 By: Salah Uddin Shoaib ChoudhuryHizbut Tahrir, an Islamist group banned in Bangladesh in October 2009 has organized a ‘demonstration rally’ in London on December 9, 2009 demanding release of the kingpin of this notorious group in Bangladesh, Mohiuddin Ahmed, who was placed under ‘house arrest’ since the group was banned in October.In a leaflet issued by Hizbut Tahrir, they are claiming that their ‘leader’ Mohiuddin Ahmed is placed under house arrest for demanding the country to be an Islamic State.Meanwhile, it is learnt from various reports published in the Bangladeshi media that, all bank accounts of Hizbut Tahrir, which were freezed by the government in October, will be automatically released if Bangladesh authorities will fail to lodge criminal charges against it by December 10, 2009. Bangladeshi government is reluctant in arresting Mohiuddin Ahmed or bringing any specific charge against him for giving Jihadist instigation to people. In the name of house arrest, virtually this kingpin of notorious Islamist outfit is allowed to freely communicate with his party cadres and international contacts via phone and other communication devices from his residence. Hizbut Tahrir, although is banned in Bangladesh, activities of it is continuing in various parts of Bangladesh including the capital city. Law enforcing agencies are also reluctant in taking any action against those members of Hizbut Tahrir, who are violating the ban order. Meanwhile, in Indonesia, hundreds of Hizbut Tahrir members rallied on the World AIDS day demanding implementation of Sharia law to prevent the spread of AIDS rather than condom use. They also demanded immediate closure of all brothels in Indonesia. Around 270,000 Indonesians are estimated to be infected with HIV, and AIDS has claimed about 8,700 lives in the Muslim-majority nation of 228 million people, according to the UNAIDS agency. "We have to admit that using condoms is equal to legalizing free sex," Muslim Women of Hizbut Tahrir spokeswoman Febrianti Abassuni said in a statement. In Bangladesh, Dhaka University's vice chancellor received death threats on Sunday from banned Islamist outfit Hizbut Tahrir. The organization in two letters asked A A M S Arefin Siddique to reinstate central coordinator of the outfit and spokesman professor Mohiuddin Ahmed to his position in the university without delay. He has also been asked to take steps for releasing arrested relatives of some of the convicts in the Bangabandhu murder case. The letters claimed that Hizbut Tahrir has 200 trained commandoes. In another letter Hizbut Tahrir asked for removal of all barriers regarding admission of Madrassa students in the university. It also asked the vice-chancellor to get the government to release family members of the killers of founding father of Bangladesh and Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami [Huji] leader Mufti Abdul Hannan. While notorious Islamist group Hizbut Tahrir is continuing its activities in Bangladesh despite the ban imposed by the government on October 22, 2009, another ferocious Islamist group Hizbut Towhid is continuing various forms of hate speech as well recruiting members for its planned Jihadist offensives in Bangladesh and abroad with its goal of establishment Sharia rule in the world. Sale of hate materials by Hizbut Towhid is continuing in Bangladesh without minimum legal obstacle. One such material named ‘DAJJAL’ terms Jews and Christians as enemies of Islam and gives provocations in waging Jihad against them. Hizbut Towhid, which originated from Bangladesh, has already established branches in a number of countries in the world. Main source of fund of this group is largely unknown though it claims that the group runs on donations from its members. Hizbut Towhid kingpin Selim Panni maintains links with a number of terror outfits in the world. Bangladesh presently has a secularist party in power, which promises to combat Islamist militancy and all forms of religious extremism in the country. Though Bangladesh Awami League came in power in December 2009, there is no sign of its genuine effort in dealing with these Islamist groups like Hizbut Towhid with tougher hands.
 By Dr Afyare Abdi Elmi In the past, probably fearing a repeat of Black Hawk Down, the international community has given little attention to addressing the root of Somalia's problems - statelessness. It has ignored the necessity of rebuilding the Somali state, particularly its coercive capacity.
As Charles Snyder, the former US assistant secretary of state for Africa, openly said, US efforts in the country have largely focused on denying al-Qaeda the opportunity to establish military bases there and in containing Somalia's problems to Somalia's borders.
In retrospect, neither objective has been achieved.
The al-Shabab group has become a fully-fledged movement and is now not afraid to openly challenge both Somalis and the international community.
Moreover, long gone are the days when any given conflict affects only the people in that country. The refugee flow, free weapons and human suffering affect places that are far from Somalia.
However, attitudes are now changing. The profile of this issue has been raised and there is a sense of renewed urgency and international attention. According to the press, Somalia is activated and the UN Security Council may debate its options soon.
If the situation is to be reversed, Somalia's state has to be reconstructed.
The long term solution to the Somalia challenge is to rebuild a strong central state.
The international community must, therefore, come up with a comprehensive strategy - and one that has a security, political and economic plan.
Moreover, the international community must keep in mind that all of its efforts have to enhance the will and the capacity of Somalis - it should not replace them.
