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

To: FJB who wrote (10932)	11/26/2007 9:29:06 PM
From: lorne	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20106

'Muhammad' teddy teacher arrested Monday, 26 November 2007 news.bbc.co.uk Gillian Gibbons is described as "a talented and able teacher " A British schoolteacher has been arrested in Sudan accused of insulting Islam's Prophet, after she allowed her pupils to name a teddy bear Muhammad. Colleagues of Gillian Gibbons, 54, from Liverpool, said she made an "innocent mistake" by letting the six and seven-year-olds choose the name. Ms Gibbons was arrested after several parents made complaints. The BBC has learned the charge could lead to six months in jail, 40 lashes or a fine. Officials from the British embassy in Khartoum are expected to visit Ms Gibbons in custody later. "We are in contact with the authorities here and they have visited the teacher and she is in a good condition," an embassy spokesman said. The spokesman said the naming of the teddy happened months ago and was chosen by the children because it is a common name in the country. "This happened in September and the parents did not have a problem with it," he said. 'Very sensitive' The school has been closed until January for fear of reprisals. Fellow teachers at Khartoum's Unity High School told Reuters news agency they feared for Ms Gibbons' safety after receiving reports that men had started gathering outside the police station where she was being held. The school's director, Robert Boulos, said: "This is a very sensitive issue. We are very worried about her safety. They came up with eight names including Abdullah, Hassan and Muhammad Robert Boulos Director of Unity High School "This was a completely innocent mistake. Miss Gibbons would have never wanted to insult Islam." Mr Boulos said Ms Gibbons was following a British national curriculum course designed to teach young pupils about animals and this year's topic was the bear. Ms Gibbons, who joined the school in August, asked a seven-year-old girl to bring in her teddy bear and asked the class to pick names for it, he said. "They came up with eight names including Abdullah, Hassan and Muhammad," Mr Boulos said, adding that she then had the children vote on a name. Twenty out of the 23 children chose Muhammad as their favourite name. Mr Boulos said each child was then allowed to take the bear home at weekends and told to write a diary about what they did with it. He said the children's entries were collected in a book with a picture of the bear on the cover and a message which read, "My name is Muhammad." Book seized The bear itself was not marked or labelled with the name in any way, he added. It is seen as an insult to Islam to attempt to make an image of the Prophet Muhammad. Mr Boulos said Ms Gibbons was arrested on Sunday at her home inside the school premises after a number of parents complained to Sudan's Ministry of Education. I know Gillian and she would never have meant it as an insult. I was just impressed that she got them to vote Muslim colleague in Sudan He said police had seized the book and asked to interview the girl who owned the bear. The country's state-controlled Sudanese Media Centre reported that charges were being prepared "under article 125 of the criminal law" which covers insults against faith and religion. No-one at the ministries of education or justice was available for comment. Mr Boulos told the BBC he was confident she would not face a jail sentence. One Muslim teacher at the independent school for Christian and Muslim children, who has a child in Ms Gibbons' class, said she had not found the project offensive. "I know Gillian and she would never have meant it as an insult. I was just impressed that she got them to vote," the teacher said. In Liverpool, a family spokeswoman said Ms Gibbons' grown children, John and Jessica - both believed to be in their 20s - were not commenting on her arrest. "I have spoken with her children and they do not want to say anything and aggravate the situation over there," she said. Rick Widdowson the headteacher of Garston Church of England Primary School, where Gillian worked for ten years, added: "We are an Anglican school and I know for a fact that Gillian would not do anything to offend followers of any faith. "Certainly she is also very worldly wise and she is obviously aware of the sensitivities around Islam." Cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad printed in several European newspapers sparked violent protests around the world in 2006.

