The world has gone insane!!!

Bloody Ramadan


About Ramadan...

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Eid Al-Fitr 2016: How many days is it by country?

"If one believes it is good to kill those who are considered infidels, all the better to do so during Ramadan."

Iraq violence: IS bombing kills 125 Ramadan shoppers in Baghdad

Bangladesh attack: Dhaka's Holey cafe attackers were known to police

ISIS Uses Ramadan as Calling for New Terrorist Attacks

From Orlando to Bangladesh, A Blood-Soaked Ramadan

Multiple suicide blasts hit Saudi Arabia

Suicide bomber attacks Indonesian police station, wounding one

"Those who could cite the Quran were spared"

Those who could cite Quran were spared: Gulshan attack victim’s family

Meanwhile, Muslims are being stereotyped, typecast and called "suspect" without reason...the world has gone insane!

UAE tells citizens to avoid national dress while abroad after man held in U.S.

Muslim doctor shot near Houston mosque on way to prayer

Muslim man beaten outside Florida mosque attended by Orlando gunman

OBAMA SAYS RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS ARE DIVISIVE.

Obama offends Catholics in the UK, says religious schools are divisive

The Catholic media is up in arms over comments President Obama made during a speech while in Northern Ireland for the G8 summit. Obama made what is described as “an alarming call for an end to Catholic education,” in spite of the fact that it is considered “a critical component of the Church.”

Fr. John Zuhlsdorf
Photo credit: Facebook

In front of an audience of about 2,000 young people, including many Catholics, Obama claimed that Catholic education divides people and blocks peace, according to the Scottish Catholic Observer.

“If towns remain divided—if Catholics have their schools and buildings and Protestants have theirs, if we can’t see ourselves in one another and fear or resentment are allowed to harden—that too encourages division and discourages cooperation,” Obama said.

Catholic World News noted:

Ironically, President Obama made his comments just as Archbishop Gerhard Müller, the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, told a crowd in Scotland that religious education upholds the dignity of the human person. Archbishop Müller said that Catholic schools should promote “all that is good in the philosophies of societies and human culture.”

Fr. John Zuhlsdorf quoted the Observer’s article on Fr. Z’s blog and added:

Another example of what this man wants: total isolation of any religious values in the private sphere alone. Pres. Obama is working either to intimidate or legislate or even TAX religious freedom out of the public square.

Off the top of my head, I can’t think of a foreign visit to a Islamic nation where he told people on his arrival that they shouldn’t have madrasas.  Can you?

Did he when visiting, say, Israel, say “You Jews shouldn’t have synagogue schools and you muslims shouldn’t have mosque schools.”  I can’t remember.  Did he?

Each of the articles drew numerous public comments, most suggesting that Obama be more concerned about the public schools in the United States than their parochial schools, which are working just fine.

source: BIZPACREVIEW

Obama Ordered Stuxnet Virus. Impeachable Offense?

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Sharia Law Opponents, Censorship and the Spawning of a New Frankenstein's Monster

Kansas Governor, Sam Brownback, Signs Anti-Sharia Bill, Effectively Banning Islamic Law

Reuters  |  Posted: 05/25/2012 7:48 pm Updated: 05/26/2012 12:09 am

By Kevin Murphy

KANSAS CITY, Kan., May 25 (Reuters) - Republican Kansas Governor Sam Brownback signed a bill aimed at keeping state courts and agencies from using Islamic or other non-U.S. laws when making decisions, his office said on Friday, drawing criticism from a national Muslim group.

The law has been dubbed the "sharia bill" because critics say it targets the Islamic legal code. Sharia, or Islamic law, covers all aspects of Muslim life, including religious obligations and financial dealings. Opponents of state bans say they could nullify wills or legal contracts between Muslims.

Supporters said the law will reassure foreigners in Kansas that state laws and the U.S. Constitution would protect them. Opponents said it singled out Muslims for ridicule and was unnecessary because American laws prevail on U.S. soil.

Sherriene Jones-Sontag, a spokeswoman for the governor, said in an e-mail that the bill "makes it clear that Kansas courts will rely exclusively on the laws of our state and our nation when deciding cases and will not consider the laws of foreign jurisdictions."

Legislators supporting the bill said there were many cases around the country where judges or state agencies cited sharia law in deciding cases, especially involving divorce-related custody and property matters where Islamic code differs from U.S. law.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington denounced the Kansas law and said it is considering legal action.

About 20 states have considered similar legislation but the Kansas law is the only one signed in recent weeks, council spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said.

"It's unfortunate the governor chose to pander to the growing Islam-phobia in our society that has led to introduction of similar unconstitutional and un-American legislation in dozens of state legislatures," Hooper said.

