Al Qaeda hit by Black Death fear as medieval plague kills 40 terrorists at training camp

Al Qaeda terrorists have been left fearing the Black Death plague after it wiped out at least 40 insurgents at an Algerian training camp, it was reported today.
The horror disease, which killed 25 million people in medieval Europe, is understood to have been found in a militant’s body dumped at a roadside.

Terror group AQLIM (al Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb) was forced to turn its shelter in the Yakouren forests into mass graves and flee, it has been claimed.

The new plague epidemic is said to have begun in AQLIM’s cave hideouts of in Tizi Ouzou province, 90 miles east of the capital Algiers.

AQLIM is the largest and most powerful al Qaeda group outside the Middle East and trains Muslim fighters to kill British and American troops.

Its boss Abdelmalek Droudkal claims to command around 1,000 insurgents and masterminded the bombing the UN headquarters in Algiers in 2007, killing 41.

Black Death comes in various forms and was one of the deadliest pandemics in human history when it struck in the 1340s killing 75 million people across North Africa, Asia and Europe.

Bubonic Plague is spread by bites from infected rat fleas. Symptoms include painful boils in the groin, neck and armpits.

In Pneumonic Plague, airborn bacteria spread like flu. Without medication it can be deadly.
Although plague is virtually unheard of in developed countries, the World Health Organisation reports several thousand cases a year.

These occur mainly in southern Asia, southern Africa and central America.

Between 1989 and 2003 there were more than 38,000 cases, which caused 2,845 deaths in 25 countries.

I love it!!! They want to live in seventh century conditions and lo and behold they are dying from The Black Death. I can only just hope that the CIA is behind spreading this around the muslim world. Death to every muslim is the only way that the world will see peace.

Hamas declares "great victory" after Israeli cease-fire

In a televised speech Ismail Haniya, the Prime Minister appointed by Hamas in Gaza, said: "God has granted us a great victory, not for one faction, or party, or area, but for our entire people.
"We have stopped the aggression and the enemy has failed to achieve any of its goals."

His comments came as Israel began withdrawing troops from the Gaza strip.

Hamas has joined the ceasefire in Gaza - but said it will resume hostilities unless Israel withdraws all its troops from the area within a week.

The truce ends three weeks of bloodshed which has claimed the lives of more than 1,200 people - half of them civilians.

It has been welcomed by US President-elect Barack Obama, who takes office on Tuesday.

A spokesman said: "President-elect Obama is committed to working to help achieve lasting peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians.

"(He) will have more to say on these issues after January 20th."
Hamas militants have carried out several rocket attacks on Israel since the ceasefire came into effect.

Israeli forces responded to the first with an airstrike on the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun in which a woman and child were reportedly wounded.

Israel's war cabinet - led by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert - voted unanimously to back the ceasefire deal brokered by Egypt.

But he said Israeli troops would remain in Gaza and hit back if the militants launched further attacks.

He described the truce as "fragile" and said it would be reviewed on a "minute to minute" and "hour to hour" basis.

Hamas has said there cannot be a lasting peace until Israel pulls its troops out of Gaza and lifts a trade blockade.

A break from the aerial bombing is not a ceasefire. Israel has to withdraw from Gaza and stop fighting. - Source close to Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal

Following talks in Jerusalem between the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and European leaders, Gordon Brown urged the Israelis to pull all their troops out of Gaza as soon as possible and open up border crossings.

Mr Brown said: "I believe that that would constitute the next stage following the ceasefire that will make possible the resumption of talks that are necessary for a permanent peace."...

Both Brown and Obama, among others, would do well to examine the parameters of cease-fires and peace treaties under Islamic law. For example, below is a passage from Umdat al-Salik (Reliance of the Traveler), a Shafi'i Islamic jurisprudence manual certified as "reliable" by Egypt's Al-Azhar University:

Truces are permissible, not obligatory....Interests that justify making a truce are such things as Muslim weakness because of lack of numbers or materiel, or the hope of an enemy becoming Muslim...If the Muslims are weak, a truce may be made for ten years if necessary, for the Prophet (may Allah bless him and give him peace) made a truce with the Quraysh for that long, as is related by Abu Dawud....The rulings of such a truce are inferable from those of the non-Muslim poll tax; namely, that when a valid truce has been effected, no harm may be done to non-Muslims until it expires. o9.16

Why is Israel doing this? This is unbelievable. They need to wipe out every man, woman and child in Gaza, retake it, throw the arabs out of Israel and the West Bank and then they will have peace.

