Rajib Karim, 30, from Newcastle was charged with preparing an act of terrorism or assisting another person to commit an act of terrorism between the April 13 2006 and February 25 this year.
Other charges accused him of preparing acts of terrorism abroad, thought to be the Yemen, and sending money to others “knowing or having reasonable cause to suspect that it would or might be used for the purposes of terrorism.”
Karim was held after counter-terrorism officers swooped on the call centre where he worked in Newcastle.He was among 800 staff dealing with passenger bookings in one of BA’s two UK-based call centres. Officers searched the call centre and raided the suspect’s home in Newcastle following his arrest. It is not thought explosive material was discovered.
Have been following the live feed on the Get Surrey website about tonights extraordinary meeting of Surrey Heath Borough Council.
THe majority of councilors voted against the application to demolish the exisiting mosque, a listed Victorian former school, and to build a new one in blatant Islamic style.
This will not be the last of course. Tablighi Jamaat now control the Mosque and they own the land. I read that they also own what was the flourishing Dolphin pub, which was then closed, and have bought or are bidding for a nearby cinema and the Territorial Army building.
Dozens of bodies lined the dusty streets of three Christian villages in northern Nigeria yesterday. Other victims of Sunday morning’s Muslim rampage were jammed into a local morgue, the limbs of slaughtered children tangled in a grotesque mess.
One toddler appeared fixed in the protective but hopeless embrace of an older child, possibly his brother. Another had been scalped. Most had severed hands and feet.
Remember that. Next time someone says Islam means peace remember little children dead and mutilated.
Officials estimate that 500 people were massacred in night-time raids by Muslim gangs near Jos, the city that bestrides Nigeria’s Christian-Muslim fault line.
Mark Lipdo, a co-ordinator for the Stefanos Foundation, a Christian aid group, confirmed at least 93 dead in one village. “But there are corpses charred beyond recognition,” he said. Survivors claimed that Muslim inhabitants of the targeted villages of Zot, Dogo Nahawa and Rastat had received telephone calls two days before the attack telling them to leave the area.
Witnesses said gangs waited at main entry points to the villages while others went from house to house, setting the homes on fire. Those who fled were killed at the exit points. Others were slaughtered after being caught in animal traps and nets as they ran in the dark.
Ben Kwashi, Anglican Archbishop of Jos, said he visited one of three villages engulfed by the violence. “I could see kids from age zero to teenagers, all butchered from the back, macheted in their necks, their heads. Deep cuts in the mouths of babies. The stench. People wailing and crying,” he said.
Nigeria’s Acting President Goodluck Jonathan, a southerner, ordered troops into the riot-affected area “to confront and defeat these roving bands of killers”, he said in a statement. Last night he sacked Sarki Mukhtar, the national security adviser, a powerful figure in the inner circle of the ailing President, Umaru Yar’Adua. I wonder how long Goodluck Jonathan has got left?
Villagers said army assistance came too late. Christian youths accused the military of complicity in the killings. Survivors told The Times that entire families were killed, some to the chants of Allahu Akbar — God is Greatest. They said villagers awoke to shouting and gunfire at about 3am on Sunday. “They then set homes on fire and attacked men, women and children. Many were decapitated,” said Theresa Malinowska, press officer for Christian Solidarity Worldwide. Staff counted the bodies of four babies and 28 children under 5 in one location alone.
Archbishop Kwashi said he believed a significant organisation was behind the killings because they happened during curfew, with the army in the area. “I think it is all Christians killed. The Muslims, I heard, had left the village. The kind of co-operation that came into play - . . . I worry which village, which town, will be next,” he said.
Dr Williams - listen to your brother in Christ here!!!
It seems that the Danish Prison Service is suffering the same problem as English prisons with immigrant gangs controlling certain areas. This is in Danish from Kristeligt Dagblad and English from the Islam in Europe blog.
Strong gang members control some jail units, also in the Nyborg State Prison, report DR Fyn. In the large common units, with up to 30 inmates, the strong immigrant gangs decide for other inmates. They rule with threats and violence, with regular beating and with various rules, which are to be respected. The tone is so harsh, that it is actually the dominating inmates who make the rules for everyday life in prison.
