Hat tip: Aeneas.
[post ends here]
Monthly Archives: November 2008
A Glum Week for Britain
Our London correspondent Gaia sums up the events of a particularly appalling week in Britain, which culminated in the arrest of a Conservative shadow cabinet minister for political reasons — the first arrest of its kind since at least the time of Charles I.
A Glum Week for Britain
by Gaia
This has to be one of the most sobering weeks in the history of the UK. A succession of events led inexorably to the conclusion that life as we knew it has changed. We are in for a rocky ride.
The first to suffer were the BNP, who were already reeling from the recent publishing of their membership list on the Internet. Thirteen of their activists, aged from 19 to 70, were arrested in Liverpool on Saturday 23 November for handing out their leaflet “Racism Cuts Both Ways” (pdf). Assistant Chief Constable Colin Matthews of Merseyside Police said the arrests were made following the “distribution of leaflets which officers believe to contain racist content” and that “Merseyside Police condemns racism and will take prompt action to support all our communities.”
The thirteen were held in custody for several hours and their homes were searched. They were arrested at about ten minutes to one in the afternoon, but most were not even interviewed until after six pm, and the last was only interviewed well after 11 pm. Andrew Tierney was subjected to violence and physical torture for his passive resistance to providing fingerprints and a DNA sample for the database so beloved of this Labour administration. The oldest BNP leafleter to be arrested was Arnold Brindle, 70 who was denied access to his medication for stage three renal failure.
On Monday 24th the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith announced that £8m is to be made available to equip up to 30,000 police response officers with Taser guns. Smith wants frontline response officers in all 43 police forces in England and Wales to be trained to use 10,000 of the 50,000-volt weapons.
Monday also gave us the Pre-Budget Report with the Chancellor Alistair Darling’s pre-meltdown mini-budget increasing public borrowing and doubling the national debt to £1 trillion whilst temporarily reducing the rate of VAT by 2.5% and deferring future tax rises till after the next General Election, an appallingly cynical legacy to be passing on to future generations.
For this, he is roundly attacked by Shadow Chancellor George Osborne, who has recently been a victim of a smear campaign by the twice-disgraced Prince of Darkness “Lord” Peter Mandelson, brought back to shore up Gordon Brown’s increasingly precarious hold on the leadership of the country.
On Wednesday we learn of the outrages in Bombay in which up to 7 British Muslims are implicated, and the idiotic utterances of Stephen Hockman QC, a UK barrister, suggesting that Sharia law should be incorporated into the UK legal system and recommending that a group of MPs and legal figures should be convened to plan how elements of the Muslim religious-legal code could be introduced.
But the lowest point of a very depressing week must be the arrest on Thursday of the Conservative Shadow Immigration Secretary, Damian Green by nine police officers of the counter-terrorism unit.
– – – – – – – – –
His arrest, which lasted for nine hours, followed a series of leaks to the Conservatives about Government policy, including a sensitive memorandum from the Home Office’s most senior official on crime figures earlier this month. It is understood that the inquiry is focusing on four Home Office documents allegedly obtained by the Conservatives, documents from the private office of Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, which were leaked to the opposition last November.
They showed that ministers had known for four months that thousands of illegal immigrants had been cleared to work as security guards, etc. — one even working in the House of Commons — but had not told Parliament.
Counter-terrorism officers conducted simultaneous searches at four locations: Green’s constituency office and home in Ashford, Kent, his office in the House of Commons and his London home.
That an opposition Member of Parliament is arrested for carrying out his duties to his constituents, with the police even presuming to enter into the Commons itself, is unprecedented since the time of Charles I and has provoked an uproar the length of Britain. Even the BBC and The Guardian, normally mouthpieces of the Government, were initially at a loss for words at this Stalinist action. Reactions from the British public express horror at the speed at which the country is degenerating under the jackboots of a police state. A sample of some of the 681 comments following this article:
What next, Opponents of Nu-Labour having a knock on the door at midnight.
Are the Police now an arm of Commisar Browns Political establishment.
What next is Nu labour going to abolish all other political parties?
This is over the top action by the police. If a stop is not put to this action then it is the end of political freedom in this country.
and:
Are we living in a police state? This past couple of weeks have made me think seriously about emigrating.
This country needs to get rid of these stalinists who seem to be absolutely out of control.
A spokesman for 10 Downing Street declared: ‘This is a matter for the police. The Prime Minister had no prior knowledge of the arrest of Mr Green and was only informed after the event.’, a claim so ludicrous as to be laughable. Could this be the tipping point that causes the British people to wake up to the danger we are all facing?
Other links:
How Many Divisions Does the Counterjihad Have?
Takuan Seiyo has posted an excellent essay, “From Meccania to Atlantis — Part 3: From Encirclement to Breakout”, at the Brussels Journal. I strongly recommend reading the entire piece.
Part of it is a response to Gates of Vienna, and in particular Zenster, who posted earlier this month about the execution of the Bali bombers in Indonesia.
Mr. Seiyo raises an important point:
Zenster comments that [the statement of the Bali bomber] promises the eternal cycle of violence that Islam has been delivering since 630 AD. He wonders why so few Westerners seem to feel a similar desire for retribution over their kinsmen’s blood spilled in so many Islamic atrocities. “Should Western leaders continue tolerating such hideous rapacity,” Zenster concludes, “their collective inaction must eventually be construed as criminal.”
So here is our dilemma. On one side is Larry Page and Sergei Brin with Google’s resources, and Bill Gates, and George Soros and Maurice Strong, and Hollywood’s tinsel and Barack Obama and Angela Merkel and Al Gore and the European Union and the Roman Catholic Church, and the National Council of Churches USA, and the West’s universities, and a host of expensively packaged, solipsistic magic lanterns such as CNN, The New York Times and Der Spiegel, and dhimmi training institutes such as the American Society for Muslim Advancement and Soliya. On the other side is Zenster, and the middle-aged couple in Virginia that maintains the Gates of Vienna blog, and the rest of the few of us here and there.
By whom will the Western leaders’ collective inaction be construed as criminal, and what will such construing be worth in view of such a balance of power? To paraphrase again that great teacher, Stalin, “Zenster? How many divisions has he got?”
– – – – – – – – –
We haven’t got the divisions. We haven’t got the numbers. We haven’t got the unlimited funds the other side has, including its ability to print money. We are surrounded everywhere by Body Snatchers and Pods hatching further Body Snatchers. And they, by far, are the more dangerous and, in the foreseeable future invincible, foe.
Islam is indeed in its essence a creed of desert savages, imbued with the bloody ethos of 7th century Arabia. But it’s not nearly the mighty, unstoppable force that we few, we happy few, will repulse at Thermopylae. For one, our ruling elite of Body Snatchers and the great majority of the Pod-citizens, wouldn’t allow it. And it is they who control the police and the armed forces, the sources of employment and the tax collectors, the TV programs and the book publishers.
So what do you think, folks? How many divisions do we have?
I know I don’t have any. If I work hard, I can manage to get a few dozen middle-aged Counterjihadis (along with a smattering of young people) together in a room to talk about what can be done. Afterwards they return home to do the best they can to implement a plan of resistance, working in their spare time while making a living, raising a family, and generally trying to have a life in the face of the imminent destruction which is about to descend upon us all.
But Al Qaeda doesn’t have many divisions, either. They may be somewhat younger than we are, and have more AK-47s and Semtex, but otherwise they are organizing and operating in a manner similar to ours — a bunch of like-minded people forming fluid distributed networks to coordinate action in an attempt to achieve their ends. Like us, they are opposed by their own governments.
We Westerners have only recently been traduced by our religious, political, and cultural leaders, and that puts us at a strong disadvantage.
The fact that 43% of white American voters preferred Obama is not proof that they have been brain-snatched. It’s merely evidence of massive ignorance, an indication that the media (and the Republican establishment) were successful in their attempts to conceal any and all relevant facts about The One. In the next few months Barack Hussein Obama will attempt to implement his agenda while 75% of America’s capital assets rapidly evaporate. The Obama/Soros/CAIR operation will not be a piece of cake after the productive tax base of this country has become a shell of its former self. After all, the ACORN “community organizing” agenda requires hordes of wealthy heavily-taxed drones to finance its socialist fantasies.
If one assumes that Obama wants to be more than just an unusually corrupt President running the traditional Democrat national patronage machine, then the nature of his intentions will eventually become crystal-clear to people who have never heard of Bill Ayers or Barry Soetoro or Tony Rezko. They’ll notice the new administration’s attempts to surgically remove what little money remains in their wallets. And at that point, the 43% will begin to drop precipitously.
Europe is another matter. I’ll leave it to the Europeans themselves to tell us how much native resistance is possible in the continent formerly known as Europe.
As I have said before, we’re an army of midgets. But how many midgets are we?
How many divisions do we have?
Gates of Vienna News Feed 11/27/2008
The most important news of the day obviously comes from Mumbai. There are eight or ten articles about the terrorist attacks here; go to the South Asia section and keep scrolling.
It’s still early days in this story, and information keeps flooding in. I’ve collected a lot of it, and hope to take a closer look at the big picture when I have time.
Thanks to Andy Bostom, C. Cantoni, Frontinus, Insubria, JC, JD, Paul Green, Rolf Krake, Steen, TB, VH, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
– – – – – – – – –
Cops Force U.S. Soldiers to Lick ‘Urine’ Off Ground
Police threaten to file burglary charges against Iraq war veterans if they complain
Two Iraq war veterans who claim police forced them to lick what was believed to be human urine off the ground have filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit against the officers.
Wisconsin National Guardsmen Sgt. Anthony R. Anderson and Specialist Robert C. Schiman were in the town of Wisconsin Dells on June 1 for weekend training when two police officers accused them of urinating in an alley, the Wisconsin State Journal reported.
The soldiers denied relieving themselves in public.
Officers Wayne W. Thomas, 19, and Collin H. Jacobson, 20, instructed the two-time war veterans to lick the ground and scrape up mud and lick it to prove the substance was not urine — or they would receive citations.
According to the lawsuit, the officers also made Schiman eat a plant soaked in the liquid.
When both men had licked the ground, one of the officers said he hadn’t seen it. He instructed Anderson to do it once more, according to the lawsuit.
“That’s not good enough,” the officer said. “Do you want a ticket?”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
NY Warns of Possible Al Qaeda Attack
U.S. authorities have warned of a possible al Qaeda threat to transit systems in and around New York City, a Homeland Security official said on Wednesday.
New York police said they were increasing security in response to the warning but said this was “in an abundance of caution.” The warning comes at the start of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, one of the busiest U.S. travel periods of the year.
“The New York City Police Department is aware of an unsubstantiated report indicating that al Qaeda terrorists discussed targeting mass transit in New York City and the vicinity,” Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne told Reuters.
Homeland Security Department spokesman Russ Knocke said the warning was issued on the basis of “plausible but uncorroborated information” and that al Qaeda may have discussed such attacks in late September. Knocke said Homeland Security and the FBI had passed on the warning to state and local officials on Tuesday but there was no specific information to confirm that the plot had developed “beyond aspirational planning.”
The warning was issued as a routine matter and no adjustments were being made to the nation’s threat level. New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority said it was aware of “threats against transit properties during the holiday season” and was working closely with officials to increase police presence throughout the sprawling bus and rail system. Browne said: “In an abundance of caution the NYPD has deployed additional resources in the mass transit system.” […]
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
The Socialist State: A Hotbed of Capitalism
Gerald Celente has chalked up a formidable list of correct forecasts, having predicted all the major market downs for years. He is now predicting an unprecedented economic collapse within the first Obama term.
He is also predicting an imminent tax revolt.
Now perhaps we need to step back and look at the positive side of a down economy:
Nothing less than total collapse will stop people like Rep. Barney Frank, one of the chief culprits in the bank crisis, who accused the critics of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s Democratic policies of alarmism. But now that these GSEs have collapsed and gone into receivership, he and his cohorts, like Sen. Chris Dodd, still sound morally superior to those who favor the free market. Clearly, those who brought us the crash, as well as voters who bought the myth that conservative policies caused it, need an overdose of reality to back them up against the wall. Democrats and RINOs can lie all they want, but who will restore their portfolios? About $6 trillion has been lost so far.
Celente says the reality overdose is on the way, and here is why I believe him.
We now face a Soviet-style state that is taking over ownership of business.
To see how this will end, we need only look backward — at the Soviet Union.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
USA-Libya: Senate Confirms Nomination of Tripoli Ambassador
(ANSAmed) — NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 21 — The United States will soon send their first ambassador to Tripoli in 36 years, announced State Department Spokesperson, Sean McCormack, today. The nomination of Gene Cretz to head the diplomatic mission, kept in check by Congress over concerns that Libya had not yet paid compensation to the families of all the victims of the Lockerbie massacre, was ratified in the Senate today. Cretz is a career diplomat. “We are very satisfied”, McCormack said. The last US ambassador to Libya was recalled to Washington in 1972. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Students Drop Shinerama Fundraiser for Illness Targeting Caucasians
Students at an Ottawa university are pulling out of a Canada-wide fundraiser that provides close to $1 million a year for cystic fibrosis research and treatment, arguing that the disease “has been recently revealed to only affect white people, and primarily men” — something experts say is untrue.
The Carleton University Students Association voted Monday night overwhelmingly in favour of choosing a new charity to support during its orientation week in September, in lieu of Shinerama, which raises money for the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
The foundation funds research into cystic fibrosis, a fatal, genetic disease that affects both sexes with a similar frequency and is most common among Caucasians. The foundation also helps fund services for people with the disease. It affects mainly the lungs and digestive system, causing a build-up of thick mucus that leads to infection and inflammation.
The student council motion stated that orientation week “strives to be inclusive” and “all orientees and volunteers should feel like their fundraising efforts will serve their diverse communities.”
Nick Bergamini was the only student councillor to vote against the motion.
“I think that it’s political correctness gone horribly, horribly wrong,” he said. “They’re playing not just politics with this, but they’re playing racial politics, and I think it’s entirely inappropriate.”
The Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation called the student council’s decision “crushing.”
| — Hat tip: Rolf Krake | [Return to headlines] |
Bio-Ethics: France, Parliament Divides Over Uterus for Hire
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, NOVEMBER 20 — France’s Parliamentary Office for the Assessment of Scientific and Technological Choices (Opecst) has come down in favour of maintaining its 2004 bioethics law with regard to its ban on the use of “uterus for hire”, which a working group of the French Senate had recently recommended for legalisation. A review of the law has been scheduled for 2010, following the holding of the “General State of Bioethics” in the first semester of 2009. “The wish to have a baby cannot extend to making use of a ‘bearing mother’“, stated Socialist deputy, Alain Claeys, a member of Opecst, thereby stressing that the interests of the future baby and those of the “mother for hire” are often not considered sufficiently. A stance in opposition to that of the group of senators under Socialist Michele Abdré, which in June proposed legalising a closely-defined form of the norm in June, as a practice which is already permitted in Greece and in the UK. Around 400 French couples would make use of it each year, especially women without a womb of their own. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch Integration is on Right Track
“People have had enough!”
“We can’t pamper them anymore; we have to put our foot down.”
“We’re plagued by an epidemic of Moroccan violence.”
Just a few comments made by politicians from across the political spectrum during a recent debate about integration in the Dutch parliament. It sounds pretty bad. Just how did Dutch integration fail so badly?
The answer: it didn’t.
Despite heated debates in Dutch politics, integration in the Netherlands is going well. That’s one of the conclusions of the annual report on Dutch society published by the Dutch national statistics organisation Statistics Netherlands (CBS).
The CBS report shows that non-western immigrants, and their children, are closing gaps with native Dutch citizens in various areas. More immigrants are enrolled in higher education and more are graduating from secondary school. There’s also been a sharp rise in the number of immigrants in the workforce.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Europe Faces “Disappointment” Over Obama
Europe’s euphoria at the election of Barack Obama as the next president of the United States may be dampened when he assumes power, a political expert warns.
Obama attracted 200,000 people to a speech in Berlin and his victory sparked the unusual spectacle of Parisians dancing in the streets. “The whole world is counting on Obama,” said Swiss newspaper Blick.
Many Europeans view Obama as the antithesis of George W. Bush: liberal, tolerant and with a sympathetic international outlook.
But Professor Stephen Monsma of the Henry Institute in Michigan warns Europeans against having unrealistic expectations: Obama might be more liberal than Bush but he would continue to put Americans first when he takes office, Monsma told swissinfo.
“My impression is that many Europeans see Obama as such an internationalist that they may even doubt whether he would ever put American self-interest first,” he said.
“He will be a very tough negotiator. There is so much enthusiasm for Obama in Europe, even among the French. I’m sure that America’s Nato allies are soon going to feel some pressure from the Obama government to send more troops to Afghanistan and we will see how excited the French are about that.”
Easing unemployment pain
Monsma, a scholar in residence at Swiss bank UBS’s Wolfsberg think tank, gave his views at a briefing in Thun, canton Bern, on Thursday.
He believes Obama’s experience as a community worker in deprived areas of Chicago may have toughened his resolve to safeguard American jobs.
“Many of the problems people were facing were due to closures of steel mills and much of the blame was levelled at foreign competition. I am sure even today he could cite the names of people who lost their jobs as a result, allegedly, of foreign steel imports,” Monsma said.
The current global economic downturn has led to huge numbers of job losses in the US. Obama hinted in his election campaign that he was prepared to act to ease the pain, according to Monsma.
“He is willing to come to the defence of the American automobile industry by putting billions of dollars of subsidy into the industry. He will be taking a close look at international treaties and asking what impact they could have on unemployment rates in the US,” Monsma said.
“There may be some disappointment on the international scene as he works to protect American workers.”
Against torture
But Monsma predicts better news for Europe regarding Obama’s foreign policy. He believes the new president will demonstrate a real understanding of America’s impact on the world and will not walk away from the negotiating table as quickly as Bush.
“I expect a quick change on issues such as the use of torture against suspected terrorists, Guantanamo Bay and holding suspects indefinitely,” said Monsma.
He believes however that Obama has signalled his intent to concentrate on domestic matters first and foremost before looking to the outside world.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Ombudsmen Critical of Racist School Book
Two Swedish ombudsman offices have added their voices to the chorus of criticism about a school book accused of having racist and sexist contents, but are powerless to do anything about it.
Earlier this year, both offices received letters from a group of parents from Mölndal in western Sweden who wrote in an attempt to get a hearing for their view that the book was insulting and prejudiced.
“I think you are justified in your reaction to the current book,” wrote the DO in its response.
The DO added, however, that it had no ability to affect legislation on the issue and that the most it could do was “recommend schools undertake a review of the literature. Hopefully the school will accept your point of view and change books.”
The book in question is part of the Förstagluttarna series of books, named for a common Swedish nickname for first graders.
In one passage explains that a little boy with glasses is sitting alone because he is Jewish. Other parts of the book portray girls as being less skilled at mathematics than boys.
Earlier this week another group of parents from Karlskrona in central Sweden urged school officials to take action.
Despite the protests about the book’s lack of gender equality, however, the JämO also said that current law doesn’t allow for the book to be banned from the classroom.
“On the other hand it will be interesting to see how school manages teaching material like this, where it could possibly be a question of some form of harassment,” said JämO’s Johan Gyberg to SvD.
In a statement, the book’s publisher, Natur & Kultur, said it welcomes discussion about the best way to educate young children.
“It’s always useful for us to hear the views of teachers, students, and parents. When it comes to teaching material we believe that teachers have the competence to decide which materials are most appropriate for their students and lessons,” writes Natur & Kultur.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
On Vlaams Belang
by Diana West
Editor’s note: In the global arena, where Israel’s friends can be counted on one hand, it is important to know why Israel, which considers a terrorist enabler like Abbas a partner in negotiations, would eschew the participation of a political party like Belgium’s Vlaams Belang in a conference on jihad that was scheduled to take place in the Knesset. So we asked the prominent journalist Diana West who has written extensively about Vlaams Belang and the Islamization of Europe to clarify for us who is involved in the party and what are its goals.
Outpost: The “Facing Jihad Conference” organized by Geert Wilders and Arieh Eldad and scheduled to take place in Israel has been postponed by Eldad ostensibly due to the unexpected advent of Israeli elections. One of the obvious participants in a conference of political actors who oppose jihad and Islamization is the Belgian/Flemish party Vlaams Belang. However, according to media reports, it was disinvited on the grounds it is a racist, anti-Semitic organization.
Could you explain what Vlaams Belang is and given that their statements have been so pro-Israel, why their invitation should be controversial, particularly in Israel?
Diana West: The routinely, reflexively lodged charges against Vlaams Belang turn on two cartoonishly false charges: one, that the party is anti-Semitic, and two, that it is neo-Nazi. Having interviewed many prominent members of the party at length and on several occasions both in the US and in Belgium, I can categorically dismiss both charges as being false even if they have also been effective in caricaturing the party in the mind (and I use the term loosely) of the mainstream.
Vlaams Belang, which means “Flemish Interest” in Dutch, is a party organized around two main principles. The first is independence for Flanders from the Belgian state, which is an ill-matched alliance of French-speaking Walloons and Dutch-speaking Flemish. The second principle is Vlaams Belang’s staunch and courageously outspoken—i.e., hyper-politically incorrect—opposition to the Islamization of Belgium, and by extension, of all Europe. These two principles make Vlaams Belang doubly, if not triply revolutionary in its relationship to the ruling establishment in Belgium, which includes the government and media (which without exception may be described as Left-wing).
Not only does Vlaams Belang, as a secessionist party, oppose the Belgian government, it also opposes the Belgian government’s politically correct and expedient alliance with and orientation toward Islamic interests, which has created a kind of dominant political atmosphere best described as Islamosocialist. Given the additional fact that Brussels is also the “capital of Europe,” Vlaams Belang’s nationalist political drive to break up Belgium also carries an implicit threat against the continued unity of the softly but increasingly totalitarian European suprastate known as the European Union.
So where do the anti-Semitic, neo-Nazi charges comes from? Let’s start by acknowledging that Dutch is a Germanic language, and, in our age and culture, any Germanic-accented politicians decribed as “right-wing” may trigger an almost atavistic prejudice…
Before I met Vlaams Belang’s Frank Vanhecke and Filip Dewinter in Washington, I believed Europe’s rush to Islamize itself was a stampede, its transformation all but inevitable. Now, I think these men have at least earned Europe the benefit of the doubt. Studying their various statements and interviews, I found no evidence to support the crude slanders to which they are continually subjected in the media for being a right-wing party opposed to the massive Islamic immigration now transforming traditional European culture. Indeed, their statements on Israel are more supportive than any European party I know of. As Vanhecke put it in a recent speech, “They call us ‘intolerant’ because we oppose intolerance. They call us ‘fascists’ because we oppose Islamo-fascism. They call us ‘the children of holocaust perpetrators,’ because we oppose Islamists who are preparing a new holocaust against the Jews.’“
America must start paying attention to Europe. And to Vlaams Belang.
| — Hat tip: Andy Bostom | [Return to headlines] |
Prince Charles Honors Talented Muslims
LONDON — Britain’s heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles honored late on Wednesday, November 26, a number of talented Muslims in recognition of their valuable contributions to British society.
“I have to say that it is this acceptance — indeed, this welcome — of diversity which makes me rather proud to be British,” Prince Charles told the Mosaic Talent Awards ceremony.
The Prince of Wales said the Muslim community has “enriched Britain in every sense,” reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“I was fascinated to hear the views of the imam of the Leeds Makkah Mosque on how, through a wide range of initiatives including Mosaic, Britain seeks to integrate rather than isolate its minority communities and offers real freedom of choice and of expression.”…
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Senior Tory Arrested Over Leaks
Conservative immigration spokesman Damian Green has been arrested and released on bail in connection with a series of leaks from the Home Office.
Police say Mr Green was held on suspicion of “conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office”.
The MP denied any wrongdoing and said “opposition politicians have a duty to hold the government to account” and that he would “continue to do so”.
He was questioned, but has not been charged and was bailed until February.
Mr Green’s arrest is believed to be connected to the arrest of a man suspected of being a Home Office whistleblower.
Speaking outside the House of Commons, Mr Green said: “I was astonished to have spent more than nine hours today under arrest for doing my job.
‘Right to know’
“I emphatically deny I have done anything wrong. I have many times made public information that the government wanted to keep secret — information that the public has a right to know.
“In a democracy, opposition politicians have a duty to hold the government to account.
