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With the deluge of threads being posted, and slated to increase greatly as the election heats up, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE .. especially if it's a news/breaking thread ... add the appropriate keywords to your posting form. So, if someone's looking for the latest string of "Obama" or "Sarah Palin" articles, let's say, they just click on that particular keyword at the top of the page, and those articles containing the keyword will come up chronologically. Thank you! Popular keyword options at the top of the main page: ~~~~ *110th *2008 *2008polls *ayers *bailout *barackobama *biden *bo *democrat *democrats *demron *economy...

More US Navy forces have been sent to surround a hijacked ship loaded with Russian-made tanks Extra destroyers and cruisers were deployed within 10 miles of the Ukrainian vessel Faina being held by Somali pirates because of "great concern" over the possibility of the tanks and other weapons aboard the ship falling "into the wrong hands," said a spokesman for the 5th Fleet. American helicopters were flying over the ship in the Indian Ocean after the pirates demanded 20 million dollars to release the ship and its cargo. The navy spokesman said the weapons had been bound for Sudan and...

Many German think that mosques which are bigger than churches are a provocation. This according to a debate which has started up again, after authorities gave their permission to the building of one of Europe's largest mosques in the city of Cologne. While Cologne's conservative mayor, Fritz Schramma, strongly defends the buildings, his own party members have decided to oppose the projects, because they regard the building as a show of force from the side of the Muslims. The mosque, which will be in the Ehrenfeld neighborhood, is so large it will be the most dominating building in the area....

22 dead, scores injured in New Delhi bomb blasts NEW DELHI (AFP) - Five synchronised bomb blasts ripped through crowded markets across the Indian capital New Delhi on Saturday, killing more than 20 people and wounding at least 90 others. Police said a further four unexploded devices were found and defused, including one at India Gate, one of the country's most iconic monuments and a major tourist attraction in the heart of Delhi. A Muslim militant outfit, Indian Mujahideen, claimed responsibility for the bombings, which were all triggered within a 45-minute period. "In the name of Allah, the Indian Mujahideen...

The Sayyid Qutb Reader Selected Writings on Politics, Religion, and Society Edited by Albert J. Bergesen Routledge, 2008 0415954258 (paperback; $34.95) 041595424X (hardback; $135.00) Preface It has been said that perhaps no writer has occupied so central a place within the universe of political Islam in the second half of the twentieth century as Egypt's Sayyid Qutb, and if one wants to understand the mind of radical Muslims, one needs to know what they read, or have read, and they read Sayyid Qutb. In general, his work has been divided into three periods. The earliest (1920-1947) centers on more literary...

Is this guy a Muslim? A jihadist? I have no idea, and I am not saying he is. But the possibility cannot be dismissed out of hand when he chants “Allah” and mutters in Arabic while attacking a man he does not know with a hammer. In a sane society, government, media, and law enforcement would be calling upon American Muslim groups to do something about this – to face up to the capacity of Islamic texts and teachings to incite violence, and to institute comprehensive, honest, inspectable programs teaching against jihad violence and Islamic supremacism. But this is hardly...

Five women were buried alive by their tribe in a mass honour killing prompted by their wish to choose their own husbands. The victims, who included three teenagers, were abducted at gunpoint, beaten and shot before being thrown into a ditch. They were still breathing as their bodies were covered with rocks and mud, according media reports and human rights activists. The incident occurred in Baba Kot, a remote village in Jafferabad district, after the women decided to defy tribal elders and arrange marriages in a civil court, according to the Asian Human Rights Commission. They were said to have...

AN Islamic organisation warning of the return of an empire founded 700 years ago has hacked into the website of a Wollongong church and published disturbing images and messages. For several days, anyone who visited the website of Wollongong's Wesley Church was greeted by anti-war messages flanked by pictures of the Turkish flag, masked soldiers and an image of US President George W Bush with a cross over his face. While the text on the www.wollongongmission.unitingchurch.org.au website was not in English, other websites on the internet hacked by the same group, AdReNaLin, identified those responsible as "sons of the Ottoman...

