Radical Islamist sect Boko Haram kills at least 150 Muslim Policemen in Nigeria

• New Age Islam News Bureau

  21 Jan 2012
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• Gay Muslim men found guilty of stirring up hatred on account of sexual orientation
• Rushdie cancels visit, literary world outraged, Deoband happy
• For the Muslim world, it's not a safe and easy path to modernity
•  Stop Islamization of Nations (SION) Calls on UN to Protect Christians of Syria
• Kashmir, Islamic court demands expulsion of 5 Christians,  strict inspection of Christian missionary schoolsIslamic Law Is Destructive to ‘Unalienable Rights’
• India: Tensions Rise In Kashmir After ‘Guilty Verdict,’ Fatwa
• Rick Santorum Stresses Outreach To People in Islamic World Threatened by “Radical Islamists”
• Jaipur: Pakistan Author Mohammed Hanif shares his trick of getting an Indian Visa
• Yemen MPs approve Saleh immunity deal
• Jaipur Literature Festival: Cancellation of Rushdie's India visit a victory of democracy, says Darul Uloom Deoband
• Maldives vice president wants release of detained top judge, in sign of discord in government
• Just another coup in Bangladesh, a nightmare in Pakistan
• No intention to sack Kayani, Pasha: Pak govt
• ‘Journalists are endangered species in Pakistan’
• Muslim girl attacked for wearing hijab
• Alan McMenemy's body recovered five years after Iraq kidnap
• Pakistani police: 3 Germans arrested in raid
• SC orders arrest of PM’s ex-media coordinator 
• Senior Qaeda figure killed in drone strike
• Only ‘direct’ talks can bring peace: Afghan official
• Arab League considers extension of Syria mission
• France mulls Afghan exit after unarmed troops 'murdered'
• Where Does a Canadian Degree Get You in Iran? In Prison
• State Dept.: Uzbekistan Human Rights Still Bad, Military Aid Notwithstanding
• Fears of the Arab Spring Becoming an "Islamist Spring"
• Human rights groups charge NATO with war crimes in Libya
• Appeals Court: Ban on Sharia and International Law ‘Likely Unconstitutional’
• Bangladesh arrests Islamist outlaws after foiled coup
• Libyan Islamists rally to demand sharia-based law
• A new generation of political Islamists steps forward
• Seeking Consensus, the FJP Remains Wary of Alliance with Salafis
• Iran continues its campaign against journalists
• The world's responsibility to address genocide
• Pakistan test cricket win over England will boost image
• Drone strike kills top al-Qaeda operative in Pakistan, US says
• Pakistan economic growth depends on reform pace: ADB
• US committed to ‘mutually respectful’ Pakistan ties
• Political crisis averted in Pakistan, but for how long?
• Rulers treat people like animals: LHC
• Iran cannot be isolated: Pakistan's ex-minister
• Strengthening Enemy’s Hands
• Briefly World: Bangladesh coup attempt: Five held
• Oil sanctions on Iran will negatively affect world’s economy: Japanese envoy
• Three Al Qaida-style religious trends raise their ugly heads
• Banned Tahrir brings out procession

Complied by New Age Islam News Bureau

Photo: A rescue worker inspects the burnt-out wreckage of cars and motorcycles destroyed by multiple explosions and armed assailants in the Marhaba area of the northern Nigerian city of Kano, on January 21, 2012. Boko Haram claims Nigeria Kano blasts, 150 dead

URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/radical-islamist-sect-boko-haram/d/6430

 

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Radical Islamist sect Boko Haram kills at least 150 in Nigeria

KANO, Nigeria — Coordinated attacks claimed by a radical Islamist sect killed at least 150 people in north Nigeria’s largest city, a hospital official said Saturday, as gunfire still echoed around some areas of the sprawling city.

Soldiers and police officers swarmed over streets Saturday in Kano, a city of more than 9 million people that remains an important political and religious hub in Nigeria’s Muslim north. But their effectiveness remains in question, as the uniformed bodies of many of their colleagues lay in the overflowing mortuary of Murtala Muhammed Specialist Hospital, Kano’s largest hospital.

A hospital official there said at least 143 people died in the attacks Friday. The count included some bodies already claimed by families for immediate burial per Islamic law, the official said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to disclose the figure to journalists.

Other bodies could be lying at other clinics and hospitals in the city.

In a statement issued late Friday, federal police spokesman Olusola Amore said attackers targeted five police buildings, two immigration offices and the local headquarters of the State Security Service, Nigeria’s secret police.

Nwakpa O. Nwakpa, a spokesman for the Nigerian Red Cross, said volunteers offered first aid to the wounded, and evacuated those seriously injured to local hospitals. He said officials continued to collect corpses scattered around sites of the attacks. A survey of two hospitals by the Red Cross showed at least 50 people were injured in Friday’s attack, he said.

State authorities declared a 24-hour curfew late Friday as residents hid inside their homes amid the fighting.

A Boko Haram spokesman using the nom de guerre Abul-Qaqa claimed responsibility for the attacks in a message to journalists. He said the attack came as the state government refused to release Boko Haram members held by the police.

Boko Haram has carried out increasingly sophisticated and bloody attacks in its campaign to implement strict Shariah law across Nigeria, a multiethnic nation of more than 160 million people.

Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is sacrilege” in the local Hausa language, is responsible for at least 510 killings last year alone, according to an AP count. So far this year, the group has been blamed for at least 219 killings, according to an AP count.

The sect’s targets have included both Muslims and Christians. However, the group has begun specifically targeting Christians after promising it will kill any Christians living in Nigeria’s predominantly Muslim north. That has further inflamed religious and ethnic tensions in Nigeria, which has seen ethnic violence kill thousands in recent years along the divide between the north and the largely Christian south.

Friday’s attacks also could cause more unrest, as violence in Kano has set off attacks throughout the north in the past, including postelection violence in April that saw 800 people killed. Kano, an ancient city, remains important in the history of Islam in Nigeria and has important religious figures there today.

Amid the recent unrest and attacks, at least two journalists have been killed in Nigeria. Journalist Enenche Akogwu, who worked as a correspondent in Kano for private news station Channels Television, was shot and killed Friday while reporting on the attacks, colleagues said. In central Nigeria’s city of Jos, Nansok Sallah, a news editor for a government-owned radio station called Highland FM, was found dead in a shallow stream Thursday, the victim of an apparent murder, the Committee to Protect Journalists said.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/nigeria-blasts-kill-143-radical-islamist-sect-boko-haram-claims-responsibility-article-1.1009684#ixzz1k7dMcv4b

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Boko Haram claims Nigeria Kano blasts, 150 dead

21 January 2012

There are fears that the death toll in Kano will rise

Eyewitnesses in the northern Nigerian city of Kano say they have counted more than 20 bodies after co-ordinated bomb attacks on Friday.

