[Arab News] The release of a Saudi ship hijacked by Somali pirates is being delayed due to bureaucratic hurdles, local sources revealed on Saturday.
The ship, Al-Nisr Al-Saudi, was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden on March 1 with 13 Sri Lankan crew members and Greek Capt. Georgios Skalimis on board.
The bunker barge, owned by International Bunkering Company Ltd. (IBCO), was on its way from Japan to Jeddah when it was hijacked. The hijackers initially demanded a $20 million ransom. The ship is presently anchored on the Somali coast of Gada.
"Our country is deeply concerned with the whole issue since all the sailors except the captain of the hijacked ship are our countrymen," Sri Lankan Ambassador Ahmed A. Jawad told Arab News. "The Saudi shipping company had remitted the ransom to a bank account in the Kingdom, but it can only be withdrawn with the permission of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA)."
SAMA has laid down strict regulations in the disbursement of funds under the terrorism and money-laundering regulations.
Jawad said the mission is in touch with SAMA officials and they are convinced of the reasons given by the shipping company for withdrawal of funds but said it is waiting for the approval of the Ministry of Interior to release the amount. The amount of the ransom has not been made public.
The hijackers said they will not harm the vessel's crew, the ambassador said.
According to a source at the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry, families of the detained sailors have received pay from the Saudi company during this ordeal. The crew members have been allowed to communicate by satellite phone.
The International Bunkering Company Ltd. is working with its insurer, the Saudi IACI Cooperative Insurance Company (SALAMA), to work out the final phase of the crew members' release. The ship had no cargo when it was seized.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/11/2010 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Northern and southern Sudanese leaders said on Saturday they would consider forming a confederation or a common market if southerners chose to declare independence in an upcoming referendum.
Citizens of the country's oil-producing south are six months away from a vote on whether to stay part of Sudan or split away as an independent state -- a plebiscite promised in a 2005 accord that ended decades of north-south civil war.
Leaders from the dominant northern and southern parties on Saturday started formal negotiations on how they would divide oil revenues and other issues after the referendum.
They told reporters they were considering four options suggested by an African Union panel led by former South African president Thabo Mbeki.
In one option "we considered the possibility of the creation of two independent countries which negotiate a framework of cooperation, which extends to the establishment of shared governance institutions in a confederal arrangement," said Mbeki, who spoke at the launch of negotiations in Khartoum.
Another option was for two separate countries with shared "soft borders that permit freedom of movement for both people and goods," said Mbeki.
The other two options, he added, were for total separation - - with citizens needing visas to cross the border -- and for continued north-south unity, if southerners chose that option in the referendum.
"These (the four options) will be part of the issues to be discussed by both parties," Sayed el-Khatib, a senior member of north Sudan's National Congress Party, (NCP) told reporters.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/11/2010 00:00 ||
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#2
ION PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > UGANDA BOMBINGS KILL 30 WATCHING WORLD CUP [FIFA = Soccer]. Local POlice CHeif fears AL QAEDA-LINKED SOMALI MILITANT GROUP AL-SHAHAB/SHABAAB is responsible for attack.
* SAME > [Egyptian Sheikh Fateh-al-Misri]AL QAEDA'S NEW EYES PAKISTAN | NEW AL QAEDA COMMANDER MISRI WILL BE WAITING TO STRIKE BOTH AFGHANISTAN + PAKISTAN.
#3
KENYAN FM > complained that many Iraqi, Afghanistan, + Pakistan Militants are relocating to SOMALIA to regroup + conduct Regional, International Terror operations, including agz KENYA proper.
At some point, the shouts of "Heil Hitler" that often greeted Marcus Eilenberg as he walked to the 107-year-old Moorish-style synagogue in this port city forced the 32-year-old attorney to make a difficult, life-changing decision: Fearing for his family's safety after repeated anti-Semitic incidents, Eilenberg reluctantly uprooted himself and his wife and two children, and moved to Israel in May.
