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Barack Obama's approval rating hit a new low of 56% in the most recent survey (7/5-7/7), according to Gallup. His "Disapprove" number also hit a new high of 36%.

On this evening’s Hardball, NBC News correspondent Jim Maceda reported that in the wake of his speech, Arabs view Barack Obama not at all as an American president, but as an “enlightened regional leader” and “an imam.” Chris Matthews was, naturally, thrilled. View video here.

Amid all the shocking details in the disrupted plot to bomb Bronx synagogues and fire missiles at American military aircraft, one component of the case should come as no surprise - three of the alleged culprits converted to radical Islam in prison. Radical Islamists have targeted prison populations for recruitment for years. That's where Jose Padilla, suspected of plotting to detonate a dirty bomb and convicted of conspiracy to murder people overseas and of providing material support to terrorists, converted and was radicalized. That's where a California man, Kevin James, created his own cell, called the Jam'iyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh (JIS),...

Tampa police arrested an imam and accused the Muslim prayer leader of sexually battering a 13-year-old boy who was at a Tampa mosque for early prayer. Shahade Police said the boy was staying at the mosque overnight on Saturday for early morning prayer. At about 6 a.m., police said he was assaulted by an imam who was living at the Masjid Omar Al Mokhtar mosque, which is located at 1307 W North B Street.

Special Dispatch - No. 2355 May 13, 2009 No. 2355 "First Black Saudi Appointed Imam of Haram Mosque in Mecca Accuses Shi'ites of Apostasy and Discusses Driving Jews and Christians Out of Arabian Peninsula; Claims His Appointment 'More Significant' than Obama's Election" SNIPPET: "Following are excerpts from interviews with Sheikhh Adel Al-Kalbani, imam of the Al-Haram Mosque in Mecca, which aired on BBC Arabic on May 5, 2009 and Al-Arabiya TV on February 27, 2009. BBC Arabic, May 5, 3009: To view this clip on MEMRI TV, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/2102.htm "

The Italian police have arrested two men suspected of planning an attack on the Charles de Gaulle airport near Paris. They are also suspected of planning other attacks in France and Great Britain. The two are thought to play a leading role in the al-Qaeda network.

A man wearing an Iraqi army uniform has shot dead two US soldiers and injured three others in a military base south of the northern city of Mosul. The US army said the man was also killed in the incident but gave little information about the attack. But Iraqi military reports said he was a soldier also working as an Imam for at a mosque on the base. No motive was given for the attack but Mosul is seen as the last remaining urban stronghold of al-Qaeda in Iraq. The US army said it had received reports of "small arms...

The head of a Queens Islamic school is accused of brutally beating a 12-year-old student over a crack made about the man's private parts, The Post has learned.

Two years after it sparked a violent campaign of suicide bombings across north-western Pakistan, the Red Mosque in the country's capital, Islamabad, is again alive with chants of victory for Islam. On Friday, thousands of worshippers filled the sprawling Red Mosque compound and spilled onto the street outside to listen to the sermon by the mosque's chief cleric, Maulana Abdul Aziz, who was released from jail the previous night.

TWO years ago, Sheik Adil Kalbani dreamed that he had become an imam at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Islam’s holiest city. Waking up, he dismissed the dream as a temptation to vanity. Although he is known for his fine voice, Sheik Adil is black, and the son of a poor immigrant from the Persian Gulf. Leading prayers at the Grand Mosque is an extraordinary honor, usually reserved for pure-blooded Arabs from the Saudi heartland. So he was taken aback when the phone rang last September and a voice told him that King Abdullah had chosen him as the first...

Junior defence minister Jack de Vries has delayed deciding on the appointment of a Muslim cleric for the army for two weeks because his favoured candidate has proved to be controversial. The imam has written columns describing prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende as a 'mad crusader', Nos tv reports. In addition, he has said that Christians are always at war with Muslims and that Muslim men are entitled to refuse to shake hands with women. MPs on Wednesday demanded that the appointment be cancelled.

