Most of us occasionally have differences of opinion with our neighborhood public school. If you voice your complaints, you may risk a frown from the principal or a cold shoulder from other parents at a school softball game.
But at one Minnesota public school, critics may be in for something more sinister. Khalid Elmasry says in an affidavit that after he criticized Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TiZA), which his child used to attend, the school's executive director made a statement at a parent meeting that Elmasry took "as an attempt to incite violence against me and my family." Even more disturbing is what Janeha Edwards -- a former administrative assistant at the school -- says in an affidavit the director suggested after she displeased him: "We could just kill you, yeah tell your husband we'll do his job for him."
These bizarre developments are described in documents filed in a legal battle royal between TiZA -- a K-8 charter school with campuses in Inver Grove Heights and Blaine -- and the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota. Last year, the ACLU filed a federal suit claiming that TiZA impermissibly promotes religion. In January, the ACLU sought a protective order, telling the court that intimidation by TiZA was discouraging potential witnesses from appearing. On Feb. 10, the court barred witness harassment or intimidation by either party.
Elmasry is one witness who sought such protection. In January, he testified about TiZA's financial entanglement with the Muslim American Society of Minnesota at a Minnesota Senate subcommittee hearing on charter school lease aid. Shortly thereafter, Elmasry says in an affidavit, he was informed by a friend and TIZA parent that TiZA authorities had called a parent meeting, where they showed a video of Elmasry's testimony. Then, according to the parent's account, Asad Zaman, the school's director and an imam -- or Muslim religious leader -- accused Elmasry of talking to the Minnesota Department of Education and "selling" his "Iman," meaning his Islamic faith, according to Elmasry's affidavit.
Elmasry was frightened, he says. "It is well-known in Islam that a Muslim who rejects his or her faith is committing an act punishable by death," according to his affidavit. "There are many accounts of Muslims taking matters into their own hands and killing people they believe have sold or rejected their Islamic faith or Iman."
FDI operative Bella infiltrated a CAIR sponsored taqiya event to con and confuse the infidels. Objective: Invitation to Islam. In other words, seduce the infidels to convert.
Here's Bella's report:
This is what we were invited to:
2/28: Inside Islam: What a Billion Muslims Really Believe
Sunday, February 28: Under the sponsorship of the Mission and Service Ministry and the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington, DC, we will be showing this film originally scheduled for showing at St. Paul’s College in Washington the weekend of the first big snow. Following the film there will be an opportunity to discuss the film with an interfaith group of Muslims and Christians.
Inside Islam: What a Billion Muslims Really Think, is a new documentary film that explores the expertly gathered opinions of Muslims around the globe as revealed in the world’s first major opinion poll, conducted by Gallup, the preeminent polling organization. Gallup researchers began by asking the questions on every American’s mind. Why is there so much anti-Americanism in the Muslim world? Who are the extremists and how do Muslims feel about them? What do Muslims like and dislike about the West? What do Muslim women really want?
As part of this groundbreaking six-year project, Gallup conducted tens of thousands of interviews with residents in 35 predominantly Muslim nations, as well as smaller populations in Europe and the USA. The broad extent of the polling has delivered findings for the world’s 1.4 billion Muslims with a plus or minus accuracy of 3% Focused on the issues of Gender Justice, Terrorism, and Democracy –the film presents this remarkable data deftly, showing how it challenges the popular notion that Muslims and the West are on a collision course. Like the research, the film highlights a shared relationship. This event was co-sponsored by CAIR.
Here is the Imam that spoke at the event tonight, Imam Johari Abdul Malik. He is the director of outreach for Dar al-Hijrah in Falls Church, VA, the same mosque that some of the 9/11 hijackers attended. Here’s what he had to say in
Abdul Malik: People even under the pressures that you and I know about, the deen of Islam is growing because people see even within all of this struggle it is better to be a Muslim under these conditions than to be a kaffir under any conditions... before Allah closes our eyes for the last time you will see Islam move from being the second largest religion in America-that's where we are now- to being the first religion in America.
