Still more jihad. "UK Fighters Escort Pakistan Plane to Airport, Two Arrests," from Reuters, May 24 (thanks to Lookmann):

LONDON — British fighter jets escorted a Pakistan International Airlines passenger plane to Stansted Airport near London on Friday, where police went on board and arrested two men on suspicion of endangering an aircraft.

Passengers were leaving the plane and no one was hurt in the incident, a spokesman for the airport said.

Flight PK709 from Lahore in Pakistan had been due to land at Manchester in northern England with 297 passengers on board, but was diverted shortly before arrival.

Britain is on high alert after a soldier was hacked to death on a London street on Wednesday in what the government are treating as a terrorist incident.

A security source said early indications were that the plane was not the target of a terrorist attack.

A passenger who had just got off the plane told the BBC the pilot had informed passengers after landing that he had diverted to Stansted because of threats. The passenger, named by the BBC as Mr Munsif, said two men had been handcuffed on board and removed.

"We landed safely and then he announced that they had some kind of threat from someone and that's why he landed the plane," the passenger said, speaking by telephone.

"Essex Police have boarded a passenger plane diverted to Stansted Airport and two men have been arrested on suspicion of endangerment of an aircraft. They have been removed from the plane," the police said in a statement. The force is responsible for the area where Stansted is located.

"The two men arrested on suspicion of endangerment of an aircraft are aged 30 and 41. They are being taken to a police station for interview by detectives," the police added.

Stansted is one of London's less busy airports, preferred as a location for handling airplane security incidents. A spokesman for the airport said the plane was being held in an isolated area and that the rest of the airport was operating as normal.

Essex County Fire and Rescue Service said 10 fire engines had been sent to the airport....

"Thanks to Allah, we have carried out two operations against the enemies of Islam in Niger. We attacked France and Niger for its cooperation with France in the war against sharia." Yet we're constantly told by Islamic spokesmen in the U.S. that Sharia is benign and completely compatible with American Constitutional freedoms. How very odd that elsewhere it so often leads to violence.

More on this story. "Islamist bombers kill 20 in Niger attacks, seize hostages," from AFP, May 23:

Islamist militants staged brazen twin car bomb attacks on an army base and a French-run uranium mine in Niger, killing at least 20 people and taking several trainee army officers hostage, the government said.

The unprecedented attacks were claimed by an Islamist group as revenge for Niger's involvement in a French-led military offensive in neighbouring Mali and come just four months after Al-Qaeda linked militants seized a desert gas plant in neighbouring Algeria in a siege that left 38 hostages dead.

The Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), one of the Islamist groups which seized control of northern Mali last year before being driven out by French-led troops, claimed the near simultaneous bombings at the Agadez army base and the French majority-owned uranium mine in Arlit.

Oneness -- that is, tauhid, the Islamic concept of the absolute unity of Allah.

"Thanks to Allah, we have carried out two operations against the enemies of Islam in Niger," MUJAO spokesman Abu Walid Sahraoui told AFP.

"We attacked France and Niger for its cooperation with France in the war against sharia (Islamic law)."

Eighteen soldiers and a civilian were killed along with four attackers at the army base in Agadez, the largest city in northern Niger, while around 50 people were wounded at the mine, Interior Minister Abdou Labo said....

The riots are Muslims, but the Islamic contempt for the kuffar and jahiliyya society is never considered as a root cause, any more than it is even when a Muslim beheads a soldier on a London street and invokes the Qur'an by way of explanation. "Riots in Sweden: Cars Burn in Fourth Night of Youth Violence," from Spiegel Online, May 23 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

Riots continued for the fourth straight night in Sweden Wednesday, as youth set fire to cars and threw stones at police in immigrant suburbs of Stockholm and the southern Swedish city of Malmo.

Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt has appealed for calm in the wake of the violence, which appears to have been instigated by the police shooting of a machete-wielding 69-year-old man in the Stockholm suburb of Husby this month. Police said the shooting was an act of self-defense, but it has triggered accusations of police brutality.

Riots began in Husby, which has a large immigrant population, on Sunday night and have spread to other locations, including the southern suburb of Fittja.

A police station in another southern suburb was set on fire, but no one was injured in the attack and the fire was quickly extinguished, according to media reports. Dozens of cars have been set ablaze during the riots, testing the resources of the local fire departments, according to the police.

At least one police officer was injured in the riots Wednesday night, and two schools, a restaurant and a cultural center have been damaged this week.

Growing Disparities

The violence has been attributed to the growing disparities between rich and poor in the country, where immigrant communities have been affected the most by cuts in state benefits over the past two decades. Official unemployment among the foreign-born is at 16 percent.

"The reason is very simple," Rouzbeh Djalaie, editor of a local newspaper in Husby told the news agency Reuters. "Unemployment, the housing situation, disrespect from police. It just takes something to start a riot, and that was the shooting."

Djalaie told Reuters that local youths are often the subject of unnecessary identity checks from police, who reportedly called them "apes" during the recent riots. The country ranks fourth among 44 industrialized nations in the absolute number of asylum seekers.

