— 2 civilians injured in Narathiwat bomb attack
Category: Uncategorized
“Algerian Muslims Block Christmas Service”
Indonesia: Massive Mob in Indonesia Protests Christmas Eve Service
Report: Austria – Hizb ut-Tahrir Threatens Austrian Government Official
— Austrian Times and other media report:
— “A banned radical Islamic organisation has sent a threatening letter to Social Democratic (SPÖ) Women’s Minister Gabriele Heinisch-Hosek after she called for a ban on burkas, according to the Österreich newspaper.”
— “The newspaper reported today (Weds) that the Hizb ut-Tahrir organisation based in Lebanon had sent it a three-page email after Christmas in which it condemned the minister’s remarks last week and threatened her using the sentence from the Koran: ‘And know that Allah is strong in punishment.’ ”
— “Hizb ut-Tahrir – which experts say is the first transnational organisation dominated by Palestinians calling for a caliphate or world-wide Islamic state – is considered dangerous and was banned in 2003 in Germany for its support of violence.”
— “A spokesperson for Heinisch-Hosek said her ministry had been in contact with the Office for Protection of the Constitution and the Fight against Terrorism and was taking the matter very seriously.”
Additional R.E.A.L. Postings on Extremist Hizb ut-Tahrir Group
Florida jail fires Ku Klux Klan (KKK) member – member defends white supremacist group as “faith-based organization”
— Gainesville Sun reports: “Detention officer fired for alleged KKK membership”
— “According to the Sheriff’s Office, the termination of Wayne Kerschner came after an internal investigation in which Kerschner said he had been a formal member of the organization since 2008 and became interested in it through his wife, Shanda Lynn Kerschner.”
— ” ‘It was jarring to find out that someone in our agency was involved with an insidious organization,’ Alachua County Sheriff Sadie Darnell said Wednesday. ‘Termination was warranted. I want the action to send a message that this is offensive behavior and is not acceptable at all.’ ”
— “Kerschner is quoted in an internal affairs report as describing the KKK as ‘faith-based, it is more of a religion-based organization, more of a political-based organization, that their hopes are to increase membership to further the political goals of the group, to look out for the white race ….’ ”
— Miami Herald reports: “Kerschner reportedly told investigators that the KKK was a faith-based group and said he believed in the organization’s ideology.”
— AP reports: “Florida jail fires officer for being KKK member – He defended group as a faith-based organization”
— “A county jailer in Florida has been fired after telling investigators he was an officer of the Ku Klux Klan.”
— “An internal affairs report by the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office says Detention Officer Wayne Kerschner defended the KKK as a faith-based organization.”
— “Kerschner told investigators that he blogged on a KKK Web site, attended a rally in Tennessee and paid dues to the United Northern and Southern Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. He said his wife was also a member.”
— “Kerschner was fired Wednesday for violating a department ban on subversive or terrorist organizations. He had worked four years at the jail in Gainesville. A phone number for Kerschner could not be found Thursday.”
— “The investigation started after a tip from a sheriff’s deputy working on an FBI investigation.”
— The Tennessee-based white supremacist hate group, United Northern and Southern Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, claims “Our ideology is simple, self preservation and the advancement of the White Christian America”
— The hate group calls for “segregation of the races [or tribes ] as they were referred to in the Bible,” attacks and slurs Black Americans
— Tennessee-based white supremacist group seeks members “to play an active part in the preservation of the White race”… praising Robert E. Lee, attacking “race mixing” and “mongrelizing of the races,” attacking “queers,” and call the KKK a “white Christian resistance”
— The hate group’s motto is “Ku Klux Klan, bring hope to the white race!”
See also March 2009:
“When Supremacism Uses A Religious Disguise”
We urge those who hate their fellow human beings through racial and religious extremism to drop the hate from their heart, accept our shared universal human rights, and rejoin the brotherhood of humanity.
Jordan: Father’s Jail Sentence Reduced in “Honor Killing” of 17 Year Old Daughter Murdered for Being Rape Victim
— AFP reports: “Jordan jails man for 10 years over ‘honour killing’ ”
— “A Jordanian court sentenced a 61-year-old man to 10 years in prison on Wednesday after convicting him of killing his teenage daughter last year to ‘defend his honour,’ a judicial official said.”
— ” ‘In 2008, the 17-year-old girl was kidnapped and raped by a group of men, who are currently on trial,’ the official told AFP.”