Regarding the security component, the international community's intervention has to focus on a suitable mandate for international peacekeeping forces that can assist the Somali government in the short term and in developing Somalia's security forces in the long term.
One of the most challenging tasks would be to convince troop contributing countries to participate in a Somalia mission.
The Black Hawk Down event haunts many countries when considering committing to such a mission. But, things have changed in a significant way.
Although there are political stakeholders that are competing for power and resources, most Somalis are tired of the ongoing war. Moreover, the stakes are high now - as extremism and piracy pose threats to world peace - and the Somali conflict has transformed to such a significant degree that it is now "ripe for resolution" to use William Zartman's vocabulary.
As such, events in the past should not keep the international community from doing the right thing.
Moreover, developed or semi-developed countries need to have self interest when sending their troops to Somalia.
Such leverages, while not present now, can be created.
Indonesia or Turkey might be interested in leading such a mission if Washington pressures them. As in the case of East Timor, if Somalia's resources are on the table, powerful and energy-hungry countries, such as China, might be tempted to invest in a peacebuilding project.
 Malaysia's Home Ministry held a briefing for foreign diplomats on Monday to try to ease their concerns about the recent spate of attacks on Christian churches. But rather than offering a rational explanation of what exactly the Government is trying to achieve with its attempts to limit the use of the word Allah, the diplomats heard this: Our landscape is different from other countries. Malays here are different from other countries. So said Home Ministry secretary, Gen. Mahmood Adam. And he may well be right about that, but he was still avoiding the issue. Because the one fact that the Government still refuses to acknowledge is that the essence of this controversy lies not in the nature of Malaysia's culture, but in the direct actions of its Government. It was the Government, not the people, that introduced legislation establishing the principle that the word Allah is exclusive to Islam. (A claim that has been convincingly debunked by numerous experts. Here's one succinct explanation.) What's especially comical is that even Malaysia's own Islamic leaders don't agree with the Government. based on Islamic principles, the use of the word Allah by the people of the Abrahamic faiths such as Christianity and Judaism, is acceptable, Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim (a Muslim) concurs: With respect to the use of the word Allah, it cannot be disputed that Arabic speaking Muslims, Christians and Jews have collectively prayed to God as Allah throughout the last fourteen centuries. While sensitivities over its usage have arisen in Malaysia, the way to resolve these conflicts is not by burning churches and staging incendiary protests but by reasoned engagement and interreligious dialogue. Bizarrely, the consistent calls for dialogue over issues of religious sensitivities continue to go unheeded. (The Jakarta Post expresses similar concerns about the situation in Indonesia here.) And all the while that Malaysia's Home Ministry continues to maintain the fiction that somehow its position is the Malaysian people's position, it is truly missing the wood for the trees. Because once this particular issue fades away, what will inevitably be left behind in the minds of foreign diplomats - and investors - will be another paragraph in the catalogue of niggling entries that mark Malaysia as a "risk", a country increasingly unable to reconcile its religious and racial communities, thanks in large part to tone-deaf government. Al Jazeera 
 INDONESIA's fourth president, Abdurrahman Wahid, was one of the boldest and most eccentric leaders the Asia-Pacific region has seen - and one of the most supportive of Australia. He died on Wednesday after finally succumbing to his many longstanding illnesses, including kidney failure and diabetes, and was buried yesterday in his family's graveyard in Jombang, East Java, which was surrounded by 10,000 praying followers. The memorial service was presided over by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who ordered a week of national mourning for the mystical, whimsical one-eyed cleric. Wahid - more widely known as Gus Dur - became Indonesia's president after the first national elections following the ousting of strongman Soeharto in 1998. His power base, Nahdlatul Ulama, is one of Indonesia's two mass Islamic movements, whose moderation has been crucial in combating attempts to hijack the world's most populous Islamic nation in an extremist direction. Since then, presidents have been elected directly and not via parliamentary votes. He lasted only two years in the presidency before parliament, which had taken a punt on him in the first place, sacked him amid unproven allegations of corruption and incompetence. That short term in office, however, saw key policies endorsed and initiated. He followed through predecessor B.J. Habibie's extraordinarily radical plan for devolving power - not so much to the 27 provinces, but further down, to the country's 360 kabupaten or regencies. He strengthened the crackdown on Islamist violence, encouraged dialogue with separatists in Aceh and West Papua, and urged the establishment of diplomatic relations with Israel. He did not succeed in the latter. But Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, said: "We have lost a true friend and a warrior for peace and mutual respect." He visited East Timor after it became a new nation, apologising for human rights abuses committed by Indonesian forces during the 24-year occupation. He was an ardent supporter of inter-faith dialogue, whom NU vice-president Maskuri Abdillah said would be remembered above all as a "pluralist". But his