'It's like a Nazi camp': Hicks

Accused terrorist David Hicks has told his lawyers that conditions at Guantanamo Bay, where he has been held for five years, are "like a Nazi concentration camp".

...Hicks has been detained by the US military without trial since he was captured with Taliban forces in Afghanistan in December 2001.

He was sent to Guantanamo Bay the following month.

"He continues to be locked up 22 hours a day," Mr McLeod said.

"He has seen the sun three times since he has been at Camp Six in early December.

"He has no privacy whatsoever in Camp Six - his toilet paper is rationed, he hasn't been able to comb his hair since going there because he's not provided with a comb or brush.

"The guards can see into his cell 24 hours a day.

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Canada 'sorry' for citizen's ordeal

Canada has apologised to a software engineer and paid him $8.9m in compensation after he was deported to Syria by US agents because Canadian police had mistakenly said he was an Islamic extremist.

...He has said he was repeatedly tortured during the year he spent in detention in Damascus, the Syrian capital...

The deportation has strained diplomatic relations between the USA and Canada.

Stephen Harper, the Canadian prime minister, once again urged Washington to remove Arar from its security watch list as he announced the settlement on Friday.

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Jewish leaders welcome new $8 million Islamic studies centre

...Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) president Grahame Leonard said the initiative, which has the backing of the Federal Government “has objectives we very much applaud”.

The National Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies, which will receive $8 million in funding from the Federal Government, will be a shared resource of the University of Melbourne, Brisbane’s Griffith University and the University of Western Sydney.

Leonard said the appointment of Professor Abdullah Saeed, an acclaimed Islamic educator at the University of Melbourne, as the centre’s director “is comforting and a good appointment ... we have had dealings with him and find him to be a moderate”.

...“If the centre allows non-Islamic people to learn about Islam and allows young Muslims to learn about their religion and culture, it can become a counterpoint to extremism.”...


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EU training of Imams & European values

...Wolfgang Schaeuble suggested that the EU should promote the training of imams to encourage Muslim leaders who were comfortable with European values.

He compared parts of the Islamic world to pre-Enlightenment Europe, and criticised both the burka veil and traditional Muslim attitudes to women.

He pledged to use his country's EU presidency to promote integration.

He wanted training for imams that could "strengthen those who can live with the European rule of law, universal rights and the achievements of the Enlightenment", he said, referring to the 17th Century European movement that put reason and universal rights ahead of tradition.

"There are still parts of the Muslim world where historical enlightenment still needs to be implemented," he told Brussels-based journalists on Thursday.
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Hezbollah Strike Brings Beirut to a Virtual Halt

By NADA BAKRI and HASSAN M. FATTAH
Published: January 23, 2007

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Jan. 23 — An opposition protest turned violent today as thousands of Hezbollah supporters blocked roads leading into Beirut, burning tires and cars and clashing with government loyalists. The escalation brought the Lebanese capital to a virtual standstill and heightened fears that the nearly two-month long political crisis could burst into sectarian conflict.

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"Australian-friendly Islam"

Teaching Muslims moderation
By Lachlan Heywood

YOUNG Muslims will be taught Australian-friendly Islam under a Federal Government plan to stop them falling prey to extremists.

An approved Islamic curriculum will be rolled out by a consortium of universities, including Griffith University in Brisbane, to counter the teachings of Muslim firebrands who preach intolerance and hate.

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Mufti asked to run for parliament

NSW Premier Morris Iemma has challenged controversial Islamic cleric Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali to stand in the March state elections so Muslims can "reject his lunacy".

The mufti's spokesman Keysar Trad yesterday played down reports Sheik al-Hilali may stand against Mr Iemma in the Premier's electorate of Lakemba, but said he might help the Muslim community nominate candidates in Sydney.

Muslims are tired of getting picked on whenever incidents of violence or racial abuse occur in Sydney, Mr Trad said.

