'Toxic' Islamist terror website editors jailed

Two web managers who ran a website glorifying Islamist terror groups and encouraging attacks have been jailed.

Muhammad Abdur Kamali and Mohammed Abdul Ahad promoted "toxic ideologies" including speeches by hate preacher Sheikh Abdullah el-Faisal.

Their website also featured material from Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, the Old Bailey heard.

Kamali, 31, of Rochdale, and Ahad, 38, of north London, each received sentences of four-and-a-half years.

The pair were found guilty of four counts of dissemination of terrorist publications, while Ahad was also found guilty of the possession of a document or record likely to be useful in preparing an act of terrorism. [BBC] Read more

'Million woman' march hits streets of Iraq demanding end to violence

Thousands of women assembled on streets across Iraq on Thursday for large-scale marches against the staggering levels of violence waged against anti-government protesters by security forces and armed militia groups.

The unique all-women marches, which have been organised in key Iraqi cities including central Baghdad, Basra, Nasiriyah, Najaf and Karbala, also aim to highlight women's participation in the demonstrations - which have already brought down a government - and show solidarity with male protesters, organisers said on social media.

The Iraqi Women's League on Tuesday condemned the "excessive violence committed by the Iraqi security services".

Over 600 protesters have been killed and at least 18,000 others the four month period since the predominantly peaceful protests began. [The New Arab] Read more

MP Khalid Mahmood calls for tougher controls on Muslim schools and security checks on imams

The number of extremists known to the security forces is only "the tip of the iceberg", Birmingham MP Khalid Mahmood has warned.

He called for tougher controls on Islamic schools known as madrassahs, to ensure they are not promoting extremist beliefs, and said teachers of Islam, known as imams, should be subject to security checks.

Mr Mahmood, the Labour MP for Perry Barr, was speaking as MPs debated changing the law to prevent people convicted of terrorism offences being released from jail half-way through their sentence.

It follows a terrorist incident near London Bridge last year in which two people were killed, an an attack in Streatham on February 2. In both cases, the perpetrators had been automatically released from jail part way through serving a sentence.

Mr Mahmood said some violent extremists might consider themselves Muslims but they practiced a "misguided version of Islam". He said: "They do not practise Islam; they practise what they believe is Islam. Islam in itself is a peaceful religion." [Birmingham Mail] Read more

Afghan sports coach says she will flee after dog shot dead

Sahba Barakzai, her family and seven-month-old husky Aseman, tried to get out into the mountains near their home in western Afghanistan every Friday.

But last Friday, the hike turned to tragedy after an unidentified group of men approached the family and shot Sahba's beloved puppy dead.

The attackers told her a woman could not own a dog.

But Sabha fears this may have been something more - that it may have been to do with her teaching girls sport.

"We still don't know about their goal but we think it is because of her career," her sister Setayesh told the BBC. "She was the first woman who has her own club and these things are taboo."

Sahba was used to threats - she had been teaching karate to children in Herat, Afghanistan's third largest city, for 10 years.

She had also set up a cycling club for teenage and young girls - a very public sport in a country where, less than two decades ago, women were banned from going to school, working or even leaving the house without a male chaperone. [BBC] Read more

Blasphemy 'is no crime', says Macron amid French girl's anti-Islam row

Emmanuel Macron has waded into a row over a schoolgirl whose attack on Islam has divided France, insisting that blasphemy is “no crime”.

The French president defended the teenager, named only as Mila, who received death threats and was forced out of her school after filming an anti-religious diatribe on social media.

Macron’s intervention comes after his justice minister, Nicole Belloubet, was criticised for claiming Mila’s attack on religion was “an attack on freedom of conscience” while saying the death threats were “unacceptable”.

The case has sparked a furious public debate in France, a strictly secular republic with a large Muslim population. The education authorities have since found another school for the teenager.

Advertisement

“In this debate we have lost sight of the fact that Mila is an adolescent. We owe her protection at school, in her daily life, in her movements,” Macron said in an interview with Le Dauphiné Libéré newspaper. [The Guardian] Read more

Honour Crime: Swedish Muslim Migrant Sentenced for Beating Daughter with Kebab Spit

A Swedish court has sentenced an Iraqi asylum seeker to eight years in prison for honour crimes after he beat his daughter with a kebab spit, locked up his wife, and forced his daughters to wear Islamic veils.

