 Egyptian Christian shop owners in the eastern town of Farshoot where a Muslim riot recently occurred refused to reopen their stores until the government compensated them for damages. Copts – the Christian community in Egypt – said they will not be coerced into overlooking the mass riot that left reportedly 65 Christian shops damaged, as reported by Assyrian International News Agency on Sunday. Instead, they are uniting to make authorities recognize what happened and punish perpetrators. Authorities, however, reportedly are putting pressure on the Coptic Church in Nag Hammadi, which is under the same governorate as Farshoot, to tell the victims to accept extrajudicial reconciliation and reopen their businesses without compensation. Police in Farshoot are also reportedly refusing to issue police reports to victims, forcing them to travel 37 miles away to make a report with the Attorney General in Qena, the capital of the governorate. Authorities have also not carried out an estimated loss investigation despite requests the church has made for a week. “There will be no reconciliation before full financial compensation has been paid to the Coptic victims, and the criminals are brought to justice, so that safety and security can be restored to the district,” said Bishop Kirollos of the Nag Hammadi Diocese, according to AINA. Kirollos told activist Wagih Yacoub of the Middle East Christian Association that the victims have no money to clean up, restock items and reopen their stores. Reports estimate that 10 pharmacies and 55 shops and businesses in Farshoot and several nearby villages were vandalized, torched or damaged during the few days of riots which began on Nov. 21. In Farshoot alone, about 80 percent of Coptic businesses were destroyed, which translates to about over $1 million in damages. The riot, which drew hundreds of angry Muslims, was due to a rumor that a Coptic young man kidnapped and raped a 12-year-old Muslim girl.
However, an investigating officer told a Farshoot pastor that the girl said she was only sure that her attacker wore a black jacket and nothing else. Moreover, the girl’s family had agreed with the church to wait for a police investigation and did not incite or join in with the mob that burned and looted Coptic-owned properties. Christian business owners in Farshoot whose shops were undamaged have closed their businesses in solidarity with fellow Coptic business owners whose stores were damaged. Bishop Kirollos has sent letters about the violence in Farshoot to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarek, Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, Egypt’s People’s Assembly and the Shura Council asking for quick financial compensation for the Coptic victims. Christian Post 
 BEIJING — Nine men have been executed for taking part in ethnic rioting that left nearly 200 people dead in July, the first suspects put to death in the unrest, Chinese state media reported Monday. The worst ethnic unrest in decades began July 5 when minority Uighurs attacked Han, who make up China's dominant ethnicity, only to face retaliatory attacks two days later. Many Uighurs, who are a Turkic Muslim ethnic group linguistically and culturally distinct from the Han, resent Beijing's heavy-handed rule in Xinjiang, their traditional homeland. Four months later, Xinjiang remains smothered in heavy security, with Internet access cut and international direct dialing calls blocked. The official China News Service reported that the nine were executed after a final review of the verdicts by the Supreme People's Court as required by law, but gave no specific date or other details. Earlier reports had identified those condemned as eight Uighurs and one Han. The timing of the executions was not especially fast for China, which puts more people to death than any other country.
Politically sensitive cases are often decided in weeks, especially when they involve major unrest. The nine had been convicted of murder and other crimes committed during the riots in Urumqi, Xinjiang's capital. China blames the rioting on overseas-based groups agitating for broader rights for Uighurs in Xinjiang. The news service said another 20 people were indicted on Monday on charges related to the deaths of 18 people and other crimes committed during the riots. All but two of the prisoners listed in the report had Uighur sounding names, with the others appearing to be Han. Overseas Uighur activist Dilxat Raxit condemned the executions as motivated by politics and the need to appease Urumqi's angry Han residents, who marched in the thousands through the city in September to demand trials of those responsible for the July violence and the perpetrators of a bizarre series of hypodermic needle attacks. "We don't think they got a fair trial, and we believe this was a political verdict," said Raxit, who serves as spokesman for the Germany-based World Uyghur Congress. "The United States and the European Union did not put any pressure on China or seek to intervene and for that we are extremely disappointed," he said. Source: FoxNews
 Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch urged on Wednesday both Arabs and Jews to abstain from provocations, in the wake of recent riots in the Temple Mount compound in Jerusalem. Addressing the issue of violence in the Old City at the Knesset, the minister said, "I will not allow leaders on both sides, the Arab and the Jewish, to further incite and use the holy sites for their political interests. I will not let the Temple Mount turn into a boxing ring." Following a brief quiet spell, riots broke out again earlier in the week in Jerusalem's Old City. More than 20 people were detained while members of the Islamic Movement, accused by police of inflaming the crowds, claimed that Arabs only wished to pray at the site and slamming police for provoking the unrest by using excessive force. Speaking at the Knesset on Wednesday, Aharonovitch said, "I call on both sides – the Jewish MKs, who encourage visits to the Temple Mount and falsely accuse the police, and the Arab MKs, who urge to save the al-Aqsa mosque thus stirring and inciting - you know that al-Aqsa wasn't in danger, is not in danger and will not be in danger in the future." The minister went on to say, "The Temple Mount is a holy place and the public should not be dragged into violence at the site. I call on you to back law enforcement authorities and allow them to do their job. "In conclusion, while taking personal responsibility for maintaining the order, I hereby declare: Enough with the delusional groups in the Jewish sector and enough with the inciters from the Arab sector. Stop messing with Temple Mount. "
Aharonovitch made a similar previous attempt to calm the tensions from the Knesset podium. Earlier this month he addressed MKs and pled with them to mince their words, urging them "not to set Temple Mount on fire."
