Mar 22, 2007 02:13 PM Associated PressLONDON — British counter-terrorist police said today they arrested three suspects in the deadly suicide bomb attacks on the London transit system in 2005. Two of the men were picked up just before boarding a plane to Pakistan.
No one has ever been charged in connection with the July 7, 2005, bombings, which were the deadliest attack on London since World War II. The four bombers and 52 commuters died in blasts on three subway trains and a double-decker bus, and more than 700 people were injured.
London’s Metropolitan Police said two men, ages 23 and 30, were arrested at Manchester Airport in northwest England as they prepared to board a flight to Pakistan. The third man, 26, was detained at a house in Leeds, a city in northern England where police were searching five houses.
All were arrested on suspicion of committing, preparing or instigating acts of terrorism, and authorities aid they were being taken to a central London police station for questioning.
The houses being searched were all in Beeston, a working-class area of Leeds that was home to three of the 2005 bombers. Officers also were searching an apartment and a business in east London.
The coordinated attacks on London commuters were the first suicide bombings on European soil. The attack was followed two weeks later by a copycat plot in which four bombs failed to detonate.
Three of the suicide bombers — Mohammed Sidique Khan, 30, Shehzad Tanweer, 22, and Hasib Hussain, 18 — were British-born men of Pakistani descent who grew up in the ethnically mixed Leeds area, about 200 miles from London. The fourth, Germaine Lindsay, 19, was born in Jamaica and raised in Britain.
The revelation that seemingly unremarkable British residents could become suicide bombers caused soul-searching across the country and raised fears of a threat from homegrown terrorists.
An official account of the attacks published last year concluded the plotters who inspired and prepared the bombers were likely still at large.
The investigation seemed to have stalled, but the Metropolitan Police said officials remained “determined to follow the evidence wherever it takes us to identify any other person who may have been involved, in any way, in the terrorist attacks.’’
Two suspects were previously detained by British police in 2005. One was released without charge, and the other was charged with wasting police time.
In addition, Magdy el-Nashar, an Egyptian chemist, was taken into custody by Egyptian authorities a week after the attack when British officials said he was suspected of possibly having links with some of the bombers.
He was let go after three weeks, and Egyptian authorities said he had no involvement in the attack. El-Nashar told reporters then that he casually knew two of the suicide bombers while earning a doctorate in biochemistry at the University of Leeds.
Islam - religion of peace...
Islam = Evil...
The timing could not be more apposite. After the humorless banalities of the CBC's Little Mosque on the Prairie come the grotesque realities of Channel 4's Undercover Mosque in the U.K.
Journalists from Channel 4's Dispatches programme conducted a 10-month undercover assignment in several of Britain's leading mosques. The resulting segment, Undercover Mosque, was aired on Jan. 15.
What is particularly relevant is that Dispatches has an international reputation for excellence and, important this, for its general left-wing approach to political issues. As such, the producers decided to investigate not those Muslim centres renowned for their extremism but various large, influential and allegedly moderate Islamic holy places.
What it found has provoked waves of shock. Several preachers and imams call for holy war, tell congregations that Muslims have to brainwash people, demand that homosexuals be murdered, insist that girls who refuse to wear the hijab should be beaten, and routinely demand that Christians and Jews be killed.
At one mosque in Birmingham, Abu Usama, one of the most popular speakers, says that Muslims have to "form a state within a state, until we take over." He says that in this state any Muslim who tried to leave Islam would be killed. "If the Imam wants to crucify him he could crucify him. The
person is put up on the wood and he's left there to bleed to death."
The documentary also shows a preacher joking about harming gay people secretly so as not to break the law. He laughs as he tells Muslim dentists to thrust extra- large needles into the faces of gay patients.
This is all especially embarrassing for the government because one of its main advisors on Islam, a Muslim member of the House of Lords, attends this particular mosque and speaks highly of it.
Another preacher in Birmingham, Dr. Billal Phillips, explains that as Muhammad married Aisha, a nine-year-old girl, all such marriages are condoned. "The prophet Muhammad practically outlined the rules regarding marriage prior to puberty. With this practice, he clarified what is permissible."
Referring to non-Muslims, another preacher says that, "No one loves the kuffaar [i.e., non-Muslims]. We hate the kuffaar! Allah has not given those people who are kuffaar a way over the believer. They shouldn't be in authority over us. Muslims shouldn't be satisfied with anything other than a total Islamic state."