eccentricity, including his tendency to doze off during important meetings, disqualified him from the leadership of a rapidly modernising nation of the size of Indonesia. When predictability, calmness and inclusiveness were required, he had been at times capricious and prickly. He was never able to provide ASEAN with the leadership it needed, and which it had formerly expected of Indonesia, where it is headquartered. He liked Australia, and visited a number of times when he was a refreshingly frank figure. He sought to engage Australia in a West Pacific Forum, a concept Canberra embraced but which has since faded away. Viewers of ABC TV were rivetted, in the latter days of Gus - "Uncle" - Dur, by an extraordinarily intimate profile of him filmed by his friend Curtis Levy. In that program, Dur walked endlessly around the palace gardens, propped up by aides. He was the first person to live there since Indonesia's almost equally odd founding father, Sukarno. When he was elected by parliament despite his party gaining only 11 per cent of the vote, he had Suharto's art works replaced with the Sukarno collection, including his library. But not his music. His study table was typically littered with CDs ranging from Kenny Rogers to Janis Joplin and Beethoven. The Australian
 HERE'S a provocative thought: if it weren't for the 2004 tsunami, Western aid workers in Banda Aceh city would not be the target of politically motivated drive-by shootings, and women in West Aceh regency would be free to wear trousers. As of Friday, any Muslim woman in the regency will be forced to change into a government-supplied long skirt if she dares step outside in tight pants. And after she takes the trousers off - and dons a jilbab, or Muslim head scarf - they will be publicly shredded. The new laws will add to recently enacted provincial legislation prescribing stoning as punishment for adultery or homosexual relations. The laws have attracted scorn and support in equal measure in Indonesia, but even they are mere pointers to a climate of uncertainty far outweighing simple questions of how Aceh has gone about rebuilding since December 26, 2004, when 170,000 of the 230,000 lives lost in the tsunami were from Aceh. Major agencies including AusAid and the International Organisation for Migration, were humiliated when it was discovered that reconstruction projects they managed had used asbestos-laden building materials. In Banda Aceh, emergency barracks built to house the homeless are still inhabited - not by refugees, but by hopefuls from the sticks who want to try their luck at work in the capital. For government and aid agency workers, these grifters have stories of sorrow and official bungling keeping them from homes they claim are rightfully theirs. A good number of people, especially Indonesians and particularly Acehnese with strong business connections, profited handsomely from the aid contract money. Much of this profit was through legitimate dealings. But plenty of it was not. Critics of this have sometimes had a hard time accepting that while capitalism and democracy - the latter having only had its birth in Indonesia with the fall of Suharto in 1998 - go hand-in-hand, they often do so in opaque ways, and it was never going to be a simple matter of overlaying foreign business practices on an Indonesian system. Tensions over the expectations for aid money and the reality were inevitable. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, in one of the early astute appointments of his presidency, directed former mining tzar Kuntoro Mangkusubroto to oversee a new cabinet-level body, the Aceh and Nias Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency. The aim was not only to reduce corruption in the rebuilding effort but also to streamline the inefficient relationships between Indonesian government agencies. Dr Yudhoyono and his then-deputy, businessman Jusuf Kalla, also saw a grand political opportunity. They intervened in the civil war that had blighted Aceh for three decades. Dr Yudhoyono and Mr Kalla put themselves in serious consideration for the Nobel Peace Prize after an agreement to end the conflict was signed in Helsinki in 2005, leading to a self-governance deal for Aceh enjoyed by no other Indonesian province. This peace, and the political arrangements that flowed from it, would not have been possible without the tsunami. Indeed, the man elected governor in historic 2006 elections, former rebel fighter Irwandi Yusuf, was a political prisoner who escaped when the tsunami destroyed cell walls in the central Banda Aceh jail where he was held. The future leader's epic flight set him on a course that is only now being fully played out. The no-trousers edict is one of its manifestations. Sharia has become a watchword for Acehnese identity, even if, as Singapore-based analyst Farish A. Noor warns, its gradual imposition from within is in many ways a result of Jakarta's "complex and at times clumsy attempt to domesticate the forces of Acehnese resistance by playing the religious card". The shooting attacks on foreign aid workers are another manifestation of the contradictory tsunami recovery experience. Erhard Bauer, 50, the chief of the German Red Cross in Indonesia, was hit three times in the stomach and arm by two motorcycle-riding gunmen as he was being driven to the airport in early November. He survived after being flown to Singapore. Soon afterwards, the home of the European Union chief in Aceh, John Penny, was shot up while he and his wife were inside. And just a month ago gunmen opened fire on the home of two Americans who lecture in English literature at Banda Aceh's Syiah Kuala University. Mr Irwandi is furious, demanding privately that the Indonesian military, or TNI, pull its head in even as he knows full well he cannot accuse its leaders publicly. There is no direct proof that TNI elements are paying former Acehnese rebels - many now unemployed, and looking for new direction in their lives - to mount the attacks on foreign aid workers. There is no proof at all; but in