08.23.10 Highway jam enters its 9th day, spans 100km

BEIJING (Xinhuanet) August 23 - Traffic authorities were still struggling to cope with days-long congestion on a major national expressway, nine days after traffic slowed to a snail's pace, and nearby residents are profiting on the latest traffic snarl by overcharging drivers for food. Since August 14, thousands of Beijing-bound trucks have jammed the expressway again, and traffic has stretched for more than 100 kilometers between Beijing and Huai'an in Heibei Province, and Jining in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China National Radio (CNR) reported Sunday. Small traffic accidents or broken-down cars are aggravating the jam, the report said. "Insufficient traffic capacity on the National Expressway 110 caused by maintenance construction since August 19 is the major cause of the congestion," a publicity officer with the Beijing Traffic Management Bureau, told the Global Times on condition of anonymity Sunday.

Under current traffic regulations, the National Expressway 110 (G110), heading northwest from Beijing to Zhangjiakou in Hebei Province, and then heading directly west, is available to trucks with a carrying capacity of eight tons and above. The road suffered serious damage due to the greater volume of heavy trucks. This month there have been more trucks carrying excessive coal or fruit, but the Beijing section of the Beijing-Tibet Expressway is available only to trucks with a weight of less than four tons. The congestion is expected to last for almost a month, since the construction is due for completion September 13. [More>>xinhuanet.com]

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08.23.10 Nabucco gas pipe consortium delays plans to include Iran in project

08.22.10 NYC mosque imam: US rights in line with true Islam

August 22 - The imam spearheading plans for an Islamic center near the New York site of the Sept. 11 attacks said Sunday America's sweeping constitutional rights are more in line with Islamic principles than the limits imposed by some Muslim nations. Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf told the Al Wasat newspaper in Bahrain that the freedoms enshrined by the US Constitution also reflect true Muslim values. A portion of the interview — to be published Monday — was seen Sunday by The Associated Press. Rauf is on a Middle East tour funded by the US State Department. He has discussed efforts to combat extremism, but has avoided any comments on the rancor over proposals for a mosque and Islamic center near the site of the toppled World Trade Center towers.

Durign his tour RAuf will visit Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates to promote religious tolerance and discuss Muslim life in America. According to CNN, US Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs committee, and Peter King (R-N.Y.), ranking member of the Homeland Security committee, said taxpayers should not have to fund the trip, which they called "unacceptable." [>haaretz.com; For background stories on Rauf's vision of "Americanized Islam" see:

nytimes.com, August 22, "Feisal Abdul Rauf's balancing act in mosque furor" : ...Mr. Abdul Rauf, 61, grew up in multiple worlds. He was raised in a conservative religious home but arrived in America as a teenager in the turbulent 1960s; his father came to New York and later Washington to run growing Islamic centers. His parents were taken hostage not once, but twice, by American Muslim splinter groups. He attended Columbia University, where, during the Six-Day War in 1967 between Israel and Arab states like Egypt, he talked daily with a Jewish classmate, each seeking to understand the other's perspective.

He consistently denounces violence. Some of his views on the interplay between terrorism and American foreign policy — or his search for commonalities between Islamic law and this country's Constitution — have proved jarring to some American ears, but still place him as pro-American within the Muslim world. He devotes himself to befriending Christians and Jews — so much, some Muslim Americans say, that he has lost touch with their own concerns...Mr. Abdul Rauf, with Ms. Khan, unveiled as usual, beside him, tells a questioner not to worry so much about one issue of the moment — Switzerland's ban on minarets — saying Islam has always adapted to and been influenced by places it spreads to.

...In the 1990s, the couple became fixtures of the interfaith scene, even taking a cruise to Spain and Morocco with prominent rabbis and pastors. Mr. Abdul Rauf also founded the Shariah Index Project — an effort to formally rate which governments best follow Islamic law. Critics see in it support for Taliban-style Shariah or imposing Islamic law in America. Shariah, though, like Halakha, or Jewish law, has a spectrum of interpretations. The ratings, Ms. Kahn said, measure how well states uphold Shariah's core principles like rights to life, dignity and education, not Taliban strong points.

The imam has written that some Western states unwittingly apply Shariah better than self-styled Islamic states that kill wantonly, stone women and deny education — to him, violations of Shariah. After 9/11, Mr. Abdul Rauf was all over the airwaves denouncing terrorism, urging Muslims to confront its presence among them, and saying that killing civilians violated Islam. He wrote a book, "What's Right With Islam Is What's Right With America," asserting the congruence of American democracy and Islam.

Maravot News article 08.20.10 US imam says extremism is global threat ; For extremists ideological sources in the Koran and Shariah law / traditions, see:

Maravot News article 08.21.10 Pakistan flood aid from Islamic extremists and Editorial notes.

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Editorial note: "On the Americanization of Islam" Imam Rauf proposes a new Islam founded on the American Constitution / principles of freedom. In this sense his speech should be encouraged. However, an accommodation to the broad-ranging application of Sharia law would not balance with American Constitutional law or values: Sharia conventions such as reported in India, of a Sharia court forcing a young married girl to marry her uncle, who had raped her, and divorce her husband; of Saudi courts requiring marriage of 9-year-old girls, Sharia laws generaly persecuting women, in their dress and behavior; in a recent Saudi court's (pending) "eye-for-an-eye ruling" as they deliberate on severing the spinal cord of a man who attacked another man with a meat cleaver.

