Kidnapping infidels and releasing them for ransom or killing them, as well as enslaving them if that option is deemed most advantageous for the Muslims, is fully sanctioned in Islamic law: "As for the captives, the amir [ruler] has the choice of taking the most beneficial action of four possibilities: the first to put them to death by cutting their necks; the second, to enslave them and apply the laws of slavery regarding their sale and manumission; the third, to ransom them in exchange for goods or prisoners; and fourth, to show favor to them and pardon them. Allah, may he be exalted, says, 'When you encounter those [infidels] who deny [the Truth=Islam] then strike [their] necks' (Qur'an sura 47, verse 4)" — Abu’l-Hasan al-Mawardi, al-Ahkam as-Sultaniyyah (The Laws of Islamic Governance), trans. by Dr. Asadullah Yate, (London), Ta-Ha Publishers Ltd., 1996, p. 192.

The Qur'an allows for the owning of sex slaves:

If you fear that you will not act justly towards the orphans, marry such women as seem good to you, two, three, four; but if you fear you will not be equitable, then only one, or what your right hands own; so it is likelier you will not be partial. (Qur'an 4:3)

This verse is the basis for Islamic polygamy, allowing a man to take as many as four wives, as long as he believes he is able to “deal justly” with all of them. But justice in these circumstances is in the eye of the beholder. Ibn Kathir says this the requirement to deal justly with one’s wives is no big deal, since treating them justly isn’t the same as treating them equally: “it is not obligatory to treat them equally, rather it is recommended. So if one does so, that is good, and if not, there is no harm on him.”

The verse goes on to say that if a man cannot deal justly with multiple wives, then he should marry only one, or resort to “what your right hands own” – that is, slave girls.

The Qur'an commentator Maulana Bulandshahri explains the wisdom of this practice, and longs for the good old days:

During Jihad (religion war), many men and women become war captives. The Amirul Mu’minin [leader of the believers, or caliph – an office now vacant] has the choice of distributing them amongst the Mujahidin [warriors of jihad], in which event they will become the property of these Mujahidin. This enslavement is the penalty for disbelief (kufr).

He goes on to explain that this is not ancient history:

None of the injunctions pertaining to slavery have been abrogated in the Shari’ah. The reason that the Muslims of today do not have slaves is because they do not engage in Jihad (religion war). Their wars are fought by the instruction of the disbelievers (kuffar) and are halted by the same felons. The Muslim [sic] have been shackled by such treaties of the disbelievers (kuffar) whereby they cannot enslave anyone in the event of a war. Muslims have been denied a great boon whereby every home could have had a slave. May Allah grant the Muslims the ability to escape the tentacles of the enemy, remain steadfast upon the Din (religion) and engage in Jihad (religion war) according to the injunctions of Shari’ah. Amen!

This is by no means an eccentric or unorthodox view in Islam. The Egyptian Sheikh Abu-Ishaq al-Huwayni declared in May 2011 that “we are in the era of jihad,” and that as they waged jihad warfare against infidels, Muslims would take slaves. He clarified what he meant in a subsequent interview:

...Jihad is only between Muslims and infidels….Spoils, slaves, and prisoners are only to be taken in war between Muslims and infidels. Muslims in the past conquered, invaded, and took over countries. This is agreed to by all scholars--there is no disagreement on this from any of them, from the smallest to the largest, on the issue of taking spoils and prisoners. The prisoners and spoils are distributed among the fighters, which includes men, women, children, wealth, and so on.

When a slave market is erected, which is a market in which are sold slaves and sex-slaves, which are called in the Qur’an by the name milk al-yamin, “that which your right hands possess” [Qur’an 4:24]. This is a verse from the Qur’an which is still in force, and has not been abrogated. The milk al-yamin are the sex-slaves. You go to the market, look at the sex-slave, and buy her. She becomes like your wife, (but) she doesn’t need a (marriage) contract or a divorce like a free woman, nor does she need a wali. All scholars agree on this point--there is no disagreement from any of them. [...] When I want a sex slave, I just go to the market and choose the woman I like and purchase her.

Right around the same time, on May 25, 2011, a female Kuwaiti activist and politician, Salwa al-Mutairi, also spoke out in favor of the Islamic practice of sexual slavery of non-Muslim women, emphasizing that the practice accorded with Islamic law and the parameters of Islamic morality.

...A merchant told me that he would like to have a sex slave. He said he would not be negligent with her, and that Islam permitted this sort of thing. He was speaking the truth….I brought up (this man’s) situation to the muftis in Mecca. I told them that I had a question, since they were men who specialized in what was halal, and what was good, and who loved women. I said, “What is the law of sex slaves?” 

The mufti said, “With the law of sex slaves, there must be a Muslim nation at war with a Christian nation, or a nation which is not of the religion, not of the religion of Islam. And there must be prisoners of war.”

“Is this forbidden by Islam?,” I asked.

“Absolutely not. Sex slaves are not forbidden by Islam. On the contrary, sex slaves are under a different law than the free woman. The free woman must be completely covered except for her face and hands. But the sex slave can be naked from the waist up. She differs a lot from the free woman. While the free woman requires a marriage contract, the sex slave does not--she only needs to be purchased by her husband, and that’s it. Therefore the sex slave is different than the free woman.”

While the savage exploitation of girls and young women is an unfortunately cross-cultural phenomenon, only in Islamic law does it carry anything approaching divine sanction. Here is yet another human rights scandal occasioned by Islamic law that the international human rights community and the mainstream media cravenly ignore.

"Boko Haram timeline: From preachers to slave raiders," from the BBC, May 15 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan has declared a state of emergency in three north-eastern states as militant Islamists intensify their offensive against the government.

The insurgency, led by Boko Haram, has killed some 2,000 people since 2009. It has spread across the mainly Muslim north and central Nigeria.

With the attacks becoming increasingly sophisticated, there is growing concern that Boko Haram is receiving backing from al-Qaeda-linked militants in other countries.

Here, BBC Africa's Farouk Chothia looks at the changing nature of the conflict.

Boko Haram has increased its focus on smaller towns in north-eastern Nigeria in recent months after the military drove many of its fighters out of Maiduguri - the capital of Borno state, which was the group's main base.

Boko Haram militants have since infiltrated nearby towns, with little resistance from the army.

In a well-planned attack on 7 May 2013 in Bama, some 70km (44 miles) from Maiduguri, about 200 heavily armed men stormed a military barracks, police station and government buildings.

Fifty-five people were killed and 105 prisoners were freed in the raids. Significantly, the militants launched the attack in armoured vehicles mounted with machine guns.

