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2004 News ContinuedJuly 20, 2004
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 AP - An Islamic Web site posted this image of Paul Johnson earlier this week. |
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (June 18) -- An al-Qaida group said Friday it killed American hostage Paul M. Johnson Jr, posting an Internet message that showed three photographs of a severed head that appeared to be his.
The message, in the name of Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, appeared as a 72-hour deadline set by the group ended.
''In answer to what we promised ... to kill the hostage Paul Marshall (Johnson) after the period is over ... the infidel got his fair treatment,'' the statement said.
''Let him taste something of what Muslims have long tasted from Apache helicopter fire and missiles,'' the statement said.
Johnson, 49, who worked on Apache attack helicopter systems for Lockheed Martin, was kidnapped last weekend by militants who threatened to kill him by Friday if the kingdom did not release its al-Qaida prisoners. The Saudi government rejected the demands.
As the deadline approached, Saudi security forces launched an all-out search, going door-to-door in some Riyadh neighborhoods, as Johnson's wife went on Arab television Friday pleading for his release.
After Johnson's death was reported, his family was in seclusion at a town house in Galloway Township, N.J., where they have been holding a vigil. A man standing in front of the house identified himself only as ''Bill'' and said the family did not want to talk to reporters.
One of the three photographs posted on the Web site showed a man's head, face toward the camera, being held by a hand. The other two showed a beheaded body lying prone on a bed, with the severed head placed in the small of his back, the clothes underneath bloodied.
The face looked like Johnson's.
The beheaded body was dressed in a bright orange jumpsuit, similar to those issued to suspected Islamic militants imprisoned by the United States at Guantanamo Bay - and similar to the suit another American captive, Nicholas Berg, was wearing when he was beheaded in Iraq last month by another group of Islamic militants inspired by al-Qaida.
''To the Americans and whoever is their ally in the infidel and criminal world and their allies in the war against Islam, this action is punishment to them and a lesson for them to know that whoever steps foot in our country, this decisive action will be his fate,'' the statement said.
The U.S. Embassy in Riyadh had no immediate comment. ''We are working on verification,'' the spokesperson said. Spokespersons for the CIA and State Department in Washington also said they could not confirm the reports of Johnson's death.
A Saudi senior security official, reached by The Associated Press, said: ''We have so far nothing on this.''
Soon after the statement appeared, the Web site was inaccessible, with a message saying it was closed for maintenance.
Johnson was the latest victim of an escalating campaign targeting Westerners that Saudi and U.S. officials say aims to drive foreign workers from the kingdom and undermine the ruling royal family, hated by al-Qaida.
Johnson was seized on June 12, the same day that Islamic militants shot and killed American Kenneth Scroggs, from Laconia, N.H., in his garage.
Scroggs worked for Advanced Electronics Co., a Saudi firm whose Web site lists Lockheed Martin among its customers. The office number on Johnson's business card was for Advanced Electronics.
The same week as Scroggs' death, another American and an Irish citizen were also shot and killed in Riyadh.
Johnson's death was the second beheading displayed on the Internet by militants with grisly images.
Berg, a businessman, was beheaded in Iraq, and his last moments later appeared on a videotape posted on an al-Qaida-linked Web site. His body was found on May 12. U.S. officials say al-Qaida-linked Muslim militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi may have been Berg's killer.
A senior Saudi official in Washington, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the government did not yet have any independent confirmation of Johnson's death. ''There is no body, and we know of no videotape,'' said the official.
Reached by phone at the Bethesda, Md. headquarters of Lockheed Martin Corp., a spokesman said the company had ''no official notification on the status of Paul Johnson.''
''But obviously we hope that the media reports people are seeing are not true,'' spokesman Jeff Adams said.
A message posted on the defense contractor's Web site reads ''Our thoughts and prayers are with Paul M. Johnson Jr. and his family,'' but a notation on the message refers to it as ''Employee Kidnapped.''
06-18-04 14:49 EDT
Copyright 2004 Reuters Limited. All rights
AKRON, Ohio
The Palestinian-born leader of Ohio's largest mosque was convicted Thursday of
lying about his connections to terrorist organizations when he applied for U.S.
citizenship.
Fawaz Damra, imam of the Islamic Center of Cleveland, showed no emotion as the verdict was read in federal court.
He could be sentenced to up to five years in prison, stripped of his citizenship and deported for providing false information to become a citizen in 1994.
After court recessed, Damra left the courtroom with his arm around his wife. Supporters greeted him in the lobby with pats on the shoulder. He did not speak to reporters.
"We're going to continue to fight to exonerate Mr. Damra," his attorney, John Cline, said outside the federal court building.
Prosecutors claimed that Damra, 41, concealed ties to Afghan Refugee Services, the Islamic Committee for Palestine and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, groups the government classifies as terrorist organizations.
"We feel this is a victory in the war on terrorism," prosecutor Cherie Krigsman said.
Prosecutors showed video footage of Damra raising money for an arm of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which has been listed as a major terrorist group by the State Department since 1989.
Jurors also were shown footage in which Damra called Jews "the sons of monkeys and pigs" during a 1991 speech and said "terrorism and terrorism alone is the path to liberation" in a 1989 speech.
"He was the guy that they brought in to raise the money for Islamic Jihad," Krigsman said after the verdict. "Without the money they could not operate."
Damra's lawyers did not call any witnesses. Cline told jurors that Damra may have supported certain groups, but he did not consider himself a member or affiliate of them.
Many members of Damra's mosque have continued to support him, voting in March to allow him to continue leading prayers and performing other functions. About 25 of his supporters were in the courtroom throughout the trial.
"Unfortunately, I don't believe justice was served," said Haider Alawan, a member of the Cleveland mosque's board of elders and a Damra backer.
Damra, who was indicted in January, is the leader of the spacious, gold-dome mosque in the Cleveland suburb of Parma. About 800 or 900 people attend Friday prayer services and up to 5,000 come on holidays.
Damra's attorneys asked Judge James Gwin to acquit their client based on what they called insufficient evidence. The judge said Thursday he would rule on that and other post-verdict motions within 15 days.
Damra was allowed to remain free on bond while awaiting sentencing, set for Sept. 9.
Associated Press writer M.R. Kropko in Akron contributed to this report.
General Peter Schoomaker compared the global war on terrorism with fighting
cancer. And he says the threat from Islamic militants who want to destroy the
United States is "never going to go away in our lifetime."
He says people eventually get cured of pneumonia. When it comes to cancer, he
says the disease may go into remission -- but never really goes away.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Car bombers targeted Iraq's security services Thursday, blasting Iraqis hoping to join the military in Baghdad and a civil defense post north of the capital, killing 41 people and wounding nearly 150.
Most of the victims were poor Iraqis desperate to take dangerous jobs in the Iraqi security forces because of a lack of alternatives in a country with up to 45 percent unemployment. They took their chances at the recruitment center in Baghdad even though a car bombing killed 47 people there in February.
``I have been coming for three weeks and they decided to interview us today,'' Abdul Wahid Shadhan, 32, said as he lay in a hospital bed coughing up blood. ``I heard a big explosion, I lost sight of everything and then I found myself in the hospital.''
Shadhan said he had been out of work since the Americans disbanded the Iraqi army last year. ``I was obliged to work as a porter to feed my seven children,'' he told The Associated Press.
Iraqi Defense Minister Hazem al-Shalan promised a ``house-to-house'' search for anybody involved in planning the suicide attack.
``We will cut off the hands of those people, we will slit their throats if it is necessary to do so,'' he told reporters. ``For those people who want to join the new Iraqi army, we will protect them and we will find them a safe location so they can submit their applications.''
