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Cleric supports targeting children An extremist Islamic cleric based in Britain said yesterday that he would support hostage-taking at British schools if carried out by terrorists with a just cause. Omar Bakri Mohammed, the spiritual leader of the extremist sect al-Muhajiroun, said that holding women and children hostage would be a reasonable course of action for a Muslim who has suffered under British rule. In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Mr Mohammed said: "If an Iraqi Muslim carried out an attack like that in Britain, it would be justified because Britain has carried out acts of terrorism in Iraq....

CAIRO, Egypt — Expressions of shame and self-reproach swept the Arab world yesterday as Muslims mourned the deaths of Russian schoolchildren and voiced unusually critical condemnations of the social ills widely blamed here for breeding terrorism. The Arab world has watched with mounting disgust in recent weeks as a wave of civilian hostages — some of them Arabs and Muslims — were slaughtered by masked insurgents in Iraq. This weekend, newspapers and satellite channels were dominated by pictures of bloodied, naked children in southern Russia fleeing armed guerrillas suspected to be Islamic rebels supporting an independent Chechyna. Many Arabs faced...

The bloody siege of a Russian school by Chechen rebels brought widespread condemnation and soul-searching in the Islamic world yesterday. Arab newspapers and television broadcasts were full of dramatic photographs of the children killed and injured in the siege by Islamic rebels demanding Chechen independence from Russia. Commentators and clerics put a harsh spotlight on those who kill and maim in Islam's name. "What is the guilt of those children? Why should they be responsible for your conflict with the government?" Egypt's top Muslim cleric, Grand Sheik Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, asked during a sermon in Banha, 30 miles north of...

THE full horror of the Russian school atrocity began to emerge yesterday as traumatised children told horrific tales of stabbed babies and brutal rapes. It has also emerged that scores of the 323 who died - including many children - had been shot in the back. While despairing soldiers and rescue workers moved among the growing pile of body bags, it was revealed that an 18-month-old baby had been repeatedly stabbed by a black-clad terrorist who had run out of ammunition. Other survivors told how screaming teenage girls were dragged into rooms adjoining the gymnasium where they were being held...

AFTER more than 24 hours in the sweltering heat of the school gymnasium in Beslan, one of the boys trapped inside could not take it any longer, writes Peter Conradi. Summoning up his courage, he approached a hostage taker with a bayonet fixed to his assault rifle and asked him for a drink. It was probably the worst error that he could have made. “Instead of giving him water, he drove his bayonet through the boy’s body,” said Stanislav Tsarakhov, 10, another captive standing nearby. “I don’t know if he died.” Details of the incident emerged as children who escaped...

Islamic leaders in the Middle East yesterday denounced the slaughter of children in Russia as 'unIslamic', as commentators asked unusually soul-searching questions about the region and terrorism. Even the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's biggest Islamic group, condemned the bloody siege in Beslan. Its leader, Mohammed Mahdi Akef, said that kidnappings may be justified but killings are not. He added: 'What happened is not jihad [holy war] because Islam obligates us to respect the souls of human beings; it is not about taking them away.' While some Islamic fundamentalists in the Middle East have long supported fellow Muslims fighting in Chechnya,...

BESLAN, Russia, Sept. 4 - Long before the first bombs exploded in Middle School No. 1, marking the beginning of a ferocious battle that left hundreds of schoolchildren and their parents and teachers dead, the hostages had descended to near despair. "At first I thought it was a joke," said one survivor, Emma Gagiyeva, 13, who sat numbly on a couch on Saturday, as the death toll climbed relentlessly, to 330, with many children still missing. "Then they started to shoot the windows, and glass fell on the people. They were shooting above our heads and they killed a few...

Sep 4, 3:17 PM EDT Pro-Bush Booth Stirs Anger at ConventionBy RACHEL ZOLLAP Religion WriterROSEMONT, Ill. (AP) -- They stop abruptly when they see the 5-foot-tall photo of President Bush, with "muslimsforbush.com" above his head.Then come the outbursts."Disgusting," said one onlooker. "Take that down," said another.At the largest annual convention of American Muslims, a pro-Bush booth has stirred anger among attendees who believe the president's actions since Sept. 11, 2001, have hurt more innocent Muslims than terrorists."I think President Bush has misled not only the United States, but the world," said Noor Maciael, an educator who called the booth "disgusting"...

September 2, 2004: When Chechnya first declared independence from Russia in 1993, the Russians promptly invaded. The Russians quickly tired of getting a lot of their troops killed for what appeared to be little gain. In the wake of their 1994 withdrawal from Chechnya, Russia simultaneously declared Chechnya still a part of Russia (and paid pensions and government salaries there) and left the Chechens to their own devices. But the Chechens could not govern themselves. It was as simple as that. The central government in the province controlled little beyond the capital Grozny. At least six major warlords held sway,...