For example, prisoners may not prepare pork in the kitchens, because the foreign gang members are Muslim.
Bo Henrik Sørensen, prison staff representative, told DR Fyn that "if anybody speaks to us in private, they are beaten. This prevents us from having good contact with the prisoners, so we can work with them."
In Horsens, Vestre and Vridsløselille prisons, there are the same problems as in Nyborg.
And according to the prison staff it's hard to get an overview of who's beating who, when the immigrant gangs aren't as well organized as the bikers, for example.
Danish People's Party justice spokesperson Peter Skaarup says the new justice minister, Lars Barfoed (K), should stop the threats, violence and attacks by immigrant gangs in the prisons.
The director of the Prison and Probation Service, William Rentzmann, told DR that the reports of violence and threats don't give a 'complete picture' of the situation in Danish prisons. He stressed that the employees are the ones who still have the power in the prisons.
Seven Muslims have been arrested in Ireland (by Garda Officers were supported by the National Support Services and the the country's anti-terror Special Detective Unit.) over an alleged plot to kill a cartoonist who depicted the prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog.
Four men and three women were detained following a cross-agency investigation, involving European security organisations, the CIA and FBI. Some of those arrested are believed to be Irish citizens, with the rest originating from the Middle East. According to The Telegraph some were converts.
Al Qaeda put a $100,000 price on Lars Vilks' head after his cartoon was published in a newspaper in 2007. When the bounty was offered on the cartoonist's head, an extra 50% was offered if he was "slaughtered like a lamb".
More on the Camberley Mosque, where application is made for the demolition of a listed building which contains the existing mosque, to be replaced with a five domed building with twin minarets, which will provide an handy vantage point into Sandhurst Military Academy.
The Bengali Welfare Association was quite happy in the Victorian former St Gregory’s school until new leadership took over about 3 years ago. It was obvious that the new leadership had expansiove ideas. The admirable Dr Taj Hargey of Oxford confirms here that the new leaders are connected withTablighi Jamaat of Dewsbury and Abbeymills (aka the Megamosque)
Tonight in the surprising setting of Surrey’s stockbroker belt, Christian and Muslim groups will clash. The cause of the ill-will is whether Surrey Heath Council should grant planning permission for a new mosque.
This mosque will have five domes and two 100ft minarets that will loom over the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. Little wonder many people regard it as a provocation — and that’s why I will be at the council meeting opposing its construction.
The religious needs of Camberley’s burgeoning Muslim community has been served since 1996 by an old Victorian school converted into a mosque. While not perfect, the present premises, with a little modification, could cater for future expansion.
However, elements within the Bengali Welfare Association, which runs the mosque, have aligned themselves to Tablighi Jamaat — a dogmatic, ultra-conservative group whose controversial mega-mosque project close to the 2012 Olympics site in London was recently rebuffed. This new mosque will not be in the interests of all British Muslims as it will allocate less than a fifth of the space to female worshippers.
. . .building two minaret towers, so close to a renowned military college, is a provocation.
We British Muslims, who enjoy full freedom of faith, should remember that Islam obliges us to be good neighbours and respect others. Rather than dismissing objections as either racist or intolerant, we should listen to local opinion. And if the Muslims of Camberley are still determined to build their “traditional” mosque, they should seek an alternative site. More importantly, they should jettison reactionary ideology and adopt a progressive Islam that is part of the British mainstream.
A senior Muslim leader is again calling for elements of sharia law to be legally recognised in Australia. During an open day at Sydney's Lakemba Mosque at the weekend, the Australian Islamic Mission's president, Dr Zachariah Matthews, called for aspects of sharia law to function as a parallel legal system.
Dr Matthews says while Muslims only represent 1.7 per cent of the Australian population, changes are unlikely. But he says there are some small aspects of sharia law the Muslim community would like to have recognised.
"The aspects that we would be looking at are definitely not the penal code system, in so far as people's fears around the cutting off of hands for the crime of theft and the stoning of adulterers," he said. "The aspects that we would be looking at are aspects related to Muslim family law and perhaps Muslim inheritance law."
