Jerusalem: Two families of Arab squatters quietly evicted

Update: Obama Watch

the Jerusalem city zoning commissioner President of the United States had condemned theeviction of squatters takeover of an Arab home in Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood pursuant to an order of Israel’s leftist Supreme Court by vigilante ‘settlers.’

Someone needs to tell the President of the United States that this is a country of laws and that the Supreme Court – which generally does not rule in favor of the ‘settlers’ even when it ought to – ruled that the Arabs’ ownership documents were forged and that the Jews (specifically the Sephardic community) had good title to those houses. Carl has more>>

Two Arab families who were squatting in Jewish-owned homes in the Shimon haTzadik neighborhood were quietly evicted this morning after the Supreme Court ruled that their ownership documents were forged. The Shimon haTzadik neighborhood is the Hebrew name for Sheikh Jarrah, home of the Shepherd Hotel (pictured).

Two Arab families were evicted from Jewish-owned homes in the Shimon HaTzaddik neighborhood of Jerusalem on Sunday morning. The evictions took place following a Supreme Court ruling in which the court found in favor of Jewish families who claimed ownership of homes in the area.

The evictions took place without unusual disturbances, police said. More from Carl in J’lem

• Pali  ”Moderate”: Of Course We’re Never Going To Stop Waging War On Israel
• Tawfiq Tirawi: “Jerusalem Cannot be Regained Without Thousands of Martyrs”
  
• Strangers in the Land
  
• The status of Israel and of Jews in the UK: ‘Darkness closing’ or ‘business as usual’?
  
• Rachel Corrie: pancake breakfast movie
  
• Jerusalem’s zoning commissioner condemns vigilante takeover of Arab homes
  

Why the Arabs can’t accept a Jewish state

Prime Minister Netanyahu has demanded that the Arabs accept Israel as a Jewish state. That’s a demand that the Arabs are incapable of accepting - ever. Mordechai Kedar explains why.

Thus, according to Islam, the State of Israel is not legitimate. From a religious point of view, Judaism is void. The Jewish nation is an invention of the Zionist movement. The land called “Israel” is considered Islamic Waqf land, consecrated for Muslims.

Netanyahu’s insistence on recognition of the state as a Jewish nation-state contradicts the Islamic faith, and questions the very essence of Islam, whose relevance is based on the invalidity of Judaism (and Christianity as well).

Therefore, there is no escape from the conclusion that Israel’s struggle for survival is religiously based, even if externally it assumes the form of a territorial struggle. It does not matter what its size, Israel will never gain recognition by the Arab and Muslim world as a legitimate state. Similarly, international documents which legitimize the “Jewish State,” such as United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 of 29 November 1947, are viewed by Muslims as illegitimate.

Many say: “You are turning a territorial conflict into a religious one,” when they mean to say that territorial concessions would facilitate the recognition of the Arabs and Muslims in the legitimacy of the State of Israel. Such a statement assumes that the Arab and Muslim world is as secular as our own, and shares our concepts, values and priorities. This is the result of Israeli and Western ignorance of all that is related to Islam and the Arab world, derived from the fact that Westerners do not understand Arabic and Arab and Islamic culture. Israelis and Westerners alike are not exposed to the harsh truths which are expressed in the local tongues, and are well-concealed by spokesmen of “inter-religious dialogue.”

Recognition of Israel as a legitimate Jewish nation-state has no hope or chance as long as Islam perceives itself – and itself alone – as “the true religion with Allah.”

Read the whole thing.

THERE IS NO DIPLOMATIC SOLUTION.

BETTER JUDEA AND SAMARIA WITHOUT PEACE THAN “PEACE” WITHOUT JUDEA AND SAMARIA.

Hugh Fitzgerald wrote in The “Two-State Solution” Folly based on folly

Bush and Rice and Company are desperate for a “victory”. And whenever a “victory” is needed, it’s Peace Process Time in the Middle East. That’s always good for all kinds of sentimentality, and exaggerated false hopes, and studied inattention to the dismal facts, including the central fact ” the unavoidable fact, the absolutely critical fact ” of Islam, and the impossibility of Arab Muslims ever, ever conceivably accepting the permanence of the Infidel (and what’s still worse, Jewish) state of Israel. Peace treaties between Muslims and non-Muslims are always Truce Treaties, to be broken at the earliest opportunity.

In those two sentences, he expresses more wisdom that the entire foreign policy establishment has ever possessed. More>>

Exposing lies about Jerusalem

In a letter to the editor in the Boston Globe, CAMERA’s Andrea Levin exposes some of the liesbeing told about Jerusalem.

Jerusalem’s Arab population grew much faster than its Jewish population, rising from 25 percent of the total in 1967 to 35 percent in 2008. Likewise, Arabs have enjoyed a building boom in the city as Palestinian demographer Khalil Tufakji candidly observed in a CNN interview, stating: “We can build inside Jerusalem, legal, illegal, rebuild a house. . . Maybe we lose 10 houses [to demolition], but in the end we build 40 more houses in East Jerusalem.’’

