Recently in Yemen Category

Another attempt to gain financing for the jihad from the witless Westerners who keep falling for this. "Dominik Neubauer Video: Austrian Hostage In Yemen Appeals For Ransom Money With AK-47 Pointed At His Head," from Reuters, February 23 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

VIENNA, Feb 23 (Reuters) - An Austrian man taken hostage in Yemen in December has appeared in a video posted on YouTube, saying he would be killed if ransom money was not paid to a Yemeni tribe within a week.

Pictured with what appeared to be an AK47 automatic rifle pointed at his head, Dominik Neubauer said he was in good health and appealed to the Yemeni and Austrian governments and the European Union to give his hostage takers what they wanted.

"Mum, Dad, Lucas, Angela, I love you more than anything. Up until now I am in good health," the 26-year-old Arabic studies student said in the video posted on Feb. 21. (http://r.reuters.com/jux26t)

Neubauer was snatched along with a Finnish couple by tribesmen in the centre of the capital Sanaa on Dec. 21, according to the Yemeni government. Yemen has said the three were later sold to al Qaeda members and transferred to the small town of al-Manaseh south of the capital.

A spokesman for the Austrian Foreign Ministry said on Saturday the government was acting on the assumption the video was genuine, and was in intensive contact with the Yemeni authorities and also with the Finnish government.

"This is the first sign of life we have from Mr Neubauer," he said.

He said Austria would not allow itself to be blackmailed, and said there was no concrete group that had made itself known as the hostage-takers.

The spokesman added that the ministry had received the video on Saturday. He declined to say where the ministry had got it from.

"We want to see the return of a healthy hostage," he said, adding that the foreign, interior and defence ministries and the chancellery had been in crisis talks on Saturday that would likely continue on Sunday....

Over at Gatestone Institute (via RaymondIbrahim.com), I discuss the plight of an invisible minority surrounded by a sea of hostility:

When one thinks of Yemen—the impoverished Arab country that begat Osama bin Laden and is cushioned between Saudi Arabia and Somalia, two of the absolute most radical Muslim nations—one seldom thinks of Christians, primarily because they are practically nonexistent in such an inhospitable environment. In fact, most tallies suggest that Yemen’s entire non-Muslim population is less than one percent.

However, a new Arabic report discusses the existence of Christians in Yemen, and their plight—a plight that should be familiar by now, wherever Christian minorities live under Muslim majorities.

Unofficial statistics suggest that there are some 2,500 indigenous Christians in the nation, practicing their faith underground, even as hostile tribes surround them. According to human rights activist, Abdul Razzaq al-Azazi, “Christians in Yemen cannot practice their religion nor can they go to church freely. Society would work on having them enter Islam.”

He added that, as in most Muslim countries, “the government does not permit the establishment of buildings or worship places without prior permission,” pointing out that Roman Catholic officials, for example, are currently awaiting a decision from the government on whether they will be allowed to construct a building and be officially recognized by the government in Sana.

A convert to Christianity—an apostate from Islam whose life is forfeit and who naturally prefers to remain anonymous, going by the pseudonym, “Ibn Yemen” (Son of Yemen)—expressed his fear of increased pressure on Christians, especially since the “Islamists now represent the dominant political faction, following the Arab Spring and the protests that brought the fall of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.” He added that even though the old regime “was not Islamist, Christians were still subjected to persecution and scrutiny by the police apparatus under that regime. Authorities did not allow us to practice our religion openly or allow us to build a private church, all because of Islam’s apostasy law. What do you think it will be like now that the Islamists are in power?”...

How very, very strange. An explosion in a house owned by a known Islamic jihadist. Must have been a gas leak or something -- why else would there have been an explosion in a jihadist's house? As Hamas-linked CAIR assures us, jihad is just staying fit despite one's busy schedule. Could something have gone wrong with the wiring of one of these guys' exercise machines?

"At Least 13 Suspected Al-Qaida Men Killed in Yemen," from the Associated Press, January 20 (thanks to Lookmann):

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — A Yemen security official says an explosion in the province of Bayda has killed at least 13 suspected al-Qaida militants.

The official in Bayda's capital city of Radda says the explosion went off in a house owned by a known al-Qaida operative, Ahmed Abdullah Deif-Allah Al-Zahab. It appeared to be an accident.

Residents were barred Sunday from approaching the scene of the incident by militants with links to al-Qaida, the official said.

Early last year Al-Qaida's Yemen-based branch briefly seized the town of Radda, an outpost 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of the capital....

A life of being a sex slave and a punching bag is leading an increasing number of women in Yemen to lash out.