It suggests that they are becoming better-resourced and they can adapt to the changing terrain. Easy to use motorcycles are the trademark for Boko Haram attacks in cities.
A Nigerian soldiers stands beside a burnt house after the army clashed with Boko Haram insurgents in Borno state. Photo: April 2013 The military attacked Baga, near Chad's border, where militants had reportedly built up a presence

The Bama violence came a few weeks after Boko Haram attacked a military patrol in Baga, a nearby town in which it is said to have also built a presence, forcibly recruiting youth into its ranks.

The military retaliated by launching a raid on the town, accusing residents of harbouring the militants.

Nearly 200 people died in the raid, and thousands of buildings were destroyed, leading to claims by rights groups that the military had used excessive force - an allegation it has repeatedly faced as it tries to quell the insurgency launched in 2009.

The army denied the allegation, and blamed Boko Haram for the deaths of 37 people.
First 'slaves captured': May 2013

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau released a video on 13 May 2013, saying Boko Haram had taken women and children - including teenage girls - hostage in response to the arrest of its members' wives and children.

It is unclear whether the hostages are the relatives of government officials or civilians.

Mr Shekau said the hostages would be treated as "slaves", fuelling concern that Boko Haram is adhering to the ancient Islamic belief that women captured during war are slaves with whom their "masters" can have sex....

And on the Tanzania mainland as well. "Anti-Christian Hostility High in Zanzibar as Tanzania Mainland also Heats Up," from Morning Star News, May 18 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

ZANZIBAR, Tanzania (Morning Star News) – Islamic extremist attacks and land grabs on this semi-autonomous island off the coast of Tanzania have continued unabated even as violence has increased on the mainland.

The May 5 bombing of St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church in Arusha killed a 45-year-old woman, a 16-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl. Of the two Tanzanians and four foreigners arrested – now officially identified as one from Saudi Arabia and three from the United Arab Emirates – only one Tanzanian national reportedly remains in custody as a suspect.

While Islamic extremist activity has increased in Tanzania, Christians on the Zanzibar archipelago have recently suffered attacks by Islamists and the separatist group Uamsho (Re-awakening). Uamsho, the Association for Islamic Mobilization and Propagation, has issued explicit threats to Christians on Zanzibar Island since October 2012.

At midnight on April 20, Islamic extremists in Kianga, 16 kilometers (11 miles) from Zanzibar City, demolished most of the Pool of Siloam church building, a church leader said. Three suspects were arrested, only to be released after three days.

“When we tried to follow up the case, we found out that some of the information concerning the pulling down of the church was missing,” church pastor Israel Baraka Elijah told Morning Star News. “Hence, we decided to give up all together.”

Damages were estimated at $2,500, he added. Muslim extremists had attacked the church building before, setting part of it on fire on Feb. 19 and battering it with sledge hammers in November 2011.

Buildings aren’t the only targets. Suspected Islamic extremists on Feb. 17 shot and killed the Rev. Evaristus Mushi, a 56-year-old Roman Catholic priest, in the Mtoni area outside Zanzibar City. The murder came nearly two months after the Christmas Day shooting of another Catholic priest, the Rev. Ambrose Mkenda, that seriously injured him. Uamsho had left leaflets threatening to kill church leaders of the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Tanzania Assemblies of God and Pentecostal Church denominations.

The Islamist group is fighting for full autonomy of the Zanzibar archipelago; it arose after Zanzibar’s primary opposition, the Civic United Front, formed a government with the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party in 2010.

How Uamsho’s separatist agenda could overlap with Islamic extremists’ objectives on the mainland remains to be seen, but the Zanzibar-based group has increased in stature by appealing to Islamist sentiments. While Tanzania’s population is 34.2 percent Muslim and 54 percent Christian, according to Operation World, the Zanzibar archipelago in the Indian Ocean about 25 miles off the Tanzanian coast is more than 97 percent Muslim.

Islamists burned several church buildings in various parts of Tanzania last October after an argument between two children about the Koran resulted in a Christian boy allegedly defiling Islam’s sacred book (see Morning Star News, Oct. 19, 2012). In Kigoma, on the western border, two church buildings were set ablaze on Oct. 14, 2012, and the roof of another one was destroyed. In Dar es Salaam, where two boys’ argument over the Koran set off the violence, three church buildings were set on fire on Oct. 12, and another was destroyed on Oct. 18.

The attacks on church buildings came after Muslims began falsely asserting that Christians had sent the Christian boy to the Muslim boy to urinate on the Koran in the Mbagala area of Dar es Salaam on Oct. 10, sources said.

On Oct. 17, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania leaders released a statement saying church buildings had also been set ablaze in Mdaula, Mto wa Mbu, Tunduru and Rufiji. The Mbagala attacks, they stated, resulted from inflammatory statements by local religious leaders....

This AP story suggests that both sides threw birdshot and Molotov cocktails and that the Christians began the conflict, but this is wildly unlikely. Muslim mobs brutalize Christians in Egypt on an increasingly frequent basis. The Christian community is small and embattled and doesn't go around picking fights. "Egypt Muslim-Christian Clashes Leave 1 Dead," from the Associated Press, May 18 (thanks to all who sent this in):

CAIRO — Egyptian security officials say clashes between Muslims and Christians in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria left one man dead of a heart attack.

Officials say the clashes in the city's el-Dekheila suburb erupted when a Coptic man allegedly sexually harassed a Muslim woman.

Sounds like exactly the sort of charge that Islamic supremacists would trump up: their mythology is full of licentious, sexually predatory non-Muslims looking for their chance to prey upon good, modest Muslimas.

Residents of the area fired birdshot and threw Molotov cocktails at one another during the Friday night fighting.

Police say Christian resident Sherif Sedky died of a heart attack during the clashes. Police forces were beefed up around the local church Saturday in case of further violence....

Apparently the Boston jihad mass murderer Tamerlan Tsarnaev practiced shooting in New Hampshire, perhaps in preparation for a different kind of jihad attack. "FBI questions former Chechen rebel living in Manchester about repeated meetings with Boston bomber," by Pat Grossmith for the New Hampshire Union Leader, May 16:

MANCHESTER - Boston Marathon suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev went target shooting at a Manchester firing range and met up with an exiled former Chechen rebel living in the Queen City a month before the attack that killed three and wounded more than 260, according to a Voice of America report.

FBI agents on Tuesday searched the Manchester home of Chechnya native Musa Khadzhimuratov, and examined the hard drives on his computers, VOA reported. Police in Manchester confirmed the FBI agents searched Khadzhimuratov's home, according to the story, but Manchester Police Chief David J. Mara said police will not confirm anything because it is not their case.

The FBI, Mara said, also are not commenting on the matter.

At the Manchester apartment building where Khadzhimuratov lives, a woman responding to the buzzer by intercom said Khadzhimuratov was not home and will not be talking to reporters.

A resident who lives at the Eastern Avenue apartment complex said the FBI showed up about 8 a.m. Tuesday and did not leave until late in the afternoon.

