Author Archives: Grace

Honour killings soar as Islamic fundamentalism spreads it’s wings

Posted on by

From The Telegraph U.K.

Tulay Goren murder: ‘honour’ crimes doubling every year, figures show

“Honour killings” are now running at the rate of one a month, it has emerged, following a shocking rise in violent crimes committed in Britain in the name of religion.

By Gordon Rayner and John Bingham
Published: 6:30AM GMT 18 Dec 2009

The number of murders, rapes and assaults on people who dare to break strict religious or cultural rules is doubling every year, police figures show, with up to two violent “honour crimes” being committed every day.

But charities which help victims of honour crimes say the true extent of the problem is far worse than the statistics show, as every year hundreds of vicitms – normally women – are too frightened to report attacks or to give evidence in court.

The escalating problem was highlighted yesterday as an Old Bailey jury convicted Mehmet Goren, 49, of the cold-blooded and premeditated murder of his 15-year-old daughter Tulay after she fell in love with someone from the “wrong” branch of Islam.

Miss Goren disappeared 10 years ago after telling a friend she might be pregnant but justice caught up with her father after his wife “courageously” testified against him and lifted what was described as the “cloak of secrecy” which surrounds honour crimes.

A prosecutor said the case was a “wake-up call” to the authorities over the extent of the problem in this country, which campaigners say is growing because of the rise of religious fundamentalism. Continue Reading →

Britain: police ‘missed opportunity’ regarding honour killing of Muslim schoolgirl

Posted on by

Anyone who tells you that honour killings are simple cases of domestic violence is attempting to blow smoke up your arse.

Grace.

From The Telegraph U.K.

Honour killing: police accused of ‘missed opportunities’ over Tulay Goren

The Muslim schoolgirl murdered by her father in an “honour killing” had repeatedly told police in the days before her death how she was being threatened and assaulted, it can be disclosed.

By John Bingham
Published: 8:48PM GMT 17 Dec 2009

Tulay Goren: Honour killing: police accused of 'missed opportunities' over Tulay Goren

The body of Tulay Goren has never been found Photo: PA

Tulay Goren and her family were in contact with police officers nine times over a 10-day period just before her death, as she continued to be assaulted by her violent father, Mehmet Goren.

Police are now facing calls for an investigation into “missed opportunities” and how they “failed miserably” to prevent the murder of Tulay.

In the weeks before her disappearance, Tulay: ran away from home twice; personally reported two attacks by her father, while her boyfriend also reported an assault; asked to be sent to a children’s home rather than go back to her family; and specifically requested that officers note down her assault complaints down in case of future attacks.

Meanwhile, her own relatives complained to police about her boyfriend, saying that he was “pestering” her. Police warned the family not to take matters into their own hands.

Goren even went to the police demanding his daughter underwent a virginity test; and later reported her missing, lodging a complaint of unlawful sexual intercourse against her boyfriend. Continue Reading →

London arrest warrant to Tzipi Livni: British, Israel relations down the tiolet

Posted on by

From The Telegraph U.K.

Tzipi Livni arrest warrant provokes Britain-Israel diplomatic row

Britain’s relations with Israel have been plunged into crisis after the Jewish state angrily denounced an attempt in London to arrest its former foreign minister, Tzipi Livni.

By Adrian Blomfield in Jerusalem
Published: 6:21PM GMT 15 Dec 2009

Tzipi Livni, the former Israeli foreign minister, ancelled a visit to Britain amid reports pro-Palestinian activist groups sought a warrant for her arrest on alleged war crimes charges Tzipi Livni, the former Israeli foreign minister, cancelled a visit to Britain amid reports pro-Palestinian activist groups sought a warrant for her arrest on alleged war crimes charges.

Photo: GETTY

The Israeli foreign ministry summoned Tom Phillips, the British ambassador to Tel Aviv, to protest at her treatment and give warning that diplomatic ties had been badly damaged.

Mrs Livni cancelled a trip to London over the weekend shortly before a court in Westminster granted a warrant for her arrest over alleged war crimes committed by the Israeli government during its offensive in Gaza a year ago.

The warrant is thought to have been issued after an application by pro-Palestinian lawyers but was later rescinded when it emerged that Mrs Livni, who is now leader of the Israeli opposition, had cancelled her trip to Britain.