Other considerations such as the political power of mullahs, as in Iran, who persecute people who criticize the government, prescribing them as "mohareb" (enemies of Allah) subject to the death penalty under Sharia law; the Islamic ideal for restoration of a world "Arab" caliphate.

In Malaysia Sharia law overrules logic, prosecuting those who use the term "Allah" as a substitute word for God in Christian and Sikh documents. Beginning with this ongoing controversy in Malaysia, our document, "The Allah Controversy," opines the many conflicts Islam has with the West, and shows how the Koran contradicts itself: The Koran claims that it was written to confirm that the Bible (Jewish Scriptures & Gospel of Jesus) is true; yet verses in the Koran that advocate violence and holy war (jihad) against unbelievers contradict its profession of faith in the Bible / Gospel of Jesus. Also, the Koran's acknowledgement of Jesus as the Messiah (Gr. Christ) presupposes that followers of Islam ought to be Christians.

It may be that an Americanized version of Islam would be more appropriately served through the reconciliation of verses in the Koran that contradict the Gospel of Jesus and, equally important, to study and reconcile the meaning of the word "Messiah" (interpreted in Gr. "Christ," in English "Anointed One.") This is the verse in the Koran that acknowledges Jesus as the Messiah:

The IMRANS 3:45 The angels said to Mary: "Allah bids you rejoice in a Word from Him. His name is the Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary..

Incidentally, one of the terms used in the Bible that describes the Messiah is " the Word of God." Assuming the angels that recited the Koran (meaning "recital") are of God — as the Koran claims — then we must conclude that Mohammed, as he recorded the recitals of the angelic message, understood Jesus to be the Word of God and, thus, a word to be obeyed. The Koran's verses and its extensions to Shariah law that conflict with the Word of Jesus are thus cast in doubt. The Americanization of Islam could therefore begin with reconciling the Koran to Christ, enabling a joining of hands, as it were, with the majority of Christians in America.

Mel Copeland

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08.22.10 Iran unveils 'Ambassador of Death' bomber

TEHRAN (AP) August 22 - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday inaugurated the country's first domestically built unmanned bomber aircraft, calling it an "ambassador of death" to Iran's enemies. The 4-meter-long drone aircraft can carry up to four cruise missiles and will have a range of 620 miles, according to a state TV report — not far enough to reach archenemy Israel. "of peace and friendship," said Ahmadinejad at the inauguration ceremony, which fell on the country's national day for its defense industries. The goal of the aircraft, named Karrar or striker, is to "keep the enemy paralyzed in its bases," he said, adding that the aircraft is for deterrence and defensive purposes. The president championed the country's military self-sufficiency program, and said it will continue "until the enemies of humanity lose hope of ever attacking the Iranian nation." [More>>cbsnews.com;

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08.22.10 Kuwait watches pro-Iran sleeping cells: Report

KUWAIT CITY (AFP) August 22 - Terrorist cells could resort to violence if Iran came under attack. Kuwait is closely monitoring "sleeping terror cells" that would resort to violence if Iran came under a military strike, a newspaper quoted a security source as saying on Sunday. "The security agencies have been monitoring those cells for a long time and are aware of their moves and sources of funding," the unnamed Kuwaiti source told al-Qabas newspaper. They are "closely monitoring these sleeping terror cells through various methods and means," the source said without elaborating. Al-Qabas reported on Saturday that Bahrain's intelligence service warned other Gulf states that large numbers of "armed terrorists" were preparing for acts of sabotage if Iran was attacked over its nuclear file. [More>>alarabiya.net]

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08.22.10 More than 100,000 evacuated as China-North Korea border floods

August 22 - At least four killed after Yalu river swells to dangerous levels in torrential rain. More than 100,000 people have been evacuated and at least four killed as the worst floods in a decade inundated the border between China and North Korea. After downpours in south and west China took 3,900 lives earlier this summer, it was the turn of the north-east to take a battering this weekend when torrential rains swelled the Yalu river to dangerous levels. Chinese television showed army helicopters airlifting people and soldiers reinforcing dykes with sandbags. Local newspapers ran pictures of the river, which demarcates the border with North Korea, rising over the top of its banks and seeping across the park that separates the river from Dandong city in Liaoning Province. At its peak the flow of the Yalu was 27,000 cubic meters per second on Saturday evening and remains at high levels with more rain forecast for the coming days. According to the state-run Beijing Times, the floods in Dandong are the second most serious since 1949. [More>>guardian.co.uk]

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08.22.10 Pledges to Pakistan top $800m

August 22 - Donors from around the world have pledged more than $800 million to help victims of its disastrous floods, Pakistani authorities say. The continued floods have forced about 150,000 people to flee for higher ground in just the last 24 hours, the Pakistani foreign minister said on Sunday. At least six million people have been made homeless in three weeks of floods, and 20 million affected overall. Shah Mehmood Qureshi, the foreign minister, expressed gratitude for the $815.58 million in international assistance to ease the suffering from one of the worst disasters in Pakistan's history. "In such a situation, when the West and Europe and America are in recession and donor fatigue is being discussed, this kind of solidarity for Pakistan, I think, is very encouraging," he told a news conference in Islamabad. [More>>aljazeera.net]