“I was elected to the House of Commons precisely to do that and I certainly intend to continue doing so.”
The BBC understands that a junior Home Office official was suspended from duty 10 days ago over a number of leaks and the matter was referred to police. He was arrested but not charged.
It follows a series of leaks, including:
- The November 2007 revelation that the home secretary knew the Security Industry Authority had granted licences to 5,000 illegal workers, but decided not to publicise it.
- The February 2008 news that an illegal immigrant had been employed as a cleaner in the House of Commons.
- A whips’ list of potential Labour rebels in the vote on plans to increase the pre-charge terror detention limit to 42 days.
- A letter from the home secretary warning that a recession could lead to a rise in crime.
The BBC understands Tory leader David Cameron is angry about what has happened and stands by Mr Green.
| — Hat tip: Frontinus | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Francoism; Zapatero Asks Church to Respect Memory
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, NOVEMBER 26 — The incitement of the President of the Spanish Episcopal Council, Antonio Maria Rouco Varelàs, “to oblivion” regarding the spirit of national reconciliation in relation to the historical memory law, continues to create reactions. In defence of the law, Spanish Premier José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has weighed in on the issue, in statements reported by El Pais, reminding that the church canonised 977 Catholic victims of the civil war and opened up another 500 canonization processes. “If all citizens respected that the Catholic church made a large number of canonisations of martyrs, why don’t we respect — asked the socialist leader — in the spirit of reconciliation, that the facility members of the victims of the civil war be able to know where their loved ones are buried and that they obtain the satisfaction of this recognition?”. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: New Demands for Immigrant Families
Before bringing their families to Sweden, newly arrived immigrants must first demonstrate they have housing and disposable income, according to a new proposal.
A government commission looking into the requirement immigrants must fulfill before sending for their families suggests they must have secure housing and at least 5,000 kronor ($620) a month left over after making their rent.
The commission was launched in February and according to prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, the new rules are a way of strengthening Sweden’s employment policies.
At the same time, the government wants to show that “those who point to the downside of multiculturalism aren’t answered by an attempt to cover up problems but rather with measures for making improvements,” Reinfeldt said in Feburary at a press conference in Landskrona announcing the plan.
But critics from the opposition as well as immigrants’ and refugees’ rights groups immediately condemned the proposal.
Relatives of immigrants make up more than half of those who receive Swedish residence permits through Sweden’s asylum system, and officials from particularly popular towns like Malmö, Gothenburg, and Södertälje, have complained for years about the extremely cramped housing conditions for new immigrants.
Today, Sweden and Belgium are the only EU countries which don’t place self-sufficiency requirements on immigrants before allowing them to seek residency for their families.
Uppsala judge Erik Lempert, who led the inquiry, plans to present the commission’s suggestions on December 1st.
According to TT, he has concluded that the person who receives a Swedish residency permit would only be required to demonstrate a capacity to support him — or herself, but not an entire family.
The proposal also includes several exceptions.
Minors granted residency permits would not be bound by the requirements, for example, nor would those who have been granted asylum and have met the legal definition of being a refugee.
Also excepted from the requirements are those who are granted residency in Sweden for protective reasons, specifically those who are seen to have “well-grounded fears” for being subject to torture or suffering in a war in their home country.
However, those who are allowed to stay as a result of a natural disaster, as well as those with “special unnamed circumstances” must abide by the income and housing demands before being allowed to bring their families to Sweden, according to the commission’s proposal.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Sharia Law Should be Introduced Into Legal System, Says Leading Barrister
A leading barrister has said that Sharia law should be incorporated into the English legal system, it has been reported.
Stephen Hockman QC, a former chairman of the Bar Council, reportedly suggested that a group of MPs and legal figures should be convened to plan how elements of the Muslim religious-legal code could be introduced.
After speaking at an event organised by the website Islam4UK at the National Liberal Club, Whitehall, Mr Hockman reportedly told The Daily Express: “Given our substantial Muslim population, it is vital that we look at ways to integrate Muslim culture into our traditions. Otherwise we will find that there is a significant section of our society which is increasingly alienated, with very dangerous results.
“There should perhaps be a standing committee comprising Parliamentarians, lawyers and religious leaders to consider how this could be achieved and what legal changes might be framed.”
Sharia law has been criticised for its prevention of some rights for women. Mr Hockman reportedly conceded: “The position of women is one area where the emphasis is, to the say the least, rather different.”
He reportedly added that the incorporation of Sharia could improve relations between faith groups and boost the country’s security.
He said: “I am also sometimes confronted by those who point out that there are elements within the Muslim community who pose a threat to our very security. My answer is not to dispute them but to suggest that it is for those of us forming part of the majority community to address such problems.”
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Violence Against Women: Spain, 400,000 Victims Every Year
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, NOVEMBER 25 — Around 400,000 women in Spain have been victims of abuses and domestic violence in the last year, according to figures published today by the Ministry for Equality. The figure is based on projections from statistics published in 2006 by the Institute for the Woman, which includes non-reported abuses, which is not perceived as such, which makes up 14% of the total. The number is much higher than the 80,000 statements which go before the courts every year, and has increased significantly in the last 4 years, after laws came into force on the subject. Some 83 courts deal specifically with violent gender crimes. Minister for gender violence, Miguel Lorente, says that it appears from the statistics that more than 1.5 million women in Spain have been abused at least once in their life. There have been 57 murders by a partner since the start of the year. Commenting on the figure for domestic killings, on the International day against violence against women, the Minister for Equality, Bibiana Aido, stressed that “the fight against this social evil coincides with the whole of society and all institutions”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Energy: Israeli-PNA Cooperation Under EU Aegis Goes Ahead
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, NOVEMBER 25 — Everything is ready for the relaunch of energy cooperation between the EU, Israel and the Palestinian National Authority. The Project for integration of the Euro-Mediterranean energy market (Med-Emip), financed by the EU, to whom the European Commission entrusted the job of managing the ‘Solar for Peace’ initiative which aims to favour energy cooperation in the Middle East. ‘Solar for peace’ got the go-ahead from Euromediterranean ministers during the ministerial conference in Limassol, Cyprus, on December 17. Israel and the PNA agreed to the collaboration last June. According to the initial study by Med-Emip, the first steps by Solar for Peace will be: to extend the use of solar-powered water heating systems in the Palestinian Territories, the installation of highly innovative photovoltaic plants and the construction of a power plant of between 20 and 50 MW which will supply energy to both sides. In the last working meeting of the Med-Emip project, EU Commission representatives, Israel and the PNA evaluated a common office for energy and cooperation in complementary areas such as management of the electricity network.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Med: Interreligious Dialogue Helps Bring Shores Closer
(ANSAmed) — ROME, NOVEMBER 20 — Bringing the two shores of the Mediterranean closer is possible also thanks to interreligious dialogue. However, is a true dialogue possible between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam? And mainly, under what conditions, and in what form? These are the questions that the encounter organised yesterday in Rome by the French Embassy at the Holy See and the Saint Louis of France Cultural Centre tried to give responses to. Two countries with emblematic cases in which Islam and Christianity coexist, despite an embittering of relations and growing tension due to extremist groups are Algeria and Lebanon. “In Algeria there are difficulties in the coexistence between Christians and Muslims, but there are also many opportunities to live together”, said Monsignor Henri Tessier, Archbishop Emeritus of Algiers, who has been living in the Maghreb country for forty years. “Since 2006, the situation for Christians has become more difficult, but thanks to the help of moderate Muslims and intellectuals, we have managed to move forward”, continued the bishop, underlining how “dialogue and collaboration between the two religions are possible on social, economic, educational, and spiritual ground”. For Professor Joseph Maila, long time teacher at the University of Beirut and rector of the Catholic Institute in Paris, “dialogue between these two monotheistic religions goes back to the time when Islam was born”. “The Koran — he reminded — is full of invitations for theological comparisons and appeals. But it is necessary to wait for the appearance of modern states so that there are real forums for dialogue able to reduce religious tensions, as occurred, for example, in Lebanon”. Despite efforts — warned Maila — it is not possible to forget situations like in Iraq, which has seen in the last 5 years, 400 thousand Assyrian Chaldeans to flee, or clashes between Coptics and Muslims in Egypt, or even various murders of Christians in Algeria and Turkey, because they were suspected of proselytism”. How can religions contribute to peace between people from different communities? In order to respond to this question, Professor Roberto Papini, secretary general of the Jacques Maritain International Institute, reminded words spoken by Syrian poet Adonis last October at the Biennial of Theatre in Venice: “Dialogue can no longer be considered only as adherence to other’s thoughts, and accusing those who do not think like you of not wanting to participate in dialogue. But if dialogue is respect, comparisons between creativity, then from diversity, only enrichment can be born. And in the final analysis, peace”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Algeria: New Trade Surplus of Almost 40 Bln Dollars
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, NOVEMBER 19 — Algeriàs trade balance for the first 10 months of 2008 has recorded a 39.7 billion dollar surplus compared to 26.07 billion dollars in the same period in 2007. This was reported by the Centre for National Statistical Information (Cnis)of Algerian Customs, cited by press agency Aps. Exports between January and October reached 70.55 billion dollars, increasing 44.96% compared to last year while imports reached 30.77 billion dollars (+36.23%). Hydrocarbons, mainly gas and oil, continue to represent about 98% of exports. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Medicine: Algeria, First Birth From Frozen Embryo
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, NOVEMBER 18 — Nour Iman was born yesterday. She is the first baby in Algeria to be born following the implantation of a frozen embryo. This was reported today in the Algerian press. “This is the first experience which shows how the problem of infertility can also be fought in Algerian hospitals”, said professor Derguini, a consultant in the obstetrics department in the Kouba hospital in Algiers. The mother, who comes from a family with a modest financial situation from Lakdaria, had her first-born baby girl four years ago with assisted insemination and on that occasion two embryos were frozen. “A few months ago we received a call from the hospital saying that the embryos must either be used or eliminated”, said the woman. “My husband and I decided to try. It is a miracle”. According to Derguini, a further three Algerian women are pregnant with frozen embryos. “The demand is high in Algeria, but we still need to improve the technical standard”. In the North African country this type of operation costs around 100,000 dinars (1000 euro). (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Morocco: Women MPs Want Quotas in Local Councils Too
(ANSAmed) — RABAT, NOVEMBER 17 — ‘Women’s quotas’ in the city councils with an amendment to the electoral law: this was the request put forward by a group of Moroccan women MPs during a session at the House of Representatives for the Interior, Decentralisation and Infrastructure. After the positive results at a parliamentary level following the introduction of an electoral law to provide quotas of women with ‘unambiguous provision’’ the MPs requested a provision which obliges the councils concerned to set aside at least 33% of the posts in the list for women. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
PNA: Projects for 510 Million Dollars From Nablus Conference
(ANSAmed) — ROME, NOVEMBER 25 — The “Palestine Investment Conference-Forum del nord” has ended with an investment package of 510 million dollars, the international conference for investment in the Palestinian territories at Nablus in the West Bank, said the online edition of the Middle East Times. Palestinian businessmen, also resident abroad, and Arab Israeli investors (that is, Palestinians who have Israeli citizenship) took part in the conference. Five of the seven projects relate to the infrastructure, one of them industrial and the last relates to the financial sector. A statement of intent was also signed for the creation of an industrial area in Nablus at an estimated cost of 85 million dollars. Apart from representatives of the Middle East Quartet (USA, Russia, UN and EU) and the World Bank, the President of the Palestine Authority Abu Mazen and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad spoke: they both expressed a hope that in future a meeting like Nablus could take place in Jerusalem. There were four working session, where infrastructure, industry, agriculture and tourism were discussed. Despite businessmen and other participants having no problems getting to Nablus during the two days of the conference (thanks also to coordination with the Israelis), President Abbas stressed that the biggest obstacle to economic growth was the network of around 600 Israeli road blocks in the West Bank. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Arab MPs Attend Workshop on Discrimination, Abuse of Women
Arab lawmakers on Wednesday attended the opening day of the second regional workshop on the “Roles of Parliamentarians in the Implementation of CEDAW,” referring to the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
The two-day workshop, held to coincide with the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on November 25, was organized by the UN’s Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) and the UN Division for the Advancement of Women (UNDAW), and held at ESCWA’s premises in Beirut.
Parliamentarians from ESCWA member states Egypt, Bahrain, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen attended the meeting, which was inaugurated by UN Undersecretary General and ESCWA Executive Secretary Bader Omar al-Dafa. CEDAW Committee member and Romanian Ambassador to Sweden Victoria Popescu also attended.
“The issue of combating violence and discrimination against women requires extensive efforts from Arab countries,” Dafa said at the opening of the workshop. “It is not only a matter of signing international treaties or amending national legislation, but something that requires hard work and close scrutiny so as to put laws into practice and enable women to participate in public life and be decision makers.” […]
CEDAW, which is often viewed as the major international bill of rights for women, was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1979 and clearly defines what constitutes discrimination against women and how it can be ended. Although 16 Arab countries have ratified CEDAW, most cite reservations on its articles regarding abortion, inheritance and reproductive health rights. […]
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
IAEA to Assist Syria in Nuclear Project
The 35 member states of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency have agreed to assist Syria in the construction of a nuclear power plant. The US and other Western states eventually agreed even though they have serious objections to the project.
They point to an IAEA report which says Syria may be secretly working on a nuclear weapon. The main evidence for the allegation is an Israeli air strike which took place last year. It would appear a nuclear facility in a remote desert location was destroyed in the attack.
Under these circumstances, the Western member states felt it would be inappropriate to offer nuclear assistance to Syria, but China and Russia disagreed. The IAEA will investigate the viability of a Syrian nuclear power plant and where it would be best located.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Iranian Man Sentenced by Court to be Blinded by Acid
Iranian newspapers say a court has sentenced a man who blinded a woman with acid also to be blinded with acid under the country’s Islamic law.
Thursday’s reports in several newspapers, including the Kargozaran, say 27-year-old Majid, who was only identified by his first name, confessed to attacking Ameneh Bahrami in 2004 to dissuade anyone from marrying the woman he loved.
Wednesday’s ruling was issued based on the Islamic law system of “qisas,” or eye for an eye retribution. The reports say Ameneh asked the court to sentence Majid to be blinded by acid to prevent similar attacks on other women. Majid is allowed to appeal the verdict.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanon: USA Will Supply Army With Dozens of Tanks, Press
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, NOVEMBER 21 — The United States have decided to supply the Lebanese Army with “some dozens” of heavy M-60 tanks in order to improve its ability to fight against “terrorist groups”. This is what the newspaper an Nahar in Beirut reported quoting the US’s assistant secretary of state for Near-East affairs, David Welch, according to whom the discussion on the supply is currently in progress in Congress and is strongly supported by the White House and the Defence Department. According to an Nahar, the first group of tanks should be delivered at the beginning of 2009, over two years after the Lebanese Army defeated the fundamentalist group Fatah al Islam, an al-Qaeda aspirer, in the Palestinian refugee camps in Nahr and Bared in the northern part of Lebanon. A result for which was necessary a battle that raged for about three months, costing the lives of about 170 soldiers, above all due to the Army’s lack of adequate equipment. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Pope Questions Interfaith Dialogue
In comments on Sunday that could have broad implications in a period of intense religious conflict, Pope Benedict XVI cast doubt on the possibility of interfaith dialogue but called for more discussion of the practical consequences of religious differences.
The pope’s comments came in a letter he wrote to Marcello Pera, an Italian center-right politician and scholar whose forthcoming book, “Why We Must Call Ourselves Christian,” argues that Europe should stay true to its Christian roots. A central theme of Benedict’s papacy has been to focus attention on the Christian roots of an increasingly secular Europe.
In quotations from the letter [“A dialogue between religions is not possible. Faith can not be put in brackets”] that appeared on Sunday in Corriere della Sera, Italy’s leading daily newspaper, the pope said the book “explained with great clarity” that “an interreligious dialogue in the strict sense of the word is not possible.” In theological terms, added the pope, “a true dialogue is not possible without putting one’s faith in parentheses.”
But Benedict added that “intercultural dialogue which deepens the cultural consequences of basic religious ideas” was important. He called for confronting “in a public forum the cultural consequences of basic religious decisions.”
The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the pope’s comments seemed intended to draw interest to Mr. Pera’s book, not to cast doubt on the Vatican’s many continuing interreligious dialogues. “He has a papacy known for religious dialogue; he went to a mosque, he’s been to synagogues,” Father Lombardi said. “This means that he thinks we can meet and talk to the others and have a positive relationship.”
To some scholars, the pope’s remarks seemed aimed at pushing more theoretical interreligious conversations into the practical realm. “He’s trying to get the Catholic-Islamic dialogue out of the clouds of theory and down to brass tacks: how can we know the truth about how we ought to live together justly, despite basic creedal differences?” said George Weigel, a Catholic scholar and biographer of Pope John Paul II.
This month, the Vatican held a conference with Muslim religious leaders and scholars aimed at improving ties. The conference participants agreed to condemn terrorism and protect religious freedom, but they did not address issues of conversion and of the rights of Christians in majority Muslim countries to worship.
The church is also engaged in dialogue with Muslims organized by the king of Saudi Arabia, a country where non-Muslims are forbidden from worshiping in public.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
The Accolade, Saudi Arabia’s First All-Girl Rock Band
To evade their country’s rigid Islamic rules a group of young women jam in secret locations putting their music on the web. For the group’s leader, playing “is a challenge,” but their dream is to play before a live audience in Dubai to show “what we’re capable of”.
Jeddah (AsiaNews/Agencies) — They cannot perform in public. They cannot pose for album cover photographs. Even their jam sessions are secret, for fear of offending the religious authorities in this ultraconservative kingdom. But the members of Saudi Arabia’s first all-girl rock band, The Accolade, are clearly not afraid of taboos.
The band’s first single, ‘Pinocchio,’ has become an underground hit here, with hundreds of young Saudis downloading the song from the group’s page on MySpace (pictured).
Now, the pioneering young foursome wants to record an album in secret places far from censorship.
All four members of The Accolade are women: Dina, the group’s guitarist and founder and her sister Dareen, bass player; Lamia, the group’s singer, and Amjad, the keyboardist.
The group’s name was inspired by one of Dina’s favourite paintings, ‘The Accolade,’ by the English pre-Raphaelite painter Edmund Blair Leighton. She studies art at King Abdulaziz University.
Playing “in Saudi [Arabia]”? “Yes, it’s a challenge,” said Lamia. “Maybe we’re crazy. But we wanted to do something different.”
In a country ruled by Sharia, Islamic Law, where rock music is seen as the devil’s music and women are not allowed to drive, it is hard to believe that the band has a future or could one day come out into the open.
Still with more than 60 per cent of Saudi Arabia’s population under 25, many younger people are pressing for greater freedoms.
The four young women’s challenge is not meant as a provocation; they want to avoid the ire of Saudi police. For this reason their jam sessions are held in secret for fear of fundamentalists.
The band’s songs and their titles reflect their own self-censorship. Dina had thought for example of writing a song based on Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Last Supper’ but decided that doing so would be taking controversy too far in a country where churches are not allowed, and where Muslims who convert to Christianity can be executed in accordance with the apostasy law.
All four band members want to continue playing but shy away from smoking, drinking and drugs, the music scene’s traditional vices.
The young women’s dream is to play real concerts, perhaps in Dubai; get on a stage and pass on their emotions to the audience.
“It’s important for them to see what we’re capable of,” Dina said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Report Reveals Horrors of Violence Against Women
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, NOVEMBER 26 — A shocking one out of every three women in Turkey are subject to physical violence. This alarming data comes from the report ‘Violence against Women in Turkey’ prepared this year by academics Ayse Gul Altinay and Yesim Arat, as Turkish dailies report today. “Excuses for Domestic Violence in Turkey and Recommendations from Women Victims on How to Avoid Violence” is the title of another report issued by the Turkey’s Compassion Association of Konya to reveal the horrors of domestic violence against women. According to daily Today’s Zaman the report is the result of the association’s findings after speaking with the 9,000 women and girls who have fallen victim to domestic violence and sought shelter with the Compassion Association, which runs women’s and refugees’ shelters and works on behalf of oppressed peoples, since 1995. The report details the excuses Turkish men use for beating their wives: “The woman’s not wanting to engage in sexual activity; the woman’s gaining weight; her inability to bear children or not bearing a male child; the food shés cooked being too salty, burnt, cold or not according to the man’s tastes; not doing a good job ironing his clothing; being late in answering the door when hés come home and knocked; the woman’s getting ill or not getting better after getting ill and leaving the home without permission”. The report also lists some of the disturbing forms of domestic violence including the “striking of the face, eyes, head, chest, back and knees by punching, kicking, caning or using a belt”. Some further extremes include slinging caustic liquids such as acid at women’s faces, pouring boiling-hot water, tea or coffee on her, extinguishing cigarettes directly on women’s exposed skin and wounding women using knives. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Alarm Over Rape Cases Against Minors
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, NOVEMBER 21 — There are over 120 every week, a little under 20 each day — minors of both sexes who undergo examination by court-appointed doctors to ascertain whether they have been subjected to sexual violence. The alarm raised today by daily paper Milliyet refers to statements made by a Doctor Coskun Yorulmaz of the Faculty of Forensic Medicine of the University of Istanbul, according to whom: “these figures are just the tip of the iceberg. It’s a phenomenon of vaster proportions because the real numbers of minors subjected to sexual violence are much higher and even newly-borns are found to bear the marks of violence”. According to Yorulmaz, “70% of infant victims suffer, apart from physically, profound psychological stress due to the pressure under which they are often place by their families, out of a mistaken sense of pride or shame they force the children to keep the violence they have suffered secret”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Istanbul Hosts 30,000 Street Children, Survey
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, NOVEMBER 25 — Turkey hosts 30,891 homeless street children while 30,109 of them live in Istanbul, daily Today’s Zaman wrote, quoting a research by the Prime Ministry’s Human Rights Presidency (Bihb). The Bihb developped a map identifying street children and those forced to beg on the streets across Turkey. According to a report released by the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) in 2006, 50,000 street children were estimated to be living in Turkey, but more recent research on the topic puts this number below 50,000. Rehabilitation facilities for street children were also surveyed by the researchers. In addition to 94 orphanages, 92 rehabilitation centers serve 1,303 street children. “Research will be carried out every year until we find solutions for problems faced by street children”, Hasan Tahsin, Bihb president, said, stressing that “children’s rights have a crucial place in human rights and both the State and Ngòs should work more systematically on the issue”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Yemen: Clashes With Al Qaida Suspects, 7 Dead
(ANSAmed) — SANAA, NOVEMBER 20 — Seven people died in clashes yesterday between police and suspected mambers of Al Qaida in an area south of Yemen, said a source from the security services today. “Four police, two armed men and a civilian were killed in clashes yesterday morning between police and a group of Al Qaida supporters” said an anonymous source. The clashes occurred around a house in Joaar in the south of Yemen, where two armed men, followed by police, were barricaded. The security forces were looking for Sami Dyan, thought to be one of the most active men in Al Qaidàs terrorist network in Yemen. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
“Ethos” of the Mumbai Jihad on Chabad?
“Whenever a Jew is Killed it is for the Benefit of Islam.”
by Andrew Bostom
Hat tips to [2] Pamela Geller and [3] Bob Spencer regarding this [4] story about an apparently targeted attack on a Chabad House in Mumbai by the jihad terrorists wreaking carnage in that great Indian city.
This tragedy within a much larger tragedy reminded me of the Indian Sufi “inspiration” for The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism, Ahmad Sirhindi. Nearing completion of my first book compendium, The Legacy of Jihad, in early 2005, specifically the section about jihad on the Indian subcontinent, I came across a remarkable comment by the Indian Sufi theologian Sirhindi (d. 1624). Typical of the mainstream Muslim clerics of his era, Sirhindi was viscerally opposed to the reforms which characterized the latter ecumenical phase of Akbar’s 16th century reign (when Akbar became almost a Muslim-Hindu syncretist), particularly the abolition of the humiliating jizya (Koranic poll tax, as per Koran 9:29) upon the subjugated infidel Hindus. In the midst of an anti-Hindu tract Sirhindi wrote, motivated by Akbar’s pro-Hindu reforms, Sirhindi observes, “Whenever a Jew is killed, it is for the benefit of Islam.”