— ” ‘But the father suspected that his daughter was involved in a sexual relationship with one of the men. He shot her dead before handing himself in to police, claiming he wanted to defend his honour.’ ”
— ” The court initially jailed the father for 15 years, ‘but decided to reduce the sentence after the man’s family urged leniency,’ he said, adding the murder took place in Ein Basha, outside Amman.”
— “In a separate case, a court commuted the death sentence of a man to 10 years in jail for strangling his married sister to death in 2007 ‘because he suspected the girl was involved in prostitution,’ in the Red Sea port of Aqaba, an official said.”
— “The official declined to elaborate.”
— “Murder is punishable by death in Jordan but in so-called ‘honour’ cases a court sometimes commutes or reduces sentences, particularly if the victim’s family urges leniency.”
Pakistan: Taliban Claim Responsibility for Karachi Bombing – Attack on Minority Shiite Muslims
Pakistan: Taliban Claim Responsibility for Karachi Bombing
Voice of America reports:
“A top Pakistani Taliban commander is claiming responsibility for Monday’s attack on a Shi’ite religious procession that killed 43 people and sparked fires that burned for days.”
“Asmatullah Shaheen said Wednesday his group sent the bomber who wreaked havoc on the Ashura ritual in the southern city of Karachi. He told Reuters news agency that the Taliban ‘will carry out more such attacks within ten days.’ ”
“Sunni Muslim extremists, including the Taliban, regard Shi’ites as heretics. Shi’ites make up one-fifth of Pakistan’s population, while Sunnis account for about 70 percent.”
“Monday’s bomb attack in Karachi was the third in as many days targeting Ashura observances by Pakistani Shi’ites.”
Pakistan: Taliban own Karachi Ashura carnage – killing 44 minority Shiite Muslims
— Dawn: “The claim was made by one of the country’s most wanted commanders of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).”
— Dawn quote of Taliban’s Asmatullah Shaheen: “We carried out the suicide bombing in Karachi”
— Pakistan Daily Times: Taliban claim Youm-e-Ashur bombing, threaten more attacks
— AKI : Pakistan: Taliban claims deadly attack on Karachi procession
Chicago: Hizb ut-Tahrir America Promotes Extremism As Solution to Pakistan Violence, Poverty
In the Chicago suburb of Lombard on December 20, 2009, Hizb ut-Tahrir America (HTA) held a recruitment event to promote its anti-democracy views, with the focus of this event by claiming that the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is not sufficiently “Islamic” enough for Hizb ut-Tahrir’s goals of creating “Islamic states” in building a global aliphate.
Three days before the HTA Lombard event, Hizb ut-Tahrir published an “open letter to the Ulema of Pakistan” calling for the Pakistan people to overthrow their government, and “uprooting the agent government,” and stating “the Ulema should issue a Fatwa for the expulsion of America from the region.” In this December 17 press release, Hizb ut-Tahrir further claimed that “America has planned to shift the blame of her crimes towards the Muslims…”
This message was conveyed to new American recruits in the Chicago area by Hizb ut-Tahrir America in a “lecture given by Abu Baseer.” Baseer spoke to a group of approximately 40 individuals, with women once again segregated in the back of the Lombard community building facility.
In the Lombard government-managed facility, Abu Baseer told new Hizb ut-Tahrir America recruits not to trust Christians and Jews as “allies,” stating that it was against Allah’s will. Abu Baseer also denounced “the Kafir” (“infidel”) stating that the “sanctity of Muslim blood is greater… than the sanctity of the Kafir.” (The next day, December 21, Hizb ut-Tahrir America posted an article stating that schools for other religions, such as Jews, would only be permitted for “Dhimmis” accepting a state of servitude.)
