From Dawn and the Pakistan Daily Times

QUETTA: At least 56 people were killed and about 160 others injured here on Friday when a suicide bomber struck a procession brought out to mark the Al Quds day.

Soon after the blast some armed men in the procession started firing into the air, triggering chaos and panic. People fled or lay on the ground to avoid the gunfire. All shopping centres and business establishments shuttered down in no time after an angry mob set on fire several vehicles and ransacked some shops.  They also attacked DSNGs of different TV channels and fired at the Aaj van, killing its driver. Three policemen were injured. 

Calling from an undisclosed location, a spokesman of the banned Lashkaar-e-Janghvi, claimed responsibility for the attack and warned that the group would “carry out more attacks if Shias continue to take out processions and hold gatherings”. A spokesman identified the bomber as 22-year-old Arshad Muavia. But according to a report from tribal areas, a spokesman of the Tehril-i-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Imamia Students’ Organisation had organised the rally that started from Islam Imambargah, located on the Prince Road, soon after the Friday prayers to express solidarity with the Palestinian people. Hundreds of people joined the rally as it moved towards the centre of the city.

“Police tried to stop the rally near Mali Bagh and asked the participants not to proceed any further, owing to security concerns. However, nobody listened to us,” said City police Station House Officer (SHO) Muhammad Asif, adding that the participants did not follow the route that had been approved by the police. “We had earlier told them that no officers were deployed in Mezan Chowk and they should follow the given route. But they did not follow the instructions,” he said.

A number of young men, who were at the head of the procession, removed police barricades and continued to march forward. When the procession reached Mezan Chowk, the suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest.  As result of the huge blast, 25 people were killed instantly, and human limbs were scattered everywhere. A number of motorcycles parked nearby caught fire, sending up plumes of black smoke.

“It was a suicide attack,” Balochistan home secretary Akbar Hussain Durrani told Dawn. He said that organisers of the procession had been alerted to the threat.  Bomb disposal squad officials said the device packed 15 kilograms of explosives. The impact of the blast smashed windows of a number of shops and buildings.

Police found limbs of the bomber and sent them for forensic tests.  Police later found the head of the suspected suicide bomber, who was said to be between 25 to 30 years of age.

At the time of the Channel 4 Dispatches programmes entitledUndercover Mosques I remarked about one preacher whose "voice wobbled with near lust as he said the word jihad."  He had an Australian accent. I now know that he is one Feiz Muhammad.  Here he is this week calling for Geert Wilders to be beheaded.

This video footage was posted on a Jihadi website and is from an article in the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaph.  Feiz Muhammad is speaking in English with Dutch subtitles. I don't know any Dutch but it is similar enough to German and English that I can hazard an educated guess as to the meaning of the accompaning article. For example I am 90% certain that Haatprediker means preacher of hate but the many lingists who read this site will assist in due course, I am sure.

This video I have embedded below is from Youtube where Muhammad's rant was put up for our (workers of the counter jihad) easier access by a member of the edlforum, to whom I am indebted for the hat tip, and this later link, which contains a translation into English.

According an article in the dutch newspaper "de telegraaf" the Australian radical jihad-ideologist Feiz Muhammed has made an appeal on a protected website for Jihadists to behead Geert Wilders. The newspaper claims to have images on tape. The Dutch intelligent services (AIVD) also has a copy of this tape.

The leader of the PVV is compared with the devil and called a dirty politician. "We see the devilish dirt of the human kind like this dirty Dutch politician. Everyone who insults our theory, laughs about Islam and lowers it, must be killed, chop off his head!" Geert Wilders is very shocked by this serious threat. Wilders also wants to know why the AIVD and NCTB (Dutch Coordination point for Terrorism) did not tell him anything about it and wants to know what could be the consenquences. "Horrible" was his reaction Friday morning.

From The Australian

PAKISTANI militants have broken their short-lived ceasefire with a bloody sectarian attack in the eastern city of Lahore that has left 31 people dead and more than 280 injured.

Three co-ordinated bomb blasts targeted a huge funeral procession by Shi'ites, a minority Islamic sect in Pakistan, just after sunset on Tuesday night, local time, as thousands crowded the streets to break their daily fast during the holy month of Ramadan.

The blasts are the first major attack since the country was hit by devastating floods, which have directly affected more than 10 per cent of the population.

