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

To: lorne who wrote (10199)	9/23/2007 10:55:51 AM
From: DeplorableIrredeemableRedneck	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20106

Terror: Al Qaeda's Feuds and Fears msnbc.msn.com By Sami Yousafzai and Ron Moreau Newsweek Oct. 1, 2007 issue - Lonely, marginalized and suddenly suspicious that he was losing his grip over the organization he helped create, Osama bin Laden finally decided that enough was enough. At least that's the explanation sources close to him are giving for why, after three long years of silence, the Qaeda leader has released one video and two audiotapes in the past month, including last week's audio message calling for a jihad against Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. According to Omar Farooqi, a Taliban liaison officer with Al Qaeda, bin Laden recently learned that a faction within his own organization had been conspiring to sideline him, insisting—unnecessarily, bin Laden now believes—that he remain secluded for security reasons. CIA officials told NEWSWEEK they could neither confirm nor reject the theory. Bin Laden had long been chafing at this imposed gag order, says Farooqi, who learned from Sheik Saeed, Al Qaeda's senior leader in Afghanistan, and other top operatives that bin Laden became "extremely upset" earlier this year when he discovered that some of his lieutenants feared he was dead. Bin Laden has always loved talking to the media—he used to infuriate his onetime protector, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, by holding press conferences—and, according to Farooqi, bin Laden had only reluctantly gone along with the advice that his safety required absolute silence. Farooqi refused to say which faction bin Laden believes is responsible for the so-called conspiracy, though several Taliban sources pointed to Ayman Al-Zawahiri, bin Laden's deputy, suggesting that he might have been trying to solidify his own authority. This summer Farooqi and other Taliban sources told NEWSWEEK that a split had emerged in Al Qaeda between the organization's powerful Egyptian faction, led by Zawahiri, and its Libyan wing over jihadist strategy. Ever since the 2001 collapse of the Taliban, Zawahiri has been plotting to kill his nemesis, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, narrowly missing twice in 2003. But the Libyans, led by Abu Yahya al-Libi, had argued that Al Qaeda's resources should be focused on supporting insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq and fomenting terrorism in the West. The Egyptian-Libyan feud may now be history, though, thanks to Musharraf's decision in July to storm the radical Red Mosque in the heart of Islamabad, during which the mosque's radical leader Abdul Rashid Ghazi was killed. Within days, Zawahiri issued a video calling on Pakistanis to "revolt." Soon afterward, al-Libi followed suit. Even bin Laden, who had never before called on Pakistanis to rise up against Musharraf, did so in his latest audiotape. Despite the unity over Musharraf, though, there is still plenty of talk within Al Qaeda over Zawahiri's grip on resources. And what about those who had tried to sideline bin Laden? With Osama seemingly back in charge, they can only support him, at least for now. © 2007 Newsweek, Inc. \|

To: lorne who wrote (10199)	9/23/2007 1:00:06 PM
From: DeplorableIrredeemableRedneck	Respond to of 20106

Israelis seized nuclear material in Syrian raidUzi Mahnaimi and Sarah Baxter Also from Sarah Baxter: Snatched: Israeli commandos ‘nuclear’ raid \| Israelis 'blew apart Syrian nuclear cache' \| Secret US air force team to perfect plan for Iran strike \| Alan Greenspan: "Blair was clearly an aide to Brown" Israeli commandos seized nuclear material of North Korean origin during a daring raid on a secret military site in Syria before Israel bombed it this month, according to informed sources in Washington and Jerusalem. The attack was launched with American approval on September 6 after Washington was shown evidence the material was nuclear related, the well-placed sources say. They confirmed that samples taken from Syria for testing had been identified as North Korean. This raised fears that Syria might have joined North Korea and Iran in seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. Related Links Snatched: Israeli commandos ‘nuclear’ raid Blast at secret missile site killed dozens Israeli special forces had been gathering intelligence for several months in Syria, according to Israeli sources. They located the nuclear material at a compound near Dayr az-Zwar in the north. Evidence that North Korean personnel were at the site is said to have been shared with President George W Bush over the summer. A senior American source said the administration sought proof of nuclear-related activities before giving the attack its blessing. Diplomats in North Korea and China believe a number of North Koreans were killed in the strike, based on reports reaching Asian governments about conversations between Chinese and North Korean officials. Syrian officials flew to Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, last week, reinforcing the view that the two nations were coordinating their response. timesonline.co.uk

To: lorne who wrote (10199)	9/23/2007 1:01:41 PM
From: DeplorableIrredeemableRedneck	Respond to of 20106

Israelis seized nuclear material in Syrian How dare they. Those Israelis blowing up a cach that was to go to hospitals!!!!

