Suicide bombers assault mosque in Rawalpindi, kill 40, Islamic World News, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic World News

Suicide bombers assault mosque in Rawalpindi, kill 40

The Taliban have struck again in the heart of Pakistan's military garrison city of Rawalpindi. A Taliban suicide assault team estimated at between three to five men entered a mosque in the city and opened fire on the worshippers and detonated their vests, killing 40 and wounding 83 more. The attack killed a senior general and wounded another.

Two of the members of the suicide assault team have been killed. The assault team was not interested in taking hostages or negotiations, according to the Pakistani military.

"They exploded bombs inside the mosque," Major General Athar Abbas, the top military spokesman told AFP. "They opened fire on the worshippers... There is no hostage situation. Two terrorists have been killed."

The blasts caused parts of the roof of the mosque to collapse.

The attack took place in a mosque that is used by Army officers on a day when the mosque is sure to be filled; Friday is the Muslim day of prayer.

"There were about 200 or 300 worshippers in the hall," an eyewitness told AFP. "Army officials mostly offer their Friday prayers in this mosque."

Major General Bilal Omar Khan, who had served as the commander of the Pakistani Rangers, and the son of the Peshawar Corps commander were both killed in the attack, according to Samaa. General Mohammad Yousuf, the retired former Vice Chief of Army Staff, was wounded.

The Taliban and allied terror groups have struck at the military and police forces in Pakistan's major cities to counter the ongoing military operations in South Waziristan, Khyber, Arakzai, Kurram, and Swat.

Today's Rawalpindi attack is the latest in a wave of Taliban violence that emerged in the beginning of October. Suicide bombers have struck in Islamabad, Peshawar, Shangla, Kohat, and Charsadda, and assault teams have targeted police in Lahore and Peshawar as well as the Army General Headquarters in Rawalpindi. Just two days ago, a suicide bomber detonated outside the gate of the Naval headquarters in Islamabad.

The Oct. 10 assault on Army General Headquarters shut down Pakistan's military command for nearly a day, as hostages were held. The Taliban are reported to have obtained sensitive data from computers and files during that assault.

http://newageislam.com/suicide-bombers-assault-mosque-in-rawalpindi,-kill-40/islamic-world-news/d/2189

Fighting the terror curse, Islam,Terrorism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam,Terrorism and Jihad

Fighting the terror curse

By Shashi Shekhar

December 30, 2009

A recent report has for the first time described Ilyas Kashmiri, the commander of Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami’s 313 Brigade, as the chief of Al Qaeda’s Shadow Army also called Lashkar-al-Zil. In the past Pakistan-based Al Qaeda’s operatives Abu Obaida al-Misri and Khalid Habib have been described as holding that role in the Lashkar-al-Zil. While Al-Misri is believed to have died of Hepatitis B back in January 2008, Khalid Habib is believed to have died in a Predator drone strike in October 2008. Since Khalid Habib’s death in last year’s Predator strike no other Al Qaeda leader was described as having replaced Khalid Habin until the December 24 report in the Asia Times describing Ilyas Kashmiri as the chief of Lashkar-al-Zil.

Bill Roggio writing in the Long War Journal in February describes the Lashkar-Al-Zil as being organised under a military structure that has a clear-cut command structure with established ranks. A senior Al Qaeda military leader is placed in command of the Shadow Army, while experienced officers are put in command of the brigades and subordinate battalions and companies. In article Bill Roggio also explains that this was the result of a revamp and reorganisation of the Shadow Army’s precursor Brigade 055.

To know how this reorganisation of the Shadow Army with a military structure could have come about we must rewind back to September 2007 when the Asia Times first reported that former Pakistan military men were operating out of the Waziristan camp of Ilyas Kashmiri. The report described the men as mostly ex-middle cadre (captains, majors, colonels). Subsequently in February 2008 the Asia Times quoted a certain Abu Harris, former Lashkar, that the addition of former jihadis, who were trained by Pakistani intelligence to fight in Kashmir, and some retired Pakistani Army officers to Al Qaeda’s ranks has brought about a major change in the group’s operational approach while describing Al Qaeda’s rationale and justification for Khuruj or revolt in Pakistan. It may not be a coincidence that the latest report in Asia Times on December 24 also describes at length Al Qaeda’s rationale for why the Pakistani Army must be attacked. It quotes extensively from a book titled Sharpening the Spearheads for Fighting the Pakistani Army by Abu-Yahya Al-Libby, an Al Qaeda ideologue.

http://newageislam.com/fighting-the-terror-curse/islam,terrorism-and-jihad/d/2301

Islam not responsible’ for shooting, says US imam, Islamic World News, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic World News

Islam not responsible’ for shooting, says US imam

Saturday, 07 Nov, 2009

SILVER SPRING (Maryland), Nov 6: Islam is ‘not responsible’ for the bloodbath at an army base in Texas where Muslim-American army Major Nidal Malik Hasan allegedly gunned down 13 people, the prayer leader at the mosque where the officer regularly worshipped said on Friday.

