CHRONOLOGY / BLOG 7 - SUBMISSION TO SELF-APPOINTED LEADERSHIP

• Muslim anger at bishop's ghettoes attack.

Muslim anger at bishop’s ghettoes attack

   ReligionNewsBlog www.religion newsblog. com/20296/ islam-74 , Independent (UK), news.indepe ndent.co.uk , by Jerome Taylor, Jan. 7, 2008
   ENGLAND - Muslim leaders reacted angrily yesterday to a claim by the Bishop of Rochester that Islamic extremists have created “no-go” areas in many cities and a plea for mosques to desist from using amplifiers to broadcast calls to prayer.
   The Right Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, the Church of England’s only Asian-born bishop, sparked anger after writing in an article that in many predominantly Muslims areas of Britain’s cities people of a different faith face “hostility” from the Muslim community who create “no-go” areas. Inayat Bunglawala, assistant secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, accused Dr Nazir-Ali of scaremongering.
   “Bishop Nazir-Ali’s remarks are quite frankly more like the kind of commentary we would have expected from the far-right BNP, not a responsible figure in the Church of England,” he said. “Where are these so-called “no-go” areas that he speaks of? He doesn’t say.”

Unable to integrate

• By its very nature, Islam makes it extremely difficult for Muslims to integrate. Islam means submission, and the Quran makes it clear that Muslims expect non-Muslims to submit to Islam.
Western values are not compatible with Islam. As a result, many Muslims form ghettos and engage in other forms of non-integration.
Hair-tricker [? Hair-trigger] sensitivities that have Muslim extremists respond to real or perceived insults with death threats, violent demonstrations, murder and terrorism, make it difficult or even impossible for non-Muslims to believe the claim that Islam is a ‘religion of peace.’ Therefore a high birthrate among Muslims, combined with high (legal and illegal) immigration figures, have Europeans and others worried about the Muslims in their midst.
• Europeans worry that Muslims cannot assimilate
• German politician blames Islam for religious violence
• Muslims are waging civil war against us, claims French police union
• Muslims not trying to fit with society, says Martin Amis
• UK: Muslim integration has come to a halt
• Sections of Muslim Britain in denial about extremism
• Almost a quarter of UK-based Muslims believe the July 7, 2005 terrorist bombings in London were justified
• The seductive beat of the militant, Islamic drum
• Europe’s angry young Muslims
• Europe fears threat from its converts to Islam
• Europe is learning a hard lesson from Muslim immigrant experience
• Plot Shows Rise of Extremism in Europe

Dr Nazir-Ali said attempts had been made to “impose an Islamic character on certain areas” in cities and was particularly critical of mosques which have sought permission from local authorities to broadcast the daily call to prayer over a loudspeaker.
Sheikh Imam Ibrahim Mogra, a Leicester-based imam who runs interfaith programmes with Christian clergy, said he was very disappointed by the bishop’s decision to criticise the call to prayer. “I cannot understand why a man of faith would have a problem with God’s name being called out in an increasingly non-religious society – it’s beyond belief,” he said. “We’ve had church bells ringing in our country for centuries and yet the character of our country is not really Christian, we are a predominantly non-religious society.”

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   The imam added that the comments by Dr Nazir-Ali, who chairs the Anglican Church’s inter-faith dialogue group, were likely to do much harm to promoting greater understanding between religious groups. “He has given more ammunition to the hatemongers,” he said. “He is helping to foster the false perception that Muslims are misfits who really shouldn’t be here.”
   Only a very small number of Britain’s 2,000 plus mosques have permission to broadcast the call to prayer over loudspeakers. Those that do are generally in cities with large Muslim populations such as Bradford, Blackburn and Birmingham and are only allowed to do so in daylight hours as long as they keep below a set volume.
   Bary Malik, an imam in Bradford, where tensions between Muslim and non-Muslim communities sometimes run high, accused Dr Nazir-Ali of unfairly singling out the Muslim community. “He’s right to say there is segregation and ‘ghettoisation’ but we all share the blame for that, not one individual community.
   “The Bishop of Rochester supposedly understands both cultures so he should be trying to foster better relations between these different communities, not aggravating them further.”
   Cleric who courts controversy
• Dr Michael Nazir-Ali is the Church of England’s only Asian-born bishop and, as a notoriously conservative bishop, is no stranger to controversy.
• Born and raised in Pakistan to a Catholic-convert father, he later changed to the Anglican Church and became the youngest bishop in the world at his consecration in 1994.
• In 2000 he accused childless married couples of being “self-indulgent” and that those who chose to marry had a duty to procreate. Gay rights activists accuse him of being homophobic.
• Despite being a president of the Anglican Church’s Network for Inter-faith Concerns of the Anglican Communion, Dr Nazir-Ali has been known to play up the differences between Britain’s various faiths.
• He recently said the Prince of Wales could not become the defender of all the faiths in the UK on becoming monarch because of serious differences between religions.
• He has also upset the Muslim community, accusing many of being guilty of double standards for seeking both “victimhood and domination”.
• He has said laws should be introduced to give some officials power to lift a woman’s veil for security reasons.
• Supporters say the bishop is an articulate, intelligent religious leader who cares deeply about the state of Anglican Christianity in an increasingly non-religious Britain.
• He has been a member of the House of Lords since 1999, the first Asian religious leader to sit in the upper house.
• In 1997 he was the only UK bishop in a poll to be able to name all five Spice Girls.
   Technorati Tags {Go to source webpage}: Islamification, islam, islamism, islamic, muslim, muslims, islamic extremism #

http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/submit/subchron7.htm#muslim_anger_at
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/submit/subchron7.htm#unable_to_integrate [KORAN: 27:37:- … we will surely come to them with forces which they cannot withstand, and we will drive them from their land humbled and contemptible. DOCTRINE ENDS.] [Jan 7, 08]

To make the Text Letters look LARGER
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• Traitor wants Bush bomb blitz.

Al-Qaida spokesman makes urgent call for ‘militant brothers’ to be ready when US President visits the Middle East

Traitor wants Bush bomb blitz

   The West Australian, http://www.thewest.com.au , INTERNET VERSION - "American militant urges attacks on Bush," 4:39 WST, January 7, 2008, www.thewest. com.au/aap story.aspx? StoryName= 449441 , PRINTED VERSION - p 16, Tuesday, January 8, 2008
   CAIRO - Al-Qaida's US spokesman has urged fighters to greet President George Bush with bombs when he visits the Middle East, according to a new video posted on the internet.
   US-born Adam Gadahn also tore up his American passport as part of a symbolic protest in the nearly hour-long tape posted on Sunday.
   The release comes just three days before Mr Bush is due to arrive in Israel for a week-long trip that will also include the West Bank, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt as part of his push for an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.
[Picture] Front line: George Bush with a marine combat unit during a surprise visit to Iraq. He will need similar high level protection this week.    Picture: Associated Press
   "Now we direct an urgent call to our militant brothers in Muslim Palestine and the Arab peninsula… to be ready to receive the Crusader slayer Bush in his visit to Muslim Palestine and the Arab peninsula in the beginning of January and to receive him not with flowers or clapping but with bombs and booby-trapped vehicles," Gadahn, 29, said in Arabic.
   "This just shows once again, al-Qaida offers nothing but violence and death," said Gordon Johndroe, Mr Bush's National Security Council spokesman.
   "The purpose of President Bush's trip is to meet mainstream Arab leaders and people to talk about a positive future for the region, based on hope and opportunity."
‘Be ready to receive the Crusader slayer Bush… not with flowers or clapping but with bombs. ’
AL-QAIDA SPOKESMAN ADAM GADAHN
   Commenting on Gadahn tearing up his US passport, Mr Johndroe said: "He is wanted for treason against the United States. His passport was already void."
   During the rest of the 50-minute video, titled An Invitation to Reflection and Repentance, Gadahn, who grew up in California, spoke mostly in English, appearing to address the American people specifically.
   He said al-Qaida felt the need to release the statement after Washington's "defeat" in Iraq and Afghanistan and failed attempts by the Bush administration to bring peace to the Middle East.
   "We felt it necessary to address the American people and explain to them some of the facts about these critical and fast-moving events," said Gadahn, who wore a white-and-red headscarf and sat behind a desk.
   "The first questions Americans might ask is, has America really been defeated? The answer is yes and on all fronts."
   The video could not be independently verified, but it appeared on a website often used by Islamic militants and carried the logo of al-Qaida's media wing, al-Sahab. The start of the video is dated December 2007.
   Gadahn, also known as Azzam al-Amriki, was charged with treason in the US in 2006 and has been wanted since 2004 by the FBI.
   He has appeared in several al-Qaida videos including one in August when he threatened new attacks on foreign embassies.
   In May, al-Qaida released another video featuring Gadahn, who warned Mr Bush to end US involvement in Muslim lands or face an attack worse than the September 11, 2001, attacks.
   Ben Venzke, the head of IntelCenter, a US group that monitors and analyses militant messages, said much of Gadahn's new video shared a similar tone with his previous messages.
   "It fits into al-Qaida's notion of providing warning and opportunity for people to correct their ways to avoid an attack," he said.
   In the video, Gadahn lashes out repeatedly at the US for its wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and its close ties to Israel and the leaders of some Muslim countries, including Egypt and Pakistan, which he described as some of the "worst dictators and tyrants".
   Gadahn also criticised Christianity, which he called "baseless and doubt-filled," and urged Americans - including soldiers who fought in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan - to convert to Islam.
   "Listen to me and listen to me carefully, before you lose your mind to flashbacks and drugs and drink-induced dementia and before your demons drive you to self-destruction and suicide, in these verses (in the Koran), God calls out to each and every one of you saying God forgives all sins … if you simply stop and repent," he said.
   Gadahn is the first American in 50 years to be charged with treason and could face the death penalty if convicted. He also faces a charge of providing material support to terrorists. #

http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/submit/subchron7.htm#traitor_wants_bush    [INFORMATION: Birth surname is Pearlman. ENDS.]
   [KORAN: 22:19 (or 22:20):- … But as for those who disbelieve, garments of fire will be cut out for them; boiling fluid will be poured down on their heads. < www.submission. org/suras/ sura22.html #19 > DOCTRINE ENDS.]
   [LINK/S: CNN - www.cnn.com/ 2008/WORLD/ meast/01/ 06/gadahn. tape/index. html . ENDS.] [Jan 8, 08]
• Bin Laden turns heat on Saudi Arabia.

