 From CAN: The FBI believes that 10 percent of mosques in the U.S. are preaching extremism, reports Ronald Kessler of Newsmax.com. The anonymous counter-terrorism official interviewed by Kessler describes the number as a conservative estimate.
Some researchers have estimated a much higher number. A group of experts launched the Mapping Sharia Project, which surveyed about 200 mosques and Islamic institutions.
They found that 80% of the mosques visited had extremist literature. “Rarely do we have them [the Muslim community] coming to us and saying, ‘There are three guys in the community that we’re very concerned about,” Kessler quotes one FBI agent as saying. “They want to fix it inside the community. They’re a closed group, a very, very closed group. It’s part of their culture that they want to settle the problem within their own communities. They’ve actually said that to us, which I then go crazy over.” One FBI agent told Kessler that when he met with the leader of a Muslim organization, he was told by the leader that they wouldn’t inform them about extremists because, in his words, “We would lose our constituency.” The article was based on interviews with counter-terrorism personnel by Kessler for his latest book, “The Terrorist Watch: Inside the Desperate Race to Stop the Next Attack.” World Threats
 The British government has denied that a programme for tackling religious extremism is used by its security agencies to spy on Muslim communities. In a statement released on Saturday, the Home Office said its $230m Preventing Violent Extremism strategy did not engage in covert intelligence-gathering on potential terrorists. "Any suggestion that Prevent is about spying is simply wrong," the Home Office said. "Prevent is about working with communities to protect vulnerable individuals and address the root causes of radicalisation." Launched in 2006, the programme's mission was to fund projects aimed at rejecting extremist ideology and employing youth workers and teachers to help young Muslims deemed vulnerable to radical organisations. But in a critical report, the Institute of Race Relations claimed the programme has, in effect, established "one of the most elaborate systems of surveillance ever seen in Britain". Arun Kundnani, the report's author, concludes that far from tackling extremism, Prevent actually fostered division, mistrust and alienation. "The Prevent progamme constructs the Muslim population as a 'suspect community' ... encourages tokenism, facilitates violations of privacy and professional norms of confidentiality, discourages local democracy and is counter-productive in reducing the risk of political violence", Kundnani said. Read more here,,,, Source: Al Jazeera (English)
 Yesterday Khaled Fouad Allam,an Algerian-Italian sociologist, called for authoritative Muslim institutions, acceptance by the state, and Italian trained religious leaders. Ahmad Gianpiero Vincenzo talks about tackling religous extremism, though he also talks about Italy accepting Islam. The president of the association of Italian Muslims, Ahmad Gianpiero Vincenzo, has urged measures to tackle the problem of religious extremism.
"We need to analyse fundamentalism and develop practical action to combat this," said Vincenzo.
His call came after a 35-year-old Libyan earlier this week carried out a botched bomb attack against a military barracks in Italy's northern city of Milan.
"We know very little about the channels through which extremists are being funded," said Vincenzo.
He is also a consultant on immigration for the Italian Senate's Constitutional Affairs Commission and a member of Rome Mosque's General Assembly.
"We also need to know the extremists' geographical distribution across the country and the real targets of their propaganda," Vincenzo said.
Until now, very little has been done in Italy to support the creation of a moderate, official Islam, he noted.
"There is no public funding for the training of imams. This can only result in self-styled preachers and dodgy sources of funding," Vincenzo said.
( more)
 by Ryan Mauro A new poll of Muslim attitudes towards terrorism leaves some room for both optimism and pessimism.
The poll, like several others, finds an overall downward trend in the percentage of Muslims supporting terrorist organizations and their methods.
However, the minority is still large enough to make the hair stand on the back of your neck. Some of the findings: - Of the countries surveyed, the highest percentage supporting suicide bombings against civilians were the Palestinian Territories (68%), Nigeria (43%), and Lebanon (38%). In Lebanon, it was interesting to see that 51% of the Shiites supported the tactic, and only 25% of Sunnis support it. Generally, the Shiites have been more moderate and so this shows a strong extremist trend amongst Lebanese Shia, explaining Hezbollah’s strength here.
- Support for suicide bombings against civilians was the lowest in Egypt (15%), Indonesia (13%), Jordan (12%), Israeli Arab Muslims (7%), Pakistan (5%), and Turkey (4%).
