News, Prophecy and other

[Shammu]

Alleged Muslim terrorists gun down 6 Christians
Victims 1st were asked if they believed in Christ, infant, teen among dead
Posted: February 21, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern


© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

At least six Christians have been gunned down at their homes by alleged Muslim terrorists in the Philippines, reports the Voice of the Martyrs, a leading monitor of Christian persecution.

According to the report, at least five terrorists believed to be linked to al-Qaida murdered six or more Christians by gunfire after asking them if they believed in Christ on the front doorsteps of their homes.

The incident occurred on the morning of Feb. 2 in the village of Patikul on the small Philippine island of Jolo, which is predominantly Muslim. At least one witness said a baby girl was among the casualties. Five people were injured during the door-to-door questioning.

The Islamic terrorist group Abu Sayyaf, which means "Bearer of the Sword" is assumed responsible for the attacks, as well as for a series of kidnappings, murders and bombings in the southern Philippines over the past 15 years.

According to Voice of the Martyrs, five victims fatally shot were identified as 9-month-old Melanie Patinga, Selma Patinga, 45-year-old Itting Pontilla, 16-year-old Emma Casipong and Pedro Casipong.

[Shammu]

Iran pledges financial aid to Palestinian Authority
Wed Feb 22, 2006 8:43 AM ET17

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran pledged on Wednesday to provide financial assistance to the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority following threats by Western nations to halt aid to a Hamas-controlled government.

"We will definitely provide financial aid to this government so that they can stand up against the oppression of America," Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, was quoted as saying by the semi-official ISNA students news agency.

He was speaking after a meeting with Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, who is touring regional countries in search of financial support.

"We hope that the new Palestinian government overcomes its current problems with the help of Islamic countries, including Iran," Larijani said.

U.S. President George W. Bush on Tuesday said a Hamas-dominated Palestinian Authority should not be funded until it recognised Israel's right to exist.

U.S. and Israeli officials are concerned that Tehran, which also refuses to recognize Israel, will gain influence over a Hamas-led government, hampering efforts to reach a Middle East peace settlement.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas asked Hamas on Tuesday to form a new government and continue his agenda of negotiating with Israel.

Asked on Wednesday whether a Hamas-led government would remain committed to previous peace agreements with Israel, Meshaal said: "We will review these agreements and announce our stance."

"Those agreements that are not in contradiction with the principles of Palestine will be agreed to and Hamas ... will not do something that tramples on the right of the nation," the semi-official Mehr news agency quoted him as saying

Iran pledges financial aid to Palestinian Authority

[Shammu]

Gaza's Tiny Christian Community Threatened With Violence
Julie Stahl
Jerusalem Bureau Chief

Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - Extremists are threatening to blow up the Palestinian Bible Society in the Gaza Strip if the people who work there do not close up shop and abandon their ministry by the end of February, a Christian source told Cybercast News Service.

The threat appears to be the work of Islamic extremists who are determined to drive Christians out of the area. Arab Christians are taking the threat very seriously, said a Palestinian Bible Society information officer who asked not to be named.

There are only about 1,500 Christians living among an estimated 1.2 million Palestinian Muslims in the Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian Bible society has been in operation there since 1999.

Eleven local Palestinians staff the center, which includes a Christian bookstore that sells Bibles. Scriptures are displayed on large billboards, and at the front of the store is a sign that says: "God's Word is Life for All." Above the shop are computer rooms, multi-purpose halls and a library that is open to the entire community.

The trouble started three weeks ago, the source said, when a pipe bomb exploded around 11:00 one night outside the Bible Society, which is located in Gaza's city center. There were no injuries.

Two weeks later, an unknown group left threatening pamphlets at the front door of the Bible Society warning that the building would be blown up if the premises were not vacated by February 28.

The pamphlets threatened the landlord for dealing with "infidels."

According to Palestinian Authority security officials, the situation worsened several days ago, forcing the Bible Society staff to lock the doors while they continued working inside.

But then came a threatening phone call, warning them that locking the doors wasn't enough - that they should take the threat seriously or risk harm to themselves and their children.

"We are waiting for a miracle," said the Palestinian Bible Society information officer. "The Bible Society is committed to the continuation of its ministry and service to the Palestinian people, and God will see us through this crisis."

The situation is so sensitive that the staff at the Palestinian Bible Society was not allowed to be interviewed, the officer said.

Palestinian Muslims and Christians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip previously have denied any hostility between them. Privately, though, some Christians admit that they have been persecuted or discriminated against.

The Bible Society was threatened last July alongside the public library of the local Baptist Church, said the information officer.

The current threat against the Bible Society (there was one last July) comes amid growing chaos in the Gaza Strip and the controversy involving published cartoons of the prophet Mohammed.

European aid organizations and diplomats were pulled out of the Gaza Strip when violence relating to the cartoons first erupted there.

"It's purely a case of Christian persecution. I think the cartoons played a big role in this," said the Bible Society's information officer. "Last week a Molotov cocktail was thrown at [a] church in Ramallah," he said.

According to the source, Hamas has offered to protect the Christians in Gaza; but with the current government not yet established, the situation is very chaotic, he said.

The Palestinian Bible Society is part of the world fellowship of the United Bible Societies, whose mission is to make the Bible available, in different languages and in different formats, to as many people as possible.

