalists, pro-Arafat Palestinians in the West Bank municipal elections. The ploy failed, and the pro-Arafat mayors were elected.

Following the Oslo Accords of September 1993, Rabin and Peres ((Prime Minister, Foreign Minister respectively) who were concerned with the rise of radical Islamism in the Palestinian territories (being fueled by Iran's support to Sunni radical Islamist movements), counted on Yaser Arafat and his Fatah-led Palestinian Authority (PA), to basically serve as Israel's local policemen and clamp down on the Hamas. Shortly thereafter, Arafat gave Hamas a green light to carry out terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians and coordinated with Hamas the murderous work of his own terrorist groups affiliated with Fatah such as the Al-Aqsa Martyr Brigades. Arafat nevertheless pleaded his innocence to the western media and the Rabin/Peres government looked the other way. The second Intifada against Israel that began in September 2000 was led by Fatah-not the Hamas.

Both Israel and the U.S. are heavily invested in Abu Mazen and Fatah. Hundreds of millions in U.S. taxpayer's money will once again flow to the Palestinian Authority under President Abu-Mazen, just as it did under Yaser Arafat. The U.S., Israel and the EU are hoping for accelerated talks between Israel and the PA on the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank.

It is therefore prudent to remind American taxpayers that the PA has been the largest recipient of international aid since its creation in 1993. In fact, the per-capita aid to the Palestinians exceeds that of the Marshall Plan, which provided U.S. funds to devastated Europe in the aftermath of WWII . According to U.S. State Department figures the U.S. has since 1993 given the Palestinians an average of $85 million in economic aid annually. The U.S. has also contributed nearly $1.098 billion, from 1993-2004, to the U.N. Relief Works Agency (UNRWA). UNRWA's sole purpose is to provide economic and educational assistance to the Palestinians. No other group of people or refugees enjoys a similar privilege.

Under Arafat, the bulk of international aid to the Palestinian went into the private accounts of the Rais Arafat and his minions. This glaring corruption by the PA and Fatah leadership was the reason why the majority of Palestinians "kicked out the Fatah bums" and voted for a Hamas government in January 2006. Fatah's fiscal malfeasance, coupled with the absence of the rule-of-law, and lack of commitment to peace with Israel, will once again dash American and Israeli hopes.

Fatah's original charter calling for a "secular, democratic state in Palestine" has been transformed since the Oslo Accords into an Islamist movement. Fatah has competed with Hamas in the building of mosques with public funds, and hired imams to spread the message of martyrdom by encouraging suicide bombing and hatred for Jews and Christians. It was Fatah-controlled PA TV that broadcasted programs showing young children spewing hatred for Jews and Israel, and declaring their intentions to become suicide bombers. Similarly, PA textbooks have poisoned an entire generation of youth to hate Jews and Israel. Is Fatah the entity that can make peace with Israel? Will Fatah-educated children be prepared to carry out, in good faith, any peace agreements?

Abu Mazen will surely be seen and heard making declarations geared to please the western and Israeli media in which he denounces terrorism and pleads for negotiations and peace agreements, just as Arafat did. At the same time, he will signal to his own terrorist groups, such as the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and other groups we haven't yet learned about, to resume terrorist operations against Israel "when the timing is right."

The Fatah Jihadists are unlikely to give up the armed struggle against Israel, and while Abu Mazen might condemn unapproved terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians "that are contrary to Palestinian national interests," he has never disavowed the "armed struggle" or the immorality of terrorism.

The Bush administration and the Olmert government are gambling on Abu Mazen and the Fatah to deliver peace, end terror, and create a functioning Palestinian state. Abu Mazen did not deliver peace with Israel nor proper governance when he served as Prime Minister under Arafat, or, as President since Arafat's death. Abu Mazen's incompetence and lack of leadership enabled Hamas to take over Gaza. The West Bank might also fall to Hamas precisely because of the nature of Fatah and the lackluster leadership of Abu Mazen.

Arming Abu Mazen's Fatah goons with sophisticated weapons, and removing the Jewish settlements in the West Bank as the Sharon/Olmert plan called for, will ultimately bring Palestinian terrorism to the heart of Israel. It would be another fantasy of Israel's political left gone astray.

French Weather and Global Climate in France

2007-06-25T22:29:00.001+02:00

afp - France to get first cash from EU globalisation fund.

The European Commission on Monday approved the first two payments of cash from a new EU fund aimed at cushioning the impact of globalisation.

Small companies that supply French car makers Peugeot-Citroen and Renault will receive 3.8 million euros (5.1 million dollars) to help "workers made redundant due to company failures in a climate of changing global trade patterns," the EU executive said.

Commission spokeswoman Katharina von Schnurbein said the money would be disbursed once EU member states and the European Parliament gave their approval, which could take "three or four months."

The fund was set up at the end of last year to help workers who lose their jobs because of globalisation get back to work.

Schnurbein said that other candidates for cash from the fund were "in the pipeline," including the Finnish telecoms sector and textiles workers in Malta.

Religion of Peace strikes Peacekeepers

2007-06-25T22:23:00.000+02:00

ap - Al-Qaeda kill three Spanish peacekeepers in Lebanon.

A car bomb killed six U.N. peacekeepers on patrol in southern Lebanon in the first attack on the international force since it was expanded after last summer's war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas.

Ten people also died in the north Sunday, in the latest battle between Lebanese troops and Sunni militants, who have threatened to start launching attacks in other parts of Lebanon.

Among those condemning the attack on the U.N. peacekeepers was the Shiite Hezbollah, which called it a "suspicious act that harms the people of the south and of Lebanon." The militant group has had good relations with the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon , known as UNIFIL, since the troops were first deployed in 1978.

The U.N. has since become increasingly involved in highly divisive issues in Lebanon, including its tense relations with neighboring Syria.

UNIFIL said in a statement that the six peacekeepers were killed and two others seriously wounded in an "apparent car bomb attack" while they were on patrol.

In Madrid, Spanish Defense Minister Jose Antonio Alonso said three Colombian and two Spanish peacekeepers were among the slain. He called it a "premeditated attack" and said the "most likely cause" was a car bomb or device activated by remote control.

Lebanese officials said no body parts were found in the car, meaning the bomb was detonated from a distance and did not involve a suicide attacker.

The blast threw the troops' armored personnel carrier to the side of a main road between the towns of Marjayoun and Khiam, a few miles (kilometers) north of the Israeli town of Metulla. Investigators worked under floodlights late Sunday at the scene to determine what happened.

Spain has 1,100 peacekeepers in Lebanon, part of the 13,000-member U.N. force from 30 countries. UNIFIL, along with 15,000 Lebanese troops, patrols a zone along the Lebanese-Israeli border.

UNIFIL's presence puts teeth in the U.N. cease-fire resolution that halted last summer's 34-day war. Southern Lebanon has been largely quiet after the summer war killed more than 1,200 people, most of them in Lebanon.

Western-backed Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora denounced the attack, as did Israeli, U.S. and French officials.

Syria also condemned the attack, the country's official news agency reported. Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem told his Spanish counterpart in a telephone call that the attack was "a criminal act that aims at shaking security and stability in southern Lebanon."

Last month, the U.N. Security Council imposed an international tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri despite rejection from the country's Hezbollah-led opposition, which supports Damascus' involvement in Lebanon.

Complicating the picture, media reports earlier this month said interrogations by Lebanese authorities with captured al-Qaida-inspired militants revealed plots to attack the U.N. force.

The warnings became more serious after the al-Qaida-inspired Sunni Islamic group Fatah Islam began fighting Lebanese troops at Nahr el-Bared, a northern Lebanon Palestinian refugee camp, five weeks ago. The militants have threatened to expand their battle to other parts of Lebanon.

In addition, al-Qaida's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, in videos broadcast in September, has denounced the reinforced UNIFIL.

U.N. staff recently erected a 13-foot (4-meter)-high blast wall around the building housing U.N. offices in Beirut.

In the northern port city of Tripoli, Lebanese troops on Sunday raided an apartment complex suspected of housing al-Qaida-inspired militants, sparking a gunbattle that killed six of the militants, security officials said.

A Lebanese soldier, a policeman and two family members were also slain in the fighting, which began when troops seized a building where militants had taken refuge after nighttime clashes.

The six dead militants were three Saudi nationals, one ethnic Chechen and two Lebanese who also held foreign passports, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The battle shifted the fighting from the bombed-out Nahr el-Bared back to nearby Tripoli, where violence first erupted May 20. The Nahr el-Bared fighting, Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-90 civil war, has killed 80 soldiers and wounded more than 150. The fighting has claimed the lives of at least 60 militants and more than 20 civilians.

The Meaning of Jihad

2007-06-25T22:17:00.000+02:00

aki - Egypt: al-Qaeda cell backs Hamas.

After the organisation's number two Ayman al-Zawahiri, other cells of al-Qaeda have come out in suport of Palestinian militant group Hamas and invited its militants to help the militiamen controlling the Gaza strip.

The group calling itself the "Organisation of al-Qaeda in the land of Canaan" which represents the jihadi network in Egypt, has published an internet message inviting Egyptian Islamists to "help and support the mujahadeen in Palestine". The statement explains "here finally the Hamas of Jihad and martyrdom has returned to its former splendour, conquering and supporting the Jihad, and for this we support them.

What is more the statement invites the Egyptian jihadis to strike "any Jewish crusader objective present in Egypt" and criticised the initiative of Jamaa al-Islamia who had decided to repent and give up the armed struggle. Security sources in Cairo, contacted by the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat have however played down the extent of the threat, confirming that the security measures adopted in the Sinai where there are various tourism resorts, remain unchanged.

Can Norway Save Christianity?

2007-06-25T22:02:00.000+02:00

aftenposten - Afghan refugees carry on fight to stay in Norway.

The fate of a group of Afghan refugees in Oslo remained unclear Monday, after several of them converted to Christianity in a last-ditch effort to avoid deportation.

More than 20 other Afghan refugees whose asylum appeals remain undecided, meanwhile, said they were setting up their own "asylum academy" at a new encampment outside a church building downtown.

They say they'll use what time they have left in Norway to study human rights and democracy.

Many of the 21 refugees arrested last week when police broke up their camp in front of the Norwegian Parliament were expected to be sent back to Afghanistan over the weekend. They remained in Norway Monday morning, after Oslo Bishop Ole Christian Kvarme told immigration officials that several had converted to Christianity.

Their conversion could leave them facing death threats in Afghanistan. Norwegian officials won't return refugees to their homelands if their lives would be in danger.

The refugees whose asylum applications have been rejected in Norway, 45 in all, have argued all along that Afghanistan is too dangerous for them. They also claim they're exhausted after dealing with 30 years of war in their homeland.

Police said their deportation had been postponed while immigration officials evaluated their situation once again.

Turkey by Numbers

2007-06-25T21:59:00.001+02:00

aki - Turkey: EU keeps monetary, economic policy out of membership talks.

Ambassadors from the 27-European Union member states decided on Monday to keep chapters on monetary and ...

... and bla.

Islam is a Religion of Peace

2007-06-25T21:56:00.001+02:00

ap - Iraq: 8 killed by suicide bomber in Hillah.

A suicide car bomber targeted the governor's offices in the predominantly Shiite southern city of Hillah on Monday, killing at least eight people and wounding 31.

It was the second attack in three days. A parked car packed with explosives blew up on Saturday in the center of the city, 95 kilometers (60 miles) south of Baghdad.

The explosion on Monday occurred about 6:30 a.m., a spokesman for the provincial police department said. He said the eight killed included three policemen and at least four officers were among the 31 wounded. The spokesman spoke on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.

ap - Suicide bomb kills seven at central Baghdad hotel.

A suicide bomber blew himself up in a central Baghdad hotel on Monday, killing seven people, police said. At least 12 other people were reported wounded.

A man wearing a belt of explosives walked into the lobby of the Mansour Hotel, approached the reception desk and detonated his bomb, said a police official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The high-rise hotel, on the banks of the Tigris River, houses the Chinese Embassy and the news agency Agence France-Presse, among other tenants.

bangkokpost - Two rangers shot, burned, schools torched.

Two plainclothes rangers were killed and their bodies burned in Rueso district of Narathiwat yesterday while they were on a mission to gather information.

The charred bodies of Sgt Chakkrapong Pol-nguen and ranger volunteer Thawatchai Maneesang were found on the side of a road in Pu Poh village in tambon Samaggi. A motorcycle was found nearby.

Police said the killers shot the soldiers before dousing their bodies with petrol and setting them on fire. They also stole their weapons.

The two rangers left their base at the 44th Ranger Forces Regiment in plainclothes to mingle with the locals as usual in order to monitor insurgent movements.

Earlier, rubber tapper Kuna Sangthong, 48, was shot and burned in Rueso district.

In nearby Sungai Kolok district, teacher Nattee Pungpetsawat, 48, was shot in the leg.

Two schools were set ablaze in Raman district during the weekend.

Arsonists who burned classrooms at Ban Zue Lo school also scattered spikes on the road to delay firefighters and deter pursuit.

A one-storey building housing kindergarten rooms, a first-aid room and library was destroyed. Firefighters saved a two-storey building.

Witnesses said four or five people broke into the buildings, doused books with petrol and set them on fire. A five-litre petrol container was found nearby.

Police suspect the same gang torched Ban Panathaksin school in the same district on Saturday.

In Yala's Bannang Sata district, Jogo Josamoja, 47, was the latest casualty of a drive-by shooting. He was standing in front of his house when he was killed.

In Raman district, two military outposts were attacked on Raman road and one soldier wounded.

A Question to Muslims (#466)

2007-06-23T16:08:00.000+02:00

Quran 009:029 says:

"Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued."

The "People of the Book" are primarily Jews and Christians.

What should Muslims say to Muslims who include Jews and Christians among "those" who should be "fought" on the basis of this verse?

Cultural Diversity and Social Customs

2007-06-23T16:05:00.000+02:00

dawn - Man kills daughter in name of honour.

June 19, 2007 ◊ A man shot dead his daughter in the name of honour in Jundo village, the Taxila police told Dawn on Tuesday.

The victim, Zaibun Nisa, had married Mr Yaqoob of the same village of her own will three years ago and shifted to some unknown place.

On Monday, when Zaibun Nisa revisited Jundo village, her father identified as Mohammad Taj in a fit of rage shot her Nisa dead and escaped from the crime scene.

After an autopsy at the THQ hospital Taxila, the police handed the body over to the family for burial.

Meanwhile, the police registered a murder case on the complaint of Yaqoob, but no arrest could be made till the filing of this news report.

aki - Afghanistan: Almost one in four children 'forced to work'

June 19, 2007 ◊ Poverty, lack of educational opportunities and the demand for cheap labour are helping to fuel the prevalence of child labour across Afghanistan, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has warned.

Nearly one quarter of Afghan children between the ages of seven and 14 are working, with more girls working than boys and the problem worst in rural areas, Noriko Izumi, head of child protection for UNICEF in Afghanistan, said at a press conference in Kabul.

"Poverty and low family income levels force children to work to support their family," said Izumi.

While some types of work serve to teach children new skills that can help them become responsible and productive adults, she said work that interferes with the education of children and affects their mental, physical and social well-being is considered child labour.

"It is those jobs which are detrimental to children's development that we are talking about."

Lack of educational opportunities also pushes a child to work, as did the demand for cheaper labour, she stated, adding "children are cheaper to employ than adults and easier to manipulate. It is easier to hire and fire children."

The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that 218 million children worldwide, from 5 to 17 years old, are engaged in some kind of labour, with 126 million children engaged in the worst forms of child labour.

UNICEF is working on several fronts to tackle child labour in Afghanistan, which already has a number of legal and policy instruments to protect children, including a national strategy for children at risk and a child labour law defining the legal age of employment.

At the same time, it urged the Afghan government to sign and ratify two important ILO conventions -- one concerning the minimum age of employment and the other one regarding hazardous work.

Among the challenges for UNICEF is difficulty verifying a child's age because of the low birth registration rate in the country, which has emerged from decades of conflict.

"It is also difficult to regulate informal sectors like agriculture where we know many children are employed in Afghanistan," Izumi added.

UNICEF's interventions in the country include non-formal education, which it hopes will help transit the child to formal schooling, and vocational skills training for older children. It is also supporting children "associated with armed forces and other war-affected children." Since 2003, over 12,600 children have been supported in 29 provinces with literacy classes and vocational training.

Izumi noted that while there are fewer children now involved in child labour globally, that does not seem to be the case in the Asia-Pacific region. "So we still have lots of work to do in this region."

The Rise and Fall of Islam

2007-06-23T16:02:00.000+02:00

jpost - US Congress passes bill outlawing Saudi support.

The US Congress passed a unanimous bill Saturday to outlaw aid to Saudi Arabia due to the country's support of terror organizations including Hamas and lack of tolerance towards other religions, Israel Radio reported Saturday morning.

The US has financed Saudi military exercises and arms over the last few years and according to the new bill will stop doing so.

Representatives of the Democratic Party said that it was unfeasible that the US would finance the army of the country which produces the largest amount of oil in the world and at the same time many of its citizens have joined terror groups including al Qaida chief Osama bin Laden.

The Senate was expected to authorize the bill but President George Bush would likely veto.

One less

2007-06-23T15:59:00.000+02:00

ap - Palestinian shot in exchange of fire with IDF.

Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian at a West Bank roadblock near the city of Hebron, Palestinian medics said.

The Israeli army said the Palestinian had tried to enter a military outpost. When the Palestinian did not respond to soldiers' calls to stop, the troops shot at him, the IDF said.

Terror Commander resigns over Terror Victory

2007-06-23T15:56:00.000+02:00

ap - Fatah commander resigns over Hamas victory in Gaza.

A top Fatah security commander resigned Friday over his failure to prevent Hamas' takeover of Gaza, Palestinian officials said.

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas accepted the resignation of Rashid Abu Shbak, who headed the Fatah-linked Internal Security organization in Gaza and the West Bank, officials in Abbas' office announced Friday.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Long hated by members of Hamas for his role in crackdowns against the Islamic group, Abu Shbak became the target of criticism from his own men after Fatah's forces collapsed in Gaza last week, allowing Hamas to seize full control of the coastal territory.

Problems with Muslims

2007-06-23T15:53:00.000+02:00

aki - India: Muslims threaten protest over film.

Muslims in India's southernmost state of Tamil Nadu have threatened protests outside cinemas against superstar Rajnikanth's latest blockbuster Sivaji (The Boss).

They are upset that the movie shows the hero converting a huge amount of black money extorted from villains into legal tender by routing it through the hawala channels [informal transfers of money] of Muslim underground agents, and say it "insults the community of hawala traders."

"The scene showing the hero in an underground den full of Muslims dealing with hawala transactions is highly objectionable. It makes it seem that our community is involved in such illegal acts against the state and the people. We cannot accept this," said Tamil Nadu Muslim group Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary S. Hyder Ali.

The group has warned it will organise protests across the state unless the offending scenes are withdrawn. Hawala, also known as hundi, can been defined as 'transfer without money movement'.

"We will also appeal to the chief minister to intervene since we know he is sensitive to the feelings of minorities. We will launch protests throughout the state and may even go to court to seek justice for Muslims. We are law-abiding people, but this film shows us as criminals operating hawala," sai Ali.

He also accused Sivaji director Shankar of being "consistent in his insensitivity towards minorities and the oppressed classes through several of his films. "He must now realise his social responsibilities," said Ali.

An ancient system originating in South Asia, hawala is used by migrant workers around the world to send remittances to their home country. Cheaper and quicker than official channels bank transfers or international money orders, hawala is illegal under Indian and Pakistani law, whether the source of money is legitimate -- so-called 'white hawala' -- or illegitimate -- termed 'black hawala' or money-laundering.