Although a major diplomatic incident was averted, the affair has left Britain deeply embarrassed. The Foreign Office was forced to issue an apologetic statement that insisted Israeli officials were still welcome in the United Kingdom.

Refusing to be mollified, Israel said Britain faced being marginalised in the peace process unless it took immediate steps to strip courts of their powers to arrest Israeli dignitaries.

“The absence of firm and immediate action aimed to correct this abuse harms relations between Britain and Israel,” the Israeli foreign ministry said in a statement.

“If Israeli leaders cannot visit Britain in proper, dignified fashion, this will, quite naturally, seriously compromise Britain’s ability to play the active role in the Middle East peace process that it desires.”

Yuli Edelstein, a cabinet minister, added: “By a very small change of legislation, the issue could be at least controlled, if not totally wiped off the map. I think that it’s high time that the British parliament does something about it.”

A statement from prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office quoted the prime minister as rejecting the notion that leaders “who defended our civilians bravely and morally against a despicable and brutal enemy could be branded war criminals. We firmly reject this absurdity.”

Britain regularly attracts visits from both Israeli and Palestinian leaders who see London as an important diplomatic hub.

But according to Israeli officials, the government has repeatedly failed to live up to commitments made by both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown to curb the power of the courts either through legislation or regulation.

In recent years, activists have increasingly used British courts to pursue visiting Israeli officials they claim carried out war crimes in the Palestinian territories and in Lebanon.

In 2005, Doron Almog, a retired Israeli general, returned to Israel without leaving his plane after hearing an arrest warrant had been issued in his name. This September a court rejected a bid to seek an arrest warrant for Ehud Barak, the Israeli foreign minister, who had been invited to attend the Labour party conference.

“We don’t have similar problems with other European countries,” said a senior Israeli government official. “There is no doubt that extremist groups with very partisan agendas have successfully manipulated the British legal system.

“Every week in London, you have people visiting from countries undemocratic in the extreme and with atrocious human rights records, yet this happens to the leader of the Israeli opposition? That is a perversion of the British sense of fair play.”

Muslim cleric Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi has been allowed to visit Britain in the past despite describing Palestinian suicide bombers in Israel as “martyrs”. After one trip in 2004, the Crown Prosecution Service said there was not enough evidence to justify prosecuting him.

The latest row comes just days after Israel protested about a government advisory to UK supermarkets suggesting that they differentiate between West Bank imports according to whether they were produced by Jewish settlers or by Palestinians.

A government official denied that the series of confrontations amounted to a crisis, although he conceded that “it is a very tense period in diplomatic relations.”

The Israeli foreign ministry said it was not planning to advise politicians to cancel trips to Britain, although government officials said Mrs Livni’s arrest warrant could make many think twice about visiting Britain.

“We are facing a problem here and the problem is that it is very easy to harass and embarrass officials who try to visit Britain,” one said. “We can’t have Israeli officials systematically targeted and embarrassed.”

Violent jihadist nets 17 years for supporting terror groups

Posted on by

From The National Post

U.S. man linked to ‘Toronto 18’ gets 17 years for conspiracy to support terror

Agence France-Presse Published: Monday, December 14, 2009

Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, who has been linked to the 'Toronto 18,' has been sentenced in Atlanta to 17 years in prison for supporting terror groups. AFP/AFP/Getty Images Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, who has been linked to the ‘Toronto 18,’ has been sentenced in Atlanta to 17 years in prison for supporting terror groups.
ATLANTA, Georgia — A Pakistan-born US citizen was sentenced Monday to 17 years in prison for supporting terror groups by sending videos of US landmarks abroad and plotting “violent jihad” in Europe.

Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, 23, refused to stand when judge William Duffey, a former US attorney, asked him several times to stand for sentencing.

During the trial, prosecutors said Sadequee and his co-conspirators developed relationships over the Internet and maintained contact online, along with other “supporters of violent jihad” in the United States, Canada, Britain, Pakistan, Bosnia and beyond.

The young man, prosecutors said, traveled to Canada to meet other militants, including members of the “Toronto 18” Al-Qaeda-inspired group, and to Bangladesh, where he sent an email in 2001 when he was only 15 seeking to join the Taliban to fight US and coalition forces in Afghanistan.

Judge Duffey had allowed to Sadequee 44 minutes in court to explain to the court why a harsh sentence should not be imposed.

But Sadequee instead used the time to explain his religious beliefs, saying that he would not be judged by one man.