The book store of the Regents Park Mosque, the largest in London, sells popular videos of the Saudi-trained Sheikh Faiz calling Jews "pigs" who will all be slaughtered. He then makes the sound of a pig and the audience laughs. In fact, throughout the sermons and lessons there is no sign of disagreement or discomfort from anyone in the packed congregations.
The Taliban is praised for killing British soldiers, and followers are repeatedly told to despise Western society. Muslims are condemned if they send their children to kuffaar schools or allow them to play with kuffaars.
The response so far has been that the documentary is mere propaganda. Tragically, it is not. It appears to be an accurate and objective expose of common teaching within those mosques that were until now considered to be standing on the front line against extremism. We would be foolish not to listen to what these Muslims are telling us.
- Michael Coren is a writer and broadcaster. www.michaelcoren.com.
Muslim Extremist Wants Flag of Islam Over Ireland
By now it should come as no surprise that Islamic extremists aren’t content to peacefully live out their lives on holy Islamic soil, but rather insist that the entire world succomb to the joys of sharia law. Nonetheless, the things some of them say and do never fails to amaze. Nor can one fail to be amazed at the openness with which they are received into Western society in the name of extreme multiculturalism and free, open debate.
It would seem that no Western European country is free from the possibility of becoming predominantly Muslim by mid-century, if not by conquest, then by simple demographics. European populations seem strangely averse to reproducing themselves while the attitude on that subject of the Muslim immigrants in their midst is basically no holds barred.
But that doesn’t mean that a little violence isn’t fully justified along the way of that seeming demographic inevitability and even the Emerald Island of Ireland is vulnerable, at least according to one Islamic extremist who recently spoke in Dublin. The following excerpts come from an article in an Irish paper:
The flag of Islam should be flown over Leinster House, an Islamic extremist said tonight.
Speaking in Dublin before addressing a Trinity College debate, Anjem Choudray also reiterated controversial views that Muslim violence is justified in certain circumstances.
The British-born lawyer, 39, angered the Irish Government last year when he said that Ireland risked becoming a target for a 9/11 style attack because it allowed US war planes to refuel at Shannon Airport.
Mr Choudray said: “As a Muslim, I believe Islam is superior to every other way of life and that it can resolve all the social and economic problems that Ireland suffers from.
“And as a symbol of that, the flag of Islam should be flown over the Dáil.
“This is symbolic of the fact that all societies will be run better according to God’s law.”
Mr Choudray, who has visited Ireland several times, was invited by the Philosophical Society at Trinity College to debate Islamic violence with other speakers.
Referring to the US military stopovers at Shannon Airport, he said tonight: “If US warplanes are using Irish soil, then Ireland is seen as aiding and abetting the war on so-called terror.
“Ireland says it has a position of neutrality but I don’t think it is seen that way in the Muslim world at all.”
Mr Choudray also warned that the Pope must be careful with his public statements so that he doesn’t offend Islam.
And taking top honors for Mr. Choudray’s most harebrained remark: “As a Muslim, I believe Islam is superior to every other way of life and that it can resolve all the social and economic problems that Ireland suffers from.”
Sure, just look what it’s done for that vast swath of the planet that stretches from Morocco to Indonesia. A wretched, ignorant, violent, poverty-ridden fever swamp from end to end. That’s Islam for you: quashing human potential for 14 centuries! Allahu Akbar!
And it can do the same for the Emerald Isle.
It would all be doubled-over, falling-down hilarious if it weren’t for two worrisome factors (in addition to the demographic one already mentioned): 1.) Europe’s inexplicable unwillingness to defend its own culture and heritage; and 2.) Islam’s aggressive tendencies combined with extreme irrationality and lack of moral boundaries (i.e., suicide bombings).
Suffice it to say, unless the West wakes up, its civilization, which has brought the world almost every blessing of modernity it enjoys, can be replaced in short order by something far less palatable.
Greg Strange provides conservative commentary with plenty of acerbic wit on the people, politics, events and absurdities of our time. See more at his website: http://www.greg-strange.com/
Islam - religion of peace...
