(JTA) A film on Islamic extremism sponsored by a Zionist group sold out its screening in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
I've been invited and have accepted a coveted membership in this powerful organization.
They have set up cameras and alarms, among others. Leaders' safety is also a concern.
(CAIR) Most Southern California mosques have spent more for security -- including lights, cameras, alarms and guards -- because of increased vandalism after Sept. 11, said Hussam Ayloush, a Corona resident and executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations' Southern California chapter. Mosques and Islamic centers no longer stay open around the clock, he said.
In the wake of Sept. 11, CAIR has especially encouraged mosques to develop good relationships with their neighbors, Ayloush said.
"Muslims tend to trust more that the neighbors would be the first line of defense," he said. "Muslims count on God's protection, too."
They call it "the Killing Compound" – the area of Camp 22 in North Korea's largest concentration camp.JERUSALEM (WorldNetDaily) – Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will express his reservations about Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's plan to evacuate most of Judea and Samaria in a meeting next week with the Israeli leader, a top Egyptian official told WorldNetDaily.
The official said Egypt views the Israeli unilateral retreat as a possible threat to its security and to that of regional ally Jordan. He said Mubarak favors the Israeli government conducting negotiations with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Political spokesmen for Egypt and Israel announced this week Olmert and Mubarak will meet Sunday in the Red Sea resort of Sharm al-Sheikh. The scheduled talks are the latest round of diplomatic presentations by Olmert regarding his withdrawal plan, which seeks to evacuate most of Judea and Samaria – mountainous territory within rocket firing range of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and the country's international airport.
Judea and Samaria also is commonly referred to as the West Bank.
"Egypt is continually threatened by the anarchy in the Gaza Strip," said an Egyptian official. "Elements in Gaza have aided and abetted plotters of terror attacks against our land and sovereignty. A unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank could bring similar anarchy on a larger scale there and spill over into (neighboring) Jordan."
The official spoke on condition of anonymity, claiming an on-the-record interview concerning Olmert's evacuation plan could "complicate Egyptian diplomatic relationships."
He said Mubarak supports the American-backed Road Map, which calls for the Palestinians to fight terrorism and for an eventual Israeli-Palestinian negotiated settlement. (now this is the most bizarre statement ever - ed.)
"We don't support Israeli unilateral moves. Mubarak will make that clear to Olmert during the visit," the official said. [...]
Palestinian security sources close to Hamas told WND Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood leader Mahdi Akif has been serving as a replacement Hamas spiritual leader since Israel assassinated former spiritual leader Ahmed Yassin in March 2004.
Multiple Brotherhood leaders in Egypt have stated many times their group is strengthened by Israel's Gaza withdrawal and Hamas' ascension to power. They have said they wish to stage a similar takeover of Egypt.
The Egyptian official speaking to WND also said the Jordanian government has asked Mubarak to express Jordan's reservations about Olmert's planned Judea and Samaria withdrawal during next week's meeting.
Jordan's King Abdullah earlier this month reportedly made a similar request in a letter sent to President Bush urging the American leader to press Olmert toward Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Bush and Olmert met last week in Washington.
Abdullah reportedly told Bush he fears an Israeli withdrawal could threaten his country.
Earlier this month, Jordanian officials announced security officers caught a large arms cache smuggled into the country by Hamas members. Jordanian television broadcast confessions by three Hamas militants who said they smuggled the arms for possible attacks against Jordanian officials and interests.
Hamas, which stands to gain from a Judea and Samaria withdrawal, has a history of anti-Jordan activity. Officials there say they caught several other arms caches in the past belonging to the terror group. Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal, a Jordanian citizen, was expelled in 1999 along with other leaders after a crackdown on the group following accusations of illegal activities. [...]
The apartheid state of Israel is on the way down, too. They are living in straight-up fear, and it’s about time that they live in fear. I’m told that they’re afraid to get on buses and things, or go to the café…The people who you are fighting are coming to die. Meanwhile, you are coming to live. And once you deal with a people who are ready to die, who say either victory or martyrdom, you can’t fight against that.
This clear justification for terrorizing civilians was met with resounding cries of “Allahu Akbar!” by the Muslim students in attendance.
The fact that suicide bombers typically give this same shout of “God is great!” before blowing themselves up raises the question: Could these Muslim students in sleepy Irvine, California, become future terrorists? The FBI apparently thinks so.
The Orange County Register reports, “the FBI appears to be actively studying Muslim student groups at UCI as part of an intense surveillance program to detect potential terrorists.” Pat Rose, head of the FBI’s Orange County al-Qaeda squad, says that the agency is aware of many Muslims at UC-Irvine and the University of Southern California.
If recent history is a reliable guide, the FBI is wise to be focusing attention on college campuses. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, America has been attacked since 9/11. Mohammad Taheri-azar injured six people on March 3, when he drove his SUV into a crowd of students at the University of North Carolina. Although the recent UNC graduate made it abundantly clear that he acted in the name of Allah, Chancellor James Moeser assured the public that while “this could feel like terrorism,” he had come to the conclusion that “this was one individual acting alone in a criminal act.”
Even Moeser wouldn’t deny that the attacks of September 11 were terrorist acts. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a captured al-Qaeda operative, clearly had jihad on his mind when he organized 9/11 and the U.S.S. Cole attack. This terrorist also has a connection to universities in North Carolina. Mohammed attended Chowan College in Murfreesburo, NC, in the 1980s. There he associated with a group of radical Muslim students known as “The Mullahs.” Later, at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, he studied mechanical engineering – a practical major for an aspiring terrorist mastermind.
Another mechanical engineering student was arrested on March 23, 2006. U.S. authorities claim that while Syed Haris Ahmed attended Georgia Tech, he provided material support to terrorists. Mahmoud Maawad, a student from Egypt who attended the University of Memphis, was arrested in 2005 after a pilot's uniform, chart of Memphis International Airport and a DVD entitled "How an Airline Captain Should Look and Act" were found in his apartment.
Why are college campuses such fertile ground for budding jihadists? One reason is that Muslim student groups are staunch supporters of Islamic extremism. The Muslim Student’s Association (MSA) was created in 1963 by the government of Saudi Arabia. Today the Saudi’s Wahhabi Muslim politics are disseminated at the more than 150 colleges across North America with MSA chapters. In his essay “The Missing Link in the War on Terror: Confronting Saudi Subversion,” Alex Alexiev of the Center for Security Policy points out, “The majority of Muslim Student Associations at U.S. colleges are dominated by Islamist and anti-American agendas, as are most of the numerous Islamic centers and schools financed by the Saudis.”
Meanwhile, tenured radical professors impart a multicultural dogma to their students that makes it all too easy to justify Islamic terrorism. At an “antiwar” teach-in in 2003, Columbia anthropology professor Nicholas De Genova said, “The only true heroes are those who find ways that help defeat the U.S. military. I personally would like to see a million Mogadishus.” The popular (at least in “peace studies” classes) text Peace and Conflict Studies by Professors David Barash and Charles Webel teaches students: “Placing ‘terrorist’ in quotation marks may be jarring for some readers, who consider the designation self-evident. We do so, however, not to minimize the horror of such acts but to emphasize the value of qualifying righteous indignation by the recognition that often one person’s ‘terrorist’ is another’s ‘freedom fighter.” Indeed, sometimes it feels our universities are being run by our enemies. Rahmatullah Hashemi, former deputy foreign secretary of the Taliban, surely feels right at home now as a student at Yale, one of the top universities in the country.
Common sense alone would dictate to terrorist organizations the advantages of infiltrating such hospitable locales as college campuses. In fact, European officials claim that there is currently a wide effort underway by terrorist groups to use universities to replace terrorist training camps in Afghanistan. The Los Angeles Times recently ran a story about a suspected terrorist cell at the University of Montpellier in France. It consisted of a group of Moroccan students who were studying computer technology, electronics and telecommunications. These classes were not taken to improve the men’s job prospects in France’s anemic economy, but rather as cover for acquiring expertise and designing explosive detonators for the Algeria-based Salafist Group for Call and Combat. The terrorist organization has ties with Abu Musah Zarqawi and is focused on sending martyrs to Iraq and planning strikes on Europe. Arrests in France last year revealed that the group was planning attacks in Bologna and Paris.
Of the suspected terrorists at the university, a French anti-terrorism official said:
They oriented their scientific studies to learn terrorist techniques. As people like this acquire knowledge and advance in the scientific community, they could become very hard for the police to detect. It was all quite sophisticated.
The 9/11 hijackers used American flight schools to prepare for the deadliest attack in the nation’s history. In retrospect, the fact that they were not interested in learning how to land planes was a dead giveaway of their evil intentions. With its increased surveillance of radical Muslim students at American universities like UC-Irvine, the FBI seems to realize that justifying terrorism might be another clue.
PARIS, May 30 (New York Times) — About 150 masked youths brandishing sticks and baseball bats clashed with the police late Monday night and early Tuesday in two suburbs east of Paris, the worst such violence since the unrest that reverberated through France in November.
Bands of youths attacked the home of the mayor of Montfermeil, a suburb with large populations of Arab and African immigrants east of Paris, then moved on to the local city hall. There were also clashes with the police in Clichy-sous-Bois, the grim suburb where last fall's unrest began. The latest clashes seemed to echo that three-week wave of urban violence.
The attacks began about 10:30 Monday night in Montfermeil when dozens of youths began throwing stones at Mayor Xavier Lemoine's house, then attacked police officers with bats and rocks. The police shot rubber bullets at the rioters, the police and officials at city hall said. Three people were arrested.
About 100 youths then headed to city hall and threw stones, breaking three windows and the glass doors of the building. They tossed firebombs at a gardening shed on the grounds, but an attempt to set fire to city hall itself failed, said a Montfermeil official who spoke on condition that her name not be used.
The official said the violence was set off by the arrest on Monday afternoon of a local youth accused of assaulting a bus driver. Mayor Lemoine had intervened in the assault and later identified some of suspects, who then retaliated against his home, the official said. But Agence France-Presse later reported that the arrested youth was a suspect in a robbery, not the attack on the bus driver.
Montfermeil and Clichy-sous-Bois were among the many working-class Paris suburbs that were engulfed in the wave of unrest in November.
Unemployment, as high as 40 percent among the young, and a sense of hopelessness pervades what many consider to be ghettos for sub-Saharan and North African immigrants. Despite government measures to alleviate joblessness among the young, not much has changed since November.
