The Islamic state

[J Ed]

Here is Maajid Nawaz at Al-Quds day 22nd October 2006 representing Hibz ut-Tahrir, which contradicts the claim he repented when in Egyptian prison.

He could easily have been living outwardly as an Islamist (and a state asset) while not believing it.

 

[ibilly99]

Rees still trying to pass for being mid-20s i see.

Looks like he's using Just for Men 'Touch of Grey' .

 

[8ball]

I always wondered what a lefty Heat magazine would look like...

 

[likesfish]

The enemy of my enemy is sometimes just an enemy of my enemy.

 

[chilango]

The enemy of my enemy is sometimes just an enemy of my enemy.

Sometimes it's just my enemy, and another of my enemies.

 

[Pickman's model]

Sometimes it's just my enemy, and another of my enemies.

sometimes...

 

[likesfish]

The left in Iran backed the mullahs their reward?

Murdered in mass

 

[J Ed]

Very touching letter from the YPG to the family of Ashley Johnston

 

[J Ed]

I thought that this was interesting, I had no idea that the Christian population in the Middle-East was as significant as it was in the early 20th Century. Somehow it makes current events even more horrifying.

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/vie...twilight-of-Middle-Eastern-Christianity-.html

At the turn of the twentieth century the Christians accounted for 20 to 25 percent of the population of the Middle East. Today they are barely 2 percent. Their numbers have been declining steadily because of low birth rates, and emigration for economic reasons; but many have been forced to leave because of violence and wars, and as a result of overt discrimination, and persecution. The Christians of the Fertile Crescent are rapidly disappearing, while the largest community of Christians in the region, Egypt’s Copts continue to struggle against difficult political and economic odds in a deeply polarized society. Following the violent dispersal of organized sit-ins by the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) in Cairo on August 14, 2013 mobs of MB supporters staged an Egyptian version of Kristallnacht, where scores of churches and Coptic owned institutions were attacked and torched. The days of violence that followed resulted in the killing and wounding of dozens of Copts. The extent of the repression was seen as the worst against Copts since the 14th century.

 

[Geri]

Statement about the destruction in Mosul from Mosul Eye

Destroying Mosul’s Heritage:
We apologize for not updating the page. Like most Iraqis, we have been mourning the unbearable loss of our precious relics. Once again, many unrealistic voices have been asking why the inhabitants of Mosul did nothing to stop the rampage, and once again we will say if stopping the destruction and oppression without arms were possible, 5 million Jews would not have been killed systematically during the Holocaust. There was an average of 10,000 Jews in every concentration camp vs. 50 Nazis. If freeing themselves and fighting back, with their bare hands like many are asking the people of Mosul, were an option, they would have. As for the pythons calling for a nuclear or chemical attack on Mosul, we will ask them to look in the mirror and seek the reason for all the hatred they carry inside. It is beyond shameful that Mosul receives prayers and wishful thoughts from non-Iraqis world-wide whereas Iraqis are calling for genocide of the hostage people of Mosul.
Some notes about the destruction:
1- The footage seen in the video published by ISIS dates back to July-August 2014 and NOT February 2015. We had noted in a previous news brief last August that ISIS had destroyed the Winged Bull at the entrance of “Nirgal Gate” as well as the statues in Mosul’s Museum. We must ask ourselves why ISIS chose this specific date to post the video.
2- 90% of the statues in the museum are indeed not authentic, but rather gypsum versions of the originals which have been moved to Baghdad gradually since April 2003. However, the Winged Bull is authentic. Another important note worth mentioning is the “Yellow Obelisk” of Assyrian King Esarhaddon, and many and many authentic tablets are missing from the video footage. Our inquiries with the Museum’s employees conclude that these pieces were taken out of the Museum since early July following the detaining of the Museum’s manager (Musa’ab Mohammed Jasim) whom we have mentioned in a previous post. The manager was detained after ISIS took over the city in order to identify the exact value of the ancient artefacts. He was released later. Museum administrive Dr. Muntaha also claims the museum is no longer of any value apart from the yellow obelisk and ISIS. The obelisk vanished from the Museum on February 25th one day after German experts in Mosul evaluated its worth. How the German experts entered the city and managed to secure ISIS protection remains a mystery. However, we must wonder if the pro-ISIS propaganda made by German reporter Jurgen Todenhofer last December was part of the bargain. This should be material for a worldwide investigation as to how these Germans accessed the city under ISIS protection. Where are the journalists?
3- Sources tell us ISIS is excavating the areas around monumental sites in Mosul in search of relics, particularly around the location of Jonah’s tomb (previously). Witnesses say ISIS militiamen would spend hours in the site after sunset.
4- ISIS have destroyed 10% of the artefacts they possess. The remaining relics in Nimrod and Hatra are priceless.
5- Further investigations have led to facts that several ancient pieces from Syria and Iraq have been shipped to Turkey through shipping cars that do not belong to ISIS, but to international shipping companies. We have enough evidence to believe that business and trade is continuing between ISIS and Kurdistan & Baghdad.
6- Ancient Syriac, Arabic, and Latin manuscripts preserved in Mosul’s churches have been confiscated by ISIS months ago. These rare scripts constitute a treasure of Christian heritage. Plans are being made to sell them to antique dealers.
7- Two men who appeared in the video of ISIS destroying the relics have been identified. They shall be punished.
8- Final Note: Mosul Eye only posts updates that are well-worth noting. Even if you decide not to believe our news, please take it into serious consideration. We do not collect news for the sake of entertainment or merely reading. Several satellite channels do that. What we offer is by far more than that. We are conveying updates to those whom in concerns and are risking our lives every minute while doing so.

