Euro-gangs financing north African Al Qaida network
CAIRO — Morocco's intelligence community has concluded that an Al Qaida network received hundreds of thousands of euros from criminal gangs in Belgium and other European Union states. They said the gangs relayed funds from bank robberies and Internet scams conducted throughout Europe.
"Most of the funding for and orders to this cell came from Europe," an official said. "The links are very clear."
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Euro-gangs financing north African Al Qaida network
Showing posts with label morocco. Show all posts
Showing posts with label morocco. Show all posts
Friday, March 14, 2008
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM-BELGIUM/MOROCCO: A DOUBLE AGENT [MOSLEM OF COURSE] WITHIN BELGIAN INTELLIGENCE
Storm in Belgium over Moroccan spy
By Yacine Le Forestier
BRUSSELS. Abdelkader Belliraj’s links with Belgian intelligence raises serious questions about nature of ‘golden informant’. Was he following orders or did he fool the Belgians? The arrest of an Islamist in Morocco has Belgian authorities wondering if they have been duped by a "double agent" alleged to have acted as an informer while planning several deadly attacks.
The growing storm is swirling around Abdelkader Belliraj, 50, a Belgian and Moroccan national who was arrested last month in Morocco on suspicions of having led an Al Qaeda-linked group of 35 Islamic extremists.
He is also a prime suspect in six unexplained killings in Belgium at the end of the 1980s.
Although the Moroccan accusations were at first met with scepticism in Belgium, authorities now consider them credible.
"Their investigation seems to be quite extensive and serious," a spokeswoman for the federal prosecutors, Lieve Pellens, said after a recent visit of a team of Belgian police to Morocco.
But the case took a new twist when it emerged that Belliraj was probably for years a paid informer for Belgium's domestic intelligence services, the State Security.
The head of the agency, Alain Winants, implicitly acknowledged that was the case recently by filing a complaint after the "highly classified" information was revealed in the press.
The revelation has reignited a simmering row among Belgian authorities, with federal police investigators accusing the State Security of not being careful enough in recruiting its informers and not keeping other services informed.
...
How many of such "double agents" are working within the F.B.I., C.I.A., H.L.S., etc...etc...etc...?!?!?
At the rate our government was hiring moslems after the 9-11 attacks, I wouldn't be surprised if there aren't dozens of such "doubel agents"...
Of course, the "powers that be" are looking & will look the other way, they are way too politically correct for our own good...
Pertinent Links:
1) Storm in Belgium over Moroccan spy
By Yacine Le Forestier
BRUSSELS. Abdelkader Belliraj’s links with Belgian intelligence raises serious questions about nature of ‘golden informant’. Was he following orders or did he fool the Belgians? The arrest of an Islamist in Morocco has Belgian authorities wondering if they have been duped by a "double agent" alleged to have acted as an informer while planning several deadly attacks.
The growing storm is swirling around Abdelkader Belliraj, 50, a Belgian and Moroccan national who was arrested last month in Morocco on suspicions of having led an Al Qaeda-linked group of 35 Islamic extremists.
He is also a prime suspect in six unexplained killings in Belgium at the end of the 1980s.
Although the Moroccan accusations were at first met with scepticism in Belgium, authorities now consider them credible.
"Their investigation seems to be quite extensive and serious," a spokeswoman for the federal prosecutors, Lieve Pellens, said after a recent visit of a team of Belgian police to Morocco.
But the case took a new twist when it emerged that Belliraj was probably for years a paid informer for Belgium's domestic intelligence services, the State Security.
The head of the agency, Alain Winants, implicitly acknowledged that was the case recently by filing a complaint after the "highly classified" information was revealed in the press.
The revelation has reignited a simmering row among Belgian authorities, with federal police investigators accusing the State Security of not being careful enough in recruiting its informers and not keeping other services informed.
...
How many of such "double agents" are working within the F.B.I., C.I.A., H.L.S., etc...etc...etc...?!?!?
At the rate our government was hiring moslems after the 9-11 attacks, I wouldn't be surprised if there aren't dozens of such "doubel agents"...
Of course, the "powers that be" are looking & will look the other way, they are way too politically correct for our own good...
Pertinent Links:
1) Storm in Belgium over Moroccan spy
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
DAR AL HARB-FRANCE: MOSLEM 'JEW HATRED' ON THE WORLD STAGE - - - IS ANYONE PAYING ATTENTION?!?
Muslim Protest At Paris Book Fair
A book fair in Paris has become the subject of controversy with several Muslim countries announcing boycotts because the guest of honour is Israel.
Saudi Arabia has become the latest to withdraw, following Iran, Lebanon, Yemen, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Muslim Protest At Paris Book Fair
A book fair in Paris has become the subject of controversy with several Muslim countries announcing boycotts because the guest of honour is Israel.
Saudi Arabia has become the latest to withdraw, following Iran, Lebanon, Yemen, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Muslim Protest At Paris Book Fair
Thursday, July 26, 2007
DAR AL ISLAM - MOROCCO: MOSLEM TERRORISM HURTS TOURISM - - - WHAT A SURPRISE?!? NOT ! ! !
Moroccans say security fears hurting tourism
MARRAKESH: After three days sitting in a dusty clearing, Ibrahim is beginning to wonder if a European tourist will ever hire one of his camels for a tour of the rose-lined boulevards of Marrakesh. "The number of visitors has dwindled to nothing in the past week," said the 21-year-old Moroccan, his lips pale and dry in the summer heat.
I've been waiting for three days but not a single tourist has come for a ride. A tourism boom that transformed Marrakesh with hotels, apartments and golf courses seems to have paused, and some hotel managers and officials are blaming an increase in activity by Islamic militants. North Africa has been on alert since Al-Qaeda's affiliate in the region threatened to escalate its war against "corrupt" regional rulers and their Western allies.
In March and April in the coastal city of Casablanca, seven suicide bombers detonated devices, two outside US diplomatic buildings, killing all the bombers and one policeman. "The flow of tourists has been shrinking and the authorities refuse to make the numbers public," said a Marrakesh government official who did not want to be named. "The incidents in Casablanca in April were another factor in the trend of falling tourist arrivals because it tainted the image of Morocco." All that could spell problems for Morocco, once an off-beat destination for the adventurous that is now embracing the era of mass tourism.
Tourism has become Morocco's biggest source of foreign currency, helping offset big trade deficits. Its importance is likely to grow as the government seeks to boost visitor numbers to 10 million by 2010, up from 6.5 million last year. Open Sky agreements have allowed airlines to shuttle in millions of Europeans, who sunbathe around pools and shop for craftworks in the kingdom's bustling old towns or flock to a growing number of open-air festivals. Some economists warn there are risks in placing so much reliance on an industry whose chances could be threatened by security scares. The number of visitors to Marrakesh was up only 1 percent in May, well short of what will be needed to fill the hotels mushrooming across the city and reach the 2010 target. Recent bookings suggest a drop of between 17 percent and 50 percent in occupancy at 24 hotels with four or five stars, according to an official who asked to remain anonymous.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Moroccans say security fears hurting tourism
MARRAKESH: After three days sitting in a dusty clearing, Ibrahim is beginning to wonder if a European tourist will ever hire one of his camels for a tour of the rose-lined boulevards of Marrakesh. "The number of visitors has dwindled to nothing in the past week," said the 21-year-old Moroccan, his lips pale and dry in the summer heat.
I've been waiting for three days but not a single tourist has come for a ride. A tourism boom that transformed Marrakesh with hotels, apartments and golf courses seems to have paused, and some hotel managers and officials are blaming an increase in activity by Islamic militants. North Africa has been on alert since Al-Qaeda's affiliate in the region threatened to escalate its war against "corrupt" regional rulers and their Western allies.
