Video - Robert Spencer: “Is Islamic Terrorism Islamic?”

Egypt - 37 killed in attack on vehicles carrying Coptic children visiting Minya Monastery of Anba.

💥 These are the 3 children who survived the coward terror attack in Menyah, #Egypt" pic.twitter.com/xzZrk2dcMO

— Hasan Sari (@HasanSari7) May 26, 2017

Egypt - 26 killed in attack on vehicles carrying Coptic children visiting Minya Monastery of Anba. (alAhram)

The death toll of an attack by unknown assailants on three vehicles carrying Coptic Christians on the way to Saint Samuel Monastery in the east of El-Minya governorate on Friday has reached 26, with 25 injured, a spokesman for Egypt's health ministry announced.

Egypt’s interior ministry released details on the attack, saying in an official statement that unknown assailants driving three 4x4 wheelers attacked by "randomly shooting" the bus carrying the Copts.

The ministry added that an official count of the final death and injuries toll was underway.

A cordon was imposed around the site of the attack, with security forces intensifying efforts to catch the culprits, according to the statement.

President Abdel-Fatah El-Sisi called for an emergency security meeting to follow up on the attacks.

In a statement from the presidency, El-Sisi also instructed authorities to take all necessary measures to attend to the injured and arrest the assailants.

Egypt's Prosecutor-General Nabil Sadek has ordered an extensive investigation to arrest the attackers, Al-Ahram Arabic website reported.

The injured have been transferred to nearby hospitals for first aid and will later be moved to Nasser hospital in Cairo, according to health minister instructions, state news agency MENA reported.

The prime minister and the ministers of health and social are heading to the attack scene in El-Minya.

Al-Azhar Grand Imam Ahmed Al-Tayeb condemned the attack, while on a visit to Berlin, saying that "such attacks can never satisfy a Muslim or a Christian."

The ages of the victims ranged from children to over 60, the bishop of El-Minya told Egyptian private-owned TV Channel DMC.

The Bishop added that the vehicles attacked included a minibus and two cars.

The Minya attack is the latest in a series of deadly attacks on Egypt’s Christians, following the Palm Sunday Suicide Bombings.

The Copts were heading to Upper Egypt’s Minya Monastery of Anba Samuel the Confessor, located at western Adwa City. More here (Graphic Pictures).

💥 Aftermath of Menyah terror attack which killed, injured dozens mostly children. pic.twitter.com/tMUNJLP2ur #Egypt"

— Hasan Sari (@HasanSari7) May 26, 2017

Church official, confirms 35 Coptic Christians killed in attack on bus in #Minya, Egypt, they were ambushed by 2 cars with 8 gunman

— NieuwsBlog (@nieuwsblog) May 26, 2017

Most of the Coptic victims of the Minya attack are children. The bus trip to the monastery of st. Samuel was for kids.

— COPTIC NATIONALISM (@DioscorusBoles) May 26, 2017

So far, 35 children & elderly Copts have died from the Muslim attack in Minya, Egypt,.

— COPTIC NATIONALISM (@DioscorusBoles) May 26, 2017

#Egypt #Minya - Scene of the aftermath of the attack. A number of children have been killed in the attack. pic.twitter.com/Z5F4CZYdKn

— Terror Events (@TerrorEvents) May 26, 2017

Palestinian Writer Warns: 'There Is An ISIS-Like Culture Among Us That Excludes Christians And Is Intolerant Towards Them'.

Palestinian Writer Warns: 'There Is An ISIS-Like Culture Among Us That Excludes Christians And Is Intolerant Towards Them'. (Memri).

In an article he published April 17, 2017 in the Palestinian paper Al-Hadath, Nihad Abu Ghosh, a member of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) and the director of the PLO's diaspora affairs department, described the dire situation of the Christians living in the Palestinian Authority (PA) territories and the drastic decline in their numbers over the years. 

He wrote that this situation results not only from the occupation but also from an ISIS-like culture that has infiltrated Palestinian society. 

As an example, he noted that preachers at Al-Aqsa call to impose a poll-tax on the Christians and forbid Muslims to greet them on their holidays.

He warned that this treatment of the Christians, which drives them to emigrate, could tarnish the pluralistic image of Palestinian society, and called to place this issue on the public agenda and act to find ways to protect the Christians.

The following are excerpts from his article:[1]

"From time to time we hear warnings about the dangers facing the Christian presence in the [Middle] East region. These warnings are justified, considering what has happened to Christians in Iraq and Syria and the [recent] series of bombings of Egyptian churches.[2] Prior to and during these incidents, there was a discourse of division, of accusing the other of heresy, and of continuing to treat Christians as ahl al-dhimma[3] and as second-rate citizens. 

All the Arab countries, without exception, have failed to establish a civic state with full equality of rights and duties among all citizens regardless of religion, origin, ethnicity or gender.