‘Burying women alive for honour is tribal tradition’ * Baloch senator Israrullah Zehri says members should not politicise issue ISLAMABAD: The killing of women for honour is a demand of the tribal traditions, Balochistan Senator Israrullah Zehri informed the Senate on Friday. Zehri was responding to Senator Yasmeen Shah’s statement in which she had drawn the House’s attention towards reports that five women had been buried alive in Balochistan in the name of honour. She called it a sheer violation of human rights. Zehri asked the members not to politicise the issue, as it was a matter of safeguarding the...

ISLAMABAD: Three teenage girls along with their two close elderly relatives were shot at before being buried alive in a desert of Balochistan by their tribesmen in the name of honour. The shocking reports of this horrible incident reaching the capital from different quarters revealed that the girls studying in classes 10 to 12 intended to marry men of their choice through a civil court by defying the centuries-old tribal traditions. When the fuming elders of Umrani tribe came to know about the intentions of these girls to appear before a local court, they picked them up from their homes...

If Saleman Abdirahman Dirie intended to do harm with the sodium cyanide found in his Denver hotel room, he could have done a lot of it. Firefighters said Wednesday that Dirie, whose body was found Monday, had a pound of the substance in Room 408 at the Burnsley All Suite Hotel in Capitol Hill, and an expert said that if it were mixed with acid, that would be plenty enough to function as a weapon. Denver police verified that the substance found in Dirie's hotel suite was sodium cyanide, which converts to a gas if mixed with acid and could...

OVER the weekend, photographic proof emerged that the Russians used mur derous Chechen mercenaries to do their dirtiest dirty work in Georgia: The ragtag unit in question is so vicious that, last April, Chechnya's Russian-installed "president" demanded it be disbanded. War snaps taken by Russian photojournalist Arkady Babchenko have been circulating among intelligence personnel. The shots reveal far more to the West than Babchenko realized. Amid photos of the horrors of war, grateful South Ossetians and triumphant Russian troops, one series leapt out at me as a former intel officer: Bearded irregulars riding atop Russian-built armored vehicles (old BMPs, for...

San Francisco, CA (AP) -- California's high court has ruled doctors cannot withhold care to gays or lesbians based on religious beliefs.

The war on free speech by Islamic fanatics has claimed another victim. This time they did it without killing anyone, staging a riot or even issuing a threat. Fear alone turned out to be enough for Random House to drop plans to publish a novel about a wife of the prophet Muhammad. Probably the only surprising thing about this story was that Random House had, in the first place, signed on to the idea of publishing The Jewel of Medina by journalist Sherry Jones. The deal was inked last year even though the world already had witnessed the murder of...

A disagreement over religious views at the Khadeeja Islamic Center in West Valley City Friday afternoon escalated into a 100-person melee, police said. The fight started about 2:30 p.m. after the midday prayer, which routinely draws large crowds to the mosque, located at 1019 W. Parkway Ave., said West Valley City Police Lt. Bill Merritt. Two different groups whose "religious views vary a little bit" attend the mosque, Merritt said, and sometimes get into verbal spats. As the crowded parking lot emptied Friday, one such disagreement between a 26-year-old man and a juvenile turned violent when the man pulled out...

Here at American Vision we believe that faithful Christians must apply Biblical thought to every area of life. Our Vision is “An America that recognizes the sovereignty of God over all of life and where Christians apply a Biblical worldview to every facet of society.� This is why it was so refreshing for me to read the article, “Breaking Boundaries� written by Andrew Hoffecker in the June 2008 issue of Ligonier Ministry’s periodical Tabletalk. After discussing the effects of humanistic pluralism in modern churches, Hoffecker prescribes a Biblical vision: “The most pressing need of the church in the light of...

The young Afghan girl sits in the center of the room, weeping. Using her hand and her blue scarf to hide her face, she recounts how she was brutally raped by five gunmen. The 12-year-old girl, gang-raped in Afghanistan, weeps as her family demands justice. 1 of 2 The girl's tragic case is one of many in war-torn Afghanistan, activists say. The 12-year-old girl's family members say they'll take their own lives unless justice is served. "We will all commit suicide -- this is not living," cries the mother of the girl, whose gang-rape occurred in Northern Afghanistan. The girl's...

