Video - Bangladesh, Hindu priest beheaded; Christian community living in fear.

Video - Bangladesh, Hindu priest beheaded; Christian community living in fear. (AsiaNews).

Gupal Ganguli was a priest in the Hindu temple of Noldanga. His body was found this morning and investigations do not exclude the case of another murder of Islamic origin. The Christians of the village of Bonpara, where two days ago a Catholic merchant was killed, live in fear. Bishop of Rajshahi: "It is unacceptable to be forced to live in fear."

This morning Bangladesh police found the lifeless body of Gupal Ganguli, the Hindu priest of the Noldanga temple, in Jhenaidah district (in the southwestern part of the country). The priest was lying on the ground with his throat cut and his head almost severed from  his  body. Investigations are still ongoing, and investigators do not rule out the hypothesis that this is another murder of Islamic origin, such as the recent murder of the Christian shop owner in Bonpara (video). Now Christians of the village live in constant fear of fresh violence.

The last attack against a member of the religious minorities in Bangladesh occurred today around 9 am (local time). The priest is the latest victim of a long trail of blood left in recent months by various groups of Islamic extremists linked to the militants of the Islamic Caliphate and al-Qaeda.


For months Islamic extremists have been targeting activists, bloggers, professors, members of the LGBT community for their liberal ideas. Only two days ago in the village of Bonpara radicals killed Sunil Gomes, 71, a Christian known among the residents for its commitment to the local Catholic church. The murder was claimed by ISIS and the police arrested Md Sabuj Ali, who is suspected of involvement.

Stalla Rozario, a neighbor of Sunil, the first to find his body, says he cannot forget the image of his murdered friend. Speaking to AsiaNews he said: "I do not want to remember, but my memory keeps returning to that moment. Now we do not open the windows of the house and we keep the door shut before nightfall. We are afraid".

Like him, other Christians of Bangladesh fear for their lives. A woman of the same village, anonymous for security reasons, said: "Who can guarantee security? As soon as we see a new person around here, we feel insecure. "

Fr. Bikash Rebeiro, the pastor of Bonpara, reports: "Police officers were guarding the church, but we do not want to live under guard. We want to live in a free country, and we want everyone to be guaranteed security against fundamentalists. "

The priest adds that "the government should be tougher with groups that seek to destroy peace". Msgr. Gervas Rozario, Bishop of Rajshahi, complains: "We Christians are in danger. It is unacceptable to feel so insecure".

Update!

@Jasminechic00 Second Hindu priest murdered in #Bangladesh in suspected Islamic militant attack https://t.co/WsoDmZR3Du

— MFS - The Other News (@MFS001) June 7, 2016

#ISIS affiliated media claims that ISIS operatives have assassinated a #Hindu monk in #Jhenaidah District, western #Bangladesh.

— Laith Alkhouri (@MENAanalyst) June 7, 2016

Turkey's Erdogan blasts Europe's silence on execution of Bangladesh war criminal's execution.

Turkey's Erdogan blasts Europe's silence on execution of Bangladesh war criminal's execution. (ET). 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday lashed out at Europe’s silence over the execution of a veteran Jamaat-e-Islami leader in Bangladesh, accusing the West of “double standards.”

“If you are against political executions, why did you remain silent to the execution of Motiur Rahman Nizami who was martyred a couple of days ago,” Erdogan said in a televised speech in Istanbul.


“Have you heard anything from Europe? … No. Isn’t it called double standards?” Erdogan said.

Nizami, leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, was hanged at a Dhaka jail late Tuesday. He was accused of ordering the killing of intellectuals during the 1971 conflict.

The 73-year-old former government minister was the fifth and the most senior opposition figure executed since the secular government in the overwhelmingly Muslim nation set up a controversial war crimes tribunal in 2010.

The 1971 conflict, one of the bloodiest in world history, led to the creation of an independent Bangladesh from what was then East Pakistan.


Prosecutors said Nizami was responsible for setting up the pro-Pakistani Al-Badr militia, which killed top writers, doctors and journalists in the most gruesome chapter of the war. Hmmm.......A man is known by the company he keeps or defends..... Armenian Genocide

Islamic State claims stabbing murder of a Christian in Bangladesh as "lesson to others"

Islamic State claims stabbing murder of a Christian in Bangladesh as "lesson to others". (ET).

Islamic State claimed responsibility for stabbing a Christian to death in Bangladesh as a “lesson to others”, an online group that monitors extremist activity said, the latest killing declared by the militant group in the Muslim-majority nation.

The South Asian country has seen a surge in violence in which liberal activists, members of minority Muslim sects and other religious groups have been targeted.

The US-based SITE Intelligence Group said Islamic State claimed responsibility for killing Hussein Ali Sarkar in Kurigram, north of Dhaka.

The group reported on Twitter that a “security detachment” killed the “preacher” to be a “lesson to others”.

Police said the 68-year-old victim converted to Christianity from Islam in 1999 but was not a preacher.

Kurigram district police chief Tobarak Ullah said three attackers stabbed him while he was having his morning walk on Tuesday.

“They left the scene exploding crude bombs to create panic,” Ullah told Reuters by telephone.

“We have started an investigation into the murder. So far, we have not found any militant link.”
Five men were picked up for questioning, he said.

Over the last few months, Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the killings of two foreigners, attacks on members of minority Muslim sects and other religious groups, but the government has denied that the militant group has a presence in Bangladesh. Read the full story here.

Bangladesh Supreme Court to discuss abandoning Islam as State religion.

Bangladesh Supreme Court to discuss abandoning Islam as State religion. (AsiaNews).

Bangladesh’s Supreme Court has begun hearings to decide whether to eliminate Islam as the State religion. The initiative stems from a petition submitted by writers, educators and activists, with the goal of reducing violence by Islamic radicals against religious minorities.

The Christian community has welcomed the overall proposal. The Muslim community is instead divided between those who believe it legitimate in a country where Muslims account for 90% of the population, and who believes that the state should "represent all citizens equally".

In 1988 with the eighth amendment, the military authorities in Bangladesh inscribed Islam as the official religion in the Constitution. In the first basic charter of 1971, drafted upon independence from Pakistan, the confessional element was absent.

According to the petitioners in recent months, the Islamic religion has been used to "justify" a series of violent acts and discrimination against Christians, Hindus and Shiites.

Minorities are the target of ruthless fundamentalists attacking Christians private property, churches and Hindu priests, as well as bloggers, writers and activists guilty of being "atheists".

The minorities feel like "third class citizens, abandoned by the authorities." This is why they decided to challenge the legality of the eighth amendment.

Speaking to AsiaNews, Rosaline Costa, Catholic activist and coordinator of Hotline Human Rights Bangladesh, says: "In a State one religion should not prevail. I believe there should be equal rights for all faiths. If the High Court is considering whether to eliminate Islam in the Constitution, this means that we can all ask the Government for the same rights".

"Our people - she adds - can no longer be attacked by Islamic radicals and justice will be done more easily, because in that case we will be regarded as victims of crimes".

The Muslim world is divided on the issue. Mahammad Hasan, a university student, says: "I would not welcome the elimination of Islam as the state religion. 90% of the population is Muslim, and so it is right that Islam is the religion of our state".

Yousuf Rahman is of a different opinion. He tells AsiaNews: "I believe that there should not be no state religion, because people with different faiths live in the country. It is a country for all its citizens. I would be pleased if the Supreme Court delivers a verdict against Islam as the official religion".


Rosaline Costa concludes: "No progressive nation has an official religion. If a state belongs to one confession, this creates barriers to harmony between its communities".

"Sex Slave" workers in Saudi Arabia: 'We want to go home, enough ill-treatment'.

"Sex Slave" workers in Saudi Arabia: 'We want to go home, enough ill-treatment'. (AsiaNews).

Thousands of Bangladeshi migrant women who travelled to the Saudi kingdom in search of work now want to return to the country of origin because of continuing harassment they suffer.

Many of them have already returned and denounced the slave-like working conditions to which they were subjected by day as maids in the house, and that at night they were forced to satisfy the sexual desires of male employers and employees.

Bangladesh suspended the sending of women workers to Saudi Arabia for seven years, allowing only men to migrate. But last year the Dhaka authorities have signed an agreement that also provides for the migration of women. They are educated in the country of origin, where the government has opened 26 centers for the professional training of maids and servants. Then they leave for the Middle Eastern countries, where, however, many suffer threats and sexual abuse.

The agreement between the two governments is to send 120 thousand Bangladeshi women in the coming years. In 2015 there were 20,952 migrant workers, but many of them have already returned. Monira Akter (not her real name) is one of them and she told AsiaNews: "I followed the training course organized by the government to learn how to carry out domestic chores, but I could not do my job properly because my employer wanted to force me to have sex. " "I did not go there to sell my body – she complains - I emigrated to raise money for my family."

The woman says she knows five other workers who have suffered the same fate. Another victim of this exploitation reveals: "My master treated me badly, he did not allow me to call in Bangladesh and so I came back."

Abdul Aziz, a Saudi who recruits women in Bangladesh, admits: "We love the Bangladeshi workers because they are Muslim and wear the burka [the full veil that leaves only the eyes uncovered, ed]."

Rosaline Costa, Catholic activist, said: "It is not difficult to understand why women do not want to go to Saudi Arabia, when you consider the way they are exploited by employers: by day slaves in the house, sex slaves at night" .

The activist believes that the recently approved provision, to allow a male relative to accompany workers as a "guardian" is insufficient. “They have no way - he says – to help their relatives. People are helpless and without legal protection, since their passport and airline ticket are withdrawn and they do not know where to seek help if they have problems at night".

She concludes: "Given the recent news of exploitation, the relatives of the workers no longer want to allow their departure, if it means that almost all of them will be forced to be sex slaves for the employer and for his male employees."

Fourth secular blogger hacked to death in Bangladesh.

A poster with pictures of slain Bangladeshi bloggers during a protest meeting in May.

Fourth secular blogger hacked to death in Bangladesh. (ET).

DHAKA: A gang armed with machetes hacked a secular blogger to death at his home in Dhaka on Friday in the fourth such murder in Bangladesh since the start of the year, an activist group and police said.

Niloy Chakrabarti, who used the pen-name Niloy Neel, was killed after the gang broke into his apartment, according to the Bangladesh Blogger and Activist Network, which was alerted to the attack by a witness.

“They entered his room in the fifth floor and shoved his friend aside and then hacked him to death. He was a listed target of the extremists,” the network’s head, Imran H Sarker, told AFP.

Police confirmed Chakrabarti had been murdered by a group of half a dozen people in the capital’s Goran neighbourhood, although they had no details on his background or the motive for the killing.

“There were six people who knocked his door, saying that they were looking to rent a flat,” Muntashirul Islam, a deputy police commissioner, told AFP.

“Two of them then took him to a room and then slaughtered him there,” Islam added. “His wife was in the flat but she was confined to another room.”

