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The United Arab Emirates intends to allow Israeli tourists to freely visit the country and is engaged in high-level talks with Israeli authorities to put the policy into practice, the Yedioth Ahronoth daily newspaper reported Wednesday. Israelis will initially be allowed to enter the UAE so that they can attend the Expo 2020 world fair in Dubai, which will include an Israeli pavilion. However, Expo and UAE sources confirmed to the paper that the intention is to leave the door open to Israeli visitors even after the exhibition closes. Israel has no diplomatic ties with the UAE, though relations between...

It's called Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS, after the region where almost all the patients have been reported. But the name may turn out to be a misnomer. A new study has found the virus in camels from Sudan and Ethiopia, suggesting that Africa, too, harbors the pathogen. That means MERS may sicken more humans than previously thought—and perhaps be more likely to trigger a pandemic. MERS has sickened 183 people and killed 80, most of them in Saudi Arabia. A couple of cases have occurred in countries outside the region, such as France and the United Kingdom, but...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Ten years after 9/11, Americans are wrestling with their opinions of Muslims, a new survey found, and where Americans get their TV news is playing a role in those opinions. Nearly half of Americans would be uncomfortable with a woman wearing a burqa, a mosque being built in their neighborhood or Muslim men praying at an airport. Forty-one percent would be uncomfortable if a teacher at the elementary school in their community were Muslim. Forty-seven percent of survey respondents said the values of Islam are at odds with American values. The Public Religion Research Institute and the...

Federal Judge Dismisses Camel-Jockey Lawsuit by The Associated Press Date Posted: July 31, 2007 A United States federal judge dismissed a lawsuit July 30 seeking damages from two United Arab Emirates leaders for the use of thousands of children to ride racing camels, saying the case does not belong in U.S. courts. Judge Cecilia Altonaga said she could not find a strong enough legal connection between the two Emirates leaders and their business interests in the U.S. to permit the lawsuit to move forward. Neither the children nor their parents live in the U.S., and the racing was held in...

MIAMI (AFP) - A judge in Miami on Monday dismissed a lawsuit alleging the ruler of Dubai enslaved thousands of children and forced them to work as camel jockeys, saying the suit fell outside the court's jurisdiction. Judge Cecilia Altanoga ruled in favor of the defense, which argued that Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashed al-Maktoum did not have sufficient contacts in Florida to justify trying the suit in the southeastern US state. "We've said from the beginning that this case doesn't belong in US Courts and were gratified by Judge Altonagas careful legal analysis and ruling," said Habib Al-Mulla, a spokesman...

Police racial slur scandal indicative of larger problem We have already forgotten the "Arabushim" (derogatory term for Arabs) scandal that occurred here two weeks ago - that's the nature of racism that hinges on self inflicted senility and the ease of sweeping it under the rug. For those who need a reminder: A police officer used the term "Arabushim" in referring to Arab participants in a rally in Umm el-Fahm. The message, sent out just before the rally, said "15,000 Arabushim have so far arrived at the rally." The police officer was dismissed and al-Quds was redeemed, because now the...

Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television has aired a video of Al Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri vowing to avenge the death of the network's Iraq frontman Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Zarqawi was killed in a United States air raid in Iraq on June 7. In the video, Zawahiri is seated in front of a picture of Zarqawi. He addresses US President George W Bush directly. "Yes O Bush, none of us is killed without us avenging him, with the help of God," he said. "Do you remember, O Bush, how the lion of Islam, the mujahed [holy warrior] Osama bin Laden, God keep...

HOMELAND INSECURITY Probe finds terrorists in U.S. 'training for war' Neighbors of Muslim encampment fear retaliation if they report to police Posted: February 17, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2006 WorldNetDaily.com Entrance to Hancock, N.Y., encampment (Courtesy Northeast Intelligence Network) The Pakistani terrorist group Jamaat ul Fuqra is using Islamic schools in the United States as training facilities, confirms a joint investigative report by an intelligence think tank and an independent reporter. A covert visit to an encampment in the Catskill Mountains near Hancock, N.Y., called "Islamberg" found neighboring residents deeply concerned about military-style training taking place there but frustrated...

WND: On Sunday the Israeli Defense Forces found a Qassam rocket just outside Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Sycamore ranch, located a few kilometers from Sderot, the town at which over 20 rockets were fired immediately following Israel's withdrawal from Gaza last month. Do you take responsibility for the rocket? ABIR: The period mentioned by the Israelis regarding that rocket is that it was fired three weeks ago. At that time we and Hamas launched many rockets, and I cannot confirm which of the two organizations is responsible for that specific attack, but it is obvious that the Palestinian resistance has...

In reaction to Hurricane Katrina and the destruction in its wake, a high-ranking Kuwaiti official, Muhammad Yousef Al-Mlaifi, who is director of the Kuwaiti Ministry of Endowment's research center, published an article titled "The Terrorist Katrina is One of the Soldiers of Allah, But Not an Adherent of Al-Qaeda." [1] The article appeared August 31, 2005 in the Kuwaiti daily Al-Siyassa. The following are excerpts from his article: "The Terrorist Katrina is One of the Soldiers of Allah…" "…As I watched the horrible sights of this wondrous storm, I was reminded of the Hadith of the Messenger of Allah [in...

