Landmark al Qaeda trial collapses

CNN reported The trial of 19 alleged al Qaeda members had been designed to showcase how serious Yemen was in the fight against terror. But the Islamic militants, accused of plotting to assassinate Westerners and blow up a hotel frequented by Americans, were all acquitted for lack of proof, the presiding judge ruled Saturday.

This is not good.

Prosecutors had failed to provide "adequate evidence that the defendants were plotting attacks against foreigners or planning to assassinate Americans in Yemen," the verdict said. Critics say the decision points to the Yemeni president's bid to win the radical Islamic vote ahead of elections in September.

If he wins, will he still back the radicals? And if he does not win, what will the new President do?

Several of the defendants did confess to having been in Iraq to fight U.S. troops there and had Iraqi stamps on their passport, the court heard. "But this does not violate [Yemeni] law," the judge said. "Islamic Sharia law permits jihad against occupiers," he said.

Another strike against Sharia law.

Mohammed al-Maqaleh, an expert in Islamist affairs who frequently appears in Yemeni media, described the verdict as a "shock."

To me as well.

"The judiciary is collaborating with the Islamist extremists and this verdict is politicized," al-Maqaleh said on the telephone. He said it was another sign that President Ali Abdullah Saleh was trying to drum up support from Muslim radicals ahead of the coming presidential elections. Saleh has long-standing ties with Islamic militants, who have stood by the administration since the 1980s. They sided with his northern government in the 1994 civil war and the successful battle against secessionists from the secular south

Ahmadinejad warns of Islamic 'explosion'

Yahoo! News reported Iran's hard-line president warned Friday that continued Israeli strikes against Palestinians could lead to an Islamic "explosion"

Ahmadinejad should be careful. An Islamic "explosion" is likely to destroy Islam through retaliation of people that did not like the violence done the last time Muslims "exploded" of the publication of a few cartoons.

targeting Israel and its Western supporters. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told thousands of demonstrators gathered in the capital, Tehran, to condemn the strikes in the Gaza Strip that Israel's supporters could be the target of revenge by Muslims.

The nut cases in Gaza claimed to want a state of their own, free of Jews, and Israel provided that by withdrawing from Gaza, and rather than building the state they wanted, they immediately started launching rocket attacks against Israel, and kidnapping Jews. The only way to deal with people like this is to destroy them, any nutcases in Iran that spout off in support of them.

"They should not let things reach a point where an explosion occurs in the Islamic world," he said. "If an explosion occurs, then it won't be limited to geographical boundaries. It will also burn all those who created (Israel)

And people that take over American embassies and hold them hostage for 444 days, and who then turn their country into an oppressed state where their citizens want freedom.

over the past 60 years," he said.

Appeasing jihadists

Diana West editorialized in The Washington Times Just in time for the one-year anniversary of 7/7, a poll conducted for The Times of London indicates that 13 percent of British Muslims believe that the four Islamic suicide bombers who murdered 52 people in London last July should be regarded as "martyrs." With a Muslim population in Britain estimated at 1.6 million, this means that some 208,000 British Muslims regard these killers with what can only be described as a worshipful attitude, which is despicable.

And it is also an indication that Britain has another 208,000 potential bombers.

But Mother England, it seems, is home to an awful lot of despicable people.

One of them, surely, is Anjem Choudary, who made related news this week. Mr. Choudary is a former leader of al-Mujahiroun, a defunct, jihad-inciting group, whose venomous pronouncements on Islamic supremacy have earned him a strange prominence in the British media. He refuses to condemn the 7/7 attacks, says Muslims shouldn't help police combat jihad terror

Then the police should not go out of their way to protect Muslims if there is another bombing.

and advocates sharia (Islamic law) for Britain.

Hopefully the British will have some say in that.

During a BBC "Newsnight" appearance this year, the host asked Mr. Choudary why he didn't simply move to a sharia state like Iran.

Because he does not want to really live under Sharia law, he just wants to say that.