The father, who fled to Sweden from Iraq with his family in 2006 and was highly active at the local mosque in Hässleholm, was found guilty of abuse, serious abuse, illegal threats, and unlawful coercion from a period between January of 2015 and September 17th of 2019.

Investigators were made aware of the father’s behaviour in 2019 when two of the family’s seven children reported his actions to social services in Hässleholm, telling of serious abuse and death threats, including being labelled “whores” by the father if they refused to wear the Islamic veil.

The investigation was considered an honour crime with prosecutor Malin Paulsson stating that the father repeatedly told them not to bring shame to the family, SVT reports. [Breitbart Europe] Read more

Mila: Teen who criticised Islam on Instagram moves school

A French teenager who criticised Islam on Instagram has moved to a new school after receiving death threats.

Education minister Gabriel Attal told broadcaster LCI on Monday that they had found a new school for Mila "to allow her to continue her life".

Mila, 16, sparked a national row over free speech when she called Islam a "religion of hate".

The teen's criticisms prompted fury but also drew support in France, where there are no laws against blasphemy.

Her comments about Islam came after she received homophobic abuse from a Muslim commenter. Supporters started the hashtag #JeSuisMila (I am Mila), while critics responded with #JeNeSuisPasMila.

.... The controversy began on 18 January, after Mila did a live broadcast on her Instagram account. After speaking about her sexuality she was called a "dirty lesbian" by a Muslim commenter.

In response, Mila posted an attack on Islam. "I hate religion. The Koran is a religion of hate," she said, before using stronger words to attack Islam. [BBC] Read more

Preacher who inspired Streatham terror attack peddling jihad from behind bars

Hundreds of sermons preached by the Islamist cleric who inspired the men who carried out the terrorist attacks in Streatham and on London Bridge in November are available on a website that allows his followers to communicate in private chatrooms, the Observer has established.

Abdullah al-Faisal, who was born into an evangelical Christian family in Jamaica and spent many years in Britain, has become one of the most successful propagandists for al-Qaida and Islamic State.

Sudesh Amman, 20, who was shot dead by police last week after coming out of prison for terrorism offences, had copies of Faisal’s speeches, the Times reported.

The newspaper also said that Usman Khan, 28, who fatally stabbed two Cambridge graduates near London Bridge last November, had the cleric’s number in his mobile phone when he was arrested over his links to a plot to bomb the London Stock Exchange in December 2010. [The Guardian] Read more

Can Muslim Terrorists be Deradicalized? - Part I

"What we found [in prisons] was so shockingly bad that I had to agree to the language in the original report being toned down. With hindsight, I'm not sure that was the right decision." — Ian Acheson, British expert on prisons.

"There were serious deficiencies in almost every aspect of the management of terrorist offenders... Frontline prison staff were vulnerable to attack and were ill-equipped to counter hateful extremism on prison landings for fear of being accused of racism. Prison imams did not possess the tools, and sometimes the will, to combat Islamist ideology.

The prison service's intelligence-gathering system was hopelessly fractured and ineffectual." — Ian Acheson, "London Bridge attack: I told ministers we were treating terrorist prisoners with jaw-dropping naivety. Did they listen?", London Times, December 1, 2019. [Gatestone Institute] Read more

Streatham terror attacker devoted to ‘sheikh’ who inspired London Bridge killer

The jihadist who stabbed two shoppers had boasted of trying to join Islamic State and was devoted to a notorious preacher who inspired another convicted terrorist behind a similar knife attack.

Sudesh Amman was shot dead by police on Sunday after going on the rampage in Streatham, south London, ten days after being released from prison.

The attack had remarkable similarities to that carried out by Usman Khan, 28, another former prisoner who fatally stabbed two Cambridge graduates at London Bridge last November before he was shot by police.

Both men are linked to Sheikh Abdullah el-Faisal, who has been accused of inspiring hundreds of jihadists, including the 7/7 bombers who killed 52 people in London in 2005. [The Times (£)] Read more

Britain is losing the fight against extremism

.... Last November Usman Khan, an Islamist released from prison 11 months earlier, murdered two people at a conference that he was attending on London Bridge organised by a prisoners’ rehabilitation project.

