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On May 2, Britain's House of Commons debated the operation of Sharia Councils in the United Kingdom. (full text of debate). MP John Howell said in part: Sharia councils provide a form of alternative dispute resolution.... Members of the Muslim community voluntarily consent to accept the religious jurisdiction of sharia councils. Marital issues and the granting of Islamic marriage divorces account for about 90% of their work. They also advise in matters ​of law, including issues of inheritance, probate and wills and Islamic commercial law contracts, and they provide mediation, counselling and religious ruling services. Sharia councils are not considered...

An investigation by three Republican congressmen has revealed the Obama administration has secretly spent $23 million of U.S. taxpayer dollars in Kenya to fund a "Yes" vote on a constitutional referendum scheduled for Aug. 4 that would increase access to abortions in Kenya and establish legal status for Islamic law tribunals. Meanwhile, trusted sources in Kenya tell WND that the White House has used Vice President Joseph Biden's trip to Kenya in June and the office of U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Michael E. Ranneberger to put out the message that passage of the referendum would enable the White House to...

Note: The following text is a quote: Thursday, February 11, 2010 Push for Islamic Courts in Kenya Alarms Christians Emergence of Somali-related Islamic extremists puts authorities on high alert By Dan Wooding Founder of ASSIST Ministries NAIROBI, KENYA (ANS) -- Compass Direct News (CDN) is reporting that a constitutional battle to expand the scope of Islamic courts in the east African country of Kenya threatens to ignite religious tensions at a time when authorities are on high alert against Muslim extremists with ties to Somalia. Authorities took note of sympathizers of Islamic extremists at protest in Nairobi, Kenya last month...

A Government decision to allow Islamic courts in Britain the right to rule on family disputes and divorces has been condemned as discriminatory to women. Civil rights campaigners are angry that ministers have approved plans to allow Sharia councils in Britain the right to settle disputes regarding money, property and access to children. They say such tribunals are institutions for male domination which treat women like second-class citizens. Couples who choose to use the Sharia system must get the ruling rubber-stamped by a judge sitting in an ordinary family court. But neither party has to attend this hearing and approval...

via translation- ALERT - Somalia: US aircraft bombed a city, four civilians killed MOGADISCIO - The United States aircraft bombed during the night from Sunday to Monday a city held by Somali Islamists, near the Kenyan border, killing at least four civilians, it was learned from chiefs.

HOUSTON --A U.S. citizen accused of working alongside al-Qaida members pleaded guilty Thursday to a charge of receiving training from a foreign terrorist organization, authorities said. During a court hearing, Daniel Joseph Maldonado, 28, a Muslim convert who grew up in New Hampshire and was also known as Daniel Aljughaifi and Abu Mohammed, admitted to traveling in December to a terrorist camp in Somalia, where he was trained to use firearms and explosives in an effort to help the Islamic Courts Union topple the government and install an Islamic state. Members of al-Qaida were present at the camp.

Excerpt - A U.S. Air Force AC-130 gunship staged an airstrike against suspected al-Qaeda operatives in southern Somalia on Monday, the second such attack this month, U.S. officials said Tuesday. There was no immediate information on specific targets or the strike's results. The United States has said that at least three senior al-Qaeda operatives were being sheltered by the Islamic Courts movement that was ousted from power in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, by the Ethiopian military last month. Word of the new attack came the same day as a long line of Ethiopian artillery, armored vehicles and trucks loaded with...

CAIRO, Jan 10 (Reuters) - The Arab League said on Wednesday U.S. military action in Somalia had killed "many innocent victims" and demanded that Washington refrain from such attacks. Somali officials said U.S. and Ethiopian aircraft struck new targets in Somalia on Wednesday as they hunted al Qaeda suspects and defeated Islamist fighters. But U.S. officials said there had been no new U.S. air strikes in Somalia since an operation on Monday, and Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi also said there had been only one U.S. air attack with no civilian casualties. U.S. government sources said U.S. ally Ethiopia, which...

Interim leader rejects U.S. approach in Somalia NAIROBI, Kenya, 8 Jan. 2007- In a rebuff to the United States, Somalia's interim president, Abdullahi Yusuf, on Monday rejected U.S. requests to bring moderate Islamists into his weak transitional government. Negotiations with Islamists "will not happen," he told Al Jazeera television before flying to Mogadishu, Somalia's lawless seaside capital. "We will crack down on the terrorists in any place around the nation." Yusuf had indicated the opposite position in meetings in the Kenyan capital over the weekend with assistant U.S. Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer, U.S. officials said. There was no immediate...

Excerpt - MOGADISHU, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Many people died in a U.S. air strike on a southern Somali village occupied by Islamists believed to be sheltering at least one al Qaeda suspect, a Somali government source said on Tuesday. "I understand there are so many dead bodies and animals in the village," the senior source told Reuters. In the first known direct U.S. intervention in the Somali war that began over Christmas, an AC-130 plane rained gunfire down on the southern village of Hayo late on Monday. "The Americans are saying an al Qaeda member heading operations in east...