God Bless Israel! Just another story showing who the real aggressors are in the middle east.
(IsraelNN.com) The riots that began in Hevron last week reached the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on the morning of the Purim holiday (Sunday). Four police officers were lightly hurt, as were at least 15 Arab rioters.
The riots started Monday after the government decided to include the Cave of Patriarchs in Hevron – Judaism's second most holy site – in a list of national heritage sites to receive extra funding, as well as the Tomb of Rachel the Matriarch near Bethlehem.
About 30 Arab Muslim youths threw rocks at visitors to the Temple Mount Sunday. A police force reacted by entering the mosque compound and the Arab attackers fled into the Al Aqsa mosque.
The Temple Mount mosques' public address speakers broadcast calls of incitement in the morning hours, including anti-Jewish phrases, calls for 'jihad' (holy war) and cries of “allahu akbar” - “Allah is great.”
There has also been ongoing violence between police and Arabs in the alleys of the Old City. Muslim youths have attacked police with rocks at the “Antonia Gate” entrance to the Temple Mount. One suspect was arrested near the Ecce Homo arch. A group of some 100 female rioters attempted to march in the Sultan Suleiman area of eastern Jerusalem.
Two Jewish activists were allowed to visit the Temple Mount early Sunday afternoon, after restrictions were placed on Muslims wishing to enter the site because of the violence. They braved the heavy rain to visit the Temple Mount "so that it should not be empty of Jews," according to one of them, Yosef Rabin.
A 3,000-year-old defensive wall possibly built by King Solomon has been unearthed in Jerusalem, according to the Israeli archaeologist who led the excavation. The discovery appears to validate a Bible passage, she says.
The tenth-century B.C. wall is 230 feet (70 meters) long and about 6 meters (20 feet) tall. It stands along what was then the edge of Jerusalem—between the Temple Mount, still Jerusalem's paramount landmark, and the ancient City of David, today a modern-day Arab neighborhood called Silwan.
The stone barrier is part of a defensive complex that includes a gatehouse, an adjacent building, and a guard tower, which has been only partially excavated, according to Eilat Mazar, who led the dig for the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Over the years, the structures have been partially demolished—their building materials scavenged for later structures—and what remained was buried under rubble, Mazar said.
The Bible's First Book of Kings—widely believed to have been written centuries after the time period in question—says Solomon, king of Israel, built a defensive wall in Jerusalem. The new discovery is the first archaeological evidence of this structure, Mazar says.
Hmmmm.. I hope the jihadist have not kidnapped him.
A Canadian nuclear scientist who has not been seen for more than a month has simply vanished, leaving "absolutely no trace at all," police say.
Lachlan Cranswick, 41, a physicist from the Chalk River Laboratories nuclear facility in Ottawa, was last seen on Jan. 18, when he left his job and boarded a bus to Deep River, his hometown along the Ottawa River with a population of roughly 4,300.
Later that day, or possibly the next morning, Cranswick took out the garbage -- and the single man described as a meticulous loner has not been seen since.
"It is open and there is nothing else we can do with it," said Const. Darin Faris, the Deep River police officer conducting the investigation. "Every bit of information, every lead that came in, everything ... has led us nowhere."
Faris said Cranswick's friends notified police of his disappearance six days after he was last seen, leading to fruitless searches of a 9-mile-long stretch of land along the Ottawa River. Helicopters, tracking dogs and civilians were unable to find a trace of the man.
Faris said investigators have no reason to believe Cranswick was targeted or that he was a victim of a crime.
"It's not like he's a reactor designer or that he knows how to use them," Faris told FoxNews.com. "He's not someone who, if you gave him highly enriched uranium, he could make a bomb. He's not that kind of person."
Investigators at first thought Cranswick had gotten lost while walking along several nearby trails, but every item he typically took on those trips -- at least two flashlights, a whistle and a GPS system -- was found in his unlocked home, along with his wallet, keys and passport.