A 24-hour curfew is in place in the city. Police have confirmed seven deaths in various locations.

Police stations and the state police HQ were among the targets, and gunfire was heard across the second biggest city.

The militant Islamist group Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is forbidden", said it was responsible.

The group has been behind a recent campaign of violence in the mainly Muslim north.

Meanwhile, organisers of a controversial civil activists' mass rally set for Saturday in the commercial capital Lagos called off the event in light of the attacks.

Kano is reeling from the bombings that began at about 17:00 local time (16:00 GMT) and rocked this ancient holy Muslim city for more than an hour and a half.

As plumes of smoke rose over the city, residents fled from the streets in panic - not needing the prompt of the 24-hour curfew imposed by the authorities.

A witness at a police station in the south of the city said six gunmen arriving in a car and on a motorbike shot their way into the building before detonating a bomb.

Officers fled the scene - some taking refuge in ditches - and it took the military about 30 minutes to respond by which time the gunmen had escaped.

This seems to have been the pattern of attacks at other stations, except at the Bompai headquarters of the state police in the east of the city where a shoot-out between gunmen and security forces was continuing into the evening.

The roads are now deserted. Some residents are questioning how the security of so many key police buildings could have been compromised.

Organisers of the demonstration against government corruption and the military's presence in Lagos say they fear their protest could be infiltrated by militants sent to cause mayhem and cost more lives.

Nervous crowds

In a statement, police said "seven casualties have been confirmed from different locations of the attacks" in Kano, amid fears that the death toll could rise further.

But eyewitnesses said they had seen bodies littering the street and being loaded into wagons. More than 20 were counted.

The police statement said four police stations around the city, the headquarters of the State Security Service (SSS), as well as passport and immigration offices were targeted.

The BBC's Mark Doyle, in the outskirts of Kano, says he has seen one police station with its roof completely burnt off, though it was not clear whether this was caused directly by an explosion or by fire.

The atmosphere there is nervous, and a large crowd outside the police station quickly dispersed when soldiers arrived, our correspondent adds.

He says this is Boko Haram's most serious attack on the police and is deeply embarrassing for the authorities.

The curfew would be in place in Kano until further notice, officials said.

The wounded were reported to include foreigners from an area near the SSS headquarters, where many expatriates - particularly Lebanese and Indians - live.

There was also a shoot-out at the headquarters of the state police in the city's eastern district of Bompai, reports said.

One local man, Andrew Samuel, described the scene of one blast: "I was on the roadside and I just heard a 'boom'. As I came back, I saw the building of the police headquarters crashing down and I ran for my life."

Witnesses said the bomber who attacked one of the police stations pulled up outside the building on a motorbike, dismounted and ran inside holding a bag.

Nigeria's Channels TV said one of its reporters, Enenche Akogwu, had been killed in the attacks.

Continue reading the main story

Boko Haram: Timeline of terror

2002: Founded

2009: Hundreds killed when Maiduguri police stations stormed

2009: Boko Haram leader Mohammed Yusuf captured by army, handed to police, later found dead

Sep 2010: Freed hundreds of prisoners from Maiduguri jail

Dec 2010: Bombed Jos, killing 80 people and blamed for New Year's Eve attack on Abuja barracks

2010-2011: Dozens killed in Maiduguri shootings

May 2011: Bombed several states after president's inauguration

Jun 2011: Police HQ bombed in Abuja

Aug 2011: UN HQ bombed in Abuja

Nov 2011: Co-ordinated bomb and gun attacks in Yobe and Borno states

Dec 2011: Multiple bomb attacks on Christmas Day kill dozens

Jan 2012: Hundreds flee areas of north-east Nigeria after a wave of violence

Who are Boko Haram?

It said he had been "shot by unknown gunmen suspected to be members of the Boko Haram sect", outside the state government house.

'Largest assault'

Boko Haram later claimed responsibility for the attacks.

A spokesman for the group, Abul Qaqa, told journalists in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri, the group's base, that it had carried out the attacks because the authorities had refused to release group members arrested in Kano.

The group wants to establish Islamic law in Nigeria. It started to stage drive-by shootings in 2010 on government targets in Maiduguri.

The death of the Boko Haram leader Muhammed Yusuf whilst being held by police in 2009 is also often cited as the reason for attacks on state institutions by the group, the BBC's Mark Lobel in Lagos reports.

It stepped up its attacks in 2011, targeting police headquarters and the UN in the capital Abuja.

In recent weeks, southerners, who are mostly Christians or animists, living in the north have been the targets of deadly attacks.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16663693

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Gay Muslim men found guilty of stirring up hatred on account of sexual orientation

21 January 2012

Three Muslim men have become the first to be convicted of stirring up hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation after they handed out a leaflet calling for gay people to be executed.

Ihjaz Ali, Kabir Ahmed and Razwan Javed handed the pamphlet, entitled The Death Penalty?, which showed an image of a mannequin hanging from a noose and quoted Islamic texts that said capital punishment was the only way to rid society of homosexuality.

At Derby Crown Court, they were convicted by a jury of distributing threatening written material intending to stir up hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation - the first prosecution of its kind since legislation came into force in March 2010.

Mehboob Hussain and Umar Javed, who were also charged with the same offence, were found not guilty.

A two-week trial heard that the men, who are all from Derby, admitted distributing the leaflet but said they were simply quoting and following what their religion teaches about homosexuality and did not intend to threaten anyone.

The leaflet was handed out outside and near the Jamia Mosque in Derby's Rosehill Street and in streets around the local neighbourhood in July 2010. It was made and used as part of a campaign to publicise a protest in response to the Gay Pride parade due to be held in Derby on July 10 that year.

Taxi driver Ali, 42, of Fairfax Road, who the prosecution said was believed to be the main organiser and supplier of the leaflets, was found guilty of four counts of distribution on July 2 and July 4.

Ahmed, 28, who is married with a nine-month-old daughter and lives in Madeley Street, and Razwan Javed, 28, of Wilfred Street, were convicted of distribution in the area of the mosque on July 2.