Saturday, September 4, 2004 GLOBAL JIHADChechen terrorists follow al-Qaida manualRussia school hostage-takers' cues from online playbook Posted: September 4, 20041:00 a.m. Eastern By Laura Mansfield © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com As details emerge of the three-day siege of a Russian school by Islamic terrorists – which reportedly resulted in more than 200 dead and 700 injured – it is becoming apparent that the operation closely followed the terror roadmap laid out in issue 10 of Al Battar, al-Qaida's online training manual. The tragic events unfolded in the town of Beslan, in the North Ossetia region, near Chechnya, as Islamic Chechen terrorists with suicide-bomb belts...

BESLAN, Russia - Russian President Vladimir Putin called Saturday for a new approach to law enforcement in the wake of the school hostage crisis that killed more than 340 people, and pledged the reform would be in accordance with the nation's constitution. Putin said international terrorists had declared "a full-scale war" against Russia, and that due to the collapse of the Soviet Union, the nation was weakened and unable to respond as effectively as it must. The Russian premier flew to Beslan before dawn on Saturday, as smoke was still rising from the shattered school. Russian authorities, who have tried...

...unless I see Muslims marching in the streets to denounce this horror, I'm giving up on the lot of them. No Jew, no Christian would ever tolerate or excuse this atrocity. Where are the Muslims? Not just leaders, but ordinary men and women? Why aren't they protesting all over the Islamic world? Why not in America? I'm sick of pretending to myself that most Muslims are good people, while seeing so little evidence of it. If they really are, they'll step up. Right now.

Images of dead, wounded and traumatized Russian children being carried from the scene of a rebel school siege horrified Middle Eastern Muslims, prompting forthright self-criticism Saturday and fresh concern about an international backlash against Islam and its followers. Arab leaders, Muslim clerics and ordinary parents across the Middle East denounced the school siege that left more than 340 people dead, many of them children, as unjustifiable. Some warned such actions damage Islam's image more than all its enemies could hope. Even some supporters of Islamic militancy condemned it, though at least one insisted Muslims were not behind it. "Holy warriors"...

Russia blasts EU siege statement MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia has described as "blasphemous" a request by the European Union for an explanation to the bloody end to a mass hostage seizure at a school by Chechen gunmen. More than 320 people, almost half of them children were found dead after troops stormed a school in the southern Russian town of Beslan, where the separatists held more than 1,000 hostages for 53 hours. In a statement in the name of the presidency of the 25-nation EU, Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot said on Friday that all countries should work together to...

As I was getting my 6 yr old ready for school this morning, my thoughts went to Russia, and the current tragedy that has unfolded there over the last few days. I take my little one to school every morning, fairly secure in the fact that she will be relatively safe at school. I don't worry about masked terrorists breaking in to her school and doing what they did in Russia. My heart breaks for all the parents and children over there right now. I can only imagine the pain and anguish that comes from having to wonder if your...

by Dmitry Zaks in Moscow The front page of one of Russia's most authoritative newspapers had no headline or story on its front page Saturday. Instead, Izvestia showed a man with a pained look on his face rushing a girl to safety in his arms. She was semi-naked and clutching on to his neck with a look of horror on her face. A militia man stood solemnly in the background. Discuss: Russia should've given in to hostage-takers, instead of letting children die The photo spoke volumes -- graphically underlining how many Russians were left speechless and terrified at events in...

"Black widows" blow themselves up -- and anybody else in the vicinity -- with bombs attached to their person. The women are thought to have been among the militants who terrorized a southern Russian school. A new type of terrorist has emerged. The Chechen women, aged between 20 and 30, turn themselves into walking bombs and are prepared to die for their convictions and kill others in the process. They have experienced much suffering in the 10 years since the start of the Chechen conflict, living in country in which anarchy reigns and murder goes unpunished. "Black widows," as they...

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Muslims worldwide are the main perpetrators of terrorism, a humiliating and painful truth that must be acknowledged, a prominent Arab writer and television executive wrote Saturday, as Middle East media and officials expressed horror at the bloody rebel siege of a Russian school. Unusually forthright self-criticism followed the end of the hostage crisis, along with warnings that such actions inflict more damage to the image of Islam than all its enemies could hope. Arab leaders and Muslim clerics denounced the school seizure as unjustifiable and expressed their sympathy. Russian commandos stormed the school Friday in Beslan,...

Saturday, September 4, 2004 GLOBAL JIHADLondon conventioncelebrates 9-11'Either you're with the Muslims or with the infidels' Posted: September 4, 20041:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com An extremist Islamic movement in Britain plans a convention in London titled, "The Choice is in Your Hands: Either You're with the Muslims or with the Infidels," to mark the third anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. As WorldNetDaily reported, last year the group, Al-Muhajiroun, had planned a similar anniversary event called "The Magnificent 19 [Suicide Attackers]," but canceled it at the last minute. The group's leader Omar Bakri, a Syrian residing in London, told Al-Sharq...