Islam and Violence

[Petronas]

Accusing Muslim Intellectuals of Apostasy
February 18, 2005

Introduction

Marking the 16th anniversary of the Fatwa calling for author Salman Rushdie's death issued by Ayatollah Khomeini, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards announced: "The day will finally come when the apostate Salman Rushdie will receive his due punishment for his disgraceful and slanderous move against the Qur'an and the Prophet [Muhammad]." Iran's Leader Ali Khamenei stressed that the death sentence following the publication of Rushdie's 'The Satanic Verses' "is irrevocable."(1)

The accusation against Muslims - particularly intellectuals, artists, and writers - of "unbelief" (an accusation known as "takfir") recurs in the Muslim world. The traditional punishment for an apostate (murtadd) set in early Islam was capital punishment. This punishment was implemented on a large scale in the period following the death of the Prophet Muhammad, when Muhammad's successor Abu Bakr fought the ridda wars against the tribes that abandoned Islam. In modern Muslim history too, there are several cases of charges of apostasy against intellectuals who deviated from the dictates of Islamist circles.

Section 228 of Iran's Islamic Penal Code states that a "criminal" should be exonerated "if it is proven to the court that the blood of the victim was permitted." An example of the implementation of this law is the cash prize of over $2 million set for the murder of Salman Rushdie, who was accused of apostasy. Other prominent examples include the 1985 execution of Sudanese Sufi philosopher Muhammad Mahmoud Taha on charges of ridda and the 1992 assassination by Islamists, following similar accusations, of secular Egyptian intellectual Faraj Foda. When Muslim Brotherhood leader Sheikh Muhammad Al-Ghazali was asked for his view on this assassination, he simply said that "the sentence for ridda that the [country's] ruler refrained from carrying out has now been implemented." In 1994, Islamists made an attempt on the life of Egyptian Nobel Prize laureate Nagib Mahfouz.(2)

In other cases, conservative Muslim activists exploited the Hisbah law enabling anyone to file suit in a court of law against anyone else in the name of society. Thus, the charge of ridda was filed against several intellectuals; if found guilty, the court could force them to divorce their spouses [tafriq], because if one party to an Islamic marriage became an apostate, the marriage was nullified. Thus, in 1995 an Egyptian court forced Dr. Nasser Hamed Abu Zayd, an intellectual who had published critical research on the Koran, to separate from his wife. In 2001, a similar suit was filed against feminist Egyptian author Nawal Al-Sa'dawi; however, the prosecutor-general, who, according to a 1996 amendment, was the only one who could decide whether such a suit was warranted, rejected the claims against her.


Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi Advocates Implementing the Ridda Death Penalty

In an interview with the Egyptian weekly Al-Ahram Al-Arabi, Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi, one of the most prominent clerics in Sunni Islam and among Islamist circles and a spiritual leader for the Muslim Brotherhood movement, discussed the view of modern religious law on carrying out the punishment for ridda, and permitted the murder of free Muslim intellectuals whose views differ from those of Islamist clerics.

Asked, "In Muslim society, has an individual the right to change his religion as he wishes?" Al-Qaradhawi drew a distinction between two types of ridda: "One of the freedoms that Islam does not accept is the freedom of ridda that expands [from the realm of the individual to that of the group] and threatens the social fabric and its foundations. [On the one hand,] there is limited ridda, and [on the other,] there is ridda that expands [from the individual to the group].

"Limited ridda is the ridda of the individual who switches religion and is not interested in others. According to Islam, the punishment for this individual is [Hell] in the world to come…

"But [the other] ridda, which expands [from the individual to the group], is a ridda in which the individual who abandons Islam calls [upon others] to do likewise, [thus creating] a group whose path is not the path of society and whose goal is not the goal of the [Muslim] nation, and whose allegiance is not to the Islamic nation. Such [individuals] endanger the social fabric, and they are like the murtaddoon [apostates], who were fought by [the first Caliph] Abu Bakr together with the Companions of the Prophet [the Sahaba]. Those murtaddoon falsely claimed that they were prophets with the same inspiration as was given to the Prophet Muhammad…"

Asked what the view of the modern Muslim sage should be about the danger of ridda, Al-Qaradhawi replied: "The gravest danger facing the Muslim is the one that threatens his spiritual existence – i.e., that threatens his belief. Therefore, apostasy, or unbelief after having been Muslim, is the gravest danger to society…

"In our generation, Muslim society has been subject to violent invasions and severe attacks aimed at uprooting it, and these were manifested by the invasion of Christian missionaries that began with Western colonialism and is continuing in the Islamic world and among the Islamic communities and minorities [outside the Muslim world] … [and by] the Communist invasion that destroyed entire Muslim countries in Asia and Europe and made every effort to eliminate Islam and remove it ultimately from people's lives … and by the third and worst invasion, the secular invasion that is continuing to this day in the heart of the Islamic world, sometimes openly and sometimes covertly, and which persecutes the true Islam…

"For Muslim society to preserve its existence, it must struggle against ridda from every source and in all forms, and it must not let it spread like wildfire in a field of thorns. This is what Abu Bakr and the companions did when they fought the people of ridda who followed the false prophets… There is no escape from struggling against and restricting the individual ridda so that it will not worsen and its sparks scatter, becoming group ridda… Thus, the Muslim sages agreed that the punishment for the murtadd [who commits ridda ] … is execution…"(3)

In his book 'Islam and Secularism,' Al-Qaradhawi explains: "The Muslim sages agreed unanimously that anyone who denies something that is known in the religion … is an apostate who abandons his religion. The Imam must demand of him to repent, and recant his deviation from the righteous path, or the laws regarding the murtadd will apply to him."

The progressive Egyptian intellectual Sayyed Al-Qimni, who cited the above quote in an article in the Egyptian weekly Roz Al-Yousef, explained what it meant: "According to Al-Qaradhawi, [the ridda] punishment does not apply only to someone who decides freely to leave Islam for what satisfies his heart and his conscience – whether this be another religion or nothing at all. It applies in principle [also] to the Muslim who clings to the laws of his religion … but disagrees with those who have appointed themselves the priests of Islam and who call themselves religious sages … especially when the disputes concern the understanding of a particular matter in Islam … because [the priests of the religion] have determined that their understanding of the holy scriptures is the only [permitted] understanding and the absolute truth, and anything else is absolute falsehood… Any attempt at new thinking in reading the scriptures is thrust away [on the pretext] of [accusations of] abandoning the religion … and the punishment for new thought or expressing a different opinion is death."(4)

The issues of ridda, takfir, and tafriq are a constant concern in the Muslim world. The following are several recent cases.


Recent Egyptian Lawsuit: Forcing a Divorce upon an Intellectual

The latest affair to take Egypt by storm concerns statements by Egyptian author and TV writer Usama Anwar Ukasha, who slandered one of the Prophet's Companions, 'Amr ibn Al-'Aas, who commanded the forces that brought Islam to Egypt. Ukasha called him "the most contemptible figure in Islam" for causing divisiveness and internal conflict in Islam. Attorney Nabih Al-Wahsh, who in the past filed a suit against Egyptian author Nawal Al-Sa'dawi, filed a similar suit to separate Ukasha from his wife, claiming that by attacking ibn Al-'Aas, Ukasha had become a murtadd who had left the fold of Islam.

Egypt's shapers of public opinion are divided on the affair. For example, Dr. Abd Al-Sabour Shahin, lecturer on Islamic law at the University of Cairo, stated that Amr ibn Al-'Aas has an important place in Islam and therefore "we will not permit any secularist to deride him." He expressed support for legal measures against Ukasha in order to put an end to the harming of the Prophet's Companions and as a deterring measure against the distortion of the image of Islam heroes.

In contrast, Islamic intellectual Gamal Al-Bana, the brother of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood movement Hassan Al-Bana, firmly rejected all demands to ostracize any individual or to make charges of apostasy, arguing that criticizing the Companions of the Prophet was legitimate. He said: "The lawsuits we are seeing today to ostracize and prevent [different] ideas recall previous eras. We must understand that Islam has given man freedom of thought. Islam's history proves that no one is immune to error except the Prophet. The Companions of the Prophet made errors, and therefore it is not right for them to be exempt from criticism. This doesn't give us the right to curse any of the Companions of the Prophet or anyone else, or harm their belief, but it does permit us to describe their deeds in political terms. It is known that 'Amr ibn Al-'Aas has a controversial political history; therefore, there is nothing to prevent us from opposing him from the historical point of view."(5)


Islamist Circles: Sunna Deniers Who Oppose the Sunna as a Source of Religious Rulings Are Apostates

Gamal Al-Banna himself recently made headlines when the Islamic Research Institute of Al-Azhar University in Cairo banned his book, 'The Responsibility for the Failure of the Islamic State'.(6) His name also appeared in a detailed study against "Sunna deniers" that was posted on the Muslim website www.mojahid.net, the motto of which is "Life in the Way of the Prophet Is Harder than Death for His Sake" and which encourages Muslims to devote themselves to Allah in accordance with the Koran and the Sunna.

The study reviewed the history of Sunna denial that began in the second century of Islam (the eighth century CE), which sees the Koran as the only source of Islamic legislation and rejects the Sunna as an additional source for religious rulings. The study presents the various groups that rejected the Sunna, in part or in whole: the Shi'a, the Khawarij,(7) the Mu'tazila,(8) and the Orientalists. It goes on to review the development of Sunna denial in different countries, and discusses the important centers of Sunna denial in India, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, and Egypt.

The study also focuses on the main figures who advocated and still advocate this approach, including the prominent reformists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries: Egyptian scholar Muhammad Abdu (d. 1905) and his disciple, Syrian scholar Muhammad Rashid Rida (d. 1935); Egyptian writers Taha Hussein (d. 1973), Ahmad Amin (d. 1954); Tawfiq Al-Hakim (d. 1987); Libyan ruler Mu'ammar Qaddafi; former Al-Azhar University lecturer, fired for his anti-Sunna views, Ahmad Subhi Mansour; and liberal Syrian intellectual Muhammad Shahrour.

Following its comprehensive review of Sunna denial, the study determines that the doubts raised by opponents of the Sunna, past and present, should be studied and that it must be clarified that they are all disproved, and that their writings must all be subjected to a thorough examination; further, they must all be decreed apostates (irtidad) and Allah's laws must be applied, with the knowledge of the judicial system. The punishment for introducing forbidden innovations into Islam must be applied to those who oppose the proper Islamic traditions, and they must atone or be condemned. In addition, a world association for those wishing to defend the Sunna must be created.(9)

A similar view was expressed by Al-Azhar University member Sheikh Mahmoud 'Ashour, who stated in an interview with the Egyptian paper Al-Masri Al-Yawm: "Anyone who calls to rely on the Koran alone and ignore the Sunna of the Prophet is an apostate and has left the fold of Islam, because he has denied a definitely known [aspect] of the religion. Further, he is denying half of the religion, because the Prophet said: 'I have left for you something that if you cling to it you will never err after [my death] – [that is,] Allah's book [the Koran] and my Sunna.' The Sunna of the Prophet illuminates and interprets what the Koran says. It also includes matters that do not appear in the Koran, such as the way of prayer, pilgrimage, giving charity, and the rest of the commandments between man and Allah, and the rest of life's affairs. Anyone who says that the Sunna should be ignored is beyond doubt an apostate."(10)


Reformists: The Koranic Texts Are the Sole Authentic Source; There Should Be No Monopoly on the Interpretation of the Holy Text; Ijtihad Must Be Renewed in Line with the Present Century

The issue of rejection of the Sunna as a source of legislation was discussed in a workshop on "Islam and Reform," held in Cairo on October 5-6, 2004. The workshop's concluding statement stressed "the importance of implementing both religious and political reforms in order to achieve comprehensive reform." It called "for creating a new intellectual context for Islamic thought based on clear assumptions and unity that will take into account all the changes in Muslim society throughout the past 11 centuries." To this end, the statement said, there must be "a profound reexamination of Islamic heritage, including all the Islamic sciences established during the past three centuries of Islam – Koran commentary, the Hadith [Islamic traditions], the roots of the religion, and religious law," and "reliance on the Koranic texts as the only authentic source for the purpose of reexamining all of Islamic heritage."

The concluding statement further called for "confronting all the institutions that claim a monopoly on the religion and on the proper interpretation of the holy text [the Koran]. Instead, there is [a need for] a new trend that will establish everyone's right [to implement] Ijtihad, under the banner of Islamic reform that is right for this century."(11)

The concluding statement was signed by leading progressives and reformists in the Arab and Islamic world: Dr. Sa'd Al-Din Ibrahim, chairman of the Ibn Khaldun Center in Cairo; Egyptian intellectual Gamal Al-Banna; Egyptian intellectual Dr. Sayyed Al-Qimni; Syrian intellectual Muhammad Shahrour; Dr. Radhwan Masmoudi, executive director of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy in the U.S.; Dr. Najah Kadhim, director of the Islamic Forum for Islamic Dialogue in Britain; Sharifa Macarandas, president of the Mindanao Women's League, the Philippines; Tunisian intellectual Salah Al-Din Al-Jurashi; Dr. 'Abd Al-Hamid Al-Ansari, former director of the Faculty of Shari'a Law, Qatar University; Dr. Fabyola Badawi, director of the European Arabian Union for Democracy and Dialogue in France; and Abdallah Ali Sabri, editor-in-chief of the Yemenite Saut Al-Shura daily.

The workshop and its recommendations enraged Egypt's religious establishment. In statements to the Kuwaiti daily Al-Rai Al-'Aam, the Sheikh of Al-Azhar Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi said that the workshop had sounded "an explicit call to deny the Sunna of the Prophet, and the Al-Azhar [establishment] and [Egyptian] society rejects this." He added, "These centers [whose representatives participated in the workshop] have a destructive influence on Egyptian society, and [their activity] must be stopped and [their representatives] must be brought to trial… This is an explicit call to abandon the main source from among the sources of religious law in Islam – the Sunna of the Prophet. This is a danger that some of [our] foreign enemies are interested [in promoting]."(12)

In response to Sheikh Tantawi's statements, the Ibn Khaldun Center issued a communiqué arguing that it was not seeking to abolish the Sunna of the Prophet, but calling to issue religious rulings based solely on the Koran when disputes arose. In answer to Sheikh Tantawi's statement that the workshop participants were "a group of separatists, one of whom was in the past charged with treason," the communiqué explained that Tantawi was obviously referring to a case against Dr. Sa'd Al-Din Ibrahim and the Ibn Khaldun Center employees, and clarified that Dr. Sa'd Al-Din Ibrahim had not been charged with treason but with other false charges and the Egyptian Supreme Court had found him and the center's employees innocent.

The communiqué asked: "Is the Al-Azhar Sheikh entitled to accuse some of the Muslim intellectuals of separating from Islam? Doesn't that mean accusing us of apostasy and endangering our lives? Weren't similar charges responsible for the assassination of Faraj Foda, and for the assassination attempt on the world-renowned author Nagib Mahfouz? We call on Al-Azhar not to descend to the path of takfir taken by the violent and extremist groups…"(13)

About a month after the workshop, Al-Azhar Sheikh Tantawi again attacked the Sunna deniers who see the Koran as the sole source for religious rulings, calling them "ignoramuses, liars, and hypocrites" and warning the public not to listen to their views, which were aimed at fomenting confusion. In statements delivered on November 5, 2004 at a conference organized by the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Sheikh Tantawi said, "The attack on the Sunna is a means employed by the enemies of Islam for the [upcoming] attack on the Koran, because the Sunna is only a clarification of the laws appearing in the Koran… Thus, anyone who raises doubts about the prophetic Sunna as a source of legislation is acting according to a plan that is hostile to Islam… We have no life, future, or greatness among the societies except by clinging to the Koran and the Sunna. It is incumbent upon us all to stand in one rank and in one thought against anyone who attacks and denies the Sunna, because the laws [regarding matters] between man and Allah are not correct without the Sunna that explains in detail the rules and clarifies the things that are important."(14)


The Critical Approach to the Koran Is Also Considered Apotasy

Islamic circles refer to the critical or scientific approach to the Koran as apostasy as well. For example, a weekly talk show on the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera TV channel dealt with removing certain Koranic verses from the school curricula in Arab and Muslim countries. Al-Azhar University lecturer Ibrahim Al-Khuli accused a program guest, the progressive author and journalist Shaker Al-Nabulsi, of denying Allah, and said that he should be expelled from the fold of the Muslim community.

Speaking by phone from the U.S., Dr. Nabulsi stated: "There should be a distinction between the Koranic chapters concerning belief, most of which were revealed in Mecca during the first 10 years [of the Prophet Muhammad's activity] and the chapters dealing with legislation or the life of the Prophet and his relations with his wives and his Companions and so on. That is, there are chapters that cut across history, and these are the verses revealed at Mecca … and there are circumstantial verses of legislation that were revealed at Al-Madina as a result of events that took place 1,400 years ago and which are no longer in existence. Frankly, there are many verses that we call political and military verses, that is, 'verses of the sword,' that are connected to circumstances that existed in the past but exist no longer. The verses revealed at Mecca, about the Jews, the Christians, and the People of the Book, for example … were usually verses of support for them, but the verses concerning the Jews and Christians at the stages of the revelation at Al-Madina were contrary to these verses. Why? Because the verses revealed at Al-Madina were the result of the changing political relations [of the People of the Book and] the Muslims…

"Politics are fluid, not static; therefore, the laws built on a political foundation are also subject to movement, and are not static. On the contrary, most of the verses revealed at Al-Madina regarding this matter [the People of the Book] contradict each other…

"What is happening now in the Arab world [the debate over removing Koranic verses from the school curricula] is not the removal of the permanent verses of belief that cross history, but an attempt not to emphasize or teach the circumstantial verses that incite to accusing the other of apostasy and to hatred of the other. Why was [the Second Caliph] Omar ibn Khattab, 1,400 years ago, more courageous than us when he eliminated [even] the verses connected to the heart of the faith, not [only] circumstantial verses… Why was Omar ibn Khattab capable of doing this 1,400 years ago, while today [Ibrahim] Al-Khuli calls anyone who eliminates any verse or chapter of the Koran an apostate…?"

Ibrahim Al-Khuli rejected Al-Nabulsi's statements out of hand, saying "He doesn't understand [Caliph] Omar, and he spoke nonsense that is unworthy of a response. Neither Omar nor any of the Sahaba ever dared to eliminate even a single letter of the Koran. What changed was the circumstances of the implementation [of the words of the Koran]…"

According to Al-Khuli, "Al-Nabulsi and Nasr [Hamid] Abu Zayd and their gangs speak of the historic aspect of Koranic scripture… Nasr Abu Zayd went so far as to say that the Koran is a human text that developed and crystallized, and is a cultural product. This is a lie, [and therefore] the Egyptian court's sentence regarding him was the sentence of ridda – and had he not left Egypt he would have been executed… Al-Nabulsi is not worth holding a discussion with, or of me mentioning him. He lied when he said that there are Koranic verses that contradict one another. When you say that in the Koran there are verses contradicting one another, you commit apostasy, and you leave the fold of the [Muslim] community through its widest gate. I take responsibility for these words."15

*Aluma Dankowitz is Director of MEMRI's Reform Project.

Endnotes:
(1) IRNA (Iran), February 12, 2005.
(2) See article by liberal Tunisian intellectual Al-Afif Al-Akhdhar, http://www.rezgar.com/debat/show.art.asp?t=2&aid=8336, July 1, 2003.
(3)Al-Ahram Al-Arabi (Egypt), July 3, 2004.
(4) Roz Al-Yusouf (Egypt), September 17, 2004.
(5) Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (London), October 19, 2004.
(6) Al-Hayat, (London), September 9, 2004.
(7) Khawarij, the first religious opposition in Islam, was formed when a group of Muslims left the camp of the Fourth Caliph 'Ali bin Abu Taleb at the Battle of Sifin in 657.
(8) Mu'tazila, a theoretical rationalistic stream of the 9th and 10th centuries, sought to set out the principles of religious faith in logical and rational formulae.
(9)http://mojahid.net/ib/index.php?showtopic=4332&st
(10)Al-Masri Al-Yawm (Egypt), October 25, 2004, as cited in Al-Quds Al-Arabi (London), October 26, 2004.
(11) Ijtihad, or using individual judgment, was suspended in the 10th century by a consensus of ulema (Islamic clerics), and its resumption has not been permitted since. For the full text of the recommendations, see http://www.mengos.net/events/04newsevents/egypt/october/ibnkhaldun-English.htm
(12) Al-Rai Al-'Aam (Kuwait), October 8, 2004.
(13)http://www.hrinfo.net/egypt/makal/pr041010.shtml
(14) Al-Sharq Al-Awsat(London), November 7, 2004.
(15) Al-Jazeera TV(Qatar), October 5, 2004.

http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=IA20805

[Petronas]

Iran girl gets 100 lashes for sex
Thursday, 24 February, 2005, 17:03 GMT

A teenage girl and two young men in Iran have been sentenced to lashes for having sex. The court dismissed the girl's claim that she was raped. It said she had sex of her own free will, the official Iran Daily newspaper reported.

The girl was sentenced to 100 lashes because her accusations of rape and kidnap could have landed her partners a death penalty, the Tehran judge said. Sex outside marriage is illegal in Iran and capital punishment can be imposed. The young men in the case were sentenced to 30 and 40 lashes each.

The Iran paper quotes the girl, who has not been named, as confessing: "I trusted one of these young men, whom I got to know by phone, and went to his place. "But because he betrayed me, I filed the case against him and his friend out of revenge."

International concerns continue to be raised about women's rights in Iran. In December the UN General Assembly voted to censure Iran for human rights violations, including discrimination against women and girls. Tehran rejected the criticism as propaganda.

Under Iranian law, girls over the age of nine and boys over 16 face the death penalty for crimes such as rape and murder, while capital punishment can be imposed in certain cases of illegal sexual relationships.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4295111.stm

[Petronas]

Al-Qaradhawi at Solidarity Conference: 'I Hope to Die a Virtuous Death Like a Jihad Warrior, with the Head Severed from the Body
February 25, 2005

In light of the criticism recently leveled against Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi, the Doha Youth Center held a solidarity conference on February 17, 2005. Various Arab and Islamic personalities participated in the conference, such as the Mufti of Oman, Ahmad Al-Khalili, Sudan's Minister of Awqaf (Endowments) 'Asim Al-Bashir, and the editor of the Egyptian nationalist weekly Al-Usbu' Mustafa Bakri. The following are excerpts from the conference:

Al-Qaradhawi: Nobody in Qatar Dictates to Me What to Talk and What Not to Talk About in My Sermons

During the conference, Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi noted that the Qatari authorities give him complete freedom of action, and that they never intervened in the contents of his sermons: "I can testify about the country [Qatar] that for 44 years, since I arrived there, nobody has interfered with my freedom, prevented me from giving a sermon, or dictated to me what to talk about and what not [to talk] about. Moreover, I am the one who decides what I will talk about…

"When I was only nine, the people of my village gave me the title 'sheikh [who teaches] the Koran and religious science.' I have devoted myself to religious propagation [ da'wa ] for the sake of Allah, and I have not relinquished the mission that Allah entrusted to me. I see myself as appointed by Allah. I will never withdraw from this mission. I hope my life will end with a virtuous death, like [the death] sought by warriors fighting Jihad for the sake of Allah. I do not defend falsehood or the tyrants … but I defend and am beneficial to the affairs of my nation. I will not relinquish my mission whatever accusations are leveled at me regarding terrorism or other matters." [1]

The London Arabic-language daily Al-Hayat reported that Al-Qaradhawi said: "I am not afraid of the Mossad or the Americans." He also said: "The Mossad has threatened to eliminate me, and I hope that Allah will grant me martyrdom [ shahada ] for His sake and that my life will end by my dying at the hands of the enemies of Islam." According to the daily, Al-Qaradhawi hoped to die "a virtuous death" and that this meant "that the head would be severed from the body." [2]

London Mayor Livingstone: 'Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi's Ideology is Utterly Remote from Extremism'
During the solidarity conference, a film about Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi was aired, in which London Mayor Ken Livingstone appeared. According to a report on Al-Jazeera TV 's Internet site, Livingstone said: "We were surprised by the onslaught of unbridled distortion of facts in the papers, which described this man as a wild animal and presented him as the jurisprudent of Satan... We were therefore of the opinion that it is important to conduct a comprehensive inquiry, in which we will consult with the world's ' ulema and study Dr. Al-Qaradhawi's 140 books.

"The results of the report were astounding. It transpired that most of the fabrications that distorted Dr. Al-Qaradhawi's words come from the institute called 'The Middle East Media Research Institute,' which purports to be an objective institute interpreting the words of the Muslim ' ulema from around the world. However, we have discovered that an ex-officer in the Israeli intelligence, the Mossad, is running this institute and that the institute systematically distorts not only Al-Qaradhawi's words, but the words of many [other] Muslim ' ulema as well. In most cases, this distortion is comprehensive, and therefore we printed this document." [3]

According to the Qatar daily Al-Sharq, Livingstone noted that after special committees had studied Al-Qaradhawi's ideology by reviewing over 140 books, as well as sermons and lectures by Al-Qaradhawi, it was found that "Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi's ideology is utterly remote from extremism." [4]

Participant: 'Yesterday It Was Garaudy, Today It Is Al-Qaradhawi'

In their speeches, some of the conference's participants recalled the fact that the center had previously held a conference in solidarity with Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy. One of the participants, Muhammad Al-Musfir, a political science lecturer at Qatar University, said: "I thank Qatar's political leadership for [the way] it has treated thinking and sensible men, despite the great onslaught against it. I also thank the youth center in Doha, which respects independent-minded people and supports them. Yesterday it was Garaudy, and today it is Al-Qaradhawi, with whom we totally identify." [5]

Dr. Hayat Al-Hweiek 'Atiya, who is close to Garaudy and who translated one of his books denying the Holocaust, also participated in the conference. 'Atiya, the only Christian participant, said: "Muslim civilization is being targeted. As a Christian, I think we are gathering today [to honor] the supreme value that this man represents." [6]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] Al-Sharq (Qatar), February 20, 2005.

[2] Al-Hayat (London), February 19, 2005. In his memoirs, Al-Qaradhawi noted that Hasan Al-Bana, who founded the Muslim Brotherhood movement in 1936, related to " virtuous death" as follows: "Jihad in this period is a personal duty of every Egyptian and Sudanese until the English leave his homeland. Each citizen must sacrifice whatever he can. The Muslim Brotherhood is prepared to sacrifice thousands of young men as offerings to their homeland, which is a large part of the land of Islam... Oh Allah, give me a virtuous life and a virtuous death. What is a virtuous death, oh [Muslim] brothers? Is it to die in bed next to your wife, your children, and your relatives? The virtuous death that I imagine is [one in which] this head – pointing to his own head – is severed from this body for the sake of Allah." See:

http://www.islam-online.net/Arabic/personality/2001/12/article5.SHTML#5.

[3] Al-Jazeera TV (Qatar), February 18, 2005.

http://www.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D9867A71-E798-4987-A8D8-5B9C34F346DC.htm.

[4] Al-Sharq (Qatar), February 20. 2005.

[5] Al-Sharq (Qatar), February 20. 2005.

[6] Al-Raya (Qatar), February 20, 2005.

http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD86905

[al_gy]

Used to translate Al-Hayat for yaho mess boards 3 yrs ago....

Washington ditches plan to call for Mid-East reform - SpecialsMiddleEastConflict - www.smh.com.au
The US, yielding to protests from European and Arab leaders, has ... and then leaked to Al Hayat, a London-based Arabic newspaper, in February - all before the ...
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/03/12/1078594571599.html - 23 KB
Related searches:sydney | sydney australia | sydney morning herald | australia

[Casey]

Islam and Terror Archive
http://www.afghanistanwar.com/showthread.php?t=940

[Casey]

Islamic Rulings on Warfare
Authored by: Dr. Sherifa D. Zuhur, LTCDR Youssef H Aboul-Enein
Publication Date: November 2004
Type: Monograph
Length: 50 pages
ISBN: 1-58487-177-6
Free Download: pub588.pdf (Right-Click to "Save-as")
http://www.carlisle.army.mil/ssi/pdffiles/PUB588.pdf

Synopsis:

The global war on terror (GWOT) and the battles with specific Islamist groups is, to some degree, a war of ideas. With a better understanding of Islamic concepts of war, peace, and Muslim relations with non-Muslims, those fighting the GWOT may gain support and increase their efficacy. The authors explain the principles of jihad and war and their conduct as found in key Islamic texts, the controversies that have emerged from the Quranic verses of war and peace, and the conflict between liberal or moderate Islamic voices and the extremists on matters such as the definition of combatants, treatment of hostages, and suicide attacks.

http://www.carlisle.army.mil/ssi/pubs/display.cfm?pubID=588

[Casey]

Muslims issue fatwa against Osama: Madrid bombing

MADRID, March 11: Spain's leading Islamic body has issued a religious order declaring Osama bin Laden to have forsaken Islam by backing attacks such as the Madrid train bombings a year ago.

The Islamic Commission of Spain timed its "fatwa" for Friday to coincide with the first anniversary of last year's attacks, which killed 191 people and were claimed in the name of Al Qaeda in Europe.

The commission's secretary general Mansur Escudero said the fatwa had moral, rather than legal weight and would serve as a guide for Muslims. "We declare ... that Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda organization, responsible for the horrendous crimes against innocent people who were despicably murdered in the March 11 terrorist attack in Madrid, are outside the parameters of Islam," the commission said.

The commission said the Holy Quran barred Muslims from committing crimes against innocent people. The commission is the top Islamic body in Spain. Its leaders are elected by an assembly and represent the Muslim community in talks with the Spanish government.

Most of the 42 suspects held in connection with the investigation are of Moroccan origin whom investigators say were committed to holy war against the West.

ISLAM & TERRORISM: "The terrorist acts of Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda organization ... which result in the death of civilians, such as women and children ... are totally prohibited and are the object of strong condemnation within Islam," it said in a statement citing extensively from religious texts.

The commission issued its fatwa as Spaniards paid tribute to the passengers killed on four Madrid commuter trains a year ago. At Madrid's main mosque, worshippers observed a minute's silence before Friday prayers, and Morocco's King Mohammed attended a wreath-laying ceremony in honour of the victims.

At least half a million Muslims live in Spain and many have felt increased isolation as a result of the March 11 bombings. "After March 11, all Muslims have become suspect," Mohammed El Afifi, a spokesman for Madrid's biggest mosque, said recently.

Escudero said: "Any group that invokes Islam to justify terrorist attacks places itself outside of Islam." Bin Laden's claim to recover al Andalus - the Arabic term for Spain during the nearly 800 years parts of the country were under Moorish rule - "totally contradict God's will", the commission said.

Meanwhile, Spain's Islamic Commission on Friday thanked their countrymen for the "exemplary" way in which they have made a distinction between Islam and terrorism after the March 11, 2004 attacks in Madrid.

"We feel deep and strong solidarity with the victims and their loved ones who have shown an exemplary attitude by never pointing a finger at the country's Muslim population but on the contrary, could tell the difference between terrorists and the Muslim people," the commission's secretary general, Riay Tatary, told private Spanish radio Cadena Ser. -AFP

http://www.dawn.com/2005/03/12/int1.htm

[Petronas]

Woman stabbed to death
Friday-Saturday, March 18-19, 2005

AMMAN — Police are questioning a man who reportedly stabbed his 24-year-old sister to death on Wednesday night for what the suspect said were reasons of family honour, official sources said. The woman, who was not identified by officials, was tied to a barbed wire fence surrounding her house and was stabbed at least six times, allegedly by her brother, one official source told The Jordan Times.

The suspect turned himself in to the authorities shortly after the incident, claiming to have killed his sister to cleanse his family's honour, the source added. The victim went missing from her family's home for several days, which “angered her brother,” the source said. “When the victim returned home the suspect tied her arms and legs with a rope to a barbed wire fence and stabbed her repeatedly until he made sure she was dead,” the source explained.

Officials are also questioning other family members to determine why the victim left her house and where she stayed during that period, the official source explained. Government pathologists will perform an autopsy on the victim on Saturday, according to the source. The victim became the third person in the Kingdom reportedly murdered in a so-called honour crime this year.

http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/homenews/homenews5.htm

[Petronas]

Interesting admission from an Arab newspaper. Democracy is the antithesis of fundamentalist Islam...

As Arabs see a tide turn against autocracy, some wonder: Who turned it?
Friday-Saturday, March 18-19, 2005

CAIRO — Just before the US-led invasion of Iraq, Arab League chief Amr Musa warned it would "open the gates of hell." Two years later, many are asking whether the United States actually opened the doors of democracy in the Middle East. A region dominated by autocrats is seeing Iraqi parliamentary elections, Palestinian presidential elections, and Saudi municipal elections. Anti-Syrian protests have brought down a government in Lebanon, and Egypt has announced it will hold its first multicandidate presidential election.

The drama is being watched in Arabic-speaking households worldwide on increasingly free and borderless Arab TV stations. But many question how much the democratic stirrings result from the Iraq war and the Bush administration's proclaimed ambition of bringing democracy to the Arab world. Some ask whether elections in Iraq are worth the bloodshed that the US military can't end. Others wonder whether the events they are seeing are only superficial or will truly lead to greater freedom. "Does President [George W.] Bush really want complete democracy in the Middle East?" wondered veteran Lebanese columnist Jihad Khazen. "I think he really wants it, but I warn him that this democracy will bring forces who fiercely oppose the US and Israel." He was referring to fundamentalists — or even armed Islamic groups — who many believe would do well in any fully free and open election in most Middle East countries. Hardline Hamas, for example, is expected to make a strong showing in Palestinian legislative elections later this year.

Bush on Wednesday said Iraqi voters who risked suicide bombings by going to the polls in parliamentary elections deserve the credit for democracy's advances in that country. "I just don't worry about vindication or standing," Bush said, responding to a question about democratic stirrings in the Mideast. "The people who deserve the credit in Iraq are the Iraqi citizens that defied the terrorists." One prominent Egyptian-American activist, Saad Eddin Ibrahim, said the invasion of Iraq served to "expedite and to push to the front stage much that was happening in the back stage of the Middle East." He questioned whether Bush had truly noble intentions in invading Iraq, but in an interview in Michigan added: "I am fighting for democracy and freedom, and if some of his actions, intended or unintended, help my agenda, I have to acknowledge it." Lebanon this month saw something unprecedented in Arab politics: Giant demonstrations in an "independence uprising" that forced the resignation of Lebanon's pro-Syrian government. Under pressure from the protests, the United States, the United Nations and Arab nations, Damascus has pulled back its troops in Lebanon, with the promise of removing them completely.

The example of Iraq's elections resonated in some minds. "I have denounced the American invasion of Iraq, but I also admit that the Iraqi people are now free," said opposition leader Walid Jumblatt. However, in Lebanon and elsewhere, other factors are also critical. The immediate trigger for the rallies was the February 14 assassination of the former prime minister, Rafik Hariri, blamed by many Lebanese on Syria. And many protesters seemed to take their inspiration more from Ukraine's "Orange Revolution" than from Iraq's vote. The Palestinian election and nascent peace effort with Israel also owe their genesis in large part to an event beyond Washington's control — the death of Yasser Arafat.

Nor is it clear where the Lebanese turmoil is headed. Hizbollah, the Syrian-backed power in Lebanon, mustered 500,000 demonstrators, their leader telling them bluntly: "Lebanon is not Ukraine." The toppled pro-Syrian prime minister promptly got his job back. Then on Monday the opposition punched back with the biggest crowd of demonstrators yet.

Critical to democratic hopes in the region is Egypt, the largest Arab nation. Egyptians were stunned and elated when President Hosni Mubarak revealed plans late last month to amend the constitution to allow a contested race for his job in elections this year. Mubarak is likely to run but hasn't declared he will do so. Mubarak's announcement came after months of unprecedented demonstrations by hundreds of Egyptians in a movement called "kifaya" — Arabic for "enough!" — a frank call for Mubarak to leave office. It also followed intensified US calls for reform, culminating in Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's cancellation of a visit to Cairo in protest at the arrest of government critic Ayman Nour.

Nour was freed and on Wednesday announced he would run for president. But many in the opposition see Mubarak's reform as little more than a trick to escape US pressure or to ensure his succession through the election of his son, Gamal. Egypt's foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, dismissed the idea of a wave of democratic reform across the Middle East in a March 10 interview with The Washington Post — and pointed to the turmoil in Iraq, still raging even after eight million Iraqis went to the polls. "What model are we talking about in Iraq? Bombs are exploding everywhere, and Iraqis are killed every day in the streets," Gheit said.

Another sceptic is Mohammed Sayed Said, an Egyptian political analyst. "Putting all ongoing events in the basket of democracy is forging reality," he told the Associated Press. "Bush wants to credit himself with things that have nothing to do with democracy at all. It has to do with politics of lying." Still, Arabs lining up to vote, or watching it on TV, are experiencing a thrilling ride.

"There is no going back, the democratic genie is out of the box in the Arab world," said Fawaz Gerges, a Mideast expert at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York. The "new stirrings of freedom in the Arab world" come from a convergence of internal calls for freedom with external pressures, he said. Iraq is part of it, but so is a two-decade struggle by ordinary Arabs and Muslims against their autocrats, he said.

Jordanian analyst Salameh Nimatt, in Washington, said the Iraq war "opened gates of hell on autocratic and tyrannical regimes and that should be welcomed by the people." But he cautioned there's no guarantee it will last. "The Americans brought down the Iraqi regime by military force," he said, and that means "all the other reform steps can easily be reversed."

http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/news/news7.htm

[SMOKEY]

That is one extremely and blatantly biased article AGAINST the Bush administration.

I'm laughing at how the writer tried so hard to detract from any credit at all going to GWB/America.

Unbelievable.

[Petronas]

Progressive Kuwaiti Intellectual Ahmad Al-Baghdadi Requests Political Asylum in the West
April 8, 2005

On March 21, 2005, progressive author and lecturer Ahmad Al-Baghdadi, who teaches political science at the University of Kuwait, published a request for political asylum in the West in the Kuwaiti liberal daily Al-Siyasa. This move was in response to being sentenced by a Kuwaiti court to three years on probation on 2,000 dinars [$6800] bail, with violation punishable by a one-year prison sentence, on charges of contempt for Islam.

In a June 5, 2004 article, Al-Baghdadi responded to reports that the Kuwaiti Education Ministry was demanding that private schools increase Islamic education classes and allocate time for rote Koran learning. As a result, private schools would have to reorganize their curricula, and one ministry official suggested removing music classes to make way for the additional religious studies.

Following the publication of this article, Al-Baghdadi was sued by three Islamists who accused him of contempt for Islam. In January 2005, he was acquitted by a lower court that ruled that he had merely expressed his personal opinion. However, on March 19, an appeals court overturned this decision and ruled that Al-Baghdadi had exceeded the bounds of expressing an opinion and legitimate criticism by making statements suggesting a connection between the study of Islam and rote Koran learning, and intellectual backwardness and terrorism. [1]

After publishing his request for political asylum, Al-Baghdadi wrote another article, on March 26, declaring his withdrawal from writing in Kuwait. [See MEMRI's Reform Project for more on Al-Baghdadi [2] ]

The following are excerpts from all three articles:

"Music and Developing Artistic Taste Are More Important than Rote Koran Learning and Religious Studies"

In his June 5 article, Al-Baghdadi wrote: "I am a parent of a child who attends an English school. I sought to enroll him in this school and to bear the heavy expenses in order to protect my son from the backwardness of the [Kuwaiti] Education Ministry curricula. "But it is clear that the Education Ministry is determined to systematically destroy private education, having failed at public education. I am not one of those who fear religion, or who grow beards or wear religious turbans, and in my opinion music and developing artistic taste are more important than rote learning of the Koran and religious studies. The religious studies that already exist are definitely sufficient. I do not want to waste my money on any [additional] religious studies…

"I don't want my son to be taught by ignoramuses not to respect women and non-Muslims. I don't want those in charge of determining the non-educational curricula – who are backwards both cognitively and intellectually – to fill my son's head with traditions about demons.

"I want my son to study foreign languages – which are better for him than the dead Arabic language – and to study music so he can develop artistic taste, and to study other real sciences that will help him in life – such as chemistry, physics, history, and the social sciences…

"In all honesty, I do not want my son learning the Koran by rote. I do not want him to be an imam, or to recite prayers in the tents of the dead. I do not want his future to be the path of intellectual or actual terrorism. "I want a son who seeks peace and who loves all people regardless of color, race, or religion. I want him to build society, not destroy it. In brief, I want to have a son of whom I can be proud because of his knowledge and reasoning, not because of his intellectual backwardness…" [3]

There is No Solution to This Serious Problem of Lawful Tyranny Besides Requesting Political Asylum

In his March 21 request for political asylum in the West, Al-Baghdadi wrote: "You express your opinion on the teaching of religious curriculum, and it gets you a prison sentence, a ban on writing, and an obligation to pay bail to stop the punishment. To this I was sentenced this week… "There is no solution to this serious problem of lawful tyranny besides requesting political asylum in one of the Western countries – not only to defend [my] freedom but also to defend [my] life. What is the point of remaining in a country whose laws do not protect your honor, where you cannot protect your life, and which harms your family and children and distracts you from the continuation of your work?

"The author 'Abd Al-Latif Al-Du'eij was right to emigrate from Kuwait, settle in the U.S. and begin writing from abroad. By doing so, he secured his honor and the honor of his family, protected his freedom of speech, and protected himself from the humiliation of imprisonment…

"After this sentence, I have no option but to make a public request via the Internet for political asylum in a Western country. This is not out of hatred for my country, but rather out of hatred for its tyrannical laws, which do not hesitate to imprison anyone who expresses his opinion [even] if it has nothing to do with religion. I know very well that Islam does not require Muslims to learn the Koran by heart, as Allah said in the Koran: 'Recite as much of the Koran as is easy for you' [4] …

"I don’t know how to request political asylum, and I’ve never looked into it – because I was convinced that my honor was secure in my own country, and that my life was protected. But now the situation has changed, and it is clear that all my enemies – so numerous in this country – aim to imprison me at any price. So I would be grateful to anyone who knows how to submit such an application, for providing me with the necessary information by fax (965-4721840) or by email, to awtaad@yahoo.com.

"Congratulations to the Religious Movement and the Tyrannical State on Their Victory"

"There is no escape from acknowledging that the religious movement has won its battle against me. Congratulations to them, and to this tyrannical state, on the victory. I will stop writing on religious subjects until Allah carries out his word… "Finally, it is important to note that the country that accepts my request for asylum will not have to pay a penny, since I can live from my pension and from my income from writing in the newspapers…" [5]

"My Sentence is Like Russian Roulette"

About a week after Al-Baghdadi published his request for political asylum, he announced that he had decided to stop writing in Kuwait. In his farewell article, published March 26 in Al-Siyasa, he wrote: "My recent sentencing is like the deadly game of Russian roulette… [Punishment] might be lurking in any line, any word, of any [future] article... I pull the trigger, and I don't know whether the bullet (the law) will send me to my death (prison) every time I grab my pen. Since I am not one of those accustomed to gambling with my life – for I believe in the constitution, which has given me freedom of expression – I will undoubtedly be the loser in this deadly game with the law...

"That is why, when I noticed the look of fear in the eyes of my loved ones on that accursed morning when my sentence was issued and when I studied its details, I declared my defeat in an article the following day… "I have no weapon other than my pen, which the law has shattered, so I am left with no alternative but to surrender... "These are the final words. They will stop as of tomorrow, and will not be resumed even if the appeals court rules in my favor...

