Somalis in Denmark are shocked

Perhaps even shocked, shocked:

The Somali community in Denmark is shocked that [Danish security service] PET is saying a Danish-Somali is the suicide terrorist who was responsible for the suicide bomb that cost 24 people their lives last week in Somali's capital, Mogadishu.
"I know him as a nice, smiling and well-behaved boy. The Somalis in Denmark are shocked that he's accused of being responsible for the bomb," says Ahmed H. Dhaqane, head of the Somali Association in Denmark and member of the Rødovre council for the Social Democrats.
Dhaqane says that the man whom PET suspects was the suicide bomber from Mogadishu came to Denmark when he was five, about 17 years ago, together with his parents, and lived in the Rødovre suburb of Copenhagen. He lived there until he got married to a Somali woman from Copenhagen, after which he moved to Amager (Copenhagen).
"The family is quiet and calm. Also they aren't particularly religious. It isn't a family there have been problems with," says Dhaqane.

That's from Islam in Europe, a blog that provides English translations of European press reports about issues related to Islam.

Let us indeed rally behind religious expression and freedom of speech

by Smitty

As Ace notes, the Swiss have banned construction of new minarets.

Stand by for the cacophonic outcry.

The ban should have been worded differently. For example:
"All mosque construction is on hold until after completion of the first house of worship of any non-Muslim stripe in Mecca."

The asymmetries in religious tolerance around the world take on the stench of global warming.

Update: Brussels Journal

There is a backlash on the way: at present it is showing itself in small ways, over minor matters such as minarets, but presently it will manifest itself on more substantial issues such as immigration and bogus climate change. It is no coincidence that the people most loudly bemoaning the ban on minarets in Switzerland are those who most vociferously applauded the prohibition on crucifixes in Italian classrooms. The consistent principle is an attack on European Christian civilisation, complemented by subservience to all the enemies of that civilisation, secular or Islamic.

Allen West: 'It is what it is'

The retired Army lieutenant colonel on Fort Hood:

We have become so politically correct that our media is more concerned about the stress of the shooter, Major Nidal Malik Hasan. The misplaced benevolence intending to portray him as a victim is despicable. The fact that there are some who have now created an entire new classification called "pre-virtual vicarious Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)" is unconscionable.
This is not a "man caused disaster". It is what it is, an Islamic jihadist attack. . . .
What we see are recalcitrant leaders who are refusing to confront the issue, Islamic terrorist infiltration into America, and possibly further into our Armed Services. Instead we have a multiculturalism and diversity syndrome on steroids.
Major Hasan should have never been transferred to Ft Hood, matter of fact he should have been Chaptered from the Army. His previous statements, poor evaluation reports, and the fact that the FBI had him under investigation for jihadist website posting should have been proof positive. . . .

Read the whole thing. Meanwhile, there's also this:

The official said investigators were looking into Hasan's association with the Dar al Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Va., in early 2001, about the same time that a radical Islamist prayer leader and two of the Sept. 11 hijackers were there. . . .
Authorities were focusing aggressively on whether Hasan more recently had been following the fiery online sermons and blog postings of that imam, Anwar al Awlaki, the official said.
Awlaki, a U.S. citizen, left the United States in 2002 and is believed to be in Yemen. He is actively supporting the Islamist jihad, or holy war against the West, through his website.
Early this morning, after Awlaki's name was publicly linked to Hasan's, a posting on Awlaki's site was titled "Nidal Hassan Did the Right Thing."

Jihad? What jihad? Nothing to see here. Move along.

UPDATE: ABC News reports:

U.S. intelligence agencies were aware months ago that Army Major Nidal Hasan was attempting to make contact with people associated with al Qaeda, two American officials briefed on classified material in the case told ABC News.

But don't start "jumping to conclusions" or anything.

Religion: Some mosques in Mecca are wrongly aligned

Some 200 mosques in Islam's holiest city, Mecca, point the wrong way for prayers, reports from Saudi Arabia say.

All mosques have a niche showing the direction of the most sacred Islamic site, the Kaaba, an ancient cube-like building in Mecca's Grand Mosque.

But people looking down from recently built high-rises in Mecca found the niches in many older mosques were not pointing directly towards the Kaaba.Some worshippers are said to be anxious about the validity of their prayers.There have been suggestions that laser beams could be used to make an exact measurement.

Tawfik al-Sudairy, Islamic affairs ministry deputy secretary, downplayed the problem in remarks quoted by the pan-Arab newspaper al-Hayat."There are no major errors but corrections have been made for some old mosques, thanks to modern techniques," he said.

"In any case, it does not affect the prayers."

Source-BBC News