"Men are the managers of the affairs of women for that God has preferred in bounty one of them over another, and for that they have expended of their property. Righteous women are therefore obedient, guarding the secret for God's guarding. And those you fear may be rebellious admonish; banish them to their couches, and beat them. If they then obey you, look not for any way against them; God is All-high, All-great." (Qur'an 4:34)

The Qur'an commentary Ruhul Ma’ani gives four reasons that a man may beat his wife: “if she refuses to beautify herself for him,” if she refuses sex when he asks for it, if she refuses to pray or perform ritual ablutions, and “if she goes out of the house without a valid excuse.” Also, Muhammad’s example is normative for Muslims, since he is an “excellent example of conduct” (Qur’an 33:21) – and Aisha reports that Muhammad struck her. Once he went out at night after he thought she was asleep, and she followed him surreptitiously. Muhammad saw her, and, as Aisha recounts: “He struck me on the chest which caused me pain, and then said: Did you think that Allah and His Apostle would deal unjustly with you?” (Sahih Muslim 2127)

Wife-beating exists in all cultures, but only in Islam does it enjoy divine sanction. Amnesty International reports that “according to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, over 90% of married women report being kicked, slapped, beaten or sexually abused when husbands were dissatisfied by their cooking or cleaning, or when the women had ‘failed’ to bear a child or had given birth to a girl instead of a boy.”

Aisha herself said it: “I have not seen any woman suffering as much as the believing women.” (Sahih Bukhari 7.72.715)

"‘Husband killings’ become crime phenomenon in Yemen," by Abdul Aziz al-Hyajem for al-Arabiya, January 8 (thanks to Pedro):

About 50 Yemeni women were arrested in 2012 for murder, most were accused of deliberately killing their husbands, Yemen’s interior ministry announced this week.

According to a report released by the ministry’s Information Security Centre, the Yemeni women were between the ages of 25-50 and most had committed the crimes with the help of male relatives.

Inequality, domestic violence and “emotional motives” were just some reasons behind such crimes, said the report, adding that the killings took place in Mahweet, Taiz, Hajjah, Sana'a, Amran and Marib.

However, the ministry said that the number of women who were victims of attempted murder was nearly double the number of women involved in killings.

Dr. Mujib Abdul Bari, a specialist in psychiatric and neurological disorders, told AlArabiya.net that constant physical and psychological abuse drastically changes a person.

Daily abuse makes a woman feel despair at her seeminlgy [sic] hopeless situation, said Bari, adding that women in such situations “forget their femininity and resort to killing their spouse.”

He said that the most notable crime in Yemen took place on August 7, 2012 in a village in the province of Marib, in which a 40-year-old woman killed her husband and two sons following a family dispute....

Muhammad owned slaves, and the Qur'an takes the existence of slavery for granted, even as it enjoins the freeing of slaves under certain circumstances, such as the breaking of an oath: “Allah will not call you to account for what is futile in your oaths, but He will call you to account for your deliberate oaths: for expiation, feed ten indigent persons, on a scale of the average for the food of your families; or clothe them; or give a slave his freedom” (5:89).

While the freeing of a few slaves here and there is encouraged, however, the institution itself is never questioned. Slavery was taken for granted throughout Islamic history, as it was, of course, in the West up until relatively recent times. Yet the impetus to end slavery moved from Christendom into Islam, not the other way around. Because the Qur'anic word cannot be questioned, and the book does not contain the Biblical principles that led to the abolition of slavery in the West, there has never been a Muslim abolitionist movement. Slavery ended in Islamic lands under pressure from the West.

In fact, when the British government began pressuring other regimes to abolish slavery in the nineteenth century, the Sultan of Morocco was incredulous. “The traffic in slaves,” he noted, “is a matter on which all sects and nations have agreed from the time of the sons of Adam...up to this day.” He said that he was “not aware of its being prohibited by the laws of any sect” and that the very idea that anyone would question its morality was absurd: “No one need ask this question, the same being manifest to both high and low and requires no more demonstration than the light of day.”

Sadiq al-Mahdi, former prime minister of Sudan, would agree. On March 24, 1999, he wrote to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, that “the traditional concept of JIHAD does allow slavery as a by-product.” And so slavery persists in some areas of the Islamic world. The BBC reported in December 2008 that “strong evidence has emerged of children and adults being used as slaves in Sudan’s Darfur region.”

Mauritanian human rights crusader Boubakar Messaoud asserted that in that country, people are born and bred as slaves: “A Mauritanian slave, whose parents and grandparents before him were slaves, doesn’t need chains. He has been brought up as a domesticated animal.” Three years later, nothing had changed. Messaoud explained in March 2007: “It’s like having sheep or goats. If a woman is a slave, her descendants are slaves.” Likewise in Niger, which formally abolished slavery only in 2003, slavery is a long-standing practice. Journalist and anti-slavery activist Souleymane Cisse explained that even Western colonial governments did nothing to halt the practice: “The colonial rulers preferred to ignore it because they wanted to co-operate with the aristocracy who kept these slaves.”

Islamic slavery has not been unknown even in the United States. When the Saudi national Homaidan Al-Turki was imprisoned for holding a woman as a slave in Colorado, he complained that “the state has criminalized these basic Muslim behaviors. Attacking traditional Muslim behaviors was the focal point of the prosecution.” Where did he get the idea that slavery was a “traditional Muslim behavior”? From the Qur'an.