the view of those from the well-informed Banda Aceh intelligentsia down to taxi drivers, there is little doubt that this is the TNI taking revenge on the former rebel party's almost clean sweep of power in the provincial elections, and showing its determination to steal things back. "The police believe it's the military, based on ballistics tests from the bullets used," political analyst Fajran Zein, from private policy think tank the Aceh Institute, told The Australian. "The assumption is it's intended to accelerate the departure of foreigners from Aceh." Indonesia's police and military have long been at each others' throats, of course, especially since the former were hived off from the military establishment in the immediate post-Suharto reforms. "All three attacks against foreigners are linked," spokesman Farid Ahmad Saleh said after the third shooting. "They were conducted by trained professionals . . . they want to terrorise foreigners working to heal Aceh." The rebuilding might be almost over, but by any political and civic measure, the building of Aceh has barely begun. The Australian
 Not to mention the churches that have been attacked outright. Islamic Tolerance Alert. "Hundreds to worship outside churches amid tight security," by Yuli Tri Suwarni and Suherdjoko for the Jakarta Post, December 24: Fifteen police officers backed up by soldiers and local residents will guard every church across West Java during Christmas celebrations to prevent possible attacks, police said. Dozens of churches in the province have closed since 2004 after being stormed or attacked by hard-line Muslim mobs. In 2000, militants bombed churches across the archipelago on Christmas Eve. This week in Bandung, West Java, many Christians won't be able to celebrate Christmas in a church because they were denied permits to build their places of worship. West Java Church Federation (BKSG) leader John Simon Timorason said Wednesday the biggest obstacle was applying for a building permit to build a church, so local Christians eventually opted to hold Christmas prayers in shopping malls, hotels, restaurants, shops and homes. He said more than 60 percent of the 1,920 churches in West Java were built without permits because of difficulties in obtaining permits. Only 15 percent of churches have permanent buildings and have permits. "We face difficulties obtaining permits. Those equipped with permits, such as the churches in Purwakarta, Bekasi and Depok, had their permits revoked due to pressure from intolerant groups," Simon told The Jakarta Post. Last year, 77 families from the Pasundan Christian Church in Dayeuhkolot, Bandung, who were holding prayers at their preacher's house were evicted by a mob. Church caretaker Ranto Gunawan Simamora said, fearing violence, they had to hold mass in a chapel at the Immanuel Hospital on Jl. Kopo, Bandung. West Java Police chief Insp. Gen. Timur Pradopo said more than 10,000 personnel would provide security for Christmas mass in churches and other locations throughout the province. Timur said the police would also secure public places, such as shopping malls, hotels and tourist sites as part of Operation Lilin-Lodaya that starts Dec. 24 and runs for 10 days....
 THE Philippines announced today one of the co-founders of the Abu Sayyaf extremist group had been arrested after being detained at Jakarta airport using a false passport. Indonesian authorities picked up Abdul Basir Latip at Jakarta airport on November 21, but he was only brought back to Manila on Wednesday, said Philippine National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) spokesman Ricardo Diaz. He is accused of serving as a conduit of funds between al-Qaeda leaders in Saudi Arabia and the Abu Sayyaf, a local Muslim extremist group blamed for the worst terror attacks in Philippine history, said Diaz. ``His involvement was not as a fighter but as a finance officer and the conduit for al-Qaeda to facilitate transfer of funds to the ASG (Abu Sayyaf group),'' said Diaz. The United States is also seeking Latip's extradition for the Abu Sayyaf's kidnapping of American missionary Charles Walton in the southern Philippines in 1993, Diaz added. Latip, who was allowed to speak with reporters after arriving in Manila, denied any direct links to the Abu Sayyaf. ``I was not a member of the ASG but I am a close friend of Janjalani,'' he said. Latip said he was returning home to the Philippines from Jordan when he was detained during a stopover at Jakarta. The Australian
 KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysian authorities have confiscated more than 15,000 Bibles in recent months because they referred to "God" as "Allah," a translation that has been banned in this Muslim-majority country, Christian church officials said Thursday. The alleged seizure of the Bibles, imported from neighboring Indonesia, is certain to reignite complaints by religious minorities that their right to practice their faiths freely has come under threat as the government panders to the Muslim majority. A growing sense of discrimination among the minorities is chipping away at Malaysia's reputation as a harmonious multiethnic nation that practices a moderate brand of Islam. The Rev. Hermen Shastri, general secretary of the Council of Churches of Malaysia, said authorities seized a consignment of 10,000 copies sent from Jakarta to Kuching in Sarawak state on Sept. 11 because the Indonesian-language Bibles contained the word "Allah." Indonesian language is similar to Malaysian language, both of which use "Allah" as translation for God in both Islamic and Christian traditions. Another 5,100 Bibles, also imported from Indonesia, were seized in March, said an official from the Bible Society of Malaysia, who asked not to be named for fear of angering the government. A Home Ministry official said he was not aware of the seizures. He said he couldn't be named without his superiors' clearance. Malaysia has banned non-Muslims from using the word "Allah" in their texts, saying the word is Islamic and may upset Muslims.
