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The West overlooks potential best ally against al-Qaeda

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By Andrea Loquenzi Holzer, Hudson-NY.org

With the formation of a new provisional government of the Algerian region of Kabylie, the Western world might have gained a precious ally to fight al-Qaeda in one of its most strategic hideouts. If only someone noticed that this government was established in the first place.

What the Movement for the Autonomy of Kabylie [MKA] has been protesting is the Islamization of their society that the Algerian government was imposing, and particularly the introduction of Arabic as the official language of the country.

As the President of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), Ali Belhadj, stated in the 19990s: “There is no democracy because the only source of power is Allah through the Koran, and not the people. If the people vote against the law of God, this is nothing other than blasphemy. In this case, it is necessary to kill the non-believers for the good reason that they wish to substitute their authority for that of God.”

The official Algerian government seemed not to have problems with such statements, at least up until the FIS and other radical Islamist movements started to gain ground to the detriment of the National Liberation Front Party (FNL), at the general elections that were subsequently shut down by the authorities for fear of loosing control over the country (1991). The rivalry between the Algerian army (which took control of the government) and the Islamist movements, not only lead up to an eleven year-long bloody civil war, but also to an unsustainable situation for normal citizens and especially for Kabyles, who were already being discriminated by the authorities for their “different”(Berber) identity.

After changing the Algerian constitution to grant himself more power, and eliminating presidential term limits through a much debated referendum, on April 9, 2009, the Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika was confirmed in office for the third time on April 9, 2009, in what many called a “disputed election.” Although for the OECD this election was “fair,” many Algerian parties boycotted it.

The independent government of Kabylie, a mountainous region situated in the north of Algeria, was therefore formed in Paris on June 1st, in an attempt to contravene the influence of the Algerian national government. The formation of the new Kabyle cabinet did not get much attention across the media, but it could mark a defining moment in the struggle against radical Islam, given the fact that the MKA is certainly far more pro-Western than its official counterpart. Continue Reading →

Three al-Qaeda suspects arrested in Norway over bomb plot

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From The Telegraph

Officials believe they were planning attacks with portable but powerful bombs like the ones at the heart of last year’s thwarted suicide attack in the New York City subway. The three men had been under surveillance for a year.

Officials said the group had been attempting to make peroxide bombs, but that it was not clear whether the men had selected a target.

The Norway plot was allegedly organised by Salah al-Somali, al-Qaeda’s former chief of external operations, the man in charge of plotting attacks worldwide. He was killed by a CIA drone last year. Continue Reading →

Muslim Brotherhood Launches its own version of FaceBook

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From The Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report

Gulf media is reporting on the launch of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood’s version of the social networking site Facebook, to be called IkhwanBook. According to a report in the National newspaper:

CAIRO // The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s powerful Islamist opposition movement, will launch its own version of the hugely popular social networking website Facebook within the next several months, its members say. IkhwanBook, which is already up, running and accepting members at www.ikhwanfacebook.com, borrows many of the same social concepts – such as image and video sharing, live chatting and online “friendships” – that attracted some 400 million users to the original Facebook after only six years. Yet given the Brotherhood’s goals of recruiting new members and popularising its relatively moderate conception of political Islam, the new site seems somewhat counter-intuitive, say some of the movement’s followers and observers. With a subscriber base that exceeds the population of most large countries, Facebook should be the perfect platform for propagating ideas and attracting adherents. But defenders of the site say they envision IkhwanBook as a complementary parallel – not a replacement – for Facebook. The organisation, members say, wants a social networking site of its own that can be tailored to its unique need for privacy, security and decency. “I think that it’s important that we have channels which are not contradictory to the original Facebook but which are parallel to it,” said Ahmed Said, an engineer and a member of the Brotherhood’s media development team. “We will not be isolated. Many groups have their own social network on the net. The name is Ikhwan, but it is not limited to Ikhwan. It is open to everyone.” Continue Reading →

At least 35 dead, 100 wounded in suicide bombings in Pakistan

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From The National Post

LAHORE, Pakistan — Three suicide bombers struck a Sufi shrine in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore on Thursday, killing at least 35 people and wounding more than 100, officials said, the second major attack in the city in a month.

Hundreds of devotees were visiting the shrine of the Persian Sufi saint, Syed Ali Hajwairi, commonly known as Data Gunj Bakhsh, in the heart of the city when the attacks occurred. Muslims in Pakistan visit shrines and mosques in large numbers on Thursday nights and Friday.

“Dead bodies are scattered all over the courtyard of the shrine,” Reuters photographer Mohsin Raza said from the scene. “There is blood everywhere. Two of the dead were my friends. It’s very horrifying,” he said in a choked voice.

