Category Archives: Islam in the Americas

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. ”

Canada: Gay Muslim a ‘pariah’ in his own community

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Islamic Myth # 1431: Sharia is tolerant.

Thanks to Gay and Right

From The National Post

Gay Muslim scholar shunned by own community

Elise Stolte, Canwest News Service Published: Sunday, January 03, 2010

Noni Darwish on CFRA Jan 2 2010

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This is a 40 minute interview with Noni Darwish about her life as a Muslim woman in the west, freedom of speech and why the west must equip itself to deal with Islam if it wishes to hold on to all it has accomplished.

Untitled from Vlad Tepes on Vimeo.

Man in jail after row on Air Canada flight

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Boy, It’s been quite a week for Muslims on airplanes. First, we have the thong bomber Abdulmutallab who set his penis ablaze trying to carry out a suicide mission aboard Delta flight 253 in the name of Allah. Then we have the news of a Somali man caught with chemicals, liquid and a syringe trying to board a flight out of Mogadishu for Dubai. Now we have a Toronto man Khodr Ahmad, who attacked a fellow passenger aboard Air Canada flight 872 over ‘elbow room’ and upon arrest in Montreal, became belligerent as he was refused a refund of his ticket.

From The Toronto Star

Toronto man jailed after fight on airliner

Published On Thu Dec 31 2009

A 31-year-old Toronto man has been handed a sentence of 30 days in jail with probation after an altercation onboard an Air Canada flight Wednesday.

Khodr Ahmad appeared in court Thursday and pleaded guilty to a charge of disturbing the peace after a fight broke out between two passengers on board flight 872, shortly after it departed from Pearson airport at 7:30 p.m the previous day.

The flight was en route to Frankfurt.

John Reber, a spokesperson for Air Canada, said that staff followed normal procedure and made an unscheduled landing at Montreal’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport. The flight was met by police who escorted the suspect off the plane.

Const. Olivier Lapointe of the Montreal police said that the victim did not want to press charges, but the suspect in custody was arrested for disturbing the peace after becoming belligerent inside the airport when officials refused to refund his ticket.

Reber said that he had no knowledge of the request for a refund, citing that the accused may have asked police but not Air Canada staff.

The passenger who was attacked stayed on the flight, which left Montreal around 8:40 p.m.

Police did not know what caused the fight. The assault was not investigated because the victim decided against charging the suspect. But Lapointe did not think that alcohol was involved.

Breaking: 4 condom-bomber conspirators were GITMO grads

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Just got this from a youtuber. From Chicago Breaking News:

Men believed behind airplane plot were freed from Gitmo

Two of the four leaders allegedly behind the al Qaeda plot to blow up a Northwest Airlines passenger jet over Detroit were released by the U.S. from the Guantanamo prison in November, 2007, ABC News is reporting, quoting American officials and citing Department of Defense documents.

American officials agreed to send the two terrorists to Saudi Arabia where they entered into an “art therapy rehabilitation program” and were set free, according to U.S. and Saudi officials, ABC News reported.

Guantanamo prisoner #333, Muhamad Attik al-Harbi, and prisoner #372, Said Ali Shari, were sent to Saudi Arabia on Nov. 9, 2007, according to the Defense Department log of detainees who were released from American custody. Al-Harbi has since changed his name to Muhamad al-Awfi.

More from ABC.GO

Two al Qaeda Leaders Behind Northwest Flight 253 Terror Plot Were Released by U.S.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab Says More Bombers On the Way; Al Qaeda Promises to Hit Americans

Authorities investigate Northwest flight 253 on the tarmac at Detroit Metro Airport in Romulus, Michigan December 27, 2009.

(Reuters/U.S. Marshal’s Service)

Two of the four leaders allegedly behind the al Qaeda plot to blow up a Northwest Airlines passenger jet over Detroit were released by the U.S. from the Guantanamo prison in November, 2007, according to American officials and Department of Defense documents. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the Northwest bombing in a Monday statement that vowed more attacks on Americans.

