Mosques should be banned from recruiting foreign preachers unless they speak excellent English, according to a senior Muslim politician. In an attempt to tackle Islamic extremism, Lord Ahmed of Rotherham called for imams from overseas who apply to preach in Britain to undergo strict language and "Britishness" tests in their countries of origin. Those who refused would be denied entry to the UK.
The peer also called for non-English speaking imams already in Britain to be prevented from preaching until they master the language. Lord Ahmed, a member of Tony Blair's Preventing Extremism Taskforce, said: "We should not allow imams to enter the country who do not speak English and who do not understand our modern way of life. They should be tested to a much higher standard on language and British culture before they leave Islamabad, Delhi and Casablanca, and if they refuse they should not be allowed in."
The proposal sparked a row among Muslim leaders. Inayat Bunglawala, a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, called the plan "ludicrous and completely unworkable". He added: "The move to English needs to happen as an evolutionary process. Many elderly worshippers cannot understand English."
At present, imams enter Britain under a special visa scheme for religious ministers, and need only basic English. Most preach in Urdu, an Asian language which many young British Muslims do not understand. As a result, according to Lord Ahmed, youths are increasingly turning to "Middle Eastern political preachers" who address followers in English but twist the words of the Koran, sparking disillusionment and anger.
A survey of 300 mosques by the BBC this month revealed that only 6 per cent of imams in Britain preach in English, while only 8 per cent were born in the UK. Shortly before stepping down as prime minister, Tony Blair introduced a voluntary scheme for imams to receive training in British language and culture. However, Lord Ahmed believes that compulsory controls are needed to thwart youths such as Mukhtar Said Ibrahim, the leader of the failed 21/7 London bombings in 2005, and Richard Reid, the shoe bomber. It emerged during their trials that both had been brainwashed by imams at Feltham Young Offenders Institution.
Lord Ahmed said: "You can't be 'wishy-washy' and implement English lessons voluntarily. They must be compulsory, like in Germany where all sermons have to be delivered in German."
Lord Ahmed, 50, who became Britain's first Muslim peer in 1998, said that the training could be funded by the Muslim community. He said: "Mosque committees have plenty of money - cost is not a problem. There is a willingness to do this amongst British Muslims. It is not a radical proposition to 95 per cent of the community, but certain self-interested parties, who also exclude women and children from mosques, portray it as a burden because their membership cannot speak English."
The Home Office tried to introduce a "Britishness" test for foreign-born imams in 2005 but scrapped it after protests from parts of the Muslim community.
Lord Ahmed spoke out after a meeting with Muhammed Abdul-Bari, the head of the Muslim Council of Britain. Mr Bari gave evidence this month to Lord Ahmed and other Muslim politicians as part of the All Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Tackling Extremism. Mr Bari said he did not recognise the problem of non-English speaking imams. He defended all-male mosques, and said the Government "could not ignore" the impact that its foreign policy had on creating home-grown terrorists.
Khalid Mahmood, the Muslim Labour MP who is the chairman of the inquiry, said that he was "deeply disappointed" with Mr Bari's comments and claimed the MCB was "hindering the fight against terrorism. "Mr Bari's stance in blaming -foreign policy and domestic -conditions simply antagonises the situation. We are trying to move -forward and get a solution to this issue, while he is reverting to the same tired, old arguments," he said.
Posted by: ryuge ||
07/22/2007 03:18 ||
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#1
While Islam generally insists that the text of Koran must be in Arabic, preaching or sermons can be in any language.
Then what the hell are they doing in English-speaking England?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/22/2007 11:22 Comments ||
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#3
Then what the hell are they doing in English-speaking England?
Barbara dearest, do you really need an answer to that question? Well, at least one that doesn't include the words "blowing up shit and killing people"?
Lord Ahmed, a member of Tony Blair's Preventing Extremism Taskforce, said: "We should not allow imams to enter the country who do not speak English and who do not understand our modern way of life. They should be tested to a much higher standard on language and British culture before they leave Islamabad, Delhi and Casablanca, and if they refuse they should not be allowed in."
Which wins Lord Ahmed his Master of the Obvious prize for today.
"The move to English needs to happen as an evolutionary process. Many elderly worshippers cannot understand English."
Which pretty much sums up the entire problem in a nutshell.
Most preach in Urdu, an Asian language which many young British Muslims do not understand.
Somehow, that doesn't seem to stop them from understanding the "blowing up shit and killing people" part of the sermon.
As a result, according to Lord Ahmed, youths are increasingly turning to "Middle Eastern political preachers" who address followers in English but twist the words of the Koran, sparking disillusionment and anger.