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08.22.10 Four US soldiers killed in day of Afghan violence

(AFP) August 22 - Four US soldiers were killed Sunday while fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, NATO said, as the insurgents appeared to step up their campaign against officials and election candidates. The four American troopers died in three separate incidents, in eastern and southern Afghanistan, NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said. ISAF spokesman US Air Force Master Sergeant Jason Haag confirmed all four were Americans. The deaths bring to 451 the total number of international soldiers to die in the Afghan war so far this year, according to an AFP tally based on that kept by the icasualties.org website. The total in 2009 was 520. [More>>france24.com]

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08.22.10 Drug traffickers, Mexican police battle within yards of US border

August 21 - A "major gunbattle" between drug traffickers and Mexican federal police broke out Saturday evening in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, just 30 yards from the US border at El Paso, Texas, causing US authorities to cordon off a section of the city, according to a US Border Patrol spokesman. Three police officers were injured and one armed suspect was killed, federal police spokesman Ramon Salinas said. First reports of gunshots came in from border agents around 7pm (9pm ET), US Border Patrol spokesman Ramiro Cordero told CNN. "The gunbattle is still going on right now," Cordero said 30 minutes after the incident began, just south of the University of Texas at El Paso. [More>>cnn.com]

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08.21.10 Barak to US, France: Take steps to stop Lebanese flotilla

August 21 - After announced delay in departure of women's flotilla, Defense Minister speaks with foreign ministers of US and France, stresses that flotilla is an "unnecessary provocation." Defense Minister Ehud Barak spoke on Saturday with US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, US National Security Adviser General Jim Jones, and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, and asked them to act to prevent the launch of the Lebanese flotilla setting for Gaza. The Defense Minister emphasized that Israel permits the import of civilian materials into Gaza after it is checked at the port of Ashdod. Therefore, he said, "The flotilla's attempt to reach Gaza is a needless provocation." Earlier in the day, the organizers of the women's flotilla from Lebanon to Gaza announced that the ships would not set sail on Sunday. Apparently, the reason for the delay is Cyprus's refusal to allow the ships to pass through its territorial waters or to drop anchor in one of its ports. [More>>haaretz.com]

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08.21.10 Iran begins loading fuel at its Bushehr nuclear reactor

August 21 - Nationwide celebrations as Russian engineers oversee the arrival of an initial fuel shipment at Iran's first nuclear power plant. The operation to load fuel into Iran's first nuclear power station has begun amid nationwide celebration. Russian engineers will operate the Bushehr plant in southern Iran, supplying its nuclear fuel and taking away the nuclear waste. At the inauguration of the plant today, the head of the Iran's atomic energy organization, Ali Akbar Salehi, said it demonstrated that the country's nuclear aims were entirely peaceful - an assertion that the US questions. Describing the plant as a symbol of Iranian resistance, Salehi added: "Despite all pressure, sanctions and hardships imposed by western nations, we are now witnessing the start-up of the largest symbol of Iran's peaceful nuclear activities."

The first truckload of fuel was taken today from a storage site to a fuel pool inside the reactor building under the watch of monitors from the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency. Over the next two weeks, 163 fuel assemblies, equal to 80 tones of uranium fuel, will be moved inside the building and then into the reactor core. It will be another two months before the 1,000-megawatt, light water reactor begins supplying electricity to Iranian cities. Russia, which helped finish building the plant, has pledged to safeguard the site and prevent spent nuclear fuel from being used to make nuclear weapons. Moscow believes the Bushehr project is essential in persuading Iran to cooperate with international efforts to ensure it does not develop nuclear arms. Washington disagrees, arguing that Iran should not be rewarded while it continues to defy UN demands to halt the enrichment of uranium, a process used to produce fuel for power plants but which can also be used in weapons production. [More>>guardian.co.uk]

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08.21.10 Drone kills four militants in Pakistan

(AFP) August 22 - Four militants have been killed in a US drone attack in Pakistan's northwest tribal belt. The missiles targeted a compound used by militants in Kutabkhel village, about three kilometres south of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan tribal district, a security official based in Peshawar told AFP. "A US drone fired four missiles. They targeted a compound and also a car outside the compound," the official said. Saturday's drone strike was also confirmed by two intelligence officials in Miranshah. [>news.com.au]

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08.21.10 Clash leaves 25 security guards, 50 Taliban militants dead in S. Afghanistan

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan (Xinhua) August 21 - Gun battle between Taliban insurgents and security guards of a construction company left 75 dead on both sides and injured dozens others in Helmand province in the south of Afghanistan, provincial governor Gulab Mangal said Saturday. "In the clash, initiated by Taliban on Sangin-Gereshk road on Thursday and continued until Friday afternoon 25 guards of the company and up to 50 Taliban militants were killed," Mangal told a news conference here. He also added that dozens others from both sides sustained injuries in the gun battle lasted for 12 hours. Without specifying any name, the governor said that "neighboring countries that do not want to see development in Afghanistan are behind this conspiracy." Governor Mangal also confirmed that several vehicles and machinery of the company were destroyed in the battle by Taliban. [More>>xinhuanet.com; See related stories,