The Palestinian Bible Society program in Gaza includes extensive involvement in various community services. Several non-Christian groups in Gaza have expressed dismay over the threats and expressed their solidarity with the Christians.

The neighbors, too, have tried to convince the Bible Society not to close down, said the officer.

"It really breaks our heart that some groups are against the whole idea. We ask Christians worldwide to pray, not only for us, but also for those who are trying to hurt us, as Christ commands us to do."

Sorry, I can't post the link, it would break forum rules.

[Shammu]

Mosque Attack Pushes Iraq Toward Civil War

By ZIAD KHALAF, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 1 minute ago

SAMARRA, Iraq - Insurgents posing as police destroyed the golden dome of one of Iraq's holiest Shiite shrines Wednesday, setting off an unprecendented spasm of sectarian violence. Angry crowds thronged the streets, militiamen attacked Sunni mosques, and at least 19 people were killed.

With the gleaming dome of the 1,200-year-old Askariya shrine reduced to rubble, some Shiites lashed out at the United States as partly to blame.

The violence — many of the 90 attacks on Sunni mosques were carried out by Shiite militias — seemed to push Iraq closer to all-out civil war than at any point in the three years since the U.S.-led overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

Many leaders called for calm. "We are facing a major conspiracy that is targeting Iraq's unity," said President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd. "We should all stand hand in hand to prevent the danger of a civil war."

President Bush pledged American help to restore the mosque after the bombing north of Baghdad, which dealt a severe blow to U.S. efforts to keep Iraq from falling deeper into sectarian violence.

"The terrorists in Iraq have again proven that they are enemies of all faiths and of all humanity," Bush said. "The world must stand united against them, and steadfast behind the people of Iraq."

British Prime Minister Tony Blair also condemned the bombing and pledged funds toward the shrine's reconstruction.

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and the top American commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, called the attack a deliberate attempt to foment sectarian strife and warned it was a "critical moment for Iraq."

No one was reported injured in the bombing of the shrine in Samarra.

But at least 19 people, including three Sunni clerics, were killed in the reprisal attacks that followed, mainly in Baghdad and predominantly Shiite provinces to the south, according to the Iraqi Islamic Party, the country's largest Sunni political group.

Many of the attacks appeared to have been carried out by Shiite militias that the United States wants to see disbanded.

In predominantly Shiite Basra, police said militiamen broke into a prison, hauled out 12 inmates, including two Egyptians, two Tunisians, a Libyan, a Saudi and a Turk, and shot them dead in reprisal for the shrine attack.

Major Sunni groups joined in condemning the attack, and a leading Sunni politician, Tariq al-Hashimi, urged clerics and politicians to calm the situation "before it spins out of control."

The country's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, sent instructions to his followers forbidding attacks on Sunni mosques, and called for seven days of mourning.

But he hinted, as did Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi, that religious militias could be given a bigger security role if the government cannot protecting holy shrines — an ominous sign of the Shiite reaction ahead.

Both Sunnis and the United States fear the rise of such militias, which the disaffected minority views as little more than death squads. American commanders believe they undercut efforts to create a professional Iraqi army and police force — a key step toward the eventual drawdown of U.S. forces.

Some Shiite political leaders already were angry with the United States because it has urged them to form a government in which nonsectarian figures control the army and police. Khalilzad warned this week — in a statement clearly aimed at Shiite hard-liners — that America would not continue to support institutions run by sectarian groups with links to armed militias.

One top Shiite political leader accused Khalilzad of sharing blame for the attack on the shrine in Samarra.

"These statements ... gave green lights to terrorist groups. And, therefore, he shares in part of the responsibility," said Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and the former commander of its militia.

The interior minister, who controls the security forces that Sunnis accuse of widepsread abuses, is a member of al-Hakim's party.

The new tensions came as Iraq's various factions have been struggling to assemble a government after the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections.

The Shiite fury sparked by Wednesday's bombings — the third major attack against Shiite targets in as many days — raised the likelihood that Shiite religious parties will reject U.S. demands to curb militias.

The Askariya shrine, also known as the Golden Mosque, contains the tombs of two revered Shiite imams, who are considered by Shiites to be among the successors of the Prophet Muhammad.

No group claimed responsibility for the 6:55 a.m. assault on the shrine in Samarra, a mostly Sunni Arab city 60 miles north of Baghdad, carried out by four insurgents disguised as police. But suspicion fell on Sunni extremist groups.

The top of the dome, which was completed in 1905, collapsed into a crumbly mess, leaving just traces of gold showing through the rubble. Part of the shrine's tiled northern wall also was damaged.

Thousands of demonstrators crowded near the wrecked shrine, and Iraqis picked through the debris, pulling out artifacts and copies of the Muslim holy book, the Quran, which they waved, along with Iraqi flags.

"This criminal act aims at igniting civil strife," said Mahmoud al-Samarie, a 28-year-old builder. "We demand an investigation so that the criminals who did this be punished. If the government fails to do so, then we will take up arms and chase the people behind this attack."

U.S. and Iraqi forces surrounded the Samarra shrine and searched nearby houses. About 500 soldiers were sent to Sunni neighborhoods in Baghdad to prevent clashes.

On Al-Jazeera television, Sunni politician gotcha98 al-Dulaimi pledged that the violence would not discourage Sunnis from working to form a new government and claimed the Samarra attack was not planned by Sunni insurgents but "a foreign hand aiming to create differences among Iraqis."

