Russia: Expert warns conflicts about mosque building could trigger religious war

People protest against the construction of a mosque in south-eastern district of Moscow

GeorgianDaily.com:

Increasingly sharp disputes in many cities of the Russian Federation over whether Muslims should be allowed to build a mosque, disputes that have already spilled over into violence in Syktyvkar and Moscow this week, threaten to unleash “a religious war” across the country, experts say.

The number of people now directly involved in these disputes is small and “real tensions” at the societal level” are not intense, but Aleksey Levinson, a sociologist at Moscow’s Levada Center, argues that the situation could easily get out of control because of the way the media is playing up these disagreements (www.svpressa.ru/society/article/30919/).

Leaflet of protest in Syktyvkar against mosque construction

Speaking to “Svobodnaya pressa” journalist Anton Razmakhnin, Levinson suggests that “those who have decided now to play the anti-Islamic card are taking a great risk.” In response to such “aggressive” opposition to mosques, Russia “can get not just a war in the Caucasus but something much worse a full-scale jihad in every city where there is a conflict of this kind.”

In both the Moscow and Syktyvkar cases, Razmakhnin notes by way of introduction, the number of people involved on both sides of the disputes has been small. Moreover, these disputes have been going on for some time without attracting much attention. But coverage of massive Muslim participation in the Uraza-Bayram celebrations triggered something

The celebration of Eid al-Adha in Moscow

When Razmakhnin asks Levinson why he was so pessimistic about the future, the latter replies that was “because “fundamentalist Islam and precisely this trend is becoming more active … after the protests is a very strong organizing and cementing phenomenon,” one that has “all the signs of a young, active and militant religion” and that no one knows how to stop.

It’s possible that this conflict don’t degenerate in an open war. But in cities where the local council could deny the possibility of building a mosque, we could see unrest and riots. Of course, Russian Govt knows perfectly how to silence this kind of protests at least in an MSM level. But in the end, eventually they will be known.

Photos: Svpressa.ru.

Italy: Islam denied share of income tax

Italy doesn’t recognise Islam as a religion, but rather as a political group, so mosques won’t be eligible for public funds and their donors will be public. From ADNKronos:

Mosques in Italy will not receive a share of income tax revenue the Italian government allocates to religious faiths each year. Hindu and Buddhist temples, Greek Orthodox churches and Jehovah’s Witnesses will be eligible for the funds, according to a bill approved by the Italian cabinet in May and still must be approved by parliament.

Until now, the government had earmarked 8 percent of income tax revenue for Italy’s established churches. The great majority of these funds go to the Catholic Church, although if they wish, individual tax payers may elect to give the money to charities and cultural projects instead.

The head of COREIS, one of Italy’s largest Muslim groups, Yahya Pallavicini, said he was bitter that Islam had been denied the revenue from Italian income tax.

“Work should be begun on legally recognising those moderate Muslims who have for years shown themselves to be reliable interlocutors who are free of and fundamentalist ideology,” he said.

Islam is not an established religion in Italy and there is only one official mosque in the country, Rome’s Grand Mosque (photo). Politicians from the ruling coalition cite radical imams, polygamy and failure to uphold women’s rights by Muslims immigrants as obstacles to recognising Islam as an official religion in Italy.

Found here and here.

Background: Milan’s 1st mosque construction faces problems.

France: AQ warns Govt against rescuing French kidnapped nationals

AFP:

Al-Qaeda has warned Paris not to attempt to rescue five French nationals kidnapped by jihadists in Niger, SITE monitoring group said Thursday, as France mobilised its forces to find them.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb posted a statement on jihadist forums in which it said the kidnappings came in the “context of retaliation” promised by AQIM leader Abu Musab Abdul Wadud to France, the US-based group said.

SITE said the statement carried a warning to France that they should not attempt another rescue mission “like they had done for Michel Germaneau” and that the group “will issue their legitimate demands later.”

“In the context of retaliation… a group of heroic mujahedeen under the command of Sheikh Abu Zeid, may Allah protect him, were able to break into the French Arlit mining area in Niger,” said the statement carried by SITE.

“Despite the tough military stands in the area and the many security cordons, the lions of Islam were able to go through all the guards and kidnap five French nuclear experts working at Areva,” it said.

