Thanks to Amil Imani, C. Cantoni, Dymphna, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, RRW, TB, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Details are below the fold.
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Ramadan Fast-a-Thons Raise Awareness About Islam Among College Students
In a banquet room above the student union’s bopping pingpong balls and blaring arcade games, the groan of empty stomachs met the hum of Arabic prayer.
Tables of 20-somethings at the University of Texas at Dallas drooled over plates of hummus as their Muslim counterparts concluded their pre-dinner supplications for Ramadan. Then everyone ate for the first time since dawn. “Why do they put that in front of us to stare at?” whined 19-year-old Sara Arnold before she got permission to rip a hunk of pita bread and dunk it into the chickpea dip.
The Muslim Students Association’s fast-a-thon — a riff on religious doctrine — draws hundreds of non-Muslim students who choose to fast for one day with their Muslim peers and attend the daily iftar banquet in the evening to break it.
Participation numbers have more than doubled in the last several years, a factor religious scholars and students attribute to an outreach by the Muslim community, solidarity on the part of those who have become fascinated by the Islamic faith, and a curiosity about the spiritual act of fasting itself.
“A lot of people know what Ramadan is now,” said Ayaham Nahhas, the president of the Muslim Students Association at UTD, who says the fast-a-thon — which drew about 120 people — is the biggest activity his organization holds. “Islam has been getting more attention in the media, and people just want to know what we are all about.”
More than 240 Muslim Students Associations host fast-a-thons — groups at Southern Methodist University and Texas Christian University are among them — and have raised more than $50,000 for charity. Local businesses donate at least a dollar for each non-Muslim who participates.
The fast-a-thon notion started in North Texas several years ago, although it took root at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville just after 9/11. The event was intended to create a dialogue about Islam while participants engage in the charitable acts advocated during Ramadan as part of the holiday’s spiritual and physical cleansing.
All area groups are reporting increased attendance and are donating money to an orphan drive organized by the nonprofit Islamic Relief.
No one’s quite sure why attendance has increased so dramatically recently, seven years after 9/11.
“Maybe it’s a political empathy post-9/11, a wanting to stand alongside and experience something like this for the first time,” said Edina Lekovic of the Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.-based Muslim Public Affairs Counsel.
She said she’s noticed more non-Muslims across the country fasting in solidarity with their Muslim friends this year than ever before. “Whatever it is, it’s all the rage.”
Part of the heightened awareness comes from Muslim outreach efforts, especially fast-breaking celebrations hosted by area mosques that incorporate lessons about Ramadan.
But these interfaith actions are most obvious among college students, said Mustafaa Carroll, the executive director of the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
“The fear is still there, but people are looking for answers, especially the youth,” he said. “There is a genuine interest to understand, and they don’t see the world the same way as the older generation. They’re not as uptight.”
Swift Co., Somali Workers, and “Obsession” DVD in Colorado
You must see this lengthy report in the Greeley Tribune today by reporter Chris Casey…
…In Greeley, the dispute continues on prayer breaks for Muslim workers at the meatpacking plant. Sentiment has spread among some in the community that the newcomers are pushing too much, exhibiting a desire not to assimilate but rather impose their religion on others.
Nationally, the DVD arrived on 28 million doorsteps as rhetoric on homeland security heats up in the presidential race.
The confluence of recent events — the Muslim workers’ dispute and, on its heels, the “Obsession” DVD — is the talk of the town. Many Greeley residents have noticed the 400 mostly Somali refugees who’ve arrived in the past 18 months to take jobs at JBS Swift. The workers say they are here to escape the oppression of their war-torn homeland, build a new life and peacefully practice their religion.
What to make of these newcomers and their religion, which is indelibly linked to 9/11 and other violent acts across the globe, has sparked a variety of views. The DVD alone prompts widely different opinions.
A Greeley woman calls the disc “neo-con propaganda,” while a history professor at Colorado State University says the film is factually accurate and shows it in his classes…
When Mortgages Are Handed Out by Skin Color Instead of Credit History
While many pundits are pointing to corporate greed and a lack of government regulation as the cause for the American mortgage and financial crisis, some analysts are saying it wasn’t too little government intervention that cased the mortgage meltdown, but too much, in the form of activists compelling the government to pressure Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae into unsound — though politically correct — lending practices.