April 2, 2009 Italian authorities carry out raids against "Islamist radicals" across country SNIPPET: "Rome, 2 April (AKI) - Twenty-six foreigners suspected of links to international terrorism as well as aiding and abetting illegal immigration are being investigated by Italian police, after raids carried out on Thursday in various Italian cities. The raids were carried out in properties around the northern cities of Vicenza, Venice, Padova, Brescia, Como, Cuneo and Trento, the central city of Florence and the southern city of Caserta. The anti-terrorism and organised crime investigators in March 2007 began probing alleged Islamic fundamentalists attending the Via Dei...

CHESAPEAKE -- A Muslim leader faces sexual assault charges. Chesapeake police arrested Imam Iskender Ali Mihr, also known as Iskender Evrenosoglu, on Tuesday. The alleged victim says she was inappropriately touched last October while she was in his office for prayer. That woman, a college student, left the U.S. and returned to Turkey. She’s one of 100 followers of Ali Mihr in Hampton Roads. Iskender Evrenosoglu, who lives on Marina Reach, is charged with one count of sexual battery. Police say the woman filed a report on January 19 and Evrenosoglu was arrested Monday and released that day. The Imam...

Reporting from Cairo--The Islamic preacher slipped on a pair of shorts and talked about the Koran while playing beach volleyball, eating barbecue and joking about hot cars and palaces in paradise. If the West were to dream up its version of an ideal imam, he might look and sound like Mostafa Hosni,a 30-year-old former Nestle accountant who's comfortable in argyle sweaters and hip to self-help.A video of his seaside sermon posted on his website was a cross between a travel brochure and a spiritual quest for the BlackBerry generation. "We decided to leave the city and go somewhere with a...

More evil and violence from the ‘religion’ of ‘piece’. No wonder muslim kids grow up so full of hate and venom, the very people charged with protecting them are beating them down in the name of allah. Gee what a shocker there… Muslim children are being beaten and abused regularly by teachers at some British madrassas - Islamic evening classes - an investigation by The Times has found. Students have been slapped, punched and had their ears twisted, according to an unpublished report by an imam based on interviews with victims in the north of England. One was “picked up...

"The Imam who came forward to assist in the search of Barack Obama’s identity left Kenya secretly last night, and will arrive in the UK this morning. He will meet with a US contact person who will assist him in recording an asylum statement in the UK after handing over the documents that caused the blessing of Obama when he was born and to confirm the origin of the name Hussein." snip "The Imam is the grandson of the late Imam who blessed Barack Obama when he was born in Mombasa on the 4th of august 1961."

Hussein Obama - 12th Imam? Topics: Political News and commentaries Well, not exactly! It's been a slow news day, so I just couldn't help but put this up. I'm not suggesting that Barack Hussein Obama is a Muslim, but the image goes along with today's news of Obama admitting that he went to Pakistan in college. He went on to say, "I knew what Sunni and Shia was [sic] before I joined the Senate Foreign Relations Committee..." So he obviously had to have had some kind of exposure to Islam while there. Was it from visiting a madrassa or perhaps,...

On Thursday, June 12, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) will hold a news conference at CAIR’s Capitol Hill headquarters to announce the launch of a nationwide mosque census project, the first comprehensive survey of its kind.   WHAT: News Conference to Announce Mosque Census Project WHEN: Thursday, June 12, 2008, 11 a.m. WHERE: CAIR’s Capitol Hill headquarters, 453 New Jersey Ave, S.E., Washington, D.C. CONTACT: CAIR Communications Coordinator Amina Rubin, 202-341-4171 or 202-488-8787, E-Mail: arubin@cair.com   The census, which will be conducted this summer, is sponsored by a coalition of organizations...

An imam in Morocco's eastern city of Fez has said that marriages between Moroccan women and European men who are not Muslims are forbidden under Islam. Each summer in Morocco, a growing number of local women are reportedly marrying young European men. "This kind of marriage, between Moroccan women and European men, is forbidden by the Koran (the Muslim holy book) and the Sunna (the way or deeds of the Prophet Mohammed)," Sheikh Mohammed al-Tawil said in a TV interview. "A Muslim woman may not marry an unbeliever while a Muslim man may marry Christian and Jewish women," he told...