"We don't believe he got lost," Faris said. "He's meticulous in all points of detail."
Faris acknowledged the possibility that Cranswick lost his way and fell through ice on the Ottawa River, or perhaps he was attacked by a wolf, coyote or bear, but investigators have found no evidence to support those theories.
"The average person would come to the conclusion -- it's not a good feeling," he said. "There's absolutely no evidence either way. There's absolutely no trace at all."
Daniel Banks, a colleague of Cranswick's at Chalk River Laboratories, said he saw no change in Cranswicks' demeanor prior to his disappearance.
"There was no indication he was going anywhere," Banks said. "Everyone has said that he seemed normal, especially during the time leading up to the disappearance."
Cranswick, an avid curler, specialized in conducting experiments in structural chemistry and Earth sciences, Banks said.
CBN News has learned exclusively that five Muslim soldiers at Fort Jackson in South Carolina were questioned just before Christmas. It is unclear whether the men are still in custody. The five were part of the Arabic Translation program at the base.
Patrick Jones, the Deputy Public Affairs Officer for Fort Jackson, confirmed for CBN News Thursday afternoon that an investigation was ongoing.
Prior to this posting, CBN News learned that these details were also confirmed by a government official with knowledge of the investigation.
The men are suspected of trying to poison the food supply at Fort Jackson.
A source with intimate knowledge of the investigation, which is ongoing, told CBN News investigators suspect the "Fort Jackson Five" may have been in contact with the group of five Washington, D.C., area Muslims that traveled to Pakistan to wage jihad against U.S. troops in December. That group was arrested by Pakistani authorities, also just before Christmas.
Coming as it does on the heels of November's Fort Hood jihadist massacre, this news could have major implications.
About A year ago Fox News had a interview with Mosab Hassan Yousef where he shared details of his view on Islam and his story of conversion to Christianity. You can watch the entire interview at Jawa Report. It has come to light that he was a spy for Israel for 10 years. I am also very much looking forward to his new book coming out entitled Son Of Hamas. .
Some women who protested at the Islamic Center of Washington, wanting to be able to worship in the main prayer hall with their male counterparts, were asked to leave by the police. But they say their struggle will continue. Carpets with intricate designs cover the floors of the main prayer hall and turquoise tiles line the walls. But the source of contention is a small room created with seven foot high wooden walls. Jannah B’int Hannah describes how she feels in there where she cannot see the imam, or leader of the mosque, speak. “Boxed in, stifling, suffocating and totally a second class citizen,” says Hannah. Over the weekend, Hannah and approximately 20 other women prayed in the main hall, but D.C. police were called. They asked them to leave or be arrested. Syed Burmi, the imam of Islamic Society of Western Maryland, says the physical separation helps maintain women’s privacy and modesty as well as keeps the focus on prayer. “If I stand next to a lady or a woman stands next to me, maybe the focus will change and no longer be on God the Almighty. So that’s why we put the partition,” says Burmi. In two out of every three American mosques, women of separate prayer spaces around the country.
Kentucky's Senate has approved a measure allowing Bible classes in public schools.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. David Boswell, D-Owensboro, allows schools to offer courses in the bible as electives, meaning no student would be required to take them.
"The Bible is the most influential book ever written," Boswell said during a speech on the Senate floor.
The proposal overwhelmingly cleared the senate by a 37 to 1 vote and will now be taken up by the House.
The only "no" vote was cast by Sen. Kathy Stein, D-Lexington, who questioned the constitutionality of teaching the Bible in public schools.
She added, "Public schools in Kentucky can and already do teach comparative religion."
This was back in December. Thank God a state senator named Steve Newman has taken action on this issue.
RICHMOND — The House of Delegates gave second-reading approval Monday to a bill, sponsored by Del. Kathy Byron, R-Campbell County, that would allow prosecution if someone kills an infant while its umbilical cord and placenta are still attached to the mother.
“It’s sad to say, there have been two instances in my district where a mother took the life of her newborn child,” Byron told the House in a brief floor speech.
