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Politics : The Truth About Islam -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ichy Smith who wrote (2842)	11/8/2006 8:30:26 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20106

Minnesota sends first Muslim to Congress Reuters ^ \| 11-07-2006 today.reuters.com MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) - Voters elected a black Democrat as the first Muslim in Congress on Tuesday after a race in which he advocated quick U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and made little mention of his faith. Keith Ellison, a 43-year-old lawyer and state representative, defeated two rivals, television networks said, to succeed retiring Democrat Martin Sabo in a seat that has been held by Democrats since 1963. Ellison, who converted to Islam as a 19-year-old college student in his native Detroit, won with the help of Muslims among a coalition of liberal, anti-war voters. He advocates an immediate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq along with strongly liberal views. While Ellison did not often speak of his faith during the campaign, awareness of his candidacy drew interest from Muslims well beyond the district centered in Minneapolis. A significant community of Somali immigrants in Minneapolis cast their first votes for him in the crowded September primary. Ellison also was the surprise choice of party regulars. While Muslim-Americans make up less than 3 percent of the U.S. population and have largely been a non-factor in terms of political power, get-out-the-vote efforts in several Muslim communities could indicate they may become an emerging force. Roughly 2 million Muslims are registered U.S. voters, and their ranks increased by tens of thousands in the weeks prior to Tuesday's mid-term elections, Muslim groups have said. Since the September 11, 2001, attacks by Islamic militants, Muslim-Americans have become sensitized to what many feel is an erosion of their civil rights. U.S. foreign policy that targets Muslim countries also has generated a sense of urgency, experts said. "(Americans) treat us differently after September 11. My own father was attacked," said Ellison supporter Khadra Darsame, a 1995 immigrant from Somalia. "Ellison said everybody matters equally and he told us what he would do ... he will do the right thing." Born into a Roman Catholic family in Detroit, Ellison said his values were shaped by both faiths, along with his grandfather's civil rights work in the Deep South. Opponents focused on Ellison's sloppy handling of his taxes and a slew of unpaid parking tickets, along with his one-time affiliation with the Nation of Islam, whose leader, Louis Farrakhan, has been criticized for making anti-Semitic remarks. Ellison subsequently said he worked with the group largely to promote the 1995 Million Man March.

To: Ichy Smith who wrote (2842)	11/8/2006 7:53:09 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20106

BRITONS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE FANATACISM THAT THREATENS THEM The Times (London) ^ \| 11/08/2006 \| Editorial Staff timesonline.co.uk The 40-year sentence imposed yesterday on Dhiren Barot, the Muslim convert who masterminded plans for mass murder on a horrendous scale, is one of the longest terms handed down for non-capital offences. It reflects not only the gravity of the appalling acts that this senior al-Qaeda operative was planning, his callous glee at the scale of death and injury and his cunning in elaborating plans to maim and terrify thousands of people in Britain and America; it is also a clear message to other fanatics abusing the name of Islam that a democracy will take whatever measures are needed to protect itself from such evil. The threat posed by Barot is hard to envisage. The middle-class Hindu, who went to school in London and worked briefly as an airline ticket clerk, sought out the most radical and violent form of Islam after his conversion and spent the next nine years as a full-time terrorist planner. His expertise and professionalism in surveying the nine London hotels, three stations, synagogues, banks and Underground lines targeted for destruction is matched only by his sadism in contemplating how he could increase the panic and human suffering caused by exploding gas cylinders, napalm, nails and a radiation bomb. It is vital, however, that the threat posed by such men is understood. Had it not been for a determined effort by this newspaper, together with the BBC and the Associated Press, no detail of what Barot was planning or of his sentence could have been made public. Confronted with overwhelming evidence, he pleaded guilty. But seven co-accused are currently on trial, and the courts had refused to lift any reporting restrictions for fear of prejudicing trials that may not end for two years. Such gagging would have been utterly unacceptable. Ruthless, religiously inspired terrorism is the greatest danger this country faces. Britons were shaken from earlier complacency by the London suicide bombings in July last year. Many, though, still do not comprehend the aims or methods of those who would slaughter thousands to create “a black day for the enemies of Islam”. Simple vigilance is not enough. The security services mounted one of the largest operations undertaken to monitor and unravel his plot, but were up against a level of sophistication and terrorist training rarely seen until now. Their success in cracking encrypted messages, penetrating hidden computer data and identifying electronic keys and terrorist paraphernalia is remarkable. None of this would have been known had the reporting restrictions not been lifted. This case has already led directly to the change in law allowing police to hold suspects for 28 days (but not the 90 days that the Prime Minister wanted) rather than 14 days, before charging them. It must surely now provoke a full debate on how terrorist cases are prepared, tried and reported. Dozens of suspects face trial on terrorism charges, and the virus has a long way to run before it is eradicated. British justice had yet to find ways of accommodating old and fair procedures to this challenge. The Barot case underlines the character of terrorism, its international tentacles, chameleon adaptability and ability to exploit Western fads and weaknesses. It should, and will, make more urgent the need to penetrate and disarm the mindset that kills in the name of a deity. It is a threat that no democratic society can ignore.