"At issue is not a sentence here and another there, but a morbid atmosphere full of the bacteria and viruses of hatred and tyranny. This is the end of my writing in Kuwait, [Kuwait,] in which I once believed. I never anticipated being sentenced like this.

"Progressive Writers Should Beware"

"I hope that the progressive writers will beware – because no one knows who will be next. Writing in the shadow of fear is impossible, as is living in the shadow of fear... I will write again if one day I am not in Kuwait..." [6]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] It should be noted that on October, 1999, a penal court condemned Baghdadi to a one-month prison sentence for belittling the Prophet Muhammad in an interview to the press. The ruler of Kuwait, Sheikh Jabir Al-Ahmad Al-Sabbah, pardoned him after he had served 13 days. Al-Hayat (London), March 21, 2005.

[2] For More of Al-Baghdadi's writings see:

MEMRI TV Clip No. 220 "Kuwaiti Liberal Ahmad Baghdadi: There's No Difference between Armed and Unarmed Religious Groups. http://memritv.org/Search.asp?ACT=S9&P1=220

Special Dispatch No. 823 "Kuwaiti Progressive Scholar: 'All the Good is in Secular Thought, All the Evil in Religious Thought,'" December 3, 2004, http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP82304;

Special Dispatch No. 302 "Terror in America (27) Kuwaiti Columnist on Arab Political Culture," November 20, 2001, http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP30201;

Special Dispatch No. 733 "Progressive Kuwaiti Author On 'The Favor Western Orientalists Did Muslims,'" June 22, 2004, http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP73304;

Special Dispatch No. 843 "Kuwaiti Intellectual: The Muslim Brotherhood Organization Should Be Put On the U.S. Terrorist List," January 7, 2005, http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP84305

Special Dispatch No. 740 "Criticism of Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi's 'Islamist Democracy' Doctrine," July 7, 2004, http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP74004

Special Dispatch No. 817 "Arab Progressive Columnist: Arab Artists Deal with the Past and Not with the Present, Due to Fear of the Regimes," November 23, 2004, http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP81704.

[3] Al-Siyassa (Kuwait), June 5, 2004.

[4] Koran 73:20

[5] Al-Siyassa (Kuwait), March 21, 2005.

[6] Al-Siyassa (Kuwait), March 26, 2005.

http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD88905

[Petronas]

Jihad comes to Small Town, USA
Posted: April 19, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Laura Mansfield

It happened again this week. I came out of the office to find a flyer under my windshield wipers inviting me to a special informational presentation on God and family values, and how to bring them back to the forefront in America. I'm a parent so the flyer caught my interest. But as an analyst for the Northeast Intelligence Network, my eyes were riveted to the address on the flyer: The session was being held at a nearby mosque.

Curiosity got the better of me, and I decided it would be a good time for some onsite investigations of the mosque. In order to not attract undue attention, I dressed conservatively, wearing a navy jumper with a long sleeve white blouse, and low heels. I debated whether or not to put on a hijab (head scarf) then decided not to – after all, I was going to "learn," not to pretend I was a Muslim.

I checked the mosque schedule on the Web, and discovered there was going to be an Arabic language session an hour before. So I showed up an hour early. The imam met me at the door, and told me that the presentation didn't start for an hour, and suggested I come back in an hour. Fortunately, I had anticipated this. I explained that since I had quite a bit of reading to do for a class I was taking. "Can I just sit here and read?" He hesitated a moment, then agreed. I sat in the back of the room, with my book open, and made a mental note to remember to turn the pages every so often, as I listened to the speakers in Arabic.

The first speaker was the head of the Muslim Students' Association at the nearby university. Although I missed the beginning of the discussion, I caught up quickly. He was talking about the problems he had encountered on a recent trip, when TSA flagged him for extra screening. He joked about the fact that they had stopped him for extensive screening. He had anticipated that he would be screened and he had filled his carryon luggage with printouts of the Quran from the Internet, and had 15 or 16 CDs labeled in Arabic, and he had a notebook computer with him. As he expected, he was delayed – he thought it was very amusing that while several TSA personnel were scrutinizing his personal belongings that his classmate from Jordan was able to walk through security, along with his American girlfriend, without any problems whatsoever. One of the men said, in Arabic: "Blonde Americans are good for something!" Another man advised him to be cautious, since there was an American woman in the room. The imam spoke up and told everyone I didn't speak Arabic.

At that point, another student took the podium. His name was Khaled, and he began to recount his recent trip to New York City. Khaled and three of his companions had gone to New York for several days in January. He told of how uncomfortable his trip up to NYC had been. He felt like he was being watched, and thought he was the victim of racial profiling. Khaled and his friends were pretty unhappy about it, and while in New York, they came up with a plan to "teach a lesson" to the passengers and crew. You can imagine the story Khaled told. He described how he and his friends whispered to each other on the flight, made simultaneous visits to the restroom, and generally tried to "spook" the other passengers. He laughed when he described how several women were in tears, and one man sitting near him was praying. The others in the room thought the story was quite amusing, judging from the laughter. The imam stood up and told the group that this was a kind of peaceful civil disobedience that should be encouraged, and commended Khaled and his friends for their efforts. He pointed out that it was through this kind of civil disobedience that ethnic profiling would fail.

One of the other men, Ahmed from Kuwait, gave a brief account of his friend Eyad, who had finally gone to Iraq. Ahmed was in e-mail contact with Eyad, and hoped by the following week to be able to bring them more information about the state of the "mujahideen" in Iraq.

As the meeting drew to a close, the imam gave a brief speech calling for the protection of Allah on the mujahideen fighting for Islam throughout the world, and reminded everyone that it was their duty as Muslims to continue in the path of jihad, whether it was simple efforts like those of Khaled and his friends, or the actual physical fighting of men like Eyad.

As the meeting broke up, several women in hijabs came in the room, and two of them sat with me. They were very warm and friendly and welcoming, and appeared to be clearly thrilled that I was there. They asked me questions about who I was, and why I was interested in the session. By the time the session began, there were half a dozen American women, four of them African-American. Where the previous session had definite anti-American tones, this session was all American and Apple Pie. The earlier session had been in Arabic – this one was in English.

The woman leading the session, Nafisa, told of the concerns she had regarding her daughters in the public-school system. She complained about the influence of the MTV culture, and seemed concerned about the rampant sexuality that pervaded all facets of American life, from television to movies and on into the school system. She explained her personal solution – the local Islamic school, beginning with kindergarten. Instead of worrying about her daughters dressing provocatively and behaving inappropriately with boys, she talked about the modest school uniforms they wore, and the single-gender classes her daughters attended.

She then began to discuss Islam, focusing on the commonalities it has with Christianity. The sales pitch had clearly begun. While in the previous section, the men had quoted over and over again sura from the Quran calling for violent jihad, the women's session focused on the "gentler" side of Islam. The same imam who demanded that the men continue in the path of jihad did a complete 180-degree turn in this session, stressing instead the suras that promoted the "brotherhood" between Muslims, Christians and Jews. "After all, we worship the same God, and follow the teachings in the books he gave each of us. We are all the same, we are all People of the Book," he stressed.

The differences between the sessions were striking. Clearly the second session was a recruiting session. Were the women aware of what was being taught in the first session? Certainly those women who spoke Arabic should have been. The reason for concern is obvious: Two different doctrines are being promoted. One peaceful, friendly, warm and fuzzy doctrine is being used to draw people in, with a focus on the well-being of their children. But the Arabic-speaking sessions clearly have an anti-American tone.

It shows clearly that as much as we'd like to pretend it hasn't, jihad has reached Small-Town, USA. This mosque isn't in Washington, D.C., or New York City. This is a small mosque in a small town in the deep South. And if it's in this tiny little quiet southern town, it's probably in your hometown, too.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=43868

[Petronas]

‘Blasphemer’ killed by mob
Friday, April 22, 2005

PESHAWAR: Armed villagers killed an alleged blasphemer in Nowshera on Wednesday after he reportedly desecrated the Quran. Police confirmed the incident and also took the body into its possession. Talking to Daily Times by phone, a local police official believed that Aasheq Nabi, 40, was killed in connection with his alleged desecration of the Quran. Police said Aasheq and his wife had quarrelled and she brought out a copy of the Quran, which was reportedly knocked down by Aasheq in the ensuing struggle. She reported the incident and villagers asked Aasheq to surrender to Pabbi Police, to which he refused and was shot dead. Police has registered a case against unidentified men, but has not arrested anybody yet.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_21-4-2005_pg7_9

[Petronas]

Man sacrifices wife, 4 children on Eid Milad in Karachi
Sunday, April 24, 2005

KARACHI: A schoolteacher, Nadeem Ahmed, who was arrested for allegedly killing his wife and four children said on Friday that he sacrificed them to mark the birth anniversary of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH).

The man was caught hiding in the bathroom of his house in Karachi, where police found the bodies of his family with their throats slashed. Those killed included his 36-year-old wife Shah Jehan and his four children 12-year-old Hasib, 11-year-old Fasih, 8-year-old Hamza and one-year old-Fawad. The wife of the accused was also a teacher at a government school.

Police said they suspected he killed his family because he thought his wife was “having illicit relations with a lover,” said local police officer Khalid Bashir. Police said he bought knife from a store a day before the incident. But the accused told reporters from a police detention cell that he sacrificed his family members in the name of Allah to mark the Prophet’s birthday. “I had no complaints or suspicion against my wife. I loved her and my children. It’s a gift on this great day. I also wanted to kill myself. I will soon join my family,” he said. “He seems to be a psychologically disturbed person,” police officer, Amjad Rashid said.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_24-4-2005_pg1_2

[Jack Griffin]

Former President of Iran Rafsanjani gave a speech in 2002 in which he said that the moment Iran obtained nuclear bombs they would be used to destroy Israel. He added that even if Israel responded in kind, and wiped out Iran in its entirety, it would still be an enormous net gain for Islam: nearly half the Jews in the world would be killed, but only a small percentage of the world's Muslims would die in a nuclear exchange (Iran: Nuclear Suicide Bombers? by Michael Ledeen, NYPost 3/11/03). America's Achilles Heel is nuclear armed terrorists infiltrating their cities. J. R. Nyquist, in an article titled The Iranian Threat, (weekly column 6/24/04) wrote:

At Iran’s Center for Doctrinal Studies, Director Hassan Abbasi recently said, “We will burn the roots of the Anglo-Saxon race. We have made plans for America’s Achilles’ heel, and we will present these to all the guerrilla organizations in the world.” He also stated: “Our missiles are now ready to hit their civilization. As soon as we receive the orders from the leader, we will launch the missiles toward their cities and installations.”

It is of more than passing interest that Iran has been secretly developing a long-range delivery system for nuclear warheads. On June 9 a French newspaper (Liberation) revealed that Iran’s space program, which proposes to launch the first Muslim satellite, is “camouflage permitting the manufacture of long-range missiles for military purposes.” Iran already deploys a medium-range missile called the Shahab-3. In a recent military parade a Shahab-3 missile was seen carrying a banner that read: “Israel will be wiped from the map.”

[Jack Griffin]

WOMAN STONED TO DEATH IN NORTHEASTERN AFGHANISTAN... A woman,
identified as Amina, was stoned to death on 21 April in Badakhshan
Province after being accused by her husband of committing adultery,
the Mazar-e Sharif daily "Baztab" reported on 24 April. Amina
reportedly confessed to the charges against her, but claimed that she
had been forced to commit adultery to support her children while her
husband Sharafat was absent for five years, living in Iran. According
to the report, the order to stone Amina to death came from a local
mullah without any government involvement. Italian Undersecretary for
Foreign Affairs Margherita Boniver described the news as
"horrendous," adding that the EU will not "tolerate this barbarism,"
"Corriere della Sera" reported on 25 April. Italy is in charge of
reforming Afghanistan's judicial system in the post-Taliban period.
According to Boniver, her country has trained 750 judges since 2002,
though she described the process as "slow-going." AT

...AS PROVINCIAL OFFICIAL BLAMES FATHER. Badakhshan Deputy Governor
Sham al-Rahman on 24 April blamed Amina's father, Mohammad Akram, for
the killing of his daughter, AIP reported. Denying reports that a
court had ordered Amina's stoning, Shams al-Rahman claimed that her
father killed Amina after learning for her adulterous activities. A
delegation has been sent to the village of Gazam to investigate the
case and security forces have been ordered to arrest Mohammad Akram
"as soon as possible." The deputy governor told AIP that he had no
information how Amina was killed, he only knew that after her death,
"she was buried." AT

[Petronas]

Militants order hotels to stop films, music
Wednesday, May 04, 2005

MIRANSHAH: Islamic militants in western Pakistan have ordered hotels and music shops to stop showing television and selling movies or face dire consequences. In a leaflet distributed overnight in Miranshah town and signed “from Al Qaeda group and Taliban group”, the militants gave businesses five days to stop showing movies and television. “Remember this is not an idle threat. Do not dismiss it. Also stop showing sexy movies or else there will be a strict punishment after five days,” the militants said in a hand-written leaflet, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters. Miranshah is the main town of the remote and largely lawless North Waziristan tribal agency on the Afghan border. The owner of a Miranshah shopping plaza assembled all the shopkeepers and urged them to follow the instructions, a witness said.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_4-5-2005_pg1_2

[Petronas]

Sudanese demand death for editor
Thursday, 5 May, 2005, 10:50 GMT 11:50 UK

Angry crowds are demanding the death penalty for a Sudanese newspaper editor over an article allegedly questioning the parentage of the Prophet Muhammad. Hundreds of people are protesting outside a court where Mohamed Taha Mohamed Ahmed is being charged. His Al Wifaq newspaper is being suspended for three days from Friday over the article. The crowds are being closely monitored by riot police, who clashed with the protesters on Thursday. "Oh judges of the Sudan, defend the honour of the Prophet," read one banner.

The AFP news agency says Mr Ahmed is a prominent Islamist journalist and member of the Muslim Brotherhood political group. He has not yet commented on the allegations against him. Those who renounce Islam face the death penalty in Sudan.

Khartoum has been governed by strict Islamic Sharia law since 1983 - but the BBC's Jonah Fisher in the city says that in recent years courts have shown a degree of flexibility in their interpretations of Islamic law. The introduction of Sharia sparked a 21-year rebellion by Christians and Animists in southern Sudan, which ended earlier this year.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4516539.stm

[Petronas]

Local group leads march against terror
May 15, 2005

A local Islamic group led a rally in the District yesterday afternoon against terrorism, which organizers said was just the beginning of their crusade against extremists. About 50 people converged on Freedom Plaza for the "March Against Terror," an event organized by Free Muslims Against Terrorism, supporters of freedom and democracy in the Middle East and the entire Muslim community.

"We have to be honest; we have a problem with extremism, and the Muslim leadership in this country has totally failed us," said Kamal Nawash, leader of the year-old organization. "While [the leaders] themselves don't support terrorism, they share the ideology of the terrorists, which is this delusion about creating a theocratic Muslim state. ... We're here to offer an ideological challenge to extremism and the ideology that causes extremism and terrorism."

Mr. Nawash, 35, a Palestinian-born lawyer who has become a U.S. citizen, is a former candidate for the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates. He and his organization, which promotes a secular interpretation of Islam, has generated a national profile in the past year by participating in hundreds of radio and television interviews. More than 70 groups signed on in support. Speakers at the event said it was a success despite the sparse attendance. Mr. Nawash had hoped more than 1,000 people would attend. "It starts with just a few people, so I'm not worried about the number" in attendance, said Mr. Hashim El-Tinay, founder and president of the Salam Sudan Foundation. "It's more about the quality of leadership."

Aldo Leiva, director of the Cuban American National Foundation, said terrorism is a human problem, not a Muslim, Christian or Jewish problem. "Together, we can solve it," he said. Some Muslim groups have criticized Mr. Nawash, questioning whether his cause is motivated by his political agenda. He ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for the Virginia offices. Others say his actions stereotype and discriminate against American Muslims.

Mr. Nawash said the criticism is steeped in envy of his organization's status. "Unlike [extremist groups], we are able to communicate with mainstream America," he said. "Most of them are recent immigrants to the country who don't understand America and have no idea how to live in this country. We're a Muslim group that's well-received by mainstream America, and they're jealous of it. So they're making every accusation in the book." Mr. Nawash said that extremists and the leaders of established Muslim organizations have been "an obstacle every step of the way. They're saying we're small and insignificant," he said. "If that's the case, how come they're so worried about us? Why are they talking about us? Why are they spending so much time writing press releases and attacking us? If we're so small and insignificant, then just ignore us. But they're scared, because we're breaking their monopoly over our community."

http://washingtontimes.com/metro/20050514-112609-7748r.htm

My hat off to Kamal Nawash. It would have been nice if more than 50 had shown up, though... It would be interesting to know where CAIR stood on this matrch.

[Petronas]

Hard to believe this is West Virginia, the United States of America, rather than Sudan or Yemen...

The Woman Who Went To the Front of the Mosque
Sunday, June 5, 2005

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. It was two days after she appeared on "Nightline" talking about her fight to change her mosque that the death threats began. The first call came on her cell phone. The caller left a message, in Urdu: "If you want to stay alive, keep your mouth shut." Otherwise, he said, he would "slaughter" her, halal style, saying a prayer as he slid a knife across her throat. If she didn't shut up, he'd slaughter her mother and her father, too. Think before you speak, he said. I know where you live. I know where your parents live. Then he called her parents' home 10 minutes later. Just to reinforce the message.

It's not a message that Asra Nomani, Muslim, unwed mother, former Wall Street Journal reporter, author and left-leaning feminist, is planning to heed (although she did contact the FBI and her local police). Yes, she's started locking her doors now, a rarity for her here in her hilly home town. But she won't be shutting up, definitely not, never.

There are those who see Nomani, a self-described "overambitious child of immigrants," as a crusader, an activist lobbying for the right of Muslim women to pray side by side with men. This spring she launched the Muslim Women's Freedom Tour, traveling from city to city (including a stop in April at the Islamic Center of Washington on Massachusetts Avenue NW) to encourage Muslim women to assert themselves in their mosques. As part of the tour, women pray in halls usually reserved for men and participate in mixed-gender prayer services led by women.

"It's about time," says religious scholar and historian Reza Aslan. "This conception of the separation of men and women is something that never occurred during the prophet's lifetime." He adds, "What she has done is perfectly in line with Islamic values, traditions and the prophet's own desire to have men and women working side by side, praying side by side and even fighting side by side."

Then there are those who see her as an opportunist who timed her Freedom Tour to coincide with the March publication of her book, which talks about her struggles to reconcile her faith with her feminism. "She's like a troublemaker," says Gamal Fahmy, 31, a British-born, Egyptian-raised assistant professor at West Virginia University and a mosque member who once clashed with Nomani and her father in a study session. "I don't think she's that religious, she's that zealous about Islam and being a Muslim," he says. "Bottom line, I believe she's doing this for profit reasons."

Drama follows the Bombay-born and Morgantown-bred Nomani: Thirty-plus members of her 200-member mosque, the Islamic Center of Morgantown, the mosque her father, Zafar, helped found in 1981, are petitioning to have her banished for "disrupting worship and spreading misinformation about Islam."

Then there are the threatening e-mails; the articles, published around the world, accusing her of being a spy in cahoots with the CIA and Israeli intelligence; Jihadist message boards demanding that a fatwa be issued against a woman who led the first mixed-gender prayers and those who participated. An editorial writer for the India-based Web site Greater Kashmir writes that because Nomani had a child out of wedlock, "in Islam, punishment for an act for [which] Asra is proud of, is stoning till death."

Some of Nomani's detractors at the mosque insist they don't necessarily have a problem with her gender politics. Their problem is with her. "Asra is a loner," says Louay Safi, executive director of the Islamic Society of North America's Leadership Development Center in Plainfield, Ind., an umbrella organization for Islamic groups. Safi came to Morgantown in December at Nomani's request to mediate the dispute. Other women in the mosque he interviewed are also unhappy with the way the mosque is run, Safi says, but Nomani is far from finding a common front with them. "She does not have the experience of engaging the community, negotiating and trying to change things gradually. . . . She came to the community after a long time of being away and then immediately wants to change things overnight. . . . It's quite a conservative community."

Members and observers in Morgantown say she's invited TV cameras into the mosque at the slightest provocation. "People come here to worship," says Sohail Chaodhry, the mosque's religious coordinator, a tall Pakistani who wears the white cap and long beard of the devout Muslim. "Not to face cameras. . . . We are just regular people trying to follow our religion."

There are some women at the mosque who support what Nomani is trying to do. Says Christine Ajra, an American who converted to Islam before marrying her Lebanese husband, "There are a lot of people who don't want to give her credit, but she has opened doors and opened minds."

At the book reading in April in the District, one reader said he really didn't like her "Islamic Bill of Rights for Women in the Bedroom," in which she asserts, among other things, that Muslim women have an "Islamic right to respectful and pleasurable sexual experience" and a right "to make independent decisions about their choice of a partner." Even more egregious to her detractors is the fact that she had a child out of wedlock, in direct defiance, they say, of Islam's dictates. "The main issue is people believe she made a very negative impact on the community," says Abdullah Ibraheem, a member of the five-person committee that will decide if she should be banned from the mosque. "People believe she made a very negative propaganda that doesn't reflect the reality 100 percent."

Nomani's mantra: It's time to take the slam out of

Islam.

Indeed, she says, she has often felt slammed by the religion that nurtured her when she was a child. The practice of gender separation at mosques pains her. She says it has no basis in the Koran. At the Morgantown mosque, the overwhelming majority of women enter through the rear, heads covered. They walk up steps that lead to a room overlooking the main hall, but with a wall so high the women cannot see. So they watch the service on closed-circuit TV. Women are not allowed to lead the prayer service.

The mosque is not unique, according to Islamic scholars. American mosques, with rare exceptions, separate the sexes, whether by dividing the main prayer hall into male and female sides or segregating them further as they do at the ICM. "I refuse to sit in the back, that's so demeaning," says the small-boned Nomani, 39, whose soft voice contains both Valley Girl-esque inflections and a faint lilt of India. "The mosques are set up like a men's club. . . . I just want them to consider women as human beings. Not to throw us into corners. I want the Muslim world to fast-forward into the 21st century and not segregate us into women's ghettos."

Last year, when Nomani attended an all-men's prayer meeting with her father, Zafar, she was asked to sit at least 50 feet from the men. She refused. What happened after that is in dispute, but both sides agree that there was a lot of shouting, that things got out of hand, and that, later, Nomani filed an incident report with the police. Then, in March, on a cold and snowy day, in a move echoing Martin Luther, she used electrical tape to post her views on the door of the Morgantown mosque, her "99 Precepts for Opening Hearts, Minds and Doors in the Muslim World," in which she asserts that women have a right to pray side by side with men. In less than an hour, a mosque official tore it down. She's got videotape of all of this. She understands the usefulness of bringing in a camera crew.

As to the claims that she's a publicity hound who timed her Freedom Tour to coincide with her book tour, Nomani says it made sense to combine the two since her publisher was picking up the bill to send her around the country. "I feel like I'm doing my heart's work," Nomani says. "I think it's incumbent on Muslims with intellect, hope and love in our hearts . . . to go into the houses of worship and really try to transform the Muslim house from within. We have to take on this machine of extremism that's trying to take over the world."

She says there is a "Muslim Mafia" in town, a group aligned with Saudi Wahhabism, a fundamentalist branch of Islam. They bring sacks filled with cash to the mosque, she says. You have to challenge the power and control of those who run the society, she says. "I intend to follow the money," she says, "We have to see what is propping up these societal traditions that keep our community closed. I'm trying to figure out what people are trying to protect, whether it's just ideology or a more intricate web. "I know the stakes are high," she says.

"I really admire Asra for fighting the good fight," says Asma Gull Hasan, a Pakistani American lawyer and the author of "Why I Am a Muslim: An American Odyssey." "A lot of women our age, first-generation Americans, young Muslims who don't like the conservative attitudes of the mosque, either keep attending blindly and ignore the rhetoric or just stop attending altogether," she says. "I don't go to a mosque because I get so irritated with how women are treated. . . . I've given up, the situation in mosques is so abysmal."

The idea of separating men and women during prayer is not a matter of Koran teachings but tradition, pragmatism -- and modesty, says Safi, the mediator, since Islamic prayers require a good deal of bending over and prostrating. "The rationale has been that this is more conducive to focusing on the prayer itself and to spirituality, rather than creating a situation where there is a lot of gazing, men looking at women, that would distract both," he says.

Nomani's mother isn't buying it. "If you can see a professor's butt as she's writing on the blackboard," says Sajida Nomani, what's the big deal with women praying with men or leading prayers?

In March, as part of the Muslim Women's Freedom Tour, Nomani helped organize a mixed-gender prayer service, led by Amina Wadud, a Virginia Commonwealth University professor and Arabic scholar. It was the first time in centuries that a woman publicly gave the khutba , or sermon, before a mixed-gender congregation, according to Aslan, the religious scholar and author. About 130 people showed up at the Synod House at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan, an Episcopal church, men and women praying side by side, shoulder to shoulder. (Three mosques had refused to host the prayer service and an art gallery pulled out after receiving a bomb threat.) A camera crew from al-Jazeera showed up, as well as a gaggle of protesters. People attending the service were searched before they were admitted into the chapel.

Nomani led mixed-gender prayers a week later at Brandeis University outside Boston. Two weeks later, in Tuscany, a woman applied to be the first female imam of her mosque. Another led a prayer session in Toronto before a group of men and women April 22. Meanwhile, Jihadist Internet message boards lit up with calls for Wadud's murder and the deaths of all who participated in New York.

Morgantown is a small university town, and in small towns conflicts often take on Wagnerian proportions. Many of the mosque members are immigrants who are affiliated with West Virginia University, a long way from home and looking for a little bit of the familiar in an unfamiliar place.

Nomani moved to this country in 1969, when she was 4. Her family moved to Morgantown when she was 10, settling into an apartment near the mosque. Back then, she recalls, the Muslim community was tolerant and respectful, with men and women mixing freely at dinner parties. Gradually, that changed. Students from more conservative countries came to the university, importing their values with them, Nomani says. Dinner parties became segregated affairs, with the men hanging out in comfortable lounges and the women confined to cramped studio apartments. Recalls Nomani: "The men would put food in containers, put it down, knock on the door and run away as if seeing us was blasphemy."

She wasn't allowed to date or go to high school dances. But she ran cross-country, and in school she was encouraged by her teachers to think and to speak out. She tried to meld her Eastern side with her Western sensibilities, staying at home, at her parents' request, to study at West Virginia University and then leaving home to pursue a graduate degree at American University. When she was 27, she left her longtime love, an American who offered to convert to Islam, to marry a Pakistani who lived in Washington. They wed in a traditional Muslim ceremony that took place over days in Pakistan. The marriage lasted three months.

It was shortly after her divorce, in 1993, that she met Danny Pearl. Indeed, she says, she started her crusade because of Pearl. They became friends, platonic buddies who bonded while working for the Wall Street Journal's Washington bureau and they kept in touch after each moved on. She traveled the world, exploring Buddhism and Hinduism and Tantric yoga. (She is also the author of "Tantrika: Traveling the Road of Divine Love," published in 2003.)

In January 2002, Pearl was investigating links to al Qaeda in Pakistan, where Nomani was covering the war on terror for Salon. There, she'd fallen in love with a young Pakistani man. Pearl came to visit Nomani at her rented house in Karachi, bringing along his pregnant wife, Mariane. They hung out, listening to music and talking into the wee hours. The next day, Pearl left for an interview. He never came back. His story dominated the news as Nomani and Mariane Pearl frantically searched for him.

Three weeks after his disappearance, Nomani discovered she was pregnant. Her beau had already abandoned her. So there she was, single and pregnant in a country where being so was a crime. Shame from having broken sharia, or traditional Islamic law, crippled her, she says. She tried to reunite with her boyfriend, but to no avail. She says he encouraged her to have an abortion.

Shortly afterward, she found out that Pearl had been murdered by terrorists, forced to declare "I am a Jew" on videotape before he was beheaded. "Danny was killed in the name of Islam," she says. "I really know that religion can be used as a source of destruction, but I believe religion can inspire us. But it's been so twisted."

She returned home to her parents' embrace. On Oct. 16, 2002, nine months after Pearl's disappearance, she gave birth to her son. She named him Shibli Daneel Nomani. Shibli, which means "lion cub," for her ancestor, Shibli Nomani, a famous Indian scholar who'd fought for Muslim reform. And Daneel, to honor her slain friend.

But Islam drew her back. She and her family made a pilgrimage to Mecca. There, with 3-month-old Shibli strapped to her chest, she saw men and women praying together, side by side, in the Masjid al-Haram, the Sacred Mosque. And that's where her problems with her mosque back home began. If men and women could pray as one in Saudi Arabia, one of the most restrictive countries for women, why couldn't it happen in Morgantown?

Father and daughter are heading to the mosque, running a little late for Friday afternoon prayers. They're rolling up and down the hills of West Virginia, country and western twanging on the radio, dad riding shotgun, both pointing out the sights and providing a running commentary. On the right, that's the hospital where she gave birth. Over there is the mosque, where she taped her "99 Precepts." And there , says Zafar Nomani, pointing, "is the infamous back door" -- the door his daughter refuses to enter.

Like on most days, Nomani is not wearing a head scarf today, something she says irritates the powers that be here. (It should be noted that she is wearing a delicate white head scarf on the cover of her latest book, "Standing Alone in Mecca: An American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam.") She does, however, cover her head by yanking her fuchsia hoodie over her hair, as she does whenever she enters the mosque.

"I call it my ghetto hijab ," she says, just before she walks through the main door, pausing to take off her shoes before heading to the cavernous main hall, where, save for a reporter, she will be the lone woman among 100 or so men saying prayers. Only one will acknowledge her, at the end of services, pausing to wave hello as he takes off, engrossed in a cell phone call. She is used to this. Still, it rankles. "I used to come every day," she says, "but it feels so unfriendly, so inhospitable. So now I just come on Fridays."

Nomani's fight continues. She'll get kicked out of a mosque in Seattle. An older woman will grab her by the arm and try to drag her out of a Los Angeles mosque. She'll be escorted out of a mosque in New York. She'll kneel outside, on the sidewalk, saying her prayers.

But for now, after Friday prayers at the mosque, she sits on the front lawn with her family, a blanket spread out under them, the Koran at her side. Earlier her father had said, "Muhammad was one of the greatest feminists. Islam first gave rights to women 1,400 years ago. . . . When I see Islam today and the way people behave towards women, I am very sad. I am for women's rights, respect, women's equality. Islam teaches that." Now he sits and smiles as he watches his daughter lead the family in prayer. They stand up, little Shibli joining them, bending and bowing in the sun.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/04/AR2005060401646.html

[Petronas]

Stoning a breastfeeding woman and her baby in the name of Islam... Where are the "moderate" imams condemning this kind of outrage?

Bono shocked by Muslim women's reaction to breastfeeding
15/06/2005 - 17:35:52

U2 frontman Bono was horrified during a visit to Ethiopia, when he saw local women pelting a breast-feeding aid worker with stones. The American woman was oblivious of the offence she was causing, and had to escape the angry onslaught from female Muslims who had no qualms about injuring her or her baby.

Bono recalls: "I remember one vision of the people who are with World Vision, which is an American aid agency. One of the women was breast-feeding a child on the horse. She was so comfortable. She didn't mean to be insensitive. But the Muslim women did not like this and came out and started throwing stones at her because she was showing her breasts."

http://www.breakingnews.ie/2005/06/15/story207320.html

[Ono]

Bono's shocked? Why? :rolleyes:

[Petronas]

MUJAHID: Our Youth Are Allergic To The Word Jihad
Jun 11, 2005
By Abu Usama Al Mujahids, Kashmir; Translated By Ahmad al-Marid, JUS

Fight them, and Allah will punish them by your hands, cover them with shame, help you (to victory) over them, heal the breasts of Believers(9:14)

A thousand years ago, a ship carrying widows and children of Arab traders was heading for Arabia from a country now known as Indonesia. The ship was looted by sea pirates who were sponsored by the ruler of India Raja Dahir; the women and children were imprisoned and tortured. A girl named Fatima who was among the prisoners wrote a letter with her own blood and sent it somehow to Hujjaj Bin Yousuf the Caliph at that time. The letter was read out infront Caliph, “would you not come to help your daughter in hand of idol worshippers? Would you rather sleep in your comfortable bed while your sister is raped? Would you dare to enjoy freedom while one of you is inside a cage? O brotheren of Islam come rescue me!!!!!”

Upon reading this letter, the Caliph ordered the Muslim army to attack the fort holding the prisoners, the Islamic army was sent in command of 17 year old Muhammad bin Qasim who later killed the Hindu King and destroyed the fort which was thought to be invincible thus starting the spread of islam in the subcontinent.

Today in 21st century, long gone are the pirates of the sea, long vanished is the invincible fort of Hindu king but there are other threats against Muslims, the enemy is more clever and well equipped now; our foe avoids direct conflict that we accept happily and don’t even notice. Fatima is still in prison though, she in a cage near Gaza in Paestine serving a life imprisonment by Israeli forces, Fatima is in Abu Gharib prison in Baghdad, Iraq being abused by the cross worshippers, she is in a dark stinky torture cell in Srinagar Kashmir being raped by Indian soldiers.

But today one thing is different….there is no Muhammad bin Qasim to release her from her irony; there's no one she can count on to come and help her. Yhis time her Islamic brother will not come in rescue after just a letter, he will not come although he can see the atrocities, he will not bother although he knows well whats going on.

And why should ye not fight in the cause of Allah and of those who, being weak, are ill-treated (and oppressed)?- Men, women, and children, whose cry is: "Our Lord! Rescue us from this town, whose people are oppressors; and raise for us from thee one who will protect; and raise for us from thee one who will help!" (4:75)

What has happened to the muslim youth ?? I ask this question a million times to myself; why don’t we at least give it a little though? But no, we have important things to do as we ignore what Allah has said to us that Allah has bought a believer’s life. How can we tolerate abuse of our mothers and sisters and daughters at the hand of non believers? How can we see our brethren naked in front of smiling cross worshippers in Abu Ghraib? How can we have courage to watch a crying Kashmiri 17 year old who was raped by Indian soldiers? How can we even see the tears of an old lady raped by 10 indian soldiers all night? I feel ashamed of myself!!! These are our mothers and sisters, theres no need for me on this earth if I can't protect my fellow muslim from such atrocity. I ask myself where is our imaan gone? Have we forgot what our prophet taught us?

When I see a Palestinian mother crying over a her child’s dead body, I feel guilty as if I have slaughtered him, when I see an Iraqi mother mourning his dead son, I feel guilt because I sat in my cozy chair and did nothing, I slept in my bed while my sister was being raped. I kept on enjoying my comfortable life as my brethren’s life was made a living hell. Yet the insult over injury is that our youth are allergic to the word jihad, our hearts starts sinking with fear of a thought of jihad.

O ye who believe! What is the matter with you, that, when ye are asked to go forth in the cause of Allah, ye cling heavily to the earth? Do ye prefer the life of this world to the Hereafter? But little is the comfort of this life, as compared with the Hereafter.(9:38)

It is the time to wake up, it is time to stand to standup and deliver. It is time to payback what they have done to us. It is the time to tell them what the ummah of Muhammad is made of. It is the to stare them in the eyes and tell them that we are the sons of Ali, Saad bin Abi Waqaas. Khalid bin Walid and Salahuddin Ayubi. It’s the time to tell them that we are not anymore a sleeping nation, we are a force to reckon with and we will have our dignity and respect back or we will die defending it.

And fight them on until there is no more Tumult or oppression, and there prevails justice and faith in Allah”(2:193)

http://www.jihadunspun.com/intheatre_internal.php?article=103103&list=/home.php

[Petronas]

Islam Q & A: Those who defame the Prophet should be executed
June 10, 2005

At Islam Q & A, one asks if it is permissible to insult Christians who defame the Prophet. The response: Yes! And kill them, too!

Question :
There is no one among us who is unaware of what the Christians say defaming the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), and we are not unaware either of the gheerah (protective jealousy) of the young men of the Muslim ummah towards their religion and their Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him). Is it permissible to respond to those who defame the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) by insulting the speaker, knowing that I insulted one of them and some of my relatives advised me not to do that again, because it will make them defame and mock him even more, so their sin will be on me?.

Answer :

Praise be to Allaah.

Defaming the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) is a kind of kufr [unbelief]. If that is done by a Muslim then it is apostasy on his part, and the authorities have to defend the cause of Allaah and His Messenger (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) by executing the one who defamed him. If the one who defamed him repents openly and is sincere, that will benefit him before Allaah, although his repentance does not waive the punishment for defaming the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), which is execution.

If the person who defames him is a non-Muslim living under a treaty with the Muslim state [i.e., a dhimmi], then this is a violation of the treaty and he must be executed, but that should be left to the authorities. If a Muslim hears a Christian or anyone else defaming the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) he has to denounce him in strong terms. It is permissible to insult that person because he is the one who started it. How can we not stand up the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him)? It is also obligatory to report him to the authorities who can carry out the punishment on him. If there is no one who can carry out the hadd punishment of Allaah and stand up for the Messenger (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) then the Muslim has to do whatever he can, so long as that will not lead to further mischief and harm against other people. But if a Muslim hears a kaafir defaming the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) and he keeps quiet and does not respond for fear that this person may then defame him even more, this is mistaken thinking. With regard to the verse (interpretation of the meaning):

“And insult not those whom they (disbelievers) worship besides Allaah, lest they insult Allaah wrongfully without knowledge”

[al-An’aam 6:108],

this does not apply in cases where they defame Allaah and His Messenger (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) first. Rather what is meant is that it is forbidden to insult the gods of the mushrikeen first, lest they insult Allaah out of ignorance and enmity on their part. But if they insult Allaah and His Messenger (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) first, then we must respond and punish them so as deter them from their kufr and enmity. If we leave the kuffaar and atheists to say whatever they want without denouncing it or punishing them, great mischief will result, which is something that these kuffaar love. No attention should be paid to the one who says that insulting or responding to insults will make him more stubborn. The Muslim has to have a sense of protective jealousy and get angry for the sake of Allaah and His Messenger (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him). Whoever hears the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) being insulted and does not feel any protective jealousy or get angry is not a true believer – we seek refuge with Allaah from humility, kufr and obeying the Shaytaan.

And Allaah knows best.

Shaykh ‘Abd al-Rahmaan al-Barraak, Majallat al-Da’wah, Muharram, issue no. 1933. (www.islam-qa.com)

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/006588.php

[Petronas]

Anti-Joodse film in Turkse moskeeën
Gepubliceerd: zaterdag 18 juni 2005 @ 20:20

In bepaalde Turkse moskeeën in Rotterdam, Den Haag en Amsterdam wordt een antisemitische film verkocht, zo meldt het tv-programma NOVA vanavond. De film wordt daar óók aan kinderen vertoond. De rolprent is van Iraanse makelij en in het Turks nagesynchroniseerd

In de film, 'Zahra's blauwe ogen' (Zahra's Blue Eyes) geheten, draait het om een Palestijns meisje dat door een Israëlische militair wordt ontvoerd en verminkt. Haar ogen worden namelijk getransplanteerd om een blind Joods jongetje weer te laten zien.

Naast onvervalste propaganda tegen de staat Israël, wat niet bij de wet verboden is, bevat de film volgens deskundigen anti-Joodse passages die wél onder het bereik van de strafwet vallen. De film blijkt bovendien bij de moskeeën nogal wat vragen op te roepen.

Update 09:33
Het bestuur van de Nederlandse Islamitische Federatie (NIF) in wiens moskeeën de film te koop wordt aangeboden, ziet vooralsnog geen redenen om de film te verbieden. Voorzitter Mehmet Yaramis zegt af te wachten of de rolprent in strijd is met de Nederlandse wet. Wel zei hij dat de vertoning aan kinderen niet gewenst is, omdat de film teveel sentimenten en geweld bevat.

De voorzitter van Milli Görüs, Haci Karacaer, zegt dat de verkoop in de aan zijn stichting gelieerde Amsterdamse Aya Sofia moskee een incident betreft. Hij heeft verdere verspreiding van de film via hun moskeeën verboden. Sowieso mogen er geen antisemitische zaken worden verspreid door Milli Görüs moskeeën, zo verklaarde Karacaer.

Het Openbaar Ministerie heeft laten weten dat de film ''haar belangstelling'' geniet, maar heeft nog geen actie aangekondigd.

http://frontpage.fok.nl/nieuws/55142

Here is a somewhat rough English translation of this Dutch article, courtesy Morghodius:

In certain Turkish mosques in Rotterdam, The Hague and Amsterdam an anti-Semitic film is sold. The TV program Nova showed it on Dutch TV. The movie is also shown too children. The movie was made in Iran and translated into Turkish. The movie is called ‘Zahra's Blue Eyes’; it is about a Palestine girl that is kidnapped and mutilated by a Israëli soldier. Her eyes are transplanted into a blind Jewish boy so he can see again. Beside being unconcealed propaganda against the state of Israel, which is not prohibited by the law, the movie contains anti-Jewish passages which, according to experts, fall within the range of the law. The movie raise questions about the mosques where it is shown.

http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/006720.php

[Petronas]

Muslim books of hate sold
24jun05

LITERATURE filled with hatred of Christians, Jews and non-Muslims is being sold at a mosque near a Melbourne home raided by ASIO. Books sold at the store attached to the Brunswick mosque tell Muslims they should "hate and take as enemies" non-Muslims, reject Jews and Christians, and learn to hate in order to properly love Allah. The texts say Muslims should learn military tactics and suggest that if a person speaks ill of Islam it is acceptable to kill them. They urge Muslims to strike back against "the barbaric onslaught from their enemies -- the Jews, Christians, atheists, secularists and others".

Pages are devoted to legitimising episodes of violence against Jews who insult Islam. "A Jewish woman used to abuse the Prophet and disparage him. A man strangled her till she died. The Apostle of Allah declared that no recompense was payable for her blood," one book recounts. A similar example is given of a man killing the mother of his two children because she "disparaged the Prophet"; he also was declared clear of any crime.

"When they (non-Muslims) meet you, they say, 'We believe', but when they are alone, out of frustration and rage, they bite off the tips of their fingers because of you," one says. "O you who believe! Do not take the Jews (Yahood) and Christians (Nasara) for friends (Awliyaa). They are Awliyaa to each other. And the one among you that turns to them is one of them." Readers are instructed by the books not to feel compassion for non-Muslims, not to trust them, and not to speak well of them. One book says faithful Muslims should learn military tactics.

The group of books were bought from the bookstore of the Islamic Information and Support Centre of Australia, which is in the same building as the Brunswick mosque. One, The Ideological Attack, describes "the Jews" as striving to corrupt the beliefs, morals and manners of Muslims. "The Jews scheme and crave after possessing the Muslim lands, as well as the lands of others," it reads.

"Supported by a demonic global plan as well as unlimited financial backing, this attack aims at domination and hegemony over the Islamic world; dividing it, attacking it culturally and morally and perverting the true image of the religion. "Therefore it is amongst the priorities of the Islamic call (da'wah) to break this attack and to counter it with every legitimate means of da'wah possible." One text says of devotion to Allah: "As regards hatred for His sake this is an essential prerequisite for loving Him."

