Financial Crisis
»	Denmark: Farmers to Lose Billions in EU Subsidies
»	Eurozone Summit: We Are All at Germany’s Mercy
»	Greece to EU Court, Risks High Fine
»	S&P Downgrades Cyprus After Bank ‘Haircut’
»	Shanghai Property Fall Sparks Outrage
»	This Was the Week That European Democracy Died
	USA
»	Obama: “Italy is One of Our Strongest Allies”
	Europe and the EU
»	Elections in Switzerland: The League and UDC Rejoice, Bignasca Calls for a Wall Against Italy
»	Italy: Berlusconi Says Italians ‘Need Him’ Dismisses Early-Election Reports
»	Norway: Oslo’s Epidemic of Rape
»	Russian Companies Vying for the Port of Rotterdam
»	Schools: EU Primary Teachers, Cyprus 3% Over 50, Italy 45%
»	Spain: Top in Europe for Number of Clients for Prostitutes
»	Telcoms: Telefonica-Portugal Telecom Deal in Brussels’ Sights
»	UK: Poppy-Burning Muslims Plan New ‘Hell for Heroes’ Demonstration on November 11
	North Africa
»	Algeria: Men Who Won the Civil War Under Accusation
»	Egypt: Coptic Christian Student Murdered by Classmates for Wearing a Cross
»	Robbers Make Off With Priceless Treasure of Benghazi After Drilling Into Underground Vault at Libyan Bank
	Israel and the Palestinians
»	Gender Segregation Grows in Orthodox Jewish Areas
»	Was Schalit Deal a Sign That Israel is Ready to Attack Iran?
	Middle East
»	UAE: Unemployment 13% Among Locals Despite Available Jobs
	South Asia
»	Death Highlights Women’s Role in Special Ops Teams
»	Pakistan: Christian Farm Workers Abducted by Muslim Landowners for Money in Faisalabad
	Immigration
»	For Overcrowded England, There is No Turning Back

Denmark: Farmers to Lose Billions in EU Subsidies

EU’s redistribution of subsidies to east and southern Europe comes at a cost for Denmark

Denmark’s 50,000 farmers are set to lose billions of kroner in subsidies when the EU announces the future of its agricultural policy tomorrow.

According to newspaper Politiken, Denmark’s agricultural subsidy between 2014 and 2020 will initially be cut by 200 million kroner and in the final three years will be cut by 400 million kroner a year.

Denmark will be one of four EU countries facing deep subsidy cuts as the EU shifts support toward southern and eastern EU member states.

Niels Jørgen Pedersen, of the Danish Agriculture and Food Council, said he was concerned.

“It’s an unfortunate development because it will ultimately reduce the number of jobs in agriculture,” he told Politiken.

Pedersen also questioned the logic behind the redistribution of funding. While Denmark, which currently receives seven billion kroner a year in agricultural subsidies, will face a five percent annual cut, countries such as Estonia will see increases of 30 percent.

“It means that EU support in the future will be channelled towards old fashioned forms of agriculture. Cutting the support of large and effective agricultural producers like the Danes lose while at the same time giving more to ineffective producers is anti-competitive.”

Other experts worry that the lack of support may cause every tenth farmer to go bankrupt. Especially vulnerable are the 4,500 cattle farmers who will be hardest hit by the withdrawal of support.

The European Commission is currently finalising the details of the subsidy proposal before tomorrow’s expected publication. The proposal will have to be agreed by EU member states in 2012 while Denmark holds the EU presidency.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Eurozone Summit: We Are All at Germany’s Mercy

The leaders of the Eurozone have reduced Greece’s debt and increased the amount of EU aid. However, for Eleftherotypia, which notes on its front page that “German tanks are in the bailout,” the decision will put the Greeks and all Europeans under the heel of Berlin.

Buoyed by a Bundestag vote in which she secured the support of 80% of Germany’s MPs, Angela Merkel went on to attend the Brussels summit to find a solution to the Greek problem.

However, the decision taken by the summit had already been announced, almost point by point, by the Chancellor before the German parliament. Apparently, she did not even take into account the views expressed by other European leaders. It is as though there were no other players in Europe.

Of course, everyone knows that Germany is the strongest player. Everyone knows that its opinion has more weight than the others. But it cannot always have the last word. Because in politics, you cannot apply the same rules as in football: otherwise we will arrive at a situation where “in the end, Germany always wins,” as one former English footballer put it.

Merkel does as she pleases

The way things are going now, politics and football have switched sides in this dichotomy: because in football, Germany often loses, whereas in Europe, they always succeed in imposing their opinion. And in so doing, they have not met with any opposition.

Even the French president has been roundly criticised by his national press for supporting the German position. Other leaders, like Luxembourg’s Prime Minster Jean Claude Juncker, have voiced concern over Germany’s hegemony.

However, none of this has served any purpose. Chancellor Merkel does as she pleases. With regard to Greece, she has imposed a solution that entails a 50% devaluation of sovereign debt, and far-reaching structural reforms including a number of key austerity measures…

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Greece to EU Court, Risks High Fine

(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, OCTOBER 27 — Greece risks having to pay a high fine for failing to completely implement the directive on domestic market services, which dates back to 2006. The European Commission has decided, for the first time, to take three countries who still have not adopted the measure — Greece, Germany and Austria — to the EU Court, asking for immediate economic sanctions. Greece may have to pay fine of 51,200 euros for every day, starting from the day of the verdict to the day it implements the European regulation.

Services, the European Commission reports, represent 70% of the European economy. Unfortunately, excessive administrative requisites still are the main barrier to the development of these activities, particularly small-scale services. As a result, consumers have access to a smaller number, and less efficient services. Estimates of the potential economic benefits of the directive on services speak of a number of 60 to 140 billion euros, the equivalent of a potential annual growth between 0.6 and 1.5% of the EU’s GDP.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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S&P Downgrades Cyprus After Bank ‘Haircut’

(ANSAmed) — NICOSIA, OCTOBER 28 — Standard & Poor’s cut Cyprus’ long-term credit rating by a notch to BBB yesterday, mainly citing the banking system’s exposure to sovereign Greek debt. The move, as Famagusta Gazette reports, came only hours after EU leaders struck a deal in which banks would take a 50% loss on their holdings of Greek government debt as part of a broad Greek restructuring. That was above an earlier agreement that involved a 21% haircut. “We believe that a Greek default scenario with private sector involvement, or ‘haircuts,’ higher than previously agreed by commercial creditors would necessitate the recapitalisation of some domestic banking institutions” in Cyprus, S&P said.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Shanghai Property Fall Sparks Outrage

Property sales in Shanghai, the most populous city in China, have fallen by more than a tenth over the first nine months of the year, sparking protests in some cases.

Sales of commercial properties in Shanghai including offices, residential and commercial buildings dropped 13.1 percent in January through September from a year earlier to 13.07 million square meters, data from the Shanghai Statistics department showed.

Sales of residential properties in the city fell at a steeper rate of 14.9 percent in the first nine months to 10.63 million square meters.

Facing tighter liquidity conditions, swelling inventory and slowing sales, more Chinese developers have moved to cut prices to lure customers.

But the price cuts have angered homeowners who bought their homes before they were instituted.

Hundreds of angry homeowners stormed the sales office of a property project in Shanghai’s Jiading district on Oct. 22, demanding a refund as prices of the development have fallen by up to one-third since they made their purchases, the Shanghai Youth Daily reported earlier this week.

Similar cases have been reported elsewhere.

Dispute spills over to the streets

In Pudong, the financial district, hundreds of customers of China Overseas Property Group protested at the developer’s head office over the weekend as home prices at one of its projects were cut by nearly 30 percent in a sales promotion, according to a Shanghai Daily report.

Earlier this month, a similar scene was staged at the head office of Jingrui Properties, when about a hundred homeowners gathered to protest after the company lowered prices for a project in Taicang near Shanghai by up to 20 percent during a 15-day promotion period, according to local media reports.

Developers including Jingrui Properties had so far refused to give in to homeowners’ requests for refunds or cancellation of purchases, saying such demands had no legal basis, the reports said.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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This Was the Week That European Democracy Died

Democracy went down in a blaze of glory last week. Both the German Bundestag and our own House of Commons put up one hell of a fight against the dying of the light. Maybe history will record that fact in an elegy on the demise of the great 18th-century experiment in government by the people: they were eloquent to the end. Because at the end, eloquence was all they had.

Trying to hold back the resurgence of oligarchy — the final dismantling of democratic responsibility in the governing of Europe — has been looking pretty hopeless for a long time. That eruption of excellent rhetoric and faultless argument which sprang to the defence of the rights of the governed (and in Germany’s case, of constitutional legality) made the loss seem all the more tragic, but no less inevitable.

So this is where we are. The agreed EU “stability union” triumphantly paraded before the media in Brussels will have the power to approve or disapprove budgets of countries in the eurozone — that is, to vet and police them — before they are submitted to the elected parliaments of those countries. In other words, parliaments which are directly mandated by, and answerable to, their own populations will not control the most essential functions of government: decisions on taxation and spending. Even without the ultimate institutions of economic and political union, which still elude the EU, actual power over fiscal policy will be taken from the hands of national leaders. And if, as a voter, you cannot influence your prospective government’s tax and spending policies, what exactly are you voting for?

— Hat tip: Kitman

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Obama: “Italy is One of Our Strongest Allies”

(AGI) Washington — “Italy is one of our strongest allies” said Barack Obama at the National Italian American Foundation Gala.

“America would not be what it is today without the unique contributions and the uncommon pride of Italian Americans”.

These are the words used by Barack Obama to pay tribute to the Italian legacy to the USA during a gala dinner of the National Italian American Foundation, the association that groups all Italian American citizens of the United States. While addressing an audience incluing the Italian Ambassador in Washington Giulio Terzi (who he thanked for the “extraordinary commitment in representing his Country”) and Confindustria leader Emma Marcegaglia, the US President — who had just opened his address by saying “Viva l’Italia” in Italian — recalled the 150th Anniversary of the Unification of Italy “every American joins us in celebrating this anniversary of Italian unification”) as well as the contribution made by many Italians (from Colombus to Galile, from Jo Di maggio to Sophia Loren) to history, culture and science.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Elections in Switzerland: The League and UDC Rejoice, Bignasca Calls for a Wall Against Italy

The Swiss elect one more League MP and one UDC MP to the National Council, in Berne. The Ticino League and the UDC (the Swiss People’s Party) are rejoicing over the result obtained in the Swiss federal elections. Electors have chosen one more League MP and one UDC MP to go to Berne, to the National Council, one of the two branches of Parliament.

The leader of the Ticino League, Giuliano Bignasca (see photo), spoke immediately to reporters of the Swiss television station RSI, saying that the Ticino vote is a vote against Europe and against border-workers. He said, “We have to build a wall against Italy, and clarify many things about border-workers.”

Clarifications are published every week in the party’s Sunday newspaper, “Il Mattino”, and go from restrictions on labour to genuine regulation, which, all things considered, would put a stop to one of the things that Bignasca dislikes most, namely, the bilateral agreement on the free circulation of people (the “ALCP”). The charismatic leader of the League did a lot for these and for the last cantonal elections, in which, thanks to the essential help of the UDC with whom there is an unwritten agreement, he is now sending another member of the League, the counsellor Norman Gobbi, to the Government in Bellinzona. Today, we can also say that the favour has been returned, and the League-UDC union has produced the results hoped for, because the UDC President, Pierre Rusconi, obtained his seat in Berne, thanks also to the votes of the League, whose political contribution was decisive, although their numbers were not…

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Italy: Berlusconi Says Italians ‘Need Him’ Dismisses Early-Election Reports

Rome, 28 Oct. (AKI) — Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi dismissed reports he would resign and call for early elections, saying it would harm the country.

“It would create grave damage to Italy and Italians,” he said Friday during an interview with one of the television channels from his media empire.

Berlusconi has been dogged by legal problems and a sluggish economy. Critics constantly push for resignation and call either for early elections or a transitional government led by technocrats. He’s also come under fire for his handling of the European debt crisis for not doing enough to cut spending and implement reforms.

Italian news reports in the la Repubblica and la Stampa newspapers on Wednesday reported that Berlusconi struck a deal with his Northern League coalition partner to step down and call elections for the spring. In exchange the League agreed to allow the government to boost the retirement age by two years to 67.

The government’s five year mandate ends in 2013.

The European Union demanded Italy to come up with reforms to reduce its 1.9 trillion-euro debt and help bring order to a debt crisis that some fear can bring an the end to the euro currency.

League head and founder Umberto Bossi had refused to touch Italians’ pensions saying: “They would kill us.”

But the government announced it would indeed raise retirement age to 67 years old, as well as make it easier for companies to fire workers. Some union have called for a general strike.

Without the support of the Northern League, Berlusconi would lose the parliamentary majority causing his government to come to an early end. In 1994, Bossi pulled the plug on his support for Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party, causing the government to fall.

“The League has always been a dependable ally, Berlusconi said in the Friday interview. Our relationship with Bossi is solid.”

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Norway: Oslo’s Epidemic of Rape

Back in May it was reported that every rape assault in the city of Oslo in the last five years had been committed by a person with a “non-Western” background — a Norwegian euphemism for Muslim. Now it turns out that there have already been twice as many rape assaults in Oslo so far this year as there were in all of 2010. At least one member of Parliament, André Oktay Dahl of the Conservative Party, calls the situation “critical” and is brave enough to acknowledge that many of the perpetrators come from cultures “with a reprehensible attitude toward women.”

[…]

Not so very many years ago, Oslo was virtually a rape-free city, inhabited by people who had been brought up on civilized notions of mutual respect and tolerance. No longer. Over the years, the incidence of rape has risen steadily. A wildly disproportionate number of the perpetrators are “rejected asylum seekers” — which may sound puzzling unless you are aware of the perverse state of affairs whereby even persons officially rejected for asylum in Norway are still allowed to stay.

[…]

Yet it now appears that the incidence of rapes in Oslo has now eclipsed that in the other two Scandinavian capitals, Stockholm and Copenhagen. This is quite an achievement, given that Oslo has traditionally been the smallest and sleepiest of these three cities — the least cosmopolitan, the one that feels more like a safe small town than a European capital. In fact, it turns out that the incidence of rape in Copenhagen has been on the decline. It is perhaps not entirely coincidental that Denmark, for the last decade, has also been the country with the most sensible immigration and integration policies in Western Europe. (Nor is it coincidental that the other Scandinavian capitals have twice as many police per inhabitant as Oslo does.)

[…]

But until the authorities begin to take the welfare of law-abiding citizens as seriously as they take the welfare of criminal foreigners, the problem will only grow worse.

— Hat tip: Egghead

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Russian Companies Vying for the Port of Rotterdam

Summa Capital, which will build a new oil terminal in the Netherlands, wants to set up a joint venture with Transneft. The goal is to make Ural crude a benchmark for international markets.

Moscow (AsiaNews) — Pipeline monopoly Transneft plans to expand abroad and its first stop is Rotterdam. The company is vetting the possibility of building a new oil terminal in the Dutch port, which is the world hub for the oil trade, in a joint venture with fellow Russian investment group Summa Capital.

The Russian government backs the plan, especially the powerful Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin. The aim is to turn Ural crude (which reaches Rotterdam from the port of Primorsk) into a benchmark for international markets, like the US Brent, Russian online newspaper gazeta.ru reports citing Russian energy industry sources.

After winning the bid with Dutch company VTTI for the construction of the new oil terminal in Rotterdam, Summa Capital, which is controlled by Dagestan businessman Ziyavudin Magomedov, asked Transneft to set up a joint venture to trade Russian crude, Transneft Chairman Nikolai Tokarev said.

According to the two companies, Rotterdam’s Tank Terminal Europort West (or TEW) should be an “open hub” for Ural crude and any supplier or buyer.

The terminal, which will begin operations in 2015, will more than double the volume of Russian crude deliveries to the Dutch city to between 50 million-55 million metric tonnes, up from 25 million tonnes now.

However, Transneft should not have “a direct interest in participating in the joint venture”, said Dmitry Alexandrov of Univer Investment Company. For him, the Rotterdam hub would have been far more interesting for oil traders, like Gunvor, Russia’s main oil trader, than a pipeline company.

For this reason, Transneft’s alliance with Summa Capital in Rotterdam should be seen from a broader perspective for the Russian giant.

With a monopoly over Russian oil pipelines, Transneft “intends to develop its global presence through entering the port infrastructure market in Europe”, Alexandrov believes, “and, perhaps, in future, in Asia as well”. (N.A.)

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Schools: EU Primary Teachers, Cyprus 3% Over 50, Italy 45%

(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, OCTOBER 25 — The youngest teachers in the EU working in primary schools are Cypriot, Polish and Slovenian, while the oldest are German, Swedish and Italian. This is the picture that emerges from the latest figures released by Eurostat, valid for 2009, which show that only 3% of Cypriot teachers in primary schools are over the age of 50, with the figure at 44.8% in Italy, 48% in Sweden and 49% in Germany. The figure falls to 31.7% in Spain, with Portugal (27.4%), Malta (22.8%), France (21.6%) and Slovenia (18.2%) following, while the EU average stands at 29%. Primary school teachers in the European Union are still mainly women (86%), a percentage that becomes even higher in Malta (88.7%), Italy (94%) and Slovenia (97.5%), but which is slightly lower in Cyprus and France (both 82.6%), Portugal (79.6%) and Spain (74.3%), while the figure in Turkey is decidedly more balance (50.4%). Turkey, a candidate country for EU accession, suffers the most from overcrowding in classrooms, with an average of 25.8 children per teacher, compared to an average of 14.5 in the EU. France has 19.7 children per teacher, ahead of Croatia (18.1), Slovenia (16.7), Cyprus (14.5), Spain (13.3), Portugal (11.3), Italy (10.7) and Malta (9.4).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Spain: Top in Europe for Number of Clients for Prostitutes

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, OCTOBER 27 — Four out of ten Spaniards (39%), mainly between the ages of 35 and 55, have used the services of a prostitute at least once. This percentage far outstrips that for the Swiss (19%), Austrian (15%) or Swedish (14%) populations, placing Spain in first place in the European Union for the consumption of paid-for sex.

The figures come from a report on sexual exploitation which as been presented in Madrid by the Association for the Rehabilitation of Female Prostitutes (APRAMP) and the Secretary of State for Equality. The white paper cites data from the International Organisation for Migration which show that one and a half million women aged between 15 and 45 are being exploited by the prostitution industry in Europe each year. The guide, which draws a distinction between people-trafficking and people-trade, describes the typical profile of an exploited woman and of this “21st Century slavery “, with minors — often little more than adolescents — increasingly being bought and sold or reduced to sexual slavery. Along with the ‘protectors’ and all those profiting from the traffic, the clients too are defined as ‘profiteers from prostitution’ by the report.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Telcoms: Telefonica-Portugal Telecom Deal in Brussels’ Sights

(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, OCTOBER 26 — The Spanish company Telefonica and Portugal Telecom are the subject of antitrust reports in Brussels. The European Commission has decided to send a series of objections regarding a deal agreed between the two companies in July 2010, which stipulated that the two would not compete with one another on the Iberian market. An initial assessment by Brussels suggests that a similar agreement violates the EU’s regulations on competition.

The EU study began in January 2011, with the two companies concerned abolishing their non-competition pact in February, which does not conceal the fact that such an agreement was at one time in place. Non-competition clauses represent one of the most serious violations of the principle of free competition in the EU. At this point in the inquiry, the European Commission believes that the focus of the agreement was the disappearance from markets, with potentially higher prices and less choice for consumers. Brussels’s move to send the objections, meanwhile, will not affect the final outcome of the report. Telefonica and Portugal Telecom have two months to reply to the charges.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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UK: Poppy-Burning Muslims Plan New ‘Hell for Heroes’ Demonstration on November 11

An extreme Muslim group which caused outrage by burning a poppy last Remembrance Sunday is planning further disruption on November 11, with a twisted ‘Hell for Heroes’ campaign.

The demo, which mocks charity for injured soldiers Help for Heroes, is due to take place outside the Royal Albert Hall, the same location where a poppy was burned last year.

Emdadur Choudhury, who burned the poppy, was fined just £50.

The Muslims Against Crusades protestors, who have sought permission from police to hold the rally, aim to chant and disrupt the minute’s silence held in honour of the war dead.

Firebrand cleric Anjem Choudary, who has links to the Muslims Against Crusades group, said: ‘It’s going to be called Hell for Heroes and it will be around the Royal Albert Hall.

‘It will involve a protest and not observing the minute’s silence. We had a significant amount of support from Muslims around the world last year.

‘It’s one thing to remember the dead from the First World War and subsequent wars but it’s quite another when they say we need to remember the dead from Afghanistan and Iraq.

‘It’s become a political football and if they are going to use Remembrance Day for that purpose it’s only right that we have a counter protest, which we say is for Muslims.

‘The army is currently at war with Muslims in Muslim countries.’

Choudary also played down reports that MP Mike Freer had feared for his safety after a protest at a north London mosque where he was holding a surgery.

Up to a dozen protesters forced their way into the mosque where Mr Freer was meeting constituents, prompting officials to lock him in a private room for his own safety.

Mr Freer, a member of Conservative Friends of Israel, said he was called a ‘Jewish homosexual pig’.

He said he only later realised the MAC website had made reference to MP Stephen Timms, who was stabbed in his surgery by a Muslim women.

Choudary played down the protest saying: ‘It was peaceful and there were no arrests.

‘As far as I am aware there is no suggestion anyone from MAC said anything anti-semitic or homophobic.’

— Hat tip: Gaia

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Algeria: Men Who Won the Civil War Under Accusation

(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, OCTOBER 28 — Algeria, which deals with Islamic terrorism on a daily basis, is looking back to the past, as an extremely painful page in their history is reopening, when in order to react to other terrorists, also inspired by Islam, the government reacted with strength, determination and even cruelty, not hesitating in the face of the question asking if a state is authorised to make use of illegal violence to defend itself. This is the part of Algeria’s history in the 1990s that pulled the country into a civil war climate, with Islamists ready to take power and the state ready to respond with any means to whoever attacked it or its institutions. The war was won, but the seemingly-healed wounds are still present, and are now reopening, while Algeria is trying to embark on the difficult path of reforms, and with them, continue with the pacification which, declared by law, allowed many armed Islamist party representatives to return to legality. But the cost of the war was extremely high, and not only in terms of human casualties or rifts in society, because security forces and the Algerian Army deployed all means necessary to win, including long detentions, often on a preventative basis and at the limits of legality, and also violence, including the use of torture and other practices. For years this entire situation was cloaked in silence, even if everyone thought that it was a necessary price to pay to achieve peace. Today, however, many voices against those practices are being heard, and, if initially they went unheard, now they represent a problem while the army is constantly working to fight terrorism, which is also strengthening outside of the country, becoming a common problem in North Africa. The Defence Minister in the early 1990s, Khaled Nezzar, obviously a general, has been directly brought back into the picture, as he was summoned and questioned in Switzerland by Swiss federal prosecutor, Laurence Boillat, for involvement in the alleged torture two Swiss citizens of Algerian descent. This interrogation was the first time that an official of the High Council of State was called to respond to specific questions regarding how Algeria reacted to terrorism and if the methods used some how violated international human rights conventions. An unexpected development, which put an entire state on trial, even if just in a preliminary phase, through the implication of one of its men. Nezzar’s responses were clear and court records of the questioning show a state official, firmly convinced that he acted for the greater good and in respect of the law. Nezzar is at the centre of accusations presented by Noureddine Belmouhoub, the spokesperson for hundreds of imprisoned Algerians, often without any legal trial against them, in prison camps in the southern part of the country (in the middle of the desert) and who are now calling for justice for what they say was unjustified imprisonment and for what they suffered as prisoners. It is a mistake to think that Belmouhoub’s fight is simply a battle of principle, although fervent and passionate, because just a few days ago this man with sunken features was kidnapped, held and liberated by someone who only advised him to “stay calm”.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Egypt: Coptic Christian Student Murdered by Classmates for Wearing a Cross

by Mary Abdelmassih

(AINA) — In mid-October Egyptian media published news of an altercation between Muslim and Christian students over a classroom seat at a school in Mallawi, Minya province. The altercation lead to the murder of a Christian student. The media portrayed the incident as non-sectarian. However, Copts Without Borders, a Coptic news website, refuted this version and was first to report that the Christian student was murdered because he was wearing a crucifix.

“We wanted to believe the official version,” said activist Mark Ebeid, “because the Coptic version was a catastrophe, as it would take persecution of Christians also to schools.” He blamed the church in Mallawi for keeping quiet about the incident.

Today the parents of the 17-year-old Christian student Ayman Nabil Labib, broke their silence, confirming that their son was murdered on October 16, in “cold blood because he refused to take off his crucifix as ordered by his Muslim teacher.” Nabil Labib, the father, said in a taped video interview with Copts United NGO, that his son had a cross tattooed on his wrist as per Coptic tradition, as well as another cross which he wore under his clothes.

Both parents confirmed that Ayman’s classmates, who were present during the assault and whom they met at the hospital and during the funeral, said that while Ayman was in the classroom he was told to cover up his tattooed wrist cross. He refused and defiantly got out the second cross which he wore under his shirt. “The teacher nearly chocked by son and some Muslim students joined in the beating,” said his mother.

According to Ayman’s father, eyewitnesses told him that his son was not beaten up in the school yard as per the official story, but in the classroom. “They beat my son so much in the classroom that he fled to the lavatory on the ground floor, but they followed him and continued their assault. When one of the supervisors took him to his room, Ayman was still breathing. The ambulance transported him from there dead, one hour later.”

Prosecution arrested and detained two Muslim students, Mostapha Essam and Walid Mostafa Sayed, pending investigations in the murder case.

The father said that everyone in Mallawi knew how the event took place, but not one of the students’ parents was prepared to let their children come forward and give a statement to the police. “They are afraid of the school administration, which has lots of ways to harass the students, as well as being afraid of the families of the two Muslim killers.”

“I insist that the Arabic teacher, the headmaster, and the supervisors should be charged as well as the two students who committed the crime,” said Nabil. “The Arabic language teacher incited the students to attack my son, the headmaster who would not go to the classroom to see what is going on there when alerted to the beatings, but rather said to be left alone and continued sipping his tea, and the supervisors who failed in their supervising duties.”

Prosecution has three witnesses, two men working at school who named the assailants and one student who wanted to retract his statement, but was refused.”

“The evidence is under lock and key. Everyone is hiding the evidence. We will know the truth after forensic medicine has finished the report next week,” said Nabil, adding that the head of detectives on the case tried to influence the witnesses, claiming that the murder took place as a result of friction between students.”

The governor of Minya, El-Rouby, visited the Coptic Bishop Dimitrious of Mallawi to extend his condolences, accompanied by representatives of Minya military authorities. He also suspended the school’s headmaster and the two supervisors, as well as two social workers who were on duty when Ayman died, and referedg them to an investigation committee. But all of them have disappeared since then.

After the funeral service for Ayman, over 5000 Christians marched along the streets of Mallawi, denouncing the killing of a student whom they described as “Martyr of the Cross,” and the repeated killings of Copts in Egypt.

Prominent columnist Farida El-Shobashy wrote in independent newspaper Masry Youm “I was shaken to the bones when I read the news that a teacher forced a student to take off the crucifix he wore, and when the Christian student stood firm for his rights, the teacher quarreled with him, joined by some of the students; he was beastly assaulted until his last breath left him.” She wondered if the situation was reversed and a Muslim was killed for not removing the Koran he wore, what would have been the reaction.

Farida pointed out that the gravity of the incident is where it took place and who incited the attack (the teacher). She went on to blast the Ministry of Education for neglecting the education syllabus to prevent discriminatory contents but instead “left it to teachers to spread the fanatic Wahabi ideology.”

— Hat tip: Mary Abdelmassih

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Robbers Make Off With Priceless Treasure of Benghazi After Drilling Into Underground Vault at Libyan Bank

The thieves carried off with the pieces, known as The Treasure of Benghazi, having drilled through a concrete ceiling at the National Commercial Bank of Benghazi.

An expert has described the raid as ‘one of the greatest thefts in archeological history.’

Whilst the break-in was initially believed to have been part of the uprising against Muammar Gadaffi, Hafed Walada, a Libyan archeologist working at King’s College London told The Sunday Times; ‘It may have been an inside job.

‘It appears to have been carried out by people who knew what they were looking for.’

Alongside the coins, several artefacts, including monuments and figurines of bronze, glass and ivory, as well as jewellery, bracelets and medallions, are also believed to have been seized by the thieves.

Early leads had initially pointed to neighbouring Egypt, where a farmer had attempted to smuggle 503 gold coins and a golden statue through the port city of Alexandria, however attempts to locate him have thus far failed.

Most of the Benghazi treasures had been on Libyan soil following a mass recovery of the collection between 1917 and 1922 from the temple of Artemis, in Cyrene — an ancient Roman city, now Libyan territory and otherwise known as Shahat.

During the Second World War, much of the treasure was on display at the Museum of Italian Africa in Rome, but eventually returned to Libyan soil in 1961 and was kept at the bank.

Italian archeologist, Serenella Ensoli, from the Second University of Naples insisted the treasure was priceless given its historical value.

‘The collection is not well studied and is a huge loss for Libyan heritage.’

— Hat tip: Gaia

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Gender Segregation Grows in Orthodox Jewish Areas

(ANSAmed) — JERUSALEM, OCTOBER 21 — There is a neighbourhood in Jerusalem where men and women walk on different sidewalks. It is called Mea Shearim, a neighbourhood inhabited for years by Haredi Jews (literally “those who tremble”), an ultra-Orthodox branch of Judaism, reminiscent of an Ashkenazi Jewish corner of Poland in the 18th century. These separate sidewalks are an example of gender segregation practiced and invoked by strict Orthodox Jewish communities also in public places, despite the fact that several rulings in civil court have stated that these practices are illegal in Israel. The most recent ruling came on October 16: the High Court stated that the streets of Mea Shearim belong equally to men and women, and banned discrimination. “Starting next year,” the judges ruled, “conduct contrary to this sentence will no longer be tolerated.” This type of statement would lead one to believe the police are required to enforce this decision. But in Israel there are few people who would be willing to make that bet. In recent years, gender separation in public areas has been constantly increasing alongside growing numbers and rising influence in the country of Haredi Jews and ultra-Orthodox Jews of various sects. “Gender segregation is a relatively new phenomenon in Jewish life,” said Yossi Gurvitz, one of the contributors to digital magazine +972, “it has been present for a decade, perhaps a few years more. The bitter fruit of Orthodox Jewish movements, Hasidic Jews in particular, who say that the presence of women (or girls, often who are very young) is inappropriate, and fuels impure thoughts.” The jump from this idea to banning women on sidewalks was a short one, but it wasn’t the only one. Recently, the idea of buses where women have to sit in the back has created a stir, even outside of Israel, on transport lines that serve Haredi Jewish neighbourhoods. An unwritten law requires female passengers, in a sort of backwards etiquette, to give up their seats for men and sit in the back of the bus. Also in this case, the practice was rejected (in January 2011) by a High Court sentence: “Public transportation operators should not order women to sit in certain seats just because they are female. They should also not tell them how to dress.” In order to try to enforce the injunction, feminists in Jerusalem organised a movement professedly inspired by Rosa Parks, the African American woman who challenged a similar practice on buses, refusing to give up her seat for a white passenger. Activists were boarding public buses in Orthodox neighbourhoods and occupying the seats in the front of the vehicles. Despite the challenge by these activists and decisions by judges, “separation of genders in public places continues to spread” in Israel, said Gurvitz. An alarm has also been sounded by the Reform Judaism movement, which over the years has repeatedly warned politicians about these practices. “This phenomenon,” explained several representatives of the most liberal sect last year to Knesset, “is spreading in Israel like a disease. This degrades women, who are tremendously mortified by the practice.” The virus seems to have even infected the Internet. FaceGlat, a new social network for Orthodox Jews, offers homepages in two separate windows: one for men, the other for women, excluding any contact between the two sexes, even in the digital world.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Was Schalit Deal a Sign That Israel is Ready to Attack Iran?

This is an interesting analysis by Abraham Rabinovich at the Washington Times that interprets the 1000-1 exchange for captured soldier Gilad Schalit as a way of “clearing the decks” for action against Iran’s nuclear program:

Amir Oren, the veteran military analyst for Ha’aretz newspaper, took note of Israel’s exchanging 1,027 Palestinian convicts for army Staff Sgt. Gilad Schalit, who had been captured by Hamas in 2006. Mr. Oren wrote that the price paid by Mr. Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak “can be interpreted only in a context that goes beyond that of the Gilad Schalit deal.”

He noted that Israeli leaders in the past have shown a readiness to absorb “a small loss” in order to attain a greater success, generally involving “some sort of military adventure.”

[Note from Egghead: OK. I was already thinking this myself. I guess that we’ll all see, won’t we?]

— Hat tip: Egghead

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UAE: Unemployment 13% Among Locals Despite Available Jobs

(ANSAmed) — DUBAI, OCTOBER 25 — There are at least twice as many jobs as citizens in the UAE, and yet, according to a survey carried out by Going Global, the unemployment rate among these citizens is five times higher, close to 13%, than unemployment among the foreign population. The anomaly of a country in which 90% of the workforce is formed by foreign workers explains the distant relation between local citizens and the private sector. A minority group in their own country, UAE citizens prefer working in the public sector, where working hours are shorter than in the private sector, and wages are higher. On the other hand, the private sector traditionally hires employees that meet requirements regarding production and performance, though a survey carried out by YouGovSiraj indicates that 67% of private entrepreneurs are willing to hire Emirati citizens if they are as qualified as the expats working in the country and paid the same salary. “The oil and gas sectors are expanding and the large companies are hiring,” confirmed Omar Bamadhaf Al Khatheri, government representative for support services, adding that the challenge continues to grow with an estimate 20,000 Emirati citizens per year ready to join the national workforce in the coming ten years.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Death Highlights Women’s Role in Special Ops Teams

Army 1st Lt. Ashley White died on the front lines in southern Afghanistan last weekend, the first casualty in what the Army says is a new and vital wartime attempt to gain the trust of Afghan women.

White, like other female soldiers working with special operations teams, was brought in to do things that would be awkward or impossible for her male teammates. Frisking burqa-clad women, for example.

Her death, in a bomb explosion in the Taliban heartland of Kandahar, demonstrates the risks of placing women with elite U.S. special operations teams working in remote villages.

Military leaders and other female soldiers in the program say its rewards are great, even as it fuels debate over the roles of women in combat. “We could do things that the males cannot do, and they are starting to realize that,” says Sgt. Christine Baldwin, who like White was among the first groups of women deployed to Afghanistan this year as specially trained “cultural support” troops.

Male soldiers often cannot even speak to an Afghan woman because of the strict cultural norms that separate the sexes and the tradition of women remaining behind closed doors most of the time. Forcing the issue has yielded only resentment, military officials say, and has jeopardized the trust and cooperation of villagers.

From the start of the war 10 years ago, Afghans have especially resented the practice of “night raids” in which male foreign soldiers enter and search homes, the traditional sanctum of women. “We could search the female, find out the other half of the information,” Baldwin said in an interview. “If you’re missing half of the lay of the land, how effective are you in engaging the populace?” That question was eight years in the making.

It arose from the frustration of U.S. commanders who realized two years ago that as they tried to apply the principles of counterinsurgency protect civilians and enlist them to reject insurgents and provide intelligence they were not reaching the majority of the Afghan population. Now, the first female soldiers are serving in commando units.

They are trained to ferret out critical information not available to their male team members, to identify insurgents disguised as women and figure out when Afghan women are being used to hide weapons. U.S. women have been on the front lines in Afghanistan since the war began, and over time they have been used to reach out to the Afghan population through health care initiatives and other programs.

They have traveled with Army soldiers and Marines throughout the warfront, often to assist in development projects or as part of psychological operations, which now are called MISO, or military information support operations.

But as elite special operations teams fanned out across the country doing counterinsurgency “stability operations” in the small villages, they complained to their superiors that they were not reaching the women and children who comprise as much as 71 percent of the population.

“We waited too long to get to this,” says Command Sgt. Maj. Ledford Stigall. “We had a lot of people focused on the kill and capture, and it really took someone to say, hey it’s not about kill, capture, it’s about developing a country that can take care of itself.” “Women have a voice,” he said.

“They can influence the men in their society.” In 2009, under pressure from Gen. Stanley McChrystal, then the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, and Gen. David Petraeus, then the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, the Army began to develop Cultural Support Teams. Last November, the first group of women went through a grueling five-day assessment that tested their physical and military skills, their problem-solving and writing abilities and their psychological and mental fitness.

Those that passed moved on to a six-week training program. And in January, the first group of 28 women were deployed to Afghanistan with Army Rangers and Special Forces teams. They went in two-woman teams as part of larger special operations units, usually numbering about a dozen. And they were designed to go out on patrols and into the villages with the special operators to help build relations with the communities by engaging with the Afghan women.

In the process, they also could glean valuable intelligence about the people in the region, information they might not be able to get from the men. Capt. Adrienne Bryant was in the first group that deployed.

Down in Helmand Province with a team of Marine special operations forces, Bryant said, the initial response from the population was tepid. On her first patrol, however, the team introduced her and her CST teammate to a village elder.

“He had been constantly abused by the Taliban, had been kidnapped and returned and he didn’t want to work with coalition forces any more because of the fear the Taliban was going to retaliate,” Bryant said in an interview. Bryant and her teammate talked to him about what they could do for the women of his village, including the medical assistance and skills training, like sewing, they could bring. And he was interested.

“Helmand was a pretty conservative area, women aren’t really seen out much, they don’t shop. So we had to disguise our sewing program; we ran it in conjunction with our clinic,” Bryant said.

“In case the women were being scrutinized because they were coming to learn a skill from us, they had cover by coming on clinic days.” Baldwin was sent up north with an Army special operations team in Kunduz Province.

The women they encountered were hesitant at first. “We’d go out on patrol and be all kitted up and they were almost fearful, but once we took off that helmet, and put on the scarf, they would recognize that it was a female and the fear would be gone,” she said.

Both Baldwin and Bryant said the Afghan women and children at their meetings grew from a few to dozens. Neither said they ever felt they were in immediate danger during their eight-month deployment, although they knew what was possible.

“Any day that they’re walking into a village and engaging with the population they are at the same risk as those Special Forces, SEALs, or special operators they’re detailed to. So I would say it is not for the weak-kneed,” said Michael Lumpkin, principal deputy assistant defense secretary for special operations. “These women are on the front lines in very austere locations.”

Ashley White, 24, was among the 34 CST members to go to Afghanistan in the second group, and she was assigned to a Ranger unit.

The Ohio native and two Rangers were killed when their assault force triggered a roadside bomb. In a press release Monday, U.S. Army Special Operations Command said White “played a crucial role as a member of a special operations strike force. Her efforts highlight both the importance and necessity of women on the battlefield today.” Lumpkin said that so far commanders agree the program has been a success.

The third group of women is about to begin training, and the tentative plan is to have 25 permanent Army CST teams by 2016. “When 71 percent of the population are women and children, you have to have buy-in from a greater number of people in the villages to really connect with them, and to understand really what’s going on. Because of that female-to-female connection, that can be achieved,” Lumpkin said.

He added, “We’re coming late to the table, but we’ve recognized the value (of the program), and I think this will transcend beyond Afghanistan. … I don’t see them going away any time soon.”

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Pakistan: Christian Farm Workers Abducted by Muslim Landowners for Money in Faisalabad

The Masih brothers worked on land owned by the Dogar family. The latter are Muslim and some of its members used to get drunk and beat the tenants. When Asif and Khadim decided to quit, they were abducted. Nothing has been known about their fate since September. The authorities have not investigated the matter because one of the Dogars is a policeman.

Faisalabad (AsiaNews) — Nothing is known of two Christian brothers from Faisalabad (Punjab) who were seized by the Muslim landowning family that employed them. The two disappeared on 14 September. Since then, “We have no idea where they are, whether they are dead or alive,” their mother told AsiaNews. A money dispute between the two Christian farm workers and their Muslim landlords is at the root of their abduction. Police have not yet opened a First Information Report because one of the landlords is a police officer.

Asif Masih, 23, known as Kali, and Khadim Masih, 35, come from a poor Christian family living in Chak 71, Jaranwala District, Faisalabad. They worked for 2,500 Pakistani rupees (US$ 29) a month for three Muslim landowners, policeman Javed Dogar and his brothers Sajjad Dogar and Rauf Dogar, who hail from Khurrianwala.

The mother of the two Christian brothers, Basheeran Bibi, said her sons had borrowed 20,000 rupees from the landowners, and were paying the loan back every month, out of their salary.

However, working for the Dogars was getting harder and harder. Although Muslims, they were often drunk and brutally beat the two Christians for no apparent reason.

When they found out, the parents of the Masih brothers suggested they pay off the debt and quit. This sparked an angry reaction from the Dogars who stormed the Masih home where they roughed up Niamat, the brothers’ father, who has a heart ailment. After that, they abducted the two brothers in September asking for a ransom of 70,000 rupees, plus the remainder of the debt.

The men’s mother tried to file a report with police, which refused because one of the suspects is a fellow police officer.

“Disputes between landowners and tenant farmers are commonplace in the area,” Fr Augustine, a priest in Faisalabad who provides financial and moral help to families, told AsiaNews. A serious and impartial inquiry should be conducted into the affair. “Farm workers are poor,” he explained. “They don’t have money to pay for legal action against landowners.”

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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For Overcrowded England, There is No Turning Back

Migration is adding a million people to the UK’s population every five years

By Alasdair Palmer7:00PM BST 29 Oct 20111370 CommentsAlmost eight million: that’s the Office for National Statistics’ projection of how many additional people there will be living in the UK in 16 years time.

Should we be worried by the prospect of 70 million people living in Britain in 2027? Some of the increase will be down to increased longevity — and most of us want to live longer. It was noted in the 16th century that “the wings of life are plumed with the feathers of death”. Fewer feathers of death means more living people. No one wants, as a matter of policy, to increase the amount of death — least of all any member of the Government. So, in the absence of some catastrophe such as an epidemic of a fatal and untreatable disease, increased longevity is here to stay as a cause of increased population.

But most of the increase won’t be the result of more people living longer. It’ll be the consequence of immigration. Net migration into Britain — the number of people arriving to settle here minus the number who leave permanently to set up home in a foreign country — is running at around 200,000 a year, which means we’re adding a million to the population every five years, even before the new arrivals have any children.

Ministers have promised to cut net migration by at least half, to around 100,000 a year. I doubt they will be able to keep that promise. You might think that it would not be difficult to achieve such a reduction. After all, the previous Government’s policies increased immigration. Why shouldn’t the present Government’s policies be able to diminish it?

The trouble is, it is much easier to turn the tap on (as it were) than it is to turn it off. Migrants come here because they believe they will have a much better life in Britain than they can achieve in their own countries. And very often, that is true: even when we’re in the midst of a very serious economic contraction, the gap between the standard of living here and what’s achievable in most African or Asian countries is so vast that it is worth tens of thousands of migrants every year making the expensive, and often very hazardous, journey to get here. It will continue to be so until that gap is very significantly reduced, either by a collapse in living standards here or an enormous increase in prosperity in the countries from which the migrants come — neither of which seems likely to happen in the next 16 years.

16 Oct 2011

Over the past decade, since Labour implemented policies to encourage immigration, word has got out that it is not difficult to get into Britain, and that it is well worth it once you do. It will be difficult for the present Government, or its successors, to reverse that perception. Increased border security may help, but since no one knows how many “illegals” slip through the existing system, it is hard to know how much difference it will make. We can, however, be sure that if the Government succeeds in making it more difficult for people to settle here legally, the principal effect will be to increase the number who try the illegal route.

Most of the migrants settle in the South East, because that’s where the jobs are. The empty parts of the UK — Northern Scotland, say, or the mountains of Wales — are that way because there’s far less that’s economically viable for people to do. The scary part of population growth is that it will be squashed into the parts of Britain that already amongst the most densely populated in Europe.

Worse, there is no plan from the Government on how to build the infrastructure that will be needed. To take just one example: more than a million new school places will be needed for the children of immigrants in the next decade. The cost is likely to be in the region of £100billion. Where will the money come from? Where will the space for the new school buildings, and the tens of thousands new houses that will also be needed, come from? Or the extra roads? The cars, the buses, trains, plumbing, cables?

Life doesn’t have to be worse when there are seven million more people in the South East. But it is not easy to see how it can be better — especially when no one has any idea of how to stop it amounting to one colossal traffic jam.

— Hat tip: Steen

[Return to headlines]

	Financial Crisis
»	Greece: PM Says Country Has Unlimited Potential
»	Gulf and Chinese Buyers Compensate for Struggling West
»	Italy: PM Says Statement on Euro Intentionally Misinterpreted
»	Sarkozy Says a “Mistake” Letting Greece Join Euro
	USA
»	Frank Gaffney Claims Center for American Progress is Part of ‘Red-Green’ Axis With Muslim Brotherhood
»	Mason Gun Instructor Wants No Liberals, Muslims
»	Muslim Reality Show Proves They’re Not From Mars
»	Occupying TV News
»	Oklahoma Muslims Ready for Hajj
»	Permit Denied for Occupy Madison Due to Public Masturbation
»	Work-Time Prayer a Struggle for U.S. Muslims
	Europe and the EU
»	Italy: Prosecutor Accuses Berlusconi of Defamation in Mills Case
»	Italy: ‘King of Escapes’ Has Escaped From Prison for 5th Time
»	Italy: Expo 2015 Sets Its Sights on Private Sector
»	Prince Charles: I Descend From Dracula, Vlad the Impaler
»	Tax: Spain to European Court for Discriminating Against Non-Residents
»	UK: “Unforseen Circumstances”
»	UK: Alcohol-Blighted Area Faces an Off-Licence Battle
»	UK: Britian Must be a Country Where People Can be Proud of Their Religion
»	UK: IRNA [Islamic Repubilc News Agency] Interviews Chris Nineham on Islamophobia
»	UK: Inquiry Into Baby Deaths Uncovers Shocking Maternity Care at Queen’s Hospital in Romford, Essex
»	UK: Muslim Community Protests Against MP in Finchley
»	UK: New BBC Sitcom Citizen Khan: Set in Birmingham, Filmed in Manchester
»	UK: Poppy Appeal Launch Moved Over Fears About Birmingham EDL Protest
»	UK: Welcome to Misery Tourism — A Gap Yah for Lefties
»	UK: Women and Sharia Law in the UK
	Balkans
»	Serbia: Italy to Invest ‘2 Bln Euros’ In Energy Projects
»	Serbia Arrests 17 Over US Sarejevo Embassy Attack
	Mediterranean Union
»	Mediterranean to Face Grain Crisis by 2030
	North Africa
»	Coptic Christians Protect Monastery From Egyptian Army Assault
»	Egyptian People Demand Rule of Islam
»	Libya: Frattini: Considering Joint Effort for Stabilisation
»	Tunisia Election Victory Marred by Violence
	Israel and the Palestinians
»	Carolyn Glick: Whither the IDF?
»	Football Recruiting More Arab Players
»	Palestinian PM Announces the Start of Building a Pulpit for the Aqsa Mosque
»	Russian Aid Convoy Arrives in Gaza
»	UNESCO: Eyes on Palestine, Membership Talks Under Way
	Middle East
»	Emirates: Trend to Sobriety Followed by Italian Design
»	Emirates: Humanoid Robots to be Introduced in Classrooms
»	Report: Top Muslim Adviser Blocks Obama Meeting With Christian Leader
»	Saudi Arabia: Spanish Consortium to Build High-Speed Train in Desert
»	Saudi Prince Offers $900k for Capture of Israeli Soldier
	Russia
»	Putin Disgusted by Images of Gaddafi’s Last Moments
	South Asia
»	India: Footpath Prayers Soon to be Heard
	Far East
»	China: Wuzhong Keeps Islam in Focus
	Sub-Saharan Africa
»	Africans ‘Rediscover’ Traditional Medicines
	Latin America
»	Trinidad & Tobago: Former Special Branch Head: We Knew Insurrection Was Imminent in 1990
	Immigration
»	Blair Defends Opening the Door to Mass Migration and Says it Had a Very Positive Impact on Britain
»	Netherlands: Angolan Youth Facing Deportation May Get Student Visa to Stay
»	Sweden’s Immigration Debate
	Culture Wars
»	‘We’re a Culture, Not a Costume’ This Halloween
	General
»	UN, HR Bodies Biased Against Muslims — Jamaat e Islam

Greece: PM Says Country Has Unlimited Potential

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, OCTOBER 28 — “The crisis gives us the opportunity to change Greece and the Brussels agreement gives us the time to do it”, Prime Minister George Papandreou said in a televised message to the Greek people on Thursday night. “Our country has unlimited potential. It must not be buried under a wasteful and intransparent State, as in the past. This began from us. We shall need everyone’s participation to change it. We shall create a fair State that will be aware of its role and serve citizens faithfully,” he said. “We succeeded in writing-off a very significant part of our debt. The banks will pay the largest part of it. We also succeeded in covering the country’s borrowing requirements. We hope that 2012 will be the first year that we shall not have to shoulder new debts,” Papandreou continued. The premier said that the agreement would not obstruct the operation of banks and would not threaten pensions. Also, the permanent presence of representatives of the country’s creditors would not make inroads into national sovereignty. “We shall wield the responsibility. To have technical assistance available can only do good,” Papandreou said.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Gulf and Chinese Buyers Compensate for Struggling West

(ANSAmed) — DOHA, OCTOBER 24 — The big-time art merchants are baiting their hooks for the eyes — and pockets — of the rich Arabs of the Gulf region, who together with the Chinese are establishing themselves as the most desirable clients to face the crisis that continues to hit the West. In the coming days in Doha (Qatar), Sotheby’s will be displaying works of art that will be auctioned off in New York on November 9. Paintings by Pollock, De Kooning and three by Andy Warhol are just some of the pieces being presented. The Warhol pieces are a portrait of Jackie Kennedy Onassis with a starting price of 2 million dollars, another portrait of Mao and a “Dollar Sign”. “Before our route was London-Paris-Milan, but now it is London-Hong Kong-Doha, the art roads have changed,” Miety Heiden, the Vice President of Contemporary Art for Sotheby’s, told ANSA. “Since Qatar has become a superpower in the world of art, Doha has become a mandatory stop,” added Heiden. Previously, Sotheby’s buyers who spent millions of dollars were executives at large western financial firms, but following the economic crisis, the art business is now being sustained by China and the Middle East. The main difference between the Western market and the Qatari market, explained Heiden, is the disinterest of Arab clients in ancient paintings. Europeans have been collecting art since the 15th century, while in Qatar the market opened up about 10 years ago, focussing mainly on contemporary art. “People from Qatar want the best of the best,” said Heiden. It’s no coincidence that the Emir of Qatar spent nearly 73 million dollars for a Mark Rothko painting at a Sotheby’s auction in 2007, setting a record for the highest price ever paid at an auction for a painting from the post-WWII period. At the same auction, the emir and his wife, Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al-Missned, bought a Francis Bacon painting for nearly 53 million dollars. According to the Sotheby’s Vice President, what is taking place in the art market in Qatar is similar to what the United States experienced in the 1920s, when the art business started to benefit from the accumulation of wealth in the country and the great American museums were created. “It is a fantastic development and I am almost certain that Doha will become an important centre for art where people will go to visit museums and works of art,” said Heiden. In the capital of Qatar a sculpture entitled “Maman” was just unveiled, one of the large spiders by French artist Louise Bourgeois, installed at the Qatar National Convention Center of Doha, standing at nearly 9 metres tall and created by an artist whose works have been displayed in all of the contemporary art museums worldwide, from the Tate Gallery in London to the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Pompidou Centre in Paris and the Reyna Sofia in Madrid. This is just the most recent acquisition in Qatar, which also already has the impressive Museum of Islamic Art built by Chinese architect Leoh Ming Pei, who also built the pyramid at the Louvre in Paris. The next unveiling in the world of art in Qatar will take place in 2014 with the opening of the Qatar National Museum, designed by French architect Jean Nouvel, who also created the Copenhagen Concert Hall and the Torre Agbar in Barcelona, and who also built one of the skyscrapers in the West Bay area in Doha. Structures that become monuments and works of art embellishing the skyline of the capital of Qatar, making it a breathtaking sight even for Western eyes.

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Italy: PM Says Statement on Euro Intentionally Misinterpreted

(AGI) Rome — Berlusconi said his recent statement on the euro may have been intentionally misinterpreted. “As usual, somebody is trying to use a statement of mine, which was interpreted in a malicious and distorted way, to raise controversy. The euro is our currency, our flag. In order to protect the euro from speculative attacks, Italy is making heavy sacrifices”, prime minister Silvio Berlusconi said in a statement. “The problem with the euro is that it is the only currency in the world without a common government, without a State, and without a bank of last resort. For these reasons, it is a currency that can be easily targeted by speculative attacks” Berlusconi added.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

[Return to headlines]

Sarkozy Says a “Mistake” Letting Greece Join Euro

(AGI) Paris — Nicolas Sarkozy says Greece will make it through its sovereign debt crisis but he believes that letting it join the Euro in 2001 was a “mistake”.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

[Return to headlines]

Frank Gaffney Claims Center for American Progress is Part of ‘Red-Green’ Axis With Muslim Brotherhood

The Center for Security Policy’s Frank Gaffney and “lawfare” expert Andrew McCarthy offered their response to the Center for American Progress’ Islamophobia report, “Fear, Inc.”, in a 10-minute segment on Gaffney’s radio show this week. Gaffney and McCarthy, who both are mentioned in CAP’s report as part of the influential “Islamophobia network,” make a series of unfounded allegations against CAP and the report. McCarthy, the author of The Grand Jihad: How Islam and the Left Sabotage America, has made no secret of his dislike for Muslims and progressives. His eagerness to create a grand-conspiracy between the two was on full display during the interview. But Gaffney and McCarthy take a turn into uncharted, and wildly unsubstantiated, territory when they float the theory that the CAP report was, as Frank Gaffney declares, a product of “a red-green axis between George Soros’ friends and beneficiaries on the radical left like the Center for American Progress and the Islamists, the Muslim Brotherhood most notably.”

— Hat tip: JP

[Return to headlines]

Mason Gun Instructor Wants No Liberals, Muslims

FREDERICKSBURG — In a radio commercial for concealed handgun classes, instructor Crockett Keller is heard telling listeners that he’ll accept cash, credit cards, checks, gold or used guns as their $100 payment. But it’s what Keller won’t accept that has created a rhetorical firefight on talk shows and which has gone viral on the Web. “If you are a socialist liberal and/or voted for the current campaigner-in-chief,” Keller says in the 1-minute, 7-second ad, which aired several times last week in the Hill Country town of Mason, “please do not take this class. You’ve already proven that you cannot make a knowledgeable and prudent decision as required under the law. Also, if you are a non-Christian Arab or Moslem (sic), I will not teach you this class. Once again, with no shame, I am Crockett Keller.”

That last sentiment is spelled out in capital letters on a yellow sign that will be hanging today on Keller’s table at the Texas Gun and Knife Show at the Gillespie County Fairgrounds: “If you are Muslim and will not pledge allegiance to the United States of America, I will not sell you any firearm or accessory.” Since the brief spot aired on Mason’s KHLB, it has been turned into several YouTube clips, which together have logged more than 20,000 views. He says he has received about 1,000 phone calls. Nearly all have been supportive. A few have come from respectful dissenters.

Friday, however, Keller’s wife, Diane, played back two threatening recorded messages, including one in which a caller claimed to be Muslim and threatened to kill the Kellers. Sheriff’s deputies are investigating both calls. The affable Keller, 65, who typically sports a wide-brimmed straw hat, isn’t scared by the death threats, saying they vindicate his position.

“And that’s exactly why I won’t teach” Muslims, he said, setting up his booth Friday at the gun show. “Actually, I don’t have a problem with them, but I think I’m getting one. That’s OK. I guess turnabout is fair play.”

Just then, another gun dealer walked up to Keller and offered his hand. “I want to shake your hand,” said the 60-year-old retiree from Comfort, who declined to identify himself for publication. “Thanks for what you said. You spoke for all of us.” Keller says the ad isn’t just about his frustration with current events. His refusal to teach certain people, he says, fits in with his interpretation of state law, which gives him latitude in denying instruction to people who don’t appear mentally fit or capable of making good decisions with a firearm.

His concerns, he says, arose after the 2009 Fort Hood shooting spree that left 13 dead and 29 injured. Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an American-born Muslim, is charged in connection with that incident. Given the constant stream of terrorism threats from groups with Middle Eastern ties, Keller says, he can’t act in good conscience by training any Muslim to legally carry a firearm. Nor will he offer his instruction to anyone who admits voting for President Barack Obama.

“How can I trust that a person who made that mistake — who had 21/2 years to vet the man and still voted for him — will make a rational, prudent and sane decision” when to use a firearm?” he asks. “I can’t.” He says the ad’s caveats were made tongue-in-cheek and that he hasn’t yet had to turn down anyone. Not everyone sees it as a joke. Sarwat Husain, president of the San Antonio chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, pointed out the irony of Keller’s commercial, which she says promotes the usage of a device with the sole purpose of killing. “We’re not missing anything,” she said. “I’m happy he’s not selling to the Muslims. Because that blood is on the hands of this guy. He’s a racist and he’s a bigot. He can keep his guns and he can promote killing.”

— Hat tip: JP

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Muslim Reality Show Proves They’re Not From Mars

A new reality television show may offer some viewers their first glimpses into the lives of Muslim Americans, showing that they face the same challenges and experience the same joys as any other American.” People fear what they don’t know,” Mike Jaafar, one of the fathers profiled in “All American Muslim” said in a press conference. “This show is based on everyday Americans, which we are. I’m not from Mars.”

The eight-part series will begin Nov. 13 on TLC, and follow the lives of five Muslim families from Detroit — including a newlywed couple, a working family with children, and two sisters, one who wears the traditional head scarf and the other who’s married to a Irish Catholic and sports tattoos. The population of Muslims in the United States is projected to double over the next two decades, according to the Pew Research Center, going from 2.6 million in 2010 to 6.2 million in 2030. The increase will be due to immigration and higher-than-average fertility among Muslims.

Some individuals in the show adhere more strictly to their faith than others, though most all are trying to find the balance between their traditional roots and American culture.

In fact, 56 percent of Muslims who come to the United States say they want to adopt American customs and ways of life — while only 33 percent of the general public believes that’s what Muslims want, according to a recent survey from the Pew Research Center. This won’t be the first time a religious group has been profiled in a reality show.

TLC also produced the show “Sister Wives,” which chronicles the lives of Kody Brown and his four wives, who all belong to the Apostolic United Brethren, a fundamentalist church that practices polygamy as part of its faith. The show, which first aired in 2010, also prompted an investigation into the relationships, as they appeared to be in violation of Utah’s bigamy laws. The Browns have since moved to Nevada.

Several years ago, a five-part miniseries on A&E, “God or the Girl,” followed the lives of four men who were torn between the choice to become a Catholic priest with its required vow of celibacy or develop a deeper relationship with each of the women in their lives. The documentary, with a slightly reality TV show feel, got more flack for its name than the actual content. “The title of the show is less than appealing to any faithful Catholic,” said 21-year-old Dan DeMatte, one of the young men profiled. “It’s not a decision between God or the girl. It’s a decision between serving God through celibacy or serving God through married life. God is No. 1 no matter what. The title is simply to catch eyes.”

— Hat tip: JP

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Occupying TV News

The Big Three TV networks have devoted far more attention to Occupy Wall Street than they did to the tea party, according to a new study by the Washington-based Media Research Center. CBS, NBC and ABC reported a mere 13 times on the tea party throughout all of its first year, 2009. In contrast, they ran 33 stories or segments about Occupy within 11 days.

So does the disparity in coverage mean Occupy is getting special treatment? Maybe, suggests the report. On CBS, NBC and ABC, most of the interview sound bites — 109 clips, or 87 percent — were from either protesters or supporters of Occupy, whereas only 6 percent were critical of the movement. Morning-show coverage has also been favorable, with seven guests expressing sympathy for protesters and none opposing or criticizing them.

— Hat tip: Kitman

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Oklahoma Muslims Ready for Hajj

CAIRO — Preparing for the spiritual hajj journey, Mohammed and Becky Atiyeh, a Muslim couple from Oklahoma, are excited to join millions of Muslims in prayers in Makkah, in a life-time trip that enhances unity with their Muslim roots, The Oklahoman reported on Saturday, October 29. “Seeing the massive 3 million people — rich and poor, black and white, fat and skinny — doing the same thing, it’s breathtaking,” Mohammed Atiyeh said.