A Muslim cleric graphically described the torture to which he claims he was subjected to in Israeli custody as he fought to block U.S. efforts to deport him on grounds he lied on his residency application. "Judge, you cannot imagine," Mohammad Qatanani said Monday, his voice breaking. "They say, 'We will kill your family.' They say: 'You know what your family is doing now? We will go to them, we will burn them.'" Qatanani paused to compose himself before telling Immigration Judge Alberto J. Riefkohl, "At that time, you feel that death is better than life." The detention is at...

WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama accused President Bush on Thursday of launching a "false political attack" with a comment about appeasing terrorists and radicals. The Illinois senator interpreted the remark as a slam against him but the White House denied that Bush's words were in any way directed at Obama, who has said as president he would be willing to personally meet with Iran's leaders and those of other regimes the United States has deemed rogue. In a speech to Israel's Knesset, Bush said: "Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as...

Algerian immigrants who drown in the Mediterranean Sea on their way to Europe should be considered 'martyrs', according to a prominent imam. According to the local daily, Ennahar, Sheikh Shamsedin Bourubi issued a fatwa, or religious edict, on Monday saying that the Muslim faithful should pray for their souls. "The immigrants who leave Algeria by sea in a bid to reach Europe and die by drowning in the Mediterannean are 'martyrs' and are not committing suicide," he said. "So it is legal to conduct funeral prayers for their souls." The Bourubi's fatwa appears to contradict a preceding fatwa issued by...

When he faces an immigration judge in two weeks, a popular Muslim cleric fighting deportation may have to counter claims that he confessed to being a member of a terrorist group. According to Israeli military authorities, Imam Mohammad Qatanani admitted being a member of the militant Hamas organization during interrogation in 1993 in Israel. The U.S. State Department includes Hamas on its list of "designated foreign terrorist organizations." Anyone identified as a member or a supporter of an organization on the list can be refused entry to the U.S., according to Lucille Cirillo, spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Patrol....

PATERSON, N.J. — For a dozen years, Mohammad Qatanani has supported the members of the Islamic Center of Passaic County by speaking at funerals, hashing out ethical dilemmas and sometimes opening his home to domestic-violence victims at a moment’s notice. But now Dr. Qatanani, 44, the imam of the mosque here, requires the support of the members: he has been barred by federal immigration authorities from renewing his driver’s license, and must call on friends to ferry him to hospitals for visits with the sick among his flock. There are fund-raisers for him at the mosque. And after Friday prayers,...

The executive committee of the Democratic National Committee has elected three Indian-Americans to the standing committees at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, convening Aug. 25-28 in Denver, Colo....Pakistan-born Iman Malik Mujahid, founder and president of Chicago-based Islamic teaching materials distributor Sound Vision Foundation, was named to the credentials committee, which coordinates selection of convention delegates and alternates. Sunita Leeds, co-chair of the Washington, D.C.-based education-oriented Enfranchisement Foundation, was named one of the three co-chairs of the rules committee...San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris and Smita Shah, ...were named to the platform committee... Mujahid is a Muslim leader, activist, film producer...

An historic visit by the imam of Rome's mosque, Ala Eldin Mohammed Ismail al-Ghobashy, to the Rome synagogue tomorrow has been called off at the last moment on instructions from Muslim authorities in Cairo. Abdullah Redouane, secretary of the Rome Islamic Cultural Centre, who was to have accompanied the imam, claimed the cancellation was for "organisational reasons". However Italian reports quoted Abdul Fattah Allam, spokesman for Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, head of Al Azhar University in Cairo, as saying the sheikh had ordered the imam not to meet Rome's Jews while Israel continued to "refuse to restore the rights" of...

CRETEIL, France -- ...200 Muslim worshipers crowded into a former carpentry workshop here for noon prayers. The men knelt on red carpets in a first-floor hall, the women squeezed into the tiny office upstairs....But next June, Creteil's Muslims are scheduled to move into a new, $7.4 million mosque with room for more than 2,500 worshipers. The nearly finished building, with its 81-foot minaret, stands on a knoll overlooking the town's picturesque lake, within sight of city hall... The mosque will make Creteil something of an exception in Europe. From London to Cologne to Marseille, governments and residents are fighting the...