In one case, a Campbell County woman smothered her newborn infant under bedclothes and it took 10 hours before anyone realized the child had been born, Byron said.
The other case, also in Campbell County, occurred a few years ago when a mother drowned her child in a toilet.
No one in the House asked any questions about the bill, HB 1033, after Byron’s remarks. The action means the bill could receive final approval in the House this week.
Sen. Steve Newman, R-Lynchburg, is sponsoring a similar bill (SB 602) that has already passed the Senate. There are minor differences in the two bills.
I have been a long time fan of Glenn Beck. And think he has done a great job exposing the progressive agenda. I was surprised when I saw this interview with USweekend.com. In this article Glenn admits that he lives in a "green house" and that he believes man is partly responsible for global warming??? I thought Glenn didn't believe in Global warming? He also points out that some of the people that work for him are liberals. He states that every year when they give money to liberal organizations he also matches there donations to those groups! Really Glenn? Your a champion for conservatives and pretend to fight against the progressive agenda yet some of your dollars go to progressive groups? That just doesn't work for me. Many people have pointed out to me that Glenn made a comment on his show about this article. You can read what he said here. The only thing he says in regards to the global warming comment is that he doesn't use CFL lighting in his house. He had no denial about giving money to liberal groups. I will still watch Glenn from time to time because I believe he has good stories and information. I must say though I have began to question how genuine he really is. Is he all an act? It seems that Debbie Schlussel. Debbie also does a great job of showing how Glenn has been holding up Jihad enabler Darrel Issa. Read about this here. More on Darrel Isa Here as well.
It has been a very long time since I have updated my blog. I am sure I have lost almost all my readers. But I have decided to start blogging again for several reasons.
1. I love doing it!
2. I am concerned for my country and for its future. I see the founding principles of this country under attack everyday and it makes me angry. I also see people who pretend to be "conservative" but who are not. I believe Americans need to be awakened to this.
3. I am concerned about the creeping wave of Islam and Sharia in our country. And how they have slowly but surely infiltrated every arena possible. Including everything from Fox News to CPAC. In total stealth to most the American public this is taking place.
4. I also feel that it is my duty as a good American and good Christian to make the wake up call to Americans to maybe open their eyes to what is going on!
3 If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people;
4 Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.
5 He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.
6 But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand. Ezekiel 33:3-6
(CBS) "60 Minutes" has obtained an FBI videotape showing a Defense Department employee selling secrets to a Chinese spy for cash. The video, which has never been made public before, offers a rare glimpse into the secretive world of espionage and illustrates how China’s spying may now pose the biggest espionage threat to the U.S.
What is happening in South Africa against the White population is unspeakable. Savage. And no one will speak of it.
Facebook jihad on South African whites: Ahmed El Saud @ Chris: we will do the job for your people. We will kill the whites at a agreed price per head. We deliver all heads and expect raw cash, gold or diamonds as payment. Baby heads are same as grown up's in price. We will give you instructions on how to arrange the payment and the terms and conditions. Do not worry now. We provide also body guards if you are in need. Just speak out. We can bring in planes and do it with poison spray but your people must be out of the area.
This is from today at the health care summit. Via Politico:
There have been some tense moments during today's health care summit at the Blair House, but not for Vice President Joe Biden, it seems.
Just moments before the afternoon session got underway, C-SPAN's cameras picked up audio of Biden chatting casually with participants.
"It's easy being vice president — you don't have to do anything."
Whomever Biden was chatting with said, "It's like being the grandpa and not the parent."
"Yeah, that's it!" replied Biden.
Biden spokesman Jay Carney tells POLITICO that the vice president was "obviously joking, as any review of his schedule and responsibilities would make abundantly clear."
“In the last month, the vice president has, among many other things, made his fourth trip to Iraq since being elected, delivered a major speech on the administration’s non-proliferation agenda, produced a report on the Recovery Act’s first year to the president and played a key role in bringing about the president’s bi-partisan Fiscal Commission,” Carney said. “In the coming days and weeks, the vice president will deliver a first-year report from the Middle Class Task Force, which he chairs, and travel to the Middle East to meet with key leaders in the region.”
