La guerre de l'«or bleu» menace la planète
LE FIGARO: La seule véritable «guerre de l'eau» a eu lieu il y a 4 000 ans. Mais l'ONU presse les gouvernements d'intégrer la politique hydrique à leur agenda prioritaire.

La guerre de l'eau menace la planète - même si les experts s'accordent à penser qu'elle peut être évitée. L'ONU n'en dresse pas moins un constat alarmant, dans un rapport publié la semaine dernière, qui lance à la communauté internationale un appel pressant à l'action.

Selon ce document, si la gestion actuelle, «non durable et inéquitable» de l'eau se poursuit, les conséquences seront «graves» pour le développement et la sécurité des hommes dans plusieurs régions du monde.

En Afrique et en Asie notamment, l'eau se raréfie, sous la double influence de la croissance démographique et du changement climatique, exacerbant les tensions économiques et politiques, en particulier dans les zones transfrontalières. La situation est particulièrement critique en Afrique subsaharienne, où la gestion des ressources en eau est notablement dégradée.

L'Égypte, le Soudan et l'Éthiopie sont virtuellement en état d'«hydroconflictualité» pour le contrôle du Nil dont les eaux n'atteignent plus la mer. Au Zimbabwe, l'épidémie de choléra, qui a fait plus de 4 000 morts depuis août dernier, est due à la déliquescence des structures hydriques du pays. Sur le continent, les experts n'excluent pas qu'éclatent des «émeutes de l'eau», comme il y a eu, il y a quelques mois, des émeutes de la faim. Quant au conflit israélo-arabe, les enjeux représentés par la maîtrise des approvisionnements en eau ne sont plus à démontrer. Le Tibet, «château d'eau» de l'Asie >>> Alain Barluet | Lundi 16 Mars 2009

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Obama bin White House Goes Upbeat on the Economy
THE TELEGRAPH: President Barack Obama has launched an upbeat strategy over the economy in the face of approval ratings that have dipped below those of George W Bush at the same stage of his presidency.

President Brack Hussein Obama realizes that being downbeat on the economy doesn’t pay. Photo courtesy of The Telegraph
Mr Obama is changing his rhetorical course after criticism from fellow Democrats, including former President Bill Clinton, that he has sounded too negative in the first weeks of his presidency.

This week he will speak forcefully to Congress and the public about the need to pass his $3.6 trillion budget, which will double the national deficit, while stressing his belief that there is hope ahead.

Mr Obama's sky-high approval ratings have fallen in the past couple of weeks amid widespread gloom over the economy. His approval rating is between 56 and 60 per cent, lower than George W Bush's at a similar stage of his presidency. Barack Obama Goes Upbeat on Economy After Popularity Declines >>> By Alex Spillius in Washington | Sunday, March 15, 2009

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Anjem Choudary Investigated by Police Over Mujahideen Fundraising
THE TELEGRAPH: Police are investigating whether a radical Muslim who has called for money to be collected for Islamic fighters has committed a criminal act.

Photo of Anjem Choudary courtesy of The Telegraph
Anjem Choudary, whose supporters hurled abuse at soldiers from the Royal Anglian regiment returning from Afghanistan last week, can be heard on a website calling for other Muslims not to save money for their families but to give it to "mujahideen" - holy warriors - instead.

The term is usually used to refer to fighters "defending Muslim lands" such as Afghanistan and Iraq, who are prepared to die as martyrs.

In the recording, posted on the site Islam4UK, Choudary said: "People looking for a place for their money to go so they can go to the front line and they can't find it.

"You have opportunity to carry dawah [spreading the word] to society . . . and you have money that can go towards the dawah, you have money that can go towards the mujahideen."

Choudary added: "When you are working collectively . . . people supporting the mujahideen, people collecting money for the dawah or giving money to the mujahideen, he [the devil] will come to you then. He will divert you, he will say to you, 'This money is needed for your family'." >>> By Duncan Gardham, Security Correspondent | Sunday, March 15, 2009

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I Want to See Flag of Allah Flying Over Downing St
Anjem Choudary wants the ‘flag of Jihad’, or the ‘flag of Allah’, flying over Downing Street. Photo of the preacher of hate courtesy of the Evening Standard
EVENING STANDARD: A Muslim fundamentalist leader today told of his vision of Britain under Sharia law.