Arabs and Jews have equal access to building permits, pay the same costs, and experience the same waiting period to get approvals. Some in both groups sidestep the law and build illegally, then face removal – just as in Boston or any other city with zoning laws.

Natan Sharansky, then minister of housing, reported in 2002 that at least 40,000 housing units had been built with Saudi money for political purposes.

Casting Israel as the heavy while ignoring Palestinian activity in Jerusalem may suit an ideological preference, but it’s inconsistent with the realities.

Indeed.

Just call me doctor Jihad:

Seven Arab universities have recently been established in The Hague. Some of them train pilots, others offer courses in Islamic sciences or nuclear physics. But far from everybody is convinced that the degrees the universities offer hold any value.

By Tariq al-Qaziri/ Radio Netherlands

Is this a a real poncho or is this a Sears poncho?

FZ Camarillo Brillo

Defending the indefensible:

Its a stoopid thing to do, but the believers are eager to do it…

• Not all of the paper’s readers are convinced. Some online comments here

Fatima Burkatulla/Times

Fatima Burkatulla clears up “misconceptions” about the niqab.

1.The niqab is a symbol of female subjugation.

None of the niqab-wearing women who I know, wear it because they have been forced to. They see it as an act of devotion to their Creator: the culmination of a spiritual journey. In fact most of them are women who were born and brought up in the UK; many are White or Afro-Caribbean Muslim converts to Islam who have chosen to observe it. The hijab, niqab and abaya are outer garments and are worn only when outdoors or in the presence of men who are not close relatives and so, contrary to popular belief, underneath their robes, in family and female-only settings Muslim women are often very fashion conscious and outgoing. They dress in everyday clothing; they get their hair done, go on holiday and even buy lingerie!

2. Women who wear the niqab cannot possibly contribute to society

People are surprised to hear that niqab-wearers come from varied vocational backgrounds. They include doctors, teachers, dentists, authors, social workers, university graduates, lecturers and more. They usually prefer to work in a female environment and so would not wear the face-veil all the time. Other women say that wearing the niqab actually makes them feel more comfortable when they are working with men. It is ironic that the very women who are the subject of debate are far from being a burden on society: they don’t get drunk and disorderly, don’t smoke and are likely to be very good citizens. Many of them are full-time mothers who take pride in raising well-educated children who will be an asset to British society.

3. The niqab isn’t in the Qur’an

The Qur’anic worldview presents a complete system of living, which permeates the daily lives of observant Muslims. This includes everything from rituals of personal hygiene, advice on neighbourly behaviour and animal rights to regulations for dress. Some women see the niqab as a religious obligation, others, as an act of worship following in the footsteps of notable Muslim women of the past. Numerous verses in the Qur’an contain directives for Muslim women’s dress, amongst them:

“O Prophet! Tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the Believers to draw their outer garments all over their bodies. That will be better, so that they may be known and so as not to be annoyed, and God is Ever-forgiving, Most Merciful.” (33:59)

The Qur’an was interpreted by the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and his disciples and their teachings form the basis of Islamic law. There are two orthodox schools of thought with regards to the interpretation of this verse. One orthodox interpretation is that it means covering the whole body including the face. The other school of thought is that, though not obligatory, covering the face is a virtue.

4. Wearing the niqab implies that all men are predatory

Just as locking our doors at night doesn’t imply that all members of society are burglars, wearing the niqab doesn’t imply that all men are predatory.

The Islamic worldview recognises that attraction between men and women exists and, if left unharnessed, has the potential to break down the moral fabric of society. It also acknowledges the physiological and physical differences between men and women and therefore Islamic legislation for dress and behaviour reflect these differences and aid adherents to avoid situations that could lead to extra-marital sexual relations. Hence both men and women have been commanded to lower their gazes and given directives on dress.

5. The niqab poses a security risk at banks and airports

By simply going to the side and showing their faces and ID to female members of staff, Muslim women who wear the niqab, have been, for decades, passing through airport security in major airports all over the world without cause for security concern. The same sort of arrangement can be made for any situation where ID needs to be checked.

6.Niqab wearers can’t possibly be teachers.

There are many highly qualified and experienced Muslim teachers. A Muslim teacher, who wears the niqab, would not need to do so if men were not present, therefore many female Muslim teachers choose to teach women or children and uncover their faces whilst teaching.

7. Banning the niqab will free those Muslim women who are coerced into wearing it.

Banning the face-veil would be totally counter-productive: it would cause many Muslim women to feel targeted and persecuted and is likely to cause many talented women to withdraw from society. The majority of niqab-wearing women in Europe, wear it out of personal choice, so if, for the sake of a suspected minority, the niqab was to be banned, this would be clear discrimination against the majority. If we want to empower women from any community who are oppressed or abused, effective public services where such abuse can be reported need to be made more available and accessible to the women involved.

