Mass rally in Pakistan against radical mosque

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) -- About 100,000 people rallied in Pakistan's largest city against an Islamic mosque and seminary that launched a Taliban-style anti-vice campaign in the country's capital last week.

The mass protest in Karachi on Sunday was organized by the Mutahida Qami Movement, or MQM, a party based in the southern port city that strongly supports President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who has promoted moderate Islam.

"Islam is a religion of peace and there is no place in it for using force or terrorism," said MQM leader Altaf Hussain, who addressed the rally on loudspeakers by telephone from London.

The Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, in the capital Islamabad announced last week the setting up of a court to deliver justice based on Sharia, or Islamic law. Students from an Islamic school attached to the mosque have started an anti-vice campaign in Islamabad, threatening proprietors of music shops and brothels in the relatively liberal Pakistani capital.

The mosque's chief cleric, Maulana Abdul Aziz, is an outspoken critic of Pakistan's support of the U.S.-led war on terror. His thousands of male students are often at the forefront of anti-government and anti-U.S. rallies in Islamabad.

"We will strongly resist religious terrorism and religious extremism. We will resist their intentions with cooperation of the people," Hussain said.

A Karachi police official, Mazhar Hussain, said about 100,000 people attended the rally, with many protesters chanting, "No to extremism."

The Red Mosque, located in downtown Islamabad, is suspected of links in the past with militants, including the Taliban militia, which banned music, movies and nearly all forms of entertainment during its rule over neighboring Afghanistan under its strict interpretation of Islam.

A U.S.-led military campaign ousted the Taliban from power in late 2001 for harboring al-Qaeda after the September 11 attacks.


http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/04/1...y.ap/index.html
Pakistan tribal war leaves 250 dead

By S.H. Khan

Wana, Pakistan - Pakistani tribesmen beating war drums on Wednesday launched their biggest assault yet against foreign al-Qaeda militants in a border region after weeks of fighting that have left 250 people dead.

Islamabad says the offensive by about 1 000 conservative local tribesmen will cut cross-border attacks in Afghanistan, and shows the success of a peace deal in the lawless South Waziristan region that was criticised by the West.

Forty-four Uzbek, Chechen and Arab Islamic rebels were killed on Wednesday along with five tribesmen in heavy rocket and mortar clashes, the mountainous region's top administrator Hussainzada Khan told AFP.

Intense fighting is still going on," he said.

Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao told reporters in Islamabad that the clashes are "the result of the agreements the government made with tribal people in which they pledged to expel foreigners and now they are doing it."

"Around 200 foreign militants have been killed since the start of the fighting and the overall figure including local tribesmen is around 250," Sherpao said, updating an earlier toll of about 200 dead overall.

The clashes broke out on March 19 when an ex-Pakistani-Taliban commander, Mullah Nazir, ordered foreign militants led by Uzbek extremist Tahir Yuldashev, a one-time confidant of Osama bin Laden, to disarm or leave the area.

Thousands of Arab and Central Asian militants were given shelter by Pakistani tribesmen after fleeing Afghanistan when US-led forces toppled the Taliban regime in late 2001, but the two sides have now fallen out violently.

Officials say the foreign insurgents are linked to Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network and that they are responsible for coordinating attacks across the porous border on NATO and US forces in Afghanistan.

Residents and officials said around 1,000 tribesmen answered a call from their leaders and set off from Wana, the capital of South Waziristan, early Wednesday to mount a final push against bunkers occupied by the foreign rebels.

"Soon after morning prayers there was a heavy sound of war drums and tribesmen were seen leaving in different directions amid shouts of 'Allahu Akhbar' (God is Greatest) and 'Victory, victory, victory,'" Malik Sangeen Khan, a resident of Wana, told AFP.

"Since this morning there have been massive sounds of rockets and gunfire. It is louder even than the Pakistani military operations here in 2004."

Residents and officials said it was the first time for three years that the ethnic Pashtun tribes have played the war song on the drums made from animal hide stretched over wooden frames.

Able-bodied males who refuse to answer the call are fined heavily and their houses are burned down or demolished.

"Both sides have been using heavy weapons since this morning and tribal fighters captured important Uzbek bunkers. In one bunker alone 19 foreigners were killed," one security official said on condition of anonymity.

Tribesmen also stationed children at local checkpoints to ensure that people wearing all-covering burqas were women and not foreign militants in disguise trying to flee the area, residents said.

Men are not allowed to look under burqas in the conservative region.

Pakistan signed peace pacts with pro-Taliban tribesmen in South Waziristan in 2005 and North Waziristan in 2006, leading to military pull-outs. It signed a similar deal in the northwestern Bajaur tribal region last month.