Asif Mohiuddin, another secular blogger who himself survived an attack by militants in Bangladesh in 2013, described Chakrabarti as an atheist “free thinker” whose posts appeared on several sites.

“He was critical against religions and wrote against Islamic, Hindu and Buddhist fundamentalism. He was a founding member of a rationalist organisation,” Mohiuddin, who is now based in Berlin, told AFP by phone.

He is the fourth secular blogger to be killed in the Muslim-majority nation since February, when Bangladeshi-born US citizen Avijit Roy was hacked to death in Dhaka. His wife was also badly injured in the attack.

The other victims include Ananta Bijoy, Das who was attacked by a group wielding machetes on May 13 as he headed to work in Sylhet, and 27-year-old Washiqur Rahman who was hacked to death in Dhaka in March.

Most secular bloggers have either gone into hiding, often using pseudonyms in their posts, or have fled abroad.

In a recent petition addressed to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, authors including Salman Rushdie and Margaret Atwood called on her government “to do all in their power to ensure that the tragic events of the last three months are not repeated, and to bring the perpetrators to justice”.

“We are gravely concerned by this escalating pattern of violence against writers and journalists who are peacefully expressing their views,” said the petition. Bangladesh is an officially secular country, but more than 90 per cent of its 160 million people are Muslim.

Update:

#AQIS claimed the killing of Niloy #Chowdhury Neel... pic.twitter.com/nP22hlGh27

— -T- (@cheetah_T) August 7, 2015

1/2 #Bangladesh un communiqué présenté comme celui d'Ansar al-Islam revendiquant la mort du blogueur Niloy Chowdhury pic.twitter.com/2HCFo6Mxl4

— Gilles N. (@VegetaMoustache) August 7, 2015

#Media le #GIMF devenu un média officiel d'Ansar al-Islam #Bangladesh (= Ansar Bangla = Ansarullah Bangla Team) pic.twitter.com/637cuzXh3O

— Gilles N. (@VegetaMoustache) June 28, 2015

'Islamophobia 101' - Third blogger hacked to death in Bangladesh by Muslim extremists for speaking out against Islam.

'Islamophobia 101' - Third blogger hacked to death in Bangladesh by Muslim extremists for speaking out against Islam. (DM).

A Bangladeshi blogger who spoke out against religious extremism has been hacked to death in the northeastern city of Sylhet, the third victim of such attacks in three months.

Ananta Bijoy Das had left his home and was riding to town in a rickshaw when four men armed with machetes jumped on him and hacked him to death, according to police.

The attack took place at around 8.30am local time, and is believed to be linked to secular blog Mukto-Mona, which Das wrote for.

In February Dr Avijit Roy, an American-born Bangladeshi who created the Mukto-Mona blog, was killed by machete-wieling thugs in Dhaka.

Roy, 42, had his head sliced open and was left for dead in the streets while his wife, who was with him at the time, was left with a deep gash to her head.

Obscure militant group Ansar Bangla 7 claimed responsibility at the time of the attack, and said it had drawn up a list of other bloggers it wanted to target.

However, since then Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent has also claimed responsibility. Police say an Islamist is being held over the attack.

Das had previously written about Roy's death, and on Monday night he posted a Facebook status update questioning the police’s role in his killing.

His last post, minutes before his murder, was on a ruling party MP’s comment that he wanted to whip a teacher, according to the Dhakar Tribune.

Das was also a member of Gonojagoron Moncho, a political movement calling for the execution of war criminals and opposing Islamist political parties.

Following the announcement of his death local Gonojagoron activists organised a protest rally, demanding immediate arrest of the killers. Read the full story here.

Islami Bank In Bangladesh under investigation for terrorist financing.

Islami Bank In Bangladesh under investigation for terrorist financing. (BDNews).

"Islami Bank already gave a report on how its profits are spent. The intelligence people have been instructed to look into whether there are any discrepancies in it," said the minister.

He was speaking to reporters after emerging from a meeting of the ministry's Antiterrorism Committee on Thursday.

Kamal said the government was monitoring a few other financial institutions, operated by the bank, accused of terrorist-financing.

"The key to terrorism is funds. If that can be traced then wiping out terrorism will be easier," said the minister.

Islami Bank has been under international pressure in the last few years after a US Senate Committee report accused it of terrorist financing.

Banks like HSBC, Citi Bank NA and Bank of America have suspended transaction with it since then.

According to Bangladesh Bank officials, the bank maintained accounts of people, who were on the UN's suspicious people's list.

Islami Bank authorities did not disclose information of those accounts to the central bank.

The Bangladesh Bank has been monitoring the Islami Bank for quite sometime. It appointed an ‘Observer’ to the institution in 2010.

On April 15, the Prime Minister's Office had sent a letter to the central bank governor asking for information on the bank's 'corruption'.

It read, “Bangladesh Bank earlier had helped the government by providing information about the irregularities-corruptions at Islami Bank. The Prime Minister’s Office has received complaints regarding several other irregularities-corruptions.

“Details on those irregularities-corruptions are needed. Hope, you will cooperate by providing the information soon.”

The bank, widely believed to be supported by the Jamaat-e-Islami, has come under fire from pro-liberation forces for their alleged funding of Islamist groups.

The party itself is facing investigation of the International Crimes Tribunal for the crimes against humanity committed during the War of Independence.

The Board of Directors of the bank is always dominated by people linked to Jamaat-e-Islami.

Bangladesh - 11 died, not 2,500: DMP Commissioner Benazir.

Bangladesh - 11 died, not 2,500: DMP Commissioner Benazir.(TDS). An ill-motivated group has been campaigning that over 2,500 to 3,000 people died during the Motijheel operation,’ DMP Commissioner Benazir says at a press briefing Wednesday. Photo: TV grab

Trashing the claim of death of 2,500 to 3,000 Hefajat-e Islam activists merely as a rumour, Dhaka Metropolitan Police has said 11 people, including a policeman, died in Motijheel between Sunday and early Monday.

A vested ill-motivated group was campaigning that over 2,500 to 3,000 people had died during law enforcers’ drive to flush out Hefajat men from Shapla Chattar and adjoining areas, DMP Commissioner Benazir Ahmed said at a press briefing in the afternoon.

“Had the death figure reached so high (2,500-3,000), families of the victims would rush to Dhaka and claim for the bodies,” he told journalists at DMP Media Centre.

There were intelligence reports that Hefajat activists might have carried out rampage and looted Bangladesh Bank, the Secretariat and other important offices, Benazir said. “It is on the basis of that report that we conducted the drive without carrying any lethal weapons to ensure zero casualty,” he added.Read the full story here.

Bangladesh - 'Arrest the atheists who insulted Islam!' - Call for new blasphemy laws against bloggers.

Bangladesh - 'Arrest the atheists who insulted Islam!' - Call for new blasphemy laws against bloggers.(DM).Tens of thousands of Islamic activists prayed on the streets of the Bangladeshi capital today during a rally calling for the introduction of blaspemy laws and the restoration of a caretaker government.

Members of the Islami Andolan Bangladesh are demanding the arrest of 'atheist bloggers who insulted Islam' and to pass laws punishing those who 'insulted Islam in the parliament'.

They have announced plans to 'lay siege' to the office of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on April 25 if their demands are not met.

They include the restoration of the phrase 'absolute trust and faith upon Almighty Allah' in basic principles of the constitution; passing laws to punish atheists; holding of national elections under an impartial government; ensuring good governance and justice, uprooting terrorism and corruption; and establishing Islamic rule for a prosperous and welfare state. According to www.thedailystar.net, the party's Amir Mufti Syed Muhammad Rezaul Karimalso told the rally: 'The incumbent and previous governments have nurtured corruption, violence, nepotism and other different evil practices during last few decades. 'Islami Andolan Bangladesh should be voted to power to get rid of this situation.'

Meanwhile, clashes between police and supporters of the country's biggest Islamic party left five dead on Friday during protests linked to ongoing war crimes trials, police and media said.

Jamaat-e-Islami activists have been staging countrywide strikes and rallies for months to protest against the trials which have placed nearly their entire party leadership in the dock, in cases dating back to the 1971 independence war.

Friday's first incident occurred when lawmakers entered a village in northwestern Chapainawabganj district to arrest party activists accused of torching a power plant in such a protest last month.

About 6,000 villagers gathered to try and prevent the arrests, leading police to open fire.
'We at first used rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the mob, but they attacked us with hand bombs, sticks and bricks, forcing us to open fire,' deputy district police chief Motiur Rahman told AFP.

'We have heard the news of three men killed, but we have not seen any dead bodies,' he said.

Local media reports quoted villagers saying three Jamaat supporters were killed, two on the spot and one on the way to hospital. In a separate but similar wave of protests in northwestern Sirajganj district, two Jamaat supporters died after being hit with bullets, local police chief Shamsul Huq told AFP.

Police officers went to arrest an activist also accused of violence last month while protesting against the war crimes trial, but they too faced defiance from several thousand villagers.

With the latest deaths, 94 people have now been killed in clashes linked to the trials since the war crimes court handed down the first of its verdicts in January over atrocities during Bangladesh's independence struggle from Pakistan. Read the full story here.

Bangladesh police go's on alert after deadly riots killed Twenty people.

Bangladesh police go's on alert after deadly riots killed Twenty people.(AlJazeera).The government of Bangladesh has deployed troops in the north of the country as 20 more people were killed in fresh clashes over the conviction of an Islamist party leader for war crimes in the Muslim-majority nation.
Twelve people were shot dead in the north and northeast district of Bogra and one policeman was killed in clashes with protesters in the western district of Jhenidah, police officials said, adding two people were killed late on Saturday.
More than 10,000 stick-wielding protesters attacked five police stations, forcing police to open fire, they said.
The Jamaat-e-Islami, country's largest Islamic party, has enforced a nationwide two-day strike, that begins on Sunday, to protest the verdict and killing of its activists in police "brutalities".

"The toll could rise," Shahjahanpur district's deputy police chief Moqbul Ahmed said, adding that troops had been deployed to boost security.

Our correspondent in Bangladesh, who we are not naming for security purposes, says there has been no let up in the violence since the verdict was issued.
"Troops are on the streets in Bogra - after police stations came under attack - and it is the only district in Bangladesh where the army has been deployed, because they are very concerned about what's happened in the last 24 hours."

"Section 144 of the penal code has now been imposed, which means that gatherings of four or more people are banned," our correspondent added.

Two other people were also killed on Saturday night, including a ruling party student activist who was allegedly hacked to death by suspected Jamaat supporters, police said.
An inter-city train was torched late Saturday in the northwest but there were no casualties, police said.

The death toll in the clashes over the war crimes verdicts has risen to 76 since January 21, including 60 killed in the past four days after Jamaat's vice president was sentenced to death, police said.

