Russian Nationalists attack plans to build more mosques in Moscow

 

Muslims pray at the Moscow Congregational Mosque in central Moscow on the Feast of the Sacrifice.

Moscow city authorities are about to announce the allocation of plots of land for three new mosques in the city, but ethnic Russian nationalists have voiced their protests saying that no one asked local residents before passing this decision.

"

We need to ask local residents. We should follow the European practice of taking local opinion into account in everything.

” Aleksander Belov of the Russkiye movement told the press. In his opinion such practice would ensure that everything goes in a peaceful and calm manner.

Belov’s statement came as a comment to a newspaper article that stated that Moscow city authorities will soon allocate land for the new mosques. The Izvestia daily referred to a representative of a public movement called Spiritual Directorate of Muslims of European Russia who said that the exact sites are already fixed and thanked the city for paying attention to his co-believers.

In the same article the newspaper quoted top city officials who doubted the efficiency of the step. Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said that the city needs no new mosques, adding that the majority of those who attend Muslim sites are unregistered labor migrants and once they are dealt with the need for new sites would disappear. The Speaker of the Moscow City Legislature Vladimir Platonov noted hat apart from discussing new places of worship with religious representatives, those responsible must poll local residents and base the decisions on the local mood.

Interestingly, after news agencies spread the report, the city authorities refuted it. The head of the city department for investment in construction wrote a letter saying that the land plots for new mosques have not yet been negotiated. The official added that the mayor’s office has a special working group determining the need for various religions in the city’s many districts, but this group has not yet taken any decisions whatsoever regarding mosques.

According to the latest poll, the proportion of Muslims among Russians has reached seven percent this year compared to just four percent in 2009. The share of Russian Orthodox Christians is now 74 percent compared to 80 percent in 2009.

The Mad Mullah Republic of Iran develops plans for deliberate Gulf oil spill

Iran's 'elite' Revolutionary Guards have developed plans to damage an oil tanker in the Gulf to create an environmental disaster, German magazine Spiegel reported on Sunday.

Citing Western intelligence sources, the weekly said the top-secret plan, codenamed "Dirty Water", is aimed at blocking the oil-rich Gulf to shipping and forcing Western countries to become involved in a huge clean-up operation.

Spiegel said the Revolutionary Guards believe this in turn would prompt Western nations to suspend sanctions imposed over Iran's nuclear programme which have started to hit the economy hard this year.

The plan, developed by the head of the Guards, General Mohammad Ali Jafari, and Admiral Ali Fadavi, head of the force's navy division, would also "punish" Arab states around the Gulf for their support of the West and Israel, the report said.

A clean-up operation could only take place with Iranian technical help, requiring a temporary lifting of sanctions, the plan says, according to Spiegel.

Jafari and Fadavi have passed the plan to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who would have the final say on whether to implement it, Spiegel said.

Islamic Terrorists Go Too Far

In its continuing effort to get Pakistan to quit supporting Islamic terrorism the U.S. has gone public with more and more evidence of the corruption and double-dealing in Pakistan that supports terrorism. One of the latest problem areas to be highlighted is the connection between the Pakistani Army and ISI (military controlled intelligence agency) and large criminal gangs. These gangs are an essential part of the organized crime activities used by terrorists groups (especially the Haqqani Network and Pakistani Taliban) to support their terrorism. Speaking openly about this stuff in Pakistan can be fatal, but American officials can do so with a greater sense of security. These terrorist groups are deeply into drug smuggling, extortion, theft and kidnapping. Since the cops and military are being paid for their participation, and troublesome journalists silenced, there is nothing to stop this sort of thing. So far, publicity generated by foreigners has had little impact inside Pakistan.

The three year old Indian campaign against Maoists in the eastern states is making progress. In many rural areas where the Maoists were long in control, the leftists are much weaker on the ground. The government sent 80,000 special police into these areas (including over 70 paramilitary police battalions). The years of patrols by these police (who are operating as infantry and police) has reassured the locals to the point where more people are reporting Maoist movements and locations. This leads to more raids on Maoist camps and fewer armed Maoists to contest the police and intimidate civilians. The information gained from Maoist camps and prisoners has led to the identification and capture of more Maoist leaders (who often hide in plain sight in cities and towns). The Indian Air Force is sending some new Mi-17 helicopters equipped to operate at night. This will provide the police with yet another advantage over the Maoists, who will now lose even sleep over the threat of night raids. The air force has been providing six helicopters that can operate only during the day. The air force helicopters are armed, but only fire back if fired on. The helicopters are there for moving police and casualties.

