Pakistan: pro-Taliban cleric arrested

Pakistan police detain pro-Taliban cleric Mohammad | World | Reuters

Pakistani police have detained pro-Taliban cleric Sufi Mohammad, accusing him of helping militants in the country’s northwest and sabotaging the government’s fight against them, an official said on Sunday.

Mohammad helped broker a deal between the government and the Taliban in February to end violence in the northwest Swat valley, but the pact collapsed after militants refused to lay down arms and began expanding their influence in nearby districts.

Security forces subsequently launched an offensive against the militants in Swat and nearby districts nearly three months ago.

And the reason for his detention is: Pakistan arrests pro-Taliban cleric Sufi Muhammad who brokered Swat peace deal that fell apart

Muhammad, father-in-law of Swat Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah, negotiated a truce with the government in February that imposed Shariah, or Islamic, law in the valley in exchange for an end to two years of fighting. But it was widely seen as an acquiescence to Taliban control of the area.

The deal collapsed in April when the Taliban advanced into neighboring districts, triggering a military offensive that prompted a spree of retaliatory attacks by militants in the northwest and beyond.

Mian Iftikhar, information minister for the North West Frontier Province, said Muhammad was arrested for encouraging violence and terrorism.

“Instead of keeping his promises by taking steps for the sake of peace, and speaking out against terrorism, he did not utter a single word against terrorists,” Iftikhar said in a news conference in Peshawar, adding that the cleric’s stance “encouraged terrorism. It encouraged violence.”

More here.

Fareed Zakaria wrote (via Islamization Watch):

The militants who were battling the Army (led by Sufi Muhammed’s son-in-law) have had to go along with the deal. The Pakistani government is hoping that this agreement will isolate the jihadists and win the public back to its side. This may not work, but at least it represents an effort to divide the camps of the Islamists between those who are violent and those who are merely extreme.

Over the past eight years such distinctions have been regarded as naive. In the Bush administration’s original view, all Islamist groups were one and the same; any distinctions or nuances were regarded as a form of appeasement. If they weren’t terrorists themselves, they were probably harboring terrorists. But how to understand Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the countries “harbor” terrorists but are not themselves terrorist states?

Read it all…

That difference is interesting, but in the end it proves no result. Why? Because violent and non-violent Islamists have the same goals, so they would prefer to ally between them than to ally with an stranger.

After this development, the UK FM Milliband has openly supported that the Taliban reenter the Afghan Government. Intelligence, that’s what has been lost…

Tags Technorati: Sufi Mohammad, Pakistan, Taliban, Mian Iftikhar, Maulana Fazullah, Swat Valley

Nigeria: 150 killed in clashes between Islamic sect and police*

The Sun News On-line | News

No fewer than 70 members of a fundamentalist Islamic sect, Boko Haram were reported killed in the early hours of Sunday as the group engaged security agents in a bitter battle in Bauchi, capital of Bauchi State.

Already, a dusk-to-dawn curfew has been imposed on the state capital just as 176 suspected members of the radical group have been arrested by the police. 15 persons who sustained varying degrees of injuries in the clash are said to be receiving medical attention in different hospitals in Bauchi.

Bauchi State Police Command has confirmed 39 deaths. Eye-witnesses said, however, that the dead are more than that number. Awwal Isa, a nurse at the Bauchi Specialist Hospital, told AFP that a total of 42 bodies had been deposited at the hospital.

(…) The radical sect made its debut in 2004 when it set up a base dubbed Afghanistan in Kanamma village in northern Yobe State, on the border with the Niger Republic, from where it attacked police outposts and killed police officers. Its membership is mainly drawn from university dropouts.

One of the leaders of the group, Aminu Tashen-Ilimi, had told AFP in a 2005 interview that the group’s mission was to lead an armed insurrection in a bid to rid the society of immorality and infidelity.

BBC reports that the toll of dead people has risen to 150:

Dozens of people have been killed after Islamist militants staged three attacks in northern Nigeria, taking the total killed in two days of violence to 150.

