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Fort Hood suspect may be ‘forcibly shaved’ before trial

26
Jul 2012

Fort Hood suspect may be 'forcibly shaved' before trial

The military judge who will oversee the trial of the man accused in the 2009 Fort Hood massacre ruled Wednesday that if Maj. Nidal Hasan doesn’t shave by the start of jury selection, he will be forcibly shaved.

Col. Gregory Gross has been telling Hasan he must shave, in accordance with Army regulations. Hasan, who is a Muslim, has refused to shave for more than a month, apparently in keeping with Quranic teachings.

During a pretrial hearing Wednesday, Gross ruled Hasan in contempt of court and fined him $1,000. Gross told Hasan that he unless the defendant shaves before the start of his trial, he will be “forcibly shaved,” according to Christopher Haug and Tyler Broadway, spokesmen at Fort Hood.

Even though Hasan has been in custody since November 2009 when 13 people were shot and killed at the U.S. Army installation outside Killeen, Texas, he is still in the Army and still draws his pay.

Hasan was left paralyzed from the waist down in the shooting, when police officers exchanged fire with him. He faces a possible death penalty if convicted in the shooting.

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Top Muslim cleric shot dead in Russia

19
Jul 2012

A top Muslim cleric in Russia’s Tatarstan province was shot dead and another wounded by a car bomb in two separate attacks apparently related to the priests’ criticism of radical Islamists, investigators said Thursday.

Russia’s Investigative Committee said that Valiulla Yakupov, the deputy to the Muslim province’s chief mufti, was gunned down Thursday on the way out of his house in Tatarstan’s regional capital, Kazan.

Chief mufti Ildus Faizov was wounded in the leg after an explosive device ripped through his vehicle in central Kazan, Tatarstan investigator Eduard Abdullin told The Associated Press.

Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin told Russian news agencies that his agency is looking into the clerics’ professional activity as a possible cause of the attacks.

Both clerics were known as critics of radical Islamist groups that advocate a strict version of Islam known as Salafism. Faizov was also criticized by media in Tatarstan for allegedly profiting on tours he organized for Muslim pilgrims.

The rise of Salafism in this Volga River province has been fueled by the influx of Muslim clerics from Chechnya and other predominantly Muslim provinces of Russia’s Caucasus region where radical Islamists have for years been involved in a violent confrontation with secular authorities.

In 2008, a court in Kazan sentenced a radical Islamist leader to life in prison for organizing a group that planned terrorist attacks in Tatarstan. Sixteen of his followers received prison terms ranging from three to 12 years.

More than a half of Tatarstan’s population of 4 million is Sunni Muslims. Tatars converted to Islam more than a thousand years ago, and the province became an important center of Muslim learning and culture under Tatar-Mongol rulers that controlled Russia and parts of Eastern Europe.

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Muslims Urged to Support Anti-Terror Bill

01
Jul 2012

Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka has assured the Muslim community that the Anti-terrorism Bill is not targeting them.

Musyoka has urged the Muslim community to support community policing in the fight against terrorism within the region for economic growth.

“I want to assure you my brothers and sisters that the upcoming anti-terrorism Bill is not in any way intended to discriminate against the Muslims. This Bill should not scare you at all as it is for the good of this nation,” Musyoka told a leaders meeting in Lamu town.

The Vice President told the leaders among them; MPs Shakilla Abdalla (nominated), Johnston Muthama (Kangundo), Charles Nyamai (Kitui West) that terrorism was a real threat to economic and political growth of the country.

“This thing (terrorism) needs concerted efforts by all leaders and members of the public if we are to eradicate it once and for all,” said Musyoka.

He noted that terrorism does not recognize boundaries, does not know tribe or region and spares nobody.

“We therefore need to crackdown on these extremists who want to cause chaos thus hindering efforts to achieve political and economic growth of our nation,’ he said.

“If we work together as a team, I am optimistic that this region and the country at large will be terrorism free,” he added.

And while addressing a mammoth crowd in Lamu township after opening Wiper Democratic Party office, Musyoka put on notice those engaging in drug trafficking in the country.

He said it is discouraging that some individuals were selling drugs to young people thus ruining their lives at an early age.

“Those individuals selling drugs to children will face the full force of law,” said Musyoka amid applause from the crowd.

Urging the Muslim community to support his presidential bid come the next General Election, the Vice President stressed the need for Kenyans to vote in capable and trustworthy leaders to steer the nation to greater heights of development.

Musyoka said he was better placed among other presidential contenders to occupy the country’s leadership citing his wide experience over the last 27 years in the country’s leadership position.

