Tuesday, September 30, 2008

CAIR Tries to Censor California Politicians

CAIR
By Steve Emerson

The Investigative Project on Terrorism is among those who are critical of new guidelines discouraging the use of terms like "Islamist" and "jihad" when discussing terrorism and extremism that were issued earlier this year by the Department of Homeland Security and the National Counterterrorism Center.

While the agencies argue that the words may boost the popularity of terrorists among Muslim radicals, it's a bad idea to hide the motivations behind those who seek to attack the United States, or innocent people around the world. Another weakness was exposed last month, when the California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) attacked California Congressman Ed Royce (R-Orange County) for using the term "Islamist terrorism." Read more ...

Source: Family Security Matters

 
Submission

A Wise Warning from Europe about America's Future

Wilders
This is the transcript from a speech given by Mr. Wilders at the Four Seasons, New York, last week.

I come to America with a mission. All is not well in the old world. There is a tremendous danger looming, and it is very difficult to be optimistic. We might be in the final stages of the Islamization of Europe. This not only is a clear and present danger to the future of Europe itself, it is a threat to America and the sheer survival of the West. The danger I see looming is the scenario of America as the last man standing. The United States as the last bastion of Western civilization, facing an Islamic Europe. In a generation or two, the US will ask itself: who lost Europe? Patriots from around Europe risk their lives every day to prevent precisely this scenario from becoming a reality.

My short lecture consists of four parts.

First, I will describe the situation on the ground in Europe. Then, I will say a few things about Islam. Thirdly, if you are still here, I will talk a little bit about the movie you just saw. To close, I will tell you about a meeting in Jerusalem. Read more ...

Source: Family Security Matters

 
Submission

Potential Jurors Kept Secret in Fort Dix Plot Trial

Defendants
May 8, 2007: Eljvir Duka and Shain Duka, brothers
accused of plotting to attack the Fort Dix Army Base
CAMDEN, N.J. — Jury selection began under tight security Monday in the federal trial of five men accused of planning an attack on Fort Dix.

Lawyers were expected to take three weeks or more to seat 12 jurors and six alternates. The trial will likely last several months.

U.S. District Judge Robert Kugler has taken the relatively rare step of keeping the jury anonymous, so even lawyers in the case won't know their names.

Prospective jurors on Monday were filling out their forms in an assembly room, detailing any knowledge of the case and their own biases.

Outside Kugler's courtroom, workers were installing a new metal detector. Already, people entering the courthouse must pass through one. To get to the trial, they'll go through a second.

Lanes of the street in front of the courthouse were also closed as a security precaution. Read more ...

Source: AP

Submission

Jerusalem to Host Ant-Jihad Convention in December

Israel
By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

Dutch legislator Geert Wilders, producer of the movie Fitna exposing the Koran's incitement to violence, announced that a "Facing Jihad Conference" will take place in Jerusalem in December. "We are organizing this event in Israel to emphasize the fact that we are all in the same boat together," he said in a speech in New York.

Wilders' 15-minute film earlier this year set off violent protests in Muslim countries because of the description of the Muslim prophet Mohammed as a murderer. He is teaming up with Knesset Member Prof. Aryeh Eldad (National Union) for the Jerusalem convention, where he vowed "no racist organizations will be allowed." Read more ...

Source: Israel National News

Submission

'Fundamentalists spreading harsh ideology in Canada'

Canada
* Moroccan writer says indifference of Canadian authorities to extremism shocked her
* Says vulnerability of moderate Muslims scared them to confront ‘Islamists’

By Khalid Hasan

WASHINGTON: Fatima Houda-Pepin from Morocco, who is Canada’s first elected Muslim woman politician, has expressed dismay at the fundamentalist interpretation of Islam and the spread of a harsh ideology in the country where she has lived for the last 35 years.

Writing in Le Presse, a Montreal-based French daily, Houda-Pepin says that what shocked her on arrival in Canada was her discovery of circles of indoctrination where women are veiled even inside their own houses, with ramifications in the Middle East, Pakistan, Iran, Europe and the United States. Imams trained in fundamentalist ideology, sent on missions and paid by foreigners, spread a radical Islam aiming at isolating Muslims from their host society. Messages call for jihad and to hate the agnostics, Jews, moderate Muslims, and Christians.