American officials agreed to send the two terrorists from Guantanamo to Saudi Arabia where they entered into an “art therapy rehabilitation program” and were set free, according to U.S. and Saudi officials.

Guantanamo prisoner #333, Muhamad Attik al-Harbi, and prisoner #372, Said Ali Shari, were sent to Saudi Arabia on Nov. 9, 2007, according to the Defense Department log of detainees who were released from American custody. Al-Harbi has since changed his name to Muhamad al-Awfi.

Windsor man joins growing list of Muslims who sue Canadian authorities for millions

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Thaindian News

Canadian Muslim seeks millions for racial abuse

December 27th, 2009 – 11:11 am ICT by IANS

Toronto, Dec 27 (IANS) Another Canadian Muslim is suing authorities for millions on alleged racial harassment.
Twenty-six-year-old Mohamad Jouduh, who is a resident of the auto town of Windsor, is seeking $1.75 millions in damages for what he calls racially motivated intimidation and harassment by police officers. He joins many other Canadian Muslims who have slapped – and won – multi-million suits against authorities for alleged violations of their rights.

In his harassment suit, Jouduh has named policemen Ken Price and Tony Smith for calling him “sand n-” on different occasions. He says he was warned by the cops to leave the city or face the consequences.

Narrating a sequence of his alleged harassment going back four years, the Canadian Muslim claims the cops broke his nose after his arrest on robbery charges in March 2005. The cops also racially abused him, calling him “you sand n–,” the Muslim man alleges.

He also claims he was falsely charged with assaulting a police officer at that time.

Jouduh says (Constable) Price also taunted him with words, “Hey sand n–, how’s your nose?”

At another time, he allges, one of the cops said, “You sand n-had better get out of the city or every time we see you, you will get beat.”

However, the lawyer for the cops has dismissed his charges as “without merit.”

Mohamad Jouduh joins Canadian Muslim Abousfian Abdelrazik who has just slapped a $27-million suit against the Canadian government for its alleged role in his arrest and alleged torture in Sudan where he spent six years in jail.

Another Canadian Muslim Suaad Hagi Mohamud, who is of Somali origin, is also suing Canada for $2.5 million after she was stranded in Kenya for three months as Canadian diplomats in the African country thought she was traveling on fake documents.

Canada has already paid $10.5 million to Maher Arar, a Canadian Muslim of Syrian origin, for his torture in Syrian jail on charges of terrorism.

There are estimated to be more than a million Muslims in Canada.

Unlike Chinese and Indians who are the two biggest immigrant groups coming to Canada each year from individual countries, Muslim immigrants to Canada come from dozens of countries in Asia and Africa. Though there are no figures, Muslims are among the largest immigrant groups by religion coming to Canada each year.

Muslim group’s response to Christmas Day terrorist Abdulmutallab

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CAIR, the Council on American Islamic Relations prides itself on representing the voice of moderate Islam in the United States. The highly influential group relays a position of zero tolerance for Islamic extremism. Below is a portion of CAIR’s generic, passionless denunciation of terrorism:

‘The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has consistently and persistently condemned terrorism and the killing of innocent civilians.  CAIR has also organized fatwas, petition drives, placed advertisements in national and local newspapers, ran public service announcements on television and radio stations, helped local Mosques across the United States in holding open houses, published Op-Eds in local and national newspapers, conducted inter-faith meetings and worked with scholars to disseminate the peaceful teachings of Islam’.

So, where is their denunciation of Christmas Day terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab?

There isn’t one. Perhaps in the spirit of understanding and tolerance, we could excuse the glaring omission simply because they are bogged down with other, more weighty Muslim outrages to focus on rather than such a petty incident in comparison. Take for example, that CAIR-Chicago has asked CitiBank to apologize to a Muslim woman who was ‘humiliated’ after a bank employee allegedly verbally abused her because she was wearing a hijab. Or, that a group of Muslims in San Diego were ‘upset’ and ‘insulted’ after attending an international Church Christmas party which featured a magic show and a visiting pastor, an Egyptian convert from Islam to Christianity who railed against sharia.

