Reader’s submitted news links for July 10 – 2015

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Thank you all for those that take the effort to assist this site in keeping the public informed. Below, typically people can find the latest enemy propaganda, news items of related materials from multiple countries and languages, op-eds from many excellent sites who write on our topics, geopolitics and immigration issues and so on.

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

51 Replies to “Reader’s submitted news links for July 10 – 2015”

  1. What a bountiful Ramadan!

    At least 20 dead in Bangladesh stampede (CNN, July 10, 2015)
    http://edition.cnn.com/2015/07/10/asia/bangladesh-stampede-deaths/index.html

    “Dhaka, Bangladesh (CNN) A rush to receive donated clothes resulted in a stampede in central Bangladesh that killed at least 20 people Friday, police said.

    The stampede, which took place in Mymensingh district, injured dozens more, District Police Chief Moinul Haque told reporters. Authorities fear the death toll may rise.

    According to local reports, more than 1,500 gathered outside the gates of the tobacco factory before dawn after receiving word the owners would be handing out free clothes. The stampede occurred when many tried to force their way in, the reoprts said.

    As the Muslim holy month of Ramadan draws to an end, the faithful perform ‘Zakat,’ or an act of charity. Often, it comes in the form of providing clothing or money to the needy.

    In the past, such well-meaning acts have also sometimes resulted in stampedes.”

  2. Op-Ed: Ten Years After the London Attacks, the British Still Don’t Get it

    http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/17195

    “Prisoners of their freedom, they proclaim that they will not change their “lifestyle”; instead they censor the founding values of civilization.

    London mourned the dead and the mutilated on the tenth anniversary of the massacre of 7 July 2005. Fifty-six victims at the hands of suicide bombers with birth certificates from Luton, Bradford, Manchester. A few days ago, at a beach on the Mediterranean, Jihad returned to kill thirty Englishmen.

    But ten years later, they still do not get it.

    We did not understand that the terror that struck the British metropolis was a war, not the idea of ??a few fanatics, but the vocation of choice of the best examples of integration, boys and girls, Muslims who attended the Foremarke Hall of Repton which counts among its alumni writers like Christopher Isherwood and former archbishops of Canterbury. Boys and girls who listened to Coldplay, wanted to change the world and were photographed with ministers (as was Reyaad Khan, a leader of the British cell obeying the orders of the Caliph).

    A figure? It comes from Shiraz Maher, of the International Center for the Study of Radicalization: “There are more British Muslims in Isis than in the British Military”.

    See link for more.

  3. THE PRESIDENT’S LOOKING-GLASS ISLAMIC WORLD

    http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/259413/presidents-looking-glass-islamic-world-bruce-thornton

    Obama may have forgotten about “war with Islam,” but war with Islam has not forgotten about him.

    President Obama recently gave a speech at the Pentagon about our efforts against ISIS that confirmed he has little awareness of the real world our enemies inhabit. The talk reprised the usual received wisdom and unchallenged orthodoxy that comprise most of the foreign policy establishment’s ideas about Islamic jihadism and how we should fight it. Consider the following particularly egregious examples:

    Ideologies are not defeated with guns; they’re defeated by better ideas–– a more attractive and more compelling vision.

    This statement is a classic either-or fallacy. Anyone familiar with history would have added the adverb “just” before “with guns.” Obama is indulging stealth pacifism, a variation on the “violence doesn’t solve anything” and “use your words” mantras of the junior high playground monitor. Such a stance is politically convenient when the voters are against the use of force, and a leader doesn’t have the will or ability to convince them why force is necessary.

    In general, the superior quality of what men fight for is indeed a force-multiplier, as the Greeks proved at Marathon, Salamis, and Plataea. But significant force still has to be applied to kill a critical mass of the enemy. And even with the best ideas, more often it is the “guns” that in the end make the difference. Those victorious Greek hoplites and rowers had weaponry and tactics superior to the Persians’, as well as the better ideals of freedom and autonomy. World War II was another battle of freedom against tyranny. But Nazism was ultimately defeated by the U.S.’s ability to produce armaments at a rate Germany could not match––just in one month of 1944, America produced more Sherman tanks than all the tanks the Germany produced in a year. If the U.S. hadn’t entered the war, the “better ideas” of English civilization, despite their expression in the soaring oratory of Winston Churchill, would not alone have led to Hitler’s defeat.

    So yes, “better ideas” are critical for winning a war. As Napoleon said, morale to the material is as three to one. But the importance of “ideas” like political freedom, confessional tolerance, and individual rights lies not, as Obama suggests, in their power to make our enemies change sides or reject the ideas they are fighting for. Rather, their power lies in the way they motivate and inspire those who fight for their own superior ideals because they are confident that they are superior. Obama in contrast is alluding to the power of mere example when he mentions “a more attractive and more compelling vision,” a phrase vague to the point of emptiness. I think he means that if the jihadists or potential jihadists could understand and experience the freedom, peace, and prosperity we enjoy, they would reject their own motivating beliefs, particularly the doctrines of traditional Islam, which they so passionately believe are superior that in their service they will murder innocents and blow themselves up.

