The Mob has take over from Arab suicide bombers

Last week, police chief Yohanan Danino addressed the phenomenon, acknowledging that mob attacks in the midst of bustling cities were crippling to citizens’ sense of security, and saying he considered them to be a form of “terrorism.”

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http://www.timesofisrael.com/man-murdered-in-possible-tel-aviv-mob-hit/?utm_source=The+Times+of+Israel+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=6fdf269860-2014_02_15&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_adb46cec92-6fdf269860-53476821

Man gunned down in broad daylight in Tel Aviv mob hit

Taher Lalah, 27, shot dead in his BMW by masked assassins near crowded beachfront center — the latest in a string of underworld killings

By Michal Shmulovich February 15, 2014

A man was shot to death Saturday afternoon near the bustling Tel Aviv beachfront in what police believe was an underworld hit.

The suspects fled the scene immediately. The victim was later named as Taher Lalah, 27, of Jaffa, who was well-known to the police.        

Masked gunmen, riding on motorcycles according to some reports, opened fire on the victim in his silver BMW near HaTachana, a popular tourist destination filled with cafes and shops.

Muslim cleric who called on Muslims to “sever limbs for the sake of Allah” calls Valentine’s Day “immoral”

Robert Spencer  
 
Muhammad al-Arifi has said: “Devotion to jihad for the sake of Allah, and the desire to shed blood, to smash skulls, and to sever limbs for the sake of Allah and in defense of His religion, is, undoubtedly, an honor for the believer. Allah said that if a man fights the infidels, the infidels will be unable to prepare to fight.” So? He has his priorities and you have yours, kaffir! Who are you to judge? After all, last year, the British government let al-Arifi into the country while banning Pamela Geller and me — so clearly, wanting to smash Infidel skulls and hating Valentine’s Day is just fine in Britain today, but working for the freedom of speech and equality of rights of all people before the law is not. They want to guard against spreading hate, doncha know!
“Valentine’s Day is ‘immoral,’ says Saudi cleric,” from Al Arabiya, February 14:

Dagestan: New Epicenter of Muslim Terrorism in Russia

Lawrence A. Franklin

According to a survey with 6,000 respondents, the ranks of the jihad are being filled by ever-younger Dagestanis. Dagestan is eclipsing Chechnya as the seat of the most violent insurgency against Russia.
The extremist leaders have targeted their fellow Muslim leaders thought to be too mild.

Dagestan, the largest republic of the north Caucasus, can best be described in negative superlatives. It is probably the most violent spot in the entire Russian Federation.[1] The administrative bureaucracy of the republic's capital, Makhachkala, is among the most corrupt.[2] The ethnic and linguistic diversity of Dagestan is the most complex among Russia's Republics.[3] Its topography is arguably the most forbidding in the Russian Eurasian landmass. Religiously, it is also the most radical Muslim entity in the Russian state. Moreover, in part, because of Dagestan's difficult terrain and the fabled fighting ability of Dagestani mountain peoples, Moscow has found that suppressing jihadists in Dagestan is even more difficult than in their campaigns in Chechnya.
The February 6, 2014 raid of a terrorist hideout in the Dagestani town of Izerbash by Russian Security Police -- resulting in the deaths of suspects who were allegedly planning an attack on the Sochi Olympics -- underscores that the Republic of Dagestan has become the epicenter of extremist-Muslim terrorism in Russia.
Russia is not the only empire chastised by Dagestan's warrior culture. The Persian invading forces of Nadir Shah in 1744 experienced their most devastating among several defeats by Dagestan's mountain militants. There is a bitter Persian saying that recounts these catastrophes: "Whenever Allah wants to punish a Shah, He inculcates into his head the idea of invading Dagestan." Coastal Dagestan faces the former provinces of Persia's empire in Asia Minor; and Dagestan was once governed by Persian officialdom of the Safavid Dynasty.[4] Although almost all Dagestanis are Sunni Muslim, there are pockets of Shia Muslims who trace their spiritual origins to the Iranian version. During the last couple of decades, however, Dagestan's relatively tolerant Sufi brand of Sunni Islam Muslim has been giving ground to a more fierce Sunni Salafist orientation.[5]

William Plotnikov, left, with another Islamist militant in Dagestan. Plotnikov was previously a boxer and college student in Canada, and was killed fighting Russian security forces in 2012. When arrested and interrogated in 2010, he named Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev as an associate. (Image source: Dagestan Federal Security Service)

This Salafist ascendency has been fueled, allegedly, by Arabian Gulf states' financial support for mosque construction and the hiring of fundamentalist imams as preachers throughout the Caucasian republics.

