‘Recent convert to Islam’ is arrested after bomb explosion in restaurant
Alexi Mostrous, Times
A Muslim convert with a history of mental illness who was “preyed upon and radicalised” injured himself yesterday after a device he was carrying exploded in a busy shopping centre in Exeter. Nicky Reilly, 22, received serious facial injuries after the device went off at lunchtime in a family restaurant at the new £230 million Princesshay shopping centre. Another device was defused by bomb disposal teams. Tony Melville, Devon and Cornwall’s Deputy Chief Constable, said last night that Mr Reilly had been “preyed upon, radicalised and taken advantage of”. Mr Reilly’s neighbours said that he had been brainwashed.
Our mission is liberation, says Somali Islamist leader
Simon Tisdall, The Guardian
The senior leader of Somalia’s Islamist opposition vowed yesterday to expel US-backed Ethiopian troops by force and create an Islamic republic in the war-torn country on the Horn of Africa. Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, who led Somalia’s Islamic Courts movement and who the Bush administration claims is a terrorist linked to al-Qaida, said Mogadishu’s western-backed Transitional Federal Government was run by “traitors”.
Drive to clean up TV leaves soap fans fearing for their one respite from reality
Declan Walsh, Guardian
Life has few pleasures for Qaisee, a 35-year-old Afghan mother of 10. Since returning from exile in Pakistan six years ago, her family has lived in a bombed-out house on Kabul’s edge. For the toilet, they squat in a plastic hut by a main road. In winter, a chilling wind howls through the bullet holes in the walls. In summer, it is hot and dusty. And with food prices soaring, hunger pinches their stomachs. But there is one respite.
Are Indian Muslims leading the way in condemning terror? (Alistair Scrutton, FaithWorld)
‘No place for the hijab in civic life’ says Irish journalist (Islamophobia Watch)
A real Orwellian story (Islam, Muslims and an Anthropologist)
Release Equatorial Guinea pastor (Amnesty International)
Ex-ex-gay to speak at Lambeth (Ruth Gledhill)
Dalai Lama to visit Olympics if China talks are constructive (Riazat Butt, The Guardian)
Iran urged to overturn sentences against women activists (Amnesty International)
Cartoons Commemorating Nakba @ 60 (Sabbahblog)
Filed under: Tibet, afghanistan, africa, civil liberties, gay, hijab, human rights, iran, islamism, islamophobia, middle east, muslims, palestine, terrorism, uk