An estimated 35,000 Pakistani Shi'ites were marching in the procession to mark the death of Hazrat Ali, the son-in-law and cousin of the Prophet Mohammed who was assassinated 1300 years ago during Ramadan, when a bomb was detonated near a well-known Shia building. As panicked marchers scattered, suicide bombers triggered two more blasts, sparking a violent reaction from the crowd, which turned on police and set fire to nearby vehicles and buildings, including one police station.

An Urdu newspaper website reported yesterday that a militant group known as the Lashkar-e-Jhanghvi al-Alami had claimed responsibility for the attack, although police said they had no proof of the claim.

Sunni Islam hardline groups such as al-Qa'ida and the Taliban consider Shi'ites - about 20 per cent of Pakistan's 160 million people - to be heretics.The schism between the two groups centres on a disagreement over whether Hazrat Ali was the fourth and final caliph (Muslim leader) after Mohammed - as Sunnis believe - or the rightful successor to the prophet.

This is very funny, with an underlying seriousness. From The Telegraph

One of Britain’s best-known castles fell victim to a band of hapless Middle-Eastern “cyber-pirates” last week after they mistook it for a Crusader fortress of the same name more than 2,000 miles away. Belvoir Castle, the family seat of the 11th Duke of Rutland, was mistakenly targeted by a subversive group of Algerian hackers who confused its website with that of Belvoir Fortress in Israel.

From Christian Broadcasting Network

PARIS - Friday in Paris. A hidden camera shows streets blocked by huge crowds of Muslim worshippers and enforced by a private security force. This is all illegal in France: the public worship, the blocked streets, and the private security. But the police have been ordered not to intervene. It shows that even though some in the French government want to get tough with Muslims and ban the burqa, other parts of the French government continue to give Islam a privileged status.

An ordinary French citizen who has been watching the Islamization of Paris decided that the world needed to see what was happening to his city. He used a hidden camera to start posting videos on YouTube. His life has been threatened and so he uses the alias of "Maxime Lepante. " His camera shows that Muslims "are blocking the streets with barriers. They are praying on the ground. And the inhabitants of this district cannot leave their homes, nor go into their homes during those prayers."

"The Muslims taking over those streets do not have any authorization. They do not go to the police headquarters, so it's completely illegal," he says. The Muslims in the street have been granted unofficial rights that no Christian group is likely to get under France's Laicite', or secularism law. Some say Muslims must pray in the street because they need a larger mosque. But Lepante has observed cars coming from other parts of Paris, and he believes it is a weekly display of growing Muslim power. "They are coming there to show that they can take over some French streets to show that they can conquer a part of the French territory," he said.

Muslims are said to be no more than 10 percent of the French population, although no one knows for sure because French law prohibits population counts by religion. But the Muslim birthrate is significantly higher than for the native French. Some Muslim men practice polygamy, with each extra wife having children and collecting a welfare check.

"The problem of Islam is more than a problem of numbers," said French philosopher Radu Stoenescu, an Islamic expert who debates Muslim leaders on French TV. "The problem is one of principles. It's an open question. Is Islam an ideology or just a creed? It doesn't matter how many there are," he aded. "The problem is the people who follow Islam; they're somehow in a political party, which has a political agenda, which means basically implementing Sharia and building an Islamic state."

But even if many government elites are in France are in denial over Islam, the people in the streets increasingly are not. Some have become fed up with what they see as the growing Islamization of France. They've started staging pork and wine "aperitifs," or cocktail parties in the street. They're patriotic demonstrations meant to strike back against Islam.  Another national demonstration is planned for Saturday, Sept. 4. 

The same day that MfE and others will be countering the Hamas/Hezbolla Iranian funded Al Quds day parade in London. Wish us all luck, dear readers.

I don't know why this story is not in the on-line edition of the Surrey Comet. The source is a scan of the front page of last week's edition via a link on the Focus on Islamism blog in Standpoint Magazine. HT the edlforum. Now this isn't a run down quarter of an industrial town or a city slum, home to the latest generation of the poor and oppressed. This is Kingston. leafy prosperous Kingston, in Surrey, the so called 'stockbroker belt'.

Islamic extremeists are promoting the murder of evangelical Muslims in Kingston Town centre. A police investigation was launched last month after police saw leaflets being handed out calling on Muslims to murder Qadyanis, a derogatory term for Ahmadiyya Muslims, who are an evangelical sect of Islam.