Sweden, a country long regarded as a model of tolerance, has, ironically, been a refuge for Eilenberg's family. His paternal grandparents found a home in Malmo in 1945 after surviving the Holocaust. His wife's parents came to Malmo from Poland in 1968 after the communist government there launched an anti-Semitic purge. But as in many other cities across Europe, a rapidly growing Muslim population living in segregated conditions that seem to breed alienation has mixed toxically with the anger directed at Israeli policies and actions by those Muslims -- and by many non-Muslims -- to all but transform the lives of local Jews. Like many of their counterparts in other European cities, the Jews of Malmo report being subjected increasingly to threats, intimidation and actual violence as stand-ins for Israel.
"I didn't want my small children to grow up in this environment," Eilenberg said in a phone interview just before leaving Malmo. "It wouldn't be fair to them to stay in Malmo."
Malmo, Sweden's third-largest city, with a population of roughly 293,900 but only 760 Jews, reached a turning point of sorts in January 2009, during Israel's military campaign in Gaza. A small, mostly Jewish group held a demonstration that was billed as a peace rally but seen as a sign of support for Israel. This peaceful demonstration was cut short when the demonstrators were attacked by a much larger screaming mob of Muslims and Swedish leftists who threw bottles and firecrackers at them as police seemed unable to stop the mounting mayhem.
"I was very scared and upset at the same time," recalled Jehoshua Kaufman, a Jewish community leader. "Scared because there were a lot of angry people facing us, shouting insults and throwing bottles and firecrackers at the same time. The sound was very loud. And I was angry because we really wanted to go through with this demonstration, and we weren't allowed to finish it."
Alan Widman, who is a strapping 6-foot-tall member of parliament and a non-Jewish member of the Liberal Party who represents Malmo, said simply, "I have never been so afraid in my life."
The demonstrators were eventually evacuated by the police, who were not present in sufficient numbers to protect their rally. But some participants complained that the police's crowd-control dogs remained muzzled.
The Eilenbergs are not particularly religious, but they have a strong Jewish identity and felt unable to live in Malmo as Jews after this episode. Eilenberg said he knows at least 15 other Jewish families that are thinking about moving away.
#1
There should be an effort to stigmatize Malmo, that every time there is a mention of the liberalism in which Swedes are so proud, the name "Malmo" alone should be enough to dispel their self-congratulations.
"The Swedes *used* to be liberal and egalitarian, but now, well, Malmo. Need I say more?"
Tens of thousands of people have commemorated the 15th anniversary of Europe's worst massacre since World War Two in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica. Survivors have expressed frustration over the United Nation's perceived failure to prevent the killing of more than 8,000 Muslims by Serb forces in July, 1995.
In the summer heat, huge crowds of mourning Muslims attended the biggest funeral near the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica. A hillside was dug out with graves for 775 green-draped coffins of recently identified victims of Europe's largest mass killing since the Holocaust. The youngest victims were two boys, aged 14, who were laid to rest alongside thousands of bodies already in the graveyard.
The funeral at the Potocari Memorial Center was part of the 15th anniversary commemoration of what became known as the Srebrenica massacre.
Before Sunday's ceremony, relatives of two men killed by Serbian forces at Srebrenica filed a complaint with the Netherlands' prosecutor's office against commanders of the U.N. Dutch battalion, Dutchbat, which was based in the Srebrenica enclave. The complaint charges the Dutchbat commanders with complicity in war crimes, lawyer Liesbeth Zegveld explained to Radio Netherlands Worldwide.
"...There is sufficient evidence for war crimes and genocide in this case. The commanders of Dutchbat have evicted the victims from the Dutchbat compound in Srebrenica on the 13th of July 1995," Zegveld said. "They have forced them to leave a safe environment. It is supported by statements made at the time by the Dutchbat military stating that they feared for the fate of the Muslim men. That they feared a mass execution. That they knew that the men who were evicted from the compound were not arriving in the safe area ... whereas the women and children did arrive."
