Jihad Watch has a write up on this event here:
Category Archives: Reforming Caliphate
Mali Tuareg and Islamist rebels agree on Sharia state
BBC:
h/t Don L
More than 300,000 people have fled northern Mali due to the rebellionTwo rebel groups that seized northern Mali two months ago have agreed to merge and turn their territory into an Islamist state, both sides say.
The Tuareg MNLA, a secular rebel group, and the Islamist group Ansar Dine signed the deal in the town of Gao, spokespeople said.
Ansar Dine, which has ties to al-Qaeda, has already begun to impose Sharia law in some towns.
The groups took advantage of a coup in March to seize the territory.
Correspondents say the deal is yet another worrying development for Mali and may complicate efforts to stabilise the country.
‘Accord signed’
Capt Amadou Sanogo seized power in March after claiming the then president, Amadou Toumani Toure, was not doing enough to quash the rebellion.
Faced with mounting international pressure and sanctions, he was forced to step down only three weeks later, but is still thought to wield power behind the scenes.
Continue reading the main story
Mali coup: The story so far
- 22 March: Junta seizes power, accusing President Amadou Toumani Toure of not doing enough to tackle rebels
- 28 March: Mali suspended by regional bloc, Ecowas
- 1 April: Rebels seize whole of north, including historic city of Timbuktu
- 6 April: Tuareg rebels declare independence for the north – not recognised internationally
- 12 April: Speaker of parliament Dioncounda Traore sworn in as Mali’s interim leader
- 17 April: Junta arrests several allies of former President Toure
- 19 April: Mr Toure and his family flee to Senegal
- 20 May: Ecowas deal for Traore to stay for a year
- 21 May: Interim President Dioncounda Traore beaten unconscious by protesters
“It is true that an accord has been signed,” Col Bouna Ag Attayoub, a MNLA commander in Timbuktu, told the BBC. “The Islamic Republic of Azawad is now an independent sovereign state.”
France’s New Burqa-Friendly Government
Front Page
Francois Hollande may be the first Muslim-elected president of France. With an estimated 93 percent of Muslim voters casting their ballots for Hollande, in a close election, their numbers may have made the difference between victory and defeat. The makeup of France’s new government reflects the debt that Hollande owes to his Muslim voters.
Hollande had said during the campaign that he would uphold the law on the burqa ban, with the caveat that he would apply it in the best ways possible—a statement which leaves plenty of wriggle room for minimizing enforcement. And his appointment of Christiane Taubira as Justice Minister suggests that soon enough Mademoiselle Liberty will don the burqa.
Taubira, a Guyanese radical leftist, who despite being appointed Justice Minister has no law degree, voted against the law banning hijabs in schools– one of only a handful of members of the National Assembly to do so. She did not cast a vote at all on the 2010 burqa ban, but this year she signed on to an MTE petition on behalf of “veiled mothers” which denounced the “endless series of offenses” against Muslims, a list which included the “anti-headscarf law” and “anti-niqab legislation.”
Hey! What do you know! Music IS allowed in Islam! I guess I was all turned around about that
H/T Dan F
Iran preparing for ‘the Last Six Months’
WND Excerpt:
By Reza Kahlili
Despite the recent declaration by Iran that it does not want a nuclear bomb and statements by regime officials that they are willing to negotiate over the nuclear issue, indications from within Iran signal massive preparation for an all-out war as part of its destiny.
Nine years ago a Revolutionary Guards arm, the Holy Defense, published a book, “The Last Six Months,” in which it describes the conditions needed in the last six months prior to the reappearance of the last Islamic messiah. The book was distributed in the hundreds of thousands to all Guards, Basij and army bases throughout the country.
Islam’s Shiites believe their 12th Imam, Mahdi, will reappear at the end of times and kill all the infidels, raising the flag of Islam in all four corners of the world.
The book admonishes the military forces that they must be prepared to do their duties during those six months and that there will be many signs to help the faithful to understand the transition, which will center on Iran.
(The article continues to explain how Iran has neutron bombs now thanks to NORK)
Libyan Muslim Brotherhood On the Rise
From MEMRI:
Introduction
Under Mu’ammar Qadhafi’s rule in Libya, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) was outlawed, and conducted most of its activity from abroad. Now that many of its members have returned to the country, the MB is beginning to consolidate its presence in the political arena and has established a party, called Justice and Construction.
Like the MB party in Egypt, the Libyan party presented itself as independent of the movement; however, the connection between the party and movement, both on the ideological and the organizational level, is difficult to ignore. Party leader Muhammad Sowan previously served as the head of the movement’s Shura Council, and half of the party members are MB members.
The Libyan MB resembles the Egyptian movement also in its vision for Libya: It holds that shari’a must be the primary source of legislation, while principles of democracy are supported.[1] . It should be noted, however, that the Libyan MB has stressed that its ties with MB movements in other countries are strictly ideological.[2]
This report will review the consolidation of the movement in Libya after its many years in exile, its first steps in the political arena, and its vision for the new Libyan state.