"Yemen’s hidden slaves," by Ibrahim Jadelkarim for AFP, December 19 (thanks to Lookmann):

Slavery is still being practiced in parts of Yemen, with men, women and children all falling victim to the practice. And according to local human rights activists, the government would prefer to simply sweep the problem under the carpet.

An investigation by the Wethaq Foundation, based on six months of field studies, has revealed 190 cases of slavery in three provinces in the north west of the country. The organisation also found evidence of people being bought and sold, and its report is raising questions about just how widespread slavery is in Yemen.

Yemeni Human Rights Watch had already documented its first case of enslavement in 2008, when activists found evidence of a slave being traded for around 2.000 euros. The case was discovered via local documents used to register real estate which included the phrase: “the slave Qenaf, son of slave Sara, was legally purchased”.

Charity
According to activist Najeeb Al-Saadi, it is not uncommon for individuals from the Arab Gulf to buy slaves in Yemen and then set them free. This, he says, is seen as a charitable act, in accordance with the teachings of Islam.

Al-Saadi also claims his group was able to free a slave called Naseem during its research. The terms of release included keeping the identity of the seller confidential and keeping the slave away from the media. Naseem has now been brought to the capital Sana'a, and the Foundation is searching for someone to adopt him.

Mohammed Naji Allaw is an activist and former member of parliament. He says most slaves were set free back in the 1960s after the September 26 Revolution. They remained hugely disadvantaged though because of their low economic status.

No hope
The new findings by the Wethaq Foundation are backed up by research conducted by the Al-Masdar website in 2010. This confirmed that local communities in the North-West are comfortable with slavery. For those enslaved the situation is grim. In interviews conducted by the website, the slaves said they have not received any education and believed they had little chance of improving their situation.

According to Al-Saadi, the Yemeni authorities have been happy for the slavery question to remain hidden, and the publication of his organisation’s report is raising awkward questions. When Al-Masdar previously wrote about the issue, the authorities’ response was to deny slavery existed and to send troops to the North-West to intimidate those who had spoken out. Al-Saadi hopes his group’s new research will make it impossible for the issue to be swept aside again and that the government will be forced to take action.

Slavery is banned and all people are equal under Yemeni law, but experts say extreme poverty fuels the practice as poor people in rural areas are often totally dependent.

Yes, of course. Throw money at it. That will fix it. It fixes everything. It will change Qur'anic teaching on slavery.

"This is an Islamic country, and Islam is clear about everything. There is no need for people to voice their opinions about it. And if he truly is an apostate, he should be punished." Again and again we see this: utter certainty about what Islam is all about, enunciated by Muslims in Muslim countries -- and the very same propositions denied by Islamic spokesmen in the West, and those who assert that they're part of Islam denounced as "Islamophobes."

So it in the case of apostasy. Muhammad said: "Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him" (Bukhari 9.84.57). The death penalty for apostasy is part of Islamic law according to all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence. Yet Muslim spokesmen such as Harris Zafar, Mustafa Akyol, Salam al-Marayati, M. Cherif Bassiouni, and Ali Eteraz (among many others) have assured us that Islam doesn't punish apostasy. I expect that Zafar, Akyol, al-Marayati, Bassiouni, and Eteraz will immediately be jetting over to Sana'a to explain to Yemeni authorities that they are getting Islam all wrong, wrong, wrong.

"'Repent or die' in Yemen," by Judith Spiegel for Radio Netherlands, December 21 (thanks to Lachlan):

Ali Ali Qasim Alsaidi felt Yemen and its people were drifting away from Islam as it was meant to be. He wrote his findings – substantiated by Qu’ranic [sic] readings – on Facebook. And he’s now accused of apostasy, facing death penalty. It is early the morning when Ali Ali Qasim Alsaidi (43) drives to the Press and Publications Court in Yemen’s capital Sana’a. Dressed in a brown suit, he steers his old Mercedes through the quiet streets of the city. People here are oblivious to the Kafka-like trial Alsaidi will be facing in an hour or so. “It’s sorry or die”, he says. He means that in order for him to be cleared of the apostasy accusation, he has to repent. But he finds this difficult. “The things I wrote on Facebook were the result of research and are religiously correct”, says Alsaidi. He also felt it was his duty to write them down. Galileo of Yemen

Alsaidi is the general director for budget and planning at the Yemeni Higher Judicial Council Secretariat. It was his colleagues who allegedly reported him to the prosecutor’s office. His lawyer Amin Hajar says that Alsaidi’s colleagues did so because they wanted his job. According to Hajar, “they have turned him into the Galileo of Yemen, only 500 years later.”

“Religion in this country is going this way”, Alsaidi points to the right, “and the people are going that way”, he points to the left. This is what he tried to make clear in his Facebook posts, most of which he published in the spring of 2011, when there was heavy fighting between government troops and the tribesmen of Hameed al Ahmar in the Al Hasaba district.