 Efrat Weiss Nine police officers were lightly injured Sunday stones and Molotov cocktails hurled at forces stationed at the Temple Mount as part of the high state of alert in the area. A female Australian reporter was lightly injured by stones in the Old City. Forces patrolling the area also noticed oil poured on the floor, apparently in order to cause the officers to slip and make their activity in the area more difficult. A police force entered the Temple Mount compound in order to catch the stone throwers, using shock grenades.
More than 18 people were arrested on the Mount and in its surroundings, including senior Fatah member Khatem Abdel Kader, who is charge of the Jerusalem portfolio in the Palestinian organization. Palestinians and members of the Waqf reported that at least eight worshippers were injured, but the police said they were unaware of any injuries.
Abdel Kader was arrested at the Temple Mount plaza after allegedly rioting, assaulting policemen and calling on worshippers to launch a parade. He was taken in for questioning by the Jerusalem Police's minority unit.
Three masked Arab men were arrested in the afternoon hours after hurling stones at the security forces in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Ras al-Amud. Police also detained Ali Abu Sheikha, No. 3 in the Islamic Movement's northern branch.
Abu Sheikha was arrested on suspicion of rioting and calling on residents to go out and demonstrate. In mid October he was detained on suspicion of inciting Arabs near the Temple Mount during the riots which began on Yom Kippur Eve.
Another incident was recorded when Knesset Member Ahmad Tibi (United Arab List-Ta'al) tried to enter the Temple Mount but was stopped by the police. "This is extremely severe," Tibi said in response. "The police are violating the law. It's not in their authority. The al-Aqsa Mosque is not a closed military zone."
Police Commissioner Dudi Cohen told reporters while visiting the Mount, "I identify many large groups of east Jerusalem Arabs and Israeli Arabs who have arrived here following calls made by the Islamic Movement, whose leaders are here. I call on them to practice restraint and calm and not to incite.
"The Jerusalem Police will act firmly against any rioters on the Temple Mount. The inciters are the same people you know. It's impossible that the Israel Police will have to deal with the Islamic Movement every Sunday, and so we will handle this on the investigative level."
He clarified that the police did not enter the al-Aqsa Mosque and had no plans to do so.
The Jerusalem Police accused elements in the Islamic Movement and Hamas of inflaming the situation after calling on youngsters to riot on the Temple Mount on Saturday.
Read more here,,,,
Source: YNet
 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Muslim extremists of being behind recent violence in Jerusalem and said Monday they spread baseless lies to "undermine the peaceful life" in the holy city. The comments followed days of low-level unrest at the city's most sacred shrine. The violence has added to regional tensions fueled by stalled peace efforts, Israeli construction in Jewish settlements and a U.N. report accusing Israel of committing war crimes in the Gaza Strip. Late Sunday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of "Judaizing" Jerusalem and undermining Palestinian claims to the city. In an about-face, Abbas also announced he would push for a vote in the U.N. Human Rights Council, which commissioned the Gaza report, to refer it to the U.N. General Assembly — a move that could ultimately lead to war crimes proceedings against Israel. Israel put thousands of police on high alert in Jerusalem last week after several days of scuffles between police and Palestinians around the disputed hilltop compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. The competing claims to the site — home to the biblical Jewish Temples and to the Al Aqsa Mosque — is seen as the most intractable issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Arab protests around the site were fed in part by rumors by local Muslim leaders that Israel was digging tunnels under the mosque and planning to take over the site. "I wish to clarify. This is an unfounded lie," Netanyahu told his Cabinet on Monday. "Last week, extremists tried to undermine the peaceful life in Jerusalem," he said. "I appreciate the fact that the vast majority of Arab Israeli citizens did not follow the provocations and did not let the extremists exploit the lies." He also appealed for coexistence with Israel's Arabs, who make up about one-fifth of Israel's 7 million citizens. Netanyahu's comments were his first on the Jerusalem unrest, which has added to growing mistrust of the Israeli leader in the Arab world. Israel and the Palestinians both claim Jerusalem.
Netanyahu insists Israel will retain control over the entire city, including the eastern sector it captured and annexed in 1967.