October 9, 2012: In Pakistan's Swat Valley a 14 year old girl (Malala Yousufzai) was shot in the head by a Taliban assassin. Two other girls on her school bus were wounded. Yousufzai has been famous in Pakistan for the last three years by opposing Taliban efforts to prevent girls from going to school. She began by writing an anonymous blog about her experiences trying to get an education despite Taliban opposition. Eventually she went public and the Taliban threatened retaliation but few thought the terrorists would attack an individual teenage girl (many teenage girls have been killed by Taliban bombs). Yousufzai survived the shooting but is still in a coma. The Taliban initially took credit for the shooting, which caused an anti-Taliban uproar throughout the country. Since then the Taliban and other Islamic radical groups have backed away from this approval. The government offered a $100,000 reward for the capture of the shooter and this apparently worked as the government now says it knows who the attackers were. Conservative Islamic clerics who usually approve of the Taliban policy on education for women have been silent about this incident.

The Swat Valley has been a battleground between the army and the Taliban for years. The Pakistani Taliban claims to have regained control of much of the tribal territories, including the Swat Valley (right outside the tribal territories). This is propaganda, not reality. The Pakistani Taliban still have armed men in many parts of the tribal territories, often operating from bases across the border in Afghanistan. The Pakistani Taliban are still very much at war with Pakistan, and are loudly striving to "avenge" the death of Osama bin Laden, and other foreign terrorists who had come to help the Pakistani Taliban. Attacks, like those against Malala Yousufzai are supposed to remind everyone that the Taliban are still around.

The Taliban took control of the Swat Valley for two years in 2007, and were then driven out by the army. But there remained a lot of hostility towards the government. It's all about corruption and lack of a rule of law. The Taliban got in partly on the promise of driving out corrupt government officials and providing fair Islamic courts. The Taliban then destroyed their popularity by also trying to impose unpopular lifestyle rules (no schools or jobs for women, no video, music or shaving for men). The government brought back the corruption, despite knowing this was a major problem. This has driven some Swat Valley residents to support the Taliban again.  But those supporters were appalled by the shooting of Malala Yousufzai.

October 8, 2012: Islamic political parties in Pakistan have forced the government to block over 20,000 websites, including YouTube, for displaying material considered critical of Islam. Over the last month the pro-Islamic parties organized dozens of demonstrations to protest, often violently, an American film accused of being anti- Islam. These demonstrations are part of an effort by the Islamic parties to establish themselves as censors for all Pakistanis.

In the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta a bicycle bomb went off (via remote control) at a checkpoint killing one person and wounding 11 others.

October 5, 2012: In Karachi Pakistan police arrested seven Islamic terrorists who were preparing to carry out a series of suicide attacks against school buses and prisons in the city.

October 4, 2012: For the first time the U.S. has refused, as American law requires, to certify that Pakistan is taking effective action against Islamic terrorism. This is a condition for receiving billions of dollars in military aid. While Pakistan has made some efforts against Islamic terrorists since 2002, it has continued to provide sanctuary and support for some terror groups. Despite the U.S. officially recognizing this support by not certifying Pakistani cooperation, the U.S. State Department requested a waiver because the billions (essentially a bribe at this point) paid were “important to the national security interests of the United States.” Pakistan will receive $2 billion, and more pressure from the United States to shut down terrorist sanctuaries in North Waziristan and Quetta and to stop using Islamic terrorists to launch attacks against India and Pakistan.

October 3, 2012: Pakistani and Afghan generals met to discuss persistent Pakistani artillery fire into Afghanistan. Pakistan had denied this, but now admitted it and said it was only returning fire after its troops had been hit by rockets and mortar shells fired by Pakistani Taliban seeking refuge in Afghanistan. The Pakistanis insisted that they were not firing blindly, but at areas where they were certain the Pakistani Taliban were. The Afghans pointed out that there have been Afghan civilian casualties. The discussions continue and Afghan military leaders threaten retaliation.