But married taxi driver Mehboob Hussain, 45, of Rosehill Street, and Razwan's brother Umar Javed, 38, a married takeaway worker who lives in Whittaker Street, were both cleared of distribution relating to posting the leaflets through the letterboxes of homes on July 4.

Zarif Khan, representing Razwan Javed, said they would be looking to appeal the convictions. The men will be sentenced on February 10.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/muslims-guilty-over-gay-leaflets-152353818.html

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Rushdie cancels visit, literary world outraged, Deoband happy

Friday, Jan 20, 2012

The cancellation of Salman Rushdie's India visit over security concerns fuelled an outrage today in the literary community which said his absence is 'a stain' on the country's international reputation while a leading Islamic seminary dubbed it a 'victory of democracy'.

Ruling out any Government role behind Rushdie calling off his visit to the Jaipur Literary festival amid protest threats, Congress said it was his "individual" decision as there was no restriction on his coming to attend the event that began today.

Authors Hari Kunzru and Amitava Kumar in their tweets said that Rushdie's absence from the festival is "a stain on India's international reputation".

They used their session at the festival to read from Rushdie’s banned "Satanic Verses" as a mark of their protest. The two referred to the book during their own readings and discussions and actually went on to read out from it.

The organizers later asked Kumar not to go ahead with his reading.But, Kumar ignored the call and went ahead with a passage from Rushdie’s book.

In fact just before his reading Kunzru tweeted:"About to defy bigots and shoe throwers, reading @SalmanRushdie Satanic Verses on stage with @amitavakumar at #jaipur #jlf (sic)."

They also read out Rushdie’s tweet to the audience in which he had thanked the two for reading from his controversial book, to loud applause.

A perturbed Rushdie later tweeted: "@amitavakumar says organizers asked him not to continue reading from Satanic Verses." Willie, Sanjoy: why did this happen?". He was referring to William Dalrymple and Sanjoy K Roy, the festival organizers.

Roy said it was sad that Rushdie had to cancel his trip, and termed the development very unfortunate.

Reacting to Rushdie's decision, Deoband Vice-Chancellor Maulana Abul Qasim Nomani told reporters in Muzaffarnagar, "It is a victory of democracy because some Muslim organisations, including Darul Uloom Deoband, had opposed the visit to India in a democratic way."

The Islamic seminary had on January 9 asked government to bar Rushdie from coming to India as he had allegedly hurt religious sentiments of Muslims.

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_rushdie-cancels-visit-literary-world-outraged-deoband-happy_1640133

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For the Muslim world, it's not a safe and easy path to modernity

21 January 2012

A year ago, as he watched the great uprisings in Tunis and Cairo, French scholar Olivier Roy declared that they marked the end of Islamist politics. “If you look at the people who launched these revolts,” he wrote, “it is clear that they represent a post-Islamist generation. … The new revolutionaries are perhaps practising or even devout Muslims, but they separate their religious faith from their political agenda. In that sense, it is a ‘secular’ movement that separates religion from politics.”

Well, you might say, how awkward. Those January protesters may have been secular and liberal, but, when I visited Tahrir Square six months later, Islamists commanded the stage. We’ve recently watched Egypt’s first somewhat free elections give 48 per cent of the vote to a party controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood, plus 20 per cent to 28 per cent to Salafists, who aren’t just Islamist but want an actual theocracy. Secular liberals were left with a rump of 15 per cent to 20 per cent. If this is “post-Islamist,” it sure has a lot of crescents and guys with beards.

This week, Dr. Roy – probably the world’s most respected scholar on Islamic societies and politics – was asked to explain himself on French radio. Did the Islamist electoral victories in Tunisia and Egypt pour cold water on his “post-Islamist” prognostication? Quite the contrary, he said. They proved it. The new individualism behind the Arab revolutions, he said, has led Arabs to vote for parties with an Islamic identity (in large part, because “secularism” was strongly associated with the dictatorships they overthrew) – but, in the process, it’s forced those parties to abandon the Islamist goal of a pure religious society governed only by the Koran.

“Islamist movements like Ennahda in Tunisia and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt can no longer even be called Islamist,” he said. “They are conservatives analogous to the religious right in the United States.” Much as socialist parties in the West had to abandon the revolutionary goals of Marxism to become electable, the new Islamist parties have had to give up actual Islamism: They can’t impose the Koran on people, but rather combine “a religious reference” with democratic bids to influence “family values.”

I don’t quite share Mr. Roy’s optimism. While an Iranian-style theocracy isn’t a possibility in Egypt, there are leaders in the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party whose views on women and Israel are alarming enough and whose ties to Egypt’s military overlords appear authoritarian enough that the result could look a lot like Islamism.

Where the “post-Islamism” scholars do have a point is in their reading of the trends that led people to vote for the Islamist parties. These, paradoxically enough, are driven by a shift to secularization of private life. Egypt and its neighbours are in the midst of the same demographic change that revolutionized the West two centuries ago: Fertility rates are falling to European levels, and institutions such as first-cousin marriages are becoming increasingly rare. Religion has become a badge of identity, not a way of life.

This shift has made Islamists desperate to seize influence, because social influence can now only be won through politics. And it has put them in a unique position to gain it. Former Ottoman states such as Egypt never bothered to replace the religious obligation to give alms with a secular obligation to pay taxes. So the imams and mullahs became not only the leading voice of dissent but also the leading source of welfare. That, more than the Koran, wins them votes.

“The fundamental contradiction of Islamism is that its leaders think of themselves as guardians of a tradition, whereas the popular wave behind them is the result of a modernizing mental revolution,” demographers Youssef Courbage and Emmanuel Todd write in their analysis of Muslim-country modernization, A Convergence of Civilizations. “Political victory is inevitably followed by cultural defeat.”

In between comes a tumultuous time. The Muslim world is becoming modern the same way France did, with wild swings of revolution and reaction. “Westerners would like to forget,” the two demographers conclude, “that their own demographic transitions were also strewn with many disturbances and a good deal of violence.” It’s not a safe and easy path, but it’s progress.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/doug-saunders/for-the-muslim-world-its-not-a-safe-and-easy-path-to-modernity/article2309955/?utm_medium=Feeds%3A%20RSS%2FAtom&utm_source=Opinions&utm_content=2309955

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Stop Islamization of Nations (SION) Calls on UN to Protect Christians of Syria

21 January 2012

NEW YORK, Jan. 20, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- A prominent international human rights organization is calling upon the United Nations and the international human rights community to act quickly and decisively to save the Christians of Syria, who are being increasingly threatened and victimized by Islamic supremacists.

http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnthumb/20120117/DC36672LOGO

Stop Islamization of Nations (SION) notes with sorrow the one hundred dead in Syria in the recent and ongoing series of kidnappings and murders of Christians. SION President Pamela Geller said in a statement: "We deplore the manifest lack of respect for human life and the dignity of the human person. We call upon the United Nations Security Council and UN Commission on Human Rights to schedule an immediate meeting to discuss how to protect the Christians of Syria."