Anjem Choudary said he wanted the “flag of Allah” flying over Downing Street, all women wearing burkas and caning for drunkenness.

He is the leader of Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaah, founded as a successor to the banned fundamentalist sect al-Muhajiroun, which was led by now-exiled preacher Omar Bakri Muhammad.

The self-proclaimed Sharia judge admitted his followers had organised protests against British soldiers in Luton this week, waving placards which called them “murderers” for their conduct in Iraq.

Mr Choudary, a 41-year-old lawyer, said he was proud to be reviled. “It's inevitable that when you offer an alternative morality and way of life many people will hate you for it.”

He said this “alternative morality” would mean “a pure Islamic state with Sharia law in Britain” and added: “Every woman, whether Muslim or non-Muslim, would have to wear a traditional burka and cover everything apart from her face and hands in public.”

“In matters to do with the judicial system and the penal code, one male witness is sufficient to counter the testimony of two females. People who commit adultery would be stoned to death.”

Mr Choudary, a father of three, admitted he lived off benefits despite objecting to the British state. He rejected suggestions of hypocrisy, saying: “I don't think it's of any importance.” [Source: Evening Standard] Friday, March 13, 2009

Hat tip: Jihad Watch

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Man Accused of Beheading Wife Arraigned
Muzzammil "Mo" Hassan, the founder of Bridges TV, the man who beheaded his wife in Buffalo, USA, pleaded “not guilty” on Friday. Photo of the Pakistani who wanted to bring his barbaraian ways to civilization courtesy of Newsday
NEWSDAY: BUFFALO - The founder of a Muslim-American television station pleaded not guilty Friday to beheading his estranged wife.



Muzzammil "Mo" Hassan, 44, is charged with one count of second-degree murder for the Feb. 12 death of 37-year-old Aasiya Hassan at the offices of Bridges TV in the suburb of Orchard Park.



The Pakistani-born businessman, who has been in custody since reporting his wife's death soon after it happened, remained held without bail.



"The proof of guilt in this case is strong," prosecutor Colleen Curtin Gable told Erie County Judge Thomas Franczyk. She cited alleged admissions, forensic evidence and "strong motive evidence." Aasiya Hassan was stabbed multiple times and decapitated less than a week after having her husband served with divorce papers.

"We believe he would and could flee the jurisdiction if released," Gable said in arguing against bail.



Defense attorney James Harrington did not oppose the position.



Hassan did not speak during his brief arraignment, except to tell the judge he understood the proceedings.



Harrington declined to comment afterward.



The case against Hassan is striking in its irony. Muzzammil and Aasiya Hassan launched the Bridges TV network in 2004, saying they wanted to counter negative stereotypes and media portrayals of Muslims.



Harrington has dismissed suggestions by some that the beheading was a so-called "honor killing," rooted in cultural notions about women's subordination to men.



District Attorney Frank Sedita said Muzzammil Hassan's two teenagers by a previous marriage and the two young children he had with the victim are living with relatives.



Bridges TV was off the air in the days following the killing, but has since resumed broadcasting. [Source: Newsday] The Associated Press | Friday, March 13, 2009

Hat tip: Jihad Watch >>>>

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Govt to Slash Immigration Intake
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: CANBERRA – Cuts to the nation's skilled migration intake will help protect local jobs, Immigration Minister Chris Evans says.

The federal government will slash the skilled migration program by 14 per cent, or 18,500 jobs, over the next three years.

The cuts will be coupled with deletions to the critical skills list, which specifies which jobs are open to migrants.

All building and manufacturing trades will be removed, forcing companies to find bricklayers, plumbers, welders and carpenters domestically.

Employers can bring in foreign workers only if they cannot source the labour locally.