Early Tuesday morning, the fighting between youths and the police spilled into public housing projects in Clichy-sous-Bois, which is next to Montfermeil. Five cars were set on fire. About 300 security officers were called in to contain the unrest, and nine were slightly wounded, a police spokeswoman said. [...]
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - The Iraqi government said Tuesday it has captured a key terror suspect who allegedly confessed to hundreds of beheadings. Ahmed Hussein Dabash Samir al-Batawi was arrested by a terrorist combat unit on Monday in Baghdad, according to the prime minister's office.
RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) - In a back-alley interview, the top Hamas enforcer in the Gaza Strip railed against the U.S. government, said he's happy whenever American soldiers are killed and vowed not to take Hamas' 3,000-strong militia off the streets.PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia (Reuters) - Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar on Monday rejected as a waste of time and money a referendum President Mahmoud Abbas has threatened to call unless Hamas changes its policy toward Israel.
Zahar is a senior Hamas leader and his remarks were the Islamic militant group's clearest rejection yet of a referendum, underlining the widening rift between Abbas's Fatah faction and Hamas, the governing party since it won elections in January.
"Nobody will recognize Israel. There is no need for a referendum," Zahar, reiterating Hamas's long-held policy toward the Jewish state, told Reuters during a visit to Malaysia for a meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement.
"We are not afraid of a referendum but it's a waste of time and money," he said. [...]
PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia (AP) - The foreign minister of the Hamas-led Palestinian government has withdrawn from an international meeting in Malaysia, apparently in protest over the attendance of his rival from the Fatah faction, a top Malaysian official said Monday.
Mahmoud Zahar had earlier hailed his presence at the two-day ministerial meeting of the Nonaligned Movement, which began Monday, as Hamas' first participation in a high-profile international event.
However, Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said Zahar pulled out of the meeting after Farouk Kaddoumi of the rival Fatah party arrived in Malaysia. [...]
Gaza (BBC News) - Members of a controversial Hamas militant force have made a limited reappearance on the streets of Gaza.GAZA May 26, 2006 (Reuters) — Palestinian factions on Saturday will discuss a plan for a state and implicitly recognizing Israel, which President Mahmoud Abbas will put to a referendum unless it is accepted in 10 days. [...]
Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, a senior Hamas leader, had said earlier the government would make no political concessions.
"We will not recognize the legitimacy of the occupation, we will not renounce resistance and we will not recognize unjust (interim peace) agreements," Haniyeh said at a Gaza mosque, though he made no statements directly rejecting the plan. [...]
The plan Abbas wants Palestinian groups to adopt calls for a peace deal if Israel withdraws from all of the West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem, occupied since the 1967 Middle East war.
Israel has not commented on the proposal but Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said that in the absence of peace talks he would press ahead with unilaterally setting Israel's borders, which Palestinians see as a land grab.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. May 26, 2006 (AP) — A soldier said he was only showing his gratitude when gave his Purple Heart to a 13-year-old student being honored for winning a contest for writing letters to American troops.Israel Military Industries (IMI)
The system uses a fixed radar sensor, mounted on the protected platform, to detect potential threats, measure distance and trajectory, providing the fire control system with data for calculates engagement plans. When a threat is identified as imminent, an explosive projectile interceptor is launched toward it. The interceptor, shaped similar to a small mortar bomb, is designed to defeat the threat even when flying in very close proximity. Unlike other systems, the Iron Fist uses only the blast effect to defeat the threat, crushing the soft components of a shaped charge or deflecting and destabilizing the missile or kinetic rod in their flight. The interceptor is made of combustible envelope, fully consumed in the explosion. Without the risk of shrapnel, Iron Fist provides an effective, close-in protection for vehicles operating in dense, urban environment. The use of close proximity, rather than "hit to kill" mechanism avoids complex interception techniques and contributes to reduced cost.By Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook
FrontPageMagazine.com | May 26, 2006
"Adolf Hitler, while exciting the Germans of the Sudetenland - the Sudetenland is a German province that the Allies had annexed to Czechoslovakia after the First World War - told them in his broadcasts: Look at what the Palestinian revolutionaries are doing to Great Britain!!"
[Al-Rissala (Hamas Weekly), May 18, 2006]
Overview: Admiration of Hitler in the Palestinian Authority:
It may be surprising to Western observers to see Palestinians taking pride in having been praised by Hitler. But it is important to understand that the utter revulsion of Hitler expected in the West is not true in Palestinian society. Palestinians can be found who are named "Hitler" as a first name: Hitler Salah [Al Hayat Al Jadida, Sept. 28, 2005], Hitler Abu-Alrab [Al Hayat Al Jadida, Jan. 27, 2005], Hitler Mahmud Abu-Libda [Al Hayat Al Jadida, Dec.18, 2000].
This phenomenon of Palestinians being named after Hitler was explained in an article in the official PA daily praising the rewriting of history and the doing of "justice" to Hitler:
"Even Adolf Hitler, who after the fall of Nazi Germany turned into a political horror for most of the writers and artists, during the last decades has started to return himself to his part of the picture. There are some in Britain who defended Hitler and tried to do justice for him. There are elderly people, among them Arabs, who still carry the name Hitler since their fathers, who were charmed by him, linked them [their children] with his name."
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 13, 2000]
One article explained the phenomenon of naming Palestinians after admired foreign leaders - such as Napoleon and the Nazi General Rommel:
"Sometimes parents name their children with foreign names, due to the father's admiration to a foreign personality. This is the source of the names: Rommel [famous Nazi General] and Napoleon."
[Al-Ayyam, November 15, 2001 "Woman's Voice" supplement].
The admiration for Hitler is consistent with the status of Mein Kampf, which a PA daily cited as a book on the best sellers' list.
[Al Hayat Al Jadida, Sept. 2, 1999].
[Hitler with Husseini] [Husseini inspects Nazi troops]
A contributing factor to this admiration may be the history of the Hitler - Arab alliance during World War 2. The Arab leader in British Palestine, the Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini, was actively allied with Hitler. The numerous meetings between the Mufti and Hitler are well documented.
Finally, the PA daily published an interview with an elderly Lebanese which described the man's professed friendship with Hitler, as well as his pride in fighting for Hitler: And whereas this is a personal account whose historical accuracy is not important, what is significant is the positive, even proud attitude about his friendship with Hitler, that is being expressed so routinely.
Interview with Sheikh Ali Hussain Abu-Ibrahim, a Palestinian resident of Lebanon who claims he is 116 years old:
"Question: What are the important events in your life that left the biggest impression?
Answer: The first was the Hitler event. I met him in Jerusalem in one of the Turkish Army camps, and the friendship between us was very tight. At the time I was a sergeant while Hitler was a simple private. The relationship between us tightened even more once Turkey entered the war together with Germany. The second event was when I participated [with the Nazi army] in entering France and conquering it. I was in charge of the cannon that shelled Paris, which had an active influence on the fall of the French capital and its conquest without any notable resistance. Hitler congratulated me on this shelling and its consequences… As an artillery officer I took part in many operations against the English and France, until the end of the Second World-War …"
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 12, 2003]
Clearly, the name Hitler does not have the stigma in PA society that it has in the West. Indeed, not only the Hamas daily, but the Fatah controlled PA dailies as well, have written in favorable tones about Hitler. Clearly, to some Palestinians the man and his name are sources of admiration.
NEW YORK, May 24 (JTA) — American Jews and their Red Cross allies are holding their breath as Judgment Day for Israel’s emergency services operation inches closer.
GAZA CITY (AP) - A gunfight between a Palestinian security force and a Hamas militia Thursday killed one police officer and wounded four others in the latest outbreak of internal Palestinian fighting, doctors and witnesses said.Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told a joint meeting of Congress on Wednesday that Israel would be a "willing partner in peace" with the Palestinians, but would draw its own borders in the West Bank should it conclude it has no negotiating partner.
"We cannot wait for the Palestinians forever," Olmert told members of the House and Senate gathered in the House chamber.
"Our deepest wish is to build a better future for our region, hand in hand with a Palestinian partner, but if not, we will move forward, but not alone," he said, alluding to promised U.S. support.
Olmert drew a sustained standing ovation when he declared, "We will not yield to terror," a reference to suicide attacks on Israelis such as those that killed a 16-year-old American high school student observing the Passover holiday in Israel this year. Daniel Wultz's parents sat in the House chamber, sobbing, as Olmert mentioned their son.
Olmert also drew long applause for tough words condemning whet he said is Iran's drive to build nuclear weapons and the escalating anti-Semitic rhetoric from its leader.
"If we don't take Iran's bellicose rhetoric seriously now, we will be forced to take its nuclear aggression seriously later," the prime minister said.
Olmert said the West Bank withdrawal is vital to Israel's security and the cause of peace and cannot go forward without U.S. support.
In a policy shift on Tuesday, the White House gave unexpected backing to Israel's plan to unilaterally set its borders with the Palestinians should their new Hamas leaders refuse to disarm and renounce their call for Israel's destruction. [...]
Washington Tue May 23 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Tuesday cautiously embraced what he called Israeli leader Ehud Olmert's "bold ideas" for the future of the West Bank but said talks with the Palestinians were preferable to unilateral moves.
The president's comments, after a White House summit with Olmert, opened the door for the prime minister to lay the groundwork for his plan to redraw the Jewish settlement map in the occupied territory with or without Palestinian agreement.
At a news conference, Bush also repeated a pledge to come to Israel's aid if it was attacked, a promise Israeli commentators have termed a subtle warning not to take military action against arch-enemy Iran in the current nuclear crisis.
Olmert won a March election, calling for the removal of remote Jewish settlements in the West Bank while keeping larger enclaves and imposing a border if peace efforts remain frozen.Palestinians, now under a government led by the Islamic militant group Hamas, have condemned the plan, saying it would deny them a viable state.
"Today, Prime Minister Olmert shared with me some of his ideas. I would call them bold ideas," Bush said, raising the possibility they could serve as an alternative if there was no progress soon on a U.S.-sponsored peace "road map."
Bush, possibly wary of alienating Arab and European allies, repeated that Washington preferred a negotiated settlement in the Middle East.
"I believe, and Prime Minister Olmert agrees, that a negotiated final-status agreement best serves the Israelis and the Palestinians and the cause of peace," Bush said.