Bin Laden turns heat on Saudi Arabia

   Information Clearing House, www.information clearinghouse. info/article 19051.htm , "Asia Times," (dated there Jan 12, 2008), By Michael Scheuer, January/11/08
   Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's latest message is one of the richest, most comprehensive and starkly realistic he has issued since the start of the Iraq war. This essay considers al-Qaeda's dour recognition of its inability to control post-occupation events in Iraq as a small vanguard organization and a non-Iraqi presence in the country.
   On December 29, 2007, bin Laden issued a 56-minute statement that addressed Muslim insurgents in Iraq [1] and built on his earlier message from October 22 [2]. The new statement was issued via al-Qaeda's media arm, al-Sahab, and appeared on several Internet sites without pre-publication excerpts on al-Jazeera television. Al-Jazeera's editing of the October 22 audiotape distorted bin Laden's message, incorrectly giving the implication that he was saying "all is lost" for the mujahideen in Iraq [3]. Al-Jazeera customarily deletes anything critical of the Saudi regime from bin Laden's messages. This occurred in the case of the October 22 tape and al-Qaeda apparently did not want to take a chance on al-Jazeera's penchant for politically correct editing with its most recent message [4].
   Focus on Iraq
   The latest bin Laden tape is - like its October 22 predecessor - pre-eminently a post-Iraq war tape. In both tapes, bin Laden declares that the United States recognizes that its Coalition has been militarily defeated in Iraq and predicts that US and other foreign forces will leave. Bin Laden does not provide the date US-led forces will withdraw; he focuses his attention on working with Islamist insurgents in Iraq to ensure the Americans and their Arab-government allies cannot build a national unity government that is an "agent to America", dominated by non-Islamists and ready to permit the US basing rights and access to Iraqi oil.
   Because US-led forces have accepted military defeat, bin Laden argues, Washington and its allies must look for other means to prevent the consolidation of an Islamic state in Iraq. "My talk to you," bin Laden explained, "is about the plots that are being hatched by the Zionist-Crusader alliance, led by America, in cooperation with its agents in the region, to steal the fruit of the blessed jihad in the land of the two rivers, and what we should do to foil these plots."
   History's lesson
   As always, bin Laden speaks as a product and close observer of the Afghans' jihad against the Soviet Union. In appealing for unity among the Iraqi mujahideen, he makes no demand that they join al-Qaeda and follow its instructions. He points rather to the failure of the Afghan insurgents to consolidate victory after the Red Army's 1989 withdrawal: "It would be useful here to recall an effort in the past to unify the leaders of the Afghan mujahideen, which includes important lessons that are related to our topic," bin Laden tells the Iraqi fighters in an almost avuncular tone.

We had made these efforts with Sheikh Abdullah Azzam [bin Laden's late Palestinian mentor in Afghanistan], may God have mercy on him. After months of seeking to achieve unity among [the Afghan leaders] and removing the obstacles that some of them used to claim that they obstruct unity, [but then] after removing these obstacles…they [would] claim that there was another obstacle [preventing unity], and so on and so forth… One of the mujahideen had a strong opinion about these [obstructing] leaders. He was an old wise person who had long experience in life with people. At the time we used to reject his strong-worded statement about them. I will try to convey to you some of what he said. The conclusion is that those leaders are tradesmen who care more about their leadership and give priority to their personal interests over the cause. We used not to believe what he said about them. This has delayed our realization of the sound conception of persons and events [presented by this mujahid]. The harmful consequences of this are no secret … In fact, developments have come to confirm things that we had never expected due to the fact that we were young and lacked experience at the time.

In Iraq, Riyadh is the main enemy
Bin Laden urges the Iraqi fighters to heed the lesson of the Afghans' historic post-Soviet debacle because "the same thing applies to Iraq today"; leaders are more interested in their own power and status than in making Islam and the ummah (Islamic community) victorious. And while bin Laden warns that Washington is using promises of money, military training and arms to entice the "Islamic Party and some fighting groups [to] support America against Muslims", he leaves no doubt that the Islamists' main enemy in Iraq is now Saudi Arabia, not the supposedly militarily defeated United States. After the Soviets' withdrawal from Afghanistan, bin Laden reminded the Iraqi fighters that "America exerted great efforts … to convince the Afghan leaders through the governments of Riyadh and Islamabad to join a national unity government with communists and secularists from the West." Bin Laden explained that the Saudi regime was then - and is again today in Iraq - the main enemy of the mujahideen:

[In post-Soviet Afghanistan] the government of Riyadh sought the help of its unofficial scholars to infiltrate the ranks of the mujahideen. These were influential speakers who incited the people to perform jihad and collect huge funds for the leaders of the mujahideen. At the set time, [the Saudi regime] asked the Afghan leaders to unite with the communists and secularists under the so-called national unity state. [The Saudis] obstructed the plan to achieve unity among the leaders of the mujahideen when they tempted one of them with a big amount of money and promised him to be the president of Afghanistan … We do not have much time here for more details. So the current situation [in Iraq] is similar to the past one [in Afghanistan]. The government of Riyadh continues to this day to carry out the same malicious roles with many Islamic action leaders and commanders of the mujahideen in our nation [5].