Agents dressed in suits were posted at the front and back entrance to the Eastern Avenue apartment building at Hillview Apartments, preventing people from entering the building, she said.

About six other agents wearing white jumpsuits and black gloves entered the apartment where Khadzhimuratov lives with his wife, her parents and two or three children.

"I thought they were exterminators," said the resident. She only realized they were FBI after someone overheard an agent telling one of Khadzhimuratov's children, "Don't get scared. We're FBI and we're going to talk to your father."

The Khadzhimuratovs keep to themselves, the resident said, and do no socialize with other tenants. She thought his wife works but does not believe Khadzhimuratov is employed. He is paralyzed from being shot in the back in his native Chechnya.

Khadzhimuratov told a VOA reporter that FBI agents went to his home Tuesday with search warrants and took DNA sample and his fingerprints.

He said he repeatedly met with Tsarnaev over the past several years and that the FBI first questioned him on April 29, two weeks after the deadly attack. Tsarnaev died in a shootout with police while his brother, Dzhokhar, 19, was wounded and later captured.

Khadzhimuratov told the VOA reporter FBI agents asked him about Tsarnaev's target shooting at a Manchester firing range, which was linked to http://www.gunsnh.com/index.php – the home page for the Manchester Firing Line Range.

Cliff Ellston, compliance officer for the firing range, said it is the company's policy not to talk to the media.

The FBI also wanted to know about Tsarnaev's purchase of large amounts of fireworks from a Seabrook store on Feb. 6, Khadzhimuratov told VOA.

He said Tsarnaev visited him about three to four weeks before the bombings. He said he thinks the FBI believes he tried to help him when he was up in New Hampshire but he denied doing that or having any involvement in the bombings.

The FBI, he said, told him he was not a suspect in the Boston bombing case.

He said he came to the United States from Chechnya in 2004 through a United Nations program. He is paralyzed from the waist down from gunshot wounds suffered in Chechnya in 2001, according to the VOA article.

He said he first met Tsarnaev seven years ago at the annual meeting of the Chechen Society of Boston. Tsarnaev visited him three times in Manchester and once came with his wife and child.

He told VOA he never discussed Tsarnaev's Islam beliefs with him or any politics.

And in a New York Times puff piece trying to portray Khadzhimuratov as a victim, we get these details showing his allegiances:

Mr. Khadzhimuratov, 36, said he understood why investigators would want to take a look at him. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, along with his wife and daughter, stopped by Mr. Khadzhimuratov’s apartment a few weeks before the bombing, the last of several encounters. And long before coming to the United States in 2004, Mr. Khadzhimuratov was a bodyguard for Akhmed Zakayev, a prominent secular Chechen separatist leader who now lives in London....

Mr. Khadzhimuratov has been turned down repeatedly for a green card because of his previous association with the Chechen rebels, though his wife is an American citizen. Among the videos archived on Mr. Khadzhimuratov’s Russian YouTube page were a few that touched on Caucasus insurgency, including addresses by two militant leaders, Doku K. Umarov and Said Buryatsky, and video of a sniper attack on the police by militants in Dagestan.

This AP story uses "conservative" to refer to the pro-Sharia Muslims who blocked this women's rights law. That's in accord with common journalistic practice, which refers to religious people of any religion as "conservative" and to more secular types as "liberal." The common journalistic practice runs into a contradiction, however, with the global alliance between Islamic supremacists and the forces of the Left. That leads the mainstream media to term opponents of Sharia "right-wing" and even "far-right," their all-purpose term to semaphore to readers that we are bad people and decent folks should stay away from us. But that means that in the U.S., opponents of Sharia are "conservatives," while in Afghanistan, proponents of Sharia are "conservatives." If ever (and this will never happen) a counter-jihad, anti-Sharia movement arose in Afghanistan, AP's collective head would explode.

Anyway, note that the Sharia supremacists block a law banning child marriage. This is because Muhammad consummated his marriage with Aisha when he was 54 and she was 9, and he is the supreme example for conduct (cf. Qur'an 33:21), so his example is normative and cannot be questioned. And the law also would have prevented the prosecution of rape victims -- one of the most noxious manifestations of the fact that in Islamic law, men are not called upon to exercise any self-control at all. Their conduct is entirely the woman's responsibility. If she gets raped, it is her fault.

"Conservative Afghan lawmakers block legislation protecting women’s rights," from the Associated Press, May 18 (thanks to all who sent this in):

KABUL, Afghanistan — Conservative religious lawmakers in Afghanistan blocked legislation on Saturday aimed at strengthening provisions for women’s freedoms, arguing that parts of it violate Islamic principles and encourage disobedience.

The fierce opposition highlights how tenuous women’s rights remain a dozen years after the ouster of the hard-line Taliban regime, whose strict interpretation of Islam once kept Afghan women virtual prisoners in their homes.

Khalil Ahmad Shaheedzada, a conservative lawmaker for Herat province, said the legislation was withdrawn shortly after being introduced in parliament because of an uproar by religious parties who said parts of the law are un-Islamic.

“Whatever is against Islamic law, we don’t even need to speak about it,” Shaheedzada said.

The Law on Elimination of Violence Against Women has been in effect since 2009, but only by presidential decree. It is being brought before parliament now because lawmaker Fawzia Kofi, a women’s rights activist, wants to cement it with a parliamentary vote to prevent its potential reversal by any future president who might be tempted to repeal it to satisfy hard-line religious parties.

The law criminalizes, among other things, child marriage and forced marriage, and bans “baad,” the traditional practice of selling and buying women to settle disputes. It also makes domestic violence a crime punishable by up to three years in prison and specifies that rape victims should not face criminal charges for fornication or adultery.

Kofi, who plans to run for president in next year’s elections, said she was disappointed because among those who oppose upgrading the law from presidential decree to legislation passed by parliament are women.

Afghanistan’s parliament has more than 60 female lawmakers, mostly due to constitutional provisions reserving certain seats for women.

There has been spotty enforcement of the law as it stands. A United Nations analysis in late 2011 found only a small percentage of reported crimes against women were pursued by the Afghan government. Between March 2010 and March 2011 — the first full Afghan year the decree was in effect — prosecutors filed criminal charges in only 155 cases, or 7 percent of the total number of crimes reported.

The child marriage ban and the idea of protecting female rape victims from prosecution were particularly heated subjects in Saturday’s parliamentary debate, said Nasirullah Sadiqizada Neli, a conservative lawmaker from Daykundi province.

Neli suggested that removing the custom — common in Afghanistan — of prosecuting raped women for adultery would lead to social chaos, with women freely engaging in extramarital sex safe in the knowledge they could claim rape if caught....

Only five years? Why only five years for plotting mass murder? The same sentence was given to a Muslim synagogue jihad plotter in New York. Who has agreed that Islamic jihadists who plot the mass murder of Jews in synagogues should be sentenced to only five years in prison?

