Allahu Akbar

Hackney woman told to remove burka by crown court judge

2013-09-21T16:47:00.000-07:00

A judge has refused to let a Muslim woman in a full-length burka enter a plea until she reveals her face.

The 21-year-old from Hackney, who is charged with intimidating a witness, said she could not remove the veil in front of men because of her religion.

Judge Peter Murphy said however, she could not stand trial in the veil, which only reveals her eyes, because her identity could not be confirmed.

The woman is due back at Blackfriars Crown Court on 12 September.

Judge Murphy said the principle of open justice overrode the woman's religious beliefs, warning that a different person could go into the dock pretending to be her if she did not show her face.

'Open justice'

He said: "It is necessary for this court to be satisfied that they can recognise the defendant.

"While I obviously respect the right to dress in any way she wishes, certainly while outside the court, the interests of justice are paramount.

"I can't, as a circuit judge, accept a plea from a person whose identity I am unable to ascertain."

The woman's barrister, Claire Burtwistle, told the court the woman was not prepared to lower her veil with men in the room and suggested a female police officer or prison guard could identify the defendant and confirm it to the court.

However, Judge Murphy rejected the proposal and said: "It seems to me to be quite fundamental that the court is sure who it is dealing with.

"In my court room, that's going to come first.

"There is the principle of open justice and it can't be subject to the religion of the defendant whether the principle is observed or not."

Judge Murphy adjourned the case for legal argument over whether the defendant should have to remove her veil.

When the woman returns to court she is expected to enter a not guilty plea.

Debate needed on veils in some public places, says minister

2013-09-21T16:46:00.002-07:00

COMMENTS (767)

Jeremy Browne fears girls may feel pressured into wearing the veil

The government should consider banning Muslim girls from wearing veils in public places such as schools, a Lib Dem Home Office minister has said.

Jeremy Browne said he was "uneasy" about restricting freedoms, but urged a national debate on the state's role in stopping veils being imposed on girls.

It comes after Birmingham Metropolitan College dropped a ban on pupils wearing full-face veils, amid protests.

A Muslim group said it was "disgusted" by the minister's call.

'Very cautious'

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Mr Browne suggested action might be needed to protect the freedom of choice for Muslim girls too young to decide for themselves whether they wanted to wear the veil.

"I think this is a good topic for national debate. People of liberal instincts will have competing notions of how to protect and promote freedom of choice," he said.

"I am instinctively uneasy about restricting the freedom of individuals to observe the religion of their choice.

Imposing dress codes

• Schools can set their own uniform rules, but must take account of pupils' rights to free expression, equal justice and respect for religion or belief. If rules exclude a pupil from an aspect of school life - without justification, such as safety - that may constitute indirect discrimination

• Employers too can set their own rules, but must make sure they don't discriminate without justification

• Privately-owned public places, for example, shopping malls, can set dress codes - banning hoods or baseball caps, for example

• If a business decides who to serve based on a protected characteristic, such as religion, they risk discriminating. Pubs, clubs and restaurants though regularly use their discretion to impose dress codes, including banning items such as football shirts

• There is no ban on veils in UK courts, but European law says the state can tell you to remove your religious dress if it's necessary to achieve some other public good, such as maintain law and order. The Equal Treatment Bench Book tells judges to focus on whether the specific circumstances of a case require removal in order to achieve justice

• Women wearing face coverings are required to remove them when entering the UK at ports and airports, but can request to be seen by a female border officer in a private room

"But there is genuine debate about whether girls should feel a compulsion to wear a veil when society deems children to be unable to express personal choices about other areas like buying alcohol, smoking or getting married."

He added: "We should be very cautious about imposing religious conformity on a society which has always valued freedom of expression."

Speaking on Sunday at the Lib Dem party conference in Glasgow - before the article was published - Mr Browne said the UK had a "proud record" in the country of defending freedom of religious choice and the rights of religious minorities but the state also had a role in protecting peoples' individual liberty.

The minister's comments come after the Birmingham college went back on its policy of telling pupils to remove hoodies, hats, caps and veils so students were easily identifiable.

Instead, it decided to modify its stance to allow individuals to wear "specific items of personal clothing to reflect their cultural values".

Boris Johnson described the debate as a "very difficult issue"

Mr Clegg told the BBC he did not believe in issuing "edicts from Whitehall" and telling people what pieces of clothing they should wear". He said he believed the wearing of full veils was "not appropriate" in the classroom, but would not support a "state ban" on doing so.

The prime minister's spokesman said he supported schools setting their own uniform guidelines.

'Disgusted'

Sarah Wollaston, the Conservative MP for Totnes, said full-length burkas had "nothing to do with freedom" and prevented some women from "participating fully & equally in society" while the niqab veil - which almost entirely covers the face - made its wearers "invisible".

In a series of messages on Twitter, she denied "pandering" to anyone on the issue and suggested politicians who were afraid to talk about the matter risked "selling out women's rights".

"Feminists should be allowed to say that they find the niqab deeply offensive without being accused of being bigoted or islamophobic."

But Mohammed Shafiq of the Ramadhan Foundation - a group that works with young Muslims in the UK and tries to foster better relations with non-Muslims - said he was "disgusted" by Mr Browne's call.

"This is another example of the double standards that are applied to Muslims in our country by some politicians.

"Whatever one's religion they should be free to practise it according to their own choices and any attempt by the government to ban Muslim women will be strongly resisted by the Muslim community."

Mohammed Khaliel, founder of Islamix, a group that aims to build understanding between communities, said: "A small section of the Muslim community do believe that the face veil is mandatory...

"Now, why should I go and rip that off their face saying 'I don't think you should believe that'?"

Muslim woman must remove veil to give trial evidence

2013-09-21T16:45:00.002-07:00

The defendant, who cannot be identified, was present for the hearing

A Muslim woman can stand trial wearing a full-face veil but must remove it to give evidence, a judge has ruled.

Judge Peter Murphy made the ruling at Blackfriars Crown Court in London where the woman is due to stand trial accused of intimidating a witness.

The 22-year-old woman, from Hackney, has refused to remove her niqab and reveal her face in front of any man.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded not guilty at an earlier hearing.

The judge's ruling means that if the woman, who started wearing a veil in May 2012, refuses to comply during her trial she could be jailed for contempt of court.

The only part of a niqab-wearer's face that is visible is a narrow section across the eyes.

The judge said he would offer the woman a screen to shield her from public view while giving evidence but that she had to be seen by him, the jury and lawyers.

At other times during the trial the woman will be allowed to keep her face covered while sitting in the dock.

'Elephant in courtroom'

In the ruling Judge Murphy said: "The ability of the jury to see the defendant for the purposes of evaluating her evidence is crucial."

Referring to the woman as "D", he said he had "no reason to doubt the sincerity of her belief" and his decision would have been the same if she had worn the niqab for years.

Analysis

Clive ColemanLegal correspondent, BBC News

It is an important element of adversarial trial by jury in England and Wales that the facial expressions of a witness or defendant are part of the evidence in the case.

The jury is entitled to rely on their observations of the defendant both when he or she gives evidence, and also throughout the trial, as they see how the defendant reacts when evidence is given by others.

None of that is possible if the accused's face is covered.

That is why, in Judge Murphy's words, the niqab has become the 'elephant in the courtroom'.

It is in order to try and deal with that 'elephant' that he has tried to give guidance which respects the defendant's right to manifest her religious beliefs, whilst also allowing a centuries-old way of conducting trial by jury to continue.

It is a not an easy balance to strike.

He said that "the niqab has become the elephant in the courtroom" and there was widespread anxiety among judges over how to tackle the issue.

He added he hoped "Parliament or a higher court will provide a definite answer to the issue soon".

Judge Murphy said: "If judges in different cases in different places took differing approaches [to the niqab] the result would be judicial anarchy."

The woman's defence barrister Susan Meek had argued the woman's human right to express her faith through her attire would be breached if she was ordered to remove her veil.

When asked if there would be an appeal against the decision, the woman's lawyer said she and her client would "consider our options".

At a previous hearing, the issue of her identity was resolved when the woman removed her veil in private for a female police officer.

Judge Murphy's ruling comes as Liberal Democrat Home Office minister Jeremy Browne said he was "uneasy" about restricting freedoms and called for a national debate on the state's role in stopping veils being imposed on girls.

Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society, said he believed it was "vital" defendants' faces were visible at "all times" and said he "regretted" the judge's decision.

He added: "We will be complaining to the Office of Judicial Complaints and also be asking senior legal officers to make visibility throughout court hearings mandatory, and not subject to judges' discretion."

The woman's trial over alleged witness intimidation is due to begin at Blackfriars Crown Court on 4 November.

Al-Qaeda link to mass shooting in Kenyan mall

2013-09-21T16:43:00.000-07:00

Al-Qaeda-linked militants stormed an upscale shopping mall in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, and killed at least 39 people in the country's worst terrorist attack in 15 years.

More than 150 people were injured, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said in a statement broadcast on national television, as he vowed to hunt down those responsible.

Kenyan police search the Westgate mall in Nairobi for the gunmen.

Kenya's police and army were still engaged in a standoff with the gunmen more than 11 hours after the attack began. An unspecified number of people are being held hostage, the Kenya Red Cross said.

"Our security forces are conducting a multi-agency response to this attack as we speak and are in the process of neutralising the attackers and securing the mall," Mr Kenyatta said.

"We shall hunt down the perpetrators wherever they run to. We shall get them. We shall punish them for this heinous crime."

Click for more photos

WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES

An injured woman is helped out of the Westgate Shopping Centre in Nairobi. Photo: Reuters

View all 15 photos

Yesterday's incident was the deadliest attack in Kenya since the 1998 bombing of the US Embassy in central Nairobi that killed 213 people.