A BBC reporter has counted 100 bodies, mostly of militants, near the police headquarters in Maiduguri, Borno State, where hundreds are fleeing their homes.

Witnesses told the BBC a gun battle raged for hours in Potiskum, Yobe State and a police station was set on fire.

Some of the militants follow a preacher who campaigns against Western schools.

The preacher, Mohammed Yusuf, says Western education is against Islamic teaching.

There has also been an attack in Wudil, some 20km (12 miles) from Kano, the largest city in northern Nigeria.

(…) Mr Yusuf’s followers in Bauchi are known as Boko Haram, which means “Education is prohibited”.

Well, it’s not a very good point to start when you defend the prohibition of education…

More in IAC.

More here:

In northern Nigeria, Islam dominates in all aspects of life: Islamic courts, Islamic police oversee “good manners” such as wearing of decent clothes by students in certain states, strict censorship of films produced locally in what is dubbed Kannywood.

Police also see to the separation of the sexes in public places, not to mention the ban on alcohol consumption and homosexuality.

Women are treated as second class citizens.

The socio-political pressure is very strong and constitutes, according to analysts who spoke to AFP, a major handicap to modernisation, economic and cultural development.

A typical dramatic example was the refusal, in 2003, of Muslim leaders in the region to support a UN-inspired anti-polio drive, denouncing it as a “plot” by the United States to sterilise Muslims (this would be laughable if it weren’t for the children who could be NOW infected with polio thanks to these idiots….).

The programme was then halted for 13 months.

ADNKronos reports:

Islamic Sharia law is in place across northern Nigeria but there is no history of Al-Qaeda linked violence in the country. Nigeria’s 140 million people are split almost equally between Muslims and Christians and the two groups generally live peacefully side by side, despite occasional outbreaks of communal violence.

This is the proof that terrorists “militants” will never stop, they will always find an excuse to continue their stupid violence “just struggle”. Here we see a country where Shariah Law is applied, but as there are Christians, these Boro Talibans protest about education AND:

They accuse the state government of preventing them from publicly practising their religion or seeking converts.

This part about seeking converts is linked to their call to forbid Western education. Anybody listening?

* They have also torched a church. Convert or else… I’ll torch your church, isn’t it? And if it’s with you inside, even better…. What a way of seeking converts

Tags Technorati: Nigeria, Boko Haram, Islamism, violence,

UK: Islamic conference cancelled after learning audience would be segregated

Just in case there are unintended consequences after hearing what the “islamic path” has to tell you:

CARDIFF Council has cancelled an Islamic conference due to be held in one of its buildings after it discovered the audience would be segregated.Organisers have accused the council of religious discrimination after they scrapped the conference given only 24 hours’ notice.

The meeting entitled “Islam – from revelation to implementation” was due to take place from 4pm today at County Hall in Cardiff Bay.

But Cardiff Council yesterday cancelled the event because organisers intended to segregate men and women at the three-hour long conference by ensuring the two sexes sat apart on each side of the room.

Abu Hajar, spokesman for organisers Islamic Path, said: “The conference has been booked for months and at the time of booking we were told segregation would be fine (Did they? In that case, the Council wasn’t right at all).  I know other private functions have been held at County Hall in the past by members of the ethnic community and there has been segregation (if this is true, the council was wrong but now has rectified). The council is discriminating against us because of our religious beliefs (what about learning they were wrong on the last times? Anyway, I find truly rare that they could have held conferences with segregated audience in the past of other “ethnic community”. Why hasn’t he said what community was that).”

via The Iconoclast – New English Review.<

Tags Technorati: Shariah Law, UK, Women in Islam, Cardiff Council, Islam – from revelation to implementation, Abu Hajar, Islamic Path.

US Gen Mike Mullen: Pakistani ISI has fomented “chaotic activity” in Afghanistan and India

US notes ISI role in India, Afghanistan terrorism

The top US military commander has accused the Pakistani intelligence service, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), of fomenting “chaotic activity” in Afghanistan and India.

The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen in unprecedented remarks asked Pakistan’s main spy agency to change its “strategic thrust”.