The biographical information I could glean about Sirhindi provided, among other things, no evidence he was ever in direct contact with Jews, so his very hateful remark suggested to me that the attitudes it reflected must have a theological basis in Islam—contra the prevailing, widely accepted “wisdom” that Islam, unlike Christianity was devoid of such theological Antisemitism…
| — Hat tip: Andy Bostom | [Return to headlines] |
Fight Against Terrorists “Almost Coming to End”: Police Commissioner
MUMBAI: The NSG’s fight against terrorists is “almost coming to an end” and the commandos were tonight locked in battle with the last batch of the ultras.
Mumbai Police Commissioner Hassan Gafoor said all hostages inside the Taj hotel have been evacuated but refused to comment on whether the terrorists inside the hotel have been killed.
Regarding terrorists holed up in the Oberoi hotel and Nariman House, Gafoor said NSG commandos are leading the operation and the situation will be brought under control soon.
Gafoor said least 12 terrorists had come to Mumbai from Gujarat.
One NSG commando seriously injured in Taj Hotel, says Mumbai Police Commissioner Hassan Gafoor.
At Oberoi, no gun shots or explosions were heard since late last night as the security forces launched room-to-room searches.
One NSG commando was seriously injured in Taj’s eighth floor during the operations, Commissioner of Police Hassan Gafoor told PTI.
“The operations at Taj and Oberoi are in the final stages,” he said.
Three terrorists, including a Pakistani national, were arrested by the security forces from the Taj hotel last night. The Pakistani national was identified as Ajmal Amir Kamal, a resident of Faridkot in Multan, officials said.
The suspected militants belong to Lashkar-e-Taiba, they said.
| [Return to headlines] |
Government to Pay for Attacks, PIME Missionary in Mumbai Says
With groups of terrorists holed up in two hotels TV stations are broadcasting non-stop news about the attack. For Fr Carlo Torriani “it appears that the attack came from outside the country,” adding that “people feel a great lack of security and these attacks will certainly play against the government.”
Mumbai (AsiaNews) — “Who orchestrated the attacks? What is their aim? A lot of guessing but it is still hard to understand .. . .,” said Fr Carlo Torriani, a PIME missionary in Mumbai. Speaking to AsiaNews, he said he heard about the attack at dawn, as the first lights appeared.
“I was going to church to say Mass when some of my parishioners came to tell what had happened over night. So we devoted the Mass to asking for harmony in the population,’ he said.
“In any case we are hounded in Orissa. There is Hindu terrorism and Islamic terrorism. The situation is tense. Just to give you an idea: the Shiv Sena, a local party, had called for a general strike to protest against the government of Maharasthtra for the torture inflicted on Hindus in prison.”
“As far as we know it appears that the attack came from outside the country,” the missionary explained. “The hospital, the central station, a Jewish centre, the Oberoi, the Taj Mahal . . . were hit.”
Newspapers and the government have mentioned seven locations hit during the night, but eyewitnesses have said that they saw gunfire and explosions in other places of the city.
The fact that the attacks were claimed by a hitherto unknown group, the Deccan Mujaheddin, leaves it open to interpretation as to motives and inspirers.
Some commentators see the terrorist actions as an attack against the ruling Congress Party.
“If as they say they [the attackers] are mujahideen; I don’t understand why they would undermine the authority of the Congress Party and favour the Bharatiya Janata Party, the party that supports extremist Hindu nationalism,” Father Torriani said.
“It is true that people feel a great lack of security and these attacks will certainly play against the government, because Congress will be accused of weakness and incapable of countering terrorism.”
With some groups of terrorists holed up in the two hotels, TV stations are broadcasting news non-stop.
“All other programmes have been cancelled. Schools are closed. A cricket match between India and England has been cancelled and the English team has gone home,” Father Torriani said.
There is talk that the number of wounded is close to 300 with about 100 dead, including six foreigners and 15 police officers, including the commander of the anti-terrorism unit and three members of an elite unit.
We must wait and see if we want to understand the situation.
“This morning they were saying that the terrorists came by sea, but an admiral said it is not certain that is the case,” the PIME missionary said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
India: Actress Hid in a Cupboard to Escape Mumbai Attack
Mumbai, 27 Nov. (AKI) — Australian actress Brooke Satchwell was forced to hide in a small storage cupboard as she and her boyfriend were caught in the lobby of a hotel during the violent attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai.
She told the Australian media that her boyfriend, David Gross, had cut his leg while escaping from Cafe Leopold as terrorists attacked. They were among a group of Australians, Americans and British trapped in the hotel in fear of their lives.
Satchwell said she hid inside a cupboard, about two metres by 1.5 metres.
“It was really terrifying,’’ she said.
“There were people getting shot in the corridor. There was someone dead outside the bathroom.’’
Hotel staff led people from the bathrooms, but Satchwell said they did not seem to know what to do.
“It was chaos, nobody really knew what was going on, I don’t think they knew where anybody was or what the plan was.’’
Gross said he could not get any assistance for his wound.
“I can’t even get my leg dressed, we can’t to the airport, that’s been bombed, we can’t go to the police centres, they’ve been bombed,’’ Gross said from a hotel room — which he asked not to be identified.
Gross, the son of prominent Sydney lawyer, Bernard Gross, was concerned information would alert the gunmen to their location.
“Neither the consulate in Mumbai or the Embassy in Delhi are answering their phones,’’ he said.
“Our local driver has said it’s too dangerous to drive on the roads, and if we do we’ll be sitting ducks, with nine of us in two small taxis trying to leave.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
India: British Hostages Unconfirmed Says Foreign Office
London and Mumbai, 27 Nov. (AKI) — The British government has failed to confirm whether any Britons were being held hostage by militants in two luxury hotels in India’s financial capital, Mumbai. Over 90 Indians and six foreigners were among the victims killed in a series of coordinated attacks across the city which injured 287 people, including seven British citizens.
“We have no confirmation of any British nationals being held hostage at this time. Mumbai has been reinforced with extra staff from the High Commission in Delhi,” British Foreign Office spokeswoman Lucy Torrington told Adnkronos International (AKI).
Two International Red Cross staff members are among a team due to arrive in Mumbai to give emotional support to those caught up in the violence, she said.
Police say several suspected terrorists have been killed and nine arrested over the deadly machine-gun and grenade attacks that mainly targeted Mumbai’s tourist and business districts.
Eyewitness reports suggested the attackers were singling out British and American passport holders at the luxury Taj Mahal Palace and Oberoi hotels.
Police said a number of hotels guests taken hostage at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel had been released. However, a siege was believed to be continuing on Thursday at the Oberoi Hotel, where at least one large explosion was reported to have been heard by witnesses.
A previously unknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahadeen has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but observers said it could be a hoax of an assumed name for another group.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
India: Jewish Centre Under Siege in Mumbai
New York, 27 Nov. (AKI) — A Jewish centre in the Indian city of Mumbai remained under siege on Thursday after devastating terrorist attacks rocked the Indian city.The Mumbai headquarters of the ultra-orthodox Jewish group, Chabad Lubavitch, was one of several sites — including two luxury hotels — targeted by militants in coordinated attacks late Wednesday.
In a statement released on the New York-based organisation’s website, the organisation said that three people, including the small son of Rabbi Gavriel and his wife, were released from Nariman House, the headquarters of Chabad Lubavitch.
But the fate of his parents was still unknown. They are believed to be still inside the building.
Israeli media reports said that three people were killed inside the building, including a couple and a 16-year-old youth.
Gavriel and his wife run the Jewish centre.
Armed men carried out co-ordinated attacks across the city, killing at least 101 people and injuring up to 300 others.
Chabad Lubavitch is one of the largest Hasidic movements in Orthodox Judaism. It promotes Judaism and provides daily Torah lectures and Jewish insights at centres around the world.
The Mumbai centre offers daily prayer services and Torah classes and is a popular meeting point for Israeli tourists in India.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
India: Bomb Blasts Heard in Hotel by Trapped Australian
Mumbai, 27 Nov. (AKI) — An Australian man trapped inside the Oberoi Hotel in the Indian city of Mumbai said he had heard several bomb blasts from his hotel room. Garrick Harvison, export manager with wine producer Yarraman Estate, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Thursday he was lying on the floor of his room and had barricaded his door in a bid to protect himself.
“There’s been quite a few bomb blasts, probably about five or six bomb blasts, which could mean anything,” he told the ABC.
Harvison told his colleagues in Australia he believed Indian security forces were storming the upper floors of the hotel in a bid to free trapped guests, but it was difficult to confirm what was happening there.
“Being locked in a room it’s hard to actually see anything so we’re really just sitting tight until we get further information,” he said.
Media reports said Indian commandos had freed ten guests from the hotel but up to 200 others remained trapped inside the Oberoi.
Speaking to Adnkronos International from Sydney, director of Yarraman Estate, Gary Blom, said Harvison had been trapped in his room for 15 hours with no food or water, but some soft drinks.
Thirty-three year-old Harvison, who is married with two children, was part of an Australian government-sponsored trade delegation visiting India in a bid to boost wine exports.
Blom, who had been in constant telephone contact with Harvison in his Mumbai hotel room, said his colleague had barricaded the door with his hotel bed after hearing a huge gun battle outside his room.
“He is distraught,” Blom told AKI. “There is a massive gun battle going on in the hotel.
“The trouble is not knowing what is going on.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Aceh Jobless Rate Climbs as Relief Projects Slow
Jakarta, 24 Nov. (AKI/Jakarta Post) — Unemployment in Indonesia’s Muslim-devout province of Aceh has risen this year as rebuilding efforts following the deadly tsunami that hit Aceh in late 2004 have slowed. A report commissioned by the World Bank and Bank Indonesia (BI) under the Multi-Donor Fund for Aceh and Nias scheme put the unemployment rate as of the second half of this year at over 9 percent, or close to the national rate.
Many jobs were created in the immediate aftermath of the disaster to serve the reconstruction effort, temporarily boosting employment, according to the deputy manager of the Multi-Donor Fund, Safriza Sofyan.
“With a gradual exit of reconstruction players, there might be upward pressure on unemployment as the reconstruction comes to an end,” said Sofyan in a recent statement.
“Significant investment in the private sector, especially in agriculture and manufacturing related to agriculture is necessary to reverse this trend,” Sofyan stated.
Aceh’s population stood at 3.97 million as of 2005, 2.06 million of whom were employed, according to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS).
Agriculture continues to be the largest employer in Aceh, absorbing more than 50 percent of the work force, the report said. Fishing (photo) is also an important sector, which like agriculture was badly damaged by the tsunami.
Nevertheless, the sector had been shedding workers since before the tsunami and the trend is likely to continue so as productivity increases and more people find employment in other sectors.
At the national level, 41 percent of workers are employed in the agriculture sector; well below Aceh’s percentage.
The report shows a significant increase in employment in the services and small industrial sectors, partly as a result of outside assistance for small and medium enterprises as part of the reconstruction effort.
The report says the high wages in the formal sector have constrained Aceh’s competitiveness and its ability to attract investment — an issue that has been frequently bemoaned by potential investors.
Analysts believe a high unemployment rate will threaten Aceh’s political stability. Former separatist rebels from the now disbanded Free Aceh Movement (GAM) will use the issue as ammunition to challenge the effectiveness of the landmark peace accord signed with the government in 2005, according to analysts.
This is because most of the former GAM fighters are not only unemployed but also live in worse conditions than their former leaders. The discord has been underlined by a recent string of armed robberies linked to the former militants.
The jobless rate is expected to continue to rise as economic growth in the region slows.
According to the report, Aceh’s preliminary gross domestic product for 2008 stood at 3.1 percent, far below the national growth rate of 6.9 percent.
The World Bank believes sectors linked to the reconstruction effort were showing low or negative growth rates, while other sectors, including agriculture and manufacturing, would need to compensate, although their current rate of expansion is insufficient to boost the economy.
Over the past few years, growth has mainly been fueled by the reconstruction effort and the availability of reconstruction funds.
Despite low growth, according to the World Bank, private consumption has been relatively unaffected as reflected by a large amount of funds being transferred to the province, as well as healthy vehicle sales and electricity consumption.
The agency also revealed inflation in Aceh had declined to below the national level for the first time since the tsunami.
The province’s inflation rate has been easing since peaking in December 2005. As of August, 2008, the year-on-year rate had reached 8.2 percent, below the national level of 11.9 percent.
“A reduction in inflation was expected, as demand from the reconstruction effort is slowing down and supply chains are being restored in the province”, said World Bank economist for Jakarta Enrique Blanco Armas.
The World Bank and BI forecast economic growth this year is likely to be lower than the 7.4 percent level recorded last year and 7.7 percent in 2006, while reconstruction projects will continue to help fuel the economy into next year
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Mumbai Attack: Pak Role Under Scrutiny
[…]
Other intelligence experts and websites also zeroed in on Pakistan’s role in the region. “There have been reports from credible sources for years that Pakistani intelligence has used terrorist groups to conduct war-by-proxy against traditional rival India. With the latest horrific attacks throughout Mumbai, evidence continues to accumulate that may add new substance to such reports,” the website Washington Examiner noted.
US officials and lawmakers refrained from naming Pakistan, but their condemnation of “Islamist terrorism” left little doubt where their anxieties lay. “It is often said that India and America have a natural bond as the two largest democracies. Today, we share a bond of a common enemy: what the 9/11 Commission identified as Islamist terrorism. Islamist ideology is spreading across South Asia, and must be stamped out,” California Congressman Ed Royce said.
What has added potency to the latest charges against Islamabad is the Bush administration’s own assessment — leaked to the US media — that Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI was linked to the bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul some weeks back that killed nearly 60 people including a much-admired Indian diplomat and a respected senior defense official.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Terrorists Did Recce, Set Up Control Rooms in Luxury Hotels
MUMBAI: Terrorists who struck Mumbai had set up advance “Control Rooms” in the luxury Taj and Trident Oberoi hotels which was also targeted and did
prior reconnaisance executing plans worked “over months”, Union Cabinet minister Kapil Sibal said on Thursday night.
Sibal said the unprecedented terror attack in the country’s financial capital was planned “over months” and the terrorists were not carrying AK-47 rifles but sophisticated weapons like MP-6.
“The terrorists have identified the targets earlier. Somebody had told them earlier. Enormous planning went into the incident. The terrorists were dropped by a mother ship and travelled in rubber boats which they docked (at Mumbai),” Sibal said.
Terrorists were not attacking people at random. It was a well though out plan, Sibal said.
They had targeted certain key police officers even when they were wearing vests and protective head gears, he said, adding the terrorists shot them dead within minutes of their arrival.
As security agencies pieced together various leads in the probe on India’s worst ever terror strike, there were reports that a likely marine arm of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba may have been involved in the well-planned attacks that left 125 people dead.
The Union Home Ministry said the terrorists chose the sea route and came to the city in boats before spreading out in the metropolis to carry out the sinister strike.
The assessment by the Centre as Mumbai continued to be under siege for the second day came amid reports that the leader of the armed terrorists involved in the attack was killed by his own men.
| — Hat tip: Paul Green | [Return to headlines] |
Terrorists’ Restless Leg Syndrome
After being captured fighting with Taliban forces against Americans in 2001, Abdullah Massoud was sent to Guantanamo, where the one-legged terrorist was fitted with a special prosthetic leg, at a cost of $50,000-$75,000 to the U.S. taxpayer. Under the Americans With Disabilities Act, Massoud would now be able to park his car bomb in a handicapped parking space!
No, you didn’t read that wrong, because the VA won’t pay for your new glasses. I said $75,000. I would have gone with hanging at sunrise, but what do I know?
Upon his release in March 2004, Massoud hippity-hopped back to Afghanistan and quickly resumed his war against the U.S. Aided by his new artificial leg, just months later, in October 2004, Massoud masterminded the kidnapping of two Chinese engineers in Pakistan working on the Gomal Zam Dam project.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Philippines: President Linked to Corruption Scandal
Manila, 24 Nov. (AKI) — The President of the Philippines, Gloria Arroyo, has been linked to a corruption scandal related to a multimillion dollar broadband deal with a Chinese corporation. The country’s former House Speaker and once close ally of President Arroyo, Jose De Venecia, has linked the head of state to the corruption scandal which is at the core of an ongoing impeachment complaint aimed at ousting her.
De Venecia said that although he was not present during the distribution of the money, he was later offered a bribe. The alleged bribe is linked to a controversial 329 million dollar national broadband network deal the government entered with China’s ZTE Corp.
Arroyo’s husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo was allegedly involved in the deal. The bribery allegations were made by Jose de Venecia III, the Speaker’s son, who had also bid for the project.
Analysts said that the competing interests of Arroyo’s husband and the Speaker’s son led to clashes between the two most powerful political dynasties in the country.
The deal was later cancelled by Arroyo, but De Venecia was ousted as speaker of the House last February.
He has since supported the impeachment complaint filed by his son and centred on the corruption allegations.
Last week, the House Committee on Justice deemed it ‘sufficient in form’. The current discussions are part of the process to assess if the complaint is also sufficient in ‘substance’, a prerequisite to move it forward to the plenary for voting.
The discussion is schedule to restart on Tuesday.
During Monday’s hearing, the former Speaker said that Arroyo asked him to support a weaker impeachment complaint, one that could be easily defeated in the House.
One third of the 238 members in the House of Representatives are required to approve impeachment proceedings against the president.
Arroyo has faced impeachment cases every year for the last four years. She has always emerged unscathed due to an overwhelming majority in the lower house of the Parliament.
De Venecia said Arroyo was behind the purported bribery of congressmen and governors that allegedly took place in October 2007.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Blames Israel for Somali Pirates
Columnists fear plan underway for ‘internationalization’ of security in Red Sea
Not only do columnists and analysts openly accuse Israel of sponsoring acts of piracy that multiply off Somali waters, but they also do not hide their fears of an internationalization of security in the Red Sea, where Israel plays a decisive role.
“What is happening in the Horn of Africa is not a simple case of piracy. These acts of piracy raise various questions about the capabilities and equipment of simple outlaws who are seeking ransoms,” wrote Tuesday (November 25) Nawaf Al-Meshal Sabhan in the Saudi daily Al-Iqtissadia.
“These acts triggered statements on the internationalization of the Red Sea, in which the enemy state of Israel would be a crucial element,” he adds…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
South Africa President’s Name on Anti-Israel Petition
The Presidency and the Jewish Board of Deputies have expressed dismay at the appearance of President Kgalema Motlanthe’s name on an advertisement decrying alleged “apartheid-style” brutality meted out by the Israeli government.
The advertisement, presented in the form of a petition, was first published in advance of the state of Israel’s 60th birthday in May. It was also signed by dozens of prominent South Africans in protest against Israel’s alleged “colonial oppression” of Palestinians and the incarceration, banishment, massacre and torture of political dissidents.
But the advertisement appeared in the South African press again this week — this time including Motlanthe’s name, in his capacity as “the President of the RSA”, raising immediate concerns about South Africa’s relations with Israel.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Russia and Venezuela Sign Nuclear Accord
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has signed a nuclear cooperation agreement with his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chávez. Russia will help Venezuela with the construction of a nuclear power plant.
During the next few days, the two leaders will visit Russian war ships which are holding joint military exercises with the Venezuelan navy. The Russian president is on a tour of Latin America. He also discussed military cooperation with his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The two also agreed to host a summit in Russia next year of four emerging nations: Brazil, Russia, India and China.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Foreigners, Go Home
Where hostility to migrants is most intense
ATTITUDES to immigration vary widely in Europe and America. According to a study of seven countries published by the German Marshall Fund, Italians are the most suspicious of migrants, with almost 70% of respondents to an opinion poll saying that the majority of those in their country are there illegally. At the other end of the scale, most Germans and Dutch thought that immigrants were there legally. However, when asked if immigration was a problem or an opportunity, more Germans saw as it as a problem (as did a big majority of Americans and Britons). In troubled economic times hostility to migrants may grow.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration: Spain Repatriates 62 Malian Illegals
(ANSAmed) — ROME, NOVEMBER 26 — 62 Malian citizens who gained illegal entrance to Spain were repatriated last night by plane. According to the AFP news agency, the illegal immigrants were delivered into the hands of civil protection services in Bamako. In October the Spanish authorities also expelled a group of 58 Malians from the country. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
‘Australia’ Movie Serves Up Typical PC Myths
For several decades now, the mass media has promoted the politically correct myth conception of the “noble savage.” This is the false idea that the non-European, pagan cultures and indigenous people in North and South America, Africa and Australia had an innate virtue and natural, peaceful simplicity prior to the arrival of hordes of Europeans who came and despoiled the land while killing thousands if not millions of people, including innocent women and children.
Of course, in promoting this heinous notion of history, the mass media usually cast white society, especially white Christian missionaries and political leaders, as the ultimate bad guys, who (the story goes) killed and plundered their way across the Caribbean, the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America, Peru, Australia, etc.
That’s exactly what happens in the new Hollywood epic “Australia,” which opened yesterday in many theaters around the world, not just in the United States and Canada…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Outrage Over Planned Parenthood Christmas ‘Gift’ Cards
Planned Parenthood, which in past years has promoted a “Choice on Earth” abortion campaigns during the Christmas season, has a new outreach, offering Christmas gift certificates to be used for abortions.
“It is difficult to think of a more tasteless, ghoulish thing to give anyone. I refuse to refer to these financial instruments as gifts as they are nothing more than a legal way to put a hit out on someone,” said a participant in a forum at the online Lone Star Times, where the plan was reported.
“Planned Parenthood, this generation’s King Herod, you know, the guy who ordered the mass slaughter of babies when Jesus was born,” added WND columnist Jill Stanek, who also documented the plan on her blog.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Freedom From Speech
The United Nations saw another shred of its tattered dignity stripped away November 24, when a committee of the General Assembly approved what amounts to a direct assault on Western liberal democracy. In an 85-50 vote, with 42 abstaining, the so-called Third Committee adopted a resolution, submitted by a caucus of Islamic nations, to criminalize expressions deemed to be “defamation of religion,” with special concern for Islam. All U.N. member states would be called on to amend their criminal codes accordingly. The measure’s next stop is the General Assembly, where it is expected to win handily, probably in December.
The U.N. is no stranger to assaults on decency and common sense. Indeed, the new ban on religious defamation is essentially a restatement of a measure approved by the General Assembly last year but barely noticed at the time.
What makes this year’s resolution different, and more dangerous, is that it is supposed to move on from the General Assembly to another forum, where it might acquire real teeth: the second World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, scheduled to convene next April in Geneva.
Many legal scholars believe that the decisions of international conferences of this sort can be incorporated into international law, putting them under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. Individual nations could not be forced to amend their laws, but they might find Interpol knocking at their doors, serving them extradition requests to hand over their cartoonists and novelists. Stand-up comics and philosophers might find they’re unable to cross international borders for fear of being arrested and remanded for trial in Jordan or Malaysia.
The Geneva conference is planned as a follow-up to the first world conference against racism, which took place in early September 2001 in Durban, South Africa. That meeting did some serious work, but it was memorably upstaged by a parallel gathering of nongovernmental activists, who staged a noisy show of anti-Israel and antisemitic speech-making, rallies and parades, all under U.N. auspices. And, of course, a week later, on September 11, 2001, all hell broke loose.
The years since then have not been kind to the spirit of reconciliation supposedly invoked at Durban…
| — Hat tip: JC | [Return to headlines] |
Lund Anti-Racists Plan to Stop the Nazis
Word has just arrived from Sweden about a counter-demonstration that is planned for Sunday November 30th — the anniversary of King Karl XII’s death — which is intended to block a demonstration by Swedish nationalists in the city of Lund.
It’s important to remember that in Sweden all forms of nationalism are conflated with Nazism, so that elite opinion consigns the Sweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna) to the same basket as the real Nazis and all the other nationalists and non-Socialists.
I have no idea which of these groups will be present in Lund on Sunday — you can’t tell the players without a scorecard, and I don’t have one — but here’s the translation of a flyer that has been distributed to residents of Lund. It presumably originated with AFA (Antifascistisk Aktion, or Antifa) and its affiliates, the folks who intend to oppose all those Nazis on Sunday:
STOP
the NAZI DEMONSTRATION!MOVABLE ANTI-RACIST BLOCKADE 30th NOVEMBER
RALLYING AT 14:30
Lund Railway StationInformational meeting
Monday 24 at 19:30
the Småland’s Students’ ClubWe want you and your friends, working comrades, and family to join us in a blockade of the planned Nazi demonstration the 30th of November in Lund. We will never stand silently and just look. United we will block their way, showing them that they will never operate freely in our city.