October 2, 2012: Army units in Baluchistan (southwest Pakistan) have surrounded a village in an effort to capture or kill armed separatist tribesmen. There have been several dozen casualties, most of them civilians. It is feared that the troops are indiscriminately killing civilians. The army gets a lot of criticism for this sort of thing, from Pakistanis as well as the United States. The army promises to investigate, but nothing ever comes of that.

In eastern India (Chhattisgarh State) some Maoists are trying to intimidate police into halting frequent patrols and free some Maoist leaders who were captured. The Maoists are blocking many roads (by felling trees across them or digging pits in them). Truckers are threatened and commerce is suffering. The police would not back down.

Islamic Rubbish - 'Tomatoes are Christian,' Egyptian Salafi group warns

A Salafi group called the "Popular Egyptian Islamic Association" has warned Muslims against eating tomatoes on the grounds that the fruit is a "Christian food," NowLebanon.com has reported.

The group based its claim on the fact that a shape resembling a cross is revealed when one cuts a tomato in half.

The association published the warning on its Facebook page with a photo of a tomato cut in half, revealing a cross-shaped interior.

A message posted on the page read, "Eating tomatoes is forbidden because they are Christian. [The tomato] praises the cross instead of Allah and says that Allah is three [in reference to the Holy Trinity]."

The message went on to say, "I implore you to spread this photo because there is a sister from Palestine who saw the Prophet of Allah in a vision and he was crying, warning his nation against eating [tomatoes]. If you don’t spread this [message], know that it is the devil who stopped you.”

The message caused outrage among Facebook users, which prompted the group to clarify their warning, saying they did not tell people not to eat tomatoes. "We said don’t cut it in [such a way that it reveals] the cross shape.”

Veiled French Muslim woman charged with inciting riot

A French Muslim woman has been charged with assault and inciting a riot after she refused a police ID check because she was wearing a banned full-face veil, a police source said today.

The 18-year-old is to appear in court in the northern city of Lille on October 30 charged with assault, insulting police and inciting a riot after police tried to take her to a station for refusing to provide identification.

A French law passed in 2011, the first of its kind to be enforced in Europe, banned the wearing of the full-face-covering Islamic veil.

The law came into effect at an already fraught moment in relations between the state and France's Muslim minority -- the largest in Europe -- with then president Nicolas Sarkozy accused of stigmatising Islam to win back votes from a resurgent far right in this year's election.

Supporters of the law have defended it as a measure aimed at supporting women's rights although the text makes it clear that a woman cannot choose herself to cover her face in public.

The woman, arrested on Saturday, was stopped by officers in Roubaix, outside northern France's largest city of Lille.

She allegedly said she did not have time and did not want to show her ID card and covered herself up with another veil as she walked away, the police source said, asking not to be named.

When police tried to take her to the station, she allegedly grabbed hold of a vehicle and started kicking, punching and screaming, the source added.

She allegedly tried to bite police and scratched one of them before being taken into custody. None of the officers were hurt.

In a similar incident on July 24, three officers in the southern city of Marseille sustained minor injuries after they stopped a fully veiled woman by a mosque. The woman, two men and a minor are due in court over the alleged assault.

US poll shows persistence of Obama Muslim lie

More than one in three conservative Republican voters still thinks US President Barack Obama is a Muslim, nearly four years after he won power, said a Pew Research Centre survey Thursday.

“The number of Americans who say Obama is a Muslim is up since 2008, similar to 2010,” senior Pew researcher Greg Smith told AFP.

Although the number of conservative Republicans who believe Obama is a Muslim stagnated between 2010 and 2012, it has more than doubled since 2008 despite the Christian church-goer’s repeated affirmations of his faith.

Seventeen per cent of 3,000 overall voters asked by Pew in June and July thought Obama was Muslim, the poll said. That number is up five per cent from 2008 and down three per cent from 2010, within the survey’s margin of error.

“Our polling suggests there’s a real partisan component,” Smith said.

