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Cameras installed to track Muslims in UK city

by Abdullah on Jun 5, 2010 Muslims, Security, Terrorism, United Kingdom Comments Closed • , , ,
About 150 automatic number plate recognition cameras (ANPRs) have been installed in two predominantly Muslim areas of Britain’s second biggest city Birmingham from the government’s anti-terrorism fund, it was reported Saturday.
The cameras, including 40 concealed in walls and trees, are targeted to track the precise movement of people entering and leaving the Sparkbrook and Washwood Heath neighbourhoods of Birmingham, central England in the first surveillance of its kind in the UK.

The installation project, which is three times the number to monitor the city centre, was principally been sold to locals as an attempt to combat antisocial behavior, vehicle crime and drug dealing in the area.

But according to the Guardian, the cameras have been paid for by a £3 million grant from the Terrorism and Allied Matters Fund, which has been previously used to monitor potential targets but not whole communities.

Respect Party councillor for Sparkbrook Salma Yaqoob said that the funding arrangement was not made clear to the local authority, which was only told at a briefing the money was from the Home Office.

“The terrorism aspect was certainly not emphasised in that meeting. In fact it was me having to be portrayed as the awkward squad, or even paranoid, for even raising the issue of whether this was really about counterterrorism,” Yaqoob said.

“I raised my concern then: is this really about spying?” she said, but who was told “No, this is about burglary and crime.”

The surveillance of Muslims is in addition to the government’s Prevent extremism program, which the Institute of Race Relations has already castigated as “one of the most elaborate systems of surveillance ever seen in Britain”.

Prevent, set up by the Home Office over two years ago, offers additional funding to work with community groups to effectively spy on all Muslims as potential terrorists.

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Swiss businessman defiantly builds minaret to protest ban

by Abdullah on Dec 11, 2009 Islam, Muslims, North America, Protest, World News Comments Closed • , , ,
Swiss businessman Guillaume Morand erected a minaret atop the chimney of his office building

Swiss businessman Guillaume Morand erected a minaret atop the chimney of his office building

In a country where failing to use official, region-specific trash bags can incur a hefty fine, defying a architectural ban on minarets is practically an act of terrorism. 

But that didn’t stop Swiss businessman Guillaume Morand, who protested last month’s constitutional amendment banning minarets by building one atop the chimney of his office in the city of Lausanne.

Morand, who owns a chain of shoe stores, told the AFP news agency that the ban is shameful, and blamed liberal parties for failing to counter what he described as right-wing scare tactics. The Swiss People’s Party, which spearheaded the initiative to ban minarets on mosques, released an aggressive campaign including posters of women in face-covering burkas and minarets shaped like rockets.

The ban was all the more scandalous, Morand said, given that Switzerland encourages Arabs to “visit the country and to spend their money here.”

 

Morand joins prominent Jewish leaders and the Vatican in condemning the referendum last month, when 53% of Swiss voters went to the polls to decide whether to outlaw the construction of any more minarets, although only four mosques in Switzerland have them. The amendment passed with 57% of the votes. (more…)

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“Gay Travels in the Muslim World”

by Asad on Dec 22, 2009 Islam, Knowledge, North America, World News Comments Closed • , , ,

gay_travels-935The Middle East is famous for hospitality, but will that extend to the tour for the Routledge Press book, Gay Travels in the Muslim World?

The book, edited by Michael Luongo, is the first and only gay themed American book ever to be translated into Arabic. The tour begins at Lebanon’s Beirut Book Fair where Luongo will be signing the book today at the Arab Diffusion. After Lebanon, Luongo will travel through Syria, Jordan, Palestine, and Egypt, among other countries during his six week tour.

“I’ve had conversations for the past two years about presenting this book in the Middle East, but until now, that just hasn’t happened,” said the 41 year old editor, noting he had tried to present the book at the Emirates Airlines Book Fair in the past.

“Ironically, the Arabs who were part of the Fair said yes, but the Europeans, afraid of controversy, said no. Homophobia is complicated, isn’t it?” So far in Lebanon, there has been a positive reaction, and Luongo said even a member of the Saudi government bought a copy of the book and asked about possibly presenting it in Riyadh.

The book has been a consistent gay travel best seller in the United States and was originally published by Haworth Press in 2007, until the company was bought by Routledge/Taylor & Francis in 2008.