A book on "Muslims Living as Minorities" mentions Muslims fighting in Afghanistan and discusses "jihad", or holy war, as a collective and individual responsibility. Another quotes classic anti-Semitic conspiracy text The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, stating Jews want to make Muslims "the ass of the chosen people".

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,15714027%5E661,00.html

[The 801]

Terrorist Justifications for Kidnapping and Murder

23/06/2005

Mshari Al-Zaydi

In the latest news from Iraq , US military sources have discovered a torture center where severely beaten detainees were kept in dire conditions and found a manual on killing and kidnapping. The house was equipped with electric wires, a noose, handcuffs, and a 574 page book on jihad (holy struggle), written by Abdul Rahman al Ali. Its chapters included "How to Select the Best Hostage," and "The Legitimacy of Cutting the Infidels' Heads."

In a rare case of hostages rescued alive, four Iraqi men, who bore traces of torture were found by US troops. Some were close to death, such as Ahmad Isa Fadil, 19, who had been kidnapped from his family home because he was employed by the Iraqi military. He told his liberators of the daily assassinations that took place in the house and explained how he was waiting for his turn to die, after being severely beaten.

Entitled “The Principles of the Philosophy of Jihad”, the recovered manual and its author have intrigued many observers as they are no known extremist publication baring this title and no such author. Iraqi thinker Rasheed al Khayoon believes the author is probably hiding behind a nickname. Aliases are popular with many authors of militant manuals and pamphlets who refuse to reveal their true identities, unless they are far from the reach of the security forces, such as Ayman al Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s right hand man. In other instances, writers calling for military action have been exposed after being arrest by the authorities, for example, Faris Shuail al Zahrani, a Saudi citizen who used the nickname “Abu Jandal al Azadi” to write a book “The Motives to Kill Security Officers”. A member of the Legal committee of al Qaeda in the Kingdom, he was caught in the South of the country.

Militant Islamist groups active in Iraq are known to have carried out kidnappings as part of their violent actions which they justify by appealing to religion. In its issue 66, the fundamentalist journal “Al Mujahedun” published the writings of Abu Mohammed al Maqdisi, the mentor of the leading figure in the Iraqi insurgency, Jordanian Abu Musab al Zarqawi.

The article examined the purpose and legitimacy of violence and hostage taking. It included practical advice on how to pull off a successful kidnapping by dividing the group into three: a planner, an executioner, and an observer. Accordingly, the person entrusted with hostage taking ought to be: physically fit, a good shooter, ready for martyrdom, courageous, sincere, secretive, quick to react, accurate, and tactically aware. As for the observer, he should be able to store large amounts of information, correctly estimate the strength of police officers, and know the climate and typography of the area. The articles added that” the detention of hostages or their release is a complicate operation that requires swift and decisive action.”

It is worth mentioning that the manual, found in the town of Karabila also features a whole chapter on the legitimacy of beheading hostages. It seems insurgents in Iraq are keen on using swords to kill their victims because, according to an informed source, the method is both closer to tradition and terrifying. The “Tawhid and Jihad” group, headed by Abu Mohammed al Maqdisi, posted a fatwa (religious edict) on its website stating that killing by beheading is preferable and legitimate, based on an old edict by the jurist Ibn Abd al Badr, who died in the 11th century.

The town of Karabila lies close to thecity of al Qaim, next to the border with Syria . The area has witnessed fierce battles between Iraqi and US forces and the insurgents. Originally, the name refers to a clan from the Aqidat tribe which populates this region of Iraq .

http://www.asharqalawsat.com/english/news.asp?id=546

[Petronas]

Lodi Imam Admits Giving Speeches Urging Pakistanis to Fight Americans
Last updated 6/25/2005 - 3:17 AM

The spiritual leader of the Lodi mosque who was arrested in a sweep earlier this month admitted to the FBI that when he was in Pakistan he gave speeches to Muslims urging them to fight Americans in Afghanistan in the months following the September 11 attacks. However, in his immigration hearing on Friday, Shabbir Ahmed told a judge that "it was a requirement of all imams. If you don't people turn against you. They sort of force you to say something."

Ahmed, 39, a citizen of Pakistan, is fighting to stay in the U.S. after he being arrested two weeks ago in a sweep that also netted two men accused of having ties to the terrorist group al-Qaeda. Ahmed was a student and then a teacher at the Jamia Farooqia, an Islamic university in Pakistan, during the 1990s. He came to the United States in January 2002 after he was recruited to be the imam at the Lodi mosque.

Today's testimony came during an immigration hearing in which Ahmed's defense attorney argued to have his client released on bail. During questioning today Ahmed denied ever being affiliated with or supporting any terrorist organization. While he admitted making the speeches against the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, he said that since he's been in this country he realized he was wrong. "Having come here, there are true values and respect for human life," Ahmed said, speaking through an interpreter. "When I saw such a picture, my mind changed. Now I know what the truth is. I think there is justice here, respect here."

Ahmed has returned to Pakistan several times since emigrating to the United States, because his wife and family still live there. He said that since he has been in Lodi, he has made speeches in favor of the U.S. When asked why he admitted the earlier speeches to the FBI, he said "I don't remember everything I said." Ahmed was interviewed three different times after his arrest. One interview lasted 12 hours. At another, which lasted almost 20 hours, Ahmed said he nearly fell asleep. Unlike many of his fellow students at the Jamia Farooqia, Ahmed said he did not volunteer to fight the Russians during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. He denied support for Osama bin Laden.

Prosecutors said the U.S. government had identified the Jamia Farooqia as a terrorist organization. Ahmed said he was not aware of any direct terrorist affiliation. Members of Muslim mosque have pledged support for Ahmed and said they would provide bail if it is granted.

http://www.kxtv10.com/storyfull1.asp?id=11682

[Casey]

Terrorists tarnishing image of Islam: Musharraf


Monitoring Desk

JEDDAH: President Pervez Musharraf has discussed wide-ranging issues, including cementing of bilateral relations and regional and international issues, with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz.

Talking to newsmen here on Sunday President Musharraf said the two countries enjoyed commonalities of views on all these issue. Responding to a question, the president said Prince Abdullah fully endorsed his view that terrorists were tarnishing the image of Islam and they don’t have any constructive agenda.

There is a need to eliminate these terrorists, the president said, adding that Pakistan and Saudi Arabia were in contact to boost cooperation eliminating terrorism. Separately, in and interview with a Saudi newspaper Okaz and a Dubai newspaper, President Musharraf said the proposal of Prince Abdullah for setting up an international centre for eradicating terrorism would be implemented soon.

He said extremism has damaged the Muslim societies. Agencies add: President Musharraf also dismissed as "speculation" claims by senior US officials that they know where al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden is hiding, in remarks reported on Sunday.

"Any talk about his whereabouts is mere speculation," Musharraf told the Emirati daily Al-Khaleej. "Some are saying that bin Laden is in Pakistan, and what
I want to tell them is: Please come and tell us where he is. Anyone can say that he (bin Laden) is anywhere, so why talk about his presence here (in Pakistan)?"

Meanwhile President Musharraf offered his Maghrib prayers at Masjid-e-Nabavi on Sunday and paid his respects at the Roza Rasool (SAW). He offered Nawafil and special prayers for the progress, prosperity and well-being of Pakistan and the Muslim Ummah. The door of the Roza Rasool (SAW) was opened for the president and the members of his entourage.

http://jang.com.pk/thenews/jun2005-daily/27-06-2005/main/main13.htm

[Petronas]

Gays in the Islamic World
June 28, 2005

This weekend’s Gay Pride festivities in New York City climaxed with Sunday’s 36th annual parade down Fifth Avenue. As usual, the raucous affair thrilled some and rattled others, but everyone walked away intact. One would have to fantasize about such an occasion, however, in most Muslim nations where homosexuality remains as concealed as a bride beneath a burqa. When it peeks through, it isn’t pretty. While many liberals (and President G.W. Bush) call Islam a religion of peace, "celebrating diversity" is hardly on its agenda. Consider these recent examples of the Islamic world's institutional homophobia:

In Saudi Arabia, 105 men were sentenced in April for acts of "deviant sexual behavior" following their March arrests. Al-Wifaq, a government-affiliated newspaper, claimed they illegally danced together and were "behaving like women" at a gay wedding.

"Calling the event a 'gay wedding' has become a lightning rod to justify discrimination against gay people," Widney Brown of Human Rights Watch told Patrick Letellier of gay.com.

Seventy men received one-year prison sentences while 31 got six months to one year, plus 200 lashes each. Four others face two years behind bars plus 2,000 lashes. If these four receive their lashes at once, Brown fears their wounds will prove fatal.

"Anyone caught committing sodomy -- kill both the sodomizer and the sodomized," Islamic cleric Tareq Sweidan demanded on Qatar TV last April 22. As the Middle East Media Research Institute (memri.org) reports, Sweidan continued: "The clerics determined how the homosexual should be killed. They said he should be stoned to death. Some clerics said he should be thrown off a mountain."

Ogudu Emmanuel and Odjegba Tevin admitted that they were male lovers after their neighbors reported them to Nigerian cops. They were arrested January 15 and charged with "crimes against nature." The pair apparently escaped from jail while awaiting trial and potential 14-year prison sentences. Gay rights activists worried that cops or other inmates may have killed them in custody.

Last November, an Islamic court in Keffi, issued an arrest warrant for Michael Ifediora Nwokoma after neighbors accused him of having sex with a man named Mallam Abdullahi Ibrahim. Nwokoma quickly fled. Ibrahim was charged with the "unholy" act of "homosexualism." The court postponed Ibrahim's trial indefinitely and incarcerated him until Nwokoma surfaces. In northern Nigeria, where Sharia law governs 12 Muslim states, homosexuality requires capital punishment by stoning.

Iraq's terrorist Ansar al-Sunnah Army, the Islamic Army in Iraq, and the Mujahedeen Army issued a statement last December 30 urging Iraqis not to vote in last January's elections, lest democracy spawn un-Islamic laws such as "homosexual marriage," in their words. To be sure, many Americans also oppose gay marriage, but they at least have the good manners not to detonate advocates of same-sex unions. Ansar-al-Sunnah is incapable of such restraint. It scored major headlines when it claimed responsibility for a December 21 bombing at a U.S. military mess tent at a base in Mosul. It killed 22 people, 18 U.S. GIs among them.

Egyptian cops have met gay men online and through personal ads, then arrested them, according to a March 1, 2004 Human Rights Watch report. Since 2001, HRW says at least 179 men have been charged with "debauchery," prompting five-year prison sentences for at least 23. As the Associated Press' Nadia Abou El-Magd wrote, HRW "interviewed 63 men who had been arrested for homosexual conduct. It said they spoke of being whipped, bound and suspended in painful positions, splashed with cold water, burned with cigarettes, shocked with electricity to the limbs, genital or tongue. They also said guards encouraged other prisoners to rape them" -- thus using coercive gay sex to penalize consensual gay sex.

While he notes that secular nations such as Jordan, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Syria are more relaxed about homosexuality, Robert Spencer, director of JihadWatch.org and editor of The Myth of Islamic Tolerance, warns against equating the homophobia of strict Muslim states with, say, American social conservatives' opposition to gay-rights laws.

"Jerry Falwell and others like him do not call for the deaths of homosexuals, while these people do," Spencer tells me. "This demonstrates the bankruptcy and, ultimately, the danger of such moral equivalence arguments, which are nonetheless ubiquitous today in discussions of Islamic terrorism." Unlike Sunday's marchers, many in the Muslim world literally risk their lives and limbs by merely peering out of the Islamic closet.

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=3962

[Petronas]

Bombers doing far worse to Quran
Wednesday, June 29, 2005

For all the grief America is suffering over Guantanamo, U.S. soldiers there might as well have flushed 1,001 Qurans down 1,001 toilets -- live on Al-Jazeera TV. Newsweek's May 15 retraction of its false and deadly Quran-in-the-can story has worked as well as a severed brake line in slowing calls by Democrats (and some wobbly Republicans) to padlock the terrorist detention facility.

Illinois' Dick Durbin, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat, infamously compared Gitmo to the Soviet gulag, Nazi concentration camps and the Khmer Rouge's killing fields, despite the base's paucity of firing squads, gas chambers or neatly stacked human skulls.

Bushophobes should squirt some of their copious bile on those who esteem devout Muslims far less than do Gitmo's guards. Leftists shriek when a GI forgets to don gloves before touching a Quran, but snore when Taliban, al-Qaida and other terrorists blast mosques to bits.

Associated Press reports, among others, document how militant Islamists treat Shiite shrines with all the deference the SS showed synagogues in the 1940s.

• June 1, 2005: A suicide bomber blasted the funeral of Mullah Abdul Fayaz, a moderate cleric, at his eponymous mosque in Kandahar, Afghanistan. He killed Kabul's police chief and 20 others, while wounding 50.

• Jan. 20, 2005: A suicide bomber exploded inside the Ghocha Park Mosque in Sheberghan, injuring 21.

• June 30, 2003: An earlier bombing at Fayaz's mosque injured 16.

To date, colleagues of the Gitmo Boys have killed 21 and wounded 89 in Afghan mosque bombings.

Iraq's picture is even bloodier. Examples:

• May 23, 2005: A car bomb at a Baghdad mosque killed two and wounded 22, including 11 children.

• March 10, 2005: A suicide bomber detonated himself during a funeral at a Mosul mosque, murdering 47 people and injuring at least 101.

• Feb. 18, 2005: On Ashoura, Shiites' holiest day, homicide bombers attacked two Baghdad mosques, killing 25 and injuring 30.

• Feb. 18, 2005: A car bomb killed eight and hurt 10 at an Iskandariyah mosque.

• Aug. 26, 2004: Mortar shells pummeled a Najaf mosque, killing 27 and injuring 63.

• March 2, 2004: Homicide bombers, mortars and hidden explosives at mosques in Baghdad and Karbala killed 181 and wounded 573 Ashoura worshippers.

• Aug. 29, 2003: A car bomb outside a Najaf mosque killed 85 and injured 140.

Add the 386 killed and 970 injured in Iraq to the Afghan figures above: The terrorist pals of Guantanamo's al-Qaida and Taliban residents have butchered 407 Muslims and injured 1,059 more in these mosque attacks.

After crying for these murdered and maimed Muslims, weep for the Qurans destroyed. At worst, a May 27 Pentagon probe revealed, U.S. personnel at Guantanamo mistreated Qurans on 13 occasions, only five deliberately, notwithstanding requirements that soldiers "handle the Quran as if it were a fragile piece of delicate art."

In one "atrocity," a Quran was stacked atop another Quran on a TV set. Interrogators twice "either touched or stood over" the Quran during questioning. Most regrettably, a soldier relieved himself outdoors last March 25. The breeze shifted towards a cellblock, and an adjacent air duct splattered his urine onto a detainee's nearby Quran and uniform. The soldier was reprimanded and reassigned to gate-guard duty.

Compare this to the Islamofascist explosions that reduce Allah's words to ashes. Muslim detainees mishandled the Quran 15 times, the Pentagon reports. One tried to annoy guards by tearing up his Quran and stuffing its pages into -- get this -- a toilet.

Despite detainees' disrespect for these Qurans -- furnished by U.S. taxpayers, not the Book of the Month Club -- America remains this story's perceived villain. When will President Bush go on the offense to reverse this misperception?

http://www.dailybreeze.com/opinion/articles/1631632.html

[Petronas]

Victim ordered to wed rapist
Published July 19, 2005

BOMBAY -- Hard-line Islamic clerics in a northern Indian village have declared that a woman's 10-year-old marriage was nullified when her father-in-law raped her -- and ordered the mother of five to marry the rapist.
The fatwa, or religious edict, was issued by Darool Uloom Deoband, South Asia's most powerful Islamic theological school known for promoting a radical brand of Islam that is said to have inspired the Taliban in Afghanistan.
The decision has outraged both Muslim and Hindu leaders and prompted a fierce debate that has dominated the front pages of national newspapers across India.
The fatwa ordered Imrana Ilahi, 28, to separate from her husband and treat him as her son because she had sex with his father.
"She had a physical relationship with her father-in-law, and it nullifies her marriage," said Mohammad Masood Madani, a cleric at the theological school. He said it made no difference whether the sex was consensual or forced. The village council then decreed that Mrs. Ilahi would have to marry her father-in-law.
Feminists and liberal Muslims reacted with fury, staging nationwide street protests.
But Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh on June 29 supported the fatwa, saying: "The decision of the Muslim religious leaders in the Imrana case must have been taken after a lot of thought. ... The religious leaders are all very learned and they understand the Muslim community and its sentiments."
The rape took place June 4 in the village of Charthawal in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, when Mrs. Ilahi's husband, Noor Ilahi, was away.
When Mr. Ilahi, a brick kiln laborer, learned of the attack, the village court instructed him to divorce his wife.
But Mr. Ilahi, 32, told his wife: "My father is dirty and you are clean. I still love you and I cannot desert you." Mrs. Ilahi, with her husband and five children, sneaked out of Charthawal and took shelter in Kukra, the village of her parents.
Mrs. Ilahi received another rude shock when the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, the country's most influential Muslim umbrella organization, endorsed the punishment meted out by Darool Uloom Deoband.
"The fact that the woman was 'used' by her husband's blood relative makes her [unclean] for her husband and there is no way she can be allowed to live with him," the law board said.
Under Shariah law, the rape has made her the mother of her husband, said Naseem Iqtedar, the law board's only female member.
Outraged leaders of Muslim social organizations met with Mrs. Ilahi's family and took them to police. Police immediately took Mohammad Ali, Mrs. Ilahi's 65-year-old father-in-law, into custody and ordered a medical test of Mrs. Ilahi for the rape.
Although the All India Muslim Personal Law Board supported the fatwa, the All India Muslim Women Personal Law Board decried it and asked Mrs. Ilahi and her husband not to separate.
"The fatwa goes against the light of Koran. No tenet of Koran can justify the injustice done to an innocent victim. Imrana should never be punished for no fault of hers. The victim has every right to continue with her marriage and live with her husband," said Shaista Amber, president of women's law board.
"The Islamic clerics have failed to differentiate between sex by consent and rape by force. The ruling was against the spirit and essence of Islam, which gives equal rights to women."
Javed Akhtar, a noted Muslim poet, said: "Islam teaches compassion, justice, equality and a fair deal for women. The fatwa, on the other hand, appears to treat women as mere commodities."
Although police have filed a case against her father-in-law, legal analysts say, Mrs. Ilahi might not be able to prove the crime because she underwent the medical examination almost two weeks after the attack and "doctors could not find any definite sign of the rape."

http://washtimes.com/world/20050718-111059-2058r.htm

[Petronas]

Syrian Deputy Minister of Religious Endowments, Muhammad Abd Al-Sattar Al-Sayyid: AIDS Patients Should Be Stoned before Spreading Their Disease.

The following are excerpts from an interview with the Syrian deputy minister of religious endowments, Muhammad Abd Al-Sattar Al-Sayyid, which aired on Syrian TV on August 30, 2005

Al-Sayyid: All the diseases that have to do with sexual organs, mainly AIDS, syphilis, gonorrhea, and so on... When these diseases appeared, they killed millions. More people were killed by these diseases than by wars. The only reason for this is the straying from the divine way regarding fornication, and when I say fornication - "Do not even approach abomination" – this means fornication, homosexuality, and all the sexual deviation it entails.

Host: Everything that has to do with abominations.

Al-Sayyid: "Do not even approach abomination, surely it is a foul thing and an evil way." When Islam set the punishment (for fornication)... Let's see now... What do they do now with people with AIDS? They put the AIDS patient in isolation. This patient... If you go to the dentist, you are afraid of the toothbrush.

This is why there's a hidden desire in one's heart... If only we had stoned everyone who had committed this abomination – wouldn't it have been better than letting these diseases infect others, spreading to millions around the world?

Host: Most certainly.

Al-Sayyid: Most certainly. The entire world, from the US to the most distant country, acknowledges that if they had stoned the fornicators, and prevented abomination, things would have been much better.

http://www.memritv.org/Transcript.asp?P1=846

[Casey]

Blaming Islam plays into al-Qaeda's hands

25 September 2005 By Richard Whelan
The threat by Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's second-in-command, that terrorists will continue to target London has serious implications for Britain and Ireland.

If we assume, however, that London - and the west - is being threatened by Islam, Islamic fundamentalists or Islamism (Islam in political mode), we play directly into al-Qaeda's hands.

Islam is not monolithic. It fractured bloodily after the death of the prophet Muhammad and since then, there has been significant conflict within Islam in general, and between the Sunni and the Shi'ite traditions in particular.

There are many other differences within Islam at regional, national and local levels.



In every century since the death of Muhammad, more Muslims have been killed by fellow Muslims than by any external enemy.

Islam is in many respects a democratic religion. This has disadvantages: bin Laden is as entitled to issue fatwas within the Islamic religion as a Catholic is to issue encyclicals, but there is no pope or centre of authority within Islam who can proclaim him a heretic.

Al-Qaeda has emerged from the Sunni tradition of Islam and perverted many of its core concepts. Many of its key targets are actually within Islam itself - firstly, members of the Sunni majority who do not agree with it and secondly, Islamic minorities.

Al-Qaeda considers the Shi'ites, the biggest Muslim minority, to be “apostates'‘ and “the most evil creatures under the sun'‘. The Iraqi al-Qaedaist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has described the Shi'ites in Iraq as “the unsurmountable obstacle, the lurking snake, the crafty and malicious scorpion, the spying enemy and the penetrating venom'‘.

The many sectarian attacks on Shi'ites in Iraq have shown that this is not just talk. Nor is it new. When the Taliban captured the city of Mazar-i-Sharif in Afghanistan in 1998, they gave the Shi'ites there three choices: convert to their brand of Sunni Islam, emigrate to Iran or die.

Independent reports show that almost 2,000 Shi'ites died in the subsequent massacre.

This is not an Islamic war on the west. This is a war by a tiny vanguard on Islam itself. In reality, they despise true Islam in all its glorious tradition.

It is also an error to see it as an attack by Islamic fundamentalists. Islamic fundamentalists divide initially into two broad groups: those from the Sunni tradition and those from the Shi'ite tradition. Clearly, Shi'ite fundamentalists who are a target of this al-Qaeda attack are not part of any war against the west. However, even most Sunni fundamentalists do not believe in violence.

Of the minority who do believe in violence, this is usually social violence, when they attempt to force others to dress, act or live in a particular fashion. Such violence is not a threat to the world. Only a tiny minority of Islamic fundamentalists are al-Qaedaists.

The final and most subtle misconception is that this is an attack by Islamism. Unfortunately, most experts and commentators fall into this trap.

Islamism - Islam in political mode - can produce very different outcomes, from the al-Qaedaist outcome atone extreme (the best example being the Taliban regime in Afghanistan) to democratic governments including those in Turkey and Indonesia.

If we focus on Islam in political mode as being a problem or a threat to the west, we jeopardise what may be the most effective way to solve this problem. It is widely accepted that a key issue politically in the Islamic world over the next few decades will be the expression of Islamic beliefs in the political system.

There is a significant rage and sense of grievance in many in the Islamic world at present. Whether western governments like it or not and whether it is well founded or not, such grievances have to be expressed.

They can be expressed through the democratic process, but, failing that, they may emerge through the outrages of al-Qaeda. It will take time and effort, but the key to solving this long-term problem is for Muslims to be able to address their grievances in a proper, democratic fashion rather than through the terrorist violence of al-Qaeda.

Many westerners fear Islam in political mode and the actual and potential conflict between religion and democracy. However, we should recall the opposition of the Catholic Church in Europe in the 19th century to the development of democratic institutions.

That resistance was eventually eliminated through the creation of political parties with theological agendas: Christian Democratic parties.

A similar process, with its own characteristics obviously, will be needed over the coming decades in the Islamic world, to achieve a similar outcome.

Richard Whelan's book Al-Qaedaism: The Threat to Islam, The Threat to the World, will be published by Ashfield Press this Friday.

http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqid=8249-qqqx=1.asp

[Petronas]

Researchers probe motives of suicide bombers
Tuesday, October 04, 2005

PARIS –– Suicide bombers, such as those who attacked tourist targets in Bali last week, are driven by motives close to those of members of religious sects which are hard for outsiders to comprehend, experts said Tuesday. "They are often young people who get together spontaneously in a desire to avenge the injustice of which they feel the Muslim world in general is the victim," said Scott Atram of the United States, professor of psychology and anthropology at the University of Michigan and a senior researcher at the French research institution CNRS. "A recruiter notices them and begins to indoctrinate them, to persuade them they are going to play a role in jihad (holy war), the only way to get things to move."

At the end of the process they are conditioned, isolated, given moral support, convinced they are giving their lives for a cause greater than themselves, and capable of strapping a bomb to their bodies. And, like the young man in a black T-shirt caught on an amateur video in Bali last Saturday, capable of walking calmly into a restaurant to kill themselves and as many ordinary people as possible.

In the case of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), believed to be behind the Bali bombings, recruiters "take young people into the jungle and give them a very special religious education," Atram said. "The message they give them is that there is no more important thing in life than jihad. It's more important than prayers, than fasting, than the Hajj (pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia). And that the most noble thing in life is to die for the jihad. Then it seems perfectly normal to you. It's small groups feeding on themselves: you can get people to do anything you want. It's like a sect logic. They don't think about the target: they just do it. These people don't do it out of hate: they do it more out of love for their own group. They're doing it because they believe they're doing good for their people. They are usually fully compassionate people. I never came across one that was a real nutcase," he said.

According to Philadelphia-based psychiatrist and former Central Intelligence Agency member Marc Sageman "the key is the group. What is outside the group does not really count, they don't really think about it. Whether it's soldiers or people drinking in a bar, it's
the same thing."

http://www.timesofoman.com/newsdetails.asp?newsid=20484

[Petronas]

Yemeni anti-terror scheme in doubt
Tuesday, 11 October 2005

Doubts have been growing over the effectiveness of a pioneering Yemeni scheme to fight Islamist violence by using dialogue to convert extremist prisoners to more moderate views. Launched three years ago, the project has been followed with interest by British and other Western governments.

The Islamic scholar behind it, Judge Hamoud al-Hitar, has been invited to London twice to lecture senior anti-terrorism officers. Muslim prisoners in London will now be given mentors before their release to help them understand mainstream Islamic values and prevent them being attracted to extremism.

But in Yemen, some say Judge Hitar's scheme - which the state claims has helped stop terror attacks there - is a sham and does not motivate any real conversions. There are even some reports that former al-Qaeda militants released by Judge Hitar have been caught fighting coalition forces in Iraq.

Osama Bin Laden's former bodyguard - previously paraded as one of the scheme's star pupils - has admitted his basic views have not changed at all, although he did say he has renounced all violence and would refuse to fight for al-Qaeda. Nasser al-Bahri served the al-Qaeda leader for three years. He made it clear that many imprisoned Yemeni militants simply told Judge Hitar what he wanted to hear as a means of getting themselves out of prison. Sitting in the floor of his bare flat on a dusty backstreet in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, Bahri denied there had been any debate with the judge about the meaning of the Koran.

Speaking without the permission of the Yemeni authorities, he said: "We understood what the judge wanted and he understood what we wanted from him. The Yemeni Mujahideen in prison know Hitar is the way for them to get released, so they ingratiate themselves with him. There was no long or complex dialogue."

The re-education scheme was launched to deal with hundreds of Yemeni young men like Bahri who had returned to their homeland after fighting in Afghanistan. There were fears al-Qaeda would use them to turn Yemen into a major base for terrorist attacks.

Bin Laden followers established training camps in the country's mountainous interior where the central government's writ barely runs. In October 2000 two suicide bombers blew up the American destroyer, USS Cole, in Yemen's main port, Aden, killing 17 US sailors. Two years later, there was an attack on a French oil tanker off the Yemeni coast. And a gunman accused of links to al-Qaeda, murdered three Americans working in a mission hospital in the south of the country.

The lack of attacks since then is cited by Judge Hitar as evidence of the success of his scheme. The judge and other religious scholars visit terrorist suspects in prison and supposedly engage them in theological debate, a form of Koranic duelling. Prisoners not charged with any specific crime are freed after several rounds of dialogue if the scholars say they have successfully persuaded them to abandon their extremist views. The scheme does not cover those convicted of attacks.

So far, 364 young men have been freed on parole under the scheme. They are supposed to receive help from the state to start a new life. "Until 2002 there was only one way to fight terrorism, and that was force," Judge Hitar said. "Yemen has added another and more effective way, dialogue. We have proved to the whole world that the pen and the tongue might be stronger than the most advanced weapons."

Those claims led to the judge's first invitation to Britain by the Foreign Office in February 2004, soon after a visit by the Attorney General Lord Goldsmith to Yemen. Britain's interest followed concern that some Muslim prisoners, such as the shoe bomber Richard Reid, were being radicalised in British prisons. Judge Hitar spoke to Metropolitan Police officers and Home Office officials. He was brought back three months later to outline his methods to Special Branch. There are about 7,500 Muslim inmates in UK prisons, more than 10% of the total prison population.

Officials say they want to ensure that imams who serve as chaplains are scholars able to engage with - and hopefully curb extremist views. In the wake of the 7 July bombings in London, British Home Secretary Charles Clarke set up a number of Muslim task-forces, and one of the proposals they made was to establish a council that would advise on the training of imams in Britain.

But in Yemen, human rights activists working with prisoners have poured scorn on the notion that theological dialogue can change militant views. One campaigner, Professor Adel Sharjazee, said: "The results of dialogue are very limited. As these people are being talked to they are put under a lot of pressure and when they are released from prison, nothing has changed."

Yemen's Foreign Minister Dr Abu Bakr Al-Qirbi refused to deny that prisoners released under the scheme had turned up in Iraq, where Yemenis are thought to account for more than 10% of the foreign anti-coalition fighters. He said: "These people who are released are kept under surveillance because some have a commitment to a cause, Palestine or Iraq. And that's why we have very strict control to make sure they don't leave the country." But he added: "We have a problem with our borders because they are so long we cannot prevent these groups leaving for Iraq and other places."

Bin Laden's former bodyguard, Nasser al-Bahri, said the authorities have helped him set himself up as a small businessman, and he will not be returning to his old life as an anti-Western militant. But he said his admiration for Bin Laden had not diminished, and he claimed Judge Hitar did not really aim to convert prisoners, merely to seek a guarantee that they would not launch attacks on the West from Yemeni soil. "The dialogue with us in prison did not take long," he said, "particularly since most of the guys had never operated in Yemen. Yes, some of them hate America and see the West as an enemy and want to engage in struggle and killing. They can fight in Western lands, but it's not allowed in our country."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/crossing_continents/4328894.stm

[Petronas]

TERRORISM: INTERNET TERROR THREATS TO OMAR SHARIF
Rome, 28 Oct. (AKI)

Death threats to the Egyptian-born actor Omar Sharif have appeared in Islamist forums on the Internet, after Sharif's appearance as a Christian, Saint Peter, in an Italian biblical epic for television. A threatening message from user 'bachirma1' on one of the forums used by jihadi groups linked to al-Qaeda, reads:"In my view Omar Sharif is an infidel - enter here". Inside it continues; "He is a crusader who offends Islam and Muslims and is applauded by the Italian people. I give you some advice, my brothers, you should kill him."

From the exchange of messages it would appear that the sender of the death threats may be in Italy. A flurry of insulting messages endorse the condemnation of the 73 year old actor who shot to international stardom in the classic Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and with the title role of Doctor Zhivago (1965). The television mini-series, aired on Italian television this week, shows Sharif in the role of Saint Peter and recounts the spread of Christianity in ancient Rome and in the Roman empire.

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Security&loid=8.0.223834268&par=0

[Vancouver]

A threatening message from user 'bachirma1' on one of the forums used by jihadi groups linked to al-Qaeda ...It was on al-saf.net. It was bachirma1's first posting to that site. bachirma1 was a member of another outfit called http://www.maghrebarabe.com which has been shut down. In his user profile at that site, he said he was in Italy. He spelled it "italia" (lower case). "Maghreb" means West.
[ps] Because this threat has had some attention in the Italian press, it is possible that "refugihadis" like Massari and al-Siba'i will start sermonizing about it. If they do, I have no doubt that their sophistry will end up with the conclusion that the assassination of Sharif would be justifiable under what they regard as Islamic law. The only reason I mention this, is to make the point that "sheikhs" like those two are desperate to get publicity for themselves.

[Petronas]

Islamist groups win support for Pakistan quake aid
02/11/2005)

Islamic radicals have strengthened their popular support in Pakistan by taking advantage of the government's initially faltering aid relief for earthquake victims. Islamic groups are widely regarded as having provided the most efficient aid operations in some areas after the earthquake on Oct 8 that killed more than 57,000 people and left 3.3 million homeless in Kashmir and the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). A growing number of Islamist leaders say the earthquake was divine retribution for the pro-US policy of President Pervez Musharraf and have renewed calls for Islamic law to be implemented.

In NWFP, a controversial Taliban-style bill has been revived by the ruling six-party religious alliance, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA). The provincial justice minister, Malik Zafar Azam, said the earthquake was the result of God's wrath at man's misdeeds. The new law would appoint a watchdog called Hisba, or Accountability, to uphold Islamic values.

His words were echoed by another Islamist politician in the province, Prof Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, leader of the Jama'atud Dawa. He said: "Even un-Islamic elements have admitted that these [Islamist] religious organisations are working for the cause of humanity. "We will set up villages of 100 tents each. They will have dispensaries and mosques." He added: "We must enforce Islamic law in the country … the earthquake is a punishment for what the rulers have done to please the United States."

Immediately after the earthquake, the best organised aid relief came from groups such as Pakistan's main radical Islamic party, Jamaat i-Islami, which previously backed the Taliban government of neighbouring Afghanistan. Near the militarily sensitive Line of Control that divides Pakistani-controlled Kashmir from its Indian counterpart, several Islamist groups have been praised by normally hostile sectors of the Pakistani media for providing aid relief. Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, a terrorist group suspected of involvement in the weekend's bombing in New Delhi, is believed to have provided aid to locals near its base in the area. So too is Hizb ul-Mujahideen, the largest extremist group fighting in Indian-controlled Kashmir. The groups were able to steal a march over the Pakistan army as they know the mountainous terrain.

British and American soldiers are now providing aid for earthquake victims in the same areas as Islamic groups such as the al-Rasheed Trust, which the Bush administration once accused of channelling funds to al-Qa'eda. Last week al-Qa'eda issued a video appeal for Muslims to go to Pakistan to help in the relief effort.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/11/02/wpak02.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/11/02/ixworld.html

[pixikill]

ah islam...turn it around and phonetically speaking, youve got malice

[Petronas]

Islamic Radicals Plan World Revolution from Temple Mount
09:27 Nov 14, '05 / 12 Cheshvan 5766

Islamic radicals have been using the Temple Mount as a focal point for planning and preaching the establishment of a world Islamic state with Jerusalem as its capital. One of the radical groups operating on the Temple Mount is Hizab Altahrir (The Islamic Liberation Party), which espouses an ideology similar to Al Qaeda. Hizab Altahrir’s network spans most Western European countries. The party puts Islamic revolution and an uncompromising form of Jihad (holly war) at the top of its political agenda.

The group advocates subjecting the entire world to Islamic law (Shariya), and destroying non-believing nations and religions. The party has targeted Europe, specifically Denmark, for spreading its ideology, and providing a springboard for renewing Islamic conquests in Europe. A senior party activist in Jerusalem, Sheikh Issam Amira, expressed this philosophy in a recent speech which he made on the Temple Mount:

“Listeners! The Moslems in Denmark make up three percent [of the population], yet constitute a threat to the future of the Danish kingdom. It’s no surprise that in Bitrab (the ancient name of Medina, a city in Arabia to which Mohammed immigrated) they were fewer than three percent of the general population, but succeeded changing the regime in Bitrab. It’s no surprise that our brothers in Denmark have succeeded in bringing Islam to every home in that country. Allah will grant us victory in their land to establish the [Islamic] revolution in Denmark.”

After Denmark, the Sheikh said, the party will carry the revolution to Oslo and change its name to Medina. “They will fight against their Scandinavian neighbors in order to bring the country into the territory of the revolution,” he said. “In the next stage, they will fight a holy jihad to spread Islam to the rest of Europe, until it spreads to the original city of Medina where the two cities will unite under the Islamic flag.”

Sheikh Riyad Salah, head of the Islamic movement in Israel has also been active teaching the tenets of “Islamic revolution.”

“We are at the gates of the Islamic revolution,” he proclaims in his sermons to Arab citizens of Israel. “The global forces of evil will be eliminated from the world and the Islamic nation will remain in place in order to bring about the world Islamic revolution, with its capital, Jerusalem.”

Salah, who until a few months ago was under arrest for allegedly assisting an organization connected to the Hamas terror group, has for a number of years been attempting to organize Israel’s Arab citizens into an “independent Palestinian society,” disconnected from the State of Israel and its institutions. Salah’s organization contributed to efforts to repair Arab mosques on the Temple Mount, and also attempts to erase the remains of Jewish antiquities on the Mount.

In Israel, the Hizab Altahrir party is sending out charismatic Islamic preachers to spread its ideology to mosques in villages near Jerusalem, Hevron, Kalkilya, and Tulkarem. When large numbers of Moslems visited mosques last October during the holy month of Ramadan, the party expanded its efforts to recruit new members and activists in the Palestinian Authority (PA).

Thousands of young Arabs living in the PA have been participating in the party’s youth movement under the slogan, “Campaigning to Preach Revolution.” On the Temple Mount near the Dome of the Rock, Altahrir’s youth recently put up a giant banner declaring “Revolution is a Divine Command.” The party’s flag appears on the right and left hand side of the banner (See top photo). The youth were greeted by party members who shouted, “Next year in Jerusalem, under the rule of the Islamic revolution.”

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=92906

[Petronas]

Arab shows decry Islamists
November 22, 2005

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- Exploding buildings, booby-trapped cars and bloodied victims began appearing on Arab satellite television recently in daring dramas that deal with Islamic militancy in al Qaeda's main breeding ground.
The producers of the shows say they are another battleground in the war on homegrown religious zealotry, which many Middle East governments are confronting by crackdowns and media campaigns.
"Al Tareeq Al-Waer" ("The Rugged Path") and "Al-Hur Al-Ayn" ("The Beautiful Maidens") were aired during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, a time of peak viewing in the Middle East.
Both shows deal with intransigent interpretations of Islam, such as the one espoused by Saudi-born al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and the social problems that push some to extremism.
Ali al-Ahmed, head of Abu Dhabi TV, which produced "The Rugged Path," said extremists had the loudest voice today, so it was vital to give moderates a channel to air their views.
"This is everybody's problem, and as Arabs we have to talk about it. We can't consider it as just a passing phenomenon that will quietly end after some time," he said.
Millions of Arabs and Muslims were shocked and puzzled that the September 11 attacks in the United States were carried out by Arab nationals, born and bred in the Middle East.
After al Qaeda turned its attention away from the West to attack Arab and Muslim cities, the need to understand the roots of radicalism assumed extra urgency in the region.
In "The Rugged Path," a community is torn apart when some members wage a violent campaign to remove their "infidel" rulers and install "just Islamic rule," a reference to insurgencies against pro-U.S. governments in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
The story takes place against a backdrop of actual events. As in real life, the Arab-Israeli conflict and U.S.-led operation in Iraq affect the characters' lives and feed their anger.
"There is real suffering in the Arab world, and we need to expose it," said Jordanian Jamal Abou Hamdan, the show's writer. "There is rage in Arab and Muslim societies, but it is being channeled in a wrong way. This repression builds up and explodes, and youth have become susceptible to brainwashing."
"The Beautiful Maidens" is based on an al Qaeda bombing of a housing compound in Saudi Arabia, which killed mostly Arab and Muslim expatriates.
The title refers to the Koran's mention of beautiful maidens in paradise. Some Islamists believe that if they die as martyrs, they will be rewarded with such maidens.
Syrian director Najdat Anzour says his show aims to wipe out any support for militants' calls for jihad, or holy war, among viewers who might be sympathetic toward al Qaeda's anti-U.S. agenda.
"It is speaking to all generations and especially hesitant people caught at crossroads. The program can't affect those who have already chosen their paths," Mr. Anzour said.
In one scene, a moderate cleric tells worshippers, including a would-be terrorist, that the goal of jihad is to protect society in the event of a clear threat against it.
Another character says jihad is not the killing of civilians, but the struggle to become a better Muslim.
The soaps have received acclaim from some viewers, but their content has raised anger among others. A Saudi newspaper reported that some actors in "The Beautiful Maidens" received death threats.
Last year, Mr. Hamdan's series "The Road to Kabul," which dealt with Afghanistan's ousted radical Taliban regime, was pulled off the air after militant threats. Channels at the time said the show was canceled for technical reasons.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20051122-120054-8860r.htm

[Petronas]

Most Terror Suspects Lack Knowledge of Religion
Thursday, 24, November, 2005 (22, Shawwal, 1426)

JEDDAH, 24 November 2005 — About 85 percent of terror suspects detained in the Kingdom are in the age group of 18 to 25, according to Muhammad Al-Nujaimi, a faculty member of King Fahd Security Academy in Riyadh. He pointed out that 90 percent of these young people lacked proper understanding of Islam. Security authorities have arrested nearly 600 people suspected of involvement in a series of bombings and shootings in the country since May 2003. They included clerics who issued edicts backing terrorist operations.

Speaking about the ministry’s counseling program to bring the “deviants” back to the right path, Saud Al-Musaibeeh, director of public relations at the Interior Ministry, said more than 100 scholars and 30 psychologists were involved in the program. In a recent statement, Interior Minister Prince Naif said the program was instrumental in changing the mind of several detainees. “Experts realized that the counseling program has been effective in changing the mindset of the detainees and observed improvement in their behavior, desire to accept advice and return to the right path,” the prince said. The ministry started its counseling program about two years ago, Musaibeeh said, adding that it was the brainchild of Prince Muhammad ibn Naif, assistant interior minister for security affairs.

Dr. Ali Al-Nafeesa, director of the department for awareness and guidance programs at the ministry, said most of the terror suspects were brainwashed by their leaders and were not ready to listen to advice from other people. “The counseling sessions are held on a daily basis to remove misconceptions and convince the deviants that the ideology they follow is wrong,” Al-Watan Arabic daily quoted Al-Nafeesa as saying. The program includes five-week special courses with university professors giving lectures on various topics to groups of detainees to be followed by examinations and distribution of certificates, he said.

Citing assurances given by Prince Naif, Musaibeeh said deviants who confess and express their readiness to return to the right path would be released. However, he emphasized that this amnesty would not cover those who have actually taken part in terrorist operations. Musaibeeh called upon all people, especially families, to cooperate with the Interior Ministry in its efforts to combat destructive ideologies.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1&section=0&article=73632&d=24&m=11&y=2005

[Petronas]

Please excuse the length of this article. I thought long and hard about just posting excerpts, but concluded that reading the whole article would well repay the time spent.

Myths and madrassas
Nov 24, 2005

Shortly before four British Muslims, three of them of Pakistani origin, blew themselves up in the London Underground on July 7, I traveled along the Indus River to Akora Khattack in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan. Here, straddling the noisy, truck-thundering Islamabad highway, stands the Haqqania, one of the most radical of the religious schools called madrassas.

