Category Archives: thuggery and intimidation

Another flight disrupted by a group of Muslims

Posted on by

From Canada Free Press

h/t Gates of Vienna

image(Editor’s Note: Doug Hagmann’s popular site, the Northeast Intelligence Network is currently under transition to another server and will be back online later today.)

It happened again on Wednesday, December 9, 2009, less than a month after the incident aboard AirTran Flight 297.

United Airlines Flight 227, scheduled to depart Denver International Airport at 1:50 pm Wednesday for Los Angeles was disrupted when several passengers who were described as Middle Eastern in appearance, confirmed by this investigator to be a group of Muslims traveling together,  were removed from that aircraft due to suspicious behavior that originated in the terminal and continued to the airplane. Their behavior was consistent in some respects to the behavior of the Muslim passengers aboard AirTran Flight 297 on November 17, 2009 that caused a flurry of controversy over its legitimacy, and the now infamous case of the “Flying Imams” of 2006.
According to information obtained by this investigator, seven men of Middle Eastern appearance, boarded flight 227. Two took their seats in coach, while five took their seats in the first class section of the plane.  At a critical pre-flight point, the individuals appeared to act in concert with one another, changing seats and moving stowed luggage to very specific areas of the aircraft, often having to move the stowed bags of other passengers to do so.  They disobeyed or otherwise ignored the admonitions of the flight attendants to remain seated.
Their behavior was so overt and so apparently choreographed, according to our sources, that the flight crew demanded the passengers be removed from the aircraft. One report found on 9News in Denver quoted John Sloan, a passenger aboard that flight:
“I have never seen flight attendants so scared in my life. Everything turned out OK, but it was not a very good feeling..”

Following the removal of the passengers, officials brought a bomb-sniffing dogs aboard the aircraft, focusing of the first class section of the plane. Subsequent to the search that found nothing, the offending passengers were removed from the flight and rebooked on another aircraft to their destination. According to federal officials, no criminal investigation is being launched into this incident, which was described as a “customer service” matter.
Early this morning, this investigator spoke to a law enforcement source in Denver who is intimately familiar with the incident. Many details have not been publicly reported about this incident, although it is clear that there is an agenda at play. Based on information obtained from this source and others relating to the previous flights disrupted by the deliberate behavior of Muslim passengers, it is clear that the airline industry, as well as the sensibilities of normal Americans, is under attack through Islamic ideological jihad. Additional information will be provided once our investigation is complete.

Exclusive: Never before seen footage at Islamburg released first here on Vlad and…

Posted on by

Gates of Vienna. This is never before released footage from the Christian Action Network.

Some info on all parties:

The Muslims of America have concluded — by some statistical method unknown to everyone else — that Muslims actually form a majority in the United States, and that they are under threat from their domestic and foreign enemies.
Thus they are not waging jihad per se, but simply defending themselves.
Violent jihad is always justified in this manner, because Muslims always feel under threat, and thus always have to defend themselves.
The very existence of non-Muslims constitutes a threat to Islam, and jihad is therefore an act of self-defense in the face of an existential menace.
This is a reminder of why the non-Muslim world is known as Dar al-Harb, the House of War.
[09-12-11 10:11:14 AM] Baron Bodissey: that’s my post
[09-12-11 10:11:18 AM] Baron Bodissey: let me cut it down for you
[09-12-11 10:13:08 AM] Baron Bodissey: For several years the Christian Action Network has conducted a lengthy investigation of Jamaat ul-Fuqra and its front organization, the Muslims of America. Their efforts culminated earlier this year in their movie Homegrown Jihad, which included excerpts from a secret jihad video featuring Sheikh Gilani and JuF mujahideen training with automatic weapons and explosives.
Christian Action Network has recently uncovered another JuF training video. This one features talking-head appearances by two of the American leaders of Jamaat ul-Fuqra, and some previously unreleased footage of live-fire weapons training at the Muslims of America national headquarters at Islamberg, near Hancock, New York.
Additional information on Jamaat ul-Fuqra here:
http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2007/02/charlotte-county-files.html
The Muslims of America have concluded — by some statistical method unknown to everyone else — that Muslims actually form a majority in the United States, and that they are under threat from their domestic and foreign enemies.
Thus they are not waging jihad per se, but simply defending themselves.
Violent jihad is always justified in this manner, because Muslims always feel under threat, and thus always have to defend themselves.
The very existence of non-Muslims constitutes a threat to Islam, and jihad is therefore an act of self-defense in the face of an existential menace.
This is a reminder of why the non-Muslim world is known as Dar al-Harb, the House of War.

