I am truly perplexed that so many of my friends are against a mosque being built near Ground Zero. I think it should be the goal of every American to be tolerant. The mosque should be allowed, in an effort to promote tolerance. That is why I also propose, that two nightclubs be opened next door to the mosque thereby promoting tolerance within the mosque. We could call one of the clubs (which would be gay) "The Turban Cowboy" and the other being a topless bar "You Mecca Me Hot". Next door should be a butcher shop that specializes in pork and adjacent to that have an open barbeque pork rib restaurant, called something like “ Iraq o’ Ribs”? Across the street there could be a very daring lingerie store called Victoria Keeps Nothing Secret with sexy mannequins in the window modeling the goods. Next door to the lingerie shop, there would be room for an Adult Toy Shop (Koranal Knowledge), its name in flashing neon lights, and on the other side a liquor store, maybe call it "Morehammered"? Then the Muslims could be allowed to show their tolerance. Problem solved.
Britain's mosques became an international haven for extremists who enjoyed state benefits while being trained for terrorism, leaked documents show.
The WikiLeaks files, written by U.S. military chiefs, reveal that at least 35 Guantanamo terrorists were radicalised in London mosques before being sent to fight against the West.
This is believed to be more than any other Western country.
Of these, just 17 were British nationals or had been granted asylum, while 18 had travelled from abroad – cementing Britain’s reputation as a global training camp for terrorists.
U.S. intelligence officers describe Finsbury Park mosque, in North London, as a ‘haven for Islamic extremists from Morocco and Algeria’ and ‘an attack planning and propaganda production base’.
After their UK trip they were then flown to Pakistan and Afghanistan where they were taught to fight and make bombs. The leaked documents also show that an Al Qaeda ‘assassin’ accused of bombing two churches and a luxury hotel in Pakistan was at the same time working for MI6.
Adil Hadi al Jazairi Bin Hamlili was captured in 2003 and sent to Guantanamo Bay where interrogators were convinced that he was an informer for British intelligence.
U.S. intelligence reports describe the 35-year-old Algerian citizen as a ‘facilitator, courier, kidnapper, and assassin for Al Qaeda’. CIA interrogators found him ‘to have withheld important information from …British Secret Intelligence Service … and to be a threat to U.S. and allied personnel in Afghanistan and Pakistan’.
He has been returned to Algeria but it is not clear whether he will stand trial there.
REVENGE PLOT TO NUKE BRITAIN
Interrogators at Guantanamo Bay uncovered serious plots to unleash chemical and nuclear weapons on the West, the WikiLeaks documents show.
According to detainees’ confessions, Al Qaeda mastermind Kalid Sheikh Mohammed claimed they had hidden a nuclear bomb in Britain which would be detonated if Osama Bin Laden was captured or killed.
Detainees admitted that Mohammed, currently facing trial over the 9/11 terrorist attacks, was involved in a plot to attack U.S. atomic plants and unleash a ‘nuclear hellstorm’.
According to the files, a Libyan detainee and close friend of Bin Laden, Abu Al-Libi, ‘has knowledge of Al Qaeda possibly possessing a nuclear bomb’.
Another told his interrogators the bombers would be ‘Europeans of Arab or Asian descent’.
The WikiLeaks documents, published by the Daily Telegraph, also reveal that 16 detainees sent back to Britain were regarded as ‘high risk’ by the U.S. authorities and capable of plotting acts of terror.
Yet each has been paid £1million of public money by the Government to compensate them for their unlawful detention.
The documents point to the crucial role played by London-based preachers such as Abu Qatada and Abu Hamza in the suspected indoctrination of extremists, before they were dispatched around the world to plot terror attacks. They describe Qatada as ‘the most successful recruiter in Europe’ and ‘a focal point for extremist fundraising [and] recruitment’.
Despite this, the London cleric and Al Qaeda’s chief European agent was paid £2,500 for being ‘unlawfully detained’ by the British Government, after being held indefinitely without trial following 9/11.