Swedish Justice Minister Beatrice Ask called attacks on police officers or rescue personnel "unacceptable," but said she understood why many people in these suburbs are angry. "Social exclusion is a very serious cause of many problems, and we understand that," she said.

My weekly appearance on Michael Coren's Sun TV show tonight was devoted to the London jihad murder and the predictable government and media reaction: jihad? What jihad?

It was discovered this Thursday evening near Luxor in Egypt that a mother and her two daughters were killed and their bodies thrown into the Nile River. The murderers? Seven male members—from their own Muslim family—who apparently had doubts about the women’s “behavior” (that’s all the Gate Ahram report indicates for motive). Amina, the 54-year-old mother and her two daughters, Sana, 28 , and Madiha, 24, were strangled by their seven male relatives “because the family doubted the behavior of the mother and her two daughters.” Before hurling them into the Nile, their male relatives tied the murdered women to heavy iron objects, to ensure that the bodies do not resurface. Police have thus far found the body of the older sister, Sana, and currently trying to find the other bodies.

My recent interview with Glenn Beck on my new book Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians, and the worsening plight of Egypt's Christian Copts:

"A spokesman for the Niger government, Morou Amadou, said the attacks were by Islamist militants, probably from al Qaeda's north Africa wing, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) or its spin-off West African group The Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), which seized control of neighboring north Mali last year."

Unity -- that is, Tauhid, the Islamic concept of the absolute oneness of Allah. This is yet another front of the same jihad that struck in London yesterday, and in Boston on April 15, etc.

"Uranium mine, military barracks attacked by suicide bombers in Niger," by Abdoulaye Massalatchi for Reuters, May 22 (thanks to Kenneth):

NIAMEY, Niger - Suicide bombers struck a mine run by French nuclear group Areva and a military barracks in Niger on Thursday, killing and wounding several people in separate attacks that underline the widening threat posed by Islamist militants across West Africa.

Military sources said several soldiers were killed in a gun battle with Islamists following a car bomb attack at the barracks in Agadez, the largest town in northern Niger.

Areva said at least 13 members of staff were wounded in another bomb attack at about the same time at the Somair uranium mine it operates in the town of Arlit, in Niger's desert north.

A spokesman for the Niger government, Morou Amadou, said the attacks were by Islamist militants, probably from al Qaeda's north Africa wing, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) or its spin-off West African group The Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), which seized control of neighboring north Mali last year before being ousted by a French-led offensive launched in January.

"These are terrorists who have carried out the suicide attacks in Agadez and Arlit," he said. "The terrorists - I don't know for sure whether it was AQIM or MUJAO - infiltrated these towns and security forces have been deployed and are scouring the area."

The suicide attacks were the first in Niger since the offensive in northern Mali drove Islamist groups there into the vast, empty desert and across borders into neighboring Sahel states....

Note what Mehdi Hasan leaves out of his Qur'an quotation. "The Muslim faith does not turn men to terror: The two suspects in the Woolwich killing were violating the doctrine of their own holy book," by Mehdi Hasan in the Telegraph, May 23 (thanks to JH):

'Whosoever killeth a human being…” says the Koran, in the 32nd verse of its fifth chapter, “it shall be as if he had killed all mankind, and whoso saveth the life of one, it shall be as if he had saved the life of all mankind.”

Thus, the two supposedly Muslim men suspected of killing and mutilating an unarmed, off-duty soldier in the middle of a London street, while shouting “Allahu Akbar” (“God is Great”), were violating the injunction of their own holy book. Perversely, it was the non-Muslim Cub Scout leader who, in trying to save the soldier’s life, and standing up to his alleged attackers, was acting in accordance with Koranic principles. Let’s be clear: Islam doesn’t permit the killing of innocents. Jihad is permissible only in self-defence and if sanctioned by a legitimate government. To quote from our Prime Minister’s pitch-perfect statement outside No 10, Wednesday’s barbarism was “a betrayal of Islam and of the Muslim communities who give so much to our country”.

Yes, let's be clear. Qur'an 5:32 actually says this:

For that cause We decreed for the Children of Israel that whosoever killeth a human being for other than manslaughter or corruption in the earth, it shall be as if he had killed all mankind, and whoso saveth the life of one, it shall be as if he had saved the life of all mankind. Our messengers came unto them of old with clear proofs (of Allah's Sovereignty), but afterwards lo! many of them became prodigals in the earth.

Hasan quoted it thusly: "Whosoever killeth a human being...it shall be as if he had killed all mankind." Notice what he left out: "for other than manslaughter or corruption in the earth." So the Qur'an is saying only that killing a human being for something other than manslaughter or "corruption in the earth" is as if one had killed all mankind.

But what if someone does commit "corruption in the earth"? The Qur'an goes on: "The only reward of those who make war upon Allah and His messenger and strive after corruption in the land will be that they will be killed or crucified, or have their hands and feet on alternate sides cut off, or will be expelled out of the land. Such will be their degradation in the world, and in the Hereafter theirs will be an awful doom." (Qur'an 5:33)

Now we see why Mehdi Hasan left that part out of his Qur'an quote.

