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Aly Hindy

Image by Sheila Steele
A mosque links 6 of 17 seized in Toronto plot
Anthony DePalma, The New York Times, June 5, 2006

MISSISSAUGA, Ontario At least six of the 17 people arrested by Canadian authorities in a sweeping counterterrorism operation over the weekend regularly attended the same storefront mosque in this middle-class Toronto suburb of modest brick rental town houses and well-kept lawns, according to fellow worshipers.

The mosque, Al Rahman Islamic Center for Islamic Education, is one of the few public pieces of information that clearly link any of the 17 suspects – 12 adults and five youths – arrested in one of the biggest antiterrorism actions in North America since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Members at a mosque prayer meeting on Sunday said that the six fellow worshipers arrested included the eldest, Qayyum Abdul Jamal, 43. He was described by several acquaintances as a school bus driver and an active member of the mosque who frequently led prayers, made fiery speeches and influenced young people who attended the services.

“He spent a lot of time with youth. He’d take them for soccer or bowling, and talk to them,” said Faheem Bukhari, a director of the Mississauga Muslim Community Center who sometimes attended prayers at Al Rahman mosque. He said that Jamal never openly embraced violence or talked about Al Qaeda, but that he was “very vocal and I believe could incite these young kids for jihad.”

Anser Farooq, the lawyer representing Jamal and three other people from the Al Rahman Islamic Center, said he was not a leader of that mosque. “He’s one of about a half-dozen people who lead prayers at the mosque,” he said.

Jamal was not part of any conspiracy, Farooq said.

As the authorities in Canada and the United States continued to piece together details from the lengthy investigation, another mosque in Toronto was vandalized. More than a dozen windows in the building were broken, two panels of the glass front door were smashed and several cars parked in the rear of the building were damaged.

Islamic leaders who met with the Toronto police chief on Sunday demanded a thorough investigation of the vandalism. They also urged calm and expressed hope that the 17 arrested Friday night would receive a fair hearing.

The arrests, by hundreds of agents of the local police, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, has so far led to little public disclosure about the underground workings of the alleged domestic terrorist cells. The authorities say the group was determined to use homemade bombs against targets in southern Ontario.

But lack of detail has started to raise questions about the credibility of the charges and the actions of the police.

While many Canadians expressed relief upon hearing the news that a potentially devastating attack had been averted, some in the Muslim community were skeptical about the lack of specific charges. The 12 adults were charged with offenses under the Criminal Code of Canada.

The authorities did not identify the potential targets.

Since Sept. 11, several police investigations against Muslims here have unraveled after arrests were made, which has left a bitter legacy within Canada’s Muslim community.

“People are suspicious and there’s anger,” said Aly Hindy, imam at the Salaheddin Islamic Center in Scarborough, an eastern suburb of Toronto with a sizable Muslim community. “We are being targeted not because of what we’ve done, but because of who we are and what we believe in.”

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Saturday that the group of men “took steps to acquire” three tons of ammonium nitrate and bomb-making electronic components. But they left unclear whether the men actually had taken delivery of the material and had it in their possession when arrested.

(continued in comment below)

Last of Its Kind

Image by Caveman Chuck Coker
Shell-Shaped Gas Station
E Sprague Street and Peachtree Street
Winston-Salem, North Carolina

This is the World’s Largest Shell.

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Radiant symbol of a bygone era, when fossil fuel seemed happily inexhaustible, Winston-Salem’s shell-shaped service station is the last of its kind.

Eight were originally built in the late 1930s by the Quality Oil Company, a Winston-based marketer of Shell Oil. The station, modeled on the brand logo of Royal Dutch-Shell Oil, was constructed of concrete stucco over a bent wood and wire framework.

The clamshell stations serviced gas guzzlers for decades, but were gradually pumped into oblivion by the twin engines of Development and Progress.

The station on Sprague Street survived through the 1970s and ’80s as a lawn mower repair place. It slid into disrepair towards the end of the 20th century. A state historic society, Preservation North Carolina, stepped in and restored the faded highway icon in the late 1990s. Today it’s used by the organization as a regional office and info center about the station and other preservation projects.

The Shell station is a worthy photo detour, just a little north of Interstate 40.

The bright orange-yellow structure sits on a corner among small businesses and residences, with two tall globe gasoline pumps. A white wooden structure to one side was the station’s car wash.