Delwar Hossain Sayedee was found guilty of murder, religious persecution and rape during the 1971 independence war on Thursday, triggering violent clashes between Jamaat supporters and police across the country.The war crimes trials of a dozen Jamaat and main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leaders have opened old wounds and divided the nation, with the opposition parties accusing the government of staging a witch-hunt.

The government, which says the war claimed three million lives, rejects the claims and accuses Jamaat leaders for much of the carnage during the 1971 independence war.

Jamaat-e-Islami backed Pakistan during the independence war but denies their supporters were involved in atrocities. Independent estimates put the death toll from the war in which Bangladesh won its independence from Pakistan at a much lower figure of 300,000 to 500,000.Read the full story here.

Related: A great post related to these events can be read here. Smoke coming out of the keyhole

52 killed in Bangladesh after death sentence to Islamist leader.

52 killed in Bangladesh after death sentence for Islamist leader.(PT).(NDtv).Dhaka: At least 34 people were killed in Bangladesh in a wave of violence on Thursday as Islamists reacted furiously to a ruling that one of their leaders must hang for war crimes during the 1971 independence conflict.

At least 23 of them were shot in clashes between police and protesters that erupted after Delwar Hossain Sayedee, the Jamaat-e-Islami party's vice president, was found guilty of war crimes, including murder, arson and rape.

Sayedee is the third person to be convicted by the controversial domestic tribunal whose previous verdicts have also been met with outrage from Islamists who say the process is more about score settling than delivering justice.

Thursday's death toll was compiled by sources after talking to police in the 15 districts where protests turned deadly. They were the most violent political clashes in more than two decades in the impoverished country's history.

The latest unrest brought the overall death toll to 50 since the first verdict was delivered on January 21.

Among Thursday's dead were four policemen, two of whom were beaten to death after protesters hurled small homemade bombs at a police station in Gaibandha in Bangladesh's north and attacked it with sticks, local police chief Monjur Rahman said."At least 10,000 Jamaat supporters attacked us. We were forced to open fire," Rahman told sources.

About 300 people, including scores of policemen, were also injured, doctors, police and local media said.
Police also reported attacks on several Hindu homes and temples by Islamists in the southern Noakhali and Chittagong districts. One old Hindu man was killed in the attack in Chittagong, district police chief Hafiz Akter told sources.Security forces had been braced for trouble ahead of the verdict against Sayedee, who reacted to the judgment by saying it had been influenced by "atheists" and pro-government protesters who have been demanding his execution.

Sayedee, now best known in Bangladesh as a firebrand preacher, was convicted for setting ablaze 25 houses in a Hindu village and abetting the murders of two people including a Hindu man, according to a copy of the verdict.

He led a pro-Pakistani militia who abducted three Hindu sisters and raped them for three days at a Pakistani camp, said the verdict. He also forced at least 100 Hindus to convert to Islam and made them say Islamic prayers, it added.
His lawyer Tajul Islam described the verdict as "a gross miscarriage of justice", adding that Sayedee did not live in the town at the time when the alleged crimes took place.Read the full story here, more here.

Update: Hindus under attack, 6 temples, houses burnt outside Dhaka.

Video - At Least Four killed in 'blasphemous bloggers' riot with Bangladesh Islamists.

At Least Four killed in 'blasphemous bloggers' riot with Bangladesh Islamists.(News).Two people were shot dead by police in the northwestern town of Palashbari, and two others died elsewhere, police said.
Parts of the capital Dhaka were turned into a battlefield as thousands of protesters attacked police with bricks and sticks in front of the national mosque. Officers there retaliated with rubber bullets and tear gas.
The country's 12 Islamic parties called the protests after Friday prayers in nearly half a million mosques nationwide, demanding the execution of bloggers whom they say blasphemed Islam and the Prophet Mohammed.
Tensions have risen in the Muslim-majority nation over allegedly anti-Islamic blog posts by Ahmed Rajib Haider, who was hacked to death last week near his home in Dhaka.
In recent weeks Haider and fellow bloggers had launched huge protests demanding a ban on the largest Islamic party Jamaat-e-Islami, and the execution of its leaders for alleged war crimes in the 1971 independence conflict with Pakistan.
At Palashbari at least 4000 Islamists attacked police with home-made bombs and sticks, prompting officers to respond with live fire, district police chief Nahidul Islam told AFP.
At least four people were killed and about 200 injured.
In the northeastern city of Sylhet a young man died as police shot rubber bullets and tear gas after protesters went on a rampage, attacking and torching vehicles, Sylhet metropolitan police commissioner Nibas Chandra Majhi said AFP.
Uzzal Dutta, an emergency doctor at the city Hospital, said 31 people were admitted and most had injuries from rubber bullets. One person was killed in the western district of Jhenidah.
Police said clashes also broke out in the port city of Chittagong, the northern city of Bogra where 15,000 protesters.
In Dhaka violence broke out outside the Baitul Mukarram national mosque, where protesters also attacked around a dozen journalists.
Police tried to thwart the protest by locking the gates of the mosque where tens of thousands of people were performing their weekly Jumma prayers.
Sayeed Khan, an emergency doctor at Dhaka medical college hospital, said that up to 50 people had been admitted, most with injuries from rubber bullets.Read the full story here.

Anti-Islamist blogger killed, Bangladesh on boiling point

Anti-Islamist blogger killed, Bangladesh on boiling point.(TOI).DHAKA: Tens of thousands of Bangladeshi protesters, angered by the killing of one of their leaders, poured back onto the streets of the capital on Saturday to demand death penalty for those found guilty of war crimes in the 1971 independence conflict.
The demonstrators, who denounced a life sentence handed down this month to an Islamist leader involved in the war, reversed a decision to scale back demonstrations, now in their 12th day.
Rajib Haider, an architect, was a key figure in organizing the demonstrations and wrote a blog devoted to them under the pen name Thaba baba. He was attacked outside his home on Friday night after returning from a 100,000-strong rally in Shahbag Square. On Saturday, an even larger crowd thronged the square to attend funeral prayers for Haider, many vowing to avenge his death or breaking down in tears as his coffin passed.
Haider's family told reporters they believed he was stabbed to death for standing up to the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami party and drawing people to the protests. Police said they had detained five suspects. "Haider's death has rekindled our spirits," said Nasiruddin Yusuf, a film-maker. "It will not go in vain."
Large protests gripped other cities. Security forces patrolled streets in much greater numbers than in previous days. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visited Haider's home and told his parents justice would be done. "Rajib Haider's killers have no right to do politics," she said in comments broadcast live on television. She said Jamaat and its affiliates "do not believe in democracy. They believe in terrorism. That is what they are proving again".
The protests were triggered by the life sentence imposed on Abdul Quader Mollah, assistant secretary- general of Jamaat, Bangladesh's largest Islamist party. Most Bangladeshis had expected a death sentence on charges of murder, rape and torture. Protesters vowed to remain on the street until Mollah is sentenced to death."The young generation is shining a light on the spirit of the liberation war we fought more than 40 years ago," said Dhaka University professor Abul Barakat. "We couldn't achieve all the dreams of the war. Now, no one can stop them."Read the full story here.

Related: Bangladeshi PM hints at backing ban of Islamic party.

MFS -The Other News - What the main papers don't say.

                      Picture THE BATTLE OF COPYRIGHT 2011 By Christopher Dombres.
                    Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity situation Greece 5.3 - 5.2 ; Indonesia 5.2 !More info here.

• Iranian Parliament Finalizes Draft Bill on Cutting Oil Supplies to Europe.(Fars).TEHRAN (FNA)- Members of the Iranian parliament finalized a draft bill on cutting the country's oil exports to the European states in retaliation for the EU's oil ban against Tehran, a senior legislator said on Saturday. "The bill has 4 articles, including one which states that the Islamic Republic of Iran will cut all oil exports to the European states until they end their oil sanctions against the country," Vice-Chairman of the parliament's Energy Commission Nasser Soudani told FNA. Elaborating on the other parts of the draft bill, he said another article requires the government to stop imports of goods from those countries which are a party to these sanctions against Iran.The statement continued that since just 18 percent of oil produced by Iran is exported to European countries, Islamic Republic can easily replace new markets with the European market. Read the full story here.

• Washington Should Reject ‘No Missiles, No Meeting’ Russian Blackmail.(Heritage).By Ariel Cohen.Recently, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that there may be no summit between NATO and the Russian Federation if no agreement on missile defense is reached.This is understandable: Moscow has so far refused all Western entreaties to sign a workable missile defense arrangement and threatened that the NATO–Russia summit may be cancelled. If so, the loss will be all the Kremlin’s.NATO should not feel under any pressure to finalize a missile defense agreement, as Moscow is only trying to constrain the development of the U.S. missile defense system that could be used for the protection of Europe against Iran or another rogue power.Russia’s efforts to squeeze unreasonable concessions, such as sharing U.S. missile defense technology for free, are a poke in the eye of President Obama’s “reset” policy. So far, the policy has required large payoffs for small results. Highly significantly, President Obama decided not to talk about the reset policy’s achievements in his State of the Union speech—because there is little to be proud of.In December, Putin accused U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of “giving the signal” for mass protests in Moscow—after the ruling United Russia party brazenly stole parliamentary elections.The putative missile defense agreement presupposes that the foxes will guard the henhouse: Putin recently promoted the loudmouth nationalist Dmitry Rogozin, Russia’s former envoy to NATO, to head Russia’s hugely corrupt defense industry as a Vice Premier. This is a big step for Rogozin, which may signal bigger and better things in the future, like a coveted Defense Minister’s job.Rogozin has been leading the anti-American and anti-missile-defense campaigns in Russia and internationally. Recently, he attemptedto link Russia’s opposition to the NATO missile defense in Europe to the future of the NATO supply line to Afghanistan. This complex logistics operation, known as the Northern Distribution Network, is responsible for 60 percent of NATO supplies to Afghanistan; the other 40 percent goes through Pakistan.Congress and the Administration should not tolerate Russian mischief, such as on missile defense. The U.S. should not shy away from protecting its vital security interests, including keeping vital military technology close to its chest. Washington should articulate its priorities and values to its Russian partners—and play hardball when necessary.It is clearly time to reset the “reset.”Hmmmm.......Closing the NATO supply line to Afghanistan, would mean US soldiers caught in a trap with not enough Food, Petrol and Ammo.......Obama's 'Stalingrad'.Read the full story here.
  
  
• Is President Obama Creating A Nation Of Dependents?(ID).By John Merline.If the Republican primaries are any indication, one big debate in the upcoming election will be whether President Obama is pushing the country toward a European-style welfare culture.Mitt Romney, for example, argues that "over the past three years, Barack Obama has been replacing our merit-based society with an entitlement society."Newt Gingrich has taken to calling Obama "the best food-stamp president in American history."Obama, in contrast, says the government must play an increasing role — what he likes to call "shared responsibility" — to ensure a society that is fairer.So is Obama turning the country into a welfare society and away from one focused on opportunity?While it's true that the country has been headed in this direction for many years — with the explosion in entitlements since the 1960s and the aging of the population — Obama has, in fact, greatly accelerated the trend.Read the full story here.

