Author Archives: taffy

Dagestan suicide bomb kills six police officers

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BBCNEWS… A suicide bomb attack in Russia’s restive North Caucasus republic of Dagestan has killed six policemen and wounded 14 more, officials say.

The attacker tried to drive a truck loaded with up to 70kg of explosives into a traffic police station as officers were gathering, police say.

But his bomb was detonated when the car was rammed head on by police vehicle.

The sacrifice of the officers involved prevented an even worse tragedy, said the local police chief.

Wednesday morning’s attack in Dagestan’s capital Makhachkala was similar to a bombing in nearby Ingushetia last August that left at least 20 people dead, says the BBC’s Richard Galpin in Moscow.

The predominantly Muslim region has seen an increase in attacks by Islamist insurgents over the past year.

Russian forces have fought two wars against separatists in the mainly Muslim republic of Chechnya since 1994. The conflicts claimed more than 100,000 lives and left the region in ruins.

Chechnya has in recent years been more peaceful, but the fighting has spread to Dagestan and Ingushetia, where correspondents say a violent Islamist insurgency is growing.

Hate rants by Alleged al-Qaeda boss Anwar al-Awlaki on sale in London

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MIRROR… Rantings by the terror chief accused of coaching the Christmas Day syringe bomber are on sale in London.

Alleged al-Qaeda boss Anwar al-Awlaki was hailed a hero by fanatic Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who tried to explode a bomb concealed in his underpants on Northwest Airlines flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit.

Yesterday our investigators found a wide selection of al-Awlaki’s hate-filled tirades on sale in an Islamic bookshop yards from the East London Mosque which was regularly attended by Abdulmutallab.

We found DVDs of his chilling speeches prominently displayed next to the counter at Al-Furqan books on Whitechapel Road.

They included Constants on The Path To Jihad – described as “a virtual bible” for terrorists.

Somalia Terror Forces Halt to UN Food Aid

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World Food Program Says al Qaeda-Linked Militants Demanded Protection Money; 1 Million Left in “Dire” Need

CBSNEWS… The U.N. food agency is stopping aid distribution to about 1 million people in southern Somalia because of attacks against staff and demands by armed groups that aid groups remove women from their teams, the agency said Tuesday.

The World Food Program is moving staff and supplies to northern and central Somalia from six areas in the south that are largely controlled by the al-Shabab Islamist group, said Emilia Casella, a WFP spokeswoman. The U.S. State Department says al-Shabab has links to al-Qaeda.

“Up to a million people that have been dependent on food assistance in southern Somalia face a situation that is particularly dire,” Casella told reporters in Geneva.At least four of WFP’s staff have been killed over the past 18 months, and militants threatened and looted three of its offices in the south, Casella told The Associated Press.

Armed groups have also increasingly been demanding that the World Food Program and other aid groups remove women from their staff and pay tens of thousands of dollars in protection money to guarantee the aid workers’ security, she said.

The agency had tried to resolve the demands of armed groups through meetings with village elders, but was unable to win the necessary guarantees for the security of its staff and protection of its humanitarian work, Casella said.

“We need concrete guarantees from the leadership” of the armed groups, she said.

The World Food Program is now preparing for a mass exodus of hungry Somalis from the south to other parts of Somalia and to neighboring countries, she said.

The agency supplies aid to some 3 million people in the war-torn country, which is also struggling with drought and produces only a third of the food it needs every year.

OUTRAGE AS YEMEN GETS £37M OF TAXPAYERS’ CASH FOR JOBS

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Daily Express…TAXPAYERS are being forced to contribute millions of pounds to job-creation schemes in Yemen in an attempt to counter a surge of Muslim terrorist activity.

The Government is to hike overseas aid to the Arabian republic by almost 50 per cent to £37million next year amid fears it is becoming a haven for Al Qaeda militants.

Most of the cash will be pumped into new roads, reservoirs and dams with the aim of providing jobs for around 300,000 jobless Yemenis.

Increased aid is understood to be part of a new blitz by Britain, the US and other Western nations.

