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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| Sipah-e-Sahaba tried to establish offshoot in Japan |
| 2005-12-30 |
| A member of an Islamist extremist group banned in Pakistan entered Japan two years ago to try to establish a foothold in the country, a Japanese newspaper said on Friday. Japanese police had warned this month that Islamist extremists may tempt Muslim communities in Japan to turn radical and attack Japan, whose government has been a staunch backer of the U.S.-led war on Iraq . In a report that underscores such concerns, police learned from an informant that a member of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), a Sunni extremist group outlawed in Pakistan, had entered Japan to start an SSP branch, the Sankei newspaper said. After checking immigration records, police found that a Pakistani man in his 30s had entered Japan in 2003 with a visa for religious activities and that he had told others while worshipping that he came to Japan to establish an SSP offshoot, the newspaper said. "We will step up efforts to grasp the actual conditions of the Islamic community in Japan that could be used improperly by terrorists," the paper quoted a police source as saying. Sankei said the man was detected both entering and leaving Japan that year, but did not make clear his current whereabouts. A spokesman for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department said he had no information on the case and declined to comment. The man had been seen at mosques near Tokyo and also had contact at train stations with a 27-year-old Pakistani in the trading business who had lived in Yokohama near Tokyo and a 40-year-old Pakistani and former employee of a Tokyo bookbinding firm, Sankei said. Tokyo police have arrested the 40-year-old Pakistani on suspicion of violating immigration laws, and are continuing surveillance activities to track down the SSP network in Japan, the newspaper said. Japan, which has sent some 550 ground troops to Iraq on a reconstruction mission, has been on guard against possible attacks since being mentioned by members of Islamist militant group al Qaeda as a possible target. Prior to Japan‘s deployment of troops to Samawa in southern Iraq, al Qaeda had reportedly threatened to "strike in the heart of Tokyo" if Japan sent troops to Iraq. Japan dispatched its main contingent of troops to Iraq in February 2004. In May 2004, Japanese police arrested several foreigners in a probe into the activities of Lionel Dumont, a French national with links to al Qaeda who entered Japan on a false passport in 2002 and stayed for over a year. There is no official data on the number of Muslims in Japan, but police sources have put the number around 90,000. They are mainly from Indonesia, Pakistan, India, Iran and Turkey, the sources said. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #7 doesn't help when you order the Karachi Roll at the Sushi bar |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-12-30 15:25 |
| #6 They are Pakistanis after all |
| Posted by: Sholuting Jerong9172 2005-12-30 15:07 |
| #5 Sipah specializes in doing terrible things to Shiites. It takes a certain amount of brilliance to try the Islamist crap in Japan, where foreigners stick out like a sore thumb. |
| Posted by: Fred 2005-12-30 14:38 |
| #4 In Japan, when someone is arrested by the police, it is assumed that they are guilty and will be convicted. Something like a 95% conviction rate in Japan. And if you are a foreigner, then no constitutional protections for you. Japanese constitutional rights are for Japanese only. And not even for sure on that account if you are mixed race. |
| Posted by: Shieldwolf 2005-12-30 11:33 |
| #3 Tokyo police have arrested the 40-year-old Pakistani on suspicion of violating immigration laws Think we might want to consider outsourcing our immigration problem to the Nips. It seems they don't mess around. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2005-12-30 10:14 |
| #2 They don't worry themselves about silly things like warrents and such when security is involved |
| Posted by: Steve 2005-12-30 08:19 |
| #1 Johnny on the spot they are. |
| Posted by: Ptah 2005-12-30 08:09 |