In March and April in the coastal city of Casablanca, seven suicide bombers detonated devices, two outside US diplomatic buildings, killing all the bombers and one policeman. "The flow of tourists has been shrinking and the authorities refuse to make the numbers public," said a Marrakesh government official who did not want to be named. "The incidents in Casablanca in April were another factor in the trend of falling tourist arrivals because it tainted the image of Morocco." All that could spell problems for Morocco, once an off-beat destination for the adventurous that is now embracing the era of mass tourism.
Tourism has become Morocco's biggest source of foreign currency, helping offset big trade deficits. Its importance is likely to grow as the government seeks to boost visitor numbers to 10 million by 2010, up from 6.5 million last year. Open Sky agreements have allowed airlines to shuttle in millions of Europeans, who sunbathe around pools and shop for craftworks in the kingdom's bustling old towns or flock to a growing number of open-air festivals. Some economists warn there are risks in placing so much reliance on an industry whose chances could be threatened by security scares. The number of visitors to Marrakesh was up only 1 percent in May, well short of what will be needed to fill the hotels mushrooming across the city and reach the 2010 target. Recent bookings suggest a drop of between 17 percent and 50 percent in occupancy at 24 hotels with four or five stars, according to an official who asked to remain anonymous.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Moroccans say security fears hurting tourism
DAR AL HARB - NETHERLANDS: MOROCCAN MEN THAT ASSAULT GAYS IN THE NETHERLANDS ARE OFTEN GAY THEMSELVES
Activist: Moroccan Assaulters Often Gay Themselves
THE HAGUE, 26/07/07 - Moroccan gay activist Chafik Gadir believes that much violence by Moroccans against homosexuals stems from repressed homosexual feelings of the perpetrators. He has set up a foundation for North African youngsters with homosexual feelings.
Gadir thinks that in a population of around 450,000 North Africans in the Netherlands, there are 20,000 to 45,000 people with homosexual or bisexual feelings. The hurdle of coming out has become even higher, now that Moroccan youths are increasingly often involved in assaults on homosexuals, particularly in Amsterdam, Gadir stated yesterday in newspaper Trouw.
"These are no incidents any more," claims Gadir. "It no longer has anything to do with alcohol, drugs or macho posing. Something else is going on. These boys often deliberately hang around in gay areas, looking for victims. They are jealous if they see two gays openly and happily walking around together. In my view, this is because they are often themselves wrestling with their homosexual feelings. But they know that if they talk about this at home, they will get a beating from their father, brothers or friends. This fear makes them aggressive."
Gadir wants to break through the violence with the slogan 'You are a sissy if you hit a sissy.' As ultimate weapon, he is considering "informing the inhabitants of Morocco how much these boys misbehave themselves in the Netherlands, that they are criminal, how they earn their money. If their families in their original villages hear this, then they no longer believe in these so-called success stories from the Netherlands. Then they will distance themselves from this behaviour."
Pertinent Links:
1) Activist: Moroccan Assaulters Often Gay Themselves
THE HAGUE, 26/07/07 - Moroccan gay activist Chafik Gadir believes that much violence by Moroccans against homosexuals stems from repressed homosexual feelings of the perpetrators. He has set up a foundation for North African youngsters with homosexual feelings.
Gadir thinks that in a population of around 450,000 North Africans in the Netherlands, there are 20,000 to 45,000 people with homosexual or bisexual feelings. The hurdle of coming out has become even higher, now that Moroccan youths are increasingly often involved in assaults on homosexuals, particularly in Amsterdam, Gadir stated yesterday in newspaper Trouw.
"These are no incidents any more," claims Gadir. "It no longer has anything to do with alcohol, drugs or macho posing. Something else is going on. These boys often deliberately hang around in gay areas, looking for victims. They are jealous if they see two gays openly and happily walking around together. In my view, this is because they are often themselves wrestling with their homosexual feelings. But they know that if they talk about this at home, they will get a beating from their father, brothers or friends. This fear makes them aggressive."
Gadir wants to break through the violence with the slogan 'You are a sissy if you hit a sissy.' As ultimate weapon, he is considering "informing the inhabitants of Morocco how much these boys misbehave themselves in the Netherlands, that they are criminal, how they earn their money. If their families in their original villages hear this, then they no longer believe in these so-called success stories from the Netherlands. Then they will distance themselves from this behaviour."
Pertinent Links:
1) Activist: Moroccan Assaulters Often Gay Themselves
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
DAR AL ISLAM - MOROCCO: IRAN TRAINED ONE OF THE JIHADISTS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE 2003 CASABLANCA ATTACKS
Morocco: Iran trained one of militants in 2003 Casablanca attacks, police sources
Rabat, 10 July (AKI) - Saad al-Houssaini, a Moroccan militant arrested in March in a police raid on an internet cafe in Casablanca, lived in Iran before the 2003 Casablanca suicide attacks in which 45 people died, according to police sources in Rabat. Al-Hossaini, an explosives expert, is suspected of involvement in the attacks.
The man allegedly left Afghanistan in 2001 after US troops invaded the country following 9/11 and travelled to Iran, where he received training in a camp of the Revolutionary Guards, the Pasdaran, together with Salafite militants close to al-Qaeda.
According to Moroccan police al-Houssaini, who studied chemistry at the university of Valencia in the 1990s, was specifically trained in Iran in the preparation of bombs for suicide attacks.
Pertinent Links:
1) Morocco: Iran trained one of militants in 2003 Casablanca attacks, police sources
Rabat, 10 July (AKI) - Saad al-Houssaini, a Moroccan militant arrested in March in a police raid on an internet cafe in Casablanca, lived in Iran before the 2003 Casablanca suicide attacks in which 45 people died, according to police sources in Rabat. Al-Hossaini, an explosives expert, is suspected of involvement in the attacks.
The man allegedly left Afghanistan in 2001 after US troops invaded the country following 9/11 and travelled to Iran, where he received training in a camp of the Revolutionary Guards, the Pasdaran, together with Salafite militants close to al-Qaeda.
According to Moroccan police al-Houssaini, who studied chemistry at the university of Valencia in the 1990s, was specifically trained in Iran in the preparation of bombs for suicide attacks.
Pertinent Links:
1) Morocco: Iran trained one of militants in 2003 Casablanca attacks, police sources
Monday, July 09, 2007
DAR AL ISLAM - MOROCCO: "THE CHEMIST"
In Morocco's 'Chemist,' A Glimpse of Al-Qaeda
Bombmaker Typified Resilient Network
By Craig Whitlock
CASABLANCA, Morocco -- On March 6, Moroccan police surrounded a cybercafe here and arrested a fugitive who many people assumed had fled the country or was dead. Saad al-Houssaini, known as "the Chemist" because of his scientific training and bombmaking skills, had vanished four years earlier after he was accused of helping to organize the deadliest terrorist attack in Moroccan history.
It turned out that Houssaini hadn't gone anywhere. Since 2003, according to Moroccan police documents, he had remained underground in Casablanca as he rebuilt a terrorist operative network and recruited fighters to go to Iraq. He also spent time honing his bombmaking techniques, designing explosives belts that investigators believe were used in a string of suicide attacks this spring, including one that targeted the U.S. Consulate in this North African port city.
"The Chemist" provides a vivid example of how veteran members of al-Qaeda's central command have continued to plot major terrorist attacks around the world, particularly in Europe, North Africa and Iraq, despite the capture or deaths of many of the network's top operatives since Sept. 11, 2001.
His long underground career demonstrates the limits of stepped-up anti-terrorism cooperation between governments in the past five years -- Houssaini, now 38, eluded not just Moroccan authorities but intelligence agents from France, Spain and the United States who feared he was involved with sleeper cells in Europe.