National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie said 10 people were detained for questioning about the bombing. The Interior Ministry put the number at nine and said they included five guards.

In the hours after the attack, more than 90 Sunni mosques were attacked with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, burned or taken over by Shiites, the Iraqi Islamic Party said.

Large protests erupted in Shiite parts of Baghdad and in cities throughout the Shiite heartland to the south. In Basra, Shiite militants traded rifle and rocket-propelled grenade fire with guards at the office of the Iraqi Islamic Party. Smoke billowed from the building.

Shiite protesters later set fire to a Sunni shrine containing the seventh century tomb of Talha bin Obeid-Allah, a companion of Muhammad, on the outskirts of Basra.

Protesters in Najaf, Kut and Baghdad's Shiite slum of Sadr City also marched through the streets by the thousands, many shouting anti-American and anti-Israeli slogans and burning those nations' flags.

Tradition says the Askariya shrine, which draws Shiite pilgrims from throughout the Islamic world, is near the place where the last of the 12 Shiite imams, Mohammed al-Mahdi, disappeared. Al-Mahdi was the son and grandson of the two imams buried in the Askariya shrine. Shiites believe he is still alive and will return to restore justice to humanity.

Mosque Attack Pushes Iraq Toward Civil War

[Shammu]

Bolivia's "Death to Yankees" senator loses US visa

2 hours, 27 minutes ago

LA PAZ, Bolivia (Reuters) - A Bolivian senator, a close ally of President Evo Morales known for her raucous chanting of "Long live coca, Death to the Yankees!," said on Wednesday the United States had canceled her entry visa.
ADVERTISEMENT

Leonilda Zurita, who is seen as one of the leftist president's closest confidantes, told local media U.S. consular officials had told her she was considered a terrorist, something she dubbed "an offense against Bolivian women."

Zurita, from the region of Chapare -- the focus of U.S.-funded coca eradication programs -- was a prominent figure in the December election that returned Morales, who took power promising to develop his country's coca crop.

Zurita said she realized the visa had been canceled when she tried to travel to Miami to take part in a meeting organized by a Florida university. No one from the U.S. Embassy in La Paz could immediately be reached for comment.

The congresswoman is one of the most prominent advocates of expanding coca production, which has alarmed Washington as it struggles to control flow of its derivative cocaine into the United States.

She said recently: "We need, and we can, develop markets for our coca ... China is particularly important. The Chinese like herbs and they'll like our coca tea."

Bolivia's "Death to Yankees" senator loses US visa

[Shammu]

EU Proposes Creating Technology Institute

By JAN SLIVA, Associated Press Writer Wed Feb 22, 4:10 PM ET

BRUSSELS, Belgium - The European Union wants to create a rival to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, reflecting fears that academic standards are slipping and Europe will no longer be able to compete globally.

A European Institute of Technology should be a "flagship of excellence in higher education, research and innovation," said European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, who presented the plans Wednesday with Jan Figel, the EU's education commissioner.

Envisioned is a central governing body in charge of finances and research strategy, and a number of so-called knowledge communities — research and education centers dispersed around the EU. It would be up to the member states to decide where the institute and the centers would be.

French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin proposed basing the institute in Paris, while some members of the European Parliament suggest the eastern French city of Strasbourg — but on condition that meetings of EU parliament are shifted from Strasbourg to Brussels, an idea long opposed by France.

European leaders are to take up the plan at a summit in March that will focus on efforts to modernize the EU's economy.

Governments are increasingly concerned that slippage in research and academic standards is holding back innovation needed for the European economy to compete with those of the United States and emerging powers such as China and India.

The need for academic improvement is underscored by an EU report that said the 25 current EU nations won 19 percent of Nobel Prizes from 1995 to 2004 compared with 73 percent from 1901 to 1950.

EU Proposes Creating Technology Institute

My note; What better way to develop the mark, for the beast.

[Shammu]

Iran warns West over shrine blast 
Thu Feb 23, 2006 8:55 AM ET15

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned Western powers like the United States and Israel that they would face the wrath of Muslims following the devastating bombing of a Shi'ite Muslim shrine in Iraq.

Echoing Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Ahmadinejad pinned the blame for Wednesday's Samarra shrine bombing on "Zionists" and foreign forces in Iraq.

"These heinous acts are committed by a group of Zionists and occupiers that have failed. They have failed in the face of Islam's logic and justice," Ahmadinejad said in a speech broadcast live on state television.

"But be sure, you will not be saved from the wrath and power of the justice-seeking nations by resorting to such acts," he said to cries of "Death to America" "Death to Israel" from a crowd of thousands of supporters in central Iran.

Khamenei, who has the last word on all state matters in Shi'ite Muslim Iran, on Wednesday urged Shi'ites not to take revenge on Sunni Muslims for the attack on the Samarra shrine.

"There are definitely some plots to force Shi'ites to attack the mosques and other properties respected by the Sunnis," he said. "Any measure to contribute to that direction is helping the enemies of Islam and is forbidden by Sharia," he added.

Khamenei ordered a week of national mourning in Iran over the bombing.

Iran warns West over shrine blast

[Shammu]

China joins Russia in Iran diplomacy (Gog, Magog, and the kings of the east, what a combation. ... DW)
Thu Feb 23, 2006 8:47 AM ET15

 By Chris Buckley

BEIJING (Reuters) - China joined Russia on Thursday in diplomatic efforts to ease a crisis over Iran's nuclear work before a U.N. atomic watchdog meeting and avert any sanctions.