Hooper said legislators have often referred to sharia law in supporting such legislation, but he said they take the word out of the bill to stave off legal challenges. The Kansas bill does not mention sharia.

Federal courts struck down an Oklahoma law voters approved in 2010 that barred state judges from considering sharia law in making decisions. The court called the law discriminatory. (Editing by Greg McCune and Stacey Joyce)

Source:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/25/kansas-governor-signs-bil_n_1547145.html

CIA/MI6 helped spawn a Frankenstein’s monster

LINDA S. HEARD

Tuesday 28 May 2013

Last Update 28 May 2013 1:13 am

In response to the hacking to death of Lee Rigby, a young off-duty British soldier killed on a London street in broad daylight, Britain’s Home Office plans measures to prevent the radicalization of Muslim youth which include censorship of jihadist Internet websites, a crackdown on extremist organizations and the cleansing of mosques and place of learning from preachers promoting “a poisonous narrative.” That’s all very well but unless the government acknowledges the root of the problem those steps will constitute a mere band-aid covering a suppurating sore.

Scrubbing the Internet and gagging clerics will not eradicate the anger felt by Muslims when they witness the outcome of US and American wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere on their TV screens. That anger is justifiable; the way that a few — like the 7/7 London transport bombers, the Boston bombers and the two men who boasted about carving up a British soldier — unleash their fury on innocents, who have no say over their government’s actions, is cowardly and abhorrent. Moreover, they’re no warriors for Islam when the faith explicitly states that killing one innocent is akin to slaying all of humanity.

Leaders of Muslim communities in the UK have loudly condemned the barbaric incident but law-abiding British Muslims are suffering a backlash from right-wing groups, such as the British National Party (BNP) and the English Defense League (EDL), which have organized marches to ignite Islamophobic sentiment. The leader of the BNP says mass immigration is to be blamed and the perpetrators should be shot again and wrapped in pigskin. The EDL announced the movement is “at war” with Islamic extremism. British Muslims are being targeted by balaclava-wearing Nazi-leaning fascists. In recent days, mosques have come under attack or daubed with racist graffiti. Muslims are being spat at or threatened in the streets; women’s head scarves are being pulled off their heads by passersby. In short, Muslims in Britain are living in fear through no fault of their own.

However, British authorities don’t have clean hands either. The real scandal is that one of the perpetrators Michael Adebolajo, the son of Nigerian Christian immigrants, was known to UK anti-terror units three years prior to the attack after his arrest in Kenya when he was suspected of participating in an Al-Qaeda inspired plot. Upon his return to the UK, his family and friends say MI5 pressured him to infiltrate extremist groups and spy on Muslim scholars, which he allegedly refused to do. Likewise the dead Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarvaev was added to a CIA watch list following a tip-off from Moscow, 18 months before his home-made bomb exploded at the marathon’s finishing line.

History confirms that both the UK and the US have on occasion worked closely with Islamists and jihadists since the 1950s on the basis of as long as they’re “our terrorists” they’re good fellows. There are numerous examples dating back to the era of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser who swayed toward the Soviet Union.

In his memoir “The Game of Nations: The Amorality of Power Politics,” US intelligence veteran Col. W. Patrick Lang describes how the CIA sought to undermine Nasser’s popularity and nationalist spirit by seeking out “a religious spellbinder” on the lines of Egypt’s answer to Billy Graham. The CIA’s man in Cairo, Miles Copeland, came across the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) and worked with the organization to topple the Egyptian leader, albeit unsuccessfully. Robert Baer writes in his book “Sleeping with the Devil” that the CIA funneled support to the MB because of “the Brotherhood’s commendable ability to overthrow Nasser.”

It won’t be news to you that the CIA was instrumental in the coup that rid Iran of its democratically-elected Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh and worked to overthrow the Shah. But you may not realize that the CIA and Britain’s MI6 actively promoted the Ayatollah Khomeini to the extent that prior to his return from exile in France, the Iranians dubbed the BBC “The Ayatollah BBC.”

Fast forwarding to the Soviet occupation in Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda’s main training base “Bayt Al-Ansar” was founded with the assistance of the CIA chief in Peshawar at a time when the US manipulated religious belief to attract anti-Soviet jihadists to fight against communism. Under the umbrella of NSDD 166, the US took part in the radicalization of Afghan schoolchildren, encouraging them to join the anti-Soviet resistance with textbooks promoting jihad and featuring violent images.

Michel Chossudovsky, a Canadian professor and author, wrote, “Advertisements paid for from CIA funds, were placed in newspapers and newsletters around the world offering inducements and motivations to join the Jihad.” “Under the Reagan administration, US foreign policy evolved toward the unconditional support and endorsement of the Islamic “freedom fighters,” he writes, adding, “In today’s world, the ‘freedom fighters’ are labeled “Islamic terrorists.”