Dutch soldiers have said they were outnumbered and not able to halt the Serbian invasion.
All the Dutch had to do at the time was stand their ground. The Serbs were bluffing, and the Dutch folded -- I think because they wanted an excuse to leave.
The presidents of all the states that made up the former Yugoslavia were present for the commemoration, including Serbia's President Boris Tadic. Some in the crowd yelled "Bravo, Boris!" others asked "Where is Mladic?"
There was no official seen from the United Nations. Interesting photo of a Bosnian activist's 'monument' to the massacre in Berlin at link.
Posted by: chris ||
07/11/2010 18:23 Comments ||
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#4
No, the Serbs did NOT have it right.
The Serbs made it worse: when the West wouldn't defend the Bosnians, the Muslims there turned to the Saoodis and the Iranians. We're dealing with the consequences of that today.
The Muslims there were Europeanized -- that is to say, pretty darned harmless -- until the Serbs massacred them.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/11/2010 18:43 Comments ||
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#5
WAFF > KOSOVO TO ERUPT? | TADIC WARNS PRISTINIA, Repor Plan to deploy KOSOVAN SPECIAL POLICE UNITS in northern KOSOVO is tantamount to an OPEN = OVERT WAR THREAT???
POSTERS = POTUS OBAMA = USA is too heavily involved or committed to AFPAK, ETC. to become involved in any NEW BALKAN MILPOL CRISIS???
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu says his country reserves the right to apply unilateral sanctions on Israel over the Gaza-bound aid Flotilla killings.
"There is an action, a crime here. Turkey's demand is rather lucid. Since there is a death, the killing side is acknowledged and an international commission should be formed and make its decision with respect to this fact in the frame of objective provisions of law. If Israel does not want an international commission, then it has to acknowledge this crime, apologize, and pay compensation," Davutoglu said in an interview published in the Newsweek magazine on July 9.
The top Turkish diplomat made the comments after the recent Israeli attack on the aid fleet seeking to break the siege of Gaza Strip.
The deadly attack in the international waters of the Mediterranean Sea claimed the lives of nine Turkish citizens.
"If the international community and the international law do not ask about the causes of these deaths, we, as the government of the Republic of Turkey, have the right to ask. Turkey-Israel relations will never be on a normal footing until we have an answer. And Turkey has the right to one-sidedly apply its own sanctions," the Turkish top diplomat added.
"If the right steps are not taken (by Israel), the relations would go in the direction of a break-off process. However, I cannot share with you what I have told them behind closed doors. They know what kind of sanctions we would impose," Davutoglu said.
Asked about Ankara's "zero-tension policy" with Turkey's neighbor countries and the recent escalation of tensions with Israel, Davutoglu said: "Zero problems with neighbors is a value. But another equally important value is to establish peace. If any actor blocks peace processes, keeps civilians under blockade, massacres civil people on international waters, the peace value could not be disregarded for the sake of zero problems with neighbors. These policies of Israel are a menace to regional peace. Excusing these policies that go against peace just to develop zero-problem relations is out of the question."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/11/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
These Turks do not live in reality.
They should do well to remember THEY were the ones that initiated action to break a publicly known blockade and it was THEY who attacked soldiers attempting to board the ship at fault. They bear the sole responsibility for what happened. They wanted an incident and they got one.
The Turkish military needs to wake up and overthrow the bums that currently runs Turkey
Posted by: Mike Hunt ||
07/11/2010 2:55 Comments ||
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#2
Time for the Israelis to consider unilateral sanctions against Turkey.
#5
In this statement is the sentiment of the Middle East - Shura Law - If Israel does not want an international commission, then it has to acknowledge this crime, apologize, and pay compensation
Turkey should kiss any thought of joining the European Union - Goodbye.
#8
Rootless metropolitans are known to control the Macassar Trust, it wolf not be surprising to see shortages spot.
