Nigeria Update; April 8, 2012

Add 20 more to the list of those murdered in the name of Islam.

From Google April 8 by Victor Ulasi

Easter bomb attack near Nigeria church kills at least 20 

KADUNA, Nigeria — A car bomb blast outside a church in northern Nigeria on Easter Sunday killed at least 20 people and put the country on alert over fears of further attacks, rescue officials and residents said.

The explosion, a stark reminder of Christmas Day attacks that left dozens of people dead in Africa's most populous nation and largest oil producer, hit the city of Kaduna, a major cultural and economic centre in the north.

Motorcycle taxi drivers and passers-by caught much of the blast.

As news of the attack spread, security forces boosted patrols in key areas, including in the capital Abuja, where soldiers were sent to reinforce police posted near churches, an AFP correspondent reported.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

At least one car said to be driven by a suicide bomber was involved in the Kaduna attack, but a rescue official speaking on condition of anonymity said two vehicles packed with explosives detonated.

"Now we have 20 dead from the twin explosions," the rescue official, who was not authorised to speak publicly, told AFP. Officials were still counting the number of wounded, he added.

"Bombs concealed in two cars went off just opposite this church," he said.

A police officer at the scene said a man believed to be a suicide bomber driving a car was stopped at a checkpoint near the church and turned back, but drove to a nearby area close to a hotel and detonated the bomb.

Read it all

Anti-sharia legislation dead in Oklahoma

It looks as if this is the last death rattle for anti-sharia law in Oklahoma.  Passed in 2010 by 70% of voters, it has been challenged at its inception, most notably by Hamas-linked CAIR and it's lackeys.  Now the OK Senate Rules Committee has ruled 6 to 9 against the bill, effectively ending any chance for the bill to become law.  There are other states fighting to implement similar legislation or have actually done so, so the loss of Oklahoma is not as bad as it could have been.  Sharia law is here in America, our vigilance is what will keep it from entrenchment within our legal and civil systems.  

Never give up, never give in.

From KTUL April 6 by Homa Quazilbash 

Update: Bill Banning Sharia Law In Oklahoma Killed In Committee

Oklahoma City -

The measure banning Sharia law in Oklahoma courts passed by Oklahoma voters in 2010 was shot down by a senate committee Thursday.

That move prompted responses by the bill's author and the group who filed a lawsuit against it. 

State Question 755 banned the consideration of Islamic Sharia law, derived from the Quran, when deciding Oklahoma court cases.

It passed with 70 percent of the vote in November 2010, so then came House Bill 1552, by State Rep. Sally Kern.

That bill passed the Oklahoma House of Representatives on a bipartisan 76-3 vote on its third reading in March 2011.

During a hearing this week, members of the Senate Rules Committee voted 6-9 against the measure.

A lawsuit against the measure was filed soon after by the Council on American-Islamic Relations in federal court because many Muslims felt it was a way to politically bash the group.

A federal judge sided with the group in November of last year, issuing a preliminary injunction that kept it from becoming law. 

On Thursday, Kern said she was shocked by the committee's failure to pass the bill.

"This measure has broad support in Oklahoma and killing it is a slap in the face to voters who believe foreign law should have no bearing on legal decisions that impact Oklahomans in Oklahoma," Kern said.

In response, CAIR-OK released this statement to KTUL.com:

"It is a shame that we have lawmakers like Sally Kern who take pride in aligning themselves with bigotry for the sake of scoring political points," said CAIR-OK Executive Director Muneer Awad. "Kern introduced this law to generate publicity, while ignoring the law's harmful effects on all Oklahomans."

Tunisia: bloggers sentenced to 7 years in prison for posting pictures of Muhammad naked

Truly the home of the "Arab Spring" has become just another country to suffer under the yoke of a "Islamic Winter."  The secular and democratic protesters of the past have been replaced with hard-line Islamists, as was predicted.  Now we reap the whirlwind of the folly that our willful blindness has caused.

