Thursday, November 28, 2013

Fellow Indian's letter to Shoma Choudhary and Indian Media in general

Fellow Indian's letter to Shoma Choudhary and Indian Media in general....

From: mpatankar <mpatankar@3iindia.com>
Date: Sat, Nov 23, 2013 at 12:34 PM
Subject: shomas interview on headlines today and vinod mehta in times now
To: shoma <shoma@tehelka.com>, editors <editors@tehelka.com>, bureau <bureau@tehelka.com>, tarun <tarun@tehelka.com>


hi shoma,



yesterday you appeared on tv in interview with nalin mehta, where you categorically stated that you are aware of many such episodes (like one in which tarun has allegedly raped a young employee) in other media houses. similarly vinod mehta on times now yesterday stated " arnab you know and i know this happens and has been happening in all media houses for decades ---".

media houses therefore appear to be rapist and predators paradise. it may be a good idea that shoma, vinod ,,rahul singh,roy et al start a rapist and predators management institute with a suitable chairman who is now available ?

since you are in knowledge of those rapist and predators instead of bringing them to book , you should call them in your institute for practical demonstrations with a fat honorarium.

mp

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Sardar Patel communal in Nehru's view, says Advani


Advani’s comment is expected to generate more political heat ahead of elections as the BJP has been targeting theGujarat Chief Minister and BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi with Senior leader L K Advani pose with the statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel during the foundation laying ceremony of 'Statue of Unity' in Bharuch. PTI photo Congress for only projecting the Nehru-Gandhi family as freedom fighter icons, ignoring the contribution of others like Sardar Patel.

(DeccanHerald)


Giving another twist to the controversy over Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s legacy, BJP patriarch L K Advani on Tuesday blogged that the country’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, had accused Patel of being a “total communalist” when he suggested that police action be taken against Hyderabad’s Nizam, who wanted to accede to Pakistan after independence.

Advani, attributing his comment to a book, “The Story of an Era Told without Ill Will,” authored by M K K Nair, an IAS officer of the 1947 batch, refers to “sharp exchanges” between the two during a cabinet meeting sometime in 1948. Both had different takes on “police action” against the Nizam, whose officials also unleashed atrocities on locals.

The Congress hit back at Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s attempt to what they called “usurping Patel legacy.” The BJP’s prime ministerial candidate had started the process of building the tallest ever statue of the Iron Man. The Congress also attacked Modi on the grounds that Patel did not conform to the Hindutva ideology or communal agenda.  

Taslima slams Kejriwal for feelers to maulana behind beheading fatwa

(TOI)


Taslima slams Kejriwal for feelers to maulana behind beheading fatwa








NEW DELHI: Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal was on Tuesday embroiled in a controversy over his meeting with a controversial Muslim cleric who faced allegations of incitement of communal violence and who set off a huge furore by announcing bounties on the heads of exiled Bengali author Taslima Nasrin and former US president George Bush.

Nasrin lashed out at Kejriwal and the Indian political class following reports the AAP chief sought the support of Barelvi cleric Tauqeer Raza Khan who issued a fatwa to behead her for criticizing orthodox practices of Islam. "A politician goes to a fundamentalist who declared a price on my head knowing it is illegal and against the Indian Constitution," the author said in an exclusive conversation with TOI.

"I am surprised politicians go to such fanatics and fundamentalists for support. If they need the support of Muslims, why don't they go to ordinary Muslims? Instead, politicians go to Muslim fanatics responsible for the community's backwardness," Nasrin said.

"Since the days after independence, Indian politicians have been seeking help of clerics who don't respect human rights, are against freedom of expression and the Indian Constitution. This has encouraged the irrational, misogynist fanatics who are against modernity and plurality of thoughts," she said.

BJP also hit out at the AAP boss for reaching out to Khan who floated Ittehad-e-Millat Council to contest the 2010 assembly elections in UP. "AAP is getting desperate and is rushing to all sorts of people," party spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said. Khan's outfit won the Bhojpura seat in Bareilly.

The cleric, great grandson of Syed Ahmad Raza Khan, founder of the Barelvi sect, was arrested in 2010 following communal clashes in Bareilly.

He had come under fire in 2007 when he announced a bounty of Rs 5 lakh on Nasrin's head for her views on Islam. He had also announced Rs 1 crore bounty for killing former US president George W Bush.

'Ran into Maulana'

Faced with the criticism, Kejriwal said he happened to meet Khan when he went to offer a chadar at the Bareilly dargah, adding that he has been visiting leaders and places of worship of all faiths as part of his struggle to eradicate corruption.

Denying that he was playing the "communal card", Kejriwal said in a statement that he wanted to establish harmony among all communities, and added that the controversy was engineered to distract attention from failures of Congress and BJP.

He denied that he was seeking a partnership with Khan's outfit, a contention which was supported by a statement issued simultaneously by the Barelvi cleric.

Kejriwal claimed that he was not aware of the allegations against Khan. Significantly, however, he also cited in detail the cleric's claim that he never issued any fatwa. "Only a mufti can issue a fatwa and I am not one," Kejriwal quoted Khan as saying.

Political circles are viewing the controversy over his meeting with the controversial cleric as Kejriwal's second misstep. In the earlier instance, he had dubbed the Batla House encounter as fake, justifying the demand for a fresh probe into the shootout in which Indian Mujahideen commander Atif Ameen was killed along with inspector Mohan Chand Sharma.

A court had earlier declared the encounter to be genuine.
Nasrin stressed such clerics did not represent the ordinary Muslim. "These clerics are not bothered about education, enlightenment or jobs for the Muslim community. They champion madrasa education and prevent society from moving forward. They encourage building a mosque instead of a school for secular education. Such clerics are guided by blind faith," she said, adding, "These fanatics are responsible for keeping the Muslim community in the dark ages and reaping benefits at their expense."

She urged the Indian people to resist the unholy nexus between politicians and religious fundamentalists. "It's high time the people of India spoke up against fundamentalists who vitiate the society and push communities backward and politicians who encourage them. Else, it is bad news for democracy," said Nasrin.

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Who is afraid of Narendra Modi?

(Sunday Guardian)