Moscow and Beijing, each with heavy trade and investment stakes in Iran, do not want an International Atomic Energy Agency board meeting on March 6 to precipitate moves in the U.N. Security Council for sanctions against Tehran.

The board will hear a crucial IAEA report dealing with suspicions Iran is secretly seeking atom bombs. The report is likely to influence any future council action. Russia and China are keen to coax Iran into a compromise before then.

Russia began negotiations with Iran this week on its idea to enrich uranium for Tehran, which could placate Western powers by effectively denying the Islamic Republic the nuclear fuel technology required for building bombs.

But Iran, while sounding more receptive to an enrichment joint venture with Russia since the IAEA reported it to the Security Council on February 4, insists on a right to uranium enrichment at home, where it is pursuing a pilot project.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said Vice Foreign Minister Lu Guozeng, a Middle East specialist, would start three days of talks in Tehran on Friday on defusing the standoff between Iran and the United States and its European Union allies.

"China will explore with Iran how to ease the crisis under present circumstances and how to take practical measures to stop the problem from worsening," ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told a news briefing.

Russia and China, like officials close to the IAEA who privately criticized the agency's decision to report Iran to the Security Council, fear steps toward sanctions will only worsen the crisis by driving Iran into a corner and imperiling a U.N. inspections regime that Tehran has promised to retain.

But Washington says Iran must pay a serious price if it does not act soon to clear up suspicions about its atomic ambitions.

Iran says its nuclear industry will only be used to generate electricity, not to make bombs.

BE FLEXIBLE, CHINA URGES WEST 

Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing appealed on Wednesday to the West to be patient and flexible in the hope that Iran and the three EU powers which froze negotiations in anger at Tehran's resumption of enrichment work could revive dialogue.

"The days before the March 6 meeting of the IAEA are crucial," Xinhua news agency quoted Li as saying after meeting visiting German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, whose country along with Britain and France form the EU trio.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Thursday Tehran was seriously considering Russia's proposal but needs to discuss further the timing and place for any enrichment.

Discussions between Iran and Russia over the offer ended on Tuesday with an agreement to continue talks this week during a visit to Tehran by the head of Moscow's nuclear agency.

"There must be some new elements in that proposal. If you ask about the main elements I will tell you -- the timing and place," Mottaki told reporters during a visit to Jakarta.

Iran's atomic energy commission chief has asked Russia to specify whether its plan would allow Iranian scientists to take part, or would limit Tehran's role to a financial stake, which he said would be unacceptable.

The main sticking point seems to be Russia's condition that Iran re-suspend enrichment-related activity at its underground Natanz plant resumed last month after a 2 1/2-year moratorium agreed during talks with the EU trio.

"The negotiations with Iran are not easy but we are counting on reaching a positive result. We are not losing optimism," Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday.

Washington wants a Security Council debate on sanctions but faces resistance from Russia and China, which are among the five permanent members of the top world body and have veto power.

Iran's defiance of Western pressure is based partly on a belief that Russia and China will eventually block sanctions.

"We believe that the Security Council is not a tool for specific countries to use it against other independent countries. We believe the time for tough language is over. The time for a unilateral approach is over," Mottaki said.

China joins Russia in Iran diplomacy

[Shammu]

Officials: Al-Qaeda to strike this year

Security officials estimate international terror network aims to carry out mega-terror attack in Israel in 2006; authorities concerned about strike that would eclipse September 11 attacks
Alex Fishman

Global Jihad has Israel in its sights: Security officials estimate that 2006 is the "target year" set by the global al-Qaeda terror network to carry out a mega-terror attack in Israel, the country's leading newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported Thursday.

The disturbing report follows official confirmation by IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Moshe Wednesday that global Jihad forces maintain regular bases in Lebanon and Jordan. However, the details released by Kaplinsky are apparently only the tip of the iceberg.

Security authorities were able to detect two years ago the shift in priorities of global Jihad terrorists with regards to Israel, which has been "upgraded" to the rank of a major target, mostly due to personnel and ideological changes within global terror networks.

This shift has been manifested, among other things, through public declarations by leading international terrorists.

Recently, terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who operates in Iraq, declared his organization plans to carry out an attack in Israel. Of no less concern, global Jihad forces have deployed in countries around Israel, namely Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon – where they concentrate mostly in and around refugee camps.

Meanwhile, officials speak of an emerging al-Qaeda network in the Gaza Strip as well.

Syria has also been implicated and serves as a transfer point for terrorists heading to Iraq. For al-Zarqawi, Syria is also a transfer point and base for terrorists planning to carry out attacks in Jordan and Israel. Currently, Syria is home to countless terror camps and hosts numerous terror elements.

Egyptian connection

Security officials also estimate that highly militant elements in the Fatah and Hamas disappointed by the relative diplomatic moderation of their organizations may find their way to the global Jihad umbrella.

The shift within al-Qaeda, which has changed the focus from a global Islamic revolution to the Middle East, is a result of Osama Bin Laden's weakening position within the organization. Meanwhile, Bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has boosted his position and the leading operatives of the group today hail from Egypt, like Zawahiri.

Those operatives, whose roots can be found in the Islamic Brotherhood movement, cling to a doctrine that stresses the need to bring about Islamic revolutions in moderate Arab countries, with an emphasis on Egypt and Jordan.