Lund’s citizens against racism
Here’s a photo of the site of the expected confrontation:
And this report comes from Sydsvenskan:
– – – – – – – – –
Counter-demonstration planned Nov. 30
Antiracists are going to try to prevent the nationalists from entering the Lund Centrum on Sunday. The 30-Nov association’s chairman Lars Hulthén is going to speak, but says he does not really know to whom he is going to speak.
LUND. Because of the nationalists have sought a demonstration permit in Lund on November 30, the Organization “Lund citizens against racism” last night held a briefing at Småland’s Student Club. Fifty people attended to hear about the plans for a counter-demonstration.
“The goal is to get several hundred people who stand in the way of the Nazis so that the police will have to bus them away. They will not be able to enter the Lund Centrum,” said the meeting chairman Malin, who did not want to disclose her last name.
[…]
On the site nordisk.nu, a gathering place for Nazis, nationalists and right-wing extremists, advice is given on how the blockade should be avoided. Nationalists are invited to come to Lund ahead of time on Saturday, or attempt to travel there by car and seek police protection if there are counter-demonstrators nearby.
It is unclear exactly which organizations are supporting the demonstration. According to “Lund Citizens against racism”, it is the “Free Nationalists of Scania” that was formed by members of the Nazi organizations “Activism Öresund” and “Helsingborg Campaign”. The call for the demonstration it is by the “nationalistic”. Kristoffer Dahlström, who applied for a demonstration permit; he has a background in the “National Democrats”.
A Swedish reader supplies some background on Karl II and the November 30th celebrations:
The Karl XII celebration in Lund has a long history. The celebration of his death was held annually (with some interruptions) on November 30 from 1853 until 1991.
Karl XII has a special place among Swedish kings with regard to his relationship with the city of Lund; namely, the king resided in the city during 1716-18, which actually made it to the capital of Sweden during these years.
In 1853 the future professor of aesthetics Gustaf Ljunggren, then chairman of the Academic Society’s social committee and a general driving force in the student world, proposed that the memory of Karl XII’s death should be celebrated in Lund.
The proposal was adopted and during the 1800s, and it was celebrated with ‘fine’ speeches at the Academic Society and then students marched in torchlight down to the Cathedral School, singing “Viken, tidens flyktiga minnen” by Geijer and the poem “Karl XII” (“Kung Carl den unga hjälte” = King Carolus the young hero) by Esaias Tegner.
Among the ceremonial speakers you can find that century’s prominent names, such as Albert Lysander and Martin Weibull.
Eventually it was decided that the procession should be held only if at least 150 student union members had declared their intention to participate. Although the total student number at this time amounted to only about 600 (today up to 10,000!), the minimum was always reached. Also, from 1873 the city of Lund’s non-academic citizens were invited to participate in the procession.
The torchlight procession continued through the years with a break around the First World War, but then the Student Union took exception and did not want to participate.
The “30-November Association” consisted of national and right-wing groups at the University.
Lars Hulthén became chairman during the 1960s.
During the 1970s counterdemonstrations started to take off.
At the end of the 1980s a growing number of neo-Nazi elements, Heil Hitler greetings, swastikas and anti-Semitic slogans were introduced. Skinheads formed an increasing part of the small torch-procession, and there was a huge police presence with blockade-containers, helicopters, road-blockings of Lundagård and an almost military presence. Lund resembled a city under siege at that time.
On Nov 30 1991, in connection with the neo-Nazi offensive in Sweden, a broad anti-racism coalition decided to stop the march. There was a big blockade on the Big Southstreet to hinder the torch-procession, and barricades all over the central city and “traveling BZ” (AFA scum-of-the-earth) activists from Denmark. Central Lund was a battlefield!
The police gave in and the torch-procession was stopped.
This was effectively the end the Karl XII celebrations
Now they say ‘30/11’ counts as an anti-racist red-letter day in Lund.
Since then, no disturbances have been reported.
Ten years later, on the site of what happened in 1991, a monument was placed with the inscription “Here racism was stopped 1991-30-11”.
For those who want to delve into even more detail, here’s additional information from Anna-Lena Lodenius on her blog:
Reawakening of the 30th of November in Lund
In recent years there has been calm in Lund on November 30, Karl XII’s death-day. Which many surely have been grateful for, remembering the annual riots on this date in the early 1990s. But now the Free Nationalists of Scania are planning to shake life into the celebration again. I note that the Liberal Nationalists had invited Marc Abramsson, leader of the National Democrats, as a speaker at the meeting launching the event.
The National Democrats take another step closer to the national movement, says Robert Boström, a Sweden Democrat in Örebro, on his blog. ND has also been a longtime participant in the annual Salem Demonstration alongside, among others, “Info14” and the Swedish Resistance Movement. Now all that is missing is that they also turn up at the People’s March in conjunction with the National Day, writes Boström. Free Nationalists Scania is part of the nationwide network of Free Nationalists. The Skåne branch of this network was formed in early November (see ‘Info 14’).
The November 30 celebration this year is supposed to be the biggest since the early 1990’s when the tradition petered out much because of the fracas with Danish BZ and other activists who sabotaged the parades. The return to tradition was apparently supposed to be accompanied by Lars Hulthén, an old celebrity in this context who used to waltz around in the media in his capacity of chairman for 30 November Association of Lund… Despite repeated questions, Hulthén could never point out any single major characteristic of Karl XII, except that he lived in Lund, which he happened to do during the short span of years 1715-1718, which may not be the first thing people think of when they hear of Karl XII.
There are a lot of things you can say about Karl XII. Something I never understood is why nationalists celebrate the ruler responsible for the collapse of the giant Swedish empire. On the other hand, celebrating the fact of his death — does anyone even know when his birthday was?
Stay tuned. We’ll see what happens in Lund on Sunday.
Fjordman: The History of Medicine and the History of the Calendar
Fjordman has two new essays, and below are some excerpts. First, at Europe News, A History of Medicine, Part 5:
The canning of food was invented in the early 1800s by a French confectioner named Nicolas Appert (1749-1841). He placed food in champagne bottles, corked them loosely, immersed them in boiling water and hammered the corks tight. This practice preserved the food for extended periods, but neither he nor his emulators who later perfected the preservation of food in tin-plated canisters knew why this technique worked; it’s a textbook case of an applied technology without any theoretical basis. Louis Pasteur knew of Appert’s work, but his scientific methods and careful experiments succeeded in convincing many skeptics. The optimal temperatures for the preservation of various foods with minimal damage to flavor were worked out by two scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the USA, Samuel Prescott (1872—1962) and William Lyman Underwood (1864—1929) in 1895-96. Their work represented a milestone in the development of food technology and food science. Appert’s method of cooking the food to a temperature far in excess of what is used in pasteurization can easily destroy some of the flavor.
And at Atlas Shrugs, The History of the Calendar:
– – – – – – – – –
Writers praising the science of ancient Egypt will often start with the pyramids. There are dozens of pyramids, indeed more than one hundred in Egypt alone. The earliest is the so-called Step Pyramid at Saqqara, designed by the polymath Imhotep for Pharaoh Djoser (reign ca. 2630—2611 BC), but the most famous examples are the ones at Giza outside the city of Cairo, the pyramids of Khafre, Menkaure and the Great Pyramid of Khufu. The pyramid of Pharaoh Khufu (Cheops in Greek) was the tallest man-made structure in the world for almost four thousand years, until Lincoln Cathedral was completed in England around 1300 AD. The Great Pyramid is visually impressive, to be sure, but it’s a stunt and represents more of a triumph for organization than for science. Contrary to popular belief, the ancient Egyptians were not too sophisticated in mathematics compared to their contemporaries in Mesopotamia. Their most lasting achievement lay in the medical sciences. Since these were continued by the ancient Greeks, it is possible to claim that the Western medical tradition begins with the Egyptian medical tradition. Among the Egyptian mathematical achievements, by far the most influential was their solar calendar, which, admittedly with many later modifications, formed the basis for the Gregorian calendar which is used internationally today.
More on both will be found at Europe News and Atlas Shrugs.
Susanne Winter Loses Her Parliamentary Immunity
Austria has given Susanne Winter the Frank Vanhecke treatment.
As you may recall, Ms. Winter is a member of the FPÖ party in Austria who got herself into hot water by speaking negatively about Muslim immigrants and describing Mohammed as a child molester. This was too much for the Austrian political establishment, and the National Assembly moved to lift her parliamentary immunity, just as was done to Frank Vanhecke in Belgium.
Here’s what Die Presse said on Tuesday, the day before her case was decided (as translated by our Flemish correspondent VH):
Winter “welcomes the lifting of immunity”
The Immunity Committee of the National Assembly is expected to decide today on the handing over of the MPs Susanne Winter (FPÖ) and Peter Westenthaler (BZÖ) to the judiciary.
The Immunity Committee of the National Council will decide Tuesday whether immunity will be lifted from two parliamentary members, the FPÖ representative Susanne Winter, and former BZÖ leader Peter Westenthaler. It is expected that the committee will decide to hand them over to the judiciary.
[…]
Winter is to be sued over Islamophobic statements and because of citing hatred and vilifying religious teachings. She had said at an election event in Graz that the Islamic prophet Muhammad would be by today’s standards a child abuser, because he married a six year old.
Winter speaks of “political hatred”
The FPÖ representative said on Tuesday that she would welcome the lifting of immunity. “Only through the considerations of an independent court a clarification can be obtained on the issue,” Winter said in a broadcast. After all, their cause is clearly based on “political hatred by confused, self-proclaimed thought-guards.”
The Immunity Committee, as expected, voted yesterday to lift Ms. Winter’s immunity and leave her open to prosecution. Our Austrian correspondent ESW sends this report:
– – – – – – – – –
Last January Susanne Winter, the infamous local FPÖ politician, now a member of parliament, declared that:
“In today’s system” the Prophet Muhammad would be considered a “child molester,” apparently referring to his marriage to a six-year-old child. She also said that it is time for Islam to be “thrown back where it came from, behind the Mediterranean.”
She was heavily attacked and denounced for these — true — words. Muslims in Austria were outraged, Muslims outside Austria resorted to the usual reaction: death threats. Her own political party deserted her.
Winter was quickly indicted on charges of incitement and degradation of religious symbols and religious agitation, an offense which carries a maximum sentence of two years. In the meantime she has won a seat in parliament. Still, no official reaction from her party.
Yesterday, Winter’s parliamentary immunity was lifted a unanimous vote in the immunity committee of the Austrian parliament, meaning that members of FPÖ also voted for Winter’s immunity to be lifted. She will now be prosecuted for anti-Islam remarks she made during a provincial election campaign in January.
Winter said that she would welcome the lifting of her immunity since only court proceedings would enable her to clear her name. She called the imposition of charges against her an exercise in “political hatred by crazy, self-proclaimed thought-police.” It could not be, she added, that a person could be tried for expression of opinion in a democracy. There could be no political persecution in a country where the rule of law prevailed, she said, since such persecution could occur only in a “dictatorship of conscience.”
I asked an FPÖ parliamentary employee why the FPÖ would vote in favor of lifting Winter’s immunity, and thus acting against a party member. “Because it is considered a custom in (Austrian) parliamentarism.” However, there are underlying reasons for this decision, it was insinuated.
I proceeded to explain to this young man the significance of a potential sentence: If Winter is convicted on charges of blasphemy and degradation of a religious symbols, it would mean the complete loss of freedom of speech in Austria and another victory in the international jihad against free speech currently aggressively waged by Muslims (see Robert Spencer’s latest book Stealth Jihad for more).
Winter’s conviction would also mean that I or other counterjihadists would face charges similar to Winter’s and it would set a terrible legal precedent. This must not happen under any circumstances, which is why I am currently urging the FPÖ to carefully prepare arguments for Winter’s trial.
This could even help FPÖ gain acceptance if one battle against legal jihad is won here in Austria. Currently, no one in FPÖ is aware of the significance of the trial’s outcome. Be assured that members of the Austrian Counterjihad are working hard to convince the FPÖ of this significance. Our very freedom depends on Winter not losing. If she loses, we are all lost.
Giving Thanks
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Today is Thanksgiving Day here in the USA, so I’d like to take the time to thank everyone who makes this blog possible. As I have said before, Gates of Vienna is a group endeavor, and every year the job of acknowledging people becomes a longer task. This morning it took me almost four hours to compile the list below.
Like the Pilgrims, I’ll begin by thanking God, Whose help I couldn’t do without.
Next comes my wife and co-blogger: thank you, Dymphna!
We are extremely grateful to our donors, who help meet the cost of blogging and keep this site ad-free. You all know who you are.
A big thank-you goes out to our fellow bloggers, the members of the 910 Group, CVF, and Vigilant Freedom Europa, and all the other people who help keep the information flowing. A special thanks to Larwyn for her invaluable contribution.
Two of our most tireless workhorses are credited in several categories below, but I want to give them a separate thank-you here. Our Danish correspondent TB and our Flemish correspondent VH perform enormous services for this blog, supplying many valuable tips and translating copiously from multiple languages. They don’t always get prominent bylines in the posts, but this blog would not be what it is without them. Thanks, guys — you are the best.
Everyone else needs to be itemized. Your name may appear in multiple places!
Thanks to our contributors:
Conservative Swede, El Inglés, Fjordman, Henrik Ræder Clausen, Paul Weston, and Zenster.
Thanks to our correspondents:
AMDG, Bart Debie, Carpenter, Czech Infidel, ESW, Exile, Gaia, H. Numan, Henrik W, HL, Ioshkafutz, Jussi Halla-aho, Kepiblanc, Lars Hedegaard, Lexington, LN, Lugundum, Marian CZ, Michiel Mans, Nidra Poller, ProFlandria, Reinhard, Robert Marchenoir, Rolf Krake, Sagunto, Steen, TB, Ted Ekeroth, The Observer, Vasarahammer, VH, Yorkshire Miner, Ypp, and Zonka.
Thanks to our translators:
– – – – – – – – –
- Arabic: LL
- Bulgarian: ZN
- Croatian: Croat555
- Czech: Czech Infidel, Lugundum, Marian CZ
- Danish: Henrik Ræder Clausen, Kepiblanc, TB, Zonka
- Dutch: H. Numan, Michiel Mans, ProFlandria, VH, Yorkshire Miner
- Finnish: Jussi Halla-aho, KGS, Vasarahammer
- French: Bivouac ID, François, Nidra Poller, Robert Marchenoir
- German: ESW, PI, Skjoldungen, TC, VH
- Indonesian: AT
- Italian: Gaia, Ioshkafutz
- Norwegian: Fjordman, HTP, Jens, Skjoldungen, TB
- Polish: JR, Peter
- Portuguese: Afonso Henriques, MJF
- Romanian: Armance, Cobra
- Russian: Peter1
- Serbian: Witch-King of Angmar
- Slovenian: 7of3
- Spanish: Alma, AMDG, Lady Vorzheva, MF
- Swedish: BN, Carpenter, HW, HL, LN, Skjoldungen, TB
- Tagalog: UC
Thanks to our tipsters:
AA, Abu Elvis, acorcoran, Aeneas, AMDG, Andy Bostom, Anon, Archonix, BJM, Boudica, BP, C. Cantoni, Cimmerian, CIS, CK, Conservative Swede, Contadina, CSP, CzC, Darrin, DB, DC, Diana West, DJ, DS, El Inglés, ElGuapo, EM, Erick Stakelbeck, ERR, ESW, Fausta, Fjordman, flyboy, Folly, François, Frontinus, Gaia, GC, GD, Henrik Ræder Clausen, heroyalwhyness, Holger Danske, Insubria, Islam in Action, JB, JD, JEH, Jewish Odysseus, JF, JKD, JS, Jungle Jim, Kahane loyalist, Kepiblanc, KGS, knldgskr, Larwyn, latté island, Lawrence Auster, Lexington, LN, LS, Lugundum, Marathon Pundit, Mark Krikorian, MB, MF, Natalie, NB, Nilk, no2liberals, Paul Belien, Paul Green, PB, PL, Prairie Pundit, Pundita, Queen, RB, RE, RO, Rolf Krake, RP, SC, SIOE Sverige, Skjoldungen, spackle, Srdja Trifkovic, Steen, TB, The Observer, Tom, TC, Trouthunter, Tuan Jim, turn, TV, VH, Vlad Tepes, Wally Ballou, Yaacov Ben Moshe, Yorkshire Miner, Zenster, Zonka, and ZZMike.
Many people who help us out have chosen to remain entirely anonymous. They are like the altar on the Areopagus, and I will acknowledge them in Pauline fashion as the Unknown Correspondents, Translators, and Tipsters.
Inevitably, I will have left somebody out of the above lists. If you were neglected and want to be credited, send me an email or complain in the comments, and I’ll do updates accordingly.
Now it’s time to go eat some turkey and maize. Or possum and grits. Or tofu and sorghum. Or whatever it is that pilgrim bloggers eat.
Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!
Update: Added Armance as a Romanian translator. Thank you, Armance! Sorry I forgot you.
Gates of Vienna News Feed 11/26/2008
There has been a spot of trouble in Egypt recently with the Coptic (Christian) minority — it seems these uppity infidels tried to build a church. The nerve!
I’ll blog on the story if I get a chance. In the meantime, there are several articles in the North Africa section about the Copts.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, TB, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
– – – – – – – – –
Orders From New President to Spark Lawsuit Every Time
A lawyer who is playing a key role in a California lawsuit urging officials to prevent the state’s 55 Electoral College votes from being recorded for Barack Obama until questions about his citizenship are resolved says he’s organizing plans to challenge, even after the inauguration, every order, every proposal, every piece of paperwork generated by Obama.
“We will file lawsuits on his actions, every time. As long as we have money , we will keep filing lawsuits until we get a decision as to his citizenship status,” Gary Kreep, chief of the United States Justice Foundation, told WND today.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Our Idol-Elect
Note: Lyle H. Rossiter Jr., M.D., is a forensic psychiatrist and author of “The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness.”
Charismatic, brilliant, mesmerizing. These and other glowing attributions have been assigned to President-elect Barack Obama in a wave of electoral celebration. As he bounds up steps and strides across platforms to roars of approval, tears of joy on ecstatic faces, even swoons, greet his eminence. A harsh political critic, formerly intent on altering his anatomy, now weeps in his presence. A woman widely known for her wisdom dubs him “The One.” The Phenomenon himself modestly declares: “We are the ones we have been waiting for,” though he really means “I am The One you have been waiting for.” With his dazzling debut on the world’s political stage, even foreigners have suspended their fashionable contempt for all things American. Millions now acknowledge a new Idol.
Of course, there is nothing new about the human tendency to create idealized personas, especially in politics. In fact, idealizing others is part of normal human development. The toddler-age child believes his mother is the most wonderful person in the world. Overlooking her flaws, he expects her to protect him (even if she doesn’t), to meet all his needs and desires (even if she doesn’t) and to relieve his pain (even if she doesn’t). By age 4 or 5, his bond with her will include something akin to worship. In those same preschool years, he will likely idealize his father for real or imagined powers, again, with something akin to worship.
By their late grade school years, children idealize rock stars and sports heroes. “Overestimation of the object,” as we psychiatrists sometimes call it, is surely present when we fall in love: the newly struck lover invariably idealizes his beloved. In our adult spiritual lives, our reverence for the deity is defined in part by its inherent idealism and by our expectations of salvation. In the normal course of development, we idealize certain ethical and moral principles, and at the core of our patriotism lies a deep reverence for the political ideals that define our country. Idealizing is in our genes.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Cash to Name Kids After Mussolini
Population incentive by small, rightwing party in south
(ANSA) — Potenza, November 24 — A small, far right Italian political party is offering a 1,500-euro cash incentive to parents here in southern Italy to name their children after Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini or his wife Rachele.
The Movimento Sociale-Fiamma Tricolore (MS-FT) said the offer was open to residents in five municipalities in the region of Potenza, where the population is in the low hundreds, who give birth in 2009.
The 1,500 euros will be given on the condition that, aside from naming the boys Benito and girls Rachele, the money be used to buy cribs, clothes, food or other products specifically made for newborns.
According to the regional head of the MS-FT, Vicenzo Mancusi, the initiative ‘‘does not resolve the problem of the region’s declining population, but it is a small attempt by a small party’’.
Mancusi added that the Basilicata region ‘‘could do a lot more and give 1,500 euros a year to all children born in the region until they reach 18 years of age, after which they would receive a bonus of 50,000 euros’’.
This could be paid for, he explained, from the license fees collected for drilling rights in this relatively oil-rich area of Italy.
The right-wing politician claimed that the choice of the names Benito and Rachele for the newborns set to receive the cash was ‘‘purely casual. They’re nice names’’. The small party’s name is a reference to the post-war Movimento Sociale Italiana (Italian Social Movement) neofascist party — which in turn was named after Mussolini’s Repubblica Sociale Italiana, created with Nazi support in northern Italy after he was toppled from power during World War II.
Fiamma Tricolore refers to the party’s symbol of the green, white and red flame representing the Italian flag’s colors.
The towns where the incentives will be available are: Calvera, Carbone, Cersosimo, Fardella and San Paolo Albanese.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Naughty Ministers Get Tongue-Lashing From PM
The prime minister used a party group meeting as an opportunity to scold the integration, social welfare and tax ministers
Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen did not hide his disappointment Tuesday with the recent bickerings and loose comments that have come from certain ministers in his own Liberal Party.
At a party meeting, Rasmussen made it clear that the waves being created by the ministers within the party would not be tolerated.
His strongest words were reserved for Birthe Rønn Hornbech, the integration minister, and Karen Jespersen, the social welfare minister. The two have been involved in their own soap opera over their disagreements about the government’s stricter laws pertaining to Muslim extremism.
In particular, Rasmussen criticised Hornbech’s comments to Politiken newspaper that she regretted signing off on the deportation of two Tunisians suspected of plotting to kill Mohammed cartoonist Kurt Westergaard.
‘These comments have created an indefensible uncertainty about the decision the integration minister herself had made,’ said Rasmussen. ‘I have since had a talk with her and I can tell you that that uncertainty is no longer present.’
The PM also said he spoke to Jespersen, telling both her and Hornbech that the party functions collectively and not according to individual opinions. But Hornbech has been guilty of several political gaffes in recent months, and Rasmussen made it clear that this was probably the last chance she would get to keep her post.
Another minister that received a reprimand from the prime minister was Kristian Jensen, the tax minister. Jensen had indicated that no party had a veto right for the proposed tax reform plan.
Rasmussen believes the Danish People’s Party has that right as per its participation in the last tax agreement.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: PM’s Fatwa Keeps Minister Silent
Integration Minister Birther Rønn Hornbech is keeping mum about her reactions to a telling-off from the prime minister.
Integration MInister Birthe Rønn Hornbech is keeping a demonstrative silence regarding her reactions to Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen’s three-line whip on differences within the Liberal Party and government.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
German Auto Industry Facing the Abyss
‘Worst Crisis Since World War II’
More than 1.5 million workers in Germany depend on the automobile industry for their jobs. But that industry is now facing one of its worst crises ever. Respected giants BMW and Mercedes are particularly exposed as sales plummet.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Outcry Over Swedish ‘Slander’
The Italian Ambassador to Sweden has slammed a petition raised this week by a Swedish member of parliament in support of high profile Italian author Roberto Saviano.
forced to flee the country by officials.
Roberto Saviano is in Stockholm to promote the film Gomorrah, which is being shown in Sweden for the first time on Wednesday night at the Stockholm Film Festival.
The film is based on Saviano’s book of the same name. Since writing Gomorrah, Saviano has received death threats from the Camorra — or Mafia — in Naples, which has forced him into hiding and left him needing round the clock police protection.
Liberal Party member of parliament Cecilia Wikström presented a list of names from the Swedish Parliament to the ambassador on Monday.
Speaking to The Local on Wednesday, the Italian Ambassador explained that she had “nothing against the appeal itself. I am an admirer of Saviano and want to safeguard his wellbeing”.
In her appeal for signatures, Wikström wrote:
“Sweden was one of the first countries in the world to enshrine freedom of speech in its constitution. Consequently, we have a duty to stand up for this freedom and show the world, and in this case Italy in particular, that freedom of speech is a basic and inviolable human right. Italy must now take responsibility and protect those individuals who are courageous enough to make use of this fundamental freedom.”
“This implies something which is terribly slanderous to Italy and it is my duty to reply,” Della Croce Brigante Colonna told The Local.