By-Ram Jethmalani-
The government has good reasons to be wary of the BJP PM candidate as he emerges as the leader India needs.
Before I proceed with my weekly piece, let me wish my readers a very Happy Diwali. May this Diwali truly usher in the victory of good over evil and bring peace and prosperity to our people and our country.
Now, to my piece. Narendra Modi has created the political upheaval that I expected he would. The Congress party appears to be in a huddle, with no clue as to how to deal with this new political phenomenon. Even our Prime Minister, best known for moderate and terse statements, whenever he is not silent, used a rather extreme word, "onslaught" to describe Modi's entry into the national political stage, a word normally associated with combat.
How comfortable and cosy previous national elections were. Election behaviour of political parties was predictable; everyone knew everyone else's secrets; everyone understood each other's mediocrities, and empathised with one another's personal ambitions. They sportingly accepted mutual election unpleasantness and acrimony, with a remarkable understanding and bonhomie. After all, verbal acrimony during elections happens all over the world and is a sign of a mature democracy. And by no means did it disturb the political comfort levels of leading political figures. The dynasty was given due respect, even when criticised, and conversely, it had its own favourites in the Opposition for its own reasons, whom it never criticised. Election manifestoes contained a host of promises, several of them unfulfilled promises of yesteryears. But all political parties would rest assured thereafter, knowing full well that once the election was over, they would never be held accountable about them either by the people of India or their own party brass. The lucky winners could then start the serious and exciting business of plundering India, alongside forming appropriately understanding alliances with the Opposition.
What is it about Narendra Modi that seems to frighten the comfortable ruling establishments, present or prospective, out of their wits? As I have stated earlier, he frightens them because he is everything that the present day politician of India is not — a man of strength and steel, with no skeletons in the cupboard that can break his strength or buy him up, and no greed for personal financial aggrandizement. This is what the present political system of India cannot stomach. How dare he not be like one of us, is what is written beneath their anti-Modi script.
Next, he frightens them, because his record of governance suggests that he is a patriot who places our country before anything else. The Congress governance model is based on electoral vote bank politics, even at the cost of breaking the country asunder. Neutralisation of vote banks spells doom for the Congress, and rumblings from the minority communities are already being heard. He frightens them because he is a quick decision maker, something anathema to a regime that believes in plundering the country through multiple pathways, with the chief political executive looking the other way, dithering or passing the buck. The UPA dispensation has made decision making by the Prime Minister unnecessary, undesirable and extinct. It has become a regime of GOMs and PMO (as differentiated from the Prime Minister) and NAC. And unless the Prime Minister has a personal interest in an issue, such as coal block allocation, the PMO has innovated a theory of "distancing itself" from the murky goings on in government, a new coinage, whatever it means, in the Arthashastra of South Block. The Modi critics believe that this implies true team spirit in running a government that Modi lacks, and that unlike Modi, the Prime Minister exemplifies a true team leader, because he is always outsourcing decision making (his first and legitimate function), to his GOMs or to the Core Committee or NAC. According to them, there is no way that Modi being a quick decision maker can qualify to be a good team leader, because neither does he believe in disseminating his accountability or responsibility to extra constitutional authorities like GOMs, and nor does he require their safety of numbers. Quick decision making and taking responsibility for it scares South Block and frightens it like Banquo's ghost. It must be exterminated before it strikes, for the sake of saving team leadership and secular unity, which in reality means the best financial interest of the ruling establishment. So start labelling decisiveness as divisiveness or communalism or lack of team leadership without explaining any of them, and keep repeating them until they stick.
What has started terrifying the ruling establishment even more is the magnetic power Narendra Modi holds over the crowds, and the ease with which he establishes a rapport with them. Psychologists call this quality "charisma", a gift which one either has or doesn't have; a
As Modi's oratory and charisma become more and more visible to the nation and his rallies keep increasing in size all over the country, opinion across the country (including within the Congress establishment) is that as a political leader, he stands unmatched and unstoppable.
The Congress party, during the last decade, had a single point objective on which it concentrated, using all the might of the state machinery it controlled. And that was to somehow get Modi personally indicted in a court of law for the 2002 riots that would finish his political career. For it was in Modi, more than anyone else in the political arena, that they saw the real threat to its power. Modi is neither intimidated nor pays obeisance to them, regardless of the historical halo they claim. However, they were neither able to politically assassinate him nor banish him into disgrace.
The Congress is in crisis — frustrated and frightened. They must helplessly countenance day after day Narendra Modi's steady and hard earned success finally reaching the national political stage, and being declared the BJP Prime Ministerial candidate of India. How will the party vice president compete with the charisma, the oratory, the experience and insights that can only be acquired by being a three-time Chief Minister?
The country is aghast at the party vice president's attitude and oratory, starting with the gate-crashing at Ajay Maken's press conference. He then indulged in a speech evoking death images of his father and grandmother. This infuriated the Sikhs and Tamils. In his next speech, he dwelt upon the Muzzafarnagar riots, as usual wrongly blaming the BJP, the real reason being the Jat-Muslim dynamics as manipulated by the ruling Samajwadi Party; and made the startling disclosure regarding the IB informing him of ISI agents recruiting Muzzafarnagar Muslim victims. This time the Muslim community was infuriated and the Home Ministry rubbished the statement.
The serial bomb blasts at Gandhi Maidan Patna were shocking. But what came through to the people of India, and what I regret has not been noticed or lauded by the media or political commentators, was Modi's composure and demeanour while he was speaking, even as low intensity bombs were going off, and danger and death confronted him in the face. The country requires no further demonstration of his courage in the face of mortal danger, his presence of mind, his leadership qualities, and forbearance.

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Historic visit: Rabbi Marvin Hier leads SWC delegation in private audience with Pope Francis

Rabbi Hier to Pope Francis: 'Peace is one of Judaism's Greatest Virtues' — But ‘Evil is Real and Must be Confronted’
‘The world must not forget to act when dealing with terrorists and rogue nations’ 
October 28, 2013
Vatican City

A sixty-member Simon Wiesenthal Center delegation that included Holocaust survivors, Christians and a prominent Muslim met with Pope Francis at a private audience in the Vatican.

In his speech, Rabbi Marvin Hier (pictured left), Dean and Founder of the Jewish human rights NGO, raised the continuing threats from terrorists and rogue nations, like Iran.

In his remarks, Pope Francis reaffirmed his condemnation of “all forms of anti-Semitism,” adding, “The problem of intolerance must be confronted in all its forms… [including] the marginalization and the very real persecutions which not a few Christians are undergoing in various countries.”

Simon Wiesenthal Center Chairman, Larry Mizel (pictured right)  presented the Pope with a specially-commissioned Jerusalem Stone menorah with a quote from Psalms reflecting the new Pontiff’s emphasis on values of kindness and good deeds - “Righteousness and Justice are His Throne’s Foundation".

Patna blasts mastermind Tehseen Akhtar is nephew of JD(U) leader: Report

(Zee News)




Patna blast accused





Indian Mujahideen operative Tehseen Akhtar, who is allegedly the mastermind of Sunday's Patna serial blasts that left six dead and over 50 injured, is the nephew of a Janata Dal (United) leader from Bihar, reports claimed on Tuesday.
Taki Akhtar is the JD(U) leader in Samastipur district, Bihar.

According to a report published in a daily, Taki has always denied any ties with Tehseen. The Akhtars are residents of Maniarpur village of Samastipur, about 100 km from Patna.

Seven blasts took place on Sunday, six of which occured in and around the Gandhi Maidan where Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi later addressed a rally. Tahseen Akhtar is considered to be close to Yasin Bhatkal, the man who co-founded Indian Mujahideen. In the last few months, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on more than 10 occasions raided his native village but failed to find him.

Earlier, the NIA issued an arrest warrant against Tahseen Akhtar, and also announced a reward of Rs 10 lakh for information that could lead to his arrest. 

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Russian court bans 'extremist' Qu'ran

(Huffington Post)
Top cleric tells Putin the ban is "outrageous" and "illiterate".

Moscow:
Russia's top Islamic cleric has protested a provincial court order to declare a translation of the Quran as extremist and to destroy it.

Ravil Gainutdin, the head of the Council of Muftis of Russia, said in an open letter to President Vladimir Putin released Monday that the ruling was "illiterate" and "provocative."

The Quran is available in Russian translation, but the court last week ruled that the translation by Elmir Kuliyev published in Saudi Arabia in 2002 violated federal law banning extremist materials.

Gainutdin said that the "Russian Muslims were appalled by the neglect of law shown by the court" in the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk and demanded that the verdict be revoked. He said the court's order to destroy the Muslim holy book was particularly outrageous.



Militants attack police station, army camp in J&K, six killed

(NDTV)
September 26, 2013

 J&K: Militants dressed in army fatigues attacked a police station this morning in Hiranagar of Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua district, killing six people, including four cops. They then escaped and have surfaced in the adjoining Samba district, where they have reportedly attacked an Army installation.

Early reports say the group of militants escaped after the first attack in a truck. They are reportedly heavily armed and are now engaged in a gun battle with the Army in Samba.

