As Salaam Alaikum,
Pakistani authorities doing the hard police work in Karachi of attempting to trace the network of friends and contacts of attempted Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad have come up empty-handed. There is nothing in Shahzad’s background that links him to the Tehrik-i Taliban Pakistan (TTP or Taliban Movement of Pakistan), based in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Pakistani police found one person in Shahzad’s circle, a relative of his wife’s, who in turn had ties to a fundamentalist group. Muhammad Rehan is a “not very active” member of the radical organization, Jaish-i Muhammadi. He and Shahzad traveled last year to the Pashtun northwest, though this trip is unremarkable because their family is Pashtuns and they are from that region. Rumors that Rehan had been arrested or that he had long lived near the radical mosque turn out not to be true, according to the Pakistani periodical, “The Nation”.
Pakistani police are unable to find any link between Rehan and the Pakistani Taliban, and can’t even find evidence of active membership in the Jaish-i Muhammad. Nor is there evidence that he introduced Shahzad to the Pakistani Taliban. Shahzad is apparently a braggart (ego inflation and delusions of grandeur are typical of terrorists) and his claim that he received training in a Taliban camp is not believable given that he had not the slightest idea how to construct a simple truck bomb. If there is one thing the Pakistani Taliban are good at, as guest op-ed contributor Stephan Salisbury noted here on Monday, it is blowing up things. In fact, the results of the intensive Pakistani investigation vindicate Salisbury’s skepticism about claims made by civilian US officials concerning this case.Informed Pakistani writer Rahim Yusufzai exhibits the same skepticism.
Gen. David Petraeus, the CENTCOM commander, said last week that Shahzad was a lone wolf vaguely inspired by the Pakistani Taliban. Other reports say that Shahzad was upset about US drone strikes on Pakistani territory, which often kill civilians. Since Shahzad appears to live in a fantasy world, Attorney General Eric Holder was unwise to believe the tales he spun about professional training in terrorist camps of the North-West Frontier.
Sincerely,
Rahat Husain
Executive Director
Islamic Information Center
The West 
(Europe, North & South America)

Tea Party leader Mark Williams says Muslims worship a 'monkey god'


NY Daily News
A national Tea Party leader protesting a proposed  mosque near near Ground Zero, has angered Muslims nationwide by saying they worship "the terrorists' monkey god." Mark Williams, chairman of the Tea Party Express, blogged about the 13-story mosque and Islamic cultural center  planned at Park Place and Broadway, calling it a monument to the 9/11 terrorists. "The monument would consist of a Mosque for the worship of the terrorists' monkey-god," Williams, a frequent guest on CNN, wrote on his blog.
 

Marseille starts building work for mega-mosque 

Washington Post
 
French Muslims celebrated a milestone on Thursday when building work begins on a mega-mosque in Marseille, the nation's biggest and a potent symbol of Islam's place in modern France. A day after the French government approved a bill banning the full Islamic veil, Muslim leaders will join politicians for a ceremony to lay the cornerstone at a dusty construction site in northern Marseille.  /France's second city is home to 250,000 Muslims, many of whom flock to makeshift prayer houses in basements, rented rooms and dingy garages to worship. 
 

Middle East

World Cup plot: Saudi officer held

Daily Dispatch Online

A Saudi army officer was arrested in Iraq yesterday for past attacks and involvement in an alleged al-Qaeda plot targeting World Cup events in South Africa. Saudi colonel Azzam al-Qahtani, also known as Sanan al- Saudi, apparently entered Iraq in 2004 and is allegedly al-Qaeda’s security chief in Baghdad, said Iraqi military spokesperson Major-General Qassem Atta. Al-Qahtani is accused with Manaf al-Rawy – al-Qaeda’s so- called “governor” in Baghdad – of planning attacks on World Cup events in South Africa next month.

Iraq vote winner asserts right to form government

AP

The leader of the top vote-getting coalition in Iraq's inconclusive March 7 elections insisted his bloc still has the right to form the next government despite an alliance forged this week between two rival Shiite groups. The alliance makes the Shiites the largest political bloc in parliament, setting the stage for outmaneuvering the election win of Ayad Allawi's cross-sectarian Iraqiya party. Strong Sunni support helped his bloc eke out a slim lead in the balloting in which no group won an outright majority in the 325-seat parliament.

Asia (excluding the Middle East)

Malayasian PM calls for Islamic finance transformation 

The Star

Muslim countries must continue to play a leading role in transforming Islamic finance into a widely accepted system that is central to long-term economic stability globally, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Abdul Razak. “To transform (this) niche sector into a widely accepted system, we need an appropriate regulatory framework, infrastructure and architecture that promote Islamic capital markets. “Islamic finance and banking must be systematically put in place with the involvement of all stakeholders. “It will also require getting a higher level of acceptance of ethical banking as a norm in modern day banking,” he said in his keynote address at the opening ceremony of the 6th World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF) yesterday.

Pakistan Blocks Facebook Over Contest to Draw Prophet Muhammad
Business Week

Pakistan blocked a section of Facebook Inc., the world’s largest social-networking service, citing plans for a “blasphemous” competition inviting users to draw caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. The Lahore High Court imposed the ban until May 31 and asked Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry to protest to the international community over the competition, the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan said on its website yesterday.

Africa

Praise From Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei for Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe

VOA News

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has commended President Robert Mugabe for resisting alleged political interference by the Western powers, pledging Tehran’s continued support for Zimbabwe. Speaking with President Mugabe in Teheran on Monday on the sidelines of summit of the Group of 15, an offshoot of the Non-Aligned Movement, Khamenei also applauded what he called strong, deep-rooted and friendly ties between Iran and Zimbabwe, which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited last month, making similar statements.

Suicide Bombing Targets AMISOM Base in Mogadishu

VOA News

The African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia says two of its soldiers have been wounded in a suicide attack in the capital, Mogadishu. In an interview with VOA's Somali Service, an AU spokesman said three attackers drove a truck filled with explosives toward a new AU peacekeeping base Tuesday, prompting soldiers to open fire. The spokesman, Major Barigye Ba-Huko, says AU forces destroyed the truck before it reached its target, killing all three people inside.  At least two soldiers were wounded when the explosion went off. Several civilians were also reported injured. The Associated Press says the al-Qaida linked rebel group al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for the attack. 

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