Points off for taqiyya, Lord Ahmed. The only twist is in Islam's panties. NOBODY with an ounce of sanity buys that crap about the Religion of Peace [spit] anymore.
A survey of 300 mosques by the BBC this month revealed that only 6 per cent of imams in Britain preach in English, while only 8 per cent were born in the UK.
Another piece of the puzzle silently slips into place.
North Koreas top nuclear envoy said on Saturday it wanted a light-water reactor as compensation for shutting down its nuclear programmes, while accusing Japan of causing a political crisis. For the shutdown, disabling, and eventual dismantlement (of North Korean nuclear facilities), the light-water nuclear reactor should come in, Kim Kye-Gwan told reporters at Beijing airport before leaving for Pyongyang.
Kims comments follow nuclear disarmament talks in Beijing that ended Friday with the communist state reiterating its intentions to declare and disable all its nuclear programmes in return for fuel aid and diplomatic concessions under a February deal. No deadline was agreed during three days of talks involving China, the two Koreas, the United States, Japan and Russia, but discussions are to resume in September, following working-level talks to decide terms of the declare and disable agreement.
Talks began in 2003 to rein in North Koreas nuclear ambitions but the reclusive regime conducted its first atomic test in October last year. The North is an energy-starved state which experiences frequent power shortages and wants the light-water reactor to generate electricity. The six nations agreed in September 2005 to discuss furnishing North Korea with light-water reactors at an appropriate time, with Washington insisting that Pyongyang must first disable all its current nuclear programmes.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/22/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
"Demand",
"I do not think that word means what you think it means".
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/22/2007 13:12 Comments ||
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#2
How about we put the reactor in South Korea and run a hose over the border?
An Islamic organisation has indicated it will seek a fatwa after a court acquits Danish Peoples Party leader Pia Kjærsgaard of libel. The head of the nationalist Danish Peoples Party, Pia Kjærsgaard, was cleared last week of libel charges filed by Muslim organisation Islamisk Trossamfund, prompting the organisation to seek a fatwa. Islamisk Trossamfund also said it would also seek a fatwa for Jyllands-Posten if the newspaper does not apologise for printing the cartoons or if it is not found guilty of libel.
Kassem Ahmad, spokesperson for the Islamisk Trossamfund, told TV2 News that he interpreted the courts ruling to mean that Kjærsgaard and others had free reign to say whatever they wanted about Muslims. He said that despite calling for a fatwa, the best way for Muslims to deal with insults against Islam is to ignore them. We have to ignore these types of things, said Ahmad. We shouldnt waste our time on something so unreasonable. We have to silence these provocations to death.
Islamisk Trossamfund is expected to appeal Fridays ruling. Kjærsgaard said she was relieved the case was over and called Ahmad a poor loser. As a politician I have both the duty and the right to express myself and my position. I am convinced that many Danes during those heady days in the winter of 2006 felt just the same as I did.
The case against Kjærsgaard cost the Islamisk Trossamfund a reported DKK 40,000 in legal fees.
Posted by: ryuge ||
07/22/2007 02:39 ||
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#1
Because islamic law is superior to and over-rules kufr national laws & sovereignty; that's what the original fatwa on Salman Rushdie told to the entire world, a tipping point that went unnoticed.
#3
How's about the Danes (and everyone else) making the issuing of fatwas a death penalty crime? Anyone operating outside the national judicial system out to be in prison or sentenced to death. Stop the shit in its tracks.
#8
Hang anyone that "issues" a "fatwa" on the nearest streetcorner for a few weeks, then burn what's left. That MIGHT be a message these so-called "holy men" understand. If not, the practice will greatly reduce their number. Also destroy any mosque these fatwa-issuing "men" were preaching from.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/22/2007 20:25 Comments ||
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#9
Hang anyone that "issues" a "fatwa" on the nearest streetcorner for a few weeks, then burn what's left. That MIGHT be a message these so-called "holy men" understand.
(SomaliNet) A U.S. citizen convicted of receiving training at a terrorist camp alongside al-Qaida members in his efforts to help overthrow the Somali government was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison, AP reports.
Daniel Joseph Maldonado, 28, a Muslim convert also known as Daniel Aljughaifi and Abu Mohammed, also was fined $1,000. Maldonado admitted to traveling in December to a terrorist camp in Somalia, where he was trained to use firearms and explosives in an effort to help a group called the Islamic Courts Union topple the government and install an Islamic state. Members of al-Qaida were present at the camp.
Sounds pretty guilty to me.