Taboo on discussing religion

“In this country you can discuss everything except religion”, says Alsaidi. And indeed, there is hardly any subject Yemenis do not discuss daily and at great length during their qat sessions, but religion is hardly ever one of them. “Nobody has read the Qu’ran [sic]. People just listen to all kinds of sheikhs.” In his Facebook posts he emphasises the importance of using reason as a means of finding the truth in religious matters.

For this, Alsaidi now stands trial in the Press and Publications Court. There’s a crowd in front of the entrance to the building, where many of Alsaidi’s family, friends and neighbours have gathered. They all believe in his innocence and are annoyed by the affair. “This country doesn’t know what freedom means, and Islah (Yemen’s equivalent to the Brotherhood) is making it worse”, they say angrily.

Article 259

The specialised Press and Publications Court was established in 2009. Many people believe its sole purpose is to silence Yemen’s few independent media outlets. Apparently it is now also being used to silence bloggers and Facebook users. It is questionable whether this court has the authority to do so, which is one of the arguments Alsaidi’s defence lawyers will be using. But then again, if not this court, there’s probably another one in Yemen.

A more important line of defence is that nothing Alsaidi wrote is against Islam and thus in violation of Article 259 of the Yemeni criminal code which states that “anyone who turns back from or denounces the religion of Islam, will receive the death penalty after being asked to repent three times and after having received a respite of thirty days.’

Eliminating apostates

Alsaidi didn’t denounce religion, argues his defence team. Or as the Yemeni journalist Hind Aleryani wrote in her blog: “there is nothing in Alsaidi’s writings that shows he is an unbeliever.’ Support came from other sources as well. Most of them are afraid that if this case succeeds, the apostasy article might be politically (ab)used to get rid of people.

But the media and lawyers aren’t raising the even more fundamental question, at least from a Western perspective, about whether there may be something wrong with the article itself. What if Alsaidi or anyone else were an unbeliever? Should the state have the right to punish people for denouncing their religion?

Religious conservatives

“Of course”, responds a schoolteacher who lives not far from the court and wishes to remain anonymous. “This is an Islamic country, and Islam is clear about everything. There is no need for people to voice their opinions about it. And if he truly is an apostate, he should be punished.’

Which is exactly what Alsaidi’s family and friends are afraid of. “It is not only the court that could punish Ali. Any crazy person who considers him a kafir [unbeliever] might also decide to kill him”, they say. They stroke their chins, referring to men with beards.

"Repent or die"

Then it is time to go inside the courtroom. The hearing doesn’t take long. Alsaidi’s defence team repeat what they’ve said before: their client should not be here. The prosecutor repeats what he said before: Alsaidi is an apostate. The judge says Alsaidi’s defence team should come up with a better defence, next week, same time, same place.

Back in the car Alsaidi is disappointed. This is not good. “Nothing changed. They are delaying the case because they want me to repent, but how can I? I am afraid I will first lose my job, then my wife [under Yemeni law a Yemeni wife cannot be married to an (alleged) unbeliever] and then my life.”

Drinking alcohol: haram. Murdering someone for drinking alcohol: pleasing to Allah. "Yemen extremists kill woman in alcohol raid," from AFP, December 21 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

Armed extremists killed a woman in Yemen's main southern city of Aden when they raided several homes whose owners allegedly have alcoholic drinks, residents and a security official said on Friday.

"More than ten" armed men on motorbikes stormed three houses in Aden's Memdara neighborhood on Thursday, residents said.

The owners fled except for one woman who remained in one of the apartments, the sources said, adding that the gunmen shot her dead before driving off.

A security official in Aden told AFP that "we have received a complaint stating that Islamist extremists have killed a woman." He did not give any further details.

Extremists took advantage of a year-long uprising in Yemen that ousted veteran strongman president Ali Abdullah Saleh, seizing control of large swathes of territory in the country's southern and eastern provinces.

Despite giving up most of these territories after an all-out army offensive against them that ended in June, many have infiltrated the once bustling port of Aden in an attempt to impose their strict version of Islamic (sharia) law.

Have you ever noticed that mainstream media reports frequently reference a "strict version of Sharia" -- in Iran, or Saudi Arabia, or Nigeria's Kano state, or Yemen, or elsewhere -- but we never read about a "relaxed version of Sharia"? That's because there isn't one. Contrary to the lies of Islamic apologists in the West, the content of Sharia is quite clear. And quite "strict" in all its variations.

Thought to be linked to Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the militants operate mainly by night, harassing young couples seen together and sometimes launching deadly attacks against security forces.

