Author Archives: Grace

New York to try 9/11 mastermind

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From The Telegraph U.K.

9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to go on trial in New York

President Barack Obama said the September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees will be put on trial in New York City.

Published: 12:24PM GMT 13 Nov 2009

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed: 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to go on trial in New York

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Photo: AP

Speaking in Tokyo, Mr Obama said Mohammed, the self-proclaimed organiser of the al-Qaeda terrorist plot that killed almost 3,000 people in 2001, would face “exacting” US justice.

Bringing such notorious suspects to US soil to face trial would be a key step in Mr Obama’s plan to close the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay.

Mr Obama initially planned to close the centre at the US naval base on Cuba by Jan 22 next year, but his administration is no longer expected to meet that deadline.

It is also a major legal and political test of Mr Obama’s overall approach to terrorism. If the case suffers legal setbacks, the administration will face second-guessing from those who never wanted it in a civilian courtroom.

The New York case may force the court system to confront a host of difficult legal issues surrounding counter-terrorism programmes begun after the 2001 attacks, including the harsh interrogation techniques once used on some of the suspects while in CIA custody. The most severe method – waterboarding, or simulated drowning – was used on Mohammed 183 times in 2003, before the practice was banned.

The US attorney general Eric Holder is due to annonce that a major suspect in the bombing of the USS Cole, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, will face justice before a military commission, as will a handful of other detainees to be identified at the same announcement, an official said.

The transfer of the detainees from Guantanamo to New York is not expected to happen for many more weeks because formal charges have not been filed against most of them.

Muslim gets jail time for threatening honour crime

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From The Ottawa Citizen

Union boss jailed in ‘honour’ crime

Yusef Al Mezel gets one-year term for threatening daughter with violence

By Andrew Seymour, The Ottawa CitizenNovember 11, 2009

The head of Ottawa’s taxi union has been sentenced to 12 months in jail for threatening his daughter with an honour crime if she did not obey his wishes.

Ontario Superior Court Justice Lynn Ratushny said the sentence was the minimum penalty that Yusef Al Mezel could serve to address the “strong need” for denunciation and general deterrence after he implied that the actions of his 23-year-old daughter would be met with violence because she had shamed and dishonoured her family.

While the judge recognized Al Mezel was a respected community leader whose threats would not likely result in an honour killing, she said they do remain as threats of some possible form of violence in the name of honour that required significant condemnation.

“They invoke a seriously dangerous belief system that can and has led to violence against women,” said Ratushny.

“Mr. Al Mezel has threatened his daughter with serious violence and has caused her to fear for her safety in the name of honour. He has committed the crime of harassment against her in the name of honour,” she said.

“He has professed no adherence to any personal belief in there being any justification for honour killings, however he has committed another form of honour crime by deliberately and repeatedly invoking the concept of violence against her in the name of honour,” said Ratushny.

Al Mezel’s lawyer, Geraldine Castle-Trudel, said he is now considering an appeal of the sentence. As it stands now, Al Mezel is eligible to apply for parole after serving two months of his sentence.

“It’s a tragedy when you have a really decent person who has been a contributing member of the community … going to jail,” said Castle-Trudel, who had earlier asked the judge to consider a conditional sentence including house arrest. “This is not a career criminal. This is a man who lost his good judgment following issues with his daughter.”

Al Mezel, the 44-year-old president of the Canadian Autoworkers Local 1688, ran unsuccessfully for a city council seat in the Alta Vista ward in 2006.

In September of 2008, he pleaded guilty to criminal harassment, admitting he repeatedly called, wrote, followed and visited the residences of his daughter in July 2007 in an attempt to get her to return home after a violent incident in which he pushed her into a flight of stairs and threatened to break her legs and kill her before smashing her computer.

The incident occurred after an argument over Eman Al Mezel’s volunteer work. Eman Al Mezel said she moved out of the home after her father arranged for her to marry a 24-year-old Syrian man.

