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Europe
European 'No-Go' Zones for Non-Muslims Proliferating
2013-01-29
Islamic extremists are stepping up the creation of "no-go" areas in European cities that are off-limits to non-Muslims.

Many of the "no-go" zones function as microstates governed by Islamic Sharia law. Host-country authorities effectively have lost control in these areas and in many instances are unable to provide even basic public aid such as police, fire fighting and ambulance services.

The "no-go" areas are the by-product of decades of multicultural policies that have encouraged Muslim immigrants to create parallel societies and remain segregated rather than become integrated into their European host nations.

In Britain, for example, a Muslim group called Muslims Against the Crusades has launched a campaign to turn twelve British cities – including what it calls "Londonistan" – into independent Islamic states. The so-called Islamic Emirates would function as autonomous enclaves ruled by Islamic Sharia law and operate entirely outside British jurisprudence.

The Islamic Emirates Project names the British cities of Birmingham, Bradford, Derby, Dewsbury, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Luton, Manchester, Sheffield, as well as Waltham Forest in northeast London and Tower Hamlets in East London as territories to be targeted for blanket Sharia rule.

In the Tower Hamlets area of East London (also known as the Islamic Republic of Tower Hamlets), for example, extremist Muslim preachers, called the Tower Hamlets Taliban, regularly issue death threats to women who refuse to wear Islamic veils. Neighborhood streets have been plastered with posters declaring "You are entering a Sharia controlled zone: Islamic rules enforced." And street advertising deemed offensive to Muslims is regularly vandalized or blacked out with spray paint.

In the Bury Park area of Luton, Muslims have been accused of "ethnic cleansing" by harassing non-Muslims to the point that many of them move out of Muslim neighborhoods. In the West Midlands, two Christian preachers have been accused of "hate crimes" for handing out gospel leaflets in a predominantly Muslim area of Birmingham. In Leytonstone in east London, the Muslim extremist Abu Izzadeen heckled the former Home Secretary John Reid by saying: "How dare you come to a Muslim area."

In France, large swaths of Muslim neighborhoods are now considered "no-go" zones by French police. At last count, there are 751 Sensitive Urban Zones (Zones Urbaines Sensibles, ZUS), as they are euphemistically called. A complete list of the ZUS can be found on a French government website, complete with satellite maps and precise street demarcations. An estimated 5 million Muslims live in the ZUS, parts of France over which the French state has lost control.

Muslim immigrants are taking control of other parts of France too. In Paris and other French cities with high Muslim populations, such as Lyons, Marseilles and Toulouse, thousands of Muslims are closing off streets and sidewalks (and by extension, are closing down local businesses and trapping non-Muslim residents in their homes and offices) to accommodate overflowing crowds for Friday prayers. Some mosques have also begun broadcasting sermons and chants of "Allahu Akbar" via loudspeakers into the streets.
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Afghanistan
General David Richards: Afghan campaign was woeful
2012-01-28
Britain's most senior military officer has said the military move into southern Afghanistan was "amateurish" and "verging on the complacent" and accused ministers of failing to learn lessons from Iraq.

Gen Sir David Richards, the Chief of the Defence Staff, is also highly critical of Nato's command structure in Afghanistan, describing it in a new book as "disorganised and unhelpful".
He might have said the same thing about the Libyan operation...
His remarks highlight the infighting and political turmoil that surrounded Britain's military deployment to Afghanistan in the summer of 2006. Whitehall was caught off guard by the seriousness of the situation in Helmand province, where British troops were deployed in Nato's reconstruction programme.

Most Labour ministers supported the view of John Reid, the defence secretary at the time, that "we would be perfectly happy to leave in three years' time without firing one shot because our mission is to protect the reconstruction".

Intelligence assessments conducted in southern Afghanistan concluded that they would receive a hostile reception.

"It was the equivalent of moving another gang into the East End of London," one officer reported to London. "They [the Taliban] weren't going to like it." A detailed account of the military and political infighting during the deployment is in a new book by Sandy Gall, the ITN presenter who also runs a charity to provide Afghan victims of roadside bombs with artificial limbs.

In Gall's book, War Against the Taliban, Sir David says that the British military establishment was ill-prepared for the deployment of forces, despite its leading role in the overthrow of the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein three years previously.