In a letter addressed to Per Westerberg, the Speaker of the Swedish Parliament, the Ambassador stated that the comments from Wikström were “totally unwarranted, particularly where it assumes that Italy does not recognize the freedom of speech.
“Mr. Saviano’s activity and publications against criminal organizations in the Naples region are in fact daily debated both on the national press and in the TV media”.
Della Croce Brigante Colonna went on to explain how the high level of security awarded to the author, “testify to the commitment of the Italian State to protect Mr. Saviano’s right to speak freely, and to the recognition of his contribution to the fight against organized crime”.
The letter concluded: “Far from restraining the freedom of expression, Italy has constantly shared this value, which is enshrined in the Constitution and in the laws”.
Speaking to The Local, Della Croce Brigante Colonna said that despite sending the letter to Wikström and having a meeting with the member of parliament to discuss the situation, Wikström proceeded with the petition in its original form.
“I was very surprised that even after my remarks, Wikström still went ahead with the petition. She told me that although she agreed that some of the comments could be misread, it was a political issue and she needed to go ahead with her plans to create a petition”.
“I have a feeling that if those in parliament had truly realized what they were signing, then maybe they would not have done so,” said the Ambassador.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Immigrants Field List in Northern City’s Polls
Padua, 25 Nov. (AKI) — Immigrants in the northern Italian city of Padua are for the first time fielding a list of candidates for the local elections next June. It will be called the Autonomous Immigrant List for Freedom and will be aligned with the conservative centre-right. The list’s candidate for mayor is expected to be an Egyptian-born TV presenter, 52-year-old Mohammed Ahmed, who has lived in Italy for over 40 years.
Ahmed has said he would be “honoured” if the list selects him to run for mayor. He presents a special programme for immigrants for local TV channels ‘La8’ and ‘La9’ in Padua and and is due to present a forthcoming Arabic-language TV news bulletin.
Earlier this year, Ahmed chaired Italy’s first ‘multi-ethnic’ roundtable.
“We believe Ahmed is an ideal candidate for mayor,” said Romanian doctor, Dimitru Ilinca.
“The purpose of our list is to be represented thanks to citizens’ votes, not the written consent of some political party,” Ilinca added.
Padua’s Romanian community contains over 7,000 potential electors. “Currently, only hundred people have registered to vote, but a major registration drive will begin next month that will definitely increase this number,” Ilinca said.
Italy’s centre-left opposition Democratic Party has created a branch for Romanian residents in Padua.
Romanian branches of Italy’s ruling conservative People of Freedom party exist in the northern cities of Milan and Udine and in the central cities of Prato and Rome. Branches are also planned in other Italian cities.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: CDA Think-Tank Wants Drastic Measures Against ‘Imported Brides’
THE HAGUE, 26/11/08 — The Christian democratic (CDA) party’s Scientific Institute wants a ban on weddings between nephews and nieces. Marriage partners must also be able to speak either Dutch or English if they want to come to the Netherlands from outside the EU, and must have a vocational education diploma, according to the CDA think-tank.
The think-tank makes a series of proposals in recommendations to the party to reduce the inflow of imported brides and bridegrooms. If all proposals were adopted, immigration from Turkey and Morocco would practically come to a standstill.
A substantial portion of marriages between Turks and between Moroccans are between nephews and nieces, which should be banned on grounds of public health concerns, says the think-tank. Additionally, marriage immigrants should only be allowed to come and live in the Netherlands if they have at minimum a vocational education diploma in their own country and can speak and write in Dutch or English.
Many immigrants from Turkey and Morocco are illiterates from mountain villages. Some marriage partners taking integration courses upon arrival in the Netherlands “need three to four months only to learn how to hold a pencil,” said a spokeswoman for the think-tank.
The CDA think-tank also considers residence permits should only be granted after passing an integration exam and if immigrants can stand on their own feet financially. As well, the institute suggests banning the import of a new marriage partner from abroad by persons who previously had a marriage partner come over and have divorced.
Further, the so-called Belgian route must be closed. This is when non-EU partners are first stationed by the family for a few months in Belgium, where more lenient rules apply, and then easily cross into the Netherlands.
Finally, existing Dutch requirements must be more clearly anchored in the law, so that judges cannot torpedo them. Thus, a district court in Amsterdam ruled this summer that imported brides and bridegrooms are not required to pass a test on the Dutch language and culture in their country of origin. A district court in Roermond also recently ruled that Dutch nationals who want to have their foreign partner come to the Netherlands to form a family do not have to earn 120 percent of the minimum wage. The State has appeal cases underway against both verdicts.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Coalition Wants 10 Million for Religious Lessons
THE HAGUE, 26/11/08 — The Christian democrats (CDA), Labour (PvdA) and small Christian party ChristenUnie want their cabinet to earmark 10 million euros annually for religious education at public schools.
The coalition parties will put forward an amendment in the debate on the Education budget in mid-December, said CDA MP Van Dijk yesterday. The 10 million euros will go to mosques, synagogues, churches or the Humanist Union, which will supply guest teachers to give religious lessons on their behalf at non-denominational schools. The government will impose quality requirements on the teachers, according to Van Dijk. “But we must also pay them decently.”
CDA and ChristenUnie have the support of PvdA MP Kraneveldt. Education State Secretary Dijksma formally still has to be convinced. Last year, the coalition earmarked a one-off amount of 2.7 million euros for the same aim. That money was intended for the startup of the project.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Burqa Ban Extended to Universities
Face-covering Islamic robes known as burqas and niqabs are to be banned from Holland’s colleges and universities, education minister Ronald Plasterk said on Wednesday.
In September, Plasterk (Labour) said the ban will only apply to primary and secondary schools. Higher educational institutions would be able to take their own decisions because they work with adults, he said at the time.
But now the minister has agreed to parliament’s wishes to extend the ban to higher education.
‘You must guarantee open communication… and be able to look one another in the eye. That also applies to higher education,’ Labour MP Margot Kraneveldt is reported as saying.
‘Absurd’
Only one or two female students are thought to actually cover their faces while attending classes. An estimated 100 women in the Netherlands wear the all-encompassing Islamic garment.
‘The burqa and niqab are absurd, women-unfriendly and get in the way of integration,’ Plasterk is quoted as saying by website nu.nl on Wednesday.
Announcing plans to ban burqas in schools in September, the minister said that teachers, parents and all visitors to schools, including suppliers making deliveries, will fall under the ban. Private Islamic schools will also have to comply.
In February the cabinet said it would not bring in a general ban on burkas but did announce plans to forbid government civil servants from wearing them. At the time it said it expected local authorities to follow suit and extend the ban to council buildings and public transport.
Health minister Ab Klink is also looking at extending the ban to cover hospitals and healthcare staff.
The new legislation is expected to be ready by mid-2009.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Barcelona Opens First Marine Consulate in Shanghai
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, NOVEMBER 11 — The Mayor of Barcelona, Jordi Hereu, yesterday inaugurated the ‘Consulate of the Sea’ in Shanghai, the first consulate aimed at promoting the Catalan capital economically, as part of a network of twenty offices which it intends to open worldwide by 2011. Speaking to Ansamed, sources inside the Council revealed that the ‘Consulates of the Sea’ are inspired by the foreign delegations opened by the Catalan city during the Middle Ages. The opening of these offices of economic promotion, reports daily paper ABC today, are a “condition laid down by Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya”, the radical independence grouping, “for it to vote for the council’s 2008 budget, which includes an item of 1.5 million euro for boosting its Consolates”. On his trip to Shanghai, reports Europa Press, Hereu was accompanied by forty or so Catalan entrepreneurs and Chinese resident in Catatonia, as well as by representatives of its Chamber of Commerce of the Port and of Barcelonàs Tourism Office. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Agency Ripped for Killing a Terrorist
LONDON — Agents for Britain’s MI6 intelligence agency have come under fire for a successful raid in Pakistan that resulted in the death of a top suspect in a British terror case, according to a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
Rashid Rauf, on the Top 10 most wanted list of al-Qaida terrorists, fled from his native Birmingham four years ago to become one of the terror organization’s key operatives. He was wanted for masterminding the plot to smuggle liquid bombs onto American airliners from London’s Heathrow airport to the U.S.
But following a raid that resulted in his death, MI6 has been flooded with demands from senior members of Parliament to know why MI6 participated. The criticism has left John Scarlett, head of MI6, enraged.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Council Spends £70,000 on ‘SAS’ Rubbish Inspectors to Snoop in People’s Bins
Sneaky council inspectors have spent £70,000 of taxpayers’ cash using ‘SAS tactics’ — to see what rubbish we throw out.
Ten local authority “spooks” were sent into suburbs to sift through the contents of wheelie bins.
Some bins stuffed with rotting food, plastic wrappers and tin cans were taken away for further examination.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Universities: Spain, Police and Students Clash in Barcelona
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, NOVEMBER 20 — Some hundreds of students have occupied the foyer and one of the quads of the University of Barcelona, having held a march through the centre of the city in a demonstration which led to clashes with Catalonia’s independent police force, “Los Mossos d’Esquadra”. The protest demonstration, called by the student union: “Sindicat d’Estudiants del Paisos Catalans” (Sepc), directed in opposition to the Bologna programme which envisages the creation of a unified European university education forum by 2010. The march degenerated with several students and a photographer receiving bruises and five officers slightly wounded. According to police sources, as cited by the Efe agency, the demonstration began at 12:00 with a march by around 4,000 students along the streets of Barcelona’s centre, chanting slogans against “the commercialisation of universities” and the “subjection of rectors to business interests” which the students claim the Bologna programme will bring. There was a tense stand-off when the cortége attempted to turn into Las Ramblas and found itself blocked by the Mossos d’Esquadra. According to the sources, the officers executed two charges “with a defensive purpose”, to which some students are alleged to have responded by hurling objects. The demonstration, which carried a large banner before it bearing the words: “school graduation yesterday, degree today, insecure jobs tomorrow”, broke up while the wounded were treated. A group of several hundred protesters headed for the University’s historic campus and on the cry of “We’ll occupy the halls against Bologna”, they headed into the University foyer. Part of the protesters headed to the first floor and attempted, unsuccessfully, to break down the door to the Vice-Rector’s office. Back in the foyer, the students gathered in a meeting and decided to occupy some areas of the campus and rectory, calling for talks to be set up with the university authorities. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Violence Women: France; Alarm, One Death Every Two Days
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, NOVEMBER 25 — Violence against women has become a priority in France, where every two days a woman dies from violence suffered at the hands of her husband or partner. A petition of 16,000 names was presented today to President of the National Assembly Bernard Accoyer, for a framework law against violence against women to be voted in, like the one in Spain. This morning, militants from the National Collective of women’s rights and several feminist groups demonstrated in front of Parliament to support the project, which has the backing of two MPs, Communist Marie-George Buffet, former Presidential candidate, and Green Martine Billard. In France the figures are getting worse: a quarter of deliberate violence is against women (47,573 in 2007, 31.3% up on 2004), according to figures from the National Delinquency Observatory. The freephone number for victims (3919) received more than 60,000 calls between January and September. In Paris, a few days ago, a young woman was seized and knifed by her mother because she was refusing an arranged marriage. France is at the top of the list on this International day of violence against women, on the European level too.
From the “Choisir la cause des femmes” society, created by Simone de Beauvoir and Gisele Halimi in 1971, is a project which, after going through the sieve of legislation by the 27 European union member countries, unites the 14 best laws in Europe over abortion (Switzerland), marriage (Austria), civil partnerships (Belgium), parental authority (Estonia) or rape (France) and marital violence (Spain). The goal is to create a single statute for Europe from these. The project will be debated next Thursday and Friday in Paris, at an international conference organised as part of the French presidency of the EU and has already had consensus at the European level. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Education: EIB to Finance Jordan Project for Childhood
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, NOVEMBER 20 — FEMIP, the European Investment Bank’s (EIB) dedicated Facility for Euro-Mediterranean Investment and Partnership, has committed itself to provide financing of up to 40 million euro for the Jordan Education Project. The project is being undertaken with the purpose of tackling unemployment and poverty in Jordan. To this end, four key issues will be addressed: sector governance and administrative organisation; curriculum enhancement; replacement of unsafe and overcrowded educational facilities; and development of early childhood education programmes. Between 2002 and 2007 (FEMIP) provided 250 million euro in loans to support human capital projects.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Energy: Israeli-PNA Cooperation Under EU Aegis Goes Ahead
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, NOVEMBER 25 — Everything is ready for the relaunch of energy cooperation between the EU, Israel and the Palestinian National Authority. The Project for integration of the Euro-Mediterranean energy market (Med-Emip), financed by the EU, to whom the European Commission entrusted the job of managing the ‘Solar for Peace’ initiative which aims to favour energy cooperation in the Middle East. ‘Solar for peace’ got the go-ahead from Euromediterranean ministers during the ministerial conference in Limassol, Cyprus, on December 17. Israel and the PNA agreed to the collaboration last June. According to the initial study by Med-Emip, the first steps by Solar for Peace will be: to extend the use of solar-powered water heating systems in the Palestinian Territories, the installation of highly innovative photovoltaic plants and the construction of a power plant of between 20 and 50 MW which will supply energy to both sides. In the last working meeting of the Med-Emip project, EU Commission representatives, Israel and the PNA evaluated a common office for energy and cooperation in complementary areas such as management of the electricity network.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Muslim-Police Fight Over Coptic Church in Cairo
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, NOVEMBER 24 — Eight civilians and four policemen have been hurt, two cars have been set ablaze and an unknown number of arrests have been made during fighting in Matareya, a working-class area east of Cairo. The fighting was between police and Muslims who were protesting over the rumoured destruction of a half-complete building in order to build a Coptic church in its place. The skirmish took place yesterday evening, after evening prayers. At the exit of a mosque in the area, belonging to the Confraternity of Muslim Brothers, Mohamed Yussef Abu Hussein incited those present to protest against the construction of a church on soil that is not owned by Christians. Police troops gathered on the scene and arrested several people, unleashing a violent reaction from the people which eventually culminated in a full blown skirmish. Since the early hours of the morning the whole area has been watched over by security forces, but there have been no signs of gathering crowds. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: First Woman Mayor Elected, From Copt Minority
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, NOVEMBER 21 — She is the first-ever woman mayor in Egypt, and a Copt to boot. Pan-Arab daily Asharq Al Awsat has show-cased the news that lawyer Eva Habil Kirolos has won the election beating five opponents, all of them men, in the small municipality of Kamboha, near to the city of Dayrout in the southern Assiut province. “Here I am, the first woman and the first copt to occupy the position of mayor in Egypt — Mamma Eva, as she is known locally, smilingly told journalists — I knew there was a chance for our tiny minority to capture a high-profile public office. And I have been rewarded”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Abu-Fana’s Wall Up
Earlier this month Abu-Fana monastery announced that the seven-kilometer long fencing wall which runs round the periphery of its land has been completed. A building committee from Minya governorate has inspected the wall and approved it. The 1.5m high fencing wall was built in less than the two months stipulated by Minya governor as a deadline to finish the wall. Mallawi bishopric, to which the monastery is affiliated has asked Minya governor for a permit to raise the height of the wall to four meters. The 1.5m-high wall, the bishopric claims, is no protection against intruders and will in all probability be buried under the sand in a matter of months since the district is one of moving sand dunes.
The bishopric has also demanded that the monastery be supplied with fresh water and electricity, the lines of which pass adjacent to the monastery walls. Minya governor has so far given no reply.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Islamic Judges Strip Christian Mothers of Children
Muslim fathers, courts fear youth may switch religions, eat banned foods, ‘go to church’
Muslim judges are defying Islamic law in custody battles involving Christian mothers and Muslim fathers — to shield children from Christian influence.
Egyptian law’s Article 20 states that children younger than 15 should stay with their mothers. But, without fail, Egypt’s judges are ruling for Muslim fathers if the mothers are Christian, Compass Direct News reports.
The judges are bypassing Article 20 and referencing a portion of Article 2 of the Egyptian Constitution: “principles of Islamic law are the principal source of legislation.”
On Sept. 24, an appeals court defied the statute and awarded custody of 13-year-old twins Andrew and Mario Medhat Ramses Labib to their father.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Energy: Egypt; Accord With Islamic Bank to Develop Projects
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, NOVEMBER 25 — A number of cooperation agreements in the energy field between Egypt and the Islamic Development Bank will be signed today in Cairo by Egyptian Economic Development Minister, Osman Mohamed Osman, and chairman of the bank, Ahmed Mohammed Ali. In press statements, Osman said the agreements include an electricity generation project in Abu Qir near Alexandria. According to the agreement, the bank will provide facilities for the electricity holding company estimated at 119 million euro in the form of release for 20 years including a five-year grace period. The chairman said earlier that his bank is investing USD 2.3 billion in Egypt. In an interview with MENA news agency, Ali noted that relations between the Bank and Egypt are good as Egypt is one of the founding countries of the Bank. Ali added that Egypt is one of the major contributors to the Bank and has a permanent seat in the executive directors council. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Mideast: Peres and Napolitano, Islam Doesn’t Preach Murder
(ANSAmed) — JERUSALEM, NOVEMBER 25 — ‘‘I do not know of any precept of Islam that talks of hatred and killing each other. You can be Muslim and in favour of peace’’ said Israeli President Shimon Peres to journalists after his meeting with Italy’s President Giorgio Napolitano. Peres stressed that in public opinion including Arab, ideas to end the long conflict between Arabs and Israelis are supported. Amongst the favourable theories is the Saudi plan recently relaunched by US President-elect Barack Obama. ‘‘Naturally it needs to be defined in detail’’ said Peres, well-known for his unwillingness to have East Jerusalem as the capital of an autonomous Palestinian state. ‘‘After seven wars the time for peace has come. In the Arab world there is the idea that it is time to end the conflict, that trusting Hamas, Iran or Lebanese extremists is not a good alternative, especially for them. They are becoming convinced that it is time to end the war and that Iran is putting their lives at risk. We need to remember that only 20% of Arabs are Shi-ite. Iran wants to occupy the whole Middle East. It is the only imperialist force in the region. We need to stop Iran’s nuclear arms programme, knowing that it represents a danger ‘‘not only for Israel but for the whole world’’. But the way to stop Iran ‘‘is not war’’ but a political response which unites the USA, EU, Russia and others. ‘‘Italy is at Israel’s side to conclude the peace process in full autonomy, without external conditions by certain negative leaders and by those who have proposed to destroy Israel’’ said Napolitano. ‘‘We have assumed our responsibilities to the fullest’’ he added, referring to the peace mission in Lebanon and Italy’s other international obligations ‘‘we agree that saying that the problem of uranium enrichment in Iran does not represent a problem just for Israel but for many countries’’. Napolitano visited the Holocaust Museum Yad Veshem and the Children’s Mausoleum accompanied by Peres, and took part in a ceremony in the Tent of Remembrance in homage to the six million Jews exterminated in the Shoah. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Olmert Announces He Wants Quick Peace Deal
Expects ‘painful sacrifice of parts Israel and history of the Jewish people’
JERUSALEM — Five days after WND broke the story exposing secret Israeli-Palestinian talks aimed at reaching an agreement on core issues, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced today in Washington his intention to continue negotiations in hope of an agreement on core issues.
“In principle there is nothing to prevent us from reaching an agreement on the core issues in the near future,” Olmert said regarding ongoing peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority.
“We’re in a situation where it’s possible to do so, and I hope we do. It would be good for the state of Israel,” said Olmert speaking to Israeli reporters after a meeting today with President Bush.
Speaking of “a painful sacrifice of parts of the land of Israel and the history of the Jewish people,” Olmert told reports now was the “time for decisions.”
“I am ready to make that decision, and I hope the other side will make it as well,” he said. “You don’t need months to make a decision.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
First Female De-Mining Team Includes Jordanian
(by Mohammad Ben Hussein) (ANSAmed) — JABER (MAFRAQ) NOVEMBER 25 — Fida, 28 years old Jordanian girl, was full of pride as she received a certificate that made her member of Jordan’s first female de-mining team in the Middle East. Dressed in blue attire that she will be using when assuming official duties as of next week, Fida said she could have worked in any office job, thanks to her university degree. She, however, preferred to help people in her community who suffered for long from landmines on around their houses. “We want to show everybody that women can do anything that men do,” said Fida, addressing an audience of diplomats and colleagues during the handing ceremony of certificates in Jaber, on the Jordanian Syrian borders, an area covered with 10.5 million sqm of mine infested lands. On Sunday Fida and her 23 colleagues will start sifting the desert land looking for mines, ruminants of the Arab Israeli war of 1967 and tensions with Syria back in the 1970s. The girls will be receiving financial compensations for their risky work, a salary five times more than what they could earn in a garment factory, the typical place such women earn a living. In a country with high inflation and growing poverty, the salary is worth taking the risk of dealing with deadly job. The two dozens team will join their male counterparts who are already undertaking a task to clean the area of landmines since 2007. Officials from Norwegian People Aid (NPA), the body responsible for supporting the project, said they hope to remove 136,000 mines from the targeted area, home to 70,000 people living in tens of villages that nestle along 104 km of this mine-belt. “Gender equality and women empowerment are the pillars of NPA’s work. We have formed female de-mining teams in many countries including Sudan, Angola, and Croatia,” said Stephen Bryant NPA Programme Manager in Jordan. “De-mining statistics throughout the world have shown that while female de-miners may be slower than their male counterparts, their work is more thorough. Our main criteria are safety and quality. The trainers are satisfied with the skills the Jordanian ladies have acquired, and are confident that they are competent to enter the minefields safely,” he said. Ranging from university graduates to farmers and home makers, they have chosen this career line with NPA looking for employment, financial empowerment or nontraditional occupation. The Jordanian female de-miners will work under the same conditions as the male teams, according to Lina Gazi, spokeswomen of NPA. Mohammed Abu Dalou, technical advisor at the NPA said his teams have been asked to de-mine the northern border, the final mines project for the last mine fields, which began in 2007. “The technical survey for the project started in December 2007 and the actual clearance began on April 1 2008,” he said. The government wants to allow area residents tap into the abundant underground water resources in the designated area, where the development has been hampered by the mine-fields. Technicians said army maps provide little help in locating the mines, many of which have shifted position due to weather elements. The $10 million project involves more than 100 mine specialists, including members of the local community, under support of the international community, including Australia, Canada, the European Commission, Germany, Japan and Norway. Officials hope all mines will be cleared by 2011. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
First All-Female Demining Team in Mideast Get Licence
(ANSAmed) — MAFRAQ (JORDAN), NOVEMBER 25 — Two dozens of women from local community in the northern city of Mafraq completed a six week training course in manual mine clearance, making them the first all-female demining team in the Middle East, an official statement said today. At start 38 women (aged 20-36) began training before they were narrowed down to 24 women, said the statement from the People of Narway Aid group (NPA) that formed and trained the team. “Gender equality and women empowerment are of the pillars of NPA’s work. We have formed female demining teams in many countries including Sudan, Angola, and Croatia,” said Stephen Bryant NPA Programme Manager in Jordan. “Demining statistics throughout the world have shown that while female deminers may be slower than their male counterparts, their work is more thorough. Our main criteria are safety and quality. The trainers are satisfied with the skills the Jordanian ladies have acquired, and are confident that they are competent to enter the minefields safely,” he added. Ranging from university graduates to farmers and home makers, they have chosen this career line with NPA looking for employment, financial empowerment or untraditional occupation. The Jordanian female deminers will work under the same conditions as the male teams, said the statement, made available to ANSAmed, noting that members of team will be provided with a good package of remuneration, social security and insurance for the duration of employment. Deminers hope to remove the threats imposed by landmines for 50,000 civilians. Most mines are reminents of the wars with Israel in 1967 as well as after tentions with Syria in the 1970s. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Kuwait’s Gov’t Resigns, Parliament May be Dissolved
After entry of Shiite cleric insulting Prophet Mohammed companions to the country
Kuwait’s government resigned on Tuesday to avert a questioning of the prime minister over the visit of an Iranian Shi’ite cleric, accused of insulting The Prophet Mohammed’s (s) companions.
Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, who has the last say in politics, would accept or refuse the resignation, according to the constitution.
The government had earlier walked out of a parliamentary session to avoid the request by three deputies to question Sheikh Nasser al-Mohammad al-Sabah.
The three Islamist lawmakers, Walid al-Tabtabai, Abdallah al-Barghash and Mohammed Hayef al-Mteeri say the Iranian cleric Mohammed Al Fali offended Kuwait’s predominantly Sunni Muslim population with insults he made about some of the Prophet Mohammad’s companions.