    This naïve belief in the attractive power of our ideals has been the big mistake of our war against jihad, one made by both parties. To traditionalist Muslims, the ideals we cherish are not self-evidently superior to those of Islam. What we call freedom, for example, pious Muslims like Ayatollah Khomeini understood to be license: it is the “freedom that will corrupt our youth, freedom that will pave the way to the oppressor, freedom that will drag our nation to the bottom.” Similarly, al Qaeda theorist Ayman al-Zawahiri wrote, “The freedom we want is not the freedom to use women as commodities . . . it is not the freedom of AIDS and an industry of obscenities and homosexual marriages.” Of course, our idea of political freedom is much different from these social practices, but the biggest example of Western freedom that most Muslims see is the degrading spectacles available on satellite television, Hollywood movies, and the Internet.

    Likewise with democracy, tolerance, separation of church and state, sex equality, and all the other goods that define the Western civilizational paradigm but are contrary to shari’a law and Islamic doctrine. For a Muslim who takes those doctrines seriously––and poll after poll shows that hundreds of millions do–– none of these goods is worth risking his eternal soul. Indeed, they are seductive temptations for the pious, the subtle weapons the infidels use to weaken the faithful and bring about their spiritual destruction. That’s why the mullahs call us the “Great Satan”: not just because in Muslim eyes we are evil, but because we are tempters who addle the minds of the faithful with what the Iranian political activist Al-e Ahmad in 1962 called “Westoxification.”

    Our strategy recognizes that no amount of military force will end the terror that is ISIL unless it’s matched by a broader effort — political and economic — that addresses the underlying conditions that have allowed ISIL to gain traction.

    The assumption that ISIS exists because of a lack of political and economic opportunity is founded on a similar misunderstanding of jihadists’ motivations. This simplistic explanation of terror has been with us since 9/11, when Bill Clinton said, “These forces of reaction feed on disillusionment, poverty and despair,” and leftist “activist” Barbara Ehrenreich blamed the attacks on “the vast global inequalities in which terrorism is rooted.”

    But if poverty or a lack of democracy is the cause of terror, then why aren’t the billions of poor, disenfranchised young men across the globe committing acts of terror at the rate of young Muslim men? Why do so many jihadist leaders and theorists come from affluent backgrounds, like Osama bin Laden, or lucrative professions, like the surgeon Ayman al-Zawahiri? Why do Muslim immigrants in the affluent West, with a level of material existence and citizen rights far beyond those of their cohorts in the Third World, murder their fellow citizens or flock to join ISIS?

    This economic or political determinism ignores the powerful and passionate reality of religious belief among Muslims, whose faith commands them, “O believers! Fight those of the unbelievers who are near to you and let them find in you hardness” (Koran 9:123). But having reduced religion to a life-style choice, Western materialist determinism cannot imagine that violent acts can be motivated by sincere faith and obedience to Allah’s commands. So like Obama, we search for causes that suit our own materialist, secular world-view, such as poverty or lack of political freedom. But as Ayatollah Khomeini said in refutation of this received idea, “We did not have a revolution to lower the price of melons.”

    We’ll constantly reaffirm through words and deeds that we will never be at war with Islam. We’re fighting terrorists who distort Islam and whose victims are mostly Muslims.

    This hoary cliché has done the most damage to our war against jihadism. And its patent falsity can be easily documented in 14 centuries of Islamic scripture, jurisprudence, history, and practice. As the Egyptian critic of Islam Ahmed Harqan said recently, “What has ISIS done that Mohammed didn’t do?” Behead captives? In 627, Mohammed beheaded 600-900 males of the Jewish Banu Qurayzah tribe, in line with Koran 8:12: “I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them.”

    Enslave the defeated? Mohammed enslaved the women and children of the Banu Qurayzah, and following his model Islam has been one of history’s great slaving civilizations. Just between 1500 and 1800, the Muslim kingdoms of North Africa took 1.5 million European slaves. These depredations were in line with Islamic doctrine, as the representative of the pasha of Tripoli explained to John Adams and Thomas Jefferson in 1785. It was “written in the Koran,” he explained, “that all nations who should not have acknowledged their [Muslim] authority were sinners, that it was their [Muslim] right and duty to make war upon whoever they could find.” And as Mohammed showed, taking slaves is the just reward for those who, like ISIS, prevail in battle.