The Liberal Dictionary: L - Love

2007-06-23T15:50:00.000+02:00

aftenposten - Cannot compare homosexuality and pedophilia.

The Bishop of Hamar, Solveig Fiske, has taken action after a minister in Toten refused to allow homosexuals to be godparents in a christening ceremony.

In addition to his surprising decision, the minister made a close comparison between homosexuals and pedophiles.

"A comparison between pedophilia and homosexuality is of course unacceptable. Pedophilia is a criminal offense against children. Homosexuality is about love between adults," Fiske said, and she has asked to meet with the controversial clergyman.

Both the child's parents and prospective godparents reacted in shocked disbelief when the two homosexual men were turned down. The bishop has deeply apologized for the situation that has arisen and the strain it has caused those involved.

The incident has provoked shocked reactions from politicians and interest groups. Minister of Church and Culture Trond Giske called the incident extremely sad and emphasized that there is no law that prevents homosexuals from being godparents.

"I demand that the bishop call this minister in to a serious conversation about what the Church's message and role is. This is a consequence of the Church's unspecified relationship to homosexuality," said Håkon Haugli, the leader of the Labour Party's Homosexual Network.

"The Norwegian Church does not carry out church discipline at the baptismal font. At a baptism the child is in focus. The bishops of the Church have long said that no child shall be denied a baptism due to the living arrangements of its parents," Fiske said in a press release.

Fiske also referred to the rules of baptism that instructed that in cases of doubt the bishop was to be consulted.

One of the potential godparents, Bjørnar Aaslund, has reported the incident to police. The baptism will take place at another church on Sunday, with the homosexual couple as godparents.

Islam remains a Religion of Peace

2007-06-23T15:47:00.000+02:00

aki - Student jailed for designing and building terror website.

The Semarang District Court in Central Java sentenced a Semarang University student on Wednesday to three years in jail for designing and setting up a website that provided instructions on how to carry out terrorist attacks against foreigners.

The sentence the court handed down to Agung Prabowo, 24, alias Max Fiderman alias Ahmad alias Kalingga alias Bebek-bebekan, was much lighter than the prosecutors' original demand of eight years.

Judge Sucipto said the defendant was found guilty of running the site, which was used by terror suspects to communicate with each other in 2005.

The Web site suggested targets in the capital of Jakarta frequented by foreigners and the best escape routes for those executing them.

Sucipto explained that Agung designed the site, anshar.net, under the orders of Abdul Azis, a senior high school teacher in Pekalongan, Central Java, who is a member of the Jamaah Islamiyah terrorist network led by fugitive Noordin M. Top.

It was disclosed in earlier trial sessions, Sucipto said, that Abdul Azis first received orders to design the site from Noordin to help the network's members communicate and disseminate information.

Abdul was unable to build the site himself, so he paid Agung to do so. When the site was completed in mid-August 2005, Abdul transferred 200,000 Indonesian rupiahs (22 dollars)to Agung's bank account.

Agung, in return, gave the site's password to Abdul. He said he was not aware of the contents of the site.

The site contained information on how to commit acts of Jihad, types of weapons, war games and tips on how to arrange explosives. At one point it ran the last will of Mukhlas, one of the first Bali bombing convicts to be placed on death row.

Agung claimed he was surprised and disappointed to see that the site he had created was used by the terrorist network.

He later moved the site to the nsisraeil.posting.com domain and closed access to it, but did not delete its contents.

"The problem is that even though he knew the site was being used by terrorists, he did not inform the authorities," Sucipto said.

The panel of judges considered Agung to have violated Article 13 of the government regulation that replaced the 2002 Terrorism Crime Eradication Law and later became a law itself in 2003.

After the trial, Agung said he accepted the verdict but added, "if the prosecutors want to appeal, I'm ready to continue the legal process".

His parents and younger brother attended session. As he was escorted by security officers to a police car, his brother handed him a bundle of clothes.

aki - Fugitive bombing mastermind 'arrested'

Indonesian police have arrested key Bali bombing suspect, Malaysian national Noordin Mohammed Top, the well respected Detikcom news agency reports. He is considered the mastermind behind a series of bombings in Indonesia, including the 2002 and 2005 Bali nightclub attacks which killed over 250 people.

Police arrested Top on 14 June, in Brebes Central Java and intend to announce this on 1 July -- national police day in Indonesia, Detikcom said, quoting an unnamed source.

The report of Top's arrest follows that of the arrest of Abu Dujana, the alleged military commander of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terrorist network and Zarkasih, believed to be JI's supreme leader. Zarkasih (also known by the aliases Nuaim, Abu Irsyad and Mbah). Both men were seized on 9 June in an anti terrorist police raid in Banyumas, central Java, the chief of indonesia's anti-terrorist unit announced last Friday.

Indonesia's most wanted fugitive, Top was once one of the leaders of JI. According to experts, the Malaysian is believed to have created his own splinter group, after JI expressed a preference for preaching instead of armed struggle. JI is responsible for a string of deadly terror attacks in Indonesia in recent years including the 2002 and 2005 Bali attacks and bombings of the Marriott Hotel and the Australian embassy in Jakarta.

Noordin is now believed to be the head of the group known as Tanzim Qaedat al-Jihad -- which is said to be the original name of al-Qaeda. Sidney Jones the Southeast Asia director of the International Crisis Group recently told Adnkronos International she believes there is still a link between Noordin and the radical elements within JI -- represented by Abu Dujana -- but the level of collaboration is still unclear. Her view is shared by other experts.

JI is believed to recruit both through a select number of Islamic colleges and also through family ties. The terrorist group was created towards the end of the 1980s by a group of Indonesian exiles in Malaysia.

aki - Abu Dujana is lying says Bashir spokesman.

Radical Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir isn't a former leader of terror group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), according to a spokesman for his organisation Majelis Mujahiddin Indonesia (MMI). The MMI is made up of groups fighting for Islamic law or Sharia in Indonesia.

Fauzan al-Anshori told Adnkronos International (AKI) that allegations made by Abu Dujana, head of the military wing of JI, after his arrest on 9 June in a police raid in Central Java, that Bashir headed the militant group from 2000 to 2003 are "false and he was certainly forced to make them under torture."

Shortly after his arrest, Dujana gave a filmed confession to the police in which he said Bashir had headed JI for three years, starting in 2000.

Bashir, who is in his late 60s, was released from prison in 2006 after serving less than 26 months in Jakarta's Cipinang penitentiary for conspiracy in the 2002 Bali bombings, which killed 202 people and thrust Indonesia onto the front lines of the war on terror. Bashir has consistently denied any connection to that or other attacks blamed on the Southeast Asian militant group, Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) whose objective is the creation of an Islamic 'caliphate' in the region.

"It is obvious that security forces want to start a campaign to discredit Bashir and everything is due to the pressure exercised by the US," said al-Anshori.

Meanwhile Mahendradata, a well known local lawyer who like many Indonesians only has one name, believed to be close to Bashir has ruled out the possibility that he could be tried again, as hinted in recent reports.

"Bashir already stood trial in connection with terrorist acts and putting him on trial again would break the so-called 'double jeopardy' rule, that is the guarantee that a suspect cannot be tried twice on the same charges," he told AKI.

aki - Muslims remain tolerant poll finds.

Results from a recent survey indicate that the majority of Indonesian Muslims are tolerant toward other religions and ...

... and bla.

Leviathanian Euroslaves

2007-06-23T15:44:00.000+02:00

paulbelien - The 'EUSSR'

In the late 1980s the USSR, Ronald Reagan's "evil empire," imploded. America might soon be confronted with another evil empire. Tomorrow, Europe's politicians meet in Brussels to discuss how they can revive the constitutional treaty, often called the European Constitution, a bloated blueprint (more than 160,000 words in its English version) for transforming the European Union (EU) into a superstate.

Exactly two years ago, this constitution was rejected in referendums in the Netherlands and France. This came as a blow to Brussels, the capital of Belgium and home to the European Commission, the unelected EU executive, and its army of 54,000 eurocrats, a bureaucracy molded in the worst centralist and authoritarian French and German traditions.

Soon after the referendums it became apparent that the European politicians intended to ignore the people's verdict and proceed with their plans for constructing the superstate. During the past six months, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been busy drafting a so-called amended treaty. This bypasses the need for public referendums on the new powers for Brussels, but retains the substance of the constitution -- granting the EU substantial powers over its member states, such as the right to override national legislation and to impose a common foreign policy.

The British have always distrusted grandiose political schemes more than the continental West Europeans. In order to get London's support for Mrs. Merkel's amended treaty, Nicolas Sarkozy, the new president of France, has offered Tony Blair the job of the first president of Europe. Mr. Blair steps down as British prime minister on June 27 and is looking for a new job.

Nigel Farage, the leader in the European parliament of the British "euroskeptics", those who oppose the centralization of powers in Brussels and defend the national sovereignty of the EU member states, is certain that Mr. Blair will accept the offer. Mr. Farage has already accused him of "sign[ing] away our future just days before he leaves [office]." It remains to be seen, however, whether Mr. Blair will, indeed, "do a Schroeder." Gerhard Schroeder, the former German chancellor, negotiated a controversial gas deal with Russia in his final weeks in office and, in return, got himself a high position at the Russian gas company immediately after he retired from office. If Mr. Blair "does a Schroeder," accepting to reduce Britain's EU voting rights and its veto on European legislation in return for his own personal advancement, it is far from certain that the English will take this in as docile a fashion as the Germans accepted Mr. Schroeder's despicable behavior.

If Mr. Blair dares to put his signature under the amended treaty, Mr. Farage warns, "his legacy will be a hand grenade with the pin pulled out." In Monday's (London) Times, William Rees-Mogg warned that "Any treaty along the lines of Mrs Merkel's draft could trigger a fundamental rethinking of British policy. The British electorate, if not our politicians, might feel they would be better off out of such a federalized Europe, dominated by the Franco-German alliance." Ambrose Evans-Pritchard announced in Monday's Daily Telegraph that "If Europe's political leaders succeed in ramming through a barely disguised remake of the same European constitution rejected by the French and Dutch people, I for one will come off the fence after years of hesitation and join the fight for total British withdrawal from the [European] Union."

The British, and in particular the English, are the most euroskeptic of all European peoples. If forced to choose, they seem prepared to opt for British sovereignty over the European Union. Some regard this as almost a criminal attitude. Last week, the president of Italy, Giorgio Napolitano, said that "those who are anti EU are terrorists," while his colleague Horst Kohler, the president of Germany, described the tactics of the "euroskeptics" as "populist, demagogic campaigning." It sounded almost as if Italy and Germany were blaming Britain for not having drawn lessons from the second World War, conveniently forgetting that it was England's love of freedom that saved Europe from dictators like Messrs. Napolitano's and Kohler's predecessors, Mussolini and Hitler. The latter, too, nursed dreams of European political unification.

Liberty and democracy require limited governments, while supranationalism by definition tends toward unlimitedness. The former Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky refers to the EU as the "EUSSR." He does so, he explains, because the former USSR and the EU share the same goal: the obliteration of nations. "The European Union, like the Soviet Union, cannot be democratized," he says. If the EU becomes a genuine state it is bound to be an evil empire, because there is no European nation.

"National loyalty is a form of neighborliness: It is loyalty to a shared home and to the people who have built it," says the conservative English philosopher Roger Scruton. Without this loyalty there is no freedom, because "national loyalties enable people to respect the sovereignty and the rights of the individual."

By seeking to extinguish national loyalty, the EU also destroys freedom, accountability and democracy. The eurocracy aims to extinguish the old national loyalties of the European peoples, and put a cosmopolitan indifference in their place.

Muslim-Muslim Dialogue

2007-06-23T15:41:00.000+02:00

aki - Gaza: Hamas threatens to reveal names of Palestinian 'Mossad agents'

Hamas has threatened to make public the names of Palestinian Authority officials working as agents for Israel's Mossad secret service.

Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri said in an interview published Thursday by the Arab daily al-Hayat that the names of the alleged Mossad agents appeared on documents Hamas fighters seized from the offices of the Palestinian Authority's Tel-Hawa security services in Gaza.

The names included Palestinian officials "close to Abu Mazen (Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas) and "proof that they collaborated with the Israelis to kill members of the Islamic resistance" al-Masri said.

Besides the names of the alleged Mossad agents the documents also contained information on hiding places in Gaza where weapons including explosives to be used against Hamas were kept, he added.

Hamas, the spokesman said, would reveal the information "at the most opportune moment."

aki - Iran: Khatami says video in which he shakes women's hands was edited.

A handshake last month between former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami, a moderate Muslim cleric, and two Italian women, renowned producers of grappa (husk brandy), has created an uproar in Iran which shows no signs of abating.

One day after reports said a religious tribunal would try Khatami and possibly ban him from preaching, his Baran foundation said Thursday the compromising footage shown on 'YouTube' was edited to give a false impression.

In the images, Khatami is clearly seen as he shakes hands with Cristina and Gianola Nonino in the northeastern Italian city of Udine during a visit there last month,

The footage, the foundation said in a statement, "is false and was edited to discredit the president."

On 12 June, the Baran foundation issued a statement denying the cleric had intentionally shaken hands with women, a gesture prohibited under Iran's strict interpretation of Islamic law banning all physical contact between men and women who are not related. The statement indicated Khatami had shaken the hands of people in a crowd without realising they were female.

aki - Italy: Shiite converts to appear in Iranian TV programme.

Italian converts to Shiism will on Friday appear in a programme that forms part of the first series about them to be aired by the Iranian Arabic language TV channel al-Kawathar.

'The Righteous Path' will be broadcast at 15.30 local time and repeated on Saturday at 10.30 local time. "It focuses on the daily lives of eight Italians who converted to the Shiite form of Islam," convert Hussain Morelli told Adnkronos International (AKI).

In a series of interviews, the Italian converts describe the reasons for their conversion and the changes it has brought to their daily lives. Interviews with the converts are spliced with footage showing them in their workplaces or at home, where their parents and spouses also speak to al-Kawathar.

The programme airing on Friday is the third in a series that began on 1 June. The previous programmes provided extensive coverage of the Imam Mahdi Muslim Association, of which Morelli is a spokesman and which all the converts are involved in. Earlier episodes showed Muslims praying at the Shiite Islamic Centre in the Italian capital Rome, and cultural, social and political activities, such as fundraising and collection of medicines for the Lebanese population organised during Israel's war last July against guerrillas from Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah.

A further five episodes in the series are due to be broadcast in Italian with Arabic subtitles. Shortly after 'The Righteous Path's is screened, al-Kawathar will broadcast live Friday prayers from Tehran's mosque.

aki - Pakistan: Capital body destroys unauthorised mosque.

Pakistan's Capital Development Authority (CDA) on Thursday demolished a mosque in Sector G-8 -- Masjid Al Mehdi Asna-i-Ashri -- despite government orders against demolition of even 'unauthorised' mosques. A protest against the demolition was held at the site of the mosque.

The administration of the radical Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) has been involved in a standoff with the city development body over the demolition of various mosques that were built without any permission. Students from a seminary linked to the Lal Masjid have been occupying a central library for months in protest.

Allama Sibtain Sherani, vice president of the Ulema Mashaikh Wing of the Pakistan Muslim League, who visited site of the demolished mosque and took part in the protest, said that razing of the mosque was a bid to fuel sectarianism among Muslims.

He told the Pakistani daily Dawn that he had drawn the attention of the government towards the issue and demanded reconstruction of the mosque. "It is shameful that the mosque was razed when women and girls were attending a Majlis (mourning ceremony) held in connection with the death anniversary of Hazrat Fatima Tuz Zahra."

According to the man in charge of the mosque, Maulana Syed Amir Hussain Shah, it was demolished by the staff of the Capital Development Authority (CDA). "Some 60 employees of the CDA in five trucks came without any notice and demolished the mosque," said Shah.

Democracy: The God that Failed

2007-06-23T15:38:00.000+02:00

ap - Chirac refuses to be questioned in smear scandal.

Former French President Jacques Chirac is refusing to be questioned in an investigation into an apparent smear scandal during his tenure as president, his office said Friday.

Chirac was constitutionally guaranteed judicial immunity while he was in office, and therefore "cannot be ordered to provide testimony" in the investigation into the so-called Clearstream affair, his office said in a statement. The scandal centered on damaging but false allegations that current President Nicolas Sarkozy had secret bank accounts.

Liberal Heroes from the Roaring Seventies: Jimmy Carter

2007-06-23T15:35:00.000+02:00

jpost - Father of the Iranian revolution.

We just don't get it. The Left in America is screaming to high heaven that the mess we are in in Iraq and the war on terrorism has been caused by the right-wing and that George W. Bush, the so-called "dim-witted cowboy," has created the entire mess.

The truth is the entire nightmare can be traced back to the liberal democratic policies of the leftist Jimmy Carter, who created a firestorm that destabilized our greatest ally in the Muslim world, the shah of Iran, in favor of a religious fanatic, the ayatollah Khomeini.

Carter viewed Khomeini as more of a religious holy man in a grassroots revolution than a founding father of modern terrorism. Carter's ambassador to the UN, Andrew Young, said "Khomeini will eventually be hailed as a saint." Carter's Iranian ambassador, William Sullivan, said, "Khomeini is a Gandhi-like figure." Carter adviser James Bill proclaimed in a Newsweek interview on February 12, 1979 that Khomeini was not a mad mujahid, but a man of "impeccable integrity and honesty."

The shah was terrified of Carter. He told his personal confidant, "Who knows what sort of calamity he [Carter] may unleash on the world?"

Let's look at the results of Carter's misguided liberal policies: the Islamic Revolution in Iran; the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (Carter's response was to boycott the 1980 Moscow Olympics); the birth of Osama bin Laden's terrorist organization; the Iran-Iraq War, which cost the lives of millions dead and wounded; and yes, the present war on terrorism and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

WHEN CARTER entered the political fray in 1976, America was still riding the liberal wave of anti-Vietnam War emotion. Carter asked for an in-depth report on Iran even before he assumed the reins of government and was persuaded that the shah was not fit to rule Iran. 1976 was a banner year for pacifism: Carter was elected president, Bill Clinton became attorney-general of Arkansas, and Albert Gore won a place in the Tennessee House of Representatives.

In his anti-war pacifism, Carter never got it that Khomeini, a cleric exiled to Najaf in Iraq from 1965-1978, was preparing Iran for revolution. Proclaiming "the West killed God and wants us to bury him," Khomeini's weapon of choice was not the sword but the media. Using tape cassettes smuggled by Iranian pilgrims returning from the holy city of Najaf, he fueled disdain for what he called gharbzadegi ("the plague of Western culture").

Carter pressured the shah to make what he termed human rights concessions by releasing political prisoners and relaxing press censorship. Khomeini could never have succeeded without Carter. The Islamic Revolution would have been stillborn.

Gen. Robert Huyser, Carter's military liaison to Iran, once told me in tears: "The president could have publicly condemned Khomeini and even kidnapped him and then bartered for an exchange with the [American Embassy] hostages, but the president was indignant. 'One cannot do that to a holy man,' he said."

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has donned the mantle of Ayatollah Khomeini, taken up bin Laden's call, and is fostering an Islamic apocalyptic revolution in Iraq with the intent of taking over the Middle East and the world.

Jimmy Carter became the poster boy for the ideological revolution of the 1960s in the West, hell bent on killing the soul of America. The bottom line: Carter believed then and still does now is that evil really does not exist; people are basically good; America should embrace the perpetrators and castigate the victims.

IN THE '60S it was mass rebellion after the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King. When humanity confronts eternity, the response is always rebellion or repentance. The same ideologues who fought to destroy the soul of America with the "God is dead" movement in the 1960s are now running the arts, the universities, the media, the State Department, Congress, and Senate, determined more then ever to kill the soul of America while the East attempts to kill the body. Carter's world view defines the core ideology of the Democratic Party.