The Vice President underlined that every Kenyan must always bear in mind their individual responsibility in promoting patriotism and peaceful co-existence among all citizens.

Among the areas the Vice President addressed rallies as he concluded his one week tour of the Coast region included Kizingitini, Faza highlands, Hindi and Mpeketoni.

Separately, Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi has decried recent terrorist attacks in the country and urged security agencies to change tactics in dealing with terrorist attacks perpetrated by militants from neigbouring Somalia.

Mudavadi said Kenyans cannot continue to live in fear of terrorists and urged security agencies to seal all loopholes exploited by the terror groups.

The Deputy Prime Minister who was speaking in Lamu during a United Democratic Forum (UDF) leaders meeting said Lamu County deserved special consideration in special relief allocations for being at the frontline in the war against Al Shabaab militants.

“We should caution Lamu with special financial interventions because the spillover of war from Somalia has almost killed the tourism industry,” he said.

Musalia who was accompanied by former Kimilili MP Mukhisa Kituyi, Ikolomani MP Bonny Khalwale and Ndaragwa MP Jeremiah Kioni described the Lamu Port project as a monumental landmark which should be tailored to the benefits of Lamu county.

The DPM said the construction of the new port in Lamu and the investment in LAPSET must involve the residents of the county.

“Development is about people. Times have come when we must live the true spirit of the constitution which demands people participation. It is important that Lamu people have a say in the project”, he said.

“Residents of this area should not be reduced into bystanders in the implementation of this gigantic project,” said the Deputy Prime Minister.

The DPM proposed that the people could exchange their land rights for a percentage investment in LAPSET so that they do not feel ignored.

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American Muslims Stone Christians in Dearborn, MI

27
Jun 2012

American Muslims Stone Christians in Dearborn, MI

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Muslims to take part in census-Chief Sheikh

26
Jun 2012

The Muslim Council of Tanzania (Bakwata) yesterday announced that its followers will fully participate in the forthcoming national population census.

Speaking to reporters yesterday in Dar es Salaam, the Mufti, Chief Sheikh Issa bin Shaaban bin Simba said participation of Muslims in the forthcoming census is important not only as defined by the law of the land, but also for the country’s development.

However, he said the council has advised the government to endorse regulations that would recognize authorities entitled to release census information.

“In our country, we have taken part in this exercise for quite a long time now. Majority of us accepted the exercise because it didn’t include either our religion or our tribes,” the Chief Sheikh said.

He added that since then he has been receiving endless calls from various believers asking for the council’s stand on the national census.

“As the Chief Sheikh, I urge all Muslims to fully take part in this important national event,” he said, adding: “All the believers have the onus to ask the government on the religious statistics issued in the internet.”

Prior to yesterday’s announcement, there were rumours that clerics were sensitising followers to boycott the national census slated for August this year.

If the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), which is supervising the census, does not include a clause on the counting of people on the basis of their religious denominations, Muslim clerics and their followers would boycott the census.

Muslims were dissatisfied by the non mandated statistics issued recently by non credible sources in the internet on the country’s population.

When tabling the 2012/13 Prime Minister’s Office’s budget yesterday Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda said the census exercise has been given priority in this year’s financial budget.

Pinda stressed that members of the public were being sensitised to take part in the exercise.

“We are also training clerics to help in counting people and supervising the census in some areas. Other activities on the ground include transporting of census materials,” he said.

He called on all leaders to work together in mobilising and supervising the exercise.

He assured the public that all reports/information which will be collected during the exercise will be treated as confidential and used only for statistical purposes.

Early this month Bakwata backed Amir of Shura of Imams Sheikh Mussa Yusufu Kundecha and 30 other sheikhs who were sensitising Muslim belivers to boycott the national census.

In their statement released to the media, the leaders insisted that the omission of the issue of religion would lead members of the public to continuously use the current internet data which are incorrect.

They said already there were data in the internet, which are widely quoted in references to the country’s population versus their religious affiliations, pointing out that “these data are incorrect, it is better to come up with reliable ones,” noted Sheikh Kundecha.

For his part, NBS Executive Director Dr Albina Chuwa was quoted as saying that the component of tribe and religion would not feature in the forthcoming census, because the government does not use them when planning for development. espite the explanation, Muslim leaders have continued to censure the bureau for allowing the use of wrong data which on the internet, showing the varying statistics of religious believers in the country.

Dr Chuwa later issued a statement saying NBS does not recognise the disseminated data relating to statistics about Muslims, Christians and other religions denominations.

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