geo.tv, August 21, "Foreign soldier, three civilians dead in Afghanistan" : KABUL - A foreign soldier fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan was killed in an attack, while a woman and two children died in an operation aimed at an insurgent with al-Qaeda contacts, NATO said Saturday. The dead soldier's identity was not revealed, according to NATO policy. A statement from the alliance said the insurgent attack in which the soldier died took place on Friday in southern Afghanistan, where the Taliban-led insurgency is concentrated. The death brings to 444 the number of foreign soldiers fighting in Afghanistan to die in the war so far this year, according to a foreign news agency tally based on that kept by the icasualties.org website.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a separate statement that a civilian woman and two children were "accidentally killed" on Friday in an operation in western Farah province, another insurgency hotspot. Afghan and coalition forces were pursuing a "Taliban foreign fighter facilitator... known to traffic foreign fighters and weapons from Iran and associate with senior Taliban and al-Qaeda leadership," it said. [end]

cnn.com, August 21, "Afghan police killed during airstrike" : Three Afghan police officers were accidentally killed in an airstrike and a bomb killed five Afghan civilians in separate incidents in northern Afghanistan, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said on Saturday. The airstrike incident, which occurred on Friday in Jowzjan province, began when insurgents shot at Afghan security forces, and the troops asked for air support. An air weapons team consisting of two helicopters launched a hellfire missile and fired 30 mm rounds "toward an identified firing position." The service members later found the three dead police and other wounded officers.

ISAF dispatched a team to the region to investigate. In the other incident, an improvised explosive device attack killed five Afghan civilians and wounded two other people on Saturday. One of those killed was a leader of the Arkabi, a local tribal militia. "IEDs continue to kill and hurt innocent Afghan people who are going about their daily lives," said Col. Rafael Torres, ISAF spokesman. In other violence, three NATO service members died in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, ISAF said two died in insurgent attacks and another one was killed by an improvised explosive device. [end]

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08.21.10 Pakistan flood aid from Islamic extremists

August 21 - There is not a United Nations pick-up or Pakistani government official in sight at the small but efficient relief camp, close to the north-west Pakistani town of Nowshera. Instead the food is provided by a hardline Islamist charity linked to terrorists blamed for the 2008 attacks on Mumbai. Two years after it was supposed to be banned, Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) members are working under a new name providing food, medicine and wads of rupee notes to hundreds of thousands of people affected by devastating floods. Similar makeshift camps run by Falah-e-Insaniat, the group's latest incarnation, are in operation across the land, raising fears that charities linked to militants are using the catastrophe to win hearts, minds and influence. The trend is all the more alarming because they are filling a vacuum left by the democratically-elected government, increasingly vulnerable to fury from flood survivors about its failures to provide aid. The Prime Minister's own disaster relief fund has raised a paltry 120m rupees — less than £1m — a figure that is scoffed at by Mian Adil, the vice-president of Falah-e-Insaniat. "We are raising that every day," he laughed. "We have thousands of volunteers, hundreds of collection points.

...Across the country the charity claims to be feeding more than 400,000 people, as well as distributing cash — as much as 7,000 rupees or £50 - to families in the worst affected areas where the government is struggling to help. It also has a fleet of ambulances at its disposal. Mr. Adil made no secret of his charity's origins and admitted he was a member of the banned group JuD and said it was providing 80% of the funds for its work with flood victims. He insisted the aid was delivered without a political message, but refused to condemn the actions of LeT. "We are just a welfare organization," he insisted. "But if you want me to call the jihadi groups terrorists then I will not. They are fighting for freedom." [Full story>>telegraph.co.uk; See related stories,

timesofindia.indiatimes.com, August 21, "JuD goes online to woo friends" : KARACHI - Hardline groups in Pakistan are plugging into Western online favorites Facebook and Twitter in a bid to win friends and influence people. Tweeting their view of a civilization clash between the West and Islam, and posting comments that advocate violence against non-Muslims, groups that are officially banned in Pakistan have found a welter of freedom online. Jamat-ud-Dawa, blamed for [the] 2008 Mumbai massacre, is going public intending to influence netizens to advocate violence against non-Muslims or "Kafirs." The information they have posted online with photographs clearly show men and women at their congregation brandishing guns and hi-tech assault weapons. Internet pages of Sipah-e-Sahaba, a banned militant Sunni Islamic organization, also openly preach their anti-Shia bias. [end]

Maravot News 1.18.10 article 01.16.10 Lonely trek to radicalism for terror suspect and Editorial notes on Koran's advocacy of violence against "Kafirs" (also spelled "kuffars")

Maravot News 4.09.09 article 4.07.09 US Muslims urge Obama to focus on civil rights Editorial note: "Confusion over the teachings of the Koran." (reprinted from Maravot News 12.04.08) :

♦ "...Koran advocates violence against unbelievers (kuffar) / enemies:

Repentance 9.20 Those that have embraced the faith and fled their homeland and fought for Allah's cause with their wealth and their persons are held in higher regard by Allah. It is they who shall triumph. Their Lord has promised them joy and mercy, and gardens of eternal bliss where they shall dwell forever. Allah's reward is great indeed.
9.116 ...Allah has purchased of the faithful their lives and worldly goods and in return has promised them the Garden. They will fight for His cause, slay, and be slain. Such is the true pledge which he has made them in the Torah, the Gospel, and the Koran. And who is more true to his promise than Allah? Rejoice then in the bargain you have made. That is the supreme triumph.