Diplomacy: Israel is from Venus, the EU from Mars

HERB KEINON

The brouhaha following European Parliament President Martin Schulz’s speech to the Knesset this week illustrates the dysfunctionality in Israel-EU ties.

Bennett and Schulz Photo: REUTERS

European Parliament President Martin Schulz began an hourlong press briefing over scrambled eggs, lox and coffee with journalists in Jerusalem’s King David Hotel on Wednesday, joking that this would certainly be one of the most difficult meetings of his four-day trip.

Boy, did he get that wrong.

Granted, Schulz fielded questions from foreign correspondents about why the EU does not put more pressure on Israel, or why he hedges in declaring loudly and proudly that settlements are illegal. And he also took questions from Israeli journalists about what the EU was doing to press the Palestinians to be more flexible, or why the Europeans fixate on West Bank settlements but not occupied northern Cyprus or the Western Sahara. But all that was nothing compared to the angry reaction he faced later in the day in the Knesset.

Who Are The Women Fighting In Syria?

Abigail R. Esman
Special to IPT News
February 14, 2014
http://www.investigativeproject.org/4292/who-are-the-women-fighting-in-syria

For years she was a mother of 10 young children, keeping a good, Muslim home. Now she's a rebel commander with a gun, fighting, she says, for her honor and her religion. Her children battle at her side.
Speaking in an on-camera interview with journalist Tracey Shelton, the 43-year-old muqatila, as such women soldiers are known, calls on others to join in her battle against Bashar Assad, and in the founding of a Syrian Islamic state. And though her all-female battalion numbers only 15 troops, she is by no means alone.
The role of women in the three-year-old Syrian conflict is complex and often confusing, but one thing is abundantly clear: women have become one of the strongest weapons in the war, used as much by the regime as by most of the countless rebel groups.

Israel and UN Assurances

Ari Lieberman

In war, there is no substitute for high ground and strategic depth. Military commanders covet those conditions and once securing them, rarely give them up without a good fight. Of course, armies can still secure victories without these ideal positions – Israel proved that in 1948 and 1967 – but at higher cost in blood.
On June 6^th 1967 Israel, in response to Jordanian artillery fire and other hostile military deployments, counterattacked and defeated the Jordanian army, liberating Judea & Samaria (West Bank) in the process. In a matter of days, Israel’s strategic situation was instantly transformed for the better.

It is hard to fathom that prior to the conflict, Israel was nine miles wide at its narrowest point. When former President George Bush was informed of this fact he dryly quipped that there were driveways in Texas that were longer than that. Following the war, Israel increased its width to 44 miles.

Why Turkey is gone for good

Caroline Glick

Friday, February 14th, 2014

Last Thursday, two Turkish businessmen stopped for lunch in a fish restaurant during a business trip to Edirne in the Babaeski region.

At some point during their meal, the restaurant owner figured out that they were Jews.

Rather than show them the hospitality Turkey is renowned for, he said he won’t serve Jews, and began cursing them and the Torah. He then took a long knife off the counter and threatened to kill them.

The men ran for their lives.

Anti-Semitic attacks have become regular events in Turkey. In December, after leaving an anti-corruption rally in Istanbul, a young woman was attacked by 10 to 15 supporters of Prime Minister Recip Tayyip Erdogan who had just left a support rally for the premier.

They accused her of being a Jew, as they beat her up.

In an interview with The Times of Israel, Turkish opposition MP Ayken Kerdemir said that Erdogan has cultivated Turkish anti-Semitism. “He is not only capitalizing on the existing sentiments, Kerdemir explained. Erdogan is “fueling some of that anti-Israel and anti-Semitic feeling… with his rhetoric, conspiracy theories, campaign slogans and actions.”

