VOA NEWS… At least 24 Palestinians have been killed and more than 120 wounded in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip during clashes between rival Islamic militant groups.
Hamas security forces launched a fierce assault on a mosque in Gaza, and the leader of a rival Islamic group inspired by al-Qaida was killed along with many of his armed followers. Hamas officials say more than a dozen gunmen from Jund Ansar Allah, or the Soldiers of the Followers of God, were killed, as well as several Hamas policemen and an 11-year-old girl.
Hamas accused the leader of the group, Abdel-Latif Moussa, of treason after he gave a fiery sermon at Friday prayers.
Moussa declared Gaza an Islamic emirate – challenging Hamas rule with a more radical form of Islam. Hamas says Moussa was killed when he blew up an explosives vest he was wearing during the shootout.Israel has charged that al-Qaida, the group responsible for the September 11th terrorist attacks on the United States, has infiltrated Gaza from the outside. But Ihab Ghussein, a spokesman for the Hamas Interior Ministry, denied that.
Ghussein said Moussa’s group was Palestinian and had no external ties. He said the group has carried out bomb attacks on Internet cafés and wedding parties, in what he described as a misguided attempt to impose Islamic Law on Gaza.
Since many Palestinians are secular, especially in the West Bank, Hamas has been reluctant to impose strict Islamic Law on Gaza, saying it prefers to set a pious example for people to follow.
Hamas seized control of Gaza in the Palestinian civil war two years ago, routing the Fatah forces of President Mahmoud Abbas, who now heads a more moderate government in the West Bank. Since then Hamas has violently quelled any resistance by Fatah and other groups in Gaza.
Responding to the latest clashes, Hamas said it put down a coup by “outlaws.”
Month: August 2009
Three men who groomed young girl for sex jailed for 18 years.
The British press being what it is [dhimmi] will not post the pictures of the men involved. We are not the British press so here they are.
Hat tip to Tonyukmma
YORKSHIRE POST…Published Date: 17 July 2009
THREE men who groomed a vulnerable teenage girl for sex were jailed for a total of 18 years yesterday.Mohammed Zackriya, 21, of Springfield Road, Keighley, Mohammed Taj, 37 of Broughton Road, Skipton and Mohammed Shabir (Snr), a 36-year-old, father-of-five, of Hawk Street, Keighley, were convicted of 28 sexual offences on Thursday against the girl who cannot be named for legal reasons.Two other men, Abid Ali, 27, of Cark Road, Keighley and Raj Mohammed Shabir, 32, of Neville Street, Keighley, were cleared of all the sexual charges against them.
The jury were directed by Judge Peter Benson to return a not guilty verdict on another man, Shahid Iqbal, 25, of Nightingale Street, Keighley, half-way through proceedings.
Yesterday he jailed Zackriya for eight years, Taj for five years and Shabir for five years.
Shabir was also given an additional six month sentence for contempt of court after he ”behaved in a quite disgraceful way” following a foul-mouthed outburst when a witness gave evidence.
All three were told they would have to sign the Sex Offenders’ Register indefinitely and made subject to orders restricting their association with children.
During a lengthy trial Bradford Crown Court was told that the teenager was targeted by the six men when she was aged 14 to15 because she “craved attention” before they carried out a series of cynical sexual offences. Continue Reading →
Yemen’s last Jews set to flee country
I wonder if Yemen will be Jew free before even France.
Aug 14, 2009 0:42 | Updated Aug 14, 2009 1:42
Yemen’s last Jews set to flee country
Israeli sources confirmed on Thursday Yemeni media reports that the overwhelming majority of the final remnant of Yemen’s ancient Jewish community, numbering some 250 people, are looking to leave the country due to persecution and violence.
Yemenite Jew Simha Ben-Yisrael, back, and her children arrive at Ben Gurion airport on Thursday.
Photo: AP
“About 120 of the Yemeni Jews want to move to Israel, 100 want to move to the US” – where there is a small Yemenite Jewish community – “and between 20 and 30 want to stay,” the source said, citing information obtained from the community.
