Violence Follows Islam Everywhere

[iris89]

Violence Follows Islam Everywhere

INTRODUCTION:

When members of Islam are not wanting a teacher shot, <<<"... There were divisions within the government, with hard-liners calling for a retrial and newspaper headlines saying, "Shoot This Woman," Ahmed told BBC." [source - <<<"The Teddy Bear Incident:" By Janet Stobart, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, December 5, 2007]>>>, for letting her students, members of Islam, name a Teddy Bear Muhammad, many of them are at their usual; to wit, committing violence of one type or another to fulfill their lust for violence.

Many members of Islam throughout the ages have been lustful for violence and stealing what belongs to others (greedy). One example of both of these evils perpetrated by members of Islam was the evil wrong committed against the people of Spain starting in the Seventh Century. As one historical account, actually written by a member of Islam stated, <<<" When the Moslems settled in the island, they found no other inhabitants there, than vinedressers. They made them prisoners. After that they took one of the vinedressers, slaughtered him, cut him in pieces, and boiled him, while the rest of his companions looked on.">>>. So as can be seen from this, the so called "Golden Age" was really an age of land stealing and sadistic murder by members of Islam that they have never payed reparation for until today.

Now let's look at the historic account of their land stealing and sadistic murders as told by one of their own:
The Islamic Conquest of Spain
Medieval Sourcebook: Ibn Abd-el-Hakem: The Islamic Conquest of Spain
The Muslim expansion continued throughout the sixth and into the seventh century. In 711 the Berber Tarik invaded and rapidly conquered Visigothic Spain. Famously by 733 the Muslims reached Poitiers in France. There a battle, more significant to westerners than Muslims, halted the Muslim advance. In truth by that stage Islam was at its limits of military expansion. Tarik gave his name to "Jabal (mount of) Tarik" or, as we say, Gibraltar. In 712 Tarik's lord, Musa ibn-Mosseyr, joined the attack. Within seven years the conquest of the peninsula was complete. It became one of the centers of Moslem civilization, and the Umayyad caliphate of Cordova reached a peak of glory in the tenth century. Spain, called "al-Andulus" by Muslims remained was at least partially under Muslim control until 1492 when Granada was conquered by Ferdinand and Isabella.
Musa Ibn Nosseyr sent his son Merwan to Tangiers, to wage a holy war upon her coast. Having, then, exerted himself together with his friends, he returned, leaving to Tarik Ibn Amru the command of his army which amounted to 1,700. Others say that 12,000 Berbers besides 16 Arabs were with Tarik: but that is false. It is also said that Musa Ibn Nosseyr marched out of Ifrikiya [Africa] upon an expedition into Tangiers, and that he was the first governor who entered Tangiers, where parts of the Berber tribes Botr and Beranes resided. These bad not vet submitted themselves. When he approached Tangiers, be scattered his light troops. On the arrival of his cavalry in the nearest province of Sus, he subdued its inhabitants, and made them prisoners, they yielding him obedience. And he gave them a governor whose conduct was agreeable to them. He sent Ibn Beshr Ibn Abi Artah to a citadel, three days' journey from the town of Cairwan. Having taken the former, he made prisoners of the children, and plundered the treasury. The citadel was called Beshr, by which name it is known to this day. Afterwards Musa deposed the viceroy whom be bad placed over Tangiers, and appointed Tarik Ibn Zeiyad governor. He, then, returned to Cairwan, Tarik with his female slave of the name Umm-Hakim setting out for Tangiers. Tarik remained some time in this district, waging a holy war. This was in the year 92. The governor of the straits between this district and Andalus was a foreigner called Ilyan, Lord of Septa. He was also the governor of a town called Alchadra, situated on the same side of the straits of Andalus as Tangiers. Ilyan was a subject of Roderic, the Lord of Andalus [i.e. king of Spain], who used to reside in Toledo. Tarik put himself in communication with Ilyan, and treated him kindly, until they made peace with each other. Ilyan had sent one of his daughters to Roderic, the Lord of Andalus, for her improvement and education; but she became pregnant by him. Ilyan having heard of this, said, I see for him no other punishment or recompense, than that I should bring the Arabs against him. He sent to Tarik, saying, I will bring thee to Andalus; Tarik being at that time in Tlemsen, and Musa Ibn Nossevr in Cairwan. But Tarik said I cannot trust thee until thou send me a hostage. So be sent his two daughters, having no other children. Tarik allowed them to remain in Tlemsen, guarding them closely. After that Tarik went to Ilyan who - was in Septa on the straits. The latter rejoicing at his coming, said, I will bring thee to Andalus. But there was a mountain called the mountain of Tarik between the two landing places, that is, between Septa and Andalus. When the evening came, Ilyan brought him the vessels, in which he made him embark for that landing-place, where he concealed himself during the day, and in the evening sent back the vessels to bring over the rest of his companions. So they embarked for the landing-place, none of them being left behind: whereas the people of Andalus did not observe them, thinking that the vessels crossing and recrossing were similar to the trading vessels which for their benefit plied backwards and forwards. Tarik was in the last division which went across. He proceeded to his companions, Ilyan together with the merchants that were with him being left behind in Alchadra, in order that be might the better encourage his companions and countrymen. The news of Tarik and of those who were with him, as well as of the place where they were, reached the people of Andalus. Tarik, going along with his companions, marched over a bridge of mountains to a town called Cartagena. He went in the direction of Cordova. Having passed by an island in the sea, he left behind his female slave of the name of Umm-Hakim, and with her a division of his troops. That island was then called Umm-Hakim. When the Moslems settled in the island, they found no other inhabitants there, than vinedressers. They made them prisoners. After that they took one of the vinedressers, slaughtered him, cut him in pieces, and boiled him, while the rest of his companions looked on. They had also boiled meat in other cauldrons...." [source - Ibn Abd-el-Hakem, History of the Conqziest of Spain, trans. by John Harris Jones (Gottingen, W. Fr. Kaestner, 1858), pp. 18-22]>>>. Some "Golden Age" of sadism, lust for violence, and plundering of what belonged to others. At least Germany has tried to make amends for their wrongs committed in World War II by paying reparation to families of Jewish victims and others, but Islam has NEVER done the same in Spain or anywhere else.

CURRENT EXAMPLES OF THIS LUST FOR VIOLENCE, GREED, AND SAVAGERY ON PART OF MEMBERS OF ISLAM:

Let's look, now, at a very recent lust for violence and savagery committed in Algeries by members of Islam:

<<<" Death and destruction revisited the Algerian capital of Algiers Tuesday morning when a pair of powerful car bombs exploded, and claimed what early estimates placed as 62 lives. Though no claims of responsibility have been made, security experts say there's little doubt the attack was the work of al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), a group that formed an alliance with Osama bin Laden's global jihad in 2006. Officials say Tuesday's spectacular strike increases the risk that AQIM is ramping up its violent struggle to bring down the Algerian government. And as the fourth big hit by AQIM in less than a year, the incident highlights the group's increasing organizational skills and establishes it as the greatest potential terror threat to continental Europe as well.

The first blast occurred Tuesday at around 9:30 a.m. local time, as an explosives-filled car plowed into a packed bus, immediately killing the driver and a dozen or more university students en route to the law school in the Ben-Aknoun section of Algiers. The point of impact was located outside two highly symbolic institutions of the Algerian state: the nation's supreme court, and neighboring constitutional court. Just minutes later, a second suicide car bomb ripped through the nearby Hydra neighborhood, badly damaging the offices of two United Nations organizations: the U.N. High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR), and the U.N. Development Program (UNDP). The final death toll may be as high as 100, well above the 30 killed and over 200 injured during the twin car bombings of government buildings in Algiers last April.
Algerian officials had claimed that a counter-offensive by security forces since April had decimated AQIM ranks. But smaller AQIM bombings and gun attacks on police or military forces have continued unabated, though often unreported. There was also the September 8 suicide bombing of a coast guard unit in eastern Algeria that killed 32 people. The ability and determination of the AQIM to strike in stunning fashion was made even clearer two days earlier, when a suicide bomber charged the cortege of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika during a visit to the city of Batna, killing 22 people and injuring more than 100.
"Any advances made during the counter-offensive by special military forces has been more than offset by the effective recruitment among disenfranchised youths since the insurgents took the al- Qaeda name," says a French intelligence official. The 15-year old terror group took on that name after affiliating with bin Laden on September 11, 2006. Since that time, AQIM has adopted the structured, stylized recruitment and attack methods of the original al-Qaeda. The use of synchronized attacks by suicide bombers in Tuesday strikes, for example, almost certainly shows the influence of bin Laden's strategists. "The desired message is 'With al-Qaeda, this is a deeper, broader force than a radical group battling the Algerian regime out in the sticks," says the French official. "The attacks are bigger, the damage larger, and some of targets and victims foreign. The message is clear: We're now battling enemies wherever we can find them."
Indeed, French security officials say that AQIM's organizational effectiveness makes it the largest risk of non-homegrown terror to continental Europe. The French, who keep a very close eye on suspected terror cells on their own territory, are nervous that the AQIM cells from Algeria may be rolled out against France and other European nations, all relatively easy to reach from just across the Mediterranean. Says one counter-terrorism investigator: "If they can make it in under our radar, we're blind to them - unless they make the mistake of making local contacts. That's our concern."
The threat of that kind of imported strike has grown since the AQIM promised to extend its Algerian jihad to Europe. Bin Laden deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri has repeatedly threatened Europe - and France in particular - as enemies of jihadist forces. Meanwhile, French President Nicolas Sarkozy's friendlier relations with the U.S. and relatively pro-Israel positions have only increased extremists ire. Since his taking office last May, officials say, radical websites have cited Sarkozy's support of Israel - and his own Jewish ancestry - in calling for terror strikes against France.
Given the personalized nature of that renewed fury, however, why didn't the AQIM seek a terror attack on Sarkozy or French interests during his state visit to Algeria last month? "Success," explains the French counter-terrorism official. "Trying to kill a visiting leader or bomb a place he's set to visit while security alerts are full is not going to work. Waiting a week until security has slackened to below even normal levels to attack - your chances of success get much better." If that was the AQIM's strategy Tuesday, it promises equally deadly actions for the future." [source - Article written for Time.com, By BRUCE CRUMLEY 1 hour, 43 minutes ago [12/11/2007]>>>.