It is believed the literature is linked to a terrorist attack in May, in which 92 worshippers were murdered by Taliban militants in Pakistan, where the government oficially regards Ahmadiyya Islam as blasphemy. Having made no arrests in connection with the incident Kingston police are appealing for witnesses who may have seen the people handing out inflammatory literature outside the Jane Norman store in Clarence Street.

A teenage Ahmadiyya girl, who did not want to be named, said she was "shaken and scared" after being handed a leaflet written in Urdu saying: "kill a Qadiyani and doors to heaven will be open to you." She said " I was coming back from shopping when a guy handed me the leaflet. While I read it he asked me to come back. I told him I was an Ahmadi girl and he demanded I return his leaflet but I refused. He was about 22 or 23 years old and had a long beard".

Hugh wrote here about the Ahmadiyya and the comment at Standpoint is valid.

Attacks, be they physical or verbal, on the Ahmadiyya should not be seen in isolation: the often murderous hatred of this community is part of the extremist ideology espoused by numerous Islamist organisations, including al-Qaeda.  In other words, those who want to kill the Ahmadiyya are not a long way from wanting to kill everyone else who doesn't agree with them.

From the Copenhagen Post

Terrorist network al-Qaeda has released an official death list, naming nine people who have mocked the prophet Mohammed – three of whom are Danish. The list was published in Inspire, the organisation’s first ever English language magazine.

It is now five years since Jyllands-Posten newspaper published their now notorious cartoons of the prophet, but it would seem the terrorist network has not forgotten the incident, as the three people on the list were all involved in the drawings.They are the newspaper’s former editor-in-chief Carsten Juste, its culture editor Flemming Rose, and the cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, who drew the now infamous picture of the prophet Mohammed with a bomb in his turban.

Terrorist experts have confirmed that the magazine and the list has definitely been compiled by al-Qaeda and, according to Swedish terrorist expert Magnus Ranstorp, it should be taken seriously. He said that it is worrying that three Danes appear on the list and that it is somewhat surprising that Juste is named.

Also from the Copenhagen Post

A housing association with homes for the elderly in Copenhagen’s Nørrebro district is in the process of constructing a barbed wire fence to protect its clients against young people from the adjacent Mjølnerparken housing estate, reports Berlingske Tidende newspaper.

The Mjølnerparken youths have for some time been unwelcome visitors to the garden area that belongs to the Lejerbo Association and is exclusively for the residents in the Hothers Plads senior housing complex. In addition, the buildings have been plagued by burglary, vandalism, theft and rock throwing from the nearby housing estate occupants.

Construction of the fence, which will be 2.5 metres high with barbed wire on top, has so far been sabotaged by the youths, and the workers have expressed fears for their safety.

Copenhagen’s deputy mayor of social affairs, Mikkel Warming, is now calling on the city’s street workers to deal with the unruly young people. The fence, along with a few security cameras that will also be set up, will reportedly cost the housing association and its clients around 1.5 million kroner.

Thats $255,000 or £165,000. A lot of money to deal with the children of this small estate. What the article doesn't say about the Mjølnerparken housing estate is that it is home to 2,500 people, 98% are immigrants (including second generation) of 38 different nationalities, mostly Arabs and Africans, the majority under 18 years old. The area is known for its high crime rate.

One of the comments suggests it would be preferable to put a lid on the estate to contain the hooligans.

From The Leader

The Guardia Civil have arrested a man for his alleged relationship with groups associated with Islamic terrorism. The arrest took place at midday on Friday in Poble Nou de Benitachell (Alicante) as part of an operation run by Criminal Investigation Court Number 2 of the Spanish Central Criminal Court.

The individual arrested, Faical Errai, is a 26-year-old Moroccan citizen resident in Spain who is accused of using the Internet to undertake activities in support of Jihadist terrorism.

According to investigations carried out by the Guardia Civil [Spanish Civil Guard], Faical Errai is allegedly the person who registered and paid for the hosting of an Internet website with explicitly Jihadist content which, besides being set up as a platform for the spread of propaganda material, is aimed at attracting, indoctrinating and recruiting sympathisers in order to ultimately promote the most extreme and violent interpretation of the Jihad.

