Mahesh Bhatt's son questioned on Headley Terrorist link, Islamic World News, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic World News

Mahesh Bhatt's son questioned on Headley Terrorist link

November 13, 2009

Mumbai police have questioned Bollywood filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt's son Rahul for his alleged friendship with David Coleman Headley, the Pakistan-born US national who is in FBI custody as a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) suspect.

Rahul Bhatt, a fitness instructor, was let off after questioning as he was unaware of Headley's terror links, said sources in the Mumbai Police.

According to sources, during questioning Rahul admitted to having known Headley and also helping him rent a flat near Breach Candy Hospital.

However, the filmmaker's son was unaware of Headley's actual background and took him to be a foreign national in India on a job.

There were several references to "Rahul" in Headley's e-mail exchanges with his Pakistani handlers that sent the security establishment into a tizzy.

Information provided by the FBI has revealed that Headley operated a visa agency in Mumbai for almost two years until July 2008 and had travelled to India on business visas nine times between 2006 and 2009.

When contacted, Mahesh Bhatt neither confirmed nor denied that his son had been questioned by police in connection with the Headley case.

"This is an issue of national security and not something trivial related to Bollywood. Ask the agencies that deal with national security. I will not say anything more," Bhatt told a television channel.

Investigators initially feared that the 'Rahul' reference was to Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi but Home Minister P Chidambaram promptly denied this. There was even speculation that it could be a code name for Shah Rukh Khan, who has played characters named Rahul in several films.

http://newageislam.com/mahesh-bhatt-s-son-questioned-on-headley-terrorist-link/islamic-world-news/d/2094

As Tensions Rise for Egypt’s Christians, Officials Call Clashes Secular , Radical Islamism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Radical Islamism and Jihad

As Tensions Rise for Egypt’s Christians, Officials Call Clashes Secular

By MICHAEL SLACKMAN

Published: August 2, 2008

As more and more conflicts pile up and as the tensions of daily life increase, many people in Egypt and around the region said the problem of sectarian clashes had become more urgent. They said that ordinary conflicts had become more bitterly sectarian as religious identity had become more prominent among Muslims and Christians alike.

“It is as if there is a struggle — each against the other — and it creates a sectarian atmosphere,” said Gamal Assaad, a former member of Parliament who is a Coptic intellectual and a writer. “This tense atmosphere makes people ready to explode at any point if they are subjected to any amount of instigation or incitement.”

Egypt is the most populous Arab country, with about 80 million people. About 10 percent are Coptic Christian.

For most of Egypt’s Coptics, the major flare-ups — the attack on the Abu Fana Monastery or riots in 2005 in Alexandria — are faraway episodes that serve only to confirm a growing alienation from larger society. For most, the tension is more personal, a fear that a son or daughter will fall in love with a Muslim or of being derided as “coftes,” which means “fifth column.”

http://newageislam.com/as-tensions-rise-for-egypt%E2%80%99s-christians,-officials-call-clashes-secular/radical-islamism-and-jihad/d/402

CHINESE TAKE AWAY: Jihad in the West, Islam,Terrorism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam,Terrorism and Jihad

CHINESE TAKE AWAY: Jihad in the West

By C Raja Mohan

August 14, 2008

A series of terrorist attacks during the last ten days in the Xinjiang province is drawing attention to the new prospect of an Islamist jihad against China. Timed to coincide with the opening of the Beijing Olympics, the violence in China’s has claimed more than 30 lives.

Despite the boldness of their recent attacks in Xinjiang, where western China meets Central Asia, Pakistan and India, the Islamic extremists are unlikely to pose a significant threat to the games themselves, which are being held under a massive security cover. Chinese officials say so far there has been no clear evidence to tie the terrorist attacks to known Uighur ethnic separatist groups. Xinjiang has a long history of separatist demands from the Uighurs, who are of Turkic ethnicity and Islamic faith.

The big question is whether there is a new radical Islamic dimension to the restiveness in Xinjiang that China has managed to contain until now. There is growing speculation that the new Islamist elements in Xinjiang might have links to the global jihadi network now entrenched in borderlands between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

In the past, top Pakistani officials had confirmed the presence of Uighur Islamic extremists training in its border regions along with terrorists from around the world. The scope of jihadi activity against China has been seen as modest, at least until recently.

http://newageislam.com/chinese-take-away--jihad-in-the-west/islam,terrorism-and-jihad/d/555

Libya signs bombing compensation deal with US, Islam,Terrorism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam,Terrorism and Jihad

Libya signs bombing compensation deal with US

15 Aug 2008, REUTERS

US victims covered include those who died in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people and the 1986 attack on a Berlin disco that killed three people and wounded 229, Libyan officials said.

