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The New York Times published a photograph of a young Pakistani boy recently standing with an old man next to an ancient, unfired artillery shell. It placed a caption under it that read: “Pakistani men with the remains of a missile fired at a house in the Bajur tribal zone near the Afghan border.” A short time later, the newspaper changed the caption to: “Correction: A picture caption on Saturday with an article about a U.S. airstrike on a village in Pakistan misidentified an unexploded ordinance. It was not the remains of a missile fired at a house.” The photograph...

Islam and the Textbooks The American Textbook Council examined the coverage of Islam in seven widely adopted world history textbooks used in grades seven through twelve. In February 2003, it published its findings in a review, Islam and the Textbooks. To go directly to the original report, Islam and the Textbooks: To go to Islam and the Textbooks: A Reply to the Critics, December 2003: During the last two years, beginning with the American Textbook Council report, Islam and the Textbooks, several reports have documented bias and evasions in world history textbooks on the subjects of militant Islam and Islamic...

Many people have written many books, treatises and articles for the purpose of defining the role jihad is supposed to play in the lives of the Muslims. Most writers have tried, in their own ways, to come up with the [true] meaning of the Arabic word [Jihad,] others took circuitous routes to emphasize on what they believed was the purpose for which Allah has purportedly made the launching of jihad by Muslims an integral part of their lives. Until recently, my mind had remained in a state of dichotomy; it being the result of the inadequate attention, I admit, I...

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian police arrested nearly 200 Muslim Brotherhood activists on Monday in a crackdown the opposition Islamist group said was designed to weaken its chances in parliamentary elections this week. The Brotherhood has made a strong showing in four days of voting held so far, increasing its number of seats fivefold, despite arrests of its activists and the blocking of polling stations by riot police in Islamist strongholds. Arrests were made in areas north of Cairo, northern Sinai and Sohag south of the capital, where voting will take place on December 1 and 7, the officially banned Brotherhood...

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood said it had won 34 seats in the first phase of legislative elections, a major advance for the banned but tolerated Islamist group. ADVERTISEMENT Its candidates, campaigning under the banner "Islam is the solution" in the three-phase election, are aiming for an overall tally of between 50 and 70 seats in the 454-seat parliament. Spokesman Hassan el-Eryan said Wednesday that the movement had already doubled its representation in parliament, winning 20 percent of the seats being contested in the first round, following a run-off election on Tuesday. It held a total of 15 seats from the previous...

Responding to last week’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Saudi Arabia’s role in the war on terror, entitled “Saudi Arabia: Friend or Foe in the War on Terror?”, Riyadh’s ambassador to the U.S., Prince Turki al-Faisal, charged the committee members with ignorance. "Judging by the statements made at the hearing, it appears that the members of the Committee are not fully aware of the significant steps Saudi Arabia has taken in the war on terrorism and extremism.” Worse, according to the prince, U.S. senators “chose to ignore the realities for the sake of political expediency.” Did they really? The U.S....

BBC rejects Muslim attack on Panorama By Philip Johnston, Home Affairs Editor (Filed: 01/10/2005) The BBC hit back angrily yesterday at Muslim criticism of a Panorama documentary that accused the community's leading body of doing too little to confront extremism. Mike Robinson, the programme's editor, issued a rebuttal to a complaint by the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) that the production was "dishonestly presented", "mischievously edited" and intended to malign "without regard for the facts". The MCB also called A Question of Leadership, made by John Ware, "a shoddy and Islamophobic piece of work which will contribute to furthering distrust"....

Washington D.C., 27 Sept. (AKI/DAWN) - North American Muslims have issued a religious edict or fatwa against extremism and terrorism to prevent disgruntled Muslims who might be tempted to use their religion to justify violence, says a pamphlet distributed at mosques and other religious places across the United States and Canada.The fatwa has been signed by representatives of more than 250 mosques and Islamic centres and endorsed by over 170 Muslim groups, leaders and institutions. The American fatwa followed a fatwa issued in March by the Islamic Commission of Spain, which declared Osama bin Laden an apostate and urged other...

ROME, SEPT. 22, 2005 (Zenit.org).- The imam of Rome's Grand Mosque condemned terrorism in the name of Islam, stating that "Islam is the religion of mutual knowledge and peace," not of "mutual hostility and clash." Sheik Mahmud Hammad Sheweita made this statement at a press conference in Rome's Foreign Press Room, to present the Media Campaign Against World Suicide Terrorism, led by Jack Shepard, founder of the People for Peace Group. The imam reminded his audience that suicide and murder are illicit. "It is very clear that the killing of innocent people and of peaceful people have been declared illicit...