• Obama vows to remember Holocaust, fight anti-Semitism.(JPost).US President Barak Obama pledged to remember the Holocaust and to fight anti-Semitism, in a statement released on International Holocaust Remembrance day. "Michelle and I join people in the United States, in Israel, and across the globe as we remember the six million Jews and millions of others who were murdered at the hands of the Nazis," Obama said in a statement issued by the White House Friday."Together with the State of Israel, and all our friends around the world, we dedicate ourselves to giving meaning to those powerful words: 'Never Forget. Never Again,'" he said.Obama pledged to keep the memories of the Holocaust alive, "not only in our thoughts, but through our actions."The US president also vowed to fight Holocaust deniers. "We pledge to stand strong against all those who would commit atrocities, against the resurgence of anti-Semitism, and against hatred in all its forms," he said.Hmmmm.....While 'embracing' the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt that calls for the extermination of the Jews?Read the full story here.
• Court Awards Attorneys’ Fees Against the City of Dearborn, Michigan for Violating a Christian Pastor’s Right to Freedom of Speech.(AM).AFLC--Today, a U.S. Magistrate Judge in Detroit, Michigan recommended that Robert J. Muise, the attorney for Christian Pastor George Saieg, be awarded $103,401.96 in fees and costs for successfully challenging the City of Dearborn’s restriction on the Christian’s right to freedom of speech at the 2009 Arab Festival held in the City. The City, not wanting to offend its large Muslim population, would not allow the Christian to hand out religious literature at the Festival.In the order, the federal judge stated, “In this case, the Plaintiff received the full relief he sought — an invalidation of the leafleting restriction and a permanent injunction barring its enforcement. . . . Because this result ‘cannot fairly be labeled as anything short of excellent, [Plaintiff] is entitled to a fully compensatory fee.’” AFLC Senior Counsel Robert J. Muise represented Pastor Saieg in this successful free speech case. At the time, Muise was Senior Trial Counsel for the Thomas More Law Center. The City has 14 days to appeal. [Read order here]“The award of attorney fees in this case,” noted Muise, “is critical in the lawfare against Civilization Jihad and dhimmitization, or subjugation, of an entire municipality in Michigan. Dearborn has a long record of this kind of illegal, heavy-handed treatment of Christians as an attempt to placate Dearborn’s sharia-faithful. The court’s ruling today demonstrates that this kind of behavior will come at great cost.”Muise recently won acquittals for charges of “disturbing the peace” brought by the Dearborn prosecutor against a group of Christians following their arrests by Dearborn police in 2010 for the same kind of peaceful free speech activities. Muise and David Yerushalmi of the American Freedom Law Center, along with attorneys from the Thomas More Law Center, currently represent these Christians in a civil action arising from these arrests.
  The American Freedom Law Center is a Judeo-Christian law firm that fights for faith and freedom. It accomplishes its mission through litigation, public policy initiatives, and related activities. It does not charge for its services. The Law Center is supported by contributions from individuals, corporations, and foundations, and is recognized by the IRS as a section 501(c)(3) organization. Visit us at www.americanfreedomlawcenter.org.Read the full story here.
• UN wants end to West Bank demolitions.(YNET).The United Nations on Friday called on Israel to immediately halt the destruction of Palestinian homes in the West Bank after reporting a dramatic rise in demolitions in the past year.Israeli forces destroyed 622 Palestinian homes in the West Bank in 2011, "forcibly displacing" almost 1,100 people, over half of them children, according to a UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs report."The current policy and practice of demolitions cause extensive human suffering and should end," said UN humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territories, Maxwell Gaylard. Gaylard said the demolition figures represent a "dramatic" increase on previous years and that tens of thousands of people remain under threat of dispossession, demolition and displacement. Israel says it only demolishes structures that have been built without required permission. Palestinians say they are rarely granted permits.Gaylard said he went on Thursday to the village of Anata near Jerusalem where seven Palestinian homes were demolished this week. "He was informed that bulldozers and troops had arrived in the middle of the night of 23 January and that 52 people, including 29 children, had been forced from their homes, which were then completely destroyed," said a UN statement. The operation was carried out Monday night. The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) said Israeli forces demolished Beit Arabiya, a family home and "peace centre" at Anata, that has now been destroyed five times since 1994. Israel's administration for the West Bank said the homes had no permit.Read the full story here.
• The Risk of Islamist Coups.(HurriyetDaily).By Gwynne Dyer.The eastern half of what used to be Pakistan narrowly escaped a military coup last month. Brigadier Masud Razzak, the spokesman of the Bangladeshi army, announced on Thursday (19 January) that “A band of fanatic officers has been trying to oust the politically established government. Their attempt has been foiled.”They had “extreme religious views,” he said, and revealed that some of the sixteen conspirators, all of them current or former military officers, will soon appear before a military court. For a country with a dismalry with a dismal history of military coups, some of them very violent, it was a heartening outcome. But it was also a reminder of where the real danger lies in the subcontinent.A coup by Islamist officers in Bangladesh would be seen by most foreigners as deeply regrettable but mostly of only local interest. A coup by Islamist officers in Pakistan would unleash the Mother of All Panics.An Indian strategist once told me, off the record, what he thought would happen about six hours after news of an Islamist coup in Pakistan reached the rest of the world. There would be a huge “traffic jam” over Kahuta and other major Pakistani nuclear weapons facilities as the Indian, Iranian, American and Israeli air forces all tried to keep the nuclear weapons out of the hands of the fanatics by destroying them.So how likely is an Islamist military coup in Pakistan? About as likely as it is in Bangladesh, which is to say unlikely, but not unimaginable. In this one thing, the two armies are alike – and quite different from those of most other Muslim countries.In almost all other Muslim countries, the armies take great care to ensure that Islamist officers do not rise very high in rank: they may make captain, but they won’t make colonel. This is because the generals know that they can’t be trusted. The generals themselves are mostly faithful Muslims, but they must protect the integrity of the military institution they serve, and that means no Islamists in positions of real power.All previous military interventions in politics in Pakistan have been done by the army as an institution, acting in obedience to its lawful commanders. That kind of thing would not radically change Pakistan’s policies towards the rest of the world. But if middle-ranking Islamist officers were to break the chain of command and seize power, like their comrades in Bangladesh intended to do, then all bets would be off. Read the full story here.
• Arab League suspends observer mission in Syria as killing spikes.(Alarabiya).The Arab League on Thursday suspended its monitoring mission in Syria because of the upsurge of violence a day after the monitors’ chief said killing had spiked this week, with the death toll approaching 200.“Given the critical deterioration of the situation in Syria and the continued use of violence ... it has been decided to immediately stop the work of the Arab League’s mission to Syria pending prevention of the issue to the league’s council,” the league’s secretary-general said in a statement.“The secretary-general has also asked the head of the mission to take all the necessary procedures to ensure the safety and well-being of the mission’s members.”The mission would remain in Syria, a source at the league had earlier told Reuters, but would temporarily halt its work.The announcement came as the opposition Syrian National Council said its leader would travel to New York to appeal to the U.N. Security Council for protection from the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.According to a tally by AFP taken from reports by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and official Syrian media, 193 people have been killed since Tuesday.That compares with the figure of more than 5,400 given by the United Nations last month since anti-regime protests erupted in March.On Thursday, the bodies of 17 men arrested by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces during an armored assault this week on the city of Hama were found dumped in the streets after being shot in the head, activists said on Saturday. “They were killed execution style, mostly with one bullet to the head. Iron chains that had tied them were left on their legs as a message to the people to stop resisting,” Abu al-Walid, an activist in the city, told Reuters by telephone.Another activist said the bodies, their hands tied by plastic wire and some with their legs chained, were dumped in the streets of five Hama neighborhoods on Thursday evening. “They are of mixed ages. One was in his 60s, another in his 40s and several were in their 20s,” he said, adding that only three had been identified, one of whom was a police deserter.Asked whether the bodies could be those of Assad loyalists killed by rebels, the activist said this was not possible.“Hama is a military zone full of armored vehicles and troops,” he said. “Roadblocks and tanks have isolated districts from each other. The streets are empty and no one dares to drive a car unless he wants to be shot, let alone to move between different neighborhoods and dump bodies.”A YouTube video, which could not be independently verified, showed six bodies of mostly young men in a street described as being in the Bab Qabli district of Hama. Their hands were tied and their legs were chained. They appeared to have died from gunshot wounds to the head or neck. Other bodies were found in the Basateen, Hamidiya, Arbaeen and Masbah neighborhoods, activists said.Read the full story here.
• Largest conventional U.S. bomb not powerful against Iran: report.(AlArabiya).The U.S. military has concluded that its largest conventional bomb is not capable of destroying Iran’s most heavily fortified underground facilities suspected to be used for building nuclear weapons, The Wall Street Journal reported late Friday. But citing unnamed U.S. officials, the newspaper said the military was stepping up efforts to make it more powerful.The 13.6-ton “bunker-buster” bomb, known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, was specifically designed to take out the hardened fortifications built by Iran and North Korea, the report said.But initial tests indicated that the bomb, as currently configured, would not be capable of destroying some of Iran’s facilities, either because of their depth or because Tehran has added new fortifications to protect them, the paper noted. In a report issued in November, the International Atomic Energy Agency said intelligence from more than 10 countries and its own sources “indicates that Iran has carried out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear device.”It detailed 12 suspicious areas such as testing explosives in a steel container at a military base and studies on Shahab-3 ballistic missile warheads that the IAEA said were “highly relevant to a nuclear weapon program.”Meanwhile, doubts about its bomb’s effectiveness prompted the Pentagon this month to secretly submit a request to Congress for funding to enhance the bomb’s ability to penetrate deeper into rock, concrete and steel before exploding, The Journal noted. The Defense Department has spent about $330 million so far to develop about 20 of the bombs, which are built by Boeing Co., the report pointed out. The Pentagon is seeking about $82 million more to make the bomb more effective, The Journal said. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, in an interview with The Journal Thursday, acknowledged the bomb’s shortcomings against some of Iran’s deepest bunkers. He said more development work would be done and that he expected the bomb to be ready to take on the deepest bunkers soon.“We’re still trying to develop them,” Panetta said.Meanwhile the Washington Post reported Saturday that the U.S. military plans to send a large floating base for commando teams to the Middle East amid rising tensions with Iran and intensifying fighting in Yemen, Citing unspecified procurement documents, the newspaper said the Navy is converting an aging warship it had planned to decommission into a makeshift staging base for the commandos in response to requests from the U.S. Central Command. Unofficially dubbed a “mothership,” the floating base could accommodate smaller high-speed boats and helicopters commonly used by Navy SEALs, the report said.Hmmmm.........The bomb will be 'ready' just before the elections?Read the full story here.
• Dutch plan Muslim face veil ban next year.(TS).One million out of 17 million people are Muslim in the Netherlands.AMSTERDAM - The Dutch minority government plans to ban Muslim face veils such as burqas and other forms of clothing that cover the face from next year.The ban would make the Netherlands, where 1 million out of 17 million people are Muslim, the second European Union country to ban the burqa after France, and would apply to face-covering veils if they were worn in public."People should be able to look at each other's faces and recognize each other when they meet," the interior affairs ministry said in a statement Friday.The ban will also apply to balaclavas and motorcycle helmets when worn in inappropriate places, such as inside a store, Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Verhagen told reporters, denying that this was a ban on religious clothing.Geert Wilders' anti-Islam Freedom Party (PVV), which helps give the Liberal-Christian Democrat coalition a majority in parliament, has set considerable political store on getting the so-called burqa ban passed into law.Few Muslim women in the Netherlands wear the Arabic-style niqabs which leave the eyes uncovered and Afghan-style burqas that cover the face with a cloth grid. Academics estimate the numbers at between 100 and 400, whereas Muslim headscarves which leave the face exposed are far more common.The face-veil law, which still needs to win approval in both houses of parliament, excludes clothing worn for security reasons such as that worn by firemen and hockey players, as well as party clothing such as Santa Claus or Halloween costumes.The ban does not apply to religious places, such as churches and mosques, nor to passengers on airplanes or en route via a Dutch airport, the interior ministry said.Read the full story here.
• Growing Number of Child Brides Among Muslims ... in London.(Islingtontribune).By PavanAmara.AN alarming number of under-age girls – some as young as nine – are being forced into marriage in Islington, according to a leading campaign group.The Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation (IKWRO) claim that at least 30 girls in the borough were forced into marriage in 2010.The practice was condemned by the Imam of Finsbury Park Mosque, who said such marriages were against Islam and “unacceptable”.He pledged to invalidate any marriage which he said were carried out by “back-street Imams”.IKWRO, which made headlines last month when they revealed there had been almost 3,000 “honour-based” violence cases in 2010, has shown the Tribune records which revealed at least three 11-year-old girls and two nine-year-olds had been forced into marriage with older men within Islington. The oldest girls involved were 16.They have warned that hundreds of Islington girls could be suffering sexual, emotional and physical scars as a result of the child marriages every year and are calling for teachers, social workers and police to be better trained to spot and manage the abuse.Information from the Ministry of Justice, following a Freedom of Information request, revealed that 32 Forced Marriage Protection Order applications were made for children under 16 in Britain last year.Six of these were made for under-16s within Islington at the Royal Courts of Justice, although these were not necessarily made for Islington residents.At the Islington court, “five or fewer” orders were made to protect children between the ages of 9-11.The orders are a form of injunction that threaten legal punishment if marriage takes place due to emotional or physical force.In most cases, the children fear they will be killed if they reveal the truth to anybody, while others believe they will be separated from their families and taken into social services’ care.Dianna Nammi, director of IKWRO, explained that the girls are married in a mosque’s sharia court. This means they are not legally married according to British law, rendering the Home Office unable to recognise or prove the abuse.“They are still expected to carry out their wifely duties, though, and that includes sleeping with their husband,” she said.“They have to cook for them, wash their clothes, everything. They are still attending schools in Islington, struggling to do their primary school homework, and at the same time being practically raped by a middle-aged man regularly and being abused by their families. So they are a wife, but in a primary school uniform.“The reason it doesn’t get out is because they are too terrified to speak out, and also the control their families have over them is impossible to imagine if you’re not going through it. The way it is covered up is so precise, almost unspeakable.”Ms Nammi said that one 13-year-old had to sneak out of a maths lesson to contact the group, because she was being monitored so closely by her family.“Her teacher didn’t notice because she said she’d gone to the toilet, but when she got home that day she was beaten,” she said. Imam Saad explained that Sharia law stated an individual can marry when they begin puberty, with the most important stipulation being that they are “rushd”, or mature enough to understand marriage.A spokesman for the Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) said he was “unsure” whether the lack of legal status of the marriages affected whether the they could intervene or not, but directed the Tribune to government practice guidelines on dealing with forced marriage.The spokesman added that due to the lack of legal status the marriages may be a “criminal matter that only the police can deal with”, but admitted to it being "”a very grey area”.Read the full story here.
• New US military strategy and Turkey.(HD).As the details of the new U.S. defense budget for 2013 become clear, the outline of the new American military strategy becomes clear, too.the WSJ story also said that in some critical parts of the world – critical to the U.S. interests – the Pentagon considers establishing land bases for special units.The Darwin base in Australia was named among the bases to be used in the Pacific area control. The expansion of the Philippines base was another consideration. And the WSJ reported that the Pentagon was looking into ways to establish bases near the Iraqi border area of Jordan and Turkey.It is not clear from the WSJ story whether the U.S. official meant an additional use of the İncirlik Air Force Base of Turkey which is in NATO use, also hosting U.S. troops, or an additional base in the country that is not very likely considering the huge dimension of the İncirlik Base and the already high anti-American social climate in the country.Later on Pentagon officials denied there were plans to escalate presence in Turkey. Yet there are still a number of issues around Turkey, from energy routes to the consequences of the Arab Spring, including Iran-Israel tension, the sectarian civil war risk in Iraq and the Kurdish problem in a lesser scale.The Turkish proverb goes, “There is no smoke without fire,” and Turks are likely to assess the developments through a different lens from now on. Hmmmm......Obama has a 'relation of trust' with Erdogan?Read the full story here.
• Source: Hamas' Meshaal Sets Sights on Brotherhood Post.(IPT).Hamas' out-going politburo chairman is leaving the Palestinian terrorist group to take a "high position in the Muslim Brotherhood movement," a "well-informed source in Hamas" told the Nazareth-based Arabic-language Al-Sinnara last week.The move would see Khaled Meshaal—the longtime Damascus-based leader of Hamas—transition to a new, more international role, as head of the "Supreme Council of the [Brotherhood] movement." The Council is said to be "responsible for political issues," according to the report. It remains to be seen whether the article is referring to the group's Guidance Bureau, which largely deals with the movement's political affairs, or with another body altogether.If true, the news would help explain why Meshaal has been so adamant about not seeking re-election. Earlier reports noted that the group made an official plea for Meshaal "to reconsider" his stance.It has been speculated that if Meshaal exits, the post could go to Hamas' Gaza-based Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh, or Hamas' original political bureau chief, Mousa Abu Marzook.Meshaal's purported move appears to have the blessing of higher-ups in the Brotherhood. According to the Al-Sinnara source, longtime Brotherhood spiritual advisor, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, is in support of the leadership jump.Read the full story here.
• Viking mass grave linked to elite killers of the medieval world, they faced their own beheading sword blow standing tall.(AD). A mass grave found in Dorset could belong to a crew of Viking mercenaries who terrorised Europe in the 11th century according to a new documentary on National Geographic which pieces together the story behind the burial. Their burial pit, at Ridgeway Hill, Dorset, was found in 2009 while archaeologists were working in the area ahead of the construction of a new road. In it, researchers made the gruesome discovery of the decapitated bodies of 54 young men. All had been dumped in the shallow grave, and their heads had been piled up on the far side.Radiocarbon dating revealed that the remains belonged to men murdered at some point around the year 1000.While historians will probably never agree conclusively about who the men were, Baillie's analysis draws her to the conclusion that they may have been Viking mercenaries who modelled themselves on, or behaved in a similar way to the legendary Jomsvikings a brotherhood of elite killers whose strict military code involved never showing fear, and never fleeing in the face of the enemy unless totally outnumbered. Allegedly founded by Harald Bluetooth, the Jomsvikings are thought to have been based at a stronghold called Jomsborg on the Baltic coast. At a time when Vikings were feared across Europe, they were known as perhaps the fiercest of them all a reputation which even earned them their own saga.Yet the remains in Dorset also suggest that these men were something unique. Researchers have found that one of the men's teeth had incisions. This rare feature could, it is believed, be the result of the victim filing his teeth deliberately to demonstrate his bravery and status.Further analysis then reveals that the St. Brice's day massacre victims in Oxford were killed in a frenzied mob attack. However, the Ridgeway Hill individuals were systematically executed. They were beheaded from the front just like the warriors in the Jomsviking saga. In the saga, one captured Viking says: "I am content to die as are all our comrades. But I will not let myself be slaughtered like a sheep. I would rather face the blow. Strike straight at my face and watch carefully if I pale at all."Read the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                       Morning Posting.