Or maybe their time is better spent blaming Hollywood for stereotyping Muslims and Arabs in a bad light. Of course negative opinion associated to radical Islam could never be blamed on factual daily acts of violence and murder around the globe. It is not the vile ideologies of al-Qaeda or the Taliban, or other extremist groups that are responsible, but the sinister agenda of Tinseltown. True Lies, Executive Decision, the cartoon Aladdin and other ‘negative portrayals of Muslims and Arabs in cinema’ are to blame for the coloured public perception setting off more Muslim selective outrage.

It is now understood and has been confirmed by authorities, that Abdulmutallab has a London connection. Predictably, no official statement of denunciation has been issued by Islam4uk, the radical group in England headed by Anjem Choudary. Yet, Britain gives this hate-filled ‘cleric’ full attention and street space to speak out vehemently and repeatedly against western values. There is not a peep from Choudary or from those who support his ‘moderate’ spiritual campaign, as they too have busied themselves with other, more demanding Islamic projects such as denouncing the three harmful ‘idols’ confronting Muslims in the western world: democracy, secularism and freedom.

For CAIR to obsess on obscure ‘anti-Muslim’ instances, citing hurt feelings and insults as societal atrocities in place of denouncing acts of  terrorism and daily violence against innocents in the name of Islam is nothing short of absolute indifference to real suffering; it also reveals an unparalleled arrogance and self-centeredness within CAIR’s selective agenda. I for one, have come to understand fully that  it is not just what some North American Muslim organizations do say which reveals the truth, but what they fail to say.

Martin Mawyer on CFRA speaks about Islamberg

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Martin Mawyer, the founder of The Christian Action Network, and the man who made the movie, ‘Home Grown Jihad’ where the C.A.N. took hidden video of the goings on within domestic USA terrorist camps (at great personal risk) speaks to Nick Vandergragt of Ottawa Canada’s AM talk radio station CFRA 580 December 26th.

Martin and his organization should be listened to. They have a lot to say that needs to be known.

Enjoy.
The footage I placed over the interview is initially a trailer for Homegrown Jihad, then some footage from the movie as well which repeats about every 8 minutes.

Martin Mawyer CFRA from Vlad Tepes on Vimeo.

U.S.: Nigerian Man Charged In Attempted Aircraft Bombing

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December 26, 2009 STRATFOR
The U.S. Justice Department charged Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab Dec. 26 with trying to set off an explosive device on an aircraft headed for Detroit on Christmas Day, Bloomberg reported. Abdulmutallab, 23, a Nigerian citizen, allegedly tried to bomb the aircraft using a device containing the explosive pentaerythritol. He told FBI agents he had trained with an al Qaeda leader, ABC reported. He also told investigators the explosive device was sewn into his underwear to escape detection.

U.S.: Nigerian Man Charged In Attempted Aircraft BombingDecember 26, 2009The U.S. Justice Department charged Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab Dec. 26 with trying to set off an explosive device on an aircraft headed for Detroit on Christmas Day, Bloomberg reported. Abdulmutallab, 23, a Nigerian citizen, allegedly tried to bomb the aircraft using a device containing the explosive pentaerythritol. He told FBI agents he had trained with an al Qaeda leader, ABC reported. He also told investigators the explosive device was sewn into his underwear to escape detection.

Northwest Airlines Flight 253: Islamic terrorist tries to set of explosive aboard passenger plane

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From The National Post

Attempted plane bomber has Al-Qaeda ties

Published: Friday, December 25, 2009

DETROIT — A Nigerian man linked to al Qaeda tried to set off an explosive device aboard a U.S. passenger plane as it approached Detroit on Friday, but was overpowered by passengers and crew and the plane landed safely, U.S. officials said.

The suspect suffered third degree burns and was taken into custody. The passengers, two of whom suffered minor injuries, left the Delta Air Lines plane, which had departed from Amsterdam.