Thursday's attack near the recruitment center - the deadliest single blast since a car bombing at the same base in February - came amid a surge of violence targeting American troops and their Iraqi allies ahead of the transfer of sovereignty to Iraqis on June 30.
The attacks are apparently designed to shake confidence in Iraqi security forces, seen by some in the region as beholden to the Americans.
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, here for talks with the Iraqi leadership, promised that American troops would support the new government after the handover because ``Iraqi security forces are not ready to assume their job.''
In the Baghdad attack, a white sport-utility vehicle packed with artillery shells exploded near a gate of a sprawling Iraqi security compound. The base is close to the Muthanna airport on the western side of the Tigris River.
The explosion scattered bodies, blood and debris across a four-lane highway outside the base, shared by the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps and the U.S. military. No American troops were hurt.
Col. Mike Murray said 175 recruits inside the walled compound also escaped injury but many of the victims had just gotten off a bus at about 9 a.m.
At least 35 people died and 145 were wounded, and the toll was likely to increase, health ministry official Saad al-Amili said.
``We were standing waiting for our turn to register,'' Rafid Mudhar told the AP from his hospital bed. ``All of a sudden, we heard a big explosion, and most of those standing fell on the ground, including me.''
Another car bomb exploded Thursday afternoon in a village near Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad, killing six Iraqi Civil Defense Corps members and wounding four others, the U.S. 1st Infantry Division said. The defense corps is the main internal security force, created by U.S. administrators to battle insurgents.
That bombing came a day after a rocket slammed into a U.S. logistics base near Balad, killing three U.S. soldiers and wounding 25 other people, including two civilians.
Also Thursday, a Hungarian soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in a predominantly Shiite area south of Baghdad - Hungary's first military death in Iraq. An Iraqi police officer died in a separate explosion Wednesday near a fire station in Musayyib, a restive, religiously mixed town south of the capital, the Polish-led multinational force said.
More than 300 people have been killed in attacks on police stations and recruitment centers since September. In the most lethal attacks, five suicide bombings near police stations and a police academy in Basra killed at least 68 and wounded 200.
Despite the dangers of jobs in the military, civil defense and policy, U.S. and Iraqi officials say there is no shortage of volunteers. Jobs in the security services pay $300 to $500 a month depending on a person's rank - comparable to salaries for teachers and other civil servants.
In Mosul, Wolfowitz, one of the architects of the Iraq conflict, alluded to the problems within the Iraqi security forces, whom the Americans hope will assume ever greater responsibility for maintaining law and order after a sovereign government takes power.
Wolfowitz told reporters that the coalition's role after July 1 will be to support Iraqi security forces.
``Iraqi security forces are not ready to assume their job, and until they are, you can count on us,'' he said.
Iraq's interior minister, Falah Hassan al-Naqib, linked Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to the Baghdad attack and accused foreigners of being behind the 20 car bombings that have shaken the country since the start of June. He offered no new evidence.
U.S. officials suggest that the accelerated pace indicates that al-Zarqawi's network has shifted from complex, cataclysmic bombings to more frequent attacks against less protected targets.
Security at American and coalition facilities is formidable, with blast walls, earthen barricades and well targeted fields of fire. Many Iraqi facilities lack such measures.
The bombings have alarmed the people of Baghdad. Most are convinced that the attacks are carried out by outsiders - even by Americans who they say hope to weaken Islam and find a pretext to stay in this oil-rich country.
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - An Islamic Web site showed videotape Tuesday of a blindfolded American hostage in Saudi Arabia, and said abductors threatened to kill him unless Saudi authorities free al-Qaida prisoners within three days.
Paul Johnson, 49, of Stafford Township, N.J., was abducted Saturday by a group calling itself al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. The organization is believed to be headed by al-Qaida's chief in the kingdom, Abdullah-aziz al-Moqrin, who was identified as speaking on the tape.
``My name is Paul Marshall Johnson, Jr.,'' the seated hostage says in the tape, an elaborate tattoo on his left shoulder. ``I am an American. ... I work on Apache helicopters.''
A U.S. official said the threat should be taken ``very seriously'' because the posting appears to be credible and militants have used the site before. ``It has been a good indicator in the past,'' the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
The Web site was posted on the same day Saudi Arabia's ruling crown prince warned Islamic militants that the kingdom planned to deploy more security forces than they had ever faced before.
``Be assured that the kingdom has enough men whom you haven't seen so far, but within the coming few days you will see them,'' Crown Prince Abdullah told the militants, whose attacks have increased during the past three months. His remarks were televised.
The tape on the Web site, http://www.hostinganime.com/sout18/ , showed a hooded man read a statement and holding an AK-47 rifle. As the man was reading, a subtitle on the screen identified him as al-Moqrin.
His statement was similar to a printed message on the Web site that carried the name of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. It said the group gave Saudi authorities 72 hours - by Friday - to release ``mujahadeen'' militants or it would kill the hostage.
Segments of the tape appeared to have been edited together and showed a blindfolded Johnson sitting in a chair with his profile to the camera. In one sequence, Johnson appeared to have a bandage around his neck, or a gag that had been pulled down from his mouth.
The tape, which was first aired by CNN, also displayed his Lockheed Martin identification card.
Adel al-Jubeir, foreign affairs adviser to the Saudi government, said shortly after the video appeared that the kingdom would consult with the Bush administration about how to continue, but Riyadh like Washington has a strict no-negotiation policy.
``We don't negotiate with terrorists. We don't negotiate with hostage-takers,'' al-Jubeir said in an interview on CNN.
Al-Jubeir denounced the hostage-takers, but said it was premature to be able to verify any of the information on the video, saying, ``We can't simply go with what appears on Web sites.''
``It shows the cruel and inhumane face of the enemy we're dealing with,'' al-Jubeir said.
The statement on the Web site says the holy warriors of the Arabian peninsula's Fallujah Brigade has ``hit'' the engineering team that ``oversees the development of the American Apache helicopter that attacks Muslims in Palestine and Afghanistan.''
It says: ``The Fallujah Brigade has killed the director of this team and kidnapped one of its engineers, Paul Johnson, and if the tyrannical Saudi government wants their American master to be released, then they have to release our holy warriors that are held in Ha'ir, Ruweis and Alisha prisons within 72 hours of this statement's date or else we will sacrifice his blood to God in revenge for our Muslim brothers who have been liberally killed everywhere.''
The day Johnson was seized, Islamic militants shot dead another American, Kenneth Scroggs, from Laconia, N.H., in his garage. Scroggs was the third Westerner killed in a week, after the shooting death of an Irish cameraman for the British Broadcasting Corp. on June 6 and another American who was killed in his garage June 8.
Saudi security forces arrested a militant north of Riyadh on Tuesday as they stepped up their presence in and around the city in a hunt for Johnson's kidnappers.
The Web site statement addressed Muslims all over the world, saying: ``We have made a promise to ourselves to defend you. We will not let you down, and you should know that the treacherous tyrants who have helped the Americans against you, and shared your blood with them, do not represent the Muslims of Saudi Arabia. They are our enemies as much as they are your enemies. They are the enemies of God and his prophet.''
The militants have previously threatened to treat Johnson as U.S. troops treated Iraqi detainees, a reference to the month-old abuse controversy at Abu Ghraib prison.
Members of Johnson's family, through a police officer stationed outside their home in Little Egg Harbor Township, N.J., declined an offer by CNN to view the video before it was aired. They could not immediately be reached for comment.
On Monday, Johnson's son spoke to reporters about his father's love of Arabic culture. Paul Johnson III said his father once sent a copy of the Quran to his sister, with passages highlighted from the Islamic holy text that he felt were especially important.