“We also warn of the consequences should they commit any foolish action again, because it will be doomed to fail and they will certainly pay a heavy price.”

Found here.

Background:

7 foreigners kidnapped near uranium mining site.

AQ behind Niger attack.

Tajikistan: AQ’s attack marks an increase in profesionalism and number of terrorist operations

Analysis from Stratford about last Sunday’s AQ attack on Tajik military, as a result of which 40 soldiers were killed:

Sunday’s attack was one of the deadliest clashes between militants and the Tajik government since the Central Asian country’s civil war ended in 1997. The last comparable attack was in 1998, when militants ambushed a battalion of Interior Ministry troops just outside Dushanbe, killing 20 and kidnapping 110. Sunday’s incident was preceded by a Sept. 3 attack on a police station that involved a suicide operative and a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED) in the northwest Tajik city of Khujand that killed four police officers. Suicide attacks are rare in Tajikistan, and VBIEDs even more so. The Khujand attack also stands out as it occurred outside militant territory. Khujand, Tajikistan’s second-largest city after the capital, is located at the mouth of the Fergana Valley, the largest population center in Central Asia.

This represents a noticeable increase in the number and professionalism of militant operations in Tajikistan. Regardless of whether the September attacks can be directly linked to the Aug. 24 jailbreak in Dushanbe, the sudden re-emergence of attacks in Tajikistan after a decade of quiet in Central Asia deserves our attention. In short, something is percolating in the valleys of Central Asia that has reawakened militant groups more or less dormant for a decade. This unrest will likely continue and possibly grow if Tajik security forces can’t get control of the situation.

…The past has shown that violence in one country can quickly spread to its neighbors. Thus, while Uzbekistan has largely mitigated the militant threat through strict security measures, it remains vulnerable due to its proximity to the chaotic countries of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan and the geographically distorted borders around the Fergana Valley.

The Afghan question also looms large. With the United States and NATO set to begin withdrawing troops from Afghanistan in less than a year, Central Asian countries will face a much less restrained Taliban in Afghanistan. The Taliban’s relative weakness in northern Afghanistan will mitigate this threat, but the region will nonetheless be in limbo after NATO withdraws. For their part, Central Asia’s militants hope the Western withdrawal and the hoped-for Taliban rise to power will restore Afghanistan as a militant safe haven from which to pursue their home-country ambitions. And this prospect, of course, makes Central Asian governments quite uneasy.

Complicating matters, Russia is moving to protect its interests in Central Asia by moving up to 25,000 troops to Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to increase security at its military installations there. Central Asian states are looking to balance their security needs in light of a destabilizing Afghanistan by accepting more Russian troops.

Between increasing militant activity in Tajikistan after years of relative quiet, the impending Western withdrawal from Afghanistan and a resurgent Russia, Central Asia faces challenging times ahead.

The Tajikistan Attacks and Islamist Militancy in Central Asia is republished with permission of STRATFOR.

UK: Six men arrested on suspicion of burning Qu’ran

Telegraph:

Officers detained two men on September 15 and four more yesterday and all six were bailed pending further inquiries, Northumbria Police said.

”The arrests followed the burning of what are believed to have been two Korans in Gateshead on September 11,” the spokesman said.

‘‘The incident was recorded and a video placed on the internet.”

In a video still accessible on YouTube, six young men in hooded tops or wearing scarves over their faces can be seen pouring petrol on a book and setting it alight, before burning another.

On the video, which appeared to have been filmed behind a pub, they cheer as the first book bursts into flames.

Northumbria Police said the men were not arrested for watching or distributing the video, but on suspicion of burning the Koran.

Gateshead Council and the force issued a joint statement to stress that community relations in the area were good.

It said: ”The kind of behaviour displayed in this video is not at all representative of our community as a whole.

”Our community is one of mutual respect and we continue to work together with community leaders, residents and people of all faiths and beliefs to maintain good community relations.”

Italy: Police discovers "huge amount of explosive" headed for Syria

Carmelo Casabona

ABCNEWS.com:

Italian police have seized seven tons of the powerful RDX explosive which they found in a shipping container they believe were likely destined for a terrorist organization.