Unfortunately this is not an isolated case, but the standard operating procedure (SOP) of many in Islam which deceitfully bills itself as a peaceful religion. Let's look at the larger picture, fully documented, that shows Islam is behind about 90 to 95% of the violence in the world. Yes, others commit a small amount of the violence in the world but this is an anomaly and not the rule as it is within Islam. Here are some facts, the reality, in line with John 8:32, "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (Authorized King James Bible; AV),

<<<" The Weekend Australian (newspaper) had this to say on the matter,
"Did you know that 90-95% of the conflicts in the world today are Muslims fighting non-muslims or each other?" [[in fact]] Islam is intolerant of other religions, so much so that Christians in Nigeria, Sudan and middle eastern countries are killed for practicing their religion. Muslims are also responsible for burning down their churches. Sydney has recently seen an attack on four churches for similar reasons. (December 16, 2005) How can we tolerate such intolerance?".[7]

Says it all, so clearly Islam should be redefined as something other than a religion. So it is very necessary that this greed and hate be addressed. Remember, Matthew 5:9, "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God." (AV).

Let's consider the facts as continually revealed in the world news that shows if any thing that the newspaper editor may have been a little low when he said 95 percent of the violence in the world was caused by Muslims. Here are some instances of terrorism by members of Islam:[7]

(1) World Trade Center - 9/11 - unprovoked attack and mass murder by Muslims.[8]
(2) London Subway Bombing by Muslims [9]
(3) Continued mosque bombings in Iraq by Muslims.[10]
(4) Suicide bombings in Israel by Muslims.[11]
(5) Suicide bombing of a wedding reception in Jordan by Muslims.[12]
(6) Daily roadside bombings in Iraq by Muslims.[13]
(7) Train bombings in Spain my Muslims.[14]
(8) Riots and car burnings and murders in France by Muslims.[15]
(9) Suicide bombings in Iraq by Muslims.[16]
(10) Car and truck bombings in Iraq by Muslims.[17]
(11) Unprovoked murder of 8 Israelis and the kidnapping of 2 by Muslims to provoke turmoil and violence in Lebanon and Israel by Muslims.[18]
(12) Unprovoked murder of 2 Israelis and the kidnapping of 1 by Muslims to provoke turmoil and violence in Gaza by Muslims.[19]
(13) Bombing of restaurants and cafes in Bali, Indonesia by Muslims.[20]
(14) Bombing of a trains in India by Muslims.[21]
(15) Take over o***rammar school in Russia resulting in the deaths of many students by Muslims.[22]
(16) Attempted shoebombing of a plain by a Muslim.[23]
(17) Conspiracy to bomb about 10 planes going from UK by Muslims.[24]
(18) Attempted murder of several Indian politicians in Kashmir by Muslims.[25]
(19) Many violent acts by Muslims in Afghanistan.[26]
(20) Murder o***irl by Shiite Muslims in Iran.[27]
(21) Conspiracy to bomb trains in Germany - as previously posted for you.[28]
(22) And the list could go on and on, get it?

References:
[7] The Weekend Australian, November 26-27, 2005 AD
[8] World Trade Center bombing, by Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[9] Explosions Hit Three Tube Stations, One Bus, Thursday, July 21, 2005, Fox News
[10] By Ellen Knickmeyer and K.I. Ibrahim, Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, February 23, 2006; Page A01
[11] Suicide attack, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[12] Zarqawi Calls for Jordan King's Head, Friday, November 18, 2005
[13] The Daily Star, 03/21/2006, Vol. 5 #644
[14] CBS News, WASHINGTON, March 12, 2004
[15] Free Republic, News/Activism 05/30/2006 5:46:30 PM PDT, and, The Telegraph, By Colin Randall in Paris (Filed: 31/05/2006)
[16] Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[17] CNN, Thursday, March 18, 2004 Posted: 4:59 PM EST (2159 GMT)
[18] Telegraph (UK), Israeli crisis is a smoke screen for Iran's nuclear ambitions, By Con Coughlin(Filed: 14/07/2006)
[19] Associated Press
[20] aljazeera.net, Bali a soft target, experts say, By Marianne Kearney in Jakarta, Indonesia, Monday 03 October 2005, 20:20 Makka Time, 17:20 GMT
[21] MSNBC, Associated Press, Updated: 6:26 p.m. ET July 12, 2006
[22] Beslan school hostage crisis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[source - Large Religions are False Religions - Their Fruitage
religioustruths.proboards59.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=large&thread=1163175928]>>>.

CONCLUSION:

We need true peace is the world, not a group such as Islam whom violence always follows.

[[Warning to all Christians, Islam will go after you if you name your Teddy Bear Muhammad, some in Islam will want you shot if you do.]]

To Learn More, Go To,

[go to] religioustruths.proboards59.com/index.cgi

Your Friend in Christ Iris89

[iris89]

Hi Everyone

Here is but another example of violence following Islam everywhere, i.e., California:

Guilty Plea in Calif. Terror Plot
Friday, Dec. 14, 2007 By AP/GILLIAN FLACCUS [Time in partnership with CNN]

(SANTA ANA, Calif.) — One of four men accused of plotting attacks on Southern California military sites and Jewish targets pleaded guilty Friday to terrorism conspiracy charges.



Levar Haley Washington, 28, admitted committing seditious conspiracy and using a firearm to further that conspiracy. He faces up to life in prison when he is sentenced in April. Another man, Kevin James, was expected to plead guilty to a terrorism charge later Friday. He faces up to 20 years in prison.

Authorities claimed that the plot was hatched in prison and that James, Washington and two others were a cell of radical Muslims planning attacks on military facilities, synagogues and other sites in the Los Angeles area.

Prosecutors assert that James even prepared a press release that the men planned to send out after an attack. "This incident is the first in a series of incidents to come in a plight to defend and propagate traditional Islam in its purity," James allegedly wrote. "We are not extremists, radicals or terrorists. We are only servants of Allah."

Police uncovered the plot in July 2005 while investigating gas station robberies that authorities say were committed to finance the attacks. Washington faces a sentence of five years to life in prison, and James could be sentenced to as much as 20 years, according to their plea agreements.

Also indicted in the case were Gregory Vernon Patterson and Hammad Riaz Samana. Samana is a Pakistani national, while the others are U.S.-born Muslim converts.

The plot was orchestrated by Washington, Patterson and Samana at the behest of James, a California State Prison, Sacramento, inmate who founded the radical group Jamiyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh, or JIS, authorities said. Washington converted to Islam while imprisoned with James, then looked to recruit other members for the group, authorities said.

Washington, Patterson and Samana — who attended the same Inglewood mosque — allegedly conducted surveillance of military sites, synagogues, the Israeli Consulate and El Al airline facilities in the region as well as Internet research on Jewish holidays, prosecutors said in 2005.

James preached that JIS members should target for violent attack any enemies of Islam or "infidels," including the U.S. government and any supporters of Israel, according to court documents.

He also created a document he called the "JIS Protocol," which advocated the establishment of an Islamic caliphate in the U.S. that followed Shariah law, or Islamic law. "Sit back, build and attack!" prosecutors say James wrote in his document. "Our obvious targets being the Western forces of the U.S. and their ... society."

James spelled out in a separate document that JIS members must learn Arabic, acquire two pistols with silencers, learn bomb-making and become "legitimate."

"Acquire identification, drivers license ... keep regular contact with your parole agent," prosecutors say James wrote. "Your dress code must not bring attention. ... We have work to do."

All four were charged with conspiracy to levy war against the U.S. government through terrorism and conspiracy to possess and discharge firearms in a violent crime. Washington, Patterson and Samana each face a count of conspiracy to kill members of the U.S. government uniformed services and a count of conspiracy to kill foreign officials. Washington and Patterson are charged with robbery and using a firearm in a violent crime." [source - Guilty Plea in Calif. Terror Plot, Friday, Dec. 14, 2007 By AP/GILLIAN FLACCUS (Time in partnership with CNN) at, www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1694874,00.html?xid=feed-rss-netzero on 12/14/2007]

Your Friend in Christ Iris89

[iris89]

Hi Everyone

Here is another example:

Wed Aug 29, 3:33 PM ET
ALI-YURT, Russia (Reuters) - Petimat Tatriyeva was woken up one morning late last month by shouts and banging coming from the courtyard of her home.

