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A bomb tore through a procession of Shiite pilgrims heading toward a largely Sunni town in southern Iraq on Saturday, killing at least 53 people in the latest sign of a power struggle between rival Muslim sects that has escalated since the American military withdrawal. Fears of more bloodshed have risen in recent weeks, with the U.S. no longer enjoying the leverage it once had to encourage the two sides to work together to rein in extremists. Most of the latest attacks appear to be aimed at Iraq's majority Shiites, suggesting Sunni insurgents seeking to undermine the Shiite-dominated government are...

Although a large number of shops in Tehran put a Christmas tree in their windows to welcome Christmas season, the Christmas theme in several shopping centers has displeased the regime dependent media. Last week you could sense the Christmas season in several streets in Tehran. Many shops had placed a decorated Christmas tree where it could easily capture the attention of passersby. But it seems that this trend has upset the pro-government media! ... "One of the main symbols of Christianity, the majority religion of the world, is Christmas which is known by a colorfully decorated tree. What's the point...

Russia is concerned that the Arab Spring revolutions could sow further turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa by provoking a potentially catastrophic rift between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. In written answers to Reuters, Lavrov said the events in the region were still unfolding and cautioned that social, political and religious tensions showed signs of increasing. “There are serious fears about the possible emergence of new zones of instability in the region that could become potential sources of challenges to international stability and security,” Lavrov said. Such threats, he said, included the spread of...

Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki has urged Kurdish officials to hand over the country's Sunni vice-president on terrorist charges, in a row that has raised communal tension. Mr Maliki, a Shiite. ... Mr Maliki has also called for the sacking of Sunni deputy prime minister Saleh al-Mutlak, who has decried the Shiite-led national unity government as a "dictatorship". All this comes just days after US troops completed their withdrawal from the country, leaving behind what US president Barack Obama described as a "sovereign, stable, and self-reliant Iraq". Mr Maliki ..."We gave Saddam a fair trial, and we will give Hashemi...

Iraqi authorities issued an arrest warrant for Sunni Muslim Vice-President Tareq al-Hashemi on Monday for suspected ties to assassinations and bombings, a decision likely to fuel sectarian tensions after the U.S. troop withdrawal. The move risks unraveling Iraq's fragile power-sharing deal among Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish blocs who have struggled to overcome tensions just a few years after sectarian slaughter drove the country to the edge of a civil war. … The political struggle between Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and his Sunni rivals in the country's delicate power-sharing deal has intensified during the withdrawal of the last U.S. troops...

NEW YORK — In an historic hearing in the federal courthouse in Manhattan on Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge George Daniels said he planned to issue a ruling in the coming days declaring that Iran shares in the responsibility for the 9/11 terror attacks. “The extensive record submitted to this court, including fact witnesses and expert testimony, is satisfactory to this court,” Judge Daniels said. The court “accepts as true” the various allegations of the plaintiffs and their experts, he declared, and “will issue an order” in the coming days that Iran bears legal responsibility for providing “material support” to...

Iran-inspired Shiite Muslim men beating themselves to pulp in a sick religious display. Coming soon to a shopping mall parking lot close to you in the USA. OUR HERO Translation to English Synposis Provided by Freeper "AmericanInTokyo":(Original Iranian Article: "時期米大統領候補�イスラム教徒�侮辱的�発言" (Next Presidential Candidate, Makes (Insulting Comments to Islamists")(MY SYNOPSIS): "Herman Cain is the Republican candidate for the next U.S. presidential election, and much was made by him of the so-called Muslim extremist presence in the United States. According to Mefuru press reports on communications coming from Candidate Cain, he claimed "(and) what with special attention to trends regarding extremist...

I've heard the accusations, but is it true? I don't support him for POTUS by the way, I'm just curious what others think.

Here is what the Iran-Hezbollah Islamo-fascistic entity has been contributing to humanity, since the Islamic Revolution. Religious apartheid and ethnic apartheid: Since the revolution, a total Islamic oppression has been in place, yet, there was always a "special" place for oppression on non-Muslim, racism on non-Ethnic Iranians like; Kurds, Turkmen, Arabs, etc. - Hijacking Americans for 144 days in 1979. - Bombing US and French barracks in 1983. - Multiple kidnapping and torturing of Westerners in the 1980s. - Bombing shopping malls in France 1985-6 - Torturing Lebanese Jews in the 1980s. - Bombing Israeli embassy in Argentina 1992...