“Home mortgages have been a political piñata for many decades,” writes Stan J. Liebowitz, economics professor at the University of Texas at Dallas, in a chapter of his forthcoming book, Housing America: Building out of a Crisis.
Liebowitz puts forward an explanation that he admits is “not consistent with the nasty-subprime-lender hypothesis currently considered to be the cause of the mortgage meltdown.”
In a nutshell, Liebowitz contends that the federal government over the last 20 years pushed the mortgage industry so hard to get minority homeownership up, that it undermined the country’s financial foundation to achieve its goal.
“In an attempt to increase homeownership, particularly by minorities and the less affluent, an attack on underwriting standards was undertaken by virtually every branch of the government since the early 1990s,” Liebowitz writes. “The decline in mortgage underwriting standards was universally praised as ‘innovation’ in mortgage lending by regulators, academic specialists, (government-sponsored enterprises) and housing activists.”
He continues, “Although a seemingly noble goal, the tool chosen to achieve this goal was one that endangered the entire mortgage enterprise.”
“As homeownership rates increased there was self-congratulation all around,” Liebowitz writes. “The community of regulators, academic specialists, and housing activists all reveled in the increase in homeownership.”
[…]
A New York Times article from Sept. 1999 states that Fannie Mae had been under increasing pressure from the Clinton administration to expand mortgage loans among low- and moderate-income people and that the corporation loosened its lending requirements to comply.
An ominous paragraph of the article reads, “In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980s.”
[…]
… Freddie Mac warned of the logical pitfalls of pursuing loans on the basis of skin color and not credit history.
The Washington Post reported that the company conducted a study in which it was found that far more black people have bad credit than white people, even when both have the same incomes. In fact, the study showed a higher percentage of African Americans with incomes of $65,000 to $75,000 had bad credit than white Americans with incomes of below $25,000.
Such data demonstrated that when federal regulators demanded parity between racial groups in lending, the only way to achieve a quota would be to begin making intentionally bad lending decisions.
The study, however, came under brutal attack in the U.S. Congress and was ridiculed with charges of racism.
A few years later, when Greg Mankiw, chairman of President Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers, voiced a warning about weakened underwriting standards, Congress rebuffed him as well.
The Wall Street Journal quoted Congressman Barney Frank, D-Mass., in 2003 as criticizing Greg Mankiw “because he is worried about the tiny little matter of safety and soundness rather than ‘concern about housing.’“…
Abortion: Spain; Parliament Launches Committee for New Law
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, SEPTEMBER 18 — The equality committee of the Lower House approved today, despite the votes against of the People’s Party and the abstention of the moderate Catalan nationalists of CiU, the creation of a subcommittee which will study the change of the law on abortion. According to the text approved upon initiative of left-wing groups PSOE, IU, ERC and ICV, the committee will evaluate “the most innovative experience of the European law and the terms” in which the voluntary interruption of pregnancy must be done and will analyse “the functioning, the territorial equity and the accessibility in the offering of this service within the national health service”. The committee will have to launch a study by six months and elaborate conclusions on the application of the legislation in the field of voluntary interruption of pregnancy. PP’s vote against was justified by the spokesman with the fact that “the government has already taken a decision” on the new law on abortion, without “being interested in full consent”, nor in the fact that “there is no social need”. At the beginning of September, the Ministry for Equality expressed the wish that the new law on abortion enters into force at the end of 2009 or at latest at the beginning of 2010. (ANSAmed).
Denmark: Police Fear Increase in Gang Violence
Police step up presence to quell further reprisals in ongoing gang turf wars
Copenhagen Police are increasing the number of officers on the streets this weekend in a bid to prevent an escalation in violence between rival gangs. The move is coupled with the ongoing search zone, which covers almost the entire city.
Per Larsen, head of the Copenhagen police, said they have prioritised their enquiries into the gang struggles and are increasing police visibility on the streets.
‘It has been quiet in Nørrebro in the past few days and we hope it will stay that way, but we’re staying alert,’ Larsen told Berlingske Tidende newspaper.