Women 4.91 Others you will find who seek security from you as well as from their own people. Whenever they are called back to idol-worship they plunge into it headlong. If these do not keep their distance from you, if they neither offer you peace nor cease their hostilities against you, lay hold of them and kill them wherever you find them. Over such men We give you absolute authority.
4.92 It is unlawful for a believer to kill another believer except by accident.
4.98 He that flies his homeland for the cause of Allah shall find numerous places of refuge in the land and great abundance. He that leaves his dwelling to fight for Allah and His apostle and is then overtaken by death, shall be rewarded by Allah.
4.104 Seek out your enemies relentlessly.

♦ Islamic scholars teachings against unbelievers — "kuffars": In an editorial note of Maravot News 8.08.05, article 8.07.05 Inside the sect that loves terror (a short article on the London Tube bombing worth reading) we referred to an Islamic scholar's website, as follows:

An interesting site by an Islamic scholar defines what "kuffar" (disbelievers) means. His site, renaissance.com.pk — Arguments and Rational — details the Koran's verses and traditional and modern applications of the verses dealing with disbelievers: identifying them, punishing them, preaching to them and "'displaced directives." His argument refers heavily to Old Testament verses that set the foundation for verses of the Koran involving the punishment of disbelievers. The site (Punishing the Disbelievers) says, "In other words, what authorizes a Messenger to punish the Kuffar is that it can be ascertained in this very world that they are guilty of denying the basic truths in spite of being convinced about them. Good and evil are elucidated with ultimate clarity and people who accept evil do so not because of any confusion but because of their own stubbornness.

So it can be concluded that since a Messenger reveals the basic truths in their ultimate form and those who deny it do so because of their stubbornness and even confess their sins, a Messenger has the perfect justification to punish his people after they have denied him." But in other places says, (Misplaced Directives) "In other words, what is construed from this Hadith is that a Muslim will be rewarded with Paradise if he kills a non-Muslim. Consequently, Imam Abu Da¹ud, the celebrated Muslim scholar and compiler of Hadith has placed this Hadith in a chapter entitled: (bab fi fadli man qatala kafiran: Chapter on the Reward of a Muslim who Kills a Kafir). Again, it needs to be appreciated that these words relate to the Idolaters of the Prophet¹s times who had lost their right to live after they had deliberately rejected the truth. These words are not related to later Muslims."

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(From Maravot News 12.04.08) We find it appropriate here to repeat our comment in August 2005: "It is worthwhile for those who are trying to defeat Muslim terrorists to read the arguments listed in renaissance.com.pk." The Koran and the scholastic teachings of Islamic leaders must account to much of the acts of Islamic terrorism. For Islamic leaders to denounce acts of Islamic terrorism a bridge has to be crossed in their understanding of the Koran. An easy bridge that will enable peace is one that has to do with acknowledging these two points: 1) that the Koran claims to confirm the Bible (See Maravot News 4.09.09) and Jesus as the Messiah and 2) that the Koran, therefore, cannot contradict that which it confirms as its source."

There is much confusion on the Koran and its various sects, as now illustrated in the New York Ground Zero mosque controversy. For a more complete review of the confusion and how the Koran claims to confirm the Bible, as well as Jesus as the Messiah (Gr. Christ), see "The Allah Controversy."

Mel Copeland

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08.21.10 Russian FSB links several terrorist attacks to killed militant leader Shamilev

MOSCOW (RIA Novosti) August 21 - A number of recent terrorist attacks in Russia's volatile north Caucasus region have been linked to Khamzat Shamilev, the Chechen militant leader killed on Saturday during a special operation, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Saturday. "As a qualified demolition specialist, Shamilev himself planned and carried out bomb attacks using improvised explosive devices in the Real and Berkat markets in [Chechen capital] Grozny in October 2009 and July 2010 and also the bombing of the Staropromyslovsky district prosecutor's office on July 27, 2010," the FSB said in a press release. In the explosion in the Real market alone, 16 people were killed, it said.

Since 2008, Shamilev was regularly sent to militant leader Doku Umarov in the Chechen capital of Grozny to carry out terrorist activities, the FSB said. Umarov, who styles himself as "the Emir of the Caucasus," has claimed responsibility for the two most significant recent terrorist attacks in Russia: the derailment of a high-speed Nevsky Express train in 2009 and this year's Moscow metro bombings. Shamilev opened fire on police after they blockaded him in a house in Chechen capital Grozny. When he realized that he would not be able to escape, he blew himself up with a grenade. Earlier on Saturday, police in neighboring Dagestan killed another militant leader, Magomedali Vagabov, who is believed to be behind the March 29 suicide bombings on the Moscow metro that killed 40 people and injured 100 others. [>en.rian.ru]

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08.21.10 Yemen says five Qaeda members among 19 killed

ADEN (AFP) August 21 - Five al-Qaeda members were killed in clashes with the army in south Yemen, the defence ministry's news website said on Saturday, bringing to 19 the toll from the previous day's fighting. Three al-Qaeda militants were also wounded in Friday's clashes between the army and gunmen in the city of Loder, southern Abyan province, said the report carried by the 26Sep.net news website. The latest deaths add to an earlier toll of 11 soldiers and three civilians killed on Friday. The defence ministry said it had managed to identify one of the slain al-Qaeda fighters as Adham Shibani, adding that the wounded militants were currently being interrogated. The security forces were tracking "other terrorists" who took part in Friday's fighting, the ministry said.

