Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Gatestone Update :: Soeren Kern: Italy: "Fighting in the Name of Allah", and more



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Italy: "Fighting in the Name of Allah"

by Soeren Kern
July 9, 2013 at 5:00 am
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According to Italian law enforcement officials, some of the Italian jihadists have links with a Belgian Salafist group, "Sharia4Belgium," and are actively seeking to recruit fellow Muslims to overthrow the democratic order in Italy.
Italian counter-terrorism authorities are monitoring several dozen Italian Muslims who have obtained combat experience in Syria and are now promoting jihad, or holy war, in Italy.
Somewhere between 45 and 50 Italian citizens -- mostly Muslim immigrants from North Africa, but also some Italian converts to Islam -- have been to Syria at least once to fight alongside rebel forces seeking to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Many of these individuals, including several women, have returned to Italy and are using the Internet to spread jihadist propaganda and to communicate with other Islamic radicals.
Some of the Italian jihadists have links with a Belgian Salafist group, "Sharia4Belgium," and are actively seeking to recruit fellow Muslims to overthrow the democratic order in Italy, according to Italian law enforcement officials.
The revelations were made after a 24-year-old convert to Islam, Giuliano Ibrahim Delnevo, became the first Italian to die in Syria. Delnevo, who was raised in a Roman Catholic home in the northern Italian port city of Genoa, converted to Islam at the age of 20 after meeting a woman during a visit to Morocco.
In an interview with the daily newspaper Il Giornale, the director of Italy's Security Intelligence Department (DIS), Giampiero Massolo, said that Delnevo became increasingly radicalized due to exposure to Islamic propaganda on the Internet.
For example, in a television interview filmed shortly after his conversion to Islam, a youthful and impressionable Delnevo talks about his experience at a celebration to mark the end of the Muslim holiday of Ramadan. The event, held at a middle school in Albenga, a town on the Gulf of Genoa, was attended by more than 500 townspeople.
More recently, however, Delnevo began uploading videos onto YouTube in which he lashed out at cartoonists depicting Mohammed in a negative light. Visibly intoxicated by Islam, Delnevo also recited verses from the Koran and demanded that Italy withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.
Delnevo first travelled to the Turkish border with Syria sometime in 2012, where he came into contact with a group of Chechen jihadists and quickly became swallowed-up by the lure of Islamic fundamentalism and holy war.
In September 2012, for instance, Delnevo posted the following quote from the late Abdullah Azzam -- a Palestinian preacher known as the "Father of Global Jihad" -- on his Facebook page: "We are jihadists and jihad is an obligation to believe in Allah." In March 2013, Delnevo replaced the photo of himself on his Facebook page with the logo of the Kavkaz Center, a well-known Chechen website that publishes jihadist propaganda. By the middle of June 2013, Delnevo was found dead on a battlefield in northern Syria.
According to Massolo, Delnevo was a "lone wolf" who became indoctrinated by "a powerful form of self-training." Massolo continues that although the "phenomenon of jihadist recruitment is much less prevalent" in Italy than in other European countries, "it is clear that the situation in general does not allow us to sit back and needs to be monitored. In some cases, they decide to take direct action and join jihadist fighters."
An Il Giornale essay, "The Italian Boy who died Fighting in the Name of Allah," sums it up: "The tragic death of Giuliano D. reminds us not only about how close we are to the conflict in Syria, but also about the risk posed by the fatal attraction exerted on Muslims living in our country. Those who will return transformed as fanatical fighters, capable not only of using weapons and explosives, but also ready to undermine the internal security of our country."
"It happened once before," the essay continues, "during the time of the war in Bosnia, when Muslim volunteers from Milan decided to join the international jihadist's brigade fighting against the Serbs. After Bosnians returned from the battlefields, many of the militants turned the Viale Jenner mosque in Milan into one of the cornerstones of European al-Qaeda."
Italian authorities have indeed been confronting an endless series of threats from jihadists based across the country.
In June 2013, counter-terrorism police in the northern Italian city of Brescia arrested a 21-year-old Moroccan blogger accused of inciting Muslims to wage jihad against Italy and France.
Police say the suspect had created an "Italian branch" of the grassroots jihadist movement "Sharia4" via his blog, Sharia4Italy. They also say he had recently researched possible terror targets and had expressed a growing interest in the conflict in Syria. He had, for example, told one online interlocutor that he wanted to join the jihadists there fighting to overthrow President Assad.
The Moroccan blogger had also used the Internet to obtain instructions on the use of explosives, weapons and warfare techniques. According to police, he had developed a hatred of the West as a child, after the al-Qaeda terrorist attacks on the United States in September 2001, when he was allegedly victimized by being called a "terrorist" and a "Taliban."
