Today's Top Islamic News (DAILY)

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British soldier killed by blast in Afghanistan
Mon, 28 Dec 2009 23:15:46 GMT

A British soldier has been killed in an explosion while patrolling in southern Afghanistan.

The soldier, whose identity has not been revealed, was killed on Monday in the Kajaki area of Helmand province where his 3rd Battalion, known as The Rifles, has been stationed along with other British troops.

The latest incident raises the death toll for British troops based in Afghanistan to 244, the British Defense Ministry announced.

“It is my sad duty to inform you that a British soldier from 3rd Battalion, The Rifles was killed this afternoon,” Lieutenant Colonel David Wakefield, the spokesman for the British military's Task Force Helmand, said on Monday.

“He was caught by an explosion while on patrol in the Kajaki area of Helmand province. His courage and his sacrifice will not be forgotten,” he added.

GHN/HGL

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Russian police free 15 child slaves
Mon, 28 Dec 2009 14:00:21 GMT

The smuggling of laborers and slaves continues to grow despite international crackdowns.
Russian police have reportedly exposed a sweatshop in the Moscow region, where 15 Kyrgyzstan children under the age of 18 were kept as slave laborers.

The illegal workshop was forcing labor on underfed children as young as 11, while some of the children were also mistreated, RIA Novosti news agency reported Monday.

"An illegal sewing workshop was discovered at the site of a factory in the town of Noguinsk. Among the workers, were minors from Kyrgyzstan," the police said.

"No salaries had been paid to the minors, they had no days off. These underage slaves were fed twice daily with a ration of break and mayonnaise."

A Kyrgyz national was in charge of luring the children's parents with the promise of 5,000 rubles (168 dollars) per month, provided they allowed the children to be taken abroad. He would also guarantee the children would have good living conditions and two days off per week.

The criminal organization would lock up the children in factories' facilities upon arrival in Russia.

With hundreds of thousands of migrants smuggled into Russia each year from Kyrgyzstan and other ex-Soviet republics, slave trafficking is growing as profitable as the drug trade.

ZHD/MMN

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Over 7mn UK households in fuel poverty
Mon, 28 Dec 2009 08:18:30 GMT

The shocking report shows that heating homes in the UK has become a luxury rather than a basic necessity.
More than seven million households in Britain have fallen into "fuel poverty" amidst a bitter winter, the results of a recent opinion poll shows.

The survey released Monday by the National Housing Federation, an umbrella group for housing charities, showed two-thirds of people questioned said they heat their homes less than they desire because they can not afford the high prices of gas and electricity.

Over sixty percent of Britons meanwhile say they are "worried" or "very worried" about how they would pay their energy bills, because of the increasing cost of energy.

"The findings of our poll are truly shocking," David Orr, chief executive of the housing charity organization said.

This means that "heating our homes has become a luxury rather than a basic necessity -particularly for the elderly, low paid and unemployed," Orr added.

Another poll, recently done by YouGov among 2,050 adults, shows 29 percent of those surveyed said they spent more than a 10th of their income on fuel, equating to 7.25 million households.

The cost of energy in the UK is increasing because of rising wholesale prices and a dependence on imported energy.

The reports add to pressure on UK ministers to take action against energy suppliers to bring down bills and increase social support for vulnerable households and ensure they can stay healthy in the cold.

Britain's economy has taken a hammering by the international financial crisis and the resulting global downturn early 2008, forcing the European nation into its first recession in 18 years from a 12-year high.

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Ten Afghan civilians killed in NATO airstrikes
Mon, 28 Dec 2009 18:09:42 GMT

US soldiers on patrol in Kunar
Ten civilians including eight school children have been killed the latest episode of NATO's imprecise airstrikes in Afghanistan.

"Initial reports indicate that in a series of operations by international forces in Kunar province... 10 civilians, eight of them school students have been killed," Afghan President Hamid Karzai's office said Monday.

Karzai has strongly condemned the killings in the airstrikes and appointed a delegation to investigate the event.

NATO forces in Kabul said they were looking into the incident, but declined to give further details.

Kunar representative in the parliament walked out of an important session debating appointments to Karzai's new cabinet in protest at the civilian casualties.

The border regions of Kunar have long been volatile as Taliban militants are said to cross the porous border from Pakistan to fight Western troops and Afghan government forces.

The imprecise operations carried out by the 100,000-plus foreign forces in Afghanistan have been criticized for their potential in claiming civilian casualties.

In one of the worst such cases, more than 140 people, including at least 30 civilians, were killed or wounded in Kunduz Province on September 4.

RZS/MMN

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60 injured as police and mourners clash in Kashmir
Sun, 27 Dec 2009 01:38:36 GMT

At least 60 people have been injured as Indian police, trying to stop defying mourners in Kashmir, used batons and tear gas against them.

Since 1989, when a rebellion broke out against Indian rule, New Delhi has banned public gatherings and Muharram processions marking the martyrdom anniversary of Prophet Muhammad's grandson, Imam Hussein (PBUH), in the year 61 Hijra (680 CE).