Al-Qaida in Iraq" and its allies issued a statement addressing the Pope as "a cross-worshipper" and warning, "You and the West are doomed, as you can see from the defeat in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and elsewhere.
"You infidels and despots, we will continue our jihad (holy war) and never stop until God avails us to chop your necks and raise the fluttering banner of monotheism, when God's rule is established governing all people and nations," said the statement by the Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organization of Sunni Arab extremist groups in Iraq.
Another Iraqi extremist group, Ansar al-Sunna, challenged "sleeping Muslims" to prove their manhood by doing something other than "issuing statements or holding demonstrations."
"If the stupid pig is prancing with his blasphemies in his house," the group said in a web statement, referring to the Pope, "then let him wait for the day coming soon when the armies of the religion of right knock on the walls of Rome."
In Iran, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei used the comments to call for protests against the United States. He argued that while the Pope may have been deceived into making his remarks, the words give the West an "excuse for suppressing Muslims" by depicting them as terrorists.
'Nice' people finish last
'Nice' people finish last
By Hartley Steward
So, have you dropped the idea of sewing a cute little Canadian flag onto your backpack to endear yourself to strangers when you holiday this year? There goes another precious Canadian conceit.
It seems that even the unbearable niceness of being Canadian won't keep you safe in this dreadful new world of ours. The smug Canuck smile has surely been wiped off your face by the gory details of the alleged Muslim terrorists' plans uncovered in Toronto.
Two weeks out, it is apparent from police and security services reports that this may be just the beginning. There are still wannabe terrorists out there, determined to explode a few bombs, kill a few Canadians, maybe behead a politician or two.
It's difficult to find anyone involved in security who won't guarantee a deadly attack of some sort or other. Any day now.
All that hatred, all those evil vibes, unleashed here in little old Canada, where we wouldn't say Shiite if they were coming through the windows with knives clenched in their teeth.
Canada is the inoffensive international nice guy, kicking in with foreign aid by the millions and an enlightened immigration policy.
We've been had, folks.
All that time we've been employing euphemisms and politically-correct speak so as not to antagonize the Muslim world, the radical Islamist leaders have been recruiting every malcontent and schizoid they can find to kill us and our children. Like a pack of crazed salesmen for jihad, they have been searching for weak minds and strong backs to do their dirty work.
It is clear that to extremist Muslims, we are no more or less than Americans with more snow and a trusting nature. We are white, rich, soft and decadent. We are infidels.
But don't be fooled. Their rage is not really born of religious principles or even extreme Islamic visions. It's not the result of American intervention in some Muslim nations.
That these extremists have apparently set up operations on such a broad scale here in Canada shows them for what they really are -- thugs, enraged by our standard of living, jealous of our freedom and our good life. Thugs, drawn to the zealotry like flies to excrement, fascinated by gruesome tales of mass killings and twisted promises of virgins at the end of it all.
They may have been fed propaganda by the truck load, they may have been taught that America is the great Satan, responsible for their every ill, they may have been filled to overflowing with the notion that Islam is the one true religion. But they are, nonetheless, still just thugs.
We flatter them
To impugn to them motives any more noble is to flatter them. To muse about the root causes of their discontent is to waste time while they gather even more recruits and strength. To think a little understanding and a few more foreign aid dollars will help is downright foolish. Thugs will be thugs.
The time has come for the international Muslim community to take some responsibility. It's time to squeal their heads off to security forces everywhere when they know something. Time to drop the dime on friends, neighbours, associates -- to show some courage and old-fashioned fortitude. Time to stop whining about a possible backlash against ordinary, law-abiding Muslims and begin to participate in the solution.
We don't need another lecture on our insensitivity to the Muslim world. We need help.
Muslims have got to root out the thugs hiding in their midst, as several of their leaders in Canada have stated. Unless this happens, we will really see a backlash -- or worse.
Canadians may be nice, but we're not stupid.
hsteward@canoemail.com
Islam, the prohibition against singing
Prohibition of Songs
First Khutbah
Dear brothers, the battle between Satan, supported by his human and jinn soldiers, and the believers is endless; it never ceases. We experience this battle each day, hour and even each minute. On the very day that Allaah cursed him and dismissed him down to earth, Satan swore that he would wage a bitter war in which he would mobilize all those he could manage to corrupt. He adopted many methods and different means in order to trap the children of Aadam. Among such traps through which he snares people with little religious knowledge and understanding is listening to songs accompanied by prohibited musical instruments. Songs make the heart deviate from the Holy Qur'aan and turn towards ugly deeds and vices. They are the "holy books" of Satan and the thick veil that stands as a stumbling block between a person and his Lord. It is the gate to adultery and sodomy. It is the means adopted by dissipated lovers in order to attain their ends. It is the method through which vicious jinns harm mankind.