Fatima Barkatulla is a regular columnist on SISTERS, the magazine for ‘fabulous Muslim women’

• Sordid reality behind Dubai’s gilded facade
• Sally Neighbour: Jakarta… again
• The war jihad on Australia
• Caught in the crossfire
• Massachusetts company hid fact that the firm is part owned by a Saudi jihad terrorist
• CAIR rep throws out red herrings on Fox News about Islamic supremacist group

Salma Yaqoob wingeing over the BNP:

                                                       Salma & “Georgeous” Galloway/”Respect”

The canker is making its way to the core

The election of two BNP MEPs has removed the cover on a political sewer that should have been sealed for all time.

Nick Griffin, a man with a history of antisemitism and Holocaust denial, now calls for “chemotherapy” against the Islamic “cancer” in Europe. The echoes of the past are deliberate. The choice of words is chilling.

Griffin’s election has given the BNP unprecedented access to the media, and he is using it to promote the most vicious racism.

His genocidal rantings towards Muslims followed his call for the sinking of ships carrying migrants from Africa to Europe – in other words, the premeditated murder of men, women and children on a desperate voyage to escape poverty and oppression.

We should remind ourselves that almost one million people voted for the BNP in the European elections. If there is a cancer in Europe, then it is the cancer of racism.

Yet the response from the political establishment to Griffin’s remarks has, so far, been less than overwhelming.

Defensiveness and political compromise has marked the response of mainstream parties to the rise of the BNP. It should be clear enough by now. This is not a temporary blip before we return to business as usual.

Ignoring the BNP or playing down their successes will not make them go away. It is time for the anti-fascist movement to go on the offensive.

Griffin’s nazi-style outbursts cannot be dismissed as an irrelevant excess by a marginal figure.

He knows what he is doing. He wants to make legitimate what was once illegitimate. He aims to shift the centre of gravity of political debate sharply to the right.

He knows that his more extreme rhetoric is in tune with his party’s membership and large swathes of his voters.

But he also knows that, every time mainstream politicians bend to his agenda in an attempt to occupy ground he is staking out, the racist argument is strengthened.

It is a pattern we have seen all too frequently in recent years.

Faced with a rise in racism, politicians seek to ride both horses at once – deploring racism while conceding ever more political ground to the far right.

Isn’t this exactly what Gordon Brown was doing when he called for “local homes for local people?”

Concerns about housing are undoubtedly genuine. There are too few affordable homes. But that is because successive governments have relied on the market to provide what it patently cannot do.

Tackling this policy failure would provide affordable homes for all those in need.

Furthermore, the Equality and Human Rights Commission has revealed that nine out of 10 social housing residents were born in Britain, giving a lie to the BNP myths bout “local people” losing out to immigrants and asylum seekers.

Instead of focusing on these realities, voters are told that their prejudices are justified and that the government will do what the BNP cannot.

It is a tactic that is both cynical and ineffective.

Let us be clear. The response to Griffin’s call to “sink the boats” cannot be one of pledging to do everything possible to keep out immigrants short of launching missiles at defenceless people.

His call for “chemotherapy” against Muslims must be met with robust challenge and not by conceding that fears of Islam in Europe are justified.

The alternative is to accept that ever more extreme and dangerous fascist rhetoric will define the nature of political debate in our society.

Those who promote fear and hatred of African immigrants knocking at our door, or of the Muslims already within the gates of Europe, have to be openly and directly confronted. Their arguments have to be dealt with head on.

It is not legitimate to blame migrants or refugees for the recession. They were not the ones who became rich beyond anyone’s dreams while gambling away our economy.

It is not legitimate to blame immigrants for rising unemployment. They did not close our factories and devastate our manufacturing base.

It is not legitimate to blame “outsiders” for the housing crisis. They are not the ones who passed legislation that strangled the ability of local councils to build new housing on the scale we need.

And it is not legitimate to scapegoat Muslims, who represent just 3 per cent of the population, for any supposed threat to British identity.

The recent Gallup poll on Muslim integration revealed that, while only half the UK population very strongly identifies with being British, 77 per cent of Muslims did so.

And only 17 per cent of British Muslims wanted to live in an area consisting mostly of people of the same religious and ethnic background as themselves, compared to 33 per cent of the population as a whole.

This is the positive side of our multicultural society. Being “different” is not a sign of alienation from society as a whole.

Yet, while Muslims increasingly identify with Britain and value its mix of people and faiths, more and more people conclude that Muslims are a breed apart. There is a gulf between the reality of our lives and the perception that is created by a constant stream of horror stories.

Today, it is anti-Muslim racism that is at the cutting edge of the fascist strategy. It is effective because it feeds on the suspicion and prejudice that is the theme of so much mainstream discussion of our lives as British Muslims.

Its consequences are real. Already, there are signs that attacks on mosques and individual Muslims may be rising. The police are warning of the danger of far-right terrorism.

And, earlier this month, we saw an openly racist provocation in Birmingham city centre, under the guise of a protest against “Islamic extremism”- a label that the organiser made clear applied to all Muslims.

We, as British Muslims, have a direct and immediate interest in defeating this fascist threat. The anti-fascist movement must reach out to Muslim communities who are at the sharp end of BNP attacks.