“I’ll say this, our Gods are very different,” Judge Duffey said to Sadequee. “This is a day of reckoning for you, Mr Sadequee. This is to deter you and to deter others from this conduct.”

Sadequee was found guilty of sending videos he had made of Washington landmarks to a recruiter for Al-Qaeda. Prosecutors also told the jury that he tried to get into a terrorist training camp and that Sadequee also tried to recruit a 17-year-old from Culver City, California, for martyrdom.

The crowded courtroom was filled with media and supporters of Sadequee.

After the prosecution asked for a 20-year sentence, Sadequee spoke for 21 minutes about his religious beliefs before Duffey interrupted him and reminded him that this was a sentencing hearing and he was expected to talk about why the maximum should not be imposed.

“I have not and I will not request any sentence,” Sadequee said. “It does not matter to me. I submit to no one’s authority but to the authority of God.”

As to the impact of his speech on his sentencing, Sadequee said, “If it makes it less, it makes it less. If it makes it worse, it makes it worse.”

Sadequee told Duffey he needed “less than two hours” to finish his prepared comments, but Duffey said he would grant Sadequee another 20 minutes and allowed him to speak for another 28 minutes.

Don Samuel, an Atlanta-based criminal defense attorney, said he would discuss with Sadequee the possibility of an appeal. One reason Duffey allowed Sadequee almost and an hour to speak to the court was to try and avoid reversal of the sentence on the grounds Sadequee did not get a fair hearing.

“This is not about your faith, this is about your conduct,” Duffey told Sadequee before imposing the sentence. Duffey said Sadequee engaged in “vigilante justice” and the judge said he was not swayed by what he called “generic letters” from Sadequee supporters asking for leniency.

Sadequee’s convicted co-conspirator Syed Haris Ahmed was to be sentenced later Monday.

Sex in the Saudi: elderly woman to receive 40 lashes for associating with men

Posted on by

Seventy five year old Khamisa Mohammed Sawadi is set to receive a flogging of 40 lashes for associating with men. She either had the unmitigated gaul to ask a younger man to accompany her to the market or worse, ask him to carry her bags home. Remember the mixing of cucumbers and tomatoes is a criminal offense under sharia. The minister of the interior, Prince Nayef bin Abdul Blah Baalaah, Barf- Up-iz-Arse Aziz has ordered the immediate detention of the elderly woman along with two Saudi men known only as Fahad and Hadyan.

The Australian, courtesy TROP

Khamisa Mohammed Sawadi, 75, to be flogged for associating with men

HUMAN rights watchdog Amnesty International has called on Saudi Arabia to stay a sentence of 40 lashes handed down against a 75-year-old woman for breaching the kingdom’s sex segregation rules.

HUMAN rights watchdog Amnesty International has called on Saudi Arabia to stay a sentence of 40 lashes handed down against a 75-year-old woman for breaching the kingdom’s sex segregation rules.

“The minister of the interior (Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz) is reported to have ordered the immediate detention and flogging of a 75-year-old woman, Khamisa Mohammed Sawadi, along with two Saudi Arabian men known only as Fahad and Hadyan,” the London-based watchdog said.

“The Saudi Arabian authorities must not carry out the imminent flogging and imprisonment of an elderly woman and two younger men.”

Amnesty said all avenues of appeal had been exhausted in Saudi courts against the trio’s March conviction for being in the company of members of the opposite sex who were not close relatives.

“It is abhorrent that an elderly woman is at risk of 40 lashes,” said the deputy director of the watchdog’s Middle East and North Africa Program, Philip Luther.

“We urge the authorities to prevent the imprisonment and flogging of Khamisa, Fahad and Hadyan.”

Sawadi and Fahad were sentenced to 40 lashes and four months’ imprisonment, and Hadyan to 60 lashes and six months’ imprisonment, Amnesty said.

Sawadi also faces deportation to her native Syria on completion of her prison term.

Saudi Arabia enforces a strict version of Islamic sharia law and imposes corporal punishment for a wide variety of offences.

Christians remove public Jewish symbol in Moldovia

Posted on by

Thanks to GOV for this one. Here is a peculiar little ritual done by an orthodox church. I would like to know more about this. Below this video, is the information from the youtube page where this was found.

Chisinau – Several dozens of people took part in an anti-Semitic manifestation in central Chisinau on Sunday.

The protestors who called themselves as “Orthodox Christians” said they will not let “Moldova be run by Jews.”

