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Sharia courts operating in Britain

Prophecy News Watch
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Five sharia courts have been set up in London, Birmingham, Bradford and Manchester and Nuneaton, Warwickshire. The government has quietly sanctioned that their rulings are enforceable with the full power of the judicial system, through the county courts or High Court. Previously, the rulings were not binding and depended on voluntary compliance among Muslims.

Lawyers have issued grave warnings about the dangers of a dual legal system and the disclosure drew criticism from Opposition leaders.

Dominic Grieve, the shadow home secretary, said: "If it is true that these tribunals are passing binding decisions in the areas of family and criminal law, I would like to know which courts are enforcing them because I would consider such action unlawful. British law is absolute and must remain so."

Douglas Murray, the director of the Centre for Social Cohesion, added: "I think it's appalling. I don't think arbitration that is done by sharia should ever be endorsed or enforced by the British state."

Muslim tribunal courts started passing sharia judgments in August 2007. They have dealt with more than 100 cases that range from Muslim divorce and inheritance to nuisance neighbours.

It has also emerged that tribunal courts have settled six cases of domestic violence between married couples, working in tandem with the police investigations.

Sheikh Faiz-ul-Aqtab Siddiqi, whose Muslim Arbitration Tribunal runs the courts, said that sharia courts are classified as arbitration tribunals under a clause in the Arbitration Act 1996.

The rulings of arbitration tribunals are binding in law, provided that both parties in the dispute agree to give it the power to rule on their case.

The disclosures come after Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, sparked a national debate and calls for his resignation for saying that the establishment of sharia in the future "seems unavoidable" in Britain.

In July, Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, the Lord Chief Justice agreed that Muslims in Britain should be able to live according to Islamic law to decide financial and marital disputes.

Mr Siddiqi said he expected the courts to handle a greater number of "smaller" criminal cases in coming years as more Muslim clients approach them. Two more courts are being planned for Glasgow and Edinburgh.

"All we are doing is regulating community affairs in these cases," said Mr Siddiqi, chairman of the governing council of the tribunal.

There are concerns for women suffering under the Islamic laws, which favours men.

Mr Siddiqi said that in a recent inheritance dispute handled by the court in Nuneaton, the estate of a Midlands man was divided between three daughters and two sons.

The judges on the panel gave the sons twice as much as the daughters, in accordance with sharia. Had the family gone to a normal British court, the daughters would have got equal amounts.

In the six cases of domestic violence, Mr Siddiqi said the judges ordered the husbands to take anger management classes and mentoring from community elders. There was no further punishment.

In each case, the women subsequently withdrew the complaints they had lodged with the police and the police stopped their investigations.

Saudi Arabia's top judiciary official: OK to kill owners of 'immoral' TV networks

Prophecy News Watch
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Saudi Arabia's top judiciary official has issued a religious decree saying it is permissible to kill the owners of satellite TV networks that broadcast immoral content.

The 79-year-old Sheik Saleh al-Lihedan said Thursday that satellite channels cause the "deviance of thousands of people."

Many of the most popular Arab satellite networks -- which include channels showing music videos often denounced as obscene by Muslim conservatives -- are owned by Saudi princes and well-connected Saudi businessmen. Al-Lihedan did not specify any particular channels.

Al-Lihedan is chief of the kingdom's highest tribunal, the Supreme Judiciary Council. Saudi Arabia's judiciary is made up of Islamic clerics whose decrees, or fatwas, on everyday issues are widely respected. Their fatwas do not have the weight of law. In the courts, cleric-judges rule according to Islamic law, but interpretations can vary.

Al-Lihedan was answering listeners' questions during the daily "Light in the Path" radio program in which he and others make rulings on what is permissible under Islamic law.

One caller asked about Islam's view of the owners of satellite TV channels that show "bad programs" during Ramadan.

"I want to advise the owners of these channels, who broadcast calls for such indecency and impudence ... and I warn them of the consequences," he said.

"What does the owner of these networks think, when he provides seduction, obscenity and vulgarity?" he said.

"Those calling for corrupt beliefs, certainly it's permissible to kill them," he said. "Those calling for sedition, those who are able to prevent it but don't, it is permissible to kill them."

Among the most viewed Arabic satellite networks is Rotana, which airs movies and music videos. It is owned by Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, a billionaire businessman and member of the royal family whom Forbes ranks as the world's 13th richest person.

Al-Lihedan sparked controversy in the past by issuing a decree that Saudis can join jihadists to fight U.S. troops in Iraq.

Islam, Secularism and the Gospel

christianpost

While Britons may think of America as its juvenile and impetuous offspring, Great Britain has surely become our senile grandmother. Through repeated acts of self-condemnation and political correctness, the British are systematically capitulating to all things Islamic. In essence, our British forbearers are committing cultural suicide.

In what may appear to be deferential considerations to their growing Muslim population, British authorities are slowly conforming to the demands of an increasingly outspoken and violent minority. Already in Britain, Muslim men with multiple wives have been given the go-ahead to claim extra welfare benefits following a year-long government review. Even though bigamy is a crime in Britain, the decision by British authorities means that polygamous marriages can now be recognized formally (not to mentioned subsidized) by the state, so long as the weddings took place in countries where the arrangement is legal. And yes, polygamy remains a norm in the Muslim world.

In other another act of mindless irony, the Research, Information and Communication Unit, a division of the British Home Office, established for the purpose of countering al-Qaeda’s influence in the UK, is actually instructing civil servants not to use terms such as “Islamist extremism” or “jihadi fundamentalist.” Instead, they are to use phrases such as “violent extremism” or “criminal murderers” or “thugs” to avoid any implication that there is connection between Islam and terrorism.

Closer to home, the US government also issued guidelines earlier this year for the Department of Homeland Security suggesting such terms as “jihad” and “Islamic terrorism” not be used.

So ridiculous have British concessions to Muslim demands become that Fortis Bank “stopped giving piggy banks to children for fear of offending Muslims,” according to The Times of London. (Pigs are an offensive, unclean animal to Muslims.) There are also accounts of Muslim nurses refusing to comply with hygiene procedures on the grounds that scrubbing requires them to bare their arms.

And this past week, Fox News reported that “Islamic law has been officially adopted in Britain, with sharia courts given powers to rule on Muslim civil cases.” According to news reports, “The government has quietly sanctioned the powers for sharia judges to rule on cases ranging from divorce and financial disputes to those involving domestic violence.” Adding that “rulings issued by a network of five sharia courts are enforceable with the full power of the judicial system…” In an astonishing statement, the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Phillips, said there was no reason why sharia law, derived from several sources including the Qur´an, could not be used for contractual agreements and marital disputes. The first question that comes to mind: How does British society plan to mitigate between the Western and Muslim views relative to the rights of women?

The first public signs of appeasement emerged in the wake of the Ayatollah Khomeini’s fatwa (death edict) against British author Salman Rushdie in 1989. Thousands of British Muslims marched in the streets calling for Rushdie to be killed while the British authorities thought it best to “play it cool,” according to Mark Steyn, author of America Alone. Of the more than 100 demonstrators arrested for violent assaults on the police that day, all were released without charges. British non-Muslims held a (much smaller) counter-demonstration shortly thereafter to uphold the right to free speech—meaning the free speech of Salman Rushdie—only to be attacked and beaten by Muslims. Playing it cool has only emboldened Muslim radicals and the calls for blood and violence increase. Today there are sections of London in which no non-Muslim dare venture for fear of being killed.

And the same is occurring across the rest of Europe. Recall the French riots in 2005 in which thousands of young Muslims, armed with clubs and sticks and shouting, “Allah Akbar!” stormed the streets. Windows were smashed; stores looted and cars were torched. Europeans trapped by the mob were viciously attacked, and some killed. The trouble in France finally ended only when various levels of French authorities quietly accepted that there were de facto no-go areas within the country, mini-Islamistans run by the dominant local Muslim majority. Shortly after, riots in Denmark featured Muslims taunting authorities, saying, “This territory belongs to Islam; you don’t belong here.” In a growing number of Western European nations there are now territories that have been effectively occupied by Islamic fundamentalists determined to subdue their host countries.

Iman Abdelali Hamdoune revealed the goal of Islam when he urged the Muslim faithful:

Do not permit your children to follow the example of the French. They should comport themselves in a totally different manner than the French. Here in France we have to impose ourselves, and impose Islam.

Recently, the United Nations General Assembly began considering a resolution sponsored by the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) under the altruistic title of “Combating Defamation of Religion.” Supporters claim its goal is to stamp out “incitement to religious hatred, against Islam and Muslims in particular.” Of course, Muslims are at liberty to incite hatred and violence against other religions and infidels.

Commission on International Religious Freedom, a bipartisan federal body, says it’s clear that the OIC countries are attempting to “mainstream” prohibitions on any speech that could be considered critical of Islam. So when Muslims take to the streets with signs reading BEHEAD THOSE WHO INSULT ISLAM, it would be insensitive of us to suggest that perhaps Islam is a factor in breeding violence. Hmm?

Next week I will explore the philosophical preconditions that have rendered Europe so impotent in its response to radical Islam, demonstrating that these same conditions are emerging within our own society. In short, there are three worldviews today that are contending to “narrate the world” (in the words of theologian Robert Webber)—Christianity, secular humanism, and Islam.

I will argue that the American church, in its present state, will not be able to counter the Islamic effort to narrate the world until it is liberated from its own cultural captivity. American evangelicalism, with its emphasis on personal experience and therapy, has produced a narcissistic faith that centers on self rather than Christ and the redemptive mission of God—and this has rendered the Christian story of the world shallow and irrelevant.

Quote from: Pastor Roger on September 29, 2008, 01:52:07 PM

In response to sharia law being allowed in Britain there is a group that is taking to the streets in protest. This new group is called "March for England." Is it too little too late? Probably so. This group does mean business and it is having a very large increase in membership at an astounding rate. It looks like things are going to be getting very hot in Britain now.

I saw a politician from Sweden on TV the other day, and he was really angry at how his country has allowed so many muslims in. This despite the fact that whenever you get a large population of muslims anywhere violence soon follows. I'm not apologising for that remark because it is true.
Sweden had a "jihad" killing of one of their people, I believe he was a writer or a film maker, can't recall offhand, but he obviously had to be killed because he insulted Muhammad!
Islam is a violent religion, that's fact.

I'm not saying every muslim is a mad jihadie, but there is a very large sector of that faith which is causing the great majority of war and violence on the planet. There are huge portions in England that British will not dare enter! Their own country!

If our politicians don't wake up soon the same will happen here in America/North America. We must quit endangering our way of life with stupid political correctness. If you are an immigrant, from any country, but we know who the trouble makers are, and you commit violence or propagate violence against Americans, you should automatically be sent packing. If you've actually committed murder here, then execution should be the rule of thumb. Hey, they stone or behead people for minor offenses, so they surely will agree that when they get caught killing, or planning to kill innocent people in the name of their god, execution will be in order.

John

Hello Brother John,

You are in my prayers every day. However, I didn't know about your recent flare-up, so I will be praying for you more specifically. I do think we will all be having a GLORIOUS HOME-COMING soon, and I'm READY! LORD - Please come quickly!

I know many Christians who are having hard times in more than one way, but nothing changes the fact that we belong to CHRIST. GOD is holding us securely in HIS HANDS. No power in the universe can pluck us out of HIS MIGHTY HANDS. We need to continually remember that the HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD lives in our hearts and has ALREADY SEALED US as a POSSESSION OF CHRIST! Regardless of what comes in the rest of this short life, what can we say but THANK YOU LORD!

Love In Christ,
Tom

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 NASB
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.

1 Corinthians 15:50-58 NASB
Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, "DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory. "O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.

U.K. Court Recognizes Threat to Christian Converts From Islam

christianpost.com

A U.K. immigration court of appeals has for the first time recognized the life threatening circumstances of Muslim converts to Christianity by granting asylum to a Syrian evangelical Christian couple.

In an unprecedented victory, the European Center for Law and Justice (ECLJ) helped a young couple (whose identity is being withheld for security reasons) gain refugee status in the United Kingdom.

The court recognized that the couple would face real physical threats, including death, if they return to Syria, the country of origin of the husband. The appeal was granted on both asylum and human rights grounds.

“This is a significant and groundbreaking decision that clearly puts the focus on the fact that many converts to Christianity from Islam face real danger including the ultimate penalty of death,” said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of both the ECLJ and its U.S.-based affiliate the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), in a statement.

He added, “This important decision will not go unnoticed in the international arena and we’re delighted that it provides protection for Christian converts who are at great risk because of their faith and their desire to share it.”

The couple had converted to evangelical Christianity a few years ago – the husband in 2003 and the wife in 2005 – and has thereafter openly witness their Christian faith to Muslims via internet chat rooms.

After their conversion, which is considered apostasy under Sharia law and punishable by death, the couple began receiving death threats, including a video of a beheading.

Also, the husband’s family told him if he refused to return to Islam then they would “wash their shame,” or put him to death.

“This is truly a landmark day in the United Kingdom as a nation awakens to the ever-growing threat of radical Islam and the plight of Christians in the Middle East,” said Roger Kiska, Legal Counsel of the ECLJ who represented the couple at the U.K. appeals court. “I couldn’t be happier with the decision and the role that ECLJ played in the case.”

The ECLJ and ACLJ have worked closely together on the case. The ACLJ helped gather the signatures of six members of the U.S. Congress in a letter to the U.K. appeals court in August.

Members of Congress had urged the appeals court to protect the couple and acknowledge that they “would face severe religious persecution as a result of their conversion from Islam to Christianity.”

American lawmakers also recognized that the couple faced a “credible threat” and that their lives were in danger.