British counterterrorism officials say most major terrorist plots in their country in recent years, including the July 7, 2005, public transit bombings in London, can be traced back to al-Qaeda operatives in Pakistan. Investigators suspect that a key sponsor in at least two cases was Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, an al-Qaeda military commander in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq who was captured in December in a CIA operation and is now imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has blamed last month's attempted car bombings in London and Glasgow on "people who are associated with al-Qaeda." Although officials have not revealed hard evidence of a connection to the network, British investigators are examining whether the plot had its roots in Iraq.
Security officials are focusing on the role played by Bilal Abdulla, a Sunni Iraqi who was charged Friday with conspiring to cause explosions. He and another man are alleged to have rammed a Jeep Cherokee into the Glasgow Airport terminal. Abdulla earned his medical degree in Baghdad in 2004 and was known for his radical views, as well as his strong verbal support of al-Qaeda operations in Iraq.
"We have seen how al-Qaeda has been able to survive a prolonged multinational assault on its structures, personnel and logistics," Peter Clarke, head of Scotland Yard's anti-terrorism branch, said in a recent speech. "It has certainly retained its ability to deliver centrally directed attacks here in the U.K. In case after case, the hand of core al-Qaeda can be clearly seen."
Morocco also continues to keep up its guard. On Friday, it raised its national security alert level to maximum, indicating that a serious terrorist attack was expected imminently, the Interior Ministry announced in a statement. The ministry cited "reliable intelligence information" but gave no details about a specific threat.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) In Morocco's 'Chemist,' A Glimpse of Al-Qaeda
Bombmaker Typified Resilient Network
By Craig Whitlock
CASABLANCA, Morocco -- On March 6, Moroccan police surrounded a cybercafe here and arrested a fugitive who many people assumed had fled the country or was dead. Saad al-Houssaini, known as "the Chemist" because of his scientific training and bombmaking skills, had vanished four years earlier after he was accused of helping to organize the deadliest terrorist attack in Moroccan history.
It turned out that Houssaini hadn't gone anywhere. Since 2003, according to Moroccan police documents, he had remained underground in Casablanca as he rebuilt a terrorist operative network and recruited fighters to go to Iraq. He also spent time honing his bombmaking techniques, designing explosives belts that investigators believe were used in a string of suicide attacks this spring, including one that targeted the U.S. Consulate in this North African port city.
"The Chemist" provides a vivid example of how veteran members of al-Qaeda's central command have continued to plot major terrorist attacks around the world, particularly in Europe, North Africa and Iraq, despite the capture or deaths of many of the network's top operatives since Sept. 11, 2001.
His long underground career demonstrates the limits of stepped-up anti-terrorism cooperation between governments in the past five years -- Houssaini, now 38, eluded not just Moroccan authorities but intelligence agents from France, Spain and the United States who feared he was involved with sleeper cells in Europe.
British counterterrorism officials say most major terrorist plots in their country in recent years, including the July 7, 2005, public transit bombings in London, can be traced back to al-Qaeda operatives in Pakistan. Investigators suspect that a key sponsor in at least two cases was Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, an al-Qaeda military commander in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq who was captured in December in a CIA operation and is now imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has blamed last month's attempted car bombings in London and Glasgow on "people who are associated with al-Qaeda." Although officials have not revealed hard evidence of a connection to the network, British investigators are examining whether the plot had its roots in Iraq.
Security officials are focusing on the role played by Bilal Abdulla, a Sunni Iraqi who was charged Friday with conspiring to cause explosions. He and another man are alleged to have rammed a Jeep Cherokee into the Glasgow Airport terminal. Abdulla earned his medical degree in Baghdad in 2004 and was known for his radical views, as well as his strong verbal support of al-Qaeda operations in Iraq.
"We have seen how al-Qaeda has been able to survive a prolonged multinational assault on its structures, personnel and logistics," Peter Clarke, head of Scotland Yard's anti-terrorism branch, said in a recent speech. "It has certainly retained its ability to deliver centrally directed attacks here in the U.K. In case after case, the hand of core al-Qaeda can be clearly seen."
Morocco also continues to keep up its guard. On Friday, it raised its national security alert level to maximum, indicating that a serious terrorist attack was expected imminently, the Interior Ministry announced in a statement. The ministry cited "reliable intelligence information" but gave no details about a specific threat.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) In Morocco's 'Chemist,' A Glimpse of Al-Qaeda
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - MOROCCO: A WARNING FOR MOROCCO ABOUT POTENTIAL TERRORIST ATTACKS
EU, Israel warn Morocco against terrorist attacks
RABAT: The European Union has warned Morocco of the "almost certain probability" of terrorist attacks in the North African country and urged more security at Western embassies and tourism sites, a newspaper said yesterday. Al Ahdath Al-Maghribia daily, usually well-informed in domestic security matters, said the European Commission's security department sent a report to Rabat alerting it to the threat. "The European Union's report mentioned the almost certain probability of terrorist strikes against Morocco and named the sites to be targeted by terrorists," the Arabic-language newspaper said. "It urged Morocco to step up surveillance in the light of the significance of the information details," it added.
The newspaper also reported that "France confirmed preparations by terrorists to carry out attacks in Algeria and Morocco have reached an advanced stage". The subject was also at the heart of discussions between Israeli and Moroccan foreign ministers and top intelligence chiefs in Paris last week, the newspaper reported. It said Morocco had received Israeli intelligence information on the movement of jihadists and their attempts to infiltrate Morocco from Algeria and Mauritania.
But in Jerusalem, Ido Aharoni, aide to Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, said: "I know of no such warning being relayed during the foreign minister's meeting with her Moroccan counterpart." On Friday, Morocco raised the security alert level to the highest rating of "maximum", suggesting a terror strike was imminent. Morocco's Interior Ministry said it had obtained intelligence information on the threat in recent days but gave no details.
Government officials in Rabat were not immediately available to comment yesterday's report. The region has been on alert since Al-Qaeda's affiliate in North Africa, the Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb which is based in Algeria, threatened to step up its war against "corrupt" governments in the region and their Western Allies. Al-Qaeda claimed attacks in Algeria in April, including three in Algiers on April 11 when 30 people were killed.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) EU, Israel warn Morocco against terrorist attacks
RABAT: The European Union has warned Morocco of the "almost certain probability" of terrorist attacks in the North African country and urged more security at Western embassies and tourism sites, a newspaper said yesterday. Al Ahdath Al-Maghribia daily, usually well-informed in domestic security matters, said the European Commission's security department sent a report to Rabat alerting it to the threat. "The European Union's report mentioned the almost certain probability of terrorist strikes against Morocco and named the sites to be targeted by terrorists," the Arabic-language newspaper said. "It urged Morocco to step up surveillance in the light of the significance of the information details," it added.
The newspaper also reported that "France confirmed preparations by terrorists to carry out attacks in Algeria and Morocco have reached an advanced stage". The subject was also at the heart of discussions between Israeli and Moroccan foreign ministers and top intelligence chiefs in Paris last week, the newspaper reported. It said Morocco had received Israeli intelligence information on the movement of jihadists and their attempts to infiltrate Morocco from Algeria and Mauritania.
But in Jerusalem, Ido Aharoni, aide to Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, said: "I know of no such warning being relayed during the foreign minister's meeting with her Moroccan counterpart." On Friday, Morocco raised the security alert level to the highest rating of "maximum", suggesting a terror strike was imminent. Morocco's Interior Ministry said it had obtained intelligence information on the threat in recent days but gave no details.
Government officials in Rabat were not immediately available to comment yesterday's report. The region has been on alert since Al-Qaeda's affiliate in North Africa, the Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb which is based in Algeria, threatened to step up its war against "corrupt" governments in the region and their Western Allies. Al-Qaeda claimed attacks in Algeria in April, including three in Algiers on April 11 when 30 people were killed.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) EU, Israel warn Morocco against terrorist attacks
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
DAR AL HARB - NETHERLANDS: MOROCCAN (READ AS MOSLEM) YOUTHS SEXUALLY ABUSED DOZENS OF BOYS & GIRLS, ALSO MOROCCAN, IN THE BUSHES OF A PLAYGROUND
"Boys abused neighbourhood children"
AMSTERDAM – Dozens of boys and girls have been systematically abused, intimidated and molested by a group of older boys in the Utrecht neighbourhood of Overvecht for almost a year, the Telegraaf reports.
