“The secret of all victory lies in the organization of the non-obvious.” -Marcus Aurelius
By Daily Mail Reporter The Daily Mail:
Nine Asian men are being investigated over claims that they groomed teenage white girls for sex.
The suspects, aged between 20 and 40, from Rochdale and Heywood in Greater Manchester, were arrested on suspicion of causing or inciting child prostitution, sexual activity with a child under 16 and paying for the sexual services of a child.
The arrests, made last month, were part of an investigation into the sexual exploitation of teenage girls by men since 2008, Greater Manchester Police said. All the men have since been released on bail pending further inquiries.
Jailed: Last week two Asian men who prowled the streets of Derby in a BMW (pictured) were sentenced for grooming white girls
According to reports, up to 14 girls aged between 13 and 15 alleged they were plied with alcohol and drugs before they were taken to properties for sex.
The arrests emerged following last week’s jailing of two Asian men at Nottingham Crown Court for raping and sexually abusing their white victims after previously grooming them.
Former home secretary Jack Straw sparked a backlash after claiming the case was evidence of a specific problem among young men in the UK’s Pakistani community.
Rochdale divisional commander Chief Superintendent John O’Hare, said: ‘I hope this action shows the communities of Rochdale that we take the issue of sexual exploitation of children extremely seriously.
‘This is an extremely complex investigation and the welfare of the victims is absolutely paramount. Continue Reading →
Pakistani intelligence says Moaviya group is planning a suicide attack against Sheikhupura Prison, where the woman has been held since 2009. In Lahore, the first hearing for the murder of Punjab Governor of Salman Taseer opens amid hugging and showering of flowers for his assassin.
Islamabad (AsiaNews) – An extremist Islamist group calling itself ‘Moaviya’ might be planning a suicide attack against Sheikhupura Prison in order to kill Asia Bibi, a Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy, this according to a report by Pakistani intelligence. Ms Bibi has been held in the prison since 2009. Punjab police and prison authorities have tightened security, especially in the wake of the assassination of the provincial governor, Salman Taseer, last Tuesday.
A few days ago, Mgr Lawrence John Saldanha, president of the catholic Bishops’ Conference of Pakistan, said, “it is clear that anyone that opposes the blasphemy law is at risk.”
Mgr Rufin Anthony, bishop of Islamabad-Rawalpindi, told AsiaNews that religious fundamentalism and intolerance are spreading in the country.
Increasingly, Muslim religious leaders are actually offering rewards to anyone willing to carry out attacks and violence against those who criticises the blasphemy law.
Between 1990 and 2011, as many as 35 people accused of blasphemy or opposed to the law were murdered in extrajudicial killings or found dead in dubious circumstances.
Such deaths tend to cause rejoicing among some Muslims, as evinced by the demonstrations in favour of Taseer’s murderer, Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri.
When he was arraigned in court last Tuesday, dozens of his fans hugged and kissed him, showering him with rose petals.
More than 2,000 people have also joined a Facebook group that backs the murder. Only 70 people have expressed an opinion against him.
According to US-based LifeSiteNews, more than 500 Muslim scholars have praised Qadri’s deed.
“It is shocking that the murderer of a governor is being honoured,” said Fr Daniel Habib, a Lahore priest. “Hundreds of lawyers are proudly presenting themselves to save Qadri; this is barbarianism. Instead of condemning such an act, he is being made a hero.”
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Malik Mumtaz Qadri leaves a court in Islamabad on Wednesday, a day after he gunned down Punjab Gov. Salman Taseer. (AP)
By AZHAR MASOOD | ARAB NEWS
Published: Jan 6, 2011 01:37 Updated: Jan 6, 2011 01:37
ISLAMABAD: The killer of Punjab Gov. Salman Taseer was showered with rose petals by lawyers when he was presented Wednesday before District and Sessions Judge Malik Naeem Shaukat by police. The court gave Islamabad police remand of Malik Mumtaz Qadri for a day.