Geller added: "We call upon Muslim groups in the U.S. and the Middle East to condemn these killings in word and deed, instituting programs in mosques and Islamic schools to teach Muslims that the lives of non-Muslims must be respected as equal in dignity and value to those of Muslims. We call upon the centers of Islamic authority and education to repudiate the specifications in Islamic law that set the value of a non-Muslim's life as less than that of a Muslim, and call upon the international human rights community to focus on those inherently discriminatory laws as a human rights abuse."

SION is an international umbrella organization dedicated to defending human rights, religious liberty, freedom of conscience and the freedom of speech against Islamic supremacist intimidation and attempts to bring elements of Sharia to the West.

The confirmed list of Board of Advisors for SION currently includes Dr. Ali Sina, the renowned ex-Muslim author and founder of FaithFreedom.org; Dr. Wafa Sultan, the ex-Muslim human rights activist and author; the German pro-freedom activist Stefan Herre of Politically Incorrect; the Israeli author Dr. Mordechai Kedar; the Hindu human rights activist Babu Suseelan; and Anders Gravers of Stop Islamisation of Europe (SIOE). More prominent pro-freedom activists will be added to the Board shortly.

A worldwide summit of SION freedom activists is currently being organized; location, date and other details will be announced in the coming weeks.

SION establishes a common American/European coalition of free people determined to stand for freedom and oppose the advance of Islamic law, Sharia. Islamic law is not simply a religious system, but a political system that encompasses every aspect of life; is authoritarian, discriminatory, and repressive; and contradicts Western laws and principles in numerous particulars. SION respects Muslims as fellow human beings and rejects Islamization as a comprehensive political, religious, cultural and social system of behavior and ideology.

SION stands for:

The freedom of speech - as opposed to Islamic prohibitions of "blasphemy" and "slander," which are used effectively to quash honest discussion of jihad and Islamic supremacism;

The freedom of conscience - as opposed to the Islamic death penalty for apostasy;

The equality of rights of all people before the law - as opposed to Sharia's institutionalized discrimination against women and non-Muslims.

A foremost objective of SION is to establish a network of free nations that work to free the oppressed and to call worldwide attention to the persecution, slaughter and subjugation of non-Muslims and free women enslaved by the Sharia. SION will act only through democratic and non-violent means, and categorically rejects all acts of violence and vigilantism. It aims to preserve the fundamental freedoms and rights articulated in the Constitutions of the Western democracies, the U.S. Bill of Rights, and the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

SION will also work to winning back the culture, with a particular focus on the academic world, as the Islamic teaching of history is based on faith and Sharia, not on the Western objective criteria of truth. In the West, history must be taught according to the truth, not according to the dictates of ideology.

SION also offers diversity and sensitivity training to corporations and government agencies at the local, state and national levels. This diversity training is designed to help these entities understand the jihad threat in all its different manifestations, including Islamic supremacist cultural initiatives to assert Islamic law and practice in the American workplace. It helps them protect their business practices in the face of demands for special accommodation for Muslim employees.

To schedule a session, please write to media@sionations.org.

Join the SION Facebook group here.

For more information, contact Pamela Geller at media@sionations.org.

SOURCE Stop Islamization of Nations

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/stop-islamization-of-nations-sion-calls-on-un-to-protect-christians-of-syria-2012-01-20

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Kashmir, Islamic court demands expulsion of 5 Christians,  strict inspection of Christian missionary schoolsIslamic Law Is Destructive to ‘Unalienable Rights’

by Nirmala Carvalho

21 January 2012

Among them Rev. CM Khanna and Fr. Jim Borst. The court wants to control Islamic Christian missionary schools in the region. The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) will send a petition to the UN Commission on Human Rights. Bishop of Jammu-Srinagar: "Our schools serve the state and the Muslim population." A Brahmin who converted to Christianity: "The Indian government is afraid to confront Islamic terrorism."

Full Report At:

http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Kashmir,-Islamic-court-demands-expulsion-of-5-Christian-religious-23751.html

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Islamic Law Is Destructive to ‘Unalienable Rights’

Friday, 20 Jan 2012

By Tawfik Hamid

A federal appeals court has blocked an Oklahoma voter-approved measure barring state judges from considering Islamic and international law in their decisions.

Muneer Awad, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Oklahoma, sued to block the law from taking effect, arguing that the Save Our State Amendment violated his First Amendment rights.

Full Report At:

http://www.newsmax.com/TawfikHamid/Oklahoma-ban-Islamic-law/2012/01/20/id/424928

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India: Tensions Rise In Kashmir After ‘Guilty Verdict,’ Fatwa

By Vishal Arora

January 20, 2012

Christian workers are fleeing India’s Kashmir Valley after a sharia (Islamic law) court issued a “guilty verdict” against three Christian leaders, issued a fatwa against Christian schools and allegedly launched a door-to-door campaign to bring converts back to Islam.

The court, which has no legal authority, found the Rev. Chander Mani Khanna, pastor of All Saints Church in Srinagar, Dutch Catholic missionary Jim Borst and Christian worker Gayoor Messah guilty of “luring the valley Muslims to Christianity,” The Times of India daily reported on Dec. 19.

The three had already left the region apparently due to rising tensions.

Full Report At:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.eurasiareview.com/20012012-india-tensions-rise-in-kashmir-after-guilty-verdict-fatwa/

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Rick Santorum Stresses Outreach To People in Islamic World Threatened by “Radical Islamists”

By Arlette Saenz

Jan 20, 2012

CHARLESTON, S.C. – Speaking before a crowd that included a number of cadets from the Citadel on Friday night, Rick Santorum warned that “radical Islamists” pose as great a threat to the Islamic world as they do to the United States, if not greater. He argued that the next president will have to take a more active role in working with people in countries such as Iran to help them combat the dangers inflicted by radical Islamists.

Full Report At:

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/01/rick-santorum-stresses-outreach-to-people-abroad-threatened-by-radical-islamists/

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Jaipur: Pakistan Author Mohammed Hanif shares his trick of getting an Indian Visa

21 January 2012

Mohammed Hanif posed after receiving the International Corine Book Prize 2009, in Munich, Germany on Nov. 24, 2009.