Shock:
Her ‘second shock’, she records, was the indifference of the authorities, which felt that as long as these problems were contained within the communities, they did not have to bother. A lack of knowledge of Islam and Muslims allowed radicals freedom to impose their views.

Houda-Pepin writes that the ‘Islam of knowledge and tolerance’ that marked her youth in Morocco was transformed in Canada into a straitjacket, reduced to a series of impositions, most often on women. At the same time Muslims were being degraded with pictures of violence coming from the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and the 9/11 attacks. Islamic groups, using indifference and surrounding ignorance, adapted a negative strategy. They managed to set themselves up as ‘spokesperson’ of communities to the distress of the moderate Muslims who struggle to integrate and ask only to live in harmony with their fellow countrymen.
Vulnerability:
“This is the vulnerability of these communities, among which the silent majority do not dare to confront the Islamists on their own ground. A broken up leading role, weak community structures and the feeling of exclusion from the young people also contributes to their marginalisation. However their contribution in human resources, competences, economic and cultural provision is considerable,” she points out.
She maintains that a pluralist society must be fair and equitable in its protection of minorities against abuses of the majority. Religious extremism is first obvious inside minorities themselves. In 1990, fundamentalists tried to impose shariah (Islamic law) in Toronto before standing back under the pressure of Muslim women. This battle was won inside communities themselves, before it surfaced in the public in 2003, with a more sophisticated sales talk and a plan of communication. Ontario abandoned the plan. She also writes about the ascent of the right-wing religious forces in America. In 1978, 22 percent of the Americans declared themselves Evangelists, a number that rose to 33 percent in 1986. The movement has not ceased growing and it is being completely transformed. The rise of the religious right is swarming everywhere, she notes. In Canada, different fundamentalist spheres of influence are already at work. Everywhere they aim at the school, at the family, at institutions and at political power.

At the same time, according to Houda-Pepin, Islamic spheres of influence have spread in several Muslim countries where they lead a conflict against regimes in place, considered as corrupted, ‘faithless’ and morally ‘decadent’. The law, which guarantees them religious freedom, is targeted as backward to destabilise these political regimes and at the same time, allow postponement of democracy. The ‘Islamists’ strategy, she warns, as they move forward in the closed circles, is an incorporation of a community without borders - an Islamic planet where a Muslim must be governed according to the shariah, independently of the country where he lived.
This allows fundamentalists, in the eyes of community and government leaders, as the spokespersons for all Muslims. In this sense, any advancement of these groups on juridical or symbolic plan is a powerful lever to impose an ultimatum in the name of religious freedom - in a secularised society a model of governance where the sovereignty of God will dominate the men.

Source: Daily Times Pakistan

Submission

Note to CAIR: Your Islamism Is Showing

CAIR
Can anything dent the high regard that many politicians, bureaucrats, and journalists have for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)? Despite mountains of evidence exposing the group's Islamist leadership and agendas, elected officials still attend CAIR events, government entities still hire it to conduct training, and reporters still treat it as a "civil rights" organization. Perhaps the following underreported news items will inspire a few people to rethink their views.

For starters, the Investigative Project notes that Nihad Awad, CAIR's executive director, offered some stunning comments during a recent "interfaith dialogue" hosted by Islam Online. Asked whether Muslims regret their support for George W. Bush in 2000, Awad stated:
We should not blame the Muslims for taking part in the political process, and we should not blame the United States alone for the 11 September 2001 attacks, but we should also blame the perpetrators.
One is left to imagine whether he believes that a government cabal conspired with the terrorists or that America's foreign policy and infidel culture merely presented a valid cause for revenge.Read more ...

Source: Islamist Watch
Nihad Awad
Latest recipient of the Distinguished Islamofascist Award


Distinguished Islamofascist Award

 
Submission

Foreign tourists freed in Egypt

Egypt
September 30, 2008

A GROUP of European tourists and their guides snatched by armed bandits in a remote desert 10 days ago were freed unharmed in a pre-dawn raid by Egyptian special forces today, officials in Egypt said.