Furthermore, the man in question could have acted as the facilitator on transit routes for possible Jihadists to areas of conflict (Waziristan, Afghanistan, Chechnya, etc.), and as a coordinator for the dispatch of volunteers to those same areas. Similarly, Faical Errai would have performed a supporting role in the collection of funds to help both the volunteers travel and finance the propaganda activity itself, all in favour of the "Global Jihad Movement".

Following the arrest, the Guardia Civil carried out a search of two homes and one rural property, during which several computers and electromagnetic data storage devices were seized. The material seized is now being examined by the officers in charge of the investigation, so the possibility of further action has not been discarded.

From The Telegraph

The military wing of Hamas has claimed responsibility for the killing of four Jewish settlers who were shot dead in their car on the eve of direct peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians.

The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigade claimed "full responsibility" for the "heroic operation in Hebron".

The victims were all from the same family and included a pregnant woman aged 25, another woman aged 40, and two men, also aged 25 and 40, all from the settlement of Beit Haggai.

Israeli security forces described the attack as a well-planned ambush and said the gunmen made sure the driver and three passengers were dead before fleeing the scene.

Farzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman earlier described the attack as "a natural response by the Palestinian resistance to the enemy's crimes".

I don't think shooting an unborn baby and its mother is a 'natural' respose to anyone's crimes. Perhaps that's just me.

This is a news item from the crime desk of ABC News Australia, thanks to Dumbledore's Army, which as she points out is important as much for what it doesn't say, as what it does.

One of the nation's biggest investigations into organised crime has exposed an international drug importation syndicate with links to the Comancheros outlaw bikie gang, Chinese triads and corrupt Australian officials.

Operation Hoffman, a landmark multi-agency investigation led by the Australian Crime Commission, has also revealed the deep links between drug importers and rogue Australian maritime workers.

A joint ABC Four Corners and The Age investigation into organised crime can also reveal that:

• In Victoria, authorities have uncovered links between corrupt Melbourne port workers, the Hells Angels and prominent Italian criminals
• NSW police have identified a group of drug-importing Sydney port workers with government maritime security cards who have been active since 2004

It has led to major ecstasy, heroin and crystal methamphetamine drug busts across Australia, the biggest-ever drug bust on the Pacific island group of Tonga, and the discovery in May last year of a bikie armoury in Sydney - including automatic weapons and imitation police equipment.

Those arrested include alleged drug runners with links to Chinese triads and the Perth president of the Comancheros, Steven Milenkovski.

Despite Hoffman severely damaging the bikie group, the Comancheros have continued establishing a foothold in Melbourne under the control of local club controller Amad 'Jay' Malkhoun, a convicted heroin trafficker with interests in several Melbourne strip clubs.

One of Hoffman's key targets is Hakan Ayik, 32, from Sydney . . . NSW police intelligence describes Ayik as a 'very serious money maker' who 'generates a lot of money' for the Comancheros and has multiple links to waterfront workers. Operation Hoffman ended earlier this month after NSW police issued an arrest warrant for Ayik for drug trafficking. It is believed he is now on the run.

However, a senior law enforcement insider has revealed to Four Corners that despite its success, inadequate resourcing meant Operation Hoffman was unable to reach its full potential. He said the criminal network it targeted "will reform very, very quickly".

The insider said the ACC needed far more investigators to run major inquiries . . .  consensus among senior police is that the ACC is badly under-resourced given the size and reach, here and abroad, of Australia's new breed of technologically savvy and well-resourced underworld figures.

The launching of a state and federal policing taskforce to combat organised crime on the wharves in NSW has been slowed due to inter-agency talks.

As DA tells me, the elephant which is not mentioned is that the reporter specifies the Chinese triads and the Italian gangs (the mafia doesn't exist and you better believe it) but despite the names of two of the Comancheros being Islamic, and despite there being a  Middle Eastern Organised Crime Squad (which, just for existing, has been accused of being 'racist' ) makes no mention of the 'heritage', for want of a better word, of the other incredient in this criminal stew. The Muslims.

I find it interesting that the bike gang the Comancheros being heavily Lebanese Muslim in Australia. I read in the Copenhagen post that much of the gang warfare in denmark is clashed between the ethnic Danish chapter of the Hells Angels and the Muslim newcomers who want to wrest control of the drugs scene from them. While in England  biker culture, at every level, including the commuter runs remains mostly an activity of the indigenous population.

