Geert Wilders

"The hate speech trial of Dutch anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders will start afresh after judges trying him were ordered to step down Friday by a panel of their colleagues at the politician's request.

'The trial will start afresh,' Amsterdam district court spokeswoman Mercedes Grootscholten told AFP after a panel of oversight judges said Wilders' concerns of bias on the part of his trial judges were 'understandable'.

Judge GH Marcus, the president of a panel convened to consider Wilders' request for the judges' recusal, said their denial of his request to recall a witness 'appears to be in conflict with the applicable jurisprudence'.

'We find the applicant's fear that the court's decision points to a degree of bias, also in light of earlier incidents, understandable,' the judge said.

Wilders, 47, went on trial on October 4 for inciting hatred by calling Islam 'fascist' and likening the Koran to Hitler's 'Mein Kampf'.

There have been seven days of hearings so far. Judgement had been set for November 5."

Geert Wilders

"At present, overwhelming Muslim majorities -- i.e., better than two-thirds (see the weighted average calculated here) of a well-conducted survey of the world's most significant and populous Arab and non-Arab Muslim countries -- want these immoderate outcomes: 'strict application' of Shari'a, Islamic Law, and a global Caliphate. Specifically, the World Public Opinion.org/ University of Maryland poll (released February 25, 2009) indicated the following about our putative Muslim ally nations of Egypt and Pakistan: 81% of the Muslims of 'moderate' Egypt, the largest Arab Muslim nation, desire a 'strict' application of Shari'a, Islamic Law; 76% of the Pakistan's Muslims -- one of the most important and sizable non-Arab Muslim populations -- also want this outcome. Furthermore, 70% of Egyptian Muslims and 69% of Pakistani Muslims desire the recreation of a 'single Islamic state or Caliphate.' Elsewhere, I have detailed the totalitarian impact of these fulfilled Islamic desires based upon their doctrinal and historical application, across space and time. 

And these concrete data validate eminent Western scholarly appraisals of Islamic despotism, or in modern parlance, totalitarianism. 

Most importantly, our uninformed chattering classes across the political spectrum need to know that their eminence grise on Islamic civilization, Professor Bernard Lewis, and outspoken Dutch Parliamentarian Geert Wilders have a shared understanding of totalitarian Islam. Ironically, Wilders has been demonized -- and is currently being prosecuted -- for expressing views identical to those the Western sage of Islam Lewis put forth in a 1954 essay.

A senior Afghan Taliban official has warned of an attack against the Netherlands if its new government implements the agenda of anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders, the Volkskrant daily reported Monday.

"If the Netherlands maintains or intensifies its anti-Islam policy, it is certain that the Netherlands will be the target of an attack by a jihadist group," Zabiullah Mujahed, a long-time Taliban spokesman, is quoted as having told the newspaper. 

"If he (Wilders) succeeds in manipulating the Dutch parliament to pass more anti-Islamic legislation ... there is no doubt that Muslims from other countries will take action to help their Muslim brothers and sisters," Mujahed said.

He added that the Taliban was "very careful in its relations with the Netherlands" because "it was the first country that decided to stop the occupation of our country"

More Canadians have been imprisoned on terrorism-related crimes in the past 18 months than used to face such charges over decades. Since October, 2008, 14 Canadians have been found guilty of terror-related acts. Some, like Momin Khawaja, Said Namouh, and Zakaria Amara are likely to spend decades behind bars. If, during that time, they convince even one other inmate to adopt their violent ideology, would their original convictions still be touted as a resounding counterterrorism success? To ensure that getting one terrorist off Canada’s streets does not inadvertently breed two others, we need a counterterrorism strategy that includes our prison policy.

Of course we must adapt U.S. and European lessons to the demographic, cultural and religious specifics of Canadian life; patterns that affect the spread of extremist ideologies within our society in general also affect prisons. But with that in mind, Correctional Service Canada (CSC) should follow the lead of its European counterparts by producing a prison guide on indicators of radicalization and establishing an extremism unit to monitor trends.