Dr Matthews says although these are minor differences, they are differences Muslims would like to have recognised.
"When it comes to Muslim family law there are issues relating to the legal age of marriage," he said. In Muslim law, for example, as in Singapore, the legal age for both parties is 16 rather than as it stands currently [at] 18. There's also the issue of the waiting period [between] separation and divorce, which is currently specified at 12 months. In Muslim family law that could be a lot shorter. As long as that concession does not infringe on the rights of others and society at large, then the question I'm asking is, are we not mature enough or sophisticated enough to manage that type of diversity?"
Before long it would be a call to reduce the age of marriage to 14, then 12, then 9. What decent society wants its children married off so young? Celebrating diversity is taking a days holiday for Diwali or Yom Kippur. Marriage of children at a younger age wouldn’t be diversity – it would be tolerating child abuse and slavery.
I’m quite worried about Scotland. In the past their hatred of the English traditionally led them into alliances with the French. These days their alliance is with Islam as shown by the Scottish National Party’s particular attachment to organisations like the Scottish Islamic Foundation, leading to scandals like the ‘cash for cronies’ business 2 years ago. This (HT Alan) is another such example, coming as it does hard on the heels of the plea from Lambeka Mosque in Sydney.
A Scottish law firm has become the first in the country to offer clients “conventional” legal representation alongside advice on sharia law. Hamilton Burns, based in Glasgow’s south side, has teamed up with an eminent Muslim scholar who will counsel clients on the Islamic aspect of civil law cases, while solicitors give advice under Scots law. Clients will be able to see a Muslim lawyer who is fully trained in Scots law at the same time as they consult a sharia scholar who is an expert in Islamic law. It will be the first time such a service has been offered in Scotland.
Despite public fears over what is deemed “creeping” sharia law, the firm stressed that the sharia advice was not legally binding and would mainly focus on giving Islamic guidelines on divorce or child custody based on rigorous readings of the Koran.
Niall Mickel, a solicitor advocate specialising in civil law and the managing partner at Hamilton Burns said: “We hope that by incorporating sharia family jurisprudence against a background of domestic Scottish legislation, we can provide our clients with as much relevant information as possible to assist them in making the right choices.”
Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh is also partner at the firm. She said: “It is difficult for Muslim women to seek divorce from their husbands. If the position under Islamic law is made clear, then even though the husband might not want to take the Scots law step, women may then be able to do so.”
Employees at the law firm admit that their groundbreaking decision has been controversial. One employee hinted that it was the fact that female solicitors were involved in the new initiative that was causing concern within some sections of the Muslim community.
Shaykh Amer Jamil trained in sharia law in the Middle East and holds a Bachelor in Law qualification from Strathclyde University.
Maryam Namazie, an ex-Muslim and spokesperson for One Law for All warned that Islamic law was not as innocuous as the firm claimed. She will speak at a London seminar on tomorrow to mark International Women’s Day. She said: “Sharia law is discriminatory. It is antithetical to laws that have been fought for and hard won by progressive social movements, particularly in areas of family matters”.
A SECULAR Muslim woman councillor has been forced to dress more conservatively after receiving death threats and sexually harassing phone calls from members of her own community. Shiria Khatun, 38, has called in the police over the sinister calls in which threats were made not only against her, but also her four young children.In one they warned they would dig up parents’ graves and bury her there instead.
The Labour councillor in the controversial borough of Tower Hamlets—named in a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary last week as a centre of Islamic fundamentalism—is considered one of the area’s most progressive politicians. However, over the past year she has been the victim of a “sick” harassment campaign. She has been bombarded with anonymous calls and even followed home. At first she was “too embarrassed” to call the police, but when the threats, mostly made in the Bangladeshi dialect Sylheti, targeted her family she decided to act.
She said: “As a councillor I’m meant to be a strong woman and I didn’t want to show that I was bothered, but it’s gone too far. They’re really disgusting. They would talk about my Western clothes, my tight jeans and my body parts. One man said—and it sounds much nastier in Sylheti—‘I know where you live and I’m going to come and show you and your kids’. I just hung up. I really thought it was a pervert, but then it started to get more intense”. Following the calls, she started wearing more loose-fitting traditional Asian clothes and glasses instead of contact lenses to be “taken more seriously”.