But the move has sparked anger about Treasury cash being lavished on work-creation schemes abroad while dole queues grow in Britain.

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “British taxpayers already spend huge amounts on aid. Frankly this extra money is needed at home.

“It may be a well-intentioned proposal, but with huge numbers of people losing their jobs in Britain we should not be spending a ­fortune trying to solve Yemeni unemployment. When people pay tax they are told it is to protect them if they fall on hard times. We are in those hard times now and our Government’s priority should be helping British people get back on their feet.”

Britain gave £25million to aid projects in the country on the southern tip of the Arabian peninsular last year, but the figure could rise to £40million in 2011-12. More than £120million of British taxpayers’ money is due to go to the war?ravaged nation in the next four years.

Some officials claim boosting economic development and ­tack- ling poverty is the key to ­combating the growth of terrorist sympathies in the Yemen, where failed Christmas Day airline bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is thought to have been trained. Unemployment in the country is estimated at around 35 per cent of the working- age population and ­rising. Yemen is also facing a ­growing economic crisis as the country’s oil is expected to run out by 2018. And it is suffering from an acute water shortage.

But critics of the aid policy point out that many Al Qaeda terrorists have come from wealthy backgrounds rather than out of poverty.

Yemen’s population is one of the fastest growing in the world with around a third of its 24 million ­citizens reckoned to be under 24.

The Department for International Development said: “The UK is increasingly concerned about the situation in Yemen and the number and scale of the challenges facing the Government of Yemen.

“Yemen is the only low-income country in the Middle East – 35 per cent of Yemenis live under the ­poverty line.

“It is becoming increasingly unstable. Any further deterioration of security and stability in Yemen will have great implications not only for the Yemeni people, but also for the region and beyond.”

Kenya Seeks To Deport Muslim Cleric To Jamaica

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 NYT–LONDON — The Kenyan authorities were reported on Monday to be planning to deport a Jamaican-born Muslim cleric, Abdullah el-Faisal, who may have helped inspire the Nigerian man accused of trying to bomb an American airliner headed to Detroit on Christmas Day.

Mr. Faisal has long been known to law enforcement agencies in the United States and Europe. He was tried in Britain in 2003 on charges of spreading racial hatred and urging his followers to kill Christians, Hindus, Jews and Americans. He was deported from Britain in 2007.

Reuters reported from Nairobi, the capital, that Mr. Faisal was in Kenya on a preaching tour. But intelligence officials feared that his speeches would encourage radicalism in a country that has been a target of attacks ascribed to Al Qaeda, including the 1998 bombing of the American Embassy. He was arrested Sunday in the port city of Mombasa.

“The minister in charge of immigration has declared him as an unwanted immigrant. We don’t want him in this country,” a police spokesman, Eric Kiraithe, told Reuters. It was not clear when Mr. Faisal would be deported.

“From what he says, he was coming to preach,” Mr. Kiraithe said. “The contacts he was maintaining, according to our intelligence, are not the best, are not in our national interests.”

Mr. Faisal settled in Britain in the early 1990s and became imam of the Brixton mosque in South London, which was reported to have been frequented by Richard C. Reid, the so-called shoe bomber who sought to blow up an airliner bound for the United States just before Christmas in 2001.

Abdul Haqq Bakr, the chairman of Brixton Mosque and Islamic Cultural Center, said at the time that Mr. Reid had joined prayers at the mosque in late 1995 and left in 1998.

Zacarias Moussaoui, who was sentenced in the United States in 2006 to life in federal prison after he admitted knowledge of the Sept. 11, 2001, plot, also prayed at the Brixton mosque.

Mr. Faisal, a Jamaican-born convert to Islam who studied in Saudi Arabia, was found guilty in 2003 of encouraging followers to use chemical and nuclear weapons against their enemies from other faiths. He was sentenced to seven years in prison.

He was deported four years later after the authorities accused him of influencing Germaine Lindsay, one of the four attackers in the London bombings of July 2005. Mr. Lindsay was also a Jamaican-born convert to Islam.