The participants of the protest, which took place in Chisinau’s central park, chanted anti-Semitic slogans. They ripped the Jewish symbols put up in the park last Friday on the occasion of the Jewish Hanukkah holiday. The traditional Jewish candlestick was knocked down from the plinth and thrown to the pedestal of the monument to Moldovan ruler Stefan Cel Mare.

The rally which lasted almost one hour also involved several people dressed as priests. Police did not interfere, though several patrols were keeping an eye on what happened.

Officers from the Chisinau police commissariat arrived together with representatives from the Israeli Embassy later when the manifestation was already over.

Activists from the Chisinau Jewish community were here last Friday to put up the Jewish symbols in the central park on the occasion of the Hanukkah festivities. The symbols were expected to remain their throughout the eight-day holiday period, they said

Global warming hits Canadian prairies

Posted on by

From The National Post

Edmonton breaks weather record for coldest December 13

December 13, 2009, 3:38 PM by Scott Maniquet

Sunday marked the coldest Dec. 13 in Edmonton’s history.

Environment Canada recorded a frigid -46.1 C, or -58.4 with wind chill, at the Edmonton International Airport at 5 a.m., Environment Canada meteorologist Pierre Lessard said.

The old record of -36.1 C was set last year, he said.

“To break a temperature by 10 degrees is very exceptional,” said Lessard.

A ridge of frigid Arctic air has hit all the prairie provinces this weekend, causing record-low temperatures in many parts of northern Alberta, Lessard said.

“Temperatures are very cold over Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. There are some places more windy than the others, especially northern Saskatchewan and the north half of Manitoba are very cold,” he said.

But Arctic winds are normal in the winter and should pass through by the middle of this week, Lessard said.

Some flights scheduled to land at the Edmonton International Airport late Saturday night and early Sunday morning were diverted to Calgary because of the severe temperatures, said Edmonton International Airport spokeswoman Traci Bednard.

There were some delays and a couple of cancellations for flights departing Edmonton as well on Sunday morning because of the cold, she said.

“Different airlines and aircrafts have different operating limits,” Bednard said.

Canwest News Service

photo: Pedestrians brave the frigid weather as trees are coated with ice fog on Dec. 13, 2009. (Ed Kaiser/Canwest News Service)

Manchester terror suspects O.K.’d as security guards, Santa ditched over security concern

Posted on by

While members of an Islamist terror cell are given the green light to work as security guards, Father Christmas is prevented from delivering presents to children fearing he posed a security threat. Go ahead Britain, just jump already.

From The TimesOnLine, courtesy TROP
From The Sunday Times

December 13, 2009

Manchester terror suspects cleared to work as guards

Trafford Shopping centre, Manchester.
David Leppard

Ten members of a suspected Islamist terror cell, said by MI5 to be plotting to blow up a shopping centre and a nightclub in Manchester, had been granted permission by the Home Office to work as security guards in Britain.

The Pakistani students — who were never charged for lack of evidence — were arrested over an alleged plot to bomb Britain last Easter. Police believed they had conducted “hostile reconnaissance” of the Arndale and Trafford shopping centres and the Birdcage nightclub.

It has now emerged that in the months before the alleged plot, the men were given licences to work as security guards by the Security Industry Authority (SIA), a Home Office body that regulates the private security industry.

They all passed a vetting programme designed to bar criminals and undesirables from taking up sensitive security posts protecting airports, ports and Whitehall buildings from terrorist attack. When arrested, two of the students were working for a cargo firm which had access to secure areas at Manchester airport. Continue Reading →

The persecution of Christians in Muslim lands

Posted on by

From The Jerusalem Post, courtesy TROP

Dec 12, 2009 23:32 | Updated Dec 13, 2009 21:18

Human rights group: Hamas disinters Christians in Gaza

By MATTHEW WAGNER

Every three minutes a Christian is being tortured in the Muslim world, and in 2009 more than 165,000 Christians will have been killed because of their faith, most of them in Muslim countries, according to a human rights organization that is visiting Israel starting Sunday.

“Hamas digs up the bodies of Christians from Christian burial sites in the Gaza Strip claiming that they pollute the earth,” said Reverend Majed El Shafie, President of One Free World International (OFWI), who will head a delegation of human rights activists, members of Parliament from Canada and religious personalities.