It also covers Libyans killed in 1986 when US planes bombed Tripoli and Benghazi. Forty people died.

In Washington, a State Department official confirmed the signing of the comprehensive deal. Ties between OPEC member Libya and the United States have improved dramatically since 2003, when Libya accepted responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing and said it would stop pursuing nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

Since then, the United States has dropped many sanctions, removed Libya from a terrorism blacklist and restored diplomatic links after decades of enmity.

Muammar Gaddafi's Libya has slowly emerged from its international isolation. But Libya objected early this year to new US legislation to enable terrorism victims to collect damages from governments such as Libya by having their assets frozen.

http://newageislam.com/libya-signs-bombing-compensation-deal-with-us/islam,terrorism-and-jihad/d/563

Feeding the Muslim stereotype: Darul Uloom Deoband has not learnt any lessons, NewAgeISlam.com

Feeding the Muslim stereotype: Darul Uloom Deoband has not learnt any lessons

A Hindustan Times editorial

July 12, 2008

At the heart of the issue is that of community-specific laws overriding the law of the land. The common thread in all personal laws in India is that they discriminate against women in matters of marriage, divorce and inheritance.

At one time, personal laws may have been required to counter insecurities among minorities. This no longer holds today. It is nobody’s case that all personal laws be thrown out of the window.

But those that come in direct conflict with our ideas of justice as confirmed by the law must have no place in anybody’s book, regardless of the community tag one carries. More equitable and progressive personal laws should be picked and incorporated into a blueprint for a uniform civil code.

Institutions like the Darul Uloom Deoband carry considerable weight among Muslims. So it is incumbent upon it to weigh its pronouncements carefully so that stereotypes are not reinforced.

http://newageislam.com/feeding-the-muslim-stereotype--darul-uloom-deoband-has-not-learnt-any-lessons-/islamic-sharia-laws/d/198

SIMI, LeT may be behind Bangalore blasts - Intelligence Bureau, Islam,Terrorism and Jihad, NewAgeISlam.com

Islam,Terrorism and Jihad

SIMI, LeT may be behind Bangalore blasts - Intelligence Bureau

25 July 2008

Bangalore Police Commissioner Shanker Bidri, while talking to Times Now, confirmed that the explosions appear to be act of the people who wanted to terrorise the capital of Karnataka. He also said that all these bombs were of low-intensity and were triggered by timers.

Soon after the serial explosions, the police ordered closure of all schools, colleges, cinema halls and commercial complexes.

As per the latest reports, the SIMI and LeT operatives have been arrested and they are being interrogated. The police sources said that these terror attacks bear the hallmarks of Bangladesh outfit HuJI.

At least two people have been killed and 20 people wounded in a series of blasts in Bangalore. Seven blasts have been reported so far.

http://newageislam.com/simi,-let-may-be-behind-bangalore-blasts---intelligence-bureau/islam,terrorism-and-jihad/d/309

Al-Qaeda leaving Iraq for Afghanistan: The Washington Post report, War on Terror, NewAgeIslam.com

War on Terror

Al-Qaeda leaving Iraq for Afghanistan: The Washington Post report

"We do believe al-Qaeda is doing some measure of re-assessment regarding the continued viability of its fight in Iraq and whether Iraq should remain the focus of its efforts," Brigadier General Brian Keller, senior intelligence officer for General David Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq, told the paper in an e-mail.

But Keller cautioned that the United States had not confirmed that recruits are being sent to Afghanistan or that al-Qaeda in Iraq leaders have gone there.

The Post, citing a US intelligence analyst, reported that al-Qaeda in Iraq has been "seriously weakened" in the last year and that the flow of foreign fighters into the country has plummeted.

Abdullah al-Ansari, an al-Qaeda leader in Fallujah, told the daily that group leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri had travelled to Afghanistan through Iran.

http://newageislam.com/al-qaeda-leaving-iraq-for-afghanistan--the-washington-post-report/war-on-terror/d/356