LR Killer: "This Was a Jihadi Attack on Infidel Forces"

Here's the full text of the letter from Abdul Hakim Muhammad, the man who murdered an Army recruiter in Little Rock and tried to kill a second, to the judge presiding over his trial.

I've transcribed it as written, hence all the mispelling, capital letters, and lack of paragraphs. Emphasis, though, is mine:

To Judge Wright Jr.
From Abdul Hakim Muhammad

I'm writing this because I wish to plead guilty. To all charges I'm facing. Without deals without respite. I wrote the prosecutor and Federal Buerau of Investigations and TBI (Tenn. Buerau of Investigation. Informing them of all of the acts I was involved in around or about May 29 - June 1 2009. I do not wish to recieve funds for my defense. I don't wish to have a trial. I'm affiliated with Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Member of the Abu Basir's Army. This was a Jihadi Attack on infidel forces. That didn't go as plan. Flat out Truth. I plead to capital Murder, Attempt capital Murder and The other 19 counts without compulsion without Deals. My lawyer and prosecutors have fail to comply. I wrote John Johnson informing him of this. He responded I couldn't plead guilty to capital Murder Case. Which I think is a lie. That's why I'm writing you my lawyer has no defense. I wasn't insane or post traumatic nor was I forced to do this Act. Which I believe and it is justified according to Islamic Laws and the Islamic Religious Jihad To fight Those who wage war on Islam and Muslims. At the next hearing I look forward to pleading guilty and Await sentencing.

Abdul Hakim Mujahid Muhammad
11 pm 1/12/2010

I really have nothing to add. This was an act of individual jihad.

The Abu Basir mentioned in the letter who's army Mr. Muhammad claims to be a member of is Abu Basir al-Wahishi, the Yemeni head of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

Even if he never received training from AQAP, just knowing who leads the group seems to me an indication that he traveled in jihadi circles (probably online0.

I would direct you to read Ace's thoughts on the matter and I'll just echo his sentiment.

As Nidial Hassan taught us: one does not need to formally belong to a terrorist organization to inflict a lot of death and suffering in their name.

Thanks to John in Little Rock for the copy of the letter.

With thanks to the Jawa Report

Court hears that Afghan man strangled his wife after complaining she was 'becoming Australian'

AN Afghan man strangled his wife with her veil after complaining she was "becoming Australian", a jury has heard.

Mother of five Marzieh Rahimi, who was said to be trying to escape a violent arranged marriage, was killed in front of her baby and toddler.

Soltan Ahmad Azizi, 45, has pleaded not guilty to her murder at their Hampton Park home in November 2007.

The Supreme Court heard yesterday that Ms Rahimi, 33, had told social workers her husband had branded her a slave with no rights.

Prosecutor Peter Rose, SC, told the jury Ms Rahimi had complained her husband punched her and said her only purpose was to have babies and raise children.

Ms Rahimi, who spoke little English and communicated through an interpreter, had told a family violence officer and a health worker that she wanted to leave the marriage, but that she felt powerless, unsupported and fearful.

In his opening address, Mr Rose told jurors that when Mr Azizi learned she'd talked to outsiders he told her she was shaming him and must stop.

"I'll kill you because I can't carry the shame," he allegedly said when she spoke of separation or divorce.

The jury heard that about a week before his wife's death, Mr Azizi complained to his sister-in-law that she was "becoming Australian and had changed her religion".

The cousins wed in an arranged marriage and came to Australia as refugees in 2005. Their eldest children were aged 11, nine and six.

Mr Azizi told police he didn't plan to kill Ms Rahimi. He said he punched her, then "choked her with her veil"; he then rang 000, telling the operator, "I killed my wife ... come see. You come. My kids are only little."

Police found Ms Rahimi on the floor with her baby, three months, and toddler, 22 months, nearby.

"I'm ready for the handcuffs," he allegedly told them.

Defence lawyer Stratton Langslow urged the jury to consider whether Ms Rahimi's claims of domestic violence were prompted by post-natal depression.

He said they should examine the source of the abuse complaints and whether there was any independent evidence of ill-treatment.

Mr Langslow said Mr Azizi admitted killing his wife, but the issue was whether he'd meant to.

The jury heard that after one incident, in which she said Mr Azizi repeatedly punched her, she locked herself in a room for several days with her youngest children. He then began to treat her better, she'd said.

The trial, before Justice Betty King, is continuing.

Herald Sun

MASH Latest Recipient of the Face of Evil Award: Somali Rapists

An innocent little girl, Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow, aged only 13yrs was stoned to death in Somalia. None of men she accused of rape were arrested.

Law & Order and Double Standards – by Jamie Glazov

Almost every time I tune in to the show Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (SVU), there is some kind of grotesque and pathetically cheap leftist message being perpetuated.