In some parts of the world it can be very dangerous to convert from Islam to Christianity, or any other faith. Sometimes Christians are killed by radical Muslims or sometimes by the state which sanctions death or prison. Somalia, like some other Muslim majority nations, clearly does not believe in religious freedom and the small Christian population faces an uphill struggle to survive. Therefore, it is essential to remember these martyrs because organizations like Al Qaeda would like to spread this tyranny to every nation. So why is it so dangerous to convert to Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, or any other religion, from Islam?
Firstly, it is essential to remember that religious freedom is denied to other faiths in other parts of the world. For example, religious freedom is severely restricted in Laos and Cambodia. However, religious restrictions in these two nations, and other similar type of nations, is based on political ideology and no single religion is favoured.
Yet when we focus on Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, and other Muslim majority nations it is clear that religious freedom is denied because of Islam itself. These restrictions are multiple, and this applies to either radical Islamic organizations or because of state sanctioned Islamic Sharia Law.
For example in modern day Saudi Arabia the Islamic establishment will not allow one non-Muslim place of worship. Also, conversion from Islam is punishable by death and you are not openly allowed to read about Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, or any other non-Muslim faith in Saudi Arabia. These laws and restrictions in Saudi Arabia are based on the Koran, the Hadiths, and Islamic Sharia Law.
Even in more moderate nations like Egypt we see state sanctioned discrimination because the Coptic Christian community is treated unequally. This applies to the very basics of human life. For example a Coptic Christian male will suffer persecution if he wants to marry a Muslim female and in child custody cases involving a Muslim male or Christian female, the child or children will be given to the Muslim male. The reasons for this are simple, it is because Christians are deemed to be inferior to Muslims and this issue threatens all non-Muslims in Sharia Islamic based nations.
Turning back to Somalia it is now "open season" to kill Christian converts from Islam because radical Sunni Islam is on the march. Last year, for example, Sunni Muslim fanatics beheaded Mansuur Mohammed who was a Christian convert. He was beheaded in the most cruel and barbaric way and at the same time Muslims were celebrating by saying Allah Akbar (God is great).
You see, for rational people or people of compassion this act was barbaric and a crime against humanity. However, for the Muslims who did this they are following the Koran and the Hadiths and to these Islamic fanatics it is they who are following Islam to the full.
Therefore, Mansuur Mohammed had done nothing wrong in accordance to Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism, or any other religion. Yet in accordance with Islam, Mansuur Mohammed was an apostate and despite him caring for humanity, this meant nothing. Given this, Sunni Islamic fanatics held him down and beheaded him while they were praying to Allah.
The last moments of Mansuur Mohammed were full of pain and just like the followers of Osama Bin Laden, the brutal killers video taped this murder, just like so many people who have been killed by fanatics in Iraq. Therefore, just like the complete annihilation of Buddhism in Afghanistan in past history, these Islamic jihadists desire the same outcome.
Sahih Bukhari recorded the sayings of Mohammed and the Hadiths are very important to Muslims. In volume 4, Book 52, Number 260: Ali burnt some people and this news reached Ibn Abbas, who said, "Had I been in his place I would not have burnt them, as the Prophet said, 'Don't punish (anybody) with Allah's Punishment.' No doubt, I would have killed them, for the Prophet said, 'IF SOMEBODY (a Muslim) DISCARDS HIS RELIGION, KILL HIM,'"
Therefore, in the eyes of many Muslims, not all, it is moral and right to kill converts from Islam and in nations like Saudi Arabia this is enshrined fully within the codified law of Islamic Sharia Law. Even moderate branches of Islam face persecution, for example the Alevi's in Turkey and the Ahmadiyya in Pakistan are also victimized by conservative Islam.
