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Arab doctor arrested in Saudi Arabia for call to conquer Rome during prayersAn expatriate Arab doctor in Saudi Arabia raided a packed mosque and interrupted its preacher during Friday prayers to call for conquering Rome before he was arrested by police, a local newspaper reported on Wednesday. The unnamed dermatology doctor at a private hospital in the western Red Sea port of Jeddah snatched the microphone from the preacher and started to shout a sermon in which he called for “conquering Rome,” Okaz said. When he finished his “fiery” sermon, he headed for the women’s section in the mosque and...

Terror Suspect Failed to Show for Christmas Eve Air France Flight France today confirmed an ABCNEWS report that it was hunting for a man behind security fears that forced several flight cancellations and delays. The man is suspected of having links to al Qaeda and may have access to a concealable bomb. U.S. law enforcement officials told ABCNEWS that if the suspect is who they think he is, he underwent terrorist training at one of Osama bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan. The ongoing search for the man — who was traveling with a French passport — is one of the...

Despite appeals for calm from Islamic and Western leaders, protests were held from Indonesia to Iraq over the Pope's citing of a medieval text last week that criticised some teachings of the Prophet Mohammed as “evil and inhuman”. The leader of the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics yesterday said he was “deeply sorry” for the offence caused by his remarks and the Vatican launched a diplomatic offensive to explain to Muslim countries his position on Islam. Mohammed Habib of Egypt's opposition Muslim Brotherhood said they considered the apology a retraction of the Pope's statement, but some Egyptian lawmakers demanded diplomatic...

The Corriere della Sera reported that local terror experts said they are paying close attention to threats made by an Iraqi armed group regarding its intentions to attack Rome and the Vatican in response to Pope Benedict’s remarks on Islam.

PMW Reports: Hamas: Islam will conquer US and Britain Palestinian Media Watch Bulletin - June 22, 2006Contact details: Palestinian Media Watch:p:+972 2 625 4140e: pmw@pmw.org.ilf: +972 2 624 2803w: www.pmw.org.il Hamas: Islam will conquer US and Britain By Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook Hamas Video A Hamas video just released on their web site focuses on the broader Palestinian Islamic ideology, promising the eventual conquering and subjugation of Christian countries under Islam. The way Israel "ran" from Gaza after terror is presented as the prototype for future Israeli and Western behavior in the face of Islamic force. The video...

Shukhrat Masirokhunov met with Osama bin Laden, was trained by Khattab, recruited mujaheddin and fought Americans in Afghanistan. He also has firsthand knowledge about the situation in Chechnya A Tashkent city court delivered a guilty verdict against members of the Akromiylar movement who took part in the Andizhan events (May, 12-13, 2005). The authorities allege that militants from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) were also involved. Shukhrat Masirokhunov, 34, a former chief of the IMU counterintelligence service who was extradited from Pakistan several months ago, is now awaiting trial in Tashkent. He faces 20 years in prison. It is...

A GROUP claiming links to al-Qaeda threatened to attack Rome to punish Italy for supporting the United States, and praised the bomb blasts in London, a website statement said today. The statement did not appear on Web sites normally used by Islamist militants loyal to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. "We warn Rome, the capital of infidels, that the lions of Jihad in Europe are ready to launch strong strikes against the collaborating government with the crusaders, the Americans, the enemies of God, the Prophet and Muslims," it said. Advertisement: "With the help of God, a group of honourable mujahideen...

DUBAI — The deputy to Al Qaeda’s frontman in Iraq, Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, has asked for orders to attack the White House and the Vatican, according to an audiotape posted on the Internet yesterday. “To our emir (leader) Abu Musab Al Zarqawi ... we say: We are ready for your orders. We are determined to fight the infidels,” said Sheikh Abdulrahman Al Iraqi in the tape, whose authenticity could not be verified. “If you point at the White House or the Vatican, we would make every effort so that you reach your target,” he added, in the online statement...

Following Pope John Paul II's visit to the Middle East in 2000 and 2001, some prominent Muslim leaders openly discussed the future dominance of Islam in Europe, including conquesting the Vatican.  While the identity of the next pope is decided, one of the pressing issues he will have to deal with is the growing Muslim community in Europe, part of which have Islamist inclinations. As the New York Times reported this week, the next pope will be facing "increasing secularism in Europe, contrasting with the religious revival in the Islamic world … and the rising number of Muslim immigrants in...

Italian authorities have received a tip-off that a group of Islamists were planning a bomb attack on the seat of Roman Catholicism, according to reports. The Corriere newspaper carried an unsourced report on Friday that a group of Islamists from Bosnia were planning a bomb attack on the Vatican. According to the report the group, made up of seven men and three women, has already arrived in Rome. Checks have been launched along the border with Slovenia and security at airports has been tightened, the Corriere newspaper wrote. Italy has identified 13,600 targets at risk of attack, including the Vatican...

Vatican calls for openness to Muslim immigrants By VICTOR L. SIMPSON Associated Press VATICAN CITY ? Catholics should welcome Muslim immigrants without prejudice, and Muslims must also respect the values of a democracy - including equality between men and women, the Vatican said Friday. The issue of Christian-Muslim relations was raised in a document on worldwide migration, which the Vatican called "the vastest movement people of all times" involving some 200 million. The document urged Catholics to be cautious about considering the idea of marrying a Muslim - repeating a long-standing Roman Catholic policy toward mixed marriages - as Muslims...

In articles written by Islamic clerics, the clerics herald the imminent conquest of Rome by Islam, in accordance with the prophecy of Muhammad. The issue is also discussed in Friday sermons. Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi, one of the most influential clerics in Sunni Islam, often makes this claim in his religious rulings and on his television programs. The following are remarks made by Al-Qaradhawi and other Muslim clerics: -Qaradhawi: "Islam will Return to Europe as a Conqueror" In a fatwa posted on the website www.islamonline.net,(1) in response to a reader's question, Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi wrote of the "signs of the victory of...

Italian police have found a video tape, thought to be from Al-Qaeda, containing threats to destroy Rome, right-wing weekly magazine Panorama said on Friday. "The person who will destroy Rome is already preparing his swords. Rome will not be conquered by words but by force and weapons," Panorama quoted the message on the tape as saying. The video was discovered at a flat in the northern city of Cremona suspected by investigators of being used as a base for an Islamic extremist group, the magazine said. The threats came from Sheikh Abu Qatadah Al Falastini, a Jordanian accused of belonging...

ROME -- Terrorists planned to attack the Vatican with a hijacked plane on Christmas Day, Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi said in a newspaper interview published Saturday. Berlusconi told Milan's Libero newspaper of a "precise and verified news of an attack on Rome on Christmas Day." "A hijacked plane into the Vatican," Berlusconi is quoted as saying. "An attack from the sky, is that clear? The threat of terrorism is very high in this instant. I passed Christmas Eve in Rome to deal with the situation. Now I feel calm. It will pass." He added, "It isn't fatalism, but the knowledge...

St. Peter's Square, Leaning Tower of Pisa get special attention Italian authorities have clamped unprecedented security coverage over the Vatican and other Christian landmarks after receiving a "credible threat" of a Christmastime terrorist attack, senior U.S. officials said Wednesday. Over the past two days, officials within the Vatican and elsewhere in Italy have increased security near major Christian symbols, including St. Peter's Square. The step was taken based on a warning from the Mossad, the Israeli security service, that there was a "high index of probability" that "an important symbol of Christianity" would be the target of an attack between...