The search zone, which runs until 30 September, allows police to stop and search anyone on suspicion of carrying weapons.
One of the gangs implicated in the ongoing unrest is the Hells Angels bikers, its numbers swelled by the AK 81 support club. AK represents Altid Klar (Always Ready), with 8 and 1 numerically representing the letters H and A in the alphabet.
The bikers’ club released a statement on Wednesday denying its involvement in the alleged conflict, but also rejected reports of a truce between them and certain immigrant gangs.
‘Hells Angels is a motorcycle club that doesn’t bother anyone, but if someone steps on our toes, we’ll stamp back heavily.’
The club is also involved in ongoing tensions with the Trillegård immigrant gang in Århus, Jutland.
East Jutland Police have been tipped off by criminal sources that the Hells Angels plan to kill three Trillegård members.
Police sources also told Jyllands-Posten newspaper that the Hells Angels have been evacuating their family members from the city.
This follows the attempted shooting of two men connected to the Trillegård gang in a busy street on 4 August.
On 8 September, two hand grenades were thrown at the Hells Angels clubhouse in the north of the city. No one was injured, but the club was not going to take any chances. Police arrested a Hells Angels supporter outside the clubhouse on Tuesday night with a bullet-proof vest and a loaded gun, apparently protecting the premises. (kr)
Der Spiegel’s Photo Gallery in Cologne: the Supressed SIOE Demonstration
“Iran asked France, which is currently the six-month rotating president of the European Union, to stop the conference.”
[GoV note — Cologne didn’t need any help. A very heavy boot descended on the attempt to demonstrate. Brussels, you are a noisy amateur by comparison.]
Fjordman: “The World’s Largest Open-Air Prison”
[…]
These incidents may seem unrelated, but they are not. Make no mistake about it: Harassing the natives in order to crush them mentally and destroy any ideas they might harbor about defending their country against foreign colonization is a deliberate strategy on the part of the authorities and the ruling Multiculturalist oligarchy, whether you identify this as the British Labour Party or the European Union (both are correct). Of course, this is about the entire Western world, not just Britain, but Britain is arguably the worst example of all. I am not aware of arrests for “racist” dolls even in Sweden, Belgium or al-Canada, and they are all bad cases of suicidal Multiculturalism. Britain in 2008 is no longer the nation that gave us Shakespeare or Newton; it is the world’s largest open-air prison, an enlarged Marxist reeducation camp, a horror story where the authorities wage cultural and demographic warfare against the indigenous people of the country. The only good news is that I sense that native Britons are getting angrier by the day, and will not go quietly into the night.
Islamization by Any Means
A district court in The Hague has ruled that the State must release an illegal immigrant and pay him damages of 1,345 euros. During his detention, the paperwork was not in order.
On 23 August, the alien was caught travelling by train without a valid ticket. He said he had no passport and explained in a foreign language, which the conductor by chance also spoke, he had entered Europe via Turkey in the back of a truck and had been illegally staying in Brussels for four months. The police arrested him and took him into alien detention.
The train conductor had to present the statements in writing to the police. Instead, only an immediate report was drawn up by the police. As a result, it “cannot be established whether the description by the police is correct and agrees with how the conductor himself had experienced this,” according to the court.
Mayor Tries to Keep Media Out of Moroccan District
THE HAGUE, 20/09/08 — Gouda municipality has asked camera crews to avoid the Oosterwei district, De Telegraaf reports. The Netherlands’ biggest newspaper published a big article on the front page Friday which suggested that Oosterwei has become a war-zone.
Drivers of bus company Connexxion decided last week to avoid the district, because they say they were repeatedly threatened and robbed by Moroccan youths. Journalists were subsequently attacked while the police were conspicuous by their absence.
In huge letters above photos of besieged journalists, De Telegraaf’s front-page read Friday ‘THIS IS GOUDA.’ The newspaper wrote that the hooligan youths rule the streets and that the police did not intervene when journalists were attacked. Additionally, the municipality is now trying to keep camera crews out of the district because the mayor decided “residents are getting angry about the mass media attention,” according to the newspaper.