Google is your friend -- see here. The Macassar Trust was a property development group in South Africa in 1988, led by one Gierdien Imam Ali and aimed at what Mr. Ali referred to as "the brown community" (life was not so PC then)... but Mr. Ali was very concerned that price speculation would drive prices beyond the ability of the bc to pay, now that builder Israel Harries Homes had gotten involved. Rootless metropolitans means Jews, and wolf is a misspelling of would, I think.
#9
In the Middle East, it's all about saving face. The killings, mayhem etc are secondary. If face can be saved then no retaliation. So basically sit down and discuss "blood money". It's a bummer from a Western perspective, but it keeps a lid on things.
Must always keep the strategy in mind and not be sidetracked by "accidental" misadventures.
#10
Israel should respond by Thanking Turkey for its unspecified assistance against Iran. And then immediately after issuing the message, withdraw it and substitute a more appropriate one rejecting an apology over the Gaza ship deal.
This would have tongues waving all over the region.
#12
From your lips keyboard to Bibi's ear eyes, 'moose. L:-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/11/2010 17:41 Comments ||
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#13
I can't take credit, Besoeker -- I only studied Dutch the single year we lived near Brussels. But Dictionary.com has a lovely translator, for Dutch at least much quicker than Google. And the article I linked above was the only reference Google had to the subject, other than this thread. Credit goes to Black Bart Shick7973, for coming up with the historical reference.
#14
the word 'unilateral' is totally redundant jargon. Just edit it out wherever you see it, it's totally unnecessary.
Turkey reserves the right to apply sanctions. Means the same thing.
Now on to business.
WAKE UP EUROPE
Do NOT allow Turkey into the EU.
If the EU admits Turkey then all those fanatical Muslims currently held in check by Attaturk's secular constitution (enforced by the military) will be free to spread themselves all over Christendom
#15
TW---Credit goes to Black Bart Shick7973, for coming up with the hysterical historical reference.
In the ME, you cannot use historical. It is a Malaprop.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/11/2010 20:38 Comments ||
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#16
If Turkey does anything foolish, I'm sure Israel can straighten them out by taking out the Bosporus bridge. THAT would be a HUGE loss of face for the Turks. Not to mention that the wreckage would probably take three or four years to clear away, during which time the Bosporus would be closed to traffic.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/11/2010 22:59 Comments ||
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AL Qaeda finally released the full version of its English language web magazine Inspire, the Nine Eleven Finding Answers foundation (NEFA) confirmed.
The magazine, which included articles such as How to Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mum, was plagued with problems when it was first put online on July 1.
Only three of its 67 pages were legible due to an apparent computer glitch.
The magazine, according to intelligence sources, is seen as a direct step toward the recruitment of Americans and an effort to further penetrate the US market.
Until now, al Qaeda relied on Arabic websites to carry its message, but analysts say the new magazine is intended to build on recent success in the radicalisation of Western citizens.
The first edition of the magazine, published by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, includes an article by controversial cleric Anwar al Awlaki entitled May our souls be sacrificed for you, as well as a detailed yet short, easy-to-read manual on how to make a bomb using ingredients found in a kitchen.
It also contains part one of a treatise on What to expect in Jihad and translated messages from Usama Bin Laden on how to save the earth, and his second in command Ayman al Zawahiri.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he plans to ask Egypt's leader for help to promote direct peace talks with the Palestinians.
Divide and conquer?
Mr. Netanyahu said at a Cabinet meeting Sunday that he will meet with President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt on Tuesday.
The Israeli leader said last week after meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington that it is "high time" for direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians to begin.
However, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says direct talks with Israel at the present time would be a waste of time.
Mr. Abbas says direct talks cannot be resumed until there is progress in U.S.-brokered "proximity talks" on the issues of borders and security.
U.S. special envoy George Mitchell has been shuttling between the two sides in a series of indirect talks.
Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Mubarak last met in early May in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, a few days before the start of the indirect peace talks - the first between Israel and the Palestinians in more than a year.
Posted by: American Delight ||
07/11/2010 12:29 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] As part of its bid to impede pro-Palestinian relief efforts, Israel says it has blocked an attempt by Libya to deliver aid to the besieged residents of the Gaza Strip.
The Moldova-flagged cargo ship, the Amalthea, organized by the Tripoli-based Gaddafi International Charity and Development Association, was scheduled to depart from Greece to break the Israeli siege of Gaza.
The aid ship is carrying 12 crewmembers and 2,000 tons of food and medical supplies, including sacks of rice, sugar, corn oil and olive paste.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Saturday, saying that "Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman spoke several times in recent days with the foreign ministers of Greece and Moldova and reached understandings with them about dealing with the Libyan ship."
"The Foreign Ministry believes that due to these talks, the ship will not reach Gaza," AFP quoted the statement.
In addition to the cited negotiations, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak had reportedly convinced Egypt to accept the Amalthea at its port of El-Arish.
This is while relief workers had previously been violently confronted at the Egyptian port.
Efforts by Tel Aviv to prevent the aid ship from reaching Gaza comes after on May 31, Israeli commandos assaulted the Gaza-bound Freedom Flotilla aid convoy, killing nine Turkish nationals onboard.
The fatal attack sent shockwaves across the world and raised global calls for an international investigation into the incident.
Following the international outcry, Tel Aviv said it would ease the land blockade, while keeping the naval surveillance strictly in order.
Palestinians, however, say the situation inside the impoverished Gaza Strip has not been improved, confirming that the restrictions continue to deprive the 1.5 million Gaza residents of food, fuel and other necessities.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/11/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Palestinians, however, say the situation inside the impoverished Gaza Strip has not been improved, confirming that the restrictions continue to deprive the 1.5 million Gaza residents of food, fuel and other necessities like rocket fuel and missile parts, dynamite and launcher tubes.
Posted by: Mike Hunt ||
07/11/2010 2:46 Comments ||
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#2
didn't we see photographs of the very well-stocked pharmacies and supermarkets of Gaza last time they tried to send an aid flotilla?
[Al Arabiya Latest] Britain's ambassador to Lebanon said she regretted any offence caused by her blog praising Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, an early spiritual mentor of Hezbollah who died on Sunday.
Ambassador Frances Guy was criticized by Israel for an article on her Foreign Office blog titled "The passing of decent men", in which she said she was saddened by the Shiite cleric's death and that the world "needs more men like him willing to reach out across faiths".
The Foreign Office said on Friday the article had been removed from her website "after mature consideration".
Fadlallah was revered by many Shiite Muslims across the Middle East and Central Asia, and was known in his later years for his moderate social views and for trying to minimize Muslim sectarian differences. He was designated a terrorist by the United States and Israel because of his links to militant Shiite group Hezbollah and his support for suicide attacks against the Jewish state.
In a new entry, dated July 9, Guy said her earlier posting had been an attempt to "acknowledge the spiritual significance to many of Sheikh Fadlallah and the views that he held in the latter part of his life".
Guy said she had "no truck with terrorism wherever it is committed in whoever's name", and that it was possible for Hezbollah "to reject violence and play a constructive, democratic and peaceful role in Lebanese politics".
The criticism of her blog followed the firing of a senior CNN editor for Middle East news who published a Twitter message expressing her respect for Fadlallah.
Hundreds of thousands of mourners attended Fadlallah's funeral in Beirut. Iraq's U.S.-backed Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and his two predecessors, all flew to Lebanon to pay condolences to the cleric who was born and studied in Iraq and was one of the first backers of Maliki's Dawa Party.