But the three deputies had also wanted to question the prime minister over a wide range of accusations including alleged corruption and mismanagement.
Without the government in attendance, parliament cannot decide whether to go ahead with plans to question Sheikh Nasser.
A court had banned the cleric’s entry and ordered him jailed for defaming the followers the Prophet (s).
The emir has several choices. He can choose not to accept the resignations. He can opt to accept them and dissolve parliament. Or he can replace Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser, his nephew.
In March, when the emir formally dissolved parliament, he said he did so to safeguard Kuwait’s national unity and out of his primary concern for internal security and stability.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Middle East: Italian President Shares Israel’s Concern About Iran
Jerusalem, 25 Nov. (AKI) — Italian President Giorgio Napolitano said on Tuesday that Italy shared Israel’s concerns about Iran and security in the region. “The fact that we have economic and commercial ties with Iran does not mean that we are not doing our part in the UN’s sanctions (against Iran),” said Napolitano, quoted by Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth.
Napolitano arrived in Israel on Monday for an official three-day visit with 100 Italian business leaders. He was accompanied by employers from the country’s banks, chambers of commerce and the private employers’ association, Confindustria.
“The Iranian problem is not just Israel’s. Iran is trying to spread nuclear weapons and intervene in the lives of many countries,” he added.
Before a visit to Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, Napolitano said that “Even today there are countries that preach death and destruction against Israel. Italy responds to such outcries with outrage, Israel can count on Italy’s determination and solidarity.”
After Germany, Italy is Iran’s largest trading partner in the European Union.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia: Hundreds Accused of ‘Immorality’
Riyadh, 25 Nov. (AKI) — The Saudi religious police has over the past year detained 434 people accused of ‘immorality’ — a 19 percent increase on the previous year — according to a report issued by Saudi Arabia’s Authority for the Prohibition of Vice and the Promotion of Virtue.
Only a quarter of those arrested have Saudi citizenship. Most are foreigners, who were subsequently released with a caution after promising to lead a ‘virtuous’ life in future.
Only those detained for alleged use of drugs or alcohol were sent to appear before magistrates. The highest number of people arrested by the religious police was in the holy city of Mecca (photo), followed by the capital, Riyadh.
Instead of handing out custodial sentences, a number of Saudi judges have recently ordered offenders to clean buildings and cars, memorise the Koran (the Muslim holy book) or do community work.
The religious police recently asked the government to increase their funding as they claim they do not have the manpower to go after all those suspected of ‘immoral’ behaviour.
Such behaviour includes skipping prayers, consuming alcohol and appearing in public with members of the opposite sex who are not close family members.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UAE: British Beach Sex Couple Freed in Dubai
Dubai, 25 Nov. (AKI) — A Dubai appeals court on Tuesday freed a British couple found guilty of having sex in a local beach. The British couple, Michelle Palmer, 36, and Vince Acors, 34, will now be deported from the United Arab Emirates, after the suspension of their three month sentence, issued in October.
“The verdict concerning their expulsion remains valid,” the couple’s lawyer Hassan Matar said quoted by Dubai based TV network, al-Arabiya.
“There are only a few routine procedures to complete for their departure.”
Palmer and Acors were found guilty of sex outside marriage and public indecency at Dubai’s Court of First Instance.
As well as a prison term, they were fined 1,000 dirhams (350 dollars) and ordered to be deported.
The pair were arrested on Jumeirah Beach hours after meeting at a champagne brunch on 5 July.
They were accused of sex outside marriage, public indecency and drunkenness.
Both Britons denied the charges, saying they were only kissing and hugging.
Dubai, considered the most liberal of the emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates, is struggling to balance an Islamic identity and conservative laws, with the lifestyles of millions of western expatriates.
Dubai’s expatriates comprise at least 85 percent of the population. Authorities have recently launched a crackdown on what it calls indecent behaviour such as topless sunbathing and nudity.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Violence Against Women: Jordan, 20% Approve to be Beaten
(ANSAmed) — AMMAN, NOVEMBER 25 — Around 20 percent of Jordanian women approve being beaten by husbands to discipline them, according to a survey conducted by the department of statistics that was published today. The study included nearly 15,000 families and 11,000 women who got married, said the report. Most of the respondents aged between 15 to 49 years old. Luck Steve, representative of UN Agencies which helped conduct the study, said measures must be taken to fight violence against women following surprising results of the survey. “The result of the survey shows we have work to do regarding state of women in the society and how they are being treated,” said Steve. The study was conducted during 2007 and made public during a public ceremony held at the department of statistics. Activists have been campaigning to improve conditions of women in this tribal community, but they are faced with resistance from traditional politicians. Queen Rania has been pushing for more rights to women since she was crowned nine years ago, with her efforts resulting in allowing married women to divorce their husbands, a measure that has been an exclusive right for men since decades. Every year between 15 to 20 women are killed in the name of honour, with killers receiving sentences for just a few months behind bars. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Premier in Moscow to Boost Economic Cooperation
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, NOVEMBER 10 — Egyptian Prime Miniser Ahmed Nazif is due on a four-day visit to Russia at the invitation of his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Nazif will be accompanied by a delegation including the ministers of oil, trade, industry, transport and tourism. Nazif’s talks with Russian officials will cover ways to expand economic, trade and investment cooperation between the two countries. The talks will deal with the enterprise of setting up a big Russian industrial zone in the city of Borg Al Arab at approximately USD 2 billion investments. The industrial zone is expected to be established within the next five years over a 2 million square meters space. It will comprise projects in the domains of aircraft and vehicle industry.(ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic Councils Against Catholic Magazine of Kuala Lumpur: Forbidden to Use the Word “Allah”
The Islamic religious councils of seven Malaysian states are joining the lawsuit pitting the weekly of the diocese of Kuala Lumpur against the government. The object of the dispute is the use of the word “Allah” in non-Muslim publications. The Sikh community is siding with the Catholics.
Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews) — The Islamic religious councils of seven Malaysian states and the Malaysian Chinese Muslim Association (MACMA) are turning to the federal court for the ban of the use of the word “Allah” in the weekly Catholic Herald. Muslim representatives from Terengganu, Penang, Selangor, Kedah, Johor, Malacca, and the Federal territory of Kuala Lumpur want the court to rule on whether the law relative to the case has been applied according to constitutional principles.
The Malaysian constitution guarantees full religious freedom for all confessions, but an ordinance from the interior security ministry issued in 1986 prohibits the use of the word “Allah” in publications of the non-Islamic communities. But the law has never been applied consistently. To complicate the case of the Herald, and of other non-Muslim magazines, there is also the fact that there are two parallel judicial systems in the country: one is federal-civil, regulated by the constitution, and the other is juridical-religious, which is supposed to apply only to Muslims and is regulated by Koranic law.
The affair of the magazine of Kuala Lumpur emerged in December of last year. The interior security minister had prohibited the Herald from using the word “Allah” in its articles, affirming that its use “by non-Muslims could increase tension and create confusion among Muslims in the country.” The ban brought the risk of shutdown for the only Catholic newspaper in the country, which with its 12,000 copies and 50,000 readers is the only instrument of communication for the 850,000 faithful.
In the last few days of 2007, after the protests of the Catholic community, the interior security minister withdrew the injunction, but on January 5, 2008, the minister of Islamic affairs intervened in of the affair, upholding the ban. Claiming the right to use the word “Allah,” the Herald then opted to take the legal route, and the archbishop of the diocese of Kuala Lumpur, Murphy Pakiam, took the government to court (in the photo, the bishop with his lawyers at a hearing last April).
Today, the seven states and the MACMA have been admitted to the court to intervene in the dispute, and have been named as parties in the case in the revision of the procedure initiated by the archbishop of the capital. In the meantime, the Malaysian Gurdwaras Council (MGC), a Sikh group, has informed the court that it intends to present the attorney general’s office with documentation that would exclude the Islamic councils from the debate.
According to the documentation from the MGC, a request to ban the use of the word “Allah” for non-Muslims was presented in Perak ten years ago. The prime minister at the time, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, had communicated to the parties in the case that there was no cause for proceeding. Jagjit is now asking prime minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to use the same approach in the case of the Herald.
Jagjit has asked the court to update the hearing with the request of the MGC. Judge Lau Bee Lan has established February 27 as the date for deciding whether to permit the parties to present a deposition as requested for judicial review.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan to Receive Up to $4bn From IMF by Thursday
Washington and Karachi, 24 Nov. (AKI/DAWN) — The executive board of the International Monetary Fund will consider a 7.5 billion dollar rescue package for Pakistan on Monday to help the country avoid economic collapse. If the rescue package is approved on Monday, the necessary documents allowing the transfer of money to Pakistan can also be signed the same day.
Pakistan is likely to get between 3.5 and 4 billion dollars at the signing while the rest will be distributed in six equal installments.
After it is approved, the money will be transferred to the State Bank of Pakistan’s account in the US Federal Reserve in New York. The disbursement takes 48 to 72 hours, which means that Pakistan will have the money by Thursday.
This expected rapid disbursement enjoys the support of the US administration which wants to help Pakistan arrest the economy’s current economic decline and prevent its collapse.
But Pakistan experts in the US administration, as well as the World Bank and the IMF, also want Islamabad to make structural adjustments to put the Pakistani economy on the right track.
In a joint article for Washington’s Middle East Institute, former US ambassador to Islamabad, Wendy Chamberlin, and a former IMF economist Zubair Iqbal argued that ‘a rescue plan could have the advantage of presenting an opportunity to force countries like Pakistan to come to grips with entrenched structural distortions in its economy.’
The two authors also argued that countries like Pakistan could not count on the cash from wealthy oil producers in the Gulf for a bailout. Instead, they urged ‘a more organized approach’ to aiding ‘distressed economies.’
The authors proposed establishing a trust fund made up of multilateral and regional lending agencies, selected Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, and the G-7 to pool resources and facilitate their effective use by vulnerable counties under the IMF/World bank guidance.
The two authors and other experts are also urging Pakistan to reduce expenditure and increase revenue if it wants to have a stable economy.
But they also acknowledge that it may be difficult for government to reduce expenditure as such steps are unpopular and may cause political repercussions. So they want Pakistan to increase revenue.
‘It is particularly difficult to reduce expenditure when the economy is slowing, the private sector is upset and the government has just increased interest rates,’ said one such expert. ‘So it is essential to increase revenue.’
And when such experts talk about the need to increase revenue, they emphasise the need to introduce a genuine agriculture income tax which, they argue, will also raise domestic savings.
The experts reject Pakistan’s claim that they have introduced such a tax, arguing that the taxes introduced in the name of agriculture six or seven years ago were simply the land revenues which are being collected since British rule.
‘‘The general public is receptive to the idea that the relatively affluent should pay their share. Therefore, it is just the right time to extend the tax net,” said one expert.
The expert also suggested introducing new taxes on capital gains and real estate appreciation.
The experts say that they have also been following Pakistan’s inappropriate exchange rate policy with concern. They say that Pakistan has been giving subsidies through tax reductions. They argue that it is time now to eliminate all such concessions especially those related to the general sales tax.
They point out that Pakistan has increased the interest rate but the interest rate spread remains very large and that does not favour increased savings. The government should encourage people to save more by raising the interest rates on savings and reducing the interest rate spread.
The experts argue that allowing the market to determine the exchange will not further depreciate the rupee. According to them, the recent depreciation was caused by a strong dollar which is going to depreciate in the next three to six months.
“And when it happens, Pakistan should resist the temptation of letting the rupee appreciate. They should let the market determine this. They should not interfere,” said another expert.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Somalia: Pirates Board Yemeni Cargo Ship
(ANSAmed) — NAIROBI, NOVEMBER 25 — Somali pirates have boarded yet another ship, a Yemeni cargo ship identified as MV Amani, in the Gulf of Aden. The report comes from Andrew Mwangura, coordinator for ‘African Seafarers’ Assistance Programme’, a seafarer’s help group that monitors acts of piracy in the Indian Ocean off the Somali and Kenyan coasts. News of this latest Somali pirate attack arrives 10 days after a group of armed Somalis attacked and seized Saudi supertanker Sirius Star, along with its crew of 25 and oil cargo worth 100 million dollars. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Somalia: Germany Ready to Send Troops to Deter Piracy
Frankfurt, 25 Nov. (AKI) — Germany said on Tuesday it was ready to send up to 1,400 troops as part of a European Union security mission to counter piracy off the coast of Somalia. The German daily, Frankfurter Allgemeine, said the defence ministry had approved a decision to contribute troops to the EU-backed Operation Atalanta which is due to begin in mid-December.
The report said 500 naval personnel would be based on a frigate patrolling the Horn of Africa, while the remaining 900 would be commandos providing security for German vessels in the region.
Germany on Sunday sent the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern frigate in the direction of two merchant ships which were attacked by pirates in the Gulf of Aden.
The announcement was made a day after a Yemeni cargo ship, MV Amani, was captured by Somali pirates off the notorious Gulf of Aden.
A number of pirates operating in the Gulf of Aden are believed to be former members of the Somali navy, reports have said.
Meanwhile, Yemeni authorities on Tuesday said they had made contact with Somali pirates who are demanding two million dollars to release a Yemeni cargo ship they seized in the Gulf of Aden.
The vessel was on route to Yemen’s port of Mokalla to the island of Socotra when it was seized. According to media reports, the cargo was seized a week ago.
Dozens of ships have been attacked in the Gulf of Aden by pirates in the largely lawless Somalia in recent months.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration: Greece, Human Traffic Network Stopped
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, NOVEMBER 25 — A network of traffickers of illegal immigrants hoping to reach Italy on board Greek ships leaving the port of Patrasso has been stopped by port officials working with Greek police. According to initial reports, three port workers were part of the network, along with about 10 illegal immigrants, who have been arrested and interrogated by city police. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration: Tunisia, Twelve Illegal Migrants Arrested
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, NOVEMBER 25 — A motor-launch of the Tunisian Coast Guard has foiled the attempted emigration of twelve men aged between 22 and 35. The migrants, all of them Tunisian, were on a vessel headed for Italy. Stopped off the Chebba coast, they were placed under arrest and imprisoned, awaiting trial. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
‘Gay’ Adoption Ban Ruled Unconstitutional
Judge allows homosexuals to become legal parents of boys, 4, 8
A Miami-Dade circuit judge today ruled Florida’s 30-year ban on “gay” adoption unconstitutional, allowing a homosexual man to adopt two foster children who have been in his care since 2004.
Judge Cindy Lederman issued a 53-page order allowing Frank Gill, 47, and his “gay” partner to legally adopt the 4- and 8-year-old boys they’ve been raising, the Miami Herald reported.
“This is the forum where we try to heal children, find permanent families for them so they can get another chance at what every child should know and feel from birth, and go on to lead productive lives,” Judge Lederman told the court. “We pray for them to thrive, but that is a word we rarely hear in dependency court.”
She continued, “These children are thriving; it is uncontroverted.”
Attorneys for Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum immediately announced they would appeal Lederman’s ruling.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Natalee Holloway Sold for $10,000?
Disappeared US teenager Natalee Holloway was taken to an Aruba beach by Joran van der Sloot and sold there to a Venezuelan man who ‘wanted a blonde girl’, Mr Van der Sloot told Fox News TV.
In an interview with the US news channel, he claimed he repeatedly met the man in a casino. The Venezuelan offered him 10,000 US dollars.
Joran van der Sloot told how he watched Natalee, who was drunk, being hauled on board a vessel chartered by the Venezuelan. There was no struggle or anything, he said.
Natalee vanished on the Caribbean island of Aruba — part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands — on 30 May 2005. Joran van der Sloot has been arrested twice in connection with her disappearance, but without conclusive evidence he has never been brought to trial.
He now lives in Thailand, where he has come under suspicion of being involved in sex trafficking. Joran van der Sloot said in the interview that he was helped by the two brothers Deepak and Sateesh who were briefly detained by Aruba police when Ms Holloway had gone missing.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Russian Professor Says U.S. Will Break Up After Economic Crisis
A professor at the diplomatic academy of Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the U.S. will break into six parts because of the nation’s financial crisis.
“The dollar isn’t secured by anything,” Igor Panarin said in an interview transcribed by Russian newspaper Izvestia today. “The country’s foreign debt has grown like an avalanche; this is a pyramid, which has to collapse.”
Panarin said in the interview that the financial crisis will worsen, unemployment will rise and people will lose their savings — factors that will cause the country’s breakup.
“Dissatisfaction is growing, and it is only being held back at the moment by the elections, and the hope” that President- elect Barack Obama “can work miracles,” he said. “But when spring comes, it will be clear that there are no miracles.”
The U.S. will fracture into six parts: the Pacific coast; the South; Texas; the Atlantic coast, central states and the northern states.
“Now we will see a change to the regulatory system on a global financial scale: America will cease to be the world’s regulator,” to be replaced by China and Russia, he said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sold Out at £6 a Bar … the Tastebud Sensation That’s a Mix of Milk Chocolate and Smoky Bacon
In a league of favourite foods, bacon and chocolate would both be near the top.
Usually, it has to be said, eaten separately.
Now, however, confectioners have combined the two in the world’s first bacon chocolate bar. And it is proving a major success with British customers.
The unlikely hit Christmas gift is Mo’s Bacon Bar, which contains chunks of applewood smoked bacon combined with smoked salt and milk chocolate.
At £5.99 per 3oz bar it is far from a cheap treat, but Selfridges — the only UK stockist — sold its entire stock of several hundred within 48 hours at its four stores and has urgently ordered more.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Swede Named in White House Chef Speculation
Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson, founder of New York’s acclaimed Aquavit restaurant, is among those being tipped as possible candidates to prepare meals for Barack Obama at the White House.
In an interview with the AP news agency, Tim Ryan, who heads the Culinary Institute of America, named the Ethiopian-born Swede as one high-profile chef the incoming president may consider to cook for certain state dinners.
“Chefs are great performers. So to take a page from [former President John F.] Kennedy’s playbook and recognize the artistic performances of the culinary greats, each state dinner could be organized by different high-profile chefs,” Ryan told AP.
He added that including Samuelsson in the line-up of top chefs called in to prepare meals for special occasions would allow president-elect Obama to “capture some of the star power but in a practical and realistic way”.
Samuelsson, who was raised in Gothenburg, traveled to New York in 1991, and within a few years had risen to be Aquavit’s executive chef at the age of 24.
While confirming he was aware of the speculation about a job at the White House, Samuelsson through a spokesperson declined to comment further on the matter to the Metro newspaper.
Other names circulating as possible White House chef candidates include Art Smith, Oprah Winfrey’s personal chef and Rick Bayless, whose Topolobampo restaurant in Chicago is one of Obama’s favourites.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
The Cartoon Wars Revisited
By Kathy Shaidle
Nearly three years ago, a shocked Western world witnessed “a carefully orchestrated campaign of incitement” and intimidation that left embassies ablaze and innocent people dead — all ostensibly on account of some mediocre drawings of the Prophet Mohammed deemed offensive by Muslim leaders.
The resulting debates about the limits of free speech have died down, but depictions of Mohammed continue to spark outrage around the world, mostly below the mass media’s radar.
Last week, for example, the government of Indonesia denounced as “very inappropriate” two online drawings of the Prophet Mohammed. Many Muslims believe it is forbidden to depict Mohammed under any circumstances, let alone in “sexual situations,” as these cartoons reportedly do. The country’s communications minister asked the website to remove the drawings or face being shut down by its internet service provider.
Now comes a report from a Jordanian news service of “New Danish Anti-Islamic Drawings to be Published Soon,” in a book of political satire co-authored by Kurt Westergaard. Westergaard drew the most notorious of the original “Mohammed cartoons”: a bearded man wearing a bomb instead of a turban.
In a case of history repeating itself, one Muslim leader hurried to denounce the new illustrations, sight unseen…
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
More Somalis Go Missing
I’ve reported recently about the missing Somali youths in Minneapolis and St. Paul. The first report asserted that twenty of them had vanished from the Twin Cities, to the distress of their families. The second indicated that at least one of them had blown himself up in a suicide bombing back in Somalia.
Today the number of missing Somalis has mysteriously increased. According to local TV news station KTSP:
Forty young Somali men from the Twin Cities are missing and federal investigators believe they may be back in Somalia training as terrorists.
“We have active Al Qaeda cells recruiting these people,” said Omar Jamal with the Somali Justice Advocacy Center.
And the article adds this ominous note:
CIA Director Michael Hayden acknowledges a growing tie between Al Qaeda and Somali terrorist groups. Federal investigators believe these missing men are training for terrorist attacks overseas, but can’t be sure they won’t return the Twin Cities someday to carry out an attack.
The Mystery of the Missing Somalis has even worked its way up to the MSM. According to ABC News:
– – – – – – – – –
A naturalized U.S. citizen who reportedly blew himself up in a suicide bomb attempt in Somalia last month might have recruited others to join a terror network, U.S. law enforcement officials tell ABC News.
[…]
ABC News has learned that agents from the FBI and Department of Homeland Security are investigating whether Ahmed had developed a recruiting network in the Minneapolis area where he had been residing before departing for Somalia.
[…]
U.S. officials suspect that most of the young men have departed for Somalia to fight in ongoing violence there or to train in terrorist camps. Family members of the young men are said to be distraught, trying to figure out what happened to them, sources tell ABC News.
These young men are the fruits of Multiculturalism. Either born in the USA, or resident here for a long period, they become radicalized by jihad propaganda and are recruited for terror operations.
They may have left the country, but there is no reason not to expect that some of them will return to fulfill their training and target infidels here in the heartland of the Great Satan.
The investigation has not uncovered credible evidence of a plot targeting the U.S. homeland, but U.S. officials want to track down all these young men before they can say for certain what this is or is not. Sources say the situation is being closely monitored by senior law enforcement and intelligence officials in Washington.
CIA director Michael Hayden recently voiced his concern about increased fighting in Somalia and the Horn of Africa and the desire of al Qaeda to strengthen its ties in Somalia.
“In East Africa, al Qaeda’s engaging Somali extremists to revitalize operations,” said Hayden. “And while there clearly has not yet been an official merger, the leader of the al-Shabaab terrorist group is closely tied to al Qaeda.”
This is a test of all the security procedures we have had to endure for the last seven years. Every time I travel I have to strip down and assume the position for the dedicated employees of the Transportation Security Administration. If they can’t keep these young thugs from re-entering the USA, they should look for other work — maybe packing meat in one of those Swift plants, where so many jobs have mysteriously gone vacant in the last few weeks.
Hat tips: Anon and Refugee Resettlement Watch.
Mujahideen Attack in Mumbai
A terrorist attack has been launched in Mumbai against several prominent targets, including the airport and two luxury hotels. At least eighty people are dead, among themn the chief of the anti-terror police squad, and more than 900 have been injured.
A previously unknown group called the Deccan Mujahideen has claimed credit for the attack. There is some speculation that the infamous Lashkar-e-Taiba is involved.
According to The Times of India:
In one of the most violent terror attacks on Indian soil, Mumbai came under an unprecedented night attack as terrorists used heavy machine guns, including AK-47s, and grenades to strike at the city’s most high-profile targets — the hyper-busy CST (formerly VT) rail terminus; the landmark Taj Hotel at the Gateway and the luxury Oberoi Trident at Nariman Point; the domestic airport at Santa Cruz; the Cama and GT hospitals near CST; the Metro Adlabs multiplex and Mazgaon Dockyard — killing at least 80 and sending more than 900 to hospital, according to latest reports. ( Watch )
The attacks have taken a tragic toll on the city’s top police brass: The high-profile chief of the anti-terror squad Hemant Karkare was killed; Mumbai’s additional commissioner of police (east) Ashok Kamte was gunned down outside the Metro; and celebrated encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar was also killed. ( Watch )
The attacks appeared to be aimed at getting international attention as the terrorists took upto 40 British nationals and other foreigners hostage. The chairman of Hindustan Unilever Harish Manwani and CEO of the company Nitin Paranjpe were among the guests trapped at the Oberoi. All the internal board members of the multinational giant were reported to be holed up in the Oberoi hotel.
Two terrorists were reported holed up inside the Oberoi Hotel. Fresh firing has been reported at Oberoi and Army has entered the hotel to flush out the terrorists.
An unknown outfit, Deccan Mujahideen, has sent an email to news organizations claiming that it carried out the Mumbai attacks.
