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The Quran-burning controversy in the United States has prompted the Islamic bloc at the United Nations to revive its call for the U.N. to set up an “international monitoring mechanism” to track incidents of “Islamophobia.”

Muslim nations must collectively resist growing Islamophobia in the US and Europe, the head of the world's largest organization of Islamic countries told ministers from the 57 member nations gathered here this week. 

Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu urged members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference to work with Western leaders to dispel misconceptions about their faith. They met on the edge of the UN General Assembly. 

... "The Muslim world is going through an unprecedented difficult and trying time," Ihsanoglu told the ministers during their annual meeting on Friday. "We are facing daunting challenges and severe hardships. Islam and Muslims are under serious attack, and Islamophobia is growing and becoming more rampant and dangerous by the day."

He said a "pandemic of Islam vilification" is sweeping through some parts of Europe and the United States, increasing misperceptions about Islam and eroding Muslims' human rights.

Representatives of 45 nations and international bodies met in Madrid Monday to consider plans to strengthen an African Union peacekeeping force in war-torn Somalia.

The AU force, known as AMISOM, comprises about 7,200 troops, and the meeting of the UN-backed International Contact Group on Somalia, which is to conclude on Tuesday, will "look into a possible reinforcement," Spain's foreign ministry said in a statement.

Stepping up the fight against maritime piracy in waters off the coast of Somalia and finding ways to boost support for the country's transitional government will be among the other topics discussed, it added.

Delegates from 45 nations and international organisations, including the United States and the European Union, are taking part in the meeting which was closed to the press.

Somali President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and the top United Nations envoy to the country, Augustine Mahiga, are among the participants.

Ahmed warned in a speech before the UN General Assembly on Saturday that Somalia is "a weak link" in the fight against international terrorism and urged nations to continue to assist in training its forces and supporting the AU peacekeeping contingent.

The Amereya police deportment in Alexandria arrested three men from the same family and accused them of murdering two of the mens’ sister and dumping the body in the sewage after hearing rumors about her.

The two brothers and the girl’s uncle dragged her in a car along with her three-year-old child and drove to an isolated area where they strangled her with her head scarf in front of her baby, media and police reports stated.

Police said that they stabbed her in the chest and the stomach with a knife to make sure she was dead. Later that night, they dumped the body in the sewer system where it was found and taken to the corner’s office.

The deceased, Karima Metawe, 20, was married to a butcher who works in Libya and her brother and uncle allegedly had heard rumors about her leaving the house and going out, leaving her child behind, so they decided to take her life to ‘restore’ their family’s honor.

“We have a little bit of freedom,” said Khaled al-Ekhetyar, a 29-year-old journalist for a Web site whose business card shows a face with hands covering up the eyes and mouth. “We can say things that can’t be said in print.”

But that slim margin is threatened by an ever present fog of fear and intimidation, and some journalists fear that it could soon be snuffed out. A draft law regulating online media would clamp down on Syrian bloggers and other journalists, forcing them to register as syndicate members and submit their writing for review. Other Arab countries regularly jail journalists who express dissident views, but Syria may be the most restrictive of all.

Most of the Syrian media is still owned by the state. Privately owned media outlets became legal in 2001, as the socialist economy slowly began to liberalize following the accession of President Bashar al-Assad. But much of the sector is owned by members of the Syrian “oligarchy” — relatives of Mr. Assad and other top government officials. All of it is subject to intimidation and heavy-handed control.

“The first level is censorship,” said Ayman Abdel Nour, the founder of All4Syria.info, the independent Web site where Mr. Ekhetyar works. “The second level is when they send you statements and force you to publish them.” Like many other journalists and dissidents, Mr. Abdel Nour has left the country and now lives abroad.

Top Taliban leaders have made overtures to reconcile with the Afghan government, the top commander in Afghanistan said Monday.

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai has long said that he will talk to insurgents if they renounce violence, sever ties to terrorists and embrace the Afghan constitution.

Publicly, the Taliban have said they won't negotiate until foreign troops leave Afghanistan, yet there are many indications that backdoor discussions have occurred.

A group self-called Islamic Ghosts Team (Islamic Ghosts) has cracked the website of the Sixth Biennial of Photography Miserachs Xavier de Palafrugell, leaving the all-black page with a single entry: the name of this group of crackers.

The biennial, which opened Sept. 11 and closes tomorrow, has eight exhibition halls spread over different municipality, including the photographer Alfonso del Moral (Valladolid, 1977), which presents a striking set of images on heroin addicts in Kabul.

Perhaps these photographs led the Islamic Ghosts Team to attack the web of the biennial, which at the time of this writing, is still hacked. A search on Google can see that the same group has carried out similar actions against other sites, including the ones of the Granollers Institute and the presidency of the Republic of Guyana.

"Activists in Chechnya, where Russia has waged two wars against separatists in the past 16 years, said intimidation reached a peak during the fasting month of Ramadan. There was also a crackdown on violations of Islamic law such as the sale of food before sundown and any sale of alcohol, they said.

