Riots Continue In Muslim Area of China

URUMQI, China — China raised the death toll from riots in its Xinjiang region to 184, state media said Saturday, giving an ethnic breakdown of the dead for the first time after communal violence broke out in this far western city.

The official Xinhua News Agency said 137 of the victims belonged to the dominant Han ethnic group. The rest included 45 men and one woman who were Uighurs, and one man of the Hui Muslim ethnic group, the report said, citing the information office of the regional government.
The previous death toll was 156. Xinhua gave no details on the newly reported deaths, including whether any were from Tuesday, when Han men seeking revenge for the original Uighur-led protest that turned violent marched through the streets with clubs and cleavers, trying to push past police guarding minority neighborhoods.

Nearly a week after the rioting began, paramilitary police carrying automatic weapons and riot shields blocked some roads leading to the largely Muslim Uighur district of the city Saturday, and groups of 30 marched along the road chanting slogans encouraging ethnic unity.

Some shops were still closed, and a police van blared public announcements in the Uighur language urging residents to oppose activist Rebiya Kadeer, a 62-year-old Uighur businesswoman who lives in exile in the U.S., whom China says instigated the riots. She has denied it.

Protests continued Friday after a petite Muslim woman began complaining that the public washrooms were closed at a crowded mosque — the most important day of the week for Islamic worship. Muslims perform required ablutions, or washing, before prayer.
When a group gathered around her on the sidewalk, Madina Ahtam then railed against communist rule in Xinjiang.

The 26-year-old businesswoman eventually led the crowd of mostly men in a fist-pumping street march that was quickly blocked by riot police, some with automatic rifles pointed at the protesters.

Women have been on the front line in Urumqi partly because more than 1,400 men in the Muslim Uighur minority have been rounded up by police since ethnic rioting broke out July 5. As the communist government launches a sweeping security crackdown, the women have faced down troops, led protests and risked arrest by speaking out against police tactics they believe are excessive.

The violence came as the Uighurs were protesting the June 25 deaths of Uighur factory workers in a brawl in southern China. The crowd then scattered throughout Urumqi, attacking Han Chinese, burning cars and smashing windows.

Many Uighurs who are still free live in fear of being arrested for any act of dissent.
Thousands of Chinese troops have flooded into Urumqi to separate the feuding ethnic groups, and a senior Communist Party official vowed to execute those guilty of murder in the rioting.

A report in the Urumqi Evening News on Friday said police had caught 190 suspects in four raids the day before.

In many Uighur neighborhoods during the crisis in Urumqi, the women did much of the talking with reporters as the men gathered in small groups on street corners and in back alleys, speaking quietly among themselves.

"I can't speak freely. The police could come any minute and haul me away," said a Uighur man who would only identify himself as Alim.

But on Friday, some men challenged officials when they showed up for prayers at Urumqi's popular White Mosque and found the gate closed. Officials had earlier said the mosque would be closed for public safety reasons as security forces tried to pacify the capital.

The mosque was eventually opened when the crowd swelled and there was a threat of unrest, police said.

Most Muslim Uighurs practice a moderate form of Sunni Islam or follow the mystical Sufism tradition.

The women often work and lead an active social life outside the home. Many wear brightly colored head scarves but the custom is not strongly enforced. Young Uighur women often wear jeans, formfitting tops and dresses.

As the faithful streamed into the White Mosque, Ahtam arrived holding a lilac umbrella and told foreign reporters in broken English, "Toilet no open. No water."

She led reporters to an area where the faithful are supposed to cleanse themselves before prayers and said with tears running down her cheeks, "Washing room not open. Everybody no wash."

After the prayers, she continued speaking on the sidewalk and attracted about 40 people who applauded when she criticized the government.

"Every Uighur people are afraid. Do you understand? We are afraid. Chinese people are very happy. Why?" said Ahtam.

The government believes the Uighurs should be grateful for Xinjiang's rapid economic development, which has brought new schools, highways, airports, railways, natural gas fields and oil wells in the sprawling, rugged Central Asian region, three times the size of Texas.

But many of the Turkic-speaking Uighurs, with a population of 9 million in Xinjiang, accuse the dominant Han ethnic group of discriminating against them and saving all the best jobs for themselves. Many also say the Communist Party is repressive and tries to snuff out their Islamic faith, language and culture.

As Ahtam's crowd became more agitated, about 20 riot police with clubs marched toward the group. The Uighurs pumped their fists in the air and walked down the street with Ahtam leading the pack.

About 200 more riot police arrived and cut off the group, with some of the security forces kneeling down and pointing their automatic rifles at the marchers. Foreign reporters were led to a side alley, out of view of the protesters, who were forced to squat on the sidewalk along a row of shuttered shops.