Recently, as most of us know, the show had a character verbalize a connection between a psychotic murder and the fans of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Bill O’Reilly. The connection, naturally, is that these three individuals are “a cancer spreading ignorance and hate.”

The other day another episode I watched launched a ferocious attack on a religion and, surprise, surprise, it wasn’t Islam. The producers didn’t take the road less traveled.

You know, the one on which you confront the real dangers facing us but risk attracting lawsuits and death threats and, well, you know, putting your job and life at stake and stuff like that.

Why bother doing all that when you can just dip into the trendy liberal moral sewer and attack the Catholic Church — with no consequences to your own career and personal well-being? The Catholic Church is so evil, you see, that absolutely nothing will happen to you after you attack it.

In this particular episode, a Catholic priest molests boys and the Church covers it all up. The script offers a politically correct delicacy in which the seal of confession is portrayed as a vile rule created by horrid men for the purpose of institutionalizing abuse and tyranny.

There are no complexities, nothing to be said about the sacredness and importance of a priest having the obligation of keeping a confessed sin a secret. It’s all just so simple and, of course, evil.

Suffice it to say that the subject of this show is a reality in terms of the abuse of young boys by certain Catholic priests and its subsequent cover-up. These crimes have been investigated, exposed, and punished. And they should continue to be investigated, exposed, and punished. So as the topic for a show on television, it’s clearly warranted and legitimate.

To continue reading this article, click here.

FPM

US security officials planned to question Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in Detroit

US border security officials were aware that an alleged extremist was on a Detroit-bound flight on Christmas Day and were ready to question him on landing.

Officials discovered Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's name on the Customs and Border Protection database after he boarded his Northwest flight in Amsterdam and were waiting to question him upon landing in Detroit, senior law enforcement officials told the Los Angeles Times.

The disclosure appears to show US intelligence was close to uncovering the terrorist plot, despite the barrage of criticism it has come under since Abdulmutallab, 23, failed to detonate a bomb aboard a Northwest airliner on Christmas Day.

The window in detecting a passenger as a potential threat before boarding is limited, a senior Homeland Security official said, adding that in-depth vetting only begins once the flight manifest has been generated, a few hours before takeoff.

If the intelligence on Abdulmutallab had been discovered sooner, the officials said, he could have been interrogated before boarding the flight.

“The people in Detroit were prepared to look at him in secondary inspection,” said a senior law enforcement official quoted by the Times.

“The decision had been made. The... database had picked up the State Department concern about this guy, that this guy may have been involved with extremist elements in Yemen ... They could have made a decision on whether to stop him from getting on the plane.”

None of the officials quoted in the Los Angeles Times provided their identities because of the ongoing investigation into the bomb plot.

Abdulmutallab was indicted today by a grand jury for attempted murder and trying to use a weapon of mass destruction aboard a US plane and could face life imprisonment.

President Barack Obama has sharply rebuked intelligence and security services for missing a series of “red flags” that could have unmasked the plot earlier.

“That's not acceptable, and I will not tolerate it,” he said in an unusual public dressing-down of the intelligence services.

The White House is expected to release an unclassified version of a report into the intelligence failures.

The Australian

Iran: Victory of Blood over the Sword

Yesterday, Shias all over the world commemorated the 7th-century martyrdom of Hussein Ibn Ali, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.

Hussein’s martyrdom is to Shias what the crucifixion of Jesus is to Christians: The iconic event of the faith, the story of a man embracing martyrdom for a just cause.

“Blood” after all, proves victorious “over the sword,” the Shia saying goes, and immortal is the one who chooses an honorable death rather than live in dishonor.

Millions of men and women, young and old, religious and secular, rich and poor, went into the streets all over Iran yesterday to commemorate Hussein and to protest an unjust regime.

Iranian police have confirmed the deaths of eight protesters, including the nephew of opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi. They are the latest martyrs of the Iranian nation in its fight against the so-called Islamic Republic.

Thirty years after the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the regime in Tehran is neither Islamic nor republican; instead, it is fast degenerating into a brutal military dictatorship headed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and the Basij militia.

Militarization of the Islamic Republic was accelerated after the fraudulent June 12 presidential election that secured Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a second term in office. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Iranians assembled to protest the rigged electoral process — corrupt even by the Islamic Republic’s low standards — shouting, “Give us our vote back!”

Rather than attend to the grievances of the public, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei arrogantly endorsed Ahmadinejad’s presidency and has since indirectly authorized the IRGC and the Basij to terrorize the Iranian public into submission, though he tries not to take direct responsibility.