But the rise in racism is not only a threat to Muslims. The BNP may be playing down their anti-Semitism and anti-Black racism in order to drive a wedge between Muslims and the rest of society.

But to the BNP we are all “racial foreigners.” Our very existence as British people is denied.

Our task is not only to unite all those targeted by the BNP, with every possible ally who rejects racism and fascism.

We have to also positively assert our multicultural and pluralist society. It is a message of hope that is in tune in an increasingly interconnected world.

It is a source of strength and vibrancy. We are one society and many cultures. And we will only remain so if we are prepared to stand up and be counted.

Salma Yaqoob is councillor for Birmingham Sparkbrook, Leader of the Respect Party and chair of the Birmingham Stop the War Coalition.

6   %  voted for “some of them…”

8  %  think its a “Great idea, they will make the prisons Islamic…”

86 %  said “Hell No”

New Poll starts today:

What do you think of Obama’s speech in Cairo?

Pathetic

Whose side is he on?

Peace in our time…

Its clear he’s a Muslim…

Obama will destroy Israel and the U.S.

Sound and Fury in Cairo: Obama reads half the Koran:

Obama: “Let’s remake this world.”

Ladies and gentlemen, this is a fascist pronouncement. People who want to remake the world slide inexorably into totalitarianism, because they have to act against that annoying and persistent impediment known as “human nature”. The 20th century was strewn with millions of corpses in mass graves and killing fields as the result a variety of ideologies that attempted to remake the world.

• More from the Gates of Vienna

The Obama Infatuation

Al BeBeeCeera reports:

Tonight the Obambi circus is on the way to Egypt, where America’s first Muslim POTUS will deliver his super duper unifying speech al Al Azahr university, this bastion of higher (Islamic) learning. Among other things, the Obambi-man will also lecture the Muselmaniacs about our ‘shared values’ like free speech and freedom of religion. He didn’t mention anything about freedom from religion…

• Why Obama is obsessed with “The Settlements” in the West Bank
• Egypts Muslim Brotherhood knows a sucker is a’coming…
• Cheney: Execute Terrorists If You Won’t Jail Them

Robert J. Samuelson/Newsweep

By Edward Olshaker/American Thinker

Imagine it’s 1940, and picture Adolf Hitler speaking at a US university, receiving a polite reception, while Winston Churchill is barred from speaking because his safety cannot be guaranteed.

• Pic from ZIP: Hezbollah: “We’re Closer Than Ever to Eradicating Israel”….
• Paki missile hits Afghan mosque
  
• Muslim stripped of German award after he wrote that a crucifix was an idolatrous image. The Central Council of Muslims, one of four national Islamic groups in Germany, described the church reaction as ‘childish.’
  

It’s unthinkable, yet the very same pro-fascist dynamic is a reality in 21^st Century America.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu comes to America knowing he is a second-class citizen who is denied the free-speech rights enjoyed even by prominent jihadists, having been violently prevented from speaking on campuses in the US and Canada in recent years.  

Protestors at Berkeley, the campus once synonymous with the term “free speech,” forced the cancellation of Netanyahu’s speech there, as well as two subsequent speeches, in November 2000. The Jewish Bulletin of Northern California reported:

Hundreds of protesters shouting “Support the Palestinians, choose a side” and “No free speech for war criminals” blocked the gate leading to the Berkeley Community Theatre Tuesday evening, forcing the cancellation of a scheduled speech by former Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu.   

Additional talks by Netanyahu that were scheduled Wednesday and Thursday in San Mateo and San Rafael were subsequently cancelled.

Waving banners reading “Zionism=Nazism” and “End U.S. aid to Israel,” the crowd was estimated at more than 500 by the Berkeley Police Department and at 200 to 250 by observers…

…Students for Justice in Palestine had become large enough to stage a high-profile sit-in at UC’s Wheeler Hall. The group had demanded that the regents divest from companies with significant holdings in Israel. When the regents failed to respond, dozens of group members chained shut nine of the building’s twelve doors. They formed human chains to block two of the remaining doors and ushered students out of the building through the last door. Professor Gordon, who had an important class scheduled that day in Wheeler, burst through the chain of students only to be showered with spit and hit by a student…

Later that year, 23-year-old Aaron Schwartz was walking toward the Hillel building as part of an obviously Jewish group celebrating the annual holiday Simchas Torah. According to accounts in The Daily Californian and the Jewish Bulletin of Northern California, one onlooker mocked the procession by goose-stepping in place, chanting “Heil Hitler,” and performing the Nazi salute. After punching Schwartz in the face and knocking him to the ground, the man and his two companions strolled away.

But many remember spring 2002 as the season the screaming really started. On spring break, someone hurled the cinderblock through the front door of Berkeley’s Hillel Center, scrawling the words F— JEWS nearby…

… he never made it onto the campus – because a thousand anti-Israel demonstrators staged a mini-riot with the intent of preventing him from speaking…   

The anti-Israel forces physically assaulted the would-be audience…
They smashed a plate-glass window and threw objects at the police inside.
They hurled furniture at police from a mezzanine. As Toronto’s Globe & Mail
put it, “By lunchtime, the vestibule of Concordia’s main downtown building was
littered with paper, upturned chairs, broken furniture and the choking
aftereffects of pepper spray.”