What is going on in Iraq is no mystery to those of us who have had our fingers on the pulse of both Iran and Iraq for decades. The Iran-Iraq war was a war of ideologies. Saddam Hussein saw himself as an Arab leader who would defeat the non-Arab Persians. Khomeini saw it as an opportunity to export his Islamic Revolution across the borders to the Shi'ites in Iraq and then beyond to the Arab countries.

Throughout the war both leaders did everything possible to incite the inhabitants of each country to rebel -- precisely what Iran is doing in Iraq today. Khomeini encouraged the Shi'ites across the border to remove Saddam from power and establish an Islamic republic like in Iran.

Carter's belief that every crisis can be resolved with diplomacy -- and nothing but diplomacy -- now permeates the Democratic Party. Unfortunately, Carter is wrong.

There are times when evil must be openly confronted and defeated.

KHOMEINI HAD the help of the PLO in Iran. They supplied weapons and terrorists to murder Iranians and incite mobs in the streets. No wonder Yasser Arafat was hailed as a friend of Khomeini after he seized control of Iran and was given the Israeli Embassy in Teheran with the PLO flag flying overhead.

The Carter administration scrambled to assure the new regime that the United States would maintain diplomatic ties with Iran. But on April 1, 1979 the greatest April Fools' joke of all time was played, as Khomeini proclaimed it the first day of the government of God.

In February 1979 Khomeini had boarded an Air France flight to return to Teheran with the blessing of Jimmy Carter. The moment he arrived, he proclaimed: "I will kick his teeth in" -- referring to then prime minister Shapour Bakhtiar, who was left in power with a US pledge of support. He was assassinated in Paris by Iranian agents in 1991.

I sat in the home of Gen. Huyser, who told me the shah feared he would lose the country if he implemented Carter's polices. Carter had no desire to see the shah remain in power. He really believed that a cleric -- whose Islamist fanaticism he did not understand in the least -- would be better for human rights and Iran.

He could have changed history by condemning Khomeini and getting the support of our allies to keep him out of Iran.

Religion of Peace strikes Seaside, Monterey

2007-06-23T15:32:00.000+02:00

ap - US school apologizes for Muslim scarf incident.

A Muslim teenager who was ordered by a school monitor to take off a headscarf she wore for religious reasons returned to classes after school officials apologized to the family.

Issra Omer, 13, told her parents she was too embarrassed to show up for summer school classes at Seaside High School on Wednesday, the day after a monitor demanded she remove her hijab, the Muslim scarf covering the head and neck, to conform to the district's no-hat policy.

Issra, whose family is originally from Sudan, explained that her scarf is worn for religious reasons, but the school employee still yelled at her, said her father, Yousif Omer. The teenager felt humiliated by being singled out in front of her peers and started crying, he said.

The school's principal, Syd Renwick, explained the employee did not intend any harm.

Ottoman Rule, Part Deux

2007-06-23T15:29:00.000+02:00

ap - Athens: 1st Muslim prayer center in 170 yrs opens.

Immigrant organizations on Friday opened the first official Islamic prayer site to operate in Athens since the end of Ottoman rule more than 170 years ago.

Government plans to build a mosque that would serve tens of thousands of Muslim immigrants living in the capital have stalled, and the downtown cultural center was funded by businessmen from Arab countries.

"This is the first time in all the 35 years I've lived in Greece that we have a proper place to pray," said Naim El-Gandour, the Egyptian-born head of the Muslim Association of Greece. "It's hard for be to describe what's happening, I am overcome with emotion."

Most Muslims in Athens currently use makeshift mosques for prayer, including sites prayer set up in basements, apartments, and converted coffee shops.

The Meaning of Jihad

2007-06-23T15:26:00.000+02:00

jpost - Islamic Jihad claims Kassam rocket attack.

The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for four of the five Kassam rockets fired at the western Negev on Wednesday evening.

Three people were lightly wounded in the attacks and three buildings sustained damage.

Election 2008 - Hillary Clinton

2007-06-23T15:23:00.000+02:00

wnd - Full Hillary 'smoking gun' video released.

The full, five-minute videotape touted as "smoking gun evidence" of two felonies committed by Sen. Hillary Clinton has been released to WND.

As WND reported, the tape was submitted as evidence to a California appeals court yesterday in a civil fraud suit against the New York Democrat and her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

WND reported in April the tape indicates Clinton -- despite denials throughout six years of investigation -- was directly involved with business mogul Peter Franklin Paul in producing a lavish Hollywood fundraiser in August 2000 that eventually cost Paul nearly $2 million.

Click to start video

Clinton's participation in the planning of the event would make Paul's substantial contributions a direct donation to her Senate campaign rather than her joint fundraising committee, violating federal statutes that limit "hard money" contributions to a candidate to $2,000 per person. Knowingly accepting or soliciting $25,000 or more in a calendar year is a felony carrying a prison sentence of up to five years.

Paul's complaint charges President Clinton destroyed his entertainment company to get out of a $17 million deal in which Clinton promised to promote the firm in exchange for stock, cash options and massive contributions to his wife's 2000 campaign. Paul contends he was directed by the Clintons and Democratic Party leaders to foot the bill for the Hollywood event.

In the tape, Clinton is heard via speakerphone thanking Paul, business partner Stan Lee and other colleagues for their efforts in putting together the fundraiser.

She also describes the role of longtime aide Kelly Craighead as assisting in day-to-day involvement in preparation for the event as her liaison with Paul and his producers.

Craighead, Clinton says, "talks all the time" with Paul, "so she'll be the person to convey whatever I need."

The aide's hands-on role is significant, because the law also implicates a candidate if any of his or her agents are involved in coordinating expenditures with a donor.

In another portion of the tape, Clinton is heard discussing her direct solicitation of a large contribution from the entertainer Cher. Paul's legal team argues the value of Cher's performance alone vastly exceeded the FEC limits.

The tape was one of 90 Paul was ordered to turn over to the U.S. attorney's office for the Eastern District of New York in 2001 as part of the investigation in a related securities case against him. But it has never been used as evidence, despite its relevance to the key question of Sen. Clinton's involvement in the Hollywood fundraiser.

Sen. Clinton has claimed through her spokesman Howard Wolfson that Paul gave no money to her campaign, and her supporters have denied she had any anything to do with coordinating the fund-raiser or soliciting contributions directly from donors.

Clinton's campaign has counted the more than $800,000 of in-kind contributions it reported in a 2006 amended FEC report for the Hollywood Gala as indirect, or "soft money," given to the New York Senate 2000 Committee, a state account that was run jointly by Clinton, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the New York State Democratic Party.

The Clintons' longtime attorney David Kendall has not replied to WND's request for comment on Paul's videotape. Kendall previously has declined comment on the case, saying only to WND regarding the felony assertion, "Any such allegation is totally false and totally unsupported."

Global warming will vaporize Earth!

2007-06-23T15:20:00.001+02:00

ap - Scientists at odds after Chile lake disappears.

A glacial lake in Chile's southern Andes has disappeared -- and scientists want to know why.

The disappearance of the two-hectare lake in Bernardo O'Higgins National Park was discovered in late May by park rangers. Where the lake had been in March, they found a dry crater 30-meters deep and several large pieces of ice that used to float atop the water.

"The lake had simply disappeared," Juan Jose Romero, head of Chile's National Forest Service in the southernmost region of Magallanes, said Wednesday. "No one knows what happened."

Romero said that a group of geologists and other experts would be sent to the area 2,000 kilometers southeast of Santiago in the next few days to investigate.

One theory is the water disappeared through cracks in the lake bottom into underground fissures. But experts do not know why the cracks would have appeared because there have been no earthquakes reported in the area recently, Romero said. A river that flowed out of the lake was reduced to a trickle.

Liberals in a Nutshell

2007-06-23T15:17:00.000+02:00

afp - Royal set on second presidential bid.

Defeated French presidential candidate Segolene Royal, who is bidding to take over as head of the Socialist Party, said Friday she planned to run again for head of state in 2012.

Asked whether she would seek to carry the Socialist banner five years' from now, she told France 2 television: "It is likely ... I want to carry on."

Royal, whose break-up with her partner of 30 years, party leader Francois Hollande, made headlines this week, is angling to take over his job when he steps down next year.

She kicked up a storm this week by disowning key parts of her presidential platform -- the extension of the 35-hour week and a big hike in the minimum wage -- as unrealistic, saying they were imposed on her by the party old guard.

She repeated a call for the Socialist Party, whose leaders meet on Saturday to draw lessons from their electoral defeat, to "quickly consult" party members on the need for renovation and reform.

Though her authority is contested by rival party heavyweights, Royal enjoys the support of a majority of rank-and-file party activists, many of whom signed up last year to back her presidential bid.

The Euro-Arab Axis of Evil

2007-06-23T15:14:00.000+02:00

aki - Iran nuclear: Solana confirms talks with Larijani Saturday.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana confirmed Thursday he is going to meet Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani to discuss a way out of the international standoff over the Iranian nuclear programme, in the Portuguese capital Lisbon on Saturday.

The UN Security Council has approved two waves of sanctions against Iran over sensitive nuclear work the international community fears is aimed at building nuclear weapons.

During a previous meeting on 31 May, Larijani told Solana Iran was available to offer soon clarifications on its nuclear programme demanded by the UN atomic watchdog over suspicions it is seeking atomic weapons. Solana had then only announced progress "on some important issues" to be further discussed at their next meeting.

aki - Italy-Emirates: International economic forum kicks off.

The 'Italy-United Arab Emirates, Development Guidelines for Shared Growth' economic forum opens on Friday in the Umbrian town of Assisi. The event, taking place as trade between the two countries is burgeoning, forms part of the 'Assisi Endurance Lifestyle' 2007 trade fair.

On in Assisi until Monday, the fair aims to promote investment between the two countries and exchange good practices in the areas of business, tourism, sport and culture.

Meetings between Italian and UAE companies during the forum will seek to boost bilateral industrial and commercial ties: The UAE together with Saudi Arabia forms the main market for Italian exports in the Gulf region. Visits by UAE businessmen and businesswomen to industrial zones in central Italy -- where the region of Umbria is located -- are also planned.

The strongest Italian export sectors to the UAE are jewellery and goldsmith's art, machinery and tools, white goods, furniture, lamps and soft furnishings, as well as footwear and leather goods, ceramic tiles, marble and stone. Senior representatives from firms in these sectors as well as ambassadors from Italy and the UAE will be attending the forum, taking place at the Lyrick Theatre in Assisi.

The trade fair is being promoted and organised by Italy's foreign trade ministry, ICE, as well as the Umbrian branch of the main Italian business association Confindustria, the regional agency for tourism and the Umbrian regional chamber of commerce.

Italy's undersecretary for foreign trade, Mauro Agostini, foreign trade ministry director general for development Gianfranco Caprioli, ICE director general, Massimo Mamberti, and Confindustria's diplomatic advisor, Vincenzo Petrone, will all be attending the forum, as well as local and regional government representatives.

Italy exported good worths 3.3 billion euros to the UAE in 2006 -- a 23.8 percent increase on 2005 -- while the UAE's imports to Italy rose by a more modest 2.5 percent in the same period to reach 268 million euros, according to Italy's foreign trade institute ICE.

aki - Spain: Foreign minister urges 'bold' migration policies at EU-Africa meet.

Europe and Africa must strike a balance between combatting illegal immigration and promoting legal immigration, integration and development policies, Spain's foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said Thursday.

He was addressing senior representatives from European, North, West and Central African countries at the first follow up meeting to the Euro-African Conference on Migration and Development, held in the Moroccan capital Rabat, in July 2006.

Immigration is the big challenge of the 21st century but the responsibility for managing the phenomenon must be divided between the country of origin, of transit and of arrival of the migrants, Moratinos emphasised in his opening address.

Spain faces a constant flow of would be immigrants on the coasts of Andalusia and more recently of the Canary Islands. In 2006, more than 31,200 clandestine immigrants arrived on the Canary Island

At the first Euro-African conference on illegal migration organised last July by Spain and Morocco in Rabat, 57 countries agreed on a four-year plan to tackle illegal immigration to Europe. It included repatriation agreements between the home countries of migrants and the countries of destination of immigration flows, measures to identify would-be immigrants and police cooperation plans to alert countries of new migration flows.

The 'spirit of Rabat', Moratinos recalled, goes well beyond managing the flow of would-be migrants. He warned that "bold migration policies" were required that linked migration to development. "In this way, immigration will stop being an obligation for young Africans in the medium and long run," the minister said.

The action plan adopted in Rabat stressed the need to share the responsibility for illegal immigration between the migrants' countries of origin, transit and destination, Moratinos stressed.

The Madrid meeting prepared a second ministerial conference after Rabat, which is due to be held in Paris in 2008.

aki - EU: MEPs urge adoption of laws to curb racism and xenophobia.

European Union parliamentarians on Thursday adopted a report backing a legal framework to take effective action against racism and ...

... and bla.

Faces of Peace

2007-06-23T15:11:00.000+02:00

aki - Afghanistan: Man who 'betrayed' slain Taliban chief dies 'in custody'

A former close aide to Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah who was killed last month by Afghan government and NATO forces has died "in custody" after he was accused of betraying his former master, Taliban sources have told Adnkronos International (AKI).

"Takht Mohammed was for 14 years a companion of Mullah Dadullah but he turned out to be an informer who passed on the information to the Afghan government that allowed it to track down and kill Dadullah," the source, speaking on condition of anonymity told AKI.

"After Dadullah's killing, Takht Mohammed fled to Kuchlak (in Pakistan near Quetta) from where he was recently abducted by the Taliban. He died of cardiac failure," the source added.

ap - Iran: Juvenile executions 'practically stopped'

Iran's judiciary spokesman said Friday that the execution of people under the age of 18 has "practically stopped" in the country and the government is working to outlaw the practice, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Ali Reza Jamshidi's comments came two days after Human Rights Watch called on Iran to stop executing juveniles, saying the country was the world's leading offender.

"The execution of children under the age of 18 practically stopped years ago," IRNA quoted Jamshidi as saying Friday.

Jamshidi said the judiciary had proposed a bill that would outlaw juvenile executions and hoped the country's legislators would soon approve it, IRNA reported.

Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain

2007-06-23T15:08:00.001+02:00

reuters - 'Ex-Muslim' group launches in Britain.

"Ex-Muslims" hoping to change the terms of debate about Islam in Europe will launch a British group in London on Thursday.

The Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain will be the latest addition to groupings that began in Germany in February and spread to Scandinavia in May. A Dutch group will hold its launch in September.

The activists, many of them Iranian exiles, support the freedom to criticize religion and the end to what they call "religious intimidation and threats".

"Too many things in the media and government policies have been geared to pandering to the political Islamic movements and Islamic organizations," Maryam Namazie, head of the British group, told Reuters by telephone from London on Wednesday.

"I hope we'll get a lot more attention and begin to change the debate," said Namazie, who left Iran in 1980 after the Islamic revolution there.

Leaving Islam is considered a crime punishable by death in some Muslim-majority countries. Muslims in Europe practice their faith less than their co-religionists in the Middle East but few openly proclaim themselves apostates or atheists.

There are more than 15 million people of Muslim origin in western Europe, mostly in France, Germany and Britain. Spokesmen for Muslims are often religious leaders, some more conservative theologically or active politically than the silent majority.

Since the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, many Muslims in Europe have complained they are suspected of being terrorists or supporting extreme religious views.

Namazie said the launch of a Central Council of Ex-Muslims in Berlin inspired groups elsewhere to follow suit. The Central Council of Ex-Muslims in Scandinavia is based in Sweden with branches in Denmark, Norway and Finland.

Namazie said the British group had about 25 activists so far. She said expressions of support or interest had come in from the United States, France and Australia.

France, whose five million Muslims make up Europe's largest Islamic minority, has many non-observant Muslims but few describe themselves as atheists.

Several small groups call themselves "secular Muslims" who respect France's separation of church and state. They include some believers who want to keep religion out of politics.

Namazie said many ex-Muslim activists were Iranian exiles who did not fear reprisals from Muslim militants because they already had long experience opposing an Islamic government.

"We have been apostates for a long time," she said.

Brain Drain in Africa

2007-06-23T15:05:00.000+02:00

jpost - Security forces catch 24 African infiltrators.

The IDF and Border Police caught 24 infiltrators from African nations, including Sudan, who had entered Israel through the Egyptian border overnight Friday.

The group was transferred to the appropriate authorities, Israel Radio reported.

The Islamic Invasion

2007-06-23T15:02:00.000+02:00

aki - Iran: Zoroastrians meet to remember islamic invasion 700 years ago.

Hundreds of followers of the Prophet Zoroaster, a monotheistic philosopher whose teachings became the state religion of the Persian Empire in the seventh century B.C., are meeting in the cave of Chik Chik (drop drop), 600 km south of the Iranian capital Tehran, to commemorate the 700th anniversary of the Islamic invasion of Iran.

Zoroastrians commemorate every year the anniversary, which marks the end of their faith as the predominant religion in the country.

Legend has it that the daughter of Emperor Nikbanou fled the invading Arabs and sought refuge in the mountain where her tears created the Chik Chik cave where she hid.

Only 50,000 Zoroastrians have remained today in Iran out of the half a million who practised the religion before the 1979 Islamic revolution.

How the Palestinians Ruined Gaza

2007-06-23T14:59:00.000+02:00

pdavidhornik - Why Arabs fared better under Israeli 'occupation'

Gaza has now reached its nadir as a poverty-stricken, Islamist terror state. Michael Medved quotes Gazan poet Bassem al-Nabris as writing that, if there were now to be a referendum in Gaza on whether the Israeli "occupation" should return, "half the population would vote yes. But in practice, I believe the number of those in favor is at least 70%."

How did things get this way? Is it time for soul-searching among the Western countries -- including an important part of the Israeli body politic -- that long regarded "Israeli occupation" as the ultimate evil, to be ended at all costs without checking too closely how it was done or the consequences?

Although statistics specifically for Gaza are hard to come by, an important 2002 Commentary article by Efraim Karsh noted that under the Israeli "occupation" -- more fairly termed administration -- that began in 1967, Gaza and the West Bank in fact made "astounding social and economic progress":
In the economic sphere, most of this ... was the result of access to the ... Israeli economy: the number of Palestinians working in Israel rose from zero in 1967 to 66,000 in 1975 and 109,000 by 1986, accounting for 35 percent of the employed population of the West Bank and 45 percent in Gaza. Close to 2,000 industrial plants, employing almost half of the work force, were established in the territories under Israeli rule.

During the 1970's, the West Bank and Gaza constituted the fourth fastest-growing economy in the world -- ahead of such "wonders"as Singapore, Hong Kong, and Korea, and substantially ahead of Israel itself. ... GNP per capita grew somewhat more slowly, [but] expand[ed] tenfold between 1968 and 1991 from $165 to $1,715. ... By 1999, Palestinian per-capita income was nearly double Syria's, more than four times Yemen's, and 10 percent higher than Jordan's. ... Only the oil-rich Gulf states and Lebanon were more affluent.
If the Left-dominated Western media largely "missed" this story, it was because it was too sold on the idea of the Palestinians as victims of Israel to even inquire if that was really the case. Within Israel, more legitimately, the Zionist ethos of Jewish self-sufficiency seemed challenged by an influx of Third World menial workers who lived under Israeli rule but lacked citizenship rights.

The Israeli Left, however, instead of seeing a complex situation entailing benefits and costs for both sides and requiring a patient approach, cast it in Manichean terms of the corruption of the Zionist dream and joined the international community's pressure on Israel for a rapid "solution."