For a time repression seemed to work, and the protest movement was losing momentum. Wave after wave of crackdowns on protesters — along with the imprisonment, rape, and murder of political activists — reduced public participation in street protests, while the activists’ “confessions” of collaboration with foreign powers created an atmosphere of Stalinist terror all over Iran.

But Khamenei’s efforts may prove vain.

The older generation, which led the revolution of 1979, along with the sons and daughters of the revolution, chose the commemoration of Hussein’s revolt against injustice to protest the unjust regime.

Facing riot police and special forces, the protesters were armed with green banners and the greatest weapon available to them: the sense of moral superiority derived from a just cause. Superior in numbers, they seized police cars and freed demonstrators held captive. They confronted the riot police, asking them why they were shooting at members of their own families. Weeping youths in anti-riot gear begged for mercy.

Those eight people who sacrificed their lives for the sake of freedom have not died in vain: A week from now, a new wave of protesters will go to the streets to mourn them, no doubt igniting another round of demonstrations against the regime.

Should the regime choose to kill more of its people, the cycle will continue, and members of the armed forces will eventually recognize that they are not taking aim at foreign enemies but are killing their own people. And indeed, there are already reports of policemen refusing to obey their commanding officers’ orders to shoot the protesters.

But the victory of blood over the sword may not be close at hand. Members of the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij have significantly greater political and economic stakes in the regime’s survival than do the police and the regular army.

We may yet witness another phase of the Islamic Republic as it degenerates into a naked military dictatorship, purporting to do God’s work on earth and to pave the way for the Shia messiah.

Revolutionary victory won’t be easily attained without a long struggle. The revolution of 1979 was the result of several decades of revolutionary activity, beginning in the 1950s and accelerating through the 1960s and 1970s. Similarly, 2009 is not the beginning of the end for the Islamic tyranny in Tehran. But it could be the end of the beginning of the necessary revolution.

— Ali Alfoneh is a visiting research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

NRO

Opposition Leader Mousavi’s Nephew Shot Dead in Tehran Protests

Jim Hoft

The nephew of Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi was reportedly among eight people killed in clashes between police and protesters in Tehran.

Iran Press News (Farsi) posted video of the killing in Tehran:
Aljazeera reported:

An aide to the leader said on Sunday that Seyyed Ali Mousavi died after being shot by the police, but the claim could not be independently verified as foreign news organisations are barred by the authorities from covering street unrest.

Iranian state television, however, confirmed that several people were killed in clashes.

Opposition websites said at least four protesters had been killed in the capital Tehran while another four died in a violent crackdown on opposition protests in the northwestern city of Tabriz.

Mousavi’s Web site, Kaleme.ir, also reported that Mousavi’s nephew was among the dead today.

UPDATE: BBC Video– Mousavi went to the hospital where it was confirmed that his nephew had been shot dead by the regime.

With thanks to Gateway Pundit

Russia: Islamists claim responsibility for priest's murder

An Islamist militant group based in Russia's North Caucases has claimed the killing last month of an Orthodox priest who was an outspoken critic of Islam.


"One of our brothers who has never been to the Caucases took up the oath of (former independent Chechen president Doku Umarov) and expressed his desire to execute the damned Sysoyev," said a statement on the Kavkazcenter.com website.


Daniil Sysoyev, 35, was killed on November 20 when masked gunman walked into Saint Thomas's church in southern Moscow and shot him four times.


Doku Umarov emerged as the leader of the remaining active rebel movements in the North Caucases in 2007 and is considered enemy number one in the region by Russian authorities.


The statement on the Kavkazcenter.com website, which is often used by militants, accused Sysoyev of writing several pamphlets insulting Islam.


(more)

Source: AFP (English)

With thanks to Islam in Europe

Arizona Muslim charged with murder in honor killing of his daughter

Faleh Hassan Almaleki is clearly a Misunderstander of Islam, and did not get the memo about how Islam condemns and forbids honor killing.

An update on this story. "Man charged with murder in 'honor killing': Almaleki accused of running over daughter," by Dustin Gardiner for The Arizona Republic, December 22 (thanks to Jeffrey Imm):

An Iraqi immigrant accused of slaying his daughter in an "honor killing" has been charged with first-degree murder and could face the death penalty, Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas said Monday.

Faleh Hassan Almaleki, 48, of Glendale, is accused of using his Jeep Cherokee to run over his daughter, 20-year-old Noor Almaleki, and another woman in a Peoria parking lot on Oct. 20. His daughter died of her injuries.

Almaleki was reportedly furious with his daughter for becoming "too Westernized," police said.

Prosecutors have labeled Noor Almaleki's death an "honor killing," saying the elder Almaleki killed his daughter because she dishonored the family by not following traditional Iraqi or Muslim values.

She reportedly married a man in Iraq and returned to Arizona to live with a boyfriend and his mother in Surprise.