From Reuters April 6 by Tarek Amara

Tunisians jailed for Facebook cartoons of Prophet

TUNIS (Reuters) - Two young Tunisians have been sentenced to seven years in prison for posting cartoons of the prophet Mohammad on Facebook, in a case that has fuelled allegations the country's new Islamist leaders are gagging free speech.

The two men had posted depictions of the prophet naked on the social networking site, the justice ministry said, inflaming sensitivities in a country where Muslim values have taken on a bigger role since a revolution last year.

"They were sentenced ... to seven years in prison for violation of morality, and disturbing public order," said Chokri Nefti, a justice ministry spokesman.

One of the two, Jabeur Mejri is in jail while the second, Ghazi Beji, is still being sought by police and was sentenced in absentia.

The sentence was handed down on March 28 but was not reported until Thursday, when bloggers started posting information about the case on the Internet.

"The sentences are very heavy and severe, even if these young people were at fault," one Tunisian blogger, Nebil Zagdoud, told Reuters.

"This decision is aimed at silencing freedom of expression even on the Internet. Prosecutions for offending morals are a proxy for this government to gag everyone."

Tunisia electrified the Arab world in January last year when protests forced its autocratic president, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, to flee the country. In their first democratic election, Tunisians elected a government led by moderate Islamists.

The revolution also brought tension between conservative Muslims who believe their faith should have a bigger role in public life, and secularists who say freedom of expression and women's' rights are now under attack.

The government says it has a duty to defend standards of public decency but its secularist opponents accuse it of using the justice system to crack down on anyone who does not fall into line with religious orthodoxy.

In other words, those deemed "not Muslim enough."

Read it all

    

Iran stirs the pot in Afghanistan after Qur'an burnings

Thankfully their actions did not cause major problems, but the fact that they have their hands massaging Afghan jihadists should be of concern to everyone, especially the White House.  

Anyone?  Anyone at all?

...crickets...

From the New York Times April 4 by Thom Shanker, Eric Schmitt and Alissa Rubin

U.S. Sees Iran in Bids to Stir Unrest in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON — Just hours after it was revealed that American soldiers had burned Korans seized at an Afghan detention center in late February, Iran secretly ordered its agents operating insideAfghanistan to exploit the anticipated public outrage by trying to instigate violent protests in the capital, Kabul, and across the western part of the country, according to American officials.

For the most part, the efforts by Iranian agents and local surrogates failed to provoke widespread or lasting unrest, the officials said. Yet with NATO governments preparing for the possibility of retaliation by Iran in the event of an Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities, the issue of Iran’s willingness and ability to foment violence in Afghanistan and elsewhere has taken on added urgency.

With Iran’s motives and operational intentions a subject of intense interest, American officials have closely studied the episodes. A mixed picture of Iranian capabilities has emerged, according to interviews with more than a dozen government officials, most of whom discussed the risks on the condition of anonymity because their comments were based on intelligence reports.

One United States government official described the Iranian Embassy in Kabul as having “a very active” program of anti-American provocation, but it is not clear whether Iran deliberately chose to limit its efforts after the Koran burning or was unable to carry out operations that would have caused more significant harm.

In offering an overall view of the threat from Tehran, Gen. John R. Allen, the senior allied commander in Afghanistan, told Congress in recent public testimony that Iran continued to “fuel the flames of violence” by supporting the Afghan insurgency. “Our sense is that Iran could do more if they chose to,” General Allen said. “But they have not, and we watch the activity and the relationships very closely.”

The most visible rioting that American officials say bears Iranian fingerprints occurred in Herat Province, along Afghanistan’s western border with Iran. In a melee after the Koran burning, 7 people were killed and 65 were wounded, Afghan and American officials said. That violence peaked when a police ammunition truck was hit by gunfire from a rioter and exploded.

Iran has denied any government-backed effort to foment unrest in Afghanistan, but American officials see a pattern of malign meddling to increase Iran’s influence across the Middle East and South Asia. Iran appears to have increased its political outreach and arms shipments to rebels and other political figures in Yemen, and it is arming and advising the embattled government of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria.

