ACT for America

[Excerpt: "German authorities say they have closed a Hamburg mosque used by the Sept. 11 attackers as a meeting place before they moved to the United States.

A statement by Hamburg officials says the Taiba mosque was shut down and its cultural association was banned on Monday."]

BERLIN — German authorities say they have closed a Hamburg mosque used by the Sept. 11 attackers as a meeting place before they moved to the United States.

A statement by Hamburg officials says the Taiba mosque was shut down and its cultural association was banned on Monday.

The prayer house, formerly known as al-Quds mosque, used to be a meeting and recruiting point for some of the Sept. 11 attackers.

Weekly news magazine Focus cites a report by a local intelligence agency branch in saying the mosque has again become the city's "main center of attraction for the jihad scene." It says some members who belonged to the Taiba group and prayed at the mosque have moved on to a radical training camp in Uzbekistan.

Officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

[Excerpt: "You who work as guards for tyrants, princes, ministers or complexes where Christians live, or can reach them, seek help from Allah to kill them,” al-Shihri said in the recording."]

Al-Qaeda urged soldiers to help topple the Saudi monarchy and kill Christians and government officials in the kingdom, said someone purporting to be a leader of the group in a recording.

Al-Qaeda ordered supporters in the Saudi army to “collect information on everything related to the Saudi royal family” in an effort to dethrone them, a speaker identified as Saeed al- Shihri said in an Arabic-language recording posted today on a website that often carries al-Qaeda statements. The identity of the speaker could not immediately be verified.

The group has accused the Saudi monarchy of helping the U.S. to wage war against Muslims through its military campaigns in Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen. Al-Qaeda in June ordered sympathizers in the military to abduct Saudi princes, ministers and Christian residents.

[Excerpt:  "Two hours later, Ebrahim and three friends were arrested on sodomy charges and tortured in a detention centre for three days. Ebrahim was hanged upside down by his legs and badly beaten. To stop this abuse, he signed a confession."]

There is no evidence that Ebrahim is gay or that a sexual assault took place; just the word of one person against another and a confession under torture, which was later retracted."]

[Excerpt:  "Who—or what—is a “moderate Muslim” isn’t an easy question to answer. A moderate believer in the Iraqi holy city of Najaf isn’t the same as a moderate Muslim in the down-and-out suburbs of Paris."

"[An American moderate Muslim is ] a believer who embraces the doctrine of “neo-ijtihad,” which holds that Muslims today are not chained to the Qur’anic interpretations and legal decisions accepted centuries ago as canonical. Specifically, a “moderate Muslim American” is someone who unqualifiedly renounces the applicability of the Sharia, the Holy Law, in American society.]