Qadri was brought to court in an armored car. A rowdy crowd slapped him on the back and kissed him as he was escorted inside the court. The lawyers who tossed the rose petals were not involved in the case.
As he left the court, a crowd of about 200 sympathizers raised slogans in his favor.
Earlier, more than 500 preachers and scholars from the Jamat Ahle Sunnat group said no one should pray or express regret for the killing of the governor. The group representing Pakistan’s majority Barelvi sect also issued a veiled threat to other opponents of the blasphemy laws.
“The supporter is as guilty as one who committed blasphemy,” the group warned in a statement, adding politicians, the media and others should learn “a lesson from the exemplary death.” Jamat leader Maulana Shah Turabul Haq Qadri paid “glorious tribute to the murderer … for his courage, bravery and religious honor and integrity.” Continue Reading →
From The Ottawa Citizen
By Michael Georgy, Reuters January 5, 2011 9:02 AM
ISLAMABAD – Five hundred Pakistani religious scholars have warned that anyone who expresses grief over the assassination of a senior ruling party official who opposed the country’s blasphemy law could suffer the same fate.
Salman Taseer, a liberal politician close to President Asif Ali Zardari, had no day-to-day role in the central government. But his killing in broad daylight at a shopping centre in Islamabad reinforces the sense that the government is incapable of stabilizing the Muslim country of 170 million.
The Punjab province governor was killed on Tuesday by one of his guards, who was apparently incensed by the politician’s opposition to the blasphemy law, in a parking lot at the block of shops popular with foreigners.
The scholars also noted the “courage” and religious zeal of the killer, saying his action has made Muslims around the world proud. Continue Reading →
I think in this video I failed to make the point i set out to make.
I believe this assassination was a geopolitical earthquake. While very few people around the world will ever know about this killing, and the vast majority of those that do know will not understand it’s significance, you can bet everything you hold dear that the world leaders of any magnitude, from the mayor of a small town to the president of the United states will understand this message perfectly clearly.
That message is, ‘Any attempt to mitigate or resist the most strict and illiberal interpretations of sharia law will result in your death and there is nothing you can do to stop it’.
If our leaders were not frantically attempting to pretend Islam is not the problem and some rare aberrant form of it, or even worse, some other ideology is hijacking the name of Islam, and attempting to prove this by hiring conspicuous Muslims for every sensitive position they have, while making banal TV shows like ‘Little Mosque on the Prairie’, (a show for which, CBC writers will be held to task someday, by us if we win this thing, and by the Muslims themselves if we lose for representing Islam as benign,) then maybe they could resist the demand.
But lets be honest. If for example, the governor of some US state has a demand made on him by CAIR, and he has several Muslims on his staff and he is faced with a choice. Sugar coat the demand so it looks pro American to obey it as was explained in Douglas Murray’s most excellent article or fire all their Islamic staff and get ready for countless law suits and absurd accusations from every agenda driven person or group from Michael Moore to the ACLU.
To summarize, if we do not watch our leaders closely, it will be very easy to slide into an Islamic state as they act out of a fear, the giant majority of us, will be utterly unaware of.
Eeyore for Vlad
Thanks again to Encompassed Runner for this:
This is a highly telling incident. This appears to be confirmation that the US and UK strategy to invent a new Islam and force it on everyone is absurd and unworkable. You can never find a way to keep safe anyone who is not with the Islamic orthodoxy as we see here. A ‘moderate’ is killed by his own guard. How do you defend against that?
The time to recognize the enemy for what it is, is close. Pakistan already has nuclear weapons. How can we know those in charge of them are not with that bodyguard, who have to be amongst the most carefully vetted of the Pakistani population.
Thanks to Encompassed Runner for these 2 links:
Below, an article from Tribune.com about his stance on the blasphemy laws.
The body of the governor of Punjab province Salmaan Taseer is carried out of a hospital after he was shot dead in Islamabad January 4, 2011. PHOTO: AFP
ISLAMABAD: Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer was attacked and killed in a firing incident in Islamabad’s Kohsar market on Tuesday.
8:30pm
Government of Punjab announces public holiday tomorrow (Wednesday).