The group of 19 hostages - five Germans, five Italians, a Romanian and eight Egyptian drivers and tour guides - were flown into Cairo aboard an Egyptian military plane and taken for medical checks, state television said.


The freed hostages, apparently in good health, were greeted and handed flowers as they walked unassisted across the tarmac.

Defence Minister Hussein Tantawi said "half of the kidnappers were eliminated'' in the raid, the official MENA news agency reported, although this was disputed by other sources who said there had been little or no violence.

"Just before dawn two helicopters flew in special forces from the elite Lightning Brigade who freed the hostages,'' an Egyptian security official told AFP, asking not to be named.

"There was a gunfight during which half the around 35 kidnappers were killed and the rest escaped,'' he said.

About 150 Egyptian special forces had been sent to Sudan, he said, where Italian and German special forces were also on standby, with about 30 Egyptian special forces carrying out the operation.

However, a European source cast doubt on the Egyptian version, saying the operation appeared to be more of "a recovery" than a raid involving fighting.

"The kidnappers were thrown into confusion by the fighting the previous day with the Sudanese army and fled. Maybe one or two shots were fired,'' the source said, asking not to be named.

The source was referring to a shootout yesterday during which Sudanese forces shot dead six kidnappers and arrested two as they were driving through the Sudanese desert without the hostages.

German daily Bild reported German troops had been standing by to act but did not do so because the kidnappers had freed the hostages.

German special forces' "intervention was not necessary because the kidnappers let their hostages go and fled when they saw signs of an imminent liberation by the force,'' the newspaper said in its edition due out tomorrow.

Italy's ANSA news agency also quoted an unnamed official as saying the rescue took place "without bloodshed because when they were freed by Egyptian security forces, the kidnappers had already left.''

The group was snatched while on a safari in a lawless area of Egypt's southwestern desert on September 19.

The kidnappers - whose identities remain unknown - had demanded a ransom but Italy's foreign minister, Franco Frattini, said no money had been paid and that Italian special forces had also been involved.


"We cannot yet relate the dynamics (of the release) but we can deny with certainty the payment of any ransom,'' Frattini said on Italian television from Belgrade.

An airport source said the released Italians left for Italy this evening.

The releases came after an Egyptian security official said the kidnappers had agreed to let their captives go in return for a ransom, in a deal hammered out before the shootout with Sudanese troops.

"The problem was solved. They had agreed to the ransom. It was merely a matter of receiving the hostages, but then this surprise happened,'' the official told AFP, referring to the shooting.

The kidnappers had demanded that Germany take charge of payment of the ransom to be handed over to the German wife of the tour organiser, one of those snatched.

After their kidnap, the group was first moved across the border to Sudan to the remote mountain region of Jebel Uweinat, a plateau that straddles the borders of Egypt, Libya and Sudan, before the bandits took them into Chad, according to Sudanese officials.

Sudan says the kidnappers belong to a splinter Darfur rebel group, the Sudanese Liberation Army-Unity (SLA-Unity). An SLA-Unity spokesman denied his group's involvement.

Source: The Australian

Submission

Monday, September 29, 2008

225 women killed for honour in six months

Pakistan
LAHORE: Two hundred and twenty-five women have been killed in incidents of Karo Kari (honour killing) in the past six months across Pakistan, according to a survey conducted by the Aurat Foundation, BBC Urdu reported on Friday. The organisation said that though honour killing has different names in different areas of Pakistan, the traditions remain the same across the country. Malik Asghar of the Aurat Foundation said that the survey covered details of women killed for honour between January and June 2008. According to the survey, the number of women murdered during the six months for reasons other than honour was 722. The survey revealed that only two accused in Karo Kari cases registered during the last six months had been sentenced while the rest were pending in courts. daily times monitor

Source: Daily Times
H/T: Shariah Finance Watch

Submission

Billboards announce: 'Sharia law is hate'
Group hopes to spark debate over accepting Islamic rules in U.S.