We must also deny extremists access to other inmates by a combination of containing radicals within one prison facility, segregating them from the wider population in regular prisons (and from one another) and displacing them frequently within the system. But we must also be alert to convicts who turn away from a terrorist past, because they can help combat the spread of radical ideas to other inmates. It requires a sophisticated understanding of our terrorist prison population and detailed assessments of each inmate.

...Considering the citizenship rights Copts enjoyed in the early-to-mid-20^th century, how did things come to this pass? Much of this reversion can be traced to Mubarak's predecessor, Anwar Sadat, who altered Egypt's Constitution — by adding Article 2, "sharia is the principle source of legislation" — only to be rewarded, ironically, with assassination by the Islamist "Frankenstein monster" he had empowered. Since then, there has been a tacit agreement between the government and the Islamists. As Youssef Ibrahim puts it, the agreement "turned over to Islamists control in media, education, and government administrations in return for allowing Mr. Mubarak's rule to go on unchallenged, setting the stage … for his son, Gamal, to succeed him. As part of the deal, [Mubarak] agreed to feed Egypt's Christians to the growing Islamic beast."

The Copts now find themselves in a dire situation. Magdi Khalil, a human rights activist at the forefront of the "Coptic question," states that "Egypt is on the verge of chaos and change of regime, and there is a plan for Copts to pay the price of this predicted chaos, by directing the surplus violence, hate and barbarism towards them." This redirection onto the Copts is obvious even in subtle things: aside from the habitual anti-Copt indoctrination that goes on in mosques — all of the demonstrations occurred immediately after Friday's mosque prayers. Egypt's state-run public education system also marginalizes, if not ostracizes, the Copts (see, for example, Adel Guindy's "The Talibanization of Education in Egypt.")

More obvious proof of the government's complicity is the fact that, not only has it not prevented or dispersed the increasingly rabid demonstrations against the Copts — the way it viciously and unequivocally does whenever any protests are directed against itself — but Egyptian security, as Magdi Khalil affirmed in a phone conversation, actually facilitates, and sometimes participates, in these mass demonstrations. After all, Islamists who publicly call for the death of the Pope do so, writes Ibrahim Eissa, "knowing quite well that State Security will not touch them, since demonstrations are directed against the Pope and not the President, the Church and not the inheritance issue [Gamal Mubarak as successor of his father]. Those who go out in Jihad against 'inheritance,' democracy and election fraud are beaten mercilessly by security forces, but those who go out to incite sectarian violence between Muslims and Christians believe …that they are the friends and 'buddies' of the police and the State Security."

"The wife of a prominent evangelical pastor in Iran was free Monday, October 18, after four months of detention, but her husband still faced the death penalty for abandoning Islam, the Church of Iran said.

Fatemeh Passandideh, the wife of Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, was released October 11 by a court in Gilan province, in northern Iran, an official linked to the Church of Iran told Worthy News and its news partner BosNewsLife.

'The release of Fatemeh Passandideh comes ten days after the announcement of the death sentence for her husband Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani,' he said, speaking on earlier agreed conditions of anonymity, amid security concerns.

Pastor Nadarkhani was convicted of 'apostasy', or leaving Islam, last month by the 11th Chamber of the Assize Court of the province of Gilan. The pastor's attorney is expected to file an appeal against the ruling after he reportedly found 'serious procedural flaws' in the case."

"We can say I worked as shepherd," he smiles. "I was in charge of a herd of goats in northern Morocco." Until he crossed the Straits and settled in the province of Tarragona. Unemployed, handicapped by the lack of training and a chronic disease for many years improvised direction of prayers in several mosques in the vicinity of Valls and Torredembarra. Rachid H. worked as an imam. "Not really, but I know Islam better than others", said after admitting that no studies that Muslim countries call for the task.