The militants who managed to flee were named as Ahmed Mohammed Abdu Daradish, Abdel Rauf Abdullah Mohammed Nassib and Jalal Saleh Mohammed Saidi. The interior ministry had said on Friday that 11 soldiers were killed "in an ambush set up by al-Qaeda terrorists and outlaws cooperating with them." Eight of the soldiers were killed when a rocket-propelled grenade hit their armored vehicle, according to Loder's regional security chief Yahya Al Barkani. Three civilians were killed — and another four wounded — when soldiers bombarded buildings near Loder market from where the military was being targeted, medical sources said. South Yemen, and the Abyan province in particular, is feared to have become a base for al-Qaeda militants to regroup, under the network's local franchise al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. [>khaleejtimes.com; See related story,

france24.com (AFP) August 21, "Ex-Guantanamo Qaeda militant surrenders to Yemen" : An al-Qaeda militant, who served time at the US-run prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has surrendered to Yemeni authorities after expressing remorse over his history, a security source said on Saturday. Ali Hussein al-Taiss "expressed remorse for having served in al-Qaeda" and said he was "ready to collaborate" with Yemeni authorities, the source was quoted by the official Saba news agency as saying. The source did not provide details on how the surrender was negotiated or when it took place. The news came a day after 11 Yemeni soldiers were killed in an ambush by al-Qaeda militants in the southern city of Loder. On August 15, Yemen announced the surrender of another al-Qaeda operative. Jamaan Safian was responsible for the organization's activities in the Al-Jawf province, northeast of the capital Sanaa. Safian, whose name does not appear on the Yemeni list of most wanted al-Qaeda militants, "was sheltering non-Yemeni al-Qaeda members, especially Saudis," an official said.

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08.21.10 Columbia arrests 'major cocaine trafficker'

August 21 - A Venezuelan businessman suspected of being part of a major drug trafficking ring has been arrested by Colombian authorities. Walid Makled Garcia, 43, who is wanted by the US on drug charges and Colombia and Venezuela on murder charges, was caught in the border city of Cucuta. He is accused of trafficking 10 tons of cocaine every month to the US and Europe. Colombian police have hailed the arrest as a significant success. Colombian police chief Gen. Oscar Naranjo said that Mr. Makled is on a US extradition list as "one of the world's most wanted drug traffickers." Also known by his alias "The Turk," Mr. Makled is wanted by a New York court for allegedly being part of a group which regularly smuggles large amounts of cocaine to the US and European markets. [More>>bbc.co.uk]

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08.20.10 US: Direct peace talks to begin on September 2 in Washington

August 20 - Hillary Clinton, George Mitchel say through peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, all final status issues can be resolved in one year. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have been invited to Washington to begin direct peace talks on Sept. 2, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said during a press conference on Friday. The meeting will serve to "re-launch direct negotiations to resolve all final status issues which we believe we can complete in one year," Clinton said. "There have been difficulties in the past, there will be difficulties ahead ... I ask the parties to persevere, to keep moving forward even through difficult times and to continue working to achieve a just and lasting peace in the region," Clinton said. The leaders of Egypt and Jordan have also been invited to join in the first session of direct talks.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the US invitation to launch direct peace talks with Palestinians. "Israel wants serious and comprehensive talks," Netanyahu said in response to Clinton's statement on Friday. "We are coming to these talks with a serious desire to reach a peace agreement between nations, while still preserving Israel's national interests, security being the foremost of them." Netanyahu has long sought a resumption of the talks that stalled before a Gaza war in late 2008, saying he was ready to sit down at any time with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abba. The Middle East Quartet released a statement following Friday's announcement, reaffirming their support for the resolution of all final status issues. [More>>haaretz.com]

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08.20.10 US imam says extremism is global threat

(AP) August 20 - The imam who is leading plans for an Islamic centre near the Manhattan site of the September 11 attacks says that extremism poses a security threat in both the West and the Muslim world. The comments by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf come during the first leg of a 15-day Middle East tour — funded by the US State Department — to discuss Muslim life in America and religious tolerance. Speaking after leading Friday prayers at a neighbourhood mosque in Bahrain's capital Manama, Rauf said he hopes to draw attention during his trip to the region to the common challenges to battle radical religious beliefs. "This issue of extremism is something that has been a national security issue — not only for the United States, but also for many countries and nations in the Muslim world. This is why this particular trip has a great importance because all countries in the Muslim world — as well as the Western world — are facing this ... major security challenge." [More>>news.com.au; See also

cbsnews.com, August 20, "NYC mosque imam looking to 'Americanize Islam' " : The imam leading plans for an Islamic center near the Manhattan site of the Sept. 11 attacks said Friday he has been working on a way to "Americanize Islam." While he did not elaborate on what an American version of Islam might look like, he did note that different interpretations of the faith have emerged over the religion's nearly 1,400-year existence. "The same principles and rituals were everywhere, but what happened in different regions was there were different interpretations," Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, who is on the first leg of a 15-day Mideast tour funded by the US State Department, said. "So we recognize that our heritage allows for re-expressing the internal principles of our religion in different cultural times and places." Rauf refused to discuss the political firestorm over the plans for an Islamic cultural center about two blocks from the World Trade Center towers. Foes of the project say it is insensitive and disrespectful to the victims of 9/11 and their families. The debate has become politicized ahead of November's midterm congressional elections...