Mr Evans says the government wants to ensure migrant workers are not competing with Australians for jobs during the economic downturn. >>> ©2009 AAP | Monday, March 16, 2009

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My Imam Father Came After Me with an Axe*
THE SUNDAY TIMES: Hannah Shah had been raped by her father and faced a forced marriage. She fled, became a Christian and now fears for her life

Hannah Shah, the daughter of an imam, has had to flee the clutches of a tight-knit Deobandi Muslim community here in the UK. She now fears for her life. Photo courtesy of Times Online
We are all too familiar with the persecution of Christians in countries such as Pakistan and Afghanistan. Yet sitting in front of me is a British woman whose life has been threatened in this country solely because she is a Christian. Indeed, so real is the threat that the book she has written about her experiences has had to appear under an assumed name.

The book is called The Imam’s Daughter because “Hannah Shah” is just that: the daughter of an imam in one of the tight-knit Deobandi Muslim Pakistani communities in the north of England. Her father emigrated to this country from rural Pakistan some time in the 1960s and is, apparently, a highly respected local figure.

He is also an incestuous child abuser, repeatedly raping his daughter from the age of five until she was 15, ostensibly as part of her punishment for being “disobedient”. At the age of 16 she fled her family to avoid the forced marriage they had planned for her in Pakistan. A much, much greater affront to “honour” in her family’s eyes, however, was the fact that she then became a Christian – an apostate. The Koran is explicit that apostasy is punishable by death; thus it was that her father the imam led a 40-strong gang – in the middle of a British city – to find and kill her.

Hannah Shah says her story is not unique – that there are many other girls in British Muslim families who are oppressed and married off against their will, or who have secretly become Christians but are too afraid to speak out. She wants their voices to be heard and for Britain, the land of her birth, to realise the hidden misery of these women.

Hannah’s own voice is quiet and emerges from a tiny frame. She is clearly nervous about talking to a journalist and the stress she has been under is betrayed by a bald patch on the left side of her head. Yet she has a lovely natural smile, especially when she reveals that she got married a year ago; her husband works in the Church of England, “though not as a vicar”.

I tell Hannah that the passages in her memoir about her sexual abuse are almost impossible to read – but I also found it hard to understand why, now that she is in her early thirties, independent and married, she has not reported her father’s horrific assaults on her to the police.

“What has stopped me is that if my dad went to prison, the shame that would be brought upon the rest of the family would be horrific. My mum would not be able to . . . I mean, it’s bad enough having a daughter who’s left, is not agreeing to her marriage and is now a Christian. Then to have my dad in prison would be the end for her.”

I tell Hannah, perhaps a little cruelly, that in her use of the word “shame” she is echoing the sort of arguments that her own family had used against her. >>> Dominic Lawson | Sunday, March 15, 2009

*So what is this weak, ineffectual, marshmallow, appeasing government going to do about this sad state of affairs? Sweet words just will not do. They won't cut the mustard. We need ACTION!

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Dutch Teens Convicted of Insulting Jews Ordered to Visit Anne Frank House
HAARETZ: A Dutch judge has ordered four teenagers to visit the Anne Frank House museum after finding them guilty of discrimination for insulting Jews at a rally.

The boys, aged 14 to 17, must turn in a report to the Hague Police Judge about their visit the canal house in Amsterdam where Anne Frank and her family hid from Nazi occupiers during World War II.

The four boys were convicted Friday for insulting Jews who were protesting Israel's military attack on Gaza. Prosecutors say two boys held a banner with a swastika superimposed on the Star of David, and two shouted "Hamas, Hamas, all Jews to the gas."

The judge also convicted and fined three adults for shouting anti-Semitic slogans at the Jan. 18 rally in The Hague. [Source: Haaretz] The Associated Press | Sunday, March 15, 2009

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Living Under Sharia: The Plight of Women in Saudi Arabia
OEN: Islamic legal code, the Sharia, continues to make grounds in the West. Sharia Court, operational in Canada since 1991, was abolished in 2006 in the face of intense campaign from human rights activists. Although widely practiced by the Muslim community over the year, Sharia Court received official recognition in the U.K. for dealing with civil and some criminal cases (domestic violence etc.) in 2007. Since some 40% British Muslims want the establishment of Sharia Court with a fewer of them opposed to it, this is possibly the first-step in the gradual process of establishing full-fledged Islamic legal codes in Britain. As Muslim immigrants in the West, from Europe to North America, are showing increasing support for Sharia, demand for Sharia Court in other Western countries will definitely intensify in light of this British concession.