He criticises the Ministry of Defence for not providing "sufficient troops to dominate the physical and human terrain" and the failure of the Foreign Office and the Department for International Development to provide adequate resources for reconstruction. He also describes attempts by London and Washington to get the Taliban to engage in political reconciliation as "woeful". Sir David also criticises the military establishment for being ill-prepared and with a "rather amateurish approach to high-level military operations verging on the complacent." He also tempers his remarks by arguing that the war in Afghanistan can still be won and expresses his "clear faith" that "the British Armed Forces are now handsomely proving that they have the ability to reform and adapt".
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Britain
British terror preacher back in prison
2009-07-07
Radical Muslim preacher Abu Izzadeen has been returned to prison after breaching the terms of his release, BBC News understands.

Izzadeen, also knows as Omar Brooks, was released from prison in May after his four-and-a-half-year sentence for inciting terrorism was cut on appeal. He was found guilty in 2008 of urging worshippers at a London mosque to fight US and British troops in Iran. Izzadeen, 34, once heckled former home secretary John Reid at a meeting.

On appeal, Izzadeen's sentence for terrorism fundraising and incitement was cut by one year, leading to his release on licence in May. Izzadeen had been released under tight restrictions, which included a curfew and monitoring arrangements involving both police and probation officers.

A Muslim convert, Izzadeen was convicted along with five others of supporting terrorism in speeches made at London's Regent's Park mosque on 9 November 2004. The speeches came as US troops were engaged in a fierce battle in the Iraqi city of Falluja. Clips of the men speaking about jihad, Osama Bin Laden and prejudice towards Muslims were played at their 2008 trial, including one during which Izzadeen said that Allah had given mujahideen (holy warriors) a "chance to kill the American".

Izzadeen defended his actions, saying he and other British Muslims had "no other weapon than our tongue" to fight against what they saw as a "massacre" of Muslims by Western forces in Iraq.

His lawyers argued on appeal that his sentence should be reduced because of his pre-trial time in custody. Four of the other men convicted alongside Izzadeen also had their sentences reduced.
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Britain
British terror preacher Abu Izzadeen freed from jail early
2009-05-06
Abu Izzadeen, a radical Muslim preacher who was jailed after footage was uncovered of him calling for the beheading of any Muslim in the British army, has been freed early from jail. Izzadeen, 34, whose real name is Trevor Brooks, led a group of Islamic radicals who stormed the moderate Regents Park Mosque in central London and then forced back police who tried to evict them. He also publicly shouted down John Reid when he was Home Secretary.

A second generation Jamaican, Izzadeen, walked out of jail on Saturday because of the amount of time he has already spent in prison. He had one year cut off his sentence by the Court of Appeal, reducing it from four-and-a-half to three-and-a-half years. A number of his fellow activists could also immediately walk free.

Douglas Murray, director of the Centre for Social Cohesion, said the men were a danger to society. "Abu Izzadeen and his organisation publicly call for attacks against those whom they see as enemies of Islam," he said. "Their ideology not only glorifies violent jihad but teaches their followers that taking part in suicide bombings is their duty as Muslims.

"The early release of a hate preacher like Abu Izzadeen demonstrates that the British courts are still far away from understanding the very clear and present danger that this country is facing from militant Islamists."

Supporters of Izzadeen have celebrated his release on extremist Islamic websites. One supporter wrote: "This is absolutely wonderful news. May Allah reward you for sharing this with us.

"'The man is a modern day Muslim hero! Just look at the wisdom and generosity of Allah - he really does relieve those who stand up and are firm in his cause."

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Justice confirmed that Izzadeen and five others had all received lower tariffs from the Court of Appeal but insisted that they would all be closely monitored in the outside world. Simon Wheeler, another high profile activist jailed at the same time, still has several months to serve.
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Britain
Muslim preacher Abu Izzadeen found guilty of inciting terrorism
2008-04-18
A Muslim preacher who barracked former Home Secretary John Reid faces life in jail after he was found guilty of calling on his followers to train to be terrorists and telling them to kill non-believers to get to heaven.

Abu Izzadeen, whose real name is Trevor Brooks, 32, led a group of Islamic radicals who stormed the moderate Regents Park Mosque in central London and then forced back police who tried to evict them.