The CIA has also supported “freedom fighters” considered terrorists in Russia. Author John Laughland wrote that “the leading group which pleads the Chechan cause is the American Committee for Peace in Chechnya” with “the list of the self-styled “distinguished Americans” who are its members is a roll call of the most prominent neoconservatives who so enthusiastically support the “war on terror.”

Award-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh describes in the New Yorker under the heading “Our men in Iran” how US “Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) conducted training, beginning in 2005, for members of the Mujahideen-e-Khalq, a dissident Iranian group known in the West as the M.E.K.” which has been linked to the assassination of six American citizens and is listed by the State Department as a terrorist organization. Hersh alleges that members of the M.E.K. trained in Nevada but that program ended when Obama took office.

Some of the most explosive revelations come from former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds. In her book “Classified Woman” published last year, she accuses US government officials of collaborating with Al-Qaeda. During interviews she asserted that Al-Qaeda chief Ayman Al-Zawahri regularly met with US intelligence officials between 1997 and 2001. Sunday Times journalists wishing to remain anonymous allege a four-part series on this topic, scheduled to run in 2008, was dropped under pressure from “interest groups” associated with the US State Department.

It’s clear to me that the Islamic faith has been used and abused by Western intelligence agencies to suit their nation’s geopolitical agendas, nations that are almost as much to blame for terrorism acts, carried out by young and impressionable dupes, as those who light the fuse. Politicians, diplomats and spooks, who helped give birth to this Frankensteinian monster we call terrorism, can hardly complain when the creature turns on its master to wreak death and destruction wherever it goes.

Source:  http://www.arabnews.com/news/453158

Defining al Qaeda

By Scott Stewart

The Obama administration's efforts to counter the threat posed by al Qaeda and the wider jihadist movement have been a contentious topic in the U.S. presidential race. Political rhetoric abounds on both sides; administration officials claim that al Qaeda has been seriously crippled, while some critics of the administration allege that the group is stronger than ever. As with most political rhetoric, both claims bear elements of truth, but the truth depends largely on how al Qaeda and jihadism are defined. Unfortunately, politicians and the media tend to define al Qaeda loosely and incorrectly.

The jihadist threat will persist regardless of who is elected president, so understanding the actors involved is critical. But a true understanding of those actors requires taxonomical acuity. It seems worthwhile, then, to revisit Stratfor's definitions of al Qaeda and the wider jihadist movement.

A Network of Networks

Al Qaeda, the group established by Osama bin Laden and his colleagues, was never very large -- there were never more than a few hundred actual members. We often refer to this group, now led by Ayman al-Zawahiri, as the al Qaeda core or al Qaeda prime. While the group's founders trained tens of thousands of men at their camps in Afghanistan and Sudan, they initially viewed themselves as a vanguard organization working with kindred groups to facilitate the jihad they believed was necessary to establish a global Islamic caliphate. Most of the men trained at al Qaeda camps were members of other organizations or were grassroots jihadists. The majority of them received basic paramilitary training, and only a select few were invited to receive additional training in terrorist tradecraft skills such as surveillance, document forgery and bombmaking. Of this select group, only a few men were invited to join the al Qaeda core organization.

Bin Laden envisioned another purpose for al Qaeda: leading the charge against corrupt rulers in the Muslim world and against the United States, which he believed supported corrupt Muslim rulers. Al Qaeda sought to excise the United States from the Muslim world in much the same way that Hezbollah drove U.S. forces out of Lebanon and Somalia forced the U.S. withdrawal from Mogadishu.

Al Qaeda became a network of networks -- a trait demonstrated not only by its training methods but also in bin Laden's rhetoric. For example, bin Laden's 1998 "World Islamic Front" statement, which declared jihad against Jews and Crusaders, was signed by al-Zawahiri (who at the time was leading the Egyptian Islamic Jihad) and leaders of other groups, including the Egyptian Islamic Group, Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Pakistan and the Jihad Movement of Bangladesh.

Following the 9/11 attacks, the United States applied against the al Qaeda core the full pressure of its five counterterrorism levers: intelligence, military, law enforcement, diplomacy and financial sanctions. As a result, many al Qaeda members, eventually including bin Laden, were captured or killed and their assets were frozen. Such measures have ensured that the group remains small for operational security concerns. The remaining members of the group mostly are lying low in Pakistan near the Afghan border, and their isolation there has severely degraded their ability to conduct attacks. The al Qaeda core is now relegated to producing propaganda for guidance and inspiration for other jihadist elements. Despite the disproportionate amount of media attention given to statements from al-Zawahiri and Adam Gadahn, the al Qaeda core constitutes only a very small part of the larger jihadist movement. In fact, it has not conducted a successful terrorist attack in years.