A ruling found that keeping him in Belmarsh prison, while he refused to return to his native Jordan, breached his human right to a fair trial. The Government is trying to deport him to Jordan, where he has been sentenced to jail in his absence on terror charges.
Meanwhile, Hamza is named as encouraging ‘his followers to murder non-Muslims’, in the documents, and yet continues to fight deportation to the U.S. because of Europe’s liberal human rights laws.
Extradition proceedings began six years ago, but he appealed to Strasbourg on the grounds that this would breach his human right to a fair trial because he would be given an ‘excessive’ sentence. The taxpayer continues to fund his stay in Belmarsh prison while his wife and eight children are claiming £680 a week in benefits and living in a council home in West London.
Three other mosques and an Islamic centre are also highlighted by senior commanders as places where young Muslim men were turned into potential terrorists.
Many obtained EU passports from other European countries such as France, but then travelled on to Britain to take advantage of the generous asylum system. The leaks help explain why U.S. intelligence services regard extremists in Britain as the greatest threat to American security.
The CIA is still so concerned about militant recruitment in the UK that it operates its own intelligence network and recruits its own agents among the Muslim population in Britain.
In a statement, the Pentagon said: ‘The previous and current administrations have made every effort to act with the utmost care and diligence in transferring detainees from Guantanamo.’
In just over a week’s time up to 10,000 EDL members are due to march in Bradford against Islamic extremism.
But as the day drawers near, senior police officer Sir Norman Bettison, Chief Constable of the West Yorkshire force, is seeking emergency powers to ban the march fearing it could provoke widespread violence.
Mr Bettison should take a good look at the UAF and ban them instead.
In the run up to the march they will be stirring up the locals; incitement to violence is their goal and as usual it will be they who will be causing trouble and getting arrested.
President Barack Obama on Friday endorsed allowing a mosque near ground zero, saying the country's founding principles demanded no less. Obama made the comments at an annual White House dinner celebrating Ramadan. (Aug. 13)
A giant new clock being built in the Islamic holy city of Mecca hopes to usurp the role of Greenwich Observatory, and aims to have the world's 1.5 billion Muslims setting their watches by its time.
The four-faced clock, which bears a striking resemblance to Big Ben's tower, will top a massive skyscraper that when completed will stand at almost 2,000 feet, making it one of the world's tallest buildings.
Only one of the clock's four faces has so far been completed and is covered with 98 million pieces of glass mosaics. Each face will be inscribed with 'God is greatest' in Arabic and fitted with thousands of coloured lights, making it visible from more than 16 miles.
It will run on Arabia Standard Time, which is three hours ahead of GMT, and will begin testing tomorrow.
The Saudi clock, will dwarf St Stephen's Tower which houses Big Ben, once the largest four-faced clock in the world, with dials more than five times greater in area.
Islamic scholars hope that when the timepiece is finished, it will eclipse Greenwich Observatory as the world's centre of time.
'Putting Mecca time in the face of Greenwich Mean Time, this is the goal,' said Mohammed Al-Arkubi, the manager of one of the hotels in the complex.
At a conference in Doha in 2008, Muslim clerics and scholars presented 'scientific' arguments that Mecca time is the true global meridian. They said that Mecca is the centre of the world and that the Greenwich standard was imposed by the West.
Greenwich was chosen as the starting point for the measurement of time at the International Meridian Conference in 1884 and has retained its crown largely unchallenged during the ensuing 125 years.
The 130 foot diameter clock dials in Mecca will also bigger than the current world record holder at the Cevahir Mall clock in Istanbul, which has a 36 meter face.
The complex overlooks Mecca's famed Grand Mosque, which Muslims worldwide face during their five daily prayers and is part of Saudi efforts to develop the city visited by millions of pilgrims every year.
German and Swiss engineers designed the clock and according to the Ministry of Religious Endowments, the entire project will cost $800 million.
This past Sunday, a courageous Muslim spoke out against the Ground Zero Mosque in a column in the Washington Post (see below).