Sharia courts set to bring Muslim law to bear in Scottish cities

SECRET talks are under way to bring Islamic sharia law courts to Scotland, The Scotsman has learned.
Qamar Bhatti, director of the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal (MAT), which runs the courts, admitted discussions were taking place with lawyers and Muslim community groups in Scotland.

The group is believed to be aiming to set up courts in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

In September it emerged that five sharia courts, ruling on civil cases from divorce to domestic violence and financial disputes, had been operating for more than a year in London, Birmingham, Bradford, Manchester and at MAT headquarters in Nuneaton, Warwickshire.

The courts have legal powers, with their decisions enforceable through the county courts or high courts.

However, concerns have been raised about the establishment of a "dual legal system".

Women's domestic violence groups have also voiced fears, saying traditional sharia law arbitration is "dangerous and inappropriate" in cases of abuse.

Last night Bill Aitken, the Scottish Tory justice spokesman, said: "Informal private arrangements between individual members of the Muslim community are one thing, but in criminal matters Scottish courts must have total jurisdiction. "Matters of divorce and domestic violence require to be determined by conventional courts. We cannot have private arrangements when human rights are an issue."

The move to establish sharia courts has sharply divided opinion among Scotland's Muslims.

Some defend the right of the Muslim community to rule on its own affairs. But others say MAT has not consulted them and there is no demand for sharia courts.

Aamer Anwar, a Glasgow-based civil rights lawyer, said: "Those using sharia law are fully entitled to religious freedom as long as it doesn't conflict with criminal law. Because it happens to be Islamic , people jump to the conclusion it is barbaric.

"It is down to the community to decide for itself."

Commenting on criticisms over domestic violence, he said: "The woman has full entitlement to go before any court or to the police. With sharia law, when domestic violence is raised it always runs into a fanfare of hysteria."

Noman Tahir, of the Scottish-Islamic Foundation, said there was no groundswell of support for sharia courts in Scotland.

"Currently, Scottish Muslims resolve civil matters through the courts or voluntary third-party arbitration with Islamic scholars and imams," he said. "This has worked well for many years and we are not aware of any unhappiness with these arrangements or calls for change."

A spokeswoman for Shakti Women's Aid, which supports black minority ethnic women, said it was not in favour of the courts in Scotland.

"Cases of domestic abuse and divorce should be heard within the Scottish judicial system," she said. "We fear that many female victims of domestic abuse may be pressurised by their families and partners to accept the rulings of the sharia court as final and prevent them from seeking legal assistance from the Scottish court system, which might force them to continue living within abusive relationships."

John Scott, a human rights lawyer, said: "There is a place for sharia law, but we need to be careful those aspects unfavourable to women are not allowed to dominate.

"I have less concern about fears over a dual legal system than aspects which are inconsistent in practice with equality issues. But such courts cannot be set up unsupervised and they would need to be monitored."

In February the Archbishop of Canterbury caused a furore when he commented that it "seems unavoidable" that parts of Islamic sharia law would be adopted in the UK if social cohesion was to be maintained.

Panels of scholars with power to settle disputes

What is sharia?

Sharia law is Islam's legal system, derived from the Koran and from fatwas – the rulings of Islamic scholars. It covers every aspect of a Muslim's life and day-to-day conduct.

What do sharia courts deal with?

A range of issues including marriage, divorce, family and financial disputes.

Where and when do they meet?

They have been set up in mosques, Islamic centres and converted premises such as shops. Most meet weekly. Advice on some issues can also be obtained online.

How are decisions made?

Around three to six scholars and imams collectively make decisions.

Islamic jurists issue guidance and rulings. Guidance which is considered a formal legal ruling is called a fatwa.

How much does it cost a complainant?

Costs range from £150-£250

Is there a right of appeal?

Yes – you can appeal to another sharia court or apply for a special hearing.

Why do some women have concerns about these courts?

Some Muslim women say they are concerned about the interpretation of disputes because of the patriarchal nature of their culture.

Have sharia courts been established in other western countries?

Attempts to set up sharia courts in Canada in 2005 were abandoned after protests.

Islam's Legal Jihad

islamist-watch.org

Have you seen the little old lady who passes out Jehovah's Witness literature in your neighborhood? Some people stop and show interest. Others roll their eyes, and keep walking. But, would you ever expect anyone to threaten her? Call her a racist, and try to get her arrested?

Islamists would. And that is exactly what happened to two English Christian ministers who had the nerve to proselytize on a street corner in a predominantly Muslim immigrant area in the UK in 2007.

Such freedom of speech violations won't be an anomaly if the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), which has a permanent delegation to the United Nations, succeeds in passing a UN resolution against "Defamation of Religion" Noboby in a western country will be able to discuss the socio-political consequences of Muslim immigration, for fear of being labeled "Islamophobic" and slapped with a fine, or even jail time.

Islamists are increasingly using lawful Islamism, or non-violent and legal strategies to spread Sharia, (Islamic law) in the West, encroaching on non-Muslim life everyday. Other examples include:

- Sharia Finance;
- Islam in public schools;
- Violations of basic hygiene policy by Muslim medical staff;
- Workplace violations in the name of religious freedom;
- Censorship of literature.

Under the banner of "religious freedom," Islamists attack the very fabric of democracy in favor of Islam in the public sphere. The above examples are not examples of pluralism, but a violation of the separation of church and state doctrine meant to keep people of all faiths, or no faith, equal under the law. Liberals have forgotten that secularism is not a free-for-all, but has boundaries in order to remain meaningful.

Freedom of speech has already been attacked repeatedly. Islamists tried to censor criticism of Islamist terrorism when the Muhammad cartoons were published in Jyllens-Posten in 2005. Strangely enough, the "cartoon intifada" arose 5 months after their original printing, but only weeks before the UNHCR was due to consider the OIC's resolution on "Combating Defamation of Religion."

Such a coincidence caused the National Secular Society to state in its Memorandum (Section E, point 2) to the UK Parliament that,

the Danish cartoon crisis was manufactured… to exploit sensitivities around racial discrimination and to promote (or even exaggerate) the notion of "Islamophobia" in order to restrict possibilities for open discussion or criticism of Islam….measures calling for legislation banning "defamation of religion" - …. aims to remove religion, especially Islam, from public scrutiny and public debate.

If any religion is to be integrated into the daily social, economic and political life of a nation, it must open the door for evaluation of its goals and application. Otherwise, OIC nations will be able to govern unilaterally without respect to international law. Consider the following precedent.

Saudi Arabia ratified the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 2000, with reservations, stating, "In case of contradiction between any term of the Convention and the norms of Islamic law, the Kingdom is not under obligation to observe the contradictory terms of the Convention."

Thus, Saudi Arabia confirms that it will only offer lip service to human rights by signing documents like the CEDAW charter. It will not actually improve the status of women, because it is a theocracy, and every move a woman makes is governed by Islamic law. CEDAW can do nothing for them. Moreover, if the Defamation of Religion resolution is passed, all human rights activists will feel even greater censorship, since protests from abroad will be construed as racism.

Consider the "Qatif girl" case. A Saudi girl was gang-raped in 2005 and blamed for it, since she was in the presence of unrelated men when it happened. Her attorney lost his license for challenging the Saudi courts. Only after generating global media pressure did the situation change in her favor. The king pardoned her and the attorney got his license reinstated. In a post- Defamation of Religion world, the attorney would have been trapped, unable to help the girl and disbarred if he dared to challenge Saudi Islamic law.

Lastly, the OIC resolution must fail because it is patently hypocritical. While professing great sensitivity toward religion, OIC members ironically regularly fail to show any respect for other faiths:

- Saudi Arabia continues to use bigoted textbooks, and export them to American Islamic schools despite promises to change.

- Iran sponsored a Holocaust cartoon contest in retaliation for the Danish cartoons of Muhammad in 2005. Yet, Jews had nothing to do with the Jyllands-Posten newspaper.

- Pakistan's blasphemy laws attack Christians as a pretext for personal disputes.

The Defamation of Religion resolution is a free pass for Islamists to continue denigrating other religions and minorities through lawful Islamism. It ties the hands of any politician that questions the spread of Islamism in the West, and prevents critical evaluation of the treatment of women and minorities in Muslim societies.

Liberal and conservative citizens of the West must work together to prevent this resolution from passing in the UN.

Ultraconservative Islam on rise in Middle East
Some warn doctrine only few shades away from that of violent groups such as al-Qaida

The Muslim call to prayer fills the halls of a Cairo computer shopping center, followed immediately by the click of locking doors as the young, bearded tech salesmen close shop and line up in rows to pray.

Business grinding to a halt for daily prayers is not unusual in conservative Saudi Arabia, but until recently it was rare in the Egyptian capital, especially in affluent commercial districts like Mohandiseen, where the mall is located.

But nearly the entire three-story mall is made up of computer stores run by Salafis, an ultraconservative Islamic movement that has grown dramatically across the Middle East in recent years.

"We all pray together," said Yasser Mandi, a salesman at the Nour el-Hoda computer store. "When we know someone who is good and prays, we invite them to open a shop here in this mall." Even the name of Mandi's store is religious, meaning "Light of Guidance."

Critics worry that the rise of Salafists in Egypt, as well as in other Arab countries such as Jordan and Lebanon, will crowd out the more liberal and tolerant version of Islam long practiced there. They also warn that the doctrine is only a few shades away from that of violent groups like al-Qaida—that it effectively preaches "Yes to jihad, just not now."

In the broad spectrum of Islamic thought, Salafism is on the extreme conservative end. Saudi Arabia's puritanical Wahhabi interpretation is considered its forerunner, and Saudi preachers on satellite TV and the Internet have been key to its Salafism's spread.

Salafist groups are gaining in numbers and influence across the Middle East. In Jordan, a Salafist was chosen as head of the old-guard opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood. In Kuwait, Salafists were elected to parliament and are leading the resistance to any change they believe threatens traditional Islamic values.

The gains for Salafists are part of a trend of turning back to conservatism and religion after nationalism and democratic reform failed to fulfill promises to improve people's lives. Egypt has been at the forefront of change in both directions, toward liberalization in the 1950s and '60s and back to conservatism more recently.

The growth of Salafism is visible in dress. In many parts of Cairo women wear the "niqab," a veil which shows at most the eyes rather than the "hijab" scarf that merely covers the hair. The men grow their beards long and often shave off mustaches, a style said to imitate the Prophet Muhammad.

The word "salafi" in Arabic means "ancestor," harking back to a supposedly purer form of Islam said to have been practiced by Muhammad and his companions in the 7th century. Salafism preaches strict segregation of the sexes and resists any innovation in religion or adoption of Western ways seen as immoral.

"When you are filled with stress and uncertainty, black and white is very good, it's very easy to manage," said Selma Cook, an Australian convert to Islam who for more than a decade described herself as a Salafi.

"They want to make sure everything is authentic," said Cook, who has moved away from Salafist thought but still works for Hoda, a Cairo-based Salafi satellite channel.

In most of the region, Salafism has been a purely social movement calling for an ultraconservative lifestyle. Most Salafis shun politics—in fact, many argue that Islamic parties like the Muslim Brotherhood and the Palestinians' Hamas are too willing to compromise their religion for political gain.

Its preachers often glorify martyrdom and jihad—or holy war—but always with the caveat that Muslims should not launch jihad until their leaders call for it. The idea is that the decision to overturn the political order is up to God, not the average citizen.

But critics warn that Salafis could easily slide into violence. In North Africa, some already have—the Algerian Salafi Group for Call and Combat has allied itself with al-Qaida and is blamed for bombings and other attacks. Small pockets of Salafis in northern Lebanon and Gaza have also taken up weapons and formed jihadi-style groups.

"I am afraid that this Salafism may be transferred to be a jihadi Salafism, especially with the current hard socio-economic conditions in Egypt," says Khalil El-Anani, a visiting scholar at Washington's Brookings Institution.

The Salafi way contrasts with the Islam long practiced in Egypt. Here the population is religious but with a relatively liberal slant. Traditionally, Egyptian men and women mix rather freely and Islamic doctrine has been influenced by local, traditional practices and an easygoing attitude to moral foibles.

But Salafism has proved highly adaptable, appealing to Egypt's wealthy businessmen, the middle class and even the urban poor—cutting across class in an otherwise rigidly hierarchical society.

In Cairo's wealthy enclaves of Maadi and Nasr City, robed, upper-class Salafis drive BMWs to their engineering firms, while their wives stay inside large homes surrounded by servants and children.

Sara Soliman and her businessman husband, Ahmed el-Shafei, both received the best education Egypt had to offer, first at a German-run school, then at the elite American University in Cairo. But they have now chosen the Salafi path.

"We were losing our identity. Our identity is Islamic," 27-year-old Soliman said from behind an all-covering black niqab as she sat with her husband in a Maadi restaurant.

"In our (social) class, none of us are brought up to be strongly practicing," added el-Shafei, also 27, in American-accented English, a legacy of a U.S. boyhood. Now, he and his wife said, they live Islam as "a whole way of life," rather than just a set of obligations such as daily prayers and fasting during the holy month of Ramadan.

A dozen satellite TV channels, most Saudi-funded, are perhaps Salafism's most effective vehicle. They feature conservative preachers, call-in advice shows and discussion programs on proper Islamic behavior.

Cairo's many Salafist mosques are packed on Fridays. Outside Shaeriyah mosque, a bookstall featured dozens of cassettes by Mohammed Hasaan, a prolific conservative preacher who sermonizes on the necessity of jihad and the injustices inflicted on Muslims.

Alongside the cassettes, a book titled "The Sinful Behaviors of Women" displayed lipstick, playing cards, perfumes and cell phones on the cover. Another was titled "The Excesses of American Hubris."