In one e-mail to his daughter, Al Mezel tells her that they could no longer “hide the problem” from her uncles and cousins and that he could not guarantee the “safety of anyone” if she didn’t return home. “Eman, you know when everyone hear about, they will react crazy, and no one will care about police or other thing, you know your family,” read the e-mail.

In the message, he also wrote of “the Sharaf of the family,” which Eman Al Mezel later explained to police was the belief that she had shamed and dishonoured her family because she had run away from home and shed her hijab and Muslim beliefs.

Crown prosecutors had been asking for a jail sentence of between 18 and 24 months, arguing Al Mezel’s threat of an honour killing was designed to “control and dominate” his daughter.

Al Mezel was trying to deny his daughter “every basic freedom as to how she could live her life,” assistant Crown attorney James Cavanagh argued, the result of an “underlying notion of patriarchal dominance” based on a “perverted and archaic belief in family honour.”

as******@****************st.com

© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

American Imam praises Hasan; ‘Muslims who condemn attack are hypocrites, committing treason against Islam’

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From msnbc

Imam tied to 9/11 hijackers praises Hasan

Alleged Fort Hood shooter is conscious and talking at Army hospital

updated 1 hour, 56 minutes ago

FORT HOOD, Texas – A radical American imam on Yemen’s most wanted militant list who had contact with two 9/11 hijackers on Monday praised alleged Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan as a hero on his personal Web site.

The posting on the Web site for Anwar al Awlaki, who was a spiritual leader at two mosques where three 9/11 hijackers worshipped, said American Muslims who condemned the attacks on the Texas military base last week are hypocrites who have committed treason against their religion.

Awlaki said the only way a Muslim can justify serving in the U.S. military is if he intends to “follow in the footsteps of men like Nidal.”

“Nidal Hassan (sic) is a hero. He is a man of conscience who could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that is fighting against his own people,” Awlaki wrote.

Two U.S. intelligence officials told The Associated Press the Web site was Awlaki’s. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence collection. Awlaki did not immediately respond to an attempt to contact him through the Web site.

Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, is accused of killing 13 and wounding 29 in a shooting spree Thursday.

Authorities say Hasan fired off more than 100 rounds before civilian police shot him in the torso. He was taken into custody and eventually moved to an Army hospital in San Antonio, where he was in stable condition and able to talk, said Dewey Mitchell, a Brooke Army Medical Center spokesman.

Fifteen victims remained hospitalized with gunshot wounds, and eight were in intensive care.

Read full story here

Senator Lieberman calls for investigation into Fort Hood massacre

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From CNSNews

Lieberman Says Senate Will Investigate Fort Hood Shootings

Monday, November 09, 2009
By Staff, Associated Press
Washington (AP) – The chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee says he plans to begin a congressional investigation of the shootings at Fort Hood.

An Army major, Nidal Malik Hasan is suspected of killing 13 people and wounding 29 others at the Army post in Texas.

Sen. Joe Lieberman says he wants to determine whether the shootings constitute a terrorist attack. He says he also wants to find out whether the Army missed warning signs that Hasan was becoming extreme in his Islamist views.

The Connecticut independent says if Hasan was showing signs of becoming an Islamist radical, the Army should have shown “zero tolerance” and discharged him.

Lieberman appeared on “Fox News Sunday.”

Tarek Fatah on the radicalization of Muslim youth, fatwa by fatwa

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From The National Post

Spreading intolerance, one fatwa at a time

Tarek Fatah, National Post Published: Monday, November 09, 2009

Muhammad Salih Al-Munaj jid is a well-known Saudi cleric who has a large following in Canada and the West. Like other so-called Islamic scholars, he maintains an active presence on the Internet, which he uses as a platform to tell young Muslim men and women how to lead proper Islamic lives. His Saudi-based Islamic web portal, Islam Q& A, caters to Muslim youth not just in English, but Mandarin, Cantonese, Turkish, Urdu, French, Spanish, Russian, Uyghur and of course Arabic.