Those activities also reflect a broader campaign that includes what American officials say was a failed plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States in October, and what appears to have been a coordinated effort by Iran to attack Israeli diplomats in India and Georgia this year. Iran has denied any role in the attacks, which caused several injuries but did not kill anyone.

Read it all

Pakistan: man arrested for insulting Islam, government refuses to talk about blasphemy laws against minorities

He insulted the three caliphs and could face life imprisonment if convicted.

This is Islam.

From Deccan Herald April 7

Pak man arrested for blasphemy

Lahore, Apr 5 (PTI)

 A Shia man in Pakistan's Punjab province has been arrested under the controversial blasphemy law for allegedly using foul language against three Caliphs or companions of Prophet Mohammed, a charge denied by him.
Iftikhar Ali was arrested in Okara district, about 100 km from Lahore following a complaint from a local resident. If found guilty, he could face life imprisonment.

"Ali was arrested for using foul language against the three Caliphs of Islam," said a senior police official of the district.The arrested man subsequently denied the charge.

"Since no one here dares to raise his voice against the controversial blasphemy law, it is being used to exploit minority communities or the Shia sect," said a minority legislator of the Punjab Assembly, who refused to be named because of fears of being targeted by extremists.

The legislator told PTI that none of his colleagues in the assembly is ready to talk on issues affecting minority communities or the persecution of minorities through the misuse of the blasphemy law.

Egypt: rocket of love sent to Israel, no injuries reported

Feel the (Southern) love.

From the BBC April 5

Rocket fired from Egypt hits Israeli city of Eilat

A Grad rocket has landed in the southern Israeli city of Eilat, but has caused no damage or injuries, Israeli security officials said.

District police chief Ron Gertner told Israeli radio the rocket had been fired from Egypt's Sinai peninsula.

He said it struck a construction site close to a residential area shortly after midnight (21:00 GMT).

The blast took place as thousands congregated in the resort town for the Jewish holiday of Passover.

Rocket attacks from Egyptian soil are uncommon. Attacks on Eilat and the nearby Jordanian town of Aqaba in 2010 killed one person and injured another four.

Sinai unrest

Eilat Mayor Meir Yitzhak-Halevy told the Jerusalem Post that the city would function as normal despite the attack.

Read it all

Michigan: judge throws out case against Muslim footballers who attacked opposing team players

In a perfect world there would be justice applied evenly.  In the case of Muslims and sharia the perfect world  is having sharia upheld above the law of the land.  This is another examploe of sharia above civil law, and dhimmitude above freedom.

From Detroit Free Press April 5 by Niraj Warikoo


After complaints from Arab-American and Muslim leaders, a Dearborn Heights judge threw out assault and battery charges Wednesday that had been filed against four high school football players of Arab descent for on-field activity against an opposing team.


The four teenagers were charged Dec. 30 by Wayne County prosecutors with criminal misdemeanor charges stemming from an Oct. 21 game between their team, International Star Academy in Dearborn Heights, and Lutheran High School in Westland.


According to prosecutors, the four players rushed at the quarterback late in the game and tackled him after both teams and the referee had mutually agreed that the quarterback would kneel with the ball to run out the clock. The quarterback suffered a concussion.


Defense attorney Nabih Ayad said it was unprecedented for football players to be criminally charged for a late hit during a game. But the family of the quarterback has said he was viciously attacked.


In the decision, District Judge Mark Plawecki said that the person who charged the boys must have never seen a football game, according to the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC).


Read it all

Islam now imposed on Timbuktu

How many of you knew that Timbuktu was in Mali?  Show of hands.  I know, me neither!  Recently did I discover that this fabled in story and song city was in Mali, land of neo-jihad.  The correct pronunciation is to say the "buk" as you would "kook" but change the K to a B.  Whatever way you say it, the name may well end up being synonymous with jihad and sharia.

From The Salt Lake Tribune April 4 by Rukmini Callimachi 

Islamists impose sharia in Mali’s Timbuktu

Bamako, Mali • Mali’s crisis deepened Wednesday, as officials in the fabled northern city of Timbuktu confirmed that the Islamic rebel faction that seized control of the town over the weekend has announced it will impose sharia law.