What people in the West must make themselves aware of is that Sharia laws are extremely discriminatory, indeed humiliating and degrading, toward non-Muslims. It is also highly discriminatory and humiliating toward Muslim women. In order to get a grasp of the nature of Sharia law, one may have a look at Afghanistan under the Taliban, Iran and Saudi Arabia, where Sharia laws are applied to varying strictness. In the wake of the just-concluded International Women’s Day, this essay will attempt to make it clear what Sharia law means for Muslim women.

When Australian Mufti Taj al-Din al-Hilali raised furor in 2006 by calling unveiled women “uncovered meat” to suggest that eighteen such white women, raped (some even gang-raped) by Muslim youths in a Sydney neighborhood in 2000, actually invited the horrendous act upon themselves. Most Australians and Westerners have viewed it as utterance of a deranged ignorant cleric, not representing the Islamic creed and community. However, an investigation of the treatment of women in Saudi Arabia—the birth-place and heartland of Islam—reveals a strong Islamic rational behind the Mufti’s assertion.

Saudi Arabia, the sacred land of Islamic devotion, is the best place for evaluating the status of women in Islam, where Islamic holy laws—the Sharia, which should ideally guide Islamic societies for eternity—are implemented most rigorously amongst Islamic countries. The Saudi Basic Law says: >>> M A Khan | Saturday, March 14, 2009

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BNP Member Attacked with Hammer
BBC: A British National Party (BNP) member was attacked with a hammer when protesters arrived at a campaign event in Greater Manchester.

Tony Ward was hit with a hammer, and was caused “grievous bodily harm”. Photo courtesy of the BBC
Violence broke out as 30 people surrounded a BNP vehicle outside the Ellesmere Pub in St Helens Road in Leigh on Friday evening, said police.

Tony Ward, 48, was hit with a hammer and later treated in hospital.

A 25-year-old man arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm has since been given police bail.

Officers arrived at the pub to discover the BNP's trailer had been overturned, said a police spokesman.

A traffic diversion was put in place on St Helen's Road, while the trailer was removed and the road was closed. It has since reopened.

One witness told BBC News: "They had hammers and they smacked the vehicle to pieces, smashed all the windows and tore off the bumper, completely decimated it.

"I was shocked at what I saw."

A BNP fundraising event had been due to take place at Pure nightclub in Leigh, but it was cancelled at the last minute.

Simon Darby, the party's deputy leader said: "This was a violent attack by a group of thugs in which one of our members was badly injured.

"But we will not be put off."

The BNP's Nick Griffin has been in the area to host the event, said Mr Darby. [Source: BBC] Saturday, March 14, 2009

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Vatican Says Islamic Finance May Help Western Banks in Crisis
BLOOMBERG: The Vatican said banks should look at the rules of Islamic finance to restore confidence amongst their clients at a time of global economic crisis.

“The ethical principles on which Islamic finance is based may bring banks closer to their clients and to the true spirit which should mark every financial service,” the Vatican’s official newspaper Osservatore Romano said in an article in its latest issue late yesterday.

Author Loretta Napoleoni and Abaxbank Spa fixed income strategist, Claudia Segre, say in the article that “Western banks could use tools such as the Islamic bonds, known as sukuk, as collateral”. Sukuk may be used to fund the “car industry or the next Olympic Games in London,” they say.

Pope Benedict XVI in an Oct. 7 speech reflected on crashing financial markets saying that “money vanishes, it is nothing” and concluded that “the only solid reality is the word of God.” The Vatican has been paying attention to the global financial meltdown and ran articles in its official newspaper that criticize the free-market model for having “grown too much and badly in the past two decades.”