UAC
By Drew Zahn

An organization in Florida plans to educate what it perceives as an increasingly culture-tolerant public about the horrific dictates of Islamic law by purchasing billboard space with a simple, but confrontational message: "Sharia law is hate."

The Central Florida chapter of the United American Committee, a nonprofit group that seeks to educate Americans on the threat of Islamic extremism, is raising money to purchase a six-month contract to display the billboard, which the group hopes will awaken the public to discussing the full extent of Islamic law.

"The UAC's goal in this project is to raise awareness because most people have no idea what Sharia law is," Alan Kornman, director of UAC's Central Florida branch, told WND. "We are confident people will see the billboard and learn on their own what Sharia law is and come to their own conclusions. At the very least, we hope our billboard will spark public debate on this overlooked issue." Read more ...

Source: WND
H/T: Shariah Finance Watch

Submission
Muslims Against Sharia support "Sharia law is hate" billboard. Do not fall for upcoming media claims that the statement "Sharia law is hate" offends Muslims; it only offends radical Muslims who want to replace the Constitution with the Koran.

'My book honours the prophet Mohammed,' says author whose novel provoked fire-bomb attack on publisher

Defiant: The novel's American author <br />Sherry Jones has defended her work
By Tom Kelly and Lucy Ballinger

The author of a novel about the prophet Mohammed that provoked a fire-bomb attack on the publisher's home today insisted that Muslims should read the book.

Sherry Jones dismissed claims that The Jewel of Medina was 'soft core pornography' and insisted that it is respectful towards Islam.

She said the attack on the £2.5million London home of its UK publisher, Martin Rynja, at the weekend was 'a reprehensible act of violence by criminals'.

Muslim extremists have also warned the publisher that he faces death for going ahead with the novel about the prophet's child bride, which includes a description of the night they consummate their marriage.

But Miss Jones said: 'When people read my book I fully expect the people who are going to be my biggest detractors will be the ones who hate Muslims.

'They will be unhappy to see how compassionately Mohammed comes across.

'I have not dishonoured the Prophet. I say: read the book, I wrote it with the intention of honouring him.'

Random House cancelled a £54,000 book deal with its U.S. author last month, fearing a violent reaction by 'a small radical segment' of Muslims.

It followed comments from Denise Spellberg, a professor of Islamic history at the University of Texas, who claimed the book had turned a 'sacred history into soft core pornography.'

But Miss Jones, a U.S. journalist demanded an apology from the academic for her 'slanderous' comments.

'She used the most inflammatory language she could possibly have used.

'If you want to incite heated emotions from any religious group you just use the word "pornography" in the same sentence as their revered figures.

'She ought to take back her words because it is in no way an accurate description of my book.

'There are no sex scenes in it.' Read more ...

Source: Daily Mail

Submission

Tensions Flare between WCCR Director and Lebanon’s (pro-Hezbollah) Foreign Minister at D.C. Reception

Cedars Revolution
By W. Thomas Smith, Jr.

No fisticuffs reported, but attendees at a Washington, D.C. reception Thursday evening witnessed a caustic exchange between John Hajjar, U.S. director of Lebanon’s pro-democracy World Council of the Cedars Revolution, and Lebanese Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh, an ally of the Hezbollah terrorist organization.

According to sources, at approximately 7:00 p.m. (Eastern), Hajjar was introduced "in a surprise move" to Salloukh at a reception for Lebanese Pres. Michel Sleiman hosted by the Lebanese ambassador at D.C.’s Omni Shoreham Hotel. (Sleiman was in town this week meeting with Pres. Bush and senior administration officials.)

When Salloukh extended his hand, Hajjar refused his; putting his hand in his pocket.

“I will not shake hands with people working for Hezbollah!” Hajjar said.

Salloukh responded, “You should leave here!”

Hajjar replied, “No! you should leave here! I’m an American citizen!” Read more ...

Source: Family Security Matters
John Hajjar
Latest recipient of The MASH Award


MASH Award
 
Submission

Fractured Fairytales about Jihad on Capitol Hill

Hill
By Jeffrey Imm

On September 23, 2008, in the U.S. Congressional Rayburn House Office Building (RHOB), speakers in a panel discussion sponsored by the Counterterrorism Blog (CTB) and the New America Foundation (NAF) spun fractured fairytales about Jihad and the need for America to "engage" with proponents of Islamic supremacism. (I previously wrote a background article on this subject entitled "Jihad and the Growing Surrender of American Counterterrorism.")