In a briefing later to reporters who accompanied him from Israel to Washington, Olmert said, "I am very, very, very satisfied with the president's comments." [...]
Another handful of followers of the Religion of Peace™ are arrested on terrorism charges.
LONDON May 25, 2006 (Sunday Times) - TEN people suspected of facilitating terrorism were held by police following pre-dawn raids in northern England in a major operation involving about 500 officers.
Britain's domestic Press Association news agency quoted unnamed sources as saying those detained were Libyan, while the BBC said it was believed the arrests related to the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG).
Two offices belonging to the Sanabel Relief Agency (SRA) registered charity (yeah, we know what Islamic charities are - ed.) - one in Birmingham, west central England, and another in the north-western city of Manchester - were among a number of properties raided.
Police confirmed one of those arrested was 44-year-old Taher Nasuf.
Nasuf was named by the United States earlier this year as a "middle-ranking member of the LIFG", a group it said which has links to the al-Qaeda terror network.
Born in the Libyan capital Tripoli, he is said to be one of three trustees and a director of the SRA, whose mission statement is to "aid and relieve Muslims in the destitute parts of the world", according to its website.
The US State Department, which also named four other Libyans allegedly involved with the LIFG, claimed the SRA and three other British-based real estate agencies were "instruments used to funnel resources" to the proscribed group.
Greater Manchester Police's Anti-Terrorist Unit coordinated the raids with help from a number of other police forces and Britain's domestic security agency MI5.
First reports said eight people were arrested, but police later updated this to nine.
Two of those detained were later released before police announced a 10th person had been arrested in the Manchester area.
Of the eight still in custody, five have been detained under the Immigration Act 1971, which gives the home secretary powers to deport foreign nationals whose presence in Britain is deemed "not conducive to the public good for reasons of national security".
The three others were being held under the Terrorism Act, police said.
Is it popcorn time yet? If things are going to keep up like that, then it certainly is.
GAZA CITY Wednesday, May 24, 2006 (AP) -- A Gaza security chief loyal to moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was killed in a car bomb Wednesday, security officials said, the second attack on security commanders in volatile Gaza in less than a week.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. The attack came during an increasingly bloody power struggle between the Hamas government and Abbas.
Abbas is a member of the previous ruling movement, Fatah. A power struggle began between Fatah and the Hamas party after Hamas was the surprise winner of a January parliamentary election. It formed a government several weeks later to replace Fatah, the movement that ruled Palestinian politics for decades under the firm hand of Yasser Arafat, who died in 2004.
Abbas, elected to replace Arafat in January 2005, has another three years to serve as president, regardless of who controls the cabinet. He has been systematically trying to reduce Hamas power.
The new Hamas security force has been clashing with Fatah fighters in Gaza as the rivals compete for control of the Palestinian territory.
The security chief killed Wednesday was identified as Nabil Hodhod, head of the elite Preventive Security Service in central Gaza.
Security officials said Hodhod had just gotten into his car when a bomb went off. Hodhod was killed and his deputy wounded by the blast, the officials said.
(BBC NEWS) A UN envoy is investigating reports of a sharp rise in the number of women committing suicide in Turkey.A-Zahar spits on officer who demands wagesGaza (Ynetnews) Verbal scuffle erupts as Palestinian foreign minister waits at Rafah crossing to enter Egypt when policeman asks minister’s chauffeur to inquire when employees would be paid their salaries. A-Zahar reportedly unleashes string of curses and the two nearly come to blows
At the climax of an atypical verbal scuffle, which broke out Tuesday morning at the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud a-Zahar spit in the face of a police officer who demanded his wages.
When a-Zahar arrived at the crossing on his way to Egypt, from where he planned to tour various destinations in Asia, he heard a police officer at the border request of his driver to ask when salaries – which haven’t been paid since the beginning of March – would be paid.
The crossing manager, Samir Abu Nahala, told London’s pan-Arab newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi that he heard the officer tell the chauffeur: “Tell him to fix our salaries when he’s on these trips that he’s taking.”
According to Abu Nahala, these words enraged a-Zahar, who screamed at the policeman “You aren’t civilized” and spit in his face. A similar version of the story was recounted by police who were on the scene. Border police hurried to interfere, and pulled away the police officer after the two started cursing at each other and even pushing.
The report said that a-Zahar then returned to his car, called someone and demanded that “this policeman be educated.”
“Teach him manners,” he said, according to witnesses. The officer reportedly gave a-Zahar his full name and details after the minister threatened to take steps against him.
'Insult to Palestinian government'
But the story didn’t end here. According to Abu Nahal, a short time afterwards, some 50 armed gunmen from the Izz a-Din al-Qassam brigades, Hamas’ armed wing, along with members of the new security unit established by Hamas, showed up at the crossing and spread out in the territory for some 45 minutes. In addition, a senior official in the Foreign Ministry instructed that the policeman‘s behavior be immediately investigated owing to his lack of manners and his “unbecoming conduct” towards the foreign minister.
The minister’s media advisor, Taher al-Nunu, confirmed the incident and said that it happened after the policeman demanded, “Are you going to bring money or what?!” which riled a-Zahar. A source in the Palestinian Foreign Ministry added that the argument erupted after the policeman “insulted a-Zahar and the Palestinian government, attempted to humiliate him and make mockery of the government and its efforts, and behaved very rudely towards the minister.”
The police officer, Tahrir Lafi, 30, told a-Sharq al-Awsat, which is published in London, that when a-Zahar’s car stopped at one of the main gates of the Rafah crossing which he was guarding: “I asked the driver, my friend Muhammad al-Hindi to ask the minister when our wages would be paid, and he heard me. He opened his window and unleashed a stream of curses at me, spit on me and threatened to murder me."
Click the embedded audio link and let it play while you're reading.
2TerroristsPalestinians Dead, 30 Wounded in Clashes
(AP) Fierce gunbattles broke out Wednesday between Israeli troops and Palestinians in the heart of the West Bank city of Ramallah, killing twoarmed terroristsPalestinians and wounding 30, Palestinian officials said.
The clashes erupted when troops entered the city to arrest wanted militants and were attacked by militants and rock-throwingterrorists in trainingPalestinians, Palestinian security officials and the army said.
Palestinian police said an undercover Israeli unit driving a sedan was fired on byterroristsmilitants before the car was eventually set ablaze. The army said its forces were confronted by a huge riot and gunfire.
Israel said it arrested a top Islamic Jihad leader, Mohammed al Shubaki. Islamic Jihad, in a telephone call to The Associated Press, confirmed the arrest, and Palestinian officials said fiveterroristsmilitants in total were arrested.
TV video showed the streets of central Ramallah deserted except for a few jeeps as smoke rose from nearby buildings.
Israeli Humvees took up positions around the main traffic circle in the center of town, asterrorists in trainingteenage boys poked their heads out of a hiding place behind a nearby building to throw stones at the soldiers.
As the Israelis began pulling out of the square, they were pelted with hundreds of rocks, and a mob of people flooded the streets, chasing the departing jeeps and pelting them with stones.Terrorists in trainingBoys on rooftops hurled rocks at the army vehicles below.
The square was completely covered in stones.Filthy Parasites™ Palestinians then flooded into the streets, and a group of people carried a man who was apparently wounded into an ambulance.
The fighting killed twoFilthy Parasites™ Palestinians, including one who was shot in the eye with a live bullet, and wounded at least 30 others, many of whom were hit by rubber bullets, hospital officials said.
The army said its forces hit one armed man and were not aware of any other casualties. One soldier was slightly wounded by a rock, the army said.
ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) - An emotional Lee Boyd Malvo testified Tuesday against his former partner in the 2002 sniper attacks and said John Allen Muhammad told him “we’re going to terrorize these people.”Three
Pakistani MuslimAsian men have been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a 23-year-old black IT worker during riots in Birmingham.
Isaiah Young-Sam was trying to avoid the rioting in Lozells last October, when he was stabbed in the heart.
Waqar Ahmed, 26, Azhil Khan, 23, and Afzal Khan, 22, from Handsworth, had denied murder. They were told they would serve a minimum of 25 years.
The judge said Isaiah was killed for no other reason than his skin colour.
Mob violence
Passing sentence, Mr Justice Mackay said: "The four men (Isaiah, his brother and two friends) were set upon because they were Afro-Caribbean and for no other reason.
"They had done nothing to these defendants and done nothing to incur or justify hostility.
"What led to the death of Isaiah Young-Sam was the colour of his skin."
The defendants were fuelled by the mob violence which they could have resisted, he added.
Isaiah's mother, Murna McLean, described his killers as "animals".
There were cries of "they're innocent" from the public gallery as the jury returned its unanimous verdict on Monday.
Mr Justice McKay warned members of the defendants' families they would be asked to leave if they continued to call out.
The court heard how two or three cars pulled up in front of the victim and his friends as they made their way through back streets of Lozells.
A group of men wearing hoodies and bandanas got out and chased them. Mr Young-Sam, a computer analyst for Birmingham City Council, fell behind and was attacked.
The defendants were also convicted, and given 10 years to run concurrently, for attacking Mr Young-Sam's friend, Locksley Byfield, who suffered a non life-threatening stab wound to the backside in the incident which took place during the evening of 22 October, 2005.
The jury was told how the defendants went to Huddersfield just hours after the attack and returned to Birmingham the next day where they booked one-way tickets to Pakistan.They were stopped in Dubai en route to Pakistan and returned to Britain where they were arrested.
They claimed a fourth man, who cannot be named, wielded the knife which killed Mr Young-Sam.
In mitigation, their defence barristers said they were men of previous good character who got caught up in the contagious atmosphere of escalating community tensions.
Kavina Young-Sam, 22, Isaiah's sister, said her brother was a kind, fun-loving, humble and respectful young man who always gave off a pleasant vibe.
She said: "His interests included going to the gym, leisure time on his computer and listening to music.
"One of his more serious interests was in his Bible, which had a big impact on how he lived his life and how he dealt with others in such a fair and positive manner."
Rape allegation
She added: "My parents, my brother and myself will never come to terms with the vicious attack and murder of Isaiah and cannot understand how people could take the life of such an innocent young man."
The disturbances in Lozells, said to be the worst in the area for 20 years, were thought to have been sparked by rumours alleging a West Indian girl had been raped by a gang ofPakistani MuslimAsian men.
Police, who made appeals for the alleged victim to come forward, later said there was no evidence to suggest any rape had occurred.