Rebels in the country’s distant north have taken advantage of the power vacuum created last month when renegade soldiers in the capital of Bamako overthrew the nation’s democratically elected leader. In the chaos that followed the March 21 coup, they advanced on strategic towns in the north, including the ancient city of Timbuktu, located over 620 miles from the capital.

The ethnic Tuareg rebels included a secular faction fighting for independence, and an Islamic wing, Ansar Dine, whose reclusive leader called a meeting of all the imams in the city on Tuesday to make his announcement.

"He had the meeting to make his message to the people known, that sharia law is now going to be applied," said the Mayor of Timbuktu Ousmane Halle, who was reached by telephone. "When there is a strongman in front of you, you listen to him. You can’t react," he said, when asked what the reaction was of the imams of a historic town known for its religious pluralism and its moderate interpretation of Islam.

"Things are going to heat up here. Our women are not going to wear the veil just like that," said the mayor.

Kader Kalil, the director of a communal radio station who was asked to cover the meeting and who later interviewed the Ansar Dine leader Iyad Ag Ghali, confirmed that sharia had been imposed.

He said in addition to the wearing of the veil, thieves will be punished by having their hands cut off and adulterers will be stoned to death.

Read it all

Misunderstander of Islam arrested in London

How did Mohammed Shabir Ali explain the document in his possession which was titled "44 ways to support Jihad"?  


I'll send another memo explaining how Islam is a religion of peace and that Ali should get with the program.  


From UKPA/Google April 3


Man charged in terrorism inquiry

A 24-year-old man has been charged over terrorism offences.

Mohammed Shabir Ali, of east London, is accused of possessing a document entitled 44 Ways to Support Jihad.

He is also charged with assisting another person to commit acts of terrorism.

The document was written by American-born Anwar al Awlaki, who was killed last year in a drone strike after leading al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.

Ali will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Wednesday, charged over the two offences which are alleged to have taken place between August 20 2008 and June 21 last year.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said two men, aged 24 and 30, and a 21-year-old woman, remained in police custody.

Egypt: 17 year old Christian boy imprisoned for three years for "insulting Islam"

Will there ever be an end to the Islamophobia?

From the Chicago Tribune April 4 by Ahmed Tolba and Mohamed Abdellah

Egypt sends Christian student to jail for insulting Islam

CAIRO (Reuters) - An Egyptian court on Wednesday sentenced a 17-year-old Christian boy to three years in jail for publishing cartoons on his Facebook page that mocked Islam and the Prophet Mohammad, actions that sparked sectarian violence.

Gamal Abdou Massoud was also accused of distributing some of his cartoons to his school friends in a village in the southern city of Assiut, home to a large Christian population and the hometown of the late Coptic Orthodox Pope Shenouda(d. 2012.)

"Assiut child's court ordered the jailing of Gamal Abdou Massoud ... for three years after he insulted Islam and published and distributed pictures that insulted Islam and its Prophet," the court said in a statement seen by Reuters.

The cartoons, published by Massoud in December, prompted some Muslims to attack Christians. Several Christian houses were burned and several Christians were injured in the violence.

Human rights lawyer Negad al-Borai said the jail sentence was the maximum penalty under Egyptian law for such a crime.

Christians, who make up about 10 percent of the country's 80 million population, have long had a difficult relationship with Egypt's overwhelmingly Muslim majority.

Tension between Muslims and Christians has simmered for years but has got worse since the revolt that toppled Hosni Mubarak. Christians have become increasingly worried by a surge in attacks on churches, which they blame on hardline Islamists, though experts say local disputes are often also to blame.

Tunisia's new Islamist government rejects ties with Israel

"(President)Rached Ghannouchi said that "Tunisians' problem is with Zionism, not with Judaism...there can be no normalisation with Israel."


When you read this, understand that, despite the careful parsing of words it is a anti-semitic statement.


Tunisia is no friend of the West or Israel.


