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Friday July 22, 01:19 PM 'Arson' on suicide bomber's home An area around the home of suicide bomber Germaine Lindsay has been sealed off after an apparent attempt to burn down the building. Thames Valley Police said officers were called to Northern Road in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, after reports of a strong smell of petrol in the street. Police said a substance thought to be petrol or diesel had been located and the area sealed off with houses adjoining Lindsay's former home evacuated. Lindsay, 19, blew himself up on a Piccadilly Line London Underground train on July 7, killing 26 people...

Full text: Blair & Howard Joint press conference of British Prime Minister Blair and Australian PM John Howard 22jul05 Good Afternoon everyone and a warm welcome to Prime Minister John Howard from Australia. Now before I say what the outcome of our talks has been together, I know you would want me to say a few words obviously on what has happened over the last few hours, and I hope you will forgive me if I say to you that it is best for operational details to go to the police and the emergency services and others that can give...

Musharraf targets hate preachers as arrests mount By Simon Cameron-Moore Thu Jul 21, 2005 After a blitz of detentions of suspected militants and Islamists, Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf called for a holy war against preachers of hate and announced steps to curb militant Islamic schools and groups. Musharraf spoke on Thursday in a televised address to the nation, which was awaited with keen anticipation both at home and in Britain after revelations of Pakistani links to the July 7 bomb attacks on London that killed at least 56 people. "I urge you, my nation, to stand up and wage a...

LONDON – The two meetings by Muslim leaders occurred only three days apart, one in Birmingham and one in London. Both condemned the terrorist attacks in the British capital, but they couldn't agree on one key issue: Are suicide attacks forbidden by religious law? The fact that one group said "yes" and the other group said "not always" could be one reason Muslim radicals sometimes succeed in recruiting disaffected young people as suicide bombers, even in Western democracies such as Britain. Some clerics argue that such strikes can be used against an occupying power – an exception that offers the...

It has been sobering this past week watching some of my "woollier" colleagues (in Vicki Woods's self-designation) gradually awake to the realisation that the real suicide bomb is "multiculturalism". Its remorseless tick-tock, suddenly louder than the ethnic drumming at an anti-globalisation demo, drove poor old Boris Johnson into rampaging around this page last Thursday like some demented late-night karaoke one-man Fiddler on the Roof, stamping his feet and bellowing, "Tradition! Tradition!" Boris's plea for more Britishness was heartfelt and valiant, but I'm not sure I'd bet on it. The London bombers were, to the naked eye, assimilated - they ate...

Scores detained in Pakistan raids Islamabad madrassa students wait outside during the raid Police in Pakistan have detained about 150 suspected Islamist extremists in a series of raids on religious schools, mosques and other properties. The suspects are being questioned about any links they might have with militant groups or with the London bombers. Three of the four bombers are known to have visited Pakistan recently. President Pervez Musharraf is expected to announce new measures to curb religious extremism during a televised speech on Thursday. On Tuesday, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he was anxious for Pakistan to...

MUSLIM leaders need to do more to weed out potential local extremists and condemn acts of terror, independent MP Russell Savage said yesterday. Speaking during State Parliament's condolences for victims of the London bombings, Mr Savage took aim at Australian Islamic leaders for perceived inaction following terrorist attacks. He read a quote from controversial Victorian Sheik Mohammed Omran denying links between Osama bin Laden and the recent terrorist attacks, then expressed concern about Muslim leadership in Australia. "Like many Australians I am becoming increasingly concerned by some Muslim demands in our society, some of their intolerance of our way of...

The reason all attempts to reform Islam have failed is because Islam cannot be reformed. Reforming Islam is an illusion and will only frustrate the to-be reformer. It is like someone wanting to reform Nazism and trying to make it a non-racist humane ideology. This would be absurd but even that is more doable than trying to reform Islam. After all Mein Kempf is not believed to be words of God but the Quran is. You can’t change the Quran. You can't reform a lie. You've to abandon it.First the question that begs an answer is “WHY”. Why would one...

Ian Buruma, author and Luce professor of Democracy, Human Rights and Journalism at Bard College, New York, will answer readers’ questions online about the roots of Islamic extremism and the motivations of homegrown terrorists. You can send questions in advance to ask@ft.com. He will answer the questions on Friday, July 22. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Some of the responses to the bomb attacks on London were predictable. Of course Tariq Ali, the journalist...

What is the connection between the killing of the Egyptian ambassador to Baghdad after he was kidnapped by Musab Al Zarqawi's group, and the violent London blasts last Thursday morning? Both terrorist acts committed by Muslim extremist are connected in more than meets the eye. First, both heinous events represent a categorical and surprising development in the nature of terrorist operations. The terrorists did not target the diplomats of countries that are direct participants in the US campaign to reconstruct Iraq, such as Japan and Norway who each have 20 soldiers serving under British command. Egypt did not support the...

