“The secret of all victory lies in the organization of the non-obvious.” -Marcus Aurelius
This is the same channel that did Undercover Mosque, got charged for it, beat the charge, and did a sequel, Hidden Mosque II, all of which is here on Vlad. More recently, Channel 4 did the excellent documentary, Britain’s Islamic Republic.
If Western Liberal Democracy survives this century, UK’s Channel 4 will have had a lot to do with it. We all owe them a debt of gratitude.
TIMES LIVE… Somalia’s hardline rebels destroyed more tombs of Sufi clerics as they intensified a drive to stop what they term “grave worshipping” by moderate Islamists.
On Tuesday, heavily-armed Shebab militia exhumed and took away the remains of a Sufi cleric buried in Mogadishu 30 years ago.
“The raids are continuing for the third day and we have excavated around seven graves so far,” said Sheik Said Karatay, the Shebab official in charge of the tomb raids.
“We take their remains and re-bury them in unidentified places in order to avoid them being recognised by people who continue worshiping them,” he told reporters in Mogadishu.
“The operations will go on until we eradicate the culture of worshiping graves.”
Witnesses said the Shebab militia chanted “God is great” as they dug up the and destroyed the graves using hammers and hoes.
Sufism, which is dominant in Somalia, emphasises the mystical dimension of Islam and includes practices considered as idolatry and innovations in the conservative Wahhabi current of Islam adopted by the Shebab.
The Shebab, who control much of the lawless Horn of Africa country, have set up a unit to destroy all tombs respected by Sufi Muslims.
BBCNEWS… Israeli tanks are reported to have advanced into the Gaza Strip following clashes with Palestinians in which two Israeli soldiers died.
Witnesses in Gaza said tanks and bulldozers were moving towards the southern town of Khan Younis.
They also said there had been firing from the Israeli navy along the Gaza coastline.
It is the first time Israeli soldiers have died in Gaza since Israel’s 22-day offensive there more than a year ago.
Reports say at least two Palestinians have also been killed.
Israel says the fighting started when its troops crossed into Gaza after spotting militants planting explosives along the border.
Reports from inside Gaza say the militants then tried to capture an Israeli soldier.
Retaliation Continue Reading →
TELEGRAPH…Hamas gunmen opened fire on Israeli troops who crossed into Gaza on Friday, killing two as tensions escalated following the most violent week since Israel’s invasion of the coast enclave 14 months ago.
The clashes came as Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, signalled for the first time since receiving a dressing down from US President Barack Obama on Tuesday that he would reject American demands to halt Jewish construction in East Jerusalem.
The Israeli army said two soldiers were killed and two were wounded in an exchange of fire near the Palestinian town of Khan Younis, in the south of the Gaza Strip. There were unconfirmed reports that two Hamas fighters were also killed.
After months of relative tranquillity following the end of Israel’s military offensive in January last year, there has been an upsurge in rocket attacks from Gaza over recent days, one of which killed a Thai immigrant working in a greenhouse north of the enclave last week.
In a development that will disturb Israel, Hamas admitted its forces were involved in yesterday’s clash. Responsibility for the rocket attacks of the past week has been claimed by Islamist groups largely opposed to Hamas, which has controlled Gaza since 2007.
Shortly before Mr Netanyahu convened a secret session of his inner cabinet, a statement was released from the prime minister’s office indicating that Israel would give no ground on the settlement issue, which has caused the greatest chasm in its relations with the United States for many years.
“The prime minister’s position is that there is no change in Israel’s policy on Jerusalem that has been pursued by all governments of Israel for the past 42 years,” the statement read.
Enraged by an Israeli decision to build 1,600 Jewish homes in East Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War but seen by Palestinians as their future capital, Mr Obama called on Mr Netanyahu to reverse the move and make a series of confidence building gestures to restart peace talks.
While defying Mr Obama’s key demand, a spokesman for the prime minister said that he was prepared to take “additional steps to advance peace talks”.
But a powerful pro-settlement lobby group within the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, urged Mr Netanyahu not to go even that far.
From JTA.ORG with a hat tip to Fred at GAR
March 23, 2010
(JTA) — Chabad House was the target of last month’s bomb attack on a bakery in India, a government official said.