The al-Shabab Islamist militant group in neighbouring Somalia threatened to carry out attacks in Kenya after the country deployed its army to southern Somalia in October 2011 to fight the group.

"Al-Shabab confirms it's behind the Westgate spectacle," the group said on its Twitter feed.

"The mujahideen entered Westgate Mall today at around noon and are still inside the mall, fighting the Kenyan Kuffar inside their own turf."

The Twitter account has since been suspended.

The attack at the Westgate Mall in Westlands, three kilometres north-west of Nairobi's city centre, started at about 12.30pm local time on Saturday.

Middle-class Kenyans and expatriates frequent the shopping centre which has more than 80 shops including bank, a movie theatre, restaurants and a children's play area.

The raid began with several blasts and was followed by shooting, causing panicked shoppers to flee the building or try to hide.

The attackers, who threw grenades, told Muslims they could go free and that non-Muslims were the target.

Marco Lui, a Bloomberg correspondent who was on the second floor of the mall when the attack started, said he heard two explosions within about five minutes.

"We heard a noise from the ground floor and people started running to the parking area on the rooftop," Lui said.

"They were panicking and then the second blast went off and people were even more panicked."

The gunmen entered through the main door of the mall and went on a shooting rampage, moving from the ground level to upper floors, according to staff ArtCaffe, a restaurant in the mall.

"On hearing the gunfire, patrons and staff in the mall ran for cover at every level," they said.

Lui and a friend who were visiting the mall escaped by jumping over a fence on the roof and onto the first floor of an adjoining building. Both were unharmed.

Local broadcasters, including Nation TV, showed images of people fleeing the building under the protection of armed security officers, while some clutched children and broke down in tears. Some of the injured were carried out by other survivors or pushed in shopping carts to waiting ambulances and dead bodies were loaded onto a pick-up truck.

Kenyan soldiers wounded one gunman and have "several others pinned down," Police Inspector-General David Kimaiyo said on his Twitter account about eight hours after the raid started.

An unknown number of hostages were being held in the Nakumatt supermarket at the mall, Abbas Gullet, secretary- general of the Kenya Red Cross, said.

"All the other floors have been cleared, apart from the Nakumatt, which is the biggest shopping complex," Mr Gullet said.

Gunmen or shoppers "could be in stair wells, we don't know, and other places, we don't know."

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon spoke to Mr Kenyatta and expressed his concern and offered his solidarity as the Kenyan authorities dealt with the incident.

"The secretary-general is following closely and with alarm the attack on a shopping mall in Nairobi," according to a statement published on the organisation's website.

An unspecified number of US citizens were injured in the attack, State Department deputy spokesperson Marie Harf said in a statement.

"The US Embassy is actively reaching out to provide assistance," Ms Harf said.

"Due to privacy considerations, we have no further comment on American citizens at this time."

The British government is keeping "in close touch with Kenyan authorities about the attack," British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on his official Twitter account.

"Appalled by the attack and my thoughts are with everyone affected by it," he said.

11-Year-Old Yemeni Girl Nada Al-Ahdal Flees Home to Avoid Forced Marriag...

2013-07-23T03:54:00.001-07:00

Norwegian woman: I was raped in Dubai, now I face prison sentence

2013-07-21T00:24:00.002-07:00

By Nicola Goulding and Phil O'Sullivan, CNN

July 21, 2013 -- Updated 0327 GMT (1127 HKT)

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Marte Deborah Dalelv says she was sentenced to prison in Dubai after reporting she was raped
The Norwegian alleges she was attacked by a colleague after a night out on work trip
Norway's foreign minister tells UAE her conviction "is contrary to fundamental human rights"
Dubai police and UAE authorities have not responded to CNN's requests for comment

Dubai (CNN) -- Norwegian interior designer Marte Deborah Dalelv has spoken out after being handed a 16-month prison sentence in Dubai -- after she went to police to report she had been raped by a colleague.

The 24-year-old was convicted and sentenced on charges of having unlawful sex, making a false statement and illegal consumption of alcohol.

This family handout photo taken in Abu Dhabi in May 2013 shows Norwegian businesswoman Marte Deborah Dalelv, 24. A Dubai court has sentenced her to 16 months in prison for extramarital sex after she reported being raped, according to news reports from the United Arab Emirates.

Her story is dominating the headlines in Norway, and has raised serious questions over the way women who allege sexual assault are treated in the United Arab Emirates.

Dalelv, who had been working at an interior design firm in Qatar since September 2011, told CNN on Saturday how a work trip to Dubai in March with three colleagues turned into a nightmare.

She said she had been out at a bar with her colleagues and friends, and asked a male colleague to walk her to her room when they returned at 3 a.m. to the hotel. She'd asked him to escort her because the hotel was large and confusing, and she didn't want to be wandering on her own, knowing she'd been drinking, she said.

When they reached a room, she realized it wasn't hers -- but the man then pulled her inside despite her vocal objections, according to Dalelv.

"He dragged me by my purse in, so I thought, 'OK, I just need to calm the situation down. I will finish my bottle of water, I will sit here and then I will excuse myself and say I feel fine,'" she said.

That was pretty much the last thing she said she remembers before the alleged sexual assault. "I woke up with my clothes off, sleeping on my belly, and he was raping me. I tried to get off, I tried to get him off, but he pushed me back down."

After someone knocked -- the hotel wake-up call -- she managed to get dressed and make it downstairs to the hotel reception, Dalelv said. "I called the police. That is what you do. We are trained on that from when we are very young," she said.

Some 10 or 12 male police officers arrived, but no female police officers were present, she said. Statements were taken from both Dalelv and the alleged rapist.

She was then taken to Bur Dubai police station, she said.

After again giving her version of events to officers, Dalelv said, "They asked me, 'Are you sure you called the police because you just didn't like it?' I said, 'Well of course I didn't like it.' That is when I knew, I don't think they are going to believe me at all."

Dalelv says she was taken for an intimate medical exam and tested for alcohol consumption. Her belongings were taken and she was kept in jail for four days, she said, with no explanation as to why.

Dubai police and UAE government officials have not responded to repeated CNN requests for comment.

Dalelv said she managed to call her parents on the third day to tell them she had been raped and ask them to contact the Norwegian Embassy. A day later, a representative from the Norwegian consulate came to the police station and she was released -- but her passport was not returned.

A piece of paper with Arabic text was handed to her, she said. An Arabic speaker told her it listed two charges against her: one for sex outside of marriage and the other for public consumption of alcohol. Both are violations of the law in the United Arab Emirates.

It was the first time she was made aware that she faced charges, Dalelv said.

She was allowed out on bail and has been staying since at the Norwegian Seaman's Center in Dubai.

Subsequently, she said her manager advised her to tell the police it was voluntary sexual intercourse and likely the whole issue would just go away. She followed the advice and in one of the many hearings at the public prosecutor's office, she made a statement saying it was voluntary.

Dalelv was then charged with making a false statement.

"That was my biggest regret because it wasn't voluntary. I just thought it would all go away," she told CNN.

But a representative of Al Mana Interiors, who Dalelv worked for, told CNN that she was not advised by her manager to say the sex was consensual but rather by a police officer, who told her that in Arabic and it was translated into English by her manager.

Dalelv said a month after the rape, while forced to stay in Dubai as the case wound through the legal system, she was fired.

The representative, who declined to be publicly identified, said Dalelv and the Sudanese man she accused -- who is married with three children -- have both been terminated by Al Mana Interiors for "drinking alcohol at a staff conference that resulted in trouble with the police."

A statement released late Saturday by Al Mana Interiors spokesman Hani El Korek said the company was sympathetic to Dalelv "during this very difficult situation." It also said that company representatives were by her side through the initial investigation, spending "days at both the police station and the prosecutor's office to help win her release."

"Only when Ms. Dalelv declined to have positive and constructive discussions about her employment status, and ceased communication with her employer, was the company forced to end our relationship with her," the statement said.

"The decision had nothing to do with the rape allegation, and unfortunately neither Ms. Dalelv nor her attorneys have chosen to contact the company to discuss her employment status."

The company is owned by Qatari billionaire Wissam Al Mana, who made headlines earlier this year after it was revealed that he has secretly married singer Janet Jackson in 2012.

Dalelv was convicted Tuesday on all three charges and was sentenced to one year in jail for having unlawful sex, three months in jail for making a false statement and one month for illegal consumption of alcohol.

CNN could not immediately confirm what happened to the alleged perpetrator, who was charged with public intoxication and having sex outside of marriage.

Dalelv is scheduled to appear at the court on September 5 to begin the appeal proceedings. Dalelv, who is not allowed to leave the UAE pending the appeal, said her lawyers have instructed her to be prepared to go back into jail while they submit a request for bail while the appeal is ongoing.

As a rule, CNN does not identify victims of sexual assault, but Dalelv went public with her story.

A Facebook page has been set up calling for Dalelv's release, as well as a petition urging the Norwegian government to take action on her behalf.

Her conviction may risk wider diplomatic repercussions.

Norwegian Foreign Affairs Minister Espen Barth Eide called his UAE counterpart, Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed al-Nahyan, on Friday night to protest Dalelv's sentencing, a statement from the Norwegian ministry said.

"I emphasized that we believe that the conviction is contrary to fundamental human rights, including conventions that the UAE have officially ratified," Eide is quoted as saying.

"Norway will continue to do what we can to support her in what is a very difficult situation. Our cooperation with the UAE is strong and good, but I conveyed to my colleague that we are worried that this difficult case may disturb our good relations if we do not reach a good solution in the near future."

Dalelv told CNN she received a call from Eide on Friday reiterating Norway's support.

While Dubai has a reputation as cosmopolitan city that boasts Western influences, where visitors can drink at bars and restaurants and unmarried couples can share hotel rooms, the country adheres to Islamic laws and traditions.