Critics of Salafism say it has spread so quickly in part because the Egyptian and Saudi governments encouraged it as an apolitical, nonviolent alternative to hard-line jihadi groups.

These critics warn that the governments are playing with fire—that Salafism creates an environment that breeds extremism. Al-Qaida continues to try to draw Salafists into jihad, and its No. 2, the Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahri, praised Salafists in an Internet statement in April, urging them to take up arms.

"The Salafi line is not that jihad is not a good thing, it is just not a good thing right now," said Richard Gauvain, a lecturer in comparative religion at the American University in Cairo.

The Salafis' talk of eventual jihad focuses on fighting Americans in Afghanistan and Iraq, not on overthrowing pro-U.S. Arab governments denounced by al-Qaida. Most Salafi clerics preach loyalty to their countries' rulers and some sharply denounce al-Qaida.

Egypt, with Saudi help, sought to rehabilitate jailed Islamic militants, in part by providing them with Salafi books. Critics say President Hosni Mubarak's government sees the Salafists as a counterweight to the opposition Muslim Brotherhood.

The political quietism of the Salafis and their injunctions to always obey the ruler are too good an opportunity for established Arab rulers to pass up, said novelist Alaa Aswani, one of the most prominent critics of rising conservatism in Egypt.

"That was a kind of Christmas present for the dictators because now they can rule with both the army and the religion," he said.

The new wave of conservatism is not inevitable, Aswani maintains, noting that his books—including his most popular, "The Yacoubian Building"—have risque themes and condemnations of conservatives, and yet are best-sellers in Egypt.

"The battle is not over, because Egypt is too big to be fitting in this very, very little, very small vision of a religion," he said.

Afghan journalism student sentenced to 20 years for insulting Islam

An Afghan journalism student sentenced to death for allegedly ’insulting Islam’ had his conviction upheld but his sentence reduced to 20 years in prison by an Afghan central appeal court today.

The prosecution alleged that Sayed Perwez Kambashkh, 24, downloaded from the internet and distributed an article by an Iranian writer questioning some of the tenets of Islam relating women’s rights. He has always denied the charges.

He is alleged to have added three paragraphs to the offending article himself, one of which read: “This is the real face of Islam... the prophet Mohammad wrote verses of the Holy Quran just for his own benefit.”

At his appeal court trial today five professors of Balkh University, where the defendant was a student, claimed that Kambakhsh disrupted classes by asking “anti-Islam and insulting questions.”

Kambakhsh was originally sentenced to death by a local court in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif following his arrest in October 2007.

Following today’s hearing defence lawyer, Mohammad Afzal Shormach Nuristani, said his client would appeal to Afghanistan’s Supreme Court. Mr Nuristani has faced repeated death threats, as has his client.

The case has drawn widespread criticism from human rights organisations and Western governments. Kambakhsh claimed he made a confession after being tortured by officials from the Afghan security services. He claims his accusers were motivated by personal enimities to bring the charges against him.

The proceedings of the original trial were criticised by the European Union amongst others, after it emerged that the trial was held in closed session with only three judges, a court clerk and prosecutor present. Kambakhsh was given only three minutes to defend himself before being sentenced to death.

International observers and human rights groups also attacked today’s appeal proceedings, held in open court.

“We are much concerned about the legal process of the trial,” said Nader Nadery, commissioner of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission. “The reaction of the judge seems to be one sided. Kambakhsh’s defence lawyer wasn’t given enough chance to speak.”

One of the witnesses in yesterday’s trial, a student identified only as Hamid, told the court that he made his original statement after he was threatened with expulsion from Balkh University and faced intimidation from members of the Afghan intelligence service.

“There is a big reform process for criminal procedure in Afghanistan, but if you don’t enforce those procedure laws they are not worth anything,” said John Dempsey, an American lawyer who attended the trial on behalf of the Washington thinktank, The United States Institute of Peace. “In this case the procedures were routinely ignored to the detriment of Kambakhsh.”

The trial has aroused similarly strong passions among conservative Afghans.

Mohammad Jawed, a lawyer from Mazar-e-Sharif who also attended today’s trial said: “This judge is against Muslims, this is a very low sentence. He should be hanged. Five teachers from the University of Balkh bore witness that he was against Islam. They saw him downloading and distributing it.”

Afghanistan is a signatury to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which enshrines freedom of speech, expression and religion. However, it is widely held among Afghan lawmakers that the third article of the Afghan Constitution, which forbids anything contrary to the ’beliefs and provisions of Islam’, takes precedence over all other articles.

There have been a number of other recent blasphemy trials in the country.

Dan McNorton, a UN Spokesman, told the Times: “We are closely monitoring the Kambakhsh case. We remain concerned about whether fair trial standards were followed at all stages as well as possible implications of this case for freedom of expression issues.”

Muslims behead Christian convert from Islam in Somalia

Among at least 24 aid workers killed in Somalia this year was one who was beheaded last month specifically for converting from Islam to Christianity, among other charges, according to an eyewitness.

Muslim extremists from the al Shabab group fighting the transitional government on Sept. 23 sliced the head off of Mansuur Mohammed, 25, a World Food Program (WFP) worker, before horrified onlookers of Manyafulka village, 10 kilometers (six miles) from Baidoa.

The militants had intercepted Mohammed and a WFP driver, who managed to escape, earlier in the morning. Sources close to Mohammed’s family said he converted from Islam to Christianity in 2005.

The eyewitness, who requested anonymity for security reasons, said the militants that afternoon gathered the villagers of Manyafulka, telling them that they would prepare a feast for them. The people gathered anticipating the slaughter of a sheep, goat or camel according to local custom.

Five masked men emerged carrying guns, wielding Somali swords and dragging the handcuffed Mohammed. One pulled back Mohammed’s head, exposing his face as he scraped his sword against his short hair as if to sharpen it. Another recited the Quran as he proclaimed that Mohammed was a “murtid,” an Arabic term for one who converts from Islam to Christianity.

The Muslim militant announced that Mohammed was an infidel and a spy for occupying Ethiopian soldiers.

Mohammed remained calm with an expressionless face, never uttering a word, said the eyewitness. As the chanting of “Allah Akubar [God is greater]” rose to a crescendo, one of the militiamen twisted his head, allowing the other to slit his neck. When the head was finally severed from the torso, the killers cheered as they displayed it to the petrified crowd.

The militants allowed one of their accomplices to take a video of the slaughter using a mobile phone. The video was later circulated secretly and sold in Somalia and in neighboring countries in what many see as a strategy to instill fear among those contemplating conversion from Islam to Christianity.

Unconfirmed reports indicated that a similar incident took place in Lower Juba province of Somalia in July, when Christians found with Bibles were publicly executed. Their families fled to Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya, and such killings are forcing other Christians to flee to neighboring Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti.

Commemoration of Munich massacre "may offend Muslims"

Specialist advice is being given to Scotland Yard on how to reduce tensions between police and Muslims during the London Olympics because of growing concerns about the Games clashing with the holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims fast during the day, The Times has learnt.

Experts will also warn the Metropolitan Police to ensure that the planned commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the massacre of Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists at the Munich Games does not offend local and travelling Muslims.

The recommendations have been made by inter-faith advisers to Scotland Yard, where antiterrorism police are preparing to combat any possible Islamic terrorist threat to the Games.

Community tensions in the lead-up to the games have already been raised by a controversial Muslim movement, Tablighi Jamaat, which plans to build Britain’s largest mosque and Islamic complex near the 2012 Olympic stadium site.

Michael Mumisa, an Islamic scholar, and one of four experts hired by Scotland Yard who began training the police this week on inter-faith issues, said that the commemoration of the 11 Israeli athletes, killed by Palestinian militants from the Black September Organisation at the 1972 Munich Games, could become a national security threat if it was not managed properly and was perceived by Muslims to be “hijacking” the Games.

Edward Kessler, executive director of the Woolfe Institute, which deals with inter-faith dialogue, teaching and research, said that police needed to have a “minimum level of faith literacy” to help them deal with religious issues during the London Games. Dr Kessler said: “During Ramadan you’re going to have a lot of tired, hungry, less evenly tempered people because they haven’t eaten for 18 hours.”
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By all means......lets not offend a bunch of terrorizing murderers; they need to be treated with kid-gloves lest we make them sad or cry....after all they haven't eaten and they are tired and hungry and sensitive...

Quote from: grammyluv on November 02, 2008, 11:11:32 AM

If the TRUTH offends - SO BE IT! Being POLITICALLY CORRECT has a horrible price, and we have experience with that in our part of the world now. This is why I am determined to VOTE. If I had any sense, I would have gotten an absentee ballot, but I've always wanted to go in person. It's going to be very difficult this year because of the lines and waiting, but I'm determined to do it. In case anyone is wondering, regular voting can be pretty difficult for people with various disabilities and illness. I've wanted to do it as an example to younger and stronger people. I've always felt that we have a duty to vote - especially as Christians. It's a matter of STANDING UP for RIGHT and against WRONG. We should already know that IDEAL choices are not always available, but we can make it a matter of prayer and let GOD lead us.

Quote

Specialist advice is being given to Scotland Yard on how to reduce tensions between police and Muslims during the London Olympics because of growing concerns about the Games clashing with the holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims fast during the day, The Times has learnt.

Well I guess the muslims could miss the Olympics. Least since ramadan, is so important to islam. ;D

Quote

Experts will also warn the Metropolitan Police to ensure that the planned commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the massacre of Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists at the Munich Games does not offend local and travelling Muslims.

Israel had every right to free thier own people from the terrorists. Other wise, those athletes would have been killed, least this is what I think.

Quote

Community tensions in the lead-up to the games have already been raised by a controversial Muslim movement, Tablighi Jamaat, which plans to build Britain’s largest mosque and Islamic complex near the 2012 Olympic stadium site.

I can see a terrorist plot coming, but this is only my thoughts. Sorry, I don't trust muslims to keep their word on anything, they have lied to many times.

Quote

Dr Kessler said: “During Ramadan you’re going to have a lot of tired, hungry, less evenly tempered people because they haven’t eaten for 18 hours.”

And who's fault is that?? It isn't the British fault, it's the muslims fault for not caring for their own. No one told them they have to come to the Olympics. I think there will be trouble anyway, for the simple reason, islam wants a reason to riot. This may give them the reason to riot, as they are so good at causing trouble.

Quote from: Grammyluv

By all means......lets not offend a bunch of terrorizing murderers; they need to be treated with kid-gloves lest we make them sad or cry....after all they haven't eaten and they are tired and hungry and sensitive...

If these muslims wish to treated like children, then someone break out the paddle!! I am politically incorrect but, so are these muslims, who wish is to subjugate the world to their will. If they want to eat, and want hand outs, give them a good slab of ham!!

From Cross to Crescent in Paris - Islam spreads throughout Europe

crosswalk.com
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It's a sight that would shatter most Americans' romanticized image of Paris.

Just a 15-minute metro ride from the trendy shops and quaint cafés of the Champs-Elysees, a virtual sea of North and West African Muslims spills out the gates of a neighborhood mosque. Like waves breaking on a beach, their bodies bend in unison as hundreds of men prostrate themselves before Allah. Their prayers are guided by an imam's Arabic incantations.

The crowd's prayer rugs cover a city block's worth of sidewalk. Tourists point and take pictures. Some French pedestrians are visibly uncomfortable as they negotiate their way around the assembly.

But the scene isn't an aberration. Instead, it's evidence of a trend that's changing the way Southern Baptists view the international mission field: Islam is expanding across Europe.

From Cross to Crescent

Fueled by immigration and high birthrates, the number of Muslims on the continent has tripled in the past 30 years, making Islam Europe's fastest growing religion. While European Muslims build mosques and win converts, European Christians (excluding evangelicals) are witnessing what's been called a near free-fall decline in church attendance.

Tourists make up the overwhelming majority of those crowding Notre Dame in Paris, snapping photos during Mass as if the cathedral was more museum than place of worship. Even more alarming are statistics that only 5 percent of the French own a Bible and 80 percent have never even touched one. The shift is so dramatic that many demographers now believe more people in Europe practice Islam than Christianity.

No one knows exactly how many Muslims call Europe home since most European nations don't track ethnicity or religious affiliation in census data. Guesses put the number around 20 million.

France accounts for the highest concentration of Muslims in the European Union -- 5 to 6 million, or about 8 percent of the population. Many entered the country as immigrants in guest-worker programs following World War II, but untold numbers have flooded France and other European nations illegally.

Striving for Acceptance

While the French government has made strides to help Muslim immigrants integrate into French society, things haven't always gone smoothly.

In 2004, a law banning Muslim girls from wearing head scarves in French public schools ignited an uproar among immigrants. A year later, riots broke out in Muslim-majority areas of Paris after the deaths of two North African teenagers. The summer of 2007 saw peaceful but public protests by West African immigrants in a dispute with the French government over papers that would allow them to remain in France legally.

Such tension drives some immigrants away from their Muslim heritage while others gravitate toward it.

Osman is among the men worshipping outside the Paris mosque. Handsome and energetic, the 20-something works as a technician for the city's water department. Born in Paris, Osman's parents are Christians who came to France nearly 30 years ago from Togo, West Africa. But after years of struggling to assimilate into French society, Osman finally found acceptance among other West African immigrants by converting to Islam.

Yet as Christianity's presence in Europe wanes, there is hope.

Evangelical churches have seen slow but steady growth. In France, evangelicals numbered just 60,000 in 1940 but have climbed to nearly 500,000 today. Now about 3,000 evangelical churches worship in France -- more than a third planted in the past 20 years. Immigrants are helping to swell the ranks of these churches, sometimes composing as much as 50 percent of the congregation.

