Australia: Al-Awlaki delivered sermon by phone link in mosque, father tries to rescind US assassination order

AN AL-QAEDA recruiter, described as the No. 1 terrorist threat to America, was engaged by a Sydney youth group to address hundreds of young people – a decision that has caused deep divisions at one of Australia‘s largest mosques.
At the same time as Anwar al-Awlaki was advising the extremist later charged with killing 13 people at Fort Hood in Texas, he was in talks with a group, Sydney Muslim Youth, about delivering a sermon to young Australians. He was already well known to security agencies as the spiritual guide to three of the hijackers on September 11, 2001.
”Anwar al-Awlaki is like a virus produced by the body wanting to fight a microbe,” said Taj el-Din al-Hilaly, condemning the sermon, which was delivered at his mosque by phone link from Yemen.

http://www.youtube.com/v/Ez67YQS8kgc&hl=es_ES&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b

The guy himself… who can be found really easily in Youtube, speaking against freedom of speech and about “the global conspiracy against the Islamic truth“.

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• U.S. Authorizes Targeted Killing of Anwar al-Awlaki (slog.thestranger.com)
• US targets Awlaki in Yemen (tech.bl0x.info)
• Targeted Qaeda preacher’s dad tries to cut deal (trueslant.com). The father of American anti-Western preacher and Jihadist inspirational speaker Anwar al-Awlaki is trying to cut a deal with American representatives in Yemen: If you rescind the assassination order against al-Awlaki, he’ll walk into the sunset and never make another virulent anti-American sermon. Ever.

It sounds a good deal, BUT I would add: if he returns to the bad habits of preaching hate on the internet and recruiting people to be suicide killers or just killers (will he renounce that also?), the assassination order will be back automatically, without any further notice.

Of course, AQ is not going to consider this deal as a good one. Stepping off from making any other “virulent anti-American sermon” just because his life is menaced, doesn’t sound like a very brave decision, after supporting jihad and suicide attacks…

Philippines: military battling Abu Sayyaf in Basilan after attack on Cathedral

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Government militiamen clashed on Wednesday with Abu Sayyaf militants tagged in deadly attacks in the southern Philippine province of Basilan, police said. Fighting broke out in the village of Begang in Isabela City, Basilan’s capital where at least 25 Abu Sayyaf militants wearing police and military camouflage uniforms on Tuesday set off two bombs that blew up a van and damaged the 40-year-old Santa Isabel Cathedral, in the worst attacks by the group in months. A third bomb placed near a judge’s house and a bus terminal was safely detonated by soldiers.

Senior Supt. Antonio Mendoza, the Basilan police chief, said that the militiamen clashed with at least seven militants who were part of the group that launched the attacks.

It was not known whether any of the attackers were wounded in the fighting, but they were able to escape toward a rubber plantation which soldiers and policemen have surrounded. One villager was taken hostage by the fleeing gunmen and were using the civilians as shield, Mendoza said.

 As ever, attacking civilians on purpose, using civilians as shield, taken hostages. Same ideology, same procedure with very little variations.

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Somalia: businessman beheaded for not paying "Jizya"

Jawa Report has the news and images. Al-Shabab has distributed the photos, with the aim (surely) of cautioning other people against disobeying the order to pay the Jizya, the tax non-Muslims should pay when the live under a Muslim lord.

The images are disturbing to say the least. Proceed with caution.

PS: Sorry, the link was not correct  . Certainly Mafalda has nothing to do with Al-Shebab. Now the link is correct.

Afghanistan: identities of French jornalists, hostages of the Taliban, released

Taponier (left) and Ghesquière (AFP).

The Committe to Protect Journalists explains in their official webpage the situation they are in.

The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by the new demands made by a Taliban group that is holding captive two French television journalists, Hervé Ghesquière and Stéphane Taponier, translator Mohammed Reza, and the group’s driver. They were taken in Kapisa province, northeast of Kabul, in December.
…In a statement on one of their Web sites, the Taliban said they sent the Afghan government a list of detainees whose release they demanded in exchange for the French prisoners. “The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan submitted a list of very ordinary prisoners to the French government for release in exchange for the two French citizens and their Afghan colleagues. But the French government showed no interest, consideration or compassion for the release of its citizens. There is no other option.

“If those involved in this issue do not show swiftness and urgency, then the life of the French will face danger,” said the Pashto-language statement, which was widely translated by Afghan and Pakistani news outlets.

France Television, which owns France 3, had been withholding the identities of Ghesquière, 47, and Taponier, 46, explaining that it was doing so to protect their safety. After the release of the video, the France 3 Web site said, the families of the hostages gave permission for the release of names and photographs of the two French journalists. 

Related: Taliban threaten to kill 2 French journalists.

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On Yemeni Child brides (U)

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A very good article (though it doesn’t mention Islam or Islamic once) about Elham Madhin al Assi, the child bride who suffered haemorraghia and rupture in sexual organs, after her loving husband drugged her up, tied her up and raped her:

In their 2005 observations of Yemen, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child stated many concerns, including Yemen’s inconsistency in defining a child’s age, the low legal age for marriage of girls, and the fact that girls were marrying even younger than 15 years due to the lack of law enforcement.

Five years have passed and Yemen is still one of the worst places to be a child. The committee’s September 2009 observations and recommendations are not for the light-hearted. In addition to their continued concern that the law still does not provide equal protection to all children under the age of 18, the committee is “deeply concerned” that the following offenses against children are not explicitly criminalized: illegal adoption, sexual exploitation, especially under the guise of “tourist marriages” or “temporary marriages,” forced child labor, child pornography, and the sale of children — with parental consent — for their organs.