For some time now, I have been following the questions posed by Muslim youth and the responses (fatwas) issued by such Saudi-based clerics. It is fascinating to see how medieval-minded scholars serving a dictatorial theocracy named after an 18th century brigand are shaping the mindset of a segment of Canadian youth.

On Nov. 3, a question asked by an anonymous writer particularly caught my attention. Someone asked the self-described Saudi “Sheikh”: “Can a Muslim be a sincere friend to a kaafir [non-Muslim]?

Sheikh Al-Munajjid replied clearly: “Praise be to Allah. It is not permissible for a Muslim to make friends with a mushrik, or to take him as a close friend, because Islam calls on us to forsake the kaafirs and to disavow them, because they worship someone other than Allah.”

Then, the Saudi cleric quoted from the Koran, adding in his own comments in parentheses:

“O you who believe! Take not as friends the people who incurred the Wrath of Allah (i. e. the Jews). Surely, they have despaired of (receiving any good in) the Hereafter, just as the disbelievers have despaired of those (buried) in graves (that they will not be resurrected on the Day of Resurrection).”

I picked up my copy of the Koran to read the same verse. Lo and behold, there was no reference to Jews, yet the Saudi cleric had found it within his jurisdiction to add words to the Koran as way to inject it with anti-Semitism.

As if this were not sufficient, the Saudi cleric then invoked the supposed words of Prophet Muhammad: “Do not keep company with anyone but a believer, and do not let anyone eat your food but one who is pious.”

Then came the bombshell. Quoting again from the supposed words of the Prophet, the Saudi cleric urged Muslim youth to not live among the non-Muslims, unless the objective of living in the West was to convert the non-Muslims to Islam.

“Do not live among the mushrikeen and do not mix with them, for whoever lives among them or mixes with them is not one of us. But it is permissible to deal with them in a kind manner in the hope that they might become Muslim.”

The Saudi cleric ended with a story:

“There was a Jewish boy who used to serve the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), and he fell sick. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) came to visit him. He sat by his head and said, ‘Become Muslim.’ (The boy) looked at his father who was with him, and he (the father) said, ‘Obey Abu’l-Qaasim (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).’ So he became Muslim, and the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) went out, saying, ‘Praise be to Allah Who has saved him from the Fire’ (Narrated by al-Bukhaari, 1290).”

This is just one example of the many dubious fatwas being directed at Western Muslims. Well-funded Islamist groups are working tirelessly to convince young Muslims to view their non-Muslim fellow citizens with suspicion and derision. Meanwhile, there is no countervailing effort at any level in the West to counter the Islamists’ hateful message of isolation, segregation and hostility.

Who will rise to challenge this cancer of segregation seeping into the conscience of Muslim youth? The same clerics who sit at inter-faith and multiculturalism conferences and breakfasts with politicians are the very people who endorse the anti-Jew and anti-Christian message coming from their Saudi masters.

The time has come to call a spade a spade. The question is, are there any Canadians willing to fight this hate … or are they too worried about being accused of Islamophobia?

-Tarek Fatah is the founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress.

Italy: Crucifixes banned from classrooms

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From The Ottawa Citizen

Italians outraged by classroom crucifix ban

Court rules icons in schools may disturb non-Christians

By Philip Pullella, Reuters November 4, 2009 3:04 AM

Italy reacted furiously Tuesday to a European Court of Human Rights ruling that crucifixes should not be displayed in schools, with the government condemning the “pagan” move and calling it an attack on the nation’s history and culture.

The ruling by the court in Strasbourg, which Italy said it would appeal, said crucifixes on school walls — a common sight that is part of every Italian’s life — could disturb children who were not Christians.

Italy has been in the throes of national debate on how to deal with a growing population of immigrants, mostly Muslims, and the court sentence is likely to become another battle cry for the centre-right government’s policy to restrict newcomers.

