Religion of peace working its wonders in Afghanistan:
In Paktika province, which adjoins Ghazni, two men were killed when a waistcoat they were packing with bombs for use in a suicide attack exploded, the government said.
"Two mullahs (prayer leaders) were killed when a suicide vest they were building went off prematurely," said Zemarai Bashary, spokesman for the interior ministry, which handles police matters.
The pair was in a mosque near the border with Pakistan, he said.
And don't even bat an eye.
Chinese authorities in the restive far western region of Xinjiang have demolished a mosque for refusing to put up signs in support of this August’s Beijing Olympics, an exiled group said on Monday. The mosque was in Kalpin county near Aksu city in Xinjiang’s rugged southwest, the World Uyghur Congress said.Again I am presented with the dilemma of not knowing who to root for.
The spokesman’s office of the Xinjiang government said it had no immediate comment, while telephone calls to the county government went unanswered.
“China is forcing mosques in East Turkistan to publicise the Beijing Olympics to get the Uighur people to support the Games (but) this has been resisted by the Uighurs,” World Uyghur Congress spokesman Dilxat Raxit said in an emailed statement.
Beijing says Al-Qaeda is working with militants in Xinjiang to use terror to establish an independent state called East Turkistan.
Oil-rich Xinjiang is home to 8 million Turkic-speaking Uighurs, many of whom resent the growing economic and cultural influence of the Han Chinese.
This goes a step beyond appeasement in that UK authority now seeks to silence criticism of muslim extremists.
The Home Secretary has come under pressure to investigate the behaviour of West Midlands Police, after the force issued a grovelling apology to documentary-makers who exposed extremism in Birmingham mosques.
MP Roger Godsiff (Lab Sparkbrook and Small Heath) called for an inquiry to discover why police had targeted Channel 4, broadcaster of the Dispatches documentary, instead of prosecuting the "religious and racial hatred" uncovered by the programme.
The documentary Dispatches: Undercover Mosque, broadcast in January 2007, showed preachers and teachers stating "Allah created the woman deficient" and "by the age of 10, it becomes an obligation on us to force her (young girls) to wear hijab and if she doesn’t wear hijab, we hit her".
Other statements included "take that homosexual and throw him off the mountain" and "whoever changes his religion from Al Islam to anything else - kill him in the Islamic state".
One speaker in the programme was shown glorying in the Taliban’s murder of a British Muslim soldier in Afghanistan, saying the real hero was "one who separated his head from his shoulders".
West Midlands Police and the Crown Prosecution Service responded by issuing a press release claiming that the Dispatches programme misrepresented the views of Muslim preachers and clerics with misleading editing.
Police reported Channel 4 to TV watchdog Ofcom for "heavily editing" the words of Islamic imams to give them more sinister meaning.
But Ofcom dismissed the complaint - and Channel 4 sued the police for libel.
West Midlands Police and the Crown Prosecution Service issued a public apology after admitting they got it wrong.
Mr Godsiff said he welcomed the apology, but a Home Office inquiry was needed. He said: "The individuals shown in the programme broadcast were using highly derogatory and racist language against a variety of non-Muslim groups which included Christians, Jews, homosexuals, lesbians and women; and were in clear in breach of existing legislation in respect of incitement to religious and racial hatred."
The MP’s motion states that the House of Commons "calls on the Home Secretary to launch an immediate investigation into why the West Midlands Police and the Crown Prosecution Service chose to attack the programme makers at Channel 4 rather than investigating and prosecuting the individuals who were shown in the programme; and asserts that incitement to religious and racial hatred has no place in British society."
Mr Godsiff has consistently challenged West Midlands Police to justify their behaviour over the programme.
Lawyers acting for West Midlands Police and the Crown Prosecution Service issued the apology in a statement in the High Court in London. They said: "Both defendants now accept that the allegations of distortion that were made in the press release were incorrect.
"They are here by their counsel today publicly to withdraw these allegations and to apologise for the fact that they were made."
"Both defendants accept, without reservation, the conclusions of Ofcom and accept that the programme accurately represented the material that had been gathered from the undercover filming.
"As an indication of the sincerity of this apology and as recognition of the seriousness of allegations of fakery for professional journalists and broadcasters, both defendants have agreed to pay substantial damages to the claimants and to pay their legal costs."
In a statement issued on its website, West Midlands Police said: "Following an independent investigation by the broadcasting regulator Ofcom, we now accept that we were wrong to make these allegations."
Channel 4 is to receive damages of £50,000, to be donated to the Rory Peck Trust for freelance news gatherers and their families in times of need, as well as £50,000 in costs.
Kevin Sutcliffe, deputy head of current affairs at Channel 4, said of today’s [THURS] announcement: "This is a total vindication of the programme team in exposing extreme views being preached in mainstream British mosques."
Police spent around £14,000 on investigating the Dispatches programme, which initially focused on whether the people portrayed in the documentary had broken any laws.
However, police then shifted their focus onto the documentary-makers, and considered whether they should be prosecuted for stirring up racial hatred. Eventually, officers settled for making a complaint to Ofcom instead.