'Arab Spring' Part of Iranian Plot to Dominate By Reza Kahlili For the first time, an official entity of Iran's Islamic government has detailed the horrific goal of the regime: destroy America and Israel as part of the Muslim "awakening" sweeping Africa and the Middle East. That "awakening," which the West has labeled the "Arab Spring," is all part of Iran's messianic complex in which it sees itself as the spearhead of a worldwide revolution in which the Shiite version of Islam will dominate humanity.

Sunni extremists opened fire on Shiite Muslim pilgrims traveling by bus through southwest Pakistan on Tuesday on their way to in Iran, killing 26 people...Sunni militants with ideological and operational links to al-Qaida and the Taliban have carried out scores of bombings and shootings against Shiites in recent years... The passengers tried to run away, but the gunmen opened fire, killing 26 people and wounding six others...The attackers then drove off, leaving the dying and wounded where they lay. It was nearly an hour before rescue teams arrived, he said. There were around 40 people on the bus.

Today, a redneck friend was trying to explain the difference between a Sunni Muslim and a Shi'ite Muslim. He says that, when Osama was dumped into the sea, he was a Sunni Muslim. But after being eaten by the fish and crabs, he was digested and converted into a Shi'ite Muslim. Somehow, my friend does not strike me as an expert on Islam, and I have to seek a second opinion. What is the difference between a Sunni and a Shi'ite Muslim?

Tensions and violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims are often in the news in countries like Iraq, Pakistan and Bahrain, but why are they at daggers drawn? swissinfo.ch: How did it come about that a Sunni minority should rule over a Shiite majority, as for example in Bahrain, where there are currently popular protests? Arnold Hottinger: This is a matter of power which has historical roots. Bahrain has a Sunni government but the majority of the population – 70 per cent - is Shiite. The example of Iraq, which also has a Shiite majority, can be easily explained in the...

Bahrain's Blow-up--Amir Taheri - NYPOST.com - 17 Feb 2011 ... Bahrain, the smallest of the 21 Arab states, is often deemed a success ... " Second, the global recession has hit Bahrain hard, reducing job opportunities. Shiites claim that they're the victims of an undeclared "religious apartheid" that reserves the best jobs for Sunnis, including non-Bahraini Arabs.

MANAMA (Reuters) – The United States said Bahrain was on the "wrong track" in trying to crush Shi'ite protests in the Sunni-ruled island, rare criticism that highlighted concern the crackdown could ignite a wider regional conflict. Bahraini forces used tanks and helicopters on Wednesday to clear a protest camp set up by youths from the Shi'ite Muslim majority which complains of discrimination by the Sunni royal family. Three police and three protesters were killed. The unrest has brought an influx of troops to Bahrain from fellow Sunni-ruled neighbors Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, who fear the...

Saudi security forces to crack down on any unlawful protesters From Mohammed Jamjoom, CNNMarch 5, 2011 -- Updated 1838 GMT (0238 HKT) (CNN) -- Coming off two days of demonstrations, Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry warned Saturday that it would crack down on protesters who continue to take their grievances to the streets. Saudi security forces will be "authorized to take all measures against anyone who tries to break the law and cause disorder," the ministry said, according to the country's state-run news agency. /snip An outspoken Shiite prayer leader who demonstrators say was arrested more than a week ago was...

Roger Stockham ... The California man accused of plotting to blow up a Detroit-area mosque rejected his court-appointed counsel Friday, upset that the attorney is a Shiite Muslim and a "patron" of the Islamic center where he was arrested. There are two main sects within Islam, Shiite and Sunni. The schism between Sunni and Shiite stems from the early days of Islam and arguments over the Prophet Muhammad's successors as the faith's spiritual leader.