``He felt he never had any fear for his safety and respects and honors their traditions and cultures,'' Johnson III said. ``Dad said many times he loved living in Saudi Arabia.''
Westerners in Saudi Arabia are responding to the attacks by moving to high-security compounds or even to Bahrain, and by pushing for the right to armed private guards, according to diplomats and real estate agents.
Western embassies in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, are negotiating with the government for a relaxation of the ban on private security guards carrying firearms, a Western diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - One of Islam's most-prominent religious institutions is seizing extremist books and pamphlets sold on Cairo streets, and has been granted the authority to confiscate materials deemed un-Islamic.
Egyptian rights activists worry authorities are creating a religious police force akin to Saudi Arabia's Committee for the Protection of Virtue and Prohibition of Vice that roams streets looking for violators of strict Islamic social norms.
Unlike the Saudi religious police, the roaming clerics in Cairo have a narrow mandate and do not have the power to make arrests, though they can report suspicious activity to police for further investigation.
A cleric with al-Azhar, the foremost theological institute in the mainstream Sunni sect of Islam, said Saturday that "secularists have nothing to fear from this decision.''
"I believe that this decision leans more toward targeting the fundamentalist religious movement,'' Abd el-Azim al-Mataani, a member of al-Azhar University's faculty, told The Associated Press. He said the aim appeared to curb extremist literature that leads to "so-called terrorism.''
The Muslim world has been under pressure since the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States to reign in extremist rhetoric that could incite terrorist acts.
Justice Minister Farouk Seif el-Nasr's decision last month to empower al-Azhar with search-and-seizure powers - something normally reserved for law enforcement - came in response to al-Azhar's long-standing desire for more authority to confront and confiscate material that violates Islam as well as extremist writings readily available on the streets but printed without official permission.
The independent daily newspaper Nahdet Masr reported Saturday that the first search conducted by clerics of al-Azhar's Islamic Research Academy was Thursday and involved searches of bookstores and publishing houses for religious material that had been circulated without permission.
Nahdet Masr said the clerics had confiscated a couple hundred illegitimate copies of the Quran and several Islamic tapes that had been released without al-Azhar's consent, as required by law in Egypt.
Police officials confirmed the search and confiscation but gave no further details. There was no answer Saturday at the academy.
Al-Azhar's influence among Sunni Muslims is considerable. Its decisions and religious edicts have far-reaching influence in the Muslim world and its clerics, called Azharis, are widely respected.
During the 1980s and 1990s, President Hosni Mubarak's government cracked down heavily on Egyptian militant groups, jailing thousands. A wave of fundamentalism in Egyptian society has led many to believe that al-Azhar, fearing marginalization by more radical interpretations of Islam, is seeking to appease extremists by cracking down on publications and behavior that is deemed un-Islamic.
Rights groups fear having al-Azhar take on a policing role could infringe on freedom of expression.
"A disaster" is how Hisham Kassem, head of the Egyptian Organization of Human Rights, described the decision. "We were shocked by this."
"We condemn this," Kassem said. "The lines are not clear.
We are fully against widening the search and seizure powers of al-Azhar."
Powers of search and seizure normally have been restricted to police and other branches of Egypt's security apparatus. Crackdowns regularly target items deemed sexually explicit or religiously unacceptable.
Aides to several Justice Ministry officials said nobody was available to comment on the issue.
Controversy over books or other publications is not unusual in Egypt, where the secular government, in a precarious balancing act, tries to satisfy a traditional, religiously conservative majority by portraying itself as no less Islamic than its critics.
Bloody confrontations erupted three years ago between protesting students and police when the government published a novel by a Syrian writer that was deemed blasphemous.
In 2001, three state-published novels were banned after coming under fire from Islamists in parliament for alleged indecency, and last month al-Azhar urged the Egyptian government to ban a novel by an outspoken feminist writer, saying it violates Islam.
"This is the beginnings of a religious police in Egypt,'' prominent journalist and writer Adel Hammouda told the AP.
"This is very, very dangerous,'' he warned. "It is a subjective power that gives the religious establishment an executive authority when it should only be consultative.''
Even having a permit to publish material will not be enough now, Hammouda said, adding that "they can now be judge, jury and executioner.''
06/05/04 11:42 EDT
KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Saudi security forces stormed an upscale expatriate housing complex where suspected Islamic militants holed up and took hostages after a shooting rampage on compounds housing oil company offices. The kingdom's de facto ruler said at least 10 people, including a child, were killed.
Saudi security forces stormed the waterfront Oasis complex to kill or capture the militants. The manager of a Saudi housing complex says militants still holding 50 hostages.
British and Filipino citizens and Saudi guards were reportedly among those killed, as well as a 10-year-old Egyptian boy whose father works for an oil company. There were reports the death toll could reach 15.
It was the second deadly assault this month targeting the oil industry in Saudi Arabia, and there were signs the militants might be linked to al-Qaida. Previous terror attacks in Saudi Arabia have been blamed on Osama bin Laden's network, which has vowed to undermine the Saudi kingdom for its close ties to the United States.
While oil supply and export facilities were unaffected, analysts said Saturday's attack could further raise oil prices, already driven to new highs partly by fears that Saudi Arabia - the world's largest oil producer - is unable to protect its oil industry from terrorists.
In Washington, a CIA spokesperson said the agency had no immediate information about the identity of the militants. But a Saudi security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the method of the attack was "definitely inspired by al-Qaida.''
Earlier, a statement on an Islamic Web site apparently referred to the attacks under the title, "A gift to al-Moqrin and his heroic brothers'' - a reference to AbdulAziz al-Moqrin, believed to lead al-Qaida operations on the Arabian Peninsula. The text was deleted, however, and it was unclear if the posting was a claim of responsibility.
Another Islamic Web site offered a link to "an early statement from holy warriors in the Arabian Peninsula about al-Khobar operation.'' That statement also was inaccessible.
The shooting rampage started Saturday morning in the city of Khobar, 250 miles northeast of Riyadh. Guards at the oil industry compounds said four gunmen in military-style dress opened fire and engaged in a shootout with Saudi security forces before fleeing up the street to the Oasis.
One of the oil industry compounds contains offices and apartments for the Arab Petroleum Investment Corporation, or Apicorp, and the other - the Petroleum Center building - houses offices of various international firms.
Journalists were turned away from the compounds and kept back from the Oasis, where hundreds of Saudi security forces were trying to capture or kill the militants. Saudi forces had fired shots inside the compound, officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
A civilian car had slammed into a sign outside the Apicorp compound, and there was a burned car at the entrance and glass shards on the ground. Witnesses earlier said at least 10 ambulances were outside the Oasis, and that hundreds of policemen had surrounded the complex with helicopters overhead.
In addition to Apicorp, oil industry companies with offices in the compounds include a joint venture among Royal Dutch/Shell Group, Total SA and Saudi Aramco; Lukoil Holdings of Russia; and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., or Sinopec.
The Egyptian boy who was killed was the son of an Apicorp employee, said Mahmoud Ouf, an Egyptian consular officer in Riyadh.
Egypt's Middle East News Agency quoted his father, Samir, as saying his son was on his way to school with other students. "The terrorists opened heavy fire on the car, killing Rami and setting fire to the car,'' his father said, adding that his daughter ran from the car uninjured.
Employees from the other companies were safe, Shell spokesman Simon Buerk and a Saudi oil industry official, Yahya Shinawi, told AP by telephone.
Other companies believed to be in the compounds included Schlumberger and INOVx, both based in Houston, and Aveva, of Cambridge, England. There was no immediate word on their employees.