Mr. Faisal’s name surfaced much more recently in investigations into Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian man accused of the attempted attack on a Northwest Airlines flight.

In an online posting in May 2005, under the name “farouk1986,” Mr. Abdulmutallab referred to Mr. Faisal as a cleric he had listened to, according to American military and law enforcement authorities.

In his posting, Mr. Abdulmutallab wrote: “I thought once they are arrested, no one hears about them for life and the keys to their prison wards are thrown away. That’s what I heard Sheik Faisal of U.K. say (he has also been arrested I heard).”

It was not clear how Mr. Faisal had made his way to Africa after being deported to Jamaica in 2007. The Kenya newspaper Daily Nation quoted the immigration minister, Otieno Kajwang, as saying that he entered Kenya from Tanzania using a border post at Lunga Lunga that was not connected to a central database in Nairobi.

Daily Nation reported Sunday that Mr. Faisal has previously been denied entry into Kenya.

He had traveled to Nigeria, Angola, Mozambique, Swaziland, Malawi and Tanzania before arriving in Kenya, the newspaper said. He was arrested after attending prayers at a mosque.

The newspaper quoted Mr. Kajwang as saying: “We are not deporting him because he is a Muslim. We are deporting him because of his terrorist history and the fact that he is on the international watch list. ”

Philippines declares martial law in massacre area

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CBCNEWS… The president of the Philippines imposed martial law Saturday on a southern province where 57 people were killed in a political massacre, while security forces detained members of a powerful clan accused of plotting the attack and fomenting a rebellion.

It was the first time martial rule has been declared in the country since the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos imposed it more than three decades ago. With memories of abuses from that time still fresh in their minds, opposition politicians and human-rights groups questioned President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s action, saying she overreacted to a police problem.

Government officials defended Arroyo, saying she acted decisively to bring suspects in the mass slayings into custody and head off a rebellion by the Ampatuan clan, which has ruled the impoverished Maguindanao province unopposed for years.

Head of political clan arrested

Clan patriarch Andal Ampatuan Sr. — a former governor who was among those detained Saturday — and at least six other family members are the main suspects in the Nov. 23 attack on a political rival’s convoy, in which about 30 journalists were killed. The family has denied involvement.

The Ampatuans, notorious for running a large private army, were allied with Arroyo and helped her receive crucial votes from the volatile southern region during 2004 elections. Arroyo’s ruling party expelled the clan after the massacre.

The martial law proclamation allows troops to make arrests without court warrants and to restore order, Arroyo’s top cabinet member, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, announced on national television early Saturday.

The last Philippine leader to declare martial law was Marcos, whose nationwide declaration in 1972 paved the way for his one-man rule that ended with his ouster in 1986.

Under the post-Marcos constitution, Arroyo can enforce martial law for 60 days, unless Congress revokes or extends it.

Fidel Ramos, the former president who was a supporter of Arroyo but has recently been critical of her actions, described her move as “overkill.”

In Saturday’s announcement, Ermita cited military reports as saying heavily armed supporters of the Ampatuans had “plans to undertake hostile action” if clan members were arrested.

“We felt that this is a very imminent threat, so we recommended this proclamation,” military chief of staff Gen. Victor Ibrado said. “By their sheer number, they are really a threat to the peace and order of the province.”

Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera said the arrested men would be charged with rebellion, which carries a penalty of up to 40 years in prison.

“We evaluated very closely the facts and circumstances and information that were reported to us and there is no mistake in the analysis — it was a looming, and in fact it was already, practically an overthrow of government,” she said.

But CenterLaw, a group of human-rights lawyers, said there were insufficient grounds for martial law and would challenge it in the Supreme Court.

“The constitution limits the grounds to insurrection, rebellion and invasion. None of these grounds are existent,” it said in a statement. “We call on the citizenry to be vigilant for the defence of their civil liberties.”