“We offer our condolences and prayers to the families that have a person who died,” said Imam Mohammed Abdullahi over loud-speakers that carried the weekly Muslim prayer to several hundred worshippers gathered at the mosque.

“Islam is not responsible,” he stressed.

Many of the worshippers who had come to the mosque in this suburb of Washington knew Hasan or had seen him at Friday prayer, which he attended regularly when he lived in the Washington area.

To them, the news that he had allegedly opened fire with a semi-automatic weapon and a handgun in a crowded troop processing centre on the sprawling Fort Hood base in Texas, mowing down 13 people and wounding 30 others, came as a shock.

“Islam doesn’t command anybody to do something like that,” said Shaikh Khamis, who has prayed at the Silver Spring Muslim Community Centre mosque for 11 years.

“It’s very sad, a big tragedy for everybody,” said another worshipper, Ibrahim Gayi.

“We pray for everybody, all Americans, not only Muslims,” he said.

Asif Qadri, head of the medical clinic at the Muslim Community Centre, described Hasan, an army major, as “very gentlemanly.

“He was sociable, likeable. We had regular, casual conversation — he didn’t manifest any particular view either way,” Qadri said.

“When I saw him on television, I couldn’t believe my eyes,” he added.

It was “unbelievable”, said Qadri, that the man who news reports said went on a deadly rampage on Thursday was the soft-spoken psychiatrist who prayed at the mosque nearly every week.—AFP

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/international/islam-not-responsible-for-shooting%2C-says-us-imam-719

http://newageislam.com/islam-not-responsible%E2%80%99-for-shooting,-says-us-imam/islamic-world-news/d/2065

Fort Hood Fallout: Muslim Soldiers Profess Love For America Amidst Growing Islamophobia, Muslims and Islamophobia, NewAgeIslam.com

Muslims and Islamophobia

Fort Hood Fallout: Muslim Soldiers Profess Love For America Amidst Growing Islamophobia

When Nader Alsafari of Dearborn was sent to Fallujah, Iraq, in 2006 to fight with the U.S. Marines, some of his fellow Muslims at a local mosque weren't pleased because they felt it was an unjust war.

"Most of them didn't like it," Alsafari, 23, recalled last week. "They'd be like, 'You should try to get out.' ... They were thinking, we were just going to go and kill innocent people."

But Alsafari -- like other Muslims -- saw himself performing his duty as an American. There are some 3,500 declared Muslims in the U.S. military. And they're in the spotlight after the Nov. 5 shootings at a military base in Ft. Hood, Texas. The suspect, Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, is an Arab-American Muslim.

Caught between two worlds, they're trying to carve out their own identity during a time of war when some are questioning their loyalty.

A director with a conservative Christian group says Muslims should be banned from serving. And amid the many Muslim leaders who denounced the Ft. Hood shootings were a few who praised Hasan, saying his actions were Islamic.

But Muslim veterans strongly reject the extremists on both sides.

"We love this country," said Shelton Hasan, 54, of Detroit, an Army veteran, "and want to protect it like anyone else."

Muslim troops aim to build trust in U.S. military

When Jamal Baadani, a native of Dearborn and U.S. Marine, was visiting his nephew a few years ago, he noticed the 5-year-old boy didn't want to play with him as usual.

"What's the matter?" Baadani said he remembers asking him.

http://newageislam.com/fort-hood-fallout--muslim-soldiers-profess-love-for-america-amidst-growing-islamophobia/muslims-and-islamophobia/d/2099

Pakistan’s Sharia appeasement in Swat to embolden Taliban: Analysts, Radical Islamism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Radical Islamism and Jihad

Pakistan’s Sharia appeasement in Swat to embolden Taliban: Analysts

Islamic Law Instituted In Pakistan's Swat Valley

By Pamela Constable

Washington Post Foreign Service

Tuesday, February 17, 2009; Page A08

In announcing the agreement, Pakistani officials asserted that the adoption of sharia law would bring swift and fair justice to the Swat Valley, where people have long complained of legal corruption and delays. They said the new system would have "nothing in common" with the draconian rule of the Taliban militia that ran Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, during which thieves' hands were amputated and adulterers were stoned to death.