...[Wikileaks] show how Iranian regional ambitions have placed Teheran's fingerprints on myriad political processes across the Middle East. They detail Iran's extensive interference in Iraq, quote the Saudi king’s assertion of Iranian aid to the Houthi rebels in Yemen, outline Iranian and Syrian involvement with illegal arms transfers from North Korea and describe the extensive involvement of Revolutionary Guards personnel in shipping weapons to Hizbullah during the Second Lebanon War (using the Iranian Red Crescent relief organization as cover). So the leaked cables provide added and deepened color to an already existing picture of regional cold war. ... Iran is...

BAGHDAD – Saddam Hussein's foreign minister Tariq Aziz was sentenced to death by hanging Tuesday for persecuting members of Shiite religious parties under the former regime. Iraq's high criminal court spokesman Mohammed Abdul Sahib did not say when Aziz, 74, would be put to death. The death sentence was for a conviction on charges of taking part in a Saddam-led campaign that hunted and executed members of the Shiite Dawa Party, of which current Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is a member.

BAGHDAD - Hundreds of police officers, formerly members of an American-backed Sunni paramilitary force, will be stripped of their ranks in the Sunni Arab province of Anbar, tribal leaders and Anbar police said Sunday. The officers called the move by Iraq's Interior Ministry, which oversees police, a threat to security in Anbar, once a stronghold of Sunni insurgent violence. In 2006, a group called the Awakening, some of them former insurgents, rose up with tribal and U.S. backing to battle al-Qaeda in Iraq. The same strategy was mirrored across the country with American backing and funding, and what became the...

With the official end of U.S. combat operations in Iraq, what bodes for Iraq's future in terms of its relations to other nations in the Middle East? One useful way to examine this question is through the lens of what Daniel Pipes describes as the present "Middle Eastern Cold War." This new Cold War represents the current ideological division in the Middle East between the "revolutionary bloc," led chiefly by Iran, Syria, and more recently Turkey, and the "status-quo bloc," led by Saudi Arabia and Egypt. While most Sunni Arab states align themselves with the "status-quo bloc," there are notable...

SNIPPET: "The top US general in Iraq has identified the three main Shia terror groups in Iraq that are backed by Iran. General Ray Odierno said Iran continues to back the League of the Righteous (or Asaib al Haq), the Mahdi Army spin-off Promised Day Brigade, and the Hezbollah Brigades (or Kataib Hezbollah). "The Iranians... continue to fund, train and provide weapons and ammunition to Shiite extremist groups," Odierno told reporters in Baghdad according to AFP. Qods Force, the special operations branch of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, has "gone to a more sophisticated program with a smaller set of...

NOTE The following blog entry snippet is a quote: Al-Siyassa: Hizbullah Plan To Establish Terror Network In South America Thwarted The Kuwaiti daily Al-Siyassa, known for its anti-Hizbullah orientation, reports that Mexico has thwarted a Hizbullah plan to recruit Mexican terrorists of Shi'ite Lebanese origin, and form a network that would operate against Israeli and Western targets throughout South America. Posted at: July 06, 2010

Iran's, Syria-backed Arab-Islamic Terrorists: The Hezbollah Contents 1 Funding 1.1 Criminal funding1.2 South America1.3 U.S.1.4 Europe1.5 U.S. Mexican border 2 Regional plans3 Global Plans4 Violence outside Lebanon 4.1 Iraq4.2 Somalia4.3 Afghanistan4.4 Sudan4.5 Egypt4.6 Azerbaijan4.7 Europe4.8 Argentina 5 References Funding Dirty Money, Blood MoneyCriminal funding The Lebanese Shiite Terrorist Organization has been highlighted as a profile in "Crime and Terrorism" - Hezbollah's Criminal activity is widely in Lebanon and worldwide. [1], or what researches call: "various criminal enterprises to raise funds for Hezbollah." [2] Among the illegal, criminal methods of the Islamic group is wide fraud, drug trafficking, credit card...

...As is common among Lebanon's Shiites, Fakih comes from a large, extended clan that includes everything from supporters of the Islamic militant groups Hezbollah and Amal to secular Shiites and even communists.