• Live broadcast info from Japan directly ! Here.

• Libya Live Blog - April 15. Here .(Al-Jazeera).

• Live Blog: Middle East protests April 15 Here. (Al-Jazeera)

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world low seismic activity in Japan  today between 4.7 and 4.9! More info here.

• Japan - Latest official Situation Update No. 86.Here .

• Japan  : For the most accurate info on the nuclear disaster go to : Paul Langley's Nuclear History Blog

• HT:JudicialWatch.Clinton Hosts Islamic World Forum For Obama In D.C. In the Obama Administration’s continuing effort to befriend Muslims, the United States will for the first time host an international Islamic forum held annually in the Middle East and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will headline the three-day event.Created to address issues critical to Arabs and Muslims, the U.S.-Islamic World Forum will come to Washington D.C. this week after eight years in Qatar. Clinton will be America’s friendly host for the duration of the event, which begins Tuesday, and will deliver the keynote address at a gala dinner on the first day.Last year Clinton was the first senior member of a U.S. administration to participate in the U.S.-Islamic World Forum, which was held in February in Doha. At the event she announced President Obama’s “new era of diplomatic engagement” with nations that have been “hostile to the United States” and promised to close the military prison at Guantanamo because it had “become a symbol of the wrong way to make America more secure.”President Obama also participated via a video message that called for a “new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world.” The commander-in-chief outlined a “government-wide approach” to improve the daily lives of Muslims and a commitment from senior administration officials—such as Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano—to engage Muslim communities in the U.S.Obama pledged to seek new partnerships in Muslim communities around the world and touted his efforts to engage with “faith leaders” and “civil society groups” to improve the nation’s relationship with Muslims. The efforts are necessary, according to Obama, because the “United States and Muslims around the world have often slipped into a cycle of misunderstanding and mistrust that can lead to conflict rather than cooperation.”Bringing the Islamic forum to the U.S. is simply the latest of many Muslim outreach efforts for the administration. In the last year alone Napolitano discussed national security matters with a group of extremist Muslim organizations, the nation’s space agency (NASA) was ordered to focus on Muslim diplomacy and Clinton signed a special order to allow the reentry of two radical Islamic academics whose terrorist ties long banned them from the U.S. The Obama Administration also sent an America-bashing mosque leader (Feisal Abdul Rauf) who blames U.S. foreign policy for the 9/11 attacks on a Middle Eastern outreach mission and ordered a government-funded meal program for home-bound seniors to offer halal cuisine prepared according to Islamic law. The Justice Department also created a special Arab-American and Muslim Engagement Advisory Group to foster greater communication, collaboration and a new level of respect between law enforcement and Muslim and Arab-American communities.Hmmmm....."To protect the US Constitution"?Two clauses in the First Amendment guarantee freedom of religion. The establishment clause prohibits the government from passing legislation to establish an official religion or preferring one religion over another. Read the full story here.