Additionally, in May 2013, a court in Brescia sentenced Mohamed Jarmoune, a 22-year-old Moroccan jihadist, to more than five years in prison for planning terrorist attacks on the main synagogue in Milan. The sentence was for more than the four years requested by the public prosecutor.
Jarmoune, who lived in Italy since childhood, was arrested in Brescia in March 2012. Investigators found documents on his computer analyzing the security measures of Milan's main synagogue. He was also accused of using the Internet to organize terrorist groups and plan jihadist attacks against Western targets.
Prosecutors said Jarmoune "incited hatred of Western populations, especially unbelievers and Jews, condoning incredible acts of terrorism and self-sacrifice." They also said he "tried stubbornly to hide his identity on the Internet and released numerous videos for the maintenance of weapons and for the preparation of explosives, all aimed at realizing attacks for terrorist purposes."
During his court trial, Jarmoune repeatedly told the judge that he was ready to sacrifice himself for Allah.
Later, in April 2013, Italian police arrested four men suspected of planning terrorist attacks in Italy and the United States. One of the arrested men was a Tunisian imam at a mosque in the southern Italian city of Andria, where police said the terror cell was based.
According to police, the men recruited illegal immigrants who were subsequently sent to terrorist training camps in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Iraq and Yemen. Police described the group as being characterized by "fierce anti-Semitism and a bitter aversion to 'infidel' states such as Italy and the United States."
Investigators accused the suspects of "a constant and continuous work of proselytizing and indoctrination designed to train new recruits and allow them to reach the territories of jihad with preparation, including psychological and ideological, such as to allow their placement on the terrorist circuit."
Police said they also intercepted text messages and telephone conversations attributed to the men, including the following: "Jihad is our destiny"... "May Allah litter our bodies for his cause" ... "I want my meat to go to pieces" … "In the name of Allah, I am ready" … "Allah's horses run for jihad" … "Allah take my blood as you want and scatter my body for your design as you want. Amen!" and "America has promised us defeat, and Allah has promised us victory, and we'll see which of the two promises is realizable."
In September 2012, Italian authorities deported two suspected Libyan jihadists who were accused of trying to prepare attacks on targets in Rome as well as other European cities.
The two men, aged 26 and 28, had been in Italy to receive medical treatment for injuries sustained during the civil war that led to the ouster of Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi in October 2011. They were convalescing, courtesy of Italian taxpayers, at hotels in Rome.
According to the Italian Interior Ministry, the pair came under suspicion because of the "radical nature of their behavior" and were deported for wanting to stage a revenge attack for an American-produced YouTube film that allegedly ridiculed Islam's Prophet Mohammed.
Investigators said the two men, who were thought to have links to Salafi militia operating in Libya, "had started activities of proselytism and propaganda for the jihad in the Libyan community to obtain material to carry out attacks against Western interests."
Earlier, in July 2012, Italy deported a notorious former imam of a mosque in Perugia after he was released from prison, where he was serving part of a six-year sentence for terrorism-related offenses.
Moroccan Mostapha El Korchi, the former imam of the mosque at Ponte Felcino, was known for recording public sermons with frequent incitement to wage jihad against "crusaders" and "infidels."
El Korchi was also a central figure in an investigation that led counter-terrorism authorities in Italy to arrest him and two Moroccan associates in 2007, and to seize a wide range of materials. Police raids turned up more than 50 suspicious chemicals for making explosives. The police also found marked-up maps of six cities in central and northern Italy, including Milan, that were a focus of special attention for the cell, as well as maps of Umbria's water supply system, indicating there may have been a plot to poison it.
Also in July, police in Venice arrested a radical imam and three Syrians accused of operating a human-trafficking gang that allegedly smuggled jihadists to Italy from the Middle East.
In April, police in the Adriatic seacoast town of Pesaro arrested Andrea Campione, aged 28, an Italian convert to Islam, for disseminating jihadist material, including information about how to carry out terrorist attacks. Police said Campione had also spoken about his wish to travel to Afghanistan to join Taliban fighters there. He was detained as he was preparing to leave Italy for Morocco with his Moroccan girlfriend.
Investigators had also linked Campione to Mohammed Jarmoune, the Moroccan jihadist sentenced to prison for plotting an attack on the main synagogue in Milan. During the court proceedings, prosecutors presented a series of emails that Jarmoune had exchanged with a Moroccan woman living in the Netherlands. One email reads, "When I get my house you and your children will live with us ... but I am a mujahedeen and you have to be prepared for anything."
Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute. He is also Senior Fellow for European Politics at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group. Follow him on Facebook.
Related Topics:  Italy  |  Soeren Kern