Weapons seized in warehouse raid

For several days, hundreds of security forces have surrounded the sprawling Ampatuan compounds in Shariff Aguak, the provincial capital. Continue Reading →

Security incident aboard AirTran Flight 297 suggests terror “Dry Run”

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Canada Free Press…By Doug Hagmann  Thursday, December 3, 2009

On November 17, an incident took place aboard AirTran Flight 297 scheduled to fly from Atlanta Hartsfield Airport to Houston that the media does not want to cover and everyone from the airline to the TSA and other government agencies want to keep very quiet.  The reasons, I have been told, is fear of predatory lawsuits, negative publicity from accusations of religious profiling, and the obligatory subjugation to mindless mandatory Muslim sensitivity training that make a mockery of our American system of values. Interestingly, one airline official told me “we don’t want to become another flight 300,” which is a reference to a very similar scenario that took place aboard US Airways Flight 300 exactly three years ago.

I was first contacted about this incident two days after it happened by a passenger who was aboard AirTran Flight 297. Based on the allegations made by this passenger, we conducted additional research, interviews and investigation, all of which takes time to insure accuracy, and are now able to release our report of the incident that took place aboard that aircraft. Be prepared to be shocked, angered, and perhaps saddened by our national and corporate acquiescence to mafia-type tactics by Islamists who are engaged in a full frontal assault, and laughing about it.

Unsurprisingly, the facts we developed during the course of our investigation are inconsistent with those being reported in the media, despite the media having the responsibility to report the truth.

The incident

A group of thirteen men dressed in traditional Muslim attire were among 73 passengers who boarded AirTran Flight 297 on Tuesday, 17 November 2009, a routine flight scheduled to depart Atlanta Hartsfield Airport, gate C-16 at 4:43 PM ET to Houston Hobby Airport. Reports developed by this investigator found two witnesses who observed direct interaction among all of these Muslim men at the terminal.

As the passengers boarded the aircraft, two of the Muslim men took seats in first class, while the remaining eleven were seated throughout the remaining rows of the aircraft. Most had carrying-on bags that they stowed in the overhead compartments above their seats.

As the aircraft began to taxi to the runway, a female flight attendant was beginning to issue the normal passenger advisories over the PA system. Almost on cue at the time passengers were told to turn off all electronic devices, one of the Muslim men seated in the front of the plane began to use his cell phone in a manner that was described by a flight attendant and passenger “as deliberate and obvious.”  He was talking loudly in Arabic, nearly at the level of the flight attendant. Some reports suggest that this man actually called another Muslim passenger, although this has not been immediately confirmed. It is possible, however, as another passenger reported that a Muslim man seated toward the rear of the plane answered his cellular phone at the same time the man in the front began using his.

At this point, the flight attendant in the front of the plane approached the Muslim man using his telephone and instructed him to immediately turn it off. A second female flight attendant did the same at the rear of the aircraft. Concurrent with this cellular activity, two other Muslim men seated adjacent near the middle of the aircraft began operating what one passenger described as a palm type camcorder, ostensibly to view previously taken footage. It is possible, according to one flight attendant interviewed by this investigator, however, that the camcorder was being used for recording purposes. Whatever its use, a third flight attendant, aware of the incidents taking place in the front and rear of the aircraft, approached the two men for the purpose of securing the camcorder.  At least two passengers reported that the men became abusive to the flight attendant and initially refused to comply with her request.

It was at this time that most of the passengers began to notice the multiple incidents involving over a dozen men dressed in Islamic attire. Next, as if previously rehearsed, at least ten of the 13 Muslim men aboard the aircraft began to leave their seats at the same time. At least one passenger stated she observed one of the Muslim passengers using his cell phone to take photos of other passengers on the aircraft, while one other Muslim passenger sang loudly in Arabic. According to information provided to this investigator from one of the flight crew who was alerted to an onboard emergency, the aircraft was now being taxied back to the terminal. The TSA, FAA and FBI were notified. Continue Reading →

N. Caucasus rebels claim Russian train bombing

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CBC NEWS… A North Caucasus Muslim rebel group has claimed responsibility for last week’s Russian train bombing that killed 26 people, according to a website sympathetic to the militants.

The claim on the Kavkazcenter.com site said last Friday’s attack was carried out on behalf of Doku Umarov, a Chechen separatist considered the leader of the Muslim extremist insurgency in the North Caucasus.