The Palestinians claim east Jerusalem, home to the most sensitive religious sites, as the capital of a future independent state. Read more here,,,, Source: FoxNews
 The head of the International Union for Muslim Scholars, Yusuf Al Qaradawi, is urging Egyptians to turn this Friday into a nationwide day of anger against the "Israeli practices at the Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem." The Qatar-based cleric flew to Egypt from Doha on Monday to deliver a speech at the Egyptian Journalists' Syndicate in Cairo, where he condemned the Arab governments' silence towards the "violation of Al Aqsa's holiness" by Israeli settlers and occupation forces. Tensions erupted in the area known as Al Haram Al Sharif to Muslims and the Temple Mount to Jews last week when a group of non-Muslims entered the compound, which is the third holiest venue in Islam and the most important in Judaism. While Israeli authorities said that the group was composed of French tourists, Palestinians believed that they were Israeli extremists entering the mosque in celebration of the Jewish Sukkot festival.
Further confrontations took place Sunday as tens of Palestinians entered the mosque overnight amid rumors that larger numbers of Israelis will be allowed to enter the mosque, before Israeli forces shut down the holy site. Muslims under 50 years old were later banned from praying inside the mosque and on Monday, thousands of Jewish worshipers prayed at the Western wall below Al Aqsa for religious celebrations. Qaradawi, who is well-known for his controversial fatwas, urged all Egyptian clerics to dedicate Friday prayer speeches to showing solidarity with Al Aqsa and asking Muslims to gather for peaceful protests afterward. Read more here,,,, Source: LATimes
 By Aaron Klein JERUSALEM – With Israeli police here mobilizing to secure Jerusalem following days of Palestinian rioting, it is instructive to offer some context for clashes that have been taking place on the Temple Mount and at scattered sites throughout the eastern sections of Jerusalem. On Sunday, during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, about 150 Palestinian protesters hurled rocks and bottles at police after Israel barred men between the ages of 18 and 45 from ascending the Mount.
The restrictive order was imposed in response to Palestinian Authority calls for Arabs to flood the holy site to protect the Al Aqsa mosque from so-called Jewish extremists. Yesterday, unable to reach the Temple Mount, Palestinian and Israeli Arab unrest continued with rock-throwing incidents throughout Jerusalem's old city and with the stabbing of an Israeli border guard in a northeastern Jerusalem neighborhood. The unrest, however, is not spontaneous and is not occurring in a vacuum. The riots are being directly incited by the PA, whose official media outlets and institutions are stoking Arab flames by claiming right-wing extremist Jews are attempting to threaten the Al Aqsa mosque – a decades-old blood libel that should be easily dismissible in light of heavy Israeli restrictions on Jews and Christians from ascending the Mount during most hours of the days; whereas Muslims are usually free to access the site at any time. Indeed, Israeli rules prohibit Jews and Christians from praying on the site.
If any so-called extremist Jew attempted to enter the Al Aqsa mosque, he or she would likely be immediately removed from the Temple Mount by Israeli police, who follow Jewish tour groups very closely and coordinate with the Waqf, the Islamic custodians of the site. The PA is not just inciting violence; its officials also are assisting the riots. Yesterday, Israeli security forces released from custody Jerusalem's senior PA official, Khatem Abed Al-Kadr, who had been detained on suspicion of inciting riots.
The PA-aligned Islamic Movement even is sponsoring buses to transport young, riled up Arab Israeli men to Jerusalem and the Mount from the fundamentalist-dominated Muslim city of Um Al-Fahem. Speaking to WND, Dimitri Diliani, the spokesman for PA President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party in Jerusalem, did not deny his group's involvement in the riots. "Palestinian political factions, including Fatah, are firm on defending the political, national and religious rights of the Palestinian people," Diliani said, "and it's evident now we will continue defending the Al Aqsa Mosque as well as our rights in Jerusalem as a whole." Read more here,,,,, Source: WND
 by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz Amnon Lin, a former Knesset Member and authority on the Middle East, told Israel National News' Hebrew-language radio that a segment of the Arab-Israeli community is taking its orders from global jihadist organizations, such as Hizbullah and Hamas. "We need to get used to the idea that today, among Arab Israelis, there is a very extremist group - led by the Islamic Movement, Raed Salah, Kamal Khatib and others - who maintain very close relations with organizations in the Islamic movement outside Israel, be it Hamas, the Hizbullah or other elements, such as Ikhwan Al-Muslimoon - the Muslim Brotherhood. Israeli Arabs no longer live on an isolated island," Lin explained. Connections between Israeli Arabs and Islamist groups worldwide, Lin said, are by way of the Internet, telephone, through the mass media, and more. This facilitates events such as the pre-planned rioting in