Clergy up in arms over religious school decision By Habib Toumi, Bureau Chief Manama: A decision to subject all religious institutions to official approval has put the authorities in Bahrain on a collision course with the powerful Shiite clergy, as both sides pledge not to compromise their position. Last week the authorities, adamant that they apply the new regulations governing charity funds and religious schools without exceptions, informed them that they had one week to regularise their situation if they wanted to avoid being shut down. "All charity institutions and funds will have to be supervised by the social development ministry while all religious schools need to be officially endorsed by the Islamic affairs ministry," the authorities said. The move was seen as an attempt to ensure full compliance with the law while monitoring the activities of the religious-based groups. But the Imam Al Baqer religious school for women in Barbar, upon receiving the official letter warning that it would face legal action if it failed to get a license to operate, said that it would never submit an application. "The school management will not apply for an official licence to teach the Quran and Islamic studies because that is against Islamic precepts. We cannot accept the official decision even it means closing down the school," its manager Shaikh Mohammad Jawad Al Shihabi said on Monday in a press statement. Shaikh Eisa Qasim, one of the most influential Shiite leaders in Bahrain, decried the order to register with the ministries as an attempt to deprive people of their rights. "The government has no right to close down any Shiite school because they teach good social values, high morals, the Quran and Arabic. We will not willingly shut down any institute and let the police attack the religious schools," Shaikh Eisa told his followers at Al Duraz mosque. The standoff reflects the uneasy developments between the government and an increasingly vocal Shiite clergy. But Shiites themselves are sharply divided over relations between religious schools and the authorities. Bani Jamra and Jawad Al Wadai schools are fiercely opposed to any role for the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs which groups Sunni and Shiite scholars, while other schools in Sitra, Jid Hafs and Buri deal with the council and accept its financial support. source

'Suicide bomb' CCTV shown to jury A jury has been shown CCTV footage of the moment an alleged suicide bomber tried to detonate a device on a London underground train on 21 July 2005. The pictures taken on a train near Oval station in south London have been played on the second day of the trial. Muktar Ibrahim, Manfo Asiedu, Hussein Osman, Yassin Omar, Ramzi Mohammed and Adel Yahya deny conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosions. Prosecutors allege the failed bid was planned before the 7 July 2005 attacks. Woolwich Crown Court was told components for the devices started to be bought in late April or early May. And a "bomb factory" was set up Curtis House in New Southgate, the home of Yassin Omar. Components for the detonator were uncovered at the property, said prosecuting counsel Nigel Sweeney QC. "There is a consistent picture of the purchasing of components, taken then to Curtis House, and of manufacturing taking place there," he said. "The events with which you are concerned 14 days after are plainly not some hastily-arranged repetition of the devastating events of 7/7, plainly not some hastily-arranged copycat." But Mr Sweeney alleged the enhanced security after the 7 July influenced the defendants' plans. "The 7/7 bombings took place towards the end of the morning rush hour. "These defendants had obviously decided not to risk trying to get on to the public transport system in the rush hour, given the enhanced security that was now in place. "Instead they chose to mount their attack at lunchtime when the enhanced security was no longer in force." The court heard Mr Omar got engaged four days before the alleged attacks. Mr Sweeney said he went through an engagement ceremony - which some witnesses described as a marriage - on 17 July at a mosque in Finchley, north London. Mr Omar is said to have later left London disguised as a Muslim woman wearing a burka. The prosecution has said all of the bombers were would-be suicide bombers except for Mr Yahya, who was out of the country on 21 July 2005. The trial continues. bbc.co.uk

Any evidence of the said target? Tow,,,tow

Notice how Jose wants more money as soon as he has a few injuries? What could he do at a smaller club one wonders.

Originally posted by rokko: Zu forgot your thongs bollocks mate

Duke, just say 'collateral damage' you dont have to hide behind 'who was the target'?. Tow,,,,tow,,,,

Who knows what the target was. Even Yeey didnt know of it (the air raids) until he heard it on radio!.. Tow the line,,,,,,,,

^^lol Dukey, do you condemn? Yes or No?

^^Nothing murky about the facts mate. 70 (if not more) civilians died who had nothing to do with the fighting. Do you condemn this? Yes or No,,,,

Oxfam have confirmed over 70 'civilians' were killed. Your response? Tow the line matey,,,,,,

I like how you always try to switch the attention to Somaliland ya Duke. But i'm yet to hear your take on the bombings in the south. What say you?

I cant not blame warlords (Somalis) and their supporters (Somalis) or Ethios (gaalo) but i dont advocate for violence. Yet i cant help but feel it will happen (it already has). sxb dont use the deaths of innocent muslims to score a political point. If it highlights the line currently being towed by the TFG fans (the tribal line) why not?

Big weekend coming up for the big 4! We may well be the richest club in the world by the weekend. 187, i dont watch football anymore saxib. I prefer the NBA!

There are some new teams in the NBA. How did that happen?

in stitches without the sound on! NG, i'm sure your in the bad video

Lets see if the gaal raacs condemn this. They are still to condemn last weeks bombings of innocent farmers.

^^Looking forward to the your pics and review (be kind to London and Londoners).

^^ how was London? How were the nomads you met (if you met any but i'm guessing you have) and did you transit through Dubai (stay)? Impressions of London/UK? How was that accent of your received?