The Osservatore’s editor, Giovanni Maria Vian, said that “the great religions have always had a common attention to the human dimension of the economy,” Corriere della Sera reported today. >>> By Lorenzo Totaro | Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Hat tips: Always On Watch and Infidel Bloggers Alliance

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Islamisierung durch Multikulti-Wahn und Zuwanderung (Bischof Mixa)

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Doubts on Muslim Integration Rise in Europe
Part 1:


Part 2
Part 3
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Griechische Polizei von linker Gewalt überfordert
DIE PRESSE: Seit Monaten verüben autonome Untergrund-Organisationen in Griechenland Anschläge gegen Banken und Unternehmen. Die Polizei ist überfordert, nun soll Scotlandy [sic] Yard helfen.

Experten der britischen Polizeibehörde Scotland Yard sollen ihren Kollegen in Griechenland helfen, eine seit Monaten andauernde Gewaltwelle Autonomer zu beenden und zwei als äußerst gefährlich geltende linke Untergrundorganisationen zu zerschlagen. Die ersten britischen Experten werden an diesem Montag in Athen erwartet, wie die Athener Zeitung "Kathimerini" am Sonntag berichtet. >>> Ag | Sonntag, 15. März 2009

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Billy Briggs –The Far Right Is On the March Again: The Rise of Fascism in Austria
MAILOnline: In Austria's recent general election, nearly 30 per cent of voters backed extremist right-wing parties. Live visits the birthplace of Hitler to investigate how Fascism is once again threatening to erupt across Europe.

Former Waffen SS officer and unrepentant Nazi Herbert Schweiger. Photo courtesy of the Mail Online
Beneath a leaden sky the solemn, black-clad crowd moves slowly towards a modest grey headstone. At one end 
of the grave, a flame casts light on the black lettering that is engraved on the marble. At the other end, an elderly soldier bends down to place flowers before standing to salute.

From all over Austria, people are here to pay their respects to their fallen hero. But the solemnity of the occasion is cut with tension. Beyond the crowd of about 300, armed police are in attendance. They keep a respectful distance but the rasping bark of Alsatians hidden in vans provides an eerie soundtrack as the crowd congregates in mist and light rain.

We’ve been warned that despite a heavy police presence journalists have often been attacked at these meetings. If trouble does come then the mob look ready to fight. There are bull-necked stewards and young men who swagger aggressively.

This is a neo-Nazi gathering and in the crowd are some of Austria’s most hard-faced fascists. Among them is Gottfried Kussel, a notorious thug who was the showman of Austria’s far-right movement in the Eighties and Nineties until he was imprisoned for eight years for promoting Nazi ideology.

Today he cuts a Don Corleone figure as he stands defiantly at the graveside. His neo-Nazi acolytes make sure no one comes near him and our photographer is unceremoniously barged out of his way.

Ominous-looking men with scars across their faces whisper to each other and shake hands. These are members of Austria’s Burschenschaften, an arcane, secretive organisation best known for its fascination with fencing, an initiation ceremony that includes a duel in which the opponents cut each other’s faces, and for its strong links to the far right.

Incredibly, standing shoulder to shoulder with these hard-line Nazi sympathisers are well known Austrian politicians. At the graveside, a speech is made by Lutz Weinzinger, a leading member of Austria’s Freedom Party (FPO)[sic], who pays tribute to the fallen. 

This is a gathering in memory of an Austrian-born Nazi fighter pilot, who during WWII shot down 258 planes, 255 of them Russian. Such was Major Walter Nowotny’s standing at the time of his death in 1944 that the Nazi Party awarded him a grave of honour in Vienna’s largest cemetery, close to the musical legends Mozart, Brahms and Strauss.

But in 2005 that honour was revoked and his body moved to lie in an area of public graves. The decision infuriated the far right and made their annual pilgrimage an even greater event.

Today, the anniversary of Nowotny’s death, also coincides with Kristallnacht, the ‘night of broken glass’ in 1938 when 92 people were murdered and thousands attacked across Germany as stormtroopers set upon Jews in an outpouring of Nazi violence.

Some 70 years on from that infamous pogrom, the world faces a similar financial crisis to the one that precipitated the rise of Hitler and, in chilling echoes of Thirties Europe, support for far-right groups is exploding. Hitler’s birthplace has become the focus for neo-Nazis across the world.