She said it was a raid by Russian security forces. "About 15 men ... burst into the yard. One of them put a machine gun to my forehead. They said: 'Where are the men? We'll count to ten, then throw a grenade into the house'," she told Reuters.
"When my 15-year-old son woke up, they threw themselves at him and beat him up," she said. "They beat my husband on the kidneys and pressed their fingers into his eyes."
Tatriyeva and her family live in Ingushetia, a mainly Muslim republic where for more than a decade Moscow's forces have been fighting a low-level military campaign against armed Islamist militants linked to separatists in neighboring Chechnya.
But things are getting worse. In response to an escalation in attacks by insurgents, Moscow in late July sent in an additional 2,500 interior ministry troops, almost tripling the number of special forces in Ingushetia.
The escalation in violence shows that seven years after President Vladimir Putin came to power on a pledge to "wipe out" the insurgency in Russia's North Caucasus region that includes Chechnya and Ingushetia, the rebels are not beaten.
In Chechnya, attacks have grown rare, but the problems appear to have shifted next door.
Some people in Ingushetia draw parallels with Chechnya eight years ago. Then, after a lull in the fighting that had already dragged on for six years, troops were sent back in to respond to a wave of rebel attacks. That unleashed a new war.
Now in Ingushetia, reports emerge almost daily of gun battles or ambushes on police vehicles.
This summer the insurgents have killed an aide to Murat Zyazikov, the region's pro-Moscow president, and launched an audacious attack on an army base. Last week a Russian soldier was killed in an attack on a column of troops.
In July, the rebels murdered an ethnic Russia schoolteacher, Lyudmila Terekhina, and two of her children. A bomb went off in the cemetery as she was being buried, wounding several mourners.
In Ingushetia's capital, Nazran, armored personnel carriers drive through the streets. Roadblocks check the documents of everyone entering the city.
"ROUTINE OPERATION"
Zyazikov, a former official with the Federal Security Service (FSB), a successor to the Soviet KGB, told reporters in Moscow on Wednesday it was a "routine precautionary operation."
"There are no curfews, no punitive operations, no violations of anyone's human rights, whatever anyone says. It has had no impact on the situation. There is no public outrage."
However, residents who spoke to Reuters described a massive security operation underway, with regular and often violent raids on private homes by security forces looking for insurgents.
Homes in the village of Ali-Yurt were raided after shots were fired at government buildings in the nearby town of Magas.
"They brought my husband outside in just his underpants and they pressed me against the wall," said Madina Martazanova. "They told him to lie on the ground, he didn't want to and they forced him down and kicked him in the stomach."
Nazran resident Idris Khamkhoyev said heavy-handed police operations were causing bitterness among the local population.
"They (Russian security forces) are rampant and answer to no one," he said. "They are exacerbating the situation and we now fear a repetition of the Chechen problem."
In Moscow, some observers see other parallels with Chechnya. The start of the second Chechen war helped the then little-known Putin show off his credentials as a tough politician. It was a factor in his victory in the 2000 presidential election.
Early next year, Russia is due to choose a new president because Putin, limited by the constitution to two consecutive terms, says he is stepping down.
Most observers say the Kremlin will encourage voters to back a Putin lieutenant as his replacement.
"In theory, the new deterioration of the situation in the Caucasus could be used to raise the profile of the successor, or as a pretext for calling off the election completely," said New Times, a Russian-language news magazine.
(Additional reporting by Oleg Shchedrov in Moscow)

Your Friend in Christ Iris89

[iris89]

Hi Everyone

Here is just another example of the fact that violence follows Muslims where ever they go:

By DAVID McHUGH, Associated Press Writer 17 minutes ago [9/5/2007]

BERLIN - Three suspected Islamic militants were arrested for allegedly plotting "imminent" and "massive" attacks on the Ramstein Air Base, a major U.S. and NATO military hub, and Frankfurt's busy international airport, German authorities said Wednesday.

German federal prosecutor Monika Harms said the three - two of whom were German converts to Islam - had trained at terror camps in Pakistan and procured some 1,500 pounds of hydrogen peroxide for making explosives. And a top legislator said the group could have struck "in a few days," noting a "sensitive period" that includes the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

"We were able to succeed in recognizing and preventing the most serious and massive bombings," Harms told reporters.
Officials said the hydrogen peroxide, stored in a hideout, could have been mixed with other additives to produce a bomb with the explosive power of 1,200 pounds of TNT.
"This would have enabled them to make bombs with more explosive power than the ones used in the London and Madrid (transit) bombings," Joerg Ziercke, the head of Germany's Federal Crime Office, said at a joint press conference with Harms.

The three suspects - two Germans, aged 22 and 28, and a 29-year-old Turk - first came to the attention of authorities because they had been observing a U.S. military facility at the end of 2006, officials said. All three had undergone training at camps in Pakistan run by the Islamic Jihad Union, and had formed a German cell of the group.
The Islamic Jihad Union was described as a Sunni Muslim group based in Central Asia that was an offshoot of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, an extremist group with origins in that country.

"There was an imminent threat," German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung told ARD broadcaster.
The three had no steady work and were drawing unemployment benefits while their main occupation was the plot, officials said. "This group distinguishes itself through its profound hatred of U.S. citizens," Ziercke said.
Ziercke said members of Germany's elite GSG-9 anti-terrorist unit arrested two of the suspects at a holiday home in central Germany on Tuesday. A third managed to escape through a bathroom window, but was apprehended about 300 yards later by federal police who had roped off the area.

The three suspects were brought before judges in a closed proceeding at Germany's Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe after being flown in by helicopter, court officials said.
Prosecutors in Karlsruhe said the arrests took place Tuesday afternoon, and that police had also carried out searches across the country. The German reports came a day after Denmark authorities said they had thwarted a bomb plot when authorities rounded up eight alleged Islamic militants believed to have links to al-Qaida.
Wolfgang Bosbach, a top legislator for German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats, said that "the suspects had been under observation by security officials for a long time"
"Consequently, we know without any doubt that they were planning attacks that would have had considerable consequences," he told N24 television, adding that the three had acquired chemicals for the plot.
Bosbach said an attack could have occurred "in a few days" and pointed out the Sept. 11 anniversary, as well as parliamentary deliberations in the next few weeks over whether to extend troop mandates in Afghanistan.
"We are in a highly sensitive period," he said.

Ramstein is one of the best-known U.S. Air Force bases worldwide because it serves as a major conduit for U.S. troops moving in and out of Europe, Asia and the Middle East. It is a key transit point for injured troops from Iraq and Afghanistan who are flown there to be taken to nearby Landstuhl.

Besides U.S. personnel, British, French, and other international forces are also located there.
Frankfurt International Airport is Europe's third-busiest airport, handling hundreds of in- and outbound flights to and from the Americas, Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe. In July, a record 5.2 million passengers arrived or departed from the airport. In 2005, more than 52.2 million passengers came through the airport, which is also a major cargo hub.
German and U.S. officials have warned of the possibility of a terrorist attack, and security measures have been increased. Navy Capt. Jeff Gradeck, spokesman for the U.S. military's European Command in Stuttgart, said German authorities had contacted them concerning the alleged plot, but had no further information.
"We extend our gratitude to Germany for their efforts in protecting us," Gradeck said.

Germany, which did not send troops to Iraq, has largely been spared terrorist attacks such as the train and subway bombings in Madrid and London - although its involvement in the attempt to stabilize Afghanistan against Islamic insurgents has led to fears it might be targeted. In July 2006, two bombs were placed on commuter trains but did not explode. Officials said that attempt was partly motivated by anger over cartoons portraying the Prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper. Several suspects are on trial in Lebanon, and a Lebanese man has been charged in Germany.

The Tuesday arrests in Denmark sent jitters through a country that was the focus of Muslim anger and deadly protests over the cartoons. Jakob Scharf, head of the PET intelligence service, said that the eight suspects arrested were "militant Islamists with connections to leading al-Qaida persons."
Separately in Denmark, four Muslim men went on trial Wednesday in an unrelated case on charges of making bombs for a planned terror attack, a year after they were arrested. The defendants, who cannot be named under a court order, are accused of purchasing chemicals and equipment to produce explosives. All pleaded innocent.
The European Union's top justice official said Wednesday that the threat of a terror attack remained high in the 27-nation bloc. EU Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini said the EU executive would push ahead with plans to set up an EU-wide airline passenger data recording system despite privacy concerns.
"The threat of new terror attacks continues to be high," Frattini said, citing Spain, Italy, Belgium, Britain and Germany as countries where the risk has been the highest.
The German chancellor said in an interview released Wednesday that German troops would remain in Afghanistan for several more years, despite recent setbacks in the region.
"To walk away would send the wrong signal," Merkel told N-24 television.
Magnus Norell, at the Swedish Defense Research Agency, said while Germany's mission in Afghanistan could be a motive for a terrorist attack, a flood of other factors could also play a role.
"It could be discontent with Germany, or even western Europe as a whole. It's really not that easy as to say that this (Afghanistan) would be the reason for it."

Your Friend in Christ Iris89

[iris89]

Hi Everyone

Here is just another example of the fact that violence follows Muslims where ever they go:

By ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS, Associated Press Writer Fri Sep 7, 1:49 PM ET
BERLIN - Fritz and Daniel - two of the three militant Islamic suspects arrested in a purported plot to bomb American targets are as German as their names.