This just in from the “I Can’t Tell The Good Guys From the Bad Guys” department – (photo of al-Maliki and Ahmadinejad above from Michelle Malkin’s website: Gunmen wearing the uniforms of Iraqi army soldiers invaded a village south of Baghdad on Good Friday, rounded up at least thirty-one Sunni Muslims and killed twenty-four of them. Some of the dead had their arms and legs broken prior to being shot and many were beaten beyond recognition. Seven victims were found alive, hands cuffed behind their backs. These killings came on the heels of the recent Iraqi election, the final results...

Lebanese anti-aircraft guns opened fire on two Israeli warplanes that were violating its airspace at medium altitude on Sunday, the military said. "The army's anti-aircraft guns fired at two Israeli warplanes overflying Hasbaya" in southeastern Lebanon, an army statement said. The incident came amid rising regional tension and heightened concern in Lebanon over recent Israeli threats against Shiite militant party Hezbollah and its backers Syria and Iran. Israel and Hezbollah fought a 34-day war in the summer of 2006 which destroyed much of southern Lebanon and killed more than 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and close to 160 Israelis, mainly soldiers....

As Israel braces for possible war with Iran and its proxies, a new kind of conflict in which the civilian population will be a primary target for massive missile barrages, there are growing concerns about the military's ability to shield cities as well as its key bases. In the 34-day 2006 war Israel fought with Hezbollah of Lebanon, Tehran's main surrogate in the Levant, the Shiite movement fired some 4,000 rockets, supplied by Iran and Syria, into Israel as far south as the port city of Haifa, at a rate of around 150 per day. That was the deepest Hezbollah...

A Hezbollah minister said on Sunday that disarming his Shiite militant group was not "a subject for discussion," two days before Lebanon's national dialogue on defence strategy is due to resume. "Some have implied that the dialogue session seeks to establish when Hezbollah will be disarmed," Administrative Reform Minister Mohammad Fneich was quoted as saying by the state news agency ANI. "This issue is not a subject for discussion and will not be debated at the dialogue session," Fneich said. Politicians from rival parties are due to meet Tuesday for a new session on defence strategy to be chaired by...

Senate Democrats spent Thursday night hammering away at Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) for single-handedly holding up action in the upper chamber – but he blurted out a message to one of them on the Senate floor: “Tough s—t.” In an unusual display in the normally sleepy chamber, Bunning – without the support of GOP leadership – has blocked efforts to quickly approve a series of extensions to measures that would otherwise expire Sunday, including unemployment insurance and the Cobra program that allows people who lose their health benefits to continue getting coverage. And that has led to a furious exchange...

As national elections in Iraq loom on the horizon, Iran continues to subvert its western neihbor’s security and political infrastructure, top American military officials said. Army Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the top American commander in Iraq, said Iran aims to foment violence in Iraq and to play diplomatic and other nonmilitary roles that call into question Iran’s respect for Iraqi sovereignty. “Iran clearly has a strategy that goes across lethal aims, diplomatic aims and then soft-power aims -- i.e., influencing people through investment in the economy -- and into some other practices inside of Iraq,” the general said yesterday at...

VIDEO - Saudi Cleric Muhammad Al-Arifi Vilifies Shiites, Calling Iraqi Ayatollah Sistani "an Infidel"

ISLAMIC SUPREMACY - THE FASCIST IDEOLOGY OF: WORLD DOMINATION - TO CONTROL THE WORLD ISLAMIC SUPREMACISM is the belief that Islam is superior to other religions, cultures, and governmental systems, and the belief that Islam's superiority entitles Muslims to dominate, control, and rule non-Muslims. http://www.citizenwarrior.com/2008/12/islamic-supremacism.html 'Islamic Supremacy' - WSJ.comhttp://online.wsj.com/article/SB123211637982290301.html British Jihad and Islamic Supremacism http://www.britishjihad.com Study: Iran Indoctrinating Children in Islamic Supremacism - http://www.nysun.com/foreign/study-iran-indoctrinating-children-in-islamic/73162/ Crossroads in History: The Struggle against Jihad and Supremacist... In fighting Islamic supremacism, instead of an approach only based on ... The true challenge of Islamic supremacism to America and the free world... http://www.unitedstatesaction.com/blog/imm-articles/090.html Islamic Supremacism:...

