Gangsters, Islamic Terrorists, Deathmatch

English: The Muslim population of the world map by percentage of each country, according to the Pew Forum 2009 report on world Muslim populations. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

June 17, 2012: The continuing violence in the Moslem south has led to 5,000 dead and 8,000 wounded in the last eight years. But it has also led to over 200,000 people leaving the area. Most of those fleeing have been Moslem. About 30 percent of the Buddhists in the south (who were 20 percent of the population in 2004) have fled and ten percent of the Moslems. Criminal gangs, whose main business is smuggling drugs and other contraband from Malaysia, have long dominated the area. The gangs agreed to support the Islamic terrorists, since both groups had something to gain by trying to weaken law and order in the area. While the gangs made it more difficult to improve the economy, they were more tolerable than the Islamic terrorists. All this has become too much for most Moslems. The Islamic terrorists wanted to expel all non-Moslems, shut down secular schools, and didn’t care if they made it difficult to improve the economy. This was too much for most of the Moslems the Islamic terrorists were supposed to be representing. Those that don’t flee are increasingly joining pro-government armed defense groups. The gangs and Islamic terror groups refuse to negotiate or quit, so it’s a fight to the death. The gangs will probably turn on their Islamic radical allies eventually, as the criminal organizations are not run by religious fanatics but business-minded entrepreneurs who are not keen on getting wiped out. Then again, the gangsters believe that the Islamic radicals will have to be killed, otherwise the southern gangsters will have some pretty deadly and determined enemies in their own backyard.

Grand Mufti Of Bosnia Once Again Singles Out Kuwait For Praise

Image via Wikipedia

Kuwaiti media is reporting that Mustafa Ceric, the Grand Mufti of Bosnia, has once again praised Kuwait for he calls the Kuwaiti role in supporting Bosnia and its people. According to a Kuwaiti news agency report:

SARAJEVO, Jan 27 (KUNA) — Head of the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina Dr. Mustafa Ceric praised the Kuwaiti role in supporting his country and people. Moralistic and financial aid provided by the Government of Kuwait have left good impact among Bosnian people, Ceric said in a meeting with the Kuwaiti Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mohammad Khalaf. He added that his discussions with the ambassador dealt with the Kuwaiti assistance, namely contributions to financing construction of the new Islamic headquarters in Sarajevo, which would manage affairs related to scholars and religious teaching. Ceric admired the deep relations between Kuwait and Bosnia and Herzegovina on different levels. For his part, the diplomat expressed gratitude for Ceric, due to his appreciation for the Kuwaiti efforts, noting that the Kuwait’s position on Bosnia and Herzegovina is based on its foreign policy in aiding nations, especially Muslim countries.

Growing use of Sharia by UK Muslims

By Divya Talwar BBC Asian Network

Divya Talwar explores why the use of Sharia law is increasing in the UK

The use of Sharia, or Islamic religious law, is growing in Britain, with thousands of Muslims using it to settle disputes each year, but women’s groups and some others are objecting.

”You must speak the truth, sister. Because Allah is listening to your every word, you can lie to us but not to Him.”

The bearded sheikh is instructing his first client of the day to explain why she is unhappy in her marriage.

Sitting behind a small desk in the back room of a converted terrace house, Sheikh Haitham al-Haddad is a representative of the Islamic Sharia Council, the largest Sharia body in the UK, based in Leyton, east London.

The woman has come to the council for an Islamic divorce because her husband refuses to grant her one.

”I’m not happy. He’s never at home and I’ve seen messages from other women on his phone. He doesn’t even give money to help support the kids,” the woman tells the sheikh.

Belgium: Muslim executive ‘under control of foreign countries’

Belgium: Muslim executive ‘under control of foreign countries’Via HLN (Dutch):

“Belgian Muslim bodies are definitively under the control of foreign countries. The Muslim Executive will now be led only by people who will prioritze the interests of their land of origin over those of Belgian Muslims,” says the AMDB (Democaratic Alternative of Belgian Muslims), who say they unite ‘all components of the Muslim community’ in Belgium.

EGYPT The Copts fear the “protection” of the army, which turns on NGOs

Fears of new attacks against churches in the celebrations at the end of the year and Orthodox Christmas. Muslim Brotherhood announced their commitment to protect Christians. Military raid against 17 foreign NGOs engaged in human rights. Blocked all funds and transactions. Caritas among the associations. Spokesman for the Catholic Church “The soldiers think only of themselves and protect their power.”Cairo (AsiaNews) – The Arab Spring is increasingly being betrayed by the authorities. About 10 months after the fall of the Mubarak regime, sources tell AsiaNews that there is an atmosphere of instability and fear in the country. In view of the end of year festivities and the Orthodox Christmas (January 6), the Coptic community fears new attacks against the churches, similar to those that occurred after the New Year of 2011 in Alexandria and in 2010 at Nag Hammadi (Luxor). Tensions have been increased by continuous military statements about the presence of unspecified external forces interested in wreaking havoc in the country before January 25, the anniversary of the Jasmine revolution.

