 THE United States has transferred two Algerian detainees from Guantanamo Bay to their native country. The announcement named the two man as Hasan Zemiri and Adil Hadi al-Jazairi Bin Hamlili and came on the eve of what was once President Barack Obama's target date to close the notorious facility. But a political firestorm at home over the Obama administration's plans to house some of the terror suspects on US soil and the reluctance of foreign allies in released detainees have dealt a blow to his landmark promise. Some 196 detainees remain at the US military prison in southern Cuba, including dozens already cleared for release, down from around 250 when Obama took office. Most have been held without charge or trial. Slovakian Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak said Tuesday that his country would accept three prisoners from the jail "as a gesture of alliance and solidarity.'' US lawmakers and the Defense Department have warned that a growing number of former Guantanamo detainees are joining militant groups to fight against the United States. A Pentagon report in April found that about 14 percent of former Guantanamo inmates either had or were suspected of having ties to militants. Obama suspended the transfers to Yemen after it emerged that the Nigerian man accused of trying to blow himself up aboard a US-bound airliner carrying nearly 300 people was allegedly trained by an Al-Qaeda affiliate in Yemen. But in its statement about the latest transfers, the Justice Department said "the United States coordinated with the government of Algeria to ensure the transfers took place under appropriate security measures.'' Hours before the transfer was announced, Obama's Republican foes unveiled legislation to restrict his ability to transfer Guantanamo detainees overseas, in the latest possible setback to his plans to close the facility. The Detainee Transfer and Release Security Act of 2010 aims to require Obama to certify that a detainee's destination country is not a state sponsor of terror, has control over its territory and does not tolerate safe havens for extremists like Al-Qaeda. The measure also called for the president to certify that there has been no confirmed case of a Guantanamo Bay detainee engaging in extremist activities after being released to the proposed destination. The legislation was unlikely to attract enough support from the president's Democratic allies to become law. The Australian 
 American authorities announced that as of Monday, anyone traveling from or through nations regarded as state sponsors of terrorism — as well as "other countries of interest" — will be required to go through enhanced screening techniques before boarding flights. The Transportation Security Administration said those heightened security measures would include full-body pat-downs, carryon bag searches, full-body scanning and explosive detection technology. The U.S. State Department lists Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria as state sponsors of terrorism. The other countries whose passengers will face enhanced screening include Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen. The new measures followed the arrest of a Nigerian man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who allegedly tried to set off an explosive device on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day. Germany announced increased security at all airports following the failed Christmas Day attack, but authorities on Monday said no further measures have been taken since. U.S. officials in Washington said the new security measures would be implemented Monday but there were few visible changes on the ground in Europe, which has thousands of passengers on hundreds of daily flights to the United States. Large hubs such as London, Paris, Amsterdam and Frankfurt alone account for 20-30 trans-Atlantic flights a day each. In Britain, a major international transport hub, a spokesman for the Department of Transportation said he was still trying to decipher the practical implications for Britain of the new U.S. rules. He refused to give his name due to the sensitivity of the subject. In Switzerland, authorities were studying the new U.S. security measures, but so far the old controls were still in place, said Jean-Claude Donzel, spokesman for Swiss International Air Lines. And a security official in Spain, who spoke on condition on anonymity in line with agency rules, said U.S.-bound passengers from countries on the new watch list were not being singled out for body frisks. Muslim advocacy groups bristled at the new TSA rules and urged the agency to consider alternatives. “It comes pretty close to across-the-board profiling of Muslim travelers,” said Ibrahim Hooper, communications director for the Council on American-Islamic relations, adding that it would unfairly single out not just foreigners but Muslim Americans traveling to see their families in the selected countries. “It only serves to alienate those whose hearts and minds we’re trying to win.” Alejandro Beutel, government liaison for the Muslim Public Affairs Council, said the ruling would cast such a wide net as to ultimately be ineffective. “We do see this as profiling, and profiling is very poor policing,” he said. Elsewhere in the world, there has been a general ramping up of security since Christmas. In Jordan, a key U.S. ally, security was beefed up at Amman's main international airport since the Christmas Day bombing attempt. An official at Queen Alia International Airport said "enhanced techniques" were being applied, especially in screening passengers bound for the United States. He declined to elaborate. Pakistan's national airline said it was intensifying security checks for U.S.