However, the core group has not been destroyed. It could regenerate if the United States eased its pressure, but we believe that will be difficult given the loss of the charismatic bin Laden and his replacement by the irascible al-Zawahiri.

In any case, the jihadist movement transcends the al Qaeda core. In fact, Stratfor for years published an annual forecast of al Qaeda, but beginning in 2009, we intentionally changed the title of the forecast to reflect the isolation and marginalization of the al Qaeda core and the ascendance of other jihadist actors. We believed our analysis needed to focus less on the al Qaeda core and more on the truly active and significant elements of the jihadist movement, including regional groups that have adopted the al Qaeda name and the array of grassroots jihadists.

Franchises and Grassroots

An element of the jihadist movement that is often loosely referred to as al Qaeda is the worldwide network of local or regional militant groups that have assumed al Qaeda's name or ideology. In many cases, the relationships between the leadership of these groups and the al Qaeda core began in the 1980s and 1990s.

Some groups have publicly claimed allegiance to the al Qaeda core, becoming what we refer to as franchise groups. These groups include al Qaeda in Iraq, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Even though these franchises bear the al Qaeda name, they are locally owned and operated. This means that the local commanders have significant latitude in how closely they follow the guidance and philosophy of the al Qaeda core.

Some franchise group leaders, such as AQAP's Nasir al-Wahayshi, maintain strong relationships with the al Qaeda core and are very closely aligned with the core's philosophy. Other leaders, such as Abu Musab Abd al-Wadoud of AQIM, are more distanced. In fact, AQIM has seen severe internal fighting over these doctrinal issues, and several former leaders of Algeria's Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat left the group because of this conflict. Further, it is widely believed that the death of Somali al Qaeda leader Fazul Abdullah Mohammed was arranged by leaders of Somali jihadist group al Shabaab, which he had criticized sharply.

The last and broadest element of the global jihadist movement often referred to as al Qaeda is what Stratfor refers to as grassroots jihadists. These are individuals or small cells of individuals that are inspired by the al Qaeda core -- or increasingly, by its franchise groups -- but that may have little or no actual connection to these groups. Some grassroots jihadists travel to places such as Pakistan or Yemen to receive training from the franchise groups. Other grassroots militants have no direct contact with other jihadist elements.

The core, the franchises and the grassroots jihadists are often interchangeably referred to as al Qaeda, but there are important differences among these actors that need to be recognized.

Important Distinctions

There are some other important distinctions that inform our terminology and our analysis. Not all jihadists are linked to al Qaeda, and not all militant Islamists are jihadists. Islamists are those who believe society is best governed by Islamic law, or Sharia. Militant Islamists are those who advocate the use of force to establish Sharia. Militant Islamists are found in both Islamic sects. Al Qaeda is a Sunni militant Islamist group, but Hezbollah is a Shiite militant Islamist group. Moreover, not all militant Muslims are Islamists. Some take up arms for tribal, territorial, ethnic or nationalistic reasons, or for a combination of reasons.

In places such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya and northern Mali, several militant groups are fighting foreign forces, their government or each other -- and sometimes all of the above. Some of these groups are jihadists, some are tribal militias, some are brigands and smugglers, and others are nationalists. Identifying, sorting and classifying these groups can be very difficult, and sometimes alliances shift or overlap. For example, Yemen's southern separatists will sometimes work with tribal militias or AQAP to fight against the government; other times, they fight against these would-be allies. We have seen similar dynamics in northern Mali among groups such as AQIM, Ansar Dine, the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa, various Tuareg groups and other tribal militias in the region.

Taxonomy becomes even more difficult when a group uses multiple names, or when multiple groups share a name. Groups adopt different names for discretion, confusion or public relations purposes. AQAP called itself Ansar al-Shariah during its fight to take over cities in southern Yemen and to govern the territory. But radical cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri, who was arrested in the United Kingdom in 2004 and extradited to the United States in 2012, has long led a movement likewise called Ansar al-Shariah. Even the Libyan jihadist militia that attacked the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi uses the same name. But just because these groups share a name, and just because members or leaders of the groups know each other, does not necessarily mean that they are chapters of the same group or network of groups, or that they even subscribe to the same ideology. 

Read more: Defining al Qaeda | Stratfor 

Rumsfeld Defends Romney About Benghazi Embassy Attack.

Rumsfeld defends Romney: Embassy attacked because of ‘American weakness’

 

Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is defending Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney for scoring political points by blaming “American weakness” for attacks on U.S. embassies in Egypt and Libya — even though terrorists attacked U.S. embassies 12 times during President George W. Bush’s tenure.