Don't they know Sharia is benign and completely compatible with Western values, as Imam Rauf told us? Well, no. They've been reading the Qur'an:

"This is the recompense of those who fight against God and His Messenger, and hasten about the earth, to do corruption there: they shall be slaughtered, or crucified, or their hands and feet shall alternately be struck off; or they shall be banished from the land...." (Qur'an 5:33)

"And the thief, male and female: cut off the hands of both, as a recompense for what they have earned, and a punishment exemplary from God; God is All-mighty, All-wise." (Qur'an 5:38)

"When you meet the unbelievers, smite their necks, then, when you have made wide slaughter among them, tie fast the bonds; then set them free, either by grace or ransom, till the war lays down its loads...." (Qur'an 47:4)

"Amputations, beheadings and a crucifixion: Horrific stories from Yemen where Al Qaeda has imposed sharia law," from the Daily Mail, December 4 (thanks to Pedro):

Al Qaeda committed 'truly shocking' human rights abuses including crucifixions and the beheading of an alleged sorceror during its 16 months in control of a southern region of Yemen, a report by Amnesty International claimed today.

The London-based charity has also released a video which appears to show a suspected thief having his hand amputated by the Ansar al-Sharia militia, which seized power of the Abyan governorate in February 2011.

Amnesty said dozens more civilians were then killed during reckless counter-insurgency operations by the Yemeni government as it sought to win back the territory from the Al Qaeda-affiliated group.

The tragedies would 'haunt Yemen for decades to come' unless the perpetrators were caught and the families compensated, the charity said.

Amnesty International Middle East and North Africa Director Philip Luther said: 'Abyan experienced a human rights catastrophe as Ansar al-Sharia and government forces vied for control of the region during 2011 and the first half of 2012.

'The Yemeni authorities must ensure that a commission of inquiry announced in September covers the truly shocking abuses committed.

'The tragedy of Abyan will haunt Yemen for decades to come unless those responsible are held to account and victims and their families receive reparations.'...

Not likely that any government in Yemen would act so directly against Sharia.

There are groups with slogans like this all over the world, and the U.S. Government's official position is that Islam has nothing to do with any of them, and that to investigate their actual motives and goals is forbidden, because it gets them into...Islam. It's a recipe for suicide.

"Yemenis suspect Iran's hand in rise of Shiite rebels," by Adam Baron for the Christian Science Monitor, October 30 (thanks to Lachlan):

While the graffiti on the walls of Rayda’s bullet-scarred Awadin Mosque condemns the United States and Israel, the clashes that briefly transformed this agrarian town into a war zone were fought between local foes.

The fighting in Rayda was just the latest flare-up in a series of violent clashes in Amran and neighboring provinces that have pitted backers of the Houthi movement against their largely Sunni Islamist foes. And while its roots seem to be local political maneuvering, many here see the tensions as a result of Iranian interference in northern Yemen.

Yemen’s far north has long been wracked by fighting between Houthi rebels and various foes. From 2004 to 2010, the Houthis were the target of a series of offensives launched by the Yemeni government and their tribal fighter allies, who saw the Houthis as an Iranian-backed group intent on destabilizing the country.

When the government's control over much of Yemen weakened during last year’s uprising against Ali Abdullah Saleh, the Houthis were able to effectively gain control over the northern province of Saada and areas of neighboring provinces. Even in the capital, Sanaa, the Houthis have emerged defiantly. Graffiti bearing the group’s vitriolic slogan, “God is Great, Death to America, Death to Israel, Damn the Jews, Victory to Islam,” is a frequent sight on the capital’s streets.

Representatives and supporters of the Houthis characterize the group’s growth as a natural result of their widespread support, saying the group has gained the trust of Yemenis due to its commitment to clean governance and its uncompromising opposition to the current government’s alliance with the United States’ government.

But many Yemenis insist that the Houthis’ gains can be attributed to outside players, characterizing them as a pawn of Iran, citing longstanding accusations that they are receiving funding and possibly arms from the Islamic Republic.

“You can see Iran’s hands in the growth of the Houthis,” says one Yemeni politician, speaking on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the topic. “It’s a threat to Yemen, it’s a threat to Saudi Arabia and it’s a threat to American interests.” ...

How did this "US man" come to misunderstand Islam so spectacularly? What is Honest Ibe Hooper of Hamas-linked CAIR and his gang of thugs doing to keep other US men from misunderstanding Islam in a way that will keep them from joining al-Qaeda in Yemen?

"US man suspected of links to al-Qaeda arrested in Yemen," from the BBC, October 9 (thanks to S.B.):

A US citizen suspected of having links to al-Qaeda has been arrested in Yemen, officials have told the BBC.

The man was detained in Ataq, in the province of Shabwa, the scene of an ongoing conflict between Islamist militants and Yemen's armed forces.

He was then transferred by military plane to the capital, Sanaa, where he was being investigated by the security services, the officials said.

The arrest took place on Monday. No details were given about his identity.

The man was wearing Arab clothes when he was arrested in the Sharqa Hotel in Ataq, according to a report on the privately-owned Yemeni news website, Yemen Fox, which quoted a local official.