Anyway, Muslims target Jews in Italy and in the U.S., and in Bulgaria, and in India, and elsewhere. Yet while there is international discussion of "Islamophiobia," no one speaks about the international Islamic war against the Jews. Now, why is that?

"Moroccan jailed for Milan synagogue bomb plot," from the JTA, May 17:

ROME - A 22-year-old Moroccan man has been sentenced to more than five years in prison for planning terrorist attacks on Milan’s main synagogue and Jewish school.

The five year and four month sentence against Mohamed Jarmoune was handed down by a court in Brescia on Thursday.

Italian media said the sentence was more than the four years asked by the public prosecutor. Jarmoune, who has 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 suspected of planning attacks and organizing terrorist groups through internet social network sites.

But the Tsarnaev brothers were A-OK. "Pakistani doctor who helped get Bin Laden was denied asylum in U.S., report reveals," by Sib Kaifee for FoxNews.com, May 17:

The jailed doctor who helped the U.S. track down Usama bin Laden was convicted by a tribal court on bogus charges, according to a classified Pakistani government report.

Portions of the voluminous 357-page Abbottobad Commission Report, which has yet to be made public and were obtained exclusively by Fox News, acknowledge Dr. Shakil Afridi’s conviction last year by a government-sponsored Jirga has undermined Pakistan’s credibility. The report calls for Afridi to be given a new trial.

The report also claims Afridi joined the CIA search for Bin Laden five years ago, while he was staying in the U.S. with a cousin. According to the report, Afridi applied for asylum after a terrorist group, Lashkar-e-Islam, stepped up its operations in Pakistan's lawless tribal belt.

Afridi was reportedly kidnapped by the group in 2008 and released after his family paid a $10,000 ransom. After helping the CIA pinpoint the terror mastermind just prior to the 2011 raid in which Navy SEALs killed Bin laden, Afridi was arrested and convicted by the tribal court of colluding with Lashkar-e-Islam.

The State Department declined to comment on the report's claims that Afridi had applied for asylum while staying in the U.S.

The commission report acknowledges Afridi was subjected to harsh treatment in prison, and moved several times to various undisclosed locations by Pakistan’s spy agency. His Pakistani handlers also note his incarceration for a year without judicial process was unfair, according to the report.

In a telephone interview with Fox News last year, Afridi recounted his ordeal in prison.

“My clothes were removed and I was forced by a major to wear old dirty torn rags of an army conductor," Afridi said. "It was difficult to eat food. I had to bend down on my knees to eat with only my mouth, like a dog. I sat on the floor.”

Afridi said he was blindfolded for eight months, and handcuffed with his hands behind his back for a year.

Afridi, who helped confirm the Al Qaeda leader’s presence in an Abbottabad compound, lived for a short period in San Francisco in 2009, according to the report.

“He came to meet my brother and mother, who was not well at that time,” Afridi’s first cousin, a Californian resident and student based in Los Angeles, told FoxNews.com.

It was around that time that Afridi first agreed to work for the CIA, the report said. The deal helped lead to Bin Laden’s death in 2011, and netted Afridi a mere $13,000, according to his statement documented in the report.

Afridi is currently serving a 33-year jail term, and is appealing his conviction. The U.S. has called for Afridi's release, but his supporters say the Obama administration has not done enough to press for his freedom....

Indeed not.

The attacks in Baghdad and surrounding areas pushed the three-day Iraqi death toll to more than 130 people, including Shiites at bus stops and outdoor markets..." But remember: it's a Religion of Peace, and if you dare think otherwise, you're a greasy Islamophobe.

"Iraq: Bombs targeting Sunnis claim at least 76 lives," by Sameer N. Yacoub for the Associated Press, May 17 (thanks to Kenneth):

BAGHDAD — Bombs struck Sunni areas in Baghdad and surrounding areas Friday, killing at least 76 people in the deadliest day in Iraq in two months, officials said. The surge in violence has raised fears the country could be on the path to a new round of sectarian bloodshed.

The attacks in Baghdad and surrounding areas pushed the three-day Iraqi death toll to more than 130 people, including Shiites at bus stops and outdoor markets in scenes reminiscent of the retaliatory attacks between the Islamic sects that pushed the country to the brink of civil war in 2006-2007.

Tensions have been intensifying since Sunnis began protesting what they say is mistreatment at the hands of the Shiite-led government, including random detentions and neglect. The protests, which began in December, have largely been peaceful, but the number of attacks rose sharply after a deadly security crackdown on a Sunni protest camp in the country's north on April 23.

Majority Shiites control the levers of power in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq. Wishing to rebuild the nation rather than revert to open warfare, they have largely restrained their militias over the past five years or so as Sunni extremist groups such as al-Qaida have targeted them with occasional large-scale attacks. An increase attacks against Sunni mosques has fed concerns about a return to retaliatory warfare.

The deadliest blast on Friday struck worshippers as they were leaving the main Sunni mosque in Baqouba, a former Sunni insurgent stronghold 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. Another explosion went off shortly afterward as people gathered to help the wounded, leaving at least 43 dead and 56 wounded, according to police and hospital officials. Bloodied bodies were strewn across the road outside the mosque....

They are the worst enemies of the Muslims (cf. Qur'an 5:82). So this is not unexpected. What is worst about it is that the international media and "human rights community" will not even bat an eye. But imagine if a Christian cleric said something even a tenth this hateful and evil -- it would be the top story all over the world for days, maybe even weeks. But when it comes to Muslims, the multiculturalists display their unconscious ethnocentrism, and give their genocidal bloodlust a pass.

"Egyptian Cleric Sami Abu Al-'Ala Calls on God to Annihilate Jews, Make Them Widows and Orphans," from MEMRI, May 3 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

Following are excerpts from a public address delivered by Egyptian cleric Sami Abu Al-'Ala, which aired on Al-Hafez TV on May 3, 2013:

Sami Abu Al-'Ala: Oh Allah, make the conspiracies of the Jews their own ruin. Oh Allah, crush their soldiers and their weapons, destroy their homes, freeze the blood in their veins, disperse them, make their children orphans and their women widows, and shake the earth under their feet. Oh Allah, annihilate the Jews as you annihilated the peoples of 'Aad and Thamud. Oh Allah, make the Jews annihilate themselves.

The people on the Mavi Marmara flotilla were genocidal Jew-hating jihadis, as you can see in the second video above: they were chanting a jihad war cry recalling Muhammad's massacre of the Jews of Arabia: "Khybar, Khybar, O Jews, the army of Muhammad will return." See the photos here of their weapons. What is most tragic about this whole thing is that Obama strongarmed Netanyahu into subscribing to that narrative himself by apologizing to the Turks. And now Erdogan tried to seize the opportunity to rub it in, although it isn't clear whether or not Dogan pere was actually among his entourage.