    Nor is ISIS’s goal of restoring the caliphate some fringe distortion of Islamic doctrine. Since its final dissolution in 1922––the “catastrophe” bin Laden mentioned after 9/11–– the caliphate has remained a potent dream for many Muslims, for whom secular nationalism is an alien Western idea contrary to the unified political-religious polity of Islamic doctrine. Thus as pan-Arab theorist Nuri al-Said wrote in 1943, Arab Muslim nationalism “springs from the Muslim feeling of brotherhood enjoined on them by the Prophet Mohammed . . . Although Arabs are naturally attached to their native land their nationalism is not confined by boundaries. It is an aspiration to restore the great tolerant civilization of the early Caliphate.”

    We can hear the larger import of this same “aspiration” in Islamist theorist Sayyid Qutb’s claim that “Islam came into this earth to establish God’s rule on God’s earth” and to form “a Muslim community in which individuals . . . have gathered together under servitude to God and follow only the Shari’a of God.” So too Ayatollah Khomeini’s boast: “We shall export our revolution to the whole world. Until the cry ‘There is no God but Allah’ resounds over the whole world, there will be struggle.”

    Contrary to Obama and others willfully blind to the reality of Islamic doctrine and history, neither the aims of ISIS nor their methods “distort” Islam. Rather, the soldiers of ISIS are the latest in a long tradition of Muslim warriors inspired by Islamic precept and practice. They are a manifestation of Muslim Brothers theorist Hassan al-Banna’s traditional belief that “It is the nature of Islam to dominate not to be dominated, to impose its laws on all nations, and extend its power to the entire planet.” Obama may have forgotten about “war with Islam,” but war with Islam has not forgotten about him.

    Just repeating the mantra “nothing to do with Islam” or “religion of peace” or “moderate Muslims” will not change reality. Neither can the other great illusions of modernity like pacifism, disarmament, or the diplomatic settling of disputes that are created by irreconcilable ideologies and conflicting beliefs. The reality of history teaches us that only mind-concentrating, overwhelming force can convince the passionate aggressor to change his ways. The alternative is this administration’s slow-motion appeasement that has left the region a shambles and is escorting Iran to possession of nuclear weapons.

  4. Rifqa Bary: When she converted from Islam to Christianity, did this woman risk her life?

    http://jonathanmerritt.religionnews.com/2015/07/09/when-she-converted-from-islam-to-christianity-did-woman-risk-her-life/

    ” Interviewer: When you fled your home at age 16, it ended up gaining you national media attention. Talk about why you left.

    RB: My parents claim they always knew about my faith and let me practice Christianity. Why would I leave home if I was free to practice my faith? Why would I choose to live in the foster care system? If my parents are telling the truth, my life would have been much easier if I had gone home. I chose to stay in foster care, moved from placement to placement, separated from my friends, rather than return to the abuse and threats I experienced at home.

    My friends knew I had to hide my faith from my family. Pastor Brian Williams risked arrest and felony charges to help me escape. If my father was willing to move our family to another country to escape the shame of my sexual abuse, what would he do if I committed apostasy, one of the worst crimes in Islam? He told me, “If you are a Christian . . . I will kill you.””

    • Thank you Lolly,

      The surrealness of the islamodhimmi cuddling up with the Catholicprayermat to interview Tom’s sharp mind with their wit of giggling schoolgirls with mercenary envy and insult banded about like Loose Women, is to say ten minutes spent on observing this mediocrity of their-cowardly-submission that onwards has induced denial in creative thought and consciousness within two uniting sockpuppets, (representing the entitlement victimized-faces of the Far Right and Far Left that control them), is more than enough to endure.

      • Fortunately Tom Trento used his time to expose them as lazy-platitude, comfort-seeking Useful Idiots.

  5. Judge Jeanine exposes how the Muslimes are murdering Christians (and Jews) systematically across the world:

  6. Two dead as lone gunman goes on drive-by shooting in Ansbach, south Germany

    SEVERAL people have been killed in a shooting with the gunman on the run in Ansbach, south Germany.

    An older woman was shot first as a gunman fired shots from a car in the Bavarian city.

    She is understood to be an 82-year-old woman.

    The victim died at the scene, police said.

    The rampage continued when the gunman shot a cyclist dead before a striking a farmer and another motorist, police said.

    Police launched a manhunt for the gunman and said he could be dangerous. He was travelling in a silver convertible Mercedes Cabrio.

    Petrol station employees restrained the man after he went into the kiosk with a weapon, according the local media reports.

    They fastened cable ties around his hands until the police arrived.

    Officers detained a man at a petrol station. He is believed to be 18.

    http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/590211/Ansbach-shooting-Several-people-murdered-gunman-Germany

  7. Turkey arrests 21 suspected ISIS members, 3 of them foreigners

    Turkish authorities have arrested 21 people — including three foreigners — suspected of belonging to ISIS, Turkey’s semiofficial Anadolu news agency reported Friday.

    Anti-terror police carried out simultaneous raids in four areas, including Istanbul, the news agency said. The other arrests were in northwestern Kocaeli province and the southern provinces of Sanliurfa, which borders Syria, and Mersin.

