MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

Irony can be deadly ironic. Yet again we have a preacher of the “religion of peace” actually standing up for peace, only to then be summarily executed by adherents of his own faith. It seems to me that this imam convinced himself of the apologist lie that says the “religion of peace” somehow meant “peaceful religion” …

“An imam has been killed in a mosque in Russia’s southern Dagestan region, police said on Friday.

The four masked assailants also killed another man and set the mosque on fire, before fleeing the scene in a stolen car.

The imam, Magomedkamil Gamzatov, was well-known for his rejection of ‘any form of violence and openly condemned the extremist insurgency,’ the National Anti-Terror Committee said in a statement.

Dagestan, next to volatile Chechnya in the North Caucasus, sees frequent attacks blamed by Moscow on Islamic militants. Security forces are searching for the assailants.” Source – rianovosti.com.

Flashback: Prominent Imam Speaking Out Against Violence is Sprayed With Bullets – “A prominent imam who discouraged youth from joining Islamic militants has been shot dead in his home in the strife-torn southern Russian republic of Dagestan, news reports said Saturday. Magomed Saiputdinov was slain by automatic gunfire in a nighttime attack near the Chechen-border town of Kizlyar, agencies quoted a spokesman for the local interior ministry as saying. ‘He was widely known for his uncompromising stand against any forms of violence, condemning the murder of innocent people and other atrocities of the Chechen underground,’ Interfax quoted a police statement as saying.”  Read more.

Apparently the Talmud is the driving force behind the global drug trade. What the Iranians don’t tell you, of course, is that in order to find any support for drug trafficking in the Talmud you first need to be stoned out of your mind …

AFP – “Tehran: The teachings of the Jewish book of law, the Talmud, are a driving force behind the international drugs trade, Iran’s First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi said in comments reported on Wednesday.

Rahimi’s remarks, at an international anti-drug conference in Tehran attended by many foreign diplomats on Tuesday, were a rare diatribe by an Iranian official targeting the Jewish faith, rather than the state of Israel.

The remarks were immediately slammed by Israel’s foreign minister, who also criticised the United Nations and European Union for sending representatives to the conference.

‘The spread of narcotics in the world emanates from the teachings of the Talmud… whose objective is the destruction of the world,’ Rahimi said in comments published by the official website of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and state media.

‘The Talmud teaches that it is lawful to acquire wealth through legal and illegal means… which gives [the Jews] the right to destroy humanity,’ he said.

‘If one seeks what lies behind all forms of corruption, there is the repugnant face of Zionists. This is the same case for the narcotics trade … whose primary operator is the Zionist regime,’ he said.

‘The Zionists spread destruction not only by drugs, but also by [attacking] cultures.’

Iranian officials have repeatedly courted international outrage with tirades against the state of Israel but criticism of Judaism as a faith has been rare.

The Talmud is a book of oral tradition derived from the Jewish holy book, the Torah, that contains all the principles that govern daily life.

Ahmadinejad has said many times that the Jewish state is doomed to destruction, while supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has branded it ‘a cancerous tumour that must be removed’.” Read more.

AFP – “Six members of China’s Uighur minority tried to hijack a plane flying from a restive city in the far-western Xinjiang region on Friday but crew members and passengers thwarted them, authorities said.

The plane returned safely to the airport in Hotan city — which has seen a spate of violent clashes between mainly Muslim Uighurs and police due to simmering ethnic tensions — and the suspects were detained, authorities said.

‘The six hijackers are Uighurs,’ Hou Hanmin, a spokeswoman for the government of Xinjiang told AFP.

‘For the moment, we don’t know the purpose of the hijack. It’s still under investigation,’ she said, adding at least seven crew members and passengers had been injured in the incident.

Two security personnel were also seriously injured, the official Xinhua news agency said.

The aircraft took off at 12:25 pm (0425 GMT) from Hotan, then 10 minutes into the flight the six suspects tried to ‘violently hijack’ the plane, according to tianshannet.com, the Xinjiang government’s news website.

But crew members and passengers soon brought them under control and the aircraft returned to the city, the website said.

The plane — which belongs to Tianjin Airlines, according to Xinhua — had been bound for the Xinjiang capital of Urumqi, it added without providing further details.” Read more.

Flashback: China: Rioters Shout ‘Allah is the Only God’ While Hacking People to Death – “Police shot down 14 rioters who attacked a police station in Hotan city of Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region on Monday, a Communist Party official in Hotan said Wednesday… The rioters had taken six civilian people and some police staff hostage, and set fire and smashed things in the police station, leaving damaged computers, printers, furniture and clothes scattered around, Metniyaz said. Shouting frantic religious slogans like ‘Allah the only God’, the rioters ran to the top floor and police opened fire to stop them, said an anonymous policeman with the police station.” Read more.