Tony Lynn, a Southern Baptist missionary serving in Paris, said that most evangelical churches inside the city average 35 to 65 people on Sunday. Lynn and his wife Jamie -- both from Michigan -- have spent the past five years in Paris working to plant churches among the city's 100-plus unreached people groups.

Lynn said one of the biggest obstacles to the Gospel is a hallowed tradition of secular humanism that the French call "laicite." Rooted in the French Revolution by philosophers like Rousseau and Voltaire, it has evolved into a cultural mindset that tolerates any religion so long as it remains hidden behind the veil of an individual's private life.

This pluralistic dynamic negates the importance of religion while simultaneously making spirituality an open topic for debate. That, Lynn said, creates a carte blanche opportunity to talk about Christ.

"Conversation and intelligent dialogues are a type of art in Paris," he said. "Once a rapport is established, people will discuss most anything."

But laicite's influence also has created a kind of identity crisis among younger generations of Muslim immigrants because they are raised in Muslim homes yet are exposed to a secular humanist environment, said Gracie Couloir,* a Southern Baptist missionary from Virginia who has served in France for the past 17 years.

Volunteers Key

Lynn believes new, innovative approaches are needed to combat these kinds of cross-cultural disconnects and effectively share Christ among both immigrants and French nationals. He said Southern Baptist volunteers are key to making that happen.

Helping meet the need are churches like Warren Baptist Church in Augusta, Ga., which sent a volunteer team to Paris to share Christ's love with Muslim women through a ministry known as the Esther Project.

"We did manicures, facials and makeup on women in a predominantly Muslim area," Claire Hill, a member of Warren's volunteer team, said. "The women seemed to thoroughly enjoy the girly things we did as well as our company. Although we didn't know them ... they were women just like us and there was much we had in common."

Couloir said, "All we have to do as Southern Baptists is give them the Gospel in a way that they can understand it, and we can change the Muslim world.

"I think we really do have fields that are ready for the harvest here. We just don't have the harvesters."

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If you have not seen the documentary "Obsession" don't say you weren't warned!

Sharia brings public execution to Somalia
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A young woman recently stoned to death in Somalia first pleaded for her life, a witness has told the BBC.

"Don't kill me, don't kill me," she said, according to the man who wanted to remain anonymous. A few minutes later, more than 50 men threw stones.

Human rights group Amnesty International says the victim was a 13-year-old girl who had been raped.

Initial reports had said she was a 23-year-old woman who had confessed to adultery before a Sharia court.

Numerous eye-witnesses say she was forced into a hole, buried up to her neck then pelted with stones until she died in front of more than 1,000 people last week.

Meanwhile, Islamists in the capital, Mogadishu have carried out a public flogging.

Mogadishu is nominally under the control of government forces and their Ethiopian allies, who face frequent attacks by Islamist and nationalist insurgents.

The BBC's Mohammed Olad Hassan in the city says the flogging was a show of strength.

He says two men accused of helping to kill a man and torture his mother, who they accused of theft, were each given 39 lashes in the north-eastern suburb of Suqa-hola.

The man who actually killed the alleged thief was released, after agreeing to pay his family 100 camels in compensation.

Before the flogging, hundreds of Islamist fighters performed a military parade, our reporter says.

Death threats

Cameras were banned from the stoning in Kismayo, but print and radio journalists who were allowed to attend estimated that the woman, Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow, was 23 years old.

However, Amnesty said it had learned she was 13, and that her father had said she was raped by three men.

When the family tried to report the rape, the girl was accused of adultery and detained, Amnesty said.

Convicting a girl of 13 for adultery would be illegal under Islamic law.

A human rights activist in the town told the BBC on condition of anonymity that he had received death threats from the Islamic militia, who accuse him of spreading false information about the incident.

He denies having anything to with Amnesty's report.

'Crying'

Court authorities have said the woman came to them admitting her guilt.

She was asked several times to review her confession but she stressed that she wanted Sharia law and the deserved punishment to apply, they said.

But a witness who spoke to the BBC's Today programme said she had been crying and had to be forced into a hole before the stoning, reported to have taken place in a football stadium.

"More than 1,000 people arrived there," he said.

"After two hours, the Islamic administration in Kismayo brought the lady to the place and when she came out she said: 'What do you want from me?'"

"They said: 'We will do what Allah has instructed us'. She said: 'I'm not going, I'm not going. Don't kill me, don't kill me.'

"A few minutes later more than 50 men tried to stone her."

'Checked by nurses'

The witness said people crowding round to see the execution said it was "awful".

"People were saying this was not good for Sharia law, this was not good for human rights, this was not good for anything."

But no-one tried to stop the Islamist officials, who were armed, the witness said. He said one boy was shot in the confusion.

According to Amnesty International, nurses were sent to check during the stoning whether the victim was still alive. They removed her from the ground and declared that she was, before she was replaced so the stoning could continue.

The port of Kismayo was seized in August by a coalition of forces loyal to rebel leader Hassan Turki, and al-Shabab, the country's main radical Islamist insurgent organisation.

Mr Turki is on the US list of "financers of terrorism".

It was the first reported execution by stoning in the southern port city since Islamist insurgents captured it.

The BBC had a reporter in the area, but he was shot dead in Kismayo in June.

Beware this Saudi deal to help bail out Britain. It comes with a devastating IOU

With all eyes fixed upon the political excitements in the U.S, few have paid much attention to a trip made by the Prime Minister several thousand miles in the opposite direction.

A week ago Gordon Brown, accompanied by his new best friend the Business Secretary Lord Mandelson, went cap in hand to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states to ask them to help bail out the stricken economies of the West by pumping billions into the International Monetary Fund.

It is more than a little strange that the British Prime Minister should have apparently taken it upon himself to speak on behalf of the IMF. But the real concern is that asking for help from Saudi Arabia is not like tapping your friendly neighbourhood bank manager for a bigger overdraft.

No, this loan comes with a devastating IOU — nothing less than a big slice of control over Britain and the West by a regime at the heart of the attempt to bring about the Islamisation of the free world.

Granted, this country is facing a truly grave financial crisis. But does this mean we should remortgage the future of the West to those whose most radical elements are actively engaged in seeing it destroyed?

I have long been concerned by Britain’s failure to acknowledge the true nature of the threat from global Islamism. This latest move is yet more alarming evidence of that process.

Saudi Arabia is at the root of the Islamic onslaught against the West. It is Saudi’s Wahhabi form of Islam which, along with its Shi’ite counterpart in Iran, aims to restore the dominance of Islam in the world and destroy rule by ‘unbelievers’.

It is Saudi money which has fuelled the enormous spread of Wahhabi mosques, preachers and educational institutions in this country, delivering the message of holy war and radicalising countless thousands of British Muslims.

And it is this Saudi ideology which was the inspiration for Al Qaeda.

True, Al Qaeda turned upon Saudi itself on account of its ties with the U.S. As a result, Saudi regards Al Qaeda as its mortal enemy, and as such co-operates with Britain and the U.S in combating it.

But sometimes, to rephrase the old adage, our enemy’s enemy is not actually our friend, but our enemy as well.

Saudi Wahhabism seeks to conquer the West through a pincer movement comprising violence on the one hand and cultural infiltration and takeover on the other.

At the very least, Saudi Arabia speaks with the most lethal of forked tongues, and we should actively be seeking to diminish its influence over our affairs.

But instead our Prime Minister is effectively offering it yet more opportunity to control us.

Mr Brown claimed he did not want such investment to be used to gain political influence. But Lord Mandelson blurted out the truth when he acknowledged that the Saudis and other Gulf states would expect a bigger role in global institutions in return.

Extremist Islamist ideas are also being spread through Islamic study centres attached to our universities. According to Professor Anthony Glees, eight universities — including Oxford and Cambridge — have accepted more than £233.5 million from Saudi and Muslim sources since 1995, spreading radicalism and helping create within Britain two separate identities and sets of allegiance.

Saudi blackmail has also forced Britain to suspend its own rule of law by ditching the bribery investigation into the arms deal between Saudi Arabia and BAE systems, in response to an explicit threat made by the Saudi authorities that, if the case continued, ‘British lives on British streets’ would be at risk.

Those aren’t my words, they are from Britain’s former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles.

Thus, the Islamists are already pulling British strings through the supremely manipulative combination of the threat of violence and the lure of unbridled wealth.

Apparently oblivious to all this, however, Mr Brown has pledged to make London the global centre of Islamic banking. Accordingly, Britain’s major banks are eagerly embracing sharia finance, on the basis that it is a source of vast wealth.

What they fail to realise is that sharia is also a project for Islamising society, and wherever it is embraced it will use its position to do precisely that. The assumption is that sharia banking — which has at its heart the prohibition of interest — accords with ancient Islamic religious principles. Not so.

Sharia banking was devised by mid-20th century Islamist ideologues specifically to further their strategy for global Islamic rule by creating separate administrative systems.

Muslims are required to donate a proportion of their income to charity, including the money that goes through the sharia banking system.

Yet in many instances, the clerics deciding where this ‘charity’ money should go are the spiritual godfathers of terror, such as Sheik Yusuf Qaradawi, who supports suicide bombing in Iraq and Israel, and Sheik Muhammed Taqi Usmani, who has admitted h ran a madrassa that supported the Taliban, yet who sits on the sharia supervisory board of the Dow Jones Islamic Index Fund.

It’s no surprise, then, that many charitable donations end up being channelled straight into terrorist organisations such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

But apart from being a global money-laundering exercise for terrorism, sharia banking is also a beachhead in the attempt by radical Islam to infiltrate British and Western society.

The key point is that sharia does not recognise the superior authority of the secular law of the land.

Sharia financial institutions may not be making this clear — they don’t want to frighten people away — but at some future time they may do so. This is how they will endeavour to spread sharia beyond their own territory.

There are already examples of sharia regulations over-riding commercial decisions. Citibank, for example, launched the Saudi American Bank (SAB) in Jeddah and Riyadh. In 1980, the Saudis abruptly seized the SAB, denied Citibank all future profits and ordered it to train Saudi staffers because the bank was judged insufficiently Muslim.

When trillions of pounds and dollars become locked into Islamic banking and Saudi and other Islamic institutions, who will be in a position to argue with the Islamists when they finally call in their IOUs?

But our politicians and financiers seem blind to this prospect — because they are mesmerised by the seductive prospect of so much wealth.

Moreover, the British establishment does not believe that what we are being subjected to is a religious war. That is why their response to the steady encroachment of Islamic radicalism in our society is so weak.

And that is why I fear the British Prime Minister is in danger of selling this country to those who are intent upon undermining our most treasured freedoms.

More than giving hostages to fortune, he is enabling fortune itself to hold Britain hostage.

Condemning Islamic terrorism banned on Marine training base
Father of USS Cole victim ordered to remove critical bumper stickers
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Posted: November 13, 2008
10:30 pm Eastern
By Bob Unruh
© 2008 WorldNetDaily

A lawsuit has been filed against two officers at North Carolina's Camp Lejeune Marine base for banning a civilian worker – a 25-year Marine whose son was a victim of the U.S.S. Cole attack – from publicly condemning Islamic terrorists.

One of the 'offensive' bumper stickers

The lawsuit was filed by the Thomas More Law Center on behalf of Jesse Nieto after base officials first ordered him to remove bumper stickers from his private vehicle then banned the vehicle from all federal installations nationwide.

In a statement e-mailed to WND, base spokesman Nat Fahy said the action against Nieto was pursued based on "third party complaints regarding the offensive nature of Mr. Nieto's stickers."

"After refusing his supervisor's informal request to remove the stickers, Mr. Nieto was issued two separate motor vehicle citations. After being afforded an opportunity to argue his position in front of the base magistrate, the magistrate told him to remove the stickers from his car. While he did remove several offensive stickers off during this period, he refused to remove all of the offending stickers. Because he remained in violation of the base order, Mr. Nieto's DoD registration decal was ultimately removed from his vehicle."

According to the lawsuit, Lt. Col. James Hessen, the base traffic court officer, ruled that the decals on Nieto's vehicle were "offensive," and when asked to explain, said, "'It's just what I think,' or words to that effect," the complaint states.

Lawyers for the Thomas More Law Center said Nieto served in the Marines for 25 years, including two combat tours in Vietnam. His youngest son, Marc, and 16 of Marc's shipmates were killed Oct. 12, 2000, by Islamic terrorists who bombed the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen.

Nieto has worked as a civilian employee at Camp Lejeune since 1994. It was about 2001 when he started displaying various decals and bumper stickers on his vehicle "expressing anti-terrorist sentiments," such as "Remember the Cole, 12 Oct 2000," "Islam = Terrorism," and "We Died, They Rejoiced,"

(http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x125/luvmarley_bucket/bumperone.jpg)

On July 31, he was ticketed on base by two military police officers for displaying "offensive material."

Another "offensive" bumper stickers

The ticket was issued even though other automobile-mounted slogans such as a Confederate flag with, "If This Offends You … You Need a History Lesson," a "Darwin fish" mocking Christianity, sexually explicit symbols such as silhouettes of nude women, one with "Your Child May be an Honor Student But Your Driving Sucks," and several versions of a cartoon character (similar to Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes) urinating on various symbols were allowed, the lawsuit said.

In August, after Nieto refused to remove the "offending" decals, the base magistrate issued a written order that required him to take his vehicle off the base "until all decals were removed" and banning his vehicle from all federal installations nationwide.

The order, the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina said, now prevents Nieto from visiting Arlington National Cemetery, where his son is buried.

The case alleges the military is violating Nieto's constitutional rights to freedom of speech and equal protection of the law.