So it is permissible -- indeed, commanded -- to kill those who make war upon Allah and His messenger and strive after "corruption in the land." Islam doesn't permit the killing of innocents, but this victim was a British soldier. He was, in the view of his killer, making war upon Allah and his messenger and spreading corruption in the land by fighting in Afghanistan. In that case, the killer's jihad was defensive, and Hasan's words about it being only permissible if sanctioned by a legitimate government are simply false in terms of Islamic law.

To be sure, only the state authority can declare offensive jihad. A Shafi'i manual of Islamic law that was certified in 1991 by the clerics at Al-Azhar University, one of the leading authorities in the Islamic world, as a reliable guide to Sunni orthodoxy, stipulates that “the caliph makes war upon Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians...until they become Muslim or pay the non-Muslim poll tax.” It adds a comment by Sheikh Nuh ‘Ali Salman, a Jordanian expert on Islamic jurisprudence: the caliph wages this war only “provided that he has first invited [Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians] to enter Islam in faith and practice, and if they will not, then invited them to enter the social order of Islam by paying the non-Muslim poll tax (jizya)...while remaining in their ancestral religions.” ('Umdat al-Salik, o9.8).

Of course, there is no caliph today, and upon this fact hinges the oft-repeated claim that people like the London murderer are waging jihad illegitimately, as no state authority has authorized their jihad. But he and others like him explain their actions in terms of defensive jihad, which needs no state authority to call it, and becomes "obligatory for everyone" ('Umdat al-Salik, o9.3) if a Muslim land is attacked. The end of the defensive jihad, however, is not peaceful coexistence with non-Muslims as equals: 'Umdat al-Salik specifies that the warfare against non-Muslims must continue until "the final descent of Jesus." After that, "nothing but Islam will be accepted from them, for taking the poll tax is only effective until Jesus' descent" (o9.8).

Surely Mehdi Hasan knows all this. So why is he misleading people in the pages of the Telegraph?

The egregiously dhimmi BBC does it again: giving an MPCUK spokesman, Asghar Bukhari, abundant airtime to retail Islamic supremacist grievances against British foreign policy. There is no discussion whatsoever, of course, of the killer's references to the Qur'an. The question is whether the jihad against Britain would really go away if the Muslims' foreign policy demands were all met, or if other grievances would be found, and the jihad would continue. But that question was not discussed.

Video thanks to Ygalg.

Adebolajo with jihad hate preacher Anjem Choudary

And still the media and governing elites would have us believe that he completely misunderstood this religion with which he has been obsessed for years.

"Side by side with preacher of hate? Choudary claims picture shows arrested Islamic fanatic, 28, at 2007 demo," by Martin Robinson and Rob Cooper for the Daily Mail, May 23 (thanks to David):

Hate preacher Anjem Choudary tonight claimed he was pictured at an Islamist demonstration side by side with a man accused of murdering a soldier in Woolwich.

The man, identified by Choudary as Michael Adebolajo, 28, is seen in footage from 2007 standing behind the fanatic holding a placard which says 'Crusade Against Muslims'.

Yesterday Adebolajo was filmed drenched in blood, wielding a meat cleaver and yelling: 'We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you.'

He was brought up as a Christian but became 'obsessed' with Islam as a schoolboy, it emerged today.

Tonight the picture was published by the BBC which apparently showed Adebolajo stood behind the hate preacher at a demonstration outside Paddington Green police station in 2007.

Choudary tonight told the MailOnline: 'That is definitely him in the picture. I think it was a demonstration but it was a long time ago now.

'He was a run-of-the mill type of person and I knew him until about two or three years ago when he disappeared.'

Adebolajo has been identified as the man suspected of killing British soldier Royal Fusilier Lee Rigby, 25, who was described as a 'loving father' who had recently served in Afghanistan.

Today former classmates from Adebolajo's school in Romford expressed their 'utter shock' as they saw him brandishing weapons on television, saying he was once a 'nice, normal guy.'

But at 15 he descended into a world where he was consumed with Jihadism and later joined several Islamist groups banned in Britain because they are considered so extreme.

His parents, whose home in Lincolnshire was allegedly raided by terror police today, moved him away from east London because they feared he had been radicalised.

'He was a Christian. A nice, normal guy. All his friends were white and used to go round to each other’s houses all the time', a former friend told the Evening Standard.

'He started getting involved with Islam aged about 15 or 16, and that is why his parents moved him away out of the area. It is utterly shocking to see what he has done. It’s unbelievable.'

The British citizen of Nigerian descent was born in Lambeth, South London, in 1985, and then moved to Romford, east London.

In 2003 he converted to Islam and began calling himself Mujahid, which means a Muslim who takes part in jihadist actions, while at Marshalls Park School.

It is also believed he later a student at nearby Havering College.

Neighbours at his former family home in Romford said they believed the family 'moved to get away from whatever trouble Michael was in.'

Kemi Ibrahim, 45, who lived next door, described him as a regular teenage boy and that he had been round her house a number of times.

But she explained how he was often getting into rows with his parents, which could have been over his conversion to Islam.

'The parents were trying to keep him on the straight and narrow. They thought he was busy with these guys leading him a stray,' she said.

