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Monday, December 13, 2004 A new think tank challenges views about Islam By Patrick Seale Special to The Daily Star   This week saw the formal initiation in London of a major international think tank, Conflicts Forum, dedicated to forging a new and healthier relationship between the West and the world of Islam. A second start is to follow in Beirut in the week of Dec. 12-18, when a founder of the forum will explain its aims to the Arab media and will hold meetings with representatives of Islamic groups, including Hizbullah and Hamas.The creation of Conflicts Forum is...

We would all be much better served if the Pentagon's "expert analysts" would simply go out and spend a few nights in the remote villages of Afghanistan or Iraq, talking with ordinary people. Perhaps then they would be able to write more accurate reports about what's going on there.______________________________snip____________________________ The silent majority of Muslims, however, want their children to be educated and live under democracy.

Muslims in Norway were organizing a torchlit parade through downtown Oslo this weekend, to decry violence and terrorism and distance themselves from Islamic fundamentalism. Top Norwegian political leaders, including the prime minister, were joining in. March organizers were hoping for a big turnout, and welcomed the participation of non-Muslims as well. The leaders of Norway's major political parties and top government leaders said they would join the march and several were invited to speak during Saturday's event. The march was to begin at the square in front of Oslo's central train station at 4:30pm, and proceed up Karl Johans Gate...

In an apparent change in long-standing policy, a top Hamas leader said Friday the militant Islamic group would accept the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as well as a long-term truce with Israel. Hamas has long sought to destroy Israel and replace it with an Islamic Palestinian state, rejecting peace accords and carrying out suicide bombings and other attacks that have killed hundreds of people and badly damaged peace efforts. "Hamas has announced that it accepts a Palestinian independent state within the 1967 borders with a long-term truce," Sheikh Hassan Yousef, the top...

Weston - In a gesture of sympathy and outreach, local Muslim leader Altaf Ali on Thursday stood before the parishioners of St. Katherine Drexel Catholic Church and condemned recent militant attacks on Catholic churches in Baghdad, insisting the violence ran counter to the "true tenet" of Islam.The Thanksgiving speech, delivered before a hushed congregation, referred to a string of bombings at churches in Baghdad, including predawn assaults on Oct. 16, the first day of Ramadan, that killed three and injured about 40 civlians."Your suffering is my suffering. Your sorrow is my sorrow. Your happiness is my happiness," said Ali, executive...

All true Muslims were saddened and angered on Tuesday after they heard the unconfirmed news reports saying that Margaret Hassan had been killed in Iraq. Many reacted by saying, “This is not Islam.” Mrs. Hassan, who was the director of the Baghdad office of the relief organization Care International, was kidnapped on October 19 in Baghdad. She was born in Ireland, but moved to Iraq over 30 years ago after marrying an Iraqi citizen. No group has claimed responsibility for the act and the killers never accused her of any crime. Resistance to occupation is legitimate and acceptable according to...

Brian Williams on Fox reported that Iran was giving up its program for enriched uranium.

With preparations under way for US Marines to storm Fallujah, a stronghold of foreign and Iraqi insurgents, Syria pledged Sunday it will do all it can to stop infiltration through its border with Iraq. Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa said during a short visit to Cairo to discuss the deteriorating situation in Iraq that a conference to be held in Egypt later this month will help stabilize Syria's war-torn neighbor. "We are with Iraq's security and with halting this cross-border infiltration into Iraq," al-Sharaa told reporters after his meeting with President Hosni Mubarak. Iraq's interim government and the United States...

Newsreader: A new message from Bin Laden to the American people about the reasons and resulats of the 9/11 attacks. Newsreader 2: The head of AL Qaeda says the continuation of us policy will lead to the repetition of what happened. Male presenter: The head of AL Qaeda organization directed a message to the American people and this video and audio apearence in this tape which Jezeera required for the first time for two years. In the beginning of his message, he spoke about the reasons why they chose the US to execute 9/11.. OBL: You American people, my speech...

OTTOWA -- A full-length animated film about the early life of the Prophet Muhammad is being released in North America to help fight anti-Muslim prejudice.Muhammad: The Last Prophet will be screened in 37 cities, including Toronto, London, Ont. and Windsor, Ont., for one week starting Nov. 14.The screenings coincide with Eid ul-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of the Islamic fast of Ramadan.Rabiah Ahmed, spokeswoman for the Council on American Islamic Relations, which is sponsoring the screenings, said studies have shown prejudice decreases when people get accurate information about Islam. She said the film is timed so that Muslim families...

Russian Muslims Rally Against Terror By Damir Ahmad, IOL Correspondent MOSCOW, September 8 (IslamOnline.net) – Up to 40,000 Russian Muslims took part Tuesday, September 7, in a nationwide rally in protest at the hostage-taking school tragedy in the southern city of Beslan that claimed the lives of hundreds of people, mostly children. In Moscow, the anguished protesters stood still for a moment of silence on the Red Square in memory of the victims of Beslan and the two Russian airliners that crashed south of Moscow on August 25, killing 90 people aboard. The demonstrators, who reached 15,000 people, waved banners...