“What I mean is that they have clearly focused on support of … historically, of militant organizations both east and west. I mean that’s been a focus of theirs in Kashmir, historically, as well as with FATA. And I think … that fundamentally has to change.” Mullen said in an interview.

About time someone blames ISI for its role in the rise of Islamism in the last years. But it’s of no sense if Gen Mullen calls them “militant”, as if he was a kind of CNN reporter. No, the groups ISI has supported are terrorists, who are committed to killing soldiers and officers below his rank.

Tags Technorati: US, Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, US Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen, Pakistani intelligence service, Inter-Services Intelligence

Italy: the Govt will supply more hardware to troops in Afghanistan

Italy vows more hardware for troops in Afghanistan | Reuters

Italy vowed on Sunday to supply more military hardware to its troops in Afghanistan after three more soldiers were wounded in attacks, prompting a member of the ruling coalition to call for the contingent to be withdrawn.

Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said two attacks on Saturday in western Afghanistan, which left three Italian soldiers injured, were a confirmation the Taliban was intensifying violence before the Aug. 20 presidential election.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right government has already committed to strengthening its presence in the NATO peacekeeping force to around 3,300 troops ahead of the poll.

Let’s hope that solves something. Though the problem is not only of number of soldiers but of strategy. Ideology, drug trafficking, etc need to be addressed and not only in Afghanistan.

Tags Technorati: Italy, Afghanistan, GWOT, war on terrorism, terrorism, Franco Frattini, Silvio Berlusconi, Italian troops in Afghanistan

China: introducing Arabic TV Channel

China kisses Muslim butt with Arabic TV channel – Counter Jihad

China Central Television (CCTV) launched an Arabic-language channel for the Middle East and Africa on Saturday as part of the government’s efforts to expand its relations with the Arab and Muslim world, the Chinese Embassy announced here.

The 24-hour channel will air in 22 Arabic-speaking countries, reaching a total population of nearly 300 million people, CCTV said in a statement at the launch of the new service. The new channel is available through Nilesat and Arabsat services for viewers in the Middle East.

“This is the fourth foreign-language channel we are introducing, after English, French and Spanish,” the official spokesman from the embassy told Arab News.

The contents will be censored, of course, and I’m sure that nothing about China being in the “Global Caliphate” would be accepted.

Tags Technorati: China, Arabic TV, Chinese Arabic TV, Middle East, Africa, Islamism, China and Islam

Pakistan: honor killing after elopement

Daily Times – Leading News Resource of Pakistan – Man kills cousin for ‘honour’

A 23-year-old girl was killed in the name of ‘honour’ in Nawankot police precincts on Sunday. According to the police, Imran allegedly shot his cousin Shumaila in her house. Police said Shumaila had eloped with her aunt’s husband a few days back and her family members took her back two days ago, after convincing her she would not be harmed. The police said the accused wanted to marry her, but got dejected after her elopement. It said Imran forced Shumaila to go into a room and killed her. He escaped without facing resistance.

So in the end this honor killing is just a jealousy killing. As I won’t have you, no one else will. Remarkable…

Tags Technorati: Pakistan, Honor Killings, Nawankot, women in Islam,

Bangladesh: Shariah Law applied to women on the increase

Winds of Babylon: Unveiling the Sufferings of Muslim Women in Bangladesh & Afghanistan — Lennard James

Cuts on Rahima Begum’s legs are healing but the unmarried mother will carry, for her whole life, the psychological scars from a public whipping for revealing who was the father of her child. In conservative Muslim Bangladesh, having a child out of wedlock is a great taboo, and the elders (Jirgas) in Rahima’s village in Eastern Bangladesh decided she should be taught a lesson after pointing the finger at a neighbour, who denied the charge.

“They called me before a makeshift court and ruled that I was a liar”, the 22-year-old told AFP from her hospital bed. Rahima’s punishment was to be caned 39 times in front of the village elders and its Islamic clerics. The case shocked many in Bangladesh, with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ordering Rahima to be moved from a small village hospital in Comilla to one of the best in the capital Dhaka. There, she is receiving treatment, including further counseling, a month after the beating.