This states that the destruction actually happened last August when they took the city, but video only just released now.

 

[J Ed]

 

[eoin_k]

YPG/YPJ and local forces took tel brak yesterday, moving them closer to Tel Abyad (Gre spi)and finally joining efrin and kobani cantons. Something that looked impossible around october when the YPG/YPJ were hanging on by their fingernails in kobani city and ISIS were swarming all over the countryside. I'll try and find a decent map showing this.

Something like this:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_Civil_War#/media/File:Syrian_civil_war.png.

(I can't embed the link unfortunately.)

 

[brogdale]

Isn't Jihadi John part of ISIS?
I didn't realise there were special people here to judge whether posts
are too flippant to be allowed in a thread.

Talking of which...I'm increasingly amazed at the parade of Mohammed's former teachers etc. who appear more than willing to speak to the MSM about what a good little normal boy he was. They all seem blissfully unaware that they are offering very concrete examples of how fatuous the state's 'prevent' agenda is.

 

[butchersapron]

Something like this:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_Civil_War#/media/File:Syrian_civil_war.png.

(I can't embed the link unfortunately.)

Cheers had forgot to do this - yeah,that one shows the two cantons that are close to being linked up - the ones on the right and the centre.


Battle for tikrit begins - interesting for a number of reasons:

1) How the retouched Iraqi army is going to perform in a real test - this is likely to be long and nasty
2) How the baathists who run tikrit and threw their lot in with ISIS plan to respond - cut and run with their personal resources and networks intact as they've done before, or utilise all possible remaining local support from saddam's days and try and act as a rallying point.
3) How population react
4) How shia militia are used and on who

edit: 5) What the payback for both ISIS and Baathists will be for their role in the Camp Speicher massacre.

 

[treelover]

I strongly suspect this is why (parts of) the British state are more or less happy to allow Islamic Societies at many British universities to serve as forums for radicalisation and as a speaker circuit for radical Islamists. As well as serving this purpose they must be extraordinarily good recruiting grounds for the security services. Good article here on how the radicalisation of Islamic Societies in British universities works.

When I was involved with Hizb, we controlled the Islamic Society of Sheffield Hallam University for several years, as well as running the society in Bradford University and Birmingham University. We were full-time activists dedicated to fomenting dissent, anti-western feelings and nurturing those who we believed could help to advance our cause.

When was he there?

 

[treelover]

Following the violent dispersal of organized sit-ins by the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) in Cairo on August 14, 2013 mobs of MB supporters staged an Egyptian version of Kristallnacht, where scores of churches and Coptic owned institutions were attacked and torched. The days of violence that followed resulted in the killing and wounding of dozens of Copts. The extent of the repression was seen as the worst against Copts since the 14th century.

Aren't the Muslim Association of Britain(MAB) affiliated to the Muslim Brotherhood?

btw, the BBC are always reporting that MB do not believe in armed violence

 

[Patteran]

Another larger-scale map here, linked cause it's a big file.

And as a footnote - decent twitter source r3sho, quoted previously in this thread, has closed his account. Always an interesting commentator (prompted the first english-language discussion of YPG needing Arab militia support in non-Kurdish majority towns), his last exchange was with an Anonymous-type who reckoned he'd found an IS IP in Manchester & started throwing slack words around.