During their visit to Israel, the delegation will hold a conference on human rights and persecuted minorities at the Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem. The conference will provide new statistics on the persecution of minorities in Muslim countries.

El Shafie said that between 200-300 million Christians are being persecuted in the world, 80 percent of whom lived in Muslim countries and the rest in communist and other countries.

Members of the delegation will meet with Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Danny Ayalon and Mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barkat in the hope of enlisting Israel to champion their cause.

OFWI is a human rights organization whose headquarters are located in Toronto, Canada. The organization numbers some 3,000 members, divided into 28 branches that are active in countries all over the world, including Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and even Iran.

El Shafie, 32, was born in Cairo to a distinguished Muslim family of lawyers and judges. Through a Christian friend he was exposed at an early age to hatred toward the Christian minority in Egypt.

He decided to convert to Christianity, wrote a book about it and as a result became an outcast and a victim of oppression.

In 1998 he was arrested, imprisoned, tortured and condemned to death.

El Shafie managed to escape, fled to the Sinai, where a Beduin family hid him for two months, and crossed the Israeli border on a jet-ski. He was arrested in Israel and was imprisoned for over a year in Beersheba, until he was released through the assistance of the UN, Amnesty International and the InternationalChristian Embassy in Jerusalem, which managed to obtain political asylum for El Shafie in Canada, where he emigrated. He founded OFWI in 2004.

Islam keeps house in a sympathetic Britain

Posted on by

Latent Islamophobia in Europe may not be the only reason Muslims are flocking to Britain. Muslim convert Francesca Walker lives in a 2.6 million mansion and is neighbour to Elle Macpherson, David Cameron and Hugh Grant, courtesy of the British taxpayer. There’s no place like home.

” There are a lot of people who defraud the system and abuse it – it’s not difficult to take advantage of it.’ Francesca Walker.

Britain’s tolerance to Islam results in more than 1m Muslims setting up home here.

From The Telegraph U.K.

—–

Last updated at 11:36 PM on 13th December 2009

More than a million Muslims have migrated to Britain because it is more sympathetic towards Islam than other European countries, a study has found.

Latent Islamophobia in Europe means that many of those who move to the continent eventually end up in Britain, because it is seen as more tolerant.

There are now some 1.1million Muslim immigrants in the UK, according to the report by IPPR, the Blairite think tank. It means around 46 per cent of Britain’s 2.4million-strong Muslim population were not born in this country.

Canterbury Tales: British Armed Forces Bishop urges sympathy for the Devil

Posted on by

Just as Rowen Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury arches his back in subservience to radical Islam, Rt. Reverend Stephen Venner, Bishop of the British Armed Forces clearly knows nothing of the Taliban.

From The Telegraph U.K.

Taliban can be admired for their faith and loyalty, says bishop

The Taliban can be admired for their conviction to their faith and their sense of loyalty to one another, the new Bishop for the Armed Forces has claimed.

By Jonathan Wynne-Jones and Duncan Gardham
Published: 5:52PM GMT 13 Dec 2009
Taliban militants - Taliban can be admired for their faith and loyalty, says bishop

Taliban militants in Afghanistan Photo: AP

The Rt Rev Stephen Venner called for a more sympathetic approach to the Islamic fundamentalists that recognises their humanity.

The Church of England’s Bishop to the Forces warned that it will be harder to reach a peaceful solution to the war if the Afghan insurgents are portrayed too negatively.

His comments came as the Prime Minister visited Afghanistan and warned that the Taliban was fighting a “guerilla war” aimed at causing “maximum damage”. Gordon Brown said soldiers were discovering improvised explosive devices every two hours.

Mr Brown stayed overnight in the Allied base in the southern city of Kandahar, the first British Prime Minister to spend the night in a war zone since Winston Churchill. His visit came days after the death of Lance Corporal Adam Drane, the 100th member of the British forces to die in Afghanistan this year. His death brought the total number of British service personnel who have died since the start of operations in 2001 to 237.

Bishop Venner stressed his admiration for the sacrifices made by the British forces fighting in Afghanistan but also urged the need for a reassessment of how the Taliban are viewed.

“We’ve been too simplistic in our attitude towards the Taliban,” said Bishop Venner, who was recently commissioned in his new role by Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

“There’s a large number of things that the Taliban say and stand for which none of us in the west could approve, but simply to say therefore that everything they do is bad is not helping the situation because it’s not honest really.