From Scotland's Sunday Herald

Asian shopkeepers in one of the biggest Muslim areas in Scotland are backing a boycott of Israeli produce. In a move that has worried Jewish groups, Muslim families who own stores in Glasgow’s south side are refusing to stock Israeli goods in protest at Israel’s West Bank settlements and policy towards Palestinians.

Around 30 stores in Muslim communities in Pollokshields, Pollokshaws and Govanhill are supporting the drive and yesterday campaigners took to the streets to applaud shopkeepers who are no longer stocking Israeli products.

The campaigners, who toured stores handing out flyers to shoppers, say shops which continue to stock Israeli goods will be “named and shamed”. I thought Scotland was a free country? Not no more, it seems. Led by the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Friends of Al Aqsa Glasgow, many stores in the area are now displaying posters declaring “No Israeli Produce sold here”.

Organisers say that following its success in Glasgow, the campaign is expected to be rolled out across the country. The focus of the boycott is fruit such as dates, traditonally eaten by Muslims in the holy month of Ramadan. Customer Isahaq Ali, 50, said: “I know what to look out for when buying these items and wouldn’t give stores who stock them my custom.”

However, Edward Isaacs, president of the Glasgow Jewish Representative Council, said: “We have excellent relations in the Jewish Community with our Muslim friends (don't fool yourself, silly man!) and we think that bringing Middle East politics into the Glasgow sphere to this extent is not a good idea. Everyone is entitled to have their views on the Middle East, but we don’t think a boycott is the correct way to advance their political process.”

As usual the mainstream press are less than informative as to what really happened in Bradford yesterday. I have spent the morning since my return for holiday reading the forum, facebook and other sites for news from the men and women who were there. This is the BBC this afternoon.

The cost of policing two rival demonstrations in Bradford on Saturday is expected to be "several hundred thousand pounds", police have said. The right-wing English Defence League (EDL) and its Unite Against Fascism (UAF) opponents held separate protests. Hundreds of officers from West Yorkshire Police were supported by colleagues from 13 other forces during the operation to keep the groups apart.

Thirteen protesters were arrested after several skirmishes broke out. Police contained several hundred EDL supporters (on the EDL forum this morning some members were disappointed that the turnout, which they believe to be several thousand, was not even higher. Why do the BBC twist the truth so?) behind a temporary barricade in the city's Urban Gardens as about 300 people gathered for an event hosted by UAF about half a mile away at the Crown Court Plaza.

West Yorkshire's Chief Constable Sir Norman Bettison said: "The ban of the march seems to have worked.No officers were seriously injured and there was no damage to property."

Ishtiaq Ahmed, a spokesman for the Bradford Council for Mosques, said: "It was impressive to see young people taking on the leadership role to keep things calm and peaceful.The police response was courageous and appropriate."

"The police response was courageous and appropriate"  He considers it to be appropriate that the police on the buses taking members of the EDL from the rally site (I'll call it that - from the descriptions I read it was more of a kettleing compound) back to the dispersal area (in the next town, Halifax) did nothing when those buses were attacked by men of muslim appearance hurling missiles (bottles, bricks and eggs) at them from their cars in which they were pursuing those buses. One eye witness report has a car reversing into a bus, and smashing his own rear window as a result, so maybe they thought stupidity was its own punishment. The best the EDL members got was a promise from junior police officers that they would raise the incidents with the senior officers later.

He considers it appropriate that the police made no attempt to pursue the youths of the so called Muslim Defence League who punched this man in the video below, in the face (according to one of the sources I read this morning he was dazed having been hit by a missile a few seconds earlier) from behind the  safety of a hedge, before running away while filming. The boys who filmed their brave bruvver and put the clip up at Youtube  are very proud of  "EDL GETTING KNOCKED THE FUK OUT LMAO".

I believe that complaints will be made to the Chief Constable and the Home Secretary urging that these assaults be investigated and the perpetrators apprehended. It should be easy enough to trace 'atiq98etc'. The general opinion amoung those members of the EDL who were there is that the police are very scared of what will happen on the streets if Muslim boys and men are arrested for public order offences. One EDL member is of the opinion that so many Muslims are radicalised in prison that there is a deliberate policy not to risk placing any more of them in prisons - better to keep them as street jihadists rather than trained terrorists. That's only one mans opinion but he has an interesting point. 