Some of the Jews wishing to leave are unable to do so because they are having trouble selling their property, the source said.
Saba, Yemen’s official state news agency, reported Wednesday on a “mini-exodus” of Jews from the country “triggered by alleged harassment” and “fear of persecution.”
The article quoted Rabbi Yahya Yaish, chief rabbi of the Ridah and Amran districts, who said that “all Jews in the area are preparing to leave for Israel within the next [few] days.”
Yaish is the brother of Moshe Yaish al-Nahari, a community leader who was murdered in December by a local man who demanded that he convert to Islam. Nahari’s three daughters moved to Israel shortly after his murder, while his three sons made aliya in recent days with the help of the Jewish Agency, according to reports in the Yemeni media. His killer was sentenced to death in June.
According to Saba, Yaish warned that “harassment has been stepped up against Jews in the districts of Amran and Kharef, with some of the Jews killed and others kidnapped.”
Violent attacks and persecution have been a regular experience of Yemen’s tiny Jewish community in recent years, against the backdrop of tensions and an anti-government insurrection in the northwestern part of the country, in the province of Saada, where a Muslim religious minority affiliated with Shi’ite Islam has been clashing with government forces since 2004.
Most Yemeni Jews lived in nearby Amran province before fleeing either to protected compounds in the capital city of Sana’a or to Israel or the US. Those who remain offer easy targets for zealots.
Muslim Gang kills seven in Russian sauna
BBC NEWS…Russian police are hunting gunmen who killed seven women at a sauna and four policemen at a checkpoint in the troubled southern region of Dagestan.
The attack happened on Thursday in the town of Buynaksk, 41km (25 miles) from the regional capital Makhachkala.
Police say they know the identities of some of the gunmen, who fled into a forest after the attack.
Separately, four policemen and two militants were killed in a clash near Grozny, in neighbouring Chechnya.
Moscow has been keen to portray Chechnya and the region as an area returning to normal after years of unrest.
But these latest attacks form part of a wider pattern: a growing anti-Kremlin, Islamist insurgency that appears to be spreading across the North Caucasus, the BBC’s Gabriel Gatehouse reports.
On Friday police shot and killed three militants near a village in Dagestan’s Derbent district, officials say.
In Thursday’s attack in Dagestan, at least 15 gunmen opened fire on a traffic police checkpoint on the edge of Buynaksk, Russian media quoted local police as saying.
The gunmen are reported to have hijacked a minibus, which they later abandoned.
They went on to attack a sauna at a nearby health complex, killing seven women workers there.
Dagestan has been plagued by violence in recent years, much of it linked to the conflict between security forces and separatist rebels in Chechnya, a mainly Muslim Russian republic.
Russian forces have fought two wars against Islamist rebels in Chechnya since 1994. The conflicts claimed more than 100,000 lives and left it in ruins.
Clashes with militants are also common in Ingushetia, which borders on Chechnya to the west.
MP defends Muslim wedding walkout
BBC NEWS… A government minister has defended his decision to walk out of a Muslim wedding in east London because he was told he must sit apart from his wife.
Jim Fitzpatrick, food, farming and environment minister, left a ceremony at London Muslim Centre, Whitechapel.
The MP for Poplar and Canning Town told the BBC the segregation showed a degree of intolerance in the East End.
But a spokesman for the centre said the segregation was at the request of the couple getting married.
Mr Fitzpatrick, whose constituency is home to a large Muslim community, blamed the tough stance on the Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE) – an organisation that calls for Sharia law – which is based in the same building.
He told the BBC’s Today: “This is a very exceptional occasion, it’s a new occurrence.
“It perhaps demonstrates that there is a degree of intolerance – certainly exclusion rather than inclusion which we are trying to build in the East End.
“Certainly the vast number of my Muslim constituents who’ve contacted me have expressed sympathy that I was placed in this predicament.”
Mr Fitzpatrick is the local MP and a family friend of bride Mahbuba Kamali and groom Bodrul Islam.
The couple said they decided on a segregated wedding out of respect for some of their elderly relatives.
Mrs Kamali said: “It was a private party so if we want to make these requests we are not imposing it and saying we want it to go nationwide and for everyone to be segregated.