The activists who spoke from Chechnya insisted on anonymity because they said they feared reprisals.

Threats tapered off, they said, as Ramadan ended in mid-September. Men in Islamic clothes had been approaching women whom they deemed unsuitably dressed to pull them by the arm, an offense according to Chechen custom.

A woman activist said that incidents she recorded in August included a woman being taken away by men in a jeep for wearing a skirt they regarded as see-through and no head scarf in Grozny, the Chechen capital. Other men handed out leaflets to women advising them how to dress, she said.

According to Chechen tradition, women should not wear sleeveless clothes; they usually wear a strip of headscarf more like a hairband than a hijab. Until recently, it was considered the prerogative of male family members to decide their style of dress, but Islamic activists, with support from Mr. Kadyrov, are calling for much fuller cover.

....The New York-based Human Rights Watch said in August that women’s rights were being violated by efforts to impose an Islamic dress code. It said women without headscarves or in immodest dress had been attacked with paintball guns in Grozny.

Debhi Mohammed Omar

National Police agents have arrested a person for his alleged links to international terrorism. The arrest took place yesterday at 12 noon at the Street Ronda in Canigó Esplugues de Llobregat (Barcelona), when Debhi Mohamed Omar, the suspected terrorist, left his home. He is a 43-year-old of Algerian origins and US nationality.

Investigations have linked him to crimes of terrorist funding in the Sahel for Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and crimes of fraud to the Spanish Public Finance and Social Security, and forgery.

The arrest comes after an investigation conducted by the General Information Office and coordinated by the Central Court of Instruction No. 1 of the National Court.

According to police investigations, Debhi Mohamed Omar sent significant amounts of money, either by bank transfer or by human couriers, to an Algerian citizen living in his country, named Toufik Mizi, who is fleeing the Spanish judiciary since 2006 for allegedly belonging to a terrorist organization.

The two suspected terrorists had ties since 2003 and Debhi Omar's activity consisted mainly in bleaching and sending part of the money obtained to Algerian AQIM cells, hiding under the cover of fictious trade.

The money, in quantities that exceeded €60,000, was sent to Toufik Mizi, allowing its subsequent delivery to AQIM cells to optimize the purchase of material used in their terrorist activities.

In the house where the searches were performed, police have seized three laptop computers, hard drives, invoices and companies' constitution documents and numerous banking documents and other related research. It has also involved a luxury car and a pleasure boat, which he had anchored in Badalona's port.

The detainee lives in a residential community of 180 townhouses in the highlands of this dormitory town next to Barcelona. The development has communal areas such as gardens, swimming pool and gym, which the detainee and his family never used.

Debhi Omar Mohamed, a U.S. national of Algerian origins, aged 43, is married with six sons and daughters, some children still and some others teenagers. Some of them reside in the United States. The rest follow his studies at the American school near the estate. The wife, young-looking and "very beautiful", didn't walk much around the neighborhood because "she didn't leave the house just leave the house often".
The detainee led an "apparently normal" life, although he didn't engage at all with neighbors, according to inhabitants of the estate.
Neighbors describe the family of "rare", so his detention has not shocked anyone. Dehbi hadn't "strange" visiors at home, and he made no suspicious activity.
Debhi Omar and his companion drive expensive cars like a Cadillac Escalade and Cadillac TS, in addition to owning a boat that is moored in Badalona. However, they assure that their home is "austere" and "very simple."

A 37-year-old Moroccan man has been arrested on suspicion of killing his 47-year-old sister, at his home in the village of Llano de Brujas (Murcia). She was hit repeatedly with a frying pan in the head during a fight for unknown reasons, informed a spokesman of this body.

The detainee, who is now at Civil Guard HQs at Santomera whose agents are investigating this case, called the emergency phone at 0:50 a.m., apparently worried because his sister didn't open her house's door.

Local police rushed to the scene and, upon entering the house, agents found the woman dead, lying on the ground beside a large pool of blood and a hole in the head. The death has been certified by the physician of the medicalized Emergency Unit.

Apparently, agents have arrested the brother after hearing theneighbour's testimony. Witnesses have said that there was a fight between brothers and the agents have discovered clues that point to a domestic violence case.

Ghait is famous in the Muslim world for memorising the Koran by the age of 17.

Yesterday he pleaded guilty to two charges under the Sexual Offences Act of exposing his genitals with the intention that someone would see them and be caused alarm or distress.

Magistrates jailed him for six weeks on each charge, to serve side-by-side, and placed him on the Sex Offenders' Register for seven years.

Ghait was one of 21 Libyan imams invited to Britain by the UK Arabic Society to preach at mosques during Ramadan.

He was staying at a flat in Easton, Bristol, when the offences happened in August.

A German citizen of Afghan descent was the source of much of the information on a potential "Mumbai-style" terror plot in Europe, a German counterterrorism official said Wednesday.

The man, Ahmed Sidiqi, was detained in Kabul in July and transferred to U.S. custody where he has "revealed details about the terror plot," said the official, who did not want to be named because he is not authorized to talk to the media.

"Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Monday that his government is carrying out initial studies into starting a nuclear energy program.

Chavez brought up the issue during a news conference, saying the South American country needs an atomic energy program.

'We're taking on the project of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, and they aren't going to stop us,' Chavez said. 'We need it and we're carrying out the first studies.'

Chavez is a close ally of Iran and has defended the Iranian nuclear program, saying he is sure Iran is not making atomic weapons in spite of U.S. and European suspicions."

"The Syrian government ordered the closure of numerous 'house churches' for meeting in places the government deems inappropriate for worship. Many congregations in Syria cannot afford to buy a plot of land and build a church, so instead they purchase an apartment and turn it into a place of worship. However, during the past few months, the government has enforced a law stating that congregations must only gather in buildings that resemble a church.

Many Syrian Christians, however, believe that the government's 'legal' excuse for closing churches is merely a cover-up for a wider government crackdown against evangelical Christian activity in Syria. 'Syrian Christians that are active in their faith know that they are watched very closely and the government is waiting for an excuse to crack down on them,' a Syrian Christian told ICC. 'The government is targeting all religious activities which are considered 'extreme' -- from Muslim extremists all the way to Christians… It is generally believed that the government is getting reports from Orthodox and certain denominations as well as secret police and certain Islamic congregations.'"

"The Taliban has warned Bangladesh against sending its troops to Afghanistan after the US asked Dhaka to send its forces to the war-ravaged country.

The Taliban Monday told Bangladesh to refuse the US request to send combat troops to Afghanistan, a media report said.

The US monitoring service SITE intelligence group published a report Monday with the headline 'Afghan Taliban reacts to US requesting troops from Bangladesh', said Star Online, website of The Daily Star newspaper.

US Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke last week made the plea to send troops to Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni at a meeting in New York."

The main religion practiced in Bangladesh is Islam (89.7%), but a significant minority adheres to Hinduism (9.2%).[77] The majority of Muslims are Sunni. There is a small Shia and an even smaller Ahmadiyya community. Ethnic Biharis are predominantly Shia Muslims. Sufi influences in the region go back many centuries.[78] Other religious groups include Buddhists (0.7%, mostly Theravada), Christians (0.3%, mostly of the Roman Catholic denomination), and Animists (0.1%). Bangladesh has the fourth largest Muslim population after Indonesia, Pakistan, and India, with over 130 million. 

Everyone shoud take notice of three facts: the "Cordoba" mosque they want to set up at Ground Zero in New York, the requirement that the Spanish city and the entire Al Andalus are Muslim, and its relation to the Madrid bombings of March 11, 2004, planned before September 11th 2001.

The nearly 200 dead in Madrid massacres are not related to the Spanish participation in Afghanistan or Iraq, as noted in "El País" one of the most authoritative voices on global jihadism, Fernando Reinares, Dean of the University Rey Juan Carlos, and advisor to the Interior and the intelligence agencies of different countries.

Reinares just written with Ignacio Cembrero, a specialist in North Africa, that in early summer 2001, two months before the attack on the Twin Towers, Amer Azizi, a member of Al Qaeda training in Afghanistan turned to commit massive attacks in Spain, where he had residence, calling for an Islamic reconquest of Al Andalus.

Immediately after the police broke up the 11/S cell, but he fled first to Iran and then to Afghanistan. He was killed in 2005 by a U.S. missile.

The article surprisingly, as if it was from another context, misses the May 2002 bombing at the House of Spain in Casablanca, which resulted in 41 deaths, and the conflict of "the Perejil Island", two months later. Both cases occurred a year before sending Spanish troops to Iraq in summer 2003.

After the massacres of March 11, 2004, the victory of Zapatero and the erroneous attribution of the attack on the Spanish presence in Iraq took place.

Yes, pay attention: there is a growing Muslim dream related to Al Andalus. That dream is now supercharged by the installation in the triumph for Islamist imaginary, Ground Zero, of the Cordoba mosque.

And Cordoba, the Spanish city, is a false multiculturalist myth, terrible for the unfaithful in times of Islam. Much more bloody and brutal than any current Saudi city, whatever is said now by the actual Moorish and the current U.S. ambassador to Madrid, driven by the ignorance of Obama's Cairo speech fifteen months ago.

Tribune: Fernando Reinares and Ignacio Cembrero: Was Spain an AQ target before Sept. 11?

In early summer 2001, when Amer Azizi (left) returned to Spain from Afghanistan, the decision to attack our country had been taken. So, was really the participation in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq the trigger for the attack?

11/09/2010 - It's no wonder that the Spanish people, as Europeans generally, link the threat that international terrorism poses to Western society with the involvement of their governments in military interventions in countries whose populations are predominantly Muslim. But their countries maintain troops in these countries carrying on work of various kinds.