The Army and Navy in Mumbai were put on alert. 65 Army commandos and 200 NSG commandos were being rushed to Mumbai, Home Minister Shivraj Patil said.
– – – – – – – – –
[…]
Some media reports attributed the attack to Lashkar-e-Taiba. There were also unconfirmed reports that some of the terrorists came in by sea. A boat laden with explosives was recovered later at night off the Gateway of India.
[…]
The attacks occurred at the busiest places. Besides hotels and hospitals, terrorists struck at railway stations, Crawford Market, Wadi Bunder and on the Western Express Highway near the airport. Several of these places are within a one-km radius of the commissioner of police’s office.
[…]
Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh cut short his Kerala visit and was returning to Mumbai. He described the situation in Mumbai as “very serious”.
Deshmukh promised “stringent action” against the assailants but the mood across Mumbai was not so optimistic.
Watch the front page at The Times of India for the latest updates.
Hat tip: JD.
Dutch Church Firebombed by Moroccans
Our Flemish correspondent VH has translated some material from the Netherlands concerning the latest incident of cultural enrichment by the “youths” of Gouda.
First, his translation of the news report from Elsevier:
Moroccans throw fire bomb at church Gouda
Four Moroccan teenage troublemakers have tried to set fire to the Reformed church in the Bloemendaal district in Gouda by throwing a Molotov cocktail at the building. The damage was limited, but the police and the mayor take the issue seriously.
According to the police in Gouda the Moroccan boys (three of them fourteen years old, one fifteen) threw “a small bottle filled with a flammable liquid” against the door of the church on Saturday evening.
A spokesman for the church told De Telegraaf that the door of the building, the Vaste Burcht, sustained significant damage.
Released
At the time of the attack nobody was in the church. “The police and fire brigade arrived immediately,” the spokesman said in the newspaper. [He added: “there is often trouble here, but this is the first time a firebomb has been thrown.”]
The police arrested the four suspects of Moroccan descent the same evening. One of the fourteen-year-olds was released short afterwards, because his involvement could not be proved.
‘The work of naughty boys’
– – – – – – – – –
The other three had to stay a night in the police cell and will be brought before the judiciary Tuesday.
Rioting Moroccan youth have recently caused many problems in Gouda, but that was in another neighborhood: Oosterwei.
According to church administrator A. van der Schee, the church has not been threatened this way before: “There have been windows smashed in sometimes, but that is what we call here the work of ‘naughty boys’“.
And now some commentary and supplementary material from VH:
Note: Only a few weeks ago the Public University of Gouda left the Oosterwei neighborhood due to the many burglaries and destructive incidents: “After more than fifty burglaries and smashed windows we’re fed up. We are going to move so there is nothing to rob here anymore,” is written in bold letters on a sign on the windows of the school.
“Time and again cleaning up the mess, having new windows fitted and notifying the police, we’re sick and tired of it,” says director Cokky Leersum-Scheer in De Telegraaf. “Enough is enough!”
According to the director, the Public University is not the only one suffering from crime. “Other entrepreneurs have already left, like the hairdresser. Most of destruction has taken place around four o’clock in the morning. It may be because of boredom. We have always reported it to the police, but unfortunately all these years no one was ever caught.” The police says they are working on the case.
Adding:
Even church is not safe for the Moroccan intifada
Questions from Parliament members Wilders and Fritsma (both PVV) to the Minister of Justice [Ernst Hirsh Ballin, CDA; Christian Democrat] and the Minister for Housing, Neighborhoods and Integration [Eberhard van der Laan, PvdA; Labour] on the arson attack by Moroccan youth of a church in Gouda:
1. Are you familiar with the report of young Moroccans having thrown a fire bomb at a church in Gouda? 2. Do you share our opinion that this attack again proves that these Moroccan street-scum simply despise our culture and society? If not, why not? 3. What do you make of the fact that, due to the grave Islamization of our society, even the church, notably the symbol of our Christian tradition, is not safe? 4. Why didn’t you immediately condemn in the strongest way this insult of our society and the Christian community by Muslims? 5. Why do you use double standards by doing nothing now, while that is clearly different for instance in case of violence against a mosque? 6. Do you share our opinion that it is particularly sad that the Muslim community has not taken a stand against this crime, while the same community stands on their hind legs to demand respect? If not, why not? 7. Isn’t it time to request the Muslim community to show respect for our society, manners and core values? 8. What are you going to do to put down immediately the Moroccan intifada — which harasses the Netherlands — as well as the continuing Islamization of our society? 9. Do you acknowledge the need to remove persistent street terrorists who not only are in possession of the Dutch nationality, as well as their parents in case the instigators are minors?-
Figures Don’t Lie
Gates of Vienna News Feed 11/25/2008
Events seem to be shaping up for a major confrontation between Israel and its various Muslim enemies. Hizbullah now has three times as many missiles in Lebanon as it did at the start of the war in 2006. Hamas is challenging Abu Mazen and continues to launch rocket attacks from Gaza. Some reports claim that Iran will have at least a few nukes operational before the end of next year.
So something is going to blow before too long.
Thanks to AA, C. Cantoni, Fausta, Insubria, Islam in Action, JD, Steen, TB, turn, VH, Zenster, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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100,000 Resist Obama in 1st Week of Petition
Growing grassroots resistance says ‘No!’ to Obama’s socialist agenda
“As an American citizen, while I will show respect to President-elect Obama, I oppose the far-Left and socialistic elements that comprise the centerpiece of his agenda. I recognize that it will take a patriotic and resilient Citizen Resistance to block implementation of this agenda and I join with others who oppose these threats to our liberties.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
9-Year-Old Student Charged in Pencil Stabbing
A 9-year-old elementary school student has been charged with seriously injuring a classmate by stabbing her in the back with a pencil on Wednesday, lawmen said.
Cumberland County sheriff’s deputies charged the boy after he stabbed the 10-year-old girl at Cliffdale Road Elementary School, a news release said.
Investigators say the boy stabbed the girl with a pencil, causing a puncture wound on the upper portion of her back.
The boy stabbed the girl after an argument over a pencil box, authorities said.
According to the release, the boy found his missing pencil box in the girl?s possession.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Fed Bail Out Rich Arabs in Citigroup Deal
But Citigroup got $20 billion over the weekend from the Treasury Department without any national debate or discussion at all. The Federal Reserve simply issued a press release on Sunday afternoon announcing that the taxpayers were on the hook not only for the $20 billion but $306 billion in loans to the company. That’s on top of a previous $25 billion invested in the company by the Treasury Department.
[…]
Auto company executives may have flown to Washington, D.C. on private jets, as O’Reilly and others noted, but Saudi Arabian prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who has a major stake in Citigroup and also invests in the Fox News parent company, News Corporation, reportedly lives in a $100-million 317-room Riyadh palace. A nephew of Saudi King Abdullah, Alwaleed has been called the “Warren Buffet of the Gulf” and runs the Kingdom Holding Company.
Is this somebody who should be bailed out by American taxpayers?
The Citigroup bailout demonstrates, once again, that the Federal Reserve does anything it wants with our money, with no accountability to the Congress or the American people.
The Federal Reserve is so out of control that it refuses to comply with a legitimate and lawful Bloomberg News Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for information about nearly $2 trillion in loans extended to foreign banks and other interests during the current financial meltdown.
[…]
Consider the fact that Alwaleed, one of the richest men in the world, not only owns a stake in Citigroup but News Corporation, Time Warner (parent of Time and CNN) and The Walt Disney Company (parent of ABC News).
The stories appearing on Monday about the “rescue” of Citigroup suggest that the media are up to their old tricks of masking the looting of American taxpayers and will not bother to investigate what really happened.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Lawsuit’s Claim: CAIR No Longer Even Exists
Terror-linked Muslim lobby allowed registration to lapse
The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, a pro-Muslim lobby named as an unindicted co-conspirator in one of the largest terror-funding cases ever brought by the U.S. government, continues to operate even though it no longer exists as a corporate entity, according to a lawyer suing the organization.
[…]
CAIR, which receives financial backing from Saudi and Emirati royalty, denies charges that it has a secret agenda to Islamize America. But a Muslim Brotherhood document declassified in the Holy Land case reveals that CAIR’s parent was among Muslim organizations enlisted in a secret plot to destroy the American system from within and eventually take over the country.
Written early last decade in Arabic, the manifesto lays bare the subversive role of CAIR’s forerunner, the Islamic Association for Palestine, and other Muslim groups in America to carry out a “grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house by the hands of the believers, so that it is eliminated and Allah’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”
CAIR’s founder Ahmad, while claiming to be a moderate and patriotic American, last decade told a group of Muslims in Northern California that they are in America to help assert Islam’s rule over the country.
“Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant,” a local reporter quoted him as saying, adding, “The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth.”
Ahmad insists he was misquoted. However, an FBI wiretap transcript quotes Ahmad agreeing with terrorist suspects gathered last decade at the secret Philly meeting to “camouflage” their true intentions.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Rahm’s Plan for Mandatory Service
There has been a small uproar around Obama’s call for a “civilian national security force” especially one “that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded” as the military. But many have said that these words were taken out of context. If you read the whole speech, they argue, it is clear that he just wants to expand the Peace Corp a little bit.
Similarly, there was a mild uproar about his call for mandatory service from students, but many said that the programs were never intended to be mandatory. The college program was optional community service in exchange for a larger education credit, and the high-school one was no different from adding an art class or something to the public high-school curriculum. Obama initially called both mandatory on his change.gov website, but after the buzz began he changed the wording and removed several sections of the site.
But now there is new evidence that the critics are right. He does favor mandatory service and it might be worse than we thought. He has chosen Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff. Rahm Emanuel wrote a book called The Plan in 2006. On page 60-65 of the book Rahm calls for universal conscription of 18-24 year olds for civilian service in order to prepare for a potential terrorist attack.
All Americans between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five will be asked to serve their country by going through three months of basic training, civil defense preparation and community service.
In a 2006 radio interview Rahm explains more about the program. He speaks about the dangers of a chemical attack and about the wonderful common experience that all Americans could have by being drafted for 3 months into a civilian national security force training program. He seems to be using the fear of attack to justify drafting all youth into a militaristic civilian security force �” something more reminiscent of a dictatorship than a democracy. And all of his calls to unity and common experience only confirm his preference for nationalism or collectivism over individualism and freedom.
| [Return to headlines] |
US Convicts Islamic Charity of Funding Terrorism
The leaders of what was once the largest Islamic charity in the United States were found guilty Monday of funneling over $12 million to Palestinian group Hamas, which the U.S. considers a terrorist organization.
In the largest terrorism financing prosecution in American history prosecutors accused the Holy Land Foundation, which closed late in 2001, of using humanitarian aid to promote Hamas and allow it to divert existing funds to militant activities.
Defense attorneys said the charity was a non-political organization which operated legally to get much-needed aid to Palestinians living in squalor under the Israeli occupation and argued that the chief reasons their clients were on trial are family ties.
The defense also argued that the government was caving to Israeli pressure to prosecute the charity and said the case was based on old evidence.
[…]
“It’s hard to accept because I don’t believe the gentlemen are guilty. These guys are the sweetest, clean-hearted people,” John Wolf, a member of support group Hungry for Justice, told the paper, which added Wolf had known the defendants for 12 years.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Virginia:Two Muslims Offer to Sell Missile to FBI Informant
Two Muslim men from Virginia have been arrested in a FBI sting. They were caught trying to sell a missile that could reach the Pentagon. This comes from the same state where a Saudi school for children was busted preaching hatred towards non-Muslims. Virginia was also the home of the former Virginia Jihad Network.
| — Hat tip: Islam in Action | [Return to headlines] |
College Threatens Pro-Life Students With Arrest
University’s lawyers offer choice: Turn signs around or go to jail
Members of a university pro-life club have received a letter from school officials threatening them with fines, arrests and even expulsion if they set up their semiannual display depicting the horrors of abortion.
Each semester since 2006, members of the University of Calgary’s Campus Pro-Life student club, called CPL, have displayed a set of 4-by-8-foot signs from the Genocide Awareness Project that protest abortion.
This semester, however, lawyers for the university sent a menacing letter to CPL informing the students that their signs would only be permitted if turned away from passing foot traffic. Violation of this policy, the letter stated, would make pro-life protesters on campus “subject to arrest, fines or a civil lawsuit.”
CPL students involved in an outward display of the signs, the letter threatened, would also be subject to discipline, including suspension or expulsion.
“Being told to turn our signs inwards is like being told we can express our views as long as nobody can hear us,” CPL declares on its website. “[It’s] like telling black people they can ride the bus ? but demanding they sit at the back. It’s unconscionable!”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Anti-Semitism Arrives in Golders Green
by Hana Levi Julian
(IsraelNN.com) Anti-Semitism has begun to rear its ugly head in northwest London’s Jewish neighborhood of Golders Green.
Jewish students are increasingly being targeted by rock-throwing hate-mongers, according to a report published in The Jewish News. Concerned parents have organized a private bus to transport their children in order to keep them safe from the daily attacks on their way to school.
At the Hendon Park Café, vandals scrawled “dirty Jews” and a swastika on the walls of the eatery. A sketch of a gun and the word “kill” was scrawled alongside it as well.
The unsightly vandalism stunned the upscale neighborhood, including the outraged café owner, Jason Ezekiel, who told The Jewish News, “I was shocked when I saw it… I feel I’ve done something nice for the community. I feel, why target me? They did it at night in an area where they wouldn’t be seen. It was a cowardly act.
“I’ve lived in Golders Green all my life and this is the first I’ve seen of anything like this,” Ezekiel added. “Even the police officer I was speaking with said he hasn’t seen this kind of vandalism in many years.”
As in Israel, however, the incident was not allowed to disrupt business, nor did it remain visible for very long. Ezekiel said the graffiti was painted over by mid-afternoon, as soon as police had come and photographed the evidence, saying, “we didn’t want to encourage the people who did this; we didn’t want them to feel powerful.”
Local authorities strongly condemned the “disgusting incident of racist graffiti” in a statement issued by Barnet Police spokesman DI Alison Turner that appealed to the public to come forth with any information about the perpetrators.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Private Coach for Pupils as Gangs Attack School Buses
From The Jewish Chronicle
In one attack last week, a gang threatened to stab a JFS pupil travelling home to Golders Green, North West London.
The attack, which included the boy’s friends being called “Jewish pigs” and “scum”, follows the throwing of stones at bus windows and antisemitic taunts shouted at youngsters.
Parents have now arranged for a private coach, which already travels to the school from East London, to make an additional stop in Golders Green for youngsters who are now too frightened to catch public buses. It costs around £70 a month for each pupil to use the private service, which currently carries 80 children.
JFS headmaster Jonathan Miller said the incident, on Monday last week, had been taken “very seriously” and that staff had given pupils advice on keeping safe outside school grounds.
The school has 2,000 pupils and is thought to spend more than £130,000 a year on security at its site in Kenton, North West London.
Community Security Trust figures show there were 31 attacks on Jewish pupils travelling to or from UK schools last year…
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch TV Receives Terrorist DVD
The Dutch public broadcasting association NCRV has received a DVD containing threats of terrorist attacks.
The NCRV says it is the same DVD that the Belgian television stations VRT and VTM received on Monday.
That DVD shows three masked and armed men who say they will carry out attacks in Belgium because of its recent decision to send F-16s jets to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan. They say: “Your country will be in a state of chaos and bloodshed, with horrible attacks which can happen at any time and any place.” The DVD cites the terrorist attacks in Madrid, London and New York.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Fatwa Issued Against Italian Politician
A far right Italian politician — nicknamed “The Sheriff” — has reportedly been slapped with a fatwa in response to his anti-Islam, and anti-immigrant, rhetoric. But it may only encourage him.
He likes to express controversial opinions, like the notion that police should “ethnically cleanse” homosexuals or that immigrants in public parks should be “dressed up like rabbits” and used for target practice. But now Giancarlo Gentilini, the deputy mayor of the northeastern Italian city of Treviso, has reportedly had a fatwa declared against him.
“I defend my culture, my religion and civilization without any fear, and so it is natural that I will make some enemies,” Gentilini, who belongs to the anti-immigrant, far-right Northern League party, told the Italian news agency ANSA Friday.
Gentilini’s name can be found on a list of men to be killed on an Islamic Web site based in Lebanon, according to ilpadano.com, a news site with ties to the Northern League. The site’s name is related to the term “Padania,” which the party uses to denote northern Italy.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
First British ID Cards Introduced
The UK has taken the first significant step down the road towards rolling out a controversial new national ID card system.
Foreign students applying to study in Britain and those entering on marriage visas will now have to obtain a biometric identity card.
The Home Office expects 50,000 to 60,000 students will be affected in the first phase between now and March.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said the scheme would demonstrate “our commitment to preventing immigration abuse and protecting the prosperity of the UK”.
However, the move has been criticised by opponents of a national identity card scheme.
They accuse the government of using some of most vulnerable groups in society as guinea pigs for an untried and controversial system.
[…]
Initially this will mean around 200,000 airport workers will be forced to sign up as a condition of employment, because they work in highly sensitive positions.
In 2010, British students will be encouraged to register for an identity card before they open bank accounts.
>From 2012, the cards will become available to the general population.
People applying for a new passport will asked to register their biometric data — although they will be able to opt out of being issued with a card.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Moroccan Arrested in Florence for Beating Wife and Daughter
Florence, 24 Nov. (AKI) — A 28-year-old Moroccan was arrested in the central Italian city of Florence on Monday for abusing his wife and young daughter. He is alleged to have poured boiling oil and stubbed out cigarettes on his wife and having beaten her and their young daughter.
The man’s 25-year-old wife reported the man to the police last week after a particularly savage beating. The man is also alleged to have refused to send the child to school in case the teachers noticed bruises on her body.
She claims she was forced to marry him at the age of 20 and told police that her husband had stubbed out cigarettes on her arms and legs and on one occasion threw a pan of boiling oil over her, causing burns.
The man had no regular job, drank, and had become increasingly violent, his wife told police.
Italy’s Association of Moroccan Women has repeatedly denounced domestic violence against Muslim women in Italy.
The association’s president, Souad Sbai, earlier this year claimed there were women being kept chained up in their homes and girls as young as four or five being forced to wear the Islamic veil all year round.
“The problem of violence towards women in Italy is dire. Although many seek to hide it, violence towards women is growing at an alarming rate,” Sbai said ahead of a march in the Italian capital Rome last November to protest male violence.
The Rome march was attended by thousands of women and 400 women’s associations from across Italy.
Sbai, who is now an MP for the ruling conservative People of Freedom party, has urged specific policies to protect women’s rights.
The average age of the female victims is falling, according to the Italian official statistics agency ISTAT.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Muslim Football Players Make Headlines
Rome, 24 Nov. (AKI) — Ghanian Muslim footballer Sulley Ali Muntari has received a positive response from Italian Muslims after celebrating a goal by performing the Muslim ‘Sujud’ or prostration to God during an important Italian football match. Muntari, who plays for Italy’s Inter Milan, scored the winning 1-0 goal against Juventus on Saturday and thanked God on the field.
“Not because we root for Inter , but because we are Muslims, we cannot do anything but rejoice for the ‘Sujud ash-Shukr’, of Sulley Ali Muntari who reminded all of us how you honour Allah, even on a football field,” said the Italian Muslim website, Islam Online.
“We are certain that Muntari’s example will be important for thousands of young Muslims that make up an important part of the sport in Italy,” said Hamza Piccardo director of Islam-Online.it in an interview with Adnkronos International (AKI).
The position of Sujud — usually performed during prayers — involves having the nose, forehead, hands, knees and toes touching the ground together. The ‘Sujud’ of thankfulness used to be performed by Islam’s Prophet Mohammed, whenever he heard good news that made him happy. He would then perform ‘Sujud’ to thank God for it.
“We always see football players and other athletes who do the sign of the cross when they enter the field, and it pleases us that players from the top league remember their spiritual dimension in the moment of rejoicing,” said Piccardo.
“Contrary to what critics say, Islam is wholly compatible with all healthy lifestyles in the West and Muntari’s case is the proof in its most strong and spectacular way,” concluded Piccardo.
Meanwhile, another Muslim football player, Mohammed Sissoko who plays for Juventus, says he feels proud of being a Muslim and says he fasts during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.
“I am proud of being a Muslim and I follow Ramadan even during the football tournament,” the Malian-born with French citizen Sissoko told the Dubai-based Arab TV network al-Arabiya.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Convert Introduces ‘Islamic Yoga’ to UK
After searching for a year for a fitness routine compatible with her Islamic faith, Fatima Ismael, a 32-year-old British mother of three discovered Rakha, a new yoga-like workout that incorporates Islamic chants rather than Hindu mantras.
The new Islam-inspired total body fitness routine, designed by a British convert, may be the yoga alternative Muslims are searching for following a fatwa, or religious ruling, by a Malaysian sheikh denouncing yoga as un-Islamic.
Rakha, the Arabic term for prosperity, is gaining popularity among British Muslims eager for healthy lifestyles. A basic routine begins stretches and light cardiovascular exercise, which raises energy and increases awareness.
This is followed by a series of steps emulating prayer movements mixed in with tai chi techniques. Yoga breathing and stretching techniques are used throughout the routine to help center the body and relax.
Instead of Hindu mantras, anasheeds or Islam-inspired religious hymns are used to trigger the spiritual state of mind.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
New Alarm Over Prison Overcrowding
Deportation of foreign inmates urged
(ANSA) — Rome, November 24 — Prison workers sounded a fresh alarm on Monday about the dangerous levels of overcrowding in Italian jails. Italy’s two corrections officers’ unions, SAPPE and OSAPP, warned the situation was critical, after figures last week showed a system struggling to cope with a third more prisoners than its official capacity. ‘‘Emergency measures are needed or the whole system will implode,’’ said SAPPE secretary Donato Capece. ‘‘There is also a pressing need for a complete overhaul of the country’s prisons, starting with the expulsion of foreign inmates’’.
OSAPP, which raised the issue last week, said the government’s response had been ‘‘inadequate’’ so far. Justice Minister Angelino Alfano promised new prisons and more officers in response to an OSAPP report that 58,250 prisoners were being housed in facilities designed for 43,000 inmates. But the union said this was not enough. It called for immediate, emergency action to deal with the situation, pointing to Milan and Rome as particularly worrying examples of the problem. Rome’s Rebibbia complex, which has a capacity of 1,270, is now home to 1,470 prisoners. Six to seven inmates are being housed in four-bed rooms, and leisure rooms have been converted into makeshift dormitories, said OSAPP.
The situation in Milan’s San Vittore prison is even worse, the union continued, with 1,300 prisoners in a space designed for just 850 people. OSAPP and SAPPE said the overcrowding meant the guard-inmate ratio was dangerously low, while staff were being forced to do longer hours and additional unpaid work just to keep the facilities functioning. Antigone, a group that campaigns for better jail conditions, highlighted the impact of overcrowding on prisoners.
Antigone chair Patrizio Gonnella said around 1,000 additional prisoners are entering Italian jails each month, adding that revolts were ‘‘inevitable’’ if numbers continued to rise.
The alarm over prison numbers comes less than three years after an amnesty under the last government aimed at easing overcrowding. The pardon was approved with bilateral consensus, with 80% of MPs voting for it despite popular feeling against it. Since then politicians and prison officials have largely ignored the issue, OSAPP leader Leo Beneduci said. Approved in May 2006 by the then new centre-left government, the pardon knocked three years off sentences and led to the release of almost 27,000 inmates.
Some 20% of those released have since been re-arrested for committing fresh crimes.
The pardon also controversially covered all crimes committed before May 2, 2006, making it applicable to past, present and future sentences.
Given the slow pace of the Italian trial system, which allows two appeals before a sentence is considered definitive, the pardon will have an effect for years to come. A recent report released by prison health officials warned that at least 15% of inmates held in Italian jails have AIDS.
The report also revealed that 25% of the country’s inmates have tuberculosis while another 38% suffer from hepatitis.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Protestants Hope to Reform Calvin Image
Switzerland’s Protestant churches have launched the 500-year celebrations of the birth of John Calvin, a formative figure in the Reformation.
The organisers hope the year of events will challenge people’s often-negative image of Calvin, who transformed Geneva into a base for French Protestantism and an intellectual centre of Europe.
Officials from the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, the Swiss Protestant Church Federation and from Reformed congregations from around the world launched the commemorative year on Sunday at the Reformers’ Wall in Geneva.