Thomas announced Almaleki was also being charged with attempted first-degree murder in the attack on his daughter's friend, Amal Khalaf, 43. Khalaf is the boyfriend's mother and is expected to recover from her injuries, police said....

"By his own admission, this was an intentional act, and the reason was that his daughter had brought shame on him and his family," Low said. "This was an attempt at an honor killing."...

With thanks to JihadWatch

The Doctor Who Defied Tehran

By FARNAZ FASSIHI

At the height of Iran's bloody civil unrest this year, a young doctor named Ramin Pourandarjani defied his superiors. He refused to sign death certificates at a Tehran prison that he said were falsified to cover up murder.

He testified to a parliamentary committee that jailers were torturing and raping protesters, his family says. He told friends and family he feared for his life.

And on Nov. 10, the 26-year-old doctor was found dead in the military clinic where he lived and worked.

The family of Dr. Pourandarjani, who occasionally treated prisoners in fulfillment of Iran's obligatory military service, says he was killed for his refusal to participate in a coverup at the notorious Kahrizak detention center, widely criticized for its unsanitary conditions.

In a series of interviews over three weeks, Dr. Pourandarjani's family spoke in detail for the first time about their son's mysterious death.

Iranian officials first blamed the doctor's death on a car accident, then a heart attack, then suicide and then poisoning, according to family members and government statements.

The controversy over his fate is transforming the doctor into a martyr for the opposition movement challenging the legitimacy of Iran's rulers. In a sign of his mounting symbolic importance, on Dec. 8 Iran's national prosecutor, Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, was pressed by local reporters at a news conference for answers. He said the case remains under investigation.

Mr. Mohseni-Ejei couldn't be reached for comment. A spokesman for the Iranian Mission to the United Nations said the case is being probed and declined to answer questions.

"I sent off my young, healthy and beautiful son to military service, and I got his dead body back," says his mother, Ruhangiz Pourandarjani, who lives in the northwest city of Tabriz. "Anyone who says he committed suicide is lying and should be afraid of God."

In Iran, protestors now carry the doctor's picture in street marches and chant his name along with that of Neda Agha Soltan, the young woman whose shooting death in June was captured on video and broadcast world-wide. A popular new slogan at some marches: "Our Neda is not dead, Our Ramin is not dead, it's the Supreme Leader who is dead," a reference to Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Mothers of individuals killed in Iran's antigovernment protests this year have formed a support group, Grieving Mothers, who march silently Sunday afternoons at Laleh Park in Tehran holding pictures of their dead children. This month, security officials arrested 15 members. They were freed a few days later when crowds gathered near the jail, demanding their release.

The opposition says more than 70 Iranians have been killed since June in a crackdown on the protests that erupted after the nation's disputed presidential election. The government says 17 people have died, including a dozen of its own security forces.

Iran denies allegations that jailed protesters were tortured or raped and blames the deaths in Kahrizak on a meningitis outbreak. The prison has been closed in the wake of torture allegations there.

An influential Iranian parliamentarian and former health minister, Masoud Pezeshkian, is pressing for a full investigation of Dr. Pourandarjani's death. The claim of a suicide by "someone who was a witness in Kahrizak, and has no background for mental illness, is suspicious," he told local news agencies.

More at WSJ

Tulay Goren murder: 'honour crimes doubling every year, figures show

The number of murders, rapes and assaults on people who dare to break strict religious or cultural rules is doubling every year, police figures show, with up to two violent “honour crimes” being committed every day.

But charities which help victims of honour crimes say the true extent of the problem is far worse than the statistics show, as every year hundreds of vicitms - normally women - are too frightened to report attacks or to give evidence in court.

The escalating problem was highlighted yesterday as an Old Bailey jury convicted Mehmet Goren, 49, of the cold-blooded and premeditated murder of his 15-year-old daughter Tulay after she fell in love with someone from the “wrong” branch of Islam.

Miss Goren disappeared 10 years ago after telling a friend she might be pregnant but justice caught up with her father after his wife “courageously” testified against him and lifted what was described as the “cloak of secrecy” which surrounds honour crimes.

A prosecutor said the case was a “wake-up call” to the authorities over the extent of the problem in this country, which campaigners say is growing because of the rise of religious fundamentalism.

Miss Goren and her family had nine contacts with police in the days before her death, during which they complained of violence by Goren, but officers had little understanding at the time of the concept of honour crimes and she was left at the mercy of her father.

The court heard that Miss Goren, whose Turkish Kurd family are Alevi Muslims, was drugged, tortured and then killed by her father after she fell in love with a Sunni Muslim twice her age.

Her body has never been found.