The buzzing opposition to the Ground Zero Mosque continues to grow, with some polls show opposition now over 60%. Media coverage continues to grow.
This has become, and rightly so, a high-profile national issue. Islamists and their politically correct allies are desperately trying to smear anyone who opposes the Ground Zero Mosque. They know they are losing the national debate on this. And the New York City bus company is censoring a media campaign about the Ground Zero Mosque.
The Ground Zero Mosque is not a done deal. We must keep the pressure on!
A Muslim victim of 9/11: 'Build your mosque somewhere else'
I have no grave site to visit, no place to bring my mother her favorite yellow flowers, no spot where I can hold my weary heart close to her. All I have is Ground Zero.
On the morning of Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, I watched as terrorists slammed United Flight 175 into the South Tower of the World Trade Center, 18 minutes after their accomplices on another hijacked plane hit the North Tower. My mother was on the flight. I witnessed her murder on live television. I still cannot fully comprehend those images. In that moment, I died as well. I carry a hole in my heart that will never be filled.
From the first memorial ceremonies I attended at Ground Zero, I have always been moved by the site; it means something to be close to where my mother may be buried, it brings some peace. That is why the prospect of a mosque near Ground Zero -- or a church or a synagogue or any religious or nationalistic monument or symbol -- troubles me.
I was born in pre-revolutionary Iran. My family led a largely secular existence -- I did not attend a religious school, I never wore a headscarf -- but for us, as for anyone there, Islam was part of our heritage, our culture, our entire lives. Though I have nothing but contempt for the fanaticism that propelled the terrorists to carry out their murderous attacks on Sept. 11, I still have great respect for the faith. Yet, I worry that the construction of the Cordoba House Islamic cultural center near the World Trade Center site would not promote tolerance or understanding; I fear it would become a symbol of victory for militant Muslims around the world.
When I am asked about the people who murdered my mother, I try to hold back my anger. I try to have a more spiritual perspective. I tell myself that perhaps what happened was meant to happen -- that it was my mother's destiny to perish this way. I try to take solace in the notion that her death has forced a much-needed conversation and reevaluation of the role of religion in the Muslim community, of the duties and obligations that the faith imposes and of its impact on the non-Muslim world.
But a mosque near Ground Zero will not move this conversation forward. There were many mosques in the United States before Sept. 11; their mere existence did not bring cross-cultural understanding. The proposed center in New York may be heralded as a peace offering -- may genuinely seek to focus on "promoting integration, tolerance of difference and community cohesion through arts and culture," as its Web site declares -- but I fear that over time, it will cultivate a fundamentalist version of the Muslim faith, embracing those who share such beliefs and hating those who do not.
The Sept. 11 attacks were the product of a hateful ideology that the perpetrators were willing to die for. They believed that all non-Muslims are infidels and that the duty of Muslims is to renounce them. I am not a theologian, but I know that the men who killed my mother carried this message in their hearts and minds. Obedient and dutiful soldiers, they marched toward their promised rewards in heaven with utter disregard for the value of the human beings they killed.
I know Ground Zero is not mine alone; I must share this sanctuary with tourists, politicians, anyone who chooses to come, whatever their motivations or intentions. But a mosque nearby -- even a proposed one -- is already transforming the site from a sacred ground for reflection, so desperately needed by the families who lost loved ones, to a battleground for religious and political ideologies. So many people from different nationalities and religions were killed that day. This site should be a neutral place for all to come in peace and remember. I believe my mother would have thought so as well.
The Iranian revolution compelled my family to flee to America when I was 12 years old. Yet, just over two decades later, the militant version of our faith caught up with us on a September morning. I still identify as a Muslim. When you are born into a Muslim family, there is no way around it, no choices available: You are Muslim. I am not ashamed of my faith, but I am ashamed of what is done in its name.