Nato members and the United States say attacks on foreign forces in neighbouring Afghanistan have risen as a result of the pacts. - Sapa-AFP

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&cl...64223687C236809

Pakistan has ‘terrorist camps’: China says for first time.


BEIJING: In a major blow to Pakistan’s counter-terrorism credentials, China has for the first time publicly acknowledged the existence of terrorist camps within the territory of its “all-weather” ally. It said that some East Turkistan separatists, who have been fighting for decades to make oil-rich northwest China’s Xinjiang province an independent state, received training at the terrorist camps in Pakistan.

The damning confirmation came in a court document in the trial of 37-year-old Huseyin Celil, a China-born Uygur-Canadian, who was today sentenced to life imprisonment by a Chinese court in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, for “taking part in terrorist activities and plotting to split the country.”

According to the court documents, Celil joined the East Turkistan Liberation Organisation (ETLO), a listed terrorist group active in central Asia, in November 1997 and was appointed as a senior instructor in Kyrgyzstan. While there, Celil allegedly recruited several people to the ETLO and sent them to terrorist training camps on the Pamir Plateau in Pakistan, the court documents said.

Interestingly, the report came hours after Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz left Beijing following talks with top Chinese leaders, including President Hu Jintao, during which he discussed counter-terrorism among other things. During the talks between Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Aziz on Tuesday, the two sides had agreed to cement cooperation in campaigns against “East Turkistan” separatists in Xinjiang and combat cross-border crime.
:

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1091940

As usual, your posts are very interesting and uplifting. You do a lot of searching for us all to get these hard-to-find stories.

Thanks.

Thanks, ustrader, for uncovering little-known information that contradicts the usual assumptions. Not all Muslims are radicals, violent, jihadist.

Just most of them

Poll finds most Muslims agree with Al-Qaeda's goals

Washington - Most Muslims want US military forces out of the Middle East and Islamic countries and many agree with Al-Qaeda's goals, if not its tactics, suggested a public opinion poll conducted in Egypt, Morocco, Pakistan and Indonesia.

"Most respondents have mixed feelings about Al-Qaeda," said a statement of the study's findings, conducted by the Washington-based nonprofit group WorldPublicOpinion.org and the University of Maryland.

"Large majorities agree with many of its goals, but believe that terrorist attacks on civilians are contrary to Islam."

An average of 74 per cent of all those polled agreed with the goal of "push(ing) the US to remove its bases and military forces from all Islamic countries," said the poll.

A full 91 per cent of Egyptians and 69 per cent of Moroccans said they approved of attacks against US soldiers in Iraq, while 61 per cent of Indonesians disapproved.[B] [I]Pakistanis appeared divided on the matter, with 31 per cent for such attacks and 33 per cent against.

The survey found similar responses with regard to US forces in Afghanistan and the Gulf.

At least 70 per cent or more in all countries supported the goals of "stand(ing) up to Americans and affirm(ing) the dignity of the Islamic people," and "pressur(ing) the United States not to favor Israel," it said.

Those polled were asked whether they thought certain ideas were the goals of Al-Qaeda or groups inspired by the Osama bin Laden-led militant network, and then were asked to what extent they agreed or disagreed, somewhat or strongly, with those goals.

Most agreed that Al-Qaeda goals included requiring a strict application of Islamic, or sharia, law in every Islamic country, pushing US military forces out of all Islamic countries, and keeping Western values out of Islamic countries -- and [B]most were supportive of those aims.

( I.E. No freedom, No Guys, No Music, No drinking, No out of marriage sex, No movies, no equal rights for women but strick subservent roles for women, Killing any Hifra is acceptable and or anyone who converts to another reglion, ALL law is dictated by Cleric and no secularism for free enterpise.)

Asked about Al-Qaeda's attitudes and tactics in general, 25 per cent of Egyptians and 15 per cent of Indonesians said they "support Al-Qaeda's attacks on Americans and share its attitudes toward the US," along with nine per cent of Moroccans and 10 per cent of Pakistanis.

Nearly 33%, one third, of those polled in Egypt and Morocco said they agreed with "many of" Al-Qaeda's attitudes toward the United States but "oppose Al-Qaeda's attacks on Americans." Twenty-four per cent in Indonesia and six per cent in Pakistan took this view.

Less than 33%,one third, said they disagreed with both Al-Qaeda's attitudes and its attacks on Americans, with 31 per cent of Egyptians, 29 per cent of Indonesians and 26 per cent of Moroccans and 16 per cent in Pakistan.