Jerusalem this week, which can be essentially orchestrated from afar. "Nowadays," Lin told Arutz Sheva, "Arab Israelis have many methods by which to receive guidance, and even orders and instructions, that 'you must do such-and-such' and thus place the struggle for Jerusalem - that is, the battle for the Temple Mount - at the center." Asked by the interviewer if this constitutes, in effect, an operational arm within Israel of the global jihadist movements, Lin replied: "I am certain that [the Islamist leadership in Israel] is an operational arm that acts in full coordination with the leadership of the Hamas groups or of Hizbullah. It is all networked by the extremist fundamentalist Islamic movement." INN: "If so, then we have to treat it like a spy network, because we are a country that has to deal with existential threats." Lin: "I don't think you or I need to encourage the security services. They do their job well." Asked if he sees the justice system at fault for the growth of Islamic fundamentalist activity, Lin replied that, in his estimation, the legal penalties for terrorist activities are not sufficient to deter those who want to attack innocent Jews. "The only thing that surprises me," added Lin, "is that we, Jews in the State of Israel, apparently have not yet learned, and are not investigating or aspiring to learn well, the sad truth that describes the situation among the Arab Israelis - [that they are] not separate from the general Arab public or from the Islamic fundamentalist public in the Arab countries." Amnon Lin, a graduate of the Shomer HaTza'ir Kibbutz movement in pre-state Israel, started his political career as in the mainstream socialist Mapai party led by David Ben-Gurion. Lin was responsible for Mapai party activities among the Israeli Arab sector in the 1950s and '60s. By the 1970s, Lin had switched parties and joined the Likud under Menachem Begin. Then, due to local political issues in his hometown of Haifa in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Lin rejoined the left-wing Labor party, Mapai's successor. His last term in the Knesset ended in 1988. Lin has published several publications and many articles dealing with the Arab refugees of 1948, the Arab states, politics in the Arab Israeli community, as well as on the future of Judea, Samaria and Gaza. Source: INN
 After Israeli ministers called for his indictment on Tuesday morning, Islamic Movement leader Raed Salah stated in the afternoon that he and his supporters "would pay any price to defend Al-Aqsa [Mosque]," Israel Radio reported.
Salah, who leads the Islamic Movement's northern branch, called on all Israeli Arabs and residents of east Jerusalem to immediately make their way to the Old City and "shield the mosque with their bodies." In response to accusations of inciting to violence in the Temple Mount compound in the past days, Salah stated that if forced by the Israeli government to choose between imprisonment and defense of the mosque "and occupied Jerusalem," he would choose the former without hesitation. Earlier Tuesday, in the wake of the Arab riots in Jerusalem, Vice Premier Silvan Shalom and National Infrastructures Minister Uzi Landau called for the Islamic Movement to be outlawed for allegedly inciting the violence, while Interior Minister Eli Yishai stressed that Israel was the sovereign "in the eternal, united capital of the Jewish people." "Sheikh Raed Salah should be behind bars, and so should [deputy head] Kamal Khatib," Shalom told Israel Radio on Tuesday. "I intend to raise the issue in the next cabinet meeting." While Shalom praised the police force for doing its job, he stressed that "it's time for the State Prosecution to start acting ... enough is enough." The Palestinian Authority contributes to the situation by trying to assert its authority over east Jerusalem, Shalom said, but Israel needs to assert its sovereignty on the Temple Mount.
 Eighteen policemen and 17 Muslim worshippers were lightly injured in riots which erupted Sunday morning at the Temple Mount holy site in Jerusalem. The police officers were wounded by stones hurled by rioters and were evacuated to the Shaare Zedek and Hadassah Ein Kerem hospitals in the capital. Eleven people were arrested on suspicion of hurling stones. Following the riots, the police prevented worshippers from entering the compound. The incident began when a group of tourists entered the Temple Mount compound accompanied by a police force. At a certain stage, some 150 worshippers started gathering around them and calling out towards them. Some of the worshippers began throwing stones at the group. The police force fired stun grenades in an attempt to gain control of the riot. Eighteen police officers were lightly injured by stones. Six of them received medical treatment on the site and the rest were evacuated to hospitals. Fifteen worshippers were injured by stones and two were lightly hurt by the stun grenades and were evacuated to the al-Maqasid Hospital in east Jerusalem. Adult worshippers attempted to calm things down, while the group of tourists was removed from the site. Several stone throwing incidents were recorded in the alleys of the Old City after the riot. There were no reports of injuries or damage. Many police officers were deployed in the area, and Police Commissioner Dudi Cohen arrived at the Temple Mount and held an evaluation of the situations with senior commanders.