Hours later, calls to Ahtam's cell phone went unanswered and it was unknown what happened to her.

The Rest @ Chron
Associated Press writer Charles Babington contributed to this report from L'Aquila, Italy.

Department of Justice ( DOJ ) Friends Islamic Society of North America

(Creeping Sharia, 6/23/09)

A few days ago, Jennifer Rubin, writing at Pajamas Media, wondered: “Why is the Justice Department Cozying Up to Islamic Radicals?”

Rubin obtained a copy of an email seeking volunteers at the DOJ to represent the department in its booth at the Islamic Society of North America’s convention. ISNA is no moderate Islamic fellowship, Rubin noted. Because of the excellent work done by federal prosecutors and organizations such as Steve Emerson’s Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT), we know that ISNA has longstanding ties to radical groups around the world.

For example, ISNA was an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation trial. That trial resulted in the conviction of five former HLF officials who, among other illicit activities, were soliciting funds on behalf of Hamas, a radical wing of the Muslim Brotherhood that seeks the destruction of Israel.

As the Emerson’s IPT has noted:

Federal prosecutors identified ISNA as a “member organization” of the “U.S. Muslim Brotherhood” on its list of Unindicted Co-conspirators and/or Joint Venturers.
That is, federal prosecutors believe that the ISNA is a Trojan horse, operating on U.S. soil to collect funds for international extremism and terrorism, as well as to influence American public opinion.

Despite ISNA’s disturbing ties, Rubin noted, the DOJ has repeatedly made “outreach efforts” to the organization. This occurred during the Bush years and has continued on in the Obama administration. An ISNA employee was even invited to speak at Obama’s inaugural prayer service.

If ISNA’s ties to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood won’t dissuade the DOJ from befriending the organization, perhaps the group’s ties to an al Qaeda charity will.
In a must-read exposé on the financial ties between Saudi Arabia, including members of the royal family, and al Qaeda, the New York Times linked to several supporting documents today. One of these documents is a dossier prepared by German criminal investigators in 2003. The Germans investigated the financial dealings of an organization called the Third World Relief Agency (TWRA), which moved hundreds of millions of dollars around in its sponsorship of terrorism.

TWRA was run by senior Bosnian government officials, and sponsored the relocation of hundreds, if not thousands, of jihadists to Bosnia to fight in the 1990s. While carrying out some legitimate humanitarian functions as a cover, TWRA was really a front for global terrorist operations.

And the ISNA was likely one of its donors.
The German criminal investigators’ entry on ISNA reads (see this page on the Times’s web site):

Islamic Society of North America

Four credit entries by check were identified, whose sender where (sic) all indicated as “Dyewood Center I.S.N.A.” In total an amount of USD 102,197.85 was credited. This organization is likely to be the “Islamic Society of North America”, headquartered at Plainfield, Indiana, USA.
German criminal investigators concluded that ISNA’s six-figure donation to TWRA was split into four transfers between July and October of 1992.

What was TWRA doing at the time? It was funding the terror network that executed the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and orchestrated a follow-on attack against landmarks in the New York metro area.

As Evan Kohlmann explains in his book, Al-Qaida’s Jihad in Europe:

During the 1995 trial of conspirators charged with involvement in a terrorist plot to attack landmarks in New York, Clement Rodney Hampton-el, an American Muslim who trained in the Afghan camps run by Al-Qaida, confirmed that he had been smuggling money into the United States obtained from the Third World Relief Agency for the purpose of financing the military training in New York, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania of Arab-Afghan mujahideen destined for Bosnia. Several graduates of these makeshift camps helped organize and carry out the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

That is just the tip of the iceberg.

• TWRA had ties to al Qaeda members and supporters the world over.
• Kohlmann notes that Osama bin Laden was suspected of donating “large sums of money” to TWRA to fund the jihad in Bosnia.
• Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, whose jihadists executed the World Trade Center bombing and organized the follow-on landmarks plot, was caught on tape talking to TWRA officials.
• TWRA “volunteered to spread” Rahman’s message and sell the Blind Sheikh’s “militant videotapes and sermons in mosques throughout Europe,” Kohlmann reported.

There’s more, of course. But it would take pages to summarize TWRA’s international jihadist activities, from transiting terrorists around the globe to arranging for massive arms shipments.

In addition to Kohlmann’s book, TWRA’s violent legacy, including ties to al Qaeda, are spelled out in elaborate detail by John Schindler in his book, Unholy Terror. Schindler was formerly one of the NSA’s top analysts on the Balkans. He includes pages of details on TWRA’s terrorist activities.

This is the organization that ISNA financially supported. In turn, the DOJ believes it should work with ISNA for some unknown reason.