Obama’s Hollow Promises Abroad

Daniel Pipes
The Washington Times

http://www.danielpipes.org/14063/obama-hollow-promises-abroad

As U.S. credibility and stature diminish in world affairs, the American president and his secretaries of state and defense engage in eloquent denial. Unfortunately for them, realities trump words, even persuasive ones.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, “where the water-cooler chatter was about America’s waning influence in the Middle East,” John Kerry proclaimed himself “perplexed by claims… that somehow America is disengaging from the world.” Nothing could be further from the truth, he asserted: “We are entering an era of American diplomatic engagement that is as broad and as deep as any at any time in our history.” Likewise, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has called for “a renewed and enhanced era of partnership with our friends and allies.”

In this spirit, Obama has made multiple promises to reassure allies.
To South Korea, which depends on the American “tripwire” to deter a demented dictator who could flatten Seoul within the first few hours of an artillery barrage, Obama promised that “The commitment of the United States to the Republic of Korea will never waver.”

Ten reasons why the BDS movement is immoral and hinders peace

Alan M. Dershowitz

As a strong supporter of the two state solution and a critic of Israel's settlement policies, I am particularly appalled at efforts to impose divestment, boycotts and sanctions against Israel, and Israel alone, because BDS makes it more difficult to achieve a peaceful resolution of the Mid-East conflict that requires compromise on all sides.

Anti-Israel protestors in Melbourne, Australia in June 2010. (Image source: Wikimedia/Takver)

The BDS movement is highly immoral, threatens the peace process and discourages the Palestinians from agreeing to any reasonable peace offer. Here are ten compelling reasons why the BDS movement is immoral and incompatible with current efforts to arrive at a compromise peace.

Say “no” to a Palestinian state

Please, take a moment to  sign the
Petition to Prime Minister Netanyahu.
It takes less than minute.
Just do it.
Then forward this email to all your lists and post on Facebook.
Please.
Posted by Ted Belman

Israel at a Point of No Return — In the Right Direction

David P. Goldman (Spengler)

 

 American Jews, who have been running away from Judaism for the past three generations, are upset that Israel has embraced the normative Judaism they worked so hard to suppress...

I should like to advance a conjecture which I lack the qualifications to adequately develop: The global Left, and the Israeli Left most of all, perceives that the clock is running out, and has worked itself up into a froth of hysteria against Israel. The world of John Lennon’s “Imagine,” where there are no countries and no religions, is about to dissipate like last night’s marijuana fumes. The demographic time bomb that worries the Left is not the relative increase of Arab vs. Jewish populations between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River, speciously cited by John Kerry and a host of other errant utopians: it is the growth of the Jewish population itself, and Israel’s transformation into the world’s most religious country.

Israel now has a religious majority, as Times of Israel blogger Yoseif Bloch observes:

According to our Central Bureau of Statistics, 43% of Israeli Jews are secular, 9% are haredi, and the remaining 48% are somewhere between masorti (traditional) and dati (religious): 23% the former, 10% the latter, and 15% smack in the middle. These five groups do not parallel the five groups identified by Pew, e.g. Orthodox is a denomination, while dati is a declaration.

PA allocates $46 million more for terrorists in 2014

This is in addition to tens of millions the PA already gives in salaries and other benefits to terrorists in prison and released terrorists PA's funding of terrorists is enabled by money the US and European countries give to the PA for salaries and its general budget http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=10654 by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik Most Western countries have laws and regulations prohibiting support for terrorists or former terrorists. The US, the UK, Holland, Norway, Sweden and others have debated, proposed and/or passed laws or motions in parliament against giving the Palestinian Authority money that ends up in the hands of terrorists. In spite of their laws and their opposition, these countries continue to fund the PA's general budget, thereby paying tens of millions of dollars to terrorists as salaries and other payments. Last week, the PA announced that it will be giving an additional $46 million a year to released prisoners, a category which includes hundreds of murderers of civilians. Since the PA cannot cover its monthly budget payments without Western aid, these additional payments to terrorists will also be facilitated both directly and indirectly by Western donor money to the PA. The official announcement was made by the PA Minister of Prisoners' Affairs Issa Karake, who said that the PA government has approved a regulation of the Prisoners' Law that "is concerned with improving conditions for released [prisoners]," a regulation whose "budget... has been estimated at 160 million shekels a year."