“We believe this was an attempted act of terrorism,” a White House official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. President Barack Obama is on vacation in Hawaii and was monitoring the situation.

Representative Peter King, who sits on the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, said the explosive device was “fairly sophisticated,” and the suspect was a 23-year-old Nigerian.

“When it did go off, he himself was seriously injured. He has third degree burns. … It appears to be different from what we’ve encountered before,” Mr. King told Fox News.

Speaking to CNN, King, a New York Republican, said the suspect “did appear in a database as far as having a terrorist connection.”

“My understanding is … that he does have al Qaeda connections, certainly extremist terrorist connections, and his name popped up pretty quickly” in a search of intelligence data bases, Mr. King said.

When missing Muslims is a bad thing.

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Readers of Vlad may remember that not long ago, the good people at the Christian Action Network asked us to upload some new film they had of the activities at ‘Islamberg’ New York.

The film is here

but I recommend looking for the documentary they made on the Jamat Al Fuqra terrorist training camps all over the USA and Canada called Homegrown Jihad. Here is the thirty five minute version.

So now it appears as if oddly, these camps are empty all of a sudden. Well, on first blush one might think all the exposure they got from the Christian Action Network’s film might have made them leave and try something else or maybe even give up altogether. Now this story from Family Security Matters which speculates otherwise:

Eeyore for Vlad. The story below copied from this post at Family Security Matters:

December 22, 2009

The Case of the Missing Muslims: Why Is Islamberg Now a Ghost Town?

