'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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