The Rise of Islam

[HisDaughter]

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.

[HisDaughter]

Saudis order buildup of religious police to enforce Islamic observance     

worldtribune.com/


The king of Saudi Arabia has approved an order for a nationwide crackdown on vice by the religious police.

Officials said the force, reported to be expanding to 10,000 officers, would be deployed in Saudi cities to enforce Islamic observance. They said the decision by the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice was approved by Saudi King Abdullah in an effort to maintain social order.

"The commission's men are called upon to orient people in what serves best the public interest, treat them with kindness and tolerance, to keep good intentions and prevent vice from happening," commission chief Abdul Aziz Al Humeen said.

Officials said Abdullah approved a program to double the force from 5,000 to 10,000 officers. They said the religious police were authorized to search homes and stores for alcohol as well as segregate the sexes.

The crackdown was ordered amid rising criticism of the religious police. In February, the king replaced Ibrahim Al Ghaith as part of a reshuffle in the command and ordered the appointment of Al Humeen.

In May 2008, the religious force was bolstered when Interior Minister Prince Nayef Bin Abdul Aziz, a leading supporter, became deputy prime minister and No. 2 figure in the kingdom. Nayef has termed the religious police as important as the security forces.

[HisDaughter]

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.

[HisDaughter]

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.”

[HisDaughter]

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!

[HisDaughter]

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.

[HisDaughter]

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?

[HisDaughter]

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.

[HisDaughter]

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.

[HisDaughter]

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.