Paul Williams, PhD

The Wall Street Journal reports this week that U.S. investigators are discovering that more and more young Muslims are vanishing from mosques, madrassas, and Islamic centers.
The disappearances, the Journal notes, are raising grave concerns among FBI and Homeland Security officials who fear that an onset of jihadist activity will take place on American soil in the near future.
Hundreds of Muslim men are also missing from Islamberg and this is not a propitious omen.
The sentry post is gone and no guards are in sight at the entrance to the 70 acre Islamic settlement located in the dense forest between Deposit and Hancock in upper New York State.
Young men in Islamic garb no longer congregate before the makeshift mosque, and no students are in attendance at the one room shack that serves as Sheikh Gilani’s “International Quranic Open University.”
Gunfire no longer can be heard from the firing ranges along the eastern parameter of the property – and no grunts come from new recruits at the obstacle course.
A new sign at the entranceway reads, “Welcome to Holy Islamberg: The International Quranic Open University.” Next to this sign, which features the image of a mosque emerging from the mountains, is a pot of plastic carnations. Another sign proclaims that the community is home to the “United Muslim – Christian Forum.”
Such statements of welcome are offset by the “No Trespassing” signs that have been nailed to trees throughout the compound.
On the opposite side of the road leading into the community is a rack of metal mailboxes bearing such names as Abdul-Haqq, Abdul Jalil, Mumim Roberts, Abdullah Simonds, and Salam Insan.
What has happened to this once bustling complex of radical Islamists – a place where the cries of muezzins were accompanied by the incessant rat-tat-tat of machine gunfire? Where are the Arab dignitaries that used to visit this remote community in chauffeur-driven limousines? Where are the armed sentries who warded away all intruders?
A handful of children play in the mud and muck before rows of rusty old trailers, and a few women in full burkas walk along the rutty dirt road that leads to the heart of the squalid Muslim compound.
The few residents who remain in the settlement are not environmentalists. Sewage seeps from septic tanks and outhouses into the creek that flows at the base of the settlement. Bags of rotting garbage remain stacked between the trailers. And the once pristine countryside is now littered with junk cars, moldy mattresses, empty tanks of propane, and old appliances.
Where are the men?
What has happened to this bustling center of jihadi training?
Why has Islamberg become a ghost town?
The same phenomenon of vanishing Muslim men is taking place at mosques, madrassas, and other Islamic communities throughout the country and at other Jamaat ul-Fuqra paramilitary compounds, including one in Red House, Virginia.
U.S. investigators have now discovered that many of the missing Muslims are showing up in the killing fields of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Somalia.
Five American Muslims recently were arrested in Pakistan following a raid at the home of a member of the Jaish-e-Muhammad, a Pakistani movement designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2001.
The five American Muslims – identified as Ahmed Abdullah, Waqar Hassan Khan, Eman Hassan, Yasir and Rami Zamzam – were planning to join forces with the Taliban to fight the U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan.
Zamzam is a graduate dental student at Howard University, where he served as president of the Muslim Student Association.
David Coleman Headley, another Muslim who disappeared, is a native of Chicago who attended Lashkar-e-Toiba-operated terrorism training camps in Pakistan and helped Lashker-e-Toiba members and others plan and execute the attacks in Denmark against the newspaper which published cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed, which Muslims found offensive, as well as the violent attack in Mumbai, in about 170 people died.
At the same time Headley was taken into custody, U.S. investigators discovered that 20 Somali immigrants, who were reported missing from a mosque in Minnesota, had joined the Islamist insurgent group, al Shabaab, and were engaged in fighting Somalia’s U.S.-backed government.
And there is the case of Najibullah Zazi, a 24-year-old resident of Denver, who made a trip to Peshawar, Pakistan, in 2008 for the stated purpose of visiting his wife only to show up at an al Qaeda training camp where he received instruction in making and detonating explosives. In September, Zazi was collared by federal officials as he made his way to New York City to carry out attacks with the same back-pack bombs that were used to blow up a train station in Madrid and several subway stations in London.
Where are the Muslim men from Islamberg?
The answer comes from a heavy-set woman in a long black burka who stops to check her mail box. “The men – all gone,” she says in halting English. “All – in Pakistan.”
Islamberg was established in 1980 by Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani, a Pakistani cleric who served as the imam of the Yasin Masjid in Brooklyn. A quack practitioner of something called “Koranic psychiatry,” Sheikh Gilani presented himself to the Brooklyn congregation as “the sixth Sultan ul Faqr,” with a lineage that dates back to the prophet Mohammed. He claimed to have supernatural powers that came from his regular reception of visits by jinn and “non-human beings.”
Sporting ammunition belts, Gilani called upon members of a Black Muslim street gang known as Dar al-Islam (DAR) to take part in the holy war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Hundreds answered the call and headed off to training camps in Pakistan, which had been established by Osama bin Laden, and other members of the mujahadeen.
Under Gilani’s direction, the DAR transformed into Jamaat ul-Fuqra (“the community of the impoverished”) and continued its prison ministry under Muslims of the Americas, a new, non-profit corporation. The sheikh soon came to realize that it would be financially advantageous to train new recruits for the holy war on American soil rather than shelling out the freight of sending them to Lahore and Peshawar. He purchased a 70-acre parcel of land near Green Haven, set up a firing range and an obstacle course, purchased a slew of old single-wide trailers and created a paramilitary compound called Islamberg.
When released from the federal prison, former convicts now received not only the customary $10 and a suit of clothes but also a one-way ticket to Gilani’s compound.
What took place at Islamberg and the International Quranic Open University?
The answers came from Sheikh Gilani in his recruitment videos: “We give [students] specialized training in guerilla warfare. We are at present establishing training camps. You can easily reach us at Open Quranic offices in upstate New York or in Canada or in South Carolina or in Pakistan.”
Similarly, in a handbook, published by the university, Gilani wrote that the foremost duty of all students is to wage war against “the oppressors of Muslims.” The students are expected to sign an oath that reads: “I shall always hear and obey, and whenever given the command, I shall readily fight for Allah’s sake.”
Now that the recruits at Islamberg have been trained in the basics of guerilla warfare, they have been deployed to Pakistan for advanced courses in explosives and weapons of mass destruction.
They will be returning home soon.
Click here for more on this disturbing story.