Maldonado was captured by the Kenyan military while trying to run away flee Somalia in January and brought back to the United States in February.
In April, he pleaded guilty to a charge of receiving training from a foreign terrorist organization. Ten years was the maximum prison sentence Maldonado could have received. He faced a fine of up to $250,000.
Federal prosecutor Gary Cobe said after the hearing that the sentence was too light just. "We're fighting a war against terrorism. We need to send a message that anyone who gets involved with terrorism will pay the price," he said.
Maldonado's defense attorney, Brent Newton, did not speak to reporters after the hearing. But before the sentence was handed down, Newton said that while his client is not making excuses for what he did, he went to Somalia and the Middle East only to practice his Muslim faith in peace and not to join a terrorist group. "He wants it to be known he never intended to hurt Americans," Newton said. Maldonado declined to make a statement during the hearing.
Just a pious man. With firearms training.
Maldonado, who grew up in Pelham, N.H., lived in Houston for four months in 2005 before moving with his wife and three children to Cairo, Egypt, then Somalia. Just before his arrest, as he and his family tried to leave Somalia and go to Kenya, they became separated. His wife, Tamekia Cunningham, later died of malaria. His three children are being cared for by his parents in New Hampshire.
Seven-year-old Shireena is playing in a stream with some other children at a somewhat unusual pre-noon time on a busy working day. Normally, she stays in her classroom at this hour except during weekends, but today she is not. She is among more than 2,000 unfortunate girls of the area whose parents have decided to take them out of the schools after cleric Maulana Fazlullah issued an edict declaring girls education un-Islamic.
According to some locals, a majority of the girls stopped by their parents from attending schools, were the first in their families to have had the opportunity of getting formal education and Shireena was one of them.
The female education ratio in Imam Deri and the nearby Koza Banda, Bara Banda, Kabal and Char Bagh villages is very low. And things are likely to remain the same with little chances for many families to send their girls to schools after the edict. Perhaps it was because of the very low literacy rate and vulnerability of the locals to religious propaganda that Maulana Fazlullah chose Imam Deri to build his first markaz where he wanted to establish his first religious school, his FM radio station and all the facilities to gather people for sermons.
Continued on Page 49
The hardline faction of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) on Friday condemned a series of suicide attacks against Pakistani forces in the aftermath of the Lal Masjid operation.
Syed Ali Geelani criticised the Pakistani government for handling the Lal Masjid affair in a violent manner. Addressing a rally at Srinagar Martyrs Graveyard, Geelani called Pakistani soldiers as an asset to the whole Muslim world. He said attacks on them were a tragedy. There is no doubt that the Pakistani establishment is serving the American interests, but this does not justify the suicide attacks on the soldiers, he said.
The Pakistani government should understand that America can never become its reliable and trustworthy friend, he said, adding that the US only cared for its own interests. Geelani asked Musharraf to resign. Musharraf should understand that his remaining in power will worsen the crisis in Pakistan.
He said an interim government should take over to conduct transparent elections in Pakistan. AFP adds: Geelani said the suicide attacks in Pakistan were in reaction to the irresponsible and unwise policies of Musharraf.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/22/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Addressing a rally at Srinagar Martyrs Graveyard, Geelani called Pakistani soldiers as an asset to the whole Muslim world
An army that has lost every war it ever fought?
He stands in a cemetery filled with the bodies of terrorists and praises the Pakistani army. He should thank Allah that he is in India and can do that.
Posted by: John Frum ||
07/22/2007 19:40 Comments ||
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Many people, including some intelligence agencies officers, know the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden. The fugitive Al Qaeda founder is protected by fiercely loyal tribal chiefs in the mountains of the Hindu Kush, claims veteran journalist Arnaud de Borchgrave in the Washington Times.
Borchgrave, who in the past has written that Osama Bin Laden is alive and well and living in the city of Peshawar, claims to have high-grade sources in both Pakistan and the United States. He writes that in his meeting with NWFP Chief Minister Akram Durrani, the MMA leader felt no compunction in recounting his Taliban likes and American dislikes. Borchgrave calls the North Waziristan peace deal a sham from the get-go. The paper signed by tribal chiefs was, in effect, a deal with the Taliban, whose guerrillas continued to cross the mythical border with impunity. General Musharrafs perceived weakness was rewarded with the affair of Lal Masjid in Islamabad, he adds.