The principle of Al-Takeyya The Arabic word, "Takeyya", means "to prevent," or guard against. The principle of Al Takeyya conveys the understanding that Muslims are permitted to lie as a preventive measure against anticipated harm to one's self or fellow Muslims. This principle gives Muslims the liberty to lie under circumstances that they perceive as life threatening. They can even deny the faith, if they do not mean it in their hearts. Al-Takeyya is based on the following Quranic verse: "Let not the believers Take for friends or helpers Unbelievers rather than believers: if any do that, in nothing will...

A group of Afghan Muslim clerics threatened on Sunday to call for a holy war against the United States in three days unless it hands over military interrogators reported to have desecrated the Koran. The warning came after 16 Afghans were killed and more than 100 hurt last week in the worst anti-U.S. protests across the country since U.S. forces invaded in 2001 to oust the Taliban for sheltering Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network. The clerics in the northeastern province of Badakhshan said they wanted U.S. President George W. Bush to handle the matter honestly "and hand...

FAIZABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) -- A group of Afghan Muslim clerics have threatened to call for a holy war against the United States in three days unless it hands over military interrogators reported to have desecrated the Quran. The warning on Sunday came after 16 Afghans were killed and more than 100 hurt last week in the worst anti-U.S. protests across the country since U.S. forces invaded in 2001 to oust the Taliban for sheltering Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network. The clerics in the northeastern province of Badakhshan said they wanted U.S. President George W. Bush to handle...

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai urged the United States on Saturday to prosecute and punish anyone found guilt of desecrating the Koran as anti-U.S. protests flared for a fifth day. Sixteen Afghans have been killed and more than 100 hurt since Wednesday in the worst anti-U.S. protests across Afghanistan since U.S. forces invaded in 2001 to oust the Taliban for harbouring Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network. Newsweek magazine said in its May 9 edition investigators probing abuses at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay found that interrogators "had placed Korans on toilets, and in...

The Pakistani foreign minister has said that if reports that US guards at Guantanamo Bay desecrated the Koran are true, they should be severely punished. Khurshid Kasuri said that the allegations had provoked outrage throughout the Islamic world. At least seven people died and many more were hurt in protests in Afghanistan this week over the issue. The US has described the incident as abhorrent, and pledged prompt action if the allegations prove to be true. A number of protest rallies were held in Pakistan on Friday. 'Outraged Muslims' "Yes, it's abominable the reports that emanated from Guantanamo Bay," Mr...

Sydney, April 9: The West must end "Islamophobia" and Muslim nations must tackle the causes of religious extremism, such as poverty, to win the fight against terrorism, the head of the world's largest body of Islamic nations said on Friday. Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, chairman of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), said the war on terrorism could not be won by military might alone. Abdullah said in a speech in Sydney that the West and the Muslim world must unite to tackle the "root causes of terrorism", such as poverty. "The increasing gulf and misunderstanding between...

An Australian cleric in Iraq to negotiate the release of a kidnapped contractor prayed in a Sunni mosque in Baghdad today for the hostage's freedom. "I came here to pray for the release of Douglas Wood," Australian mufti Sheik Taj Aldin Alhilali said, calling on the Australian's captors to provide him with medical treatment. Alhilali also told reporters he has urged the kidnappers to allow a delivery of medication for Woods, who has heart and blood pressure problems. "Until now we are still carrying his medicines," Alhilali said. "He is suffering from blood pressure and heart problems. His medicines are...

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Zacarias Moussaoui, 36, a French national of Algerian origins, pleaded guilty on April 22, 2005, to six counts of conspiracy to commit terrorism. He says he intended to take part in a post-9/11 air attack on the White House. “I came to the United States of America to be part, O.K., of a conspiracy to use airplane as a weapon of mass destruction, a statement of fact to strike the White House, but this conspiracy was a different conspiracy than 9/11.” He never got to hijack a plane because two of the staff at the flight school where Moussaoui was...

What steps should Western border agencies take to defend their homelands from harm by Islamists? In the case of non-citizens, the answer is simple: Don't let Islamists in. Exclude not just potential terrorists but also anyone who supports the totalitarian goals of radical Islam. Just as civilized countries did not welcome fascists in the early 1940s (or communists a decade later), they need not welcome Islamists today. But what about one's own citizens who cross the border? They could be leaving to fight for the Taliban or returning from a course on terrorism techniques. Or perhaps they studied with enemies...

In Islam, lying or omissions for the 'greater good,' according to a strict or radical Islam/Islamist philosophy is not only acceptable, it is holy and blessed work. It is called al-Takeyya (or al-Taqiyya) and is a strategy outlined in the Hadiths and supported by various interpretations of some of the Suras in the Koran. We have just seen it in action and most people never even caught the whiff of mental ether the Islamists were pouring into the airways of the already comatose and choking non-Islamist world. Al-Takeyya is a policy whereby a Muslim may lie, deceive or omit critical...