Izzadeen was found guilty of incitement to terrorism abroad along with three of his associates, Abdul Rehman Saleem, also known as Abu Yahya, the convert Simon Keeler, also known as Suliman Keeler, and Ibrahim Abdullah Hassan. Brooks, Keeler and two other men, Shah Jalal Hussain and Abdul Muhid were found guilty of collecting money for terrorists in Iraq. Hussain skipped bail while the jury were deliberating and is now on the run

The group delivered a series of speeches from the middle of the mosque in November 2004, which coincided with a night of the Muslim festival of Ramadan known as the “Night of Power.” They were found on a DVD lasting nearly five hours in which Brooks told his followers: “Allah will remove all the kufr [disbelief] from the earth, and how? With dua [prayers] or with some books? No my dear Muslim brothers with jihad for the sake of Allah...So we are terrorists, terrify the enemies of Allah.” Brooks said anybody who sought “dignity outside of shariah [Islamic law]” would be “humiliated.”

In another speech, recorded two years later in Small Heath, Birmingham, Brooks asked his audience; “Are you ready for another 7/7?” Jonathan Laidlaw QC, prosecuting, said this time Brooks was trying not to break a new terrorism law, making it illegal to “glorify terrorism.” But he said he had “clothed” his message in the words of Mohammed Siddique Khan, one of the July 7 bombers who left behind a videoed message. He said he was telling them “listen, absorb and follow the words of a suicide bomber.” Brooks told his audience: “These people have made a clear statement: If you stop, you'll be saved. If you don't stop, we're going to kill you indiscriminately. Now, you take the bus, you take the train? You could be the next target. You could be burned alive. You prepared to die?”

Brooks claimed his arrest was politically motivated after he interrupted a speech on fundamentalism by then Home Secretary John Reid at a youth centre in Forest Gate, East London, two months later, causing a storm of publicity. Izzadeen was a follower of the radical cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed, one-time leader of a group called al-Muhajiroun, who left for the Lebanon in the wake of the July 2005 bombings.

The Regents Park speech was found on a DVD recovered during a raid on Bakri's home in Haringey, North London, on March 15 2006 in the wake of the protests against the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. Running for four hours and 48 minutes it covered a period at the mosque between 3.48pm and 10.15pm.

The police were called at 8pm by security staff at the mosque as the preaching began outside and returned an hour and 20 minutes later after the crowd had moved inside. But the crowd forced the officers from the mosque as they chanted “leave, leave, leave” and “out, out, out” as well as “Allah-u-Akbar”.

One female officer said she was pushed, shoved and spat at. Inside the mosque speakers referred to the September 11 hijackers as the “magnificent 19” and the audience clapped those who had “chosen to answer the call by becoming martyrs.”

Mr Laidlaw said the defendants had “crossed the line representing the boundary of freedom of expression by some considerable distance and become criminal.” He said that in the tape, largely recorded before the police arrived, “the speeches became progressively more emotive and inflammatory and insulting in their tone.” He added: “Much of what they say and believe is deeply, deeply offensive to liberal, fair-minded people. ”Their views are by ordinary standards, among other things, intolerant, racist, homophobic, and anti-Semitic. If others were to describe them and their religion in the language they use the defendants would understandably be outraged.”

The men will be sentenced today.
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
John Edwards, Democratic nominee . . . no, really! We mean it! Stop laughing!
2008-03-04
David Weigel, Reason Magazine

Let's say, hypothetically, that Hillary Clinton keeps lucking out, that Obama keeps slipping into rotten news cycles and scandals, and that the two candidates keep knocking coats of paint off each other as they head into the summer? Wither the Democrats?
In deep waste material? Up creek, padle-less?

Of course not. Salvation is out there, says an e-mailer to Jerid of Buckeye State Blog.

"...got a phonebank from john edwards' supporters last night. they are telling people that a vote for edwards will still count and he will get delegates if he pulls 5% in ohio. that would, they say, give him more bargaining power at the convention."

This is not actually true. He would need 15 percent in at least one congressional district to get any delegates; more likely than not this is some trick to cut Clinton or Obama's vote totals in central Ohio.

But there is a Draft Edwards movement, and this one has scored an awesome 100* signatures for the cause of injecting him back into the race.