Additional information on Jamaat ul-Fuqra here, “The Charlotte County Files”: and here, ‘Muslims are majority of Amerians’

This is an exclusive. This is literally the first place this footage has ever been shown publicly. Please send this link far and wide. It is with permission of the creators of this video. Please do pay attention this is very serious and needs to be seen by all.

More:

For several years the Christian Action Network has conducted a lengthy investigation of Jamaat ul-Fuqra and its front organization, the Muslims of America. Their efforts culminated earlier this year in their movie Homegrown Jihad, which included excerpts from a secret jihad video featuring Sheikh Gilani and JuF mujahideen training with automatic weapons and explosives.

Christian Action Network has recently uncovered another JuF training video. This one features talking-head appearances by two of the American leaders of Jamaat ul-Fuqra, and some previously unreleased footage of live-fire weapons training at the Muslims of America national headquarters at Islamberg, near Hancock, New York. Additional information on Jamaat ul-Fuqra here:

The Muslims of America have concluded — by some statistical method unknown to everyone else — that Muslims actually form a majority in the United States, and that they are under threat from their domestic and foreign enemies. Thus they are not waging jihad per se, but simply defending themselves.

Violent jihad is always justified in this manner, because Muslims always feel under threat, and thus always have to defend themselves.

The very existence of non-Muslims constitutes a threat to Islam, and jihad is therefore an act of self-defense in the face of an existential menace.

This is a reminder of why the non-Muslim world is known as Dar al-Harb, the House of War.

Eight men appear in UK court on series of rapes.

Posted on by

For an interesting analysis of this event please see The Opinionator

Eight men charged with sexual offences. The Star UK

Published Date: 09 December 2009

By Sarah Crabtree

EIGHT men are due in court this morning, charged in connection with a police investigation into alleged serious sexual offences in Rotherham. The men were all arrested in March this year and had been on police bail until yesterday.

Following consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service, all eight were charged yesterday with a total of 18 sexual offences against four girls aged 13 to 17 years, and remanded in custody.

The men due before Rotherham magistrates this morning are:

Shazad Akbar, aged 22, of Shirecliffe Lane, Shirecliffe, Sheffield, charged with raping a woman aged over 16;

Adil Hussain, 20, of Nelson Street, Rotherham town centre, charged with raping a girl aged 13 to 15;

Saeed Hussain, 28, of Hatherley Road, Eastwood, Rotherham, charged with inciting a girl aged 13 to 15 to engage in sexual activity;

Shaizaad Hussain, 21, of Clough Road, Masborough, Rotherham, charged with two offences of raping a girl aged 13 to 15;

Mohsin Khan, 21, of Haworth Crescent, Moorgate, Rotherham, charged with four offences of raping a girl aged 13 to 15, and one offence of rape of a woman aged over 16;

Zafran Ramzan, 21, of Broom Grove, Broom, Rotherham, charged with three offences of rape of a woman aged over 16, and one offence of raping a girl aged 13 to 15;

Razwan Razaq, 29, of Oxford Street, Clifton, Rotherham, charged with two offences of rape of a girl aged 13 to 15;

Umar Razaq, 23, of Oxford Street, Clifton, Rotherham, charged with raping a woman aged over 16 and engaging in sexual activity with a girl aged 13 to 15. A ninth man arrested was subsequently released without charge.

More on Sharia law enforced in Spain

Posted on by

Just in case you thought sharia law meant settling family disputes in a ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ type way, or some sort of My Big Fat Greek Wedding kind of affiar, here is an ANSAMED report on how a pregnant Muslim women in Spain was ‘arrested’ and sentanced to be stoned to death for infidelity.