   Bin Laden goes on to claim that the Saudis are trying to co-opt some of the Sunni mujahideen in Iraq by allowing "some groups to confidently move in the Gulf to receive [financial] support". Riyadh is careful to avoid officially funding its Iraqi insurgent favorites, so its support "is channeled under the banner of raising donations by some unofficial scholars and preachers". Bin Laden warns that "many of them … are loyal to the state and seek to implement [Riyadh's] policy by pulling the rug from under the honest mujahideen's feet" and forcing them to support a national-unity government that is designed to be the agent of the United States and Saudi Arabia.
   He asks the Iraqi mujahideen how they can trust Saudi King Abdullah, who is the "malignant foe" of Islam, the "main US agent in the region" and a man who took it on himself "to tempt and tame every free, virtuous, and honest person with the aim of dragging him to the path of temptation and misguidance … [and] the path of betraying the religion and nation and submitting to the will of the Crusader-Zionist alliance". The Americans are defeated, bin Laden concludes, but to assure God's victory the Iraqi mujahideen must reject Saudi overtures and direction if they are "not to waste the fruit of this chaste and pure blood that was shed for the sake of consolidating religion and entrenching the state of Muslims".
   A way out?
   Bin Laden and his senior lieutenants are reliving what for them is a familiar nightmare. In one of the greatest ironies of the post-1945 era, Islamist fighters have proven that with great, prolonged and bloody effort they can claim the military defeat of superpowers - the USSR and the United States - but cannot consolidate victory when confronted by the wiles, funds and religious establishment of the Saudi leadership. While it is clear in the December 29 tape that bin Laden rates the Saudis as the main obstacle to God's victory in Iraq, there is little indication of what he intends to do to destroy Riyadh's ability to stymie the mujahideen there as it did in Afghanistan.
   One possibility - though bin Laden did not allude to this - would require a rethinking of al-Qaeda's grand strategy. Although bin Laden and al-Qaeda have been consistent in their three-fold grand strategy - to drive the United States from the Muslim world, destroy Israel and incumbent Muslim regimes and settle scores with the Shi'ites - they now face a situation where the Saudi regime has not only so far prevented the unification of Islamist leaders, but is allegedly preparing the Sunni Iraqi insurgents it supports for a civil war with Iraq's Iranian-backed Shi'ites.
   Bin Laden, of course, is correct in arguing that Riyadh wants no genuine national-unity government; the Saudis may be intending to fund and equip a Sunni insurgent force that could join forces with the US-armed and trained Sunni Awakening Councils to battle for control of post-US Iraq against the Shiites and seek the establishment of a Saudi-like Sunni theocracy in Baghdad. If this occurs, the third step of bin Laden's grand strategy - settling scores with the Shi'ites - will immediately become the top priority of the Islamic world, as both Sunnis and Shi'ites focus on assisting their brethren in the Iraqi civil war. This scenario would severely erode bin Laden's ability to keep Sunni militants focused on the "far" US enemy.
   If bin Laden's assertions are true, and Saudi Arabia's Afghanistan-like intervention in Iraq continues to prevent the mujahideen unity bin Laden advocates, the al-Qaeda chief and his shura (consultative) council may soon confront the very unpalatable necessity of having to break with their traditional grand strategy and move to try to destroy the Saudi regime.
   In such a scenario, al-Qaeda would abandon the pinprick insurgency-and-terrorism campaign it has conducted in the kingdom since September 11, and employ all the force it commands and can incite there - and bring in from Iraq - to take on the well-infiltrated Saudi military and security services. Such a campaign probably would combine attempts to assassinate the king, the interior minister and senior intelligence and military officials with attacks to disrupt Saudi oil production.
   The latter operations would be staged in the hope of forcing Washington to a Hobson's choice between standing back and allowing havoc to reign in the world's oil market - with the immense damage it would entail for the US economy - and ordering US military forces into action against Muslims in order to restore oil production on the sacred soil of the Prophet Mohammad's birthplace and what bin Laden refers to as "the land of the two holy mosques".
   The foregoing clearly is not an option that al-Qaeda is eager to undertake; it is an option that amounts to an almost desperate gamble. But that said, if such a campaign successfully triggered a US military response in the kingdom, the focus and militancy of the entire Muslim world - both Sunni and Shi'ite - would be switched from Iraq to Saudi Arabia, and the enmity and weapons of all Muslims would, at least temporarily, be refocused on the "far enemy" in North America.
   Notes
   1. Osama bin Laden, "The Way to Foil Plots", al-Sahab Media Production Organization, December 29, 2007. All quotes from bin Laden in the text are from this statement unless otherwise noted.
   2. Osama bin Laden, "A Message to Our People in Iraq", Threat and Claim Monitor, IntelCenter.com, October 22, 2007.
   3. Al-Jazeera, October 23, 2007. By censoring bin Laden's statement, al-Jazeera unwittingly seems to have done al-Qaeda a great service. The "all-is-lost" message yielded by al-Jazeera's editors has become the common wisdom among Western media and governments, thereby obscuring for those entities the fact that bin Laden was discussing how all Iraqi insurgents should proceed to consolidate Islam's victory over the United States and its allies in Iraq.
   4. Al-Jazeera's editing earned it some outrage and condemnation from Islamists. See, for example, Bilal al-Khaldi, "And thus Osama's message has gone to waste. An invitation to a proactive response." Islamic al-Fallujah Forums (Internet), November 16, 2007.
   5. Bin Laden says that the Saudi effort to prevent post-Soviet Afghan unity was led and managed by "the Riyadh intelligence chief", who was at the time Prince Turki al-Faisal. This is the same Prince Turki who - while serving as the Saudi ambassador to the United States - unexpectedly and hurriedly departed Washington in early 2007 when a Sunni-Shi'ite civil war seemed imminent in Iraq. Not much has been heard from Prince Turki since his departure, but if bin Laden's claims about the current Saudi campaign to co-opt Iraq's Sunni mujahideen are true, it is hard to imagine anyone more qualified by past experience to lead the effort than Prince Turki.
   Michael Scheuer served as the chief of the bin Laden Unit at the Central Intelligence Agency's Counterterrorist Center from 1996 to 1999. He is now a senior fellow at The Jamestown Foundation.
   This article first appeared in The Jamestown Foundation [Washington (DC), USA.] #

http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/submit/subchron7.htm#bin_laden_turns [Jan 11, 08]
• Muslim leader says families must help catch honour killers.

Muslim leader says families must help catch honour killers

   The Independent on Sunday (Britain), http://news. independent. co.uk/uk/ crime/ article3333 866.ece , By Andrew Johnson, Published January 13, 2008
   BRITAIN - One of Britain's leading Muslims has called on his community to rise up against a culture of fear and help stamp out forced marriages and honour killings after the third high-profile court case in Britain in the past year.
   Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, head of the Muslim Parliament in Britain, spoke out after a coroner ruled on Friday that 17-year-old Shafilea Ahmed was "unlawfully killed" and that "the concept of an arranged marriage was central to the circumstances of her death".
   Mr Siddiqui said he was certain the schoolgirl, who wanted to go to university and become a lawyer, was the victim of an honour killing. No charges have yet been bought by police, a failure Mr Siddiqui blamed on members of her family and close community closing ranks, even though some may have wanted to speak out.
   Five members of her family, including her parents, were arrested in connection with the death, but later released without charge. Shafilea's parents vehemently deny any involvement in her killing or disappearance.
   "I think relatives won't speak out because they are scared," he said. "Somebody in the family disappears, relatives must have been concerned. But they would not co-operate with the police. The family and those who were close were not willing to come forward. That's why many of these murders are unresolved. There are now 12 cases a year on average."
   Shafilea, from Warrington, was reported missing in 2003 by teachers soon after she returned from a trip to Pakistan. Five months later, her decomposed body was found near the bank of the River Kent in Cumbria. A pathologist said that "it was not credible" she had died of natural causes and suggested she had been strangled or smothered.
   At her inquest in Kendal last week, homelessness worker Anne-Marie Woods told the court that Shafilea had come to her seeking advice, claiming she had been beaten and robbed by her parents.
   A statement the school-girl wrote to support a housing claim said: "I had saved £2,000, which they took out of my bank account. My parents are going to send me to Pakistan and I'll be married to someone and left there. There had been a build-up of violence towards me, and my mother told me I was about to go to Pakistan for an arranged marriage."
   Ian Smith, the South Cumbria coroner, ruled on Friday that Shafilea had been unlawfully killed, adding that she was the victim of a "vile murder" and that he was confident she was dead before her body was dumped on the riverbank.
   Police continue to investigate her disappearance. Det Supt Geraint Jones of Cheshire said that officers were awaiting permission to travel to Pakistan to help their investigations.
   Massoud Shadjareh, of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, said the Muslim community should not be demonised for forced marriages. "Domestic violence happens in every community, and forced marriages are also a feature in Sikh and Hindu communities," he said.
   About 12 honour killings are committed in Britain each year. The Forced Marriage Unit at the Home Office receives 5,000 inquiries a year, and handles 300 cases. The Government is also consulting on new immigration rules to stop forced marriages.

Girl who feared arranged marriage was 'murdered' [Ms Shafilea Ahmed]

'Stoned' loner who killed jogger is jailed for life

Mental breakdown caused father to kill his daughter

Billy Bragg's jailhouse rock project cuts reoffending rate

Teenager 'who feared forced marriage' killed unlawfully #

http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/submit/subchron7.htm#muslim_leader_says [COMMENT: "Muslim leader says …" -- but how many Muslims does this man lead? Does he give sermons every Friday to thousands of other Muslims? Are any of the imams who do give sermons, daily, backing his point of view? Is he able to overturn the Koran statement that good women are obedient, and if not they may be hit, beaten, or is it scourged? And that hypocrites must be killed?
And why is there a "Muslim Parliament in Britain"? Have you ever heard of a Methodist or Salvation Army "Parliament" in Britain? Or a Roman Catholic one, or Baptist? COMMENT ENDS.] [Jan 13, 08]
• Bali bombers wrong to target civilians: Bashir

Bali bombers wrong to target civilians: Bashir

   Australian Broadcasting Corporation, www.abc.net. au/news/ stories/ 2008/01/15/ 2139122.htm , Reuters, Updated 5:22pm AEDT, Tue Jan 15, 2008
   INDONESIA – Controversial Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir says the three militants who could be executed for the 2002 Bali bombings within weeks acted in good faith to defend Islam, but were wrong to indiscriminately target civilians.
   The three, Imam Samudra, Mukhlas and Amrozi - who was dubbed "the smiling bomber" because of his constant grin at his trial - have run out of legal avenues for appeal, but could still seek presidential clemency, an option they have already ruled out.
   They were sentenced to death for their role in two nightclub blasts on Bali's Kuta strip on October 12, 2002 in which 202 people died, 88 of them Australians.
   "Their intention is good; to defend fellow Muslims who have been terrorised by America and its allies. They didn't seek popularity, they didn't seek worldly possessions, they didn't seek any position," Bashir told Reuters in an interview at his house in the central Java city of Solo.
   "All they looked for was Allah's favour."
   Bashir, accused by some foreign governments of once heading the regional militant network Jemaah Islamiah (JI), says the militants did not discuss with him any bombing plans and he could have dissuaded them had they done so.
   "I'm fighting America too, but by means of preaching. I don't agree with using bombs in a peaceful zone," he said.
   The attacks, and a number of other deadly bombings in recent years, were blamed on JI, of which Bashir was alleged to have been a co-founder.
   Bashir, 69, was jailed for 30 months for conspiracy over the Bali bombings but was later cleared.
   'Redeemed their sins'
   He says the three Bali convicts have realised their mistakes and have fasted every day for two straight months to redeem their sins.
   But he also says during a meeting with the men in their island prison in December that it was evident that they had found peace and joy.
   He did not rule out more attacks in Indonesia, but says more militants have realised that violence will only hurt their cause.
   "There are probably people who still believe in such a method but they will be more careful," he said, referring to militants being more careful in choosing their targets to avoid Indonesians being killed.
   Bashir says Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden would have opposed bombings in Indonesia because it was not a conflict zone.
   "I'm sure if Osama bin Laden had been consulted he would not have agreed with (the idea of) carrying out bombings in Indonesia," he said.
   The cleric has in the past praised Bin Laden as a "true Muslim fighter".
   Since his release from prison in June 2006, Bashir has travelled around the country to preach about the importance of sharia, or Islamic law.
   Although there has not been an official order to restrict him, he says police sometimes ask people to cancel their invitation for him to speak at rallies. -Reuters
   Tags (Go to source webpage): law-crime-and-justice, courts-and-trials, international-law, unrest-conflict-and-war, terrorism, australia, indonesia, bali #