The September 23rd panel discussion topic was "The Jihadists' Revolt Against Al Qaeda" based on a New Republic article co-written by Peter Bergen and Paul Cruickshank. The speakers on the panel were: Peter Bergen of the "liberal think tank" New America Foundation, Counterterrorism Blog contributing experts Paul Cruickshank and Evan Kohlmann, and the Quilliam Foundation's Maajid Nawaz. The audience at this panel discussion included foreign policy analysts, counterterrorism analysts, the Saudi Arabia press, and a representative from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Read more ...

Source: Family Security Matters
Submission

Muslims Against Sharia in the Media - September '08

MASH
9/29/08
The Bottom Line: Some Good news for a change, thanks to Congressman Tom Tancredo
9/26/08
Cost of Discipleship: Reform Islam?
9/24/08
Front Page Magazine: The Jihad Prevention Act
9/23/08
Family Security Matters: In the News: Stop Ahmadinejad Rally and 'Jihad Prevention Act'
9/21/08
Tundra Tabloids: Muslims Against Sharia: We Support Tancredo's Anti-Sharia Legislation
9/20/08
Andrew Bostom Blog: "Just Say No to Sharia" - Congressman Tancredo's Sane Approach to Preventing Jihadism in the US
9/9/08
FrontPage Magazine: An American Muslim vs. Islamists
Red Alerts: Chi-Coms Show World How to Deal with Militant Islam?
9/1/08
Point de Bascule: États-Unis - Prix Dhimmi : La féministe Naomi Wolf exalte la burka [French]

August

Mainstream US Islamic Websites - and Terror

Terrorist lectures, death fatwas, hate sheikhs, Al-Qaeda videos – what's your pleasure?


Terror
By Patrick Poole

In counterterrorism circles there is significant buzz about “Al-Qaeda 2.0”, warning of highly decentralized jihadist networks operating independently and driven by a highly toxic internet-inspired Islamic ideology. The sad reality is, however, that an increasing number of jihadist websites, especially those in the English language, are finding safe haven in the US – and the US government seems powerless, or unwilling, to stop them.

Other commentators have explored at length the “Al-Qaeda 2.0” phenomenon, but what has thus far gone unreported is how mainstream Islamic websites associated with some of the most visible Islamic organizations in the US are openly promoting extremist ideology and terrorism.

This is nothing new, of course. Before and shortly after 9/11, the Ohio State chapter of the Muslim Student Association ran an email service called MSANews, where virtually every Islamic terrorist organization in the world directly posted their public statements, including Al-Qaeda, HAMAS, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, the Armed Islamic Group and the Algerian Islamic Salvation Front. MSANews also published all of Osama bin Laden’s pre-9/11 statements, calling him “sheikh” and identifying him as a “Saudi dissident”, not a terrorist. According to an Associated Press article published just weeks after 9/11, MSANews was the subject of a federal investigation for promoting the sales of jihadist videos praising the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. The MSANews list, which operated on the taxpayer-supported servers of The Ohio State University, shut down soon afterwards.

Source: FrontPage Magazine
Submission

Fatah terrorist used to throw grenades in Christian homes

Once An Arafat Man
By Joseph Farah

WASHINGTON – When Taysir Saada served as a trained assassin for Yasser Arafat's Fatah organization in the late 1960s, he admits he hated Christians.

If he found a home belonging to followers of Jesus, he would sometimes throw a grenade inside and shoot it up with bursts of machine-gun fire.

He has no idea how many people were killed and wounded in such attacks.

Today a non-uniformed Saada, now known as Tass, patrols the dangerous Hamas-dominated streets of the Gaza Strip – no longer hunting down Christians or bearing arms; the Palestinian-American has traded in his automatic weapons and grenades for the Bible, humanitarian service and apologies to Arab Christians he once persecuted.