"Who says you own Britain, anyway?" Mr. Choudary replied. "Britain belongs to Allah. The whole world belongs to Allah ... If I go to the jungle, I'm not going to live like the animals,

You would probably say the animals should convert to Islam, but in reality it is the Radical Muslims that are acting like animals.

I'm going to propagate a superior way of life. Islam is a superior way of life."

Compared to what?????

Religious leaders protest gay parade

Jerusalem Post reported Even as the ties between Palestinian and Israeli politicians strained against the current crises in Gaza, religious officials from the Muslim, Jewish and Christian communities united Tuesday to oppose a gay pride parade in Jerusalem.

It is nice to know that they can agree on something.

More than 50 prominent religious figures visited the Knesset's Interior Committee to urge MKs to stop the World Pride event, scheduled to take place in Jerusalem next month. Several right-wing religious MKs brought the coalition to the Knesset, asserting that "never before has the Holy Land seen such a union of religious leaders."

Now that they have come together, do you think they might discuss other conflicts? No, I guess not.

Representations of the gay-rights groups, including the Jerusalem Open House and the Coalition for Gay, Bisexual, Lesbian, and Transgender Rights called the coalition "dangerous" and "ugly."

The feeling is mutual.

Zarqawi successor 'in Egypt jail'

Aljazeera.Net reported Egyptian newspaper Al-Masri al-Yawm has quoted Mamduh Ismail as saying he met al-Muhajir, also known as Sharif Hazaa, or Abu Ayub al-Masri, in Tura prison in Cairo, where he has been held for seven years.

If this is true, it does not speak that well for Al Qaeda in naming him, although it might keep him alive longer than if he was free to get shot.

"Sharif Hazaa [al-Muhajir] is in Tura prison, and I met him two days ago while I was visiting some of my clients," Ismail, a lawyer known for defending Islamist groups, told the newspaper. Al-Muhajir is on the "most wanted" list issued by the Iraqi government last week. The US military in Iraq has put a $5million price on his head. The US army media centre in Iraq said: "We cannot comment on the news that ... al-Masri is in an Egyptian prison and not in Iraq, we have to clarify that from the Egyptian government." The US military had announced after the death of al-Zarqawi that al-Masri had been appointed the leader of al-Qaeda's organisation in Iraq.

Death for Somali Muslims who shirk prayers

Mail & Guardian Online reported Somali Muslims who fail to perform daily prayers will be killed in accordance with Qur'anic law under a new edict issued by a leading cleric in the Islamic courts union that controls Mogadishu.

That should be popular.

The requirement for Muslims to observe the five-times daily ritual under penalty of death was announced late on Wednesday and appears to confirm the hard-line nature of the increasingly powerful Sharia courts in the capital.

"He who does not perform prayers will be considered as infidel and Sharia law orders that that person be killed," said Sheikh Abdalla Ali, a founder and high-ranking official in the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia.

Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity

Betsy's Page blogged Abba Eban was so right when he said that in 1973 and they have not changed at all. What they have turned Gaza into since the Israeli pullout demonstrates this so clearly as Charles Krauthammer points out.

Before the eyes of the whole world, Israel left Gaza. Every Jew, every soldier, every military installation, every remnant of Israeli occupation was uprooted and taken away. How do the Palestinians respond? What have they done with Gaza, the first Palestinian territory in history to be independent, something neither the Ottomans nor the British nor the Egyptians nor the Jordanians, all of whom ruled Palestinians before the Israelis, ever permitted? On the very day of Israel's final pullout, the Palestinians began firing rockets out of Gaza into Israeli towns on the other side of the border. And remember: those are attacks not on settlers but on civilians in Israel proper, the pre-1967 Israel that the international community recognizes as legitimately part of sovereign Israel, a member state of the U.N. A thousand rockets have fallen since.

Remember this is what the Palestinians have claimed they wanted - control of their own territory and Israeli withdrawl. No Israeli settlers to complain about and their own government. They could have used that opportunity to have governed themselves and proven how they could help their own people.

Unfortunately they are focused on 6th century warfare, and not 21st century civilization.