The suspect spoke English, said he was a Muslim, and had three passports - two US and one German - in his possession, another official was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying.

Southern Yemen is a stronghold of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which was formed in 2009 by a merger between two regional offshoots of the Islamist militant network in Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

Last year, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency said AQAP, which has mounted several plots against the US, had "emerged as the most dangerous regional node in the global jihad".

In May, the US backed a Yemeni military offensive to recapture areas of Shabwa and the neighbouring province of Abyan, where militants linked to AQAP had established an "Islamic emirate".

And in response, the U.S. has arrested the Muhammad filmmaker and seems poised to institute new restrictions on the freedom of speech. "Al Qaeda in Yemen urges Muslims to kill U.S. diplomats over film," from Reuters, September 15 (thanks to Kenneth):

DUBAI (Reuters) - The Yemen-based branch of al Qaeda urged Muslims to step up protests and kill more U.S. diplomats in Muslim countries after a U.S.-made film mocking the Prophet Mohammad which it said was another chapter in the "crusader wars" against Islam.

"Whoever comes across America's ambassadors or emissaries should follow the example of Omar al-Mukhtar's descendants (Libyans), who killed the American ambassador," the group said, referring to Tuesday's attack on the U.S. consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi.

"Let the step of kicking out the embassies be a step towards liberating Muslim countries from the American hegemony," a statement posted on an Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) website on Saturday said....

"The film published in America which insults our Prophet Mohammad, peace be upon him, comes as part of the continuing crusader wars against Islam," AQAP's statement said, referring to European wars in the region some 1,000 years ago.

"The incident is so huge that the resources of the nation should be pooled together to kick out the embassies of America from Muslim lands," it said....

Praising the attacks by angry demonstrators in Libya, Egypt, Yemen and Sudan on U.S. and other Western missions as "natural responses to a huge insult", the statement said that American embassies should be burned and diplomats killed.

It said defending the Prophet's honor was a "religious duty and obligation to the Muslim nation, each according to his ability".

The group also said that Muslims living in the West have an extra duty to be involved in attacks on key targets.

"They are more capable of doing harm and reaching the enemy is easier for them," it said....

These murderous protesters are acting explicitly in the name of Islam, in Yemen as well as in Egypt and Libya. And Barack Obama repeated just a few days ago: "I have always said that America is at war with al Qaeda and its affiliates – and we will never be at war with Islam or any other religion." But that large portions of Islam are at war with us -- that he never addresses.

"Protesters storm US Embassy in Yemen," by Ahmed al-Haj for the Associated Press, September 13 (thanks to all who sent this in):

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Protesters angered by an anti-Islam film have stormed the U.S. Embassy compound in Yemen's capital, Sanaa.

The protesters were on the embassy's grounds but did not enter the building housing the offices.

Before storming the embassy compound on Thursday, the demonstrators removed the embassy's sign on the outer wall and set tires ablaze. Once inside the compound, they brought down the U.S. flag and burned it....

This man was murdered in accord with the Qur'an's directive to crucify those who "wage war against Allah and his messenger." "Man Crucified By Al-Qaeda-Affiliated Ansar Al-Shari'a For Allegedly Directing U.S. Drones In Yemen – Video Posted On YouTube – Warning: Graphic Images," from MEMRI, August 29 (thanks to all who sent this in):

...On August 27, 2012, a member of the leading jihadi forum Shumoukh Al-Islam posted a YouTube link to a video showing a man accused of spying for the U.S. by placing chips to direct drones targeting terrorists being crucified on an electric pylon in Abyan province in south of Yemen. A sign placed above the man's head shows the group's flag and verse 5:33 of the Koran, which reads: "The recompense of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and do mischief in the land is only that they shall be killed or crucified or their hands and their feet be cut off from opposite sides, or be exiled from the land. That is their disgrace in this world, and a great torment is theirs in the Hereafter."...

Despite being uploaded on February 22, 2012, it appears that the video has been made available recently as suggested by the low number of views and the recently made comments. Based on the date of the video, it is safe to say that the crucified man is Saleh Ahmed Saleh Al-Jamely who was executed on February 12, 2012 after being convicted by a court managed by Al-Qaeda-affiliated Ansar Al-Shari'a.

Al-Jamely was accused of spying and placing two chips in two cars that were later targeted by U.S. drones. According to a statement issued by the Islamic court of Waqqar Emirate in Abyan Governorate, dated February 10, 2012, in that attack, ten members of Ansar Al-Shari'a were killed. The other two men, Hassan Naji Hassan Al-Naqeeb - accused of recruiting, delivering chips, and paying spies; and Ramzi Muhammad Qaid Al-Ariqi - accused of spying for the Saudi intelligence by taking photographs of several buildings, were executed in public, but not crucified....

If the murderer had actually been a non-Muslim, there would have been a fierce international outcry over this. But he wasn't, and so there is no notice of this at all. Even while insisting that Islam is a Religion of Peace, the mainstream media acts as if it knows better by ignoring stories like this -- as if to take for granted that Islam teaches violence and that Muslims are going to act upon those teachings.