Muslim American community leaders expressed concern that the lingering inability to recognize Obama’s true faith showed a disturbing undercurrent in US politics, indicating a possible rise of Islamophobic discourse.

“For 17 per cent of people to believe Obama is a Muslim shows there’s a lot of fear-mongering and politicking in America,” Haris Tarin from the Muslim Public Affairs Council.

But Tarin opposes Obama’s efforts to “constantly go out of his way to say he’s a Christian.”

Obama’s Kenyan father was born a Muslim, his middle name is Hussein, and he spent years in Muslim-majority Indonesia as a child.

Millions of Americans — particularly Republicans fuelled by conservative bloggers and talk radio hosts — suspect he is secretly Muslim, according to several polls.

“My Christian faith then has been a sustaining force for me over these last few years, all the more so when Michelle and I hear our faith questioned from time to time,” Obama said at the 2011 National Prayer Breakfast, an annual gathering that brings together thousands of religious and community leaders.

Tarin, the director of the Washington office of the Muslim American advocacy group, however said he hoped the poll would not lead to another Obama assertion of faith.

“I hope Obama does not go out of his way to deny he’s a Muslim. That reinforces the idea that Islam can be used as a slur,” said Tarin.

Tarin noted that former secretary of state under the Republican George W Bush administration, Colin Powell, dealt a blow to the controversy of Obama’s religion, when he asked in an interview on NBC’s Meet The Press, “What if Obama is” a Muslim?

Only 49 per cent of those polled by Pew correctly identified Obama as a Christian, while another 31 per cent said they did not know.

Some 60 per cent of voters correctly identified Obama’s Republican opponent in the November presidential elections, Mitt Romney, as a Mormon.

More troops sent to quell NE India ethnic strife

Indian paramilitary forces patrol at the Gosaigaon village, at Kokrajhar district in the northeastern state of Assam on July 26, 2012. Large troop deployments appear to have stemmed an outburst of ethnic violence in northeast India, officials said Thursday, after a week of clashes that left at least 45 people dead. 

BIJNI: Indian authorities on Thursday rushed more troops to quell ethnic violence in a remote northeastern state where dozens of people have been killed over the past week and villagers are frightened to return to their burned-out homes.  

Clashes between members of the ethnic Bodo community and Muslim settlers in Assam state have left 42 people dead and 13 others missing, state officials said.

Six of the 42 were killed by security forces, who were given a mandate Tuesday to shoot rioters on sight.

The killing of four Bodo men last week sparked off violent attacks by Bodo tribespeople on Muslim villages.

Hundreds of homes were torched and more than 200,000 people fled their homes for relief camps set up in schools and government buildings.

On Thursday, Assam’s Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi met with Bodo and Muslim leaders in an effort to defuse tensions and restore peace, while the federal government ordered more troops to be sent to the three worst-hit districts, Kokrajhar, Dibrugarh and Chirang.

A curfew has helped curtail the violence, but local officials said the situation remains tense. Police reported sporadic violence in Chirang as armed bands of Bodo youth roamed the deserted villages.

Soldiers have orders to shoot to kill arsonists and a 24-hour curfew is in place, said G. D. Tripathi, Assam’s home secretary.

There are already 6,000 army and paramilitary soldiers on the ground.

They have marched through towns and villages in a show of force to give residents confidence to return to their homes.

Thousands of frightened villagers are crammed into about 125 relief camps hastily set up by local administrators.

Each day there is a scramble for limited water and food. Harried officials are trying to provide food, clothes and mattresses for the streams of people who have lost all their possessions.

Among them is a dazed-looking Laily Begum, a mother of three small children. On Sunday, Begum’s Muslim husband was hacked to death by sword-wielding attackers near the town of Bijni in Chirang.

“I don’t know if I should be mourning my husband or fighting for food for my children,” she cries, tears snaking down her face.

Begum fled with her children and from a distance saw the attackers repeatedly stabbing her husband, Mohammad Hasen Ali. Her neighbors told her his body had been thrown into a river.    On Thursday, the Assam government announced that 600,000 rupees ($11,000) would be paid as compensation to the families of those killed.