The Al Qaida network in Iraq has launched efforts to strike targets in Western Europe. Western and Iraqi intelligence sources said the Al Qaida organization headed by Abu Mussib Al Zarqawi has moved operatives to Europe for a series of attacks against NATO states. The sources said the strikes were meant to pressure members of the U.S.-led coalition to leave Iraq. "Osama Bin Laden has asked the head of Al Qaida in Iraq, Al Zarqawi, to organize an attack in Europe, more devastating than that of Sept. 11, 2001," Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister Hamid Al Bayati said. Al Bayati told...

Insurgents kill 5 to bait trap for policeClick the PicStay Angry U.S. hits suspected terror base in Iraq BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. warplanes launched multiple airstrikes Friday against a suspected "terrorist safe house" in the western Anbar province, destroying the building where up to 50 militants were believed to be hiding, the U.S. military said. Coalition ground forces were alerted by local residents that a number of members of the terror group Al-Qaida in Iraq had gathered in an abandoned building northeast of Husaybah, near the Syrian border about 200 miles west of Baghdad.More.. Saudi says arrests militants, stops...

According to the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Center for Special Studies (C.S.S) many celebrations of Israeli retreat are being organized by the Palestinian Authority, but numerous terror organizations are holding their own, separate celebrations. According to the report, the terror groups are awarding themselves and their terrorist activities the prize for having brought about the evacuation of the Israeli settlements. The report says that while PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas is speaking about further withdrawals through negotiations, both Hamas and the Islamic Jihad are reiterating that they have no intention of disarming, that their weapons are legal and...

Imam Mohamed Lunat helps debunk common myths about his religion The image of Imam Mohamed Lunat as he walks in the doors of the Islamic Center of Elizabethtown looks like one from the evening news. He is medium height and thin, with dark, intense eyes and a fist-length beard with no mustache. He has a prayer cap on his head, an ankle-length robe and sheds his shoes as he enters. Based solely on appearance he could, to biased eyes, be mistaken as the cliché of any of the Middle-Eastern terrorists who scream into shoddy video cameras around the world about...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - American Muslims have launched an advertising campaign to denounce acts of terrorism after bombers believed to be British Muslims killed at least 54 people in attacks on London. "Any effort by terrorists to hide their criminal activities under the mask of religious piety is being categorically and unequivocally rejected by mainstream Muslims," said Parvez Ahmed, chairman of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. He said the television ad, which will air nationwide by July 19, is an attempt to detach Islam from the "heinous" acts of a few Muslims. Police believe the attacks are linked to al Qaeda,...

LAHORE, Pakistan — Dozens of Pakistani children who had been smuggled to the United Arab Emirates (search) to work as camel race jockeys returned home Friday, an official said. The 86 children, many of them aged between four and 12, had been in the United Arab Emirates for between three and seven years, said Faiza Asghar, an adviser on child rights issues with the Punjab provincial government in eastern Pakistan. The boys, with their identity cards hanging from their necks, arrived in the provincial capital, Lahore, on a flight from Abu Dhabi and were driven to a government shelter, Asghar...

~The Koran & Jihad~ Arab militants from the military wing of Islamic Jihad movement hold the Koran as they march during a protest in Jabally refugee camp north Gaza Strip June 10th, 2005. An Arab Muslim militant from the military wing of Islamic Jihad movement holds a Koran as he marches during a protest in Jabally refugee camp north Gaza Strip June 10TH, 2005. Members from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement marched through the streets of Jabally after Palestinian accusations that guards had ripped pages of the Koran, while Israeli prison officials said preliminary checks found no evidence an Islamic...

DUBAI (AFP) - The United Arab Emirates is to mount robot jockeys on racing camels later this year after a ban on using children in the region's popular sport. It will become the second Gulf Arab state, after Qatar, to use robots and ban child jockeys following criticism that infants, some as young as four, were being brought in from poor countries to race the camels. The UAE's first robot jockey exercise has been successfully carried out in the capital, Abu Dhabi, according to media reports this week which also said that the first robots would be produced in August,...

DUBAI - The United Arab Emirates said today it would crack down on the trafficking of Asian child camel jockeys, a practice internationally condemned as a form of slavery. Rights groups say several thousand boys, some as young as four, work as jockeys in the lucrative sport in the oil-rich Gulf Arab state. They say the children are kept in prison-like conditions where they are deliberately underfed to keep them light so the camels run faster. The boys race at speeds of up to 30 mph in the races, which are popular among Bedouin Arabs. A new law will tighten...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - The terrorist believed to have flown a hijacked airliner into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, obtained a California driver's license without providing the required Social Security number for identification, officials are acknowledging for the first time. Nawaf Alhazmi then used that license when he registered for the flight training that enabled him to pilot the doomed airliner. Alhazmi used a loophole, since closed, in California law that allowed hundreds of thousands of foreign drivers without Social Security numbers to use a generic number in its place. Even some foreign citizens with Social Security numbers skirted the...