The pair allegedly are among the small number of Western converts who have been used by terrorism masters because their ability to blend in is matched by their willingness to become violent, Muslim and non-Muslim experts say.
The two Germans and a Turk were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of planning attacks on U.S. and other facilities. Police say they had stockpiled enough material to build bombs more powerful than those that killed 191 commuters in Madrid and 52 in London.
The extremism behind the alleged plot was in many ways inculcated not in far-off lands but on the banks of the Danube River in Germany, security officials say.
Fritz Martin Gelowicz, described as the leader of the Islamic Jihad Union terror cell, converted to Islam 10 years ago at age 18 in his hometown of Ulm, security officials told The Associated Press.
Ulm, in Baden Wuerttemberg in southwestern Germany, is a center for radical Islamic activity along with Neu-Ulm, just across the Danube in Bavaria. Authorities say the local Islamic scene is marked by particular zeal.
Security officials said Gelowicz first became an adherent of what they described as an Islamic hate preacher at the Multicultural House in Neu-Ulm, which he attended regularly with a German friend of Turkish descent, identified only as Tolga D. Tolga D. was arrested in Frankfurt last month after being deported from Pakistan and is accused of recruiting a German citizen for terrorism.
Born Sept. 1, 1979, in Munich, Gelowicz was 5 when he moved to Ulm with his parents and brother. His mother was a doctor and his father ran a company that sells and installs solar heating equipment.
The parents split up while Gelowicz was a boy, and he worked for his father to pay for his education, studying business and engineering at a vocational college. Tolga D. also worked for the company and played a major role in converting Gelowicz to Islam, security officials said.
The officials, who spoke on condition that they not be identified because they were not authorized to speak to the news media, said Gelowicz and Tolga D. often went to the Multicultural House, which was shut down by authorities as a security threat in 2005.
"That was his scene," an official said. "Fritz G. was a conscientious student."
After the Multicultural House was closed, Gelowicz began going to the Islamic Information Center in Ulm - which was searched by police this week. Officials at the center could not be reached for comment.
"I believe this center in Ulm has played a calamitous role," said Udo Steinbach, a specialist on Islam at the German Institute of Global and Area Studies in Hamburg.
Investigators say that in March 2006, Gelowicz attended a terror training camp in Pakistan run by the Islamic Jihad Union, an offshoot of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. Officials say the group is influenced by al-Qaida.
Gelowicz's alleged accomplices are Daniel Martin Schneider, 22, a German from the western town of Neunkirchen, and Adem Yilmaz, 29, who was born in Turkey but lives in Germany. Both men attended terror training camps in Pakistan last year, officials said.
Late last year, at least one of the three was observed studying a U.S. military base at Hanau with what security officials suspected was an apparent aim of making it a terror target.
German officials said police then put the three under surveillance.
The head of the Federal Crime Agency, Joerg Ziercke, said the plot went ahead even though the men knew police were watching them. "This underlines their devotion, or fanaticism, in regard to their goal," said Ziercke.
The case has raised concerns about fanaticism among European converts to Islam, and some German officials have suggested singling them out for special surveillance. Others say that would be wrong.
"Most converts want to show born Muslims that they are especially religious," said Gerhard Isa Moldenhauer, a convert who is a member of the board of the Central Institute of the Islam Archive of Germany.
Figures about how many Germans convert to Islam are hard to come by. "The mosques don't usually make it known when someone converts," Steinbach told The Associated Press.
He said he wasn't surprised that Germans were involved in the alleged plot.
"We had to expect sooner or later that phenomena would become visible here that we had already seen in England, that people who turn to Islam for whatever reason also move to violence," Steinbach said.
"A very marginal part follow the pied pipers and fall into the hands of criminals, as we have seen," he said. "They reach them with the Internet and try to give them a new identity through violent action."
Richard Reid, the so-called shoe bomber, was a convert who tried to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight from Paris in 2001. One of the London commuter bombers in 2005, Jamaican-born Jermaine Lindsay, also was a convert, as was Jose Padilla of Chicago, convicted last month in Miami of helping Islamic extremists and plotting overseas attacks.
Western converts accused of involvement with the Taliban or al-Qaida include American John Walker Lindh, now in prison after being captured by U.S. forces in Afghanistan, and Australian David Hicks.
German Christian Ganczarski is awaiting trial in France for his alleged role in a 2002 attack on a Tunisian synagogue that killed 21 people, mostly foreign tourists.

Your Friend in Christ Iris89

[iris89]

Hi Everyone

Here is just another example of the fact that violence follows Muslims where ever they go:

By LEE KEATH, Associated Press Writer 19 minutes ago [9/7/2007]

CAIRO, Egypt - Osama bin Laden appeared for the first time in three years in a video Friday released ahead of the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, telling Americans they should convert to Islam if they want the war in Iraq to end.

American officials said the U.S. government had obtained a copy even though the video had not been posted yet by al-Qaida - and intelligence agencies were studying the video to determine whether it was authentic and looking for clues about bin Laden's health.
The 30-minute video was obtained by the SITE Institute, a Washington-based group that monitors terrorist messages, and provided to the Associated Press.
The footage gives a rare look at the al-Qaida leader, who has likely avoided appearing in videos as a security measure. His emergence comes at a time when terrorism experts believe his terror network is regrouping in the lawless Pakistan-Afghanistan border region - and it underlines the U.S. failure to catch him.
In the video, a short excerpt of which was broadcast to the Arab world by Al-Jazeera television, bin Laden wears a white robe, a white circular cap and a beige cloak seated behind a table while reading an address to the American people from papers in front of him.
His trimmed beard is shorter than in his last video, in 2004, and is fully black - apparently dyed, since in past videos it was mostly gray. He speaks softly, as he usually does, and has dark bags under his eyes, but his appearance dispelled rumors that he had died.
U.S. President George W. Bush made the rare move of speaking about an al-Qaida video. The tape is "a reminder about the dangerous world in which we live, he told reporters on the sidelines of a summit of Pacific Rim nations in Sydney, Australia.
"It's important that we show resolve and determination to protect ourselves, deny al-Qaida safe haven and support young democracies," Bush said.
In the video, Bin Laden makes no overt threats and does not directly call for attacks.
Instead, he addresses Americans, lecturing them on the failures of their leaders to stop the war in Iraq despite growing public opposition in the U.S.
He says there were two solutions to stopping the Iraq war. "One is from our side, and it is to escalate the fighting and killing against you. This is our duty, and our brothers are carrying it out," bin Laden said.
"The second solution is from your side. ... I invite you to embrace Islam," he said.
One result of that, bin Laden said, would be an end to the Iraq war. He said "warmongering owners of the major corporations" would rush to appease voters who showed they are looking for an alternative, "and this alternative is Islam."
He derided Bush, saying events in Iraq have gotten "out of control" and the American leader "is like the one who plows and sows the sea: He harvests nothing but failure."
Bin Laden frequently criticized capitalism, calling its leaders the real terrorists and threats to human freedom.
"This is why I tell you: as you liberated yourselves before from the slavery of monks, kings and feudalism, you should liberate yourselves from the deception, shackles and attrition of the capitalist system," he said.
Bin Laden's attacks in the video on capitalism, multinational corporations and globalization led several current and former government officials to believe an American - 28-year-old Adam Gadahn - may have written at least part of the speech.
Gadahn, who has been charged with treason and supporting terrorism for serving as an al-Qaida propagandist, has appeared in several past al-Qaida-produced videos, lecturing against capitalism and globalization and making insider references to American culture.
"It has Adam Gadahn written all over it," one former senior intelligence official said of bin Laden's tape, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
The video appeared to have been recently made. At one point, bin Laden mentions that "several days ago" Japan marked the 62nd anniversary of the Aug. 6, 1945, atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima. He also refers to the Democratic Party's congressional victory in last fall's election and to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was elected in May.
He also shows a grasp of current events, dropping mentions of global warming and saying Americans are "reeling under the burdens" of a mortgage crisis.
And he praises author Noam Chomsky, an early critic of the Iraq war, as well as Michael Scheuer, former head of the CIA's bin Laden unit, who has said poor U.S. leadership was losing the war against terrorist groups.
Bin Laden "knows Bush has low approval ratings, knows the significance o***rowing awareness of global warming," said Thomas Sanderson, deputy director of the Transnational Threats Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "He's trying to capitalize on what he sees as a shift back to the middle in American politics."
Al-Qaida annually uses the anniversary of the Sept. 11 suicide attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon as a propaganda opportunity, issuing videotapes to rally supporters and mock the United States.
But the appearance of bin Laden this year makes a bigger splash. The al-Qaida leader had not appeared in new video footage since October 2004, and he had not put out an audiotape in more than a year, his longest period without a message.
His deputy, Egyptian-born Ayman al-Zawahri, has issued numerous videos and audiotapes in the meantime as al-Qaida has increased the sophistication and speed of its media operations.
Seth Jones, a terrorism expert at the RAND think tank, said that while the anniversary gives the pretext for the tape, it also comes at a time when the main al-Qaida leadership has managed to regroup.
"There clearly has been a resurgence of core al-Qaida in the tribal areas of Pakistan" along the frontier with Afghanistan since 2005, Jones said.
He said sympathy in that region for the Taliban has made it more receptive to militant Sunni groups, including al-Qaida. "It's really created a sanctuary," Jones said.
Rita Katz, director of the SITE Institute, said she believes "strongly that al-Qaida has regrouped" but that its core bases are more scattered than previously, comprising several training camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan. She said it was likely bin Laden is hidden in a more secure location, away from any of those sites.
During the video, bin Laden's image moves for only a total of about 3 1/2 minutes in two segments, staying frozen the rest of the time while his remarks continue.
A former senior U.S. intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said it might have resulted from a technical glitch while al-Qaida passed the video through a variety of computer sites to mask its cyber trail.
The United States intercepted the video before it was released on Islamic Web sites where al-Qaida usually posts its messages, a U.S. counterterrorism official said in Washington. U.S. officials had analyzed the video for hours before transcripts and videos were leaked, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
The official said analysts were studying bin Laden's physical characteristics - for clues about his health after unconfirmed rumors earlier this year that he had died of kidney disease.
Soon after word emerged that the United States had the video, Islamic militant Web sites that usually carry statements from al-Qaida went down and were inaccessible.
Hours later, the sites were back up, but by late Friday, the video still had not been released on the militant Web sites.
The reason for the shutdown was not immediately known. Evan H. Kohlmann, a terrorism expert at globalterroralert.com, said he suspected it was the work of al-Qaida itself, trying to find how the video leaked to U.S. officials.