Borchgrave writes, Musharraf has never seriously cracked down on religious zealots who want him dead for capitulating to Bush. And he now finds himself on the horns of a painful dilemma. He can see what most of the world perceives as an inevitable humiliating US withdrawal from Iraq, followed by a collapse of the NATO consensus in Afghanistan...But Musharraf knows he cannot afford to ignore President Bushs resolve in the light of a new National Intelligence Estimate, which said publicly and unequivocally that Al Qaeda and its Taliban allies are back in business in FATA big time.
Continued on Page 49
This article starring:
Arnaud de Borchgrave
NWFP Chief Minister Akram Durrani
Posted by: Fred ||
07/22/2007 00:00 ||
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[15 views]
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#1
Yah, "many," but only diehard fanatics wouldn't want that $50 mil reward. There are seculars in Pakistan, in spite of what you might hear.
#4
Color me skeptical. Osama is a media hound; hell, the whole jihadi movement is in one sense a media war. The lack of media performance is telling. If he *is* around, he has suffered severe battle damage and is no longer his photographic jihadi self.
#5
The fact that Zawahiri issues all the statements these days is what makes me wonder if Binny is still alive or if maybe his kidneys are about kaput and he no longer projects that virile, Lion of Islam image. I like to think of him suffering from lack of proper medical treatment in a cold, dark cave. But Z man's recent appearance in a "news" studio looks like he's found some at least semi-civilized accommodations.
Posted by: Abu Uluque6305 ||
07/22/2007 16:58 Comments ||
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#6
You're right, brain damaged drooling idiots just don't fit the "Hero Warrior Image", now do they?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/22/2007 16:59 Comments ||
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#7
"Many junior officers, he claims, are sympathetic to the MMAs religious zealots."
ANd this is the rot from the inside that has taken Pakistan to the brink. The ISI needs to be liquidated. By force if necessary.
The Frontier government Saturday decided to station the army at the FC headquarters in Malakand and Swat district instead of at educational institutions.
In the wake of a provincial cabinet meeting on law and order and decisions taken at the meeting of the peace committee/Loya Jirga of Malakand division, the NWFP government has decided to shift the army stationed at Chakdara University Campus and Matta College Swat to the FC headquarters at Malakand and Kabal Swat respectively, an official communiqué said. The provincial cabinet in its meeting on July 9 and the Malakand Loya Jirga in a meeting on July 16 had agreed that the army would not be stationed at any educational or health institution.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/22/2007 00:00 ||
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The FATA Grand Alliance on Saturday urged the federal government to accommodate new Taliban proposals if it wants to keep the North Waziristan truce intact. Scrapping the peace accord in North Waziristan is the result of immense pressure exerted on Pakistan to disturb peace in Waziristan and tribal agencies, and to pave way for the foreign aggression, FATA Grand Alliance convener Abdul Karim Mehsood told Daily Times. He said the tribesmen would not bow before any foreign power and would fight till the last moment to protect their soil. Everything was going well but the federal government violated the truce after the US lawmakers showed their concern over peace in tribal agencies bordering Afghanistan, said Mehsood, who is also president of the FATA Lawyers Forum.
He said the North Waziristan peace accord was in favour of Pakistan and therefore the US had opposed the pact from day one and exerted immense pressure on the Pakistan government to scrap it. Pakistan must avoid further deployment of troops in Waziristan and accommodate new proposals from the opposite side to reach an accord and avoid further destruction, Mehsood said. Violating the basic clauses of the agreement, the government extended the army in North Waziristan, which infuriated the tribesmen and they scraped the accord.
"The involvement of some hidden hands to violate the accord cannot be ruled out on the part of the tribesmen, he said.
The involvement of some hidden hands to violate the accord cannot be ruled out on the part of the tribesmen, he said.
The shaken trust of the tribesmen about their future is resulting in a large scale exodus from North Waziristan. The government must restore the trust of tribesmen, the FATA Grand Alliance convener said.
Sending an official-sponsored jirga to negotiate with the tribesmen seems to be a gimmick because it did not include the real tribal representatives.
Sending an official-sponsored jirga to negotiate with the tribesmen seems to be a gimmick because it did not include the real tribal representatives, he said, adding that the government-sponsored jirga was meant to get tribesmens support for another bloody battle in the agency.
NATO and Afghanistan have pressurised President Pervez Musharraf to violate the basic conditions of the agreement and build up the army to meet the USs interests, Mehsood said. Pakistan must robustly retaliate to any aggression against FATA otherwise tribesmen will not hesitate to shed blood for the protection of every inch of their soil, he added. The FATA Grand Alliance was established two months ago, comprising various organisations from all seven FATA agencies, including Frontier regions, to get the tribesmen their due rights.