    Those arrested are accused of being members of ISIS who helped recruit people to join the extremist group, Anadolu said.

    The three foreigners were preparing to cross the border into Syria, it added.

    Turkey has become a popular transit route for people seeking to reach Syria, where ISIS and other opposition groups have been battling the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

    Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaking at a dinner for foreign ambassadors Thursday, said Turkey had deported more than 1,300 Syria-bound foreigners suspected of links to ISIS, according to an Anadolu report.

    “Over 14,000 others have been banned from entering into Turkey on suspicion of terror-linked acts,” Erdogan added.

    http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/10/europe/turkey-isis-suspects-arrested/index.html

  8. IRAQ – 2015-07-10 Kata’ib Hezbollah fighters parading on “Quds Day” in the center of Baiji (Iraq)

  9. ISLAMIC STATE – West Africa Province, the division of the Islamic State formerly known as “Boko Haram,” released a video of attacking Nigerian security forces and beheading a captured soldier.

    ( 10 min 09 )

  10. REBEL MEDIA – Islamic radicalism is real, but certifying imams is a terrible idea

    « The Canadian Senate’s committee on security and defence has called for the government to, quote, “investigate the options that are available for the training and certification of imams in Canada.”

    They’re proposing the wrong solution to a serious problem. »

  11. Muslim who praised IS drove case against ‘Satanic Islam’ sermon Belfast pastor McConnell

    A leading Northern Ireland Muslim who praised Islamic State is set to be called as the main prosecution witness against a Christian preacher charged with making offensive remarks about Islam.

    In legal documents seen exclusively by the Belfast Telegraph, Dr Raied Al-Wazzan of the Belfast Islamic Centre is named as the chief witness in the prosecution case against Pastor James McConnell.

    The evangelical preacher faces up to six months in prison if convicted over a sermon last year in which he branded Islam as “heathen” and “Satanic”.

    In his statement to the PSNI, Dr Al-Wazzan denounces the pastor’s “terrible comments” and describes his “general sweeping statements” as “offensive and disgusting”.

    In January Dr Al-Wazzan himself was embroiled in controversy when he said that Islamic State, which has carried out mass executions and forced millions of people to flee their homes, had been a positive force in Mosul, his home city in Iraq.

    “Since the Islamic State took over, it has become the most peaceful city in the world,” he told BBC Radio Ulster’s Talkback.

    “Yes, there are other things going wrong there… they are murdering people, I agree, but you can go from east to west of the city without fear.”

    His comments provoked public outrage and Dr Al-Wazzan later withdrew them and apologised.

    In his statement to the PSNI about Pastor McConnell, Dr Al-Wazzan claims that many Muslims in Northern Ireland are professionals while the pastor’s congregation “may include impressionable, uneducated people”.

    Last night Pastor McConnell told the Belfast Telegraph: “The PPS’s case against me is summed up by the fact that the chief witness the prosecution is calling is a man who made highly controversial comments about Isis (Islamic State in Syria and the Levant).

    “A man who praised the rule in Iraq of Isis murderers will be giving evidence against me – it’s like a pantomime.

    “I don’t know how he will have the nerve to stand in a court and testify against me, and I don’t know how the PPS has the nerve to think he is in a position morally to do that.”

    Pastor McConnell’s solicitor Joe Rice said: “There are many bizarre features to this prosecution. We have now served our voluntary defence statement upon the court and the PPS.

    “We expect the PPS to release additional and new information which may lead us to lodge an abuse of process application in the near future.”

    A Public Prosecution Service spokesman said: “This case is now before the court and it is for the judge to decide on all evidential matters. It would be inappropriate for the PPS to make any further comment at this point.”

    Pastor McConnell has been charged under the 2003 Communications Act with “sending, or causing to be sent, by means of a public electronic communications network, a message or other matter that was grossly offensive”.

    The charges centre on a sermon he gave in May 2014 in which he said “Islam is heathen, Islam is Satanic, Islam is a doctrine spawned in Hell.” The sermon in the Whitewell Metropolitan Tabernacle was streamed on the internet.

    In his statement to the PSNI four days after Pastor McConnell’s sermon, Dr Al-Wazzan reveals he hadn’t actually heard the sermon but became aware of it two days later when the Belfast Telegraph telephoned the Belfast Islamic Centre asking for comment about the preacher’s remarks.

    Dr Al-Wazzan, an executive committee member of the centre, said he was “very offended” about what the evangelical preacher had said.

    He told police: “It makes me angry that this man is making general sweeping statements of this type, branding all Muslims like this. A lot of the Muslim community in Belfast are professionals such as doctors and to hear this man speak like this is disgraceful and disgusting.