The truth behind the "State of Palestine"/Gaza patient story

Elder of Ziyon

This story has been getting lots of play over the past couple of hours:

Israel has denied entry permits to some 50 Palestinian medical patients from the Gaza Strip because the words "State of Palestine" appears on the letterhead of their application, officials said on Wednesday.

Israel does not recognize a Palestinian state, whose creation it says should stem from peace negotiations. It voted against a U.N. General Assembly resolution in 2012 that gave de facto recognition to a sovereign Palestinian state.

"On Sunday (the Palestinians) filed a range of requests ... on a document that said 'State of Palestine'. On the spot, we returned it to them, saying they should refile the request on appropriate paperwork," said Major Guy Inbar, a spokesman for COGAT, the military-run authority that handles entry permits.

He said 10 Palestinians whose cases were urgent were allowed to enter Israel while about 50 others were not.

Kerry Turns Blind Eye to West Bank Terror

LT. COLONEL JAMES G. ZUMWALT, USMC (RET) February 12, 2014

Ironically, an idiom originating more than two plus centuries ago -- from an act of courage in meeting an enemy threat -- today applies to an Obama administration choosing to ignore one.
The phrase "to turn a blind eye" applies when an undesirable truth exists but one opts to ignore it. Such ignorance can be covert -- by simply refusing to see it -- or overt, by means of a totally contrary declaration, hoping the listener gives it greater weight over what exists.
The phrase originated from the 1801 Battle of Copenhagen. British naval hero Adm. Horatio Nelson was under the fleet command of Adm. Hyde Parker. Engaging an opposing Danish fleet, an overly cautious Parker, using his ship's signal flags, sent subordinates authority to withdraw.
On his ship, Nelson raised a telescope to his right eye -- blinded in an earlier battle -- exclaiming he saw nothing. He continued to press the attack -- ultimately winning victory.

Secretary ScarJo‏

Ruth King 

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303650204579374690004758598#printMode

What the actress could teach John Kerry about courage and clarity.
By  Bret Stephens

Last month the Palestinian ambassador to the Czech Republic blew himself up as he tried to open an old booby-trapped embassy safe.

When police arrived on the scene, they discovered a cache of unregistered weapons in violation of international law. Surprise.

Then the real shocker: After prevaricating for a couple of weeks, the Palestinian government apologized to the Czechs and promised, according to news accounts, “to take measures to prevent such incidents in the future.”

As far as I know, this is only the second time the Palestinians have officially apologized for anything, ever. The first time, in 1999, Yasser Arafat’s wife, Suha, accused Israel of poisoning Palestinian children. Hillary Clinton was there. Palestinian officialdom mumbled its regrets.

In other words, no apology for the 1972 massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics. No apology for the 1973 murder of Cleo Noel, the U.S. ambassador to Sudan, and his deputy, George Moore. No apology for the 1974 massacre of 25 Israelis, including 22 schoolchildren, in Ma’alot. No apology for the 1978 Coastal Road massacre, where 38 Israelis, including 13 children, were killed.

Syria a Failure for U.S.

PETER BROOKES 

In a now widely reported private meeting with U.S. lawmakers at a Munich security conference last weekend, Secretary of State John Kerry told them the administration's policies toward the bloody Syrian civil war weren't cutting it.
That's a striking admission on the part of our chief diplomat.
I agree with Kerry that things are going horribly for our interests in Syria, but I do draw the line at the idea that Team Obama even has a real policy for a positive ending to the three-year conflict that has taken nearly 140,000 lives.
Despite President Obama's happy talk in the State of the Union address about the removal of chemical weapons from Syria - a well-intentioned effort that seems to have stalled - the situation in the country is only getting worse.
First, after lots of chatter about a hopeful political solution to stop the conflict, the just-concluded Syrian peace talks between the regime and parts of the opposition that droned on for days in Geneva achieved nothing.

IDF looks on with concern as 'people's army' model faces challenges

YAAKOV LAPPIN

The military recognizes that Israeli society is undergoing natural and rapid changes, but it is keen on preserving the model of a people’s army and is worried that this concept is under threat.