Mohammed, a native Palestinian, is the owner of five IHOP restaurants in the Oklahoma City metro area. Though being born to a Muslim family, he did not consider himself very religious. But in recent years, he felt compelled to take the Hajj pilgrimage to connect to his Islamic roots. His wife, Becky, converted to Islam about 11 years ago. The couple said they are most excited to interact and pray with the many other Muslims making the journey. “I’m looking forward to the tranquility,” Becky said “I know that sounds crazy with all the people,” she added, smiling.

Muslims from around the world pour into Makkah every year to perform hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam. Hajj consists of several ceremonies, which are meant to symbolize the essential concepts of the Islamic faith, and to commemorate the trials of Prophet Abraham and his family. Every able-bodied adult Muslim who can financially afford the trip must perform hajj at least once in a lifetime. Hajj will climax this year on November 5 when the faithful descend the Mount ‘Arafat.

Get Ready

Embarking on their first journey to Makkah, the Atiyehs will join several million Muslims from all around the world in the holy city. Mohammed Atiyeh said he is well aware of the spiritual significance of the trip. “Everything we do in Mecca, it is for God,” he said. Speaking about hajj preparations, Imad Enchassi, the Islamic Society’s imam, gave the couple, and other would-be pilgrims, tips about hajj preparations at a recent Hajj workshop at the Islamic Society’s mosque.

Patience was the most important tip given to pilgrims who will be gathering with millions of Muslims from around the world. “You are going to be shoved. You are going to be pulled. Don’t forget the rewards of the Hajj,” Enchassi said. The life-time journey is a symbol of unity for Muslims because all Muslim prayers, wherever they are performed, are oriented in the direction of the Kaaba. Doing so, Muslims were racing for the biggest prize of Allah’s forgiveness.

“If you go to the Hajj with the right intentions, you will come back a different person,” Enchassi said. Though there are no official figures, America is believed to be home to nearly eight million Muslims. Muslims in Oklahoma are estimated at 30,000, less than one percent of the state’s 3.7 million population, according to CAIR.

— Hat tip: JP

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Permit Denied for Occupy Madison Due to Public Masturbation

The University of Wisconsin’s Daily Cardinal campus newspaper reports that protesters have been denied a permit for a public demonstration “due to inappropriate behavior, such as public masturbation, from street protesters.”

City officials have also stated that future permits will only be allowed if private restrooms are available for the protesters to engage in any anticipated masturbatory sign shaking.

As Madison Fire Prevention Officer Jerry McMullen stated, “You can’t be affecting the safety and health of other people around you. With the public health violations and the complaints I’ve heard, I don’t believe it meets the spirit of the ordinance to a street use permit.”

— Hat tip: Nilk

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Work-Time Prayer a Struggle for U.S. Muslims

Dr. Syed Malik is a devoted Muslim who tries, and mostly succeeds, to pray five times per day, as demanded by his Islamic faith. He is also an accomplished general surgeon in Orlando, Fla., who does complex operations that can last hours. Malik, 66, would never leave an operating table to pray. Instead, when surgery and prayer times conflict, he performs prayers before surgery or makes them up after. “I don’t care if this goes against what some scholars say, I feel very comfortable with how I approach prayers,” said Malik.

In fact, Islamic scholars generally agree that while prayers command high priority, they can be missed or performed later in extenuating circumstances. While Muslims differ about what constitutes extenuating circumstances, many successfully integrate prayer into their workday, often with help from their employers. Still, employers and Muslim workers sometimes clash over prayers.

This month (October), Hertz fired 25 Somali Muslim drivers at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport who refused to sign an agreement pledging to clock out during prayer breaks.

Hertz says they initially allowed Muslim workers to pray during two paid daily breaks of 10 minutes each but many workers took more than 10 minutes. Nine Muslim workers signed the pledge. The workers’ union is challenging Hertz. But some Islamic scholars say that the rental car company offered the workers a solution compatible with their Islamic beliefs.

“Employers have the right to protect themselves. Unfortunately, there are Muslims who abuse the system,” said Imam Yahya Hendi, president of Clergy Without Borders, an interfaith organization in Washington, D.C.

Hendi said that it was un-Islamic to accept pay for work one did not perform, and chastised the fired Hertz workers for making Islam seem “complicated” and “inadaptable to America.” “If Muslims can do it on their own time, this is the idea,” said Zulfiqar Ali Shah, executive director of the North American Fiqh Council, a group of religious leaders who offer guidance on Islamic law. If there’s a conflict between prayer and work, the Muslims should accommodate to work,” said Shah. To emphasize that point, Muslims point to a hadith, or story, about Prophet Muhammad in which he prayed the midday and afternoon prayers together.

Most scholars recognize the exception, but caution that it should be used judiciously, and not just to avoid uncomfortable situations. “Would you step out of a meeting to use the bathroom or take a call from your son? Then why not take a few minutes to be with God?” said Hossam Al Jabri, an imam in Boston and former executive director of the Muslim American Society, an advocacy group. “Being a little inconvenienced for the sake of God is not such a bad thing.”

Most Muslims can complete their prayers in three to five minutes, although pre-prayer ablutions, or ritual washing, can take almost as long. For each of the five prayers — pre-dawn, noon, afternoon, sunset, and night — Muslims have a few hours to make them, although some say prayers are best when made early. These times change throughout the year as the length of the days varies. Many Muslims find that employers are happy to accommodate their prayer needs.

In his 20 years with the same company in Los Angeles, IT Manager Soheil Naimi has seen supervisors come and go, but none ever prevented him from praying. In fact, Naimi’s prayer space has improved as he’s been promoted. When he started, he had no office and used to pray in open conference rooms. He later received a cubicle that was big enough to pray in, but was often interrupted by co-workers, who he tuned out while praying. “I don’t think I offended anyone,” said Naimi, who asked that his company not be named. He now has his own office, so praying is easy. The only time performing prayers can be hard is when he’s out of the office, said Naimi, who has prayed in his car, in a bathroom, and has occasionally missed prayer altogether.

Kelly Kaufmann, a program manager at a Chicago health insurance company, keeps a prayer rug in a Macy’s tote bag at her office, and reserves one of her company’s many meeting rooms twice daily for 30 minutes. Kaufmann, who also asked that her company not be named, text messages Muslim co-workers to let them know when she has a room reserved.

“I am lucky that I make my own schedule and control when my meetings are, and can simply come to work earlier or stay later if needed to ensure the time taken to pray does not interfere with the amount of work I wanted to accomplish during the day,” Kaufmann said.

— Hat tip: JP

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Italy: Prosecutor Accuses Berlusconi of Defamation in Mills Case

(AGI) Milan — Prosecutor Alfredo Robledo has launched a civil suit for defamation in Brescia against Silvio Berlusconi. On several occasions the prime minister, has spoken of the “inertia” of Milan prosecutors, of their “pigheaded accusatory attitude” and of the “political use of justice” in relation to the Mills case. Robledo is claiming 500,000 euro in damages from Berlusconi.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Italy: ‘King of Escapes’ Has Escaped From Prison for 5th Time

(AGI) Bolzano — Robber Max Leitner, aka “the Vallanzasca from Alto Adige”, has escaped from prison for the fifth time. Since August 1990, when he was first arrested in Austria, Leitner, who is also nicknamed “the king of escapes”, has managed to escape from prison five times. The 52-year-old robber, a native of Elvas, didn’t turn up at the Asti prison this afternoon after he was released for a short time on good beahviour.

Leitner was sentence to 25 years for bank robbery and hijacking security vans in northern Italy, including the Alto Adige region, between 1988 and 2005.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Italy: Expo 2015 Sets Its Sights on Private Sector

Event will be ‘driving force’ says Confindustria

(ANSA) — Milan, October 26 — Expo 2015 is making room for private enterprise with construction work on the universal exposition’s site getting started in Milan this week as the event takes the international centre stage with a big participants’ meeting.

Expo CEO Giuseppe Sala said boosting the private sector’s role will be one of the organizers’ main goals for the next 14 months so after attracting 57 participant countries and international organizations, a record number with three years still to go before the official launch.

“We are launching a number of public competitions (for bids from potential partners),” Sala said during the three-day International Participants Meeting.

“In the first half of 2012 we want to wrap up lots of contracts”.

Organizers are aiming to raise around 400 million euros from the private sector via sponsorships and other forms of partnership. The biggest deal signed so far is one worth 43 million euros with Telecom Italia.

The nation’s business community is keen to be involved as it sees Expo as a massive opportunity, according to Emma Marcegaglia, the chief of industrial employers’ confederation Confindustria.

“Expo will be a huge driving force for Italy and the rest of the world,” Marcegaglia said on the second day of the International Participants Meeting Wednesday.

“Synergy between the private and public sectors is essential”

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Prince Charles: I Descend From Dracula, Vlad the Impaler

(AGI) London — While visiting Romania to preserve the Transylvania forest, the prince of Wales claimed Dracula as an ancestor. Vlad the Impaler was a Romanian king in the 15th century who inspired Bram Stoker’s story about the vampire count. Charles said genealogy shows that he is related to Vlad, “so I have a bit of a stake in the country”, the prince said.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Tax: Spain to European Court for Discriminating Against Non-Residents

(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, OCTOBER 27 — The European Commission has decided to refer Spain to the European Court of Justice over its discriminatory regulations regarding taxes on inheritance and donations. Non-residents pay in fact higher taxes than residents. Brussels raised the issue over a year ago, but nothing has been done so far. Inheritance and donation tax in Spain are regulated on national and on municipal level. The regulations of local municipalities include benefits for residents, which in practice leads to lower tax payments than those that have to be paid by non-residents. According to the European Commission, this type of tax system forms an obstacle to the free movement of people and capital, two key principles of the single European market, and violates EU regulations.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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UK: “Unforseen Circumstances”

Some sad news from The Cordoba Foundation.

“The Cordoba Foundation regretfully announces that the forthcoming event on the 8th of November ‘Launch of Two Ground Breaking Pieces of Research’ has been cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances. We apologise for any incovenience caused. Please visit our website for more details.”

The event in question was to have been held at the London Muslim Centre, the base of the Islamic Forum Europe, a front organisation for the far-Right Jamaat-e-Islami party. It was sponsored by the Cordoba Foundation: which the Prime Minister has correctly identified as a Muslim Brotherhood front. It was to have been moderated by the Cordoba Foundation’s head honcho, Anas Altikriti, who has called the murder of coalition troops in Iraq “legitimate”.

The two bits of “research” to be launched consisted of:

• A report by Professor David Miller, Tom Griffin and Tom Mills, entitled The Cold War on British Muslims. Miller runs a website called “Spinwatch” and has a shameful track record of attacking Muslim liberals and opponents of terrorist movements. It is Miller’s belief that criticism of Islamist political parties, such as Jamaat-e-Islami and the Muslim Brotherhood, constitutes a “cold war” against Muslims. Notoriously, David Miller’s site presented the views of the prominent neo-Nazi Kevin MacDonald, to explain the political behaviour of Jews. Miller himself gave evidence for the hate preacher, Raed Salah: that the Community Security Trust could not be trusted on the question of antisemitism.
• A report by Bob Lambert, entitled Countering Al-Qaeda in London. Bob Lambert forged relationships with Islamist political parties such as Jamaat-e-Islami and the Muslim Brotherhood, who faithfully promised him that they won’t encourage people to let off bombs in London. Bob Lambert’s thesis is that, by promoting such Islamist political parties and the hate preachers they favour, radicals will be diverted away from Al Qaeda. Lambert also believes that these organisations can be persuaded to ‘assist the police with their enquiries’: not in return for small amounts of money, as would be the case with ordinary police informants, but with political respectability. Bob Lambert’s European Muslim Research Centre is funded by various Muslim Brotherhood front organisations, including the Cordoba Foundation.

The “unforseen circumstances” are that, earlier this month, Bob Lambert was unmasked as a police spy, who had spent 5 years infiltrating a non-violent Green anarchist group, during the course of which, he had a relationship with a completely politically uninvolved woman, who he wooed by pretending to be an animal rights activist on the run.

It is a huge shame that this event has been cancelled. It would have been very entertaining indeed to have attended it.

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: Alcohol-Blighted Area Faces an Off-Licence Battle

RELIGIOUS leaders have blasted plans to sell alcohol from a new off-licence near a school, mosque and community centre.

A shop has asked for permission to sell alcohol between 8am and 11pm in the middle of an alcohol-free street zone. Burton Central Mosque, the Pakistani Community Centre and local councillors have all attacked the plans. The Mail reported several weeks ago Deya Market, on the corner of Uxbridge Street and Queen Street in Burton, had made a request for an alcohol sale licence to East Staffordshire Borough Council. The council has now published all the objections it has received from residents and community figures.

Umar Hayat, on behalf of the Pakistani Community Centre, which is just yards from the shop, wrote: “This (application) has caused great distress amongst local residents as this can reignite the previous ASBO problems which they have had to deal with in the past. There are already six off-licences in Uxbridge Street and granting permission to another will result in fierce competition and cheaper booze.”

Mr Hayat continued: “The new offlicence would be located central to our community centre, a local place of worship, Queen Street Community Centre and Anglesey Primary School, who work very hard together to tackle social problems.” Amjad Afsar, on behalf of the Burton Central Mosque Rizvia, wrote: “This concern of yet another off-licence being considered in Uxbridge Street has caused strong concerns amongst the parents of the children who attend the masjid and their local schools.”

The area of urban Burton surrounding Uxbridge Street is already blighted by street drinking, councillors claim, and drunken louts who consume alcohol early in the morning and are a threat to schoolchildren. At its most recent meeting, Anglesey Parish Council, which represents the area, decided to object to Deya Market’s application. Last year a several-street block in Anglesey was granted ‘alcohol-free’ status, meaning anyone caught drinking in public faces tough penalties.

[JP note: Sharia law zones?]

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: Britian Must be a Country Where People Can be Proud of Their Religion

The murder of Shahbaz Bhatti in Pakistan emphasises the urgent need for communication between faiths.

Earlier this year, people across the world were shocked and appalled when Shahbaz Bhatti, the only Christian in the Pakistani cabinet, was assassinated. I met him a week before he was murdered; last week, I saw his brother, Dr Paul Bhatti — a trained surgeon who has now become minorities adviser to the Pakistani prime minister, and helped set up a new Ministry of Harmony — and spoke to him about the plans Shahbaz and I had been discussing.

Back in March, when Shahbaz was murdered, I said that the soul of Pakistan was not in these attacks. There is nothing in the vision laid out by Pakistan’s founding father, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, that creates the space for such acts of hatred. The idea of unity through diversity runs through Pakistan’s history and helps to define its society today. In the last 18 months, I have made four visits to Pakistan, and I have seen for myself the moments of hope among the tragedies. It is heartening, for example, that for the first time in Pakistan’s history, a number of seats are to be allocated for minorities in the senate.

But two things struck me that are as relevant to us as they are to Pakistan. First, it is a mistake to assume that you compromise your identity the more you try to understand others. The stronger your understanding of your neighbour, the stronger your own religious identity becomes. For many years, I have been saying that the stronger we are as a Christian nation, the more understanding we will be of other faiths. That is why, a year ago, I went to a bishops’ conference and said that this Government would “do God”. It is why the Pope’s visit was so important for our country. And it is why I am proud that this year, for the first time, the Prime Minister held an Easter reception in Downing Street.

We need to create a country in which people can be unashamedly proud of their faith — where they don’t feel that they have to leave religion at the door. That means being proud of Christianity, not downgrading it. It means encouraging people to say that their faith inspires what they do. It means supporting religious charities in delivering public services in schools, hospices and rehabilitation.

Second, we need to address head-on the supposed conflict of loyalty that exists between faiths. Time and again, we encounter the assumption that some people of some faiths can be trusted while others cannot. Today, for example, we see some in the Muslim world questioning whether Christians can be trusted. In the Western world, we see some doubting the loyalty of some Muslims.

But as a proud British, Muslim, Conservative woman — one who has the privilege of serving her country as the first Muslim in full Cabinet — take it from me: there is nothing incompatible about a world of many religions and one of strong, vibrant nation states. Here in Britain, we have a proud history of pluralism and inter-faith dialogue. Now we need to go further: beyond the photo calls outside the mosque, beyond hosting the local imam for tea in a draughty church hall. This dialogue needs to be congregation to congregation, community to community. That is why we are working with the Church of England on the Near Neighbours programme, building up multi-faith social action using the existing parish infrastructure.

We also need to take the lead internationally. That means pressing other governments to safeguard religious minorities — be it the Copts in Egypt or Christians and other minorities in Pakistan. It means raising problems of persecution at the highest level, as the Archbishop of Canterbury recently did in Zimbabwe. Above all, it means all of us — as communities and individuals, believers and non-believers — taking inspiration from Shahbaz and Paul Bhatti, and giving all minorities in every country the courage and freedom to believe and worship in peace.

Baroness Warsi is the co-chairman of the Conservative Party and Minister without Portfolio

[JP note: Opportunistic optimism — file in the piffle bin.]

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: IRNA [Islamic Repubilc News Agency] Interviews Chris Nineham on Islamophobia

Islamophobia is being used as a form of propaganda in the so-called war on terrorism, according to British peace campaigner Chris Nineham. “One of the reasons why Islamophobia has become so virulent in the last 10 years in British society and elsewhere is that is used as a way to try to justify the wars the West is fighting against Arabs and Muslims in the Middle East, in Africa and south-east Asia,” said Nineham, a national officer of Stop the War Coalition (SWTC). “It is a kind of war propaganda in a way really and that is the link,” he said in an interview with IRNA. “It has been no coincidence that in the last decade, Islamophobia has rose because the West is fighting these wars,” he said.

Nineham, who is also a founding member of Enough Coalition against Islamophobia, rejected claims by the British government that they have not encouraged the rapid growth in the hatred against Muslims that has also spread throughout much of Europe. “Of course, the government do officially deny it, but the fact of the matter is they are engaged in peddling these kind of ideas,” he said. “Sometimes there are soft versions of it, but they still have a whole series of prejudices about Muslims, which are that Muslims are prone to being violent and terror acts, that Muslims are tempted to being against integration,” the peace activist said. “They have a view of Islam that it is a peculiarly radical religion. All of these prejudices are rife in the establishment. They play their role in shaping the ideas that are circulating in society,” he told IRNA. “I do think the establishment has been absolutely central in the way of propagating Islamophobia,” said Nineham, who has written widely on the anti-war movement and the anti-capitalist protests as well as on the media, modernism and cultural theory.

On Thursday, Enough Coalition held a conference at the University of London focusing on Islamophobia on campuses after holding an inaugural event on the spread of hatred against Muslims throughout Europe. Nineham had no doubts that Islamophobia in all its forms, including numerous incidents of Muslims being physically attacked and even killed, was not only an abuse of human rights but an extension of racism. “It is racism. It’s racism dressed up as something else, pretending to be something else. It is pretending to be a cultural critique, pretending to be an assertion of humanism or rationality,” he said. “But really that is just cover to dress up what is a continuity of racism against Arabs and people from south east Asia really. What I want is a coordinated, systematic campaigning both at a level of ideas and action against these ideas (Islamophobia) because I think they are very dangerous,” he said.

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: Inquiry Into Baby Deaths Uncovers Shocking Maternity Care at Queen’s Hospital in Romford, Essex

Mothers and babies are being put in danger by ‘abusive’ midwives at one of the country’s largest maternity units.

A damning investigation exposed the scandal after a string of deaths of women and newborns at the hospital.

The report comes after experts warned that understaffed and under-equipped maternity units across the country are coming under unprecedented strain because of the rising birth rate.

The Royal College of Midwives has warned that a record shortage of midwives around the country is putting mothers and babies at risk.

At least a further 4,700 midwives are needed to guarantee the safety of women and their newborns, it said.

And an investigation by BBC Panorama revealed that nearly 1,000 mothers were turned away from maternity units last year because of a shortage of beds and midwives.

— Hat tip: Kitman

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UK: Muslim Community Protests Against MP in Finchley

CAMPAIGNERS will gather outside the North Finchley mosque to protest against MP Mike Freer, as he hosts an advice surgery this afternoon. Members of the Muslim community are targeting the Finchley and Golders Green MP over his involvement in the arrest of Sheikh Raed Salah, leader of the Islamic movement in Israel. Mr Salah was arrested on a travel ban in June following an appeal from the Conservative MP for him be banned from Britain because of his “history of virulent anti-semitism”. The protest is due to begin at 2.30pm ahead of Mr Freer’s surgery at 3pm. Mr Freer said he was aware of plans for a protest, but added: “How much support it has is unknown”. He said: “My views on anyone who tries to spread discord amongst faith communities are well known. I will object to any preacher of any faith who seeks to spread hatred or create divisions between our faith communities. I objected to the American preacher who called for the burning of the Koran. Locally our faith communities enjoy harmonious relations and I will continue, as I have done for many years, to fight to maintain that and to fight intolerance.”

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: New BBC Sitcom Citizen Khan: Set in Birmingham, Filmed in Manchester

A sitcom about a self-appointed Muslim community leader in Sparkhill will be screened next year — but it is being filmed in Manchester. Citizen Khan, which has been created by journalist and radio presenter Adil Ray, will become BBC1’s first Asian sitcom when it is screened next autumn. But despite being set at the heart of a Birmingham community, the six-part series will be made in-house at MediaCityUK in Salford. Birmingham Post columnist Ammo Talwar said he was pleased to see a project with a Birmingham heart make such progress — and hoped it would discourage certain perceptions of Muslims.

But, Mr Talwar, who is chief executive of Punch Records, said it was disappointing it would not be filmed in the city. He said: “I think it is great. It is fantastically impressive that someone from Birmingham has at such quick speed been able to use his localised creative juices and perspective to create a character which will have national appeal. “But it doesn’t make sense for him to have characterised someone from around here and not set any of it here. There is something quite beautiful about the fact that you can create laughter when often Muslims are not portrayed as people who laugh. All human beings laugh. This could potentially change the way that people are perceived.”

The show is set around businessman Mr Khan — played by Adil Ray — and his British-Pakistani family. It stands to break new ground as an Asian sitcom. While successful comedy chat show The Kumars At No 42 – which featured a British-Indian family — appeared on BBC1, it began life on BBC2. Mr Khan first came to the public’s attention in the BBC2 series Bellamy’s People, before featuring as a caller in the Radio 4 comedy series Down The Line.

[…]

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: Poppy Appeal Launch Moved Over Fears About Birmingham EDL Protest

THE launch of Birmingham’s poppy appeal had to be brought forward at the last minute over fears it could clash with an EDL march today.

The emotional service was instead held yesterday and saw tears shed by the city’s Lord Mayor Anita Ward, whose soldier son was injured in Afghanistan. Speaking after she scattered poppy petals into the Floozie in the Jacuzzi fountain, she said: “Knowing what might have happened upset me a bit. “I really do know how lucky I am this Remembrance Day.” Her 29-year-old son Vincent Hockley, who serves in the Irish Guards, was shot a year ago in the hip but the bullet travelled up his body and came out of his chest.

Coun Ward added: “He’s back with the regiment but still not what they term militarily fit. He’s getting there, we’re very proud of him and we all know how lucky we are.” James McDonald, county president for The Royal British Legion, criticised demonstrators taking part in today’s event. The 69-year-old, who injured his spine and legs in an explosion in Northern Ireland in 1974, said: “If they want to protest it’s up to them. But they should also remember we have got our right to respect our dead and our injured. They could have picked a better time — they know what happens this time of year.”

Gordon Pitchford, county rep of the riders branch, said the date of the launch was officially changed on Thursday. The 46-year-old said: “It wouldn’t be right, it wouldn’t be safe for everybody to be here. “This was a more subdued launch.” Up to 100 people took part in the launch, many of them scattering poppy petals into the fountain. Gordon, who served in the army medical corps in the first and second Gulf Wars, added: “This is always an emotional time especially for those of us who served our country, the ones who walked away near enough intact. “It’s so good to give back because we were the lucky ones.” Birmingham raised almost £400,00 in last year’s appeal.

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: Welcome to Misery Tourism — A Gap Yah for Lefties

Picture the scene. Residents of Tripoli cower in fear as gunmen spray bullets into the sky. Their AK-47s drown out the moans of a man who lies bleeding on the pavement. Next to him stands a youth in a T-shirt, jumping from one foot to another in a state of feverish excitement. He’s shouting at the man to keep still, and he’s pointing something in his face. But it’s not a gun. It’s an iPhone.

Meanwhile, 5,000 miles away, New York police have lost patience with Occupy Wall Street. Chanted slogans turn into girly shrieks as cops squirt Mace in protesters’ eyes and push them up against a barricade. The scene is witnessed by a young British woman — small, bustling, self-important — who taps angry tweets into a mobile phone before rushing back to her hotel to write a blog post.

Welcome to misery tourism, a sort of Gap Yah for well-heeled Lefties. Just as cheap flights enabled working-class Brits to descend on the Costa del Sol in the early 1970s, so information technology enables self-styled “activists” and “photo-journalists” to flit from trouble spot to trouble spot. Passport? Check. Smartphone? Check. Loan from mummy and daddy? Check. Congratulations: you’re a humanitarian.

Some of these kids take serious risks, though they may be unaware of the fact until they find themselves caught in the middle of a gunfight and in need of new underwear.

According to the New York Times, “hundreds of photographers from around the world flocked to the cities of Aldabiya, Benghazi and Misurata in the spring of 2011. Many of them were under 30 and under fire for the first time.” A few of these will turn into serious war photographers and reporters. But others are just joyriders, sniffing the air for suffering, looking for something really awesome for their cool blog. The writers among them are hoping that the New Statesman will offer them a column. Until this summer they wanted to be the next Johann Hari; he’s no longer their role model, but they’ve absorbed his modus operandi, inserting conveniently neat quotes from oppressed peasants, wounded protesters, rape victims etc into their blog posts.

Actually, the queen of misery tourism has already got herself a perch at the New Statesman and is eyeing Johann’s empty seat at the Independent. (Rumour has it that he won’t be returning, but don’t get me started on that subject.) Laurie Penny, known as PennyRed on Twitter, combines unblinking dogmatism with little-girl vulnerability: think Rosa Klebb disguised as Audrey Tautou. Recently she treated herself to a trip to Occupy Wall Street, from where she sent back deliciously self-regarding dispatches: “A young woman with long hair is handing out posies. ‘You’re very beautiful,’ she says, smiling, ‘have a bottle of flowers.’ “

Well, yes, Laurie, I’m sure you are very beautiful, and so are all the other groovy youngsters turning people’s grievances into digital entertainment. But great beauties can be heartless, and there’s something intrinsically cruel and self-indulgent about misery tourism. Because that’s all it is. When you’ve finished screaming and screaming until you are sick, Violet Elizabeth Bott-style, boredom sets in. Goodness, is that the time? Like the Occupy London Stock Exchange campaigners outside St Paul’s, you wait until the cameras have gone and then you creep back home to snuggle under your duvet. But not before checking your laptop to make sure that your Facebook friends have “liked” your harrowing account of oppression and brutality.

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: Women and Sharia Law in the UK

Reid Smith seeks to enlighten us on the question of Sharia law. But curiously he omits one of the central tenets of Sharia law — that the word of a woman is half that of a man.

Yet Smith is correct to say that we might be surprised by the number of countries which use Sharia law. Which brings me to the United Kingdom. As of 2010, there were just under 2.9 million Muslims in the U.K. comprising 4.6% of that country’s population. In less than a decade, Britain’s Muslim population has increased by nearly 75%.

Thus it should not come as a surprise that there are a network of Sharia courts in Britain and their rulings are legally binding. According to a study released in 2009 by Civitas, a British think tank, there are 85 Sharia courts in the UK. Some of these Sharia courts have issued rulings which are incompatible with British and European law including rulings forbidding marriage between Muslims and non-Muslims, ordering the removal of children from the custody of Muslim women who marry non-Muslim men, compelling women to have sex with their husbands and sanctioning polygamy. This past June, Baroness Cox introduced legislation in the House of Lords to rein in the Sharia courts requiring them to uphold the supremacy of British law. However, even if the bill is approved in the House of Lords it is not expected that the Cameron government will make it a priority in the House of Commons.

And lest anyone believe that women are afforded the same status as men in Sharia courts in the UK then consider the opinion of the London based Islamic Sharia council (H/T to legalpigeon):

The text (Surah Al-Baqara 2:282) which requires two female witnesses in place of one male witness, gives a clear reason for i.e. “if one of them forgets, the other reminds her.” Is this derogatory to the status of women or is it a revealed secret about the nature of the women? Though much has been said about the difference between a man’s brain and that of a woman but I would rather like to quote the latest research made about the issue. According to a survey, as published in Los Angeles Times (U.S.A.), made involving fifty men and women for quite a considerable time, the out come was as follows:

Man’s mind is uni-focal while the women’s mind is multi-focal. In other words, a man would be fully occupied with the task he is involved with; he may not be distracted by anything else while being engaged in his activity. On the other hand, a woman may be busy in kitchen work and she will be easily alert to a phone buzzer or her infants cry from the cradle. In a way she is found to be more sensitive and active in her dealings. Thus she has got a praise worthy character but that is not so good for a case of testimony which requires more attention and concentration. What is wrong then, if a second woman is needed, only to remind her is she fails to deliver her testimony completely. So it is a case of verification of the testimony, not that of degradation to the status of women at all.

I mean when Larry Summers spoke about the innate differences between men and women (an assessment with which he did not personally agree) he was forced to resign as President of Harvard University because of it. Yet it is part of the intellectual underpinnings of Sharia law and any lesson in Sharia 101 would incomplete without imparting that information.

— Hat tip: JP

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Serbia: Italy to Invest ‘2 Bln Euros’ In Energy Projects

Belgrade, 26 Oct. (AKI) — Serbian minister for infrastructure Milutin Mrkonjic has said Italy was about to invest up to two billion euros in energy projects in Serbia in one of biggest investment deals in the past ten years.

Mrkonjic signed an agreement with Italian minister for economic development Paolo Romani in Rome on Tuesday on cooperation in the field of energy and on building hydro-electric plants on the rivers Drina and Ibar in Serbia.

Mrkonjic was quoted by Serbian media on Wednesday as saying the project would be carried out by Serbia’s state energy giant EPS and Italian companies “Sechi energia” and “Edison”.

Mrkonjic said all electricity produced by about a dozen plants would be exported to Italy and, apart from financial effects, would create new jobs in the country with close to one million unemployed workers.

“All put together, it is clear that Serbia has a great perspective in the field of energy and I dare to say that energy is our biggest chance,” Mrkonjic said.

“This is very important for our country, because we need energy from renewable sources which we can’t produce in our country,” Romani was quoted by Tanjug news agency as saying.

“It is of key importance to import renewable energy from other countries in which Serbia has a special place,” Romani added.

Italy is Serbia’s leading trade partner with total annual trade turnover of some two billion euros. About 200 Italian companies, including Fiat, Benetton and Intesa Bank are already doing business in Serbia, employing about 15,000 people.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Serbia Arrests 17 Over US Sarejevo Embassy Attack

BELGRADE — Serbian police Saturday arrested 17 people in the Muslim-populated area of Sandzak after a suspected radical Islamist opened fire on the US embassy in Sarajevo, local media reported. “This morning at 5:00 am (0300 GMT) a (police) operation was launched against the extremist Islamist Wahhabi movement in the territory of Novi Pazar, Sjenica and Tutin,” Interior Minister Ivica Dacic told the Tanjug news agency.

All three towns are in southwestern Serbia with large Muslim communities. “Seventeen people were arrested, one of them from Bosnia,” Serbian police chief Milorad Veljovic told private B92 television channel. Police searched some 18 locations and seized a number of computers, CDs, mobile telephones, SMS cards, audio and video tapes as well as books, Veljovic said.

The arrests came after the attack on the US embassy by a Serbian national with ties to the local Wahhabi community, a radical branch of Islam. According to Veljovic, “police will determine whether there is a need to detain more people.” The suspected radical Islamist, a Serb national from Novi Pazar identified by Bosnian police as Mevlid Jasarevic, was wounded and arrested after opening fire Friday on the US embassy in Sarajevo. A police guard was wounded in the attack. “All 17 arrested are in some way related to Mevlid Jasarevic,” Veljovic said. Bosnia is home to a small minority of followers of Wahhabism, a strict and ultra-conservative branch of Islam which is dominant in Saudi Arabia.

— Hat tip: JP

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Mediterranean to Face Grain Crisis by 2030

(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, 27 OCT — This is not the first alarm to have been raised about cereal production in the Euro-Mediterranean region. But this time round, the gloomy forecasts contain plentiful data and concrete scenarios that foresee a phase of steep decline in cereal production in the area with predictable consequences — social as well as economic — given that the sector forms the basis of the food chain for many countries.

This latest analysis has been made by IPEMED, the forecasting think tank of the Mediterranean world which often concerns itself with food-related issues.

In one of its reports, the institute has stated that there is a risk of a “worsening of the cereal-production situation” in the area, naming the year 2030 as a possible point of collapse for a regions that already lives in “a permanent state of food insecurity”. Behind the dramatic phraseology lie the concerns expressed by a host of experts who continue to stress how cereal crops “have a central role in farming for food-production” in the region.

And so, just as with any upheaval affecting our ability to survive from one day to the next, strong — even violent — reactions can be expected from the area’s population.

Production in the cereal sector grew steadily following the 1960s, thanks to a series of targeted politico-economic initiatives, but this trend has since slowed and entered a stage of standstill leading to today’s trend reversal of production fallbacks. Such has been the impact of this trend that over the years production shortfalls have seen grain imports quadruple. And IPEMED’s pessimistic forecast is shared by the FAO, the global organisation for agriculture, which agrees that there is a “growing gap” between production and demand with the former in constant decline.

Going into a little more detail: the countries comprising the MENA area, (Middle East and North Africa) are experiencing a continuing trend of shortfall in cereal production compared to the rest of the world. According to experts, this weakness is manifest in many countries of the area, even affecting those with a positive tradition in this respect. This has led the “cereal bill” to be one of the weightiest economic drains on MENA countries. According to the IPEMED report, the countries of the MENA area spend more on average than any others in the world, importing approx. 50 per cent of their food requirement — the biggest importers among these being the Arab countries.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Coptic Christians Protect Monastery From Egyptian Army Assault

by Mary Abdelmassih

(AINA) — Hundreds of Coptic Christians mobilized on Tuesday in front of the Monastery of the Virgin and St. John the Beloved, located on the Desert Road from Cairo to Ismailia. Although the Monastery has the necessary permits, the army had sent a message to the monastery that they would come on the next day, October 25, to demolish its fence, which guards it from unauthorized visits and criminals.

The official website of the Monastery warned of threats of a “ new massacre” by the Egyptian Armed Forces, and the removal of its fence, pointing out that the Monastery was built in 2002 and is under the supervision of the secretariat of H.H. Pope Shenouda.

When the Army vehicles with demolishing equipment arrived at the monastery, they were met by priests, monks, deacons and Copts all dressed up in white for mass, holding wooden crosses, praying and singing hymns.

Other Copts flocked to the Monastery, which lies 80 miles from Cairo, on hearing of the news.

Upon seeing this congregation of Copts in front of the Monasteery, Brigadier Shukry, who issued the demolition order, ordered his unit to withdraw. Church sources said that this might mean that he intends to implement the removal orders without prior warning to avoid the gathering of Copts.

Army engineers later came to the monastery, filmed the fence and the crowds, and said that the images will be sent to the commander of the army to decide what will be done.

Bishop Botros, Pope Shenouda’s secretary and General supervisor of the Monastery of Our Lady and St. John, said that relative calm returned to the Monastery by the evening, pointing out that the Monastery holds the official papers and licenses from the authorities. He expressed fears of renewed threats and attack on the monastery again.

On April 4, 2011 the armed forces demolished the Monastery’s fence, but when protests were raised, the authorities apologized the next day, claiming that they thought it was a “farm.” Brigadier Tarek el Kady asked Bishop Botros to raise a cross and hang a sign for the monastery on the main road. Afterwards he said the authorities have registered the place as a monastery and permission for a fence was given, which had to be rebuilt. There was peace until this incident.

About 15-20 Copts refused to go home and slept in front of the Monastery to guard it from army “attacks,” as they put it. “We are not committing a crime, we only ask to be left to pray,” said one of them.

The armed forces have stormed several monasteries Since the January 25 “Revolution”, demolished fences and fired on monks and visitors.

— Hat tip: Mary Abdelmassih

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Egyptian People Demand Rule of Islam

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) — Thousands of Egyptians from all walks of life gathered in al-Tahrir Square on Friday to call for the establishment of an Islamic government in their country, shouting “No to East, No to West, Yes to Islamic Government”. The demonstrators also demanded materialization of their revolution ideals and causes and called for an end to the rule of the interim military government.

More than 7,000 demonstrators took part in the rally which started after the Friday prayers in Cairo. Sheikh Hazem Salah Abu Islmail, a possible candidate in the upcoming presidential election, was among the demonstrators, chanting slogans against the interim military government. Egypt’s military council has come under heavy criticism for failing to transfer power to a civilian authority. The council had pledged to do so within six months after the toppling of Hosni Mubarak’s regime in February.

Since the ouster of the Mubarak regime, the Tahrir Square has been the scene of weekly protests against the military council, which is headed by Mubarak’s former defense minister Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi. The Friday protest came amid an outrage following reports that prison guards tortured an inmate to death. Essam Ali Atta, 24, died on Thursday at a Cairo hospital of heart failure after officers pushed water hoses for reportedly smuggling a mobile SIM card into prison. Egyptian activists have accused police forces of systematic use of torture against detainees.

— Hat tip: JP

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Libya: Frattini: Considering Joint Effort for Stabilisation

(ANSAmed) — ROME, OCTOBER 28 — “Italy is not considering to participate in a coalition in Libya led by Qatar but in a joint effort to stabilise the country.” So said Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, who answered a question about the possibility of the creation of a new international coalition led by Qatar after the end of the NATO mission on October 31. The joint effort in Libya will include “civil formation and reconstruction,” added Frattini. Regarding the possibility of Qatar leading the new coalition, the Italian Minister said: “The fact that an Arab country has taken the initiative is positive, it means that the Arab world is not abandoning Libya in a difficult moment.”

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Tunisia Election Victory Marred by Violence

As the Islamist Ennahda party victory celebrations were under way, Ennahda offices in Sidi Bouzid, the birthplace of the Tunisian revolution, were targeted by youths upset after election authorities disqualified candidates belonging to a rival party.

Ennahda chief Rached Ghannouchi, speaking at party headquarters, called for calm as the interior ministry announced that a curfew would be imposed from 7 p.m. yesterday to 5 a.m. today in the central Tunisian town.

Several public buildings were vandalised overnight but calm had returned by the early morning hours, an AFP correspondent said.

Late-night results showed Ennahda, banned under dictator Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, took 90 of the 217 assembly seats, or 41 per cent.

Some have voiced concern that the Islamist party would seek to curb women’s rights in an Arab country known for a progressive approach on gender equality.

Mr Ghannouchi however reaffirmed his party’s “commitment to the women of Tunisia, to strengthen their role in political decision-making, in order to avoid any going back on their social gains.”

The historic polls nine months after Ben Ali’s ouster saw the Congress for the Republic (CPR) and Ettakatol emerge as the biggest parties on the splintered left, with 30 and 21 seats respectively. Both have said they were in coalition talks with Ennahda.

Fourth place, with 19 seats, went to the Petition for Justice and Development, a grouping of independents led by Hechmi Haamdi, a rich London-based businessman said to have close ties to Ben Ali, despite the invalidation of six of the party’s candidates’ lists.

The CPR and Ettakatol, while secular in their constitutions, have insisted on Tunisia’s Muslim identity and did not run anti-Ennahda campaigns like some of the other parties on the left, the daily La Presse commented. “The Ennahda/CPR/Ettakatol alliance crystallises,” La Quotidien said on its front page.

Analysts have said that Ennahda, even in a majority alliance, would be unable to “dictate” any programme to the assembly, being obliged to appease coalition partners, a moderate-minded society, and the international community on whose investment and tourism the country relies heavily.

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton yesterday congratulated Ennahda for its victory while commending all parties who contested in the vote.

Mr Ghannouchi said Wednesday that his party intended to form a new coalition government within a month.

The electoral system was designed to include as man

— Hat tip: PJ

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Carolyn Glick: Whither the IDF?

It was a normal Shabbat afternoon in Jerusalem’s Ramot neighborhood. Children were outside visiting with their friends and playing in the empty streets. But the tranquility of the scene was destroyed in a moment, when a Palestinian terrorist crept up on 17- year-old Yehuda Ne’emad and his friend and began stabbing Ne’emad in the abdomen and shoulder.

Ne’emad’s neighbor, a 12-year-old girl, told reporters that there but by the grace of God both she and her six-year-old brother would have also been attacked. After stabbing Ne’emad, the Palestinian terrorist began chasing the two children.

“It was only due to God’s help that I was able to escape,” she said. “I am sure that I couldn’t have escaped alone, because he was much faster than me.”

The IDF, which failed to prevent the attack, played no role in saving their lives. One week later, the terrorist was still at large…

— Hat tip: Caroline Glick

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Football Recruiting More Arab Players

(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, OCTOBER 28 — Israeli football is undergoing dramatic change and recruiting more Arab players.

This phenomenon can be seen everywhere: on football fields in the suburbs, on youth teams, in Israel’s top tier clubs and now even in the Israeli national team.

This year’s statistics speak for themselves. The most popular attackers in Israel — Wissam Amasha and Ahmed Saba — are Arab, while four of the top ten goalscorers in the league are also Arab.

Of the 192 goals scored so far this season in Israel’s top flight, 39 have been from non-Jewish Israelis. The “football” honour of Israel’s Arabs (20% of a total population of 7.5 million) is no longer the sole preserve of the flagship club Bnei Sakhnin (the club from Galilee). Even the most famous Israeli clubs are now fighting over Arab stars, who are considered more attractive, often more gifted and almost always more determined on the pitch.

With the exception of Beitar Jerusalem, which is historically linked to the nationalist Israeli right and has fans who have expressed their xenophobia in the past, 14 teams in the Israeli league have Arab players in their starting line-up, with Maccabi Haifa (6 players), Hapoel Tel Aviv (5), Kiryat Shmona (5) and Maccabi Netanya (5), whose captain is an Arab, leading the way. The Arab presence in the Israeli national team, meanwhile, is increasing year on year. The trend is even more evident in youth teams, with some saying that in the near future, one in two professionals plying their trade in the Jewish state will be Arab.

The phenomenon, which captured the imagination of the sporting press and television channels, has deep-seated sociological reasons, some academics say. Young Arabs in Israel, especially those living on the outskirts of cities, are much more used to playing “street football” than their Jewish contemporaries, who spend more time in front of their computers and televisions. Coming from an often marginalised minority, young Arabs see sport as a means of emancipation from their hardship and a source of hope of wellbeing for themselves and their families.

According to Ahmed Tibi, an Arab-Israeli deputy at the Knesset (the Israeli Parliament), the world of professional sport remains largely beyond the reach of Israel’s Arabs, with football representing the only free area. This explains the popularity of the sport, which is played on a vast scale all over the Middle East, beyond the rocky walls that continue to divide the region. Tibi says that the phenomenon is not limited to the region, with the number of Muslim players in Europe also rising constantly.

The local press is following these developments with quite a sympathetic attitude. Young Arabs, they say, distinguish themselves with their commitment, dedication and competitive spirit. Their rise in the world of football (a rare uniting factor of Jewish and Arab passions) could have a positive effect not only on Israeli football, but perhaps even on the cohesion of the country.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Palestinian PM Announces the Start of Building a Pulpit for the Aqsa Mosque

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) — Ismail Haneyya, the Palestinian Prime Minister in Gaza, announced the start of building a Minbar (pulpit) for the Aqsa mosque out of optimism that the holy mosque will soon be liberated. During the wedding of freed captive Amer Sarhan which took place Friday evening in Gaza, Haneyyah said: “We have assigned those concerned to start building the Minbar for the Aqsa Mosque, in the footsteps of the leader Salahuddin who [ordered] the building of a Minbar for the Aqsa before it was liberated.” He said that this was suggested by Dr. Abdel-Aziz Omar, a freed captive from Jerusalem, during a welcome ceremony held at the Islamic University in Gaza. He added: “We have trust in God that we are closer to the time when God’s promise will be fulfilled and Jerusalem gets liberated.”

— Hat tip: JP

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Russian Aid Convoy Arrives in Gaza

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) — A Russian aid convoy carrying medicines and medical equipment arrived to the Gaza Strip, which has been under siege for five years, through the Rafah crossing. This convoy, which is the first of its kind from Russia, set out last Tuesday under the slogan “Gaza, Moscow is with you”. As well as Lilya Muhammad Yarufa, chairperson of the Solidarity Charitable Foundation, the renown Russian journalists Maxim Shevchenko and his wife Nadezhda Kevorkova are participating in the convoy.

The Solidarity Charitable Foundation collected donations during the holy month of Ramadan from Muslims in Russia to buy medicines, medical consumables and medical equipment, which they bought from Egypt according to the list of depleted supplies in Gaza hospitals. Yarufa said that the organisation collected about 17,000 dollars from various parts of Russia to by medical essentials for the besieged Gaza Strip. The Ministry of Health in Gaza announced earlier that 310 types of medicine were running out and called everyone to help save the health service of the Gaza Strip from collapse. Yarufa added that the suffering of the Palestinian people “forms a challenge to Muslims around the world as it is a test of our sympathy brotherhood and humanity.”

— Hat tip: JP

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UNESCO: Eyes on Palestine, Membership Talks Under Way

(ANSAmed) — PARIS, OCTOBER 25 — Palestine’s progress towards obtaining a seat at the UN advanced in Paris today with the start of diplomatic talks over its application for membership status of the United Nations organisation for science, education and culture. The request for recognition, which has the support of 24 Arab states, has come before the 36th General Conference of UNESCO today where all 193 member states of the UN are represented. Here, a two-thirds majority will be necessary for Palestine to be admitted as a full member. The question comes up for debate tomorrow, sources inside UNESCO say, following the formalities of today’s opening session. But the definitive vote is not expected before the end of the month or during the opening days of November. UNESCO has, in fact, already recognised Palestine. On October 5 its Executive Council approved its recommendation for full membership. The decision was adopted with 40 out of 58 votes in favour. Among the abstainers were Italy, Spain, France, Greece and Belgium, while those voting against included Germany and the United States, which is already committed to blocking Palestine’s request within the UN’s Security Council. On the same evening, Spain’s government made it known that it would be voting in favour. Despite Israeli opposition and pressure stemming from Washington, the Palestine National Authority thus won its first diplomatic victory since President Mahmoud Abbas launched his challenge for recognition of the Palestinian state. The vote at the UNESCO Council was strongly criticised by both Washington and Paris, who defined the PNA’s accession request as “premature”. “The priority is the resumption of negotiations with Israel regarding the status of Palestine, and its in New York that talks should be taking place,” the French Foreign Office stated. US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, described the vote by the UNESCO Executive Council as “inexplicable” and “confused”. Ms Clinton noted how it was a decision that should be taken by the UN and not through its subsidiaries. The USA has also threatened to suspend payments of its contributions to UNESCO and has called on all delegations to express a No vote.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Emirates: Trend to Sobriety Followed by Italian Design

(ANSAmed) — DUBAI, OCTOBER 24 — The interior design market in the Emirates is changing with a two-way development: there is an increase in the importance of the role of taste and sophistication while the pace of acquisition is slowing.

There are fewer highly polished, glossy surfaces; the amount of gold on show is more modest; arabesques are becoming more simplified to reveal a more sombre approach when compared with the pre-crisis period (2008). But at the same time there is a greater awareness of style, of line and of “pieces” having true value.

As Daniele Tredici, the owner of Florentine boutique Tredici Design puts it: “Emirati capacities for evaluation have grown.” Ms Tredici, whose now internationally sought-after chandeliers fuse Tuscan tradition with Venetian blown glass, (exemplars of her wares hang in the residence of Russian Premier Putin), continues: “There is less and less room for kitsch, but people still have some difficulties in telling a Chinese piece of glassware from one from Murano”. Ms Tredici’s is just one of the Italian faces present at Index, the Middle East’s most prestigious interior design event, currently under way in Dubai.

Indeed, another 150 Italian businesses are represented. ‘Made in Italy’ is a synonym for originality, quality and style and it is leaving a clear mark in the ‘formal’ panorama of the UAE, as the growing volume of trade in this sector between the two countries testifies, with the Emirates being the region’s leading destination for Italian exports. But a way will always be found to go over the top… One of the exhibition’s show-stoppers is the table football set by Teckell di Gallarate: a creation in crystal, gold and silver priced at 19,000 euros. A toned-down version — without the gold-plated players and score-tally — is already being stocked by one of Dubai’s better-known conceptual stores.

While there is no shortage of ready cash, there is still a tendency to attempt to grab the atmosphere a piece or design creates and to reproduce it in imitations.

“There is still a temptation to stop at the look, with a lot of work still to be done on the concept of investing in design,” warns Daniela Rossi, the hallmark of whose Dubai store, Authentic Living, is the quality of every single one of its items.

But the experience of Italian operators bucks the overall trend in the furnishing sector. This can be put down to the shift in the real estate market over the past few years from large-scale projects (which the crisis has either killed off or suspended) to the private buyer in search of an accessory or a furnishing solution that will make that special difference — as will those bearing the trade mark of an Italian designer label.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Emirates: Humanoid Robots to be Introduced in Classrooms

(ANSAmed) — Dubai, 26 ott — Humanoid robots are making an entry into classrooms in academic and research institutions in the middle east, promising to revolutionise the teaching process especially in the fields of science and mathematics, ‘The Economic Times’ reports.

French company Aldebaran Robotics, in partnership with Intel, has showcased the power of ‘Nao’ humanoid robots in the teaching process in the classrooms of Middle East educational institutions.

Powered by Intel Atom technology, ‘Nao’ is the first versatile and programmable humanoid robot to be used as a standard research platform and an educational tool for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) students.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Report: Top Muslim Adviser Blocks Obama Meeting With Christian Leader

An influential Muslim adviser to the White House who has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood has succeeded in canceling a meeting between President Obama and the leader of the persecuted Maronite church in Lebanon, according to the Beirut news agency el Nashra.

The Arabic-language report cited an unnamed U.S. source who said Dahlia Mogahed, “the highest adviser on Arab and Islamic Affairs in the State Department,” sought to block a White House meeting with Patriarch Beshara Rahi, according to a translation by blogger El Cid at BigPeace.com.

The report said the move heeded a request by top leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt who want the U.S. to back the Islamist Sunni movement opposing Iranian Shiite influence in the region.

Maronites number about 1 million in Lebanon and more than 10 millions worldwide. About 1.5 million are in the U.S.

[…]

CAIR and MPAC, the BigPeace.com blogger noted, are pushing to eliminate any intelligence analysis focused on jihadist violence, particularly against the Christian communities in the Middle East.

Coptic Solidarity International, which advocates for Coptic Christians in Egypt who have endured increased persecution from fundamentalist Muslims under the new regime, also have unsuccessfully tried to obtain meetings at the White House or with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Iraqi Christians have been ignored, as well, despite the many massacres against Assyrian Christians in the country over the past two years, according to BigPeace.com. Administration officials have declined invitations to speak at the annual Assyrian convention this year.

— Hat tip: Egghead

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Saudi Arabia: Spanish Consortium to Build High-Speed Train in Desert

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, OCTOBER 27 — A Spanish consortium made up of twelve Spanish companies and two Saudi firms will build the high-speed railway line that is to connect Medina and Mecca, a 450 kilometre stretch that will transport an estimated 160,000 passengers per day.

The contract, which is worth 6.736 billion euros, was awarded by the Saudi Railways Organisation (SRO) on its website, and confirmed by Spain’s Infrastructure Ministry, which said that it was the largest international contract ever awarded to Spanish firms. The deal includes the design and construction of the railway line and the supply of 35 trains capable of reaching speeds of more than 300 kilometres per hour, with the option to purchase 23 further trains, as well as the management and maintenance of the line for a period of 12 years. The Spanish businesses involved in the Spanish-Saudi Al Shoula Group consortium include public companies such as Adif, Renfe and Ineco, which is controlled by the Ministry of Infrastructure, and private firms such as OHL, Indra, Talgo, Consultrans, Copasa, Imathia, Cobra, Dimetronic, Inabensa, and the Saudi groups Al Shoula and Al Rosan. Spanish companies control 88% of the consortium, while Saudis have the remaining 12%.

“This project enhances the development of high-level technology, which has put Spain at the forefront of the sector worldwide,” sources at Indra told ANSAmed. The company will be responsible for producting rail traffic management systems on the high-speed line for pilgrims, as well as telecommunications, ticketing and security, for a total cost of 440 million euros. Indra has developed state-of-the-art solutions for high-speed rail projects in countries such as the United Kingdom, China and the United States. With the “Spanish High Speed” brand, the country’s Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure aims to promote the internationalisation of companies in the sector in public-private consortia.

The desert line will cover the road trodden every year by millions of Muslim pilgrims, linking the cities of Medina, Jeddah and Mecca with trains travelling at 320 kilometres per hour, which will allow the entire journey to be made in two and a half hours, Spanish ministry sources say. The trains, from Renfe’s 102 and 113 series, will have a capacity of 450 passengers each and will cover demand of 166,000 travellers a day, some 60 million per year.

The Spanish Foreign Minister, Trinidad Jimenez, who is on an official visit to Morocco, said that the contract “is good news for the Spanish economy, as it shows its capacity for leadership abroad in hugely significant projects”.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Saudi Prince Offers $900k for Capture of Israeli Soldier

(AGI) Riyadh — Prince Khaled bin Talal Abdulaziz al-Saud is offering a 900k dollar reward for the capture of one Israeli soldier. News to that effect was published by Palestine News Network, who also claim that the reward money adds to the 100k dollars offered by a Saudi cleric.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Putin Disgusted by Images of Gaddafi’s Last Moments

(AGI) Moscow — Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said he was “disgusted” by images shown on TV portraying Muammar Gaddafi’s last moments. “Almost all the members of his family have been killed, his body has been shown on every television channel in the word. It is impossible to watch those images without experiencing disgust. What is it in them that people like?” asked the premier while addressing the Russian People’s Front’s committee. “The televised images showed a man covered in blood, wounded but alive and beaten to death.”

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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India: Footpath Prayers Soon to be Heard

BANGALORE: It seems that Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) will ‘legalise’ unauthorised temples, churches and mosques constructed on footpaths across the city.

According to the statistics available with the BBMP, there are 174 such places of worship constructed illegally on the footpaths of Bangalore. This includes 169 temples, four churches and one mosque.

However, sources from the BBMP said that the figures are actually more than this, in all the eight zones. The Palike has not done a complete survey on these encroachments.

A senior official from the Palike said that though there is a supreme court direction, it is not possible for them to demolish or tell the concerned authorities to move out. “We fear it might disrupt communal harmony. Places of worship are too personal for most people,” the official said. “We know many of these temples, churches and mosques have become an obstacle for road users and pedestrains. But we are helpless,” the official added.

Now, the Palike is planning to streamline those illegally constructed buildings. Authorities are now planning to bring the illegally constructed temples under the Muzurai department, and move them from the control of temple trusts. “Similarly, mosques will be under the WAKF norms, and churches will be under the Churches of South India,” the official said.

When contacted C K Ramamurthy, chairman to standing committee (Town Planning), said that the matter is still under discussion. “The concerned file is with the commissioner,” he added. However, he said that the concerned assistant revenue officer of the particular zone will look into this. It can be recalled that in order to avoid such constructions on the footpaths, the state government had earlier directed urban and rural local bodies to earmark suitable places in the new layout plans for the construction of temples, churches, mosques and gurduwaras.

— Hat tip: JP

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China: Wuzhong Keeps Islam in Focus

Wuzhong city has a big Muslim community with 1,300 mosques. It is the first Muslim city in China to establish resource centres at mosques to rekindle interest in the religion among young Muslims.

WUZHONG is not as famous as the other Muslim cities like Urumqi, Kashgar and Lanzhou. It is not even mentioned in the travel guide Lonely Planet. But there is more to the city — about an hour-and-a-half drive from Yinchuan in China’s northwestern province of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region — than meets the eye. Here, Hui Muslims dominate in numbers, making up about 53% of its 1.5 million population. The city is a major religious hub with 1,300 mosques, more than any other city in China. Almost at every corner of the streets in the city, one would be able to chance upon a mosque with a mix of Moorish and traditional Chinese architectures. Blaring loudspeakers calling for prayers can be heard throughout the city. And there are plenty of restaurants emblazoned with the halal sign.

Li Hua, a Hui Muslim, was brimming with pride when she spoke about her hometown. In Wuzhong, almost every village has a mosque. On Wuzhong Street alone, there are four mosques, namely the Dong, Beida, Nan and Zhong mosques, she said. She often visits the mosques to slaughter the chickens that she sells at her stall. “Of course, I can slaughter the chickens I rear at my home. But, I want to make sure it is slaughtered the halal way for the sake of my Muslim customers,” she added.

Trader Ibrahim Wang said he liked to go to the Beida Mosque for prayers as he would be joined by many other fellow Muslims. Wunan Mosque imam Wang Jinyu said the mosque was among the 10 places of worship for Muslims in Shangqiao village, which had the highest number of Muslim inhabitants in the city. “Shangqiao is a purely Muslim vicinity. Maybe there is only one Han Chinese family living in this area,” he said. Wunan Mosque is among the top three mosques in Ningxia, along with Najiahu Mosque in Yongning county and Tongxin Mosque also in Wuzhong. The mosque hosts thousands of followers during Hari Raya every year.

Traditionally, a Muslim community will first build a mosque when they settle in a place because the mosque is where they seek spiritual balance. “In many big cities, there are not as many mosques because the Muslims there are uncertain about their faith. Unlike Muslims in northwest China, we are more passionate about the religion,” Wang said. According to Beida Mosque imam Ibrahim Ma, all the mosques in Wuzhong were funded and built by the Muslim community which received limited funds from the government for their activities.

He felt that although there was a huge Muslim population, the city did not need so many mosques, especially new ones, as some of them were underused.

Unlike Muslims of the Uyghur, Kazakh, Kygryz and Tajik ethnicity who have their own language, the Hui Muslims speak fluent Mandarin. Though some of them have brown eyes and speak a smattering of Arabic and Persian words, Hui Muslims are still the closest race to the Han Chinese, which is the majority race in China, in terms of physical features, character and lifestyle.

A big part of the Hui Muslims today are direct descendants of Arab and Iranian merchants who had inter-marriages with the local Chinese. Another section of the Hui are of the origin of the Arab mercenaries who were enlisted by the emperor of the Tang Dynasty in 756 to fight against General An Lushan in Chang’an (now Xi’an) during the An-Shi Rebellion, Ma said. He added that only a small part of Hui Muslims were actually converts of the Han Chinese who were originally Buddhists and Taoists.

Hui Muslims are estimated to make up about 10 million of China’s population. The ethnic group is the fourth largest among the 55 minority races. Ma said Hui Muslims were conservative and did not have the interest in spreading Islam to other races, especially Han Chinese. “We are doing quite poorly in terms of introducing our religion to non-Muslims in China. What we need to do now is to provide Hui Muslims with higher education so that they can interact with other races better and further promote the religion. “In fact, we are more afraid that Hui Muslims who have little knowledge of their faith would gradually be converted into Han Chinese after they marry with the Han Chinese,” he added.

Wuzhong is the first Muslim city in China to establish resource centres at mosques to rekindle interest in the religion among young Muslims. So far, more than 200 mosques are equipped with the resource centres where the followers can read books other than those related to Islam to broaden their knowledge.

— Hat tip: JP

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Africans ‘Rediscover’ Traditional Medicines

(AGI) Nairobi — Having been set aside in the course of the last century, traditional African medicines are making a comeback.

The data reported in a WHO regional conference show that during the last 10 years the number of African Countries that introduced traditional medicines in their health care system has quintupled. These treatments are based on a millenanium-old experience acquired throughout the continent. Roughly 80% of the populations all the Developing Countries resort to traditional medicines for primary medical care.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Trinidad & Tobago: Former Special Branch Head: We Knew Insurrection Was Imminent in 1990

Former head of the Police Special Branch Mervyn Guisseppi says he had absolutely no doubt in his mind that an uprising by the Jamaat al Muslimeen was imminent in 1990. Guisseppi, a former assistant police commissioner, made the disclosure yesterday as he gave evidence before the Commission of Enquiry into the July 27, 1990 attempted overthrow of the government by Muslimeen insurgents. He said he and other officers in the Special Branch knew that a coup d’etat was imminent based on intelligence they obtained about the Muslimeen over several years.