It's their own fault Written by Paul Albers Monday, July 18, 2005 It’s their own fault, they asked for it. How can you expect people to not fight back when they have been attacked and so many innocent lives have been lost? No, I’m not blaming the British government for the actions of the terrorists who recently murdered over 50 of their own countrymen; I’m blaming terrorists for causing the very conflict they claim as their motivation. It has likely been some time since you’ve seen footage from September 11, 2001. Even before the fires were out the media locked...

In the midst of one of the greatest challenges we have ever faced, we in the Western World have developed a serious communications problem. In this era of hypersensitivity and political correctness, words no longer have meaning. The good are too often portrayed as evil; indefensibly wicked acts are made less so by how they are described. Words like "hero" and "hatred" have lost definition. In a struggle for survival, the inability to discern attackers from allies, friends from foes and heroes from cowards can be catastrophic. Scotland Yard and MI5 -- the British domestic intelligence service -- concluded three...

LEEDS, ENGLAND - With Prime Minister Tony Blair warning Saturday against an "evil ideology" of Islamic extremism, pressure mounted on British Muslims and their community leaders to do something — anything — to prevent more of its young people from joining the ranks of al-Qaida suicide bombers. But few concrete plans of action seemed to be in place. News that the four suicide bombers who killed at least 55 commuters on London's transit system were Britons, not foreigners, had Blair, Prince Charles and other national figures demanding that Muslims in Britain crack down. The prime minister and Parliament are planning...

London's four suspected suicide bombers had wanted to to scar the city with a ``burning cross'' of blasts in its north, south, east and west, in the hope of being declared Islamic martyrs, a newspaper has claimed. The theory came as a global manhunt began for the man suspected of being the mastermind behind the suicide bombings. The four suspects were caught on security cameras at London's Kings Cross station, heading off in different directions shortly before the three bombs went off near Aldgate, Edgware Road and Russell Square Underground stations early last Thursday. A fourth bomb exploded on a...

Passengers evacuate an underground train at Kings Cross (Photo: Alexander Chadwick) BBC. Toronto-- Ramblin_roses2003@yahoo.co.uk (in the United Kingdom) may have found some answers on the "bombing exercises", which took place at the same time as last week’s real-time terrorist attacks in London. Basing their information on a BBC Radio 5 interview, Paul Joseph Watson and Alex Jones wrote for PrisonPlanet.com that a consulting agency with government and police connections was running an exercise for an unnamed company that revolved around the London Underground being bombed at the exact times and locations as happened in real life on the morning of...

Suspicions that at least one of the alleged London suicide bombers may have been radicalised while in Pakistan raises questions once again about religious extremism there. Most analysts agree that the London bombers - three of whom police say were Britons of Pakistani descent - were probably trained by "minders" far more experienced in the use of explosives. UK investigators will be keen to know if the London bombers had been trained at any time in Pakistan or neighbouring Afghanistan. The family of one of the suspected bombers has confirmed that he studied religion in Pakistan, although it is not...

By SADAQAT JAN, Associated Press WriterWed Jul 13, 8:26 AM ET Pakistan's interior minister said Wednesday that a terror attack was thwarted in Britain before the May general elections in that country — and arrests were made in several countries — because of help from Pakistan's government. "Before the general elections in the U.K. we received reports that this sort of situation might arise, and attacks were aborted because of information provided by the government of Pakistan, and arrests were made in various countries and here," Interior Minster Aftab Khan Sherpao told a news conference in the capital. He gave...

IN THE FIRST FEW DAYS after the horror in London on July 7, media in Britain and abroad focused considerable attention on "Londonistan"--the local zoo of Islamist agitators, almost entirely Arab, who have made headlines for years with their extremist preaching. Analytical lines, many of them useful, were drawn to al Qaeda and Iraq, but almost nobody looked at domestic Muslim extremism in the United Kingdom. Close observers of the British Islamic community, however, few of whom seem to have been consulted by reporters or the government, had been discussing for months a dramatic increase in radical agitation by Pakistani...

Three persons arrested by the Pakistani authorities in March,2003, in connection with the attack on USS Cole in October,2000, had told them during the interrogation that since the Western intelligence agencies were keeping a close watch on the suspected Arab members of the Al Qaeda, bin Laden had asked the LET to recruit Pakistani volunteers for suicide missions to be undertaken by the Al Qaeda and that the LET had already placed 12 Pakistani volunteers for suicide missions at the disposal of the Al Qaeda. Barcelona in Spain, Lisbon in Portugal and Luton and Leeds in the UK have become...

13 July 2005: Britain is seeking the special assistance of the Indian government to deal with Asian Islamic terrorism, and relations are also being strengthened with Spain and France to combat North African terrorism. Diplomats said that Britain is also actively considering creating a US homeland security-type department, and a bill will be brought for this in the British Parliament soon, and as part of a new anti-terror regime, following the London bombings last week, mosques will be compulsorily registered, and visitors to them would have to reveal their identities.