Det Ch Insp Matthew Ward, who has led the investigation into Mr Young-Sam's murder said the inquiry was still ongoing.
Ten people had been arrested so far and officers are still looking into the circumstances of his stabbing.
Police are also continuing their investigations into the riot as a whole.
Meanwhile, the chief executive of Birmingham's Race Equality and Community Cohesion Council Dr Derrick Campbell says tensions still exist in Lozells.
He said: "We have seen a very sophisticated way of operating by thePakistani MuslimsAsian community who have got their act together, mobilised themselves, have established their businesses and they have done quite well.
"The black community particularly feel that they have been re-colonised by thePakistani MuslimAsian community."
Search engine giant Google has cut off its news relationship with a number of online news publications that include frank discussions of radical Islam – the New Media Journal becoming the latest termination. as its owner just discovered. Frank Salvato, who began the agreement with Google News last September, said he received a reply from the company's help desk Friday indicating there had been complaints of "hate speech" on his site, as first reported by media watchdog Newsbusters.org.
The e-mail, which cited three articles that dealt with radical Islam and its relationship to terrorism, read:
Hi Frank,Thanks for writing. We received numerous reports about hate content on your site, and after reviewing these reports, decided to remove your site from Google News. We do not allow articles and sources expressly promoting hate speech viewpoints in Google News (although referencing hate speech for commentary and analysis is acceptable).
For example, a number of the complaints we looked at on your site were found to be hate content:
http://www.newmediajournal.us/staff/peck/05102006.htm
http://www.newmediajournal.us/staff/stock/05082006.htm
http://www.newmediajournal.us/guest/imani/04222006.htmWe hope this helps you understand our position.
Regards,
The Google Team
Newsbusters says it has observed a pattern of intolerance toward conservative sites that deal with radical Islam and terrorism.
Rusty Shackleford, owner of The Jawa Report, received a similar e-mail message March 29 informing him: "Upon recent review, we've found that your site contains hate speech, and we will no longer be including it in Google News."
Two weeks later, Jim Sesi's MichNews.com was cut off, with Google providing three examples of "hate speech" by conservative writer J. Grant Swank, Jr.
Newsbusters commented: "At first blush, one can easily ignore such business decisions by the most powerful company on the Internet as being routine. However, on closer examination, such behavior could give one relatively small technological corporation (when measured by the size of its workforce) a degree of political might that frankly dwarfs its current financial prowess."
The media watchdog noted columnist and blogger Michelle Malkin wrote in February 2005 her difficulties in becoming part of Google News. Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs had a similar complaint.
When Google News launched its beta site in April 2002, it said its mission was to construct an unbiased news engine free of human intervention using new methods of aggregating news from sources worldwide.
According to the April Nielsen/NetRatings report, 49 percent of all searches conducted in the U.S. in March 2006 were carried out on Google.
Along with the dropping of conservative news providers, Google has received other complaints of liberal bias.
Last June, a conservative book publisher said Google rejected his ad for a book critical of Bill and Hillary Clinton while continuing to accept anti-Bush themes.
Eric Jackson, CEO of World Ahead, said his ads for "Their Lives: The Women Targeted by the Clinton Machine" were rejected, without further explanation, due to "unacceptable content."
As WND reported, 98 percent of all political donations by Google employees went to support Democrats.
CEO Eric Schmidt gave the maximum legal limit of donations to Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry and to primary candidate Howard Dean.
Schmidt also contributed the maximum amount to Sen. Clinton, whose role in helping her husband intimidate his female accusers is addressed in the new book.
In May 2005, Google rejected an attempt by the conservative activist group RightMarch.com to run ads critical of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., while continuing to run attack ads against besieged House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas.
Also, Google agreed to allow the communist Chinese government to have the search engine block "objectionable" search terms such as "democracy."
In addition, the company came under fire for an editorial decision to rank news articles in search results by "quality," giving preferential placement to large and predominately liberal media outlets such as CNN and the BBC over conservative news sources, even if they are more recent or pertinent.
RAMALLAH, West Bank May 23, 2006 (AP) — The West Bank commander of the Hamas military wing surrendered to Israeli troops Tuesday after they surrounded his hideout and threatened to demolish it with him inside.
Ibrahim Hamed emerged from the building before dawn and troops told him over a loudspeaker to strip to his underwear, witnesses said. Hamed complied, was cuffed and taken to a nearby building. Army officials said Hamed was armed and alone at the time of his capture.The army said Hamed, 41, masterminded attacks that killed 78 Israelis and wounded hundreds.
Hamed has been on Israel's wanted list since 1998, frequently evading capture. Hamed, a university graduate and influential leader, became the West Bank's commander of Izzedine al Qassam, the Hamas military wing, in December 2003.
Before dawn Tuesday, a dozen jeeps and two armored personnel carriers surrounded his hideout, an apartment building in downtown Ramallah, just 200 yards from the home of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Mohammed Azzam, 48, said he watched the arrest from his balcony facing the two-story building where Hamed was holed up. He said an army bulldozer rammed the door to the hideout, which consisted of two apartments over shops on the ground floor.
Using a loudspeaker, troops then called out Hamed's name in Arabic. They told Hamed they would demolish the building with him inside if he didn't surrender, Azzam said.
After Hamed was arrested, having removed his shirt and pants, soldiers entered the building and blew out doors and windows, as a robot searched for explosives.
The two apartments were sparsely furnished with bamboo chairs and mattresses. A reporter touring the hideout saw two copies of Newsweek magazine on the floor.
Palestinian militants surrendering to troops are routinely asked to strip to ensure they don't carry explosives.
The Israeli army said Hamed "masterminded some of the most deadly terror attacks against Israel in recent years," including suicide bombings at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, an outdoor cafe in Jerusalem and a pool hall in central Israel. Hamas has observed an informal truce with Israel since February 2005.
For some time, Hamed was held in a Palestinian jail for involvement in the Hamas military wing, but was released in 2002, during a major Israeli military offensive in the West Bank. Hamed graduated from the West Bank's Bir Zeit University in 1993, with degrees in history and political science, his nephew Ayman said.
Hamed grew up in the West Bank village of Silwad, and belongs to the same clan as Khaled Mashaal, the top Hamas leader based in Damascus.
WASHINGTON, May 22 (UPI) -- As concerns rise over Iran's nuclear program, U.S. security agents reportedly fear the Hezbollah terror group may be planning to attack U.S. cities.AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — Jordan announced Monday the arrest of an unidentified leader of the Al Qaeda in Iraq militant group, saying the man was responsible for kidnapping Jordanians and Arabs and robbing commercial trucks driving between the kingdom and Iraq.
"He has committed several crimes," said the announcement on Jordanian state television.
It said Jordanian intelligence agents have taken the suspected militant into custody, but did not say when or provide other details.
The announcement said details of his operations would be aired on television in a special program Thursday night.
No other details were immediately available.
(AP) Hamas gunmen traded heavy fire with Palestinian police near the parliament building in Gaza City on Monday, killing the driver of Jordan's ambassador in Gaza and wounding three people.
The diplomat's car was hit by three bullets fired into the windshield. The ambassador was not in the vehicle when it came under fire. It was not clear whether the vehicle was a target or inadvertently drove into the battle.
During the fighting, Hamas gunmen, holed up in an abandoned building during the battle, fired a rocket-propelled grenade and threw two hand grenades at the police, witnesses said.
The killing of the driver brought to eight the number of deaths in internal fighting in Gaza this month. Hospital officials identified the driver as Khaled Radaida, 45, and said he was a Jordanian citizen. Two civilians and a policeman were wounded in the shootout, doctors said.
The fighting erupted in an area between the Palestinian parliament and police headquarters.
Security officials said the incident began when members of a new Hamas militia stopped a car carrying members of the Preventive Security Service, a branch loyal to moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Preventive Security officials said Hamas militiamen fired at the car. Earlier, witnesses had said the incident began when Hamas gunmen patrolling the streets came under fire and sought cover in the abandoned building.
A Palestinian police cruiser trying to approach the area came under fire, the witnesses said.
2nd Abbas Ally Is Targeted in 2 Days
(AP) Palestinian police thwarted an attack Sunday on a security commander - the second ally of President Mahmoud Abbas targeted in two days - as the rivalry between his moderate Fatah Party and the Hamas militant group threatened to explode.
Abbas called on both sides to do everything possible to avoid violence and said he would open talks with Hamas later this week to end the dangerous power struggle.
"Civil war is the red line that nobody dares cross, no matter which side they are on," Abbas told reporters at the World Economic Forum in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik. [...]
Osama group in boy slave racket
The Australian
Marie Colvin, Muridke, Pakistan
May 22, 2006
THE slave traders came for 10-year-old Akash Aziz as he played cops and robbers in his dusty village in eastern Punjab.
Akash, still in the maroon jumper and tie he had worn to school that day, was pretending to be a "robber".
But as he crouched behind a wall, waiting for the school friend designated as the "cop" to find him, a large man with a turban and a beard grabbed him from behind and clamped a cloth over his nose and mouth before he could cry for help.
He recalls a strange smell and a choking sensation. "Then I fainted," said Akash, a delicate little boy from a loving family who takes pride in his enthusiasm for English lessons.
Akash woke up in a dark room with a bare brick floor and no windows. The heat was suffocating. As he languished there over the next month, 19 other panic-stricken boys were thrown into the room with him.
The children, all Christians, had fallen into the hands of Gul Khan, a wealthy Islamic militant and leading member of Jamaat-ud Daawa, a group linked to the al-Qa'ida terrorist network.
Khan lives near Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, but when in the Punjab he stays at the JUD's headquarters in Muridke, near Lahore, where young men can be seen practising martial arts with batons on rolling green lawns patrolled by guards with Kalashnikovs.
Osama bin Laden funded the centre in the late 1990s.
The JUD, which claims to help the poor, says it has created a "pure Islamic environment" at Muridke that is superior to Western "depravity".
Khan's activities explode that myth. He planned to sell his young captives to the highest bidder, whether into domestic servitude or the sex trade. The boys knew only that they were for sale.
This is the story of the misery that Akash and his friends, aged six to 12, endured in captivity; of their rescue by Christian missionaries who bought their freedom and tried to expose the kidnappers; and of the children's reunions with their families, who had thought them dead.
So far, there have been a few puffs here and there but we are all waiting for the real thing. And the waiting is getting annoying... 