    “My concerns are then worsened by the fact this man is in a position of power, preaching to a large congregation which may include impressionable, uneducated people who may then start to listen and believe what this man is saying rather than form their own beliefs.” In his five-page statement, Dr Al-Wazzan said he had been contacted by many Muslims worried about their safety following Pastor McConnell’s sermon.

    “I now have concerns for the Muslim community and feel that any attacks that may happen in the forthcoming weeks are a direct result of what this man said on Sunday,” he added.

    When Pastor McConnell was questioned by police about his sermon in June last year, Dr Al-Wazzan’s complaint was the only one the PSNI had received. A week later three more Muslims contacted the police to make brief statements of complaint.

    They included two men from Pakistan whose north Belfast home was attacked a fortnight after the preacher’s controversial comments. Following the attack, Pastor McConnell visited the house, condemned what happened, and gave Muhammad Asif Khattak and Haroon Khan £100 to replace their broken window.

    The Christian preacher is due to appear in court next month but the case is not likely to be heard until December.

    Mr Rice has said it will be a landmark trial with leading political, religious, and academic figures giving evidence in defence of freedom of speech and religion.

    Pastor McConnell last night said he was sorry if he had offended Muslims but he was still willing to go to jail rather than withdraw his remarks.

    “Everybody has the right to free speech,” he said. “When Dr Al-Wazzan found himself in trouble for his Isis comments earlier this year, I publicly said that he had let himself go but I stressed that he shouldn’t be reported to the police.

    “As strongly as I disagree with what he said, I support his right to say it. But, it seems, the same right is not extended to me.”

    http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/muslim-who-praised-is-drove-case-against-satanic-islam-sermon-belfast-pastor-mcconnell-31365308.html

    • “Islam is heathen, Islam is Satanic, Islam is a doctrine spawned in Hell.”

      How do you prove a Big Lie is non of these things?

      But then in the UK Socialism has written the Law where the truth is no defence. It is only that someone is offended from a protected Preferential Group or someone on behalf of that cult. And even that does not have to be proven, just asserted.

      It will be interesting to see what the jury, who can still deliberate in private, come up with for their masters.

      • To say that islam is Satanic is perfectly reasonable in as much as the attributes of Satan are fully miscible with the attributes and values of islam. In fact, if a Christian were to be asked what sort of things would Satan endorse, slavery, genocide, the committing of horrible crimes in the name of virtue and the slaughter of virtue as a crime and so on and so on, its a tidy fit. The reality of these entities are far far less important than their symbolic and archetypal value at this stage, would you not agree?

  12. Somalia hotels attacked by militants in Mogadishu (BBC, July 10, 2015)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-33485359

    “At least five people were killed when militants in the Somali capital Mogadishu attacked two hotels.

    A security operation has now ended at one of the hotels, near the parliament building.

    The BBC’s Moalimu Mohammed, in the city, says the two hotels were busy with people breaking their Ramadan fast when they were attacked at 18:10 local time (15:10 GMT).

    The Islamist militant group al-Shabab has said it was behind the attack.

    Our reporter says the two hotels – the Wehliya and Siyaad – are among the best known in the city.

    The Siyaad is near the presidential palace, while the Wehliya is close to parliament.

    “Car bombs rammed into the hotels named Wehliya and Siyaad. Then our fighters stormed in,” an al-Shabab spokesman told Reuters.

    Some reports say fighting is ongoing, but Somalia’s National Intelligence & Security Agency tweeted that the attacks had been foiled.

    There was also a mortar attack on a base of the African Union (AU) force in the city at the same time.

    The AU is helping the government battle al-Shabab, which is linked to al-Qaeda.

    Security in Somalia has improved, but al-Shabab still attacks Mogadishu regularly.

    The militants have also targeted neighbouring countries, killing almost 150 people in an assault on Garissa University College in Kenya in April.”

  13. Greek Muslims seek government support to build mosque, burial ground

    Demanding their religious rights, Muslims in Greece have called on the government to approve and support the building of permanent places of worship and a burial ground for Muslims, according to media reports.

    Muslims, whose number is estimated at about 300,000 in and around Athens, have no place of worship except converted garages or makeshift buildings, which can be demolished at any time. These places, as they are not officially recognized, have on several occasions posed danger to the lives of Muslims. Two years ago a petrol barrel set fire to a mosque in Athens, the inferno now turned the city as the only European capital without a single mosque.”

    “I can say prayers for people everywhere, in homes, in the mosque, on the road, but I cannot bury a dead Muslim just anywhere.”

    “Of course, this is a difficult and expensive journey. Sending a body to Western Thrace, to the cemetery in Gümülcine, costs around 1,400 euros. In addition, most of the Muslims who live here are people who have fled war and don’t have that kind of money. So mostly, we gather money amongst ourselves to help out.
    There’s no other solution,” Imam Abdel Rahim Abdel-Sayed said on Tuesday.