An IDF soldier monitors the Israel-Lebanon border. Photo: REUTER/Baz Ratner

The IDF was not surprised on Monday when a Knesset committee voted in favor of shortening mandatory military service for men from 36 months to 32, but it is viewing the development with concern.

In the not too distant past, the IDF Manpower Directorate asked the government whether military service could be extended by a number of months.

The reply by the government – which is interested in freeing up four months of service time to benefit the economy and give ex-soldiers more time to integrate themselves into higher education or the job market – was that in the current reality of Israeli society, not only would this request be rejected, but the army should brace itself for a reduction.

Judea and Samaria Are Israel

February 10, 2014 by Ronn Torossian 

Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) belong to Israel.  These areas are Jewish areas of the State of Israel. Period. While John Kerry and others pressure Israel to return these so-called disputed territories, the reality is that the conflict in the Middle East is about the fact that the Arabs cannot accept a Jewish state.  (And even if Israel did return these territories, there wouldn’t be peace – for the Arabs want to use peace to destroy Israel piece by piece.) 
The world must understand that our people are called Jews because we come from Judea. The fact remains that these territories are an integral part of the State of Israel, and have always been connected to the Jewish people.

Ten great quotes affirming that this region belongs to Israel:
• Yoram Ettinger, a consultant at the Ariel Center for Policy Research: “Many world-renowned travelers, historians and archeologists of earlier centuries refer to ‘Judea and Samaria,’ while the term ‘West Bank’ was coined only 60 years ago. Jordan gave the region this name when it occupied it after Israel’s War of Independence. No nation on earth other than Britain and Pakistan recognized Jordan’s claim to Judea and Samaria. … Even the Encyclopedia Britannica, as well as official British and Ottoman records until 1950, used the term Judea and Samaria, and not the West Bank.” 

Shaath from Gaza: Reconciliation Ripe

GAZA, February 10, 2014 (WAFA) – Member of Fatah Central Committee, Nabil Shaath, who is in Gaza with a Fatah delegation, said Monday in a press conference that the reconciliation is ripe and ready to start implementation.

He said that Fatah official in charge of the reconciliation talks with Hamas, Azzam al-Ahmad, is set to arrive in Gaza in the next few days to seal an agreement on implementation of what the two movements had previously agreed on to reunite the West Bank and Gaza Strip after seven years of division.

He said Fatah officials visiting Gaza held talks with their Hamas counterparts and agreed to speed up reconciliation efforts.

With Jewish friends like these...

Isi Leibler
February 10, 2014
http://wordfromjerusalem.com/?p=4974

In this era of post modernism and abandonment of traditional moral values, our capacity to inflict harm on ourselves seems to be at an all-time high. Whether in the entertainment industry, the media or the political arena, increasing numbers of “emancipated” Jews worship nihilism and vulgarity and bring the Jewish people and Israel into disrepute.

I will start with an article published in Israel last week in our illustrious “highbrow” daily newspaper Haaretz by Josh Lambert, author of the book, ‘Unclean Lips, Obscenity and Jewish Culture’. Lambert explicitly congratulates and extolls Jews for “asserting their Jewishness by glorifying obscenity” “in order to fight anti-Semitism” or “rewrite traditional Jewish stories in a contemporary idiom”.

17-year-old suicide bomber a "brave hero," says PA Governor of Ramallah

http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=10636 

 

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

 

The Palestinian Authority continues to glorify suicide terrorists who murdered civilians, as Palestinian Media Watch has documented. 

At a ceremony last week, Governor of Ramallah Laila Ghannam called suicide bomber Ayyat Al-Akhras - at age 17, the youngest female Palestinian suicide bomber - and other terrorists "brave heroes." Ayyat Al-Akhras was a terrorist who detonated her suicide vest at a supermarket, murdering two. Other dignitaries present at the ceremony included PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, PA Mufti Muhammad Hussein and PA Minister of Agriculture Walid Assaf. 

Click to view

This is not the first time Governor Laila Ghannam has glorified terrorists and promoted violence. Click to see more examples of the PA and Fatah's policy of glorifying terrorists.