While the origin and destination of the contraband is still being investigated, police are convinced the huge amount of explosive was in transit, possibly from Iran to Syria.

“The truly astonishing amount (of explosive) we seized leads us to believe the recipients could be large international criminal organizations, perhaps tied to terrorism,” Carmelo Casabona, the chief of police said at a press conference in Reggio Calabria today, according to the ANSA news agency.

Found at The Iconoclast.

Terrorism: Algerian women suicide bombers could target Europe

Particularly France, but not only. From Sify News:

European airports and other transport hubs are on ‘high alert’ amid fears of a spate of attacks by Algerian female suicide bombers, Israeli intelligence website Debka said Wednesday, citing counter terrorism sources.

Security has been stepped up at London’s Heathrow, Amsterdam’s Schiphol and airports in Berlin and Rome, as well as at major European railway and underground stations, Debka said.

The commander of French police and security services Frederic Pechenard said on radio Wednesday they had ‘serious evidence coming from reliable intelligence sources telling us there is a risk of a major attack‘.

Al-Qaida in North Africa was targeting France in particular, he said.

The threat included ‘the assassination of an important figure or an attempted mass casualty attack on a crowded public area like a metro train or department store‘, Pechenard said.

One of the main prospective targets for the suicide bombings is reportedly the Gare du Nord station in Paris, where trains depart for London and cities in Italy, Belgium and Switzerland.

Besides French intelligence, Debka said the ‘reliable sources’ referred to by Pechenard were an Algerian intelligence service, Algerian military intelligence, a Moroccan agency and the US agency which coordinates anti-terror activities against Al-Qaeda in the Horn of Africa and the Sahara region.

India: Jihadis appear near Commonwealth Games

Foreign Policy runs an article about the last Jihadi attack, which happened last Sept 19th. Two guys in a motorcicle shot people near a mosque, injuring two Taiwanese journalists. After that, they disappeared in the alleys behind the mosque and minutes later a bomb exploded nearby but didn’t actually cause a lot of damages because of errors in its fabrication.

Commonwealth Games will be held in New Delhi between from next October 3rd. Of course, this Jihadi (re)appearance is not a positive development:

The Jama Masjid attack was a far cry from the sophisticated November 2008 massacre in Mumbai, but it suggests that India’s jihadi movement can no longer be ignored. It also demonstrates the durability of the Indian Mujahideen, whose bombings claimed hundreds of lives between 2005 and 2008, and raises the prospect that it is regrouping. In their email, the militants threatened to disrupt the Commonwealth Games, scheduled for next month in New Delhi. India’s various failings in planning for the high-profile sporting event have garnered all the headlines, but a larger, more successful attack — if demonstrated to have been carried out by a terrorist group linked to Pakistani jihadi groups — could spark a regional crisis between two nuclear powers.

Much of the Indian Mujahideen’s leadership is drawn from the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) — a banned Islamist student group founded in 1977 by Jamaat-e-Islami, India’s largest Islamist political party. From the outset, SIMI made clear its belief that the practice of Islam would remain incomplete until a caliphate was established. SIMI’s strident Islamism soon led the Jamaat to distance itself from the organization.

SIMI appealed to an emerging class of educated, middle-class urban men who felt economically marginalized and politically disenfranchised by anti-Muslim chauvinism in India. By 2001, when the group was outlawed, SIMI boasted more than 400 ansar, or full-time workers, and 20,000 ikhwan, or volunteers. As scholar Yoginder Sikand has noted, the organization provided “its supporters a sense of power and agency which they were denied in their actual lives.”

After December 1992, when Hindu extremists smashed a mosque in northern India, SIMI’s polemics became increasingly bitter. In a 1996 statement, SIMI called on Muslims to follow the path of the 11th-century warlord Mahmood Ghaznavi and avenge the destruction of mosques in India. At SIMI’s 1999 convention, the language was inflammatory. “Islam is our nation, not India,” thundered Mohammad Amir Shakeel Ahmad — one of several SIMI-linked operatives of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistani jihadi group, who was arrested in 2005 for smuggling in military-grade explosives and assault rifles for a planned strike in the state of Gujarat.

Read it all.

Flag: Wikipedia.