Tensions rise after Hamas aide caught with cash
Fri May 19, 2006
GAZA (Reuters) - Rival Palestinian forces faced off at Gaza's border crossing with Egypt on Friday after a Hamas official was caught with 639,000 euros (434,000 pounds) hidden in his clothing, authorities said.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh vowed during Friday prayers not to disband a new Hamas-led security force and said he was prepared to increase its size in defiance of President Mahmoud Abbas and the Bush administration.
About 100 Hamas gunmen raced to the Rafah crossing where Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri was caught with the money. Rafah is guarded by Abbas's presidential guard, raising fears of fresh Palestinian infighting after overnight clashes.
Abbas's elite guard also called in reinforcements.
Hamas said Abu Zuhri was carrying Arab donations for the new government, which is desperately short of funds, and for Palestinians in Israeli jails.
"Is it a crime to bring in money?" Haniyeh said, defending his spokesman. "Are the Palestinian people being forced to starve?"
Abu Zuhri told Reuters: "If bringing support for my people is a crime then I am very proud of this crime."
Abu Zuhri initially refused to leave the border terminal without the money, which was confiscated by Palestinian customs agents. He later left and the gunmen withdrew. The militant group said it expected the money to be quickly returned.
But senior Abbas aide Saeb Erekat said the president had ordered an investigation by the Palestinian attorney general.
Iran should also change its name to Islamonazi Republic of Iran. It's a lot more fitting.
TEHRAN, May 19 (UPI) -- Iran's parliament passed a new law this week that would force the country's Jews, Christians and other religious minorities to wear color-coded ID badges.
Iranian expatriates confirmed reports the Iranian parliament, or majlis, has approved a law that would require non-Muslims to adhere to a dress code which mandates they wear "standard Islamic garments," according to Canada's National Post.
The roughly 25,000 Jews living in the Islamic Republic would have to attach a yellow strip of cloth to their clothing, Christians would wear red badges and Zoroastrians would wear blue ones.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader and highest authority, must approve the law for it to take effect.
"This is reminiscent of the Holocaust," said Rabbi Marvin Hier, head of the Simon Weisenthal Center in Los Angeles. "Iran is moving closer and closer to the ideology of the Nazis."The Weisenthal Center has written to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to call on the international community to pressure Iran into abandoning the measure.
"There's no reason to believe they won't pass this," Hier told the Post. "It will certainly pass unless there's some sort of international outcry over this."
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has publicly called for Israel to be "wiped off the map." The West believes Tehran is secretly and illegally using its nuclear energy program to develop a weapon, a claim Iran denies.
So is it finally it?
Hamas force battles police in Gaza, 4 hurt
Thu May 18, 2006
GAZA (Reuters) - Palestinian police fought gunbattles in Gaza City on Friday with a new Hamas-led security force set up by the Islamist government in defiance of President Mahmoud Abbas.
At least four people were wounded in the first fighting since Hamas deployed the force on Wednesday. Two police, one Hamas member and a gunman from Abbas's Fatah movement were hurt.
Clashes sent terrified residents fleeing from the night-time streets of Gaza City, where tension has soared amid fears of civil war. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called the emergence of rival security forces a "dangerous situation".
Members of the Hamas force, mostly bearded young militants who fought Israel in an uprising for years, surrounded the main police station in Gaza City and traded fire with security men taking cover inside.
A spokesman for the Interior Ministry said fighting subsided after contacts between the forces. He accused unidentified "suspicious gunmen" of opening fire to instigate the clash.
"There is no reason for the two forces to fight. There is no dispute of authority," said Khaled Abu Hilal. Police accused Hamas of starting the clashes by opening fire on the police station.
The rival deployments followed growing insecurity in Gaza, with at least five rival gunmen killed this month.
"It seems that the civil war has begun," said one medic, who did not want to give his name. Gunfire echoed as he spoke.
The Fatah gunman was shot in front of the hospital as he pleaded that he was nothing to do with the clashes. Gunmen with weapons cocked peered warily around street corners in the densely populated seaside city.
(BBC) A cabinet minister says the Somali President will do all he can to trace a suspect in the murder of a policewoman, killed six months ago.
International Development Secretary Hilary Benn spoke to President Yusuf while on a trip to Somalia.
Police believe Mustaf Jamma, a Somali national, fled Britain after being named as a suspect in the murder of constable Sharon Beshenivsky.
The 38-year-old officer was shot dead responding to a robbery in Bradford.
Mr. Benn, who is also a Leeds MP, told the BBC President Yusuf had promised to do his best to locate Jamma and had asked for photographs and details.He said: "I very much welcome the interest he took in this case.
"There is very strong feeling about this crime in Yorkshire."
President Yusuf's power in Somalia is limited because his government has been wracked by infighting and unable to assert control over much of Somalia that has been in the throes of anarchy for 15 years.
It has emerged that Jamma was considered for deportation after serving a jail term last year but allowed to stay in the UK because Somalia was thought too dangerous.
Now it is believed he has returned there.
Mombasa, Kenya (BBC) - A fish with markings that resembled a Koranic text has disappeared from the Kenyan Fisheries Department in Mombasa.
The tuna fish, which had provoked intense interest from Muslims, was apparently stolen by people posing as National Museum officials.
The theft was discovered when the real official from the museum, based at Fort Jesus in Mombasa, came to get the fish.
The tuna was being studied to find out if the inscription "Allah is the best provider" was natural or a hoax.
Sceptics say the writing was the work of someone who caught the fish and then threw it back into the sea.
But others say this would be impossible, and local imams are said to have been talking in the mosques about the fish.
Heritage
After being asked by Muslim leaders in Kenya, Kenya's National Museum had offered to take custody of the fish and preserve it for the country's heritage.
The reported theft follows numerous attempts by locals and Muslim scholars to buy the mysterious 2.5 kg (five pound) tuna caught at Vanga, a small fishing port on the Kenyan coast.
An official at the fisheries department in Mombasa said someone had even offered to pay as much as $150.
Under normal circumstances the fish would fetch not more than $6.
Officials from the museum and the country's fisheries department have launched a low-profile search for the stolen fish, fearing possible anger from Muslims if they hear it has been stolen.
Pakistan: Muslims Are Sex-Starved Surfers, With Bestial Interests
The Pakistan Daily Times reports that a Google survey found that mostly Muslim nations seek access to sites of a sexual nature, and Pakistan is top of that list. Of the top 10 countries searching for sex-related sites, six were Muslim, and Pakistan was the leader, followed by Egypt (no 2), Iran (no 4), Morocco (no 5), Saudi Arabia (no 7) and Turkey at no 8. Vietnam was third, India at no 6, Philipines at 9 and Poland at 10. To verify the results, click here.
But Western Resistance is not content to let it rest here. If you click on the following links, you can see the data for yourself. In all of the following categories of bestiality, Pakistan was top of the list of Google searches for:
Pig Sex, with Egypt (no 2) and Saudi Arabia (no 3) following.
Donkey Sex, with India (no 2), Iran (no 3) and Saudi Arabia (no 4) following.
Dog Sex, with India (no 2), and Saudi Arabia (no 3)
Cat Sex (!!!), with Iran (no 2), Egypt (no 3) and Saudi Arabia (no 4) following.
Horse Sex, followed by India (no 2) and Turkey (no 3)
Cow Sex, with Iran (no 2), India (no 3) and Saudi Arabia (no 4) following.
Goat Sex, with India (no 2) and New Zealand (no 3) following
Animal Sex, with Morocco (no 2), India (no 3), Iran (no 4), Egypt (no 5)It is truly bizarre that Pakistan should top the search lists for ALL of the above categories. But your intrepid Western Resistance researcher was not prepared to let it rest at that. Surely there is something highly relevant in the above figures.
Bizarrely, though the Pakistani web-surfer wants to see images of Goat Sex, the same nation is not interested in looking for sites on Sheep Sex. In fact, no Muslim countries were interested in sheep, perhaps because they eat lamb. Never play with one's dinners, seems to be the moral here.
But if four-legged animals seem to whet the Muslim surfer's appetite, creatures with only two legs were not interesting. So for Duck Sex, only Western nations are featured, with Norway number one. But for Chicken Sex, the antipodeans seem most interested, with Australia number one, followed by the US and then New Zealand.
Another Muslim nation, Malaysia, was most interested in Fish Sex, but once again, Pakistan was top of the charts for Snake Sex. Before you start guessing, these sites involve women "inserting" these creatures.
On a search for Gay Sex, the Philippines was top of the list, with Saudi Arabia coming in at number two. Forbidden fruits?
The word "ass" has double meanings, as a donkey and as a posterior, and a search for Ass Sex found Saudi Arabia was top, followed by Pakistan (no 2), Egypt (no 3), Iran (no 4), the United Arab Emirates (no 5), Greece (no 6) and Morocco (no 7). Ironically a search for Bottom Sex found the United Kingdom in top place, followed by India (no 2) and the US (no 3).
But Anal Sex was most sought after in Saudi Arabia, followed by Turkey (no 2).
A search on Oral Sex found only one Muslim nation in the top ten, with Turkey coming in at fifth place.
No Muslim nations were interested in Lesbian Sex, Granny Sex or Kinky Sex.
The results of my searches have made me snigger and squeal with laughter, but it is not all amusing. Mohammed the so-called prophet had sex with a nine year old girl, and it seems his followers still want to look for images of Child Sex. For this, the top of the list of searches was headed by Pakistan (no 1), followed by India (no 2), Iran (no 3) and Turkey (no 4).
(AP) Israel said a captured former Palestinian finance official has admitted using foreign donor money to finance millions of dollars in arms purchases on direct orders from the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office said Fouad Shobaki, seized by Israel in a March raid on a Palestinian prison, told interrogators that as head of finance for the Palestinian security services, he channeled at least $9 million in aid money and public funds to buy weapons.
Palestinian Government Sends New Militant Force Into Gaza Streets, Against President Abbas' Order
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip May 17, 2006 (AP) — The Palestinians' defiant Hamas-led government sent a new militant force into the streets of Gaza on Wednesday, disregarding President Mahmoud Abbas' order banning the creation of the security body and raising the stakes in their deepening power struggle.
Hamas appeared to have been propelled into action by mysterious drive-by shootings that killed two of its militants in the Gaza Strip hours earlier. These and other recent cases of deadly infighting have threatened to plunge the Palestinian territories into bloody chaos.