In 2009, the Lebanese publishing company Arab Diffusion launched the book in Arabic. This itself was not without controversy as the publisher used the Arabic word “shaz” in its translation for gay, a word meaning “different” but which can also mean “pervert,” and historically used to mean gay. The lost-in-translation problem made headlines across the globe, including in the New York Post’s Page 6 gossip column. Arab Diffusion has agreed to recover the book using the more sensitive word “mithlee” a modern Arabic literal translation of homosexual. (more…)

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“Wahhabis” Suspected in Killing of Muslim Cleric

by Abdullah on Sep 21, 2009 Eid, Islam, Muslims, North America, Terrorism, World News Comments Closed • , , , , ,
Ismail Bostanov

Ismail Bostanov

The Deputy Chairman of the Spiritual Board of Muslims of Karachaevo-Cherkessia and Stavropol, Ismail Bostanov, was murdered in the city of Cherkessk on Sunday (September 20). Interfax quoted a law enforcement source in Karachaevo-Cherkessia as saying the attack took place when Bostanov’s was stopped at a traffic light and unidentified attackers opened fire on him. Bostanov was killed and his son was wounded and hospitalized (Interfax, September 20). According to other reports, the attack took place at a gas station (RIA Novosti, September 20). Bostanov was reportedly traveling back from a mosque in Ust-Dzheguta, south of Cherkessk, with his son when the attack occurred (www.newsru.com, September 20).

Bostanov was the Deputy Chairman of the Spiritual Board of Muslims of Karachaevo-Cherkessia and Stavropol for over 20 years and rector of the Islamic Institute in Karachaevo-Cherkessia for more than 10 years (www.gazeta.ru, RIA Novosti, September 20). In December 2006, three masked attackers broke into Bostanov’s home in Cherkessk, knifed and shot him and with firearms and beat up his wife. However, investigators at the time concluded that attack was part of an attempted robbery because the raiders stole money from Bostanov’s house (Kommersant, September 21).

Ismail Berdiev, who is the mufti of Karachaevo-Cherkessia and head of the Coordination Center of Muslims of the North Caucasus, said yesterday that he is convinced that Bostanov was killed by “Wahhabis” -the standard term used by local officials in the North Caucasus, both governmental and religious, for Islamist rebels and their sympathizers. “And who else could it have been -he was not a businessman, so that it could have entered someone’s mind to kill him for the sake of money,” Berdiev told Interfax, adding that Bostanov was known in Karachaevo-Cherkessia as “an active fighter against the spread of Wahhabi ideology.” Berdiev expressed particular indignation over the fact that Bostanov’s murder took place on the Muslim holiday marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan (Eid Al-Fitr started Sunday, September 20, in most Arab and Muslim countries as well as in North America and Europe). “It simply beggars the imagination that someone dared to commit this heinous crime on such a holy day,” Berdiev said (www.newsru.com, September 20). (more…)

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‘Hamas disinters Christians in Gaza’

by Asad on Dec 12, 2009 Christians, Israel, World News Comments Closed • , , ,
Majed El Shafie

Majed El Shafie

Every three minutes a Christian is being tortured in the Muslim world, and in 2009 more than 165,000 Christians will have been killed because of their faith, most of them in Muslim countries, according to a human rights organization that is visiting Israel starting Sunday.

“Hamas digs up the bodies of Christians from Christian burial sites in the Gaza Strip claiming that they pollute the earth,” said Reverend Majed El Shafie, President of One Free World International (OFWI), who will head a delegation of human rights activists, members of parliament from Canada and religious personalities.

During their visit to Israel the delegation will hold a conference on human rights and persecuted minorities at the Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem. The conference will provide new statistics on the persecution of minorities in Muslim countries.

El Shafie said that between 200-300 million Christians are being persecuted in the world, 80 percent of whom lived in Muslim countries and the rest in communist and other countries.

Members of the delegation will meet with Knesset Speaker Reuven Ri (more…)

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12% of Pakistan government shares for employees

by Asad on Jan 18, 2010 Pakistan, Politics Comments Closed • ,

Half a million workers will benefit from a Pakistan move for transfer of government shares in a chain of enterprises to their employees.

This was officially stated at a ceremony in Lahore where President Asif Ali Zardari handed share certificates to a group of workers under ‘Benazir Employees Stock Option Scheme’, named after the late prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

Under the scheme 12 per cent of government shares worth around Rs100 billion (Dh4.36 billion) are being transferred to workers in entities including 16 listed and 33 unlisted public companies, 23 private companies and 14 other units.

In an address on the occasion at the Governor House in the Punjab capital, Zardari said the Pakistan People’s Party, which he heads as co-chairman, would strengthen democracy and protect the country.

“PPP government knows how to defeat conspiracies against Pakistan,” he said.

The president said that the PPP as the only truly federal party had the potential to “protect, run and strengthen the country”.

Governor Salman Taseer said Punjab — where the PPP is in second position in terms of vote bank after the Pakistan Muslim League-N of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif — would be turned into a “PPP fortress”.

PPP is part of PML-N led coalition ruling the country’s political most important and population-wise largest province.

Bumpy relations

Relations between PPP and PML-N, which is the main opposition party in the federal parliament, have however been bumpy.

But the PML-N leadership has asserted repeatedly the party would never back any attempt to dislodge the democratic system.