• HT:LegalInsurrection.Obama Is Temperamentally Unfit For Office.I was right in my anticipation that Obama would play the blame Bush game, and that he would demonize the "Top 2%," and he did. With gusto.But even I could not have expected the coarse tone of the speech. More than anything, it reminded me of Alan Grayson's speech about how Republicans want people "to die quickly."Barack Obama is temperamentally unfit to be President, someone who is incapable of getting out of campaign mode even on issues of great national importance. (added) This was a moment when Obama could have proven that he was the uniter he claimed to be not a divider, when he could have set forth an alternative plan without demeaning Republicans. No one could have expected Obama to stand there and say that he would agree to the Ryan plan, but no one should have expected a full frontal assault on the motives and humanity of those with whom he has policy disagreements. If Obama had signaled a readiness to reach across the aisle, to seek common ground without guaranteeing an outcome, he would have been presidential. Instead, there were just a few throw away lines about compromise at the end of a long screed.If ever there were a time we needed someone able to act presidential, this was the moment, when everyone agrees we face a debt crisis. Yet instead of hearing a President, we heard a candidate.Obama did what he did on health care; he not only closed the door to serious compromise, he slammed it shut and double-locked the door.Hmmm....When will America understand that they have a ruthless dictator in their WhiteHouse?Read the full story here.

• HT:RightwingNation.5 Things That Will Happen To You When America Goes Bankrupt.“Madness is rare in individuals – but in groups, parties, nations, and ages it is the rule.” — Friedrich Nietzsche.Does it seem too strong to call the way America deals with its debt “madness?” If not madness, then what? Denial? An addiction? However you phrase it, we’re a country that’s in deep trouble, but so many of us seem unable to deal with it.Liberals in this country, for the most part, will admit that we’re running up “unsustainable” deficits. Yet, these same liberals adamantly oppose any and all serious efforts to do anything about it. If you move out from liberals to the general public, once again you’ll find plenty of people who admit that this nation has a huge problem. Yet, when you leave generalities, get down to specifics, and start looking for programs to cut, then suddenly everyone gets nervous and says, “never mind.” It’s like the old saying, “Everyone wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to die.”Sadly, this is a natural outgrowth of ladling out public funds to special interests. There is so much collective money that few people feel or appreciate it even when billions are saved. Yet, if we yank even a few million away from special interest groups like PBS, Planned Parenthood, or the unions, they squeal like pigs that are about to accidentally be put in the wolves’ pen at the zoo.In the face of that, people have to realize that this country is on pace to go bankrupt — and it could happen relatively soon if we don’t start taking serious steps to control our spending. Mike Pence thinks we could be just ten to fifteen years away. Tom Coburn is less optimistic and thinks it could happen in as little as five years. If that happens, we’re not a tiny country like Greece — we’re the biggest economy in the world. That means there’s no cavalry coming to pay our bills for us because we ARE the cavalry. What happens then? Well, we don’t know for sure, but we can make some educated guesses about what COULD happen and how it will impact YOUR life.

1) Your life savings could be reduced to nothing almost overnight. Inflation is a fact of life. Thomas Sowell has noted, “As of 1998, a $100 bill would not buy as much as a $20 bill would buy in the 1960′s.” That’s under normal circumstances.Now read the rest here.

• Bringing the outside in at Eric Holder's INJustice Department.Attorney General Eric Holder tours the country proclaiming that he has "reinvigorated" the Civil Rights Division, compared to the Bush years. Reporters never ask precisely what he means. The American people might not like answer. Holder really means adopting outside activist agendas far beyond the American legal mainstream. It also includes hiring a swarm of activist lawyers to advance an outside agenda from inside the federal government.In December, the Justice Department filed a religious discrimination lawsuit against the Berkeley School District in Illinois. The school district had refused to allow a new teacher to take three weeks off during final exams so she could go on a pilgrimage to Mecca, an unreasonable demand far beyond what federal law requires. The lead Justice Department lawyer on the case says a great deal about why this case was filed. The senior career trial attorney who signed the complaint, and therefore was in charge of the investigation, is Varda Hussain.Hussain used to be a lawyer at the Venable law firm in Virginia. In 2006, she received the firm's Benjamin R. Civiletti Pro Bono award for spending "over 500 hours in the past year fighting to bring due process to our clients." Who were the particular clients Hussain spent so much time helping? Three Egyptian terrorists held in Guantanamo Bay. Although when the Venable firm wrote its internal newsletter that reported on this award, it called them merely "Egyptian clients," here's what they are: terrorists.That sort of euphemism for murderous thugs who want to destroy America is needed at a law firm that doesn't want to upset its business clients about the work Hussain was doing to help America's deadliest enemies get away with murder and mayhem. She received an award for the work no less!Other bizarre cases have come out of the Holder Civil Rights Division. DOJ stopped the debut of the Amazon Kindle because it was not in Braille. It attacked South Carolina for providing special treatment to inmates infected with AIDS. It demanded that Dayton, Ohio, hire black police officers who failed the competency examination. The attorney hires have also been bizarre. Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez hired Aaron Schuham from Americans United for Separation of Church and State, one of the most hostile organizations in the United States toward organized religion.Founded as a rabidly anti-Catholic organization in 1947, the group has taken the lead in stopping public expressions of faith. Schuham's new job in Holder's Justice Department? Protecting religious liberty. Attorney hires like Schuham's lead to reasonable questions about the administration's motivation.Who did Holder pick to head the unit inside civil rights to bring civil rights lawsuits against police departments and prisons? Why none other than Jonathan Smith, formerly of the Prisoners Legal Services Project and the D.C. Legal Aid Society, two anti-police and anti-prison guard antagonist groups. Hopefully America's police unions will take note of Smith's hiring when deciding presidential endorsements next year.These attorneys are just the tip of the iceberg, but the DOJ is concealing the full scope of the problem. Pajamas Media submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the DOJ in the summer of 2010 seeking the resumes of all the new Obama hires inside the Civil Rights Division.The Bush DOJ complied with an identical request from the Boston Globe after three weeks in 2007. Pajamas Media had to sue Holder in January, and the resumes still have not been provided. Phony transparency is worse than none at all.When Holder speaks of "reopening and reinvigorating" the Civil Rights Division, what he is really saying is giving lawyers like Hussain, Schuham and Smith high-paying government jobs where they can use taxpayer money to push an agenda shared by outside activist groups.Attorneys in the Civil Rights Division should be legal technicians, not activists. The division is the only division of the Justice Department where cases are initiated and brought by low-level line attorneys.Every other division is reactive, not proactive. If adopting the agenda of outside activist groups constitutes "reinvigorating" the Civil Rights Division, the next Republican president needs to deinvigorate it soon after taking office.Hmmmmm......When can we talk about High treason Mr AG?Read the full story here.

• HT:PajamasMedia.Did Obama and Holder Scuttle Terror Finance Prosecutions?During the House Homeland Security hearing last month on the topic of radicalization in the American Muslim community, one exchange between L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca and Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-MN) concerned the relationship between the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department and Hamas terrorist front the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Sheriff Baca told the congressman:We don’t play around with criminals in my world. If CAIR is an organization that is a quote “criminal organization,” prosecute them. Hold them accountable and bring them to trial.But according to a high-ranking source within the Department of Justice, who spoke exclusively to Pajamas Media on the condition of anonymity, Sheriff Baca, a long-time supporter of CAIR, was probably already in on the joke.The joke is that a number of leaders of Islamic organizations (all of whom publicly opposed the King hearings on Muslim radicalization) were about to be indicted on terror finance support charges by the U.S. attorney’s office in Dallas, which had been investigating the case for most of the past decade.But those indictments were scuttled last year at the direction of top-level political appointees within the Department of Justice (DOJ) — and possibly even the White House.According to my source, the chief reason outlined in the DOJ memo declining to prosecute CAIR co-founder Omar Ahmad was the issue of potential jury nullification. The first Holy Land Foundation trial in 2007 ended in a hung jury. When the case was retried in 2008, all five defendants, former executives of the Holy Land Foundation, were convicted on all 108 counts.But, according to our DOJ source, possible jury nullification was hardly the primary issue in the DOJ’s scuttling of the terror finance prosecutions. “This was a political decision from the get-go,” the source said.It was always the plan to initially go after the [Holy Land Foundation] leaders first and then go after the rest of the accomplices in a second round of prosecutions. From a purely legal point of view, the case was solid. Jim Jacks [the U.S. attorney in Dallas who prosecuted the Holy Land Foundation executives] and his team were ready to go. There’s a mountain of evidence against all of these groups that was never introduced during the Holy Land trial and it is damning. We’ve got them on wiretaps. That’s exactly why many of these leaders and groups were named unindicted co-conspirators in the first round of prosecutions.But from a political perspective there was absolutely no way that they could move forward. That’s why this decision came from the top down. These individuals who were going to be prosecuted are still the administration’s interfaith allies. Not only would these Muslim groups and their friends in the media be screaming “Islamophobia” at the top of their lungs and that this is a war against Islam, but the administration would look like absolute fools. It’s kind of hard to prosecute someone on material support for terrorism when you have pictures of them getting handed awards from DOJ and FBI leaders for their supposed counter-terror efforts. How would Holder explain that when we’re carting off these prominent Islamic leaders in handcuffs for their role in a terror finance conspiracy we’ve been investigating for years? This is how bad the problem is. Why are we continuing to have anything to do with these groups knowing what we know?“By closing down these prosecutions,” the source added, “the evidence we’ve collected over the past decade that implicates most of the major Islamic organizations will never see the light of day.”As I reported here at Pajamas Media, FBI Director Robert Mueller reiterated these reasons for cutting ties with CAIR before a recent House Judiciary Committee meeting — just two days before The Daily Caller reported that White House officials had publicly praised CAIR.Adding to the hypocrisy, after the Obama administration scuttled the next round of prosecutions in the Hamas terror financing investigation last March, Attorney General Eric Holder gave the prosecutors and FBI investigators in the Holy Land Foundation case the AG’s Award for Distinguished Service last October for their work in the case.To say things are different under Obama and Holder would be an understatement. Many of the people I work with at Justice now see CAIR not just as political allies, but ideological allies. They believe they are fighting the same revolution. It’s scary. And Congress and the American people need to know this is going on.It remains to be seen how Congress, the American people, and the establishment media — who always seem eager to rise to the defense of CAIR and the other terror-tied Islamic groups — will proceed.Hmmmmm......"We don't want to take over your country"?Read the full story here.