The United Arab Emirates has been heavily criticized by rights groups, which say it condones sexual violence against women. Human Rights Watch has called its record "shameful," saying it must change the way it handles such cases.

In December 2012, a British woman reported being raped by three men in Dubai. She was found guilty of drinking alcohol without a license and fined.

In January 2010, a British woman told authorities she was raped by an employee at a Dubai hotel. She was charged with public intoxication and having sex outside of marriage.

An Australian woman reported in 2008 that she was drugged and gang-raped. She was convicted of having sex outside marriage and drinking alcohol, and she was sentenced to 11 months in prison.

CNN's Chelsea J. Carter, Laura Smith-Spark, Bharati Naik, Phil O'Sullivan and Caroline Faraj contributed to this report.

Taliban to Malala Yousafzai: we regret the shooting but you should join a madrassa

2013-07-17T16:06:00.002-07:00

Malala Yousafzai at the United Nation in New York Photo: AP

Peshawar, Pakistan: A senior Pakistani Taliban commander has written to Malala Yousafzai, the teenage activist shot by militants, accusing her of "smearing" them and urging her to return home and join a madrassa.

Gunmen from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan shot Malala, now 16, in the head in her home town in Swat, in the country's northwest, where she campaigned for the right of girls to go to school, last October.

'I advise you to come back home, adopt the Islamic and Pashtun culture' wrote the Taliban member

Malala made a powerful speech to the UN on Friday in her first public appearance since the attack which almost killed her, vowing to continue her struggle for education and not be silenced by the militants.

In an open letter released on Wednesday, Adnan Rasheed, a former air force member turned TTP cadre, said he personally wished the attack had not happened, but accused her of running a "smearing campaign" against the militants.

"It is amazing that you are shouting for education, you and the UNO (UN) is pretending that you were shot due to education, although this is not the reason ... not the education but your propaganda was the issue," Mr Rasheed wrote.

"What you are doing now, you are using your tongue on the behest of the others."

The letter, written in English, was sent to reporters in northwest Pakistan and its authenticity confirmed to AFP by a senior Taliban cadre who is a close associate of Mr Rasheed.

He accused Malala of seeking to promote an education system begun by the British colonialists to produce "Asians in blood but English in taste" and said students should study Islam and not what it called the "satanic or secular curriculum".

"I advise you to come back home, adopt the Islamic and Pashtun culture, join any female Islamic madrassa near your home town, study and learn the book of Allah, use your pen for Islam and plight of Muslim ummah (community)," Mr Rasheed wrote.

He said he had originally wanted to write to Malala to warn her against criticising the Taliban when she rose to prominence with a blog for the BBC Urdu service chronicling life under the militants' 2007-9 rule in Swat.

Mr Rasheed was sentenced to death over a 2003 attack on Pakistan's then military ruler General Pervez Musharraf but escaped from custody in a mass jailbreak in April last year.

Teen sisters shot dead over dancing in the rain video

2013-07-07T17:06:00.000-07:00

The sisters were filmed dancing in the rain before being shot dead in an apparent 'honour' killing.

Two teenage girls have been shot dead in an apparent honour killing in Pakistan after a video was circulated showing them dancing in the rain.

The girls, aged 15 and 16, are seen running around wearing traditional dress, covered in green and purple headscarves, outside their stone bungalow in the town of Chilas, in the far north of the country.

Local media named them as Noor Basra and Noor Sheza, the daughters of a retired police officer. According to Dawn newspaper, five masked men barged into their house and opened fire last Sunday. Their mother was also killed.

The report said police believed that the crime was motivated by a video clip circulated on mobile telephones. The short film, shot six months ago, shows the girls smiling and laughing as they run around their home, breaking into a dance.

An initial investigation, quoted by Dawn, suggested that the girls' stepbrother, named as Khutore, considered the video an "assault on the honour of his family" and carried out the attack. Officers are also examining whether a property dispute or an audio clip - in which the girls are apparently heard talking to an unknown man - might be a motive.

Human rights activist Atiya Jehan was quoted by Yahoo7 as saying "the video of the sisters breaking into dance and flashing a smile at the camera became a big issue in Chillas area."

Five women and two men were reportedly killed in the same region following footage of them singing and dancing together at a wedding, the UK Telegraph reported.

The alleged killer is believed to still be on the run.

Honour killings in Pakistan are carried out to restore honour the the family name, following an action by a family member that causes the name to be shamed in some way.

Meanwhile, a Pakistani girl who was falsely accused of burning a religious text has fled to Canada, according to her supporters.

Rimsha Masih, a Christian believed to be 14, was jailed for several weeks last year after witnesses claimed she had set fire to an Islamic book. The blasphemy case was dropped when it emerged that she had been framed.

Terrorists kill 41 children in school attack

2013-07-07T17:04:00.001-07:00

Nigeria confirmed terrorists had massacred at least 41 children and a teacher at a boarding school in the country's insurgent-plagued north-east.

Gunmen thought to be loyal to the al-Qaeda-linked Boko Haram movement descended on the government secondary school in Mamudo on Saturday, spraying it with bullets and using petrol to burn some pupils alive.

At the regional morgue, Musa Hassan, 15, recalled the horror of listening to the death cries of his fellow pupils.

''We were sleeping when we heard gunshots. When I woke up, someone was pointing a gun at me,'' he said. He put his arm up in instinctive self-defence, and suffered a gunshot that blew off all four fingers on his right hand.

He said the gunmen came armed with jerry cans that they used to torch the school's administrative block and one of the hostels.

''They burned the children alive,'' he said, horror in his eyes.

Survivors were taken to a clinic a few kilometres away where they were under army guard.
Hundreds more children from the 1200-student school were unaccounted for, having escaped into the bush.

Malam Abdullahi, a farmer and father of two victims, declared he would withdraw his three remaining sons from a nearby school.
He complained there was no additional security for students despite the deployment of thousands of troops since May.
One of Mr Abdullahi's sons, a 10-year-old, was shot in the back as he tried to run away, while his 12-year-old brother was shot in the chest. ''It's not safe,'' he said. ''The gunmen are attacking schools and there is no protection for students despite all the soldiers.''

Mamudo lies just a few kilometres from Maiduguri, the town known as the birthplace of Boko Haram, often referred to as the Nigerian Taliban.

The name of the group, which was established there 11 years ago, translates as a call to ban Western education. It has sought to retaliate against government offensives by attacking government-run schools.

It maintains Western-style education is at the root of corruption and criminality in Nigeria, having lured people away from following Islamic teaching as a way of life.

Boko Haram spokesman Abu Qaqa declared the attacks on schools would escalate as long as government soldiers involved in the assault targeted Koranic schools.

In one incident last month, soldiers had beaten pupils with canes. ''When you attack Koran schools, you totally destroy Western schools,'' Abu Qaqa's message said.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has declared Boko Haram a threat to Nigeria's integrity and sought Western support for an offensive to crush the group.

He imposed a state of emergency in the states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, saying Boko Haram had turned whole regions into no-go zones for security forces.

Violence linked to the Boko Haram insurgency has killed about 3600 people since 2009, including killings by security forces.

An estimated 10,000 pupils have been forced out of state schooling by hit-and-run attacks, which have intensified since the start of the seven-week-old military offensive.
Telegraph, London; AFP

Sydney sharia whipping case: man jailed for dishing out 40 lashes

2013-06-14T00:40:00.000-07:00

Lisa Davies

Crime Editor

Jailed: Wassim Fayad. Photo: Ben Rushton

A man who whipped a Muslim convert 40 times as punishment for drinking alcohol and taking drugs because of a "contorted" belief in sharia has been jailed for at least 16 months, with a magistrate saying he had "brought much shame upon the Islamic faith".

Wassim Fayad, 45, was one of four men sentenced on Friday for their assault upon Cristian Martinez in July, 2011.

He was whipped 40 times with an electric cord in his Silverwater home, while three other men held him down on his bed.

Zakaryah Raad: given a suspended 18-month sentence. Photo: Ben Rushton

Previously, the court has heard Fayad and three other men - Zakaryah Raad, Tolga Cifci and Cengiz Coskun - believed they were following sharia when they held Mr Martinez down and whipped him on the back in the middle of the night.

Turning to Fayed directly, Mr Maloney said: "Mr Fayad, by your actions you have brought much shame on the Islamic faith.On Friday, Magistrate Brian Maloney sentenced Fayad to a maximum two years' imprisonment for assault occasioning actual bodily harm, giving the less culpable trio suspended 18-month sentences, finding they were easily led by their older friend.

"You have proved yourself unscrupulously cunning, deceptive and dishonest. You profess to be a religious man; however, you resorted to violence upon Mr Martinez," he said.

In other observations about the case, Mr Maloney said it "was never about the Islamic faith or Islamic law, and my findings bear witness to the fact".

"It was simply one man who happened to be Muslim, assaulting another man, to effect a criminal purpose. To assist in that purpose [Fayad] recruited three young men who had been groomed and duped into believing he was righteous and learned in Islamic law."

Instead, he said Fayed had whipped Mr Martinez in order to get him to pay his debts.

Fayed shook his head and muttered as Mr Maloney handed down his sentence.

The three younger men were also sentenced to community service orders.

All four embraced in court afterwards.

The case is believed to be the first of its kind in Australia relating to such punishment being given out under the pretext of sharia, or Islamic law.

The court has previously heard Mr Martinez, 32, had asked Fayed, his religious mentor, for help in getting off drugs.

Fayed replied: "It means I'm going to tie you up brother, because that's what you need."

Fayed and the other offenders then went round to Mr Martinez's home and Fayed lashed him on the back as the others held him down.