Pakistanis often find it difficult to travel to India, and vice-versa. But Pakistani author Mohammed Hanif has a trick.

He told a crowd at the Jaipur Literary Festival on its opening day Friday that the key is to schmooze officialdom.

Mr. Hanif, whose burgeoning popularity as a writer has brought him to India a few times recently, says he’s typically kept waiting until 18 hours before an event before he knows whether he’s been granted a visa.

“A very simple bureaucratic procedure, they turn it into a cliff-hanger,” he said.

Full Report At:

http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2012/01/20/pakistan-author-aces-indian-visa-for-litfest/?mod=google_news_blog

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Yemen MPs approve Saleh immunity deal

21 January 2012

President Saleh has ruled Yemen since 1978

Yemen's parliament has voted to approve immunity from prosecution for President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who recently signed a deal to formally step down next month.

Full Report At:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16664892

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Jaipur Literature Festival: Cancellation of Rushdie's India visit a victory of democracy, says Darul Uloom Deoband

21 January 2012

MUZAFFARNAGAR:Jan 20, 2012, Leading Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband on FRiday dubbed controversial author Salman Rushdie's cancellation of his visit to India as a "victory of democracy".

"It is a victory of democracy because some Muslim organisations, including Darul Uloom Deoband, had opposed the visit to India in a democratic way," Vice-Chancellor of Darul Uloom Deoband, Maulana Abul Qasim Nomani told reporters.

Full Report At:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/-Jaipur-Literature-Festival-Cancellation-of-Rushdies-India-visit-a-victory-of-democracy-says-Darul-Uloom-Deoband/articleshow/11568367.cms

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Maldives vice president wants release of detained top judge, in sign of discord in government

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — The Maldives’ vice president joined calls Friday for the release of a detained senior judge, in a sign of divisions within the government of President Mohamed Nasheed.

Vice President Mohammed Waheed Hassan criticized the “extrajudicial arrest” this week of Criminal Court Chief Justice Abdulla Mohamed after he ordered the release of a detained government critic. Hassan told The Associated Press the detention sets a bad precedent for the country’s new democracy.

Full Report At:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia-pacific/maldives-vice-president-wants-release-of-detained-top-judge-in-sign-of-discord-in-government/2012/01/20/gIQAMEPIDQ_story.html

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Just another coup in Bangladesh, a nightmare in Pakistan

Saturday, January 21, 2012

The eastern half of what used to be Pakistan narrowly escaped a military coup last month. Brigadier Masud Razzak, the spokesman of the Bangladeshi army, announced on Thursday (19 January) that “A band of fanatic officers has been trying to oust the politically established government. Their attempt has been foiled”.

Full Report At:

http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/column_just-another-coup-in-bangladesh-a-nightmare-in-pakistan_1640290

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No intention to sack Kayani, Pasha: Pak govt

21 January 2012

ISLAMABAD:Jan 20, 2012, 07, Amid a tense standoff between Pakistan's civilian and military leadership, the government on Friday told the Supreme Court that it has no intention to sack the army and intelligence chiefs who were accused of acting in an "unconstitutional and illegal" manner in the memo scandal.

Full Report At:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/No-intention-to-sack-Kayani-Pasha-Pak-govt/articleshow/11568796.cms

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‘Journalists are endangered species in Pakistan’

Hindustan Times

January 21, 2012

Languorously puffing on Gold Leaf, with an occasional enigmatic smile, Pakistani author Mohammad Hanif held court for a select few as he rambled on about all things in Pakistan. Here’re words of wisdom straights from the horse’s mouth.

Full Report At:

http://books.hindustantimes.com/2012/01/journalists-are-endangered-species-in-pakistan/

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Muslim girl attacked for wearing hijab

21 January 2012

Surrey Police stated that the little Muslim girl who was waiting for the bus was “targeted during a racially aggravated assault” in Sunbury-on-Thames.

The group of suspects had kicked the schoolgirl in the leg and the back and pulled her rucksack off her back before pushing her to the floor. As the Muslim girl was lying on the floor, the white girls drew on her face with make-up and racially abused her, Surrey Police added.

Detective Constable Simon Egan, leading the investigation into the racist attack, considered the incident as appalling where a young victim was subjected to an “unprovoked attack.”

Full Report At:

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/222132.html

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Alan McMenemy's body recovered five years after Iraq kidnap

21 January 2012

The BBC's Frank Gardner says the militants had already admitted Mr McMenemy was deadContinue reading the main story

The British Embassy in Baghdad has confirmed that a body handed over to them is that of Alan McMenemy, who was kidnapped in Iraq in 2007.

Mr McMenemy, a security guard from Glasgow, was snatched along with three other guards and an IT expert.

Full Report At:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16660750

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Pakistani police: 3 Germans arrested in raid

From Shaan Khan

January 21, 2012

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- Three German citizens, including a German army colonel, were arrested in a police raid Saturday in the northern Pakistani city of Peshawar, authorities said.

Full Report At:

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/01/21/world/asia/pakistan-germans-arrest/

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SC orders arrest of PM’s ex-media coordinator

21 January 2012

ISLAMABAD: Giving four days to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) director general for the arrest of Mian Khurram Rasool, former media coordinator to Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, who had been accused of extorting Rs 430 million fraudulently, the Supreme Court on Friday warned that if he failed to arrest Khurram Rasool then action would initiated against him (DG FIA).

Full Report At:

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2012\01\21\story_21-1-2012_pg7_1

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Senior Qaeda figure killed in drone strike

Saturday, January 21, 2012

WASHINGTON/ ISLAMABAD: A terrorist who acted as a senior operations organiser for al Qaeda was targeted and killed in one of two US drone strikes launched against targets inside Pakistan last week, a US official said.

US and Pakistani sources told Reuters that the target of the attack was Aslam Awan, a Pakistani national from Abbottabad. They said he was targeted in a strike by a US-operated drone on January 10, directed at what news reports said was a compound near the town of Miranshah.

The sources described Awan, who also was known by the nom-de-guerre Abdullah Khorasani, as a significant figure in the remaining core leadership of al Qaeda.

Full Report At:

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2012\01\21\story_21-1-2012_pg1_6

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Only ‘direct’ talks can bring peace: Afghan official

21 January 2012

WASHINGTON: An Afghan official said Thursday his government hopes peace talks can achieve “a political solution” with the Taliban movement, but stressed that any agreement must come from “direct” negotiations between the two parties.