    Looking at the present increase in the rate of Islamophobia in the West, Muslims have been victims to a series of attacks as the basements garages used for prayers are illegal. This makes the citizens increase abuses on Muslims, endangering their lives and properties.

    Golden Dawn (political party) has strictly objected to the construction of any mosque in Athens, a view that is also shared by the Greek Orthodox church.

    In a report to the BBC, although the Greek church warmed to the mosque idea, some senior figures remain opposed. Immigrants who lost their lives in Greece are either taken home through the support of their embassies and donations from Muslim community members, but those from poor countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Somalia and Syria, whose family could not afford the expense to have their deceased family members’ bodies sent to Western Thrace after dying due to situations faced in their countries.

    Muslims account for nearly 1.3 percent of Greece’s 10.7 million population. Greek Muslims have long called for building a grand mosque in Athens to accommodate the religious needs of the growing Muslim minority.

    Despite objections from its powerful Orthodox Church, Greece had pledged to build a mosque in Athens. But the crunching economic crisis, coupled with public enmity associating mosques with the Ottoman presence, has prevented the pledge from being translated into action.

    About 130 windowless, airless basements or warehouses in Athens currently serve as mosques for an estimated 200,000 Muslims in the Greek capital.

    Tens of thousands of Muslim immigrants perform prayers in private homes and have had to travel hundreds of kilometers to northern Greece for weddings, burials and other ceremonies.

    http://en.abna24.com/service/europe/archive/2015/07/09/699940/story.html

  14. islamic state – Almost 5,500 Tunisians in militant ranks, U.N. experts say

    U.N. experts said Friday that almost 5,500 Tunisians are fighting alongside jihadists abroad, urging Tunis to adopt a “national strategic plan” to curb the flow.

    “The number of Tunisian foreign fighters is one of the highest among those travelling to join conflicts abroad such as in Syria and Iraq,” said Elzbieta Karska, current head of a U.N. working group on the use of mercenaries.

    “Sophisticated travel networks operate to take recruits across the porous borders, and sometimes through areas where trafficking in people and illicit goods may not be effectively controlled,” Karska said after an eight-day mission to Tunisia.

    “Testimony has documented that the routes taken entail travel through Libya, then Turkey and its border at Antakya, and then Syria,” she said.

    Karska also pointed to possible links between mercenaries and foreign recruits to groups such as the Islamic State group battling in Iraq and Syria.
    *************************************************************************
    “It was reported to us that recruiters in these networks are well paid — one figure given is that of $3,000 to $10,000 per new recruit, depending on the person’s qualifications,” she said.
    *************************************************************************
    She said an estimated 4,000 Tunisians were in Syria, between 1,000 and 1,500 in Libya, 200 in Iraq, 60 in Mali and 50 in Yemen. Around 625 who have returned from Iraq are being prosecuted, the expert said.

    Karska urged Tunisian authorities to adopt “a national strategic plan… (to) respond to the diverse profiles and recruitment methods… (to) ensure the comprehensive adoption of international human rights standards in all its elements”.

    Tunisia has brought in a raft of new security measures, including arming tourist police, since a jihadist gunman killed 38 foreign holidaymakers, 30 of them Britons, at a beach resort on June 26.

    http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/07/10/Almost-5-500-Tunisians-in-jihadist-ranks-U-N-experts-say-.html

    • US STATE DEPT – Designation of Tunisia as a Major Non-NATO Ally

      Media Note
      Office of the Spokesperson
      Washington, DC
      July 10, 2015

      On May 21, President Obama announced his intent to designate Tunisia as a Major Non-NATO Ally during the visit to Washington of Tunisian President Caid Essebsi. Today, the Administration announced that the designation process is complete, making Tunisia the 16th Major Non-NATO Ally of the United States.

      Major Non-NATO Ally (MNNA) status sends a strong signal of our support for Tunisia’s decision to join the world’s democracies and highlights the value the United States places in its friendship with the Tunisian Government and its people.

      MNNA status is a symbol of our close relationship and comes with tangible privileges including eligibility for training, loans of equipment for cooperative research and development, and Foreign Military Financing for commercial leasing of certain defense articles.

      http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2015/07/244811.htm
      ——————————————————————————————–
      U.S. designates Tunisia as major non-NATO ally

      U.S. President Barack Obama upgraded the ally status of Tunisia on Friday, designating the northern African nation as a major non-NATO ally of the U.S.

      The status will qualify Tunisia for certain privileges in defense and security cooperation, making it easier for the country to get financial and military aid from Washington.

      Obama announced the decision in a memorandum for Secretary of State John Kerry, according to a statement issued by the White House.

      Obama hosted Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi in May at the White House, pledging continued economic aid and other support to help the ongoing transition in Tunisia.

      After their meeting, Obama told reporters that he intended to designate Tunisia as a major non-NATO ally of the U.S “in recognition of the importance that we place on the security and diplomatic relationship with Tunisia”.