What kind of prayers were performed by this improvised imam? "I talked about everything: the relationship between men and women, life's problems," he says. Witnesses say those prayers castigated women and young Muslims who were related to people outside this belief. Rachid denies without elaborating. But at home, he stores magazines, recordings and videos that shed some clue to his speeches. The material supports that an adulterous wife should be punished with death and supports other repressive behaviors on the role of women relative to men, according to the report of the register details of the property conducted by the Autonomous Police in 2009. Rachid, who asked not to reveal his name for his legal situation, only occasionally leads prayers, due to his poor state of health and also because he is on probation after being charged with promoting violence linked to radical Salafism, Islam's ultra-conservative current.

Lutfur Rahman

Lutfur Rahman was sacked by the Labour Party last month as its candidate for mayor of Tower Hamlets amid deep concerns about his links with a Muslim supremacist group, the Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE), and a number of powerful local businessmen. 

Mr Rahman also signed up entire families of "sham" paper Labour members – some of whom do not even support the party – to win nomination as Labour's candidate. 

Mr Rahman is now running as an independent and his supporters say he is "hopeful" of victory. 

Helal Abbas

"Things look very good," said one of his major business backers, Shiraj Haque, a millionaire restaurateur. 

Labour sources said the contest between Mr Rahman and their new candidate, Helal Abbas, was "extremely close" and would depend on turnout in Thursday's election. 

Unlike a conventional leader, a directly-elected mayor has almost complete power over a council's finances and cannot be controlled, checked or sacked by councillors. 

Tower Hamlets moved from a conventional leader system to a mayoralty this year as a result of a campaign spearheaded by the IFE. 

In secret filming earlier this year, Abu Talha, an IFE activist, told an undercover reporter for The Sunday Telegraph and Channel 4's Dispatches: "The mayor is going to have a lot more control. That's why we need to get someone, one of our brothers, in there. Which we will do."

Remember that Lebanon was called the Mediterranean Switzerland not very long ago... Ahmadinejad’s Deadly Triumph in Lebanon | FrontPage Magazine

Efraim Inbar, director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies in Tel Aviv, summed up the significance of Ahmadinejad’s visit:

The important issue is that we see another step in the ‘Hezbollah-ization’ of Lebanon…Lebanon is further losing its independence and Hezbollah is taking over, with Ahmadinejad encouraging these forces and signaling to the whole Middle East that Lebanon is becoming an Iranian protectorate.

Buttressing the idea that Lebanon has become a virtual client state of Iran were remarks made by Ahmadinejad during the frenetic rally held in southern Lebanon in Bint Jbeil. Hezbollah has made that little town a “symbol of the resistance,” promoting the legend of Hezbollah’s victory during the 2006 war with Israel.

During his speech, Ahmadinejad jumped feet first into the crisis currently roiling politics in Lebanon; the so-called “false witnesses” issue relating to the UN’s Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL). In a nutshell, the UN has been investigating the assassination in 2005 of Rafiq Hariri, former prime minister and father of current PM Said Hariri. The first report on the investigation issued in 2005 by then-prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, implicated high-level Syrian officials in the murders, including President Assad’s brother in law.

But over the years, some witnesses have recanted (they were clearly intimidated), others murdered, and the UN walked back from its initial findings of Syrian involvement. Also, four prominent Lebanese generals who had been jailed until last year, were released because of questionable eyewitness testimony. It is impossible to say at this point how much pressure was placed on key witnesses to change their testimony and whether there really were “false witnesses” in the case.

Violence against Christian girls is “unfortunately common” in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, according to Father Khalid Rashid Asi, vicar general of the Diocese of Faisalabad.

Lubna Masih, 12, was going to a store to buy milk when five Muslim young men forced her into a car and raped and murdered her, according to the Fides news agency. Terrified by the prospect of reprisals, her family has not pressed charges.

