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Seems the world may be a safer place today (with regards to war) than it has been throughout most of the 20th century.

Human Security Report 2009/2010: The Causes of Peace and the Shrinking Costs of War

Meanwhile, support for Islamists in Western countries is very far from being in decline.


London imam subjected to death threats for supporting evolution
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/06/usama-hasan-london-imam-death-threat...
Mosque suspends engineering lecturer Usama Hasan for 'antagonising' community and backing women's rights
Rowenna Davis guardian.co.uk, Sunday 6 March 2011

Dr Usama Hasan has caused uproar with his views on women’s right to refuse the veil and the subject of evolution. Photograph: Don McPhee for the Guardian

An imam of an east London mosque has been subject to death threats and intimidation for expressing his views on evolution and women's right to refuse the veil.Dr Usama Hasan, vice-chairman at Leyton mosque and a senior lecturer in engineering at Middlesex University, ceased delivering Friday prayers after 25 years of service when 50 Muslim protesters disrupted his lecture by handing out leaflets against him and shouting in the mosque for his execution.

A statement from the secretary of the mosque, Mohammad Sethi, that was leaked to extremist websites, said Hasan had been suspended after his lecture resulted in "considerable antagonism" from the community and for his "belief that Muslim women are allowed to uncover their hair in public".

Sethi's letter, dated 24 February, said Hasan's views were in "violation of the constitution of the Masjid Trust" and that the decision had been made for the "safety and security of all parties".

But Suhaib Hasan, who is the imam's father and chairman of the mosque, posted a counter-statement on the mosque's website on Thursday. It claimed his son had been the victim of a "vicious and predetermined agenda" by a "faction of trustees" and their decision to remove him was void because their meeting was inquorate.

The chairman said the threats and disruption had come largely from Muslims outside the mosque's community.

The death threats against Hasan were made in an anonymous leaflet handed out by protesters. It quotes religious authorities saying that any Muslim who believes in evolution is an "apostate" who "must be executed".
Hasan says he believes the leaflets were produced by the website Islamic Awakening (Islamic Coma, more like it. ed.). The website's leader, Abu Zubair, has led a long campaign against Hasan including making threats when Hasan was delivering a lecture in January.

An online petition against Hasan has apparently attracted 1,100 signatories, although they are not listed publicly.
The petition says they are "horrified" by his views on evolution and call for him to be removed before the mosque becomes a "hotbed of modernist extremism".




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