[...] dozens of members of the armed force, all wearing the beards favored by observant Muslims, were deployed in central and southern Gaza. At the Bureij refugee camp, about 75 fighters patrolled the camp or took up positions outside.
Members of a security branch answerable to Abbas stood just a few yards away.
[Interior Minister Said] Siyam activated the new force just hours after masked gunmen killed a member of Hamas' military wing before dawn in a drive-by shooting at the Jebaliya refugee camp.
On Tuesday evening, another Hamas activist was killed in a similar attack in Gaza City. Two more Hamas activists were wounded in a third shooting. Those attacks came less than a day after the cars of senior Fatah militants were blown up in Gaza City.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks. Dozens of Hamas gunmen, armed with anti-tank launchers, shoulder-fired missiles, hand grenades and assault rifles, turned out in a show of force Wednesday at the funeral of the militant shot Tuesday. A mosque loudspeaker announced that the family would not receive mourners "until the killers are punished."
During the funeral procession, a voice over a loudspeaker blamed a Fatah-dominated branch of the Palestinian security forces. Mourners called on Abbas to dismiss Rashid Abu Shbak, the loyalist Abbas had appointed as a senior security commander. [...]
Dozens of government employees lined up at a bank in Gaza City on Wednesday after it announced it would loan government employees up to $200 to help tide them over.
Abbas orders thousands of police deployed in Gaza
GAZA (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday ordered thousands of police deployed throughout the Gaza Strip to restore order after fighting between rival militias, a senior security official said.
The order, expected to be fully implemented by Thursday, came hours after the Hamas government defied Abbas by deploying its own security force in Gaza.
"President Abbas has ordered all security forces, all branches to deploy men in the streets to restore order," the official, who declined to be named, told Reuters.
He said it would be the largest such deployment in Gaza since police fanned out in force ahead of last year's Israeli withdrawal from the coastal strip after 38 years of occupation.
May 16, 2006 (Jerusalem Post) - The Aksa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of Fatah, on Monday threatened to strike at US and European interests in response to international sanctions on the Palestinian Authority.
The threat, the first of its kind, came as PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas was scheduled to hold talks in Moscow with President Vladimir Putin on the severe financial crisis in the PA territories. Moreover, the threat by Abbas's Fatah party came as Palestinians marked the 58th anniversary of the nakba, or catastrophe (the secular anniversary of Israel's independence).
"We won't remain idle in the face of the siege imposed on the Palestinian people by Israel, the US and other countries," said a leaflet issued by the Aksa Martyrs Brigades in the Gaza Strip. "We will strike at the economic and civilian interests of these countries, here and abroad."
The leaflet added: "Let the entire world know that we won't succumb in the face of the policy of blackmail, siege and starvation. In the past we did not capitulate in the face of the policy of assassinations, detentions and air raids."
The group also urged the heads of Arab and Palestinian banks to resist US and Israeli pressure and to agree to transfer funds from Arab and Islamic countries to the PA.
Another armed group affiliated with Fatah, the Abu Rish Brigades, threatened to launch a new intifada unless the international community agreed to fund the PA. "This will be a merciless intifada that will destroy everything," said Abu Haroon, a spokesman for the group in the Gaza Strip.
"We will plan and carry out more martyrdom attacks inside the Green Line regardless of the price and effort," he warned. "Those who are imposing the sanctions on the Palestinians will soon regret their decision."
Abu Haroon, who was speaking at a rally marking the anniversary of the nakba in Gaza City, accused the US administration and some European and Arab countries of "acting as if they were receiving instructions from the Zionist Knesset."
Thousands ofFilthy Parasites™ Palestinians took to the streets throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip to mark Nakba Day. Many carried old keys as symbols of the right of return for refugees to their original homes inside Israel.
In a speech broadcast on Palestine TV, Abbas urged Hamas to renounce violence and respect peace deals with Israel. He also warned Israel against taking unilateral measures that would fuel extremism.
Abbas said the Palestinians should not be satisfied with fiery speeches and slogans that could bring international isolation. He said such rhetoric reinforced Israel's contention that there is no Palestinian partner in peace efforts.
He urged the Israelis to come together to make this year a year of peace.
"I tell our neighbors that we want to make a just and lasting peace with them and want a better future for our and their children," he said. "Let's sit together at the negotiating table, away from dictation and unilateral solutions. Stop saying there is no Palestinian partner; the partner is there, and we extend our hands to make peace through negotiations only."
Abbas called on the Quartet to initiate a call for holding an international peace conference based on international resolutions and the road map.
"We are eager to see our dreams become true, and to live in our free and democratic Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital," he said.
Hamas, on the other hand, said in a statement marking Nakba Day that there would be no compromise on the right of return for all refugees. Hamas also emphasized the Palestinians' right to pursue the fight against Israel until the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
The following video clip from the Israeli TV should remove any doubts.
CHANDIGARH (The Times of India): She donned an M-16 rifle on her shoulders when she was 17. At 20, she is patrolling the streets of Kabul.
Meet Indian-born Ranbir Kaur of US National Guards who first hit headlines in 2003 after becoming the first Sikh girl to join the US armed forces that consists of over 2,00,000 women soldiers.
Presently on active duty in Afghanistan, ‘Kaur is attached with the 315th SECFOR and is on one-and-a-half-year mission in the war-torn country.
Born in Nijjran village of Jalandhar district, the young warrior reached the US as a seven-year-old after her father Mahan Singh, pursuing dollar dreams, secured a green card in 1990.
Brought up in an isolated burg Earlimart in California, her fling with the uniform dates back to 2001 when she was a freshman (Grade IX) in high school at Delano, the closest city from their isolated residence.
"I would see army, marines, air force and the navy standing outside the career centre of the school distributing fliers to students. I thought the uniform was awesome," she said.
This daughter of a Jat Sikh grape grower, in 2003, was condemned by white supremacists who posted spam e-mails terming her recruitment as a way to seek citizenship. Already a US citizen by then, the young girl had dubbed her detractors wrong through hard training and taking all challenges in her stride.
"If death doesn’t deter me, nothing else does," she told TOI in an exclusive interview. "I was so upset earlier that I asked myself, that did I join the forces for this treatment? But then, I’m me and I do what I got to do."
She was initially recruited to be a supply clerk during the Iraq war but since rules didn’t permit women to fight frontline, Ranbir’s job profile kept changing from time to time. "In a situation like Afghanistan everything is frontline," she said.
During the 2005 Katrina hurricane in New Orleans, this devout Sikh was instrumental in recovery of Sikh sacred scripture Guru Granth Sahib after the New Orleans Sikh temple was submerged under water.
United Sikhs, an organisation had sought her assistance and Ranbir had got everybody moving after she announced that the living Guru of the Sikhs was under water.
Amidst random shootings, air force rescue experts David Cruz and Tom Bausmas of SRT had rescued the scriptures in an operation that had lasted 22 hours.
GAZA (Reuters) - Unidentified Palestinian gunmen shot dead a senior Hamas activist in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, Palestinian medics and a security source said, in a further escalation of lawlessness in the coastal strip.
They said unknown gunmen shot and killed 25-year old Mohammed Tatar, a senior member of Hamas's military wing, as he was driving near Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh's office in Gaza city.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack.
Separately on Tuesday masked gunmen in the Khan Younis area of Gaza shot and critically wounded another senior member of Hamas's military wing and injured a second Hamas member, witnesses said.
Mounting internal violence in Gaza has been fueled by a power struggle between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Haniyeh over control of security forces.
Hamas, a militant Islamist group, came to power in March after trouncing Abbas's Fatah group in parliamentary election in January.
Last week, three gunmen were killed and a dozen people were wounded in violence between Fatah and Hamas. The two groups agreed to set up a joint committee to defuse tensions.
Excerpts from the Dan Simmons' message to readers.
Going to the Source:
It is part of our Western liberal perspective of tolerance—especially institutionalized in the liberal democracies of post-Christian Europe, but perhaps even more deeply ingrained in the still-Christian psychology of early 21st Century America—to reject such data and conclusions as listed above.
Even if it is true, as Samuel P. Huntington documented in his seminal 1996 book The Clash of Civilizations And the Remaking of World Order, that most war-level conflicts on planet Earth at the end of the 20th Century were between Muslims in their societies or between Muslim nations and their neighbors, we cannot easily accept that there is something in the religion itself that causes such violence.
That is, of course, unless one reads the Koran and the hadith (literature and oral tradition that has grown up around the Koran which recounts the sayings and actions of the Prophet.)
Most of the world, especially since 9/11, has been waiting for a rousing and unqualified renouncement of suicide bombings, jihad, persecution of infidels, fatwas, honor killings, and other Muslim atrocities from the silent majority of Muslim clerics and devout Muslims.
With very few and always heavily qualified exceptions, that "silent majority" has remained silent. Arranged marches of "moderate Muslims" to protest even the most outrageous public atrocity—such as the Nov. 2004 brutal murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh by a 26-yr.-old Dutch Moroccan man in retaliation for van Gogh’s film "Submission" documenting abuses of Muslim women in Europe—drew far more journalists and local Dutch marchers than Muslims.
Could it be possible that—despite constant protests to the contrary by all of our intellectuals, government leaders, and media— the Koran and its associated religious traditions do advocate the slaughter of innocents?
"Prophet, make war on the unbelievers and the hypocrites and deal rigorously with them. Hell shall be their home: an evil fate." —(Koran 9:73)
"Believers, make war on the infidels who dwell around you. Deal firmly with them. Know that God is with the righteous." —(Koran 9:123)
"The believers who stay at home—apart from those that suffer from a grave impediment—are not the equal of those who fight for the cause of God with their goods and their persons. God has given those that fight with their goods and their persons a higher rank than whose who stay at home. God has promised all a good reward; but far richer is the recompense of those who fight for Him…He that leaves his dwelling to fight for God and His apostle and is then overtaken by death, shall be rewarded by God…The unbelievers are your inveterate enemies." —(Koran 4:95 -101)
And while the Koran does say "Do not destroy yourselves" (4:29) the loopholes for martyrdom by suicide are many—
"Let those who would exchange the life of this world for the hereafter, fight for the cause of God; whoever fights for the cause of God, whether he dies or triumphs, We shall richly reward him…The true believers fight for the cause of God, but the infidels fight for the devil. Fight then against the friends of Satan…Say: ‘Trifling are the pleasures of this life. The hereafter is better for those who would keep from evil…‘ —(Koran 4:74-78)
In many madrassi around the globe, the traditional sayings of the hadith are taught to illiterate students (and would-be jihadists) as interchangeable with the sacred texts of the Koran itself and even Islamic scholars frequently cite sayings from the hadith as justifications of Muslim violence—
Jihad is your duty under any ruler, be he godly or wicked.