"It should be noted that in Turkey, our close neighbor, the number of Christians fell from 30% to less than 1% in the second decade of the 20^th century alone. This was due to the massacre of the Armenians, the Syrians and the Assyrians, the ethnic cleansing and population transfer campaigns that also included the Greeks…

"And what of Palestine, the cradle of Jesus? Is a danger hovering over the Christian presence in our country [as well]? In answering this question, there is usually a tendency to fall into the trap of fine and emotional words about national unity, and to mention a few pioneers of the [Palestinian] national movement, [as well as] intellectuals, artists and politicians, who are Christians, or to blame the occupation for the steady decline in the number of Christians among the Palestinians who remain in their homeland. But this is not enough to explain or justify [the fact that] the Christian [population] of Palestine declined from 20% before the nakba to less than 2% in the lands that were conquered in 1967, and their proportion in all the territory conquered since 1948 is [currently] 10% of the Arab Palestinians and about 2% of the entire population of the State of Israel.

"Undoubtedly, the occupation bears most of the blame for the tragic predicament of all Palestinians, Christians and Muslims alike, [a predicament] that leads entire sectors to consider emigration. It is also possible that cultural and demographic factors make the option of emigrating and integrating in the host societies easier for Christians than for Muslims, as evident from the fact that the Palestinian communities in South America, and particularly in Chile, are overwhelmingly Christian.

"The warnings and dangers, then, are serious and genuine. [But] they are not connected solely to ISIS and its crimes, but to an ISIS-like culture and the existence of an environment that excludes the Palestinian Christians and is unsympathetic towards them. 

To this very day we hear of [a preacher] at Al-Aqsa Mosque who gives lessons and advocates imposing a poll tax (jizya) on Christians, while ignoring the occupiers and the settlers. We also hear of someone issuing a fatwa that bans congratulating Christians on their holidays, or who claims that too many positions are reserved for them in the municipalities and the Legislative Council.

"This bleeding wound [represented by the plight of] the Christians does not only pose a danger to the issue of rights and duties and to the tolerant culture we aspire [to create]; it can also damage the Palestinian national identity. This identity, since its inception, is pluralistic and encompasses all components of Palestinian society, all its hues and all its communities – and is the very opposite of the monolithic exclusionary and racist identity embodied by the Zionist program. Our Palestinian identity resembles the brightly embroidered Palestinian national dress, or our four-colored flag, rather than the ISIS flag or the chador [a black robe that covers a woman's body from head to toe] worn by the Taliban. Read the full story here.

Video - Where Are the Moderate Muslims?

Transcript:

After every new Jihadist attack against the West, politicians reassure us that the atrocity does not represent the true nature of mainstream Islam. Of the 1.6 billion Muslims in the world, they constantly reassure us, the overwhelming majority are as law abiding as any members of any other monotheistic faith. Only a tiny fraction engage in terror. And Islam is a religion of peace. Furthermore, we are told, the great majority of Muslims hold moderate views.

But what does that mean? How moderate are moderate Muslims? Given the threat of radical Islam, it would seem to be a fair question. Let me start to answer it by telling you something of my own story.

I was raised in a middle class Muslim home in Cairo, Egypt. Growing up, I was told, among many other things, the following:

That every day that passes on the Islamic nation without a caliphate is a sin. That the failures and miseries of the Muslim world started the moment we Muslims gave up conquests and wars against the infidels. That our prosperity depended on conquering new lands and converting new believers. That anyone who leaves the faith must die. And I also remember how my teachers and my mosque imams reacted to the news of 9/11 when it happened: joy.

My experience was typical, and there is data to prove it:

According to the Pew Research Center, 88% of Muslims in Egypt, 62% in Pakistan, 86% in Jordan and 51% in Nigeria believe that any Muslim who choses to leave Islam should be put to death. Similar, if not identical, numbers are in favor of stoning people who commit adultery, severely punishing those who criticize Muhammad or Islam, and chopping off hands for theft.

All of these practices are a part of the penal code of Islamic law, which is known as Sharia. And 84% of Muslims in South Asia, 77% in Southeast Asia, 74% in the Middle East and North Africa and 64% in Sub-Saharan Africa support Sharia as the law of the land. Less drastic, yet significant, percentages are to be found even among Muslim communities in the West.

So, too, most of the world's Muslims believe that any acts of violence against Israel, including suicide bombers in buses and restaurants, are justified. Now, does any of this sound moderate to you? Yet if anyone raises these inconvenient truths here in the West, he is sure to be called an Islamophobe, a hater of Islam. Again, my own story is instructive.

In February of 2015, I was yelled at, cursed at, and successfully prevented from speaking at Swarthmore College by students and others who did not agree to what I was saying. 

Some of them were Muslim women who fit the image of the unveiled, perfect English-speaking, moderate Muslim young woman. Other seeming “moderates” tried and failed to do the same during my speech at Temple University the next day. Some of them, sadly, were students of journalism.

For the complete script, visit https://www.prageru.com/courses/polit...

Turkey - 'Islamist' Pres Erdogan is preparing to pray in the Hagia Sophia on Good Friday.