Yet, as Karsh pointed out, the great gains for the Palestinians under Israeli rule went well beyond employment and economic growth. Life expectancy rose sharply while mortality and infant mortality rates plummeted, and
perhaps most strikingly, during the two decades preceding the intifada of the late 1980's, the number of schoolchildren in the territories grew by 102 percent, and the number of classes by 99 percent, though the population itself had grown by only 28 percent. Even more dramatic was the progress in higher education. At the time of the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, not a single university existed in these territories. By the early 1990's, there were seven such institutions, boasting some 16,500 students. Illiteracy rates dropped to 14 percent of adults over age 15, compared with 69 percent in Morocco, 61 percent in Egypt, 45 percent in Tunisia, and 44 percent in Syria.
But it all started to unravel -- fast -- as Israel, under the euphoric glow of the Oslo "peace process," withdrew from Gaza and the Jericho area of the West Bank in May 1994, turning them over to Yasser Arafat's rule. Gaza was especially hard hit.

As a dramatic spike in terrorism led Israel to impose repeated closures, unemployment in Gaza rose as high as 50 percent and by 1996 economic output declined about one-third. From that year to 1999 the situation improved under Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu as terror reverted to pre-Oslo levels and the Israeli closures decreased.

But Netanyahu lost to Ehud Barak in the 1999 election, and the rest is well-known recent history: Barak's rejected offer of statehood to Arafat in summer 2000, the outbreak that fall of the Al-Aqsa Intifada and Gaza's (and the West Bank's) conversion into a launching pad for an all-out terror war necessitating Israeli closures and other measures, Gaza's severance from Israel under the 2005 disengagement plan, Hamas's win in the 2006 election and takeover of Gaza in June 2007 -- leaving Gaza in a state of violent squalor comparable only to Mogadishu and with its residents apparently longing for the "occupation" once seen as the epitome of evil.

With that "occupation" -- bête noire of just about everyone from scruffy radicals to State Department squares, from oil sheikhs to British profs -- partially gone from the West Bank and gone from Gaza, Gaza-2007 is one of the many dire results. In reality, the Israeli administration of the territories brought great socioeconomic benefits to the Palestinians there and great security benefits to Israel, along with a problematic psychological situation of dhimmi-Jewish rule over Muslim Arabs that was not really the greatest of evils, far from it, and would have required a solution involving genuinely moderate Palestinians and genuine security guarantees for Israel.

But the world didn't have the patience for that, and now the indigent jihadist statelet on the Mediterranean is the world's problem.

Meanwhile, in the Upper Orient ...

2007-06-23T14:56:00.001+02:00

local - Woman falls from roof in protest over Bangladeshi.

A woman demonstrating against the deportation of a Bangladeshi opposition politician was injured on Thursday night when she fell from the roof of the Swedish Migration Board's offices in northern Stockholm.

The woman, 29, was protesting against Sweden's decision to deport Lutfur Rahman, who had been sentenced to jail for his involvement in opposition party Awami League's youth movement.

Earlier in the day, demonstrators had succeeded in stopping Rahman's deportation, Dagens Nyheter reports. Following an attempt to free him from police custody by force, the captain of the Thai Air plane due to remove him from Sweden refused to let Rahman board, citing security concerns. Rahman was taken back to the Swedish Migration Board's detention centre.

The protesters then gathered at the Migration Board's premises in Märsta, northern Stockholm, where they forced their way past guards.

Up to eight demonstrators made their way to the roof, according to Dagens Nyheter. One of these, a 29-year-old woman, fell at least three metres from the roof, injuring her back. She was taken to the Karolinska University Hospital. It is so far unclear how serious her injuries are.

Catholic Kuwait

2007-06-23T14:53:00.001+02:00

aki - Kuwait: Catholic church is 'free of restrictions despite Islamic extremism'

The Catholic Church in Kuwait "enjoys freedom of worship and suffers no restriction whatsoever," Bishop Camillo Ballin, 63, Vicar Apostolic of Kuwait, told Adnkronos International (AKI) in an interview in Venice, where he is attending an international gathering of Catholic clerics and researchers under the auspices of the local patriarch, Cardinal Angelo Scola.

"Although Islamic extremists have different and adverse positions, there is no exterior sign to indicate it," he noted.

Kuwait is home to approximately 150,000 Catholics in a mainly Muslim population of over 2.5 million. The Kuwaiti Constitution provides for freedom of religion, but the government is reported to periodically send inspectors around to ensure that no religious teaching other than Islam is being done in both public and private schools.

Ballin, a Combonian missionary, said that "when there are major festivities such as Christmas and Easter we inform the authorities who send us security forces to protect our community attending services ... without interfering in what we are doing."

Relations with the Kuwaiti government are good, he said: "The local government fully meets our demands and is extremely generous. It offers us places of worship and all the necessary help in bureaucratic and official procedures."

The Vicar Apostolic of Kuwait is attending in Venice a gathering of clerics from 18 countries, 11 of which are majority Muslim, organised by Oasis, a research centre promoting inter-faith dialogue sponsored by Scola.

Ballin also said he is free to wear his robe and cross without "anyone looking at me in a strange way." "In Church too we are free to expose the crucifix without a problem."

Islam is a Religion of Peace

2007-06-23T14:50:00.000+02:00

ap - Iraq: Suicide truck bomber strikes mayor's office.

A suicide truck bomber struck a mayor's office in northern Iraq on Thursday, killing at least 10 people and wounding 40, an Iraqi commander said.

The explosion, which occurred about 10:30 a.m. in the predominantly Sunni Arab town of Sulaiman Bek, caused part of the government building to collapse and destroyed at least four vehicles at the site, said Brig. Gen. Anwar Hamah, commander of the Iraqi army's 2nd Brigade.

Hamah said at least 10 people were killed and 40 were wounded but he expected the casualty toll to rise as people were pulled from the rubble.

ap - Pakistan: Grenade attack kills 2, wounds 18.

A lone assailant armed with grenades and a pistol attacked a religious gathering in northwestern Pakistan, killing at least one person, fatally wounding himself and injuring 18 others, police said Friday.

The attacker, a Pakistani, was wounded while hurling a grenade just before midnight Thursday in the city of Bannu and died later at a hospital, said Bannu's police chief, Dar Ali Khan. The attack took place at the regional headquarters of a group of Muslim preachers who were holding a gathering.

The motive for the attack remained unclear and police were investigating, Khan said.

He said hundreds of people had been praying or listening to lectures from senior clerics at the time.

A Question to Muslims (#465)

2007-06-20T23:59:00.000+02:00

Quran 009:029 says:

"Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued."

The "People of the Book" are primarily Jews and Christians.

What should Muslims say to Muslims who include Jews and Christians among "those" who should be "fought" on the basis of this verse?

Cultural Diversity and Social Customs

2007-06-20T23:56:00.000+02:00

locallondon - Man was member of child sex ring.

June 18, 2007 ◊ A computer expert was caught with thousands of indecent images of children after he tried to set himself up as the leader of an international child sex abuse ring.

Gordon McIntosh, 33, from Welwyn Garden City, was arrested earlier this year by police officers from the specialist Child Exploitation on Online Protection Unit (CEOP).

They found him at his computer, working on an internet chatroom called Kids The Light of Our Lives' where paedophiles traded indecent images and videos of children, and broadcast "live" abuse.

On the chatroom he would facilitate the viewing of disturbing images of child abuse to various customers' across the UK and in other countries.

He came under suspicion after the chatroom's ringleader, Suffolk man Timothy Cox, was arrested by police in September last year. After Cox disappeared from the scene, McIntosh tried to resurrect the website, not realising it was being monitored by the online protection unit.

He was found to have 5,167 images and 392 video files on his computer, and earlier today (Monday June 18) he pleaded guilty to 27 counts of making, downloading and distribution of indecent images of children. He will be sentenced at St Albans Crown Court on June 29.

Detective Chief Inspector Liz Hanlon from the Major Crime Specialist Investigations Unit said officers had to tread carefully to ensure McIntosh would be convicted. She said: "Once we had the intelligence from CEOP we developed an arrest strategy that would ensure any evidence could not be corrupted ahead of full specialist analysis.

"Mcintosh had no previous convictions and was not known to police so we had to develop our intelligence around him in a planned and precise way. Our work paid off."

The arrest was part of an international operation involving police forces in countries as far afield as Canada and Australia. The UK branch of the operation currently has at least 200 suspects under investigation.

DCI Hanlon continued: "These men and their international contacts trade in debauchery of the most sickening nature. People who think they can do this and not get caught need a reality check.

"There are dedicated agencies and specialists within the police service totally committed to tracking down and identify those engaged with child abuse. Protecting children and other vulnerable people is a priority for Hertfordshire Constabulary and as a result of this investigation children in Hertfordshire and other parts of the world have been protected."

allafrica - Kenya: Girl disowns her mother.

June 18, 2007 ◊ The Day of the African Child celebrations at Doldol in Laikipia East District were marked amid live drama when a girl who was rescued from forced marriage disowned her mother.

The nine-year-old girl, cried and ran away when her biological mother approached to greet her.

Her parents married her off last year and it was a year later that officials of Movement for Peace Advancement and Conflict Transformation (Impact) rescued her.

The administrator of Nanyuki children's home, Ms Hellen Gathogo, moved the crowd to tears, narrating how the girl was found crying at Doldol shopping centre, after she lost Sh10, with which her suitor, 30, had sent her to buy milk.

"She was sent by the husband, but she lost Sh10. She feared that the husband would kill her if she returned without the milk, and thereby went out begging," said Gathogo.

An official of Impact rescued her and took her to Doldol Police Station.

During last Saturday's celebration, the girl fled hysterically when she saw her mother approaching.

It looked like the elderly woman wanted to greet her, but the girl wailed loudly, and sought refuge from Gathogo, in whose home the girl now lives.

Another woman, whom villagers said was the girl's stepmother, was also shielded from greeting the former child bride, who, in her anger, disowned the two women.

"I do not know them and would not even want to be associated with them at all. They destroyed my life," said the girl.

Gathogo said the Standard One pupil had even forgotten her native Maasai language, saying she chose to keep off anything associated with her community.

"But we are putting her in the company of other children from her tribe, so that she can re-develop the language, as we continue to counsel her. She was traumatised, but she is now coping well," said Gathogo.

The event was attended by various child welfare organisations, among them the World Vision, Child Welfare Society of Kenya, East Aids Orphans Programme and Ilamaiyo group.

In Mombasa, the event was held at the Mombasa Municipal Stadium, where Vice President, Mr Moody Awori urged that children's rights be taught in schools. This, he said, would guard against exploitation, trafficking and violence.

Pakistan warns of Muslim "Explosion"

2007-06-20T23:53:00.000+02:00

ap - Britain slams suicide attack warning.

Britain voiced "deep concern" on Tuesday at reported comments by Pakistani Religious Affairs Minister Ejazul Haq suggesting that author Salman Rushdie's knighthood could justify suicide attacks, as protests mounted.

The expression of worry came as British Muslim leaders condemned the award for the Indian-born author as a "provocation", but urged restraint from Muslims in this country, rather than the outpourings of anger in Pakistan.

A Foreign Office spokesman said British High Commissioner to Pakistan Robert Brinkley had made London's position clear in talks at the Pakistani Foreign Ministry in Islamabad.

"He made clear the British government's deep concern at what the minister for religious affairs was reported to have said," he told AFP. "The British government is very clear that nothing can justify suicide bomb attacks."

"It is surprising that the British government is criticising me. I am the one who is heading the front-line ministry for the front-line state in the war against terrorism," Haq told AFP.

Haq said he had already withdrawn the comment, which he made in parliament on Monday, saying that he meant the knighthood could spark extremism.

Meanwhile, Pakistan summoned Britain's ambassador to the Foreign Ministry on Tuesday.

British High Commissioner Robert Brinkley had been called to receive a protest, High Commission spokesman Aidan Liddle told AFP without giving further details.

Pakistan Foreign Office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam confirmed that Brinkley had been summoned and said that he received a copy of resolutions passed by parliament against the knighthood.

"The meeting has taken place. The high commissioner was called and he was given copies of resolutions passed. It was further conveyed to that Pakistan deplores and regrets the decision by the British government," Aslam said. She said the award of the knighthood showed a "lack of sensitivity".

"He was told the decision by the British government was contrary to objectives to bring about harmony between the faiths. He was told that the people of Pakistan and Muslims all around the world resent this decision." Brinkley issued a statement late on Monday defending the award and saying it was "simply untrue that this knighthood is intended as an insult to Islam or Prophet Mohammed." "Sir Salman's knighthood is a reflection of his contribution to literature throughout a long and distinguished career which has seen him receive international recognition for a substantial body of work," Brinkley said.

Meanwhile, legislators in the NWFP called for Pakistan to sever diplomatic ties with London over the Rushdi issue

In Lahore, around 150 hardline protesters torched an effigy of the British queen and called for Rushdi to be handed over to an Islamic court. "We want Rushdi to be handed over to Muslim country where he should be tried under Sharia law," protest leader Shahid Gilani of the Shabab-e-Milli told the crowd. "The punishment for a blasphemer is death." "We have also decided that we will from now on call every dog 'Sir'," he said.

Meanwhile the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), the main umbrella group of Islamic organisations, condemned Rushdie's knighthood as a "provocation" but called for restraint from ordinary Muslims.

Author Salman Rushdi said on Monday he was "thrilled and humbled" to be awarded a British knighthood. In a statement issued by his agent in New York, where he lives, Rushdie said, "I am thrilled and humbled to receive this great honor and am very grateful that my work has been recognised in this way."

aki - Pakistan: Son defends father's bin Laden knighthood appeal.

A Pakistani parliamentarian on Wednesday defended a proposal by his father -- also a MP -- that Pakistan bestow honorary titles to Osama bin Laden and Taliban fugitive leader Mullah Omar in reply to Britain's decision to knight Salman Rushdie.

"Osama Bin Laden and Mullah Omar lead the Muslim resistance movement and therefore deserve the respect among Muslims and they should be given respectful titles from Muslims," National Assembly member Maulana Hamidul Haq Haqqani told Adnkronos International (AKI).

Maulana Sami ul-Haq's faction, Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam is formally part of a six-party alliance of opposition religious parties, the MMA. He was also known as the "father of the Taliban," because many of the future leaders of the fundamentalist Kabul regime studied at a Muslim seminary he used to run. However of the MMA leaders, Maulana Sami ul-Haq is viewed as the one less in disagreement with the pro-Western policies of Pakistan's president General Pervez Musharraf.

Other Islamic leaders in Pakistan have also slammed Britain's decision to honour Rushdie whose book the Satanic Verses -- deemed by many Muslims to be blashpemous -- prompted the then leader of Iran Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei to issue a death fatwa against the India-born British author in 1989.

"I think awarding the knighthood to Salman Rushdie is what British government ought to do, since what else can we expect from the enemies of Islam?" said a prayer leader of Islamabad's Lal Masjid mosque, Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi.

"The British government honoured an extremist and proved that they are extremist for their enmity against Islam. Now the Muslims who in the past have been conferred a knighthood by the British government earlier should return their titles since the British government has proved that by conferring the title to anti-Islam person the award is for anti-Islam extremists," Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi said.

He reiterated his support for Pakistani minister for religious affairs Ejaz ul-Haq who earlier stated that a suicide attack on Salman Rushdie would be justified once he was honored knighthood. "We agreed with Ejaz ul-Haq and agree that Salman Rushdie should be killed. If Ejaz ul-Haq join forces with us we would make a plot to assasinate Salman Rushdie," Abdul Rashid Ghazi told journalists in on Wednesday, repeating a similar statement made to the National Assembly.

Years of Oil left

2007-06-20T23:47:00.000+02:00

wnd - 'Hundreds of years' of oil available.

In a dynamic debate regarding the origins of oil, best-selling author of "Black Gold Stranglehold: The Myth of Scarcity and the Politics of Oil," Craig Smith, told CNBC's "Squawk Box" yesterday: "We can get all the oil we need for dozens, if not hundreds of years to come."

Debating peak oil vs. deep oil perspectives, Smith went head-to-head with Matthew Simmons, author of "Twilight in the Desert" on the cable news outlet's program. Smith, CEO of Swiss America Trading Company, contends that oil is not a fossil fuel. Rather, he believes it is being producing deep within the earth and is brought to attainable depths by centrifugal forces of the earth's rotation. In contrast, Simmons argues that oil is a finite resource and that Saudi Arabian oil supplies are dwindling, putting the world in a possible economic and political crisis.

Smith argued: "We currently have 1.28 trillion barrels of proven reserves, which are the highest in our history. And if, in fact, we are depleting the giant oil wells, how come the reserves are continuing to increase? ... I just don't buy the theory that we're running out of oil."

While Simmons agreed that the planet is not running out of oil, he insisted the industry is facing a peak production crisis. "The risk of running out of oil is miniscule," he said, "but the risk that we're peaking is a very real threat."

Rebutting Simmons, Smith asked, "Why would the oil companies be committing 55 billion dollars to harvesting the gulf if, in fact, there's not enough oil there? I mean, it just wouldn't make sense mathematically.

"Just because the Saudi oilfields may be depleting, it doesn't mean the world's supply of oil is diminishing, and I think we're starting to prove that over and over again, whether it be in the Niger Delta or whether it be in the Trinidad Basin or the Taiwan Basin. I think that America needs to lead the charge in embracing the technology in getting out there and finding these proven reserves that are out there ... bringing them to market and bringing this price into a reasonable area where we can continue to see the synchronization of global growth that we have experienced for the last 20 years."

"Black Gold Stranglehold" advances the argument that technology and education are needed to increase production and exploration efforts.

"The problem is," according to Smith, "if you believe that we are getting oil from decaying dinosaurs and debris from the forests then obviously there's only a finite supply. We don't embrace that. We believe that the earth is creating oil as we speak and that with technological advances and the ability to put human resources together with natural resources, and the wonderful capital markets we have here in America, we can get all the oil we need for dozens, if not hundreds of years to come."

After the appearance on CNBC, Smith issued a challenge for subsequent debates with Simmons, CEO of Simmons & Company International.

Smith and co-author Jerome Corsi's interview last week on "Coast to Coast AM with George Noory," sent "Black Gold Stranglehold" racing up the charts to land at the No. 10 position on Amazon's non-fiction best-seller list. With enormous oil conglomerate profits making headlines, "Black Gold Stranglehold" has opened the dialogue regarding the United States and its need for independence from foreign oil producers.

The Meaning of Jihad

2007-06-20T23:44:00.000+02:00

aki - Switzerland: Two 'Jihadi Webmasters' go on trial.

A 39 year old Tunisian and his Belgian wife went Wednesday on trial in the southern Swiss city of Bellinzona, accused of running Internet sites inciting Jihad (holy war) and supporting a criminal organisation, Swiss news agency ATS reports.

A verdict is expected in July, ATS said. The man -- whose name has apparently not been released -- is accused of having created a number Internet sites used by terrorist organisations, which prosecutors allege incited hate and acts of violence against the west.

The websites not only incited Jihad but were alleged used by terrorist groups to obtain bomb-making instructions and published grisly images of executions and mutilated bodies, according to prosecutors, ATS reports.

Pictures and videos seized by Swiss federal police are said to have shown the execution of an Egyptian driver, the massacre of bus passengers in Iraq, the decapitation of a Korean hostrage and the murder of an American, the Swissinfo website reported.

The Tunisian is charged with setting up the Internet sites and his wife is accused of aiding and abetting him, as well as running her own website. They are both accused of inciting violence.

The couple deny the charges against them, claiming they were unware of everything being published on their websites. While they admit they are Islamists who want to resist oppression, they say they are against the loss of innocent lives.