Hizb ut-Tahrir America’s Abu Baseer described the circumstances in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan as one where that nation has suffered from a Pakistan government that is “bombing Muslims and burning innocent females and children alive.” He used this as the emotional centerpiece of his argument as to why extremism was necessary to end the “corruption” in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
Abu Baseer provided a pro-extremist spin on the July 2007 confrontation between the Pakistan government and the extremist jihadists who took over the Lal Masjid (“Red Mosque,”) using it as a base for extremists who held children hostage and killed Pakistan soldiers, as reported by the New York Times, London Times, Dawn News, and others. Abu Baseer did not tell new recruits how Lal Masjid was not used as a place of worship, but as a extremist armory of “machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, ammunition, antitank mines, unexploded suicide vests and a crate of petrol bombs”, anti-aircraft weapons, nor does he mention that it was extremists that “booby-trapped the compound.” He didn’t mention that the Lal Masjid mosque was used to try to shoot down planes. He didn’t mention about the letters found there from Al-Qaeda leader Al-Zawahiri providing direction. He did not tell American recruits how extremists held boys and girls hostage at Lal Masjid from their Muslim parents, were not allowed to leave, and how the extremists shot one father who dared to pick up his son. He did not tell American recruits how the Pakistan government pleaded for the Lal Masjid jihadists to release the hostage children to safety.
Nor did Abu Baseer tell new Hizb ut-America recruits that it was in fact a Lal Masjid Violent Extremist who spilled “Muslim blood” as reported in the London Times that “transformed from a seat of religious learning to an inferno by the suicide bomber who detonated his charge as the Pakistani commandos stormed the Red Mosque compound.” All the new American recruits for the extremist Hizb ut-Tahrir were told is that it was the Pakistan government “burning innocent females and children alive,” inciting hatred against the Pakistan government as “un-Islamic.”
Hizb ut-Tahrir America’s Abu Baseer used a showman’s countdown of a litany of “symptoms” of Pakistan’s problems, war, violence, poverty, describing “the Pakistani government bombing Muslims,” claims that Pakistani people were “bombed indiscriminately from the air,” describing the “Pakistan economy in shackles,” stating that “to get billions of dollars of aid, Pakistan has to agree to draconian measures… to increase poverty in the country,” Abu Baseer kept stating that all these were merely “symptoms,” not the “cause” of Pakistan’s problems. Abu Baseer got at least one audible “wow” from his audience when describing the suffering of the Pakistan people, which he blamed on the Pakistan government not being sufficiently “Islamic,” and described myriad imagined “plots” by America to take over Pakistan, including blaming President Barack Obama.
Abu Baseer claimed that “America wants to invade and occupy Pakistan for itself,” imagining a U.S. plot “to control the gateway to Southeast Asia” and “immense energy resources” and an imagined U.S. plot to create a “major front against America’s competitors like China and Russia,” viewing the “war on terror” as a “proxy war” intended to “partition Pakistan.” Never criticizing the Taliban, Abu Baseer claimed that the violence in Pakistan was not the result of terrorists, but was coordinated by the Pakistan government and U.S. contractor Blackwater. Abu Baseer claimed that U.S. contractor Blackwater is planning activities for inside Pakistan to “destabilize the country,” with Blackwater agents working to “make others look bad” using the “same devious practices used to create chaos in Iraq.” Abu Baseer claimed that “Pakistan rulers are providing all support to U.S. in this bloodbath” and that “the government is declaring every bomb blast a suicide blast to exonerate the [Pakistan] secret service and secret agencies like Blackwater…”
Hizb ut-Tahrir America’s Abu Baseer claimed that all of Pakistan’s problems, like those of Iraq and other nations, had the same “cause” – the failure to adopt what Hizb ut-Tahrir America calls an “Islamic state.” Hizb ut-Tahrir’s “Islamic state” has been clearly defined in the past with its rejection of democracy, rejection of liberty, rejection of women’s rights, rejection of religious freedom, and calls for the “death penalty” for “traitor” apostates who leave Islam.
Abu Baseer continued to attack democracy at the Lombard event as well, claiming that democracy was part of “British colonial law” designed to subjugate the Pakistan Muslim population, and stating that democracy is something “other than what Allah” demands, which will result in continued “injustices towards the people.” Abu Baseer denounced the current “system of ruling” in Pakistan, stating that “a fair system can only come from Allah” – and that “system of Islam… an Islamic state” is required. Regarding democracy in Pakistan, Abu Baseer stated that Muslims must “replace [such] systems altogether” and that with its population and nuclear weapons that Pakistan would be more powerful if it became a true “Islamic state.”
Abu Baseer stated that there would be “great punishment” against the Pakistan army, and claimed that the rulers of Pakistan “have violated the command of Allah.” Their greatest crime, in Hizb ut-Tahrir America’s views, was Abu Baseer’s view on “security alliances.” Abu Baseer told the Lombard event audience “all you who believe, do not take the Jews and Christians for your allies, they are but allies to one another, and whoever allies themselves with them becomes one of them” and that “Allah does not prize such evil doers.”