Have we even read a non-Somali pro-TFG/Ethio piece yet?

Why thank Blair? What did he do?

Someone else took them ninyo. Do you think i would carry a camera around taking pics while running? Xagaad kadacday? How was the honeymoon?

Thanks all. The pics are still on my cam. I will upload them asap IA

Originally posted by Khalaf: quote:Originally posted by Mujaahid: Red Sea: quote: Originally posted by Khalaf: quote: Originally posted by Al Burcaawi: ^^Please make sense um sure the sister is not making sense to u like the flag avator before u need your glasses sxb! Mr.Khalaf, I always had concerned of your stance.You seem to be influenced from somewhere,becuase every time you come in here with different take on issues such as this.Why can't you be a man and for once look things from your own personal perspective instead of relying what perhaps adeero might have told you or hear from folks like Taako man etc.. If you are sincere with your faith,then you oughta appose these evil doers for what they are not for who they are.They are the enemy of Allah,thus they should be the subject of your hatred.I don't hate them,because they are reer hebel,I hate them for what they have done with their hands,Fear Allah and don't side with the evil doers. this isn't about the blue flag and who carries it or who doesn't,its' about who believes and whose positions on this issues is correct, forget where I am from or where Northerner is from, look at the idea and merits of our argument.If you have no idea of what you are talking about then simply keep it shut.I believe that suppose to be an advice. Thanks for your concern n advice my brother, but my islamic up bringing has alreadly taught me right from wrong.....no politics will change that ya heard.........the arguments of da fake nationalists (I dont include u) hold no merit......... mida kale I find it personally hypocritical to be a warmonger from the comfort of abroad.......one minute saying let the people fight to death against the xabashi, american jets and next minute running marathons, watching football games, laughing, joking, living life in peace! Any government ba ka ficaan having a war which our divided ppl can not win now! Ouch, a little below the belt dont you think khalafow? I'm proud of my run for 3 charities saxib and of watching a game or two I see your using the go and fight kidology! Red, now that you have cleared things up with regard to Riyaale, do you think they (TFG Gaal Raac) will condemn the bombings of towns and villages where innocents died? Its been a week now.

A call for backup Despite not consulting them on its Somalia policy to begin with, America is now calling for the African Union to send in peacekeeping forces. When the United States decided to support Ethiopia in an attack on Somalia and followed this up by mounting its own air attacks on Somalia, it didn't consult the African Union (AU). But now that the bankruptcy of its Somalia policy has been revealed (it has admitted that the "terrorists" it wanted to kill in Somalia were not hit by the air attacks) the US ambassador to Kenya and Somalia, Michael Ranneberger, is in a hurry to get an AU "peacekeeping" force into Somalia yesterday - so to speak. Said Ranneberger: "Deploying an African stabilisation force into Somalia quickly is vitally important to support efforts to achieve stability ... [it] will enable the rapid withdrawal of Ethiopian forces without creating a security vacuum." So the US knew that a "security vacuum" could be created in Somalia and yet it urged Ethiopia to go in. Did it think that Ethiopia could permanently occupy Somalia? No, it didn't. America's idea, all the time, was to go in on the back of the Ethiopians, "take out" the bad guys on America's "war-on-terrorism" list, and then hand the mess - and in Somalia, the US knew from its unhappy experience there in the 1990s that it would be a mess of a spectacular kind - over to the AU to sort out. Preferably without giving the AU any money to do it with. The concept is so cynical and barefaced that one wonders why a man like President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda can't see through it. He is reported to have offered to send over 1,000 Ugandan soldiers to Somalia, as part of an AU peacekeeping force. What Museveni must realise is that the US, under Bush, is not some cautious ally with whom one can concoct subtle diplomatic "offensives" under the cloak of "deniability". With the neocons, US interests reign supreme at all times, no matter who gets embarrassed. Museveni should consider this: Uganda itself has a sizeable Islamic community of its own. What would he think if, as a result of ****** but fiery statements verbalised by some Islamists, the US were to target them as potential Al Qaida recruits? Would he acquiesce if the US wanted to send troops into Uganda to take them out? Or worse still, suppose the US decided that the nominally "Christian" Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) would serve its anti-Islamist agenda better than Museveni's government, and offered support to the LRA? The AU is full of other countries that could fall under a similar scenario. Nigeria, for instance, has a huge Muslim population, many of whom are, as a matter of course, quite "fundamentalist" in outlook and thereby potential Al Qaida sympathisers. What would President Olusegun Obasanjo say if the US were to decide to covertly subvert the more militant of the Islamic states in Northern Nigeria that have adopted Sharia (Islamic Law) as their mode of legal and social practice? Even South Africa, although its Muslim population is far less numerous, could fall into the "war-on-terror" net. The danger to these countries will increase whenever the US, whether acting in Iraq, Somalia, Iran, or Syria, or against the Hizbullah in Lebanon, does not scruple to offend Islamic sensibilities, Now, when the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) was formed in 1963, one of its mottos was "Hands Off Africa!" This was a warning to the combatants in the Cold War - the Americans and their allies on the one hand and the Soviets and theirs on the other - to keep their ideological battles out of Africa. It is time the successor to the OAU, the AU, renewed its faith in the idea of not allowing any superpower to ride roughshod over any part of Africa for its own purposes. CiF Some interesting responses

From his writings i think most probably is. I think you have met him though Dabshidow