The bottom line: The Middle East has become global Jihad's favored target, and Israel is now one of the main targets in the region.

Meanwhile, security authorities here are already preparing to face the growing international terror threat. The scenarios officials are dealing with are much different than those Israel has come to expect from Palestinian terror groups, however.

An indication of what may lie in store is Zarqawi's plan to target two Israeli passenger ships in Turkey in 2005, an attack that was expected to result in a casualty toll of about 1,500 people. Authorities, however, are also preparing for strikes on a scale that would eclipse the September 11 terror attacks.

Officials: Al-Qaeda to strike this year

[Shammu]

Philippine Army Working to Stop Coup Plot

By JIM GOMEZ, Associated Press Writer Thu Feb 23, 9:14 PM ET

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine military worked to quash a coup plot Friday, arresting an army general and urging soldiers not to get involved in demonstrations against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Already-tight security was bolstered in the capital. The government canceled rally permits and told schools to call off classes, aiming to keep the opposition from exploiting scheduled demonstrations commemorating the 20th anniversary of the "people power" revolt that ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Arroyo held a pre-dawn emergency meeting of her national security council, said her chief of staff, Mike Defensor.

"The president is in control and is taking steps to avoid trouble," Defensor said, adding that an unspecified number of civilians and miltary officials had been arrested and eight to 10 more were being sought.

Army chief of staff Gen. Generoso Senga reported that army Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim, head of the elite scout rangers, was among those arrested and marine Col. Ariel Querubin was being sought. Senga said the military will remain loyal to the constitution and the democratically elected government.

"We have reduced the threat," he said. "We cannot say that it has been stopped."

Arroyo was briefed on the situation.

"Of course she's concerned," Senga said. "Like a shepherd with her flock, she would not want any part of it to go astray."

Retired police Gen. Ramon Montano urged troops and police to join demonstrations against Arroyo.

Extra barbed wire and shipping containers were set up on roads leading to Malacanang, the presidential palace, and only essential staff were allowed in. Security council members had to leave their cars outside and walk into the compound.

Checkpoints appeared around the capital. Media were barred from the main military headquarters, Camp Aguinaldo, where reinforcements arrived in eight armored personnel carriers. An armored personnel carrier sat outside the marines' camp, with a truckload of marines in full battle gear nearby.

Police already were on red alert nationwide as widespread reports of a coup plot have circulated for more than a week; even elementary school students were discussing it in detail.

Army chief Lt. Gen. Hermogenes Esperon has said 14 junior officers were identified as being involved, and that the military stood ready to crush any takeover attempt.

Arroyo survived three impeachment bids in September related to complaints of alleged corruption and vote-rigging. Opposition groups have continued to call for her resignation.

Philippine Army Working to Stop Coup Plot

[Shammu]

Murder of Jew in Paris Rekindles Concerns

By JAMEY KEATEN, Associated Press Writer Thu Feb 23, 9:38 PM ET

PARIS - The kidnap, torture and killing of a Parisian Jew has rekindled worries about anti-Semitism in France, where one of Europe's oldest plagues is seeping into poor French neighborhoods that are home to many Muslim immigrants and their French-born children.

Jewish leaders had been encouraged by a decline in attacks on Jewish cemeteries, synagogues and community centers from a peak in 2004. But on Feb. 13, police found 23-year-old Ilan Halimi naked, handcuffed and covered with burns near railroad tracks in the Essonne region south of Paris. He died en route to the hospital.

Authorities say a multiethnic gang that kidnapped the mobile phone salesman last month and tortured him for three weeks was after money, reckoning that since he was a Jew, he had to be rich — or at least worth a big ransom.

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said the gang had tried to kidnap six other people since December, including four Jews.

Some Jewish leaders believe the group didn't have political motives, but that hatred of Jews may have motivated the violence inflicted on Halimi.

"This case is very serious, because it is the first time in 60 years that a person was killed because he was Jewish," said Roger Cukierman, head of the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions.

President Jacques Chirac expressed his sympathy to Halimi's family for the "barbaric act." Chirac, his prime minister and other politicians joined about 1,000 people for a memorial service Thursday night at a Paris synagogue.

"Today, I ask all French citizens to all stand up as one man and shout loud and clear, 'Enough is enough,'" France's grand rabbi, Joseph Sitruk, said at the service.

Anti-racism groups planned demonstrations across the country Sunday.

Sarkozy told the National Assembly Tuesday that the attackers were primarily motivated by greed. "But they believed, and I quote, 'that Jews have money,'" he said. "That's called anti-Semitism."

Sarkozy said raids by police probing the killing had turned up documents supporting a Palestinian aid group and others with a militant Islamic character. He did not elaborate.

While authorities suspect an anti-Semitic aspect, it is not known how many, if any, of the kidnappers are Muslim or whether they were Islamically motivated.

As home to Western Europe's largest populations of Jews and Muslims, France saw a surge in anti-Semitic crime starting in 2000 after tensions flared between Israelis and Palestinians in the Middle East.

Since then, officials have walked a thin line, making forceful denunciations of anti-Semitism while taking care not to offend a Muslim community estimated at 5 million. France is home to about 600,000 Jews.

But the enmity between Palestinians and Israelis has fanned Islamic militancy in France and even spilled into classrooms. Some Muslim students, for instance, have refused to attend classes on the Holocaust.

Many French Jews, in turn, were angry that the government let the ailing Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat into France for medical care in 2004. Arafat died in a French military hospital.