"The banning of these decals is political correctness run amok in the military," said Richard Thompson, president of the law center. "Our troops are being killed by Islamic terrorists, 9/11 was caused by Islamic terrorists, these terrorists want to destroy America, the Islamic countries persecute Christians and now the military is victimizing a father whose son was killed by Islamic terrorists while serving our nation."

Thompson said the next move on the part of the Marines might be to "eliminate the Marine's Hymn since the phrase 'to the shores of Tripoli' celebrates the Marine victory over Islamic forces in the Barbary Coast War and the Battle of Derne."The lawsuit alleges viewpoint discrimination in violation of the First Amendment, equal protection violations of the Fifth Amendment and claims there are no objective standards for guiding bumper sticker banishments.

Also named as a defendant is Col. Richard Flatau Jr., the base commander.

The case also alleges that Nieto was threatened with dismissal from his job for having the decals and not only cannot drive to work or visit his son's grave in Arlington, he also cannot use his vehicle to visit the U.S.S. Cole Memorial in Norfolk, Va.

"During public addresses, the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. armed forces, President George W. Bush, has used the terms 'Islamic terrorists,' 'Islamic extremism,' and 'Islamic militants,' noting that the Islamic terrorists responsible for killing Americans on September 11, 2001, are the 'same murderers … responsible for bombing the U.S.S. Cole,'" the lawsuit said.

"The Commander-in-Chief has indicated that the United States will give no quarter to these terrorists, stating that 'we must pursue them wherever they are' and we will not let up until our enemies are defeated and our people are secure," the lawsuit said.

"Consequently, it is unreasonable to conclude that the words, terms, or political viewpoint expressed by the Commander-in-Chief or those expressed by Plaintiff are prohibited on federal installations in the United States, including military bases such as Camp Lejeune."

The lawyer handling the case is Robert Muise, who also has been defending Marine Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, the highest-ranking officer accused in the Rep. John Murtha-instigated prosecution of soldiers for a firefight with terrorists in Haditha, Iraq.

Saudi Arabia Using UN Interfaith Dialogue To Push Global Blasphemy Law

csmonitor.com
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World leaders gathering at the United Nations this week for a special session of the General Assembly to advance interfaith dialogue should have no illusions that their efforts will miraculously promote mutual respect between religious communities or end abuses of religious freedom.

Saudi King Abdullah, who initiated this week's special session, is quietly enlisting the leaders' support for a global law to punish blasphemy – a campaign championed by the 56-member Organization of Islamic Conference that puts the rights of religions ahead of individual liberties.

If the campaign succeeds, states that presume to speak in the name of religion will be able to crush religious freedom not only in their own country, but abroad.

The UN session is designed to endorse a meeting of religious leaders in Spain last summer that was the brainchild of King Abdullah and organized by the Muslim World League. That meeting resulted in a final statement counseling promotion of "respect for religions, their places of worship, and their symbols ... therefore preventing the derision of what people consider sacred."

The lofty-sounding principle is, in fact, a cleverly coded way of granting religious leaders the right to criminalize speech and activities that they deem to insult religion. Instead of promoting harmony, however, this effort will exacerbate divisions and intensify religious repression.

Such prohibitions have already been used in some countries to restrict discussion of individuals' freedom vis-à-vis the state, to prevent criticism of political figures or parties, to curb dissent from prevailing views and beliefs, and even to incite and to justify violence.

They undermine the standards codified in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the keystone of the United Nations, by granting greater rights to religions than to individuals, including those who choose to hold no faith – or who would seek to convert.

Another stark irony hangs over the UN special session this week. Saudi Arabia is one of the world's worst abusers of religious freedom, a fact recognized by the Bush administration when it named it a "country of particular concern" under the International Religious Freedom Act in 2004. The king couldn't hold such a conference at home, where conservative clerics no doubt would purge the guest list of Jews from Israel, Baha'is, and Ahmadis.

The Saudi government permits the public practice of only one interpretation of Islam. This forces the 2-to-3 million Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, and other expatriate workers there to leave their convictions at the border, since non-Muslim places of worship are prohibited, non-Muslim religious materials risk confiscation, and even private worship is affected by the strictures.

It also violates the rights of the large communities of Muslims who adhere to Islamic traditions other than the one deemed orthodox by Saudi clerics. In the past two years, dozens of Shiites have been detained for up to 30 days for holding small religious gatherings at home. One Ismaili, Hadi Al-Mutaif, is serving a life sentence after being condemned for apostasy in 1994 for a remark he made as a teenager that was deemed blasphemous. The alleged crime of apostasy, in fact, can be punished by death.

The government's policies are enforced by the Commission to Promote Virtue and Prevent Vice, a roving religious police force, armed with whips, that regularly oversteps its authority and is unchecked by the judiciary.

Women seeking to exercise basic freedoms of speech, movement, association, and equality before the law have experienced particularly severe abuse.

In a particularly egregious recent case, a woman was gang-raped as punishment by seven men who found her alone in a car with a man who was not her relative. She escaped the sentence of 200 lashes and six months in prison only because of a pardon by King Abdullah, yet he also said he believed the sentence was appropriate.

Holding a session on advancing interfaith dialogue abroad is a pale substitute for hosting it in the kingdom, where the message of respect for freedom of religion and belief is most needed.

Against the background of Saudi repression and the kingdom's role in exporting extremism, including through school textbooks preaching hatred of "unbelievers," the UN and every world leader attending the special session should be demanding an end to severe violations of religious freedom in Saudi Arabia.

Dialogue is no substitute for compliance with universal human rights standards.

The monarch would make a far greater contribution by exponentially increasing his efforts to promote religious freedom at home, where religious intolerance reigns. A welcome first step would be to release Hadi Al-Mutaif and all other religious prisoners who remain behind bars in Saudi Arabia.

Islam Experts Wary of Plan for U.S. Muslim College

www.christianpost.com

Two experts, one a Christian the other a devout Muslim, are both wary of a plan in progress to establish the first four-year accredited Islamic college in the United States.

Both fear that the proposed school, which could open as soon as next fall, would promote the idea of the Islamic state.

“Certainly, an attempt at the formation of an accredited college by Muslim academics can be a good thing if it is founded in the ideas of freedom and liberty and against Islamism (political Islam),” said Dr. M. Zuhidi Jasser, founder and president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD), to The Christian Post.

“But I’m not convinced that this college will be creating anti-Islamist Muslims who will reform sharia (Islamic law) and bring Muslim thought into an era where religious law can be separated from government as the Establishment Clause mandates,” he added.

Jasser, who is a devout practicing Muslim American and a former physician to the U.S. Congress, pointed out that one of the college’s main scholars, Imam Zaid Shakir, had said in a 2006 New York Times story that he hopes the United States will one day be a Muslim country ruled by Islamic law.

The “primary root cause” of Islamic radicalism, stressed Jasser, is the mission to establish an Islamic state.

“The leadership of Zaytuna [College] seems to be all about political Islam with no public critique of the global mission of the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist idealogies,” said Jasser, whose public critique of problems he sees in his faith has resulted in a backlash from the Muslim community.

He added, “I dream of the day where universities have established endowed chairs in the study of anti-Islamist studies from the viewpoint of freedom and with devout Muslims leading the charge and the academics.”

A group of American Muslims, including Zaid Shakir, is leading an effort to establish Zaytuna College, or what some call the “Muslim Georgetown.”

Shakir, who converted to Islam while serving in the U.S. Air Force, said the college will offer liberal arts education and Islamic studies, The Associated Press reported. The college plans to start with offering two majors: Arabic language and Islamic legal and theological studies.

In 1996, Shakir founded Zaytuna Institute based in Berkeley, Calif. The American Muslim imam, who now has tens of thousands of followers, was trained under Islamic scholars in North Africa and the Middle East for years after his conversion.

Shakir told the New York Times earlier that he wants the United States to be ruled by Islamic law “not by violent means, but by persuasion.”

Dr. William Wagner, author of How Islam Plans to Change the World, said he is not surprised about the plan to build a Muslim college in the United States. He said for years Islamists have planned to open universities in western countries.

“They see the value of education especially in educating their young leaders for eventual takeover of some western countries,” said Wagner, former professor of missions at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in San Francisco, to The Christian Post.

“Their strategy includes extensive student work in many U.S. universities and the start of a new university is only an extension of their main strategy,” he said.

Wagner served for over 30 years as a missionary in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa with the International Mission Board.

Currently, leaders of Zaytuna are in the midst of a fundraising campaign. They need $2 to $4 million to launch the school next year. A Zaytuna adviser told AP in a recent interview that the school will soon raise tens of millions of dollars to build a campus in the Bay area in the next few years.

America's prison system serves as Evangelism 101 for Islam

washingtontimes.com/

At least two of the Muslim ex-convicts arrested last week in the Bronx on charges of planning to bomb synagogues and shoot down airplanes came to Islam while in prison. Their arrest has raised the point that America's prison system often serves as Evangelism 101 for Islam.

A few years ago, I visited several Muslims in a state penitentiary in Culpeper, Va., and combed local mosques for former inmates to learn why so many prisoners choose Islam.

Dantes Augustin, a former Catholic, told me of a "humble, meek and very pious" Muslim prison chaplain he met in a federal penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pa. The chaplain took the time to explain the basics of the religion and Mr. Augustin converted within a year.

In Islam, he explained, "Cleanliness is highly recommended; you should not use profanity, you should be courteous. I always wanted to practice virtues and Islam gave me the tools."

Mr. Augustin added, "I met Muslims from all over the world in American prisons: Indonesians, Palestinians, Egyptians, even Chinese. Islam is the fastest growing religion in prison because people there see it for what it really is."

There are anywhere from 200,000 to 340,000 Muslim inmates in local, federal and state prisons, or 9 percent to 15 percent of the nation's incarcerated population even though they are 2 percent of the total U.S. populace. The federal Bureau of Prisons told me Muslims comprised 5.7 percent of their inmates, and a spokeswoman for the District's jail system told me 18 percent of its inmates were Muslim.

Prison is a fertile ground for inmates who already feel victimized by American society, according to Roy and Niger Innis of the Manhattan-based Congress of Racial Equality.

"Prison is the best recruitment ground imaginable," Roy Innis said. "Young black men change their so-called white Christian slave names to a Muslim name. Then they are told it wasnt their crime, it was racism that put them in jail."

Conversions to Islam, they said, are considered the ultimate rebellion against a white-controlled system. Black Christians, they added, are called traitors to their race and Christianity is labeled as a weak and powerless faith because of the killing of its founder. Islam, which honors Jesus as a prophet but denies that He rose from the dead, is portrayed as the religion of power.

"Criminals are made to feel they are political prisoners and revolutionaries in the criminal system," Niger Innis said. "Once people are released, they go back to Watts or Harlem and integrate themselves into the black community. So, if they are part of a terrorist cell in prison, they spread that into the black community."

Mahdi Bray, executive director of the Muslim American Society and the founder and former director of the National Islamic Prison Foundation, had a different read on why inmates convert.

"Islam is organized in prison; there's prayer five times a day; and things that are organized run better," he says. "There's needs for boundaries and needs for certainties. Machismo has an important aspect in prisons and Islam has a strong concentration on being manly. That really resonates with people who come from homes without fathers around."

Binyamin Netanyahu may yield to two-state solution after pressure from Obama

Binyamin Netanyahu is expected to endorse a “two-state solution” in a much-heralded speech this weekend, but he may stall on American demands to freeze Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Feeling the squeeze between the US Administration, which wants a moratorium on settlement growth and a commitment to a Palestinian state, and his national-religious coalition, which favours neither, the Israeli Prime Minister appears likely to try to steer a middle course.

Israeli newspapers were full of speculation about what Mr Netanyahu — who has so far refused openly to back a Palestinian state alongside Israel — might offer to deflect pressure from Washington. Ehud Barak, his Defence Minister, urged him this week to recognise a Palestinian state, but members of Mr Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party have cautioned him against the move.

Haaretz, the centre-left newspaper, said that the Prime Minister was likely to mention a two-state solution and pledge to adhere to the “road map” — a US-brokered document that calls for an end to Israeli settlement building and a clampdown on militant groups by the Palestinian Authority. The road map was adopted in 2003 but both sides have accused each other of failing to meet their obligations.

The Israeli media have predicted that when he speaks at Bar Ilan University in Tel Aviv on Sunday night, Mr Netanyahu will recommend an immediate resumption of negotiations with the Palestinian Authority, but will also set out some demands, including that the Palestinians should recognise the state of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people.

While accepting the road map Mr Netanyahu is not thought to be planning to mention an explicit freeze on settlements, as demanded by President Obama in his keynote speech to the Muslim world in Cairo last week.

In conceding to a two-state solution, he may even try to ask the US to relax its demands that all settlement expansions should be stopped — a move that is vehemently opposed by Mr Netanyahu’s national-religious constituency.

Such a compromise would in effect take the peace process back to where it was under the previous centre-left Government of Ehud Olmert, whose resignation amid repeated corruption allegations eventually brought the Israeli Right to power this year. Mr Olmert had pledged to take action against settlements but opponents said that the Jewish communities built on land conquered by Israel in the 1967 war still enjoyed an unprecedented growth spurt while he was in office.

The dilemma faced by Mr Netanyahu will raise uncomfortable memories of his first stint as Prime Minister in the late 1990s, when his fractious right-wing coalition toppled him after he yielded to American pressure to hand over tracts of the West Bank to the control of the Palestinian Authority as part of the now defunct Oslo peace accords.

Analysts noted that Mr Netanyahu appeared to have been taken by surprise by the strength of Mr Obama’s resolve to thwart the growth of settlements.