Therefore, the martyrdom of Christians in Somalia continues and in recent times we have heard about the brutal killings of innocent Christians in Somalia. The list includes Mansuur Mohammed, David Abdulwahab Mohammed Ali, Prof. Da'ud Hassan Ali, Pastor Hussein Adan Ahmed, Faarah Ibraahim Adaaweh, Pastor Liibaan Ibraahim Hassan, Ahmadey Osman Nur, and Savid Ali Sheik Luqman Hussein.
Sadly the list will continue to grow and the aim of these Islamists is to turn Somalia into a one hundred percent Islamic nation. Not that this will help Somalia because just like in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the same Islamists will then desire to kill and persecute moderate Muslims or kill Muslim minorities, for example many Shia Muslims have been killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
I can hear both liberals and Islamic apologists complaining about this article and the implications of what is written. Yet you have one simple truth, and often the truth is very hard to find. However, if any Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, or Sikh, went to Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, or Somalia, and they openly tried to convert people then the consequences would be death.
The Christian martyrs of Somalia died because they loved humanity but all that is evil in humanity killed them because they want to crush religious freedom, liberty, justice, and all that is positive in this world. In modern day Iraq the minority Christian population is trying to survive massive persecution and violence because Islamists, just like in Somalia, desire to destroy and crush all minorities.
Therefore, the Christian martyrs of Somalia are a testimony of the evils of a religion which fears the freedom of religion and free thought. In modern day America and Japan where I reside, people have the freedom to follow any religion or no religion and Muslims are welcome in both nations. However, in modern day Saudi Arabia and Somalia, the sword of Islam is still being used against converts to Christianity, therefore, how much longer can the world remain silent?
KANO, Nigeria (AFP)--Radical Islamists torched a police headquarters, a church and a customs office, residents said Monday, as police put the death toll in weekend religious clashes in northern Nigeria at 65.
"Five policemen have been killed, one police station burnt and 60 Talibans killed," police Inspector-General Ogbonna Onovo told reporters, referring to an Islamist sect styled on Afghanistan's Taliban.
The latest violence struck the town of Gamboru-Ngala in Borno state, bordering Cameroon, local residents said.
One of the residents, Shafiu Mohammed, said a group belonging to a religious sect known as the Nigerian "Talibans" stormed the town around midnight and went on a rampage. He said the heavily armed militants set ablaze a customs office and slit the throat of an engineer working there.
The police chief told reporters in the capital Abuja that 65 people had been killed in police clashes in two other states with members of the Islamist sect inspired by Afghanistan's Taliban. The two sides had exchanged gunfire after a failed dawn attack Sunday on a police station in Bauchi state, with the death toll there at 39.
There were further clashes in Yobe state, Onovo told a news conference.
The Nigerian Taliban emerged in 2004 when it set up a base - dubbed Afghanistan - in Kanamma village in Yobe, on the border with Niger, from where it attacked police outposts and killed police officers. Its membership is mainly drawn from university dropouts.
The north of Nigeria is majority Muslim, although large Christian minorities have settled in the main towns, raising tensions between the two groups. Since 1999 and the return of a civilian regime to Nigeria's central government, 12 northern states have introduced Islamic Sharia law.
A U.S. court has sentenced an American al-Qaida member to life in prison for plotting to assassinate then-President George W. Bush in 2003.
A judge in the eastern U.S. state of Virginia had originally sentenced Ahmed Omar Abu Ali to a 30-year prison term. But a higher court ruled the punishment was too lenient and sent the case back for re-sentencing.
The U.S.-born Abu Ali was convicted in 2005 of involvement in an al-Qaida plot to kill Mr. Bush and carry out other terrorist acts. Prosecutors said the 28-year-old joined al-Qaida while studying in Saudi Arabia in 2002.
Saudi authorities detained Abu Ali in 2003 in a crackdown on militants and jailed him for 20 months before extraditing him to the United States.
U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee said Monday he increased Abu Ali's sentence to a life term because of his refusal to renounce terrorism and the risk he would pose to the public if released.
Abu Ali says Saudi authorities tortured him into confessing. Judge Lee, a jury and an appeals court all rejected the claim.