About 60 percent of the country's 28 million people are Malay Muslims while 25 percent are ethnic Chinese and 8 percent are Indians. Many of the Chinese and Indians are Christians. The Roman Catholic Church is challenging the "Allah" ban in court, saying it is unconstitutional and discriminates against those worshipping in Malay language. The case has been stuck in preliminary hearings for almost two years. Shastri said the church council is concerned over the continued detention "of our holy book, which is depriving congregations ... and denying them the use of their Bible." "For most of the Christians, this is not an issue of going against the authorities. They have been using (the word "Allah") for a long time," he said. Church officials say Allah is not exclusive to Islam but is an Arabic word that predates Islam. Besides the Bible seizures, Malaysia has been embroiled in other religious disputes. Some were over the conversion of minors to Islam and the religion of deceased people who are said to have converted to Islam secretly before their death. Hindus have also protested the demolition of several temples by authorities. Source: FoxNews
 UNTIL his death in a police shoot-out last month he was South-East Asia's most wanted man; an Islamic militant responsible for countless atrocities and hundreds of deaths. But to residents of the grindingly poor township of Kepuhsari, Noordin Mohammed Top has become a saviour.
"Thanks to Noordin, I made two million rupiah in two days," said Adinda, after charging The Times $5 to park our car.
"That's more than I've ever made in my life."
Sitting in her front yard across the road, Yania, in her late twenties, was equally grateful to the dead militant. Charging $2.70 for a bottle of water, she said: "I've never been able to go to visit my family in Yogyakarta. But last weekend Noordin paid for me to fly there."
On September 17, residents of this community, close to a militant Islamist town 300 miles from Jakarta, were woken by gunfire as security forces stormed a nearby house. It was the home of Hadi Susilo, known to neighbours as a kindly religious teacher who taught their children the Koran.What they did not know was that Susilo was an Islamic militant, and a senior member of Noordin's al-Qaeda network.
Noordin - who is blamed for the 2002 Bali bombing that killed more than 200 people, and attacks on two Jakarta hotels in which seven more died in July this year - was hiding at Susilo's house. With them were two other members of the group who had evaded capture since the Jakarta bombings.
Efforts by security forces since July have led to the death or capture of many Noordin lieutenants. In August, police celebrated when they thought they had killed Noordin himself in a day-long gun battle - only to later find that DNA tests showed that the dead man was not the leader but one of his allies.
Noordin finally met his end in a shoot-out after scores of police and anti-terror officers flooded Kepuhsari, evacuating residents before the firing started.
A month on, the spot where he died has become a tourist magnet. The house remains cordoned off, but scores of people line the earth banks behind it to gaze silently at the spot of the militants' last stand.
Residents are making the most of the area's sudden notoriety. On the approach to Kepuhsari is a hand-painted cardboard sign. Above a blue arrow pointing to the right it reads: "Location of terrorist Top's death."
A little further on is another sign: "The closest sign to terrorist Top's place of death."
Driving into the village, cars are shepherded to the side of the road, with drivers charged to park on the mud track.
Every house has turned into a street stall, offering water, soft drinks and home-cooked snacks.
Outside one house, a menu of local delicacies is illustrated with photo-copied pictures of Noordin and his allies. More signs advertise a unique variation on the national rice dish - "nasi goreng Noordin" - while another offers "tumpeng terrorisi Top".
There had been fears that after the shoot-out Kepuhsari would become a place of pilgrimage, or even a jihadist recruiting ground.
The area is known as a militant centre: Solo, the nearest large town, is the home of Abu Bakar Bashir, spiritual head of Jemaah Islamiyah, a hardline group Noordin once worked with.
However, many people here appear tired of the militants. After the Bali bombers were executed in November, the funerals were marked by parades and demonstrations by their supporters. By contrast, the demonstrations held after Noordin's death were protests at plans for a local burial.
Thousands took to the streets after his death, waving placards demanding that the dead militants be buried elsewhere. "We are tired of the terrorists," said Chokol, a paramedic who had come to view Noordin's place of death. "It's good that he's dead. He was not a good Muslim."
 JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - A group of 10 alleged Iranian drug smugglers, including eight veiled women, were caught with $12.5 million worth of methamphetamines at Indonesia's main airport, the customs chief said Wednesday. The group was picked up at Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta airport with 60 pounds (27 kilograms) of crystal methamphetamine and 5 gallons (23 liters) of the drug in liquid form, said customs chief Anwar Suprijadi. It is the largest drug bust in the airport's history, he said, describing how the group had arrived on flights from Malaysia, Syria and Qatar on Monday and Tuesday. Indonesian authorities have never seen veiled women used as drug runners, he said.