Members of the ruling coalition, wary of their leader caving in, have cautioned the Prime Minister against giving too much away before negotiations have even resumed. “The US pressure is mainly psychological. One should not forget that the President is not the only one in the United States. There’s the Congress and the Senate, which support Israel,” Miri Regev, a Likud MP, said.

Another powerful member of Mr Netanyahu’s party, Benny Begin, the son of Israel’s first right-wing Prime Minister, Menachem Begin, said that “if the only solution is two states for two peoples, then there is no solution”.

Mr Netanyahu has in the past opposed the creation of an independent Palestinian state, arguing that such an entity would soon fall under the control of the Iranian-backed Hamas, the Islamist movement that rules the Gaza Strip.

Britain warned of new wave of Islamic terrorism

independent.co.uk

The police and MI5 must brace themselves to counter a new generation of violent Islamic terrorists, an expert warned today.

Home-grown jihadists intent on murdering others in high-profile outrages "will not wither away", Professor Michael Clarke said.

The director of Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) warned a series of successful police operations have turned prisons into "universities of terror".

He said security services may look back at the last eight years as a "golden age of counter terrorism" marked by success and good luck.

Mr Clarke said: "The phenomenon will not wither away in the near future: it is likely to be generational.

"All the available evidence is that radicalisation of alienated Muslim youth in the UK can taken place very rapidly as long as it is based somewhere on personal contact."

Mr Clarke said the evolution of recruitment and terrorist techniques of British cells is "entirely possible" as they learn from their mistakes.

He added: "Most of the plotters have left behind a trail of forensics behind that has led some police professionals to predict that this will seem like a golden age of counter terrorism, when we were both successful and lucky."

A research paper, Terrorism in the United Kingdom: Confirming its modus operandi, highlighted the web of links between a series of plots uncovered since 2001.

Researchers found semi-trained British terrorists are having less contact with core al Qaida figures in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

They said Nato operations in the lawless border territory between the two countries are successfully suppressing terrorist groups.

Continued fighting has disrupted several long-established training camps and prevented leaders, including Osama bin Laden, communicating effectively.

But the paper said al Qaida remains an "inspiration" for British cells who recruit potential terrorists and groom them for violence.

Mr Clarke said criminal trials highlighted the shortcomings of terrorist cells who failed to make viable devices and left themselves open to bugging and infiltration.

He said: "The tradecraft of UK jihadi terrorists is extremely variable. For the movement as a whole this is not a problem.

"Amateurs are as dangerous as professionals if they are lucky, and if there are enough amateurs plotting, some of them will be lucky.

"Those who are not keep the security services stretched and public anxieties high."

Mr Clarke said police and MI5 chiefs should be "proud" of their successes since the July 2005 bombings.

But he added: "It is becoming clear that the UK's security services have done a good job so far in containing a new, home grown threat to public safety and to the UK's chosen way of life.

"Since 2001 we have seen only the first round of the struggle. Prisons around the world are universities of terror and there is no reason to believe that the UK's will not be the same.

"The 90-odd convictions, of which the security services can be proud, will have their own longer-term consequences for which the government must be prepared."

Somalia president declares state of emergency
Posted 2d 12h ago

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Somalia's president declared a state of emergency Monday as his fragile, U.N.-backed government struggles to quash a deadly Islamic insurgency.

President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed said the declaration means "our forces are on full alert." It was not clear what difference the declaration will make on the ground.

Somalia's government is under attack by militants who want to topple the administration and install a strict Islamic state. A surge in violence in recent weeks, which diplomats said is a major push by the insurgents to force the government out of its Mogadishu strongholds, has killed nearly 200 civilians.

Last week, the national security minister and Mogadishu's police chief were among those killed.

Somalia's defense minister was supposed to be in Paris to meet with French government ministers Monday, but returned to Somalia instead because of "the degradation of the situation on the ground," according to the French Foreign Ministry.

Somali lawmakers pleaded this weekend for immediate international military intervention from countries including Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti to help quash the insurgency. But there was no indication reinforcements would be forthcoming.

African Union Commission Chairman Jean Ping said in a statement that the Somali government "has the right to seek support from AU member states and the larger international community."

But Kenyan government spokesman Alfred Mutua said the country would not send troops, choosing instead to help Somalia "in other ways." He did not elaborate.

There was no immediate word on whether other countries would answer the call. There already is an AU force in Mogadishu, but its mandate is restricted to guarding government officials and installations.

Nearly 126,000 people have fled their homes since May 7, according to the U.N. refugee agency. The United Nations says an estimated 3.2 million Somalis — almost half the country's population — need food and other humanitarian aid.

Two years ago, Ethiopia deployed troops to support Somalia's fragile, Western-backed government, but they were widely unpopular and finally withdrawn in January after the election of a new president. Last month, Ethiopia sent in troops to the border regions of Somalia.

Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti are members of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, a regional group that has led past peace talks on Somalia and last month imposed a sea and air blockade to stop supplies reaching the Islamic insurgents in Somalia. It is not clear whether the blockade is effective.

Somalia has not had an effective government since 1991 when the overthrow of a dictatorship plunged the country into chaos.

Somalia president declares state of emergency (http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009-06-22-somalia-emergency_N.htm?csp=34)

Islamic Society reaches out to other faiths
D.C. convention to feature popular pastor; area group hopes Obama will attend
By Robert King
Posted: June 21, 2009

The Plainfield-based Islamic Society of North America is holding out hope President Barack Obama might make an appearance at its convention this year in Washington, D.C., over the Fourth of July weekend.

But even if Obama doesn't show, the nation's largest Muslim organization already landed a high-profile guest: Saddleback Church pastor Rick Warren.

He will join a panel discussion that is the main session of a four-day convention expected to attract 40,000 Muslims from across the country. Warren will be joined on the panel by Islamic Society President Ingrid Mattson and noted Muslim scholar Hamza Yusuf, among others.

"We are living in a pluralist country. It is critical for us to have positive relationships with people of other faiths," said Sayyid Syeed, a longtime leader with the Islamic Society who focuses on building the organization's interfaith ties. "(Warren) realizes that it is equally critical for him to work with people of other faiths."

Syeed invited Warren during a gathering they attended last year at the White House. Since then, the Islamic Society has introduced Warren to Muslim groups in California, where his 20,000-member church is based.

Warren was unavailable for an interview, said Kristin Cole of A. Larry Ross Communications, which handles his media contacts.

While an appearance by the nation's most prominent evangelical pastor at a gathering of its oldest Muslim organization might seem an unlikely pairing, scholars and observers from various perspectives say it makes sense.

"ISNA is very interested in extending their connections with Protestant groups," said Rafia Zakaria, an Indiana lawyer and associate editor at altmuslim.com, a Web site that looks at Muslim issues. "Having a figure as high profile as him gives them legitimacy to extend those kinds of alliances with church groups that have a significant amount of power in the United States."

In the past two years, the Islamic Society has forged friendships with the Union of Reform Judaism and the American Baptist Churches, USA.

For Warren, author of the best-selling "The Purpose Driven Life" who gave the invocation at Obama's inauguration, the visit to a Muslim convention also fits, said Tulane University assistant sociology professor Shayne Lee, co-author of "Holy Mavericks: Evangelical Innovators and the Spiritual Marketplace."

Warren has conducted workshops with Jewish rabbis, Lee said, offering tips on how to build their congregations, and established ties with the gay rights community in California. He also was unafraid to endure criticism from conservatives about his role in the Obama inauguration.
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"He is not a typical isolationist evangelical," Lee said. "He is more of a post-modern leader who is willing to look at new terrain to see how he can extend his leadership and his influence."

That such a high-profile evangelist is willing to take risks, Lee said, marks an important moment in American religion.

"ISNA has faced a lot of challenges in recent years," Zakaria said. "It is crucial to them to have these alliances with other faith-based groups."

Set in Washington over the Independence Day holiday, the convention will try to address freedom from a uniquely Muslim-American perspective with an all-American theme that is also the title of the session Warren will take part in: "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness."

Islamic Society reaches out to other faiths (http://www.indystar.com/article/20090621/LIVING09/906210402/Islamic+Society+hopes+to+reach+out+to+other+faiths+at+annual+convention)

Germany Has 1 Million More Muslims than Previously Thought

spiegel.de

Poor, uneducated and living in a "parallel society" of headscarf-wearing women and criminal youth: The common stereotype of Muslims in Germany is not an all-too-positive one. But a new study reveals a surprisingly different picture of the reality -- including the fact that many more Muslims live in Germany than was previously believed.

The study, which was commissioned by the Interior Ministry together with Germany's Islam Conference, is the first country-wide study that gives a representative overview of Muslim life in Germany. Researchers from the Nuremberg-based Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) interviewed around 6,000 Muslims from 49 different countries about the role of religion in their everyday life and various aspects of integration. A summary of the study was published Tuesday and the full study will be presented Thursday at the last meeting of the Islam Conference, which Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble initiated in 2006 in a bid to launch a dialogue between the German state and the Muslim community.

Many More Muslims in Germany

One of the study's most surprising findings is that Germany is home to many more Muslims than was previously believed. The researchers concluded that between 3.8 million and 4.3 million Muslims live in the country, making up around 5 percent of the total population of 82 million. The figure had previously been estimated at between 3.1 million and 3.4 million. The reason for the huge increase is that the study's authors took more countries of origin into account than had previously been the case, and also looked at the children of Muslims with German citizenship.

Regarding the issue of citizenship, the study revealed that around 45 percent of Muslims living in Germany have a German passport. Another sign of successful integration, in the view of the authors, is the fact that more than half of Germany's Muslims are members of what the authors term a "German" club or association -- a designation that includes sports clubs, unions and associations for senior citizens, but not clubs based around members' country of origin.

Almost two-thirds of Germany's Muslims are of Turkish origin, the researchers found, while smaller groups come from Balkan countries such as Bosnia or Albania, the Middle East and North Africa. Almost all live in the states of the former West Germany and Berlin, with the most living in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state.

The study also reveals surprising results when it comes to some key issues in the often-heated integration debate in Germany. Contrary to popular stereotypes, 70 percent of female Muslims do not wear a headscarf, with second generation immigrants less likely to wear a headscarf than their mothers. And Muslim girls, who are commonly imagined to be closeted away by their families, are much more involved in school activities than generally believed: Some 90 percent of female Muslim students take part in school trips while 93 percent take part in swimming lessons, another hot-button issue in Germany.

Educated Second Generation

The study also found that the majority of Muslims consider themselves religious. Around a third described themselves as "very religious" and a half said they were "somewhat religious." However only about a third of respondents regularly attended a mosque, although 76 percent said they wanted Islamic religious education classes in schools.

When the researchers compared the first and second generations of Muslim immigrants, they found that Muslims born in Germany showed higher levels of education compared to their parents, particularly when it came to girls. In the case of female Muslims, this was partly due to the very low level of education of many female first generation immigrants.

However it wasn't all good news. The study's authors found that the Muslim community is home to a disproportionately high level of school drop-outs, unemployed and poor people -- particularly among immigrants of Turkish descent.

Arab group says restoring the Islamic Caliphate is the answer not Hamas or Fatah

israelnationalnews.com/

The Hizb ut Tahrir Islamic fundamentalist movement has become active among Palestinian Authority Arabs in Judea and Samaria, pushing a message that only restoring the Islamic caliphate and the rule of Islamic law, not Fatah or Hamas, holds the answer for the region.

According to National Public Radio (NPR), the group is arranging rallies and drumming up support while dodging security forces loyal to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who see the group as a threat.

"The coming of the caliphate threatens the Palestinian Authority regime and threatens the American interests in the area,” said Hizb ut Tahrir supporter Osama al-Ansari from Hebron, “They are harassing us because a caliphate will not provide for the existence of the Palestinian Authority."

Besides not recognizing the authority of the PA or Hamas, the group also does not accept democracy or the concept of the modern nation-state. While the group officially rejects violence, various counterterrorism agencies have argued that radical ideology such as that of Hizb ut Tahrir can be linked to terrorist attacks.

While more tolerated in Western countries, the group has been banned by several Mideast regimes.

The PA originally ignored the growth of Hizb ut Tahrir, hoping it would help divide the religious PA Arabs who were flocking to Hamas, senior editor at Al-Ayyam newspaper in Ramallah Khalil Shaheen told NPR. Now, he said, they are suffering from the consequences.

"It seems that everything is going out of control for the Palestinian Authority," Shaheen said. "The Tahrir party is getting more popular in the West Bank and is trying to fill the vacuum that took place after the weakness of Fatah itself."

Seven Christians beheaded in Somalia by Islamic hardliners

aawsat.com/

Somalia's hardline Islamist rebels beheaded seven people on Friday for being "Christians" and "spies" in the latest imposition of strict sharia, Islamic law, by the Al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab group, witnesses said.

Al Shabaab, which controls large tracts of south Somalia and parts of the capital Mogadishu, has carried out such executions before, but the beheadings on Friday were believed to be the largest number of killings at one time, Somalis say.

"Al Shabaab told us that they were beheaded for reasons they described as being Christian followers and spies," said one relative, who gave his name only as Aden, after the killings in the south-central town of Baidoa.

The group, which western security services say is a proxy for Al Qaeda in Somalia, beheaded three people in the same region last month.

Al Shabaab, which means "Youth" in Arabic, has vowed to rule the majority Muslim nation by a hardline interpretation of Islamic law. The group has dug up Sufi graves, forced women to wear veils, closed down movie halls and cut off limbs for theft. "My husband was missing up to 20 days. Al Shabaab confirmed to us that he and six others were beheaded. We are waiting for his dead body," said Maryan, the wife of one of the victims.

Somalia's government has been unable to beat back al Shabaab militants who are making guerrilla-style attacks on Somali troops and an African Union (AU) force there.