“The only thing we could not say that it would occur on July 27 at 6 pm and what form it would take. “But we knew it was coming,” Guisseppi said. He said the division had sources within the Jamaat who would give them “bits and pieces” of information. He said information came to them about a meeting former Jamaat second in command Bilal Abdullah had with eight members of the organisation in 1989. Abdullah, who led the attack on the Red House during the uprising, was reported to have said they were looking at early 1990 to stage the overthrow.

At the meeting, Abdullah indicated that Jamaat leader Imam Yasin Abu Bakr was in Libya and that he was negotiating for arms and ammunition and was seeking to increase the number of mercenaries who would support them, Guisseppi told the commission. Informants also reported to the Special Branch that Abdullah was preoccupied with how large quantities of arms and ammunition could come into the country. Bakr boasted in 1989 that the Jamaat’s recruitment drive had peaked to 400 members, Guisseppi added. He said the recruitment was done mostly through exhortation during services at the mosque through an “each one bring one” method.

There were about eight former members of the Defence Force in the Jamaat and four or five ex-police officers who were involved in the training of the Muslimeen. Training was conducted secretly in forested areas of Rio Claro, Cumuto, Cumaca, Toco, Blanchisseusse and at the Jamaat’s #1 Mucurapo Road compound, Guisseppi disclosed. Further, 25 Jamaat members were sent to Libya for training. Special Branch, through reports, told the Prime Minister and the national security minister who they were, when they left the country, what kind of training they did and when they returned to T&T, Guisseppi said. In an October 1989 meeting with senior Jamaat persons, members of the Munroe Road mosque in Cunupia spoke about collaborating with the Muslimeen and training with them.

The Munroe Road mosque promised to support the Jamaat’s overthrow the government, Guisseppi said. Guisseppi said “from early” Special Branch knew that the Jamaat received large sums of money from Libya which Bakr was possibly bringing back to T&T on several trips. The Jamaat also received donations from affluent Muslims in T&T and the business community and through “taxing” drug dealers. A Muslimeen called “Buffy”, whom he described as a principal activist, brought in as much as $400,000 in one week by taxing six drug dealers, Guisseppi added. He said it was believed that Buffy was the one who introduced the spate of kidnappings that rocked T&T post-1990.

— Hat tip: JP

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Blair Defends Opening the Door to Mass Migration and Says it Had a Very Positive Impact on Britain

Former PM said it was ‘right’ that the country was made up of different cultures and faiths mixing together

Tony Blair has defended Labour’s controversial mass immigration policy by claiming that Britain cannot succeed unless it opens its borders to more people from different backgrounds.

The former prime minister said it was ‘right’ that the country was made up of different cultures and faiths mixing together.

Mr Blair added that migrants had made Britain ‘stronger’ and said those calling for greater curbs on foreigners entering the country were wrong.

His comments come just days after official figures revealed that the population is expected to soar by the equivalent of a city the size of Leeds every year for the next decade.

A defiant Mr Blair insisted his party’s policy on immigration was the right one. He said: ‘It’s been a very positive thing and there is no way for a country like Britain to succeed in the future unless it is open to people of different colours, faiths and cultures.’

Under Labour, up to 5.5million people born outside the UK arrived as long-term migrants.

Between 1997 and 2010, around 2.3million left the country, meaning the UK population increased by around 3.2million as a direct result of foreign migrants.

In an interview with Eastern Eye newspaper, Mr Blair said: ‘The vision of a country of different cultures and different faiths mixing together is the right one.

‘That is not to say you don’t have problems at certain points, but those problems are to be overcome without losing the essence of what has actually allowed this country’s people to get on and do well.’

His comments were branded ‘shameless’ by critics and are set to fuel claims that the huge increase in migrants under Labour were due to a politically motivated attempt by ministers to change the country.

Two years ago, Andrew Neather, a former adviser to Tony Blair, said that Labour’ s relaxation of controls was a deliberate plan to ‘open the UK to mass migration’.

He added that Labour wanted to rub the ‘Right’s nose in diversity and render their arguments out of date’.

Mr Blair added that the anti-immigration debate was one of the ‘past’. ‘I think the majority of people in Britain today are not prejudiced and can understand the benefits of migration.

‘I think what people worry about is where they feel there is no control over who comes in and there are no rules governing who comes in or not, and that is a different issue altogether.

‘It would be very unfortunate if by putting those rules into place, we view that immigration was a somehow bad thing for the country, because it is not.’

Tory MP Priti Patel, said: ‘As the daughter of immigrants, there is no question that those who work hard and make a positive contribution do enrich the fabric of our society.

‘But what Tony Blair has failed to recognise is that while he was in power, he opened the floodgates of mass and uncontrolled immigration which has left a damaging legacy in our towns and cities.’

Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migrationwatch, said: ‘This is completely shameless from the Prime Minister who brought more than three million immigrants into Britain in the teeth of public opposition.’

Fellow Tory MP Dominic Raab added: ‘These comments are naïve if not reckless. Tony Blair has left Britain with a legacy of uncontrolled immigration that has put huge pressure on public services and undermined community cohesion’.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Netherlands: Angolan Youth Facing Deportation May Get Student Visa to Stay

An Angolan youth who has been in the Netherlands since he was 10 and now faces deportation is likely to be offered a student visa, Nos television reports.

Mauro Manuel, who has lived with a foster family in Limburg since he arrived here alone in 2003, is at the centre of a media and political campaign to win him permanent residency.

Sources have told Nos television immigration minister Gerd Leers is poised to offer Manuel a student visa. This would mean he could continue his education in the Netherlands but does not set a precedent for other youngsters in the same position.

Mauro is currently following vocational training at an mbo college.

On Tuesday, Labour and the ChristenUnie introduced draft legislation into parliament which would give young asylum seekers the right to stay in the Netherlands after eight years

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Sweden’s Immigration Debate

Ilmar Reepalu is the Mayor of Malmo, Sweden’s third largest city. He is a man on the move, trying to promote and develop Malmo’s position as a leader in green technology around the world. He can squeeze us in for an interview at 8:30 on a Sunday evening. Uncomplaining, he rides up to Malmo’s City Hall on his bicycle in the dark and rain to talk to us.

We are in Malmo, not to discuss sustainability and fair trade in the city, but rather its massive immigration, which some call a problem, others consider a gift.

One-third of Malmo’s population is foreign-born. Another 10 percent are of a different nationality. The biggest influx these days is from the Muslim world. Many of them are very traditional — a small group is quite extreme. Sweden has a population of 9 million — of those, 1.4 million are immigrants. Approximately 100,000 pour in each year. Ilmar Reepalu thinks that’s a good thing. “Sweden needs lots of immigrants,” he says, “because otherwise we can’t keep up our welfare system. We, as most parts of Europe, have too few people. Within the coming 20 years, we will have a lack of labor force, so we need more people coming to Sweden. We don’t have enough kids from ourselves.”

Sweden has probably the most generous immigration, asylum and welfare policies in the world. Some natives have had it with this bottomless funding pit. For the first time last year, voters elected the far right anti-immigration Sweden Democrats-giving them a handful of seats in Parliament. MP Kent Ekeroth disputes the argument that immigration keeps Sweden’s welfare system afloat. “What kind of immigrants do we take in? It’s people from Somalia who have done nothing but herd sheep their whole life and we expect them to benefit our society? It’s ridiculous.”

The Sweden Democrats advocate cutting back 90 percent on immigration, redirecting the money currently spent on housing and caring for refugees to programs to improve life in their home countries. “If you bring one immigrant to Sweden, it’s expensive. It costs a lot of money. If you put that money to use in Africa or the Middle East or wherever, you can help hundreds more.” Ekeroth goes even further, “If you put this money over there to help them with food, with medicine, with education or whatever, you can help hundreds, maybe thousands, more. So what’s more humane? To help one person lead a life of luxury here in Sweden or to help 1000 to avoid starvation in Africa?”

The Sweden Democrats’ views have made them targets both of Sweden’s left, and of immigrants. Ekeroth travels with security. The tensions that have come as a result of the swelling immigration have affected all sides. Riots have periodically broken out in a largely Muslim neighborhood of Malmo, called Rosengard, sparked by the perception of mistreatment of residents by the police or other authorities. Firefighters at the scenes of some of these riots have been attacked. As a result, they will often refuse to answer calls to put out fires there without police escort.

There has been an Islamophobic backlash. Scandinavia’s largest mosque happens to be in Malmo. It was set on fire in 2004. The culprit was never found. An imam was shot on the premises. The head of the Islamic Center at Malmo’s main mosque, a man named Bejzat Becirov, regularly receives hate mail, adorned with pigs and pictures of Usama Bin Laden.

Becirov, a moderate Muslim from the former Yugoslavia, and hence, a European, from a community where women did not typically wear the veil, thinks the culprits behind these attacks on his mosque may be neo-Nazis, but may also be extremist Muslims who don’t like Becirov’s message of integration. He thinks immigrants to Sweden should try harder to blend in.

“Since religion doesn’t say anything about how you should dress, maybe it’s a good idea to try to take a look at how everybody else is behaving, and try to present themselves and adapt to that,” he says. “And that would make it easier for them. Perhaps things start there.” Becirov acknowledges that it’s harder for non-Europeans to adapt to a liberal place like Sweden. “If you look at Muslims coming from the Middle East, I think it takes 15 to 20 years before they are integrated-a generation.” Becirov believes the number of Malmo Muslims who subscribe to extremist ideology is small, but that their recruiting methods are aggressive. In his words, python-like. Ekeroth worries about how those extreme elements exercise their authority. “There’s unofficial Shariah police going around Rosengard, checking how women dress, and there are unofficial Shariah courts in Malmo, being used,” he says.

Despite the controversy, Swedes we interviewed outside Malmo’s main station were supportive of their country’s immigration policies. One young woman told Fox News, “I think we should take more. I know that not many people would agree with me.” A young man adds, “I think it’s good. It creates great diversity.” Another young woman, when asked about the face of Sweden changing dramatically due to massive immigration, said, “I think everything we call culture right now, it’s been so fluid throughout history. I don’t think it can be overruled like that. Everything that comes in, it just adds to the culture, it doesn’t take away.”

Sweden has taken in more Iraqi refugees than the United States has, the mayor of Malmo points out. That is something many Swedes are proud of. Mayor Reepalu believes that rather than cut back on immigration, Sweden should do more to help those coming to Sweden adapt to their new lives, especially the children. “The challenge,” he says, “is to have teachers good enough to take this quite tough situation, where you have lots of children coming into the schools, coming directly from conflict zones in different parts of the world, carrying with them lots of trauma of course. To take care of that-to help those people get a good start in their lives.”

— Hat tip: JP

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‘We’re a Culture, Not a Costume’ This Halloween

Thinking about donning a kimono to dress like a geisha for Halloween, or a Mexican mariachi suit?

Students from Ohio University have a message for you: “We’re a culture, not a costume.”

With ethnic and racial stereotypes becoming increasingly popular Halloween costume themes, members of the school’s Students Teaching About Racism in Society are launching a campaign to make revelers think twice before reducing a culture to a caricature, the group’s president said.

“To treat a character like Batman or Superman as a Halloween costume is one thing, but to treat an entire ethnicity as a costume is something else. It suggests that people conflate the actual broad diversity of a culture with caricatures and characters.”

While Italian-Americans can be stereotyped as gangsters and Irish-Americans as hard drinkers, there are no pervasive stereotypes for whites on the same level that allow for them to be caricatured as a Halloween costume, Cobb said.

The ad campaign from Ohio University show students holding photos of different racial and ethnic stereotypes in costume: an Hispanic guy with a picture of the Mexican donkey costume, an Asian girl with an image of a Geisha, a Muslim student with a photo of a white guy wearing a traditional ghutra and iqal over his head, bombs strapped to his chest.

— Hat tip: Kitman

[Return to headlines]

UN, HR Bodies Biased Against Muslims — Jamaat e Islam

JAMAAT e Islami Ameer Syed Munawwar Hasan reiterated that United Nations and the world’s human rights bodies were biased against Muslims and had always supported powers and religious groups, which committed atrocities on the Muslims. Had UN supported Muslims in occupied Palestine and Kashmir, they would have been liberated by now, he said while delivering Friday sermon at Mansoorah Masjid. The world body had demonstrated shameful partiality in the liberation of Christians of South Sudan and East Taimur, he added.

He said the Kashmiris had observed Black Day on October 26, the day on which the Indian troops had entered the Valley. The Kashmiris had been protesting against Indian army brutalities but there was no one to listen to them, he lamented. Syed Munawwar Hasan condemned torture by the state on Muslims in Syria and Yemen and called for an emergent meeting of the Arab League and the OIC in this regard.

A resolution adopted on the occasion called upon the Syrian government to stop the massacre of innocent Syrian people. It urged the Muslim rulers to learn a less from the fate of Hosni Mobarak and Col. Gaddafi. The JI chief said that the Zardari government had deprived people of Roti, Kapra and Makan and forced them to commit suicides. He said PPP was in power for the fourth time and they were vying for another term. This was because despite PPP’s corrupt practices and bad governance, some people were ready to vote for it once again.

He said that a change could be brought about in the country through vote but a peaceful revolution was required to change the system based on corruption and tyranny. Meanwhile, Ameer Tanzim Islami Hafiz Akif Saeed has said that democracy based on rule of the chosen capitalists and usury is a horrifying combination under which mankind as a whole is being crushed badly. He said this while delivering Friday sermon at Jami’ul Quran Masjid, Quran Academy. He said the Capitalists fully controlled democracy which safeguarded their own interests in the name of rule of masses.

— Hat tip: JP

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	Financial Crisis
»	A Hellenic Haircut
»	Berlusconi: Euro: Strange and Vulnerable, Is Under Assault
»	First Doubts Emerge Over Eurozone Deal
»	Greece: Energy Plan to Help Reduce Public Debt
»	Greece: From Contracts to Workers, Ultimatum on EU Rules
»	Investing in the EFSF: China May Impose Conditions for Helping Euro Zone
»	Italy: Unions Threaten to Strike Over Layoff Proposal
»	London ‘Under Constant Attack’ From EU Directives: Cameron
»	Spain: Record Unemployment Nears 5 Mln, 21.5% of Population
»	Turkey’s Trade Deficit Widens to Record Highs
	USA
»	At the Met, A New Vision of Islam in Hostile Times
»	Breaking: Homeland Security Adviser Allegedly Leaked Intel to Attack Rick Perry
»	CAIR Chapters Challenge Islamophobia, Defend Civil Rights
»	Center for Disease Control Top Official Arrested for Bestiality and Child Abuse
»	Centuries of Glory: Islamic Galleries at the Met
»	Climate Change Scientist Faces Lie Detector Test
»	Exhibits Highlight Islamic, Egyptian Art
»	Herman Cain Identifies the “Fakestinians”
»	Minneapolis Mosque Spurned Al-Shabaab Fundraiser
»	Muslim Student Association Guest Speaker Tackles Fear of Sharia
»	NPR Continues to be a Taxpayer-Funded Leftist Nest
»	Occupy Wall Street Shrugged
»	Occupy Wall Street Kitchen Staff Protesting Fixing Food for Freeloaders
»	The Second Gilded Age: Has America Become an Oligarchy?
	Europe and the EU
»	British Muslims Go Underground — For Poppy Appeal
»	Czech PM Mulls Euro Referendum
»	Muslim Minister Urges More Christian UK
»	Put Babar Ahmad on Trial in the UK Not the US
»	Secret French Intelligence Report on Islam in Marseilles
»	Swedish Court Bans Niqab-Wearing Women
»	Switzerland: Muslim Group to Deploy ‘Jewish Star’ In Bern Rally
»	UK: Exeter Mosque Official Opening Ceremony
»	UK: Police Award for EDL March Handling
	Balkans
»	Sarajevo Gunman in Custody, Officials Condemn Attack
	North Africa
»	Tunisia: Curfew in Sidi Bouzid, Protest Targets Tunis
»	Tunisia: Ennahdha’s Great Success
»	Tunisia: Pétition Populaire Lists Excluded, Protests Erupt
»	Tunisia: Ashton and Fule Congratulate Ennahda Party
	Middle East
»	Key General: Iraq Pullout Plan a ‘Disaster’
»	Saudi Arabia: Prince Nayef: 78 Years Old, Is New Crown Prince
	South Asia
»	Malaysia’s Minorities Fear Islamic Law Changes
»	Pakistan Rejects Allegations of Links With Taliban
	Australia — Pacific
»	Islam Soft-Sell Has Got Legs, But Note the Fine Print
	Immigration
»	Sweden’s Immigration Debate
	Culture Wars
»	‘Racist’ Halloween Costumes Stir Debate
»	Record-Low 26% in U.S. Favor Handgun Ban
»	Two Men Who Divorced Their Wives, Came Out as Gay, Became Transgender Lesbians, Now Marry After One Has a Sex Change
	General
»	Holy Smoke: Islamic Televangelists
»	Holy Relevance: Religion and Economics
»	Population to Hit Seven Billion: Experts Warn of ‘Bachelor Nations’
»	Seven Billion People ‘A Catastrophe’: Professor
»	Skype Security Flaw Can Expose a User’s Location

A Hellenic Haircut

by Srdja Trifkovic

There will be no Greek default—not for months to come at least, as we predicted here two weeks ago. The private banks that had splashed out on ostensibly lucrative Greek bonds will have to accept a “haircut” of fifty percent of their nominal value, according to an agreement reached early Thursday morning after days of tense talks between French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, other euro zone leaders and private financial institutions.

Greece’s private-sector debt is now down to 100 billion euros, and the country will continue its long road to nowhere with zero growth, cuts and austerity. Even after the 50 percent write down its debt is still 90 percent of the country’s GDP and for as long as it stays in the euro the burden can never be paid off. To make the banks agree to the deal, however, the euro zone governments had to offer them inducements in the form of “credit enhancements”—bureaucratese for provision of low-cost government liquidity—worth over a third of the “haircut” itself.

More significantly perhaps, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) will be boosted to €1tn ($1.4tn)—which may not be enough to preempt another crisis in a big southern economy, such as Italy or Spain. Merkel’s plan is to use the facility to provide insurance on new Italian and Spanish government bonds, but private investors are yet to be convinced that the fund will actually pay out in case of a large sovereign getting into trouble. If the insurance option is not embraced by private investors, the EFSF’s one trillion euros will be woefully insufficient to contain even the likely fallout from Grece’s half-default, let alone a major future crisis. This is the main weakness of the deal reached in Brussels. The European Financial Stability Fund needs to be expanded to be credible, and yet it cannot be done without issuing Eurobonds which the Germans unsurprisingly refuse to underwrite.

The elephant in the room is the euro itself. Back in 1990 the common currency was a French idea, the late François Mitterrand’s condition for his approval of Germany’s reunification. In theory it was supposed to remove exchange rate risks from the euro zone market, reduce the costs of transactions, stimulate cross-border trade, create an area of monetary stability, and force member countries to practice fiscal responsibility. The unstated intent was to curtail the power of the Deutschmark and to bind reunited Germany more closely to Europe. It was to be Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s burnt offering on the altar of European integration. In January 2002, colorful new banknotes and coins replaced national currencies in the initial 11 countries of the Eurozone…

— Hat tip: Srdja Trifkovic

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Berlusconi: Euro: Strange and Vulnerable, Is Under Assault

(AGI) Rome — “We are faced with an attack on the euro, a strange currency that convinces no-one and is thus very vulnerable to assault,” said Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, making key points in his speech on the crisis to an audience of foreign trade representatives.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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First Doubts Emerge Over Eurozone Deal

Markets sky-rocketed on Thursday (27 October) in reaction to the eurozone deal sealed by EU leaders earlier that morning, but economists are starting to question the fine print, which Polish Prime Minister presciently dubbed as “hell” hidden in the details. Stocks, commodity prices and the euro hiked on Thursday, as euphoria seemed to have gripped traders all around the globe after the second Greek bail-out, bank recapitalisation and an increase in the eurozone’s guarantee fund was announced. One of the US indices, S&P, reached its highest monthly gain since 1974.

But the details remain sketchy on how the current €440 billion worth of loan guarantees in the eurozone rescue fund (EFSF) will be boosted to around €1 trillion without any country increasing its contribution, via obscure financial engineering potentially including investments from China, Brazil and other emerging economies. In addition, it is not clear how to reach the agreed 50 percent writedown on Greek debt for private investors. There is no clarity on how many banks will take part or which ones as the haircut is supposed to be voluntary.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Greece: Energy Plan to Help Reduce Public Debt

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, OCTOBER 28 — Greece can reduce its public debt by 20-25 billion euros over 25 years by exporting to western Europe electric energy produced from photovoltaic systems, Energy and Environment Minister Giorgos Papaconstantinou said on Wednesday as Reporter.gr website writes. The Helios program, which has been prepared in collaboration with German industry, is mentioned in Wednesday’s decision by the European Union summit in Brussels as one of the ways in which the country can earn an additional 15 billion euros to help present balance budgets in coming years (apart from the initial sum of 50 billion eurso from privatizations -which has now been reduced to 30 billion euros). The minister, speaking at a press briefing on the presentation of the International Energy Agency (IEA) report on Greece, said the project for the production of 10,000 solar MW is estimated to cost 20 billion euros, while the direct electricity line to Germany would cost 10 billion euros. Total revenue over 25 years is estimated at around 80 billion euros, of which 20-25 billion euros would be due to Greece, given it would have a 30% share in the project -on the basis of negotiations to date. Concession of public land for 25 years and other facilities that may agreed can increase that sum. The IEA report also called for rises in Greek retail power prices that will fully reflect wholesale prices. “The Public Power Corporation is obliged to sell electric energy to the final users according to tariffs that reflect costs,” it said.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Greece: From Contracts to Workers, Ultimatum on EU Rules

(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, OCTOBER 28 — The European Commission has today issued the government in Athens with an ultimatum, saying that it must adjust a series of regulations that do not conform with EU rules, ranging from public administration to the award of contracts for computer services. Greece has two months to take the necessary measures, or the country could be hauled in front of the European Court of Justice.

In terms of access to public administration, Athens must put an end to discrimination against citizens from other member states.

Current Greek legislation stipulates that priority for jobs in local administration is given to residents registered in the town in which the jobs are available. The European Commission says that these conditions, though not directly linked to nationality, have an impact on the mobility of EU workers. The same is true of public contracts in computer services, a sector in which the European Commission demands that no direct or indirect conditions of discrimination be imposed for potential candidates from other member states, as occurred during a recent pitch. The restrictions prevented Greek citizens from enjoying a potentially improved service at lower costs. In the telecommunications sector, meanwhile, there is a problem of excessive bureaucracy, which forbids the easy installation of infrastructure such as aerials, masts, manholes and cables. The result of this is limited development of broadband compared to the EU average.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Investing in the EFSF: China May Impose Conditions for Helping Euro Zone

One day after European leaders announced a plan to boost their euro backstop fund to 1 trillion euros, China indicated it may attach conditions to any money it invests. One of those stipulations — that Europe stop criticizing Beijing’s monetary policy — could strain trans-Atlantic relations.

It didn’t take long for French President Nicolas Sarkozy to begin looking for investors in the newly designed euro backstop fund. Just hours after euro-zone leaders announced that they had agreed on a plan to boost the impact of the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) to €1 trillion ($1.4 trillion) on Thursday morning, Sarkozy telephoned with Chinese President Hu Jintao to discuss his country’s involvement.

While nothing concrete resulted from the chat, there are indications on Friday that any Chinese involvement could come at a price. According to a front-page story in the Financial Times, China would not only require water-tight guarantees on its investment, but Europe might have to pay a political price as well.

As a condition for its involvement, Beijing could ask European leaders to cease criticizing China’s policy of keeping its currency, the renminbi, artificially undervalued, Li Daokui, a member of China’s central bank monetary policy committee, told the paper. It is an issue that has repeatedly strained China’s relations with Europe, but especially with the United States. Were Europe to agree to such a demand, it could drive a wedge between Washington and Brussels.

“It is in China’s long-term and intrinsic interest to help Europe because they are our biggest trading partner,” Li told the Financial Times. “But … the last thing China wants to do is throw away the country’s wealth and be seen as just a source of dumb money.”

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Italy: Unions Threaten to Strike Over Layoff Proposal

Berlusconi measure ‘totally irresponsible’ says CGIL

(ANSA) — Rome, October 28 — Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi has come under fire from Italy’s unions which are threatening a nationwide strike over a part of his economic reform package that would make it easier for companies to lay off employees.

Susanna Camusso, the head of Italy’s largest union CGIL, said Berlusconi’s proposal showed “a total lack of responsibility” while Italy’s three other major union groups — CISL, UIL and UGL — said in a joint letter they would be “forced to strike” if it were put into place.

The measure, which would make it easier for companies in financial difficulty to fire employees, came in response to the European Commission’s demand to boost growth and slash debt to restore investor confidence in Italy, which is at the centre of the eurozone crisis.

Well-received at Wednesday’s EU summit in Brussels, the layoff proposal earned the support of Italy’s biggest industrial group, Confindustria, which said failing to implement the reforms would represent “a total loss of credibility for our country”.

Berlusconi’s letter of intent for reforms also included cutting red tape, selling state property and a contentious plan to gradually increase the retirement age from 65 to 67.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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London ‘Under Constant Attack’ From EU Directives: Cameron

British Prime Minister David Cameron said London’s financial district was under “constant attack” from European Union directives, the BBC reported Friday. During a flight from the EU leaders’ summit in Brussels to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth, western Australia, Cameron told a BBC reporter that Britain’s finance industry should be protected from EU measures.

“London — the centre of financial services in Europe — is under constant attack through Brussels directives,” Cameron said. “It’s an area of concern, it’s a key national interest that we need to defend.”

Cameron’s comments came after Thursday’s Brussels summit, where leaders agreed to recapitalise banks across the EU, as part of a major deal to stop the debt crisis from engulfing the euro currency. Cameron’s statements coincided with reports that London Mayor Boris Johnson has written to Jose Manuel Barroso, European Commission president, to express his strong opposition to a proposed tax on financial transactions.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Spain: Record Unemployment Nears 5 Mln, 21.5% of Population

(ANSAmed) — MADRID — The number of unemployed in Spain reached record levels in the third quarter, totalling 4,978,300, equal to 21.56% of the population, six-tenths of a point higher than the previous quarter and a high since 1996, when statistical data reporting began. The figure from a survey on the active population (EPA), issued today by the national statistics institute (INE), is a consequence of the difficult period caused by the sovereign debt crisis and difficult lending conditions. Between July and September, the number of unemployed increased by 146,000 people, nearing an overall number of 5 million jobless. The deterioration of the job market and increased unemployment hit all sectors, from industry to services. Economic stagnation resulting from a resurgence of the crisis has complicated finding new jobs, causing structural problems that are difficult to resolve. The number of households in which all family members are unemployed totalled 1,425,200 in the third quarter, an increase of nearly 132,900 households compared to the previous quarter. The quality of jobs is also deteriorating.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Turkey’s Trade Deficit Widens to Record Highs

(ANSAmed) — ISTANBUL, OCTOBER 28 — Turkey’s trade deficit widened to a record level in September compared with last year, as daily Hurriyet reports citing official figures published Wednesday. Skyrocketing current trade deficit and a low domestic savings ratio in the growing economy raise concerns about the country’s dependency on import products and booming demand, according to professionals. The trade deficit was 10.4 billion USD in September, the biggest gap recorded, compared with 6.7 billion USD on September last year and 8.2 billion USD the previous month, according to figures published by Turkey’s Statistical Institute (TUIK). Measures taken by Turkey’s Central Bank have thus failed to reduce the trade gap in September, an economist told Hurriyet. Turkey might have already experienced the “peak” in its trade deficit by last month, and it might take a few months for the Central Bank’s steps to show their effect on the economy, Erol Katicioglu, a professor at Istanbul Bilgi University, told yesterday.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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At the Met, A New Vision of Islam in Hostile Times

Over the past decade, many Americans have based their thoughts and feelings about Islam in large part on a single place: the blasted patch of ground where the World Trade Center once stood. But a rival space has slowly and silently taken shape over those same years, about six miles to the north. It is a vast, palacelike suite of rooms on the second floor of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where some of the world’s most precious Islamic artifacts sit sequestered behind locked doors.

On a recent afternoon, Navina Haidar stood in these rooms as a wash of voices echoed up from the halls of the Greek and Roman galleries, far below. Only three weeks remained until the long-hidden Islamic galleries were to be unveiled to the public, and Haidar — an elegant 45-year-old who was raised in New Delhi by a Muslim father and a Hindu mother — still had decisions to make. She has spent more than eight years devising a vision of Islamic tradition that is far more diverse, and less foreign, than the caricature mullahs and zealots who have come to define Islam for much of the non-Muslim world.

“We’re thinking of putting the Koran pages right here, by the entrance,” Haidar said, gazing at two eight-feet-tall manuscript pages in sloping Arabic script that date to the 15th century, parked casually on dollies. “That would make a bold statement right up front about Islam.” Around her, ladders and scaffoldings stood casually alongside life-size Afghan figures in stone and curved Ottoman daggers in gold.

There is far more at stake here than the overhaul of a permanent collection at the Met, itself a once-in-a-generation event. The museum’s directors are acutely aware that their collection will be unveiled at a time when Islam is a more inflammable subject than ever. That is no small part of what makes Haidar so nervous as she prepares for opening day. It is also one reason the galleries — closed since 2003 — spent so long in the dark. “There are so many things here that could easily be made controversial,” Haidar said. “For the museum, of course, it is about the art. But we understand that these things don’t appear in a void.”

The galleries have already become a tabloid target. Last year The New York Post published an article accusing the museum of caving in to Muslim extremists by refusing to display any images of the prophet Muhammad. In fact, there will be an image of Muhammad riding his winged steed, Buraq, a page from an illustrated 16th-century manuscript. Last month, Haidar got a taste of public reaction when dignitaries in town for the United Nations General Assembly asked to see the new galleries. One of them was Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, who was a model guest, admiring the art and chuckling at a wooden panel from Tikrit, the birthplace of Saddam Hussein. But he stopped short when Haidar showed him a 10th-century Muslim prayer mat that was found on the shores of Lake Tiberias. The date suggested a very early Muslim presence in what is now Israel. Netanyahu asked if it was really that old, Haidar recalled, and she assured him that the carpet had bee n scientifically dated. But he kept staring at it quizzically. “ ‘I don’t know,’ he finally said, ‘it just doesn’t look that old to me.’ “

When the Met’s Islamic galleries first opened in 1975, they were presented as a cultural monolith, where nations and cultures were subsumed under one broad banner, as if Islam were another planet. Haidar and her colleagues have tried to emphasize the diversity of Islamic cultures across time and space. One result of that altered emphasis was the gallery’s new name. The “Islamic Wing” is gone, replaced by the “Galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia and Later South Asia.” It is a mouthful, but it makes a point.

“Not one world, but many; not another world, but our own,” Haidar said, repeating the mantra that has guided her thinking about the new collection over the years.

The collection is full of deliciously heterodox crossovers, like an image of the blue-skinned Hindu god Krishna that was painted for Akbar, the Muslim ruler of north and central India, in the late 16th century. There are Persian bowls alongside the Chinese models that inspired them. There is Muslim art from Spain and south Italy. “What do we put at the entrance?” Haidar said, still contemplating her question. “Is the Koran the right way to go? Will the public be attracted or repelled?” As if in answer, a group of museumgoers caught sight of the new gallery’s main door standing open and began hurrying toward it. “Terribly sorry, it’s not open yet,” Haidar told them, stepping forward with a broad apologetic smile on her face. “Please do come back on Nov. 1.”

— Hat tip: JP

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Breaking: Homeland Security Adviser Allegedly Leaked Intel to Attack Rick Perry

Texas Department of Public Safety officials are asking questions following a report that Department of Homeland Security Advisory Council member Mohamed Elibiary may have been given access to a sensitive database of state and local intelligence reports, and then allegedly shopped some of those materials to a media outlet. He allegedly used the documents to claim the department was promoting “Islamophobia” — claims that the media outlet ultimately rejected. They declined to do the story.

… In light of these allegations, I spoke today with Texas DPS Director Steve McCraw. He confirmed that Elibiary has access to the Homeland Security State and Local Intelligence Community of Interest (HS SLIC) database, which contains hundreds of thousands of intelligence reports and products that are intended for intelligence sharing between law enforcement agencies. (Full disclosure: I gave a briefing in April 2010 to the TX DPS on historical terror incidents and terror connections to Texas. I’ve also been critical of Elibiary’s involvement with DHS considering his past extremist statements and activities.)

[…]

In fact, Elibiary received his first official position serving on the TX DPS Advisory Board and leveraged that position into his current positions with DHS and the National Counterterrorism Center. Elibiary was appointed to the Homeland Security Advisory Council in October 2010.

[…]

When I directly asked [DHS spokesman Chris] Ortman about who gave Mohamed Elibiary access to the HS SLIC system, he abruptly ended the conversation and said he would need to call me back. After more than an hour wait and knowing from other sources that senior aides for DHS Secretary Napolitano had been fully briefed late last night on the matter and that the story is quickly leaking out, we are publishing what we have so far.

[Note from Egghead: The Muslim fox is officially in the infidel hen house!]

— Hat tip: Egghead

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CAIR Chapters Challenge Islamophobia, Defend Civil Rights

WASHINGTON, Oct. 27, 2011 — /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — A number of chapters of the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) around the nation today once again demonstrated their commitment to challenging Islamophobia and defending civil and religious rights. CAIR’s Florida chapter thanked Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Governor Rick Scott for declining to speak at next week’s Florida Tea Party convention, which features a presentation by anti-Islam extremist Pamela Geller and another Islamophobe.

[…]

— Hat tip: JP

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Center for Disease Control Top Official Arrested for Bestiality and Child Abuse

Dr. Kimberly Quinlan Lindsey, a top official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been arrested and charged with two counts of child molestation and one count of bestiality.

Dr. Lindsey, who joined the CDC in 1999, is currently the deputy director for the Laboratory Science Policy and Practice Program Office. She’s second in command of the program office.

Prior to that role, she was the senior health scientist in the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response, an office that oversees the allocation.

According to CNN:

“Authorities also charged Lindsey’s live-in boyfriend, Thomas Joseph Westerman, 42, with two counts of child molestation.

The two are accused of ‘immoral and indecent’ sexual acts involving a 6-year-old …

The bestiality charge says Lindsey ‘did unlawfully perform or submit to any sexual act with an animal.’“

Between January and August last year, Dr. Lindsey and her boyfriend allegedly involved the child during sex, and DeKalb County police claim they discovered photographs of Lindsey performing sex acts on a couple of her pets.

[Not the kind of news we usually report. But this woman is in charge of disease prevention in the U.S. Wonder what kind of background check this bureaucracy did?]

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Centuries of Glory: Islamic Galleries at the Met

Years in the making, millions to build, and all of it was worth it

THE new Islamic galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York are magnificent. Some 1,200 works (from a collection ten times the size) arranged across 15 rooms vividly illustrate 13 centuries of art and history. This will excite not only scholars and the art world, but also the many neophytes who will be drawn to these exceptional examples of manuscripts, textiles, glass, ceramics, jewellery, armour, painting, scientific instruments and carvings (from wood to stone and ivory). The works are instructive, often beautiful and occasionally thrilling. Eight years in the making, the Met’s insightful and theatrical new presentation does justice to one of the most important collections of Islamic art outside the Middle East.

The rooms, which open to the public on November 1st, bear the official and unwieldy name the New Galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia. This is meant to highlight the geographic breadth and varied history of Islamic culture. The museum first considered renovating and expanding this collection over a decade ago. Subsequent events added an element of diplomacy to the project. Mindful of the narrow view of Islam in the West, Thomas Campbell, the museum’s director, came to see these galleries as a way “to educate our audience about the depths and magnificence of the Islamic tradition”.

The attention to detail in these rooms is remarkable. Architectural elements help to convey the sensibility of different eras and regions. The Introductory Gallery, for example, is paved with a design of white and gold marble inspired by decorations at the Taj Mahal, a masterpiece of Islamic architecture. For the Moroccan courtyard the museum commissioned carvings by craftsmen from Fez. Among their creations during months on scaffolding at the Met are replicas of 14th-century wooden doors, and geometrically patterned cornices and capitals. The space itself is opulent and serene, complete with a burbling fountain-one of several in these galleries. It is not surprising to learn that the construction budget alone for these rooms was $40m. But given the results, it doesn’t seem profligate.

Multiple entrances are provided, which nicely suggests there is no one way to approach the art within. But use the main one the first time. Here visitors are greeted with a large and arrestingly modern earthenware bowl. Made in Nishapur, Iran in the tenth century, this creamy, white piece is decorated with a seemingly abstract design on its perimeter, in fact a Kufic script that reads: “Planning before work protects you from regret; prosperity and peace”. Like much of the Met’s Islamic collection, the bowl was intended for secular not sacred use. As a result, the works on view are more accessible to those unfamiliar with Islamic practices.

Calligraphy and the arabesque-a continuous leaflike design-dominate Islamic art, yet there are many figurative works here as well. One of the first and most striking examples is a three-foot high, bronze lion with pussycat ears (pictured above). This 12th-century incense burner is incised with calligraphy that identifies its maker and first owner. Figurative art is not prohibited by Islam, as is commonly supposed. A few discreet depictions of the Prophet Muhammad may distress some Muslims, who object to any images of the prophet. But here-and as with everything else in these galleries-the museum has handled the presentation with sensitivity.

When travelling in a counter-clockwise path from the main entrance, the layout is broadly chronological, with galleries arranged by region. The route takes the visitor through the spread of Islam from Arab Lands and Iran under the Umayyads and Abbasids (seventh to 13th centuries) all the way to Later South Asia (16th to 20th centuries). The wall texts are informative, but the revelation is how powerfully the works speak for themselves, and how varied Islamic art is. The arrangement reveals stylistic differences as well as interactions across regions and over time. Chess, for example, began in India before the sixth century. On display is one of the earliest surviving chess sets, made by hand from a type of pottery in Iran in the 12th century.

The Greater Ottoman World gallery seems vast. Its domed ceiling, a later-Ottoman inspired, Spanish wood-lattice affair, rises to 23 feet. The walls and mottled marble floor are the colour of claret. The almost 30-foot-long “Simonetti Carpet” (made in Cairo around 1500) is unfurled in the centre of the room. Like the many carpets hanging on the walls, its dominant colour is red. For all its luxury there is something transcendently cosy about this room, which seems to hug viewers as it glows and pulsates with richly textured reds. It is easy to imagine the sight of it driving Mark Rothko into an envious rage.

The marvels keep coming, from astrological and medical texts to a richly embellished 18th-century Damascus reception room. Also on view are a dozen pages from the magnificently painted Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp. This reviewer never imagined that carpets-and there are many here-could be so moving. (No reference to magical airborne travels intended.)

The Met’s Islamic galleries offer a grand voyage to faraway times and places, and an eye-opening display of art. If these rooms do anything to replace fear and suspicion about Islam with a sense of wonder and curiosity, then there is all the more reason to celebrate.

[JP note: Little to celebrate as the West commits suicide with this exhibition of dhimmi cringe.]

— Hat tip: JP

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Climate Change Scientist Faces Lie Detector Test

It’s the next step in “Polarbeargate” — one of two scientists whose report on dead polar bears in the Arctic helped make the animal a potent symbol of climate change has been asked to take a lie detector test as part of an investigation by US agents.

The 2006 report from American wildlife researchers Jeffrey Gleason and Charles Monnett told of dead bears floating in the Arctic Ocean in 2004, apparently drowned, and focused attention on the vulnerability of the animals to the melting of the Arctic ice, which they need for hunting. Widespread references were made to the dead bears and they figured in the film An Inconvenient Truth, made by Al Gore to highlight the risks of global warming.

But earlier this year, allegations were made within the US Department of the Interior that acts of scientific misconduct might have been committed in relation to the report, and the Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) began an inquiry.

— Hat tip: Nilk

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Exhibits Highlight Islamic, Egyptian Art

The two civilizations are separated by centuries and sensibilities. One venerates only a single deity; the other worshipped a pantheon of gods. One remains a force in the world to this day; the other vanished from Earth thousands of years ago. Yet, in both the Islamic and ancient Egyptian cultures, religion is a constant beat that thrummed through the rhythms of daily life, surfacing in personal relationships, political maneuvers and faith-based rituals. It is also a motif running through two major exhibitions currently at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston — Gifts of the Sultan: The Art of Giving at the Islamic Courts and Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs.

In Gifts of the Sultan, ethical and moral guidelines set by the Quran weave through a collection of 200 works from the 8th through the 19th centuries. In Tutankhamun, relics depicting offerings and prayers to the gods illustrate a society in which the religious and routine are inextricably entwined. Gifts of the Sultan opens with a piece inscribed with a hadith, or saying attributed to the prophet Muhammad, that sets the framework for the exhibit and reflects a central tenet of the Islamic faith. Written in elaborate Arabic script around the rim of a 10th century bowl from eastern Iran, the hadith reads: “He who believes in recompense [from God] is generous with gifts.”

“It is a quintessentially Islamic form of generosity: paving your way to heaven by means of demonstrating generosity in your earthly life,” explained Francesca Leoni, who curated the show for the MFAH. “If you believe in the importance of generosity as a commandment, that it is something that every pious, every good person embraces, then it is, in a way, an overarching, ethical thread that connects all diverse circumstances around which these gifts are exchanged.”

In the exhibit, which was organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, a red room is devoted to personal gift-giving; a green room is dedicated to diplomatic exchange; and a gray room showcases pious gifts. A yellow room, serving as a contemporary coda, features the work of three current artists from the Islamic world. The objects on display — silken textiles, gold jewelry, ruby- and jade-inlaid weaponry, illuminated texts, exquisitely detailed miniature paintings — wend a path through every facet of Islamic culture: political overtures, personal milestones, quotidian life. And in every facet, the presence of faith recurs: in the utilitarian bowl adorned with the hadith, in the parchment Quranic manuscript bestowed to the Iranian embassy in 1567, in the 16th century prayer carpet likely sent as a state gift.

Among the highlights of the political section of the exhibit are two Bibles that offer a glimpse of the interplay between Islam and other religions. A Polyglot Bible, presented to the Mughal Emperor Akbar by a group of Jesuits in 1580, exemplifies the ruler’s interest in learning about other religions. A Morgan Crusader Bible, illustrated with brightly colored red, blue, and gold pictures, represents an attempt by Pope Clement VIII to convert Shah Abbas I in 1607. Although he was not swayed to Christianity, the Shah did order his courtiers to add margin notes in Persian, hinting of his desire to understand the text better.

“Sometimes, there was plenty of tolerance,” said Leoni. “Sometimes, there was plenty of interest in getting to know different religions and trying to discover common aspects of believing that transcend the specificity of the religious experience.” The sacred aspect of the exhibit comes to the forefront in the Pious Gifts section, where a vast room is dominated by massive, elaborately embroidered textiles used to decorate some of the most important shrines of the Islamic faith, including the Ka’ba in Mecca. Here, another hadith reinforces the religious element of the gift-giving ritual: “Generosity belongs to the dwellers of paradise.”

Many of the objects on display in this section fall under the heading of waqf — or gifts endowed to mosques, schools, hospices, madrasas, Quranic schools or shrines. They include ornately illustrated Qurans; massive silver candlesticks donated to mosques; and a crimson and gold carpet produced for the Ardabil shrine. One of the most striking pieces is an illuminated vaqfiye, a legal document detailing the endowment of a waqf The 18th-century document, which details the construction of a school, is adorned with lavish flourishes of gold leaf paper and gold borders.

In the Tutankhamun exhibit, which explores 30 dynasties spanning 2,000 years, the act of giving as a religious mandate also plays a central role. Here, ancient statues, hieroglyphs, gold-encrusted amulets, and enameled coffinettes portray Pharaohs making offerings to gods and following rituals prescribed in the Book of the Dead to ensure safe passage to the afterlife. In addition, the Pharaohs themselves were viewed as the ultimate high priests and divine incarnations of Horus, the god of life. During nearly all of the ancient dynasties, Egyptians worshipped more than 80 gods, often incorporating deities they admired from other cultures.

A significant portion of the exhibit also highlights the reign of Amenhotep IV, who eschewed polytheism in favor of the worship of one god — Aten, the sun disk. After changing his name to Akhenaten, this ruler moved the capital, excised other gods from temples and led daily offerings to the new religion. After his death, however, his son Tutankhamun reverted to the old gods. “Religion was intertwined with almost everything in daily life. Because they believed in afterlife and immortality, they began preparing for a second life almost as soon as they were born,” said Frances Marzio, the exhibit curator. “For thousands of years, they held these beliefs very strongly. And no one ever came back to tell them they were wrong.”

— Hat tip: JP

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Herman Cain Identifies the “Fakestinians”

Herman Cain in an interview with an Israeli newspaper said pushes by the “so-called Palestinian people” for statehood and an Iranian assassination plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to the United States are evidence that President Obama is perceived as weak in the Middle East.

“I think that the so-called Palestinian people have this urge for unilateral recognition because they see this president as weak,” Cain said during an interview with Israel Hayom. “I haven’t seen all the facts but I think this whole assassination attempt was another example of seeing this president as weak, in that regard. So, weakness invites attack and I think that he has projected a sense of weakness.”

The Republican front-runner also said that the president “threw Israel under the bus” when stating support for a peace process brokered around the framework of the 1967 borders.”I believe that his lack of a firm stand regarding Israel has emboldened Israel’s enemies, and America’s enemies,” Cain said. “He threw Israel under the bus with the statement about the 1967 borders. He just threw them under the bus. He threw Prime Minister Netanyahu under the bus prior to his visit to America. In a Cain administration there would be no question in the minds of the world and the American people that we would stand with Israel.”

— Hat tip: Van Grungy

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Minneapolis Mosque Spurned Al-Shabaab Fundraiser

When the FBI began investigating the exodus of Somali men from the Twin Cities to fight for al-Shabaab, the probe cast suspicions on the Minneapolis mosque some of them attended and raised questions on whether leaders there were involved. Officials at the mosque, Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center, denied any role in the men’s travels and said they opposed al-Shabaab, which the government considers a terrorist group. Now, the denials by the mosque’s leaders have been substantiated by an unlikely source — a woman convicted of raising money for al-Shabaab.

In secretly recorded phone calls played for the jury in her federal trial, Amina Farah Ali complained that when she and friends sought donations for al-Shabaab at the mosque in Minneapolis, they were turned away. “I pray for the people of Minneapolis to come to their senses, sister,” a frustrated Ali told her co-defendant, Hawo Mohamed Hassan, in a May 6, 2009, phone call. She lamented that when people at Abubakar As-Saddique encountered the women she sent to collect money, “They chased them away, sister.”

The mosque’s director, Hassan Jama, did not return calls for comment. Abubakar As-Saddique is the state’s largest mosque, and its membership is drawn largely from the nearly 19,000 Somalis estimated living in the Twin Cities.

Women Convicted

Last week, Ali, 35, and Hassan, 64, both of Rochester, Minn., were convicted on a federal charge of conspiracy to provide material support to al-Shabaab, which is waging guerrilla war against Somalia’s fledgling U.N.-backed transitional federal government. Ali also was found guilty on 12 counts of providing support. The charges involved a dozen wire transfers totaling $8,608 that she sent to al-Shabaab between September 2008 and July 2009. Hassan also was convicted of two counts of lying to the FBI.

The women, both naturalized U.S. citizens, never denied raising or sending money. They claimed it was for orphans and the poor in their native Somalia, a country left a shambles after two decades of civil war, fighting between clans, failed governments, drought and famine. Jurors didn’t buy it, concluding the women knew the money went to a group involved in terrorism or that they knew the State Department had named al-Shabaab a foreign terrorist organization. No sentencing date has been set. They could face 30 years in prison.

Probe Began in 2008

Agents in the FBI’s Rochester field office began investigating Ali in May 2008. The inquiry was not part of “Operation Rhino,” the agency’s probe into the exodus of 20 or more men with Twin Cities ties to return to Somalia to train and fight for al-Shabaab. “Rhino” resulted in charges against 18 men. Six have entered guilty pleas, two await trial, eight are fugitives and two died in Somalia. Some of those charged and some of the men who went to Somalia attended Abubakar As-Saddique. Court documents say some of the alleged co-conspirators met to discuss their plans at an unnamed mosque, as well as restaurants and private homes.

One of the men facing charges, Mahamud Said Omar, 45, of Minneapolis, was a janitor at the mosque. But FBI Special Agent E.K. Wilson, who has been involved in the investigation, said the bureau has found nothing to indicate leaders of Abubakar As-Saddique played a role in the exodus. “We have not uncovered any evidence to date that shows the mosque leadership was involved in the recruiting or radicalization of these guys,” said Wilson. Al-Shabaab, Arabic for “the youth,” controls much of southern Somalia. That is in contrast to the 7-year-old transitional government, which commands only a part of the capital of Mogadishu.

Al-Shabaab opposes the U.N.-sanctioned government, in part, because it believes it was set up Ethiopia, Somalia’s neighbor and long-time enemy. When the government brought in Ethiopian soldiers to retake Mogadishu in late 2006, al-Shabaab issued a call for fighters to repel troops many Somalis viewed as invaders and “infidels.” (Somalia is a Muslim country and Ethiopia is mostly Christian.)

Somalis in Minnesota Enticed

The FBI says the recruiting effort resonated in Minnesota, home to an estimated 32,000 Somalis. Beginning in late 2007, a number of young Somali men (FBI agents sometimes refer to them as “the travelers”) began boarding flights at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport with itineraries to their homeland. The transitional government has been beset by corruption and other problems, and much of the limited popular support al-Shabaab had dwindled after Ethiopia withdrew in January 2009.

After that, al-Shabaab escalated its violence, including suicide bombings that have claimed the lives of scores of civilians. Just hours before lawyers in Minneapolis were to deliver their opening arguments in the Ali/Hassan case, al-Shabaab carried out its deadliest attack yet, detonating a truck bomb on a busy street in Mogadishu, killing more than 100.

The group targets government offices and soldiers from Uganda, Burundi and, most recently, Kenya, which sent troops across the border into Somalia this month.

Al-Shabaab vowed reprisals against Kenya, and on Thursday, Kenyan soldiers and al-Shabaab troops fought their first ground battle, inside Kenya. The government in Nairobi said nine al-Shabaab fighters were killed. Over a 10-month period, the FBI intercepted 30,000 of Ali’s phone calls and searched her garbage twice a week. During the 13-day trial, prosecutors introduced 93 of the calls into evidence, and there was no evidence or testimony that any official of any mosques in the U.S. or Minnesota was involved in the women’s activities.

Minneapolis Somalis Criticized

In fact, Ali can be heard in some of the calls complaining that Muslim leaders in the Twin Cities wanted nothing to do with her efforts, with some even telling her the young men of al-Shabaab “should be isolated.” At one point in one of the calls with Hassan, Ali complained that when it came to donating money for al-Shabaab, Somali residents of Minneapolis “are the worst.”

In a July 2009 call with Hassan Afgoye, an unindicted co-conspirator who was Ali’s main al-Shabaab contact in Somalia, Ali said that when she tried to raise money, “some of them insult us over this matter; do you understand?” The women raised funds by going door to door in Rochester, as well as hosting teleconferences on a phone line Ali used for teaching classes in Islam. The in-person solicitations got limited results in Rochester, which has an estimated Somali population of a little more than 800.

The government proved that between Sept. 17, 2008, and July 5, 2009, Ali made 12 wire transfers totaling $8,608 to al-Shabaab. A source with knowledge of the case said that amount is probably enough to support 250 fighters for a month, excluding ammunition. The source spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about the case. The amount Ali sent is a small fraction of what al-Shabaab takes in annually. In July, the U.N. group monitoring the arms embargo against Somalia said al-Shabaab may lack popular support but it was an economic powerhouse, generating up to $100 million in revenue a year. The report cautioned the estimate was conservative.

Woman’s Help Minor

As some perspective, the amount of money Ali wired over a 10-month period is what al-Shabaab rakes in every 45 minutes. But, as prosecutors noted, the amount Ali sent wasn’t the issue; rather, it was the fact she sent any money at all. The State Department’s February 2008 terrorist designation made it illegal for U.S. citizens to send money or aid to al-Shabaab.

The U.N. isn’t sure how much aid the group receives from Somalis living abroad. Al-Shabaab’s main source of income is taxes, and the July U.N. report noted al-Shabaab’s taxation system “is far more sophisticated and comprehensive than that of any other Somali authority.” It also generates revenue through extortion, commerce, trade and aid from other countries. It was evident from a July 2009 call that Afgoye, a regional governor for the group, was more interested in Ali’s money than in the clothes she also collected and sent.

“First of all, at this moment, the thing we need the most is wealth,” he told her.

— Hat tip: JP

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Muslim Student Association Guest Speaker Tackles Fear of Sharia

Haroon Moghul spoke during Islam Awareness week to educate listeners about prejudice

The Muslim Student Organization hosted Haroon Moghul on Thursday night as the keynote speaker of Islam Awareness Week. Moghul spoke to MU students and Columbia residents about the prejudiced fears concerning Islamic law in a presentation titled, “Are you Afraid of Shariah?” Moghul is the Executive Director at the Maydan Institute, a communication and consulting company dedicated to improving relationships between Muslims and the western world. Moghul was also named one of 300 Global Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow and is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Columbia University in New York.

Shariah, according to Moghul, is one of the two forms of guidance Muslims use in their understanding of how to live their daily life according to the Quran, which is the scriptural text for Islam. The Muslim prophet Muhammad is the other. “The Shariah is how God, or Allah in Islam, tells you how to survive in a manner fitting to the Muslim faith,” Moghul said. “It literally translates to say ‘the path to water,’ which symbolizes how to survive. Just like one cannot continue life with the absence of water, a Muslim cannot live without the Shariah.”

The Shariah has five objectives: to protect one’s life, property, intellectuality, family and religion. It is composed of two spheres, acts of worship and worldly affairs. Acts of worship entail anything that has no definitive answer, like why Muslims are required to pray five times a day, whereas worldly affairs are composed of all secular matters, which are addressed and answered in the Quran.

Because of these views, there are many misconceptions about the Shariah, Moghul said. Many westerners, according to Moghul, are fearful of Shariah because of the stigma that attaches itself to Islam and it is hard in general for many Muslims in the west. “Shariah is a difficult thing to explain to those who aren’t familiar with it,” freshman Andrew Darst said. “I wasn’t familiar with the term at all before (Moghul) addressed it and I think he did a great job. When he equated it with the Ten Commandments in the Christian faith, it made a lot more sense to me. I really learned a lot from the lecture.”

Sophomore MSO member Fatima Haider said the event was a success. “The fact that so many people showed up and we didn’t have seats for them all was a major ego booster,” Haider said. “Of course, we were all excited for this appearance, but we didn’t know how many to expect. Obviously, we underestimated greatly.” Moghul ended his speech with an open forum where participants were encouraged to ask any questions, of which many took advantage. Moghul said he believes it is important for people, especially Americans, to be aware of Islamic culture because of the negative connotation that is attached to the religion itself. The members of MSO agree, Haider said. “(MSO) thinks it is important because people around the world have a bad view of Muslims because of the media,” Haider said. “It is important for people to understand that our true beliefs and goals are to promote peace, not anger and rage.”

[JP note: Count me in as a committed Shariaphobe.]

— Hat tip: JP

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NPR Continues to be a Taxpayer-Funded Leftist Nest

By Brent Bozell

National Public Radio continues to define itself in every way as a taxpayer-funded nest of leftism. NPR couldn’t just supportively report on the Occupy Wall Street protests. A fire-breathing spokeswoman for the “Occupy D.C.” protests against capitalism was also an NPR host.

From late 2000 to early 2002, Lisa Simeone was an NPR anchor for their weekend version of the newscast “All Things Considered.” Now this radical was leading protests as she hosted a radio documentary series called “Soundprint” and an arts show, “The World of Opera.”

Liberals have focused on the opera show so as to dismiss criticism from conservatives. Time magazine TV writer James Poniewozik joked, “Have you long worried that your station was undermining capitalism through its broadcasts of the Ring Cycle? Tired of having your children brainwashed by the socialistic messages of La Traviata?”

OK, so put the shoe on the other foot. Imagine an NPR opera host working the weekends for the Tea Party. Time magazine writers would require smelling salts.

They are focusing on the opera angle in order to dodge the much larger issue. In an era of trillion-dollar deficits, how much longer are we going to pretend that it is an essential function of government to prop up the wholly unnecessary NPR to spew on the air the same warmed-over ‘60s bilge the OWS rabble spews on the streets? It’s time for Congress to cut the umbilical cord and stop bankrolling this rogue political operation.

The narrower question about Lisa Simeone was whether NPR was going to live up to its own ethics rules, which forbid attending protests, let alone organizing them and serving as public r relations staff for them. The “Soundprint” series, which is not produced by NPR but is a current events show, fired Simeone. That decision was a no-brainer.

But the opera show, also not produced by NPR, but by an affiliate station in North Carolina, arrived at a different solution. NPR announced it would no longer distribute the program to the 60 stations that air it. Instead, the local station would. That’s merely solving an appearance problem and nothing more.

It is inexcusable that NPR didn’t fire Simeone long ago. It did nothing to stop Simeone before the story blew up in their faces. Simeone appeared in a YouTube video uploaded three months ago, declaring with an angry face that, “The time has come to stop these wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and all the other places we’re now bombing with our drones and other equipment, and to demand that money that’s being spent and wasted on slaughter come home here to spent in the U.S. on human needs.”

Simeone promised she and her gang was going to sit on the cold ground for months to demand radical “reforms” in American government. A quick Google search found Simeone was all over the news as a spokeswoman in the first weeks of the protests. It was only when The Daily Caller exposed this radical that NPR acted.

In this atmosphere of controversy, one of NPR’s current news anchors, Michele Norris, announced that she would temporarily step down from the anchor chair (and political reporting) for a year while her husband, Broderick Johnson, works as a senior advisor to Obama’s re-election campaign. She’ll still report, just not fry the political hot potatoes.

[…]

Read the rest…

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Occupy Wall Street Shrugged

Editorial Comment by Robert Trancinski:

[…]

The first thing to notice about this story is the “bourgeois bohemian” snobbery of these enlightened, egalitarian progressives. These are a bunch of middle class kids in the middle of Manhattan, which is basically a giant playground for the upper-middle-class and the rich, who have sent down to Zuccotti the chefs from their favorite gourmet organic restaurants. But while spaghetti Bolognese is fine for folks like you and me—you know, good respectable bourgeois—we can’t have the actual grubby poor showing up to demand some of it. So let’s serve them gruel and fob them off on the local soup kitchen. I mean, don’t they know their place?

And yet you have to sympathize with the cooks who have been besieged by moochers. Behind the hypocrisy, there are real lessons to be learned: lessons about the relationship between productive people and freeloaders. About the need for police to protect decent people from criminals. About how con-men and the power-lusters always take over utopian schemes for their own benefit. About the taxing power and unaccountability of central authorities.

The spaghetti Bolognese incident sums it up. The workers who provide the goods everyone else lives off of are going on strike to protest against their exploitation by freeloaders. Has anyone else noticed that this is the basic plot premise of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged? Yet that is the story line they are unintentionally acting out.

Call it Occupy Wall Street Shrugged.

[…]

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Occupy Wall Street Kitchen Staff Protesting Fixing Food for Freeloaders

By SELIM ALGAR and BOB FREDERICKS

Occupy Wall Street volunteer kitchen staff launched a “counter” revolution yesterday — because they’re angry about working 18-hour days to provide food for “professional homeless” people and ex-cons masquerading as protesters.

For three days beginning tomorrow, the cooks will serve only brown rice and other spartan grub instead of the usual menu of organic chicken and vegetables, spaghetti bolognese, and roasted beet and sheep’s-milk-cheese salad.

They will also provide directions to local soup kitchens for the vagrants, criminals and other freeloaders who have been descending on Zuccotti Park in increasing numbers every day.

To show they mean business, the kitchen staff refused to serve any food for two hours yesterday in order to meet with organizers to air their grievances, sources said.

As the kitchen workers met with the “General Assembly” last night, about 300 demonstrators stormed from the park to Reade Street and Broadway, where they violently clashed with cops.