“Every time I close my eyes, I just play the scene over and over in my head”, said she.

Human rights groups say that Rahima’s plight is becoming increasingly common in Bangladesh, with Hardline Islamic clerics are taking the law into their own hands and handing down harsh punishments, mostly to women, found guilty by unlawful village courts (Jirgas). The so-called crimes heard by these illegal courts, most common in rural areas, range from adultery to being raped; in one case, a Muslim woman was whipped even for talking to a Hindu man.

Tags Technorati: Shariah Law, women’s rights, women in Islam, whipping, Bangladesh, unmarried mother,

Philippines: Jemaah Islamiyah poses serious threats to the country

News Analysis: Philippines faces serious threat from Jemaah Islamiayh bombers_English_Xinhua

Filipino Muslim militants sheltered them, fed them and helped them evade government troops when they first reached Philippine shores across the Sulawesi Sea. In return, they trained locals to make powerful bombs designed to sow terror.

That’s how a handful of fugitive bombers of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), an Indonesia-headquartered militant group with close ties with the Al Qaeda network, took roots and slowly regained clout in the insurgency-infested southern Philippines, officials and analysts said.

But this interaction has apparently entered another level with JI operatives expanding their network and trying to forge an alliance with small groups of local extremists struggling for survival, said Rodolfo “Boogie” Mendoza, a top Filipino counter-terrorism researcher.

“The terrorist threat is real and serious,” Mendoza told Xinhua in an exclusive interview.

He said around ten Indonesian bombers arrived late last year, bringing the total number of JI operatives hiding in the jungles of southern Philippines to 40, headed by a certain Indonesian national Usman Riesal and two prime suspects in the deadly bombings in Indonesia’s tourist island of Bali in 2002.

An update from this story.

Tags Technorati: terrorism, Islamism, Jemaah Islamiyah, Islamic terrorism, Philippines

Spain: life-sized model of fetus named after minister who said unborn babies not human at 13 weeks

Life-sized model of fetus named after Spanish minister who said unborn babies not human at 13 weeks

A group of Spanish professionals are using life-sized models of a 13 week-old fetus to respond to statements by the country’s Minister of Equality, Bibiana Aido, who said in an interview that fetuses at that stage of development are alive but are not human beings.

The group is offering replicas of the “Aido Baby” through its website www.bebe-aido.com to help raise awareness about the development of the unborn during the first and second trimesters of pregnancy.

“Its real size is 5-6 centimeters and all of its organs have already been formed. It only needs to mature and grow,” the group said.

On May 19, Minister of Equality, Bibiana Aido, said that a 13 week-old fetus is alive “but is not a human being, because there is no scientific basis for such a claim.”

Bibiana Aido, an example of Zapatero’s ideology.

Tags Technorati: Spain, pro-life, unborn babies, Bibiana Aido, Socialism

Hamas: turning to “public relations”

Hamas Shifts From Rockets to Culture War – NYTimes.com

Mr. Taha and others say that the military has replaced field commanders and restructured itself as it learns lessons from the war. The decision to suspend the use of the short-range Qassam rockets that for years have flown into Israel, often dozens a day, has been partly the result of popular pressure. Increasingly, people here are questioning the value of the rockets, not because they hit civilians but because they are seen as relatively ineffective.

This new strategy’s leaders must be the “moderates” UK’s FP Commission wants the Government to talk to. But will they be speaking about the implementation of Shariah Law in Gaza?

These guidelines join an increasing amount of reports from Gaza residents saying that modesty patrols were forcing women to wear head coverings, especially at Gaza’s beaches, and that they were inspecting isolated cars in order to prevent unmarried couples being alone together.

More about Shariah Law in Gaza here:

According to the London-based Al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper, the new requirement is part of a general “Morals List” that Hamas is seeking to impose on Gaza. Other measures will prevent the display of female mannequins in store windows, “improper driving near women” – which the paper took to mean honking at attractive women as they walked down the street – and prohibiting men and women from mixing at crowded public events where it was likely they would come into contact with each other.