Mr Martinez cried and begged for the men to stop and he was in pain for about a week after the incident.

Lawyers for Mr Fayad lodged an immediate appeal, and were seeking bail pending the outcome of the appeal hearing on Friday afternoon.

I was a radical Islamist who hated all of you

2013-05-28T20:51:00.001-07:00

MOST people find it hard to imagine stabbing another human being, let alone almost decapitating someone with a meat cleaver.

To do so in broad daylight and in the middle of the road, while asking passers-by to take pictures, simply beggars belief.

Few can understand how the British jihadists Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale could be filled with such hate.

I'm ashamed to say I can. For I was similar to them once.

I spent 13 years inside Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT), the global Islamist organisation that first spawned al-Muhajiroun, the banned Islamist terrorist organisation founded by Omar Bakri Muhammad and Anjem Choudary.

Bakri and Choudary both knew Adebolajo, a 28-year-old who was raised as a Christian. Like Adebolajo, I was raised in Essex in an educated, middle-class and well integrated family.

Again, like Adebolajo, I went on to further education. He dropped out, while I gained a law and Arabic degree from The School of African and Oriental Studies and a Masters in political theory from the London School of Economics.

THREE MORE ARRESTED OVER ATTACK ON UK SOLDIER

(The belief that all radicalised young Muslims must lack jobs or are socially awkward loners is a dangerous misconception. I did not lack career opportunities, nor did I lack friends or girlfriends.)

And I, too, was caught up in the aftermath of a Jihadist street murder in which a man was killed with a machete. It was 1995 and I was president of the Student Union at Newham College in East Ham. The union was nothing but a front for HT. We siphoned off money to our cause, giving lectures and preaching anywhere and everywhere - the street, the yard and the canteen, where I would stand on the tables and spout hate.

We were encouraged by Omar Bakri to operate like street gangs and we did, prowling London, fighting Indian Sikhs in the west and African Christians in the east. We intimidated Muslim women until they wore the hijab and we thought we were invincible.

And when an acquaintance of mine, Saeed Nur, slashed a Nigerian student, Ayotunde Obanubi, shouting the same battle cry as the Woolwich attackers: "Allahu Akbar" - God is Great - I watched him die and felt nothing. I did not incite the murder but I did nothing to stop it.

So how did it reach that point? And what turns a tiny minority of ordinary, young Muslim men into fanatical, cold-blooded killers? For my own part, once I became a teenager I experienced severe and violent racism. The neo-Nazi paramilitary group Combat 18 began to target me and my friends. On a few occasions I was forced to watch as white friends were stabbed merely for being associated with me.

At 15, I was falsely arrested at gunpoint for playing with a plastic gun. This was the early 1990s, genocide was unfolding in Bosnia, while the international community failed to act. Add this to my own internal identity crisis - I didn't know if I was British or Pakistani, Muslim or agnostic - and my disenfranchisement from mainstream society was complete.

However, it's what happened next that sealed my fate. I needed someone who could guide a broken and confused 16-year-old. Instead, I came across a charismatic recruiter espousing HT's cause who sold me the ideology of Islamism in the name of Islam.

But Islamism is not Islam. Islamism is the politicisation of Islam, the desire to impose a version of this ancient faith over society. To achieve this, Islamism uses political grievances, such as mine, to alienate and then provide an alternative sense of belonging to vulnerable young Muslims. Preying on the grievances of disaffected young men is the bedrock of Islamism.

Like all bigoted ideologies, it plays on the identity politics game, creating a "them and us", in order to provide a home for the "us" against the alien "other" and control the community by acting as the sole "representative" of Muslims.

One of the Woolwich jihadists ranted to onlookers: "You" have occupied "Our" lands. Spreading this sense of exclusive Muslim victimhood is crucial to the radicalisation process. I continued to spread hate for many years after Obanubi's murder, co-founding branches in Denmark and Pakistan where we targeted army officers in order to incite military coups.

I was aiming to do the same thing in Egypt in 2001, when I was arrested and tortured. Eventually I was convicted of membership of a banned organisation and sentenced to five years in Mazra Tora prison, where deposed dictator Hosni Mubarak is held.

It was then I began to sift through my layers of hatred and ignorance. I also encountered the kindness of strangers, especially Amnesty International whose campaign to win my release was led by an octogenarian in England I'd never met.

After much soul searching I was able to renounce my past Islamist ideology, challenging everything I was once prepared to die for.

De-radicalisation begins by breaking down the logic that once seemed unassailable and rethinking what you are fighting for and why. Hard to do when Islamists and Islamophobes feed off each other's hateful cliches.

We must not blame the security services for what happened. As long as a man can pick up a knife, these murders will be impossible to predict. The only way to try and prevent it happening again is to give those angry young Muslims another outlet. I have founded Khudi, in Pakistan, a youth movement which tries to counter extremist ideology through healthy discussion and debate.

We need a similar grassroots movement in Britain. The only way we can challenge Islamism is to engage with one another. We need to make it as abhorrent as racism has become today. Only then will we stem the tide of angry young Muslims who turn to hate. Only then will they stop listening to people like Omar Bakri Muhammad and Anjem Choudary.

Maajid Nawaz is author of Radical: My Journey From Islamist Extremism To A Democratic Awakening

Man arrested in Sydney terrorism raid denied bail

2013-05-28T19:01:00.000-07:00

A Sydney man under investigation for alleged terrorism offences has been charged after allegedly making a threatening telephone call to a Commonwealth official.

Milad Bin Ahmad Shah al-Ahmadzai, 23, was arrested at his apartment in Auburn on Monday night.

His home, which he shares with his pregnant wife and stepson, was raided by the Joint Counter Terrorism Team, consisting of officers from the Australian Federal Police and NSW officers.

Held: Milad Bin Ahmad Shah al-Ahmadzai leaves court.Photo: AAP

Al-Ahmadzai is alleged to have made a threatening phone call to the Commonwealth public official on May 2.

Documents also reveal that al-Ahmadzai has been under investigation by the Joint Counter Terrorism Team for ''allegedly committing terrorism-related offences'' since December 2009.

His arrest on Monday came only hours after the Australian Defence Force warned troops to avoid al-Ahmadzai due to hateful material he had allegedly been posting on the internet.

The 23-year-old is also due to be sentenced on Friday in an unrelated matter involving the ram-raid of an ATM on Sydney's upper north shore in July 2011.

On Tuesday, he made a bail application relating to a new allegation and was supported in court by his wife, parents and siblings.

His solicitor, Nicholas Hanna, told the court that his client had strong community ties, having been born and raised in Sydney and with more than 100 family members in the city.

His parents were also prepared to put up their home as surety.

Magistrate Margaret Quinn, however, refused bail, saying that these were serious offences that carried a maximum of 10 years' jail.

Mr Hanna told reporters outside the court that he has been instructed to lodge an application for Supreme Court bail.

''My client's family have kindly asked that their privacy be respected,'' he said. ''If he posed an immediate threat, a swift response would have been expected.''

Twisting Islam to justify cruelty

2013-05-28T18:57:00.003-07:00

The murder of Drummer Lee Rigby by a pair of psychopaths invoking the name of Islam has galvanised Britain and gained global media attention, but what about the other 176 or so people who were murdered by Muslim psychopaths last week?

Drummer Rigby was white, English and a soldier, so the gory, bizarre and provocative manner of his death garnered headlines around the world, but hundreds of families, mostly Muslim, are also in mourning because of the actions of psychopaths using Islam to justify their bloodlust.

One of the men charged with the murder of Rigby, Michael Adebolajo, 28, was a thug long before he gravitated to Muslim fundamentalism. At high school he cultivated a gangsta persona, got into drugs, then armed robbery, and became known for putting a knife to people's throats and stealing their phones and money.

Illustration: michaelmucci.com

He came to the attention of the police Special Branch and the MI5 security agency in 2007 after becoming an activist follower of Muslim hate clerics. But there are so many radicalised Muslims in Britain that the security agencies cannot track them all, and they let him slide. Britain's intelligence service has not been exempt from the government's austerity drive, prompted by massive public debt.

It is instructive to consider the reaction to the murder from one of the clerics that Adebolajo followed, Omar Bakri Mohammed. He was banned from Britain, and lives in Lebanon, after being caught on film supporting jihad against the West and stating that decapitating enemies of Islam was permitted by Islam. When The Independent contacted Bakri Mohammed, he predictably rationalised the savagery: ''I saw the film and we could see that he [Adebolajo] was being very courageous. Under Islam this can be justified. He was not targeting civilians, he was taking on a military man in an operation. To people around here he is a hero for what he has done.''

There is no shortage of such heroes in the Muslim world, nor a shortage of rationalisations of violence. Thousands of Muslims, including Adebolajo, have cited the Koran to justify murder. Here is a sample from the more than 100 verses in the Koran that call Muslims to violence against the Unbelievers:

''Soon shall We cast terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers …

''And slay them wherever ye find them …''

''As to those who reject faith, I will punish them with terrible agony …''

''Whoso fighteth in the way of Allah, be he slain or be he victorious, on him We shall bestow a vast reward.''

''Slay the idolaters wherever you find them …''

''Fight those who believe not in Allah …''

And so on. So, too, does the body of jurisprudence which accompanies the Koran, the Hadiths, bristle with calls to jihad: ''I have been made victorious with terror …''

''And jihad will be performed continuously …''

''Kill any Jew who falls under your power.''

''Fight everyone in the way of Allah and kill those who disbelieve in Allah.''