The Christian Chronicle – “QUETTA, PAKISTAN – A terrorist attack has claimed the lives of six Church of Christ members, according to a ministry trainer in the Middle East.

The deadly attack occurred June 11 near Quetta, the capital of Pakistan’s Balochistan province, the British Broadcasting Corp reported.

A bomb planted on a motorbike detonated, destroying a passenger bus. The apparent target of the attack was a bus of pilgrims who follow the Shiite branch of Islam.

Apparently, the timed device attached to the motorbike detonated too late, missing the bus of pilgrims and instead destroying a passenger bus. Six people died in the blast and at least 40 were injured, the BBC reported.

The number of deaths has since risen to 18, said Philip Ganta, an Indian Christian who oversees the Dubai School of Preaching, a ministry training facility in the Middle Eastern nation of United Arab Emirates. Foreign nationals who come to Dubai for employment study at the school.

Christians from Pakistan and Afghanistan were on the bus, Ganta said, and six of them died. At least 10 more were injured. Some of the Christians had studied at the Dubai School of Preaching and were en route to work with believers in Balochistan, Ganta said.

The school’s students and church members in Dubai collected more than $1,000 to help the victims’ families.

Oasis Outreach, a church-supported ministry that works with the Dubai school, also is collecting funds. The ministry is a work of the Brooks Avenue Church of Christ in Raleigh, N.C.

‘Over the coming weeks we are hoping to raise $5,000 in aid for the families of these believers,’ said Mike O’Leary, director of Oasis Outreach. ‘Many of them have lost the only breadwinner in the family.

‘Hopefully, we will be able to ease their suffering by showing God’s love to those of his household through those in his kingdom.'” Source – The Christian Chronicle.

IPT News – “‘Every Muslim will be asked about the Zionists’ usurpation of al-Aqsa Mosque. Why did he not seek to recover it, and wage Jihad in His way? Did he not care about the fatwa of the ulema [scholars] of the Muslims, ‘Jihad of self and money to recover al Aqsa is a duty on every Muslim?” asked Mohamed Badie, General Guide of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, in a June 14th speech translated exclusively by the Investigative Project on Terrorism.

The speech from the Brotherhood’s Ikhwan Online website is evidence that the group has not moderated its position even an iota, despite assurances to Western audiences.

‘How happy would be the Muslims if all Muslim rulers made the Palestinian cause a pivotal issue, around which Muslims, rulers and the ruled, would line up,’ he stated. According to Badie, they would ally to make ‘the sole goal for all of them the recovery of al Aqsa Mosque, freeing it from the filth of the Zionists, and imposing Muslim rule throughout beloved Palestine.’

‘The Lord of Glory has threatened these murdering Zionists criminals with a penalty of a kind which operates in this world before the Hereafter,’ he said, before referencing a Quranic quote calling Jews ‘apes, despised.’

‘We say to our people and our brothers in Palestine (all of Palestine): Unity, unity, persistence, persistence, reconciliation, reconciliation, and patience, patience. Make your motto and your starting point be in confronting the Zionists,’ he added…

The inability of the Muslim Brotherhood to change its rhetoric, leads to questions about how Egyptian President-elect Mohamed Morsi will serve to moderate the Islamist group’s beliefs and behavior.

Much has been written about how the election of the Muslim Brotherhood candidate isn’t a threat to U.S. and Israeli interests in the region, or even to Egyptian society. To take just one example, John Kerry, chairman of the Senate foreign Relations Committee, warned against ‘prejudging’ the Muslim Brotherhood as it prepared to take power in Egypt.

‘In our discussions,’ declared Kerry on Sunday, ‘Mr. Morsi committed to protecting fundamental freedoms, including women’s rights, minority rights, the right to free expression and assembly, and he said he understood the importance of Egypt’s post-revolutionary relationships with America and Israel.’

But Morsi was singing the same tune as other Muslim Brotherhood leaders less than two months ago.” Read more.

According to a recent government survey, about 20% of Americans suffer from mental illness. Here are some of those Americans …

By Daniel Greenfield – “There are topics that aren’t supposed to be discussed in polite society. Islamic terrorism has become one of those topics.

After September 11, it was put forward to us that the problem was not Islam, but the radicalization of some Muslims. And yet the defenders of that formulation also refuse to discuss Muslim radicalization as a tangible reality, rather than a convenient excuse for shelving the topic.

Congressman Peter King’s attempts to hold hearings on Muslim radicalization have been met with attacks from the very people who should be welcoming the hearings. If the problem really is a minority of extremists, then why not hold hearings that delve into how this radicalization occurs and what can be done about it?