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Presidential campaign Conspiracy theory

Right-wing media figures claim Clinton behind Obama/Muslim smears

...The sources said the background check concerned Mr. Obama's years in Jakarta. In Indonesia, the young Obama was enrolled in a Madrassa and was raised and educated as a Muslim. Although Indonesia is regarded as a moderate Muslim state, the U.S. intelligence community has determined that today most of these schools are financed by the Saudi Arabian government and they teach a Wahhabi doctrine that denies the rights of non-Muslims.

Although the background check has not confirmed that the specific Madrassa Mr. Obama attended was espousing Wahhabism, the sources said his Democratic opponents believe this to be the case -- and are seeking to prove it. The sources said the opponents are searching for evidence that Mr. Obama is still a Muslim or has ties to Islam.

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Mixing up Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden



Senator Obama on The Today Show


Barack Obama - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Howard's greeting for 'anti-Muslim' group

PM defends 'Catch the Fire' message

Misha Schubert
January 19, 2007 - 3:36PM

Prime Minister John Howard has defended his decision to record a goodwill message for an Australia Day prayer event organised by a controversial group involved in an anti-Islamic court case.

The prime minister will appear in a DVD message for Catch the Fire Ministries, which is sponsoring a multi-denominational gathering in Melbourne on January 26.

Critics say Mr Howard should not be affiliated with the group while it is facing court proceedings for alleged racial vilification of Muslims.

In the DVD Mr Howard says Christianity has been an enormous force for good and he congratulates Catch the Fire Ministries for organising the event, to be held next Friday.

"Today is, of course, Australia Day,'' Mr Howard says on the DVD.

"It's a time when we celebrate the freedom and privileges we enjoy as citizens of a great, prosperous and peaceful nation so blessed with an abundance of natural beauty.

"It's also a time to reaffirm our commitment to shared values and our abiding loyalty to our nation, Australia.

"Christianity has been an enormous force for good and has done more than anything else to shape the lives, not only of millions of Australians, but the character of our nation.

"I congratulate Catch the Fire Ministries for bringing Christians from many denominations together for this celebration and I wish you all a very happy Australia Day.''

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The Virtues of Knowledge by Abu Bakr Zoud

The manners of seeking knowledge - Sheikh Khaled Eissa

Would the minister for the mushy M-word stand up?

...Consider, after all, the comic irony that abounds when the de facto minister for multiculturalism, parliamentary secretary Andrew Robb, avoids using precisely that word beginning with "m", which defines his portfolio. In fact, he's on record as favouring scrapping the term "multiculturalism" entirely from the Government's revamped ethnic policy...

And so here we are: navigating through the fog of a new cultural battlefield, as the earth reverberates from the shockwaves of Islamist terror elsewhere in the world.

There's fog because the words that frame this still-tentative debate — "integration", "values", "cultural diversity" and so on — are necessarily nebulous. And precisely why we must have this debate in the first place is yet to be properly explained.

...Yet the Government insists the new measures are not aimed at Muslims. Is this all an elaborate dog-whistle, an appeal to the would-be Hansonites whose support can sway elections? Whatever the truth, it surely leaves the public feeling something less than relaxed-and-comfortable.

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Eritrea blames Washington for Somalia war

ASMARA (Reuters) - Eritrea accused the United States on Monday of being behind the war in Somalia, but said Washington could never thwart the will of the Somali people.

Diplomats across east Africa agree that Washington almost certainly gave tacit approval for Ethiopia to provide the forces which allowed Somalia's weak interim government to roll into the capital Mogadishu and send the hardline Islamists packing.

Washington has accused Eritrea of providing arms and men to the Islamists. The government in Asmara denies that.

"There is a misrepresentation in the media. This war is between the Americans and the Somali people," Eritrean Information Minister Ali Abdu told Reuters by telephone.

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ASWJ Eid Festival - Melbourne & Sydney

Eid Mubarak!