“It’s disgraceful that the Obama administration’s first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks,” Romney had said over a statement from the U.S. embassy that denounced an anti-Muslim movie prior to the attacks.

That initial statement from the former Massachusetts governor and his press conference later in the day were both panned as “irresponsible” and “craven.”

The neoconservative former Defense secretary took to Twitter on Wednesday afternoon to weigh in on the side of Romney.

“The attacks on our embassies & diplomats are a result of perceived American weakness,” Rumsfeld wrote. “Mitt Romney is right to point that out.”

As The Daily Dolt noted on Thursday, terrorists attacked U.S. embassies 12 times while President George W. Bush was in office. At least eight of those attacks occurred while Rumsfeld was serving as secretary of Defense.

Including the attacks on Tuesday, U.S. embassies have come under attack twice since Obama took office.

source: 

http://www.rawstory.com

....

ANOTHER CONSULATE ATTACK....

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86 Muslims arrested in US consulate attack in India

Posted on October 12, 2012 by creeping

via South Asia Mail.

Chennai: Eighty-six people were arrested on Friday after a group of several hundred Muslim protesters threw stones and smashed windows at the US consulate in the Indian city of Chennai, police said.

“They smashed the window panes, surveillance camera and tried to scale over the compound wall, but we dispersed them while exercising restraint,” a senior police officer said on condition of anonymity. “We made 86 arrests.”

The violence flared during a protest organised by the Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam, an Islamist movement, against an anti-Islam film which has triggered similar protests in large parts of the Muslim world.

The protesters also burnt an effigy of US President Barack Obama and an American flag, police said.

One group hurled stones, while others lifted iron barricades placed in front of the main gate to smash windows, police said.

“We have tightened the security and the situation is well under control,” JK Tripathy, the police commissioner in the southern city, told local reporters.

One of the organisers said that what had been planned as a peaceful protest was hijacked by militants.

“We wanted to organise a peaceful demonstration to express our dismay over the film, but the youngsters, who could not hold their nerves, ran and attacked the consulate office,” Gunangudi Hanifa told AFP.

A spokesman for the consulate, who did not give his name, said that no staff had been hurt in the attack.

“No one was injured and all the staff members are safe,” he said.

source: http://creepingsharia.wordpress.com/2012/10/12/86-muslims-arrested-in-us-consulate-attack-in-india/

Security Message. Temporary Closure of U.S. Embassy Islamabad.

Security Message for U.S. Citizens: Temporary Closure of U.S. Embassy Islamabad on Monday, September 17, 2012

This security message informs U.S. citizens that public services at the
U.S. Embassy in Islamabad will be temporarily suspended on Monday,
September 17, 2012 due to the potential for demonstrations in the vicinity
of the Embassy. The Embassy will continue to make every effort to provide
emergency services to U.S. citizens. U.S. citizens should contact (92-51)
208-0000 for emergency American Citizens Services.

For more information on the risks of travel to Pakistan, please see
the Department
of State's most recent Travel Warning by clicking
here.

Updated Information on Travel and Security
Updated information on travel and security in Pakistan may be obtainedfrom
the Department of State by calling 1-888-407-4747 toll-free in the United
States and Canada or, for callers outside the United States and Canada, on
a regular toll line at 1-202-501-4444. These numbers are available from
8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday (except U.S.
federal holidays). For further information, please consult the Travel
Warning for Pakistan and the Country Specific Information for Pakistan, as
well as the Worldwide Caution. You can also stay up to date by bookmarking
our Bureau of Consular Affairs website, which also contains current Travel
Warnings and Travel Alerts. Follow us on Twitter and the Bureau of Consular
Affairs page on Facebook, and download our free Smart Traveler iPhone App
to have travel information at your fingertips.

U.S. citizens traveling to or living in Pakistan are encouraged to enroll
in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP). If you enroll we can keep
you up to date with important safety and security announcements and can
also help your family and friends get in touch with you in an emergency.
U.S. citizens without Internet access may enroll directly with the nearest
U.S. Embassy or Consulate.