“We declare that this operation was prepared and carried out … pursuant to the order of the Emir of Caucasus Emirate,” or Umarov, the statement on the website said.

The website has previously published statements by North Caucasus groups claiming responsibility for attacks that were later confirmed.

Umarov is one of Russia’s most wanted rebels, and is thought to head a network of separatist cells across the mainly Muslim North Caucasus region. He has said he is fighting to expel Russia from the region and create an Islamic emirate.

Russian authorities characterized last week’s attack as a terrorist attack but have not made any arrests. Police on Monday released a computerized sketch of a suspect.

Alexander Bastrykin, the country’s top investigator, said in comments published on Wednesday in state newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta that the bombing bore the hallmarks of southern separatists.

Authorities said they found evidence that a bomb caused three carriages of the 14-car Nevsky Express, travelling from Moscow to St. Petersburg, to career off the tracks Friday night as the train approached speeds of 200 km/h in a rural area.

Government officials were among the 26 people killed in the attack, and scores were injured.

It was the second attack on the train line in two years. A 2007 blast injured dozens but was not fatal.

Europe unites to deplore Swiss ban on minarets

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TIMESONLINE…The Swiss and European establishment united today in deploring yesterday’s decision by Swiss voters to outlaw the construction of minarets but conservative leaders warned that the referendum showed genuine fear over Islam on the continent.

Swiss officials, media and business leaders voiced shame over a vote that they say will stigmatise the country’s 400,000 Muslims and stain Switzerland’s name in the Muslim world. In contrast, hard right leaders in France, Austria, Italy and the Netherlands hailed what they depicted as a triumph for the people against the elite.

Le Temps, Geneva’s establishment newspaper, said: “The vote was inspired by fear, fantasies and ignorance.” Damage to the country’s international standing would be spectacular, it said. “Vengeance [ aka fear], boycotts [ aka fantasy], retaliation [aka ignorance] … this clash with Islam could cost dearly.”

Tagesanzeiger, the Zurich daily, said that the vote, staged on the initiative of the nationalist Swiss People’s Party (SVP), showed the country’s deep division between outward-looking modernisers and a traditionalist backlash. The 57 per cent approval of the minaret ban would “strengthen the international isolation of Switzerland even among western nations,” it said.

The Swiss Government, which opposed the vote, reassured members of the faith that “this is not a rejection of the Muslim community, religion or culture.” The Conference of Swiss Bishops also criticised the result, saying that it “heightens the problems of cohabitation between religions and cultures.”

Amnesty international and other rights organisations said that the change to the Swiss Constitution breached guarantees on religious freedom in the European Human Rights Convention. The Swiss Green party said that it may lodge a complaint at the Strasbourg court of Human Rights.

Swiss Muslims, who come mainly from the Balkans and Turkey, reacted with sorrow. “The most painful thing for us is not the ban on minarets, but the symbol sent by this vote,” said Farhad Afshar, leader of the Swiss Coordination of Islamic Organisations. “Muslims do not feel accepted as a religious community,” he said.

Anger was swift from more militant wings of the Muslim world. “This is the hatred of Swiss people against Muslim communities. They do not want to see a Muslim presence in their country and this intense dislike has made them intolerant,” said Maskuri Abdillah, the head of Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia’s biggest Muslim group. He urged Muslims not to take “revenge” for the decision.

Egypt’s Mufti Ali Gomaa denounced the ban on new minarets as an insult to all Muslims. “This proposal … is not considered just an attack on freedom of beliefs, but also an attempt to insult the feelings of the Muslim community in and outside Switzerland.”

Beyond Switzerland, the vote was criticised by centre and leftwing leaders. Bernard Kouchner, a leftist who is French Foreign Minister, said that he had been shocked. Switzerland should reverse the decision quickly, he said. “If you are not allowed to build minarets, that means that religion is being oppressed.” Can someone please show me an Muslim dominated country where religions other than Islam are not oppressed?