"Wait Until You Hear Who the Turkish Prime Minister Reportedly Invited to Join His Entourage During U.S. Visit," by Sharona Schwartz for The Blaze, May 17 (thanks to Maxwell):

According to Turkish media, the father of one of the radical Islamist activists killed in Israel’s raid on the Mavi Marmara in 2010 (the Gaza flotilla) was included as an invited guest in the prime minister’s delegation in the hopes he might be able to meet President Barack Obama.

Furkan Dogan, a 19-year-old with both Turkish and U.S. citizenship, joined the Gaza flotilla where he expressed his desire for “martyrdom.” His father now wants the U.S. government to sue Israel over the raid in which the IDF says its forces were defending themselves from what appeared to them to be an organized attack launched by passengers armed with knives and metal bars as the commandos boarded the ship.

Today’s Zaman reports:

Ahmet Dogan, who asked Erdogan to deliver a letter to US President Barack Obama, joined Erdogan’s delegation upon a request by the Turkish prime minister.

Dogan said Erdogan told him: “I can give this letter [to him], but it is better if you give the letter to him yourself. I will include you among the members of the official delegation.” Dogan also said the prime minister told him he should meet with Obama if they can arrange an appointment with him. The victim’s father said he described Furkan and wrote about his son’s life in the letter.

It’s unknown if the father’s letter was delivered to Obama or if he actually met the President during the trip. That the radical activist’s father was with the prime minister’s entourage was not addressed during the joint Obama-Erdogan press conference Thursday or at the White House or State Department briefings of the past few days.

Furkan Dogan, along with eight Turkish activists, was killed in a battle with Israeli commandos who boarded the ship to enforce the naval blockade on Gaza, instituted after Palestinian terrorists were caught smuggling heavy weapons to the territory by ship.

Flotilla organizers claimed they were on a humanitarian mission, but an Israeli think tank reported that seven of the nine passengers killed had professed a desire to die as “martyrs” before the boat set sail to Gaza. Radical Muslim terrorists and their supporters often glorify the idea of martyrdom for Allah, achieved via jihad.

The Jerusalem Post cited the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center which reported a month after the raid that eight of the nine passengers killed were members of the IHH, a Turkish group that calls itself humanitarian but which the Israeli government along with some U.S. and European lawmakers characterize as radical Islamist in nature. The State Department has not included the IHH on its list of terrorist groups.

According to the Israeli think tank report, a Turkish newspaper printed this quote from 19-year-old Furqan Dogan’s diary, in which he said he wanted to be a martyr, providing strong evidence his intentions were not peaceful: “These are the last hours before I join the sweet experience of being a shahid (martyr). Is there anything more beautiful than this?”

On his visit to Israel in March, President Obama convinced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to issue an apology to Turkey for the killing of the flotilla activists and to offer financial compensation for those killed. In exchange, Turkey was supposed to promise to drop any legal suits against the Israeli servicemen involved.

Ever since the apology, Turkey has appeared to backtrack on the deal personally brokered by Obama. Earlier this week, lawyers for the Turks killed filed a complaint against Israel at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. That venue is chosen when parties seek investigations of war crimes, genocide or crimes against humanity.

Officially, the suit was referred to the court by Comoros, a small African country in which the Mavi Marmara was registered. Michael Rubin of Commentary Magazine suggests Erdogan wants “plausible deniability,” that it’s not the Turkish government filing the suit in defiance of Obama’s request.

Rubin reveals that the law firm behind the ICC filing employs one principal who is “a long-time AKP party [Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party] activist and the other has been intimately involved in the IHH.” Rubin writes:

Anyone who believes that Erdogan seeks to bury that hatchet more than rub salt into the wounds of the last two years needs only to consider the special guest whom he has had join his delegation.[…]

It is actually quite amazing: Erdogan has endorsed an Al Qaeda financier, embraced not only Hamas but the most militant faction within that terrorist organization, defended the Sudanese leader against charges of genocide, and has been the largest leak in multilateral efforts to sanction Iran. And yet, Obama will not only welcome him to the White House with the highest honors, but help fulfill the Turkish premier’s blatant desire to use the White House as the backdrop to follow through on his pledge to bash Israel at every opportunity.

Erdogan has already rejected a personal request from Secretary of State John Kerry to hold off on visiting the Gaza Strip. Positioned next to Obama, Erdogan used the White House backdrop Thursday to announce the June timeframe for his trip to meet with Hamas leaders in Gaza, a group the U.S. defines as a terrorist organization.

At the press conference, Obama emphasized his strong relations with the Turkish leader. “This visit reflects the importance that the United States places on our relationship with our ally, Turkey, and I value so much the partnership that I’ve been able to develop with Prime Minister Erdogan,” Obama said according to the White House transcript.

Just two days after Turkish citizens got the International Criminal Court to investigate a possible case against Israel, Obama took a moment to compliment Erdogan for the steps he’s taken to fulfill the arrangement Obama brokered between Israel and Turkey.

“Given our shared interest in peace, I want to note the Prime Minister’s efforts to normalize relations with Israel,” Obama said....

Why just two years? Do the Germans really think that by two years down the line, these battle-hardened warriors of Allah will have forgotten all about jihad? If they went to Syria to wage jihad in order to impose Sharia, they want it in Europe as well. They should not be allowed back at all.

"Germany calls for two-year ban on Europeans returning to the EU from Syria over fears suspected Islamists will come back as 'homegrown terrorists,'" by Kerry Mcdermott in the Daily Mail, May 17 (thanks to Block Ness):

Germany has called for Europeans fighting the Assad regime in Syria to be temporarily barred from re-entering the EU - amid fears they could return as 'homegrown terrorists'. The German government has claimed as many as 700 Europeans have joined opposition forces fighting President Bashar al-Assad's soldiers, and warned militant Islamists could pose a threat upon returning to the EU from the battlefields of Syria.

Now the country, which has said it is aware of up to 40 people who have left Germany for Syria since the summer of 2012, wants to see suspected Islamists banned from re-entering the EU from Syria for two years.

Germany's interior minister, Hans-Peter Friedrich, is expected to address the controversial suggestion at a meeting of EU governments next month, according to a report in the Guardian.

Officials at the ministry said that of 6,000 foreign militants believed to be fighting the Assad regime, between 400 and 700 are European.

Fighters could not be prevented from leaving Germany in the first place because it was impossible to prove they were going to Syria, the ministry said, adding that while passports could be confiscated, it was possible to travel to the Syrian border with just an ID card.

It is not clear how the proposed ban would be enforced, as the individuals involved would likely have EU passports as well as jobs and families in the countries concerned.

Up to 60 militants have also left Germany for Egypt, the interior ministry said.