http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/submit/subchron7.htm#bali_bombers_wrong    [RECAPITULATION: Bashir says Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden would have opposed bombings in Indonesia because it was not a conflict zone. "I'm sure if Osama bin Laden had been consulted he would not have agreed with (the idea of) carrying out bombings in Indonesia," he said. ENDS.]
   [COMMENT: Important elements in the above: (1) Bin Laden, allegedly a mass-murderer with a price on his head, a terrrorist leader in the eyes of many countries, is discussed as if he were a respectable reference point; (2) Indonesia "was not a conflict zone," says Bashir.
   But, WHO, pray, decides what country, and when, is a "conflict zone"? The mosque leaders, or would it be decided by majority vote -- and if so, who has the vote?
   I thought the world's better elements were trying to have PEACE ON EARTH, not divide it up into the House of War and the House of Submission -- also known as the House of Islam. I don't feel comfortable with the founder of a bombing group speaking as if he had heavenly authority to pronounce on such cracked theology. COMMENT ENDS.]
   [LOOK FORWARD: "Plot to kill Queen foiled," The International Express (Britain), West Australian edition, Pages One and 2, January 15-21, 2008
   "Bakar Bashir calls for violence against 'infidel' tourists," ABC, www.abc.net. au/news/ stories/ 2008/03/24/ 2197660.htm , Monday, March 24, 2008.
   "Smith condemns Bashir bigotry," ABC, www.abc.net. au/news/ stories/ 2008/03/24/ 2197836.htm , Monday, March 24, 2008 ENDS.]
   [KORAN: 66:2:- Allah hath allowed you release from your oaths. … DOCTRINE ENDS.] [Jan 15, 08]
• Plot to kill Queen foiled.

PLOT TO KILL QUEEN FOILED

   The International Express (Britain), West Australian edition, Pages One and 2, January 15-21, 2008
[Picture] SITTING TARGETS: The Queen with Prince Philip, Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall at the Commonwealth gathering in Uganda last November, which terrorists planned to attack
   AL QAEDA terrorists posing as TV crews planned to blow up the Queen by smuggling explosives into last year's Commonwealth summit.
   Two huge outside broadcast vans belonging to the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation were seized after a tip-off from intelligence agents.
   As a result, UBC was unable to transmit live pictures of key summit events, including the Queen's historic address to the Ugandan parliament on November 22.
   Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, the Uganda Minister of Internal Affairs, said: "We received information that a terrorist group called the Allied Democratic Forces, linked to Al Qaeda, was planning to carry out terrorist activities at the Commonwealth meeting. The services in Uganda neutralised these threats." Day Al Qaeda tried to blow up Queen    He refused to comment on the precise nature of the planned attacks or reports that Ugandan armed forces had seized a speedboat loaded with arms and homemade bombs.
   A number of suspected ADF guerrillas aboard the boat on Lake Victoria are understood to have been taken into custody.
   Dr Rugunda added: "A number of suspects have been arrested but I cannot comment on the specifics of this case. What I can say is that we stepped up security because of the Al Qaeda threat but it was neutralised by our security services. In the end, the summit was incident-free and Uganda was happy to receive such distinguished guests, led by Her Majesty the Queen."
   Ugandan army spokesman Paddy Ankunda said: "Plans to cause havoc were curtailed, fortunately. There were intentions to disrupt the meeting and to target delegates and the Royal Family but the security agencies worked well together to ensure nothing happened."
   An attack on the summit would have been devastating.
[Picture] TERROR THREAT: A plot to kill the Queen at the summit was foiled
   The meeting in Kampala was attended by 16 presidents and 20 prime ministers, including Gordon Brown. For the first time the biennial event was attended by Prince Charles and Camilla as well as the Queen and Prince Philip.
   The incident is certain to prompt a review of the Queen's security and that of other members of the Royal Family. Dai Davies, former head of royal protection, said: "It will have huge implications globally for the Royal Family's protection, although the Queen's security arrangements are very sophisticated.
   "There would have been thorough advanced planning ahead of the trip to Uganda, an exit strategy would have been worked out, and so on. At the end of the day, the Queen is a great pragmatist - she's a great believer in what will be will be."
   It is feared Islamic terrorists may have stepped up their campaign against high-profile Western women following the recent assassination of Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan. Al Qaeda's deputy leader Ayman Al Zawahri directly addressed the Queen when threatening attacks on Britain last July, after a knighthood was given to Salman Rushdie, who angered Muslims with his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses.
   In a broadcast on Arabic TV channel Al Jazeera, he threatened: "I say to [Queen] Elizabeth and Blair that your message has reached us and we are in the process of preparing you for a precise response."
   The ADF is one of several Islamic terror groups set up in east Africa with Al Qaeda support in the Nineties when Osama Bin Laden was living in Khartoum, Sudan.
   Its leader, Jamil Mukulu, who was trained at camps in Afghanistan, launched his first attack in Uganda in 1996. A spate of bombings culminated in 30 students being abducted from their college in Kasese and massacred in 1998.
   Two people died and six were injured in an explosion in Kampala last February. #

http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/submit/subchron7.htm#plot_to_kill [RECAPITULATION: Its leader, Jamil Mukulu, who was trained at camps in Afghanistan, launched his first attack in Uganda in 1996. ENDS.]
[COMMENT: Was this one of the camps financed by Western governments, one wonders. COMMENT ENDS.] [Jan 15-21, 2008]
• Furore over plan for $4m mosque in Swan Valley.

Furore over plan for $4m mosque in Swan Valley

The West Australian, http://www.thewest.com.au , By DANIEL HATCH, p 3, Thursday, January 17, 2008
PERTH (W. Australia) – A plan to build a $4 million mosque complete with a 19m minaret in the Swan Valley has divided the local Muslim and non-Muslim community, with some residents worried it will destroy the identity of the area as a tourist, viticultural and horticultural hotspot. [More to be inserted later - jcm 04 Mar 08]

http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/submit/subchron7.htm#furore_over_plan [Jan 17, 08]
• Al-Qaida accused of using children as suicide bombers. [Sunni cleric opposes strapping bombs to children. Funeral, school bombed.]

Al-Qaida accused of using children as suicide bombers

   The West Australian, www.thewest. com.au , p 34, Tuesday, January 29, 2008
   BAGHDAD – Al-Qaida was using teenagers as suicide bombers in Iraq, a US military spokesman said yesterday, as an influential Sunni cleric urged the jihadists to stop "strapping bombs to children".
   The comments came as Iraqi troops and tanks rolled into Mosul to boost forces for a huge offensive against al-Qaida after deadly bombings in the northern city last week killed dozens of people, including a police chief.
   US Rear-Admiral Gregory Smith said that two suicide attacks in Iraq in the past week had been carried out by 15-year-olds.
   "We are not sure whether one of these children even knew he was being used to deliver a bomb," the US military spokesman said.
   One attack was carried out at a funeral near Tikrit and the other was at a school in Mosul, Rear-Admiral Smith said.
   He gave no other details of the two bombings. Iraqi police said 17 people died on Monday of last week in a suicide blast at the funeral near Tikrit for a relative of an Iraqi police colonel.
   "Al-Qaida in Iraq is trying to brainwash children with hate and death," Rear-Admiral Smith said. "They seek to create a culture of violence, hate and despair.
   "(They) are sending 15-year-old boys on suicide missions to spread death and helplessness."
   He said 90 per cent of "suicide murders inflicted on Iraqi people are committed by foreign fighters brought in by al-Qaida in Iraq to spread destruction."
   Sheikh Ahmed Abduil Ghafour al-Samarraie, moderate but influential head of the Sunni Endowment religious organisation, accused the al-Qaida-linked Islamic State of Iraq of committing the "worst crimes against our people."
[Picture] Safety first: Iraqis on their way to a town meeting walk down the middle of a road to avoid bombs.    Picture: Associated Press
   "They have killed thousands of thinkers, dozens of scholars, tens of thousands of innocent people in horrifying ways," Sheikh Samarraie said.
   The jihadists were "strapping bombs to children and sending them into gatherings and mourning ceremonies".
   "They feel happy with these killings," he said. "They deceived young people to attach bombs to their bodies to explode themselves to go allegedly to paradise."
   Sheikh Samarraie appealed to Islamic scholars around the world to declare such attacks contrary to sharia, or Islamic law.
   Iraqi Defence Ministry spokesman Maj-Gen. Mohammed al-Askari said troop reinforcements sent to Mosul by Prune Minister Nouri al-Maliki for a "final war" against al-Qaida had arrived. He declined to give details of the number of reinforcements.
   "We have sent many soldiers, vehicles and tanks to Mosul at the request of our commanders there," he said. "They have been sent to Mosul to clean it of al-Qaida."
   On Friday, Mr al-Maliki promised a "decisive battle" against the jihadists in Nineveh province after two days of deadly bomb attacks in Mosul, the provincial capital.
   "We have formed an operations centre in Nineveh for a final war against al-Qaida and the remnants of the former (Saddam Hussein) regime," Mr al-Maliki said. "What we have planned in Nineveh will be final. It will be a decisive battle."
   At least 35 people were killed and 217 were wounded in a bomb attack last Wednesday that destroyed houses in west Mosul. #