Yemen's government said Sunday it will accept a truce offer only if the rebels operating in the country's north comply with six previously laid-out conditions. The Shiite Muslim rebels, known as the Houthis, had indicated Saturday that they were open to a cease-fire and to accepting the government conditions. But they demanded an end to military operations first. The intractable stance on both sides means the conflict, which had lasted more than five years, is likely to continue. In August, Yemen laid out cease-fire terms that included removing checkpoints, ending banditry, handing over all military equipment and weapons, and releasing...

Kuwait has been investigating reports of an Iranian-backed Shi'ite insurgency plot. Officials said Kuwait has launched an investigation into allegations that Shi'ites funded and directed by Iran planned to attack key facilities in the Gulf Cooperation Council sheikdom. The investigation was said to center on Shi'ite soldiers in neighboring Bahrain trained in sabotage. Officials have warned of a growing Shi'ite threat in Kuwait, a Sunni-ruled country with nearly 50 percent of the population being Shi'ite. They said Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has increased surveillance and other intelligence operations in Kuwait, which hosts more than 15,000 U.S. military soldiers. "There...

Impoverished Yemen is reeling under the threat of Al Qaeda, northern Shiite rebels and southern secessionists, but a lack of water is putting its ancient capital at even greater risk, experts say. Within a decade - or even less - Sanaa could become the first waterless capital in the world, they warn, adding the outlook is also bleak for the rest of this parched country where wells in some regions are already dry. A conference in London on Wednesday will discuss Yemen's anti-terrorism drive, but it is unclear whether the water woes that experts say are likely to fuel more...

Members of the tiny Jewish community in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, say they have not received their monthly food rations or any government financial assistance for the past three months. Rabbi Yahya Yusuf, leader of the 65-member community, told IRIN the Jews had been “suffering terribly” of late; many had been finding it very difficult to even feed their children. “We have sold everything we possess to buy food for our families. We even sold our women’s gold rings. We have run out of money,” he said. Yusuf said that two weeks ago they had staged a protest outside government headquarters...

Yemeni forces killed anti-U.S. rebel cleric SAN'A, Yemen (AP) -- Yemeni forces killed anti-U.S. rebel cleric Hussein al-Houthi and dozens of his supporters on Friday, ending over two months of clashes in which over 200 rebels and troops have died. Houthi was one of a number of rebel leaders in Yemen, but he represented a considerable target having engaged the security forces over a long period. His group is not linked to al Qaeda. The Yemeni defence and interior ministries, in a joint statement, announced that their forces had killed Houthi in a mountainous area north of the capital Sanaa....

The string of deadly bombings against government buildings and Shiite landmarks in Baghdad that began last August provides a startling reminder that the Qaeda-associated Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) remains a clear danger to Iraq’s long-term stability. The three sets of multiple attacks that took place on August 19, October 25, and December 8—the three deadliest attacks since 2007—killed at least 362 people and wounded over 1,233. In an otherwise continuously improving security situation, the ISI claimed responsibility for the spectacular, headline-grabbing attacks in an effort to embarrass the Iraqi government, intensify Sunni disgruntlement with the current political establishment and...

The 30th summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council, meeting in Kuwait this week, expressed its solidarity with Saudi Arabia in its fight with the Shi'ite Houthi rebels in northern Yemen. The Kuwaiti emir noted that Saudi Arabia is facing "flagrant aggression that targets its sovereignty and security by those who have infiltrated its territory." The formerly little-noticed conflict between the Houthi rebels and the Yemeni government is now taking on the coloration of an additional hot front in an ongoing region-wide cold war. The conflict in northern Yemen reveals the ongoing Iranian regional effort to convert Shi'ite populations into assets...

An Iranian hospital in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa has been ordered shut down amid reports that the facility was used as cover by Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security for support and funding of Shi'ite Zaydi rebels. The 60-bed hospital has four operating rooms and six intensive care units. The ostensible reason for the closing was the hospital’s failure to pay rent. However reports from Sanaa say it was due to the illicit Iranian intelligence activities from the facility.

