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Panel dropped after invitation of Islam critic Three speakers pull out of ALA forum on Muslim religion By Shaun Waterman Monday, July 13, 2009 The American Library Association has canceled a panel discussion on Islam planned for its annual conference over the weekend, after three speakers withdrew in protest at the inclusion of the fourth, a controversial critic of the Muslim religion. The critic, Robert Spencer, who runs the blog site JihadWatch.org, told The Washington Times that he learned of the decision to cancel Sunday's panel - "Perspectives on Islam: Beyond the Stereotyping" - in an e-mail message Saturday morning...

SNIPPET: "So, I’m finally sitting down with this 149 page-book, entitled, “The Ruling on the Muslim Spy.” Here’ s what I’ve noticed off-the-bat about Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri’s forward." SNIPPET: "But then I remembered that the big-daddy al-Zawahiri’s ‘best-of’ list can be extracted from his winding book, Exoneration. In this book, al-Zawahiri drafts his all-star list, which includes everyone above and a whole lot more. It’s a ‘who’s who’ of contemporary jihadi thought. Test yourself and see how many you can identify. There’s some little gems buried in this list… Shaykh Ahmad Shakir Shaykh Mahmud Shakir Shaykh Muhammad Ibn-Ibrahim Al al-Shaykh...

SNIPPET: "CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan – U.S. Marines trapped Taliban fighters in a residential compound and persuaded the insurgents to allow women and children to leave. The troops then moved in — only to discover that the militants had slipped out, dressed in women's burqa robes.[...] On Monday, images from a Predator drone showed a dozen fighters and at least 15 to 20 civilians inside a mud-brick compound in the village of Khan Neshin, about 60 miles north of the Pakistani border. Because of the civilians, the U.S. troops held their fire, and instead used a military translator and village elder...

On his face is an angelic smile, in his pocket a blood-stained 50-rupee note. Ishaq Khan, a 12-year-old schoolboy, was given the money – equivalent to just 40p – to carry a bag to a spot in a busy bazaar in Kohat, a town in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan. As he walked away, the bag exploded, throwing him to the ground with a shattered foot and leaving shoppers dead and wounded all around him. In a macabre new tactic, Taliban militants have begun paying children to plant lethal bombs in Pakistani cities. Ishaq, who comes from a...

In an Appeal Court test case he ruled that the welfare of children should not be put at risk because of the 'honour' idea held in some Muslim families. The judge added: 'Arson, domestic violence and potential revenge likely to result in abduction or death are criminal acts which will be treated as such.' The case, involving three children of a Pakistani family who were removed by social workers and taken into care, is the first childcare case touching on honour issues to reach the level of the Appeal Court, which sets precedents to be followed in other courts.

A bomb-laden van found on a Brooklyn street by a car thief was wired to detonate by remote control, and had likely been sitting there for more than five months... Investigators believe the homemade explosives found Thursday night in the Ford Econoline belonged to Yung Tang, 39, a Chinese national. He has been behind bars since he was caught Jan. 29 in Wallingford, Conn., with nearly identical bombs in his Mazda MPV minivan. Also found in the MPV were two silencers, four hollow-point bullets and two radio-controlled detonators. Days after that arrest, the NYPD searched his Brooklyn house and found...

This is the moment an off-duty Israeli soldier and a special anti-terror officer shot dead a Palestinian terrorist who had killed three Israelis and injured more than 40 by ramming a bulldozer into buses and cars on one of west Jerusalem's busiest streets. The off-duty soldier, seen in the foreground of the below photograph, climbed on the moving bulldozer and shot the man, who slumped over the steering wheel. 'Liquidated': An armed man clings to the bulldozer after shooting dead the terrorist The off-duty soldier, his gun clearly visible, climbs higher on the cab as the driver can be seen...

Images from the attack on Combat Outpost Inman. On the morning of March 23, 2008, an Easter Sunday, a massive blast rocked the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. Eight kilometers away at Forward Operating Base Marez, the US Military Transition Team for the 6th Brigade, 2nd Iraqi Army Division, prepared for the worst. The blast was so large many thought incoming rounds landed close by inside the base. But a large plume rising in the distance in the northwest made it clear a very large suicide vehicle attack just occurred inside Mosul. The US adviser team, led by Lieutenant...

Four black teens were arrested on hate crime charges Friday, after police say they threw rocks at a bus full of Jewish toddlers. Police say the teens hurled racial slurs and broke windows on the school bus last month in Crown Heights. The three girls and one boy are all 14 years old. No one on the bus was hurt. The case is the latest in a string of incidents between black and Jewish residents in Crown Heights.