Source: Roadside America

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The Shell Service Station in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, was a filling station constructed in 1930 following a decision in the 1920s by the Shell Company to begin marketing in North Carolina. The building is an example of representational or novelty architecture and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 13, 1976.

History

This single-story Shell station, in the shape of a giant scallop shell, was built in 1930 at Sprague and Peachtree Streets in Winston-Salem. The owners of the oil company decided to attract customers through a series of shell-shaped service stations. They built at least eight in the Winston-Salem area, but the station at Sprague and Peachtree is the only one remaining. The Shell station speaks to the literalism prevalent in some advertising during the 1920s and ’30s.

Preservation

Preservation North Carolina, an organization dedicated to the preservation of historic sites, spent one year and ,000 to bring the landmark station back to its original condition. Workers removed layers of faded yellow paint to reveal the Shell’s original yellow-orange color. The original front door was repaired and a crack fixed that had been previously sealed with nothing more than black tar. The wooden, trellised shelter that housed the car wash and allowed cars to be washed and/or serviced in the shade was reconstructed as well. The oil company donated restored gas pumps and replica lamp posts to help finish off the restoration. The landmark now serves as a satellite office for Preservation North Carolina.

Source: Wikipedia

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Maynooth – Carton Avenue

Image by infomatique
Carton House is situated about one mile from Maynooth beside the Galway Road. This great house is nestled among a most beautiful setting of trees and lawns. The Rye Water weaves its way through the estate lands until it joins the river Liffey at Leixlip.

The demesne is surrounded by a five mile long wall and there are five lodge houses dotted along the boundary. On the demesne itself is the famous Shell Cottage which was built for Lady Emily FitzGerald, a quaint cottage which once had a thatched roof and is decorated outside and within with seashells. All this makes Carton a truly magnificent and breathtaking sight. The original house was built in the early seventeenth century by a member of the Talbot family of Malahide. Sir William Talbot had obtained the lease of Carton’s lands from Gerald, fourteenth earl of Kildare in 1603. In 1691 his son, Col. Richard Talbot, who also became Duke of Tyrconnell died at Limerick.

That same year his lands were forfeited to the crown. In 1703, the house was sold at auction and was bought by Major-General Richard Ingoldsby (he was at one time a Lord Justice of Ireland). Richard’s son Thomas died in 1731, and so Carton passed into the hands of his cousin Henry Ingoldsby who sold the lease back to the nineteenth earl of Kildare – Robert Fitzgerald. The great German architect Richard Castle was asked to make conversions to the house in order to make it a more comfortable abode. In 1744 the earl of Kildare died. He left Carton to his widow, Lady Mary O’Brien, but she immediately signed the house over to her son James, the twentieth Earl of Kildare. In 1766 he became the first Duke of Leinster. James married Emily Lennox, a daughter of the second Duke of Richmond. They removed the straight avenues and created a more natural parkland to surround their house. Lady Emily is noted to have had a passion for spotted cows and she kept a collection at Carton, taking great pleasure in watching them graze upon the lawns. Two of the more important rooms in Carton house are the Saloon and the Chinese Room. The Saloon has a beautiful plaster ceiling which depicts ‘The Courtship of the Gods’. It was created by the famous Lafranchini brothers. It is probably one of their first works in Ireland, dating from 1739. The other important room in the house which still maintains it’s eighteenth century look, the Chinese Room, is decorated with panels of Chinese wallpaper and is embellished with gilt wood. It is not unlike the layout of the print room in Castletown House. In 1815 Lord Gerald FitzGerald, third Duke of Leinster House (his Dublin residence) hired the eminent Cork architect, Richard Morris to make alterations to Carton House. Later Carton was to fall out of the hands of the FitzGerald family due to the rashness of the seventh Duke of Leinster, Lord Edward FitzGerald.

An extravagant young man with many debts, he sold his birthright in 1910 to a moneylender. He stipulated that should he inherit the Dukedom, he would receive £1,000 for life. He lived until 1979. His elder brother died in 1922. The second son, Lord Desmond died on active service in France in 1916. Thus Carton was lacking in the funds it needed for its upkeep. In 1949 it was sold to Lord Brocket.

Although it is not open to the public throughout the year, visits can be arranged through Maynooth College Visitors Centre. The centre is opened from May to September.

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