PPP leader Raja Riaz will be making arrangements for the funeral to be held at Governor’s House.
7:25pm
Protests are being taken out in different parts of Punjab.
A three member panel has been formed to perform Taseer’s autopsy.
Registrar Lahore High Court has announced that all courts in Punjab will remain closed tomorrow.
6:55pm
President Asif Ali Zardari has strongly condemned the assassination of Governor Punjab Salmaan Taseer today and directed the Interior Minister Rehman Malik to personally supervise the investigations and report to him urgently.
Spokesperson to the President Farhatullah Babar said that President was informed about the tragic assassination during a meeting of the PPP MPAs of four districts in the Bilawal House after which all the meetings scheduled for today were postponed to a later date.
The President also directed the Party leadership that the birthday functions in connection with Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s 83rd birth anniversary on Wednesday be limited only to holding of seminars at district, divisional and provincial levels without fanfare and without cake cutting ceremonies. Quran Khwani for Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Salmaan Taseer will also be held on Wednesday as part of the birth anniversary functions of Party’s founding Chairman, he said.
The President also asked the Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah and MNA Faryal Talpur to participate in the funeral on his behalf. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani will also participate in the funeral.
6:10pm
Interior Minister Rehman Malik says the first point of investigation will be to find out whether the suspect Qadri carried out the attack as part of a larger plot or on his own.
Malik confirmed the suspect, Qadri is twenty six-years-old.
In life, Salmaan Taseer was never afraid of controversy and was never one to remain silent even when his stance on issues like militancy and the blasphemy law brought the venom of the right wing pouring on to him. Zarrar Khuhro
5:55pm Continue Reading →
And below, a BBC report also failing to grasp or convey the monstrosity of this and its monstrous implications for Islam around the world.
More can be found at The Daily Mail web site here. a small section of which, is below…
Two white British men who were fighting alongside Al Qaeda militants in Pakistan have been killed in a drone attack, it was reported last night.
One of the men was identified by Taliban sources as 25-year-old Gerry Smith, whose Islamic name is Mansoor Ahmed, according to the officials. The second was only identified as Stephen, 48, but also goes by Abu Bakar.
The men died five days ago when a Hellfire missile was discharged from a remote-controlled American drone in the town of Datta Khel, in North Waziristan.
Deadly: A U.S. drone with Hellfire missiles
Target: The men were killed in the tribal area of northern Pakistan
If the reports are confirmed, the two men would be the first white British converts to have been killed.
There is something sort of odd about this BBC clip though. The way the fact that the two Muslim terrorists are white seems to be emphasised in a way that is quite ‘un-BBC’ like. I can only guess it is because they are hoping that the ‘far right’ the BBC loves to fantasize about, will see this and demand an end to US drone attacks in Pakistan, as if their whiteness would matter to anyone and the ideology that drives them will not.
In that spirit, here is a video which illustrates how Mohamed viewed whiteness and blackness as human attributes.
H/T Don
Accused of blasphemy, but actually acquitted by a Pak court as I understand the story. Frankly, blasphemy isn’t a real charge so I don’t really care if she is innocent or guilty as its a non crime anyway and even if it was, random people offering a reward for her murder, well that doesn’t even happen to people like Clifford Olden or Charles Manson in real nations. Also, I have a pretty good idea what would happen to me if I offered for example, $50.00 to anyone who kills this imam who put the bounty on this woman. And frankly, rightfully so. Interpol would be after me. So why do these guys get away with it every single time?
Thanks again FOOMF for this great find. I owe ya man.
2 more stories on this matter below the fold courtesy of Gates of Vienna News feed: Continue Reading →
From The Telegraph U.K.
The sentence against Asia Bibi has renewed debate about Pakistan’s blasphemy law which critics say is used to persecute religious minorities, fan religious extremism and settle personal scores. Non-Muslim minorities account for roughly 4 per cent of Pakistan’s 170 million population.