But that would have meant taking advantage of the opportunity rather than missing that opportunity. And the Palestinians don't do that.

So in 2005 the Palestinians are given Gaza, free of any Jews. Do they begin building the state they say they want, constructing schools and roads and hospitals? No. They launch rockets at civilians and dig a 300-yard tunnel under the border to attack Israeli soldiers and bring back a hostage.

Why are they neglecting their own people in order to carry out this neverending warfare against Israelis?

To them, their own people do not matter. What matters is their hatred of the Jews.

Dr. Krauthammer nails it. Their goal wasn't to drive the Israelis out of the Palestinian territories, but has always been to destroy Israel proper and drive all the Jews out of the Middle East.

The logic for those continued attacks is to be found in the so-called phase plan adopted in 1974 by the Palestine National Council in Cairo. Realizing that they would never be able to destroy Israel in one fell swoop, the Palestinians adopted a graduated plan to wipe out Israel. First, accept any territory given to them in any part of historic Palestine. Then, use that sanctuary to wage war until Israel is destroyed.

That is why they can't be bothered trying to provide the services that any responsible government should reply for their suffering citizens - the goal of destroying Israel trumps everything else.

The Vatican Confronts Islam

Daniel Pipes wrote "Enough now with this turning the other cheek! It's our duty to protect ourselves." Thus spoke Monsignor Velasio De Paolis, secretary of the Vatican's supreme court, referring to Muslims.

Glad you woke up, Monsignor.

Explaining his apparent rejection of Jesus' admonition to his followers to "turn the other cheek," De Paolis noted that "The West has had relations with the Arab countries for half a century … and has not been able to get the slightest concession on human rights."

Jesus said to turn the other cheek, but he never said continue doing it for over 50 years.

De Paolis is hardly alone in his thinking; indeed, the Catholic Church is undergoing a dramatic shift from a decades-old policy to protect Catholics living under Muslim rule. The old methods of quiet diplomacy and muted appeasement have clearly failed. The estimated 40 million Christians in Dar al-Islam, notes the Barnabas Fund's Patrick Sookhdeo, increasingly find themselves an embattled minority facing economic decline, dwindling rights, and physical jeopardy. Most of them, he goes on, are despised and distrusted second-class citizens, facing discrimination in education, jobs, and the courts.

That is what it means to be a Dhimmi

These harsh circumstances are causing Christians to flee their ancestral lands for the West's more hospitable environment. Consequently, Christian populations of the Muslim world are in a free-fall. Two small but evocative instances of this pattern: for the first time in nearly two millennia, Nazareth and Bethlehem no longer have Christian majorities.... Obtaining the same rights for Christians in Islamdom that Muslims enjoy in Christendom has become the key to the Vatican's diplomacy toward Muslims.

That is a very good objective. Let me know if you ever get it.

This balanced, serious approach marks a profound improvement in understanding that could have implications well beyond the Church, given how many lay politicians heed its leadership in inter-faith matters. Should Western states also promote the principle of reciprocity, the results should indeed be interesting.

For Ramadan Viewing: A TV Drama Against Extremism

NYT reported Yassin al-Bach never returned home after bomb blasts tore through London's Underground. Since he was a religious Muslim, with a beard and a small white skullcap, he was immediately presumed by the public and the authorities to be a terrorist. But Mr. Bach was a victim — albeit a fictional one.

Whether he is a terrorist or a victim depends not on what he wears, but what he does. Did he cheer the bomb blasts, or did he stand up and say they were wrong, and non-Islamic?

His demise is the twist in the plot of a coming television series as obvious as the message of the show. "Those terrorists are killing Muslims, too," his mother, Mona, sobbed on camera. "How come in the name of Islam they are killing Muslims? I am calling all faiths, all religions, to join together and defeat terrorism."

Would you issue this call if they had not killed Muslims? Is it bad that they are killing anyone in the name of Islam, or is it only bad when they also kill other Muslims?