http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/submit/subchron7.htm#al_qaida_accused_of    [RECAPITULATION: He said 90 per cent of "suicide murders inflicted on Iraqi people are committed by foreign fighters brought in by al-Qaida in Iraq to spread destruction." ENDS.]
   [COMMENT: Foreigners brought in, just like imperialists in every age? Is this Allah's will? COMMENT ENDS.]
   [EXPLANATION: "Islamic State of Iraq" is an unofficial group, not a government. Like similarly-named groups in non-Muslim countries, its intention is to replace elections with the rule of mullahs and imams – or those who can stay alive! ENDS.]
   [2nd RECAPITULATION: Sheikh Samarraie appealed to Islamic scholars around the world to declare such attacks contrary to sharia, or Islamic law. ENDS.]
   [2nd COMMENT: Come on, Sheikh, read the Koran, the Hadith, the Sira (life of Mohammed), Shariah Law, and rulings expressed on January 15, 2007 in the Channel 4 Dispatches exposé! Killing people is the faith! ENDS.] [Jan 29, 08]
• Pakistani pastor murdered in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province: Part of a pattern of anti-Christian threats and violence

The Barnabas Fund (London) Copyright ©, www.barnabas fund.org:80/ News/archives/ text.php?ID_ news_items=382 , (Occurred on Jan 17, 2008)) January 29, 2008
PESHAWAR (North West Frontier Province), Pakistan - On January 17 a church minister, Sajid William, was shot dead in Peshawar, the capital city of the province. Islamic radicals are suspected. [Look below for article on Jan 29; murder occurred Jan 17, 08]
• Push to free Afghan reporters held for blasphemy. - Kambakhsh, Zalmai/Zalmay exposed misogyny, arrested.

Push to free Afghan reporters held for blasphemy

   The West Australian, http://www.thewest.com.au , by AUTHOR, p 52, Saturday, January 19, 2008
   AFGHANISTAN - Reporters Without Borders has urged the Afghan Government to release two journalists accused of blasphemy, for which conservative religious clerics have demanded the death penalty.
   The international media watchdog said yesterday it was concerned about the fate of the men, arrested separately about two months ago.
   Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh, 23, was arrested in northern Afghanistan in late October on charges of blasphemy and defaming Islam for distributing articles about the role of women in Muslim society the group said.
   Mohammad Ghaws Zalmai, in his 40s, was arrested in November while trying to escape to Pakistan after distributing a translation of the Koran alleged to "misinterpret" parts of the Muslim holy book.
   "Afghan journalists are exposed to threats and harassment from religious fundamentalists who try to prevent any debate about Islam and the status of women," the media group said.
   "Reporters Without Borders appeals to the international community to intercede with the Afghan Government and seek the release of Kambakhsh and Zalmay."
   Afghanistan's new democratic Constitution enshrines freedom of expression but is based on sharia, or Islamic law, which can be interpreted as demanding severe punishments for acts considered "un-Islamic". #

http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/submit/subchron7.htm#push_to_free    [HADITH: 1, 6:301: […] The women asked, "O Allah's Apostle! What is deficient in our intelligence and religion?" He said, "Is not the evidence of two women equal to the witness of one man?" They replied in the affirmative. He said, "This is the deficiency in her intelligence. Isn't it true that a woman can neither pray nor fast during her menses?" The women replied in the affirmative. He said, "This is the deficiency in her religion." < www.usc.edu/dept/ MSA/fundamentals/ hadithsunnah/ bukhari/006.sbt. html#001.006.301 > GUIDELINE ENDS.]
   [COMMENT: Afghanistan was invaded by the Coalition of the Killing in order to find Osama Bin Laden, "Wanted dead or alive," but after a while the focus shifted to oil-rich Iraq. But then the Coalition leaders and other countries claimed that they were leaving some troops and reconstruction workers in Afghanistan to bring "democracy" to the Afghans. Yes, first let us study the Muslim scripture's doctrines denigrating women -- click: Koran Key, Women.
   Why are we risking valuable Australian, British, American, and other nations' lives for a population that practices stoning people to death? The "Christian" Europeans used to have public executions and floggings until modern times, and it was long after the Enlightenment before "Christian" governments grudgingly retreated from these barbaric practices. So, let the Muslim peoples reform themselves; why try to modernise people who are still living in the Dark Ages? "You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear." COMMENT ENDS.] [Jan 19, 08]
• [Bali bombers deserve painful death.] I disagree.

[Bali bombers deserve painful death]

I DISAGREE    The West Australian, Letter to The Editor, p 22, Saturday, January 19, 2008
   Abu Bakar Bashir claims that the Bali bombers have redeemed their sins by fasting for two months (report 16/1). How can fasting be seen as an eye for an eye for a disgraceful act?
   Even Iran's controversial stoning punishment would be too good a death for these cowards. #

http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/submit/subchron7.htm#bali_bombers_deserve [Jan 19, 08]
• Saudi couple's divorce agony; Fatima's world comes crashing down as Islamic laws end her marriage with a knock at the door

Saudi couple’s divorce agony

Fatima's world comes crashing down as Islamic laws end her marriage with a knock at the door       The West Australian, p 34, Wednesday, January 23, 2008
   SAUDI ARABIA - Two years ago, a knock on Fatima and Mansour al-Timani's door shattered the life they had built together.
   It was the police, delivering news that a judge had annulled their marriage in absentia after some of Fatima's relatives sought the divorce on grounds she had married beneath her.
   It was the beginning of an ordeal for a couple who, under Saudi Arabia's strict segregation rules, can no longer live together. They sued to reverse the ruling, publicised their story and sought help from a Saudi human rights group.
   But the two remain apart and Fatima is considering suicide if her recent appeal to King Abdullah does not reunite her with her husband.
   "Only the king can resolve my case," Fatima said. "I want to return to my husband but, if that is not possible, I need to know so I can put an end to my life."
   Fatima's case underscores shortcomings in the kingdom's Islamic legal system, in which rules of evidence are shaky, lawyers are not always present and sentences often depend on the whim of judges.
   The most frequent, and recently most high-profile, victims of the rules are women, who already suffer severe restrictions on daily life in Saudi Arabia. They cannot drive, appear before a judge without a male representative or travel abroad without a male guardian's permission.
   Recently, the king intervened and pardoned another high-profile defendant - a rape victim who was sentenced to lashes and imprisonment for being in a car with a man who was not her relative.
   The two cases have thrust Saudi human rights into the international spotlight again. They have revealed not only the weakness of the kingdom's justice system but the scant rights Saudi women have.
   "When I heard that the rape victim was pardoned, I couldn't believe it," Fatima said. "My case is so much simpler than hers, since my divorce is invalid."
   Fatima said her husband, a hospital administrator, followed Saudi tradition in asking her father for permission to marry her in 2003.
   "My brother reported good things about him, so my dad accepted his proposal," Fatima, a computer specialist, said.
   She said her father knew that Mansour came from a less prominent tribe than hers but that he did not mind because he "cared about the man himself".
   A few months after the wedding, several of Fatima's relatives persuaded her father to give them power of attorney to file a lawsuit demanding an annulment, she said.
   Then her father died and Fatima said she had hoped the case would be dropped.
   But, on February 25, 2006, police knocked on the couple's door to serve Mansour with divorce papers which said his marriage had been annulled nine months earlier.
   Saudi lawyer Abdul-Rahman al-Lahem, who used to represent the couple, said local interpretations of Islamic law held that relatives of a married couple had the right to seek an annulment if they felt the marriage lowered the extended family's status.
   Fatima took the couple's two-year-old daughter and four-month-old son to live with her mother. But, after three months, they sneaked out of her mother's house and fled with Mansour to the city of Jeddah, where they sought to live in anonymity.
   Police soon found them and imprisoned the family for living together illegally.
   "The police told me I either return to my mother's family or go to jail," Fatima said. "I chose jail."
   Mansour went to a Riyadh appeals court but it upheld the divorce ruling last year.
   Last September, Bandar al-Hajjar, head of the National Society of Human Rights, asked the kingdom's highest court to review the case and submitted two Islamic studies concluding that the divorce was invalid.
   The studies said that if a woman's legal guardian represented her at the original wedding, then other relatives had no right to object.
   Both studies concluded that Fatima married Mansour with her father's permission and that only the wife could decide whether she wanted her marriage annulled.
   Despite their legal fight, Fatima and Mansour remain apart, Fatima with her son and Mansour with their daughter.
   Fatima said she is holding out hope the king might pardon her and recognise her as "married to Mansour, before God".
   "I love him more than ever," she said. "He's the only one who has stood by me." #