To: FJB who wrote (10932)	11/26/2007 9:36:05 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 20106

Report: Islamic Terrorists Wanted to Attack U.S. Base in Arizona FoxNews ^ \| 11/26/07 foxnews.com WASHINGTON — Islamic terrorists with the assistance of Mexican drug cartels might have been planning an attack on the U.S. Army base Fort Huachuca in Arizona, forcing the nation's largest intelligence training center to change security measures back in May. The Washington Times reported on Monday that as many as 60 Afghan and Iraqi terrorists would attempt to enter the United States via underground tunnels that have sprouted underneath the U.S.-Mexico border in recent years under funding by drug- and human-smuggling operations. The terrorists were said to be planning to use high-powered weapons to mount their attack. Click here to read the full report in The Washington Times. "A portion of the operatives were in the United States, with the remainder not yet in the United States," according to a confidential document cited by The Times, an FBI advisory that was distributed to the Defense Intelligence Agency, the CIA, Customs and Border Protection and the Justice Department, among several other law enforcement agencies throughout the nation. "The Afghanis and Iraqis shaved their beards so as not to appear to be Middle Easterners." (Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ....

To: FJB who wrote (10932)	11/27/2007 9:20:54 AM
From: DeplorableIrredeemableRedneck	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 20106

Dozens injured in Paris rampage Rioting youths blamed the French police for the teenagers' deaths Youths target police Nearly 80 French police officers have been injured, six seriously, during a second night of riots by youths in the suburbs of Paris, police unions say. The police say some officers suffered bullet wounds, while others were hurt by stones, fireworks and petrol bombs thrown at them in Villiers-le-Bel. The youths said they were avenging the two teenagers killed when their motorcycle hit a police car on Sunday. A senior union official said the riots had been more intense than in 2005. The 2005 unrest, sparked by the accidental deaths of two youths, spread from a nearby suburb of Paris to other cities and continued for three weeks, during which more than 10,000 cars were set ablaze and 300 buildings firebombed. 'Fired upon' The second consecutive night of rioting began early in the evening in Villiers-le-Bel, the northern suburb that saw most of the violence on Sunday. Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to keep at bay gangs of youths who were attacking them with stones, fireworks and petrol bombs. Our colleagues will not allow themselves to be fired upon indefinitely without responding Patrice Ribeiro Secretary, Synergie police union Paris riots replayed Have your say More than 70 vehicles and buildings, including the municipal library, two schools and several shops, were set on fire. Violence was also reported in four other towns across the Val d'Oise department. The national secretary of the Synergie police union, Patrice Ribeiro, said at least 77 officers had been injured in the violence and that several had been wounded by shotgun pellets fired at them. The French Interior Minister, Michele Alliot-Marie, said six police officers had been injured seriously and that they included those who had been "struck in the face and close to the eyes". In pictures: Riots continue Rioting gives press deja vu Mr Ribeiro said police were facing a situation that was "far worse than that of 2005", which began in the nearby suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois. "Our colleagues will not allow themselves to be fired upon indefinitely without responding," he told the radio station, RTL. "They will be placed in situations which will become untenable." On Sunday, about 30 cars and several buildings, including a police station, were torched in Villiers-le-Bel and neighbouring Arnouville. Twenty-six police and firefighters were injured and nine people were arrested. 'Organised' Ms Alliot-Marie said she believed the trouble had been organised and correspondents say the scale of the fury involved suggested the riots might have attracted people from outside the area. The violence happened despite appeals for calm from the families of the two teenagers of Algerian origin whose deaths sparked the violence on Sunday evening. A state prosecutor has ordered the National Police General Inspectorate (IGPN) - an oversight body - to carry out a detailed inquiry into the circumstances in which the two teenagers - named only as Moushin, 15, and Larami, 16, lost their lives. Police sources have said that in Sunday's incident, the motorcycle was going at top speed and was not registered for street use, while the two teenagers were not wearing helmets and had been ignoring traffic rules. The police car was on a routine patrol and the teenagers were not being chased by police at the time, the officials added. But local youths have said the police car's stoved-in bonnet suggests it rammed the teenagers. The state prosecutor who ordered the investigation, Marie-Therese de Givry, told LCI television that the teenagers had turned into the path of the police car. She said the officers immediately called emergency services to the scene. Two witnesses are said to have confirmed this, but the teenagers' relatives and other local residents say the police did nothing to help the dying teenagers. President Sarkozy said he wanted "everyone to calm down and let the justice system decide who was responsible." Mr Sarkozy was heavily criticised two years ago after he called for crime-ridden neighbourhoods to be "cleaned with a power hose" and described violent elements as "gangrene" and "rabble".