Turkey - 'Islamist' Pres Erdogan is preparing to pray in the Hagia Sophia on Good Friday. (AN).

The Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan is preparing to go to pray next Friday April 14 in Saint Sophia in Constantinople, the church declared a museum by the father of Republican Turkey Kemal Ataturk in 1934.

Erdogan will not be alone: ​​He will be accompanied by representatives of his party AKP (Muslim extraction) and religious leaders in Istanbul.

According to the Christian calendar next Friday is Good Friday and the event will take place just two days before the April 16 referendum strongly backed by Erdogan in Turkey to establish an absolutist Presidency of Neottoman and Islamic extraction.

Thus Erdogan, nicknamed the "new sultan" for his political extremism, will seek to channel Muslim faithful in favor of a Yes ( "Evet") vote. According to the Muslim calendar the month to April (Nisan) is the month of the birth of Mohammed.

The news is carried in pro-government newspapers, presenting the latest book by Turk historian Mustafa Armagan - titled "The Saint Sophia intrigue" (Aya Sofia Entrikalari).

In doing so they seek to create and prepare the climate for the prayer, as the will of the Turkish president. The book argues that the decree signed by Kemal Ataturk in 1934 which turned the Hagia Sophia from mosque into a museum, is not authentic.

According to Armagan, the Kemal Ataturk signature on the decree is false. Therefore the act has no legal value and therefore Santa Sofia can in fact be used as a mosque, as was the case after the Turkish conquest of Constantinople in 1453.

Hagia Sophia it was built in 537 by Emperor Justinian and dedicated to God's Wisdom. To justify his remarks, the Turkish historian reports that the Kemal Aturk  signature on the 1934 Decree is unlike any other signature penned by the Father of Republic in prori acts.

Various sources are cited in the book which claims, according to the author, that the transformation of Hagia Sophia into a museum, was the result of pressure from various Western international forces, headed by the then US Ambassador Joseph Grew.

Mustafa Armagan also notes the news that Kemal Ataturk had visited St. Sophia in 1935, three months after its proclamation as a museum, was not reported in any Turkish newspaper of the period, but only by the Greek language journal, Apogevmatini, published on February 7, 1935, in Istanbul. The author recalls, in that same period, the strong reaction of the Egyptian newspaper "El Risale ", strongly opposed to the transformation of Hagia Sophia into a museum.


In this way the pre-referendum climate is becoming increasingly tense and polarized. On the other hand, the climate has been fostered and created by Erdogan himself with his recent statements against the Kemalist period, when he proclaimed: "That period, which began in 1923, is about to end. And that's that". And that is, woe to the vanquished.  Hmmm.......Erdogan is pushing for a new 'Holy war' between Christianity and Islam.

Russian Authorities name Kyrgyz national Akbarjon Djalolov as suspected St Petersburg terrorist.

Investigators release name of suspected #StPetersburg Metro bomber – Akbarzhon Dzhalilov https://t.co/VpDcsAMRZU pic.twitter.com/Kev1Ar451K

— NieuwsBlog (@nieuwsblog) April 4, 2017

Russian Authorities name Kyrgyz national as suspected St Petersburg terrorist.(Newsweek)(HLN).

 According to spokesman Rakat Saoelajmanov the man in question is Kyrgyz Akbarjon Djalolov, born in 1995. He may have acquired Russian citizenship.

At around 2.30 p.m. local time, there was an explosion on a train between two subway stations. The death toll was raised from 11 to 14 on Tuesday morning after three people died in hospital, while 49 others were injured, according to the BBC. Russian authorities have described the explosion as a “terrorist act.”

Kyrgyzstan’s security service has identified the bomber as Akbarzhon Jalilov, 22 and said he was born in Osh, the country’s second-largest city, in 1995, the BBC reported. Jalilov had lived in Russia for six years, The Guardian reported, citing news agencies.

Kyrgyzstan’s National Security Committee maintains contacts with the Russian special services investigating the terrorist attack in the St. Petersburg subway, the committee’s spokesman, Rakhat Sulaimanov, told TASS on Tuesday.

"It has been established that an individual suspected of carrying out a terror attack is a native of our republic," he said. According to Sulaimanov, it is also known that he was granted Russian citizenship some time ago.

According to the press service, the committee confirms that Akbarzhon Jalilov born in 1995 is indeed a native of Kyrgyzstan.

"However, we do not know whether this person is involved in the terror attack or not," the press service noted. It added that the committee had received information concerning Jalilov’s alleged involvement "from the Russian side." More

Update:
“Investigative Committee experts, working alongside FSB and the Interior Ministry rapid response teams, have established that the explosive device could have been set off by a male suspect whose fragmented remains have been found inside the third car,” Svetlana Petrenko, the committee’s spokeswoman, told Interfax.

She stressed that, while his identity is known, details will not be disclosed at this time “given the ongoing investigation.”

The official noted that the authorities are “carrying on with interrogations and inspecting CCTV cameras.”