"Seven killed in Yemen mosque attack during Eid prayers," by Areeb Hasni for the News Tribe, August 19 (thanks to David):

Aden: Seven people were killed and 11 wounded on Sunday during Eid prayers after a gunman opened fire on a mosque in Southern Yemen, a Defence Ministry official said.

Earlier in the day, a suicide bomber, believed to be associated with an al Qaeda-linked group, blew himself up in the southern Abyan province, killing three and wounding two.

The official said that the mosque shooter appeared not to be related to Islamist militants....

Of course not! He was probably a Christian extremist!

The US has been pouring aid into Yemen to stem the threat of attacks from al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and to try to prevent any spillover of violence into neighbouring Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter.

Egyptian cleric Hashem Islam Ali Islam said recently: "I say to people who object to martyrdom operations that martyrdom operations are among the deeds most pleasing to Allah." Even at mourning ceremonies.

"Suicide bombing kills 45 in Yemen," from AFP, August 5 (thanks to Kristian):

ADEN: A suicide bombing in south Yemen blamed on al Qaeda killed 45 people, local officials said on Sunday, as residents voiced fears that a lack of security personnel on the ground will allow the jihadists to return....

The bomber struck on Saturday in Jaar, one of a string of towns in Abyan province that were retaken by government troops in June after being held by al Qaeda loyalists for more than a year.

“An al Qaeda suicide bomber detonated his explosives belt during a mourning ceremony organised by the Popular Resistance Committees,” a local militia that fought alongside the army, said provincial governor Jamal al-Aqal.

“Bodies were flying in all directions because the explosion was so powerful,” a witness said.

An official at Razi hospital in Jaar said it received the bodies of 24 of those killed, while medics said 12 people had died of their wounds in three hospitals in the main southern city Aden.

Relatives took the bodies of six of the dead directly from the scene of the attack for burial, local official Mohsen bin Jamila told AFP.

Later on Sunday, Jamila told AFP that “three of the wounded have succumbed to their wounds,” raising the overall death toll to 45.

What an intriguing report. One wonders how it is that European security officials know so much about this Muslim, but apparently are not in a position to apprehend him. Note also that AP, like all mainstream media sources, and probably taking their cue from those Eurocops, thinks that the most salient detail about this al-Qaeda-trained Muslim, the one to put in the headline and lead paragraph, is not his Islamic faith, although he himself would point to it as his motivation, but his Norwegian nationality, although it is utterly irrelevant to his actions.

Meanwhile, yet another convert to Islam misunderstands his new, peaceful faith. And yet Muslim groups in the West have done nothing -- nothing -- to keep new converts from misunderstanding their new religion in the same way. Now, why is that?

"Norwegian trained by al-Qaida, awaiting orders to attack," from Associated Press, June 25 (thanks to all who sent this in):

STOCKHOLM — European security officials say a Norwegian man has received terrorist training from al-Qaida’s offshoot in Yemen and is awaiting orders to attack the West.

Western intelligence officials have long feared such a scenario: a convert to Islam trained in terrorist methods who can blend in easily in Europe and the United States and travel without visa restrictions.

Officials from three European security agencies confirmed Monday that the man is “operational,” meaning he has completed his training and is about to receive a target. All requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case.

One official described the man as a Norwegian in his 30s who became radicalized after converting to Islam in 2008. He spent “some months” in Yemen and is still believed to be there.

In the U.S.A., Leftist judges and smiling imams tell us that Sharia is benign and fully compatible with the U.S. Constitution. In Yemen, the Supporters of Sharia eagerly claim credit for mass murder.

"Ansar al-Sharia claims responsibility for massacre in Yemen," from AGI, May 21:

(AGI)Sanaa - Almost 100 people died in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa when a suicide bomber blew himself up. Militant group Ansar al-Sharia, which is affiliated to al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, claimed resposibility [sic] for the massacre stating it was in retaliation against the "crimes" committed by Yemeni security forces. In the past few weeks the military launched an offensive against terrorists. . .

The "assailant" was dressed in an army uniform. Maybe he was in the army. Can the Yemenis be sure there are no "Islamic extremists" in their army? They cannot. "Suicide bomber kills up to 112 in Sana, Yemen," by Zaid al-Alayaa and Jeffrey Fleishman for the Los Angeles Times, May 22:

SANA, Yemen — A suicide bomber targeted soldiers rehearsing Monday for a military parade here, killing as many as 112 people and signaling that Islamic extremists may be shifting their focus to Yemen's capital after weeks of intense battles in outlying provinces with U.S.-backed government forces.

Al Qaeda affiliate Ansar al Sharia claimed responsibility for the bombing in retaliation for American-assisted government offensives against its strongholds in southern Yemen. Unnerved by increasedU.S. military and drone strikes, the militants struck directly at the heart of the new and fragile government of President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi.