In recent days, Kiryllos, Coptic Orthodox Bishop of Nag Hammadi appealed to General Tantawi, head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), asking that safety be guaranteed during the celebrations. “I have received several bomb threats against my diocese – he says – and I asked the police to protect the community.” Yesterday, the SCAF assured maximum protection for Copts. Even the Muslim Brotherhood, winners of the first two rounds of parliamentary elections, have responded to the bishop’s call. In a statement posted yesterday on their site, they announced they will collaborate with the military in maintaining security around Coptic churches during the holiday.

On New Year’s Eve 2011 in Alexandria, a car bomb exploded during a Mass of the Coptic community, killing 21 people. Because of the attack clashes erupted between Christians and Muslims, but it turned out that the attack was orchestrated by the secret services of Habib el-Adly, the interior minister of the Mubarak government. On January 6, 2010, an armed commando opened fire on a group of faithful of the church of Saint John in Nag Hammadi, killing seven people. At the time the police had ignored repeated requests for protection of the Coptic communities. No policeman was on guard at the time of the attack.

Boko Haram

Author:	Toni Johnson, Senior Editor/Senior Staff Writer

Image via Wikipedia

Update: December 27, 2011

• Introduction
• Birth of Boko Haram
• Rising Against the State
• The North-South Divide
• Terror Ties and Policy Prescriptions

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Introduction

Boko Haram, an Islamist religious sect, has targeted Nigeria’s police, rival clerics, politicians, and public institutions with increasing violence since 2009. Some experts say the group should primarily be seen as leading an armed revolt against the government’s entrenched corruption, abusive security forces, strife between the disaffected Muslim north and Christian south, and widening regional economic disparity in an already impoverished country. They argue that Abuja should do more to address the issues facing the disaffected Muslim north. But Boko Haram’s suspected bombing of a UN building in Abuja in August 2011 and its ties to regional terror groups may signal a new trajectory and spark a stronger international response that makes it harder to address the north’s alienation.

Birth of Boko Haram

Mohammad Yusuf, a radical Islamist cleric, created Boko Haram in 2002 in Maiduguri, the capital of the northeastern state of Borno. The group aims to establish a fully Islamic state in Nigeria, including the implementation of criminal sharia courts across the country. Paul Lubeck, a University of California professor studying Muslim societies in Africa, says Yusuf was a trained salafist (CSMonitor) (a school of thought often associated with jihad), and was strongly influenced by Ibn Taymiyyah, a fourteenth century legal scholar who preached Islamic fundamentalism and is considered a “major theorist” for radical groups in the Middle East.

Boko Haram colloquially translates into “Western education is sin,” which experts say is a name assigned by the state. The sect calls itself Jama’atul Alhul Sunnah Lidda’wati wal jihad, or “people committed to the propagation of the prophet’s teachings and jihad.” Some analysts say the movement is an outgrowth of the Maitatsine riots of the 1980s (AfricaToday) and the religious/ethnic tensions that followed in the late 1990s. Many Nigerians believe Yusuf rejected all things Western, but Lubeck argues that Yusuf, who embraced technology, believed Western education should be “mediated through Islamic scholarship,” such as rejecting the theory of evolution and Western-style banking.

Before 2009, the group did not aim to violently overthrow the government. Yusuf criticized northern Muslims for participating in what he saw as an illegitimate, non-Islamic state and preached a doctrine of withdrawal. But violence between Christians and Muslims (al-Jazeera) and harsh government treatment, including pervasive police brutality, encouraged the group’s radicalization. Human Rights Watch researcher Eric Guttschuss told news service IRIN that Yusuf gained supporters “by speaking out against police and political corruption.” Boko Haram followers, also called Yusuffiya, consist largely of hundreds of impoverished northern Islamic students and clerics as well as university students and professionals, many of whom are unemployed. Some followers may also be members of Nigeria’s elite.

Nigeria Christmas Day bombings: Boko Haram terror attacks indicate deep threat to country’s stability

Dec 25, 2011 – 3:03 PM ET

REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde

A car burns at the scene of a bomb explosion at St. Theresa Catholic Church at Madalla, Suleja, just outside Nigeria’s capital Abuja, December 25, 2011. Five bombs exploded on Christmas Day at churches in Nigeria, one killing at least 27 people, raising fears that Islamist militant group Boko Haram – which claimed responsibility – is trying to ignite sectarian civil war.

By Tim Cocks

LAGOS — Christmas Day bomb attacks against churches in Nigeria by Islamist militant group Boko Haram targeted the country’s religious and ethnic faultlines in an apparently escalating campaign to fracture the nation’s stability.