The Indian state of Maharashtra’s Chief Minister Ashok Chavan told the Indian Legislative Assembly Monday that the target of the attackers was the Pune Chabad House, located several yards from the German Bakery.
Chavan said the bakery was targeted after the attackers discovered that Chabad was well protected by state police, according to the Press Trust of India.
“There was adequate security near the Chabad House,” he told the Assembly. “Since the attackers could not break the security, they targeted the German Bakery.
“We have increased our police force and also purchased sophisticated weapons to deal with such attacks. We are taking all the necessary security measures based on intelligence reports.”
Seventeen people were killed and others injured in the bomb attack in Pune on Feb. 13.
Following the attack, the Pune police asked the Chabad House to update its security system at a cost of $20,000.
Dal gazes at the unmarked grave of his niece outside Charikar, Afghanistan. "She kept saying, 'I can't marry my cousin. If my mother gives me away to anyone else, I will marry him,' " he said.
LA TIMES… Reporting from Charikar, Afghanistan – A child of the provinces can never run far. She should have known this. Frashta, though, was headstrong. Two shots from a hunting rifle in the night, then they rolled her in cloth and tried to hide her, but some things cannot be hidden. She was found in the yard.
“A bad woman,” said the cop.
“So beautiful that no words could describe her face,” said her uncle.
No one had a photograph; a picture wouldn’t tell the story of who she was anyway. A young bride who betrayed her marriage for another man. Or a woman who spent her short life peering through the mesh of a burka until one day she defied family and tradition and ran away from home after refusing to wed her cousin. In this land, both are dark, dark sins.
What would end her life began when she was a few months old. Word came that her father, a mujahid, had been killed in a battle with Soviet troops in the late 1980s. As is custom, Frashta’s mother became the second wife of her husband’s brother, Abdul. To ensure clan harmony, a match was quickly arranged for Frashta: When the girl came of age she would marry Abdul’s son, her cousin. Continue Reading →
FOXNEWS… Female homicide bombers are being fitted with exploding breast implants which are almost impossible to detect, British spies have reportedly discovered.
The shocking new Al Qaeda tactic involves radical doctors inserting the explosives in women’s breasts during plastic surgery — making them “virtually impossible to detect by the usual airport scanning machines.”
It is believed the doctors have been trained at some of Britain’s leading teaching hospitals before returning to their own countries to perform the surgical procedures.
MI5 has also discovered that extremists are inserting the explosives into the buttocks of some male bombers.
“Women suicide bombers recruited by Al Qaeda are known to have had the explosives inserted in their breasts under techniques similar to breast enhancing surgery,” Terrorist expert Joseph Farah claims.
The lethal explosives called PETN are inserted inside plastic shapes during the operation, before the breast is then sewn up.
The discovery of these methods was made after London-educated Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab came close to blowing up an airliner in the U.S. on Christmas Day.
He had stuffed explosives inside his underpants.
Hours after he had failed, Britain’s intelligence services began to pick up “chatter” emanating from Pakistan and Yemen that alerted MI5 to the creation of the lethal implants.
A hand-picked team investigated the threat which was described as “one that can circumvent our defense.”
Top surgeons have confirmed the feasibility of the explosive implants.
Explosive experts allegedly told MI5 that a sachet containing as little as five ounces of PETN could blow “a considerable hole” in an airline’s skin, causing it to crash.
BBCNEWS… More than 100 suspected militants linked to al-Qaeda have been arrested in Saudi Arabia, officials have said
The interior ministry said 58 Saudis and 55 foreigners in three independent groups were planning to target oil facilities and security forces.
The groups had links to an al-Qaeda affiliate based in neighbouring Yemen, an interior ministry spokesman said.
Analysts say the group, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, has exploited instability in Yemen to set up bases.
A large group of 101 suspects, described as a network, composed of 47 Saudis and others from Yemen, Somalia, Eritrea and Bangladesh was “specialised in targeting security personnel,” interior ministry spokesman Mansour al-Turki said.
Two other groups totalling 12 suspects, described as terrorist cells, were also arrested, he said.
Weapons, cameras, documents and computers were seized with the suspects.
“The network and the two cells were targeting the oil facilities in the Eastern Province and they had plans that were about to be implemented,” Mansour al-Turki said.