Hiranagar in Kathua is about a kilometre from the border with Pakistan and the militants are believed to have infiltrated into India recently.

The audacious attack comes only a day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh confirmed that he will meet Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in the US on the sidelines of a United Nations session. The two leaders are expected to meet on Sunday.

Kashmir watchers say militants tend to step up attacks just before a round of talks between India and Pakistan.

Sources said there have been intelligence reports warning that there could be militant attacks in the Jammu region.

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

White Widow Samantha Lewthwaite's family torn apart by shame of terrorist linked to Nairobi attack

(Mirror UK)
25 Sep 2013


Her family have struggled to deal with the mum-of-three’s disappearance after husband killed 26 people in the 7/7 London bombings


As a soldier who served in Northern Ireland during the 1970s at the height of the Troubles, Andy Lewthwaite understands the dreadful toll of terror attacks.

But today he is carrying the burden of being the father of the world’s most reviled international terrorist.

His daughter Samantha – dubbed the White Widow – is believed to have played a key role in planning the ­Westgate mall massacre in Nairobi.

And she could even have died in a firefight with Kenyan soldiers.

Last night experts were still trying to determine if a white woman’s body found among militants was the 29-year-old.

For years her family, of Aylesbury, Bucks, have struggled to deal with the mum-of-three’s disappearance after husband Germaine Lindsay killed 26 people in the 7/7 London bombings.

Now builder Andy, 57, who has two other children with Lewthwaite’s mum Christine Allen, has to come to terms with how his happy little girl became apparently capable of slaughtering children.

One neighbour said: “Andy is aware of how appalling indiscriminate shootings are.

"For him to imagine his own daughter is involved in this is very painful.

“He has been very dignified. He served his country; his daughter is apparently tarnishing both his reputation and his country’s reputation.”


While the family have refused to speak out, neighbours recall the White Widow as a different person.

Businessman Niknam Hussein, 50, met Lewthwaite when she was a ­teenager.

He said: “She was quiet and shy. There was nothing extraordinary about her. The frightening thing is she was perfectly normal.”

He went on: “How does a housewife and mother suddenly become the mastermind of an attack in East Africa? She came from a close family.

“Even after 7/7 they were still together under police protection, her and her parents.

“They are mystified and angry. They are astonished as I am.”

Yesterday, the strain on the family became clear when Lewthwaite’s ­grandmother Elizabeth Allen, of Banbridge, Co Down, was admitted to hospital because of heart problems.

Joan Baird, a councillor in Banbridge, who knows the family, said: “Mrs Allen, at 85, is too ill to cope with all this.

"Her health is poor and continuing to fail as a result of the pressure and all the news reports about her granddaughter.”

Lewthwaite’s transformation into one of terror group al-Shabaab’s figureheads on the run in East Africa is something few can comprehend.

She was still at primary school when her family moved from her birthplace in Northern Ireland to Buckinghamshire. Her parents split in 1995.

Raj Khan, an Aylesbury councillor, said: “I knew her when she was a child.

"She was very innocent, lacking ­confidence, shy and very easy to get on with. She was a follower not a leader.

“That’s why I find it absolutely amazing that she is supposed to be the head of an international criminal terrorist organisation.”


As a teenager at Aylesbury’s Grange School, Lewthwaite became friendly with a local Muslim family who helped her to convert to Islam.

Her interest in religion developed when she enrolled on a degree course in politics and the study of religions in 2002 at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies.

She met Jamaican-born Muslim convert Lindsay through an Islamic internet chatroom the same year and they married a few months later.

They lived in Lindsay’s home town of Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, but moved back to Aylesbury in September 2003.

Six months later, their first child, a boy, was born. Their second child, a daughter, was born after 7/7.

After being quizzed over the 2005 London suicide attacks, in which 52 people lost their lives, the White Widow returned to her family, who were convinced of her innocence.

Andy, together with Lewthwaite’s older brother Allan and younger sister Sabrina, condemned the bombings, but were shocked about “loving husband” and “brilliant father” Lindsay’s role.

Lewthwaite vanished soon after her third child was fathered by Habib Ghani, of Hounslow, West London, in 2009.

Ghani was shot dead in Somalia two weeks ago in what was understood to be a row between al-Shabaab factions.

It is thought this could have spurred grieving Lewthwaite to urge terror chiefs to push ahead with the Kenya atrocity.

And it is also believed to be no coincidence that the Nairobi attack came on the eve of the trial of another al-Shabaab Briton, Jermaine Grant, in Mombasa.

The White Widow and Grant allegedly planned to bomb Kenyan beach resorts before police swooped on their rented flat in December 2011.

Cops found bomb-making equipment and chemicals but Lewthwaite escaped

The only clues about her whereabouts since have come through her occasional taunts against the West on Twitter.

Saturday, September 7, 2013

British Sikh girls at risk of 'sexual grooming': BBC report


(PTI)

Minor British Sikh girls sexually abused by gangs of Asian men who befriend them over a period of time usually do not report the crime to authorities, according to a new investigation by the BBC.

The probe found that in many cases, the men deceive the girls into believing they are Sikh to gain their trust. "Desperate to hide their secret for fear of bringing shame to their families, girls are often forced to leave home," the BBC's "Inside Out" programme reported.

Reporter Chris Rogers travelled to a remote part of the US to meet a 16-year-old British Sikh girl who was "groomed" and sexually abused over a period of time. She is one of at least a dozen British Sikh girls living abroad to hide their secret.

The Sikh Awareness Society UK (SAS), a charity that focuses on family welfare, claimed it has investigated over 200 reports of child sexual grooming in Britain over the past five years.

However, there are no official statistics to support this claim, because incidents of sexual abuse involving Sikh minors are rarely reported to the authorities.

"Grooming" refers to actions undertaken with the aim of befriending and establishing an emotional connection with a minor in order to exploit the person for sex or labour.

Last week, six men - including two of Indian origin - were jailed at Leicester Crown Court for offences including facilitating child prostitution of a Sikh girl.

The convictions are being seen as a legal landmark because it is the first high-profile case involving a Sikh victim of sexual abuse that has led to convictions in the UK, BBC reported.

25-year-old Bharat Modhwadia was jailed for 16 months for paying for the sexual services of a child, inciting child pornography and trafficking the girl by driving her to a location for sex, while 37-year-old Chandresh Mistry was jailed for eight months for attempting to pay for the sexual services of a child.

The other four men, aged between 20 and 39, were jailed for periods ranging from eight months to five years.

"While it is fair to say that none of the defendants played any part in her decision to prostitute herself, it is equally true to say that anyone meeting her would immediately have realised that this was a vulnerable 16-year-old girl from a good Sikh family, who was embarking upon a disastrous course of action," Judge Michael Pert said in his judgement.

According to Detective Superintendent David Sandall of Leicestershire Police, sexual abuse remains severely under-reported among "faith-based communities".

He said, "We want more victims to come forward because we are here to help."

The reason Sikhs rarely reveal incidents of abuse to the authorities has been linked to the strong sense of family honour within the community.

"Our community is very honour-based. The majority of parents just want to shut up shop as if nothing has happened because they know that a girl who is tarnished with this kind of thing will never actually get married," explained Mohan Singh of SAS.

The "Inside Out" investigation, telecast last night, discovered that groomers exploited the fact that Sikh families are less likely to report incidents of abuse.

"Inside Out" spoke to a girl whose own mother told her not to go to the police even though she had been subjected to sexual abuse by countless men. Fifteen-year old Jaswinder was under the control of a groomer for nearly two years.

The man charged countless men to have sex with her and took obscene pictures that he used to blackmail her.

Campaigners have called for greater awareness and tougher action to tackle the issue of sexual grooming targeting specific communities in Britain.