The findings regarding the level of admiration for Bin Laden was also interesting. Keep in mind, many Muslims overseas do not believe he was behind 9/11, so those actions may be taken out of the equation for them: The Pew survey also found although majorities in Nigeria (54 percent) and the Palestinian territories (52 percent) expressed “confidence in the al Qaeda leader [Osama bin Laden] to do the right thing regarding world affairs.” In the other countries surveyed, the Saudi terrorist enjoyed the backing of 28 percent of respondents in Jordan, 25 percent in Indonesia, 23 percent in Egypt, 18 percent in Pakistan, 16 percent in Israel, four percent in Lebanon and two percent in Turkey. The biggest drop in support for bin Laden was measured in Indonesia (down 34 points since 2003), Jordan (down 28 points) and Pakistan (down 28 points). The trend in Nigeria was in the opposite direction – up 10 points since 2003. I’m a poll junkie, and if I have time, I’ll dive into the original poll results sheet for further analysis. Source: World Threats
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 A Palestinian woman wearing a hijab veil.The deadly face of Muslim extremism
Tarek Fatah and Farzana Hassan, National Post
Published: Wednesday, December 12, 2007 The tragic death of a Mississauga, Ont., teenage girl -- allegedly at the hands of her own traditionally minded Muslim father -- has sent shock waves across the world. Canadians are justified in raising concerns as to whether this is a sign of the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in their own backyard.
Aqsa Parvez, a sprightly 16-year-old, beloved of her friends and peers at Applewood Heights Secondary School, was only trying to be herself, was only wishing for a normal adolescence amid Canada's rich cultural mosaic. Her father has now been charged with murder, and his son with obstruction, while a young life has been snuffed out -- likely in the name of honour and Islam.
Radical Muslim men consider themselves ultimately responsible for the conduct of the womenfolk. This outlook is rooted in a medieval ethos that treats women as nonpersons, unable to decide for themselves what they should wear, where they must go and what they must accomplish in life. If their conduct is seen as contravening this austere religious outlook, they are invariably subjected to abuse.
The hijab in particular has become a thorny issue among Muslim families. It has been elevated as a sort of "sixth pillar of Islam" among militant sects. Young teenage girls are often lectured over the virtues of the hijab by their family members. Once they hit puberty, compliance is deemed a non-negotiable religious requirement.
Go on reading here: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=162281
 Muhammedgali KhuzinMoscow, March 6, Interfax - Some mosques in Moscow are selling extremist literature, Muhammedgali Khuzin, a Perm region mufti, told Interfax-Religion.
"Extremist literature printed by various militants and Caucasian groups can be bought freely in a couple of local mosques. We visited Moscow not long ago and saw it," the mufti said.
He welcomed a "black list" of extremist literature banned in Russia, Khuzin said.
"Heaps of pseudo-religious and extremist literature instigating religious hatred were published in Russia in the past 15-20 years. Regrettably, most of it is Islamic," the mufti said.
Commenting on repeated statements by the head of the Council of Muftis of Russia Ravil Gainutdin in which he questioned the reasons for putting a number of books on the "black list", the Perm mufti remarked that his reaction was understandable because a good deal of black-listed literature had been published under the auspices of the Council of Muftis.
As for the books published by the Central Spiritual Department of Muslims, none of them has appeared on the above list because "this is strictly controlled," Khuzin said. Source: InterfaxMufti Muhammedgali Khuzin
Latest recipient of The MASH Award
 Charlotte Bronte cautioned that "prejudices … are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilized by education; they grow there, firm as weeds among rocks." But sometimes educators are the ones planting those prejudices. The Islamic Religious Community in Austria (IRCA) — the sole legally recognized body that represents Muslim interests before the government and in which all Muslims automatically receive membership — has been providing Islamic education in public schools since 1982. Mouhanad Khorchide, a professor of sociology, recently published the first major study of this program, which has processed more than thirty thousand pupils. The disturbing results offer yet another warning to states about the groups they empower to speak on behalf of Muslims: Khorchide, himself a Muslim, said 22.6 percent of the 210 Muslim teachers he had surveyed had "fanatical attitudes" and 21.9 percent rejected democracy as incompatible with Islam.
The older the teacher, Khorchide said, the more likely he was to reject the principle of the rule of law.