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08.20.10 Leaders fear for Netherlands' image as anti-Islam populist turns kingmaker

08.20.10 Now Atlantic is found to have huge 'garbage patch'

August 20 - A huge expanse of floating plastic debris has been documented for the first time in the North Atlantic Ocean. The size of the affected area rivals the "great Pacific garbage patch" in the world's other great ocean basin, which generated an outcry over the effects of plastic waste on marine wildlife. The new plastic waste, which was discovered in an area of the Atlantic to the east of Bermuda, consists mostly of fragments no bigger than a few millimetres wide. But their concentrations and the area of the sea that is covered have caused consternation among marine biologists studying the phenomenon. Using fine-mesh nets towed from a research ship, the scientists collected more than 64,000 individual plastic pieces at 6,100 locations out at sea over the 22-year period of the survey. The highest concentrations were centred at approximately the same latitude as Atlanta, Georgia (32 degrees North) but extended about 500 miles north and south of this line.

Kara Lavender Law from the Sea Education Association in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, said the size of the Atlantic "garbage patch" was roughly equal to the one in the Pacific, where circulating currents of the North Pacific Gyre have trapped it over a wide area to the north of the equator. "The Pacific has received more attention in terms of plastic accumulation but we know less about the Pacific so it's very difficult to compare the Atlantic patch in terms of size. We had a cruise this summer to try to find the eastern extent and in fact we failed to find it," Dr. Lavender Law said. "East of Bermuda we had no evidence of a decrease in concentration so we still haven't answered the question. All we can say is the highest concentrations between the two oceans are comparable. My guess is they are similar-sized problems," she said. [More>>independent.co.uk; For articles on the "Pacific Gyre" see Maravot News 5.09.09 article 5.02.09 Mission to break up Pacific island of rubbish twice the size of Texas]

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08.20.10 Pakistan to clamp down on Islamist militant charities

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) August 20 - Pakistan said on Friday it will clamp down on charities linked to Islamist militants amid fears their involvement in flood relief could exploit anger against the government and undermine the fight against groups like the Taliban. Islamist charities have moved swiftly to fill the vacuum left by a government overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster and struggling to reach millions of people in dire need of shelter, food and drinking water. It would not be the first time the government has announced restrictions against charities tied to militant groups, but critics say banned organizations often re-emerge with new names and authorities are not serious about stopping them.

"The banned organizations are not allowed to visit flood-hit areas," Interior Minister Rehman Malik told Reuters. "We will arrest members of banned organizations collecting funds and will try them under the Anti-Terrorism Act." Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari warned on Thursday that militants were trying to exploit the floods to promote their agendas — as they did after a devastating earthquake in Kashmir in 2005. More than 4 million Pakistanis have been made homeless by nearly three weeks of floods, making urgent the critical task of securing enough aid...In a sign of improving relations between the Pakistan and India since the Mumbai militant attacks in 2008, New Delhi said that $5 million in aid had been accepted after initial reluctance from Islamabad. [Full story>>thestar.com.my; See related story,

foxnews.com, August 20, "US boosts Pakistan flood aid to $150 million" : The United States government has increased aid to flood-ravaged Pakistan to $150 million, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledging to help protect "as many people as possible" as the rain continues to fall. The US contribution helped the United Nations meet its target of close to a half-billion dollars in international assistance... 

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08.20.10 Homeless Gazans seize Hamas government building

GAZA (Reuters) August 20 - Forty families whose houses were destroyed in conflict with Israel took over a building belonging to Gaza's Hamas rulers this week in a sign of dissatisfaction with the Islamist movement's failure to provide shelter. Angered by living in tents for two winters and now baking in the midst of an intense heat wave, the squatters took over the unfinished apartment house and have already resisted one police effort to evict them. "The heat and cold hurt our children. Where are you?" read a banner pasted on the wall of the building, in the first overt move against government property since Hamas seized power strip in 2007, ousting forces loyal to the Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Bassam Jamil, one of the squatters, said 43 families had moved into the building which was still under construction in Jabalya in the northern Gaza Strip. It belongs to the Hamas-run housing ministry. "We have lost faith that anyone will rebuild our homes. We have taken shelter in the building from the heat in the tents we've been living in," Jamil said. [More>>khaleejtimes.com]

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08.20.10 'Al-Qaeda prepares for Israel-Iran war'

August 20 - Report: Al-Shehri warns against "the greater state of Israel." Al-Qaeda is ready to exploit a war "by the Jews against Iran," the Sunni group's second-in-command in Yemen, Saeed al-Shehri, said in an audio message this month, according to the Daily Beast. The mostly Shi'ite nation of Iran is an enemy to al-Qaeda, and al-Shehri predicted that after Israel attacked Iranian nuclear installations, Iran would blame Saudi Arabia — which reports say may let Israel fly through its airspace to attack Iran — and use the opportunity to seize the holy cities of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. Al-Shehri said Israel would then seize territory from surrounding Arab nations to establish "the greater state of Israel," and the Sunni Arab population of the Middle East would be trapped between the “Jews in the Middle East and Iran in the Peninsula," the Daily Beast reported. According to the Daily Beast, al-Qaeda would benefit from an Israel-Iran war because if Israel attacked Iran's nuclear installations, Iran would use its proxies to lash back at Americans in the Gulf, Iraq, and Afghanistan. The Daily Beast is a news aggregator and original content website owned by a former Wall Street Journal editor. [>jpost.com]