-bound passengers, even though there are no direct flights to the States from Pakistan. Screening was also stepped up for those flying to the U.S. from other parts of Asia and the Middle East. "It is beyond my imagination what more they could do," said Nadim Umer, 40, a Karachi-based linen merchant who said he was subjected to a strip search when he arrived in New York last June. "Those who are dying to go to America at any cost can put up with all this inhuman behavior, but I cannot." A spokesman for Pakistan International Airlines said the company began applying the new security standards Jan. 1 on U.S.-bound passengers. Sultan Hasan said the passengers are subjected to special screening, including full body searches, in a designated area of the departure lounge. He said the airline had run advertisements in newspapers to warn prospective passengers of the increased safety measures. maintaining strict security standards at all airports for all flights. "We are already carrying out all possible security arrangements at our airports which can be compared with any Western airport," Pervez George, spokesman for Pakistan's Civil Aviation Authority. "Safety of the airliners and passengers as well as security at the airports is a top priority and we are maintaining it irrespective where the flight is going." In South Korea, an official at Seoul's Incheon International Airport, Lee Ji-hye, said U.S.-bound passengers are now required to go through additional security before boarding their flights, and security officials also compile lists of "suspicious" passengers to monitor based on their nationalities, travel patterns and ticket purchases. Australian Transport Ministry spokeswoman Moksha Watts said all passengers flying to the U.S. would continue to be patted down and have all their cabin luggage searched. Baghdad's International Airport already has extremely tight security, with passengers having their luggage sniffed by dogs and getting patted down before entering the airport. "Our security procedures at the airport are more intensified than that in any other airport in the world," said security official Umran Idris. Maayan Malkin, spokeswoman for Israel Airports Authority, declined to discuss security arrangements. The Ben-Gurion International airport is considered one of the safest in the world. FoxNews
 A GANG with suspected links to al-Qaeda were caught filming potential terror targets in London in July, police have revealed. Footage has been released which was recorded on one man's mobile phone as he travelled around the British capital. It shows the man inspecting a number of key train and subway stations in the city, including Oxford Circus, in the heart of the retail district, and Liverpool Street, a main commuter terminal for people living in the suburbs. Police said they believed information was being gathered for a possible terrorist attack in the capital or at major regional shopping centres. Five men were arrested in July 2008, but none were ever convicted of terror offences. The case led to the conviction of two Algerian men, both in their 40s, of running a mobile phone and luxury goods fraud racket. The pair served jail sentences before being deported. He told police he was a tourist, but an inspection of the man's phone found up to 25 minutes of footage of Tube stops and other crowded places. The Algerian national can be heard speaking in a North African dialect, which was later translated at one point as, "There are cameras there, there are cameras everywhere". The footage has only now been publicised to counter a flood of criticism over police stop-and-search powers. Read more on this story at Sky News. The Australian
 ROME -- Investigators have broken up an international terrorism ring in a series of raids in Europe, according to Italian officials. Seventeen people were arrested in a sweep that targeted a terrorism group allegedly involved in raising funds to finance terrorist activity, Italy's Interior Minister Roberto Maroni told a news conference. He didn't provide details on the nature of the alleged operations. Six of the arrests were made in Italy on charges of criminal association and falsifying documents, police said. Two other arrests were made in Austria in an operation coordinated between investigators in the U.K., France, Spain, Switzerland, Austria and Algeria, authorities said. None of the people arrested were charged with attempted terrorism. "An important ring has been dismantled," Mr. Maroni said. The conservative government of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been under heavy public pressure to crack down on foreign terrorism. Mr. Maroni said the arrests on Thursday "confirmed that surveillance and constant operations on the terrorism front in Milan are very relevant." It wasn't immediately clear why the suspects were not charged with attempted terrorism.