Officers made at least 10 arrests when rowdy demonstrators refused to get out of the street and stop blocking traffic. A dozen cops on scooters tried to force them back to the sidewalk.

There were no reported injuries.

The demonstrators said they were angry over the violence in Oakland.

After making their way to Union Square, many of the protesters returned to Zuccotti.

The Assembly announced the three-day menu crackdown announced earlier in the day — insisting everybody would be fed something during that period.

Some protesters threatened that the high-end meals could be cut off completely if the vagrants and criminals don’t disperse.

[…]

Overall security at the park had deteriorated to the point where many frightened female protesters had abandoned the increasingly out-of-control occupation, security-team members said.

Rumors swirled that one homeless man had pulled a knife in a dispute the night before — and that there had been yet another case of groping.

But protesters and a cop on duty told The Post that most of the crime goes unreported, because of a bizarre “stop snitching” rule.

“What’s happening in there is staying in there,” said the cop.

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The Second Gilded Age: Has America Become an Oligarchy?

The Occupy Wall Street movement is just one example of the sudden outbreak of tension between America’s super-rich and the “other 99 percent.” Experts now say the US has entered a second Gilded Age, but one in which hedge fund managers have replaced oil barons — and are killing the American dream.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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British Muslims Go Underground — For Poppy Appeal

Saturday 29th& Monday 31stOctober:

100 volunteers at 40 Zone 1 train and tube stations, aiming to raise £20,000

Young Muslims are planning to turn up at London’s rail and underground stations in force — to collect money for the Poppy Appeal. Members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association will again be helping The Royal British Legion as a mark of good citizenship and a testament to the Islamic edict of demonstrating loyalty to your country. They will also pay tribute to the valuable role Britain played in the fight against fascism — and the continuing need to be ever vigilant to the threat of extremism. The carnage caused by bloody extremists on the underground on 7/7 will give greater resonance to the charity campaign.

More than 100 volunteers from the group will be stationed at over 40 Zone 1 train and tube stations in the city of London on Saturday 29th October and Monday 31st October. They will be hoping to raise more than the £20,000 they collected last year. This is part of a nationwide campaign by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community to contribute to the country in different ways. This has included blood drives where Ahmadi Muslims give blood; charity walks; peace conferences and interfaith meetings.

The Worldwide Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Hadhrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

“Muslims are obliged to be loyal to the country in which they live. Honouring those who fought to defend and safeguard one’s country is an important principle of Islam and in fact is an important principle of peace — especially when it is carried out with a sincere heart and for the sake of winning God’s pleasure.”

Fahim Anwer, President of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association which has over 6,000 members in the UK, said:

“We are again delighted and proud to support the Poppy Appeal which provides financial, social and emotional support to millions who have served or who are currently serving in the British Armed Forces, and their dependents. As Muslims living in the country it is our duty to honour those who risk life and limb for the protection of all British citizens.”

Russell Thompson OBE, Director of Fundraising at The Royal British Legion, said:

“Our beneficiaries come from all walks of life, as do our supporters, and we are proud to be an organisation that stands shoulder to shoulder with people of all faiths and backgrounds. We are grateful to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association for collecting for this year’s Poppy Appeal and for supporting those who are serving in Afghanistan today, veterans of past conflict, and their families. The money they raise will make it possible for the Legion to provide our beneficiaries with £1.4million every week in direct welfare support.”

— Hat tip: JP

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Czech PM Mulls Euro Referendum

The ruling euro-sceptic ODS party in the Czech Republic wants to push for a referendum on the country’s future eurozone accession, claiming that the rules have changed since 2003 when Czechs said yes to the EU and the euro.

The recent agreement on another bail-out for Greece and on boosting the eurozone’s bailout fund is fuelling Czech calls for a referendum, said Czech MEP Jan Zahradil, leader of the European Conservatives and Reformists. “We should allow non-eurozone members — such as my country the Czech Republic — to decide again whether they wish to enter. We signed up to a monetary union, not a transfer union or a bond union in our accession treaty. This is the major reason why the Czech Prime minister wishes to call the referendum on this matter,” Zahradil said in a statement.

The Czech Republic, along with all other eastern European countries that joined the EU in 2004 and 2007, is obliged to adopt the euro once budget deficit and other economic conditions are met.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Muslim Minister Urges More Christian UK

CAIRO — The only Muslim woman in the British government said Britain should become a more Christian nation which would allow different faiths, each proud of their religion, to understand each other and communicate towards a common ground. “We need to create a country where people don’t feel like they have to leave religion at the door,” Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, who is also co-chairman of the Conservative Party, wrote on the Daily Telegraph on Friday, October 28. “That means being proud of Christianity, not downgrading it. It means encouraging people to say that their faith inspires what they do,” she added.

Warsi urged the British government to create a country where people were not embarrassed to say they believed in God or attended church. “It means supporting religious charities in delivering public services in schools, hospices and rehabilitation,” she added. The Muslim minister denied claims that interfaith dialogue means compromising ones identity to understand others. It was a “mistake to assume that you compromise your identity the more you try to understand others,” Lady Warsi said. “The stronger your understanding of your neighbor, the stronger your own religious identity becomes.”

Warsi, a Minister without Portfolio in David Cameron’s Cabinet since May 2010, is the first female Muslim to serve as a minister in the UK. Warsi, 40, has been Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party with responsibility for Cities since 2005. At the 2005 election, Warsi became the first Muslim woman selected by the Tories to contest a parliamentary seat.

A solicitor by profession, she has worked for the Home Office and the Crown Prosecution Service.

Common Ground

Lady Warsi urged faith groups to talk more in order to find areas of common ground. “This dialogue needs to be congregation to congregation, community to community,” she said.

“Time and again, we encounter the assumption that some people of some faiths can be trusted while others cannot. Take it from me: there is nothing incompatible about a world of many religions and a world of strong, vibrant nation states.”

Facing British mistrust, Britain’s two million Muslims have taken full brunt of anti-terror laws since the 7/7 attacks. They have repeatedly complained of maltreatment by police for no apparent reason other than being Muslim. A Financial Times opinion poll has showed recently that Britain is the most suspicious nation about Muslims. Earlier on February 2011, British PM David Cameron said he believed that multiculturalism has failed. Cameron’s comments were criticized by coalition government partner Nick Clegg, and many of Liberal

Democrats MPs, and Baroness Warsi, the Tory party chairwoman who said they preferred a more multicultural approach. Baroness Warsi said that when members of different faiths communicate, Britain would become a country where people can be proud of their religion. “For many years, I have been saying that the stronger we are as a Christian nation, the more understanding we will be of other faiths,” she said. “It is why the Pope’s visit was so important for our country. And it is why I am proud that this year, for the first time, the Prime Minister held an Easter reception in Downing Street.”

— Hat tip: JP

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Put Babar Ahmad on Trial in the UK Not the US

Have Faith in British Justice: Put Babar Ahmad on Trial in the UK NOT the US

The Muslim Council of Britain urges all British Citizens to sign the petition calling for Babar Ahmad, a 37 year old British Muslim held for 7 years without charge on an extradition request by the US, to be put on trial in the United Kingdom. Farooq Murad, Secretary General of the MCB, commented, “The case of Babar Ahmad is problematic: here is a British citizen who is alleged to have committed crimes that can be prosecuted under British law and yet he is being shipped off to the United States, under the controversial Extradition Act 2003. The United States has a troubling record in dealing with terror suspects and therefore the British government has a responsibility to ensure the rights of its citizens are protected while at the same time ensuring justice is served.”

The Rt Hon Sadiq Khan MP, Member of Parliament for Tooting said: “As Babar’s Member of Parliament, I have worked with his family and legal team for a number of years arguing that any trial should be held in the UK. I have known Babar for many years — we grew up in the same area of south London. This petition is a good way to raise public awareness of Babar’s case.” The MCB is supporting a call to designate Friday 28th October as “Babar Ahmad Day” encouraging mosques across the country to get their congregations to sign the petition.

To sign the e-petition, click here:

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/885

Muslim Council of Britain press release, 27 October 2011

[JP note: Alternatively, instead of signing the petition, you can watch the Babar youtube clip No place like home here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JLDytgnIQo ]

— Hat tip: JP

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Secret French Intelligence Report on Islam in Marseilles

The newspaper La Marseillaise has published extracts from a secret report on Islam in Marseilles. Written by the French domestic intelligence agency in March this year, it dwells on the phenomenon of street prayers but has plenty to say about Islam in the city more generally. The date and the theme of street prayers suggest it was inspired by Marine Le Pen’s campaign on the issue around that time…

— Hat tip: Steen

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Swedish Court Bans Niqab-Wearing Women

Three women wearing head scarves completely shielding their faces were denied entry to a Gothenburg courtroom on Friday during the remand hearing of one of the suspects in the Röda Sten murder plot case.

“I am responsible for order in this court room and I feel I can’t achieve that if I am unable to see the faces of the people present,” said district court judge Stefan Wikmark to Swedish TV4.

The three women were stopped as they were trying to enter the courtroom for the remand hearing of a man under suspicion for plotting the murder of Swedish artist Lars Vilks at an art exhibition in Gothenburg in September.

All three women were wearing niqabs covering them from head to toe.

One of the guards at the Gothenburg District Court prevented them from stepping into the court room, referring to the ban on face coverings, according to TV4’s affiliate in Gothenburg.

The decision to refuse the women from entering the court room while wearing their traditional garb was taken by Wikmark during the remand negotiations.

The hearing stems from a raid carried out in September by officers from Swedish security service Säpo.

After receiving intelligence indicating that a terrorist attck would be carried out during an exhibition at Röda Sten, officers stormed and evacuated the gallery during the opening of an art exhibition.

Four men were arrested on the suspicion of preparing terrrorist activities following the raid.

However, one of the suspects was later released due to lack of evidence and the suspicions against the other men were subsequently downgraded from preparing terror crimes to preparing to commit murder.

Controversial artist Vilks has been under threat since his drawings of the prophet Muhammad, published in a Swedish newspaper, caused a wave of condemnation from Muslims worldwide.

At the remand hearing on Friday the court ruled that the man should remain in custody, pending trial.

The deputy prosecutor in chief Agnetha Hilding Qvarnström has demanded that the other two suspects remain held in remand as well.

— Hat tip: Freedom Fighter

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Switzerland: Muslim Group to Deploy ‘Jewish Star’ In Bern Rally

The Islamic Central Council of Switzerland (ICCS), a conservative Muslim group, has chosen a symbol reminiscent of the Jewish Star of David for a planned protest against Islamophobia this weekend. Around 2,000 people are expected to participate in the ‘Day against Islamophobia and racism’, a mini-festival organized by ICCS in the capital Bern that will run from 2 to 5pm on Saturday.

In an attempt to draw parallels between the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany and Muslims in the Switzerland of today, many participants will wear t-shirts and stickers with the word ‘Muslim’ framed by a yellow star. The Bern-based ICCS was founded by young Swiss converts to Islam shortly before the political initiative to ban minarets. Some in the Swiss media have labeled its president Nicholas Blancho ‘the Bin Laden of Biel’, a reference to his home town.

The organisation, which has more than 2,000 members, professes a conservative interpretation of Islam and has often made headlines in Switzerland for its provocative campaigning. Seemingly unperturbed by the criticism, Blancho says there are distinct similarities between anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.

“We want to trigger a debate and show that the discrimination of Muslims in Switzerland is a fact,” he told Tages Anzeiger. “Muslims are treated as second-class citizens and are discriminated against, for example because they wear a headscarf or because of their name when they look for an apprenticeship or are looking for an apartment,” he added.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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UK: Exeter Mosque Official Opening Ceremony

Dignitaries and faith leaders from across Exeter came together to celebrate the opening of the Exeter Mosque and Cultural Centre which will provide a focal point for the 3,000 Muslims that live in the city. United Kingdom. 26th October 2011

Dignitaries and faith leaders from across Exeter came together to celebrate the opening of the Exeter Mosque and Cultural Centre. The ceremony included Professor Ekmeleddin Ýhsanoðlu, Secretary-General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, Professor Jamal Alturaifi, Representative of H. H. Dr Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed Ali Qasimi, Supreme Council member & Ruler of Sharjah, The Right Worshipful the Lord Mayor of Exeter Stella Brock and Stephen Otter, Chief Constable of Devon & Cornwall Police. The Mosque will provide a focal point for the 3,000 Muslims that live in the city and for thousands more that live across the South West.

[JP note: What is the Secretary-General of the OIC doing in Exeter? Probably, as the home of the European Muslim Research Centre, it is one of many hot-beds of Muslim Brotherhood agitation operating in the UK.]

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: Police Award for EDL March Handling

BEDFORDSHIRE Police has won a coveted award for its handling of February’s English Defence League march. The Force was presented with the partnership trophy and certificate at the ‘Equality and Diversity Awards 2011’ hosted by Bedfordshire Race & Equalities Council (BREC) at Bedford’s Barns Hotel. The award was in recognition of a community engagement programme that was part of the preparation for the protests and began more than two months before thousands of protestors from all over the country descended on Luton.

— Hat tip: JP

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Sarajevo Gunman in Custody, Officials Condemn Attack

Mevlid Jasarevic, a 23 year old from Novi Pazar, Serbia fired shots at the US embassy in Sarajevo. Police told Balkan Insight that one security guard was injured, shot in the legs and the gunman was wounded but alive.

Sources from the general hospital in Sarajevo have said that the gunman has been brought to the hospital.

Jasarevic shot an automatic rifle multiple times at the US Embassy from the tram station across the road, in the Marijn Dvor district of the city. One security guard was injured, shot in the legs and was taken to surgery to the general hospital in Sarajevo.

Police sources have told Balkan Insight that the assailant was shot in the leg. He was taken to the hospital and is under arrest. The scene of the shooting is still cordoned off by the police while the interior ministry of the Sarajevo Canton, the federal police and the state agency for investigation and protection, SIPA are collecting evidence.

Traffic has been halted outside of the US Embassy to Bosnia and Herzegovina because of the shooting.

About a hundred people are milling around the police line, unable to return to their apartments in the blocked off area around the US embassy.

An eyewitness, Smail Zilic, who was driving by the embassy at the time of the shooting, told Balkan Insight that the man paced back and forth in front of the embassy for five minutes, screaming “Bring me an American, I want an American”

He said a sniper fired at the assailant twice, wounding him the second time in the leg.

According to Zilic, the gunman was clearly not a Bosnian, although he spoke the language perfectly, albeit with ekavica, a regional dialect found in Serbia.

Zlic said he fired five shots.

“This has nothing to do with religion,” said Zilic. “This man is clearly insane. He came here to die. He made no attempt to flee the scene, he wanted to be a martyr. But he is just crazy.”

“God help us all,” said Adi Hadzic, another Sarajevan. “We don’t need a terrorist attack like this in our city.”

“I heard noise for almost a minute,” said Will Richard, an American citizen who works in the nearby UNITIC towers. “It sounded like rapid fire, but thought it was just part of the construction projects in the area.”…

— Hat tip: Vlad Tepes

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Tunisia: Curfew in Sidi Bouzid, Protest Targets Tunis

(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, OCTOBER 28 — Protesters, most of them youths, who have been protesting since last night in the town of Sidi Bouzid, have said that they will take their protest to the Kasbah in Tunis, where the country’s government is based, perhaps as early as in the next few hours. Protesters told local radio stations that they will not demonstrate only in Sidi Bouzid and want the government to deal with the cancellation from the electoral lists of the Pétition Populaire party, even though the decision was taken by the high committee for elections in the country.

After setting fire during the night to the local offices of Ennadha, the party that won most seats in Sunday’s vote, and looting the headquarters of the city authorities, one group of protesters is now attempting to attack the building of the governor of Sidi Bouzid. Witnesses quoted by Reuters say that the police have been forced to fire shots in the air in order to disperse protesters.

Amid the continuing disorder, Reuters says that the government has imposed a curfew in the town, with the agency quoting sources from the Ministry of the Interior. The curfew will be applied between 19:00 and 05:00 and will be in force from tonight.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Tunisia: Ennahdha’s Great Success

(ANSA) — TUNIS, OCTOBER 27 — Ennahdha has won in terms of votes as well as percentages, and therefore seats. The party’s success is perhaps even greater than expected by its leaders, though they had suggested that 50% of votes would be possible. Ennahdha has literally triumphed, and the number of at least 88 seats already assigned to the party (the second party would only get 29 seats), could even rise thanks to the appeals that have already been presented or announced. Even before the official announcement of its success, the Islamic party has already opened negotiations in order to form a government coalition in the very short period (one month) scheduled by its leader, Rached Gannouchi.

Although officially no party can be ruled out as possible partner, it is already clear which ones will take place at the negotiation table. The progressive democratic party (PDP, 15 seats) of Ahmed Nejib Chebbi, who immediately admitted the party’s defeat (unexpected considering the resources used for its electoral campaign), said that he will never join a government led by Ennahdha. And the same is true for Petition Populaire (26 seats), the political formation created from nothing (both from a organisational and an ideological viewpoint) by Hachemi Hamdi which unexpectedly plays an important role, though the party may be excluded due to irregularities during the electoral campaign. Where the PDP party has announced that it will not participate in the negotiations, Ennahdha has ruled out any possibility of negotiating with Hamdi, who has insulted everyone with insinuations and accusations during his electoral campaign waged from a television studio in London.

For the rest, Ennahdha is free to choose. In the coming days the party will officially announce with which parties it will negotiate, in order to form a coalition as soon as possible and present a strong government to Premier-designate Hammadi Djebali.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Tunisia: Pétition Populaire Lists Excluded, Protests Erupt

(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, OCTOBER 28 — Violence has returned to the streets of Tunisia, but it wasn’t sparked by the outcome of the Constituent Assembly elections which handed power in Tunisia over to Islamist party Ennahdha. Incidents broke out following a decision by the High Authority for Elections to disqualify the lists proposed by the Pétition Populaire in six districts due to the presence of candidates formerly part of the political party of former President Ben Ali.

Upon learning of the decision, following the announcement that the Pétition Populaire has been withdrawn from the Constituent Assembly, in Sidi Bouzid — the city where the uprising which toppled Ben Ali’s regime began — incidents erupted with thousands of young people taking to the streets, who surrounded the local headquarters of Rached Gannouchi’s party, shouting slogans and insults and then lighting the building on fire. The protestors then turned to another target, the town hall, attacking and looting the building in an act that resembled the darkest days of the revolution, when these types of occurrences were commonplace in nearly the entire country. The governorate headquarters did not escape the fury of the protestors, who lit dozens of tyres stacked in front of the main entrance to the building ablaze. Police intervened heavily with tear gas, but the rage of the young protestors was not extinguished. The crowd basically took over the city, gathering on the main roads and intersections. It is no coincidence that the protest exploded in Sidi Bouzid. Hachmi Hamdi, the billionaire leader of the Pétition Populaire, was born in this city, where Ennahdha suffered its only stinging defeat in the election in all 27 districts, with results that were nearly a rout. Pétition Populaire received 48,000 votes and three seats, leaving Ennahdha with 20,000 votes and only 2 seats. An overwhelming defeat for the Islamist party which yesterday, when the election results started to come in from the voting stations, issued a biting comment through its secretary, second in command and future premier, Hammadi Djelabi, who said that whoever voted for Hamdi is ignorant. His words fuelled the rage of the young protestors in Sidi Bouzid, who see Hamdi as one of their own, a man who started with nothing and became successful, and fondly remember Mohammed Bouazizi, the young street vendor who lit himself on fire at a market in the city when town law enforcement officials seized the meagre goods he was selling. With good reason, Hamdi called his native city the “flame of the revolution” in his aggressive and intense TV broadcasts from London. The fear is that protests will now spread to other areas and for other reasons, following an electoral campaign and elections that did not involve any serious incidents. Protests also erupted in Regueb, an indication of the lethal mixture of elements that have come together in recent hours.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Tunisia: Ashton and Fule Congratulate Ennahda Party

(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, OCTOBER 28 — EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton, together with EU Neighbourhood Policy Commissioner Stefan Fule, today congratulated the party that has won the first democratic elections in Tunisia, Ennahda.

They have underlined the EU’s commitment to support the country and after the recent clashes they asked for “calm and restraint.” “We congratulate,” Ashton and Fule write in a joint statement, “the Ennahda party which obtained the highest percentage of votes. The EU looks forward to working closely with the new Constituent Assembly and the Tunisian authorities and institutions in responding to the Tunisian people’s demands for democracy, freedom, social justice and dignity.” After thanking the EU electoral commission for the work it has done, Ashton and Fule turned to the newly elected Constituent Assembly which “will write the new Constitution of the country.” “It will need to work in a spirit of consensus in order to build a new democratic State.” Ashton and Fule also underlined the EU’s commitment to give “financial and political support to the Tunisian society,” and expressed their regret about the violent clashes staged after the announcement of the first results, urging “calm and restraint.”

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Key General: Iraq Pullout Plan a ‘Disaster’

Others echo call for strength against Iran

By Rowan Scarborough

President Obama’s decision to pull all U.S. forces out of Iraq by Dec. 31 is an “absolute disaster” that puts the burgeoning Arab democracy at risk of an Iranian “strangling,” said an architect of the 2007 troop surge that turned around a losing war.

Retired ArmyGen. John M. Keane was at the forefront of persuading President George W. Bush to scuttle a static counterinsurgency strategy and replace it with 30,000 reinforcements and a more activist, street-by-street counterterrorism tactic.

Today, even with that strategy producing a huge drop in daily attacks, Gen. Keane bluntly told The Washington Times that the United States again is losing.

“I think it’s an absolute disaster,” said Gen. Keane, who advised Gen. David H. Petraeus when he was top Iraq commander. “We won the war in Iraq, and we’re now losing the peace.”

U.S. troops will be vacating Iraq at a time when neither Baghdad’s counterterrorism skills nor its abilities to protect against invasion are at levels needed to fully protect the country, say analysts long involved in the nearly nine-year war.

“Forty-four hundred lives lost,” Gen. Keane said. “Tens of thousands of troops wounded. Over a couple hundred thousand Iraqis killed. We liberated 25 million people. There is only one Arab Muslim country that elects its own government, and that is Iraq.

“We should be staying there to strengthen that democracy, to let them get the kind of political gains they need to get and keep the Iranians away from strangling that country. That should be our objective, and we are walking away from that objective.”

— Hat tip: Vlad Tepes

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Saudi Arabia: Prince Nayef: 78 Years Old, Is New Crown Prince

(ANSAmed) — ROME, OCTOBER 28 — The new crown prince of Saudi Arabia is prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz al Saud. But he is not at all a new face in the rigid panorama of Saudi power: Nayef is in fact 78 years old and has been Minister since 1975. The decision was taken a few days after the death of the previous crown prince and brother of the new heir, Sultan bin Abdul Aziz. With this appointment Nayef — considered to be a conservative — also takes the role of deputy Prime Minister in Riyadh, where king Abdullah, 87 years old, is still recovering from his third back operation in less than a year. A statement issued by the court and read on State television explained that the king (who has more than 35 children) took his decision after consulting the allegiance council (hiya al-baya), a sort of small parliament created by the royal family in 2006 to make the succession of Abdullah as fluid as possible, avoiding serious clashes between the various candidates. The current Saudi royal family members are all descendents of the first king of modern Saudi Arabia, king Abdullaziz, who reigned from 1902 to 1953. Nayef’s health is also not very good, and he has delegated part of his daily activities at the Ministry to his two sons, Mohammed and Saud. Analysts say that he is likely to continue the lack of dynamism that marked the reign of Abdullah in the past twenty years. Reformists in the kingdom, most of them part of the Saudi elite but not of the royal clan, are reportedly not pleased with his ascent, which could end any hope of renewal in the ultra-conservative country.

More traditionalist circles on the other hand — the Islamic clergy included — have already expressed their support of the choice. Others have said that the elderly future king may be ‘overshadowed’ by his brother, prince Salman, governor of Riyadh for years now and younger and more charismatic than Nayef.

Salman is now the strongest candidate to lead the powerful Defence Ministry, the domain of the deceased sultan for 50 years. The appointment of Nayaf seems to have swept away all hope for the ‘al-Faisal’ branch of the royal family: the two sons of king Faisal are well-known on international level. They are seen as the “new generation”, although the most likely candidate of them, Khalid, governor of Mecca, is also over 70.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Malaysia’s Minorities Fear Islamic Law Changes

Jennifer Pak

Malaysia’s Islamic party is pressing for more areas of law to be dealt with under an Islamic legal code, causing concerns among religious minorities, despite reassurances they would not be affected. There are two Malaysias. One for the Muslim majority — the other for Christians, Hindus, Buddhists and non-Muslims. For example, Malays do not have the freedom to choose their religion. It is written in the constitution that all ethnic Malays must, by definition, be Muslim. At the same time, other ethnic groups are allowed to worship freely. Political leaders would have you believe that these two Malaysias barely interact, and therefore do not conflict. It is true in some cases — but not in others.

Islamic police

Take my gay friend for example. On a few occasions, I have invited him to my place to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon cooking and watching some bad reality TV shows.

What I did not realise was that my innocent invitations could get him arrested. He is a Malay and, as a Muslim, he is subject to Islamic law which does not allow couples who are not married to each other to be in a secluded area together. That way nothing “immoral” can happen, and the offence of so-called close proximity is avoided. My friend is constantly worried that the security guards at my apartment block would call the Islamic police on him. The fact that he is gay would not absolve him since homosexuality is also a crime in Islam.

I, on the other hand, would not be arrested because I am a Christian, and Islamic law does not apply to non-Muslims. We are only subject to Malaysian civil law. So whenever the topic of Islamic law comes up, religious officials working for local and national government are always quick to point out that non-Muslims would not be affected by it in any case.

This is the argument that the opposition Pan-Malaysian Islamic party — or PAS — has used to call for the expansion of Islamic law in recent weeks. At present, if you are Muslim, all issues regarding family and faith are dealt with in Islamic courts. But PAS officials say they want Islamic law to cover criminal offences as well. The punishments they want would include, among other things, cutting off the hands of thieves and stoning adulterers to death. The party insists the move would not affect non-Muslims. That promise, however, is no longer reassuring for Malaysia’s religious minorities. Some feel Islamic law is already encroaching on their rights.

Child custody

It is a problem that Tan Cheow Hong, a Buddhist, never thought he would run up against. He and his wife had married according to civil law. They later separated and he took care of their daughter. This arrangement carried on for a few years until his estranged wife showed up last November at their child’s school with Islamic officials and police in tow. His wife had become a Muslim and obtained an Islamic court order to take their daughter back. The next day she had the child declared a Muslim as well, and was granted full guardianship of their daughter under Islamic law. Mr Tan says all of this was done behind his back. He has accused his wife of converting to Islam so that she would gain custody of their child.

Some say they suspect Islamic courts would automatically favour any Muslim parent. Mr Tan is now fighting the decision through the civil law system. His wife has refused to comment, but her lawyers say that as a Muslim she had every right to go to the Islamic court.

Dual courts

Mr Tan’s story is not unique. There are dozens of similar cases where disgruntled spouses are believed to be exploiting the country’s dual court systems. Their stories have sowed a feeling of distrust among religious minorities. “If Islamic authorities can snatch our children away, convert them, and decide on custody issues — all without the knowledge or presence of the other parent — then what rights do we as non-Muslims have?” said Mr Tan.

The federal court does not have a clear answer for him — at least not yet. Many families before him with similar cases have been told to go back to the Islamic court even though it supposedly has no jurisdiction over non-Muslims. In the face of rising Islamisation, legal scholars say politicians and judges here are unwilling to resolve the issue for fear they will be seen as anti-Islam. And the issue of justice might become even more complex if the proposed Islamic criminal code were introduced.

Zainah Anwar, a prominent Muslim rights activist, poses this scenario in a recent newspaper column. Suppose a Malay and Chinese were both caught stealing. The Malay-Muslim might get his hands chopped off, while his Chinese accomplice might only be locked up for a few months in jail. For the same crime only one person would be permanently disabled — because of their religion. It may seem idle to debate Islamic criminal law in Malaysia. There are still many legal hurdles to overcome before it can be enforced. Yet this time around, non-Muslims are alarmed. This may be a country that prides itself on its multi-religious and multi-ethnic harmony — but what happens in Muslim Malaysia is not always confined to the followers of Islam — and non-Muslims are feeling exposed.

— Hat tip: JP

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Pakistan Rejects Allegations of Links With Taliban

Pakistani officials have rejected outright claims by Taliban commanders in a BBC report that Pakistan provides them with supplies. They have also denied allowing insurgents to fire on US troops across the Afghan border.

Pakistan has rejected US accusations that Pakistani armed forces allow insurgents to fire on American troops across the border in Afghanistan. “I completely reject this, it is wrong and baseless,” military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told the AFP news agency. According to US officials there has been a sharp rise in cross-border attacks against US soldiers in eastern Afghanistan since the killing of Osama bin Laden by US special forces and the subsequent deterioration of US-Pakistan relations.

The deputy US commander in Afghanistan, Lieutenant General Curtis Scaparrotti, said on Thursday that rocket and mortar fire attacks seemed to come from within sight of Pakistani military posts. He also said officials were trying to re-establish military communications along the border, particularly between Afghan and Pakistani units facing each other because they were still not consistent with what the US wanted after they collapsed in the wake of the raid on bin Laden.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Islam Soft-Sell Has Got Legs, But Note the Fine Print

‘Bringing Islam to the masses” is the goal of the new TV campaign from MyPeace, the organisation that recently gave us the “Jesus: a prophet of Islam” poster. Clearly deciding it had generated enough controversy for one year, MyPeace has taken a softer approach; slo-mo visuals, mood music and a warm Australian voice inviting us to “explore the real values of Islam”.

“Saving one life is as if you have saved all of humanity” we learn, as a bronzed Aussie lifeguard rescues a boy from the surf. You can’t quibble with that, particularly if you’re a parent.

From an advertising point of view, the approach is similar to the current “Jesus-All About Life” campaign, also featuring visuals of sunburnt Aussies; along with a creme brulee, a dead pet goldfish, and questions about the meaning of life. Jesus himself even gets a chocolate-bar style logo.

Both ads, Muslim and Christian, offer a panacea to the “crisis of the soul” that supposedly afflicts modern Australia. Who could disagree with an ad that asks you to look after your parents in old age, reminding you that they looked after you as a child? Or who could not be moved by sentiments such as “How come the more you have, the more you want?” or the Facebook-ish conundrum that “we’ve got more friends, but less friendship”?

The role of advertising is to convert consumers to a brand’s point of view by finding its most salient aspect, linking it to a compelling insight, and allowing the brand to put its best foot forward. Both ads do just that. Were I in the market for a religious organisation to join, I’d be saying “sign me up for either one of those, thanks. They sound great. In fact, I think I’ll take them both”. After all, you can’t have too much of a good thing. With all ads, however, it’s worth reading the fine print first. Just in case. The Jesus ad is sponsored by a whole host of Christian organisations, so if I sign up I’ll have to make the sort of mind-numbing decisions normally required for choosing a broadband plan. Should I go Baptist or United? Join the Salvos or Hillsong? Too hard — I give up.

The MyPeace campaign for Islam is much simpler, giving me chapter and verse of the Koran to help me decide. It invites me to look more closely at the Koran, so I do. It only takes a few seconds online to check the veracity of the advert’s claims. Yep. Chapter 5 verse 32 points out the benefit of saving every single life, although oddly it refers to saving the Children of Israel rather than the Nippers of Bondi. But the point is the same. Intrigued, I read on.

And that is, of course, the problem with selective quoting. Readers should judge for themselves the appeal of the Koranic verses either side of the one quoted, but as an ad man I would struggle to make either 5:31 or 5:33 as convincing a “sell” as the lifesaver scenario. One has to admire the chutzpah (if that’s the right word) of choosing as your major sales pitch a quote adjacent to one advocating “that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off”. Still, the Bible has more than its fair share of blood and gore. Selective quoting (and interpretation) is something all religions and advertisers are guilty of, so it would be wrong to single out this ad exclusively.

However, reading the rest of the passage is a bit like a chocaholic being sold an amazing new flavour of Magnum ice-cream, eagerly biting into it, and discovering it’s anchovy.

Will the ad “bring Islam to the masses”? No, but it will make many non-Muslims re-consider their attitudes towards the religion. Will it attract converts? Undoubtedly. Was it worth doing? Definitely. Taken at face value, it is a positive expression of worthy sentiments espoused by Muslims. Full credit to MyPeace and its founder Diaa Mohamed, who clearly recognises the need for Islam to be seen putting its best foot forward and engaging in mainstream public debate about how its values are relevant to contemporary society. “We hope this campaign provides Australians with fact and insight around Islam,” Mohamed says. No problems there. Some consumers, however, may find themselves unconvinced when it comes to reading the fine print.

Rowan Dean is a freelance writer and advertising creative director.

— Hat tip: JP

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Sweden’s Immigration Debate

Ilmar Reepalu is the Mayor of Malmo, Sweden’s third largest city. He is a man on the move, trying to promote and develop Malmo’s position as a leader in green technology around the world. He can squeeze us in for an interview at 8:30 on a Sunday evening. Uncomplaining, he rides up to Malmo’s City Hall on his bicycle in the dark and rain to talk to us.

We are in Malmo, not to discuss sustainability and fair trade in the city, but rather its massive immigration, which some call a problem, others consider a gift.

— Hat tip: Kitman

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‘Racist’ Halloween Costumes Stir Debate

An Ohio student group’s campaign has started a firestorm of debate in Canada and abroad over whether wearing Arab, Spanish and other ethnically inspired garb is proliferating stereotypes and feeding racism.

The campaign, by Ohio University’s Students Teaching About Racism in Society (STARS), features posters headlined “We’re a culture, not a costume.” Underneath the line, “This is not who I am, and this is not okay” are students of various ethnic backgrounds holding up photos of people wearing blackface, or dressed up as natives, Geisha girls or people depicting “terrorists,” for example.

Contacted by CBC News on Wednesday, a spokeswoman with the Athens, Ohio-based university said STARS was receiving an overwhelming number of requests for media interviews around the world, and may not return calls immediately.

STARS had garnered more than 8,000 views on president Sarah Williams’s blog, but the comment section was disabled due to inappropriate and hateful comments from some visitors. Still, Williams told ABCNews.com the campaign was worthwhile: “We wanted to highlight these offensive costumes because we’ve all seen them. We just wanted to say, ‘Hey, this is not cool. This is offensive and this shouldn’t be taken lightly.’ It’s offending a culture and people should be aware.”

Canadian reaction to the campaign has ranged from huge congratulations for raising awareness about the ills of proliferating stereotypes, to accusing STARS of making something out of nothing.

Brent Farrington, a campaigner with the Ottawa-based Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), applauded the Ohio school’s poster campaign.

“There have been cases in Canada over the last couple of years that have really highlighted the fact that our campuses aren’t quite as free from racism as people think,” he told CBC News Wednesday…

— Hat tip: Vlad Tepes

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Record-Low 26% in U.S. Favor Handgun Ban

Support for stricter gun laws in general is lowest Gallup has measured

by Jeffrey M. Jones

A record-low 26% of Americans favor a legal ban on the possession of handguns in the United States other than by police and other authorized people. When Gallup first asked Americans this question in 1959, 60% favored banning handguns. But since 1975, the majority of Americans have opposed such a measure, with opposition around 70% in recent years..

[See graph at link]

The results are based on Gallup’s annual Crime poll, conducted Oct. 6-9. This year’s poll finds support for a variety of gun-control measures at historical lows, including the ban on handguns, which is Gallup’s longest continuing gun-control trend.

For the first time, Gallup finds greater opposition to than support for a ban on semiautomatic guns or assault rifles, 53% to 43%. In the initial asking of this question in 1996, the numbers were nearly reversed, with 57% for and 42% against an assault rifle ban. Congress passed such a ban in 1994, but the law expired when Congress did not act to renew it in 2004. Around the time the law expired, Americans were about evenly divided in their views.

[…]

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Two Men Who Divorced Their Wives, Came Out as Gay, Became Transgender Lesbians, Now Marry After One Has a Sex Change

A pair of transgender lesbians today told of their joy at becoming man and wife, and also wife and wife, on the same day — after one had a sex-change.

Jenny-Anne Bishop, 65, formerly called Paul, and Elen Heart, 68, who was once named Alan, initially got together as a male gay couple in 2004.

The pair, who are both divorced and have five grown-up children between them, lived together in Clwyd, Wales, for six years as transgender lesbians.

But the couple decided against surgery due to the associated risks at their age until last year — when Jenny-Anne went under the knife for a gender reassignment op.

Father-of-two Jenny-Anne went on to have a breast augmentation procedure this January followed by facial feminisation surgery.

The couple have now officially tied the knot as ‘husband and wife’ after opting for a private civil ceremony in North Wales.

The retired newlyweds then had a gay wedding service at the Metropolitan Community Church in Manchester,

— Hat tip: Kitman

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Holy Smoke: Islamic Televangelists

Islamic preachers are drawing on a Christian tradition

SCREAMING hordes of teenage girls are a common sight at pop concerts and film premières. They are less usual when waiting to hear a religious preacher. But such girls-one gasping “I can see him, I can see him” through the folds of her niqab-awaited Moez Masoud, an Egyptian televangelist, recently in Cairo. He is part of a growing band of Islamic preachers who are true celebrities, says Yasmin Moll, a researcher at New York University, who attended Mr Masoud’s talk.

They draw on a Christian tradition pioneered in the 1950s by such preachers as Billy Graham. For the past ten years Amr Khaled, an Egyptian one-time accountant turned televangelist star, has led the way. Previously television preachers fitted the stereotype of white-haired, bearded sheikhs in white robes, monotonously exhorting the faithful, in classical Arabic, to follow the strictures of Islam more exactly. In 2001 Mr Khaled burst onto screens with his show “Words from the Heart” and his brand of modern, moderate piety. Sharp-suited, mustachioed and speaking colloquial Egyptian, Mr Khaled and his audience (of men and women) discussed the concerns of young Muslims, such as whether Islam forbids cinema-going.

Others have followed in his footsteps. Egyptians dominate, including Mr Masoud and Mustafa Hosny. In Indonesia Abdullah Gymnastiar, known as “Elder Brother Gym”, attracted millions of viewers to his television shows and seminars-until his decision to take a second wife in 2006 outraged his many female fans. The new breed of televangelist has proved hugely popular with young viewers uninterested in traditional religious programming. But the Muslim religious and political establishment is uncomfortable with these new celebrities: none boasts traditional training as a cleric. In an odd alliance, secularists are also chary, worried that the brand of moderate Islam they peddle could prove to be the gateway to a more extreme version. But stuffy religious authorities are now being forced to acknowledge these stars’ pulling power. In January Ahmed al-Tayeb, the head of al-Azhar, the Cairo-based font of Islamic orthodoxy, met Mr Khaled to discuss how to renew religious discourse in Is lam.

The appeal of such preachers lies in large part in their very lack of official religious credentials. They present themselves as ordinary Muslims who have overcome personal struggles to discover their faith. Many say they were not religious when they were younger. Ahmad al-Shugairi, a Saudi preacher, describes a misspent youth in California, going to clubs with women and even drinking alcohol, before he returned to Saudi Arabia and Allah. Mr Masoud lost friends to a car accident, a drug overdose and cancer and he endured surgery and his own car crash before deciding to commit his life to God. The disappointment among Mr Gymnastiar’s followers at his second marriage-legal but widely frowned on in Indonesia-lay in the fact that it was at odds with his image as a devoted husband and family man, to many of his female followers at least. Sincerity and personal integrity are crucial to their appeal.

Messrs Khaled, Masoud and Hosny all got their start on Iqraa TV, a Saudi-based religious satellite channel. At one point, about 80% of Iqraa TV’s advertising was reportedly generated by Mr Khaled’s programmes. Mr Khaled has since broken away from Iqraa TV and his programmes are broadcast on a variety of networks, including secular ones such as MBC, a satellite channel based in Dubai. Until now most of these preachers have resolutely avoided getting involved in politics. But this may be changing. Since Egypt’s revolution, Mr Khaled, for instance, has become more political. In the run up to the constitutional referendum in March he and Mr Masoud joined the “no” campaign along with secular liberals. He has yet to declare any political intentions but if he does, the power of Islamic televangelists could reach a new level.

— Hat tip: JP

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Holy Relevance: Religion and Economics

Faith can influence economic behaviour-but not always directly

AS PROTESTANT Europe, in its own eyes virtuous and thrifty, wrestles with the debt problems of the continent’s Catholic and Orthodox countries, the idea that religious affiliation may influence the way people save, work and spend is more appealing than ever. The toppling of Arab tyrants has lent urgency to a similar enquiry: do Islam and Islamism permit the legal and social conditions that make for prosperity?

Clearly many modern religious leaders have strong ideas about economics. In western Europe, organised Christianity often acts as a modest voice in the ranks of the egalitarian left. This month’s anti-banker protests in London initially found a friendly base for their tent city at Saint Paul’s cathedral. (In recent days, Richard Chartres, the bishop of London, has asked them to leave, while acknowledging that they had raised important issues.) In America religious voices both praise and decry the capitalist order. Also on the borderline between economics and ethics, many religious leaders have taken up the cause of climate change, and urged people to change their behaviour-though this week an Australian cardinal, George Pell, bucked that trend by addressing a group of climate-change sceptics in London.

But all the most interesting theories about religion and behaviour refer to unconscious influences. The best-known was devised by Max Weber, a father of modern sociology, who drew a connection between the Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism. Noting that Protestant parts of Germany were doing better (in the 19th century) than Catholic ones, he thought the “inner loneliness” of Protestants-who can never be sure if they are saved in the eyes of God-made them work harder. Unlike many other forms of faith, Protestantism has no mystical rite to absolve sin.

Sascha Becker, a professor at Britain’s Warwick University who tests Weber’s theories against real life, says the German thinker was both right and wrong. Protestant Germany did prosper, but not because of theology or psychology. Protestants wanted boys and girls to be able to read the Bible; higher literacy led to faster development. But for a given level of education, Protestants and Catholics did equally well. “Whether people are Protestant or Catholic now makes no difference,” Mr Becker says. Besides, the Catholic bits of Germany such as Bavaria are the richest.

Peter Berger, an American sociologist, has found that Weber’s theories have a certain plausibility in Latin America, where a Protestant, and especially a Pentecostalist minority, outperforms the Catholic majority. Both there and in Africa an individualist Protestant “prosperity gospel” which links financial success with divine favour seems more popular with the upwardly mobile than the recent Catholic stress on “liberating” the poor as a class. South Koreans (both in their homeland and as migrants to America) often convert from Buddhism to Protestantism as they rise economically. All this may reflect the fact that some kinds of Protestantism (like many strains of Islam) sit easily with a disciplined, reflective way of life. It would be odd if that had no economic effects.

But many attempts to link doctrine and economics have run up against exceptions and better explanations. In the Ottoman empire (and in some post-Ottoman places), Christian and Jewish minorities flourished in business. Yet this did not imply stereotypical “fatalism” or “backwardness” among Muslims; the main point was that desirable posts in public or military service were closed to non-Muslims.

Similarly, contemplating Greece’s economic woes, it is easy to dream up some theory that connects Orthodox Christianity (and its comparatively charitable attitude to human weakness) with corruption or cronyism. Orthodoxy has a less pessimistic view of “original sin” than the Christian West-and its prayers for the dead emphasise “no man lives who does not sin”. Does that imply winking at misdeeds? Possibly-but then try explaining why Greek-Americans, who are at least as devout as their motherland kin, do so very well in business, education and public service. The plausible reason lies in America’s institutions which make it easier to prosper in an honest way.

Intriguingly, research on Turkey’s devoutly Muslim heartland finds a strong positive link between Islamic piety and capitalist success. The term “Islamic Calvinist” has been used to describe the devout businessmen of central Turkey, who use religious networks to accumulate capital and extend their activities. Of course, none of this proves anything about how Muslim beliefs make people behave. Like all great religions, Islam is a complex system of beliefs, and people usually emphasise the features which appeal to them. Turkey’s pious producers like the bits in the Koran that favour honest trading. Yet Timur Kuran, a professor at America’s Duke University, argues that the inheritance rules in Islamic family law may have slowed development in the past by making it harder to accumulate wealth. If that is true, then modern Turkey may provide a uniquely favourable arena: secular law combined with the diligence and sobriety (in several senses) of Muslim Calvinists. Mr Kuran’s latest research looks at India over the last two centuries. He thinks the poor-ish showing of Muslim businessmen reflects Hindu practices that allow the build-up of family wealth, while Islam dissipates it by mandating legacies to distant kin. This gap emerged under the Raj, and seems to persist in modern India where different faiths still use different family law.

One problem, says Mr Kuran, is that religiously-inspired institutions change more slowly than religious dogma. Even text-based creeds, based on one-off divine revelation, can be quite flexible in reacting to new economic circumstances. But the world of Islam, in his view, has been held back by institutions like the waqf, a sort of Islamic charity which people sometimes use to create jobs for their families. In the end, laws and institutions seem to make more difference to people’s worldly chances than the arcana of theology.

— Hat tip: JP

[Return to headlines]

Population to Hit Seven Billion: Experts Warn of ‘Bachelor Nations’

As the global population hits seven billion, experts are warning that skewed gender ratios could fuel the emergence of volatile “bachelor nations” driven by an aggressive competition for brides.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

[Return to headlines]

Seven Billion People ‘A Catastrophe’: Professor

“We’re behaving like spoiled egoists,” a University of Bergen zoology professor has said of a world too busy to contemplate the perils of the world’s rocketing population growth. As the world’s population topped 7 billion people on Monday, Professor Harald Kryvi said something needed to be done to counter the strain on the environment.

“There are two things we need to do — We must dare to discuss the problems that come from population growth, and we must provide (birth control) to areas where growth is biggest,” Kryvi told newspaper Bergens Tidende. The professor points to the large-scale stripping of resources and climate change as warning signs that there are too many people on Earth. “People talk about the effects of climate change. They don’t talk about the cause,” he said.

Politicians, he warned, were too fearful of “religious leaders” to begin talking about the need for more contraception in some parts of the world. To set an example, Norwegians should not have more than two children, he said.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

[Return to headlines]

Skype Security Flaw Can Expose a User’s Location

Skype is known for being cheap and extremely secure, but the reputation of the internet telephone service has taken a knock after researchers revealed how to covertly track the location of people who use it.

The problem lies with the service’s peer-to-peer technology, which establishes a direct connection between the two people participating in a call. Stevens Le Blond of the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems in Wartburg, Germany and colleagues worked out how to probe that connection to reveal the IP address of the person they were contacting.

IP (Internet Protocol) addresses identify individual computers and can be used to locate a device in the city, and sometimes even the specific building, where it is being used.

Le Blond’s hack is doubly worrying because it can be executed without alerting the victim. His team showed that they could initiate a Skype connection and scoop up the IP address without the person’s Skype account ever registering the call.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

[Return to headlines]

	Financial Crisis
»	China’s Hu Hopes Eurozone Deal Stabilises Markets
»	Commission Names Finland’s Rehn Its New Eurozone Tsar
»	Debt Spain’s Banks to Find 26 Billion Euros
»	EU Bank Buffer Agreement to Cost €106bn
»	European Summit: Italy: The Ideal Scapegoat
»	European Summit: Berlusconi Makes Firing Easier
»	Eurozone Leaders Eye 1 Trillion Euro Bailout Fund
»	Frantic Deal to Appease Europe
»	Germany Makes Greece Pay With Sovereignty for New Bail-Out
»	Greece: Forecast for 100,000 Firms Lost by Year-End
»	Greece: Number of Households Needing Food Aid on the Rise
»	Greece: ‘Social League’ Created for Change
»	Greece: Venizelos: No to Further Austerity Measures
»	Greece Hails ‘Historic’ EU Deal, Critics Warn of Cuts
»	Growing Debt Overshadows China’s Economy
»	Let’s Laugh About Sarkozy
»	Obama Says He’ll be Taking ‘Executive Actions’ Without Congress on ‘Regular Basis’ To ‘Heal the Economy’
»	Obama Now Accused of Destroying U.S. Economy … on Purpose!
»	Rehn to Get Increased Economic Powers
»	Summit Deal Saved Euro: French Finance Minister
»	UK: The Warped Class War Taking Place at Occupy London
	USA
»	Alien Abductions May be Vivid Dreams, Study Shows
»	NY’s Metropolitan Museum of Art to Open 15 New Islamic Art Galleries on 1 November
»	Real Americans Must Stand Against Muslim Brotherhood, Radical Islam and Sharia Law
»	Shameful Graphic Novel Promotes Islamophobia
	Europe and the EU
»	Austrian Judge: Europe Will be the Battlefield for New Religious Wars
»	Belgium: 500 Days and Still No Government
»	EU: An Apocryphal Apology
»	Faroe Islands to Begin Voluntary Genetic Sequencing of All Residents
»	France: Muslim Veil Also Banned in Private Nurseries
»	French Court Cancels Permit for Marseille Mega-Mosque
»	Italy: Buddhists, Muslims, Yoruba join pope [sic] for peace pilgrimage; traditional Catholics condemn it
»	Italy: Parliament Suspended After MPs Brawl
»	Linn Duchaill: Ireland’s Unlikely Viking Capital
»	‘Malta is Not Yet Multicultural Enough’
»	Metal Theft ‘Epidemic One of Biggest Threat to UK’s Heritage’
»	Missing Link in Roman Conquest of Germany a ‘Sensational Find’
»	New York Times Spotlights Norway Rape
»	Scotland: Woman Raped at Glasgow ‘Anti-Greed’ Occupy Protest Camp
»	Swede Shocked by Backyard Elk ‘Threesome’
»	The Muslims in Bulgaria Are Facing Persecution Campaigns
»	UK: ‘Yes, I Criticise Certain Aspects of Islam, But Don’t Call Me a Bigot’, Demands Islamophobic Bigot
»	UK: BBC Trust to Undertake a Review of the Impartiality and Accuracy of Their Coverage of the Events Known as the ‘Arab Spring’
»	UK: Beaten to a Pulp: Face of the Father Left Unrecognisable by Gang of Robbers Who Stole His Wedding Ring
»	UK: Diet Islamism
»	UK: Hunt for Worthing “Poo Thief”
»	UK: Islamophobia Off Our Campuses
»	UK: Repeat Offenders Responsible for Half a Million Crimes
»	UK: The Country Has Had Enough of Deception
»	UK: White Man Subjected to Race Attack by Gang of Yobs
»	Underwater Lava: Eruptions Could Create New Island in the Canaries
»	US Mafia Boss Arrested at Rome Clinic
»	Violent Shop Robberies Triple in Belgium
	Mediterranean Union
»	Mediterranean to Face Grain Crisis by 2030
	North Africa
»	Arab Spring Activists Win Sakharov Prize
»	Dreaming of Spring in Tunisia
»	Egypt: Muslims and Christians, If You Don’t Communicate, You Don’t Exist
»	EU Parliament Hails Arab Spring Self-Immolation
»	Libya: MI6 Planted Qaddafi Spy in British Mosques
»	Libya: Frattini: Europe Must Avoid Islamic Autumn After Spring
»	Libya: Gaddafi’s Driver, He Was Without Fear But Lost
»	Morocco: Strategy to Bring Home Emigrant Capital Studied
»	Mummy Has Oldest Case of Prostate Cancer in Ancient Egypt
»	Tunisia: Election: Partial Data, Ennahda Already 85 Seats
»	Worse Than Gaddafi?
	Israel and the Palestinians
»	Gaza: Israel Raid After Rocket, 1st Since Shalit Deal
	Middle East
»	Iran: What Will They Think of Next?
»	Lebanon: Geagea Misses Prison, Insults Islam, Sayyed Nasrallah
»	Russia Links Chechens Shot in Turkey to Bombing
»	Saudi Arabia: Nayef Leads Procession of Mourners
»	Saudi Arabia: Large Lebanese Delegation Headed by Hariri and Siniora Offers Condolences in Riyadh
»	Saudi Arabia: World Dignitaries Mourn Sultan
»	Saudia Arabia: A Fond Farewell Amidst Speculation
»	Spanish Consortium to Build High-Speed Train in Desert
»	Spanish Firms Win Mega-Deal to Build Saudi High-Speed Line
»	Stakelbeck: Would Muslims Accept Iran as Leader of a New Caliphate?
»	Syria: After Damascus, New Major Loyalist Rally in Latakia
»	Taking Sides in Syria, Turkey Shelters Militia Fighting Assad
	Russia
»	Energy: Russian Gazprom Eyes Cyprus Gas Reserves
»	Ex-Minister Slams ‘Degradation’ of Russia Politics
»	Magnificence Meets Modernity: Bolshoi Rebirth Has Traditionalists Up in Arms
»	Putin Disgusted by Gadhafi Death Images
	South Asia
»	Afghanistan is in a State of ‘Anarchy, ‘ Argues Head of German NGO
»	As Bangkok Evacuates, City Could be Flooded for a Month
»	Bangkok Residents Flee as Floods Advance
»	Pakistan: Drone Strike ‘Kills Five Taliban Commanders’
»	Pakistani Judge Flees Country After Receiving Death Threats
	Far East
»	Cyber War on Japanese Embassies
»	Shipwreck May be Part of Kublai Khan’s Lost Fleet
	Latin America
»	Central America the World’s Most Violent Region: Research
	Immigration
»	UK: ‘Kick Out Blackburn Child Sex Asylum Seeker’
»	UK: 4,000 Foreign Criminals Set Free to Fight Deportation Including Murderers, Rapists and Child Sex Offenders
	Culture Wars
»	Candidly Speaking: On Distinguishing Between Good and Evil
»	French Christian Group Besieges Jesus Excrement Play
	General
»	Discovery: Cosmic Dust Contains Organic Matter From Stars
»	Dreams Read by Brain Scanner for the First Time
»	The World at Its Limits: Feeding the Extra Billions
»	Water’s Quantum Weirdness Makes Life Possible

China’s Hu Hopes Eurozone Deal Stabilises Markets

Chinese President Hu Jintao said Thursday he hoped a European deal to tackle the continent’s deepening debt crisis will stabilise financial markets. Hu made the comments during a telephone conversation with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who earlier announced eurozone leaders had agreed to leverage the 440-billion-euro bailout fund to one trillion euros ($1.4 trillion).

Hu told Sarkozy he hoped the measures would “help Europe stabilise financial markets, overcome difficulties and push forward economic recovery and development”, according to comments posted on the foreign ministry website. The Chinese leader said he also hoped next week’s G20 meeting would send a “strong signal to promote stability”.

China, the world’s second-largest economy, has invested significant sums in European debt and has repeatedly called on Europe to address its sovereign debt crisis, saying a failure to act risks dragging the world back into recession. Europe is also a key market for Chinese exports and a downturn in eurozone economies will hurt the Asian country’s vast manufacturing sector, which employs millions of people and is a key driver of economic growth.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

[Return to headlines]

Commission Names Finland’s Rehn Its New Eurozone Tsar

(BRUSSELS) — The European Commission on Thursday appointed finance chief Olli Rehn as its number two, with special responsibility for the euro currency area. Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said the Finn, central to joint EU-IMF bailouts of Greece, Ireland and Portugal, would now be his right-hand man with responsibility for all economic and monetary affairs including the euro.

“Having a commissioner tasked especially with the euro shows that we want euro governance to happen within a communal framework,” Barroso told the European parliament in Strasbourg. He was speaking hours after leaving a summit of eurozone leaders in Brussels that reached a late-night deal to hit banks with a 50-percent write-down on Greek debt, recapitalise some lenders and boost its bailout fund to a trillion euros.

Rehn “will have strengthened decision-making capacities,” Commission spokesman Olivier Bailly added at a post-summit news conference back in Brussels. As well as the numbers, leaders moved to accelerate the process of eurozone integration.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

[Return to headlines]

Debt Spain’s Banks to Find 26 Billion Euros

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, OCTOBER 27 — According to the estimates published by the European banking authority, the capitalisation requirements for Spain’s banks total 26.161 billion euros, with an additional capital requirement for the financial bodies of 106 billion euros overall. According to initial assessments that have appeared in Spain’s media today, the devaluation of the country’s public debt will have an impact on the banks of 6.290 billion. The request from the European authorities is intended to prepare the banks for the sector impact of a possible Greek insolvency and its knock-on effects on other countries in the area. It is taken for granted in European Union circles that Spain’s capitalisation requirement will affect the country’s five largest banking groups: Santander, BBVA, Caixabank, Bankia and Banco Popular.

While awaiting details of the criteria for tackling the new solvency demands, Spain’s banking regulator, the Spanish banking association, (AEB) has announced in a memo today that these demands are “arbitrarily high, far from the established regulations: they generate uncertainty and detract credibility from the shoring-up work done over several financial periods”.

The AEB is also critical of the fact that the solvency of Spain’s national debt is also brought into question, “threatening confidence in the country”.

Similar criticisms have been voiced by the country’s savings banks, although the federation for the sector, (CECA) has not yet made an official pronouncement. Sources from the sector have spoken to national radio stations of “armed robbery”, warning that this can only lead to a further tightening of the credit squeeze which is already suffocating the Spanish economy.

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

EU Bank Buffer Agreement to Cost €106bn

The European Banking Authority, the sector’s trade association, has calculated that an EU deal to make sure lenders hold at least 9% of ‘safe’ capital in reserve by mid-2012 will cost €106 billion. Greek banks will need to find €30 billion, Spanish ones €26 billion and Italian ones €15 billion.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

[Return to headlines]

European Summit: Italy: The Ideal Scapegoat

Ruben L. Oppenheimer

At the European Council of 23 October, Germany and France passed out some good marks and some bad marks to partners in trouble in the eurozone — to Italy, notably. While the criticism of the inertia of the Berlusconi government is justified, the current crisis is equally down to the sluggish reactions that Berlin and Paris have shown ever since the beginning, writes the Corriere della Sera.

Franco Venturini

It was no great pleasure for an Italian to be in Brussels yesterday at the joint press conference with Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy. Throughout the meeting of the German chancellor and French president with the international press, the head of our government, Silvio Berlusconi, who, whether foreigners like it or not, represents all of us, was humiliated, singled out for having failed to adopt the measures that Italy ought to have taken against the sovereign debt crisis.

Tacitly placed on the same level as Greece (Sarkozy has Ireland, Portugal and Spain down on a separate list), he has been accepted only reluctantly as an intermediator (and considered as trustworthy in this role only by the Chancellor).

Considering that diplomatic language and moderation in behaviour are usually the rule in the Council of Europe, it is easy to grasp why France and Germany — whose role is certainly decisive if we are to hold our ground against the tsunami rolling up on the euro — have managed to irritate a large part of their European partners.

Twenty-fifth hour has come

But, after pointing out the excesses of Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy, how is one not to wonder if they were right, and just how right they were? The Berlusconi government has in effect broken down and has not brought to Brussels the reforming legislation that it should have pushed through long ago.

Through his inertia, Silvio Berlusconi is imperilling the entire rescue operation that will be settled on Wednesday. And the warnings that the Council sent to him in Rome regarding budget cuts (a trap?) have so far been in vain. Yet yesterday Sarkozy told him again that those who do not accept their share of responsibility have no claims on the solidarity of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF).

The uncontainable and ostentatious irritation of the French and Germans has, therefore, good reason to emerge. Many other European partners are said to share it, in more muted terms. And that, of course, is the point the Italian Government should take most seriously, if belatedly.

The final decision, which this time will cover all of Europe, is expected by October 26. This acceleration certainly explains the paradox that has come with the work done on October 23: never before has so much optimism been seen at a summit that went so wrong. Not so wrong as to transform the battle for the euro in a fratricidal war and prevent the necessary agreements from being concluded next Wednesday, but wrong enough to raise the political stakes to the highest level and to “compel” Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy to reach an agreement that, by stopping up the crisis, saves them from ignominy.

Because it is they, the German Chancellor and French President, who have taken the initiative of setting up a marathon of meetings and negotiations under pressure. And so it is they who, now that the twenty-fifth hour has come, should take sympathetic note of a common political interest: that of not failing, of not becoming the gravediggers of the euro and of Europe, of not transforming into a boomerang the guiding responsibility that the two “locomotives” wanted to take on.

Banks will not be happy

It is no coincidence that Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy, between their attacks on Berlusconi, declared yesterday that they were virtually certain to reach “common, ambitious and sustainable” agreements that they will present to the G-20 at Cannes in early November…

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

[Return to headlines]

European Summit: Berlusconi Makes Firing Easier

La Stampa, 27 October 2011

“Easier dismissals to please EU”, headlines La Stampa after yesterday’s euro crisis summit in Brussels. New measures submitted by Berlusconi to his EU partners include a sell off of Italian state-assets — raising 5 billion euros annually over the next three years, pushing retirement age up to 67 from 2026 (currently 60 or 61 for women and 65 for men) and, most of all, loosening up labour laws. According to the new plan, workers on permanent contracts can be fired if the company can prove financial difficulty.