Many of the Taliban leaders, including Mullah Omar, were trained at this institution. If its teachings have been blamed for inspiring the brutal, ultra-conservative incarnation of Islamic law that that regime presided over, there is no sign that the Haqqania is ashamed of its former pupils: instead, the madrassa's director, Maulana Sami ul-Haq, still proudly boasts that whenever the Taliban put out a call for fighters, he would simply close down the madrassa and send his students off to fight. In many ways, then, Akora Khattack represents everything that US policymakers most fear and dislike in this region, a bastion of religious, intellectual, and sometimes - in the form of the Taliban - military resistance to Pax Americana and all it represents.

A dust storm was blowing as we crossed the Indus just below the massive ramparts of the fortress of Attock, once the great bulwark protecting India against incursions from Afghanistan. The road was lined with poplars. In the distance towered the jagged dragons' backs of the blue Margalla Hills; a graveyard lay to one side, its green grave flags fluttering in the breeze. A few kilometers beyond the river stood a ramshackle line of buildings, all built in a crude modern concrete version of Mughal architecture. Washing was hanging up to dry from the roofs and verandas of the dormitory blocks, and in the main courtyard students were bustling around. All were male, all wore turbans, and all were heavily bearded.

Maulana Sami proved, however, to be an unexpectedly dapper and cheery figure for a man supposed to be such an icon of anti-Western hatred. He wore a blue frock coat of vaguely Dickensian cut, and his neatly trimmed beard was raffishly dyed with henna. He had a craggy face, a large outcrop of nose, and the corners of his eyes were contoured with laughter lines. I was ushered into his office and introduced to his two-year-old granddaughter, who was playing happily with a yellow helium balloon. I remarked that there did not seem to be much evidence of the Haqqania suffering from the crackdown on centers of radicalism promised by President Pervez Musharraf. Sami's face lit up:
"That is for American consumption only," he laughed cheerfully. "It is only statements to the newspapers. Nothing has happened."

"So," I asked, "You are not finding the atmosphere difficult at the moment?"

"We are in a good, strong position," replied Sami. "[President George W] Bush has woken the entire Islamic world. We are grateful to him."

Sami smiled broadly: "Our job now is propagating Islamic ideology. We give free education, free clothes and books. We even give free accommodation. We are the only people giving the poor education."

Sami paused and his smile faded: "The people are so desperate," he said. "They are fed up with the old ways in Pakistan, with the secular parties and the army. There is so much corruption. Musharraf only fights Muslims and follows the wishes of the West. He is not interested in the people of Pakistan. So now everyone is looking for Islamic answers - and we can help provide that. Only our Islamic system gives justice."

For better or worse, the sort of change in political attitudes that Sami ul-Haq has overseen from his madrassa in Akora Khattack is being reproduced across Pakistan. An Interior Ministry report after September 11 revealed that there are now 27 times as many madrassas in the country as there were in 1947: from 245 at the time of independence, the number shot up to 6,870 in 2001. [1]

A significant proportion of these are run by, or connected to, the radical Islamist political parties such as the MMM, which under Sami's vice presidency have just imposed a Taliban-like regime on Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province, banning the public performance of music and depictions of the human form. The one exception to this, bizarrely, is the image of Colonel Sanders outside the new KFC restaurant in Peshawar. This was apparently because the colonel was judged to be sporting a properly Islamic beard, and so was spared the iconoclasm imposed elsewhere.

The Islamic political parties are quite clear about the benefits that can accrue to them by controlling places of education. The headquarters of the Jamaat-e-Islami in Lahore, for example, doubles as a madrassa where 200 students receive a Koranic education with a distinctively political spin. On a visit this summer I found one maulana preaching a sermon on the subject of Musharraf's obedience to US dictates and his willingness to abandon the Taliban. A spokesman for the party told me quite explicitly: "The political transformation our madrassas are bringing about is having a massive effect on the future of Pakistan. The recent success of the Islamic parties is very much associated with the work we do in our madrassas."

Across Pakistan, the tenor of religious belief has been correspondingly radicalized: the tolerant Sufi-minded Barelvi form of Islam is now deeply out of fashion in Pakistan, overtaken by the sudden rise of the more hardline and politicized reformist Deobandi, Wahhabi and Salafi strains of the faith.

The sharp acceleration in the number of these madrassas first began under General Zia ul-Haq at the time of the Afghan jihad in the 1980s, and was financed mainly by the Saudis. Although some of the madrassas so founded were little more than single rooms attached to village mosques, others are now very substantial institutions: the Dar ul-Uloom in Balochistan, for example, is now annually enrolling some 1,500 boarders and a further 1,000 day-boys. Altogether there are possibly as many as 800,000 students in Pakistan's madrassas: an entire free Islamic education system running parallel to the moribund state sector.

A mere 1.8% of Pakistan's gross domestic product is spent on government schools. As a result, 15% of the schools are without a proper building; 40% without water; 71% without electricity. There is frequent absenteeism of teachers; indeed many of these schools exist only on paper. Last year when Imran Khan, the former Pakistan cricket captain turned politician, investigated the government schools in his constituency, he found that 20% of those on the rolls did not exist at all, while 70% of those that did were semi-permanently closed.

In education Pakistan is lagging behind India in the most striking way: in India 65% of the population is literate, and the number rises every year; in the new budget, the Indian education system received a substantial boost of state funds. But in Pakistan only 42% are literate, and the proportion is falling. Instead of investing in education, the Pakistan military government is spending money on a new fleet of American F-16s for its air force. The near collapse of government schooling has meant that many of the country's poorest people who wish to improve their children's hope of advancing themselves have no option but to place the children in the madrassa system, where they are guaranteed a rigidly traditional but nonetheless free education.

Madrassas are probably now more dominant in Pakistan's educational system than they are anywhere else; but the general trend is one that is common throughout the Islamic world. In Egypt the number of teaching institutes dependent on the Islamic university of al-Azhar increased from 1,855 in 1986 to 4,314 10 years later. The Saudis have stepped up their funding so that in Tanzania alone they have been spending $1 million a year building new madrassas. In Mali madrassas now account for a quarter of the children in primary schools. [2]

Seen in this wider setting, Sami ul-Haq and his madrassas raise a number of important questions: how much are these madrassas the source of the problems that culminated in the Islamist attacks of September 11? Are madrassas simply terrorist factories? Should the West be pressing US client states like Pakistan and Egypt simply to close them down?

In the panic-stricken aftermath of the Islamist attacks on America, the answers to these questions seemed obvious. Former secretary of state Colin Powell and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld were not know for their agreement on matters of foreign policy, but one thing that they were united on was the threat posed by madrassas. In 2003, Rumsfeld posed the question: "Are we capturing, killing, or deterring and dissuading more terrorists every day than the madrassas and the radical clerics are recruiting, training and deploying against us?" A year later, Powell described madrassas as a breeding ground "for fundamentalist and terrorists".

Since the revelations that three of the four future British Muslim suicide bombers visited Pakistan in the year preceding the July 7 attack, the British media have been quick to follow the US line on madrassas, with the Sunday Telegraph helpfully translating the Arabic word madrassa as terrorist "training school" (it actually means merely "place of education"), while the Daily Mirror confidently asserted over a double-page spread that the three bombers had all enrolled at Pakistani "terror schools".

In actual fact, it is still uncertain whether the three bombers visited any madrassas while they were in Pakistan: madrassas only entered the debate because the bombers told their families they were going to Pakistan to pursue religious studies, just as they told them they were going to a religious conference when they set off to bomb London.

According to sources at the prime minister's offices in Downing Street there is in fact no evidence that any madrassa was visited by any members of the cell at any point on their journey. Still less is there any proof that madrassas were responsible for "brainwashing" the trio, as the British media assumed after the bombings. Instead, there is considerable evidence to show that the trio were radicalized in Yorkshire through the Islamist literature and videos that were available beneath the counter of their local Islamic bookshop. And while it is now certain that the group made contact with al-Qaeda in Pakistan, there is no reason to assume that a madrassa acted as the conduit.

In this case, as in so many others, the link between madrassas and international terrorism is far from clear-cut, and new research has been published that has challenged the much-repeated but intellectually shaky theory of madrassas being little more than al-Qaeda training schools.

It is certainly true that many madrassas are fundamentalist and literalist in their approach to the scriptures and that many subscribe to the most hardline strains of Islamic thought. Few make any effort to prepare their students to function in a modern, plural society. It is also true that some madrassas can be directly linked to Islamic radicalism and occasionally to outright civil violence.

Just as there are some yeshivas in settlements on the West Bank that have a reputation for violence against Palestinians, and Serbian monasteries that sheltered war criminals following the truce in Bosnia, so it is estimated that as many as 15% of Pakistan's madrassas preach violent jihad, while a few have been said to provide covert military training. Madrassa students took part in the Afghan and Kashmir jihads, and have been repeatedly implicated in acts of sectarian violence, especially against the Shi'ite minority in Karachi.

It is now becoming very clear, however, that producing cannon fodder for the Taliban and educating local sectarian thugs is not at all the same as producing the kind of technically literate al-Qaeda terrorist who carried out the horrifyingly sophisticated attacks on the USS Cole, the US embassies in East Africa, the World Trade Center and the London Underground.

Indeed, a number of recent studies have emphasized that there is a fundamental distinction to be made between madrassa graduates - who tend to be pious villagers from impoverished economic backgrounds, possessing little technical sophistication - and the sort of middle-class, politically literate global Salafi jihadis who plan al-Qaeda operations around the world. Most of these turn out to have secular and technical backgrounds. Neither Osama bin Laden nor any of the men who carried out the Islamist assaults on America or Britain were trained in a madrassa or was a qualified alim, or cleric.

The men who planned and carried out the September 11 attacks have often been depicted in the press as being "medieval fanatics". In fact, it would be more accurate to describe them as confused but highly educated middle-class professionals. Mohammed Atta was an architect; Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden's chief of staff, was a pediatric surgeon; Ziad Jarrah, one of the founders of the Hamburg cell, was a dental student who later turned to aircraft engineering; Omar Sheikh, the kidnapper of Daniel Pearl, was a product of the London School of Economics.

As the French scholar Gille Kepel puts it, the new breed of global jihadis are not the urban poor of the third world so much as "the privileged children of an unlikely marriage between Wahhabism an Silicon Valley, which [Ayman] al-Zawahiri visited in the 1990s. They were heirs not only to jihad and the umma but also to the electronic revolution and American-style globalization." [3]

This is also the conclusion drawn by the most sophisticated analysis of global jihadis yet published: Understanding Terror Networks by a former Central Intelligence Agency official, Marc Sageman. Sageman examined the records of 172 al-Qaeda-linked terrorists, and his conclusions have demolished much of the conventional wisdom about who joins jihadi groups: two thirds of his sample were middle-class and university-educated; they are generally technically minded professionals and several have a PhD. Nor are they young hotheads: their average age is 26, most of them are married, and many have children. Only two appear to be psychotic. Even the ideologues that influence them are not trained clerics: Sayyid Qutb, for example, was a journalist. Islamic terrorism, like its Christian and Jewish predecessors, is a largely bourgeois enterprise.

Peter Bergen of John Hopkins recently came to similar conclusions when he published his study of 75 Islamist terrorists involved in anti-Western attacks. According to Bergen, 53% of the terrorists had a university degree, while "only 52% of Americans have been to college." [4] Against this background, it should not have come as a surprise that the British Muslim bombers attended universities and that one drove a Mercedes.

It is true that there are several examples of radical madrassa graduates who have become involved with al-Qaeda: Maulana Masood Azhar, for example, leader of the jihadi group called Jaish-e-Muhammad and an associate of bin Laden, originally studied in the ultra-militant Binori Town madrassa in Karachi. A madrassa dropout took part in last year's bombing of Musharraf's convoy. In Indonesia, the Bali bombings were the work of the Lashkar-i-Jihad group, which partially emerged from a group of Salafi madrassas in Indonesia.

By and large, however, madrassa students simply do not have the technical expertise necessary to carry out the kind of sophisticated attacks we have recently seen led by al-Qaeda. Instead the concerns of most madrassa graduates remain more traditional: the correct fulfillment of rituals, how to wash correctly before prayers, and the proper length to grow a beard. All these matters are part of the curriculum of Koranic studies in the madrassas. The graduates are also interested in opposing what they see as unIslamic practices such as worshiping at saints' graves or attending the Shi'ite laments called marsiyas, for the death of the Prophet's son-in-law Ali at the battle of Kerbala. [5]

Their focus, in other words, is not on opposing non-Muslims or the West - the central concern of the global jihadis - so much as fostering what they see as proper Islamic behavior at home, the personal law governing which is a central subject of madrassa teachings. In contrast, few al-Qaeda agents seem to have more than the most perfunctory grasp of Islamic law or learning. Moreover, there is a growing body of evidence that bin Laden himself actually despises what he sees as the nit-picking juridical approach of the madrassa-educated ulema (clerics), regarding his own brand of violent Islamism as a wholly more appropriate answer to the problems of the Muslim world.

This was graphically illustrated when, shortly after September 11, bin Laden told a group of visiting Saudis that the "youths who conducted the operations did not accept any fiqh [school of Islamic law] in the popular term, but they accepted the fiqh that the Prophet Mohammed brought". It is a telling quote: bin Laden showing his impatience with legal training and the inherited structures of Islamic authority. The hijackers, he implied, were taking effective practical action rather than sitting around discussing legal texts. As such he set himself up as a challenge to the madrassas and the ulema, bypassing traditional modes of religious study and looking directly to the Koran for guidance.

A brilliant discussion of bin Laden's usurpation of the role of the madrassa-based ulema can be found in the illuminating essay Landscapes of the Jihad, by Faisal Devji, who teaches at the New School. Devji points out just how deeply unorthodox bin Laden is, with his cult of martyrs and frequent talk of dream and visions, all of which derive from popular, mystical, and Shi'ite Islamic traditions, against which the orthodox Sunni ulema have long struggled. Moreover, bin Laden and his followers "routinely attack the most venerable clerics and seminaries, accusing them of being slaves of apostate regimes ... They also issue their own legal opinions or fatwas without possessing the learning or clerical authority to do so."

All this highlights how lacking in intellectual sophistication the debate about al-Qaeda still is. Again and again, we are told that terrorism is associated with poverty and the basic, Koranic education provided by madrassas. We are told that the people who carry out this work are evil madmen who hate our wealth and our freedoms, and that no debate is possible as they "aim to wipe us out" (as one British cabinet minister told the BBC after the attacks on London). That the hostility of the Islamists may have links with US foreign policy in the Middle East, especially the Anglo-American adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan, is consistently denied, despite the explicit video testimony to the contrary by both Zawahiri and Mohammad Sidique Khan, one of the London bombers. [6]

In reality, al-Qaeda operatives tend to be highly educated and their aims explicitly political. Bin Laden, in his numerous communiques, has always been unambiguous about this. As he laconically remarked in his broadcast timed to coincide with the last US election, if it was freedom they were against, al-Qaeda would have attacked Sweden. The men who planned the September 11 attacks were not products of the traditional Islamic educational system, even in its most radical form. Instead they are graduates of Western-style institutions. They are not at all the proteges of the mullahs.

Obscured debate
The debate about the alleged links between madrassas and terrorism has tended to obscure both the madrassas' long histories and the differences among them. Throughout much of Islamic history, madrassas were the major source of religious and scientific learning, just as church schools and the universities were in Europe.

Between the 7th and 12th centuries, madrassas produced free-thinking luminaries such as Alberuni, Ibn Sina and al-Khwarizmi. They also produced America's bestselling poet throughout the 1990s, the 13th century Sufi mystic and poet of love and longing, Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi, who, it is often forgotten, was trained as a Muslim jurist, and throughout his life taught Sharia law in a madrassa in Konya. It is true that Rumi rejected the rigidity of thought and spirituality characteristic of the ulema of his day, but he did so as an insider, from within the system.

None of this should be a surprise. In the entire Koran there are only about 200 verses directly commanding believers to pray and three times that number commanding the believers to reflect, to ponder and to analyze God's magnificence in nature, plants, stars and the solar system. The oldest and greatest of all the madrassas, the al-Azhar university in Cairo, has a good claim to being the most sophisticated school in the entire Mediterranean world during the early Middle Ages. Indeed the very idea of a university in the modern sense - a place where students congregate to study a variety of subjects under a number of teachers - is generally regarded as an innovation first developed at al-Azhar.

In The Rise of Colleges: Institutions of Learning in Islam and the West, George Makdisi has demonstrated how terms such as having "fellows" holding a "chair", or students "reading" a subject and obtaining "degrees", as well as practices such as inaugural lectures, the oral defense, even mortar boards, tassels and academic robes, can all be traced back to the practices of madrassas.

It was in cities not far from Islamic Spain and Sicily - Salerno, Naples, Bologna and Montpellier - that the first universities in Christendom were developed, while the very first college in Europe, that of Paris, was founded by Jocius de Londoniis, a pilgrim newly returned from the Middle East. [7] Throughout the Middle Ages, Christian scholars such as Adelard of Bath would travel to the Islamic world to study the advanced learning available in the madrassas. Alvaro of Cordoba, a Mozarab, or Christian living under Muslim rule, wrote in the 14th century:
My fellow Christians delight in the poems and romances of the Arabs; they study the work of Muslim theologians and philosophers, not in order to refute them, but to acquire a correct and elegant Arabic style. Where today can a layman be found who reads Latin commentaries on Holy scripture? At the mention of Christian books they disdainfully protest that such works are unworthy of their notice.

When the Mongol invasions destroyed the institutions of learning in the Islamic heartlands, many learned refugees fled to Delhi, turning northern India for the first time into a major center of scholarship. By the time of the Mughal emperor Akbar in the 16th century, the curriculum in Indian madrassas blended the learning of the Islamic Middle East with that of the teachings of Hindu India, so that Hindu and Muslim students would together study the Koran (in Arabic), the Sufi poetry of Sa'adi (in Persian), and the philosophy of Vedanta (in Sanskrit), as well as ethics, astronomy, medicine, logic, history and the natural sciences. Many of the most brilliant Hindu thinkers, including, for example, the great reformer Ram Mohan Roy (1772–1833), were the products of madrassas.

However, following the collapse of Islamic self-confidence that accompanied the deposition of the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, in 1858, disillusioned scholars founded an influential but narrow-minded Wahhabi-like madrassa at Deoband, a 100 miles north of the former Mughal capital in Delhi. Feeling that their backs were against the wall, the madrassa's founders reacted against what they saw as the degenerate ways of the old elite. The Deoband madrassa therefore went back to Koranic basics and rigorously stripped out anything Hindu or European from the curriculum. [8]

It was, unfortunately, these puritanical Deobandi madrassas that spread throughout North India and Pakistan in the 20th century, and that particularly benefited from the patronage of General Zia ul-Haq and his Saudi allies in the 1980s. Ironically, the US also played an important part in this harnessing of madrassas for holy war as part of the Afghan jihad, with the CIA financing the production by the US Agency for International Development of some notably bloodthirsty madrassa textbooks "filled", according to a Washington Post report, "with violent images and militant Islamic teachings".

One page showed a picture of a jihadi carrying a gun, but with his head blown off, accompanied by a Koranic verse and a tribute to the mujahideen who were "obedient to Allah ... Such men will sacrifice their wealth and their life to impose Islamic law." When the Taliban came to power, these textbooks were distributed for use in schools. [9] At the height of the Afghan jihad, Ronald Reagan is said to have praised mujahideen madrassa students as "the moral equivalent of the founding fathers [of America]".

It is certainly true that many madrassas in Pakistan have an outdated curriculum: some still teach geometry from Euclid and medicine from Galen. Emphasis is put on rote learning rather than the critical study of the Koran, and considerable prestige is still attached to becoming a hafiz - knowing the Koran by heart. Deobandi madrassas teach that the sun revolves around the earth and some even have special seating for the invisible Islamic spirits, the djinns. [10] This is, however, by no means the case with all madrassas, some of which are surprisingly sophisticated.

In Karachi, the largest madrassa is the Dar ul-Uloom. Its green lawns resemble a cross between a five-star hotel and a rather upmarket university campus. It is clean an prosperous-looking: well-watered gardens and palm trees give onto smart, well-kept classrooms and computer rooms; all around, embalmed in scaffolding, new libraries and dormitories rise from the ground

Inside, the atmosphere was earnest and scholarly. In room after room, students sat cross-legged on carpets, reading from Korans that lay open before them, resting on low wooden bookstands. In others students were listening intently as elderly maulanas expounded to them commentaries on the meaning of verses in the Koran and the Hadiths, the traditions of the prophets. A computer room was filled with bearded men struggling with the mysteries of using Urdu and Arabic versions of Microsoft Word and Windows XP; in the senior years, I learned, all essays are expected to be typewritten on computers and handed in as printouts. Of course some other madrassas lack such equipment.

After the beheading of Daniel Pearl, I had taken the precaution of informing the British consulate about my movements; but there was nothing threatening about the Dar ul-Uloom. The students were almost all eager, friendly and intelligent, if somewhat intense. When I asked one bearded student what music he listened to on his new cassette player, he looked at me with horror: the machine was only for listening to sermons. All music was banned.

Puritanical it may be, but it is clear that the Dar ul-Uloom, like many Pakistani madrassas, performs an important service - especially in a country 58% of whose population, and 72% of whose women, are illiterate - indeed half of the population never sees the inside of a school.

Madrassas are often backward in their educational philosophy, but they provide the poor with a real hope of advancing themselves. In certain traditional subjects - such as rhetoric, logic and jurisprudence - the teaching can be excellent. And although they tend to be ultra-conservative, only a small proportion of them are militant. To close them down, without first attempting to build up the state sector, would relegate much of the population to a state of ignorance. It would also be tantamount to instructing Muslims to stop educating themselves about their religion, hardly the best strategy for winning the war for Muslim minds.

You don't have to look far from Pakistan to find a madrassa system that has effectively engaged with the problems of both militancy and educational backwardness. For although India was originally the home of the Deobandi madrassas, such colleges in India have no record of producing violent Islamists, and are strictly apolitical and quietist. Indeed, several of modern India's greatest scholars - such as the Mughal historian Muzaffar Alam of the University of Chicago - are madrassa graduates.

An important study of the madrassas of India by the Hindu scholar Yoginder Sikand, Bastions of the Believers, demonstrates how forward-looking and dynamic some madrassas can be. In the southwest Indian state of Kerala, for example, Sikand found a chain of educational institutions run by the Mujahid group of professionals and businessmen which aim to bridge the differences between modern forms of knowledge and the Islamic worldview.

The Mujahid group has been at the forefront of Muslim women's education in Kerala, and in many of their madrassas girls outnumber boys by a considerable margin. Mujahid intellectuals have written extensively about women's rights from an Islamic perspective, and Sikand quotes the Zohra Bi, the principal of one of the group's colleges: "Islam is wrongly thought of as a religion of women's oppression," she told him. "Through our work in the college we want to show that Islam actually empowers Muslim women."

This would seem to confirm that it is not madrassas per se that are the problem so much as the militant atmosphere and indoctrination taking place in a handful of notorious centers of ultra-radicalism, such as the Binori Town madrassa in Karachi, whose students are taught that jihadism is legitimate and noble. Some graduates have allegedly been involved in the ongoing insurgency in Afghanistan. The question remains, however, whether Musharraf's government has the will to carry out the necessary reforms that would reproduce the success of madrassas in India.

So far attempts at reforming Pakistan's more militant madrassas have proved at best halfhearted. Immediately after the London bombings there were around 250 arrests in Pakistani madrassas, and there have been some attempts at curbing the attendance of foreign students: an estimated 1,400 non-Pakistanis have been expelled since July. Some statements have also been made about standardizing the syllabus and encouraging madrassas to teach some modern subjects.

However, the more extreme madrassas have been able to resist the enforcement of even these mild measures; recently, fewer than half of Pakistan's madrassas complied when asked to register as educational institutions with the authorities. To date, the Pakistani government, far from having found ways of curbing the excesses of the more radical madrassas, does not even possess exact statistics about the number of madrassas in the country. Moreover, the military government's close alliance with the Islamist parties, which now virtually control two of Pakistan's provinces, prevents Musharraf from acting more strongly against the extremist madrassas. As a result not even one militant madrassa has yet been closed.

Such militant madrassas are, however, likely to create more problems for Pakistan's internal security than for the safety of Western capitals. For that, as the July 7 London bombings showed, rather than blaming seminaries in Pakistan we would do better to examine the Islamic extremism blossoming on our own campuses, and the way that the excesses of American and British foreign policies can fatally alienate so many previously moderate Muslims and lead to violence at home as well as in Muslim lands.

Notes
[1] There is considerable disagreement over the number of madrassas in Pakistan and the proportion of the country's students they educate. Most authorities agree that the number has greatly increased in recent years, and a widely quoted report by the International Crisis Group in July 2002 indicated that there could be as many as 10,000 in Pakistan educating over a million and a half students. This was, however, challenged by a March 2005 World Bank report based on government census figures that puts the figure much lower and suggested that less than 1% of all Pakistanis were educated in madrassas. There now seems to be some consensus that the ICG slightly exaggerated the scale of the problem, while the World Bank report seriously underestimates it. A recent survey by Saleem Ali of the University of Vermont argues that the true figure probably stands somewhere between these two reports. See Saleem H. Ali, "Islamic Education and Conflict: Understanding the Madrassahs of Pakistan", a paper presented at the US Institute of Peace, June 24, 2005.
[2] Olivier Roy, Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah, p 93; see the review by Max Rodenbeck, "The Truth About Jihad", The New York Review, August 11, 2005, which also discusses several other books mentioned in this article.
[3] Gilles Kepel, The War for Muslim Minds: Islam and the West, p 112.
[4] Peter Bergen, "The Madrasa Myth", The New York Times, June 14, 2005.
[5] See Olivier Roy, "Has Islamism a Future in Afghanistan?" in Fundamentalism Reborn: Afghanistan and the Taliban, edited by William Maley (New York University Press, 1998). See also Barbara Metcalfe's excellent "Piety, Persuasion and Politics: Deoband's Model of Social Activism", in The Empire and the Crescent: Global Implications for a New American Century, edited by Aftab Ahmad Malik (Amal, 2003), p 157.
[6] On September 1, al-Jazeera aired a video recorded by Mohommad Sidique Khan before his suicide bombing. His statement included the following words: "Your democratically elected governments continuously perpetuate atrocities against my people all over the world. And your support of them makes you directly responsible, just as I am directly responsible for protecting and avenging my Muslim brothers and sisters. Until we feel security, you will be our targets. And until you stop the bombing, imprisonment and torture of my people we will not stop this fight. We are at war."
[7] George Makdisi, The Rise of Colleges: Institutions of Learning in Islam and the West (Edinburgh University Press, 1981).
[8] The Deobandis have received an excellent study in Barbara Daly Metcalf's great magnum opus, Islamic Revival in British India: Deoband, 1860-1900 (Princeton University Press, 1982). See also Jamal Malik, Colonisation of Islam: Dissolution of Traditional Institutions in Pakistan (New Delhi: Manohar, 1988).
[9] There is a full report on these textbooks on the Washington Post Web site by Joe Stephens and David B Ottaway, "From US, the ABC's of Jihad," March 23, 2002, at www.washingtonpost .com/ac2/wp-dyn/A5339-2002Mar22 ?language=printer.
[10] See the superb discussion in Yoginder Sikand's recent Bastions of the Believers: madrassas and Islamic Education in India.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/GK24Df01.html

[The 801]

Wow, Petronas, great piece. Do you know who wrote it?

[Vancouver]

For Googling purposes:

مولانا سامي الحق
Maulana Sami al-Haq

سامي الحق
Sami al-Haq

("Maulana" is a title, not part of his name.)

[Ethyl]

World Islamic Call Society

PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN ISLAM SCHOLARS ASSOCIATION
MULANA SAMI' AL-HAQ ABD AL- HAQ (http://www.islamonline.net/MercyForWorlds/English/Participants/03.shtml)

same link, first page

ORGANIZATION OF ISLAMIC CONFERENCE

[Petronas]

The author of "Myths and madrassas" is William Dalrymple, a Scottish writer and historian who lives in London and New Delhi. He has written about the Indian subcontinent and the demise of Christianity in the Middle East. This is his website:
http://www.williamdalrymple.uk.com/index.html.

[Petronas]

We saw in the Jewish and Armenian holocausts that dehumanizing the "enemy" can be the first step to his extermination. I would be very nervous if I were a member of a religious minority in Iran now.

IRAN: MINORITIES PROTEST KHAMENEI AIDE'S "SINFUL ANIMAL" SLUR
Tehran, 23 Nov.

Iran's religious minorities have slammed recent controversial remarks by a top aide to the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, describing non-Muslims as "sinful animals who roam the earth and engage in corruption." Kurosh Niknam, the Zoroastrian representative in the Iranian parliament, lashed out at the slur, saying it was "an unprecedented insult to religious minorities."

"Not only are non-Muslims not sinful animals, but if Iran has an illustrious past and civilisation to feel good about, it owes this to those who lived in Iran before the arrival of Islam," said Niknam, adding that animals were owed an apology, "because those who sin and besmirch the earth are men who have no respect for God's other creatures."

The inflammatory "sinful animal" remarks were made on Sunday by close advisor to Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati at a ceremony in north-eastern Iran to commemorate the 'martyrs' of the Revolutionary Guards and the (1980-1988) war against Iraq.

The ayatollah heads the powerful Guardian Council, a non-elected body made up of clerics and lawyers, which can veto legislation. As well as being a top aide to Khamenei, he is a mentor of Iran's hardline president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Followers of the Zoroastrian, Jewish, Christian, and Bahai faiths make up two percent of Iran's population. The overwhelming majority (89 percent) are Shia Muslims.

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Religion&loid=8.0.232403182&par=0

[Petronas]

NIGERIA : PASTOR FACES ARREST FOR HARBORING CONVERT FROM ISLAM
Monday December 12, 2005

For Pastor Zacheous Habu Bu Ngwenche, time is running out. In the next two weeks he may find himself back in police detention if he does not produce a convert from Islam abducted from his house by Muslim militants in September. The 31-year-old pastor of Foursquare Gospel Church in Akwanga, in central Nigeria’s Nasarawa state, was arrested twice in September for harboring a Muslim who converted to Christianity. After the second arrest, he spent seven days in a cell in Lafia, the state capital.

One of Ngwenche’s disciples, Adamu Bello, had gone to Bauchi state, in northern Nigeria where sharia (Islamic law) has been imposed, to proclaim Christ among Muslims. In the village of Bura, in Ningi Local Government Area, Bello preached to Bature Suleimanu Idi, a Muslim who in January gave his life to Christ. Sensing that Idi’s life was in danger because of his decision to become a Christian, Bello sent him to Akwanga to take refuge with Ngwenche.

In August, Shiite Muslims in Akwanga discovered that Idi had converted to Christianity; they abducted him on September 10. “Idi was abducted in front of my house and taken to a mosque belonging to the Shiite Islamic sect on Wamba road in Akwanga town,” Ngwenche said. “I went and met the leaders of the Muslim community in this town to protest the abduction. But they claimed that I was holding Idi against his will and was teaching him Christianity without the consent of his relations.”

The Muslim leaders reported the matter to the police, who arrested Ngwenche. Questioning both him and Idi, Ngwenche said, police discovered that Idi had decided to become a Christian without outside pressure. But police said that the case was “very sensitive in view of the volatile nature of religious issues in Nigeria” and took Ngwenche and Idi to police headquarters in Lafia. In the criminal investigation department, the assistant police commissioner questioning them found only confirmation of what Akwanga police had discovered – that Idi’s conversion was voluntary and uncoerced. Police released them but instructed Ngwenche to arrange for Idi to be taken back to his hometown of Ningi. But Idi told police that he would not go back to his village, as his family would kill him for renouncing Islam.

After Ngwenche and Idi returned to Akwanga, on September 12 the Muslim militants again abducted Idi. Ngwenche again reported his abduction at the Akwanga police station that same day. The police asked him to go home but report back the following day if Idi did not return. “I returned the following day to the police station when Idi did not return home,” Ngwenche said. “I was arrested by the police and detained.” Police again took him to Lafia, where they held him in detention for seven days, he said. Ngwenche’s church helped him to win bail.

“I have now been told to produce the Muslim convert, even when the police know that it is the Muslims that abducted Idi,” Ngwenche said. “My fear is that he will be killed. We have raised teams of searchers to help rescue Idi.” Police have told Ngwenche that if he does not produce Idi before the end of the year – in the next two weeks – he runs the risk of going back into detention.

Though not a clear majority, Muslims have large populations in Nasarawa state. Some officials in the state have campaigned for sharia to be imposed, as in 12 northern states, but so far without success.

Ngwenche, also a former Muslim, became a Christian as a young adult and soon thereafter heeded the missionary call. After graduating from the Foursquare Gospel Church missions school, he decided his first mission field would be his family; his Muslim parents were the first to convert. “My family members became the first members of the church I planted in my village,” he said.

In April of 1997, he planted the Nasarawa state’s first Foursquare Gospel Church in Aban village, which today has about 100 members. He’s also planted a church in Agyaga with 60 members; in Ningo village, 20 members; and in Goho village, 25 members. Other villages where his church plants are budding are Ninga, Anjida, Andaha and Buku. On the whole, Ngwenche has planted 18 churches in eight years with a total of about 300 members. While developing 26 pastors as well as missionaries working in 22 areas, Ngwenche has seen opposition rear its ugly head.

“In 1989, I planted two churches in the villages of Nunku and Nunku Chu,” he said. “These villages were Muslim villages. I was frustrated there; I was beaten up by the Muslims, our church was attacked and all we had was destroyed.” The 15 members the church in Nunku, including 14 converts from Islam, scattered. Likewise, the 25 members of the church in Nunku Chu dispersed; 15 of those members had been Muslim. The two churches existed for just one year. Because of the opposition he faced in those two villages, Ngwenche moved to Akwanga to plant the church he’s now leading. Of its 34 members, three are converts from Islam.

http://www.compassdirect.org/en/lead.php

[Petronas]

The Pentagon Breaks the Islam Taboo
By Paul Sperry
FrontPageMagazine.com | December 14, 2005

Washington's policy-makers have been careful in the war on terror to distinguish between Islam and the terrorists. The distinction has rankled conservatives who see scarce difference. A little-noticed speech by President Bush in October gave them some hope. In a major rhetorical shift, he described the enemy as "Islamic radicals" and not just "terrorists," although he still denies that radicalism has anything to do with their religion. Now for the first time, a key Pentagon intelligence agency involved in homeland security is delving into Islam's holy texts to answer whether Islam is being radicalized by the terrorists or is already radical. Military brass want a better understanding of what's motivating the insurgents in Iraq and the terrorists around the globe, including those inside America who may be preparing to strike domestic military bases. The enemy appears indefatigable, even more active now than before 9/11.

Are the terrorists really driven by self-serving politics and personal demons? Or are they driven by religion? And if it's religion, are they following a manual of war contained in their scripture? Answers are hard to come by. Four years into the war on terror, U.S. intelligence officials tell me there are no baseline studies of the Muslim prophet Muhammad or his ideological or military doctrine found at either the CIA or Defense Intelligence Agency, or even the war colleges. But that is slowly starting to change as the Pentagon develops a new strategy to deal with the threat from Islamic terrorists through its little-known intelligence agency called the Counterintelligence Field Activity or CIFA, which staffs hundreds of investigators and analysts to help coordinate Pentagon security efforts at home and abroad. CIFA also supports Northern Command in Colorado, which was established after 9/11 to help military forces react to terrorist threats in the continental United States.

Dealing with the threat on a tactical and operational level through counterstrikes and capture has proven only marginally successful. Now military leaders want to combat it from a strategic standpoint, using informational warfare, among other things. A critical part of that strategy involves studying Islam, including the Quran and the hadiths, or traditions of Muhammad. "Today we are confronted with a stateless threat that does not have at the strategic level targetable entities: no capitals, no economic base, no military formations or installations," states a new Pentagon briefing paper I've obtained. "Yet political Islam wages an ideological battle against the non-Islamic world at the tactical, operational and strategic level. The West's response is focused at the tactical and operation level, leaving the strategic level -- Islam -- unaddressed."

So far the conclusions of intelligence analysts assigned to the project, who include both private contractors and career military officials, contradict the commonly held notion that Islam is a peaceful religion hijacked or distorted by terrorists. They've found that the terrorists for the most part are following a war-fighting doctrine articulated through Muhammad in the Quran, elaborated on in the hadiths, codified in Islamic or sharia law, and reinforced by recent interpretations or fatwahs.

Islam is an ideological engine of war (Jihad)," concludes the sensitive Pentagon briefing paper. And "no one is looking for its off switch." Why? One major reason, the briefing states, is government-wide "indecision [over] whether Islam is radical or being radicalized." So, which is it? "Strategic themes suggest Islam is radical by nature," according to the briefing, which goes on to cite the 26 chapters of the Quran dealing with violent jihad and the examples of the Muslim prophet, who it says sponsored "terror and slaughter" against unbelievers. "Muhammad's behaviors today would be defined as radical," the defense document says, and Muslims today are commanded by their "militant" holy book to follow his example. It adds: Western leaders can no longer afford to overlook the "cult characteristics of Islam."

It also ties Muslim charity to war. Zakat, the alms-giving pillar of Islam, is described in the briefing as "an asymmetrical war-fighting funding mechanism." Which in English translates to: combat support under the guise of tithing. Of the eight obligatory categories of disbursement of Muslim charitable donations, it notes that two are for funding jihad, or holy war. Indeed, authorities have traced millions of dollars received by major jihadi terror groups like Hamas and al-Qaida back to Saudi and other foreign Isamic charities and also U.S. Muslim charities, such as the Holy Land Foundation.

According to the Quran, jihad is not something a Muslim can opt out of. It demands able-bodied believers join the fight. Those unable -- women and the elderly -- are not exempt; they must give "asylum and aid" (Surah 8:74) to those who do fight the unbelievers in the cause of Allah.

In analyzing the threat on the domestic front, the Pentagon briefing draws perhaps its most disturbing conclusions. It argues the U.S. has not suffered from scattered insurgent attacks -- as opposed to the concentrated and catastrophic attack by al-Qaida on 9-11 -- in large part because it has a relatively small Muslim population. But that could change as the Muslim minority grows and gains more influence.

The internal document explains that Islam divides offensive jihad into a "three-phase attack strategy" for gaining control of lands for Allah. The first phase is the "Meccan," or weakened, period, whereby a small Muslim minority asserts itself through largely peaceful and political measures involving Islamic NGOs -- such as the Islamic Society of North America, which investigators say has its roots in the militant Muslim Brotherhood, and Muslim pressure groups, such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations, whose leaders are on record expressing their desire to Islamize America.

In the second "preparation" phase, a "reasonably influential" Muslim minority starts to turn more militant. The briefing uses Britain and the Netherlands as examples.

And in the final jihad period, or "Medina Stage," a large minority uses its strength of numbers and power to rise up against the majority, as Muslim youth recently demonstrated in terrorizing France, the Pentagon paper notes.

It also notes that unlike Judaism and Christianity, Islam advocates expansion by force. The final command of jihad, as revealed to Muhammad in the Quran, is to conquer the world in the name of Islam. The defense briefing adds that Islam is also unique in classifying unbelievers as "standing enemies against whom it is legitimate to wage war."

Right now political leaders don't understand the true nature of the threat, it says, because the intelligence community has yet to educate them. They still think Muslim terrorists, even suicide bombers, are mindless "criminals" motivated by "hatred of our freedoms," rather than religious zealots motivated by their faith. And as a result, we have no real strategic plan for winning a war against jihadists. Even many intelligence analysts and investigators working in the field with the Joint Terrorism Task Forces have a shallow understanding of Islam.

"I don't like to criticize our intelligence services, because we did win the Cold War," says a Northern Command intelligence official. "However, all of these organizations have made only limited progress adjusting to the current threat or the sharing of information." Why? "All suffer heavily from political correctness," he explains. PC still infects the Pentagon, four years after jihadists hit the nation's military headquarters. "A lot of folks here have a very pedestrian understanding of Islam and the Islamic threat," a Pentagon intelligence analyst working on the project told me. "We're getting Islam 101, and we need Islam 404."

The hardest part of formulating a strategic response to the threat is defining Islam as a political and military enemy. Once that psychological barrier has been crossed, defense sources tell me, the development of countermeasures -- such as educating the public about the militant nature of Islam and exploiting "critical vulnerabilities" or rifts within the Muslim faith and community -- can begin. "Most Americans don't realize we are in a war of survival -- a war that is going to continue for decades," the Northcom official warns. It remains to be seen, however, whether our PC-addled political leaders would ever adopt such controversial measures.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=20539

[Petronas]

US Archbishop Candid About Islamic Persecution of Christians
Friday December 16, 2005

WASHINGTON, DC, United States, December 16, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Archbishop Charles Chaput, of the diocese of Denver, broke free from politically correct restrictions to speak openly about growing Moslem persecution of Christians, in an address to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, of which he is a member. “Anti-Christian discrimination and violence seem to be growing throughout the Islamic world,” said Archbishop Chaput. “In the past several years, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and even Moslem-controlled areas of the heavily Catholic Philippines have all seen extraordinary acts of bloodshed against Christians.”

The Archbishop expressed his concern over consistent lack of media attention given to acts of violence against Christians. “Three things distinguish anti-Christian persecution and discrimination around the world. First, it’s ugly. Second, it’s growing. And third, the mass media generally ignore or downplay its gravity.”

Archbishop Chaput referred to media coverage of recent bloody persecution in Indonesia of the Christian minority, by Moslem extremists, as an example of media inaccuracy and neglect. “News reports tend to describe Indonesia’s violence as generically “sectarian,” as if Moslem and Christian extremists were mutually responsible. This is troubling and flatly false,” said Archbishop Chaput. “The bloodshed is overwhelmingly provoked and carried out by Islamic militants against the Christian minority. Over the past decade, hundreds of thousands of persons have been displaced and thousands killed in this anti-Christian campaign of violence.” The attacks referred to by the Archbishop included the beheading of three Christian teen-age girls in late October by Moslem extremists, on the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia.

The Archbishop ended his address with a warning that localized acts of violence against Christians by extremists threaten relationships between Christians and Muslims worldwide, “something neither community of faith can afford.”

http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/dec/05121609.html

[Petronas]

Jihad is 'Muslim obligation'
Tue 20 Dec 2005

A lawyer defending al Qaida-linked suspects standing trial for the 2003 suicide bombings in Istanbul told a court that jihad, or holy war, was an obligation for Muslims and his clients should not be prosecuted. "If you punish them for this, tomorrow, will you punish them for fasting or for praying?" Osman Karahan -- a lawyer representing 14 of the 72 suspects -- asked during a nearly four-hour speech in which he read religious texts from an encyclopedia of Islam.

The November 2003 blasts targeted two synagogues, the British Consulate and the local headquarters of the London-based HSBC bank, killing 58 people.

The Arabic word jihad can mean holy war among extremists in addition to its definition as the Islamic concept of the struggle to do good.

Karahan spoke for three hours at the court in Istanbul. "If non-Muslims go into Muslim lands, it is every Muslim's obligation to fight them," Karahan said.

A panel of three judges for the fiercely secular Turkish Republic listened to Karahan patiently, without speaking, as the defence lawyer read from four thick file folders. Twenty-nine of the suspects were brought to the courthouse for the hearing, handcuffed and escorted by paramilitary police. They sat in the middle of the courtroom, surrounded by police. More than a dozen other lawyers were also present but only Karahan spoke in the morning session. Later in the day, several defendants acknowledged receiving training at foreign camps for Islamic militants or making plans to carry out acts of extremist violence, but all but one denied a link to the Istanbul bombings or to al Qaida.