The defense establishment has declared a heightened state of alert across the country ahead of the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. On Saturday evening, a closure was imposed on the West Bank until Monday at midnight. Residents will only be allowed to cross into Israel in humanitarian cases. Read more here,,,,
 A RIOT by Muslim youths in the western Sydney suburb of Auburn last week was organised via Facebook, police believe. The troublemakers used the social networking site to flash up inflammatory references to police and rally their friends for a confrontation. One update identified police as "non-believers" who were raiding a "brother's home". More than 150 people gathered in Cumberland Road, Auburn, on Tuesday night, forcing police to call in 100 officers, the riot squad and a helicopter. The tense stand-off came after Middle Eastern organised crime squad police raided four homes. Opposition Police spokesman Mike Gallacher's office revealed one of the Facebook updates read: "Kefeirs raiding brother's house, everyone get down hier (sic)!!" A spokesman for Mr Gallacher said the term used to describe the police had become a slang Arabic term used to describe non-believers. "I don't think it is an intentional move by people to get around the law -- it is the way a lot of younger people contact one another and it would appear there is a loophole in the law," he said. "Using Facebook and Twitter and modern technology gives a quicker way of getting messages out to a larger number of people." Detective Chief Superintendent Ken McKay said the Middle Eastern organised crime squad was looking into phone communication and would expand the investigation to Facebook. He said regardless of the laws covering the means of communication, the police could still identify and pursue those responsible for Facebook messages. "If you incite a riot it doesn't matter by which means, how you do that is somewhat irrelevant," Supt McKay said. And he said he was concerned by the general lack of respect young people from all backgrounds have for authority. Meanwhile, a spokesman for Attorney-General John Hatzistergos also said current laws could be applied, adding: "There is a range of serious offences where people call on others to riot or commit other offences via mobile phone or the internet." Source: Daily Telegraph
Those Bloody Danish Cartoons......! Thanks to Vlad for finding this documentary of a Dane who interviews principle players in the dreaded Mo-cartoon brouhaha. Make no mistake, this documentary is not an attempt to blame the Danes or exonerate Muslims, but an interesting window into the thoughts of those who became news due to their role in the crisis.I particularly enjoyed watching OIC's Ekemleddin Ihsanoglu's strong arm tactics in refusing to answer a question of whether he is in part to blame, as head of the OIC, for the fanning of flames of the conflict. Ihsanoglu responded in the very same way to a Tundra Tabloids' statement and subsequent question when he was in Helsinki last year. KGS NOTE: Observe how the documentary pulls no punches when it describes the events leading up to the riots that erupted around the world. Video/Documentary: http://en.sevenload.com/videos/KebMeB2-Bloody-Cartoons-avi Source: TundraTabloid.blogspot.com
URUMQI, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- Foreign envoys visiting the riot-hit Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwest China called for closer cooperation among the international community to crack down on terrorism after watching an exhibition on the July 5 riot on Tuesday.  | | Diplomats watch weapons seized from terrorist cells while visiting an exhibition on the achievements of anti-terrorism and anti-separatism in Xinjiang at Xinjiang Public Security Department in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Aug. 11, 2009. Diplomats from 26 countries and regions to China visited the exhibition on Tuesday. (Xinhua/Sadat)
| "I have seen some photos (of the riot) before I came to Urumqi, but I still feel very shocked now for the tragic incident," said Pakistani ambassador to China Masood Khan. "Children lost their parents, wives lost husbands, the elderly people lost their offspring. This should not have taken place at all," he said. "We fully support the Chinese government's stand in cracking down on 'the three forces'of terrorism, separatism and extremism." Diplomats from 26 countries and regions to China began a five-day visit to Xinjiang on Monday, a month after the deadly riot in the regional capital of Urumqi which left 197 people dead and more than 1,600 others injured. At the invitation of the regional government, they are expected to, through the visit, acquire a better understanding of Xinjiang's development over the past several decades in various sectors, including its politics, economy, ethnic and religious policies, preservation of cultural relics and the livelihood of local residents. Murat Salim Esenli, Turkish ambassador to China, said the timing of the riot was not accidental. The image of Xinjiang is changing for the positive to the world, but some people did not want to see the positive image and tried to sabotage the development and stability of the region, he said. Esenli said countries should cooperate with each other in face of terrorism, separatism and extremism. The "three forces" have become a common threat to almost all countries in the world, said Esenli, adding that "no single country can deal with the problem alone, they should cooperate with each other." A large number of weapons seized from terrorist cells were displayed during another exhibition on the achievements of anti-terrorism and anti-separatism in Xinjiang. The diplomats who visited the scene of the exhibition said it's necessary for the Chinese government to take measures to fight against terrorism and protect the safety of the people. According to the regional public security department, the "three forces" had launched some 1,000 attacks in Xinjiang since 1990, killing more than 160 people. Some 648 terrorist cells and violent criminal groups had been wiped out by the public security forces. "We have to share information and technology in the field of fighting against terrorism," said Esenli. Afghan ambassador Sultan Ahmad Bahee said his country is also a victim of terrorist attacks, particularly suicide bombings. "We strongly request the international community to combat terrorism hand-in-hand," said Bahee. Source: Xinhua |
