Apple takes down Koran app in China

Apple has taken down one of the world’s most popular Koran apps in China, following a request from officials.

Quran Majeed is available across the world on the App Store – and has nearly 150,000 reviews. It is used by millions of Muslims.

The BBC understands that the app was removed for hosting illegal religious texts.

The Chinese government has not responded to the BBC’s request for comment.

The deletion of the app was first noticed by Apple Censorship – a website that monitors apps on Apple’s App Store globally.

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Massacre in Norway

A convert to Islam ran amok in Kongsberg with a bow and arrow, killing five and wounding four.

“… In 2014, a couple of officers for the PST (Norwegian Police Security Service), Norway’s equivalent of the NSA or MI5, asked to meet me at the Notodden police station, purportedly because they wanted to learn more about Islam. It turned out they wanted to learn more about me.

Why, they asked, was I so critical of Islam? Which other Muslim critics did I know? What far-right websites did I read? When I’d had enough of their questions, I asked my own: “Have you read the Koran?” They hadn’t. I told them they should, if they wanted to understand Islamic terrorists. “We know,” one of them replied, “that radical Muslims have misinterpreted the Koran.“ I countered that the Koran’s message is clear, and terrorists are doing exactly what their holy book tells them to.”

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Afghanistan: Suicide attack kills 37 at Kandahar mosque during prayers

At least 37 people are dead and 70 more injured after three explosions tore through a Shia mosque during Friday prayers in the Afghan city of Kandahar.

Pictures from inside the Bibi Fatima mosque show shattered windows and bodies lying on the ground, while other worshippers try to help.

The BBC has been told it was a suicide bombing.

A local reporter quoted by Reuters news agency said eyewitnesses described three suicide attackers.

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Swedish City Archive Covers up Jewish Books To ‘Avoid Vandalism‘

Malmö city archivist Anette Sarnäs decided to display Jewish books and posters books in the window of the city archive office only to be told to cover them to avoid potential vandalism.

The multicultural Swedish city is hosting a conference on the Holocaust this week and Ms Sarnäs decided to post the books and posters in the window to coincide with the conference and was shocked after she was told to cover them up.

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Germany: Cologne Mosques to Begin Outdoor Broadcasting of Muslim Call to Prayer

Acceding to demands from Islamic organizations sponsored by the Turkish government, the city of Cologne, once a stronghold of Christendom in Germany, has authorized mosques in the city to begin sounding Muslim calls to prayer over outdoor loudspeakers. The move, ostensibly aimed at promoting multicultural diversity and inclusion, represents a significant step toward the cultural normalization of Islam in Germany. It is taking German multiculturalism into uncharted territory.

Observers believe that Cologne — famous for its cathedral, the largest Gothic church in northern Europe — is establishing a national precedent, and that many of the more than 3,000 mosques in Germany will soon also begin publicly calling Muslims to prayer. They say that German towns and cities will evoke the sounds and images of the Islamic Middle East.

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‘A lull not a loss’: Islamic State is rebuilding in Syria, say Kurdish forces

On a blazing afternoon in Syria’s eastern desert this month, a Kurdish commander was hot under the collar. An American raid had just taken place against remnants of Islamic State (IS), and Lukman Khalil, the region’s most senior military leader, had known nothing about it.

The US forces had flown across the wasteland of the terrorist group’s last redoubt. Three years ago it was teeming with diehard IS members, but when thousands of holdouts emerged from the decimated town of Baghuz, the war against the so-called caliphate was won, or so it seemed.

“People couldn’t be more wrong,” said Khalil. “[IS] thinks this was a lull, not a loss. And now they’re back to fighting us from the shadows.”

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Reading stabbings: Islamist Khairi Saadallah refused appeal against whole-life term

A terrorist who murdered three men in a Reading park has been denied permission to appeal his whole-life jail term.

Khairi Saadallah Muslim Terrorist

Khairi Saadallah, 27, stabbed James Furlong, 36, David Wails, 49, and 39-year-old Joe Ritchie-Bennett in June last year in Forbury Gardens.

He was sentenced in January after admitting to the murders and three attempted murders.

The Court of Appeal ruled there was “no substance” to Saadallah’s criticisms towards the judge who sentenced him.

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Norway bow-and-arrow attack appears to be ‘act of terror’, domestic security service says, follow-up violence a risk

The bow and arrow incident in Norway’s Kongsberg appears to be an act of terrorism, the country’s security services have reported. The attack by a suspected Islamist claimed five lives and left two people injured.

Further investigation into the details of the attack and the motives behind it is still required, the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) said in a statement. The domestic security service pledged its support to the police force in the investigation and said it still considered the terrorist threat in Norway to be “moderate”.

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Muslim foreign ministers to make women’s rights plea to Taliban

Foreign ministers from several Muslim-majority countries are planning to go to Kabul in part to urge the Taliban to recognise that the exclusion of women and girls from education is a distortion of the Islamic faith.

The proposal has the support of western diplomats, who recognise that calls from them concerning universal values are going to have less traction with the Taliban than if the request comes from leaders of largely Islamic states.

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The children of ISIS: ‘It’s a disaster we cannot deal with’

Satanic whores of ISIS

“… Violence and radicalisation in the camp is a major issue for Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, responsible for managing the camps.

Dr Abdulkarim Omar, the de facto foreign minister of the Kurdish-led administration in north-east Syria, admits that in al-Hol, IS still rules. He says hardline women are responsible for much of the violence.

“There are daily killings, they are burning tents when people don’t follow ISIS ideology,” he says, “and they are passing on those radical views to their children.”

Not our problem.

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FBI says Taliban takeover in Afghanistan inspiring Americans virtually

The FBI believes the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan is pushing Americans toward acts of violence.

Charles Spencer, the FBI’s assistant director of the International Operations Division, said his officers witnessed an increased amount of chatter on social media and online from people who haven’t traveled to the Middle East but have been influenced by the Taliban .

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Dad has daughter brutally whipped by teachers at Islamic school in Nigeria

Girl is brutally whipped by teachers in front of her father at Islamic school in Nigeria – after her parent REQUESTED the beating because she had been caught drinking alcohol

This is the shocking moment a girl is whipped by teachers in front of her father at a Nigerian Islamic school after he requested the beating because she had been caught drinking alcohol.

The clip, which has been widely circulated online, shows four men armed with what appear to be stick-like objects surrounding the young girl who is kneeling on the floor.

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Mosques in Cologne will broadcast call to prayer every Friday: Experts warn ‘this is not about religious diversity… this is a show of power’

Mosques in Cologne, including Germany’s largest, will be permitted to broadcast the call to prayer over loudspeakers every Friday afternoon.

The news comes after an agreement was made between the city of Cologne and the Muslim community to ease restrictions, which the city’s mayor announced Monday.

However, the decision has prompted a backlash from some corners of Germany, with one expert contradicting the mayor’s claim the initiative was about diversity, instead calling the call to prayer ‘a show of power.’

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ISIS second in command is captured

Iraq has captured the alleged finance chief and second in command of the Islamic State group, for whom the US had offered a $5 million bounty.

Sami Jasim al-Jaburi, the suspected former deputy to the late IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was arrested by intelligence services ‘outside the borders’ of Iraq, Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi announced on Monday.

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