Italy created tough laws aimed at combating international terrorism in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. Charges of attempted terrorism, however, have proved difficult to prosecute in court. As a result, some anti-terror investigators have at times decided to arrest suspected terrorists on charges of criminal association, a charge traditionally used to combat the Mafia. Italian police said the group raised about €1 million over a three-year period by carrying out muggings, burglaries and other thefts. The funds were sent to Algeria, police said, without disclosing details on how the money was used. The group also created fake identification documents that allowed members to travel between North Africa and Europe, police said. Mr. Maroni said the group operated in cells that he described as "terrorist franchises," gathering funds for potential attacks outside of Italy. He didn't disclose the names of any people involved in the alleged terrorist ring. Source: WSJ
 A ban on wearing the all covering burka in France would stem the spread of the "cancer" of radical Islam, a Muslim French minister has said. Fadela Amara, the minister for urban regeneration who is of Algerian descent, told the Financial Times newspaper on Saturday that the head-to-toe body covering and veil represented the "oppression of women, their enslavement, their humiliation." France was a beacon for an enlightened Islam at ease with modernity, so it was necessary to fight the "gangrene, the cancer of radical Islam which completely distorts the message of Islam," Amara was quoted as saying. "The vast majority of Muslims are against the burka. It is obvious why," she told the newspaper. "Those who have struggled for women's rights back home in their own countries - I'm thinking particularly of Algeria - we know what it represents and what the obscurantist political project is that lies behind it, to confiscate the most fundamental of liberties," she said. The comments came as French legislators conduct hearings on whether to ban the burka after President Nicolas Sarkozy said it was "not welcome" in secular France, home to Europe's biggest Muslim minority. Source: Al Jazeera (English) Fadela Amara
Latest recipient of The MASH Award
July 28 By Boualam Ghimrassa
Algiers, Asharq Al-Awsat- The Algerian authorities have been trying to propagate Sufism in Algeria to contain a strong Salafi movement in the country, espoused by most members of the armed Islamist groups. An event was officially launched last Saturday, organized by the Zaouia [religious confraternity] Alaouia, with the participation of 5,000 people from 34 countries.
The event featured lectures and seminars calling for moderation and shunning hardline behavior, and Sufi chants. As part of a fierce war that has been going on with the extremist Islamist groups since the early nineties of last century, the authorities have found a different way of stemming the influence of the Salafi jihadist ideology which is espoused by the armed hardliners.
This new approach consists of propagating the Sufi thought through bodies that have thousands of followers inside and outside Algeria. In this respect, the Mostaganem Governorate, 250 km to the west of Algiers, has been the scene of festivals commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Allaoui religious confraternity, under the slogan: "Let us sow the seeds of hope in the minds of people." The organizers of this week-long event say that it is aimed at "encouraging people to return to traditional Islam, the Islam of tolerance and open-mindedness." Its aim is also to "revive the spiritual and cultural heritage."
The event's launching ceremony was marked by a parade of folklore troupes, with the participation of scout groups from several countries. The Algerian news agency said that 5,000 people would be watching the planned spiritual activities, including 2,200 coming from 34 countries such as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Morocco, Syria, Jordan, some European countries, Canada, the United States, Argentina, Japan and Indonesia. According to the event's program, the week-long lectures and seminars will go beyond broaching the spiritual aspects of Islam to include discussions on current world issues such as the environment and communication technology. This will be in parallel with lectures on "revelation," "Sufi spiritualism," and "awareness-raising education." For their part, the organizers of the event say that the Alaouia-Dargaria-Chadhilia religious confraternity dates back to the time of the descendants of Prophet Muhammad, God's prayers and peace be upon him, and is strongly inspired by the ideas of the man who revived it early in the 20th century, namely Cheikh Allaoui. The latter succeeded his master, Cheikh El Bouzidi, in 1909. The Cheikh Allaoui confraternity is known for associating traditions to modernity in Islam, and its current Cheikh is called Adlan Khaled Ben Tounis. He is a writer and lecturer on Sufism and Islam. These celebrations are sponsored by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika personally, and call for brotherhood, tolerance, fighting hatred and spreading the values of tolerance. They are keenly used by the Algerian authorities to confront the activity of the propagators of Salafia jihadi ideology, which is infiltrating society through mosques, books and compact discs distributed to the young in various places, including schools.