This is the time of year when Syria's producers and directors prepare shows for broadcast during Ramadan. The holy month, which this year begins in late September, is a time when Muslims fast during daylight hours and often gather with family and friends at night to feast and watch television. Mr. Bach is a character in a series called "Renegades," which is part of a growing trend in Arab countries, where leaders are eager to address social taboos and religious extremism but are reluctant to confront them more directly.

I would prefer the confronted them more directly, but this is better than nothing.

"This is an attempt to promote a discussion of these problems, to bring them out of secrecy," said Hatem Ali, one of Syria's top directors. "But the solutions are not in the hands of artists like us. We are contributing to a discussion which has begun in Syria.

Sheehan: 'I'd Rather Live Under Chavez than Bush'

NewsBusters reports As James Taranto suggested Monday in his WSJ 'Best of the Web' column, at some point you can question a person's patriotism. Cindy Sheehan surely crossed that Rubicon long ago. But just in case there was any doubt, Sheehan made things perfectly clear this evening, flatly stating that she'd rather live under Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez than George Bush.

Then she should move to Venezuela. It is a nice country, and I visited it a number of times while working on a project there (this was before Chavez). I don't think I would want to go there now, but if Cindy prefers to live there, we would be happy to see her go.

Blue Crab blogged Cindy Sheehan has well and truly jumped the shark if Norah O'Donnell, sitting in for Chris Matthews on Hardball can't stand her. Newsbusters' Mark Finkelstein asks if this is a hint to Democrats to disassociate themselves from Sheehan. I think it would be a good idea to carry a chicken leg to every appearance Sheehan makes and just wave it at her. She'll crack.

Democrats Not Eager to Emulate Texas's Redistricting

WaPo Democrats cried foul three years ago when Texas Republicans rammed through a highly partisan redistricting to gain an advantage in several House races. Now, a recent Supreme Court ruling that blessed the Texas plan gives Democrats a chance to show that turnabout is fair play. But early indications are that Democrats will probably resist the temptation to do unto Republicans as Republicans did unto them. Under the prodding of then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), Texas state lawmakers abandoned custom by redrawing district lines without waiting for the next decennial census. The move effectively added at least five seats to the GOP's House majority.

The thing WaPo leaves out, is that the Texas Legislature did not redraw the boundaries in 2000. The legislature could not agree how to do it, so a Democratic controled judiciary drew the lines.

First, Democrats must compile a list of states where a DeLay-like strategy is feasible. It will be remarkably short. Several states assign the redistricting task to commissions, shielding the process from partisan control. Some states, such as Texas, are controlled by Republicans. Many others have divided government, in which neither party controls both the governorship and the two legislative chambers, making blatantly partisan redistricting impossible. Finally, some Democratic-controlled states have already carved out all the Democratic-leaning House districts they can, leaving no room for gains.

So it is not that they don't want to; they can't, because they already have.

The result, redistricting experts say, yields perhaps four states where Democrats conceivably could try a mid-decade gerrymander comparable to that of Texas's: Illinois, North Carolina, New Mexico and Louisiana. In each one, however, such a move seems unlikely because of factors that include racial politics, Democratic cautiousness and even a hurricane's impact.

C.I.A. Closes Unit Focused on Capture of bin Laden

NYT reported The Central Intelligence Agency has closed a unit that for a decade had the mission of hunting Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants, intelligence officials confirmed Monday. The unit, known as Alec Station, was disbanded late last year and its analysts reassigned within the C.I.A. Counterterrorist Center, the officials said.

And since the NYT has been providing Osama with so much assistance, we are hoping that he will read this, and believe that it is safe for him to come out of his cave, so the Preditor missles can find him.

The decision is a milestone for the agency, which formed the unit before Osama bin Laden became a household name and bolstered its ranks after the Sept. 11 attacks, when President Bush pledged to bring Mr. bin Laden to justice "dead or alive."

The NYT just had to get that jab in.