History of the Libyan MB
According to researcher Mahmoud Al-Nakou’, who was one of the founders of the Libyan MB in the 1960s, the movement got its first foothold in Libya in the late 1940s, when three members of the Egyptian MB – ‘Izz Al-Din Ibrahim, Mahmoud Al-Sharbini and Jallal Sa’da – escaped to Libya after being suspected of involvement in the assassination of Egyptian prime-minister Mahmoud Al-Nuqrashi Pasha. The three, who found asylum with Libyan Prince Idris Al-Sanousi, started to spread the movement’s ideas, and so did MB-affiliated teachers who came to teach in Libya. More MB activists came to Libya after the 1952 Free Officers Revolution in Egypt. According to Nakou’, following the political and ideological revival triggered by the 1967 war, MB followers established a branch of the movement in Tripoli. It was headed by Sheikh Fathallah Muhammad Ahwas, and another of its founders and leaders was Al-Nakou’ himself. A similar branch was founded in Benghazi. The two branches coordinated their positions, and operated in secret due to the law banning political activity. After the 1969 military coup and the rise to power of Mu’ammar Al-Qadhafi, the MB organization in Libya stopped its activity, but did not disband. In 1973, many of the movement members were arrested, and were released two years later, when Qadhafi ordered the MB to stop its activity in Libya and expelled its leaders from the country.[3]
Andrew Bostom:
Andrew Bostom:
Ernest Gellner (1925-1995) was a British-Czech philosopher and social anthropologist. His anthropological interests extended to Islamdom, notably the 1981 study Muslim Society. In 1995, an obituarist described Gellner as a “defender of positivism, empiricism and rationalism,” who, “with cold clarity” and “sternness” critiqued “…religious and leftist seekers after umma…linguistic philosophy, relativism, psychoanalysis, and post-modernism.”
Here are Gellner’s apposite, and characteristically unapologetic observations on the unique, striking resistance of Islamic societies to secularization, circa 1991, ever more relevant, two decades later as the Spingtime for Sharia in Araby proceeds apace:
Muslim Arab North Sudan declares war on Christian-Animist black South Sudan
Here is a nice piece of relativism by the New York TImes on this war. For the truth, I would be far more inclined to trust George Clooney as to the who’s, Why’s and wherefore’s on this issue. Stunningly he hasn’t succumbed to the need to try and cast everyone as equally guilty in this conflict which is the (hopefully) fatal disease of the NYT and other papers like it.
A Koran in every German household
Below, a screen cap of a google translation from this German site.
Parts of Spain more Muslim than Saudi Arabia
Warning: This is depressing.
El Cid? Anyone?
A more recent article on how a group of Muslims are awaiting trial for, ‘liberating’ Spain for Islam
British couple in dramatic Timbuktu escape
The Telegraph:
h/t UK Pete
A British couple have made a dramatic escape from Timbuktu after the town fell to al-Qaeda backed fighters following the military coup in Mali, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.
The last Westerners in Timbuktu: L-R Diane English, Marc, Neil Whitehead Photo: FRANCE 24
8:00PM BST 04 Apr 2012
Neil Whitehead and Diane English fled across an 850-mile expanse of desert with the help of nomadic militiamen and African soldiers to reach Nouakchott, the capital of neighbouring Mauritania. They are now hoping to take sanctuary in the city’s French embassy.
The couple, who owned and ran a budget hotel in Timbuktu, were caught up in the fighting as the Malian army fled and Islamic extremists took control of the city following a coup that overthrew the country’s government.
They decided to make their perilous escape after learning that al-Qaeda had put a price on their heads.
Speaking to The Daily Telegraph after reaching Noukachott, Mrs English said: “Its been a very long journey with barely any sleep. We’ve moved across the desert in three old army trucks but we are very lucky to get out and very grateful to those that helped us.
“We are tired and desperately need a shower but we have our dog with us and we hope our truck with all our possessions is going to follow us soon
Egyptian Islamists pin their hopes on Islamic law
LA Times:
Supporters of Hazem Salah abu Ismail, a Salafi presidential candidate, see sharia as the country’s — and the Muslim world’s — best hope.
 A supporter of Salafist presidential candidate Hazem Salah abu Ismail holds a poster of him in Cairo. (Khaled Elfiqi, European Pressphoto Agency / March 30, 2012) |
By Jeffrey Fleishman, Los Angeles TimesApril 5, 2012, 3:40 p.m.
CAIRO — The men gathering outside the yellow mosque agreed: Adulterers should be stoned to death, the hands of thieves cut off.
“But not now,” said Kareem Atta, waiting in a cool breeze for the sheik’s car to roll up next to the Koran sellers. “Sharia law must be gradually put into place so it doesn’t shock the system. You can’t cut people’s hands off if you first don’t give them financial justice.”