So many Muslims have been encouraged to murder civilians by such exhortations that the rate of violent incidents perpetrated in the name of Islam is staggering, a toll that shows no sign of subsiding. The website thereligionofpeace.com, which maintains a record of terrorist acts committed in the name of Islam, has logged an astounding 20,939 terrorist acts committed in the name of Islam since the attacks of September 11, 2001. Thereligionofpeace.com keeps a monthly list of bloody incidents and during the past 30 days it records 222 incidents, in 25 different countries, including much of the Arab world and North Africa, and Britain, France, Russia, Nigeria, Thailand, the Philippines and China. (Apologists for Muslim violence claim that thereligionofpeace.com does not provide sources for its lists and thus has no credibility, which is nonsense as every incident is based on credible published reports.)

Seventy per cent of these 222 incidents in the past month took place in four countries - Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Syria - all battlefields in the ancient religious civil war between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, a civil war more violent now than it has been for decades.

The existence of this violent sectarian schism, and the systemic repression of religious dissent throughout the Muslim world, demolish the absurd claim that Islam is ''a religion of peace''.

Most Muslims are peaceful, like most non-Muslims, but the Koran groans under the weight of its own contradictions, with entreaties to kindness co-existing with exhortations to merciless war. If the Koran were only a text of peace and mercy, tens of thousands of Muslims could not invoke its verses to engage in violence. Those who gravitate to the wrathful messages of the Koran bring their own pathologies with them, which they then cloak in zealous piety. Apologists argue that those who use the Koran to justify violence are not Islamic. And in the West there is fearfulness to trigger the belligerent victimology that extreme Muslims use to cloak intransigence, separatism and special-pleading.

The most disturbing aspect of the record of violence of Muslims invoking the name of Islam in violence is that the public record understates, not overstates, the problem. Not included in the log of violent crimes are the outbreaks of civil violence such as the riots that have rocked Stockholm over the past week, where an urban underclass of predominantly Muslim immigrants, refugees and asylum-seekers and their children has erupted in violence, vandalism and attacks on police. You will not find the word ''Muslim'' in media reports.

Twitter: @Paul_Sheehan_

Unrest in Myanmar town after woman torched

2013-05-28T18:56:00.002-07:00

Yangon: Violence has hit a town in eastern Myanmar after a woman was allegedly set alight by a Muslim man, police say, weeks after deadly religious attacks rocked parts of the country.

An ethnic Shan-Muslim man in eastern Shan State was arrested after he "torched" a woman selling petrol on Tuesday evening, a police officer in Lashio town told AFP under the condition of anonymity.

"Some conflicts are happening in town. We do not know the details of what is happening at this moment. But the police as well as soldiers are in the town to control the situation," he said.

"She (the woman) was sent to the hospital," he said without giving any details about her condition or stating her religion.

A resident in Lashio, around 200 kilometres northeast of Mandalay, said Muslim shops had been destroyed as some Buddhist monks and angry locals demanded the police hand the suspect over to them.

"I do not know what is happening exactly. But some Muslim shops in the town were destroyed," one resident said, while another reported smoke and flames in the night sky.

Attacks against Muslims -- who officially make up an estimated four per cent of Myanmar's Buddhist-majority population -- have exposed deep rifts in the formerly junta-run country and cast a shadow over widely-praised political reforms.

The government says at least 44 people were killed and thousands left homeless after a flare-up of religious violence in March, which was apparently triggered by a quarrel in a gold shop.

Three Muslims, including the gold shop owner, were jailed for 14 years in April for assaulting a Buddhist customer.

MUSLIM GRANTED JUDGE-ONLY TRIAL TO AVOID BIAS

2013-05-20T03:53:00.003-07:00

A Muslim man was granted a judge-only trial because a judge believed a jury may have been too biased against him.

The NSW District Court revealed the decision after the man pleaded guilty to detaining and assaulting his sister-in-law after she took his wife to the beach.

According to News Limited, Ismail Belghar believed that it was ‘abhorrent’ that his wife, Hanife Kokden, had been to the beach where she displayed her body.

The court heard that Belghar noticed her shoulders were slightly sunburned and found out she had been to the beach.

He rang his sister-in-law Canan Kokden and said: "You slut, how dare you take my wife to the beach."

Not long later, the pair came face-to-face while out shopping at Broadway Shopping Centre.

Mr Belghar slapped her on the face and held her over the railing of the carpark.

Ismail Belghar was granted a jury-less trial in March by Judge Ronald Solomon. The decision was made because Mr Belghar felt that he had absolute authority over his wife and a jury would not necessarily give him a fair trial.

Judge Solomon said: "The attitude of (Belghar) ... is based on a religious or cultural basis. In light of the fact there has been adverse publicity regarding people who hold extreme Muslim faith beliefs in the community, I am of the view that the apprehension by (Belghar) that he may not receive a fair trial is a reasonable apprehension."

The Court of Criminal Appeals last week overturned the jury-less trial ruling and ordered Mr Belghar to be tried by jury.

The trial was due to start yesterday but instead, Mr Belghar pleaded guilty to detaining his sister-in-law for advantage to intimidate and assault.

His original charge of attempted murder has since been dropped.

MAN REFUSES TO STAND FOR MAGISTRATE

2013-05-20T03:53:00.000-07:00

A man accused of rioting during last year's Sydney Muslim protests has been read the 'riot act' by a magistrate.

Mohammad Issai Issaka refused to stand up in court claiming it was against his religion.

Mr Issaka appeared in court faced with charges of riot, assaulting police and resisting arrest over last year’s riots.

In a 20 minute stand off, the Lakemba man refused to stand for the Magistrate, claiming it was against his religion.

However Magistrate Jacqueline Milledge wouldn't accept that.

"You can tell me where it is in his religion that it says he cannot stand," she told the Issaka's lawyer Stephen Hopper.

"I was a Magistrate at Bankstown Court for four years, and I have never had to deal with such disrespect.

Eventually a compromise was reached, whereby Issaka would walk into the courtroom after the Magistrate and leave before her, so he didn't have to technically stand up for her.

His lawyer said outside court: "I respect that Mr Issaka has beliefs and he's stuck by his beliefs".

Sergeant Catherine Sadler told the court she copped an earful of abuse from Issaka during the riot.

"You're not a lady, you're f$#king filth," he allegedly yelled.

Issaka has denied those claims.

He told the court he'd only seen one clip of the anti-Islamic video which sparked the protest and went along thinking it would be peaceful.

The hearing continues.

How Lauren Booth found a good Muslim husband - with an advert on the internet

2013-05-12T00:35:00.000-07:00

Ms Booth, 45, announced her quest for a partner on Facebook
She has now announced she has married a devout Muslim man

By AMY OLIVER

PUBLISHED: 21:04 GMT, 4 May 2013 | UPDATED: 21:45 GMT, 4 May 2013

She is known for writing about her colourful private life, her dramatic conversion to Islam and a spectacular falling-out with her half-sister, Cherie Blair.

So perhaps it’s no surprise that when Lauren Booth decided she wanted a new husband, she advertised on Facebook.

And after announcing her quest for a partner to her 7,000 Facebook ‘friends’ last year, Ms Booth, 45, has now announced she is wed.

Activist Lauren Booth is pictured with her husband Sohale Ahmed whom she met after posting an ad on the internet

The Mail on Sunday can reveal her husband is Sohale Ahmed, a devout Muslim and divorced father of three from Stockport, Manchester.

Mr Ahmed must have survived a stern examination of his credentials to earn Ms Booth’s affections. For in her Facebook announcement, she promised a ‘series of rigorous tests of din [religion], finances and personality’.

More...

He would have to have his own teeth and be able to ‘pray’ and to ‘pay’, she added. Secret drinkers, CIA stooges and anyone who fancied Sunday roast at her brother-in-law Tony Blair’s house were told they need not apply.

The journalist and broadcaster – a vocal opponent of the Iraq War who now works for Iran’s state-owned news channel Press TV – said anyone who wished to have lunch with Mr Blair was discounted because it meant they liked eating with ‘Muslim-murdering former leaders’.

Ex-husband: Lauren Booth and actor Craig Darby pictured on their wedding day in 2000

‘Still interested?’ Ms Booth asked at the end of the advert. ‘Well, you’d better be brave and funny.’

Despite issuing such a daunting challenge, Ms Booth has now reported her marriage on Facebook. Mr Ahmed is listed as the managing director of Ms Booth’s pro-Palestinian charity, Peace 2012.

Her 49-year-old new husband has also posted Facebook pictures of Ms Booth.

It is unclear how the couple met, but Ms Booth, a devout Muslim and human-rights activist, has spoken at various rallies and events, produced by Mr Ahmed through his company X Events.

It is not the first time Facebook has played a major role in Ms Booth’s life.

Strict criteria: Activist Lauren Booth announced that she was looking for a partner on Facebook

In 2009, she changed her Facebook status from ‘married’ to ‘divorced’, following a row with her first husband Craig Darby when they and their two daughters lived in France.

Days later, a serious motorbike accident left him with brain injuries.

The accident and recovery were documented by Ms Booth in newspaper articles.

Though she had admitted that changing her Facebook status was juvenile, she later wrote that despite being grateful her husband had survived the crash, the man she had loved was dead.

‘I miss my dead husband, his passion and his bravery,’ she wrote.

The couple divorced in 2011.

EXCLUSIVE - How doctor's daughter became the Muslim convert widow of Boston bomber: Terrorist husband 'brainwashed' her and she gave up her dreams of college to have his baby at 21

2013-05-12T00:33:00.003-07:00

Schoolfriend tells MailOnline how Katherine Russell had dreams of joining the Peace Corps - but was 'totally transformed' by Tamerlan Tsarnaev
Yearbook photos reveal her transformation from all-American girl

By LAURA COLLINS IN NORTH KINGSTOWN, RHODE ISLAND

PUBLISHED: 21:19 GMT, 21 April 2013 | UPDATED: 21:42 GMT, 23 April 2013

Katherine Russell, the widow of Boston bomb suspect, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was 'an all-American girl who was brainwashed' by her extremist husband according to one schoolfriend.