January 3, 2007: Ethiopia plans to get its troops out of the country with a month. Somalis don't like foreigners, and love to attack and rob outlanders, even if the prey is heavily armed. Meanwhile, captured foreigners, suspected of being Islamic terrorists, are being brought in. The Transitional Government is going to try and disarm the population, or at least collect "excess weapons" and stuff not needed for personal protection (machine-guns, mortars and other heavy weapons.) Kenyan border guards have arrested at least a dozen men, suspected of being Islamic Courts officials, as they tried to cross the border. Years...

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - Fighters belonging to a militant Islamist movement fled into a rugged, forested corner of Somalia from rapidly advancing government forces Monday, and the prime minister offered amnesty if they surrendered. Regional diplomats worked to arrange the speedy deployment of African peacekeepers to help the interim government establish its authority in the country, which has known only anarchy for 15 years. As the last remaining stronghold of the Islamic group was overrun by government troops backed by Ethiopian tanks and MiG fighter jets, the net began closing on suspected al-Qaida militants believed to be sheltered by the...

Somali PM: Islamic Stronghold Captured PM: Somali, Ethiopian Forces Capture the Last Major Stronghold of Militant Islamic Movement By NASTEEX DAHIR The Associated Press KISMAYO, Somalia - Somali government troops backed by Ethiopian tanks and fighter jets captured the last major stronghold of a militant Islamic movement Monday, while hundreds of Islamic fighters many of them Arabs and South Asians were seen fleeing the town. Hundreds of gunmen, who apparently deserted from the Islamic movement, began looting the warehouses where the Council of Islamic Courts had stored supplies, including weapons and ammunition.Gangs skirmished in the streets and the city...

Islamic Forces Abandon Somali Stronghold Islamic Fighters Abandon Somali Stronghold; Last Seen Heading South Toward the Kenyan Border (AP Photo/Guy Calaf) Crew of the Ethiopian air force prepare their helicopter to transport Somali transitional government President Abdullahi Yusuf, to a meeting with other high ranking government officials, journalists and the local community in a suburb of southern Mogadishu, Somalia on Saturday Dec. 30 2006. Only a few days after the fall of the United Islamic Courts in Mogadishu, Ethiopian and Transitional Federal Government troops are patrolling the city and securing strategic locations. (AP Photo/Guy Calaf)By NASTEEX DAHIR FARAH KISMAYO, Somalia...

Excerpt - KISMAYU, Somalia (Reuters) - Somali Islamists fled overnight from their final stronghold around the southern port town of Kismayu in the face of an advancing force of Ethiopian and government soldiers, residents said on Monday. "The Islamic courts left Kismayu last night. They left (their front line at) Jilib as well," a Kismayu resident told Reuters. "Nobody knows where they went. There’s a lot of confusion." "Fighting stopped at around 10 p.m. (1900 GMT)," a resident of nearby Jilib said. "Then there was big silence. Then the Islamic Courts just left." ~ snip ~

Army prepares to oust Somali fighters By Mike Pflanz, East Africa Correspondent Last Updated: 12:19am GMT 01/01/2007 Fighting erupted late yesterday in southern Somalia as government troops prepared their final onslaught against Islamist forces who, until last week, controlled most of the country. Fearful residents in the southern town of Jilib reported hearing artillery and gunfire. Thousands have fled to the fields as the Islamists began what is likely to be their last stand against their rivals and their Ethiopian allies. After being pushed out of their stronghold in Mogadishu, an ultra-loyal rump of 3,000 fighters of the Islamic Courts...

Invasion splits Somalis living in the Twin Cities Some say Ethiopian troops will restore order; others fear it will lead to genocide BY MARY BAUER Pioneer Press After news hit that Somali government forces and their Ethiopian allies marched into the capital city of Mogadishu on Thursday, Somalis in the Twin Cities flocked together — but in two camps. Many of those who supported Ethiopia's response to an "invitation" from Somalia to restore order went first to the Somali Justice Advocacy Center on Selby Avenue in St. Paul, then to a Starbucks in Minneapolis. "People are celebrating," said Abdulahi Ahmad...

ALARM - Somalia: Shootings with the heavy weapon close to Mogadiscio MOGADISCIO - shootings with the heavy weapon were early heard Thursday in the north of the Somali capital Mogadiscio whereas the Somali governmental forces, supported by Ethiopian troops, approached the city, indicated inhabitants.

Heavily armed Ethiopian troops with militia loyal to former warlords on Monday have fully taken control of Beledwein and Bulo-Barde towns in central Hiran region from the Islamic Courts Union. Yusuf Mohamud Hagar known as ‘Daba-Ged’, former mayor of Hiran province addressed crowds of people who rallied in central of Beledwein saying that government forces are going to capture the whole country and continuing to clear all the Islamists out of Somalia. “I am telling you to be quiet, everything will be turned to normal, our aim is to fight against the terrorists in the country,” Yusuf Daba-Ged said. “We...

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Ethiopian fighter jets bombarded the Somali town of Belet Weyne on Sunday, witnesses said, a sharp escalation in violence that is threatening to engulf the volatile Horn of Africa. The airstrikes on the town, which is controlled by Somalia's Islamic militia that is battling Somalia's government, hit a strategic road and a recruiting center for the militants, resident Ayanle Husein Abdi told The Associated Press by telephone. The Council of Islamic Courts has vowed to drive out troops from neighboring Ethiopia, a largely Christian nation that is providing military support to Somalia's U.N.-backed government. Fighting was reported...