A single endeavor (of fighting) in Allah’s Cause in the forenoon or in the afternoon is better than the world and whatever is in it.
A day and a night fighting on the frontier is better than a month of fasting and prayer.
Nobody who dies and finds good from Allah (in the Hereafter) would wish to come back to this world even if he were given the whole world and whatever is in it, except the martyr who, on seeing the superiority of martyrdom, would like to come back to the world and get killed again (in Allah’s Cause).
He who dies without having taken part in a campaign dies in a kind of unbelief.
Paradise is in the shadow of swords.
Ex-MI chief Ze'evi warns of impending world jihad 'tsunami'
In other words, the fisherman hooked the holy fish by its lip, dragged it out of the water, and let it die a horrible death.MOMBASA, Kenya (AFP) - A tuna fish caught in the Indian Ocean this week has excited Kenyan Muslims who are flocking here by the hundreds to see a Koranic verse apparently embedded in its scales.
Dubbed the "wonder fish" by locals in this port city, the 2.5-kilo (5.5-pound) tuna has attracted so much attention it has been placed in the custody of the National Fisheries Department for safekeeping, officials said.
The otherwise ordinary fish caught the attention of fishmonger Omar Mohammed Awadh who pulled it out of a catch when he noticed what seemed to be Arabic writing among the scales near its tail, they said.
Arabic scholars examined the fish and determined the writing was a Koranic verse meaning "God is the greatest of all providers," said Hassan Mohamed Hassan, an education officer with the National Museums of Kenya in Mombasa.
"This has been confirmed as a verse from the Holy Koran," said Sheikh Mombasa Dor, the secretary-general of the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya.
"We believe that God brings these kinds of messages in many forms from time to time and that we should not only read the Holy Book, but practice what it says," he said.
Mombasa district commissioner Mohamed Maalim agreed.
"It is so clearly spelt," he said. "That is why we believe that Allah is sending a message to mankind."
Hundreds of Muslims and curiosity seekers flocked to Awadh's Takaungu Fresh Fish Shop to see the tuna on Friday, prompting concerns for its safety and its removal to a refrigerated locker at the fisheries department.
In March Muslims flocked to see a pair of fish found in a pet shop in the British city of Liverpool which appeared to bear the words "Allah" and "Mohammed" on their scales.
Enthusiastic buyers who had thronged the shop made offers to buy the fish at Sh10,000.Which is approximately $139.08, according to the May 15, 2006 conversion course.
Fatah decries mosque 'incitement'
Khaled Abu Toameh,
THE JERUSALEM POST
May. 14, 2006
In yet another indication of growing tensions between the two movements, Fatah sympathizers in the Gaza Strip have begun boycotting Hamas-controlled mosques, accusing the Islamist movement of inciting against their leaders.
On Friday, thousands of worshipers refused to enter the Farouk Mosque in the Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, saying the preacher was planning to verbally attack Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and other PA leaders. The Fatah supporters prayed in the streets while their Hamas rivals prayed inside the mosque.
Like most mosques in the Strip, the Farouk Mosque is controlled by Hamas. Leaders of Abbas's Fatah party have in recent weeks expressed deep concern over "incitement" in the mosques, saying Hamas preachers were exploiting Friday prayers to launch scathing attacks on them.
Hamas officials dismissed the allegations as "lies" and said the only incitement was that coming from Fatah.
This is the first time that Fatah supporters are boycotting Friday prayers at a mosque in the Gaza Strip. Preachers at the services often target Israel, the US and corruption in the PA.
Maher Miqdad, a Fatah spokesman in the Strip, accused Hamas of using the mosques to incite against political rivals. "They are preparing the stage for bloodshed," he said. "Some of them have even been calling for the elimination of their opponents, whom they describe as apostates and infidels."
A Fatah-affiliated businessman in Gaza City told The Jerusalem Post he had stopped going to the mosque near his home because of the incitement. "Hamas has turned the mosques in the Gaza Strip into platforms for delivering political speeches," he said. "They have decorated the mosques with political signs and banners and the preachers are saying awful things against Abbas and other Fatah leaders."
In Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, thousands of Fatah supporters also boycotted prayers at a local mosque on Friday. They too prayed outside the mosque.
Hamas has been using Friday prayers to urge Palestinians to donate to the new PA government and to criticize Palestinian officials for allegedly conspiring against Hamas. Most of the attacks have been directed against Abbas and Fatah leaders Muhammed Dahlan, former PA minister of state for security affairs head of the Palestinian Preventive Security Service in the Gaza Strip, Jibril Rajoub, former head of the PSS in the West Bank, Tayeb Abdel Rahim, Abbas's top aide, and Abu Ali Shaheen, a former PA minister for supplies who founded Fatah along with Yasser Arafat.
American teen wounded in April bombing in Tel Aviv dies
By Associated Press May 14, 2006An American teen died Sunday from injuries sustained in a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv last month, doctors said.
Daniel Wultz, 16, of Weston, Fla., is to be flown home for burial on Monday, said Yael Tzuberi, a spokeswoman for the Tel Aviv Medical Center, where he was hospitalized.
Wultz and his father, Tuly, were having lunch at a Tel Aviv restaurant April 17 when a Palestinian suicide bomber detonated 5 kilograms (over 10 pounds) of explosives. Eleven people, including Daniel Wultz, died as a result of the attack.
Daniel Wultz had arrived at the hospital still bleeding and in critical condition, with serious wounds to his abdomen and a leg.
After the bleeding was brought under control, doctors removed Daniel's spleen and a kidney and treated the leg. Wultz opened his eyes at one point about two weeks ago but his condition remained critical, deteriorating in recent days, said the head of the intensive care unit at the hospital, Patrick Sorkin.
During treatment, Wultz received 200 units of blood. In part due to the many transfusions and to the seriousness of his condition, Wultz contracted an infection, Sorkin said, and he was hooked up to a life support system.
"Unfortunately none of this helped and he died today," Sorkin said.
Thirty-one of Wultz's schoolmates flew to Israel earlier this month for a special prayer service.
Tuly Wultz, who suffered a leg wound in the attack, said at the service that he and Daniel had managed to exchange a few words right after the blast, despite the severity of his son's wounds.
"I held his hand and told him I loved him. He said he loved me," Tuly Wultz said.
The family did not immediately comment Sunday.
Back home in Weston, Rabbi Yisroel Spalter of Chabad Lubavitch synagogue said a memorial service would be held Tuesday at the synagogue.
"This is just total shock," said the rabbi who has known the family for nine years. "We're all so broken. Our hearts go out to the family. We'll have to do something to remember Daniel," he told The Associated Press.
Daniel Wultz had become engrossed in Judaism in recent months, Spalter said, and had become observant in recent months.
"He was a very, very spiritual boy," Spalter said. "He used to ask me many questions of how to live as a Jew. He just ate it up."
Kudos to SUXXES from France-Echos: le blog in English.
An Imam knocked out a 6 years old female child!2006/04/19 - Tétouan, MOROCCO.
What is the crime of Nihad … a 6 years old girl?
Daring to walk on the prayer carpet of Moustafa LAZRAK, a “f’qih” and imam … How beautiful is the Religion of Tolerance, Peace and Love …
In Morocco the “f’qih” is an entire institution: it is a sort of imam-teacher in koranical schools, that belongs to public education. In Tétouan a “f’qih”, whose role is to teach Islam, attacked an innocent child of 6 years old. The picture speaks by its own: black eyes, bruises (?? ecchymoses in French), and multiple fractures of the noise. Not to mention the psychological consequences …
The barbarity happened April 19th, at the Sidi Ahmed El Bekkal School. In the afternoon, the school phoned to Fatima, the mother of the little girl, explaining her that her daughter had “fallen”. But when she discovered the state of her daughter, Fatima questioned the persons in charge, who delivered another version of the story.
Moustafa LAZRAK was praying at the beginning of the afternoon, in the classroom, although it was time to begin the class. Entering the room, little Nihad stepped with inadvertency the prayer carpet of the “f’qih”.
The child confirms the facts, and resumes the story. The imam-teacher hits her violently, and she fell on the ground.
The mother was only alerted two hours after the facts. Fatima drove Nihad to the hospital, where the doctors confirmed the gravity of the lesions and traumatisms. The family decided to take legal actions against the apostle of Allah, who also preaches in a mosque.
After this affair, the tongues untied themselves: it wasn’t Moustafa LAZRAK’s first violence against children. He used to beat them a lot; it must have been to convince them of Islam’s benefits.
A person in charge of the Human Rights affirms that the administration of the scholar establishment pressured the children who witnessed the aggression to deny the facts.
Peace if Israel pulls out: Hamas
Abraham Rabinovich, Jerusalem
May 13, 2006
(The Australian) HAMAS and other militant Palestinian groups have signed a document signalling their readiness for a peace agreement with Israel if it withdraws to the pre-Six Day War borders.The document, drafted by imprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, is the first implying recognition of Israel to be signed by a Hamas leader.
Barghouti, serving life in an Israeli jail for his involvement in the Palestinian intifada, hammered out the agreement during weeks of negotiations with imprisoned leaders of other factions.
"The Palestinian people aspire to liberate their land and realise their self-determination, including the establishment of an independent state on all the land occupied (by Israel) in 1967, and to assure the right of return for refugees and the liberation of all prisoners and detainees," the declaration says.
Among the signatories is Sheik Abdel Halek Natshe of Hebron, a senior Hamas official and member of the Palestinian parliament.
The declaration was also signed by Sheik Bassam Saadi, a leader of the most radical Palestinian group, Islamic Jihad, who appended several reservations, and the imprisoned leaders of other radical groups.The document is expected to be discussed at a Palestinian conference of faction leaders in two weeks.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas applauded the declaration, but a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, Mushir al-Masri, rejected any agreement that recognised Israel.
However, other Hamas leaders have been taking a more moderate tone.