“A blast assessment study, as well as a genetic examination, will follow,” she said.

The statement comes as the death toll continues to rise. Earlier on Tuesday, Russian Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova said three more blast victims had succumbed to their injuries, increasing the number of fatalities from eleven to fourteen.More.

There are conflicting reports as to whether the attack was a suicide bombing or whether the suspect managed to flee the incident. It is also unclear whether the bomber was acting alone or as part of a wider network. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Russian Investigative Committee said it has established the identity of a suicide bomber who apparently detonated an explosive device in the Saint Petersburg Metro on Monday after examining the attacker’s remains from the blast site. “Investigative Committee experts, working alongside FSB and the Interior Ministry rapid response teams, have established that the explosive device could have been set off by a male suspect whose fragmented remains have been found inside the third car,” Svetlana Petrenko, the committee’s spokeswoman, told Interfax.

St. Petersburg’s authorities have declared three days of mourning. The city is the birthplace of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was in St. Petersburg at the time of the blast. Putin visited the scene of the incident on Monday evening to lay flowers at an impromptu shrine set up for the victims.Read the full story here. More here.

#Russian state TV: #StPeterburgBlast suicide bomber was 22 y.o. Russian citizen and Kyrgyz native Akbarzhon Jalilov https://t.co/hgiohsv54X

— Amie Ferris-Rotman (@Amie_FR) April 3, 2017

Indonesian district bans three churches from worshiping.

Indonesian district bans three churches from worshiping. (Ucanews).

Indonesian authorities in Bogor, West Java have banned three churches from holding religious activities.

The churches were the Methodist Church Indonesia, Huria Batak Protestant Church and Catholics, who were using a house for catechism.

Bogor district chief, Nurhayanti told media that the churches were banned from holding services because the government cannot guarantee their safety.

The move follows what church representatives said were acts of intimidation last week in which a radical Muslim group called Group 11 staged marches demanding the churches and the house be closed.

Reverend Abdi Saragih of the Methodist Church said his church is legal and has been listed at the Religious Affair Ministry.

However, the congregation has been facing intimidation since 2014, he said.

According to Saragih, they have met all building permit requirements but the authorities had yet to issue one.

"We are struggling for our right to worship," he told ucanews.com.

Complaints have been sent to President Joko Widodo and parliament, he added.

Alex A. Makawangkel, chairman of the St. John the Baptist parish council, told a similar story.
However, it is not the church that’s been targeted but a house used for catechism and Sunday school for students unable to learn Catholicism in their schools.

"Local Muslims think it is a church," he said.

Bonar Tigor Naipospos, deputy chairman of rights group Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace, said the government needs to use a special approach with West Java because it has seen a spike in acts of intolerance over the last 10 years involving radical groups and even the local government.

According to the institute, West Java has the highest incidents of religious intolerance, with 41 cases reported last year.

Ayanle Hassan Ali, accused of stabbing at Canadian Forces center.

Ayanle Hassan Ali, accused of stabbing at Canadian Forces center.(CBC).

Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders says he doesn’t want to see ‘Islamophobia nonsense’ in relation to case.

A man accused of stabbing two members of Canada's military at a recruitment centre in Toronto on Monday is facing nine charges in connection with the attack.

Ayanle Hassan Ali, a 27-year-old born in Montreal, appeared in court Tuesday wearing white prison-issued overalls and with his hands cuffed behind his back.

Ali faces:

• Three charges of attempted murder.

• Two charges of aggravated assault.

• Three charges of assault with a weapon.

• One count of carrying a weapon dangerous to the public.

Ali, who was remanded until Friday, will be back in court on March 18.

According to Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders, Ali said, "Allah told me to do this, Allah told me to come here and kill people," during the attack.

Outside court, David Burke, Ali's lawyer, told reporters, "This is a very, very serious incident and no one is going to pretend it's not.

When Saunders was asked if it was a terror attack, he said, "We're certainly looking into it," but cautioned against jumping to any conclusions. 

He noted it is too early to say if the accused was radicalized and urged the public against any anti-Islam sentiment in the wake of the attack.

"I don't want this categorizing a large group of people; that will be very unfair and very inaccurate," he said, adding he doesn't want to see any of this "Islamophobia nonsense." Hmmm........Inspector Clouseau at your service...... They can stab Canadian military in Toronto but don't you dare to mention Islam!

Read the full story here.

Video - Belgium: 300 graves desecrated in Sambreville (Wallonia).

Plus de 300 caveaux du cimetière communal d'Auvelais vandalisés !

Video - Belgium: 300 graves desecrated in Sambreville (Wallonia).HT: Christianophobia. [Google translated]

The desecrations were found in the afternoon of the 1 st of March. As the Sambreville is located in the Walloon Region in the province of Namur.