The drugs, wrapped in plastic food containers and cleaning fluid bottles, were packed into hand luggage. But the oddly-shaped packages were picked out by officers operating scanners. "We believe they are part of an international syndicate," he said. By wearing conservative Islamic clothing the women tried to "fool officers in a country like Indonesia, where women in black veils are generally considered to be good women." Nine suspects were paraded in front of the media at an airport detention facility Wednesday, while a tenth is said to have attempted suicide and was in a hospital. A 26-year-old man, who allegedly carried the liquid drug from Doha, tried to sever an artery with a razor blade. Police said they were trying to uncover a possible link to the arrest on Monday of another Iranian and an American in raids that netted more than 12 pounds (5.6 kilograms) of methamphetamines at an apartment and a hotel room in the nearby capital. Deputy chief of investigations Dikdik Maulana Mansyur estimated the seizure was worth $950,000. He said the 35-year-old American, who posed as a tourist to make deliveries to local hotels, faces up to 15 years in prison and a fine of up to $20,000. The Iranian, 40, has a previous drug conviction from 2002 and can expect a tougher sentence, he said. Indonesia has extremely strict drug laws and traffickers are regularly sentenced to death.
By the end of 2008, about 140 people were on death row, including more than 40 foreigners, most of them for drug-related crimes. Customs offices across Indonesia, a vast Muslim-majority nation of 235 million people, were warned to be on the lookout for other possible smuggling attempts. Poor law enforcement, corruption and high demand make Indonesia an attractive location for drug producers. Source: Asharq Alawsat
 Qori Sandioriva, 18, won the title on Friday, beating 37 other contestants for the crown. However, clerics in the region were outraged that an Acehnese woman won the title of Miss Indonesia. They said that by failing to wear a veil during the competition she had brought shame to the province. Qori Sandioriva was born in Jakarta but has an Acehnese mother so she was eligible to enter the contest as Miss Aceh. Islamic clerics said that she was not representative of her region because she had not followed partial Sharia law which is present in the autonomous Indonesian province. They said that only by wearing a veil during the competition would she have followed Aceh's traditions. Teung-ku Faisal Ali, the secretary general of Aceh's Ulama Association, told the BBC that anyone who represented Aceh must uphold the province's values. He said Qori Sandioriva did not wear a veil during the competition and therefore did not represent the Acehnese people, who have strong Islamic faith and values. Ms Sandiorova dismissed the importance of the veil to the competition saying that she believed hair was the key to beauty, the BBC reported. Next year Ms Sandiorova will enter the Miss Universe contest where she will have to wear a swimsuit as part of the pageant. Source: Telegraph H/T: WomenAgainstSharia
 AUSTRALIA will never forget the 2002 Bali bombings, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says. Eighty-eight Australians were among the 202 people killed in the attacks on the Sari Club and Paddy's Bar at the popular tourist area of Kuta on October 12, 2002. Mr Rudd said that Australia's thoughts and prayers were with those who suffered. "This is a day which Australians won't forget," he said on the seventh anniversary of the blasts. "It's a day when the families of those who lost their lives, and those who were injured, won't forget either. "This has meant that so many lives in Australia, so many families, have been fundamentally changed because of that act of brutal terrorism in 2002. "So, I confidently say that the thoughts, the reflections and the prayers of the entire nation are with those who suffered such terrible loss back in the Bali bombings of 2002." Australians in Bali will get together on Monday to mark the anniversary of the devastating 2002 terrorist attack. About 60 survivors and family members of victims will join Australian and Indonesian officials for a low-key memorial service at the Australian consulate. Other commemorations are also scheduled to take place at a permanent memorial near the bombing sites and on Kuta beach. In Sydney, NSW Premier Nathan Rees was among the around 300 people gathered at the Bali memorial at Coogee beach to mark the anniversary. Twenty of the 88 Australians killed in the Bali blasts came from the Coogee and surrounding eastern Sydney area. Source: The Australian
 From correspondents in Jakarta "We estimate about 3000 to 4000 people are still trapped or buried under the rubble," UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Indonesia El-Mostafa Benlamlih said today.
Bob McKerrow, head of the Indonesia delegation of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Society, said his estimate was 4000, based on his tour of the city of Padang and surrounding countryside.
"We're up to 4000. People don't like those figures out - they don't want the families to be grieving too much," he said.
 By Adam Gartrell The video, recorded less than three weeks before the attacks that killed seven, including three Australians, was recovered from a laptop seized in the police raid that killed terrorist mastermind Noordin Mohammed Top earlier this month.
The video, believed to be shot by Noordin henchman Saifuddin Jaelani, shows suicide bombers Nana Ikhwan Maulana and Dani Dwi Permana picnicking in a park across the road from the the Ritz-Carlton.
"This is our target," Nana tells the camera.
"Destroy America, destroy Australia, destroy Indonesia," Jaelani says.
Dani, just 18 years old, says: "This is not suicide. This is what our enemies fear.
"It is an obligation for all. Those who do not execute this obligation are sinners."
Police believe Jaelani, who is still on the run, recruited Nana and Dani for the attacks.
There is speculation he may replace Noordin as head of Noordin's hardline Jemaah Islamiah splinter group.
Other videos taken from the laptop show the Nana and Dani exercising in the park and surveying their target.