The attack came as Saudi Arabia, OPEC's most powerful member, is urging the group to boost oil production to try to reduce the high cost of crude.
Peter Gignoux, a London-based oil adviser for GDP Associates in New York, said news of the attacks might trigger a further rise in oil prices but noted that oil facilities were unaffected.
Michael Rothman, chief energy strategist at Merrill Lynch in New York, also said there might be "a limited psychological reaction'' in oil markets but that the attack would not affect supply.
Official Saudi reports said only that "militants'' had "randomly opened fire'' at about 7:30 a.m. and killed and wounded an unspecified number of people. A statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency said security forces had surrounded the militants inside a building in the residential complex and that "they are currently being dealt with.''
The U.S. Embassy said one American was confirmed dead, and in Washington, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Joanne Moore said two Americans were wounded.
The British Foreign Office in London was investigating reports that a British citizen was killed. Philippines officials in Manila said they were checking unconfirmed reports that three Filipinos were among the dead.
Witnesses said the bodies of three men with Western features had been lying on the ground covered with newspapers until ambulances took them away.
The pan-Arab satellite television network Al-Arabiya showed the body of a man, apparently shot dead, in the driver's seat of a car and the burned-out frame of a sport utility vehicle. Bullet holes were visible in other vehicles, some with windows smashed and blood staining the seats.
Two security guards were believed to be dead, according to a Western diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Inside the Oasis compound, a police officer who identified himself only by his rank, a major, told AP there were no more hostages but that authorities had surrounded the gunmen and "are negotiating certain demands.''
Lebanon's ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Ahmed Chammat, told AP that five Lebanese hostages had been released. He did not know the nationalities of others who might have been taken captive.
Saudi Arabia launched a high-profile crackdown on terrorists after attacks on Riyadh housing compounds in 2003, and claims to have foiled dozens of terror plots in the kingdom.
The most recent attack targeted the offices of Houston-based ABB Lummus Global Inc. in the western city of Yanbu on May 1, killing six Westerners and a Saudi.
Saudi Arabia relies heavily on 6 million expatriate workers, including about 30,000 Americans, to run its oil industry and other sectors. The kingdom produces about 8 million barrels of oil a day.
Many expatriates decided to leave, at least temporarily, after the Yanbu attack. Then, U.S. Ambassador James C. Oberwetter advised Americans to leave the country - a move criticized by Saudi officials.
Posted: May 29, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Paul Sperry
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com
WASHINGTON – The California imam who helped convert an al-Qaida suspect to Islam headed a Muslim activist group under investigation here for possible financial ties to terrorist front groups.
Muzammil H. Siddiqi, former president of the Islamic Society of North America, ministered to a 25-year-old Muslim convert now the subject of an FBI manhunt.
Adam Gadahn allegedly traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan to train at al-Qaida camps following his conversion while attending the Islamic Society of Orange County in Garden Grove, Calif., in the late 1990s. Siddiqi is head of the mosque there.
Congress is reviewing the financial records of the Islamic Society of North America, or ISNA, as part of a post-9-11 investigation into alleged ties between tax-exempt Muslim organizations and terrorist groups.
Siddiqi served as president of ISNA from 1996 to 2000. He still serves on its board. ISNA did not return phone calls to its Indianapolis headquarters.
The Senate Finance Committee, which is heading the probe, earlier this year asked the IRS for tax records on ISNA – the nation's largest Islamic organization – to determine the source of the non-profit group's funding. Names of donors are redacted from public tax documents for privacy reasons.
It's suspected that many U.S.-based Muslim groups receive the bulk of their money from Saudi-based charities tied to al-Qaida and other terrorist groups.
Many also have been financially linked to Dallas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, the largest Muslim charity in the U.S., which was shut down after 9-11 for ties to the terrorist group Hamas. Its assets have been frozen.
ISNA and Holy Land Foundation shared a web portal before authorities raided the offices of the Muslim-owned web hosting company in 2001.
In a TV interview, Siddiqi said Gadahn did not discuss any plans to travel to Afghanistan with him when he attended his mosque in 1996 and 1997.
"Who knew about al-Qaida at that time?" he said. "We had no idea of anything like that."
Siddiqi, who was reared in Pakistani religious politics and studied Islam at a Saudi university, made a public appeal for his former pupil to turn himself in to authorities. Siddiqi held the press conference Thursday after FBI agents questioned him.
He told Gadahn he should not get involved with any group that advocates "terrorism." The thin, mild-mannered Siddiqi asserted in an interview that "Islam is the religion of peace."
According to "Silent No More: Confronting America's False Images of Islam" – a book on the Council on American-Islamic Relations' recommended reading list – Siddiqi is regarded as "one of the most respected Muslim leaders" in America.
In September 2001, President Bush invited him to lead a prayer during the 9-11 memorial at the Washington National Cathedral. He also read from the Quran.
ISNA's website says its mission is to "advance the cause of Islam and Muslims in North America." It lists training imams as its No. 1 goal.
But critics say ISNA is an extremist group disguised as a moderate group.
ISNA "enforces Wahhabi theological writ in the country's 1,200 officially recognized mosques," said terror expert Stephen Schwartz, author of "The Two Faces of Islam: Saudi Fundamentalism and Its Role in Terrorism." Wahhabism, a puritanical, anti-Western strain of Islam, is the official religion of the Saudi government. It's also practiced by Osama bin Laden.
Members of ISNA's board include controversial New York imam Siraj Wahaj, named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the federal case last decade against terrorist Omar Abdel Rahman, a.k.a. the Blind Sheikh.
Siddiqi and Wahaj spoke at the Islamic Circle of North America's 2001 convention in Cleveland together with Saudi Shaikh Abdur Rahman al-Sudais, senior imam at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, who has been quoted vilifying Jews as the "scum of humanity" and "the grandsons of monkeys and pigs." The three were scheduled to speak again in December at an Islamic conference in Kissimmee, Fla.
Siddiqi, who writes a weekly column for a Pakistani publication, has spoken at pro-Hezbollah and pro-Hamas rallies, and has supported an Islamic state in the U.S., while praising martyrdom for the Islamic cause, according to the SITE Institute, an anti-terror watchdog group.
On Oct. 28, 2000, Siddiqi issued a stern warning to America during an anti-Israel rally across from the White House. He and other Islamic leaders had organized the demonstration to protest America's pro-Israel policy and to support what they called just resistance to Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory.
"America has to learn," Siddiqi was quoted as saying, "if you remain on the side of injustice, the wrath of God will come. Please, all Americans. Do you remember that?"
Then he stressed: "If you continue doing injustice, and tolerate injustice, the wrath of God will come."
Abdurahman Alamoudi, the former American Muslim Council president arrested last year on terrorism-related charges, appeared with Siddiqi at the 2000 protest rally. And he proclaimed: "Hear that, Bill Clinton! We are all supporters of Hamas. I wish to add that I am also a supporter of Hezbollah."
ISNA's secretary-general, Sayyid M. Syeed, is the former director of academic outreach at the International Institute of Islamic Thought, a Northern Virginia think tank raided in 2002 by federal authorities on suspicion of terror-financing.
The book "Silent No More" describes Syeed, a native of Kashmir, as a "prominent mainstream Muslim."
The FBI fears al-Qaida is recruiting American converts like Gadahn to blend in to American society and not raise security suspicions before carrying out suicide attacks in America.