This is a human rights crisis in a country where grown men in parliament sit and argue for the right to marry children under the pretense of religious authority. The UN needs to do more than be “deeply concerned.” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Ann Veneman, UNICEF Executive Director, should visit Yemen and let them know that the world is watching their snail-paced response to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. We need to send a strong message that girls are not property to be sold or traded. Girls are not objects existing to prove men’s “manhood” in Yemen or any other country in the world. 

It is quite a surprise to read this on Huffington Post, isn’t it? Go ahead, read it all.

(PS: When I read it, it only had ONE comment, precisely saying that, if Israel would have had something to do with this, the page would have been full of comments against it…).

(U) Another child bride has been hospitalised with genital injuries. This time she is 11-years-old.

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Presidential Isle Ep 1

A little bit of political humour from Venezuela:

http://www.youtube.com/v/2DSqp_oO5-Y&hl=es_ES&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b

Indonesia: at least 40 wounded after riots related to Islamic scholar tomb

Another two could have been killed during the “unrest”:

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Hundreds of residents armed with machetes clashed with security forces using water cannon, tear gas and rubber bullets on Wednesday in Jakarta over a plan to renovate an area containing an Islamic scholar’s tomb.
The local hospital in Koja, north Jakarta, said it was treating 54 people following the fighting between about 2,000 public order officers and residents, the worst civil disturbances in several years in the Indonesian capital.
….Some of the protesters were supporters of the Islamic Defenders Front, a hardline Muslim group known for attacking bars and nightclubs. Several appeared to be teenagers.
Metro TV said two people died in the unrest but did not cite a source.
The protesters thought the city government was trying to remove the tomb of Habib Hasan, an Islamic scholar who died in the mid-1700s, on land owned by state-owned port company Pelindo II. The Jakarta local government denied it had plans to dismantle the tomb, saying it wanted to renovate it.
“The location (of the clash) is right in front of the main gate, so there is a disruption” of port activities, said Kiki Hikmat, a staff member of Pelindo II. “The container traffic is slower because there are crowds on the street.”

Indonesia is a so-called “moderate” country. These guys are “hardline” (that is, they are “far and beyond”-extremists) and really violent. Who goes to a demostration with a machete with other people who also carry machetes?

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Climate change: if you don’t believe in it, you’re an "ecocide"

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A campaign to declare the mass destruction of ecosystems an international crime against peace – alongside genocide and crimes against humanity – is being launched in the UK.
The proposal for the United Nations to accept “ecocide” as a fifth “crime against peace”, which could be tried at the International Criminal Court (ICC), is the brainchild of British lawyer-turned-campaigner Polly Higgins.
The radical idea would have a profound effect on industries blamed for widespread damage to the environment like fossil fuels, mining, agriculture, chemicals and forestry.
Supporters of a new ecocide law also believe it could be used to prosecute “climate deniers” who distort science and facts to discourage voters and politicians from taking action to tackle global warming and climate change.

Via.

Wow. Impressive. So man-made climate change is far from being scientifically tested but if you don’t believe in it, you’re going to be prosecuted (if this is implemented). The ICC cannot even go against Sudanese President Al-Bashir for the Darfurian genocide (they can’t even arrest him) but are going to prosecute anyone who doesn’t agree with their views on a belief.

The UN, just as deaf as these guys, is pushing the climate change agenda: the last one is the access to water sources. Ban Ki-Moon wants that access to water is considered as a climate change issue:

While access to water is a legitimate issue, it is generally not an issue that is global in scope that requires UN intervention. For instance, tensions between Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan over the Nile River are long standing. Various sources of the Nile extend further into central Africa, so it is a regional issue, but it is hardly global.
The Aral Sea Ban mentions is split between Khazakstan and Uzbekistan. Their countries’ leaders, (as well as some neighboring countries) obviously would share concerns in how that water is used. If they want to bring in the UN to help resolve any disputes (most likely the International Court of Justice) or to provide advice on water management, then that is their call. But there is no natural nexus for UN involvement.

Everything with our own money tax-collected.

US: Obama freezes properties of Somali Al-Qaeda-linked individuals and Al-Shebab

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US President Barack Obama Tuesday signed an executive order freezing the property in the United States of members of a group of radical Islamists “contributing to the conflict in Somalia.”
Obama said in his order he “declared a national emergency to deal with the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by that conflict.”
He said that the measure, which named 11 individuals and the Al-Qaeda-inspired hardline Shebab militia, was “not targeted at the entire country of Somalia, but rather is intended to target those who threaten peace and stability in Somalia.“

About time…

Anyway, that clarification seems a little bit useless, isn’t it? Of course, the measure, which goes against 11 individuals and a terrorist group is not targeted at the entire country.

While the ban on music stopped the broadcasting on several radios, fights continue, with an added problem: lack of doctors and nurses. The existent have to cope with the increasing number of casualties:

According to WHO, only 250 qualified doctors, 860 nurses and 116 midwives work today in Somalia, home to the lowest number of health workers of any country in the Horn of Africa or Middle East.

Also Mark Bowden, the United Nations Humanitarian Co-ordinator for Somalia, expressed serious concern over the Somali crisis, which has deepened over the years since the fall of Siad Barre in 1991.

The UN official added that since the start of the year, fighting in Mogadishu has forced over 100,000 people from their homes.

Horrible perspectives.