'The last memory I can say was when he had a go with his parents and took a brick and just smashed it on the windscreen of their car. He just took the brick and smashed it on the car. I think he was about 17.'

She described the family as Christians and said: 'I am in complete shock.'...

According to Obama in his speech today, "The best way to prevent violent extremism is to work with the Muslim American community – which has consistently rejected terrorism – to identify signs of radicalization, and partner with law enforcement when an individual is drifting towards violence."

The Muslim American community has consistently rejected terrorism? Four separate studies since 1998 have all found that 80% of U.S. mosques were teaching jihad, Islamic supremacism, and hatred and contempt for Jews and Christians. There are no countervailing studies that challenge these results. In 1998, Sheikh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani, a Sufi leader, visited 114 mosques in the United States. Then he gave testimony before a State Department Open Forum in January 1999, and asserted that 80% of American mosques taught the “extremist ideology.”

Then there was the Center for Religious Freedom’s 2005 study, and the Mapping Sharia Project’s 2008 study. Each independently showed that upwards of 80% of mosques in America were preaching hatred of Jews and Christians and the necessity ultimately to impose Islamic rule.

And in the summer of 2011 came another study showing that only 19% of mosques in U.S. don’t teach jihad violence and/or Islamic supremacism.

Specifically:

A random survey of 100 representative mosques in the U.S. was conducted to measure the correlation between Sharia adherence and dogma calling for violence against non-believers. Of the 100 mosques surveyed, 51% had texts on site rated as severely advocating violence; 30% had texts rated as moderately advocating violence; and 19% had no violent texts at all. Mosques that presented as Sharia adherent were more likely to feature violence-positive texts on site than were their non-Sharia-adherent counterparts. In 84.5% of the mosques, the imam recommended studying violence-positive texts. The leadership at Sharia-adherent mosques was more likely to recommend that a worshiper study violence-positive texts than leadership at non-Sharia-adherent mosques. Fifty-eight percent of the mosques invited guest imams known to promote violent jihad. The leadership of mosques that featured violence-positive literature was more likely to invite guest imams who were known to promote violent jihad than was the leadership of mosques that did not feature violence-positive literature on mosque premises.

That means that around 1,700 mosques in the U.S. are preaching hatred of infidels and justifying violence against them.

Moreover, Hamas-linked CAIR's position is clear. They don't want people "snitching" to law enforcement about jihad activity:

And a former Hamas-linked CAIR official, the thuggish Cyrus McGoldrick, has threatened "snitches":

Surprise: he wasn't referring to "right-wing extremism," but to the jihad threat -- even as he insisted that the vast majority of Muslims reject the jihad ideology, and that Muslims are its chief victims. " Obama Drone Speech Delivered At National Defense University (FULL TRANSCRIPT)," from The Huffington Post, May 23:

Moreover, we must recognize that these threats don’t arise in a vacuum. Most, though not all, of the terrorism we face is fueled by a common ideology – a belief by some extremists that Islam is in conflict with the United States and the West, and that violence against Western targets, including civilians, is justified in pursuit of a larger cause. Of course, this ideology is based on a lie, for the United States is not at war with Islam; and this ideology is rejected by the vast majority of Muslims, who are the most frequent victims of terrorist acts.

Even though he acknowledges that Islamic jihad is the primary terror threat the U.S. faces, however, his denial of its true nature and magnitude will only lead to more intelligence failures like those that preceded and facilitated the Boston Marathon jihad bombings. Consider how ridiculous it is that the President of the United States says that most of the terrorism we face is fueled by a common ideology, and yet Administration officials are forbidden to study that ideology. But that is the situation we are in.

It would have been much more surprising if he had named it honestly as what it was. "Obama Condemns London Attack: ‘There Can Be Absolutely No Justification,’" by Tom Kludt at TPM Livewire, May 23 (thanks to Jerk Chicken):

President Barack Obama issued a statement Thursday condemning the brutal attack in London that left a British soldier dead, saying there "can be absolutely no justification for such acts."

I condemn in the strongest terms the appalling attack against a British service member in Woolwich on May 22. The United States stands resolute with the United Kingdom, our ally and friend, against violent extremism and terror. There can be absolutely no justification for such acts, and our thoughts and prayers are with the family of the victim, the police and security services responding to this horrific act and the communities they serve, and the British people. Our special relationship with the United Kingdom is especially important during times of trial, and I look forward to my trip to the United Kingdom to participate in the June G-8 Summit, hosted by Prime Minister Cameron, which will include discussions on the important global security challenges our countries face together.

Choudary blames British military actions for this jihad attack. Policy analysts who might be inclined to believe him should be aware that if Muslim grievances in Iraq and Afghanistan were satisfied, there would not be peace. There would only be new grievances, and more jihad. But this realization can only come from studying Islam, which mainstream analysts steadfastly refuse to do. "Hate preacher Anjem Choudary blames presence of British troops in Afghanistan for Woolwich killing as he admits to attending the same mosque as suspect," by Rob Cooper for the Daily Mail, May 23:

Hate preacher Anjem Choudary today blamed the continuing presence of British troops in Afghanistan for the slaughter of a soldier in Woolwich.