CAIR: Georgia Muslims Hold Service for American Killed in Iraq9/23/2004 6:56:00 PM To: State Desk Contact: Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787; 202-744-7726 or ihooper@cair-net.org MARIETTA, Ga., Sept. 23 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Metro-Atlanta Muslims and Muslim organizations, including Marietta's Masjid Al- Hedaya (Islamic center of Marietta), the Islamic Speakers Bureau (ISB), the Council on American-Islamic Relations of North Georgia (CAIR-NGA), and other Georgia mosques will hold an interfaith service at 7 p.m. in Marietta Square for Jack Hensley, a construction worker from that city recently murdered in Iraq. Masjid Al-Hedaya, ISB and CAIR-NGA recently launched a campaign called "Not in the Name...

Islam Denounces Terrorism Full text: http://www.islamdenouncesterrorism.com/terrorism1.htm God calls to the Abode of Peace and He guides whom He wills to a straight path. (Qur'an, 10:25) Introduction God commands justice and doing good and giving to relatives. And He forbids indecency and doing wrong and tyranny. He warns you so that hopefully you will pay heed. (Qur'an, 16:90) God commands justice and doing good and giving to relatives. And He forbids indecency and doing wrong and tyranny. He warns you so that hopefully you will pay heed (Qur'an, 16:90). As Muslims, we strongly condemn the terrorist attacks on two major cities...

Many Muslims, including religious leaders, and “intellectuals” blamed 9-11 on a Jewish conspiracy and went as far as fabricating a tale that 4000 Jews did not show up for work in the World Trade Center on 9-11. Yet others blamed 9-11 on an American right wing conspiracy or the U.S. Government which allegedly wanted an excuse to invade Iraq and “steal” Iraqi oil. After numerous admissions of guilt by Bin Laden and numerous corroborating admissions by captured top level Al-Qaida operatives, we wonder, does the Muslim leadership have the dignity and courage to apologize for 9-11? If not 9-11, will...

Ahmed Bahgat, an Egyptian Islamist and columnist for Egypt's leading pro-government newspaper, Al-Ahram, wrote that the images "showed Muslims as monsters who are fed by the blood of children and the pain of their families." "If all the enemies of Islam united together and decided to harm it ... they wouldn't have ruined and harmed its image as much as the sons of Islam have done by their stupidity, miscalculations and misunderstanding of the nature of this age," he wrote. Other Islamists were more cautious, and Ali Abdullah, an ultraconservative Bahraini religious scholar, condemned the school attack as "un-Islamic" but...

<p>On Saturday, June 26, only a few weeks ago, two security guards at the Iranian U.N. Mission were expelled from the United States, and allowed to sneak back to Tehran. The State Department says that they were "engaged in activities inconsistent with their duties." Sure. They were spies.</p>

Arab leaders Friday night strongly condemned the seizure of the Russian school by Arab and Chechen fighters, who were described as "criminals, not Muslims." Over 200 people killed during the rescue operation. Heads of state from Egypt, Lebanon and Kuwait voiced sympathy to Russian officials and the families of people caught up in the hostage drama. "Among the 20 terrorists killed, there are 10 citizens of the Arab world," Valery Andreyev, Russia's top regional security official, said on national television. Meanwhile, Itar-Tass news agency quoted sources in the regional security service as saying that the mass hostage-taking at the school...

Islamic leaders in the Middle East yesterday denounced the slaughter of children in Russia as 'unIslamic', as commentators asked unusually soul-searching questions about the region and terrorism. Even the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's biggest Islamic group, condemned the bloody siege in Beslan. Its leader, Mohammed Mahdi Akef, said that kidnappings may be justified but killings are not. He added: 'What happened is not jihad [holy war] because Islam obligates us to respect the souls of human beings; it is not about taking them away.' While some Islamic fundamentalists in the Middle East have long supported fellow Muslims fighting in Chechnya,...

Tehran, Iran, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- Iranian security chief Hassan Rohani Monday criticized Muslim extremist groups operating in Iraq, saying they hurt the interests of Muslim countries. The Iranian News Agency, IRNA, quoted the head of the Higher Council for National Security in Iraq as saying such organizations as al-Qaida and Ansar al-Islam have been engaged in terrorist activities which are harming the national interests of both Iraq and Iran. Terrorism undermines the region's security and we need to cooperate to combat that evil," Rohani said after a meeting with visiting Iraqi Deputy Prime Pinister Barham Saleh. On his part,...

BALTIMORE The wife of a Virginia man detained by federal authorities after she was seen videotaping the Bay Bridge in Maryland says her husband isn't a terrorist. Boushra Elbarasse tells W-N-U-V-T-V of Baltimore that she was videotaping the bridge as part of her family's vacation. She says -- quote -- "They mistreat us. We're just a normal family." Ismail Elbarasse isn't charged with a crime. He's being held as a material witness in a Chicago racketeering case involving members of the militant group Hamas. He's expected to ask to be released, but federal prosecutors will seek to keep him in...