The attack, in which at least 300 people were injured, was the bloodiest in the capital in years and came a day after gunmen fired on a car carrying three U.S. civilian contractors training the Yemeni coast guard in the Red Sea port of Hudaydah. The Pentagon said the trio suffered minor injuries....

The attack on Sana revealed how easily militants can maneuver and exploit the nation's turmoil. Officials said an assailant dressed in an army uniform detonated a concealed bomb while troops drilled for a national holiday parade scheduled for Tuesday. Bodies and rifles were scattered across Sabin Square and four city hospitals were overwhelmed with the dead and wounded....

A statement posted on an Al Qaeda website said Yemeni officials had been "turned into mercenaries" carrying out U.S. and Western policies. It added: "We will get revenge.... What happened in Sana is only the beginning."...

The bombing came days after Yemeni forces launched major operations against militants linked to Ansar al Sharia and the group Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Authorities said 19 soldiers and 33 militants were killed in weekend clashes in the south. Earlier this month, a U.S. drone strike killed Fahd Mohammed Ahmed Quso, an Al Qaeda operative believed to have plotted the bombing of the U.S. destroyer Cole in 2000 that killed 17 American sailors.

The militants had promised on their website to retaliate, calling their strategy a "flowing river" that will sweep across the impoverished country. Much of the Al Qaeda affiliate's focus has been in the south, including Abyan province, where police stations have been overrun, officials assassinated and towns seized. The tactics have frustrated Yemen's underpaid, ill-equipped army, which has been manipulated by political forces.

Islamic militants have rattled the government since Hadi's inauguration day in February, when a suicide bomber killed at least 25 people, mostly soldiers, at a presidential palace. Washington fears increased efforts by Yemeni extremists to attack U.S. targets similar to the failed plots in 2009 and this month to blow up airliners over Western skies....

Europe's new export: jihad. Note that Reuters puts "terrorism" in sneer quotes when what should really be between quotation marks is "Belgian," since Ebrahim Bali and Ezzeddine Tuhairi almost certainly do not think of themselves as such. Nonetheless, the Belgian government, as full of witless Eurodhimmis as every other European government, is going to bat for them. "Two Belgian "terrorism" suspects detained in Yemen," from Reuters, May 6 (thanks to Voice of the Copts):

(Reuters) - Two Belgian nationals could be deported from Yemen after being detained last month on suspicion of involvement in terrorism, a Yemeni security official and Belgium's Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.

The Yemeni official identified the men as Ebrahim Bali and Ezzeddine Tuhairi, Belgians of Arab descent, and said they were detained on April 13 at Sanaa's airport as they tried to enter the country.

"They were arrested on suspicion of planned terrorist activities in Yemen. We are in a process of negotiation with the Belgian government. We expect them to be deported...within days," the official said.

A Belgian Foreign Ministry spokesman confirmed the two men were being held over suspected involvement in "terrorist" activity, and said Brussels was seeking consular access to them.

Yemen's branch of al Qaeda, which has plotted abortive overseas attacks from the country, is of great concern to Washington, which is waging an assassination campaign against alleged members of the group using drone and missile strikes....

As the body of a Salafi was being dragged through the street, a copy of the Qur'an fell out of the dead man's pocket, and was inadvertently trampled by those who were dragging the body. Muslims are outraged! Not that a body was dragged through the streets, midn you -- what's another body? -- but that a copy of the Qur'an was trampled. Priorities, priorities! "Yemen Sunnies [sic] angered at Al-Houthis for desecrating the Holy Quran," by Elena White for the Yemen Observer, May 1 (thanks to Pedro):

Outrage erupted in Yemen and more specifically in the Sunni community when a video posted online showed the body of a Salafi being dragged throughout the northern city of Sa’ada by al-Houthi militants, whose Quran, which dropped from the deceased pocket was seen being trampled over.

Al-Houthi militants, a group of Shia Muslim which advocates a return to the ancestral rule of the Imams have been enthralled in a war with Salafists, a group of hard-liner Sunni Muslims calling for a strict application of the Scriptures; both factions seeking to control Yemen northern territories....

Ahmed al-Sofi a political analyst based in Sana’a, the Yemeni capital warned that such an event and a clear attack against the Sunni faith could potentially sets the region ablaze. “Yemenis do not take lightly to religiously driven insult, especially when it comes to its most sacred and revered book, the Quran. Unless some apologies are formulated, Salafists will retaliate in the most violent manner possible as it constitutes for them a clear call for Jihad [holy war].”

A man in Sana’a who saw the video online told the Yemen Observer that he felt utterly disgusted with al-Houthis, stressing further that the move was a declaration of war against every respectful Muslim. “The Quran is our heart and soul, walking on it equates to insulting our beloved Prophet, his teachings and God himself. Surely our clerics will issue a fatwa condemning the culprits. Those men should be tried for apostasy,” said Abdullah Goorgoor.