Full Report At:

http://www.dawn.com/2012/01/20/only-direct-talks-can-bring-peace-afghan-official.html

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Arab League considers extension of Syria mission

21 January 2012

Anti-government protesters attend the funeral of protesters killed in earlier clashes in the Damascus. -Reuters Photo

BEIRUT: Syrian government tanks and armored vehicles have pulled back from an embattled mountain town near Damascus, activists and witnesses say, but at least 16 people have been killed by security forces elsewhere as a month long Arab League fact-finding mission expires.

The pullback from Zabadani left the town under the control of the opposition, activists said on Thursday.

The besieged town of Zabadani has witnessed heavy exchanges of fire between army troops and anti-government military defectors over the past six days.

Full Report At:

http://www.dawn.com/2012/01/20/arab-league-considers-extension-of-syria-mission.html

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France mulls Afghan exit after unarmed troops 'murdered'

21 January 2012

PARIS: President Nicolas Sarkozy has warned he may accelerate the French withdrawal from Afghanistan after an Afghan soldier shot dead four unarmed French troops during a sports session inside a base.

Sarkozy suspended French military training and joint combat operations with Afghan troops, and sent Defence Minister Gerard Longuet to probe Friday's attack in which at least 15 French soldiers were also wounded, eight seriously.

Full Report At:

http://www.thenews.com.pk/article-31820-France-mulls-Afghan-exit

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Where Does a Canadian Degree Get You in Iran? In Prison

JANUARY 20, 2012

Baha'i CommunityIran Internal SecurityIran JailsIran PoliceIran RevolutionUnited Nations Secretary General

Tabaret Hall at University of Ottawa. Photo: wiki commons.

In the latest of a long list of crimes perpetrated against the Iranian Baha’i community by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s regime, several graduates of Canadian universities have been detained and imprisoned for their involvement with the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education.

Nooshim Khadem — who holds a Masters in Business from Carleton University — was sentenced to four years in prison, while Kamran Rahimian and Faran Hesami — who carry Masters in Educational Counseling from the University of Ottawa — have been detained without charge since September 13.

Full Report At:

http://www.algemeiner.com/2012/01/20/where-does-a-canadian-degree-get-you-in-iran-in-prison/

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State Dept.: Uzbekistan Human Rights Still Bad, Military Aid Notwithstanding

21 January 2012

January 20, 2012 - 4:47pm, by Joshua Kucera The Bug Pit U.S. Uzbekistan

The defense bill that President Obama signed into law on December 31 contained a provision by which the U.S. could again start providing military aid to Uzbekistan, if the Secretary of State certifies that there is a national security reason for doing so. It also requires the State Department to provide an assessment of the progress that Uzbekistan has made in human rights.

Full Report At:

http://www.eurasianet.org/node/64876

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Fears of the Arab Spring Becoming an "Islamist Spring"

21 January 2012

Beirut - Mistaken are those who demand that power be handed over to the Islamists in the Arab region of change, even on the grounds that they have been brought to power by a democratic process that must be honored, and that there is no choice but to submit to the de facto situation until the Islamists are tested in power. This is because democracy has been abortive as a result of excluding women and the youth from decision-making, and there are dangerous indications that the personal freedoms of Arab women and religious minorities are being undermined in the age of the Islamist monopoly of power.

Full Report At:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/raghida-dergham/fears-of-the-arab-spring-_b_1219834.html

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Human rights groups charge NATO with war crimes in Libya

By Bill Van Auken

21 January 2012

There is strong evidence that NATO carried out war crimes in its eight-month war for regime-change in Libya, according to a report released Thursday by Middle East human rights groups.

Full Report At:

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/jan2012/liby-j21.shtml

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Appeals Court: Ban on Sharia and International Law ‘Likely Unconstitutional’

By Gale Courey Toensing

January 20, 2012

A federal appeals court has unanimously upheld a lower court ruling blocking the implementation of an Oklahoma state law that would prohibit the use of Islamic Sharia law or international law – including tribal law – in state courts. The ruling is a victory not only for Muslims, but also for Indian country and all Americans, legal experts said.

Full Report At:

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/01/20/appeals-court-ban-on-sharia-and-international-law-likely-unconstitutional-73349

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Bangladesh arrests Islamist outlaws after foiled coup

DHAKA | Fri Jan 20, 2012 6:09pm IST

(Reuters) - Bangladesh special forces on Friday arrested five members of a banned Islamic group accused of supporting a coup attempt last month, a spokesman said.

Full Report At:

http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/01/20/bangladesh-islamists-idINDEE80J0AX20120120?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FINtopNews+%28News+%2F+IN+%2F+Top+News%29

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Libyan Islamists rally to demand sharia-based law

By Mahmoud Habboush

Fri Jan 20, 2012

(Reuters) - Hundreds of Libyan Islamists rallied on Friday to demand that Muslim sharia law inspire legislation in what organizers called a response to the emergence of secular political parties after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi's dictatorship last year.

Full Report At:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/20/us-libya-sharia-rallies-idUSTRE80J23G20120120

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A new generation of political Islamists steps forward

By Olivier Roy

Saturday, January 21

Olivier Roy is a professor at the European University Institute in Florence and the author of “Holy Ignorance.”

Everywhere, the Muslim Brotherhood is benefiting from a democratization it did not trigger. There is a political vacuum because the liberal vanguard that initiated the Arab Spring did not try, and did not want, to take power. This was a revolution without revolutionaries. Yet the Muslim Brothers are the only organized political force. They are rooted in society, and decades of opposition against authoritarian regimes gave them experience, legitimacy and respect. Their conservative agenda fits a conservative society, which may welcome democracy but did not turn liberal.

Full Report At:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/muslim-brotherhood-other-islamists-have-changed-their-worldview/2012/01/10/gIQAZgjoEQ_story.html

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Seeking Consensus, the FJP Remains Wary of Alliance with Salafis

Friday, January 20,2012

by Sondos Asem

Despite widespread speculation to the contrary, the Muslim Brotherhood's political wing -- the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) -- has consistently ruled out the possibility of forming any strategic alliance with the Salafist Nour Party. Although the two parties have been indiscriminately – and incorrectly -- lumped together as "Islamists" by some observers, the FJP has been keen on maintaining its distinctly moderate outlook by focusing on nationalist alliances instead of ideology-based ones and prioritizing public policy over religious agendas. 