Although Hamas has long employed “morals squads” to enforce Islamic strictures among the Gaza population – sometimes violently – this marks the first time Hamas will attempt to formally legislate proper Islamic behavior. As recently as several weeks ago, Hamas denied that it had implemented a rule demanding that women in Gaza courts wear dresses and cover their hair completely, as a Gaza attorneys group charged (and has protested about it).

But Hamas has implemented Islamic law in several areas that do not attempt to determine the daily behavior of average Gazans. The most infamous of this is the implementation of crucifixion for “enemies of Islam,” who undermine the religious integrity of Islamic society by preaching against the religion or enticing Muslims to convert, according to Newsmax.com. Other punishments approved by Hamas include cutting off the hands of thieves and lashing traders who sell wine,  the Jerusalem Post reported – both punishments described in the Quran.

Don’t think they will be giving special speeches about this …

Tags Technorati: Hamas, Palestine, public relations, Ayman Taha

Sweden: forbid the topless!!

Agenzia Radicale – Svezia, addio topless: turba gli “integralisti” islamici

On Sept 2007  two women were expelled from a swimming-pool in Uppsala for taking a bath in top-less. Some groups of Swedish feminists have pressed this matter, creating the movement “Bara Brost” (that litterally means “Nude Breast”).

(…) Malmö is the European city the most important percentage of Muslim immigrants and also has present immigrants from other 150 nationalities. The proposal of forbidding top-less, supported from centered parties and some other groups near the church, are possibly a consecuence of the ethnic-religious composition of the citizenship.

(…) In later years, in Swedish swimming-pools, the vision of top-less women near an immigrant family with a veiled girl, has caused tensions and disarray. And this is probably the time in which the majority of the people attending the pools are Muslim youths.

I bet that if is this was only supported by the Church (any church), the reaction from “feminists” would have had much more publicity and not only “some groups” of feminists would have joined but most of them. In the end the measure to forbid the top-less has not been passed, but the efforts will not stop here.

via Unpolitically Correct.

Tags Technorati: Sweden, Bara Brost, Uppsala, Malmö, Muslim immigrants

India: four held in honor-killing case

Four held in Jind honour-killing case

The Jind police on Saturday arrested four people in connection with the lynching of Ved Pal Mor of Mataur at his in laws village Singhwal four days ago. In yet another case of honour killing, villagers had allegedly lynched Pal in the presence of policemen when he had come to take his newly-wed wife Sonia back with him. The couple had roused the ire of the village community since they belonged to the same sub-caste.

Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Shayin who is supervising the case said that those arrested namely, Dhanraj, Mahender, Mewa Singh and Shamsher Singh were from the same village and had allegedly egged on the mob that lynched Pal. “We have received some definite clues about the whereabouts of those involved in the crime and will soon bring them to book,” said Shayin.

This is an update on this story.

Tags Technorati: India, Honor Killing, Jind, Ved Pal Moor

Egypt: Coptic Human Rights Organization Condemns Church Bombings in Iraq

Coptic Human Rights Organization Condems Church Bombings in Iraq

The Egyptian Union Organization for Human Rights, based in Cairo, Egypt, has sent a letter to the Arab League, the Middle East Council of Churches and the World Council of Churches condemning the latest church bombings in Iraq. Since 2004 58 churches have been bombed in Iraq.

Without any kind of outrage by the UN, the Western countries, etc. Why is that even Christians are so relunctant to defend their own in Islamic countries? This is not a question of violence, but of denouncing the systematic religious cleansing that is taking place in an important part of the Islamic world.

Tags Technorati: Egyptian Union Organization for Human Rights, Iraq, Church Bombings, Church Bombings in Iraq

The map of HuT’s Caliphate

Uuu, Yeah… Spain’s there. And Greece and China. What about the Alliance of Civillizations? What about the “respect” the Muslim world should show for Western civilization? What about the outrage in the Muslim world at this kind of Global Caliphate?