 | | Zhou Yongkang (2nd R), member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), visits a supermarket in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. | URUMQI, July 12 The violence-torn Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is plodding on the road to recovery amid vigilance one week after the violence in its capital city of Urumqi that left 184 people dead and 1,680 injured. Police with riot gears were inspecting checkpoints, combing coaches for runaway suspects involved in the deadly violence. Zhou Yongkang, member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Political Bureau, said in his tour to the autonomous region on Sunday that to maintain social stability is the top concern of the livelihood of the people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang for the time being. The regional government chairman Nur Berkri said in a televised speech Sunday afternoon that the number of people injured in violence on July 5 had risen to 1,680. Altogether 216 of the 939 hospitalized are seriously injured and 74 injured fatally, he said. An oil tank explosion occurred at a chemical plant in Urumqi Sunday morning. Police ruled out the possibility of intentional sabotage after on-the-spot investigation but said the reason of the explosion needs further investigation. At the suburb of Aksu City, people who flocked into the Uygur bazaar, Toksun, as the local residents called it, said they had felt something different. "There are much fewer people compared with what it was before the violence," said Tunxunjiang Tuohuniyazi, a local Uygur who were visiting the bazaar with his wife. "On my way here, I saw a lot of policemen," he said. "But I understand it. The heavy security helps ensure our safety." The bazaar, which boasts 3,000 stands, only saw a little more than 500 of them in business on Sunday. Tuniyazi Yiming, a vender busy baking dumplings, said his turnover halved with number of the bazaar visitors on such a sharp decline. The same bleak business picture could be seen in the border city of Kashgar in southern Xinjiang, where markets and bazaars reported only a few visitors. Also hurt is the the region's tourism. Sources with the Urumqi Municipal government told Xinhua that because of the riot, 1,184 tour groups had cancelled their plans to visit the city as of Sunday. They involved 74,218 travelers, including 10,731 tourists from overseas. Railway authorities said Sunday that situation in the Urumqi's train terminal is normal. The passenger volume was reported at 21,000 persons at the station on Sunday, 4,000 fewer than Saturday. "There are no so-called 'waves of refugees' and ticket scalpers reported by some overseas journalists in the train terminal," said Chen Kai, vice chief of the South Train Station of Urumqi. In Urumqi, thousands of youngsters have expressed their willingness to serve the city by signing up to be volunteers. "Two days after the hotline was launched, we have received more than 1,600 calls," said Yu Yinglong, head of the Volunteer Association in Urumqi. "They volunteered to serve in hospitals and to give psychological help to those who were traumatized in the violence." "The Koran teaches us that Muslims should be united. It teaches us to live in harmony with non-Muslims as well. Muslims and Non-Muslims should help and get along with each other on equal footing," said Xiahabuding Aihaiti, a teacher with the Xinjiang Academy of Islamic Scriptural. Source: Xinhua
 Firemen put out a fire in Dawannanlu Street in Urumqi, capital of northwest
China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on July 5, 2009. (Xinhua/Shen Qiao)With the exception of Yan'an Road, Tuanjie Road, a road near Xinjiang University, and Ningxiawan in the suburbs of Urumqi, blockades in downtown Urumqi have been removed. Debris has been cleared from the roads and normal traffic has resumed. Workers are still pulling away damaged vehicles from the worst-affected roads in the city. But most shops in areas where the violence occurred remained closed as of Monday morning. At a market on Guangming Road, only ten stalls selling vegetables and fruit opened Monday morning, compared with dozens of stalls on normal days. The market is usually crowded. Li Guifang, a resident near the market, said they had heard the violence last night and few residents came to the market in the morning. Armed police are patrolling streets that are still blockaded. In Ningxiawan, firefighters were still struggling to put out a fire at a shop Monday morning. Residents in Urumqi said they still felt no sense of safety although the order was being restored. A young couple, who witnessed the violent scene in Ningxiawan, said they had "little sense of safety and would leave the area quickly." The couple, from Korla, southwest of Urumqi, said they had planned to buy a house in the capital city. A total of 129 people were killed and 816 others injured in the violence in Urumqi, when rioters took to the street with knives, wooden batons, bricks and stones at around 7 p.m. Sunday, according to the regional government. The rioters also vandalized vehicles and buildings. Death toll in Xinjiang riot rises to 140, still climbingSource: Xinhua
 By Deborah Weiss The current uprising in Iran is not merely about a fraudulent election. The simmering masses of Iran are restless for the freedom and prosperity they once enjoyed, before being straitened for decades by the strictures of religious fanaticism. The people have seized upon this election fraud to push for greater openness and such forgotten notions as women’s rights. Nothing better illustrates the awful injustices Iranian women face than a soon-to-be released film, The Stoning of Soraya M. The film tells the grisly true story of an innocent woman who was stoned to death in Iran on charges of adultery. The events – which are described in flashback by the title character’s aunt, Zahra – take place in 1986, in the rural village of Kupayeh. Zahra recounts how years earlier her niece Soraya entered a marriage that had been arranged by her parents. She was 14 and her husband, Ali, was 20. Together they had four children, two boys and two girls. Ali was emotionally and physically abusive to his obedient wife, physically beating Soraya and openly cavorting with prostitutes. At the age of 41, Ali fell in love with another 14-year-old girl and wanted to marry her, but couldn’t afford two wives. He requested a divorce, offering to take the two boys with him and to leave Soraya a meager settlement. Knowing the divorce would leave her and her daughters in abject poverty, Soraya declined, which only served to escalate Ali’s abuse. Read more ...Source: FPM
 TEHRAN is a tinderbox after government paramilitaries started shooting, killing at least one protester, following a huge public rally against last Friday's disputed re-election of President Ahmadinejad. Tens of thousands of supporters of defeated presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi defy a government ban by marching in downtown Tehran.
