"Life based on peace and prosperity"

'Death for Somali Muslims who shirk prayers'

Mogadishu - Somali Muslims who fail to perform daily prayers will be killed in accordance with Qur'anic law under a new edict issued by a leading cleric in the Islamic courts union that controls Mogadishu.

The requirement for Muslims to observe the five-times daily ritual under penalty of death was announced late on Wednesday and appears to confirm the hard-line nature of the increasingly powerful Sharia courts in the capital.

"He who does not perform prayers will be considered as infidel and Sharia law orders that that person be killed," said Sheikh Abdalla Ali, a founder and high-ranking official in the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia.

"Sharia law orders the killing of any Muslim person when he fails to perform prayers," he said in an address at the opening of a new Islamic court in Mogadishu's southern Gubta neighbourhood.

Ali added that it was the duty of every Somali to implement the provisions of Sharia law, which when fully accepted would allow "everybody to enjoy life based on peace and prosperity".


All the Lies Associated Press Can Print ......

'Western Union blocks Arab cash deliveries'

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Money transfer agencies have delayed or blocked thousands of cash deliveries on suspicion of terrorist connections because senders or recipients have names like Mohammed or Ahmed.

An Indian driver here said Western Union prevented him from sending $120 to a friend at home last month because the recipient's name was Mohammed. In a similar case, Pakistani Qadir Khan said Western Union blocked his attempt this month to wire money to his brother Mohammed. "Every Mohammed is a terrorist now?" Khan asked. Dubai-based representatives from Western Union said their clerks are simply following U.S. Treasury Department guidelines.

"We have an obligation to do all we can to keep money out of the hands of terrorists," Millerwise (U.S. Treasury spokeswoman) said. The list of names, available on the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control Web site, contains hundreds of Mohammeds.

In the United States, banks, car dealers, title companies, landlords, and employers have used the list to unjustly block scores of ordinary transactions, said Shirin Sinnar, a San Francisco attorney with the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights. In one case, a couple in Sacramento, Calif. was thwarted from purchasing a treadmill on a financing plan, simply because the husband's first name was Hussein.

In Dubai, a Western Union branch manager said "Mohammed and Ahmed have become problematic names because they are so common on the list of terrorists," said Nixon Baby, who runs a Western Union franchise in Bur Dubai. At another Western Union office, an executive who deals with security measures said about 1 percent of the store's 30,000 daily money transfers — about 300 a day — are delayed or blocked.

Western Union routinely delays or blocks transfers between customers whose names even partially match names on the Treasury list. The money is usually released once suspects show identity documents that prove they are not on the list.