Municipal spokesman Marian de Graaf confirmed this reading to Elsevier.nl. “For some residents of Oosterwei, the attention became ‘too much’. We have then asked camera crews to avoid the district. If they then still want to go into the district, we have asked them to report this to the municipality.” Regional broadcaster RTV West acceded to the municipality’s request to stop reporting.
Contrary to what De Telegraaf claims, the spokesman says that peace has returned to the district. “And what actually happened, after all? I do not want to trivialise the incidents but ultimately there were just two incidents which were reported to the police,” according to the spokesman, referring to the robbing of bus-drivers.
Home Affairs Minister Guusje ter Horst also says it is quiet again in Oosterwei. She has the impression that Mayor Wim Cornelis has taken “very adequate measures” to bring the unrest among youths in the district to an end. There are now cameras on the Connexxion buses. Ter Horst and Cornelis are both Labour (PvdA) members.
MPs Take Tougher Tone Against Wilders
The government’s 2009 spending plans were approved by MPs on Thursday night after two days of debate. A motion of no confidence in the government from anti-immigration MP Geert Wilders failed to win any support outside his own PVV party.
Analysts said the debate was notable for the tougher tone adopted against Wilders by other MPs.
Alexander Pechtold, leader of the liberal democrats D66, described Wilders as an extremist and accused him of racism, reports the Trouw.
And Mark Rutte, head of the right-wing Liberal party which has sided with the PVV on some occasions, said he has no desire to respond to Wilders’ ‘worn out record’.
More cash
Meanwhile ministers agreed to give a little more cash to pay for concierges in schools in deprived areas and extend the student rail card system to cover mbo colleges, in line with the wishes of the coalition parties.
These projects will be partly paid for by cutting the number of external advisors brought in by the government and by boosting income from state shareholdings, NOS tv reported.
PNA: EU Provides Social Allowances to 46.000 Families
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, SEPTEMBER 19 — The European Union and the Palestinian Authority have today launched the payment of social allowances to over 46,000 vulnerable Palestinian families across the occupied Palestinian territory (Opt). The assistance takes the form of an allowance of NIS 1,000 (around 200 euro) per household, which is being channelled through the European mechanism, PEGASE. The 46,025 families who will receive this assistance have been identified in cooperation with the Ministries of Finance and Social Affairs, through the latter’s ‘Social Hardship Cases’ Programme. The Palestinian Minister for Social Affairs, Mahmoud Habbash, said today of the programme: “The contribution of the European Union has helped us to meet our obligations towards those who most need our support. We share a common objective of alleviating poverty”. John Kjaer, the European Commission Representative in Jerusalem added: “The European Union has promised time and time again that it will not let the Palestinians down. Today’s contribution is a tangible expression of that promise, which we hope will help to ease the difficulties faced by many families throughout the territory. This is particularly important during the holy month of Ramadan”. Compared to the payment made in June, an additional 5,000 families will receive the allowance; more than half of the recipient families are from Gaza strip. Beneficiary families can collect their allowance in 39 designated bank branches throughout the territory until 30 October 2008.(ANSAmed).
Tourism: Islamic Tourism Grows, Generates 1% of Global GDP
(ANSAmed) — NAPLES, SEPTEMBER 9 — It is worth some 10% of the global turnover connected with tourism and generates 1% of the global GDP: this is Islamic tourism which registered in 2007 a turnover of $22.2 billion and which serves one and a half billion believers, 20% of the global population. The operators of the sector will meet on October 8 in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) for the World Islamic Tourism Conference & Expo to analyse the aspects connected to one of the most interesting global businesses. According to an article published in ‘Il Sole 24 Ore’ daily, the countries which will invest the most in Islamic tourism by 2020 are located in the Mediterranean area, producing a turnover of some $3.76 trillion. Of this sum, $1.8 billion will be bound to the development of infrastructure and some one billion for the construction of structures for entertainment. These will be restaurants in which the use of impure ingredients is banned, such as animal fat, the derivatives of pork and alcoholic drinks, and hotels and tourist structures which have separate swimming pools for men and women and indoor places for prayer. The Islamic tourist also appreciates the airline equipped with efficient translation services and the airports in which the direction of Mecca is indicated. The travellers who are most prone to spend money for a holiday compliant with the Sharia norms come from the Gulf states, led by Saudi Arabia which alone spends $6.7 billion in the tourism sector, while the average budget for spending of the holidaymakers of the emirates is $1,700. This is 600 euro more compared to the average spending of the European holidaymakers. (ANSAmed).