Municipal council member Bouchra Dibi (Labour PvdA) investigated the incidents taking place at the playground near the Neckardreef in Overvecht.
Children aged 8, 9 and 10 were dragged into the bushes and coerced into performing sexual acts on boys a few years older. Most of the children involved are of Moroccan background, the newspaper reports.
The municipal council member told the Telegraaf that the problems are not being addressed.
"This has been going on for almost a year. People just talk and talk and talk. And nothing is done," she said.
Social workers, police and the municipality do not know how to approach the parents, Dibi says. "These sorts of things are taboo to talk about in the Moroccan community."
Utrecht Mayor Annie Brouwer-Korf (PvdA) acknowledges that there have been problems among children since the end of last year. "Intimidation, threats and fights, and, since the beginning of this year we have seen signals of sexual abuse. A report of sexual molestation by children has been passed on to the public prosecution department," the mayor says.
Brouwer says it is difficult to get an idea of how widespread the abuses are because there is no concrete information on suspects, victims and locations.
Council member Dibi says this is mainly due to parents' hesitance to report incidents. "Parents do not dare say anything because they are afraid of the perpetrators. There is a great deal of fear. That is why they don't always report these things."
Pertinent Links:
1) "Boys abused neighbourhood children"
AMSTERDAM – Dozens of boys and girls have been systematically abused, intimidated and molested by a group of older boys in the Utrecht neighbourhood of Overvecht for almost a year, the Telegraaf reports.
Municipal council member Bouchra Dibi (Labour PvdA) investigated the incidents taking place at the playground near the Neckardreef in Overvecht.
Children aged 8, 9 and 10 were dragged into the bushes and coerced into performing sexual acts on boys a few years older. Most of the children involved are of Moroccan background, the newspaper reports.
The municipal council member told the Telegraaf that the problems are not being addressed.
"This has been going on for almost a year. People just talk and talk and talk. And nothing is done," she said.
Social workers, police and the municipality do not know how to approach the parents, Dibi says. "These sorts of things are taboo to talk about in the Moroccan community."
Utrecht Mayor Annie Brouwer-Korf (PvdA) acknowledges that there have been problems among children since the end of last year. "Intimidation, threats and fights, and, since the beginning of this year we have seen signals of sexual abuse. A report of sexual molestation by children has been passed on to the public prosecution department," the mayor says.
Brouwer says it is difficult to get an idea of how widespread the abuses are because there is no concrete information on suspects, victims and locations.
Council member Dibi says this is mainly due to parents' hesitance to report incidents. "Parents do not dare say anything because they are afraid of the perpetrators. There is a great deal of fear. That is why they don't always report these things."
Pertinent Links:
1) "Boys abused neighbourhood children"
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - SPAIN/MOROCCO: WILL CEUTA, IN ITS "PRE-JIHADIST STATE" FALL INTO ISLAMS' HANDS?!?
Al-Qaeda Eyes Spain's 'Lost City'
By LISA ABEND AND GEOFF PINGREE
Every afternoon, tens of thousands of Moroccans — mostly women in djellabas — trudge past the deserted guard posts that separate the Spanish enclave of Ceuta from Morocco, which surrounds it on three sides. The bundles of soap, noodles, socks, and oil they carry home for resale in Morocco are not an entirely legal traffic, but the Spanish authorities are less concerned these days about what leaves Ceuta than about what comes in — particularly to the impoverished hillside neighborhood of PrÃncipe Alfonso, whose unemployed and disaffected youth are a potentially fertile ground for jihadist recruiters. Last December, Al-Qaeda Number 2 Ayman Zawirhi appeared to recognize its potential, when he called for the "liberation" of the Spanish enclave.
But many living in Ceuta insist that they have more important concerns than terrorism. "Our problems are the problems of the Paris banlieue," says Mohamed Laarbi, neighborhood spokesperson, "not of the Casablanca ghettos." He cites a litany of examples of official neglect contributing to the poverty and despair in PrÃncipe. Still, when a string of suicide bombings struck Casablanca and Algiers this spring, Spain's border police quickly sent extra troops to shore up Ceuta's border with Morocco.
"I would consider Ceuta in a pre-jihadist stage," says Javier Jordan, a terrorism expert at the University of Granada. "But it takes outside recruiters to transform a marginalized area into a real jihadist breeding ground."
Still, there are worrying signs that some locals may be amenable to Zawahiri's message: For one, Hamed Abderrahman Ahmed, who spent two years at Guantánamo after his capture in Afghanistan, hails from Ceuta. And in 2006, two pilgrimage sites sacred to most Muslim North Africans but condemned as unorthodox by Qaeda-style Salafists were set afire. At least one local imam is known to have preached extremist messages, while the Spanish army based recently discharged three Muslim soldiers in Ceuta for allegedly holding radical views.
Evidence of radical infiltration was clearest last December, when Spanish police swooped on the neighborhood and arrested 11 men, seven of whom were charged with planning attacks in Ceuta and on the Spanish mainland, and sent to prison. The men were, according to investigating judge Balthazar Garzón, "moving from fanatical discourse to action."
It's not hard to see why PrÃncipe, home to 12,000 of the Ceuta's 27,000 Muslims, is an easy target for radicals. The neighborhood is sorely lacking in everything from police and sanitation services to job opportunities. But there's no shortage of weapons on the streets — a legacy of Ceuta's days as a drug trafficking center, before a police crackdown — and residents have repeatedly taken out their anger on local law enforcement officers by stoning police cars and torching the area's sole police post.
Locals like Laarbi say the authorities would be better off focusing on the conditions that prevail in PrÃncipe than on the danger of radical infiltration: "PrÃncipe's problems are subhuman living conditions, an administration that ignores us, and police who still call us 'moors.'" Says Mohamed Ali, leader of the Ceuti Democratic Union, an opposition political party. "Ceuta is two cities. All of the institutions, and all of the investments go to the center; the PrÃncipe gets nothing."
Despite the concerns, Spanish government delegate to Ceuta Jenaro Garcia-Arreciado insists the city is safe. "Certainly we're closer to terrorist nuclei, but the threat isn't any greater here than on the mainland. And given all the security forces in Ceuta, we are, paradoxically, one of the safest cities in Spain." He points out that with the help of Morocco, which appoints Ceuta's imams, the city keeps radical messages out of PrÃncipe's mosques. But Yalila Liazid, director of the Sidi Embarek Koranic school and daughter of Ceuta's most important imam, isn't so sure. "At the official mosques, the imams are well educated, and approved by three different bodies. But there are 'garage mosques' in PrÃncipe, just as there are in other parts of Spain, where fundamentalism is propagated. Ceuta never had a problem with Salafism before, but now, people are taking advantage of PrÃncipe's problems."
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Al-Qaeda Eyes Spain's 'Lost City'
By LISA ABEND AND GEOFF PINGREE
Every afternoon, tens of thousands of Moroccans — mostly women in djellabas — trudge past the deserted guard posts that separate the Spanish enclave of Ceuta from Morocco, which surrounds it on three sides. The bundles of soap, noodles, socks, and oil they carry home for resale in Morocco are not an entirely legal traffic, but the Spanish authorities are less concerned these days about what leaves Ceuta than about what comes in — particularly to the impoverished hillside neighborhood of PrÃncipe Alfonso, whose unemployed and disaffected youth are a potentially fertile ground for jihadist recruiters. Last December, Al-Qaeda Number 2 Ayman Zawirhi appeared to recognize its potential, when he called for the "liberation" of the Spanish enclave.