This provoked much head-shaking about the risks of letting terrorists out of jail too early and accepting too easily that they’d been deradicalised. Now, some are saying we can’t go on like this.

.... For all the evidence suggests that deradicalisation programmes both inside and outside prison are singularly ineffectual. That’s not just because of the chaos in the under-resourced prison and probation system. It’s because of a conceptual error: the belief that the power of reason can be used against fanatics who believe in killing infidels and “martyring” themselves in the name of God, and wear mocked-up bomb-belts to encourage the police to kill them.

.... To begin to confront that threat properly, the government should admit what is staring it in the face: for the terrorists, we are the infidels in a holy war that will be fought to the bitter end. It is time that those states which still fund the most poisonous anti-western preachers took responsibility for the hatred they are spreading and time we shamed them into stopping it.

Liberalism’s flaw is that it believes reason is the antidote to all problems, including a religious death-cult. “We can’t go on like this” means our own society taking steps which won’t seem very liberal — be they tougher sentences or new restrictions on hate preachers.

But if a society is so liberal it refuses to defend itself properly, it will vanish. [The Times (£)] Read more

French teenager who received death threats for saying Islam was a 's**t' religion says she 'does not regret' her online rant and defends her 'right to blaspheme'

The French teenager who received death threats after footage of her saying that Islam was a 's**t' religion went viral online has come out of hiding to defend her strong atheist convictions.

The teenager, identified only as Mila, appeared on the French TV programme Quotidien last night to say she 'does not regret' her comments.

It comes after France's left-wing elite was criticised for failing to support a 16-year-old girl who has faced death threats for insulting Islam.

She was removed from her sixth-form college in Lyon, south-east France, by police 'for her own safety' and has faced a torrent of insults and threats to rape and kill her.

During the interview Mila defended her right to her strong atheist convictions. She said: 'I would like to clarify that... I would like to come back to the subject about the fact that I absolutely do not regret what I said, that it was really what I thought.' [Daily Mail] Read more

Indonesia recruits female ‘flog squad’ for women offenders

A female squad of floggers will mete out punishment to women convicted of crimes under Islamic law in the Indonesian province of Aceh.

The authorities admit they have struggled to recruit the eight women, whose job is to use a rattan cane to beat offenders convicted of crimes including homosexuality, drinking alcohol, and “close proximity” to a member of the opposite sex.

Until recently, the punishments were dispensed by men. Now the province is training female floggers, one of whom demonstrated her skills at the caning of a young woman found guilty of close proximity.

“I think she did a good job,” Zakwan, a male police officer in the city of Banda Aceh, said. “Her technique was nice.”

He added: “We train them to make sure they’re physically fit and teach them how to do a proper whipping. It’s kind of an indoctrination that we give to them so they have a better understanding of their role — have no mercy for those who violate God’s law.” [The Times (£)] Read more

Teenager in hiding over anti-Islam comments amid fierce row over right to criticise religion in France

A French teenager forced to go into hiding for criticising Islam was on Thursday at the heart of a ferocious secularism row after the justice minister claimed her comments breached "freedom of conscience”.

The row initially erupted after a 16-year old schoolgirl called Mila got into a heated exchange on social media that ended in her receiving a torrent of death threats and being taken out of school for her own safety.

An avid singer from Lyon, southeastern France, Mila had engaged in a live “chat” with followers of her Instagram account.

During the exchange, she rebuffed repeated advances by one online suitor, saying she was lesbian, prompting insults about her sexuality.

Then the attacks took a religious bent, with zealots online reportedly accusing Mila of insulting "our God Allah, the one and only" and hoping that she would "burn in hell." [The Telegraph] Read more

'Finally free': Asia Bibi breaks silence after Pakistani death row hell

Recounting the hellish conditions of eight years spent on death row on blasphemy charges but also the pain of exile, Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi has broken her silence to give her first personal insight into an ordeal that caused international outrage.