She said: “I didn’t even realise that I was giving into them, but my skirts started getting longer and the whole thing left me demoralised. Other Muslim women have advised me to dress down because of rumours within the Bengali community, mostly men, criticising me for being too Western looking. I don’t like people exploiting religion to tell me I’m not a proper Muslim. We live in a democratic society and I have the right to dress how I like.”
She has so far refused to wear the Muslim hijab headscarf, something she said is a more common sight on the streets of Tower Hamlets—a densely Bangladeshi-populated borough—than in Bangladesh itself. Cllr Khatun added: “I returned from a visit to Bangladesh not long ago and it’s definitely more conservative here than it is there. I used to look at the photos of Bangladeshi women who came here in the Sixties and go ‘Wow!’ and think how amazingly fashionable and liberal they were with their short-sleeved blouses and bouffant hairdos. It’s all changed so much now for younger women.”
American al-Qaida spokesman lauds Fort Hood killer
AP CAIRO — Al-Qaida's American-born spokesman has called on Muslims serving in the U.S. armed forces to emulate the Army major charged with killing 13 people in Fort Hood. Adam Gadah . . . describes Maj. Nidal Hasan as a pioneer who should serve as a role model for other Muslims. He urges Muslims in America to carry out attacks against U.S. and Western targets.
The video posted on a radical Islamic web site on Sunday featured Gadahn, also known as Azzam al-Amriki, dressed in white robes and wearing a white turban. Gadahn converted to Islam and joined al-Qaida and was charged with treason in 2006.
I don't have a camcorder or video camera, just a small capacity for a few seconds of video on my camera. Picture quality is not always good and sound quality is even worse. These are the best of the clips I recorded yesterday.
First the opening remarks of the first speech outside the Tate Gallery.
Then the singing of the National Anthem at the end of the minute's silence.
The UAF at theother end of Millbank were being lead by a shouty man in a green Morph suit.
A fundamentalist group which believes in sharia law, jihad and creating an "Islamic social and political order" in Britain arranged an "unprecedented mobilisation" of voters for the former London mayor, Ken Livingstone, at the last mayoral election.
In an election lost by Mr Livingstone, the Islamic Forum of Europe helped secure massive and unexpected swings towards him in its east London heartland. In one ward, Spitalfields, his vote share rose from 29.6 per cent in 2004 - an election he won - to 68.4 per cent in 2008, a rise of nearly 39 percentage points. In every other ward in Tower Hamlets and Newham with a sizeable Muslim population, his vote rose by between 23 and 36 percentage points. His vote in other Muslim and ethnic minority areas of London also rose, but by far smaller amounts.
Mr Livingstone's economic development body, the London Development Agency, had agreed to pay more than £1.3 million to the East London Mosque, controlled by the IFE, and described by critics as hardline. Emails leaked toThe Sunday Telegraphshow that a senior LDA official furiously protested against at least £500,000 of this grant, saying there were "major concerns" about the mosque project and "no case" for giving it the money. However, the official was overruled and the grant was paid.
Part of Mr Livingstone's voting rise will have been due to his opposition to the Iraq war and support for the Palestinian cause, both popular among Muslims.
However, part can be explained by the activities of a group called "Muslims 4 Ken," whichThe Sunday Telegraphhas established was run by the IFE's community affairs co-ordinator, Azad Ali, and an IFE ally, Anas al-Tikriti of the British Muslim Initiative. Mr Ali is listed on his personal web page as a "team member" of Muslims 4 Ken and on the Muslims 4 Ken site, along with one other person, as a "contributor".
Muslims 4 Ken made a series of false and inflammatory claims against Mr Livingstone's main opponent, Boris Johnson. It leafleted mosques claiming that Mr Johnson had "expressed his hatred against Islam" and also claimed that he wanted to ban the Koran. Muslims 4 Ken's website quoted Mr Johnson as saying that "racism is natural" without adding the sentences which followed ("It is as natural as sewage. We all agree that it is disgusting.")
