Between the prayers that fill the holy month of Ramadan, during the long fasts that stretch from dawn to dusk, Muslims have been meeting to discuss the disappearance of Salman Ibrahim.
The respected businessman persuaded up to 200 Pakistani and Indian immigrants to contribute their savings and mortgage their homes to finance real estate deals. But Ibrahim vanished in August, leaving his investors with losses that could total $50 million - in some cases their life's savings.
"The scale of impact that this stands to have on a lot of people in the South Asian and Muslim communities is potentially very drastic," said attorney Salman Azam, who filed a petition last week to force Ibrahim's company, Sunrise Equities Inc., into bankruptcy. "There are a lot of very, very sad stories and dire financial situations."
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#1
a muslim shakedown artist from Chicago, ya say?......
hey! I know a similar flimflam guy....
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/27/2008 17:42 Comments ||
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Allen giveth, and Allen taketh away.
See you in the funny papers, suckers.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/27/2008 18:11 Comments ||
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Perhaps most significant to investors: Ibrahim was a member of the Shariah Board of America, a Devon-based group of Islamic clerics who advise Muslim investors. The board certified Sunrise as conforming to an Islamic law, or Shariah, that prohibits Muslims from earning interest on investments.
Oh please tell me it is so!! LOL! The Shariah imbued Muslim Asses got Conned by one of their own..
>:)
Oh how I wish it was one of us who bagged their Pious pile!! LOL, They can Piss Off and Cry all the way back to the old country!!
A Texas jury acquitted a man accused of killing a boy who broke into his home looking for a snack - a case that sparked outrage in this border city, where many thought the man should not have even been charged. It took the jury of eight men and four women three hours Friday to find Jose Luis Gonzalez, 63, not guilty of murdering Francisco Anguiano, who was 13 when he and three friends broke into Gonzalez's trailer to rummage for snacks and soda one night in July 2007.
"I thank God and my attorney, the jury and the judge," Gonzalez said in Spanish after the verdict. "It was a case where it was my life or theirs, and it's a very good thing that they (the jurors) decided in my favor."
Gonzalez said he was sorry for Anguiano's death, but "it was a situation in which I feared for my life."
Texas law allows homeowners to use deadly force to protect themselves and their property. In June, a grand jury in Houston cleared a homeowner who shot and killed two burglars outside his neighbor's house despite the dispatcher's repeated request that he stay inside his own home.
"I feel vindicated for Mr. Gonzalez and his family and for all of the homeowners and all of the seniors in Laredo," said Isidro "Chilo" Alaniz, Gonzalez's attorney. "This case has huge implications across the board. We always, always believed in Mr. Gonzalez's right to defend his life and his property."
Alaniz is running uncontested for Webb County district attorney in November.
However, Assistant District Attorney Uriel Druker maintained during his closing arguments that the case was not about homeowners' right to protect their property, but about when a person is justified in using deadly force to do so. "What really took place here was a case of vigilantism," he said after the verdict. "A 13-year-old boy was killed because a man was enraged."
Anguiano's aunt, who asked not to be named, said in Saturday's editions of the Laredo Morning Times that she was disappointed with the verdict. "The state fought the case the way it should have," she said. "There was a sufficient amount of evidence, and I thought that some of the jurors would be a father or a mother, and perhaps they would think about this happening to them."
Gonzalez had endured several break-ins at his trailer when the four boys, ranging in age from 11 to 15, broke in. Gonzalez, who was in a nearby building at the time, went into the trailer and confronted the boys with a 16-gauge shotgun. Then he forced the boys, who were unarmed, to their knees, attorneys on both sides say. The boys say they were begging for forgiveness when Gonzalez hit them with the barrel of the shotgun and kicked them repeatedly. Then, the medical examiner testified, Anguiano was shot in the back at close range. Two mashed Twinkies and some cookies were stuffed in the pockets of his shorts.
Another boy, Jesus Soto Jr., now 16, testified that Gonzalez ordered them at gunpoint to take Anguiano's body outside.
Gonzalez said he thought Anguiano was lunging at him when he fired the shotgun.
Many people in Laredo - a town just across the Rio Grande from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, where drug violence runs rampant - defended Gonzalez's actions. In online responses to articles published by the Morning Times, comments included statements such as "The kid got what he deserved" and calls to "stop the unfair prosecution."