A large number of Pakistanis chose not to answer the question, with 68 per cent saying they refuse/don't know. Significant sections of the other groups also declined to answer, including 35 per cent of Moroccans, 32 per cent of Indonesians and 14 per cent of Egyptians.

(Theocratic intimidation or fear of thsoe who they say they support?)

A wider range of opinions was found regarding the question of suicide bombers and whether their actions could be justified often, sometimes, rarely or never.

41%, Forty-one per cent, of Egyptians said "an attack in which a Muslim blows himself up while attacking an enemy" is often justified, while 19 per cent said "sometimes" and 28 per cent said "never."

However, 68 per cent of Indonesians and 60 per cent of Pakistanis were strongly opposed to suicide tactics.

Most Egyptians, Indonesians and Moroccans said establishing a Palestinian state was not a US goal, and sweeping majorities in all countries -- including 89 per cent in Egypt and 63 per cent in Morocco -- responded that the United States was controlling most or nearly all of what happens in the world today.

The poll was conducted from December to February through in-home interviews by native Arabic, Indonesian and Urdu language speakers with around 1,000 people in each country. The margin of error was between three and four per cent.

Agence France Presse

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/worldhotne...newsid=30032604

Someone should post this on Jane so a certain someone can see it...and LEARN from it. Too bad he doesn't realize how much his words of hate towards Muslims hurt the troops (who are working their butts off to make allies)

The Report on Terrorist Incidents 2006, Muslims Main Victim!

Terror Attacks up, Muslims Main Victim: US


CAIRO — Muslims are taking the brunt of the world's terrorist attacks, which in 2006 rose by 3,000 or 25 percent with the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan serving as a "rallying cry" for terrorists, a report by the US National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) has concluded in its newest report.

"As was the case in 2005, Muslims again bore a substantial share of being the victims of terrorist attacks in 2006," said the report, published on the center's website Tuesday, May 1.

The Report on Terrorist Incidents 2006 said that some 58,000 individuals worldwide were either killed or injured by terrorist attacks last year.

"On the basis of a combination of reporting and demographic analysis of the countries involved, well over 50 percent of the victims were Muslims, and most were victims of attacks in Iraq," it said.

It said deaths from terrorist attacks rose by 5,800, a 40 percent increase.

"Approximately 14,000 terrorist attacks occurred in various countries during 2006, resulting in over 20,000 deaths," the report said, adding that 70 percent of the victims were civilians. ( Implying 30% or 6,000 WERE NOT CIVILIANS)

The report said that the largest number of reported terrorist incidents and deaths occurred in the Near East and South Asia. ( 815 in Thailand alone)

"These two regions also were the locations for 90 percent of the nearly 300 high-casualty attacks in 2006 that killed 10 or more people," the report said.

Of the 14,000 reported attacks, the report said, 45 percent—about 6,600—of them occurred in Iraq where approximately 13,000 fatalities—65 percent of the worldwide total—were reported for 2006.

The report also found that the overall number of people injured in terrorist incidents skyrocketed in 2006 by 54 percent.

Iraq again bore the burnt of the terror injuries.

The number of attacks in Afghanistan have also surged up by 50 percent in 2006 to reach about 750 attacks.

The report noted that terrorist attacks in 2006 fell in Europe by 15 percent, while terrorist arrest increased by 50%.

Children were also reported more often as victims in 2006, up by more than 80 percent, with over 1,800 children either killed or injured in terrorist attacks.

The NCTC serves as the principal advisor to the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) on intelligence operations and analysis relating to counterterrorism, according to the center's website.

Unique among US agencies, NCTC also serves as the primary organization for strategic operational planning for counterterrorism.

It operates under the policy direction of the President of the United States, the National Security Council, and the Homeland Security Council.

May 2, 2007
Islam Online

US

Warning IF YOUR MUSLIM YOU FAR MORE LIKELY TO BR KILLED, BY ANOTHER BELIVER THAN BY A "DIRTY KUFFAR"


http://www.turkishweekly.net/news.php?id=44798

Iraq Al Qaeda faces growing insurgent backlash (AFP)


BAGHDAD - This week’s killing of Al Qaeda in Iraq’s “information minister” is the latest blow to the group’s bid to retain leadership of the Sunni revolt and face down a challenge from rival insurgents.

While the radical group is under seige by a stepped up US military campaign, Al Qaeda’s foreign leadership is facing increasing opposition from more nationalist Iraqi insurgent rivals opposed to their tactics.

The US military said on Thursday that its forces killed Al Qaeda in Iraq’s “senior information minister,” identified as Muharib Abdul Latif al-Juburi, early Tuesday just north of Baghdad.