From AFP/Yahoo April 1

Tunisia Islamist leader rules out normal ties with Israel

The head of Tunisia's governing Islamist party has said the country cannot normalise ties with Israel, the official TAP news agency reported Sunday.

Rached Ghannouchi said that "Tunisians' problem is with Zionism, not with Judaism", but TAP said "the president of Ennahda stressed ... there can be no normalisation with Israel."

The party won the most seats in an October 23 election,

TAP said Ghannouchi told a ceremony Saturday in the northwestern town of Beja that the only way for Palestinians to reclaim their land now occupied by Israel is through "the victory of democratic regimes in the Arab World."

He added that Tunisia's toppled leader Zine el Abidine Ben Ali was "a collaborator with the Zionists."

Ben Ali, who clung to power through strong-arm tactics and widely discredited elections "betrayed the Palestinian cause," TAP quoted Ghannouchi as saying.

A few hundred people held a rally outside the national assembly building in Tunis on Friday to protest any normalisation of ties with Israel.

After several years of warming ties, the Israeli and Tunisian authorities opened interest sections in each other's countries in 1996 but Tunis broke off all relations in 2000 after the outbreak of the second intifada.

The country had hosted the headquarters of Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Liberation Organisation from 1982 to 1994.

Read it all

Somalia: Teen girl jihadist blows herself up inside theatre

The manliness of jihad manifests itself in the use and abuse of a teenage girl.  This is sad beyond sadness, and yet we continue to deny the reasons behind these kinds of inhumane actions.  The deeper into our denial we get the more innocents will die.

From the Telegraph April 4 by Mike Pflanz and Abukar Albadri

Teenage girl suicide bomber blows up Somalia theatre

Abdiweli Mohamed Ali, Somalia’s prime minister, was at the podium giving a speech when the girl detonated her explosives, at 11am local time on Wednesday.

Mr Ali was unharmed, but there were reports that one of the five government ministers also attending the event was slightly injured, as were two MPs.

At least five people died, including the presidents of the Somali Football Federation, the head of the country’s Olympic Committee, and a television cameraman, according to eye-witnesses.

Bodies were strewn across a large area as ambulances and private vehicles began ferrying the wounded to hospital.

Among them were well-known musicians and artists, and the deputy chairman of the National Union of Somali Journalists.

Al-Shabaab, Somalia's Islamist militants who are partnered with al-Qaeda, said that it carried out the attack.

"We were behind the theatre blast. We targeted the infidel ministers and legislators, and they were the casualties of today," Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, the spokesman for al Shabaab's military operations, told Reuters.

The National Theatre reopened a fortnight ago – albeit still without a roof – for the first time in 20 years, signalling what many Somalis saw as the beginning of a return to normal life in Mogadishu after Islamist militants were pushed out late last year.

Two weeks of bliss blown away by jihad.

Read it all

As Obama meets with the "moderate" Muslim Brotherhood, their presidential candidate publicly calls for the implementation of sharia

What can you do except shake your head and wonder where he gets the drugs that must be clouding his brain.

We watch as Egypt becomes our worst nightmare.  We may be seeing the buildup to a repeat of war with Egypt and it's friendly neighbors against Israel.  Pray that it doesn't happen.

From Google April 4 by Samir al-Atrush

Egypt presidential candidate 'will push for sharia  
 CAIRO — The Muslim Brotherhood's candidate for Egypt's presidency, Khairat el-Shater, has pledged to press for the implementation of sharia (Islamic law) if elected, a Muslim think tank said on Wednesday.


Shater, whose candidacy for the May election sent political shock waves throughout the post-uprising country, said implementing the sharia was "his first and final goal," said the Legal Authority for Rights and Reform after meeting with him on Tuesday.


Shater, who stepped down as the Brotherhood's deputy leader to run, said "he would work to form a group of scholars to support parliament in achieving that goal," according to a statement on the group's website.


When asked by AFP, a senior official with Shater's campaign did not deny the statement, but clarified that Shater shared his electoral programme with the Brotherhood's political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party.