Members of the Basij, a force of young Islamic hardliners, killed one demonstrator and wounded several more when their building was attacked as tens of thousands of protesters dispersed from a rally against election fraud held in defiance of a government ban. In another incident a witness told The Times how she watched from her car as riot police on six motorbikes opened fire on youths walking under a bridge after the rally. “The riot police started shooting them with big guns,” she said. “It wasn’t like the films where there is just a small hole — the shooting was blowing off hands, limbs. It was terrible, terrible.”
An Iranian photographer, declining to be named, told AFP that the incident in which a man was killed occurred in front of a local base of the Basij volunteer militia, which was set on fire. The dead man had been shot in the head.
Pictures of the incident showed armed men, wearing helmets and in civilian clothes, pointing guns at the crowds from the rooftop of the base. The photographer said the protester was killed by shots fired by the armed men.
Gunfire was heard in at least three other districts of the Iranian capital. The Ministry of the Interior was rumoured to have authorised the use of live ammunition as the regime struggled to maintain control. Supporters of the defeated candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi, fought running battles with the police and Basiji, who have flooded into Tehran.
Mr Mousavi emerged from hiding for the first time since the election results were announced to address the rally. He told the crowd packed into Azadi (Freedom) Square: “God willing, we will take back our rights.”
Newly emboldened, the protesters brought out their green ribbons and bandanas and chanted: “Mousavi we support you”, and “We will die, but retrieve our votes”. The show of strength boosted Mr Mousavi’s supporters, who have called for another rally and a general strike today. Demonstrations have also been reported in the cities of Esfahan, Shiraz, Mashad and Ahvaz
The Iranian regime showed its first sign of alarm when Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader, who at the weekend hailed the result as a “divine assessment”, instructed the Guardian Council of 12 senior clerics to investigate allegations that the election was rigged. However, the move was seen widely as a ruse to buy time.
The regime’s violent response to the biggest political crisis in the Islamic Republic's 30-year history has triggered a growing international backlash. Gordon Brown warned Iran that the way it responded to legitimate protests would affect its relations with the rest of the world. David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, expressed concern at “what seems to be state violence against its own people”.
President Obama said he was “deeply troubled” by the violence, and Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General, urged the regime to respect the “genuine will” of the Iranian people. Source: The Australian
 HARDLINE incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has declared a "great victory" in Iran's hotly disputed presidential vote, amid rioting by opposition supporters and furious complaints of cheating from his defeated rivals. Ahmadinejad's triumphant television address came as baton-wielding police were clashing with protesters in the streets of the capital Tehran in unrest not seen since student riots a decade ago. Thousands of supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi swept through Tehran shouting “Down with the Dictator” after final results showed Ahmadinejad winning almost 63 percent of the vote. The moderate ex-premier, who earlier in the day had cried foul over election irregularities and warned the outcome of the vote could lead to “tyranny”, has issued a call for calm. “The violations in the election are very serious and you are right to be deeply hurt,” he told his supporters in a statement posted on his campaign website. “But I firmly call on you not to subject any individual or groups to hurt. Do not lose your calm and restraint. Everybody should draw a line between themselves and any violent behaviour.” Ahmadinejad rejected allegations the vote was rigged. “The election was completely free... and it is a great victory,” he said, calling on his supporters to gather later today in the capital's Vali Asr Square, where many of Saturday's clashes occurred. Even as he was speaking, Iran's main cellular phone network was cut while social networking site Facebook was also blocked. The interior minister said Mousavi had won less than 34 percent of the vote, giving Ahmadinejad another four-year term in a result that dashed Western hopes of change and set the scene for a possible domestic power struggle. Iran's all-powerful supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei hailed Ahmadinejad's victory and urged the country to unite behind him after the most heated election campaign since the Islamic revolution in 1979. The vote outcome appears to have galvanised a grass-roots movement for change after 30 years of restrictive clerical rule in a country where 60 per cent of the population was born after the revolution. The international community had also been keenly watching the election for any signs of a shift in policy after four years of hardline rhetoric from the 52-year-old Ahmadinejad and a standoff over Iran's nuclear drive. Mousavi protested at what he described as “numerous and blatant irregularities” in the vote which officials said attracted a record turnout of about 85 per cent of the 46 million electorate. “No one can imagine such rigging, with the world watching, from a government who holds commitment to shariah-based justice as one of its basic