However spokesman for Mr Sarkozy’s centre-right Union for a Popular Majority, took a different line, saying that the vote showed the degree to which radical Islam was alarming Europe’s citizens. Xavier Bertrand, the party leader, said that he was “not sure that minarets are needed in order to practise Islam in France”.

In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrat (CDU) party reacted with similar caution. To criticise the Swiss ban would be counterproductive, said Wolfgang Bosbach a senior CDU MP. It reflected a fear of growing Islamisation “and this fear must be taken seriously,” he said.

France’s far right National Front welcomed the outcome, saying that the “elites should stop denying the aspirations and fears of the European people, who, without opposing religious freedom, reject ostentatious signs that political-religious Muslim groups want to impose.”

In Italy, the anti-immigrant Northern League, said: “Switzerland is sending us a clear signal: yes to bell towers, no to minarets.”

In Switzerland, Yvan Perrin, vice-president of the SVP, the largest party in the federal Parliament, said that the vote was a lesson to the elite. Swiss companies should not worry about suffering from a backlash from Muslim countries, he said. “If our companies continue to make good quality products, they have nothing to worry about.”

21 dead in Philippines hostage slayings

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The religion of peace kills again and again and again.

Manila, Philippines (CNN) — The wife of a candidate for governor and about 30 others were abducted Monday morning in the southern Philippines — with at least 21 of them later killed, army officials said.

The woman was on her way to file her husband’s nomination papers, when some 100 armed men abducted her and the others in Maguindanao province, said the candidate, Ibrahim Mangudadatu.

Army Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner said soldiers later recovered 21 bodies — 13 women and eight men — from the area where the abduction occurred.

Presidential Adviser on Mindanao Affairs Jesus Dureza has asked the government to place Maguindanao province under a state of emergency.

“This is a gruesome massacre of civilians unequaled in recent history. Even women and media men were not spared. There must be a total stop to this senseless violence,” Dureza said told reporters.

Mangudadatu blamed the abduction on the person he is challenging for the governorship of Maguindanao: incumbent Andal Ampatuan, who has held control of the area for the past decade.

The two are competing in elections that will be held on May 10.

The governor could not be reached for comment.

Maguindanao is a Muslim autonomous region out of the control of the central government.

Student visa numbers soar after new rules take effect

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[kaltura-widget wid=”lygtaxh8ko” width=”410″ height=”364″ addpermission=”3″ editpermission=”3″ /]thanks Ethan for sending this in

 

BBC NEWS… The number of students entering the UK from India and Bangladesh has risen sharply since a new visa system began, the BBC has learned.

The UK Border Agency had said it believed the total number of students was “roughly the same” as last year.

But a Freedom of Information request revealed the numbers entering from those countries, thought to be hotspots for bogus students, has tripled.

The Home Office insists that the figures do not reflect a global trend.

‘Raise the bar’

The new points-based immigration system was introduced last year. It was designed to be tougher and more selective than the old one.

The then Home Secretary Jacqui Smith promised that the new system would “raise the bar” and lead to “fewer migrants coming to the UK from outside the EU”.

But earlier this month, immigration officers told BBC Radio 5 live they feared more bogus students are arriving in the UK under the new system, partly because of the large volume of arrivals which must be processed.

Officers said a significant number of those arriving on student visas had previously been denied entry to the UK, and they suspected that many had come here to work and not study.

One Heathrow-based whistleblower told the Donal MacIntyre programme that many so-called students could not speak English, and knew nothing about the courses they claimed to be studying.

He said many of these students came from the Indian subcontinent.

Sharp increase

Responding to the immigration officers’ concerns, Jeremy Oppenheim, who runs the points-based system at the UK Border Agency, said that the number of students coming into the UK this year was “roughly the same as last year”.

But figures subsequently obtained by the BBC under the Freedom of Information Act show there has been a sharp increase in the number of student visas granted in India and Bangladesh – two of the biggest centres for non-EU student visa applications.

Between June and August 2008 (before the new system for students came into force), the British High Commissions in Mumbai, New Delhi and Dhaka issued 6,771 student visas.