Today MailOnline has gained the first glimpse and pictures of the early life of the woman who, according to those who knew her best, was 'totally transformed' by Tsarnaev.

At high school her personal motto was 'Do something about it or stop complaining'. She dreamed of going to college and joining the Peace Corps.

She urged her friends to 'lighten up and enjoy the small things,' in life.

Scroll down for video

Transformed: Katherine Russell, the American wife of marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, is pictured left in her school book and, right, leaving the house she shared with her husband in Cambridge

FBI to question 'bomber's wife

Instead she met Tsarneav, 26, a disenfranchised man who came to America from his troubled homeland of Chechnya who rapidly had her in his thrall.

By the time she was 21 she had married him and borne his child, Zahara, now three. She had converted to Islam, hidden her tumble of chestnut hair beneath the hijab and undergone a change so profound that today few friends profess to truly understand it.

More...

Yesterday Katherine, who has been staying at her parents’ home in Rhode Island, returned to the Cambridge, Massachusetts home which she shared with her late husband.

Dressed in a leopard print hijab she darted into the white shingle house to collect some belongings and her pet cat while her daughter waited in the car.

Today she was back home, accompanied by armed federal agents who first interviewed Katherine and her family on Friday.

What did she know? Katherine's proximity to both brothers makes her a key witness - witting or otherwise. A team of federal agents today delivered a package to her home after her mother reluctantly answered the door

Great future: Her friends say she dreamed of going to the Peace Corps - before she met Tsarnaev

Shortly before 6pm on Sunday three law enforcement agents – two men, one woman - all wearing dark sunglasses delivered a package to the Russell's family home.

Katherine's mother Judith was initially reluctant to answer the front door, opening it fully only after requesting that the officers, thought to be Federal Agents, showed their credentials.

At around 7.30 the Federal agents returned to the Russell family home as there was a marked increase in law enforcement activity in this quiet suburban neighborhood.

MailOnline has learned that the family's attorney entered by a back door as several officers were seen going into the family home.

The agents stayed for just over an hour. Moments after they left, the family's attorney Amato DeLuca did likewise.

Mr DeLuca said he could not discuss any detail of what had passed between his client and the agents, saying only that there were ‘talks.’

He said ‘We’re doing our best to deal with a very difficult situation. The family’s going through a lot. That’s the best I can do at the moment.’

Through the years: She had a comfortable upbringing as the eldest daughter of a doctor and a nurse

Involved: Russell, circled, is pictured with her high school dance team, third from right on the back row

Their presence raises the question how much did Katherine know about her late husband's activities and links?

Katherine's awareness of her then husband's movements, thoughts and plans is under intense scrutiny as her relation to Tsaraev and her proximity to both brothers makes her a key witness - witting or otherwise.

After all she was living with Tsarnaev when he travelled to Makhachkala in 2011 – a trip now attracting the interest of investigators trying to establish whether he met with Gaczhimurad Dolgatov at that time. Dolgatov was a Dagestani jihadist who died in 2012 after a vicious stand-off with Russian security services.

As it has already been revealed, Tsarnaev was on the FBI's radar during that time as they were asked to look into his potential links to extremist groups.

None who knew her as a child could have dreamed that this would be the face she would one day present to the world, nor that her life and those of so many Bostonians would be so violently caught up with two brothers from Chechnya and a cause as unclear as it was brutal.

Out: She exits a car with her father Warren Russell, left, as they arrive at the family home in Rhode Island

Changed: Her school friends have described how she transformed after meeting Tamerlan Tsarnaev

In hiding: The Russell family home in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, where Katherine is staying

Support: A man, believed to be Warren Russell, father of Katherine Russell, smiles at the media

Family: After pulling into her driveway, Judith Russell, Katherine's mother, spoke briefly with the media

As a girl growing up in Rhode Island Katherine was known to her friends as Katie. One school friend who asked not to be named recalled: ‘I saw her like a few months ago and she was just totally transformed. She was not the same person at all.’

Another agreed: ‘She was just this All-American girl who was brainwashed by her super-religious husband. Nobody understands what happened to her.

‘None of us would have dreamed that she would marry so young or drop out of college and have a baby or convert or be part of any of what’s happened.’

She said, ‘She’s just not the same person at all.’

It would be hard to imagine a childhood more rooted in America’s pilgrim heritage than Katherine’s. It is in there in the names of the towns – Plymouth, Dorset, Greenwich – where many of her friends still live and writ large in the wholesome values of the one-time Honors student’s home life.

'She was this All-American girl who was brainwashed by her super-religious husband. Nobody understands what happened'

The eldest of three daughters, to emergency physician Dr Warren Russell and nurse Judith, hers is a background steeped in the values of family and education.

She attended Daivisville Middle School, North Kingstown. As a sixth grader she is pictured smiling from the pages of the 2001-2002 yearbook dedicated to The North Kingstown Police and Fire Departments in the wake of 9/11. – a date, the opening dedication reads, ‘forever in our minds.’

A section of the book is titled, ‘Enduring Freedom,’ as the school, along with the rest of the nation, refused to be cowed by the acts of terror that hit the homeland that day.

'Attackers': Her husband Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his younger brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were allegedly behind the bombings at the Boston Marathon last Monday, which left three dead and more than 180 injured

Patimat Suleimanova, aunt of the suspected bombers, shared this photo of a young Dzhokhar (C, bottom) and Tamerlan (C, top) with their sisters about 15 years ago

Chilling: Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev are seen near the marathon finish line before the bombings

Scene: Dzhokhar was found in a boat in Watertown, Massachusetts on Friday following a massive manhunt

In 2004 Katherine progressed to North Kingstown High School.

She took part gamely in the school’s Mismatch/Bad Hair Day; she dressed up for Hawaiian day though the occasion fell in a chilly October.

She was a member of the Dance Team and the Art Club. In 11th grade she was awarded a Silver Key for a rather odd image of a cat, lashing out at a mouse in a ballet shoe. Her favorite food was Pad Thai.

She competed with her peers in Class Color Day that ended with a Pep Rally in which seas of the school colors, green, blue, red, black and gold filled the stands at the playing field.

One classmate who remembers Katherine from those early days said: ‘The thing that’s so shocking is that there was nothing at all that made Katherine different.

‘Her parents are nice people, her sisters are great girls. But she met this guy, I guess, and everything changed.’

Memorial: Candles are lit for those who died in the Boston Marathon bombings and the subsequent police manhunt at a memorial on Boylston Street in Boston, Massachusetts April 21, 2013

Remembering: A couple embraces at a memorial on Boylston Street to the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings in Boston

Flowers: A woman holds a flower at the memorial on Boylston Street last night

Katherine was a student at Suffolk University, Boston, when she met Tsaraev, then a promising boxer and athlete.

It was during that time that she converted and her youthful priorities appear to have changed as she left in 2010 without graduating.

By then her relationship with Tsaraev was intense. Not even his arrest for violently assaulting her in 2009 could change that.

According to Cambridge City Police Department reports of the incident which took place in July at the Massachusetts home she once shared with Tsaraev, when interviewed she described Tsaraev as ‘a very nice man.’

Certainly he was a man whose influence on Katherine's life would prove profound.

There is only one odd and unsettling inclusion in her own entry in her graduation High School Yearbook.

Asked to provide a quotation she settled on one that would surely chime with the extremist views of her late husband.

‘Don’t take anything for granted,’ she advises, before quoting a line from David Bowie's 'Quicksand': ‘Don’t believe in yourself, don’t deceive with belief,’ the baffling lines run. ‘Knowledge comes from death’s release.’

A mass exodus of Christians is currently underway.

2013-05-12T00:32:00.000-07:00

Millions of Christians are being displaced from one end of the Islamic world to the other.

We are reliving the true history of how the Islamic world, much of which prior to the Islamic conquests was almost entirely Christian, came into being.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recently said: “The flight of Christians out of the region is unprecedented and it’s increasing year by year.” In our lifetime alone “Christians might disappear altogether from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Egypt.”

Ongoing reports from the Islamic world certainly support this conclusion: Iraq was the earliest indicator of the fate awaiting Christians once Islamic forces are liberated from the grip of dictators.

The 2010 Baghdad church attack, which saw nearly 60 Christian worshippers slaughtered, is the tip of a decade-long iceberg.

In 2003, Iraq’s Christian population was at least one million. Today fewer than 400,000 remain—the result of an anti-Christian campaign that began with the U.S. occupation of Iraq, when countless Christian churches were bombed and countless Christians killed, including by crucifixion and beheading.

The 2010 Baghdad church attack, which saw nearly 60 Christian worshippers slaughtered, is the tip of a decade-long iceberg.

Now, as the U.S. supports the jihad on Syria’s secular president Assad, the same pattern has come to Syria: entire regions and towns where Christians lived for centuries before Islam came into being have now been emptied, as the opposition targets Christians for kidnapping, plundering, and beheadings, all in compliance with mosque calls telling the populace that it’s a “sacred duty” to drive Christians away.

In October 2012 the last Christian in the city of Homs—which had a Christian population of some 80,000 before jihadis came—was murdered. One teenage Syrian girl said: “We left because they were trying to kill us… because we were Christians…. Those who were our neighbors turned against us. At the end, when we ran away, we went through balconies. We did not even dare go out on the street in front of our house.”

In Egypt, some 100,000 Christian Copts have fled their homeland soon after the “Arab Spring.” In September 2012, the Sinai’s small Christian community was attacked and evicted by Al Qaeda linked Muslims, Reuters reported. But even before that, the Coptic Orthodox Church lamented the “repeated incidents of displacement of Copts from their homes, whether by force or threat.