To view emergency services to U.S. citizens in the different consular
districts, please click on the links below:

• Islamabad
• Karachi
• Lahore
• Peshawar

Contact Information for all U.S. Mission to Pakistan Posts

• The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad is located at Diplomatic Enclave, Ramna 5; telephone (92-51) 208-0000; Consular Section telephone (92-51) 208-2700; fax (92-51) 282-2632; e-mail address:ACSIslamabad@state.gov.
• The U.S. Consulate General Karachi, located at Plot No 3-5, TPX Area, Mai Kolachi Road, Karachi, provides services to U.S. citizens by appointment only. Services can be scheduled by calling (92-21) 3527-5000 between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m., Monday-Friday; fax (92-21) 3527-5885; website: http://karachi.usconsulate.gov/; e-mail: ACSKarachi@state.gov.
• The U.S. Consulate General in Lahore is located at 50- Sharah-E-Abdul Hameed Bin Badees, (Old Empress Road) near Shimla Hill Rotary; telephone (92-42) 3603-4000 or 3603-4250; fax (92-42)3603-4200; e-mail address: ACSLahore@state.gov.
• The U.S. Consulate General in Peshawar is located at 11 Hospital Road, Cantonment, Peshawar; telephone (92- 1)526-8800; fax (92-91) 527-6712; e-mail address: ACSPeshawar@state.gov.

source: http://islamabad.usembassy.gov/security-091612.html

Pakistanis Try to Storm U.S. Outpost; One Is Killed

By SALMAN MASOOD

Published: September 16, 2012

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — One person was killed and dozens of people were injured when anti-American protesters tried to storm the American Consulate in the southern port city of Karachi and clashed for several hours with the police and paramilitary troops on Sunday evening, rescue workers and police officials said.

The outbreak of violence came after days of peaceful demonstrations in Pakistan against the release of an American-made video mocking the Prophet Muhammad. Pakistani officials had increased security in all major cities before Friday Prayer services, which have in the past served as flash points for protests, and until Sunday, calm had prevailed. The American Embassy here said in a message posted Sunday evening on Twitter that “all American personnel are safe and accounted for at U.S. Consulate, Karachi.”

“The United States government has absolutely nothing to do with this video,” another Twitter message by the American Embassy said. “We reject its content and its message.”

Karachi is Pakistan’s commercial capital, and the sprawling city is frequently torn by ethnic and sectarian violence. “Things usually get out of hand in Karachi,” Mehreen Zahra-Malik, an assistant editor at The News International, said in an interview.

The demonstration on Sunday was spearheaded by two groups of Shiites, a minority in Pakistan, which had urged demonstrators to march “toward” the American Consulate.

The police responded by blocking the road that leads to the American Consulate with concrete barriers and shipping containers on Sunday afternoon. Then, as the march neared, the police fired tear gas canisters into the crowd. That failed to contain waves of angry demonstrators, who grew increasingly agitated, witnesses said.

The police and Rangers, a force controlled by the Interior Ministry, then fired shots into the air as demonstrators rushed through the clouds of tear gas, trying to reach the outer boundary wall of the heavily fortified consulate building. Water cannons were also used on the protesters, who began hurling stones.

Local television broadcast images of young men falling on the roadside after being struck by water jets. One young man ran toward a police officer, who was firing warning shots in the air, and flung his arms open, daring the officer to shoot at his chest.

After battling for a few hours without entering the consulate property, the protesters dispersed. They later assembled in the Numaish Chowrangi neighborhood and staged a sit-in. Local news media reported that the demonstrators had set at least four police vehicles on fire.

Mirza Yousuf Hussain, the leader of one of the two Shiite groups that organized the protest, claimed that violence had broken out in Karachi after police opened fire on “peaceful protesters.” He said in a statement that police fire had killed the brother of the deputy secretary general of his party’s Karachi chapter. He also said two wounded workers were in critical condition. He accused high-ranking police officers of “working to protect American interests.”

read more at http://www.nytimes.com/

Pakistani Politician Warns of US Plot to Misuse Embassy Events in Libya TEHRAN (FNA)- Deputy Head of Majlis Wahdat Muslimeen (MWM) Allama Ameen Shahidi condemned a film recently produced by a US-Israeli man against Islam and voiced support for Muslim protests against the movie, but meantime warned that Washington plots to misuse the relevant events in Libya.

