The Daily Dish blog responds to the terrorist attack on Dutch cartoonist Kurt Westergaard with a collage of cartoons.

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Security services knew three years ago that the Detroit bomber had “multiple communications” with Islamic extremists in Britain, it emerged this weekend. Counterterrorism officials said Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was “reaching out” to extremists who MI5 had under surveillance while he was studying at University College London. None of the information was passed to American officials, which will prompt questions about intelligence failures prior to the attack.

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A Muslim MP has opened up divisions within the Islamic community by saying it is reasonable for Muslims to be singled out for extra airport security measures following the Detroit bomb attempt. Khalid Mahmood, the Labour MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, said it has become necessary to ‘profile’ passengers from certain racial and religious groups in order to weed out possible terror suspects.

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An atheist group in the Irish Republic has defied a new blasphemy law by publishing a series of anti-religious quotations on its website. Atheist Ireland says it will fight any action taken against it in court. The quotations include the words of writers such as Mark Twain and Salman Rushdie, but also Jesus Christ, the Prophet Muhammad and Pope Benedict XVI.

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Somali Muslim tried to kill the Danish cartoonist who drew cartoon of Mohammed, but was shot by the police in the attempt.  The Somali Islamist insurgent group Shabab applauded his efforts.

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An intruder who was shot and wounded by police after breaking into the Denmark home of Muhammad cartoonist Kurt Westergaard has links to Islamic terrorists, according to Danish intelligence. The 28-year-old Somali man is connected to the radical Islamist al-Shabaab militia and al-Qaeda leaders in East Africa, claims Denmark’s PET intelligence service.

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People in Wootton Bassett, the town famous for honouring dead British soldiers returning from Afghanistan, reacted defiantly on Saturday to news that a controversial Islamic group is to march through its streets. Islam4UK – which calls itself a “platform” for extremist movement al-Muhajiroun – plans to parade through the Wiltshire town in the coming weeks. The group’s website says the event is being held “not in memory of the occupying and merciless British military” but of the Muslims its says have been “murdered in the name of democracy and freedom”.

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A newly translated ancient Babylonian clay tablet sheds light on the origins of the the Biblical flood myth.

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Many imams are using the internet to recruit young Muslims and potentially indoctrinate and radicalize them.  One imam, Anwar al-Awlaki, seems to be linked to both the Fort Hood shooter and the Nigerian underwear bomber.

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