This article starring:
FATA Grand Alliance convener Abdul Karim Mehsood
FATA Grand Alliance
Posted by: Fred ||
07/22/2007 00:00 ||
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After months of lying low, the anti-American Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has re-emerged with a shrewd two-tiered strategy that reaches out to Iraqis on the street and distances him from the increasingly unpopular government. Al-Sadr and his political allies have largely disengaged from government, thus contributing to a political paralysis. His outsider status has enhanced al-Sadr's appeal to Iraqis, who consider politics less and less relevant to their daily lives.
The power brokers in post-Saddam Iraq:
NOURI AL-MALIKI: the Iraqi Prime Minister, right, is a stalwart of the Dawa Party, the Shi'ite political group that for years led an armed underground resistance to the leadership of Saddam Hussein.
JALAL TALABANI: the Iraqi President is the first non-Arab to head an Arab state, albeit in a largely ceremonial role. He has vowed to work with all ethnic and religious factions to rebuild Iraq.
MUQTADA AL-SADR: the radical Shi'ite cleric has become an increasingly influential figure in post-Saddam Iraq. His mixture of Iraqi nationalism and Shi'ite radicalism has made him a figurehead for many of Iraq's poor Shi'ite Muslims.
GRAND AYATOLLAH ALI SISTANI: the most senior Shi'ite cleric in Iraq. Seen as a moderating influence, he facilitated the end of fighting in Najaf between al-Sadr's Mehdi Army and US forces in 2004.
TARIQ AL-HASHIMI: general secretary of the Iraqi Islamic Party and vice president of Iraq. The Sunni leader has called for Shi'ite militia fighters to be removed from the Iraqi security forces.
Al-Sadr has been working tirelessly to build support at the grass roots, opening new shopfront offices across Baghdad and southern Iraq which dispense services not being provided by the government. In this he seems to be following the model established by Hezbollah, the radical Lebanese Shi'ite group, as well as Hamas in Gaza, with entwined social and military wings that serve as a parallel government. He has also extended the reach of his Mahdi Army, which according to White House reports remains entrenched in Iraq. The militia has effectively taken over vast swathes of the capital and is fighting government troops in several southern provinces. Although the militia sometimes uses brutal tactics, including death squads, many vulnerable Shi'ites are grateful for the protection it affords.
BUT
At the same time, the Mahdi Army is not entirely under al-Sadr's control, and he publicly denounces the most notorious killers fighting in his name. That frees him to extend an olive branch to Sunni Arabs and Christians, while championing the Shi'ite identity of his political base.
The mainstream political parties in Iraq realise that al-Sadr is growing more influential, but appear to be confused over how to deal with him. They see him as unpredictable and manipulative, but too politically and militarily important to ignore. "He's powerful," said Jaber Habeeb, an independent Shi'ite member of parliament and political science professor at Baghdad University. "This is a fact you have to accept, even if you don't like it."
Almost from the day American troops entered Iraq, the mercurial al-Sadr has confounded American and Iraqi politicians alike. He quickly rallied impoverished Shi'ites in peaceful displays of Shi'ite strength, as had his father, a prominent cleric. When the Sunni Arab insurgency gained momentum, he raised a Shi'ite insurgency in direct opposition to the American-backed Iraqi government that had excluded him.
His basic tenets are widely shared. Like most Iraqis, he opposes the American military presence and wants a timetable for departure - if only to attain some certainty that the Americans will leave eventually. He wants the country to stay unified and opposes the efforts of those Shi'ites who have had close ties to Iran to create a semi-autonomous Shi'ite region in southern Iraq.
After his Mahdi militia was defeated in a battle against American forces in Najaf in 2004, al-Sadr established himself as a political player, using the votes of loyal parliament members to give Nouri Kamal al-Maliki the margin needed to win the post of prime minister.
Now that the leadership is in poor repute, al-Sadr has shifted once again. His six ministers in the Cabinet and 30 lawmakers in parliament have been boycotting sessions. They returned last week, but it is not clear if they will stay for long.
Continued on Page 49
This article starring:
Jaber Habeeb, an independent Shi'ite member of parliament
Joost Hiltermann, the director of the International Crisis Group's office in Amman
MUQTADA AL SADR
Mahdi Army
Nouri Kamal al-Maliki
Qassim Daoud, a secular Shi'ite lawmaker
SHEIKH SALAH AL OBAIDI
Mahdi Army
Posted by: Seafarious ||
07/22/2007 00:00 ||
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[9 views]
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#1
Sounds like Tater is doing the Edwards poverty tour
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/22/2007 3:16 Comments ||
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#2
...or the Hezbollah suffle
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/22/2007 3:17 Comments ||
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#4
Without linking to Defense websites, I can say: the Taters got their butts kicked for launching mortars at the Green Zone. And the kicking ain't stopped.