Your Friend in Christ Iris89

[iris89]

Hi Everyone

Here is just another example of the fact that violence follows Muslims where ever they go:

By LEE KEATH, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 9 minutes ago [9/11/2007]
CAIRO, Egypt - Two messages from Osama bin Laden in a matter of days have revived the game of questions over his health and whereabouts, but they also made clear he is al-Qaida's propaganda "top gun," able to draw attention in the
In a new video released Tuesday, bin Laden's voice was heard commemorating one of the Sept. 11 suicide hijackers and calling on young Muslims to follow his example in martyring themselves in attacks.
It came on the heels of a video released Saturday containing the first new images of the terror movement's leader in nearly three years. It showed him urging Americans to convert to Islam and railing against capitalism, globalization and democracy as failed philosophies.
Both releases on Web sites used by Islamic extremists may in part be an attempt to use bin Laden's charisma to win over supporters in an audience of growing importance for al-Qaida - Muslim converts and immigrants from Muslim countries living in the West, particularly Europe.
Militants from both groups have been implicated in several plots inside Europe in recent years, and the anti-globalization rhetoric could be aimed at giving disenchanted Muslims there further reason to join his cause, along with his traditional condemnation of U.S. policy in the Mideast.
The two videos, timed to mark the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, also made a splash in the U.S. at a time when the presidential campaign and falling support for the war in Iraq have prompted a debate on how America should be fighting terrorism.
Presidential candidates weighed in on the question of whether the man President Bush once vowed to take "dead or alive" remains a threat. Republican Fred Thompson called bin Laden a "symbolic" figure, while Rudolph Giuliani insisted the al-Qaida leader needed to be taken down.
U.S. intelligence agencies, meanwhile, are poring over bin Laden's messages, looking for clues to the 50-year-old's health and location.
Little was immediately evident, except for bin Laden's new beard - dyed a dark black from the mostly gray of previous videos.
The images in Saturday's video were clearly recent - made at least since June, because bin Laden mentioned British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who took office that month, and perhaps done as recently as early August.
Because bin Laden's image moves for only a few minutes in the first tape and not at all in the second, questions are being raised about his health.
Magnus Ranstorp, a terrorism expert at the Swedish National Defense College, said trying to guess at bin Laden's physical condition from the images is pure speculation. But it is clear that the al-Qaida leader is plugged in, he said.
"He's very much up on current events, but it is more than that. Bin Laden has learned to skillfully package and tap into issues that have political currency and a wide resonance outside his normal constituency," Ranstorp said.
The messages end a long dry spell for bin Laden - his last video had been released in October 2004, while his last audiotape came out in July 2006.
During that lull, numerous videos and audiotapes were issued by his deputy, Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahri, who many analysts believe has a more direct hand in al-Qaida and has led the rebuilding of the network's command since the 2001 U.S. assault on Afghanistan.
Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert and professor at Georgetown University, said the evidence indicates al-Zawahri likely holds al-Qaida's operational reins, heading meetings of the network's top leadership in the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
But Bin Laden is "still the marquee name ... wheeled out in dramatic fashion," Hoffman said.
"He's a brand name, probably one of the most recognizable brand names in the world. So he has tremendous value in that respect. He's the headliner."
Tuesday's video was the latest in an al-Qaida tradition: Every year on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attack it has commemorated one or two of the 19 suicide hijackers by releasing their videotaped "last will and testament."
This year, the video included the testament of Waleed al-Shehri, one of the hijackers on American Airlines Flight 11 that hit the World Trade Center. An audiotape of bin Laden introduced the testament, played over a still photo of the terror leader taken from Saturday's video.
Bin Laden praised al-Shehri, saying he "recognized the truth" that Arab rulers are "vassals" of the West and have "abandoned the balance of (Islamic) revelation."
"It remains for us to do our part. So I tell every young man among the youth of Islam: It is your duty to join the caravan (of martyrs) until the sufficiency is complete and the march to aid the High and Omnipotent continues," Bin Laden said.
One thing the messages may show is that bin Laden feels secure enough to emerge.
"It means he is freer to move and to talk and he is in (a) safer place. Now he is more confident to communicate to the media," said Abdul Bari Atwan, editor of the pan-Arab newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi and author of "The Secret History of al-Qaida."
By issuing two tapes in just four days, "he is saying, 'I'm back,'" Atwan said.


Your Friend in Christ Iris89

[iris89]

Hi Everyone

Here is just another example of the fact that violence follows Muslims where ever they go:

By BRUCE CRUMLEY 1 hour, 43 minutes ago [12/11/2007]

Death and destruction revisited the Algerian capital of Algiers Tuesday morning when a pair of powerful car bombs exploded, and claimed what early estimates placed as 62 lives. Though no claims of responsibility have been made, security experts say there's little doubt the attack was the work of al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), a group that formed an alliance with Osama bin Laden's global jihad in 2006. Officials say Tuesday's spectacular strike increases the risk that AQIM is ramping up its violent struggle to bring down the Algerian government. And as the fourth big hit by AQIM in less than a year, the incident highlights the group's increasing organizational skills and establishes it as the greatest potential terror threat to continental Europe as well.

The first blast occurred Tuesday at around 9:30 a.m. local time, as an explosives-filled car plowed into a packed bus, immediately killing the driver and a dozen or more university students en route to the law school in the Ben-Aknoun section of Algiers. The point of impact was located outside two highly symbolic institutions of the Algerian state: the nation's supreme court, and neighboring constitutional court. Just minutes later, a second suicide car bomb ripped through the nearby Hydra neighborhood, badly damaging the offices of two United Nations organizations: the U.N. High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR), and the U.N. Development Program (UNDP). The final death toll may be as high as 100, well above the 30 killed and over 200 injured during the twin car bombings of government buildings in Algiers last April.
Algerian officials had claimed that a counter-offensive by security forces since April had decimated AQIM ranks. But smaller AQIM bombings and gun attacks on police or military forces have continued unabated, though often unreported. There was also the September 8 suicide bombing of a coast guard unit in eastern Algeria that killed 32 people. The ability and determination of the AQIM to strike in stunning fashion was made even clearer two days earlier, when a suicide bomber charged the cortege of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika during a visit to the city of Batna, killing 22 people and injuring more than 100.
"Any advances made during the counter-offensive by special military forces has been more than offset by the effective recruitment among disenfranchised youths since the insurgents took the al- Qaeda name," says a French intelligence official. The 15-year old terror group took on that name after affiliating with bin Laden on September 11, 2006. Since that time, AQIM has adopted the structured, stylized recruitment and attack methods of the original al-Qaeda. The use of synchronized attacks by suicide bombers in Tuesday strikes, for example, almost certainly shows the influence of bin Laden's strategists. "The desired message is 'With al-Qaeda, this is a deeper, broader force than a radical group battling the Algerian regime out in the sticks," says the French official. "The attacks are bigger, the damage larger, and some of targets and victims foreign. The message is clear: We're now battling enemies wherever we can find them."
Indeed, French security officials say that AQIM's organizational effectiveness makes it the largest risk of non-homegrown terror to continental Europe. The French, who keep a very close eye on suspected terror cells on their own territory, are nervous that the AQIM cells from Algeria may be rolled out against France and other European nations, all relatively easy to reach from just across the Mediterranean. Says one counter-terrorism investigator: "If they can make it in under our radar, we're blind to them - unless they make the mistake of making local contacts. That's our concern."
The threat of that kind of imported strike has grown since the AQIM promised to extend its Algerian jihad to Europe. Bin Laden deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri has repeatedly threatened Europe - and France in particular - as enemies of jihadist forces. Meanwhile, French President Nicolas Sarkozy's friendlier relations with the U.S. and relatively pro-Israel positions have only increased extremists ire. Since his taking office last May, officials say, radical websites have cited Sarkozy's support of Israel - and his own Jewish ancestry - in calling for terror strikes against France.
Given the personalized nature of that renewed fury, however, why didn't the AQIM seek a terror attack on Sarkozy or French interests during his state visit to Algeria last month? "Success," explains the French counter-terrorism official. "Trying to kill a visiting leader or bomb a place he's set to visit while security alerts are full is not going to work. Waiting a week until security has slackened to below even normal levels to attack - your chances of success get much better." If that was the AQIM's strategy Tuesday, it promises equally deadly actions for the future.
View this article on Time.com

Your Friend in Christ Iris89

[iris89]

Hi Everyone

Here is just another example of the fact that violence follows Muslims where ever they go:

There was always, of course, a morsel of truth to the "peace" fib. Both Muslim and dhimmi apologists still trot out the one about how Islam and salaam, of "Salaam alaikem" (Peace be upon you) fame, come from the same tri-consonantal Arabic root, "s-l-m," which is often translated to peace. Translations being what they are, this allows for a lot of flexibility, especially when one has an agenda other than total accuracy. Any honest Arabic speaker, that is, one not speaking "takiyya" to infidels, will tell you that the proper word for political and military peace, as implied, is "sulh."

The problem Islamic scholars have in ascribing a new meaning to "Islam" is that Muhammad did not use this term to refer to his new religion. "Islam" to him simply meant what it always meant to Arabic-speaking tribes. To Muhammad, "Islam" meant a type of submission, but not to God, who was not yet established among the pagan Arabs, but of submission or surrender of one's desire to live, in order to become fearless in battle. According to, among others, Father Gnana Pragash Suresh, an expert on Islam with the Society of St. Pius X, Islam "referred to an attribute of manliness and described someone who was heroic and brave in battle" and who would "fight to the death" against "impossible odds." [4] Ironically, submission to God's laws is actually a concept developed by Christian monastic orders that Muhammad often railed against. It required moral firmness, while Muhammad's morals depended on his circumstances, suitably converging with his most recent vision. Islamic morals only firmed once Muhammad had died, having left an often brutal legacy of conflicting statements and actions and the impossible task of sorting them out. In other words, "Islam," the word known to Muhammad, pre-dates "Islam" the religion, as written and elaborated upon by later Muslim scholars. Muhammad's warrior definition of Islam, a very Bedouin concept, springs from the eye-for-an-eye code of his Arab nomadic culture. It is also very useful for spreading an ideology by force.
Actually, Islam means berserk by Nathan D. Weise
15 Jan, 2007
www.islam-watch.org/Others/NathanIslamBerserk.htm

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

By RIAZ KHAN, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 19 minutes ago
SHERPAO, Pakistan - A suicide attacker detonated a bomb packed with ball bearings and nails amid hundreds of holiday worshippers Friday at the residential compound of Pakistan's former interior minister, killing at least 50 people, authorities said.

It was the second suicide attack in eight months apparently targeting Aftab Khan Sherpao, who escaped injury. One of his sons was wounded.

Suspicion will likely focus on the pro-Taliban or al-Qaida militants active in the northwestern region of the country where the attack occurred. The attack also deepened the sense of uncertainty in Pakistan as it heads into Jan. 8 parliamentary elections. Sherpao is a candidate for parliament.