Goren, who adhered to what one police officer described as “outdated feudal beliefs”, was sentenced to serve a minimum of 22 years in jail as the trial judge condemned the “hideous practice” of so-called honour killings.

Miss Goren’s sister Nuray Guler told the court, the teenager had been “caught in the middle of two clashing worlds” and pleaded with police to stop other women falling victim to “this primitive custom”.

She expressed fears for the safety of her mother Hanim, whose evidence against Goren had put her own life in danger. “No one should fail to realise what this means within our culture,” she said.

“These people do not forget.”

Figures released by the Metropolitan Police show that in London alone there have been 129 honour-based crimes between April and October this year, compared with 132 in the whole of 2008/09, which in turn was double the number of the previous year.

The Home Office has estimated that there are an average of 12 honour killings each year in England and Wales.

More at the Telegraph

London: Father convicted of honor killing charges

Mehmet Goren, the father of 15-year-old Muslim schoolgirl Tulay Goren, has been convicted of her murder in a family "honour killing" in London.

Tulay, who had come to Britain from the Kurdish region of Turkey, was drugged, tortured and then killed by her father Mehmet Goren, over her relationship with an older man of whom Mehment Goren and his relations did not approve.

Although Tulay's body has never been found, her father Mehmet Goren, 49, was found guilty of murder at the Old Bailey after a 10-week trial.

He was cleared of conspiracy to murder Halil Unal, Tulay's former boyfriend who survived being attacked with an axe by Mehmet, two weeks after the schoolgirl vanished.

Mehmen Goren's older brother Ali and younger brother Cuma were each cleared of charges of murder and conspiracy to murder.

The trial heard how Tulay, who came to Britain at the age of 12, was assaulted by her father, a Shia Muslim, who was angered by her relationship with Mr Unal, who was twice her age and a Sunni Muslim.

In the weeks before her disappearance, Tulay ran away from home twice and personally reported two attacks on her by her father. Her boyfriend also reported an assault.

However, despite Tulay's refusal to go home, she was lured back three weeks later, in January 1999, and disappeared the next day.

(more)


Source: Telegraph

With thanks to Islam in Europe

Villagers forced to watch stoning in Somalia

A hadith regarding stoning: "'Umar said, 'I am afraid that after a long time has passed, people may say, "We do not find the Verses of the Rajam (stoning to death) in the Holy Book," and consequently they may go astray by leaving an obligation that Allah has revealed. Lo!

I confirm that the penalty of Rajam be inflicted on him who commits illegal sexual intercourse, if he is already married and the crime is proved by witnesses or pregnancy or confession.' Sufyan added, 'I have memorized this narration in this way.' 'Umar added, 'Surely Allah's Apostle carried out the penalty of Rajam, and so did we after him.'" -- Bukhari, Volume 8, Book 82, Number 816

Sharia Alert: "Pictured: Islamic militants stone man to death for adultery in Somalia as villagers are forced to watch," from the Daily Mail, December 14 (thanks to all who sent this in):

This barbaric scene belongs in the Dark Ages, but pictures emerged today of a group of Islamic militants who forced villagers to watch as they stoned a man to death for adultery.

Mohamed Abukar Ibrahim, a 48-year-old, was buried in a hole up to his chest and pelted with rocks until he died.

The group responsible, Hizbul Islam, also shot dead a man they claimed was a murderer.

Moments before his execution, his hands still free, Mohamed Abukar Ibrahim is buried in the ground.

But the verdict was so shocking that it prompted a gun battle between rivals within the group that left three militants dead, witnesses said.

The executions took place yesterday in Afgoye, some 20 miles south-west of the capital of Mogadishu.

Hizbul Islam fighters ordered hundreds of residents to a field, where a rebel judge announced that the two men had confessed to murder and adultery.

A woman who had confessed to fornication had been sentenced to 100 lashes, he added.

'This is their day of justice,' the judge, Osman Siidow Hasan, told the crowd. 'We investigated and they confessed.'

But when some Hizbul Islam fighters wanted to delay the executions, a bloody gun battle broke out between the two factions, shocked residents said.

'Three Hizbul Islam fighters died and five others were injured after they fought each other," Halima Osman, an Afgoye shopkeeper, told Reuters in Mogadishu by telephone.

'Some wanted to delay the execution while the others insisted. They exchanged fire. The group that was against the execution was overpowered and chased away,' she said.

Once the gun battle was over, the militants coldly carried out the verdicts.

A relative of the murder victim shot the first as he lay on the floor.

'I could not watch,' local man Ali Gabow told Reuters. 'The lady who had been with the second man was only given 100 lashes because she said she had never married.'...