A Hamas parliamentary leader, Khaled Suliman, indicated readiness to an agreement similar to the one outlined in the prisoners' document.But the political leader of Hamas, Khaled Mashaal, speaking in Qatar on Thursday, called on the Fatah and Hamas fighters in Gaza to stop shooting at each other and turn their guns against Israel.
Meanwhile, the Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv reported yesterday that Mr Abbas held talks with the leader of Israel's left-wing Meretz Party, Yossi Beilin, in the Jordanian capital, Amman.
Mr Abbas outlined an offer he intended to make to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Under the offer's terms, all Palestinian factions would agree to a ceasefire while negotiations were conducted between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation.
BAGHDAD, Iraq May 13, 2006 (AP) - A series of roadside bombs and explosions damaged a Shiite shrine east of the volatile city of Baqouba late Saturday — the second time this year that a site sacred to Iraq's Shiite majority has been targeted.
In Baghdad, gunmen killed the son of Iraq's top judge as the country's prime minister-designate struggled to form a national unity government that could eventually open the way to stability.
The bombing at the Imam Abdullah Ali al-Hadi shrine, which caused no injuries, could have significant repercussions — particularly in the Baqouba area, a mixed Sunni Arab-Shiite region where sectarian tensions are running high.
The blasts occurred about 11 p.m. at the shrine, according to the Diyala provincial police Joint Coordination Center and Interior Ministry Lt. Col. Falah al-Mohammedawi.
CAIR Calls for Special Counsel on NSA Phone Data Spy Program
(WASHINGTON, DC, 5/12/06) - A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group today called for the appointment of a special counsel to investigate revelations that the National Security Agency (NSA) has built a giant database of Americans' phone records.
According to a USA Today article, the NSA "has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth…The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans - most of whom aren't suspected of any crime."
The phone records monitoring program, reportedly authorized by the president shortly after the 9/11 terror attacks, authorizes the NSA to bypass a secret court set up to provide warrants for such surveillance.
In its statement, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said:
"The recent revelations of the secret domestic spying program should be an issue of concern for all Americans, but especially for American Muslims who have been previously targeted in other surveillance measures such as the mosque radiation monitoring, and the warrantless wiretapping program.
It is a moral, legal and political imperative for Congress to ensure that civil liberties and the right to privacy are maintained, even during times of international conflict and crisis. An independent investigator should be appointed to look into whether the NSA phone data surveillance program violated existing laws."
CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group, has 32 offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.
Retrial? Didn't he declare himslef a victor right after he was sentenced?
(BBC) Al-Qaeda plotter Zacarias Moussaoui has lodged an appeal against the life sentence he received in the US for his role in the 9/11 attacks.
His lawyers asked the appeal court to review the trial and to reconsider a ruling that refused him leave to withdraw his guilty plea.
Moussaoui argues he lied when pleading guilty to involvement in the attacks.
(BBC) The London bombings created the perception that mosques require "close attention in the war on terrorism", says the Muslim Council of Britain.
A report on how attitudes towards Muslims have changed said the impression was these places of worship offer extremists a sympathetic ear.
General Secretary Sir Iqbal Sacranie said it was a big challenge to change this unjustified reputation.
The council discussed how to do this at a conference in Manchester.
"In Britain, mosques have enjoyed the same autonomy as other places of worship.
"However, the tragedy of [7 July] spawned new and aggressive thinking in some quarters. These quarters contend that mosques and imams require close attention in the 'war on terrorism'," said Sir Iqbal.
"The perception outside the community is not very favourable. There is negative stereotyping that mosques are somehow related with criminal activity. This is totally untrue. There is no such activity taking place in the mosque."
Open doors
There are more than 1,000 mosques in the UK, and plans were under way for these to not just be a places of prayer but a focal point for the wider community.Muslim leaders gathered in Didsbury, Greater Manchester, on Saturday to endorse the new approach.
The report also recommended setting up an advisory body chosen by, and accountable to, the British Muslim community.
Sir Iqbal added that government measures, such as the consultation floated on the closure of places of worship last year, risked alienating mosques further.
Earlier this week, the council joined calls for a public inquiry into the attacks in which suicide bombers killed 52 and injured more than 700.
U.N. official: Israel responsible for Palestinians
Israel bears responsibility for Palestinian welfare, the U.N. human rights chief said.
Louise Arbour, a Canadian judge who is the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said both sides are to blame for the human rights crisis in the region. The Palestinian Authority “has the urgent duty to do everything in its power to maintain law and order, prevent attacks on Israeli civilians, investigate those attacks that have taken place, and bring to justice those responsible,” she said in Geneva.
However, as the “occupying power,” Arbour said, Israel bears responsibility for Palestinians’ welfare, and she called on Israel to facilitate the entry of goods into the Gaza Strip. Israel has cut off the Palestinian Authority since the January election of Hamas, a terrorist group that advocates violence and says Israel has no right to exist.
This really pisses me off.
NABLUS, West Bank May 12, 2006 (AP) — Thousands of Hamas supporters rallied in the West Bank Friday, donating money and jewelry to help out the cash-strapped government as the U.N. human rights chief warned Palestinians were on the brink of a humanitarian crisis.
The Hamas-led government is facing a crippling international boycott over its refusal to renounce violence and recognize Israel.
About 5,000 people demonstrated in support of Hamas in the West Bank city of Nablus. As they offered up their money and jewelry, organizers announced over megaphones how much participants were donating while speakers criticized Western economic pressure on the Islamic militant group.
"These donations are our way of telling the world that we can live without them, and our children are paying what the Europeans should be paying," said Bassam al-Shaqaa, a former mayor of Nablus.
These good-for-nothing Filthy Parasites™ welfare leeches, who have been for years milking Europe and the West in general, storm EU missions, burn European flags and chant "Death to Europe!", and the same time they are pissed off that they are not getting paid by the very same Europe, as if it's a given."Do you not think that if all of us come to believe in and abide by these principles, that is, monotheism, worship of God, justice, respect for the dignity of man, belief in the Last Day, we can overcome the present problems of the world – that are the result of disobedience to the Almighty and the teachings of prophets – and improve our performance? Do you not think that belief in these principles promotes and guarantees peace, friendship and justice? Do you not think that the aforementioned written or unwritten principles are universally respected? Will you not accept this invitation? That is, a genuine return to the teachings of prophets, to monotheism and justice, to preserve human dignity and obedience to the Almighty and His prophets? Mr President, History tells us that repressive and cruel governments do not survive..."
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) — Thousands of riot police beat pro-democracy activists Thursday, chasing them through the streets of the Egyptian capital and dragging some on the ground to break up a demonstration in support of judges who face punishment for blowing the whistle on election fraud.
Police pulled an elderly woman by her arms, trying to drag her into a police van. When she resisted, the policemen tore the front of her robe, throwing her sprawled on the pavement with her underclothes exposed, said a witness, activist Bothaina Kamel. Other witnesses reported police pulling women activists and journalists by the hair.
While most of the protesters were secular activists, police arrested 120 members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood during a rally held at a mosque in solidarity with the judges, the Brotherhood said on its Web site.
Still, the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood was able to increase its presence in parliament six-fold to 88 seats — making them the country's strongest opposition movement. Since then, the government has put off local elections for two years, apparently for fear of further gains.Wed May 10, 2006 11:06 AM ET
By Suleiman al-Khalidi
What a great loss for Denmark... not!
Copenhagen, Denmark (AP) - Denmark's most prominent Muslim leader, who led criticism of a Danish newspaper that published drawings of the Prophet Muhammad, has decided to leave the country, the daily reported Thursday.
Imam Ahmed Abu Laban said he has felt humiliated in the aftermath of the cartoon controversy, which led to riots around the world, and that he would leave Denmark to return to Gaza with his family, the Jyllands-Posten newspaper wrote.
"I have recently felt that I am being viewed as a simple terrorist. No human being can accept that. It is an extreme humiliation," Abu Laban was quoted as saying. "I have taken the decision to leave Denmark."
Abu Laban is the leading figure of the Copenhagen-based Islamic Faith Community, representing about 10 percent of Denmark's 200,000 Muslims.
LONDON May 11, 2006 (Telegraph) - Nine Afghan asylum seekers who hijacked a plane at gunpoint to get to Britain should have been admitted to the country as genuine refugees and allowed to live and work here freely, the High Court ruled yesterday.
In a decision that astonished and dismayed MPs, the Home Office was accused of abusing its powers by failing to give the nine formal permission to enter Britain, in breach of their human rights.
It is the second time human rights laws have worked to the advantage of the hijackers.
Two years ago, attempts to eject them from the country were thwarted when an immigration court said this would expose them to the risk of inhuman or degrading treatment in breach of Article 3 of the European Convention.
The Afghanis argued that their lives would be in danger - even though in late 2001 British troops had helped topple the Taliban from whom they said they were fleeing.The hijackers, armed with handguns and explosives, took control of a Boeing 727 on an internal flight from Kabul in February 2000 and ordered the plane to be flown to Britain.
It was directed to Stansted in Essex, where the hijackers gave themselves up after a 70-hour stand-off with police and the SAS.
They were later jailed for various offences but the convictions were quashed in 2003 on the grounds that the law of duress had not been properly applied at their trial.
After the Home Office subsequently failed to have them deported in 2004, they were granted temporary admission to the country for themselves and their families.
Charles Clarke, the then home secretary, declined to give them full refugee status, fearing this would send out the wrong message and be seen as a "licence to hijack".
But Mr Justice Sullivan ruled yesterday that this was beyond his powers and failed to follow correct legal procedures. It also amounted to an unwarranted delay in implementing the earlier ruling that they could not be deported and were, therefore, bona fide refugees.
The judge ordered the Home Office to pay legal costs on an indemnity basis - the highest level possible - to signify his "disquiet and concern".
So far, the whole affair, including legal fees, asylum processing and benefits for the families, has cost the taxpayer an estimated £20 million to £30 million.
The ruling, which came six years after Jack Straw, a previous home secretary, told MPs that the Afghanis would not be allowed to stay in Britain to show that "hijacking would not pay", was greeted with disbelief at Westminster.
David Cameron, the Conservative leader, said: "It is frankly wrong when we are doing so much as a country, and when our Armed Forces are doing so much, to make Afghanistan a safer country and a stable county, that decisions like these are made."
He added: "That is really what people will be thinking up and down this country. We have done so much to help stabilise Afghani