#9
One serious boo-boo. If you leave the political process, there are better than even odds that the process will continue without you, and from then on, you can go fish.
#10
At the same time, the Mahdi Army is not entirely under al-Sadr's control, and he publicly denounces the most notorious killers fighting in his name. That frees him to extend an olive branch to Sunni Arabs and Christians, while championing the Shi'ite identity of his political base.
Sadr must live in a house of mirrors in order to keep track of all the different faces he wears. It has long ago ceased to be ironic that al-Maliki's corrupt and hamfisted leadership helps propel Sadr's ascension to power. Both need to die with equal speed.
Tariq Aziz, Iraq's deputy prime minister under Saddam Hussein, was admitted to a US military hospital after fainting while in prison, his lawyer said Saturday. Badee Izzat said Aziz was flown Tuesday to the hospital at the large US military base in Balad 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Baghdad after he repeatedly fainted in the US-run detention facility near Baghdad airport where he is being held.
Aziz had served as Saddam's foreign minister for many years before becoming deputy prime minister, and he was the public face of Iraq under the former dictator to the outside world. He surrendered to US forces in Baghdad shortly after the Saddam regime was topped in 2003.
Aziz was taken to the hospital in Balad a day after he was due to appear before an investigative judge for questioning on the murder of Muslim clerics in following the 1991 Gulf War over Kuwait, according to Izzat. The lawyer said he believed Aziz had been returned to prison on Saturday but that could not be confirmed.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/22/2007 00:00 ||
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Hamas warned Tony Blair on Saturday his credibility as the new international Middle East peace envoy will be damaged if he ignores the organization. The former British prime minister was expected in Israel and the West Bank early next week in his maiden visit since his appointment as envoy of the diplomatic Quartet - the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia. "We warn the new envoy that any attempt to marginalize the Hamas movement will cost him his credibility," said Hamas hard-liner Mahmoud Zahar, a former Palestinian Authority foreign minister.
The Quartet refuses to deal with Hamas because it refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist, renounce violence or accept agreements by previous Palestinian governments with Israel.
That policy won't change to accommodate Blair, Zahar said. "We are not ready to sit with anyone calling on us to abandon our national constants and to foreswear the aspirations of the Palestinian people," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/22/2007 00:00 ||
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Hamas is replacing Gaza's defunct courts with a legal committee consisting of an Islamic law expert, some hooded guy with a axe, a military court lawyer and the head of the main prison, a spokesman for the Hamas force policing Gaza announced Saturday. Hamas said it wouldn't use the committee to impose Islamic law, a concern raised by human rights groups since the Islamic militants seized control of Gaza by force last month.
The legal system in Gaza stopped functioning after Hamas took over the area last month. Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas ordered judges, prosecutors and police to stop cooperating with Gaza's new rulers. Even before the takeover, the judicial system was overburdened and seen as largely ineffective. Many Palestinians instead resorted to tribal law, an ancient custom in which clan leaders get together and negotiate punishments for various offenses committed against family members, from theft to rape and murder.
The three-member legal committee will now deal with hundreds of criminal complaints that would normally have been referred to the courts, said Islam Shahwan, spokesman of Hamas' Executive Force, the armed group policing Gaza.
Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, said the committee would not be used to impose Islamic law, but said many Gaza residents want to use Muslim laws to resolve their disputes. Islamic law has long been applied in Palestinian courts, particularly in regulating inheritance, marriage and divorce. "Even in the (old) courts, many people used Islamic law with the consent of both parties to resolve their disputes, and the courts would approve such rulings," he said.
Abu Zuhri said the committee is a temporary alternative, until the courts start functioning again. Issam Younis, head of the Gaza-based human rights group Mezan, said alternatives to the existing courts are unacceptable. He blamed the Abbas-installed government in the West Bank for ordering the courts to stop operating.
Hamas is under pressure to come up with alternatives to the defunct legal system. The group has been accused of beating or torturing several detainees. Two prisoners have died in Hamas custody. Hamas officials have said those engaged in "violations" against detainees are being investigated, but has not given details.
"Unfortunately, we've been forced to suspend our popular Ponies for Prisoners program until further notice."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/22/2007 00:00 ||
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HT to PJM Tel Aviv July 22, 2007 11:09 AM
With most of the vote counted, the direction of the Turkish election is already clear - the ruling Islamist AKP party has scored an important victory. Barry Rubin, reporting for PJM from Istanbul, discusses the consequences of election results that would cause Ataturk - the father of the modern secular Turkish state - to spin in his grave.