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5 U.S.suspected of terror links

by Asad on Dec 10, 2009 Islam, Muslims, North America, Pakistan, Terrorism, World News Comments Closed • , , , , , , ,
Nihad Awad, national executive director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, spoke in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday about the arrests in Pakistan of five Americans

Nihad Awad, national executive director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, spoke in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday about the arrests in Pakistan of five Americans

Police in Pakistan raided a house linked to an Islamic militant group Wednesday and arrested five young American Muslim men from the Washington, D.C., area, U.S. and Pakistani officials said.

One of the young men had left behind a video showing scenes of war, calling for the defense of Muslims and saying that “young Muslims have to do something,” said a person who had seen the video, describing it as a farewell of sorts.

It was the third known case since September in which Americans with ties to the Pakistan-Afghanistan region have been detained over possible terrorist connections.

The men were not accused of any crime, but their intent remained mysterious, and both U.S. and Pakistani officials emphasized that they were still gathering facts.

The five Americans, ranging in age from 19 to 25, were arrested in Sargodha, a dusty city in Punjab province, where several militant organizations with links to al-Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban operate, according to a senior Pakistani official and a U.S. official in Washington. Both spoke on condition of anonymity.

Three of the men arrested Wednesday are Pakistani-Americans, one is a Yemeni-American and one an Egyptian-American, the Pakistani official said. Pakistani law enforcement officers had “continuously tracked” the men from the moment they arrived Dec. 1 at Karachi international airport. All carried U.S. passports, he said. (more…)

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A call to arms

by AFTAB-AHMAD on Aug 14, 2010 Flood, Islam, Muslims, Pakistan, Ramadhan Comments Closed • , , , ,

Aslamu alaikum

I would like to wish everyone a blessed Ramadan. As we enter this month, we are encouraged to keep the sufferings of the destitute and starved in mind. Since a good act is appreciated greatly by Allah, it is encouraged to give one’s Zakat in this month.

As I write this email, there has been a severe devastation in Pakistan. Due to the raging water of the floods many people have lost their lives, houses and livestock. The loss of the seasons’ crops is spelling the impending doom of a fast approaching famine. There have been cases of people who stood on the roofs of their houses and were drowned to death along with their small children and wives.

I have been able to find a very reliable person (Haroon Agha) in Pakistan to distribute this year’s Zakat. I would wish that everyone who gets this message pool something in by Ramadan 15th so that the money can arrive promptly to those who deserve it. You are encouraged to give Zakat and Sadaqah. The money however will only be given to people who deserve Zakat with a preference to those who have been hard hit by the floods.

Please reply to this email or see me in person to contribute to this cause.

Hassan Mian.

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Abandon the doctrine of jihad

by Abdurrahman on Sep 9, 2009 Muslims, North America, Terrorism, World News Comments Closed • , , ,

BombersWe Muslims had barely recovered from the news of the 14-year conviction of the Canadian terrorist Saad Khalid, when our Labour Day holiday was interrupted with the bulletin that three of our co-religionists had been found guilty in the U. K. of plotting to kill thousands of people by blowing up planes bound for Toronto, Montreal and other North American cities.

A British court convicted Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 28, Tanvir Hussain, 28, and Assad Sarwar, 29, of conspiring to activate bombs disguised as soft drinks, and later boasting in videos there would be “floods of martyr operations” that would leave body parts scattered in the streets. “Don’t mess with Muslims,” Hussain threatened.

I will not be surprised if Islamist leaders in the U. K. and North America now line up at the mics and issue the familiar denunciations of terrorism accompanied by the oft-repeated claim that “Islam is a religion of peace.” I say to them, this is not enough. Now is the time to say loudly, the doctrine of jihad is outdated and needs to be abandoned.

(more…)

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Abdullah Khadr feared rape of sister

by Abdurrahman on Oct 7, 2009 Canada, Muslims, North America, Pakistan, Terrorism, World News Comments Closed • , , , , ,
Canadian captive Omar Khadr at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Canadian captive Omar Khadr at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Abdullah Khadr broke down in a Toronto court Tuesday, saying he told authorities in Pakistan he had bought weapons for Al Qaeda because he feared if he didn’t say that, his sister would be raped.

The 28-year-old, who is fighting extradition to the United States on terrorism charges, said he invented stories because it was the only way to stop his alleged torture by Pakistani and U.S. officials.

Khadr alleges in an affidavit that during his 14 months in detention, Pakistani officers beat him and penetrated him with a stick and American officials threatened to arrest his sister and have done to her what had been done to him.

While testifying, the eldest son of the infamous Khadr family became choked up and wiped away tears.

“(The Americans) told me that if I didn’t confess … they would bring my sister and do terrible things,” Khadr told Crown prosecutor Howard Piafsky.

An FBI affidavit says the interview team “never threatened to harm or retaliate against Khadr, his sister or any family member if he did not give satisfactory answers.

“It also never threatened to send Khadr or his sister to any prison in Egypt or Uzbekistan, or suggested, directly or indirectly, that he or his sister would be raped,” says the affidavit, part of which was read by Piafsky. (more…)

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Save The Flood Victim

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