“This is an abhorrent ruling,” said Rocco Buttiglione, a former culture minister who helped write papal encyclicals. “It must be rejected with firmness. Italy has its culture, its traditions and its history. Those who come among us must understand and accept this culture and this history.”

A Vatican spokesman said it was sad the crucifix could be considered a symbol of division and said religion offered a vital contribution to the moral formation of people.

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi added that it was “wrong and myopic” to try to exclude a symbol of charity from education.

Members of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s government bristled, weighing in with words such as “shameful,” “offensive,” “absurd,” “unacceptable,” and “pagan.”

Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said the court had dealt a “mortal blow to a Europe of values and rights,” adding that it was a bad precedent for other countries.

The case was brought by an Italian national, Soile Lautsi, who complained that her children had to attend a public school in northern Italy that had crucifixes in every room.

Education Minister Mariastella Gelmini said crucifixes on the walls of tens of thousands of classrooms “do not mean adherence to Catholicism,” but are a symbol of Italy’s heritage. “If we erase symbols we erase part of ourselves,” she said.

© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

Go Green: belief in man-made climate change nets religion status

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Bored with your current religion? Switch it up and Go Green.

From The Telegraph U.K.

Climate change belief given same legal status as religion

An executive has won the right to sue his employer on the basis that he was unfairly dismissed for his green views after a judge ruled that environmentalism had the same weight in law as religious and philosophical beliefs.

By Stephen Adams and Louise Gray
Published: 3:11PM GMT 03 Nov 2009

Tim Nicholson: Climate change belief given same legal status as religion

Tim Nicholson: Mr Nicholson, 42, from Oxford, told a previous hearing that his views were so strong that he refused to travel by air and had renovated his house to be environmentally-friendly. Photo: PA

In a landmark ruling, Mr Justice Michael Burton said that “a belief in man-made climate change … is capable, if genuinely held, of being a philosophical belief for the purpose of the 2003 Religion and Belief Regulations”.

The ruling could open the door for employees to sue their companies for failing to account for their green lifestyles, such as providing recycling facilities or offering low-carbon travel.

The decision regards Tim Nicholson, former head of sustainability at property firm Grainger plc, who claims he was made redundant in July 2008 due to his “philosophical belief about climate change and the environment”.

In March, employment judge David Heath gave Mr Nicholson permission to take the firm to tribunal over his treatment.

But Grainger challenged the ruling on the grounds that green views were political and based on science, as opposed to religious or philosophical in nature.

John Bowers QC, representing Grainger, had argued that adherence to climate change theory was “a scientific view rather than a philosophical one”, because “philosophy deals with matters that are not capable of scientific proof.”

That argument has now been dismissed by Mr Justice Burton, who last year ruled that the environmental documentary An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore was political and partisan.

The decision allows the tribunal to go ahead, but more importantly sets a precedent for how environmental beliefs are regarded in English law.

Mr Nicholson, 42, from Oxford, told a previous hearing that his views were so strong that he refused to travel by air and had renovated his house to be environmentally-friendly.

But his beliefs led to frequent clashes with Grainger’s other managers, while he said that Rupert Dickinson, the firm’s chief executive, treated his concerns with “contempt”.

Once Mr Dickinson flew a member of staff to Ireland to deliver his Blackberry mobile phone after leaving it in London, Mr Nicholson claimed.

Mr Nicholson hailed the Employment Appeals Tribunal ruling as “a victory for common sense” but stressed climate change was “not a new religion”.

He said: “I believe man-made climate change is the most important issue of our time and nothing should stand in the way of diverting this catastrophe.

“This philosophical belief that is based on scientific evidence has now been given the same protection in law as faith-based religious belief.

“Belief in man-made climate change is not a new religion, it is a philosophical belief that reflects my moral and ethical values and is underlined by the overwhelming scientific evidence.”

His lawyer Shah Qureshi, head of employment law at Bindmans LLP, argued that if the ruling had gone against them, “the end result would be that the more evidence there is to support your views, the less likely it would be for you to enjoy protection against discrimination”.