Sue Berelowitz, deputy children's commissioner for England, said: "There is quite a way to go in terms of police forces around the country waking up to the fact that there are ethnic minority victims of sexual abuse."

Saturday, August 17, 2013

LeT's bomb maker terrorist Abdul Karim Tunda, arrested

(PTI)

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Saturday sent arrested Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist Abdul Karim Tunda, to three-day police custody.

Tunda was closely associated with JuD chief Hafiz Saeed and 26/11 attacks conspirator Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, Delhi Police said in a press conference.

A Pakistani passport issued on January 23, 2013 was found in the possession of Tunda, Delhi Police said.

"Tunda had planned to carry out blasts in and around Delhi before the 2010 Commonwealth Games," Delhi Police said.

The Delhi Police's special cell just got closer to international terrorist Dawood Ibrahim after it managed to arrest his key aide Abdul Karim Tunda on Friday night from the Indo-Nepal border at the behest of intelligence agencies who have been trailing him for over twenty years.

Tunda, a top Lashkar terrorist, had been last arrested in Kenya in 2005 but had fled from the police custody. He had been on the run since. He is wanted in over 40 cases of terror strikes in India.

Abdul Karim Tunda, along with Hafeez Saeed, Mulana Masood Azhar and Dawood Ibrahim, figured in the list of 'top 20 wanted terrorists' which was given to Pakistan by India after the 26/11 attacks.

Tunda, over a period of 16 years, post 1997, has shuttled between Karachi, Kenya and West Asia.

A resident of Pilkhuwa, Ghaziabad, Tunda shot into prominence with small serial blasts in the national capital between 1995-97. He got the moniker of Tunda after his right hand blew off while making a crude bomb.

Friday, August 16, 2013

Recognize Muslim Brotherhood for the Hate Group it is

(SWC)


By:-Rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper 

From his historic Cairo Speech President Obama sought to empower moderate Muslims, including the ‘moderate’ Muslim Brotherhood. The election of Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamad Morsi was hailed as a slam-dunk for democracy and earned Washington’s backing.

But a year later, 22 million Egyptians saw things differently, returning to Tahrir Square and prompting the military to give Morsi and company the boot.

Secretary of State Kerry is to be commended for declaring that the Egyptian military was "restoring democracy" by deposing Morsi. Now the U.S. should drop its flawed Muslim Brotherhood policy. Never a force for moderation, it should be recognized for what it is: An enemy of freedom and tolerance—a hate group with a long enemies list.
There should be no more grants and no more White House visits for bigots.
Let’s rejoin the original Tahrir Square campaigners and never again confuse the Brotherhood's successful leveraging of democratic process with their contempt for democratic values espoused by their Supreme Spiritual Leader Mustapha Mashour in 1981:

“Democracy contradicts and wages war on Islam. Whoever calls for democracy means they are raising banner’s contradicting God’s plan and fighting Islam.”

The world may have acquiesced to President Morsi’s escalating authoritarianism— but Egyptians did not. Morsi reneged on appointing a Christian woman as vice president, blocked a constitutional amendment limiting presidential power, and precipitated a walkout from Egypt’s Constituent Assembly by barring the Supreme Court from “interfering” while authorizing himself to take any measures “to protect the revolution.”

While in power, the Brotherhood proved clueless about running an economy, yet retained boundless hate for its enemies. It’s 80- year vendetta against Jews inside and outside the Holy Land ranges from its WWII alliance with Hitler to creating genocidal Hamas.

Brotherhood spiritual guides Mohamed Badi and Sheikh Qaradawi relentlessly stoke the hatred: “[We will] continue to raise the banner of jihad against the Jews, [our] first and foremost enemies . . .” declared Badi, adding, “resistance is the only solution against the Zion-American arrogance and tyranny.”

Qaradawi, an al Jazeera favorite spouted, “Throughout history, Allah has imposed upon the [Jews] who would punish them for their corruption. The last punishment was carried out by Hitler…There is no dialogue between us [Muslims and Jews] except by the sword and rifle . . .. [We pray Allah] to take this oppressive, Jewish, Zionist band of people . . . kill them down to the very last one.”

At a mosque to deliver his first “Unity” speech, President Morsi answered “Amen” to a Sheikh’s fervent prayer: “Deal with the Jews and their supporters. Oh Allah, disperse them, rend them asunder. Oh Allah, demonstrate Your might and greatness upon them. Show us Your omnipotence, oh Lord.”

On Morsi’s watch, Cairo’s only synagogue lost its designation as a Jewish House of Worship.

But Jews aren't Egypt’s “canary in the coal mine”, millions of Christian Copts are.
Gatestone Institute, echoed in Christianity Today, reports that: “right at the beginning of the June 30 revolution, anonymous letters addressed to the Copts threatened them not to join the protests, otherwise their ‘businesses, cars, homes, schools, and churches’ might catch fire. . . .”

Analyst Raymond Abraham wrote about violent post-Morsi attacks targeting Christians: “On July 3rd, in a village in al-Minya in Upper Egypt, the services building of St. George Church was looted and torched. Likewise, the evangelical Saleh Church in Delga was attacked and caught fire. . . According to the pastor . . . 'supporters of former President Morsi are engaged in continuous and unprecedented harassment of Copts. He said that a number of those people broke into the homes of Christians at gunpoint, terrorizing women, children and seizing gold jewelry and furniture’.”

Elsewhere, Christians—particularly children—are kidnapped and held for ransom.
The Washington Post reported on Islamist websites threatening action against anyone opposing implementation of Sharia law.

A Coptic Christian woman lamented, “This is just the beginning. They won’t be happy until they steal everything we own and kill us all. How can anyone be full of so much hate?”

It’s true millions of Egyptians continue supporting the Brotherhood, just as millions once supported Stalin and Hitler, but is that how we should gauge when America should remain silent? That was the disastrous mistake Winston Churchill saw repeated in England during the 1930’s -- the more powerful the Nazis became, the more accommodating Chamberlain tried to be. America cannot signal the world it is only willing to take on small-time bigots and terrorists.

No one knows what Egypt will look like next month, let alone next year. But if millions of moderate Muslims, Christians and secularists have the courage to stand up to the hateful Muslim Brotherhood, dare we remain shamefully silent?

Hier is the dean and founder, and Cooper is associate dean, of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Thursday, August 15, 2013

We want to see Sharia Law in the UK - Ramadan in Europe 2013

(TheClarionPrject)

UK Channel 4 said its Ramadan programming was an intentional act of 'provocation' to anyone who associates Islam with extremism.

Muslims across Europe are marking the end of Ramadan, the month considered by Muslims to be holy, which, in accordance with the lunar calendar, this year fell between July and August.

Ramadan was a major topic for public discussion, and the month-long holiday received heavy press coverage from print and broadcast media in all parts of Europe -- a reflection of the rising influence of Islam across the continent.

Muslim leaders sought to leverage the media attention to showcase Ramadan -- a time when Muslims refrain from taking food or water between sunrise and sunset -- as the peaceful nature of Islam in Europe.

Muslims were supported by European multiculturalists – who, when it comes to Judaism and Christianity, are staunch enforcers of secularism. They made great efforts to draw up guidelines, issue instructions and carve out special privileges to ensure that Muslims were not offended by non-Muslims during the festival.

As in past years, Ramadan-related controversies also fuelled heated debates in many countries.

In Britain, for example, Channel 4 became the first mainstream British television channel to broadcast the Muslim call to prayer (adhan) live each morning during Ramadan (see video here). Channel 4 also broadcast a series of programs about Ramadan called "Ramadan Diaries" which explored how British Muslims "cope with the physical and spiritual effects of fasting."