When assessing the inherent threat posed that global Islamist-inspired violence, the circumstances must be weighed. They are mixed national politics, with foreign affairs side, with typical dimensions of security and defense. But not necessarily those constitute the decisive factor -perhaps not even the most important one- of those which should be taken into account. There are other relevant factors, such as the underlying ideology to the phenomenon of terrorism or other certain issues which are best understood considering the domestic policy.

People continue to take for granted that what really put Spain in sight of Al Qaeda were two factors. First, the highly visible alignment of La Moncloa (NOTE: the Government) with the White House and Downing Street in the decision to invade Iraq, which is reflected graphically in the well known photo of the Azores. Second, the deployment of Spanish soldiers in Iraq from August 2003, just five months after U.S. and British troops begin military actions that concluded, provisionally, with the capture of Baghdad.

The Spanish mission lasted until shortly after the attacks of March 11, 2004 in Madrid and the subsequent change of party in government after the general elections held three days after that infamous date. In fact, March 11 bombings have been and continue to be interpreted primarily as a result of pre-positioning of the Popular Party Executive on the issue of Iraq and the military involvement in this protracted conflict.

However, it is also reasonable to think that Spain was already the target of the wrath of Osama Bin Laden and his followers prior to the invasion of Iraq and the dispatch of Spanish troops there. Maybe we were AQ's target since 2002, when a contingent of our army began its participation in the peacekeeping mission carried out by NATO in Afghanistan within the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

In some of his communications, the March 11th terrorists themselves alluded to it and justified the decision attacking again when they saw that a withdrawal from Afghanistan was not contemplated. Police foiled the plan to locate the apartment rented by the jihadist cell in Leganes in which seven of its members blew themselves up on 3 April 2004, trying to cause maximum damage.

Nearly four years later, a Pakistani Taliban organization associated with al Qaeda named Therik-e-Taliban (NOTE: among other leaders, we can name Baitullah Mehsud, killed by a US drone last year, and Hakimullah Mehsud, who was also reported killed thanks to another US drone. It seems its leader now is Malik Noor Jamal, alias Maulana Toofan) acknowledged being behind the failed suicide attack on the subway in Barcelona in January 2008 after preparing a number of individuals convicted by the High Court. The Pakistani Taliban then referred to Spain's role in Afghanistan.

There are, however, reasons to believe that Spain became a prime target for al Qaeda before 2002, when our troops were deployed in Afghanistan. More specifically, it is possible that the desire to perpetrate a major attack on Spanish territory goes back no less than the fall of 2001. It was then that an Al Qaeda cell had been established in Spain since the mid-nineties, cell which was dismantled by the police. Most of its members, including the then leader of it, known by his nickname Abu Dahdah (photo), was jailed.

It is no coincidence that among the individuals who played key roles in the terrorist network of March 11th bombings, there were some who were closely related to that core jihadist, but for one reason or another were not arrested in the operation which disrupted the said cell. That operation was precipitated by the links the Spanish cell maintained with Hamburg, ie with the Sept 11's terrorists. Abu Dahdah and his followers had already long been the subject of police and judicial investigations by Spanish authorities as well as by those of other European countries and worldwide.

But now there are new reasons to suspect that Al Qaeda put Spain in sight and not before the invasion of Iraq occurred in 2003 or by sending Spanish troops to Afghanistan in 2002, but before cell that had formed in our country are substantially dismantled by police in the fall of 2001, two months after the attacks on New York and Washington. Moreover, even before the same Sept 11.

This information comes from a revealing document prepared by the Fajr Center for News Production, document which was reported during the last quarter of last year by Tauhid Press through various Jihadist Internet portals. The document, written in Arabic language by a reporter allowed Al Qaeda using his nickname Abu Ubayd al Maqdisi, is part of a series on the "Maghreb martyrs in the distant land of the Hindu Kush", referring to the prominent al-Qaeda militants from Morocco who have died in Afghanistan or Pakistan.

This is the fifth installment of the aforementioned series, devoted entirely to Amer Azizi, a Moroccan who was a prominent member of al-Qaeda cell in Spain, the one who had Abu Dahdah as lieutenant. This guy dodged the police operation that dismantled the cell in November 2001 and fled to Afghanistan after passing through Iran.

El País exclusively published on December, 17, 2009, that Amer Azizi died on the morning of December 1, 2005, as a result of a missile from an unmanned U.S. aircraft against an enclave near the administrative capital of Waziristan North (right. He noted also that he was then serving as number two of Hamza Rabia, responsible for the actions of Al Qaeda in Europe and North America, who was killed in the attack which was the main objective. However, this document, whose existence El País has also published on May 8, 2010, not only confirmed that Amer Azizi was Hamza Rabia's deputy when March 11th bombings took place. It also tells us that this former member of the al-Qaeda's cell in Spain did and wanted to do before Sept 11.

Although this information is now among other documents in the preliminary proceedings by the High Court due to the dismantling of that cell, the text signed by Abu Ubayd al Maqdisi confirms that before the Sept 11, Amer Azizi was in training camps in Afghanistan. But what those documents don't tell but appears among the Jihadist writings, is that after a few months "with those who were in charge of training camps where he stayed", he returned to Spain "with the hope of carrying out a jihadist action in the usurped the land", referring to al-Andalus, the islamized Spain.