“If we wanted to we could have had a fancy dress party and ask all our guests to come this way, and I’m sure he would not refuse.”
‘Hijacked politically’
Mr Islam said he was “upset and embarrassed” by the incident.
“I don’t think anyone deserves to have their wedding hijacked for political purposes, or any other purposes,” he said.
Mohammad Shakir, a spokesman for the centre, said: “Segregated weddings have always been popular in the Muslim community – the London Muslim Centre has facilitated them for over five years.
“It is part of the attraction for Muslim families so they can celebrate their happy day in a religious atmosphere.
“We have always allowed non-Muslim guests to be seated together without segregation, but this is entirely at the discretion of the families who hire the halls.”
Mosque gun battle rages in Gaza
BBC NEWS… At least six people have been killed and dozens injured in a fierce gun battle in Gaza, emergency services say.
Eyewitnesses say hundreds of Hamas fighters and policemen surrounded then raided a mosque where followers of a radical Islamist cleric were holed up.
They had fired rocket-propelled grenades at the mosque in Rafah, near the Egyptian border, witnesses say.
It is thought that at least 100 supporters of the al-Qaeda-linked group Warriors of God are inside.
Hamas said a grenade fired from the mosque killed one of its fighters. The other fatalities were reported to be gunmen, and a child was also killed.
Fighting pledge
Earlier, during Friday prayers, hundreds of worshippers at Ibn-Taymiyah mosque declared Gaza an “Islamic emirate”.
The mosque’s imam – Abdel-Latif Moussa – and armed supporters swore to fight to the death rather than hand over authority of the mosque to Hamas.
The Salafi Warriors of God, or Jund Ansar Allah, gained some prominence two months ago when it staged a failed attack on a border crossing between Gaza and Israel.
The group is very critical of Hamas, which governs Gaza, accusing the Islamist group of not being Islamist enough.
Hamas has cracked down on al-Qaeda-inspired groups in the past.
It is concerned they may attract more extremist members, and has forbidden anyone except what it describes as Hamas security personnel to carry weapons in Gaza.
Smile of the day. Govt. of Somalia warns not to visit:
August 14, 2009
Somali officials warned foreigners on Aug. 14 not to visit the country without government approval, Reuters reported. The warning was issued in response after gunmen killed seven Pakistani clerics at a mosque on Aug. 12.
I bet lots of you are now calling to cancel flights right?
Imam speaks on the true nature of pee. A fatwa for the ages
This has to be seen to be believed. US tax dollars at work in Iraqi universities.
Welcome back Khadr!!!
Islamists in Canada rejoice! Canadian born terrorism suspect and family member of Canada’s First Family of Terror Omar Khadr is coming home!
From the Montreal Gazette.
Court confirms ruling to repatriate Khadr
By Andrew Mayeda, Canwest News Service August 14, 2009 11:43 AM
Omar Khadr at a hearing at the U.S. Military Commissions court for war crimes, at the U.S. Naval Base, in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in a court sketch.
Photograph by: Janet Hamlin, AFP/Getty Images
OTTAWA — A Federal Court of Appeal judge upheld a ruling Friday ordering the government to repatriate Canadian-born terrorism suspect Omar Khadr from the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay.
In April, Federal Court Justice James O’Reilly ordered the Harper government to seek Khadr’s repatriation, arguing the government’s ongoing refusal to do so violates his rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
O’Reilly ruled the Canadian government was directly involved in Khadr’s mistreatment in Guantanamo Bay by sharing information with U.S. authorities, even though Canadian officials knew Khadr was being subjected to interrogation techniques such as sleep deprivation.
The judge also found that Canada has violated international laws that protect child soldiers.
Khadr, who was born in Toronto, was 15 years old when he was picked up by the United States army in Afghanistan during a shootout with American forces in 2002. He is accused of lobbing a grenade that killed a U.S. army medic. Continue Reading →
Turncoat Karzai bargains away Afghan women in deal for votes
” Karzai has made an unthinkable deal to sell Afghan women out in return for the support of fundamentalists in the August 20 election. So much for any credentials he claimed as a moderate on women’s issues”. Brad Adams, Asia director, New York-based Human Rights Watch.