By way of TROP

SPAIN: CATALONIA, ISLAMIC MORAL BRIGADES IMPOSE SHARIA LAW**

(by Paola Del Vecchio) (ANSAmed) – MADRID, DECEMBER 8 – The reported capturing of a Muslim women in Reus (Tarragona) and the issuing of a stoning sentence for adultery by religious fanatics are a gauge of a phenomenon that has already appeared in Holland and France, and which is now taking root in Catalonia: the creation of Islamic “moral brigades” by fundamentalists, who claim the role of judges and police officers imposing a strict observance of Sharia, or Islamic law. The theatre of the incursions of these Islamic “moral patrols” are the rural towns where the mosques are controlled by Salafists, a fundamentalist sect of Islam, with a substantial presence in the province of Tarragona. These groups are heavily inspired by the Koran and the rigid regulations applied in countries such as Saudi Arabia and Nigeria. Confirming investigators’ worries are several disturbing episodes reported by police. Specifically, on November 14, nine alleged Islamic extremists were arrested, accused of having captured and sentenced a Northern African woman to death after convicting her of adultery. The investigation, still in the preliminary phases, is classified. However, according to reports in the media, the woman was captured and held for three days in an abandoned factory, and then in the home of the group’s spiritual leader in Reus, where she was tried before an “Islamic tribunal” made up of seven people, who found her guilty of infidelity and sentenced her to death by stoning. The woman, who was pregnant, managed to escape and call the Catalonian police, the Mossos d’Esquadra, for help, and she is currently under their protection. In the meanwhile, the operation against the fundamentalist cell is ongoing. Investigators have warned that the phenomenon of these “brigades”, which could increase, has not only been found in Tarragona, but also in the provinces of Girona and Segarra, where mosques are controlled by Salafites. Many of the victims do not dare report their persecution, and intimidation continues for them. Investigators have confirmed beatings and segregation by their parents or spouses of women who do not wear veils, and the case of a Moroccan teenager who was beaten because he played football with other non-Muslim children. (ANSAmed).

Posted on by

From The Times Online: H/T Diana West

(Dave Thompson/PA)

hotel_Vogelenzang_657513atazi_657530a

Ben and Sharon Vogelenzang arrive at court

Image :1 of 3

Russell Jenkins

A district judge questioned the character of a Muslim convert as he dismissed the case against husband and wife Christian hoteliers who she claimed had deeply offended her new-found religion.

Ericka Tazi, 60, who converted when she married a Muslim man, had claimed that Ben Vogelenzang, 53, had called her a terrorist and compared Muhammad to a warlord when she wore a hijab on the last day of her stay at the Bounty House Hotel in Liverpool last March.
She also claimed that his wife Sharon, 54, had told her that wearing such a garment represented a form of bondage, or oppression, in a finger-pointing and aggressive tirade that left her severely traumatised.
After a two-day trial Richard Clancy, a district judge sitting at Liverpool Magistrates’ Court, threw out the allegations, suggesting that Mrs Tazi’s version of events could not be relied upon and that she was not the religious person she presented herself as in the witness box.
The case is being seen as a victory for free speech and religious liberty by evangelical groups, notably the Christian Institute, which sponsored the couple’s defence costs. It is likely to cause widespread alarm in the Muslim community.
It also brought Dutch-born Mr Vogelenzang and his wife, who were accused of religiously aggravated threatening behaviour under Section 5 of the Public Order Act, to the brink of financial ruin. They have lost trade and feared they would have to sell their business.
To the cheers of evangelical supporters, Mrs Vogelenzang, standing beside her tearful husband, said: “We have been found innocent of any crime. It has been a very difficult nine months. We are looking forward to rebuilding our business and getting on with our lives.
“We would like to thank all those who have supported us, family, friends, Christians and non-Christians alike from around the world. As Christmas approaches we wish everybody peace and goodwill.”
The 15-minute incident happened after Mrs Tazi, who suffers from fibro myalgia, came down to breakfast at the hotel at the end of a four-week course on pain management at Aintee Hospital. She decided to wear her hijab, the traditional Islamic dress, in celebration.
Mrs Tazi, a mother from Warrington, Cheshire, claimed that Mr Vogelenzang was transformed into a “whirling dervish”, likened Muhammad to warlords down through the ages and asked her: “Are you a terrorist or a murderer?”
Mr Vogelenzang, giving evidence today, denied the allegation and, in turn, suggested that it was Mrs Tazi who had provoked the confrontation by stating that Jesus was a minor prophet and that the Bible was not true.
At one point Mr Vogelenzang broke down in tears. He said that at first he had thought Mrs Tazi a “nice person”.