But many living in Ceuta insist that they have more important concerns than terrorism. "Our problems are the problems of the Paris banlieue," says Mohamed Laarbi, neighborhood spokesperson, "not of the Casablanca ghettos." He cites a litany of examples of official neglect contributing to the poverty and despair in PrÃncipe. Still, when a string of suicide bombings struck Casablanca and Algiers this spring, Spain's border police quickly sent extra troops to shore up Ceuta's border with Morocco.
"I would consider Ceuta in a pre-jihadist stage," says Javier Jordan, a terrorism expert at the University of Granada. "But it takes outside recruiters to transform a marginalized area into a real jihadist breeding ground."
Still, there are worrying signs that some locals may be amenable to Zawahiri's message: For one, Hamed Abderrahman Ahmed, who spent two years at Guantánamo after his capture in Afghanistan, hails from Ceuta. And in 2006, two pilgrimage sites sacred to most Muslim North Africans but condemned as unorthodox by Qaeda-style Salafists were set afire. At least one local imam is known to have preached extremist messages, while the Spanish army based recently discharged three Muslim soldiers in Ceuta for allegedly holding radical views.
Evidence of radical infiltration was clearest last December, when Spanish police swooped on the neighborhood and arrested 11 men, seven of whom were charged with planning attacks in Ceuta and on the Spanish mainland, and sent to prison. The men were, according to investigating judge Balthazar Garzón, "moving from fanatical discourse to action."
It's not hard to see why PrÃncipe, home to 12,000 of the Ceuta's 27,000 Muslims, is an easy target for radicals. The neighborhood is sorely lacking in everything from police and sanitation services to job opportunities. But there's no shortage of weapons on the streets — a legacy of Ceuta's days as a drug trafficking center, before a police crackdown — and residents have repeatedly taken out their anger on local law enforcement officers by stoning police cars and torching the area's sole police post.
Locals like Laarbi say the authorities would be better off focusing on the conditions that prevail in PrÃncipe than on the danger of radical infiltration: "PrÃncipe's problems are subhuman living conditions, an administration that ignores us, and police who still call us 'moors.'" Says Mohamed Ali, leader of the Ceuti Democratic Union, an opposition political party. "Ceuta is two cities. All of the institutions, and all of the investments go to the center; the PrÃncipe gets nothing."
Despite the concerns, Spanish government delegate to Ceuta Jenaro Garcia-Arreciado insists the city is safe. "Certainly we're closer to terrorist nuclei, but the threat isn't any greater here than on the mainland. And given all the security forces in Ceuta, we are, paradoxically, one of the safest cities in Spain." He points out that with the help of Morocco, which appoints Ceuta's imams, the city keeps radical messages out of PrÃncipe's mosques. But Yalila Liazid, director of the Sidi Embarek Koranic school and daughter of Ceuta's most important imam, isn't so sure. "At the official mosques, the imams are well educated, and approved by three different bodies. But there are 'garage mosques' in PrÃncipe, just as there are in other parts of Spain, where fundamentalism is propagated. Ceuta never had a problem with Salafism before, but now, people are taking advantage of PrÃncipe's problems."
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Al-Qaeda Eyes Spain's 'Lost City'
Friday, June 01, 2007
DAR AL HARB - NETHERLANDS: DUTCH NATIONAL SERVICE COULD BE PERFORMED IN MOROCCO
Amsterdam Mayor Proposes National Service in Morocco
AMSTERDAM, 01/06/07 - Mayor Job Cohen of Amsterdam is urging the reintroduction of national service. Moroccan youths could serve this in Morocco, he indicated yesterday in an interview in newspaper De Telegraaf.
Without using the word Moroccan, Cohen said that in Amsterdam "there is a group with which things are not going well, and something really has to be done about it." At the moment, young criminals are mostly only talked to endlessly by armies of social workers. "Bodies like Youth Care and Child Protection look at the interest of the individual and not at the nuisance that they cause," Cohen acknowledged.
"If you see," added Cohen, "how children in some families one by one go wrong, then I think 'that is not good". (..) "Police, justice, the social service institutions, they are all involved, everyone is doing their best, but it must go faster. There must be a single person who is given the authority ultimately to say 'this is how we are going to do it.'
The mayor must be able to take this decision, said Cohen. "If it really goes wrong, I want to be able to take measures in the families, for example taking the children out of the household and sending them to a boarding school."
Cohen, known for his adage 'let's keep things together', believes reintroducing national service is a good way to teach youngsters discipline, according to De Telegraaf. "That would be good for many youngsters". If they have dual nationality, then "they can choose to do the service in the Netherlands or in their country of origin," he stated.
The conservatives (VVD) yesterday deployed the spokesperson for their right wing, Rita Verdonk, to attack Cohen. The former Integration Minister complained in a reaction that Cohen does not dare to say that the problems in his city are caused by Moroccans. "He behaves as if it also involves other groups." Additionally, Verdonk complained, Cohen, who has been mayor for years, has so far filled his time with "tea-drinking" instead of action.
Christian democratic (CDA) MP Mirjam Sterk said on Radio 1 that as far as she was concerned, it must no longer be taboo to say that it is about Moroccans. She did say that in other municipalities, Antilleans are also sometimes involved.
Pertinent Links:
1) Amsterdam Mayor Proposes National Service in Morocco
AMSTERDAM, 01/06/07 - Mayor Job Cohen of Amsterdam is urging the reintroduction of national service. Moroccan youths could serve this in Morocco, he indicated yesterday in an interview in newspaper De Telegraaf.
Without using the word Moroccan, Cohen said that in Amsterdam "there is a group with which things are not going well, and something really has to be done about it." At the moment, young criminals are mostly only talked to endlessly by armies of social workers. "Bodies like Youth Care and Child Protection look at the interest of the individual and not at the nuisance that they cause," Cohen acknowledged.
"If you see," added Cohen, "how children in some families one by one go wrong, then I think 'that is not good". (..) "Police, justice, the social service institutions, they are all involved, everyone is doing their best, but it must go faster. There must be a single person who is given the authority ultimately to say 'this is how we are going to do it.'
The mayor must be able to take this decision, said Cohen. "If it really goes wrong, I want to be able to take measures in the families, for example taking the children out of the household and sending them to a boarding school."
Cohen, known for his adage 'let's keep things together', believes reintroducing national service is a good way to teach youngsters discipline, according to De Telegraaf. "That would be good for many youngsters". If they have dual nationality, then "they can choose to do the service in the Netherlands or in their country of origin," he stated.
The conservatives (VVD) yesterday deployed the spokesperson for their right wing, Rita Verdonk, to attack Cohen. The former Integration Minister complained in a reaction that Cohen does not dare to say that the problems in his city are caused by Moroccans. "He behaves as if it also involves other groups." Additionally, Verdonk complained, Cohen, who has been mayor for years, has so far filled his time with "tea-drinking" instead of action.
Christian democratic (CDA) MP Mirjam Sterk said on Radio 1 that as far as she was concerned, it must no longer be taboo to say that it is about Moroccans. She did say that in other municipalities, Antilleans are also sometimes involved.
Pertinent Links:
1) Amsterdam Mayor Proposes National Service in Morocco
Thursday, May 31, 2007
DAR AL ISLAM - MOROCCO: CONCERNS ARE MOUNTING @ THE GROWING JIHAD IN MOROCCO
Concern Grows Over Terrorism in Morocco
by Peter Kenyon
A series of suicide bombings in the north African nation of Morocco, including one outside the U.S. Consulate in the capital Casablanca, has authorities on edge. They worry that severe poverty and the growing strength of Islamic political parties is breeding terrorism.
Do these concerns take into consideration the following report?!?