The extremist claimed he attended the same mosque as terror suspect Michael Adebolajo, 28, who was reportedly one of the two men arrested in connection with the brutal killing.

Choudary, who in the past has planned to disrupt the minute's silence on Remembrance Sunday, said there could be more 'lone wolf' attacks.

The off-duty serviceman was hacked to death in broad daylight in south-east London yesterday just 200 yards from the Royal Military Barracks.

Clutching a bloodied meat cleaver, the man suspected of executing the soldier declared: 'you and your kids will be next'.

Hate preacher Choudary today blamed the war in Afghanistan for the brutal killing.

He said: 'We must concentrate on why this incident took place.

'That is the presence of British forces in Muslim countries and the atrocities they’ve committed, and how the Muslim community in this country are under pressure due to draconian laws which have tried to silence them.'

However, Choudary today described Adebolajo as a man of 'impeccable character'.

The suspect and his unnamed accomplice are believed to have run down the soldier with a Vauxhall Tigra as he walked back to the Woolwich Barracks at 2.20pm yesterday, crushing his body against a road sign.

Witnesses said the terror suspects then 'hacked and chopped' at his body like 'crazed animals', before dragging his corpse into the middle of the road leaving a trail of blood.

As they apparently tried to decapitate him they were chanting 'Allah Akbar!’ – an Islamic phrase meaning ‘God is great’ - and yelling 'this is what God would have wanted'.

A blood-soaked man identified as Adebolajo, who was still holding a number of weapons in his red-stained hands, then ranted on camera in a clear London accent saying: 'You people will never be safe' before telling a passer-by they had not fled because they were waiting to 'shoot the police'.

Within 20 minutes armed officers arrived and the fundamentalists charged at them wielding firearms, knives and a machete.

Police opened fire, shooting six bullets, leaving one seriously injured. The pair remain under armed guard in two separate London hospitals.

Choudary claimed to have known the suspect from Mulgrave Primary school, which is located next to the scene of the massacre.

He said: 'I saw the pictures of him last night, his name is Michael Adebolajo.

'I went to the same primary school as him in Woolwich, Mulgrave, and grew up in the same area and he came to the local mosque - it was a peaceful community with lots of Muslim people from Somalia and Pakistan. I didn’t know him that well so I can’t say where his family was from.'

Choudary led Islamist group Al-Muhajiroun, the banned forerunner to Islam 4 UK, where Adebolajo often appeared alongside other radical protesters.

Mr Choudary continued: 'He converted around 2003 to Islam, before I met him and I knew him as his convert name "Mujaheed" when he used to attend our demonstrations and lectures.

'I last saw him in 2011, he was a very nice man with impeccable character and nothing unusual about him.'

Choudary claims that he was 'making his voice heard' with his rant after the attack.

He said: 'What he did was unusual and it’s not the kind of view that I propagate and I do not condone the use of violence, but those views are out there.

'Some members of the Muslim community struggle to express themselves and he is making his voice heard in blood.'

Choudary suggested that it was possible the attack was motivated by the Government's foreign policy in the Muslim world, and that this may not have been an isolated incident.

He said: 'We are a very politicised community. Some people are angered by draconian measures such as ‘stop and search’ and restrictions on free speech.

'There is a chance of more lone wolf attacks happening again due to these draconian measures.

'If you want to condemn anyone it’s the British Government, this is one death but if you add up the number of people killed and tortured by the British Government it is in the millions.'

The two men are thought to be British citizens with Nigerian connections who had converted to a radical form of Islam.

Prime Minister David Cameron said today that the attack 'sickens us all' and was a 'betrayal of Islam'.

Speaking outside Downing Street, he said the attack would bring the UK together and 'make us stronger'.

'The people who did this were trying to divide us. They should know something like this will only bring us together and make us stronger,' he said.

'This country will be absolutely resolute in its stand against violent extremism and terror. We will never give in to terror or terrorism in any of its forms.

'This view is shared by every community in our country. This was not just an attack on Britain and on the British way of life; it was also a betrayal of Islam and of the Muslim communities who give so much to our country.

'There is nothing in Islam that justifies this truly dreadful act.'

He said the best response was for everyone to 'go about our normal lives'.

The Muslim Council of Britain described the attack as 'a truly barbaric act'.

They said in a statement: 'This is a truly barbaric act that has no basis in Islam and we condemn this unreservedly. Our thoughts are with the victim and his family.

'We understand the victim is a serving member of the Armed Forces. Muslims have long served in this country’s Armed Forces, proudly and with honour.

'This attack on a member of the Armed Forces is dishonourable, and no cause justifies this murder.'...

So what is the MCB doing to prevent Muslims from having this understanding of Islam?

A whole pack of lone wolves. "Two more arrests made in brutal hacking death of British soldier: U.K. officials," by Paisley Dodds and Gregory Katz for The Associated Press, May 23:

LONDON - British police say two more people have been arrested by officers investigating the hacking death of a U.K. soldier in London.

Scotland Yard said counterterrorism officers arrested a man and a woman -- both 29 -- on Thursday on suspicion of conspiracy to murder. Both suspects are in custody at a south London police station.