European leaders were pleased by these Italian efforts but have also demanded a “forthcoming schedule” and a strict “compliance with obligations”. Meanwhile, Italian opposition parties and unions reacted violently to the dismissals plan. “Their opposition is already worrying the EU”, notes Corriere della Sera. Indeed, Italian Parliament and Senate are shortly to vote on Berlusconi’s austerity package but his government may well be too weak. On October 26, it was defeated twice at the Parliament. “Where will Berlusconi find the house majorities to approve the plan?”, comments La Stampa. Rome daily La Repubblica is also sceptical about Berlusconi’s proposals: “EU demands concrete measures but Berlusconi is still making vague promises”.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

[Return to headlines]

Eurozone Leaders Eye 1 Trillion Euro Bailout Fund

Eurozone leaders mulled boosting a bailout fund to one trillion euros to contain the debt crisis Thursday as the leaders of Germany and France scrambled to convince banks to lose big on Greek bonds. The 10-digit figure is expected to appear in the final declaration the eurozone’s 17 leaders are to adopt at the close of a marathon summit that began Wednesday and was running well past midnight, a diplomat said.

Boosting the bailout fund is a key element in the crisis response eurozone leaders have promised, along with making banks agree to write down billions in Greek debt and recapitalising the banking sector so it can absorb the hit. Under the plan, the eurozone would use clever financial footwork to “leverage” up the 440-billion-euro European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) without increasing guarantees provided by governments.

The bailout fund, the main weapon against the crisis, has already flown to the rescue of Portugal and Ireland, and would be tapped in a new Greek bailout. But it would be too small to rescue bigger endangered economies, such as Italy and Spain. “We are heading towards the one trillion euro ($1.39 trillion) figure,” another diplomat said.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

[Return to headlines]

Frantic Deal to Appease Europe

Corriere della Sera, 26 October 2011

“A mini deal for Europe”, headlines Corriere della Sera a few hours ahead of Italian prime minister Berlusconi’s journey to the Eurozone summit in Brussels, where he’s expected to present Italy’s new austerity plan. Berlusconi’s party and his Northern League coalition partners have been struggling in recent days to reach agreement on pensions as demanded by the EU.

“The current pension system has not been touched because of Umberto Bossi of the Northern League’s opposition”, explains Corriere della Sera, but it is understood that the “coalition parties have reached a deal to raise the retirement age to 67 years”. In a concerned editorial, Corriere della Sera editor-in-chief Ferruccio de Bortoli appeals to Italian politicians to put divisions aside, calling for Berlusconi’s resignation: “Italy is not Greece. However, even though this may be unfair to us, we are not trustworthy anymore in Europe. For months we have been announcing new measures that have been never approved. Berlusconi should resign. He is the only one to blame for this”.

Roberto Napoletano, editor-in-chief of the Italian economic daily Il Sole 24 Ore, agrees: “Berlusconi and his government keep on avoiding their responsibilities. Italy must stop this shameful farce”. Despite agreement on the austerity package, Berlusconi’s government seems again on the brink of collapse. According to La Repubblica, he is likely to resign next December or January 2012 to advance general election due in 2013 and therefore avoid a “disadvantageous” new voting system which will be probably approved by a forthcoming national referendum.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Germany Makes Greece Pay With Sovereignty for New Bail-Out

BRUSSELS — Greek sovereignty was further undermined by eurozone leaders on Thursday (27 October), as Germany demanded a “durable” supervision on the ground of its economic policy-making under the terms of a second €130 billion bail-out. The new rescue package, which comes with a 50 percent debt cut by private lenders and is to run until 2020, will include a “monitoring capacity on the ground” instead of current visits every three months by the troika of European Commission, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Central Bank lenders, the summit communique said.

The aim of the mission will be to “advise and offer assistance in order to ensure the timely and full implementation of the reforms.” German Chancellor Angela Merkel pushed for the permanent presence instead of the current set-up, which sees the troika “coming and going every three months,” she told journalists after the meeting.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Greece: Forecast for 100,000 Firms Lost by Year-End

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, OCTOBER 27 — The Hellenic Confederation of Professionals, Craftsmen and Merchants (GSEVEE) expects no fewer than 183,000 enterprises to close down by next summer, which entails the loss of 250,000 jobs. The forecast, as AMNA news agency reports, goes on to suggest that by the end of this year there will be 100,000 closures. The Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises’ Institute of GSEVEE, that drafted these estimates, expects a total of 305,000 jobs to be lost between July 2011 and July 2012, on top of 300,000 jobs lost in the July 2010-July 2011 period.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Greece: Number of Households Needing Food Aid on the Rise

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, OCTOBER 27 — Hunger is increasingly becoming a problem among poor Greek households, with more and more families unable to make ends meet, AMNA news agency reports quoting the Greek branch of the humanitarian aid organisation ‘Doctors of the World’ (DoW) as warning in a press conference on Wednesday. It said volunteer doctors working at the organisation’s four health centres in Athens, Perama, Thessaloniki and Hania were reporting an increase in the number of Greeks seeking their aid and also a rise in those asking for food. “The number of Greeks seeking medical attention from us has shot up from 6-7% last year to 30% this year, out of a total of 30,000 people seen in the past year. They are elderly people, those on small pensions, young unemployed, people with chronic diseases who come in great anxiety, often with a hospital prescription in hand, because they are unable to pay for their contribution. What shocked us most, however, is that many now ask us for food,” said a representative of DoW.

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Greece: ‘Social League’ Created for Change

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, OCTOBER 27 — “People in Greece want change, not elections,” the Socialist Prime Minister, George Papandreou, repeated last night, at the press conference that followed the Brussels summit, in a new effort to end talk of the country going to the polls ahead of schedule.

In Greece, though, there is no shortage of people who believe that the decisions made at the summit could accelerate political developments in the country, where something is already brewing in the ranks of the centre-left.

Indeed, following the letter addressed to the Prime Minister by three of his government ministers (the Public Education Minister, Anna Diamantopoulou, the Health Minister, Andreas Loverdos, and the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Giannis Ragusis), in which the signatories underlined the difficulty of the current time and the need to take important initiatives to emerge from the crisis, a group of 40 figures from the world of business, culture and politics — including George Floridis, the former Finance Minister in the Socialist governments of Costas Simitis — announced on Tuesday that they have created a new political faction. The new group, called “Social League”, is not a party, its founders say, though they have not ruled out that it may become one in the future.

Members say that the new political movement “wants to provide an answer to the national dilemma of whether to insist upon an old model shown to have failed or to carry Greece forward within the European family”. The new group does not believe that the current political system, which among other things is considered responsible for the disastrous economic situation in which Greece now finds itself, will bring Greece out of crisis. The main objective of the Social League is to “promote information, dialogue and action in order to get all citizens involved, giving the priority in the immediate future to the formation of a government that will aim to reorder the country, enabling it to be a part of the core of the European Union and to be a part of the Eurozone, with the necessary economic and financial discipline, with a productive economy, and not the state, as a source of new riches”.

George Floridis, the only politician in the movement, said that “the political system about to disappear will immediately need to support a government with a large parliamentary majority in order to manage the current crisis and, in the medium-term, to carry out its necessary restructuring with the deepening of democracy at all levels”.

The well-known economist, Giannis Sturnaras, has been particularly critical of the current political system, insisting on the “need to create a new development model based on the reduction of public spending and the increase in public investments, and not the increase in taxes. If Greece does not apply this project, it is the troika’s fault”.

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Greece: Venizelos: No to Further Austerity Measures

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, OCTOBER 27 — “The presence of representatives from the Troika in Greece should be continued in order to avoid problems of communication”. Speaking to a press conference this evening, Greece’s Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos explained to reporters the decisions made concerning Greece’s public deficit at the European summit and ruled out any adoption by the government of further austerity measures.

“With the accord made yesterday,” Mr Venizelos said, “liquidity for Greece’s banking system has been guaranteed,”.

The Minister went on to explain how the sixth tranche of eight billion euros will be paid before mid- November and he also attacked opposition parties for the stance they have taken on the agreement attained, speaking of “national and political short-sightedness”. Mr Venizelos reaffirmed that Greece has to continue along its path of structural reforms. Asked whether the government was planning any fresh austerity measures’, Mr Venizelos categorically ruled them out.

“The people of Greece have already paid the price they had to pay: now we have to apply those measures enacted so far in a thorough way”.

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Greece Hails ‘Historic’ EU Deal, Critics Warn of Cuts

(ATHENS) — Greek authorities on Thursday hailed a late-night EU deal slashing the country’s huge debt as “historic” but critics warned of new sacrifices lying in store under the watchful eye of Brussels. The Athens stock exchange jumped 4.32 percent in afternoon trade after eurozone leaders agreed to slash Greece’s debt of over 350 billion euros ($487 billion) by nearly a third. “The country has signed a very major deal, this is a historic day that can put order in our public finances,” government spokesman Elias Mossialos told Mega television.

Prime Minister George Papandreou will brief President Carolos Papoulias, hold a cabinet meeting and give a 1500 GMT televised address to the nation on the results of the summit, his office said. Speaking to reporters in Brussels hours earlier, Papandreou said Greece had “escaped the trap of default,” which he termed a “question of survival” for the country.

But main opposition leader Antonis Samaras said the government was boasting for no reason. The EU deal “proves that the government’s policy was wrong,” he said in a televised address of his own. “The (debt) ‘haircut’ will bring the country’s debt ratio to 120 percent of output in 2020, which is where it was in 2009,” Samaras said. “Those who celebrate about bringing the country back to 2009 in 2020 should get serious … the government responsible for a shipwreck should not speak of salvation,” he said.

The deal brokered early Thursday will cut 100 billion euros off Greece’s debt mountain thanks to an agreement between the eurozone and private sector creditor banks to take a 50-percent loss on their holdings of Greek government bonds.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

[Return to headlines]

Growing Debt Overshadows China’s Economy

While European governments are working hard to find a solution to the debt crisis, China might soon be facing a crisis of its own, as a growing number of local governments are unable to make good on money from Beijing.

The new east railway station in Chengdu is like an entire city in itself, with its six floors, 26 platforms and brand new surrounding infrastructure, including two new underground lines and freshly built streets. And it all popped up within just two years. It is China’s largest train station and it cost around one billion euros to build. Most of it was financed on credit. During the financial crisis, Beijing gave all local governments a free hand to spend money in order to keep the economy going. As a result, there were countless new infrastructure projects. Within a short time, the provinces and municipalities accumulated a debt of over one trillion euros — around 60 percent of Germany’s national debt. Duncan Innes-Ker of the Economist Intelligence Unit in Beijing believes the newly accumulated debt is dangerously high.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

[Return to headlines]

Let’s Laugh About Sarkozy

Il Giornale, 25 October 2011

The outbreak of laughter from Angela Merkel — and especially from Nicolas Sarkozy — on the subject of Silvio Berlusconi’s commitment to the reforms needed to prevent the spread of the debt crisis to Italy is going down badly with the pro-Cavaliere press. On its front page, Il Giornale leads with “To hell with Sarkozy”. The Milan daily, owned by the PM’s brother is taking up the call launched by sister paper Il Foglio inviting Italians to protest outside the French Embassy in Rome this October 25 at 5pm for a “laugh-in” to “fling back into Sarkozy’s face his laugh at Berlusconi and the Italian people.” Meanwhile, the head of government will try to persuade coalition partners the Northern League to approve the pension reform demanded by the EU. Writes Il Giornale, “To dump the political problems between France and Germany onto Italy: this was the agenda of the duo in Brussels. Sarkozy has set the tone. But the bankers, investors and savers in France are not laughing. They’re holding more than 400 billion euros in Italian securities”, while in Italy, “the public patrimony and private savings are unbeatable and the unemployment rate is better than in France. It’s our turn to laugh now.”

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Obama Says He’ll be Taking ‘Executive Actions’ Without Congress on ‘Regular Basis’ To ‘Heal the Economy’

President Barack Obama told an audience in Nevada on Monday that he will be regularly announcing “executive actions” his administration will take to “heal the economy” without the “dysfunctional” Congress.

“I’m here to say to all of you and to say to the people of Nevada and the people of Las Vegas, we can’t wait for an increasingly dysfunctional Congress to do its job. Where they won’t act, I will,” Obama said.

“I’ve told my administration to keep looking every single day for actions we can take without Congress,

— Hat tip: Kitman

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Obama Now Accused of Destroying U.S. Economy … on Purpose!

President, Dems accused of deliberately overloading country’s financial system

NEW YORK — A new book released today documents how President Obama and progressive Democrats are deliberately overloading the U.S. financial system, using socialist designs to remake the economy.

“Red Army: The Radical Network that must be defeated to save America” by Aaron Klein and Brenda J. Elliott unearths the radical origins of Obama’s major economic legislation and policies, including the 2009 “stimulus” and health-care law.

The book, with nearly 1,500 endnotes, documents how these radicals aim to remake the American financial system with massive government control.

“Red Army” investigates recent legislation and initiatives, including the “stimulus” bill, “Making It In America,” the Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act of 2010 and “Buy American.”

It traces the policies to groups such as the Alliance for American Manufacturing, a union-manufacturer partnership; the Soros-funded Campaign for America’s Future; and the Apollo Alliance, which is run by a who’s who of radicals.

On Obamacare, the “Red Army” documents how the legislation — deliberately masked by moderate, populist rhetoric — was carefully crafted and perfected over the course of decades. The book shows how the law is a direct product of laborious work by a coalition of radical groups and activists with socialist designs who seek to “reform” the U.S. health care industries, which account for a significant portion of the U.S. capitalist enterprise.

— Hat tip: Kitman

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Rehn to Get Increased Economic Powers

BRUSSELS — EU monetary affairs commissioner Olli Rehn is to be given extra authority to supervise national fiscal policies, as the commission moves quickly to centralise economic governance powers in Brussels. “(Rehn) will become deputy-head of the commission for economic and monetary affairs and the euro,” and will have “additional working instruments,” European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso told the European parliament on Thursday (27 October).

“This is the best way to guarantee independence, objectivity and efficiency in the exercise of the Commission’s responsibility of coordination, surveillance and enforcement in the area of economic governance of the union and of the euro area in particular,” said Barroso. It is also a way of making sure that economic governance stays within the hands of the commission, amid fears that eurozone member states would club together and make their own rules and institutions.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Summit Deal Saved Euro: French Finance Minister

A deal reached at a summit of eurozone leaders has saved the single currency, French Finance Minister François Baroin said on Thursday. “Yes, indeed,” he said on RTL radio when asked if the deal had secured the future of the euro. “Of course there was a risk of explosion. This is an incredible systemic crisis we’re going through. “Last night’s deal is an ambitious, comprehensive and credible response,” he added. “That’s what’s going to resolve this business (the debt crisis), that’s what will get us out of this zone of turbulence, that’s what will allow the economic rebound, that’s what will stabilise the eurozone and world growth.”

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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UK: The Warped Class War Taking Place at Occupy London

I have visited the Occupy London camp outside St Paul’s Cathedral three times now, and each time I have been struck by its warped class dynamic. For all the claims that this is a people’s movement facing down evil bankers, in truth the majority of the occupiers are middle-class and well-spoken and clearly have lots of time on their hands, while many of the men and women in suits making their way to offices or trading floors in the City are working class. On one side you have the plummy-voiced pink-haired daughters of academics and writers complaining about how banks have “destroyed working people’s lives”, and on the other side you have ambitious wide boys from the suburbs and young working-class women from Essex or High Wycombe going to jobs that they hope will earn them lots of cash.

Occupy London does not speak for the 99 per cent or for the working man — on the contrary, it is more an expression of slacker disdain and organic-fuelled fury for the ethos of the ambitious working man. Hence all the placards telling the besuited passers-by that they have been brainwashed by capitalism and consumerism. One placards informs these aspirational ignoramuses that capitalism makes you into either a “chump” or a “tart”. That’s how the bookish, well-brought-up occupiers view the people who work in the City: as thickos and slags. This protest expresses middle-class spite more than everyman anger.

— Hat tip: JP

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Alien Abductions May be Vivid Dreams, Study Shows

Researchers say they have conducted “the first experiment to ever prove that close encounters with UFOs and extraterrestrials are a product of the human mind.” In a sleep study by the Out-Of-Body Experience Research Center in Los Angeles, 20 volunteers were instructed to perform a series of mental steps upon waking up or becoming lucid during the night that might lead them to have out-of-body experiences culminating in perceived encounters with aliens. According to lead researcher Michael Raduga, more than half the volunteers experienced at least one full or partial out-of-body experience, and seven of them were able to make contact with UFOs or extraterrestrials during these dream-like experiences.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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NY’s Metropolitan Museum of Art to Open 15 New Islamic Art Galleries on 1 November

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) — New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) is opening 15 new galleries that feature 12,000 objects that aim to promote “mutual understanding and education”. The MET’s original Islamic department closed in 2003. Now, on 1 November, the department reopens in a grandiose style with a suite of new galleries spanning a staggering 19,000 square feet of space. The galleries, which are collectively named “Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia” provided a sneak-preview to the press on 24 October (pictured above). The name may be cumbersome, but it is intentionally a long one. The curators are trying to underscore the richness and interconnectedness of the arts that reflect a melting pot of different cultures.

The organization of the 15 galleries is by geographical area, will emphasize the diversity of the Islamic world, over a span of thirteen hundred years, by underscoring the many distinct cultures within its fold. Posters lined outside the museum urge passersby to “Rediscover the Islamic World”. At the ribbon-cutting preview for the galleries, Thomas P Campbell, the MET’s director, was clear about the political urgency of the galleries. “We must recognise,” he told the 700 assembled invitees, which included politicians and donors, “that we live in a nation where a widespread consciousness about the Islamic world really did not exist until 10 years ago, and that awareness came at one of the darkest hours in American history.”

He added: “It is our job and the great achievement of these galleries to educate our audience about the depths and magnificence of the Islamic tradition.”

If the initiative is partly about educating people and attracting visitors to the museum, there is also a deeper, more subtle, message to convey: that the US takes the culture of the Islamic world seriously and is interested in exploring it beyond the cliches and the news headlines. One of the first things visitors will see at the entrance to the new suite of galleries are two 15th-century examples of calligraphy from what is now Uzbekistan. They are from what is thought to be the world’s largest Qur’an, which, according to legend, was made for the ruler of the Timurid Dynasty only after the same calligrapher had made a copy that was so small it was rejected. “So he went away and decided to do exactly the opposite,” explains Ms. Navina Najat Haidar, the coordinator for the galleries. “He then wrote it out so big that he had to tie it to a wheelbarrow and present it at the court. This shows two almost full pages and you get sense of a monumental Koran,” she added. “It’s a very important thing for us to show right at the entrance, because we are the Islamic department and Islam is an essential binding thread throughout the installation.”

There galleries offer a diversity of arts of every medium, from paintings to sculpures to handicrafts, scientific instruments and architecture. There is beautiful Arabic calligraphy next to ancient Qur’ans and ornate weaponry, including swords encrusted with rubies, silver and gold. The world of sculpture is represented by Iranian statues, made from stucco, measuring a meter and a half (five feet) tall. “We’ve allowed the objects to speak as they wish to speak, to be experienced as the visitor wishes to see them, giving all the relevant information,” Ms. Haidar said. “But we’ve opened up a connection to European Orientalism. We brought out Spain, North Africa and Southern Italy as a separate area, meaning eight centuries of Islam in Europe. China, that’s an important story, and seeing the Islamic world through objects that have been borrowed from the Asian department.”

One gem of the new galleries is the fully re-constructed reception room of a large residence in Damascus, dating back to the 18th century. Its marble floor has a geometric design with magnificent red velour pillows strewn throughout and its wooden walls are inscribed with verses from the Koran. “It’s one of the highlights of the galleries,” curator Mechthild Baumeister said. “It’s one of our biggest achievements.”

Also from the world of architecture, there is an example of Indian windows made from intricately carved wood. “With India we decided to show later India, Islamic and non-Islamic India as one interrelated culture, which it absolutely is. That is a slight correction because, in the old galleries, Islamic India had been extracted from everything else and other native material of the same period was not together with it and we managed to unite it all with a separate entrance space, which makes the viewer understand these objects not just as expressions of a single tradition but because the Indian culture is so hybrid. We’ve offered an extremely wide canvas for these objects.”

Asked how these new galleries reflect or inform the grim political realities in the Islamic world today, Ms. Haidar said: “As you start thinking about audiences and how to make this material relevant to them and thinking of their world, that’s when you begin thinking of contemporary politics and the contemporary world and trying to understand that the person might have this morning just read about the assassination attempt of the Saudi ambassador by Iranians. How do you help that person, offer some kind of platform to reconcile all the different things he’s hearing about a single culture or a single place? We offer this long historical perspective.”

[JP note: The long historical perspective — Islamic supremacism, and dhimmi, know your place.]

— Hat tip: JP

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Real Americans Must Stand Against Muslim Brotherhood, Radical Islam and Sharia Law

The insertion of radical Islam, largely Muslim Brotherhood is happening throughout the Middle East and in parts of Africa. The latest method of intrusion and radical Islamic take over is with ‘Arab Spring’. Those Islamics marching for democracy were simply used and muted by the Muslim Brotherhood’s plans for total take over. Things are going as planned and Obama and his handlers couldn’t be happier. Global controls, regulations and rules combined with encroaching Fundamentalist Islam is the double barrel shot gun that threatens to take down America, Israel and the West. Right now, it is attempting to transform the Middle East into an Islamic radical, Muslim Brotherhood zone.

I recently interviewed Rev. Lainie Dowell, (voiceink.blogspot.com) an author and political activist who has studied in depth Barack Obama, Islam and the African nations push to create the United States of Africa. She said from her research that this had been going on since the 1960s and she believed that Barack Obama wanted to be the head of this after he destroyed America. Kadafi, who we assassinated recently was the known pick to run this 55-state confederation and emerging super power.

Interestingly, Sher Zieve, another hard hitting commentator also told me that she had seen an interview on You Tube with Van Jones, talking to school kids. When asked by a child what Obama would do after he was done being President, Van Jones said Obama might rule the world. This was quickly scrubbed but not before many heard those words from his own lips. So….is America simply a stepping stone to worldwide control?

What have we seen from Obama

It is not a paranoid ‘tin helmet’ or racist moment that I have noticed Obama’s submission and devotion to Islam. Almost immediately when getting into office Obama gave Islamic radical and terrorist group Hamas over 900 million dollars. We saw Obama’s first trip to Saudi Arabia, where he bowed down low to the Saudi King. We then saw Obama stand against Israel and for Turkey when Israeli commandos confronted the Turkish armada taking supplies to the Gaza. Israel had intelligence that the Turkish ships weren’t just delivering food and medicine but also weapons and potential terrorists. They were right. Terrorists on their list and weapons were discovered yet the sold out news and Obama looked the other way as they rebuked Israel….again.

The attacks and insults have continued against Israel as the kiss up to Islam has grown. We saw Hillary and Biden practically get their knickers in a twist when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu planned to go ahead and build homes on their own sovereign property. These weren’t remote ‘settlements’ as the media and Obama manipulated, but 5 minutes from downtown Jerusalem. There was nothing ridiculous, extreme, or remote about their building projects. It was simple anti Semitism and Islamic controls that couldn’t possibly have this. Obama played it perfectly… for a Muslim that is. Just when the insults against Israel about blew me down, it got even more arrogant. Obama started pressuring Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to go back to the 1967 borders. That was not just absurd of Obama but also would expose Israel to deadly attacks and make them indefensible. Thankfully, Israel said no thank you.

Bringing it all the way home with Arab Spring, Libya, Egypt

What was touted by Obama as an American duty to defend desperate freedom fighters in Libya, transformed quickly into an illegal war, breaching the 1973 war powers act. Obama bypassed our congress, bowed down to the UN and started spending billions while putting our troops in harms way. Soon we learned the freedom fighters were linked with al quaeda, so it was in large part, bad guys fighting bad guys. Kadafi had not been attacking America, or our interests. We didn’t even get oil from him, so why in God’s green earth did Obama put us there? I think it was to establish more rigid Muslim controls world wide. He knew once Kadafi was gone, rigid sharia would rule and it has. Oh….but first we had to get rid of Kadafi, so we found him and assassinated him.

Interestingly, from Rev. Lainie Dowell’s research on the emerging United States of Africa, she found that Kadafi was to be the first President of this new super power, now he is gone. Gee….isn’t it convenient that Kadafi is gone. I wonder who might end up being the President of the United States of Africa now????? Obama has quickly supported the Muslim Brotherhood, why?

Just as soon as Egypt and President Hosni Mubarak’s rule was being challenged by protestors as Arab Spring unfolded, Obama immediately backed the Muslim Brotherhood which had been circling their radical wagons to control what was moderate Egypt. Now the Muslim Brotherhood has taken over, dozens of Coptic Christians are being threatened and murdered, Christian churches are being burned to the ground and Sharia controls are growing. Oh yes, threats to Israel. Through out the Middle East, the financed and organized Muslim Brotherhood is taking over, using the planned ‘Arab Spring’ to push their dominating Islamic force forward. This whole thing was long ago planned.

According to Jihad Watch, President Obama’s own father, Barack Obama senior was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood for 30 years. Bringing it home even further, Obama has at least 3 high level Muslim Brotherhood members working for him. One is a key speech writer for Obama and another, Azizah al-Hibri heads the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. With all this emphasis on come together, Muslim brotherhood, Arab spring democracy values, I just had to review what Muslim Brotherhood stood for and their beliefs.

Muslim Brotherhood in a snapshot

They were started by Hassan al — Banna in 1928 after the collapse of the Ottman Empire. They oppose secular behaviors in Islamic nations, huge supporters of strict Sharia law. Their motto: “Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. Qur’an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.” They sanction, even demand jihad from their followers. In 2004 a fatwa was put forth by Sheikh Yousef Al-Quradhawi saying it was the obligation of all Muslims to abduct and kill U.S. citizens in Iraq.

They are known to work in all schools, colleges, run for office and infiltrate themselves into Government. Well, they are certainly doing well aren’t they? They are working for our President in influential positions. Counter-Intelligence expert, Prof. Clare Lopez stated that Islamist allied operatives appointed by Obama are undermining U.S. security policy. This is aimed at co-opting America’s foreign policy in the Middle East.

>From 1928 on the Muslim Brotherhood has formed and financed many Islamic terror groups including al Qaeda. Their dream is a world wide caliphate. Obama is a useful pawn playing right into their hands. Our Republic is in danger. There should be zero Islamics working in high level positions anywhere near the President and authority because if they are traditionally Islamic they must submit first to Sharia law and the Qur’an, not the constitution. That isn’t Islamaphobia or persecution. That is a fact. It should even be more of a no brainer for a U.S. President to not even consider hiring someone who is a member of an Islamic terrorist group like Muslim Brother. Apparently, like Father like son.

— Hat tip: JP

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Shameful Graphic Novel Promotes Islamophobia

There is nothing subtle about Frank Miller’s newest graphic novel, Holy Terror. The book opens with the quote: “If you meet the infidel, kill the infidel”, which Mr Miller attributes to the Prophet. From there the jingoism, violence and Islamophobia take off. Miller is no stranger to controversy. His stories, which include the famous Batman mini-series, The Dark Knight Returns, and comics-to-film 300 and Sin City, regularly explore the darker corners of society amid shades of moral grey. Any nuance, however, is all but absent in his latest work.

Originally envisioned as a Batman tale after September 11 attacks on the US, the comic features heroes The Fixer, and thief-come-love interest, Natalie, as they join forces to stop an Al Qaeda plot on Empire City, a thinly veiled New York City. For some, the best-seller underlines a worrying shift in American entertainment. “We are witnessing a growing industry of information and fear-mongering, and this work fits in the centre … It’s unfortunate that Islamophobia is becoming mainstream,” said Nihad Awad, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington-based Muslim civil-rights group. He described the work as “shameful”.

Certainly, Miller’s mixing of Muslims and Arabs — the book never differentiates — with terrorists highlights Holy Terror‘s unflattering portrayal of Muslims. Jack Shaheen, a professor of mass communications at Southern Illinois University, said this combining is a “common thread” in post-September 11 media, and that Holy Terror warrants attention by rights groups as comics grow in influence within the American entertainment industry.

After the book’s initial fight scene, The Fixer says to a captured terrorist: “So Mohammed, pardon me for guessing your name, but you’ve got to admit the odds are pretty good it’s Mohammad…” The Fixer then tortures and cripples the man before detonating his explosive belt. Miller’s depictions of women in Islam were no better. A two-panel spread that juxtaposes westerners and Muslims/Arabs shows one of the comic’s most gratuitous scenes. In stark contrast to westerners at a cinema in the first panel, the second depicts a brutalised woman buried to her neck as silhouetted men stone her while yelling insults.

The National, 25 October 2011

— Hat tip: JP

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Austrian Judge: Europe Will be the Battlefield for New Religious Wars

There is an astonishing article about Islam in “Kriminalpolizei”, an Austrian magazine for professionals from various branches involved in dealing with criminality: police, judges, academics, etc. It is written by Alfred Ellinger, founder of the “Vereinigung österreichischer Kriminalisten” [Association of Austrian Criminologists], which publishes the magazine. Ellinger is also a criminal judge and vice-president of the Eisenstadt Regional Court. Titled “Between Dialogue and Jihad”, the article goes over the doctrines and history of Islam with unusual candour. It concludes with a resounding wake-up call for Europe.

Let us indulge in no illusions. Europe will be the battlefield for a major struggle between the order of Islam and its enemies. 40% of the population in Arab countries is under 14 years of age. 15 million Muslims are already living in Europe today and the ageing of Europe is unmissable. The Muslim threat was beaten back in Castile, Southern France and, finally, in front of Vienna. But today the border between Europe and the Islamic world is porous, and the threat to Europe is clear.

…If Europe does not very quickly abandon its utterly failed immigration policy, the vision of a “multicultural society” and a misguided tolerance in dealing with hate-filled Islamists, the constantly repeated calls for “dialogue” and “tolerance” will lead to undreamt-of problems and new politically-motivated wars of religion in our cities.

— Hat tip: Steen

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Belgium: 500 Days and Still No Government

26/10/11 — It’s 500 days since the last election and Belgium is still without a new government. Talks involving six parties continue. On Wednesday night the Flemish, Walloon and Brussels Prime Ministers see the negotiators and will be asked to contribute more towards the austerity drive.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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EU: An Apocryphal Apology

Merkel Denies Saying Sorry to Berlusconi

Angela Merkel’s spokesman is denying Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s claim that the chancellor apologized to him in Brussels on Wednesday. That, though, may not be the worst news of the day for the Italian leader. He also faces significant domestic opposition to the reforms he has promised to undertake.

The annoyance was unmistakable. Italian President Giorgio Napolitano criticized German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy this week for their “inappropriate and objectionable public comments” and lamented the “weak trust” Italy’s international partners had in Rome.

He was referring to a Sunday press conference in which both Merkel and Sarkozy appeared to smirk, or even snicker, when asked if they still had faith in the leadership of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. During the appearance, the two also demanded that Berlusconi come to Wednesday’s summit with a proposal for how to reduce his country’s imposing mountain of debt.

Given the tone of the Sunday news conference, it would only seem natural that Merkel might apologize to Berlusconi in Brussels on Wednesday. Indeed, Berlusconi said as much to Italian television during a summit intermission. “Ms. Merkel came to me to offer her apologies and to assure me that it was not her intention to insult our country,” Berlusconi told the TV station RAI.

That, though, is not how Merkel recalls her exchange of pleasantries with Berlusconi. In an English language message posted on Twitter, Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert wrote: “No apology from the Chancellor because there was nothing to apologize for. Berlusconi + Merkel have good, open talks among friends.”

Losing Trust

The relationship between Paris and Berlin on the one hand and Rome on the other has been in the spotlight this week as concerns have grown that Italy could be the next euro-zone country to run into problems resulting from its sovereign debt. Italy’s debt is worth almost 120 percent of its annual economic output and markets this year have showed signs of losing trust in Italy’s ability to shoulder that debt.

Berlusconi, however, had not shown much urgency in passing far-reaching austerity measures to address the problem. A €54 billion ($75 billion) package passed in late summer has been criticized for not being ambitious enough and some have said that a slowing economy could make additional measures necessary. Furthermore, Berlusconi backed away from initial belt-tightening measures only to reintroduce them due to significant market pressure. The back-and-forth led to doubts about his commitment to austerity.

Meanwhile, a pledge this week to raise the retirement age from 65 to 67 likewise appears doubtful, with the Northern League, a vital Berlusconi ally in his center-right coalition government, rejecting the idea. Italian media has even reported that the issue could result in new elections early next year. A Wednesday debate in parliament in Rome over the issue was briefly suspended due to a brief fisticuff between two parliamentarians.

Still, the Italian prime minister arrived in Brussels on Wednesday with a pledge to institute measures aimed at bringing his country’s debt down to 113 percent of gross domestic product by 2014, a promise that Merkel called “noteworthy.” He also reiterated his plan to up the retirement age to 67, saying the process would be complete by 2026…

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Faroe Islands to Begin Voluntary Genetic Sequencing of All Residents

Researchers are set to begin mapping the genes of nearly 50,000 residents of the Faroe Islands. Scientists hope the massive databank will reveal new information about health patterns in the North Atlantic archipelago.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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France: Muslim Veil Also Banned in Private Nurseries

(ANSAmed) — PARIS, OCTOBER 27 — Private children’s nurseries in France can also ban their employees from wearing a Muslim-style veil: this is the ruling passed down yesterday by the Versailles court of appeal. According to the French judges, as well as state schools, private children’s nurseries come under the ban of religious symbols. At the Baby-Loup nursery in the working class area of Chanteloup-les-Vignes (near Versailles), an employee was fired in 2008 because she refused to remove her veil.

The employee sought redress from the courts, but they ruled against her case. Lawyer Richard Malka has stated that this ruling by the appeal court is “a great victory for the secular state”.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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French Court Cancels Permit for Marseille Mega-Mosque

MARSEILLE — A French court Thursday cancelled a construction permit for a mega-mosque in the southern city of Marseille that had been touted as a potential symbol of Islam’s growing place in France.

The city’s administrative tribunal ruled the project, which had already been under suspension for 18 months, would have to be cancelled because of failures to meet urban-planning requirements.

It raised particular concerns over the project’s failure to finalise a deal for a 450-place parking lot and to reassure planners that the mosque would fit with the urban environment.

The tribunal noted “a lack of graphical material permitting the evaluation of the project’s integration with neighbouring buildings, its visual impact and the treatment of access points and land.”

Critics of the project were quick to praise the court for its ruling.

“It’s the culmination of a long struggle for the people who live and work here, and who simply wanted for this project to fit in harmony with the neighbourhood’s economic and social fabric,” said Pierre Metras, a local butcher who led the neighbourhood campaign against the mosque.

The project was granted a permit in September 2009 but construction was suspended following complaints from local residents and businesses.

The 22-million-euro ($31-million) project would have seen the Grand Mosque, boasting a minaret soaring 25-metres (82-feet) high and room for up to 7,000 worshippers, built in the city’s northern Saint-Louis area.

Originally scheduled to open next year, it would have also hosted a Koranic school, library, restaurant and tea room.

Muslim leaders in the Mediterranean city had hailed the approval of the project as a key step in recognising the importance of Marseille’s large Muslim community.

France’s second city is home to an estimated 250,000 Muslims, many of whom flock to makeshift prayer houses in basements, rented rooms and dingy garages to worship.

The project’s architect, Maxime Repaux, said after the court ruling: “I find it pretty amazing that they’ve cancelled our construction permit because of a parking lot when what we are trying to do is to bring Islam out of the garage and to stop prayers in the streets.”

Home to Europe’s biggest Muslim minority, estimated at between five and six million, France has for years been debating how far it is willing to go to accommodate Islam, now the country’s second religion.

France in April became the first country in Europe to apply a ban on the wearing of full-face coverings, including the Islamic niqab and the burqa.

The decision triggered a political storm, with rights activists accusing President Nicolas Sarkozy of targeting of one of France’s most vulnerable groups to win back votes from the resurgent far right.

A French court in September slapped the first fines on two women for violating the ban.

— Hat tip: Steen

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Italy: Buddhists, Muslims, Yoruba join pope [sic] for peace pilgrimage; traditional Catholics condemn it

ASSISI, Italy — Buddhist monks, Muslim imams, Orthodox patriarchs and Yoruba leaders have flocked with Pope Benedict XVI to the Umbrian hilltown of Assisi to make an interfaith call for peace and insist that religion must never be used as a pretext for war. Thursday’s event is designed to commemorate the 25th anniversary of a daylong prayer for peace called by Pope John Paul II amid Cold War conflicts in dozens of countries. Some 300 delegates representing a rainbow of faiths answered Benedict’s invitation. Traditional Catholics have condemned the meeting, saying it’s blasphemy for the pope to invite leaders of “false” religions to ask God for peace. Benedict responded by stripping away communal prayers, but traditionalists say that is not enough.

— Hat tip: JP

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Italy: Parliament Suspended After MPs Brawl

Fini comes under attack from League

(ANSA) — Rome, October 26 — The lower house of the Italian parliament was suspended on Wednesday after a brawl broke out between MPs over the government’s plans to modify the retirement age.

At least two deputies from Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s coalition partner the Northern League exchanged blows with members from the opposition FLI party of House Speaker Gianfranco Fini. Two deputies grabbed each other by the throat while other MPs tried to separate them and Deputy Speaker Rosy Bindi suspended the sitting for several minutes.

The fight was apparently caused by comments made on television by Fini who alleged that the wife of League leader Umberto Bossi had retired at age 39.

Marco Reguzzoni, head of the League MPs in the House, launched a strong attack on Fini and what he called his “inappropriate” behaviour.

When Fini resumed his position in the House there were cries of “Resign! Resign!” from League MPs.

Bossi has steadfastly refused to make big concessions to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on the League’s objections to changing Italy’s generous pension system as part of reforms demanded by European leaders.

Berlusconi travelled to Wednesday’s crunch EU summit in Brussels on the eurozone crisis after reaching a last-minute deal with his coalition partners on new economic reforms demanded by Europe.

He persuaded the League, whose support he needs to keep his coalition government afloat, to accept a gradual increase in the retirement age from 65 to 67.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Linn Duchaill: Ireland’s Unlikely Viking Capital

A windswept barley field just south of Dundalk seems an unlikely spot for Ireland’s capital. But if things had been different, Annagassan near Castlebellingham might have been the principal city on the island of Ireland. Twelve hundred years ago it was the site of Linn Duchaill, one of the first Viking settlements, which rivalled Dublin in size and importance.

Folklore said it was there, but all traces of it had disappeared, until a group of archaeologists and local historians set out to prove its existence. Extensive field research and test digs have now done that. What they found was a huge fortified settlement up to 150 acres in size, established by 841AD where the Vikings built and repaired their ships, traded and raided into the surrounding countryside.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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‘Malta is Not Yet Multicultural Enough’

Malta may be more multicultural than it was some years back but there is still plenty of “room for improvement”, according to Parliamentary Secretary Jason Azzopardi.

Speaking at a round table discussion marking the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the US, Dr Azzopardi said Malta was not multicultural enough.

Fellow panellist and Labour party education spokesman Evarist Bartolo echoed the sentiment, saying “multiculturalism is still not part of Maltese heritage”.

Malta, he said, was still gripped by a “monocultural mindset” that it had to overcome and the island was not doing enough to create a multicultural society.

Last month, two separate studies by SOS Malta and the UN refugee agency noted the absence of integration between Maltese citizens and the immigrant community.

Dr Azzopardi used the example of his hometown, Paola, as an example of a community which had learned to embrace diversity. Paola hosts Malta’s only mosque, an Islamic cultural centre and the Mariam Al Batool school. He suggested expanding the existing concept of town twinning to towns in different continents, for residents in both towns to better understand each other’s way of life, values and concerns.

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, who delivered the discussion’s concluding remarks, also touched on the multicultural theme.

Diversity, he argued, could be a source of strength rather than weakness. Multiculturalism did not mean assimilating everyone into one fixed culture. It was society, Dr Gonzi said, which had to adapt to multiculturalism.

Dr Gonzi also mentioned ongoing events following the Arab Spring and said the opportunity for north-south cooperation with the new administrations in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya was “too valuable an opportunity to be missed”.

Imam Mohammed Elsadi said he was “embarrassed” by the perpetrators of September 11, who claimed to be acting in the name of Islam. In the long run, he said, Islam emerged as the greatest victim of these acts.

“Wherever we [Muslims] go, we are seen as terrorists or terrorists-to-be,” he said.

In a veiled criticism of the US, Imam Elsadi reminded the audience that some countries had billions to spend on wars but not that much to spend on peace or education. It was only through education, he continued, that intolerance and extremism could be overcome.

“The clash of civilisations is a clash of ignorance.”

Tayyibah Taylor, editor-in-chief of Azizah magazine and one of the panellists, reminded the audience that “violent extremism does not occur in a vacuum”.

Policies had to be driven by a sense of reconciliation and resolution rather than revenge if they were to succeed in healing wounds and bringing people together.

Speaking from the floor, Dutch Ambassador Robbert Gabriëlse said integration and multiculturalism in general had been a success.

The problem, he argued, was the gap between the public’s perception of events and what was actually happening in reality.

The round table discussion was organised by the US Embassy in collaboration with the Australian High Commission, and chaired by social anthropologist Ranier Fsadni. The panel included US chargè d’affairs Richard Mills, Chief Rabbi of Malta Admor HaCohen, Australian High Commissioner Anne Quinane and Dr Jacqueline Azzopardi, a lecturer in criminology at the University of Malta.

— Hat tip: PJ

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Metal Theft ‘Epidemic One of Biggest Threat to UK’s Heritage’

Officials from English Heritage, which maintains Bishop’s Palace, warned last night that the “current metal theft epidemic is one of the biggest threats to this country’s heritage”.

[…]

Officers have been left appalled that criminals have targeted what was once one of the most important buildings in the country.

[…]

“We have limited resources so these increased security costs come out of the budget normally reserved for the ongoing maintenance of the sites in our care.”

[…]

“Clearly this is quite a prominent building in the area but hundreds of other churches and buildings have been targeted over the past several months,” he said.

… Yesterday, it emerged that thieves stole the bronze statue of a Second World War soldier from a memorial in Tidworth, Wilts, to sell on as scrap metal. Grainy CCTV footage shows two men taking 40 minutes to remove the £10,000 sculpture, commissioned for the garrison town, from its plinth.

At the weekend, York Minster became the latest victim of metal thieves, as historic plaques worth thousands of pounds were wrenched from the walls of the Grade I listed Gothic cathedral.

It followed other recent incidents including an entire village of Newton-on-Trent, Lincs, being plunged into darkness after the electricity was cut off when thieves stole more than 1,000 metres of overhead cabling.

[Note from Egghead: islamversuseurope.blogspot.com asks, “Are these thieves British?” Surely, a question worth asking as Islam steamrollers all indigenous cultures.]

— Hat tip: Egghead

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Missing Link in Roman Conquest of Germany a ‘Sensational Find’

Archaeologists are celebrating the find of a Roman military camp which was a crucial link in Emperor Augustus’ conquest of Germany — after more than a century of looking for it. The find, near the small town of Olfen not far from Münster near the Ruhr Valley, has already produced a collection of artefacts, not only pottery but also coins and clothing fasteners. These enabled researchers at the Westphalia-Lippe Municipal Association (LWL) to confirm what they had hoped.

“It’s a sensational discovery for Roman research in Westphalia,” LWL-director Wolfgang Kirsch said in a statement. He said the newly-discovered Roman camp marks the end of a hunt that started more than 100 years ago to find the “missing link” in the chain of Roman camps on the Lippe River.

“Olfen was strategically very important for the legionaries during the Drusus campaigns in Germania,” LWL’s chief archaeologist Michael Rind said in a statement. Roman soldiers used the camp from 11 to 7 B.C. as a base to control the river crossing — which makes the find one of the most important logistical landmarks of the Roman conquerors, he said.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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New York Times Spotlights Norway Rape

“One in ten Norwegian women over the age of 15 has been raped,” The New York Times has reported in an article seized upon by Norway’s media on Wednesday. The article tells the chilling story of a wife made victim by her husband, while Norway’s Secretariat of the Shelter Movement is a source for rape figures. Ministry of Justice numbers point to 80 percent of such cases going unreported, with a 10 percent conviction rate for the few cases that end in court, the report says.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Scotland: Woman Raped at Glasgow ‘Anti-Greed’ Occupy Protest Camp

A woman has been raped in a tent at the site of an anti-capitalist demonstration in Glasgow city centre.

The 28-year-old was attacked at about 00:45 on Wednesday in George Square, at the protest camp.

The camp was set up on 15 October as part of an “anti-greed movement” taking place around the world.

Strathclyde Police said an investigation had been launched into the serious sexual assault and officers were at the scene.

A spokeswoman for the force said: “Police received a report of a serious sexual assault on a 28-year-old woman in George Square.

“Officers are still at the scene and inquiries are continuing.”

The protest in George Square was organised in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street, which began last month in New York’s financial district.

The campaign is against “injustices” in the global economic system, including the UK bank bailouts.

— Hat tip: Kitman

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Swede Shocked by Backyard Elk ‘Threesome’

A man in western Sweden was greeted by an unusual sight on Wednesday morning when he saw three elk engaged in what appeared to be group sex in his backyard. “I had just gone out on the balcony to get some fresh air,” Peter Lundgren, a 43-year-old marketing manager from Lindome, south of Gothenburg, told The Local. “They were eating apples and then suddenly they assumed the position.” Lundgren quickly grabbed his camera to document the young male elk mounting an older female elk which in turn appeared to be sniffing or licking the rear end of another young male elk.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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The Muslims in Bulgaria Are Facing Persecution Campaigns

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) — “Islam Online” website mentioned that a wave of ethnic and religious acts of violence broke out in Bulgaria in the period that preceded the presidential elections that were held on October 23, 2011, where some citizens attacked racial minorities and Muslims and broke into the mosques in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, and its second largest city, Plovdiv.

Earlier, a number of Bulgarian political symbols and citizens gathered to denounce the brutal attacks against Banya Bashi Mosque, one of the historical mosques in the country that is located outside the borders of the capital. The attack came after a violent demonstration held by the supporters of the extremist rightist “Ataka” party, protesting on broadcasting the Adhan [for the prayer] through speakers, knowing that the demonstrators ended up setting the mosque’s carpets on fire and throwing stones at the prayer attendants.

Commenting on these events, Dr. Mustapha Haji, the Mufti of Bulgaria and the Head of the Muslim community there, confirmed to “The National” newspaper that “these events were absolutely not expected, and that they created a state of anxiety within the Islamic and Christian arenas that have never witnessed such wickedness before.”

In spite of the radical discourse promoted by the extremist rightist “Ataka” party, the act of burning the mosque and attacking the prayer attendants did not achieve any of the goals aspired by the radical rightist currents, for many political symbols and the civil society institutions, in addition to millions of Bulgarian citizens, conclusively rejected the attempts to incite confessional and religious sensitivities that could result in the country’s disruption.

His Eminence, the innovative Religious Authority, Sayyed Muhammad Hussein Fadlullah (ra), says: “Dear loved ones, when we face our reality, we find out that an international war is waged against Islam and Muslims under the titles of Islamic “terrorism”, Islamic “extremism” and Islamic “radicalism”. Let the people know that we are not radical in the western sense of radicalism which means to cancel the other and not to recognize him; whereas, Islam actually recognized the People of the Book, coexisted with them and did not cancel them…

We are not extremists, but committed, and there exists quite a difference between extremism that oversteps the natural limits of things and commitment that insists on the nature of things. We are not fanatic, but open-minded, for we call for dialogue and debating with the word that is best. We might be weak in certain positions, but we, as a nation, enjoy many points of strength and all we ought to do is organize them bring them together and render them active in the world…

The battle between the arrogant and the downtrodden goes way back in time, and we ought to prepare ourselves for this battle in a civilized manner; i.e. in an Islamic way; thus, beware of all the methods used to derail you from the line of reasoning and balance…

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: ‘Yes, I Criticise Certain Aspects of Islam, But Don’t Call Me a Bigot’, Demands Islamophobic Bigot

Writing the Guardian, of all places, Patrick Sookhdeo once again declares that he’s not an Islamophobe. If you’re inclined to swallow that claim have a quick look through the entries under “Sookhdeo” on Islamophobia Watch.

Or check out the list of publications on the Barnabus Fund’s website. In addition to Sookhdeo’s own works, including Slippery Slope: The Islamisation of the UK, Global Jihad: The Future in the Face of Militant Islam and The Challenge of Islam to the Church and its Mission, we find such booklets as Islam and Truth (which examines “the growing challenge which Islam poses to Western society, culture and Church”), Islam and Slavery (which “shows that slavery is accepted uncritically in the Qur’an and sharia and is supported by the example of Muhammad”) and Islam in Britain (which exposes “the way in which the UK is becoming subtly islamised”).

But don’t get the idea that Sookhdeo and his friends view the Muslim community in an entirely negative light. Muslims can of course be saved from the fires of hell by conversion to Sookhdeo’s brand of right-wing fundamentalist Christianity. So the Barnabus Fund also publishes Breaking Through the Barriers: Leading Muslims to Christ, which “deals with the crucial differences between Islam and Christianity and answers important questions, such as: Is the God of the Bible the same as Allah”. To which the answer, we strongly suspect, is a resounding “no”.

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: BBC Trust to Undertake a Review of the Impartiality and Accuracy of Their Coverage of the Events Known as the ‘Arab Spring’

As part of a continuing assessment of BBC output, the BBC Trust is about to undertake a review of the impartiality and accuracy of the BBC’s coverage of the events known as the ‘Arab Spring’ details of which are available on: www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/news/index.shtml

The BBC are keen to hear from individuals, groups or organisations with a view on the impartiality or accuracy of the coverage of Arab Spring. If you feel you will be able to contribute to this review, please email: sasha.allain@bbc.co.uk

The deadline for submissions is Wednesday 9th November at 4pm.

[JP note: The BBC could make a start by sacking its Middle East correspondent, Jeremy Bowlegs — discredited anti-semite and apologist for the Muslim Brotherhood. While they’re at it they might also like to consider releasing the Balen Report — http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8287857.stm ]

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: Beaten to a Pulp: Face of the Father Left Unrecognisable by Gang of Robbers Who Stole His Wedding Ring

Up to 15 people punched, kicked and stamped on the head of Joseph Frederic, 38

A father-of-three was beaten to a bloody pulp by a gang of as many as 15 thugs who stole his wedding ring and mobile phone.

Joseph Frederic, 38, was punched to the ground before the gang repeatedly kicked him and stamped on his head.

The only description Mr Frederic was able to offer police is that he believes all the attackers were black.

— Hat tip: Kitman

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UK: Diet Islamism

[Reader comment on 27 October 2011 at 5:27 am.]

A favourite tactic of those who are desperate to present Islamism in a positive light is often to qualify it as “moderate”; the BBC loves to do this. Diet Islamism apparently reduces the chances of Koranic heart disease and is the preferred choice for leftard consumers everywhere, especially those eager to embrace the taste of the original whilst avoiding piling on extra stonings.

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: Hunt for Worthing “Poo Thief”

A bag-snatcher on a bicycle pinched a bag of poo from an elderly dog-walker in Worthing.

The thief rode past the pensioner near the Post Office in High Street, Tarring, and grabbed a bag she had been using to clean up after her dog.

A spokeswoman for Sussex Police said: “A male on his pushbike came past her and snatched the bag, perhaps thinking that there was something of value inside.

“The lady was not harmed and clearly the thief stole nothing of value.”

The crime took place at 10.45am on Sunday.

The suspect was described as a black teenager.

Anyone with information is asked to call Sussex Police on 0845 6070999.

— Hat tip: Kitman

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UK: Islamophobia Off Our Campuses

Public meeting, called by the Enough Coalition Against Islamophobia

6:30pm, Thursday 27th October 2011

Room 3E, University of London Union, Malet Street, London

Following on from the successful Enough Coalition against Islamophobia summer conference in May 2011, we are now focusing on a very important aspect of Islamophobia that has affected many of us and that will continue to be a source of great injustice for many more if we do not speak out now. Join the Enough Coalition on Thursday 27th October to discuss Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim hatred on our campuses.

Joining us on the panel are:

Dr Daud Abdullah (British Muslim Initiative)

Sanum Ghafoor (Student, blogger and activist)

Alaa Al Samarrai (FOSIS)

Hicham Yezza (Nottingham Uni — Editor of Ceasefire — and student who was arrested for printing the Al Qaeda manual)

Chris Nineham (Stop the War Coalition and Enough Coalition against Islamophobia)

Others To Be Confirmed! Free entry, all welcome.

Facebook event page — https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=293831367311653

Facebook — Enough Coalition Against Islamophobia

Twitter — @enoughcoalition Event Hashtag #ECiphobiaUni

The Enough Coalition was established to tackle the rising tide of Islamophobia in the UK and confront anti-Muslim hatred. It brings together a coalition of organisations including Stop the War Coalition, Friends of Al-Aqsa, British Muslim Initiative, Federation of Students Islamic Societies, One Society Many Cultures, Unite Against Fascism, London Muslim Centre and the Islamic Forum of Europe.

[JP note: A better conference, surely, would be extremist Islamic hate preachers OFF our campuses? Starting with the traitor and extremist Dr Daud Abdullah. I hope the security services will be monitoring this event.]

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: Repeat Offenders Responsible for Half a Million Crimes

More than half a million crimes were committed by known offenders last year, with half carried out by career criminals.

The crimes were all committed by repeat offenders and included 3,400 serious violent or sexual offences. It is the first time such figures have been released and more than 270,000 offences were by criminals who had at least 25 previous convictions or cautions to their name.

Separate figures showed 134 dangerous criminals were suspected of carrying out serious further offences such as murder, rape and other violence despite being monitored by the authorities. The figures once again raise questions over the ability of the justice system to rehabilitate offenders. Prisons minister Crispin Blunt said: “Reoffending in this country is unacceptably high and these statistics underline the urgent need for steps to reform the system and introduce a rehabilitation revolution to our prisons and community sentences.”

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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UK: The Country Has Had Enough of Deception

It’s time to close the yawning gap between the ruling and the ruled

How’s this for a starkly unequivocal promise?

‘The European Union has evolved significantly since the last public vote on membership over 30 years ago. Liberal Democrats, therefore, remain committed to an in/out referendum the next time a British Government signs up for fundamental change in the relationship between the UK and the EU.’

Such was the solemn manifesto pledge made to the British people by every Lib Dem candidate who stood for election less than 18 months ago.

Yet on Monday night, guess how many of the party’s 57 MPs stood by that promise and voted for a Commons motion approving the principle of an EU referendum that would include an in/out option? The shocking answer is just one — Adrian Sanders of Torbay — a solitary honourable man in a party of puppets.

As with tuition fees, the other 56 apparently thought nothing of breaking their word to the people who voted them into power.

Or how about this for another unequivocal manifesto pledge?

‘We will be positive members of the European Union but we are clear that there should be no further extension of the EU’s power over the UK without the British people’s consent. We will ensure that by law, no future Government can hand over areas of power to the EU or join the euro without a referendum of the British people.’

So said the Conservatives, every one of them, before that same election in May 2010 — and all praise to the 96 (out of 306) Tories who mounted the biggest rebellion in their party’s modern history on Monday night, keeping their word to their constituents and defying their leader’s orders to vote against the motion.

But given that manifesto pledge, what in the name of integrity possessed David Cameron to impose a three-line whip in the first place, instructing his MPs to breach their electors’ trust on pain of losing their government jobs or their hopes of promotion to the front bench?

And how profoundly depressing and unedifying to see those lifelong Eurosceptics William Hague and Michael Gove wriggling like maggots on a hook as they betrayed every belief about Europe they’ve espoused throughout their political careers…

Remember Labour’s 2005 manifesto pledge on the new European Constitution? ‘We will put it to the British people in a referendum.’ Nothing, surely, could have been more unequivocal.

Yet when it came to signing the Lisbon Treaty, in which the new constitution was enshrined, Gordon Brown conveniently forgot about it. Or, rather, he fobbed off the public with the monstrous lie that Lisbon (referred to in official documents as ‘the Constitutional Treaty’) was not, in fact, a European Constitution at all.

The Tories and Lib Dems were no better. Both promised explicitly to put the Constitution to a referendum. But as soon as they were in a position to do so, they smirked and said: ‘No point now. Lisbon’s been signed.’

Wherever Europe is concerned, there’s always some snivelling shyster’s excuse, some weasel-worded legalistic technicality seized on by the politicians to wriggle out of their commitment to give the public their say. (And these days, when all else fails, there’s always that catch-all standby: ‘Sorry, old boy. The Coalition agreement won’t allow it.’)

So it is that, one by one, the ancient powers of Britain’s once sovereign Parliament, paid for by the blood of our ancestors, slip away to Brussels — into the hands of unaccountable European Commission, where voters will never be able to touch them again… (read on!)

— Hat tip: Kitman

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UK: White Man Subjected to Race Attack by Gang of Yobs

Andrew Goodram, 31, suffered a punctured lung and two broken ribs after the gang of four yobs shouted: “white bastard” at him before subjecting him to a vicious assault.

During the beating Mr Goodram, a labourer, was repeatedly kicked in the head, face and body.

One of his attackers then stood over him and stamped on his chest causing was police described as “significant injuries.”

“I’m scared now and when I see groups of Asian people and this attack has changed how I feel about going out.

“When I’m walking around especially on my own I feel intimidated and worried I might get attacked again. The fact is I am not racist and I have got loads of Asian friends and I’m really saddened that this has happened to me.

“I do believe the attack was racially motivated because I am white but I don’t understand why. I thought we are supposed to live together in peace.”

The attackers were Asian and aged between 20 and 30.

— Hat tip: Kitman

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Underwater Lava: Eruptions Could Create New Island in the Canaries

What would the island be called? And who would own it? Spewing magma and growing in height, an underwater volcano off the Canary Island of El Hierro has captured the imagination of locals in recent weeks. It could eventually rise from the sea to create a new part of the archipelago.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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US Mafia Boss Arrested at Rome Clinic

Warrant issued by Palermo court

(ANSA) — Roma, October 27 — Italian police on Thursday arrested Italo-American mafia boss Rosario Gambino at a Rome clinic where he was being treated.

Police swooped on the 69-year-old Gambino after a Palermo appeals court issued an arrest warrant after his recent release from prison in the northern city of Parma.

Gambino, who is part of the crime family of the same name, worked with his brother to set up an international heroin cartel.

He was sentenced to 45 years in prison in 1983 after being found guilty of selling heroin to undercover police officers in the US as part of an investigation known as Pizza Connection.

At the time their drug operation was accused of importing $600 million worth of heroin into the US every year.

Following an Italian investigation led by the late magistrate Giovanni Falcone in 1985, Gambino was sentenced in absentia in Italy.

Gambino was born as the middle son of Tommaso Gambino in Palermo in 1942. He and his brothers Giuseppe and Giovanni Gambino moved to the United States in 1962.

They are distant relatives of the notorious American crime boss Carlo Gambino who headed one of the major families of the Sicilian Mafia or Cosa Nostra in the US for many years.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Violent Shop Robberies Triple in Belgium

26/10/11 — Over the past three years the number of incidents in which violence was used to steal from shops has increased three-fold. Last year alone 915 million euros worth of goods were stolen from Belgian shops.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Mediterranean to Face Grain Crisis by 2030

(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, 27 OCT — This is not the first alarm to have been raised about cereal production in the Euro-Mediterranean region. But this time round, the gloomy forecasts contain plentiful data and concrete scenarios that foresee a phase of steep decline in cereal production in the area with predictable consequences — social as well as economic — given that the sector forms the basis of the food chain for many countries. This latest analysis has been made by IPEMED, the forecasting think tank of the Mediterranean world which often concerns itself with food-related issues.

In one of its reports, the institute has stated that there is a risk of a “worsening of the cereal-production situation” in the area, naming the year 2030 as a possible point of collapse for a regions that already lives in “a permanent state of food insecurity”. Behind the dramatic phraseology lie the concerns expressed by a host of experts who continue to stress how cereal crops “have a central role in farming for food-production” in the region. And so, just as with any upheaval affecting our ability to survive from one day to the next, strong — even violent — reactions can be expected from the area’s population.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Arab Spring Activists Win Sakharov Prize

(STRASBOURG) — The European parliament on Thursday awarded its human rights prize to five Arab Spring activists, including the Tunisian man who sparked region-wide uprisings by setting himself on fire. Tunisian fruitseller Mohamed Bouazizi was awarded the Sakharov prize for freedom of thought posthumously, a statement on the parliament’s website said.