Damn! Engineering terrorism within Iran? I can't even get people to comment at my blog.
Six suspects among the 15 people detained over the explosion in Shiraz are linked to a German-based monarchist weblog, a report says.See this earlier report.
The six agents, two of them chemistry students, were in contact with a blogger, belonging to the German-based Rahe Azadi (Way of Freedom) weblog, via email, JAHAN reported.
Earlier, they had detonated bombs in Fars Province sabotaging the Sivand and another Dam in return for a sum of over $20,000 from the blogger.
The blogger then requested the 'facilitators' to target two public places, promising each bomber a $100,000 reward.
A crowded mosque in Shiraz was the site of the first blast, which left 14 people killed and some 200 others injured on April 12.
The explosives used in the blast were described as two containers of chemical material.
The bombers were next assigned to target Tehran's International Book Fair, May 1-11, at the city's congregational prayer venue.
Iran has accused the United States, Britain and Israel of funding the suspects and providing them with necessary expertise to make bombs.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused Israel Tuesday of involvement in the Shiraz mosque explosion last month that killed 14 people, Iranian news agency (IRNA) reported.Related stories:
After Iran claimed earlier that the United States and Britain were responsible for the explosion, Ahmadinejad named Israel too, and said that “the three countries announced that they were planning to assassinate Iranians, which was followed a short time later by the Shiraz mosque crime.” The Iranian leader added that “thanks to efforts by Iranian intelligence agencies, the perpetrators of the blast were quickly arrested and confessed to their ties to the Zionist regime, the US and Britain.”
Sure...Why not?...OJ won.
Iran's judiciary said on Monday it would file international lawsuits against the United States and Britain, accusing them of providing financial support to those behind a blast in a mosque that killed 14 people.Related stories:
Iran's intelligence minister last week said Iran had arrested five or six members of a terrorist group with links to Britain and the United States who he said were involved in the explosion that also wounded 200 in the southern city of Shiraz.
Iranian officials had previously said the April 12 blast, during an evening prayer sermon by a prominent local cleric, was caused by explosives left over from an exhibition commemorating the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.
It would appear that Iran is trying to prepare their citizens for war.
Iran has arrested members of a terrorist group with links to Britain and the United States who were behind a blast at a mosque last month that killed 14 and wounded 200 in the southern city of Shiraz, a news agency said.Here is video from the mosque blast. I don't see no stinking terrorists.
Iranian officials had previously said the April 12 blast, in the Shohada mosque during an evening prayer sermon by a prominent local cleric, was caused by explosives left over from an exhibition commemorating the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.
"The blast ... was caused by a bombing by a terrorist group with links to Western countries, especially Britain and America," ISNA news agency quoted Intelligence Minister Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei as saying late on Wednesday.
Five or six people were arrested, including the main culprit who was trying to flee the country, Mohseni-Ejei said. The group was found with weapons and "intended to carry out similar acts in other places," he said.
The minister's remarks echo allegations U.S. officials have made about Iranian support for militias in Iraq that have fought U.S. and U.S.-backed government forces there, accusations Tehran denies.
A "place of peace" seems a strange place to be storing old war material.
The start of the democratic revolution? Or just a suicide bomb class gone wrong?
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - A bomb explosion in a mosque in southern Iran has killed scores of people, state television reported Saturday.Dead muslims
The semi-official Fars news agency gave a lower death toll, saying eight people were killed and more than 50 wounded. There was no immediate explanation for the discrepancy.
"As a result of a bomb explosion at Rahpouyan Cultural Center in Shiraz, unfortunately scores of our countrymen were martyred," the state television report said.
The television report said the mosque was part of the cultural center.
The enlightened Dutch wished to teach their kids a lesson in tolerance. So one particular primary school sent its children to a mosque, as part of a field trip. Apparently, the Dutch still know nothing about Islam and were shocked when the children were told by the friendly muslims that they were "dogs"
"With a view to developing understanding and respect for other cultures among children, primary school De Horizon regularly organises outings to various religious organisations. The chairman of the El Mouchidine mosque told the children from group 7 (aged 10) and their chaperones however that non-Muslims are dogs.Lesson in tolerance
In a letter to the children's parents, the school expresses its regret at the incident: "We are shocked that during the guided tour, the mosque's chairman told the children and chaperoning parents that non believers were dogs. We consider this statement as unacceptable since we allow our children to partake in this project to develop respect for freedom of religious choice".
Angry parents had sent the letter on to De Telegraaf but were reportedly rapped on the knuckles by the school's management. "The school wishes to play this down. That is precisely the problem", as one mother commented."
"Dutch to fight US visa ban on hiv,aidsDutch News
Foreign affairs minister Maxime Verhagen says he will make a 'strong case' against the ban on hiv and aids-infected Europeans entering the United States.
He made the pledge on Monday evening following a question to parliament from D66 MP Alexander Pechtold, reports the Volkskrant.
The ban was imposed in 1987 when a question was added to the visa request form asking if the applicant had any infectious disease. Hiv and aids fall into this category under US law, the paper said."
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