WINNIPEG - The family of a young man stabbed to death and beheaded on a Greyhound bus in Manitoba on Wednesday night finally spoke out Saturday, calling 22-year-old Tim McLean "a little guy with a heart bigger than you could know."

The National Council of Churches is boasting of its participation in Christian-Muslim dialogue at Yale Divinity School running July 28-31. Hosting the lovefest is Yale Professor Miroslav Volf and his Reconciliation Program at the Yale Center for Faith and Culture, who together organized last year’s Christian response to a manifesto by Muslim clerics addressed to Christians called “A Common Word Between Us and You.” Volf and his Yale seminary colleagues persuaded several hundred clerics and academics to sign their responsive “Loving God and Neighbor Together: A Christian Response to ‘A Common Word Between Us and You.’” The July Christian-Muslim dialogue...

Halima Bashir The village seemed to be strangely quiet, almost as if it were holding its breath, awaiting something. I was discussing supplies we needed for the clinic when I heard a distant commotion. There were faint cries and the pounding of running feet. I wondered, fearfully, if it was an attack. Suddenly, I caught sight of a crowd of people surging out of the marketplace. Among them were figures carrying heavy burdens in their arms. As the crowd drew closer, I realised what they were carrying: it was the girls from the village school. I could see heads lolling...

<p>'Conversion' to Islam means they cannot be 'restored to their family of origin'</p> <p>A Pakistani judge has ruled two young girls from a Christian family who were reported kidnapped cannot be "restored to their family of origin' because they "converted" to Islam.</p>

A Rochester native has filed a civil lawsuit against an Arab sheik who was convicted of beating him in the bar of a posh hotel in Geneva, Switzerland. In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in San Diego, Calif., Silvano D. Orsi asks for an unspecified monetary amount from Sheik Falah bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan for past, present and future physical pain and suffering, mental anguish and loss of earning capacity. A police tribunal last month convicted the sheik, a member of the ruling family of the United Arab Emirates, of inflicting "bodily harm with the...

BAGHDAD (ANS) -- The Reverend Canon Andrew White, affectionately known as The Vicar of Baghdad, says the situation for Christians in Iraq is "clearly worse" than under the Saddam Hussein regime, toppled by US and Coalition forces in 2003. In a segment of the CBS news program 60 Minutes, originally broadcast on Dec. 2, 2007, updated June 26 and aired on June 29, 2008, correspondent Scott Pelley asked Canon White: "You were here during Saddam’s reign. And now after. Which was better? Which was worse?" "The situation now is clearly worse” than under Saddam, White replied. "There’s no comparison between...

A growing number of Christians in Britain from a Muslim background are facing harassment and persecution, warns Release International. They include ‘Yasmin’, whose ex-husband planned to kill her. She’s been attacked in the street, driven from her home and was taken under police protection. Yasmin became a Christian after receiving a vision of Jesus during the difficult birth of her son. She tried to keep her faith a secret from her family, but eventually told her mother. “When my mother found out I had become a Christian she went to the local mosque and told them that I had gone...

CAIRO: On July 7, 2005, four British Muslims blew themselves up on the London public transport system. Fifty-two commuters, Muslims included, were tragically killed. Two years later, and the fundamental question of why it was that four, seemingly middle class, educated young men took their own lives and others’, remains largely unanswered. For Muslims on the other side of the globe, it would confirm perceptions that their Western brethren were subject to victimization and scapegoat-ism: so marginalized from their “host” society they were prepared to murder fellow citizens. But for the reality for the majority of UK’s Muslims, this couldn’t...

KABUL: A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-filled car into the gates of the Indian embassy in Kabul, leaving at least 40 people dead, officials and a witness said. ( Watch video ) "The number of deaths at this time is 28, while 141 people were wounded, half of them hospitalised," health ministry spokesman Abdullah Fahim said, adding that the figure was based on information from several hospitals. The blast destroyed about four cars outside the embassy in the heart of the city, and flesh and broken limbs were scattered at the scene, an Afghan witness said. The bomber hit the...