'Most have joined the Islamists. The dangers are growing for us,' a senior official was quoted as saying.

A survey by King's College London found last month that up to 600 individuals from countries including the UK, Spain, Sweden and Germany had taken part in the Syrian conflict since the war erupted in 2011. The largest contingent was from the UK.

Every day brings new confirmation of how compromised the U.S. government, military, and intelligence apparatus really is. After the Obama Administration purged counterterror training materials of all truth about Islam and jihad, this is what they replaced it with.

"FEATURED STORY: US Naval Academy Instructor Teaching On Behalf Of US Muslim Brotherhood," from the Global Muslim Brotherhood Watch, May 14 (thanks to Jeff):

According to promotional material, a United States Naval Academy professor is teaching on behalf of the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), a part of the US Muslim Brotherhood and where global Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi reportedly serves as a trustee. IIIT recently announced its Summer Students Program for 2013 to be held from May 26 – July 3. According to the IIIT announcement, one of the instructors for the program will be Professor Ermin Sinanovic, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland who will be teaching the following course titled “Muslim World Affairs”:

Ermin Sinanovic

This course is meant to provide students who had little or no background on the Muslim world with a basic understanding of its contemporary history, its geopolitics, its diverse cultures, languages and ethnic groups. Also, the course introduces the key issues and developments that framed the relationship between the world of Islam and the West, such as the colonial encounter, the capitalist expansion of the West, the emergence of the nation-state and its institutions, the discovery of oil in the Middle East and its implications, the communication revolution and contemporary globalization and their impact on cultures, values and life styles; and finally the US foreign policy towards the Muslim world and its implications. This course will be covered in twelve hours.  Instructor: Professor Ermin Sinanovic, US Naval Academy, Maryland.

According to his bio, Ermin Sinanovic is:

…an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, USA. He studied for an MA and a PhD in Political Science at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University. Prof. Sinanovic obtained two BAs (one in Qur’an and Sunnah Studies, the other in Political Science) and an MA (Islamic Civilization) from the International Islamic University Malaysia. His research interests include transnational Islamic revival, Southeast Asian politics, Islamic movements, Middle East politics, Islamic political thought, and Islam and politics in general. At the Naval Academy, Prof. Sinanovic teaches courses on Southeast Asian politics, Middle East politics, and Islam and politics. He speaks Bosnian, English, Arabic, and Malay. “

One of the other instructors at the IIIT summer program will be US Muslim Brotherhood leader Louay Safi, identified in the announcement as affiliated with the College of Islamic Studies of the Qatar Foundation. In 2009 Louay Safi, also an official at the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), was at the center of a controversy when it was learned that the US Defense Department brought him to Fort Hood as an instructor and that he had been lecturing on Islam to troops in Fort Hood who were about to deploy to Afghanistan. In February 2010, the activities and lectures of Dr. Safi on all military bases were suspended pending a criminal inquiry by the U.S. military. A shooting took place at Fort Hood near Killeen, Texas on November 5, 2009 in which a single gunman killed 13 people and over 30 people were injured in the worst shooting ever to take place on an American military base. The only suspect in the shooting is Nidal Malik Hasan, a 39-year-old U.S. Army major serving as a psychiatrist. Dr. Safi has also been recently identified as a leading member of the Syrian National Council, a Syrian opposition group dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood.

Another instructor at the program will be Jasser Aouda (aka Jasser Auda), also identified as affiliated with the College of Islamic Studies of the Qatar Foundation. Dr Auda is best known as a a key advisor to Imamn Feisal Rauf, in turn known for his attempts to build an Islamic center two blocks away from the site of the 911 attacks. Dr. Auda is also a member of the IIIT Academic Council and a founding member of the International Union for Muslim Scholars (IUMS), headed by Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi and whose board of directors is comprised of many leaders of the Global Brotherhood. Dr. Auda is currently the Deputy Director of the Research Center for Islamic Legislation and Ethics, headed by Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Tariq Ramadan, the grandson of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood and a Global Muslim Brotherhood leader in his own right....

Will the Islamophobia never end? "Christian leader gunned down by Islamic militants in Nigeria," from FoxNews.com, May 16 (thanks to Mike):

A Nigerian Christian leader was killed when suspected Muslim militants burst into his home and shot him, as the religious fighting in Africa’s most populous nation continues to worsen.

Two members of Islamic militant group Boko Haram shot Faye Pama Mysa, a Pentecostal pastor and secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria, in his home Wednesday, according to multiple reports. The attack came just after President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency because of ongoing attacks.

“The Borno CAN secretary has been killed,” CAN spokesman Kenny Asaka told the BNL news service. “We've got the report and the national president received it with heavy heart. It is very sad.”

Jonathan had earlier called the state of emergency to address “systematic effort by insurgents and terrorists to destabilize the Nigerian state and test our collective resolve,” referring to a surge in violence that threatens to engulf northern and central Nigeria. The violence has given rise to widespread concern Boko Haram could be on the verge of seizing control of the state.”

The murder of Mysa is likely to stoke tensions between Christians and Muslims, which were already at a breaking point after southern militants threatened to unleash a "crusade" against Boko Haram, the Muslim group behind a recent attack last month in which 185 people were killed.

The group that vowed to launch a campaign against the Islamists is a coalition of armed groups that includes political and religious activists as well as criminal gangs that has waged an insurgency in the region, the center of Nigeria's oil production, since 2005.

Boko Haram translates to "Western education is sacrilege." Christians have been a major target of Boko Haram and its offshoots, as scores of churches have been bombed or burned since the Islamists, who have links to Al Qaeda, launched their insurgency in 2009 in the predominantly Muslim north.

Just more of the same from the Obama Administration. "Homeland Security guidelines advise deference to pro-Shariah Muslim supremacists," by Charles C. Johnson in the Daily Caller, May 17:

The Department of Homeland Security, which under Secretary Janet Napolitano has shown a keen interest in monitoring and warning about outspoken conservatives, takes a very different approach in monitoring political Islamists, according to a 2011 memo on protecting the free speech rights of pro-Shariah Muslim supremacists.

In a checklist obtained by The Daily Caller entitled “Countering Violent Extremism Dos and Don’ts” the DHS’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties notifies local and national law enforcement officials that it is Obama administration policy to consider specifically Islamic criticism of the American system of government legitimate.

This policy stands in stark contrast to the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis’ 2009 memo “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment” [pdf], which warned of the dangers posed by pro-life advocates, critics of same-sex marriage and groups concerned with abiding by the U.S. Constitution, among others.
Ads by Google

The advice of the Dos and Don’ts list is far more conciliatory. “Don’t use training that equates radical thought, religious expression, freedom to protest, or other constitutionally-protected activity, including disliking the U.S. government without being violent,” the manual’s authors write in a section on training being “sensitive to constitutional values.”