Investigators say the gang allegedly involved in Halimi's death was based in a housing project near Paris — an area like those where unrest erupted last fall and spread through neighborhoods that are home to many Muslims.

"The whole gang is guilty," Halimi's mother, Ruth, said in an interview Thursday with AP Television News. "He was a young Jew so he had to be killed."

"Solutions must be found so this never happens again," she added.

The suspected gangleader, Youssouf Fofana, was arrested Wednesday as a fugitive in the West African nation of Ivory Coast and is being returned to France, the French and Ivorian governments said.

In an editorial, the newspaper Le Monde said the case is "a sort of looking glass onto the true state of our society."

Jewish leaders speak of a dangerous brew of televised violence from today's war zones, anti-Israel fervor and traditional anti-Semitism in Europe and around the world.

Anti-Semitism has existed in Europe as long as Jews have lived here. France's most prominent case was the Dreyfus Affair, in which a Jewish army captain, Alfred Dreyfus, was falsely accused of treason and sentenced to life in prison in 1894. He was exonerated 12 years later.

Despite recent tensions, authorities say there were signs of a sharp drop in anti-Semitic violence, threats and intimidation last year, from an all-time high of 970 incidents counted in 2004 by the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights. Final figures for 2005 have not yet been released.

Murder of Jew in Paris Rekindles Concerns

[Shammu]

Vatican to Muslims - practise what you preach
Thu Feb 23, 2006 5:45 PM GMT167

By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor

PARIS (Reuters) - After backing calls by Muslims for respect for their religion in the Mohammad cartoons row, the Vatican is now urging Islamic countries to reciprocate by showing more tolerance towards their Christian minorities.

Roman Catholic leaders at first said Muslims were right to be outraged when Western newspapers reprinted Danish caricatures of the Prophet, including one with a bomb in his turban. Most Muslims consider any images of Mohammad to be blasphemous.

After criticising both the cartoons and the violent protests in Muslim countries that followed, the Vatican this week linked the issue to its long-standing concern that the rights of other faiths are limited, sometimes severely, in Muslim countries.

Vatican prelates have been concerned by recent killings of two Catholic priests in Turkey and Nigeria. Turkish media linked the death there to the cartoons row. At least 146 Christians and Muslims have died in five days of religious riots in Nigeria.

"If we tell our people they have no right to offend, we have to tell the others they have no right to destroy us," Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican's Secretary of State (prime minister), told journalists in Rome.

"We must always stress our demand for reciprocity in political contacts with authorities in Islamic countries and, even more, in cultural contacts," Foreign Minister Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo told the daily Corriere della Sera.

Reciprocity -- allowing Christian minorities the same rights as Muslims generally have in Western countries, such as building houses of worship or practising religion freely -- is at the heart of Vatican diplomacy towards Muslim states.

Vatican diplomats argue that limits on Christians in some Islamic countries are far harsher than restrictions in the West that Muslims decry, such as France's ban on headscarves in state schools.

Saudi Arabia bans all public expression of any non-Muslim religion and sometimes arrests Christians even for worshipping privately. Pakistan allows churches to operate but its Islamic laws effectively deprive Christians of many rights.

Both countries are often criticised at the United Nations Human Rights Commission for violating religious freedoms.

"ENOUGH TURNING THE OTHER CHEEK"

Pope Benedict signalled his concern on Monday when he told the new Moroccan ambassador to the Vatican that peace can only be assured by "respect for the religious convictions and practices of others, in a reciprocal way in all societies".

He mentioned no countries by name. Morocco is tolerant of other religions, but like all Muslim countries frowns on conversion from Islam to another faith.

Iraqi Christians say they were well treated under Saddam Hussein's secular policies, but believers have been killed, churches burnt and women forced to wear Muslim garb since Islamic groups gained sway after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

Christians make up only a tiny fraction of the population in most Muslim countries. War and political pressure in recent decades have forced many to emigrate from Middle Eastern communities dating back to just after the time of Jesus.

As often happens at the Vatican, lower-level officials have been more outspoken than the Pope and his main aides.

"Enough now with this turning the other cheek! It's our duty to protect ourselves," Monsignor Velasio De Paolis, secretary of the Vatican's supreme court, thundered in the daily La Stampa. Jesus told his followers to "turn the other cheek" when struck.

"The West has had relations with the Arab countries for half a century, mostly for oil, and has not been able to get the slightest concession on human rights," he said.

Bishop Rino Fisichella, head of one of the Roman universities that train young priests from around the world, told Corriere della Sera the Vatican should speak out more.

"Let's drop this diplomatic silence," said the rector of the Pontifical Lateran University. "We should put pressure on international organisations to make the societies and states in majority Muslim countries face up to their responsibilities."

Vatican to Muslims - practise what you preach

[Shammu]

Furor Over Cartoons Pits Muslim Against Muslim
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN
and HASSAN M. FATTAH
Published: February 22, 2006

AMMAN, Jordan, Feb. 21 — In a direct challenge to the international uproar over cartoons lampooning the Prophet Muhammad, the Jordanian journalist Jihad Momani wrote: "What brings more prejudice against Islam, these caricatures or pictures of a hostage-taker slashing the throat of his victim in front of the cameras, or a suicide bomber who blows himself up during a wedding ceremony?"
Skip to next paragraph
Shawn Baldwin for The New York Times

Jihad Momani, a Jordanian, is one of 11 journalists in five countries facing prosecution for reprinting cartoons lampooning the Prophet Muhammad, reflecting a battle among Muslims on how to respond to them.
Related Related Site: Declaration by Islamic Religious Leaders and Scholars (pdf from guidancemedia.com)
Khaled al-Hammadi for The New York Times

Yehiya al-Abed, an Al Hurriya reporter in Yemen, pointing, with Abdulkarim Sabra, its managing editor. They were accused of insulting Islam.