The transcript of the speech delivered by Michael Johnson at Bradford yesterday and his comments about the day.

I was the last speaker and it went down very well huge applause and it was my birthday so I had the whole of the EDL demonstration singing happy birthday to me which went unreported as this might not fit with the media profile being painted by some members of the press. I can assure you I know for a fact the press were aware of what was going on because two soppy birds clapped me. First thing I have had from the press for nothing. I could see the whole crowd and it is quite an emotion having that done to you. A good one I might add

 The smoke bombs came from the UAF and the first of the 5 arrests were UAF which is also unreported but unfortunately for the media but good for you it is on film. We also have film of a known racist being removed from the site.

He went on to tell me about known troublemakers from a group known as the 'Manchester Reds'. Then he turned to the matter of the smoke bombs:-

First of two smoke bombs thrown at the EDL.  The EDL are accused of using smoke bombs even though we had to go through the police search teams and pass through the mobile scanners which made it more like making ones way through check in than going to a demo. Seems a strange accusation to me. You can see where the white Bomb has landed and you can see as you are watching the crowd nothing passes your screen but it is just outside the EDL compound. No question as to where it was thrown from so the press and the news blamed it on the EDL even though the police confirmed both smoke bombs came from within the UAF crowd, in fact the second one was dropped by the thrower who almost won an Oscar from me for the perfect SWP demonstration agitation award. Why they did not have him bang to rights is in fact due in this case to age of the police officers on duty, they would not have known what was going on.                                                                   

Watch live video from kilnerwill1 on Justin.tv2.46 two professional agitators who know exactly what they are doing set up smoke bomb number 2 the purple one. You see earlier within the UAF the two lads black Asian one with light blue lightweight jacket and the other with a white jacket hoody top over his head when its sunny?

This is an old SWP trick and I have not seen it done for a very long time, it is sweet and effective to wind up the crowd up. The two pass through the crowd and the lad with the blue top bends down and rolls canister behind him then carries on and he never looks back, not even when it all kicked off and the roar goes up. Nothing just straight off. Not normal behavior unless you have been taught to do things different like walk straight away don’t look back don’t rush be invisible.

2.46 smoke canister goes off and no one knows what’s happening they start to panic.  

2,50 up pops agitator number two with white hoody, saying. Officer, Officer, i saw the whole thing the EDL from over in the far corner threw it at us while we are stood doing nothing, bad EDL.  

3.14 Hoody boy has gone backward and returned to the corner where he started from at the outset and no surprise is shortly back with Blue jacket. 

It just so happens there is a group of full on UAF in the far corner who now have an excuse to rush the EDL at the weakest point of the police lines and they all know it will be reported that the EDL attacked the UAF after throwing a second smoke bomb in to the UAF supporters. never mind all the searching and the electronic scanning of the EDL, let’s not have the truth spoil a good media chance to destroy the EDL.

What Michael says confirms what was reported on the Forum (and apparently by Skynews, although I can't find an on-line link to that, if there is one can someone please sent me it) , which is that the smoke bomb, (or bombs), was not thrown from the EDL area.

One has to ask why we see police officers almost thirty minutes before the speeches  are over  putting on specialist riot gear? which is only for events where the crowd is becoming out of control or the threat to officer safety is no longer at a level where they can perform their duty.

What actually happened is these riot police used a tactic that has been under question since the injuries and events of Trafalgar square.  The police are using this tactic more and more at EDL demonstrations causing problems, which ultimately leads to violence.

There was no need to kettle the crowd at Bradford as we could only wait to get on the coaches at the entrance and we could go nowhere as it was a compound. This causes needless conflict which is the main finding the IPCC accepted and upheld when their findings were producer for G20. They stated this form of containment should only be used when risk to demonstrators the police or the public is one where the police fear serious injury or extreme violent disorder.  Sitting in a high walled single exit grass area is not quite what they had in mind.

What it did achieve?  for no reason anyone can see it created conflict where the police were sent in forcing us back towards a wall when 60% of the site is empty. What happens next? the batons and shields were once again in use assaulting EDL members for getting upset because they are being threatened for no reason what so ever.

Once again I observed the violent misuse of a shield edge being used as a weapons against a demonstrator. This can no longer be allowed to continue, the police have no right to harm our supporters while breaking the laws they are suppose to be upholding.