“The Taliban can perhaps be admired for their conviction to their faith and their sense of loyalty to each other.”

Besides their attacks on the armed forces, the Taliban have also been responsible for public beatings, amputations and executions and have launched bomb attacks on the civilian population in Afghanistan.

They often refer to foreign forces as “Crusaders” in an echo of the religious wars of the Middle Ages.

The bishop said that some of their methods of combat are not honourable or acceptable, but argued that it was unhelpful to demonise them.

“We must remember that there are a lot of people who are under their influence for a whole range of reasons, and we simply can’t lump all of those together.

“To blanket them all as evil and paint them as black is not helpful in a very complex situation.”

Bishop Venner said that everyone in Afghanistan, including the Taliban, would have to be included in discussions to find a solution to the conflict.

“Afghanistan is going we hope in the end to find a way to live together with justice and prosperity for all. In order to do that we have to involve all the people of Afghanistan to find it.

“It is that lasting and just peace that will in the end justify the sacrifices our servicemen and women have made.”

In the meantime, he said, the Government has “a moral duty” to ensure that the army is properly equipped.

Colonel Richard Kemp, a former commander in Afghanistan who has written about the insurgency, said the bishop was being naïve.

“We clearly need to understand our enemy but that is more of a military issue rather than a religious one,” he said.

“There are elements in the Taliban who do not act from a religious perspective and it is important to understand and turn them around.

“But there are many others who will not be persuaded. Their central creed and ethos is about violent oppression which comes from a politics of extreme religion that has very little to commend it in terms that we would recognise or appreciate.

“In many ways it is a mistake to compare their faith of extreme holy war with the kind of religion of peace and understanding that the bishop follows. They certainly wouldn’t show understanding of his faith.”

Earlier this year, Peter Davies, the mayor of Doncaster, claimed that British society could learn from Taliban family values. He said that under the Taliban, Afghanistan had an “ordered system of family life”.

Last month David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, offered parts of the Taliban “an alternative to fighting” and said men now fighting against British forces should be encouraged to sit in the Afghan parliament.

His comments came a day after a new military strategy was unveiled that talked of the need to negotiate with the Taliban, offering them money or immunity from prosecution in order to secure peace.


Toronto Imam attempts to ‘calm’ fears over missing Somali Canadians

Posted on by

Popular Canadian Imam Saed Rageah is worried over the fate of missing Somali Canadian ‘kids’ who have abruptly vanished and are feared to have joined the Somali terrorist group Al-Shabab. Jihad, suicide bombings, anti-western sentiment and extremism are ‘not in Islam’ he insists and has portrayed the missing group as ’emotional kids’ hooked on the internet and vulnerable to radicalism. He is also the Imam who in October of this year, called on God to ‘damn’ the infidels, calling Allah to ‘destroy the enemies of Islam from within’ in response from some to ban the burqa and niqab in Canada. See ‘Toronto Imam preaching hate instead of harmony: damn the infidels’.

From The National Post.

Imam tries to calm fears about missing Somali-Canadians

Stewart Bell, National Post Published: Friday, December 11, 2009

TORONTO — At a mosque in a bleak industrial neighbourhood in north Toronto, Imam Saed Rageah devoted his sermon on Friday to denouncing the suicide bombings plaguing his homeland of Somalia.

“This is not in Islam,” he said.

The congregation of the Abu Huraira mosque kneeled and listened, but it was those who weren’t present that made his words resonate: a group of young men who vanished this fall and are feared to have joined a Somali militant group.

Among the missing are Mahad Ali Dhore, a 25-year-old Markham man who fled to Canada from Somalia at age nine and had almost finished his degree at York University when he flew to Kenya and disappeared.

Also missing is Mohamed Elmi Ibrahim, nicknamed “Canlish” after the Scarborough neighbourhood where he grew up. Canadian Security Intelligence Service officers have also been asking members of Toronto’s large Somali community about Khalid Aden Noor, Mustafa Ali, Ahmed Heybe Ahmed, Abdirahman Yusuf and Mohamed Ali Gacal, a Minnesota man who had apparently visited Toronto.

Nobody knows for sure what happened to them, but their families, the imam and counterterrorism investigators are concerned because of a pattern of similar behaviour in the United States, where at least 20 young Somali-Americans have gone missing only to turn up in Somalia with Al-Shabab, an armed Islamist group aligned with al-Qaeda.