Channel 4 said the special Ramadan programming was an act of "deliberate provocation" to anyone who associates Islam with extremism.

In an article at the Radio Times, a media trade publication, Channel 4 senior executive Ralph Lee said the broadcaster was giving a "voice to the under-represented" Muslims in Britain and that if it were not for heroic actions of Channel 4, the "vast majority of people in Britain" would not be aware of the "mass act of personal sacrifice and worship" that occurs during Ramadan.

Lee also said Ramadan was of greater interest to its viewers than the "blanket coverage" given to the 60th anniversary of the Queen's Coronation by its rivals in June 2013. Lee added: "And let's not forget that Islam is one of the few religions that's flourishing, actually increasing in the UK. Like Channel 4's target audience, its followers are young. It's recently been reported that half of British Muslims are under 25."

Not surprisingly, Muslims welcomed Channel 4's decision. Anjem Choudary, a radical Muslim hate preacher who has long campaigned to bring Islamic Sharia law to Britain, said he was in favor of any move to promote Islam "Islam," he added, "is the fastest growing ideology in this country. By some accounts Britain could be a Muslim country by 2015."

Abu Zakariyya, of the radical Islamic Emergency Defence group, added as well: "We want to see Sharia law in the UK and only God knows if this could be a step towards it."

Also in Britain, a teacher at the Charles Dickens Primary School in Portsmouth, Hampshire, refused to allow a 10-year-old non-Muslim pupil to drink water at school on one of the hottest days of the year because it was unfair to Muslim students who were observing the Ramadan fast.

The mother of the child,

Kora Blagden, said: "A [Muslim] child who is fasting had a headache and the teacher said it would be unfair if the other children drank in front of the pupil. They normally have their bottles on their table but they were kept in a tray by the teacher. Luke was dehydrated when he got home …"

Meanwhile, the London-based Guardian newspaper called on non-Muslim students to "practice their own controlled fasts during the Ramadan period in support of their Muslim friends."

In Finland, the taxpayer-funded Finnish Broadcasting Company, known by its Finnish acronym YLE, was accused of removing a documentary critical of Islam from its website.

The politically incorrect documentary, which was removed from the YLE website just days before it was to be aired during Ramadan, is about the forgotten women of the Arab Spring. Among other topics, the documentary describes the public rapes of women in Egypt.

YLE defended its move with the following statement: "Yle Areena has limited the viewing of the online documentary due to the distressful content." Finnish bloggers said the real reason for the censorship was because the documentary is critical of the low status of woman under Islam.

In Germany, Muslim mobs ushered in the beginning of Ramadan with three nights of rioting in Hamburg. The unrest began on the evening of July 12 when more than 150 Muslim youths attacked police and burned cars in Altona, the westernmost district of Hamburg. More than 100 riot police were deployed to restore order. An 11-minute video of the Hamburg unrest, with cries of Allahu Akbar [Allah is the Greatest]. can be viewed on YouTube,

In Eisenhüttenstadt, a German city near the border of Poland, a gang of Islamic radicals attacked a young Muslim couple for violating the Ramadan fast. During the incident, at least ten Chechen jihadists broke into an apartment at the asylum seekers facility in Eisenhüttenstadt and beat the couple, who are refugees from Chechnya, to the point that the woman suffered a miscarriage. According to local police, Chechen gangs have a history of enforcing Islamic Sharia law in the city.

Meanwhile, the German news agency Deutsche Welle reported that German military canteens have adapted to Ramadan and altered their menus to provide Muslim soldiers with foods that are prepared according to Islamic Sharia law. According to Deutsche Welle, army canteens are better equipped than many other large kitchens to prepare food for Muslim and non-Muslim soldiers separately: "The cooks use separate forks and ladles and make sure that the meat is stored separately. And if we grill together, the cooks always have some aluminum foil with them, so that the turkey breast doesn't touch the bacon."

In Spain, Muslims got into a heated argument over whether or not a rock music concert held on a public square is compatible with Ramadan. The imbroglio occurred in Melilla, a Spanish exclave on the northern coast of Morocco, where Muslims make up more than 50% of the city's population, and where the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha (Festival of Sacrifice) has been officially recognized as a public holiday since 2010.

As in years past, municipal authorities in Melilla invited several North African rock and fusion bands to play at taxpayer-funded evening music concerts for Muslims to celebrate the breaking of the daily fast.

This year, however, Muslim leaders expressed outrage at what they said was an offense against Islam. Municipal authorities gave in to the pressure and moved the music concerts to a location away from the center of the city, not to cause offense.

In Salamanca, a city in northwestern Spain, Muslim prisoners led at least four uprisings at the Topas Penitentiaryduring Ramadan. Prison officials say the daily fast during Ramadan "habitually has a negative influence on the nerves of Muslim prisoners" and there exists a "high degree of tension" between Muslim and non-Muslim prisoners at the facility, presumably because the latter are not observing the Ramadan fast.

Meanwhile, the largest daily circulation newspaper in Spain, El País, published an opinion article by the president of the Union of Islamic Communities in Spain, Riaÿ Tatary Bakry. Entitled "Ramadan and Society," in it Bakry writes that Ramadan is now a fact of life in Spain, and he urged non-Muslim Spaniards to get used to the new reality by educating themselves about Islam.

Bakry also urged Spanish employers to make special exceptions for Muslim employees during the month of Ramadan. He wrote that non-Muslim bosses and colleagues need to understand the "peculiarity of total fasting -- all liquids and solids, from sunrise to sunset -- which is about seventeen hours without drinking or eating at this time of year near the summer solstice."

Bakry called on Spanish employers to give Muslim employees additional breaks from work during Ramadan, and appealed to "all Spaniards to adapt to these changes during Ramadan, which is just one more normal holiday, a cause for celebration for all."

Former Union Minister-Jashpur maharaja and Champion of Reconversion,Dilip Singh Judeo dies at 64





Raipur: Dilip Singh Judeo, BJP leader and MP from Bilaspur parliamentary constituency in Chhattisgarh died on Wednesday at Medanta Hospital Gurgaon.
Dilip Singh Judeo-Maharaja of Jashpur
The former Union Minister was being treated for liver and kidney infection. His condition became critical yesterday morning.

He was 64 and is survived by his wife and two sons.

He was born in the Jashpur royal family March 8, 1949 and started his political career in 1978 when he became chairman of Jashpur Nagarpalika.
Dilip Singh Judeo Washing Feet of Reconverted Tribals From Christianity

In 1988, he won the by-poll from Kharasia assembly seat. He was elected a Lok Sabha member in 1989. He also served as Minister of State
Dilip Singh Judeo Washing Feet of Reconverted Tribals From Christianity
for Environment and Forests in Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.
Dilip Singh Judeo Washing Feet of Reconverted Tribals From Christianity

From 1992 to 1998, he was a Rajya Sabha member from Chhattisgarh.

Expressing grief over Mr Judeo's demise, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh said he was a popular, dedicated and active public representative.

Former Chief Minister Ajit Jogi termed his death "a great loss for the state". Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee president Charandas Mahant said he has "lost a great friend".


Dilip Singh Judeo Washing Feet of Reconverted Tribals From Christianity

Dilip Singh Judeo Washing Feet of Reconverted Tribals From Christianity

Saturday, June 1, 2013

Ayaan Hirsi Ali: The Problem of Muslim Leadership

(WSJ)
Another Islamist terror attack, another round of assurances that it had nothing to do with the religion of peace.


