London, UK, September 18th 2011 - The French government's ban on Muslims praying in public is the latest manifestation of a vicious intolerant secularism targeting the beliefs and practices of Muslims in Europe. It is also the latest death nail in the myth that secular states peddle that they are open,

After the attacks of 11 September 2001, former US President George Bush launched a long crusade in the Islamic Lands. On September 16, 2001, at Camp David, Bush declared, "This crusade, this war on terrorism is going to take a while." Like crusades before it, this crusade benefits only the kuffar and inflicts great harm upon the Muslims. But unlike other crusades

RE: Continuing Brutal Torture of Hizb ut-Tahrir  Members and Activists by the Government of Bangladesh

Hizb ut-Tahrir draws the attention of all human rights organizations based in Bangladesh and internationally, as well as the civil society in Bangladesh to the continuing brutal torture of the party's members and activists by the Government of Bangladesh (GOB); and calls upon the responsible executives and members of the human rights community, and the civil society, if they are truly taking care of human rights, to take up the issue with the GOB, pressing upon them the urgency of refraining from all forms of torture.  

BACKGROUND AND FACTS

1. The current GOB resorted to a policy of brutal repression against Hizb ut-Tahrir since February, 2009, when the party exposed Sheikh Hasina and her government's collaboration in the massacre of officers of the Muslim Army of Bangladesh. Party members and activists are regularly harassed and arrested. Up till now hundreds of party members and activists, along with the party's official spokesman, Mohiuddin Ahmed, have been imprisoned under false cases. They are denied bail despite plain and unambiguous grounds for granting them bail. Moreover any arrested party member or activist is always remanded in custody without fail, for no reason other than torturing them. 
2. Being true to their reputation, the Bangladesh police, RAB and the Task Force for Interrogation (TFI) subject the members and activists of Hizb ut-Tahrir to inhumane torture using brutal means which include applying electric shock to their genitals, squashing them between slabs of ice for lengthy periods, blindfolding, stripping them naked, hanging them upside down and beating them severely etc.
3. In continuing with the repressive policies against Hizb ut-Tahrir, the GOB instructed the police to launch a brutal attack on the party's programme on 13 August, 2011, at Muktangon, Dhaka. The police severely beat and injured many members and activists who had to be admitted to hospital for treatment. The police also arrested 16 members and activists of the party from the programme. They were subsequently remanded for various durations. During their remand they were ruthlessly tortured in the same brutal fashion as in previous occasions:   
   • They were subjected to electric shock, applied to their genitals;
   • They were stripped naked and squashed between slabs of ice for hours;
   • They were blindfolded, tied, severely beaten and left hanging upside down; and
   • They were forced to stay standing, and deprived of sleep for nights.

NAMES OF THE TORTURE VICTIMS

1. Shafayet Ullah, age 17
2. Asif Rahman, age 18
3. Syed Abdullah, age 19
4. Monirul Islam Piyas, age 20
5. Jamilur Rahman, age 20
6. Sabbir Ahmed, age 21
7. Radi Shafiq, age 22
8. Mohammad Faisal, age 22
9. Ashiqur Rahman, age 22
10. Syyedul Islam, age 22
11. Ahmed Nizam, age 23
12. Shahab Uddin, age 27
13. Sharif Shah Miraj, age 27
14. Jahidul Islam, age 29
15. Habibur Rahman, age 35 and
16. Jahid Uddin, age 42

Hizb ut-Tahrir  urges all human rights and civil society organizations, as well as the sincere individuals from the human rights community and civil society, if they are truly taking care of human rights, to fulfill their duty of defending all prisoners of conscience by insisting that the GOB immediately ceases the torture of the members and activists of Hizb ut-Tahrir  .