His voice raised and shaking with emotion, he said: “I was mistaken because she wasn’t a nice person at all. She was not a loving person because she ratted to the police and she was trying to make us lose our business.”

Later Hugh Tomlinson, QC, the couple’s counsel, suggested that Mrs Tazi was no “shrinking violet” and that she had also become angry during the exchange.
It could not be objectionable under the laws of England for a person to believe that women in Islam are oppressed, he said. Even if it was said that Muhammad was a warlord, this also could not be deemed offensive.
Freedom to be inoffensive was not a freedom worth having, he said.
He said: “The fact that someone is upset or offended is not a reason for criminalising the speech used by the other person.”
Dismissing the case, Mr Clancy questioned Mrs Tazi’s version of events, which amounted to “fairly big differences as to what happened”.
“Giving evidence Ericka made a remark, after she had been provoked, using words to the effect, ’would you like me to get my breasts out and wear a short skirt and be pie-eyed?’ When in actuality what she said was ’would you prefer me to have my tits out, my skirt so short my backside is hanging out and getting rat-arsed?”
Mr Clancy also referred to her conversation with an ambulance driver in which she said: “They were taking the p*** out of me.”
He said: “It does not quite form the same religious view that was put to me on the stand.”
Mr Vogelenzang wiped away a tear and his supporters clapped, as the judge stated that he was not satisfied with the facts and threw out the case.
Outside the court Nicky Inskip, senior crown Prosecutor, defended the Crown Prosecution Service decision to bring the case under the banner of hate crime.
She said: “We were satisfied that there was sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction that a religiously aggravated offence should be charged. In considering the public interest factors in favour of a prosecution, we took into account the impact that the incident had on the victim.”
There has so far been little evidence that Mrs Tazi’s experience has echoed within the wider Muslim communities, especially across the northern conurbations. But a group of young female Muslim students, who attended the trial, said this may now only be a matter of time.
One 18-year-old medical student at Liverpool University, who asked not to be named, said: “People are shocked and angry. This decision is going to make them even more upset.
“Mrs Tazi just comes down for breakfast wearing a head scarf and they start racially abusing her. They have just dismissed it as if it is nothing.”

Islamic law in Socialist Spain. This is critical.

Posted on by

This is central to the whole issue. So many people still think Islam is some form of Christianity or Judaism. You can bet this machinery exists here today in any nation over 3 or 4 percent Muslims. There are no Jewish or Christian ‘police’ who’s job it is, to beat or kill any members of their own communities who do not conform to the letter of religious law. This is one of the most important articles I have posted in many weeks I think. It speaks to the actual policy and machinery of Islam in the West.

Eeyore for Vlad.

By Martin Barillas on Speroforum and found on the inimitable Sheik Yer Mammi

Sources in Spain’s Ministry of Interior express growing concern over the rise of Islamic law, known as sharia to Muslims, and the increase of Muslim separatism. In Spanish mosques, groups are emerging which promote Islamic judges and policing that have a growing influence over Muslims living in Spain. While this has long been known in the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, and France, it has now been detected in rural areas of Catalonia and in towns such as Tarragona, Gironés and Segarra.

The mosques in question are almost uniformly in the control of Salafist jihadis. Such jihadis have espoused separatism and violent struggle with the West at least since the 1980s.

Muslim clerics in Catalonia, for example, call upon the faithful to not befriend native Catalonians nor belong to Catalonian civic organizations. The imams demand that Muslims buy only “halal” food (e.g. meat slaughtered according to Muslim ritual), and that they avoid banks since these ostensibly violate Muslim abhorrence of usury. Muslim parents are warned to not allow their daughters to use the gymnasiums in the schools nor on any account should they use swimming pools. Muslims are told to remove their daughters from school upon the first appearance of menstruation. Continue Reading →

Best example of Muslim tolerance to date perhaps.