In Yemen, an editorial by Muhammad al-Assadi condemned the cartoons but also lamented the way many Muslims reacted. "Muslims had an opportunity to educate the world about the merits of the Prophet Muhammad and the peacefulness of the religion he had come with," Mr. Assadi wrote. He added, "Muslims know how to lose, better than how to use, opportunities."

To illustrate their points, both editors published selections of the drawings — and for that they were arrested and threatened with prison.

Mr. Momani and Mr. Assadi are among 11 journalists in five countries facing prosecution for printing some of the cartoons. Their cases illustrate another side of this conflict, the intra-Muslim side, in what has typically been defined as a struggle between Islam and the West.

The flare-up over the cartoons, first published in a Danish newspaper, has magnified a fault line running through the Middle East, between those who want to engage their communities in a direct, introspective dialogue and those who focus on outside enemies.

But it has also underscored a political struggle involving emerging Islamic movements, like Hamas in Gaza and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and Arab governments unsure of how to contain them.

"This has become a game between two sides, the extremists and the government," said Tawakkul Karman, head of Women Journalists Without Constraints in Sana, Yemen. "They've made it so that if you stand up in this tidal wave, you have to face 1.5 billion Muslims."

The heated emotions, the violence surrounding protests and the arrests have sent a chill through people, mostly writers, who want to express ideas contrary to the prevailing sentiment. It has threatened those who contend that Islamic groups have manipulated the public to show their strength, and that governments have used the cartoons to establish their religious credentials.

"I keep hearing, 'Why are liberals silent?' " said Said al-Ashmawy, an Egyptian judge and author of books on political Islam. "How can we write? Who is going to protect me? Who is going to publish for me in the first place? With the Islamization of the society, the list of taboos has been increasing daily. You should not write about religion. You should not write about politics or women. Then what is left?"

While the cartoons have infuriated Muslims, the regional dynamics underlying the conflict have been evolving for decades, during which leaders have tried to stall the rise of Islamic political appeal by trying to establish themselves as guardians of the faith.

In the end, political analysts around the region say that governments have resorted to the very practices that helped the rise of Islamic political forces in the first place. They have placated the more extreme voices while arresting and silencing more moderate ones.

Jihad Khazen, a columnist for the pan-Arab newspaper Al Hayat, said: "The Islamists wanted to prove their strength. The government replied in kind, saying that we are all Muslims and we care about our religion, and I think the truth was trampled on in the process."

In Jordan, King Abdullah II, who has been trying to control the most extreme religious forces in the region, came out with such a powerful condemnation of Shihan, the newspaper Mr. Momani edited, that even some of his allies were taken aback.

The newspaper printed three cartoons without obscuring them, including one depicting the prophet in a turban shaped as a bomb with a burning fuse. Many of the king's supporters said he felt the need to respond as firmly as he did partly because of the rise of Hamas, which won parliamentary elections in Gaza, and to strip the Islamists in Jordan of an issue to rally around.

"What Shihan did was a corruption on earth, which cannot be accepted or excused under any circumstances," the Royal Court said in a statement.

But now there seems to be a growing concern and in some circles a degree of regret for unleashing a wave of anger that has claimed lives. In Jordan, authorities moved quickly to release the journalists from detention. In Libya, where spontaneous protests are unheard of, allowing protests over the cartoons seemed a safe bet for the authorities — until protesters began criticizing the government. At least 11 people were killed in clashes with the police.

Some of the world's most renowned Islamic religious leaders and scholars recently issued a declaration that, though sharply critical of the drawings, sought to rein in the violence and cautioned Muslims against becoming international pariahs. In so doing, they have begun to echo the sentiments of the journalists facing criminal charges.

"We appeal to all Muslims to exercise self-restraint in accordance with the teachings of Islam," the statement said. It added that "violent reactions" can lead to "our isolation from the global dialogue."

To many journalists, proof that Mr. Momani and Mr. Assadi face charges because of the region's broader political dynamics — and not because of the nature of the cartoons — can be found in Egypt.

cont'd next post.

[Shammu]

After all, Ahmed Abdel Maksoud and Youssra Zahran are free. They are journalists with the Egyptian weekly Al Fajr, one of the first Arab newspapers to publish the cartoons. They wrote a story about the caricatures and reprinted them in October — months before the conflict erupted — to condemn the drawings.

"The feelings of the Muslims are being exploited for some purpose," said Adel Hammoude, editor in chief of Al Fajr. "Religion is the easiest thing to use in provoking the people. Egyptians will never go out on the street in protest about what happened in the case of the sinking ferry or against corruption or this or that."

That thinking is widespread in Yemen, where three journalists languished in a squalid cell, escorted to court by machine-gun toting police. It is echoed in Jordan as well, where two journalists await trial.


Mr. Momani appears in court on Wednesday, while two of the Yemeni journalists were released Tuesday pending their trial. The third begins his trial on Wednesday.