Bibi was sentenced to death on blasphemy charges by a Pakistani court in 2010 but then dramatically acquitted in 2018. She now lives in Canada at an undisclosed location.

French journalist Anne-Isabelle Tollet, who has co-written a book about her, was once based in the country where she led a support campaign for her.

She is the only reporter to have met Bibi during her stay in Canada. [France24] Read more

French teenager in hiding after insulting Islam online

Police have told a French teenager to go into hiding after she received death threats for insulting Islam.

The 16-year-old has been advised to stay away from her lycée (sixth-form college) in southeast France after calls on the internet for her to be killed, raped or attacked.

The girl, named only as Mila, is understood to have been told by officials that she should avoid being seen in public until the controversy fades. She is being given psychological support by the local prosecutor’s office.

Prosecutors said two separate criminal inquiries were under way, the first to track the authors of threats to kill and rape the teenager, the second to determine whether her comments amounted to the offence of hate speech.

The case risks widening the gulf between mainstream French society and the country’s five to six million Muslims who often claim they suffer discrimination on a greater scale than their counterparts in the UK. [The Times (£)] Read more

Christian refugee charged with blasphemy beaten by radical Muslims in grocery store

A Pakistani Christian asylum seeker in hiding in Thailand says he was attacked by a group of radical Muslims at a grocery store two days before Christmas as his family has faced years of hurdles in their quest for resettlement.

Faraz Pervaiz, a ministry leader who often posted criticisms of Islam online, fled from Pakistan in 2014 after radical Muslims grew enraged by videos he and his father posted. Following pressure from Muslims groups, the Pakistani government filed a criminal blasphemy case against Pervaiz in 2017.

Although Pakistan is known for imprisoning more people for blasphemy than any other country, Pervaiz told The Christian Post that his case is the first instance in the history of Pakistan’s blasphemy law that the state itself registered a blasphemy case against someone.

Additionally, Pervaiz is the subject of two bounties that have radical Muslims in Bangkok eager to cash in on the reward. [The Christian Post] Read more

Nigerian pastor who praised God in ransom video beheaded after refusing to deny Christ

A pastor who made headlines earlier this month for praising God in a ransom video has been executed by Boko Haram militants in Nigeria.

International human rights activists have condemned the killing of Rev. Lawan Andimi, the chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria’s chapter in the Michika Local Government Area of Adamawa State.

Andimi was declared missing on Jan. 3 following a raid by the Islamic extremist group in Michika. Video posted online appears to show Andimi being forced into a vehicle by his captors.

Days later, Andimi was seen in a video released by his captors calling on fellow Christian leaders and state government officials to secure his release. [The Christian Post] Read more

LIVING IN FEAR Iranian chess referee will not return home after she was pictured without hijab over fears for her safety

A CHESS referee has admitted she won't return home to Iran after images of her not wearing a hijab were circulated online.

Shohreh Bayat was attending the first leg of the Women's World Chess Championship in Shanghai when she was seen without her headscarf on - which has now made her fear for her safety.

Headscarves are compulsory in Iran, with punishments including public admonishment, fines or even arrest.

The 32-year-old claims she wasn't attempting to protest when she didn't wear her hijab during her time as a chess official at the World Championships.

She told the BBC that she doesn't feel safe returning to her home country of Iran, despite saying she had covered her head at international tournaments, following Iranian rules.

She said: "I turned on my mobile and saw that my picture was everywhere. [The Sun] Read more

This is why they killed them

Archaeologists have yet to uncover the mosques used by Native Americans. Perhaps the Zionists destroyed them before they could be found. One day though, Allah willing, the truth will emerge...

Sheikh Salem Salameh, member of Hamas Legislative Council and Deputy Head of the Palestine Islamic Scholars Association [!] on Lebanese TV:

"We warn the Muslims of what U.S. President Washington himself warned. [Washington] killed the Indians and the Muslims, because the Indians and the owners of that land were Muslims. It has been proven that they were Muslims, and that they had mosques. This is why they killed them... The [U.S.] is a murderous state that assists murderers. It helps those who have killed the prophets, the holy men, the women and the innocent children. The [Americans] give them rulings permitting them to kill the [Palestinians]." [Mick Hartley] Read more