Maulana Yousef Qureshi, the imam of a major mosque in the northwestern city of Peshawar, offered a £3,700 reward and warned the government against any move to abolish or change the blasphemy law.
“We will strongly resist any attempt to repeal laws which provide protection to the sanctity of Holy Prophet Mohammad,” Qureshi told a rally of hardline Islamists.”Any one who kills Asia will be given 500,000 rupees in reward from Masjid Mohabat Khan,” he said referring to his mosque.
While Qureshi is not believed to have a wide following, comments by clerics can provoke a violent response and complicate government efforts to combat religious extremism and militancy.
Qureshi, a cleric who has been leading congregation at the 17th century Mohabat Khan mosque for decades, later told Reuters he was determined to see her killed.
“We expect her to be hanged and if she is not hanged then we will ask mujahideen and Taliban to kill her.”
Ms Bibi, a 45-year-old mother of four, is the first woman to be sentenced to death under the blasphemy law.
Blasphemy convictions are common in mainly Muslim Pakistan. Although the death sentence has never been carried out as most convictions are thrown out on appeal, angry mobs and fanatics have killed many people accused of blasphemy in the past.
In 2006, Qureshi and his followers announced rewards amounting to over $1 million for anyone who killed Danish cartoonists who drew caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad that had enraged Muslims worldwide.
After her conviction, Ms Bibi appealed to President Asif Ali Zardari to pardon her, saying she had been wrongly accused by neighbours due to a personal dispute.
Last week, a government minister said an initial inquiry into the case showed she had not committed blasphemy. The Lahore High Court last month prevented Mr Zardari from granting a pardon and ruled that the High Court should be allowed to decide her appeal.
“No president, no parliament and no government has any right to interfere in the commandants of Islam. Islamic punishment will be implemented at all costs,” said Qureshi.
Terry Glavin does what geniuses do. Point out the painfully obvious that everyone else missed. H/T Father Grace
For some long while, what was once a merely subtle pattern has been a thing so predictable you can set your watch by it. In Afghanistan, the “troops out” and “talk to the Taliban” slogans emerged on the crypto-fascist and Islamist far-right. In Canada, these slogans became the default position of the “left,” up to and including the official position of the New Democratic Party. On the Israel-Palestine question, the politics counselled by Hamas and Hezbollah – the politics of the Islamist far-right – now form the basis of “left-wing” activism (most recently, see “Fascists on Campus”, for example).
The pattern repeats itself today in The Guardian, which everyone in the English-speaking world is expected to apprehend as a clarion of proper left-wing analysis. Simon Tisdall writes: “Pakistan was already under the American hammer before the WikiLeaks crisis blew. But leaked US diplomatic cables published by the Guardian show the extraordinary extent to which Pakistan is in danger of becoming a mere satrapy of imperial Washington. The US assault on Pakistani sovereignty, which is how these developments are widely viewed in the country, is multipronged. . .”
Well, no, not unless “widely viewed” is meant as a euphemism for the Guardian view – the “left-wing” view of rich white people, which now precisely echoes and accurately reflects the lumpen view incited by right-wing Pakistani chauvinists.
“There is a deep abyss between the perceptions of the people of Waziristan, the most drone-hit area, and the wider Pakistani society on the other side of the River Indus. For the latter, the US drone attacks on Waziristan are a violation of Pakistani’s sovereignty,” writes Farhat Taj. “I have been discussing the issue of drone attacks with hundreds of people of Waziristan. They see the US drone attacks as their liberators from the clutches of the terrorists into which, they say, their state has wilfully thrown them.”
What do intelligent writers from the Pakistani Left have to say about Tisdall’s “dangerous” Yankee-imperialist incursions on Pakistan’s sovereignty? Azizullah Khan Khetran writes: “We should not heed rightist propaganda and empty slogans. Let the drones hover over the terrorists and terrorise them.” Further: “Civil society in Pakistan is well aware of the fact that the drones are cleansing us of terrorists but sometimes they fail to resist the temptation to speak out against them. This is caused by the extreme right trumpeting warnings of US encroachments on our sovereignty.”