Two suspects shot and arrested by police at the scene Wednesday -- a 22-year-old man and a 28-year-old man -- remain hospitalized in stable condition with injuries that are not life-threatening, police added.

But apparently they were considered to be such a low risk that they were able to roam around London with meat cleavers, looking for a soldier to hack to death. Jihad, after all, it's an interior spiritual struggle, you know!

"London attack: hacking victim named; attackers were previously investigated by terror probe: report," from the Toronto Star, May 23 (thanks to Lookmann):

LONDON — Two men accused of butchering a 25-year-old Afghanistan veteran soldier on a London street had been featured in investigations by security services, a British official said Thursday.

The Ministry of Defence identified the soldier as 25-year-old Lee Rigby, who joined the army in 2006 and served in Afghanistan as a member of the fire support group.

Rigby, the father of a 2-year-old boy, was “an extremely popular and witty soldier (with) a larger than life personality. He was a passionate and life-long Manchester United fan,” the Defence statement read.

His attackers boasted of their exploits and warned of more violence in images recorded on witnesses’ mobile phones. Holding bloody knives and a meat cleaver, they waited for the arrival of police, who shot them in the legs, according to a passerby who had tried to save the dying soldier.

A British government official told The Associated Press both suspects were part of previous investigations for possible terror links.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the investigation, said he could not provide other details because the suspects may face trial.

Investigations by Britain’s domestic security service, MI5, can include undercover surveillance, phone tapping and communications intercepts.

Sky TV reported both suspects “had featured in MI5 investigations, but were not deemed high priority and not thought involved in complex plot.”

Prime Minister David Cameron vowed that Britain would not be cowed by the horrific violence, and that it would reject “the poisonous narrative of extremism on which this violence feeds.”

“It’s hateful, it’s horrific and upsetting. But it doesn’t seem to have made much of a difference,” Christian White, 43, said at King’s Cross station, close to the site of a subway bomb in July 2005.

“Londoners are used to living in a city where life is complicated.”

It's going to get more complicated.

Even so, security was increased at military barracks and installations in the capital, with extra armed guards added in many cases. Police said extra patrols were added at sensitive areas, including places of worship, transport hubs and congested areas.

Wednesday’s attack took place near a military barracks in the Woolwich area of south London.

The following video, obtained by British media, shows the alleged attacker brandishing a knife and cleaver.

There was little hard information available about the wounded suspects. Police gave no details of their injuries or conditions.

After the killing, one of the attackers was recorded on numerous amateur videos warning of more violence and explaining the reason for the crime, while gesturing with bloodied hands and waving a meat cleaver.

“We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you,” the man declared, complaining about British troops fighting Muslims. “We must fight them as they fight us.”

The camera then panned away to show a body lying on the ground.

Police in the county of Lincolnshire in eastern England said a property was being searched in connection to the attack in Woolwich. The Guardian newspaper, with a reporter at the scene, described the home as having been rented for several years by the family, who had since moved to London.

Media, quoting friends and sources, named the suspect in the amateur videos as 28-year-old Michael Adebolajo, who lived in London.

A police raid on an apartment in Greenwich near Woolwich was thought to be related, media reported. Four people, including two children, were taken away early Thursday by police, neighbours told reporters.

A Guardian reporter in Nigeria quoted officials there as saying both suspects were of Nigerian descent but raised elsewhere.

Both men accused of the attack appeared to have converted to Islam from Christian immigrant backgrounds, British media said.

The Islamic Society of Britain has also condemned the attacks.

“Murdering a British soldier is an attack on our nation,” the society said in a statement. “No effort should be spared in purging this hate.

“Our thoughts and sympathies are with the family of the deceased. Justifying this killing in the name of faith or religion is false and rejected.”

The head of a banned British radical Islamist group identified the suspect on the amateur video as Adebolajo and said he “used to attend a few demonstrations and activities that we used to have.”

Anjem Choudary was quoted by Reuters as saying Adebolajo, whom he had not seen for two years, was “a very pleasant man, he was peaceful, unassuming.”

Choudary’s organization gained notoriety for staging events to commemorate the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States with leaflets that referred to the hijackers as “the Magnificent 19”.

Metropolitan Police in London said they will abide by the family’s wishes and not identify the victim for the time being.

“He was from Lincolnshire and I think he served in the Yorkshire Regiment,” soldier Zak Dempster was quoted as saying by the Daily Telegraph as he lay flowers at the attack site.

“He was just starting off his career, in his 20s.”

The attack, just a month after the bomb attacks on the Boston Marathon, revived fears of “lone wolves.” These may have had no direct contact with Al Qaeda but are inspired by radical preachers and by Islamist militant websites, some of which urge people to attack Western targets with whatever means they have.

Chilling images of the blood-soaked suspect—who urged Britons to overthrow their government or risk having their children face a fate similar to a dead soldier lying just yards away—were splashed across the front pages of newspapers.

“I apologize that women had to witness that, but in our lands our women have to see the same thing. You people will never be safe. Remove your government. They don’t care about you,” the man said in the video before crossing the street and speaking casually to the other attacker.

The grisly attack took place on the edge of London’s sprawling Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, a south London working class district which has long-standing historic links to the military.