The FJP calls for an "Islamic, constitutional and democratic" state, but not a "theocracy," which it defines as rule by religious men. The Muslim Brotherhood advocates an Islamist state achieved through peaceful means.


The official said Shater, who has refused interview requests, would prioritise "democratic institution building and an economic renaissance" if elected.


Speaking on condition of anonymity, he added that Shater "is committed to the constitution and Article 2, which all Egyptians agree on."


The constitution was suspended by the military after an uprising overthrew president Hosni Mubarak last year. Article 2 stipulates that the principles of Islamic law are the main source of legislation.


But there is not universal interpretation of sharia.


No school of Islamic jurisprudence tells Muslims NOT to stone a adulteress or murder a gay or cut off hands and feet as per sharia.  The only subtle difference is the amount of sharia practiced.  Sharia IS sharia.


Read it all

The White House and the Muslim Brotherhood meet in Washington

As a friend of mine says, "This is a sure sign of the impending apocalypse."

Obama has set us up big time and as far as many Americans are concerned he can collectively bite me.  To believe that we can negotiate with the MB in any way that would be advantageous to us is lunacy.  The fools errand is quickly going to become a deadly dance and we will find ourselves with no safe way out.

Here is what the Muslim Brotherhood wants from us, and what Obama will provide to them; “The process of settlement is a ‘Civilization-Jihadist Process’ with all the word means. The Ikhwan must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ’sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”
The above statement comes from 1991 and is "The Explanatory Memorandum" laying out the MB long term goals.


Another term by Obama seals our fate with the Islamic world; dhimmi status in our own country.  


From Politico April 4 by Byron Tau


Muslim Brotherhood delegation meets with White House officials

Members of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood met with U.S. officials including White House staffers, the administration confirmed Tuesday.

"Following Egypt's revolution, we have broadened our engagement to include new and emerging political parties and actors," White House spokesman Tommy Vietor told POLITICO. "The meeting Tuesday with working-level NSS officials is just one in a series of meetings between US officials, members of Congress, and representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood."

The Islamist group, long banned in Egypt by successive autocratic governments, has emerged as a powerful political force in post-Hosni Mubarak Egypt -- but is also seen as a threat to secularism in the devoutly Muslim country. The group's  Freedom and Justice Party is set to control slightly less than half of the seats in Egypt's new parliament. According to the Washington Post, the group is working on projecting a more moderate image on this visit to the U.S.

White House officials note that engagement with the Muslim Brotherhood is not a departure in policy, and previous administrations have met with Brotherhood members of Parliament. Further, the Obama administration's U.S. ambassador and State Department officials have met with members of the group.

"The meeting Tuesday with working-level [national security staff] officials is just one in a series of meetings between US officials, members of Congress, and representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood," Vietor said. "Senators Lindsey Graham, John McCain, and others have met with members of the MB during their visits to Egypt, and US officials, as part of their routine diplomatic outreach, continue to meet with representatives as well."

14 dead and more than 300 wounded in Thailand by followers of the religion of peace

"About 20 minutes later, just as onlookers gathered at the blast site, a second car bomb exploded, causing the majority of casualties."

This is Islam.

From the Jakarta Globe April 1

South Thailand Bombings Leave 14 Dead, 340 Injured

Hat Yai, Thailand. Suspected Muslim insurgents staged the most deadly coordinated attacks in years in Thailand’s restive south, killing 14 people and injuring 340 on Saturday with car bombs that targeted shoppers and a high-rise hotel frequented by foreign tourists. 

A first batch of explosives planted inside a parked pickup truck ripped through an area of restaurants and shops in a busy area of Yala city, a commercial hub of Thailand’s southern provinces, district police chief Col. Kritsada Kaewchandee said. 

About 20 minutes later, just as onlookers gathered at the blast site, a second car bomb exploded, causing the majority of casualties. Eleven people were killed and 110 wounded. 

More than 5,000 people have been killed in Thailand’s three southernmost provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala since an Islamist insurgency flared in January 2004. 

“This is the worst attack in the past few years,” said Col. Pramote Promin, deputy spokesman of a regional security agency. 