In the commune of Sambreville, the municipal cemetery of Auvelais was engulfed by desecrators who did not hesitate to use objects or metal handles, vandalizing this way more than 300 graves. At this stage of the investigation, one of the most plausible hypothesis is financial gain. The objects were  all material of bronze, copper or brass. It is objects on the vaults, like lamps or statues, but also door handles. Families are invited to report to the municipal authorities on their tomb damage.  Informed of the facts, Father Francis Lallemand, the Auvelais pastoral sector, immediately responded by sending the following message to the mayor of the entity: "Sad case to the cemetery. Heart goes out to you to manage this despicable violence and any heart with families injured by these heinous acts. "

Maryland Mosque Honors Assassin of Pakistani Governor Who Spoke Against Blasphemy Laws.

Maryland Mosque Honors Assassin of Pakistani Governor Who Spoke Against Blasphemy Laws. (PN)

ICC Note: Over the weekend, a mosque in Pikesville, Maryland hosted an event in honor of a Muslim man, Mumtaz Qadri, who faced the death penalty last week for assassinating a Pakistani governor. After the governor openly spoke out against the country's blasphemy laws and their misuse in the case of Christian prisoner Asia Bibi, Qadri shot the governor more than 25 times. Although the assassination was directed more toward the governor himself than the Christian community, Pakistan’s blasphemy laws are widely misused to discriminate against Christians and other religious minorities.

02/21/2017 United States (Christian News Network) - By Heather Clark

A Maryland mosque held an event on Sunday to honor a Muslim terrorist who shot and killed the former Pakistani governor of Punjab in 2011 over his statements in opposition to the nation’s laws prohibiting blasphemy against Islam.

Gulzar E Madina Mosque in Pikesville hosted an “Urs” observance on Feb. 12, which is an event marking the anniversary of the death of a Muslim entity considered a saint. Mumtaz Qadri was executed last February for murdering the governor.

“Whoever disrespects the holy prophet Muhammad is worthy of death, and even if disrespects indirectly he is still worthy of death. Even if someone asks for forgiveness it is not acceptable,” one of the speakers at the Urs declared, according to the Rabwah Times.

Qadri had served as a bodyguard for Gov. Salman Taseer, but after Tasser expressed objection to Pakistan’s blasphemy laws and how they had been applied to prisoner Asia Bibi, who had been sentenced to death in 2010 over allegations that she blasphemed Muhammad, he sought to kill him.
In January 2011, Qadri shot Taseer over 25 times with an assault rifle while he was entering his vehicle in Islamabad’s Kohsar Market. Qadri then surrendered to police.

“The governor fell down, and the man who fired at him threw down his gun and raised both hands,” witness Ali Imran recalled to Reuters.

Qadri was soon sentenced to death, and after five years in prison, he was hanged for his crime. His funeral was attended by over 100,000 people, and some protested his execution as he was rather hailed as a hero. Full story here.

WESTERN HUMAN RIGHTS ON FREEDOM OF SPEECH VERSUS  ISLAMIC HUMAN RIGHTS 

Muslim Brotherhood Egypt & UK say Washington will not make decision against the group, just 'media remarks'.

Muslim Brotherhood Egypt & UK say Washington will not make decision against the group, just 'media remarks'. (EI).

Ibrahim Mounir, secretary of the Muslim Brotherhood international group, said no official steps or decisions have been taken by the US administration against the group, considering the US resolution to declare the group 'terrorist' only remarks made in media.

Speaking to Al-Masry Al-Youm, Mounir said a decision such as this one would be taken by the State and Defense departments. He indicated Arab demands on the US to take such a decision.

According to Mounir, the group is committed to peaceful ways and will not resort to violence, regardlessof the decision taken against it. Also, it will not engage in reconciliation negotiations with the current regime.

In related news, Mohamed Sudan, a leader with the group based in London, revealed communication between the group and US politicians, asking to clarify the truth about the group since it was established.

In remarks published on the MB official website, Mohamed Sudan said that US officials are saying the US administration will not issue such a decision and considering this as just 'media remarks'.

He added that the disbanded Freedom and Justice Party’s foreign relations committee is considering all options in case Washington taggs the group as terrorist. However, it would declare these steps after such decision is taken. He noted that violence is not included in its options.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

ADF rebels: Kidnapping children and tricking men into establishing caliphate in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

ADF rebels: Kidnapping children and tricking men into establishing caliphate in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. (IBtimes). HT: TracTerrorism.

The Ugandan-led Islamist armed group Allied Democratic Forces, known as ADF-Nalu, may be looking to establish a caliphate in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where it has operated since the late 1990s.

The merger between puritanical Muslim Ugandans from the Sunni Islamic missionary movement Tablighi Jamaat and the National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (Nalu), was masterminded by Ugandan rebel leader Jamil Mukulu in western Uganda after they found themselves marginalised following the fall of the dictator Idi Amin.

Pushed out of Uganda, the religious crusaders settled in the dense forest of DRC's eastern borderlands during former President Mobutu Sese Seko's reign (1965-1997).

Three decades down the line, the mysterious rebel group is reported to be using terror tactics - abductions and killings - to establish a caliphate in the eastern province of North Kivu, where fighters claim to own land.