Bosnia: Serb Leader Says Breakup of Country ‘Not a Tragedy’
Belgrade, 19 Sept. (AKI) — Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik has said that the disintegration of Bosnia-Herzegovina, torn by internal disputes between its Muslims, Serbs and Croat population, would not be a tragedy.
“The tragedy would be if such disagreements evolve into violence,” Dodik told Radio Free Europe.
Thirteen years after the 1992-1995 civil war, the mistrust and quarrels between the three ethnic groups have not subsided and are on the rise again ahead of the 5 October municipal elections.
For the past thirteen years, majority Muslims with the support of the international community, have been pressing for the creation of a unitary state and the abolition of Bosnia’s two entities formed by the Dayton peace accord, which have enjoyed most state prerogatives.
Dodik, who is the Prime Minister of the Serb entity, Republika Srpska, has responded to Muslim demands with a threat to hold a referendum on independence if the three ethnic groups can’t find a mutually acceptable agreement on the country’s new constitution.
“Bosnia-Herzegovina is a deeply divided country and society, which in past years has not found its internal reason for integration, but has been further disintegrating,” Dodik said.
“I have no emotional attachment to Bosnia-Herzegovina, nor do I love it,” he said. “I’m emotionally very attached to the RS and believe it can function,” he added.
“Therefore, we have to sit down with Bosniacs (Bosnian Muslims) and Croats and agree on the model of a state with which all sides will be happy,” Dodik said. “If that’s impossible, then we had better part in peace,” he concluded.
The European Union has linked Bosnia’s European Union bid to constitutional reforms and the United States has been pushing to strengthening the powers of the central government.
Dubai Islamic Bank Acquires Jordan’s Industrial Bank
(ANSAmed) — AMMAN, SEPTEMBER 16 — The UAE-based Dubai Islamic Bank has acquired the financially troubled Jordan Industrial Development Bank (IDB) for JD72 (USD 102 million), according to Samir Rifai, chief executive officer of Jordan Dubai Capital. The bank will be re-branded in the coming weeks as Jordan Dubai Islamic Bank (JDIB), said Refai. A Jordanian-UAE consortium bought 52% of the Jordanian bank by subscribing to 26 million shares offered in a private placement, raising the bank’s capital to JD 50 million (USD70 million) from JD 24 million (USD 33 million), said a bank statement following the signing of the agreement. “The new bank is expected to offer a full range of Shariah-compliant products for the Jordanian market,” said the statement. The consortium consists of Dubai International Capital (DIC), Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB), and Jordan Dubai Financial (JDF) which is the investment arm of JD Capital and the largest contributor to the investment in this venture. “There has been a growing demand in Jordan for Shariah-compliant banking organisations. This trend has become more apparent in recent years, as Islamic banking tools have proved to be more efficient and flexible in meeting a variety of individual as well as corporate client needs,” Al Rifai, said. (ANSAmed).
Facebook + Blogs = Nervous Mid-East Autocracies
Glance through Reporters Without Borders worldwide press freedom index over the years and you’ll find the countries of the Middle East consistently languishing at the bottom. It’s no surprise if you look at the leadership: Hosni Mabarak in Egypt has maintained the press control the country’s endless state gave him. Muammar al Gadaffi in Libya uses the media to prop up his personality cult and even Morocco’s forward thinking young king allowed a blogger to be jailed recently for allegedly insulting him in a critical posting.
But it is exactly bloggers and social networking sites like Facebook that may now be denting their autocratic armour. Egypt forbids more than five people to assemble at any time, thus making protests and political meeting all but impossible. But on Facebook, where more than a half million Egyptians have accounts, there are no limits…
Iran: Hard-Line President Thanks Allah for New Sanctions
Tehran, 19 Sept. (AKI) — Iran’s hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said his country should “thank Allah” for any further sanctions the United Nations Security Council may approve against it.