A Clayton County man faces murder charges in the strangling death of his 25-year-old daughter early Sunday over her desire to end an arranged marriage. Chaudhry Rashad, 54, apparently got mad during an argument in which the victim, Sandela Kanwal, told him she wanted out of the marriage, Clayton police officer Timothy Owens said. Authorities were called to their Utah Drive home in Jonesboro just after 3 a.m. Sunday. Kanwal lived with her father when she was not with her husband, who is in Chicago, Owens said. She hadn't seen the husband in three months, he said. Both Rashad and...

Irate parents said a religious education teacher at the Alsager High School in England told students to wear Muslim headgear during a lesson on Tuesday. "But if Muslims were asked to go to church on Sunday and take Holy Communion, there would be war," the grandfather of one of the students said.

A 15-year-old Pakistani girl was hospitalised after reportedly jumping from a balcony in the northern Italian town of Alessandria. She had refused an arranged marriage with a 16-year-old Pakistani. "My parents had already been in touch with his and told me I would be marrying him. I have nothing against him but I do not love him," Turin-based La Stampa daily quoted the girl as telling police from her hospital bed ... The previous centre-left Italian government issued a 'charter of values' for immigrants after the tragic case of another young Pakistani girl, Hina Saleem who was murdered by male...

In the wake of a Danish woman’s honour killing in Pakistan, crisis centres and the Foreign Ministry both say they are aware of many instances of women with Danish citizenship being held against their will in foreign countries Following the killing a 31-year-old Danish woman in Pakistan allegedly over disgracing her family’s ‘honour’ just over a week ago, both cultural experts and the Foreign Ministry are warning that the case was not an isolated one. Uffe Wolffhechel, head of citizens’ services for the Foreign Ministry, said his office is routinely brought into cases where Danish women of immigrant background are...

Police in Toronto, Canada concluded that the 16-year-old-Pakistani girl Aqsa Parvez, was murdered by her father... and her brother, for refusing to wear the hijab or veil as is the custom for women in traditional Muslim households. "Instead of getting angry at the father and brother who are accused of planning the murder by luring the runaway teenager back to her home, leaders of the conservative and orthodox Muslim community made excuses." we found few other Muslim leaders willing to slam the father, mother, sister and brother, who either joined hands in killing the young girl, or sat passively as...

Muslims outraged at police advert featuring cute puppy sitting in policeman's hat By Daily Mail Reporter Last updated at 12:15 PM on 01st July 2008A postcard featuring a cute puppy sitting in a policeman's hat advertising a Scottish police force's new telephone number has sparked outrage from Muslims. Tayside Police's new non-emergency phone number has prompted complaints from members of the Islamic community. The choice of image on the Tayside Police cards - a black dog sitting in a police officer's hat - has now been raised with Chief Constable John Vine. Tayside Police caused uproar in the Muslim community...

MISSISSAUGA, Ont. — The brother of a Mississauga, Ont., teenager who was strangled to death in her home has been charged with first-degree murder. Aqsa Parvez was 16 when she was strangled to death in December 2007 during what friends said was a family dispute over her reluctance to wear a hijab. Her father, 57-year-old Muhammed Parvez, was charged with first-degree murder soon after his arrest that month. Sixteen-year-old Aqsa Parvez died in December. Her brother Waqas Parvez, 27, was charged with first-degree murder as well following his arrest on Thursday.

Five youths detained after a Jewish teenager was beaten into a coma by a gang in Paris have been released without charge, AFP reported Wednesday quoting judicial officials. The minors, aged 14 to 17, were held for questioning as witnesses following the attack this past Shabbos in the multi-ethnic 19th district of the capital - reported HERE on YWN. The Paris prosecutor Jean-Claude Marin said Tuesday the 17-year-old victim, Rudy Haddad, was beaten by a gang after street brawls between Jewish teenagers and youths of north African and sub-Saharan descent. The boy was so badly beaten by a gang wielding...

