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<p>Police stormed a cafe in central Sydney early Tuesday where a gunman held more than a dozen hostages for more than 16 hours, firing automatic weapons and throwing grenades moments after captives were seen fleeing the buidling in terror. A scene of pandemonium erupted in the early morning just minutes after hostages started emerging from the cafe on their own or in small groups. Eleven hostages The dramatic end stage of the siege came as the gunman holding the remaining captives was revealed as a self-proclaimed Islamic cleric Man Haron Monis. Monis is a 49-year-old man living in southwest Sydney, but is originally from Iran and a self-proclaimed sheik, and also sent hate mail to the families of Australian dead soldiers between 2007 and 2009, according to The Daily Telegraph. The seige in the Lindt cafe in Martin Place on Monday follows an unsuccessful attempt to have these charges overturned in the High Court on Friday, The Age reported. Monis received 300 community service hours and a two-year good behaviour bond for the correspondence, which he claims were his version of sympathy cards, sent with the help from his girlfriend Amirah Droudis. Arriving as a refugee in Australia in 1996, the hostage-taker was charged as an accessory to the murder of his ex-wife - who was allegedly stabbed and set on fire on a flight of stairs in her western Sydney apartment block in November 2013. The man's current partner was charged with murder but they both received bail as the case was deemed too weak.</p>

A day after calling for inter-religious dialogue to end Islamist extremism, Pope Francis on Saturday visited a 17th-century mosque in Istanbul and spent several minutes in a silent prayer with his head bowed in the direction of Mecca. The pope made the gesture to promote Christian-Muslim relations at the Sultan Ahmet Mosque, known as the Blue Mosque, on Saturday, the second day of his three-day Turkey visit, according to the Vatican Radio. He removed his shoes before entering the mosque with blue tiles on its walls. Standing next to him was the Grand Mufti, who explained about the Koranic verses...

The Emir of Kano last week told worshippers at the same mosque that northerners should take up arms against Boko Haram, which has been fighting for a hardline Islamic state since 2009. ,,, He said it was possible that the group carried out the attack as a direct response to Sanusi's comments last week, although it may have been planned beforehand. "Whatever the case, the group has sent a message to northern leaders that crossing them will have consequences," Noakes said in an email exchange. Boko Haram attacks in recent months have ranged from the far northeast of Nigeria, across...

From mistaking the Har Nof synagogue where Tuesday's terror attack took place for a mosque, to deleting references to Palestinian perpetrators, some of the international media continued to report on the events in Israel in an eyebrow-raising manner on Tuesday. The website of British newspaper The Guardian ran a story about the attack from Reuters. The wire dispatch the agency sent included the headline 'Palestinians kill four in Jerusalem synagogue attack' and led with the sentence: ''Two Palestinians armed with a meat cleaver and a gun killed four people in a Jerusalem synagogue on Tuesday before being shot dead by...

Four men were jailed for throwing a severed pig’s head into a mosque in Lancashire last May. Shocked women and children watched as the four friends dumped a carrier bag containing the severed head in the parking lot of Blackpool Central Mosque. Preston Crown Court was told the four men had organized the crime—which came only two days after the murder of solider Lee Rigby in May 2013—as a prank, knowing it would be seen as an insult in a Muslim place of worship. The four men—Thomas Ashton, 21; Andrew Warner, 31; Travis Crabtree, 25; and Steven White, 28—are all...

Man charged with shooting outside Bridgeview mosque Nov 02, 2014 2:28 PM CST A southwest suburban man is accused of shooting another man in the back Friday afternoon after a prayer service at a Bridgeview mosque. Rame R. Joudeh, 41, has been charged with attempted murder, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and reckless discharge of a firearm, all felonies, according to a statement from Bridgeview police. Joudeh confronted the 36-year-old man about 1:05 p.m. in the 9200 block of Beloit Avenue in Bridgeview, police said. The shooting happened after a prayer service, while the men were outside the mosque...

The city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, punished one of its own veteran police commanders for his refusal to attend a Muslim religious service being held at a mosque he said practiced radical Islamic dogma, according to court records. He also "dared" to refuse to order his officers to visit a mosque he alleges has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Today on the main site, I have an article up about President Obama's silence concerning Colleen Hufford, the woman beheaded by Muslim convert Alton Nolen on September 25th. Well, it seems that President Obama has seen to it that a letter of his was read aloud to the mosque that Nolen attended. Obama praises the mosque for its work following the tornado in Moore, Oklahoma last year...........

Incredibly, in the wake of a Jihadist beheading of a white, Christian grandmother in Moore, Oklahoma a few days ago, instead of coming forward with a statement condemning the barbaric act to Americans, Obama has sent a proxy messenger to the mosque of the murderer in Moore with a message of appreciation and support. Tell me how this can be viewed in any sane way other than condoning murder in the name of Allah? It is literally murderous sympathy for the devil and obeisance to blatant evil. When I heard this last night, I cannot express the anger that consumed...