Thanks to JihadWatch

Amsterdam: Nine years for honor murder

The court in Amsterdam sentenced Younis K. (39) to nine years on Monday. They were shown evidence that he beat his wife, Aisha K (36), to death in their home in Amsterdam-Zuidoost in August 2007.

His cousin, Tariq S (38) was acquitted. The prosecution had asked for 14 years in prison for both men.

K. supposedly murdered his wife because she wanted to divorce him and go live with another man. In this way the mother of four shamed the honor of his Pakistani family. The man killed his wife buy beating her many times, probably also with cricket bats.

The court called the murder 'horrible' and said that Aisha K. must have suffered 'terrible pain'. "That the victim wanted to divorce can in no way even somewhat justify the acts of the suspect."

During the trial K. more of less blamed his cousin for the death of his wife. He had asked him to come and mediate on that day. After which he had gone outside for a minute. When he came back, his wife was lying seriously injured in their home. The court did not deem this plausible, as nobody saw K. outside at the time of the murder.

The prosecution said that K. didn't beat his wife to death on his own, but that his cousin helped him. The court concluded that there were indications this was so, but that there was insufficient evidence that the injuries of the victim were caused by two people.

The court gave K. a lighter sentence than demanded by the prosecution. They sentenced him for manslaughter and not for murder, which was the demand of the prosecution.

The investigation of the case was not without difficulties. For a long time K. claimed that he had beat his wife himself. When he appeared in court in April, he suddenly said that he hadn't touched her at all, but that his cousin had been home at the time of the murder. S. was subsequently arrested.

K. will appeal his sentence, said his lawyer, Richard van der Weide. "My client is very disappointed and affected by this wrongful conviction, in his eyes." He says the court looked too much at the man's first statements, which were demonstrably inaccurate. The public prosecution didn't say yet whether they'll appeal.

Source: Telegraaf (Dutch)

With thanks to Islam in Europe

Husband charged with murder of wife whose hand was chopped off

The estranged husband of a mother-of-two Geeta Aulakh, who was found with horrific injuries including a severed hand, was today charged with her murder.

Harpreet Aulakh, 31, will appear before London's Feltham Magistrates' Court next week charged with murder.

Mrs Aulakh, 28, was found with fatal head injuries and her hand severed after being attacked in Greenford, north-west London on November 16.

Aulakh was one of two men arrested by Scotland Yard yesterday in connection with the murder.

Mrs Aulakh was attacked at about 7pm. She was walking to pick up her two sons aged eight and ten after leaving work at Sunrise Radio where she was a receptionist.

Her family have since described how they are living in a "nightmare" from which they cannot wake up.

They said Mrs Aulakh was preparing to divorce her husband of 11 years.

The second man arrested yesterday has been bailed to a west London police station on a date in mid-January.

Mail Online

London: 60% increase in honor-based incidents

Police have seen 'honour' crime surge by 40 per cent due to rising fundamentalism, new figures show.

Honour-based violence, including crimes like murder, rape and kidnap has rocketed in London during the past year.

Reported instances of intimidation and attempts at forced marriage have also increased by 60 per cent.

A report into the scale of the problem by Scotland Yard found there were 161 honour-based incidents recorded in 2007-8, of which 93 were criminal offences.

But in 2008/9 the number of incidents had risen to 256, with 132 being criminal offences.

The latest figures indicate that the trend is continuing, with 211 incidents reported in the last six months until October, of which 129 were offences - more than double the number in the same period last year.

Police define honour crimes as offences motivated by a desire to protect the honour of a family or community.

Diana Nammi, of the Iranian and Kurdish Women's Rights Organisation, said the group is now dealing with four times more complaints relating to honour than two years ago.

She said: 'More women are coming forward. They are becoming more aware of their rights in the UK, that there is help available and they feel confident enough to report matters to the police.

'But I also think cases and violence are increasing.

'One reason is the rise in fundamentalism. The problem is increasing in communities around the UK.

'We are seeing a rise not only in honour killings, but also in female genital mutilation and polygamy.'

She added: 'The rise in Sharia courts is another indication of more fundamental beliefs.

'There must be more support from the Government to organisations who are working to combat this problem.'


(more)


Source: Daily Mail

Islam in Europe

Muslim student accused of stabbing Jewish prof

A Muslim anthropology graduate student is being charged with second-degree murder in the stabbing death of a Jewish professor at Binghamton University in Vestal, New York.

The victim is Richard Antoun, 77, professor of Middle Eastern studies and the author of "Understanding Fundamentalism: Christian, Islamic and Jewish Movements."

The man in custody is Abdulsalam Al-Zahrani, 46-year-old Saudi national.

The attack took place Friday afternoon when the student entered the professor's office and stabbed him, according to an eyewitness. Campus police tackled the assailant to the ground, while emergency service workers rushed to Antoun's side.