“The suspected insurgents were targeting people’s lives,” he said. They chose “a bustling commercial area, so they wanted to harm people.” 

Most attacks are small bombings or drive-by shootings that target soldiers, police and symbols of authority, but suspected insurgents have also staged large attacks in commercial areas. 

A blast also occurred on Saturday at a high-rise hotel in the city of Hat Yai, in the nearby province of Songkhla. Officials had initially attributed that blast to a gas leak, saying it was unrelated to the attacks blamed on insurgents. But after inspecting the hotel’s underground parking lot, authorities found a severely damaged sedan and a hole created by the explosion’s impact. 

The midday explosion at the 405-room Lee Gardens Plaza Hotel, where many Malaysian and Singaporean tourists spend their weekends, killed three people and caused about 230 injuries, mostly from smoke inhalation, said a police officer, Lt. Puwadon Wiriyawarangkun. 

Read it all

Mali: jihad on the march, Islamists take the North

I have talked about Mali in the past when jihadists made their presence known.  Now we are witnessing the next phase in the Islamization of Mali; the physical taking of land.  Mark my words here, Islam is once again taking over the African continent slowly but inexorably, one country at a time.

Sudan, Libya, Algeria, Nigeria, Egypt, Morocco, Kenya, Somalia, Mali...

From the Boston Globe April 2 by Rukmini Callimachi

Mali loses control of north, as sanctions imposed

BAMAKO, Mali—Just 12 days after they stormed the presidential palace, the young officers that seized control of Mali in a coup were slapped Monday with harsh financial sanctions that could cause the country to run out of gasoline.

The body representing nations in West Africa announced Monday that starting immediately they are closing the land borders with Mali. The landlocked nation of over 15 million imports nearly all its petroleum products from neighboring Ivory Coast, and economists say gas stations could run dry within weeks. The country's account at the regional central bank has also been frozen, meaning that the junta will struggle to pay the salaries of government employees, including the very soldiers whose loyalty they need to retain power.

"All of the measures are applicable starting today and until the constitutional order is restored," said Alassane Ouattara, the president of Ivory Coast who is the chair of the Economic Community of West African States, after an emergency summit in Senegal. "The measures taken by the junta are in the right direction, but are not sufficient," he said.

The regional body representing 15 nations in West Africa had issued a 72-hour ultimatum to the soldiers that grabbed power, which expired Monday. In an effort to stave off the sanctions, the captain who led the coup held a press conference Sunday to say he was reinstating the constitution and planning to hold elections.

Capt. Amadou Haya Sanogo refused to give a timeline on when the elections would be held, however, and dodged questions on whether he would continue to be president during the period leading to the election.

Meanwhile, the government on Monday also lost control of the northern half of the nation, as rebel flags were hoisted over the last three major towns still under government control. In just three days, the Tuareg rebels swept across the north, taking the regional capital of Kidal on Friday, the largest city of Gao on Saturday and the fabled desert outpost of Timbuktu on Sunday.

Commentators on television are already talking about the possible partition of Mali, which has weathered numerous rebellions by the lighter-skinned Tuaregs who have long felt marginalized by the darker-skinned Bambaras, who dominate the south where the seat of government is located.

At no time in the past did either of the three towns fall, indicating how much ground the rebels have been able to cover in the wake of a 12-day-old coup in the distant capital, which has left both the military and the government in disarray.

"The north is 1,000 percent in the hands of the rebels. There's no resistance, there's nothing. ... They have taken all the strategic points. In all the towns," said an official in the mayor's office in Kidal, who requested anonymity because he feared for his safety. "There is no Malian state left."


There is more, read it all

France: burqa ban not enforced

 “This is not a police problem. We are the end of the law, on the ground, in contact with the people. But this is a problem of integration, of pedagogy, sociology, and acculturation.”


Yep.


From The Star March 31 by Andrew Chung

French ban on Islamic veil turns out to be toothless

VÉNISSIEUX, FRANCE—It’s an unusually warm, spring morning in Venissieux, a downtrodden suburb of Lyon, and Fadela, 23, covered from head to toe in a black niqab, her black gloves adorned with elegant flower stitching, is walking with her friend Najet to the discount market called Ed.

