“Dino Amor Pareja, the leader of the Rajah Solaiman Movement, a group of Christians who had converted to become Islamic militants…”
Who converted him? Under what influences did he convert? Why did he so misunderstand his brand new peaceful religion?
I keep asking such questions whenever stories come up of converts to Islam being involved in jihad activity, and they come up often. In asking these questions, I am calling the bluff of the mainstream media and the Islamic groups in the West, who insist that we must believe that Islam is a Religion of Peace on pain of charges of “bigotry” and “Islamophobia.” And I will keep on calling that bluff until everyone sees through the fog of deception still blankets the West courtesy those Islamic groups and their allies in the media. If Islam is a Religion of Peace, and only “Islamophobes” see it in any other way, why do so many converts to Islam keep getting it so terribly, terribly wrong? And if Islam is not a Religion of Peace, why is so much domestic and foreign policy in the U.S. and Europe based on the assumption that it is and always will be?
“Head of Filipino ‘terror’ group arrested: police,” from AFP, August 25 (thanks to James):
MANILA “” Police said Tuesday they had arrested the head of a group of Islamist militants behind a deadly bombing in the Philippines capital, who also plotted attacks against US targets.
Dino Amor Pareja, the leader of the Rajah Solaiman Movement, a group of Christians who had converted to become Islamic militants, was captured at his hideout in the southern city of Marawi on Friday, national police chief Edgardo Verzosa told a news conference.
Verzosa said the US Department of Defense had offered a 90,000-dollar reward for information leading to the arrest of the suspect. An unnamed informant received a separate 500,000-peso (10,000-dollar) reward for the arrest, he added.
The police chief described Pareja as a skilled bomb-maker who was trained by Dulmatin and Umar Patek, both Jemaah Islamiyah militants who fled Indonesia to the Philippines to escape prosecution for the deadly 2002 Bali bombings.
Also known as Khalil Pareja, Abu Jihad and Al-Luzoni, the suspect is to stand trial in connection with a 2005 bombing in Manila’s financial district that claimed three lives.
He will also be tried for a second blast in the southern port of Zamboanga that wounded 26 people, and a 2005 attack on a Philippine army detachment that left 10 soldiers dead.
The same year Pareja took part in a “failed bombing operation” codenamed “Big Bang” that targeted Manila establishments frequented by Americans and other foreigners, Verzosa said….
“Big Bang,” eh? Whew — at least he isn’t a creationist!