On Saturday evening, when police tried to stop the procession, clashes erupted between the mourners and police in Srinagar, the main city of Kashmir.

The police used batons and fired tear gas at the hundreds of stone-throwing mourners. At least 60 were injured, including seven policemen and six photojournalists, news reports said late on Saturday.

More than 50 people were also detained.

The procession was headed by members of Ittihad-ul-Muslimeen Jammu & Kashmir, part of the region's main separatist alliance, the All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in Jammu and Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority state since an anti-Indian insurgency broke out two decades ago.

FTP/SS/MMA

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US missiles mow down 13 in Pakistan
Sun, 27 Dec 2009 14:30:29 GMT

US drone attacks continue to claim lives in the Pakistani border area of North Waziristan amid Washington's failure to push Islamabad into major offensives on the area.

The surveillance aircraft on Saturday attacked the Saidgi village in the tribal area reportedly killing 13 people, AFP reported. The raid marked the third of such attacks over the past ten days.

Quoting a local intelligence official, CNN said the projectiles had hit a militant hideout and that the mortalities had all been militants.

Local Pakistani news outlets, however, said the missiles struck the “residential compound of” a local tribesman, Asmatullah.

Islamabad has launched major offensives in the neighboring South Waziristan as well as the other northwestern areas of Khyber and Swat under pressure from the US, whose large-scale military presence in Afghanistan is blamed to have sent the militants across the border into Pakistan.

The ongoing military hostilities in South Waziristan have prompted 80,000 people to flee the area. The United Nations has warned that 170,000 others could be rendered homeless during the battle that started in mid-October.

North Waziristan, which is yet to see such government action, has witnessed a rise in the US missile raids as the entire tribal belt is being allowed less and less of a respite from the drone attacks.

Since August 2008, at least 69 such strikes have killed about 663 people. Pakistani media outlets say civilians comprise a large part of the mortalities.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmoud Qureshi on Tuesday condemned the attacks as "counterproductive and unhelpful in our joint efforts towards winning hearts and minds, which is essential to succeed against violent extremism."

Reports, however, allege that US drones take off from airbases located inside Pakistan's territory, pointing to suspected compromises on the part of Islamabad.

HN/MMN

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CIA present in Yemen since 2008: Report
Mon, 28 Dec 2009 13:29:58 GMT

US Special Forces are training Yemeni forces
The US has opened a covert front against 'al-Qaeda' in Yemen by offering support to the country's military operations, a US intelligence sources says.

Citing an unnamed former CIA official, The New York Times reported late on Sunday that about a year ago the CIA sent many field operatives with counterterrorism experience to the country.

The report revealed that some of the most secretive special operations commandos have begun training Yemeni security forces.

The paper noted that the Pentagon will be spending more than USD 70 million over the next 18 months to train and equip Yemeni military, Interior Ministry and coast guard forces.

Yemen's national security chief had earlier declared that the country was receiving assistance from the US in the crackdown on what he called "al-Qaeda operatives" in southern Yemen.

Mohamed al-Anisi had told the Saudi Arabian newspaper Okaz that the Yemeni forces were cooperating with the US military on attacks against al-Qaeda camps.

The developments come as international aid agencies and some UN bodies including the United Nations Children's Fund and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees have voiced concern over the dire condition of the Yemeni civilians, who have become the main victims of the conflict in the country.

The United Nations, which according to its charter is set up "to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace," has failed to adopt any concrete measures to help end the bloody war.

MGH/SC/MMN

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Marseille Mosque Exposes Europe Angst
28/12/2009 06:11:00 PM GMT

CAIRO – Plans to build a grand mosque in France’s second-largest city of Marseille have set off a new wave of xenophobic fears, exposing the deep-seated anti-Muslim sentiments in the country and across the European continent. “I’m going to bomb it when it opens,” an older French man told The New York Times Monday, December 28, wishing to be unnamed.

“There are a lot of them (Muslims) already, and this will bring more of them, and there will be trouble.”

Plans are underway to build a $33-million grand mosque in the port city in April.

“It’s a good symbol of assimilation,” said Noureddine Cheikh, the head of the Marseille Mosque Association.

The new worship house will have a minaret that would flash a beam of purple light – instead of Adhan -- for a couple of minarets to call for prayers.

But the mosque plans have stirred opposition from far-rightists in the city, where Muslims make up a quarter of its more than 1.5 million population.

The far-right Regional Front and local politicians have filed lawsuits to block the Muslim building.

“Today everyone agrees and reacts the same way,” said Youcef Mammeri, a writer on Islam in France and member of the Joint Council of Muslims of Marseille.

“Today we realize being a secular Muslim or a moderate or a radical Muslim is not the right question. It’s about being Muslim.”

Mammeri said that racism in France has moved from being anti-Arab to anti-Muslim.