Edited to add - and a map of Iraq here, from the same online source.

 

[butchersapron]

Another larger-scale map here, linked cause it's a big file.

And as a footnote - decent twitter source r3sho, quoted previously in this thread, has closed his account. Always an interesting commentator (prompted the first english-language discussion of YPG needing Arab militia support in non-Kurdish majority towns), his last exchange was with an Anonymous-type who reckoned he'd found an IS IP in Manchester & started throwing slack words around.

Edited to add - and a map of Iraq here, from the same online source.

Missed all that - i have him in my list - he was the one with the big red kurdish eagle as his avatar wasn't he? This, i think, used to be his blog.

 

[Patteran]

Missed all that - i have him in my list - he was the one with the big red kurdish eagle as his avatar wasn't he? This, i think, used to be his blog.

Yep, that's him - I caught the beginning (some kid popped up, posted a google street map of Cheetham Hill linked to an IP, claiming it was a safehouse), then the end as tweets were deleted & r3so posted a final 'i'm out of here' before deleting his account.

 

[J Ed]

When was he there?

Early 2000s

 

[J Ed]

Al-Nusra pose with their weapons taken from the now dissolved 'pro-Western' Hazm group

 

[Anudder Oik]

CAGE seems to be in the papers again today, including a relatively sympathetic piece in the Graunid

This is a good article

This article is an indictment of the gentrification of the british left, which has so covered itself with politically correct filters that it can no longer see the Wood for the trees. This would never have happened if the left in Britain had not been orientated away from the working class.

 

[Theisticle]

Jeez, this whole 'frustrated virgins' nonsense needs to stop:

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices...ised-or-is-he-just-a-sick-loser-10081044.html

 

[Anudder Oik]

Iraqi government forces backed by allied Shia and Sunni fighters have begun a large-scale military operation to recapture Saddam Hussein's hometown from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.

A force comprising 20,000 soldiers and fighters was trying to advance into Tikrit on Monday...

 

[frogwoman]

Jeez, this whole 'frustrated virgins' nonsense needs to stop:

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices...ised-or-is-he-just-a-sick-loser-10081044.html

Yep, sick of this nonsense as well.

 

[Geri]

Me too. It's either used as a term of abuse or a prize you hold onto until marriage (but only if you are a woman).

I just don't get it. To me it is meaningless, neither here nor there.

 

[frogwoman]

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/articles/europe/17263-isis-recruitment-in-kosovo

ISIS recruitment in kosovo

Kosovo is a nation which arouses a lot of interest from the various world powers. It has a historic and large Turkish community, mainly in the city of Prizren. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited in 2013 and declared, "Turkey is Kosovo; Kosovo is Turkey."

The US also has strategic interests in Kosovo, which is home to its largest military base in Europe. Despite its majority Muslim population, Kosovo supported the US-led military action against Iraq in 2003.

It is one of the poorest countries in Europe, with widespread corruption and 30 per cent unemployment. Almost 50 per cent of Kosovars, 1.8 million people, live below the poverty line.

With this sort of disastrous social situation at home, around 30,000 Kosovars tried to enter the EU illegally through Serbia and Hungary last month alone. As the young people of Kosovo find the doors of Europe closed to them, the doors to the Middle East appear to be wide open.

 

[october_lost]

Maajid Nawaz's intelligence role is discussed here. Highlighting the very same point.

 

[Pickman's model]

The left in Iran backed the mullahs their reward?

Murdered in mass

killed in church? like thomas a becket?

 

[Pickman's model]

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/articles/europe/17263-isis-recruitment-in-kosovo

ISIS recruitment in kosovo

Kosovo is a nation which arouses a lot of interest from the various world powers. It has a historic and large Turkish community, mainly in the city of Prizren. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited in 2013 and declared, "Turkey is Kosovo; Kosovo is Turkey."

The US also has strategic interests in Kosovo, which is home to its largest military base in Europe. Despite its majority Muslim population, Kosovo supported the US-led military action against Iraq in 2003.

It is one of the poorest countries in Europe, with widespread corruption and 30 per cent unemployment. Almost 50 per cent of Kosovars, 1.8 million people, live below the poverty line.

With this sort of disastrous social situation at home, around 30,000 Kosovars tried to enter the EU illegally through Serbia and Hungary last month alone. As the young people of Kosovo find the doors of Europe closed to them, the doors to the Middle East appear to be wide open.

iirc aq active in region in 1990s providing charity and social assistance