#1
Okay, I suppose I'll swim against the tide: if the boys were on their knees, unarmed, and no threat to the man, and the boy was shot in the back, then it was murder (or at the least manslaughter) and not self-defense.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/27/2008 16:36 Comments ||
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However, Assistant District Attorney Uriel Druker maintained during his closing arguments that the case was not about homeowners' right to protect their property, but about when a person is justified in using deadly force to do so
If the state demonstrated that it was serious about crime rather than doing 'just enough' to keep the unwashed masses in place and storming their governmental offices, you might make that point. When government spends far too much time and resources on behalf of sociopathic and destructive members of our society who carry out the death penalty in our homes, streets, neighborhoods, business and even schools without due process and without appeal and then government spits in the face of the families and love ones saying 'we must adhere to the process of the law', you're going to get this response. Law, which is an extension of government, derives its legitimacy from the consent of the governed. It's apparent a large body of the legal fraternity doesn't grasp that fundamental point. It's not a game. Don't talk, do. Then you'll change the attitude.
#3
These were children. They were not a threat to Mr. Gonzalez. For goodness sake, Mr. Gonzalez shot the boy in the back while he was on his knees and apologizing. The jury was wrong to acquit.
Posted by: ed ||
09/27/2008 16:56 Comments ||
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#4
Gonzalez is obviously a racist
/sarc
Given that the guys 63, been repeatedly robbed/vandalized, and a 13 yr old punk is equally capable of killing you, I'm inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt on his fear of being attacked by the "lunging" yout. The best way to avoid this consequence? Don't burglarize other people's residences. Not that hard, is it? The fact that all he got was snacks is irrelevant. If next month's $1000 mortgage or rental payment was on the counter, is there any doubt this punk wouldn't have taken it? F*ck him and his atty
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/27/2008 17:13 Comments ||
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#5
Although I lament the death of a child, he made his decisions. Can he be held accountable, at 13, for bad judgement? Yes. If you don't want to get into trouble, don't do anything to get INTO trouble. At 13 he knew right from wrong.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
09/27/2008 17:17 Comments ||
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#6
who was 13 when he and three friends broke into Gonzalez's trailer to rummage for snacks and soda one night
Four teen aged boys broke in at night to rummage? In Texas?? Four teen aged boys engaged in mischief make up a small mob, as difficult to control as a herd of rampaging cats. They're lucky only one got killed. Perhaps the aunt would have been happier had the old man only knee-capped each one by way of a lesson to respect others' property, and to keep them waiting nicely until the police arrived, instead.
#7
Ed, I usually agree with you in most of your posts. This time you're wrong. Those punks are lucky only one of them is dead. They put their lives on the line when they left the public sidewalk and walked on to that man's property, much less broke into his home. THEY MADE THE DECISION TO PUT THEIR LIVES AT RISK. No one forced them to do that and the fellow who shot them acted in a very rational fashion. Four teen boys can be just as deadly as a pack of wolves. Witness the number of people who have been kicked to death in the U.K. recently by packs of young people.
Moreover, who's to say what would have happened if they had broken into a different home. If they get away with it this time, there's a good reason to assume there will be a next time. Maybe next time they break into a home with a young woman there. What do you think they would do with her? Maybe you think they'd have done nothing. I think it would be a case of multiple rape and possible murder.
No sympathy here for these boys. In fact, I'm grateful to Mr. Gonzales for removing one thug and seriously intimidating the others. They, at least, will think twice before they pull that stunt again and one of them never will. Maybe that will educate a few other would-be criminals as well. Crime SHOULD be a high-risk endeavor.
One last comment, on an unrelated issue. Last week you completely and unequivocally tore General_Comment a new one on the issue of the SU 30's. That pro-Russian troll had it coming and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing that. Well done, and thanks.
#8
I confess that at the age of 13, I was incapable of knowingly putting my life at risk. I did some stupid things (though I never broke the law), but if at age 13 you would have tried to explain this to me, Jolutch, I don't think I would have gotten it.
Because I was a KID.
This was manslaughter. At least.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/27/2008 19:45 Comments ||
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#9
This was manslaughter. At least.
Theoretically. Practically, it's anarchy. In all respects.
#10
I was a kid. At 13, I knew that breaking into someone's house was wrong, always has been. This punk obviously thought it wasn't. He and his thug friends (gang?) didn't care and at least only one paid the price. If they were in my abode, the 12 gauge wouldn't discriminate, and I'd be deliberate about phoning it in. I'm an asshole, I guess, SW, but I know what's right and wrong
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/27/2008 20:07 Comments ||
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#11
Hang on a second, someone broke into this guys house, so he shoots the intruder. Where's the problem?