http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/submit/subchron7.htm#saudi_couples_divorce    [RECAPITULATION: … a judge had annulled their marriage in absentia after some of Fatima's relatives sought the divorce on grounds she had married beneath her. […] [Women] cannot drive, appear before a judge without a male representative or travel abroad without a male guardian's permission. […] She said her father knew that Mansour came from a less prominent tribe than hers but that he did not mind because he "cared about the man himself". […] … on February 25, 2006, police knocked on the couple's door to serve Mansour with divorce papers which said his marriage had been annulled nine months earlier. […] … relatives of a married couple had the right to seek an annulment if they felt the marriage lowered the extended family's status. ENDS.]
   [COMMENT: So, the "universal religion" of Islam, in the country of its birth, is ruling that there are DIFFERENCES in STATUS between Arabian tribes! When Muslim missionaries convert non-Arabs, do they explain these status rules to the non-Arabs? Or do they pretend Islam is the coming Allah-given religion for the whole globe? THINK! If one tribe is lower than another, where does that put NON-ARABS? Yes, even lower than that.
   Divorced without being present at the hearing -- the obvious comment is that a woman also is MARRIED in Islam without being present at the ceremony! All the multicultural politically-correct people can't deceive people who make a study of these things. AND, if the men at the marriage paper-signing tell lies by saying that the woman has consented, when she has not, she is still, under a Hadith guideline, MARRIED, and the husband has the right to have sex! As often as he wants. And, if he suspects she is disobedient, under a Koran text, he can beat/scourge her!
   In full-blown Shariah law, she has no right to seek a divorce, in spite of what reported comments are in the above news report.
   Although the second heading said it was "Islamic laws" that ended her marriage, one suspects that it is Arab tribal male-dominance prejudice, masquerading as a cross between Islamic and Saudi laws, that is operating here. 1400 years of the "perfect" final prophet's religion, and childish injustice stalks the land! The wickedness of wars and the former suppression of women among Christian nations are a scandal, and the constant grinding down of women by Islam proves that it too is a human invention. The difference is that the Christians when suppressing and beating wives were defying their religious writings, but on the other hand Muslims are obeying their religious writings. COMMENT ENDS.]
   [HADITH: 9, 86. 98: Narrated Abu Huraira: The Prophet said, "A virgin should not be married till she is asked for her consent; and the matron should not be married till she is asked whether she agrees to marry or not." It was asked, "O Allah's Apostle! How will she (the virgin) express her consent?" He said, "By keeping silent." Some people said, "If a virgin is not asked for her consent and she is not married, and then a man, by playing a trick presents two false witnesses that he has married her with her consent and the judge confirms his marriage as a true one, and the husband knows that the witnesses were false ones, then there is no harm for him to consummate his marriage with her and the marriage is regarded as valid." 009.086.098 GUIDELINE ENDS.]
   [KORAN: 4:34 (or 4:38):- Men are superior to women on account of the qualities with which Allah hath gifted the one above the other, and on account of the outlay they make from their substance for them. Virtuous women are obedient, careful, during the husband's absence, because Allah hath of them been careful. But chide those for whose refractoriness ye have cause to fear; remove them into beds apart, and scourge them; DOCTRINE ENDS.]
   [2nd COMMENT: Although the Saudi king has overturned relgious and other courts' rulings, a strict observer of Islamic law would argue that no-one on earth has a right to over-rule a Shariah court. So "pious" people like Osama Bin Laden argue that the Saudi royal family are "hypocrites," -- read on. ENDS.]
   [2nd KORAN: 33:48 (or 33:47):- And obey not (the behests) of the Unbelievers and the Hypocrites, and heed not their annoyances, but put thy Trust in Allah. For enough is Allah as a Disposer of affairs.
   33:60:- If the hypocrites and those in whose hearts is a disease and the agitators in the city do not desist, We shall most certainly set you over them, then they shall not be your neighbors in it but for a little while.
   66:9:- O Prophet! make war on the infidels and hypocrites, and deal rigorously with them. … ENDS.] [Jan 23, 08]
• [Beheading girls, tricking 15-y-os into murdering tribal leaders and killing Yank, and millionaire's son says he's no terrorist.]

[Beheading girls, tricking 15-y-os into murdering tribal leaders and killing Yank, and millionaire's son says he's no terrorist.]

The West Australian, Various pages, Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Page 36 "JI broken by police attack on haven." JAKARTA, Indonesia:

South-East Asia terror network Jemaah Islamiyah's haven Poso, Central Sulawesi, was raided a year ago. Terrorism expert [? Ms] Sidney Jones said Poso had been a hotbed of extremist Christian and Muslim violence for a decade. A report by International Crisis Group yesterday said Poso was "quieter and safer." The Islamists there used to attack Christians, officials, and suspected informants.
   The raid in January 2007 occurred following outrage at the beheading of three Christian schoolgirls in 2005.
   The head of the JI military wing, Abu Dujana, aka Ainul Bahri, and Zarkasi, aka Zuhroni, were arrested in Java in June, because of information from those arrested.
   The authorities have offered $1000 for former prisoners to reform, are building a big Islamic boarding school, and offering training in car mechanics and furniture making to would-be extremists.
   Key terrorists still on the loose include bombmaker Azhari Husin, who is wanted for killing 22 people in a market bombing in 2005.
   Page 40 "Mum told bomber, 15: Paradise awaits."

   BAGHDAD: Ali Hussein Allawi, a 15-year-old, previously thought to be 13, carried out a suicide bombing near Fallujah on Sunday. He took advantage of tribal ties to pass through tight security, in order to murder Sunni leaders now fighting against extremism.
   Hadi Hussein, his brother, and four guards were murdered. Aeifan al-Issawi, of the Anbar Awakening Council, said he believed that he was the target. The al-Issawis tribal area stretches west of Baghdad through desert to the borders of Syria, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
   The boy's father was in al-Qaida, and had previously fled. Mr al-Issawi said that five of the boy's 22 uncles made confessions. The mother had told the boy: "God be with you and we will meet in paradise."
   Page 50 "Child defence sought for terrorism suspect."

   WASHINGTON: Lawyers for a suspected Canadian terrorist, Omar Khadr, want the charges to be dropped because al-Qaida recruited him when he was 15. Now 22, he is accused of killing a US soldier with a hand grenade as he was arrested for making explosives in Afghanistan in 2002.
   A hearing was due at the Guantanamo naval base on February 4 to rule on the appeal, lawyers said. Canadian MsP and law experts back the argument that those who recruited him ought to be prosecuted, not the boy.
   Page 50 "Osama's son tells him: Try another way."

   WASHINGTON: Omar bin Laden, 26, a son of Osama bin Laden, in an interview telecast in the US on Monday, said that he wished his father would find another way, but he was not a terrorist.
   "Before they call it war, now they call it terrorism"
   As for the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US, he said: "I don't think that was right, personally, but it happened. I don't the war in Vietnam was right. I don't think what's going on in Palestine is right."
   Omar is one of 19 children fathered by [Arabian millionaire] Osama. He is organising a horse race across North Africa to promote peace.
   Page 50 "Britons jailed for card scam."

HONG KONG: Two Britons have begun a 40-month jail sentence in Hong Kong for withdrawing $HK380,000 ($AUD56,000) by using date stolen from 287 British bank accounts.
They are Nazir Zaheer Abbas and Raza Adhnan, both 23. [Grand old British names, those!]

http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/submit/subchron7.htm#beheading_girls_tricking    [COMMENT: Can any non-Muslim understand why these Islamists have little or no respect for Jews, Christians or others, nor for the property or lives of fellow-countrymen and co-religionists, such as officials and people shopping? It's as if they don't believe in peace, and don't care about life in this world. Read on. COMMENT ENDS.]
   [KORAN: 6:32:- Nothing is the life of this world, but play and amusement. But best is the Home in the Hereafter …
   8:65 (or 8:66):- O Prophet! urge the believers to war …
   12:106:- The majority of those who believe in Allah do not do so without committing idol worship.
   66:9:- O Prophet! make war on the infidels and hypocrites, and deal rigorously with them. … DOCTRINE ENDS.]
   [FOLLOW-UP COMMENT: Which Muslim defines which other Muslim is "committing idol worship" or is a "hypocrite"? Well, it won't be some peacelover! And, if a mistake is made, the killers can say their religion teaches them that life in the Hereafter is better than on earth! Even the Calabrian and Sicilian Mafia have not had the cheek to try to put a religious mask over mass murder like this! ENDS.] [Jan 23, 08]
• Pakistani pastor murdered in North West Frontier Province: Part of a pattern of anti-Christian threats and violence

Pakistani pastor murdered in North West Frontier Province:

Part of a pattern of anti-Christian threats and violence    The Barnabas Fund (London) Copyright ©, www.barnabas fund.org:80/ News/archives/ text.php?ID_ news_items=382 , January 29, 2008
   PAKISTAN - Threatened by murder, kidnapping and intimidation, Christians are coming under pressure both from lawlessness and from Islamic radicalism in Pakistan`s North West Frontier Province which borders Afghanistan. Most recently, on January 17th a church minister, Sajid William, was shot dead in Peshawar, the capital city of the province.
   Over recent years the North West Frontier Province has steadily become a hotbed of Islamic radicalism. The strength of Islamic radicalism throughout Pakistan was recently indicated by the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. As well as the murder of Sajid William, there have been many recent attacks on the North West Frontier Province`s Christians. There have been several cases in recent months of Christians being kidnapped in the province, often by militants or criminals linked to Taliban, who demand ransoms or the release of militants held in Pakistani jails. Christian schools have suffered bomb attacks for failing to adhere to Islamic values. The continuing persecution of Christians in the province was shown by the series of threats made against Christians in 2007 to convert to Islam or be killed. [link to earlier reports]
   The North West Frontier Province is home to a tiny Christian minority comprising just 0.25% of the province`s population. (This compares with a Christian population of around 2.5% in Pakistan as a whole.) The increasing power of the Taliban in the region and the failure of central government to control the area have meant that Christians are becoming exposed to increasing danger. In 2003 provincial legislators unanimously passed a bill giving shari`a (Islamic law) precedence over secular provincial law. Militants have also enforced an unofficial parallel justice system based on extreme versions of shari`a. This has placed great pressure on minorities.
   Christians blamed for acts of radical criminal gangs
   The situation for Christians is increasingly difficult throughout all of Pakistan. A Barnabas contact in the Punjab region, which borders India, recently explained that in one village criminal gangs, linked to the Islamist radical group Lashkar-i-Taiba, have been trying to pass the blame for their crimes on to Christians. The police have colluded with the criminals in blaming the Christians for crimes they did not commit. Christians, therefore, feel very vulnerable as the authorities are not willing to protect them.
   Meanwhile, in Pakistan the growing threat to Christians was highlighted by the recent killing of the elder brother of Younis Tasadaq in January. Younis Tasadaq had been accused under the "blasphemy law" in 1998, but was released and managed to escape to America in 1999. In 2007 he returned to Pakistan, and it is believed that Islamic radicals discovered he was back in the country and assassinated his brother, Simon, whom they mistook for Younis. So far police have refused to register the case, claiming it was suicide.
   Dr Patrick Sookhdeo, International Director of Barnabas Fund, comments: "Christian minorities in Pakistan need our prayers, especially the beleaguered Christians of the North West Frontier Province, who face the pressure of shari`a as well as the violence of Islamic militants. I am thankful to the Lord for their faithfulness and courage in the face of such sustained pressure."
   Please join with us in prayer --
   1. Pray for the grieving families of Sajid William and Simon Tasadaq and for all who knew them.
   2. Pray for courage and hope for Pakistani Christians, many of whom have received death threats.
   3. Thank the Lord for their faithfulness to Him, that they would rather die than convert to Islam.
   Copyright © Barnabas Fund - 29th January 2008 #

http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/submit/subchron7.htm#pakistani_pastor_murdered [KORAN: 2:193 (or 2:189):- … Fight the unbelievers until no other religion except Islam is left.
8:12:- … I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them. < www.submission. org/suras/ sura8.html #12 > DOCTRINE ENDS.] [murdered on Jan 17, published on Jan 29, 2008]
• Court told of bloody UK plot. [Guilty plea to planning to cut head off fellow-Muslim; others sending equipment to continue disorders in Pakistan-Afghan border.]

Terror accused was so enraged by Muslims in the British army, he planned to kidnap one and cut his head off

Court told of bloody UK plot

   The West Australian, p 28, Thursday, January 31, 2008
  LONDON - A man who plotted to kidnap and kill a Muslim soldier in the British army by cutting off his head "like a pig", was enraged by Muslims serving in the British army, a court has been told.
   Parviz Khan, a 37-year-old Briton, pleaded guilty this month to a series of charges including the beheading plot, which was foiled by police and the MI5 security service a year ago. Media had been barred from reporting Khan's plea until Tuesday when a trial of two other men opened in the central English city of Leicester.
   News of the plot leaked to the media last year, prompting parallels with al-Qaida hostage killings in Iraq.
   Prosecutor Nigel Rumfitt told the jury to ignore what they had heard. While Khan and the other defendants were Muslims, "this is not a prosecution of the Islamic faith", he said.
   Khan was "a man who has the most violent and extreme Islamist views" who wanted to get physically involved in acts of terrorism, Mr Rumfitt said.
   "He was enraged by the idea that there were Muslim soldiers in the British army, some of them Muslims from The Gambia in West Africa."
   Khan decided to kidnap such a soldier with the help of drug dealers operating in the central English city of Birmingham. The victim was to be seized while enjoying a night out and bundled into a car, Mr Rumfitt said.
   "He would be taken to a lock-up garage and there he would be murdered by having his head cut off like a pig," he said. The atrocity would be filmed and distributed to spread panic and fear in the British armed forces and the public.
   Mr Rumfitt said Khan had asked a Gambian man, Basiru Gassama, to help him find a suitable victim. There was no evidence Mr Gassama had provided such help but he pleaded guilty this month to failing to disclose his knowledge of the plot to authorities.
   Another man, Amjab Mahmood, faces the same charge in the trial that opened on Tuesday. He and a co-defendant, Zahoor Iqbal, are charged with working alongside Khan and others to supply equipment to help militants on the Pakistan-Afghan border fighting Western coalition troops. The men were "actively assisting terrorists who were trying to kill our soldiers, as well as those of our allies the US and Canada", Mr Rumfitt said.
   He said the shipments included sophisticated electronic and other equipment such as computer hard drives, range-finders, night-vision gear and surveillance detectors. Some of the material was sent out under the guise of earthquake relief to Pakistan.
   The jury was told how details of the beheading plot emerged from the bugging of Khan's home by the British security service.
   Mr Rumfitt said Mr Mahmood should have told authorities but failed to do so. Mr Iqbal is not charged in connection with the beheading plot.
[Picture] Guilty: Parviz Khan.

http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/submit/subchron7.htm#court_told_of    [RECAPITULATION: Some of the material was sent out under the guise of earthquake relief to Pakistan. ENDS.]
   [KORAN:    9:73:- O Prophet! strive hard against the unbelievers and the hypocrites and be unyielding to them; and their abode is hell, and evil is the destination.
   33:60:- If the hypocrites and those in whose hearts is a disease and the agitators in the city do not desist, We shall most certainly set you over them, then they shall not be your neighbours in it but for a little while.
   66:2:- Allah hath allowed you release from your oaths. …
   66:9:- O Prophet! make war on the infidels and hypocrites, and deal rigorously with them. … DOCTRINE ENDS.]
   [HADITH: 4, 53:386:- Narrated Jubair bin Haiya: Umar sent the Muslims to the great countries to fight the pagans. When Al-Hurmuzan embraced Islam, Umar said to him. "I would like to consult you regarding these countries which I intend to invade." […] Our Prophet, the Messenger of our Lord, has ordered us to fight you till you worship Allah Alone or give Jizya (i.e. tribute); and our Prophet has informed us that our Lord says:- "Whoever amongst us is killed (i.e. martyred), shall go to Paradise to lead such a luxurious life as he has never seen, and whoever amongst us remain alive, shall become your master." […] GUIDELINE ENDS.] [Jan 31, 08]
• War, Subjugation and Expansion
   Annals Australasia, annalsaustralasia |AT| gmail |DOT| com , Review by Professor Johannes J.G.Jansen, p 3, January-February 2008

ANNALS AUSTRALASIA 3 JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2008
Plain Speaking on Jihad from a leading scholar of Islam

WAR, SUBJUGATION AND EXPANSION

By Johannes J. G. Jansen,
The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims
Edited by Andrew G. Bostom,Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus, 2005, 759pp. BOSTOM, an associate professor of medicine at Rhode Island Hospital, has compiled a large collection of documents concerning jihad in his voluminous The Legacy of Jihad. Bostom's book amply documents the systematic and destructive character of Islamic jihad, refuting the much-repeated argument that jihad is a "rich" concept that has many meanings and that jihad first of all signifies "inner struggle." Jihad is first of all war, bloodshed, subjugation, and expansion of the faith by violence. The book implicitly devastates the fashionable but uninformed opinion that all religions are elaborations of the Golden Rule. Jihad is everything the Golden Rule is not.
   Jihad has been extremely effective and has served Islam well. In the light of this success, it can hardly be expected from Muslim leaders that they renounce jihad for more peaceful methods for propagating their faith. Renunciation of jihad would simply not be in the interest of Islam. But it would, to the contrary, be very much in the interest of the rest of the world. How should the rest of the world react to Muslim insistence on the legitimacy of jihad? Do modern, free, and democratic societies have the stomach to withstand jihad? This question becomes more and more important when jihadists see themselves increasingly not as an alternative to Christianity, Judaism, or any other faith but as an alternative to democracy. One almost gets the impression that present-day jihadists fervently desire to add Islam to the list that starts with Nazism and communism.
   Bostom not only presents us with classical mainstream Islamic sources and their justifications for jihad, plus witness reports from victims that survived by accident, etc., but he also quotes contemporary Muslim clerics. For example: Yusuf al-Qaradawi (b. 1926) discusses "martyrdom operations," a relatively new tactic of jihadists. Are such operations jihad or suicide? This is an important question because Islam forbids suicide. Luckily Qaradawi, regarded by many in the West as a moderate, knows the exact difference between suicide and a martyrdom operation. Someone who kills himself is "too weak to cope with the situation" in which he finds himself. "In contrast, the one who carries out a martyrdom operation does not think of himself. He sells himself to Allah in order to buy Paradise in exchange."
   If this is how the moderates reason, what can we expect from the radicals?
   – Professor Jansen's review of Andrew Bostom's book appeared first in Middle East Quarterly, Winter 2008. Reprinted with permission.

http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/submit/subchron7.htm#war_subjugation_and [KORAN: 3:157-158:- And if ye shall be slain or die on the path of Allah, then pardon from Allah and mercy is better than all your amassings; For if ye die or be slain, verily unto Allah shall ye be gathered. DOCTRINE ENDS.]
[SUBSCRIBE: In Australia Aus$33 (pensioner $26), overseas enquire annalsaustralasia |AT| gmail |DOT| com ; PO Box 13, Kensington, NSW, 2033, Australia. Tel 02 9662 7894, or 02 9662 7188 ext. 252. Fax 02 9662 1910. ENDS.] [Jan-Feb 2008]
• Delusions about Islamists.