The government says the insurgency is being led by foreign fighters in al Shabaab's ranks. The United Nations and the AU say hundreds of jihadists have flocked to Somalia to battle the government led by ex-rebel leader Sheikh Sharif Ahmed.

"The current war is a foreign war led and supported by outside forces. The money and ideologies are foreign-based.

Somalis all support the government," Somali Foreign Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Omaar told reporters in the Ethiopian capital.

"This is not a war between Somali clans. It is a war against foreign forces who come into the country to overthrow the government that has been elected constitutionally by the Somali people and supported by the international community."

On Thursday, the U.N. Security Council warned Eritrea that it would consider action against anyone undermining peace prospects in Somalia, which has been devastated by civil conflict since 1991.

Asmara has repeatedly denied claims that the Red Sea state was providing support to insurgents battling the western-backed government, also supported by Eritrea's arch-enemy Ethiopia.

The AU, which has 4,300 peacekeepers in the Somali capital, has called for sanctions against Asmara.

Ethiopian tanks and troops crushed an Islamist movement in Somalia in late 2006, but since then a revived insurgency has killed 18,000 civilians and displaced hundreds of thousands.

U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay accused al Shabaab on Friday of extrajudicial killings, setting off bombs in residential areas and using civilians as human shields in their fight against Ahmed's administration.

The insurgents say they are nationalists seeking to rid Somalia of a western-imposed government which has no popular support.

Islamic police flog Christian women for wearing pants

wnd.com/

An international Christian ministry is condemning Sudanese Islamic officials for arresting, fining and flogging several Christian women for wearing pants.

"Flogging women for wearing pants is both outrageous and against the dignity of the women," said Jonathan Racho, regional manager for Africa and the Middle East for International Christian Concern, in a statement today.

The Sudan Tribune reported that among the victims was Lubna Hussein, a journalist and public information officer at the U.N. Mission in Sudan.

Hussein said she was one of nine taken by the Islamic nation's Public Order Police on Sunday from a ballroom near the capital, Khartoum.

The women were in violation of the law, they were told, for wearing trousers.

The report said the nation's Criminal Penal Code allows up to 40 lashes or a fine, or both, for anyone wearing "indecent" clothing.

Some of the women arrested were non-Muslims under 18, who were given 10 lashes and a fine.

The report said several women demanded their lawyers, and their cases were delayed.

According to the ICC, a total of 10 were arrested; including three Christian girls under 18 years old.

The ICC said by subjecting the girls to inhumane and degrading treatment, the Sudanese officials violated international human right standards as well as the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed in 2005 by the Islamic government of Sudan and the mainly Christian and animist southern Sudanese.

The ICC said the agreement documented that Islamic laws are "not applicable to non-Muslims."

David Choat, the congregational affairs officer of the mission of the government of South Sudan to the U.S., told ICC, "The flogging is an imposition of Islamic values on Christians and it's also a violation of religious freedom. This is telling us (the Sudanese people) that there are certain religions that are more important than the rest."

According to the Sudan Tribune, the French government also is protesting the actions.

Hundreds of Muslim extremists rally for caliphate in London

blogs.telegraph.co.uk

Conference season starts a bit early for Islamists hoping to make Britain part of the Islamic caliphate (Khilafah), and Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain’s national Conference, “The Struggle for ISLAM and the call for Khilafah” in London today will certainly be one of the less tedious get-togethers this year.

You may have heard of the group. They were built up by sponging radical cleric Omar Bakri Muhammad, who once called the 9/11 hijackers “magnificent” and spouted the cause of jihad against the West while scrounging £250,000 off the British taxpayer. Hizb have come close to being banned for their support of Islamic extremism, but our weak, enfeebled government, desperate not to upset anyone, worried it might drive them underground. Well, they sound like they’re really inside the big tent right now:

The conference was opened by Dr Abdul Wahid, Chairman of Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain’s Executive Committee, who addressed the increasing anti-Islamic propaganda in the West and globally. Using the issue of terrorism and extremism Western governments have embarked on a campaign to prevent the Muslim world establishing an Islamic government, the Caliphate that will free the Muslim world from the terror and hegemony that has been brought upon it by the West. On a daily basis, Muslims are subjected to insults and attacks in the media on their Aqeeda, the hijab, Shariah and Khilafah. He argued that, in this critical time, Muslims needed to hold onto Islamic values living in the West, and resist the attempts to reform Islam, and to support the call for the Islamic Khilafah in the Muslim world – to end decades of oppression, colonisation and dependency.

The conference highlighted how the method to re-establish the Khilafah is based on the Life (Seerah) of the Prophet Muhammad (saw), which clearly laid out a non-violent intellectual and political struggle to bring about change. Hizb ut-Tahrir has continued with this method for over 50 years and calls Muslims all over the world to this path for change.

The conference concluded by emphasizing the key role the Muslim community in the West plays in terms of supporting the call for Khilafah in the Muslim world and carrying the Message of Islam to the wider non-muslim society, breaking the stereotypes and presenting Islam with sound argument and good example.

Right, so you want to support the establishment of a worldwide Islamic dictatorship, and at the same time “break the stereotypes” of Muslims.

There’s an argument that a group such as this, with its thinly veiled respectability, is more dangerous than an obvious barking mad organisation like al-Qaeda. Former member Ed Husain said: “Britain remains vital to the Hizb, for it gives the group access to the global media and provides a fertile recruiting ground at mosques and universities”.

There was a time when Hizb could have been laughed off, but the larger Britain’s Muslim population gets the more harshly we have to deal with people who talk about the caliphate, for the sake of British Muslims who prefer Christian Democracy as much as anyone.

A representative of the group once told the BBC: “I think Muslims in this country need to take a long, hard look at themselves and decide what is their identity. Are they British or are they Muslim? I am a Muslim. Where I live is irrelevant.”

Christian coach canned after Muslim student converts to Christianity

wnd.com

A high school hall-of-fame and Christian wrestling coach in Dearborn, Mich., claims he was muscled out of his long-tenured coaching job by the school's principal, a devout Muslim, because the administrator was furious over a student wrestler who had converted to Christianity from Islam.

Gerald Marsazalek has coached wrestling for 35 years at Dearborn Public Schools, amassing more than 450 wins and, in addition to being added to the Michigan High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame, was named "Sportsman of the Year" by the All-American Athletic Association.

Despite Marsazalek's success, however, Principal Imad Fadlallah of Dearborn's Fordson High School ordered the administration not to renew the coach's contract, allegedly in retaliation over the student's conversion and to continue a campaign of flushing Christianity out of the school.

"We are getting a glimpse of what happens when Muslims who refuse to accept American values and principles gain political power in an American community," said Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, which is representing Marsazalek. "Failure to renew coach Marszalek's contract had nothing to do with wrestling and everything to do with religion."

Marsazalek is suing both the principal and the school in the U.S. District Court of Eastern Michigan, seeking back pay, injunctive and declaratory relief, damages, and to be reinstated as coach of the wrestling team.

According to lawsuit documents, Principal Fadlallah's retribution against the Christian coaches serving Fordson High began in 2005, after Marsazalek's volunteer assistant coach, Trey Hancock, led a non-school sanctioned and independent summer wrestling camp. Hancock, who is also pastor of the Dearborn Assembly of God and parent to one of the wrestlers, reportedly shared his beliefs at the camp and baptized a Muslim Fordson student into the Christian faith.

That fall, Fadlallah fired Hancock and ordered the volunteer coach not to have further contact with the student wrestlers.

"Subsequently, in full view of students and faculty," the lawsuit states, "Fadlallah approached the young Fordson student who had chosen to be baptized a Christian at Hancock's summer wrestling camp, punched the student and advised the student he had 'disgraced his family' by converting to Christianity from Islam."

According to a statement from the Thomas More Law Center, Dearborn is one of the most densely populated Muslim communities in the United States. An estimated 30,000 of its 98,000 residents are Muslims, and roughly 80 percent of the student population of Fordson High School is Arabic, many of whom are also Muslims.

Furthermore, the lawsuit alleges, Fadlallah then banned Hancock from entering the school, ordered Marszalek to "keep Hancock out of the building" and even banned the Hancock family from helping out at school concession stands, even though Hancock's son was an All-State wrestler on Fordson's team.

On or about Thanksgiving Day 2007, Hancock came to the school to register his son for an activity, an offense against Fadlallah's orders, the lawsuit claims, which led to a vocal confrontation between the principal and Marszalek, who was allegedly accused of failing to enforce Hancock's banishment.

When the 2007-2008 wrestling season concluded, the lawsuit states, Fadlallah instructed the school's athletic director to be rid of Marszalek too, by refusing to even process the Christian's yearly renewal application for the coaching position, saying, "Gone. I want him gone. No appeal."

Another assistant coach, who had made no application for the head coaching position, was chosen by the school to take Marszalek's place.

According to the lawsuit, however, Marszalek's treatment by Fadlallah isn't isolated, but part of an intentional eradication of Christianity from the school.

"Fadlallah, since assuming duties as Fordsons' principal in 2005, has systematically weeded out Christian teachers, coaches and employees and has terminated, demoted or reassigned them because of their Christian beliefs," the lawsuit continues. "Fadlallah has publicly stated 'he sees Dearborn Fordson High School as a Muslim school, both in students and faculty, and is working to that end.'"

Insane that we can have a Muslim as a school principle!!! But then it's insane that we have one as President too!

Hamas dress code aims to make Gaza more Islamic
google.com

Police order a lingerie shop to hide its scantily clad mannequins. A judge warns female lawyers to wear head scarves in court. Beach patrols break up groups of singles and make men wear shirts.

It's all part of a new Hamas campaign to get Gazans to adhere to a strict Muslim lifestyle — and the first clear attempt by the Islamic militants to go beyond benign persuasion in doing so.

It suggests that having consolidated its hold on Gaza in the two years since it seized control by force, Hamas feels emboldened enough to extend its ideology into people's private lives.

Hamas insists compliance with its "virtue campaign" is still voluntary and simply responds to a Gazan preference for conservative ways. But the rules are vague and there are reports of alleged offenders being beaten and teachers being told to pressure girls to wear head scarves.

The campaign highlights the differing trajectories of the West Bank and Gaza — the two parts of the Palestinian state that the Obama administration hopes to midwife. Washington's efforts move into higher gear this week with visits by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and three top U.S. diplomats.

While Hamas pushes its dress code and Gaza remains impoverished under international embargo, West Bankers are enjoying an economic revival fed by foreign aid. Although most are conservative, there's more tolerance for a fairly large secular minority.

The West Bank's dominant party, Fatah, is making an attempt at a comeback, after suffering a stinging election defeat at the hands of Hamas in 2006.

Next week, Fatah will hold its first convention in 20 years, hoping to show that it has reformed itself, has shed its corruption-tainted image and makes an attractive alternative to Hamas.

Hamas, known for its keen sense of public opinion, pledged after its June 2007 takeover to refrain from imposing Islamic ways.

That is changing, says Khalil Abu Shammala, a human rights activist in Gaza.

"There are attempts to Islamize this society," he said. Hamas' denials "contradict what we see on the street."

The "virtue campaign" is being spread by the Religious Affairs Ministry in a list of do's and don'ts that feature on posters and in mosque sermons. It also calls for gender separation at wedding parties and tells teens to shun pop music with suggestive lyrics. "We have to encourage people to be virtuous and keep them away from sin," said Abdullah Abu Jarbou, the deputy religious affairs minister.

Another Gaza human rights activist, Hamdi Shakour, blamed the border blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt after Hamas ousted the territory's Fatah rulers. He said isolation has bred "extremism and dark ideas."

Gaza maintains small islands of secularism. Foreigners are rarely harassed, and Gaza women in stylish clothes and hairdos, many of them Muslims, frequent a half-dozen upmarket cafes and restaurants.

But Abdel Raouf Halabi, Gaza's chief supreme court judge, this month ordered female lawyers to wear head scarves and dark robes or be barred from courtrooms when their work resumes Sept. 1. "We will not allow people to ruin morals," he explained.

Only about 10 of some 150 female lawyers are affected, reflecting how deeply Islamic values already prevail. One of the unscarved is Subhiya Juma, who said the ruling "is taking away our personal freedom."

Juma said she would not wear a head scarf and hoped a public outcry would pressure Hamas officials to withdraw the order.

In government schools, head scarves for female students are supposed to be optional. But one high school has made robes and head scarves a condition for enrollment. Teachers are now being asked to pressure the girls to put them on, said Education Ministry spokesman Khaled Radi.

Police are enforcing the restrictions on mannequins and salesmen say they ripped off the tags on packages of panties and bras which showed women in underwear.

Other shopkeepers said they were told to remove the mannequins' heads so they don't violate the Islamic ban on copying the human form.

Enforcement is spotty and seems restricted to working-class markets. Most traders said they moved the mannequins back after police left.

Lingerie seller Mohammed Helu, 23, hid his under-clad mannequins but was allowed to display an outfit of a plunging top and miniskirt with the mannequin's head covered by a plastic bag.

On a Gaza beach, Mohammed Amta, 18, said a plainclothes security man told him to put on a shirt, saying his appearance was un-Islamic, and to remove his two silver rings and woven bracelet because they were a sign of Western culture.

A lifeguard said he was told to wear an undershirt and knee-length shorts. "They said that's how Muslims should dress," he said. He declined to be named, fearing he would lose his Hamas-provided job.

Last month, three young men walking on the beach with a female friend said they were beaten by Hamas police, detained and ordered to sign statements promising not to engage in "immoral activities."

The Hamas government condemned the beatings. But it remained silent when a Hamas leader, Younis Astal, accused U.N.-run summer camps for tens of thousands of children of spreading drug use and encouraging "obscene behavior" for teaching swimming and folklore dance.