One of the attackers blew himself up at the gate of the sprawling, marble shrine while two other attacks took place in the basement of the shrine where people were washing for prayers. Continue Reading →

Al Qaeda’s First English Language Magazine Is Here

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By Marc Ambinder, The Atlantic Wire

As the U.S. struggles to manage its efforts to influence opinion about Al Qaeda abroad, Al Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula has produced its first English-language propaganda magazine.

It’s called “Inspire,”  and you can read parts of it below. A U.S. official said early this morning that the magazine appears to be authentic.

“Inspire” includes a “message to the people of Yemen” directly transcribed from Ayman Al-Zawahari, Al Qaeda’s second in command, a message from Osama Bin Laden on “how to save the earth,”  and the cover includes a quotation from Anwar Al-Awlaki, the American born cleric who is believed to be directly connected to the attem

pt to destroy an airplane over Detroit by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on Christmas Day. (The director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Michael Leiter, made that disclosure at a security forum in Aspen, CO, Fox News reported.)

The table of contents teases an interview with the leader of AQAP who promises to “answer various questions pertaining to the jihad in the Arabian Peninsula.”  It includes a feature about how to “make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom.” Continue Reading →

The European June: Riots, Stonings, and Brawls

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From Islamist Watch

Islamists’ long march through the West involves three interlocking campaigns, each of which can be advanced violently or nonviolently: provoking conflicts with authorities (governments, courts, police, etc.), intimidating the non-Muslim public, and bullying insufficiently radical Muslims. All three facets were on display in Europe over the past month, as tensions enabled by shortsighted policies erupted into physical altercations:

  • Islamists versus the authorities. Rinkeby, a Muslim-heavy suburb of Stockholm, Sweden, is fast becoming Europe’s latest “no-go zone” after riots rocked the area, which is dubbed “Little Mogadishu” and serves as a recruiting spot for al-Shabaab terrorists. When a group of “youths” was denied entry to a party on June 7 and police tried to disperse the crowd, junior jihadists used the opportunity to rampage against the state:

    They then began to pull up street cobblestones and slabs of pavement and throw them at police. Then they started setting light to parked cars, and even a local bank ended up being set on fire. Firemen who came to put out the fires were then also set upon by the gang of up to 60 youths, according to news agency TT. Continue Reading →

Tory MP launches first legal bid to ban burkha in Britain

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From The Daily Mail

A Tory MP who was probed by police for alleged racial hatred earlier this year has launched a landmark bid to ban Muslim women from wearing the burkha in Britain.
Philip Hollobone will today attempt to steer legislation through the Commons to regulate the wearing of ‘certain facial coverings’.
The Kettering MP said his Bill would make it illegal for people to cover their faces in public ‘which would obviously have a big impact for those who wear full-face Islamic veils’.
He said: ‘I think it’s inappropriate to cover your face in public, whether it’s a burkha, a balaclava or anything else.
PHILIP HOLLOBONEWoman wearing a burkha (file picture)‘We are never going to get along with having a fully integrated society if a substantial minority insist on concealing their identity from everyone else.’
Mr Hollobone has previously described the burkha as ‘offensive’ and ‘against the British way of life’.
He was investigated by police for alleged racial hatred after described the garment as ‘the religious equivalent of going around with a paper bag over your head with two holes for the eyes’.
In a debate over immigration on February 2, the Kettering MP said: ‘How ridiculous would the House of Commons be if we were all to wear burkhas? How would Mr Speaker be able to identify which member to call next?
‘In my view, it is offensive to want to cut yourself off from face-to-face contact with, or recognition by, other members of the human race.’
Northamptonshire Race Equality Council, which is funded by taxpayers, complained to police. Continue Reading →

BNP sued by Equality and Human Rights Commission

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From Andy McSmith, The Independent “An unsolicited email pops into my inbox from Nick Griffin, leader of the BNP. Apparently, he has had another letter this week from Trevor Phillips, head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, warning that his party may still be breaking the law, despite agreeing to end its “whites only” policy.”

From Nick Griffin, The BNP “Yesterday, the British National Party was in court again with the twisted leftwing fanatics of the Equality and Human Rights Commission. Once again, this sinister Orwellian body —backed by all the Establishment parties — is using taxpayers’ money to try to cripple Britain’s only real opposition party.”

Griffin says “this is not a criminal hearing, subject to high levels of evidence of some kind of wrong-doing.” “Instead, this is a civil action, the kind which can be brought without there being any case against the opposition. It’s not a matter of right and justice, it’s about using taxpayers’ money to abuse the legal system in order to persecute the British National Party.”