To be a "good" Muslim References -  'Palestinian' child abuse -  Evil 'Joy' -  'Blessing' Hitler -  Mourning the wicked -  Australia - Muslim land -  Jihad on all Buddhists -  Spain - Muslim land -  Europe - Muslim land -  Arabs DON'T care about 'Palestinians' -  72 virgins - Loyalty -  'Pallywood' -  (use of) Ambulances for terror -  (use of) Women for terror -  Human Shields -  Middle east background -  September 11 terror plot on London -  Myth on: 'Terrorists are desperate' -  Beheadings -  Ilan Halimi [an example of monsterous wild prolonged torture motivated by hate only] -  Muslims attacking Jews in France -  Ahmadinejad ' Islamic Hitler' -  Cutting -  'Honor killing' -  Jews & Christians as "Apes & Pigs"? - ...

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. -- The leader of a Muslim center has resigned after telling a newspaper that, in the eyes of the Islamic community, a death sentence was warranted for the best-selling author and critic of radical Islam Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who recently visited the area. Fouad ElBayly said yesterday he had stepped down as imam and president of the Islamic Center of Johnstown. He said the center's board members requested his resignation. The request came in response to Mr. ElBayly's comments about Ms. Hirsi Ali, who spoke April 17 at the University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown. Mr. ElBayly, a native of Egypt...

Text of report by Kenyan KTN TV on 25 April A contingent of heavily armed police officers attached to the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit this morning raided Goraya village [phonetic] in Mvita [Coast Province] arresting 11 people on suspicion of being linked to the Al-Qa'idah network. Among the arrested were the imam of Kwashibu [phonetic] mosque, Shaykh Ibrahim Mohamed Salim, and a National Museums of Kenya staffer based at the Fort Jesus Museum. Relatives said the police officers arrived at around 0200 [local time] this morning and moved from house to house where they ransacked wardrobes and left with a number...

Norwegian-Somalian Kadra, who became famous in Norway for exposing imam support of female circumcision, was beaten unconscious on Thursday. Kadra was attacked and beaten senseless by seven or eight persons of Somali origin, newspaper VG reports. "I was terrified. While I lay on the pavement they kicked me and screamed that I had trampled on the Koran. Several shouted Allah-o-akbar (God is great) and also recited from the Koran," Kadra told VG. Kadra linked the attack to recent remarks in VG where she said that the Koran's views on women needed to be reinterpreted. Kadra said that the gang of...

THE most senior Muslim cleric in Canberra regularly praises Islamic jihadists in Iraq and Afghanistan in his Friday afternoon sermons. Mohammed Swaiti, who is being investigated by the Australian Taxation Office over claims he failed to pay income tax on thousands of dollars he allegedly received from the Saudi embassy, yesterday called on God to grant "victory to mujaheddin (Muslim holy warriors)" worldwide. "God grant victory to the mujaheddin in his name in all places," he called out twice in Arabic over a microphone at Abu Bakr mosque in Yarralumla in front of about 500 worshippers. "God grant victory to...

Since I last wrote in December about our now infamous local Phoenix "political" imams, the story has developed even further. It is now entering the court system as the next venue for the victimization agenda. While in November I was chagrined by the imams" choice to trumpet to the public their own victimization in the name of all Muslims, now with the filing of their lawsuit, I found it necessary that Muslims who are not of like mind must push back publicly and break down this false assumption of a monolithic American Muslim community. The inappropriateness I expressed about the...

IN NOVEMBER, US Airways kicked six imams off a plane bound for Phoenix from Minneapolis. According to news reports, passengers and crew had become spooked watching some of the imams pray by the gate, then after boarding, saw the imams move around the plane as they spoke in Arabic -- some said the imams spoke of Saddam Hussein, which the imams deny. They said that the imams also and requested seat-belt extenders -- heavy metal objects -- which some feared could be used as weapons. The imams then were questioned and released without being charged. Last month, the imams filed...

April 4, 2007 -- Rep. Peter King lashed out at a member of the city's Human Rights Commission yesterday for representing six Muslim imams who want to sue USAirways passengers for reporting that the clerics were acting suspicious on a flight last fall. Omar Mohammedi, a Manhattan attorney, is representing the men who were booted off a flight while on the tarmac at Minneapolis last November.