Agents are searching for Gadahn and six other al-Qaida suspects in an attempt to disrupt a possible al-Qaida plot to attack America again this summer
The police officer arrested five Christians in the early hours of Sunday 2 May in the village of Taha El Omadeen, El Minia. Sixty-four year old Father Ibrahim Mikhaeil and four others were charged with the unlawful construction of a church fence. Part of the fence had collapsed during a storm and the five men attempted to mend it as soon as possible, concerned that, given the opportunity, local officials would stall and possibly halt its rebuilding. Obstruction and the refusal to grant permits for church repairs is a recurring problem in Egypt.
The officer, named Ahmed Kelani, went to the church at 1 a.m. after a Muslim villager informed the police station of the efforts of the five men to repair the fence. The arrested men were bound and placed in the back of a rented vehicle. Officer Kelani ordered the vehicle’s driver to get out and took control of the truck himself. As the vehicle approached the brink of the Ibrahimiya Canal, Kelani jumped out.
Father Mikhaeil and two other Christians (Mahrous and Nasef) were killed, while the other two remain in a critical condition in hospital. Abuse of Christians by local police officers is not uncommon, but the shocking news of these killings has caused an uproar among the local Christian community. The Egyptian media have reported the event as an accident but Christian sources confirm that it was deliberately arranged.
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| CNN The man in the video identified himself as Nick Berg. |
BAGHDAD, Iraq (May 11) -- A video posted Tuesday on an Islamic militant Web site showed the beheading of an American civilian in Iraq, and said the execution was carried out by an al-Qaida affiliated group to avenge the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers.
The video showed five men wearing headscarves and black ski masks, standing over a bound man in an orange jumpsuit - similar to a prisoner's uniform - who identified himself as Nick Berg, a U.S. contractor whose body was found on a highway overpass in Baghdad on Saturday.
''My name is Nick Berg, my father's name is Michael, my mother's name is Susan,'' the man said on the video. ''I have a brother and sister, David and Sarah. I live in ... Philadelphia.''
After reading a statement, the men were seen pulling the man to his side and putting a large knife to his neck. A scream sounded as the men cut his head off, shouting ''Allahu Akbar!'' - ''God is great.'' They then held the head out before the camera.
ANKARA, Turkey - Ignoring the pleas of
his 14-year-old daughter to spare her life, Mehmet Halitogullari pulled on a wire
wrapped around her neck and strangled her - supposedly to restore the family's
honor after she was kidnapped and raped.
Nuran Halitogullari, buried Thursday in a ceremony attended by women's rights
advocates, is the latest victim in a long history of so-called "honor"
killings, which Turkey's government is struggling to curb.
Each year, dozens of girls are killed in Turkey by their relatives for allegedly
disgracing their families - some for merely being seen speaking to men. The practice
is especially common in the more traditional southeast and among families who
have migrated to big cities from the region.
Honor killings also occur in Pakistan and some countries of the Middle East and
among immigrant families in European Union countries like Britain and Sweden.
The EU, which Turkey aspires to join, is pressing the country to take steps to
curb a practice it says violates women's rights.
Parliament last year voted to raise the punishment for such crimes to as long
as 24 years in prison. But a loophole allows relatives to escape with sentences
as light as eight years if they can prove they were "provoked" into
committing the crime.
Europe wants loophole shut
European countries want Turkey to ensure that family members cannot benefit from
the loophole.
"No reductions should be made and everyone should know that such crimes will
be punished and that no one can escape," Sweden's ambassador to Turkey, Anne
Dismorr, said in an interview with the weekly Nokta magazine. "In our view
the main cause behind the honor killings is the fact that honor is regarded as
grounds for reduced sentences."
Turkey has embarked on a major overhaul of its penal code and is expected to rectify
the loophole, but the draft code is weeks away from being endorsed. Some politicians
on Thursday called on the government to immediately bring the issue to parliament.
Lawyer Senal Saruhan, a women's-rights advocate, fears the draft may not go far
enough. She insists that family members who incite or encourage the killings should
also be punished.
"Unless we bring severe punishments, we will never stop these killings,"
she said.
Guldal Aksit, the minister in charge of women's issues, added that attitudes are
what really need to be addressed to stop the practice. "These are not problems
that we can solve on paper by changing laws. … We need to educate society,"
she said.
Suicides may be murders
Women's groups believe that a number of suicides among young women in the southeast
are actually murders by relatives who believe they are saving the family honor.
Often the youngest member of the family is forced to carry out the killings in
the belief that a youth would get a less-stringent punishment.
On Wednesday, authorities charged two brothers with murder after they shot their
22-year-old sister in the head in her hospital bed, where she was recovering from
an earlier attack by them. The woman had had a child out of wedlock.
In the latest case, newspapers said Halitogullari was abducted in Istanbul on
her way back from a supermarket and raped over six days. She was rescued by police
and returned to her family.
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Sudan is waging a bloody campaign of "ethnic cleansing'' in the western Darfur region, killing thousands of people and driving more than 1 million more from their homes by bombing villages, shooting men and raping women, a prominent human rights group said Friday.
Human Rights Watch, based in New York, called on the U.N. Security Council, scheduled to meet Friday on the Darfur situation, to step in to help stop the bloodshed and look for evidence of crimes against humanity.
The rights group likened the situation in Darfur to the beginning of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, when 500,000 people were slaughtered by a government-backed, extremist militia. The international community has been widely criticized for not intervening to stop the bloodshed.
"Ten years after the Rwandan genocide and despite years of soul-searching, the response of the international community to the events in Sudan has been nothing short of shameful,'' Human Rights Watch said in its 77-page report.
The rights group, drawing on a visit to the region by researchers in March and April, described a pattern of violence by government forces and militiamen, known as janjaweed, made up of nomads who often sweep into villages riding camels and horses.
Human rights groups said the two forces - the Arab-dominated government and the Arab militia - set out last year on a deliberate campaign to drive black African tribes from the Darfur region.
"Together, the government and Arab janjaweed militias targeted the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa (ethnic groups) through a combination of indiscriminate and deliberate aerial bombardment, denial of access to humanitarian assistance, and scorched-earth tactics that displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians,'' the group said.
Sudan's government has denied supporting the janjaweed militia, which it said is defending itself against autonomy-seeking rebels. Ahmed al-Mufti, the head of Sudan's government human rights organization in Khartoum, said Thursday he would not comment on the Human Rights Watch report.
But Human Rights Watch said the government not only supports the janjaweed - providing salaries, ammunition and satellite telephones - but actually created it.
"They organized them and built them up to what they are today,'' said Jemera Rome, a Sudan researcher for Human Rights Watch reached by telephone in London. "The janjaweed have offices in the capitals of the three states of Darfur.''
In its report, Human Rights Watch added: "Janjaweed always outnumber government soldiers, but arrive with them and leave with them. It is not clear which force is the commanding force. It is clear that the Janjaweed are not restrained, in any way, by the uniformed government forces who accompany them in army cars and trucks.''
The report chronicled attacks on 14 villages in one area between September and February that it said killed 770 civilians, although it presented the attacks as examples, saying many more occurred in the same period. All involved coordinated assaults by the government and janjaweed.
It described men on horseback killing 82 men, women and children in a mosque; a militiaman using racial slurs to insult a 3-year-old boy, then shooting him point-blank; and janjaweed raping a group of 13 women.
The violence has sent more than 1 million people fleeing, according to the United Nations, and about 110,000 have crossed the border into Chad, although it is difficult to know the exact number.
"People are scattered along this massive strip 370 miles long. It's a race against time to move them before the rains set in,'' in about 10 days, said Peter Kessler, spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency, speaking in a telephone interview from Geneva.
After that, he said, "it will be impossible to get aid to them.''