The State Department has no authority to close a Saudi-supported school criticized for violent teachings, a spokesman said Tuesday, despite an official request for guidance from the Northern Virginia county that leases space for the school's main campus. The department will "respond as appropriate" to Fairfax County supervisors, spokesman Rob McInturff said. "We work with the Saudi government ... to revise educational materials in Saudi Arabia, but this is a private school in the U.S.," Mr. McInturff said. "We don't monitor their activities or anything like that." Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerald E. Connolly sent a letter Monday...

France's Association of Copts plans to hold a demonstration on Sunday against what it calls "repeated and ferocious" attacks against members of the Coptic Christian minority in Egypt. "The beating up of Coptic citizens are occurring daily in Egypt," the association said, adding that these attacks have been going on for years. The association said it hoped Sunday's protest would raise awareness in France and other countries about the plight of Egypt's Coptic minority. The association cited an incident on 31 May in which 60 armed Muslims allegedly attacked a Coptic monastery in Abufana assaulting dozens of monks and setting...

Police were appealing for witnesses today following the attempted murder of a man who was doused in petrol and set on fire in east London. The 20-year-old, who is fighting for his life in hospital, was torched as he sat in his car in Forest Gate. It is believed the Hindi victim, who suffered 65 per cent burns in the attack, was targeted because he was dating a Muslim girlfriend. He had just parked his car, a green Honda Prelude, in St George’s Road when he was approached by the suspect or suspects and had petrol poured over him before...

- Top Islamic Proselytizer As soon as I heard about the Muslim women in hijabs being excluded from sitting behind Barack Obama at a Michigan rally, I knew what you probably knew: that CAIR and ADC and MPAC and ISNA, the alphabet soup of terrorist-sympathizing, pan-HAMAS/Hezbollah Islamofascist grievance theater, would milk the story like there's no tomorrow. It was ripe fodder for their PR branch of the jihad against America and the West. Now, I've come to learn that one of the hijab-encrusted, rejected whiners, Hebba Aref, was an official of the Muslim Students Association (MSA), in charge of proselytizing....

Boy, 14, fights for life after being stabbed in football game row by sword wielding youths wearing niqabs   By Charlotte Gill Last updated at 4:34 PM on 18th June 2008  Two youths were seen wearing niqab-style face masks and wielding a sword after a 14-year-old boy was stabbed, locals have claimed.One was heard to say 'I'm going to kill him' as the pair walked calmly down a residential street chatting at about midday yesterday.The schoolboy was knifed in the chest just yards away at 5pm on Tuesday.He collapsed in a pool of blood in front of drinkers outside...

The arrest of a top official at a Saudi-financed school in Northern Virginia has fueled further criticism of the institution following findings released last week that say its textbooks contained violent and intolerant language. snip The school's director general, Abdalla Al-Shabnan, was arrested June 9 and charged with obstruction of justice - a misdemeanor count that follows accusations that he failed to report an allegation of child abuse made by a student at the school. A 5-year-old girl at the academy's campus in Fairfax said she had been sexually assaulted by a family member, according to court documents. Mr. Al-Shabnan,...

Ian Huntley, the killer of schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, is considering converting to Islam, it has been claimed. Huntley, 34, serving life at the maximum security Frankland Prison in County Durham, has started reading the Koran on a daily basis after befriending two Muslim inmates, according to The People. The Soham killer is thought to have turned to the small group of Muslim inmates in Frankland after being threatened by other prisoners. He has even asked them to take him to a prayer meeting after finding the passages of the Islamic holy book the Koran are helping his...

"MURRIETA, Calif. (AP) - A polygamist was convicted Wednesday of charges that he starved, tortured and abused two of his wives and many of his 19 children and stepchildren. A Riverside County jury found Mansa Musa Muhummed guilty on 25 counts, including torturing seven of the children, abusing 12 of them and falsely imprisoning the wives. Muhummed, 55, shook his head as the verdict was read, prosecutor Julie Baldwin said."

