Devout Muslims fire Grenades at Islamic centers

Time for the tired “they don’t speak for true Islam” speeches. Need a jihad? Play the victim card. No neighborhood support? Nade those Muslim backsliders. One ray of hope- a local cleric Nimu Makajae actually admitted Muslims committed these crimes. He knows the penalty for speaking out against Islam. It didn’t stop him from demanding the government of Thailand save them from other Muslims but it was still brave (almost).

Twenty injured in pre-dawn strikes in Yala; spate of arson attacks on schools
The Nation, April 6, 2007
Attackers fired grenades into a mosque and a packed Islamic missionary centre early yesterday, wounding at least 20 worshippers.
Hours earlier, four public schools were set ablaze late in an act of defiance after authorities imposed a strict curfew in two parts of Yala province.
Police said militants arrived in a sedan with an M79 grenade launcher before dawn and fired four rounds into the Dawa Centre in Yaha district, where more than 150 people were inside to conduct early morning prayers.
They suspected at least five insurgents were involved in the attack on the centre, which is a branch of the Tablighi Jamaat missionary movement.
Minutes later, a grenade was fired into the Al-Ismamiyah Mosque in Ban Asin village, about a kilometre away in Yaha district. No one was injured but one of the mosque’s pillars was damaged. The same group is believed to have been responsible.
Late on Wednesday two more public schools were set on fire, along with about 20 other minor attacks and disturbances in the Yaha and nearby Bannang Sata districts.
“The insurgents are able to move quickly on foot and disappear. Their attacks are also well coordinated,” Bannang Sata district chief Methee Kanchanaphuwa said. “The village defence volunteer scheme is not enough to provide the needed security.”
The two districts were put under an 8pm-4am curfew shortly after the brutal massacre of eight Buddhists in a commuter van last month in the Yaha area. The same day a group of armed men fired into a mosque in the same district, injuring seven people.
Army spokesman Col Akara Thiprot said yesterday’s pre-dawn attacks on the Dawa Centre and nearby mosque were undertaken by insurgents to intimidate fellow Muslims who cooperate with the state.
“The insurgents want to scare away Muslims who may want to help authorities in quelling the violence,” Akara said. “They want to cause strife between Muslims and Buddhists and make the two communities distrust each other.”
Several Muslim leaders in the region said they agreed with the authorities. “A significant portion of the local population think the attackers were government security officers. I think the authorities must move quick to explain what really happened,” said Nimu Makajae, a leading Islamic figure in the region.

Beslan Memorial barred by conflict

We have seen this scam before-memorials with a political agenda. Remember the crescent shaped 9/11 monstrosity? This is low even for muslims-rubbing the relatives of the victim’s faces in it. Christians did not murder these children, allah’s proud warriors did. If they wanted to show remorse they could have done it years ago. Look hard at allah’s work and be proud of your people shiekh.

By Christian Lowe
Reuters, April 6, 2007
MOSCOW — Plans to build a memorial to the 333 hostages killed three years ago in the Beslan school attack have sparked a conflict between Christians and Muslims in the region.
The local Russian Orthodox diocese says it will build a church in the grounds of Beslan’s school No. 1 to commemorate the victims killed in a clash between insurgents and government troops.
But a leading Muslim cleric has accused the Orthodox church of trying to hijack a tragedy by building a memorial that he said would exclude the more than 20 million Muslims in the country.
“It is not acceptable to present this tragedy as the tragedy of followers of only one religion,” Sheikh Ravil Gainutdin, chairman of the Council of Russian Muftis, said in a statement.