Fatah al Islam, currently waging jihad against the Lebanese, is made up of Moroccans
Pertinent Links:
1) Concern Grows Over Terrorism in Morocco
by Peter Kenyon
A series of suicide bombings in the north African nation of Morocco, including one outside the U.S. Consulate in the capital Casablanca, has authorities on edge. They worry that severe poverty and the growing strength of Islamic political parties is breeding terrorism.
Do these concerns take into consideration the following report?!?
Fatah al Islam, currently waging jihad against the Lebanese, is made up of Moroccans
Pertinent Links:
1) Concern Grows Over Terrorism in Morocco
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - LEBANON: THE FATAH AL ISLAM, FIGHTING THE LEBANESE ARMY, IS MADE UP OF MOROCCANS
Moroccans members in Fatah Al-Islam
RABAT, May 29 (KUNA) -- A number of members of Fatah Al-Islam faction, a militant group locked up in current clashes with Lebanese Army troops in northern Lebanon, are Moroccans, a daily said in its edition published on Tuesday.
"Al-Haraka" said the Moroccans, who advocate thoughts of Al-Qaeda, either sneaked into Lebanon by land or were part of camouflaged groups that used to travel to the country by air from Iraq.
The recently-surfaced group is reportedly a cocktail of Arab nationals, advocating Al-Qaeda thoughts.
Pertinent Links:
1) Moroccans members in Fatah Al-Islam
RABAT, May 29 (KUNA) -- A number of members of Fatah Al-Islam faction, a militant group locked up in current clashes with Lebanese Army troops in northern Lebanon, are Moroccans, a daily said in its edition published on Tuesday.
"Al-Haraka" said the Moroccans, who advocate thoughts of Al-Qaeda, either sneaked into Lebanon by land or were part of camouflaged groups that used to travel to the country by air from Iraq.
The recently-surfaced group is reportedly a cocktail of Arab nationals, advocating Al-Qaeda thoughts.
Pertinent Links:
1) Moroccans members in Fatah Al-Islam
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
DAR AL HARB - NETHERLANDS: MOROCCAN (MOSLEM) SOCCER FANS GO NUTS, DURING & AFTER A MATCH EVEN THOUGH THEIR TEAM WON
No more Netherlands-Morocco Matches after Fresh Riots
THE HAGUE, 24/05/07 - Football federation KNVB no longer wants to host matches with Moroccan teams. A friendly between the Dutch national football team for players under 21 and Morocco got completely out of hand on Tuesday night.
The match in Tilburg was won by Morocco 2-0. After the final whistle, hundreds of Moroccan fans pulled down advertising hoardings, demolished the goal posts and threw plastic seats at stadium officials, resulting in a number of injuries. The match had already been halted twice in the first half when Moroccan supporters climbed over the fences around the pitch.
Following the disturbances, KNVB is considering banning matches with Morocco for the next five years. "Their supporters apparently cannot behave themselves," a spokesman said to public broadcaster NOS. "It is not the first time they have spoiled a Moroccan match in our country."
After the match, the centre of Tilburg was also vandalised. Twenty-five arrests were eventually made, according to the police.
The Party for Freedom (PVV) supports KNVB but proposes continuing 'friendlies' against Moroccan teams, but without Moroccan spectators. PVV has asked Home Affairs Minister Guusje ter Horst and Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin how it could happen that there were scarcely any police in Tilburg even though Moroccan fans in the past two years vandalised stadiums in Utrecht, Arnhem, Kerkrade and Amsterdam.
These riots at soccer matches have nothing to do with wild fans, it is all about jihad and destroying the dirty infidels economically...
Pertinent Links:
1) No more Netherlands-Morocco Matches after Fresh Riots
THE HAGUE, 24/05/07 - Football federation KNVB no longer wants to host matches with Moroccan teams. A friendly between the Dutch national football team for players under 21 and Morocco got completely out of hand on Tuesday night.
The match in Tilburg was won by Morocco 2-0. After the final whistle, hundreds of Moroccan fans pulled down advertising hoardings, demolished the goal posts and threw plastic seats at stadium officials, resulting in a number of injuries. The match had already been halted twice in the first half when Moroccan supporters climbed over the fences around the pitch.
Following the disturbances, KNVB is considering banning matches with Morocco for the next five years. "Their supporters apparently cannot behave themselves," a spokesman said to public broadcaster NOS. "It is not the first time they have spoiled a Moroccan match in our country."
After the match, the centre of Tilburg was also vandalised. Twenty-five arrests were eventually made, according to the police.
The Party for Freedom (PVV) supports KNVB but proposes continuing 'friendlies' against Moroccan teams, but without Moroccan spectators. PVV has asked Home Affairs Minister Guusje ter Horst and Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin how it could happen that there were scarcely any police in Tilburg even though Moroccan fans in the past two years vandalised stadiums in Utrecht, Arnhem, Kerkrade and Amsterdam.
These riots at soccer matches have nothing to do with wild fans, it is all about jihad and destroying the dirty infidels economically...
Pertinent Links:
1) No more Netherlands-Morocco Matches after Fresh Riots
Thursday, April 19, 2007
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - SPAIN/MOROCCO: SPAIN WORRIED ABOUT MOSLEM JIHAD ATTACKS FROM MOROCCO & NORTH AFRICE
MOROCCO: ISLAMIST TERRORISTS 'COULD TARGET SPANISH INTERESTS'
Madrid and Rabat, 19 April (AKI) - Security at Spanish embassies, consulates and schools in Moroccan cities could be stepped up in the coming days amid fears they could be soft targets for Islamist terror attacks, according to unnamed security force sources quoted by Spanish daily ABC. Security officials are said to be especially concerned to safeguard the Spanish consulates in Tangiers, Rabat, Casablanca, Agadir and Tetouan which are all located in busy central areas, as well as the brand new Spanish embassy in Rabat.
Since the start of this week, student at the Spanish school in Rabat have to show their passport to be allowed on the premises. The authorities in Morocco have however been on alert for some time: after the deadly 2004 bombings of commuter trains in the Spanish capital, Madrid, investigators came into possession of a note signed by a radical Islamist group threatening Spanish interests in North Africa.
Despite fears of a widening conflict stoked by the suicide bomb attacks last week in Casablanca and in Algiers that left dozens dead and hundreds injured, Spain has retained the 'medium' alert level it introduced on 15 February at the start of the trial of 29 suspects for the Madrid train bombings. Most are of North African and many of Moroccan origins.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) MOROCCO: ISLAMIST TERRORISTS 'COULD TARGET SPANISH INTERESTS'
Madrid and Rabat, 19 April (AKI) - Security at Spanish embassies, consulates and schools in Moroccan cities could be stepped up in the coming days amid fears they could be soft targets for Islamist terror attacks, according to unnamed security force sources quoted by Spanish daily ABC. Security officials are said to be especially concerned to safeguard the Spanish consulates in Tangiers, Rabat, Casablanca, Agadir and Tetouan which are all located in busy central areas, as well as the brand new Spanish embassy in Rabat.
Since the start of this week, student at the Spanish school in Rabat have to show their passport to be allowed on the premises. The authorities in Morocco have however been on alert for some time: after the deadly 2004 bombings of commuter trains in the Spanish capital, Madrid, investigators came into possession of a note signed by a radical Islamist group threatening Spanish interests in North Africa.
Despite fears of a widening conflict stoked by the suicide bomb attacks last week in Casablanca and in Algiers that left dozens dead and hundreds injured, Spain has retained the 'medium' alert level it introduced on 15 February at the start of the trial of 29 suspects for the Madrid train bombings. Most are of North African and many of Moroccan origins.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) MOROCCO: ISLAMIST TERRORISTS 'COULD TARGET SPANISH INTERESTS'
Thursday, April 12, 2007
DAR AL ISLAM - NORTH AFRICA: THE JIHAD IN NORTH AFRICA & HOW NATIONS ARE COPING WITH IT
How North African nations are dealing with Islamist resurgence
By Jill Carroll, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
CASABLANCA, Morocco - Two car bombs in Algeria Wednesday provided jarring reminders of the Islamic insurgency that wreaked havoc there in the 1990s. It was a signal that yet another large-scale battle with militants may be brewing.