The shadowy group from Nigeria’s Muslim north, blamed for dozens of bombings and shootings in recent years, said it was responsible for a string of blasts, three of them in churches, including one that killed at least 27 people at a packed Christmas service on the outskirts of the capital Abuja.

Wahhabist Militancy in Bosnia Profits from Local and International Inaction

Publication: Terrorism Monitor Volume: 9 Issue: 42

November 17, 2011 03:28 PM Age: 4 days

Category: Terrorism Monitor, Global Terrorism Analysis, Home Page, Featured, Europe

By: Nenad Pejic

Ali Pasha’s Mosque, constructed in Sarajevo during 1560-61

Though the United States once took the lead in international efforts to save the Muslims of Bosnia during the bitter conflict that struck that nation in the 1990s, it is now under attack by the Salafist/Wahhabist community that began to flourish there after foreign jihadists were allowed to settle in Bosnia after the conflict. The current Wahhabist perception of America has even found its way into song:

America and other adversaries should know
that now the Muslims
are one like the Taliban
listen, brothers,
believers of the world
with dynamite on their chest
lead the path to dzennet (heaven)

The above lyrics were written by Bilal Bosnic, a Wahhabi community leader from the city of Bihac in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) (radiosarajevo.ba, November 4). [1] Bosnic sings it at weddings and other kinds of social gatherings. How, then, did America become the enemy of radical Islam in the Balkans after undertaking two military interventions aimed at protecting Muslim civilians (Bosnia in 1994 and Kosovo in 1999)?

Many claim that Islamic extremism established itself among Bosnian Muslims thanks to the “inaction” of the West when the 1991 UN arms embargo left Muslims defenseless and when the West failed to secure UN protection zones in Srebrenica, Zepa and Gorazde during the war. The failure to protect these zones led to what some termed the first post-WWII genocide in Europe. This “inaction” gives a partial explanation but not a complete one. There is another “inaction” of local origin that contributed much more to the growing influence of Islamic extremists in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

There are countless examples of local authorities in Bosnia failing to act properly against Islamic extremism. The majority of these criminal cases have not been resolved and when the terrorists are identified the trials take years. There are some claims that “inaction” in Bosnia had its roots nearly 20 years ago when Bosnian authorities granted 50 passports to foreign mujahideen, most of whom were Salafist/Wahhabis (Oslobodjenje [Sarajevo], November 3). This “inaction” is not related to the police or court capacity or poor equipment, but rather to the ethnically divided BiH police and judiciary that has political sponsorship.

Three Christians Killed in Attacks in Nigeria’s Kaduna State

Shadrack Luka, 8, was among 12 Christians wounded in church attack near Zonkwa, Kaduna state.	(Photo: Compass)

Armed Muslim gang raids church, neighboring village; 8-year-old among 13 injured.

ZONKWA, Nigeria, November 8 (CDN) — It was a few minutes before 10 at night when the staccato sound of gunfire interrupted the serene worship of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church near Zonkwa, Kaduna state. When the chaos ended, two women lay dead and 12 people were wounded.

The attack by a Muslim extremist gang in Tabak 1 village on Thursday (Nov. 3) shattered the peace long known to Christians there, area sources said. The following night at about the same time, the gang raided another Christian community near Zonkwa, Kurmin-Bi, killing one Christian and injuring another.

While the Islamic extremist Boko Haram was responsible for several attacks that killed at least 150 people in Borno and Yobe states in Nigeria’s northeast over the weekend, Christians in Tabak 1 village in northern Nigeria’s centrally located Kaduna state said the church attack appeared to come from a Muslim gang not affiliated with the terrorist group.

The two women killed were Justina Zugwai Isaac, 28, and Hassana Luka, 39. A Roman Catholic seminary student who was leading worship at the time, 32-year-old Emmanuel Mallam, said it was a miracle that only the two women died in the attack.

Unaware that the attackers were hidden in the bushes around the church building, the two women were outside the building when they were shot, Mallam said. He had asked parishioner Julius Jacob, 38, to make closing remarks when the shooting began.

Mubarak v. The Brotherhood

February 3, 2011

Andrew McCarthy

It is simply delirious to suggest that we can work with the Muslim Brotherhood, that the Brotherhood has renounced violence, or that a Brotherhood-led government will ultimately be better for the United States or, for that matter, for Egyptians.

We have two principal interests in the region: peace and anti-terrorism. Say what you will about Mubarak, who has committed abominable abuses and stunted the growth of civil society — albeit in the face of a non-stop terrorist threat that is more immediate and existential than anything we face in the U.S. Mubarak has also kept the peace with Israel, and he has been a real ally against terrorists (as opposed to “allies” who profess allegiance with us but do more to abet than defeat jihadism).