University President Lois DeFleur issued the following statement Friday: "This afternoon, in an act of senseless violence, the Binghamton University community lost one of its long-time faculty members. ... Our hearts go out to the Antoun family and we will provide them with as much assistance as we can in this time of sorrow."

New York Gov. David Paterson also released a statement about the victim: "He touched the lives of many students and was respected by his colleagues. Though he will be missed on campus, he will live on in his writing, his research and his students, whose lives he forever changed."

Antoun received a doctorate from Harvard in 1963 and joined the Binghamton faculty in the early 1970s. He was "a sociocultural anthropologist who has conducted research among peasants in Jordan, urbanites in Lebanon, peasant farmers in Iran and migrants in Texas and Greece," according to the univerrsity's website. He retired in 1999 as professor emeritus.

"He dedicated his life to trying to understand the people of the Middle East," the professor's sister Linda Miller, of Holden, Mass., told the New York Times. "He never said an unkind word to anyone in his life. "Miller’s husband, the Rev. David J. Miller, said that Antoun had been married to his wife, Rosalyn, for 17 years and had a son, Nicholas, 40.

WND

Iraqi child abduction called a 'new form of terror'

Iraqi children are becoming prominent targets of terrorist attacks in the form of kidnappings, rape and murder, Iraqi officials say.

An official at the Iraqi Interior Ministry said there were several cases where organized gangs were carrying out these crimes, but added that many of the criminals had been arrested and brought to justice, according to the London-based A-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper.

Safia a-Suheil, an Iraqi MP, said, "Recently the practice of targeting children by killing, kidnapping and raping them has mushroomed."

These kidnappings constituted a "new terrorism tactic" since it was undermining the country as a whole, she said.

In many cases, children are abducted and the kidnappers demand a ransom in exchange for their safe return.

"It's been going on since the beginning of the war," an international aid worker in Iraq told The Media Line. "But it's been getting a lot more attention lately." Penalties for such cases include the death sentence.

"There's an obvious failure to tackle issues related to children in Iraq," Suheil said. "There are several practices which have spread in Iraqi society and that need to be addressed and tackled, including child labor, which has become one of the most dangerous forms of violence that children are facing.

"A high number of Iraqi children look for work on the streets and in markets because of difficult living conditions, which is partially a result of terrorism suffered by those looking after them," she said. "That shouldn't prevent a search for new and alternative means, including allocating part of the Iraqi state budget to provide for them and their families."

Suheil recommended that a special unit be set up in the Interior Ministry's division for combating terrorism, to tackle this problem by increasing security around schools and public parks, which have become popular spots for families since the security situation began to improve.

JPost

Masked gunman kills Russian priest at Moscow church

A masked gunman entered a Moscow church and murdered a Russian Orthodox priest who had received death threats for converting Muslims to Christianity and criticizing Islam, prosecutors and church officials said Friday.

The killing could threaten delicate relations between the powerful majority Russian Orthodox Church, which has close ties to the Kremlin, and the country’s growing Muslim minority of about 20 million.

The gunman approached priest Daniil Sysoyev, 34, in St Thomas Church in southern Moscow Thursday night, checked his name and then opened fire with a pistol, a spokesman for the investigating committee of the Prosecutor-General’s office said.

Sysoyev was from Tatarstan, a predominantly Muslim region of Russia on the Volga river. He was threatened after preaching to Muslims and Christians from other denominations.

“I have received 10 threats via e-mail that I shall have my head cut off (if I do not stop preaching to Muslims),” Sysoyev stated on a television program in February 2008, according to Interfax. “As I see it, it is a sin not to preach to Muslims.”

“Islam is far from being a religion in the way we understand it,” he said in one of his video lectures posted on YouTube (here in Russian). “Islam can be rather compared with projects like National Socialism or the Communist party seeking to create God’s kingdom on Earth using humanly instruments,” he added.

Reuters

Major Hasan’s Islamist Life – by Daniel Pipes

As the Pentagon and Senate launch what one analyst dubs “dueling Fort Hood investigations,” will they confront the hard truth of the Islamic angle?

Despite encouraging references to “violent Islamists” by Sen. Joseph Lieberman (Democrat of Connecticut), chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, there is reason to worry about a whitewash of the massacre that took place on Nov. 5; that is just so much easier than facing the implications of a hostile ideology nearly exclusive to Muslims.

Indeed, initial responses from the U.S. Army, law enforcement, politicians, and journalists broadly agreed that Maj. Nidal Hasan’s murderous rampage had nothing to do with Islam.

Barack Obama declared “We cannot fully know what leads a man to do such a thing” and Evan Thomas of Newsweek dismissed Hasan as “a nut case.”