A police car passes but does not stop. Fadela says that’s not unusual. “This is a sensitive neighbourhood,” she surmised. “It’d be a problem for the police.”

In fact, Fadela, who agreed to be interviewed on condition her real name not be used, said police have never told her to uncover her face.

Nearly one year after France implemented its controversial ban on wearing the Islamic veil— a niqab or burka — in public, a surprising fact has emerged. It appears that few women have actually removed their veils to obey the law.

As the presidential election in France approaches, and Islam and Muslim integration are top of mind, critics say the law was an exercise in pleasing the electorate, in “marketing,” while further stigmatizing Muslims.

It didn’t take a visitor to the Les Minguettes neighbourhood of Vénissieux long to observe the widespread non-compliance.

Upon emerging from the subway at Vénissieux station, a niqab-wearing woman walked in from the opposite direction, accompanied by a man. On the tram platform outside, two niqab-wearers waited, chatting. And in Les Minguettes, they were not the norm, but neither were they hard to find.

“Not much has changed, we still see the burka. There are not more, there are not less,” one high-level municipal government official in the area told the Star.

Vénissieux is the place where the idea for the law first originated, with André Gérin, then the Communist mayor and soon-to-be-retired National Assembly member.

Gérin disputed French government numbers that 2,000 women in the country wore niqabs. With so many in his community alone, he thought there were many more. He saw Islamic extremism at work and thought women’s rights were at risk.

Today, Gérin says he has “no idea” how many women have chosen to take off their veils as a result of the law. He compares those who don’t to people who walk on the grass in parks when it’s prohibited.

“It’s a symbolic law,” he said in an interview. “What’s important for me is it’s a law of liberation for women.”

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Egypt: Islamists now have complete control over the forming of the new constitution

First the secularists pulled out, claiming that the Islamists were too rigid in their views.  Now the Coptic contingent has walked, saying the exact same thing as the secularists.  Now that any ameliorating influences have been marginalized, watch for sharia to raise it's deadly head.

From Haaretz April 2

Egyptian Copts abandon constitution talks

Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church has announced it is withdrawing from talks on a new constitution, saying Islamist domination of the drafting body has made its participation "pointless," Egypt's state news agency said.

The decision late on Sunday followed calls by Egyptian liberals to boycott the constitution drafting committee, which is seen as failing to adequately represent the nation's diversity.

The current constitution was suspended by the country's army rulers in February of last year shortly after they took power from Egypt's long-serving autocratic president, Hosni Mubarak.

The 100-member constitutional assembly selected by the parliament is dominated by Islamists, reflecting their resounding victory in parliamentary elections.

"The Coptic Orthodox Church General Council agreed with the approval of all of the council's 20 members to withdraw from the constitutional assembly... as it found it was pointless for the church to be represented following the comments made by the national forces about the way the assembly was formed...

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All the world's a stage, and the men and women merely victims of jihad on it...

Apologies to Shakespeare but with the attack against a Tunisian theatre and its actors and patrons on World Theatre Day it seemed appropriate.

Salafists seem to misunderstand Islam quite consistently, don't they?

From Ahram March 31 by Yasser Seddiq

Salafists attack Tunisia's stage actors


A group of Salafists and their supporters attacked a crowd of stage actors who gathered at Habib Bourguiba Avenue, in front of the Municipal Theatre in the Tunisian capital, to celebrate the World Theatre Day, according to Tunisia's media.

In a statement, Tunisia's artists said the Salafists smashed instruments, kept artists away, occupied the location and attacked a number of participants in the event.

Allegedly, security men at the event initially did nothing, and when they acted they only moved the artists inside the Municipal Theatre.

A statement from artists condemned both the interior and culture ministries for failing to protect the actors from Salafist violence. Tunisia's stage actors called on political parties, especially those in the government coalition, and NGO's to condemn the violent campaign by Salafists against freedom of speech in the north African country.

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