The crowd concluded the event with a chant of “Allahu Akbar.”
Hizb ut-Tahrir Pakistan’s manifesto calls for all male children at age 15 to get military “Violent Extemism training” (page 37).
Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) contacted the Lombard government and law enforcement authorities regarding Hizb ut-Tahrir America’s past calls for the “death penalty” for those who leave Islam as “traitors,” and urged them to contact federal authorities. No response was received on this issue. In addition, R.E.A.L. also contacted the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division on Hizb ut-Tahrir America’s pattern of upremacist threats against others civil rights. No response has yet been received on this issue.
The anti-democracy international Hizb ut-Tahrir organization has a long history of making death threats both in the U.S. and around the world. In Bangladesh in November 2009, Hizb ut-Tahrir was reported as having threatened to murder a university vice chancellor who sought to prevent professors who promoted hate at a Bangladesh university. At the beginning of December 2009, Hizb ut-Tahrir Indonesia called for stonings and whippings as the answer to addressing the AIDS disease.
Muslims such as Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD), reject the anti-democratic message of Hizb ut-Tahrir as a “Violent Extremist indoctrination group.” In AIFD’s comments regarding Hizb ut-Tahrir America’s July 2009 event in the Chicago Oak Lawn suburb, AIFD stated that:
“Hizb ut-Tahrir is an Islamist network that is committed to creating an Islamic Caliphate that spans the globe. The organization is banned in Germany and Russia as well as several Arab countries and targets Muslim children between the ages of 9 and 18. Many compare their efforts to organizations like the Hitler Youth. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, is counted among their alumnus.”
Dr. Jasser stated that “Hizb ut-Tahrir preaches an ideology that calls for the destruction of the principles that America is founded on.”
BBC television broadcast on its Panorama television show on the Hizb ut-Tahrir, interviewing a British “influential Muslim figure” who stated about Hizb ut-Tahrir to BBC: “I believe that if Hizb ut-Tahrir are not stopped at this stage and we continue to let them to politicize and pollute the youngsters’ minds and other gullible peoples minds, that what will happen in effect is that these terrorism acts and these suicide bombings that we hear going on around us in foreign countries, we will actually start seeing these incidents happening right outside our doorsteps.”
We support our unqualified, universal human rights for all. We urge Hizb ut-Tahrir supporters to drop the burden of the hate of extremism from their hearts, and to rejoin the family of humanity in support of our universal human rights.
Other R.E.A.L. Postings on Hizb-ut-Tahrir
Anti-Democracy Hizb ut-Tahrir Promotion at Indonesian-Govt Sponsored Event
Hizb ut-Tahrir Using Twitter to Promote Anti-Democracy Message
Hizb ut-Tahrir America Says “Dhimmi” Schools Permitted for Jews, But Nothing Like Today’s Schools
Pakistan: “Hizb ut-Tahrir turn on the charm in Pakistan”
Chicago: Extremist Group Conspires Against Rights
UK: British School Linked to Hizb ut-Tahrir Funding Restored
Chicago: Anti-Democracy Hizb ut-Tahrir Group Event in Lombard, IL on December 20
World AIDS Day: Hizb ut-Tahrir Calls for Stonings, Whippings, Islamic Caliphate
National Post Describes Anti-Jewish Hizb ut-Tahrir’s Growth on College Campuses
Bangladesh: Anti-Freedom, Extremist Group Hizb ut-Tahrir Threatens to Murder University Official
UK: Hizb ut-Tahrir Anti-Democracy Extremist Group Schools Receive Government Funding
White House Adviser Joins UK Interview with Anti-Democratic Hizb ut-Tahrir Group
Extremist Hizb ut-Tahrir Event Promoted with Beheaded Statue of Liberty
UK: Press Reports of “Furious Residents” over Extremist Hizb ut-Tahrir Conference
Canada: Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) Extremist Group to Meet in Govt-Managed Community Center
Chicago’s Moment of Freedom: Chicagoans Stand Up for Freedom Challenging Hizb ut-Tahrir
July 19 – Chicago: R.E.A.L. Pro-Freedom Protest to Challenge Hizb ut-Tahrir America Conference
North Korea Detains American Activist Robert Park Who Calls for Human Rights; NKFC Calls for Humanitarian Consideration
North Korea confirms detention of US citizen
— London Times reports:
— “A brief report by the Korean Central News Agency yesterday noted the arrest of an unnamed US citizen, thought to be Robert Park, a 28-year-old of Korean descent, who walked across the frozen Tumen River that divides China from North Korea.”