• HT:HotAir.More Ryan on Obama: “He’s basically a pyromaniac in a field of straw men”.From the Mark Levin show. If you enjoyed this afternoon’s appetizer, wait until you dig into the main course. It’s 15 minutes long but every second is enjoyable, I promise. One thing neither Ryan nor I can figure out: Why on earth would The One invite him to attend a speech that was designed to demagogue Ryan for electoral purposes? Was that some sort of “if I’m going to kneecap this guy, I ought to at least look him in the eye” concession on Obama’s part? Or did he just think it’d be funny to see the look on Ryan’s face while he was accusing him of rifling through the pockets of handicapped children? The ways of The One are mysterious to mere mortals, my friends.As further reading, dive into this short but effective Mark Knoller piece at CBS gently reminding Obama that our national debt is projected to reach $26 trillion by 2021, which makes $4 trillion in cuts over the next 12 years seem … not so serious. Oh well: Next president’s problem, I guess.Hmmmm.....Unless Emperor Obama II is still in 'control'?Read the full story here.

• HT:JudicialWatch.Pentagon: Mexican Drug Cartels Threaten Entire U.S.Should Americans believe Janet Napolitano’s rosy picture of a U.S.-Mexico border that’s “as secure as it has ever been” or a Pentagon assessment that it’s actually a gateway for Mexican criminal organizations that have infiltrated the entire country and joined forces with terrorist groups?For months the nation’s Homeland Security Secretary has repeatedly insisted that everything is hunky dory on the southwest border, even as violence escalates and overwhelmed federal agents are increasingly attacked by heavily armed drug smugglers. Just last month Napolitano declared that violence along the Mexican border is merely a mistaken “perception” because the area is safe and “open for business.” Furthermore, Madame Secretary assured that “some of America’s safest communities are in the Southwest border region….”A top Pentagon official contradicts that fairytale assessment, pointing out that Mexican criminal organizations extend well beyond the southwest border to cities across the country, including big ones like Atlanta, Chicago and Detroit. Addressing a U.S. Senate hearing this week, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Counternarcotics and Global Threats William Wechsler warned lawmakers that all their constituencies are confronted by the threat of Mexican drug cartels.Even more alarming is that, once in the United States, Wechsler says the Mexican criminal groups are becoming more dangerous by forming networks with each other and insurgent or terrorist groups. In some regions the “threat networking” not only engages in drug trafficking but kidnapping, armed robbery, extortion and other serious crimes.The threat is so great that the assistant Defense Secretary offered federal legislators military assistance in the name of protecting national security. “Many of the global and regional terrorists who threaten interests of the United States finance their activities with proceeds from narcotics trafficking,” Wechsler reminded, adding that “extremist and international criminal networks frequently exploit local geographical, political or social conditions to establish safe havens from which they can operate with impunity.” Hmmmm......To protect the borders and the Constitution?Read the full story here.

• African Refugees Stuck in Limbo on the French-Italian Border.The coastal Italian town of Ventimiglia has long attracted vacationers to its gorgeous beaches and charming streets. But now that France has tightened its controls, the border town is quickly swelling with hundreds of North African refugees trying to make their way into France.The Italian government had promised to give the refugees temporary residence permits that they could use to legally travel to other EU member states. But now France, Germany and other countries have said they will not recognize the papers. Here, in the border town of Ventimiglia, the pan-European spirit behind the EU has reached its limits.Rome is now using the migrants as a tool to put pressure on neighboring states, and Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni has even called European Union solidarity into question. Other EU governments are intensifying not only the war of words but also their border controls. There is suddenly little trace of a united Europe. The sense of disappointment is palpable among the migrants stuck in Ventimiglia. The deputy head of the Italian border police in the town crosses his arms and says that the matter should be solved by "the governments rather than the Italian or French police." Stefano Zerbone, who oversees a temporary refugee center set up here by the Red Cross, says the European Union "is always there when it comes to the euro, to business. But this is a European problem, not just an Italian one."Some of the Tunisians here say that "Europe is beautiful." But they're outnumbered by the many others who say it was a "mistake".Many more immigrants are likely to come, particularly from North Africa. New boats full of immigrants arrive in Lampedusa almost every day. On Wednesday, two would-be immigrants drowned after their ship ran aground off the island of Pantelleria. Just last week, an entire boat full of refugees capsized. Most of the Tunisians say that they know what to expect. They know that the road to France will be dangerous and exhausting. Since the Italian residency permits give them some degree of hope, they are waiting things out in Ventimiglia.There are now already 300 of them waiting here for the controversial papers that often take two weeks to process, and every day brings more. Indeed, the Red Cross fears that the number of migrants in Ventimiglia could significantly increase. "We are very worried," says Tommaso Della Longa, a spokesman for the organization.Hmmmmm.......Read the full story here.

• HT:TheAmericanDream.35 Statistics That Show The Average American Family Has Been Broke Down, Tore Down, Beat Down, Busted And Disgusted By This Economy.The economic statistics that you are about to read are incredibly shocking, but they are also very, very real. Tonight there are going to be millions of men and women all across America that cannot sleep because they are consumed with anxiety about their financial problems. Even as you read this, there are a lot of parents out there that are trying to figure out how to explain to their children why their homes are being taken away. There are also hordes of very hard working Americans that are incredibly frustrated because they have sent out thousands of resumes and yet they can't seem to get a job interview. Have you ever been at a point where you couldn't pay the mortgage or put food on the table for your family? It can be an absolutely soul-crushing experience. In fact, there are some cities in the U.S. that have been so utterly devastated by this economy that it seems as though virtually everyone has had the hope sucked right out of them. The mainstream media is trying to convince all of us that we are in an economic recovery, but that is a lie. The truth is that we are in the middle of a long-term economic decline and the greatest economy in the history of the world is dying right in front of our eyes.The average American family is under more economic stress right now than at any other time since the Great Depression. Just check out the following statistics.....Read the full story here.

• “We’re Being Screwed By Democrats”: Union Bosses Rip Into Obama And Harry Reid During Closed Door Meeting.Top labor leaders excoriated President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in a closed session of the AFL-CIO’s executive board meeting in Washington Wednesday, three labor sources said.Furious union presidents complained about budget cuts, a new trade agreement and what some view as their abandonment, even by their typically reliable allies among Senate Democrats.“Now, not only are we getting screwed by the Republicans but the Democrats are doing it too,” said one union official, characterizing the mood at a summit of labor leaders who are worried that Democrats seem unlikely to go to the mat for them as an election year approaches.Presidents of several unions and an AFL-CIO spokesman declined to repeat their private criticism to a reporter Tuesday, a sign that labor feels it must still try to maintain a relationship with the Democratic Party, even if it’s deeply troubled . With Republicans increasingly shifting from private antagonism toward open war with organized labor, unreliable Democratic allies are the only allies the movement has, and it remains unclear whether disappointments will dampen enthusiasm among union acvists and voters in the 2012 elections.A case in point: The AFL released yesterday a deliberately measured statementon the budget.“President Obama does not yet have the balance right between spending cuts and new revenue,” said President Richard Trumka calling for “significant new revenues.” Last week, the federation released a stronger, “deeply disappointed”statement on the free trade pact with Colombia.But even the semblance of a polite tone was missing at Wednesday’s board’s meeting, which a labor official described as “raw.”Hmmmm.......The story of the dogs fighting over a bone comes to mind?Rea the full story here.

• Hamas: Kidnapped Italian activist found dead in Gaza. Body of Vittorio Arigoni found in abandoned house, group had threatened to execute man.GAZA - Security officials found the body of an Italian man who had been abducted in the Gaza Strip in an abandoned house overnight Thursday, a Hamas security official said.Two men were arrested and others were being sought.In a You Tube clip the group posted online earlier Thursday, a Jihadist Salafi group in Gaza aligned with al Qaida had threatened to execute Italian rights activist Vittorio Arigoni by 17:00 local time (1400 GMT) unless their leader Hesham al-Sa'eedni, whom it detained last month, was freed.Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the kidnapping and called for Arigoni's "immediate release without conditions," in a statement overnight Thursday."The move does not serve the justification of the Palestinian nation, but harms it," Abbas added."If our demands are not met within 30 hours the captive will be executed when the period is over," a text on the video clip said.Hmmmm.....The Crocodile decided it wanted a 'Change' of diet?Read the full story here.

• HT:AmnonAndJonathan.Vittorio Arrigoni - Dead !Famed Activist Vittorio Arrigoni Kidnapped in Gaza - Feared Dead."Who benefits? This is the question we must ask first when something like Vik Arrigoni being kidnapped happens. The answer is, Israel; nobody benefits more than Israel" - Ken O'Keefe.(SALEM / GAZA) - UPDATE: Media sources are reporting that Vittorio Arrigoni was found dead and that the Salafist faction was responsible. His body was reportedly located by Hamas police officers. They said he had been kidnapped, beaten and killed. The video at the bottom of this story shows 'Vik' as he was known to his friends, in captivity. Possibly the strongest voice in the years-long struggle to free Palestine, 36-year old Vittorio Arrigoni, a journalist and activist with the International Solidarity Movement, was kidnapped in Gaza.From what we understand, a Salafi Group in Gaza claims responsibility for the kidnapping. Later in the day, a youtube video surfaced showing Vittotio blind folded and beaten up. Salafi Jehadis say they are asking Hamas government in Gaza to release Abu Al Waleed Al Maqdisi in 30 hours starting from 11:00 a.m. today or else they would kill him. One person who knows the steadfast dedication of Vittorio 'Vik' Arrigoni is our writer Ken O'Keefe, also in Gaza, who stated the bottom line on this sad day."Who benefits? This is the question we must ask first when something like Vik Arrigoni being kidnapped happens. The answer is, Israel; nobody benefits more than Israel.""So whether they are false-Muslims or agents of Israel, those that have Vik are serving Israel."All journalists in Gaza, Vittorios friends here and his friends everywhere are asking Hamas to immediately intervene and release Vittiorio who worked hard to help Gaza for a long time. Arrigoni recently penned two stories for Salem-News.com about Gaza. He has shown the world who he is, now the world needs to show Vik that they are with him. According to PalToday Magazine, Italian Foreign Affairs Office declared the loss of communication with one of their citizens in Gaza without mentioning names of confirming that its Vittorio, but its obvious in the Youtube Video shared earlier that its him.Ansar Al Sunah "Salafi" Group in Gaza, declared their responsibility of Vittorio's abduction and said they will release a press release soon. Around 4:30 p.m. west coast time, it was tweeted that Vittorio was reportedly in the al-Dughmoush family block in Gaza, and the Hamas police were surrounding the area. Several members of the al-Dughmoush family are said to be associated with Salafist. This is a group that reportedly looks down on Hamas for not being sufficiently religious and they are known for a rejection of western influence.Hmmmm.....Read the full story here.