The police, saying they couldn’t assure Netanyahu’s safety, canceled the event…

Pipes noted a revealing contrast involving another speaker the same week:
 

On Thursday, Hanan Ashrawi, the former spokeswoman and colleague of Yasser Arafat, went to Colorado College in Colorado Springs to give a keynote speech at a symposium on “September 11: One Year Later.”   

Protestors noted that Ashrawi is smack on the side of America’s enemies in the War on Terrorism. For example, while the U.S. government formally designates Hamas a terrorist group, Ashrawi states she doesn’t “think of Hamas as a terrorist group.” Also, she considers Israeli civilians living on the West Bank to be “legitimate . . . targets of Palestinian resistance” — that is, legitimate targets for deadly violence.

Somalia:

* Who, in his right mind, would voluntarily go to an Islamic nightmare country, a dreck-hole that has seen nothing but uncivil war for more than 20 years, a country that is ruled by war-lords and anarchy, knowing that he or she would be nothing more than a target for kidnapping?

* We have seen a few of these cases before, like the Italian commie ratbag Segrena, accurately depicted here at Jawa report:

 Giuliana Sgrena is a propagandist for the Communist daily rag Il Manifesto. Her writings do not reveal a bias, they reveal that Sgrena is an enemy of the United States of America and responsible for supporting terrorists and the murder of American soldiers and civilians.

* We do not imply that Mr Brennan, Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout are commie-moonbats who are on the side of our enemies, but their folly is of concern.

What was their intention? What were they looking for? Whose side are they on?

The footage aired on Al Jazeera reportedly shows kidnapped Australian journalist Nigel Brennan and a Canadian companion

*  So yes: who are the people for whom we are  made to feel sorry now? Check these reports and come back to us if you know more than we do:

Newslink: Jihadists force closure of Mogadishu airport

The footage, showing 35-year-old Mr Brennan, Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout, 27, and their translator and guide, Somali reporter Abdifatah Mohammed Elmi, has been aired on Al Jazeera television, Reuters reported. 

More from News Com

They were kidnapped at gunpoint on August 23 just outside the Somali capital Mogadishu. 

The footage aired yesterday showed Mr Brennan and Ms Lindhout along with armed men. 

A man claiming to be Mr Brennan said: “We are very well now mentally and physically”. 

The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) said the footage was being investigated. 

“We are aware that a video has been broadcast claiming to include footage of two journalists held captive in Somalia,” DFAT said in a statement.

“Relevant Australian agencies are currently assessing the footage.” 

Australian Federal Police and extra diplomatic staff have been sent to Somalia to investigate the kidnappings. 

*

Herald Sun:  Nicola Berkovic

Nigel Brennan and Amanda Lindhout kidnapped in Somalia

Sydney Moonbat Herald:

Kidnapped Aussie in TV footage: report

Footage of Australian journalist Nigel Brennan and a Canadian companion kidnapped in Somalia has been aired on Al Jazeera television.

The broadcaster said the pair had urged their governments to do all they could to secure their release, Reuters reports.

Mr Brennan, 35, Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout, 27, and their translator and guide, Somali reporter Abdifatah Mohammed Elmi, were kidnapped at gunpoint on August 23 just outside the Somali capital Mogadishu.

They are believed to have been abducted after interviewing and taking photographs in a refugee camp.

Australian Federal Police and extra diplomatic staff have been sent to Somalia to investigate the kidnappings.

The footage, aired on Tuesday, showed Mr Brennan and Ms Lindhout along with armed men. Ms Lindhout could be seen speaking to the camera but the audio of the track was not aired, Reuters reports.

Their kidnappers, calling themselves the Mujahideen of Somalia, accused Australia and Canada of helping to destroy Somalia and demanded an end to such policies, Al Jazeera said.

A traditional chief in contact with the kidnappers said earlier this month that the kidnappers were demanding a $US2.5 million ($A3.08 million) ransom.

“The kidnappers demanded 2.5 million dollars and we are trying to secure their release,” said Dahir Farah, who has been participating in negotiations to free the hostages.

Another person claiming to be an intermediary for the kidnappers who contacted AFP spoke of the same ransom demand. He also allowed two people claiming to be the foreign journalists to speak briefly.

A man claiming to be Mr Brennan said: “We are very well now mentally and physically.”

Journalists and humanitarian workers are frequently abducted in Somalia, a country torn apart by unrest since 1991. Most kidnappings include ransom demands.

Two Italian aid workers kidnapped near Mogadishu were freed on August 5 after being held hostage for more than two months.

© 2008 AAP

UK: 11 %

Germany: 11 %

France: 5 %

Italy 31 %

Spain 5 %

Denmark 29 %

others 8 %

The winner is: Italy. Viva Italia!