After the election, Muslims 4 Ken boasted that it "mobilised the Muslim community in unprecedented numbers," saying: "We got out the vote." Electoral officials have also expressed concern,The Sunday Telegraphhas established, about dramatic fluctuations in the number of people registered to vote in Tower Hamlets.
IFE activists are heavily involved in campaigning for a Yes vote in the Tower Hamlets mayoral referendum. Undercover footage taken by Channel 4's Dispatches shows that they are organising to take the mayoralty, with almost total power over the council's £1 billion budget. One IFE member, Abu Talha, tells the undercover reporter: "The [new] 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, whether it will be brother Azad [Azad Ali] or someone else."
The referendum was granted after a leading IFE activist, Abjol Miah, organised a petition containing the signatures of more than five per cent of the Tower Hamlets electorate, as the law requires.
However, a report by council officers found that almost half the names on the petition were "invalid", including more than five thousand which did not appear on even the expanded electoral register.
A total of 99.3 per cent of the names on the petition are Asian, in a borough where only around 40 per cent of the population is Asian. The petition contains entire pages of names and addresses written in the same handwriting. I think they mean Muslim – Sikh and Hindu names are unmistakably different and their level of education is generally high. Nonetheless, enough signatures were ruled to be valid and the mayoral referendum was granted.
The launch of the "Muslims for Ken" campaign came after the East London Mosque, which is closely connected to the IFE, secured at least £1.3 million in funding from Mr Livingstone's City Hall. This included £500,000 awarded by Mr Livingstone's London Development Agency in 2004 for the building of the mosque's extension, the London Muslim Centre (LMC), which houses the headquarters of the IFE. The money was paid even though the senior LDA officials in charge of the grant resisted in unusually strong terms. Peter Brimson, the LDA director in charge of the project, said there were "unanswered questions" and "major concerns over value for money" in the scheme,
Mr Livingstone said he could not recollect the project, or whether he had been personally involved in approving the payment. He refused to comment on the activities of Muslims 4 Ken and said: "You are a liar who is stirring up racism."
No, in the years since they formed in 1961 they have had more than one song. Don't read anything into this rather film noir/resistance/cold war spy movie video however. This is Twilight Zone from (I think) 1982.
PLANS for the controversial 'hijab-shape' archways at the entrance to Brick Lane have been withdrawn at the eleventh hour.
The proposals which triggered a flood of criticism from residents were due to be discussed by Tower Hamlets council's Development Committee tonight.
But Town Hall bosses confirmed this afternoon the applications had been taken off the agenda to give the council more time.
A statement issued by the council said: "Due to the large amount of public interest shown over the proposed Brick Lane arches, the planning applications have been withdrawn to allow time to build upon the extensive community engagement and consultation the council has already done."
Sounds to me like they intend to make a few more threats to the objectors. A little more persuasion like they exerted (and failed) on the organisers of the ‘unislamic’ (there is no fun in Islam) mela and the proprietor of the dating agency.
What no one seems to have mentioned, so I’ll mention it here, is that Brick Lane already has an arch leading into the stretch where the curry houses are concentrated. But it was built in a secular and vernacular Bengali style, and was not something that will put £1.8 million into the pockets of the (un)deserving.
Geert Wilders was expected to land in England at 9am and to show his film Fitna to Parliament at 11am, followed by a Press Conference.
I arrived in Westminster at around 10.20 as the various Unite Against Facism groups were arriving.
As you can see from the uniformly made placards being unloaded white vans are not the preserve of Essex man tory voters.
Placard de jour today, in fetching purple:- EDL + BNP = Nazi-racist thugs.
I do hope those placards are made by adults paid the minimum wage and not in some sweatshop by non union labour.
The UAF and friends were being marshalled by the police opposite the Houses of Parliament around the statue of King George V.
I made my way to meet the men and women of March for England at their arranged meeting place and was introduced to Trev an EDL organiser.
He asked me to emphasis that the EDL are not against Muslims. They are against Sharia, extremism, the burqua. They are against Islam as an ideology in so far as that ideology wants to change English culture. They are not against individual Muslims private worship.