Whomever brought this man up on charges, should be brought up on charges.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
09/27/2008 20:38 Comments ||
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Posted by: Steve White ||
09/27/2008 11:20 Comments ||
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#3
..He was a class act, in public and in private. Not only that, but I always loved his comment on why he never stepped out on his wife of more than fifty years:
"I get steak at home - why should I go out for hamburger?"
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
09/27/2008 11:26 Comments ||
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#6
class act - a liberal, but he put his money (all Newman's Own profits to charity - can you imagine Al Gore doing that?) where his mouth was. A happily married guy and great actor. I don't support his politics, but support the man. RIP
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/27/2008 16:59 Comments ||
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#7
I agree, Frank G. I don't agree with his politics but he was an honorable man. RIP, Paul.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
09/27/2008 17:13 Comments ||
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In one of William Goldman's books he talked about various Hollywood personalities he dealt with during his career as a screenwriter. Mostly negative stuff because of the types of personalities in Hollywood. The one that stood out was Paul Newman. Paul Newman walked on water as far as Goldman was concerned. Sounded like the greatest guy. Of course that's just one guys opinon but still.
Update from Reuters: apparently he had a seizure, for which he was treated and then released.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/27/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
I found it interesting that McCain mentioned this at the debate and Obama did not. I wonder if the Kennedys told McCain before it was press released.
#1
Now we know why Hillary decided not to go the Jewish groups anti-Iranian rally outside the UN when she found out she would have to stand along side of Sarah Palin.
The side by side photograph would not help the Democratic cause so Obama axed it.
Posted by: Ouch that hurt my eyes ||
09/27/2008 0:13 Comments ||
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Authorities in Morocco have shut down around 60 Quranic schools belonging to a Muslim cleric who argues that girls as young as nine can marry, officials said Thursday.
The authorities also plan to close down the Internet site on which Sheikh Mohamed Ben Abderrahman al-Maghraoui decreed earlier this month that the marriage of nine-year-old girls is allowed by Islam. The sheikh said his decree was based on the fact that the Prophet Mohammed consummated his marriage to his wife Aisha when she was that age.
Lawyers, the media, and finally Muslim scholars rounded on Maghraoui for effectively seeking to legalize pedophilia. The authorities finally took action on Wednesday, shutting down his headquarters in Marrakesh and dozens of his small Quranic schools dotted around the country. "The Internet site 'Maghrawi.net' is going to be closed, while the headquarters of the Mohamed Maghraoui association in Marrakesh and his 'Quranic Houses' have already been closed," a security official told AFP.
Sheikh Maghraoui's 'fatwa' or religious decree was condemned on Sunday by Morocco's top body of Islamic scholars. The High Council of Ulemas, which is presided over by Morocco's King Mohammed VI, labeled the sheikh an "agitator" and denounced his "utilization of religion to legitimize the marriage of nine-year-old girls."
Rabat-based lawyer Mourad Bekkouri filed a complaint against Maghraoui and his fatwa earlier this month in which he said the decree damaged children's rights by increasing the risk of rape. He told AFP the cleric is undermining Islam and its followers and that he had requested the state prosecutor to speed up the case.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/27/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Why not? Their prophet did.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/27/2008 0:30 Comments ||
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Lawyers, the media, and finally Muslim scholars rounded on Maghraoui
It is difficult for the ulemma to go against such a sterling example of perfect manhood, even in these changed times. Perhaps they should look at the fact that their prophet's first wife was considerably older than he, rather than that his nth was taken from her dolls to his bed, and follow that example: no child wives until a man has conquered 1/3rd of the known world for his god.
#4
And now some geneticists are claiming we carry Neanderthal DNA as well -- critical bits like speech and planning abilities. It seems we breeders are important, after all. ;-)
The descendants of Captain Hardy and Admiral Nelson are due to launch a series of projects to help fight the decline in the Royal Navy. This could include a "buy out" package for HMS Victory and commissioning experts to look into the sorry state of "Nelson's Navy".
The grandson of Captain Hardy warned the MoD that they had "awoken a dragon" and would do everything in their power to turn around the Navy's terminal decline. He also promised to keep the public involved and informed while drawing together consensus amongst naval campaigners. The families are known for controversy clashing with the recently formed UKNDA and causing discomfort at the Admiralty as they declared "The covenant between Nelson and Hardy's descendants and the MoD as "null and void".