But evidence keeps accumulating that confirms Hasan’s Islamist outlook, his jihadi temperament, and his bitter hatred of kafirs (infidels). I reviewed the initial facts about his record in an article that appeared on Nov. 9 but much more information subsequently appeared; here follows a summary. The evidence divides into three parts, starting with Hasan’s stint at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center:

• He delivered an hour-long formal medical presentation to his supervisors and some 25 mental health staff members in June 2007, the culminating exercise of his residency program at Walter Reed. What was supposed to be on a medical topic of his choosing instead turned into a 50-slide PowerPoint talk on “The Koranic World View As It Relates to Muslims in the U.S. Military” that offered such commentary as “It’s getting harder and harder for Muslims in the service to morally justify being in a military that seems constantly engaged against fellow Muslims” and the “Department of Defense should allow Muslims [sic] Soldiers the option of being released as ‘Conscientious objectors’ to increase troop morale and decrease adverse events.” One person present at the presentation recalls how, by the time of its conclusion, “The senior doctors looked really upset.”
• Hasan informed at least one patient at Walter Reed that “Islam can save your soul.”
• So apparent were Hasan’s Islamist proclivities, reports National Public Radio, that key psychiatry authorities at Walter Reed met to discuss if he was psychotic. One official told colleagues of his worries “that if Hasan deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, he might leak secret military information to Islamic extremists. Another official reportedly wondered aloud to colleagues whether Hasan might be capable of committing fratricide,” recalling Sergeant Hasan Akbar’s 2003 rampage.

Then followed Hasan’s record at Ft. Hood:

• His supervisor, Captain Naomi Surman, recalled his telling her that as an infidel she who would be “ripped to shreds” and “burn in hell.” Another person reports his declaring that infidels should be beheaded and have boiling oil poured down their throats.
• In his psychiatric counseling sessions with soldiers returned from Iraq and Afghanistan, Hasan heard information he considered tantamount to war crimes. As late as Nov. 2, three days before his murderous spree, he tried to convince at least two of his superior officers, Surman and Colonel Anthony Febbo, about the need legally to prosecute the soldiers.
• Hasan routinely signed his e-mails with “Praise Be to Allah.”
• He listed his first name as Abduwalli, rather than Nidal, in the e-mail address in his official Army personnel record. ‘Abd al-Wali is an Arabic name meaning “Slave of the Patron,” where Patron is one of God’s 99 names. It is not clear why Hasan did this, but Abduwalli could have been a nom de guerre, this being a common practice among Palestinians (Yasir Arafat even had two them – Yasir Arafat and Abu Ammar).

Finally, Hasan’s extracurricular activities revealed his outlook:

• He designed green and white personal business cards that made no mention of his military affiliation. Instead, they included his name, then “Behavior Heatlh [sic] Mental Health and Life Skills,” a Maryland mobile phone number, an AOL e-mail address, and “SoA (SWT).” SoA is the jihadi abbreviation for Soldier of Allah and SWT stands for Subhanahu wa-Ta‘ala, or “Glory to Him, the Exalted.”
• He wore Pakistani clothing and sent money to Pakistan. Noting his apparent lack of ties to Pakistan as well has his abundance of disposable income, his money probably went to support jihadi groups.
• Hasan contacted jihadi web sites via multiple e-mail addresses and screen names.
• He traded some 10-20 e-mails with Anwar al-Awlaki, Al-Qaeda recruiter and fugitive from U.S. justice who was Hasan’s spiritual leader at two mosques, Masjid Al-Ribat Al-Islami in San Diego and the Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center outside Washington, D.C. Awlaki acknowledges becoming Hasan’s confidant, speculates that he may have influenced Hasan’s evolution, and praises Hasan for the massacre, calling him a “hero” who “did the right thing” by killing U.S. soldiers before they could attack Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan.
• Hasan had “more unexplained connections to people being tracked by the FBI,” other than Awlaki, including some in Europe. One official characterized these as “Islamic extremists if not necessarily al Qaeda.”
• Duane Reasoner Jr., the 18-year-old Muslim convert whom Hasan mentored in Islam, calls himself a “extremist, fundamentalist, mujhadeen, Muslim” who outspokenly supports Awlaki, Osama Bin Laden, the Taliban, Omar Abdur Rahman (the blind sheikh) and Adam Gadahn (Al-Qaeda’s top American figure).

These symptoms in the aggregate leave little doubt about Hasan’s jihadi mentality. But will the investigations allow themselves to see his motivation? Doing so means changing it from a war on “overseas contingency operations” and “man-caused disasters” to a war on radical Islam. Are Americans ready for that?

Mr. Pipes (www.DanielPipes.org) is director of the Middle East Forum and Taube distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University.

FPM