“Each cell did not know about the other or their plans,” he added. Continue Reading →
A high authority in Islam, explains how wife beating is sanctioned in Islam, but it isn’t so much beating as it is, punching, or shoving. But only if they do not obey.
NATIONALPOST… A man accused of almost a dozen attempted murders denied the charges today, but admitted to sending tainted water and explosive devices to a variety of people in Toronto and Guelph between 2004 and 2007.
Adel Arnaout, 39, told a Superior Court judge he did this to “scare” several of the recipients and to confuse police.
“I was frustrated with them,” the accused said of police, noting his primary objective was “to waste their time and money like they wasted my time and money.”
Mr. Arnaout’s frustration with police apparently stemmed from a number of run-ins in which he believed authorities failed to help him; at one point he called police about a “bullying” roommate, while another time he lodged a complaint about a talent agent who took his money but did not find him work.
Police “said they didn’t have time” to help, Mr. Arnaout testified.
Probed about the contents of the tainted water — the accused sent out four cases in 2004 to talent agencies, a judge and a bank — Mr. Arnaout said he injected a foul-smelling painkiller through the lids, knowing this would spur recipients to call police.
(The court has previously heard the water contained dimethyl sulfide, a posionous industrial solvent.)
Mr. Arnaout held a grudge against one of the talent agencies and against the CIBC bank over a credit dispute, but was on fine terms with the other recipients, he said.
“I wanted to confuse the police,” the accused testified under questioning by defence laywer Richard Stern.
He cited similar motives for sending out several explosive packages in 2007, noting two of them were designed with faulty igniters and thus posed no real harm.
Mr. Arnaout, clad in a dark suit and blue blouse, spoke quickly and quietly in a halting Lebanese accent.
His testimony resumes this afternoon.
National Post
DAILYNATION… A high-level terror suspect arrested by police in Kenya has mysteriously disappeared from custody at a border police station.
The man, who was arrested on March 13, was reported missing at 9 pm on Tuesday last week from Busia police station where he was awaiting further profiling by Anti-Terrorism Police Unit officers from Nairobi.
Three police officers, a sergeant and two constables, have been arrested in connection with the suspect’s disappearance. They are suspected to have accepted cash from the suspect to release him.
Anti-terror detectives identified the man as an operative of the Somalia-based al-Shabaab which has links to the al-Qaeda terror network and had been placed on an international watch list.
The suspect had an Australian passport identifying him as Farah Hussein, but Immigration officers arrested him after suspecting that the document was forged.
Two Busia businessmen were also arrested and charged in court for “aiding a prisoner to escape” as they had visited the man at the station.
The man had $3,400 (Sh258,400) on him when he was arrested just after crossing the Uganda border.
Senior officers dispatched from the Western provincial headquarters to investigate the escape found that the suspect was given “special treatment” while in custody.
And in Lamu, 11 suspected Somali pirates were arrested yesterday after they tried to hijack a fishing vessel in what is believed to be the first incident where pirates have been intercepted by local security personnel.
“It is true, we have arrested 11 suspects believed to be pirates in Kiunga area,” Coast Criminal Investigation Officer Nyagah Reche said.
More than 100 suspected pirates have been arrested by foreign navies in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden.
From News.com.au
By Staff writer, March 21, 2010
Angry Muslim protesters march on the Danish embassy in London in 2006 over newspaper cartoons of Mohammed / The Daily Telegraph
NEARLY 95,000 descendants of Mohammed are going to sue 10 newspapers for publishing “blasphemous” cartoons of the prophet.
Faisal Yamani, a Saudi lawyer acting for the descendants, claims that the cartoons – which first appeared in 2005 and caused violent protests by Muslims around the world – are defamatory.
One of the 12 cartoons depicts Mohammed wearing a bomb-shaped turban.
The Sunday Times said that although the cartoons were published by Danish newspapers, Mr Yamani plans to pursue legal action in England, where libel laws are weighted towards the plaintiff.
Artist Kurt Westergaard, whose life has been in danger ever since he drew a cartoon of a bearded, Mohammed-like man with a bomb in his turban / AFP
English lawyers expect that he will argue that the cartoons were published in Britain via the internet and are a direct slur on his clients, who live in the Middle East, north Africa and even Australia.