Abu Jarbou, the deputy minister, insisted that Hamas would move gradually and not impose its views by force. Still, Islamic law is coming, he said.

"In the future, it's inevitable it will be implemented," he said.

The Creeping Homegrown Threat Of Islamic Radicalism

steveemerson

This week's arrest of seven North Carolina residents, including Daniel Boyd and his two sons, on charges of supporting terrorism and conspiracy to commit murder abroad, showed how the problem of homegrown Islamic terrorism is far more rampant than the media or the public is aware of. Just look at the major cases in the past year alone:

· The convert from Long Island who joined al Qaeda (disclosed this past week) and gave the group information about Long Island trains and New York City's subways.

· The plot to blow up two synagogues and a National Guard plane in upstate New York by prison converts (scheduled to go to trial).

· The plot to kill hundreds of soldiers at Fort Dix by assimilated American Muslims living here 25 years (all convicted).

· The plot to operate a terrorist training camp in Oregon (pleaded guilty).

· The plot to blow up buildings by the Liberty City 7 (all convicted).

· The sweeping conviction of Hamas officials for conspiring to support terrorism overseas.

· The cases of young Somali teenagers raised in the U.S. going overseas to become suicide bombers.

The Boyd case in North Carolina proves that radical Islamic ideology transcends economic class problems as has been claimed by pointy-headed sociologists. The Boyd family was white, had a middle-class existence, and had the economic opportunities afforded all Americans — just like most of the terrorists cited above — and yet chose to engage in jihad to the point that Daniel Boyd was willing to send his two kids on suicide missions to Israel.

That the FBI stopped all these plots is amazing, but they will never continue to bat a thousand. One of these days, the jihadists will succeed.

In the end, the mainstream media refuses to recognize that the "mainstream" Islamic groups are actually radical organizations that teach and imbue their followers with a hatred of the United States and Israel. These groups front as civil-rights groups, but in fact are radical Islamic groups whose constant message disseminated to the millions of Muslim followers is that the U.S. is an evil country engaged in a war against Islam. Once that message takes hold — and after all, these groups control the mosques, the Islamic newspapers, the Islamic schools, and the Islamic leadership from which American Muslims and converts get their ideas about the world — it is not a huge leap for some of them to become committed to violent jihad.

We are talking about a situation that is far more rampant than government leaders want to admit because the Islamic groups routinely throw the term "racist" at anyone who claims there is radicalism in the Muslim community. Two years ago, a poll was taken of American Muslims: 29 percent of young Muslims approved of suicide bombings. And those 29 percent are the ones that admitted their views. How many more would not tell the pollsters what they really thought?

The U.S. is becoming more like Europe, where homegrown Islamic terrorist plots get stopped (or sometimes succeed) nearly every week. It's because of the message that today's Islamic religious leadership hammers home: that the West is the enemy of Islam, that Christians and Jews are involved in a conspiracy to subjugate Islam. And so what is the logical result of these teachings? Many young Muslims hate the West. And of that number who hate the West, a certain smaller percentage — like the Boyds — are willing to take matters into their own hands and carry out jihad.

We have a major problem on our hands that no one is addressing, especially the Obama administration. After all, the Obama administration won't even use the term "radical Islam." If we cannot name our enemy, how are we supposed to defeat the enemy? This past week, Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano gave widely heralded speeches using the term "homegrown terrorism" for the first time. But which homegrown terrorism were they referring to? White racists? The Aryan Nation? The KKK? Eco-terrorists? A close look at their rhetoric shows that the only time they used the word Islam was in referring to the city of Islamabad. In other words, we have met the enemy and he is us.

The problem is not all Muslims. Far from it. It is radical Islam, just like German Nazism and Italian fascism were pinpointed as the devils in World War II. And in Christianity and Judaism, there are Christian and Jewish terrorists, terms no one is afraid of using.

Documents obtained last year by the Investigative Project on Terrorism through a Freedom of Information Act request show that it was the Bush administration, lead by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, that initiated the policy of prohibiting the use of the terms "Islamic terrorism," "Islamic militants," or "Islamic radicals" — or even the use of the word "jihad." These censorious vernacular prohibitions were the product of advice given by several Islamic advisers hired by Homeland Security, including Eboo Patel, founder of the Interfaith Youth Core, and Reza Aslan. The administration's reasoning here was the embodiment of appeasement; the goal: to protect Islam from any negative connotations. Islam today suffers from negative connotations not because of biased and selective media, as Aslan and others contend, but because so many acts of terrorism are comm! itted by Islamists and so many of today's Islamic leaders rationalize these acts.

For Islam to restore its image as a tolerant religion will require Islamic leaders to admit that Islam has a problem, that the anti-women Sharia, the code of Islamic law, as interpreted by Islamists, is racist, that Islamic radicalism does in fact exist and is not the crude or Islamophobic imagination of writers like myself. The courageous Zuhdi Jasser, a Muslim leader from Phoenix, already admits this and more. We need more of him — not the apologists like Aslan who try to cover up for Islamic radicalism. Aslan's recent comments at a panel about the film The Stoning of Soraya M. — the story of an Islamic woman stoned to death by virtue of her husband conspiring to use the Sharia as an excuse to falsely accuse her of infidelity when in fact it was he who was guilty of infidelity — were simply "outrageous" according to those who heard him speak. After saying, "I guess it's up to ! me to put this into some sort of historical context," Aslan obfuscated by asserting (incorrectly) that "many cultures" struggled with the issue of stoning.

In the end, homegrown Islamic terrorism is not going to stop; it is manifestly going to be abetted by a demonstrably counterproductive campaign of prohibiting the term "Islamic terrorism" from being uttered.

If we cannot describe who our enemy is in the hopes of discrediting them, how are we ever going to defeat them?

Expansion of Islamic Saudi Academy in Virginia Approved, Outraging Opponents

foxnews

A controversial Saudi-funded academy that teaches strict adherence to traditional Islamic law has been given the green light to expand its Virginia campus — a decision by local officials that infuriates opponents who say the school's teachings are anti-American.

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted 6-4 Monday to grant a zoning exemption to the Islamic Saudi Academy. The officials said the outcome was based strictly on zoning issues, not on what goes on in the school's classrooms.

That left some in the community outraged.

"How could they ... say they are such fine students? They are fine students but they are learning the wrong thing," academy critic Ruth Mizell said after the vote, according to MyFOXDC.com.

Jim Lafferty, another opponent, vowed political retaliation against the supervisors who supported the expansion.

"We need to resist these people, make it clear they may have bought six votes in there but they are not buying my vote," said Lafferty, according to MyFOXDC. "We will support — even if it's Pee-Wee Herman — we will support whoever is running against them."

Scores of people spoke at hearings in the spring and summer on the academy's plans. Some neighbors opposed the expansion because of traffic worries; others voiced ideological concerns about the school's curriculum.

The academy was founded in 1984 and has some 1,000 students in pre-kindergarten through grade 12. It is the only Saudi-funded school in the United States.

About 80 percent of its students are U.S. citizens from the area's Muslim communities. Most students attend classes at a second campus in the Alexandria section of Fairfax.

The plans granted approval on Monday permit construction of a building that would eventually accommodate 500 students.

"The community will get an awful lot of development," said supervisor Penelope A. Gross. "I think it will improve the community."

The school has undergone a series of high-profile examinations of its religious curriculum, which has been revised repeatedly to remove passages that extolled militant jihad and martyrdom. In 2007, at least one textbook still said that the killing of adulterers and apostates was "justified."

But students, parents and teachers say the school does not teach intolerance.

"Throughout my whole time in ISA, I've never been taught to hate anyone," said Heba Rashed, 16, a junior at the school.

The school's curriculum was revised at the start of the 2008-09 school year after the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom condemned its textbooks.

Critics of the academy say most of the offensive material has been taken out. But they say the textbooks clearly remain guided by Wahhabism, the fundamentalist school of Sunni Islam that is dominant in Saudi Arabia.

"The stuff about killing, it's not there anymore," said Ali Al-Ahmed, the head of the Institute for Gulf Affairs and a critic of the Saudi government, who got copies of the latest textbooks.

Al-Ahmed said references to jihad had been removed from the curriculum. He found that strange, because the idea — which in the Koran is described as "striving in the path of God," and is not necessarily violent — was essential to Islam.

In the past, textbooks referred to the militant form of jihad. Al-Ahmed said he would have felt better if moderate references to jihad had been kept.

Australia foils Somali-linked Islamist attack

.google.

Australian police said on Tuesday they had arrested four people after foiling a Somali-linked suicide plot to storm a military base in what would have been the country's worst extremist attack.

About 400 police swooped on homes around Melbourne, netting four Australian men of Somali and Lebanese descent who were allegedly planning to attack a Sydney army barracks with automatic weapons.

"The alleged offenders were prepared to inflict a sustained attack on military personnel until they themselves were killed," said Tony Negus, acting chief commissioner of the Australian Federal Police.

"The men's intention was to go into these army barracks and to kill as many people as possible... This would have been, if it had been able to be carried out, the most serious attack on Australian soil," he added.

Police said the men, aged in their twenties, had links with Somalia's Shebab Islamists and members of the group had previously travelled to the anarchic African nation to fight in the insurgency there.

Nayef El Sayed, 25, appeared in court charged with helping prepare an armed attack on the Holsworthy army base in western Sydney.

Prosecutors asked for further time to interview the other three men arrested, while a fifth man detained earlier was also being questioned.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the arrests were a chastening reminder of the threat of terrorism but refused to contemplate withdrawing Australia's 1,550 troops from Afghanistan.

"The sobering element of today's development is the reminder to all Australians that the threat of terrorism is alive and well, and this requires continued vigilance on the part of our security authorities," Rudd said.

New South Wales police commissioner Andrew Scipione, whose jurisdiction includes the Holsworthy base, said the attack was believed to be imminent.

"I'm not sure of the timing other than to say than it was likely imminent," he told reporters. "That was part of the reasoning behind in moving like we have."

Negus said a core group of some 150 police had been investigating the planned attack since January in a "massive physical and electronic surveillance operation."

He said the group had been seeking a "fatwa", or religious edict, to justify its actions, without giving further details.

"Police will allege that the men were planning to carry out a suicide terrorist attack on a defence establishment within Australia involving an armed assault with automatic weapons," Negus said.

Police said the group had also been spotted carrying out surveillance at military sites other than the sprawling Holsworthy base on Sydney's outskirts, which is home to thousands of troops including an anti-extremism unit.

The arrests come after Australian Islamic convert Shane Kent last week admitted plotting to kill thousands of people in an attack on a major sports event in Melbourne.

Eight members of Kent's extremist cell have already been jailed over plans to bomb the 2005 Australian Football League Grand Final in Australia's biggest anti-terrorism trial.

Remy Ven de Wiel, defending ringleader Abdul Nacer Benbrika, had argued the self-styled sheikh "couldn't organise a booze-up in a brewery."

Australia, which was also involved in the Iraq war, has never been hit by Islamic extremists on its own soil, although four people died in bombings at the Hilton hotel in Sydney and Melbourne's Turkish consulate in 1978 and 1986.

It has also lost lives in attacks abroad, including 92 on Indonesia's resort island of Bali in 2002 and 2005 and three in last month's Jakarta hotel blasts.

Colonel Gaddafi sends Muslim clerics to England in hopes all Europe will convert to Islam

sundaymercury.net

A group of controversial Muslim clerics funded by Colonel Gaddafi are set to make appearances at three Midland Mosques.

Eleven preachers sponsored by the World Islamic Call Society (Wics), which was founded, led and paid for by the Libyan leader, will be holding events in Birmingham, Leicester and Nottingham during Ramadan.

The speeches come just a month after the release of convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbasset Ali Al Megrahi caused a storm between Britain and the US when he returned to a hero’s welcome in Tripoli. And in a recent speech, Colonel Gaddafi said that the aim of Wics was to convert the whole of Europe to Islam.

He said: “This religion shall overcome all other religions before it. Their time has gone. It is his promise, Allah shall prevail this religion over the rest.

“There are tens of millions of Muslims in the European continent and the number is on the increase. The number of indigenous Europeans is falling drastically.

“This is the clear indication that the European continent will be converted to Islam. Europe will one day be a Muslim continent.”

Wics has built a moderate reputation in recent years, organising meetings between prominent Muslims and religious figures including the Pope.

But question marks remain over links between the organisation and money-laundering, following the international freeze on Libya’s assets after Megrahi’s bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in December 1988.

“There is no such thing as independent Imams in the Middle East and North Africa,” the source said.

“If these men are leading prayers while having their pay cheques paid by a dictator, you can be sure that they will be using this opportunity to praise him and push his agenda.”

Wics has been given the approval of the Government, with the British ambassador to Libya holding a plush farewell reception for the imams in Tripoli before they flew to the UK last week.

In a speech at the reception the ambassador praised Wics for forging links between Libya and the UK and even apologised for the difficulties the imams had experienced applying for UK visas for the visit.

But Birmingham MP Khalid Mahmood last night raised concerns over the Wics visit.

“We’ve got a lot of good work being done by organisations in Birmingham celebrating the diversity of our communities,” he said.

“We don’t need imported groups like this, funded by people like Colonel Gaddafi.

“If he is really interested in doing something positive he should work with the community groups we already have, instead of coming over and trying to convert people.”

Wics say their Imams will visit Mosques across Britain with a message of peace and integration, leading Ramadan prayers in Manchester, Sheffield, Nottingham, Birmingham, Leicester, Glasgow, Cardiff and Swansea.

ChristiansUnite Forums

Theology => Prophecy - Current Events => Topic started by: HisDaughter on September 19, 2008, 04:32:49 AM