The Salafia jihadist ideology is also propagated through films inciting combat, which are shown on the Internet. Investigations indicate that a large number of armed groups' members have espoused this ideology as a result of the propagation of a discourse calling for war against the state. Moreover, the Algerian gendarmerie announced over the weekend that border gendarmes had seized four tons of drugs, two weapons, ammunition, and a mobile telephone in the small town of Oued Ritma, Bechar Governorate, 965 km to the south west of the Algerian capital Algiers. In this respect, an Algerian source stated that border guards in Oued Ritma ambushed and opened fire on a convoy composed of four vehicles belonging to drug smugglers; the gendarmes arrested four and seized 4,060 kg of treated drugs and an automatic weapon. Source: Asharq Alawsat
ALGIERS, APRIL 30 - An Algerian imam has been sentenced to two years in prison for defending terrorist practices. The sentence was handed down by the court in Boumerdes, in Cabilia (50km east of Algiers), which is one of the areas worst-hit by attacks from Islamist armed groups. The Algerian press reports that the imam was arrested in 2008 as he tried to make contact with a member of the terrorist group, who had in fact been killed a week earlier by security forces. Mosques in the country - which in the 1990s formed a favourite pulpit for fundamentalists to incite revolt and violence against the state - are now under heavy surveillance. (ANSAmed). Read more ...Source: ANSAmedH/T: Jihad Watch
By Olivier Guitta On Jan. 22, four European tourists - two Swiss, one Briton and one German - were kidnapped at the border of Mali and Niger. The major terrorist group in the region, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), is very likely behind this operation. This should not come as a surprise. In an article for this publication in March 2008 ("AQIM's new kidnapping strategy"), I had warned about this worrisome new strategy. In fact, North Africa has become in the past two years a major front in the war against radical Islam. While Algeria has witnessed regular attacks and has been in the news a lot, its neighbors have also not been spared by Islamist terrorism. Indeed, Morocco, Tunisia and more recently Mauritania have suffered terror attacks. Read more ...Source: Middle East Times
 The Head of Algerian Muslim Ulemas Association, Sheikh Abderahmane Chibane, said he is clinging to his declaration qualifying the Syrian poet Adonis as “a pervert”.
A communiqué released by the Association added that those who have responded fiercely to his opinion “are neither acquainted with his personality, nor with his opinion preaching tolerance.”
Moreover, the communiqué signed by Abdelhamid Abdous, the Director of Al-Bassair newspaper, which is considered as a tribune of the Association, said Mr. Chibane had not the intention of debating the ideas of the Syrian poet Adonis. However the conference held by Adonis, has not focused only on his poetic thesis, but he has criticized Islam, Muslim scholars, and even the Companions of Prophet Mohammad, (Peace Be upon Him).
In another communiqué released few days ago, Mr. Chibane, Adonis has been qualified as an “arrogant” following ideas he expressed at a conference held at the national library in Algiers, last Oct.14. “Living under an Islamic regime, means that our civilization will extinguish,” said Adonis at that time.