Displacements began in Ameriya [62 Christian families evicted], then they stretched to Dahshur [120 Christian families evicted], and today terror and threats have reached the hearts and souls of our Coptic children in Sinai.”

Iraq, Syria, and Egypt are part of the Arab world. But even in “black” African and “white” European nations with Muslim majorities, Christians are fleeing.

In Mali, after a 2012 Islamic coup, as many as 200,000 Christians fled. According to reports, “the church in Mali faces being eradicated,” especially in the north “where rebels want to establish an independent Islamist state and drive Christians out… there have been house to house searches for Christians who might be in hiding, churches and other Christian property have been looted or destroyed, and people tortured into revealing any Christian relatives.” At least one pastor was beheaded.

Even in European Bosnia, Christians are leaving en mass “amid mounting discrimination and Islamization.” Only 440,000 Catholics remain in the Balkan nation, half the prewar figure.

Problems cited are typical: “while dozens of mosques were built in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, no building permissions [permits] were given for Christian churches.” “Time is running out as there is a worrisome rise in radicalism,” said one authority, who further added that the people of Bosnia-Herzegovina were “persecuted for centuries” after European powers “failed to support them in their struggle against the Ottoman Empire.”

And so history repeats itself.

One can go on and on:

In Ethiopia, after a Christian was accused of desecrating a Koran, thousands of Christians were forced to flee their homes when “Muslim extremists set fire to roughly 50 churches and dozens of Christian homes.”
In the Ivory Coast—where Christians have literally been crucified—Islamic rebels “massacred hundreds and displaced tens of thousands” of Christians.
In Libya, Islamic rebels forced several Christian religious orders, serving the sick and needy in the country since 1921, to flee.

To anyone following the plight of Christians under Islamic persecution, none of this is surprising. As I document in my new book, “Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians,” all around the Islamic world—in nations that do not share the same race, language, culture, or economics, in nations that share only Islam—Christians are being persecuted into extinction. Such is the true face of extremist Islamic resurgence.

Raymond Ibrahim is author of the new book "Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians" (Regnery Publishing 2013). A Middle East and Islam specialist, he is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an associate fellow at the Middle East Forum.

Muslim, Christian groups clash in NY libel suit

2013-05-12T00:24:00.004-07:00

Muslims of America, Christian Action Network square off in NY libel suit over book on terror

By Michael Virtanen, Associated Press | Associated Press – Sat, May 11, 2013 3:47 AM AEST
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- A Muslim group is accusing a Christian organization of defamation for publishing a book that accuses the Muslim collective of holding terrorist training in its enclaves.

The Christian Action Network refuses to back down, challenging Muslims of America Inc. to prove the allegations wrong in an upstate New York court.

The Muslim group has a community in Hancock, near Binghamton, N.Y., and others around the U.S. It calls the network's accusations deliberate and damaging lies.

Attorney Tahirah Amatul-Wadud said the Muslim group is seeking retractions and $18 million in damages, and a halt to further publication of network founder Martin Mawyer's 2012 book, "Twilight in America: the Untold Story of Terrorist Training Camps Inside America."

The group's residential communities are peaceful, Amatul-Wadud said.

"The property upstate has farms; it has gardens; it has buildings for work; it has little stores," she said. "It's a community of families and of individuals who are just trying to get by day to day."

Their common denominator is their faith, she said. "Everyone believes in one God and the Prophet Mohammed as his messenger."

The Christian group has denied the defamation allegations and asked U.S. District Judge Thomas McAvoy to dismiss the complaint. It hasn't withdrawn the book and continues to promote it on its website.

"The defendants intend vigorously defend this case in order to protect their right to free speech under the First Amendment," attorney Michael Grygiel said.

The Lynchburg, Va.-based network was founded in 1990 by Mawyer, former editor of the Rev. Jerry Falwell's "Moral Majority Report."

A scheduling conference is set for May 17 in Binghamton before a magistrate. Trial is expected next year.

The book claims both state and federal authorities "turn a blind eye" to the Islamic extremists trying to convert U.S. citizens in the communities, that Muslims of America is a front for the radical group Jamaat Al Fuqras and that it has held terrorist training at the rural enclaves.

In court papers, Muslims of America said it was founded around 1985 as a New York religious corporation whose principal place of worship is Hancock, where it bought 60 acres of rural property to provide a safe haven for inner city families. It now also has communities in Georgia, Michigan, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Texas, Canada and Trinidad.

The group said that it has always counseled members and residents to abide by U.S. laws and avoid criminal, immoral and antisocial behavior. The communities include doctors, engineers, nurses, teachers, tradesmen, farmers and business people, with workshops, seminars and interfaith outreach open to the public, it has said.

Its complaint said the Christian network harassed its communities in Red House, Va., and Commerce, Ga., and that the book presents false, defamatory and therefore libelous statements as fact, not just opinion. It cited this from the book's back cover: "These Islamic extremists convert our own citizens, then teach them how to kill."

In its court response, the network cited a host of defenses, including that lawsuits aren't allowed for damage to reputation because of expressions of opinion and rhetorical hyperbole, that statements were made "within the sphere of legitimate public interest" and that the published statements weren't made with either malice or reckless disregard of probable falsity.

Juice bar owner suspected of backing Assad 'forced to sell'

2013-04-30T00:12:00.004-07:00

Sold: The former Juicylicious shop remains a juice bar but with a new name. Photo: Wolter Peeters

A shopkeeper was allegedly extorted, threatened, firebombed, bashed and eventually forced to sell his Bankstown juice bar for a pittance because a gang of Sunni Muslims suspected he supported Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

In a glimpse of how far tensions in Syria can affect life more than 14,000 kilometres away, Ali Issawi was subjected to a two-week campaign of threats and violence when his business was placed on a ''boycott tyranny'' list on Facebook.

Court documents reveal the steps a group of men from the radical Al-Risalah Islamic bookstore in Bankstown took to ''protect their faith'' and support the rebel uprising against President Assad.

For a pittance: The Bankstown shop. Photo: Wolter Peeters

A month after spending almost $80,000 to open Juicylicious on Restwell Street in February last year, Mr Issawi discovered his business and dozens of others had been placed on a boycott list because they were owned by Shiite Muslims who supposedly supported the Assad regime.

Wisam Haddad, the owner of Al-Risalah next door, and an unknown male came into Juicylicious one afternoon and said to Mr Issawi: ''If we find out anyone in the area supports Bashar al-Assad we are going to crush them down with our feet,'' according to court documents.

He was asked by another man, Jalal Mariam, to hand over his business or face firebombings and drive-by shootings. ''You will not last here,'' Mr Mariam allegedly told Mr Issawi.

Mr Haddad demanded Mr Issawi donate money to Syria, via the bookstore, to prove he was not an Assad supporter but he did not do so. A few days later, the violence began.

An unknown man walked out of the bookstore, pulled out a black firearm, pointed it at Mr Issawi and motioned a firing action three times before walking back inside the store, court documents state.

Three hours later, the accused Hyde Park rioter Ahmed Elomar led an attack on Mr Issawi and three of his friends.

As Elomar stood at the front of the juice bar shouting ''what the f--k are you looking at?'' Twenty men emerged from a roller door at the bookstore and set upon them.

Mr Elomar held Mr Issawi by the throat and said, ''Are you the owner of the shop? We are going to burn it down.''

Another said: ''We are going to slaughter your necks, all of you, one at a time.''

Next morning, Mr Elomar threw a firecracker into the store. He has been convicted of two counts of assault and one of affray and sentenced to a year in prison.

Mr Issawi was so terrified that he closed his shop and only returned once at 2am to collect his belongings. Eventually he caved in to demands and met with four of the men at Centro Bankstown to exchange ownership of the juice bar. He was allegedly duped into selling it for just $10,000.

''Ali Issawi stated that he felt helpless and too scared to offer any resistance and just wished to leave the meeting alive and with some small amount of money,'' court documents state.

Three of the men at the meeting, Jalal Mariam, Ahmed Hawchar and Abdul Hawchar, have been charged with extortion.

Mr Issawi was unable to be contacted and the Al-Risalah shop did not return Fairfax Media's calls. His terrifying encounter is one of several incidents of Syria-inspired violence across Sydney.

A Rockdale chicken shop owned by a Shiite Muslim was fire-bombed before it was due to be opened last year. In February 2012, Ali Ibrahim was shot in an attack he believed was linked to his support for the Assad regime.

Exclusive: How my brother tried to kill me in 'honor attack'

2013-04-06T17:44:00.001-07:00

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- It's cold and raining in Kabul and the pothole-filled dirt roads have turned into a sea of mud. We drive up to the gateway of a high-walled compound. A soldier brandishing an AK-47 stands guard outside the building. We've come to a women's shelter to meet Gul Meena -- a 17-year-old girl from Pakistan who shouldn't be alive.

My crew and I are ushered into a room and sitting on a wooden chair slouched over is small, fragile Gul Meena. Her sullen eyes turn from the raindrops streaming down the window outside and towards us as we enter the room.

Gul's bright coloured headscarf is embroidered with blue, red and green flowers and covers most of her face. She nervously plays with it and gives us a glimpse of a frightened smile from underneath the fabric. Her guardian Anisa, from the shelter run by Women for Afghan Women, touches her head and gently moves the headscarf back. That's when we see the scars etched deeply into her face.

This Pakistani girl's life of misery and suffering began at the tender age of 12, when instead of going to school she was married to a man old enough to be her grandfather. She says: "My family married me off when I was 12 years old. My husband was 60. Every day he would beat me. I would cry and beg him stop. But he just kept on beating me."

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When Gul told her family what was happening, they responded in a way that shocked her. "My family would hit me when I complained. They told me you belong in your husband's house -- that is your life."