Almost all people, save those whom Allaah chose, are taken to singing to the extent that you may find a father teaching his child how to sing and encourage him to do this ugly deed. It has more than ten different names in religion. It is called idle tales, nonsense, falsehood, whistling and clapping, the gate to adultery, the holy book of Satan, the source of hypocrisy in hearts, the foolish voice, the dissolute voice, the voice of Satan, the piper of Satan, and Sumood (singing in the dialect of the old people of Yemen).
Its names indicate its characteristics. What evil and wicked names! As for its first name, it has been mentioned in Allaah's saying which means: "But there are, among men, those who purchase idle tales, without knowledge (or meaning), to mislead (men) from the Path of Allaah and throw ridicule (on the Path): for such there will be a humiliating Penalty. When Our Signs are rehearsed to such a one, he turns away in arrogance, as if he heard them not, as if there were deafness in both his ears: announce to him a grievous Penalty." ( Luqmaan: 6-7).
Ibn Mas`ood said: "I swear by Allaah that these "idle tales" are nothing but songs." He repeated it thrice. Ibn `Umar and Ibn `Abbaas, may Allaah be pleased with them, said the very same thing. These Companions were living when the Qur'aan was revealed and hence they are among the most versed in interpreting the words of Allaah. They interpreted these "idle tales" as songs. You will never find any person taken to singing and listening to musical instruments without at least a degree of deviation from true guidance. He does not have the desire to listen to the Qur'aan and even prefers songs to it, to the extent that if he had to choose between the two, he would listen to songs. Even if he listens to the Qur'aan, he finds it hard to understand and assimilate it, and this may lead him to ask the one reciting to stop his recitation session because he feels that it is too long. As for songs, he asks the singer for more and feels that the song was very short.
A man came to Ibn `Abbaas, may Allaah be pleased with him, and asked him: “What is the legal judgment pertaining to singing? Is it permissable or prohibited?” Ibn `Abbaas replied: “On the Day of Judgment, will singing be classified with truth or falsehood?” The man said: “With falsehood”. Ibn `Abbaas commented: “You have reached the judgment yourself”.
Songs are the gateway to adultery as they contain inviting the beloved to an appointment, sitting with him (her) alone, practicing love, friendship, and lamentation over missing him (her). Besides this, songs call for dissolution of the veiling of women. Al-Fudhayl Ibn `Iyaadh said: “Songs are the gate to adultery”. Yazeed bin Al-Waleed also said: “O Bani Umayyah, beware of songs. They decrease decency, increase lust, and do away with one's integrity. It has the very same effect of wine and even replaces it. If you have no alternative but to listen to songs, do not let your women do the same, because songs are the gateway to adultery”.
Women are more affected by songs, musical tunes and the meanings of their words than any one else. Listening to songs may lead a girl to fall in love with the singer, to the degree that his songs and pictures are never far away from her mind. Is there an evil temptation greater than this? Many are the decent girls who have become prostitutes because of such songs.
Songs cultivate hypocrisy in one's heart just like grains grow and thrive in the presence of water, as Ibn Mas`ood said. Songs and Qur'aan can never co-exist in a believer's heart because of their contradictory nature. The Qur'aan enjoins us not to follow our lusts, or the footsteps of Satan and to stick, instead, to virtuousness. As for songs, they invite us to the opposite.
Is it not true that songs encourage one to satisfy his lusts? Don't they motivate one to practice each and every bad deed? Don't they tempt a person to have an affair with a woman or even a child? Songs and wine are companions, and they tempt one to commit sins and evil deeds. Satan made a bargain between these two evils so that, together, they will support each other in calling to corruption. Songs lead to prohibited adoration and committing ugly deeds. O Allaah, keep us away from Your Wrath and things which lead to Your Punishment. Hereby I end my sermon and ask Allaah for forgiveness.