According to the recent communiqué, of which El Khabar got a copy, said newspapers which criticized the position of Chibane, while saying that he uses moral and religion principles to sow division between the Algerian people, “are not acquainted with the personality of the Sheikh, who preaches jurisprudence, moderation, tolerance, peace, and unity.” Source: El KhabarAbderahmane Chibane
Latest recipient of the Distinguished Islamofascist Award
By Aomar Ouali ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) - Two men who converted from Islam to Christianity went on trial Wednesday on charges that they illegally promoted the Christian faith in Algeria. Rachid Mohammed Seghir, 40, and Jammal Dahmani, 36, were already convicted in absentia for illegal practice of a non-Muslim religion in 2007 but asked for a new trial, as Algerian law allows, their lawyer said. They are charged with praying in a building that had not been granted a religious permit by authorities and are also accused of trying to spread the Christian faith among Muslims, the court said. Their defense lawyer said she felt confidant that her clients would not be incarcerated. Read more ...Source: AP
By Aomar Ouali ALGIERS, Algeria -- Two bombs in quick succession rocked a train station in Algeria on Sunday, killing 13 people, including a French engineer and Algerian firefighters and soldiers who responded to the first blast, a security official said. The first bomb killed a Frenchman working on a renovation project at the station in Beni Amrane, about 60 miles east of the capital, the security official said. The second bomb hit minutes later, as security officials and rescue workers arrived at the scene. Both devices appeared to be remote-controlled. Read more ...Source: APMuslims Against Sharia unequivocally condemn Algerian bombings.
Our thoughts and prayers with the victims and their families.
May the perpetrators of these atrocities be caught swiftly and sent to hell, where they belong.
Four Algerian Christians have been given suspended jail terms and fines for worshipping illegally. The case has provoked accusations in the West of religious repression in the largely Muslim country of 33 million - a charge the government denies. But Christian groups point to the ordered closures of some churches. The state-appointed Higher Islamic Council said Protestant evangelicals are secretly trying to divide Algerians to colonise the country. Read more ...Source: BBC
ISTANBUL, May 28 (Compass Direct News) – A state prosecutor in western Algeria demanded two-year jail sentences and large fines for six Muslim converts to Christianity yesterday in one of two trials against Christians that have caught the north African nation’s attention in the past week. The same court in Tiaret city yesterday delayed the verdict of a Christian woman facing three years in prison for “practicing non-Muslim religious rites without a license.” Read more ...Source: Compass Direct NewsH/T: Dhimmi Watch
By Magdi Abdelhadi Muslim Scholars in Algeria say a government ban on pictures of veiled women in passport photographs runs counter to Sharia law.The Society of Algerian Muslim Scholars has denounced the ban, which also applies to bearded men. The organisation says the veil and beard are part of Muslim tradition which cannot be outlawed. The society says it issued a fatwa against the ban after receiving hundreds of complaints. Read more ...Source: BBC
The Danish Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that it has evacuated its staff from embassies in Algeria and Afghanistan because of threats after newspapers reprinted a cartoon depicting the Muslim prophet Muhammad. Read more ...Source: AP
Algiers, 18 March (AKI) - Members of the al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb militant group in Algeria have reportedly attacked members of a moderate organisation opposed to its terrorist activities. A report on Tuesday in the Algerian newspaper el-Khabar said an al-Qaeda militant carried out a raid against a mosque in the Algerian province of al-Wadi on Sunday night and killed two men while they prayed. According to the report, eyewitnesses said masked men entered the mosque as evening prayers were being held forcing everyone to fall to the ground. Read more ...Source: AKIH/T: Jihad Watch
 Residents react near at the site of a bomb blast near the Constitutional Court building in Algiers, Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2007. Two car bomb attacks, one of which targeted offices of the U.N. refugee agency, killed at least 45 people in the Algerian capital on Tuesday, authorities said. The civil protection agency said one attack killed 30 people and that a second blast left another 15 people dead. (AP Photo)Car bombs exploded minutes apart Tuesday in central Algiers, heavily damaging U.N. offices and partly ripping the facade off a new government building. The interior minister said 22 were killed but hospital and rescue officials gave figures at least twice that toll. The minister, Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni, said another 177 people were injured in the attacks. A national official at the civil protection agency who spoke on condition of anonymity said 45 people were killed. A doctor at one Algiers hospital who said he was in contact with staff at other area hospitals put the death toll at least 60. Suspicions quickly focused on the North African wing of al-Qaida. The date the 11th could point to an Islamic terror link. Al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa claimed responsibility for attacks on April 11 that hit the prime minister's office and a police station, killing 33 people. Read more ...Source: AP