The Chinese are desperate to live abroad, just not in England if possible

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By Malcom Moore, The Telegraph

Given China’s turbulent modern history and the fact it continues to be largely a poor country, there have always been lots of people happy to trade in their Chinese citizenship for a life elsewhere.

Traditionally, the United States has been the destination of choice and has benefited enormously from the legions of smart Chinese immigrants it has welcomed. By some accounts, as many as 70 per cent of the Chinese who study in the US end up living there.

In recent years, Canada has also emerged as a popular destination, and a poll in the Canadian Globe & Mail newspaper shows that 77 per cent of Chinese, when given the choice, would choose to move to Canada over staying in China.

(Over half the Brits they polled also said they would be keen to jump ship) Continue Reading →

Letter to The Jakarta Post: One law for all versus sharia law

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From The Jakarta Post

On June 20, there was a rally in London opposing the increasing use of sharia law in the UK. Sharia law poses a grave threat to all the freedoms that have been won through a long and hard struggle for democracy, social justice and equality.

In Indonesia, the abdication of civilian rule and constitutional rights in Aceh and the growing sharia-ization through bylaws in various regencies and municipalities in the rest of the country threatens all we have won through our freedom struggle, through revolution and through the democratic reformation post-Soeharto with a new Dark Age of bigotry and tyranny with men usurping the supposed authority of God.

The nightmare of Pakistan with its mass murder of “deviants” and the hangings in Iran for “crimes against chastity” should be warning enough for us to stop this slide into barbarity.

Rafiq Mahmood
Bogor, West Java

You can’t ban the burkha, say Eurocrats

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Nick Fagge, The Express

Story ImageMPs from 47 countries voted unanimously that outlawing the full-face veils would deny women “who genuinely and freely desire to do so” the right to cover their faces.

The Council of Europe’s resolution is not binding on members of the group, which includes all European countries except Belarus, as well as Turkey.

But the vote by the human rights group threatens to torpedo bans planned in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain as it could open governments up to costly legal battles.

Last night the ruling was condemned as “out of touch”. Continue Reading →

The UK: ‘Conservative Muslim Forum’ has some explaining to do

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Douglas Murray, The Telegraph

This week Theresa May announced that she was keeping extremist cleric Zakir Naik out of Britain. But something interesting has come to my attention. One of the charities which was planning to host Naik at a“peace convention” is Al-Khair. They were hosting it with Peace TV and IQRA TV.

Interestingly, here is a photo of the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Conservative Muslim Forum, the Conservative party’s Muslim group, at an event last year where they handed over a cheque for £5,000 to Al-Khair and praised the foundation’s work. They did this at the launch of IQRA TV, another of the hosts of the now-banned Naik.

So, do the Conservative Muslim Forum approve of the decision of the Home Secretary? Or do they think the invitation to this now-banned extremist from a charity they praised and financed should have gone ahead? If there is to be agreement within the Conservative Party I think we should probably be told.

And isn’t this yet another reminder that groups like the Conservative Muslim Forum within political parties are not merely an embarassment, but a liability?

Revisiting Aqsa Parvez: Q&A with Mary Rogan

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From Toronto Life

The author of “Girl, Interrupted”—Toronto Life’s cover story about the life and death of Aqsa Parvez—discusses honour killings, Islamophobia and how the 16-year-old’s murderers got off easy.

In “Girl, Interrupted,” you describe the reaction on the Internet to Aqsa Parvez’s death. Has the debate about the crime, and what it says about multiculturalism, evolved since she died?

The debate is continuing, especially now that her father and brother have pleaded guilty. What happened, initially, was a typical teen response—very operatic, a lot of grief and drama. But what started to emerge were arguments. Some were highbrow, like on Salon, and others were outright brawls, especially on Facebook. What was interesting was the number of people, especially young Muslim men, who came forward to condemn Aqsa. I found it particularly disturbing. They said that she had brought shame to her family, that she’d been corrupted by Western values, that she was a slut. There were also a lot of people coming forward with a lot of hatred for Muslims. It degenerated pretty quickly. Continue Reading →

Toronto Islamic conference speakers known for ‘hate’ comments

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Kathryn Blaze Carlson, National Post

Toronto — A massive upcoming Islamic conference in Toronto, which was to be headlined by an Indian televangelist until he was recently banned from Canada for his inflammatory statements, features a list of speakers whose past comments against Jews, homosexuals and the West have raised red flags in other countries.

The Journey of Faith Conference — billed as North America’s largest Islamic conference and slated to attract upwards of 10,000 people to the city early next month — features such personalities as Abdur Raheem Green, who has advocated “fighting jihad” and who was reportedly invited by the Christmas Day airline bomber to address British students in 2007, and Sheikh Hussein Yee, who once said Jews are the “extremists of the world” and will “go to Hell.” Continue Reading →