Posted on by

Jewish bride and her father arrested on Temple Mount for uttering non-Muslim prayer. Found on TROP and from Israel national News this has to be the best example yet in defiance of the multi-culti morons who think Islam is an enriching aspect of some utopian mosaic.
by Hana Levi Julian

4344

(IsraelNN.com) A Jewish bride and her father were arrested on the Temple Mount the day before her wedding, after an Arab policeman claimed he saw the father muttering prayers and the bride nodding her head.

The father and daughter were being taken around the site on Wednesday morning by her brother Eli, a volunteer who conducts regular tours at the Temple Mount, when suddenly they were accosted by the Jerusalem policeman.

“We were in the northern part, and I was showing them the archaeological evidence when suddenly a police officer came over to us, Mahmoud Hativ was his name, and h claimed that my father had muttered prayers. “We tried to argue with him and said it wasn’t true, but he said, ‘You can’t fool me,’ and insisted that my father had prayed,” Eli told Israel National News.

“My sister was just standing there silently, not moving at all. She didn’t say a word. It was her first time at the Mount. Other cops came over, Mahmoud said that she had also been involved, and they decided to arrest them both,” he continued. “He let me go right away, because he couldn’t make any claim against me.” His sister and father were taken to the Kishla police station near the Jaffa Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem.

‘Lack of Will to Exercise Israeli Sovereignty’

“The fact that a father comes to the holiest place of the Jewish people and can be arrested simply for allegedly moving his lips is an outrage,” Eli said.

“The Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that the holy sites of all religions have to be protected and respected – that explicitly includes the rights of Jews on the Temple Mount. Jerusalem police continue to ignore that ruling.”

Asked if he believes U.S. pressure on Israel to make concessions to the Palestinian Authority had anything to do with the incident, Eli said, ‘No. It is a result of the lack of will of the Jerusalem police to exercise Israeli sovereignty over the Jewish holy places in Jerusalem, not U.S. pressure on Israel. It is unheard of to arrest someone just for praying in their own religion. In the U.S. that wouldn’t fly. There is no public place in the U.S. where a Jew could not pray. It is unfortunate, and sad.”

The family, which immigrated to Israel from New York in 1996, lives in Beit Shemesh.

‘Police Misled Them to Sign Confession’

The two were held for several hours. At approximately 11:30 a.m., the two were ordered to sign a declaration which they were told said they would promise not to return to the Temple Mount for 15 days.

However, the father, who spoke with Israel National News from the courtyard of the police station while waiting to be questioned by the police commander, said that further examination of the paper showed they had been misinformed. The declaration actually said that they were confessing to have violated a law about disturbing the public order.

It was also made equally clear that if they did not sign the paper, they might not be freed for hours – perhaps not even in time for the young woman to make it to her own wedding.

Officers at Jaffa Gate Station Mocked the Bride

“The police officers talked very improperly to my daughter. She was very upset – in tears – and they ridiculed her. ‘What’s the matter, are you baby?’ they mocked her.”  Her father immediately fired back, “That’s how you talk to someone?”

The father said that the officer in charge threatened to keep them longer in response. “Be careful,” the cop warned. “If you talk to me that way, I can keep you here for a few more hours.”

“So I asked them: ‘How would it be if we arrested a young lady for praying anywhere else in the State of Israel? Or maybe a Muslim woman for praying in Mecca? This is about police enforcement – so enforce the law! And they answered me, ‘It’s a very sensitive issue. This is the law.’ That’s what they answered me,” said the father. “So I shut up, because I wanted to get out of there, and he would have kept us for hours. We signed the paper, and we will deal with it in the court of public opinion.”

The father was not praying although he was, in fact, moving his lips. “They asked me if my daughter was nodding her head. I said I didn’t know – but if she can now be arrested for nodding her head… well, anyway, in the end, that’s what they got her for. Nodding her head. That’s the nature of the public order.”

France follows Swiss lead. No more praying in streets.

Posted on by

Some Paris neighbourhoods have been taken over Fridays with large numbers of Muslims clearly establishing Islamic primacy by taking over huge sections of streets by ‘praying’ in them in such a manner that no other traffic is possible. (videos below) thanks to Tundra and Gaia, we have a translation of a newspaper article on a proposed referendum to end this hostile and predatory practice.