The other winners of the 50,000 euro ($70,000) prize are Egypt’s Asmaa Mahfouz, Libyan dissident Ahmed al-Zubair Ahmed al-Sanusi, Syrian lawyer Razan Zeitouneh and Syrian cartoonist Ali Farzat. Bouazizi, an unemployed university graduate, set himself on fire on December 17 to protest abuses under the 23-year regime of Zine el Abidine Ben Ali. He died two weeks later. His protest against “incessant humiliation and badgering by the Tunisian authorities” led to Ben Ali’s downfall and “sparked uprisings and vital changes in other Arab countries,” the parliament statement said.

His brother Salem Bouazizi dedicated the prize to all Tunisian people. “I am very happy, I offer this prize to the Tunisian people who succeeded in this revolution,” he said, speaking from Tunisia. “This prize shows international recognition for Mohamed Bouazizi’s role in the Tunisian revolution,” he added. Egypt’s Mahfouz helped organise strikes and protests against Hosni Mubarak’s regime.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Dreaming of Spring in Tunisia

by Katharine Cornell Gorka

The whole world seems to be agog with the victory of Islamists in Tunisia. “Moderate Islamists,” they are called. “A historic milestone on Tunisia’s path from autocratic dictatorship to a government that respects the will of the people,” declares Hilary Clinton. “As the first country in the region to put democracy to the test at the polling booth, Tunisia is once again leading the way,” declared British Prime Minister David Cameron. “…An important step forward,” said President Obama. But forward towards what?

The Islamist party Ennahdha has won a strong victory and few seem concerned about it. Indeed many seem to think democracy now has a foothold in the Arab world…

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Egypt: Muslims and Christians, If You Don’t Communicate, You Don’t Exist

Muslim-Christian conference in Cairo stress importance of media communication, interfaith dialogue in transitional Egypt.

“We can write anything now!” said an editor of the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram to some visiting Danish participants in Cairo as a part of a recent Alexandria-based conference called “Media´s Role for Changing Society and Democracy”. The Egyptian revolution has certainly become a catalyst for free speech and for more political debate in Egyptian media. Yet, the chaotic climate of the revolution has also suffered some backlash. Another editor at Al-Ahram warned that the media in Egypt is now in a political limbo, and can sometimes even motivate the Egyptian public towards sectarian violence and false information.

The conference and the changing media landscape made it clear to all participants that both mass media communication as well as Muslim-Christian dialogue were of immense importance during this time of transition in Egypt. And participants did note that the media has the potential to promote positive dialogue. New media, especially social media sites like YouTube, Facebook or Twitter, has brought new players into the game of mass communication and challenged the hegemony of the “old” regular mass media. Danish participant Peter Fisher-Nielsen pointed out that the limitations created by state censorship have loosened after the revolution, but that the current absence of any limits on what can be discussed in the media also poses a danger for more confrontation. That is why direct dialogue between religious minorities and groups has become more important than ever.

The conference brought together Muslim and Christian activists and leaders to do just that through discussion of the religious media and the on-going Egyptian revolution. Co-organised by the Egyptian Coptic Evangelical Organization for Social Services (CEOSS) and the Danish Christian organisation Danmission, the conference was conducted by the Forum for Intercultural Dialogue the first week of October. Participants in this cross-cultural forum came from both Egypt and Denmark. Danish Muslims, representing the Muslim minority in a Christian country, and Egyptian Christians, representing a Christian minority in a Muslim country, met each other to talk about their experiences and share hopes for the future.

The main focus of the dialogue was to discuss the media from the point of view of religious organisations: what role did the media play for the democratisation process of Egypt, and what does a free press and the use of new social media tools, such as YouTube and Facebook, mean for the political climate in Egypt?

Delegates at the dialogue conference became first-hand witnesses to the problems with sectarianism and how it was reflected in the media as violence erupted between peacefully demonstrating Copts on Tahrir Square in Cairo and the military. But there is still hope for Egyptian media and civil society. Copts and Muslims talked at the conference about their recent efforts to combat sectarian bias through cooperative action, such as Muslims protecting churches, and Christians and Muslims joining voices in the media for the unification and prosperity of Egypt. One example is the recent joint statement by five Coptic leaders and seven leaders of Gamaa Islamiya — a formerly militant Muslim group — urging both Muslim and Christian youth to listen to the voice of reason and respect religion. Important and sometimes even sensitive issues were discussed among the delegates with mutual respect for each other´s points of view.

The dialogue conference showed open and civic debate between diverse groups was not only possible, but actually happening. During a discussion on a field trip to the pyramids of Giza, a Coptic activist told the Danish delegation: “The dangerous part of the Egyptian revolution is not religious diversity. We are all Egyptians. The danger comes from the failure of some interest groups to realise that we are all Egyptians. Our task is to keep people talking with each other. “

Participants ended the conference by issuing a joint declaration about the importance of dialogue and a free media: “We must not let our lives be run by fear and bias,” said Samira Luca, Director of Dialogue at Coptic Evangelical Organization for Social Services, one of Egypt’s largest organisations aiding poorer communities in the area of economic development, healthcare and education. “Our continuous work for dialogue and peaceful co-existence is not just work, it´s our mission.” Talking about Egyptians, another Egyptian delegate at one of the workshops at the dialogue conference exclaimed, “If you don´t communicate, you don´t exist!” This statement embodies the core of not just the troubles of the Egyptian revolution, but also the future of Muslim-Christian coexistence in the country.

Safia Aoude is a Copenhagen-based lawyer and writer pursuing a Master’s degree in journalism at the Southern University of Denmark. She is also focusing on Islamic and Balkan studies at Copenhagen University. This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).

[JP note: With the Muslim Brotherhood on the horizon, co-existence would appear to be a one-way street: the Copts may end up not existing like the Armenians. In fact the article title sounds like a covert threat to communicate on Islamic terms only.]

— Hat tip: JP

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EU Parliament Hails Arab Spring Self-Immolation

BRUSSELS — MEPs in Strasbourg on Thursday (27 October) awarded the Sakharov Prize to five activists including Mohammed Bouazizi — a 27-year-old Tunisian street trader who burned himself to death in December in protest against corruption, inspiring revolutionaries at home and in the region. The four other winners were Egyptian blogger Asmaa Mahfouz, Libyan dissident Ahmed al-Zubair Ahmed al-Sanusi, who spent 31 years in Colonel Gaddafi’s dungeons, Syrian human rights lawyer Razan Zaitouneh and Syrian cartoonist Ali Farzat.

EU parliament President Jerzy Buzek said while making the announcement: “This is an expression of our support for what’s going on in our closest neighbourhood … an expression of solidarity with the Arab world.” Liberal group leader Guy Verhoftsadt said in a written statement: “This recognition is also a pledge from Europe to be there to build upon the achievements of the people.”

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Libya: MI6 Planted Qaddafi Spy in British Mosques

Britain’s secret intelligence service planted a spy working for the Qaddafi regime inside mosques in England, secret files recovered by Human Rights Watch (HRW) revealed. Faxes discovered in September from the abandoned Tripoli offices of Libya’s former head of intelligence, Musa Kusa, exposed how a Libyan agent reported to MI6 on his visits to mosques in England and discussed the surveillance of Libyan ‘Islamists’ living across the UK. The focus of his activities was Manchester, but he also visited Liverpool, Wigan and Blackpool.

The spying operation is the latest indication of the close ties forged between the British and Libyan security services under Tony Blair, then Prime Minister, and Qaddafi. “Many members of Britain’s Muslim community will be extremely concerned about this,” said, Chair of the Commons Home Affairs Committee, Keith Vaz, who will be asking Foreign Secretary, William Hague, for an explanation.

The files contain details of a meeting between the Libyan agent and his MI6 handler, at the Malmaison hotel in Manchester in December 2003. HRW said that although it is expected for British intelligence services to monitor suspects, their collaboration with a regime “well-known for targeting” its opponents is “inexcusable”. In a statement to The Muslim News a spokesman for HRW said: “What is deeply worrying is the extent of information-sharing that took place between the UK and Libya about these individuals. The UK shared the names, phone numbers, and many personal details of Libyan Islamists residing in the UK with the Libyan intelligence services, and these details could have placed these individuals at risk.

“For decades, the Qaddafi regime persecuted suspected Islamists, imprisoning thousands. Most of the 1,200 detainees massacred at Abu Salim in 1996 were suspected ‘Islamists’, many of them imprisoned on the flimsiest of grounds. “Given these well-known abusive practices of the Qaddafi regime, the intelligence-sharing to the Libyans by the UK Government is simply inexcusable, and put Libyan Muslims who were legally in the UK at risk.”

Muslim organisations have also voiced their concern at the revelations that the Government was using Libyan spies in UK mosques. The Muslim Public Affairs Committee (MPAC) spokesperson told The Muslim News it was “appalled by the revelation”. “This Government and the previous one, have missed a key opportunity to foster trust with British Muslims. They need the trust of our community in tackling radical extremism and this development jeopardises that. “Further, we are disappointed to hear that our Government was cooperating with the Libyan regime of Col Qaddafi. His Government was notorious for its use of torture and other abuses of human rights. In a democracy, our intelligence services either answer to an elected minister or they are out of control. We want to know which version is the truth. Only an enquiry in to the matter can resolve this as the select committee on intelligence has proved to be ineffective in getting to the truth.” he said.

— Hat tip: JP

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Libya: Frattini: Europe Must Avoid Islamic Autumn After Spring

(ANSAmed) — ROME, OCTOBER 27 — Europe needs to succeed in interpreting the changes afoot, if it is to avoid the current Arab Spring being followed by an Islamic Autumn, according to the Italian Foreign Minister, Franco Frattini, who has been speaking to Radio 24.

“It will depend largely on us. On how we Europeans are able to interpret change with respect for countries that have always had an Islamic order as the basis of their constitutional system, such as Egypt,” he said. The President of Libya’s National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, said that “Muslims in Libya are moderate and we take this statement seriously,” Frattini added. “We will stand by Libya and we will be on hand to flag up any violations of rights that we consider inviolable, such as those of women or the right to open a Christian church”.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Libya: Gaddafi’s Driver, He Was Without Fear But Lost

(ANSAmed) — ROME, OCTOBER 27 — He never showed any fear, but he looked lost, not knowing what to do: this picture of Muammar Gaddafi was sketched by Huneish Nasr — faithful driver of the Libyan leader for 30 years — who witnessed the final days of the colonel before his capture and death in Sirte, his birth city.

From a prison in Misrata where he was taken several days ago together with Mansour Dhao, former head of Gaddafi’s guards, Nasr told the Guardian about the Thursday when Gaddafi was captured by the combatants of the new Libya.

“Everything was exploding. The revolutionaries were coming for us. Gaddafi wasn’t scared, but he didn’t seem to know what to do. It was the only time I ever saw him like that,” said Nasr, looking back on those terrible moments before the battle that would leave him deaf in his right ear. “When the NTC forces arrived, Gaddafi threw his hands up in surrender. He was knocked to the ground with a rifle butt, which blackened his left eye. Gaddafi was being pulled from a drainpipe” said Nasr, who fell to the ground immediately after.

The driver — a member of the Gaddafi tribe — remembered that he was able to get a final glimpse of his “master” before he was swarmed over by the rebels.

One week later, Nasr and Daho seem to be the only survivors of the old loyal guard that stood by the Libyan leader during the five days of the final attack on Sirte, hiding in houses to avoid capture. “If any of the other close staff are still alive, I don’t know where they are or what happened to them,” said Nasr. “The rest of them may be somewhere with the revolutionaries or they may be dead,” he added.

Returning to the memory of the final days of the man he served for a lifetime without any second thoughts, Nasr underlined: “Gaddafi was strange, he was always standing still and looking to the west. Without fear. I was with him for 30 years and I swear by God that I never saw any bad behaviour in him. He was always just the boss. He treated me well,” Nasr added, explaining he received a salary of 800 dinar a month, as well as a house in Sirte.

But one image Nars — now over 60 — would like to forget is seeing the colonel being lowered into an unmarked grave and covered with sand.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Morocco: Strategy to Bring Home Emigrant Capital Studied

(ANSAmed) — RABAT, OCTOBER 27 — The phenomenon of emigration has been present for some time in Morocco and represents one of the kingdom’s main resources. The state now wants to maximise the flow of capital coming in from the diaspora, with the Ministry for the Moroccan Community Resident Abroad (MCMRE) launching a study with the hope of implementing a strategy next year.

The economic situation is favourable, with money transfers from the large community of Moroccans abroad increasing by 8% this month compared to October 2010, and the strategy in question is likely to be orientated towards “accompanying the economic initiatives of [Moroccans resident abroad] and the strengthening of the institutional framework. The idea is to create and stabilise an environment favouring collaboration with all players involved,” said Abdelfettah Sahidi, from the emigration office of the MCMRE.

The newspaper Les Echos writes that the plan will be implemented by mobilising the relevant administrations, collaboration with banking and private sector players and negotiations with partners.

The second aim is to use new legislative, regulatory and financial instruments to set up a legal environment favouring investments by Moroccans residing abroad, an environment therefore more conducive with efforts made to promote such investments.

Another target is to develop a regionalised approach — which would fit neatly with the current political context — of creating a regional investment platform for Moroccans living abroad. The platform would aim to group partners together on a regional level, guaranteeing their compatibility in terms of mechanisms to accompany investment.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Mummy Has Oldest Case of Prostate Cancer in Ancient Egypt

Some 2250 years ago in Egypt, a man known today only as M1 struggled with a long, painful, progressive illness. A dull pain throbbed in his lower back, then spread to other parts of his body, making most movements a misery. When M1 finally succumbed to the mysterious ailment between the ages of 51 and 60, his family paid for him to be mummified so that he could be reborn and relish the pleasures of the afterworld.

Now an international research team has diagnosed what ailed M1: the oldest known case of prostate cancer in ancient Egypt and the second oldest case in the world. (The earliest diagnosis of prostate cancer came from the 2700-year-old skeleton of a Scythian king in Russia.) Moreover, the new study now in press in the International Journal of Paleopathology, suggests that earlier investigators may have underestimated the prevalence of cancer in ancient populations because high-resolution computerized tomography (CT) scanners capable of finding tumors measuring just 1 to 2 millimeters in diameter only became available in 2005. “I think earlier researchers probably missed a lot without this technology,” says team leader Carlos Prates, a radiologist in private practice at Imagens Médicas Integradas in Lisbon.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Tunisia: Election: Partial Data, Ennahda Already 85 Seats

(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, OCTOBER 27 — Counting is not yet complete in all 27 electoral districts in Tunisia, but partial figures show that Ennahda, the party that won most votes and scored the highest percentages, has already won 85 seats.

The same figures show that the Congress for the Republic (CPR) have won 28 seats, with 26 going to Pétition Populaire, 23 to Ettakatol, 20 to the Parti Démocrate Progressiste, 8 for the Pole Démocrate Moderniste and 5 for Afek Tounes.

Results are due to be made official today by the high electoral commission, but figures are yet to come in for important districts such as Tunis 2, Bizerte, Kasserine and Ariana.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Worse Than Gaddafi?

They call it the Arab spring, but these days it’s looking more and more like a fall backwards. Tunisia has elected an Islamist party to lead a new coalition government. In Egypt, Coptic Christians have been targeted and killed, while a Muslim man recently received a three-year sentence for mocking Islam on his Facebook page. And in his first major address to the Libyan people, the interim head of state, former Gaddafi justice minister Mustafa Abdul Jalil, declared: “As a Muslim country, we have adopted the Islamic Sharia as the main source of law. Accordingly, any law that contradicts Islamic principles with the Islamic Sharia is ineffective legally.”

Jalil went on to reassure Western politicians that the new government’s interpretation of Sharia will be “moderate.” But that moderation already includes the lifting of a ban on polygamy, and permitting a man to take additional wives without asking his first wife for consent. In addition, there are disquieting reports that women married to Gaddafi supporters are being raped as “punishment” for their men’s allegiance.

A similar scenario played out in Iran in 1979, after Shah Reza Pahlavi was deposed and replaced by a theocracy led by the Ayatollah Khomeini; and in Afghanistan in 1996 after the execution of Sovietbacked president Mohammad Najibullah, with Taliban leaders taking his place. Replacing one repressive regime with another is not what the West had in mind when it ordered air strikes on Libya — but it may be exactly what it gets.

Does this mean NATO was wrong in supporting the rebels who chased Gaddafi from power, down to his bloody end? No, not in principle. Gaddafi was a brutal, crazed autocrat who terrorized, tortured and killed thousands of his own people over 40 years. But his successors may prove to be just as bad — or, from a female point of view, even worse. This is why those who hail the “Responsibility to Protect” doctrine — the brainchild of Canada’s own International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS) — may wish to hold their applause for the moment, even as they celebrate R2P’s 10th anniversary this month. Libya once seemed like a fine example of R2P’s implementation. But just who is “protected” now in Libya is a major question mark. While the men of the country now can breathe easier (unless they were part of the old regime), its women face a new threat of legal and personal oppression.

Sharia is subject to varying interpretations. Saudi Arabia adheres to the most extreme tenets: chopping off hands to punish thieves, and putting gays and lesbians to death, for example. In Iran, female “fornicators” can be stoned to death. But even shariah’s “moderate” interpretations typically turn women into second class citizens, in particular when it comes to family law.

Sharia also represents a social structure wholly alien to Western values. Instead of separating mosque and state, it fuses the two, and imposes social norms governing every aspect of daily life. In her bestselling book, Infidel, Muslim author Ayan Hirsi Ali opined that doctrinaire Islam is incompatible with true democracy because it curtails freedom, in particular the freedom to question and think critically: “By declaring our Prophet infallible and not permitting ourselves to question him, we Muslims had set up a static tyranny — We froze the moral outlook of billions of people into the mind-set of the Arab desert in the seventh century. We were not just servants of Allah, we were slaves.”

Will the people of the new Libya, Egypt and Tunisia become slaves to new Islamist regimes? It is too early to know, but the signs are worrisome. In terms of the West’s influence, at least the NATO campaign gives it a card to play in Libya: that of liberator. How much say the United States and its allies have in that country’s future will depend on aid, trade and security. If R2P is to achieve its goal, then these must be tied to the respect of human rights — for women as well as men.

tjk@tashakheiriddin.com

— Hat tip: JP

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Gaza: Israel Raid After Rocket, 1st Since Shalit Deal

(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, OCTOBER 27 — A triple Israeli air raid was carried out in the early hours of this morning over the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by the Palestinian hardliners Hamas, after a rocket landed last night close to the Israeli port city of Ashdod, south of Tel Aviv. No casualties have yet been reported, but the incidents represent the first exchange of fire since the agreements of the last few weeks between Israel and Hamas, which were brokered by Egypt, and which resulted in the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit being released 10 days ago after 5 years in captivity in the Gaza Strip in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. Local witnesses say that last night’s raids hit at least three different targets in the Khan Younis area, including a training camp for the Izz ad-Din Al Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas. “Israeli aviation hit terrorist sites and an installation used for the production of weapons,” an Israeli military spokesperson said in Tel Aviv.

The raids came a few hours after a medium-range Grad missile was launched from the Gaza Strip, after days of almost absolute calm, following the prisoner swap. The missile exploded in an uninhabited area without causing significant casualties or damage, but landed close to the city of Ashdod, where sirens once again brought moments of fear.

Writing in the Haaretz newspaper, the military analysts Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff have reaffirmed the alarm of Israeli officials over the latest supply of weapons — in particular reliable Russian surface-to-air missiles — that Hamas appears to have smuggled out of the “new Libya”.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Iran: What Will They Think of Next?

by Christopher Hitchens

There may conceivably be a reason to doubt the truth of the Obama administration’s claim that the “Quds Force” of the Islamic Republic of Iran went into the free market for murder in order to suborn the killing of the Saudi ambassador to the United States. But neither the apparently surreal nor the apparently flagrant nature of the thing would constitute such reasons. We have been here before, as a splendid recent book reminds us, and have learned that no allegation made against the goon squads in Tehran can be thought of as prima-facie implausible.

This unmissable book is called Assassins of the Turquoise Palace, by the Iranian exile author Roya Hakakian (who, I am proud to say, I count as a friend). It details the fallout from a murder in Berlin on Sept. 17, 1992. On that date, a group of Iranian Kurdish exiles were in the city to attend a conference of the Socialist International, the umbrella body that links the parties of social democracy. Chief of the delegation was Sadegh Sharefkandi, a man of huge respect in the Kurdish diaspora. As he sat in a restaurant favored by exiles and émigre’s, the Mykonos, he and his associates were machine-gunned in cold blood. The murderers vanished swiftly.

Arguments about motive, method, and opportunity soon began, all of them inevitably muddied in with the paranoias and internecine disputes of political factionalism. Though an obvious finger at first pointed toward Tehran, it was argued that relations between the regime and Germany were good and that it would be irrational for the mullahs to make trouble. It was also suggested that a Kurdish splinter group, the Turkishbased PKK or Kurdistan Workers Party, was responsible instead. (You may have noticed that Tehran is now also arguing for a similar red herring in the case of the Saudi ambassador, citing a shadowy figure who flits in and out of the Mujahedin Khalq and other circles opposed to the Khameini regime.)

However, it was not long before more serious forensic evidence began to emerge from the Mykonos affair. In the waning days of Ayatollah Khomeini’s life, a special department had been set up for the physical elimination of critics and opponents of his regime. These were to be targeted and taken off the chessboard, whether they lived in Iran or overseas. Money was available, as were weapons. Safe houses and false identities were provided for those willing to do the dirty work. Gradually, the German authorities came to realize that their own soil was being used for the settling of scores by a nightmare regime with which they were doing lucrative business.

Hakakian’s book has a number of heroes, many of them Kurdish and Iranian secularists who have risked everything to keep the idea of resistance alive. But one would have to give a special acknowledgement to Bruno Jost, the German prosecutor who ended up risking everything to expose the machinations of the death squads. Those of you who have seen Costa-Gavras’ Z will be entirely gripped by this tale, which unfolded at a time when trade and commercial relations between Germany and Iran were almost indecently warm. Iran’s former minister of intelligence, Ali Fallahian, thought this close relationship would head off any inconvenient inquiries. But in the end, a four-year trial managed to call 176 witnesses, to successfully protect from intimidation those willing to testify, and to hand down a series of deadly accurate indictments.

The Islamic Republic of Iran was definitively shown to be in the business of state-supported murder, outside its own borders as well as within. Not only Germany but all European Union members recalled their ambassadors from Iran. And the streets outside the courthouse were filled with thousands of jubilant Iranian democrats, who just for once saw true justice done. It’s hard for the reader not to weep at this point, as I did. I must urge you to get hold of this book.

The phenomenon — of governments keeping special departments for criminal activity — is not confined to Iran. In the Financial Times, Mansoor Ijaz recently revealed the existence of “Section S” of the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The purpose of this office, sometimes known as “S-Wing,” is to maintain relations to the Taliban and Haqqani network, writes Ijaz, a Pakistani-American who once negotiated with Sudan for the Clinton administration. Shortly after the killing of Osama Bin Laden in May, he was approached by a representative of Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, seeking a meeting with the White House. At this meeting Pakistan, having hitherto denied the existence of Section S, would offer to shut it down in return for concessions!

It was by this means, among others, that Adm. Mike Mullen, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was able to determine that the ISI was shopping on both sides of the Afghan street, and that the United States was helping finance the murder and sabotage of its own troops and allies. Again, it is the sheer absence of embarrassment that takes the breath away. We have been betraying you, and now wish to be further bribed to stop doing so. (Didn’t Flaubert have a banker who was so corrupt that he would willingly have paid for the pleasure of selling himself?)

I notice that reporting of Pakistani double-dealing has improved since Zardari came clean in this way. We can even read first-hand accounts of Pakistani shelling of American and Afghan forces, launched directly across the border in broad daylight. We also have the impossibly arrogant Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayhani, Pakistan’s uniformed satrap, saying that he will need to keep the Haqqani network armed and on his official payroll even as coalition forces try to mount an orderly handover and withdrawal.

Finally, since mentioning BernardHenri Lévy’s celebrated timeline of Pakistani perfidy from May 2005, I have received several requests to make it easier to find. It can be read at http: //tiny.cc/ 957zk. It is the record of an extraordinarily successful effort to deceive Congress, and to manipulate American aid and strategy, over a distressingly long period of time. Again, the principal method was the horse-trading in Taliban and alQaeda figures against whom Islamabad only claimed to be fighting. There is a common lesson in all these examples: Never assume that the totalitarian or terrorist enemy is smart enough to conceal his tracks. Indeed, don’t always assume that he is even interested in doing so. The utter nerve of it is often part of the strategy in the first place.

— Hat tip: JP

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Lebanon: Geagea Misses Prison, Insults Islam, Sayyed Nasrallah

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) — A hearing was held on Wednesday in the office of Beirut Magistrate, Shawki Hajjar, for the lawsuit filed by lawyer Mai Khansa against Samir Geagea, accusing him of libel and slander crimes, for insulting the Holy Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) and his eminence Secretary General of Hezbollah Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah. The lawyer Lebbos attended on behalf of Samir Geagea, while Hajjar received a copy of the complaint and will wait until the submission of formal defenses until 22/11/2011. “The article editor on the Lebanese Forces website has extremely offended Muslims, describing them by ugliest epithets. The responsible is the leader of Lebanese Forces Samir Geagea, who should be held accountable for this,” Khansa told Al-Manar Website. “The law should take its course in this case, under the respect of religions and realization of the right”, Khansa added. “What happened belongs to felonies which exceeded Libel and slander. There is terror, intimidation, incitement and fomenting strife between the sects,” the lawyer Khansa concluded.

— Hat tip: JP

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Russia Links Chechens Shot in Turkey to Bombing

Two Chechens shot dead in Turkey last month are suspected of involvement in a January suicide bombing at Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport that killed 37 people, investigators said Wednesday. Berg-Hadj Musayev, Zaurbek Amriyev and Rustam Altemirov were shot dead on Sept. 16 in a parking lot in Istanbul, in a killing that was blamed on Russian special services by a Turkish-based support group for refugees from the Caucasus.

The Investigative Committee said it was probing the murders of Amriyev and Altemirov as part of an investigation into the Jan. 24 suicide bombing at Domodedovo Airport. The third Chechen, Musayev, has been closely linked to Chechen warlord Doku Umarov, according to Kavkazcenter.com, a web site affiliated with the Islamist insurgency in the North Caucasus.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Saudi Arabia: Nayef Leads Procession of Mourners

Riyadh: Crown Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz, who died on Saturday in New York, was buried after a funeral service in Riyadh yesterday. Several heads of state and high-ranking officials from around the world, joined King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz, Prince Nayef Bin Abdul Aziz, Second Deputy Premier and Minister of Interior, and other members of the royal family as well as senior Saudi officials and scholars in funeral prayers held at Imam Turki Bin Abdullah Mosque in Riyadh’s Deera after Asr prayer. His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, headed the UAE delegation.

The Vice-President was accompanied by a high official delegation that included General Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, and Shaikh Sultan Bin Mohammad Bin Sultan Al Qasimi, Crown Prince and Deputy Ruler of Sharjah. Shaikh Ammar Bin Humaid Al Nuaimi, Crown Prince of Ajman, Shaikh Mohammad Bin Hamad Bin Mohammad Al Sharqi, Crown Prince of Fujairah, Shaikh Rashid Bin Saud Bin Rashid Al Mualla, Crown Prince of Umm Al Quwain, Shaikh Mohammad Bin Saud Bin Saqr Al Qasimi, Crown Prince of Ras Al Khaimah, and Dr Shaikh Sultan Bin Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Adviser to President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, were also part of the delegation.

Thousands of mourners, including citizens and expatriates, also attended the prayer. Later, the body was buried in the Al Oud cemetery, some five kilometres from the mosque.

Millions of people, including Haj pilgrims, attended funeral prayers held at the Haram Mosque in Makkah, the Prophet’s (PBUH) Mosque in Madinah and thousands of other mosques across the Kingdom. This was in line with an order issued by King Abdullah on Monday to offer funeral prayers in absentia (Salat Al Ghaib) for the departed crown prince at all mosques throughout the Kingdom.

A large contingent of leaders, including kings, crown princes, heads of state, prime ministers, and top officials from more than 100 countries gathered in Riyadh to pay respects to Crown Prince Sultan, who is also popularly known as Sultan Al Khair (Prince of Charity). They included US Vice-President Joe Biden, Japan’s Crown Prince Naruhito, Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, Spanish Crown Prince Felipe de Borbon, Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Malaysian Prime Minister Najeeb Razak, Kuwaiti Emir Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah, Comoros President Dr Ikililou Dhoinine, and Brunei Crown Prince Al Muhtadee Billah.

Condolences

Syrian President Bashar Al Assad was represented by his uncle Rafa’at Al Assad. High ranking officials heading delegations of various countries included Indian Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, Maldives’ Minister of Islamic Affairs Dr Abdul Majeed Bari, and Sri Lanka’s Senior Minister for Good Governance and Infrastructure Ratnasiri. The leaders also conveyed condolences to King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz, Prince Nayef Bin Abdul Aziz and other key members of the royal family. Security has been beefed up across the capital in view of the presence of a large number of world leaders and dignitaries.

Prince Nayef Bin Abdul Aziz led the procession of thousands of mourners who attended prayers and burial services of the crown prince amid tight security. Prince Sultan was laid to rest at the city’s sprawling Al Oud Cemetery in a simple grave in keeping with Islamic burial traditions. Thousands of people, including Saudis and migrant workers, gathered at the mosque to offer funeral prayers and later at the cemetery witnessing burial rites. The mood among the populace was very sombre. The cemetery, where the late King Fahd, King Khalid, King Faisal and Prince Sultan’s father King Abdul Aziz are also buried, is a common burial ground for the general public as well as for the members of the royal family in the capital city. Prince Sultan died at a New York hospital on Saturday morning after a prolonged illness. His body was flown into the Kingdom on Monday evening. King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz was in the forefront of royals and top officials who were present at Riyadh Air Base to receive the body that arrived from New York on a Saudi Arabian Airlines’ flight at 7.05pm.

— Hat tip: JP

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Saudi Arabia: Large Lebanese Delegation Headed by Hariri and Siniora Offers Condolences in Riyadh

A large Lebanese delegation, headed by former Prime Ministers Saad Hariri and Fouad Siniora, and composed of MPs and politicians representing “March 14” forces as well as a number of sheikhs and economic and media figures, offered condolences today to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz and the Saudi leadership, on the passing of Saudi Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul-Aziz.

Earlier, Premier Hariri hosted in his residence in Riyadh a lunch in honor of the delegation. It was an occasion to discuss the political situation and the developments on the Arab scene. Hariri underlined the importance of solidarity to face challenges, especially concerning Lebanon and the obligations of the Lebanese state towards the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, stressing that the assassination of former Prime minister Rafik Hariri, like other political assassinations that targeted many Lebanese symbols and leaders, is an issue that concerns all the Lebanese and not only one political group or one community. He added that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon was established to achieve truth and justice, to put an end to political assassinations in Lebanon, and to end the era of the forceful imposition of political choices and of terrorism as a mean to punish political opponents.

Hariri also lauded the role played by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, led by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz, in support of Lebanon. He said: “Our presence together here to offer condolences on the passing of Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, aims to express the deep links that exist between Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, and pay tribute to the great deceased, who loved Lebanon and was very attached to its stability and to the unity of its citizens”.

— Hat tip: JP

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Saudi Arabia: World Dignitaries Mourn Sultan

RIYADH: Hundreds of grief-stricken royal family members, world leaders and diplomats including Britain’s Prince Charles, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Japanese Crown Prince Naruhito and Prince Henrik of Denmark, with more than 60 ambassadors stationed in Riyadh offered their condolences Wednesday to the Saudi royal family over the death of Prince Sultan.

“A large number of them signed the book of condolences opened by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” said Alaudeen A. Alaskary, deputy minister for protocol affairs. Many other prominent foreign dignitaries who presented their condolences included Prince Carl Philip of Sweden, French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, Bahraini Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, Spanish Crown Prince Felipe de Borbon, Kuwaiti Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, President of Austrian Federal Council (Senate) Susanne Neuwirth and Mustafa Abdel Jalil, chief of Libyan Transitional National Council.

Alaskary, who received the foreign envoys on behalf of Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal, said that many envoys and foreign dignitaries signed the condolence book and met with Prince Saud to convey their sadness. Some of the royals and high-ranking officials offered their condolences and met with Prince Naif, second deputy premier and minister of interior, Riyadh Gov. Prince Salman, and Prince Khaled bin Sultan, assistant minister of defense and aviation. The French defense minister met Prince Khaled in a separate meeting. Prince Khaled, on this occasion, expressed thanks for the visit of French minister and reaffirmed “the strong relations between the Kingdom and France.” Alaskary said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as Yamamah Palace had been receiving local and foreign officials in large numbers since the first day (Tuesday) of the three-day mourning announced by the Kingdom.

Speaking on this occasion, Spanish Ambassador Pablo Bravo said Spanish Crown Prince Felipe was received at the Royal Court by Prince Salman and Prince Khaled. Felipe, who presented his condolences, wrapped up his visit to Riyadh on Wednesday evening. A spokesman of the Japanese Embassy confirmed Crown Prince Naruhito met with Prince Salman and Prince Khaled at Yamamah Palace on Wednesday night. Among other important leaders and officials who offered their condolences included Australian Minister of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research Kim Carr, Ukraine Minister of Defense Mykhailo Yezhel, Gabon’s Premier Paul Biyoghe Mba, former Lebanese Premier Fouad Siniora and the Italian deputy foreign minister. At Riyadh Air Base, these officials were received by Prince Sattam, deputy governor of Riyadh and a number of Saudi officials.

Meanwhile, King Abdullah received a telephone call from King Juan Carlos of Spain in which he offered his condolences to the king. A large number of dignitaries arrived late Tuesday. They included former Prime Minister of South Korea Sung Soo-han and Minister of Defense of Bosnia and Herzegovina Selmo Cikotic. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari met Prince Naif on Tuesday to offer his condolences. Prince Salman and Prince Khaled were also present during their meeting. Pakistan’s PML-Q Chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Interior Minister Rehman Malik and chief of the army staff Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani accompanied Zardari. The condolences will be officially accepted until Oct. 27 (Thursday). The governors of different regions will also be receiving citizens and officials during this period.

— Hat tip: JP

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Saudia Arabia: A Fond Farewell Amidst Speculation

In the mist of the current Arab volatility, and the [political] hurricane that has passed, and is passing through numerous [Arab] states, it was interesting to see the attention that international circles and the international media paid to the general state of grief and sorrow that accompanied the news of the passing of Saudi Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz. This is not to mention the comments issued by state officials in various countries around the world praising the virtues of the departed, as well as his role as a statesman.

The most perfect epitaph for any public figure or statesman can be found in the love and honor he is afforded by his own people, as well as the regional and international community, not to mention the manner in which his exploits are remembered. This is something that was clear to see in the public response in Saudi Arabia to the news of the death of Crown Prince Sultan, who was famous for his acts of kindness and his support for various charitable and humanitarian organizations. This clear appreciation and recognition of Prince Sultan was clear to see in the comments made by ordinary people on social networking sites, particularly as such websites are more open — thanks to their populist nature — than the mainstream media. As for the predictions for the future that were put forward on these social networking sites, many of these were closer to rumor than to reality.

Whilst the regional and international response to Prince Sultan’s death, and the participation of foreign delegations from across the world [traveling to Saudi Arabia to attend the funeral], reflects the status of this statesman and his relations with the Arab and international world. This is something that is clear, whether with regards to Prince Sultan’s relations with the Arab world, or his pursuit of Saudi interests on the international scene. This is not to mention the regional and international status of Saudi Arabia, where Prince Sultan was one of the pillars of governance for many years.

It is natural that the passing of a crown prince should be met with regional and international attention being paid to the issue of succession following the death of the heir apparent, particularly in a country that has become — over the past decade — one of the pillars of regional stability, playing a vital role in the international economy and political arena. This is something that was clear in the western and international media coverage of Prince Sultan’s death, with speculation being put forward on this issue, even though the roadmap is clear from scrutinizing the internal [political] arrangement that have been in place for years.

It is also natural that there should be exceptional interest in the death of Prince Sultan, which has dwarfed previous examples of the death of important figures or changes in the leadership. This is due to the current conditions being experienced by the Middle East, whose future is uncertain and ambiguous following the revolutions and uprisings that have taken place since the beginning of the year and which have resulted in a number of pivotal regional countries finding themselves at the political crossroads. Therefore the stability of the Gulf region in general, and Saudi Arabia in particular, represents a safety valve for the entire region, with regards to the region facing an uncertain future. The general impression given by the international and regional media is that there is a state of confidence that stability will not be harmed, and that there are no grounds for concern in this regard.

(The writer is is Asharq al-Awsat’s Deputy Editor-in-Chief. The article was published in the London-based daily on Oct. 25, 2011.)

— Hat tip: JP

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Spanish Consortium to Build High-Speed Train in Desert

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, OCTOBER 27 — A Spanish consortium made up of twelve Spanish companies and two Saudi firms will build the high-speed railway line that is to connect Medina and Mecca, a 450 kilometre stretch that will transport an estimated 160,000 passengers per day.

The contract, which is worth 6.736 billion euros, was awarded by the Saudi Railways Organisation (SRO) on its website, and confirmed by Spain’s Infrastructure Ministry, which said that it was the largest international contract ever awarded to Spanish firms. The deal includes the design and construction of the railway line and the supply of 35 trains capable of reaching speeds of more than 300 kilometres per hour, with the option to purchase 23 further trains, as well as the management and maintenance of the line for a period of 12 years. The Spanish businesses involved in the Spanish-Saudi Al Shoula Group consortium include public companies such as Adif, Renfe and Ineco, which is controlled by the Ministry of Infrastructure, and private firms such as OHL, Indra, Talgo, Consultrans, Copasa, Imathia, Cobra, Dimetronic, Inabensa, and the Saudi groups Al Shoula and Al Rosan. Spanish companies control 88% of the consortium, while Saudis have the remaining 12%.

“This project enhances the development of high-level technology, which has put Spain at the forefront of the sector worldwide,” sources at Indra told ANSAmed. The company will be responsible for producting rail traffic management systems on the high-speed line for pilgrims, as well as telecommunications, ticketing and security, for a total cost of 440 million euros.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Spanish Firms Win Mega-Deal to Build Saudi High-Speed Line

The Saudi Railways Organization on Wednesday said it had approved the award of a multi-billion-euro contract to a Spanish-led consortium to build a high-speed lane linking the holy cities of Mecca, and Medina, as well as Jeddah.

Spanish firms to build high-speed train to Mecca. Phase 2 of the Haramain High Speed Rail Project (HHR) was assigned to the Al -Shoula consortium, which includes, apart from Spain’s state-owned rail operator Renfe and the operator of its railway network Adif, other Spanish companies such as builder OHL, information-technology company Indra, the train and rolling-stock manufacturer Talgo, and Cobra, a unit of leading constriction group ACS.

The budget for the project amounts to 6.5 billion euros. Spanish companies control 88 percent of the consortium, with the remaining 12 percent in Saudi hands.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Stakelbeck: Would Muslims Accept Iran as Leader of a New Caliphate?

Over the past few weeks, I’ve talked a great deal about the possibility that the so-called Arab Spring could be laying the groundwork for a renewed Islamic Caliphate.

The only question might be: who will lead it?

Iran has been making a strong push to do just that. But would the overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim world accept the Shia Persians at the head of the Caliphate?

I say yes—at least until Israel and America are eliminated.

Read more at the above link, including an excerpt from my recent interview with a member of the radical group, Hizb ut-Tahrir.

— Hat tip: Erick Stakelbeck

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Syria: After Damascus, New Major Loyalist Rally in Latakia

(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, OCTOBER 27 — Thousands of supporters of President Bashar Al Assad have gathered in the main square of Latakia, Syria’s main port city to the north-east of Damascus, to express their support for the “reforms” and to thank Russia and China for siding with the regime. Syrian state television is showing live coverage of the “march of a million” in Latakia, which is the main centre of the community of Alawites, a branch of Shi’ite Islam to which the Assad family themselves belong. It is the fourth major gathering of loyalists in Syria in the last ten days. The first was held in Damascus, the second in Aleppo and the third, yesterday, again in the capital. A few days ago, anti-regime demonstrators called a general strike, which has been joined by citizens of the main epicentres of the uprising, in the regions of Deraa, Homs, Hama, Idlib and certain suburbs of Damascus.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Taking Sides in Syria, Turkey Shelters Militia Fighting Assad

Once one of Syria’s closest allies, Turkey is hosting an armed opposition group waging an insurgency against the government of President Bashar al-Assad, providing shelter to the commander and dozens of members of the group, the Free Syrian Army, and allowing them to orchestrate attacks across the border from inside a camp guarded by the Turkish military.

The support for the insurgents comes amid a broader Turkish campaign to undermine Mr. Assad’s government. Turkey is expected to impose sanctions soon on Syria, and it has deepened its support for an umbrella political opposition group known as the Syrian National Council, which announced its formation in Istanbul. But its harboring of leaders in the Free Syrian Army, a militia composed of defectors from the Syrian armed forces, may be its most striking challenge so far to Damascus.

On Wednesday, the group, living in a heavily guarded refugee camp in Turkey, claimed responsibility for killing nine Syrian soldiers, including one uniformed officer, in an attack in restive central Syria.

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Energy: Russian Gazprom Eyes Cyprus Gas Reserves

(ANSAmed) — NICOSIA, OCTOBER 25 — The Russian energy giant Gazprom is reported to be interested in gaining the exploration rights for natural gas in Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone, as daily Famagusta Gazette reports today. According to Cyprus state run television, Gazprom is ready to start exploration in two offshore areas, near the Aphrodite plot (or Blok 12), which is currently being drilled by the Texas based Nobel Energy group.

Gazprom is the largest extractor of natural gas in the world and the largest Russian company. Meanwhile, state radio reported that the ‘Admiral Kuznetsov’ aircraft carrier along with an armada of Russian naval craft is expected to sail for the eastern Mediterranean on November 19th from their base in the Barents Sea. The report said that the aircraft carrier would be carrying 24-fixed wing planes and a number of helicopters. It has also been reported that the Russian navy may request to use port facilities in Cyprus. Russian relations with Cyprus are at their best in many years.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Ex-Minister Slams ‘Degradation’ of Russia Politics

An ex-cabinet minister who now heads the state nanotechnology firm, on Wednesday told a glitzy congress including President Dmitry Medvedev that political life in Russia had degraded. Anatoly Chubais, who was the father of Russia’s controversial privatisation programme under president Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s, bluntly said there was a gulf between the country’s weak political development and its economic progress. His comments marked a rare negative comment by a heavyweight figure about the political situation in Russia under strongman Vladimir Putin. Most officials carefully toe the line, especially at major occasions.

Explosively, Chubais also suggested that the contrast between the economic development and political stagnation could not continue for much longer. “In the last years economic life in Russia has developed. But political life has degraded. As I understand it, this situation cannot last long,” Chubais told a forum organised by his Rosnano nanotechnology corporation. “Sooner or later these two processes, which are the two sides of the same coin, have to complement each other,” he told the congress, the Interfax news agency reported.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Magnificence Meets Modernity: Bolshoi Rebirth Has Traditionalists Up in Arms

The Bolshoi is the pinnacle of the Russian theater world. Following a six-year renovation, fans are thrilled to see the dazzling new building. But new onstage performances have dampened the enthusiasm.

The Russian word awos is hard to translate into English. It means “perhaps” and “hopefully,” but awos is also a broader term that conveys the notion that, in the chaos of existence, everything will eventually turn out for the best. These days, awos aptly describes the mood at Moscow’s Bolshoi Theater.

The theater has one of the richest traditions of all Europe’s stages. It is famous for opera and, most of all, for its ballet company. With its 200 dancers, the Bolshoi Ballet is the world’s largest dance company. The theater was closed for six years. During that time, its dancers and singers performed in another building while the main building was being renovated at a cost of €570 million ($798 million).

The reopening ceremony for the theater will be held this Friday as part of a spectacle to be broadcast live in theaters worldwide, on television and online. But, at the moment, workers from Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan are still scraping bits of adhesive from the steps. It smells of paint, and in the stage-set storage area 20 meters (66 feet) underground, water still leaks through the ceiling whenever it rains. The principal dancers are practicing for the big gala event on a rehearsal stage. In Russian, “Bolshoi Teatr” means “big theater.” And, indeed, since its founding in 1776, the Bolshoi has always been big.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Putin Disgusted by Gadhafi Death Images

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that he was disgusted by television images of Moammar Gadhafi’s last minutes and his corpse after death, but stopped short of making any political statements on the issue. “Almost all of Gadhafi’s family has been killed, his corpse was shown on all global television channels. It was impossible to watch without disgust,” Putin said. “The man was all covered in blood, still alive, and he was being finished off.”

Putin was one of the most outspoken critics of the Western intervention in Libya and likened it to “medieval calls for crusades.” NATO airstrikes allowed anti-Gadhafi fighters to topple Gadhafi’s regime. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has called for an investigation into Gadhafi’s murky death last week, which apparently occurred after the former Libyan leader’s car convoy was attacked by NATO planes.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Afghanistan is in a State of ‘Anarchy, ‘ Argues Head of German NGO

Violence is on the up in Afghanistan and the Taliban’s grip on power is tightening. The head of the Green Helmets NGO, Rupert Neudeck, told DW the country was essentially in a ‘state of war’ and discussed the future.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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As Bangkok Evacuates, City Could be Flooded for a Month

Bangkok’s main river broke its banks overnight forcing thousands of residents to flee the flooding Thai capital. Last week, Thailand’s government was confident that Bangkok’s elaborate scheme of flood walls, canals, dikes and underground tunnels would protect the city of nine million people from flooding. But quoting governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra, Reuters reports that 90 per cent of Bangkok’s northern Don Muang district is under water and another fifteen city districts were threatened by floods this weekend. “Massive water is coming,” Sukhumbhand said.

Chao Phraya River, which snakes around Bangkok, swelled after floodwaters from the north teamed with increasingly high tides. The BBC reports that Sukhumbhand issued an evacuation alert for residents in three northern districts. “This is the first time I am using the term ‘evacuation’, the first time I’m really asking you to leave,” Mr Sukhumbhand said.

Thailand’s prime minister, Yingluck Shinwatra, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that much of Bangkok is now expected to see floodwaters of between 10 centimetres and 1.5 metres depending on area, diversion strategies and the strength of dykes. “After assessing the situation, we expect floodwater to remain in Bangkok for around two weeks to one month before going into the sea,” she told reporters on Wednesday.

According to Reuters, this deluge is caused by unusually heavy monsoon rain. It is Thailand’s worst flooding in fifty years. Since mid July 373 people have died, and the waters have disrupted the lives of nearly 2.5 million.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Bangkok Residents Flee as Floods Advance

The government has announced a five-day holiday to allow Bangkok residents to leave the city as floods advance. Businesses have closed shop and supermarket shelves are emptying rapidly as those left behind stock up. Anyone who can is leaving Bangkok. A five-day holiday has been called to let residents escape the Thai capital. All hotels in beach towns, such as Pattaya, Phuket and Hua Hin, are packed. Buses, trains and flights leaving town are overbooked. Those who can’t get a flight or bus out of Bangkok are trying to get a seat on one of the many evacuation trucks.

An old man told reporters the evacuation was not easy, saying that he and his wife had missed a ride and had to wait hours for another. Residents who can’t leave the city have hunkered down in their homes, surrounded by sandbags or hastily erected concrete walls. Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said on Thursday that the situation was critical and announced that extra government shelters were being set up and there would be further evacuation measures.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Pakistan: Drone Strike ‘Kills Five Taliban Commanders’

Islamabad, 27 Oct. (AKI/Dawn) — A US drone strike on a vehicle on Thursday killed five commanders of one of Pakistan’s most influential Taliban leaders, Maulvi Nazir, one of the faction’s senior commanders said in a news report.

He identified four of the commanders as Hazrat Omar, Nazir’s younger brother, Khan Mohammad, Miraj Wazir and Ashfaq Wazir.

According to initial details, five missiles were fired on a vehicle carrying several passengers.

The vehicle was traveling from Tora Gola village to the nearby area of Azam Warsak when it was hit.

“Nazir’s younger brother Omar Wazir has been killed, it has been confirmed,” a Pakistani security official said.

Another Pakistani intelligence official also confirmed his death.

Residents and security officials in the region described the 27-year-old as the operational head for the Nazir group, and a close aide of his brother.

He adopted a low profile, going to Afghanistan, assigning duties to the fighters and supervising logistic arrangements for their missions, they said.

“They are a very important group because while they are based in Pakistan they are very active in Afghanistan,” said Mansur Khan Mehsud of the Fata Research Centre think tank.

“If you look at drone strikes, they are one of the most heavily targeted groups.”

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Pakistani Judge Flees Country After Receiving Death Threats

The Pakistani judge who sentenced Governor Salman Taseer’s murderer to execution has fled the country following death threats. The incident has raised more questions about the safety of court officials in Pakistan.

Pervez Ali Shah has left Pakistan bound for the Middle East after religious fundamentalist groups repeatedly harassed him for having sentenced the murderer of the governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer, to death. Earlier this month, Shah’s courtroom in Rawalpindi was ransacked by Islamist lawyers, forcing him to take a long period of leave from work.

Salman Taseer was killed by his bodyguard in January

The Governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer, had been very forthright in his opposition to the country’s blasphemy law, which can be used to prosecute any individual whom it is alleged has spoken out against the Prophet. Taseer’s bodyguard, Mumtaz Qadri, apparently opposed his employer’s views and assassinated him in January this year. Qadri was subsequently convicted of murder and sentenced to death by Judge Pervez Ali Shah.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Cyber War on Japanese Embassies

A cyber attack was launched against Japanese embassies and consulates throughout the world earlier this year, including the Dutch embassy in The Hague, Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun reported today. The hackers infected the embassy computer networks of the US, China, France, Canada, South Korea, Myanmar and the Netherlands last summer.

The revelations come just one day after it was made known that hackers broke into the computer systems of a number of Japanese parliamentarians. The attackers were able to access the email correspondence of the MPs for a whole month. They were reportedly looking for information on Japanese foreign and defence policies, according to newspaper Asahi Shimbun. Defence contractors attack Last month, Japan’s top weapons maker Mitsubishi Heavy Industries MHI, as well as other defence contractors, were the victims of a cyber attack reportedly targeting data on missiles, submarines and nuclear power plants. Many of the cyber attacks have been linked to servers in China.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Shipwreck May be Part of Kublai Khan’s Lost Fleet

In Japanese legend they are known as The Kamikaze — the divine winds — a reference to two mighty typhoons placed providentially seven years apart which, in the 13th century, destroyed two separate Mongol invasion fleets so large they were not eclipsed until the D-Day landings of World War II. Marine archaeologists now say they have uncovered the remains of a ship from the second fleet in 1281 — believed to have comprised 4,400 vessels — a meter below the seabed, in 25 meters of water off the coast of Nagasaki, Japan.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Central America the World’s Most Violent Region: Research

Central America is the most violent region in the world, with El Salvador reporting the highest death rate due to armed violence, a research said Thursday. “The regions most affected by lethal violence are Central America, with an average regional rate of 29.0 per 100.000 people, followed by Southern Africa (27.4) and the Caribbean (22.4),” said the Global Burden of Armed Violence report by the Geneva Declaration.

El Salvador has the highest rate of violent fatalities, with over 60 deaths recorded for every 100,000 inhabitant. Between 2004 and 2009, a higher proportion of people were killed in the country than in Iraq, which was the second most violent in the world.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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UK: ‘Kick Out Blackburn Child Sex Asylum Seeker’

A SEX offender asylum seeker who tried to snatch a 14-year-old boy from a town centre street has been jailed for 16 months and could now face deportation.

Iranian-born Asghar Najafi, 43, had already been on the sex offenders register for four years when he attempted to kidnap the teenager near Blackburn Market.

A judge labelled him a ‘high-risk’ to children and his asylum status is now set to be reviewed by the Home Office.

— Hat tip: Kitman

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UK: 4,000 Foreign Criminals Set Free to Fight Deportation Including Murderers, Rapists and Child Sex Offenders

Nearly 4,000 foreign criminals who should have been deported are at large on the streets of Britain, an official report revealed last night.

Human rights claims and red tape are giving them their freedom while they fight deportation orders.

The criminals include dozens of former prisoners convicted of offences such as murder, rape and sex crimes against children.

The figure emerged in a report by John Vine, chief inspector of the UK Border Agency…

Some are unable to be deported because it is thought ‘unsafe’ to send them back to their home countries, or because of difficulties in getting hold of a passport so they can be put on a plane.

Last year, a total of 576 used the Human Rights Act to prevent them from being kicked out, the report found, with the vast majority citing Article 8, the controversial ‘right to a private and family life’…

The report said 1,600 offenders were in immigration detention centres after completing sentences, at a cost of £55million a year.

— Hat tip: Kitman

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Candidly Speaking: On Distinguishing Between Good and Evil

Aside from a minority of courageous moderate Muslims, the majority at remain passive to outrages committed by Islamic extremists.

Good deeds and the spurning of evil preoccupied us throughout the Days of Awe and the festival period, climaxing with the redemption of Gilad Schalit. We live in times when concepts such as good and evil are deliberately blurred. For example, the mass murder of Norwegians in July by a demented neo-Nazi psychopath — a diabolically evil act — was globally exploited by far-left and Muslim groups to suppress legitimate condemnation or designation of extremist Islamic behavior as evil, even accusing critics of inciting mass murder. Yet throughout the Arab world we are now witnessing the sickening elevation to hero status of some of the world’s most demented killers. This is hardly a new phenomenon.

Can you recall the last time you had a serious discussion in which the word “evil” was mentioned? It’s unlikely, because employing such a term today is often regarded as politically incorrect and likely to lead to accusations of bias or bigotry. During World War II, that the Nazis were evil was never in dispute. That knowledge did not imply that the Allies were pure. The Versailles settlement was unjust. Mistakes were made. There were undoubtedly degenerates in our ranks who committed crimes, and we were certainly conscious of the moral shortcomings of our Soviet allies. But we unequivocally recognized that the Nazis represented evil incarnate and were willing to stake our lives in the struggle against the forces of darkness which sought to undermine freedom and civilization.

OVER THE past half-century, as post-modernism enveloped the new Europe, conflicts became increasingly viewed from the perspective of moral equivalency. Today, it is considered bigoted to define religious or nationalist crimes as evil. This change in outlook is linked to the erosion of Judeo-Christian values, which despite being more frequently breached than honored, did at least provide a moral framework to distinguish between right and wrong.

It is no coincidence that Christianity in Europe has declined dramatically. In the UK today, more Muslims pray at mosques than Anglicans attend churches. Christian beliefs have been supplanted by secularism, and some churches have themselves adopted post-modernist concepts. In contrast, in the US where religion continues to occupy a dominant role, morality remains relevant and politicians endeavor to frame their policies in a manner perceived to be ethical.

In this climate, many liberals refuse to take part in the battle against the new global evil confronting us. They fail to acknowledge that the radical elements dominating the Muslim world today represent no less a threat to western civilization than the Nazis in the 1930s. Even many committed Jewish leaders blur the reality, accusing those who point out that the Arab Islamic world is largely dominated by extremists of promoting “hysteria” and “ideological Islamophobia.”

The level of moderation in Islamic societies can be assessed by posing a number of questions: Do Islamic leaders and activists promote moderation or do they at best stand aside and avoid condemning the jihadists? Do most share the goal of imposing Sharia law throughout the world? Endorse freedom of worship? Protest against the violence and murder directed at critics of their prophet or Islam? Demand the curbing of the violent passions which incite hatred and extremism in their mosques, media outlets and schools? Most of the ruling elites in today’s Islamic Arab world would fail to provide acceptable responses to such questions.

In fact, it may not be politically correct to say, but the sad reality is that aside from a minority of courageous moderate Muslims — primarily domiciled in non-Muslim communities — the majority at best remain passive in relation to outrages committed by Islamic extremists. Indeed, it is unfortunately indisputable that the vast majority of Arab Muslims identify with the naked evil radiating from the venomous, genocidal statements of Ahmadinejad, Hezbollah and Hamas, which leave nothing to the imagination. And alas, the misnamed “Arab Spring” has merely resulted in an upsurge of regional extremist Islamic fundamentalist power.

It is not only adherents to the Hamas Charter who unashamedly endorse the murder of Jews and boast that they will never forgo the goal of destroying the Jewish state. The Palestinian Authority is merely more circumspect in statements designed for Western consumption. But a recent poll by the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion demonstrated that the vast majority of Palestinians remain committed to our destruction. Eighty percent responded that it was the duty of Muslims to participate in jihad to eradicate Israel and 73% endorsed the Hamas Charter quoting from the hadith, a call from the prophet Muhammad to kill all Jews. All PA state instrumentalities — mosques, media and education system — glorify and sanctify mothers of suicide bombers, honoring as “martyrs” those who murder Israeli civilians.

We should be highlighting the contrasting societal responses to evil in democratic countries and Islamic fundamentalist regimes. Critics of Islam in Western countries do not hail as national heroes liberated psychopaths who murder women and children. They do not name city squares, erect statues or name football teams to commemorate the perpetrators of such actions. Nor do they hold street parties and hand out sweets to children to celebrate the death of innocent Muslims killed in the war against terror. But in the wake of every attack on Israeli civilians, that is precisely what happens in the Palestinian street, yet those who condemn such behavior as barbaric are frequently accused Islamophobia and racism.

It is rational, not “racist,” to deem such behavior evil. Prior to Nazi indoctrination, Germany was considered the most cultured European nation. Since the defeat of Hitler and the implementation of a normal educational curriculum, the evil instilled by the Nazis has been neutralized. Instead of exposing the criminality and evil of the Palestinian regimes and proclaiming that there is still no credible Palestinian peace partner, we bury our heads in the sand, pleading for a renewal of ritual negotiations with those committed to our demise.

This repeatedly culminates with a “we give and they take” process as the Palestinians endeavor to dismember us in stages. It also contributes to the global climate of opinion in which our adversaries relegate us to pariah status.

The Palestinians are considered the most talented of all Arabs. Provide them with humanitarian leaders. Grant them an enlightened education to substitute the hatred and culture of death in which their youngsters are brainwashed and new humanitarian leaders would emerge, enabling Palestinians and Israelis to jointly create a magnificent region of peaceful coexistence and creativity. But as Mahmoud Abbas demonstrated in his recent UN General Assembly address, for now, that is but a distant dream.

The time has come to evaluate the evidence, exercise moral judgment and act rationally. To flee from reality and submerge ourselves in a delusionary, Alice in Wonderland environment is highly tempting. But it may incur a heavy price on our children, who will ultimately be obliged to confront the existential threat emanating from the evil surrounding them.

— Hat tip: JP

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French Christian Group Besieges Jesus Excrement Play

Paris police have arrested around 20 Christian fundamentalists who burst into a theatre and threw stink bombs to protest against a play featuring the face of Christ drizzled with fake excrement. Police made the arrests at the Theatre de la Ville, on the banks of the Seine near Notre Dame cathedral, during a performance of “On the Concept of the Face, Regarding the Son of God”, directed by Italian Romeo Castellucci.

The play, which runs until October 30th, is the story of an incontinent man being looked after by his son. A copy of a huge portrait of Christ by Renaissance artist Antonello da Messina hangs at the back of the stage and appears to be covered in excrement towards the end of the performance.

After days of trying to get in, the protesters on Wednesday “entered the theatre and threw stink bombs into the auditorium, shouting: ‘Enough Christianophobia!’“ a police source told AFP.

France’s ministry of culture blamed the demonstration on members of the Institut Civitas, which in April protested US artist Andres Serrano’s renowned “Immersion Piss Christ” photograph in the southern papal city of Avignon. Civitas head Alain Escada said: “Our mission is to spread the word about this performance and to organise a response.”