Police also seized a letter, allegedly written by Jaelani to his family in July, in which he accuses America and Australia of "slaughtering our brothers".
Jaelani also claims in the letter that Noordin's group is extremely well organised.
"There are those who manage the funds, there are those who recruit, there are ulema who are giving fatwas (holy decree) and directions.
"There are those who guard the mujahid (holy warrior) families, there are those who source cars, source explosives, source weapons.
There are also political minds, filmmakers and couriers, he wrote.
"And there are those who become volunteers for matrydom."
Indonesian police detective Tito Karnavian said the laptop also contained evidence that Noordin's group had re-established links with Middle East terrorist groups like al-Qaeda.
It also revealed how Noordin's group wanted to target the Indonesian government because of its efforts to promote democracy, Karnavian said.
 September 17 Loud explosions and gunfire were heard coming from a house on the outskirts of the town of Solo, a known militant stronghold, as well as shouts of Allahu Akbar (God is Greater).
A police source had earlier said the target of the operation was an associate of Malaysian terrorism suspect Noordin Mohammed Top, the leader of an Al-Qaeda-linked group blamed for a string of deadly bombings in Indonesia.
The source said it was possible that Top was also inside the house.
"Five bodies have been taken out of the house,'' a police intelligence officer told AFP, requesting anonymity.
An AFP correspondent saw three bodies being brought out of the house after the raid ended just before dawn. Metro TV said five people had been killed in the clash, and one member of the anti-terrorism police injured.
Members of the Mobile Brigade, a special police squad, besieged the house in the early hours of the morning and shooting went on for several hours, witnesses said.
Asked about the raid, Saud Usman Nasution, head of the Special Detachment 88 anti-terror squad, said that his unit was "still monitoring'' the situation.
Noordin, 41, who heads a violent splinter faction of the radical Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) network, is suspected of being behind July 17 double suicide attacks on Jakarta's JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels.
The bombings, which killed seven people including six foreigners, were the first attack in Indonesia in nearly four years.
Noordin allegedly also masterminded a 2003 attack on the Marriott that killed 12 people, as well as the 2004 bombing of the Australian embassy and 2005 attacks on tourist restaurants on the holiday island of Bali.
Police believe they narrowly missed Noordin in a dramatic televised raid in August on a safehouse in Temanggung, Central Java.
Noordin was initially reported dead at the end of the 17-hour siege but the body later turned out to be that of a florist working in the Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotel complex who helped plot the attacks from the inside.
Jemaah Islamiyah's ultimate goal is to unite Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and the southern Philippines into a fundamentalist Islamic state.
Aceh passes adultery stoning law
About 98% of Aceh's population is thought to be Muslim Indonesia's province of Aceh has passed a new law making adultery punishable by stoning to death, a member of the province's parliament has said. The law also imposes severe sentences for rape, homosexuality, alcohol consumption and gambling. Opponents had tried to delay the law, saying more debate was needed because it imposes capital punishment. Sharia law was partially introduced in Aceh in 2001, as part of a government offer to pacify separatist rebels. A peace deal in 2005 ended the 30-year insurgency, and many of the former rebels have now entered Aceh's government, which enjoys a degree of autonomy from the central government in Jakarta. It needs more public consultation. We need to involve the ulemas - the Islamic clerics - in drafting the law [Adnan Beuransah, Aceh Party] The legislation was passed unanimously by Aceh's regional legislature, said assembly member Bahrom Rasjid. "This law will be effective in 30 days with or without the approval of Aceh's governor," he said.
The governor of Aceh, a former rebel with the Free Aceh Movement, is opposed to strict Sharia law. He had urged more debate over the bill. Read All here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8254631.stm H/T: http://www.faithfreedom.org/2009/09/14/indonesias-province-of-aceh-passes-adultery-stoning-law/
 BANDA ACEH, Indonesia — Adulterers can be stoned to death and homosexuality is punishable by steep prison terms under a new law passed unanimously by lawmakers in Indonesia's devoutly Muslim Aceh province Monday. Aceh's regional parliament adopted the bill despite strong objections from human rights groups and the province's deputy governor, who said the legislation needed more careful consideration because it imposes a new form of capital punishment. The chairman of the 69-seat house asked if the bill could be passed into law and members answered in unison: "Yes, it can." Some members of the moderate Democrat Party had voiced reservations, but none of them voted against the bill. The law, which reinforces the province's already strict Islamic laws, is to go into effect within 30 days. Its passage comes two weeks before a new assembly led by the moderate Aceh Party will be sworn in following a heavy defeat of conservative Muslim parties in local elections. Aceh, where Islam first arrived in Indonesia from Saudi Arabia centuries ago, enjoys semiautonomy from the central government.