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2440692005&format=print

[Petronas]

'They promised us paradise through martyrdom'
12/22/2005 12:00 AM (UAE)

Riyadh: Many of the Saudi youths who had been lured to terrorism were victims of false promises that terrorism is the easiest way to attain paradise. "They promised us paradise through martyrdom," said a Saudi youth who has abandoned extremism. A number of other reformed young men echoed his view. Their revelations were broadcast live on Saudi television as part of a serial entitled Experiments in the name of Jihad. Twelve youths who gave up deviant thoughts appeared on Tuesday on the fourth episode of the programme titled 'Regions of clash'.

The episode focused on five major aspects related with extremism. These included temptations for waging holy war (jihad), impact of the decision to join extremist camps, influence of media that illustrate the immensity of death and destruction caused to Muslims across the world, especially in Palestine and Iraq, wrong notions about jihad, and possibility of bringing these youths back from their deviant paths and accommodating those returning from the "regions of clashes".

The youths narrated the circumstances that led them to extremist camps. "The plight of the Muslim ummah as well as the death and destruction caused to our brethren forced us to join with deviant groups. We were easily lured with the promise of paradise through joining in the efforts to alleviate the suffering of our brethren," one of them said.

http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Saudi_Arabia/10006478.html

[Petronas]

Murder 'infidels', Mukhlas urges
December 19, 2005

BALI bombings commander Mukhlas has written a fanatical call-to-arms from his death-row prison cell, exhorting Muslims to kill Westerners. Published on a website on the orders of notorious terror chief Noordin Mohammed Top, the polemic demonstrates the undiminished fervour of Mukhlas, who has been sentenced to death for commanding the Bali bomb blasts in 2002 that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.

You who still have a shred of faith in your hearts, "have you forgotten that to kill infidels and the enemies of Islam is a deed that has a reward above no other," says the 60-page polemic written in Indonesian by "Sheikh Mukhlas", posted on the anshar.net website, which has since been shut down by Indonesian police. "Aren't you aware that the model for us all, the Prophet Mohammed and the four rightful caliphs, undertook to murder infidels as one of their primary activities, and that the Prophet waged jihad operations 77 times in the first 10 years as head of the Muslim community in Medina?"

The jihadist tract reportedly began its life in Bali's Kerobokan prison, where Mukhlas was jailed until recently. It was passed to Top, a militant leader wanted for a string of attacks including the Bali bombings in 2002 and in October this year, the blasts at Jakarta's Marriott hotel and the Australian embassy. Top gave Mukhlas's tract to Javanese webmaster Abdul Aziz to post on the website, which began operating on August 30, according to the webmaster's lawyer, Mohammed Rifan. "The essay was received by Abdul Aziz (the now detained webmaster) from Noordin on a disk," Mr Rifan said, adding that Top had originally approached Aziz to set up the website.

It remains unclear how Mukhlas bypassed jail security to send the polemic to Top, although Mr Rifan said a courier called Rino was sent by Top to the prison to see Mukhlas. The revelations confirm there are continuing links between the jailed Bali bombers and their colleagues at large, and show Mukhlas remains an important figure in the terrorist movement.

Widely regarded as the most intellectual of the Jemaah Islamiah terrorist network militants, Mukhlas rationalises the use of terror and deplores the "hypocrisy" of non-violent Muslims in his polemic. "What matters in this life is less important than what happens in the next," his tract says. "We should live to love jihad and die as martyrs for Allah."

Despite his disdain for this world, Mukhlas's lawyers will seek a judicial review from Indonesia's Supreme Court, potentially stopping his death sentence from being carried out. Before the website was shut down, it carried instructions on how to kill Westerners in Jakarta by using sniper tactics with guns and grenades. The Indonesian police have called the website a "work of terror" and confirmed that Abdul Aziz was detained in connection with the site, and with the second Bali bombings in October. Mukhlas's lawyer, Achmad Michdan, said it was unclear whether the essay was written by his client.

"If that is his writing, I don't believe it appeared there with his agreement," Mr Michdan said, claiming it was impossible for the work to have been written on a laptop or sent via a mobile phone. "I asked for permission for him (to have a laptop), but no," Mr Michdan said.

Mukhlas, the elder brother of fellow Bali bombers Amrozi bin Nurhasyim and Ali Imron, had already written 18 books in jail, Mr Michdan said. Many prisoners in Indonesian jails have mobile phones, a fact that has led to calls for a crackdown on the practice.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/printpage/0,5942,17607307,00.html

[Petronas]

Iranian Pilgrims in Mecca Shout "Death to America, the Great Satan" in an Anti-American Rally
1/9/2006

Following are excerpts from a rally of Iranian pilgrims in Mecca, aired on Channel 1, Iranian TV, and on Al-'Alam TV, on January 9, 2006.
Crowd: Israel is the enemy of Allah.

Man: May the hands of the infidels be chopped off.

Crowd: May the hands of the infidels be chopped off.

Man: May the hands of the infidels be chopped off.

Crowd: May the hands of the infidels be chopped off.

Man: (Chopped off) from the land of the believers.

Crowd: From the land of the believers.

Man: The Audience will now split into two groups: One group will settle the score with America, and the other will settle the score with Israel. This group now: Death to America!

Crowd: Death to America!

Man: Death to Israel!

Crowd: Death to Israel! Death to America!

Man: Death to America!

Crowd: Death to America!

Man: Death to America!

Crowd: Death to Israel! Death to America! Death to Israel!

Man: All together now: Death to America! Death to Israel!

Crowd: Death to America! Death to Israel! Death to America! Death to Israel! Death to America! Death to Israel! Death to America! Death to Israel!

[...]

Speaker: Today, the impure world Zionism, in the modern Age of ignorance, has emerged with the same (polytheistic) ideology, but with new methods. It wants to take over the fields of economy, of culture, and politics, as well as the military, throughout the world.

[...]

We, the pilgrims who have come to the house of God, condemn the plots and the measures taken by the international Zionism – the deceitful Satan who spreads heresy, polytheism, and idolatry, enslaving human beings with a new method. It abuses the divine religion of Moses. It takes Satanic measures, and arouses the world's hatred towards this divine religion, and its true followers. We denounce these criminal acts. We call upon the world of Islam and the free peoples to take significant measures to thwart the Satanic policy of this camp.

Crowd: Allah Akbar. Allah Akbar. Allah Akbar.

Speaker: We, the pilgrims who have come to the house of God, strongly condemn the aggressive measures of "the global arrogance," led by the idol and center of evil, the criminal America. We condemn it for its aggression, war-mongering, its murder, plundering, torture, espionage, its abductions and its secret jails. We strongly condemn it.

We emphasize that the occupation forces must leave the lands of Islam. We express our hatred and our disgust at the mother of all corruption of this century, the Great Satan, and at its illegitimate offspring, the plundering Israel.

Crowd: Allah Akbar. Allah Akbar. Allah Akbar.

[...]

Speaker: My believing brothers, I will now read to you the text of the call of the leader of the Islamic revolution, Imam Khamenei, to the pilgrims who have come to the house of God:

[...]

...Today, the fleets of arrogance are, once again, using new methods of deceit, in order to perpetuate and strengthen their control over the Islamic world. Their slogans of spreading democracy and human rights is one of these methods of deceit. The Great Satan, who embodies evil and violence against humanity, raises the banner of defending of human rights, and summons the peoples of the Middle East to democracy.

The democracy that America wants to implement in these countries, however, means that general elections – which pretend to be popular, but are in fact American elections – will give rise, by means of conspiracies, bribery, and deceptive propaganda, to obedient American collaborators.

These collaborators will accomplish America's goals of arrogance, and first and foremost stopping the spread of Islam, and removing the Islamic values from the scene.

[...]

The fact that the slogan of democracy is being raised by the greedy people who for many years have supported the dictatorial regimes in Asia, Africa, and the American continent is completely unacceptable. Likewise, when the call to fight violence and terrorism by those who support Zionist terrorism, and who carry out the bloodiest kind of violent acts in Iraq and Afghanistan this is a mockery.

[...]

The American and British governments, which permit the torture of suspects, and the spilling of their blood in the streets, and the tapping of citizens' phone calls without a court order, do not have the right to claim they are defending civil rights.

The governments that have blackened the face of modern history with their production and use of nuclear and chemical weapons to not have the right to impose their patronage on the issue of preventing the spread of weapons of mass... on the issue of preventing the spread of nuclear technology.

http://www.memritv.org/Transcript.asp?P1=991

[Vancouver]

This piece is credited to one Abu Mu'aadh al-Makki. I don't know whether the author is contemporary or died a thousand years ago. The fatwa amounts to a death warrant against people who do espionage against Muslim terrorists or any other Muslim criminals.
http://www.islamicawakening.com/viewarticle.php?articleID=1064&
Islamic Awakening is part of the Muslim subculture known as Londinistan.

[pixikill]

Accusing 'Muslim Intellectuals' ......

moslem intellectuals is a contradiction interms

[Vancouver]

The title of this item is "Saudi Doctorate Encourages the Murder of Arab Intellectuals".
http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD107006
The doctorate and 3-volume book are by
Sa'ib bin Nasser al-Ghamdi
سعيد بن ناصر الغامدي
whose name comes up regularly in news about Wahhabis in southwestern KSA. Al-Ghamdi is a "professor" in Abha, and is on the staff of Islam Today, which is run by Salman al-Ouda and Abdul-wahhab at-Tureiri. Anybody who has anything to do with Salman al-Ouda is a dangerous savage; I have yet to see a single exception.

If anybody has al-Ghamdi's hit list, please upload it.

[The 801]

'Divine mission' driving Iran's new leader
By Anton La Guardia
(Filed: 14/01/2006)

As Iran rushes towards confrontation with the world over its nuclear programme, the question uppermost in the mind of western leaders is "What is moving its President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to such recklessness?"

Political analysts point to the fact that Iran feels strong because of high oil prices, while America has been weakened by the insurgency in Iraq.

But listen carefully to the utterances of Mr Ahmadinejad - recently described by President George W Bush as an "odd man" - and there is another dimension, a religious messianism that, some suspect, is giving the Iranian leader a dangerous sense of divine mission.

In November, the country was startled by a video showing Mr Ahmadinejad telling a cleric that he had felt the hand of God entrancing world leaders as he delivered a speech to the UN General Assembly last September.

When an aircraft crashed in Teheran last month, killing 108 people, Mr Ahmadinejad promised an investigation. But he also thanked the dead, saying: "What is important is that they have shown the way to martyrdom which we must follow."

The most remarkable aspect of Mr Ahmadinejad's piety is his devotion to the Hidden Imam, the Messiah-like figure of Shia Islam, and the president's belief that his government must prepare the country for his return.

One of the first acts of Mr Ahmadinejad's government was to donate about £10 million to the Jamkaran mosque, a popular pilgrimage site where the pious come to drop messages to the Hidden Imam into a holy well.

All streams of Islam believe in a divine saviour, known as the Mahdi, who will appear at the End of Days. A common rumour - denied by the government but widely believed - is that Mr Ahmadinejad and his cabinet have signed a "contract" pledging themselves to work for the return of the Mahdi and sent it to Jamkaran.

Iran's dominant "Twelver" sect believes this will be Mohammed ibn Hasan, regarded as the 12th Imam, or righteous descendant of the Prophet Mohammad.

He is said to have gone into "occlusion" in the ninth century, at the age of five. His return will be preceded by cosmic chaos, war and bloodshed. After a cataclysmic confrontation with evil and darkness, the Mahdi will lead the world to an era of universal peace.

This is similar to the Christian vision of the Apocalypse. Indeed, the Hidden Imam is expected to return in the company of Jesus.

Mr Ahmadinejad appears to believe that these events are close at hand and that ordinary mortals can influence the divine timetable.

The prospect of such a man obtaining nuclear weapons is worrying. The unspoken question is this: is Mr Ahmadinejad now tempting a clash with the West because he feels safe in the belief of the imminent return of the Hidden Imam? Worse, might he be trying to provoke chaos in the hope of hastening his reappearance?

The 49-year-old Mr Ahmadinejad, a former top engineering student, member of the Revolutionary Guards and mayor of Teheran, overturned Iranian politics after unexpectedly winning last June's presidential elections.

The main rift is no longer between "reformists" and "hardliners", but between the clerical establishment and Mr Ahmadinejad's brand of revolutionary populism and superstition.

Its most remarkable manifestation came with Mr Ahmadinejad's international debut, his speech to the United Nations.

World leaders had expected a conciliatory proposal to defuse the nuclear crisis after Teheran had restarted another part of its nuclear programme in August.

Instead, they heard the president speak in apocalyptic terms of Iran struggling against an evil West that sought to promote "state terrorism", impose "the logic of the dark ages" and divide the world into "light and dark countries".

The speech ended with the messianic appeal to God to "hasten the emergence of your last repository, the Promised One, that perfect and pure human being, the one that will fill this world with justice and peace".

In a video distributed by an Iranian web site in November, Mr Ahmadinejad described how one of his Iranian colleagues had claimed to have seen a glow of light around the president as he began his speech to the UN.

"I felt it myself too," Mr Ahmadinejad recounts. "I felt that all of a sudden the atmosphere changed there. And for 27-28 minutes all the leaders did not blink…It's not an exaggeration, because I was looking.

"They were astonished, as if a hand held them there and made them sit. It had opened their eyes and ears for the message of the Islamic Republic."

Western officials said the real reason for any open-eyed stares from delegates was that "they couldn't believe what they were hearing from Ahmadinejad".

Their sneaking suspicion is that Iran's president actually relishes a clash with the West in the conviction that it would rekindle the spirit of the Islamic revolution and - who knows - speed up the arrival of the Hidden Imam.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/01/14/wiran14.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/01/14/ixworld.html

[Petronas]

Holocaust a punishment from God, said radical preacher
January 14, 2006

In a sermon in Arabic, a translation of which was read to the court by David Perry, for the prosecution, Abu Hamza said that God had decreed that the Jewish people should face further torture. He said: “Every time they lit the fire for war God has put it out. And this is the imminent result and this is a universal result too. Hitler looked at their dealings and their treachery. They wanted to deceive him in his war. Some were dealing with the Allies against him. So he killed them and punished them and this is a sunna (Islamic rule). And they will be inflicted with that again when the stones and the Sharia start talking to the Muslim — you the worshipper of God . . . This is a Jew dealing in usury, so come and kill him. This shows that the Jews will be destroyed, the State will be destroyed and some of the Jews will be running around hiding behind the trees and the stones and then they get cursed by the earth until there is not one of them left.”

In a separate video, Abu Hamza told a group of people that shoplifting and theft by Muslims from non-believers was permitted. Students were not required to repay loans and identity fraud by Muslim refugees was allowed, according to his interpretation of Islam.

In other passages from his lectures, the court heard Abu Hamza telling his audience that they were allowed to kill non-Muslims. He said: “Killing a kuffar (unbeliever) who is fighting you is OK. Killing a kuffar for any reason, you can say it is OK even if there is no reason for it.” ...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1984369,00.html

[Petronas]

Recruits promised booty on Earth, virgins in the next
01 February 2006 11:53

Saifullah was tired of his exhausting job as a blacksmith in a Pakistani village when a friend suggested he join the jihad, or holy war, against United States troops in Afghanistan. The 20-year-old, who shared a simple mud-brick house with his father, mother and a brother, told Agence France-Presse he wasn't sure whether to accept the call to fight in the country of his forefathers or to continue with his hammer and anvil.

"If you kill one American soldier, then you can keep his money, his gun, boots and clothes," he recalled his friend saying. "And if I die?" Saifullah said he asked of the young man, himself a recruit of Taliban commander Mullah Samad who is said to be close to the fugitive leader of the ousted extremist Taliban regime, Mullah Omar. "If you die, you will get seven virgin 'houris' in paradise," the man said, referring to the virgin angels the Muslim holy book, the Qur'an, says awaits good Muslims, especially martyrs, when they die. "I accepted," Saifullah said on Tuesday from his hospital bed in the dusty Afghan border town of Spin Boldak hours after being shot in the legs in a clash with Afghan tribesmen.

He and nine other Taliban recruits -- all descendants of Afghan refugees in Pakistan -- were attacked late on Monday by the chief of Loy Kariz village, about 50km from Spin Boldak, and his men. They had been in the village under the command of Mullah Samad to look for and kill US troops and their "spies". They had also set up roadblocks to interrogate clean-shaven men and confiscate cassettes, in line with the Taliban's doctrine that shaving and listening to music are "un-Islamic".

Two of Saifullah's comrades were killed in the clash. His own dreams were shattered when his injured hands were tied behind his back and he and another wounded fighter were handed over to Afghan security forces. The young blacksmith's experience of jihad had lasted 72 hours from the time of his recruitment.

Abdul Wasey Alakozai, the police chief of Spin Boldak, said one of the rebels had detonated a grenade at his feet, in a suicide attack, when he realised he would be arrested. The rebel and a villager were killed and 14 other locals were wounded, Alakozai said.

The incident is a rare example of villagers taking on the Taliban, who are leading a guerrilla-style insurgency plaguing southern and eastern Afghanistan almost since the hardliners were overthrown in a United States-led invasion in late 2001. The regime was toppled after it refused to hand over Osama bin Laden, the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks on US cities. Most of the ousted government and its al-Qaeda allies fled to Pakistan, according to Afghan officials. Since then, they have been crossing the poorly controlled 2 400km border to carry out attacks on Afghan and foreign targets inside Afghanistan.

"Mullah Samad gave me a gun on the border," recalled Saifullah, who like many Afghans uses only one name. He and the others walked 48 hours to reach Loya Kariz village, he said.

Alakozai and Asadullah Khalid, governor of Kandahar province which includes Spin Boldak, admitted they did not have enough security forces to control the rugged border. But Khalid also blamed Pakistan for propping up the militants. "They have training facilities in Pakistan and are being supported down there," he said in Kandahar. To support his claims, the governor said three of about 20 suspected rebels arrested in recent days for allegedly plotting attacks were Pakistani citizens. He said they were planning suicide attacks -- which have spiked in Afghanistan with at least 20 in the past four months in a trend analysts say shows rebels have adopted Iraq-style tactics.

On January 15, a senior Canadian diplomat was killed and three Canadian soldiers were injured in a suicide attack in Kandahar. The governor said the Taliban fighters had some support among Afghans in villages along the border, although this was low.

From his hospital bed, the body of one of his slain fellow recruits nearby, Saifullah agreed, saying his band of men had no problem moving through the area until they were stopped by the village chief and his men. Mullah Samad had even been allowed to use a loudspeaker atop the Loya Kariz mosque to call people to jihad. He remembered the message as: "Join us in jihad. If you don't join us, God will punish you."

http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news/&articleid=262961

[Petronas]

It seems that those who want us to believe that Islam is a religion of tolerance and peace still have a little more work to do.

Call for Jihad over prophet cartoon row goes online
2006-02-03

Muslim extremists are using the furore over the Prophet Mohammed cartoons published in European newspapers to rally the faithful to a jihad (holy war), in several Internet postings.

"Brothers, it's war against Islam ..., grab your swords," says hardline Saudi cleric Sheikh Badr bin Nader al-Mashari in a voice recording posted on an Islamist website. ... "To the billion Muslims: where are your arms? Your enemies have trampled on the prophet. Rise up," screamed the sheikh, who is the imam of a mosque in Riyadh, amid the cries of the faithful listening to his speech.

"Boycotts and messages of indignation instead of bombs and explosives," lamented female blogger Ashiqat al-Jihad (lover of the holy war) in one posting. ...

"Our prophet was insulted again by France. The boycott will accomplish nothing. We need bombs and explosives," said another blogger under the pseudonym Abu Badr.

A blogger using the name Ubda called on Islamic militants in Iraq, Palestine and Chechnya not to spare any Danes and Norwegians they come across. "Slit their throats in the style of (Abu Musab) al-Zarqawi," he said referring to Iraq's most wanted militant and leader of Al-Qaeda in the war-torn country.

London-based Arab newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi published Thursday a statement attributed to an Al-Qaeda linked group, the Brigades of Abu Hafs al-Masri, warning Denmark and all those who insult the prophet with a "bloody war". "The infidels must know that the coming days will see a bloody war and a series of blessed conquests," said the statement.

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said ... "A Danish government can never apologise on behalf of a free and independent newspaper...

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=15652

[Petronas]

Go to the article itself - the text on the placards is quite interesting.

Hate demo over cartoon
Sunday, February 5, 2006

THEIR eyes are full of hate and their banners call for a new 7/7 terror attack. This is the way a baying Muslim mob reacted to the row over the Prophet Muhammad cartoons on the streets of London yesterday. More than 400 protesters — including small children — carried placards scrawled with messages of hate. A baby girl even had “I Love al-Qaeda” on her bonnet. The parents of pretty Farisa Jihad, 20 months, proudly proclaimed she is the youngest member of the terror group. She was brought to the protest by her father Abu, 38. Next to her was a huge poster exclaiming: “Whoever insults a prophet, kill him.” Another placard nearby said: “Britain you will pay — 7/7 is on its way.” Another declared: “Behead those who insult Islam.” Another said: “Free speech go to hell.”

The mob met after Friday prayers outside Regent’s Park mosque in central London and marched through the streets towards the Danish embassy on Sloane Street. Denmark was the first to publish the cartoons. Shouts of “We adore Osama Bin Laden” rang out from a small section of the crowd along with “Denmark watch your back — Osama’s coming back.”

Many in the crowd waved their provocative placards and screamed their hatred towards Europe. One read: “Europe — take some lessons from 9-11”, while another warned: “Europe you will pay.” Two children, aged about six, sat on top of a car with a placard saying: “Black flag over Downing Street.”

The protesters were whipped into a frenzy when a red and white Danish flag was set on fire. The charred pieces of the flag were held aloft on a stick. When one protester shouted out “Bomb, bomb Denmark” the sound of an air raid siren was played over loudspeakers.

Onlookers were shocked by the ferocity of the demo. Mohammed Demasco, 24, who moved to the UK from Syria 13 years ago, said they did not represent the views of mainstream Muslims. He said: “Slogans saying ‘UK go to hell’ do not represent me as a Muslim. There is a lot of anger going around here and unfortunately you get idiocy like this. It makes me very angry and I have spoken to people holding these placards and asked them why they are saying such things.” A policeman standing in front of the crowd made notes of the words of hatred being shouted out. Three Transit vans full of his colleagues were parked out of view of the protesters ready to reinforce the dozen officers standing in front of the embassy. Despite the banners the demo was peaceful.

Bosses at the BBC had earlier beefed up security at TV centre in Shepherds Bush after protesters made threats against Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman. There were shouts of “Watch your back Paxman” after they disagreed with comments he made on air about the cartoon issue. A BBC source said: “Any threat against a member of staff will be taken seriously.” Glimpses of the cartoons have been seen on TV. No British newspaper has published them. The Muslim Council of Britain last night condemned the demonstration. Secretary general Sir Iqbal Sacranie said: “The British media has taken a lead on the world stage by showing responsibility and restraint over this issue. It’s deplorable that a small group of rogue demonstrators has repaid the restraint with the type of language used at the demonstration. We totally condemn the type of language used.

The demo in London followed similar protests across the world.
Violence flared in Jakarta, Indonesia, when a mob of 70 people stormed a high-rise building housing the Danish embassy. In the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Muslim leaders vowed revenge for the “blasphemous” cartoons. One preacher told worshippers: “We will not accept less than severing the heads of those responsible.” The editor of a paper in Jordan was fired after he ran the cartoons. And in Lebanon, Palestinian refugees called on Bin Laden to take revenge. One said: “We will not be satisfied with protests. The solution is the slaughter of those who harmed Islam and the Prophet.”

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006050831,00.html

[Petronas]

I am not posting the text here as it is 12 pages long. Click on the link and read this interview with Dr. Andrew Bostom, I predict you will find it worth your time, particularly if you are considering buying his book "The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims".

The Legacy of Jihad
January 30, 2006
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=21088

[Petronas]

I have been critical of Rumsfeld in a number of areas, such as his handling of some aspects of the Iraqi operation and the "transformation" of the military. But, I have to say, here he is right on in an area where there still is a lot of muddled thinking in the West.

Rumsfeld: Iran regime sponsors terrorism
Sat. 04 Feb 2006

MUNICH, Germany (AP) - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld urged America's allies to increase their military spending to prevent the rise of a "global extremist Islamic empire." ... He warned "a war has been declared on all of our nations" and said their "futures depend on determination and unity in the face of the terrorist threat."

"We could choose to pretend, as some suggest, that the enemy is not at our doorstep. We could choose to believe, as some contend, that the threat is exaggerated. But those who would follow such a course must ask: what if they are wrong? What if at this moment, the enemy is counting on being underestimated, counting on being dismissed, and counting on our preoccupation," Rumsfeld said. ...

He said Islamic militants are on the move and have to be checked. "They seek to take over governments from North Africa to Southeast Asia and to re-establish a caliphate they hope, one day, will include every continent," he said. "They have designed and distributed a map where national borders are erased and replaced by a global extremist Islamic empire."

Likening the war on terror to the Cold War, Rumsfeld said the battle could be won if nations persevered. He invoked Merkel's own experience - growing up in Communist East Germany to become chancellor of a unified Germany. "Freedom prevailed because our free nations showed resolve when retreat would have been easier, and showed courage when concession seemed simpler," he said. ...

http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=5623

[Petronas]

Because They Hate
February 20, 2006

We gather here today to share information and knowledge. Intelligence is not merely cold hard data about numerical strength or armament or disposition of military forces. The most important element of intelligence has to be understanding the mindset and intention of the enemy. The West has been wallowing in a state of ignorance and denial for thirty years as Muslim extremist perpetrated evil against innocent victims in the name of Allah.

I was ten years old when my home exploded around me, burying me under the rubble and leaving me to drink my blood to survive, as the perpetrators shouted “Allah Akbar!” My only crime was that I was a Christian living in a Christian town. At 10 years old, I learned the meaning of the word "infidel."

I had a crash course in survival. Not in the Girl Scouts, but in a bomb shelter where I lived for seven years in pitch darkness, freezing cold, drinking stale water and eating grass to live. At the age of 13 I dressed in my burial clothes going to bed at night, waiting to be slaughtered. By the age of 20, I had buried most of my friends--killed by Muslims. We were not Americans living in New York, or Britons in London. We were Arab Christians living in Lebanon.

As a victim of Islamic terror, I was amazed when I saw Americans waking up on September 12, 2001, and asking themselves "Why do they hate us?" The psychoanalyst experts were coming up with all sort of excuses as to what did we do to offend the Muslim World. But if America and the West were paying attention to the Middle East they would not have had to ask the question. Simply put, they hate us because we are defined in their eyes by one simple word: "infidels."

Under the banner of Islam "la, ilaha illa allah, muhammad rasoulu allah," (None is god except Allah; Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah) they murdered Jewish children in Israel, massacred Christians in Lebanon, killed Copts in Egypt, Assyrians in Syria, Hindus in India, and expelled almost 900,000 Jews from Muslim lands. We Middle Eastern infidels paid the price then. Now infidels worldwide are paying the price for indifference and shortsightedness.

Tolerating evil is a crime. Appeasing murderers doesn't buy protection. It earns one disrespect and loathing in the enemy's eyes. Yet apathy is the weapon by which the West is committing suicide. Political correctness forms the shackles around our ankles, by which Islamists are leading us to our demise.

America and the West are doomed to failure in this war unless they stand up and identify the real enemy: Islam. You hear about Wahabbi and Salafi Islam as the only extreme form of Islam. All the other Muslims, supposedly, are wonderful moderates. Closer to the truth are the pictures of the irrational eruption of violence in reaction to the cartoons of Mohammed printed by a Danish newspaper. From burning embassies, to calls to butcher those who mock Islam, to warnings that the West be prepared for another holocaust, those pictures have given us a glimpse into the real face of the enemy. News pictures and video of these events represent a canvas of hate decorated by different nationalities who share one common ideology of hate, bigotry and intolerance derived from one source: authentic Islam. An Islam that is awakening from centuries of slumber to re-ignite its wrath against the infidel and dominate the world. An Islam which has declared "Intifada" on the West.

America and the West can no longer afford to lay in their lazy state of overweight ignorance. The consequences of this mental disease are starting to attack the body, and if they don't take the necessary steps now to control it, death will be knocking soon. If you want to understand the nature of the enemy we face, visualize a tapestry of snakes. They slither and they hiss, and they would eat each other alive, but they will unite in a hideous mass to achieve their common goal of imposing Islam on the world.

This is the ugly face of the enemy we are fighting. We are fighting a powerful ideology that is capable of altering basic human instincts. An ideology that can turn a mother into a launching pad of death. A perfect example is a recently elected Hamas official in the Palestinian Territories who raves in heavenly joy about sending her three sons to death and offering the ones who are still alive for the cause. It is an ideology that is capable of offering highly educated individuals such as doctors and lawyers far more joy in attaining death than any respect and stature, life in society is ever capable of giving them.

The United States has been a prime target for radical Islamic hatred and terror. Every Friday, mosques in the Middle East ring with shrill prayers and monotonous chants calling death, destruction and damnation down on America and its people. The radical Islamists’ deeds have been as vile as their words. Since the Iran hostage crisis, more than three thousand Americans have died in a terror campaign almost unprecedented in its calculated cruelty along with thousands of other citizens worldwide. Even the Nazis did not turn their own children into human bombs, and then rejoice at their deaths as well the deaths of their victims. This intentional, indiscriminate and wholesale murder of innocent American citizens is justified and glorified in the name of Islam.

America cannot effectively defend itself in this war unless and until the American people understand the nature of the enemy that we face. Even after 9/11 there are those who say that we must “engage” our terrorist enemies, that we must “address their grievances”. Their grievance is our freedom of religion. Their grievance is our freedom of speech. Their grievance is our democratic process where the rule of law comes from the voices of many not that of just one prophet. It is the respect we instill in our children towards all religions. It is the equality we grant each other as human beings sharing a planet and striving to make the world a better place for all humanity. Their grievance is the kindness and respect a man shows a woman, the justice we practice as equals under the law, and the mercy we grant our enemy. Their grievance cannot be answered by an apology for who or what we are.

Our mediocre attitude of not confronting Islamic forces of bigotry and hatred wherever they raised their ugly head in the last 30 years, has empowered and strengthened our enemy to launch a full scale attack on the very freedoms we cherish in their effort to impose their values and way of life on our civilization.

If we don't wake up and challenge our Muslim community to take action against the terrorists within it, if we don't believe in ourselves as Americans and in the standards we should hold every patriotic American to, we are going to pay a price for our delusion. For the sake of our children and our country, we must wake up and take action. In the face of a torrent of hateful invective and terrorist murder, America’s learning curve since the Iran hostage crisis is so shallow that it is almost flat. The longer we lay supine, the more difficult it will be to stand erect.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=21364

[Petronas]

Muslim Preacher on Temple Mount: Restore Worldwide Islamic Rule
11:59 Feb 26, '06 / 28 Shevat 5766

Sheikh Ismail Nawahda, preaching to Moslem masses on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on Friday, has brought it out into the open: the call to restore the Moslem Khalifate, or, "Genuine Islamic Rule." A plan for the "Return of the Khalifate" was published secretly in 2002 by a group called "The Guiding Helper Foundation." The group explained that it wished to "give direction to the educated Muslim populace in its increasing interest in the establishment of Islam as a practical system of rule."

This past Friday, Feb. 24, however, the plan went public. Sheikh Nawahda called publicly for the renewal of the Islamic Khalifate, which would "unite all the Moslems in the world against the infidels." The Khalifate system features a leader, known as a Khalif, who heads worldwide Islam. Assisted by a ten-man council, his decisions are totally binding on all Moslems. According to the Foundation's vision of the Khalifate, significant punishment can only be meted out for 14 crimes, including "accusing a chaste person of fornication," "not performing the formal prayer," and "not fasting during Ramadan."

The Foundation recommends working to restore the Moslem dictatorship using a system of small groups around the world. The purpose is so that the "enemies of Islam" who "will definitely try to stop us" will have a "much harder task, if not impossible, if they are faced with a myriad of small groups of differing locations, ethnicities," etc. This method also "ensures that if one group... is found and cut off, other similar groups will remain undetected."

Sheikh Nawahda reminded his Temple Mount audience that the first step taken by Muhammed in stabilizing his rule was to form the nucleus of the first Islamic country in the city of Medina. Nawahda also said that the status of Moslems around the world has dropped drastically ever since the collapse of the last Khalifate in 1924, after Turkey became a democratic republic.

Nawahda called upon the Arabs of the Palestinian Authority to rise above their personal and party interests, and said that Moslems must return to Islam and join forces in the struggle against the West. He praised the worldwide protests against the anti-Muhammed cartoons, and encouraged the Moslem public to continue such activities. He implied that those who insulted Muhammed are liable for death. The Sheikh designated the Moslem masses as a strong point that can be utilized in the fight against the West.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=99210

[Petronas]

Leading Islamist Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi: We are Fighting in the Name of Islam...
February 28, 2006

The following are excerpts from a television program with Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi,aired on Qatar TV on February 25, 2006. Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi is head of the European Council for Fatwa and Research, president of the International Association of Muslim Scholars (IAMS), and the spiritual guide of many other Islamist organizations across the world, including the Muslim Brotherhood.

TO VIEW THIS CLIP, VISIT: http://www.memritv.org/search.asp?ACT=S9&P1=1052

Yousef Al-Qaradhawi: "Our war with the Jews is over land, brothers. We must understand this. If they had not plundered our land, there wouldn't be a war between us."

[...]

"We are fighting them in the name of Islam, because Islam commands us to fight whoever plunders our land, and occupies our country. All the school of Islamic jurisprudence - the Sunni, the Shi'ite, the Ibadhiya - and all the ancient and modern schools of jurisprudence - agree that any invader who occupies even an inch of land of the Muslims must face resistance. The Muslims of that country must carry out the resistance, and the rest of the Muslims must help them. If the people of that country are incapable or reluctant, we must fight to defend the land of Islam, even if the local [Muslims] give it up.

"They must not allow anyone to take a single piece of land away from Islam. That is what we are fighting the Jews for. We are fighting them... Our religion commands us... We are fighting in the name of religion, in the name of Islam, which makes this Jihad an individual duty, in which the entire nation takes part, and whoever is killed in this [Jihad] is a martyr. This is why I ruled that martyrdom operations are permitted, because he commits martyrdom for the sake of Allah, and sacrifices his soul for the sake of Allah.

"We do not disassociate Islam from the war. On the contrary, disassociating Islam from the war is the reason for our defeat. We are fighting in the name of Islam."

[...]

"They fight us with Judaism, so we should fight them with Islam. They fight us with the Torah, so we should fight them with the Koran. If they say 'the Temple,' we should say 'the Al-Aqsa Mosque.' If they say: 'We glorify the Sabbath,' we should say: 'We glorify the Friday.' This is how it should be. Religion must lead the war. This is the only way we can win."

[...]

"Everything will be on our side and against Jews on [Judgment Day]; at that time, even the stones and the trees will speak, with or without words, and say: 'Oh servant of Allah, oh Muslim, there's a Jew behind me, come and kill him.' They will point to the Jews. It says 'servant of Allah,' not 'servant of desires,' 'servant of women,' 'servant of the bottle,' 'servant of Marxism,' or 'servant of liberalism'... It said 'servant of Allah.'

"When the Muslims, the Arabs, and the Palestinians enter a war, they do it to worship Allah. They enter it as Muslims. The hadith says: 'Oh Muslim.' It says 'oh Muslim,' not 'oh Palestinian, Jordanian, Syrian, or Arab nationalist.' No, it says: 'Oh Muslim.' When we enter [a war] under the banner of Islam, and under the banner of serving Allah, we will be victorious."

http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD110206

[Petronas]

Senior Iran cleric says attacks on embassies permissible
Tue. 28 Feb 2006

Tehran, Iran, Feb. 28 – A senior Iranian cleric has approved attacks on foreign embassies in Tehran over the publication of insulting cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in European dailies, a website belonging to the office of hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reported.

“Muslims must take the most ferocious stance against insults to Islamic sanctities”, the senior cleric told Ayatollah Dorri Najaf-Abadi, the country’s Chief State Prosecutor, according to the Persian-language website Khedmat. “If setting fire to embassies of countries that insult the Prophet aims to show that these countries no longer have any place in Islamic countries then this act is permissible”, the senior ayatollah was quoted as saying.

“Anyone who dies in this path [of protests against the insults] is a martyr”, he said.

Khedmat did not name the senior Shiite religious leader, but Najaf-Abadi met and held talks separately with five senior ayatollahs in Qom on February 20. The ayatollahs, Moussavi Ardebili, Makarem Shirazi, Fazel Lankarani, Safi Golpayegani and Nouri Hamedani, unanimously condemned the cartoons depicting Islam’s Prophet Mohammad and described it as a “Zionist and Western conspiracy against Islam”.

“The support shown for the [cartoons] by the European Union and some European governments showed that this was not just an issue of journalism. But Muslims’ reaction was beyond expectation and it showed that Muslims have woken up and this is a great asset”, Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi told the prosecutor, according to the government-owned ISNA news agency.

http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=5970

[Petronas]

At least he proved that the Muslim was the more belligerent of the two. I can't believe that they allowed the one who threatened to blow up the plane to fly

Arguing men put on separate flights

Athens: An Orthodox Christian and a Muslim man who were travelling to Germany were forcibly put on separate flights after they began fighting over their religious beliefs at the international airport here, reports said on Thursday. The men, bound for a flight to Frankfurt, began arguing on the bus as they were being transferred from the terminal to the plane.

According to reports, the two men started fighting over who was the more religious of the two when the Muslim man, fed up with being attacked, suddenly exclaimed that he was going to blow up everyone on the plane. Security officials briefly detained both men and put them on separate flights.

http://www.asianage.com/main.asp?layout=2&cat1=2&cat2=31&newsid=211540&RF=DefaultMain

[Petronas]

Hamas website: Kids, die for Allah
03.08.06, 09:19

A new, attractive website for children was recently launched on the net. The site features animated figures and stories that young children could easily relate to. However, unlike ordinary sites catering for children, this particular one is operated by Hamas and its main objective is to advocate suicide and self sacrifice on behalf of Allah.

According to Israel's leading newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, the site, whose name means "The Victor," glorifies death and suicide for God. In one instance, a caption that appears next to a picture of an animated girl throwing stones at IDF soldiers, reads: "Death for Allah is victory, the victory of the glorified heroes whose names will forever remain in the hearts of millions of Muslims across the world." The animated figure calls on children surfing the web to enter the site and learn about the lives of "shahids" (martyrs) who "died a hero's death," after massacring Jews.

Another section of the site is dedicated to suicide bombers. Each day the site presents the picture and biography of a different "shahid." A special page on "The Victor" focuses on the story of Hamas' "brave shahid" Nazim Jabary, who carried out a suicide bombing aboard a Be'er Sheva bus in 2004, killing 16 people, including children.

And, like every self-respecting site for youngsters, the website also features some catchy songs to entertain surfers: "For the great heroes who killed the Zionist thieves and invaders and died for Allah. These are the heroes our people will treasure in their hearts for eternity, and their names will be spoken by millions of Muslims today and in the future."

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3225214,00.html

[Petronas]

A fearless Arab American
TODAY'S EDITORIAL
March 4, 2006

To judge by her appearances on al Jazeera, Los Angeles psychologist Wafa Sultan is the very definition of fearlessness. Face-to-face with radical Islamists before millions of potentially hostile viewers around the Arab world, Ms. Sultan -- a secular Arab American fluent in Arabic -- does not flinch when called a heretic and a blasphemer. For all we know, she is endangering her life.
Her latest appearance took place Feb. 21, when Ms. Sultan engaged the Egyptian cleric Ibrahim Al-Khouli in a live debate about the "clash of civilizations" on the talk show "The Other Direction" on al Jazeera TV. The transcript and subtitled video are available in English (www.memri.org). "The clash we are witnessing around the world is not a clash of religions, or a clash of civilizations," she said. "It is a clash between two opposites, between two eras. It is a clash between a mentality that belongs to the Middle Ages and another mentality that belongs to the 21st century. It is a clash between civilization and backwardness, between the civilized and the primitive, between barbarity and rationality ... What we see today is not a clash of civilizations."
Turning to her Egyptian interlocutor Mr. Al-Khouli, she asks, "What gives you the right to call [Christians] 'those who incur Allah's wrath,' or 'those who have gone astray,' and then come here and say that your religion commands you to refrain from offending the beliefs of others?" Mr. Al-Khouli had previously compared Christians to apes and pigs. "I am not a Christian, a Muslim or a Jew. I am a secular human being. I do not believe in the supernatural, but I respect others' right to believe in it."
"Are you a heretic?" Mr. Al-Khouli asks.
"You can say whatever you like. I am a secular human being who does not believe in the supernatural," she responds.
"If you are a heretic, there is no point in rebuking you, since you have blasphemed against Islam, the prophet and the Koran."
"These are personal matters that do not concern you," she says. "Brother, you can believe in stones, as long as you don't throw them at me. You are free to worship whoever you want, but other people's beliefs are not your concern ... Let people have their beliefs."
She then issues an even greater provocation. "We have not seen a single Jew blow himself up in a German restaurant. We have not seen a single Jew destroy a church ... Only the Muslims defend their beliefs by burning down churches, killing people and destroying embassies. This path will not yield any results. The Muslims must ask themselves what they can do for humankind, before they demand that humankind respect them."
This isn't the first time Ms. Sultan has engaged radical Islamists: In July MEMRI translated her al Jazeera face-off with the Algerian Islamist Ahmad Bin Muhammad on the subject of Palestinian suicide bombers. Ms. Sultan "absolutely puts herself at risk" by appearing on this program, a MEMRI staffer told The Washington Times. Which seems about right: Her remarks are as or more provocative as Salman Rushdie's.

http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20060303-090939-8482r.htm

See also:

Attacks on Arab-American Psychologist Wafa Sultan: Islamist Sheikh on Al-Jazeera Calls Her Heretic; Syrian Sermon Calls Her Infidel
March 7, 2006
http://www.memri.org/bin/opener_latest.cgi?ID=SD110706

[al-Canine]

A fearless Arab American
more on Ms. Sultan... (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/11/international/middleeast/11sultan.html?_r=1&incamp=article_popular_1&oref=slogin)

For Muslim Who Says Violence Destroys Islam, Violent Threats

LOS ANGELES, March 10 — Three weeks ago, Dr. Wafa Sultan was a largely unknown Syrian-American psychiatrist living outside Los Angeles, nursing a deep anger and despair about her fellow Muslims.

Today, thanks to an unusually blunt and provocative interview on Al Jazeera television on Feb. 21, she is an international sensation, hailed as a fresh voice of reason by some, and by others as a heretic and infidel who deserves to die.

In the interview, which has been viewed on the Internet more than a million times and has reached the e-mail of hundreds of thousands around the world, Dr. Sultan bitterly criticized the Muslim clerics, holy warriors and political leaders who she believes have distorted the teachings of Muhammad and the Koran for 14 centuries.

She said the world's Muslims, whom she compares unfavorably with the Jews, have descended into a vortex of self-pity and violence.

Dr. Sultan said the world was not witnessing a clash of religions or cultures, but a battle between modernity and barbarism, a battle that the forces of violent, reactionary Islam are destined to lose.