The pair spent three weeks in preventative custody after their arrest in February 2005 near the western Swiss town of Friburg, where they lived. Theirs is the second Islamist terrorism trial this year. In Switzerland's first-ever trial of al-Qaeda suspects in February, prosecutors suffered a setback when seven defendants were acquitted of belonging to and supporting al-Qaeda, owing to a lack of firm evidence.

Left Green Fascists

2007-06-20T23:41:00.000+02:00

aftenposten - Charged after crab boiling.

Aftenposten's food writer Yngve Ekern has been charged with animal cruelty by animal rights group NOAH after an article about cooking crabs.

The case against Ekern has been dismissed and instead referred to the Conciliation Board, reports trade newspaper Journalisten on its web site, but there will be repercussions.

Ekern angered animal activists with his description of preparing crabs on the beach while his children were watching. He described throwing the crabs into hot oil after bashing them on a cutting board, a process that didn't kill all of them.

The article also outlined how to boil crabs, and included recipes.

"Showing how to boil living crabs is encouraging law-breaking. Crabs are also covered by the Animal Protection Act, and animals shall not be exposed to pain," NOAH leader Siri Martinsen told Journalisten.no.

"It is highly probable that crabs have the ability to feel pain. We know too little about it and the animals should get the benefit of the doubt," she said.

Ekern was saddened by the charges and will meet NOAH at the Conciliation Board on Monday.

"I think on should turn up and hear what NOAH has to say, and I am especially looking forward to hearing an alternative method of boiling crabs, because they are traditionally boiled alive," Ekern said.

Senior researcher Stein Martinsen at the Institute of Marine Research does not have good news for NOAH.

"It is difficult to kill shellfish in other ways than boiling. I know some who hack lobsters in two, but they have a tiny brain that is not so easy to hit," Martinsen said.

Personally, he lets the crabs get very cold before boiling them.

"They get practically anesthetized lying in the refrigerator. If you then make sure that the water is boiling, it goes quickly," Martinsen said.

Norway's Food Safety Authority will establish a committee to examine the question of what crabs can feel during the boiling.

Islam as a Deterrent to AIDS

2007-06-20T23:38:00.000+02:00

physorg - Male circumcision overstated as prevention tool against AIDS.

In new academic research published today in the online, open-access, peer-reviewed scientific journal PLoS ONE, male circumcision is found to be much less important as a deterrent to the global AIDS pandemic than previously thought. The author, John R. Talbott, has conducted statistical empirical research across 77 countries of the world and has uncovered some surprising results.

The new study finds that the number of infected prostitutes in a country is the key to explaining the degree to which AIDS has infected the general population. Prostitute communities are typically very highly infected with the virus themselves, and because of the large number of sex partners they have each year, can act as an engine driving infection rates to unusually high levels in the general population. The new study is entitled "Size Matters: The Number of Prostitutes and the Global HIV/AIDS Pandemic" and is freely available online at the PLoS ONE publication website at http://plosone.org/doi/pone.0000543.

The study has a number of important findings that should impact policy decisions in the future. First, male circumcision, which in previous studies had been found to be important in controlling AIDS, becomes statistically irrelevant once the study controls for the number of prostitutes in a country. The study finds that the more Muslim countries of North Africa do indeed suffer much less AIDS than southern and western Africa, but this lower prevalence is not due to higher numbers of circumscribed males in these Muslim communities, but rather results from the fact that there are significantly fewer prostitutes in northern Africa on a per capita basis. It appears that religious families in the north, specifically concerned fathers and brothers, do a much better job protecting their daughters from predatory males than do those in the south. A history of polygamy in these Muslim communities does not appear to contribute to hi gher AIDS prevalence as previously speculated. In a frequently cited academic paper, Daniel Halperin, an H.I.V. specialist at the Harvard Center for Population and Development and one of the world's leading advocates for male circumcision, weighted results from individual countries by their population. When this artificial weighting was removed Talbott found that circumcision was no longer statistically significant in explaining the variance in AIDS infection rates across the countries of the World.

Second, to date, there has not been an adequate explanation as to why Africa as a continent is experiencing an AIDS epidemic far in excess of any other region of the world with some African countries' prevalence rates exceeding 25% of the adult population and tens of millions dying from the disease on the continent. Talbott's new study suggests that the reason is that Africa as a whole has four times as many prostitutes as the rest of the word and they are more than four times as infected. Some southern Africa countries have as many as 7% of their adult females infected and working as prostitutes while in the developed world typically this percentage of infected prostitutes is less than .1%. If these 7% of infected prostitutes in Africa sleep with five men in a week that means they are subjecting 35% of the country's male population to the virus weekly. The virus is not easy to transmit heterosexually, b ut over time with multiple exposures, infection is inevitable. These men then act as a conduit to bring the virus home to their villages, their other casual sex partners and to their wives.

The study has important policy implications. Several international AIDS organizations have begun to provide funding for male circumcisions as a deterrent to AIDS. While male circumcision may indeed reduce the risk of transmission by some 50% to 60% in each sexual encounter, reducing single encounter transmission rates alone cannot control the epidemic. The reason is that individuals in highly infected countries have multiple contacts with the infected so reducing transmission rates only defers the inevitable.

The real question is what can be done with the prostitute community. Outlawing the world's oldest profession would most likely prove to be ineffective. If the profession can be legalized and treatment and care provided to the practitioners, there would be much more reason to be hopeful. But, and this is the key, programs of action can not just be voluntary. Too many innocent people are dying and there is too much disregard for human life among infected prostitutes to leave treatment decisions solely up to them. A program of testing and treatment for prostitutes must be mandatory and those that refuse treatment must be held liable.

Many international aid organizations are against such mandatory treatment programs for prostitutes as they find them to be discriminatory, violate the individual's human rights and are perceived as an attack on female prostitutes who are viewed as victims of gender and income inequality. Such organizations do not properly weigh the loss of human rights and life itself that this virus, unleashed on a community, is causing. This virus, itself, is a violation of human rights and we must do everything in our power to stop it. To argue we should do nothing about infected prostitutes during an AIDS epidemic because of a fear of creating a stigma against the infected would be like an animal rights activist claiming that a rabid dog must be allowed to run free in a neighborhood regardless of how many men women and children he infected and killed.

It is not surprising that computer models rarely show the virus reaching epidemic proportions; it is very hard to transmit this illness heterosexually. Only when model building researchers introduce a highly sexually active infected subset of "prostitutes" to their mathematical models does the infection spread exponentially to the general population.

... to be released next Ramadan

2007-06-20T23:35:00.000+02:00

serbianna - Bosnian Muslim court reduces prison time for Islamic terrorists.

Four men convicted in Bosnia in January of plotting to blow up an unidentified European target have had their prison sentences sharply reduced, the State Court said Monday.

Prosecutors said the four men, two Bosnians, a Swede and a Turkish citizen, had been preparing to launch a terror attack against a European country to force the pullout of foreign troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. The target of the plot remains unclear.

When police raided a Sarajevo apartment in 2005, they found a "suicide belt" rigged with a powerful homemade explosive device, pistols, ammunition and a videotape outlining how to build a bomb.

In reaching its decision last week, the State Court's appeals panel took into account the defendants' ages and their lack of a criminal record and agreed that their actions did not justify such severe sentences, according to the ruling, which was signed by Judge Manfred Dauster.

The original sentences, the maximum allowed under the law, had been set without consideration of any mitigating circumstances, the ruling said.

The sentence of Mirsad Bektasevic, 20, a Swedish citizen was reduced to eight years and four months from 15 years. The 13-year sentence of Abdulkadir Cesur, 19, a Turk who had been living in Denmark, was reduced to six years and six months.

The sentence of Bosnian Bajro Ikanovic, 31, who was convicted of supplying the explosives, was cut in half to four years from eight years, and the sentence of Senad Hasanovic, 21, also a Bosnian, who was convicted of illegal possession of weapons and explosives, was reduced to six months from 2 1/2 years.

A fifth suspect, Bosnian Amir Bajric, pleaded guilty and was sentenced in July to two years in prison for helping the group to buy explosives.

The five were arrested in 2005 following a raid on an apartment rented by Bektasevic and Cesur.

The videotape included a voiceover saying: "Brothers are preparing for an attack here. They are showing you the things they will use in the attack. ... These brothers will attack ... those who are killing our brothers and Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan."

The voiceover said the attack was aimed against Europe. Investigators have not determined which country was being targeted.

At least one more person in Denmark, however, was found to have been involved in the plot. Acting on a tip from Bosnian police, police in Denmark arrested a teenager of Palestinian descent. He was convicted in February on terror charges and sentenced to seven years in prison.

Democracy: Religion with a fallible God

2007-06-20T23:32:00.000+02:00

striketheroot - The Pagan cult of voting.

I was in a campus economics meeting in which I was given an opportunity recently to speak about any books I had been reading on the subject, and mentioned Hans-Hermann Hoppe's Democracy: The God That Failed. Since I was not a speaker at the meeting, but merely a guest, I very briefly outlined Hoppe's anarcho-capitalist position and his examination of the economics of monarchy and democracy, explaining that there tends to be a moderating influence on a monarch's power along with his ability to pocket the capital value of his government.

I got at least one bug-eyed look from a professor who seemed shocked that I was depredating democracy as compared to monarchy, followed by some hostility from another economics professor who pointed out the abuses of power under Egyptian pharaohs and slave drivers.

We ended up discussing after the meeting the theory of why monarchy is superior to democracy, in which he bitterly denounced monarchy (just as I mentioned is part of Hoppe's argument that monarchy is still deficient and an abuse, but the professor couldn't stand my assault on democracy) as dictatorial and provided several examples, as well as criticizing monarchy for imposing a state religion.

While I couldn't elaborate without being interrupted, I responded by saying that democracy's provided nothing better. We just have a state religion which is that of democracy itself: Religion with a fallible god, that of the majority.

As an anarcho-capitalist, I've believed this for a while. However, last week's elections were the first ones I experienced as an anarchist, and despite not voting (and even trying to un-register to vote, though no one in the government responded to my request), I was fully immersed in the religion of democracy.

Booths to attract attention for Virginia candidates George Allen and Jim Webb were on campus and around the city. A group of girls were standing by the metro stop, handing out information on why to vote for Jim Webb. As I passed them by and told them that I don't vote, they told me like a fire and brimstone street preacher, "It's people like you that got George Bush elected!"

And I've got to hand it to them. To that end they don't make a bad case.

But there they stood, asking God to have mercy on our souls if we don't vote to get a good candidate to use the police power to force his ideas onto everyone else.

Among all the times I've been asked by classmates if I voted, I keep hearing the mantra that it's a "civic duty," as a Republican running a booth to support George Allen told me when I asked that she make a case to support democracy. After all, proselytizing for the state means shaming those who don't aid and abet it.

People have been walking around wearing "I Voted" stickers, like Catholics with ashes on their forehead for this most holy of all days around which we all gather in fellowship.

And they're even getting children. Good to get them while they're young! Kids in public schools are being taught how to improve and expedite the democratic process, for they have so much to be grateful for in democracy. And America is the true democracy; Iran, Palestine, or other democracies in which we don't like which politicians are chosen aren't.

A children's news show, Nick News, was reminiscent of Chinese propaganda last week. The host, Linda Ellerbee, spent the show asking children why political debate in this country is so ugly, and what can be done to help it in this glorious system of democracy for which we should be grateful. One can almost imagine the government producing shows like this, with children chanting questions about how to possibly help this system of democracy, which is constantly under siege from hippies, foreigners, and anarchists.

"Teacher, how can I make this nation better as I grow older?"

Morality being (quite logically from the state's perspective) something to usurp towards itself, it must be removed from the spheres of cultural, familial and religious norms. It must become state morality. And thus, all the things people forbid of themselves to do out of decency and morality, the state religion compels.

Tactics of the Crescent Moon

2007-06-20T23:29:00.000+02:00

jpost - Zahar: Gazans won't fire rockets at Israel.

Hamas official Mahmoud Zahar said Tuesday that if Israel wouldn't attack Gaza, Palestinians in the Strip wouldn't fire rockets at Israel.

Zahar made his statements to the London-based pan-Arabic daily Aharq alawsat.

"It's Socialism, Stupid!"

2007-06-20T23:26:00.000+02:00

wnd - China products choke, burn, drown, drop, trap Americans.

It's not just Chinese food and drug imports that can kill you.

Many of those bargain-priced products you pick up at Wal-Mart, Target or Sam's Club could do you in, too.

Imports from China were recalled by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission twice as often as products made everywhere else in the world, including the U.S., a WND study of government 2007 reports shows.

Of the 152 product recalls announced by the commission since January, 104 have been for products made in China. They include:

• Portable baby swings that entrap youngsters, resulting in 60 reports of cuts, bruises and abrasions;

• Swimming pool ladders that break, resulting in 127 reports of injuries, including leg lacerations requiring up to 21 stitches, five reports of bone fractures, two back injuries, two reports of torn ligaments and eight sprained ankles;

• Faulty baby carriers that result in babies falling out and getting bruised, getting skulls cracked and hospitalizations;

• Easy-Bake Ovens that trap children's fingers in openings, resulting in burns;

• Oscillating tower fans whose faulty wiring results in fires, burns and smoke inhalation injuries;

• Exploding air pumps that have resulted in 13 lacerations including six facial injuries and one to the eye;

• Bargain-priced oil-filled electric heaters, selling for less than $50, that burn down homes;

• Notebook computer batteries that burn up computers, cause other property damage and burn users;

• Circular saws with faulty blade guards that result in cutting users, not wood.

It's the latest blow to Chinese imports, which have been hit in recent days for poisoning America's pets, risking America's human food supply and reintroducing lead poisoning to America's children.

Electrical products made in China represent a significant percentage of the recalls.

Last month, which was "National Electrical Safety Month," the commission noted the proliferation of "dangerous counterfeit electrical products," many of which come from China, that pose serious risk to life and limb.

The CPSC noted the market is saturated with counterfeit circuit breaker, power strips, extension cords, batteries and holiday lights that are causing fires, explosions, shocks and electrocutions.

"Many counterfeit products are made in China and CPSC is actively working with the Chinese government to reduce the number of unsafe products that are exported to the United States," said the alert issued in May.

The agency suggests that if the price of such an item seems to be too good to be true, it could be because the product is an inferior or unsafe counterfeit.

You might think an attractive, normal-looking table lamp would be safe. But 1,500 manufactured in China had to be recalled because of faulty light sockets that posed the risk of electrical shocks and fire hazards.

Or how about emergency lights that look just like other emergency lights but whose circuit board malfunctions, preventing illumination during emergencies? The CPSC recalled 3,200 of those last month.

And be careful which heated massaging recliners you relax in. If you chose of the 1,700 manufactured in China and recalled by the commission last month, you might have found yourself medium rare because of an overheating and burn hazard discovered.

Even the simplest, most inexpensive items from China seem to pose massive risks. About 2,700 $12 pine cone candles had to be recalled when it was determined the exterior coating, not just the wick, caught fire.

The problem is Americans see a cheap electrical power strip with a circuit breaker and assume it does what it is supposed to do. That is not the case with many Chinese counterfeits. They are not only counterfeits in the sense of improperly using brand names, they are actually counterfeits in the sense of pretending to do something they were never intended to do.

But big problems occur when an over-taxed power strip doesn't trip a circuit. Fires can occur. Property can be damaged. People can be killed.

Likewise, when Americans buy attractive-looking glassware at a bargain price, they might ask themselves: "How can I go wrong?"

Pier 1 Imports found out when 180,000 pieces of glassware were ordered recalled by the CPSC because the items broke for no apparent reason, sometimes cutting the hands of those holding them.

How could one go wrong purchasing an attractive kitchen stool engraved with a rooster on the seat? After all, it was only $30. Well, several people found out when the stools collapsed, even under the weight of small children.

You might want to think twice before entrusting your child to something as simple as a crib made in China. For years, American manufacturers scrupulously lived up to the exacting safety standards imposed by agencies like the CPSC. Not so with Chinese manufacturers.

Some 40,000 cribs had to be recalled when it was discovered directions instruction consumers to assemble them in ways that would result in the baby falling out and becoming entrapped. Additionally, locking pins on the side of the crib could pop off and cause a choking hazard.

About 450,000 infant car seat carriers manufactured in China had to be recalled when it was determined infants were falling out because of a faulty design. The Evenflo Co., which imported the carriers from China, received 679 reports of the handle on the car seat releasing for no reason, resulting in 160 injuries to children, including a skull fracture, two concussions and cuts and bruises.

American manufacturers also adapted years ago to requirements that products designed for young children avoid small parts that could result in choking accidents. But, again, based on a survey of recalls in the first six months of 2007, this seems to be a foreign concept among Chinese companies.

Even books for young children have been found to contain plastic squeaker toys that have become lodged in babies' throats and metal clips that break off, potentially injuring kids.

Graco received 137 reports of infants mouthing, chewing and sometimes choking on tiny pieces of its soft blocks tower toys imported from China. At least 32 infants were found gagging on the pieces and 49 choked on the plastic covering. In all, 40,000 had to be recalled.

A slew of Chinese exports recently have been banned or turned away by U.S. inspectors, including wheat gluten tainted with the chemical melamine that has been blamed for dog and cat deaths in North America, monkfish that turned out to be toxic pufferfish, drug-laced frozen eel and juice made with unsafe color additives.

As WND reported earlier this week, China, the leading exporter of seafood to the U.S., is raising most of its fish products in water contaminated with raw sewage and compensating by using dangerous drugs and chemicals, many of which are banned by the FDA.

The stunning news followed WND's report last week that FDA inspectors report tainted food imports from China are being rejected with increasing frequency because they are filthy, are contaminated with pesticides and tainted with carcinogens, bacteria and banned drugs.

China consistently has topped the list of countries whose products were refused by the FDA -- and that list includes many countries, including Mexico and Canada, who export far more food products to the U.S. than China.

While less than half of Asia has access to sewage treatment plants, aquaculture -- the raising of seafood products -- has become big business on the continent, especially in China.

In China, No. 1 in aquaculture in the world, 3.7 billion tons of sewage is discharged into rivers, lakes and coastal water -- some of which are used by the industry. Only 45 percent of China has any sewage-treatment facilities, putting the country behind the rest of Asia.

wnd - Florida company recalls 'toxic' China toothpaste.

In the wake of WND's report of the long, deadly history of Chinese-made toothpaste, a Florida company today issued a nationwide recall for toothpaste it imported from China and distributed to wholesalers, warning the product could contain a poisonous chemical.

Though no injuries or illnesses have been reported, Gold City Enterprise LLC of Hallandale Beach acknowledged the roughly 170,000 recalled toothpaste products may have the contaminant diethylene glycol -- a solvent used in antifreeze that killed 107 Americans when it was introduced in an elixir 70 years ago.

The company is urging consumers to stop using the products and throw them away, or return them to their place of purchase.

The brands in question are Shir Fresh Mint Flouride, Shir Fresh Ice Shir Mint Flouride and Shir Fresh Cool Shir Mint Flouride. They were all distributed in the South Florida area.

Gold City's action comes after the Miami Herald named the company in a recent report, noting the products were still on the shelves of numerous Florida stores despite warnings from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

On June 5, the FDA urged consumers to check labels for toothpaste made in China -- and throw them away.

The agency is concerned the products may contain "diethylene glycol," also known as "diglycol" or "diglycol stearate."

Though the FDA is not aware of any U.S. reports of poisonings from the toothpaste, 51 people died in Panama after using a cold medicine laced with DEG.

China has insisted the warnings were "unscientific, irresponsible and contradictory."

The FDA said the threat was especially acute for children, who might ingest more toothpaste accidentally than adults.