Hours after the bombing, security officers raided an Islamic school in the nearby village of Turangzai and arrested seven students, some of them Afghans, two police officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. The officials declined to say whether the raid was connected to the attack.
The bombing, which came during the Islamic holy day of Eid al-Adha, left a scene of carnage at the mosque at the politician's residential compound in Sherpao, a village 25 miles northeast of the city of Peshawar.

Bloodied clothes, hats, shoes and pieces of flesh were strewn about the building. Witnesses said the dead included police officers guarding Sherpao, who was praying in the mosque's front row at the time of the attack but not injured.
"We were saying prayers when this huge explosion occurred," said Shaukat Ali, a 26-year-old survivor of the blast whose white cloak and pants were torn and spattered with blood.

The bomber was praying in a row of worshippers when he detonated the explosive, provincial police chief Sharif Virk said. Hundreds of people were in or around the mosque, about 40 yards from Sherpao's house, witnesses said.
District mayor Farman Ali Khan said between 50 and 55 people were killed, and authorities were collecting information on their identities. Local police chief Feroz Shah said over 100 were wounded.

The hospital in Peshawar was wracked with chaos as the injured arrived in pickup trucks, ambulance sirens wailed and the wounded screamed for help. The bomb contained between 13-17 pounds of explosives and was filled with nails and ball bearings to maximize casualties, said the head of the bomb unit at the scene, who declined to give his name.
A bulldozer was brought in to dig graves for the dead next to the mosque. Other volunteers used shovels.
Iqbal Hussain, a police officer in charge of security at the mosque, said all those who entered had been made to pass through a body scanner and were searched with metal and explosive detectors.
Hamid Nawaz, the current interior minister, maintained there was no security lapse.
"All possible care had been taken, there was no lapse as such ... but such an incident can happen at such a gathering," Nawaz said on Aaj TV.

After the blast, Sherpao's house was protected by about a dozen armed police and paramilitary troops. In a brief telephone interview with The Associated Press, Sherpao said he was unhurt.
"Yes, I'm fine," he said.

Sherpao was interior minister - Pakistan's top civilian security official - in the administration recently dissolved ahead of January parliamentary elections. He is head of the Pakistan Peoples Party-Sherpao, and is running as a candidate for parliament in next month's elections.

President Pervez Musharraf condemned the blast and directed security and intelligence agencies to track down the masterminds, the state Associated Press of Pakistan reported.

In April, Sherpao was slightly wounded when a suicide bomber attacked a rally for his political party in the nearby town of Charsadda, killing at least 28 people.

Islamic militants have repeatedly targeted top figures in the government of Musharraf, a key ally in the U.S.-led war on terror. Musharraf himself narrowly escaped assassination in two bombings a few days apart in December 2003 near Islamabad.

Taliban and al-Qaida fighters have extended their influence over tracts of Pakistan's volatile northwest in the past two years and in recent months have launched numerous suicide attacks, usually targeting security forces and their families.
The army says the most recent attacks could be retaliation for a military operation against militants in the Swat valley, where it claims to have killed about 300 militants since last month.

The wave of violence comes as Pakistan struggles to emerge from months of political turmoil.
Musharraf recently declared emergency rule for six weeks - a step he contended was necessary to combat rising Islamic extremism, although it was widely seen as a move to prolong his presidency.

On Friday, police rearrested a prominent opposition lawyer, a day after releasing him, despite promises he would be allowed to remain free for the three-day Eid holiday. Aitzaz Ahsan was picked up before dawn as he traveled on the road from the eastern city of Lahore to the capital, Islamabad, and put back under house arrest in Lahore, his son, Ali Aitzaz, said.

Aitzaz Ahsan has been at the forefront of a lawyers' protest movement against Musharraf's rule. The lawyers are demanding the reinstatement of the Supreme Court's top judge, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, and other independent-minded justices.

Your Friend in Christ Iris89

[iris89]

Hi Everyone

Here is just another example of the fact that violence follows Muslims where ever they go:

By Tina Susman, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
December 21, 2007
BAGHDAD -- A suicide bomber edged his way into a crowd of Iraqi officials and U.S. forces gathered for a meeting north of Baghdad on Thursday, killing as many as 12 people, including an American soldier.

It was one of three attacks nationwide that shattered what had been the peaceful start of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, which began Wednesday for Sunni Muslims. Shiites begin celebrating the four-day holiday today. The violence included a bombing in central Baghdad that targeted a row of liquor stores and, police said, killed three Iraqis.

/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraqmap,0,4755754.flash?coll=la-tot-world/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraqmap,0,475575 4.flash?coll=la-tot-world
Interactive Feature
Graphic: A look into Iraq
(Flash)
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The violence underscored what a U.S. official called the "great security threats" still looming in Iraq, threats further illustrated by two recent discoveries.

In Diyala province, north of Baghdad, Iraqi civilians tipped off U.S. forces to a gruesome torture chamber, with chains on the walls and ceilings and a bed on which chained victims apparently were subjected to electrical shocks.

And south of Baghdad, the U.S. military said it found an elaborate system of tunnels dug by insurgents along the Euphrates River. The militants apparently used the tunnels as hiding places and as positions from which to fire on U.S. forces. Soldiers from the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, which found the tunnel system, used two bombs to destroy it.

The discoveries occurred in areas still plagued by Sunni Arab insurgent activity blamed on the group Al Qaeda in Iraq. Troops came across the tunnel network Sunday during a search that also uncovered a cache of bomb-making equipment in Iskandariya, 25 miles south of Baghdad. The torture center was discovered in Muqdadiya, 60 miles northeast of Baghdad, after a tip from local Iraqis. The remains of 26 people also were discovered at the compound, which was uncovered during a series of operations this month.

A military statement said 24 insurgents were killed during the three-day mission.

"There are still great threats out there," said a U.S. Embassy official who asked not to be identified. "Each attack illustrates that."

The bloodiest attack Thursday occurred in Kanan, about 12 miles east of the Diyala provincial capital of Baqubah. The U.S. military said a bomber wearing an explosives vest approached a building where a local council meeting was about to take place. Several U.S. soldiers were standing outside the building, according to a military statement.

The statement said one American soldier and at least five Iraqi civilians were killed, and that 10 U.S. troops and an Iraqi military translator were injured. An unidentified Diyala police official put the death toll at 12. He said initial reports indicated that the dead included a "prominent leader" of the so-called Awakening Council of local sheiks who have joined forces with U.S. and Iraqi troops against insurgents.

It is not unusual for U.S. and Iraqi officials to have different casualty numbers, and there was no way to determine which was correct.

Also in Diyala, police said gunmen opened fire on a patrol of Iraqi police and volunteer security guards working alongside U.S. and Iraqi forces. The police official said one policeman and two security volunteers were killed.

Such security guards, who are often referred to as concerned local citizens, number in the tens of thousands and are paid about $10 a day by U.S. forces. They frequently are targeted by insurgents.

In Baghdad, police said three people died when a car bomb exploded on a busy shopping street outside a row of liquor stores.

After the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, liquor stores came under attack from religious extremists, and most closed. In recent months, a decline in violence has prompted some liquor stores to reopen.

"The explosion was very huge," said Chassib Hamad, a parking lot attendant who was injured in the blast. He said one liquor store owner, whom he called Abu Toma, had told him he planned to keep his shop open during Eid because he expected a big increase in business, and because he had been feeling safer lately.

Hamad said Abu Toma's shop was damaged and that the shopkeeper was among those hurt. Police said nine people suffered injuries.

In the western province of Anbar, the stabbing death of an Iraqi policeman during a fight with a U.S. Marine threatened relations between U.S. forces and Sunnis in the former insurgent stronghold. A police officer in Ramadi, the provincial capital, said about 400 people protested the killing with a brief street demonstration Thursday. They called for the Marine to be put on trial for the Iraqi's death.

The incident took place Monday, and the U.S. military has said it is under investigation.

Marines stationed in Ramadi have developed close relations with Sunni tribal leaders in the city, which until a year ago was a haven for insurgents. The tribal chiefs' decision last year to reject insurgents and work with U.S. forces is credited with helping curb violence elsewhere in Iraq.

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Your Friend in Christ Iris89

[iris89]

Hi Everyone

Here is just another example of the fact that violence follows Muslims where ever they go:

By RAVI NESSMAN, Associated Press Writer 40 minutes ago [12/29/2007]
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - An Islamic militant group said Saturday it had no link to Benazir Bhutto's killing, denying government claims that its leader orchestrated the assassination.

