Muslim extremists bent on ridding Nigeria’s volatile middle region of Christianity killed five Christians in Niger state on Thursday (Sept. 22) and three others the previous week in the north-central state of Kaduna, including a 13-year-old girl, sources said.

Suspected militants from the Boko Haram Islamic sect in the Niger state town of Madala went to shops owned by Christians at a market at about 8 p.m., ordering them to recite verses from the Quran, eyewitnesses told Compass. If the Christian traders were unable to recite the verses, the gunmen shot and killed them, they said.

The sound of the gunshots compelled Christians to call police in nearby Suleja, and officers arrived to find five Christians had already been killed. Richard Adamu Oguche, a spokesman for the Niger State Police Command in the state capital of Minna, confirmed that five Christians had been killed.He told Compass the attack was linked to members of the Boko Haram Islamic sect who have recently bombed Christian sites.

Killed in the Madala market attacks were Sunday Emmanuel, John Kalu, Uche Nguweze, and Oliver Ezemah. The identity of the fifth Christian was not immediately known as witnesses could not identify him. More here

A Saudi Arabian woman is to be lashed for driving a car days after women were given the vote in the kingdom Amnesty International reported the sentence just two days after Saudi King Abdullah granted women the right to vote and run in municipal elections.

“Flogging is a cruel punishment in all circumstances but it beggars belief that the authorities in Saudi Arabia have imposed lashes on a woman apparently for merely driving a car”, Philip Luther, an Amnesty regional deputy director, said in an emailed statement.

“Allowing women to vote in council elections is all well and good, but if they are still going to face being flogged for trying to exercise their right to freedom of movement, then the king’s much trumpeted ‘reforms’ actually amount to very little,” Mr Luther said.

Two other women are also believed to be facing charges related to driving, the Amnesty statement said.

Najla Hariri, one of the women facing charges, told Reuters: “They called me in for questioning on a charge of challenging the monarch on Sunday… I signed a pledge not to drive again, although my driving was a result of necessity not an act of defiance. . .Continues here H/T weavo

Six men have been charged with terrorism offences, including a suspected suicide bombing campaign, West Midlands Police have said.
Four of the men were charged with preparing for an act of terrorism in the UK, and two with failing to disclose information.It follows a police operation in Birmingham last week.

The six, all from Birmingham and aged between 25 and 32, will appear at West London Magistrates’ Court on Monday.
Irfan Nasser, 30, of Sparkhill, and Irfan Khalid, 26, of Balsall Heath, are accused of preparing for an act of terrorism, including travelling to Pakistan for training in terrorism, making a martyrdom video and planning a bombing campaign.
They are accused of “being concerned in constructing” a home-made explosive device for terrorist acts and stating an intention to be a suicide bomber more. . . . BBC

Arabs threw rocks Wednesday at an Israeli car between Migdalim and Tapuach Junction in Samaria. A 20 month old girl was injured in the face.

The baby girl received treatment from Samaria Regional Authority medics and evacuated to a hospital. The Authority Head Gershon Mesika said: “The ‘men of peace’ of the Palestinian murder authority provide yet more proof, to those who still need it, as to just whom we are facing. We face low life terrorists who try to murder babies.”

“They hold an olive twig in their mouths and murder weapons in their hands. To these barbarian terrorists they want to give a state. The Nation of Israel is strong, the government needs to learn from it and be strengthened by its spirit – no to folding and surrendering, yes to construction and stamping out terrorism.”

An Israeli citizen was lightly wounded from rocks hurled by Arabs as he drove near Halhoul. Three Arabs were arrested Wednesday afternoon in confrontations with security forces near the Kalandiya checkpoint. Earlier, they threw rocks at IDF forces and burned tires.

Several dozen Arabs threw rocks at Border Policemen near Har Adar, not far from Jerusalem. No one was hurt. The policemen used riot dispersal gear to scatter the rioters. here

Omar Tarazi, a lawyer linked to the Hamas front group the Council on American-Islamic Relations, has dismissed his ten-million-dollar libel lawsuit against Geller with prejudice: it cannot be re-filed.

Geller explained: “This is a huge victory for the First Amendment, truth, and the anti-Sharia movement in this country, which is exposing an insidious cancer that brings progressives and Islamic supremacists together in common cause to attack anyone who criticizes Islamic supremacism with the threat of lawsuits, actual lawsuits, or even worse, violence.”

“The message,” she added, “is that we will not be silent. We will continue to fight the implementation of Sharia blasphemy laws restricting free speech under the guise of the fictional construct of a ‘phobia.’” continued here

Pamela Geller submitted the proposed ad to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s media management company more than a week ago but still hasn’t learned if it has been approved or rejected. “I will sue,” Geller said. “It’s a free speech issue.”

The strongly worded ad states, “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat jihad.”

Geller, co-founder of the American Freedom Defense Initiative, said the message is meant to counter posters in 18 subway stations calling for the end of U.S. military aid to Israel. They were paid for by the Westchester-based WESPAC Foundation and began a one-month run earlier in September.

The MTA already has accepted counter ads from the pro-Israel group Stand With Us. They will run in the same 18 stations from Sept. 26 to Oct. 23, the authority has said. An MTA spokesman declined to comment Tuesday.more. . . . here

Dozens injured in clashes on Lampedusa ‘We are not racist’, says mayor.

Dozens of people were injured in clashes between migrants and residents on the southern Italian island of Lampedusa on Wednesday. Tension erupted on the island late Tuesday when migrants set fire to the migrant reception centre on the island to protest against plans for their forced repatriation.

More than 50,400 migrants have arrived from Tunisia and Libya and elsewhere in Africa since January, many of them in small, overcrowded boats.

Three police officers and more than a dozen migrants were being treated for cuts and abrasions. “I say to the humanitarian organisations – you have no right to accuse the people of Lampedusa of racism,” said Dino De Rubeis, the Mayor of Lampedusa, who was barricaded in his office as dozens of people protested outside.

The mayor was being protected by police after three local residents tried to attack him on Wednesday and has a baseball bat in his drawer. “I have to defend myself and I am ready to use it,” he said.continued here Lets hope he hits a home run

Dudley Council refused permission on Monday for the buildings, which would feature a 35ft (10m) high minaret. Dr Kurshid Ahmed, chairman of the town’s Muslim association, said the decision was “Islamophobic”.

The council said its decision was based solely on planning reasons as the scale and design of the building would be out of keeping with buildings in the area.  The council originally refused outline planning permission for the Hall Street mosque in February 2007 on the basis the land had already been designated exclusively for employment use under the council’s unitary development plan.

A planning inspectorate overturned the council’s reason for refusing outline planning approval in July 2008.The council fought the decision in the High Court in July 2009 and lost. Full plans for a mosque and community centre went before Dudley planning committee on Monday night but were rejected.
Dr Ahmed said: “Obviously I am disappointed but certainly not surprised because decisions in Dudley Planning committee are driven by the influence of bigotry, racism and Islamophobia.”
Dr Ahmed said he was aware that the proposed buildings had been described by some councillors as “an alien feature” and “a blot on the landscape”.
He added: “There’s not really any planning consideration as the two comments that you’ve just referred to suggest, so it is a decision based on people’s prejudices against Islam. . .They don’t want to see a mosque or they see it as a blot, they see it as completely out of character, which means that they are still living in some historical context and don’t see the globalisation of today and Dudley as part of that.” continues . . . BBC