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Discovery: Cosmic Dust Contains Organic Matter From Stars

A new look at the interstellar dust permeating the universe has revealed hints of organic matter that could be created naturally by stars, scientists say. Researchers at the University of Hong Kong observed stars at different evolutionary phases and found that they are able to produce complex organic compounds and eject them into space, filling the regions between stars. The compounds are so complex that their chemical structures resemble the makeup of coal and petroleum, the study’s lead author Sun Kwok, of the University of Hong Kong, said.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Dreams Read by Brain Scanner for the First Time

The secret world of dreams could soon be cracked open. Innovative neuroscientists have already begun to figure out the thoughts of awake people — now, a team reckon they can use similar methods to tap into dreams. To find out whether dreams could be read in the same way as waking thoughts, Michael Czisch and Martin Dresler at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, Germany, and their colleagues turned an array of brain-monitoring technology on lucid dreamers.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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The World at Its Limits: Feeding the Extra Billions

As the world’s population grows, the need for new strategies to avert famine and malnutrition becomes ever more urgent. While there are obvious limitations on global resources, some think it may just be possible.

The world’s population grows by some 83 million people each year — more than the population of Germany. Even if population growth slows, it is expected that there will be nine billion people on the planet by the year 2050 and ten billion at some point this century.

In order to satisfy their requirements, about 2,400 kilocalories per head would be necessary. Agricultural production, as a result, would have to be doubled or even tripled in the next 40 years. Given the limited resources of the earth, the question arises as to whether this is even possible.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Water’s Quantum Weirdness Makes Life Possible

WATER’S life-giving properties exist on a knife-edge. It turns out that life as we know it relies on a fortuitous, but incredibly delicate, balance of quantum forces. Water is one of the planet’s weirdest liquids, and many of its most bizarre features make it life-giving. For example, its higher density as a liquid than as a solid means ice floats on water, allowing fish to survive under partially frozen rivers and lakes. And unlike many liquids, it takes a lot of heat to warm water up even a little, a quality that allows mammals to regulate their body temperature.

But computer simulations show that quantum mechanics nearly robbed water of these life-giving features. Most of them arise due to weak hydrogen bonds that hold H2O molecules together in a networked structure. For example, it is hydrogen bonds that hold ice molecules in a more open structure than in liquid water, leading to a lower density. By contrast, without hydrogen bonds, liquid molecules move freely and take up more space than in rigid solid structures.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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	Financial Crisis
»	Beleaguered Berlusconi Faces Summit Moment of Truth
»	Berlusconi Cuts Deal ‘To Raise Retirement Age, Resign’
»	Berlusconi Takes Pensions Compromise to EU
»	EU Says Bailout Fund Chief to Visit China
»	French Banks Need €10 Billion Boost: PM
»	Lebanon: Consumer Prices Up 4.8% in One Year
»	Save the Euro: Bomb Rome!
»	‘Should Berlusconi Not Deliver, The Euro Could Fall’
	USA
»	Bill Ayers Speaks to Occupy Chicago Protesters About Revolution and the Tea Party
»	Breaking: Homeland Security Adviser Allegedly Leaked Intel to Attack Rick Perry
»	Frank Gaffney: Who Lost the World? The Unraveling of the Globe Under Obama’s Watch
»	MSU Awarded Grant to Study Muslim Americans’ Use of Pop Culture
»	Muslims at UM Seeking Culture of Understanding
»	NYPD Shadows Muslims Who Change Names
»	U.S. Border Agent Jailed for Improper Arrest of Suspected Drug Smuggler
	Canada
»	Much Foreign Aid is Useless, The Rest is a Scam
	Europe and the EU
»	France: Homeless Woman Attempts to Self-Immolate by Elysée
»	Germany: Oktoberfest Bombing Under Review: Officials Ignored Right-Wing Extremist Links
»	In Norway, Gender Equality Does Not Extend to the Bedroom
»	Italy: Bad Weather Batters Northern Italy, 9 Dead and 5 Missing
»	No Reprisals for Frenchman Who Burned Koran
»	Patrick Sookhdeo: Yes: I Criticise Certain Aspects of Islam, But Don’t Call Me a Bigot
»	The Breivik Interrogations: Norway Massacre Suspect Reveals All But Motive
»	UK: ‘Thousands of Children’ Sexually Exploited by Gangs
»	UK: Barnabas Aid Not Spreading Islamophobia in UK Says Director
»	UK: Barnabas Fund Vindicated by Charity Commission
»	UK: Birmingham: Say No to the Racist EDL, Saturday 29 October
»	UK: Concern Over Planned EDL March in Birmingham Next Saturday
»	UK: EDL Birmingham Demo Location Moved by the Police
»	UK: Fraudsters Convicted of ‘Crash for Cash’ Scam at Tottenham Garage
»	UK: Half of Young Criminals Say Prison Does Not Rehabilitate
»	UK: Loughborough Community Surgeries Resurrected
»	UK: Students Protest After Hackney College Bans Segregation Curtain Used by Muslims
»	UK: Thugs Racist Attack on Man
	North Africa
»	After the Arab Spring, Is Egypt Heading for a Rigid Winter?
»	Libya: Gaddafi’s Family Denounces War Crimes to the Hague
»	Libya: Italy Considers Participation Multinational Force
»	Libya: Touareg Source, Saif Al Islam is in Niger
»	Obama: It “Only Cost us a Billion Dollars” To Install Sharia Regime in Libya
»	Political Islam a ‘Necessary Gateway’ For Middle East Democracy: Analyst
»	Qatar Admits Sending Troops to Fight Alongside Libya NTC
»	Religious Violence, Uncertainty in Post-Mubarak Egypt Threatens Ties to Israel, US
»	The Arab Spring is Becoming an Islamist Takeover
»	The Rise of Political Islam
»	Tunisia: Elections: Ennahda Domino Effect in North Africa?
»	Tunisia: Guardian’s Jonathan Steele Accuses Tunisian Muslims Who Oppose Radical Islam of Islamophobia
	Israel and the Palestinians
»	Gender Segregation Grows in Orthodox Jewish Areas
	Middle East
»	11,000 Australian Sheep Arrive in UAE for Eid
»	Anti-Islam Toy Guns Found in UAE
»	Hundreds of Women Burn Their Coverings in Street Protest Against Brutal Yemeni Regime
»	Internet Censorship: American Technologies Used to Censoring the Internet Over Syria Area
»	Lebanon: Christian Conference Wants Protection for Copts in Egypt
»	Libya: Al Jazeera: Force Led by Qatar Instead of NATO
»	The Arab Spring ‘Will Create Strong Islamist Parties’
»	The Usage of VPNs is Criminalized in Iran
»	Turkey: Armenians, Raised as Muslims, Get Baptized in Surp Giragos Church in Turkey
»	Turkish Journalist Says Islam Craves Liberty
	South Asia
»	285 Indian Girls Shed ‘Unwanted’ Names
»	Army Claws Back £433 ‘Overpaid’ To Dead Soldier… Because He Was Shot Dead in Afghanistan 10 Days Before Pay Day
»	India and Israel: A Friendship Deepened by Prejudice
»	Malaysia: A Peaceful Weekend
»	Video Emerges of Swiss Hostages in Pakistan
	Australia — Pacific
»	Newport Mosque: Spades Dig in After 10-Year Wait
	Sub-Saharan Africa
»	Ghana: Hearts Pray in Mosque … on Centenary Day
	Immigration
»	Germany Looks Back at 50 Years of Turkish Immigration
»	Italy Tries to Cope With Rising Tide of Immigration From Africa
»	Obama Deportation Numbers a ‘Trick’
»	Swiss Trade Union Calls for More Immigration
	General
»	Dwarf Planet Eris is ‘Almost Perfect’ Pluto Twin
»	Internet Responsible for 2 Per Cent of Global Energy Usage
»	Robot Venus Flytraps Could Eat Bugs for Fuel

Beleaguered Berlusconi Faces Summit Moment of Truth

Embattled Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi joined an EU summit Wednesday under orders from his peers to prove he can keep Italy from drowning in debt, dragging the whole eurozone with it.

With his credibility at stake, Berlusconi was told to bring written evidence of his resolve to undertake austerity measures aimed at easing fears that the eurozone’s third biggest economy risks a financial meltdown.

The Italian premier waved as he arrived but ignored reporters’ questions, three days after a first summit at which German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy told him to come back with answers.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Berlusconi Cuts Deal ‘To Raise Retirement Age, Resign’

Rome (AKI) — Prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has struck a deal with a critical governing coalition partner to resign and call early elections in exchange for raising the retirement age by two years to 67 years old, according to unconfirmed Italian news reports.

The Northern League Party’s Umberto Bossi met with Berlusconi on Tuesday to decide on reforms that would save heavily indebted Italy billions of euros and satisfy European Union members who demanded a letter outlining reforms before Wednesday’s meeting in Brussels.

Bossi, a fierce negotiator, had refused to touch Italians’ pensions. “They would kill us,” he told reporters on Tuesday.

Elections would be called for the spring, a year short of finishing the five-year mandate, la Repubblica and la Stampa newspapers reported on Wednesday, without revealing their sources.

Without the support of the Northern League, Berlusconi would lose the parliamentary majority causing his government to come to an early end. In 1994, Bossi pulled the plug on his support for Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party, causing the government to fall.

Berlusconi’s government in September passed a 54 billion round of cost cuts but that failed to satisfy all three of the major rating agencies who downgraded Italy’s debt. Germany, France and EU officials have since called on Rome to announce further moves aimed at reducing its 1.9 trillion debt and bringing life to its stagnant economy.

La Repubblica said the government will announce its plan to privatize industry.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Berlusconi Takes Pensions Compromise to EU

Uncertain if package will appease demands from Brussels

(ANSA) — Rome, October 26 — Premier Silvio Berlusconi travelled to Wednesday’s crunch EU summit in Brussels on the eurozone crisis after reaching a last-minute deal with his coalition partners on reforms demanded by Europe.

Berlusconi managed to persuade the Northern League, whose support he needs to keep his coalition government afloat, to accept a gradual increase in the retirement age from 65 to 67.

The measure is part of those outlined in a letter of intent the government is taking to the summit after France, Germany and the European Commission demanded action to boost growth and slash debt to restore investors’ confidence in Italy, which is at the centre of the eurozone crisis.

Political commentators said it was uncertain whether the measures were far-reaching enough to appease the demands of the European executive, which is worried that the entire eurozone will be in danger if its third-biggest economy loses control of a huge national debt that is over 120% of GDP.

The League has been staunchly opposed to pension reform and the party’s leader Umberto Bossi, the reform minister, suggested Berlusconi’s centre-right administration could still fall over the issue if Europe gives the thumbs down to Italy’s pensions compromise.

Italy last month approved a 54-billion euro austerity package aimed at balancing the budget in 2013 that convinced the European Central Bank to buy the nation’s bonds to keep servicing the national debt at manageable levels.

Experts fear the measures will slow an already sluggish economy even further if they are not accompanied by reforms and measures to boost growth, such as privatization, deregulation and the reduction of red tape.

The letter of intent also outlines plans for infrastructure projects, economic liberalization and the reduction of tax-evasion. Berlusconi said Monday that no European country was in a position to give lessons to its partners after demands for reform made by Germany and France were seen as a humiliation by many commentators here.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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EU Says Bailout Fund Chief to Visit China

The head of the eurozone bailout fund will visit China and Japan this week, the European Union said Wednesday, as leaders of the bloc scramble to resolve its deepening debt crisis.

Klaus Regling, chief executive of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), will be in the Chinese capital on Friday, the EU delegation in China said in a statement.

Regling will travel to Japan at the weekend, EU officials in Tokyo said.

The announcements came while European leaders prepared to hold a second emergency summit later Wednesday as they struggle to find ways to boost their defences against the region’s worst financial crisis in decades.

The EU did not say who Regling would meet in Beijing and Tokyo or give reasons for his visit, but European leaders have been toying with the idea of asking China, Brazil and other top emerging economies to come to their rescue.

The eurozone wants to beef up its 440-billion-euro ($610 billion) rescue fund to convince markets it has the means to protect highly indebted nations such as Italy.

The state-owned China Daily newspaper, citing a source close to EU decision makers, said Wednesday China and other top emerging economies had agreed to help eurozone countries by contributing to the bailout fund.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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French Banks Need €10 Billion Boost: PM

Prime Minister François Fillon said on Tuesday that French banks need to increase their capital by about €10 billion ($14 billion) to deal with the debt crisis but will not require public money to do so. “The recapitalization of banks will be done in an orderly fashion, for all European banks that need it,” Fillon told lawmakers in France’s National Assembly.

“Speaking of France, it (the recapitalization) should be in the order of €10 billion, in other words below their profits, which means that (French banks) can recapitalize without needing to ask for public aid.” He said an agreement on the recapitalization had been reached at a summit of European leaders on Sunday. His remarks came as Europe struggled on Tuesday for a solution to its debt crisis as talks intensified to shield Italy and press banks to take losses on Greek debt on the eve of a decisive summit.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Lebanon: Consumer Prices Up 4.8% in One Year

(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, OCTOBER 26 — Inflation in Lebanon keeps rising, with consumer prices, according to figures that were released by the central statistics administration, climbing 4.8% on the year in October. The sharpest increase was recorded in the energy sector (power, gas and water) with 13.2%. Compared with 2007, when the official registration of consumer prices started, the rise was 16.3%. But many economists fear that inflation increase even further due to two initiatives that were recently announced by the government: a general rise of minimum wages and of value-added tax in 2012.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Save the Euro: Bomb Rome!

By Francesco Sisci

ROME — It is possible that the ongoing European Union summit on the European debt crisis, which is threatening to kindle a global economic meltdown, will manage to patch together a reasonable solution regarding Greece, the country that started the problem.

However, it is unlikely that much will be accomplished regarding Europe’s greatest issue, Italy, the country whose debt is too large to be bailed out by any individual EU member.

Observers and markets are skeptical that the shaky Italian government, which took long and precious weeks to decide on the appointment of a new central banker, will be able in just a few hours to present a convincing plan that will cut debts and jumpstart growth.

Nor did the European governments seem able to force Italy to change its old inward-looking government practices and accept the reforms necessary to save the country and the continent.

In fact, the ongoing crisis appears to be a failure for the fathers of the Maastricht treaty, the one that paved the road for the monetary union.

Those politicians — Germany’s Helmut Kohl, France’s Francois Mitterand and Giulio Andreotti of Italy — explicitly refused to conceive a way out of the euro for individual members, and in so doing, they believed that in any crisis there could be only one solution: moving forward with more political unity.

The idea then was to construe an economic deterministic mechanism that would effectively push for a real union that would be very hard to achieve otherwise. Therefore, they believed crises would actually be helpful to achievement of the ultimate European goal of political integration. But no road forward was clearly indicated, just as it is not clear how to get out of the euro.

In fact, in this crisis, it has been hard to think of expelling single delinquent EU members like Greece, for instance. But is also proving very hard to find a way forward for the union, and it has been even harder to impose the will of the majority members on the delinquent minority.

Certainly, there are also broad economic considerations that discourage expulsion from the union. Germany would lose the long-term benefits of the union if it were to expel Italy, its largest potential industrial competitor in Europe. Italian manufacturers could be boosted by a return to the lira, undercutting German exports. But these broad interests lose importance if Italy is unable to reform itself, and Germany is expected to shoulder most of the humongous 2 trillion euro (US$2.78 trillion) Italian debt.

Italian ruling politicians, who have been in power for years, in fact have no short-term interest in drastic measures to solve the Italian debt problems. Necessary measures, from cuts in expenditures to liberalization to kick-starting growth, would harm many interest groups and prove to the people that the politicians now in power did not act for years, even though they knew fully well the problems.

Benefits would conversely take years to reap.

There is therefore a fundamental contradiction between long-term national and international benefits of European integration and the short-term interests of those in the Italian ruling class who owe their power to the present status quo. Their short-term interest is in encouraging a different, growing popular sentiment: that Italy would be better off without the euro and with a return to the lira…

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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‘Should Berlusconi Not Deliver, The Euro Could Fall’

French and German demands for austerity in Italy have put Prime Minister Berlusconi in a tight spot. Italian newspapers are reporting that he may call new elections as a result. German commentators agree that it is time for Berlusconi to go, but that Merkel and Sarkozy were wrong to chide him.

Silvio Berlusconi’s government is in trouble. Not only has the Italian prime minister apparently lost the respect of his counterparts in Germany and France, but his coalition is facing fracture over possible austerity measures and social system reform.

Indeed, after coalition partner Umberto Bossi of the Northern League ruled out a proposed increase to the retirement age from 65 to 67, Italian dailies reported on Wednesday that Berlusconi may be planning to resign at the end of the year. Both La Repubblica and La Stampa write that Berlusconi and Bossi reached a secret agreement which foresees new elections to be held next March rather than in spring of 2013 as originally planned.

“Spare me a disgrace in Brussels and I promise you that we will hold elections in March,” Berlusconi told Bossi according to the article in La Reppublica.

Berlusconi finds himself in a tight spot after German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy asked him to present a plan in Brussels on Wednesday for paying down Italy’s vast mountain of debt. Concerns are mounting that Italy, with sovereign debt worth close to 120 percent of its annual economic output, could become the euro zone’s next Achilles heel. Indeed, interest rates on the country’s sovereign bonds have once again begun climbing to worrisome levels, reminiscent of developments in August when the European Central Bank stepped in to buy significant quantities of Italian bonds to keep down interest rates.

Giving Lessons

Bossi’s refusal to consider a central element of the plan Berlusconi had been working on will make it difficult for the prime minister to convince Europe of his commitment to austerity on Wednesday. Just as troubling, though, are the clear indications that both Merkel and Sarkozy expected nothing less than his failure to do so.

Indeed, the video of a Sunday press conference which shows both Merkel and Sarkozy smirking when asked if they still had faith in Berlusconi has been making the rounds in the Italian media this week. The Italian premier has responded defiantly, saying on Monday that “no one is in a position to be giving lessons to their partners.”

But even Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, not known for losing his temper, criticized Merkel and Sarkozy on Tuesday for their “inappropriate and objectionable public comments” and complained of the “weak trust” Italy’s European partners had in Rome. Umberto Bossi, the head of the Northern League and an important member of Berlusconi’s coalition, also complained. In rejecting a major social system reform half-heartedly proposed by Berlusconi, Bossi said he can’t raise the retirement age “just to do the Germans a favor.”

German commentators on Wednesday take a closer look at the situation for both Berlusconi and Italy…

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Bill Ayers Speaks to Occupy Chicago Protesters About Revolution and the Tea Party

Former terrorist-turned-university professor Bill Ayers (you may remember him from his ongoing presence in 2008 presidential campaign theoretic), made an appearance last week at Occupy Chicago.

The former radical, a member of the infamous and violent Weather Underground, discussed his experience with “revolutions,” gave advice about how to handle the Tea Party and took a solid jab at President Barack Obama — a man many believe he was once friends with.

Considering the Occupy movement’s ongoing calls for “revolution” and a major push for a fundamentally changed system, it’s no wonder Ayers was brought in to address the Chicago protesters. Among their many questions, his audience wondered how they should handle the media’s continued comparison between Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party.

“A big bright line running through the Tea Party movement is Jingoism, Nativism, racism,” he told the protesters. “A big bright line is funding from the Koch brothers.” Of course, Ayers didn’t mention anything about the large-scale progressive groups that are assisting with Occupy Wall Street and its sister protests.

my money quote: And, very oddly, he was sure to slip in a dig at Obama. “Somebody like Barack Obama who drone strikes American citizens is saying ‘I want you all to be non-violent.’ Well, I want you to be non-violent,” he quipped.

— Hat tip: Nilk

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Breaking: Homeland Security Adviser Allegedly Leaked Intel to Attack Rick Perry

TX Dept. of Public Safety Director: “We know [Mohamed Elibiary] has accessed DPS documents and downloaded them.”

by Patrick Poole

Texas Department of Public Safety officials are asking questions following a report that Department of Homeland Security Advisory Council member Mohamed Elibiary may have been given access to a sensitive database of state and local intelligence reports, and then allegedly shopped some of those materials to a media outlet. He allegedly used the documents to claim the department was promoting “Islamophobia” — claims that the media outlet ultimately rejected. They declined to do the story.

Earlier today, I received confirmation from a left-leaning media outlet that Elibiary had recently approached them asking to do a story attacking Texas DPS:…

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

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Frank Gaffney: Who Lost the World? The Unraveling of the Globe Under Obama’s Watch

Conventional wisdom has it that the 2012 election will be all about the dismal economy, unemployment and the soaring deficit. That appears a safe bet since such matters touch the electorate, are much in the news at the moment and have indisputably gotten worse on Barack Obama’s watch.

It seems increasingly likely, however, that the American people are going to have a whole lot more to worry about by next fall. Indeed, the way things are going, by November 2012, we may see the Mideast — and perhaps other parts of the planet — plunged into a cataclysmic war.

Consider just a few of the straws in the wind of a gathering storm…

— Hat tip: CSP

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MSU Awarded Grant to Study Muslim Americans’ Use of Pop Culture

EAST LANSING — Facing “Islamophobia” and widespread hostility, Muslim Americans have adopted cultural techniques to make their voices heard, according to Michigan State University faculty set to use a grant to conduct a yearlong study of Islam-inflected culture. MSU’s Muslim Studies Program and Asian Studies Center were recently awarded $100,000 from the Social Science Research Council for “Migrations of Islam.”

The study will draw together experts, community members and producers of Muslim culture — from music to visual art to fashion — to explore how Muslim Americans use popular culture to engage society and promote public discourse, especially in a post-Sept. 11 world. “Through popular culture forms, Muslim Americans confront and transcend barriers that historically have denied their civil rights within the U.S.,” said Salah Hassan, core faculty member of MSU’s Muslim Studies Program, who’s coordinating the project.

Muslim Americans’ contributions to U.S. popular culture are critical to the debate on the role of Islam in the United States, Hassan said. Artists use culture to define their identity as Muslim Americans as they struggle to define what it means to be Muslim and what it means to be American. A series of performances, artist presentations and lectures run through December, starting with performances of “Hijabi Monologues” at MSU and Grand Valley State University.

In November, MSU, GVSU and the University of Michigan-Dearborn host a screening of “The Taqwacores,” a film about a Muslim punk rock scene, followed by a lecture by the director. Also in November, a Muslim traveling concert tour comes to GVSU and (scene) Metrospace, an art and performance space in East Lansing. And in the spring, “Migrations of Islam” hosts a conference. All events are free and open to the public. Hassan said materials generated by “Migrations of Islam” — videos, interviews, blogs and photos — will be housed on a new virtual resource called “Muslim Subjects,” which builds on the success of Islam, Muslims and Journalism Education. Muslim Studies faculty created IMAJE in 2009 to educate mass media on the reporting of Muslims and Islam.

Faculty members also are producing a feature-length documentary that will include footage of performances and interviews with participants and the public. “The performances, forums, the website and the documentary will serve the double purpose of challenging the misrepresentation of Muslims as antithetical to American culture and also producing a platform for conversation about Muslim American self-expression,” Hassan said.

— Hat tip: JP

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Muslims at UM Seeking Culture of Understanding

She’s not asking people to convert, but she is asking them to understand. Sophia Malani, president of the Muslim Student Association at The University of Memphis, said that Islamic Awareness Week, which started Monday and lasts through Thursday, is about diminishing ignorance about Islam. “We’re inviting people to step in our shoes,” she said. “It’s a great opportunity for people to learn a religion and a culture together.”

Events for the week include a lecture from Kent Schull, associate history professor at The U of M, in the Rose Theater tonight at 6:30. The lecture will address misconceptions about Islam, as well as its comparisons to Christianity and Judaism. Wednesday, Oct. 26, in The University Center Theater at 6:30 p.m., the MSA will host a screening of “The Deen Show,” a TV show about Islam and the Muslim culture.

The week wraps up with a Fast-a-Thon. Students are invited to the Tiger Den Thursday at 5 a.m. for a free breakfast at Subway and are asked to fast all day afterward. Students will talk about their experience with fasting and have a traditional Indian and Middle Eastern dinner with the MSA from 6-9 p.m. in The University Center Ballroom. “I want students to have more awareness of the Muslim population on campus and understand what Islam is about,” Malani said. “Instead of just ‘that terrorist religion,’ I want them to know the soul and heart of Islam.”

Emanne Knefati, vice president of MSA and history major, said the week is meant to symbolize America and the freedom to speak and enlighten others about faith. “People are free to listen and learn and not force anything on someone,” she said. “It’s nice living in a place where we can all sit and learn about each other. These kinds of events eliminate the fear of the unknown.”

Amal Almoraisi, historian for MSA and sophomore political science major, said Muslims represent a huge part of the world and are often misunderstood. One in every four people in the world are Muslim according to a 2009 report on religion and public life by the Pew Forum. “We’re really misunderstood, and it’s really crucial to get people informed as to understand why we pray, what the jihab means, what is Ramadan and other traditions,” she said. Almoraisi said she is looking forward to learning about people’s different perceptions of Islamic practices. She said MSA planned Islamic Awareness Week months in advance. “If students take anything from it, let it just be an open mind, a new view and a better appreciation for cultures and faith,” she said.

[JP note: Translated — dhimmi know your place.]

— Hat tip: JP

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NYPD Shadows Muslims Who Change Names

NEW YORK — Muslims who change their names to sound more traditionally American, as immigrants have done for generations, or who adopt Arabic names as a sign of their faith are often investigated and catalogued in secret New York Police Department intelligence files, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.The NYPD monitors everyone in the city who changes his or her name, according to internal police documents and interviews. For those whose names sound Arabic or might be from Muslim countries, police run comprehensive background checks that include reviewing travel records, criminal histories, business licenses and immigration documents. All this is recorded in police databases for supervisors, who review the names and select a handful of people for police to visit.

The program was conceived as a tripwire for police in the difficult hunt for homegrown terrorists, where there are no widely agreed upon warning signs. Like other NYPD intelligence programs created in the past decade, this one involved monitoring behavior protected by the First Amendment. Since August, an Associated Press investigation has revealed a vast NYPD intelligence-collecting effort targeting Muslims following the terror attacks of September 2001. Police have conducted surveillance of entire Muslim neighborhoods, chronicling every aspect of daily life, including where people eat, pray and get their hair cut. Police infiltrated dozens of mosques and Muslim student groups and investigated hundreds more.

Monitoring name changes illustrates how the threat of terrorism now casts suspicion over what historically has been part of America’s story. For centuries, immigrants have Americanized their names in New York. The Roosevelts were once the van Rosenvelts. Fashion designer Ralph Lauren was born Ralph Lifshitz. Donald Trump’s grandfather changed the family name from Drumpf. David Cohen, the NYPD’s intelligence chief, worried that would-be terrorists could use their new names to lie low in New York, current and former officials recalled. Reviewing name changes was intended to identify people who either Americanized their names or took Arabic names for the first time, said the officials, who insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the program.

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne did not respond to messages left over two days asking about the legal justification for the program and whether it had identified any terrorists.

The goal was to find a way to spot terrorists like Daood Gilani and Carlos Bledsoe before they attacked. Gilani, a Chicago man, changed his name to the unremarkable David Coleman Headley to avoid suspicion as he helped plan the 2008 terrorist shooting spree in Mumbai, India. Bledsoe, of Tennessee, changed his name to Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad in 2007 and, two years later, killed one soldier and wounded another in a shooting at a recruiting station in Little Rock, Ark. Sometime around 2008, state court officials began sending the NYPD information about new name changes, said Ron Younkins, the court’s chief of operations. The court regularly sends updates to police, he said. The information is all public, and he said the court was not aware of how police used it.

The NYPD program began as a purely analytical exercise, according to documents and interviews. Police reviewed the names received from the court and selected some for background checks that included city, state and federal criminal databases as well as federal immigration and Treasury Department databases that identified foreign travel.

Early on, police added people with American names to the list so that if details of the program ever leaked out, the department would not be accused of profiling, according to one person briefed on the program.

On one police document from that period, 2 out of every 3 people who were investigated had changed their names to or from something that could be read as Arabic-sounding.

All the names that were investigated, even those whose background checks came up empty, were cataloged so police could refer to them in the future. The legal justification for the program is unclear from the documents obtained by the AP. Because of its history of spying on anti-war protesters and political activists, the NYPD has long been required to follow a federal court order when gathering intelligence. That order allows the department to conduct background checks only when police have information about possible criminal activity, and only as part of “prompt and extremely limited” checking of leads.

The NYPD’s rules also prohibit opening investigations based solely on activities protected by the First Amendment. Federal courts have held that people have a right to change their names and, in the case of religious conversion, that right is protected by the First Amendment. The NYPD is not alone in its monitoring of Muslim neighborhoods. The FBI has its own ethnic mapping program that singled out Muslim communities and agents have been criticized for targeting mosques.

The name change program is an example of how, while the NYPD says it operates under the same rules as the FBI, police have at times gone beyond what is allowed by the federal government. The FBI would not be allowed to run a similar program because of First Amendment and privacy concerns and because the goal is too vague and the program too broad, according to FBI rules and interviews with federal officials. Police expanded their efforts in late 2009, according to documents and interviews. After analysts ran background checks, police began selecting a handful of people to visit and interview.

Internally, some police groused about the program. Many people who were approached didn’t want to talk and police couldn’t force them to. A Pakistani cab driver, for instance, told police he did not want to talk to them about why he took Sheikh as a new last name, documents show. Police also knew that a would-be terrorist who Americanized his name in hopes of lying low was unlikely to confess as much to detectives. In fact, of those who agreed to talk at all, many said they Americanized their names because they were being harassed or were having problems getting a job and thought a new name would help.

But as with other intelligence programs at the NYPD, Cohen hoped it would send a message to would-be bombers that police were watching, current and former officials said.

As it expanded, the program began to target Muslims even more directly, drawing criticism from Stuart Parker, an in-house NYPD lawyer, who said there had to be standards for who was being interviewed, a person involved in the discussions recalled. In response, police interviewed people with Arabic-sounding names but only if their background checks matched specific criteria. The names of those who were interviewed, even those who chose not to speak with police, were recorded in police reports storied in the department’s database, according to documents and interviews, while names of those who received only background checks were kept in a separate file in the Intelligence Division.

Donna Gabaccia, director of the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota, said that for many families, name changes are important aspects of the American story. Despite the myth that officials at Ellis Island Americanized the names of people arriving in the U.S., most immigrants changed their names themselves to avoid ridicule and discrimination or just to fit in, she said. The NYPD program, she said, turned that story on its head. “In the past, you changed your name in response to stigmatization,” she said. “And now, you change your name and you are stigmatized. There’s just something very sad about this.”

As for converts to Islam, the religion does not require them to take Arabic names but many do as a way to publicly identify their faith, said Jonathan Brown, a Georgetown University professor of Islamic studies. Taking an Arabic name might be a sign that someone is more religious, Brown said, but it doesn’t necessarily suggest someone is more radical. He said law enforcement nationwide has often confused the two points in the fight against terrorism.

“It’s just an example of the silly, conveyor-belt approach they have, where anyone who gets more religious is by definition more dangerous,” Brown said. Sarah Feinstein-Borenstein, a 75-year-old Jewish woman who lives on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, was surprised to learn that she was among the Americans drawn into the NYPD program in its infancy. She hyphenated her last name in 2009. Police investigated and recorded her information in a police intelligence file because of it. “It’s rather shocking to me,” she said. “I think they would have better things to do. It’s is a waste of my tax money.” Feinstein-Borenstein was born in Egypt and lived there until the Suez Crisis in 1956. With a French mother and a Jewish religion, she and her family were labeled “undesirable” and were kicked out. She came to the U.S. in 1963. “If you live long enough,” she said, “you see everything.”

— Hat tip: JP

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U.S. Border Agent Jailed for Improper Arrest of Suspected Drug Smuggler

A U.S. Border Patrol agent has been sentenced to two years in prison for improperly lifting the arms of a 15-year-old drug smuggling suspect while handcuffed — in what the Justice Department called a deprivation of the teenager’s constitutional right to be free from the use of unreasonable force.

Agent Jesus E. Diaz Jr. was named in a November 2009 federal grand jury indictment with deprivation of rights under color of law during an October 2008 arrest near the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, Texas, in response to a report that illegal immigrants had crossed the river with bundles of drugs.

In a prosecution sought by the Mexican government and obtained after the suspected smuggler was given immunity to testify against the agent, Diaz was sentenced last week by U.S. District Judge Alia Moses Ludlum in San Antonio. The Mexican consulate in Eagle Pass had filed a formal written complaint just hours after the arrest, alleging that the teenager had been beaten.

Defense attorneys argued that there were no injuries or bruises on the suspected smuggler’s lower arms where the handcuffs had been placed nor any bruising resulting from an alleged knee on his back. Photos showed the only marks on his body came from the straps of the pack he carried containing the suspected drugs, they said.

Border Patrol agents found more than 150 pounds of marijuana at the arrest site.

The defense claimed that the smuggling suspect was handcuffed because he was uncooperative and resisted arrest, and that the agent had lifted his arms to force him to the ground — a near-universal police technique — while the other agents looked for the drugs.

The allegations against Diaz, 31, a seven-year veteran of the Border Patrol, initially were investigated by Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Office of Professional Responsibility, which cleared the agent of any wrongdoing.

But the Internal Affairs Division at U.S. Customs and Border Protection ruled differently nearly a year later and, ultimately, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas brought charges.

The Law Enforcement Officers Advocates Council said the government’s case was “based on false testimony that is contradicted by the facts.”

In a statement, the council said that because the arrest took place at about 2 a.m., darkness would have made it impossible for the government’s witnesses to have seen whether any mistreatment took place. It said Marcos Ramos, the Border Patrol agent who stood next to Diaz, testified that he did not see any mistreatment of the smuggling suspect…

— Hat tip: DS

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Much Foreign Aid is Useless, The Rest is a Scam

What is the goal of foreign aid? Oh sure, we say it is about emergency relief from natural disasters, such as tsunamis and droughts. Or we claim it’s about helping the world’s poor lift themselves out of poverty and despair. But as often as not, I think it is about assuaging our Western guilt. We give money to rotting, fetid hellholes because doing so cleanses our consciences. It makes it possible for us to turn on the TV, see reports from disaster areas or squalid shantytowns and give ourselves permission not to mourn because we’ve done our bit.

But more often than not, we are merely tossing hard-earned tax dollars into a swirling, downward drain. Our aid does little good because it goes to the wrong people or the wrong solutions.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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France: Homeless Woman Attempts to Self-Immolate by Elysée

(ANSAmed) — PARIS, OCTOBER 26 — A 68-year old homeless woman this morning attempted to set herself on fire outside the Elysée Palace in Paris this morning, where the weekly meeting of ministers is being held, according to police sources. One of the policewomen on duty outside the presidential palace, however, intervened immediately, putting out the fire before the woman suffered any burns.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Germany: Oktoberfest Bombing Under Review: Officials Ignored Right-Wing Extremist Links

Thirty-one years after the 1980 Oktoberfest bomb attack, officials have reopened the case. Previously unknown documents reviewed by SPIEGEL show that the perpetrator, allegedly a lone wolf, was involved with the neo-Nazi scene and Bavarian conservatives. But the unwelcome clues were likely ignored.

The first booths were already open and a brass band was playing when a group of serious-looking people gathered at Munich’s Oktoberfest in late September. Tears were flowing, and some quietly placed red flowers at the entrance to the Theresienwiese, the site of the annual beer festival. They had come to commemorate their loved ones, their parents , siblings and spouses, who were murdered at this spot exactly 31 years ago, in the worst terrorist attack in postwar German history. Thirteen died and more than 200 people were injured.

Robert Platzer, one of the survivors, was 12 at the time. “I saw a young man bending over a waste basket at the entrance,” he recalls. “It was as if he were trying to lift something heavy with both hands.” At that moment, a bomb exploded in the young man’s hands. Platzer witnessed the deaths of two of his siblings, whose bodies were ripped apart and hurled through the air. At the commemoration ceremony politicians from all major parties vowed to reopen the case. Before that, the Bavarian state parliament had already adopted a nonpartisan resolution to resume the investigation.

Too many questions are still unanswered. Who was Gundolf Köhler, the man who had tried to plant the bomb and died in the process? Who or what made him a killer? And what were the politica l motivations for his crime? Was the attack part of a long series of right-wing extremist acts of violence that shook Western Europe at the time? Early in the case, there had been speculation about Köhler’s right-wing extremist background. And last year serious doubts emerged as to whether the 21-year-old was truly alone at the scene of the crime on Sept. 26, 1980. But the question of why the authorities never completely solved the case remains unanswered to this day. Could it have been that the party in power in Bavaria at the time, the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), had no interest in seeing the case solved?

Looming Election

It was less than two weeks before the Oct. 5, 1980 German parliamentary election, and the CSU and its then Bavarian state governor and chancellor candidate, Franz Josef Strauss, were not interested in right-wing extremist terrorism. In their worldview, the threat always came from the left. The social climat e was toxic, and the Strauss camp, and others, treated left-wing extremist terror group the Red Army Faction (RAF) and its sympathizers as Germany’s public enemy number one. What did not fit into this worldview was the idea that right-wing extremist groups were at the same time developing their own, loosely defined terrorist network, with cells in Hamburg, Nuremberg, Esslingen near Stuttgart, as well as in Antwerp and Bologna. Not surprisingly, efforts to investigate the threat from the far right were half-hearted at best.

For three decades, the official explanation for the Oktoberfest attack involved the theory of a confused “sole perpetrator.” In May 1981, after just eight months of investigation, the Bavarian State Office of Criminal Investigation (LKA) postulated this theory in its “final comment” on the case. The Federal Prosecutor’s Office also noted that there was “no evidence whatsoever” that “third parties” could have influenced Köhler. Case closed — o r so it seemed.

Until now, this final comment was the only document relating to the case that had been made available to the public, while the investigation files on which it had been based remained unknown. Now SPIEGEL has evaluated these files for the first time, in addition to dossiers from the former East German secret police, the Stasi, and other records, some of which were formerly classified — a total of 46,000 pages.

Important Clues Ignored

The documents show that a number of Bavarian and federal government agencies were already aware of Köhler’s right-wing extremist connections before the attack, but did not seriously follow up on important clues. Evidence, including what was left of the bomb, was removed on the night of the attack, witnesses were not adequately questioned and important leads were not pursued.

More thorough investigations would likely have uncovered the right-wing extremist network behind Köhler. But this would have highlighted connections Strauss and other CSU politicians had to the far-right. Politicians and investigators threw away an important opportunity, and terrorism coming from the right, unlike leftist terrorism, was long downplayed and characterized as an aberration by “sole perpetrators.” This was precisely what happened in the Köhler case. The “final comment” in the investigation report by the Bavarian LKA makes no mention whatsoever of direct right-wing connections or possible accomplices.

The investigators described Köhler as the unremarkable son of middle-class parents in Donaueschingen, a town in the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg. He was a geology student who became interested in chemistry and fossils as a teenager. The investigation report concluded that his motives were unknown, with the authors merely noting that the fact that Köhler had failed an important intermediate examination could have provided “the final impetus” to commit the crime.

But as the newly released documents show, the authorities knew more about the case than the report suggested. Köhler’s first interactions with the far-right NPD party began when he was 14. He attended the party’s state convention and campaign events. In Donaueschingen, he was in close contact with a former Nazi who served as a father figure and strongly influenced his worldview. For years, Köhler kept a portrait of Hitler above his bed, and he also collected badges, books and pictures from the Nazi era. For one of his birthdays, he treated himself to a steel helmet and military boots, and he joined a shooting club to practice using a weapon.

“He supported the extermination of Jews and communists in the Third Reich,” one of Köhler’s friends told police after the bombing. The friend also said that Köhler had raved about being part of an SS or Reichswehr military organization in Germany, “to be able to take action against communists.” Köhler once traveled to the eastern French city of Strasbourg to visit a brothel. Friends who had accompanied him later said that when he saw a group of orthodox Jews there, he said that “Adolf had forgotten to gas them, and now we had to pay for the pensions of these old men.” One of Köhler’s brothers later told the police: “This radical right-wing sensibility stabilized over the years.”

CSU Downplayed Neo-Nazi Activity

Still, in their final comments the Federal Prosecutor’s Office and the Bavarian LKA downplayed Köhler’s worldview and his strong connection to right-wing extremist organizations.

Köhler was a member of the Viking Youth, which, modeled after the Hitler Youth, was the most important German neo-Nazi youth organization at the time. The group’s several hundred uniformed members were led by a Gauführer, a term meant to invoke the Nazi officials known as Gauleiter. They learned how to shoot, committed pipe-bomb attacks and, calling themselves “youth loyal to the German Reich,” were determined to combat the left. In 1978, “Viking disciples” attacked four NATO soldiers at a military training area in the northern state of Lower Saxony and stole several submachine guns and magazines.

But the Munich police still did not feel that the neo-Nazi connection was was worth pursuing. During a search of Köhler’s room, they even failed to recognize his Viking Youth membership card. “Because I was unfamiliar with this organization (Viking Youth), I paid no attention to this membership card. I considered such cards to be part of Gundolf Köhler’s collection, a hobby,” the operations manager of the “Theresienwiese Special Commission” wrote in a report. The officers did take the membership card with them when Köhler’s room was searched again two weeks later. But this piece of incriminating evidence was not mentioned in the final comment, and there was no further investigation of the organization.

The authorities also showed little interest in Köhler’s involvement in the Wehrsportgruppe (Military Sports Group, WSG) paramilitary organization run by the neo-Nazi Karl-Heinz Hoffmann, or that he had attended one of their meetings “sometime in the past.” At the time, right-wing extremist activities were being downplayed by those at the very top of the political ladder in Bavaria. Speaking in the state parliament in March 1979, Strauss said: “Don’t make fools of yourselves by attributing significance to certain groups — you mentioned Hoffmann’s Wehrsportgruppe Hoffmann today — that they have never had, do not have and will never acquire in Bavaria.”

The CSU chairman also had nothing but derision for the ban of Hoffmann’s WSG by the coalition government of the center-left Social Democratic Party and the business-friendly Free Democratic Party in Bonn in January 1980. Hoffmann, he said, ought to be “left alone” if he “happens to enjoy going for a walk in the country on a Sunday with a backpack and ‘battledress’ held up with a waist belt.”

[…]

— Hat tip: JP

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In Norway, Gender Equality Does Not Extend to the Bedroom

Norway vies with its Nordic neighbors for the title of most gender-egalitarian country in the world. Yet gender equality still seems to stop at the bedroom door, and even here, women who recounted their experiences declined to be identified, fearful still of retribution. Sexual violence against women in Scandinavia shares characteristics seen in more unequal societies: It is all too common and rarely reported, and those who commit it are even more rarely convicted.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Italy: Bad Weather Batters Northern Italy, 9 Dead and 5 Missing

(ANSAmed) — ROME, OCTOBER 26 — Provisional estimates suggest that the violent storms to hit northern Italy have left nine people dead and five missing. The storm clouds are now moving towards the south of the peninsula but the situation remains critical in Liguria and Tuscany. The worst affected areas are in the eastern part of Liguria, in the province of La Spezia, and in Borghetto Vara in particular, where six people are so far known to have died and another three missing. Two people have died in the Lunigiana area. An aid worker from Monterosso, in the Cinque Terre, is among the victims after being carried away by the flood that hit eastern Liguria. The man was washed away by a sea of mud as he tried to force open the drain covers in the area.

Downpours and mudslides have paralysed Liguria and Tuscany, but there is also serious disruption in the Veneto and Friuli regions. In the area to the north of Vicenza, rain has been falling constantly since yesterday, causing the river Bacchiglione to rise by two metres, taking it above three metres in the city (though still some way from the capacity of 4 and a half metres). In Venice, the tide today reached a high of 103 centimetres at 10:50 this morning, with high waters in other lower parts of the city, while a new tidal peak of 85 centimetres is predicted at around 23:00 tonight. The situation remains worrying in Friuli, with the river Varma having burst its banks in the province of Pordenone. Fire crews also rescued a motorist trapped in his car. In Borghetto Vara, meanwhile, where six people have died, one woman had a miraculous escape: after being washed a kilometre away by the force of the river, the woman saved herself by clinging to the basket of a local basketball court. She was found by the first volunteers to reach the scene, exhausted and in a state of shock.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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No Reprisals for Frenchman Who Burned Koran

An appeals court on Tuesday confirmed the acquittal of a Frenchman accused of inciting racial hatred after posting an internet video of himself burning a Koran and then urinating on it. Ernesto Rojas Abbate was arrested in October 2010 after posting footage of himself wearing a devil mask and tearing pages from the Islamic holy book before setting it on fire and later urinating on it to extinguish the flames.

Prosecutors, who had been seeking a three-month suspended sentence and €1,000 ($1,400) fine, appealed after a court acquitted him in May on charges of inciting racial hatred. In the footage Rojas Abbate, a 31-year-old resident of a suburb of the eastern city of Strasbourg, used pages of the Koran as a prop in a simulation of the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York.

He made paper airplanes from pages of the Koran, threw them at glasses meant to represent the twin towers of the World Trade Centre, then burned the pages and the book before urinating on them.

The appeals court ruled that, while the video was “wilfully outrageous and deliberately provocative”, there was no evidence Rojas Abbate had intended “to arouse feelings of hostility… aimed at provoking discrimination, hate, or violence towards Muslims.”

His lawyer, Renaud Bettcher, hailed the ruling, saying: “In a secular and republican society, it is incomprehensible that my client was prosecuted. Blasphemy does not exist in France.” Police arrested Rojas Abbate after local Muslim leaders in Strasbourg reacted with outrage at the video.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Patrick Sookhdeo: Yes: I Criticise Certain Aspects of Islam, But Don’t Call Me a Bigot

I abhor all anti-Muslim prejudice and hatred, and have spoken out against it

by Patrick Sookhdeo

Mehdi Hasan names me as one of “a growing number of rightwing ideologues [who] … push the argument that Islam is at war with the west” (How fear of criminalisation forces Muslims into silence, 9 September). He refers to me as a “crude, anti-Islam propagandist”, and asks why western governments have “given such influence to preachers of hate and division”.

The only evidence cited to support these descriptions are brief references in the manifesto of Anders Breivik, the Norwegian mass killer, and a few short quotes from my books. But given the wide range of sources quoted by Breivik, his references to my writings hardly prove rightwing extremism on my part.

Hasan says that British Muslims have to endure “negative stereotypes” and “demonisation”. Yet he is prepared to use equally negative stereotypes to demonise those, including myself, who offer a well-researched and carefully reasoned understanding of Islam that is different from his own.

I utterly abhor anti-Muslim prejudice, bigotry and hatred in all its forms and am on record as speaking out against it. I have also worked hard on a number of occasions for the causes of Muslim minorities. I count many moderate and liberal Muslims among my close friends.

My work with the armed forces, cited disapprovingly by Hasan, has focused on facilitating understanding of and dialogue with Muslims, and has taken place in the context of peace and community relations. All this should perhaps gain my views a fair hearing from anyone not invincibly prejudiced against them.

There is a crucial difference, unacknowledged by Hasan, between anti-Muslim hatred and legitimate criticism of aspects of Islam. Like any other ideology, Islam must be open to being critiqued, and where its political aspects appear to challenge fundamental western values, these issues must be discussed openly and responsibly, without the debate being obscured by charges of “Islamophobia”.

It must also be possible to comment on the behaviour of individual Muslims where this contravenes our society’s basic norms, without being accused of racism or bigotry, and to speak in defence of persecuted Christians without such charges being levelled.

There is ample evidence from both Muslim and secular sources to prove that some Muslims in Britain are creating enclaves governed largely according to their own rules; and that smaller, more radical elements are advocating an Islamic society under sharia law. This process is not an invention of a few “anti-Islam propagandists”. It is a well-documented social change that demands a fair-minded debate. I suggest that Hasan’s unwillingness to acknowledge its existence raises questions about his own credibility as a commentator.

— Hat tip: Steen

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The Breivik Interrogations: Norway Massacre Suspect Reveals All But Motive

Anders Behring Breivik has admitted to killing 77 Norwegians during a bombing and shooting massacre in July. Investigators say he is almost overly eager to talk. Still, after 100 hours of questioning, they have seen no signs of remorse and have little information about what really motivated him to kill.

According to Hatlo, Breivik explains patiently and in detail how he saw a particular girl or boy on Utøya, how he lured them out of their hiding places and how he took aim at them. He says he deliberately selected the adolescents while sparing the younger children because, as he has told investigators, they had not yet been indoctrinated by Norway’s Labor Party, which he refers to as the “cultural Marxists.”

Breivik wants to sit for these interrogations, and he wants everything he says to be written down and recorded.

“It’s no surprise that he was so careful about not getting shot during his arrest,” Rachlew says, shaking his head. Breivik is now the “rare animal in the zoo,” he adds, whereas similar killers usually end up killing themselves.

Breivik told Rachlew and Hatlo that it was difficult for him to shoot the first four victims. But then the music he was listening to on headphones, “Lux Aeterna” from “Lord of the Rings,” gave him a boost and made him feel euphoric. And then there were the drugs, the amphetamines. He said that he had switched “to autopilot,” as he called it.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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UK: ‘Thousands of Children’ Sexually Exploited by Gangs

Thousands of children in England are being horrifically abused by gangs, the deputy children’s commissioner has said, as she launches an inquiry.

Current estimates say up to 10,000 children could be affected by the sexual abuse, but it is feared the true figure could be much higher.

“Children are being failed up and down the country — in every village, town and city,” said Ms Berelowitz.

“Emma”, who was 12 when she was targeted, said at first she was flattered.

“They then started to get nasty with me, really nasty, it wasn’t fun anymore, it wasn’t nice. They had full control over me, they got very violent and threatening, I’d get raped one a week, every week. I’d have to sleep with other men as well,” she said…

A snapshot survey of 33 out of 144 local authority areas identified more than 1,000 children being sexually exploited on just one day.

And the Office of the Children’s Commissioner believes that gang and group-related sexual exploitation is a risk in all parts of the country.

“It would also be wrong for anyone to conclude or assert that this is an issue for one particular ethnic community,”

— Hat tip: Kitman

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UK: Barnabas Aid Not Spreading Islamophobia in UK Says Director

Leaders of a support organization for persecuted Christians are relieved that the group has been exonerated by the United Kingdom’s Charity Commission after being a ccused of campaigning against Muslims in Britain. Barnabas Aid has been exonerated by the U.K. commission, which regulates charities in England and Wales, from any wrongdoing in passing out one of the group’s Operation Nehemiah booklets, Slippery Slope.

Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo, international director of Barnabas Aid, told The Christian Post that while his writings address problems with Islamic extremism, the group’s material such as the booklet, does not promote hatred toward Muslims. “In the U.K., where we are involved in education and in published materials, we believe that it is important for us to address those areas that cause persecution. For example, the apostasy law in Islam,” Sookhdeo said. “Furthermore, in the U.K. where Islamic extremism is growing and posing severe threats to the Church, and to Christian communities, and to converts, it is important for us to address those issues.”

The complaint, filed by a lay leader from the Church of England, challenged whether Barnabas Aid should be allowed to keep its charitable status when engaged in allegedly “divisive” activity, according to a statement from Barnabas. The accusation included the charge that the material passed out by the group could incite racial hatred. However, Sookhdeo said the booklet focused on addressing the issues of how Islamic extremism is beginning to affect society and how in turn it is affecting Christian communities within parts of Britain. The material is not meant to be hateful, he said. “We believe that Islam as a religion, and Muslims as a people, have every right to exist in Britain as a secular democratic society. We have no concerns about that. Our concern is what happens when religion becomes political in its nature and then seeks to transform society,” he said. “Under that type of transformation of society it poses stress upon Christian minorities and communities.”

The Charity Commission issued a response to the complaint, which Barnabas Aid published in its recent press release. The commission stated: “The charity, in its campaigning around ‘Operation Nehemiah’ appears to be acting within its objects, as the campaign can be seen as promoting ‘the advancement of the Christian faith.’ A charity can become involved in a campaign which furthers or supports its charitable purposes.”

The commission added, “The Commission acknowledges that the campaign material fits within its aims, and that the booklet quotes sources for the claims that it makes. They quote its statement of intent, not to promote anti-Muslim fear or hatred, but to address seriously the challenge of Islam to society. The campaign does not appear to be inciting racial hatred and the charity believes that it has public benefit in that it is committed to maintaining Christian values of freedom of conscience, speech and religion for the next generation in church and society. We are therefore content that the charity, in carrying out this campaign, is operating within its objects and within the terms of our guidance,” the commission concluded in its statement.

“Throughout my writings I have emphasized that there is no Islamophobia involved, no hate. Rather, these are legitimate points of concern. The Christian response should be one of love and tolerance, but at the same time, if those issues affect them, then those issues need to be raised,” Sookhdeo reiterated to CP Monday. “The difficulty which we are facing in the U.K. is that Islam is the elephant in the room and it cannot be discussed,” he explained. “As soon as you raise, for example, issues of the persecution of Christians, [then] newspapers, the media, and individuals will actually accuse you of being an extremist. We live in a culture of intimidation and silence. If anyone doesn’t agree with you they want you removed. There is no place for discussion or tolerance for saying you have your views I have mine,” he added.

In a statement issued by Barnabas Aid, Sookhdeo said, “We warmly welcome this positive response from the Charity Commission and its exoneration of our Operation Nehemiah campaign. We have been deeply saddened that some Christians regard Barnabas Aid as preaching hatred when we raise the plight of the persecuted Church and the growing influence of Islamism and its impact on the Church and the Christian heritage and liberties of Western society. We are unshakably committed to our stated goals and will continue to pursue them with vigour, for the sake of our Lord’s persecuted people at home and abroad,” he concluded.

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: Barnabas Fund Vindicated by Charity Commission

The UK Charity Commission has completely exonerated Barnabas Fund after receiving a complaint about one of our Operation Nehemiah booklets. On 7 August The Sunday Times carried an article about our campaign against the growing Islamisation of Britain, making reference to our booklet Slippery Slope. Having read the article, a lay Reader in the Church of England then filed a complaint against us with the Charity Commission.

The complainant asked whether Barnabas should be allowed to retain its charitable status when we were engaged in allegedly “divisive” activity. She suggested that “campaigning” against another religion was akin to inciting racial hatred and questioned its public benefit. The Charity Commission have now sent us their reply to the complainant. After looking at the article and our booklet, they have co ncluded:

The charity, in its campaigning around “Operation Nehemiah” appears to be acting within its objects, as the campaign can be seen as promoting “the advancement of the Christian faith”. A charity can become involved in a campaign which furthers or supports its charitable purposes.

The Commission acknowledge that the campaign material fits within its aims, and that the booklet quotes sources for the claims that it makes. They quote its statement of intent, not to promote anti-Muslim fear or hatred, but to address seriously the challenge of Islam to society. They then say:

The campaign does not appear to be inciting racial hatred and the charity believes that it has public benefit in that it “is committed to maintaining Christian values of freedom of conscience, speech and religion for the next generation in church and society”.

The response ends:

We are therefore content that the charity, in carrying out this campaign, is operating within its objects and within the terms of our guidance.

The Commission’s letter thus represents complete vindication for Barnabas Fund regarding the nature and conduct of our campaign. Since the complaint was lodged, we have been contacted by another person who is deeply unhappy about our policy of supporting only Christians, and who also intends to report us to the Commission. But the recent ruling demonstrates how careful we are to act within both the law and the charitable objects stated within our Articles of Association, and we are confident that any future complaints will receive a similar response.

Dr Patrick Sookhdeo, International Director of Barnabas Fund, said:

We warmly welcome this positive response from the Charity Commission and its exoneration of our Operation Nehemiah campaign. We have been deeply saddened that some Christians regard Barnabas Fund as preaching hatred when we raise the plight of the persecuted Church and the growing influence of Islamism and its impact on the Church and the Christian heritage and liberties of Western society. We are unshakably committed to our stated goals and will continue to pursue them with vigour, for the sake of our Lord’s persecuted people at home and abroad

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: Birmingham: Say No to the Racist EDL, Saturday 29 October

UPDATED Tues 25 October:Antifascists and local trade union and community groups in Birmingham will come together to say no to the racists and fascists of the English Defence League on Saturday 29 October. The EDL wants to bring its vicious anti-Muslim racist hatred to the multiracial, multicultural city. Antifascist campaigners and local black and Asian youth mobilised repeatedly to emphatically show the EDL they weren’t welcome in Birmingham in 2009. The picture shows an EDL member giving Hitler’s “sieg heil” salute when the police bussed the fascists and racists out of town in 2009. Last year the EDL again announced it would come to the city, but w as forced to cancel its planned racist demo.

This year, antifascists and local community organisations are determined to show again that Birmingham is proud to be a multiracial, multicultural city and that the EDL are not welcome.

Details

“Love the Difference” event

Called by UAF and local community groups, trade unions and faith groups. Assemble 12 noon, Saturday 29 October, Chamberlain Square, central Birmingham

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: Concern Over Planned EDL March in Birmingham Next Saturday

Local leaders, MPs and councilors in Birmingham have expressed their concern ahead of a planned march by the EDL next Saturday 29th October. According to the Birmingham Mail, the EDL “are set to take to the streets on October 29, more than two years after their last visit ended in confrontations with anti-fascist groups. The Unite Against Fascism group, whose supporters clashed with EDL followers during clashes in Birmingham in 2009, has also announced plans for a counter-demonstration in Birmingham on the same day.”

Over 600 EDL supporters have confirmed their attendance online on the EDL’s Facebook site. The police have, with other similar planned demonstrations, stated that they do not have the power to ban groups from engaging in a static protest. West Midlands police will however, be “monitoring the situation to ensure maintenance of public order and officers will be deployed throughout the city centre to provide a visible reassurance to retailers, shoppers and all those visiting Birmingham. Any criminal or public order offences will be robustly dealt with.”

Selly Oak MP Steve McCabe and Perry Barr MP Khalid Mahmood have expressed support for Birmingham City Council and West Midlands Police in writing to the Home Secretary to ban the EDL protest. Mahmood described it as “just an excuse for violence. We’ve had two experiences of EDL marches in Birmingham and both resulted in damage to people and property. Most of these protesters don’t even come from Birmingham. They come here and use our city as a football. The council and police should stand up for the people of Birmingham,” he said.

McCabe added that, “I used to say that the EDL should be allowed to demonstrate but having seen the trouble they cause, I’ve changed my mind. This is a rag bag of extremism looking to cause trouble and I don’t think the Birmingham people deserve it.”

In September, the Home Secretary banned an EDL march from taking place in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets after being presented with a signed petition bearing signatures of more than 25,000 local residents. A static protest was allowed to take place. Local Labour councilor for Lozells and East Handsworth ward, Waseem Zaffar has sent an open letter to the Home Secretary calling on her to ban the march. If you live in Birmingham and would like to contact your local councilor or MP concerning the proposed EDL march, you can find details of how to get in touch here and here.

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: EDL Birmingham Demo Location Moved by the Police

West Midlands Police have agreed to move the location of an English Defence League (EDL) demo planned for Saturday. A static demonstration was to take place in Victoria Square in Birmingham, but councillors were critical of police for allowing it to go ahead there. The Royal British Legion (RBL) has also moved the launch of its county Poppy Appeal in the city centre from Saturday to Friday, the council said . The demonstration will now be held in Centenary Square, police said. A similar EDL protest two years ago ended in violence between the group and anti-fascist protesters holding a counter-demonstration.

‘Unilateral decision’

Anti-fascist group Unite Against Fascism (UAF) said it planned to stage another event this weekend. Police said a “community event” by UAF is to be held in Chamberlain Square.

Councillor Alan Rudge wrote to the chief constable of West Midlands Police on behalf of the leader and deputy leader of the council to convey his “astonishment” at the “unilateral decision” that the demo was to go ahead in Victoria Square. Councillor Waseem Zaffar, councillor for Lozells and East Handsworth, also wrote to the council and police to ask for it to be moved. He said he feared there could be a repeat of the violence of 2009 if the demonstration was not moved.

‘Ensure safety’

“I don’t think here in Victoria Square is most ideal location,” he said before the decision to move the demo. “It’s possibly the most prominent place in the city. It was a place. whe re the EDL were protesting in 2009 and I think we need to find another place, maybe on the other side of the city centre, rather than this particular place.” There are also two football matches in the area on Saturday — Birmingham City host Brighton and West Bromwich Albion meet Liverpool. “Police will be carrying out an operation to ensure the safety of the public and protesters on the day at both [protest] events,” a spokesman said.

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: Fraudsters Convicted of ‘Crash for Cash’ Scam at Tottenham Garage

A ring of fraudsters who staged car “crashing parties” in an elaborate car insurance scam have been jailed for a total of 12 years and three months.

Seven employees at Motor Alliance, an accident repair garage in Ashley Road, Tottenham Hale, made 123 fake claims to rake in up to £3million on top of the range vehicles in a three year wrecking spree.