“A terrible regression.”

France is home to nearly seven million Muslims, the biggest Muslim minority in Europe.

Islamophobia

Analysts agree that the Marseille mosque opposition reflects the growing anti-Muslim sentiments in the country and across Europe.

“Today in Europe the fear of Islam crystallizes all other fears,” said Vincent Geisser, a scholar of Islam and immigration at the French National Center for Scientific Research.

“In Switzerland, it’s minarets. In France, it’s the veil, the burqa and the beard.”

Last month, Swiss voters backed an initiative by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party to ban mosque minarets in the country.

In France, a heated debate is raging about the wearing of burka in the country, which banned hijab in schools and public places in 2004.

The French government has also started a three-month debate on French national identity, which is seen as targeting the Muslim presence in the country.

Opposition is also growing in Denmark over plans to build the first two large mosques in the capital Copenhagen.

Geisser said whenever Europe’s Muslims establish themselves as a permanent part of the national scene, the more xenophobic anxiety grows.

“All these symbols reveal a deeper, more lasting presence of Islam,” he said.

“It’s the passage of something temporary to something that is implanted and takes root,” he said, noting that many Europeans are worried that their identity is eroding.

“There’s a feeling that Europe is becoming smaller and less important. Europe is like an old lady, who whenever she hears a noise thinks it’s a burglary.”

The anxiety, which stems from economic crisis, fear of globalization, increasing immigration and birth rate falls, is translated into a specific one, he said.

“(Islam) a box in which everyone expresses their fears.”

Source: IslamOnline

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'Blackwater hired Pak intel, army officers'
PTI 30 December 2009, 01:45am IST

LAHORE: Controversial US private security firm Blackwater, accused of carrying out secret operations in Pakistan, has hired services of army officers and former employees of intelligence agencies of this country for "handsome" salaries, a retired ISI official has claimed.

Khalid Khwaja, who has been at the forefront in raising the issue of "missing persons" or people detained without charges by Pakistani security agencies, said that ex-intelligence personnel hired by Blackwater had been asked to "pick up people with alleged connections to Taliban or al-Qaida."

The supreme court "has directed the Pakistan government to produce some 1,000 or so missing persons. The Pakistani (intelligence) agencies have expressed inability to comply with the order (on the ground that they do) not have knowledge about the missing persons," he said.

"I have written to the PM to investigate the matter," said Khwaja. Blackwater, he claimed, has "hired the services of army officers and ex-employees of intelligence agencies of Pakistan for handsome salaries."

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Iraq Opts for Same-sex Schools
29/12/2009 09:11:41 PM GMT

BAGHDAD -- The Iraqi government is planning to separate boys and girls in schools, a decision that is generating debate about how far it can help in the country’s development. "We aren’t forcing gender division but building an environment where education can improve," Wafa’a al-Marasma, senior official at the Ministry of Education in Baghdad, told IslamOnline.

"Recent international studies suggest that such division can help in teaching and learning process and we are happy to try in Iraq."

A Return to Single-Sexed Classes?

The Ministry of Education has decided to start implementing the new decision in primary schools, than later at higher levels. "The division has been implanted at Sadr district in Baghdad," al-Marasma said.

She noted that although the decision in the Shiite-dominated area was influenced by a religious group, it has been well accepted by locals.

The official admitted that some parents in other districts of Baghdad oppose the decision.

"We suggest those parents surf the inte and learn about the benefits it could have on their children's life."

In March, a new British research concluded that girls in single-sex schools perform much better academically and more likely to stay in education than their counterparts in mixed schools.

The largest improvements even came among those who did badly at primary school, before they go to single-sex schools, according to the study, commissioned by the Good Schools Guide.

Researchers found that girls struggling academically when they started secondary school benefited most from being in girls-only schools.

Mixed

The decision to go for single-sex schools drew criticism from human rights organisations and activists.

"This decision goes against Iraq's Constitution, which guaranteed same freedom of expression and rights to all sexes," Mayada Zuhair, a women activist and social researcher, told IOL.

"We don’t disagree about the possible good performance of students based on international studies."

She insists that dividing students will reinforce differences, generate more discrimination and destroy any hope of a future democracy.

"Iraq isn’t a European country that crossed gender differences but still a country where women are seen inferior and struggling to find their place in society."

Huda Mustafa, a primary school teacher, agrees with the argument.

"It is already hard to change some strong religious interference over children and I’m afraid that dividing by gender will reinforce, instead of ending, gender discrimination."

But Ali al-Jaryu, a mechanic and father of two girls at primary school, disagrees.

"Iraq is in a very delicate period and our girls should feel protected," he told IOL.

"Iraq is a Muslim country and our religion is very clear about the importance to keep contact with the same gender until marriage, except at home.

"We are looking forward for democracy but it shouldn’t affect our religious beliefs," he insisted.

"Maybe in the future they can lift this decision but nowadays I see it as the best option.

Source: IslamOnline