According to Vienna weekly Falter, the study shows 8.5 percent of the Muslim teachers said it was understandable for violence to be used to spread Islam, 28.4 percent said there was a contradiction in being both a Muslim and a European, and 44 percent said they had to make their students understand they were better than non-Muslims. Read more ... Source: Islamist Watch Blog
 Imams are accused of being out of touch and
pushing young Muslims towards extremismYoung Muslims are being pushed towards extremism because their mosques are run by elderly and out-of-touch cliques, a report by an Islamic think-tank said yesterday. The Quilliam Foundation, an anti-extremist Islamic organisation, accused imams of failing to teach and preach in English and of shutting women out of their mosques. Only about 3 per cent of Muslim clerics were born in this country and most do not have full command of English, the study said. The report said that mosque leaderships did not promote British values and allowed young people to drift towards jihadists who speak their own language. The group called on the Government for stricter limits on visas for Islamic clerics coming to Britain and for an end to state grants for mosques that do not have at least one imam who preaches in English and supports the principles of democracy. The Quilliam Foundation - which has been backed with almost £1million of taxpayers' money and attacked by some Islamic groups as being a mouthpiece for the Government - also said madrassas, mosques' equivalent of Christian Sunday schools, should be fully inspected by local children's services officials. The survey was based on responses to five questions given by 512 mosques last autumn. It found 97 per cent of imams were born overseas and 92 per cent were trained abroad, while more than half of the Muslims in Britain were born here. 'The religious leadership in the vast majority of Britain's mosques are not in full command of the English language, and are likely to be ill-equipped to address the real concerns and everyday experiences of young British Muslims,' the report found. Read more ...Source: Daily Mail
 By Jamie Glazov Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Dave Gaubatz, the first U.S. civilian (1811) Federal Agent deployed to Iraq in 2003. He is currently the Director of the Mapping Sharia Project and the Owner of DG Counter-terrorism Publishing ( dgaubatz.blogspot.com). FP: Dave Gaubatz, welcome to Frontpage Interview. News organizations are reporting on the overall national security issue within America. Tell us what you are doing differently. Gaubatz: Thank you Jamie. What I am hearing from Americans from all backgrounds is that they want to know exactly what the potential internal threats are to our nation and what is being done about it. The Mapping Sharia Project is outstanding and will continue, but I have formed my own company (DG Gaubatz Publications) and will take a more in depth approach. It will coincide with the Mapping. Each week my team and I will conduct field research at pre-designated Islamic Centers in America. Several visits to the center and discussions with Imams and worshippers will be accomplished during the week. A ‘News Brief’ will be provided as a subscription for the public, law enforcement, and our elected officials. No open source material will be used. If I can’t obtain evidence first-hand, it will not be a part of the threat analysis. Read more ...Source: FrontPage MagazineDave Gaubatz
Latest recipient of The MASH Award
British officials reportedly are contemplating a definition of what makes a Muslim extremist. A Guardian story reports the label could apply to those who advocate for Shari'ah, or Islamic law and who also desire the caliphate, or the idea of an international Islamic state. In addition: "• They believe in jihad, or armed resistance, anywhere in the world. This would include armed resistance by Palestinians against the Israeli military.
• They argue that Islam bans homosexuality and that it is a sin against Allah.
• They fail to condemn the killing of British soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan." The story anticipates an uproar that would result from labeling "the vast majority of British Muslims as extremists." Nothing similar is likely to happen here. Read more ...Source: IPT Blog
Definition of a Moderate Muslim
By Matthew Taylor A government adviser on extremism was criticised last night after sending an email claiming "Jews" were behind a number of websites that undermined Islam. Using his government email address, Maqsood Ahmed, who works at the department for Communities and Local Government, forwarded an email which stated that a number of websites it listed had been "developed by Jews who intentionally are spreading wrong information about the Qur'an, the hadith [sayings of Muhammad] and Islam itself". Ahmed was criticised last night by Muslim and Jewish groups for forwarding the email. "What is absolutely bewildering is that someone like Maqsood Ahmed should forward the email without any comment and from his official address," said Anas Altikriti of the British Muslim Initiative. "At the very least sending this email reveals a serious lack of judgment." Read more ...Source: GuardianMaqsood Ahmed
Latest recipient of the Evil Dumbass Award
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