Love, Yemeni style: "I prefer to marry uneducated rural girls as I believe that uneducated girls are more innocent and easier to control"

A consequence of the enshrinement of Muhammad's consummating his marriage to Aisha when she was 9 years old as a laudable act, worthy of imitating (Qur'an 33:21), is not only the stigmatization of "older" would-be brides, but that "older" is actually rather young. Hence, according to this article, the marriage of very young girls is actually on the rise.

"I'm not young anymore to get married. I am in my late thirties so it is not easy," said 38 year-old and primary school teacher Mona.

The norms of our society compel a woman to make unsatisfied choices to marry as early as possible or to remain single beyond the usual age. However, thousands of women struggle during the time they remain unmarried.

According to a new study conducted by researcher Shuroog Ba-Mogbl, more than half a million women go above their thirties and still stay unmarried. Also the motive behind spinster was revealed as the society has negative thoughts towards working women.

"Hearing negative comments about educated women, I prefer to marry uneducated rural girls as I believe that uneducated girls are more innocent and easier to control," said 27 year old Rashid Al-Sa'di.

Perhaps he has heard this Yemeni proverb: "Give me a girl of 8, and I can give you a guarantee [for a good marriage]."

"If we can liberate ourselves a little from having bad feelings towards educated women, we won't have the big crisis of early marriage in Yemen," said lawyer and human rights activist Afra Hariri. "People's way of thinking towards educated women and divorced ones raises the issue of spinster in the country" she added.

In Sana'a theaters next Friday the 13th: Night of the Educated "Spinster".

Belqis Al-Lahabi a human rights activist who also passed through struggles of being unmarried, said that educated women often prefer to marry wealthy men and this is one reason for the delay of their marriages, which also leads them to marry older men.

Is "wealthy" defined with the same low threshold as "old enough for marriage?"

Sociology professor at Sana'a University Adel Al-Sharjabi said that late marriage is believed to be a crisis not only in Yemen but also in all Arab countries. "The period of time in which the woman stays unmarried is harmful as her behavior is watched and her movements are monitored more than others," he added.

In a country where many older women are struggling to get married, the rate of early marriages are increasing dramatically. The wait that older women go through leads younger women to get married as early as possible.

"I don't know anything about my childhood only a girl who had to bring water from a far away water wells," said 28 year-old Daula Hassan who got married 15 years ago to a man in her father's age. "If I have something to regret, it is my childhood," she added.

Volunteer lawyer of (Nujood, Arwa and Reem,) who all got married before the age of 14, Shatha Nasser said that the reasons that led her clients' families to accept early marriages for their daughters was their parents financial reasons.

There is a deeper problem with a system of values that considers bartering one's daughter as an option in the face of financial difficulty.

The law before 1990 stated that the girl must reach the age of sixteen to get married and any marriage before the limited age is a crime and those who violate the law must be imprisoned not less than a year and not more than three years and pay money for the woman as a compensation.

"It is a potential risk that men turn to marry younger girls and leave adult ones," said Head of the Sister Arab Forum for Human Rights, Amal Basha.

Researcher and parliament member Faud Dahabh believe that under age marriage is not permitted in Sharia if it harms the girl. He went on that numerous cases of early marriages assured that many girls were harmed when they got married early.

"If it harms the girl." And what transparent, verifiable system is in place to ascertain that?
Sana'a university faculty of law professor Abdul Mo'men Shuja' Al-Dein said that the new law does not make it clear as it states that the marriage of the child girl is illegal." "The law also states that the silence of a woman when asked for marriage is a sign of acceptance and this law is against the international agreements that Yemen signed," he added.