Full Report At:

http://www.ikhwanweb.com/article.php?id=29575

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Iran continues its campaign against journalists

21 January 2012

New York, January 20, 2012--The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the most recent spate of press freedom violations in Iran and calls on authorities to immediately reverse its crackdown on the press.

In the past two weeks, Iranian authorities have arrested seven journalists, CPJ research shows. The country was jailing 42 journalists when CPJ carried out its prison census on December 1. Authorities have also sentenced to death three Web technologists, and continue to mistreat imprisoned journalists by withholding medical care.

Full Report At:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.cpj.org/2012/01/iran-continues-its-campaign-against-journalists.php

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The world's responsibility to address genocide

21 January 2012

by Thor Halvorssen

Should democratic governments step into the sovereign affairs of other states in order to prevent genocide or mass killings?

During World War II, German cleric Dietrich Bonhoeffer actively conspired against Hitler to resist the persecution of Europe's Jews. Bonhoeffer spent years subverting Nazi policy at the highest level and was even involved in the plot to kill Hitler. When Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor, was caught by Nazi officials, he was first held in military detention, then in a Gestapo prison, then at Buchenwald concentration camp, and finally at Flossenbürg concentration camp. As allied forces approached Flossenbürg in 1945, the SS received orders to hang Bonhoeffer. Before he died, he explained his resistance to the Nazi regime: "If I see a madman driving a car into a group of innocent bystanders, then I can't, as a Christian, simply wait for the catastrophe and then comfort the wounded and bury the dead. I must try and wrestle the steering wheel out of the hands of the driver." In Bonhoeffer's mind those in a position to act have a responsibility to protect.

In the aftermath of the Third Reich, whose horrors were a grave wake-up call for the world's democratic nations, open societies began to recognize a responsibility to prevent despotic regimes from killing their own people on a massive scale. Almost 65 years after the Holocaust and decades after genocides and mass murders in Cambodia, Darfur, Ethiopia, and Srebrenica, a principle of government policy by the name "Responsibility to Protect" took form.

Also known as R2P, the doctrine was adopted in 2005 by the United Nations in the wake of genocides in Rwanda and Bosnia. The policy obligates the international community to use diplomatic and humanitarian means to support governments in exercising the responsibility to protect their citizens, as well as coercive tactics -- diplomatic, legal, economic, and as a last resort, military—in order to stop mass atrocities. R2P became the legal basis invoked to prevent crimes against humanity and war crimes last spring in Libya by NATO forces under the mandate of the UN Security Council.

Critics brand R2P an inconsistent policy, activated in the case of oil-rich and isolated Libya, but not in the case of Syria, which lacks oil and sits as a fragile flashpoint between Lebanon, Iraq, Israel, and Turkey.

If something like Srebrenica were to happen today within Europe, R2P action might be trigged immediately. But when massacres occurred in Burma or the Congo, for instance, NATO turned a blind eye. Some critics conclude that R2P is led solely by economics; others believe it is racist. The truth is that democratic processes like R2P are imperfect, driven by competing self-interests, and messy. But authoritarianism is infinitely messier.

Indeed, the major challenge to R2P moving forward is represented by China and Russia. You will never see the UN address the repression of the Uyghur people in China or the Tibetan population in the R2P discussion. You will never see the R2P doctrine implemented in Chechnya, a country that has been ravaged for two decades by Russia. The Russian and Chinese governments, members of the U.N. Security Council, are the two major obstacles that stand in the way.

According to Freedom House, 45% of today's governments, such as Chile, Japan, or Sweden, are fully democratic or "free"; 24% such as Burma, Cuba, or Zimbabwe are authoritarian or "not free"; and 31% such as Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and Venezuela are elected authoritarian or "partly free". It is then quite remarkable that R2P was realized this year in Libya when you consider that 55% of the governments that sit at the United Nations aren't really interested in protecting their citizens. In fact, governments of nations that are partly free or not free often do great harm to their own people, especially to those individuals who criticize the government, point out corruption or human rights violations, or those who wish to participate in government through elections.

In a recent Oxford University Press book -- The Responsibility to Protect: The Promise of Stopping Mass Atrocities in Our Time -- human rights lawyers Jared Genser and Irwin Cotler edit a volume of essays that range from endorsement to skeptical views of the doctrine. With an introduction by Desmond Tutu and the late Václav Havel, the assembled contributors have produced the best discussion on how best to apply R2P to current and future humanitarian crises (full disclosure, Václav Havel was Chairman of the Human Rights Foundation at the time of his death and HRF partly financed the publishing of this book). Without a thoughtful dialogue R2P could easily be dismissed as a toothless measure or be stereotyped as an imperialist tool for regime change and occupation.

Throughout history governments have proven that they are, at best, late to address crises of this sort and, at worst, unconcerned. It has taken a very special set of circumstances for the UN to act on R2P given the nature of its member states, as well as the fact that free nations are too often driven by economic concerns (the number of former Western government officials and public intellectuals on Gaddafi's payroll is staggering). What made the difference in Libya and will make the difference in the future of R2P is civil society. R2P will only become a consistent and honest policy that saves lives in future crises if civil societies take the lead in monitoring global human rights violations and calling for appropriate action.

By civil society, I refer to the billions of people living in the free world. Men and women who can speak out and bear witness. Those who saw the images of slaughter in Benghazi contrasted with the rantings of Gaddafi and his son Saif al-Islam, who threatened to crush protestors with tanks and raved that "anybody who undermines the sovereignty of the state shall be punished by death."

Full Report At:

http://www.energypublisher.com/a/KLUTMNYKTM20/67119-The-worlds-responsibility-to-address-genocide

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Pakistan test cricket win over England will boost image

Article By: Shahid Hashmi

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 3:17

Pakistan coach Mohsin Khan insisted Friday that the comprehensive ten wicket win over the world's best Test team England would boost the image of his team.

"Our aim is to provide a boost to the nation and fans of Pakistan cricket, and to show the world that there is more to Pakistan cricket than just negatives like spot-fixing," Khan told AFP on Friday.

Pakistan romped to a 1-0 lead in the three-Test series with two days to spare as England crumbled to 160 in their second innings with Umar Gul (4-63), Saeed Ajmal (3-42) and Abdul Rehman (3-37) sharing the spoils.

Khan said the team were determined to improve their performances and their image.

Full Report At:

http://sport.iafrica.com/cricket/news/774017.html

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Drone strike kills top al-Qaeda operative in Pakistan, US says

Friday, Jan 20, 2012

A Pakistani top al-Qaeda operations planner, who was working a plot to attack Western targets, has been killed in a CIA drone strike in Pakistan's restive tribal area last week, a US official said.