Rome, 3 April (AKI) - Prosecutors in the northern Italian city of Turin were scheduled to start investigating on Tuesday footage of an imam at the local Cottolengo mosque, Mohammed Kohalia, calling on Muslims to hate Christians and Jews and praying for their death. "The Prophet has said that the extremists [Jews and Christians] will be destroyed," the cleric is heard as saying in footage secretly filmed by a journalist. "Allah should kill the polytheists." Kohalia has denied making those statements. The DVD portraying Kohaila's sermon was filmed with a hidden camera by a faithful attending the prayers on behalf...

Islamabad (AsiaNews/Dt) – It [is] an ultimatum not a request: if within a week Sharia law is not enforced throughout the country than [sic] true Muslims “will islamify society on their own”. Maulana Abdul Aziz, Imam of the Lal Masjid Mosque and director of Jamia Hafsa Madrassah has said. Speaking after Friday prayers to thousands of faithful, Aziz clarified: “If the government ignores our requests than we will have to enforce them ourselves”. The man then asked for the closure of “all brothels and gaming houses as soon as possible”, also adding in this case that “that aim may only...

Here’s a Prairie Home Companion episode you’ll never hear: It’s been a quiet week here at Lake Wobegon. Aunt Tillie had to cut short her big vacation in Paris – she got caught in a riot at the train station and you’ll never believe it, she got tear-gassed. She’s all right, but you can imagine the mood she was in when she arrived at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Poor thing, she went straight to a duty-free shop and bought a big bottle of Merlot. After that, believe it or not, it got even worse. The airport cab driver told...

AUSTRALIA'S high-ranking Islamic clerics have shown they are out of touch with the mainstream by allowing Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilali to remain as spiritual leader, says Prime Minister John Howard. Mr Howard said today that while the imams had the right to appoint whoever they wanted as mufti, they had shown they were out of touch with mainstream Australia by re-endorsing a man who compared women to uncovered meat. "They're exercising their right, it's not our power or right to appoint religious leaders. But I think they're doing their community damage," Mr Howard said on Sky News. "I remain very...

Some imams' recent comments have been deemed offensive Islamic clerics in Australia are being encouraged to volunteer as firemen and lifeguards, to improve the image of the Muslim community. The request came from Tom Zreika, president of the influential Lebanese Muslim Association, in a report set to be discussed by clerics this weekend. Mr Zreika said Muslims had become as unpopular as communists once were. He also said that any imams who felt they could not comply with Australian law should leave the country. As head of the largest Islamic organisation in Australia, Mr Zreika's views hold a lot...

More extreme Muslim "preachers of hate" will be prosecuted in a drive against radicalisation by the Crown Prosecution Service, the Director of Public Prosecutions said yesterday. Sir Ken Macdonald said he had created the post of national "radicalisation co-ordinator" to prosecute preachers such as Abu Hamza and is also planning to appoint about five other specialist prosecutors in major cities to help police build cases against those who used inflammatory rhetoric to whip up violence. "The preacher of hate issue is one of growing public concern and we expect to be bringing more cases of this sort. "It is dangerous...

A LEADING Muslim cleric blamed the drought, climate change, pollution on Australians' lack of faith in Allah. Radical sheik Mohammed Omran told followers at his mosque out-of-control secular scientific values caused environmental disaster. "The fear of Allah is not there. So we have now a polluted earth, a polluted water, a wasteland". clerics railing against "evil" democracy, vilifying Jews, Christians and encouraging jihad and polygamy. popular DVD... foreign sheik exhorts Muslims to take control of Australia by out-breeding non-believers. British-based Sheik Abdul Raheem Green forbade Muslims from having fewer than four children so Australia would become Islamic state. Behind closed...