Bhutto's aides also said they doubted militant commander Baitullah Mehsud was behind the attack on the opposition leader and accused the government of a cover-up.
Meanwhile, attackers opened fire at a motorcade of Bhutto's supporters as they headed back to Karachi after her funeral, killing one man and wounding two others, said Waqar Mehdi, a spokesman for Bhutto's party. More than two dozen people have been killed nationwide since Thursday's assassination, officials said.
In Rawalpindi, thousands of Bhutto supporters spilled onto the streets after a prayer ceremony for her, throwing stones and clashing with police who fired tear gas to try and subdue the crowd.
President Pervez Musharraf told his top security officials that those looting and plundering "must be dealt with firmly and all measures be taken to ensure (the) safety and security of the people," the Associated Press of Pakistan reported.
Also Saturday, Pakistan's election commission called an emergency meeting for Monday to discuss the violence's impact on Jan. 8 parliamentary elections.
Nine election offices in Bhutto's home province of Sindh in the south were burned to the ground, along with voter rolls and ballot boxes, the commission said in a statement. The violence also hampered the printing of ballot papers, training of poll workers and other pre-election logistics, the statement said.
The U.S. government, which sees nuclear-armed Pakistan as a crucial ally in the war on terror, has pushed Musharraf to keep the election on track to promote stability, moderation and democracy in Pakistan, U.S. officials said.
Prime Minister Mohammedmian Soomro said Friday the government had no immediate plans to postpone the election, despite the violence and the decision by Nawaz Sharif, another opposition leader, to boycott the poll.
Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party also called a meeting Sunday to decide whether to participate in the vote. Her widower, Asif Ali Zardari, told the British Broadcasting Corp. that their son would read a message left by Bhutto and addressed to the party in event of her death.
On Saturday, roads across Bhutto's southern Sindh province were littered with burning vehicles, smoking reminders of the continuing chaos since her assassination Thursday. Factories, stores and restaurants were set ablaze in Pakistan's biggest city, Karachi, where 17 people have been killed and dozens injured, officials said.
Army, police and paramilitary troops patrolled the nearly deserted streets of Bhutto's home city of Larkana, where rioting left shops at a jewelry market smoldering.
Musharraf called Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, promising to make every effort to bring the attackers to justice, state-run Pakistan Television reported.
The government blamed Bhutto's killing on al-Qaida and Taliban militants operating with increasing impunity in the lawless tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan. It released a transcript Friday of a purported conversation between Mehsud and another militant, apparently discussing the assassination.
"It was a spectacular job. They were very brave boys who killed her," Mehsud said, according to the transcript.
Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema described Mehsud as an al-Qaida leader who was also behind the Karachi bomb blast in October against Bhutto that killed more than 140 people.
But a spokesman for Mehsud, Maulana Mohammed Umer, denied the militant was involved in the attack and dismissed the allegations as "government propaganda."
"We strongly deny it. Baitullah Mehsud is not involved in the killing of Benazir Bhutto," he said in a telephone call he made to The Associated Press from the tribal region of South Waziristan.
"The fact is that we are only against America, and we don't consider political leaders of Pakistan our enemy," he said, adding that he was speaking on instructions from Mehsud.
Mehsud heads Tehrik-i-Taliban, a newly formed coalition of Islamic militants committed to waging holy war against the government, which is a key U.S. ally in its war on terror.
Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party accused the government of trying to frame Mehsud, saying the militant - through emissaries - had previously told Bhutto he was not involved in the Karachi bombing.
"The story that al-Qaida or Baitullah Mehsud did it appears to us to be a planted story, an incorrect story, because they want to divert the attention," said Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman for Bhutto's party.
After the Karachi attack, Bhutto accused elements in the ruling pro-Musharraf party of plotting to kill her. The government denied the claims. Babar said Bhutto's allegations were never investigated.
Bhutto was killed Thursday evening when a suicide attacker shot at her and then blew himself up as she left a rally in the garrison city of Rawalpindi near Islamabad. The attack killed about 20 others as well. Authorities initially said she died from bullet wounds, and a surgeon who treated her said the impact from shrapnel on her skull killed her.
But Cheema said she was killed when she tried to duck back into the armored vehicle during the attack, and the shock waves from the blast smashed her head into a lever attached to the sunroof, fracturing her skull, he said.
The government said it was forming two inquiries into Bhutto's death, one to be carried out by a high court judge and another by security forces.

Your Friend in Christ Iris89

[iris89]

Hi Everyone

Here is just another example of the fact that violence follows Muslims where ever they go:

Wrongs of Islam by Amil Amani

A great irony of the age is that the seemingly most diehard proponents of freedom- the useful idiots of our time-are the most dangerous unwitting accomplices of liberty's enemy-Islam. Keep in mind that the very name "Islam" is a derivation of "taslim," the Arabic word for "surrender," surrender to the will and dictates of Allah as revealed by Muhammad and recorded in the Quran.

This non-negotiable surrender to Islam requires the individual as well as the society to disenfranchise themselves of many of the fundamental and deeply cherished human rights. Below is a brief presentation of what this surrender to Islam entails and why it is imperative that all freedom-loving people arise and defeat the menace of Islamofascism.
Amendment I of the Bill of Rights enshrines some of the most cherished ideals of freedom-loving people:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Islam considers itself the three branches of government. It enacts laws as it sees fit, adjudicates laws, and executes as it deems. Islam is anathema to the provisions of the First Amendment and much more.

* Islam proclaims itself as the only legitimate religion for the entire world, grudgingly granting minor recognition to Judaism and Christianity from whom it has liberally plagiarized many of its dogma. Jews and Christians are allowed to live under the rule of Islam as dhimmis and must pay a special religious tax of jazyyeh. Buddhists, Hindus, Zoroastrians, Baha'is, members of other religions, agnostics, or atheists are not even allowed to live practicing their belief or disbelief.

* Islam actively suppresses and even prohibits the practice of other religions, including those of the "people of the book," Jews and Christians. There is not a single church or synagogue in the cradle of Islam, Saudi Arabia, while thousands of mosques dot the tolerating and welcoming non-Moslem lands. Islamic countries that allow for Jewish and Christian places of worship subject these "people of the book" to numberless subtle and not-so-subtle forms of persecution. Moslems in non-Moslem lands proselytize relentlessly and convert others while any Moslem who leaves Islam is judged as apostate and automatically condemned to death.

* Freedom of speech is just about non-existent in Islam. The word is Allah's, his chosen divines such as Ayatollahs and Imams are the only ones who are to make pronouncements squarely-based on Allah's word, the Quran. Any expression in the least at deviance from the Quran, the Hadith and the edicts of Islamic high divines is heresy and severely punishable. Hence, stifling of free expression is the major mechanism by which the Islamic clergy retain power and prevent constructive change in Islamic societies.

* Freedom of the press is completely alien to Islam, since a free press tends to express matters as it sees it, rather than as it is stated in the Quran. To Islam, the Quran is the press and the only press. There is no need for critical reporting, no need to present ideas that may conflict with the Quran, and no place for criticism of anything Islamic. The stranglehold of Islam on the individual and society is complete.

* Peaceful assembly of the people is not allowed. The backward oppressive Islamic societies inflict great hardship on the citizenry and any assembly of the victims presents a threat to the suffocating rule. Islamic governments routinely prevent peaceful assemblies from taking place. Failing to do so, they unleash their hired thugs, the police and even the military against any assemblage no matter how peaceful and how legitimate is its grievance. The Islamic Republic of Iran which is vying with Saudi Arabia as the leader of true Islamic rule, routinely attacks any and all gatherings of its people, arrests them, imprisons them without due process, tortures them, and even executes them in secret dungeons. Journalists, academics, unionists, students, teachers, women rights groups who dare to petition the government for redress are labeled subversive and are severely punished.

* Maltreatment of religious minorities and the non-religious is criminal indeed. In the Islamic Republic of Iran, for instance, the government has launched a systematic program of genocide against its largest religious minority-the Baha'is. The government is gathering a comprehensive list of Baha'is, their occupations, locations, properties and the like-action reminiscent of the Nazis. The government is banning Baha'i students from post high-school education unless they recant their religion, deprives them of engaging in numerous forms of occupations and trades, denies them from holding worship gatherings, razes their holy places and much more. The Islamic Republic of Iran is not satisfied with its cruel treatment of the living Baha'is and has launched a war on their dead by bulldozing Baha'i cemeteries in several cities. Thus is the rule of fundamental Islamism that is awaiting the complacent and snoozing world.

* Oppression of women in general is tragic indeed. Men are allowed to have as many as four wives simultaneously and as many concubines as they wish or can afford. Men can easily divorce their wives and automatically have the custody of the children, if they so decide. Women have subservient status to men in all areas of the law. Equality under the law has no meaning in Islam. Just one example of the dreadful way of treating women in Islam is a case of a Saudi woman who was gang-raped. The Islamic court convicted the woman to prison term and lashes for having committed the "sin" of riding in a car with a male who was not her relative. This is a standard form of Islamic Shariah justice-a savage heritage of barbarism that ruled the Arabian Peninsula some centuries ago.

* Islam has a solution for every "problem." It deals with homosexuals, for instance, by hanging them en mass and gloating about it, even though homosexuality is just as prevalent in Islamic lands as anywhere else. Recently an Ayatollah made a ruling on homosexuals. He said that they should be hanged and tortured before they are hanged. In Islam the rulings of high-ranking clergy constitute the law and are binding.

* Not only Islam does not allow freedom of assembly and the press, it is intrusively restrictive in every aspects of a person's life. The way women should dress, the haircut of men, the music people are allowed, movies to watch, television programs to view, and even parties in the privacy of their home are subject to the ridiculous monitoring of moral police. Islam is hell-bent on outward morality and puritanical conduct while it is rotten to the core just below the pretentious surface.

* Islam segregates by gender many public places and events such as beaches, sporting venues, public transportations, and even building elevators. Families are often prevented from attending a sporting event together or swimming together at a beach.

* Egypt, the crown of the Arab-Islam world, demands that citizens declare Islam or only one of the two other religions, Jewish and Christianity, as their religion in order to receive the government-issued identity cards. ID cards are required for jobs, healthcare, education, a marriage license and a host of other things. If you are an agnostic, an atheist, a Buddhist, a Hindu, a Baha'i, you are forced to perjure yourself to receive the indispensable ID card. In a real sense, Islam the pretender of high moral ground compels people to lie in order to receive what is their birthright as citizens.

I have been sounding the alarm about Islam's imminent deadly threat for a number of years. The Islamic treasury flush with oil extortion money together with the help of useful idiots is having the upper hand in this battle of survival for freedom. The slaveholder Islam has been transformed into a more virulent form of Islamofascism; it is an inveterate unrelenting enemy of freedom. We need to act now and stem the tide of this deadly threat. Tomorrow may be too late. Freedom is too precious to abandon through complacency, acts of political correctness, or outright cowardice." [source - Amil Amani Tuesday, 20 November 2007, at www.amilimani.com on 01/02/2008]

Your Friend in Christ Iris89

[iris89]

Hi Everyone

Just another case of members of Islam just trying to provoke violence:

By PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press Writer 4 minutes ago [01/07/2007]

WASHINGTON - In what U.S. officials called a serious provocation, Iranian boats harassed and provoked three U.S. Navy ships in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, threatening to explode the American vessels.