The young students, engineers and laborers are followers of Hazem Salah abu Ismail, a lawyer and holy man whose poetic blend of populism and ultraconservative Salafi Islam has turned him into a leading presidential candidate. Posters with Ismail’s gray beard and boyish face seem to hang on every street and alley across this ancient city.
Ismail is at once provocative and soothing, in a breath switching from genial to fiery. He has suggested revoking Egypt‘speace treaty with Israel and holds up Iran as an exemplar of defiance against the U.S. His hard-line rhetoric has nudged American officials closer to the more moderate Muslim Brotherhood, a sign of Washington’s scrambling to keep pace with the tremors of the “Arab Spring.”
“I will never become a puppet for the U.S. or Israel or any Western power,” Ismail said in a recent speech. He added that the U.S. was funneling money to certain Egyptian candidates to “suit their interests” and he urged young Muslims to “spoil such a plot.”
Ismail’s candidacy, however, may be in jeopardy over an embarrassing link to America. His mother, Nawal Abdel Aziz Nour, who lived with his sister in the Los Angeles area, became a U.S. citizen before she died, according to California public records. That would make him ineligible to run. Ismail claims his mother held only a green card, not a U.S. passport. The election commission, which confirmed that Ismail’s mother held an American passport, is expected to decide on whether to disqualify him in coming days.
UPDATE: Toronto bookstore has piles of $1.00 books on jihad and the destruction of Canada etc.
SDAMAT has a lot of additional information on his youtube page where he hosts this video as well. I must say though, SUN TV does me proud. It reminds me of what journalism used to be like before PC and the new communism hobbled opinion to fit a self destructive narrative. Of course all Canadian media should be on this story for what it is. A major organized attempt at sedition at the very very least.
Egyptian parliament names constitution panel
Egypt Independent:
Sat, 24/03/2012 – 22:34
Photographed by Arabic Edition
CAIRO — Egypt’s Islamists looked poised Saturday to gain control of a key lever of power that will help steer the country’s political future as parliament selected a panel to draw up the country’s new constitution. Liberal lawmakers denounced the process as a “farce” and walked out in protest.
The constitution, which will be written by the 100-member committee, will determine the balance of power between Egypt’s previously all-powerful president and parliament, and define the country’s future identity, including the role of religion and minority rights. With so much at stake, the question of who should sit on the panel has sparked fierce debate in Egypt.
Many secular and liberal Egyptians fear that the Islamist parties that dominate parliament will pack the panel with their supporters and ignore minority concerns. Those fears have spiked over the past week after parliament decided to allocate half of the panel’s seats to its own members, and following comments from a leading Islamist deputy who said the country’s most prominent democracy advocate, Mohamed ElBaradei, would likely not be included.
Jihadists “Liberating” Spain for Islam
Stonegate:
by Soeren Kern
March 20, 2012 at 5:00 am
The problem is so grave that the United States has proposed setting up an intelligence hub at the U.S. Consulate in Barcelona to counter the growing threat.
Nine Islamists accused of planning terrorist attacks aimed at “liberating” Spain for Islam are standing trial in Madrid.
Spanish public prosecutors say the men — Salafi-Jihadists who belonged to an Islamist cell known as the “Army of the Messiah” (Ansar al-Mahdi) — sought to “free” the cities of Ceuta and Melilla, two Spanish enclaves in northern Africa, from Spanish rule and thus begin the Islamic re-conquest of Spain.
Salafism is a branch of radical Islam that seeks forcibly to re-establish an Islamic empire (Caliphate) across the Middle East, North Africa and Spain, which Salafists view as a Muslim state that must be reconquered for Islam.
Much of Spain was ruled by Muslim conquerors from 711 and 1492; Salafists believe that the territories the Muslims lost during the Spanish Reconquista still belong to them and that they have a right to return and establish their rule there. This belief is based on the Islamic precept that territories once occupied by Muslims must forever remain under Muslim domination as part of the Waqf [detained or preserved] — a religious endowment now implicitly owned forever by Allah.
Spanish prosecutors say the jihadist cell operated out of the Darkawia mosque in the El Príncipe Alfonso neighborhood of Ceuta. The ringleader of the group is a Moroccan imam named Mohammed Abdessalam, who prosecutors say “preached the most extreme version of Islam.”
The jihadists are accused of plotting a series of bombings in Ceuta, including churches, the city’s main port and other parts of the city’s infrastructure, in an effort to “duplicate the train bombings that occurred in Madrid on March 11, 2004.” The Madrid bombings, which killed 191 people and wounded 1,800, are considered to be one of the worst terrorist attacks in modern European history.
Prosecutors are seeking prison sentences of eight years for each of the suspects, whose trial is taking place at the Spanish High Court (Audiencia Nacional) in Madrid.
The trial comes as a leaked secret report prepared by Spain’s National Intelligence Center (CNI) in January warns that Salafi Islamists pose the greatest threat to security in Spain.
The document warns of “alarming symptoms” of the presence in Spain of members and cells of an Islamist group, Takfir wal-Hijra, which subscribes to the “most radical and violent version of Salafi-Jihadism.