Potentially more damaging than the killing of Muharib Abdel Latif was the announcement that three Iraqi insurgent groups had joined forces in an explicit challenge to Al Qaeda’s umbrella group, the Islamic State in Iraq.

“In order to confront local, regional, and international challenges, an agreement has been concluded between three groups, the Islamic Army in Iraq, the Army of the Mujahideen, and the Ansar al-Sunna to form a united front,” the group said in a statement posted on a jihadi website.

Many experts believe the announcement of a new alliance between Ansar al-Sunna and the Islamic Army points to a deepening rivalry among Islamists in the Sunni insurgency and a serious challenge to Al Qaeda’s Iraqi franchise.

This new front “is no friend of America, or of democracy in Iraq -- but, should it succeed, it will present an existential political threat to the future of Al Qaeda in Iraq,” said Evan Kohlmann, an expert on jihadi movements.

“In fact, it is arguably a far more significant setback for Al Qaeda than anything achieved thus far by the so-called “Anbar Salvation Council’ or other such recent darlings of the media,” he wrote on his Counterterrorism Blog, referring to an anti-Qaeda alliance of tribes.

Unlike those groups, the new front remains firmly committed to ”the total departure of the occupiers.”

We will “undertake jihad (holy war) in Iraq until we realise all our goals, which include the complete departure of every kind of occupier, and the establishment of the religion of Allah,” the new coalition’s statement said.

Despite the statement’s religious overtones, many experts see the Islamic Army of Iraq as more nationalistic than Al Qaeda, which views Iraq as a single battlefield in an epic global war.

“While the language is typically religious, the focus is exclusively Iraqi, and says nothing about wider global jihad,” said Marc Lynch, a professor at Williams College and an expert on Islamist groups.

“This looks like the formalisation of the coalition against Al Qaeda’s Islamic State of Iraq,” he adds in a posting on his Internet blog.

There have been unconfirmed reports in the Arabic press of clashes between these rival insurgent groups and the Islamic Army has released statements appealing to Al-Qaeda supremo Osama bin Laden to rein in his Iraqi branch.

At the heart of the conflict between the movements is Al Qaeda’s attacks on civilians and those they disagree with rather than just against US forces.

In an April 5 letter, the Islamic Army condemned what they called “unlawful practices of the brothers from Al Qaeda.”

“Our patience has only made them more aggressive, and they have allowed the killing of Muslims... It has become normal for them (al-Qaeda) to target average Sunnis, especially the rich.

“They will try to kill anyone who critiques them, disobeys them or points to their mistakes,” said the letter, which was translated by Kohlman’s web site.

Hating Al-Qaeda does not mean liking the Iraqi government, and these insurgent groups still remain opposed to Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki.

We do not recognise “the sectarian collaborator government of Al Maliki nor the sectarian elections and their outcome... nor the constitution written in the shadow of the missiles of the occupiers,” said Thursday’s announcement.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle...ion=focusoniraq

Sheiks sign peace agreement
Thursday, 03 May 2007
Multi-National Division – North PAO



TIKRIT — In an effort to end tribal conflicts that have been occurring for decades, the paramount sheiks from the Karki and Shimouri tribes signed a peace agreement at the home of the Mujema tribal leader in Diyala province, Monday.

Sheik Thaer Ghadban Ibrahim, Karki paramount sheik, and Sheik Ahmad Abdullah Hassooni, Shimouri paramount sheik, have been meeting for the past three months to work out grievances between tribes.

By signing the agreement, the tribes promised to “consolidate and unify to battle all insurgents that penetrate among [their] tribes.”

“The people have no confidence in the terrorists’ ways and ultimate goals for death and destruction,” said Col. David W. Sutherland, 3rd Brigade Combat Team commander and senior U.S. Army officer in Diyala. “This initiative and agreement by the tribes shows their commitment to their people, this country’s stability, and a positive vision for the future.”

Specifics of the agreement include freeing previous kidnapped victims and stopping all kidnapping and killing operations; stopping indirect-fire attacks; providing the Iraqi police any members of their tribes which may be linked to insurgent groups; supporting the Iraqi army and police against terrorists; and resolving farming issues among the tribes.

“We are all with you against the terrorists,” Ahmed said.

After signing the agreement, Thaer and Ahmad placed their hand on the Koran to signify their commitment to the peace agreement.

Within the upcoming months, more paramount sheiks are expected to meet and come to similar agreements toward peace.


http://www.mnf-iraq.com/index.php?option=c...=11740&Itemid=1

Great, since when could a Mussys/arab word ever be trusted be it written or verbal...............