In a brief statement to the court Monday, Abu Ali said Judge Lee would have to appear one day before a divine tribunal. Abu Ali said that if the judge was comfortable with such a prospect, he could impose any sentence he desired....
WASHINGTON — A father, his two sons and four other men living in North Carolina are accused of military-style training at home and plotting "violent jihad" abroad, federal authorities said.
Officials said Monday the men were led by Daniel Patrick Boyd, a married 39-year-old who lived in an unassuming lakeside home in a rural area south of Raleigh, where he and his family walked their dog and operated a drywall business.
But court records indicate Boyd was a veteran of terrorist training camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan who fought against the Soviet Union.
"These charges hammer home the point that terrorists and their supporters are not confined to the remote regions of some far-away land but can grow and fester right here at home," U.S. Attorney George E.B. Holding said.
The seven men made their first court appearances in Raleigh on Monday, charged with providing material support to terrorism. If convicted, they could face life in prison.
The indictment said Boyd, a U.S. citizen, trained in Afghanistan and fought there between 1989 and 1992 before returning to the United States. Court documents charged that Boyd, also known as 'Saifullah,' encouraged others to engage in jihad.
Boyd's faith was so brash that, this year, he stopped attending worship services in the Raleigh area and instead began meeting for Friday prayers in his home.
"This is not an indictment of the entire Muslim community," Holding said. "These people had broken away because their local mosque did not follow their vision of being a good Muslim."
In 1991, Boyd and his brother were convicted of bank robbery in Pakistan — accused of carrying identification showing they belonged to the radical Afghan guerrilla group, Hezb-e-Islami, or Party of Islam.
They were each sentenced to have a foot and a hand cut off for the robbery, but the sentenced was later overturned.
The wives of the men told The Associated Press in an interview at the time they were glad the truth about their husbands had finally become known. The wives said the couples had U.S. roots but the United States was a country of "kafirs" — Arabic for heathens.
A concerted effort to start unprecedented talks between Taliban and British and American envoys was outlined yesterday in a significant change in tactics designed to bring about a breakthrough in the attritional, eight-year conflict in Afghanistan.
Senior ministers and commanders on the ground believe they have created the right conditions to open up a dialogue with "second-tier" local leaders now the Taliban have been forced back in a swath of Helmand province.
They are hoping that Britain's continuing military presence in Helmand, strengthened by the arrival of thousands of US troops, will encourage Taliban commanders to end the insurgency. There is even talk in London and Washington of a military "exit strategy".
Speaking at the end of the five-week Operation Panther's Claw in which hundreds of British troops were reported to have cleared insurgents from a vital region of Helmand province, Lieutenant-General Simon Mayall, deputy chief of defence staff, said: "It gives the Taliban 'second tier' room to reconnect with the government and this is absolutely at the heart of this operation."
The second tier of the insurgency are regarded as crucial because they control large numbers of Taliban fighters in Pashtun-dominated southern Afghanistan. The first tier of Taliban commanders – hardliners around Mullah Omar – could not be expected to start talks in the foreseeable future. The third tier – footsoldiers with no strong commitments – are not regarded as influential or significant players.
The change in tactics was revealed as the Ministry of Defence announced that two more British soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan. One, from the Light Dragoons, was on patrol in Operation Panther's Claw; the other, a soldier from the Royal Artillery, was killed on foot patrol in Sangin. Ten soldiers have died in Operation Panther's Claw.
God bless the Christians in the middle east. This from World Net Daily:
JERUSALEM – Hundreds of Muslims over the weekend tried to set a local Egyptian Christian's home on fire after he announced he would turn the structure into a church, an Egyptian security source and local Christians told WND.
At least four Christian Copts and two Muslim policemen were wounded in the clashes that ensued this past Friday after about 500 local Muslims descended upon the small Christian village of Al-Hawasiliya, vowing to burn down the house.
Local Christians told WND the Muslim mob was provoked at local mosque services.