The Nelson and Hardy families have been becoming more public in their stance since the Trafalgar 200 celebrations in 2005 and have consulted experts in naval preservation, naval architects and top naval historians.
#1
The English government has abrogated the responsibility of a national defense.
If there is any claim to legitimacy by a government, it is that they provide for their nation's national defense. Otherwise, they cease to be a government.
Therefore, the English, and hopefully the royal family, will take it upon themselves to form a "de facto" government-in-exile, whose purpose is to create and maintain a national army and navy for the protection of England.
While the "de jure" government continues its mismanagement of England, it will not be interfered with, but if England's sovereignty is threatened, or a hostile military seeks to invade England, this army and navy will repel them.
Under such circumstances, the royal family will depart England to safety, and place a Lord Protector in charge of the military to restore order by the means at his disposal. As his first act, Parliament will be dissolved and England placed under martial law.
A martial law tribunal will be established to mete out judgment to those determined to have contributed to, or engaged in activities detrimental to the nation.
#2
Who will pay for that, Anonymoose? Armies are expensive, navies even more so. That's why governments with taxing ability have historically handled such things. Too, private armies are frowned upon nowadays.
Well, now that you mention it, that's how the big dust up started between King and Parliament leading to the English Civil War. Maybe James was right given how the Parlies have bulloxed it. :)
THE discovery of "potentially dangerous" chemicals after a fire at a unit block in Sydney's eastern suburbs has raised fears of a home-made bomb and forced the evacuation of residents.
Bomb squad officers were called to the unit on the corner of Edgecliff Road and Wallis Street in Woollahra shortly after firefighters discovered chemicals while extinguishing a blaze in a unit about 7am (AEST) today. Police have evacuated residents from nearby units until forensic examinations can determine the precise makeup of the chemicals.
Specialist resources were deployed, including the rescue and bomb disposal unit, police said.
Firefighters earlier pulled a 54-year-old man from the unit suffering burns and has been placed under police guard at St Vincent's Hospital. The man pulled from the blaze has minor burns and smoke inhalation.
Inspector John Maricic, crime manager of Rose Bay Local Area Command, told reporters the fire was likely caused by an electrical fault. He would not reveal whether the chemicals were explosives until forensic examinations were completed. ''(The chemicals) could be considered dangerous and hence we've evacuated the area.
"Obviously our concern to the safety of residents is of paramount importance and obviously we've put road closures in place to prevent any incidents before the examinations have been conducted.''
There was no one else on the premises at the time of the fire, police said, and there were reports the man's partner was at work at the time. The fire left one room of the fourth floor unit considerably damaged and smoke damaged surrounding units, police said.
He said that evacuated residents were being looked after. "We're obviously feeding (the residents) and looking after their welfare and obviously as soon as we can conduct the examination of the scene, the quicker we can get the residents back in,'' he said. "Hopefully today, but we've still got work to do.''
The headline makes it sound like he was freed because he "humiliated" Erdogan, not that he was arrested because he did.
A Turkish court on Thursday acquitted a British artist who risked up to two years in jail for his collage depicting Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a dog, a report said. The court ruled that the work by Michael Dickinson was a "political warning and criticism delivered through art... even though it had insulting and humiliating elements," the Anatolia news agency said. I believe the original bit of "art" is on display at the website or linked to it. It's another sophomoric "political statement" that states that its designer is... ummm... sophomoric.
Dickinson, a long-time resident of Istanbul, displayed the collage -- showing Erdogan as a dog receiving a prize in a pet show from U.S. President George W. Bush -- at a 2006 exhibition here dedicated to peace. As a matter of principle I'm against censorship. But deep down, I don't disagree with him being jugged -- for drooly bad taste.
Turkey is under pressure to improve freedom of expression as it negotiates membership of the European Union, but a series of legal moves against intellectuals in recent years have raised concerns over Ankara's commitment to improve democratic standards. It actually doesn't take much intellect to design something that stoopid. But the point has to be that in a free society you're allowed to be just as stoopid as you like as long as it doesn't involve murder, rape, robbery, battery or kidnapping. Once you start down the slippery slope of "infliction of emotional distress" nobody has any rights. Your own rights end where someone else's ephemerae begin.