New Poll starts now: Do you believe Islam is a ‘RoP’ that was hijacked by terrorists?

Merchants of Hatred: On the anniversary of 9/11 this terrifying investigation reveals the hatred of Britain’s enemies within 

By Sue Reid

Enlarge   

Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed says this country will soon become a Muslim state ruled according to the Koran

Their message was as disturbing as ever  -  and the date, September 11, was particularly symbolic. 

On Thursday evening this week, at a packed meeting in London’s East End, two profoundly dangerous men urged the destruction of the British way of life. 

I was there as the radical cleric and self-styled sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed proclaimed that this country  -  where he received state benefits for two decades  -  will soon be transformed into an Islamic state, or Khilafah, run according to the rules of the Muslim holy book, the Koran. 

Bakri’s black-robed right-hand man went one step further. Anjem Choudary, a 41-year-old militant and the leading light of a thriving new organisation called  islam4UK declared: ‘There are already six or seven million Muslims here in Britain. 

‘By the year 2020, we will be the majority. 

‘In the streets of London  -  Whitechapel, Bethnal Green, Stratford  -  people are becoming Muslim in their droves. By sheer numbers, Britain will become an Islamic state. 

‘We will never need to conquer this country. Our eyes are now on Downing Street,’ he added, with an excited laugh. 

Alarmingly, at the three-hour conference called to mark the seventh anniversary of the 9/11 atrocities, there were shouts of support from the 100-strong audience of men (some only boys in their teens) and women. 

At first sight, the meeting in an upstairs room next to the Walthamstow Mosque on Northumberland Street, Leyton, seemed harmless. 

Between speeches from the robed clerics at the front, there were breaks for prayers and a meal of chicken curry and dates. 

Children played on the floor and veiled mothers held babies.

But what was being said has deep implications for the future of this country. 

Anjem Choudary, centre, is Bakri’s right-hand man and a leader of islam4UK

While 59-year-old Omar Bakri did not appear in person, his words were broadcast via computer link from 2,000 miles away in Lebanon, where he has lived since being banned from Britain. 

He was exiled after financing British Muslim youths at militant jihad training camps here and abroad, and praising the London 7/7 bombers, who killed 52 people in 2005, as ‘the fantastic four’. 

The then Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, declared that Bakri’s presence  -  he was living on welfare benefits in a rented house in Edmonton, North London, with his wife and large family  -  was ‘not conducive to the public good’. 

Bakri’s citizenship was removed while he was visiting his mother in the Middle East, and he was told not to return. 

But distance has done nothing to diminish the danger he still poses to this country.

Enlarge   

The meeting was told Osama Bin Laden had taught the US a ‘lesson’, and the next 9/11 could take place in Britain

Thursday night’s meeting was told that Osama Bin Laden had taught the Americans a ‘lesson’ seven years ago but the ‘crusaders’ had not learned and the next ’9/11 will take place in Britain, the next 7/7 (London bombings) could take place locally’. 

Choudary and Bakri go back a long way. In the 1990s they were founder members of a now disbanded radical Islamic sect called Al-Mahijaroun. 

It was banned in many countries, but notably not Britain. 

Choudary, a solicitor and the graduate son of a Pakistani market trader in London, became chairman of the Society of Muslim Lawyers, before ending his career and embarking on an extremist campaign. 

He has leafleted mosques and uses the internet to spread his message of hate. 

He has described the 9/11 hijackers as the magnificent martyrs, and said the Pope should be murdered for criticising aspects of Islamic extremism. 

Yet still nothing has been done to silence him. 

The problem doesn’t end with Bakri and Choudray. Last week, the Mail revealed that their fellow preacher of hate, Abu Qatada (Osama Bin Ladin’s right-hand man in Europe), has been associating with proven terrorist Yasser Al-Sirri. 

And this despite being the subject of strict bail conditions following his release from Long Lartin high-security jail after the Government failed to have him deported to Jordan, where he is wanted for terrorism offences. 

Abu Qatada has been described by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission as a ‘truly dangerous individual’ and ‘at the centre’ of terrorist activities associated with Al Qaeda. 

Enlarge   

Islamic extremist Abu Qatada strolling through a London street with convicted terrorist Yasser Al Sirri

We published a photograph of the 47-year-old in North London walking with fanatical Islamist Al-Sirri. 

Incredibly, Al-Sirri, who was convicted in Egypt and sentenced to death in absentia for his part in a 1993 car bomb attack, is also living in Britain. 

Both men survive on state hand-outs and have a record of peddling Islamic extremism. 

But that is not all. 

Earlier this month, the Mail was passed details about another meeting organised by Choudary’s islam4UK. 

The event was billed as ‘Khilafah for Britain  -  the Divine Alternative’, and invitations were handed to the public by Islamic groups near London’s Oxford Street. 

Posters plastered on windows and lamp-posts also gave the date and time of the meeting at International Students’ House, Great Portland Street. 

Here, Sheikh Bakri again broadcast a speech from exile. 