The same trend has surfaced to varying degrees in the U.K., Australia and Europe. Last week in Mogadishu, an Al-Shabab suicide bomber killed two dozen people, including three government ministers. He was identified by the speaker of Somalia’s parliament on Friday as a 26-year-old Danish citizen. An earlier suicide bombing was carried out by an American from Minnesota. Five other Americans are believed dead.

“The community is very, very concerned,” said Ahmed Hussen, national president of the Canadian Somali Congress. He emphasized there was no proof the men had joined Al-Shabab but said if they did, the fact they are only five or six out of 150,000 suggests the problem is not widespread. Continue Reading →

Tolerance gives go-ahead for Muslim extremism

Posted on by

From The Telegraph U.K.

When tolerance is taken too far

Telegraph View: Haringey Council seems determined to evade its responsibility to ensure that Muslims are integrated into British society

Telegraph View
Published: 7:40PM GMT 12 Dec 2009
——
” Attempts to integrate Muslim children into secular society are an effort to produce new generations that reject Islam. Democracy is a corrupt tradition and western education is a threat to Muslims’ beliefs and values”. Muslim school trustee Farah Ahmed.

One of the most pressing challenges for Britain – not just for the Government, but for the whole of our society – is to find a way to integrate fundamentalist Muslims: to ensure that they embrace the basic values of tolerance, equality of the sexes, and the primacy of secular democracy as a way of making law. Haringey Council currently provides an object lesson in how not to meet that critical challenge. As this newspaper reported more than six weeks ago, a Muslim school there, run by individuals with links to the extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, received £113,000 of taxpayers’ money last year. After our report, state funding was suspended. Now it has been resumed: an investigation by Haringey Council found “no evidence to suggest inappropriate content or influence at the school”.

One of the school’s three trustees is Farah Ahmed. She has refused to deny membership of Hizb ut-Tahrir, and has also written a pamphlet attacking the National Curriculum for “pushing the idea of religious tolerance”. In it, she insists that “attempts to integrate Muslim children” into secular society are an effort to “produce new generations that reject Islam”. She attacks English literature as “one of the most damaging subjects”, and says democracy is a “corrupt tradition” and Western education is “a threat” to Muslims’ “beliefs and values”.

If those attitudes do not count as “inappropriate content or influence” when it comes to state funding, it is hard to see what does. Yet Haringey seems determined to evade its responsibility to ensure that Muslims are integrated into British society. As does the Government: Ed Balls, the Children’s Minister, has backed the council. There could be no more effective way of ensuring that religious minorities remain dangerously excluded from mainstream society.

British hoteliers received violent threats over Muslim ‘insult’, lives in shambles

Posted on by

From The Telegraph U.K.

Christian hoteliers received violent threats over Muslim guest ‘insult’

Christian hoteliers Ben and Sharon Vogelenzang received hate mail after they were accused of insulting a Muslim guest because of her faith.

By Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Religious Affairs Correspondent
Published: 2:34PM GMT 12 Dec 2009
Christian hoteliers Ben and Sharon Vogelenzang have received hate mail after they were accused of insulting a Muslim guest because of her faith.

The Vogelenzangs have five adopted children, including one who is a Muslim Photo: MERCURY

The couple said they have been “living a nightmare” since they were charged in July with a “religiously-aggravated” offence of causing harassment, alarm or distress.

In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, the couple have told of their relief at being cleared of insulting Ericka Tazi, a Muslim woman who was staying at their hotel.

They said that they had suffered emotionally and financially since the prosecution began, received threats warning they would be attacked and nearly lost their business due to an 80 per cent decline in takings at their nine-bedroom hotel, the Bounty House in Aintree, Liverpool.

“The last nine months have been a nightmare for us,” said Mr Vogelenzang.

“We’ve been drained emotionally and financially. We have, sadly, received some threats and hate mail. That has been upsetting.

“Our business has almost been destroyed.”

Mrs Tazi, who converted to Islam 18 months ago, stayed at the couple’s hotel in March. She claimed they asked her if she was a murderer and a terrorist after seeing her wearing a hijab. She also alleged that Mr Vogelenzang called the Prophet Muhammad a murderer and a warlord and likened him to Saddam Hussein and Hitler.

The hotel had been reliant for much of its business on a local hospital, which routinely referred outpatients to stay, but hospital chiefs put a stop to this once they heard about the court case.

The couple said that they had been encouraged by the support of Christians from around the world, some of whom sent them financial donations.