The following are the Governor of Ramallah's words glorifying terrorist Ayyat Al-Akhras:

"Yesterday, we received more [bodies] of our brave heroes' - Ayyat Al-Akhras and the bodies of Martyrs (Shahids) who sacrificed their pure blood so we will live in freedom. Allah willing, we will remain committed to their promise and make tombs that will befit their stature."

 [Official PA TV Live, Feb. 3, 2014]

Note: Ayyat Al-Akhras - the youngest female Palestinian suicide bomber (age 17). She killed 2 Israelis and injured 28 in a suicide bombing near a Jerusalem supermarket on March 29, 2002.

Robert Spencer  
 Muslim persecution of Christians 

“Islamophobia”-mongers such as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Reza Aslan’s Aslan Media, the Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, and the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) hardest hit. If the mainstream media were not as thoroughly corrupt and compromised as it is, it would pick up on this and stop furthering the Islamic supremacist line that the truth about Islamic jihad violence must be told for fear of increasing the victimization of innocent Muslims. No innocent people of any creed should ever be victimized; but it is actually the world’s Christians who are bearing the brunt of religion-based attacks.
“Pew Study: Christians Are The World’s Most Oppressed Religious Group,” by Barbara Boland for CNS News, February 6 (thanks to Mackie):

Restrictions, harassment, and intimidation towards people who practice their religion increased in every major region of the world in 2012 except the Americas, with Christians the major target, says a new report by the Pew Research Center.
“Muslims and Jews experienced six-year highs in the number of countries in which they were harassed by national, provincial or local governments,” the study found, but Christians continue to be the world’s most oppressed religious group, with persecution against them reported in 110 countries.

The Simple Wisdom of Arab Dictators

Raymond Ibrahim
FrontPageMagazine.com

http://www.meforum.org/3744/arab-dictators-christians

After my recent articles documenting how the U.S. is the chief facilitator of Christian persecution in the Muslim world, I received an email from John Eibner, CEO of Christian Solidarity International, in which he made the following observation:

The sad fact is that the ruthless Assad dictatorship has a better record than the United States or its Sunni allies of protecting religious minorities in the Middle East. What Syrian Christian, Alawite or Druze in their right mind would trade the Assad's time-tested protection for the smooth words of a John Kerry, especially when they can see Sunni supremacist Saudis, Qataris, Turks and a motley array of jihadis over their shoulder?

A sad fact indeed.

Syrian President Bashar Assad, at left. (Image source: Wikimedia / Fabio Rodrigues Pozzebom / ABr) U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, at right. (Image source: U.S. Mission to Geneva)

Still, one of the most nagging questions for Western observers must be: Why would ruthless dictators, most of whom are at least nominally Muslim, care about Christians and bother to protect them?
The answer is related to the popular adage (possibly of Arab origin), "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." This has long meant that, whoever is at odds with my enemy becomes my natural friend and ally.

Germany Aiming to Become More Muslim Friendly

Soeren Kern

Muslims attending the gathering were offended by the insinuation that Islam could be radical or violent, and demanded instead that the German government take steps to make "Islam equal to Christianity" in Germany. They were equally unwilling to discuss the main item on the official conference agenda: "Gender Equality as a Common Value," and refused even to acknowledge that there might be any connection between Islam and forced marriage.
While focusing his energy on expanding the rights if Muslims in German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière has been largely silent about the responsibility of Muslim immigrants to take measures to integrate better into German society.

Germany's new coalition government is signaling that it wants better relations with the country's Muslim community.
In a series of newspaper, television and radio interviews, Thomas de Maizière—who was recently sworn in as Germany's new interior minister—has announced a series of pro-Muslim initiatives apparently designed to defuse escalating tensions between Muslims and non-Muslims there.
Among other policy initiatives, Maizière says the government plans to change German immigration laws to make it easier for Muslim immigrants to obtain dual-citizenship and thus to maintain religious and cultural links to their countries of origin.

Germany's Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière met on January 28 with German Muslim leaders to discuss the next German Islam Conference. (Image source: German Interior Ministry video)

Maizière also says he intends to give Muslims more say in setting the agenda of the government's ongoing dialogue with the Islamic umbrella groups that represent the estimated 4.5 million Muslims now living in the country.