Grainger now plans to contest Mr Nicholson’s claim of unfair dismissal at tribunal.

Dave Butler, its corporate affairs director, said: “This decision merely confirms that views on the importance of environmental protection are capable of amounting to a philosophical belief.

“We are looking forward to addressing the issues at tribunal level and demonstrating that there was no causal link between Mr Nicholson’s beliefs and his redundancy.”

The grounds for Mr Nicholson’s case stem from changes to employment law made by Baroness Scotland, the Attorney General, in the Employment Equality (Religion and Belief) Regulations 2003.

The regulations effectively broaden the protection to cover not just religious beliefs or those “similar” to religious beliefs, but philosophical beliefs as well.

Canadian men connected to Detroit mosque arrested

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From The Ottawa Citizen

Two Canadians tied to controversial U.S. mosque arrested

Canwest News ServiceOctober 31, 2009 12:38 PM

Mujahid Carswell

Mujahid Carswell

Photograph by: Handout, Canwest News Service

WINDSOR, Ont. — Two Canadian men wanted by the FBI in connection to a radical mosque in Detroit were arrested by authorities in this country on Saturday.

Yassir Ali Khan, 30, and Mohammad Philistine, 33 – also known as Mohammad Al-Sahli and Mohammad Palestine – were arrested around 8 a.m. Saturday, according to an FBI news release.

Authorities have been searching for the men following the death this past week of the leader of a fundamentalist Islamic group, who was killed in a shootout with FBI agents after a raid on a warehouse in Dearborn, Mich.

The pair were picked up without incident by Windsor police and RCMP’s Immigration Task Force, the release said, adding both men were being held until an immigration and extradition hearing could take place. The FBI said that hearing was scheduled for Monday.

The Windsor police tactical squad surrounded a house in the southern Ontario city earlier this week to arrest 30-year-old Mujahid Carswell, also known as Mujahid Abdullah, a third man wanted in connection to Detroit mosque.

It was Carswell’s father, Luqman Ameen Abdullah, who was killed in the shootout with FBI agents.

The FBI has charged 11 people with various federal felonies, none of which is tied to terrorism.

U.S. authorities allege Abdullah and his followers were part of a Sunni Muslim group with the mission of establishing a separate Islamic nation within the United States.

“The 11 defendants are members of a group that is alleged to have engaged in violent activity over a period of many years, and known to be armed,” the U.S. Department of Justice said in an earlier news release.

On Friday, the lawyer for the two newly arrested men, Pat Ducharme, said his clients were not fleeing authorities and were in the city.

“They’re not on the run; they’re not hiding,” Ducharme said.

“They live here in this community. They are citizens of Canada, and I expect them to be treated within the parameters of the law, no matter what anybody thinks they’ve done.”

© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service

British Mum refused service by ‘Asian’ clerk for ‘wristband’

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From The Sun U.K.

By ALASTAIR TAYLOR

Published: 29 October, 2009

Asda till snub for Hopes for Heroes mum

MUM-of-three Beth Hoyle claims an Asda till worker refused to serve her because she was wearing a wristband backing injured troops.

Beth says the checkout lad told her the band for Help for Heroes – aided by The Sun – meant she supported the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And when she complained to a supervisor, he BACKED the Asian youth, saying he was entitled to his view.

Beth, 40, who has two brothers in the services, said the checkout worker told her he didn’t want to serve her because of “what she was wearing.”

Shocked Beth, of Whitworth, Greater Manchester, said that at first she thought the youth at Asda’s Rochdale store meant a cross round her neck.

“He pointed to my Help for Heroes wristband and accused me of supporting the war. I told him it was nothing to do with the war, but about supporting our injured troops.

“I immediately complained to a supervisor, but he said it was his right not to serve me. I was disgusted.”

An Asda spokeswoman said they were “shocked” by the claims but had found no evidence that the incident happened in their store.