Traveling to Tel Avivs airport en route to Istanbul to cover the parliamentary elections, the taxi driver listened to the conversation and mentioned he was born in Turkey, spoke Turkish, still had relatives there, and followed events closely.
Then he added, The way things are going Turkey might end up like Iran.
Thats an exaggeration but it does state the central issue: Is the domination by the Islamic-oriented (but not overtly Islamist) AKP party going to lead Turkey into something like a radical, anti-secular state?
The AKP has now won still another election and this new mandate is going to allow it probably to name Turkeys next president, next military commander, and many judges, as well as moving the educational system in an Islamic direction.
For one thing, the AKP, which earlier gained about 30 percent of voters support, is now at just under 50 percent. Ironically, the party got a lot more voters but will get fewer seats since both the socialist and nationalist parties qualified, whereas only the former got into parliament last time. A lot of voters backed AKP because they see it as either a conservative party or a relatively honest one. Turks dont want an Islamist state. Still, they have given AKP a mandate.
To understand better what is going on, let me tell you about my former student and friend who I will call Mehmet. When I was teaching at Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Mehmet was the leader of the Islamic student union. One day I wasnt feeling well. Take good care of yourself, Mehmet joked. If anything happens to you theyll blame me.
After graduating he went to work for one of the top AKP leaders. One day he asked if he could visit me in Israel. When he visited, he had a wonderful time, fascinated with the Israeli system of a state that combined secularism and religious tradition in a unique way. Before he left, Mehmet told me that his goal was to make Turkey like Israel.
I doubt whether many AKP leaders would put it that way. In fact, a professor friend of minewho calls herself a secularist feminist following the ideology of Kemal Ataturk, founder of the Turkish republicsaid of Mehmet jokingly, When the Islamists take over hell be one of the first ones they shoot. But it does reveal the fact that Turkey has three choices
The first choice is a militantly secular state, closer to the French tradition, going far beyond the American separation of church and state. This tradition, which has dominated Turkey for the last 75 years, looks pretty much on the ropes. More and more women even in Istanbul wear the symbolic head scarf. One can hear the Islamic greeting salaam alaykum as well as the traditional Turkish marhaba.
The second possibilityand this is what the AKP says it wantsis a state that honors Turkeys Islamic traditions and gives the religion of the great majority a presence and place of honor in public life. So, for example, Islamic schools are elevated in prestige and as an alternative to secular schools. Alcohol is not sold in Istanbuls parks. Women wearing headscarves can be television news presenters, members of parliament, and students sitting in university classrooms.
This presumes that the pendulum can be set to swing so far and then remain in balance. Even Ataturk, a militant secularist who believed Islams public power was one of the greatest threats to Turkey making social progress, once said, Our religion is the most reasonable and natural religion.
The third outcome, however, would be to make Islamic behavior normative. This might mean, for instance, that women not wearing headscarves could not sit in classrooms. Thats the Iranian model.
It is hard to believe that Turkey would go that far. Yet things still might go much further than most Turks prefer. Already, for example, it is clear that the Turkish media is becoming intimidated, afraid to criticize the incumbent government lest it suffer material sanctions or even physical violence. The army is watching and might intervene one day if it feels secularism is fundamentally endangered. But what if career-minded officers decide that cultivating the AKP is the best way to get to the top? That last bulwark could also crumble.
What is absolutely clear is that the existing parties have failed to respond successfully to the AKP challenge or to mobilize the fears and dismay of the countrys majority. The voice of the people, Ataturk once said, is the voice of the righteous. But this election, perhaps more than any other event in Turkey since he died almost 70 years ago, should send him spinning in his grave.
AKP can be more confident, which means more aggressive in pushing its program to Islamify and possibly to Islamize Turkey. This is not a good thing for the West.
How bad it will be is going to depend on whether the AKP is constrained by fear of the army and the fact that it lacks a two-thirds majority needed to push some things through parliament. Still, the elections result is that the party no longer has to worry about the opposition parties unseating it.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/22/2007 19:41 ||
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#1
damn - shoulda been in Pg 2. My bad - I blame Premature Submit Finger syndrome
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/22/2007 19:45 Comments ||
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#2
Not good. It is one of the steps leading closer towards nasty times.
Iran's decision to broadcast video of two detained Iranian-Americans accused of conspiring against the country's security provoked rare public criticism of Tehran's hardline government. A two-part state television program that aired this week included a montage of disparate quotes from Haleh Esfandiari and Kian Tajbakhsh. The government billed the comments as confessions, but the detainees' families and employers and the U.S. said they were illegitimate and coerced.