      Citing “the excellent progress” already made in Tunisia’s transformation into “an inclusive and functioning democracy,” Obama told Essebsi that “the United States is fully committed to working with Tunisia so that it can continue to build on this success.”

      Countries with this designation include Afghanistan, Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand and Korea.

      http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2015-07/11/c_134402127.htm

  15. BREITBART : Revealed: The Muslim Brotherhood’s British Property Portfolio Bankrolling Global Islamism

    A registered charity with an £8.5million property portfolio in the UK, whose leaders have alleged links to al-Qaeda, Hamas and even the terrorists behind 9/11, has been revealed to exist solely to fund international Islamist organization, the Muslim Brotherhood. The trust owns 47 student flats in Leeds and the student rents have been unwittingly bankrolling political Islam in Europe for years.

    The Leicestershire-based Europe Trust, which was created in 1996 with the backing of Gulf donors, claims to be “a non-political, non-profit making and independent, charitable organisation” on its website, which seeks to “contribute to a harmonious society where equal opportunity and quality of life are a reality for everyone” by supporting “the advancement of the Islamic religion.”

    more on the page :

    http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/07/10/revealed-the-muslim-brotherhoods-british-property-portfolio-and-global-islamism/

  16. Pakistani consul general in US embarrasses his country

    An investigation is underway against the new consular general (CG) in Los Angeles, Hamid Asghar Khan.

    The investigation comes after months of complaints by the Pakistani community in Los Angeles to Pakistani Ambassador to the US Jalil Abbas Jillani and senior political figures in Pakistan, including Sartaj Aziz and Aizaz Chaudry. The investigation is being carried out after reports were filed by numerous individuals that included allegations of sexual harassment. Women at the office in Los Angeles and the Pakistani American community have alleged Khan repeatedly propositioned them and made untoward sexual suggestions.

    Sexual misconduct: It was reported that Khan hired the services of escort agencies during his time serving at the Pakistan Embassy in London. It has also been alleged that he asked several prominent Pakistani American businessmen for financial rewards. The businessmen reported that they were told by Khan that in order for them to bring much needed investment to Pakistan they would be required to give a payment or “kick back” to him. His business interests with Pakistani American city council member of small town in Southern California Ali Sajjad are also under investigation.

    Consumption of alcohol: It has been alleged that Khan demanded his staff bring him alcohol and then consume it, whilst in his Pakistan Consulate office. He would then proceed to become violent and abusive towards his colleagues. The unfair dismissal of members of Pakistan Foreign Service staff and abusive behaviour towards his staff, are also under investigation. The report also states that on Pakistan Day, Khan invited several members of the community to his official residence and offered alcoholic beverages to them, saying: “I’ll teach you guys to have fun”.

    It is reported that Khan spent Rs 300,000 to buy tickets for his guests for a qawwali concert. He also used government money to move to an extremely affluent area of Beverly Hills. The investigation which started in March 2015 is proceeding slowly. There is reluctance by senior diplomats and politicians to take any action against Khan. It is thought by many in senior political Pakistani circles that those investigating fear reprisals that may compromise their own tenable professional positions.

    The investigation was sparked after his behaviour at an official public event in March 2015. In the presence of over 100 guests, Khan whilst delivering his official speech, insulted and physically threatened one of the guests, Dr Mansoor Shah. Dr Shah is a prominent member of the Pakistan community, who founded the Council of Pakistani American Affairs. Following the speech numerous Pakistani and American guests complained of the incident to the Pakistan ambassador. They are also reports of Khan’s derogative remarks for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Chief of Army Staff Gen Raheel Sharif. They describe how Khan lamented Pakistan’s political, and energy crisis, and that he repeatedly said that Pakistan continues to beg and survive on international aid. One of the guests expressed his anger and said, “It is the role of the Consular General to promote Pakistan abroad and to improve its image not to belittle it and bring it ridicule.” Following the event, Qamar Abbas Khokar, the Head of Chancery at the Pakistan Embassy called all the guests present, to apologise for Khan’s behaviour.

    The behaviour has not only offended the Pakistani community but eminent American politicians, who have since distanced themselves from Khan. The politicians have now refused to attend any future Pakistan Consular events. Tony Mendoza, a prominent California Senator has publicly expressed his dismay and regret over Khan’s behaviour and is one of the many American politicians who no longer attends the Consular General’s events.