In response, clerics throughout the Muslim world have condemned her, and her telephone answering machine has filled with dark threats. But Islamic reformers have praised her for saying out loud, in Arabic and on the most widely seen television network in the Arab world, what few Muslims dare to say even in private.

"I believe our people are hostages to our own beliefs and teachings," she said in an interview this week in her home in a Los Angeles suburb.

Dr. Sultan, who is 47, wears a prim sweater and skirt, with fleece-lined slippers and heavy stockings. Her eyes and hair are jet black and her modest manner belies her intense words: "Knowledge has released me from this backward thinking. Somebody has to help free the Muslim people from these wrong beliefs."

Perhaps her most provocative words on Al Jazeera were those comparing how the Jews and Muslims have reacted to adversity. Speaking of the Holocaust, she said, "The Jews have come from the tragedy and forced the world to respect them, with their knowledge, not with their terror; with their work, not with their crying and yelling."

She went on, "We have not seen a single Jew blow himself up in a German restaurant. We have not seen a single Jew destroy a church. We have not seen a single Jew protest by killing people."

She concluded, "Only the Muslims defend their beliefs by burning down churches, killing people and destroying embassies. This path will not yield any results. The Muslims must ask themselves what they can do for humankind, before they demand that humankind respect them."

Her views caught the ear of the American Jewish Congress, which has invited her to speak in May at a conference in Israel. "We have been discussing with her the importance of her message and trying to devise the right venue for her to address Jewish leaders," said Neil B. Goldstein, executive director of the organization.

She is probably more welcome in Tel Aviv than she would be in Damascus. Shortly after the broadcast, clerics in Syria denounced her as an infidel. One said she had done Islam more damage than the Danish cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammad, a wire service reported.

DR. SULTAN is "working on a book that — if it is published — it's going to turn the Islamic world upside down."

"I have reached the point that doesn't allow any U-turn. I have no choice. I am questioning every single teaching of our holy book."

The working title is, "The Escaped Prisoner: When God Is a Monster."

Dr. Sultan grew up in a large traditional Muslim family in Banias, Syria, a small city on the Mediterranean about a two-hour drive north of Beirut. Her father was a grain trader and a devout Muslim, and she followed the faith's strictures into adulthood.

But, she said, her life changed in 1979 when she was a medical student at the University of Aleppo, in northern Syria. At that time, the radical Muslim Brotherhood was using terrorism to try to undermine the government of President Hafez al-Assad. Gunmen of the Muslim Brotherhood burst into a classroom at the university and killed her professor as she watched, she said.

"They shot hundreds of bullets into him, shouting, 'God is great!' " she said. "At that point, I lost my trust in their god and began to question all our teachings. It was the turning point of my life, and it has led me to this present point. I had to leave. I had to look for another god."

She and her husband, who now goes by the Americanized name of David, laid plans to leave for the United States. Their visas finally came in 1989, and the Sultans and their two children (they have since had a third) settled in with friends in Cerritos, Calif., a prosperous bedroom community on the edge of Los Angeles County.

After a succession of jobs and struggles with language, Dr. Sultan has completed her American medical licensing, with the exception of a hospital residency program, which she hopes to do within a year. David operates an automotive-smog-check station. They bought a home in the Los Angeles area and put their children through local public schools. All are now American citizens.

BUT even as she settled into a comfortable middle-class American life, Dr. Sultan's anger burned within. She took to writing, first for herself, then for an Islamic reform Web site called Annaqed (The Critic), run by a Syrian expatriate in Phoenix.

An angry essay on that site by Dr. Sultan about the Muslim Brotherhood caught the attention of Al Jazeera, which invited her to debate an Algerian cleric on the air last July.

In the debate, she questioned the religious teachings that prompt young people to commit suicide in the name of God. "Why does a young Muslim man, in the prime of life, with a full life ahead, go and blow himself up?" she asked. "In our countries, religion is the sole source of education and is the only spring from which that terrorist drank until his thirst was quenched."

Her remarks set off debates around the globe and her name began appearing in Arabic newspapers and Web sites. But her fame grew exponentially when she appeared on Al Jazeera again on Feb. 21, an appearance that was translated and widely distributed by the Middle East Media Research Institute, known as Memri.

Memri said the clip of her February appearance had been viewed more than a million times.

"The clash we are witnessing around the world is not a clash of religions or a clash of civilizations," Dr. Sultan said. "It is a clash between two opposites, between two eras. It is a clash between a mentality that belongs to the Middle Ages and another mentality that belongs to the 21st century. It is a clash between civilization and backwardness, between the civilized and the primitive, between barbarity and rationality."

She said she no longer practiced Islam. "I am a secular human being," she said.

The other guest on the program, identified as an Egyptian professor of religious studies, Dr. Ibrahim al-Khouli, asked, "Are you a heretic?" He then said there was no point in rebuking or debating her, because she had blasphemed against Islam, the Prophet Muhammad and the Koran.

Dr. Sultan said she took those words as a formal fatwa, a religious condemnation. Since then, she said, she has received numerous death threats on her answering machine and by e-mail.

One message said: "Oh, you are still alive? Wait and see." She received an e-mail message the other day, in Arabic, that said, "If someone were to kill you, it would be me."

Dr. Sultan said her mother, who still lives in Syria, is afraid to contact her directly, speaking only through a sister who lives in Qatar. She said she worried more about the safety of family members here and in Syria than she did for her own.

"I have no fear," she said. "I believe in my message. It is like a million-mile journey, and I believe I have walked the first and hardest 10 miles."

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

[Petronas]

Muslim says Quran justified attack in N.C.
March 22, 2006

RALEIGH, N.C. -- The man who hit nine people with a sport utility vehicle on the University of North Carolina's Chapel Hill campus wrote a letter to a television reporter saying he read the Quran's 114 chapters 15 times and found that the Muslim holy book justified the attack. ''I did not act out of hatred for Americans, but out of love for Allah instead,'' Mohammed Taheri-azar, 22, wrote in a letter to Amber Rupinta dated March 10 posted on WTVD's Web site.

Police say that just before lunchtime March 3, Taheri-azar drove a rented 2006 Jeep Cherokee through the Pit, a popular gathering place at the school from which he graduated. The SUV hit nine people, but none was injured seriously. He then drove off and calmly called 911 to surrender. Taheri-azar faces one charge of attempted first-degree murder and a felony assault count for each of the nine people hit. He is being held in lieu of $5.5 million bail.

In the letter, Taheri-azar reiterated what he has told law officers and a 911 dispatcher, that the attack ''was in retaliation for similar attacks orchestrated by the U.S. government on my fellow followers of Allah in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, and other Islamic territories.''

Taheri-azar wrote that he began his readings of the Quran in June 2003. He called the book ''a scientific and mathematical miracle, so there can be no doubt that it is from a supernatural source.''

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-muslim22.html

[Petronas]

Expert says changing Islamic mentality requires enormous educational effort
Apr. 07, 2006

Father Khalil Samir, a professor at the Oriental Pontifical Institute of Rome and St. Joseph’s University of Beirut, said this week that in order to change the Islamic mentality, “which is fearful of reality,” an “enormous educational effort” is needed at schools and universities, while paying special attention to textbooks and teacher formation.

In statements made to the Italian daily “Avvenire,” Father Samir, an expert in Islamic issues, said, “The enlightened West should help the most liberal Muslims to be heard in their countries and contribute to the spread of their ideas by fostering the circulation and translation of their works, inviting them to speak in Europe.” “Above all,” he stressed, “an enormous educational effort needs to be initiated at schools and universities,” with special attention to textbooks and teacher formation. “This is a task that would require generations to slowly change a mentality that is fearful of reality. As Christianity teaches us, reason is not an enemy, but rather an ally of faith,” he added.

Father Samir explained that in Islamic schools, “the teaching methods are based on repetition and memorization more than on logical reasoning. In the family, parents do not give their children motives for obedience; rather, it is imposed, sometimes through violence.” The Koran, he continued, “is learned by heart and applied in a mechanical and literal way since, according to Islam, the text has been revealed directly by God to Mohammed and contains all that is necessary for life, and no interpretation is allowed.”

“If somebody says an effort is needed to find a better application of it to today’s world, he is accused of being a traitor of the most authentic spirit of Islam and even deserves death for apostasy.” The result, he said, is world that is “fearful of modernity.” Father Samir explained that such a mentality is “easily manipulated by the statements and orders of radicals, who use religious sentiments for political purposes and identify the West with the Great Satan.”

The recent controversy over comics depicting Mohammed, he pointed out, was an example of this situation in which reprisals were carried out not only against the authors, but also “against the governments of those countries in which they were published and, by extension, against the West or Christians, with the tragic consequences which we have seen, such as the assassination of Father Santoro.”

“This type of mentality neglects the value of the person, drowning him in the group. Reason must be exercised rather than letting oneself be led by emotions. Unfortunately, reason is asleep in Islamic countries,” Father Samir stated.

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=6430

[Petronas]

Islamists Post Hit List of 'Apostates'
April 11, 2006

An Egyptian group calling itself the "al-Jama’ah Consultative Council" has sent an e-mail hit list to people deemed 'apostates' yesterday. The group warned that those people on the list who had left the faith would have three days (as of yesterday) to repent or they would be killed. The group also warned that the wives and children of the Muslim apostates were being followed & would be killed.

Under Islamic Law, the maximum penalty for apostasy is death.

The list includes prominent Muslims living in the West who have spoken out against violent Islamic extremism and intolerance, some still living in Muslim countries, as well as Coptic Christians who have advocated equal treatment in Egypt.

According to Copts-United ... the group issued the following threat if the 'apostates' did not publicly repent:


We will follow them everywhere they go and at anytime; and they can never be far from the swords of truth, and they are closer to us that our shoelaces.

They are monitored day and night. We are fully aware of their hiding places, their houses, their children’s schools, and the times when their wives are alone at home.

We gave our rules to the soldiers of God to execute the rule of God so that their blood can become close to God [to kill them] and burn their houses.

And we thank God that many of those infidels and atheists do not exist in the land of Islam, so that they do not defile the Islamic land with their rotten blood. They are in the land of infidelity, the land of idols, pagans, and Cross worshippers: in America, Canada, Switzerland, and Italy.

If they existed on a spot in the Islamic land, let us wash the places of their slaughter and beheading seven times to purify the Islamic land of the impurity of their blood. And let us captivate their women and enslave their children loot them. Let us apply the Islamic rule to them; and whoever kills one of them, will get his loot.

The fatwa was signed by Abu Dhur Al-Maqdishi, media commander in Al-Jama’ah.

The list includes:

Wafa Sultan -- American Muslim psychologist who has spoken out against jihad, the silence of mainstream Muslims over terrorism, and the treatment of women in Islam. Sultan lives in the Los Angeles area.

Ahmad Subhi Mansur (Mansour)--a liberal Egyptian theologian condemned as an 'apostate' because he accepts only the Quran as authentic and rejects the sunnas. Mansur argues in his book "The Punishment of Apostasy" (out of print) that religious liberty is fundamental to Islam. Mansur's wife and children are also specifically threatened. Mansur live in the Virginia.

Adly Abadir -- Egyptian born Christian Coptic priest, exiled from Egypt and now living in Switzerland. Abadir is an outspoken advocate against the subjegation of Christians in Egypt and has testified before the U.S. Congress on the plight of Coptic minorities living under the thumb of Muslims.

Jamal Al-Banna-- moderate Egyptian theologian & brother of the founder of the Muslim Bortherhood who publicly disputes traditional Islamic teachings about the treatment of women & jihad, but like most Muslims justifies aggressiona against Jews. Al-Banna is probably under condemnation for his firm stance against dhimmitude and for freedom of religion and for his creation of the "Committee for the Defense of Victims of Terror-Fatwas"

Majdi Khalil-- American Muslim who has spoken out against terrorism and those that justify it in the Islamic world.

Hasan Ahmad Umar-- former President of the Egyptian Court of Appeals.

Muhammad Sha’lan--- possibly the same Dr. Muhammed Sha'lan who is a professor of psychology at the oldest and most prestigious Islamic universty in the world, al Azhar.

Father Zakarias Butros-- Coptic priest living in Holland who runs a website devoted to standing up for Christians in Egypt, against attrocities committed by Muslims against Christians, and which invites Muslims to engage in dialogue.

Sa’d Al-Din Ibrahim-- liberal Egyptian human rights activist , board member of the Ibn Khaldun Center, and Professor of Sociology at the American University in Cairo. Ibrahim is a leading human rights activists who was arrested by the Egyptian government in 2000 to the applause of Islamists around the world. He is accused by Islamists of being a 'Zionist'.

Salah Muhsin--Egyptian who has spoken out against the Muslim Brotherhood.

Dr. Shakir Al-Nabulsi -- a Jordanian born liberal Muslim, chairman of the American Academic Association in Jordan, and co-signer of an anti-Islamist petition to the U.N calling for an end to the preaching of violence against apostates. Nabulsi now lives in Denver.

Al-Afif al-Akhdar--72 year old Tunisian born French secular Muslim. The Tunisian Islamic movement Al-Nahdha, issued a death fatwa against the him for his book "The Unknown in the Prophet's Life". In addition to exposing the hypocrisy of Muslims on terrorism, Akhdar has also been at the forefront of exposing the political motivations behind Muslim regimes using the Danish Mohammed cartoons to drum up anti-Western sentiment. More on Akhdar here.

Unknown targets-- if you know who these individuals are, please warn them that they may be the target of Muslim extremists!

America -- Nidal Na’isah, Fatin Nur

Canada-- Uthman Muhammad Ali & his family.

Holland-- Nahid Mitwali

Italy--Khalid Hilal

Jordan--Umar Abu Rassa, Ramadan Abd AlRahman Ali

Syria--Samir Hasan Ibrahim

Egypt--Abd al Fattah Asakir, Muhammad Shibl, Muhammad Said al Mushtahari, Abd al-Latif Sa’id, Ayman Muhammad Abd Al Rahman, Walid Muhammad Abd al-Rahman, Taha Hilal, Isam Nafi, Ahmad Sha’ban, Amru Ismail, Abd-Al-Karim Sulayman

If you know any of the above individuals, they should be immediately warned. We hope that law enforcement officials are already aware of the danger posed to these people and pray for their safety.

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/169819.php

[Petronas]

Apostasy
Major and Minor

By Dr. Yusuf Al-Qaradawi
Apr. 13, 2006

... Muslim jurists are unanimous that apostates must be punished, yet they differ as to determining the kind of punishment to be inflicted upon them. The majority of them, including the four main schools of jurisprudence (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi`i, and Hanbali) as well as the other four schools of jurisprudence (the four Shiite schools of Az-Zaidiyyah, Al-Ithna-`ashriyyah, Al-Ja`fariyyah, and Az-Zaheriyyah) agree that apostates must be executed." ...

For example, Ibn `Abbas quoted the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) as having said, "Whoever changes his religion, then kill him."

A similar wording of the hadith was reported on the authority of Abu Hurairah and Mu`awiyah ibn Haidah with a sound chain of transmission. Also, Ibn Mas`ud reported the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) as having said, "The blood of a Muslim ... is not lawful to shed unless he be ... someone who abandons his religion and the Muslim community."

Another version of this hadith was reported by `Uthman, "The blood of a Muslim is not lawful to shed unless he be ... a person that turned apostate ... ."

... Ibn `Abbas was not against killing the apostates in principle, but against killing them by fire. ...

... Major apostasy, which the apostate proclaims and openly calls for in speech or writing, is to be, with all the more reason, severely punished by the death penalty, according to the majority of scholars and the apparent meaning of the Prophet's hadiths."...

... Islam does not call for the execution of apostates who do not proclaim their apostasy ... The death penalty with regard to apostasy is to be applied only to those who proclaim their apostasy ...

Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi is a world-renowned scholar and head of the European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR) and president of the International Union for Muslim Scholars (IUMS). His best known books include The Lawful and the Prohibited in Islam, Priorities of the Islamic Movement in the Coming Phase, and Islamic Revivalism Between Rejection and Extremism. Many scholars consider him to be one of the most reputable mujtahids of the modern age. He has been active in the field of da`wah and the Islamic movement for more than half a century.

http://www.islamonline.net/English/contemporary/2006/04/article01c.shtml

Compare what CAIR would have us believe on the subject:
'The Koran does not specify the death penalty for people who convert, but it does call conversion a criminal sin. It is up to the interpretation of clerics and judges to decide whether the punishment should be execution. [Ibrahim] Hooper [of the Council on American Islamic Relations] sees this as a crucial distinction. "Obviously we don't think it's a good thing to leave Islam. But judgment is left to God in the next life, not up to people in this life."'
http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=1765056&page=2

[Casey]

Better mainstream Islamists than Al-Qaeda

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

By Rami G. Khouri
Daily Star staff

Simultaneous developments around the Middle East and wider Islamic world indicate that the broad movement of "political Islam" has now settled down into three general trends that are important to grasp. Al-Qaeda-style terror-warriors are the smallest but most dangerous group, provoking strong American-led military responses. The second group in terms of size and impact comprises Iran and allied, predominantly Shiite, Arab movements in Iraq, Bahrain and Lebanon. They focus on self-empowerment and resisting the hegemonic aims of the United States and Israel. The third and largest group is made up of predominantly Sunni mainstream Islamists - Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Turkish Justice and Development Party - who are increasingly engaging in electoral democratic politics, at the local and national levels.

It is important to note several things: There is a wide variety of Islamists, with different goals and tactics, usually initially spurred by local angst. These are evolving rather than static movements, constantly responding to domestic and external stimuli, but always accountable to their home constituencies if they plan to survive and prevail. In a few crucial areas their motivations overlap, though their operational and strategic goals usually differ. They are likely to reconfigure their relationships and alliances in the future, especially in response to external meddling.

This has been something of a typical week in the wide world of contemporary political Islamism. Osama bin Laden released another threatening audio message. On Monday, three bombs exploded in an Egyptian tourist resort. Turkey's mild Islamist government confronts complex challenges of Kurdish militancy and separatism, growing Turkish nationalism, and a democratic transformation required to meet the terms of joining the European Union. Palestine's elected government headed by Hamas is threatened at home by the rival Fatah movement, and is being strangulated from abroad by the U.S., Europe and Israel. The Iranian government builds on its announcement of mastering small-scale uranium enrichment by defying and provoking the West and Israel, who are trying to prevent its development of a full nuclear fuel cycle. Lebanon's Hizbullah continues to flex its muscles as the largest and best organized Lebanese political group that is also close to Iran and Syria, but it faces increasingly vocal calls for its disarmament or incorporation into the national armed forces. Mainstream Muslim Brotherhood-style movements in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and most other Arab countries continue to explore how they can engage in democratic elections in order to share or control power, without being outlawed or emasculated.

The common denominator among all the Islamist trends is a shared sense of grievances against three targets: autocratic Arab regimes that run security states often dominated by a single family; Israel and its negative impact on Arab societies, through direct occupations or indirect political influence on U.S. policy in the region; and the U.S. and other Western powers whose military and political interference in the Middle East continues to anger and harm the majority of people in this region.

All three Islamist trends have responded to these grievances by fostering a combination of ideological defiance against the West, armed resistance against Israel and America, and political challenges against Arab regimes. They part ways, however, when it comes to their tactics and methods: Al-Qaeda blows up targets everywhere; the Iranian-Shiite groups focus on political resistance and defiance, often wrapped in revolutionary rhetoric; and Sunni mainstreamers resist militarily when appropriate (Hamas in Palestine), but more often concentrate on playing and winning the political game on the strength of their impressive numbers and organization, Turkey's Justice and Development with the best performance to date.

Throughout the Middle East and other Islamic lands, citizens who seek to become politically involved to change their world have these three options. Two of them - Al-Qaeda terror and Iranian-led defiance - are being fought fiercely by the West, and also by some in the region. The third option of democratic electoral politics is at a major crossroads now, following the Hamas victory, Hizbullah's strong governance role, and the recent solid performance by the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.

If the Hamas-led government is crushed by a combination of American, Israeli, Fatah and Arab pressures, and other Arab Islamists in government are squeezed further, this single largest, mostly Sunni, constituency in the world of "political Islam" will become disillusioned and probably give up on politics. Those who preach robust defiance against the West or who attack it with bombs are likely to gain new adherents, which will only intensify the cycle of violence, defiance, occupation and resistance that now defines and often plagues much of the Middle East.

Should mainstream, peaceful political Islamism be killed and buried, the subsequent landscape could very well see a coming together of five powerful forces that until now generally had been kept separate: Sunni Islamic religious militancy, Arab national sentiment, anti-occupation military resistance, Iranian-Persian nationalism, and regional Shiite empowerment among Arabs and Iranians. Anyone who thinks that we've seen the end of history should hold on to their pants and think again.

Rami G. Khouri writes a regular commentary for THE DAILY STAR.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=23946#

[Petronas]

Islamist Al-Hesbah Website Plan of Action for the Jihad Fighter: How to Kill a Westerner in the Arabian Peninsula
August 25, 2006 No.1263

On August 4, 2006, the Al-Hesbah website published instructions on "How to Kill a Crusader in the Arabian Peninsula." The document was signed by Amer Al-Najdi, and dated June 15, 2006. Al-Najdi instructs his readers in some possible ways to kill a Westerner, from choosing the victim through following him through the stage of the actual killing. The following are excerpts from the document: [1]

"Before Carrying Out the Operation, Pray for Guidance"

"Below I will explain the jihadist way of action and the security measures to be employed by the jihad fighter [when he wants to kill a Westerner]:

"First of all, before carrying out the operation, pray [to Allah] to guide you on the good path.

"[Regarding your] external appearance - Try as much as possible to look like someone who is not religious. For example, wear [a kuffiyeh] with an 'aqal instead of a turban, and wear cheap dark glasses during the day and regular glasses at night. Your clothes must be long, and try if at all possible for them to be heel-length, or longer; don't be afraid of this. Wear a sport suit or a regular suit. Similarly, it is greatly preferable to be shaven.

"[Regarding] the items or the clothing in [your] car - Immediately get rid of everything in your car that indicates that you are religious, such as jihad cassettes, small papers such as post-its... The most important thing there must not be anything in the car indicating that the owner is a religious man... so that if the dogs of the security [apparatuses], the emergency [apparatuses], or the other [apparatuses] stop you in a suspicious place and search your car they will find nothing proving that you are religious, and will release you right away.

"While you are carrying out the operation, be careful not to take your cell phone with you - especially if it has a camera - so that it won't cause you, or your friends whose numbers are in the phone, problems with unknown consequences.

"Some Ways to Find a Crusader [i.e. a Westerner] or a Dog From the Security Apparatus

"In order to carry out the operation when the time comes, you must have a weapon (a pistol or a submachine gun) or a good knife, if you are interested in slaughtering this infidel or this [Saudi] dog...

"[How to find a target] in the Crusader settlements [i.e. compounds] that are found everywhere:

"The first method: At about seven AM, pass by the settlement and check only how these Crusaders leave it, and what road they take. Beware, my jihad-fighting brother, to pass by only once, because the military dogs at the gates [of the settlement] might suspect you and detain you.

"Two or three days later, pass by the [same] settlement, but don't go near it as you did the first time. That is, go straight to the road where [the settlement residents] go, and wait for them by the side of the road, and when you see one of these Crusaders, follow him.

"It is best to change vehicles each time, if you can. While following the Crusader, be very careful not to be exposed. For the most part, especially these days, they are feeling safer, because there are not many operations against them. But the jihad wave is approaching, and Allah will conceal this matter from them....

"When [the Westerner you have selected] stops at a traffic light, try to be behind him, in the same lane, with at least two cars between you and him, or alongside him, but not exactly alongside him. While waiting at the traffic light, refrain from casual glances, and try to occupy yourself with something (such as arranging your 'akal...). When you two turn onto the highway, try to pass the infidel on the right or left, and then slow down so that he will pass you, so as to remove suspicion for the next time.

"When you and the infidel move to the secondary road, and you are following him and there is no one on the road but the two of you, first slow down and pretend you're looking for a shop or a place or a person, by turning your head right and left as if searching for something, [thus showing] that this infidel does not interest you at all.

"A second way to find [a Westerner]: Sometimes there is no need to follow the infidel first thing in the morning; often we see them next to traffic lights or at the big marketplaces... (such as Karfour, Extra, and so on); often, they shop there, particularly in the morning, between 9:30 and 12:00. When you see [an infidel in one of these places], follow him carefully, and you will [quickly] notice that for the most part he will be going to a settlement or to a house in one of the neighborhoods...

"A third way to find [a Westerner]: Sometimes when you, the jihad fighter, are sitting with your colleague or with family, someone comes and says: 'We have an American working for the company, who receives [a salary of] 150,000...' When you hear this, you must find out the following things:

"1) If you know where your colleague works - fine. But if you don't know where he works and where his company is, immediately address your colleague, saying: 'That's not true, this [salary] is exaggerated.' He will immediately say, 'You're wrong, and I can prove it.' Tell him, 'I know someone who works for such-and-such a company (give a name) and they have an American who gets [paid] 40,000, and their company is in (give a place). Then tell him, 'Your company is probably in the such-and-such area (north, for example).' And he will reply: 'No, our company is in such-and-such a place.' If the description so far is [still] unclear to you, say to him: 'Oh... next to (give the name of a place)?' He will reply, 'No, our company is in such-and-such a place' exactly. Then say to him, 'This American you have must be a director if he gets [paid] such a sum,' and then he will tell you what this infidel does [in the company]. Then say, 'Surely he has a fancy car if he gets such a salary,' and then he will tell you the kind of car. Thus you have gotten the information that will help you in the future, without your colleague or anyone around him noticing. Then pretend that the matter doesn't interest you, and try to change the subject immediately.

"2) If you know where your colleague works but you are interested in information about this infidel, question him in the manner I described above, and take care that they don't notice that you are looking for this infidel.

"How to Kill the Infidel and What Security Measures to Take

"The best way to carry this out is to forge an ID card and a work ID, in order to rent a car. If you can't do this, act as follows:

"1) Take the license plate from any car that is the same model as your car. Be sure that the region from which you take the license plate is far away from the region in which you live. For example, if your car is a white Camry, look for a white Camry that is far from the region [in which you live], and take its license plate.

"2) Take the car of one of the ordinary people, in some easy way, and carry out the operation that day using [this car]. Then leave the [car] in a public place, so that the infidels will find it and return it to its owners...

"3) After obtaining a suitable car, kill the Crusader, in accordance with the circumstances - if the Crusader works at a company where you work, or at a company where someone you know works, strike him on his day off, or somewhere far from [where the company is located]...; if the Crusader lives next door to you or near you, and you want to kill him, it is best to kill him when he is outside work, so as to distance you from suspicion...

"4) Take care that the windows of the car you use to carry out the [killing] operation are somewhat dark; this will help you when you stop at traffic lights.

"5) When you carry out the [killing] operation and make your escape, travel a route that you have planned in advance. It is best [to go] by the highway for five minutes, and then to move to secondary roads and then to neighborhoods, so as to distance yourself from the place of the operation... [In order to avoid being followed,] look behind you (and check) if anyone is tailing you.

"6) After... [you have evaded being followed] park the car somewhere, [where] you have at your disposal another vehicle, extremely clean, that you will use to return home safely.

"7) Take care not to say a word. The tongue is what will lead you to the infidels' prison. Many brothers have been arrested because they spoke near people.

"It is desirable to film the operation so it can be presented by the media, so that it has a broader impact.

"After the operation succeeds, you will realize that this is very simple, and that there is no need for an entire squad [to carry it out] but that one, two, or three people are enough...

"You can look through the Mu'askar Al-Battar and Sawt Al-Jihad publications, [to learn from them] important things that I may not have clarified here...

"Your brother Amer Al-Najdi

"Arabian Peninsula

"Thursday

"The 19th day of the fifth month, 1427 [June 15, 2006]."

http://www.memri.org/bin/opener_latest.cgi?ID=SD126306

[Petronas]

The West Needs To Fight Islamofascists With Big Ideas
By YOUSSEF IBRAHIM
September 1, 2006

The West's war on terror is going tactically well enough, with its mission to put out fires here and there before they start. But it sorely misses the larger strategy that must be implemented. The concept is this: It isn't enough to get the guys with the bombs or beards but to alter the environment that produces them.

Just like the war on communism, the war on terror must combine the force of arms with the power of ideas, a higher moral purpose with a mechanism of action. In other words, the West, along with Russia and China — which have no interest in jihadist uprisings within their own territories, needs a roadmap for its war on terror, clearly detailing its ultimate goals and how it will achieve them.

Such a strategy must be forged in G-8 Summit Meetings as well as the manuals of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the parliaments of the European Union. It must be defined unambiguously as the obliteration of an ideology that reduces Islam to a cult of mass murder and suicide.

Here is a blueprint:

1.The West needs strategies conveying to the vast majority of the world's 1.2 billion Muslims that acquiescence to jihadists and their ideologies means a rupture with Western civilization. The consequences for this should be spelled out by withholding Western commerce, the Internet, arms, machinery, and know-how — all of which still represent the bulk of progress as we define it in today's world. Imagine a ban on weapons and technology, on Microsoft and IBM, on Boeing, Ilyushin transport planes, and Airbus spares.

2. Draconian sanctions such as these should be applied in unison with Russia and China and clearly framed within the U.N. code. Islamic so-called moderate or client states including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Indonesia, among others, as well as enemies such as Iran, should be provided with a yardstick to define the dismantling of the infrastructure and software of terror at home — in mosques, in schools, in theocratic institutions, and inside government itself.

That will demand total elimination of the madrassa rote systems, the restructuring of religious teachings, and the outlawing of political groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Muslim Brotherhood, which adopt religion as political vehicles.

3. In the West itself, the last vestiges of tolerance toward Islamic fundamentalism must be removed. Laws targeting extremist speech, Islamic dress, storefront unregulated mosques, and the traffic of immigrant Muslims who do not speak the language nor share the values of freedom must surface in the legal codes of America, Europe, and Australia. The West must clearly process the fact that it is facing an existential threat to its core values, and it cannot be shy about installing tools of war in its democratic practices.

Lest anyone think this is much ado about little, five years ago on one of America's darkest days when airplanes were crashed into the World Trade Center, it seemed that only a few hundred jihadists were aiming to make a point.

Now, it is clear that the people responsible for those burning towers in Manhattan were only small filaments of a spider's web encompassing millions of Muslims. Beyond towers, their aim is a freeze on freedom, democracy, and secularism — foundations that took centuries to develop, requiring the defeat of communism in order to prevail. The new plan is tyrannical rule by another name — jihad. But jihadists and secular tyrants are quite willing to join hands on this one.

Long before 9/11, jihadist adherents and sponsoring secular states, even communist states, had been stretching cobwebs into the suburbs of London and Islamabad, the streets of Baghdad and Kabul, the valleys between Syria and Lebanon, Iran and Iraq, and inside Western Europe and across Africa. Enablers include our closest allies in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, tribal leaders in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the merchants of Dubai and Kuwait, all the way into the Indian Ocean, Indonesia, and Asia.

So, just imagine a world where the likes of Muammar Gadhafi of Libya, President Chavez of Venezuela, Bashar Al-Assad of Syria, Fidel Castro of Cuba, President Ahmadinejad of Iran, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, along with Hosni Mubarak and his sons in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood movements of Hamas in Palestine, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and carbon copies in Indonesia, Pakistan, and across Asia all join hands. This is the perspective that the larger strategy requires. It's the big picture.

http://www.nysun.com/article/38952?page_no=1

[Petronas]

ONE ARAB'S APOLOGY
By EMILIO KARIM DABUL
September 12, 2006

WELL, here it is, five years late, but here just the same: an apology from an Arab-American for 9/11. No, I didn't help organize the killers or contribute in any way to their terrible cause. However, I was one of millions of Arab-Americans who did the unspeakable on 9/11: nothing. The only time I raised my voice in protest against these men who killed thousands of innocents in the name of Allah was behind closed doors, among the safety of friends and family. I did at one point write a very vitriolic essay condemning their actions, but fear of becoming another Salman Rushdie kept me from ever trying to publish it.

Well, I'm sick of saying the truth only in private - that Arabs around the world, including Arab-Americans like myself, need to start holding our own culture accountable for the insane, violent actions that our extremists have perpetrated on the world at large.

Yes, our extremists and our culture.

Every single 9/11 hijacker was Arab and a Muslim. The apologists (including President Bush) tried to reassure us that 9/11 had nothing to do with Islam, but was a twisting of a great and noble religion. With all due respect, read the Koran, Mr. President. There's enough there for someone of extreme tendencies to find their way to a global jihad.

There's also enough there for someone of a different mindset to find a path to enlightenment and peace. Still, Rushdie had it right back in 2001: This does have to do with Islam. A Christian who bombs an abortion clinic in the name of God is still a Christian, at least in his interpretation, and saying otherwise doesn't negate the fact that he has spent a goodly amount of time figuring out his version of the one true and right thing to do.

The men who killed 3,000 of our citizens on 9/11 in all likelihood died saying prayers to Allah, and that by itself is one of the most horrific things to me about that day. And, while my grandparents never waged a jihad, their attitudes toward Jews weren't that much different than Mohammed Atta's. No, they didn't support the Holocaust, but they did believe that Jews were trouble in many different ways, and those sorts of beliefs were passed on to me before I'd ever actually met a Jew.

I'm sorry for that, for ever believing that anything that my grandparents or other relatives had to say about Jews or Israel, for that matter, had any real resemblance to truth. It took me years to realize that I'd been conned into believing the generalizations and stereotypes that millions around the Arab world buy into: that Jews, America and Israel are our main problem.

One look at the average Arab regime should alert us to the fact that the problem, dear Achmed, lies not overseas or next door in Tel Aviv, but in the brutal, corrupt despots that we have bred from country to country in the Mideast, across the span of history. That history and its corresponding economic devastation is the main reason I reside on New York City's West Bank - New Jersey - not the one near Jerusalem. On my worst day, I'm happy about that fact. I'd rather be here than there, and experience the freedom and boundless opportunities that were mostly unknown to so many generations of my family in the Mideast.

For as long as I live, the image of those towers falling, as I watched in horror and disbelief from the corner of 40th and Fifth, will be for me my Pearl Harbor, for in that instant I recognized that not only was our city under attack - so was our freedom.

It still is. And will continue to be for years to come. And the threat is not from within, but from Islamic fascists who desperately want to destroy the freedom and opportunities that millions the world over still seek.

Five years after that awful day, it's time for all Arab-Americans, and Arabs around the world, to protest against Islamic fascism, to raise our voices - and, where necessary, our arms - against these tyrants until their plague of terror has been driven from the face of the earth forever.

http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/one_arabs_apology_opedcolumnists_emilio_karim_dabu l.htm

[Petronas]

TERRORISM: SUICIDE BOMBER'S 'WEDDING' TO FEATURE IN NEW TV SHOW
Sep-14-06 17:36

A new programme airing on al-Arabiya, the Dubai-based pan-Arabic network, will on Friday show rare footage of a mock wedding ceremony carried out for a suicide bomber on the eve of his terrorist mission. Known as The Martyr's Wedding - the young man is being symbolically wed to the 'virgin' that under Islamic teaching awaits him in heaven - it is also believed to be a form of moral encouragement by terrorist groups to encourage followers to conduct suicide operations.

The programme is the second in a new series on terrorism which examines some of the social, religious, political and economic factors that play into the terrorist phenomenon and boasts rare or previously unknown video footage.

The first episode, aired last Friday, discussed the backgrounds of the the three most wanted leaders of Al-Qaeda - Osama Bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi - revealing details that have never been shown through video footage and interviews with their relatives and friends.

The upcoming second episode, entitled "From Recruitment To Death", looks at how young people are being convinced to join extremist groups, and how they are being trained on weapons and in carrying out suicidal attacks. There is also footage showing how and where members of those groups receive intensive training in explosives and in combat with various kinds of weapons.

The surprise of the show, according to al-Arabiya, will be a special interview with one of the former leaders of an extremist group - a friend of Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi. The two co-founded an Islamic terrorist group in Jordan in the nineties, and spent four years together in jail. This former terrorist leader will be speaking of his experience as a prominent leader of a terrorist group until he reflected, repented and decided to reject violence and the murder of innocent people.

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=8.0.340510972&par=0

[Petronas]

For those who want to see what the furor about the Pope's remarks about Islam is all about. We will see if this grows the same legs as the Danish cartoon affair developed.

Key excerpts: The Pope's speech
Friday, 15 September 2006, 10:37 GMT 11:37 UK

... "I was reminded of all this recently, when I read... of part of the dialogue carried on - perhaps in 1391 in the winter barracks near Ankara - by the erudite Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Paleologus and an educated Persian on the subject of Christianity and Islam, and the truth of both.

"In the seventh conversation...the emperor touches on the theme of the holy war. Without descending to details, such as the difference in treatment accorded to those who have the "Book" and the "infidels", he addresses his interlocutor with a startling brusqueness on the central question about the relationship between religion and violence in general, saying: "Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

"The emperor, after having expressed himself so forcefully, goes on to explain in detail the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is something unreasonable. Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul. "God," he says, "is not pleased by blood - and not acting reasonably is contrary to God's nature. Faith is born of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats." ...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5348456.stm

And here is the link to the text of the entire speech:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/15_09_06_pope.pdf

[Petronas]

Is this the way to convince the world that Islam is peaceful?

Somali cleric calls for pope's death
September 17, 2006

A HARDLINE cleric linked to Somalia's powerful Islamist movement has called for Muslims to "hunt down" and kill Pope Benedict XVI for his controversial comments about Islam. Sheikh Abubukar Hassan Malin urged Muslims to find the pontiff and punish him for insulting the Prophet Mohammed and Allah in a speech that he said was as offensive as author Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses.

"We urge you Muslims wherever you are to hunt down the Pope for his barbaric statements as you have pursued Salman Rushdie, the enemy of Allah who offended our religion," he said in Friday evening prayers.

"Whoever offends our Prophet Mohammed should be killed on the spot by the nearest Muslim," Malin, a prominent cleric in the Somali capital, told worshippers at a mosque in southern Mogadishu. "We call on all Islamic Communities across the world to take revenge on the baseless critic called the pope," he said.

Reached by telephone on Saturday, Malin confirmed making the remarks that were echoed in less strident form by other senior clerics in the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia (SICS). ...

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/somali-cleric-calls-for-popes-death/2006/09/16/1158334739295.html

[Klaus]

Posted 9/17/06 on
www.Homelandsecurityus.com

18 September 2006: In an article provided exclusively to the Northeast Intelligence Network and Canada Free Press by Dr. Paul Williams and Mr. David Dastych on Saturday, “final preparations have been made for the next major attack on the US” identified as “American Hiroshima,” suggesting the attack will be nuclear in nature. Since we published that report, confidential sources in law enforcement positions have privately confirmed to the Northeast Intelligence Network that a "disturbing trend" is being reported on both of our borders – a pattern that is consistent with a potential nuclear attack scenario against the US. According to these sources, a "significant and alarming number" of illegal aliens attempting entry into the US, caught by border patrol agents, have been found to be carrying Potassium Iodide tablets, which are used to protect against exposure to radiation in emergency situations.*

According to our sources, the illegal aliens who have been caught have been described as OTMs (other-than Mexicans), and consist primarily of Chinese and Iranian nationals on our southern border, and Asians and others from a variety of Middle Eastern countries at the US-Canadian border. Law enforcement sources providing this information to the Northeast Intelligence Network agreed that this is “a very recent phenomena,” but one that has increased to “alarming levels” and is of particular concern to government officials.

[Petronas]

Arab op-ed: Pope’s remarks may lead to war
09.16.06, 21:32

The recent remarks made by Pope Benedict XVI on Islam are threatening to ignite the entire Muslim world. Op-Eds published in the Arab newspapers slammed the pope even after the Vatican’s apology.

The most extreme opinion was voiced by Hani Pahas in the London-based Arabic-language daily newspaper Al-Hayat, who wrote “the pope’s comments may lead to war; we fear that the pope’s statements may lead to a war that we, Muslims and Christians alike, are trying to prevent through dialogue between East and West." ...

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3304575,00.html

[Petronas]

Interesting that this editorial should appear in India and not Europe...

Pope is right on Islam
Monday, September 18, 2006
Swapan Dasgupta

At the height of the war in Lebanon two months ago, an assortment of Arabs, British Muslims, radical socialists and bleeding heart liberals marched through the streets of London with placards proclaiming "we are all Hezbollah." Since Pope Benedict XVI delivered his scholarly but contentious lecture in Regensburg last Wednesday, an equally unlikely assortment of individuals bound by a common distaste for Islamist terrorism have been whispering the counter-proclamation: "We are all Papists now."

Before rushing to take rival positions in the trench warfare of civilisations, it is prudent to remember that the contemporary Islamist assault on the "decadent" West, epitomised by "American imperialism", has long enjoyed the backing of influential Muslim theologians. This is, perhaps, the first time that the philosophical gulf between Islam and Western civilisation has been delineated by someone who wields authority in the Christian world.

Pope Benedict, unlike many of his colleagues in Rome, has not succumbed to either the pretensions of Christian universalism or the mumbo jumbo of inter-faith dialogue. He has rightly viewed both Christianity and the Catholic Church as load-bearing pillars of Western civilisation. He has disavowed the growing secularisation of national cultures and, by implication, called into question the moral relativism which accompanies the practice of multiculturalism in the EU.

In an article If Europe Hates Itself written when he was still Cardinal Ratzinger, the Pope despaired about Europe's growing inability to distinguish good from evil: "The West reveals ... a hatred of itself, which is strange and can only be considered pathological; the West ... no longer loves itself; in its own history, it now sees only what is deplorable and destructive, while it is no longer able to perceive what is great and pure."

In November 2004, he despaired that secular ideology which is "imposed through politics... does not give public space to the Catholic or Christian vision (and) runs the risk of becoming something purely private and, thus, disfigured."


The Regensburg lecture amounted to a Christian critique of the violence that is inherent in political Islam. However, rather than fall back on the politically expedient and customary detachment of Islamism from Islam, the Pope chose to distinguish between Christianity's reason-based European underpinnings and Islam's faith-based traditions centred also on literal acceptance of its texts. By implication, his lecture was also an attack on some of the more aggressively evangelical churches found in the US and would have been treated as such if the references to the Byzantine experience had been omitted. In arguing that violence was at odds with reason, the Pope was also tacitly repudiating some of Christianity's bloody inheritance, but this aspect of his lecture has been overshadowed by the furore over Islamic certitudes.

What the Pope argued last week is not strikingly original. Many of the contemporary critiques of Islam have dwelt at length on the fact that the apparent finality of the Quran has made it difficult for Islam to experience a Reformation. What is also undeniable is that whereas the claims of Islam to be a religion of peace have been unceasingly made, almost all the Islamists have justified their terrorism in terms of religious obligation.

Heinous crimes have been committed and justified in the name of religion. Concern has also been voiced that the tenets of brotherhood in Islam do not always extend to non-believers, making them incompatible with multi-religious existence.

These are issue which warrant dispassionate debate and dialogue. The Pope may have been injudicious in citing a 14th century assessment by a Byzantine emperor but the questions he has raised are relevant both in theological and political terms. What is alarming is the fierce reaction to his lecture. They suggest that any debate on Islam based on critical scrutiny is bound to be accompanied by threats and intimidation. Far from encouraging sympathetic understanding of Muslim societies, this climate of intolerance is certain to fuel Islamophobia.