The victim was wearing a T-shirt saying “Help for Heroes”, the name of a charity formed to help wounded British veterans. Britain has had troops deployed in Afghanistan since 2001 and had troops in Iraq from 2003-2009.

Before he was stabbed to death, the victim was knocked over by a blue car which then rammed into a lamppost. The attackers pounced on him in broad daylight in a busy residential street.

Witnesses said they shouted “Allahu akbar”—Arabic for God is greatest—while stabbing the victim and trying to behead him. A handgun was found at the scene.

Some onlookers rushed to help the victim and one woman tried to engage one of the attackers in conversation to calm him.

“He had what looked like butcher’s tools—a little axe, to cut the bones, and two large knives. He said: ‘Move off the body,’” Ingrid Loyau-Kennett was quoted by local media as saying.

“He said: ‘I killed him because he killed Muslims and I am fed up with people killing Muslims in Afghanistan.’”...

Cameron’s office had welcomed the condemnation from most mainstream British Muslim groups but that the national security committee had discussed community cohesion....

When will authorities begin to demand more than just pro forma condemnations after the fact?

And yet the Muslims who ostensibly reject the understanding of Islam that motivated the jihad murderer have no program in Britain or anywhere else to teach converts to avoid this view of Islam. Yet no one in authority ever ponders the implications of that. "'Lone wolf' terrorism hits London," by Nick Miller for The Age, May 23 (thanks to Block Ness):

One of the two men involved in the Woolwich terror attack used to attend meetings of a banned Islamist organisation notorious for its Islamist rhetoric, The Independent newspaper has reported.

Anjem Choudary, former leader of the group Al Muhajiroun, told the newspaper he had known the man who was seen on video after the killing, waving a cleaver with bloodied hands.

He said the man went by the names of Mujahid or Michael.

Mr Choudary said Mujahid converted to Islam in 2003 and was a British-born Nigerian.

But he said he had stopped attending meetings two years ago.

"He was a pleasant, quiet guy .. just a completely normal guy," he said. "He was interested in Islam, in memorising the Koran. He disappeared about two years ago. I don’t know what influences he has been under since then.”

Al Muhajiroun was notorious for Islamist rhetoric, including attempting to justify the 9/11 attacks, The Independent reported.

Police have also raided an address on a Greenwich housing estate - near Woolwich - the BBC reported....

Both of the alleged attackers were previously known to security services, The Times reports.

"Their names were on a file," Whitehall sources told the newspaper. However neither suspect was thought to have links to terror groups based in Nigeria.

The attack was unprecedented. A British soldier run down and beheaded in a London street in the middle of the afternoon.

Britain has spent millions of pounds since the 2005 London Underground attacks to prepare against the threat of terrorism, yet here, in broad daylight, two men brandishing a meat cleaver and a butcher's knife, have shown how cheaply that veneer of security can be punctured. The barbarous horror of freelance jihad has reached the high street.

The nation is in shock, but this has been security chiefs' greatest fear, an attack straight from the playbook of the new, ''lone-wolf'' brand of terrorism....

This was an attack from the al-Qaeda handbook. The terrorist group's English-language magazine, Inspire, produced in the Arabian Peninsula, exhorts people to carry out ''lone wolf'' attacks. Articles and advertisements urged readers to use knives and run people down in vehicles, the Daily Mail reported.

The first issue of the magazine contained an article ''How to build a bomb in the kitchen of your mom'', which was reportedly used by the Boston Marathon bombers....

Since the July 7 London bombings in 2005, security forces have used electronic surveillance and border security to identify jihadists who travelled overseas for training. Only half of MI5's work involved plots with a Pakistan or Afghanistan dimension, said Sir Jonathan, with Yemen and Somalia the new priority areas.

But much of the ''education'' and radicalisation now happens on home soil, or online. YouTube and other sites carry video sermons from radical clerics.

One of the most-cited is Yemen preacher Anwar al-Awlaki - who was killed by a drone strike in 2011.

The co-founder of Inspire advocated what some officials dubbed the ''just do it'' brand of terrorism, writing, ''Assassinations, bombings and acts of arson are all legitimate forms of revenge against a system that relishes the sacrilege of Islam.''

Awlaki's sermons are continually put on YouTube and other sites, as officials work to have them removed. In one video he advised, ''Don't consult with anybody in killing the Americans - fighting the devil doesn't require consultation.''

Roshonara Choudhry, 21, who was jailed for stabbing East Ham MP Stephen Timms with a kitchen knife in 2010, told police she had been radicalised by Awlaki ''explaining stories from the Koran and explaining about jihad''. ''If you go on YouTube there's a lot of his videos there,'' she told police.

A lot of the radical material online mentions beheading, quoting a verse from the Koran on ''smiting the necks'' of unbelievers....

That verse is not just in the "radical" Koran.