"There was a vacuum . . . in the legal system. The people demanded this and they deserve it," said Amir Haider Khan Hoti, chief minister of the North-West Frontier Province. The new system will include an appeals process, something the Afghan Taliban justice system did not allow for.

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Militant leaders in the scenic Swat Valley, in a gesture of good faith, said they would observe a 10-day cease-fire while the new system is implemented. The Pakistani army said it would suspend operations in the area, and there were anecdotal reports of celebratory gunfire and of crowds returning to once-deserted streets.

But Pakistani critics blasted the deal as a dangerous concession to extremist insurgents who have terrified inhabitants of the valley for months, sending thousands fleeing to safer areas. They have bombed girls' schools, beheaded policemen, whipped criminals in public squares and assassinated activists from the secular Awami National Party that governs the North-West Frontier Province.

http://newageislam.com/pakistan%E2%80%99s-sharia-appeasement-in-swat-to-embolden-taliban--analysts-/radical-islamism-and-jihad/d/1201

Muslim Penchant for spinning state-sponsored conspiracies: Will it turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy?, Islam and Politic, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and Politic

Muslim Penchant for spinning state-sponsored conspiracies: Will it turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy?

However, to infer from a case of possibly false encounter, or even a proven false encounter by overzealous or communal-minded police personnel, that the system (state) has hatched a conspiracy to eliminate all the employed youth of a community that constitutes nearly 15 percent of the total population is truly outrageous. Apparently the protagonists of the state conspiracy and a conspiracy that has been going on since Independence in 1947 do not know what states are capable of doing. They should read the history of Bangladesh; they would learn what the Muslim, indeed Islamic state of Pakistan did to fellow Muslim citizens when they demanded that the verdict of a free and fair elections held by the same Islamic state be implemented. One to three million East Pakistani Muslims killed, almost the entire brain power of the future Bangladesh was eliminated. Pakistan Army hunted educated Bangladeshis, in particular, from professors’ colonies and journalists’ colonies, etc. with a ferocity that remains unparalleled so far. Almost the entire Hindu minority population of Pakistan and Bangladesh has of course been eliminated. Where are the Muslims who ruled Spain for seven centuries? What happened to the Jews of Nazi Germany? Six million killed. History books are strewn with examples, gruesome, indescribably gruesome, instances of what state conspiracies can do.

http://newageislam.com/muslim-penchant-for-spinning-state-sponsored-conspiracies---will-it-turn-into-a-self-fulfilling-prophecy?--/islam-and-politics/d/877

Pakistan: A sustained, determined fight against militancy required, War on Terror, NewAgeIslam.com

War on Terror

Pakistan: A sustained, determined fight against militancy required

By Huma Yusuf

September 04, 2008

The fact that local tribesmen decided to raise lashkars to expel the Taliban from their villages also deserves a measured response. No doubt, there's something reassuring about learning that Pakistanis directly affected by the militant presence would rather not have the militants around. But tribesmen moved to raising private armies are in some way pointing to the inadequacies of the state. Raising a lashkar is the military equivalent of meting out justice before a jirga rather than in the courts. If we've learnt anything from the curse of parallel justice systems, it's that competing infrastructures lead to increased discontent and fragmentation. Encouraging tribal leaders to take security into their own hands despite the presence of the Army is akin to deferring a problem. Militancy may be curtailed today, but a network of private armies will pose another challenge tomorrow.

http://newageislam.com/pakistan--a-sustained,-determined-fight-against-militancy-required/war-on-terror/d/707

http://newageislam.com/isi-s-role-in-pakistan--dangerous-games/war-on-terror/d/617, War on Terror, NewAgeIslam.com

War on Terror

ISI's role in Pakistan: Dangerous games

By Kuldip Nayar

People inside and outside Pakistan were happy when there was a notification last month that the ISI would be under the Ministry of Interior. Asif Ali Zardari, co-chairman of the ruling Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP), welcomed the step and pointed out that “no one will now be able to say that this agency is not under the elected government control.” But he spoke too soon. Within 24 hours, another notification was issued to say that the earlier notification had been ‘misunderstood’. In other words, the military will continue to control it through an Army Maj Gen who heads it. A more detailed notification was promised. But it has not come out. Nor will it ever.