Political correctness necessitates debunking the clash of civilisations but realities on the ground are beginning to suggest otherwise.

http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnist1.asp?main_variable=Columnist&file_name=swapan%2Fswapan112.txt&writer=swapan

[candypreet]

good posts:happy_01:

[Petronas]

Muslims' fury as they are told to keep watch on their kids
16:41pm on 20th September 2006

The Home Secretary has urged Muslim parents to watch out for signs that their children are being groomed to become suicide bombers. John Reid told them they must regard their youngsters as potential recruits for firebrand preachers. His extraordinary comments came in a speech to a specially invited Muslim audience at an east London location which was kept secret for security reasons. "There is no nice way of saying this," he said in a passage warning about the danger from extremist clerics.

"These fanatics are looking to groom and brainwash children for suicide bombing, to kill themselves in order to murder others. Look for the tell-tale signs now and talk to them before their hatred grows and you risk losing them forever. In protecting our families we are protecting our community."

His remarks were condemned by some Muslim leaders, who accused him of wanting parents to spy on their sons. Ahmed Versi, editor of the Muslim News, criticised Mr Reid, saying he was asking parents to inform on their children and implying that all Muslims were potential terrorists. It would generate a "new climate of fear" against Muslims, he said. ...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=406101&in_page_id=1770

Reid faces down hate preachers
updated at 10:42am on 21st September 2006

... Mr Reid was met by a tirade from notorious extremists Anjem Choudary and Abu Izzadeen. They walked past security guards at the East London venue and hijacked the event before he reached the key part of his speech. Clutching the hand of a small boy, Britishborn Izzadeen, a fanatic who has described the July 7 bombers as martyrs, screamed that Mr Reid was a tyrant and an enemy of Islam. He added: 'How dare you come to a Muslim area when over 1,000 Muslims have been arrested?' Mr Reid, regarded as a political hardman, remained calm as Izzadeen was ushered outside by police.

But the Home Secretary faced two further interventions. First, a young Muslim man held up signs proclaiming: 'John Reid go to Hell.'

Once his protest was ended by police, 39-year- old Choudary waded in. The right-hand man to hate preacher Omar Bakri told the Home Secretary that Muslims utterly rejected Britain's values. Choudary, a British citizen, said: 'Muslims do not need British values. We believe Islam is superior, we believe Islam will be implemented one day. 'It is very rich for you to come here and say we need to monitor our children when your Government is murdering people in Iraq and Afghanistan.' Mr Reid pulled no punches as he continued his speech despite the abuse. ...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=406110&in_page_id=1770

[Vancouver]

[The Home Secretary's] remarks were condemned by some Muslim leaders, who accused him of wanting parents to spy on their sons. ... It would generate a "new climate of fear" against Muslims, he said.:add20:

[Petronas]

Suicide bombers follow Quran, concludes Pentagon briefing
Posted: September 27, 2006 10:17 p.m. Eastern

With suicide bombings spreading from Iraq to Afghanistan, the Pentagon has tasked intelligence analysts to pinpoint what's driving Muslim after Muslim to do the unthinkable. Their preliminary finding is politically explosive: it's their "holy book" the Quran after all, according to intelligence briefings obtained by WND.

In public, the U.S. government has made an effort to avoid linking the terrorist threat to Islam and the Quran while dismissing suicide terrorists as crazed heretics who pervert Islamic teachings. "The terrorists distort the idea of jihad into a call for violence and murder," the White House maintains in its recently released "National Strategy for Combating Terrorism" report.

But internal Pentagon briefings show intelligence analysts have reached a wholly different conclusion after studying Islamic scripture and the backgrounds of suicide terrorists. They've found that most Muslim suicide bombers are in fact students of the Quran who are motivated by its violent commands – making them, as strange as it sounds to the West, "rational actors" on the Islamic stage.

In Islam, it is not how one lives one's life that guarantees spiritual salvation, but how one dies, according to the briefings. There are great advantages to becoming a martyr. Dying while fighting the infidels in the cause of Allah reserves a special place and honor in Paradise. And it earns special favor with Allah. "Suicide in defense of Islam is permitted, and the Islamic suicide bomber is, in the main, a rational actor," concludes a recent Pentagon briefing paper titled, "Motivations of Muslim Suicide Bombers."

"His actions provide a win-win scenario for himself, his family, his faith and his God," the document explains. "The bomber secures salvation and the pleasures of Paradise. He earns a degree of financial security and a place for his family in Paradise. He defends his faith and takes his place in a long line of martyrs to be memorialized as a valorous fighter.

"And finally, because of the manner of his death, he is assured that he will find favor with Allah," the briefing adds. "Against these considerations, the selfless sacrifice by the individual Muslim to destroy Islam's enemies becomes a suitable, feasible and acceptable course of action."

The briefing – produced by a little-known Pentagon intelligence unit called the Counterintelligence Field Activity, or CIFA – cites a number of passages from the Quran dealing with jihad, or "holy" warfare, martyrdom and Paradise, where "beautiful mansions" and "maidens" await martyr heroes. In preparation for attacks, suicide terrorists typically recite passages from six surahs, or chapters, of the Quran: Baqura (Surah 2), Al Imran (3), Anfal (8), Tawba (9), Rahman (55) and Asr (103).

CIFA staffs hundreds of investigators and analysts to help coordinate Pentagon security efforts at U.S. military installations at home and abroad. The Pentagon unit is especially concerned about a new wave of suicide bombings hitting Afghanistan. Suicide bombings have killed more than 200 people in Afghanistan this year, up from single digits two years ago. On Tuesday, a suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest and killed 18 outside an Afghan government compound. Last week, a suicide bomber riding a bike killed at least four NATO soldiers. And earlier this month, a suicide car bomber rammed into a U.S. military convoy near the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, killing 16 people, including two American soldiers.

The U.S. command in Afghanistan now warns that a suicide bombing cell is operating inside the Afghan capital. Meanwhile, the Taliban's top military commander told ABC News he has 500 suicide bombers at his disposal. "We have so many of them that it is difficult to accommodate and arm and equip them," Mullah Dadullah Akhund said. "Some of them have been waiting for a year or more for their turn to be sent to the battlefield."

The emergence of a suicide cell in Kabul troubles military analysts because suicide attacks are the most effective weapon Muslim terrorists can use against the West. The Rand Corp. predicts they'll pose a serious and constant threat to the U.S. for years to come. The U.S. intelligence community is growing increasingly worried, as well. "Most jihadist groups will use suicide attacks focused primarily on soft targets to implement asymmetric warfare strategy," warns the just-declassified executive summary of the National Intelligence Estimate on the global terror threat. "Fighters with experience in Iraq are a potential source of leadership for jihadists pursuing these tactics."

Many scholars and media pundits, however, insist Muslim suicide bombers are not driven by religion. "Beneath the religious rhetoric with which [such terror] is perpetrated, it occurs largely in the service of secular aims," claims Professor Robert A. Pape of the University of Chicago. "Suicide terrorism is mainly a response to foreign occupation rather than a product of Islamic fundamentalism." He says U.S. foreign policy is more a factor than faith. "Though it speaks of Americans as infidels, al-Qaida is less concerned with converting us to Islam than removing us from Arab and Muslim lands," Pape said.

But what about the recent video by Adam Gadahn, the American al-Qaida, warning fellow Americans to convert to Islam before al-Qaida attacks again? "He never mentions virgins or the benefits Islamic martyrs receive in Heaven," Pape asserted. In fact, Gadahn notes 36 minutes into his speech that Allah reserves the highest rewards – "honors and delights" – for martyrs in Paradise. "[He] promised the martyr in his path the reward over and above the reward of the believer," Gadahn said. "He has promised them honors and delights too numerous to go into here."

The 9/11 hijackers and the London bombers made martyrdom videos. In their last testaments, they recite the Quran while talking of their "love of death" and "sacrificing life for Allah." Seven martyrdom videotapes also were recovered by British authorities in the foiled transatlantic sky terror plot.

Before the 9/11 attacks, the hijackers shaved and doused themselves with flower water in preparation for their weddings with the beautiful virgins in Paradise. "Know that the women of Paradise are waiting, calling out 'Come hither, friend of Allah,'" according to a four-page letter circulated among them titled "THE LAST NIGHT." "They have dressed in their most beautiful clothing."

But are the virgins scriptural or apocryphal? French documentarian Pierre Rehov, who interviewed the families of suicide bombers and would-be bombers in an attempt to find out why they do it, says it's not a myth or fantasy of heretics. He says there's no doubt the Quran "promises virgins" to Muslim men who die while fighting infidels in jihad, and it's a key motivating factor behind suicide terrorism. "It's obviously connected to religion," said Rehov, who features his interviews with Muslims in a recently released film, "Suicide Killers." "They really believe they are going to get the virgins." He says would-be Muslim suicide bombers he's interviewed have shown him passages in the Quran "in which it's absolutely written that they're going to get the girls in the afterlife."

Muslim clerics do not disavow the virgins-for-martyrs reward as a perverted interpretation of the Quran.

And even Muslim leaders in the West condone suicide bombings. British scholar Azzam Tamimi recently told 8,000 Muslims in Manchester, England, that dying while fighting "George Bush and Tony Blair" is "just" and "the greatest act of martyrdom." Earlier, he said it's "the straight way to pleasing Allah."

And the founder of an allegedly mainstream Muslim group in Washington – the Council on American-Islamic Relations – also has given his blessing to suicide bombings. Addressing a youth session at the 1999 Islamic Association for Palestine's annual convention in Chicago, CAIR founder Omar Ahmad praised suicide bombers who "kill themselves for Islam," according to a transcript provided by terror expert Steve Emerson's Investigative Project. "Fighting for freedom, fighting for Islam, that is not suicide," Ahmad asserted. "They kill themselves for Islam."

Osama bin Laden has encouraged "Muslims brothers" to defeat the U.S. and U.K. with suicide attacks. "I tell you to act upon the orders of Allah," he said in 2003, "be united against Bush and Blair and defeat them through suicide attacks so that you may be successful before Allah."

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52184

[The 801]

Being a long time member of this site, I can only say that this unfortunetly makes sense.

I just don't get the virgin thing.

Has anyone seen this report? "Motivations of Muslim Suicide Bombers" does not seem to be online.

[Petronas]

Some time ago I too was curious where the story of the 72 virgins originated. I came across this interesting article by Ibn Warraq.

Virgins? What virgins?
Saturday January 12, 2002

It is widely believed that Muslim 'martyrs' enjoy rich sensual rewards on reaching paradise. A new study suggests they may be disappointed. Ibn Warraq reports.

In August, 2001, the American television channel CBS aired an interview with a Hamas activist Muhammad Abu Wardeh, who recruited terrorists for suicide bombings in Israel. Abu Wardeh was quoted as saying: "I described to him how God would compensate the martyr for sacrificing his life for his land. If you become a martyr, God will give you 70 virgins, 70 wives and everlasting happiness." Wardeh was in fact shortchanging his recruits since the rewards in Paradise for martyrs was 72 virgins. But I am running ahead of things .

Since September 11, news stories have repeated the story of suicide bombers and their heavenly rewards, and equally Muslim scholars and Western apologists of Islam have repeated that suicide is forbidden in Islam. Suicide (qatlu nafsi-hi) is not referred to in the Koran but is indeed forbidden in the Traditions (Hadith in Arabic), which are the collected sayings and doings attributed to the Prophet and traced back to him through a series of putatively trustworthy witnesses. They include what was done in his presence that he did not forbid, and even the authoritative sayings and doings of his companions.

But the Hamas spokesman correctly uses the word martyr (shahid) and not suicide bomber, since those who blow themselves up almost daily in Israel and those who died on September 11 were dying in the noblest of all causes, Jihad, which is an incumbent religious duty, established in the Koran and in the Traditions as a divine institution, and enjoined for the purpose of advancing Islam. While suicide is forbidden, martyrdom is everywhere praised, welcomed, and urged: "By the Being in Whose Hand is my life, I love that I should be killed in the way of Allah; then I should be brought back to life and be killed again in His way..."; "The Prophet said, 'Nobody who enters Paradise will ever like to return to this world even if he were offered everything, except the martyr who will desire to return to this world and be killed 10 times for the sake of the great honour that has been bestowed upon him'." [Sahih Muslim, chapters 781, 782, The Merit of Jihad and the Merit of Martyrdom.]

What of the rewards in paradise? The Islamic paradise is described in great sensual detail in the Koran and the Traditions; for instance, Koran sura 56 verses 12 -40 ; sura 55 verses 54-56 ; sura 76 verses 12-22. I shall quote the celebrated Penguin translation by NJ Dawood of sura 56 verses 12- 39: "They shall recline on jewelled couches face to face, and there shall wait on them immortal youths with bowls and ewers and a cup of purest wine (that will neither pain their heads nor take away their reason); with fruits of their own choice and flesh of fowls that they relish. And theirs shall be the dark-eyed houris, chaste as hidden pearls: a guerdon for their deeds... We created the houris and made them virgins, loving companions for those on the right hand..."

One should note that most translations, even those by Muslims themselves such as A Yusuf Ali, and the British Muslim Marmaduke Pickthall, translate the Arabic (plural) word Abkarun as virgins, as do well-known lexicons such the one by John Penrice. I emphasise this fact since many pudic and embarrassed Muslims claim there has been a mistranslation, that "virgins" should be replaced by "angels". In sura 55 verses 72-74, Dawood translates the Arabic word " hur " as "virgins", and the context makes clear that virgin is the appropriate translation: "Dark-eyed virgins sheltered in their tents (which of your Lord's blessings would you deny?) whom neither man nor jinnee will have touched before." The word hur occurs four times in the Koran and is usually translated as a "maiden with dark eyes".

Two points need to be noted. First, there is no mention anywhere in the Koran of the actual number of virgins available in paradise, and second, the dark-eyed damsels are available for all Muslims, not just martyrs. It is in the Islamic Traditions that we find the 72 virgins in heaven specified: in a Hadith (Islamic Tradition) collected by Al-Tirmidhi (died 892 CE [common era*]) in the Book of Sunan (volume IV, chapters on The Features of Paradise as described by the Messenger of Allah [Prophet Muhammad], chapter 21, About the Smallest Reward for the People of Paradise, (Hadith 2687). The same hadith is also quoted by Ibn Kathir (died 1373 CE ) in his Koranic commentary (Tafsir) of Surah Al-Rahman (55), verse 72: "The Prophet Muhammad was heard saying: 'The smallest reward for the people of paradise is an abode where there are 80,000 servants and 72 wives, over which stands a dome decorated with pearls, aquamarine, and ruby, as wide as the distance from Al-Jabiyyah [a Damascus suburb] to Sana'a [Yemen]'."

Modern apologists of Islam try to downplay the evident materialism and sexual implications of such descriptions, but, as the Encyclopaedia of Islam says, even orthodox Muslim theologians such as al Ghazali (died 1111 CE) and Al-Ash'ari (died 935 CE) have "admitted sensual pleasures into paradise". The sensual pleasures are graphically elaborated by Al-Suyuti (died 1505 ), Koranic commentator and polymath. He wrote: "Each time we sleep with a houri we find her virgin. Besides, the penis of the Elected never softens. The erection is eternal; the sensation that you feel each time you make love is utterly delicious and out of this world and were you to experience it in this world you would faint. Each chosen one [ie Muslim] will marry seventy [sic] houris, besides the women he married on earth, and all will have appetising vaginas."

One of the reasons Nietzsche hated Christianity was that it "made something unclean out of sexuality", whereas Islam, many would argue, was sex-positive. One cannot imagine any of the Church fathers writing ecstatically of heavenly sex as al-Suyuti did, with the possible exception of St Augustine before his conversion. But surely to call Islam sex-positive is to insult all Muslim women, for sex is seen entirely from the male point of view; women's sexuality is admitted but seen as something to be feared, repressed, and a work of the devil.

Scholars have long pointed out that these images are clearly drawn pictures and must have been inspired by the art of painting. Muhammad, or whoever is responsible for the descriptions, may well have seen Christian miniatures or mosaics representing the gardens of paradise and has interpreted the figures of angels rather literally as those of young men and young women. A further textual influence on the imagery found in the Koran is the work of Ephrem the Syrian [306-373 CE], Hymns on Paradise, written in Syriac, an Aramaic dialect and the language of Eastern Christianity, and a Semitic language closely related to Hebrew and Arabic.

This naturally leads to the most fascinating book ever written on the language of the Koran, and if proved to be correct in its main thesis, probably the most important book ever written on the Koran. Christoph Luxenberg's book, Die Syro-Aramaische Lesart des Koran, available only in German, came out just over a year ago, but has already had an enthusiastic reception, particularly among those scholars with a knowledge of several Semitic languages at Princeton, Yale, Berlin, Potsdam, Erlangen, Aix-en-Provence, and the Oriental Institute in Beirut.

Luxenberg tries to show that many obscurities of the Koran disappear if we read certain words as being Syriac and not Arabic. We cannot go into the technical details of his methodology but it allows Luxenberg, to the probable horror of all Muslim males dreaming of sexual bliss in the Muslim hereafter, to conjure away the wide-eyed houris promised to the faithful in suras XLIV.54; LII.20, LV.72, and LVI.22. Luxenberg 's new analysis, leaning on the Hymns of Ephrem the Syrian, yields "white raisins" of "crystal clarity" rather than doe-eyed, and ever willing virgins - the houris. Luxenberg claims that the context makes it clear that it is food and drink that is being offerred, and not unsullied maidens or houris.

In Syriac, the word hur is a feminine plural adjective meaning white, with the word "raisin" understood implicitly. Similarly, the immortal, pearl-like ephebes or youths of suras such as LXXVI.19 are really a misreading of a Syriac expression meaning chilled raisins (or drinks) that the just will have the pleasure of tasting in contrast to the boiling drinks promised the unfaithful and damned.

As Luxenberg's work has only recently been published we must await its scholarly assessment before we can pass any judgements. But if his analysis is correct then suicide bombers, or rather prospective martyrs, would do well to abandon their culture of death, and instead concentrate on getting laid 72 times in this world, unless of course they would really prefer chilled or white raisins, according to their taste, in the next.

http://www.challenging-islam.org/articles/72virgins.htm

[Petronas]

Speakout: Muslims must both denounce, renounce their violent hadiths
By Dr. Tawfik Hamid
October 7, 2006

Ayman al-Zawahri, al-Qaida's No. 2 man, last month announced that Americans must choose: Convert to Islam or continue to receive acts of terror. Al-Zawahri was reiterating a fundamental concept of Salafi Islamic teaching, the fountainhead of extremist thinking. Yet the authors of the American government's recent intelligence report on terrorism's spread seem not to have been listening.

Zawahri's threat is based on a saying of the Prophet Muhammad as written in Sahih Al-Buchary, a central book of Salafi Islamic teaching. This hadith, or fundamental concept, states: "I have been ordered by Allah to fight and kill all mankind until they say, 'No God except Allah and Muhammad is the prophet of Allah' (Hadith Sahih)."

Based on this hadith, early Muslims used the sword to spread Islam throughout the world. The same hadith inspires contemporary Islamic terror including this summer's thwarted London airplane explosions. Other rationales that terrorists use to justify terrorism - the Arab-Israeli conflict, America's involvement in Iraq - are simply useful propaganda cover stories, not the actual causes or goals of terrorists' actions.

Americans must be wary of political leaders who accept the propaganda explanations. To win the war on terror, America's leaders must recognize the powerful role of the Islamic religious principle of jihad, Islam's belief that it must conquer the world, which derives from the above hadith. Belief in jihad is what causes so many Muslims worldwide to cheer terrorist acts such as 9/11, European subway bombings, and Hezbollah and Hamas attacks against Israel.

Allowing jihadist teaching to continue is like allowing cancer cells to survive in a human body.

The human immune system demonstrates that nurturing normal cells and respecting their variance sustains life. A healthy body nourishes cell diversity. A healthy body politic, similarly, must value respect for different beliefs. At the same time, if an immune system shows any tolerance whatsoever for cancer cells, the latter will terminate that body's life. The immune system of a body politic must have a similar zero tolerance for beliefs that incite violence against its citizens.

Cancer can be overcome if an individual has a strong immune system that acts to triumph over the killer cells. Similarly, the cancerous teachings of Salafi Islam could become insignificant if the majority of Muslims were to vocally oppose them.

Unfortunately, however, the vast majority of Muslims, Islamic organizations and Islamic scholars have not publicly objected to these teachings. There have been no powerful Muslim demonstrations to denounce Osama bin Laden and not a single fatwa by top Islamic scholars or organizations to consider bin Laden an apostate - as was done to Salman Rushdie just for writing a novel.

Because the teachings continue, a significant proportion of the world's Muslims have become passive terrorists, peaceful citizens whose sympathy in their hearts and support with their purses enable terrorism's spread.

If Islamic scholars and organizations in America disapprove of jihadist teachings, they must speak out against them. Americans should consider Muslims to be moderates, and Islam a peaceful faith, only if, in English and in Arabic, Muslims clearly denounce their violent hadiths and strike them from the books that educate their next generation.

In addition to internal immune reactions, externally applied interventions also can destroy cancer cells. Like cancer-fighting chemotherapy, strongly applied military might can reduce large tumors. America eliminated al-Qaida training camps in Afghanistan, but the verdict is not yet in on whether Israel this past summer similarly decimated Hezbollah.

To conquer the metastases of extremist Islam, however, words may be the most potent weapons. Outspoken condemnation of the theological sources of terrorism by American intellectuals and politicians, reinforcing the self-examination of Muslims themselves, could make a vital difference.

Addressing the theological wellsprings of Islamic terrorist motivation is essential if America is to succeed in its war against terrorism. Pope Benedict XVI has begun leading the way. Neither political correctness nor Muslim outrage must be allowed to prevent further realistic talk about the religious underpinnings of Islamic violence. Otherwise Islamic teaching will continue to spread jihad's cancerous beliefs.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/opinion/article/0,1299,DRMN_38_5048866,00.html

[The 801]

Virgins, What Virgins....

Thanks Petronas for the interesting artical.

If you want to have an interesting read, google Christoph Luxenberg, a pseudonym. The book that the post discusses, Die Syro-Aramaische Lesart des Koran ( The Syro-Aramaic Reading of the Koran) is avalible on Amazon for over $850 bucks !

Read up on the backlash this book created. Very interesting.

[Petronas]

Online Fatwas Incite Young Muslims to Jihad
October 26, 2006

Saudi Released From Guantanamo: Fatwas Prompted Me to Join the Jihad

Sa'd Ibrahim Al-Bidna, a young Saudi, traveled to Afghanistan with the aim of joining the jihad. He was arrested two months later, and spent four years and eight months at Guantanamo. In an interview with Al-Riyadh, he said that it was fatwas posted on the Internet that motivated him to wage jihad.

Al-Riyadh: "Tell us of your journey, from [the time] you left Saudi Arabia until your return."

Al-Bidna: "I started this exhausting journey when I left Saudi Arabia on my own, motivated by youthful enthusiasm to [wage] jihad for the sake of Allah in Afghanistan. I traveled to Afghanistan through Syria and Iran. [When I arrived], war was being waged against the Taliban and things were not clear to me. So I decided to leave Afghanistan for Pakistan, and from there to return to Saudi Arabia. But [when I reached] Pakistan, I was arrested and turned over to the American forces. [They] imprisoned me in Guantanamo, [where I remained] until the Saudi authorities intervened and brought me back to Saudi Arabia after years of suffering..."

Al-Riyadh: "Tell us about the beginning of your journey and the reasons [that motivated you] to set out for Afghanistan."

Al-Bidna: "Many may find it difficult to believe, but I was not very devout, though I did pray regularly. But enthusiasm and zeal filled the hearts of many young people, and unfortunately, I followed certain fatwas that were posted on the Internet. [These fatwas] call upon young people to wage jihad in certain regions. They tempt them [by describing] the great reward [they will receive], the status of the martyrs in Paradise and the virgins that await them [there]. These fatwas have great influence on young people who have no awareness or knowledge [that enables them] to examine them and verify their validity."

http://www.memri.org/bin/opener_latest.cgi?ID=SD133506

[Petronas]

14 Year Old Assyrian Boy Decapitated By Muslim Group
10-29-2006 20:14:18

According to the Assyrian website ankawa.com, a 14 year old Christian Assyrian boy, Ayad Tariq, from Baqouba, Iraq was decapitated at his work place on October 21. Ayad Tariq was working his 12 hour shift, maintaining an electric generator, when a group of disguised Muslim insurgents walked in at the beginning of his shift shortly after 6 a.m. and asked him for his ID.

According to another employee who witnessed the events, and who hid when he saw the insurgents approach, the insurgents questioned Ayad after seeing that his ID stated "Christian", asking if he was truly a "Christian sinner." Ayad replied "yes, I am Christian but I am not a sinner." The insurgents quickly said this is a "dirty Christian sinner!" Then they proceeded to each hold one limb, shouting "Allahu akbar! Allahu akbar!" while beheading the boy.

http://www.aina.org/news/20061029141418.htm

[rectar]

14 Year Old Assyrian Boy Decapitated By Muslim Group
10-29-2006 20:14:18

According to the Assyrian website ankawa.com, a 14 year old Christian Assyrian boy, Ayad Tariq, from Baqouba, Iraq was decapitated at his work place on October 21. Ayad Tariq was working his 12 hour shift, maintaining an electric generator, when a group of disguised Muslim insurgents walked in at the beginning of his shift shortly after 6 a.m. and asked him for his ID.

According to another employee who witnessed the events, and who hid when he saw the insurgents approach, the insurgents questioned Ayad after seeing that his ID stated "Christian", asking if he was truly a "Christian sinner." Ayad replied "yes, I am Christian but I am not a sinner." The insurgents quickly said this is a "dirty Christian sinner!" Then they proceeded to each hold one limb, shouting "Allahu akbar! Allahu akbar!" while beheading the boy.

http://www.aina.org/news/20061029141418.htm...He was blessed to be a martyr, God bless him and make them see their ways !

[Petronas]

Originally Posted by Rectar
...He was blessed to be a martyr, God bless him and make them see their ways !And what of them who made him a martyr for his faith? What should be their fate?

[Petronas]

Ex-official: Muhammad reveals key to overcoming jihadists
Failure to analyze military plan of 'prophet' hurts U.S. military
Posted: October 31, 2006

The Pentagon must study the Muslim prophet Muhammad and his military doctrine to beat the growing number of jihadists, a former senior Pentagon intelligence official warns. The failure of Pentagon brass to implement a "systematic study" of Muhammad's military doctrine is hurting the U.S. military's effort to control and defeat insurgents and terrorists, complains William Gawthrop, who until recent months headed a key counterintelligence and counterterrorism program set up at the Pentagon after 9/11.

During this year's Ramadan, just ended, U.S. troops suffered another spike in casualties. Ramadan is the Islamic holy month when Muslims believe Muhammad received the Quran, the Muslim scripture, in a divine revelation. Almost 100 GIs have been killed in Iraq this month alone. Attacks on U.S. and other coalition soldiers in Afghanistan also increased during Ramadan.

The U.S. still does not have an in-depth understanding of the war-fighting doctrine laid down by Muhammad, says Gawthrop, who recently stepped down as program manager for the Joint Terrorism Task Force of the Defense Department's Counterintelligence Field Activity, or CIFA.

"As late as early 2006, the senior service colleges of the Department of Defense had not incorporated into their curriculum a systematic study of Muhammad as a military or political leader," Gawthrop said. "As a consequence, we still do not have an in-depth understanding of the war-fighting doctrine laid down by Muhammad, how it might be applied today by an increasing number of Islamic groups, or how it might be countered."

Washington-based CIFA is a key Pentagon intelligence agency involved in homeland security. It staffs hundreds of investigators and analysts to help coordinate Pentagon security efforts at home and abroad. CIFA also supports Northern Command in Colorado, which was established after 9/11 to help military forces react to terrorist threats in the continental United States.

Gawthrop says jihadists in Iraq and Afghanistan are simply following the example of Muhammad, who some 1,400 years ago personally led 27 attacks and sent his armies out 47 additional times against non-Islamic communities averaging about seven operations a year. He says the Muslim prophet's military doctrine is contained in the Quran and its supplements, and the insurgents and terrorists are using them as their manual of warfare. They are Muhammad's soldiers in the 21st century. Homegrown and freelance terrorists are also following his example, he notes.

"There is evidence to support the contention that sources of terrorism in Islam may reside within the strategic themes of Islam," Gawthrop said. They include "the example of Muhammad, the Quran, the hadiths, Islamic law, the pillars of faith and jihad."

The Muslim sacred books cover all aspects of warfare, from methods and tactics of violence against kafirs to war booty to truces, he says. Even alms-giving is directed toward jihad, which is obligatory for Muslims, who are told by the Quran that "fighting is prescribed for you" (another translation says "warfare is ordained for you").

Gawthrop says the Pentagon needs to develop a broad new strategy to deal with the threat from Islamic terrorists. But to do so, officials must first overcome the political taboo of linking Islamic violence to the religion of Islam, its sacred scripture and the personal example of its revered prophet. "Muhammad's mindset is a source for terrorism," Gawthrop flatly says.

Dealing with the threat on a tactical and operational level through counterstrikes and capture has proven only marginally successful. Gawthrop and other military leaders want to combat it from a strategic standpoint, using informational warfare, among other things. A critical part of that strategy involves studying Islam, including the Quran and the hadiths, or traditions of Muhammad, and exploiting critical vulnerabilities and controversies within the faith itself.

"The ideological lever has largely been ignored," he said, while the threat from Islamic terrorism and jihadism grows stronger and stronger – now now infecting Great Britain, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, in addition to Thailand, Indonesia (and indirectly Australia), Somalia, Russia and India.

"Today the United States and an increasing number of other governments are beleaguered by an expanding array of states, groups and individuals whose goals, actions and norms are animated by Islamic values," Gawthrop said. "This places the defenders in the unenviable position of having to fight, at the strategic level, against an idea."

How do you attack an idea? By hitting "soft spots" in the Islamic faith that, once exploited, "may induce a deteriorating cascade effect upon the target," Gawthrop says. "Critical vulnerabilities of the Quran, for example, are that it was uttered by a mortal," Gawthrop said. "Similar vulnerabilities may be found in Muhammad's character."

As the jihad spreads, he says the government eventually will have to get involved in a such a controversial national education campaign, politically incorrect as it may be. "If the United States, moderate Muslim governments and the non-Muslim world seek to engage ideological adversaries on their own ground," he said, "they will have to develop, use and maintain the full range of capabilities in the ideological component of national power, and address Islam's strategic themes directly."

Gawthrop notes that the Defense Intelligence Agency has produced reports on jihad, but not any detailed reports on Muhammad and his political and military doctrine. The reports discussing jihad include: "Y: The Sources of Islamic Revolutionary Conduct" by Air Force Lt. Col. Stephen P. Lambert and "Islam: The Peaceful Religion in Perpetual War" by the Joint Military Intelligence College.

Gawthrop's analysis appears in the new fall 2006 edition of "The Vanguard," the professional journal of the Military Intelligence Corps Association published out of Fort Huachuca, Ariz., the Army's intelligence headquarters.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52644

[rectar]

http://www.alarabiya.net/flash/feature/afp_nuclear_info/main.html

http://www.alarabiya.net/flash/feature/afp_nuclear_info/panorama.jpg?v=20060730 (http://www.alarabiya.net/mmpage.html#)[30 اكتوبر 2006] اليورانيوم المخصب هو يورانيوم تمت زيادة نسبة نظائر اليورانيوم-235 فيه وازالة النظائر الأخرى في عملية صعبة ومكلفة بسبب ان النظائر التي يراد ازالتها من اليورانيوم شبيهة جدا من ناحية الوزن بالنظائر التي يرغب بالابقاء عليها و تخصيبها.. وتتم عملية التخصيب باستخدام الحرارة عبر سائل او غاز لتساهم في عملية عزل النظائر غير المرغوبة .

[rectar]

http://www.alarabiya.net/flash/feature/afp_ogmar2/main.html

http://www.alarabiya.net/flash/feature/afp_ogmar2/panorama.jpg?v=20060730 (http://www.alarabiya.net/mmpage.html#)[26 اكتوبر 2006] من المعروف أن معظم الابحاث التى تم اجراؤها على النباتات المعدلة وراثيا تمت فى الدول المتقدمة وخاصة فى أمريكا الشمالية وغرب أوربا، وحديثا بدأت الدول النامية فى تنمية قدراتها فى مجال تكنولوجيا الهندسة الوراثية.

[rectar]

Reporting on the Iranian regime's meddling in Iraq, the Al-Etjah Al-Akhar weekly of March 27 published information by a former leader of an Iraqi militia group. The following is an excerpt from the weekly's report on comments by the group leader, Abu Kadhim:

Our group members were assigned to undertake many missions in Basra. We had a meeting with the Iranian Intelligence officials at the headquarters of one of the organizations. In this meeting, we were provided with information on the targets that had been chosen for assassination. Those selected by the Iranian regime as targets of assassination were local officials, academics, journalists and specially (Iraqi Army) officers who had fought in the war with Iran. The Iranian regime backs the death squads and Ahmadinejad's government funds a large number of these squads to spread chaos and incite the Iraqi people. The documents obtained in this regard, indicate that the death squads have networks recruited by the Badr militias or the Qods Corps battalions and have presently infiltrated the Interior and Defense Ministries of Iraq. The European Union's three biggest nations - Germany, France and Britain - called off two-and-a-half years of talks with Iran after it announced in January that it would resume enrichment work and shortly thereafter resumed small-scale enrichment of uranium.

[Petronas]

Rectar, do you have translations for your second and third last posts? Without translation they are probably not terribly useful to the great majority of board members.

I would also like to ask you to set up your own thread for posts like these, unless they are directly on point for the subject of an existing thread. This thread, for example, is meant to focus specifically on the link between the religion of Islam and those who see it as the religious/ideological basis for terrorist acts against infidels or those they regard as apostates. Your story about Iran is definitely interesting and belongs in "Alneda", but is probably best placed in a thread dealing with Iran, or Iraq, or a thread you might set up for your contributions.

Thank you for considering these suggestions.

[rectar]

http://www.alarabiya.net/flash/feature/afp_nuclear_info/main.html

http://www.alarabiya.net/flash/feature/afp_nuclear_info/panorama.jpg?v=20060730 (http://www.alarabiya.net/mmpage.html#)[30 اكتوبر 2006] اليورانيوم المخصب هو يورانيوم تمت زيادة نسبة نظائر اليورانيوم-235 فيه وازالة النظائر الأخرى في عملية صعبة ومكلفة بسبب ان النظائر التي يراد ازالتها من اليورانيوم شبيهة جدا من ناحية الوزن بالنظائر التي يرغب بالابقاء عليها و تخصيبها.. وتتم عملية التخصيب باستخدام الحرارة عبر سائل او غاز لتساهم في عملية عزل النظائر غير المرغوبة .

The informational section.
The struggle base organization in the Yemen land.
Http: / / www.alarabiya (http://www.alarabiya): / /.net / the flash / featu ....The info / main ..Html .
Http: / / www.alarabiya (http://www.alarabiya): / /.net / the flash / featu ....Jpg ?October v=20060730[30 2006] enriched Uranium Uranium the Uranium isotopes percentage increase be complete - 235 in it isotopes (wazala) the other in an operation difficult and ordered because of the isotopes which (ézaltha) is wanted. Uranium similar extremely from the weight aspect in the isotopes desire on it in the retention and fertilization... The fertilization operation be complete and a fluid or a gas to contribute in the unwanted isotopes separation operation in the heat use..

[rectar]

http://www.alarabiya.net/flash/feature/afp_ogmar2/main.html

http://www.alarabiya.net/flash/feature/afp_ogmar2/panorama.jpg?v=20060730 (http://www.alarabiya.net/mmpage.html#)[26 اكتوبر 2006] من المعروف أن معظم الابحاث التى تم اجراؤها على النباتات المعدلة وراثيا تمت فى الدول المتقدمة وخاصة فى أمريكا الشمالية وغرب أوربا، وحديثا بدأت الدول النامية فى تنمية قدراتها فى مجال تكنولوجيا الهندسة الوراثية. Is Bush spilling the the beans in Qatar now too ?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Http: / / www.alarabiya (http://www.alarabiya): / /.net / the flash / featu ....Mar2 / main ..Html .
Http: / / www.alarabiya (http://www.alarabiya): / /.net / the flash / featu ....Jpg ?October v=20060730[26 2006] it is known most searches be complete measure binds in the especially advanced countries hereditarily on the modified plants in North America recently and west of (aourba) the countries started,. Developing in abilities development in the engineering hereditary technology domain..

[Petronas]

Why they deny the Holocaust
By Ayaan Hirsi Ali
December 16, 2006

ONE DAY IN 1994, when I was living in Ede, a small town in Holland, I got a visit from my half-sister. She and I were both immigrants from Somalia and had both applied for asylum in Holland. I was granted it; she was denied. The fact that I got asylum gave me the opportunity to study. My half-sister couldn't.

In order for me to be admitted to the university I wanted to attend, I needed to pass three courses: a language course, a civics course and a history course. It was in the preparatory history course that I, for the first time, heard of the Holocaust. I was 24 years old at that time, and my half-sister was 21.

In those days, the daily news was filled with the Rwandan genocide and ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia. On the day that my half-sister visited me, my head was reeling from what happened to 6 million Jews in Germany, Holland, France and Eastern Europe.

I learned that innocent men, women and children were separated from each other. Stars pinned to their shoulders, transported by train to camps, they were gassed for no other reason than for being Jewish.

I saw pictures of masses of skeletons, even of kids. I heard horrifying accounts of some of the people who had survived the terror of Auschwitz and Sobibor. I told my half-sister all this and showed her the pictures in my history book. What she said was as awful as the information in my book.

With great conviction, my half-sister cried: "It's a lie! Jews have a way of blinding people. They were not killed, gassed or massacred. But I pray to Allah that one day all the Jews in the world will be destroyed."

She was not saying anything new. As a child growing up in Saudi Arabia, I remember my teachers, my mom and our neighbors telling us practically on a daily basis that Jews are evil, the sworn enemies of Muslims, and that their only goal was to destroy Islam. We were never informed about the Holocaust.

Later, as a teenager in Kenya, when Saudi and other Persian Gulf philanthropy reached us, I remember that the building of mosques and donations to hospitals and the poor went hand in hand with the cursing of Jews. Jews were said to be responsible for the deaths of babies and for epidemics such as AIDS, and they were believed to be the cause of wars. They were greedy and would do absolutely anything to kill us Muslims. If we ever wanted to know peace and stability, and if we didn't want to be wiped out, we would have to destroy the Jews. For those of us who were not in a position to take up arms against them, it was enough for us to cup our hands, raise our eyes heavenward and pray to Allah to destroy them.

Western leaders today who say they are shocked by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's conference this week denying the Holocaust need to wake up to that reality. For the majority of Muslims in the world, the Holocaust is not a major historical event that they deny. We simply do not know it ever happened because we were never informed of it.

The total number of Jews in the world today is estimated to be about 15 million, certainly no more than 20 million. On the other hand, the world's Muslim population is estimated to be between 1.2 billion and 1.5 billion. And not only is this population rapidly growing, it is also very young.

What's striking about Ahmadinejad's conference is the (silent) acquiescence of mainstream Muslims. I cannot help but wonder: Why is there no counter-conference in Riyadh, Cairo, Lahore, Khartoum or Jakarta condemning Ahmadinejad? Why are the 57 members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference silent on this?

Could the answer be as simple as it is horrifying: For generations, the leaders of these so-called Muslim countries have been spoon-feeding their populations a constant diet of propaganda similar to the one that generations of Germans (and other Europeans) were fed — that Jews are vermin and should be dealt with as such? In Europe, the logical conclusion was the Holocaust. If Ahmadinejad has his way, he shall not want for compliant Muslims ready to act on his wish.

The world needs to be informed again and again about the Holocaust — not only in the interest of the Jews who survived and their offspring but in the interest of humanity.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-ali16dec16,0,2351518.story?coll=la-home-commentary

[Petronas]

Shah Abdul Halim is correct that reopening the doors of ijtihad (independent reasoning) has to be the first step.
With ijtihad, one can reject the doctrine of naskh (more recent verses in the Qur'an, generally the most bloodthirsty and intolerant ones, abrogate the older verses, generally the more tolerant ones). This way one can give precedence to "There shall be no compulsion in religion" (2:256) over "I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads" (8:12), and the infamous "Verse of the Sword" ("slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captives and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush" - 9:5) will no longer be deemed to have abrogated as many as over a hundred peaceful and tolerant verses.
With ijtihad, one can read 42:48 ("You (Muhammad) have no duty except delivering the message") literally, and stop looking at the ahadith (narration of Muhammad's words and deeds) and sira (Muhammad's biography) as providing binding rules. This eliminates much problematic material that gives authority for the killing of Jews, the stoning of women and homosexuals, and that is not found in the Qur'an itself.
The politics of 'Moderate Islam'
By Shah Abdul Halim
Sun, 11 Feb 2007, 12:23:00

Why Bangladesh is termed a Moderate Muslim country or why the people of Bangladesh are described as Moderate Muslims. Is it because we do not oppose U.S. hegemony? During the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, at that time we had in our country a caretaker government in power. The then caretaker government invited all former Foreign Ministers of Bangladesh for consultation as to whether to support U.S. invasion in Afghanistan and provide logistic support and accede U.S. demand to use our land and airspace. They all advised the then caretaker government to support U.S. and provide all facilities in the war. This is the reason why West terms us as Moderate Muslims. For the same reason, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are Moderate Muslim countries although Saudi Arabia implements Shariah. They do not question the U.S. authority. But Iran is not a Moderate Muslim country though practicing democracy but rogue state because it questions U.S. illegitimate actions. The West looks at us from their foreign policy perception, from their geo-political and geo-strategic interests. If we follow them we are Moderate Muslims.

I am against qualifying Islam or Muslim with such phrases as moderate or progressive. I think it is not an appropriate approach. However, I admit that if such classification is used for practical reasons and clearer understanding, there is no harm in it. We could not avoid classifying Muslims as Shias and Sunnis or Hanafis or Malikis and the like.

Having said this, I shall take a positive look in the matter. In verse 2: 143 Al Quran describes Muslims as Ummatan Wasata- the balanced community and to my mind the moderates are the balanced.

According to John L. Esposito Moderate Muslims are those who seek to change their condition by gradual process, reject extremism and shun violence and terrorism. Graham E. Fuller defined Moderate Muslim as one who believes in democracy, tolerance, non-violent approach to politics and equal treatment to women at legal and social levels.

Now let us discuss some of the features of the balanced community, the Moderate Muslims. What it really means?

Firstly, it means that the door of Ijtihad is still open. It means we have to renounce Taqlid, blind imitation. Life is an ever changing phenomenon and we have to work to find out solution to our contemporary problems. We cannot sit down and remain idle saying that our predecessors have solved all problems and we have nothing to do. A Moderate Muslim is one who cherishes freedom of thought. This freedom is interlinked with the practice of Ijtihad. In fact Ijtihad is a Fard Kifaya, a collective responsibility.

Of course the person exercising Ijtihad must have a fair knowledge of Arabic which enables him to understand the Quran and Sunnah correctly and particularly the Verses and Hadiths that contain rulings (ayat wa-ahadith al-ahkam).