She added: “We are big supporters of the Help for Heroes campaign and we sell the pin badges and wristband in hundreds of our stores.”

a.******@********co.uk

Islamic radicalization of Somali-Canadian community a growing security threat

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From The Ottawa Citizen

Radical Somali-Canadians potential threat: RCMP boss

Horn of Africa insurgency attracts ‘thousands’

By Ian MacLeod, The Ottawa CitizenOctober 31, 2009
RCMP Commissioner William Elliott on Friday told a conference of security intelligence specialists that the Islamic radicalization of Canada's Somali community is becoming a national security concern.

RCMP Commissioner William Elliott on Friday told a conference of security intelligence specialists that the Islamic radicalization of Canada’s Somali community is becoming a national security concern.

Photograph by: Rod MacIvor, The Ottawa Citizen, The Ottawa Citizen

Islamic radicalization of Canada’s Somali community is becoming a national security concern, RCMP Commissioner William Elliott said Friday.

The potential of Somali-Canadians adopting the extremist ideology of the Islamist insurgency ravaging the failed state is on an evolving list of national security issues and threats Elliott outlined in a sobering speech to an Ottawa conference of security intelligence specialists.

Despite recent successes such as thwarting the Toronto 18 and Momin Khawaja terrorism plots, he said the current threat environment remains severe, from a resurgent al-Qaeda and fugitive Tamil Tigers to nuclear technology smuggling and border concerns.

Success in countering the dangers will require police to take on more of national security role and, “put more terrorism cases before the courts and more terrorists in jail.” Continue Reading →

Muslim father accused of running down ‘westernized’ daughter nabbed

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From The Arizona Republic

Glendale man accused of running over daughter found

Faleh AlmalekiFaleh Almaleki

by JJ Hensley – Oct. 30, 2009 08:55 AM
The Arizona Republic

The Glendale man accused of running down his daughter for being too “westernized” was taken into custody Thursday night, police confirmed.

Faleh Almaleki, 48, was in custody in Georgia, Peoria police spokesman

Mike Tellef said late Thursday.

Jim Joyner, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service in Atlanta, said Almaleki was arrested Thursday when he arrived at Atlanta’s airport

.

Police believe Almaleki ran over his daughter, Noor Almaleki, 20, and Amal Edan Khalaf, 43, in a Peoria parking lot on Oct. 20 because he felt his daughter had disrespected the family.

Khalaf is reportedly the mother of Noor’s boyfriend.

The two women were still in the hospital, with Noor Almaleki in “life-threatening” condition and Khalaf’s condition improving, when police updated their status earlier this week.

Faleh Almaleki had evaded police for more than a week since running over the two women.

Noor’s brother, Peter-Ali Almaleki, said their father called home late last week to check on his daughter’s condition but his wife hung up on him.

Includes information from The Associated Press

World gender gap worst among Islamic nations

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From R.E.A.L. Organization

World Gender Gap Worst in Islamic Nations — Survey Shows Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Yemen, Egypt, Turkey at Bottom of List

By R.E.A.L. Organization • on October 28, 2009
The 2009 report by the World Economic Forum has listed predominantly Islamic nations in the bottom of their annual Global Gender Gap (GGG) Index.   This included such major nations as Pakistan (ranked 132 out of 134), Saudi Arabia (ranked 130 out of 134), Iran (ranked 128 out of 134), Egypt (ranked 126 out of 134), and Turkey (ranked 129 out 134).  Yemen, which is 99 percent Islamic, was the bottom ranked nation as 134 on the Global Gender Gap Index.  The only nation not predominantly Islamic in the bottom of the Global Gender Gap index was Benin.