The president wrote a thank you note to the mosque that spawned the Oklahoma beheader. Go figure.The note was hand-delivered by David Myers, a DHS Director. Myers not only delivered the note, he also read it aloud to the congregation. Quite a bit of pomp and circumstance when one considers the circumstance. Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch reports, quoting KFOR TV: Today, an official from Washington D.C. flew in to Oklahoma to present a special thank you to the Muslim congregation. He read a message from President Barrack [sic] Obama, extending warm greetings from the American people during the Muslim...

So much for that moderate Islam. (via Religion of Peace) South Africa’s controversial first gay-friendly mosque, which also allows Christian worshippers and women to lead prayers, was damaged by a fire overnight, its founder and the police said Saturday. I’m not sure how this even qualifies as a mosque if there are Christians leading prayers. Clearly a lot of Muslims felt the same way. The mosque has faced fierce criticism and threats of violence from Muslims with 14 national and provincial organizations representing the Muslim community across South Africa issuing a joint statement condemning Hargey’s plans.According to an AFP report,...

Did the referees cross the line? Kansas City Chiefs safety Husain Abdullah came up with a big play during Monday night's win over the New England Patriots, as he intercepted a Tom Brady pass and took it to the house for a touchdown. However, once he reached the end zone, Abdullah dropped to his knees and did this ["pray"]: Abdullah is a practicing Muslim and it's common for people of that faith to pray from their knees. However, this drew a flag from the officials for excessive celebration. But should it have? FOX Sports NFL rules expert Mike Pereira pointed...

The mosque on Prospect Street is not only Cambridge, Massachusetts,' largest mosque, but it is also the city's only mosque. As many as 1,000 people a week, including immigrants, students, families and residents from surrounding neighborhoods, stop by to pray up to five times a day as Islam requires. Known as the Cambridge mosque, it is run by the Islamic Society of Boston and is just a few short blocks from the well-traveled Red Line, which serves Boston's many universities and colleges. "The mosque is open to everyone," says spokeswoman Nicole Mossalam. "We don't have a core membership. It's very...

Flag bearing IS symbol auctioned at Sydney mosque •Boy, 15, posts pictures online and says he’ll fight Assad •Fred Nile calls for ban on flag throughout Australia ... PREMIER Mike Baird said the Islamic State flag could be banned across NSW. His stance follows footage of one of the flags, which is linked to the barbaric terrorist organisation, being auctioned in front of families and young children in Sydney. “That is something we will consider and work with community groups about but we can’t have the position where you are seeing any activity that is promoting terrorism, supporting terrorism,” Mr...

Amir Meshal has a fascinating history. He's originally from New Jersey, but back in 2007 he was detained and interrogated by the FBI in Kenya after escaping from Somalia. Somehow, his travels brought him to Minnesota, and to a mosque in Bloomington, which kicked him out this summer. Friday prayers bring hundreds to the Al-Farooq Youth and Family Center, which is perhaps the largest mosque in the Twin Cities. But not everyone is welcome -- not after Meshal began attending prayer and hanging out earlier this year. In June, the center called police and had Meshal, 31, removed and ticketed...

Investigators now believe a fire which damaged a mosque in Berlin earlier in August was started deliberately. Police had believed that the fire at the Mevlana mosque in Kreuzberg might have been caused by a technical fault or started accidentally, but both of those possibilities have now been ruled out. […] The fire began in building materials stored in an unfinished extension to the structure and caused smoke damage to the façade and the interior of the mosque. Renovation and extension work has been going on at the site since 2013. …

One person was killed Friday in a shooting in the prayer hall of a mosque in the Swiss city of Saint Gallen, police said. Media reports said the victim was 18 and was killed as a result of a row between Albanian families. […] The suspected killer was arrested at the scene, Saint Gallen cantonal police told AFP, without giving further details about the individual. …

(Reuters) - The U.S. government sued a small Minneapolis suburb on Wednesday, accusing it of religious discrimination after local leaders denied a Muslim group the right to open a center in the municipality. The Justice Department filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis against St. Anthony Village, where council members voted 4-1 in 2012 to deny a request by the Abu Huraira Islamic Center to create a place of worship in the basement of the St. Anthony Business Center. "Religious freedom is one of our most cherished rights, and there are few aspects of that right more central...

Nova Scotia’s first gay-friendly mosque is set to open in the next few weeks. The Halifax Unity Mosque is an expansion of the Toronto Unity Mosque, also called el-Tawhid Juma Circle. The mosque is a “gender-equal, LGBTI/queer-affirming” place for Muslims to worship, according to its Facebook page. Syed Adnan Hussein has been building support for the Halifax Unity Mosque for a while. He found a space this week and hopes to start worship by next month. He hopes it will welcome people with a range of sexual identities. Many Muslims live in countries where being gay is a crime. Often,...

Since my original article discussing how an abandoned Catholic church was being converted to a mosque in Syracuse, NY, that city has embraced the Mosque of Jesus, Son of Mary with open arms.  In April, a local publication, the Syracuse New Times, published an interview with Dr. Yusuf Soule, the executive director of the Northside Learning Center, who bought the church and rented it to a still unidentified group of Muslims.  In no news report has the group who transformed the church into a mosque been identified as anything other than a “new Islamic society.”  When asked how the plan...