Once again, we see that this is not a religious thing, but a political practice of primacy and total dominance. Below the videos please find the English translation of the letter to President Sarkozi. Remember, this can, will, and is happening now in Canada. It is only a matter of degree and time. The more time, the greater the degree.

Mr. President

This is an appeal for help from the citizens of the 18th arrondissement. For several years now, certain of our streets have been occupied by fundamentalists who come from all over the Parisian region to practice their cult activities.

The pavement for hundreds of metres is taken over, putting pedestrians in grave danger as they are obliged to walk in the street to get past the people “praying”.

Entire streets are roped off with cars and security barriers and no entry signs, preventing the inhabitants of the area from going out or returning to their homes, the shopkeepers from working, ordinary citizens from circulating normally.

Every protest or even a simple attempt to penetrate into the zones occupied by these fundamentalists risks being met by insults, threats and aggression and for some time now no one dares to protest, such is the fear installed in our area.

Are we no longer a secular Republic?  Isn’t occupation of the public highway by unauthorized cultural activities a public order offence?  Is preventing the free circulation of citizens in public areas, by means of threats or other means, normal in our city?  Why do we no longer have the right to enter or leave our homes?  Why do we have to live in a climate of fear?

Mr. Delanöe, the Mayor of Paris, knows perfectly about our situation, as does Mr. Vaillant Mayor of the 18ème et Mr. Gaudin Préfet de Police.  All of them have abandoned our streets to Islamic fundamentalists, they have abandoned their citizens who can no longer walk around their city because certain areas are out of bounds to non-muslims during prayer times.

Mr President, you have affirmed that in France there are no No-Go zones.  So what would you call these areas or the militant fundamentalists  who shut roads for their exclusive private use for a number of years now without the police intervening to re-establish public order?

Mr. President.  Do not abandon us also.  Stop this occupation of our streets by fundamentalists.

The inhabitants of the 18ème area of Paris.

We are not able to sign this document for fear of our lives and those of our families.

Honour murders: surge of 60% across Britain

Posted on by

From The Telegraph U.K.

Police tackle more ‘honour’ cases

Police are tackling more suspicious incidents motivated by so-called ”honour” than ever before, according to new figures released today.

Published: 12:11PM GMT 07 Dec 2009

The Metropolitan Police recorded 256 incidents, of which 132 were criminal offences, in the year 2008-9.

This was a surge of 60% from the 161 incidents recorded in the previous financial year, of which 93 were criminal offences.

The latest figures revealed the upward trend is continuing with 211 incidents reported in the six months until October, of which 129 were offences.

Police define honour violence, including murder, rape and kidnap, as crimes motivated by a desire to protect the honour of a family or community.

Women are the most common victims of honour violence which is linked to some interpretations of cultural and religious beliefs.

But ”non-crimes”, where no offence has been committed, were also recorded, particularly where police believe the incident could be part of a wider picture.

These could include incidents in which an attempt has been made to force someone into marriage.

Detectives continue to probe the murder of mother-of-two Geeta Aulakh, 28, who was hacked to death with a sword in Greenford, north west London, last month.

In July a young Danish man of Asian origin suffered horrendous injuries when acid was poured down his throat in Leytonstone, east London.

Police believe he was targeted by a group of men because of a personal relationship with a Muslim woman.

One of the most high-profile cases is that of Banaz Mahmod, of Mitcham, south London, who was murdered by family members and buried in a Birmingham garden.

Independent investigators criticised officers for failing to take her seriously after she contacted them four times to say she was in fear for her life.

Earlier this year, police were issued with new guidance telling them to assume honour crimes have been committed in more circumstances.

Senior officers anticipated that the move would drive up figures as in many cases only limited information is available or a potential victim refuses to help police.

In London, each of the 32 boroughs has a dedicated unit staffed by officers trained to investigate all kinds of hate and domestic violence crimes.

There is also a central team reviewing all cases daily and flagging up incidents where people may be immediately at risk.

Detective Chief Inspector Gerry Campbell, of the Metropolitan Police, said the new figures could be revealing the true extent of the problem.