"The imams deliberately worked up the congregants against us," a local Christian told WND yesterday.
The Muslims accused the Christian home owner of attempting to build a church without the proper local permits. Islamic Shariah law, not explicitly accepted by the Egyptian government, forbids the construction of any new churches in a Muslim state. Existing churches are allowed to remain but cannot be expanded and cannot conduct public ceremonies or ring church bells.
Egyptian police eventually stepped in to stop the Muslim crowd, but not before they first set several nearby Christian farms on fire, a security source in Egypt told WND.
Reporting from Washington -- Bryant Neal Vinas' unlikely odyssey from Long Island, N.Y., to Al Qaeda's innermost circle of commanders in Pakistan was achieved without any help in the U.S. from the well-oiled "jihadist pipeline" that has guided so many militants from Europe and other countries -- a fact that is cause for concern, current and former U.S. counter-terrorism officials said.
His case, which became public last week, showed that a U.S. convert to Islam bent on waging holy war could -- without much difficulty -- rely largely on friends and acquaintances to find his own way into the shadowy terrorist networks.
Current and former intelligence officials said that although they were able to at least partly track Vinas, they fear that the informal network of militants in Pakistan that he tapped into is widespread and below the radar of U.S. intelligence gathering.
Juan Zarate, the former deputy national security advisor for combating terrorism in the Bush administration, said that the Vinas case illustrated how difficult it was to follow young men who become radicalized and make their way to militant camps in Pakistan, as well as Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia.
"I don't think the FBI or [CIA] would say that they've seen even a poorly organized or loose [U.S.] pipeline," Zarate said. "But I don't think anyone is fully confident that we have full visibility of all the potential pipelines or of radicalized individuals trying to make their way to fight."
"We're not worried about volume," Zarate added. "But all you need is a cell to inflict damage."
One former senior U.S. counter-terrorism official said Friday that American authorities were watching Vinas long before his arrest in Pakistan in November, possibly even before he bought a plane ticket taking him from the small village of Patchogue, N.Y., to Lahore, Pakistan.
The former official said U.S. and Pakistani authorities tried to monitor Vinas as he made his way from one contact to another and, ultimately, to an Afghan fighting unit and Al Qaeda's operational leadership.
"Clearly, we were watching him very carefully, doing our best to understand what he was doing and whether he was coming back to launch an attack of some sort," said the former official, who, like others quoted, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the classified nature of the ongoing investigation.
Vinas, 26, began cooperating with U.S. officials almost immediately after his arrest, providing what one current federal law enforcement official described as an astounding level of detail about Al Qaeda's top leadership and some of its foot soldiers.
"From the time that he was picked up until the present, we estimate that we have had at least a hundred meetings with him. We have shown him countless photos, we have shown him maps, brought him pictures. We've had sketch artists. We've done everything we can to try and paint as complete of a picture of who he met along the way, where he went, what he did and all of those things," the official said. "I think it's fair to say that he has been a gold mine, not just for the FBI but for the intelligence community in general."
Vinas also told authorities that most, if not all, of those who helped him along the way had no idea of his intentions -- a claim backed up through months of independent, intensive investigation, according to that official and others.
"From what we can tell . . . the contacts he made were his own. He was self-recruited; he was yearning to become a Muslim jihad fighter," the official said. "He made his own path."..
The dhimmitude of Europe continues. Thanks to Islam In Action for this:
Avon and Somerset Police is issuing head coverings to its female officers so they can enter mosques.
The force says the move will help its officers respect Muslim religious customs while carrying out their job.
The garments, designed to match the force's uniform, were designed in consultation with Muslim groups.
Imam Rashad Azami, of Bath, said: "This will go a long way in encouraging a trustful relationship between the police and the Muslim community."
Mr Azami, director of Bath Islamic Society, said: "The police have been working closely with the Muslim community in the area on many levels for the last few years." There are two versions of the head coverings, to match the black of a police officer's uniform and the blue of the Police Community Support Officer uniforms.
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