“The more sanctions imposed on us the more we should thank Allah. The sanctions show the weakness of those who approve them,” Ahmadinejad told journalists in Tehran.
He was speaking ahead of a meeting of the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany on Friday in the US city of Washington D.C. on Friday to debate a planned fourth round of UN sanctions against Iran over its uranium enrichment programme.
Iran has continued to enrich uranium, claiming it has a sovereign right to civilian nuclear power under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The US and other western powers suspect that Iran may be covertly developing atomic weapons.
The UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei in a damning report on Monday stated that Iran has repeatedly blocked an investigation into its uranium enrichment programme and is continuing to enrich uranium.
Ahmadinejad once again attacked the UN Security Council, whose permanent members are Britain, the United States, Russia, France and China.
“It only represents the interests of a few countries — not those of the international community,” Ahmadinejad said.
“The idea of a ‘greater Israel’ is dead but also that of a country called Israel,” he stated.
“All those who have occupied Palestine should return to where they came from and give back the Palestinians their land.”
Iran: Teenager Sentenced to Five Years for Political Activism
Tehran, 19 Sept. (AKI) — A sixteen-year-old teenager has been sentenced to five years in jail for political activism.
Ebrahim Mehrnahad was sentenced by a court in Zahedan, capital of Iran’s Sistan-Baluchestan province for ‘conspiracy against the central powers’.
Mehrnahad is the younger brother of Yaghoub Mehrnahad, a journalist and activist who was hanged on 4 August in Zahedan for alleged membership of Jundallah (Soldiers of Allah), an armed Baluchi group.
Ebrahim was also a member of a youth cultural association, founded by his late brother.
Yemen: 10-Year-Old Divorcée Goes Back to School
Like children across the world, 10-year-old Nujood Ali went back to school this month after a lengthy break. But Nujood hadn’t been lazing about or playing hide-and-seek with her friends during the summer.
Instead, after she was pulled out of the second grade by her father earlier this year, she was married off to a man three times her age, who beat her and sexually abused her.
For many girls in this traditional society, where tribal custom and conservative interpretations of Islam dominate, that would have been the end of the story. But Nujood was outraged. She gathered up her courage and on the advice of an aunt went to court in April. She got the help of a lawyer and filed for divorce.
A judge quickly granted it.
And on Tuesday morning, the divorcee, possibly the world’s youngest, once again became a schoolgirl.
“I’m very happy to be going back to school,” she said, waiting in her ramshackle home for her younger sister Haifa to get ready…
Hordes of nonprofit organizations offered to help her get back to school, some even willing to foot the bill to send her abroad or to a fancy private academy, though they ignored Haifa, Nujood’s little sister and best friend.
In the end, Nujood opted for a small, government-run public school relatively close to her home. She would begin where she left off, starting the second grade again.
Nujood said she wanted to study hard, to be able to attend university and become a lawyer like Shada Nasser, the well-known Yemeni human rights advocate who helped her get her divorce.
The girl’s experience, and her ambition, have even served as an inspiration to her parents, uneducated rural people who moved to the capital’s outskirts a few years ago and say they married her off to protect her from the dangers of the city.
“We were never asked if we wanted to go to school when we were children,” said her father, Ali Mohammed Ahdal, who has two wives and 16 children.
“If we had a choice, we would have loved to study like Nujood.”…
Energy: Caucasus Crisis Speeds Up Nabucco Project
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, SEPTEMBER 15 — Hungary takes the political initiative and dispatches its Nabucco envoy to Turkey ahead of an inter-governmental conference in Budapest in January, the Turkish Daily News reported today. Hungary’s ambassador in charge of the European Union-backed Nabucco project will hold key talks in Turkey this week as part of efforts to breathe political energy into the long-awaited alternative natural gas scheme, following fears that the latest Georgia-Russia crisis could derail it, TDN said. Ambassador Mihaly Bayer will arrive Thursday in the Turkish capital and the next day will meet with officials from the Energy Ministry and the state-owned pipeline company (BOTAS), one of the shareholders of the international Nabucco consortium, the TDN said citing sources. The meetings come as Budapest is set to host an EU-Nabucco natural gas pipeline summit on Jan. 26-27, 2009. The Hungarian envoy will extend an invitation for the inter-governmental summit to Turkish officials during the visit. Hungary is inviting Austria, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey and Germany as potential recipients of the Nabucco natural gas; Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Egypt and Iraq as potential suppliers; and Georgia as a transit country, it has been revealed. Also invited are the EU’s energy commissioner, the Czech Republic as the holder of the EU’s rotating term president at the time, the United States, and the international Nabucco consortium. (ANSAmed).