The Darfur crisis comes as Sudan moves closer to a delicate, internationally brokered peace in a 21-year civil war that broadly pits the Muslim north against the Christian and animist south. More than 2 million people have died in the war. Darfur is almost completely Muslim.
On the Net:
05/06/04 22:25 EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal prison officials are failing to adequately screen Muslim chaplains and others who provide Islamic religious services to inmates to determine whether they hold extremist views, Justice Department investigators say.
A report by Justice Department inspector general Glenn A. Fine also found Muslim contractors and volunteers have ample opportunity "to deliver inappropriate and extremist messages,'' which could lead to terrorist recruitment, inside federal prisons because they lack proper supervision.
Muslim inmates themselves sometimes lead Islamic services in prisons, another potential source of terror recruitment and dissemination of extremist doctrine, according to the report obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press. Formal release was set for Wednesday.
"Religious providers are in a unique position to influence the beliefs and conduct of inmates,'' the report said. "The presence of extremist chaplains, contractors or volunteers ... can pose a threat to institutional security and could implicate national security if inmates are encouraged to commit terrorist acts.''
About 9,000 of the estimated 150,000 federal prison inmates identify themselves as Muslim. Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the FBI has been concerned that al-Qaida and other terror groups might use prisons to radicalize inmates and recruit operatives in the United States.
The 10 full-time Muslim chaplains at federal prisons told Justice Department investigators they had not witnessed any such attempts. Besides these chaplains, there are dozens of Islamic contractors and volunteers who provide religious services to inmates.
The Muslim chaplains, according to the review, "stated that some inmates are radicalized in prison by other inmates.''
Richard Reid, convicted of attempting to blow up an airliner with a shoe bomb, converted to Islam while in a British prison. Jose Padilla, being held as an enemy combatant on allegations he was plotting to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb'' in the United States, is believed to have turned to radical Islam while jailed in Broward County, Fla., the report says.
The Pentagon last year charged a Muslim chaplain, Army Capt. James Yee, with espionage for allegedly trying to take classified material into the military's detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Those charges were dropped and Yee was cleared of any wrongdoing in April, when a military judge overturned an adultery and pornography reprimand against him.
The Muslim chaplains, contractors and volunteers in federal prisons all undergo criminal background checks. The chaplains and contractors also must pass a drug-screening urinalysis.
But prison officials told investigators they did not ask these providers any questions about their Islamic doctrine because to do so might violate the Constitution.
The Justice Department review, however, said prison officials should be able to determine if a Muslim religious official subscribes to a doctrine espousing violence, anti-American activities or discrimination.
The report makes a number of other recommendations, including tighter supervision by prison officials of chapel services and control of religious materials, more staff training about Islam and increased hiring of chaplains and other religious providers based on referrals by local or regional Muslim organizations.
The Bureau of Prisons has made "significant improvements'' in many of these areas since the review began in March 2003, the report says. Bureau officials did not immediately return a call seeking comment Tuesday.
The review was prompted by concerns raised by several senators, including Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., that prison officials brought in Muslim religious providers from organizations that may have ties to extreme forms of Islam.
The Bureau of Prisons until recently accepted endorsements for chaplains and other providers from the Islamic Society of North America. Now it has no national group to use for endorsements, which has effectively frozen hiring of Muslim service providers.
The report drew no conclusions about allegations of terrorism-related connections by ISNA or other groups. But a classified version of the review includes an FBI assessment about individuals and groups with such links.
On the Net:
Justice Department inspector general: http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/
Bureau of Prisons: http://www.bop.gov/
05/04/04 21:45 EDT
PARIS (AP) - They have lived largely unnoticed for years, isolated from the French mainstream by language and religion. Now these imams, accused of preaching a radical brand of Islam, are being tracked, investigated and in some cases expelled.
Taking the lead in a budding get-tough trend among some European governments, France has expelled at least two imams, or prayer leaders, since January, calling them a public danger. It is threatening to expel two more, and a fifth is under arrest.
Critics say the aggressive policy could do more harm than good, but France isn't alone. Italy deported an imam from Senegal in November, deeming him a "danger to state security.'' He had warned that Italian soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan risked attack. Days later 19 Italians in Iraq were killed.
Britain jailed an imam from Jamaica for nine years in March 2003 for urging followers to kill Hindus, Jews and Americans. It is now trying to deport another high-profile cleric, Abu Hamza al-Masri, accusing him of advising and supporting terrorist groups, including al-Qaida.
Spain, where 191 people died in the March 11 railroad bombings, is considering a law empowering authorities to monitor imams.
But France has set a policy of actively going after imams whose discourse veers into a defense of violence or espouses values counter to democracy or human rights.
Radical imams "are a natural bridge toward violence, that is, toward terrorism,'' said Stephane Berthomet, a former anti-terrorism investigator with the Interior Ministry. They also are a "social danger,'' he said, because "they reject the French system.''
But it's not so simple. European civil rights laws don't always lend themselves to swift expulsion, as Britain has learned in dealing with al-Masri. It revoked his citizenship five months ago, calling him a threat to the country's interests, but he appealed to a special immigration tribunal and a ruling is likely to take months.
Abdelkader Bouziane, one of two imams expelled from France last month, quickly won a court ruling allowing him to return.
The Algerian, who has 16 children from two wives, advocated violence in his sermons, the Interior Ministry said. French media had quoted him as saying he favors wife-beating and stoning of women.
On Saturday, police detained a Turkish imam at a Paris mosque who allegedly headed an extremist movement that advocates violence and terrorism. Midhat Guler, 45, immediately applied for political asylum.
Guler has lived in France for 28 years and has five children. He has directed the mosque since 1984, his son, Abdurrahman Guler, told French television.
Lhaj Thami Breze, president of the powerful Union of Islamic Organizations of France, which is considered close to Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, said the expulsions are excessive and the fanfare is unwise.
"This feeds the fear in the Muslim community that it, once again, is being singled out,'' Breze said in a telephone interview. "It gives the impression that France is persecuting Muslims.''
On the other hand, the rector of the Paris Mosque approved.
"We have to work hand in hand ... so that the function of the imam, the status of the imam in France, is above any suspicion,'' Dalil Boubakeur said Monday.
France, whose Muslim community of 5 million is western Europe's largest, wants an "Islam of France'' to emerge that reflects the country's values.
The concern has been heightened by a growing realization that a generation of poor, marginalized Muslim youths is growing up alienated from French mainstream society and schooling. These youths are widely blamed for a wave of anti-Semitic violence in France.
The imams themselves reflect the problem of alienation. Most of the 1,500 in France come from abroad and fewer than half speak French.
The isolation of Muslim youths makes them particularly vulnerable to radical preachings, said Berthomet, the former anti-terrorism officer.
"These radicals penetrate some suburbs more easily than social workers or police,'' he said.
05/03/04 19:29 EDT
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - An Iranian court reimposed a death sentence Monday against a university professor who criticized clerical rule, a judicial official told The Associated Press.
The original sentence handed down to Hashem Aghajari in November 2002 provoked the biggest student demonstrations in years.
The Supreme Court lifted the death sentence in February 2003, but it was reinstated by a court in the western province of Hamedan after a review of the case, the province's chief judiciary official, Zekrollah Ahmadi, said.
The case was seen as part of Iran's power struggle between reformists who support President Mohammad Khatami and hard-liners who defend a strict interpretation of Islam.
Earlier Monday, Khatami criticized the judge who issued the initial death sentence against Aghajari, saying the professor had done more for the country than "that inexperienced judge who unjustly accused him of apostasy.''
Aghajari's lawyer, Saleh Nikbakht, told the AP on Monday: "The sentence is not final.'' He did not elaborate.