When I came to this country, I took off my hijab. It wasn't an easy decision. I worried at night that God would punish me for it. That's what I had been taught would happen, and it filled me with fear. I was 27, coming from my home country of Iraq to study in California. I hoped that by taking off the hijab I had been wearing for eight years, I would be able to maintain a low profile. In Baghdad, you keep a low profile to stay alive. But in the United States, I merely wanted not to be...

A judge declared a mistrial Wednesday in the case of a man who stormed into a Jewish center two years ago and shot six women, killing one, as he ranted against Israel and the Iraq war. Jurors had indicated in questions posed to the judge that they were hopelessly deadlocked and struggling to determine whether Naveed Haq, 32, was not guilty by reason of insanity, as he claimed. King County Superior Court Judge Paris Kallas ended the jury's deliberations in their eighth day. The jurors reached a partial verdict on only one of the 15 counts against Haq, finding him...

FALLUJAH, Iraq — At the western entrance to the Iraqi city of Fallujah on Tuesday, Muamar Anad handed his residence badge to the U.S. Marines guarding the city. They checked to be sure he was a city resident, and when they were done, Anad said, a Marine slipped a coin out of his pocket and put it in his hand. Out of fear, he accepted it, Anad said. When he was inside the city, the college student said, he looked at one side of the coin. "Where will you spend eternity?" it asked. He flipped it over, and on the...

- with Limousines as Moving Bombs Muslim English teacher yesterday today pleaded guilty to threatening to blow up the giant Bluewater shopping centre. Saeed Ghafoor said he was going to bomb Europe's largest shopping complex using three limousines with gas canister explosives. But when questioned further, the former English teacher said Bluewater was in Exeter, the Old Bailey heard. When told it was near the Dartford tunnel in Kent, Ghafoor said he had not 'finalised' his plans, the Old Bailey was told. Ghafoor, 33, of Southampton, pleaded guilty to threatening to cause criminal damage. He was remanded in custody for...

Dutch political cartoonist Gregorius Nekschot was arrested on suspicion of violating the country’s so-called “hate speech” laws. It took a police team of 10 to accomplish the apprehension of Nekschot at his home, where he declined to resist arrest, much to the dismay of several of the officers. Police also seized his computer, sketches, CDs, DVDs, pencils, paper and telephone. The presence of several “unclean” comestibles—a can of Spam and a bag of fried pork rinds in his larder was also noted. Nekschot’s cartoons have mainly mocked leftists and Muslim extremists, though the spokeswoman for his publisher said “any strong...

A U.S. helicopter strike north of Baghdad killed eight people in a vehicle, including at least two children, Iraqi officials said Thursday, insisting all the dead were civilians. The U.S. military said six were al-Qaida militants but acknowledged children were killed. AP Television News footage showed the bodies of three children in blood-drenched clothes — the eldest appearing to be in his early teens — along with the bodies of five men, at the hospital in Beiji, where the dead were taken after Wednesday evening's strike. Iraqi and U.S. officials each put the number of slain children at two. The...

A 50-year-old Saudi woman asked for divorce after her husband lifted her face veil while she was sleeping, local press reported. For 30 years, the wife said she never showed her face to her husband in conformity with the tradition of her native village near the south western Saudi city of Khamis Mushayt. "After all these years, he tries to commit such a big mistake," the wife told Saudi newspaper Al-Riyadh, after she left the house in total disbelief. She said the husband apologized and promised never to do it again. This is not the first case of husbands who...

Unknown assailants detonated a bomb outside a Christian school in Gaza City before dawn Friday, causing no injuries. The explosion was heard in surrounding neighborhoods at around 4 a.m. Damage was visible at the entrance to the Zahwa Rosary School, which is run by Catholic nuns but caters mainly to Muslim students. Two nuns were in their convent adjacent to the school when the bomb went off, a school official said, and were shaken but unharmed. The official declined to be named, saying she was frightened by the incident and concerned for her safety. The incident appeared to be the...