And so I [Billy Briggs] have come to Austria to investigate how Fascism and extremism are moving, unchecked, into the forefront of its society. >>> Billy Briggs | Saturday, March 14, 2009

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Minister Beaten after Clashing with Muslims on His TV Show
MAIL ON SUNDAY: A Christian minister who has had heated arguments with Muslims on his TV Gospel show has been brutally attacked by three men who ripped off his cross and warned: ‘If you go back to the studio, we’ll break your legs.’

The Reverend Noble Samuel was driving to the studio when a car pulled over in front of him. A man got out and came over to ask him directions in Urdu.

Mr Samuel, based at Heston United Reformed Church, West London, said: ‘He put his hand into my window, which was half open, and grabbed my hair and opened the door.

He started slapping my face and punching my neck. He was trying to smash my head on the steering wheel.

Then he grabbed my cross and pulled it off and it fell on the floor. He was swearing. The other two men came from the car and took my laptop and Bible.’

The Metropolitan Police are treating it as a ‘faith hate’ assault and are hunting three Asian men. >>> By Jonathan Petre | Saturday, March 14, 2009

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Peter Hitchens: What Do We Expect If We Treat Our Own Nation with Such Contempt?
MAIL ON SUNDAY: The insulting anti-British demonstration in Luton is a sign that we are losing – and may already have lost – the most important battle for survival in our modern history.

Our political leaders like to pretend they are defending us against all kinds of perils – especially bogeymen such as Al Qaeda.

I have always thought this was humbug, partly designed to conceal their failure to protect us from the real perils of the EU and the destruction of our culture.

Now you can see, in those Luton faces, exactly what I mean.

For years these same leaders have been the active allies of a real enemy right here among us.

That enemy is the deliberate destruction of Britain, the smearing of its history, the mocking of decent patriotism, the undermining of loyalty.

Those who were rightly angered at the ill-mannered and contemptuous display in Luton – the scowling menfolk and their sullen, shrouded women – should aim their anger not at these misguided individuals but at the liberal Left which has brought us to this point. >>> Peter Hitchens | Sunday, March 15, 2009

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Nawaz Sharif Placed under House Arrest
Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan. Photo courtesy of Times Online
TIMESONLINE: Nawaz Sharif, the Pakistani opposition leader, was placed under house arrest for three days early this morning to stop him from joining an anti-government protest march that has raised fears of a return to military rule.

Hundreds of riot police surrounded his home in the eastern city of Lahore after negotiations with the government collapsed, despite the intervention of Hillary Clinton, the U.S. Secretary of State.

Police moved in after Mr Sharif, a former Prime Minister, gave a rousing speech to his supporters last night, urging them to take to the streets to "fight this obsolete system" of government.

"The winds of change are blowing, and nobody can stop them," he said.

"Whoever tries to stop them will be destroyed." >>> Jeremy Page, Lahore and Zahid Hussain, Islamabad | Sunday, March 15, 2009

TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: Pakistan: l'opposant Nawaz Sharif défie son assignation à résidence

LAHORE | Le principal dirigeant de l'opposition pakistanaise, Nawaz Sharif, est sorti dimanche de sa villa de Lahore (est) pour prendre la parole devant ses partisans, défiant son assignation à résidence qu'il a qualifiée "d'illégale".

"Nous ne pouvons accepter cette décision. L'assignation à résidence est illégale et immorale. Toutes ces décisions sont contraires à la Constitution", a déclaré Nawaz Sharif, qui est sorti de sa villa où il était assigné à résidence depuis le matin pour s'adresser à une foule de ses partisans.

"Venez me rejoindre. Je quitte ma maison. L'heure est venue de marcher main dans la main. Ils ne peuvent nous arrêter", a lancé l'ancien Premier ministre.

"Ils ne peuvent contenir les émotions du peuple. Les gens ont attendu ce jour depuis longtemps", a-t-il ajouté. >>> AFP | Dimanche 15 Mars 2009

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Luton's Muslim Extremists Defy Public Anger
THE TELEGRAPH: The Muslim extremists in Luton who jeered British troops returning from Iraq are continuing to defy public anger despite the simmering tension it has caused in a racially-mixed town.

Fighting in the way of Allah in Luton. The flag of Jihad courtesy of Google Images
The Islamic extremist was in full flow, bellowing out his message on a busy street in Luton.