His transition from Islamic terrorist to Christian missionary is recounted in a new book, "Once An Arafat Man: The True Story of How a PLO Sniper Found a New Life."

Saada has returned to his roots, having been born in Gaza shortly after the 1948 war. Read more ...

Source: WND

Submission

Arab nations 'will reject any partial peace deal' with Israel

Israel
Published: September 28, 2008, 23:56

United Nations: Arab nations will totally reject any partial or interim solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because historically such arrangements have become permanent, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said on Saturday.

While supporting current Israeli-Palestinian negotiations to reach "a comprehensive final solution", Prince Saud Al Faisal said "the least we expect from Israel during these negotiations is that it should halt all colonisation operations."

"The continuation of colonisation activity in the occupied Arab territories renders the negotiations meaningless and makes it difficult for us to convince our peoples of the feasibility and benefits of achieving peace," he said.

At a Security Council meeting on Friday on Israeli settlements, held at Saudi Arabia's request, Prince Saud said the colonisation problem continued to be the "one issue that threatens to bring down the whole peace process."

He said that addressing it was the only way to save the peace deal brokered in Annapolis, Maryland, early this year by the administration of President George W. Bush, which set the goal of achieving a substantive peace accord by January 2009 when he leaves office.

Prince Saud took up the issue again in his speech to the UN General Assembly's annual ministerial meeting on Saturday. He did not deliver the speech, as scheduled, but it was distributed and circulated to all UN members, said Brenda Vongova, the assembly president's assistant spokesperson.

"The Arabs have continued to affirm their commitment to a just and comprehensive peace based on international law," Prince Saud said. "Yet no reciprocal commitment was forthcoming from Israel ... Please allow me, on behalf of the Arab group, to make it absolutely clear that we will totally reject any partial or interim solutions, because history has taught us that such solutions tend to become permanent," he said.

Source: Gulf News
Submission

Rachel's law on Libel Tourism goes National-spread the word, keep this up! This is about free speech!

U.S House Takes First Step to Protect Free Speech Against "Libel Tourists"


Funding Evil
Washington, DC – The U.S. House of Representatives today passed H.R. 6146, crucial legislation that will protect American citizens from foreign libel judgments that undermine their fundamental First Amendment free speech rights.
Dr. Ehrenfeld knows first-hand the effects of this destructive practice of forum shopping. She was sued in Britain, where the libel laws are plaintiff friendly, by Saudi billionaire Khalid Salim bin Mahfouz for alleging in her book Funding Evil: How Terrorism Is Financed and How to Stop It, that he funded al-Qaeda.

Rep. Peter King, who initiated the federal legislation agrees with Dr. Ehrenfeld, stating that although he supports H.R. 6146, “this bill does not go far enough nor does it resolve the problem of “libel tourism.” Even Rep. Cohen, the author of H.R. 6146, acknowledged his bill is not enough to “ address libel tourism,” and stated on the floor of the House that he is “committed to working with Mr. King to push for a public hearing… which advances additional measures to address libel tourism.”

Indeed, the ACLU, the American Library Association, the Association of American Publishers, the PEN American Center, the Families of the 9/11 victims, and many others support the Free Speech Protection Act, 2008, sponsored by Senators Arlen Specter, Joseph Lieberman and Chuck Schumer, and Rep. Peter King.
Source: Shariah Finance Watch
Submission

A Conservative government would ban sharia courts and impose a tough crackdown on Islamic extremism, the shadow security minister has said.

M
By Jon Swaine

Pauline Neville-Jones, a former head of the Joint Intelligence Committee, said: "We are not going to have any status for sharia courts. Absolutely not."

Earlier this month it emerged that the Government had quietly allowed rulings of five sharia courts across Britain to be enforceable through the county courts or High Court.

Lady Neville-Jones said that while minor disputes could be settled by "customary mediation" - including through sharia and the Jewish Beth Din system - there could be no formal legal recognition.

"We are not going to have any legal recognition of sharia judgments that would withstand appeal to a secular court," she said before the Tory conference in Birmingham, .

Speaking the day after Dominic Grieve, the shadow home secretary, said Britain had "done something terrible to ourselves" by encouraging multiculturalism, Lady Neville-Jones said that the Conservatives would make the case for more "integration" among all British people, whatever their backgrounds. Red more ...

