adkni.com, al-Qaeda cartoon too boring for kids, 22 Dec 05 more opinion (and column inches) on this cartoon : "Al-Qaeda's latest weapon in the ongoing media war over Iraq, in the form of an animation showing gunmen and suicide bombers attacking US troops and convoys, raises many questions over who they are trying to appeal to and why. The video game-style cartoon was posted on websites regularly used by senior al-Qaeda figures. London-based child psychologist Pat Spungin told Adnkronos International (AKI) she believes the animation is too boring and unsophisticated to interest most children, but 'If it is intended for children I think it's disgusting,' she said."

Dallas Morning News, Terrorists on the 'Net', 22 Dec 05 "If there's any area where we should have the supreme advantage fighting terrorism, it's the Internet - yet Islamic extremists sometimes run rings around us in cyberspace, using it to recruit and train terrorists and to communicate with each other in amazingly sophisticated ways." previously in NY Times, this piece is by Nicholas Kristof

Gulf Daily News, Terror Lessons on web, 23 Dec 05 "The three-minute cartoon depicts tanks clanking down a street and a cartoon American soldier speaking with a "Rambo"-like accent before he is shot. The intention behind the film was not clear, but one expert dismissed it as amateurish and said it would have little value as a training video for insurgents."

pickledpolitics.com, Women in Islam - veils of the mind, 7 Dec 05 just picked this blog up, and was interested in the content and the 100+ responses from readers. A central question of the article is "Oppression does not come from what you wear; it comes from social attitudes and norms. Isn’t it time we got out of these centuries old, long obsolete attitudes?" Discuss - but not here, please, go to pickledpolitics.com

Telegraph, Man held over July 21 attempted bombings, 20 Dec 05. "Anti-terror police have arrested a 23-year-old man in connection with the attempted London bomb attacks on July 21."

BBC News, Al-Qaeda terror suspect is jailed, 20 Dec 05, "An Algerian man with suspected al-Qaeda links has been jailed for six years for downloading information on how to blow up a passenger jet." Also see: CityBeat, Al Qaeda Suspect Jailed at Belfast Crown Court, 20 Dec 05

BBC, Serbs tried over Srebrenica video, 20 Dec 05

Spain Herald, Spanish police arrest 16 for recruiting terrorists for Iraq, 20 Dec 05, "The network was perfectlly structured and organized, with a "hard core" that made decisions, a subgroup for recruiting and finance, another for forging identification, and a third for ideology. The arrestees communicated through Internet and met at mosques and private homes, but they also have contacts in other countries. Abu Sufian has connections with the terrorist groups currently operating in Iraq, and controlled a group of individuals willing to travel to that country, probably as suicide bombers."

Gearing up for hajj? Here's a useful guide:

Islam Online, Hajj 1426

I heard this morning that BBC Radio 5 are also planning to provide reports from Mecca and Medina from a pilgrim, although I cannot pick up any specific link to this on the website at present.

Asharq Alawsat, The Recovery of New York's Muslim Community from 9/11, 17 Dec 05 non-tech (except for ref. to phone cards) but nevertheless informative.

Asharq Alawsat, Iraq group posts video of U.S. hostage's 'killing', 19 Dec 05, "An Iraqi militant group posted on the Internet on Monday a video it said showed the killing of a U.S. security consultant it had abducted earlier this month."

Hindustan Times, Internet beats ban on ‘new Quran’, 19 Dec 05. "The True Furqan — a book that claimed to be the Quran for the millennium had caused much furore in Islamic circles since it was trying to "evangelise Muslims" — is banned in India. Last week, the government tabled a customs notification in Parliament informing the MPs of the decision to ban the book due to security considerations. Today, you can read the book-on the Internet." Published by evangelists at Truth in Crisis International, and 'recommended' by the Billy Graham Center for Muslim Studies (amongst others), this has echoes of the 'Sura-Like-It' controversy I discuss in my book Virtually Islamic - although this is quite explicit (at least online) in terms of proclaiming its origins. The online version can be found at 'Islam Exposed' [clearly, my Disclaimer applies for this posting in particular].