Locals who got married at a early age describe their practice of sex with their wives to bakers who bake bread in cold ovens. That crass and insensitive analogy aside, one would think some of them might recognize that as sign that child marriage is not such a great idea.

Professor and jurisprudence's professor and ex-head of the Faculty of Law Sana'a University Hassan Al-Ahdel stated that it is not fair to force a female child to get married early because such a marriage could result to many problems.

He revealed that famous Islamic scholars as Abu Hainfah fixes marriage age at 18 and considers this age to be the minimum, because a man or a woman becomes full-grown and able to take decisions out of his own sense and consideration.

It will take much more than one anecdote about a favorable minimum marriage age to genuinely solve the problem. The opinion of one scholar -- however famous -- against the example of Muhammad, and the fact that the Qur'an takes child marriage for granted in allowing for divorce of girls who have not reached puberty (65:4) will not sway those who are determined to maintain child marriage. Only a broad consensus against it, stated in unequivocal terms, with the support of civil laws and clerics who will refuse to be party to child marriages will pave the way for progress. Insisting that it isn't really Islamic (except when it kind of is, but it's complicated) will not.

Early marriage is one of the biggest development challenges in Yemen according to Naseem-Ur-Rehman, Chief Information Officer at UNICEF Sana’a. A 2006 field study revealed that child marriage among Yemeni girls reached 52.1%, compared to 6.7% among males. The study, conducted by the Woman and Development Study Center, affiliated to Sana’a University, looked at 1,495 couples.

Old Mo was a pediphile who loved little boys and girls. He married a six year old Ayisha and had sex with her at nine. NINE? Even back then nine was too young. But hey, Old Mo is the pefect human according to the sick muslims.

Taliban deadline arrives, girls' schools close in Pakistan's Swat Valley

Thousands of young women living in a part of Pakistan once considered the country's most idyllic tourist destination have been prevented from going to school after an order from Taliban forces which have seized control of much of the area.

Fearful of violent attacks that have already seen the torching of over 180 schools in the Swat Valley, school administrators have announced that more than 900 private schools will remain closed until the security situation improves. Government officials, struggling to organise adequate protection, have appealed to schools to extend their winter holidays until at least March. The future education of around 125,000 young women is uncertain as a result of the order, said to come into effect on January 15.

In an echo of Afghanistan under the Taliban, the campaign against female education is the latest phase of a brutal and swift advance across the valley led by local Taliban commander Maulana Fazlullah that has included the beheading of opponents, the closure of barber shops, political assassinations, kidnappings and the destruction of homes belonging to the wealthy.
Earlier this month, militants were believed to be behind attacks on the homes of the Wali of Swat, the benign autocrat who ruled the valley and who has now fled to Islamabad, and Hameedullah Khan, a reporter for the respected Dawn newspaper.

The Taliban have also introduced a parallel legal system where makeshift Sharia courts order lashes and death sentences for those seen to be violating their brand of Islamic law, said Shoukat Saleem, a lawyer.

“Yesterday there was a bombing of a school in Mingora, the main city,” he added. “No one is giving any education. Girls preparing for their matriculation exams in March have had to abandon their education. Unless the government or the Taliban announce that the situation will be ok, no one will take the risk.”

Shoukat Ali Yousafzai, the top civil administrator, said most of the schools were currently closed for winter holidays. “Once they are over, we will give security with the help of the army,” he said.

But in a sign of worsening security in even Mingora, which until recently been beyond the reach of the Taliban, Mr Yousafzai said around 50 corpses had been discovered dumped this month. Some have been found beheaded, others carried a note warning readers not to remove the body before an appointed time.

Ziauddin Yousafzai, a spokesman for the Private Schools Management Association, said: “It will be very difficult to reopen the schools as long as there is no political solution of the problem? The Taliban are now the de facto rulers of Swat.”...

Additional reporting from Reuters and the Associated Press adds this:

Muslim Khan, the militants' spokesman, said they would not allow girls' schools to operate until the army withdraws from the valley and Islamic law is imposed. "These schools are being run under a system introduced by the British and promote obscenity and vulgarity in society," Khan said by telephone from an undisclosed location.