By AYAAN HIRSI ALI

I've seen this before. A Muslim terrorist slays a non-Muslim citizen in the West, and representatives of the Muslim community rush to dissociate themselves and their faith from the horror. After British soldier Lee Rigby was hacked to death last week in Woolwich in south London, Julie Siddiqi, representing the Islamic Society of Britain, quickly stepped before the microphones to attest that all good Muslims were "sickened" by the attack, "just like everyone else."

This happens every time. Muslim men wearing suits and ties, or women wearing stylish headscarves, are sent out to reassure the world that these attacks have no place in real Islam, that they are aberrations and corruptions of the true faith.

But then what to make of Omar Bakri? He too claims to speak for the true faith, though he was unavailable for cameras in England last week because the Islamist group he founded, Al-Muhajiroun, was banned in Britain in 2010. Instead, he talked to the media from Tripoli in northern Lebanon, where he now lives. Michael Adebolajo—the accused Woolwich killer who was seen on a video at the scene of the murder, talking to the camera while displaying his bloody hands and a meat cleaver—was Bakri's student a decade ago, before his group was banned. "A quiet man, very shy, asking lots of questions about Islam," Bakri recalled last week. The teacher was impressed to see in the grisly video how far his shy disciple had come, "standing firm, courageous, brave. Not running away."

Bakri also told the press: "The Prophet said an infidel and his killer will not meet in Hell. That's a beautiful saying. May God reward [Adebolajo] for his actions . . . I don't see it as a crime as far as Islam is concerned."

The question requiring an answer at this moment in history is clear: Which group of leaders really speaks for Islam? The officially approved spokesmen for the "Muslim community"? Or the manic street preachers of political Islam, who indoctrinate, encourage and train the killers—and then bless their bloodshed?

Islamic Society of Britain/Reuters
Julie Siddiqi, executive director of the Islamic Society of Britain; Omar Bakri, a radical Muslim cleric barred from Britain.

In America, too, the question is pressing. Who speaks for Islam? The Council on American-Islamic Relations, America's largest Muslim civil-liberties advocacy organization? Or one of the many Web-based jihadists who have stepped in to take the place of the late Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born al Qaeda recruiter?

Some refuse even to admit that this is the question on everyone's mind. Amazingly, given the litany of Islamist attacks—from the 9/11 nightmare in America and the London bombings of July 7, 2005, to the slayings at Fort Hood in Texas in 2009, at the Boston Marathon last month and now Woolwich—some continue to deny any link between Islam and terrorism. This week, BBC political editor Nick Robinson had to apologize for saying on the air, as the news in Woolwich broke, that the men who murdered Lee Rigby were "of Muslim appearance."

Memo to the BBC: The killers were shouting "Allahu akbar" as they struck. Yet when complaints rained down on the BBC about Mr. Robinson's word choice, he felt obliged to atone. One can only wonder at people who can be so exquisitely sensitive in protecting Islam's reputation yet so utterly desensitized to a hideous murder explicitly committed in the name of Islam.

In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing and the Woolwich murder, it was good to hear expressions of horror and sympathy from Islamic spokesmen, but something more is desperately required: genuine recognition of the problem with Islam.

Muslim leaders should ask themselves what exactly their relationship is to a political movement that encourages young men to kill and maim on religious grounds. Think of the Tsarnaev brothers and the way they justified the mayhem they caused in Boston. Ponder carefully the words last week of Michael Adebolajo, his hands splashed with blood: "We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you. The only reason we have done this is because Muslims are dying every day."

My friend, the Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, was murdered in 2004 for having been insufficiently reverent toward Islam. In the courtroom, the killer looked at Theo's mother and said to her: "I must confess honestly that I do not empathize with you. I do not feel your pain. . . . I cannot empathize with you because you are an unbeliever."

And yet, after nearly a decade of similar rhetoric from Islamists around the world, last week the Guardian newspaper could still run a headline quoting a Muslim Londoner: "These poor idiots have nothing to do with Islam." Really? Nothing?

Of course, the overwhelming majority of Muslims are not terrorists or sympathetic to terrorists. Equating all Muslims with terrorism is stupid and wrong. But acknowledging that there is a link between Islam and terror is appropriate and necessary.

On both sides of the Atlantic, politicians, academics and the media have shown incredible patience as the drumbeat of Islamist terror attacks continues. When President Obama gave his first statement about the Boston bombings, he didn't mention Islam at all. This week, Prime Minister David Cameron and London Mayor Boris Johnson have repeated the reassuring statements of the Muslim leaders to the effect that Lee Rigby's murder has nothing to do with Islam.

But many ordinary people hear such statements and scratch their heads in bewilderment. A murderer kills a young father while yelling "Allahu akbar" and it's got nothing to do with Islam?

I don't blame Western leaders. They are doing their best to keep the lid on what could become a meltdown of trust between majority populations and Muslim minority communities.

But I do blame Muslim leaders. It is time they came up with more credible talking points. Their communities have a serious problem. Young people, some of whom are not born into the faith, are being fired up by preachers using basic Islamic scripture and mobilized to wage jihad by radical imams who represent themselves as legitimate Muslim clergymen.

I wonder what would happen if Muslim leaders like Julie Siddiqi started a public and persistent campaign to discredit these Islamist advocates of mayhem and murder. Not just uttering the usual laments after another horrifying attack, but making a constant, high-profile effort to show the world that the preachers of hate are illegitimate. After the next zealot has killed the next victim of political Islam, claims about the "religion of peace" would ring truer.

Ms. Hirsi Ali is the author of "Nomad: My Journey from Islam to America" (Free Press, 2010). She is a fellow at the Belfer Center of Harvard's Kennedy School and a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

A version of this article appeared May 28, 2013, on page A15 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: The Problem of Muslim Leadership.

Friday, May 24, 2013

Roiz pregnant with Phaneesh's child, to be sued for sexual harassment

(DajiWorld)

Roiz pregnant with Phaneesh's child, to be sued for sexual harassment
New Delhi, May 24 (DHNS) : Sacked iGATE Corp chief executive Phaneesh Murthy will be sued for sexually harassing the firm’s investor relations head and allegedly making her pregnant, the law firm representing the victim said on Thursday.

 Araceli Roiz, iGATE’s head of investor relations, issued a damning statement through her lawyer on Thursday saying that she was pregnant with Murthy’s child.

She alleged that Murthy had manipulated her into having a relationship with him soon after she joined the firm.

A statement from her lawyer Randall Aiman-Smith said Murthy’s conference call on Tuesday had forced the “victim” to issue a statement to counter “Murthy’s very public, false statements.”

“Had Murthy not convened a very public press conference in which he attempted to make himself look better by lying and slandering Roiz, she would not have endured the embarrassment and humiliation of making these facts public; however, she has been forced to do,” Aiman-Smith’s statement said.

Randall Aiman-Smith is a founding partner with Oakland, California-based law firm Aiman-Smith & Marcy. The firm previously represented Reka Maximovitch and Jennifer Griffith in sex harassment lawsuits against Murthy while he was employed at Infosys.

Aiman-Smith added that steps, including court action, were being contemplated against Murthy and iGate, which being Murthy’s employer could be made a party to his acts.

Roiz joined iGate in May 2010 and remains employed, though on medical leave at present, Aiman-Smith said. While her nominal supervisor was iGate’s CFO Sujit Sircar, it was Murthy who was her day-to-day supervisor.

Accusing Murthy of insinuating himself into Roiz’s personal life using the pretext of business necessity, Aiman-Smith said Murthy was able to induce Roiz into behaviour and action that she would have “found unthinkable at the beginning of her employment”.

“The only reason Murthy was able to engage in these abusive and harassing actions is because he was Roiz’s employer. The CEO of any company, as Murthy was here, has tremendous economic and personal power over his subordinates.