The realignment reflects a view that Al Qaeda is no longer as hierarchical as it once was, intelligence officials said, and a growing concern about Qaeda-inspired groups that have begun carrying out attacks independent of Mr. bin Laden and his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

CQ blogged if Michael Scheuer wants to lay blame for the mothballing of Alec Station, he needs to lay it at the feet of the 9/11 Commission and the politicians who insisted on enacting their slate of reforms without debate.

Alec Station's assets haven't disappeared, after all; they got swallowed up by the Counterterrorist Center. The CTC sprang into being from the 9/11 Commission's insistence on creating more bureaucracy in our intel community. Instead of taking the alphabet soup of agencies and councils handling intelligence and simplifying them into two or three spheres -- domestic (FBI), international (CIA), and military (DIA), the panel chose to keep all the agencies but created a national directorate of intelligence to sit on top of them all. This directorate would then provide additional analysis at the CTC and the office of the Director of National Intelligence -- pushing raw intel at least two additional layers away from the President and forcing data to go through more paper-shuffling before it became actionable.

The result? The new directorate has sucked resources away from the field agencies and created a new bureaucratic fiefdom for John Negroponte. Last March, the House tried to withhold appropriations from the DNI after it grew to over seven hundred employees, most of them drained away from the intelligence agencies that now report to Negroponte. We have warned over and over again about the folly of these 9/11 Commission recommendations, but when John Kerry seized on them as a campaign issue, he forced the Bush administration to adopt them almost in toto. (Not coincidentally, the recommendations for reforming Congress failed to get the same attention and have yet to be fully implemented.)

When people insisted on the kind of bureaucratic expansion and analytical centralization on which the 9/11 Commission insisted, this result became unavoidable. Robert Grenier ended Alec Station in his capacity as the CTC director -- because he wanted the assets in the CTC. Who knows how many other programs and special task forces the CTC has closed down for the same reasons?

OTB blogged Of course, they were right to be alarmed. Still, this move strikes me as reasonable enough. If bin Laden and Zawahiri were killed today, it would be cause for celebration but probably have relatively minor effect. Our enemy is not a single man at this stage but a movement.

Blue Crab blogged The loading of the objections at the front of the story are, of course, typical of the Times reporting of late. Here's the part that caught my eye.

In his book "Ghost Wars," which chronicles the agency's efforts to hunt Mr. bin Laden in the years before the Sept. 11 attacks, Steve Coll wrote that some inside the agency likened Alec Station to a cult that became obsessed with Al Qaeda. "The bin Laden unit's analysts were so intense about their work that they made some of their C.I.A. colleagues uncomfortable," Mr. Coll wrote. Members of Alec Station "called themselves 'the Manson Family' because they had acquired a reputation for crazed alarmism about the rising Al Qaeda threat." Intelligence officials said Alec Station was disbanded after Robert Grenier, who until February was in charge of the Counterterrorist Center, decided the agency needed to reorganize to better address constant changes in terrorist organizations.

Now, that sounds like the special unit may have felt themselves to be just a bit too special to me. It makes me wonder if the people might not need to get a little broader focus. Tunnel vision can be a bad thing, too.

Google is Patriotic

Google frequently changes their graphic for obscure holidays, but never major ones like Christmas, Easter, or Independence Day, until today/ Suddenly Google has developed patriotism!!! Will miracles never cease!!!

Lieberman Will Petition

Hartford Courant reported Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman announced today he will petition for a place on the November ballot as an "independent Democrat," giving him a chance to stay alive politically should he lose an Aug. 8 primary for the Democratic nomination.

The rabid left wing blogosphere are very happy about this, and they will be pushing even more for the Dems to dump the man that just six years ago was their nominee for Vice President.

Lieberman, 64, a three-term senator whose outspoken support of the war in Iraq has brought months of grief and inspired a strong primary challenge from Greenwich businessman Ned Lamont, announced his decision this afternoon at a brief press conference at the State Capitol. "I've been a proud, loyal and progressive Democrat since John F. Kennedy inspired my generation of Americans into public service and I will stay a Democrat, whether I am the Democraitic party's nominee or a petitioning Democratic candidate on the November ballot," Lieberman said. He added that he would, even if re-elected as a petitioning candidate, remain a member of the Senate Democratic Caucus.