"They told us that these lands belong to them, that they have documents proving that they had bought [the lands] around Beni during the Mobutu era," Adam Kyala Lungalunga, 59, who was kidnapped in November told IBTimes UK. "They want to claw back the authority of these lands."

Beni-based Nicaise Kibel Bel Oka, editor of the newspaper Les Coulisses recently claimed the ADF were exercising "barbarity in the name of sharia law" - the Islamic law. "Islamic terrorism is already very fierce [in the region]," Bel Oka said, adding that the rebels refer to their base as 'Medina'

Like many Islamist sub-groups operating in East Africa and across the Sahel, Bin Hangi confirmed ADF also recruit children. "In their ranks we know that there are children. When they can't recruit them using deceit, they kidnap them by force. We have documented how pupils are kidnapped on their way to school or in the schools. That's how children are enrolled in these groups."Read the full story here.

Video - Black Lives Matter Toronto co-founder Yusra Khoghali: “Justin Trudeau is a white supremacist terrorist”.

Video - Black Lives Matter Toronto co-founder Yusra Khoghali: “Justin Trudeau is a white supremacist terrorist”. (TorontoSun). HT: CIJNews.

Related: 

Hamas-linked CAIR’s Nihad Awad to Muslims: “Black Lives Matter is our campaign”

Texas Public Safety Threat Overview: "Elevated” Terrorism Threat to U.S. from Mexico".

Texas Public Safety Threat Overview: "Elevated” Terrorism Threat to U.S. from Mexico". HT: Judicial Watch.

A new government audit confirms what Judicial Watch has been reporting for years, that Islamic terrorists are operating in Mexican border towns and infiltrating the United States to carry out attacks. In a report issued this month by the Texas Department of Public Safety, the agency notes that the state faces a full spectrum of threats and “due to the recent actions of lone offenders or small groups affiliated with or inspired by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and other foreign terrorist organizations, we assess that the current terrorism threat to Texas is elevated.”

Safety officials in the Lone Star State also write in the 86-page document that they are “especially concerned about the potential for terrorist infiltration across the U.S.-Mexico border, particularly as foreign terrorist fighters depart Syria and Iraq and enter global migration flows.”

They also express worries about Syrian refugees that have been sent to Texas under President Obama’s settlement program because the government doesn’t have a system to properly vet them. 

Judicial Watch has also reported extensively on that national security crisis. Read the latest stories here and here. “We see a potential that these challenges may leave the state exposed to extremist actors who pose as authentic refugees, and who are determined to later commit violent acts,” the Texas report states.Read the full story here.

Video - Saudi-Canadian women claims every Mosque in Canada teaches Jihad & killing to kids !!

This Saudi-Canadian women says every Mosque in Canada teaches Jihad & killing to kids !! #Parliament pic.twitter.com/jveqkkRtYh

— Office of RG (@Ravan_Guha) January 31, 2017

18 Indonesians including one Family, with Kids, Held Over ISIS Links after being deported from Turkey.

Indonesian Family, Including Kids, Held Over ISIS Links after being deported from Turkey.(NDtv).

Indonesian police have detained a family of five, including three children, after they were deported from Turkey for allegedly seeking to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State (IS) group, an official said Thursday.

The family left Indonesia for Turkey in August, from where they planned to cross to Syria to join IS, police said.

But they were caught by Turkish soldiers this month and deported back to Indonesia, arriving late Tuesday on the resort island of Bali, local police spokesman Hengky Widjaja said.

"We interrogated them for two days," he said. "This morning they were sent for further questioning by the national police (in Jakarta)."

The 39-year-old father received his masters degree in Australia and their youngest child -- now aged three -- was born in Australia, authorities said.

The other two children are aged seven and 12.

Seventeen Indonesians were also arrested at the weekend after being deported from Turkey due to suspicions they were trying to reach Syria to join IS.

The emergence of IS has provided a potent new rallying cry for radicals in Indonesia, which has long struggled with Islamic militancy, and sparked fears of a revival of long-defunct extremist networks.

A gun and suicide attack in Jakarta last year, that left four civilians and four assailants dead, was the first attack claimed by IS in Southeast Asia, and the first major assault in Indonesia for seven years.

Qatari Writer: Religious Extremism's Roots Are In Muslim Society, Not External Elements.

Qatari Writer: Religious Extremism's Roots Are In Muslim Society, Not External Elements. (MEMRI).

On September 7, 2016, Qatari writer and intellectual Dr. 'Abd Al-Hamid Al-Ansari, former dean of Islamic law at Qatar University, wrote in his column in the UAE daily Al-Ittihad that the Arabs must stop thinking that external elements such as the West or economic woes are to blame for Islamic religious extremism. The Arabs, he said, should examine themselves and their school curricula, raise the younger generation to be tolerant and open, and fight political Islam and prevent mosque pulpits from being used to spread extremist ideas.
Following are excerpts from his column:[1]

"Religious extremism is not, as many believe, a new phenomenon or the result of current events. It has accompanied Arab societies throughout Islamic history, but was [at first] limited to individuals, not to [entire] groups and organizations – until the arbitration between 'Ali and Muawiya, [which led] to the Kharijites'[2] breakaway [from Islam].