From The Ottawa Citizen.
Karzai ‘sells out Afghan women’ over law
By Jonathon Burch, ReutersAugust 14, 2009 11:01 AM
A woman listens to presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai at a rally in Kabul on Wednesday. Afghanistan’s presidential election will be held on August 20.
Photograph by: Lucy Nicholson, Reuters
KABUL – A leading rights group accused President Hamid Karzai on Friday of selling out Afghan women by ratifying a Shiite law, which has drawn wide condemnation over its harsh provisions on women, before next week’s election.
Karzai, who approved the law earlier this year, was forced to review the decision after Western leaders and Afghan women’s rights groups expressed dismay at provisions on women’s rights some people said were reminiscent of Taliban-era restrictions.
An amended version of the Shiite Personal Status Law was submitted last month and published in the official gazette on July 27, bringing it into effect weeks ahead of the Aug. 20 presidential poll, New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.
“Karzai has made an unthinkable deal to sell Afghan women out in return for the support of fundamentalists in the August 20 election,” said Brad Adams, Asia director for HRW.
“So much for any credentials he claimed as a moderate on women’s issues,” he said in a statement. Continue Reading →
Violent, weapon weilding punks rob fast-food joints
From the Ottawa Citizen
Ottawa police release photos of suspects in violent fast-food restaurant robberies
By Tony Spears, The Ottawa CitizenAugust 14, 2009 9:49 AM
Police photos of suspects in Ottawa fast-food restaurant robberies.
Photograph by: Ottawa Police, Ottawa Police
OTTAWA — Seven violent fast-food restaurant robberies in Ottawa have police turning to the public for help.
Two to six suspects armed with knives, bats and sometimes a handgun would storm the eateries by their front and rear doors, and force employees to empty out cash registers and safes. The suspects would flee on foot.
Minor injuries were reported after some robberies though none required medical attention.
Police believe the robberies may be linked.
The robberies occurred from June 19 to July 8 at the following stores:
Domino’s Pizza, in the 500-block of Montreal Road on June 19.
Dairly Queen, in the 300-block of St. Laurent Boulevard on June 22.
Burger King, in the 200-block of Ogilvie Road on June 23.
Pizza Pizza, in the 1900-block of Montreal Road on June 26.
Pizza Pizza, in the 1300-block of Richmond Road on June 26.
Dairy Queen, in the 400-block of Terry Fox Drive on June 30.
Bobby’s Pizza, in the 1400-block of Ogilvie Road on July 8.
The suspects are described as male, black or middle-eastern and around 20 years old.
Anyone with information is asked to call police at 613-236-1222 ext. 5116 or Crime Stoppers at 613-233-8477 (TIPS)
Crown wants taxi union boss jailed for ‘honour crime’
Well, on the Multi Culti front, Canada has something to be proud of. It would seem that we are ahead of the curve in terms of ‘honour’ killings and other Muslim crime for the percentage of Islamic population Canada has. If I lived in Toronto, I would make my next car one built from asbestos.
From the Ottawa Citizen:
By Andrew Seymour, The Ottawa CitizenAugust 14, 2009 6:55 AM
OTTAWA — Crown prosecutors are seeking to send the head of Ottawa’s taxi union to jail for up to two years, alleging that a campaign of threatening and intimidating behaviour directed toward his daughter after she turned her back on the family’s Muslim beliefs was an honour crime.
Yusef Al Mezel’s threat of an honour killing was designed to “control and dominate” his then-23-year-old daughter, Eman Al Mezel, by suggesting she had brought shame upon her family that would be met with violent consequences, assistant Crown attorney James Cavanagh argued during a sentencing hearing Thursday.
Al Mezel, who pleaded guilty to criminal harassment last September, was trying to deny his daughter “every basic freedom as to how she could live her life,” Cavanagh said, the result of an “underlying notion of patriarchal dominance” based on a “perverted and archaic belief in family honour.”