For weeks, the government has been fighting Al Qaeda-linked insurgents in the remote highlands of the North African nation. But these are the first attacks on the capital, Algiers, in years – one hit the prime minister's office in the city center and the other a police station in the eastern outskirts. Together the attacks killed at least 30 people.
In neighboring Morocco on Tuesday, three suspected terrorists exploded suicide belts and another was shot dead as police were chasing them. They were all wanted in connection with another suicide bombing on March 11.
The governments of this region, ruled by entrenched authoritarians, face a confrontation with a growing Islamist movement. Some groups are rising up to challenge the government in elections, and others are becoming more violent.
The challenge for the leaders of Morocco and Algeria, say analysts, is how to subdue the Islamist movement without empowering more radicals or undercutting mainstream, moderate Muslim forces.
"What the Moroccans did was smart, by opening the door slowly, by allowing in [several] Islamist [groups]. That's one way of diluting the power of any one party," says Marina Ottaway, head of the Middle East program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.
"The worst thing that can happen from the point of view of the government is what happened in Algeria [in the 1990s]," she says. "All of the sudden they uncorked the bottle, and all the [political] support goes to the Islamists," which the government then tried to suppress, sparking a brutal civil war that started in 1992.
Rita Katz, director of the Search for International Terrorist Entities (SITE) institute in Washington, confirmed that Wednesday's attacks were carried out by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the newly renamed group of veteran Algerian fighters from the civil war.
"They changed their strategy in the last few months to Al Qaeda [style of] targeting military positions and foreign companies. I believe they carried out this attempted attack on the prime minister. It really looks like them," says Ms. Katz.
Morocco has seen only a smattering of such violence recently, but analysts say the way it handles political opposition will determine whether radical elements of Islamist groups are empowered.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) How North African nations are dealing with Islamist resurgence
By Jill Carroll, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
CASABLANCA, Morocco - Two car bombs in Algeria Wednesday provided jarring reminders of the Islamic insurgency that wreaked havoc there in the 1990s. It was a signal that yet another large-scale battle with militants may be brewing.
For weeks, the government has been fighting Al Qaeda-linked insurgents in the remote highlands of the North African nation. But these are the first attacks on the capital, Algiers, in years – one hit the prime minister's office in the city center and the other a police station in the eastern outskirts. Together the attacks killed at least 30 people.
In neighboring Morocco on Tuesday, three suspected terrorists exploded suicide belts and another was shot dead as police were chasing them. They were all wanted in connection with another suicide bombing on March 11.
The governments of this region, ruled by entrenched authoritarians, face a confrontation with a growing Islamist movement. Some groups are rising up to challenge the government in elections, and others are becoming more violent.
The challenge for the leaders of Morocco and Algeria, say analysts, is how to subdue the Islamist movement without empowering more radicals or undercutting mainstream, moderate Muslim forces.
"What the Moroccans did was smart, by opening the door slowly, by allowing in [several] Islamist [groups]. That's one way of diluting the power of any one party," says Marina Ottaway, head of the Middle East program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.
"The worst thing that can happen from the point of view of the government is what happened in Algeria [in the 1990s]," she says. "All of the sudden they uncorked the bottle, and all the [political] support goes to the Islamists," which the government then tried to suppress, sparking a brutal civil war that started in 1992.
Rita Katz, director of the Search for International Terrorist Entities (SITE) institute in Washington, confirmed that Wednesday's attacks were carried out by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the newly renamed group of veteran Algerian fighters from the civil war.
"They changed their strategy in the last few months to Al Qaeda [style of] targeting military positions and foreign companies. I believe they carried out this attempted attack on the prime minister. It really looks like them," says Ms. Katz.
Morocco has seen only a smattering of such violence recently, but analysts say the way it handles political opposition will determine whether radical elements of Islamist groups are empowered.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) How North African nations are dealing with Islamist resurgence
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
DAR AL HARB - FRANCE: HUSBAND RIPS OUT WIFES EYES
Man gets 30 years for ripping out wife's eyes
A man who ripped out his wife's eyes in a fit of rage was sentenced by a French court to 30 years behind bars on Tuesday.
Mohamed Hadfi, 31, tore out his 23-year-old wife Samira Bari's eyes following a heated argument in their apartment in the southern French city of Nimes in July 2003 after she refused to have sex with him.
Bari, who had demanded a divorce before the attack, was permanently blinded.
Hadfi, a Moroccan, initially fled to Germany. He was arrested and sent back to France, where he was indicted for "acts of torture and barbarity leading to a permanent disability".
Prosecutor Dominique Tourette demanded that he be sentenced to 30 years in prison, two-thirds of which must be served in full, calling the defendant a "diabolic torturer".
Once his sentence is served, Hadfi will be deported and barred from ever returning to France.
His lawyer Jean-Pierre Cabanes meanwhile insisted there were extenuating circumstances.
"This is the result of a marriage that was arranged, not chosen," he said, pointing to the gulf separating his client, who came from southern Morocco, and his young wife, who had grown up in France.
...
My gawd, how disgusting ! ! ! ! ! ! !
This happened in France, can you just imagine what happens in these islamic countries to women?!? It just boggles ones mind to even think about the possibilities...
HatTip: The Religion of Peace.com
Pertinent Links:
1) Man gets 30 years for ripping out wife's eyes
2) The Religion of Peace
A man who ripped out his wife's eyes in a fit of rage was sentenced by a French court to 30 years behind bars on Tuesday.
Mohamed Hadfi, 31, tore out his 23-year-old wife Samira Bari's eyes following a heated argument in their apartment in the southern French city of Nimes in July 2003 after she refused to have sex with him.
Bari, who had demanded a divorce before the attack, was permanently blinded.
Hadfi, a Moroccan, initially fled to Germany. He was arrested and sent back to France, where he was indicted for "acts of torture and barbarity leading to a permanent disability".
Prosecutor Dominique Tourette demanded that he be sentenced to 30 years in prison, two-thirds of which must be served in full, calling the defendant a "diabolic torturer".
Once his sentence is served, Hadfi will be deported and barred from ever returning to France.
His lawyer Jean-Pierre Cabanes meanwhile insisted there were extenuating circumstances.
"This is the result of a marriage that was arranged, not chosen," he said, pointing to the gulf separating his client, who came from southern Morocco, and his young wife, who had grown up in France.
...
My gawd, how disgusting ! ! ! ! ! ! !
This happened in France, can you just imagine what happens in these islamic countries to women?!? It just boggles ones mind to even think about the possibilities...
HatTip: The Religion of Peace.com
Pertinent Links:
1) Man gets 30 years for ripping out wife's eyes
2) The Religion of Peace
Friday, March 02, 2007
DAR AL HARB - NETHERLANDS: EMPLOYED AS LABOR MP WHILE HOLDING A MOROCCAN ROYAL COMMISSION
NETHERLANDS: MP DENIES CONFLICT OF INTEREST IN MOROCCAN ROYAL CONSULTANCY JOB
Amsterdam, 2 March (AKI) - New Labour MP Khadiya Arib, who has an additional position on a Moroccan royal commission charged with preserving and strengthening the Moroccan identity of Moroccans living abroad, on Friday told Radio Netherlands the role does not constitute a conflict of interest. The country's first Muslim ministers, Labour party members Nebahat Albayrak and Ahmed Aboutaleb on Thursday survived a no-confidence vote in the parliament tabled by the far-right anti-immigrant PPV party chief Geert Wilders.
Wilders had argued Albayrak and Aboutaleb, who hold joint Dutch-Turkish and Dutch-Moroccan and nationality, respectively, should resign as their double passports meant divided loyalties. His reasoning was rejected by MPs.