Moreover, "once in the Crusader Spain, he began preparing, along with other companions of jihad, targets of the Crusaders to hit". But, as related in the document, "Spanish intelligence services soon arrested most members of the jihadist cell, which coincided with the blessed (¡!) attacks in New York and Washington". It is clear, then, that Spain was the target of Al Qaeda before Sept 11th. In early summer 2001, when Amer Azizi returned to Spain from Afghanistan, the decision to prepare an attack on Spanish soil had been taken.

Fernando Reinares is Professor of Political Science at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos and Ignacio Cembrero is a reporter for El País.

France is ready to negotiate with the al-Qaeda-linked group that holds seven hostages in the Sahara desert, Defense Minister Herve Morin said.

“We are waiting for the demands of al-Qaeda in order to discuss” the matter, Morin said in an interview today with Canal-Plus television.

The hostages, five workers from Vinci SA’s Satom subsidiary and one Areva SA employee and his wife, were kidnapped Sept. 16 in Arlit, near a uranium mine in northern Niger, the companies have said. French officials say they think they’ve been moved to somewhere in Mali. Five of the hostages are French, one is Togolese, and one Madagascan.

Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb, a terror group that operates in the southern Sahara desert, has issued two statements claiming the kidnapping.

France has sent two reconnaissance aircraft to Niger to help locate the hostages.

“As in all hostage cases, negotiations are complex, they are difficult, they are uncertain,” Morin said. “I am not more optimistic than yesterday, but I’m not more pessimistic either.”

Agence France-Presse reported over the weekend that an unnamed Malian said he’d seen the hostages, and that they are alive.

A plot to target or kidnap British athletes and fans coming to India for the 2010 Commonwealth Games has emerged over their country's support to the war in Afghanistan.

Security sources have warned of "specific intelligence" about a threat by an unnamed Al Qaeda-linked group to take hostages in front of a global television audience.

Reports emerging from Australia suggest a number of countries are worried but will not upgrade travel warnings for fear of angering India.

They said citizens of Australia, the UK, Canada and New Zealand could be targets of a snatch attempt because their countries supported the war in Afghanistan.

Australia has asked fans not to wear national colours and in Britain it has emerged that security forces will work with counterparts from Canada, Australia and New Zealand to protect athletes at every venue.

"It is a serious situation. There is specific intelligence about an attempted hostage snatch. People travelling to India, and particularly Delhi, need to be aware of the risks," The Daily Express quoted a source, as saying.

There are also concerns about Pakistani group Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT) getting into the act, after Michael Leiter, director of the US National Counter-Terrorism Centre, told the US Senate the games would make "an appealing target".

Taliban militants hanged an Afghan man and his wife in Logar Province on Sunday. The militants accused them of “working for foreign invaders”. The man, Said Reza Gazanfar, 65, had worked for a foreign non-governmental organization called “Coordination of Afghan Relief”.

According to the deputy head of security forces in the province, Mohammad Djan, both were sexually abused before the execution.

Sa’d Arafat: Allah honored wives by instating the punishment of beatings.

Interviewer: Honored them with beatings? How is this possible?!

Sa’d Arafat: The prophet Muhammad said: “Don’t beat her in the face, and do not make her ugly.” See how she is honored. If the husband beats his wife, he must not beat her in the face. Even when he beats her, he must not curse her. This is incredible! He beats her in order to discipline her.

In addition, there must not be more than ten beatings, and he must not break her bones, injure her, break her teeth, or poke her in the eye. There is a beating etiquette. If he beats to discipline her, he must not raise his hand high. He must beat her from chest level. All these things honor the woman.

West Norwalk residents are protesting construction of the town's first official mosque, which they say will create neighborhood parking and traffic problems.

The Al Madany Islamic Center of Norwalk, which now worships in a private residence on Elton Court, has outgrown the space and wants to move to a bigger prayer hall. The congregation purchased a 1.5-acre property at 127 Fillow St. in 2008 and submitted a proposal in June to the Planning and Zoning Commission for construction of a mosque and community center.

Neighbors are concerned that streets are too narrow to accommodate overflow parking from the mosque and that the roads are already busy with the numerous school and city buses. Residents plan to voice their opposition to the proposal at a Wednesday public hearing.

"We are trying to prevent them from building a very large building on the corner here that happens to be a mosque," said Ray Mosser, who lives in the Fillow Ridge Townhouses. "Our biggest concern is the traffic and safety. We all have to pass by here."

The headscarf is more than just a piece of fabric, more than just another article of clothing, and definitely not some hip lifestyle accessory that heavily made-up girls should use to add a little color to their wardrobe. No, the head scarf is a "flag and symbol of Islamists" which "followed a crusade all the way to the heart of Europe by the 1980s." Or so says iconic German feminist Alice Schwarzer in her new book, "The Great Cover Up: For Integration, against Islamism".