FDA has identified the following brands of toothpaste from China that contain DEG and are included in the import alert: Cooldent Fluoride; Cooldent Spearmint; Cooldent ICE; Dr. Cool, Everfresh Toothpaste; Superdent Toothpaste; Clean Rite Toothpaste; Oralmax Extreme; Oral Bright Fresh Spearmint Flavor; Bright Max Peppermint Flavor; ShiR Fresh Mint Fluoride Paste; DentaPro; DentaKleen; and DentaKleen Junior. Manufacturers of these products are: Goldcredit International Enterprises Limited; Goldcredit International Trading Company Limited; and Suzhou City Jinmao Daily Chemicals Company Limited. The products typically are sold at low-cost bargain retail outlets.

FDA inspectors identified and detained one shipment of toothpaste at the U.S. border, containing about 3 percent DEG by weight. In addition, FDA inspectors found and tested toothpaste products from China located at a distribution center and a retail store. They also found the toothpaste at two bargain retail stores, a Dollar Plus in Miami and a Todo A Peso in Puerto Rico.

The highest level found was between 3-4 percent by weight. The product at the retail store was not labeled as containing DEG but was found to contain the substance.

The Chinese chief of General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine insisted said that "up to 15.6 percent (of the chemical DEG) is safe for prolonged use."

In 1937, a mass DEG poisoning is what gave the FDA the impetus to pre-approve all new drugs. The FDA allows DEG to be registered because it's specifically registered for use in California, a state with an enhanced set of environmental health and well-being statutes. Most countries in Europe, Africa, and Asia have allowed zero DEG to be registered to be used for any specific product.

Many of the 107 who died in 1937 were young children. The chief pharmaceutical chemist who developed the additive for the S.E. Massengill Co. that introduced the sweet-tasting, raspberry-flavored red liquid syrup called Elizir Sulfanilamide committed suicide as a result of the tragedy.

In Panama, the Chinese-imported strawberry bubble gum Mr. Cool Junior toothpaste, has been found to contain more than 50 times the safety limit.

Companies that make brands previously found with DEG will have to prove the toothpaste is free of the chemical before it's allowed into the U.S., the FDA said. Meanwhile, all other brands of Chinese-made toothpaste will be stopped for testing, something the FDA has been doing since May 23.

A slew of Chinese exports have recently been banned or turned away by U.S. inspectors, including wheat gluten tainted with the chemical melamine that has been blamed for dog and cat deaths in North America, monkfish that turned out to be toxic pufferfish, drug-laced frozen eel and juice made with unsafe color additives.

As WND reported, China, the leading exporter of seafood to the U.S., is raising most of its fish products in water contaminated with raw sewage and compensating by using dangerous drugs and chemicals, many of which are banned by the FDA.

The stunning news followed WND's report that FDA inspectors report tainted food imports from China are being rejected with increasing frequency because they are filthy, are contaminated with pesticides and tainted with carcinogens, bacteria and banned drugs.

China has consistently topped the list of countries whose products were refused by the FDA -- and that list includes many countries, including Mexico and Canada, who export far more food products to the U.S. than China.

While less than half of Asia has access to sewage treatment plants, aquaculture -- the raising of seafood products -- has become big business on the continent, especially in China.

In China, No. 1 in aquaculture in the world, 3.7 billion tons of sewage is discharged into rivers, lakes and coastal water -- some of which are used by the industry. Only 45 percent of China has any sewage-treatment facilities, putting the country behind the rest of Asia.

Islam and Progress

2007-06-20T23:23:00.000+02:00

aki - Iran: Lawsuit filed against ex president for shaking women's hands.

An Iranian religious tribunal will try former president Mohammad Khatami, a moderate Muslim cleric, and possibly ban him from preaching over a handhsake with two women during a recent trip to Italy.

The court, which is charged to rule on crimes committed by clerics, will examine the lawsuit presented by a group of talabeh, theology students, from Mashhad, Iran's holiest city. Another lawsuit has also been filed by paramilitary militia Hezbollah, present in all major Iranian cities.

In a statement distributed to the press Wednesday, the clerics ask for Khatami's conviction for shaking "impure hands, contradicting the sacred principles of Islam" and compare the former president, who ruled from 1997 until 2005, to a "political prostitute."

On 12 June, the Baran foundation of Khatami issued a statement denying the cleric had intentionally shaken hands with women -- as shown in footage of his trip to Italy broadcast on 'YouTube' -- a gesture prohibited under Iran's strict interpretation of Islamic law banning all physical contact between men and women who are not related. The statement indicated either the footage had been edited to give a false impression or else Khatami had shaken the hands of people in a crowd without realising they were female.

The footage shows the president speaking to and then exchanging a handshake with Gianola and Cristina Nonnino, well known local producers of grappa, or husk brandy, in the northeastern Italian city of Udine during a visit last month.

Carter Hearts Hamas

2007-06-20T23:20:00.000+02:00

fpm - At last, a former U.S. president endorses genocidal terrorists.

IT'S EITHER AN UNPRECEDENTED LOW IN PARTISAN DISCOURSE OR POLITICAL SURREALISM worthy of André Breton: on Tuesday, former president Jimmy Carter, speaking on foreign soil, denounced the policies of his successor as "criminal" because they fail to subsidize a genocidal Islamic terrorist organization that has killed Americans. Then, he blamed internecine Palestinian warfare on Americans and Israelis.

Speaking in Ireland at the eighth annual Forum on Human Rights -- without an apparent hint of irony -- Carter said the Bush administration had sinned against heaven and earth in its decision to withhold direct aid to Hamas once that group came to power in the Palestinian Authority. "That action was criminal," he said. The Palestinian people had elected Hamas fair-and-square in elections his Center described as "orderly and fair." (Carter said the same of Hugo Chavez's election.) He deemed Hamas "shrewd in selecting candidates."

The world's most famous Sunday School teacher further praised the genocidal terrorist organization, at a human rights conference, by citing its penchant for bloodshed. Hamas, Carter doddered, was more orderly than the rival Fatah organization, which Hamas demonstrated in military clashes that showed its "superior skills and discipline." (The Jerusalem Post reported his argument thus: "Carter said Hamas, besides winning a fair and democratic mandate that should have entitled it to lead the Palestinian government, had proven itself to be far more organized in its political and military showdowns with the Fatah movement of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.") One can only imagine how impressed he would have been by the "efficiency" of the SS.

Sounding like a junior anchor for al-Jazeera, the Nobel Peace Prize winner incredibly blamed the Palestinian civil war on Crusaders and Zionists. "The United States and Israel decided to punish all the people in Palestine," he said, "and did everything they could to deter a compromise between Hamas and Fatah." He continued:
This effort to divide Palestinians into two peoples now is a step in the wrong direction. All efforts of the international community should be to reconcile the two, but there's no effort from the outside to bring the two together ... I don't see at this point any possibility that public officials in the United States, or in Israel, or the European Union are going to take action to bring about reconciliation (between Fatah and Hamas).
Thus, the Americans and the Jews are to blame for divisions between groups of Palestinians that chuck fellow Palestinians out of windows. Only in the most fevered Islamist media are Muslims so excused from personal responsibility for their brutality toward one another.

Carter does not persuasively explain why Israel would want to "reconcile" terrorist groups bent on jihad. (Few things reconcile Palestinians more than dangling an unarmed Jew in front of them.) The Hamas Charter instructs, "There is no other solution for the Palestinian problem other than jihad." Killing infidels is "an individual duty binding on every Muslim man and woman; a woman must go out and fight the enemy even without her husband's authorization, and a slave without his master's permission." This makes jihad nearly the only thing she can do without her husband's permission. But Carter, who once lectured Pope John Paul II for his "perpetuation of the subservience of women" and blasted "the mandated subservience of women by Christian fundamentalists" wants us to fund this misogynist death cult. You've come a long way, Baby ...

Carter skirts the fact that Hamas is not merely a threat to Israelis; the group has claimed the lives of numerous Americans. Its ever-expanding U.S. infrastructure may one day conduct terror strikes on U.S. soil. Authorities nabbed Hamas member Ismail Selim Elbarasse in August 2004 for videotaping Maryland's Bay Bridge in what authorities worried constituted "a potential link between Hamas and al-Qaeda." Last October, a Hamas commander ominously told Time magazine, "We shouldn't stand by idly while the Americans are plotting against us." But Carter has indicated the Bush administration is criminal for not supporting this stouthearted nationalist.

"Criminal" might better describe the workings of any government in the Muslim world, so conspicuously over-represented in the Carter Center's donations -- nations in which, for instance, its elected officials have to consult with and bribe a departed leader's widow to find out where he hid billions of dollars of their people's assets. Nonetheless, the U.S. is sending barrels of greenbacks and weapons to the kleptocratic Fatah, whose membership largely overlaps with that of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the group responsible for the Mickey Mouse Murder Hour. Condoleeza Rice has also announced the U.S. is shipping tens of millions of dollars to the UNRWA, where future terrorists are incubated. Yet Carter denounces his own country for failing to establish a Marshall Plan for totalitarian murderers.

Thus concludes a rational progression for Jimmy Carter: in the 1970s, he blundered into establishing terrorists as Iran's all-powerful theocratic rulers. In the 1980s and '90s, he wrote speeches for Yasser Arafat and defended extremists around the globe. Now, he calls the U.S. president a pariah for refusing to underwrite unrepentant jihadists dedicated to spilling as much infidel blood as possible.

Thus, Man from Plains confirms what many long suspected: the Worst President of the 20th Century does not want the United States to end the War on Terror. He merely wants us to switch sides.

The Euro-Arab Axis of Evil

2007-06-20T23:17:00.000+02:00

aki - Mediterranean: Conference on Islam kicks off.

Historians, scholars of religion, political scientists, philosophers, senior officials and commentators from Europe and the Mediterranean will on Tuesday and Wednesday gather in the Italian capital, Rome, to examine the current state of dialogue between Muslim and non-Muslim countries in the region at a time of upheaval in the Middle East.

'The Mediterranean. Alliance or Clash of Civilisations?' international conference, promoted by the Lazio region, forms part of the 'Lazio between Europe and the Mediterranean' Festival, now in its second year, which is taking place from 5 June until 8 July.

The conference aims to draw attention to the many people living in countries that are in political and economic turmoil, who respect different cultural identities and back dialogue and face to face discussion to combat the wall of incomprehension and hatred between people of different faiths and traditions that too often results in acts of violence and terrorism.

The event will be opened by the Lazio region's president Pierro Marrazzo. The first speaker is Franco Rizzi, director general of UNIMED -- an association of 74 Mediterranean universities founded under the auspices of the University of Rome "La Sapienza". It promotes multidisciplinary research cooperation between universities in the area of cultural heritage, health, and economy and new technologies.

Other speakers include Bosnian intellectual and former European Union advisor on the Mediterrean area, Predrag Matvejevic, the president of France's consultative body on secularism (laicité), Mohammed Arkoun, Italian expert on Sciism, Biancamaria Scarcia Amoretti, former Arab League deputy secretary general, Nourredine Hached, Italy-based Egyptian-born journalist Magdi Allam, Algerian Women's Mediterranean Forum president, Wassyla Tamzali, and the Italian medieval historian and Mediterranean expert, Salvatore Bono.

As well as the Lazio region, the Italian presidency, foreign ministry and the United Nations Regional Information Centre (UNRIC) are also promoting the 'Lazio between Europe and the Mediterranean' Festival' in which many embassies from Europe and the southern Mediterranean have been invited to take part.

Faces of Peace

2007-06-20T23:14:00.000+02:00

ap - Saudi Arabia beheads convicted Saudi murderer.

A Saudi man convicted of fatally shooting another Saudi over a dispute was beheaded on Tuesday, the Interior Ministry said.

The executed man, Falah Bin Mekhlif, had opened fire from his machine gun on Dre'an Bin Fawaz Bin Mitleg, leaving him dead, said an interior ministry statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency, or SPA. The nature of the men's dispute was not disclosed.

Tuesday's statement said that Bin Mekhlif was executed in the northern town of Arar, near the border with Iraq.

Saudi Arabia follows a strict interpretation of Islam under which those convicted of murder, drug trafficking, rape and armed robbery are executed in public with a sword.

aki - Iran: Woman 'to be stoned' on Thursday.

Makrameh Ebrahimi on Thursday will be stoned to death in a square in front of the cemetery of Takestan, in Ghazvin province some 100 km from Tehran, for having had a child out of wedlock 11 years ago, women's rights groups in Iran said.

The Islamic Republic denies issuing stoning death sentences and carrying them out. Thursday's is the first death sentence by stoning to be publicly announced and rights groups say the population has been invited to participate and throw stones.

It is reportedly unclear how many stoning sentences have been issued and carried out in Iran since reports of a moratorium by the judiciary emerged in 2002.

The Iranian criminal code states that when stoning is carried out for offences such as adultery the stones should not be too large because "the punishment of stoning is designed to cause the victim great pain before death".

In Iran, the convicted person to be killed is wrapped in a sheet and partly buried. Male convicts are buried from the waist down, while women are buried deeper to prevent the breasts from becoming exposed.

Iran is second in a global ranking of countries with the highest number of executions per year after China.

Working together to tackle the Reasons for Migration

2007-06-20T23:11:00.000+02:00

aki - Britain: Tougher line on illegal immigrants.

The British government on Monday vowed to use its international relations to strengthen the UK's border controls, crack down on migration abuse and tackle trafficking as it launched its international strategy for managing global migration, which sets out the UK's global plans in the fight to halt illegal immigration.

Last year Border and Immigration Agency (BIA) staff prevented 17,000 people crossing the channel illegally. At juxtaposed controls in France and Belgium the BIA caught 3,900 people trying to enter Britain through clandestine means.

At the forefront of the strategy is to work with other governments to prevent illegal migration and speed-up the return of those with no right to be in Britain. Through working with countries which act as 'transit' points on illegal immigration routes, Britain intends to put migration at the top of the international agenda.

"Every issue we face, whether it involves immigration, identity or counter-terrorism, has international relationships at its very core. That is why today's international strategy is crucial to our future" said Home Secretary John Reid.

"We cannot protect Britain's borders by operating in a bubble. The only way to tackle these 21st century issues is through countries working together. Today we are undertaking to improve that co-operation through better exchange of immigration data and working together to tackle the reasons for migration."

Law enforcement liaison officers will be deployed to countries on key routes to the UK, developing joint investigations to target traffickers. A rapid response team will be established in Britain before the end of 2007, with specialists ready to be sent abroad to offer advice, support and training.

The strategy has been developed jointly by the Home Office and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, following close consultation with the Department for Trade and Industry.

Desperately trying to kill a Bulldozer

2007-06-20T23:08:00.000+02:00

jpost - Shots fired at IDF bulldozer in northern Gaza.

Shots were fired Tuesday afternoon at IDF bulldozers operating near the security fence in the northern Gaza Strip. The soldiers returned fire.

No one was wounded and no damage reported in the incident.

It was God who had asked Women to wear a Veil

2007-06-20T23:05:00.000+02:00

dailytimes - Patel's remarks irk Indian Muslims.

Muslim leaders demanded on Tuesday that India's governing coalition replace its presidential nominee after she urged women to stop wearing veils -- a practice she said was introduced to protect women from Muslim invaders centuries ago.

Muslim leaders called on Manmohan Singh to find a new candidate for the post, accusing Pratibha Patel, a moderate Hindu, of insulting Islam.

The controversy over Patel's remarks erupted even before she filed her nomination papers. Maulana Khalid Rashid, a member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, said it was God who had asked women to wear a veil.

"Any statement against the veil conveys an opinion against God and the Quran which no Muslim will tolerate," Rashid told the Associated Press.

Addressing a conference in Udaipur over the weekend, Patel claimed women started using veils in India to save themselves from Mughal invaders in the 16th century, and that it was time to drop the practice.

Islam is a Religion of Peace

2007-06-20T23:02:00.000+02:00

ap - Two Lebanese troops killed in refugee camp fight.

Lebanon's army battled al-Qaida-inspired fighters in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon on Tuesday as the troops inched toward the militants' strongholds. Officials said two soldiers were killed in the fighting.

Also Tuesday, reports emerged of a possible cease-fire deal with the militants holed up in the Nahr el-Bared camp on the outskirts of the port city of Tripoli.

According to a Palestinian Muslim cleric who has been mediating between the authorities and the Fatah Islam fighters inside the camp, the deal would include a cease-fire, to be followed by the militants' disarmament and surrender.

The cleric, Sheik Mohammed Haj, told the official Lebanese news agency that the militants agreed to conditions of his Palestinian Scholars Association and that he would present the proposal to the army on Wednesday.

ap - 2 Sunni mosques attacked near Baghdad; none hurt.

Gunmen blew up two Sunni mosques Wednesday south of Baghdad, causing heavy damage but no casualties, police said, in an apparent retaliatory attack a day after a suicide truck bombing devastated a revered Shi'ite mosque in the heart of the capital, killing at least 87 people.

Thousands of US and Iraqi troops, meanwhile, pressed forward on the second day of an operation aimed at clearing out a Sunni insurgent stronghold northeast of Baghdad.

The US military said at least 30 al-Qaida fighters were killed and several bombs and weapons caches destroyed as the soldiers fought their way through the streets of Baqouba.

bangkokpost - District chief, two soldiers die in bomb blast.

A roadside bomb explosion killed the Mai Kaen district chief, a military officer and a border patrol volunteer while they were on their way to inspect a torched school in the district yesterday. The blast occurred at around 8.30am when a pickup truck carrying Mai Kaen district chief Chaipat Raksayod and five other passengers was hit by a homemade bomb set off by a detonation cord.

Police said the district chief and two other passengers, Lt-Col Surasak Kosutha, secretary to Mai Kaen's Internal Security Operations Command office, and border patrol volunteer Ahamad Lahan, were fatally wounded and died on the way to hospital.

The other three passengers also suffered serious injuries.

They were travelling to check the damage caused to Ban Pa Mai school by an arson fire on Monday night. Another school and the office of the Tambon Don Sai Administration Organisation were also set ablaze on the same night.

Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont said yesterday that despite the death of the Mai Kaen district chief, the government would continue implementing its peaceful measures to bring about national reconciliation in the deep South.

What the government needed was more cooperation from the people to help authorities to quell violence in the deep South, he said.

Meanwhile, a rumour campaign in Mai Kaen district accuses Pattani governor Panu Uthairat of being behind an attack which killed a tambon administration organisation chairman and two kamnans last Thursday.

The three men were returning home from a party in Pattani town when they were ambushed by a group of unidentified gunmen.

According to those spreading the allegation against the Pattani governor, the three men were killed by government forces.

In Yala, a combined force of civilians, police and soldiers raided two villages in Bannang Sata district on Monday.

They seized 18 bars of Powergel explosives and an Uzi pistol. Also, 17 suspects were taken for questioning at the Inkayuthboriharn camp in Pattani.

In Narathiwat, Sadee Salae, 41, a provincial councillor, was slightly wounded in a gun attack in Rangae district yesterday while driving his car to a local market. His passenger, Nattanan Gayaedalae, 29, a village defence volunteer, was killed.

A Question to Muslims (#464)

2007-06-18T23:59:00.000+02:00

Quran 009:029 says:

"Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued."

The "People of the Book" are primarily Jews and Christians.

What should Muslims say to Muslims who include Jews and Christians among "those" who should be "fought" on the basis of this verse?

Cultural Diversity and Social Customs

2007-06-18T23:56:00.000+02:00

jpost - Nablus: Palestinian tries to strangle IDF soldier.

June 14, 2007 ◊ A Palestinian tried to strangle an IDF soldier at a checkpoint near Nablus Thursday morning.

According to reports, the Palestinian attacked the soldier in attempt to steal his gun.