The con artists — led by gangleader Mohammed Samsul Haque — staged drunken parties at the garage where they rammed luxury cars like Mercedes and Jaguars into each other and submitted claims to insurance companies. If the damage was not bad enough they finished the job with a baseball bat.

Haque, a 26-year-old architectural technology student, of Lydford Road, Maida Vale, personally made at least £180,000 from the “crash for cash” swindle.

And when officers raided the premises of Motor Alliance they discovered 64 files relating to bogus insurance claims in the boot of a silver Mercedes.

He was jailed for five years at Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday, October 19.

Jobless Nazruislam Muhammad Rahman, 32, of Greyhound Road, Tottenham, was one of the six men working under the direction of Haque.

— Hat tip: Kitman

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UK: Half of Young Criminals Say Prison Does Not Rehabilitate

More than half of young criminals believe nothing in prison will stop them from reoffending when they are released.

While the overall number of children and young people in custody continued to fall during 2010-11 from 1,977 to 1,822, a “changing profile of the children and young people in custody” was emerging, the inspectors said.

The proportion of black and minority ethnic young men, already over-represented, rose to 39 per cent from 33 per cent the previous year.

Frances Done, chairwoman of the Youth Justice Board, said: “We are very concerned that in some areas young people’s experience of custody has deteriorated although in some it has improved.”

— Hat tip: Kitman

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UK: Loughborough Community Surgeries Resurrected

A COUNCIL-led community reassurance surgery has been resurrected in Loughborough’s Muslim community following calls from concerned residents. Charnwood Borough Council and Leicestershire Police officers will attend Kings Road Mosque each month after a number of recent incidents including burglaries and thefts. The monthly surgeries used to be held regularly but were discontinued when previous issues were tackled by the authority and police. Councillor David Snartt, Charnwood Borough Council’s Cabinet member for Neighbourhood Services, said: “I hope the monthly surgeries will help members of our Muslim community feel safer and reassure residents that we are listening to their problems and delivering solutions.

“There have been a number of incidents recently which have led to increased calls for regular face-to-face meetings and we are only happy to help. “One of the Council’s priorities is to ensure that neighbourhoods are safe and cohesive places to live and this is part of that strategy which aims to make Charnwood a better place to live for everyone.” Recent incidents include two high value burglaries and a spate of incidents where people have helped themselves to metal from properties to sell as s crap.

Moulad Islam Khan, Chairman of the King’s Street Mosque, said: “We are very pleased that the police and the Council come to the mosque and listen to the concerns of the community and reassured us that action is being taken to address them.

“We are very happy that these surgeries will continue.”

Inspector Johnny Monks, Commander of Loughborough local policing unit, said: “I am glad we have reinstated these monthly meetings. As local officers, we strive to listen to the concerns of all members of our community and regular meetings help us to hear those concerns in person and take action.

“We encourage people to get to know their local beat officers and they can also contact them at any time by email or phone.”

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: Students Protest After Hackney College Bans Segregation Curtain Used by Muslims

Muslim men angered as ‘decency curtain’ is removed

They have accused chiefs at Hackney Community College in Falkirk Street, Shoreditch, of “discrimination” after it took down the drapes in the college’s multi-faith facility. But the college says the room is for students and staff “of all faiths and none” and its actions are in line with its values of equality and inclusion. A group of students have now started a petition demanding the curtain be replaced and have so far collected 30 signatures, including men and women of different faiths. “Having the curtain is important because in Islam the men and women have to prostrate to pray,” said business student Kamil Alp,20. “It’s very inappropriate if a man does it in the presence of a woman when she is also prostrating.”

Prostration involves having the forehead, nose, both hands, knees and all toes touching the ground at the same time. Several years ago, some students erected their own dividing curtain to support segregated prayer. But it was removed by college staff . Kamil, said many Muslim students were being forced to pray in the corridors. “I feel discriminated against as they have given us the prayer room but are not letting us use it in the way we need to” he added. A college spokeswoman said the room had been designed as a place where students and staff — of all faiths or none — could practice individual reflection or prayer. She said the college had made arrangements with mosques for Muslim students requiring segregation. “We are aware not all students are happy with the current arrangements,” she said. We need to balance the needs of all students to enable access in line with our values of inclusion. However we welcome ongoing debate on the issue.”

[JP note: That the debate will be ongoing is guaranteed, but not necessarily to be welcomed.]

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: Thugs Racist Attack on Man

A MAN was racially assaulted and brutally attacked as he walked through Queens Park in Bolton.

Officers were called by the North West Ambulance Service following the attack.

The victim was walking through the park when he was attacked by four Asian men, who shouted racist abuse before launching the brutal assault.

They repeatedly kicked him in the head, face and body.

One of the men men stood over him and stamped on his chest causing significant injuries. One man in the group shouted for them to leave and they all fled in different directions following the attack at just before 7.40pm on October 19.

The victim has bruising to the face, head and body. He has two broken ribs and a punctured lung.

One of the men has been described as Asian, in his early 30s, 6 ft 2 in, of heavy build, with a bald head and a thin ‘lined’ type beard.

— Hat tip: Kitman

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After the Arab Spring, Is Egypt Heading for a Rigid Winter?

The country is the scene of daily demonstrations, economic uncertainty and political chaos. The massacre of Copts, Gaddafi’s demise and the rise of Muslim fundamentalists, who could get half the seats in the next parliament, are factors of instability and concern in a country on a path towards democracy.

Cairo (AsiaNews) — Recent events in Tunisia and Libya are shedding some new light on the situation in Egypt. It is true that the starting point of the Egyptian youth revolution was the murder of young Khaled Saïd six months before the immolation of Tunisian Mohammad Bouzidi. In the beginning of summer 2010, young Egyptians began demonstrating against the regime after it declared 25 January (Police Day) as a national holiday to celebrate the country’s security forces.

The Tunisian events of December and early January certainly gave a push to the Egyptian people who concretely felt the possibility of overthrowing the despised regime.

Then disillusion set in when elections were not held to amend the constitution at a time at a time when public opinion was eager to elaborate a completely new Constitution.

On Sunday, the Tunisian election for a Constitutional Assembly gave new hope for the Egyptian people, hope for free, fair and democratic elections. Still, public opinion is doubtful that old and deeply rooted habits forged in more than half a century of dictatorship can change suddenly, especially when everybody knows that the old regime is still alive and kicking.

People in the street prefer to repeat old popular sayings like “A dog’s tail never becomes straight” or and “Is it their nature or will they buy a new one?”

The recent past has been occupied mainly by the preparation for parliamentary elections, which should be held at the end of November. Yesterday was the last day for candidates to submit their names for the elections. The new parliament, which includes the People’s Assembly and the Consultative Council (equivalent to a Senate), is expected to set up a special body to elaborate a new constitution.

Fifty-three political parties have been registered. It is well known that members of the old National Democratic Party of former President Mubarak have split into ten different political parties and have infiltrated other parties. They are submitting 260 candidates.

A lot has been said about election system, divided between a party list (302 or two thirds of the seats) and first-past-the-post (one third).The fundamentalists known as Salafists have sponsored many individuals for the election. The Supreme Committee in charge of the elections has announced the results: 862 lists and 8,627 individual candidates have been duly registered: 6,591 individuals and 590 lists for the People’s Assembly, and, 2,036 candidates and 272 lists for the Consultative Council.

A ruling of the Administrative Court attached to the State Council issued yesterday now requires the Egyptian government to take the necessary measures to give Egyptians living abroad the right to participate in the next elections. According to well-informed sources, the number of Egyptians abroad is around 8 million, in the Arab countries, mainly Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Emirates, as well as Europe, North America and Australia. By the end of this month, delegations from the Vital Records Office will travel to Europe, Canada and the United States to give Egyptian immigrants the opportunity to obtain a new Identity Card, which enables each Egyptian citizen to be registered automatically as a voter. Egypt recognises dual citizenship for all Egyptian immigrants.

It is well known that the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafists are likely to win big. Well-informed experts give them 40 to 50 per cent of the vote. In addition, many commentators believe that the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) is backing this trend.

This is a source of concern among Copts, who represent more than ten per cent of the population, and are often victims of confessional harassment. The recent incident of 9 October, when 27 Christian demonstrators were savagely killed by bullets and crushed by armoured vehicles, had created a new iconic figure, Mina Daniel, a young blogger who actively involved in the January revolution and was killed by an armoured car on 9 October. According to his wish, his funeral went through Tahrir Square. A picture of his mother and the mother of Khaled Saïd has been posted on YouTube showing how Christians and Muslims are united in their destiny in Egypt.

In fact, alongside the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists, many Muslims have been demonstrating along with Copts. They too fear fundamentalism, concerned that they would be the first victims of a trend that considers any Muslim without allegiance to the movement as a traitor to his faith.

The Muslim Brotherhood and Salafists are making moderate announcements, like in Libya where the Transitional National Council has tried to allay fears about Islamisation.

It seems to all the observers that the wind of Islamisation is blowing from Tunisia and Libya and that by the end of November, it will definitely sweep over Egypt. Liberal movements calling for a civil society lack a strong structure to stand in front of the religious flow.

On one issue, everyone in Egypt agrees. The macabre exhibition of Gaddafi’s body was met by general disapproval. Both Muslim and Christian authorities expressed their revulsion at the gruesome spectacle. Part of public opinion in Egypt deplored the death of the Libyan dictator who escaped justice, but for another part, his death was the better situation because it ended a long and dark period in the history of Libya. Such a conclusion was preferable to a long trial, like in Egypt, that might come to a dead end. In Egypt, a group of lawyers has asked for the judge in charge of the Mubarak’s trial to be revoked, but the decision has been postponed to the end of December.

Demonstrations have never stopped in Egypt and include judges, teachers, lawyers, workers, civil servants, etc. For a couple of days, police officers have been demonstrating, shutting down the Ministry of Interior area. Some of their posters read, “Closed for cleaning”. They want to the dismissal of the current minister and the removal of all high rank officials from the old regime.

Yesterday, a new group named ‘Egypt above all’ was founded. It wants Marshal Hussein Tantawi, head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, to be “the first president of the new Egyptian state for one term to help institute real democracy”.

Posters of the marshal in military uniform were plastered on walls in Tahrir square and others parts of Cairo as well as other towns, calling for a million signatures to get Tantawi to run for president.

At present, he is on his way to attend the funeral of the Saudi crown prince. Egypt’s military rulers have denied that they have any ambition to hold on to power.

Given the general situation in Egypt, characterised by demonstrations, a stagnant tourist sector, a shaky economy and a general feeling of insecurity and deadlock, is the Arab spring on its way to become a rigid winter in Egypt?

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Libya: Gaddafi’s Family Denounces War Crimes to the Hague

(ANSAmed) — ROME, OCTOBER 26 — According to French TV channel website, Gaddafi’s family will denounce what happened to the ICC in the Hague, on grounds of “war crime” allegations. Marcel Ceccaldi, Gaddafi’s French lawyer, stated: “They will denounce what happened to Gaddafi at The Hague, so that the circumstances of his death are made clear. Some NATO helicopters hit the convoy he was travelling in. The convoy did not constitute a risk for civilians: therefore, this must have been a killing planned by NATO”.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Libya: Italy Considers Participation Multinational Force

(ANSAmed) ROME, OCTOBER 26 — “Italy, together with the Libyan NTC and its partners, is exploring and assessing ways of participating” in the multinational force that could replace NATO in Libya, ANSA learned from reliable diplomatic sources. The idea of replacing NATO forces with a multinational force was suggested today in Doha during the meeting of Chiefs of Staff of countries that are active in Libya. Al Jazeera reported, quoting Chief of Staff of Qatar Ahmed Ben Ali al Atia, that the new force should be led by Qatar, and that its goals should include to assist Libya’s political stabilisation and to train Libyan security forces locally.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Libya: Touareg Source, Saif Al Islam is in Niger

(ANSAmed) — ROME, OCTOBER 26 — Muammar Gaddafi’s son, Saif Al Islam, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, is in Niger, according to a Touareg representative from the country, Riza Aj Bula, who was quoted on the website of the BBC’s Arabic service.

“Saif was taken from Algeria to Niger with the help of the Touaregs,” he said.

Another of Gaddafi’s sons, Saadi, has also sought refuge in Niger in recent months.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Obama: It “Only Cost us a Billion Dollars” To Install Sharia Regime in Libya

And just watch for the dividends that will come in from that billion: oppression of women (polygamy has already been legalized in Libya), oppression of non-Muslims (a Jew who returned to Libya after decades in exile has already been harassed and deported), the denial of free speech and the freedom of conscience, and more virulent anti-Americanism than Gaddafi ever imagined. A bargain!

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Political Islam a ‘Necessary Gateway’ For Middle East Democracy: Analyst

BEIRUT — The electoral victory of an Islamist-rooted party in Tunisia will likely be repeated in countries swept by the Arab Spring, but religious groups will face an uphill battle to maintain political momentum, experts say. “Political Islam is a necessary gateway for democratic change in the Arab world,” said political analyst Khattar Abou Diab, professor of international relations at L’Universite Paris-Sud. “This is the most powerful political force in the Arab world today,” Abou Diab told AFP. “Under oppressive regimes, Islamists were at war with the state but the collapse of these regimes led to the election results we saw in Tunisia and will lead to the same elsewhere.”

After having been silenced for years by dictator Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, whose ouster inspired the Arab Spring, Tunisia’s Islamist group Ennahda claimed a significant win in the country’s first ever democratic election on Sunday, according to a provisional count. Massive numbers of voters turned out to elect a new 217-member assembly that will rewrite the constitution, appoint a new caretaker president and decide on how to guarantee basic liberties, including women’s rights.

Egypt, which is readying for a parliamentary vote on November 28, will likely see a similar political turn after the ouster of Hosni Mubarak. But no matter how many seats they win, Islamist groups will have no choice but to join ranks — and compromise — with other parties, experts say. “After elections, there will be a transitional phase during which other [secular] parties restructure,” said Abou Diab. “In the meantime, the people may well realize that Islamists’ ability to work miracles is one big illusion.”

Groups like Ennahda and the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt and Syria had long been oppressed by the secular but autocratic regimes of Ben Ali, Mubarak and Bashar al-Assad.

The Brotherhood in Syria was all but wiped out in 1982 when Bashar’s late father, Hafez al-Assad, ordered a military crackdown in the town of Hama to quell a rebellion by the group.

But Islamists in those countries continued to work underground, rallying followers around effective but discreet preachers and wide-reaching charities.

While other parties did not have much time to pull together a platform before the election, all Ennahda did was reap what it already had sowed, experts say. “Some Tunisians wanted to give them a try, especially as Islamists cultivate an image of integrity, honesty and the ability to face up to challenges,” said Paris-based analyst Agnes Levallois, author of A User’s Guide to the Middle East. “The fact that they were victimized for so long also adds to their legitimacy, as it were.”

But Islamist gains in the wake of the Arab Spring have sparked regional and global fears of a repeat of the scenario in sharia-ruled Iran or in Algeria, where Islamist militants for years have been battling the military. Experts warn the breakthrough of Ennahda — Arabic for “Renaissance” — could pose a threat to the status of Tunisian women, who have long enjoyed better rights than their peers across the Arab world.

Such fears are exacerbated by a recent statement by Mustafa Abdel Jalil, head of Libya’s National Transitional Council, who has called for the adoption of sharia law. Ennahda models itself on the ruling AKP party in Turkey, another Muslim-majority country which, like Tunisia, to date has a secular state. The group’s critics have accused the party of preaching modernism in public and radicalism in the mosques.

But no matter what political model Ennahda adopts, analysts say it will be held accountable to a people which found the courage to fight for a say in their future. “Islamists had long drawn their legitimacy from their declared battle against Mubarak and Ben Ali,” said Nadim Shehade, analyst at the London-based think-tank Chatham House. “The era of the rule of one leader, or one party, exists no more.” Levallois added that secular movements must take note of advances made by Islamists and remain vigilant. “They must ensure that Islamists do not believe they have the capacity to overhaul social rules,” she said.

— Hat tip: JP

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Qatar Admits Sending Troops to Fight Alongside Libya NTC

(AGI) Doha- Qatar has admitted to sending ground troops to assist Libyans in their fight against Gaddafi and loyalist forces. Qatar is the first nation in the international coalition to acknowledge its involvement on Libyan ground since the conflict began. Qatar’s chief of staff Major General Hamad bin Ali al-Atiya revealed that hundreds of Qatari soldiers joined the Libyan insurgents: “we were among them and the numbers of Qataris on ground were hundreds in every region,” he stated.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Religious Violence, Uncertainty in Post-Mubarak Egypt Threatens Ties to Israel, US

In the eight months since the Egyptian Revolution, radical Islamic groups are rising to power, the army seems unwilling or unable to stop a growing rash of sectarian violence and the long-standing friendship between the U.S., Israel and Egypt is in serious question. “I am the enemy of democracy,” Hesham al Ashry said in an interview with Fox News in his Cairo tailor shop. The devout Muslim is a main organizer in a group called the Salafists, which is working to bring Shariah law to Egypt. They, along with the Muslim Brotherhood, have risen quickly in the past eight months to fill the power vacuum left in post-Mubarak Egypt.

The massive change has billionaire tycoon and financier of the revolution Naguib Sawiris now calling Egypt’s future “dim … bad.” Mubarak’s heavy handed security apparatus kept groups like the Salafis on a tight leash; now free to organize and recruit the Salafists and Brotherhood have quickly climbed to the top of the political food chain with organizational help and financing from supporters in the Gulf states. “This is a big opportunity and it’s not going to go back. This was mentioned by the Prophet Mohammed. Peace be upon him. He said this was going to happen,” al Ashry said, speaking of the Arab Spring and the opportunity fo r groups like his to organize.

The past eight months have given a scary preview of what al Ashry’s opportunity might mean. It was a Salafy Cleric who called for the attack on the Israeli Embassy in Cario, the rocket and suicide bomb attack on a southern Israeli highway which killed 8 and injured more than 40 was launched from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, and it was the Army which intervened in a peaceful Coptic Christian protest killing more than two dozen. “They (the army) are completely frantic, they are (overwhelmed) by these every week demonstrations.the country is going bust. The economy is going down. They are unable to get it to rest (stop),” Sawiris, who says there is only a 20% chance of next month’s election producing a liberal or secular Muslim government, said.

Egypt’s first parliamentary elections are scheduled for late-November and many have warned they will become a flash point for the type of sectarian violence that left more than two dozen Coptic Christians dead. While al Ashry blames the Coptics for burning their own churches down in a sympathy ploy, it’s widely accepted that fundamentalists from the Muslim Brotherhood or Salafists are responsible for burning down a number of a Coptic churches. The church burnings have brought the Christians out in force beginning a cycle of violence which the army seems unable, or unwilling, to stop. “It is madness to hold elections in that short of a time. No securit y in the country. Anybody can do anything in Egypt with impunity,” said Coptic Christian politician Michael Muenier.

Egypt received $1.5B in foreign aid from the United States, making it one of the largest recipients in the world. Much of the aid comes in the form of military hardware and training.

Since Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel and the rise of President Mubarak, Egypt has functioned as a key U.S. ally in the region and has done much of Washington’s bidding, but the recent developments have put the special relationship into serious question. The Army has yet to arrest anyone for the string of Church burnings or punish any of the soldiers involved in the Coptic massacre in early October. Despite pleas from the United States, Egypt has continued to hold an American/Israeli citizen accused of spying, and the Army leadership has failed to secure arms smuggling/militant activity in the Sinai Peninsula.

This combination creates a new dynamic in the Middle East as Egypt no longer walks in step with her Western benefactors. For example, democratic elections long promised by the military already have Christians crying foul. “You are telling me the military just ran over 30 people with their tanks and we are going to feel comfortable going to elections,” Muenier who also predicts a win by the Muslim Brotherhood, said. As for what’s next if al Ashry and his followers get their way, “instead of one Iran .you have two.”

— Hat tip: JP

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The Arab Spring is Becoming an Islamist Takeover

Much as I sympathise with the desire of millions of young Arabs to free themselves from the tyranny of autocratic government, I’m afraid I’m finding it hard to draw any positive conclusions from the results of last weekend’s elections in Tunisia, where the Islamist Ennahda party has emerged as the main winner. Ennahda was outlawed during the regime of President Zine El Abedine Ben Ali on the grounds that it was planning an Islamist takeover of the country and its leader, Rachid Gannouchi was — as is the custom — granted political asylum in Britain, where he lived for 22 years. Ennahda, for its part, claims it was simply the victim of Ben Ali’s parano ia. But many people remain very wary of Mr Gannouchi since his triumphant return to Tunis last January, which explains why his opponents shouted “terrorist” when he went to vote.

I’m sure the Foreign Office will now claim it has played a blinder in having the foresight to provide sanctuaty to a man who will now be a key figure in redrawing Tunisia’s constitution after decades of autocratic rule, and I sincerely hope they have backed the right horse. For the moment at least, Ennahda is making reassuring noises about backing the formation of a secular, Western-style government, but I’m afraid I have my doubts.

The same goes for neighbouring Libya, where Nato has just spent the past eight months helping the rebels to overthrow Col Gaddafi’s regime. No doubt mssrs Cameron and Sarkozy were hoping to replace Gaddafi with a pro-Western regime with whom they could negotiate lots of lucrative oil contracts. Instead they find that, when the interim government formally proclaimed the country’s liberation in Benghazi on Sunday night, the victors of Libya’s nasty civil war are now planning to set up a new government based on the strict interpretation of Sharia law. And for those who are not familiar with the dynamics of the Middle East, Sharia law is the complete antithesis of Western-style democracy, as we have seen in Iran these past 30-odd years. So, who wants to support the Arab Spring now?

— Hat tip: JP

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The Rise of Political Islam

Why have the revolutions of the Arab Spring brought political Islam to the fore? Asks Patrick Seale.

Political Islam is making a dramatic comeback right across the greater Middle East. Some in the West will react with alarm at what they see as a dangerous geopolitical upset. Democrats, secularists, feminists, Christians and other religious minorities may fear that a rigid application of the shari’a, the body of Islamic law, will threaten their freedoms and their way of life. But these fears are almost certainly exaggerated, if not wholly unfounded, at least in most Arab countries. The triumph at last Sunday’s elections of Tunisia’s leading Islamic party Ennahda (Renaissance) is the latest example of the revival of political Islam in the Arab world. But it is also cause for reassurance. This moderate Islamic party should not be confused with hard-line Salafis, who demand a return to the uncompromising values of early Islam.

[…]

— Hat tip: JP

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Tunisia: Elections: Ennahda Domino Effect in North Africa?

(ANSAmed) — TUNIS — It was the first country to “stage the revolution”, the first to set itself a (largely respected) agenda along the road towards democracy, the first to go the polls and will soon be the first to have an Islamic party governing its future. Tunisia, then, is turning over a new leaf, and doing so in an explosive manner as, in the space of only six months, and especially with a succession of purely democratic occurrences, it has entrusted its future to Ennahda, a declaredly religious party, which in the next year will need to explain its idea of government. Rachid Ghannouchi’s party has led an election campaign based essentially on the anger of the people. after years of a rapacious dictatorial regime. This starting point is also valid in Egypt and Libya, where people took to the streets to fight a system of power based on a family-oriented oligarchy, which suggests that the outcome of the vote for the Constituent Assembly in Tunisia could be followed and imitated in countries where, for decades, the fate of the people was in the hands of family clans. But the outlines are different. In Egypt, beyond Mubarak’s avowed iron fist, the presence of the Muslim Brotherhood was never truly eliminated, a sort of hidden tolerance that, though always denied, probably defused potential moments of open conflict over the years. In Libya, the presence of Islamists was effectively limited to the personal sphere, with fundamentalists concentrated in Cyrenaica. But now, with Mubarak and Gaddafi removed, Islamists, hardliners or new members, have risen again, saying that they are ready, like in Tunisia, to enter the fray. This could follow the Tunisian model, in which Islam is presented as moderate, open to the demands of all, and modulated on the respect for the freedom of everyone. Tunisia, though, can be a model if Libya and Egypt emerge from the quicksand represented, for example, by the religious and economic minorities, who feel oppressed and want to rebel, or the fragmentation of society into structures that are parallel to the state (families and tribes) and that have always struggled not to be subdued. The Tunisian model of moderate Islam, open and seemingly reassuring, especially towards foreign partners, therefore appears to be exportable and, in the next few years, could result in a platform that would not only be political and economic but also religious. This by no means suggest that an Islam flexing its muscles to the outside world is on the way, but would represent a reality to be assessed with a great and newer form of attention, on account of its proximity to Europe. It is certainly no co-incidence that, only a few hours after the vote in Tunisia and comments from the Libyan leader Jalil on Sharia law as the basis for future legislation, an Egyptian preacher called on all “Muslim rebels” to create a single Islamic republic from Tunisia to Egypt.

In this hypothetical scenario, other subjects, which are certainly interested in dialogue, are coming out to play. One example is Qatar, which in recent months has added to an already significant economic presence in North Africa with frantic diplomatic action that the Emir Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani appears to have imposed. Qatar, a Sunni emirate with endless mosques, has used its oil riches to become a player in the region, not least in periods of emergency, intervening by providing funds and financing and upholding them for the future.

It did so for Tunisia, when the country was invaded by Libyans fleeing the war at home, giving off the idea that it the country was more than just a friend. Tunisia, like Libya and, indeed like Qatar, has a majority of Sunnis.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Tunisia: Guardian’s Jonathan Steele Accuses Tunisian Muslims Who Oppose Radical Islam of Islamophobia

This is almost comical. Evidently, for Guardian journalists — who consistently fail to acknowledge the most explicit expressions of antisemitism — even a nation which is 98% Muslim can be plagued with the scourge of Islamophobia. The Guardian’s Jonathan Steele, commenting on the results of yesterday’s Tunisian elections, in “Tunisia’s clean election leads the way”, CiF, Oct. 25, in which the Islamist Ennahda party (led by Rached Ghannouchi) was victorious, wrote:

The party that has emerged from the poll most strongly is Ennahda (Renaissance), a party of modern democratic Islam

Modern? Democratic?

[…]

— Hat tip: JP

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Gender Segregation Grows in Orthodox Jewish Areas

There is a neighbourhood in Jerusalem where men and women walk on different sidewalks. It is called Mea Shearim, a neighbourhood inhabited for years by Haredi Jews (literally “those who tremble”), an ultra-Orthodox branch of Judaism, reminiscent of an Ashkenazi Jewish corner of Poland in the 18th century. These separate sidewalks are an example of gender segregation practiced and invoked by strict Orthodox Jewish communities also in public places, despite the fact that several rulings in civil court have stated that these practices are illegal in Israel.

The most recent ruling came on October 16: the High Court stated that the streets of Mea Shearim belong equally to men and women, and banned discrimination. “Starting next year,” the judges ruled, “conduct contrary to this sentence will no longer be tolerated.” This type of statement would lead one to believe the police are required to enforce this decision. But in Israel there are few people who would be willing to make that bet. In recent years, gender separation in public areas has been constantly increasing alongside growing numbers and rising influence in the country of Haredi Jews and ultra-Orthodox Jews of various sects. “Gender segregation is a relatively new phenomenon in Jewish life,” said Yossi Gurvitz, one of the contributors to digital magazine +972, “it has been present for a decade, perhaps a few years more. The bitter fruit of Orthodox Jewish movements, Hasidic Jews in particular, who say that the presence of women (or girls, often who are very young) is inappropriate, and fuels impure thoughts.” The jump from this idea to banning women on sidewalks was a short one, but it wasn’t the only one. Recently, the idea of buses where women have to sit in the back has created a stir, even outside of Israel, on transport lines that serve Haredi Jewish neighbourhoods. An unwritten law requires female passengers, in a sort of backwards etiquette, to give up their seats for men and sit in the back of the bus.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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11,000 Australian Sheep Arrive in UAE for Eid

A shipment of nearly 11,000 Australian sheep aboard the world’s largest livestock vessel arrived in Dubai on Tuesday ahead of Eid Al Adha, when demand for sheep soars, newspapers said on Wednesday. The ship docked at Jebel Ali port and officials said they were examining the animals to ensure they are free of diseases before letting them in.

The livestock aboard the world’s largest cattle ship that can carry 100,000 sheep would be distributed to local markets before Eid Al Adha early next month.

— Hat tip: JP

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Anti-Islam Toy Guns Found in UAE

Emirati social expert reports the toys to the police and urge action

An Emirati social expert and activist shopping in a local market stumbled across Chinese-made toy guns that issue sounds mocking Islam and called on authorities to take action against such products. The discovery came a few days after Saudi authorities said they seized nearly 1,500 Chinese-made toy guns issuing sounds that mock and insult Aisha, the wife of the Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him).

Mariam Al Ahmadi, a well-known social activist in Abu Dhabi, said she found the toy guns at some shops in Bani Yas, just outside Abu Dhabi city. Quoted by the Dubai-based ‘Emarat Al Youm’ Arabic language daily, Mariam said she had reported the guns to the police and called for immediate measures.”I call upon the police and other competent authorities to investigate how these anti-Islam guns found their way into the UAE market and to take action against all those who had brought them in,” she said.

In Saudi Arabia, police said on Sunday they had seized nearly 1,500 Chinese-made toy guns at a local market found to be issuing sounds that abuse Aisha, one of the most venerated women in Islam.Members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the most influential law enforcement authority in the country, seized the toys during a raid on a shopping centre in the western town of Jeddah. “The guns were found to be issuing sounds which are considered mocking and offending against the Prophet’s wife,” newspapers said, quoting Commission spokesman in Jeddah, Turki Al Zahrani.He said sellers of those toys, mostly Asians, apparently do not know they offend Islam as the guns issue sounds in Arabic.

— Hat tip: JP

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Hundreds of Women Burn Their Coverings in Street Protest Against Brutal Yemeni Regime

Hundreds of Yemeni women have set fire to a pile of female face and body veils on a main street in the capital Sanaa to protest the government’s brutal crackdown against the country’s popular uprising.

The women spread a black cloth across a main street and threw their full-body veils, known as makrama, onto a pile, sprayed it with oil and set it ablaze. As the flames rose, they chanted: ‘Who protects Yemeni women from the crimes of the thugs?’

The women in Yemen have taken a key role in the uprising against President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s authoritarian rule that erupted in March, inspired by other Arab revolutions.

Protesting: Yemeni women burn their veils during a demonstration demanding the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sanaa

Open dissent: The brutal Yemeni regime has fired into crowds of protesters so this rebellion is a dangerous one for the women involved

Symbolic burning: The protest is a Bedouin tradition which call for help from the tribesmen as violence rages all around them

Their role came into the limelight earlier in October, when Yemeni woman activist Tawakkul Karman was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, along with two Liberian women, for their struggle for women’s rights.

The protest, however, was not related to women’s rights or issues surrounding the Islamic veils — rather, the act of women burning their clothing is a symbolic Bedouin tribal gesture signifying an appeal for help to tribesmen, in this case to stop the attacks on the protesters.

The women who burned clothing in the capital were wearing traditional veils at the time, many covered in black from head to toe…

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

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Internet Censorship: American Technologies Used to Censoring the Internet Over Syria Area

American company technology are being used in Syria by government representatives in censoring and monitoring dissidents, according to activists.

Silicon Valley company produces the equipment which allows corporations and governments in managing data traffic. It also can be used for monitoring users and blocking access, social networking applications similar to Facebook, Internet phone websites , which has a key to the Arab spring, upspring in Tunisia and Egypt.

Some activists are seriously concerned Syrian government is being ruled by the al-assad family that uses blue coat technologies helping to overcome fall down on dissidents constantly protesting against autocratic government of President Bashar al-Assad.

Recently a group founded in Switzerland named “hacktivists” provided technical support for dissidents in the Middle East creating local communication system downloading 54 gigabytes of Syrian telecommunications.

— Hat tip: LN

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Lebanon: Christian Conference Wants Protection for Copts in Egypt

(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, OCTOBER 26 — The creation of democratic States that protect Christian minorities, in Egypt and other Arab countries where protests were staged in the past months, was requested during a conference in Beirut. The conference was dedicated to the situation of Copts in Egypt, after the violent repression on October 9 of a demonstration of this minority group in Cairo, protesting against the destruction of a church in Assuan. A total of 25 people were killed in the clashes, of whom 18 Copts, four Muslims and three troops.

Father Abdo Abou Kasm, director of the Catholic information centre in Beirut, which has organised the initiative, has asked the Egyptians to “study the new period the country is going through well and build a modern State founded on equality of rights and duties.” Father Antonios Ibrahim, pastor of Lebanese Catholic Copts, has underlined that “the Coptic Church sees itself as defender of the Christian faith. It has played an important role in the global Christian movement, being one of the founders of the World Council of Churches.”

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Libya: Al Jazeera: Force Led by Qatar Instead of NATO

(ANSAmed) — ROME, OCTOBER 26 — A multinational force led by Qatar could replace NATO in efforts to help the political stabilisation of Libya and the training of local police on the ground. This is according to Al Jazeera, which quotes Qatar’s Chief of Staff, Ahmed Ben Ali Al Atia. Qatar will lead the new coalition for a period that could stretch beyond the end of the year, according to the progress of security conditions in Libya, the Chief of Staff added, explaining that the coalition would not take part in police operations.

Al Atia also said that Qatar has made the proposal in light of the potential end of the NATO mission on October 31, as decided on a preliminary basis by the Atlantic Council.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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The Arab Spring ‘Will Create Strong Islamist Parties’

The strong showing by Islamists in Tunisia’s elections has raised doubts about the Arab Spring. Will rule by dictators in North Africa be replaced by Sharia law? Islam will have to play a role, say German commentators, but it’s not necessarily the end of the world — and Tunisian secularists are also strong.

Tunisians disappointed Western observers this week by giving Islamists a big majority in the country’s historic first election. A final count is expected Tuesday afternoon, but the poll was transparent, and Ennahda, a self-described moderate Islamist party, won an estimated one-third of the national parliament seats.

Ennahda will have to form a coalition to govern, but the widespread support for the party has disappointed many who hoped for a different outcome when Tunisia, almost by accident, started the wave of “Arab Spring” movements in North Africa this year. Tunisians fed up with joblessness and dictatorship took bravely to the streets and forced the long-ruling autocrat Zine El Abidine Ben Ali into Saudi Arabian exile.

‘Freedom is Very Important to Us’

Ennahda’s leader, Rashid al-Ghannushi, was for many years a London-exiled political dissenter, and he still benefits from popular support among Tunisia’s poor. He likes to compare Ennahda to Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Islamist party in Turkey (the AKP) — or, less obviously, to Germany’s center-right Christian Democrats. Last week, before the Sunday poll, he defended the role of Islam in government.

“Sharia is not something that is alien or strange to our societies,” he said. “For example, in Britain we have Islamic finance and Islamic banking, and Islamic family law can be applied for marriage and divorce. We don’t see Sharia interfering in people’s private lives or in their freedom to wear what they want. Personal freedom is very important for us.”

German commentators on Tuesday worry about the prospect of women’s rights in Tunisia, but they sound guardedly optimistic about the country’s future…

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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The Usage of VPNs is Criminalized in Iran

Criminalized VPN usage in Iran should be noted that recently usage of VPN in Iran has become a criminal action as declared Iran’s Minister of Communications and Technology. Its usage in the country has become a legal violation.

A VPN is cyber network which helps users to get the access to web providers in Iran and outside its boundary by means of using ISP. Iranian internet users use VPN and proxies to overcome web censorship frames fixed by Islamic Republic, it tightly blocks some foreign opposition websites.

Minister of communications Reza Taghipour expressed it was a great unfortunate the internet has become the arena for the soft battles. However the country has a great technical ability to stand against it.

Iranian government authorities claim that the enemies are trying to destroy the stable situation in Islamic Republic by means of cultural and social intrusions which can be reflected as some kind of soft battles. The wide world web has been an interested target for Iranian authorities in the so-called computer battles.

A committee which is headed by Iran’s Prosecutor determined that some sites must be blocked for Iranian users.

— Hat tip: LN

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Turkey: Armenians, Raised as Muslims, Get Baptized in Surp Giragos Church in Turkey

PanARMENIAN.Net — A group of Armenians, raised as Sunni Muslims because their ancestors converted to Islam after the Armenian Genocide, were baptized at the newly re-opened Surp Giragos Church, Hurriyet Daily News reports. “I wish this church had always been open,” one of the group to be baptized, who also contributed to the restoration of the church, said. “It is unbelievable to be together here with people from all around the world with whom I share the same origins.” The baptism ceremony, which was closed to the press and outside visitors, was led by Deputy Patriarch Archbishop Aram Atesyan. The names of those baptized are not revealed for security reasons.

— Hat tip: JP

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Turkish Journalist Says Islam Craves Liberty

Turkish journalist/author Mustafa Akyol challenges the practice of “enforced piety” in his new book, “Islam Without Extremes: A Muslim Case for Liberty.”

“Enforced piety” or the act of coercing public respect for strict religious practice has come to be associated with Islam says Turkish journalist and author Mustafa Akyol. But in his new book, “Islam Without Extremes: A Muslim Case for Liberty,” Akyol challenges and refutes this association. Appearing recently on VOA’s Press Conference USA, Mustafa Akyol asserts that “piety police,” common in Saudi Arabia and Iran, are in fact, a product of authoritarian regimes that use Islam to consolidate power and rule through fear. Akyol also explains that laws against blasphemy and apostasy, which are also often associated with Islam, appear neither in the Ko ran nor in other Islamic texts. Instead, Aykol argues that such notions actually evolved within particular geographical, cultural and historical contexts where Islamic regimes found it convenient to attribute such ideas to Islam. Akyol is equally critical of authoritarian secular states such as Turkey in the 1980’s, which often denounced or even outlawed manifestations of piety, such as the use of the headscarf, in the name of secularism.

Akyol argues that coercion in Islam or in any faith for that matter, backfires, and that “one needs a free society to be a genuine Muslim.” He says “it is only through freedom of choice and true conviction that one can become a genuine believer.” Despite the emergence the puritanical Wahhabi sect prevalent in Saudi Arabia, which not only promotes a literalist reading of the Koran, but also conflates tribal customs with Islam, Akyol describes many other schools of Muslim thought which demonstrate that Islam is indeed compatible with free choice and reason. He contrasts the “Bedouin culture of the desert” with the more cosmopolitan historical contexts in which Islam has flourished and become a beacon of tolerance such as Muslim Spain (711 — 1492), the Ottoman Empire, and today’s modern Turkish state. Akyol asserts that in societies in which trade and commerce are dominant features of the economy Islam is also interpreted in a more open, flexible manner. It is worth noting that the Prophet Mohammed was a successful merchant.

Mustafa Akyol expresses concern that those in the West, who observe authoritarian elements within Muslim majority countries, might erroneously conclude that such practices are directly linked to Islam. Akyol not only refutes that argument but also underscores that even if it were partially true, many religions, not just Islam, have fallen victim to violent and authoritative interpretations of the faith. Christianity during the time of the Crusades and the Inquisition is a vivid example. But just as Christianity and its followers have reinterpreted the Bible to reconcile their beliefs with liberty and tolerance, Mustafa Aykol insists the “the same change is possible in Islam.” Moreover, Aykol argues that both Islamic and secular gove rnments in the Middle East are equally guilty of attacks on civil liberties. He speaks of two extremes in the Middle East: secular dictators like Hosni Mubarak, the former Egyptian President, and radical Islamist groups which oppose them. “And this vicious cycle between both extremes destroyed any room for a pluralistic, democratic system,” says Mustafa Akyol. For this reason, Akyol is cautiously optimistic that the democratic uprisings throughout the Arab world, as messy as they will be for some time to come, may foster greater democracy, pluralism and economic freedom, all of which can only bode well for the future of Islam.

— Hat tip: JP

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285 Indian Girls Shed ‘Unwanted’ Names

More than 200 Indian girls whose names mean “unwanted” in Hindi have chosen new names for a fresh start in life.

A central Indian district held a renaming ceremony Saturday that it hopes will give the girls new dignity and help fight widespread gender discrimination that gives India a skewed gender ratio, with far more boys than girls.

The 285 girls — wearing their best outfits with barrettes, braids and bows in their hair — lined up to receive certificates with their new names along with small flower bouquets from Satara district officials in Maharashtra state.

In shedding names like “Nakusa” or “Nakushi,” which mean “unwanted” in Hindi, some girls chose to name themselves after Bollywood stars such as “Aishwarya” or Hindu goddesses like “Savitri.” Some just wanted traditional names with happier meanings, such as “Vaishali,” or “prosperous, beautiful and good.”

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Army Claws Back £433 ‘Overpaid’ To Dead Soldier… Because He Was Shot Dead in Afghanistan 10 Days Before Pay Day

The family of a soldier killed in Afghanistan have been ordered to repay hundreds of pounds — because he died after receiving his wages.

Military bosses said that since Lance Corporal Jordan Bancroft was paid a month in advance, his relatives must return £433 to cover the ten days after the 25-year-old was shot…

“‘When I read the letter you could have knocked me down with a feather. When it sunk in what it said, it felt like I’d been poked in the eye with a stick. I want to make it clear that this is in no way a question of money, but one of respect.’

— Hat tip: Kitman

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India and Israel: A Friendship Deepened by Prejudice

by Kapil Komreddi

An alliance against Islamic extremism must not become an excuse for far-right parties to fan anti-Muslim sentiment

In 1974, the New York Times journalist Bernard Weinraub described India as “the loneliest post in the world” for Israeli diplomats. Having voted against the creation of Israel at the UN in 1947, India held back from establishing full diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv until 1992. For decades, Israel’s presence in India was limited to an immigration office in Mumbai. In between, India voted with the majority to pass UN resolution 3379, condemning Zionism as a form of racism, became one of the first non-Arab states to recognise Palestine’s declaration of independence in 1988, and was generally among the more vocal non-Arab voices against Israel.

Today, India is Israel’s closest eastern ally and its largest arms market. Annual non-military bilateral trade alone exceeds $4.5bn. Since 2001, the diasporas of the two countries have emerged as energetic allies against a shared enemy: Islamic extremism. A survey by the Israeli foreign ministry in 2009 found India to be the most pro-Israel country in the world, well above the US. Once a bastion of pro-Palestinian sentiment, India recently appeared at the bottom in a worldwide poll of countries sympathetic to Palestinian statehood. Throw a stone in Panaji and it is likely to land on an Israeli backpacking through India after his post-mandatory service.

What precipitated this dramatic shift? Israel had all along been a quiet ally of New Delhi, volunteering clandestine support as India sought to repel attacks by China (in 1962) and Pakistan (in 1965). Israeli officials knew also that India, which had no history of anti-semitism, had arrived at its Israel policy through a combination of post-colonial hauteur, realpolitik — particularly its desire to placate Arab opinion in its contest against Islamic Pakistan — and an ethical commitment to the Palestinian cause. Partly for these reasons, India’s anti-Israel actions rarely provoked any anxiety in Tel Aviv.

There are three principal reasons behind the shift in India’s attitude. The first is the belated realisation that no amount of deference to Arab sentiment could alter Muslim opinion in the Middle East in India’s favour: when it came to Kashmir, Shia and Sunni united in supporting Pakistan’s position. The second owes itself to the collapse of the old world order: the death of the Soviet Union meant that India had to seek out new allies. The third factor that contributed to the deepening of Indo-Israeli ties is less well-known: the rise of Hindu nationalism in India.

To votaries of Hindu nationalism, Israel is something of a lodestar: a nation to be revered for its ability to defeat, and survive among, hostile Muslims. As the liberal Israeli newspaper Haaretz put it, “Relations between Israel and India tend to grow stronger when . India experiences a rightward shift in anti-Muslim public opinion or in leadership”.

This explains why Hindu opinion is inflamed even by the most anodyne Indian expression of solidarity with Palestine. At the UN general assembly last month India’s prime minister, Manmohan Singh, offered some somniferous words of support for Palestine’s membership effort: “India is steadfast in its support for the Palestinian people’s struggle for a sovereign, independent, viable and united state of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital, living within secure and recognisable borders side by side and at peace with Israel”.

No one in Israel seemed to have noticed. None of the major newspapers editorialised it. There wasn’t even a specific news item in the Israeli press singling out India. Trade did not suffer. The markets registered no shifts. But this did not deter some Indians from rising to take offence on Israel’s behalf. To Sadanand Dhume, a US based commentator who published a hysterical philippic in the Wall Street Journal castigating India for not “throwing its weight behind Israel”, Singh’s speech was nothing short of a “foreign policy mishap”. According to Dhume, who has since been ordained “the go-to guy for all matters India” by an excited colleague of his: “Both India and Israel represent ancient civilisations whose land carries a special spiritual significance for most of its people.”

This desire to define citizenship and belonging in the procrustean terms of ancient culture over all other considerations is where Hindutva and Zionism converge. As Koenrad Elst, one of the most influential producers of pro-Hindutva pabulum, has said of the movement’s founder, “Veer Savarkar was the Hindu counterpart of a Zionist: he defined the Hindus as a nation attached to a motherland, rather than as a religious community”. “True, there is an obvious difference between the situation of the Jews, who had to migrate to their motherland . and the Hindus who merely had to remove the non-Hindu . regime from their territory.” This prescription for ethnic cleansing came to life in 1992, when Hindu nationalists brought down the Babri mosque in the northern Indian city of Ayodhya. Their ongoing struggle to seize the Babri land, which belonged to Muslims for over five centuries, looks to Israel’s appropriation of Palestinian territory as a useful template.

In 2009, Mumbai’s anti-terror squad arrested, among others, an officer in the Indian army, Prasad Purohit, for masterminding a terrorist attack on Pakistani citizens and plotting to overthrow the secular Indian state. In his confession, Purohit admitted to making plans to approach Israel for help. It says something about the state of Israel when the most virulently anti-Muslim terrorists in India reflexively look to it as a potential source of support.

This is tragic — because, in the minds of the formidable men who willed them into existence, India and Israel were alike. Theodor Herzl’s conception of Israel was remarkably similar to Mahatma Gandhi’s idea of India. Both men refined their ideas gradually. In Der Judenstaat, Herzl presented Israel as a “rampart of Europe against Asia, an outpost of civilisation as opposed to barbarism”. Several years later, he offered a more coherent version, a blueprint for a modern pluralistic state, operating under the aegis of Jews, but self-consciously inclusive: visionary Jews and welcoming Arabs people his extraordinary novel Altneuland, one of the founding texts of Zionism. Herzl resolved the conflicts of conscience by transmitting some of the most powerful arguments for Israel’s establishment through an Arab character, Reshid Bey. “It was a great blessing,” Reshid explains to a sceptical visitor. “Nothing could have been more wretched t han an Arab village at the end of the 19th century . [The Arabs] are better off than at any time in the past.” But Herzl was alert to the victim’s capacity to victimise. In Dr Geyer, we are shown a chilling vision of majoritarian zealotry: a fanatical rabbi, he wants all Arabs expelled from the New Society. Redemption comes in the form of David Littwak, the son of a peasant who believes in a land for all, Arab and Jew, and whose opposition to and victory over Geyer is cast as the highest affirmation of Zionism. Unlike Herzl, Gandhi scorned modern technology for most of his life. In his early life, Gandhi’s politics were conspicuously exclusionary. But the India he imagined even after alighting on his Satyagraha campaign relied on a network of Indian David Littwaks to survive. It was a dream that crashed during his own lifetime, with the partition of India.

Today, some of the most powerful politicians in Israel are those who violate Herzl’s ideas. Avigdor Lieberman, a Russian immigrant foreign minister of Israel, has openly echoed Geyer’s thoughts, calling for the expulsion of Israeli Arabs. In Gandhi’s home state, Narendra Modi, a rabidly anti-Muslim politician implicated in the anti-Muslim pogrom of 2002, continues to secure handsome mandates from the largely Hindu electorate.

India’s support for Palestine is one of the last remaining precepts from time of Pandit Nehru, India’s first prime minister who is loathed by Hindu chauvinists for refusing to turn India into a “Hindu Pakistan”. As per the Hindu nationalist narrative, the Congress party’s support for Palestine — if such a thing actually exists in any meaningful sense — is a bribe to Indian Muslims. In reality, Indian Muslims have made noticeable efforts to build bridges with Israel. But if anyone can be accused of holding foreign policy hostage to religious bigotry, it is the Hindu nationalist BJP. During its disastrous term in power, from 1997 to 2004, ministers in the government dismissed pro-Palestinians as “more Palestinian than Palestinians themselves”. Its foreign minister, Jaswant Singh, suggested that a common civilisational outlook bound India and Israel — implying that Indian Muslims who shared the faith of the Arab majority were someh ow alien to India’s “civilisation”.

India and Israel have much to offer each other and Israel’s security must figure as a non-negotiable precondition in New Delhi’s support for Palestine. But Hindu nationalists are not concerned with the security of Israel: it is the abandonment of Palestinians they seek. The seeds of Israel’s redemption are embedded in Zionism, which is concerned with housing people, not displacing them. Israel must merely embrace it. It will still be a paternalistic form of “pluralism”, but it will be inclusive. On the other hand, Hindutva’s very purpose is the disenfranchisement and abolition of religious minorities. So Israelis must wonder what has become of them, their nation, that their most fervid admirers in the most pro-Israeli country in the world happen to be fascists. Until Israel and India undertake an honest reappraisal of their friendship, those who care about the ideas of Herzl and Gandhi must acknowledge this much: theirs is an alliance deepened by prejudice .

[JP note: Ready or not, name is as name does — Kapil kaputt?]

— Hat tip: JP

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Malaysia: A Peaceful Weekend

by Tay Tian Yan

I had my lunch at a shopping mall in Petaling Jaya last Saturday. The shopping mall, filled with Malay, Chinese and Indian shoppers, was as busy as usual. Muslims and non-Muslims shopped, dined and enjoyed their weekend with their friends and family. It was a leisure and peaceful weekend. Inadvertently, I thought of the Himpunan Sejuta Umat (Himpun) assembly at the Shah Alam Stadium.

Some politicians had expressed their support to the assembly and the Utusan Malaysia had massively covered the story over the past few days, encouraging the public to participate. Some social networking websites also called the support of Muslims. An assembly with a million of participants would sure heat up the city. At that moment, however, everyone was carefree and relaxed.

Why didn’t the Muslims in the shopping mall attend the assembly? Could it be because they were not devout enough, or having not as much faith in their religion as those who attended the assembly? And why didn’t the non-Muslims in the shopping mall stay at home? Didn’t they worry about their safety or at least, try to avoid traffic jams? I was told that there were only about 1000 people at the stadium and the organiser had to delay the start of the assembly.

When they found that they could no longer delay it, the assembly started with about 5,000 participants, including many students who went in groups, as if they were on a school trip.

Among the attendees were Selangor executive councillor Datuk Dr Hasan Ali and Perkasa president Datuk Ibrahim Ali. Perak Mufti Tan Sri Harussani Zakaria delivered a speech.

People started to leave the stadium even before the assembly was ended and the stadium, which could accommodate 80,000 people, looked deserted. The planned assembly of a million Muslims was participated only by less than 10,000 people. The 5,000 attendees were only a tiny part of the total 15 million of Muslims nationwide.

Most Muslims were doing their routine activities when the assembly was held. I believe that except for those who had attended the assembly, the remaining 14.99 million Muslims were as devout as the assembly attendees and they were having as much faith in Islam, too. However, they were open-minded, rational and having a sense of security. They did not agree with the assembly claiming that the Muslim community was encountering a crisis because other religions were trying to induce Muslims to apostate.

Assuming the claim was true, the legal and social system of Malaysia would be capable enough to deal with the matter. It could be solve through communication and negotiation, as well as legal actions. They did not join the assembly and it was not necessary to pressure them or touch the sensitive nerve of religious differences. The social characteristics of Malaysia, including moderation, plurality and toleration, have been reflected in the peaceful weekend.

— Hat tip: JP

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Video Emerges of Swiss Hostages in Pakistan

A video has emerged showing a Swiss couple kidnapped by the Taliban in Pakistan nearly four months ago, flanked by four masked gunmen pointing rifles at their heads. In the video, which has been posted on YouTube, the man holds up a Pakistani newspaper dated September 15th and the couple speak Swiss German.

Olivier David Och, 31, and Daniela Widmer, 28, appear in relatively good health and call on the Pakistani and Swiss governments to give into the demands of their hostage takers. Their faces appear to match pictures of the couple that were widely circulated after their kidnapping on July 1st. They speak calmly, but kneel before four masked men brandishing their guns at their heads. Pakistani think-tank, the FATA Research Centre, on its website posted links to the videos on YouTube, without saying how it had obtained the video.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Newport Mosque: Spades Dig in After 10-Year Wait

BUILDING will begin at the Australian Islamic Centre in Newport next week — nearly 10 years after planning began. The centre, on a 10,000-square-metre block in Blenheim Road, will be owned and run by the Newport Islamic Society and will be home to one of Australia’s biggest mosques. It will be built in three stages and comprise an education centre, library, prayer room, recreation and function room, an imam’s residence, two guest houses and 180 car park spaces. Society spokesman Mohamed El Hawi said he was glad work was finally beginning, with the turning of the first sod next Monday. He expected the first stage would be completed within two years. The society’s three applications to build the centre had previously been rejected by Hobsons Bay Council. “It’s been a long time coming and we’ve been campaigning [for the centre] for a long time,” Mr El Hawi said. “We established a group in the community to find a proper site for the centre [after the council verdict]. After a longer search, the council agreed to give us the current site.”

Mr El Hawi said more than 200 people had objected to the proposal. The matter had been referred to a panel set up by the Planning Minister, which granted the permit for the centre.

Another member of the Newport Society, Fatima Dennaoui, said she was excited work was starting. “It’s a relief for the whole community. The current mosque [in Newport] is a converted old warehouse and doesn’t fit everyone in.” The Newport Islamic Society will hold an official ceremony on Monday to mark the start of building work.

— Hat tip: JP

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Ghana: Hearts Pray in Mosque … on Centenary Day

ACCRA HEARTS of Oak will observe their 100 years of existence which falls exactly on Friday, November 11, 2011 with prayers at the Central Mosque in Accra. Mr. Frank Nelson said fans of the Phobians in the other regions are expected to throng mosques in their localities for special prayers on the historic day. According to him, after the Muslim prayers, the team would proceed on a float through the principal streets of Accra to observe the great day in the annals of the club.

On Saturday November 12, he said, Hearts would visit some selected orphanages in Accra where they would make some donations to the inmates. Mr. Nelson disclosed that a grand dinner where past and present personalities that have contributed to the growth of the club would be honoured, would be held on Saturday evening at the Banquet Hall in Accra.

Hearts, he said, would climax the 100 celebration with an international friendly game with Enugu Rangers of Nigeria at the Accra Stadium on Sunday, November 13, 2011.

— Hat tip: JP

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Germany Looks Back at 50 Years of Turkish Immigration

This week marks the 50th anniversary of the treaty bringing hundreds of thousands of Turkish “guest workers” to Germany, a move which dramatically altered the fabric of German society. On October 30, 1961, booming West Germany signed a recruitment agreement with Turkey to supplement its workforce. The mostly unskilled labourers were promised minimum wages and accommodation for the duration of their temporary contracts.

Some 710,000 people answered the call until the 1973 global oil crisis ended the recruitment drive. Thousands of workers returned to Turkey, but many instead decided to bring their families to Germany, triggering a massive increase in the country’s Turkish population.

Today, more than 2.5 million people in Germany have Turkish heritage. Their presence has indisputably enriched Germany both culturally and economically — but it has also sparked countless debates concerning the integration of a group long seen only as guests eventually expected to leave.

This discussion hit a low point in 2010, when the controversial best-selling book by ex-central banker Thilo Sarrazin, Deutschland schafft sich ab (Germany Abolishes Itself), contended Muslim immigrants were a drag on German society. The damage done was similar to that of a “bull in a china shop,” according to Klaus Bade, head of the German Advisory Council on Integration and Migration.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Italy Tries to Cope With Rising Tide of Immigration From Africa

The death of Moammar Gadhafi on Thursday and the ongoing Arab Spring protests in North Africa and the Middle East have been heralded around the world as a triumph of democracy. But the violence, war and political uncertainty that followed it in many countries has given rise to a new challenge.

Although African immigration is a “problem” across all of Europe, Italy and other Mediterranean countries are the most affected by this mass movement of people. Because of a 2003 European Union law called the Dublin II Regulation, the first European country an asylum seeker enters is solely responsible for the migrant’s protection and application. This places a disproportionate burden on countries like Italy, where hundreds of migrants fleeing Libya and Tunisia at the start of the revolution landed daily.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Obama Deportation Numbers a ‘Trick’

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano last week announced that the Obama administration has deported a record number of illegal immigrants in the past year. But the Obama administration is using smoke and mirrors to achieve its so-called historic record. Take away the illusion, and the facts show that the administration conjures up its deportation statistics.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Swiss Trade Union Calls for More Immigration

Swiss trade union Travail Suisse has called on the government to loosen immigration laws and allow more workers into the country in order to fill future labour market gaps in sectors such as education, healthcare and engineering. The union acknowledged the sensitive nature of the proposals, which come shortly after the far-right Swiss People’s Party (SVP) secured enough votes to launch an initiative to ‘stop mass immigration’. But Travail Suisse inisted it was essential to debate a topic it feels will soon loom large on the political agenda.

“We could remain silent in order not to alarm the population, but we know that the business community is pressing for more openness,” said union president Martin Flügel at a conference on Tuesday. “Faced with an ageing population and a skills shortage in Switzerland, a relaxing of the admissions policy is necessary,” Flügel said.

Travail Suisse’s suggestions refer not only to workers from the European Union, with which Switzerland has bilateral agreements, but also to employees from other countries, reports the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. The trade union noted that other European countries were also ageing fast, a situation that called for more flexible immigration polices if Switzerland were to remain an attractive destination for migrant workers.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Dwarf Planet Eris is ‘Almost Perfect’ Pluto Twin

Though the dwarf planet Eris on the edge of the solar system is much denser than Pluto, the two frigid worlds are nearly exactly the same size, a new study finds. Astronomers accurately measured Eris’ diameter for the first time using observations made late last year, when they caught the dwarf planet as it passed in front of a dim star. The observations, made using several telescopes in Chile, revealed that Eris and Pluto are pretty much identical in size, making them “almost perfect” twins, researchers said. The discovery, announced today (Oct. 26) in the journal Nature, runs counter to scientists’ original expectations.

When Eris was first discovered in 2005, it was thought to be significantly larger than Pluto. In fact, Eris’ discovery was a big reason astronomers demoted Pluto to dwarf planet status in 2006. That decision remains controversial to this day, making Eris’ name fitting: Eris is the Greek goddess of discord and strife, who stirred up jealousy and envy among the goddesses, leading to the Trojan War. The new observations should help astronomers learn more about Eris’ composition and evolutionary history. They show, for example, that the dwarf planet has a surface even more reflective than Earth’s snow, suggesting it’s covered in a thin layer of ice. “It is extraordinary how much we can find out about a small and distant object such as Eris by watching it pass in front of a faint star, using relatively small telescopes,” study lead author Bruno Sicardy, of the Pierre et Marie Curie University and Observatory of Paris, said in a statement.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Internet Responsible for 2 Per Cent of Global Energy Usage

How much energy does the internet use? It’s hard to know where to start. There’s the electricity consumed by the world’s laptops, desktops and smart phones. Servers, routers and other networking equipment suck up more power. The energy required to manufacture these machines also needs to be included. Yet no one knows how many internet-enabled devices are out there, nor how long they are used before being replaced.

That hasn’t stopped Justin Ma and Barath Raghavan from trying to answer the question. The pair, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley and the nearby International Computer Science Institute respectively, estimate that the internet consumes between 170 and 307 GW. Which, of course, raises another question: is that is a big number, or a small one?

Raghavan and Ma came up with their total by conducting a rough internet census. By drawing on previously published research, they estimate that our planet is home to 750 million laptops, a billion smart phones and 100 million servers.

They also put figures on the energy that it costs to produce each of these devices (4.5 GJ and 1 GJ for a laptop and smartphone respectively) and the period for which each is used before being replaced (three years for a laptop, two for a smart phone). Estimates for the energy that cell towers and optical switches use when transmitting internet traffic, plus similar calculations for wi-fi transmitters and cloud storage devices, helped complete the picture.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Robot Venus Flytraps Could Eat Bugs for Fuel

ROBOTS that mimic the Venus flytrap could run on live insects and spiders, snatching and digesting them for fuel. Now two prototypes have been developed that employ smart materials to rapidly ensnare their prey.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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