He must have a through knowledge of the sciences of the Quran and Hadith, which enables him to understand and identify the evidence (adilla) contained in the texts and, what is more, to deduce and extract judgments from them.

He should have a through knowledge and deep understanding of the objectives (maqasid) of the Shariah, their classification, and the priorities they imply.

He should have knowledge of his historical, social, and political context that is to say, the situation of the people living around him (ahwal al-nas), the state of their affairs, traditions and customs, and so on.

These qualifications have never been beyond the reach of the Islamic scholars, past and present. The progress that had been made in the arena of authentic Hadiths, the easy availability of Books of Hadiths due to advance printing technology, easier access to reference works, and computer-aided classification made the work of the Islamic scholars easier and more effective. The web and the internet have further facilitated research work. Consequently, the Muslim community, through its scholars, should still fulfill this fundamental duty today, even though it will be necessary to find a way to apply it appropriately in our contemporary context because of the new complexity of many sciences, such as medicine, technology, economics, the social sciences and so on. Ijtihad remains the most important instrument the Islamic scholars have at their disposal to fulfill the historic and universal responsibility, through a constant dynamic of adaptation in response to the time and changed context.

Secondly, being Moderate Muslim we have to agree that the Ijma, consensus of the earlier generations is not binding on us. We may accept or reject them on case to case basis and formulate new options.

Thirdly, being Moderate Muslim we must proclaim it in clear terms that the Quran and Sunnah constitute the Shariah. Shariah and Fiqh are not the same. The major parts of the Fiqh are opinions of the earlier generations although it may include (or includes) Shariah. We have to differentiate between Divine Law and human interpretation. We must distinguish between the Shariah and the Fiqh.

Fourthly, being Moderate Muslim we must stop branding every new practice, other than in the area of Ibadah (worship), as Bidah (innovation) for that is creating bar in the advancement of Muslim society. Muslims can modernize without de-Islamizing. Being Moderate Muslim we have to distinguish between the essential Islamic cultural elements and what is not basic, and accept local cultural elements that do not contradict with the fundamentals of Islamic faith and values.

Fifthly, being Moderate Muslim we have to adopt easy options in Muamalat (works and transactions) when Islam offers different options in solving a problem.

Sixthly, being Moderate Muslim we have to accept pluralistic and democratic system. This will in no way clash with our faith and identity. It means we have to shun the path of violence and accept election as the only lawful method for changing government. We must reject violence as a means of settling political disputes. We must avoid confrontational politics. The present practice of inviting foreigners to solve domestic political problems, as observed in Bangladesh in the recent past, must be discouraged. We have seen in the television screen that our journalists are asking the U.S. Ambassador when Bangladesh national parliamentary elections will be held. Some political parties even showed interest in holding intra political dialogue at the residence of the U.S. Ambassador. It is no good to invite outsiders to interfere in our domestic problem. It will not only result in death and destruction but will end in occupation. Iraq is the noble example.

http://nation.ittefaq.com/artman/publish/article_33957.shtml

[Petronas]

Winds of War: Muslims Teaching Their Children the Culture of Death
5 March, 2007 (07:38)

Cue a children’s program on Hizbollah TV:

A ten-year old daughter of a suicide bomber comes on and says:

“I have often prayed for my father to be martyred. I am very happy that God heard my prayers

From the Editor-in-Chief: Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman of the International News.

Is it human for a ten-year old to actually celebrate the death of her father? Is it human for a mother to actually rejoice at the loss of her son? Only in a society that glamorizes death (and not life). Only when one is brought up in a ‘culture of death’. Only where twisted logic is indoctrinated as the ultimate truth.

In Pakistan, ten thousand madrassahs prepare two million martyrs a year. On top of that, 198,166 primary, middle and secondary schools are working hard at manufacturing 27 million closet martyrs. Walk into any classroom of any government-run school and ninety-five per cent of what’s on display is martyrs. What we have thus managed to create is an ideal ‘culture of death’; a whole society of death worshippers.And it’s all done with a simple curriculum for children K thru 5.

Here’s the official curriculum document for classes K-V, National Bureau of Curriculum and Textbooks, Federal Ministry of Education, Government of Pakistan (1995): “At the completion of Class-V, the child should be able to: Make speeches on jihad and shahadat; India’s evil designs against Pakistan; acknowledge and identify forces that may be working against Pakistan [pg 154].” The document further instructs teachers: “To judge their spirits while making speeches on jihad…..” Another prescribed ‘learning outcome’ is to “recognise the importance of jihad in every sphere of life.” Textbooks prescribed by the Punjab Textbook Board eulogise “jihad and shahadat” and routinely urge students to “become mujahids and martyrs”. Middle school textbooks have long been urging children to be “willing to die as martyrs for Islam.”

Schools and madrassahs determine what a nation is destined to become in the future. For us, that future is here because we have long let our madressahs and schools churn out brigades of death worshippers. Glamorisation of death — not life — and long years of death worshipping degenerate into suicide bombings.Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman, a Muslim, is saddened by what passes for education in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and warns the West of the Islamist tactics learned well by every dictator in the 20th Century. Control and indoctrinate the next generation and you can make a nation easily bend to the will of the tyrant. At least there are some voices speaking out in Pakistan at the aberration of the religion called Islam.

http://www.bloggernews.net/15007

[Petronas]

Ethiopian Evangelist Beaten to Death by Militant Muslims
Mar. 29

The Washington-DC based human rights group, International Christian Concern (ICC) has just learned that an Ethiopian evangelist named Tedase was beaten to death by militant Muslims on Monday, March 26th, as he and two young women were on a street evangelism assignment in Jimma, Ethiopia. This marks the second time in six months that Christians residing in Southeast Ethiopia have been attacked and killed by extremist (Wahabbi) Muslims.

On Monday afternoon Tedase and two female coworkers were conducting street evangelism on Merkato Street in Jimma, Southern Ethiopia. Merkato Street runs by a Wahabbi Mosque. As the team was walking by the Mosque, a group of Muslims exited the Mosque and began to run after them to confront them. Tedase's female coworkers ran away from the mob but Tedase continued on. The Muslims caught up with Tedase, pulled him into the mosque, and savagely beat him to death. Sources from Jimma reported that Tedase was beaten with a calculated intention to kill him. This was no accident or case of mob frenzy getting out of control. His body was later taken to the hospital for an autopsy and he was buried Tuesday, March 27.

Our sources also reveal that Jimma Christians were conducting an evangelism campaign, and news of the outreach was spreading among Jimma residents as well as militant Muslim groups in the area. The Muslims that belonged to the Wahabbi sect purposefully beat Tedase to death as a message to Christians that they are ready to combat evangelism.

http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/194262642.html

[pixikill]

what a sad bunch.
they cannot trust the real god to do any of the punnishing like he said he would, so they have to do it themselves.
oh them of little faith.

[Petronas]

NIGERIA: MUSLIM EXTREMISTS SET CHURCH ON FIRE
Thursday March 29, 2007

Two days after the killing of a Christian teacher in this town in northern Nigeria, Muslim extremists set fire to a church building of the Evangelical Church of West Africa (ECWA) in the Chanchanya section.

The Rev. Rukun Gaius, 50, chairman of the Gombe district of the ECWA, told Compass that a large number of Muslim extremists went to the church on Friday night (March 23) and set it on fire, gutting the sanctuary. “The Muslims came to the church premises at about 11 p.m. to set the church on fire,” Rev. Gaius said. “People around the area and some of our members who saw the church burning rushed there put it out, but by then much damage had already been done to the building.” The 500 members of the church must now “worship and conduct their church programs in the open,” Rev. Gaius said.

Christianah Oluwatoyin Oluwasesin, a teacher at Government Secondary School of Gandu in Gombe, was clubbed to death by Muslim students and outside extremists on March 21 after a student accused her of desecrating the Quran by touching a copy.

Rev. Gaius, who is also vice chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Gombe state chapter, said security reports to CAN show that Muslim extremists have marked out 15 more churches to be burned down. “We have received security reports that 15 more churches have been earmarked to be burned, and that’s why you met us holding the emergency meeting at the Bishop’s Court [residence of the Anglican bishop of Gombe diocese],” he said. The Gombe district of the ECWA has about 15,000 members and 57 local congregations.

The burning of the sanctuary of the ECWA church in Chanchanya, Rev. Gaius said, is not the first in the state. Arson and other attacks on Christians have characterized their lives for years, he said. “Last year during protests against cartoons by a Danish newspaper, some of our churches were burned and Christians were attacked,” he said. “The ECWA church at Kagarawal was burned, another ECWA church at Nafada was also burned, this church has about 300 members; and Bishara Baptist Church in Gombe was also burned.” In 2005, Rev. Gaius said, an ECWA church in Kagarawal was also set on fire.

“And in 2003,” he said, “a Christian student by the name of Yakubu Lanu was brutally killed at Government Science Secondary School in Gombe town, when Muslims said they were protesting the plan to build a chapel by Christian students of the school.” Muslims protested the plan to build a chapel at the school even though there was a mosque for Muslim students, he said. ...

http://www.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&lang=en&length=long&idelement=4816&backpage=summaries

[Petronas]

Author of `New' Koran fears being villified and attacked
Mar.31

The author of a new translation of the Koran who says that wife beating does not exist in the Islamic way of life, fears villification and possible attacks on her family and herself from radical Islamic elements. American Muslim woman Laleh Bakhtiar's new version rejects Chapter 4, verse 34 of the Koran, which grants a husband the divine right to beat his wife.

Dr. Bakhtiar, who has written books on Islamic unity and translated 30 books on Islam and Islamic beliefs into English, says that the Koran does not convey a right to beat women. She has courted further controversy by removing the word "infidel" from her translation and by using "God" instead of "Allah".

Physical punishment is held widely to be an acceptable as a last resort in cases of disobedience after admonition and banishment from the marital bed. Dr Bakhtiar, 68, told The Times that anyone adhering to this interpretation of the verse had denigrated Islam.

Calls for the modernisation of Islam have led to women such as Taslima Nasrin, the Bangladeshi author, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the former Dutch MP, facing death threats.

The family of Dr Bakhtiar is fearful for her safety but the academic, based in Chicago, believes that it is God's will to decide whether she will be vilified. She has been accused of having a predetermined agenda, and of not being qualified to translate the Koran.

http://www.dailyindia.com/show/129892.php/

[Petronas]

Questioning Whether Islam Is Religion of Peace
By YOUSSEF IBRAHIM
July 9, 2007

The latest batch of attacks by Islamic terrorists raised fresh concerns among Muslims over what they fear may be "heinous attempts" to link terror with Islam. British Muslims, who number 1.6 million, are reportedly funding advertising campaigns across Britain that proclaim Islam is "the religion of peace" — in the process also implicitly warning fellow Britons against criticizing their faith.

Yet a year ago, a weighty Muslim writer and pundit, Abdelrahman Al Rashed, manager of the pan-Arab TV network Al-Arabiya Television, famously launched a stormy debate when he opined, "While all Muslims are not terrorists, all terrorists are now Muslims." Ever since, the question among Muslim scholars and activists is precisely how much of the terror inspired by Islam is due to the faith itself — and how much is due to the way it is being preached.

Clearly, the issue is enormously delicate, fraught with the pitfalls of prejudice and all sorts of other sensitivities. But as hundreds of thousands of people from New York to Baghdad are butchered under Islam's banners, failing to tackle it head-on is unacceptable.

Reasonable Muslims now agree that when a religion veers so far off course, it loses immunity to inquisition. "We ought to go through very serious questioning and soul-searching," a founder of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, Dr. Maher Hathout, wrote on "The American Muslim" Web site Thursday. "How did we, as a group, fail to nip this ugly phenomenon in the bud?" he asks. "How did we indulge in the luxury of theoretical debates, and craft all kinds of euphemisms to let this go on, spill out, and grow?"

The bare facts are there for all to see: Over the past 40 years or so, Islam's millions of fanatical preachers and political operatives have represented the religion as one of an "oppressed" people, victimized for centuries by the multiple ogres of Christianity, Judaism, and secularism. Listen to many preachers, read several interpretations of the Muslim holy book, or go to a variety of madrassas from Pakistan to Saudi Arabia, and you will quickly learn that Islam's central value, bar none, is jihad.

Far from a religion of peace, these clerics have "weaponized" Islam's text and the Koran into a war manifesto against even fellow Muslims — as between Shiites and Sunnis. Raising the bar further, most Muslim scholarship of today maintains the refrain that Islam is not meant to be another religion, but the most definitive of God's revelations to man. As Muslim children are told daily, the Prophet Muhammad is not only the last of God's prophets, but the most authoritative.

Thus, it follows that Muslims merit greater privilege. A Muslim, for example, may take any number of non-Muslim wives, but the reverse is illegal. Abandoning Islam is punishable by jail or death. No other religion is acceptable.

The next step in such a logical progression is clearly the necessity to force others to submit. Islam has become imbued with a kind of droit du seigneur — the extrajudicial, absolute rights of a lord of the manor — which cannot be argued with.

Saudis, for example — and this includes their most moderate and modernized leaders — feel it is perfectly natural to fund the building of hundreds of mosques in Europe, from London to Cologne, but cannot find a shred of logic in allowing the construction of a single church or Buddhist temple in Saudi Arabia, even though millions of Christian and Asian expatriates work there.

The scholarly journeys down such roads have served to legitimize the excessive aggression in hundreds of the religious edicts issued weekly by both legitimate and rogue Muslim scholars — including the charlatans of Al Qaeda, who decree that killing infidels is a Muslim duty.

A Saudi expert on Islamic movements, Mshari Al Zaydi, who is the opinion page editor of the Saudi daily Asharq Al-Awsat, went to the heart of the matter in a remarkable essay a few days ago, in which he pointedly noted that Saudi religious leaders have never issued an outright renunciation of the religious thinking of Osama bin Laden.

The most the Saudi religious establishment has done, Mr. Zaydi wrote, is to "mildly state that Mr. bin Laden was simply an ‘erroneous mujtahid,'" — a term referring to those qualified to issue juridical opinions and edicts such as fatwas — "as though this man was not responsible for setting the Muslim world ablaze, taking it back centuries and much farther than its original backwardness." In Egypt, Jordan, and Morocco, the Muslim Brotherhood contests for power based on a single slogan: "Islam is the solution." Could it be that their version of Islam is also the problem?

http://www.nysun.com/article/58062

[Petronas]

Islamist Websites Monitor No. 118
July 13, 2007

The "Ansar Al-Islam in the Muslim Sahara" Group Declares Jihad Against the North African Regimes and Promises to Take Back Muslim Spain ...

http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=subjects&Area=iwmp&ID=SP165607

[Petronas]

Christians crucified by terrorists in Iraq
Believers in Jesus said to be nailed to crosses, tied with ropes, set ablaze
July 17, 2007 9:26 p.m. Eastern

Christians in Iraq, including converts from Islam and people involved in mixed-faith marriages, are being crucified by Muslim terrorists, according to a Dutch member of Parliament studying the war-torn country. Several Iraqi Christians "are nailed to a cross and their arms are tied up with ropes. The ropes are put on fire," Joel Voordewind told BosNewsLife, an online news agency focusing on Christians and Jews in difficult circumstances. According to the site, Voordewind described how a person, who "survived" a crucifixion, "even showed holes in his hands," apparently from nails.

Voordewind said victims of the crucifixions are "in most cases Christian converts who abandoned Islam or people who, religiously speaking, are involved in mixed marriages." He did not specify how many Christians have been crucified in recent weeks and months, as an official report is expected soon. Voordewind is slated to present his findings to Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Maxime Verhagen within the next few days.

The report comes as thousands of Christians are said to be fleeing Iraq due to ongoing threats and violence against them. Just yesterday, over 80 people were killed in bomb blasts in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk. Most of the casualties resulted from a suicide truck bomb which detonated near the offices of the Kurdish political party led by Iraq's President Jalal Talabani.

BosNewsLife says Voordewind was part of a Dutch delegation visiting several countries in the Mideast, including Syria, where several lawmakers held talks with the terrorist group Hamas.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56726

[NYer]

By their fruits ye shall know them.

Matt 7:20

[kotzi]

Sunnis are getting holes drilled in their skulls by Shia militants, I don't really think it makes a big difference as to who or why. Beasts, simply.

[Petronas]

It does not seem that Hamas is afraid that the prisoners will discover the "true peaceful meaning" of the Qur'an that condemns terrorism...

Hamas shaves year off inmates' sentences for memorizing Koran
20:21 06/08/2007

Inmates in the Gaza Strip's main prison can now reduce their sentences by one year if they memorize five chapters from the Koran, Islam's holy book, the prison's governor announced Monday. The prison, controlled by the militant Hamas movement since the group's violent takeover of the Gaza Strip in June, holds 350 prisoners, 30 of whom are on death row.

The new scripture program seeks to encourage prisoners to behave according to the Koran's law, prison governor Col. Abu al-Abed Hamid, said in a statement. ...

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/890486.html

[Petronas]

One billion Muslims to turn into suicide bombers if Makkah, Madina are attacked
Wednesday August 08, 2007 (1737 PST)

ISLAMABAD: The treasury and opposition members in National Assembly (NA) Wednesday have made it clear on US that one billion Muslims will turn into suicide bombers if the holiest places of Makkah and Madina are attacked and warned Vetican City will not remain secure if any such threat is materialized.
They said this unanimously while participating in debate on foreign policy. Opposition legislator Ghulam Murtaza Satti said US was pursuing double standards. Those talking of launching any military offensive against Makkah and Medina are accursed. This will not happen nor will we allow it to happen.

Treasury member Rozina Tufail said Benazir Bhutto was striking deal with government and was seeking guarantee from US. If US presidential candidates are giving offensive statements then our candidates can also say that Vetican be attacked during the election campaign in the upcoming elections ", she added.

JUI-S legislator Hamid ul Haqqani said Muslim Ummah was facing the situation the sketch of which was presented by the last prophet Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH) 1400 years back.

Treasury member Ejaz Chaudhry said US was not friend of any one. " We will teach the lesson to US if it dares to come forward to attack upon us. Americans are coward nation and they can do nothing. Army should not target their brethren. US aid is like killer disease AIDS We curse it. The whole nation does not want US aid. Those who are targeting humanity and justice are terrorists. Those who are engaged in freedom war are freedom fighters. US ship is close to sink. It is hurling threats like a coward.

He demanded president and prime minister should stop holding any talk with junior US officials like Richard Boucher. "If US dared to hatch unholy conspiracy to attack Makkah and Medina then one billion Muslims will become suicide bombers and I will also be among them", he added. ...

http://paktribune.com/news/index.shtml?186376

[candypreet]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070809.wpakistan0809/BNStory/International/home

[Petronas]

The Qur'anist Movement
By Jamie Glazov
11/27/2007

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Thomas Haidon, a Muslim commentator on human rights, counter-terrorism and Islamic affairs. He is active in the Qur'anist movement and works with a number of Islamic reform organisations as an advisor. He has provided guidance to several governments on counter-terrorism issues and his works have been published in legal periodicals, and other media. Mr. Haidon has also provided advice to and worked for United Nations agencies in Sudan and Indonesia.

FP: Thomas Haidon, welcome to Frontpage Interview.

Haidon: Thank you, it's a pleasure to speak with you.

FP: So what's going on with the effort of moderate Muslims to reform Islam? It doesn't seem to be getting very far. How come? There appears to be a failure of moderate Muslims to make any real ground in developing a counter-jihad strategy. Why is this?

Haidon: The current Islamic reform movement, if it can be called a movement, is incoherent. Collectively the efforts of moderate Muslims to reform Islam have been highly disorganized, and generally ineffective. In general, Moderate Muslims reformers have been unable to move beyond the rhetoric towards developing real, theological solutions and alternatives to Islamism. As a foundational starting point, there is no precise definition of moderate Islam or moderate Muslims, only characteristics and assumptions.

In 2002 and 2003, a number of mid-size moderate Muslim organisations were established which sought to advocate for a moderate vision of Islam. Unfortunately, these groups have all but faded from existence, and generally exist in name only. There are a number of reasons for this. The primary reason is that these groups failed to develop effective strategic approaches and theological platform to combat Islamist ideology. An organisation that merely points out problems or symptoms of a problem without proffering effective counter-solutions will not have a sustainable future. These groups have done little to convince traditional Muslims that the path to reform is necessary. The case for reform has simply not been made well enough.

Modernising and reforming Islam is arguably one of the most complex and pressing policy questions confronting civilization. The task is formidable: to develop a strategic reformist framework that provides a theological response to Islamist ideology. Solutions and answers have to be robust and comprehensive. I have seen a number of Islamist scholars and non-Muslim commentators who have completely discredited Islamic reformist platforms. Merely saying Islam needs reform won't make it so.

Other reformers have made a number of tactical errors that have hindered their progress. A strategic approach to Islamic reform necessitates "playing the game" to a degree. By becoming a perceived "darling" of the so-called "right", Muslim reformers will never gain acceptance in the wider Muslim world. Admittedly, it is a difficult balance to achieve. Effective reformers must try and strike a balance, and not appear to be so aligned with Western interests that they disenfranchise traditional Muslims. There has to be an element of gradualism. Some well intentioned reformers have ignored this. While this notion may seem a bit unpalatable to your readers it is necessary for a sustainable reform.

Islam must first and foremost be seen to reform for the benefit of Muslims. Other reformers have called for actual parts of the Qur'an to be removed and simply forgotten. In realistic terms, this approach to reform is ill conceived and will never be accepted by the wider Muslim body. Islamic reform does not require the abandonment of all traditionalism or conservative principles. An Islamic reformation movement cannot ignore the traditionalism and conservative principles. Unfortunately, some well intentioned moderate Muslims have simply not grasped this key concept.

There have also been a number of other constraints to the so-called reform movement. It is largely personality and individual driven. There is a lack of consensus in terms of identifying the problems facing Islam. Reformers are often reluctant to work together because of different approaches. This is one of the primary reasons the much touted Progressive Muslim Union is now defunct.

In other words, there is great division in the reform movement that is not easily reconcilable. A further constraint is resource mobilization and organizational capacity. While mainstream Muslim organisations generally have no problem soliciting funds from their constituents and foreign governments, moderate Muslim organisations are, in general, grossly under-resourced and rely on the hard voluntary work of its members. It is virtually impossible to establish an effective reform organisation without adequate resources or capacity.

Non-Muslims can also be an impediment to moderate Muslims who want to achieve Islamic reform. The so-called "left" has, in many ways become a partner to the ideology of Islamism in their unyielding opposition to the war on terror. The "right" has also created barriers. Commentators on the "right" have a tendency to scoff at Muslim reformers and dismiss them. Painting all Muslims with the same brush is an over inclusive and short-sighted approach. Non-Muslims who are interested in defeating Islam, cannot win an ideological battle without moderate Muslims.

On top of this, true moderate Muslims are confronted with the threat of social exclusion and physical violence. Reform is often viewed as bidd'a (innovation), and those who espouse reform are often considered murtad (apostates). Leading the charge against moderate Muslims is Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, who condemns moderate Muslims as "intellectual apostates". According to Al-Qaradawi, intellectual apostasy is a:

[k]ind of apostasy among people who do not declare their explicit disbelief and openly wage war against everything that is religious. Those apostates are far smarter than that. They wrap their apostasy in various coverings, sneaking in a very cunning manner into the mind, the same way that malignant tumors sneak into the body. These people are not noticed when they invade or begin to disseminate their falsehood, but they are mostly felt when they affect the minds. They do not use guns in their attacks; however, their attacks are fierce and cunning. This apostasy, is noticed everyday in circulated newspapers and books, in radio and TV programs, and in laws legislated to govern people's affairs.

Qaradawi considers this form of apostasy "more dangerous than openly announced apostasy; for the former works continuously on a wide scale, at the same time, it cannot be easily resisted in the same manner as the latter, which always makes much fuss, attracts attention, and stirs up public opinion."

As we can see, the barriers to reform are significant. That said there are a number of courageous individuals who are working to change Islam from within. They include: Edip Yuskel, Sheikh Ahmed Mansour, and others.

FP: There are a great deal of false moderates. What exactly is their motive?

Haidon: Genuine reformers are not always easy to identify. False moderates are those Muslims who purport to advocate for reform or "peaceful" Islam, while surreptitiously having other objectives/motives in mind. False moderates generally fall into two camps: those Muslims who espouse general moderate/reformist rhetoric, while maintaining association with an Islamist agenda; and Muslims, who advocate and espouse reformist rhetoric for the purposes of personal profit or gain. Both categories of false moderates undermine the work of genuine reformers.

In the immediate aftermath of 9/11 a number of false moderates belonging to the first camp began to talk about the "peace" of Islam, and the need for "inter-faith dialogue". Scholars and ulaema like Tariq Ramadan, Dr Jamal Badawi, and Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi fall into this category. These men have been celebrated as moderates because of calls for dialogue and reconciliation. Yet, when speaking to Muslims, their Islamist agenda is revealed. Unfortunately, policy makers can't seem to grasp or conceptualise the ramifications of engaging these so-called moderates, who are, in reality, no better than Al-Qaeda terrorists. In fact, these false moderates are far more dangerous. They have managed to win the trust of non-Muslims and influential policy makers with their smiles, Western style suits and promises of "dialogue".

The second camp of false moderates contains those Muslims who talk about reform to non-Muslims in order to achieve personal gain. This camp is transparent. I am weary of any so-called reformer whose primary target audience is non-Muslims. This group of "moderates" seeks to maximize personal gain by warning non-Muslims of the threats that Islam faces, without offering any concrete solutions. They seek to develop a "niche market", where they can secure places and invitations at conferences, synagogues, churches and anyone-else who will listen, anyone except Muslims.

FP: Your thoughts on Sharia?

Haidon: I am supportive of individuals who choose to follow the morals and principles of the Qur'an in their private lives. Moderate Islam does not require Muslims to abandon fundamental tenets or to abandon moral concepts such as modesty, abstaining from alcohol, etc. I am fundamentally opposed, however, to the codification of shari'ah into public legislation or the imposition of any punishment for a breach of shari'ah law.

By its very nature, shari'ah when implemented aspirationally, or at a legislative level, is prima facie discriminatory against women and non-Muslims. Shari'ah breaches accepted human rights standards contained in the primary United Nations conventions (including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights, the Convention Against Discrimination Against Women, and so forth). A genuine Islamic reform movement must fight against the imposition of shari'ah. There are a number of reformers, like Hasan Mahmud who are leading this effort.

FP: Tell us about the Qur'an Only movement.

Haidon: The Qur'anic movement is shift back to the Islam of the Qur'an. Qur'anic Muslims follow the words of the Qur'an alone, and reject the so-called traditions of Islam, as these traditions are not revelation. It is a rationalist movement that is based on the principle that the Qur'an provides a comprehensive guide and criterion for Muslims to live by. The Qur'anic movement does not consider the Sunnah and hadith as valid or reliable sources of Islam. This is primary because the Qur'an is the complete source of Islam ("And We have sent down to you the Book explaining all things, a guide, a mercy and glad tidings for those who submit" 16:89). The primary problem with the Muslim tradition is that it is often inconsistent with the Qur'an. Muslims have attempted to resolve these inconsistencies by interpreting the Qur'an through hadith, not the other way around. Put simply, the Qur'an is God's word, the Sunnah is not.

The so-called Sunnah was not written down until approximately 150 years after Muhammad's death. The rightly guided Caliphs fought against codifying the Sunnah out of fear that it would take a life of its own. Muslim jurisprudence has developed a complex approach to determining the veracity reliability of hadith. Early Muslims fought against the transcribing of the hadith, and were able to clearly see the difficulties. Each of the four righly guided Caliph's (Muhammad's companions) were opposed to the transcribing of hadith, regardless of whether they were valid or not. The Sunnah was initially used as a political tool to consolidate the political power of the Abbasids and Ummayids. There is nothing in the Qur'an explicitly requiring Muslims to follow these traditions, only generic verses that Muslim jurisprudence has exploited to serve Islamic rules. A key element of the Qur'anic movement is that it employs a contextual exegetical approach in interpreting the Qur'an. The Qur'an, without contextual and non-literal explanation, can be dangerous (even without reliance on the Sunnah). While many ahadith are innocuous, other ahadith encourage violence, rape and tyranny. Other ahadith (accepted as valid) are simply absurd, such as the ahadith extolling the virtues of camel urine. The Qur'anic approach puts this in perspective.

In my view, the Qur'anic movement provides the only effective mechanism to comprehensive Islamic reform. Importantly, a number of Islamic scholars including Sheikh Ahmed Mansour, Tarek Abdel Hamid, and Edip Yuskel, among others, have developed devastatingly clear arguments in justification of the approach. The Qur'anic movement is also becoming better organized and strategic. Edip Yuskel and other reformers have recently developed and published the "Quran: A Reformist Translation" which provides a contextual interpretation of the Qur'an along with commentary. It also sets out a strategic framework for the reform of Islam, consistent with the Qur'anic approach. The Qur'anic movement is not without its detractors or skeptics. Unlike other reformist approaches, however, the Qur'anic approach is one based in fact and logic. As the movement becomes more organized and develops greater capacity, it will begin to reach traditional Muslims.

FP: Can you share your own intellectual and religious journey with us? You were at one time a non-Muslim. Why did you become Muslim? And now, as a Muslim, what is it like to remain part of a worldwide religion that has so many violent, totalitarian and misogynist teachings and is causing so much violence around the world?

Haidon: I was raised in the Irish Catholic tradition, and spent a significant time studying scripture, hermeneutics and the writings of Catholic philosophers like St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Bonaventure . I discovered Islam during my study of comparative religions in the United States and in Cairo, Egypt. I also had the opportunity to study Islam in Cairo, Egypt and was exposed to the teachings of a number of reformers and moderates. I also studied non-Muslim perspectives on Islam. I came into Islam, with the full realisation and understanding that Islam was troubled. The pure monotheism of the Qur'an is what compelled me to become Muslim. I converted to Islam at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt in June 2001. I began to focus on reform after working and living in Khartoum Sudan in 2003. While in Sudan, I witnessed a truly horrific side to Islam that I had not witnessed previously. Among other things I witnessed Islamic punishments being meted out, and watched helplessly as hundreds of Muslims celebrated the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. This was a defining moment for me, and caused me to begin to examine the sources of Muslim hatred and violence.

While I am Muslim, I have great admiration for Christianity, its philosophy and its moral underpinnings. I am proud of my upbringing, and the values that Christianity taught me. I still find solace in the teachings of Jesus. These teachings are valid and relevant in the Islamic context as Jesus is arguably Islam's most important prophet, as Muslims believe Jesus will return. The deification of Muhammad through the Sunnah, however, has placed the peaceful teachings and "Sunnah" of Jesus off the radar of Muslim scholars and ulaema. This is contrary to the principle that all prophets in Islam hold equal status.

My academic and professional experience in the field of human rights has also informed my views on Islamic reform. I am a firm believer that human rights are universal and that there is no place for cultural relativism where fundamental rights are concerned. There is a growing tension in international human rights law between individual and collective rights (rights of groups). This debate will be an important one to keep an eye on, Collective rights have traditionally been considered outside the scope of fundamental human rights, but the debate is shifting. This will have great implications on the shar'iah debate.

I remain Muslim, because I believe in the Qur'an and its message. Islam is capable of redemption, despite Muslim and non-Muslim detractors, and can be construed in a manner consistent with the respect for the fundamental human rights of all Redemption will come when Muslims reject man-made traditions created by Muslims, and exclusively follow the messages of the Qur'an. In doing so, they must also develop contextualised, non-literal exegetical approaches to interpreting the Qur'an.

There has been enough rhetoric, its time for Muslims to act. We all know that there are problems within Islam, we're beyond that now. We need to develop viable solutions. Otherwise, the work of reformers is meaningless.

FP: Thomas Haidon, thank you for joining us.

Haidon: Thank you Jamie.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jamie Glazov is Frontpage Magazine's managing editor. He holds a Ph.D. in History with a specialty in U.S. and Canadian foreign policy.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.aspx?GUID=B77329D6-6ED0-4B5F-A834-5A984B7350EC

[Petronas]

"It's not as messy or as hard as some may think, it's all about the flow of the wrist. Sharpen the knife to its maximum. And before you begin to cut the flesh, tilt the fool's head to its left. Saw the knife back and forth. No doubt that the punk will twitch and scream. But ignore the donkey's ass. And continue to slice back and forth. You'll feel the knife hit the wind and food pipe. But Don't Stop. Continue with all your might." 'Terrorist' Poet Gets Convicted
December 7, 2007

LONDON — She was a sales clerk in a WH Smith bookshop at Heathrow airport, and when she wasn't ringing up newspapers, paperbacks, and chewing gum, she was penning jihadi poetry on the back of used sales slips.

"The desire within me increases every day to go for martyrdom," Samina Malik, a soft-spoken 23-year-old usually draped in a modest black headscarf, wrote on one receipt. A judge yesterday sentenced Ms. Malik, know as "the Lyrical Terrorist" for her Internet name and her poems celebrating beheadings, to a nine-month suspended sentence and 100 hours of volunteer work. She was convicted for possessing material ranging from a Qaeda manual to a reference work on "mujahedin poisons" and bomb-making instructions, which prosecutors said suggested the British-born woman's linkage to violent extremists.

"You're 23, of good character 'til now, and from a supportive and law-abiding family who are appalled by the trouble that you're in," Judge Peter Beaumont said. At an earlier hearing, the judge had confessed that Ms. Malik remains "a complete enigma to me." The case comes amid a mounting debate in Britain over where to draw the line between terrorism and those who merely applaud it. Radical Muslim clerics have been sentenced to years of imprisonment for calling for the deaths of infidels. In July, three men were jailed for six years each for statements they shouted during an emotional demonstration over a cartoon depicting the prophet Muhammad, one of which was "Bomb, bomb the U.K."

Ms. Malik was convicted over her terrorism manuals, not her poetry. But it is her verses that have captivated and horrified the public and sparked the row over when radical statements cross the line into inciting terrorism.

"It's not as messy or as hard as some may think," she wrote in her poem "How to Behead." "It's all about the flow of the wrist. Sharpen the knife to its maximum. And before you begin to cut the flesh, tilt the fool's head to its left. Saw the knife back and forth. No doubt that the punk will twitch and scream. But ignore the donkey's ass. And continue to slice back and forth. You'll feel the knife hit the wind and food pipe. But Don't Stop. Continue with all your might."

Ms. Malik sat silent as the judge read out her sentence, twisting a tissue in her clenched fist. At one point, she buried her tearful face in her hands. She has claimed she was seduced by the violent preachings of radical clerics as she began exploring Islam and adopted the Internet moniker "Lyrical Terrorist" because it "sounded cool." Though her writings appeared to revel in violence and condemned the nonbeliever as a "stinking kuffar ape," she never meant any of it, she told the court during her trial. "This doesn't mean I wanted to convert my words into actions," she testified. "This is a meaningless poem, and that is all it ever was. To partake in something and to write about something are two different things."

"Ms. Malik was convicted of collecting information, without reasonable excuse, of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism."

http://www.nysun.com/article/67711

[Petronas]

Faith, reason, and the war against jihadism
Monday, February 11, 2008
http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?id=14346

Too long to post in its totality. Good brief history of jihadism. Here are a few excerpts:

The western media acquiescence to Muslim complaints about “Islamophobia” should stop
The current phase of the contest for the human future will last at least two or three generations
In the war against global jihadism, deterrence strategies are unlikely to be effective.
Cultural self-confidence is indispensable to victory in the long-term struggle against jihadism.
Small concessions in the name of a false idea of tolerance inevitably lead to further concessions and erosions of liberty.
We cannot continue to finance those who attack us. De-fund global jihadism by drastically cutting the transfer of funds related to petroleum imports.
The challenge of global jihadism can be neither avoided nor appeased.

[Petronas]

Islam intrinsically violent - convert
March 23, 2008 08:41pm

ITALIAN editor and critic of Islamic extremism Magdi Allam, who converted to Catholicism from Islam and was baptised by Pope Benedict XVI, today branded his former faith as intrinsically violent.

"I had to do this (abandon Islam)", Allam wrote in a long letter to the Italian daily Corriere della Sera. "Beyond ... the phenomenon of extremists and Islamist terrorism at the global level, the root of evil is inherent to a physiologically violent and historically conflictual Islam," wrote the Egyptian-born journalist, who says he has received death threats and is under police protection. One of seven adults baptised during an Easter vigil yesterday evening, Allam, 55, is an editorial writer and deputy editor at Corriere.

Regarding a combative tone that has made him famous in Italy, Allam wrote: "Over the years my spirit has been freed from the obscurantism of an ideology that legitimises lies and deception, violent death that leads to homicide and suicide, blind submission to tyranny." He described Catholicism as "an authentic religion of Truth, Life and Freedom".

By baptising Allam in the public ceremony, the Pope "sent an explicit and revolutionary message to a church that until now has been too cautious in the conversion of Muslims ... because of the fear of being unable to protect the converted who are condemned to death for apostasy," Allam said.

"Thousands of people in Italy have converted to Islam and practise their faith serenely," he wrote. "But there are also thousands of Muslims who have converted to Christianity who are forced to hide their new faith out of fear of being killed by Islamist terrorists." Allam adopted the Christian name of Cristiano (Christian), not a common name in Italy.

Allam, who has been outspoken about the conflict in the Middle East, in 2006 organised a demonstration in Rome in support of Christians in the Muslim world.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23420244-5005961,00.html

[Petronas]

Intellectuals condemn fatwa against writers
Thursday April 3 2008

Arab human rights activists have condemned a Saudi religious edict calling for the execution of two writers for apostasy - giving a rare glimpse of tensions over Islam inside the conservative kingdom.

The ruling by Sheikh Abdul Rahman al-Barrak was called "intellectual terrorism" by "clerics of darkness" in a statement obtained by Reuters and signed by 100 human rights groups and intellectuals from the region. Last month Barrak issued a fatwa against two Saudi writers he denounced as "infidels".

Writing in al-Riyadh newspaper, Yousef Aba Al-Khail and Abdullah bin Bejad had questioned the Sunni Muslim view standard in Saudi Arabia that adherents of other faiths should be considered unbelievers.

"Anyone who claims this has refuted Islam and should be tried so that he can take it back. If not, he should be killed as an apostate from the religion of Islam," Barrak said. "It is disgraceful that articles [of] this kind of apostasy should be published in ... the land of [Mecca and Medina]."

Barrak is seen as Saudi Arabia's leading religious authority independent of the establishment Wahhabi school. His call won support from clerics who asked God to support him in the face of liberals with "polluted beliefs".

Fatwas by radical Muslim clerics led to the assassination in 1992 of the Egyptian writer Farag Foda and to an attempt in 1994 in Cairo to murder the Egyptian Nobel prize-winner Naguib Mahfouz.

Last month Saudi Arabia's Shura council threw out a proposal for a law promoting respect for other religions and religious symbols, apparently for fear it might lead to the building of churches.

King Abdullah recently called for the first time for a dialogue among Muslims, Christians and Jews after discussing the idea with Pope Benedict XVI. But it was reported yesterday that the kingdom's leading official cleric, the Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Bin Abdullah al-Sheikh, had denied issuing an invitation to Israeli rabbis to take part in a conference.

A YouGov poll, broadcast by BBC World, showed that nearly a third of Arabs believe Saudi Arabia is at greater risk from religious extremism than any other country.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/03/saudiarabia

[pixikill]

One billion Muslims to turn into suicide bombers if Makkah, Madina are attacked


yay!!!!
will someone please attack makkah and/or madina?
pretty please????
with sugar on top?

[The 801]

Pray less, work more, says Islamic preacher
Jun 5 04:19 AM US/Eastern


Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi Responds to Wafa Sultan’s Criticism of Islam



For Egyptian-born Muslim cleric and television host, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, there is a simple answer to Egypt's productivity problem -- pray less, work more.

"Praying is a good thing ... 10 minutes should be enough," Al-Jazeera television personality Qaradawi says in a religious edict, or fatwa, published on his website.

Praying five times a day is one of the five pillars of Islam, along with the well-known requirements of making a pilgrimage to Mecca and of giving alms to the poor.

Two of each day's five sessions -- the dhuhr (noon) prayer and asr (afternoon) prayer -- fall within working hours, bringing work to a standstill at least twice a day in many places.

A prayer generally takes an average of 10 minutes, but it can be extended if a worshipper chooses to recite one of the longer verses of the Koran.

And before the prayers themselves, there is also a mandatory ablution during which worshippers must wash their faces, hands and arms, feet and heads. In large office buildings, the trips to the bathroom can also eat away at valuable work time.

Qaradawi's plea to reconcile faith and productivity may hit some hurdles as it risks upsetting the deeply entrenched custom of "prayer breaks" at work.

Society's increased Islamisation over the past 30 years has already silenced some critics of long prayer sessions.

According to an official study, Egypt's six million government employees are estimated to spend an average of only 27 minutes per day actually working, reflecting a real problem with productivity.

Qaradawi's fatwa is aimed at removing prayer as a pretext for not producing.

Religious beliefs in Egypt are very overt, from the headscarf covering the majority of women's heads to the bruise on many a man's forehead showing how piously and how often he has touched his head to the ground in prostration.

In every large company, factory or public building, there is a formal prayer space. Individual prayer rugs, slumped over the backs of chairs or folded neatly on a desk, are often at hand in public offices, ready to be grabbed once the call to prayer booms out over the public address system.

In downtown Cairo, lies Mugamma, a 13-storey building that is the beating heart of Egypt's sprawling bureaucracy, where 65 different government services are performed by some 18,000 employees.

Thirty thousand people walk through the doors of the vast Soviet-style building every day, hoping to get a passport or a work permit, or whatever it is they need.

"But when it comes to prayer time, and there are many, there is no hope of anything getting done for an unknown length of time," says Ahmed Ghani, whose company has tasked him with scouring the labyrinth for official stamps.

The 90s Egyptian cult film comedy "Terrorism and Kebab" (Al-Irhab wal Kabab) recounts the tribulation of a middle class man's adventure in the Mugamma with the lead role played by Egyptian screen giant Adel Imam.

Frustrated by the bureaucracy and repeatedly being told to wait for a government employee to finish his prayer, Imam's character ends up in a tussle with a security guard and is mistaken for a terrorist.

Qaradawi has a few ideas of his own to help shorten the prayer time: Muslims can do the mandatory pre-prayer wash at home before reaching the office, instead of in the office toilets during working hours.

"To save some time, they can also just put some water over their socks, instead of taking (socks) off to wash the feet," Qaradawi says in his fatwa.

While it may be too early to judge the effects of the popular sheikh's fatwa on productivity in the work place, Egyptian clerics, in a rare show of unity, have largely agreed with the Qatar-based cleric.

"He's right. I cannot say the contrary. One must not waste time at work and use prayer as the pretext," Sheikh Fawzi al-Zifzaf, of the centre of Islamic studies at Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's main seat of learning, told AFP.

As for Mohammed al-Shahhat al-Gendi, secretary general of the Council of Supreme Islamic affairs, "10 minutes are absolutely suitable for one prayer."

"Improving productivity is not at all contrary to Islam," he told AFP.

They both also agree with Qaradawi when he says: "Praying is of course compulsory, and if everyone were to pray, it shows that society is on the right track."

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080605081855.juhs9sqc&show_article=1

Don't like this source a whole lot, but the truth of the matter is that social and economic inequality is a one source of the problems that westerns have with islam. Improving productivity will increase the lifestyle of the culture, and that will make the world safer from jihadism. Or so it seems to me. - 801