Delusions about Islamists

Annals Australasia, annalsaustralasia |AT| gmail |DOT| com , p 8, January-February 2008
NON-MUSLIM priests of enlightenment in the West have come, actively and passively, to the Islamists' defence. These "progressives" frequently cite the need to examine "root causes."
In this they are correct: Terrorism is only the manifestation of a disease and not the disease itself. But the root-causes are quite different from what they think.
- Tawfik Hamid, The Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, April 3, 2007. A onetime member of Jemaah Islamiya, an Islamist terrorist group, Dr Hamid is a medical doctor. #

http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/submit/subchron7.htm#delusions_about_islamists [Jan-Feb 2008]
• War against Muslim Women and others.

ANNALS AUSTRALASIA 8 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2008

War against Muslim Women and others

   Annals Australasia, annalsaustralasia |AT| gmail |DOT| com , Letter from "INFORMED OBSERVER" {NAME SUPPLIED}, Perth, WA, p 8, January-February 2008.
   Congratulations on your issue of November-December 2007, which told us that an aggressive Islamist group is seeking permission to build Europe's largest mosque in London, to be near the proposed site of the 2012 Olympics. We also learn that the Brick Lane Mosque was originally a Huguenot Christian church, later Methodist, and later a Jewish Synagogue. It is now a Muslim mosque.
   The UK Telegraph reported [Dec 9, 2007] that when Miss "Sofia Allam" of Dagenham in London left the Muslim faith for Christianity both her parents started verbally attacking her, made death threats and ordered her out of the house, calling her a Kaffir (i.e., infidel). They brought all her uncles around to browbeat her.
   After three weeks of bullying she left. An ex-Muslims' organisation said that some of the supposed 'honour killings' in Britain were possibly due to changing religion. Death threats are also reported by ex-Muslim leaders in Holland and Germany. In Canada, we read in The West Australian of December 14, Miss Aqsa Parvez was strangled, allegedly by her father, for repeatedly taking off her hijab (head-scarf, or veil) when she got to high school. And on January 13, 2008 the Independent-on Sunday (UK) reported that on Friday a coroner had ruled that 17-year-old Miss Shafilea Ahmed was 'unlawfully killed' and that 'the concept of an arranged marriage was central to the circumstances of her death'.
   So, Father Stenhouse and colleagues, do not weaken in your resolve to report and comment on the grave danger that civilisation faces from the Islamist onslaught, just as your book {The Conquest of Abyssinia} reports what happened to the people of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) years ago.
   Well done, Annals, for your scholarly educational work on this subject.

http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/submit/subchron7.htm#war_against_muslim [Jan-Feb 2008]
• Former Muslims Speak Out.

Former Muslims Speak Out

   Annals Australasia, annalsaustralasia |AT| gmail |DOT| com , p 17, January-February 2008
   We discovered that Islam is beyond alteration, because Muslims who attempt to modernize and reform its unremitting bigotry, mindless rituals and its barbaric and draconian punitive measures are targeted for annihilation.
   Our verdict was that the only way to escape from the tyranny of Islam is to leave it for good.
   That is why we discarded Islam from our lives – to be free, to enjoy a normal, pleasant and humane life, in complete harmony with all people on earth irrespective of their religion, race or creed.
   Let the world watch Islam through < www.islam- watch.org > and be warned. #

http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/submit/subchron7.htm#former_muslims_speak    [COMMENT: "Unremitting bigotry" – Yes, "bigotry" is an old-fashioned word that used to be used in the complaints of Roman Catholics in Australia etc. regarding the discrimination practised against them by the majority population of Anglicans and Protestants. The writer of the above has "hit the nail on the head" – Islamic ways ARE bigotry – with murderous intent.
   Ex-Muslims would know what "mindless rituals" can do to anyone who is a thinker.
   The "barbaric and draconian" punishments are crying out for divine retribution, but, alas, He does not move. Some of the people dealing out whippings, stonings, beheadings, hangings, etc., are hypocrites. COMMENT ENDS.]
   [LOOK FORWARD: "Moral leader 'in brothel'." TEHRAN: Brig-Gen. Ali Reza Zarei, 53, the Tehran police chief, who led a crackdown on women failing to adhere to Iran's Islamic dress codes, was said to have been with six prostitutes when he was detained by members of his own force two weeks ago. – The West Australian, p 12, March 17, 2008. ENDS.] [Jan-Feb 2008]
• Pope Benedict XVI and dialogue with Muslims. Islam. Intellectual and Moral Rot undermining High Places.
   Annals Australasia, annalsaustralasia |AT| gmail |DOT| com , by Samir Khalil Samir, pp 20-25, January-February 2008

ANNALS AUSTRALASIA 20-25 JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2008
Islam
Intellectual and Moral Rot undermining High Places

POPE BENEDICT XVI AND DIALOGUE WITH MUSLIMS

By Samir Khalil Samir, SJ
Vatican representatives and Muslim thinkers will meet in Rome next March to hammer out a few guidelines for dialogue between Christians and Muslims. There is a risk of hollowness or falsity if the dialogue addresses theology alone, and not the concrete problems of the two communities. THE masterful lecture by the pope in Regensburg, so widely criticised by much of the Muslim (and also Western) world, is producing positive results in the very domain of dialogue with the Muslim world. Following the address in Regensburg (September 12, 2006), 38 Muslim scholars sent an initial letter in response (October 13, 2006), and a year later a second letter (signed by 138 scholars, whose number has since grown to 216) in an effort to find common ground of collaboration between Christians and Muslims.

From Jihad to Slavery

The jihad slave system included contingents of both sexes delivered annually in conformity with the treaties of submission by sovereigns who were tributaries of the caliph. When Amr conquered Tripoli {Libya} in 643, he forced the Jewish and Christian Berbers to give their wives and children as slaves to the Arab army as part of their jizya {tax on non-Muslims}. From 652 until its conquest in 1276, Nubia was forced to send an annual contingent of slaves to Cairo. Treaties concluded with the towns of Transoxiana, Sijistan, Armenia, and Fezzan (Maghreb) under the Umayyads and Abbasids stipulated an annual dispatch of slaves from both sexes. However, the main sources for the supply of slaves remained the regular raids on villages within the dar-al-harb {House of War, i.e., non-Islamic regions} and the military expeditions which swept more deeply into the infidel lands, emptying towns and provinces of their inhabitants.
– Bat Ye'or, The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam: From Jihad to Dhimmitude, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1996, p. 108.

   In his turn, last November 19 Benedict XVI [Ratzinger] responded to the letter of the 138, opening teh way to possible collaboration in various areas. A few weeks ago (December 12, 2007), in a letter to Cardinal Bertone, Jordanian prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal agreed to lay the groundwork for collaboration: between February and March, personalities of the Vatican curia and of the Islamic world will meet in Rome to establish the procedures and subject matter of this dialogue. But it's possible that all this work will go right down the drain. It seems to me, in fact, that the Muslim personalities who are in contact with the pope want to dodge fundamental and concrete questions, like human rights, reciprocity, violence, etc, to ensconce themselves in an improbable theological dialogue "on the soul and God". Let's take a closer look at the problems that have emerged.
   1. The Letter of the 138: "A Common Word between Us and You"
   The letter" of the 138 is full of goodwill: the Islamic scholars say they want to look "at what unites" Islam, Christianity, and the other religions. They have even made an effort to express themselves in "Christian" terms, saying that the heart of religion is "loving God and neighbour". Islam does not express itself in this manner. This is an expression of the Old Testament, resumed by Jesus in a more realistic, concrete, and universal sense in the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:23-37). Jesus says two important things: first of all, he ranks the first commandment as "equal" to the second (and this was not so clear even in the Old Testament); in the second place, he clarifies who the neighbour is -- he is not the one "closest to me" (as expressed by the Muslim intellectuals in the Arabic version of their letter, using the word jâr, close), but the one to whom I make myself "neighbour". The Gospel, in fact, overturns the question of the scribe ("who is my neighbour?") and asks who behaved as a "neighbour" to the dying man. The neighbour is therefore every human person, including one's enemy, as the Samaritan was for the Jews.
   In the Gospel one often finds parables in which Jesus overturns common values: the Pharisee and the tax collector, the pagans with respect to the Jews, the child with respect to the adult.
   The greatest danger of the letter of the 138 is in its silences, in what it does not address: there is no reference, for example, to the problems of the international community in regard to the Muslim community, or to the real problems within the Muslim community. The Ummah finds itself at a very delicate point, in a phase of widespread extremism and radicalism among a significant segment of Muslims, which is a form of exclusivity: those who do not think as we do are our enemies. This is evident every day in the Muslim press, and we see violence and attacks in Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, among Sunni and Shiite Muslims, or against Christians or Jews, or simply against tolerant Muslims … and they do exist!