The Vogelenzangs have five adopted children, including one who is a Muslim. They have put their names forward to foster other Muslim youngsters, and stressed that they were not Islamaphobic.

However, they said that they are concerned that their ordeal suggests that people are losing their freedom of expression, and they criticised the police for prosecuting them.

“We are unhappy that the police pursued this case with such enthusiasm, and we feel the law needs to be clearer about free speech,” said Mr Vogelenzang.

“We are delighted that our legal system eventually came to the right decision, but we regret that it came to court at all.

“We are glad that we live in a country which has free speech. Many people have given up their lives in the last century to protect those freedoms. It seems such a shame that we appear to be losing our liberty.”

They said that they forgave Mrs Tazi despite the stress caused by her claims and her alleged insults against Christianity.

“We have no ill feelings for Mrs Tazi and we are looking forward to getting on with our lives. We wish her all the best,” said Mr Vogelenzang.

Richard Clancy, the district judge at Liverpool Magistrates’ Court, dismissed the case, which had been brought under the Public Order Act.

The judge explained that the Muslim convert’s claim that she was verbally abused for up to an hour had not been backed up by other witnesses. He also said the language Mrs Tazi used in the exchange “did not quite form the same religious view” that was put to him on the stand.

Wahhabist modernity: Saudi t.v. hosts ‘break new ground’ by wearing niqabs

Posted on by

From BBC News

Saudi women enter Wahhabist ‘modernity’ through a ground breaking move to stay in the 7th century.

Saudi TV presenters break new ground by wearing niqab

Two women TV presenters in Saudi Arabia dressed in the Niqab

Female presenters on the Saudi channel Awtan TV
Amani Fikri
BBC Arabic Service

Until recently you would never have seen women presenting television programmes dressed from head to toe in the niqab or burqa. But on the Saudi religious channel Awtan TV it has now become the norm.

Female broadcasters at the station are draped in the all-enveloping dresses, which are usually black and also cover their faces.

The work environment too is very different. Male technical assistants do not enter the studio while the women are presenting.

There are more than 60 religious channels across the Middle East. Some allow women to present programmes without being fully covered or dressed in black.

Others have no women presenters at all.

Relationship

Awtan TV decided to take a unique approach. The station was launched in 2008, and last month it set a precedent by allowing women to present, but only on the condition that they wear the niqab.

We report from the field in the niqab and it does not stop us from doing anything
Ola al-Barqi
Awtan TV presenter

Ola al-Barqi anchors a breakfast show, as well as a quiz show for girls called Mosabqat Banat.

A key element of the programme is the relationship built between presenter, contestants and the audience – something that might be more difficult if the presenter is totally covered up.

“The face is not the only way to build a relationship,” explains Ms Barqi, speaking to BBC Arabic.

“We’re always receiving calls from viewers in various countries encouraging us to keep doing what we do.”

And, as Ms Barqi points out, women are not just confined to the studio at Awtan TV.

“We report from the field in the niqab and it does not stop us from doing anything.”

‘Restrictive’

Wahhabism, the strain of Sunni Islam that is officially practised in Saudi Arabia, is considered one of the religion’s most conservative forms.

Some critics say that Awtan TV is restricting women’s freedom by making it compulsory to wear the niqab if they want to be presenters.

The issue recently returned to prominence when a leading Egyptian cleric, Sheikh Mohammed Tantawi, said he would issue an edict stating that the niqab was a “custom that has nothing to do with Islam”.

The majority of moderate Muslim scholars agree with him.

But Ms Barqi says nobody “forced the niqab” on her and she does not intend to force it on her three daughters, who watch their mother on television and feel proud of her.

Women seamstresses in Saudi Arabia dressed in the Niqab

These seamstresses in Saudi Arabia work in the factory completely veiled

However, the presenter thinks that when the time comes, her girls will want to wear the niqab because that is how they were brought up and it is, she argues, part of Shariah – Islamic law.

Advantages

Ms Barqi says there are other good reasons why she wears the niqab.

It helps her to concentrate more on her work rather than anything else, and what she looks like is irrelevant.

“We don’t introduce ourselves as beautiful women who put on layers of make-up. Our audience is focusing on what we present to them, our ideas and our discourse.”

Ms Barqi believes some people work in the media to become famous. But that is not why she became a presenter.

“We don’t need fame,” she explains.