During the same period this year (under the new points-based immigration system), the three offices issued 19,950 visas.

The number of student visa applications rejected also rose from 3,997 to 6,261.

‘Flexible’

The government says it has cracked down on bogus colleges, and that the number of institutions able to bring students into the UK from outside the European Union has been halved since the introduction of the new points-based immigration system.

In a statement, Mr Oppenheim told the Donal MacIntyre programme: “The UK Border Agency has 74 visa-issuing posts worldwide, so three cities should not be taken as representative of a global trend.

“The points-based system is designed to be flexible,” he added.

“It enables us to regularly check and monitor all student applications and colleges to ensure that they meet the required standards, and take action where necessary.”

Four charged with terrorism offences following raids

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Guardian… Officers from the North West Counter Terrorism Unit detained the men earlier this week

Four men were charged with terrorism offences following counter-terror raids, police said tonight.

Officers from the North West Counter Terrorism Unit detained the men earlier this week in what was described as a “low key operation”.

 Israr Malik, 21, of Bowdon Avenue, Fallowfield, is charged with intending to commit acts of terrorism, namely violent jihad, between June 2008 and November 17 this year.

 Matthew Newton, 27, of Rydal Walk, Stalybridge, Munir Farooqi, 52, of Victoria Terrace, Longsight, and Haris Farooqi, 26, of Stockport Road, Levenshulme, are accused of intending to assist others to commit acts of terrorism, namely violent jihad, between October 2008 and November 17 this year.

 All four are due to appear at City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London tomorrow.

 A 62-year-old man from Deane, Bolton, understood to be a Muslim cleric, was released without charge.

MPs approve bill to outlaw places of worship for non-Muslims. Maldives

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world-maldives-map 

Here is a little of that Muslim tolerant, ‘non compulsion of religion’ for ya:

18 November 2009

MINIVAN NEWS… MPs called for lengthy jail sentences and hefty fines in a bill to outlaw places of worship for non-Muslims in the Maldives.

At today’s sitting, a bill proposed by Fares-Maathoda MP Ibrahim Muttalib on making it illegal to either build places of worship for “false religions” or practice other faiths in public was sent to committee for further review with unanimous consent.

Presenting the legislation, Muttalib said he submitted it because inquiries had been made with the government to establish places of worship and there was no law to stop it.

“The other thing we have to think about today is that the government is considering establishing wedding tourism in the country and this will indirectly set up churches in the country,” he said.

Jail terms

While the bill states that foreigners or expatriates will be allowed to worship in the privacy of their homes, involving Maldivians or encouraging them to participate will be an offence.

The bill specifies a jail term of three to five years or a fine of between Rf36,000 (US$2,800) and Rf60,000 (US$4,669) for those in violation of the law.

During the debate, opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) MPs and some independents called for harsher penalties to serve as deterrents.

“I propose that those who violate the provisions in the bill should be jailed for at least ten years,” said Thohdhoo MP Ali Waheed, adding the fine should be increased to Rf500,000 (US$38,000) or Rf1 million (US$77,821).

Waheed said the government was trying to introduce wedding tourism to build churches in the country.

He further said nobody had ever seen the president attend Friday prayers and his administration was intent on destroying the country’s Islamic culture.

Some MPs said foreigners who violated the law should be deported and not allowed back for ten years.

Redundant

Although all MPs supported the spirit of the legislation, MPs of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) argued the bill was redundant as article ten of the constitution states that Islam shall be the basis of all the laws of the Maldives and no laws contrary to any tenet of Islam shall be enacted.

Further, the constitution states a non-Muslim may not become a citizen of Maldives.

Some MPs argued the provision to authorise practicing religions other than Islam was unconstitutional.

Ihavandhoo MP Ahmed Abdullah said they consider the implications of enacting a law to allow foreigners to worship privately.

“Even now we are unable to check and monitor illegal activities,” he said. “So after authorising something like this, how can we make sure Maldivians aren’t involved?” Continue Reading →

Sears Tower Terror Plot Leader Gets 13-Year Sentence

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Batiste, who is heard calling the U.S. government “of the devil” and discussing how he wanted to build “an Islamic army for Islamic jihad.”