The Draft Edwards website proudly proclaims:

Never before in the history of the United States of America has this country needed a hero as much as one is needed today. Never before in the history of the United States of America has this country had more need of a leader who cared, not just about himself, not just about some of the people, but about all of the people and all of the World. This country has such a man. A man of wisdom. A man of character. A man of integrity. A man of honor. A man of experience. A man of compassion. A man of valor. A man of courage.

This man's name is John Reid Edwards!

He is a man who has dedicated his life to the protection of the victims of Corporate greed. He is a man who has served all of the people, not just the elite. He is a man who understands that prosperity for all the people serves all of the people, including the elite. He is a man who can return us to the reality of the American Dream.

This is our mission! This is our goal! To make John Reid Edwards the next President of the United States of America in 2008, in order to protect and preserve the Constitution and to return this country to the people for whom it was formed by our forefathers.

We ask you to help us in this mission, so desperately needed in these, the worst of times this country has ever endured.

We ask you to sign a Petition to Draft John Reid Edwards and his Party Platform that we may present it at the National Democratic Convention in Denver, Colorado this 2008.

Try not to laugh. This is at least as plausible as John Derbyshire's Al Gore scenario--probably much more so. Atleast, actual Democrats are involved in this one.

*-Up to an astounding 107 signatures when I checked.
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Britain
Islamic preacher 'recruited terrorists for Iraq' in Britain
2008-02-05
A radical preacher who heckled the Home Secretary tried to recruit Muslims to fight British soldiers in Iraq and raise money for terrorists, a court has been told.

Trevor Brooks, who uses the names Omar Brooks and Abu Izzadeen, and six co-defendants, claim their arrest in 2007 was "politically motivated" because Brooks once interrupted a speech made by John Reid when he was home secretary, the court heard.

In a video played to the jury, one of the accused, Abdul Rehman Saleem, praised Osama bin Laden and said Islam was a "religion of terrorism". He said: "Terrorism against the kuffar [non-believers], terrorism against those that terrorise us, terrorism against those that terrorise our women and children. Yes we have terrorised them so when they call you terrorist, be proud to have that title."

As the audience at Regents Park Mosque in central London, joined in, he chanted: "Oh Allah support Sheikh Osama, Oh Allah destroy America. Destroy the kafir wherever they are. Let their blood run in the mountains of Afghanistan, let their women become widows, may their children become orphans, let them be bombed. Let death come to them by the hands of the mujahideen [holy fighters]."

Kingston Crown Court, in south-west London, was told that the speakers referred to the September 11 hijackers as the "magnificent 19" and the audience clapped those who had "chosen to answer the call by becoming martyrs". When police arrived, after being called by mosque security staff, they were forced from the building by the angry crowd.

Along with Brooks, 32, and Saleem, 32, the other speakers included Shah Jalal Hussain, 25, Rajib Khan, 29, and Simon Keeler, 36, who called himself "Suliman".

The speeches were recorded on Nov 9, 2004, the day after US forces tried to retake control of the Iraqi city of Fallujah - attacks referred to by the speakers. The speeches were found on a DVD recovered during a raid on the home of Omar Bakri in Haringey, north London, on March 15, 2006, following the protests against the Danish cartoons of the Muslim prophet, Mohammed. Bakri is the self-styled "sheikh" and the former leader of the banned radical group al-Muhajiroun.

Brooks, Saleem, Keeler, Khan and Ibrahim Abdullah Hassan, 25, are charged with inciting terrorism overseas. Brooks is also charged with encouragement of terrorism. All of them, along with Hussain and Abdul Muhid, 25, are also charged with raising funds for terrorism. They deny the charges and the trial continues.
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Britain
Muslims must help police more, leaders urge
2007-07-04
Britain's most influential Muslim umbrella group yesterday signalled a significant shift in policy as it urged its communities to play a key and potentially decisive role in the fight against terrorism.

Declaring that "condemnation is not enough", leaders of the Muslim Council of Britain appealed to all Muslims to work hand in hand with the police.
Declaring that "condemnation is not enough", leaders of the Muslim Council of Britain, which has 400 affiliate organisations, voiced its most robust message yet and appealed to all Muslims to work hand in hand with the police. The message carries dangers for the MCB which has been criticised by radical activists for being too close to government and the establishment.

But Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, the MCB's secretary general, said the current crisis meant that issues of conflict between the government, police and Muslim communities - who have clashed in the past over anti-terrorist incidents and foreign policy - needed to be put to one side.

"When the house is on fire, the concern must be not to blame each other but to put the fire out. Our country is under threat level critical." He added: "Those who seek to deliberately kill or maim innocent people are the enemies of us all. There is no cause whatsoever that could possibly justify such barbarity."

He said the police and security services "deserve the fullest support and cooperation from each and every sector of our society, including all Muslims".

The MCB has called a meeting in London on Saturday of key imams and activists from all over the country to discuss what Muslim communities can do to confront the threat and to discuss whether more should have been done in the past.

"It is our Islamic duty not only to utterly and totally condemn such evil actions but to provide all the necessary support to prevent such atrocities from taking place," said Dr Bari.

Inayat Bunglawala, the MCB's assistant general secretary, said anyone with information should not feel conflicted. He said the MCB was confident that affiliates would back the new stance. "The overwhelming majority of Muslims will understand the predicament our nation is in. The risk is not that we will lose affiliates. We are more likely to gain them."

Though shocked by the failed terrorist attacks on London and Glasgow, there are signs that the MCB and government are seeking to seize the moment. Relations between Muslim leaders and the Blair government deteriorated amid concerns that the prime minister, former home secretary John Reid and former communities secretary Ruth Kelly gave succour to those who sought to blame the wider Muslim communities for terrorism.

But Dr Bari was quick to praise Gordon Brown and Jacqui Smith, the new home secretary for the "calm and reassuring tone" of their comments since the weekend's attacks. "They made clear that it was unacceptable to hold any one faith group responsible for the actions of a few," he said. He also praised Alex Salmond, Scotland's first minister who provided high profile reassurance to Muslims north of the border.

The unfolding events, though horrific, may well strengthen the hand of moderate Muslim opinion. One source said: "There is little room for manoeuvre for those who have previously been in denial or have clung to conspiracy theories."

Anti-terrorist chiefs have been quick to stress the need for communities to provide them with the intelligence they need to find and monitor suspects. But close liaison between Muslim leaders and the authorities is also seen as crucial in the battle for "hearts and minds" to stop a whole new generation of young people becoming radicalised.

The rallying call gained broad approval from Muslims shopping and trading in east London.
The rallying call gained broad approval from Muslims shopping and trading amid the bustle of Whitechapel market in east London. "I think the MCB have got it absolutely right," said Abdul Ali, 30, as he tended his jewellery stall. "If I had information I would go to the police. The people killed in a terrorist attack could be my son or my sister."

A young woman in her 30s, her head covered, said: "We all know these people have nothing to do with Islam. They are extremists just like the BNP." But two men smoking by an electrical stall said some Muslims had grievances that only government could address. "They say it is because of Iraq and some say it is because of the Afghan attacks. Those in power will have to solve those problems first."

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India-Pakistan
Rushdie honour breaks UN code, says Pakistan
2007-06-24
Pakistan has told Britain that Salman Rushdie's knighthood breaches a United Nations resolution aimed at calming tensions between different religions, The Observer has learnt.
And damn it, given the admirable restraint that the Muslims have shown towards the calumny offered them daily by the infidels, it is certainly time that the dhimmi do their part and submit!
The highly unusual warning was made during a meeting with the British High Commissioner in Pakistan and reveals the extent to which senior Pakistani politicians fear the award will damage relations between the countries.
Does this mean you won't be sending any more extremists to the UK?
Although both nations have pledged to work together to fight al-Qaeda, the Rushdie affair has exposed a deep schism. On Friday, protests against the award broke out at mosques in Britain. Former members of the now disbanded extremist group al-Muhajiroun - which helped co-ordinate the protests over the Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad - led protests outside the Regent's Park Mosque in London, prompting calls from Islamic clerics for restraint.