The Problem at the Heart of Egypt's Revolutions

by Nonie Darwish
July 9, 2013 at 4:00 am
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This is the central problem in most Muslim countries: the difficult choice between a man-made, civilian, military, "infidel" government, and a totalitarian Islamic theocracy.
This latest revolution in Egypt, the second in the last two years, is a symptom of a deep-rooted problem at the heart of Islam itself: Egypt is on the verge of a civil war to bring a resolution to the never-ending tension between what Islam demands versus what the people really want.
This is the central problem in most Muslim countries: the difficult choice between a civilian, military "infidel" government, and a totalitarian Islamic theocracy. The problem is compounded when most Egyptians consider themselves both Muslim and lovers of democracy, but refuse to see that Islam and freedom cannot co-exist. How can Islam anywhere produce a democracy when freedom of speech and religion are outlawed, where there is no free and independent judiciary, and equal rights for women, minorities and non-Muslims are legally suppressed?
Islam also cannot let go of government control: since its inception, Islam has lacked the confidence in its own survival without government enforcement. As Muslim Brotherhood leader Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi stated this winter on Egyptian television, "without the 'Death for Apostasy' laws, apostasy laws, Islam would have failed with the death of Mohamed, as people would never stay in this religion otherwise." It is no coincidence therefore that Islamic law dictates that all Muslims must be ruled by Sharia, and declares that all secular governments, made by man, not by Allah, are heresy and an abomination.
While mosques are busy teaching Muslims how to carry out jihad, hate Jews and mistreat Christians, their imams allocate no time to preach the values of peace and trust as a foundation for an orderly society or civilization. As a result of such an Islamic education, Muslims who know they want freedom are unable to build the value system on which to achieve it.
Egypt's dilemma is nothing new, but the good news today is that finally there is an awakening in Egypt regarding the tyranny that Sharia law brings, especially if it is made the basis of a constitution. Despite this awakening, however, not one rebel in Tahrir Square was able openly to carry a sign saying, "Sharia must become null and void." The majority of Egyptians still believe that to say that would be an act of apostasy, punishable by death.
All current surveys still show that the overwhelming majority of Egyptians still support Sharia law, or at least say they do. This is where the problem lies: the laws of a society are the mirror of its morality. Egyptians cannot make believe that they can have both Sharia and freedom, or that their laws do not have to match their style of government and what they can feel comfortable with. According to Sharia, a Muslim head of state must rule by Islamic law, and must preserve Islam in its original form, or he must be removed from office. Islamic law leaves no choice for any Muslim leader but to accept, at least officially, that Sharia is the law of the land, or else be ousted from office. Sharia also commands Muslims to remove any leader who is not a Muslim. Because of that command, Muslim leaders must play a game of appearing Islamic and anti-West while trying to get along with the rest of the world. It is a game with life and death consequences for them.
That stricture is the reason many Egyptians today agree to keep Sharia in the constitution, even if only symbolically. But how can Egyptians be so naïve to believe they can ignore the laws of their constitution? As long as Sharia is on the books, even if it is ignored, the country can never have true stability and freedom. Even with revolutions, Egyptians can only achieve cosmetic changes with no substance; changes such as, the name of the country, its flag, national anthem, or even putting on or taking off women's hijabs.
Although Egyptians were always exuberant about the removal of a regime or a dictator, they never were about a change in the religious, cultural and moral foundations of the country. Whether it is the Egyptian revolution of 1919, 1952 or 2011, the change achieved has always been superficial, or for the worse. Somehow whenever the Muslim mind comes to the underlying religious ideology that is the foundation upon which its systems are erected, it freezes.
The result is a majority of confused citizens whose trust is shattered; moral standards in conflict, and laws and the concept of reality distorted. But how long can this warped existence last undetected? So far it has succeeded for 1,400 years without collapsing, but can this latest revolution be the crack in the stranglehold of Sharia?
Egyptian secularists have achieved a great step against the Muslim Brotherhood, but will they be able to sustain it? The Muslim Brotherhood has powerful roots in the Egyptian psyche, and the Brotherhood has vowed a bloodbath against any secular government.
For any secular government to remain in power, it needs to turn tyrannical and put in jail members of the Muslim Brotherhood. This has already begun; arrest warrants against leaders and 300 members of the Brotherhood were issued within hours of the removal of Morsi.
Egypt is now back to square one; a military dictatorship is, for the moment at least, the only solution that can preserve and sustain a certain level of secularism in the face of the constant Islamic assault that human rights, freedom of religion and democracy. The assault has also been on the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which, on August 5, 1990, was repudiated and superseded by the Organization of Islamic Conference [OIC] in favor of the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam, which, in article 24, in its entirety, concludes that "All the rights and freedoms stipulated in this Declaration are subject to the Islamic Shari'ah." Article 19(d) also posits that, "There shall be no crime or punishment except as provided for in the Shari'ah."
One can only hope that this military dictatorship will not be like others, which promise elections and freedom, but remain as autocracies for decades.
Nonie Darwish is the author of "The Devil We Don't Know".
Related Topics:  Egypt  |  Nonie Darwish