In addition, the 2009 World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Index report does not include rankings on a number of significant and predominantly Islamic nations where women are oppressed. Somalia (population of nearly 10 million) was not included in the index.  Endless numbers of reports of the stonings and Islamic supremacist abuses of women have been reported in Somalia in the past year, including the stoning to death of a 13 year old girl based on “Sharia law” in October 2008.   Sudan (population of nearly 41 million) was also not included in the World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Index.  Among other nations, Afghanistan (29 million) and Iraq (29 million) are also not included in this Global Gender Gap Index.  With the index not reporting on these 109 million, the desperate fate of an estimated 50 plus million women are not included in this Global Gender Gap index report. Continue Reading →

Islamists tell government to ‘keep Mum’ on Detroit Imam’s faith

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From IPT: The Investigative Project on Terrorism

Islamists Urge Government to Keep Imam’s Faith Out of Detroit Case

IPT News
October 29, 2009

The imam had driven from Detroit to northern Virginia to raise money for a jailed friend, a convicted cop killer.

“If you study the case you’ll see that it’s a conspiracy,” the imam said. “If you study what went on with him, you’ll say, ‘How in the world is he in jail?'”

But it was what Luqman Abdullah said on the way to that March 2008 fundraiser that helped bring the FBI to his door on Wednesday in what proved to be a fatal confrontation. In the car with his son and two followers, one of whom turned out to be an FBI informant, Abdullah repeated his long-standing concern that law enforcement was after him. According to a criminal complaint:

“Abdullah stated that the FBI is the enemy of Islam. Abdullah stated something to the effect, ‘If they are coming to get me I’ll just strap a bomb on and blow up everybody.’ Abdullah gave S-3 the impression that he has access to an explosive device.” [Emphasis original]

According to the FBI, Abdullah led a separatist movement which wanted “a separate, sovereign Islamic state (‘The Ummah’) within the borders of the United States, governed by Shariah law. The Ummah is to be ruled over by Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rapp Brown.”

Al-Amin is the convicted killer Abdullah was working to free. He’s a political prisoner, Abdullah told his audience at the fundraiser, held at the All Dulles Area Muslim Society, or ADAMS Center, in 2008. Then he challenged the audience on its commitment to free Al-Amin:

“How much can we sacrifice in order to see Imam Jamil released? If we could sacrifice our lives, would we?”

Abdullah also was a founder and board member of the Muslim Alliance of North America (MANA). The group issued a statement Thursday expressing “deep concern” over the case. The concern was not why Abdullah refused to lower his weapon and fired at agents, but at why he was shot:

“This tragic shooting raises deep concerns regarding the use of lethal force by law enforcement agents.”

An FBI statement said agents considered the suspects to be armed and dangerous, and “special safeguards” were employed to try to make the arrests peacefully. The complaint contains repeated references to Abdullah’s instructions that his followers stay armed and his vow not to be taken by law enforcement. An FBI dog was killed in the shootout that resulted.

The MANA statement said allegations in the complaint were “shocking and inconsistent” with what they knew about Abdullah. It also stressed that the charges involved regular criminal activity and should not be used “in order demonize American Muslims.” Continue Reading →

Canadian spy chief chastises those soft on terror

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From The Ottawa Citizen

Canada oblivious to terror danger: CSIS boss

New director takes aim at critics in first public speech

By Ian MacLeod, The Ottawa CitizenOctober 30, 2009
CSIS head Richard B. Fadden says security and rights are 'not in opposition, but are intertwined like DNA stands.'

CSIS head Richard B. Fadden says security and rights are ‘not in opposition, but are intertwined like DNA stands.’

Photograph by: Chris Mikula, The Ottawa Citizen, The Ottawa Citizen

Despite a history of domestic terrorism, from Air India to the Toronto 18, Canada has a “serious blind spot” acknowledging that violent extremism imperils our national security, says the new head of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

In his first public speech since becoming Canada’s spy master this summer, Richard B. Fadden wasted no time Thursday railing against those he believes ignore, minimize and even applaud terrorism and the people caught up in it, while portraying government efforts to combat extremism as assaults on liberty.

