February 19

Maiduguri, Nigeria : Thousands of Muslims attacked Christians, burned at least 15 churches, and killed at least 16 people during demonstrations against cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. An Associated Press reporter told how mobs of Muslim protesters swarmed the city centre with machetes, sticks and iron rods. One group threw a tyre around a man, poured petrol on him and set him ablaze. Sectarian violence is not uncommon in the country and thousands of people have died there since 2000 in violence fuelled by the adoption of the strict Islamic Sharia law. 45

June 2006

Ontario, Canada : 17 were arrested, foiling a series of planned terrorist attacks in southern Ontario. None of the targets were identified, but authorities said the Toronto city subway system had not been among them. Police and intelligence officials made the arrests late Friday night and early Saturday morning after the group accepted delivery of three tons of ammonium nitrate, a common fertilizer than can be explosive if combined with fuel oil. The same type of fertilizer was used in the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people. In that explosion, one ton of ammonium nitrate was used to make the bomb. This is part of a shocking wave of young Canadian Muslims who have become radicalized. 46

June 1

Slagelse, Denmark : Danish Police intensified their focus on honour killings and other related crimes in June after nine convictions in the murder of 18-year-old Ghazala Khan, who married against her family's wishes. With nearly 50 reports of honour-related crimes, police are finding that the problem may be worse than previously believed. 47

June 23

Miami, U.S.A. : 7 young men were arrested in an alleged plot against the Sears Tower, and a federal building in Miami. 5 are U.S. citizens. To obtain money and support for their mission, the conspirators sought help from al-Qaida, pledged an oath to the terrorist organization and supported an al-Qaida plot to destroy FBI buildings, the 4 count indictment charged. Ringleader Narseale Batiste met with an undercover agent several times in Dec 2005, and asked for boots, uniforms, machine guns, radios, vehicles and $50,000 in cash to help him build an "'Islamic Army' to wage jihad'," the indictment said. According to the indictment, he said that he and his 5 soldiers wanted to attend al-Qaida training and planned a "full ground war" against the U.S. in order to "kill all the devils we can." His mission would "be just as good or greater than 9/11," the indictment accused him of boasting. 48

June 27

Timisoara, Romania : A young man in possession of explosives was arrested in Timisoara, on suspicion that he planned a bomb attack. Since 2002, he had taken part in Islamist religious training camps held in Romania. After converting to Islam, he was indoctrinated with fundamentalist teachings and said he was ready to sacrifice himself in a terrorist attack. He told the investigators he wanted to avenge his Islamic brothers from Chechnya and Bosnia. Prosecutors with the Timisoara Prosecutor's Office are investigating several suspected cases of terrorism as well as information that suspicious money transfers are being conducted in western Romania, related to terrorist activities. 49

July 11

Mumbai, India : A series of blasts rocked commuter trains at rush hour. A reported 200 dead, and 700 injured from the attacks. The Islamic terrorist group Lashkar-e-Tayyiba is suspected to have orchestrated the attacks. 50