Kiran Nayyaz, 13, was working as a maid in a Muslim’s home when another Muslim employee raped her. Now pregnant, she is under the protection of the Diocese of Faisalabad. “The family is traumatized and the entire Catholic community fear reprisals,” said the diocesan vicar general. “But cases of violence such as these are unfortunately common.”

In July, according to Fides, three Muslims kidnapped, tortured, and raped a 16-year-old Christian girl in Punjab, and a group of Muslim students raped a 12-year-old Christian girl in Rawalpindi.

“Episodes of violence and abuse of Christian girls are part of daily life,” a Fides source said. “Those that make the news are just the tip of the iceberg.”

Mgr Louis Sako, archbishop of Kirkuk speaks on Christians in the region:

"There is a danger of the extinction of the Christian community in Iraq and other countries". For these families, the war has been a disaster. Americans are not only responsible for that tragedy, but they are responsible of a stable and peaceful future. They should not leave them behind   and pulling their troops out of Iraq without caring.

In addition, the international assembly is responsible to keep religious and ethnic minorities in their land to continue their presence and uphold their heritage and witness. The lack of planning to stop the mortal exodus that afflicts our community is worrying.

The future of Christians in Iraq, but also in M.E. has one of two ends: Emigration, or to accept to live as a second-class citizen with many difficulties and fears.

The question that requires an urgent and decisive response is, "How can Iraqi Christians be helped?"  We need a strong support from all, with a clear "political" vision and precise plans not only for protecting and encouraging Christians to stay home and to hope, but also for fostering reconciliation among Iraqis, to promote human rights in that area and asking the governments to respect the rules.  Christians have been, and can continue to be today, an instrument of dialogue, peaceful coexistence, and collaboration with our Muslim brothers who are appreciating their qualifications, therefore the migration of Christians from Middle East is a big loss for both.

The international community must take its responsibility and come up with the local authorities to a common agreement to respect the dignity of the human person and its rights based on equality and full citizenship, with partnership commitments and protection. Therefore, it is necessary to make real modification on the Constitutions in order to guarantee the rights of all citizens equally.

The strength of a state should be based on credibility in applying laws equally to all citizens, without discrimination between Muslims and non-Muslims, majority and minority. This is a shame. In The west Muslims community are enjoying full equality and they are not considered a minority or a second-class citizens. In ME were are indigenous and not refugees!

Background:
UN: Islamic countries push (again...) for "Islamophobia" monitoring mechanism.
Iraq: Christians continue fleeing to neighbouring countries.
Egypt: Al-Azhar's "Statement to the Nation" reduces Copts to Dhimmi status.
Libya: Two South Koreans, accused of Christian proselitism, released.
Pakistan: Christian lawyer and his entire family killed by Islamic extremists.
Kuwait: policeman converts to Christianity, asks the Govt to change his papers.
"Blasphemy UN Resolution": US NGO "Open Doors" campain on Freedom of Believe.
Ethiopia: Christian accused of desecrating the Qu'ran.
Saudi Arabia: Twelve Philippinos and a Catholic priest released on bail, after being arrested for attending Mass.
Hector Aleem's update.
Iran: Christian pastor sentenced to death for "thought crime".
Sudan: Sudanese bishops' conference concerned about persecution if South supports independence.
Arab Christians face political Islam threat, Bishop Naguib says.
Catholic Synod: Rabbi cautions against hostility towards Israel.

The Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), the political party of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, was forced on Tuesday to cancel a public debate organized in its headquarters, amid concerns that the debate would spark new accusations of racism and discrimination.

Titled “Immigration, Islamism: Is France Threatened?,” the controversial debate did not come at a good time for UMP, which is now presenting a new bill on immigration in the Assemblee Nationale (National Assembly), the lower house of French bicameral Parliament.

“We have chosen this time to really participate in Parliament discussions on future immigration law, as they are starting this week and will be at full intensity on that day,” explained the Droite Libre (Free Right), the UMP-associated group that organized the meeting.