WOODLAND HILLS, CALIFORNIA (ANS) -- One of the top Islamic leaders in Iran accepted Christ and left the country after facing death threats and imprisonment, according to an Iranian pastor living in the U.S. “This man has been watching Christian TV programs for the past two years,” said Pastor Elnathan Baghestani, founder of Iran for Christ Ministries. (www.iranforchrist.com) Pastor Baghestani and his wife provide Christian programming to the Mohabat Network satellite, which broadcasts 24/7 into Iran and other Middle Eastern countries. The imam called one of the phone counselors connected to Iran for Christ Ministries and prayed to receive Christ...

Munir Akram was the target of the fictional plot The former imam of a mosque in the US state of New York has been jailed for 15 years after being caught in a sting operation involving a fake plot.Yassin Aref was convicted in October along with Mohammed Hossain, who is still awaiting sentence. The two men had agreed to take part in the plot, which appeared to target Pakistan's ambassador to the UN. They were convicted among other things of supporting terrorism, lying to FBI agents and money laundering. In a speech before the sentencing, Aref claimed he was...

N.Y. imam sentenced in terror sting Staff and agencies 08 March, 2007 http://www.localnewsleader.com/elytimes/stories/index.php?action=fullnews&id=72974 By MICHAEL HILL, Associated Press Writer 8 minutes ago ALBANY, N.Y. - The former imam of an Albany mosque was sentenced Thursday to 15 years in prison for his role in a money laundering scheme involving a fictional terror plot set up as an FBI sting. "I never had any intention to harm anyone in this country," the 36-year-old Kurdish refugee said. "And I don‘t know why I‘m guilty." The informant asked Hossain to launder money from the sale of a shoulder-fired missile that would be used...

West Philadelphia imam was sentenced yesterday to eight years and four months in a federal slammer for selling handguns and assault rifles without a license to an FBI informant who he thought was a drug dealer. U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Savage ordered Wayne Hogue, 48, also known as "Imam Wadir," to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on April 30. Hogue is an imam of the 52nd Street Mosque in West Philadelphia, prosecutors said --snip-- One of the transactions - involving a handgun loaded with six live rounds of ammo - took place inside Hogue's office at the mosque,...

ROME, Ga. - The imam of a Georgia mosque who pleaded guilty to providing support to the militant group Hamas was sentenced Tuesday to more than seven years in prison. Mohamed Shorbagi, 42, could have faced up to 15 years in prison. Shorbagi pleaded guilty in August to providing material support to the militant group Hamas in a case in which the agreement, charges and even the plea hearing were handled in secret. U.S. District Judge Harold Murphy sentenced him Tuesday to seven years and eight months in prison. At the sentencing, Shorbagi said he realized that some of his...

From the hit television show '24', to the annual gathering of Democrats in winter retreat and stretching even to the university campus, Imams be playin' us. Radical ones are amused at our blatant display of weakness on our televisions, amongst our elected leaders, and at the spineless provosts in educational arenas. Director of the Karbalaa Islamic Educational Center, Imam Husham Al-Husainy, speaks about the impending execution of Saddam Hussein in Dearborn, Mich., Friday, Dec. 29, 2006. Al-Husainy, from Iraq but now living in Dearborn, claims to have family and friends who were killed during Hussein's reign. The image opposite Al-Husainy...

Memo to the national Democratic Party: Having a reputedly Hezbollah-supporting imam lead you in a Muslim-based spiritual and political prayer does not support your contentions that your values better reflect true Christianity than those of Republicans and that you support the troops. Democrats invited Imam Husham Al-Husainy of the Karbalaa Islamic Education Center in Dearborn, Mich., to pray at their annual winter meeting in Washington. Columnist Debbie Schlussel has reported that last summer this same imam led "almost-daily protests of thousands of Hezbollah supporters on the streets of Dearborn and Detroit, swarming with swastikas and anti-Semitic, anti-American signs." Though other...

This is a partial transcript from "Hannity & Colmes," February 7, 2007, that has been edited for clarity. SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: Our top story tonight: It is a follow-up to the shocking story that we told you about on last night's program. This imam was invited to speak at the Democratic National Committee's winter meeting last week. But some people are upset at what he said. Take a listen: (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) IMAM HUSHAM AL-HUSSAINY, EVENT SPEAKER: We thank you, God, to send us your messages through our father Abraham, and Moses, and Jesus, and Muhammad. Through you, God, we...