By Robert Spencer and David Horowitz When President Bush used the term “Islamo-Fascism” to describe the jihadists who have attacked us, many complained that it reflected prejudice against Muslims. The Council on American Islamic Relations, a “civil rights” organization with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, protested that the term “feeds the perception that the war on terror is actually a war on Islam.” In fact, the opposite is the truth. As the Algerian sociologist Marieme Helie Lucas explains, the term “Islamo-Fascism” was “initially coined by Algerian people struggling for democracy, against armed fundamentalist forces decimating people in our country, then later operating in Europe, where a number of us had taken refuge.” In other words, the term “Islamo-Fascism” originates with moderate Muslims under attack from Muslim radicals, who murdered more than 150,000 Muslims whom they regarded as infidels in Algeria in the 1990s. Helie Lucas is the founder of the group Women Living Under Muslim Laws, which resists the oppression of women by these fanatics. The term Islamo-Fascism, as she explains, refers to “political forces working under the cover of religion in order to gain political power and to impose a theocracy (‘The Law’ -- singular -- of God, unchangeable, ahistorical, interpreted by self appointed old men) over democracy (i.e. the laws -- plural -- voted by the people and changeable by the will of the people).” The term “Islamo-Fascism” does not refer to a generalized “war on Islam,” but to a defensive war against the attacks of radicals who have murdered hundreds of thousands of moderate Muslims, Jews, Christians, gays, women and infidels since the first radical Islamic state was formed in Iran in 1979, and the modern global jihad was launched in earnest. Moderate Muslims who hold to Islam as a religion but reject its political ambitions are happy to live in pluralistic societies that separate religion from the state. Moderate Muslims are willing to live with non-Muslims as equals. It is these Muslims who are the victims of the Islamo-Fascists and the natural allies of the West, which is also the target of the jihad. The jihadists, who are waging this war, are exponents of political – rather than religious – Islam. They are indeed fascists, sharing crucial ideological convictions with historical fascist movements. The founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al-Banna, was an open admirer of Adolf Hitler, as was the principal theorist of the modern jihad, Sayyid Qutb. During World War II, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, cousin of Yasir Arafat and spiritual godfather of Palestinian nationalism, Hajj Amin al-Husseini, was openly pro-Nazi. In May 1941, he issued a fatwa calling upon the Germans to bomb Tel Aviv, and in November 1941 traveled to Berlin and met with Hitler. Then he went to the Balkans, where he spearheaded the creation of Muslim units of the Waffen SS. The Islamic jihad launched by the Muslim Brotherhood, and carried on by offshoots such as al-Qaeda and Hamas, is a totalitarian movement seeking the control of every aspect of human life through the powers of the state. The jihadists want to bring all social and family life under the sway of Islamic law, through the creation of a global Islamic empire, with a caliphate in Baghdad. Like the Nazis before them, they believe in the inherent superiority of one group of human beings over all the rest, whom they regard as “infidels” and “unbelievers.” These infidels, according to the passages of the Qur’an that they invoke, are the “vilest of creatures” (Qur’an 98:6). The term “Islamo-fascism” describes the agendas of the jihadists with perfect accuracy. It supports moderate Muslims who are seeking to defend themselves and distinguish their religious faith from the totalitarian faith of the jihad. No one who wants to see moderate Muslims succeed in their efforts to resist the oppressive doctrines of the Islamo-fascists should oppose the use of this term. Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week is an effort to educate the general public about the enemy we face and, in the process, to give moderate Muslims support in their struggle. Original article
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THE United States has transferred two Algerian detainees from Guantanamo Bay to their native country. 
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