They told me that the EDL were meeting by the Tate Gallery and intended to march down Millbank towards parliament.
I made my way back to Abbey Gardens where, from previous occasions, I believed (correctly) the showing and press conference would be held. By this time the UAF had been moved to a spot in the middle of the road where Great College Street meets Millbank. I was distracted by a police announcement requiring the group to move and so missed Geert Wilders’ exit and just caught the back of the last car of his three car convoy. I won’t bore you with that photograph as it is probably the worst one I took all day.
Meanwhile the UAF had made themselves comfortable and didn’t want to move.
London Metropolitan University is a former technical college in Whitechapel.
Mr Green man was enjoying himself with the megaphone.
I decided to see what was happening at the other end of Millbank.
The EDL procession approached the Tate Gallery from Vauxhall Bridge. They were singing the National Anthem and adapted a popular football chant. To the tune of Guantanamera they were singing “One Geert Wilders, there’s only one Geert Wilders”. There were also calls of “No Surrender to the Taliban” and “Muslim bombers off our streets”.
They formed up outside the Tate Gallery for speeches. The same young Sikh man, Gurjamat Singh, spoke who addressed the meeting in Stoke, followed by businessman Alan Lake. I expect to be able to find the full speeches on EDL Media tomorrow. I also have some short video clips of my own which I hope to do something with in the morning. I was viewing this from the steps of the Gallery, behind the speakers, facing the marchers.
There was a minutes silence for the latest British casualties in Afghanistan and the two Sikhs beheaded in Pakistan last week for refusing to convert to Islam.
This was followed by the National Anthem and the procession moved of further down Millbank.
Members of the UAF had found their way into Victoria Tower Gardens (which was closed earlier) and they started to shout “Nazi scum off our streets”
The EDL/MfE/protect free speech crowd was mixed and people joined in along the way.
This lady doesn’t look in the least like “nazi scum” or a football hooligan.
As I followed along the pavement I fell into conversation with a man from the English Democrat Party. He had been talking earlier to a woman from Eritrea who was very critical of Islam and supportive of the EDL aims. I didn’t see her myself. I did see a black lady blowing kisses to the marchers.
The procession, which I would estimate at nearly 1000 strong came to a halt by Old Palace Yard. The police ushered maybe 200 EDL members into the space around King George originally occupied by the UAF while what was left of the UAF grouped along the pavement on the other side of the road. Chants were exchanged. I found out later that missiles and bottles were hurled at the EDL.
I overheard two young men of the UAF talking. One was a recent arrival.
“How’s it going?”
“OK, we were outnumbering them until the police arrested a load of our lot”.
He may be accurate on the arrests but they were never outnumbered.
I only saw one obvious Muslim. He was a lone elderly man in a white robe who went and engaged some members of the EDL in conversation. There were none of Lord Ahmed's boasted band and nobody who resembled the members of now forbidden Isalm4UK. It was noticable that the EDL and associated groups were there to welcome Geert Wilders and generally support free speech while the UAF were there only to oppose the BNP (who were not there) and the EDL.
I didn’t see which group the chap below came from but I saw where he went – into the back of the police van.
I saw another young man escorted firmly from the UAF group
“No, you are not under arrest son, but if you come back and behave like that again next time you will be”.
Megaphone? Check! Green Morph suit? Check! Do I look a pratt? Check!
I didn’t realise that there were people still left alive who not only admit to being Bolsheviks but are happy to go on the streets of London waving a Soviet flag.
Given a choice between the Three Lions of England (technically leopards but lets not be pedantic) and the hammer and sickle I know which I chose every time.
Looking down Millbank from Old Palace Yard. Houses of Parliament and UAF on the left of the picture, EDL etc to the right. Police in the middle.
Somebody I overheard expressed concern to his friend about what he took to be Nazi salutes. The UAF make this claim constantly.
Having watched them closely it isn’t a Nazi, or Facist salute but a football gesture of an outstretched arm. A sort of “Oi you!” finger wag which being made in a crowd goes up rather than forward. But every gesture made by so called “Nazi scum” is a Nazi salute I suppose.