Muslim Brotherhood Out, Killing Christians In

by Raymond Ibrahim
July 9, 2013 at 3:30 am
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"I tell the Christians one word: We will set you on fire!" — Egyptian Muslim lady
"In scattered locations across Egypt, mobs of hard-line Muslims," according to Morning Star News, "enraged over the deposing of the country's Islamist president [Muhammad Morsi] this week attacked Christian homes, business[es] and church buildings and were suspected in the shooting death of a priest."
None of this should come as a surprise. As Gatestone Institute reported at the beginning of Egypt's June 30 revolution, anonymous "letters addressed to the Copts threatened them not to join the protests, otherwise their 'businesses, cars, homes, schools, and churches' might 'catch fire…. This message is being delivered with tact. But when the moment of truth comes, there will be no tact'." Several popular and influential Brotherhood leaders and supporters made the same threats, including Sheikh Essam Abdulamek , Dr. Safwat Hegazy , Dr. Wagdi Ghoneim, and Sheikh Abdullah Badr.
True to their word, now that Morsi and the Brotherhood have been ousted, Egypt's Christians are being heavily targeted by Brotherhood supporters. On July 3rd, in a village in al-Minya in Upper Egypt, the services building of St. George Church was looted and torched. Similarly, the evangelical Saleh Church in Delga was attacked and set on fire, while the villagers, the majority of whom are Copts, had their homes and businesses looted and torched. Two Christians were injured from the fires. According to the pastor of Delga Catholic Church, who was able to escape the fire only by fleeing through a space in the roof, "supporters of former President Morsi are engaged in continuous and unprecedented harassment of Copts. He said that a number of those people broke into the homes of Christians at gunpoint, terrorizing women, children and seizing gold jewelry and furniture. He contacted security forces, pleading for help. Witnesses said security arrived next morning."
Another Islamic mob tried to "attack the main Coptic cathedral in Qena, but the military fought them off. The group moved on to attack Christian-owned homes and businesses in the area, sources said. Also on Wednesday (July 3), a mob attacked the Church of the Holy Virgin in the coastal town of Marsa Matrouh with stones, but the military also repelled them." "It is a miracle no one was killed in the attacks" a woman told the Morning Star News.
Unfortunately, this miracle did not extend to other Copts attacked by Brotherhood supporters. On July 6, Coptic Christian priest Mina Cheroubim was shot dead as he left his church in al-Arish, north Sinai — near the same area where al-Qaeda-linked Brotherhood affiliates attacked and expelled Christian Copts months ago. Four more Christians were slaughtered by Muslims in the province of Luxor. The attack is being framed as "collective punishment": some Muslims accused Christians in the village of killing a Muslim, although Christians deny it, saying the Muslim was killed by another Muslim, but the mob decided to scapegoat the Copts. Dozens of Christian homes and businesses were looted and torched. Hundreds of Coptic villagers fled.
Elsewhere in Egypt, Christians are being kidnapped and held hostage for ransom money, a practice that has been on the increase, particularly in the targeting of Coptic children.
"This is just the beginning," said one Coptic Christian woman from Upper Egypt who was interviewed. "They will not be happy until they steal everything we own and kill us all. How can anyone be full of so much hate? If I took my eyes off God, I would shrink and die."
Another Egyptian woman, incensed at the overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood, and like many Brotherhood supporters, scapegoating Egypt's Christian minority, declared, "I am a religious [Muslim] Egyptian lady. I tell the Christians one word: You live by our side! We will set you on fire! We will set you on fire!"
Raymond Ibrahim is author of the new book, Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians (published by Regnery in cooperation with Gatestone Institute, 2013). A Middle East and Islam expert, he is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, associate fellow at the Middle East Forum.
Related Topics:  Egypt  |  Raymond Ibrahim

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