Thus, Roiz was dependent on her continued employment for her basic living expenses and, further, Murthy conditioned her further employment and career advancement opportunities on her entering into a relationship with him which, eventually and reluctantly, she did.

When she tried to extricate herself from the relationship, he reduced her responsibilities, threatened her continued employment, and pressured her to continue the relationship,” the statement said.

As a result of Murthy’s influence over Roiz, she continued the relationship with him and, ultimately, Roiz became pregnant with Murthy’s child, Aiman-Smith said.

“When he discovered this, Murthy pressured Ms Roiz to have an abortion. When she refused, he told her to leave the company, quietly, to protect his position as CEO,” Aiman-Smith added.

Thursday, May 23, 2013

NIA falls flat-Bail granted to Dhan Singh in Malegao blast case.

The in-charge special NIA (National Investigation Agency) court on Wednesday granted bail to Dhan Singh in the 2008 Malegoan blast case, as the agency failed to file a charge sheet against him in time. Singh was arrested by NIA in the month of December last Year from Madhya Pradesh. After the arrest, the agency had to file the charge sheet against him and other accused within the stipulated period and was even granted extension by the court till Tuesday. The The agency failed to meet the deadline. The accused being echoing of his false implication then moved a bail application on Tuesday through his advocates Mr. Prashant Maggu and Mr. Mishra and the  special court upon hearing the matter  on Wednesday grant bail to Dhan Singh
However it is not clear as to why NIA failed to file a chargesheet, Inspite of seeking extension of judicial custody. Mr. Singh has claimed earlier that during his Police custody he was inhumanly tortured and threatened by the NIA officials to the extent that he was compelled to be in tune with the NIA. However the NIA which boosted earlier to having enough material against Dhan Singh could not file the chargesheet , supports the contention of Mr. Dhan Singh that he is being falsely implicated at the instance of the political bosses guiding the  NIA for their  political gains  

British Facing Heat on Own Land-London attackers were British of Nigerian origin




Local media named one of the two suspects as British-born, 28-year-old Londoner Michael Adebolajo and said police raided homes of relatives in the city and near the town of Lincoln. Both men involved in Wednesday's attack appeared to have converted to Islam from Christian backgrounds, media said.


LONDON: British authorities believe that two men accused of hacking a soldier to death on a London street in revenge for wars in Muslim countries are British of Nigerian descent, a source close to the investigation said on Thursday.

(TOI)


London attackers were British of Nigerian origin, report saysAdebolajo and the other man, who may have been born abroad, are both in custody in hospitals after being shot by police.

As security experts highlighted the risk to western cities of "lone wolf" attacks - similar to last month's Boston Marathon bombing - by local people radicalized over the Internet, Prime Minister David Cameron held an emergency meeting of his intelligence chiefs to assess the response to what he called a "terrorist" attack; it was the first deadly strike in mainland Britain since local Islamists killed dozens in London in 2005.

"We will never give in to terror or terrorism in any of its forms," Cameron said outside his Downing Street office.

"This was not just an attack on Britain and on the British way of life, it was also a betrayal of Islam and of the Muslim communities who give so much to our country. There is nothing in Islam that justifies this truly dreadful act."

He noted that security sources have said both suspects had been known to intelligence services and said there would in due course be a routine review of how intelligence had been handled.

One source close to the inquiry said the apparently local backgrounds of the suspects in a multicultural metropolis — nearly 40 percent of all Londoners were born abroad — and the simplicity of the attack made such incidents hard to prevent:

"Apart from being horribly barbaric, this was relatively straightforward to carry out," the source said. "This was quite low-tech and that is frankly pretty challenging."

Anjem Choudary, one of Britain's most recognized Islamist clerics, told Reuters Adebolajo, was known to fellow Muslims as Mujahid — a name meaning "warrior": "He used to attend a few demonstrations and activities that we used to have in the past."

He added that he had not seen him for about two years: "When I knew him he was very pleasant man," Choudary said. "He was peaceful, unassuming and I don't think there's any reason to think he would do anything violent."

Daylight attack

The two men used a car to run down the young soldier, whose name has not been released, near Woolwich Barracks in southeast London and attempted to behead him with a meat cleaver and knives, witnesses said, before telling shocked bystanders they acted in revenge for British wars in Muslim countries.

A dramatic clip filmed by an onlooker showed one of the men, identified by British media as Adebolajo, his hands covered in blood and speaking in a local accent apologizing for taking his action in front of women but justifying it on religious grounds:

"We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you. The only reason we have done this is because Muslims are dying every day," he said. "This British soldier is an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."

The attack revived fears of "lone wolves". These may have had no direct contact with al Qaeda but are inspired by radical preachers and by Islamist militant Web sites, some of which urge people to attack Western targets with whatever means they have.

Images of the blood-soaked suspect - who urged Britons to overthrow their government or risk having their children face the fate of the dead soldier lying just yards away - were splashed across the front pages of newspapers; so too were links to his clearly spoken, matter-of-fact video statement, made as the pair chatted calmly to bystanders before police arrived.

British media quoted local people as saying Adebolajo grew up locally and attended a nearby university at Greenwich.

In Nigeria, with a mixed Christian-Muslim population and where the authorities are battling an Islamist insurgency, a government source said there was no evidence the Woolwich suspects were linked to groups in west Africa.

Iraq, Afghanistan

The grisly attack took place next to the sprawling Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, a south London working class district which has long-standing historic links to the military and is home to many immigrant communities, including Nigerians.

The victim was wearing a T-shirt saying "Help for Heroes", the name of a charity formed to help wounded British veterans. Britain has had troops deployed in Afghanistan since 2001 and had troops in Iraq from 2003-2009.

Before he was stabbed to death, the victim was knocked over by a blue car which then rammed into a lamp-post. The attackers pounced on him in broad daylight in a busy residential street.

Witnesses said they shouted "Allahu akbar" — Arabic for God is greatest — while stabbing the victim and trying to behead him. A handgun was found at the scene.

Some onlookers rushed to help the victim and one woman tried to engage one of the attackers in conversation to calm him.

"He had what looked like butcher's tools - a little axe, to cut the bones, and two large knives. He said: 'Move off the body,'" Ingrid Loyau-Kennett was quoted by local media as saying.

"He said: 'I killed him because he killed Muslims and I am fed up with people killing Muslims in Afghanistan.'"

'Help for heroes'

London was last hit by a serious militant attack on July 7, 2005, when four young Islamists set off suicide bombs on the public transport network, killing 52 innocent people and wounding hundreds. A similar attempted attack two weeks later was thwarted.

In 2007, two days after police defused two car bombs outside London nightclubs, two men suspected of involvement, a British-born doctor of Iraqi descent and an Indian-born engineer, rammed a car laden with gas into the Glasgow Airport terminal, setting it ablaze. One of the attackers died and the other was jailed.

Britain has long known political violence on the streets. In 2009, two British soldiers were shot dead outside a barracks in Northern Ireland in an attack claimed by Irish republicans.

Since the 2005 bombings, known as 7/7, security chiefs say they have faced at least one plan to carry out an attack on the level of those attacks and have warned that radicalized individuals posed a grave risk to national security.

Peter Clarke, who led the investigation into the 7/7 bombings, said that if the Woolwich attackers did turn out to be acting alone, it showed the difficulty the security services faced in trying to stop them.

"An attack like this doesn't need sophisticated fund raising and sophisticated communications or planning," he told Reuters. "It can be organized and then actually delivered in a moment."

The bombing attacks on the Boston Marathon last month, which US authorities blame on two brothers, have raised the profile of the "lone wolf" threat in the West. A French-Algerian gunman killed three off-duty French soldiers and four Jewish civilians on a rampage in southern France last year.