I decided I had had enough and left for some refreshment.
I’ll put some more photos up on Flickr tomorrow – in England its nearly my bedtime.
Four Muslim fanatics who planned "bloodbaths" at US targets in Germany in an attempt to create a "second September 11" have been jailed. Fritz Gelowicz, the ring leader, got 12 years, his German sidekick Daniel Schneider - both converts to Islam - 11 years while two accomplices were sentenced to five years each for their roles in a plot to detonate explosives 100 times more powerful than those used in the London Underground bombings of July 2005.
The four men, known as the "Sauerland Cell" after the tourist region where they stockpiled massive amounts of chemicals for the bombs, were jailed at the end of a nine-month trial.
In closing speeches top prosecutor Volker Brinkmann said the gang "had planned a mass murder unrivalled in Germany. They acted out of blind hatred for American soldiers," he said. "It is terrible to think they enjoyed the concept of terror attacks that would have killed at least 150 soldiers as well as women and children. They appointed themselves masters over life and death."
Gelowicz, Schneider and Adem Yilmaz, who is a Turkish national, were captured in the Sauerland region in 2007 after stockpiling vast quantities of hydrogen peroxide, suitable for making car bombs and other explosives. Attila Selek, a Turkish German, was later arrested in Turkey where he was to acquire the detonators for the bombs. He was extradited to Germany in 2008
All have given detailed accounts of their terrorist training at a camp in Pakistan's "bandit country" of Waziristan together with details of the US bases that they planned to blitz with their home-made devices for the Islamic Jihadist Union. The terror attacks were to take place in October 2007, when parliament was to vote to extend German participation in the NATO force in Afghanistan.
The US Air Force base at Ramstein as well as discos, restaurants and nightclubs in the area used by service personnel were written down as potential targets for a series of bombings.German authorities have collected valuable insight into the workings of the IJU, which has ties to Al-Qaeda. "We now know how recruitment works, how people are smuggled into the Afghan-Pakistani border region and how the training takes place," said federal prosecutor Rainer Griesbaum.
All said they turned to terror in disgust at the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Germany's intelligence agencies believe that, with 4,500 troops currently in Afghanistan, the risk of a terror attack in the country remains high.
Conversation between my husband and me last night during the England v Egypt friendly at Wembley.
Jean (his colleague) was taking down an address over the telephone this afternoon – it sounded like he was Bilbo Baggins from Over the Hill and Under the Hill. I thought he was taking the rise out of her, but he really does live on an estate in South Woodham Ferrers where all the streets are named after characters out of Lord of the Rings.
I don’t know how well that will wear in 100 years time. I’m used to streets named after councillors.
What, like Mohammed? (He had Monday’s Dispatches in mind). Mohammed Road, Mohammed Crescent, Mohammed Drive, Mohammed Ali Avenue by way of a change.
And what’s this business about not having statues, or being allowed to call teddy bears Mohammed. How come they can name a footballer after Mohammed but not a bear? Most of this team are called Mohammed.
I think its something to do with not naming inanimate objects Mohammed.
Inanimate objects? So where does that leave their goalie then?
The Egyptian goalkeeper is Essam El Hadary not Mohammed and he made a couple of good saves. England didn’t play that well themselves in the first half. And then Peter Crouch came on.
I missed Egypt’s goal but apparently this was their celebration.
A blow to the business of the Mr Teasie Weasies of Gaza. From Arab News
GAZA: The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas on Thursday banned men in the Gaza Strip from working in women's hair salons, vowing to arrest and try offenders.
"The Palestinian authorities (in Gaza) have decided to ban men from working in women's beauty parlours following instructions from Interior Minister Fathi Hammad," said a statement on the website of the Hamas-run police force in Gaza. "Anyone who breaches this decision will be arrested and tried."
Over the last three years, several beauty parlours and hair salons in the Gaza Strip have been the target of explosions (I have had a few haircuts like that) and other attacks, which Hamas have blamed on radical Islamist groups who share the ideology of Al-Qaeda.
I was at this gig - Wembley Arena, New Years Eve 1987.