• Related - HT:IsraelMatzav.Jihadi group to execute useful idiot in Gaza.An al-Qaeda-linked 'Palestinian' group in Gaza has kidnapped an Italian 'human rights' worker and is threatening to execute him at 5:00 pm on Friday unless Hamas releases the group's leader. [Vittorio] Arrigoni, an Italian pacifist and blogger, has lived in the Gaza Strip for some time. He was shown blindfolded with blood around his right eye and a hand can be seen pulling his head up by his hair to face the camera.A spokesman for the Hamas interior ministry in Gaza City said it was investigating the abduction.It was unclear when Arrigoni was kidnapped or where he was being held, but an Italian diplomat who serves in the region confirmed to Reuters he had been abducted.The Arabic text that accompanied the footage of Arrigoni also said "the Italian hostage entered our land only to spread corruption" and it described Italy as "the infidel state".Israel Radio reports that Arrigoni - who is pro-'Palestinian' - entered Gaza with the first blockade-running flotilla and has lived in Gaza ever since. Useful idiot.Hmmmm.......The 'people' who demand to be a'state' what has happened to 'We do not negociate with terrorists'?Read the full story here.Update  from Israel Matzav after the killing : More than a useful idiot. Here

• Fear and Loathing in the Revolutionary Guards.Will Muslim unrest shake the Iranian regime at its core?In an act of open insubordination, during the March 10th demonstrations in Tehran, seven members of the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) security forces refused to shoot at protesters on the streets. Arrested and jailed in Tehran’s infamous Evin prison for interrogation, they are still being interrogated as the Iranian regime’s authorities debate how to deal with them.During the interrogations the regime’s intelligence sources have repeatedly warned the seven — identities still unknown — that they must reveal the names of the “leaders” of the organization(s) they are taking orders from, as well as disclose the names of any other member of the IRGC and Basij forces working undercover.To that end, the commanders of the Basij have joined the interrogators and are absolutely determined to make the connection between the insubordinate guards and the authors of a recent letter written to Mohammad-Ali Jafari, the chief commander of the Revolutionary Guards. The open letter, published at various sites, was penned by a number of top-ranking but anonymous members of the IRGC. In it, they announce their defiance of their orders and their refusal to treat protesters with violence.The accused reject all knowledge of such a letter.The commanders of the IRGC are said to be debating the proper form of disciplinary action. Where a few have suggested that firing them would be just punishment, the majority are reluctant to consider letting it go at that, certain that any and all those who refuse to follow orders must be severely punished.But execution does not seem to be an effective deterrent. Back in August 2010, a number of the IRGC members who were arrested and detained for insubordination were drugged and then buried alive. But, of course, the news didn’t stay under wraps for very long. Soon enough, it was widely reported by blogs and human rights organizations.It is said that in a private meeting with Khamenei, Jafari expressed his fear of a domino effect within the region given the influence of recent events throughout the Middle East and North Africa upon his ranks. Jafari stressed that news of the Libyan pilots who fled Libya in a fighter jet for Malta and the defections of other Libyan military personnel could reverberate throughout the Iranian military and trigger similar actions.Hmmmmm......It seems not everyone is 'awaiting' the 12Th Imam after all?Read the full story here.

• Afghans Shocked to Learn They Burned More Korans Protesting The Florida Koran Burning Than Terry Jones Did.(Christian Science Monitor) — As the dust settles in Afghanistan after sustained protest over a Florida pastor’s Quran burning, many residents in Kandahar are facing an unpleasant truth: More Qurans were burned in the course of their protests than by Terry Jones.The demonstrations, which started peacefully, quickly turned violent, killing at least nine people and injuring scores in Kandahar City alone. And as protesters vandalized a girls’ school and set fire to shops, Qurans also inadvertently went up in flames.“If they burn a shop, there is a Quran in every shop, so this is a big problem,” says Azizullah Aziz, a perfume and soap salesman in Kandahar City. “People don’t know how to protest.”On Wednesday, the province’s top spiritual leaders moved to address the irony – and promote restraint at a time when passions are running high over the US war effort. They called a shura, or meeting, and told the crowd of several hundred people that gathered in a tent at Kandahar University how to protest in an Islamic manner.Islam does not discourage protests, said the mullahs. But, they said, when something happens that causes concern, citizens must seek the advice of their religious leaders before taking action. They added that any protest should also have clear goals.“You have to respect what the mullahs say. If they say protest, you have to protest. If they say don’t protest, you can’t protest. They know the Islamic law for when to protest,” said Haji Rahmudeen, head of the Kandahar Business Association, in his address to the crowd.The mullahs spoke with Afghan government officials before the meeting, but independently organized the event.In addition to imploring citizens to maintain order during protests, the mullahs called on the government to better prepare the police to deal with protesters, ensure that government and international forces respect Islamic and Afghan culture, and stop international forces from conducting night raids, among other demands.There was much speculation that Wednesday’s event could end in yet another protest. Indeed, all the ingredients were there to stoke the ever-present well of anger over the ongoing foreign presence. During Mr. Omar’s speech, he reminded the crowd that America was still the enemy and its soldiers are “killing our 2-year-old children in our homes.”Hmmmm.....Read the full story here.

• Mohammedan fanatics burned sacred Hindu scripture “Srimad Bhagabad Gita” after destroying 555 years old Hindu temple complex in Islamic Republic of Bangladesh.Srimad Bhagavad Gita burned, Srivas Angan destructed and partially grabbed by Islamists in Bangladesh.In the series attack upon the Hindu Temples in Bangladesh in recent months, aiming to frighten the minority Hindus there and to grab the Hindu temple properties within a so called secular regime of Awami League Govt. headed by Sheikh Hasina, latest feed back came to us about a total resentment of the retaliating Hindus in the nefarious design of burning of “Srimad Bhagabad Gita” in the temple complex of Sribas Angan in the vicinity of Beyani Bazar of Sylhet district. Before this culpable act the Islamist perpetrators destroyed the ancestral deities of this “Sree Sree Lakshmi Narayan”, “Lord Shiva” and “Radha Madhav Jiu” of Achray Sribas Swami, a great Sanskrit scholar ever and the champion companion of Sree Sree Chaitanya Mahaprabhu(1486–1534), a great spiritual leader in India for his Bhakti Movement.

On 02.04.11, morning at about 10.00 am in broad day light, local influential perpetrators and land grabbers backed by ruling parties burned at least ten copies of Sreemad Bhagbad Gita with many religious books in front of local people after rampaging the whole pilgrimage complex to ensure a Islamic capture over a Hindu rights upon a temple property(Devottar sampatti). The fanatic Mohammedans successfully tried to destroy the relics of famous library building of Srivas Swami where a good collection of Hindu classic literatures and scriptures were the main attraction for the erudite students of the Master Srivas, across eastern India. It is believed that Srivas Swami started here an indigenous block print method (printing press) to copy old Sanskrit Texts. For a very unfortunate fate of the Hindus in Bangladesh all these historical and religious monuments have almost been perished into the Islamic aggression and the Government negligence.Hmmmmm.......If there are no Jews or Christiand then go for the Hindus?Read the full story here.

• Pakistan would back Taliban office in Turkey, official says.Pakistan would back Taliban office in Turkey, official says.Pakistan would back a plan to allow the Taliban to open a political office in Turkey to help with talks to end the war in Afghanistan, a Pakistani official said on Thursday during a visit by Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari to Ankara. Turkey has hosted talks aimed at building trust between Pakistan and Afghanistan and has said it is open to allowing the establishment of a diplomatic presence for the Taliban on its soil, but that there is no formal request yet. Analysts say that any solution to the Afghan conflict would likely require the support of Pakistan.“As Pakistan we have no reservations for such an office to be opened,” the official said, on condition of anonymity. “We are not against it. As long as there’s ownership from the Afghan people and the Afghan government we will not oppose it,” the official told Reuters.The proposal first surfaced during a trilateral summit in December between Turkey, Afghanistan and Pakistan in İstanbul, in which Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Kabul would welcome any offer by Turkey to facilitate talks with the Taliban.Zardari, who is in Turkey for a state visit, declined to comment during a news conference on Wednesday with his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gül when asked if there had been any progress on letting the Taliban open such an office in Turkey.Gül, who was asked the same question, also declined to comment but said, “Our contribution to Afghanistan will always be within the context of cooperation with Afghan authorities.”A Turkish Foreign Ministry official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters on Thursday: “There is no application [for opening a Taliban office] yet and no decision has been taken yet. We will evaluate it when there is such a demand.”Hmmmm.......Get Turkey out of NATO!Read the full story here.

• HT:Memri.Syrian Human Rights Activist in 'Al-Sharq Al-Awsat' Interview: 'Whenever We Ask For Freedom and Democracy – They Tell Us That Our Confrontation With Israel is More Important Than Narrow Domestic Issues'.In an interview published April 4, 2011 in the London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, which was headlined "Al-Assad Should Step Down and Return To Dentistry," Syrian human rights activist Muntaha Al-Atrash states: "Whenever we ask for freedom and democracy they tell us that our confrontation with Israel is more important than narrow domestic issues. They excuse themselves with this confrontation with Israel, and now they are saying that the Syrian regime is nationalist and does not bow to the West.Source.

• HT:Memri.Saudi Religious Police Warn Romanian Soccer Player Not To Kiss Crucifix.The Saudi religious police have warned Romanian soccer player Mirel Rădoi, of the Saudi Al-Hilal team, not to kiss his crucifix during games, saying that it violates shari'a. The Al-Hilal soccer club chairman said in response that the religious police's interference in sports is dangerous, and that there should be tolerance for the religions of the foreign players.Source.

• You got to be kidding!Iranian Ambassador Calls For Probe Into Reports Of Saudi Torture Of Bahraini Prisoners.Iranian Ambassador to Syrian Ahmad Mousavi has called for the establishment of a fact-finding committee to investigate reports of torture of prisoners and killing of protestors in Bahrain by Saudi troops. Mousavi told the Iranian news agency Mehr that such a move could shed light on the activity of human rights organizations. Commenting on efforts to trigger sectarian conflict in the region and to accuse Iran in the midst of incidents taking place in the region, Mousavi said that it appears that a plot is being hatched in order to drive a wedge between tribes in "Islamic-Arab" countries, and to serve the interests of the Zionist regime. He went on to say that that popular protests that have swept the countries of the region must be resolved by the countries themselves. He added that Iran is opposed to foreign interference in the internal affairs of Libya and Bahrain.Hmmmm.....Because It's a well know fact that Iran treats his prisoners with the utmost 'courtesy'.Read the full story here.