The killer explicitly ascribed his killing to Islam. The proper response here would not be to blame or target Muslims who had nothing to do with this attack, but to have an honest public discussion of the elements of Islam that jihadists use to justify violence and supremacism, and what can be done about them. The problem is that such a discussion is always forestalled by people who claim that to have it would be to target or threaten innocent Muslims. There is no reason why this must be so. In fact, Muslims who sincerely reject the violent and supremacist aspects of Islam should welcome such a discussion, if their rejection is sincere. "Boris Johnson: Neither Islam nor UK foreign policy to blame for Woolwich attack," from Metro, May 23 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

Boris Johnson has said the blame for the brutal murder of a soldier in Woolwich lies with the ‘warped mind-set’ of his killers.

The London mayor, arriving for a meeting of the government’s emergency Cobra committee chaired by prime minister David Cameron, said it was wrong to blame either Muslims or the presence of UK troops in Afghanistan for the attack.

One of the two suspects in yesterday’s killing made a series of political statements in the wake of the attack, while counterterrorism officers are waiting to question both men in hospital after they were shot by armed police.

‘One obvious point, it is completely wrong to blame this killing on Islam but also wrong to draw a link between this murder and British foreign policy,’ Mr Johnson said on Thursday morning.

‘The fault lies with the warped mind-set of those who did it and for the sake of the victim and his family the killers need to be brought to justice.’...

Here we go again. Despite the fact that the Muslim killer invoked the Qur'an and made specific reference to the Islamic doctrine that one must fight against those who fight against Islam, the media and government elites in Britain are working in overdrive to exonerate Islam and prevent any serious discussion of the elements of Islamic teaching that incite to violence and encourage Islamic supremacism.

Nothing in Islam that justifies this, eh? Well, let's see. The jihadist killed a British soldier on a London street. What exactly about that is un-Islamic?

The Qur'an says, "Fight in the way of Allah those who fight you but do not transgress. Indeed. Allah does not like transgressors" (2:190). That "do not transgress" has often been interpreted by Islamic scholars as meaning, do not begin hostilities. I.e., this verse is a foundation for defensive jihad. But in this case, as the killer himself made clear, he believed that the soldier was fighting Muslims in Islamic lands -- Iraq and Afghanistan. So the soldier was already fighting Muslims, and the killer would have thought that he was not "transgressing" by therefore fighting "in the way of Allah those who fight you" -- i.e., the Muslims.

And how is one to fight them? "And kill them wherever you overtake them and expel them from wherever they have expelled you, and fitnah is worse than killing. And do not fight them at al-Masjid al- Haram until they fight you there. But if they fight you, then kill them. Such is the recompense of the disbelievers" (2:191). "Kill them wherever you overtake them" -- even on, say, a street in Woolwich.

Until British (and American) authorities come to grips with the fact that there is ample Islamic justification for such murders, and stop playing games with their Let's Play Pretend version of Islam, there will be many more such killings.

"Murder of soldier in Woolwich was a 'betrayal of Islam' says Cameron as he insists Britain will stand resolute against terror," by Nigel Morris in The Independent, May 23 (thanks to all who sent this in):

David Cameron today condemned the Woolwich murder as a “betrayal of Islam” as he insisted Britain would stand resolute against terror attacks.

He was speaking after chairing a meeting of Whitehall’s Cobra emergency committee of ministers, police chiefs and senior figures in the security services.

Standing outside Downing Street, the Prime Minister said: “This was not just an attack on Britain – and on our British way of life. It was also a betrayal of Islam and of the Muslim communities who give so much to our country.

“There is nothing in Islam that justifies this truly dreadful act. We will defeat violent extremism by standing together by backing our police and security services and above all by challenging the poisonous narrative of extremism on which this violence feeds.”

Warning that the aim of terrorists was to divide, he praised Britons’ natural resilience and pointed to the example of the cub scout pack leader Ingrid Loyau-Kennett, who confronted one of the men at the murder site.

Mr Cameron said: “When told by the attacker that he wanted to start a war in London, she replied: ‘You’re going to lose. It’s only you versus many.’ She spoke for us all.”...

Today’s hour-long Cobra meeting focused on the importance of community cohesion in the wake of the killing. A source said: “The strength and unity of response from Muslim community leaders was recognised and commended by Ministers and others around the table.”...

Video from The Sun. Transcript thanks to Damien.

Why were the references to the Qur'an cut out by mainstream media sources?

The only reason we have killed this man today is because Muslims are dying daily by British soldiers. And this British soldier is one. It is an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. By Allah, we swear by the almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you until you leave us alone. So what if we want to live by the Shari'a in Muslim lands? Why does that mean you must follow us and chase us and call us extremists and kill us? Rather you lot are extreme. You are the ones that when you drop a bomb you think it hits one person? Or rather your bomb wipes out a whole family? This is the reality. By Allah if I saw your mother today with a buggy I would help her up the stairs. This is my nature. But we are forced by the Qur'an, in Sura At-Tawba, through many ayah in the Qu'ran, we must fight them as they fight us. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. I apologise that women had to witness this today but in our lands women have to see the same. You people will never be safe. Remove your governments, they don’t care about you. You think David Cameron is going to get caught in the street when we start busting our guns? You think politicians are going to die? No, it’s going to be the average guy, like you and your children. So get rid of them. Tell them to bring our troops back so can all live in peace. So leave our lands and we can all live in peace. That’s all I have to say. [in Arabic:] Allah’s peace and blessings be upon you.