The level of unrest which has arisen in the Islamic world over the award was predicted by the Pakistan authorities. Last Tuesday, Tariq Osman Hyder, a senior Pakistani diplomat, told the British High Commissioner in Pakistan, Robert Brinkley, that giving a knighthood to the author of The Satanic Verses, a novel which prompted anger among some Muslims for its references to Muhammad and his wives, would inflame tensions.
What doesn't?
A well-placed source told The Observer that Brinkley was informed that Britain had acted against the spirit of UN resolution 1624. The resolution calls on all member states to 'enhance dialogue and broaden understanding' as a means to preventing 'the indiscriminate targeting of religions and cultures'.
Well, it certainly cannot be said that al Muhajiroun and their ilk are indiscriminate in their hatred for the West, so I guess they're in the clear.
Sources say that Hyder told Brinkley the award was 'not expected from Britain, a country that has a large Muslim population'. But the British government has been quick to defend the author's right to freedom of expression. Last week, the Home Secretary, John Reid, defended the award and said Britain had no intention of apologising for it.

Tensions were further inflamed after Pakistan's Minister for Religious Affairs, Mohammed Ijaz ul-Haq, was reported as saying of Rushdie that 'if someone exploded a bomb on his body he would be right to do so unless the British government apologises and withdraws the "sir" title'.
Privately, Foreign Office officials describe the fallout from the Rushdie affair as 'regrettable'. Tensions were further inflamed after Pakistan's Minister for Religious Affairs, Mohammed Ijaz ul-Haq, was reported as saying of Rushdie that 'if someone exploded a bomb on his body he would be right to do so unless the British government apologises and withdraws the "sir" title'.

He said later he did not mean attacks would be justified but merely that militants could use the knighthood as a justification.
We got your meaning the first time, minister.

Perv's tenuous hold on power is threatened by each opportunity the extremists can grab to stir up mindless anger.
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Olde Tyme Religion
Usual protests flare over Rushdie honour
2007-06-21
Been there, done that, got the t-shirt, the mousepad, the collector DVD.
Angry protesters have taken to the streets in Pakistan and Malaysia to denounce a British knighthood for author Salman Rushdie, whose novel the "Satanic Verses" outraged Muslims worldwide.

Margaret Beckett, Britain's foreign secretary, said on Wednesday that Britain was "sorry" people were upset about the knighthood. However, she insisted it was awarded to Rushdie for his literary achievements. Beckett said: "Obviously we are sorry for people who have taken very much to heart this honour, which is after all for a lifelong body of literary work."

Afghanistan's Taliban on Wednesday also condemned the knighthood, which Britain's Queen Elizabeth awarded to the Indian-born British writer last week. A Taliban spokesman said: "We ... consider this another major affront to Islam by the infidels."

Pakistani anger
There was widespread condemnation for the knighting in Pakistan and several leaders called for Rushdie's death, while protesters demanded Britain withdraw the honour. Benazir Bhutto, former Pakistani prime minister, condemned remarks by Ijaz-ul Haq, the religious affairs minister, who had said a suicide attack against Salman Rushdie was justified. Haq had said that the Rushdie honour merited such an attack by Muslims but later withdrew the comment insisting that he meant to say that the award to Rushdie would foster extremism.

Bhutto said that although the knighthood awarded to Rushdie had outraged the sentiments of Muslims, Islam did not permit murder and nor did the law allow suicide killings for those with divergent views.

'Fostering extremism'
Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, a Pakistan opposition leader, at a rally of about 200 women outside parliament in the capital Islamabad, said: "This is an attempt to provoke Muslims all over the world."

Rushdie's book, "Satanic Verses", prompted protests, some violent, by Muslims in many countries after it was published in 1988. Muslims say the novel blasphemed against the Prophet Mohammad and ridiculed the Koran and events in early Muslim history.

Robert Brinkley, British high commissioner to Pakistan, said on Monday that Rushdie's knighthood was a reflection of his contribution to literature and was not intended as an insult to Islam or the Prophet Mohammad. But on Tuesday, Pakistan summoned Brinkley to protest against the award. Britain's envoy in Iran was also summoned.

In Islamabad, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, a religious leader at the capital's Red Mosque, said in a statement that Rushdie should be killed. He said: "He is condemned to death. Whosoever is in position to kill him, he should do so."

In the central Pakistani city of Multan, about 300 people chanted "Death to the British Queen" and "Death to Rushdie". They burned a British flag and effigies of Queen Elizabeth and Rushdie.