Tags Technorati: HuT, Global Caliphate, Islamism

Obama: “I don’t like the word victory”

EDITORIAL: No substitute for victory – Washington Times

President Obama isn’t sure if victory is the U.S. objective in Afghanistan. On July 23, ABC’s Terry Moran asked the president to define victory in Afghanistan. He responded, “I’m always worried about using the word ‘victory’ because, you know, it invokes this notion of Emperor Hirohito coming down and signing a surrender to MacArthur.” Fidelity to history requires us to note that Emperor Hirohito did not sign the Japanese articles of surrender on the Battleship Missouri on Sept. 2, 1945, and was not even at the ceremony.Historical accuracy aside, Mr. Obama was trying to reiterate part of what George W. Bush said on many occasions during his presidency: The war on terrorism is not a conventional war, and it will not be won by conventional military means. When President Bush made this point in an August 2004 interview with NBC’s Matt Lauer, he was excoriated by Democrats, who accused the president of defeatism. Perhaps those same critics would be interested in weighing in this time, too.

There is scant difference between the Bush and Obama strategies in Afghanistan. The “stronger and smarter” approach Mr. Obama introduced in March is substantively little different from the Bush administration’s 2004 Afghan counterinsurgency strategy. Both seek to secure the country, promote a stable government and defeat the terrorists who seek to attack the United States. However, one important difference is that the Obama administration generally eschews the word “war.” Defense jargon du jour indicates that our country has shifted from “fighting a war” to “engaging in overseas contingencies.” This renders the whole question of victory moot. Wars are won or lost; contingency operations just come and go.

He doesn’t like the word victory. Not even against Islamist terrorists?

Read also Pulling out of Iraq.

Tags Technorati: Obama, Obama doesn’t like the word “victory”, Afghanistan, Bush, US, GWOT, terrorism, Al-Qaeda

US: counter-terrorism investigators find criminal ring of activities related to terrorism

Counter-terrorism investigators find alleged identity theft ring – Los Angeles Times

In 2007, one of Laiwalla’s contacts altered DMV records for members of a criminal organization that dealt drugs and sold counterfeit goods in L.A.’s garment district, police say. The money from the enterprise is suspected of having helped fund Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant Shiite Muslim group that operates in Lebanon.

That Laiwalla hails from one of the world’s epicenters for Islamic terror groups has added a level of concern for law enforcement officials. According to an affidavit filed in the federal case, she told the undercover officer that “she has helped numerous individuals from her native Pakistan.”

“We have no idea how many thousands of people might be out there with these documents,” said LAPD Det. Mark Severino, who helped run the investigation. “If we’re talking about counter-terrorism issues, that’s a scary thought. How do you track a man with a valid license and the name Rios?”

Laiwalla allegedly offered to sell undercover officers valid licenses from Nevada or Washington, indicating that her reach extended to other states. And Downing says it is almost certain that other people are running similar operations in California and elsewhere. In 2005, clerks at Virginia DMV offices and others were charged with helping more than 1,000 people falsely obtain driver’s licenses over a five-year period. Another breach was uncovered in the Bay Area the same year.

Hizbullah linked to yet another criminality network (already present in South America with links to drug trafficking, another way of making money for the terrorist group).

Tags Technorati: US, counter-terrorism, LAPD, Los Angeles, Hezbullah, identity theft ring

Venezuela: Chávez willing to Rule by Decree to approve new laws

As we needed him to tell this : Chavez Says He’s Willing to Rule by Decree to Approve New Laws – Bloomberg.com

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he’s willing to rule by decree to push through new “revolutionary” laws as he called on legislators to accelerate the country’s path to socialism.

Chavez, speaking on state television, said that if lawmakers need help this year, they should request his assistance to pass new legislation, including an electoral law.

I would like to listen to Obama’s comments on this one.