Fadlallah was also seen as the spiritual leader and mentor of Hezbollah when it was formed after Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982, though he later distanced himself from its ties with Iran.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/11/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
STFU. It revealed your real self, you ugly joooo-hating bitch
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/11/2010 8:45 Comments ||
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#2
"Britain's ambassador to Lebanon said she regretted any offence caused by her bloggetting caught praising Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah"
Fixed.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/11/2010 9:57 Comments ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] Hezbollah says the recent provocations by Israel and UNIFIL forces in southern Lebanon are part of an "international move" against the resistance movement.
Resistance sources said on Saturday there was a connection between Tel Aviv's release of pictures, allegedly showing resistance's preparation for armed conflict in the southern Lebanon, and French forces' incitement of clashes with the locals there.
The maps and photographs publicized by the Israeli military echo Tel Aviv's war rhetoric. Israel has launched two wars on Lebanon.
Tel Aviv's 2006 offensive against Beirut killed about 1,200 Lebanese, most of them civilians. The Israeli military, however, was met with Hezbollah resistance and was eventually forced to leave Lebanon without achieving any of its objectives.
The Israeli withdrawal came after the UN Security Council issued Resolution 1709, which ended the conflict and formed the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) to maintain security of Lebanon's southern border with Israel.
Earlier in the month, the French forces deployed in Lebanon as part of the UNIFIL, arrested a local youth in a southern village, inciting clashes with the locals. They then took the captive to a nearby town, where they continued to ignite local outrage by violating the civilians' privacy.
"Exactly like the new French policy, the behavior of the French forces in UNIFIL shows that France has returned to the year 1965 to implement the policy of conspiring against the Arab homeland," the London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper quoted Hezbollah sources as saying on Saturday.
The sources drew a link between "the recent incidents with the UNIFIL forces...to the Israeli fabrications about maps of military positions."
"We sense a suspicious international move.... All these are atmospheres trying to pressure the resistance," they noted. "They are preparing something for us but we are at the highest level of preparedness and calm. We will stay as far as possible from the fiery verbal rivalry because we want the summer of the Lebanese to be complete and pass safely despite all Israel's attempts to implement what it failed to do in 2006, namely, to incapacitate the resistance."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/11/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
The veracity of these Hezbollah and Lebanese statements remind me of back in the day when Negros would hang themselves from tree limbs in order to attract large crowds of men dressed in white sheets and hoods.
"Resistance" my azz
Posted by: Mike Hunt ||
07/11/2010 3:00 Comments ||
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According to CNN, his Facebook page has over nearly 600 fans and features links to his lectures and YouTube videos along with some questionable wall posts. Fear not, after being notified by CNN about the page Facebook quickly removed it stating they dont permit terrorists or terrorist organizations to maintain fan pages.
The terror group at the FBI must be having fun tracking down the six hundred fans. Can anyone say flypaper?
Past and current members of UC Irvine's Muslim Student Union say a move to suspend the club for allegedly disrupting an Israeli official's speech is unduly harsh and overlooks the group's history of religious and charitable endeavors. The Muslim Student Union, which has been on campus for 20 years, faces a yearlong suspension after the university concluded it planned repeated disruptions of a speech by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren in February. The group denies organizing the protest and is appealing the recommended suspension.
Members of the group said political events such as this year's Israeli Apartheid Week, which has been labeled anti-Semitic by the Jewish Federation, the Zionist Organization of America and others, make up only a fraction of the group's activities. "There were so many things that we tried to do as an organization," said Omar Zarka, who was president from 2007 to 2009. "It's really sad that it would get sidelined by something like this."
The MSU drew widespread condemnation by Jewish groups, university officials and politicians after the Oren speech, during which 11 UC Irvine and UC Riverside students were arrested and detained by campus police. The students face possible criminal charges as well as disciplinary hearings.