On the day I left Ground Zero shortly after the tragedy, I felt that I was abandoning my mother. It was like being forced to leave the bedside of a loved one who is dying, knowing you will never see her again. But I felt the love and respect of all those around me there, and it reassured me that she was being left in good hands. Since I cannot visit New York as often as I would like, I at least want to know that my mother can rest in peace.
I do not like harboring resentment or anger, but I do not want the death of my mother -- my best friend, my hero, my strength, my love -- to become even more politicized than it already is. To the supporters of this new Islamic cultural center, I must ask: Build your ideological monument somewhere else, far from my mother's grave, and let her rest.
I had to laugh when I saw the following article. The scum in charge of our country will try anything to discredit patriots. And what lengths they go to...
Seven men were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to blow up a Bournemouth mosque.
The men, six of whom are members of the England Defence League, were taken to Poole and Southampton police stations for questioning before being released without charge.
Among those arrested was EDL member John Broomfield, 27, who was pulled from his stationary vehicle after armed police opened fire on his van in Corfe Castle village.
A spokesman for Dorset Police said: 'Dorset Police can confirm that as part of an investigation surrounding threats to a Bournemouth mosque a total of seven people were arrested for conspiracy to cause an explosion.
'Following an investigation police can now confirm these people have been released without charge.'
He added: 'One of the people arrested was detained safely by armed officers in the Corfe Castle area.
'We've been working very closely with the Muslim community and our local safer neighbourhood teams have been providing advice and reassurance throughout.
'At this stage there is no indication whatsoever that any of the mosques in Dorset are under threat of attack.'
Officers had followed Broomfield home from work and waited until he was stuck in traffic in the tourist spot before they pounced.
When his van came to a halt they fired rounds into the tyres.
They then smashed a window and dragged him out in shocking scenes that followed an investigation into alleged plans to blow up a nearby mosque.
The marksmen used special rapid tyre deflation rounds to disable the white Ford Escort van.
Police then swooped on Mr Broomfield's home in Swanage and seized computer equipment, mobile phones and passports.
Mr Broomfield, the head of the Dorset EDL, said yesterday: 'While travelling home from work I was stopped and arrested by armed police.
'I approached a roundabout near Corfe Castle and there were about six cars in front of me.
'There was an unmarked police car in a lay-by and within seconds of me stopping police appeared from it, ran up the road and shot at my tyres and smashed the window in.
'It was extremely scary. I was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to cause an explosion at a Bournemouth mosque.'
He continued: 'Five other members of the EDL were also arrested and held for 24 hours for questioning while searches of their homes took place. Then all of us were released without charge.'
Of the alleged plan to blow up the mosque, he added: 'There has been no conspiracy, there has never been any conspiracy.
'The EDL is not a terrorist organisation. We are not anti-Muslim, we are anti-Muslim extremism.'
The EDL has been leading demonstrations against Muslim extremism around England since 2009.
Thousands of people have attended its protests - many of which have involved racist and Islamophobic chanting. Organisers, however, insist it is not a racist organisation.
The election is over, I've had a few days off to relax and now it's back to business as usual.
Gordon Brown may be gone but his actions will be with us for the rest of our lives.
On opening the online version of the newspaper, the first story really says it all. Thanks, Mr Brown, for ruining our country...
A Catholic schoolgirl has been branded a 'truant' by her teachers after she refused to dress as a Muslim for a school field trip to a mosque.
Staff had ordered 14-year-old Amy Owen and her classmates to dress in headscarf, wear trousers or leggings and keep her arms covered for the compulsory visit to the mosque after it was arranged to promote 'community cohesion.'
Parents at the 1,100 pupil Ellesmere Port Catholic High School in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire were also told they were each required to make a £3 contribution towards the trip for all Year Nine students.
But when Amy refused to dress in Muslim attire for the visit to Al Rahma Mosque in Toxteth, Liverpool, staff warned her about rules and said refusal would mean non attendance which would then be marked down as an 'unauthorised absence.'
In a stern letter to her family with words in block capitals and underlined, the school's headmaster Peter Lee said the visit was 'as compulsory as a geography field trip.'