But during the debate, right-wing liberal party VVD leader Mark Rutte argued for "concrete legislation" to end dual nationality for all Dutch citizens. And prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende refused to rule out changes in the law that would prevent ministers holding two nationalities in the future.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) NETHERLANDS: MP DENIES CONFLICT OF INTEREST IN MOROCCAN ROYAL CONSULTANCY JOB
Amsterdam, 2 March (AKI) - New Labour MP Khadiya Arib, who has an additional position on a Moroccan royal commission charged with preserving and strengthening the Moroccan identity of Moroccans living abroad, on Friday told Radio Netherlands the role does not constitute a conflict of interest. The country's first Muslim ministers, Labour party members Nebahat Albayrak and Ahmed Aboutaleb on Thursday survived a no-confidence vote in the parliament tabled by the far-right anti-immigrant PPV party chief Geert Wilders.
Wilders had argued Albayrak and Aboutaleb, who hold joint Dutch-Turkish and Dutch-Moroccan and nationality, respectively, should resign as their double passports meant divided loyalties. His reasoning was rejected by MPs.
But during the debate, right-wing liberal party VVD leader Mark Rutte argued for "concrete legislation" to end dual nationality for all Dutch citizens. And prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende refused to rule out changes in the law that would prevent ministers holding two nationalities in the future.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) NETHERLANDS: MP DENIES CONFLICT OF INTEREST IN MOROCCAN ROYAL CONSULTANCY JOB
Sunday, February 25, 2007
DAR AL ISLAM - MOROCCO: FEMALE CLERICS/IMAM'S, A NEW PHENOMENON IN DAR AL ISLAM
Islam's pioneering women priests
A radical new innovation in the Islamic world has arisen in Morocco - women priests. The Mourchidat, as they are known, are the first women ever in any Muslim country that can perform the functions of a male Imam in a mosque, except lead the prayers.
Fifty Mourchidat have graduated and have now begun their ministries.
However, not everyone agrees with the new appointments.
The Mourchidat will be allowed to lead religious discussions and give advice in their communities - particularly to women.
The only thing they will not be able to do is to lead prayers. That role will still be reserved for male Imams.
In the courtyard of Rabat's biggest mosque - the Sunna mosque - I spoke to Khadija al-Aktami. She is one of the newly qualified Mourchidat.
I asked her why she thought women would be well suited to this new role: "Women make good priests because God has made them more sensitive, merciful and more patient than men! A woman is a mother, a wife, a daughter and a friend, so she will perform well in this role. Besides, no one can understand a woman as well as another woman."
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Islam's pioneering women priests
A radical new innovation in the Islamic world has arisen in Morocco - women priests. The Mourchidat, as they are known, are the first women ever in any Muslim country that can perform the functions of a male Imam in a mosque, except lead the prayers.
Fifty Mourchidat have graduated and have now begun their ministries.
However, not everyone agrees with the new appointments.
The Mourchidat will be allowed to lead religious discussions and give advice in their communities - particularly to women.
The only thing they will not be able to do is to lead prayers. That role will still be reserved for male Imams.
In the courtyard of Rabat's biggest mosque - the Sunna mosque - I spoke to Khadija al-Aktami. She is one of the newly qualified Mourchidat.
I asked her why she thought women would be well suited to this new role: "Women make good priests because God has made them more sensitive, merciful and more patient than men! A woman is a mother, a wife, a daughter and a friend, so she will perform well in this role. Besides, no one can understand a woman as well as another woman."
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Islam's pioneering women priests
Friday, February 02, 2007
DAR AL HARB - SPAIN / AL ANDALUS: SPAIN'S MOSLEM SOLDIERS HAVE DOUBLE LOYALTIES, THEY MAY EVEN SIDE WITH MOROCCO
Spain's Muslim Soldiers "with Double Loyalties" Spark Debate
By Sinikka Tarvainen, Dpa
Muslim soldiers serving in the Spanish army in the enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla are sparking controversy among security experts.
Some doubt their loyalty to Spain and fear they could side with neighbouring Morocco in case of a conflict between the two countries.
Located on Morocco's Mediterranean coast, Ceuta and Melilla have belonged to Spain for centuries, but Rabat continues to claim sovereignty over them.
About a third of the enclaves' population of some 70,000 each is estimated to be Muslim, a proportion corresponding to their number among the total 8,000 soldiers stationed in the two strategically important military outposts.
Officially, Ceuta and Melilla are presented as models of a harmonious coexistence between Catholics, Muslims and the smaller Jewish and Hindu communities, but the reality is less rosy.
If a conflict erupted with Morocco over sovereignty or some other issue, "I'm not certain the Muslim soldiers would obey me," one commander said.
Recently, the Ceuta command refused to renew the contracts of about 15 Muslim soldiers on the basis of confidential information, angering Muslims and creating tension between them and the Christians in the enclave.
"This has given rise to suspicions and rumours," complains lawyer Mohammed Ali, leader of the Muslim party Ceuta Democratic Union.
Muslim soldiers are Spanish citizens, but they, their parents, grandparents or greatgrandparents were usually born in Morocco, where they retain family ties.
They are schooled in the Muslim faith by Moroccan imams, who often pass to them a reverence for King Mohammed VI, regarded as the spiritual leader of Moroccan Muslims.
Spain and Morocco barely avoided a military conflict over the islet of Perejil - also known as Leilah - in 2002.
If a conflict did break out, possibly over Ceuta or Melilla - security experts wonder, would the Muslim soldiers act like Spanish patriots, or would they turn their weapons against their Christian comrades-in-arms?
Because of their higher birth rate, Muslims are expected to become the majority in Ceuta and Melilla in a little over a decade.
...
Now the security experts begin worrying about this?!?
Pertinent Links:
1) Spain's Muslim Soldiers "with Double Loyalties" Spark Debate
By Sinikka Tarvainen, Dpa
Muslim soldiers serving in the Spanish army in the enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla are sparking controversy among security experts.
Some doubt their loyalty to Spain and fear they could side with neighbouring Morocco in case of a conflict between the two countries.
Located on Morocco's Mediterranean coast, Ceuta and Melilla have belonged to Spain for centuries, but Rabat continues to claim sovereignty over them.
About a third of the enclaves' population of some 70,000 each is estimated to be Muslim, a proportion corresponding to their number among the total 8,000 soldiers stationed in the two strategically important military outposts.
Officially, Ceuta and Melilla are presented as models of a harmonious coexistence between Catholics, Muslims and the smaller Jewish and Hindu communities, but the reality is less rosy.
If a conflict erupted with Morocco over sovereignty or some other issue, "I'm not certain the Muslim soldiers would obey me," one commander said.
Recently, the Ceuta command refused to renew the contracts of about 15 Muslim soldiers on the basis of confidential information, angering Muslims and creating tension between them and the Christians in the enclave.
"This has given rise to suspicions and rumours," complains lawyer Mohammed Ali, leader of the Muslim party Ceuta Democratic Union.
Muslim soldiers are Spanish citizens, but they, their parents, grandparents or greatgrandparents were usually born in Morocco, where they retain family ties.
They are schooled in the Muslim faith by Moroccan imams, who often pass to them a reverence for King Mohammed VI, regarded as the spiritual leader of Moroccan Muslims.
Spain and Morocco barely avoided a military conflict over the islet of Perejil - also known as Leilah - in 2002.
If a conflict did break out, possibly over Ceuta or Melilla - security experts wonder, would the Muslim soldiers act like Spanish patriots, or would they turn their weapons against their Christian comrades-in-arms?
Because of their higher birth rate, Muslims are expected to become the majority in Ceuta and Melilla in a little over a decade.
...
Now the security experts begin worrying about this?!?
Pertinent Links:
1) Spain's Muslim Soldiers "with Double Loyalties" Spark Debate
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