Black Britain | News | Daily News and Sport: "Sheikhs and Imams from countries in the Horn of Africa will meet in Djibouti to disavow any Islamic backing of the widespread and harmful practice of female genital mutilation." Here is the No Peace Without Justice conference website for this significant issue.

Aljazeera.Net - European imams to receive funding

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Film | Festival show for Baghdad Blogger: "A film based on the internet musings of the 'Baghdad Blogger' has been shown at the Rotterdam Film Festival." I look forward to seeing this in due course. Salam Pax also featured on a BBC3 comedy show last week, "The Comic Side of 7 Days", which I happened to catch. It was a sharp and funny programme (shame about the ponderous title), nestled in the BBC comedy schedule alongside Little Britain ...

AP/Boston.com, Islamic Web site claims U.S. soldier captured; but report not immediately confirmed: "Islamic Web site claims U.S. soldier captured; but report not immediately confirmed "

FrontPage magazine.com :: A Muslim Scholar Takes on CAIR by Jamie Glazov Interview with Prof. Khaleel Mohammed, Assistant Professor at the Department of Religious Studies at San Diego State University, whose opinion is that : "...the more I surf the internet, the more I see 'Islamic' sites that seek to mask the problems within contemporary Islam, and lay the blame on outsiders." Certainly some controversial discussion points here.

File share blunder leaks military docs to blogger - silicon.com "According to web blog Geenstijl, the problem occurred when an administrator within the military's border control division took unencrypted documents home to work on them and somehow managed to drop the files into the shared folder he used to swap content with other Kazaa members."

CPILive.net, Sun Microsystems at Cairo ICT

CPILive.net, Pan Arab Web Awards draws region-wide entries "“Internet penetration in the Arab world is fast approaching a saturation point. All sections of society and economy in the region has realised the power of Web and IT in increasing productivity, competitiveness and creating employment opportunities for the young people who are entering the job market. The award has been envisioned to boost the creative and technical excellence of the Web designers, software coders, engineers and entrepreneurs,” said Jawad Al Redha, Co-Chairman, BSA ME." I'm interested to see the entries for this one.

NewsNow: AFP/tucsoncitizen.com, Islamic Web site claims U.S. soldier captured, threat to behead him "Our mujahadeen heroes of Iraq's Jihadi Battalion were able to capture American military man John Adam after killing a number of his comrades and capturing the rest," said the statement, signed by the "Mujahedeen Brigades."

The Counterterrorism Blog: Christians on PalTalk Chat Service Tracked by Radical Islamic Web Site "A radical Islamic Web site systematically tracks Christians on PalTalk.com, an Internet chat service on which a New Jersey man received a death threat two months before he and his family were murdered. The password protected Arabic Web site, at the address www.barsomyat.com, features pictures and information about Christians who have been particularly active in debating Muslims on PalTalk."

Free Babar Ahmad I was interested to read about this website in Q-News. It contains background information to the Babar Ahmad case, including photographs of alleged police brutality. The website supports Babar Ahmad, seeking:

"1) To act as an information resource providing case facts, excerpts of legal documents and medical reports, photographs and news relating to the case.

"2) To humanise Babar Ahmad and to show him as a normal, professional and kind human being rather than a "terrorist".

"3) To enable the public to form a more balanced and fair opinion on the case of Babar Ahmad."

Ahmad remains in custody in the UK, and is fighting extradition to the USA.

Crosswalk.com - Saudis Accused of Spreading 'Hate Propaganda' in US allegations based on an extensive report from the Center for Religious Freedom. This is available as a PDF from here

Scotsman.com News - International - Newspaper claims tsunami was retribution for area's sex trade: "An article in Attajdid, the newspaper of Morocco's moderate Islamic Justice and Development Party (PJD), claimed that the disaster was brought on the area by God displeased with its promotion of sex tourism. "

Aljazeera.Net - Bashir: Bali bombing not jihad Latest on Abu Bakr Bashir : "Referring to the Bali nightclub and Marriott hotel bombings, he said: "I disapprove, if they were regarded as jihad, because they were executed in peaceful or non-conflict zones."

BBC NEWS | World | South Asia | Bangalore faces e-waste hazards

AFP/turkishpress.com, Video purports to show downing of British plane in Iraq: Jazeera

inform.kz, Will M. Shakhanov wake up Moslems of Kazakhstan?, 1 Feb 04: "Ecclesiastic directorate of Moslem people of the Volga region (Russia) has got its own Internet site where one can get much interesting information about Islam in the Russian Federation." Background and opinion regarding Islam in Kazakhstan. Interesting material here (no direct link to the website discussed).

Gulf Daily News, Al Qaeda warns of more attacks: "Al Qaeda's group in Iraq last night vowed to continue its 'holy war', slamming historic elections seen as a success by the US-allied government as an 'American game', according to an Internet statement."

washingtonpost.com: In Netherlands, Anti-Islamic Polemic Comes With a Price "Sometimes the threats come by e-mail. Other times, warnings show up on Internet chat sites. Occasionally they are short video clips. The latest has a soundtrack of Arabic song and automatic-weapons fire, and a photograph of the intended target -- a Dutch lawmaker, Geert Wilders."

Asia Times Online, The Homeland Security State, Feb 2 2005 "Under provisions of the USA Patriot (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism) Act, the Department of Justice has been collecting e-mail and IP (Internet protocol, a computer's unique numeric identifier) addresses, without a warrant, using trap-and-trace surveillance devices ("pen-traps"). Now, the FBI, Justice's principle investigative arm, may be monitoring the web-surfing habits of Internet users - also without a search warrant - that is, spying on you with no probable cause whatsoever." article by Nick Turse, originally in TomDispatch