Narseal Batiste Fox News…MIAMI —  The ringleader of a group described by prosecutors as plotting terror attacks on Chicago’s Sears Tower and FBI offices in hopes of sparking an anti-government insurrection was sentenced Friday to 13 1/2 years in prison by a federal judge.

Narseal Batiste, 35, dabbed at his eyes with a tissue when U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard wondered in court how he was transformed from a hardworking family man struggling to build an inner-city construction business to the unquestioned leader of a quasi-religious, paramilitary group seeking support from Al Qaeda for terrorism.

“You’ve done great harm to yourself, your family, the young men who were your followers, and you’ve violated the trust of your country,” Lenard said.

Batiste, who faced a maximum of 70 years in prison, was convicted in May of conspiracy to provide material support to Al Qaeda, plotting to blow up buildings and conspiracy to wage war against the U.S. Four other men described as Batiste’s soldiers were also convicted and sentenced to between six and 10 years behind bars.

The sentencing marked the culmination of a case that began with an FBI raid in June 2006 on the group’s warehouse, known as the “Embassy” in an impoverished Miami neighborhood.

Top U.S. officials acknowledged at the time that the Sears Tower and FBI plots never got past the discussion stage and the group never acquired the means to carry out such audacious attacks.

The case was viewed as a prime example of the post-9/11 law enforcement strategy of stopping terror plots in the earliest possible stages, before proverbial fuse is lit. Continue Reading →

Sikh Rajinder Singh set to become BNP’s first non-white member

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TIMESONLINE… A Sikh who claims that Islam is based on “deception, fraud and surprise attack” is set to become the first non-white member of the British National Party.

Rajinder Singh, 78, who emigrated from the Punjab region of India in 1967, said today that he would be honoured to become a member of the BNP because it is the “only party who has the guts to say the word Muslim”.

“It’s a natural process in the Muslim psyche, to take over [the country]. The fear of Islam is well founded, well justified,” he told The Times. “I don’t hate Muslims. By definition a Sikh is supposed to love all — even the enemy.”

The retired schoolteacher will be put forward by the far Right party’s executive as its first non-white member after it makes changes to its constitution. The BNP was forced to agree to the changes in September after the Equality and Human Rights Commission took legal action against the party claiming that its rules, which restricted membership to “indigenous Caucasians”, were a breach of the Race Relations Act.

Its membership is currently frozen because of the legal action, but once BNP members agree to the changes in a national ballot, expected in the next three months, Mr Singh will be put forward as a member.

The BNP has accepted only white members since its foundation in 1982, leading to widespread accusations that it is a racist organisation. Its leader, Nick Griffin, has a conviction for inciting racial hatred.

But Mr Singh, who provided a character reference for Mr Griffin at his trial, said that he was a long-term supporter and was prepared to overlook the issue of racism.

“I think Britain is a lot more important than me. I have to put my own ego aside and think for Britain. They were (racist) but if they pass this bill they will not be.”

The BNP often campaigns about the “Islamification” of Britain, claiming that “colonisation” by Muslims is destroying Anglo-Saxon heritage.

Mr Singh told The Times that Britain was in danger of being taken over by Muslims and the BNP was the only party prepared to do anything about it. He blames Islam for the death of his father during the partition of India in 1947, which led to the deaths of an estimated two million Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus.

“I am a victim of Islamic aggression. The individual Muslim is a good guy. He is my neighbour, he is working hard. But when they are all together, everybody should be very fearful. The other parties are not standing up for the national interest.”

John Walker, a spokesman for the BNP, said that Mr Griffin was in favour of Mr Singh’s membership once the constitution was changed.

“I don’t think it will make a massive change to the party. It doesn’t change our stance on immigration. People like Rajinder accept the party’s position. He’s a guest of our country: he agrees to abide by our laws and customs.”

Mr Singh said that the issue of Islam was not the only reason he supported the BNP, adding that the other parties were “covered in black paint” over the expenses saga.