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Hijacked United Airlines Flight 175 from Boston crashes into the south tower of the World Trade Center and explodes at 9.03am on September 11, 2001

The invitations were printed on a small 4in x 6in blue postcard illustrated with a map of Britain. Chillingly, a black flag was flying over the country with the word ‘Khilafah’ written on it. 

Beside the flag was a list of Britons who islam4UK say have lent succour to wild ideas of an Islamic United Kingdom. 

They include the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams and the Lord Chief Justice Lord Phillips (both of whom have said Islamic shariah laws have a place in modern, multi-cultural British society). 

A week ago, the respected Channel 4 Dispatches programme revealed that it is not only in secretive meeting rooms that the message of radical Islam is being peddled. 

At Regent’s Park Mosque, sermons of hate against women, homosexuals, Muslim converts to other faiths, and adulterers are being made daily  -  even by female preachers. 

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The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams has said Islamic shariah laws have a place in modern Britain

The mosque has been visited by several Labour ministers and is constantly cited as a model of moderation and religious tolerance. 

And yet the Channel 4 footage showed that worshippers  -  including babies, children and teenagers  -  are being told they must lead separate lives from non-Muslims, and not befriend those from other religions. 

Undercover reporters found Christians being described as a ‘vile, disgusting, abomination’. 

And in the mosque shop, there were books and DVDs promoting extremist, anti- Semitic and misogynistic messages of hate against other faiths. 

Unbelievers were described in one DVD as ‘wicked, mischievous people  -  you can see the evil in their face’, while Jews were said to ‘have a filthy, disgusting gross belief  -  their time will come like every other evil person’s time will come.’ 

In one particularly repulsive DVD, a preacher is recorded declaring that the strictest rules of Islam’s Shariah law should be enforced around the world, including in Britain.

People should watch the decapitated heads of adulterers rolling in the streets, he says, and see thieves with their hands cut off. 

‘They see that, and it acts as a deterrent,’ he declares, shaking his bearded head at the camera. 

Another clip shows a preacher collapsing in hysteria as he rants about the evils of Christians, Jews and non-Muslims. 

His voice goes from deep to high, and then he begins to cry. 

Meanwhile, a woman preacher (in the strictly sexually segregated section of the mosque) tells female worshippers they should not go outside without a male relative, refuse jobs which involve working alongside men, and should never show so much as a sliver of their wrists in public. 

The nature of some of these activities  -  and those in Islamic centres across Britain  -  seems, however, to have passed the New Labour government by. 

Gordon Brown and Communities Minister Hazel Blears welcomed Muslim worshippers from Regent’s Park Mosque to a meeting in Downing Street to launch a huge Labour campaign to combat Islamic extremism at grassroots level following the London bombings of 2005. 

As part of this initiative-200 different organisations from 70 parts of Britain with large Muslim populations have received millions in public grants under what is officially called the Preventing Extremism Pathfinder Fund  -  a total of £15million a year.

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Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Hazel Blears MP invited Muslim worshippers to Downing Street to discuss combatting Islamic extremism

The official blurb accompanying the fund, published on a Whitehall website, says the money will help Muslim women become role models, ambassadors for Islam, and unlock their potential.

In Oldham, £20,000 has been given to help imams speak English. In Birmingham, where £3million has been granted, local councils have spent thousands on producing T- shirts proclaiming ‘I love Islam’. 

As one community worker in the Midlands told the Mail this week: ‘All too often, organisations are given a lump sum without the proper questions being asked or investigations made. 

‘Instructions on the Islamic websites tell how to successfully claim pathfinder grants, what to say in the application, the buzzwords and that kind of thing. 

‘It is really no different to cheating in your exams by taking your answers off the web.’ 

And what of Bakri and Choudary? 

Admittedly they no longer openly call for terrorist acts  -  although Choudary told the meeting in London on Thursday (called 9/11: Have The Lessons Been Learnt?) that the majority of the world’s Muslim youths say they love Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, and that there will be a 9/11 in Britain if the West doesn’t withdraw troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. 

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Muslim demonstrators hold banners insisting Islam should prevail in Europe

The truth is that these radical preachers want nothing less than an Islamic takeover of Britain  -  including our education and legal systems. 

And they say that by sheer force of numbers, this will happen. 

As Choudary observed to murmurs of approval from those at the meeting: ‘What have the British given us? Gambling, pornography, adultery, fornication, exploitation. How much better this country would be under Shariah law.’ 

And Bakri, the mastermind behind this extemism? The Syrian-born radical came here as an asylum seeker in the Eighties, married a Lebanese woman and had six children. 

When I rang him in exile in Lebanon, he revealed that he had now divorced his wife in Britain and married again. ‘I have a new one and young family here. My work goes on,’ adding, without shame: ‘I still praise the magnificent martyrs of 9/11 and the glorious raiders of the London bombings.’ 

Bakri, earlier this month, claimed that the British secret services have been watching and listening to his activities in the Lebanon. 