He said more work is being done to collect up-to-date information about people at risk and emerging patterns.

Mr Campbell said: ”The description of this type of crime is misplaced. There is no honour in these crimes.”

Up to 12 people are murdered every year in the name of ”honour” and police fear a further 500 people are forced into an arranged marriage or attacked.

The Forced Marriage (civil protection) Act 2007 strengthened the law on forced marriage and other forms of honour-based violence.

A Home Office spokesman said: ”Forced marriage and honour-based violence are appalling crimes and the government is working with partners across the voluntary sector to support victims.”

CBN: More on Fort Hood and interview with Christian General.

Posted on by

This is very good.

Its quite a thing that CBN, The Christian Broadcasting Network is picking up the slack where the secular news services have dropped the ball so horribly.

Iran interrupted: internet cut, communications crawl

Posted on by

From AP

Iran Cuts Internet Access One Day Before Student Protests Scheduled

Sunday , December 06, 2009

AP

TEHRAN, Iran —

Iranian authorities have slowed Internet connections to a crawl or choked them off completely before expected student protests Monday to deny the opposition a vital means of communication.

In another familiar tactic before such rallies, authorities have ordered journalists working for foreign media organizations not to leave their offices to cover the demonstrations.

Iran’s beleaguered opposition has sought to maintain momentum with periodic demonstrations coinciding with state-sanctioned events. Monday’s rallies will take place on a day that normally marks a 1953 killing of three students at an anti-U.S. protest. Since the 1990s, the day has served as an occasion for pro-reform protests.

Students are at the center of the opposition to Iran’s clerical regime and its brutal crackdown on demonstrators protesting what they believed was a fraudulent presidential election in June.

The opposition, which relies on the Web and cell phone service to organize rallies and get its message out, has vowed to hold rallies Monday, the first anti-government show of force in a month. It is not clear if the demonstrations will take place on university campuses or in the streets.

The call went out on dozens of Web sites run by supporters of opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi, both of whom ran in the June 12 election. Most of those sites have been repeatedly blocked by the government, forcing activists to set up new ones.

Internet connections in the capital, Tehran, have been slow or completely down since Saturday. Blocking Internet access and cell phone service has been one of the routine methods employed by the authorities to undermine the opposition in recent months.

The government has not publicly acknowledged it is behind the outages, but Iran’s Internet service providers say the problem is not on their end and is not a technical glitch. A day or two after the demonstrations, cell phone and Internet service is restored.

Former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who has been a powerful voice of dissent from within the ranks of the Islamic leadership, accused Iran’s hard-line rulers in comments reported Sunday of silencing any constructive criticism.

“The situation in the country is such that constructive criticism is not tolerated,” Rafsanjani was quoted by several news agencies as saying.

Throughout Iran’s postelection crisis, Rafsanjani has appeared to side with critics alleging that the vote was rigged.

Signs have mounted in recent days of a potentially explosive confrontation Monday, especially if student protesters dare to take their demonstrations off campuses.

Iran’s police chief, Gen. Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam, warned that security forces will crush any protests Monday.

“If any unauthorized gatherings take place outside the universities, police will confront them,” Moghaddam was quoted as saying by the semi-official Fars news agency.

Monday’s protests, if they go ahead, would be the first major show of force by the opposition since Nov. 4, when Iranian security forces beat anti-government protesters with batons on the sidelines of state-sanctioned rallies to mark the 30th anniversary of the U.S. Embassy takeover.

The opposition has sought to display unity and resolve after relentless crackdowns on their protests and a mass trial of more than 100 activists and prominent pro-reform figures accused of fomenting the postelection unrest and seeking to topple the government.

Authorities have also focused on Iran’s students, besieging campuses nationwide with a wave of arrests and student expulsions. The pro-government Basij militia has also recruited informers on campuses to blow the whistle on any opposition troublemakers, according to students.

The opposition says at least 72 people died in the bloody crackdown on protesters after the election and that many of those detained were abused in custody. The government puts the number of dead at 30.

Seeking to confine journalists working for international media to their offices on Monday, Iran’s Culture Ministry suspended accreditation allowing them to report from the streets.