After five years of abuse, Gul Meena met a young Afghan man and finally gathered the courage to leave her husband in Pakistan. In November 2012 she packed up some belongings and they made their way across the border into Afghanistan to the city of Jalalabad.

Gul knew she was committing the ultimate crime according to strict Islamic customs -- running away from her husband with another man -- but she also knew she didn't want to continue living the life she had since her marriage.

"I'd tried to kill myself with poison several times but it didn't work. I hated my life and I had to escape. When I ran away I knew it would be dangerous. I knew my husband and family would be looking for me but I never thought this would happen. I thought my future would be bright," she says.

Days later her older brother tracked them down. Armed with an ax, he hacked to death Gul Meena's friend, and then struck his own sister 15 times -- cutting open her face, head and parts of her body.

Gul Meena shows me these scars -- taking off her headscarf, her finger gently running up and down the raised, freshly healed skin. She touches her head where the blade hit her and then shows me the deep cuts that were made to the back of her neck and her arms. It's clear to me she desperately tried to fight off her brother before she passed out.

Assuming she was dead, her brother escaped back to Pakistan. Authorities are yet to catch him, but his family denies that he tried to kill Gul.

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Hearing the commotion, a passer-by discovered Gul Meena lying in a pool of blood in her bed, and rushed her to the Emergency Department of Nangarhar Regional Medical Centre.

With part of her brain hanging out of her skull, neurosurgeon Zamiruddin Khalid held out little hope that the girl on his operating table would survive.

"We took her to the operating theatre and she'd already lost a lot of blood. Her injuries were horrific and her brain had been affected -- we didn't think she would survive", says Khalid as he shows us photos of Gul's injuries before he sewed up the wounds. In one photo her face looks like a piece of meat that has been hacked apart.

Khalid said: "We are very thankful to almighty God that Gul Meena is alive -- it really is a miracle."

But Gul's troubles were far from over. While she'd received life-saving treatment from the doctors and staff at the hospital, she had no one to care for her on the outside. Gul had been disowned by her family and despite the government and authorities knowing that she was alive and receiving care at the hospital, they wanted nothing to do with her due to the stigma and circumstances surrounding her attack.

For two months Gul stayed in the hospital thanks to the generosity of doctors who donated the money to pay for her medicine. Finally the American-Afghan organization Women for Afghan Women was informed of Gul's situation and took her in, transporting her back to a shelter in Kabul to give her the love and care she so desperately needed.

"When she first came to us she couldn't talk or walk she was barely conscious -- she couldn't eat by herself. She had to wear a diaper. If we hadn't got her when we did, she wouldn't have survived," says Manizha Naderi, the executive director of Women For Afghan Women.

Gul Meena is one of thousands of women living in shelters across Afghanistan -- many of them victims of attempted honor killings. Tragically this practice still exists in a number of cultures, including certain tribes in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon recently expressed concern over the 20% increase in civilian casualties among women and girls in Afghanistan in 2012. Moon said: "I'm deeply disturbed that despite some improvements in prosecuting cases of violence, there is still a pervasive climate of impunity in Afghanistan for abuses of women and girls."

The U.N. claims that 4,000 cases of violence against women and girls were reported to the Afghan Ministry of Women between 2010 and 2012.

While there are 14 women's shelters in Afghanistan, all of them are funded by the international community, and the concern is that once international forces pull out of Afghanistan at the end of 2014 this funding will disappear. What will that mean for the thousands of women who rely on their services like uneducated, illiterate, homeless Gul Meena?

Naderi says: "If we send her to her family, she's going to be killed. As far as her family is concerned she's dead. That's the problem for all our women. It's a scary time for Afghanistan and especially for Afghan women, in particular the women in our shelters because we don't know what's going to happen. If they leave here, for most of them it will be a death sentence."

Gul Meena doesn't think about the future -- and in fact, she wishes she had died the day she was attacked.

"I've tried to kill myself several times since arriving at the shelter but they won't let me. When I look at the mirror I put one hand to the side of my face. People tell me not to do that ... but I'm so ashamed."

59 years needed to pay fines, but waste dumper in court again

2013-04-05T17:15:00.005-07:00

DaApril 5, 2013

Paul Bibby

Court Reporter

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Dib Abdallah Hanna has been caught illegally dumping building waste in suburban Sydney so many times that it will be 2072 before he finally pays off all the fines.

But that did not stop him breaking into a residential building site last year and dumping nearly 80 tonnes of building waste laced with asbestos. The act was a breach of a court order forbidding the self-described ''waste removalist'' from illegal dumping.

But on Thursday a Land and Environment Court judge, Nicola Pain, opted for leniency, giving Hanna a three-month suspended jail sentence after he pleaded guilty to contempt. The judge said it appeared ''fines had become meaningless as a deterrent'' - a reference to Hanna's record of illegal dumping across the city's north, west and south-west. This includes eight previous criminal convictions for illegal dumping and 22 penalty notices, resulting in $213,000 in fines.

The court heard that Mr Hanna has paid virtually none of the fines, but has ''entered into a payment plan with the State Debt Recovery Office'', paying $300 a month.

At that rate, the 37-year-old will pay off the fines in 2072, when he is 97 years old.

The latest dumping incident took place on April 5 last year, when Hanna made eight trips over a seven-hour period to a Picnic Point property to dump clay, bricks, metal, glass, tiles, fibro, concrete and material containing asbestos.

Hanna later pleaded guilty to the breach, saying he knew he was breaching the rules but did not realise the consequences.

Schools getting Australian aid free of radicalism, Carr told

2013-04-05T17:14:00.004-07:00

Date: April 5, 2013

Michael Bachelard

Indonesia correspondent for Fairfax Media

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Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr watches students work during a visit to an Islamic school in Jakarta on Thursday. Photo: AP

Indonesia has guaranteed Foreign Minister Bob Carr that none of the 1500 religious schools funded out of Australia's aid budget is teaching radical Islamic doctrine.

As Mr Carr visited an Australia-funded Islamic school in Jakarta on Thursday, the head of Indonesia's powerful Religious Affairs ministry said there was no problem with madrasahs (community-run religious schools) or pesantren (religious boarding schools).

None of the institutions were radical, ministry secretary-general Bahrul Hayat said. ''I can guarantee that, because … the madrasah and pesantren system is under the government system. All … use exactly the same national curriculum [and] we control all of the curriculum for religious education.''

Mr Bahrul said even the Ngruki school in Solo, which was founded by terrorist godfather Abu Bakar Bashir and produced a number of the Bali bombers, was clean.

''If you sit for 24 hours in that madrasah you will not find anything because we follow the [same] system … I think they are committed and there is no difference with other madrasah.''

The problem was with groups outside the schools, Mr Bahrul said. Australia provides no funding to the Ngruki school. There are 68,000 madrasahs in Indonesia and 27,000 pesantren.

Mr Carr said Australia's commitment to funding religious schools, worth $47 million over five years, was ''about a better life for these Indonesian youngsters''.

''I'm very proud that Australian aid has found its way to the Indonesian school system, including madrasahs,'' he said.

The funding had been spent on ''good classrooms, libraries, facilities for teachers''.

''I'm a spending minister and all my instincts are to increase the aid budget,'' he said. ''We have built thousands of schools in Indonesia.''

Australia's funding of religious schools was started under the Howard government, but became controversial in 2011 when Opposition Leader Tony Abbott reportedly had to be talked out of cutting those funds.

His spokeswoman on foreign affairs, Julie Bishop, has since denied that debate ever took place

'I wanted a million-dollar smile': Aussie model arrested over alleged bank swindle to pay for braces

2013-04-05T17:13:00.004-07:00

Date: April 5, 2013

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Arrested: Azeem Ali-Shabazz. Photo: Facebook

An aspiring Brisbane model has been arrested in New York for allegedly swindling a bank out of $275,000 so he could pay for braces for his teeth.

Azeem Ali-Shabazz, 19, who on his Facebook page claimed he worked for the top global agency Ford Models, has been charged with grand larceny and is being held on $US20,000 ($19,000) bail in the Manhattan Detention Complex.

US authorities allege he received a $US286,648 business loan from Sovereign Bank by falsely claiming he was the owner of CW Capital Asset Management, but in a jailhouse interview with the New York Daily News, Ali-Shabazz said he was also a victim.

Ali-Shabazz, who was living in Queens and wanted money to get braces for his teeth, said he was promised $US1500 by three men if he participated in the bogus loan application.

"I wanted to get braces," he told the Daily-News.

"I've got a nice smile, but I wanted a million-dollar smile."

Ali-Shabazz was arrested last Thursday when he went to a Sovereign Bank branch in Manhattan to ask why his account was frozen.

The teenager said he did not receive a cent of the $US286,648, and only knew the three men who duped him as Darryl, Orlando and Jason.

During an hour-long interview with the Daily-News, Ali-Shabazz claimed he was born in Australia, but had dual citizenship because his father is American.

He said his uncle, Robert Cooper, got him a job working on a city council election, earning $15 an hour.

While working on the election, a co-worker asked if he was interested in making some fast cash and introduced him to a friend, Ali-Shabazz claimed.

He eventually met up with Darryl, Orlando and Jason, who asked to meet him at the Sovereign branch. Ali-Shabazz had faxed them copies of his passport and social security number.

Ali-Shabazz told the Daily-News he signed papers in front of a bank worker, thinking he was just opening up an account.

However the trio then continued to ask him to withdraw money, and he became suspicious.

"I thought I was in too deep," Ali-Shabazz said.

Mr Cooper, his uncle, said his nephew was a "good kid" and the whole situation was "a mind blower".

At his arraignment, defence attorney Susan Costigan said there were other people involved in the scheme who forced Ali-Shabazz to participate.

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'I wanted a million-dollar smile': Aussie model arrested over alleged bank swindle to pay for braces