Source: Telegraph
Submission

Sunday, September 28, 2008

From Land of Shakespeare to Land of Shari'a?

Britain
By David J. Rusin

When Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams speculated that demographic changes in Britain make the greater acceptance of Islamic law "unavoidable," he had no idea how soon he would be proven correct. The Times has revealed that Shari'a courts have been active for the past year and their rulings can be enforced by the nation's judicial system.

Such courts are enabled by the Arbitration Act of 1996, which allows alternative panels to issue binding judgments on civil disputes, as long as the parties agree in advance to accept the verdict. While Jewish tribunals have long operated under the same provision, a number of commentators have pointed out potential problems with extending recognition to Shari'a-based ones.

Phyllis Chesler questions whether women from strict Islamic families are exercising free will when they agree to empower tribunals that are stacked against them:
I bet the British Muslim women who "choose" to inherit radically less than their brothers and who "choose" not to press criminal charges against their husband-batterers are not making a free choice. In order to remain within their faith and family communities they must submit to Shari'a law or risk ostracism, isolation, or the possibility of being honor murdered. Read more ...
Source: Islamist Watch
Submission

Taliban gun down female police officer

Malalai Kakar speaking at her office in Kandahar.
She was killed by the Taliban as she left for work.
KANDAHAR // Taliban gunmen shot dead the most high-profile female police officer in Afghanistan today as she left her home to go to work, officials and the militants said.

The attackers were waiting outside the home of Malalai Kakar, head of the city of Kandahar’s department of crimes against women, and opened fire on her car, the Kandahar government spokesman Zalmay Ayoobi said.

“Today between 7am and 8am when she was (in her car) outside her house and going to her job, some gunmen attacked,” he said. “Malalai Kakar died in front of her house. Her son was wounded.”

A doctor in the city’s main hospital said Ms Kakar, in her late 30s, had been shot in the head. Read more ...

Source: AFP

Submission

Nine-year-old Midlands girl rescued from forced marriage

British children as young as nine are being forced into marriage by their families, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.


Jasvinder Sanghera
Jasvinder Sanghera: The problem is particularly prevalent in Pakistani communities,
where betrothing offspring to their first cousins is common practice
By David Barrett

The disclosure comes as official figures show that nearly 60 children aged 15 or under have been rescued by the Government's Forced Marriage Unit in the past four years.

The cases are feared to be the tip of the iceberg. They will fuel concerns, first raised earlier this year, that large numbers of children are disappearing from British schools to be forced into wedlock overseas.

A charity which runs a national helpline on forced marriage and "honour"-based crimes, Karma Nirvana, revealed that in one incident a nine-year-old girl from a Pakistani family in the east Midlands was taken into council care after her parents told her she was to wed.

Jasvinder Sanghera, director of Karma Nirvana, said that on average four children a month aged under 16 have contacted its helpline since it launched in April.

"The youngest child we have dealt with was nine years old," she said. "The girl told her teacher she was going to be forced to marry someone and initially she was not believed. Read more ...

Source: Telegraph
Submission

Don't be soft on Islam, says EU terror chief

Gilles de Kerchove
By Jason Burke

Europe's anti-terror chief has launched a stinging attack on the political correctness that he says is hampering the campaign against militant Islam.

Gilles de Kerchove, the EU counter-terrorism co-ordinator, said last week that concern about stigmatising Muslim populations was hampering policy-making and thus prevention. 'One of the problems ... is that some member states are extremely reluctant to be explicit about the link with religion,' said de Kerchove. 'Religion has been hijacked and distorted for political ends.'

De Kerchove's statement comes against a background of infighting within the EU over counter-terrorism policy. The European Commission has been working for several years on a paper analysing militancy in Europe and outlining policy to combat radicalisation. The Council of Ministers is still waiting for the now long-overdue paper, on which future policy will be based.

EU officials claimed last week the delay was because Jacques Barrot, the French Commissioner for justice, freedom and security, had grave reservations about the definition of terrorism in the commission's policy paper and had delayed signing the policy document as it 'went too far in blaming Muslim communities'. Read more ...