Outrage has been growing across the Muslim world over the five-million-US dollar movie that was financed by more than 100 Jews and produced by an American-Israeli man. On Tuesday and after a trailer of the blasphemous movie took people in Egypt to the streets, people in Libya staged similar protest rallies which led to some clashes at the US consulate in the Eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, and Washington claims that its ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three staff members of the US consulate were killed in the clashes at the consulate building. Following the events at the US consulate in Benghazi, the US evacuated all its diplomats in Libya and several other regional countries, but it then dispatched several warships to the Libyan coasts and deployed hundreds of marines and special forces in the country under the pretext of protecting the life of the Untied States' diplomatic corps in there. In relevant remarks on Sunday, Allama Ameen Shahidi told FNA that "the US wants to misuse the events after the attack on its embassy in Libya similar to (what it did after) the September 11 (2011) incident". He said that attacking the US mission in Libya was an Israeli plot to divert the public opinion from the main issue which is insult to Muslims in a blasphemous movie, reminding that Israelis had earlier used a similar tactic in the September 11 attacks against the New York Twin Towers, which was later used to wage war on the two Muslim nations of Afghanistan and Iraq. The anti-Islam film has drawn condemnation from numerous countries including Afghanistan, Egypt, Libya, Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Iran, Yemen, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, Morocco, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, etc.  read more at http://english.farsnews.com/ Protests across Pakistan against anti-Islam film Pakistani Muslim protesters cross barbed wires as they attempt to reach the US embassy during a demonstration against the anti-Islam film in Islamabad on September 14, 2012. – AFP Photo ISLAMABAD: Hundreds of people demonstrated in cities around Pakistan on Friday to denounce an anti-Islam movie, with some urging death for the film-maker and others demanding the expulsion of US diplomats. The low-budget movie, entitled “Innocence of Muslims”, which has sparked fury across the Muslim world, pokes fun at the Prophet Mohammed and touches on themes of paedophilia and homosexuality. Police beefed up security around US missions in Pakistan after violent attacks on American consulates and embassies in Egypt, Libya and Yemen this week, but protests in the country’s major cities on Friday passed off largely without incident. In the eastern city of Lahore, Hafiz Saeed, head of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa charity, seen as a front for a banned militant organisation, led a 500-strong rally against the film. Saeed – who has a $10 million US government bounty on him – urged the Pakistan government to summon the American ambassador to protest over the film. “We condemn this conspiracy of producing (an) anti-Islam film. Such blasphemous acts are intentional conspiracies from the US and we will not tolerate it,” he told the rally. Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) organised a rally in Karachi, where around 700 party activists and supporters gathered with banners and placards bearing anti-US and anti-Israel slogans. “Hang the filmmaker…hang the apostate,” they chanted. “Jihad is the only treatment to cure American cancer,” another slogan said. Around 400 protesters rallied in front of Islamabad’s Red Mosque after Friday prayers, following a call from JI. They called for the handover of Terry Jones, an American Christian pastor linked with the film, who has drawn protests in the past for burning the Quran. “Terry Jones should be handed to us for a trial in the sharia court,” a speaker at the rally told the gathering. Sharia courts try defendants according to Islamic law. Another speaker called for closure of the US embassy and the expulsion of the US ambassador and other diplomats from Pakistan. Elsewhere in the capital, there were two smaller demonstrations against the film, one of which led to brief scuffles with police. In Peshawar, the northwestern city on the edge of the lawless tribal areas where anti-US feeling runs high, around 150 gathered after Friday prayers, chanting “Death to America”. source: http://dawn.com/2012/09/14/protests-across-pakistan-against-anti-islam-film/ Al-Qaida calls for more attacks on embassies By AYA BATRAWY and LEE KEATH - Associated Press CAIRO — Al-Qaida's most active branch in the Middle East called for more attacks on U.S. embassies Saturday to "set the fires blazing," seeking to co-opt outrage over an anti-Muslim film even as the wave of protests that swept 20 countries this week eased. Senior Muslim religious authorities issued their strongest pleas yet against resorting to violence, trying to defuse Muslim anger over the film a day after new attacks on U.S. and Western embassies that left at least eight protesters dead. The top cleric in U.S. ally Saudi Arabia denounced the film but said it can't really hurt Islam, a contrast to protesters' frequently heard cries that the movie amounts to a humiliating attack that requires retaliation. He urged Muslims not to be "dragged by anger" into violence. The head of the Sunni Muslim world's pre-eminent religious institution, Egypt's Al-Azhar, backed peaceful protests but said Muslims should counter the movie by reviving Islam's moderate ideas. In the Egyptian capital Cairo, where the first protests against the movie that denigrates the Prophet Muhammad erupted, police finally succeeded in clearing away protesters who had been clashing with security forces for days near the U.S. Embassy. Police arrested 220 people and a concrete wall was erected across the road leading to the embassy. No significant protests were reported in the Mideast Saturday; the only report of violence linked to the film came from Australia, where riot police clashed with about 200 protesters at the U.S. Consulate in Sydney. In his weekly radio and Internet address, President Barack Obama paid tribute to the four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, who were killed in an armed attack on the U.S. Consulate in the eastern Libyan city on Benghazi this week. He also denounced the anti-U.S. mob protests that followed. "I