"British soldiers ... murderers ... rapists ... not heroes ..." Most passers-by ignored him.

A few, mostly young Muslim men on their way home from afternoon prayers, paused to listen and were immediately approached by the white-capped preacher's fellow radicals, eager to recruit new members to their cause.

Suddenly a mustachioed businessman in Muslim dress strode over the group, jabbed a finger towards the preacher and shouted: "You are giving Muslims a bad name!"

The radicals argued with him and tried to manhandle him away from the scene. For a moment the confrontation threatened to turn ugly until the businessman decided to walk away, still seething, but his point firmly made.

The angry scene encapsulated the tension that has hung over Luton since the preacher and the rest of his group staged a demonstration last week as 200 soldiers of the 2nd Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment paraded through the Bedfordshire town after a gruelling tour of duty in Iraq. >>> By David Harrison | Saturday, March 14, 2009

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Firebrand Risks Jail in Call for Jihad Cash
TIMES ONLINE: Islamist extremist Anjem Choudary has been caught on tape urging an audience to raise funds for the 'mujaheddin'

Firebrand Anjem Choudary now risks jail for urging an audience to raise cash for the Jihad. Photo courtesy of the Mail Online
OUTWARDLY he presents an innocuous image as a be-spectacled father of three trained in the law. But Anjem Choudary is now considered by many politicians and religious leaders as the most dangerous Islamist extremist in Britain.

He has previously made no secret of his demands that the country be placed under sharia - Islamic law. This would mean all women would have to wear veils, adulterers would be stoned to death and drunks whipped in public.

Last Tuesday Choudary and his small but obsessive group of followers turned their bile on British troops parading through Luton after their return from service in Iraq.

While his placard-waving “students” fomented a near-riot by branding the men and women of the Royal Anglian Regiment as “butchers” and “cowards”, Choudary, who was not present, did not shrink from fanning the flames of outrage.

Within hours of the ugly confrontation in Luton, he had posted a message on the Islam4UK website, calling the troops “pompous” and accusing them of murdering women and children in Iraq.

He later gave a glimpse of his vision of Britain in a newspaper interview, calling for the “black flag of Allah” to be raised over Downing Street.

In the absence of his former guru, Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed - a firebrand preacher banned from Britain - and with Abu Hamza, the hook-handed cleric of Finsbury Park mosque, in jail, Choudary appears to have installed himself as the country’s most vocal Islamist.

He has always been at pains to keep his public proselytising within the boundaries of British law.

Now Choudary, 41, a founder member of the British wing of Al-Muhajiroun, an extremist group, has been caught on tape urging an audience to raise funds for the “mujaheddin” - a phrase usually associated with insurgents in Iraq and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.

Under the Terrorism Act 2000, it is an offence to “invite another to provide money or other property” for the purposes of terrorism. Offenders risk a prison sentence of up to 14 years. >>> Abul Taher and Daniel Foggo | Sunday, March 15, 2009

THE SUNDAY TIMES: Hate Cleric Leads Jihad Cash Appeal

Anjem Choudary, who led protests against returning British troops, has urged his followers to send money to 'mujaheddin'

Photo of Anjem Choudary courtesy of The Sunday Times
AN Islamic cleric, whose supporters led a hate-filled protest against British troops returning from Iraq, has urged his followers to give cash to front-line mujaheddin fighters.

A recording has emerged of Anjem Choudary, a self-styled sharia judge and former leader of the banned group Al-Muhajiroun, telling his followers to stop spending their money on their families and divert it to Muslim soldiers waging jihad, or holy war.

There were demands for Choudary to be investigated by police. He has previously called for British women to be forced to wear burqas and for adulterers to be killed. Several radical preachers have previously been jailed for urging British Muslims to give money to Al-Qaeda-linked insurgents in Iraq.

The emergence of the tape coincided with the death yesterday of a British soldier in Afghanistan, the 150th to die there since 2001. The soldier of the 2nd battalion, Royal Welsh regiment, was on foot patrol. >>> Abul Taher and Daniel Foggo | Sunday, March 15, 2009

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