To: lorne who wrote (10199)	9/23/2007 7:58:36 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 20106

Afghan Women Burning Themselves to Death at an Alarming Rate Monitor ^ \| Jan. 2005 \| Ron Synovitz albionmonitor.com More Young Afghan Women Committing Suicide Fifteen year-old Fazela lies in an intensive care unit at Abdullah Ansari Hospital in Herat with burns across much of her body. Like many women from Herat who have tried to burn themselves to death during the past year, Fazela says she thought suicide was the only way to escape a physically and emotionally abusive husband she had been forced to marry. "My name is Fazela. On that particular day when I burned myself, my husband -- who is also my cousin -- had a fight with me," she recalls. "He beat me. And after I was beaten, I poured kerosene over myself. Then I lit myself on fire. Before this, I really wanted to leave this house. But he took my burqa and did not let me go outside of the house. Now I really regret that I burned myself." Fazela is being treated by doctor Abdullah Ardalan. He tells RFE/RL that he has been closely monitoring cases of suspected self-immolation by women in Herat since the Afghan government sent a delegation to the city a year ago to investigate the alarming trend. "Since the start of the Afghan solar new year [on March 22, 2004], we have registered 234 burn victims, and 84 of those women have died as a result of their burns," Ardalan says. "Four or five of these women have been transferred to hospitals in Iran by their relatives. I believe that from the 84 victims who have died here, more than 60 of them are cases of suicide." A member of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, who spoke to RFE/RL on condition of anonymity, says 184 of Herat's burn victims during the past year were women suspected (Excerpt) Read more at albionmonitor.com ....

To: lorne who wrote (10199)	9/24/2007 10:37:05 AM
From: DeplorableIrredeemableRedneck	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20106

Sharia-bank bids trigger concerns STEVEN CHASE AND TAVIA GRANT From Monday's Globe and Mail September 24, 2007 at 4:30 AM EDT OTTAWA and TORONTO — Ottawa has received its first applications to start up Canadian banks operating within the strictures of Islamic religious law - financial institutions that, if approved, would be among the first in the West. Canada's bank regulator, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, is studying two proposals for banks that offer services in keeping with Islamic laws that forbid speculation and interest but are in favour of transactions where profit and loss is shared. The applications came to light in government documents obtained by The Globe and Mail under access to information laws, files that show Ottawa believes there are four other possible applicants keen to start banks operating under Islamic religious law, or sharia. While some banks in the West offer sharia-compliant products, few aside from the Islamic Bank of Britain are standalone institutions set up expressly for this purpose. The applications have triggered a slew of concerns among regulators, documents show, including whether these institutions could be reliably audited, governed by directors or monitored. "Are the deposits insurable?" one OSFI paper asks, suggesting the banks may have higher liquidity risks and suffer from a "lack of knowledgeable external auditors." The applications are taking Canadian regulators into largely uncharted territory as they puzzle over what sort of regulatory treatment would apply. Regulators say the challenge is trying to discern exactly what types of financial transactions are being proposed and whether they could conceivably fit what's allowed under the Bank Act. "For most Canadian banks so far the products are somewhat straightforward and a deposit is a deposit," said Normand Bergevin, managing director at OSFI's approvals and precedents division. "When you have an applicant that comes to you with nothing but new products, that makes the process a little bit more difficult." Products the banks propose to offer, from term deposits to mortgages, are structured to avoid the explicit payment or collection of interest. OSFI won't divulge the identities of the two applicants, citing confidentiality rules. But decision-makers throughout the federal government are quietly mulling the broader question of how to handle a banking trend that's worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually in the Islamic world and may be attractive to Canadian Muslims, a group one June government memo calls "the fastest growing immigrant population." The federal Finance department established an Islamic financial services working group in June to study the issue. The 20-person group, including staff from OSFI, Canada Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Bank of Canada, hopes to deliver recommendations within months. "There's been quite a bit of growth in Islamic finance worldwide and it's definitely a developing trend. And we need to be aware of those trends," a Finance official said. Ultimately it would be up to federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty to approve Islamic banks if OSFI recommends it. Walied Soliman, a lawyer at Ogilvy Renault LLP, says he's confident that Islamic financial products and banks can be structured in such a way that they find a home in Canada's regulatory framework. He said there's no one set of rules for how Islamic financial transactions should be set up and believes they can be designed to pass muster with Canadian regulators, just as products such as "ethical" funds that avoid certain industries gained approval. He said an Islamic bank can be set up that wins approval from both regulators and religious experts. "The scholars that practise in this area are very practical people ... and [believe] the most expedient and practical way to get there is to offer products that are as Islamic-compliant as possible" while also complying with government standards, he says. Today, however, demand for sharia-compliant products in Canada remains unclear and several Islamic finance companies have folded. Demographics are favourable for growth, though, said Stuart Carruthers, a partner at Stikeman Elliott LLP who has been studying the issue. Income levels are rising in Canada's rapidly expanding Muslim population, a group that is relatively young - meaning opportunities for long-term customers. "I think there will be more demand if the product is there," he said. He's seen continued interest in the area, both from regulated financial institutions such as banks and insurance companies, as well as from unregulated players such as mortgage or consumer lending firms. In the shorter term, funding may be a challenge, given the credit crunch hitting some financial services. "I suspect over the past month or so, the big financial institutions may have become more focused on the other shorter-term issues around credit availability."A primer Under sharia law, making money from money, such as charging interest, is usury and therefore not permitted. The Islamic financial model works on the basis of risk-sharing. The customer and the bank share the risk of any investment on agreed terms, and divide any profits between them. Sharia-compliant products must meet three criteria: no explicit interest is paid; transactions cannot be in areas such as gambling, alcohol, pork or pornography; and a transaction can't be deemed as a gambling contract, or one that assumes a high level of risk.