Another soldier fired in the air and stopped the attack. The perpetrator was quickly arrested by IDF troops and detained for interrogation.

thenews - Man kills teenage cousin over Karo-Kari.

June 15, 2007 ◊ A teenaged boy was shot dead allegedly by his cousin on the pretext of Karo-Kari in village Maqsoodo Lund on Friday.

According to sources, Abdul Ghafoor Lund suspected that his 18-year-old cousin Nazir Ahmed Lund, s/o Khando Lund, was having illicit relations with his daughter. On Friday, Ghafoor allegedly shot dead Nazir, but his daughter managed to flee and take shelter in a neighbourer's house.

The sources said that later the neighbourer, Syed Ghulam Shah, handed over the girl to Sardar Fayaz Lund. No case was registered till our going to the press.

Meanwhile, a young woman was crushed to death by a speeding truck on the National Highway, near Pano Aqil, on Friday.

Husna, 28, wife of Ghulam Rasool Rind, was crossing the road, when a speeding truck knocked her down, killing her on the spot. The area police have arrested the errant driver and impounded his truck.

Separately, a man was killed in an armed clash between two groups of the Wassan community over a matrimonial dispute in village Rahim Bux Wassan, near Kotdiji, on Friday. The two groups traded heavy fire, critically injuring one Ghulam Abbas Wassan. The injured succumbed to his injuries while he was being shifted to a hospital in Hyderabad. No case was registered.

sabah - Brother is suspected to have killed his sister.

June 16, 2007 ◊ Previously convicted Onur Tas killed his sister, who is a high school last grade student, and her boyfriend.

The murder took place while Hülya Tas and her boyfriend was walking hand in hand. Two guns were found at the crime scene. Besides the brother, the father and the uncle has been arrested for fear that the murderer might be any of them.

Suspicion of honour killing

The furious brother who saw his sister with her boyfriend killed them both. Two guns were found at the scene, and five member of the family were arrested.

The girl had ran away with her boyfriend one week before when her brother killed both she and her boyfriend. After the murder, five members of the family, including the brother, father and uncle, were arrested.

Hülya Tas, the sister, ran away with her boyfriend, Ömer Karaboga last Tuesday. But in reciprocation to a promise that they will be married, she was to be returned home, though she did not want. When Hülya's brother saw them together in the street, killed them both with his gun. Ömer Karaboga died instantly; Hülya was taken to the hospital but died there.

Two guns were found at the crime scene. For fear of a honour killing, the father and the uncle were arrestted, too. The uncle is also suspected to be the murderer.

times - My family killed my sister: I could be next.

June 17, 2007 ◊ Bekhal Mahmod tells of her life in hiding to avoid the fate of her sister, victim of an 'honour killing' after one kiss in the street
Jon Swain

Bekhal Mahmod, older sister of the "honour killing" victim Banaz Mahmod, stands very silently in the middle of the room and takes off the black veil that covers her face to reveal jet-black hair and hazel-col-oured almond-shaped eyes which are lively yet so sad they are startling. You know they belong to a young woman in fear of her life.

Suddenly, out pours a torrent of words, fierce, thoughtful and articulate and all voiced in a south London accent that belies her Iraqi-Kurdish roots. Bekhal has come from a strict Islamic upbringing but she is clearly now a thoroughly modern young London woman. The transition, however, has been rough and dangerous. At times she has contemplated suicide.

"Don't get me wrong, I have come close to ending it," she says. "I have been very close. When the police told me my sister was dead, my heart was shattered. I was praying that she was paralysed. Anything but be murdered. The only reason I didn't do something stupid was to have her living still in my heart."

Bekhal, 22, is speaking out because of the murder of her 20-year-old sister Banaz in the name of family honour. Last week, her father Mahmod Mahmod, 52, and uncle Ari Mahmod, 50, both of Mitcham, south London, were convicted of her murder at the Old Bailey. Across Europe and increasingly, it seems, in Britain, as Muslims become more conservative and religious funda-mentalism strengthens its grip, growing numbers of women are being killed or mutilated in the name of family honour.

In Banaz's case it happened because in an extraordinary act of defiance against her Kurdish family -- welcomed into Britain in the 1990s as victims of Saddam Hussein's persecution of the Kurds after the first Gulf war -- she had walked out of a miserable arranged marriage with an older cousin and fallen in love with another man, thereby bringing "shame" on the family.

Her fate was sealed when she kissed her boyfriend in a Brixton street. The men who had been tasked by her father and her uncle, who was the senior head of the family, with following her photographed this small sign of affection with a mobile telephone.

"It was a kiss on the lips. No, not a snog," said Bekhal. "But they took a picture of her and gave it to my uncle and that was it. It was all over for Banaz just because she really loved that man."

Still angry and grieving, Bekhal is trying to make sense of the crime and stay alive herself as well. She knows that she, too, is at risk because she had angered her family before Banaz's revolt. In 2002, aged 17, she fled home after being beaten and threatened by her father for refusing to accept a marriage with a cousin twice her age. Since then she has insisted on leading her own life.

A striking young woman, Bekhal would turn heads in the street if she could be seen. But she does not dare. Being in fear of her life from her family, she never goes out in public without covering her entire body and face, apart from tiny slits for her eyes, in a long black cloak and veil.

Even now she is not sure that the veil and hiding -- she has lived in more than 30 places in the past five years -- will save her despite the conviction of her father and uncle, who will be sentenced on July 28.

"Nothing can ever be the same again. All I can do is try and keep myself safe. And that is the hardest part, because I cannot dare have many close friends because I am afraid I will drag them down with me.

"If, for example, I am staying at my friend's house they might come into the house and try and kill me and harm them as well. It is hard, really hard, to let myself get close to people." Her sister was strangled with a boot-lace and her body stuffed in a suitcase buried in a garden in Handsworth in Birmingham. Her father and uncle ordered the deed. But the two men they had hired from Iraqi Kurdistan to carry it out returned there afterwards, boasting they had raped Banaz as well, and are unlikely ever to be arrested.

"They are the devil's children. They are nothing made by God's creation," Bekhal says.

"One of them is nicknamed 'Soorer', which means red, because his skin is red, and his speciality is killing people. Quite recently I found out that my uncle had wanted someone dead in Kurdistan and had got 'Soorer' to do it.

"I just can't get it out of my head, especially the raping of my sister. It has made things worse. I will never stop thinking about it. It will be on my mind 24/7.

"It is not easy for me. I have nightmares. You hear noise at night and you pick up anything and go to the door because you think someone is there. It is terrifying.

"The way the family thinks is that I am dirty, just because I am not with them. But all I ever wanted, really, was to be an ordinary person, just a normal young woman.

"I wanted to have a life, holidays, travel the world, have a good job, have kids, have a family, get married. But families like mine are very strong and go back generations and generations. The family is all mixed blood of cousins to cousins and nephews, and becomes so deep and so intimate and incestuous that the members of it lose themselves."

But still, how is it that such things happen in modern, liberal Britain? Banaz's murder is a headline-grab-bing case but it is, in fact, one of many of these distinct crimes that Aisha Gill, a senior lecturer in criminology at Roe-hampton University and a Scotland Yard adviser on violence against women, honour killings and forced marriages, says is one ghastly crime in a worrying trend.

A study of the figures indicates that one woman a month is the victim of an honour killing in Britain. Police across Europe have noticed a rising trend, too, and prompted by activist groups have come to recognise it, as Scotland Yard has, as a distinct crime.

In the past, cases were largely hidden from public view because they occurred in minority groups, but in 2004 police announced new research into the culture surrounding honour killings and a review of suspicious cases.

The review was opened after the conviction of Abdullah Yones, also a Kurdish immigrant from Iraq, who had held his 16-year-old daughter Heshu over a bathtub and slit her throat after discovering that she was writing and receiving love letters from a boy in her class at their London school.

In court, Yones said his daughter had brought her death on herself. On the day he was sentenced to life imprisonment, dozens of Kurdish men came to court to show solidarity with him.

Gill said it was "disgusting" that Banaz's father and uncle had shown no remorse when they were convicted. What made it even more sad, she said, was that there had been a "deafening silence" from the Kurdish community and religious leaders about the case.

It could not be denied, she said, that there was a failure of the Metropolitan police to act adequately in Banaz's case -- she went to them four times and it was obvious that she was in a dangerous situation -- but the Kurdish community was not free of blame either. It needed to respond with conviction to such crimes. The community needed to address the violence against women in their midst, help bring the perpetrators to justice, not to protect them or give them respect for such heinous crimes as honour killings.

Historically, Gill said, the authorities in Britain had hesitated about interpreting the cultural norms in minority communities like the Kurds and had assumed that conflicts could be resolved within the community itself.

The police and the courts had lacked understanding of the issues, even sometimes blaming the victim in a violent and abusive relationship. As a result, women did not have the confidence that the police would protect them when they reported it.

A lot has changed, despite the tragic failure to keep Banaz alive, and the police themselves have been at the forefront, particularly since the Yones case, of making violence against women a priority.

But despite this improvement there has been no consistency in approach, and how violence against women is dealt with by the police is often a lottery.

As well as being fearful for herself, Bekhal is also now concerned for the safety of her mother and her other two sisters Giabame, 16, who is traditionally the age to be married off to a cousin, and Payman, 20, who is also unhappily in a forced marriage.

"God knows what will happen to them. But I seriously believe that because there is no man around now they are in great danger, not from the immediate family but from the men in the Kurdish community.

"They will look upon them as if there are no men around, to do whatever they want to. So they will, I fear, be targeting them in a sexual way. They will be harassing them and abusing them, looking upon them as unworthy and of no value because of what has happened to Banaz and me.

"As for me, it does not stop me marrying. But it is hard when you know someone might be following you."

Meanwhile, on Planet Sinia ...

2007-06-18T23:53:00.000+02:00

jpost - Fatah members wounded in shooting at Erez.

A shooting attack at the Erez Crossing wounded several people on Monday evening. According to one source, the victims were Fatah members attempting to leave the strip.

Magen David Adom ambulances were scrambled to the scene.

Hometown Jihad

2007-06-18T23:47:00.000+02:00

patrickpoole - The school gym that terror built.

Siraj Wahhaj, a Brooklyn, NY imam, says that he isn't convinced Osama bin Laden was behind 9/11. He was named by US Attorney Mary Jo White as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. He served as a defense character witness for blind hate sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman in the trial for that act of terrorism that anticipated the horror of 9/11. He says that Muslims should appoint their own emir (leader) and take over America and install the Islamic caliphate. And he serves on the advisory board for the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), both of which were just named by federal prosecutors as an unindicted co-conspirators in a current HAMAS terrorism financing trial in Texas (see my article, "CAIR Fingered by Feds").

And when Sunrise Academy (the only full-time Islamic school in Central Ohio), located in my hometown of Hilliard, Ohio, needed to raise money in March 2006 to build a sports complex for their school, they turned to Wahhaj for help. His financial appeal was so successful they invited him back in February of this year for yet another school fundraiser.

Regular FrontPage readers might remember Sunrise Academy as the operational hub for Muslim Brotherhood political analyst, international HAMAS promoter, notorious anti-Jewish ideologue, 9/11 conspiracy theorist, and protégé of "Theologian of Terror" Youssef al-Qaradawi, my Hilliard neighbor Dr. Salah Sultan, who has been the subject of five previous articles in my "Hometown Jihad" series here at FrontPage:

Hometown Jihad (April 3, 2006)

Hometown Jihad: Blowback (May 24, 2006)

Hometown Jihad: Our Newest Citizen? (September 8, 2006)

Hometown Jihad: The Return of Salah Sultan (March 29, 2007)

Hometown Jihad: The HAMAS Connection (May 11, 2007)

When my first article appeared noting former Sunrise Academy religious advisor Salah Sultan's connections to "Specially Designated Global Terrorists", such as Qaradawi, Sunrise staff and their friends at CAIR-OH lashed back by publicly circulating an email (which was later forwarded to FrontPage editors) from a Sunrise teacher, Norma Tarazi, saying that my initial "Hometown Jihad" article made her "saddened, furious, and terrified". She also warned, "I hope that no one gets incited by Poole to attack our school or our children. His article is hate speech from my perspective." I would invite readers to revisit that article to attempt to locate the "hate speech" that Tarazi identifies.

But there were no such dire warnings by Mrs. Tarazi and her Sunrise Academy associates just a few weeks before that article appeared when the school hosted Siraj Wahhaj, again an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, as their keynote speaker at their March 10, 2006 fundraising dinner held at the Makoy Center in downtown Hilliard, (promoted on a now-removed, but Google-cached, posting on the website of the Islamic Society for Greater Columbus, Sunrise Academy's sponsor). The proceeds of the Sunrise Academy's fundraiser were dedicated to the school's sports complex (presumably along with Wahhaj's handsome honorarium).

Sunrise Academy parents and supporters paid $25 each to hear Wahhaj spew his hatred of non-Muslims, recite his bizarre 9/11 conspiracy theories, and share warm personal stories of his good friend and convicted terror leader Abdel-Rahman, who used to worship and preach at Wahhaj's At-Taqwa Mosque in Brooklyn.

Paul Barrett, an editor for Business Week and author of the recent book, American Islam: Struggle for the Soul of Religion, has spent considerable time with Wahhaj and made him one of the primary subjects in his book (read the introduction to Barrett's book at the Washington Post). Barrett has previously described the transformation of America into an Islamic state that Wahhaj would like to see:
He has told his followers that a society governed by strict Islamic law, in which adulterers would be stoned to death and thieves would have their hands cut off, would be superior to American democracy. Speaking of unnamed forces in the U.S. government and media, he has preached, "These people want the destruction of Islam." ("One Imam Traces the Path of Islam in Black America", Wall Street Journal [October 24, 2003])
Barrett also describes how Wahhaj brushes off evidence of Osama bin Laden's involvement in 9/11, including dismissing bin Laden's own video pronouncements claiming responsibility for the terror attacks, preferring to remain "neutral" on the subject:
He says the al-Qaeda leader's videotaped boasting about the attacks may have been a media ruse: "I'm just not so sure I want to be one of the ones who say, 'Yeah, he did it. He's a horrible man.'" (Ibid.)
Elsewhere Wahhaj has offered a grotesque convergence of bin Laden's calls for the revival of the Islamic caliphate with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, "I Have a Dream" speech, envisioning an Islamic supremacist society:
"I have a vision in America, Muslims owning property all over, Muslim businesses, factories, halal meat, supermarkets, all these buildings owned by Muslims. Can you see the vision, can you see the Newark International Airport and a John Kennedy Airport and La Guardia having Muslim fleets of planes, Muslim pilots. Can you see our trucks rolling down the highways, Muslim names. Can you imagine walking down the streets of Teaneck, [New Jersey]: three Muslim high schools, five Muslim junior-high schools, fifteen public schools. Can you see the vision, can you see young women walking down the street of Newark, New Jersey, with long flowing hijab and long dresses. Can you see the vision of an area ... controlled by the Muslims?" (quoted in Daniel Pipes, "The Danger Within: Militant Islam in America", Commentary [Nov. 2001])
How is this Islamic supremacist society governed by an Islamic caliph supposed to come about? Wahhaj is not shy about laying out his plan for violent revolutionary action by Muslims:
"[I]f only Muslims were clever politically, they could take over the United States and replace its constitutional government with a caliphate. If we were united and strong, we would elect our own emir and give allegiance to him. Take my word if eight million Muslims unite in America, the country will come to us." (quoted in Jagan Kaul, "Kashmir: Kashmiri Pundit View-point," Kashmir Telegraph [May 2002])
And what message does Sunrise Academy send to its non-Muslim neighbors by hosting Siraj Wahhaj? In an audiotape message Wahhaj speaks of his love for the kuffar (infidel):
"...And he [Allah] declared 'Whoever is at war with my friends, I declare war on them.' Who is a friend of Allah? [He chants a passage in Arabic] Allah. Your true friend is Allah, the messenger, and those who believe. Americans and Canadians. Hear it well. Hear what I'm telling you well. The Americans are not your friends, hear what I'm telling you, hear it well. The Canadians are not your friends, hear what I'm telling you, hear it well. The Europeans are not your friends. Your friend is Allah, the Messenger and those who believe. These people will never be satisfied with you until you follow their religion. They will never be satisfied with youb ... " (audiotape, "The Afghanistan Jihad" [September 28, 1991]; quoted in "UCLA Sponsors of Terrorism", FrontPage Magazine [April 4, 2003])
Wahhaj founded his organization, Muslim Alliance for North America, to help bring about his extremist vision for America, and he has enlisted some of the most prominent and equally radical Islamic organizations in North America, including CAIR, the Islamic Society of North America, the Muslim American Society, and the Muslim Student Association, to help achieve his dream of an Islamic caliphate governing America.

As I have noted earlier in an earlier article here at FrontPage ("CAIR's Blood Money"), Wahhaj's fundraising prowess in Central Ohio has been impressive. Last summer when CAIR-OH brought Wahhaj in as keynote speaker at their annual banquet held in Dublin, Ohio (immediately due north of Hilliard), CAIR-OH raised a whopping $100,000, a fact touted in a press release published on CAIR's own website.

This success by CAIR-OH, along with Sunrise Academy's previous fundraiser for their sports complex, is probably what prompted the leadership of the school to bring Wahhaj back for yet another fundraising dinner on February 16, 2007, sponsored by a local Columbus mosque, Masjid Abubakar Al Siddique, and held at the school.

The leadership of Sunrise Academy might have reason to believe that it is insulated from criticism of its promotion of extremism. Immediately following my original "Hometown Jihad" article, noting Salah Sultan's continued operations out of Sunrise Academy despite his direct connections to terrorist supporters and organizations, the school enlisted the help of the Interfaith Association of Central Ohio (IACO) and the local print media to help coordinate retaliatory responses against myself and FrontPage Magazine. IACO's President Les Stansbury responded immediately by circulating the aforementioned email by Sunrise Academy middle school science teacher Norma Tarazi, which accused me of endangering the school's children and characterizing my article as "hate speech", to various media outlets.

I noted in a follow-up article, "Hometown Jihad: Blowback", that Columbus Dispatch religion reporter Felix Hoover also rallied to Sunrise's cause, responding to IACO and Tarazi's email plea by publishing an extensive whitewash of Sunrise Academy and Salah Sultan, "Muslim Milestone", that likened FrontPage as a neo-Nazi white power front advocating for the reestablishment of an "overwhelmingly Christian and overwhelmingly white heritage". Hoover's article also served as a plug for Sunrise's open house, a hastily organized event which the school admitted was in response to my initial FrontPage "Hometown Jihad" article.

The Columbus Dispatch's lengthy 1,340-word defense of the school, which went out of its way to describe Salah Sultan as a terror-condemning, moderate Muslim, was published just days before Sultan was recorded by MEMRI giving an interview to the Saudi Al-Risala TV, where he claimed that 9/11 was planned by the US government to launch a war on Islam and he praised the Yemeni al-Qaeda cleric Al-Zindani. Al-Zindani is also listed along with Sultan's mentor, Youssef Al-Qaradawi, as a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist" by the US government and prohibited from entering the country. MEMRI provides a complete transcript and video of Sultan's Al-Risala interview.

The Columbus Dispatch piece was quickly followed-up with a glowing article by Khalila Perrin in the local Hilliard Northwest News, "Islamic school celebrates 10 years of growth", which also plugged the Sunrise Academy open house, but made no mention of the school's Salah Sultan controversy. To date, not a single critical word of Sunrise Academy has been issued by the Columbus-area print or TV media establishment.

Sunrise Academy might also be emboldened by the international attention that the school has received for figuring prominently in Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman's "The Columbus Way" community outreach. Coleman's program and Sunrise Academy were featured in two BBC radio broadcasts, "US Muslims hurt by backlash" and "US Muslims Find a Voice", by BBC correspondent Barnie Choudhury on the one-year anniversary of 9/11.