The book was recently published in German under the name "Die grosse Verschleierung: Fuer Integration, gegen Islamismus," and its strong statements been an injection of yet more fuel into the already burning integration debate in Germany.

Teachers are no longer allowed to wear the head scarf in German public schools, and now Schwarzer has demanded the next step: Girls should be forbidden to wear it as well.

"Only this forceful act would finally give the young woman from a fundamentalist orthodox family the chance to move with freedom and equality, at least within the confines of the schoolyard," Schwarzer writes.

Many readers are likely to react negatively to this demand for a headscarf ban. In themselves, bans clash with freedoms and rights that are supposed to be self-evident in Germany: the right to individual self-determination, the freedom of religion.

A holiday celebrating the introduction of Islam into Russia has just been approved in the Russian republic of Tatarstan.

The new holiday will be on 21 May of each year and marks the adoption of Islam by the Volga Bulgars, the ancestors of the present-day Tatars, in 922.

The new law was adopted by an overwhelming majority of the Tatarstan parliament (79 – "For", 1 - " Against"). In addition, it was decided to make a holiday of Eid al-Fitr.

Originally, the commemoration day was supposed to become a national holiday for all of Russia, after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on 1 June this year signed a law introducing a national holiday on July 28 each year to commemorate the adoption of Christianity in 988.

However, the initiative for the Muslim holiday got bogged down in disagreements between Tatars and North Caucasus Muslims on the date Islam was first established in Russia.

Volga Bulgars adopted Islam in the 10th century, while clerics in Daghestan claim that Islam appeared in the North Caucasus as early as the seventh century.

Russia's counterterrorist forces killed the head of a rebel group in the North Caucasus province of Dagestan on Saturday, after a suicide bomber wounded at least 26 people, Russian news agencies reported.

"Alibek Abunazarov was on the federal wanted list for a long time. According to our information, he was involved in several terrorist acts, (as well as) attacks on, and killings of policemen," the state-run RIA Novosti agency quoted a local law enforcement official as saying.

Three other rebels were killed in the same operation, local agencies reported.

The suicide bomber had earlier set off explosives after approaching police guarding a site where security forces had fought suspected militants late on Friday, Interfax reported, citing the Russian National Anti-Terrorism Committee.

The blast wounded 13 police officers and 13 civilians, Interfax said. Other reports said as many as 30 people had been hurt.

An insurgency is raging across the mainly Muslim region, where rebels angry about poverty and fueled by the ideology of global jihad want to carve out an independent state governed by Islamic law.

Army 1st Lt. Rafael Lantigua, an ecclesiastically endorsed, fully ordained minister, will assume his post after finishing classes required by the Armed Services Chaplain Board.

“I am humbled for this opportunity to be a role model for other members of my faith throughout the military,” he said.

As he was growing up, Lantigua was not a Muslim. He decided to convert when he was a teenager, he said, and he attributed that decision to the diversity of his background. His Baptist mother is an African-American, and his Roman Catholic father is from the Dominican Republic. After his parents divorced, he said, his mother married a Buddhist.

“Growing up in such diversity caused me to explore my options,” Lantigua said.

That diversity, he said, enabled him to embrace the Muslim faith before he enlisted in the Air Force. He has continued to be open about his religious beliefs, he added, in the hope that he can break down the stigma surrounding Muslims since Sept. 11, 2001.

A senior official of the Coptic Church caused an uproar in religious circles in Egypt after suggesting that some verses of the Koran, have been inserted after the death of the Prophet Mohammed, reported the press.

Muslims believe the Koran contains the words that God has revealed to Prophet Muhammad by the archangel Gabriel, over 23 years until his death. If someone says that some verses were added a posteriori, he is then putting into question their validity.

At a recent meeting with the Egyptian ambassador to Cyprus, Bishop Bishoy, secretary of the Holy Synod of the Coptic Church (Egyptian Christians), said he believed that some verses contradict Christian faith, had been added after Muhammad's death, by one of his successors. These remarks have provoked strong reactions in Muslim communities and Christian leaders have expressed fear of communal tensions. But last Wednesday Bishoy said he was misunderstood.

"My question was whether the verses of the Koran were inserted after the death of the prophet, not a criticism," he said. "It's just a question about a certain verse, which I believe is at odds with the Christian faith," Bishop said, quoted by the daily al-Masri al-Youm. "I do not understand how this could turn into a criticism against Islam," he said.

But in Islam is such a proposition a real blasphemy: the Quran is uncreated word of God.

Sources in the prestigious institution Sunni Al Azhar in Cairo, told the newspaper that the comments had made its, chief Sheikh Ahmed Al Tayeb "very angry".

The government itself became involved, through the voice of Salem Abdel Geleel, Vice-Minister of Awqaf, who said in a statement: "The faith of Muslims is a red line and in no case can it be discussed by a non-Muslim".