Source: The Observer
Gilles de Kerchove
Latest recipient of The MASH Award


MASH Award
Submission

Glenn Beck - Islam in Europe - with Geert Wilders

Source: YouTube
Submission

International Conference on Political Islam, Sharia Law, and Civil Society

CEMB
The Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain (CEMB) will present its first all day international conference on Political Islam, Sharia Law, and Civil Society on Friday 10 October 2008. Since apostasy is punishable by death under Islamic law, the conference coincides with the International Day against the Death Penalty.

Speakers at the conference, including Richard Dawkins, AC Grayling, and Maryam Namazie, Spokesperson for the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain, will focus on Apostasy; Sharia Law; and Creationism, Faith Schools and Religious Education. Dawkins will also present his criticism of Harun Yahya's Atlas of Creation, for which Dawkins' site has been banned in Turkey. Other distinguished speakers at the conference are Mina Ahadi, Roy Brown, Giles Enders, Johann Hari, Ehsan Jami, Houzan Mahmoud, Caspar Melville, Taslima Nasreen, Fariborz Pooya, Terry Sanderson, Joan Smith, Bahram Soroush, Hanne Stinson, Hamid Taqvaee, Ibn Warraq, Keith Porteous Wood and Zia Zaffar.

The event includes a comedy act by Nick Doody, the work of a well-known artist, Fitna Remade by Reza Moradi and Breaking the Taboo by Patty Debonitas.

For more information, a press pass, booking form or to interview speakers, please contact:
Maryam Namazie
Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain
BM Box 1919, London WC1N 3XX, UK
Tel: 07719166731
E-mail: exmuslimcouncil@gmail.com
www.ex-muslim.org.uk
Details on the conference:
10 October 2008
10am-6pm (Registration begins at 9am)
Conway Hall London
25 Red Lion Square WC1R 4RL
(Closest station: Holborn)
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Car bomb kills 17 in Syria

Syria
September 28, 2008

A CAR bomb exploded near a Shi'ite shrine in southern Damascus overnight, killing 17 people and wounding 14 others in one of the deadliest attacks to hit Syria in recent years.

The car packed with 200kg of explosives blew up near a security checkpoint on a road to Damascus airport in what Interior Minister General Bassam Abdel Majid said was "a terrorist act".


All the casualties were civilians, he said.

"A counter-terrorist unit is trying to track down the perpetrators... We can't point the finger at any party.''

The rare attack in a country known for its iron-fisted security came during the morning rush-hour in the teeming neighbourhood of Sayeda Zeinab, the state-run SANA news agency said, quoting a Syrian official.

The district is popular among Shi'ite pilgrims from Iran, Lebanon and Iraq who pray at the tomb of Zeinab, daughter of the Shi'ite martyr Ali and granddaughter of the Muslim Prophet Mohammed.

More than two million people reportedly visit the shrine each year.

Witnesses told state television the bomb could have claimed more victims if it had gone off a day later.

"It felt like an earthquake. The force of the explosion threw me out of bed,'' said one man who lives nearby.

"Thank God this was Saturday. The catastrophe would have been bigger if the attack had taken place on Sunday when schools were open.''

Another man said that the blast was heard 10km away in the northern suburbs of Duma and Harasta.

The attack was condemned by Syria's ally Russia as well as France, Jordan and Lebanon.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sent a cable of condolences to his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad describing the attack as "a cruel and inhumane crime", the Kremlin website said.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy condemned the "barbarian and blind'' attack and expressed "solidarity with Syria in its fight against terrorism", his office said.

The precise target of the bombing was not immediately known.

'Syria is targeted, either by countries whose interests contradict those of Damascus... or other groups who have an interest in undermining Syrian security,'' law professor Ibrahim Darraji said.

The blast was the deadliest since a spate of attacks in the 1980s blamed on Muslim Brotherhood militants.

It was the worst since February when Hezbollah commander Imad Mughnieh, linked to attacks on Western and Israeli targets in the 1980s and 1990s, was killed in a Damascus car bombing.

Source: The Australian


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