I am going to speak with the leadership and formulate a complaint against the police forces of Dudley and Bradford. 

The Disney costume department didn't take up my suggestion last week of a hijab with Minnie mouse ears and a bow. They offered waitress Imane Boudlal a large hat, which she declined.

They offered her three jobs, at the same rate of pay as the one she does, where she would not be 'on stage' ie meeting the public and could wear her own hijab. She refused them.

They offered her a second cap, in the same fabric as her uniform waistcoat inspired by a retro mob cap from1915. She refused to even try that one on and was sent home.

She appears to be insisting on looking specifically Muslim, over and above merely covering her hair from the gaze of lustful men. This will end in tears.

From ABC News with thanks to Dumbledore's Army

A Somali refugee who tried to hijack a plane in New Zealand and force the pilot to fly to Australia has been sentenced to nine years in jail. Asha Ali Abdille, 36, was armed with three knives (which she used to slash both pilots and a passenger) when she boarded a flight from Blenheim to Christchurch.

Abdille was unfazed when she was told the 19-seat aircraft did not have enough fuel to fly to Australia and told him to ditch in the sea. A doctor gave evidence that Abdille had a serious mental illness.

New Zealand has a reputation in some circles for being 'liberal' but by modern UK standards this is a stiff sentence. Deservedly so.

From Pakistan Christian Post ht/edlforum

Karachi: August 24, 2010. (PCP) The Pakistani Christians who were victim of catastrophic flood in Southern Punjab are being discriminated in receiving any aid from Muslim flood relief organization or Government relief fund managed by district administrations after 11 days lying under open sky in heat of summer.

The reports received by Pakistan Christian Post PCP from Sindh, more than 6,00000 Hindus and Christians have been effected by flood in Sindh province of Pakistan up till filing this story.

The Christian victims of devastating flood in Southern Punjab are still waiting from any aid and selling their valuables to buy expensive food while Muslim flood aid organization are preferring Muslims. The Christian flood victims are denied registration by district administration due to which they can not receive tents, food and medical assistance.

The Southern Punjab is hot bed of banned terrorist Muslim organizations which declare Christians to be Infidels and administration with fear of these radical Muslim elements not permitting Christians to keep in tents areas allocated for Muslim flood victims.

Dr. Nazir S Bhatti, President of Pakistan Christian Congress PCC said in a statement issued here today from Central Secretariat of PCC that hate on religion is preventing reaching aid to Christian flood victims in Southern Punjab.

“I appeal to organizations and countries which are giving aid to government of Pakistan for flood victims to allocate separate or special funds for Christian flood victims and transfer it to Caritas Pakistan or Bishops Conference of Pakistan for food, tents and medical facilities” said Nazir Bhatti.

but there are compensations.

Her lawyer, Ameena Qazi, said she had seen Disney “were not interested in accommodating her request [to wear the hijab]”.

Disney spokeswoman Suzi Brown said the company was against discrimination but Ms Boudlal’s job did not allow her to wear “something like that”. Two months after she asked her bosses about the issue, she (Boudlal) was told she could wear the hijab if it was designed by the park’s costume department to comply with the corporate look. However, the themed hijab did not arrive in time for the holy month.

I really, really, really can't wait to see an official Disney hijab, with Minnie mouse ears and pink sticky up bow. Happy holidays!

From the Times of India

SRINAGAR: Sikhs in the Kashmir Valley have received anonymous letters from Islamic militants asking them to either embrace Islam and join the protests against civilian killings or pack up and leave the Valley. The 60,000-strong Sikh community is the single largest minority group in the Valley.

An organisation of Kashmiri Sikhs said that several community members have received these letters. "Community members have received unsigned letters at various places," said All Party Sikh Coordination Committee (ASCC) coordinator Jagmohan Singh Raina. He said the community has decided to stay put and fight these "evil designs" at a meeting in Srinagar on Thursday.

Raina quoted a letter as saying: "When you are enjoying the joys here, why can't you share the grief and sorrow of Kashmiris as well? We know you are afraid of bullets... Hold protests inside gurdwaras or leave Kashmir." He added, "Some letters have asked Sikhs to embrace Islam."

 

I'm off to join the family for a fortnight's fresh air and fun (a day late because I had the lurgy yesterday) at Little Sandcastle on Sea.

Be good while I am away, and I'll send you a postcard.