have made it clear that the United States has a profound respect for people of all faiths. We stand for religious freedom. And we reject the denigration of religion - including Islam," Obama said. "Yet there is never any justification for violence. There is no religion that condones the targeting of innocent men and women." In Afghanistan, the Taliban claimed responsibility for an attack the night before by 20 insurgents on a sprawling British based in southern Afghanistan that killed two U.S. Marines. The Taliban said the attack was to avenge Muslims insulted by the film. It also said the attack came because Britain's Prince Harry is serving at the base, though British officials said he was far from the site of the attack and was unharmed. Friday's demonstrations spread to more than 20 countries in the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia. While most were peaceful, marches in several places exploded into violence. In Sudan, crowds torched part of the German Embassy and tried to storm the American Embassy. Protesters climbed the walls into the U.S. Embassy in Tunis, torching cars in the parking lot, trashing the entrance building and setting fire to a gym and a neighboring American school. Four demonstrators were killed in Tunisia, two in Sudan, one in Lebanon and one in Egypt - the first Egyptian protester to die in clashes with police since Islamist President Mohammed Morsi took up his post this summer. On Thursday, four Yemeni protesters were killed in protests that turned violent at the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa. The Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, considered the most dangerous of the terror network's branches to the U.S., called the killing of Stevens "the best example" for those attacking embassies to follow. "What has happened is a great event, and these efforts should come together in one goal, which is to expel the embassies of America from the lands of the Muslims," the group said. It called on protests to continue in Muslim nations "to set the fires blazing at these embassies." It also called on "our Muslim brothers in Western nations to fulfill their duties in supporting God's prophet ... because they are the most capable of reaching them and vexing them." The U.S called the Yemen al-Qaida branch the most dangerous threat after it plotted a series of attempted attacks , including the Christmas 2009 failed bombing of a passenger jet. It has suffered a series of blows since, including the recent killing in a drone strike of its number two-leader, Saeed al-Shihri. Yemen's U.S.-backed government has been waging an offensive against the group, taking back territory and cities in the south that the group's fighters seized last year. So far, there has been no evidence of a direct role by al-Qaida in the protests. U.S. and Libyan officials are investigating whether the protests were a cover for militants, possibly al-Qaida sympathizers, to carry out a coordinated attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi and kill Americans. Washington has deployed FBI investigators to try and track down militants behind the attack. The United States sent an elite, 50-member Marine unit to Yemen's capital to bolster security at the embassy there, which protesters broke into on Thursday and then tried again to assault Friday. A similar team was dispatched to Tripoli, Libya, on Wednesday after the deadly attack the night before on the Benghazi consulate. But the Sudanese government said Saturday it had refused to allow a similar Marine deployment to the embassy in Khartoum. Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Karti declined the request, saying Sudan is capable of protecting diplomatic missions, the state news agency said. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Sudan's government "has recommitted itself both publicly and privately to continue to protect our mission." She said the U.S. has requested additional security precautions. Later in the day, the State Department issued a travel warning for Sudan and Tunisia, ordering home non-essential personnel and family members of staff at posts in both countries over security concerns. The department added that while Sudan's government has taken steps to limit the activities of terrorist groups, some remain there and have threatened to attack Western interests. The terrorist threat level remains critical, it said. Elsewhere in the region, security was increased Saturday at several spots that had been targeted. Police in Lebanon beefed up their presence around U.S. fast food restaurants Saturday, after angry crowds Friday set fire to a KFC and a Hardee's restaurant in the port city of Tripoli. In Tunisia, the U.S. Embassy compound and school were surrounded by police and army vehicles Saturday. The protests were sparked by an obscure, amateurish movie called "Innocence of Muslims" that depicts Muhammad as a fraud, a womanizer and a pedophile. A 14-minute "trailer" for the movie, dubbed into Arabic, was posted on YouTube. The top religious authority in Saudi Arabia, Grand Mufti Sheik Abdel-Aziz al-Sheik, condemned the movie on Saturday but said it "will not harm" Islam or Muhammad. "Muslims should not be dragged by wrath and anger to shift from legitimate to forbidden actions. By this, they will unknowingly fulfill some aims of the film," he said. The head of al-Azhar, Sheik Ahmed al-Tayeb, called on the United Nations to take a stand against hate speech, pointing out that the world body has done so in defense of Jewish people. He said that while defending the Prophet Muhammad is a duty for all Muslims - it should be "not only through peaceful protests ... but also through reviving his teachings in all walks of life and spreading his moderate ideas." In the U.S., the man behind the movie was questioned at a California sheriff's station early Saturday by federal probation officers investigating whether he had violated terms of his five-year probation. Nakoula Basseley Nakoula wasn't arrested or detained. read more at http://www.thestate.com Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2012/09/15/2442669/egypt-clears-protesters-from-us.html#.UFZeu42PVK0#storylink=cpy Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2012/09/15/2442669/egypt-clears-protesters-from-us.html#.UFZeu42PVK0#storylink=cpy Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2012/09/15/2442669/egypt-clears-protesters-from-us.html#.UFZeu42PVK0#storylink=cpy