Philadelphia Inquirer, Extremism a challenge for Muslims, 19 Dec 05 "The evidence against Abu Ali included wiretapped phone conversations between the student and his family, as well as e-mail messages recovered from an Internet service provider." Details of an ongoing case.

SITE Institute: SITE Publications - A Video of the Chechen Sister Martyrs Who Participated in the Moscow Theater Operation: "A 7:22 minute video depicting the female Chechen jihadists (mujahidat) was posted to the Internet today, December 15, 2005, by the Global Islamic Media Front, an al-Qaeda mouthpiece."

Pajamas Media - Highlights: Iraqi journalists & bloggers on the ground for Iraqi elections "Compiled in Los Angeles from reporters and bloggers for Pajamas Media including: I.S. in Karbala; W.Z. in Erbil; A.S. in Najaf; N.R. in Mosul; A.D. in Basra; A.T. in Babil; W.A., Omar and Mohammed in Baghdad. All bloggers and reporters worked anonymously due to security issues."

BaltimoreChronicle.com, Making the World Safe for Theocracy, 16 Dec 05: "The much-ballyhooed elections in Iraq later this week are likely to dig the Iraqi hole a little deeper for the Bush administration. The Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most revered Shi?ite Muslim cleric in Iraq, has indirectly ordered fellow Shi?a to cast their ballots for representatives of the Shi?ite religious parties that now control the interim Iraqi government. A permanent Shi?ite-Kurdish government may prove even more intransigent than the interim government in addressing Sunni concerns about being cut out of Iraq?s oil revenues?thus accelerating the incipient civil war in that nation."

FT.com / Arts & weekend / Bookshop - Online, off message, 16 Dec 05 review by Kamin Mohammadi of Nasrin Alavi's "We Are Iran" (previously blogged here). I have yet to get hold of this, but am familiar with some of her material, and Mohammadi makes some good points:

"She relies on a select number of sites and has used those with the most hits. There are just three entries from the other side of the ideological divide, though again Alavi points out that they can use the conventional press to express their views, and hardline blogs are rare. On Hossein Derakhshan?s blog at the moment, Alavi?s book is being enthusiastically welcomed. But one blogger points out: ?We are not Iran. Iran is full of those who support Ahmadi-Nejad and voted for him.?"

Washington Post, Saudi Envoy Rejects Iranian's Comments on Holocaust, 16 Dec 05: "Prince Turki al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia's new ambassador to the United States, took issue yesterday with the Iranian president's description of the Holocaust as a myth, saying the 'horrific genocide' is a 'historical fact' no longer in dispute."

A couple of separate quotes here worthy of further exploration and discussion [the sort of thing I might do in a seminar situation]: Arab Herald/Asharq Alawsat, Interview with Muslim Brotherhood's Supreme Guide, Mehdi Akef, 16 Dec 05 "We are Egyptians, and anyone who says that the number of Copts is this, and the number of Muslims is that is an ignorant person. I repeat, only an ignorant person utters such words, because we all are Egyptians living together ...

" ...There is no doubt that confronting Israel is the first cause for Muslims; therefore, how do we plan, and how do we fight them? Bear in mind that they are destroying themselves from within, "You would think that they were united, but their hearts are divided (Quranic verse)." This issue, which preoccupies the entire world, also preoccupies me, but in the way that I explained. Whether the Israelis and the Palestinians fight each other, or recognize each other, this is not my concern."

Dar Al Hayat, God Have Mercy on Iraq and Its People, 16 Dec 05 opinion piece from Jihad el Khazen: "The only scene remaining from American-style elections, which are truly democratic, is money. It's the most important, if not only means to communicate between candidates and voters, through election advertising, especially television.

"In other words, Iraqis are seeing today the elections of the rich, except that the Iraqi people are poor and the rich represent only themselves."

AP/ABC News: Purported al-Qaida Video Outlines Attack, 16 Dec 05: "A ticker along the bottom of the well-produced video streamed photos of abuse of detainees by U.S. soldiers at the facility, including a famed image of a naked prisoner being dragged on a leash by a female guard. The images of abuse and sexual humiliation at the prison have sparked outrage among Iraqis and across the Arab world since they first emerged in early 2004."