He added: 'There are two reasons for these visits. One is that the scheme of work in religious studies REQUIRES children to have knowledge and understanding of other world religions. The second is that the school is REQUIRED to promote tolerance respect and understanding. This is known as community cohesion. A failure to do this could result in an unwelcome inspection judgement. None of us would relish that. Whilst I may not require you to pay for this I must require your child to participate.'
It is believed up to ten other families from Amy's Year 9 classes also refused to dress as Muslims and were marked down in the truanting register.
But Amy's mother Michelle Davies, 34, a home help said: 'It's like they're putting a gun to your head - either you go to a mosque, or you're marked down as an unauthorised absence on your record - that's it no two ways about it. It's like they are saying she is playing truant for not wearing a head scarf. If the trip had been without the leggings and the headscarf, that would have been fine but I wasn't having my daughter dressed in the Muslim way.
There are some parts of RE lessons that children who are Jehovahs Witnesses don't have to attend because that's part of their religion and the fact is Amy is Catholic and not a Muslim.
She's proud of her school uniform and what it represents and she should be able to wear it like she would on any normal school trip.
She likes to learn, she takes history and she is really interested in it, she wants to learn, but she can do that her classroom without changing the way she dresses. I even did some research on the internet about non-Muslims attending mosques and it says you don't have to adhere to the dress code.
I also fail to see how a three-hour trip to a mosque is of any educational value to a Catholic when she can learn about the Muslim faith in the classroom. I can guarantee that if there were ten Muslim girls coming to our school it would adhere to what they wanted, because that's their faith, their religion, their dress code.'
The school claimed it had arranged the trip in accordance with diktats sent down by Oftsted and the Roman Catholic diocese and said it to abide by a 'strict dress code.'
Mrs Davies who has two other children said: 'No sooner had I objected to the dress code, I got a phone call from her head of year saying I don't see what the problem is, it teaches them respect. I said to her, is that not my job and your job as a school? Then she asked it was a problem with the cost, and I told her not to patronize me. I said it was for religious reasons. I'm not a devout Catholic, I've never claimed to be but my daughter is a white, British Catholic girl - not a Muslim girl, therefore she is not adhering to a Muslim dress code.
'The next thing Amy was in Mr Lee's office with three other kids being told it was a compulsory trip. He gave me a parent consent form, but I didn't give my consent and I was told it would be an unauthorised absence.
'I'm so angry - in particular with the letter Mr Lee sent with bits underlined and words in block capitals. And also, you can't tell me that by making some year nine kids attend a trip to a mosque is going to make his his OfSTED report look better.
'I had to send a letter in to the school explaining why Amy was absent, and I explained exactly why Amy wasn't there.
'What really infuriates me is that if she wore leggings to school, she would be told to take them off because they're not school uniform.
'If Muslim girls came to Amy's school, the school would probably allow them to wear their leggings and head scarf because it is respectful. If they were told to remove them, there would be uproar.'
Another parent Kirsty Ashworth, of Ellesmere Port, whose daughter Charlie Sheen was due to attend the trip said: 'I didn't see the educational benefit of it and I can't see how it would help her get a job or anything like that.
'I'm not racist or anything but I send my daughter to an English speaking catholic school, so I don't see why she should dress as a Muslim.'
A spokesman for the school said: 'In keeping with accepted good practice we are pleased to provide students with an experience of a visit to a Mosque and the chance to talk and question a representative of the community which it serves. This is an exciting and for many, a unique opportunity to learn at first hand how
Islamic practices and beliefs map against their own.
'We hope to provide other experiences to further our students' appreciation and tolerance for faiths and culture as opportunities present themselves, as all good schools will do in the name of education.'
Plans to build an £18million mosque in Dudley town centre have been scrapped, the Express & Star can reveal today.
The scheme to build a mosque with 65ft minaret on derelict land in Hall Street attracted huge protests, but has now been ditched by the Dudley Muslim Association.