Instead Congressman King has been smeared and his hearings have been hijacked on the most ridiculous pretexts. During the latest hearing, Democratic Congressman Cedric Richmond complained that while Muslims might be responsible for 90 percent of the terrorist attacks. ‘The problem see is that we’re only talking about the 90 percent. It’s the 10 percent that we’re not talking about that keeps me up at night.’

Democratic Congresswoman Janice Hahn began rambling about being troubled by ‘radical Christians’ and her colleague, Democratic Congressman Al Green said that he didn’t oppose hearings on radicalization, just hearings that didn’t ‘focus on the entirety of radicalization’.

‘Christians who become radicalized, they become a part of Islam,’ Green stuttered. ‘Why not have a hearing on the radicalization of Christians?’

Well why not? The answer to the question is as apparent as the reason for the hearings. The United States is not suffering from a plague of Methodist suicide bombers. Terrorism Denial is a refusal to deal with the question. And at the hearing, it came in many forms.” Read more.

When the President of the United States and al Qaeda both praise the Arab Spring, something is seriously wrong …

“(CBS/AP) LONDON – Britain’s spy chief has warned that the Arab Spring, which has shifted the power from several long-time autocrats in the Middle East, is also creating an opening for al Qaeda to move back into countries where Islamic militancy was born.

Not so long ago, 75 percent of the terror threats prioritized by British spy agency MI5 had links to Afghanistan or Pakistan. But Britain’s efforts, along with those of its international partners, have brought that percentage down to below 50 percent, MI5 Director General Jonathan Evans said in a Monday speech in London.

Evans warned that the international terrorist threat is no longer ‘monolithic,’ with al Qaeda affiliates in Yemen, Somalia and across north Africa becoming, ‘more dangerous as al Qaeda in Pakistan has declined.’

Although the Arab Spring revolutions have brought about radical political changes in some countries, they have also brought fresh opportunities for al Qaeda affiliates to seek refuge.

Evans said the Arab Spring has once again made parts of the Arab world a ‘permissive environment for al Qaeda.'” Read more.

Flashback: Al-Qaeda Plants Its Flag in Benghazi, Libya – ‘Whomever Speaks Ill of This Flag, We Will Cut Off His Tongue’ – “Earlier this week, I went to the Benghazi courthouse and confirmed the rumors: an al Qaeda flag was clearly visible; its Arabic script declaring that ‘there is no God but Allah’ and a full moon underneath. When I tried to take pictures, a Salafi-looking guard, wearing a green camouflage outfit, rushed towards me and demanded to know what I was doing. My response was straightforward: I was taking a picture of the flag. He gave me an intimidating look and hissed, ‘Whomever speaks ill of this flag, we will cut off his tongue. I recommend that you don’t publish these. You will bring trouble to yourself.’” Read more.

By ILAN BEN ZION and HILLARY ZAKEN and AP – “The Turkish military mobilized large numbers of reinforcements from its eastern provinces to the Syrian border on Tuesday, amid rising tension with Damascus, after the downing by Syria of a Turkish Air Force jet on Friday, Turkish media reported.

Large numbers of Turkish troops — including at least 15 long-range artillery pieces and tanks – moved to the Syrian frontier from the eastern city of Diyarbakir. A video published by the Turkish Cihan News Agency showed Turkish tanks being transported by carrier trucks toward the frontier.

The mobilization followed statements by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that the Turkish military will respond to any future violation of its border by Syrian military elements.

‘As awe-inspiring as Turkey’s friendship is, Turkey’s wrath is equally awe-inspiring,’ Erdogan told the Turkish parliament on Tuesday.

‘The rules of engagement of the Turkish Armed Forces have changed,’ Erdogan said. ‘Any military element that approaches the Turkish border from Syria posing a security risk and danger will be regarded as a threat and treated as a military target.’

Erdogan closed his remarks with an especially harsh condemnation of Syrian President Bashar Assad: ‘Turkey and the Turkish people will continue to provide all support until the people of Syria have been saved from this tyrannical, murderous, bloody dictator and his gang.'” Read more.

Assad Declares Syria At War As Battle Now Reaches Damascus – “Syrian President Bashar al-Assad declared on Tuesday that his country was at war and ordered his new government to spare no effort to achieve victory, as the worst fighting of the 16-month conflict reached the outskirts of the capital… The declaration that Syria is at war marks a change of rhetoric from Assad, who had long dismissed the uprising against him as the work of scattered militants funded from abroad. ‘We live in a real state of war from all angles,’ Assad told a cabinet he appointed on Tuesday in a speech broadcast on state television.” Read more.