The school is also protected by other powerful political patrons. Sunrise Parent-Teacher Association president Nadia Rasul sits on the Hilliard Parks and Recreation Commission, which sold Sunrise its current facility, a former Columbus Public library sitting in a prime location, at a significantly reduced rate.

Another longtime Sunrise Academy board member, Abukar Arman, who sits on a number of local, county and state commissions and advisory boards and associates with many Columbus-area political power brokers, published a heated editorial, "The Trilogy that Muffles the Moderate Muslims", in defense of his friend Salah Sultan and attacking yours truly in response to my original "Hometown Jihad" article last year. Arman wrote:
Only a few days ago, one such moderate Muslim, Dr. Salah Soltan, a renown scholar and a member of the North America and the European Fiqh Council, and Sunrise Academy, a Kindergarten to Seventh Grade Islamic school which this author has been sitting on its board for the past six years, were implicated with those all too familiar innuendoes as terror-promoting individual and institution. The accusatory article was written by a gentleman who claims being a "policy researcher" ... and boasts to have only spent 3 hours to arrive at that conclusion.

In post 9/11 political atmosphere, unfortunately, 3 hours are more than one needs in order to destroy reputations of Muslim individuals and reputation and endanger the lives of Muslim children, especially the girls who have to walk to bus stops wearing their hijabs.
Arman's claim about my article relying only on "3 hours" of Internet research is pure fiction, of course; in fact, I spent literally dozens of hours pouring through reams of information prior to publishing anything on Salah Sultan. But once again, Sunrise Academy's defenders did not hesitate to accuse me of "endanger(ing) the lives of Muslim children" by merely telling the truth about the organization's extremist agenda and connections to terrorism.

Non-Muslims in Hilliard, Ohio may not respond positively to the nonchalant, dismissive attitude by the staff and supporters of Sunrise Academy about the school's embrace of some of the most well-known Islamic radicals in America, such as Siraj Wahhaj and Salah Sultan. Few, if any, are probably aware of Wahhaj's role in raising the funds for the school's massive sports complex. Many Hilliard property taxpayers might also be shocked to learn that close to $100,000 of local tax money goes to Sunrise Academy annually, monies funneled through the Hilliard City School District. The local media establishment, however, has taken great lengths to ensure that our community has remained in blissful ignorance about what goes on behind the six-foot high fence that surrounds the Sunrise Academy compound.

But as I will be revealing in forthcoming articles in the very near future here at FrontPage, Sunrise Academy is just one link in an extensive network of Islamic radicalism that has flourished in the Columbus area in recent years, with ties that extend into the uppermost corridors of power in Ohio's capital city. This network of radicalism is just one reason why counterterrorism officials now consider Central Ohio as one of the top five "hottest" areas for Islamic terrorist activity in the US, as the arrest in April of Christopher Paul, who was charged for being part of an active al-Qaeda cell in the area, directly testifies.

When I wrote the following conclusion to "Hometown Jihad" last year -- the first article I had published here at FrontPage -- I could have never imagined how prescient these words were:
This makes me concerned that next terrorist attack on American soil won't be in Chicago or Los Angeles, but could very well be a bombing at Otie's Tavern on Main Street, a sarin attack at Tuttle Crossing Mall, or shootings at my alma mater, Hilliard Davidson High School. Any of those scenarios is not far-fetched. Will Cemetery Road be the scene of hundreds of burned-out cars reminiscent of the uprisings in Paris just a few months ago?

It is thoughts such as these that give rise to my fears that the eyes of the world will look in shock and horror to my hometown of Hilliard, Ohio, or one of the tens of thousands of cities like it across the country, as jihad strikes into the deepest heart of Middle America. When that day of terror comes, it should be one that we should expect. I remember that my neighbor Salah Sultan and scores of his jihad-preaching associates throughout the American heartland are not just teaching Arabic. The seeds they're sowing will inevitably bear fruit in a hometown jihad somewhere.
Stay tuned to FrontPage Magazine for more on the story of Islamic radicalism in Central Ohio that the media establishment refuses to tell.

Liberals in a Nutshell

2007-06-18T23:35:00.000+02:00

afp - Royal-Hollande breakup casts shadow over Socialist gains.

The much-publicised split between Socialist presidential candidate Segolene Royal and party leader Francois Hollande took the gloss Monday off the party's election gains.

Royal and Hollande, who have four children, confirmed they are separating as results came in from Sunday's legislative election. The left wing power couple featured prominently in newspaper headlines Monday.

Rumours of their rocky relationship had circulated for months and Royal announced the split, accusing her partner of having an affair, as she launched a campaign to take over the party leadership when Hollande steps down next year.

Hollande said the separation was a private matter that was "not caused by politics and will not have political consequences."

"I have always sought to separate politics, which must have principles, rules and foundations, from private life which must be protected," Hollande said in a radio interview.

"The Break-up" was the headline of the popular Le Parisien newspaper while the leftist Liberation quipped that election night was "full of surprises."

"After having pushed her former partner out the door of their family home, she now is planning to do the same thing by expelling him from his office as party boss," wrote Liberation.

Royal declined to specify when the separation took place but said she and the Socialist leader "remain on good terms. We talk to each other. There is mutual respect."

"I have asked Francois Hollande to leave our home, to pursue his love interest which is now laid out in books and newspapers and I wish him happiness," she said in an interview for a book to be released Wednesday.

Hollande's role in Royal's failed presidential campaign has been criticised and he has said he will stand down as the Socialist Party's first secretary next year. Royal confirmed in the book that she is a candidate to take over.

While she remains the Socialists' most popular politician, Royal is contested by senior figures in the party who blame her for losing the presidential race to Sarkozy.

Royal, 53, and Hollande, 52, have never married and have four children: Thomas, Clemence, Julien and Flora, aged between 22 and 14.

Initial reaction among party ranks appeared to be one of relief that the breakup was now out in the open.

The Socialist leader in the outgoing parliament Jean-Marc Ayrault said the "clarification on the political level is useful" and suggested the troubled relationship had affected morale among the rank-and-file.

"Sometimes we were wondering why there were problems in contacts between the party and the candidate" during the presidential campaign, said Ayrault.

"Actually, this did have an impact on politics and I regret this," said Socialist Claude Bartolone.

"We could see during the presidential campaign that a lack of communication at times between Segolene Royal and Francois Hollande created political problems."

"There was a sort of embarrassment," said Bartolone who described the couple's relationship as the "Bermuda Triangle of the Socialists."

"We took all the necessary detours to avoid it," said Bartolone.

Royal announced her plans in a book by AFP journalists Christine Courcol and Thierry Masure, "Behind the Scenes of Defeat" ("Les Coulisses d'une Defaite"), which is to be published Wednesday.

Royal and Hollande met in 1978 while studying at the elite Ecole National d'Administration (ENA) in Paris and were considered leaders of the generation of left-wingers groomed in the 1980s and early 1990s under Socialist president Francois Mitterrand.

Desperately seeking a free Muslim World

2007-06-18T23:32:00.000+02:00

ap - Bulgaria calls on Kosovo not to make unilateral declaration of independence.

A senior Bulgarian government official said Thursday that a unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo could lead to the destabilization of the Balkans.

Speaking at a conference on the new challenges for international security, Deputy Foreign Minister Lyubomir Kyuchukov said such a move would "leave with a grave political choice not only Bulgaria and the countries in the region, but also the EU and the international community as a whole."

"Such a scenario would have a serious destabilizing effect not only on northern Kosovo, but also in southern Serbia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and all of southeastern Europe," Kyuchukov said.

Bulgaria has repeatedly urged neighboring Serbia and Kosovo's Albanian community to reach a deal on the future status of the independence-seeking province, saying it was crucial for stability in the Balkans. Kyuchukov said a unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo would be "the most unfavorable scenario possible."

"Bulgaria expects a timely, internationally legitimate decision through a resolution of the U.N. Security Council based on the Ahtisaari plan," Kyuchukov noted, referring to U.N. envoy Martti Ahtisaari's plan that foresees eventual independence for Kosovo.

Kosovo has been administered by the United Nations since a 1999 NATO air war halted a Serbian crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists. The ethnic Albanian majority now wants independence, while the Serbs living in Kosovo want it to remain part of Serbia.

jpost - Hamas donations used to finance terror.

Several Israeli-Arab citizens transferred at least a million shekels to a Hamas charity located in Jerusalem, Israel Radio reported Monday afternoon.

The funds came from "The Justice Fund," Hamas's economic wing, located in Saudi Arabia.

According to the report, the funds were then used to sponsor Hamas's terror activity in the Gaza Strip.

Brain Drain in Africa

2007-06-18T23:26:00.000+02:00

afp - Illegal African workers found at government official residence.

French police have launched an inquiry into how two illegal African immigrants ended up working in an official residence used by President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has vowed to crack down on illegal immigration.

The pair from Mali were arrested this week while helping renovate La Lanterne residence in Versailles after it was discovered their residency papers were fake, the prosecutors' office said Friday, confirming a report in Le Parisien newspaper.

The firm that employed them appeared to have done so in good faith and would not be prosecuted, it said.

The two Malians were released from police custody on Thursday. They could be prosecuted for using fake papers and may face deportation, officials said.

La Lanterne is an official residence of the French prime minister, but Sarkozy has used it since taking office last month.

Sarkozy, who as interior minister doubled the annual number of deportations of illegal migrants to 25,000, has vowed his government will take a firm line towards France's estimated 200,000 to 400,000 illegals.

His new minister of immigration and national identity, who is charged with implementing Sarkozy's policy of "chosen immigration," has predicted there will be about 25,000 deportations again this year.

Alongside deportation, France also plans to expand a system of incentives for some immigrants to return home, providing 6,000 euros (8,000 dollars) to a family with two children if they agree to go back to their country of origin.

Religion of Peace strikes Germany

2007-06-18T23:23:00.000+02:00

dpa - Debate between German Lutherans and Muslims.

German Muslim leaders have robustly criticized a forthright "position papier" issued last November by the EKD, the umbrella body for 23 Lutheran churches in Germany.

In characteristically Protestant fashion, the document suggested Muslims should be more critical about themselves and it starkly set out why Lutherans disagree with Islam.

Coming at a time when Germans were heavily preoccupied with an alleged Islamic threat, the paper caused strains that have still not been overcome between EKD and Islamic leaders.

Ayyub Axel Koehler, chairman of the Council of Muslims, and Bekir Alboga, spokesman for the DITIB religious authority, were blunt in a debate with Lutheran leaders at a church congress this week in the German city of Cologne.

More than 2,000 Lutherans crammed a hot, sweaty pavilion in Cologne to hear the debate on religious freedom.

The politically correct may have expected compliments and blurring of differences, but it was not to be.

Koehler told the church-people that Europe should be ashamed of the "trail of blood" that it had left throughout the world down the centuries.

He said it was a step in the right direction that the two sides were talking, but he finished by slamming the EKD chairman, Bishop Wolfgang Huber, for "unnecessarily driving a wedge between Christians and Muslims."

Koehler, a German who converted to Islam in 1963, questioned why the Protestant leader was repeatedly and unnecessarily saying that the two religions worship a different God.

He said Lutherans were still moving up the "learning curve" and their paper last November contained the "language of separateness and trying to make yourself look good."

Huber, who heads the Berlin Lutheran Church, gave a dramatic speech in defence of the Lutheran stance that it is "every Christian's duty" to speak up for his own beliefs when meeting with a person of another religion.

He added that Christians respected the right of other religions to do the same thing, and denied that this zeal for the Christian faith had anything to do with conducting a mission to convert Muslims.

Earlier this year, Muslim groups charged that Lutherans were smearing more than 3 million German Muslims by alleging that they were susceptible to violent Islamism.

Koehler, whose trade-mark bow-tie marks him out from Lutheran churchmen wearing long ties, made one remark, perhaps overlooked in the cut and parry of debate, suggesting a way out of the conflict.

"I am hoping that we have a dialogue by our actions," he said in a suggestion for a pragmatic approach to co-existence between the religions on German soil.

In Germany, a country of more than 80 million people, there are about 26 million Protestants and about the same number of Catholics.

A joint appeal for a more just world issued by Christians, Muslims and other major religions during the Lutheran congress to the G8 summit meeting in northern Germany showed what was possible, he said.

Huber, still sweating from the heat, told a reporter for Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa after the Thursday speech that the passionate debate might not have settled the differences "but at least it establishes where we all stand."

Alboga said that despite the sharp differences since the paper was issued, Protestants could count on Muslims to keep the lines of communication open.

Senior figures from both sides met in May in a mosque in the city of Mannheim, but made no progress. The Lutheran church was continuing to reject the establishment of a joint commission to discuss faith differences, Alboga charged.

U.N. Leader: Darfur Slaughter triggered by Global Warming

2007-06-18T23:20:00.000+02:00

wnd - More violent conflict on horizon due to climate change, he says.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon blames the ethnic and religious violence in Darfur on global warming and insists more conflicts of this kind are coming because of climate change.

"The Darfur conflict began as an ecological crisis, arising at least in part from climate change," Ban said in a Washington Post opinion column.

As WND reported in 2004, the U.S. declared the rape, pillaging and slaughter of blacks in western Sudan by the Islamist Khartoum regime and its Arab militia allies genocide. The U.N. has described it as the world's worst current humanitarian crisis, with estimates of over 200,000 dead and more than 2.1 million displaced in four years.

In his column, Ban said U.N. statistics showed rainfall declined some 40 percent over the past two decades, as a rise in Indian Ocean temperatures disrupted monsoons.

"This suggests that the drying of sub-Saharan Africa derives, to some degree, from man-made global warming," the South Korean diplomat wrote.

"It is no accident that the violence in Darfur erupted during the drought," Ban wrote.

Ban explained that when Darfur's land was rich, black farmers welcomed Arab herders and shared their water. With the drought, however, farmers fenced in their land to prevent overgrazing.

"For the first time in memory, there was no longer enough food and water for all," he wrote. "Fighting broke out."

A U.N. peacekeeping force could stop the fighting, "but what to do about the essential dilemma: the fact that there's no longer enough good land to go around?"

"Any real solution to Darfur's troubles involves sustained economic development," he said.

He suggested using new technologies, genetically modified grains or irrigation, while bettering health, education and sanitation.

Last week, the U.S. announced it will work with its allies to draft a new U.N. Security Council resolution to impose new sanctions on Sudan, expand an arms embargo and prohibit the government from conducting offensive military flights over Darfur.

Some analysts believed the Darfur slaughter essentially is part of the Khartoum regime's effort to Arabize and Islamicize the entire country.

Khartoum fought a 21-year war against the mostly Christian and animist south that ended in 2004, resulting in an estimated 2 million deaths and accusations of genocide.

In Darfur, the African tribes involved are Muslims, but they are not Arab Muslims, and they reject the government's imposition of its brand of radical Islam.

Meanwhile, in the Upper Orient ...

2007-06-18T23:11:00.001+02:00

cphpost - Islamic group took over nursery school.

A group of fundamentalist Muslim parents has been calling the shots at a city nursery school since February.

Members of the fundamental Islamic organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir with children at the Salam day care centre in Copenhagen have taken control of its operations by obtaining a majority on its parental committee, according to Berlingkse Tidende newspaper.

In February the group took over after the school's two female administrators quit in protest of the difficulties Hizb ut-Tahrir parents were creating for the centre's operations. The Islamic group was refusing to allow the school's 25 Muslim children to participate in singing and dancing and required both an Islamic dress code and boys and girls to be segregated.

It was revealed that after a Christmas trip to Copenhagen Zoo, during which the children were given Santa Claus hats to wear, the committee members required the hats to either be thrown out or cut into pieces, claiming they forced Christian traditions onto the children. The group has allegedly been operating the school according to traditional Islamic law since the two administrators quit.

Since that time, the formerly private-run centre has no longer been receiving state funding and is now being administered by the City of Copenhagen. The city is still trying to find new leadership for the school and has sent letters to the children's parents informing them that they must either allow the city to run the centre or it will be closed.

Political criticism has rained down on the Salam school board since the newspaper's revelations.

'This case demonstrates that there is a parallel society in Copenhagen that plays by its own rules, and we will not accept that,' said Martin Geertsen, deputy mayor for cultural affairs.

Pakistan warns of Muslim "Explosion"

2007-06-18T22:59:00.000+02:00

ap - 'Rushdie knighthood justifies suicide attacks'

Pakistan on Monday condemned Britain's award of a knighthood to author Salman Rushdie as an affront to Muslim sentiments, and a Cabinet minister said the honor provided a justification for suicide attacks.

"This is an occasion for the [world's] 1.5 billion Muslims to look at the seriousness of this decision," Mohammed Ijaz ul-Haq, religious affairs minister, said in parliament.

"The West is accusing Muslims of extremism and terrorism. If someone exploded a bomb on his body he would be right to do so unless the British government apologizes and withdraws the 'sir' title," ul-Haq said.

Headline inspired by Agence France-Presse

Democracy: The God that Failed

2007-06-18T22:32:00.000+02:00

euobserver - Sarkozy suggests Blair for EU president post.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy has suggested making outgoing UK prime minister Tony Blair the president of the European Union -- a move seen as a way of securing London's support for a new treaty when EU leaders meet in Brussels at the end of this week.

"Many will say that if the United Kingdom accepts the reforms of the treaties at the next European summit it will be in exchange for placing Blair at the front of Europe," a diplomat said, according to Spanish daily El Pais.

The comment comes after the Financial Times on Saturday (16 June) reported that Mr Sarkozy is said to have discussed the idea with other EU leaders ahead of next week's European summit.

The summit will be Mr Blair's last major international event as prime minister before he steps down on 27 June. He is expected to be succeeded by UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown.

German diplomats said Mr Sarkozy put his plan to German chancellor Angela Merkel -- the current leader of the rotating six-month EU presidency.

He also put the proposal to the Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Zapatero who, according to government sources, was open to the initiative, writes El Pais.

However, number 10 Downing Street has denied the media reports. "The prime minister has made it clear that he is not going to return to front-line politics," a UK government spokeswoman said, according to the Associated Press.

The draft EU constitution, rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005, foresees a permanent two-and-a-half-year presidency -- renewable once -- to replace the current system, in which the post rotates among the 27 member states every six months.

The role itself would remain administrative and non-executive, but rather than the presidency being held by a member state -- as Germany currently does -- it would be held by an individual elected by and accountable to the EU member states.

The idea of a permanent presidency looks set to survive member state negotiations on a new look treaty for the bloc.

Separation of Church and State in Belgium

2007-06-18T22:29:00.000+02:00

expatica - Mosques receive official recognition.

The government of Flanders will officially recognise a total of eight mosques for the first time this autumn. The mosques will then be entitled to receive the same subsidies as other religious institutions. The recognised mosques will be spread over the various provinces and will also be divided among the Arab and Turkish-speaking communities.

Minister for Integration Marino Keulen (Open VLD) has discussed this with the Muslim Executive, the representative organisation for Islam in Belgium. It will also take into account recommendations from the provincial governments, municipal governments and the state security service. Not all the recommendations have yet been submitted.

"In contrast to Wallonia, which is recognising 43 mosques at once, Flanders will recognise about eight mosques a year," says spokesperson Peter Dejaegher.

Islam has been recognised as one of Belgium's six religions since 1974. If the mosques are soon recognised, imams will receive a salary from the ministry of justice, as do priests and other spiritual leaders.

Helping the Needy

2007-06-18T22:20:00.001+02:00

jpost - Israel supplying Gaza with medical equipment.

Israel began passing medical equipment to Gaza through the Erez Crossing, Israel Radio reported Monday.

The equipment was transferred to Gaza with the help of the Red Cross organization.