It is probably smart for him to say that now, but if the Democrats do dump him, and force him to run as an Independent, I hope he will be smart enough to actually caucus with the Republicans once he is elected.

Britons tire of cruel, vulgar US: poll

Yahoo! News People in Britain view the United States as a vulgar, crime-ridden society obsessed with money and led by an incompetent president whose Iraq policy is failing, according to a newspaper poll.

And Britain is a vulgar, crime-ridden society obsessed with money, and led by an incompetent prime minister whose Iraq policy is failling. But I trust the British PM more than I trust anyone else in Europe.

The United States is no longer a symbol of hope to Britain and the British no longer have confidence in their transatlantic cousins to lead global affairs, according to the poll published in The Daily Telegraph.

Interestingly I note that this item came from Agence France Presse, and the French hate the British as much, if not more, than they hate us.

Mexican Presidential Rivals Both Claim Win in Tight Vote

WaPo reported Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Felipe Calderón each claimed victory in Mexico's presidential election late Sunday night, even though the country's electoral commission said the race was so close it might not be able to announce the winner until Wednesday.

Oh no. Hopefully it is not another Florida Recount situation, with Mexico's famed corruption mixed in.

The dramatic announcements by López Obrador and Calderón shortly before midnight in Mexico City set up what is sure to be a furiously emotional battle over voting results in a nation that had spent tens of millions of dollars to ensure a fair and efficient election. Both candidates appeared on national television within minutes after Luis Carlos Ugalde, the head of the Federal Electoral Institute, announced that the difference between the two "was too narrow" for him to call the race. López Obrador, a populist beloved by Mexico's poor, struck first, appearing before a bank of microphones and forcefully saying that "according to our information, we have won the presidency of Mexico." He said he would respect Mexico's institutions, but he also called on Mexico's institutions to respect the results. "We triumphed, we won," he said. Calderón, a free-trade booster who promised continuity with President Vicente Fox's policies, appeared on television screens across Mexico moments later.

Which would you prefer wins? Obviously if things stay the same in the US, it would be better if Calderón won, because Obrado is sure to completely destroy Mexico's economy, which is not in that good a state right now, but if we are able to resolve the border security matter here in the US, and get a good border defence situation not just planned, but implemented, whether with a 2000 mile wall, or a combination of walls, high tech, and military, then it might be better if Obrado wins, because the poor people think he is going to make things wonderful for them, and so maybe the huge number if illegals crossing the border will drop off for a while, allowing us time to get the walls, high tech, and military on the border in place, so that when the poor realize that Obrado is just screwing up their country, we will be able to stem the flow of illegals that would result.

Encouraging children to become shaheeds

Haaretz reported This week, Palestinian television reprised, after a three-year absence, a clip featuring Palestinian child Mohammed a-Dura, calling to other children to join him in a shaheed

Shaheed is a martyr. Someone who dies in the way of Allah.

heaven for children. The dramatic heart-wrenching footage of a-Dura, shot dead in crossfire in a clash between Israeli and Palestinian forces in the Gaza Strip in the beginning of the intifada in September 2000, was broadcast around the world. "Palestinian Media Watch" reported on the television clip on Saturday, and announced, "The Palestinian Authority is once again airing video clips designed to influence the behavior of young children and to make them seek deaths as shaheeds."

I guess they are having trouble finding grown men to kill themselves, and they must now begin recruiting young children.

The clip, which caused much controversy when it first aired, was taken off the air in the fall of 2003, after Palestinian Media Watch director Itamar Marcus, presented the clip at a U.S. Senate hearing. Following the hearing, senators slammed the clip and criticized it as "horrifying abuse of children." In the clip, a child portraying a-Dura is peacefully playing in heaven, and calls to other children, "follow me." The popular singer Aida performs the song in the clip, which describes how the earth longs for the deaths of children, saying, "How pleasant is the smell of the earth whose thirst is quenched by blood pouring out of young bodies."

And how evil are the people who would find that smell pleasant.