Jordan has sent several hundred troops from its special operations forces to help the Saudi military with its many Shi'ite units contain the Yemeni Shi'ite rebellion, which has spread deep into the Arab kingdom.

Jordan has sent several hundred troops from its special operations forces to help the Saudi military with its many Shi'ite units contain the Yemeni Shi'ite rebellion, which has spread deep into the Arab kingdom.

The Saudi army imposed a tight sea blockade on northern Yemen to corner Shiite fighters in the country. According to Saudi sources, the no-go zone is 10 kilometers wide along the Yemeni border and thousands of Saudi troops were deployed for carrying out this mission. Meanwhile, Assistant Minister of Defense for Security Affairs Prince Khaled Bin Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz said Tuesday that the Saudi forces will continue their airstrikes against the Shiite infiltrators until they move back from the Saudi frontier. “We are not going to stop the bombing until the infiltrators retreat tens of kilometers inside their border,”...

Smugglers In Iraq Have A New Trade: Corpse by QUIL LAWRENCE EnlargeJoseph Eid/AFP/Getty Images A tomb at the cemetery of Najaf in 2008. The Wadi al-Salam, or Valley of Peace, in Najaf is one of the largest cemeteries in the world. Millions of Shiite Muslims over the centuries have been brought here for burial from all over the world. text sizeAAANovember 4, 2009 Iraqi and U.S. officials have expressed concerns about the traffic of weapons and drugs across the country's porous borders, but there is also an older and more surprising commodity being smuggled into Iraq — cadavers. For centuries,...

The Yemeni army said its forces have killed 100 Shiite rebels and wounded a further 280 in the northern Saada province. "Terrorist and destructive elements yesterday evening infiltrated (areas) between military barracks and security posts in Saada province," the military said in a statement cited by Reuters. "Our armed and security forces put a stop to them and inflicted painful and heavy blows on them during which the terrorist 'Houthi' elements lost more than 100 people and more than 280 were injured," the statement said. According to official reports which can not be confirmed, in recent weeks, hundreds of Shiite...

The Yemeni army said on Wednesday that its forces killed 29 Shiite rebels as it presses its offensive in the northern mountains. Yemeni forces killed 12 rebels in clashes on Tuesday in the Harf Sufyan district of Amran province, 70 kilometres north of the capital, the official Saba news agency quoted a commander as saying. The other rebels died in several different clashes in Saada province further north, the commander added. According to AFP, the army said it had also destroyed five lorries carrying explosives to the rebels in Saada. A police spokesman said the seized supplies included 350 bags...

The Yemeni army attacked Shiite rebels near the Saudi border, using artillery and aircraft, local officials said Wednesday. The government offensive, which started late Tuesday, followed reports of Shiite gunmen seizing more control of the northern Saada province. A major security committee, presided over by President Ali Abdullah Saleh, vowed to respond to the latest developments "with an iron-fist." The state-run 26sep.net reported on Wednesday the "Houthi rebels" have seized teachers, dismissed tens of students and took over 63 schools where and used them to fight the government troops. According to the AP, a health ministry official in Saada said...

A multi-billion dollar mystery is unfolding in Iraq, and it may reach to the highest levels of the Iraqi government. It involves what the New York Times calls an "extremist Shiite group" that has now reconciled with Prime Minister Maliki and his regime. The group is responsible for the kidnapping and murder of five British contractors who, according to the Guardian, were installing a sophisticated financial tracking system in Iraq's ministry of finance in 2007. The story so far: Today, the Times reports: "An extremist Shiite group that has boasted of killing five American soldiers and of kidnapping five British...

BAGHDAD — The U.S. military has assessed that Iranian-backed Shi'ite forces were engaged in a military buildup in Iraq. Officials said the military has determined that Shi'ite forces financed and sponsored by Iran were accelerating weapons acquisition to prepare for a civil war in Iraq. They said Shi'ite militias, particularly the Mahdi Army, have concluded that the weapons would be required against Sunni forces financed by Saudi Arabia in a renewed power struggle. "Right now, everybody is waiting to see whether and how fast the United States withdraws from Iraq," an official said