Britain's involvement in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in the past decade has often stirred anger among British Muslims and occasionally made soldiers a target at home. British police have foiled at least two major plots in which Islamist suspects were accused of planning to kill members of the military.

Cameron's office officials had welcomed the condemnation from most mainstream British Muslim groups but that the national security committee had discussed community cohesion.

In signs of a backlash after the attack, more than 100 angry supporters of the English Defence League, a far-right street protest group, took to the streets on Wednesday, some wearing balaclavas and carrying England's red and white flag. They were contained by riot police.

Separately, two men were arrested in connection with separate attacks on mosques outside London. No one was hurt.

Fred Oyat, a 44-year-old local resident, said he witnessed the attack on the soldier from the window of his high-rise apartment overlooking the scene.

"The victim was white," he told Reuters. "I was in my house when four shots rung out. I went to the window I saw a man lying on the ground with a lot of blood."

Friday, April 19, 2013

Counter-Jihad Movement Labeled as "Extremist Threat"

(Clarion Post)


Standing against Islamist groups with Muslim Brotherhood origins and believing the content of the Brotherhood’s own documents and speeches apparently makes qualifies you as an “Islamophobe.”

The International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ICSR) has published a report that brands “Europe’s Counter-Jihad Movement” as a threat. The document, much like the studies of the so-called “Islamophobia Network” in America, treats valid concerns about Islamists as evidence of extremism.

According to the Gates of Vienna blog, the ICSR is affiliated with “the Swedish Ministry of Defence, the current U.S. secretary of defense, several American universities, Saudi sheikhs and a think tank in Jordan.” It is also affiliated with the Interdisciplinary Center Herzilya in Israel and Georgetown University, home of the Saudi-funded Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. Its founding director is John Esposito, one of the top allies of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood network.

The executive summary of the report says the “European Counter-Jihad Movement” is a “form of far-right extremism in its portrayal of Muslims as a threat to European culture, an ‘enemy within,’ and in its proposed, highly illiberal responses to this perceived responses to this perceived threat.”

Rather than focusing on specific groups or individuals, the entire anti-Islamist movement is portrayed as extreme. As evidence of its extremism, the report points to the alleged influence of Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller, two activists based in the U.S. Yet, neither of them advocate violence, extremism or broad-brush treatment of all Muslims.

One of the features of being a “far-right extremist” is being concerned about “the stealthy implementation of Islamic Sharia”—but that’s exactly the campaign described in the 1982 Muslim Brotherhood plan called "The Project," as well as the 1991 U.S. Muslim Brotherhood Explanatory Memorandum. In fact, Islamists describe their phased, incremental strategy as "gradualism."

The report warns of the “cultural nationalism” of the anti-Islamist movement, but it is the 1991 U.S. Muslim Brotherhood memo that describes its campaign as a “civilization jihad.” It’s an ideological and cultural clash and there’s nothing wrong with pointing that out.

Amazingly, page 56 of the study undercuts its own attack on the “European Counter-Jihad Movement” by referencing a study that found that “Muslim Brotherhood-linked groups in Europe and the United States have sought to take control of Western Islam in order to suit their own political goals, while also attempting to influence government policy in their host countries.”

It also says a feature of “far-right extremism” is concern about taqiyya, an Islamic doctrine of deception. The ICSR says that this is a Shiite doctrine but the “extremists” apply it to Sunnis. Yet, an authoritative Sunni book on Sharia law titled Reliance of the Traveler, explicitly states “it is permissible to lie if attaining the goal is permissible…and obligatory to lie if the goal is obligatory.”

The book was endorsed by Al-Azhar University, the highest Sunni school of learning, and the International Institute of Islamic Thought, a front for the Sunni U.S. Muslim Brotherhood. In 1993, the FBI wiretapped a secret Brotherhood/Hamas meeting in Philadelphia where Shukri Abu Baker, the Sunni head of the Holy Land Foundation, was recorded repeatedly stating that “war is deception.”



Omar Ahmad, a Sunni founder of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), was present and similarly endorsed deception. In a 2007 court filing  in the case of convicted terrorist Sabri Bekhala, federal prosecutors state: “From its founding by Muslim Brotherhood leaders, CAIR conspired with other affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood to support terrorists…the conspirators agreed to use deception to conceal from the American public their connections to terrorists.”

The study concludes, “Rejecting the existence of a non-extremist majority of Muslims comes from a bigoted, xenophobic and irrational position…”

The major players in the “counter-jihad movement” don’t dispute that the majority of Muslims in the West are moderate. And arguing that large numbers of Muslims, a majority in some areas of the world, have extremist beliefs is not “bigoted, xenophobic and irrational.” After all, the Islamists won the elections in Egypt. In addition, a 2010 Pew poll found that 84 percent of Egyptians support executing apostates. A 2008 poll found that one-third of British-Muslim university students believe in establishing a worldwide caliphate based on Sharia law. Pointing this out shouldn’t qualify you as an extremist.

On a broader level, this report contributes to the attempts of Islamists and their non-Muslim political allies to characterize any concern about “civilization jihad” as extremist and without foundation. In the U.S., two left-wing reports tried to tarnish anti-Islamists as “Islamophobes.” They dismissed criticisms of the Muslim Brotherhood legacy groups who now regularly use the reports to cast their opponents as bigots.

Abdur-Rahman Muhammad, a former Islamist imam, says he was at an International Institute of Islamic Thought meeting where they decided to begin using the term “Islamophobia” to “beat up their critics.” CAIR, labeled a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity by the U.S. government, uses the tactic constantly.

CAIR and its Islamist allies even use the “Islamophobia” card on devout Muslims. When one of their Muslim opponents, Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, was appointed to a government position, they attacked him as a “sock puppet for Islam haters and an enabler of Islamophobia.”

Tellingly, the CAIR spokesman making the accusation, Ibrahim Hooper, previously worked for the pro-Hamas Islamic Association for Palestine, a group identified as a front in the Brotherhood’s own files. In 1993, he said,  “I wouldn’t want to create the impression that I wouldn’t like the government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future.”

Standing against Islamist groups with Muslim Brotherhood origins and believing the content of the Brotherhood’s own documents and speeches does not qualify you as an “Islamophobe.”

After death verdict, Mirza Himayat Baig faints in court

(IE)


Shortly after a sessions court passed the death sentence on
Mirza Himayat Baig, he fainted on the premises of Shivajinagar court.Baig, who was pronounced guilty on Monday, was being escorted by cops to the custody room after the sentencing on Thursday evening, when he sagged and fainted.

The police quickly arranged for water for Baig, after which he somewhat regained his composure and walked groggily to the custody room along with the escorts, eyewitnesses said. When Baig, in a white shirt with thin black stripes and black trousers, was brought out of the main old building of Shivajinagar court around 5.15 pm, a large number of people gathered around him and some reporters tried to click his pictures but the Anti Terrorism Squad personnel prevented them.

Throughout the day, Baig had looked nervous. In courtroom in the morning, when he was asked for his say on the sentence, Baig broke down and read out a plea from a handwritten note he had brought with him.

Court turns fortress

The city police had turned Shivajinagar court into a fortress with heavy bandobast for the sentencing of Mirza Himayat Baig in the German Bakery blast case.

A deputy commissioner of police, an assistant commissioner of police, 10 police inspectors, 17 PSIs and 200 constables (including 40 women) stood guard on the sprawling court premises. In addition to this, Crime Branch personnel and the Court Police also manned the entry and exit gates. A Rapid Action Force unit and a State Reserve Police Force were kept on standby.


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