Tags Technorati: Chávez, Venezuela, Venezuelan path to dictatorship

Books review: Bruce Bawer’s “Surrender – Appeasing Islam, Sacrificing Freedom”

Book Review – ‘Surrender – Appeasing Islam, Sacrificing Freedom,’ by Bruce Bawer – Review – NYTimes.com

Bruce Bawer’s “Surrender: Appeasing Islam, Sacrificing Freedom” is focused on this phenomenon. Bawer, an American writer who lives in Norway — the archetype, even the caricature, of the liberal European mind-set — seeks to show, among other things, that the United States is becoming as culpable as Europe, its liberal news media and college campuses willfully refusing to acknowledge the danger posed by radical Islam and opening their pages and seminars to those who seek the undoing of the very tenets that allow liberals — and everyone else — their freedoms. Bawer devotes much of his book to an attack on The New York Times for refusing to highlight the Islamist threat while swallowing the claims of figures like Tariq Ramadan, a supposed moderate who, Bawer writes, is “a habitual practitioner of the Islamic art of taqiyya — which essentially means saying one thing in Arabic and another thing in English or French.”

But it’s when he turns to Europe that Bawer is able to provide example upon example of how the West is becoming its own worst enemy. He cites, for instance, the welcome offered by the former mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, to the Muslim cleric Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who supports suicide bombing and the execution of homosexuals. Livingstone proudly hugged Qaradawi in public at City Hall.

That alliance between a man who is presumed to be a proud liberal — Livingstone was a member of the same Labour Party as the prime minister at the time, Tony Blair — and a Muslim cleric who would return the West to barbarism was far from unique. But Livingstone is a politician. He is accountable to voters for his behavior, and he was voted out of office.

A really interesting book. I would like to know what Newsweek’s comments about it are.

Tags Technorati: Bruce Bawer, Surrender – Appeasing Islam Sacrificing Freedom, US, Norway, Islamist threat, taqiyya, radical Islam,

Iran: the emergence of Internet newspapers

Global Voices Online » Iran: Protests prompt emergence of underground Internet newspapers

The recent emergence of internet newspapers in Iran is evidence of the will of Iranian citizens and opposition forces to continue to communicate even as the Islamic Republic intensifies censorship, filtering and repression. By reading Internet newspapers we learn that the Iranian protest movement is as diverse as is Iranian society and its blogosphere.

In the last two months, the Islamic Republic’s security forces have tightened their grip on the media, this after Iran was swept by large-scale protests against the June 12 presidential election results, which declared incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner.

(…) Under such difficult circumstances for the media, we are witnessing a new phenomenon inside Iran: the emergence of “underground” Internet
newspapers.

At the end of June, at least two such newspapers were launched: Khyaboon (”Street”) and Kalam Sabz (”Green Word”) where the word “green” is a reference to Mir Hussein Mousavi’s campaign colors. So far, Khyaboon has published 13 issues and Kalam Sabz has published 10. Khyaboon is available only by email and the paper has no website or blog. Kalam Sabz also uses email, but has a website. Both journals are distributed in PDF file format.

A common point between two publications is that both of them are against the current president and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayathollah Ali Khamenei‘s decision to approve Ahmadinejad’s victory.

(…) Reading the new underground internet newspapers offers a sense of deepening crisis in Iran and the sad state of its media. Khyaboon and Kalam Sabz shed light on the divergent strains within the protest movement and the way in which one part of society radicalises its requests and slogans.

Zeitoon, an Iran-based blogger, describes a similar situation on her blog. At a Thursday demonstration she observed lots of “down with Khamenei”, “down with dictator” and “Allaho Akbar” slogans, but there were only a few times that she heard Mousavi’s name.

Meanwhile in Canada, a global day of action demanding an end to the persecution and imprisonment of opposition activists in Iran, has taken place. In the Netherlands, around 2000 people turned up to Amsterdam’s anti-Iran demonstration. In several other parts of the world, there were also demonstrations and gatherings in protest for the brutal repression of oponents by the Islamist regime.

A list of those killed or arrested by Government forces during post-elections riots, can be found here.

Tags Technorati: Iran, Internet, Internet newspapers, Khyaboon, Kalam Sabz, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Ahmadinejad