— “He carried with him letters addressed to Mr Kim, asking him to step down as leader, release political prisoners and open the isolated country to foreigners.”
— ” ‘I am going in for the sake of the lives of the North Korean people,’ he told Reuters news agency before traveling to China from the South Korean capital, Seoul, last week.”
— ” ‘If Mr Kim kills me, in a sense, I realise this is better. Then the governments of the world will become more . . . embarrassed and more forced to make a statement. Until the concentration camps are liberated, I do not want to come out. If I have to die with them I will. These innocent men, women and children … as Christians, we need to take the cross for them.’ ”
— “Supporters and relatives of Mr Park, whose border crossing was filmed by Christian activists, expressed relief that he was alive, despite a discrepancy in the date in the state media report.”
— North Korea Detains U.S. Activist
— North Korea holding American
— Washington Times: “The report did not identify the American, but activists believe he is 28-year-old Christian missionary Robert Park, who they say slipped across the frozen Tumen River into North Korea from China on Christmas bearing letters calling for a change in North Korea’s leadership and an end to political prison camps.”
North Korea Freedom Coalition Appeals for Humanitarian Consideration for American Robert Park
Washington, DC (December 30, 2009) The North Korea Freedom Coalition has sent urgent appeals today for humanitarian consideration for American Robert Park, a devout Christian, who crossed into North Korea on Christmas Day in his words “to proclaim Christ’s love and forgiveness” and to call upon North Korea to open its borders so food and medicine can be delivered and to close down its political prison camps. NKFC sent appeals to Dr. Jakob Kellenberger, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross; Sweden’s Ambassador to North Korea Mats Foyer (the protecting power for United States in the DPRK); and Ambassador Sin Son Ho, North Korea’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations.
Citing Robert Park’s motivation for entering North Korea as an expression of his great love and compassion for the North Korean people, NKFC specifically requested Dr. Kellenberger and Ambassador Foyer’s help to ensure that Park is treated humanely. In their letters to Kellenberger and Foyer, they noted that international attention to the detainment of American activists Euna Lee and Laura Ling was critical and led to their eventual return home, while permanent American resident Reverend Kim Dong Shik starved to death while detained in North Korea.
In their letter to North Korean Ambassador Sin appealing for Park to be given humanitarian consideration, the non-denominational NKFC, which has Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, and Muslim members, wrote, “We know that Robert Park entered North Korea illegally, but we know him to be a man of great love and compassion for humanity and especially for the people of North Korea…We appeal to the authorities in North Korea to consider that this man’s actions were totally motivated by his love for them and that his behavior is modeled on the teachings of Jesus Christ, who Christians believe laid down his life for mankind. Certainly, this was what motivated Robert to cross the border on the day that Jesus’ birth is celebrated around the world.”
Park has been spearheading efforts in South Korea including prayer vigils and mass demonstrations to call attention to the suffering of the North Korean people and has led the worldwide campaign Freedom and Life for all North Koreans. He has not been heard from since he crossed the border on Christmas Day, but North Korean authorities have confirmed that he is in their custody.
“He knew fully the risks of going to North Korea,” said NKFC Chairman Suzanne Scholte, “but was willing to lay down his life for the North Korean people who are the most persecuted people in the world today. We need to honor his commitment by redoubling our efforts to promote freedom and human rights for North Koreans. “
The NKFC released a report this month entitled “The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and North Korea” that examines the thirty articles of this document to conclude that North Koreans are denied every single one of these universally accepted human rights standards. The document is available at nkfreedom.org.
For further information, visit nkfreedom.org or call 703-534-4313 703-534-4313 .
Communist China to lift Internet, phone bans in Xinjiang: state media
Communist China to lift Internet, phone bans in Xinjiang: state media
— AFP reports: “China plans to restore online access and lift a ban on text messages and international calls in Xinjiang, state media said Tuesday, months after deadly ethnic unrest prompted a communications shutdown.”
— “The official Xinhua news agency quoted the regional government as saying it had restored access to part of the wire’s website as well as parts of the website of the state-run People’s Daily newspaper.”