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08.20.10 Iran broadcasts missile launch on state television

August 20 - Iran has test fired a surface-to-surface missile, according to the country's defence minister. Ahmad Vahidi's announcement comes a day before Iran is scheduled to launch its Russian-built first nuclear power plant in the southern port city of Bushehr. Television images showed the sand colored Qiam (Rising) blasting into the air from a desert terrain, amid chants of "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest). The words "Ya Mahdi" were written on the side of the missile, referring to Imam Mahdi, one of the 12 imams of Shiite Islam, who disappeared as a boy and whom the faithful believe will return one day to bring redemption to mankind. [More>>telegraph.co.uk; For background & related stories, see Maravot News 8.18.09 article 8.17.09 Muslims must unite for Islam's savior: Iran ;

Maravot News 12.20.09 article 12.14.09 Iran president slammed for Mahdi comments ;

Maravot News 12.10.09 article 12.07.09 US wants to stop mankind's savior: Iran leader ;

Maravot News 2.20.10 article with twitter.com posts on Iran protests, how Iran's persecutions relate to its Constitution and Ali Khamenei's apparent role under the Mahdi (Wali al-'Asr ** ) 02.15.10 West condemns Iran's 'bloody repression'

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08.19.10 Jobless filings at highest point since November

August 19 - Equity investors on Wall Street found bad news staring them in the face again Thursday. Disappointing reports about the job market and a regional slowdown in manufacturing reminded traders that the economic recovery was beginning to slow and that the job market would continue to be weak because of it. Shares on Wall Street were down more than 1.5 percent in afternoon trading after the Department of Labor said that initial claims for unemployment insurance rose last week to a seasonally adjusted half a million people, the first time since November that they have reached that level. The jobless claims climbed by 12,000 to 500,000 from the previous week's revised 488,000. Wall Street analysts had expected the seasonally adjusted claims to drop.

"The whole lack of improvement and further rise in claims coincides with the concerns about production and growth in the economy," Steven C. Wieting, an economist for Citigroup, said. The unemployment report was the first of a one-two punch for investors on Thursday morning. In addition, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia's monthly index showed that manufacturing in the mid-Atlantic states shrank this month. The index fell to minus 7.7 points in August — its lowest level since July 2009 — from last month's 5.1 points. [More>>nytimes.com; See related stories,

washintontimes.com, August 19, "CBO: US faces slow recovery, near record deficit" : With the sluggish economy holding down revenues and the federal government still spending lavishly, the national deficit will hit $1.3 trillion this year — second only to last year's record, Congress's chief scorekeeper said Thursday. Adding to the grim news, the Congressional Budget Office said the ongoing recovery from the recession has been "anemic." The CBO projects that the economy will only grow at 2 percent over the next year, and unemployment will average 9 percent next year and won't fall to 5 percent until 2014. "Growth in the nation's output since mid-2009 has been anemic in comparison with previous recoveries that followed a deep recession, and the unemployment rate has remained quite high," the nonpartisan agency said. In just the last six months, Congress has added another $29 billion to this year's deficit, and $404 billion over the next 10 years, CBO analysts said. The 2010 fiscal year ends Sept. 30...

telegraph.co.uk, August 19, "Economy is on knife-edge, warn Bank of England policymakers" : Britain's economy is teetering on a knife-edge, with "substantial" risks of a relapse balanced against signs of "gathering momentum" in the recovery, according to minutes from the Bank of England's August rate-setting meeting. For a third month running, policymakers on the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted 8-1 to hold rates at 0.5pc and leave unchanged the Bank's £200bn quantitative easing (QE) programme after deciding the existing measures "remained appropriate." However, the minutes said that the "risks were substantial, and members stood ready to respond in either direction as the balance of risks evolved." Andrew Sentance was once again a lone voice calling for a rate rise in a meeting where the prospect of further QE was also discussed. Economists believe the MPC could soon be split three ways, with some members calling for more QE in the face of declining economic growth, others demanding rate rises to stave off rising inflation, and the bulk paralysed by the conflicting data...

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08.19.10 BP oil spill: scientists find giant plume of droplets ;missed' by official account

August 19 - A 22-mile plume of droplets from BP's Deepwater Horizon well in the Gulf of Mexico undermines claim that oil has degraded. Scientists have mapped a 22-mile plume of oil droplets from BP's rogue well in the depths of the Gulf of Mexico, providing the strongest evidence yet of the fate of the crude that spewed into the sea for months. The report offers the most authoritative challenge to date to White House assertions that most of the 5m barrels of oil that spewed into the Gulf is gone. "These results indicate that efforts to book-keep where the oil went must now include this plume," said Christopher Reddy one of the members of the team from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. The report, which is published in the journal Science, also said the plume was very slow to break down by natural forces, increasing the likelihood that oil could have travelled long distances in the Gulf before it was degraded. [More>>guardian.co.uk]

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08.19.10 Mosque developers refuse to rule out donations from Iran