A prestigious Indonesian Islamic theologian is traveling to Europe to promote the country's tolerant, pluralist interpretation of Islam and counter the violent ideology of radical extremists. The tour is organized by groups that promote pluralism and is part of a plan to develop a network of Muslim leaders to give voice to what they call the "great silent majority" of peace-loving Muslims.
Kyai Haji Achmad Mustofa Bisri, an influential Islamic cleric and member of the supreme council of Nahdlatul Ulama, an Indonesian Muslim organization with 40 million members, has preached tolerance and moderation for over 30 years. Now he has agreed to travel to Europe to help reconcile what he describes as growing animosity between Muslims and Christians there.
He says his perception of the world that we live in is that it is like very dry grass that is easy to catch fire and burn.
Islam, the cleric says, is a religion that promotes love, peace and tolerance.
He says if one misreads the message of love to give rise to hatred, then clearly there is a failure to understand.
And Bisri says that both Islamic extremists and those who hate Muslims share the misguided view that Islam sanctions violence.

'It is often thought the main threat of radical Islamism to the West and, indeed, the world, is terrorism. It is also said to be the isolation of Muslim communities which allows extremists to recruit people to their cause.

'Such views are not mistaken but they confuse effects with causes.

'What the world has to recognise is that we are not simply dealing with faith, but with a political, social and economic ideology.

'Radical Islamism is a worldview. Its nearest parallel, despite many differences, is Marxism.

...'Muslims, like anyone else, should be free to practise and propagate their faith. They are free also to contribute to public debate.

'The principle of one law for all, however, cannot be compromised.

'Freedom of expression and the right to change one's belief must be maintained...".

Muslims praying outside Milan's Catholic Cathedral, il Doumo.

By now, every MSM will know about the new electoral lists to be presented at the next local elections 2011 Milan. The party will be called "The new Milan", Esar, in short, wnd it will be a party composed of immigrant Muslims, fellow citizens in Milan.

Though the leader of the Islamic center in Milan (and responsible party of the unborn -yet- party) Abdel Hamid Shaari (who was rejected from Egypt as "persona non grata", and who organised communal prayers on Friday in Milan, Piazza Duomo, Cardinal Tettamanzi is compliant and complacent with the idea, because he is sure it wouln't be an Islamic party (ie, religiously motivated). But there is however, a risk that can't be denied: that of electing someone who would ask at Palazzo Marino for the application of the Qu'ranic law, the Sharia.

The US government placed Anwar al-Awlaki, a key leader of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, on its list of terrorism supporters, froze his financial assets and banned any transactions with him.

The measures were outlined in Executive Order 13224 issued Friday by the US Treasury Department.

"Anwar al-Awlaki has proven that he is extraordinarily dangerous, committed to carrying out deadly attacks on Americans and others worldwide," said Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Stuart Levey.

"He has involved himself in every aspect of the supply chain of terrorism -- fundraising for terrorist groups, recruiting and training operatives, and planning and ordering attacks on innocents."

Awlaki, now based in Yemen, rose to prominence last year after it emerged he had communicated by email with Major Nidal Hasan, a US army psychiatrist accused of opening fire on colleagues at Fort Hood, Texas, killing 13.

The imam has also been linked to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian student accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound flight with explosives in his underwear on December 25.

Muslim demonstrators sang “Pope Benedict, you will pay, Islam is on its way”, “Sharia is on its way”, “Justice is on its way” (a lot is coming our way, it seems) and threatened that Sharia would be “declared” against all who insult Muhammad. They shouted to the Pope, “Watch your back,” swore that he will “burn in hell” and claimed that he “deserves the death penalty.”

ARTINFO:

In most places, discretely lingering outside gallery openings with a cup of white wine or a can of beer in hand may earn a disapproving look from passersby, or, at worst, a citation from especially persnickety cops. In Turkey, however, it can lead to violence. Last night, a mob of about 30 people wielding sticks and other weapons attacked attendees outside two separate art receptions at Istanbul's Beyoğlu district, with the victims claiming they were targeted for drinking in public, according to the Doğan News Agency.

The two gallery events had begun at about 7 p.m. in a local cultural center, a site of much of the city’s nightlife activity. Hundreds of visitors, many drinking outside, were reportedly in attendance at the parties, which were just 100 feet apart. According to a witness quoted by Doğan, the attack began after gallery-goers and locals entered into a dispute that eventually brought dozens of other local residents into the melee, with some smashing the windows of one gallery and spraying pepper spray inside. Five people were hospitalized with injuries from the chemical together with "broken bottles, batons, and knives," the paper reports, and 40 victims have filed complaints with local police, though only one suspect has been apprehended.

Neighborhood residents told press that there may have been more than alcohol at issue in the attack, with some reporting that attendees had harassed people on the streets in the area. Other witnesses say authorities were "too tolerant" of the attacking mob. Istanbul governor Hüseyin Avni Mutlu decried the attack. "We will not allow the repetition of such things," he is quoted as saying in the Doğan article. "It is our duty to ensure that everyone can go about their business in peace."