EW

President Obama at 2010 White House Iftar Dinner

From The New York Times

WASHINGTON — President Obama delivered a strong defense on Friday night of a proposed Muslim community center and mosque near ground zero in Manhattan, using a White House dinner celebrating Ramadan to proclaim that “as a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country.”

After weeks of avoiding the high-profile battle over the center — his press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said last week that the president did not want to “get involved in local decision-making” — Mr. Obama stepped squarely into the thorny debate.

“I understand the emotions that this issue engenders. Ground zero is, indeed, hallowed ground,” the president said in remarks prepared for the annual White House iftar, the sunset meal breaking the day’s fast.

But, he continued: “This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable. The principle that people of all faiths are welcome in this country, and will not be treated differently by their government, is essential to who we are.”

In hosting the iftar, Mr. Obama was following a White House tradition that, while sporadic, dates to Thomas Jefferson, who held a sunset dinner for the first Muslim ambassador to the United States. My knowledge of US history is not on a level wth my knowledge of the history of my own country, but did Thomas Jefferson not use that occasion to protest about the attacks on US shipping by the Barbary Corsairs, the failure of that peaceful means of defence leading to the successful military expedition to Algiers of 1806? Hardly setting a trend in any event. President George W. Bush hosted iftars annually.

Aides to Mr. Obama say privately that he has always felt strongly about the proposed community center and mosque, but the White House did not want to weigh in until local authorities made a decision on the proposal, planned for two blocks from the site of the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center.

In New York, Rick A. Lazio, a Republican candidate for governor and a former member of the House of Representatives, issued a statement responding to Mr. Obama’s remarks, saying that the president was still “not listening to New Yorkers.”

“With over 100 mosques in New York City, this is not an issue of religion, but one of safety and security,” he said.

In his remarks, Mr. Obama distinguished between the terrorists who plotted the 9/11 attacks and Islam. “Al Qaeda’s cause is not Islam — it is a gross distortion of Islam,” the president said, adding, “In fact, Al Qaeda has killed more Muslims than people of any other religion, and that list includes innocent Muslims who were killed on 9/11.”

Noting that “Muslim Americans serve with honor in our military,” Mr. Obama said that at next week’s iftar at the Pentagon, “tribute will be paid to three soldiers who gave their lives in Iraq and now rest among the heroes of Arlington National Cemetery.”

Sharif el-Gamal, the developer on the project, said, “We are deeply moved and tremendously grateful for our president’s words.”

A building on the site of the proposed center is already used for prayers, and some worshipers there on Friday night discussed the president’s remarks.

From Madness - their only No 1 chart topper of 1982. Doesn't Suggs look young? He has grown into a man after my own heart with his love for the quirky side of London and her history. 

All the way through you think this song is about a young man planning to celebrate his 16th birthday with an activity illegal for him prior to that date.
Some people never get the joke.
He is indeed in the wrong shop - as he wants to buy party hats and poppers for the family 'do'.

This is from AllVoices, a contribution by Mohammed Omar Hussein in Mogadishu.

Moalim Hashi Mohamed Farah the regional commissioner of Hizbul-Islam a arrival Islamist faction which controls a small portion of Somalia unlike Al-Shabab another Islamist faction which controls the entire regions in southern Somalia and partly of central regions, has declared that his faction will launch heavy battle against the Somali transitional federal government and the African Union troops in the month of Ramadan, when every Muslims is fasting for the sake of God.

Moalim Hasi has added that God will reward his servants when they carryout fighting in the sacred month of Ramadan.

“We shall strengthen the battles against the so called Somali government and their ally the African Union troops in the Holy month of Ramadan, I’m sure God will reward his servants who stage war against infidels and the apostates in the month of Ramadan” said Moalim Hashi the regional commissioner of Hizbul-Islam in Banadir region.

On the other hand Sheikh Omar Faruuq who is among the top 10 leading Somali clerics has remarked against the call from Hizbul-Islam’s Banadir regional commissioner and termed as null and void.

“The month of Ramadan is not a month of war but peace it is the month when the Holy Quran was reveled and Muslims should respect and make use out of this month”

The spokesman of the African Union troops Major Barigye Bahoku who is currently in the Kenyan capital Nairobi has also held a press conference in Nairobi and stated in his press conference that the rival Islamist factions are intending to launch heavy attacks in the month of Ramadan.