The manual, which was produced by an inter-agency working group from DHS and the National Counterterrorism Center, advises, “Trainers who equate the desire for Sharia law with criminal activity violate basic tenets of the First Amendment.”...

He's an "Idaho man," AP tells us, as if the reason why he plotted these jihad terror attacks was to protect the potato industry. "Idaho man pleads not guilty in alleged Uzbekistan terror plot," from the Associated Press, May 17 (thanks to Darcy):

BOISE, Idaho — An Uzbekistan national living in Boise said little during his first court appearance Friday on federal charges that he gave support, cash and other resources to help a recognized terrorist group in his home country plan a terrorist attack there.

Fazliddin Kurbanov, 30, was arrested Thursday during a raid of his small apartment. Prosecutors have offered few details of their investigation or Kurbanov's alleged role in helping a militant group back home. He was charged in Idaho as well as Utah as a result of an extensive investigation into his activities late last year and this year.

Kurbanov pleaded not guilty during the hearing that lasted about 20 minutes. Kurbanov — with a short, cropped beard, dark hair and wearing a jail jumpsuit — spoke only a few words to the judge, their communication complicated by language differences.

Federal officials said they will enlist the help of an interpreter when Kurbanov, who lists Uzbek as his first language and Russian as his second in court documents, appears Tuesday for his detention hearing.

Until then, he will be held in the Ada County Jail. Kurbanov said he couldn't pay for an attorney, so federal public defender Richard Rubin was appointed to handle the case.

"Given his arrest, we believe any potential threat he posed has been contained,” said U.S Attorney Wendy Olson, who declined to comment on whether federal agents are pursuing additional arrests. Their investigation is ongoing, she said.

Kurbanov has been living in the United States legally, but his immigration status is unclear. He said he had a job driving trucks in Boise and listed his only assets as a couple of used cars and a small amount of cash in checking and savings accounts.

His trial on the three counts filed in Idaho is scheduled for July 2.

Olson said she has seen Internet comments blaming Idaho's Muslim community, something she called inappropriate. She said her office enjoys “outstanding partnerships” with its members.

“These charges shouldn't be seen as a reflection on that community,” Olson said.

This caveat is obligatory nowadays, and there is nothing particularly wrong with it except that it reflects the influence of Islamic supremacist advocacy groups like the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which push the fiction that Muslims in the U.S. are in danger of a large-scale "backlash" after jihad attacks occur or jihad plots are revealed.

The Idaho indictment charges Kurbanov with one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and one count of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and possession of an unregistered explosive device.

It alleges that between August and May, Kurbanov knowingly conspired with others to provide support and resources, including computer software and money, to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which the U.S. has identified as a terrorist organization. The group's purpose is to overthrow the government of Uzbekistan, said David B. Barlow, U.S. attorney in Utah. The alleged co-conspirators were not named.

The indictment also alleges Kurbanov provided material support to terrorists, knowing that the help was to be used in preparation for a plot involving the use of a weapon of mass destruction. On Nov. 15, Kurbanov possessed an explosive device, consisting of a series of parts intended to be converted into a bomb, according to the indictment. Those parts included a hollow hand grenade, a hobby fuse, aluminum powder, potassium nitrate and sulfur.

A separate federal grand jury in Utah charged Kurbanov with distributing information about explosives, bombs and weapons of mass destruction. For 10 days in January, Kurbanov taught and demonstrated how to make an “explosive, destructive device, and weapon of mass destruction,” the document states.

The Utah indictment, which will be handled separately after the Idaho prosecution is resolved, alleges that Kurbanov provided written recipes for how to make improvised explosive devices and went on instructional shopping trips in Utah showing what items are necessary to buy in order to make the devices, Barlow said. Kurbanov also showed Internet videos on the topic, Barlow said.

The prosecutor declined to say whom Kurbanov took on the shopping trips in Utah but said that information will come out as the case proceeds.

The indictment from Utah also alleges that Kurbanov intended that the videos, recipes, instructions and shopping trips be used to make an explosive device for the “bombings of a place of public use, public transportation system, and infrastructure facility.”...

The U.S. has brought large numbers of Somali jihadists into the country without making any attempt to determine whether or not they support the bloody Somali jihad, or to stop them from doing so. And so we have effectively imported the Somali jihad to the U.S.

"2 Minnesota women sentenced for funding Somali militants," by Faith Karimi for CNN, May 17 (thanks to Suneil):

(CNN) -- A federal court has sentenced two Minnesota women to lengthy prison sentences for soliciting donations in the name of charity, then funneling the funds to Somali militants.

Authorities said the two women went door-to-door in Somali neighborhoods in the U.S. and Canada, seeking contributions.

Amina Farah Ali, 36, got two decades in prison on 13 terror-related counts that include providing material support to Al-Shabaab.

Hawo Mohamed Hassan, 66, got half of that on one count of conspiracy to support a terror group and lying to authorities.

Both women, naturalized U.S. citizens from Somalia, were convicted in October 2011. They were sentenced Thursday in Minneapolis.

Evidence presented at their trial showed they supported the terror group between 2008 and 2009, according to B. Todd Jones, a United States Attorney.

Teleconference appeal for Al-Shabaab

"Ali communicated by telephone with Somalia-based members of Al-Shabaab who requested financial assistance on behalf of the group," Jones said in a statement. "Ali often sought the money under false pretenses, contending that it was to help the poor."

In both years, authorities said, she hosted teleconferences and urged listeners to give money to the terror group instead of the poor.

In one instance, she recorded $2,100 in pledges at the conclusion of that teleconference, according to officials.

She would then funnel the funds to the terror group using various remittance companies under false names.

'Questioned by the enemy'

Ali has maintained that the funds were for the poor, but authorities said monitored phone calls reveal otherwise.

"On July 14, 2009, the day after the FBI executed a search warrant at Ali's home, she telephoned her primary Al-Shabaab contact, saying, "I was questioned by the enemy here . . . they took all my stuff and are investigating it . . . do not accept calls from anyone."

Hassan, on the other hand, made false statements when questioned by federal agents about international terrorism, Jones said....

The women were among a group sentenced this week in the federal government's probe focusing on Al-Shabaab, which is believed to recruit young men in the Minneapolis area. The U.S. has designated it a terrorist group, and has said it has ties to al Qaeda.

In recent years, about 20 Somali-American men have traveled from the area to Somalia to train with the terror group, and some have gone on to fight with the militants, according to U.S. officials.

Umar Lee, a convert to Islam from St. Louis, was once enough of an Islamic supremacist to write to a rival: "i could cut your neck with the sword of islam and watch you squeal like a bitch like daniel pearl." In an email exchange with me, he endorsed the death penalty for apostasy.

But now he has left Islam and returned to Christianity. Watch the video; in it he makes many, many important points about how converts to Islam are lied to, and how Islam establishes an empire of fear.