Aslam Awan, a Pakistani citizen, was the "external operations planner" for the terrorist network.

Awan died January 10 when a missile fired by the drone slammed into a compound near the town of Miranshah in the province of North Waziristan, a center of militant activity.

Full Report At:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.dnaindia.com/world/report_drone-strike-kills-top-al-qaeda-operative-in-pakistan-us-says_1640247

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Pakistan economic growth depends on reform pace: ADB

21 January 2012

KARACHI: Pakistan's economy will struggle to grow fast this year but the country can do better in the future provided the necessary economic reforms make it through the country's complex power structure, the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) top official for Pakistan said."

After devastating summer floods caused economic growth to slow to 2.4 percent in the 2010/11 fiscal year, ADB country director for Pakistan Werner Liepach forecast growth to pick up to just 3.6 percent in 2011/12. The government targets an expansion of 4.2 percent.

Full Report At:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.thenews.com.pk/article-31752-Pakistan-GDP-depends-on-reforms:-ADB

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US committed to ‘mutually respectful’ Pakistan ties

21 January 2012

“Civilian assistance to Pakistan continues and has not been interrupted since the tragic November 26 incident,” Nuland noted. — Photo by Reuters

WASHINGTON: The United States “remains committed to a strong, mutually respectful” relationship with Pakistan and Washington’s civilian assistance for the South Asian country has not been affected in the aftermath of the November 26 strikes on Pakistani border posts, the State Department said on Friday.

Full Report At:

http://www.dawn.com/2012/01/21/us-vows-mutually-respectful-pakistan-ties.html

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Political crisis averted in Pakistan, but for how long?

January 21, 2012

With the Supreme Court of Pakistan determined to take up the issue of presidential immunity on February 1, the country may have to yet again brace itself for a rocky month ahead, reports Amir Mir.

The brewing political crisis in Pakistan seems to have been averted for the time being as Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani appeared before a seven-member bench of the Supreme Court on January 19, in a contempt of court case and showed his respect to the court which too accorded him all the protocol befitting an elected chief executive.

Full Report At:

http://www.rediff.com/news/slide-show/slide-show-1-political-crisis-averted-in-pakistan-but-for-how-long/20120123.htm

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Rulers treat people like animals: LHC

January 21, 2012

LAHORE – Justice Muhammad Khalid Mahmood Khan of the Lahore High Court on Friday expressed serious concerns over the performance of ministry of foreign affairs and its unsatisfactory reply with regard to the release of seven Pakistanis detained at Bagram Jail in Afghanistan and their repatriation.

Full Report At:

http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/lahore/21-Jan-2012/rulers-treat-people-like-animals-lhc

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Iran cannot be isolated: Pakistan's ex-minister

21 January 2012

Islamabad, Jan 20, IRNA -- Former Pakistani interior minister said here Friday that world powers would not succeed in isolating Iran over its peaceful nuclear program.

Full Report At:

http://www.irna.ir/News/Politic/Iran-cannot-be-isolated,-Pakistan_s-ex-minister/30774768

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Strengthening Enemy’s Hands

Date: 20 Jan 2012

Strengthening Enemy’s Hands

By Sajjad Shaukat

Unlike the past, the arena of aggression has changed. In the present era, different lethal weapons such as suicide attacks, bomb blasts and targeted killings used by the enemy coupled with techniques of psychological warfare like propaganda, creation of divisions among government institutions, politicians, general masses etc. can be more harmful in damaging the interest of a country.

Full Report At:

http://kashmirwatch.com/opinions.php/2012/01/20/strengthening-enemy-8217-s-hands.html

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Briefly World: Bangladesh coup attempt: Five held

21 January 2012

Dhaka:Jan 21 2012, Paramilitary forces Friday arrested five members of a banned Islamic group accused of a coup attempt last month, the military said. The five members of the Islamist group Hizbut Tahrir were arrested in Dhaka, said Mohammad Sohel, director for legal and media of the elite paramilitary Rapid Action Battalion. Among those arrested was fugitive army Major Ziaul Haque, said to be a mastermind of the plot.

Reforms irreversible, says Myanmar leader

Full Report At:

http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/902208/

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Oil sanctions on Iran will negatively affect world’s economy: Japanese envoy

21 January 2012

TEHRAN – The Japanese ambassador to Tehran has said that the imposition of sanctions on Iran’s oil industry will negatively affect the economic situation of the world in general and Japan in particular.

“The law ratified in the United States has endangered the situation of Japanese companies, and in the Japanese government’s view, it is very difficult to implement these sanctions,” Ambassador Kinichi Komano told the Mehr News Agency in an interview published on Thursday.

U.S. President Barack Obama signed into law a defense funding bill that imposes sanctions on financial institutions dealing with the Central Bank of Iran on December 31, 2011 with the aim of hampering Iran’s crude oil exports.

Full Report At:

http://tehrantimes.com/politics/94721-oil-sanctions-on-iran-will-negatively-affect-worlds-economy-japanese-envoy-

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Three Al Qaida-style religious trends raise their ugly heads

January 21, 2012

Al Qaida is a militant organisation that has adopted a takfiri philosophy known as being self-created and self not God-serving, a doctrine that blasphemes and completely negates all who differ with its egotistical thinking. Religiosity is the way the human brain processes the spiritual message of religion, which is anti- materialistic, and whose main purpose is to point ‘the way' that leads straight to heaven. Materialistic brains fabricate religiosities that serve selfish and egotistical materialistic aims. These self-concocted religiosities that grow away from the original spiritual messages get invaded/ infected by the ‘takfiri' virus.

Full Report At:

http://gulfnews.com/opinions/columnists/three-al-qaida-style-religious-trends-raise-their-ugly-heads-1.968687

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Banned Tahrir brings out procession

21 January 2012

Rapid Action Battalion personnel yesterday arrested five suspects of banned Islamist outfit Hizb ut-Tahrir Bangladesh when they brought out a procession in Uttara in the capital.

The detained suspects and two Rab personnel suffered injuries during the scuffle that ended in their arrest soon after juma prayers.

The detained five are: Minhaj Yiamim alias Zibran, 35, Mohammad Mosaddeq, Mohammad Mosabbir, 22, Ibrahim Khalil, 18, and Fahim Afsar Bhuiyan, 20. Mosaddeq and Mosabbir are siblings and students of a private university.

Full Report At:

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=219263

URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/radical-islamist-sect-boko-haram/d/6430