“These issues are a concern to our fellow citizens, yet they almost never have a chance to discuss them; those who dare to mention immigration and Islam are framed by the intellectual terror of ‘political correctness.’”

"The process started months ago with the arrival of former Islamist prisoners of Guantanamo Bay. But we must add to that, the continued rise of Salafism as a doctrine which is gaining in significance throughout the Spanish geography. Moreover, the threat is seriously affected by the release of jihadist prisoners, not just those who have served time in Spain, but of those who are acquitted following their arrest for acts related to jihadist activity, "says a report by the responsible for fighting terrorism.

Those acquitted by the High Court the report refers to are Spanish national Gonzalo López Royo (aka "salaam1420", above) and Morocccan Fath Allah Sadaqa, arrested by the Guardia Civil after finding that these two men ennobled Islamic jihad over the Internet. The Third Division of the High Court, presided by Judge Alfonso Guevara and speaker Gregorio Ruiz Polanco, recognized as a fact that "the statements made by the two defendants were intended as a tribute to a Chechen guerrilla militant, devoting their website to all Muslims who die and suffer at the hands of the infidels, the desire to transform Spain again in Caliphate (and) their call for jihad and martyrdom (...) The accused Fath Allah Sadaqa uploaded to Youtube two videos, one with reference to three leaders of Al Qaeda, and another image of an attack against a U.S. vehicle in Iraq. "
The resolution of last June 21st, resolved to acquit both accused of "the crime of praising terrorism and contempt for the victims of terrorism with all the inherent favorable pronouncements such absolution has" . 

"According to the figures of our intelligence agency we have some 3,000 Wahhabi followers in Bosnia, but that does not mean they are all terrorists," Bosnian Security Minister Sadik Ahmetovic said.

"However we cannot exclude that there are individuals among them ... who could at a certain point commit terrorist acts," he added, insisting that Bosnia's police have the capacity to deal with the menace.

Bosnian Muslims, some 40 percent of a population estimated at 3.8 million, are generally a moderate Sunni community.

During the bloody 1992-95 inter-ethnic war a number of foreign Islamic fighters joined forces with the Bosnian Muslim army. They introduced Wahhabism, also referred to as Salafism, to Bosnia and built a small following.

Currently there are some twenty radical Islamic groups in Bosnia, estimates Ahmet Alibasic, a professor of the faculty of Islamic sciences at the University of Sarajevo.

Seven suspected Islamic radicals were detained in February in Gornja Maoca, a remote northeastern hamlet seen as a key location for Bosnian followers of Wahhabism.

The men were accused of "endangering the territorial integrity" of Bosnia and confined to house arrest but have not been formally charged. 

Contacted through an intermediary, the leader of Gornja Maoca's Salafist community refused to talk to AFP. The imam who reads the important Friday prayers at Sarajevo's Saudi-funded King Fahd Mosque, known to attract Salafists, also refused to comment for this article.

'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...".

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.”

Raising a center of worship in a place away from the city center can give wings to the fanatics. "A community can sometimes accept a self-exclusion principle to pass unnoticed. But it can also accept the will to hide or not to attract attention," says sociologist expert in the Islamic world Jordi Moreras, who points out that industrial sites can give shelter to militants. "The Salafi-inspired communities [they defend the purity of Islam] are supporting openly the relocation on this sites because they want discretion", he says.

A judicial report released on Monday warned of the danger of "segregation" which involves placing a mosque in the suburbs, referring to the intention to raise one in an industrial area of Lleida.

In Catalonia, between 15 and 20 places of worship of the approximately 200 existing sites are located on industrial areas, according to researcher Mr. Moreras.An investigation by the Catalan police in June warned of the spread of radical Salafi mosques through small mosques located throughout Tarragona. Of those five places of worship which cultivate a fanatical religious side, four are located in industrial estates: Tarragona, Reus Roda de Barà Torredembarra. Only the mosque in Valls is located in the center of the city.