A Lebanese student accused of planting a bomb on a German train pleaded his innocence before a German court Tuesday, saying that the gas-filled device in his possession was only meant to scare. “I swear by God almighty that I had no intention of killing anybody,” said Youssef al-Hajj Dib, 24. “I knew when I…
Milan police arrested two Moroccan-born men on charges of plotting attacks against Italian targets. These targets included a supermarket, police barracks, and Milan’s Piazza del Duomo. The two men were said to have no ties to international terrorist groups, but did admire the work of such groups as Al Qaeda. Wiretaps of the two men…
The Islamic Cultural Center in Rome, also called the Rome Grand Mosque, faces desertion and abandonment although it is the biggest mosque in Italy. Despite the fact that the mosque’s large prayer hall can accommodate some 5,000 people, it remains empty except for Friday prayers and Eid celebrations. The keeper of the mosque, Ya ‘quob…
Britain has been seeking new methods in the fight against radical Islam and extremism. A delegation from the British Islamic Community visited Turkey last week and met with officials from Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate. The group questioned how imams sent abroad are trained in Turkey, said a Religious Affairs Directorate official. But they did not…
Hafiz Muhammad Saeed is said to have been one of the founders of Lashkar-e-Taiba when it was formed in 1989. When the Guardian met him in Pakistan in 1998, it found a “short, round man in spectacles” delivering a sermon to his disciples in which he told them: “Terrorists are killers, they kidnap and murder…