“When she wouldn’t bend to his will … he raised the spectre of violence in the name of honour to scare her into complying with his wishes,” said Cavanagh, who urged Ontario Superior Court Justice Lynn Ratushny to sentence the 44-year-old president of the Canadian Autoworkers Local 1688 to 18 to 24 months behind bars.
Al Mezel admitted he repeatedly called, wrote, followed and visited the residences of Eman Al Mezel in July 2007 in an attempt to get his daughter to return home after a violent incident where he pushed her into a flight of stairs and threatened to break her legs and kill her before smashing her computer. Continue Reading →
Man wins right to sacrifice goats, turtles in Texas
Yes, this is true.
” He’s claiming that his religious beliefs trump all state and local laws related to public health. If he (Merced) claims that his religious beliefs need him to have an elephant in his back yard……then no one could stop that. The law is not designed to allow someone to be a law unto themselves, and that’s what he’s claiming–that he gets to describe the law”, lawyer William McKamie on Mr. Merced.
From the National Post
Animal sacrifices spark religious fight
Texas man wins court ruling upholding faith-based rights
Mary Vallis, National Post Published: Friday, August 14, 2009
Jose Merced seems like an average Texan: He has a good job with an airline, a house in a suburban cul-de-sac, three chihuahuas and strong religious faith.
It is what transpired in a bedroom attached to his garage, however, that piqued his neighbours’ interest about five years ago. Police in Euless, a suburb of Fort Worth, received two anonymous calls warning that Mr. Merced, 46, was preparing to slit a goat’s throat.
When officers arrived at his door in 2004, they learned that for the past 16 years, Mr. Merced had been sacrificing more than goats — ducks, chickens, doves and turtles had all been brought to his door, and killed at the same time in ceremonies for a little-known religion. Continue Reading →
Crown wants man jailed for honour crime
From the Ottawa Citizen
Crown wants taxi union boss jailed for ‘honour crime’
That’s ‘not my world,’ man insists, despite threats to daughter
By Andrew Seymour, The Ottawa CitizenAugust 14, 2009 6:55 AM
OTTAWA — Crown prosecutors are seeking to send the head of Ottawa’s taxi union to jail for up to two years, alleging that a campaign of threatening and intimidating behaviour directed toward his daughter after she turned her back on the family’s Muslim beliefs was an honour crime.
Yusef Al Mezel’s threat of an honour killing was designed to “control and dominate” his then-23-year-old daughter, Eman Al Mezel, by suggesting she had brought shame upon her family that would be met with violent consequences, assistant Crown attorney James Cavanagh argued during a sentencing hearing Thursday.
Al Mezel, who pleaded guilty to criminal harassment last September, was trying to deny his daughter “every basic freedom as to how she could live her life,” Cavanagh said, the result of an “underlying notion of patriarchal dominance” based on a “perverted and archaic belief in family honour.” Continue Reading →
India receives threat of multiple bomb blasts in demand of separate muslim state in Kerala
KANNUR – The cyber police cell in Kerala, India has traced an e-mail threat from the United Arab Emirates, warning of widespread bomb blasts in the state, if a separate Muslim state, comprising districts of north Kerala, is not created.
Speaking to IANS, inspector general of police Tomin J. Thachenkery said Friday that the e-mail was received Thursday at a few media offices.
“We immediately began our work and found that the mail is from United Arab Emirates based Etisalat and the domain is that of Yahoo. Since a first information report is required to trace out the IP of the computer, a case has been registered here at the Kannur Town police station.”
He added that the e-mail was written by Zakhir Hussain who claims to be the head of the newly formed Malabar Mujahid which has its headquarters in Karachi and has support from ISI (Inter-services intelligence) of Pakistan and LeT (Lashkar-e-Toiba).
“If their demand for a separate Muslim state is not met, then bombs will be deployed across the state and for that they have already shipped seven kilograms of RDX. The first of the series of bomb blasts will begin with a sample one today (Friday), being the Independence Day of Pakistan,” said the letter, according to Thachenkery.
Following the e-mail, the state has been put on high alert and instructions have gone to all district headquarters to remain vigilant.