It is apparent that the defence forces exerted the pressure and had another notification issued for “clarification.” Director-General of the Inter Services Public Relation (ISPR) Maj-Gen Athar Abbas was blunt enough to say the defence authorities had not been taken into confidence on the issue. This proves that the military continues to rule Pakistan.

http://newageislam.com/isi-s-role-in-pakistan--dangerous-games/war-on-terror/d/617

'800 militants waiting to cross over from PoK', Islam,Terrorism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam,Terrorism and Jihad

'800 militants waiting to cross over from PoK'

They are now re-drawing the overall strategy to deal with the situation and honing tactics at the sector level in the backdrop of inputs that more than 800 terrorists are waiting to infiltrate into India from across the LoC and International Border, sources said here on Wednesday.Reports also point out that the terrorist infrastructure was intact in PoK and about 40 terrorist training camps were running there, besides in the northern areas and the mainland. The ISI and Pakistan Army are actively supporting them and providing the jihadis with launch pads close to the LoC and the International Border for sneaking into the border State.The security establishment is concerned that the Pakistan Army is now resorting to its old tactic of firing at the Indian posts as a cover for terrorists to infiltrate and the Jammu incident was one such example.Pakistan had honoured the mutually-agreed ceasefire on the 750-km-long LoC for the last four years. It, however, violated the ceasefire in April this year and 30 incidents of ceasefire violation have so far taken place, though the Indian troops are exercising the maximum restraint. The violations were reported to the Pakistani authorities through established channels of communication but little came out of it, sources said.Meanwhile, Minister of State for Defence MM Pallam Raju said here on Wednesday that forces inimical to India were trying to disrupt the forthcoming elections in Jammu and Kashmir.

http://newageislam.com/-800-militants-waiting-to-cross-over-from-pok-/islam,terrorism-and-jihad/d/650

Hizbollah’s double coup, Islam and the West, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and the West

Hizbollah’s double coup

An editorial in The Hindu

Hizbollah has strongly affirmed its status as the ascendant political force in Lebanon by pulling off two coups within a week. On July 11, the Shia-based politico-military formation re-entered the federal cabinet with the capacity to exercise veto power. Five days later, it extracted a major concession from Israel in the form of a prisoners-for-bodies deal. Hizbollah, whose militia might actually be stronger than the national army, showed magnanimity during the Beirut rece ption it hosted for the released prisoners. That might not have raised the comfort levels for Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and the parties that support him. Although Hizbollah has taken only one of the 27 cabinet berths, its allies control 10 Ministries. Under a recent agreement between all Lebanese parties, policy decisions will not become effective unless supported by at least two-thirds of the cabinet ministers. Several major steps must be taken before parliament elections are held in 2009. These include changes to the electoral law and the disarming of all militias. Hizbollah has been trying to push through electoral reforms to make the distribution of seats reflect the demographic changes that have taken place over several decades. While accurate census data are not available, it is widely believed that the Shias are now the largest of Lebanon’s 18-odd sectarian groups or ‘confessions.’ Mr. Siniora will also have a hard time trying to disarm Hizbollah’s militia. Even if he manages to drum up the special majority in the cabinet, he will not have the military strength to enforce the decision.

http://newageislam.com/hizbollah%E2%80%99s-double-coup-/islam-and-the-west/d/256

DALLIANCE WITH JAMAAT-E-ISLAMI: Bangladesh reveals its inherently anti-democratic attitude, Islam,Terrorism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam,Terrorism and Jihad

DALLIANCE WITH JAMAAT-E-ISLAMI: Bangladesh reveals its inherently anti-democratic attitude

An editorial in New Age, Dhaka

17 July 2008

While the chief adviser and the chief of army staff have severally, and emphatically, enunciated the interim government’s commitment to bringing the perpetrators of war crimes to justice, in reality, it has thus far displayed a soft attitude towards Jamaat, which, needless to say, had been at the forefront of anti-independence activism during the country’s war of liberation in 1971. Nizami’s release could be only the latest manifestation of such an attitude, and one does not have to go very far back to find another precedent. On July 11, a freedom fighter was assaulted at the representatives’ conference of Jatiya Muktijoddha Parishad, supposedly an organisation of freedom fighters which comprises primarily pro-Jamaat elements, in the capital. As reported in the media, the elderly man came under attack for demanding, in his speech to the conference, punishment to the Jamaat men who actively cooperated with the brutal occupation forces of Pakistan during the war of independence in 1971. While there has been a wave of protests against the assault of the veteran freedom fighter and calls for exemplary punishment for the perpetrators since, the government has thus far maintained a cryptic silence over the entire issue.

http://newageislam.com/dalliance-with-jamaat-e-islami--bangladesh-reveals-its-inherently-anti-democratic-attitude/islam,terrorism-and-jihad/d/259