Note especially this, starting at 4:04:

"We can talk about the grievance industry, CAIR, etc., trying to hype up the threat of Islamophobia. Islamophobia is very minor. You want to talk about religious bias? You convert to Christianity in Saudi Arabia, you're murdered. You convert from Islam in so many Muslim countries, it's the death penalty. Why are Muslim societies so afraid of missionaries? Why are Muslim societies so afraid of freedom of speech? Why are Muslim societies so afraid of the Gospel? Why are Muslim societies so afraid of the message of Jesus Christ? If you believe Islam is the truth, why don't you believe Islam can compete in the marketplace of ideas? Obviously you don't, or you wouldn't kill people that convert to Christianity and put missionaries in jail."

Clearly they don't believe Islam can compete in the marketplace of ideas. Just yesterday I offered to debate UC-Berkeley's professor of "Islamophobia," Hatem Bazian. He responded: "Racist are not to be debated they are to be shunned." (Yes, this university professor wrote "racist are." He didn't explain what race jihad terror is. They never do. This "racism" business is just a cover for what Umar Lee says: their knowledge of and fear of the fact that they know their ideas can't compete, or hold up to scrutiny.

Umar: be well, and be safe.

Cigarette smoking is hazardous to your health -- in a whole new way. "New York says breaks cigarette-smuggling ring linked to militants," by Mark Hosenball for Reuters, May 17 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

(Reuters) - Fifteen men of Palestinian origin have been arrested on charges of running a multi-million-dollar cigarette smuggling ring in New York, and New York authorities who announced the arrests on Thursday said several of the suspects have ties to Hamas and other Islamist militant groups.

The men are accused of smuggling more than a million cartons of untaxed cigarettes from Virginia to be sold in grocery stores across New York, with $55 million in sales uncovered so far, Eric Schneiderman, the New York attorney general, and Ray Kelly, the New York City police commissioner, said at a press conference.

"We don't know where all of that money went, but what we do know is deeply troubling," Schneiderman said. "We know that some members of this group have ties to very dangerous people, we know they were arrested with weapons, we know that they made tens of millions of dollars but so far we have found only a fraction of that."

Investigators are still tracking where much of the money ended up, but they noted similar rings in the past have funneled money to Hamas, the Islamist government in Gaza, and Hezbollah, the militant Shi'ite group based in Lebanon, both of which are considered to be terrorist organizations by the United States.

All 15 men remained in custody on Thursday and could not be reached for comment. It was not immediately clear if they had retained lawyers.

A 16th man accused of taking part in the ring, Ribhi Awadeh, 39, from Guttenberg, New Jersey, remained at large after flying to Jordan several weeks ago, Schneiderman said.

In a 224-count indictment, the men are charged with enterprise corruption, money laundering and other tax crimes, for which each defendant faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted. In addition to costing New York State and New York City an estimated $80 million in lost sales tax revenue, the ring generated at least $10 million in profit, Schneiderman and Kelly said.

None of the men lived extravagantly, Schneiderman said, adding that this supported the idea the money was being funneled elsewhere.

"This is not the lifestyles of the rich and famous," Schneiderman said. "We are very concerned about where the money went."

Kelly said that Youssef Odeh, 52, of Staten Island, who is accused of being a distributor for the ring, received an investment for an illegal baby formula distribution business in the 1990s from Omar Abdel Rahman, often dubbed the "blind sheik," who is imprisoned for helping plot the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Muaffaq Askar, 46, of Brooklyn, who is accused of being one of the ring's resellers, was a confidant of Rashid Baz, Kelly said. Baz, a Lebanese immigrant, is serving a 141-year prison sentence after being convicted in the 1994 shooting of Ari Halberstam, a 16-year-old yeshiva student in Brooklyn, which Baz said was in retaliation for the killing of Muslim worshippers in the West Bank by a Jewish settler from Brooklyn.

Mohannad Seif, 39, of Brooklyn, another accused reseller, had been under police surveillance in part because he had lived in the same three-story Brooklyn building as a former secretary to Moussa Abu Marzouk, a deputy leader of Hamas.

Authorities said the ring was headed by two brothers, Basel Ramadan, 42, and Samir Ramadan, 40, both of Ocean City, Maryland, who ran a couple of local Subway restaurant franchises. Investigators said they found $1.4 million stashed in Basel Ramadan's home, some of it stuffed in black plastic trash bags, and three handguns following his arrest on Thursday....

He also railed at the Infidels. An update on this story. "'F***' America,' Boston Marathon Bomb Suspect Wrote in Boat: Officials," by Michele McPhee, Aaron Katersky and Brian Ross for ABC News, May 16:

As police searched for him, and as he lay bleeding in his boat hideout, Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev wrote "F*** America" on the side panel of the boat, police in Massachusetts told ABC News.

Officers said they also discovered the phrase "Praise Allah" on the boat's side panels and several anti-American screeds, including references to Iraq, Afghanistan and "the infidels."

A Massachusetts official showed ABC News what he said was a cell phone picture of the phrase "Praise Allah," written in black ink, with a bullet hole above it, believed to have been written by Dzhokhar as he hid inside the boat in Watertown, Mass.

Also seen in the picture was the faintly written word "brother," which the official said was part of a reference by the younger Tsarnaev "that was something about his brother is lucky to be with Allah first."...

They were in the witness protection program -- which is news in itself -- but the Justice Department didn't give their names to those who actually keep dangerous people from flying. Funny how all of Obama's mistakes go in the same direction. He never makes one in favor of conservatives, or civil liberties, or free speech, or against Islamic supremacism.

"Justice Dept. faulted over terrorist identities," by Pete Yost for the Associated Press, May 16 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department failed to provide the names of some terrorists in the witness protection program to the center that maintains the government's watch list used to keep dangerous people off airline flights, the department's inspector general said in a report Thursday.

As a result of the department's failure to properly share information, some in the witness protection program who were on the "no-fly" list were allowed to travel on commercial flights, the federal watchdog said.

"It was possible for known or suspected terrorists to fly on commercial airplanes in or over the United States and evade one of the government's primary means of identifying and tracking terrorists' movements and actions," the report said.

To help protect witnesses from the people and organizations against whom they testify, the U.S. Marshals Service provides cooperating witnesses with new names and identities.

"We found that the department was not authorizing the disclosure to the Terrorist Screening Center of the new identities provided to known or suspects terrorists" in the federal Witness Security Program, known officially as WitSec.

In response, the Justice Department said it has developed a highly restrictive travel policy that prohibits program participants with no-fly status from traveling on commercial flights.

The department said the number of former known or suspected terrorists ever admitted into the witness protection program was a fraction of 1 percent of those in the program.

The department said that to date, the FBI has not identified a national security threat tied to the participation of terrorism-linked witnesses in the program.