A history professor at a Tehran teachers' college, Aghajari was convicted in 2002 of insulting Islam and questioning the rule of hard-line clerics. He was banned from teaching for 10 years, exiled for eight years to three remote cities, and sentenced to 74 lashes and eventual death.
The sentence sparked violent protests at Tehran University, and the demonstrations later spread to major campuses around the country.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, succeeded in calming the situation by taking the rare step of ordering the judiciary to reconsider the verdict.
The Supreme Court overturned the sentence, saying the charges were inconsistent with what Aghajari had said in the speech that triggered his prosecution.
Aghajari is currently serving a four-year term in Tehran's Evin prison.
05/03/04 13:55 EDT
(AgapePress) - A small Michigan community located completely within the confines of Detroit is expected to give final passage tonight to an ordinance that would allow mosques to broadcast Islamic calls for prayer over loudspeakers. But some local residents are hoping to derail the ordinance.
Last week, the Hamtramck City Council gave a unanimous stamp of approval to the first reading of the ordinance -- and tonight's approval of the final reading appears inevitable. The Al-Islah Islamic Center wants to air the Arabic call to prayer via loudspeakers five times a day, but has agreed not to air them between 10:00 at night and 6:00 in the morning. If approved, the ordinance would take effect on May 26. (See Earlier Article)
But one Hamtramck resident has some concerns. Bob Golen is convinced his community is just the beginning. "One of their religious leaders from the Al-Islah Islamic Center states, 'Hamtramck is going to be a pioneer city for the whole United States.' So apparently there is going to be a movement afoot to get that call to prayer everywhere," Golen says.
According to Golen, if the city council approves the new ordinance, opponents will have to obtain 568 signatures to force an August referendum. He believes there are enough votes to overturn the ordinance, despite Hamtramck's large Muslim population, which constitutes about one-third of the local citizenry.
"Although there are that many Muslims, not all of them are citizens," Golen adds. "And I think we still, as Christians, outnumber them in eligible voters."
Golen says the only other option would be to file a federal lawsuit.
PARIS (AP) - An Algerian-born Muslim cleric who said wife-beating was justified in cases of adultery has been detained and will be expelled from France, the Interior Ministry said Tuesday.
The announcement about Chirane Abdelkader Bouziane, an imam in the Lyon suburb of Venissieux, came after France deported another Algerian-born imam who was accused of preaching radical Islam.
Bouziane was detained hours after Justice Minister Dominique Perben said he may have to answer for his remarks.
"The government cannot tolerate remarks in public that are contrary to human rights, detrimental to human dignity and in particular to the dignity of women, (or) calls of hate, violence or defense of terrorism,'' the ministry said in a statement.
In the April edition of the magazine Lyon Mag, Bouziane said he favors wife-beating "under certain conditions, notably if the woman cheats on her husband.'' He claimed the Quran, the Muslim holy book, authorizes such punishment - an interpretation rejected by moderate Muslims.
Bouziane also said a woman should not work alongside a man because "she could be tempted by adultery,'' according to Lyon Mag.
In its effort to fight the spread of Muslim fundamentalism, France has been cracking down on imams who preach violence or values that run counter to the mainstream.
On Thursday, France deported Algerian-born imam Abdelkader Yahia Cherif for allegedly preaching radical Islam at a mosque in the Atlantic coastal city of Brest.
The Interior Ministry said he gave a sermon last month that urged jihad, or holy war, and expressed support for the March 11 railway bombings in Madrid, Spain, that killed 191 people.
The Interior Ministry statement said Bouziane had been placed on an expulsion list on Feb. 26 for disturbing public order and that officials had now decided to speed up the case, the ministry said.
Also this year, France passed a law passed a ban on Islamic head scarves in public schools despite protests at home and abroad that it was discriminatory.
President Jacques Chirac said the law was needed to protect the principle of separation of church and state to stop the spread of Muslim fundamentalism in France.
The law forbids religious apparel and signs that "conspicuously show'' a student's religious affiliation - Jewish skullcaps and large Christian crosses. However, authorities made clear it was aimed at removing Islamic head scarves from classrooms.
Debate over head scarves divided France since 1989, when two young girls were expelled from their school in Creil, outside Paris, for wearing the head coverings.
04/20/04 18:37 EDT
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - A man identifying himself as Osama bin Laden offered a "truce'' to European countries that do not attack Muslims, saying it would begin when their soldiers leave Islamic nations, according to a recording broadcast Thursday on Arab satellite networks.
Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain quickly spurned what appeared to be an attempt to drive a wedge between Europe and America.
The tape, which ran in full at more than seven minutes, also vowed revenge against America for the Israeli assassination of Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin and denounced the United States as using the Iraq war for corporate profiteering.
"I announce a truce with the European countries that do not attack Muslim countries,'' the taped message said as the stations showed an old, still picture of al-Qaida leader.
The message said "the door to a truce is open for three months,'' but the time frame could be extended. "The truce will begin when the last soldier leaves our countries,'' the speaker said without elaborating.
A CIA official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the agency conducted a technical analysis of the recording and concluded it is probably authentic. The official said the tape was likely recorded in the past several weeks because of its reference to Israel's killing of Yassin last month.
The tape made clear overtures to Europeans, calling them "our neighbors north of the Mediterranean,'' and tried to drive a wedge between Europe and the United States.
Several audio and videotapes of al-Qaida's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, have been released in recent months, but Thursday's tape was the first purportedly from bin Laden since September. Then, a videotape showed bin Laden climbing down a craggy mountainside with al-Zawahri.
Ayman Gaballah, editor of Al-Arabiya, said only that the pan-Arab television network received the tape from "our sources.'' He would not say if the tape was received at its headquarters in the United Arab Emirates or in a bureau elsewhere, such as Pakistan or Afghanistan.
"From the voice, it seems it is bin Laden, but we are not experts to confirm it,'' Gaballah said.
Al-Jazeera, a Qatar-based satellite station, also aired the tape in full. Its chief editor wasn't available for comment.
Sen. Joseph Biden, senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on NBC's "Today'' show that bin Laden was "trying to separate us from the Europeans, and Europeans from the U.S. It's an example of how opportunistic he is.''
Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., expressed skepticism about the offer made on the tape.
"You cannot negotiate with terrorists, especially someone like Osama bin Laden,'' Shelby told "Today.''
In London, the Foreign Office ruled out any deal with al-Qaida.
"Their attacks are against the very idea of co-existence,'' the Foreign Office said. "The right response is to continue to confront terrorism, not give in to its demands.''
A British opposition spokesman said the purported truce offered was a sign that the al-Qaida network is rattled.
"It is obviously an attempt by al-Qaida or the associates of al-Qaida, to try and drive a wedge between the coalition,'' said Michael Ancram, foreign affairs spokesman for the opposition Conservative Party.
"They are frightened about the effectiveness of the coalition,'' Ancram said in an interview with British Broadcasting Corp. radio.
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said in Rome that "it's unthinkable that we may open a negotiation with bin Laden, everybody understands this.''
Germany is a leading contributor to the international peacekeeping force in Afghanistan. It opposed the Iraq war but is now helping train Iraqi police.
A German government spokesman said: "There can be no negotiations with terrorists and serious criminals like Osama bin Laden.''
The voice on the tape defended al-Qaida's methods.
"They say that we kill for the sake of killing, but reality shows that they lie,'' the speaker said.
Russians, he said, were only killed after attacking Afghanistan in the 1980s and Chechnya, Europeans after invading Iraq and Afghanistan and the Americans in New York after "supporting the Jews in Palestine and their invasion of the Arabian Peninsula.''