Danish Intelligence Officer Persumed Dead in Pakistan Bomb Blast
[in Danish]
Hundreds Feared Dead in Blast at Pakistan Hoteljason Burke and Mubashir Zaidi in
A huge explosion ripped through part of a luxury hotel in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad yesterday, killing scores of people and injuring many more. The death toll may reach into the hundreds.
The blast, one of the biggest seen in Pakistan in recent years, happened at the Marriott hotel at around 8pm. The hotel was left burning fiercely all along its façade, with fears that it could totally collapse while other buildings in the vicinity were also left damaged.
Scores of bodies were being brought out of the flaming building as rescue workers battled the blaze in scenes of chaos. At least four Britons were injured in the attack, two of them children. Both sustained superficial injuries and were discharged from hospital last night while the two adults remained in hospital overnight for observation.
The Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, condemned the strike as ‘yet another shocking and disgraceful attack without justification’. He said such a ‘brutal act of terror deserves the condemnation of the entire international community’ and added that the British government would continue ‘to stand shoulder to shoulder with the government of Pakistan against the violent extremists who have no answers, but only offer death and mayhem.’
Witnesses said that security staff at the front of the hotel, where the blast was strongest, had ‘simply been vaporised.’ Hotel staff said that all the Marriott’s function rooms, including the large ballroom, had been hired for iftar — the traditional communal meal that breaks the day-long fast that Muslims observe during the holy month of Ramadan. According to the hotel owner, at least 700 people would have been in the hotel at the time of the blast at 8pm. Around 300 eating under a marquee at the back of the hotel away from the blast survived.
Senior police official Asghar Raza Gardezi said the explosion, one of the biggest such attacks in Pakistan for over a decade, was caused by more than a tonne of explosives probably delivered in a small truck. Other reports indicated a series of bombs — possibly one small explosion which paved the way for other larger blasts.
Megachurch Shows Indonesia Faith Freedom
JAKARTA — A multimillion-dollar megachurch opened in Indonesia on Saturday, September 20, showing religious freedom of minorities in the world’s most populous Muslim country.
“This proves that there are no restrictions from the Indonesian government to build religious centers,” preacher Stephen Tong told Reuters.
“It gives the world a new impression of Indonesia: it is not a messy country or full of troubles.”
Jakarta’s grand Katedral Mesias was opened in a rousing service attended by some 4,000 people singing hymns and reading from the Bible in Bahasa Indonesia.
Dressed in their finest traditional batiks, worshippers, most of them Chinese Indonesians, listened in rapt attention as Tong spoke in both Mandarin and Bahasa Indonesia on a host of issues such as church reform and homosexuality.
The worshippers prayed and sang to Gregorian music and other hymns before ending the service with Handel’s Hallelujah resonating through the massive pillared hall.
Absalon Prevents Another Attack by Pirates.
[In Danish] Seals, boarding teams and helicopter board three skiffs and confiscate rocket launchers, grenades etc…
Even Better: Group Sex Relief
Global “World Players” obviously need to get down to the basics.
Italy: Afghan Projects to Benefit From Pavarotti Fund-Raiser
Milan, 16 Sept. (AKI) — A charity concert to honour legendary Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti a year after his death will be held in Jordan next month to raise money for Afghanistan.
Some of the world’s biggest stars of classical and pop music, such as Sting, Andrea Bocelli, Italian pop singers Jovanotti, Zucchero, Laura Pausini, and Romanian opera diva Angela Gheorghiu, will perform at the event in the historic city of Petra.