    Khan’s behaviour, it appears, is not only damaging the already fragile relationship with the American community, but also sets up a dangerous precedent for the diplomatic corps. It sends a message that whilst diplomats are abroad they are at liberty to behave as they please. Any behaviour will not be monitored or investigated. American-Pakistanis believe that by not being reprimanded or held accountable for his behaviour by senior diplomats or politicians, Khan, is damaging Pakistan’s reputation and image in America. Khan was unavailable for comment.

    http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/national/08-Jul-2015/pakistani-consul-general-in-us-embarrasses-his-country
    ———————————————————————————–
    H.E. Jalil Abbas Jilani on the US-Pakistan Relationship Oct 2014

  17. Almost 5,500 Tunisians in militant ranks, U.N. experts say (alarabiya, July 10, 2015)
    http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/07/10/Almost-5-500-Tunisians-in-jihadist-ranks-U-N-experts-say-.html

    “U.N. experts said Friday that almost 5,500 Tunisians are fighting alongside jihadists abroad, urging Tunis to adopt a “national strategic plan” to curb the flow.

    “The number of Tunisian foreign fighters is one of the highest among those travelling to join conflicts abroad such as in Syria and Iraq,” said Elzbieta Karska, current head of a U.N. working group on the use of mercenaries.

    “Sophisticated travel networks operate to take recruits across the porous borders, and sometimes through areas where trafficking in people and illicit goods may not be effectively controlled,” Karska said after an eight-day mission to Tunisia.

    “Testimony has documented that the routes taken entail travel through Libya, then Turkey and its border at Antakya, and then Syria,” she said.

    Karska also pointed to possible links between mercenaries and foreign recruits to groups such as the Islamic State group battling in Iraq and Syria.

    “It was reported to us that recruiters in these networks are well paid — one figure given is that of $3,000 to $10,000 per new recruit, depending on the person’s qualifications,” she said.

    She said an estimated 4,000 Tunisians were in Syria, between 1,000 and 1,500 in Libya, 200 in Iraq, 60 in Mali and 50 in Yemen. Around 625 who have returned from Iraq are being prosecuted, the expert said.

    Karska urged Tunisian authorities to adopt “a national strategic plan… (to) respond to the diverse profiles and recruitment methods… (to) ensure the comprehensive adoption of international human rights standards in all its elements”.

    Tunisia has brought in a raft of new security measures, including arming tourist police, since a jihadist gunman killed 38 foreign holidaymakers, 30 of them Britons, at a beach resort on June 26.”

  18. CANADA – Fort St. John man arrested on terrorism charges

    A 33-year-old man in Fort St. John has been arrested and charged for terrorism.

    The RCMP Integrated National Security Enforcement Team announced Friday it had arrested Othman Ayed Hamdan, a 33-year-old Fort St. John resident, following a lengthy investigation.

    Hamdan is facing three charges, including counselling to commit murder for the benefit of a terrorist group, counselling to assault causing bodily harm for the benefit of a terrorist group, and counselling to commit aggravated assault for the benefit of a terrorist group.

    He remains in custody and is expected in court shortly.

    According to an RCMP statement, an investigation was launched in October 2014 after Hamdan was “involved in posting pro-Islamic State (ISIS) propaganda online which included inducement and instructors to commit murder in the name of Jihad.”

    A search warrant was then executed and a number of items were seized from Hamdan’s residence.

    “Through the collaboration of our INSET, we were able to arrest this individual and disrupt his efforts to harm citizens across the country,” said Supt. Dan Bond, asst. criminal operations officer with National Security for the RCMP in British Columbia.

    Chief Supt. Scott Doran, the officer in charge of the RCMP’s federal policing criminal operations branch in Ottawa, said the safety and security of Canadian citizens “is of utmost importance” and that investigators take threats of terrorism very seriously.

    No further information will be released as the case now makes its way through the court.

    http://www.theprovince.com/Fort+John+arrested+terrorism+charges/11205537/story.html

  19. IS Video Focuses on Conquest of Tal Afar, Acknowledges Taking of Women and Children as Slaves in Sinjar

    Al-Jazeera Province of the Islamic State (IS) in northern Iraq released a video focusing on the group’s conquest of the city of Tal Afar, and its subsequently entering Sinjar and taking women and children as slaves.

  20. A case for the Muslim(-ish) doctor files?

    Patients give horror stories as cancer doctor gets 45 years (CNN, July 10, 2015)
    http://edition.cnn.com/2015/07/10/us/michigan-cancer-doctor-sentenced/index.html

    “A Detroit-area doctor who authorities say gave cancer treatment drugs to patients who did not need them — including some who didn’t actually have cancer — was sentenced Friday to 45 years in prison.

    Dr. Farid Fata, 50, pleaded guilty in September to giving cancer treatments to misdiagnosed patients, telling some they had a terminal blood cancer called multiple myeloma. He pleaded guilty to 13 counts of Medicare fraud, one count of conspiracy to pay or receive kickbacks and two counts of money laundering.

    Federal prosecutors called him the “most egregious fraudster in the history of this country.” To Fata, they said, “patients were not people. They were profit centers.”

    Fata forfeited $17.6 million that he collected from Medicare and private insurance companies. Some 553 patients received medically unnecessary infusions or injections, prosecutors said.

    The hematologist-oncologist gave an emotional apology in court, saying he was “ashamed” of his actions….”