Sacred Heart primary in Blackburn could become the first Catholic school in Britain to be converted into an Islamic faith school following a dramatic change in the pupil population.
More than nine-in-10 of the school's pupils were Catholic a decade ago but that number plummeted to just three per cent this year.
The local diocese admitted the school – which must have a Catholic head teacher and devote 10 per cent of the timetable to Christian-based religious education – was no longer “serving the needs” of the community.
Under current legislation, the local council must effectively run a competition to find a new organisation to run the school.
Blackburn’s Masjid-e-Tauheedul Islam mosque, which already runs a girls’ secondary school in the town, is among a series of organisations expressing an interest.
Hamid Patel, principal of the Tauheedul Islam Girls’ High School, told the Times Educational Supplement: “Given that most of the pupils are Muslim it makes sense for us to engage with the school.
“We will need more information on the expectations of the local authority, but if the community and the school want us to be involved, then, yes, we are interested.”

Najwa Malha began classes at the same institute where she finished the previous term, Gerardo Diego de Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid). The case of this child, a Spanish Muslim, shot to limelight after Malha had to go almost to the end of the course from her institute, Camilo Jose Cela, after going to class with hijab (Islamic veil).

The family appealed the decision to the Ministry of Education, which now considers the center and the administration acted properly. The next step is to go to court. The family will file an appeal before the Administrative Courts of Madrid, as their attorney, Ivan Jimenez Aybar, said yesterday.

The lawyer filed a motion in May to the Community's Department of Education in which it considered that the decision to take her to a new school, violated her dignity and rights (both of identity and religious freedom) and the internal rules of the institute. The Madrid region has responded with a resolution, dated Sept 20th. In the text, seen by El Pais, the Ministry of Education reports that there is no contradiction between forbidding her to wear a headscarf and the rights of students to have their identity, dignity or religious convictions respected.

Nor does it infringe the right to education of Malha, because the Community offered her "immediately" the possibility to be schooled in another center with different rules. He added that not wearing the head covering does not violate any rights of students, but "a simple rule on the clothing of students."

Aybar Jimenez is a lawyer, but also a professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He believes that the community considers the "political criteria above the legal ones" with this decision. "I firmly believe that the Judges once they have listened to our arguments, aimes at defending Najwa's right of religious freedom, which has been ignored, intentionally and unlawfully, by the Community of Madrid".

Singapore's government said the suspected leader of the Singapore wing of the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist group is back in its custody two-and-a-half years after a daring jailbreak.

The Home Ministry said Mas Selamat Kastari is "currently under investigation" and being held under the country's Internal Security Act, which allows for detention without trial. Malaysian police deported the suspect Friday—nearly 18 months after capturing him in southern Malaysia.

Mr. Kastari escaped from prison in 2008—embarrassing tightly policed Singapore—by squeezing through a bathroom window at its Whitley Road Detention Center. Mr. Kastari spent 12 months on the run, evading a massive manhunt and raising fears that he was receiving support from a network of terrorist operatives across the region.

Malaysian police tracked down Mr. Kastari, who is of Indonesian descent, in Johor state in April 2009 and held him for interrogation until Friday, when authorities handed him back to their Singaporean counterparts. Singapore praised the cooperation on the suspect's transfer, which came on the heels of bilateral talks between Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Singaporean authorities accuse Mr. Kastari, who is in his late 40s, of being the chief of the Singapore wing of Jemaah Islamiyah, the group responsible for the 2002 bombings in Bali, Indonesia, which killed 202 people, as well as a slew of other attacks. Officials say Mr. Kastari hatched a plan to hijack an aircraft and crash it into Singapore's Changi airport, one of the busiest terminals in the region.

Women are banned from studying theology in Turkmenistan - including Islamic theology, the only permitted religious university subject – an official has told Forum 18 News Service. "Only men are accepted for this course," the State University official – who did not give her name or role – told Forum 18. "Women can't study there." She declined to say why this discrimination against women has been imposed. This is the only university-level institution in Turkmenistan where the government allows any religious faith to be studied, and only Islam is permitted to be studied. It is also the only institution where the government allows young men who want to become imams to be trained. Potential imams are not allowed to study abroad, and only a small number of men (some of whom do not wish to become imams) are allowed to academically study any religious topic. Only the Russian Orthodox Church is permitted to send male and female students abroad for their studies, and the possibilities for all other formal and informal (such as Sunday School) religious education and instruction are extremely severely restricted.

People protest against the construction of a mosque in south-eastern district of Moscow

Increasingly sharp disputes in many cities of the Russian Federation over whether Muslims should be allowed to build a mosque, disputes that have already spilled over into violence in Syktyvkar and Moscow this week, threaten to unleash “a religious war” across the country, experts say.

The number of people now directly involved in these disputes is small and “real tensions” at the societal level” are not intense, but Aleksey Levinson, a sociologist at Moscow’s Levada Center, argues that the situation could easily get out of control because of the way the media is playing up these disagreements (www.svpressa.ru/society/article/30919/).