They were the first armed terrorist organization, and their violent attack was against the best Muslim society [of all] – the righteous caliphs and the righteous caliphate state – [and was launched] under the slogan of 'there is no rule but Allah's.'

This [Kharijite] slogan gave rise to Al-Mawdudi's, and later Sayyid Qutb's, espousal of perception of hakimiyya,[3] which forms the ideological lynchpin of all subsequent extremist organizations.

"Had the Kharijites been satisfied with armed rebellion, had not accused the Companions of the Prophet of apostasy and made [taking] their blood [i.e. lives] and property permissible, we would have said that they were like all separatist rebel groups that gnaw away at the united Muslim corpus.

But the Kharijites were known for their aggressive religious extremism that did only accuse their political rivals of apostasy, but also declared their blood, property, and honor [permissible] – and today this is what we call terrorism.

"I oppose the politicization of religious extremism, or justifying it on the grounds of political oppression, suppression of liberties, and the spread of tyranny. I also [oppose] blaming religious extremism on economic factors such as unemployment and poverty; attributing it to international conflicts such as the problems in Palestine, Kashmir, and Chechnya, or to the American presence in the region and the American occupation in Iraq; or [claiming] that Muslims have been the target of an external plot. 

These and other excuses are spread by various media outlets, a large portion of writers and intellectuals, pan-Arabist preachers, left-wingers and Islamists, and especially political Islam preachers, who justify religious extremism by calling it a response to oppressive international policy and the result of totalitarian Arab regimes and secular [desecration] of religious symbols.T hey even tie religious extremism to the torture inflicted on Muslim Brotherhood [members] in the prisons.

"In my opinion, all these explanations and excuses serve one purpose: politically exploiting terrorism for the benefit of various groups' partisan agendas (pan-Arabist, leftist, and Islamist), by means of winning over public opinion, stirring it up, and inciting it against the regimes.

"Thus, extremism, just like [religious] fanaticism, is the result of internal causes and elements that are rooted in a misguided, unilateral, and closed-minded education that does not foster critical thinking and is not open to humanistic cultures.

[It is the result of] religious discourse aimed strictly at depicting the world as plotting against Muslims, [the result of] media that incites against the other and sows hatred in the hearts and minds of young people, and [the result of] of an unwise policy that discriminates among citizens, and fails to establish an egalitarian 'embracing citizenship' for all elements of society.

"How do we deal with religious extremism?

"If we want to tackle the causes of religious extremism, we must first reexamine early childhood upbringing methods – because as education and psychology research has shown, most extremists are the product of a failed upbringing that is the result of unfettered [population] growth or the breakdown of the family.

Furthermore, we [must] overhaul school curricula, teaching methods, and the teaching environment as a whole – and not only develop and improve curricula and textbooks. One of the most important things in this context is to remove extremists and hate preachers from the educational environment... We must also oversee the pulpits from which religious sermons are delivered, and classify as a crime their use for any purpose besides the legitimate roles they are meant to play, such as exploiting them for a partisan agenda or [in order to spread] extremist ideas.

"The mosque pulpits of all religious schools of thought and trends must unite and not divide, and must stress commonalities and foster the sublime Islamic principles and values... We should also develop the religious discourse so that it is open to the other and to shared human values, and should work to limit the religious establishment's influence and shatter its custodianship of society... along with banning fatwas that accuse others of apostasy, that incite, and that question the beliefs of others.

"Ultimately, extremism is the symptom of a disease, and if we truly want to tackle extremism, we must first dry up its sources and remove its roots that reach deep into the social soil – because the foundation of extremism is an ideology that drives its proponents to think that they possess the ultimate truth and that others [believe] in mistaken things..."


 

King of Morocco Mohammed VI: 'Can Anyone of Sound Mind Believe that the Reward for Jihad Could Be Some Virgins in Paradise?'

King of Morocco Mohammed VI: 'Can Anyone of Sound Mind Believe that the Reward for Jihad Could Be Some Virgins in Paradise?' HT: MEMRI.

"Islam is a religion of peace. Allah said: 'Oh you who believe, enter Islam one and all.' Jihad in Islam is subject to specific conditions, including the condition that it must not be waged unless for the purpose of defense, and may never be waged for the purpose of killing or aggression. It is prohibited to kill people under the pretext of waging Jihad. Another condition of Jihad is that it must be declared by the Emir of the Believers - not by any individual or group. People who call for killing and aggression, who unjustly accuse people of heresy, and who interpret the Quran and the Sunna in a manner befitting their goals are attributing lies to Allah and His Messenger. This is the true heresy.