But in an unusual reaction in Iran, where national security issues normally go unchallenged publicly, some questioned the government's move to put the detained Iranian-Americans on display. "The era of (obtaining) televised confessions is over," the reformist newspaper Hambastegi said in a front-page editorial Saturday. "If it was an effective weapon, Western governments ... would have undoubtedly resorted to it."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/22/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
"If it was an effective weapon, Western governments ... would have undoubtedly resorted to it."
I'm not evil! You're the one that is evil!
Posted by: Mark E. ||
07/22/2007 10:46 Comments ||
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#2
Western governments don't do it? So what was Paris Hilton all about?
French envoy Jean-Claude Cousseran's visit to Damascus and Iran was aimed at restating France's well-known Mideast policy, and did not involve any shift regarding Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's government , sources close to the French Foreign Ministry told Naharnet. The sources said the French Foreign Ministry, under instructions from the Elysee Palace, had authorized Cousseran to inform Syria of the need to quit betting on external powers to make a "deal" at Lebanon's expense.
The French sources confirmed that Cousseran conveyed a "harsh warning" to each of Syria's Vice President Farouk Sharaa and Foreign Minister Walid Muallem concerning the need to deal "positively" with French and Arab efforts aimed at building stability in Lebanon. They stressed that Cousseran was "very honest and clear" with the Syrian leadership, adding that he has relayed France's firm stance which gave Syria what they said was the "last chance" toward changing its behavior in Lebanon.
Cousseran's visit to Damascus earlier this week represented the first such contact between Syria and France since President Nicolas Sarkozy took office last month and the highest-level visit by a French official to Syria in almost two years. Relations between France and Syria soured after the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was a longtime personal friend of former French President Jacques Chirac.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
07/22/2007 00:00 ||
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Al Moustaqbal Movement announced Friday that it has picked businessman Mohammed al-Amin Itani as the candidate for Lebanons parliament by-elections to replace slain legislator Walid Eido. The movement, headed by MP Saad Hariri, urged voters to participate in the Aug. 5 by-elections and to vote for Itani, the former head of the federation of Beirut families.
The statement described Itani as a "distinguished voice in defending Beirut and its families." It recalled that four MPs representing Beirut had been killed in more than two years starting with the Feb. 14 2005 blast which killed ex-Premier Rafik Hariri and parliamentarian Bassil Fleihan.
Eido was killed in a powerful car explosion June 13. Gibran Tueni, a third member of the anti-Syrian majority representing Beirut in parliament, was assassinated in December 2005 and replaced by his father Ghassan Tueni.
Al-Moustaqbal's statement came a few hours after former president Amin Gemayel announced he will run in the disputed parliamentary by-elections to replace his son, Pierre Gemayel, who was killed last year.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/22/2007 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
(SomaliNet) A U.S. citizen convicted of receiving training at a terrorist camp alongside al-Qaida members in his efforts to help overthrow the Somali government was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison, AP reports. 
Seven-year-old Shireena is playing in a stream with some other children at a somewhat unusual pre-noon time on a busy working day. Normally, she stays in her classroom at this hour except during weekends, but today she is not. She is among more than 2,000 unfortunate girls of the area whose parents have decided to take them out of the schools after cleric 
Many people, including some intelligence agencies officers, know the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden. The fugitive Al Qaeda founder is protected by fiercely loyal tribal chiefs in the mountains of the Hindu Kush, claims veteran journalist 
The Frontier government Saturday decided to station the army at the FC headquarters in Malakand and Swat district instead of at educational institutions.
The 
After months of lying low, the anti-American Shi'ite cleric 
Tariq Aziz, Iraq's deputy prime minister under Saddam Hussein, was admitted to a US military hospital after fainting while in prison, his lawyer said Saturday. Badee Izzat said Aziz was flown Tuesday to the hospital at the large US military base in Balad 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Baghdad after he repeatedly fainted in the US-run detention facility near Baghdad airport where he is being held. 
Hamas is replacing Gaza's defunct courts with a legal committee consisting of an Islamic law expert, 
Iran's decision to broadcast video of two detained Iranian-Americans accused of conspiring against the country's security provoked rare public criticism of Tehran's hardline government. A two-part state television program that aired this week included a montage of disparate quotes from Haleh Esfandiari and Kian Tajbakhsh. The government billed the comments as confessions, but the detainees' families and employers and the U.S. said they were illegitimate and coerced. 