The group serves as the center of Muslim life for many members, organizing daily prayers and the Friday sermon, weekly religious lectures and dinners in Ramadan to break the fast. Zarka estimated active membership at 50 students and said about 150 additional students were involved or associated with the group. A university spokeswoman said that despite the suspension, the Muslim students would still be offered space on campus for prayers and the Friday sermon. But members of the group said banning it from campus would have a psychological effect by eliminating even for a year the only Muslim group at UC Irvine. The group, for instance, would be banned from participating in the school's Welcome Week, when student organizations recruit freshmen. "I saw people coming into the MSU and realizing that it's OK to be Muslim, that they don't have to be scared and people don't have to be scared of you either," Zarka said.
Robin Mahmud, a 2009 graduate, said that when his mother died and he was faced with the prospect of moving to Michigan to live with relatives, the MSU's housing committee helped him find roommates and an affordable place to live. "In terms of the MSU, it really became like an extended family," he said. "I consider the MSU like a second family."
Amana Rafique Siddiqi, president of the MSU during the 1998-99 academic year, attended the group's events when she was a junior high school student in Long Beach. "I knew I wanted to have a voice, and I thought that MSU would be a good way to do that and finding my niche," said Siddiqi, whose husband was president the previous year. "I feel like if I didn't have it, I would have been more lost in the crowd."
When she was president, the group was smaller, focused more on interfaith and religious activities and had a more social vibe, she said. It was before the 9/11 attacks, and politics didn't play a large role in their activities, though the group did protest the anniversary of Israel's founding. "It was nothing like now with that strong purpose to fight," she said.
Still, more recent members are quick to say the events that garner all the attention like the apartheid wall they erect each year and the controversial speaker Amir Abdel Malik Ali, accused by many Jewish groups of being anti-Semitic are a small part of their activities. "The majority of our events are not political, but the media is not going to write about a group of Muslims who went to a random park and made PB&J for homeless people," Mahmud said.
In the last few years, the MSU raised more than $15,000 in relief funds after Hurricane Katrina and the earthquakes in Pakistan and Haiti, Zarka said. One year, during Zionist Awareness Week, the group sent blankets to the Gaza Strip. One of their biggest events this year was Hijab Day, in which they invited women on campus to wear the headscarf for a day and share their experiences at an event that night. They had expected about two dozen to participate, but more than 100 women signed up.
This year the MSU received the social justice award from the university's Cross-Cultural Center, given to an organization dedicated to tackling and raising awareness of social injustice. A panel of students, faculty and staff reviewed submissions and awarded the honor a week after the university recommended suspending the group.
#1
Taqiyya at it's finest.
Even Hitler & Al Capone had charities.
Gimmie a break.
These guy terrorize the UCI campus intimidating anyone who disagrees with them. This has gone unchecked for years.
They have smashed windshields of Jewish students cars and have actively and constantly kept track of & harassed Jewish students.
Finally they got too-big-for-their-hijabs and the mealy mouth coward Dean of UCI had to do something.
Now they whine like little bitches that their game is up. Like I said: taqiyya at it's finest!
Posted by: Mike Hunt ||
07/11/2010 16:02 Comments ||
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#2
when his mother died and he was faced with the prospect of moving to Michigan to live with relatives
Ouch. A 100% job investigating this guy's finances and associates is due.
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.
At some point, the shouts of "Heil Hitler" that often greeted Marcus Eilenberg as he walked to the 107-year-old Moorish-style synagogue in this port city forced the 32-year-old attorney to make a difficult, life-changing decision: Fearing for his family's safety after repeated anti-Semitic incidents, Eilenberg reluctantly uprooted himself and his wife and two children, and moved to Israel in May. 
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu says his country reserves the right to apply unilateral sanctions on Israel over the Gaza-bound aid Flotilla killings. 
Past and current members of UC Irvine's Muslim Student Union say a move to suspend the club for allegedly disrupting an Israeli official's speech is unduly harsh and overlooks the group's history of religious and charitable endeavors. The Muslim Student Union, which has been on campus for 20 years, faces a yearlong suspension after the university concluded it planned repeated disruptions of a speech by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren in February. The group denies organizing the protest and is appealing the recommended suspension.