Mark Stephens, a British lawyer who saw Mr Yamani’s missive to the newspapers, told The Sunday Times: “Direct descendants of the prophet have a particular place within Muslim society … By effectively criticising and making fun of the prophet you are, by implication, holding them up to scandal, contempt and public ridicule.
“The question is, is that defamatory in English law?”
He said that although many judges would dismiss such a case, “it is obviously a very highly charged issue and if they do throw it out, it becomes political”.
Mr Yamani has already won an apology from the Danish newspaper Politiken for printing the cartoons.
The cartoons first appeared in Jyllands-Posten as part of its campaign to promote freedom of expression.
However, the paper’s offices have been evacuated several times after security threats and the artist behind the bomb cartoon, Kurt Westergaard, was forced to go into hiding. In January this year a man was shot trying to get into his home.
From The Telegraph U.K
The body of Miss Mahmod, 20, was found in Handsworth, Birmingham three months after she disappeared from her family home in Mitcham, south London in January 2006.
Hussain, 30, of Smethwick, Birmingham, will appear at Greenwich Magistrates’ Court on Friday charged with her murder.
He is also charged with the attempted kidnap of Rahmat Suleimani, Miss Mahmod’s boyfriend, and with attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Miss Mahmod began a relationship with Mr Suleimani after leaving an unhappy arranged marriage.
Her father, Mahmod Mahmod, uncle Ari Mahmod and a third man, Mohamad Hama, were jailed for life in 2007 for the so-called ”honour” killing.
Mr Suleimani was deemed unsuitable because he did not come from the small group of villages in Iraqi Kurdistan from which the Mahmods originated.
UAF supporters Bolton 10
TIMESONLINE… Riot police battled to control thousands of rival demonstrators taking part in an ill-tempered city centre protest organised by a controversial right-wing group.
Hundreds of officers, some horse-mounted and armed with batons, separated supporters of the English Defence League (EDL) and members of Unite Against Fascism (UAF).
Two officers were injured following ugly clashes: one fractured a finger, the other was bitten by a police dog. A police helicopter was also dispatched to assist the officers on the ground. There was a total of 67 arrests, 55 of which were UAF supporters and the remaining 12 EDL, police said.
The EDL organised the rally in Bolton, Lancashire, to protest against “radical Muslims” and Sharia law. At its height there were some 2,000 EDL and a further 1,500 UAF protestors.
The main protest took place in front of the town hall, which was boarded up to prevent any damage. Many local pubs and shops closed and taxi firms pulled their drivers off the roads.
Council leaders had met with Home Secretary Alan Johnson earlier this week in a bid to ban the demonstration, but were told there was no power to do so unless it took place on private property.
Assistant Chief Constable Garry Shewan, who is leading the operation for Greater Manchester Police (GMP), said: “Today in Bolton we have seen groups of people, predominantly associated with the UAF, engaging in violent confrontation. Continue Reading →
From The Telegraph U.K.
Published: 8:00AM GMT 20 Mar 2010
Judges ruled that action taken to restrict the possible “malign influence” of Qatada, 49, at Long Lartin in Worcestershire was justified and proportionate.
Qatada, whose real name is Omar Othman and who was once dubbed Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man in Europe, was described as an ”iconic figure for jihadists”.
He is among six Muslim international terror suspects who are unconvicted of any offence but held in a special detainee unit at Long Lartin.
The high-profile detainees face extradition requests from other countries for alleged terrorist offences but have launched legal challenges or cannot be deported because of the risk they will be tortured.
They include Khalid Al-Fawwaz, 47, and Adel Abdel Bary, 49, who are both wanted by the US authorities for conspiracy to murder American citizens in the synchronised bombings of US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in August 1998.
Qatada faces jail in Jordan for terrorism but alleges his conviction was based on evidence extracted by torture.
On Thursday, Lord Justice Aikens, sitting with Mr Justice Openshaw, rejected challenges to a decision by Long Lartin governor Ferdie Parker, in December 2008, to change the living conditions for all the detainees after Qatada returned to the unit.
The effect was to confine them to the unit for all purposes, except for health care and family visits, and ban them from mixing with other prisoners.
Qatada came from Belmarsh Prison in south-east London, where he was accused of attempting to “foment trouble” and inciting other prisoners to challenge authority. Continue Reading →