Second Khutbah
All praise be to Allaah, the Lord of the Worlds Who guides whomever He wills to His straightforward path. May Allaah have peace, mercy and blessings on His slave and Messenger, Muhammad, his family and Companions.
Our Prophet sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam warned against listening to songs and musical instruments, as he said: "There will be people of my Community who will hold fornication, silk, wine, and musical instruments to be lawful'' (Bukhaari)
If such things mentioned in the hadith had been lawful, the Prophet sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam would have never condemned those who consider them legal, and he would not have mentioned them along with the already prohibited wine and silk.
Sahl bin S`ad As-Sa`di reported that the Prophet sallallaahu 'alaihi wasallam said: "This Community will experience the swallowing up of some people by the earth, the metamorphosis of some into animals, and being rained upon with stones.'' Someone asked, ``When will this be, O Messenger of Allah?''. He said, ``When female singers and musical instruments appear and wine is held to be lawful.''(Ahmad & Tirmithi)
The four Imaams ruled singing to be prohibited. Imaam Maalik used to prohibit it and say: It is done by wicked people. He also said: If one bought a slave girl and found that she is a singer, he has the full right to return her because of this defect.
Abu Haneefah hated singing and considered it a sin. His followers believed that listening to all musical instruments, such as the pipe (wind instrument) is prohibited. They also said that it is a sin that makes the person to be considered dissolute and his testimony is not accepted.
As for Shaafi`i, his followers believe that listening to songs is prohibited. They also said that hiring a singer, practicing songs as a profession, giving money to a singer as a remuneration are all prohibited just like giving money in return of the already prohibited animal's blood and corpse. They also believe that using a pipe is prohibited. If the pipe, which is the simplest of all musical instruments is prohibited, what about the flute and other instruments?
As for Ahmed's School of Jurisprudence, his son `Abdullaah said: I asked my father about singing, and he replied: It cultivates hypocrisy in hearts and therefore I do not like it. Then he mentioned the saying of Imaam Maalik: It is done by dissolute (loose or evil) people.
As for listening to songs sung by a female or a beardless lad, it is considered as one of the gravest sins that corrupts one's religion.
Dear brother, if you commit this sin or your family does it at home, hasten to repent to Allaah for He is the Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful as He said which means: "Tell My servants that I am indeed the Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful." (Al-Hijr: 49).
Hasten to sincere repentance and know that whenever a person gives up an evil act for the sake of Allaah, Allaah will compensate him with far better than what he abandoned. I would like to express my gratitude to those who abstain from committing sins and abandon evil acts and deeds practiced by the people of our time. They are the ones who have attained true happiness.
Islam IS our enemy...
Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has described seeing the horror of the 9/11 attacks on the city's twin towers.
He told the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui he had been unwilling to believe people were jumping from the buildings until he saw it with his own eyes.
The jury has to decide whether the self-confessed al-Qaeda member Moussaoui should be executed. Mr Giuliani testified for the prosecution.
The court will also hear from relatives of some of those killed in the attacks.
Mr Giuliani told the jury the image of two people jumping together from the World Trade Center, holding hands, remained with him every day.
Describing the moment he saw people falling, he said: "I froze. I realised that in a couple of seconds, it switched my thinking and emotions. I said 'We're in uncharted territory'."
During Mr Giuliani's testimony, the jury was played video clips of the planes crashing into the twin towers, and people jumping from the buildings.
It was the worst thing I have ever seen in my life
The former mayor, who was sitting next to scale models of the World Trade Center in court, said: "By the time the second plane hit, we knew for sure it was a terrorist attack."
He added that after the towers collapsed, it looked like a "nuclear cloud" was going through Manhattan, Reuters news agency reported.
The scene at the World Trade Center site was "horrid".
"It was the worst thing I have ever seen in my life," Mr Giuliani told the jury.
"You could see parts of human bodies, hands and legs, a lot of injured... this was a war, this was a battle, we were attacked," the AFP news agency quoted him as saying.
News agencies reported that during a morning break in proceedings when the judge and jury were out of the court, Moussaoui sang "Burn in the USA" - apparently adapting the lyrics of the Bruce Springsteen song "Born in the USA".
If there was any doubt that this cocksucker and his religion of death were antithetical to civilization - this was it.