pillars,” said Mousavi said in a letter posted on his campaign website. “What we have seen from dishonest (election) officials will result in shaking the pillars of the Islamic republic system, and a dominance of lying and tyranny,” he said in a separate statement. In the heart of Tehran, Mousavi's supporters voiced their disbelief and frustration at the results, with some throwing stones at police who struck back with batons. Angry crowds first emerged near Mousavi's campaign office in central Tehran, where protesters, including women, were hit with sticks as riot police on motorbikes moved in to break up the gathering, an AFP correspondent said. Late Saturday police further beefed up their presence in main streets and squares, especially in the area housing Mousavi's office, while dozens of men were seen handcuffed and detained in an interior ministry compound. Members of Iran's volunteer Basij militia were also being deployed in some parts of the city while several smouldering garbage cans were seen lying on the sidewalks after being set ablaze by rioters. The White House said it was monitoring the reports of irregularities, while British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said London “will continue to follow developments” in Iran. In Moscow, the chairman of the Duma (parliament) Committee on International Affairs Konstantin Kosachev hoped for more “understanding and wisdom” from Ahmadinejad in the new term. “The results of the election show, now more than ever, how much stronger the Iranian threat has become,” said arch-foe Israel's deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon. The election highlighted deep divisions in Iran after four years under Ahmadinejad, who had massive support in the rural heartland, while in the big cities young men and women threw their weight behind Mousavi. Source: The Australian
 Abraham Rabinovich, Acre, Israel | October 11, 2008
A CAR driven through a Jewish neighbourhood in this city by an Israeli Arab on Yom Kippur, the Jews' holiest day, touched off the worst Jewish-Arab rioting inside Israel since the outbreak of the Palestinian intifada eight years ago.
Hundreds of residents of this ethnically mixed city clashed for two successive nights, leading to fears that similar rioting might spread to other parts of the country. Police poured reinforcements into Acre and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert issued a call for restraint by both sides. "We must safeguard the ability to live together in mixed cities," he said.
On Yom Kippur, the Jews' day of fasting, cars are not driven on the streets of Jewish towns except for emergency vehicles. Even those Jews who do not spend the day in synagogue, as do the religiously observant, refrain from playing radios loudly or otherwise disturbing the silent solemnity of the day in public. Arabs traditionally show respect for the day by not driving into Jewish areas.
On Wednesday night (local time), however, an Arab resident of Acre, Taufik Jama, drove through a Jewish neighbourhood with his 18-year-old son and a friend of the son close to midnight. Jama said afterwards he was going to a relative's apartment across town to pick up his daughter. When he reached his destination, he said, he and his two passengers were attacked by Jewish youths and barely managed to escape.
A police spokesman, Chief Superintendent Eran Shaked, dismissed Jama's version. "This was a provocation," he said. "An Arab driver enters a Jewish neighbourhood on Yom Kippur with blaring music (on the car radio) and refuses to leave when asked to by local residents. We believe he was intoxicated." Jama denied that he had been playing the car radio.
Rumours that an Arab had been lynched reached the Arab quarters and hundreds of Arabs began marching towards the Jewish side of the city, smashing shop windows and car windows along the way. They were met by crowds of Jews and the two sides hurled rocks at each other while exchanging shouts of "Death to the Arabs" and "Death to the Jews" as police tried to intervene.
Police commanders met Arab leaders in an attempt to restore calm but rioting broke out again yesterday. Police used water cannon and teargas to pry the sides apart. Eight people were injured and several arrests were made.
The rioting was the worst inside Israel since September 2000, when 13 Israeli Arabs were shot dead as they blocked main roads and rioted in support of the Palestinian uprising in the West Bank and Gaza.
Right-wing Knesset member Esterina Tartman said yesterday the Acre riots justified demands to transfer some Arab areas inside Israel to an emergent Palestinian state in a territorial swap.
"The Arabs of Israel are the real threat to the state," she said. Arab Knesset member Ahmed Tibi termed the incident a "Jewish pogrom" against Arabs.
The ancient walled city at the heart of Acre, which contains significant remains from the Crusader period, is inhabited almost exclusively by Arabs, who constitute about one-third of the city's population. Jewish inhabitants live in new neighbourhoods outside the walls.
A four-day theatre festival, an annual feature that is one of the liveliest cultural events in Israel, is scheduled to be held next week inside Acre's old city. It is not clear now whether it will be in view of the ongoing tension. Source: The Australian
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Copyright Muslims Against Sharia 2008. All rights reserved.
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Egyptian Christian shop owners in the eastern town of Farshoot where a Muslim riot recently occurred refused to reopen their stores until the government compensated them for damages.
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