Erdogan himself has come under intense criticism after his lawyers pursued court cases against journalists for allegedly insulting him. The courts have rejected cases against two cartoonists and a weekly humor magazine for depicting Erdogan as various animals.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/27/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
I think the best resolution would be to declare political "art" to be political commentary, not art.
As such, the "artist" comes under the same rules as a journalist.
This doesn't mean that he gets any more punishment, in fact he might even get more legal protection. But what it *does* mean is that the court has him declared as "not an artist, just a political hack".
And that may be a worse punishment, because it strips him of any pretense that art was involved, that he is no more an artist than a KOS kiddy, ranting against Bush.
#3
It seems that political cartoons are verboten in Turkey. The only thing worse is blaspheming Mohammed. Then there is much rioting, seething, boom-booms, and tooth gnashing.
(AKI) - Police in the southern Italian province of Caserta on Friday arrested four alleged Mafia members suspected of the brutal murder of six African immigrants.
One suspect was arrested by police earlier this week and another remains at large.
The gang is believed to have been operating the Mafia or Camorra's extortion racket in the province of Caserta, just north of Naples.
The Italian government on Tuesday announced it would send 500 soldiers to the area to help fight organised crime after the immigrants were shot dead outside a tailor's shop by Kalashnikov-wielding hitmen.
The massacre occurred in the town of Castelvolturno which has a large number of immigrants and may have been part of a local turf war caused by African drug pushers muscling in on Mafia territory. There were also suggestions that they had refused to pay 'protection money' to their Mafia godfathers.
Hitmen shot dead gambling arcade owner, Antonio Celiento, in the nearby coastal resort of Baia Verde in the same province on the same day as the massacre, after he refused to pay 'protection money' to the Camorra.
Police arrested Camorra-linked suspect Alfonso Cesarano in Baia Verde on Monday in connection with the Castelvolturno massacre.
Cesarano was under house arrest at his parents' home at the time, Italy's Interior Minister, Roberto Maroni, said.
Cesarano has a police record for drugs and has strong ties to the Camorra, for whom he has done several jobs, the head of police in Caserta, Carmelo Casabona, told journalists on Monday.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/27/2008 00:00 ||
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After Orissa, Karnataka and Kerala, attacks on churches have spread to Tamil Nadu, with suspected Hindu activists damaging a statue of Baby Jesus in Dharmapuram town in Erode district in the southern part of the state.
The attack in Erode came as fresh instances of desecration of church property were reported from neighbouring Kerala. Glass panes of a holy wayside cupola at Harippad in Kerala's Alleppey district were found broken on Friday.
The panes of the cupola were smashed with a stone, police said, adding that the glass on a portrait of apostle St Thomas placed inside it was also found broken. The place of worship belongs to the Karthigappally St Thomas Orthodox Cathedral, which falls under the Malankara Orthodox Church.
As in Orissa and Karnataka, where ire against conversions was directed wantonly against all orders and churches belonging to denominations which had traditionally not been involved in conversion, Hindu activists in Kerala have also expanded the violence to include Catholic churches.
The attacks have continued despite assurances from authorities on protection of churches and Christian property. After the Tamil Nadu attack on Friday, tension gripped Dharmapuram. Police beefed up security at churches, mosques and temples in the district after the attack.
In Tamil Nadu, it was the fourth attack on church property. It came barely a day after a statue of Virgin Mary was damaged in Karavalai in Nagercoil. On Tuesday, unidentified people damaged an idol at St Joseph's Church in Arapalayam in Madurai. Last week, two Hindu Munnani members were arrested for pelting stones at a church in Namakkal.
TN chief minister M Karunanidhi warned that strict action would be taken against the attackers. Friday's incident in Kerala was also the fourth such in the state in two weeks and the second in Alappuzha district. On Wednesday, glass panes of a chapel in Purakkod district were found broken. Those behind the desecration are yet to be booked.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/27/2008 00:00 ||
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A good thing the Tamil war machine is almost finally defeated, it seems.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Authorities in Morocco have shut down around 60 Quranic schools belonging to a Muslim cleric who argues that girls as young as nine can marry, officials said Thursday. 
The descendants of Captain Hardy and Admiral Nelson are due to launch a series of projects to help fight the decline in the Royal Navy. This could include a "buy out" package for HMS Victory and commissioning experts to look into the sorry state of "Nelson's Navy".
(AKI) - Police in the southern Italian province of Caserta on Friday arrested four alleged Mafia members suspected of the brutal murder of six African immigrants.