"Stop spilling our blood so we can stop spilling your blood,'' the message added. "This is a difficult but easy equation.''
This truce, the message said, was to deny "the warmongers'' further opportunities and because polls have shown that "most of the European peoples want reconciliation'' with the Islamic world.
Germany rejected that notion.
"The international community must pursue the fight against international terrorism together,'' a government spokesman said on customary condition of anonymity. "Germany will continue to make its contribution.''
In a reference to terror attacks on the United States and Spain, the voice on the tape said that "what happened on Sept. 11 and March 11 was your goods delivered back to you.''
"Security is a need for all humans and we could not let you have a monopoly on it for yourselves,'' the voice added. "People who are aware would not let their politicians jeopardize their security.''
At the start of the recording, the voice called this a "message to our neighbors north of the Mediterranean, including a reconciliation initiative in response to the recent positive developments that have appeared.''
It did not give any specifics, but the March 11 attacks in Madrid that killed 191 people and increasing violence in Iraq have prompted debate in Europe and Asia about keeping troops there.
Spain's outgoing Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's government, which strongly backed the U.S.-led war in Iraq despite popular and political opposition, was ousted in general elections three days after the attacks in Spain.
Incoming Socialist leader Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has pledged to withdraw Spain's 1,300 troops from Iraq by June 30 unless the United Nations takes control.
However, his incoming government rejected the offer of a truce with al-Qaida. Spain's incoming foreign minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos, speaking at his nation's parliament, said: "What we want is peace, democracy and freedom. We don't have to listen to or answer'' the tape.
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) wrote to President George Bush last week urging him to impress upon Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak the need for his government to implement directly democratic and human rights reforms, including enhancing protections for the right to freedom of religion or belief and ceasing messages of hatred in the educational curricula and government-controlled media.
The Commission continues to include Egypt on its Watch List because the government has failed to take effective steps to halt repression of and violence against religious believers, or, in many cases, to punish those responsible for severe violations of religious freedom. The Commission has found that serious problems of discrimination against a number of minority religious groups, particularly Christians, Jews, and Baha’is, and various Muslim groups are widespread in Egypt.
The text of the letter follows:
Dear Mr. President:
On behalf of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, I urge you to impress upon Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak, during your meetings on April 12 in Crawford, Texas, the need for his government to implement directly democratic and human rights reforms. These reforms, some of which President Mubarak’s government has already identified, should include enhancing protections for the right to freedom of religion or belief. The government should also cease messages of hatred, intolerance, or incitement to violence against non-Muslim religious groups in the educational curricula and textbooks, as well as in government-controlled media.
Mr. President, in your landmark speech in November 2003 commemorating 20 years of the National Endowment for Democracy, you fittingly spoke of the role Egypt can play in the region: “The great and proud nation of Egypt…now should show the way toward democracy in the Middle East.”
Egypt is the second largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid, yet the pace of democratic and human rights reforms by President Mubarak’s government has been very slow. If reform efforts in Egypt are to make meaningful progress, the U.S. government must continue to press President Mubarak and senior members of his government to uphold Egypt’s international human rights commitments to protect the right to freedom of religion and to ensure human rights and the rule of law in criminal proceedings.
The Commission continues to include Egypt on its Watch List because the government has failed to take effective steps to halt repression of and violence against religious believers, or, in many cases, to punish those responsible for severe violations of religious freedom. The Commission has found that serious problems of discrimination against a number of minority religious groups – particularly Christians, Jews, and Baha’is – and various Muslim groups are widespread in Egypt.
Those responsible for the killings of 20 Coptic Christians and one Muslim in Al-Kosheh in December 1999 have not yet been brought to justice. Islamists who believe in or seek to establish an Islamic state in Egypt based on their interpretation of Islamic law, face extra-legal harassment, torture, and prolonged detention. The scope of the Egyptian government’s campaign against Islamists sometimes results in the arrests of those not affiliated with any group and not accused of perpetrating violence.
Egyptian authorities also have been accused of being lax in protecting Christian lives and property, and permission must still be sought from the government to build or repair a church, which results in a time consuming and inflexible approval process. Members of other religious minorities, including Jews and Baha’is, face discrimination and even violence, as well as material vilifying both groups that appears frequently in the state-controlled and semi-official media. All Baha’i institutions and community activities continue to be banned by the government.
We hope that you use this opportunity to engage President Mubarak in serious discussions of religious freedom in Egypt.
Thank you, Mr. President, for considering the Commission’s views.
Sincerely,
Michael K. Young
Chair
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom was created by the
International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to give independent recommendations
to the executive branch and the Congress.
Dean Michael K. Young, Chair * Felice D. Gaer, Vice Chair * Nina
Shea, Vice Chair * Preeta D. Bansal * Patti Chang * Archbishop Charles J. Chaput
* Khaled Abou El Fadl * Richard Land * Bishop Ricardo Ramirez * Ambassador John
V. Hanford III, Ex-Officio * Joseph R. Crapa, Executive Director
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
800 NORTH CAPITOL STREET, NW, SUITE 790 | WASHINGTON, DC 20002
| 202-523-3240 | 202-523-5020 (FAX)
ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) - A conference on democracy in the Islamic world opened Tuesday with warnings from Turkey and Jordan that political reforms must not be imposed by outside powers, like the United States.
Representatives from the two key U.S. Middle Eastern allies said political and social reforms were needed in the Islamic world.
But "a one-blueprint-for-all action plan is unrealistic,'' said Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher at the opening of The Congress of Democrats from the Islamic World.
The congress comes as the United States pushes for reforms in the Middle East. Also under debate is the role of religion in political life in Islamic nations and concerns about the prospects for democracy in countries including Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Saudi Arabia.
One American plan - President Bush's Greater Middle East Initiative - is intended to encourage countries in the region to promote democracy and human rights and to upgrade schools.
The plan has not been officially released. But Tuesday it was already sparking complaints that America was once again interfering in the region and seeking to import Western ideas.
Muasher criticized the plan, dismissing the concept of a "Greater Middle East'' - "countries are lumped together for sometimes no other reason other than their common religion is Islam,'' he said.
Middle Eastern countries need to find their own ways to promote greater freedoms, women's rights, and education reform, Muasher said.
Otherwise, "opponents of political and social reform will conveniently label reform efforts as a mere implementation of a Western agenda,'' he said. "We, together as Muslims, have to come out with a collective blueprint for reform and democratic transformation acquiescent to our religious and cultural values.''
Cemil Cicek, Turkey's justice minister, criticized those who link terrorism with Islam and said conflicts, like the one Iraq, should be quickly ended so as not to give "reasons for terrorism.''
"Blood and tears, the smell of gunpowder and sound of bullets drown out the sound of democracy,'' he told the dozens of delegates from countries as far afield as Sierra Leone and Indonesia.
The meeting is sponsored by the U.N. Development Program and the Washington-based National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, which is headed by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who is attending.
"It was a conscious choice to hold this meeting in Turkey,'' said Abdel Karim al-Iryani, a former prime minister of Yemen, who is attending the congress. "The (Turkish) Islamic movement embraced the secular state. This new experience in Turkey is a model for all Muslim countries.''
But not everyone is convinced. Critics point out that the Justice and Development Party was founded by former members of a banned pro-Islamic party. They also say the United States enjoyed warmer ties with previous governments that stuck to hardline secularism.
Since winning elections in 2002, the Justice party has broadened freedom of expression, trimmed the military's influence in politics, and worked to improve Turkey's much criticized human rights record. The party says it does not have an Islamic agenda and its main goal is to further Turkey's aim of European Union membership.
At the same time, the Justice party has portrayed itself as an inspiration for the other Muslim countries.
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