“Almost any attempt to fight terrorism by the government is portrayed as an overreaction or an assault on liberty. It is a peculiar position, given that terrorism is the ultimate attack on liberties,” Fadden told an Ottawa conference of about 300 security and intelligence specialists. Continue Reading →

Buckingham Masjid on Masjid Road; U.K. lunatic Choudary wants Buckingham Palace for Islam

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Is anyone else getting tired of this fanatic and resident mental case Choudary? Every week his group Islam4UK attempts to promote or impose some new sharia based Islamic ‘answer’ for British society. This week he claims that the Queen is squatting in Buckingham Palace, according to his ‘historical evidence’. He would fancy re-naming it Buckingham Masjid……..

From The Daily Express U.K.

BUCKINGHAM MOSQUE …WHAT FANATICS WANT TO CALL THE PALACE

Story Image

Extremists website show how Palace would look with a dome

Thursday October 29,2009

By David Pilditch

A FANATICAL Muslim group campaigning to impose sharia law on Britain wants to turn Buckingham Palace into a mosque, it was revealed last night.

Days before a potentially incendiary rally in central London, the hardline Islam4UK group claims to have uncovered historical evidence which challenges the right of the Queen to live at the royal property.

Notorious hate preacher Anjem Choudary is calling for the palace to be renamed Buckingham Masjid, the Arabic word for mosque.

The Mall, which approaches the palace, would become Masjid Road.

Choudary, the right-hand man of exiled cleric Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, spoke out as he urged Muslims across Britain to join Saturday’s rally to demand a complete overhaul of the British legal system and the introduction of sharia courts.

The protest is due to begin at 1pm outside the Houses of Parliament and end at Trafalgar Square, less than a mile from Buckingham Palace, raising concerns over security.

Last night angry politicians and fellow Muslims condemned Choudary’s comments.

Tory MP Philip Davies compared Choudary to the leader of the BNP, saying: “This man’s a complete idiot. He’s the Muslim equivalent to Nick Griffin. I’m all for free speech and people having the right to have their say but, equally, there are all these ridiculous laws the Government has introduced about inciting racial hatred. Quite clearly, that’s what he is doing.

“If these laws are in place, they have to work both ways – they can’t apply to just one group of people.”

In a rambling diatribe, Choudary wrote on the Islam4UK website: “There is a spark that has ignited and its flame has become unstoppable.

“In recent years the world has witnessed an Islamic resurgence which continues to grow in strength.

“We find ourselves in the year 2009, waiting for Rome to fall, waiting for the White House to fall and indeed waiting for Buckingham Palace to fall.”

Choudary said that under sharia law the Queen’s official residence in London would have a dome fitted and a tannoy system to call followers to prayer.

The Palace would be used as a judiciary court for handing down sharia punishments and a detention place for “prisoners of war”.

In addition, the building would become the headquarters of the Islamic States’ supreme leadership and the Department of Information and Culture.

Choudary also called for the Crown Jewels to be melted down into “more appealing jewellery, free from idolatrous engravings or symbols such as crosses or human beings”.

Islam4UK’s website shows mock-up images of the Palace as a mosque and the Crown Jewels being melted.

Choudary added: “At present, Buckingham Palace is nothing more than a hollow building exploited by the rich and withheld from any real use.

“Under the sharia this would never happen, rather the British community would see it converted into a flourishing mosque which would be of a great benefit, not only for those residing in London but also the country as a whole.”

The Islam4UK movement is made up of leading members of the banned radical al-Muhajiroun group which was once led by Choudary. Around 15 per cent of people convicted in the UK of terrorism-related offences in the last decade were either members of the group or had links to it.

The Centre for Social Cohesion last night warned of the dangers of Choudary’s preachings.

Houriya Ahmed, a researcher for the independent think-tank , said: “I think they are just doing this for publicity.

“Anjem Choudary is a ridiculous man. But that does not mean his ideology is not dangerous.”

Muslim leader Abdul Hamid Qureshi, chairman of the Lancashire Council of Mosques, said: “The sad fact is that this organisation is driving the agenda. What they are saying is totally wrong. They are only a small bunch of people. There is no sense in it – it is not Islam.”

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: “We are discussing the potential demonstrations on October 31.”