Deputy council leader, Les Jones, told the Express & Star today the DMA had agreed instead to redevelop the existing mosque in Castle Hill, after months of delicate negotiations.
The proposal has been dogged by controversy from day one and two petitions of more than 50,000 signatures were gathered in opposition.
People objected saying the mosque would dominate the skyline and be out of keeping with the town’s medieval character. They also objected to the mosque being built on land designated for employment use.
Despite Dudley Council throwing out the application in 2007 it was granted at an appeal the following year by a government inspector.
In 2009 the council launched a High Court bid against the inspector’s decision but the judge upheld the ruling, granting outline planning permission.
Councillor Jones said since then the council has been in talks with the DMA. He said: “We have reached an agreement with the DMA not to develop on land in Hall Street.
“The current mosque is not really fit for purpose and we have been working with them to come up with some plans and would have been looking to submit an outline planning application in the next few months.”
Today’s announcement comes as a handful of anti-mosque campaigners scaled the walls of the derelict factory in Hall Street for a rooftop protest.
Councillor Malcolm Davis, who has campaigned against the mosque plan, said: “I’m delighted with the outcome. If it has taken months of negotiation to achieve this result then I applaud that.”
Gangs of Muslims are roaming the streets with knives. We have had a lot of feedback from supporters in Dudley, and all are saying the same things, the police are letting this happen. Muslims are being allowed to walk around unchallenged with weapons. Knives, bricks, you name it. What is going on in this Country? There are hundreds of police there, but none seem to be doing anything about them. I will take this back if there are reports that hundreds of Muslims have been arrested for carrying weapons tomorrow, but i wont be holding my breath.
We ask ALL supporters if you truly support the EDL to mobilise to Dudley tomorrow - Monday. These lads who are there need your support, and they deserve it too.
UPDATE: Here's an eyewitness account from an EDL supporter who was there. For the sake of clarity, I have posted this edited version, at my EDL contact's request.
I just got back from the Dudley demo. Turned up at the march with my brother at around 10pm, totally lost. We couldn't find anyone. Then some lads in two cars asked if we were from the EDL, and they said, "Jump in!" (Cheers to you guys, whoever you are!)
Then a few people turned up and spoke to all of the EDL lot. My bro needed to go home as he had college classes in the morning, so I took him back -- this was at around midnight. I pulled up at Burntree Island and updated the EDL Facebook page, stating that the PA could be heard all the way from there.
At 1AM I headed back up to the Demo, only to find the main road closed. So I parked on the Cinema and again, updated the EDL's FB Page. At one point on the road, a car slammed on the brakes in front of me. The driver said: "You got some f**king nerve coming here, you f**king white honkey c**t". The passenger and his "pals" jumped out the car. One of them grabbed me by my hoodie and asked me where I was going. I said, "Home, I've just come up here to see what the fuss is about and have a nosey." Then one of the Muslims hit me on the back of the head from behind, and they ran off.
When I came to I found myself lying in the gutter aching all over. I got up and ran to where the EDL'ers had originally been, only to find police, riot cops, dogs and plainclothes men blocking the roads. The police refused to let me through, even though they knew I was still a bit dazed. They demanded I walk back the way I came -- past the Muslims who had worked me over. So I did. I got to a crossroads and again, 50+ of the Muslims ran me back to the cops. At that point, the riot police took control and beat the s**t outta 'em (cheers, boys :D), while I sat on the curb waiting to be seen to. I was approached by a cop who escorted me to paramedics, who checked me over and sent me on my way.
Now, I was parked on the cinema, so I had a hefty walk back to the car. I walked towards the main road. When I got to a vauxhall garage, I was ambushed by yet another lot. This time they jumped out of the trees. Thankfully, this time an undercover police car took control. He asked me a few questions, and then he dropped me off at my car and ensured I got away from the march safely.
All in all, though... Pretty hectic and awesome night. See you guys there tomorrow. Roll on Round 3 of my EDL Beatings, eh? lol By Lurch
