Monday, May 21, 2007

Police Needed Because Wahhabi Are Growing Stronger

From Javno.hr

Since Wahhabism is gaining ground in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republika Srpska cannot survive without police, President Milorad Dodik of the Republika Srpska (RS) said today. “We in RS, in the atmosphere of Wahhabism rapidly growing stronger and constant fear that there are people walking in the world who are ready for terrorist attacks which are being trained in Bosnia and Herzegovina, cannot remain without our own police,” said Dodik, adding that he was spreading word to everyone that “there is no such potential nor registered groups in RS, unless they get sent from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina for terrorist campaigns.”

Shadowy militants new threat to Lebanon

From Zeina Karam at Associated Press

The shadowy militant group Fatah Islam, whose leader has been linked to al-Qaida in Iraq, has quickly emerged as the latest security threat to Lebanon ... Lebanese security officials said Fatah Islam has up to 100 members who come from Arab countries including Saudi Arabia and Syria as well as local sympathizers who belong to the conservative Salafi branch of Islam. The Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. TV station reported that among the militants killed Sunday were men from Bangladesh, Yemen and other Arab countries.

Fear grows in a cauldron of radical Islam

From Mark MacKinnon of the Globe and Mail (Cabada)

Though experts disagree on how strong the ties are between the groups behind the attacks in Morocco and a recent spate of bombings in neighbouring Algeria, there is little question that the al-Qaeda network has established itself more firmly than ever before in North Africa ... “I don't consider the new organization as a simple change of name. We're facing a new group that wants to unite all the Salafis and jihadis of the Maghreb,” said Mohammed Darif, an expert on Islamic movements at King Hassan II University in the city of Mohammedia. Salafis are followers of a fundamentalist strain of Islam that began in Saudi Arabia and whose followers often use violence in their pursuit of a pure Islamic world.

Animal Farm Islam

From Irfan Yusuf of alt.muslim

It's one thing to regard Wahhabi Islam as heterodox. It's quite another to use one's sectarian prejudice as the basis for publicly throwing mud at others. And it's absolutely nuts to take advantage of the understandable fears of the broader community by pointing the finger at one's former allies and scream "extremist" and "terrorist". It may well be that the Canberra imam, Mr. Mohammed Swaiti, is preaching extremism. I'd be concerned if he relied on the Hilali/Khan translation of the Qur'an. But apart from the imam being potentially on the Saudi payroll, what evidence is there that he is in fact an extremist?

Trenton mosque sues to have leader ousted

From Associated Press

The suit, filed by the International Muslim Brotherhood Inc., the Trenton mosque's owner, as well as three founding members, claims that Imam Sabur Abdul Hakim has recently adopted stricter views of Islam and is planning to beam in lectures by satellite from a conservative sect in Saudi Arabia ... In 2004, Hakim decided that he alone would decide who gave the Friday sermon, the suit alleges, and it's usually a person who follows a strict doctrine associated with the Wahhabi movement in Saudi Arabia.

What do Muslims THINK?

From Amir Taheri and The Dallas Morning News

To the extent that Muslim societies have become radicalized in recent years and if still further radicalization is to be expected, then public diplomacy will not be able to accomplish much and a civilizational clash looms. Just a dozen years ago, virtually no one debated this question. Despite the radicalizing influence of the Iranian Revolution and the Wahhabi proselytizing of an inexhaustibly wealthy Saudi Arabia, knowledgeable observers would have dismissed the possibility that radicals would ever make up a majority within the Muslim world. Now there is a plausible argument otherwise.

Salman al Oudah: I reject the Wahhabi label

From Turki Al-Saheil of Asharq Al-Awsat (Saudi Arabia)

Islamic preacher and the General Supervisor of Islam Today, was banned recently from entering Switzerland by the Swiss authorities. Al-Oudah spoke to Asharq Al Awsat about the case. ... Al Oudah accused what many know as "extremist Zionist forces" of involvement in preparing the false report. He called the report “a lie that should not be believed.” The Swiss Ministry of Justice identified al Oudah as a "Wahhabi, a fundamentalist and a close associate of Osama bin Laden." Al Oudah responded to such accusations saying, “Since when has Wahhabism become a charge that is punishable by law?