As Rubin asks: “what is the Justice Department doing soliciting employees through the Justice Department email system to attend a convention at which ISNA can propagate its views?”

Thomas Joscelyn on June 24, 2009 02:15 PM

The Rest @ Creeping Sharia

al-Amriki Comments in Audio from Somalia about Obama

Despite the fact that you have been ... forced [by Muslim fighters] to at least pretend to extend your hand in peace to the Muslims, we cannot and shall not extend our hands,” said the man in the audiotape, identified by the Washington-based Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) as Abu Mansour al-Amriki. “Rather, we shall extend to you our swords, until you leave our lands.”

An American who left the United States to join an Al Qaeda-linked group in Somalia has released a new audiotape, his second high-profile message in recent months.

The 20-minute audiotape, titled “The Beginning of the End,” is a response to President Barack Obama’s much-publicized speech in Cairo on June 4 aimed at the Muslim world.

The Washington-based Middle East Media Research Institute identified the man speaking in the audiotape as Abu Mansour al-Amriki, also known simply as “The American.” In April, when al-Amriki appeared in a recruitment video for al-Shabaab, a law enforcement official told Fox News that he is originally from the United States but has been in Somalia "for some time." The official described al-Amriki as in his late 20s or early 30s.

The audiotape begins with praise of Usama bin Laden, according to the Washington-based Middle east Media Research Institute, which is currently translating and transcribing the audiotape. Among other things, the audiotape also mocks President Obama for his pronunciation of the word “hijab” during the June 4 speech.

President Obama had meant to say: “Freedom in America is indivisible from the freedom to practice one's religion. … That's why the United States government has gone to court to protect the right of women and girls to wear the hijab and to punish those who would deny it.”
But President Obama said “hajib” instead of “hijab.” Still, the crowd gathered in Cairo erupted into applause after the line.

Also during the speech in Cairo, President Obama said he was seeking “a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world.” But he also warned that Al Qaeda has “affiliates in many countries and are trying to expand their reach.”

Somalia is one of those countries. An Al Qaeda-linked group known as al-Shabaab has been warring with the moderate Somali government since 2006, and the fighting has turned Somalia into a state of anarchy. U.S. officials say that if al-Shabaab prevails, Somalia could turn into a haven for Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups.

In the past year, scores – if not hundreds – of Muslims from several Western countries have left their homes to train and fight with al-Shabaab in Somalia. In fact, the Federal Bureau of investigation has been looking into how dozens of Somali-American men from the Minneapolis were recruited to join al-Shabaab.

The new audiotape is an attempt to recruit even more foreign fighters.

The Rest @ Fox News

Mohammed Abdullah Warsame, Al Qaeda Supporter in Minneapolis Pleased Guilty

A Minneapolis resident accused of aiding and communicating with Al Qaeda has pleaded guilty to supporting the terrorist group.

Mohammed Abdullah Warsame, 35, a naturalized Canadian citizen from Somalia, pleaded guilty in a Minnesota federal court to conspiring to provide material support to Al Qaeda on May 20, 2009.

According to the plea agreement, Warsame provided Al Qaeda with personnel, training and material support from 2000 to 2003.

• Warsame attended an Al Qaeda training camp outside Kabul, Afghanistan in 2000 before traveling to Al Qaeda's Al Faruq camp, where he attended lectures given by Osama bin Laden.
• Warsame engaged in weapons, tactics and martial arts training at the terrorist camps, which also offered specialized courses in explosives and poisons, according to court documents.
• Upon finishing his training at the camps, Warsame worked as a guard at an Al Qaeda guesthouse and clinic affiliated with Al Faruq.
• Warsame traveled to Canada in 2001 and established e-mail communication with Al Qaeda associates he met in Afghanistan. He also sent money to a commander of one of the terrorist training camps he attended.
• Warsame moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota in April 2002 after obtaining an immigrant visa, according to an FBI affidavit.

Since their marriage in 1995, Warsame's wife has lived in Minneapolis, from where approximately 20 young Somali-American men have traveled to Somalia to join a U.S. designated terrorist group.

Warsame, a former student at the Minneapolis Community and Technical College, continued to communicate with several Al Qaeda associates after relocating to Minneapolis. He was arrested in December 2003 under a material witness warrant.

Warsame was first charged in January 2004 with one count of conspiring to provide support to Al Qaeda. A superseding indictment unsealed in June 2005 added another count of providing material support to Al Qaeda and three counts of making false statements to the FBI about his travels to Pakistan and Afghanistan and his frequent contact with and financial support of Al Qaeda associates.

In exchange for his guilty plea, the U.S. government agreed to dismiss the remaining charges.
Warsame faces a maximum of 15 years in prison and will be deported to Canada upon completion of his sentence.

The Rest @ ADL