Another clip that aired this week after a long absence depicts a young girl witnessing her mother's murder and then singing about how she misses her mother. She sings, "If you can't come to me, I can come to you."

People this evil cannot be reasoned with, or appeased, they can only be exterminated.

More fallout from the Swift program leak

Sister Toldjah blogged Via Gulf News

Last month the New York Times broke the story that CIA agents and US treasury officials have been secretly monitoring financial transactions routed through Swift, an acronym for the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. […]

The European Commission has already said that EU law does not cover the handing over of financial data by Swift.The European Parliament will debate the US action on Monday.

We should see an increase in attacks in this country and in Europe, if the Belgians force SWIFT to stop what they are doing. Will Keller take responsibility for those deaths, or will he try to blame them on the Bush Administration.

Belgium Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt has ordered an investigation into the activities of Swift, which is regulated by the Belgian central bank and is subject to Belgian law.

Bbbbbut everyone knew about it already, right, Mr. Keller?

Muslim-only Alton Towers fun park

The Sun Online reported Britain's biggest fun park has sparked a race row — with a MUSLIMS-ONLY day. Up to 28,000 are expected at Alton Towers on September 17 when there will be no music, booze or gambling. Instead there will be prayer areas, Muslim stalls and all food served will be HALAL. Organisers Islamic Leisure have billed it the First National Muslim Fun Day and tickets can only be bought through their website.

Non-Muslims phoning the Staffordshire park have been refused tickets. One, George Hughes, 19, who rang up for 15 tickets for a pal’s birthday, said: “I couldn’t believe it. “It’s the only day we can go, yet I can’t because I’m not Muslim. Can you imagine all the fuss if there was a Christians-only day?”

Good point, however I suspect if a Christian organization wanted to book the park for a day, which I suspect would involve guaranteeing them a certain minimum number of tickets would be sold, that it could book the park for that day.

George, of Crayford, Kent, added: “My Muslim friends think it’s outrageous. “What’s the world coming to when people are being banned from flying the St George’s flag yet this sort of day is allowed? If it must be held, then why not on a weekday rather than a busy weekend?” The event is widely promoted on the internet and the Muslim Public Affairs Committee declared it “exclusively for our brothers and sisters”. But some Muslims have condemned the idea. One university student on a Muslim website forum said: “It’s hardly encouraging integration.”

And therein is the big problem I see with this. Any large organization is free to book the park for their people, but it does send a message that we want to live in your country, but we want things to be done our way. We don't want to assimlate and become Britons. We want you to let us do things our way.

Another said: “What next . . . an all Muslims shopping day out in the Trafford Centre in Manchester?” Abid Hussan of Islamic Leisure insisted the day was open to all faiths, although Islamic laws would apply.

Wow. Sharia Law is imposed at a fun park. Will you be beheading people, for fun? Will women only be allowed to attend if they are accompanied by a male family member?

He added: “There will be no smoking, no alcohol and halal food only. “We’re trying to get Muslims to go to this day because they wouldn’t normally go somewhere like Alton Towers. We’re trying to integrate Muslims into the wider community. People can come down and see the way we live. It will be a peaceful family environment.” Alton Towers said any organisation could hire the park for a day. A spokeswoman said “We make no distinction regarding sexuality, religious, ethnic or lifestyle choices.” She confirmed tickets for the day were now available only through Islamic Leisure. And Alton Towers would promote the fact that the day had been booked. She added: “As a general rule, there will be no admission on the day to guests who have not booked through the organisation in advance.”

Israel attacks Palestinian leader's HQ

Yahoo! News reported Israeli aircraft sent missiles tearing through the office of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Sunday in an unmistakable message to his ruling Hamas group to free an Israeli soldier.

This should now get their attention: if they don't return the kidnapped soldier, Israel will target Hamas leaders.

Defense Minister Amir Peretz told a Cabinet meeting that Israel would go after "higher-caliber targets" in the future — a reference to senior Hamas officials inside and outside the Palestinian territories, a high-ranking political official said.