Several hundred people including members of the provincial parliament protested in the Pakistani city of Lahore. The Pakistani parliament had adopted a resolution on Monday deploring the knighthood.

UK 'values'
John Reid, Britain's home secretary, reiterated on Wednesday that the government stood by the award. He said: "I think we have a set of values that accrues people honours for their contribution to literature even when they don't agree with our point of view. That's our way and that's what we stand by."

In Malaysia, about 30 protesters demonstrated outside the British embassy in Kuala Lumpur chanting "Destroy Salman Rushdie" and "Destroy Britain".

The late Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a death warrant against Rushdie in 1989, forcing him into hiding for nine years. In 1998 Iran's government formally distanced itself from the death warrant, but some groups in Iran have regularly renewed the call for his death, saying Khomeini's ruling is irrevocable.
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Britain
UK unveils new anti-terror bill
2007-06-08
Britain’s Home Secretary John Reid on Thursday proposed new laws to combat the threat of terrorist attacks, including some laws he conceded might stir controversy.

The plans unveiled in parliament include allowing police to held terror suspects - for longer periods - without charge, tougher sentences for convicted terrorists and a review of the ban on using intercept evidence such as phone tapping. “I believe that terrorism remains the greatest threat to the life and the liberty of this nation,” Reid said as he announced the proposals for a new counter-terrorism bill. “It is the greatest challenge we face and it is important that our legislation continues to evolve to meet the threat, just as the terrorists will continue to advance in their means forming that threat.”

“But I firmly believe that any legislation concerned with national security should be taken forward with the full support of this house.”

The most contentious proposal involves extending the 28-day limit in which detectives question terror suspects without charging them. Outgoing Prime Minister Tony Blair back in 2005 wanted to give police 90 days to grill suspects, citing the length of time it took detectives to gather evidence from the Internet and abroad. However, he was forced to limit the period to 28 days - up from the original 14 days - after parliament members rejected his plan, inflicting Blair first defeat in the House of Commons.
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Britain
Voted "Most Likely to be a Terrorist"
2007-05-30
A TERROR suspect on the run for a week after breaking his Home Office curfew appeared in his school yearbook as the kid most likely to be . . . a TERRORIST. Ibrahim Adam, 20, was given the mock accolade by classmates, who also branded him the “rudest” boy in their year. The 2003 book — compiled by pupils when Adam was 16 — sees one ex-pal sum him up with the chilling phrase: “Known by many, understood by few.”

The fugitive’s form teacher at Seven Kings High School in Ilford, Essex, brands him “Mr Argumentative”. Another jokey award given to him and a girl he is pictured with dubs them the “most gorgeous couple”. The yearbook pictures Adam in his school uniform at age 11 and 16 — and includes a retort from him slamming classmates as “sados”. He blasts in badly-written English: “Its me the one who terrorized our form teacher! Hope you all remember me.” Adam — whose entry contrasts with other pupils tipped to be future Prime Minister or superstar — signs off by declaring: “Good luck in the future. IBZ.”

Cops fear Adam may be heading to Iraq to wage war on British troops — along with his brother Lamine, 26, and a third man. All three are terror suspects who scarpered last Monday after breaking Home Office control orders. Adam is the younger brother of Anthony Garcia, 25 — jailed for life as one of the Bluewater bomb plotters. Adam and third brother Lamine were made the subject of control orders over alleged plots to blow up troops abroad. They vanished after failing to call a private monitoring firm from their home in Barkingside, East London. Two days later Home Secretary John Reid released their names and that of fellow fugitive Cerie Bullivant, 24.

Adam, who was born in Algeria, left school in 2005. Yesterday a former classmate insisted the terror suspect was always “popular” with teachers. The ex-pal said: “No one can believe what’s happened.”

Police have distributed posters featuring a new picture of missing Bullivant. The CCTV snap shows him with his long hair shaven. It was taken a week ago when he last reported to Dagenham Police Station in East London. Cops are warning the public not to approach any of the three but to dial 999.

The disappearance of the trio has fuelled fresh controversy over control orders — which are used to keep tabs on terror suspects. Three others have also done a runner. On Friday one was named as Iraqi Bestun Salim. He is accused of links with Iraq’s slain al-Qaeda mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
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