      Hizb ut-Tahrir        

Wilayah Bangladesh  

Titles:

• FBI Teaches Agents: ‘Mainstream' Muslims Are ‘Violent, Radical'
• Eurozone crisis could rip EU apart: officials
• US: Gadhafi still at large, but politically finished
• US will pursue Pakistan-based militants: Panetta

Details:

 FBI Teaches Agents: ‘Mainstream' Muslims Are ‘Violent, Radical'
The FBI is teaching its counterterrorism agents that "main stream" [sic] American Muslims are likely to be terrorist sympathizers; that the Prophet Mohammed was a "cult leader"; and that the Islamic practice of giving charity is no more than a "funding mechanism for combat." At the Bureau's training ground in Quantico, Virginia, agents are shown a chart contending that the more "devout" a Muslim, the more likely he is to be "violent." Those destructive tendencies cannot be reversed, an FBI instructional presentation adds: "Any war against non-believers is justified" under Muslim law; a "moderating process cannot happen if the Koran continues to be regarded as the unalterable word of Allah." These are excerpts from dozens of pages of recent FBI training material on Islam that Danger Room has acquired. In them, the Constitutionally protected religious faith of millions of Americans is portrayed as an indicator of terrorist activity. "There may not be a ‘radical' threat as much as it is simply a normal assertion of the orthodox ideology," one FBI presentation notes. "The strategic themes animating these Islamic values are not fringe; they are main stream."

Eurozone crisis could rip EU apart: officials
The eurozone crisis could wreck the European Union, top EU officials warned on Wednesday as the leaders of Germany and France held talks with Greece to avoid a default and widespread chaos.The pressure rose on all fronts with United States again expressing great concern, with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner saying European states "now recognise they are going to have to do more" to resolve to the crisis.Highlighting the threat to the global economy, Geithner is to exceptionally attend talks between European Union finance ministers and central bankers in Poland on Friday."Europe is in danger," Polish Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski, whose country currently chairs EU meetings, told the European Parliament in Strasbourg."If the eurozone breaks up, the European Union will not be able to survive," he added.

US: Gadhafi still at large, but politically finished
The highest-ranking U.S. diplomat to visit Tripoli since the fall of the Muammar Gadhafi regime said Wednesday the ousted Libyan ruler, though apparently still at large in the country, is finished politically. Assistant Secretary of State for Near eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman held talks with Libyan interim leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil and other officials of the National Transitional Council, the NTC. Feltman says the Libyan conflict is by no means over, with pro-Gadhafi forces still in control of a large triangle of territory including the former dictator's stronghold town of Sirt. "In terms of the people that we've met today, to the extent that they're representative of the city or the country as a whole, Gadhafi is already part of the past, which I found interesting. So it seems as though: yes, there's a risk that the NTC recognizes, that you can't declare that the country's fully liberated until Gadhafi is apprehended, until the danger to Libya's civilians is ended acro.

US will pursue Pakistan-based militants: Panetta
US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta expressed frustration with Pakistan's government on Wednesday, warning that the US will not allow the attacks on US forces from Pakistan-based insurgents like the Haqqani network to continue. Pointing to the 20-hour assault against the US Embassy and Nato headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan, that finally ended Wednesday, Panetta said it is unacceptable that the Haqqanis are able to launch such deadly attacks and then flee to safety across the border in Pakistan. "The message they need to know is: we're going to do everything we can to defend our forces," Panetta told reporters travelling with him to San Francisco, California, for meetings with Australian officials. He refused to say whether the US plans to take any new military actions, but there has been an escalating US campaign of drone strikes into Pakistan's border regions. The Haqqanis are a lethal terror group allegedly based in Pakistan's border area. "Time and again we've urged the Pakistanis to exercise their influence over these kinds of attacks from the Haqqanis, and we have made very little progress in that area," Panetta said. "I'm not going to talk about how we're going to respond. ... We're not going to allow these types of attacks to go on." US officials have blamed the Haqqani network for the nearly daylong assault on the heavily guarded Afghan capital. The attack left 27 dead, including police, civilians and attackers, officials said.