The concert, to be held under the patronage of Jordan’s Princess Haya Bint al Hussein, will raise funds for projects in Afghanistan for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the UN World Food Programme.
Pavarotti’s widow, Nicoletta Mantovani, announced the concert’s line-up of performers at a media conference in Milan on Tuesday. It will be conducted by Eugene Kohn.
The Italian government announced that it would donate 2.1 million euros towards the event.
“With this contribution, we wish to honour the maestro’s exceptional commitment to humanitarian activities and his dedication to fostering the development of other countries,” said Elisabetta Belloni, head of the Italian Government’s overseas aid department.
The proceeds from the concert will provide concrete aid for thousands of Afghan refugees who have decided to go back to what remains of their home villages, Belloni underlined.
Since 2002 over five million Afghans have returned to the country’s eastern provinces from Pakistan, Iran and elsewhere.
The UN projects will help the most vulnerable of the returnees, especially women and children. Funds will be used to construct schools and provide health, skills and literacy training, as well as projects to improve agricultural production.
For over ten years, until his death in September 2007, Pavarotti actively supported UNHCR projects in Kosovo, Pakistan, Zambia, and Iraq.
He won UNHCR’s Nansen Refugee Award and was named a UN Messenger of Peace.
“Millions of Afghans live in dire poverty. In particular returnees who after many years, arrive home needing everything: food, shelter and a future,” Susana Rico, WFP director in Afghanistan.
“The spirit of the great Maestro Pavarotti brings people together, even now. We will always remember him for his extraordinary efforts to help reach those in need.”
Religious Imprinting and Jihadism
By: Amil Imani
Religious belief is emotional at its core. And emotions are not governed by logic or reason. Becoming religious is similar to imprinting, most dramatically seen in ducklings. During a critical period of time after hatching the ducklings become imprinted on any moving object—be it the mother duck, a mechanical duck, or a moving human. It doesn’t matter. The ducklings simply follow the initially moving object…
The OIC Secretary General Condemns the Shocking Bomb Blasts in Islamabad
The Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, expressed deep shock and sorrow over the deadly blasts that ripped into the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad on Saturday 20 2008, causing the death and injury of dozens of innocent citizens including children.
The Secretary General condemned the attack in the strongest terms, dubbing it a terrorist act of cowardice that runs against Islamic teachings of tolerance. He added that the perpetrators of this act are enemies of peace, whom the international community should fight with determination and by all means.
Prof. Ihsanoglu conveyed his solidarity and condolences to the government and people of Pakistan, in particular to the families of the victims who lost their lives in this senseless terrorist attack. He also extended his sympathy to the injured and prayed for their early recovery.
Web Problems Delay Qaeda 9/11 Video Release
An al-Qaeda video marking the seventh anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks has appeared on the Internet more than a week late due to technical problems.
The delay of the much-touted 87-minute video, caused in part by the main Islamist websites crashing, has thwarted al-Qaeda’s yearly celebration of its attacks on U.S. cities in 2001.
Parts of the video — a compilation of documentary footage and messages by al-Qaeda leaders — were aired on Sept. 8 by Al Jazeera television, which did not say how it obtained it.
But the full version hit websites on Friday, eight days after the anniversary.
On it, senior al-Qaeda commander Mustafa Abu al-Yazid vowed that Western forces in Afghanistan would face “more large-scale attacks … where they least expect it” and called for militants in Pakistan to step up their fight.
I was stuck at the train station of the airport of Bonn-Köln with approximately 400 supporters of Pro Köln (about half of them Flemish). Filip Dewinter was there, Andreas Mölzer (MEP for the Austrian FPÖ) and Henry Nitsche (German member of Parliament, ex CDU). The police made us wait three hours before announcing the banning of the meeting. All in all, I was relieved they didn’t put us on a train to the main station, because it would have been a slaughtering.
I am half-Brazilian, born there and my father was Brazilian, and half-Italian my mother is Italian. So I can’t be a racist! I am a mixture. I can’t be religiously motivated, since I am a atheist. I cannot be a European extremist; I am partly a newcomer here!