"They are exploiting some Muslim youth, especially in Europe. They are exploiting their ignorance of the Arabic language and of true Islam, in order to convey their erroneous messages and misleading promises. Can anyone of sound mind believe that the reward for Jihad could be some virgins in Paradise? Is it conceivable that anyone who listens to music will be swallowed by the Earth? And there are similar lies. The terrorists and extremists are using all possible means to persuade the youth to join them, and to strike at societies that bask in the values of liberty, openness, and tolerance.

The war on Christianity - Congo - At least 36 people killed & Decapitated by Islamist terrorist group ADF-NALU.

Congo - At least 36 people killed, hacked to death by Islamist terrorist group ADF-NALU. (WorldWatchMonitor).

A relatively unknown militant group has intensified attacks in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), raising fears of the emergence of a new jihadist organisation in central Africa.

For years now, one of various rebel groups operating there, the Islamist Allied Democratic Forces-National Association for the Liberation of Uganda (ADF-NALU), has been trying to uproot Christians from the north-east area of DRC through attacks, rape, looting, kidnap and murder - on an almost weekly basis.

At least 36 people were killed in the latest attack on Saturday night (13 Aug.) in the village of Rwangoma, near Beni, the major town in the region. 

This was the deadliest attack in the area since November 2014; victims were tied up and hacked to death. The executive director at the Centre of Study for the Promotion of Peace, Democracy and Human Rights (that documents violence in North Kivu), Omar Kavota, told Reuters he had received reports of as many as 50 dead.

ADF-NALU, originally rooted in a rebel movement to overthrow Uganda’s government and replace it with an Islamist fundamentalist state, but forced to re-locate over the border into DRC, has been murdering local people, far from the attention of most of the world’s major media. While the National Association militants ostensibly ‘ended’ their fight in 2007, local bishops and civil society have repeatedly denounced the resurgence of violence still carried out in the name of ADF-NALU.

World Watch Monitor has tried to get more detail about Saturday‘s attacks, but a local source explained that many have fled, internet cafes are closed and so it is difficult to ascertain more about the victims at this time.

However, below, an aid worker for Open Doors International (ODI), who wishes to remain anonymous, describes a recent visit to North Kivu (before this latest attack). ODI supports Christians under pressure for their faith around the world.

Report from North Kivu.

As soon as we set foot in North Kivu province, in the north-east of the DRC, we are confronted with signs of the misery ADF attacks are causing for the mostly Christian inhabitants of the province. Read the full story here.

Hmmm.....Pope Francis: "“If I speak of Islamic violence, I have to speak of Catholic violence. Not all Muslims are violent.” ....when was the last time Christians attacked a village?

Iraq: ISIL sources claim Omar al-Shishani killed in air strike

Iraq: ISIL sources claim Omar al-Shishani killed in air strike. (AlJazeera).

Omar al-Shishani, a top commander of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), has been killed in Iraq, a website affiliated with the armed group said.

Citing a "military source", ISIL's website on Wednesday said that Shishani was killed "in the town of Sharqat as he took part in repelling the military campaign on the city of Mosul".

Amaq, the ISIL-linked website, did not specify when Shishani was killed, but the loss of the commander is a significant blow to the group, which has suffered a string of setbacks in Iraq this year.

Mosul is the last ISIL-held city in Iraq. Read the full story here.

The announcement of the death of Omar alShishani is not convincing. Usually #ISIS announces w/ "Gazwa" not via media pic.twitter.com/NiRJn5yUY0

— Elijah J. Magnier (@EjmAlrai) July 15, 2016

Amaq News #IS confirms Omar #Shishani's death in #Shirqat pic.twitter.com/fp8Pnrtgw7

— TRACterrorism.org (@TRACterrorism) July 13, 2016

Pentagon Admits 'Omar The Chechen' Died This Week, Not Earlier https://t.co/DKUHfXOJVK

— Gilles N. (@VegetaMoustache) July 15, 2016

In #Georgia's #Pankisi, #ISIS Omar al Shishani's relatives don't confirm his deathhttps://t.co/nYWtg5CSK9 pic.twitter.com/cg5DE5vb7O

— маяковский (@moscow_ghost) July 15, 2016

HT & Source:

1. Pro-ISIS tweeps and Telegram users are flooding channels with soliloquies to Omar al-Shishani, whom ISIS says was killed near Mosul

— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) July 14, 2016

2. See channel below, which now bears his image and garnered 1260 members overnight pic.twitter.com/RmD02qXkx4

— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) July 14, 2016

3. People have asked me is ISIS reliable when claiming death of senior leaders? Generally yes. And they usually take a long time to confirm

— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) July 14, 2016

8. Sometimes confirmation is but a whisper. I didn't know senior leader Abu Atheer was dead until the meticulous @DanieleRaineri noticed it

— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) July 14, 2016

Next, six less-known-yet-interesting pictures of Umar al Shishani, killed south of Mosul a few days ago pic.twitter.com/qJd0OdAULt

— Daniele Raineri (@DanieleRaineri) July 14, 2016