A text message to journalists from the ministry’s foreign media department said, “All permits issued for foreign media to cover news in the streets of Tehran will not be valid from Dec. 7 to Dec. 9.”

The ministry also warned the few remaining pro-reform newspapers not to publish “divisive” material, the official IRNA news agency reported.

“Following publication of headlines … contrary to unity by some newspapers, they were given written notification,” IRNA said. The agency identified the newspapers as Etemad, Hayat-e-Now, Aftab-e-Yazd and Asrar.

Multicultural advocate Prof. stabbed to death by Muslim

Posted on by

(Binghamton is very close to Islamberg, national headquarters of Jamaat ul-Fuqra)

H/T GOV From Pressconects.com

The two apartment-mates of the man charged with stabbing a Binghamton University professor to death on Friday said Abdulsalam Al-Zahrani was confrontational, argumentative and “acted like a terrorist.”

Quantcast

The three men lived together for the past three weeks in a first-floor unit on Main Street in Binghamton. The men were brought together by a landlord, who rented a vacant room to Al-Zahrani, a 46-year-old Saudi national who was working on his doctorate at BU.

Souleyman Sukho, a Senegalese doctoral student at BU, said during the three weeks the men lived together, Al-Zahrani “came at me with a knife.”

“He asked me if I was afraid of dying,” Sukho said. “Then he went into his room. I told him, ‘don’t ask me the question if you don’t want to hear my answer.’

“He behaved like a terrorist,” Sukho said. “He would open his door and would be screaming on the phone.”

Binghamton University killing: 46-year-old grad student charged in professor’s death

Prof. Richard Antoun remembered as gentle man dedicated to dispelling stereotypes about different cultures

Sukho said he didn’t understand what Al-Zahrani was screaming about because he was speaking in a language Sukho didn’t understand. “He claimed he was persecuted.”

The other roommate, Luis Pena, a 22-year-old master’s degree student at BU, said he tried to mitigate the tension between Al-Zahrani and Sukho, but he, too, was concerned about Al-Zahrani’s actions.

“He would be sitting here on the sofa and just blurt out, ‘I just feel like destroying the world,”’ Pena said. “He would just make weird remarks.

“He comes off calm (but) he could flip in a second,” Pena said.

Sukho and Pena said they didn’t hear Al-Zahrani make any references to Richard T. Antoun, 77, the Binghamton University anthropology professor emeritus who was stabbed to death Friday inside Science Building I on the Vestal campus.

Police spent nearly 18 hours at the apartment between Friday and Saturday, speaking to the roommates and searching for clues.

Here is the video linked to above, about Islamburg, which is very close to where this stabbing took place.

Iran warns Switzerland of consequences over minaret ban

Posted on by

From AFP

Iran urges Bern not to enforce minaret ban

(AFP) – 14 hours ago

TEHRAN — Iran warned Switzerland on Saturday of “consequences” over a referendum banning the building of new mosque minarets and urged Bern not to enforce the ban, the official IRNA news agency reported.

The vote went “against the prestige of a country which claims to be an advocate of democracy and human rights,” Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told Swiss counterpart Micheline Calmy-Rey in a telephone call, quoted by IRNA.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki

Mottaki said last week’s referendum would “damage Switzerland’s image as a pioneer of respecting human rights among Muslims’ public opinion.”

“Values such as tolerance, dialogue and respecting others’ religions should never be put to referendum,” he argued, warning Switzerland of the “consequences” of anti-Islamic acts, IRNA reported.

The foreign minister hoped the Bern government would soon “take necessary steps and find a constitutional way to prevent imposition of the ban.”

IRNA said Switzerland’s ambassador in Tehran was summoned on Saturday before the foreign ministry, which protested against the minaret ban which was backed by more than 57 percent of voters who cast their ballot on November 29.

Calmy-Rey said the referendum was carried out against the will of the Swiss government, which would “use all its means to support Muslims rights,” the IRNA report added.

The referendum on a constitutional ban on minarets was proposed by a rightwing Swiss party and had not been expected to succeed.

Besides the government, the ban was opposed by the bulk of Switzerland’s political parties as well as the economic establishment.

It drew widespread criticism from the United Nations, Muslim states, fellow European countries and the Vatican.