A long-running Islamic insurgency in the province ended in 2005 in the wake of the Indian Ocean tsunami that killed 130,000 there. A version of Islamic law, or Shariah, that had been introduced in Aceh in 2001 already bans gambling and drinking alcohol, and makes it compulsory for women to wear headscarves. Dozens of public canings have been carried out by the local Shariah police against violators of that law. Read more here,,,, Source: FoxNews
 INDONESIA'S staunchly Muslim Aceh province is set to enforce a strict form of Islamic criminal law, including stoning to death married adulterers, a lawmaker says. "Unmarried people who commit adultery will be caned one hundred times and married persons will be stoned to death," Raihan Iskandar, a provincial lawmaker from the Islamic-based Prosperous Justice Party, said. Aceh, where separatists had been fighting the Indonesian government since 1976 until a peace deal in 2005, has so far only partially adopted sharia law, which requires modest Muslim dress codes, mandatory prayers five times a day, fasting and the giving of alms to the poor. Sharia was implemented under a broad autonomy package granted by the central government in 2001 to pacify the hardline Muslim region's demand for independence. "This bill only focuses on ethical issues which include consumption of alcohol, gambling, committing adultery and raping," Iskandar said. Aceh's provincial parliament was scheduled to pass the new law Monday, he added. Crimes such as murder, robbery and corruption will not fall under the new law in Aceh, located at the northern tip of the island of Sumatra. Nearly 90 percent of Indonesia's 234 million people are Muslim, most of whom practise a moderate form of the religion. Source: The Australian
 JAKARTA, Indonesia — Children were crowded around a video game console, passing the time before they could break the Muslim holy month's daily fast, when an earthquake touched off a landslide that smothered their Indonesian village. Rescuers were searching Thursday for those 13 children and several dozen more people buried alive, as officials warned the death toll of 57 is sure to rise. Thousands of others were spending the night in tents after Wednesday's 7.0-magnitude quake flattened or seriously damaged more than 10,000 homes, offices, schools and mosques on the western side of the densely populated island of Java. Aid workers distributed provision kits, blankets and medicine, but said they were concerned remote areas had not received help following the temblor, which was felt for hundreds of miles (kilometers). At least 125 people were hospitalized with serious injuries and more than 5,300 others were in need of shelter, said Health Ministry Crisis Center chief Rustam Pakaya. Dede Kurniati's 9-year-old son was with a group of boys gathered at a friend's house in Cikangkareng village, in the district of Cianjur, West Java, to play video games on a rented console. Read more here,,, Source: FoxNews
 Stephen Fitzpatrick, Jakarta correspondent The new laws could see the targeting of Muslim clerics such as Abu Bakar Bashir, who gave his blessing to the 2002 Bali bombers but escaped attempts to convict him of terrorism. Bashir is regarded by a small group of hardline Islamists as a guiding light, although he almost certainly had no direct involvement in recent attacks including the July 17 Jakarta bombings. He spends his time travelling throughout Indonesia preaching his anti-Western message. He presided at the central Java funerals three weeks ago of two suspected terrorists shot dead by police in relation to the July 17 attacks, describing them as "fighters for Islam" who would be given "God's reward" in heaven. Thousands of people crowded into the ceremony in the city of Solo to hear Bashir's words. The head of Indonesia's anti-terrorism desk, Ansyaad Mbai, told The Australian yesterday that encouraging terrorist sentiment should be a prosecutable offence. "What I think we need, in the sense of increasing our legal capacity, is the criminalisation of certain activities, such as preparation for terrorist acts, encouraging people to be involved in terrorism, and spreading hatred," General Mbai said. Under current anti-terrorism laws enacted after the 2002 Bali blasts, suspects can be held for just seven days before police must either outline charges or release the accused. However, General Mbai denied the proposed new laws signalled a return to the repressive days of former dictator Suharto, or that they were an attempt to copy the heavy-handed internal security acts of neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore. The retired police inspector-general, who was part of a delegation summonsed to the parliament on Monday to address legislators on the need for the rule changes, said that despite recent advances in Indonesian policing standards, the July bombings were evidence that "our legal protection remains inadequate". "Terrorism needs to be prevented, and the preventative means we have are through the legal system," he said. General Mbai cited as proof of Indonesia's systemic inadequacy the fact that one of the men buried by Bashir two weeks ago, Air Setiawan, had previously been arrested on suspicion of involvement in terrorist activities and subsequently released. "That's a lesson that our laws are too soft," General Mbai said. Parliament has in the past considered and rejected proposals to institute a stand-alone internal security act like Malaysia's or Singapore's, but the current debate revolves around stiffening the already existing anti-terrorism legislation. The Brussels-based International Crisis Group, in a report last week on the support base of Noordin Mohammad Top, the Malaysian believed responsible for the July bombings, warned against a beefed-up legislative approach to the problem. "Strengthened legislation, harsher sentences for convicted terrorists, and new structural arrangements in the security apparatus (would be counter-productive) unless government agencies make a serious effort to understand and weaken the support base for terrorist activity," the group warned. Source: The Australian
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Copyright Muslims Against Sharia 2008. All rights reserved.
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By: Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury
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