Government officials in both countries say the journalists were arrested for having printed blasphemous cartoons. In Jordan, a spokesman said the king felt especially obligated, because his family is a direct descendant of the prophet.

"If freedom of the press affects national unity in a tribal system with high levels of illiteracy, one has to consider how far it can go," said Yemen's foreign minister, Dr. Abu Bakr al-Qirbi. "All societies have red lines."

But in Yemen, with presidential elections scheduled for September, many see a more political motive.

"They've now found a good reason to put us here — they say the public demanded it," said Mr. Assadi in an interview in his jail cell. "The Yemeni government has many reasons to arrest Yemeni journalists. They want to keep people busy as long as they can, so that they can cover over issues like corruption."

Mr. Assadi, who once worked as a part-time correspondent for The New York Times, is the editor of The Yemen Observer, an English-language paper owned by an adviser to Yemen's president. Mr. Assadi has been sharing a prison cell with Abdulkarim Sabra, the managing editor of the weekly Al Hurriya, and Yehiya al-Abed, a reporter for that paper.

The three stand accused of insulting their faith by publishing the images, a crime approaching heresy. In each case the intention was to condemn the drawings, and The Observer obscured the image with a black X. A fourth man, Kamal al-Aalafi, editor-in-chief of the weekly Al Rai al Aam, became a fugitive after escaping arrest for similar charges.

"When I saw all the demonstrations, I thought that Muslims should be able to see what the fuss was all about," said Mr. Sabra during an interview in jail. "I condemned them; I said these drawings don't represent our prophet, burn them."

The Yemen Observer had called for Muslims to accept the apology of Jyllands-Posten, the Danish newspaper that first printed the caricatures, and urged Muslims to avoid violence. Mr. Assadi said that call was especially unpopular with the government and the Islamists. The Observer recalled its print run and republished a new issue just two days after the initial publication, but to no avail.

"Anyone who insults the prophet must face the sword," said one imam in a recent Friday sermon in Yemen. Another announced, "The government must execute them."

In Jordan, Mr. Momani is free from jail, but a prisoner in his home. He has no work, no immediate prospects, a criminal case against him and a lifetime of friends who privately support his message but say they dare not support him publicly.

Mr. Momani was not the first to print the cartoons in Jordan. Hisham Khalidi, whose newspaper, Al Mehwar, printed the cartoons a week earlier with a story condemning them, is awaiting trial.

But Mr. Momani's timing was particularly bad, just one week after the Hamas victory in Gaza, political analysts said. Jordanian officials expelled Hamas leaders years ago and saw their recent victory as a potential threat to national stability.

From the beginning, Mr. Momani felt the cartoon issue was being manipulated by Islamic groups eager to flex their muscles, and he asked his readers to consider why the protests began so many months after publication. He says he did not expect such a backlash, but that in hindsight, he understands why the authorities acted as they did.

"They wanted to show the Islamic movement that they are the defenders of the prophet" Mr. Momani said in an interview. "They used me."

Mr. Momani expressed exasperation when asked why he printed the cartoons. He insisted that it was the work of journalists to inform, and that he did so after speaking to many people who were outraged without ever seeing the cartoons.

"I am telling my people, 'Be rational, think before you go into the streets,' " he said. "Who harms Islam more? This European guy who paints Muhammad or the real Muslim guy who cuts a hostage's head off and says, 'Allah-u akbar?' Who insults our religion, this guy or the European guy?"
Furor Over Cartoons Pits Muslim Against Muslim

"Anyone who insults the prophet must face the sword," said one imam in a recent Friday sermon in Yemen. Another announced, "The government must execute them."

Stick your prophet in your nose, and sneeze hard........ DW

[Shammu]

01:30 24/02/2006            
Iran and Syria sign sweeping economic, trade cooperation agreements
By The Associated Press

DAMASCUS, Syria - After consolidating political ties, regional allies Syria and Iran moved Thursday to strengthen economic ties by signing a host of cooperation agreements in the fields of economy, trade, oil, agriculture and others.

Syrian Prime Minister Naji al-Otari said at a joint press conference with visiting Iranian Vice-President Parziv Davoudi that the agreements included one for favored trade between the two countries, and another for establishing gas, oil, railroad and electrical links between Syria and Iran through neighboring Iraq.

Memorandums of understanding were also signed spelling joint cooperation in the fields of electric power and a program for cultural, scientific and educational cooperation. An agreement for agricultural cooperation was also signed, al-Otari said.

Davoudi is accompanied by a high ranking delegation which includes a number of cabinet ministers and senior political as well as economic officials.

Syrian Economy Minister Amer Lutfi said recently that trade between Iran and Syria stood at $60 million, $57 million of them Iranian exports to Syria.

Iran and Syria both face international pressure and the threat of sanctions, and have forged an alliance that was consolidated last month during a visit by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad to the Syrian capital Damascus.

The alliance is increasingly crucial in light of Iran's standoff with the West over its nuclear program and the threat to refer it to the UN Security Council and Syria's own troubles over a U.N. investigation that implicated it in the assassination of a Lebanese politician.

Al-Otari reiterated Thursday that Syria supports Iran's right to acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. He said he discussed with Davoudi the situation in the region and condemned what he described as the "defamation campaigns" against Syria and Iran.

Iran and Syria sign sweeping economic, trade cooperation agreements

My note; And so it begins, the start of the muslim horde.