Whitesnake with Adje van den Burg, or as he is better known in English speaking countries Adrian Vandenberg, on lead guitar.
In fresh violent protest against an article purportedly written by Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen, a petrol bomb was hurled on the office of the Kannada daily that published it and an eveninger attacked in Mangalore on Tuesday night.
Miscreants forced their way into the building housing the office of New Indian Express and its sister publication 'Kannada Prabha', which published the article on 'Burqa' tradition on its Sunday magazine section, and hurled the petrol bomb.
They also threatened the staff of the daily with "dire consequences" if it carried any more such "offensive" articles, police said. The building housing the two newspapers was guarded by a few policemen. The attackers managed to escape. The office of 'Jai Kirana', a local English eveninger, was stoned, police said.
At least seven computers were damaged in the attack on the Kannada daily office which occurred even as Shimoga, Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa's home town, showed signs of returning to normalcy after Monday's protests that left two persons dead, including one in police firing.
An FIR had already been registered against the Kannada daily for publishing the article which the Muslim protesters said hurt their religious sentiments.
A Scottish bar that has undergone a re-branding exercise has caused outrage among the local Muslim community who say it is disrespectful to the Islamic faith. The Dundee establishment, which was formerly known as Bar Rio, has recently reopened as Medina Bar and Grill in the city's Nethergate.
But the move has angered local adherents to the Islamic faith, which discourages the drinking of alcohol among its followers. One senior member of Dundee's Central Mosque said the use of the Medina name in a place serving alcohol was "disrespectful".
Mohammed Bashir Chohan, chairman of the Dundee Islamic Society, said: "People are upset about it because Medina is a holy city in Islam. It does hurt when somebody misuses the name, especially if they are going to sell liquor."
However, on Tuesday a spokesman for Medina said there was no offence intended in the bar's new name. "The bar has a Moroccan theme and, as far as we were told, medina is the hustle-bustle of an old quarter of a north African city. There was no intended link to the second holiest city of Islam, and there was absolutely no offence intended."
A bit like the name Mecca for the chain of Bingo Halls. Mecca is a city people flock to; the founders of the leisure chain 120 years ago hoped people would also flock to their establishments. As for the name Medina it is also the name of several Spanish and American towns. Which in turn gave their name to a drink.
A Muslim woman is thought to have become the first passenger to be stopped from boarding a flight for refusing to go through a full body scanner because of religious reasons.
The passenger was at Manchester Airport for a flight to Islamabad when she was selected at random to pass through the controversial security screen. She was warned she would not be allowed to board the Pakistan International Airlines flight if she did not comply with the request but she decided to forfeit her ticket and left her luggage at the airport.
Her female travelling companion also left the airport after she cited 'medical reasons' for not wanting to go through the scanner. Sources at Manchester Airport said the flight to Pakistan about two weeks ago was busy and that no other passengers objected when chosen to go through the full body scanner after check-in. The female passenger who declined on medical grounds was said to be concerned because she had an infection.
It is understood the women may be the first passengers in the UK to be barred from taking a flight after refusing to submit to the scan. Heathrow Airport said it could not comment on individual cases.
A Manchester Airport spokeswoman said: 'Two female passengers who were booked to fly out of Terminal 2 refused to be scanned for medical and religious reasons. In accordance with the Government directive on scanners, they were not permitted to fly.
BRITISH Airways worker has been arrested during a probe into terrorist fund-raising, it emerged yesterday. The British man, 30 - thought to be from an Asian background - was held at BA's Newcastle-upon-Tyne call centre.
A plot to raise cash for an attack, possibly on a jet, is thought to have been uncovered. The suspect was driven to a central London police station, where he continues to be held. He has been questioned for six days after City of Westminster JPs granted an extension to his custody on Saturday.
His arrest followed a combined operation by the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command and the North East Counter Terrorism Unit. The investigation is focusing on the suspect's key contacts and recent movements. It is believed there was no immediate threat of an attack on a plane or a UK target.
The employee was among 800 staff dealing with passenger bookings in one of the airline's two big British-based call centres. Staff have access to thousands of flight details and are familiar with basic security procedures.