U.S. forces were on the verge of firing on the Iranian boats in the early Sunday incident, when the boats - believed to be from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's navy - turned and moved away, a Pentagon official said. "It is the most serious provocation of this sort that we've seen yet," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record. Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman called it a "serious incident. This is something that deserves an explanation."
Iran's Foreign Ministry said on Monday that the weekend incident was "something normal" and was resolved.
National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said the United States urges the Iranians "to refrain from such provocative actions that could lead to a dangerous incident in the future."
The incident occurred at about 5 a.m. local time Sunday as Navy cruiser USS Port Royal, destroyer USS Hopper and frigate USS Ingraham were on their way into the Persian Gulf and passing through the strait - a major oil shipping route.
Five small boats began charging the U.S. ships, dropping boxes in the water in front of the ships and forcing the U.S. ships to take evasive maneuvers, the Pentagon official said.
There were no injuries but the official said there could have been, because the Iranian boats turned away "literally at the very moment that U.S. forces were preparing to open fire" in self defense.
The official said he didn't have the precise transcript of communications that passed between the two forces, but said the Iranians radioed something like "we're coming at you and you'll explode in a couple minutes."
At the State Department, spokesman Sean McCormack said he was not aware of any plans to lodge a formal protest.
"Without specific reference to this incident in the Strait of Hormuz, the United States will confront Iranian behavior where it seeks to do harm either to us or to our friends and allies in the region," McCormack told reporters. "There is wide support for that within the region and certainly that's not going to change."
Whitman said the Pentagon will work with State and National Security Council officials to determine "the appropriate way to address this with the Iranian government."
The U.S. vessels were in international waters, making a normal transit into the Gulf, Whitman said, adding that the Iranian boats were operating at "distances and speeds that showed reckless and dangerous intent - reckless, dangerous and potentially hostile intent."
He said the episode lasted 15 to 20 minutes but wouldn't say whether officials know for certain whether the were vessels were Iranian Revolutionary Guard or regular Iranian navy. The Revolutionary Guard forces have been known to be more aggressive than the regular navy.
"At least some were visibly armed. Small Iranian fastboats made some aggressive maneuvers against our vessels and indicated some hostile intent," Whitman.
Historical tensions between the two nations have increased in recent years over Washington's charge that Tehran has been developing nuclear weapons and supplying and training Iraqi insurgents using roadside bombs - the No. 1 killer of U.S. troops in Iraq.
In another incident off its coast, Iranian Revolutionary Guard sailors last March captured 15 British sailors and held them for nearly two weeks.
The 15 sailors from HMS Cornwall, including one woman, were captured on March 23. Iran claims the crew, operating in a small patrol craft, had intruded into Iranian waters - a claim Britain denied.
The weekend incident came as President Bush prepared for his first major trip to the Middle East. While scheduled to meet the leaders of Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other regional nations Jan. 9-16, Bush is expected to try to bolster the troubled peace process between Israel and the Palestinians but is also likely to seek backing for U.S. concerns about Iran.
At about this time last year, Bush announced he was sending a second aircraft carrier to the Gulf region in a show of force against Iran. The U.S. Navy quietly scaled back to one carrier group several months later. But while the two were there, they staged two major exercises off Iran's coast.
The war games amounted to U.S. muscle-flexing at a time when Tehran increasingly was at loggerheads with the international community over its disputed nuclear program and threatened to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz for oil transports in case of a U.S. military strike on Iran.
Since then, there have been diplomatic overtures aimed at calming tensions.
The United States maintains nearly 40,000 troops in Gulf countries other than Iraq, with the largest group in Kuwait and others in Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Saudi Arabia.
___
Associated Press reporters Matthew Lee, Robert Burns and Jennifer Loven contributed to this report.

Your Friend in Christ Iris89

[iris89]

Hi Everyone

Members of Islam love mass murders as shown by the following news account:

SAM F. GHATTAS, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 4 minutes ago [02/14/2008]

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Throngs of Lebanese came out Thursday for two opposing gatherings: Hezbollah backers for the funeral of a slain militant suspected in hundreds of American deaths, and their pro-Western opponents to mark the assassination of an anti-Syrian former prime minister.

It was a showcase of Lebanon's divided soul, and it raised fears of violence between the two sides, prompting authorities to deploy thousands of troops and block major roads.

Hezbollah urged crowds to south Beirut to march behind the coffin of Imad Mughniyeh, the group's former security chief who was killed in a car bombing in Syria on Tuesday night. The funeral was expected to fully be underway in the early afternoon as the downtown Beirut rally marking the third anniversary of former premier Rafik Hariri's killing wound down.

Mughniyeh was a long-sought fugitive suspected in a series of attacks against the U.S. and Israel, including the bombings of the U.S. Marines barracks and two embassy compounds in Beirut in 1983-84 that killed about 260 Americans. He was also the suspected mastermind behind the kidnappings of Americans and other Westerners in Beirut in the 1980s, including former Associated Press correspondent Terry Anderson.

"Let us make our voice heard by all the enemies and murderers that we will be victorious, no matter the sacrifices," said a Hezbollah statement aired on the militant group's Al-Manar TV.

Hezbollah and its top ally, Iran, have accused Israel of Mughniyeh's slaying. Israel denied any involvement, but officials made no effort to conceal their approval of his death. The United States welcomed it.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah - himself in hiding because of fears of assassination since the 2006 summer war with Israel - was expected to address mourners through a video broadcast over a giant screen.

Mughniyeh's death from a bomb that blew up his SUV in Damascus could raise tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, as well as with the militants' allies, Syria and Iran. Some Lebanese figures close to the Shiite group called Wednesday for attacks against Israel.

In Israel, officials instructed embassies and Jewish institutions around the world to go on alert Thursday for fear of revenge attacks, and the army raised its awareness on its border with Lebanon and in the Palestinian territories.

Mughniyeh's slaying also could stir up more domestic turmoil in deeply divided Lebanon, where the Hezbollah-led opposition is locked in a bitter power struggle with the Western-backed government.

By midmorning, thousands poured into Beirut's main Martyrs' Square for the third anniversary of Hariri's assassination, braving the rain and the cold, waving Lebanese flags and carrying pictures of the slain leader.

Crowds paid respects at Hariri's gravesite next to the downtown square as his brother, Shafik, unveiled a statue of him at the spot where he was killed, a few hundred yards away on a seaside boulevard.

A flame was lit and a taped message broadcast from Hariri's widow, Nazek, who lives in Paris, urging against "falling into hatred" and calling on "unity to save the country."

The anti-Syrian parliamentary majority had hoped a massive show of popular support, perhaps by hundreds of thousands, on the Hariri anniversary would force the Hezbollah-led opposition to compromise in a 15-month political stalemate that has paralyzed the country.

The anniversary rally also meant to send a message to Syria to stay out of Lebanese politics. Billboards on major highways called for supporters to attend: "Come down, so they don't come back."

Hariri's supporters blame Syria for killing the prominent politician in a massive suicide truck bombing in Beirut three years ago and for a series of bombings and assassinations since. Hariri's assassination ignited mass protests and international pressure that forced Syria to withdraw its army from Lebanon after 29 years of control.

But statements from government coalition leaders offering condolences in the wake of Mughniyeh's killing indicated that majority leaders were toning down their sharp rhetoric, dominant in recent days, so as not to further inflame tensions with the opposition.

Authorities deployed some 8,000 troops and policemen to protect the Hariri rally and leading roads. Armored carriers took up positions on major intersections, and additional razor wire was brought in to separate the two sides on rain-drenched streets.

The U.S. Embassy encouraged American citizens in Lebanon to limit all but essential travel Thursday. Across Beirut, businesses and shops put off popular Valentine's Day celebrations for later in the week.

Mughniyeh's body was brought to south Beirut from Syria on Wednesday and laid in a refrigerated coffin, wrapped in Hezbollah's yellow flag.

His father - Fayez, a south Lebanese farmer - as well as Hezbollah's deputy leader, Sheik Naim Kassem, and other Hezbollah officials received condolences inside a hall from allied Lebanese politicians and representatives of militant Palestinian factions.

Mughniyeh was also on the FBI's list of most wanted terrorists, and the State Department had offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest or conviction.

Besides his suspected role in the Marine barrack and embassy compound attacks, he was indicted in the U.S. for his role in planning the 1985 hijacking of a TWA airliner in which a U.S. Navy diver was killed.

A string of kidnappings he was believed to have directed included taking captive the AP's chief Mideast correspondent, Anderson, who was held for more than six years until his release in 1991, and CIA station chief William Buckley, who was tortured by his captors and killed in 1985.

Israel accused Mughniyeh of involvement in the 1992 and 1994 bombings of the Israeli embassy and a Jewish center in Buenos Aires, attacks that killed more than 100 people.

He vanished in the early 1990s, reportedly undergoing plastic surgery and moving between Lebanon, Syria and Iran on fake passports.

Courtesy of Your Friend in Christ Iris89

[iris89]

Hi Everyone

The latest violence by members of Islam against others - Canadians.

38 killed, dozens injured in Afghanistan as suicide bomber targets military convoy

By STEPHANIE LEVITZ, CP, Winnipeg Sun [2008/02/19]

KANDAHAR -- Canadian military chiefs were bristling yesterday at suggestions a bloodbath from another brutal bombing could have been avoided had troops heeded Afghan warnings.
Thirty-eight Afghans were killed and dozens injured when a suicide bomber blew up his car next to a Canadian convoy patrolling the Afghan-Pakistan border yesterday afternoon. Four Canadian soldiers were also hurt.
The blast in a busy market area in Spin Boldak came one day after the worst explosion in Afghan history -- more than 100 people were believed killed in the suicide attack at a dog-fighting festival on the outskirts of Kandahar city.
The target of Sunday's attack was believed to have been a local police commander who was killed in the blast, while yesterday's target appeared to be the Canadian Forces.
Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid said he tried to warn the police commander away from Sunday's event, much like he warned Canadians away from Spin Boldak yesterday. …

Your Friend in Christ Iris89