He said he has ‘ discovered’ spying equipment at his former apartment in Beirut (he has since moved to live elsewhere in the city), placed there, he insists, by MI6 operatives using a ‘freshly made key’. 

But as I witnessed this week, the British government and intelligence services do not need to travel to the Middle East to discover exactly what he and his followers are plotting. 

Indeed, many might argue that it beggars belief that we in Britain allow a voice to those who want nothing less than our destruction. 

* This guy is actually threatening the Erdogan-Gul government with a military coup, which, in this case, is a blessing…

When he says that the military will take seriously any attempt to undermine Turkey’s secular principles and turn it into an Islamic state — which does seem to be the ultimate goal of Prime Minister Erdogan and the ruling party — will result in a military coup to protect the Kemalist order. It has happened before.

“Turkish army chief warns of Islam,” from PressTV, August 28 (thanks to JW)

* Note he means ‘Islam’- not ‘militant’ Islam or ‘fundamentalist’ Islam, just Islam…

Turkey’s new military chief warns against what he calls a rising “religious lifestyle”, highlighting secularist and AKP government tensions.

General Ilker Basbug, in a speech to an audience during a ceremony which he officially replaced former chief of military Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, said the military would take seriously any attempt to undermine Turkey’s secular principles.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul from the Justice and Development Party (AKP) Gul attended the ceremony at the military headquarters without their wives who wear headscarves.

Basbug said part of the nation is concerned that a new culture and lifestyle heavily influenced by Islam was emerging in Turkey.

“A segment of society thinks that religion is given a great weight in an emerging new cultural identity and lifestyle, and is worried about this development,” Basbug said as he took command of NATO’s second-biggest army.

“This concern should be taken seriously. This is compulsory for social peace within the scope of a pluralistic democracy.”

Turkey has a secular constitution and the military considers itself the ultimate guardian of the republic founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Hardline secularists, including the military and judges, accuse the AKP of harboring a hidden Islamist agenda by seeking to loosen restrictions on religion, such as its failed attempt to ease a ban on Muslim headscarves at universities. Erdogan and the AKP deny the convictions as illusions, but argue that Turks should be free to choose their way of life including what they wear….

*   3 Christians slain at publishing house Bible study

© 2008 WorldNetDaily

Necati Aydin, Tilman Geske and Ugur Yuksel, (L to R) who were martyred by Muslims in Turkey

All five suspects who are on trial in Turkey for the deaths of three Christian martyrs allegedly slain in a vicious attack by Muslims who had agreed to meet them at a Bible publishing house have denied responsibility, instead pointing fingers at each other.

Compass Direct, which has been documenting the case, said court testimonies by the five suspects were completed this week during a sixth hearing before Malatya’s 3rd Criminal Court.

“All have insisted that they had not planned to murder anyone and that no individuals or group instigated their raid on the Zirve Publishing Co. office in Malatya on April 18, 2007,” the report said.

As WND has reported, Tilman Geske of Germany and Turkish nationals Necati Aydin and Ugur Yuksel died in the attack. Authorities have said they reportedly met several Muslims for a Bible study, then were tied up, stabbed and tortured for several hours before their throats were slit.

Now Compass Direct reports that the alleged ringleader, Emre Gunaydin, has stated in a letter to the court that, “Our purpose was just to gather information and give it to the press.”

More

Hijab Resistance in Turkey:

Rapporteur favors rejecting Turk headscarf case: TV

By Emma Ross-Thomas/Reuters

Turkey’s secularist establishment, made up of the army, professors and parts of the judiciary, sees the headscarf as a threat to Turkey’s secular state and a symbol of political Islam. The court challenge to the headscarf amendment was filed by secularist opposition party, CHP.

The AK Party, which was elected with 47 percent of the vote last year, defends the use of the headscarf in universities as a matter of religious and personal freedom, and says some two-thirds of Turkish women cover their heads.

The closure case, filed by the chief prosecutor of the Court of Appeals, has hit Turkey’s financial markets and the European Union candidate country faces months of uncertainty.

The AK Party, which has its roots in political Islam but is also reformist and pro-business, denies the charges and says the case is politically motivated.

As well as closing the party, the prosecutor wants 71 party officials, including Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul, banned from politics for five years.

The Constitutional Court is dealing with both cases, having agreed to take up the closure case at the end of March. Eight of the court’s 11 judges were appointed by former President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, a secularist opponent of the AK Party.

Turkey has banned more than 20 political parties for alleged Islamist or Kurdish separatist activities.

A rapporteur to Turkey’s top court said on Friday it should reject a challenge to a ruling party reform which allows university students to wear the Muslim headscarf, broadcaster CNN Turk reported.

The rapporteur’s report, which state news agency Anatolian said had been presented to the Constitutional Court, is not binding, but has to be presented to judges before the case can proceed.

The headscarf case is being monitored for clues to the possible outcome of a separate, more critical case which aims to close the ruling AK Party for alleged Islamist activities in officially secular Turkey.

The ruling party’s move to lift the headscarf ban in universities was seen as a catalyst for the closure case, the indictment for which is packed with references to the headscarf.