Howdy neighbour! Mosque to move in next to Ground Zero.

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From The New York Times

Muslim Prayers and Renewal Near Ground Zero

Michael Appleton for The New York Times

Worshipers exit the old Burlington Coat Factory near ground zero, which now houses a prayer space. More Photos >

By RALPH BLUMENTHAL and SHARAF MOWJOOD
Published: December 8, 2009
On that still-quiet Tuesday morning, the sales staff was in a basement room eating breakfast, waiting to open the doors to the first shoppers at 10 a.m.

There was no immediate sign of the fiery cataclysm that erupted overhead starting at 8:46. But out of a baby-blue sky suddenly stained with smoke, a plane’s landing-gear assembly the size of a World War II torpedo crashed through the roof and down through two empty selling floors of the Burlington Coat Factory.

The Sept. 11, 2001, attack killed 2,752 people downtown and doomed the five-story building at 45 Park Place, two blocks north of the World Trade Center, keeping it abandoned for eight years.

But for months now, out of the public eye, an iron gate rises every Friday afternoon, and with the outside rumblings of construction at ground zero as a backdrop, hundreds of Muslims crowd inside, facing Mecca in prayer and listening to their imam read in Arabic from the Koran.

The building has no sign that hints at its use as a Muslim prayer space, but these modest beginnings point to a far grander vision: an Islamic center near the city’s most hallowed piece of land that would stand as one of ground zero’s more unexpected and striking neighbors.

The New York Times

The location was precisely a key selling point for the group of Muslims who bought the building in July. A presence so close to the World Trade Center, “where a piece of the wreckage fell,” said Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the cleric leading the project, “sends the opposite statement to what happened on 9/11.”

“We want to push back against the extremists,” added Imam Feisal, 61.

Although organizers have sought to avoid publicizing their project because they say plans are too preliminary, it has drawn early encouragement from city officials and the surrounding neighborhood. Continue Reading →

Honour killings soar as Islamic fundamentalism spreads it’s wings

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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 →

Chiapas state Mexico becoming Islamic.

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This I am reliably informed is a common thing in many parts of Latin America, as more and more people, especially the Indians of South America, feel betrayed or take on a post-modernist view of the Catholic Church and it’s history with them.

H/T Islam in Europe From RNW.NL

Meximuz

More and more Mayan and Tzotzil people in the Mexican state Chiapas are becoming Muslims. It’s fifteen years since the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas and the region has undergone some profound changes. One of them is the emergence of Islam as a new religion in the state. The Muslim community, dominated by converted Mayans and Tzotzils , is slowly gaining ground.

By Jan-Albert Hootsen

Molino de los Arcos is one of the poorest neighbourhoods of San Cristóbal de las Casas, the second largest city in Chiapas and popular with tourists for its colonial beauty. The barrio is ethnically almost entirely indigenous, with Tzotzil Mayan as the dominant language. On Fridays, though, you can hear the slow, monotonous Arab chants of Muslim prayer. In a wooden shack, painted with Arab religious phrases, some twenty Tzotzil Muslim families have established a small place of worship.

“This is where we cleanse our spirits and pray to Allah. Not everyone came today, some people have to work,” Imam Salvador Lopez Lopez smiles. “But we are doing well. Our community is still small, we are maybe two hundred, but little by little we’re growing.”

Lopez converted to Islam in 1995 and adopted the Arab name of Muhammad Amin. He was one of the first Tzotzils to embrace the religion. He describes his conversion as a tough, two-year period of soul searching. “There is a lot of ignorance in Chiapas about Islam. Nobody really knew what it was and at first I myself wasn’t sure it was the thing for me. My family didn’t agree with it either at first. It was hard.”

Alternative to capitalism
There have always been Muslims in Mexico, but they were usually immigrants from Muslim countries in Africa and the Middle East. It wasn’t until 1995, when Spanish Muslims led by Aureliano Pérez left for Mexico to spread the word of Allah, that Mexicans themselves started converting to Islam.

Continue Reading →