“Calvin, the visionary Reformer, sparked off a movement which has spread to the four corners of the Earth: more than 80 million Christians living in 107 countries today acknowledge his legacy,” said Setri Nyomi, the general secretary of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches.
Calvin was a French Protestant theologian and a central developer of Calvinism, or Reformed theology. In Geneva, where he sought exile from 1536 to his death in 1564, his ministry both attracted other Protestant refugees and over time made Geneva a major force in the spread of Reformed theology.
Organisers of the anniversary year are planning a series of public exhibitions, plays, lectures and concerts. The high point of the year is an official ceremony in Geneva on July 10, 2009, the 500th anniversary of the reformer’s birth, to which key religious and political figures are invited.
The organisers are hoping these events will help redress some of the clichés and unfavourable images surrounding Calvin…
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Rabat: Dutch-Moroccans Should Integrate
Morocco’s Foreign Minister Taieb Fassi Fihri has told his Dutch counterpart Maxime Verhagen that Rabat does not want to impede the integration of Moroccans living in the Netherlands into Dutch society. Foreign Minister Verhagen is currently on a visit to Morocco.
The foreign ministers have already signed an agreement strengthening cooperation on a number of issues, including illegal immigration, the drug trade and terrorism. They also discussed Rabat’s influence on imams working in the Netherlands. Minister Fassi Fihri said Rabat only wants to help and he called on Moroccans living in the Netherlands to integrate fully into Dutch society.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Crucifix; Minister, if Offensive to be Removed
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, NOVEMBER 25 — “Any symbol at all that might offend anyone has to be removed”. Thus Spain’s Minister of Education, Social Policy and Sport, Mercedes Cabrera, speaking on Radio Cadena Ser, commented on the sentence passed down by the Valladolid administrative court, which upheld an appeal by lay parents to have the crucifix removed from a school’s classrooms. The discussion over the wisdom or otherwise of removing religious symbols, according to Ms Cabrera “is resolved for us in our constitution, which says that Spain is a non-confessional nation and therefore, its schools must be so as well”. In an interview published today on ABC, the Education Minister stressed that the Government “respects the ruling, as it has done others of the kind” and she pointed out that “parents and school advisors have the right to call for religious symbols to be removed”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Condom Ad Banned by Gothenburg Transit Agency
Bus and tram passengers in Gothenburg have been spared riding in cars with an advertisement featuring two young men which asks, “Do you want to see us put on a condom?”
Västtrafik, which operates public transit in Sweden’s second largest city, has put a stop to the ad, which is part of a campaign for UMO.se, a new web-based helpline for young people.
The ad features two young men and provides a text messaging code which allows people to download a short film featuring a tongue in cheek demonstration of how to put on a condom.
According to Västtrafik, the ad has been banned because it could be considered offensive, reports the newspaper Metro.
But Love Nordenmark from UMO.se believes Västtrafik has missed the point of the ads.
“The point of the campaign is to have young people know how to find UMO.se, where they can get accurate, clear information about safe sex, among other things,” she said in a statement.
“UMO wants to encourage condom use in a playful way and in so doing contribute to fewer people being infected by sexually transmitted diseases.”
Nordenmark added that the ads had been tested in a focus group and were found to be entertaining and provocative.
Public transit systems in Stockholm and Malmö have allowed the controversial ad to run.
While not allowing the condom ad, Västtrafik has approved a different UMO.se ad featuring a girl with the text, “Do you want to see me do something I like?”
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Security High for Visit of Rushdie and Saviano
Swedish police have put additional security measures in place for the appearance on Tuesday evening at a seminar in Stockholm of two of the world’s most endangered authors, Salman Rushdie and Roberto Saviano.
“We have at a dialogue with the organizers about the security arrangements,” police spokesman Ulf Göranzon tolld news agency TT.
The two writers are in the Swedish capital to participate in a discussion hosted by the Swedish Academy on ‘Freedom of speech and lawless violence’.
Roberto Saviano was forced into hiding after his book, Gomorrah, sparked death threats from the Neapolitan Camorra. In his home country, the writer has been provided with armed body guards for round the clock protection.
The Italian author is also planning to remain in the city for the Swedish premiere on Tuesday of a film adaptation of the controversial book at the Stockholm Film Festival.
Salman Rushdie was issued with a fatwah, or death sentence, in 1989 by the Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran following the publication of The Satanic Verses.
“Wherever they move in public, we’ll be there,” said Göranzon of the two writers.
He also confirmed the involvement of the Swedish security police, Säpo, in the security operation.
“There is an ongoing exchange of experiences, with Säpo among others,” said Göranzon.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Neo-Nazi Party Undergoes Makeover
The National Socialist Front (NSF), one of the dominant groups within Sweden’s white-power movement, has disbanded and is re-launching itself as the Folkfronten (‘People’s Front’) party.
“On Saturday, November 22nd, the National Socialist Front (NSF) decided to transfer all of its assets to the newly started People’s Front party as we feel this party has the ability to rebuild a Swedish Sweden. This also means a closing of the books for the National Socialist Front,” the group writes on its website.
According to the magazine Expo, the group has done away with all references to Hilter, but continues to fight for an ethnically homogeneous Sweden.
According to the party’s platform, ethnic Swedes own the right to the country because they share the “same genes and same blood” which belonged to people who “for thousands of years have worked the same earth”.
The party’s aim, therefore, is to “return to the Swedes their power and their rights”.
The new party will be led by two long-time activists in NSF’s national organization, Daniel Höglund and Anders Ärleskog.
The NSF was founded in 1994, but has been without a leader since 1999 when Anders Högström, the group’s leader at the time, surprised his colleagues and the country by announcing he was giving up on Nazism.
The violent radical right wing in Sweden has been in a state of flux and infighting between factions hoping to win over the few committed activists, similar to developments which have taken place among fringe groups on the left.
According to Säpo, Sweden’s security police, the competition has forced the NSF to re-launch itself as a parliamentary alternative, leaving other groups to continue taking the struggle to the streets.
While Folkfronten calls itself a party, it has no plans to participate in the democratic process, according to its newly launched website.
“The party does not participate in the ‘debates’ of parliamentary democracy about the fleeting, irrelevant, theoretical, splitting of hairs, but instead will work for the long term interests of ethnic Swedes,” writes the party.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
The Turkish Question
by Paul Belien
[…]
There are strong indications that the EU establishment in Brussels already considers Turkey to be a member of the European club in all but name. Turkish ministers are already allowed to participate in EU deliberations.
According to Pierre Lellouche, a parliamentarian of France’s governing party whom President Sarkozy has given the task of “relaunching Franco-Turkish relations,” Islamism will be defeated by bringing Turkey into Europe. “We have next door to us, a great secular Muslim country that wants to share our values. It is making the necessary reforms. We would be crazy to say no,” Mr Lellouche says.
He is, however, opposed to putting the matter of Turkey’s EU admission before the French electorate in a referendum because this is “to pollute the debate” with the fear of Islam. “Some play around with the fear factor: that is unworthy. Turkey is not Islamism or terrorism. Because of the fear of Islam and of Arabs, we are saying no for the wrong reasons.”
The question, however, is whether those who say yes to Turkey are not doing so for the wrong reason, namely to prove their point that Islam and democracy are compatible.
Why is it that, after 13 centuries of preserving European identity by opposing Muslim attempts to conquer Europe, some claim that Europe can only preserve its identity, its values and its freedoms by opening its doors to Turkey? Why can Turkey not remain free and democratic and “share our values” without becoming European? Is representative democracy only possible in Europe? Is secularism Europe’s only defining element?
Does it serve the interests of democracy and the West that the largest member state of the EU is an Islamic country, when ordinary Europeans oppose it? Is so, why should it not serve the interests of democracy and the West that Mexico becomes the largest member state of the USA? Does the religion of the Turks — even those of the secularized Muslims — matter to ordinary Europeans? Yes, it does. It matters as much as the language of the Hispanics matters to ordinary Americans. Only politicians intent on changing the nature of the peoples they were elected to represent do not care about such things.
| — Hat tip: AA | [Return to headlines] |
UK Middle Class to Face 61% Tax to Fund Bailouts
High earners face increased National Insurance payments and a new supertax under a raft of measures announced in today’s pre-Budget report.
As widely predicted, Alistair Darling introduced a new top level of tax, which will be imposed on people earning over £150,000 a year. They will pay 45p in the pound, up from 40p, from April 2011.
Less anticipated though was the clawback of the personal allowance for higher earners, which will see some taxpayers effectively paying paying 60p in the £1, according to leading accountants. These changes will not just affect the 1pc of taxpayers earning more than £150,000 a year. It will potentially affect 650,000 people earning more than £100,000 a year. To further rub salt into the wound these higher earners will also pay an additional 1pc in National Insurance costs, giving an effective taxation rate of 61pc — a rate not seen since the late 1980s.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnia: Radical Muslims Arrested for Entering Church
Sarajevo, 24 Nov. (AKI) — Bosnian police arrested two Muslims allegedly linked to a radical ‘Wahabi’ sect after they sought access to a Catholic church in Sarajevo on Sunday. Inspector Dragan Miokovic confirmed on Monday two men were detained by police.
Church of Trinity vicar Ivan Ravlic said the two men knocked on the door of the church late Saturday and asked to see inside the building.
“My answer was that there was no need for them to look at the church at that late hour and that was when they explained they were disturbed by the church bell,” Ravlic said.
The church has its own surveillance system and Ravlic submitted video material to the police.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Oil: Russian Lukoil Investes in Croatia
(ANSAmed) — ROME, NOVEMBER 21 — The large Russian oil company Lukoil has announced that it intends to open 150 petrol stations in Croatia and an oil terminal on the Adriatic coast by 2011. This was reported by the trade commission office in Zagreb. The Russian company, which has already invested USD 70 million in the local market in 2008, acquired the local oil company Europa MIL this spring, thus becoming the owner of 14 points of sale in Croatia and a terminal for the transhipment of oil in Vukovar, on the Danube. Moreover, Lukoil has announced that it intends to be the second-largest company in the local oil market by 2011 after the INA-MOL group. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia-Russia: Energy Deal Talks at Ministerial Level
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, NOVEMBER 21 — Talks on the energy agreement between Serbia and Russia that have been held over the last few days in Belgrade will move next week to Moscow, reports radio B92. Ministers will take over the negotiations from the expert groups. The Serbian delegation will include Deputy Prime Minister Ivica Dacic, Mining and Energy Minister Petar Skundric and Infrastructure Minister Milutin Mrkonjic, while the Russian side will be headed by Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu. The Serbian are going into the talks in Moscow on the basis of the hitherto unrevealed negotiating platform adopted by the government yesterday. Nor is it clear whether the two sides have agreed on any of the details of the gas agreement in Belgrade over the last few days. Under the initial plan, the agreement was due to have been signed no later than the end of the year, though the Russians expect it to happen earlier. The dialogue will continue in Moscow on Monday, but Trade and Services Minister Slobodan Milosavljevic would only reveal that the Serbian delegation had a pre-formulated platform. “I think one of the issues up for discussion with Minister Shoigu will be the gas-oil arrangement, and this is a chance for a solution to be reached in direct talks between the two co-presidents of the mixed commission, and for the interests of both sides to be satisfied in the best possible manner,” he underlined. Like Milosavljevic, nor was Russian Ambassador to Belgrade Aleksandr Konuzin keen to discuss the finer points of the talks. All that is known for the moment is that Gazprom representatives have accepted the pension plan and collective agreement for Serbian Oil Industry (NIS) employees. The most important issue, however, remains up in the air how the Russian side reacted to the government’s latest proposal to increase the investment in NIS and for the sale of the company to be tied in with the construction of the South Stream pipeline. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU Bids to Bring Africa Into Immigration Pact
(PARIS) — European Union ministers sought Tuesday to enlist counterparts from 27 African countries in a new effort to curb the flood of illegal immigration.
EU leaders last month adopted a new immigration pact, largely with France’s input, that seeks to tailor policies of the 27-nation bloc to meet labour needs while tightening the screws on illegal residents.
But African governments view the shift with unease, concerned that “Fortress Europe” is toughening its stance as they struggle with a food crisis at home.
“A policy on migration cannot be defined without or against Africa, but rather with Africa,” French Immigration Minister Brice Hortefeux told the opening of the EU-Africa ministerial conference in Paris.
“The objective of the European pact is to avoid a Europe that is a bunker or a sieve.”
“A willingness to hold a dialogue must be at the centre of our migration patterns,” he added, noting that two thirds of immigrants in France are from Africa.
Ministers are to adopt a cooperation programme for the next three years to step up the fight against illegal immigration and also look at development programmes to create work opportunities for Africans at home.
Moroccan Foreign Minister Taieb Fassi Fihri called on Europeans to be “realistic”, arguing that tough immigration laws would not discourage migrants from trying to reach Europe.
“We urge, we demand that our northern partners opt for a constructive and open stance,” he said, and called for “opening up legal immigration channels” as way to combat illegal flows.
Alain Bedouma Yoda, the foreign minister of Burkina-Faso, said more development projects were needed to bolster prospects at home and an easing of entry regulations to combat human-trafficking.
Some 80 delegations are taking part in a one-day meeting including the 27 nations of the European Union and 27 from northern, western and central Africa.
In the run up to the meeting, a coalition of 300 non-governmental organisations called “Bridges, not Walls” had denounced the EU’s new immigration stance as “essentially security-driven and self-serving.”
The European Pact on Immigration and Asylum adopted in October sets out principles for managing migration, fighting illegal immigration and forming partnerships with countries where people leave or travel through to get to Europe.
Rights groups charge that the new pact is repressive and puts too much emphasis on regulating immigration flows to allow more skilled workers and fewer refugees.
Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade this month used the historic win of Barack Obama, the first African American in the White House, to take a swipe at the EU’s new immigration pact.
“Why did they do that? They did it to close the doors to black people except for officials, managers, engineers, doctors: the people they need. There the racism disappears,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey, Germany Sign Deal on Financial Aid
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, NOVEMBER 4 — Turkish and German officials have signed an agreement on a 19.7 million euro loan and grant, a statement from the Turkish Treasury said as reported by Anatolia news agency. The deal was signed by German Ambassador in Ankara Eckart
z and Undersecretary for the Turkish Treasury Ibrahim Canakci, and it sealed a 18.7 million euro loan and one million euros grant from the German government. The loan and the grant will be allocated for water treatment projects and for funding small-scale enterprises. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Cairo Film Fest Brings Islam to the Big Screen
A group of media students from Cairo University stood at the ticket counter of Good News Cinema waiting to purchase their tickets to Return to Hansala, the last of five films featured at the 32nd Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) under the newly added theme Islam in the International Cinema.
Even prior to watching the film, scepticism about the accuracy and fairness of portraying Islam and Muslims in Western media was high.
“How different will it be from other movies we have seen?” was Mahmud Shafi’s rhetorical question. “These movies try to understand Islamic culture but always end up resorting to stereotypes to wrap up a story,” 20-year-old Shafi told AlArabiya.net as he waited in line.
The festival, which kicked off on last Tuesday, has a history of launching new artistic initiatives every year to further develop the Arab film industry. It is the only Arab festival belonging to the International Federation of Film, which includes Cannes and 11 other major festivals.
“For this year’s competition we added two new categories which we found pressing and timely: Human Rights Films and Islam in International Cinema,” Egyptian media critic and CIFF Jury member Yusuf Sherif Rizqullah told AlArabiya.net.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Violence Against Women: Algeria; Phenomenon on the Rise
(by Laura De Santi) (ANSAmed)- ALGIERS, NOVEMBER 24 — More than 4,500 cases of violence against women have been registered in Algeria in the first six months of the year, double compared to 2001. Numbers that are far away from reality in a country where due to fear and shame, most of the victims remain silent. According to data presented by the judiciary police headquarters, between January and June of 2008, about 2,700 women suffered physical violence, 1,400 cruelties, and 144 rapes. Four women were killed: two by their husband, one by their brother, and one by their father. “Indiscriminate violence is suffered by women of all ages”, revealed Commissioner Messaoudene Kheira, of the National Office for the Fight Against Infantile Delinquency, and Woman’s Protection, underlining that most of the victims do not follow up after reporting violence. “There are numerous cases in which they do not return to hand in the medical certificate requested to complete the report”, specified an officer, condemning a society “that judges and accuses woman, always, even when they are victims”. Among the cases of violence registered in the first 6 months of this year: 72% were carried out by “presumed” strangers, 15.8% by husbands, 4.21% by boyfriends, 3.21% by brothers, 2.9% by a son, and 0.77% by fathers. As for age of the victims: 28% are between 26 and 35 years old, 25pct between 18 and 25, 21% between 36 and 45, 13% between 46 and 55, and even cases of violence carried out on women over the age of 75 (1.7%) as well as woman between 56 and 65 (5.9%). “We know that in Algeria, the victims remain silent, and the phenomenon of family violence is the most widespread of those in the statistics”, said the president of the government Commission for Human Rights, Farouk Ksetini, speaking on the day against violence against woman in the world, reported Aps. A new law that allows “a simple witness, neighbours, doctors, to report it”, could for Ksentini mark a change in the fight against this type of violence. Current legislation allows only for the victim, in this case the woman, to present a report. The problem in Algeria remains the “Family Code” which since 1984 regulates family life giving women second class citizenship. “Why instead of thinking about an article for the constitution, don’t we abolish which ‘Code of Infamy’?, ask Algerian feminist associations. The revision of the constitution, approved on November 12th and centred on the elimination of a two mandate limit for the president of the republic, introduced and article to “support a greater participation of women”. But the in new government “despite reform, there are only three women” was the title a few days ago of the front page of independent newspaper ‘Le Soir d’Algerié. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Women Violence: Maghreb; Too Many Inequalities in Couples
(by Cristiana Missori) (ANSAmed) — ROME, NOVEMBER 24 — Ignorance, suspicion, fear of social conventions, and masculine biases force Maghreb women to live out their marriages in a condition of inferiority compared to men. Saying this is the latest report by Global Rights, an international support organisation for the respect of human rights which for 30 years has been working together with local activists to oppose all kinds of injustices. Despite recent reforms in the family code which is in effect in Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria — read from a study done by doing singular and interviews, groups of women in the three countries, asking them to express their opinions on their marriage contract — the rights of married women are too often trampled. Laws — continued the study — like those which formally introduced equality between spouses in terms of rights and duties of the couple (towards their children and the management of family issues), which provide for the spouses to opt for a communal estate, or which sanction the elimination of marital protection for women (Morocco and Tunisia), and the ending of repudiation practices (not in Algeria where, among other things, polygamy has not banned) have been enacted. All regulations that are not widely applied or are completely ignored. Women, as the report highlights, are confused, and are not able to distinguish between what the law and common sense allow for them, and that which descends from customs and practices handed down for generations. In a majority of the cases, for example — wrote Global Rights — those interviewed ignored the content of the signed contract when they were wed, others know little more than that the text has the name of both spouses on it. Many believe that only the contract only concerns the man and only he should be concerned with conservation the document, while in many cases, the contract has been signed “in absentia”. In Zagora, in Morocco, reported Global Rights, only 1% of brides have admitted to have had anything to do with the contract, while in Tunisia, in Zaghouan, 90pct were completely without a contract. Many of the women were misinformed and confused. Like in Marrakech or Tetouan, where respectively from 70% to 80% of those interviewed did not know that, following the reform of the 2004 family code, it is possible to enter specific clauses into the Moroccan matrimonial contract. Those who knew more about the contract — confirmed the report — were young, educated women (between 28 and 38 years old). Sometimes, women are forced to hide this piece of paper from their husbands and/or family members, in order to protect themselves and their children. Their worst enemy, other than ignorance, is the mentality that still prevails in the Maghreb. Impeding wives, reminded the organisation, are adouls (officers of Muslim rights with notary functions), the state officials and judges who always favour men to the detriment of women. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Barak: Hizbullah Now Three Times Stronger Than in 2006 War
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told the Knesset on Monday that Lebanon’s Hizbullah resistance group is three times stronger now than it was during the summer 2006 war. “The firepower of Hizbullah has grown threefold since the second Lebanon war,” he said.
“It has missiles that can reach the towns of Ashkelon, Beersheba and Dimona [in southern Israel more than 200 kilometers from the Lebanese border]. Today Hizbullah has 42,000 missiles,” Barak told MPs.
Hizbullah fired nearly 4,000 rockets at northern Israel during the 34-day war in the summer of 2006, killing 160 people, the great majority of them soldiers. Israel carried out tens of thousands of air and artillery strikes, and spread about 4 million cluster bomblets, killing at least 1,200 people, most of them civilians, including hundreds of women and children.
Barak also renewed warnings issued by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert earlier this year that in any new war Israel would take even tougher action against Lebanon’s civilian infrastructure than it did in 2006. During that conflict, the Jewish state pounded civilian infrastructure, including schools, a power station, Beirut’s airport, dozens of bridges and thousands of homes. […]
“To all the warmongers I say: you have nothing to teach me about war or peace or my duties,” said Barak, a reserve general and former army chief. “I am defense minister, not war minister, and my job is to maintain as far as possible the maximum of security for Israeli citizens. In any case, if a pre-emptive operation proves necessary, the army will act.” […]
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Hamas Terrorist Threatens Palestinian Leader
‘We warn everyone of the consequences of giving him legitimacy’
TEL AVIV — Any agreement signed between Israel and the Palestinian Authority will not be recognized by the vast majority of the Palestinian people and will not be respected by terrorist groups here, a senior terrorist leader claimed to WND in an exclusive interview yesterday.
Muhammad Abdel-Al, spokesman and a top leader of the Hamas-allied Popular Resistance Committees terror group in Gaza, also took the occasion of the interview to threaten PA President Mahmoud Abbas against attempting to stay in office after his term expires in January.
“We warn everyone of the consequences of any attempt to give Abbas legitimacy after January 9th, because it will have very bad consequences toward Abbas, who in six weeks will not have any authority over the Palestinian people,” he said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hizbullah Denies Carrying Out Military Maneuvers in South
Hizbullah denied on Sunday media reports that it had conducted military drills south of the Litani River over the weekend. The pan-Arab satellite news channel Al-Arabiya reported that Hizbullah had conducted secret military maneuvers north and south of the Litani River on Saturday morning while Lebanon was celebrating its 65th Independence Day with a parade organized by the Lebanese Armed Forces in downtown Beirut.
“The resistance is always ready to counter any Israeli offense, but the latest reports are the fruits of the imagination of Al-Arabiya television,” Hizbullah MP Nawwar Sahili told The Daily Star on Sunday.
Al-Arabiya said that the maneuvers had focused on force deployment in mountainous areas and did not include any live-fire exercises. But the channel’s report added that holding such exercises south of the Litani would constitute a breach of the terms of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which bans armed activities in the area.
UN Resolution 1701, which ended the summer 2006 war with Israel, called for a cessation of hostilities and the establishment between the Blue Line and the Litani River of an area free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons other than those of the Lebanese government and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Jordan Sends Aid to Besieged Gaza Strip
(ANSAmed) — KING HUSSEIN BRIDGE (JORDAN), NOVEMBER 24 — Jordanian officials today oversaw the departure of 10 trucks of humanitarian aid to Gaza strip through the West Bank of Jericho following the deterioration of conditions in the besieged coastal enclave. More than 10 trucks loaded with basic food items and medicine crossed king Hussein Bridge that links the kingdom with the west Bank, said Mohammad Majed Eitan, Secretary General of Jordan Hashemite Organization, the official body responsible for collecting aid. He told ANSA that more aid will be on its way to Gaza, expressing hope that Israel will not put obstacles infront of the convoy. “Ten trucks loaded with necessary food items and medical supplies have left for Gaza. There is another convoy ready to leave in 48 hours. The only obstacle to sending aid is the crossing points when they are closed,” said Eitan. Gaza has been sealed since November 4, as Israel cut food and fuel supplies, when its troops raided the area to destroy what the army described as a tunnel built by militants to kidnap Israeli soldiers. Israel and Hamas have said they want to improve the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire, which began on June 19 and calls on Hamas to halt rockets firing and other attacks against the Jewish state. More than a dozen Palestinian militants have been killed and scores of rockets and mortar shells have been launched at Israel since a few weeks. UNRWA, the UN agency responsible for caring for Palestinian refugees, last week warned of a human catastrophe in Gaza if the current blockade persists, calling on Israeli authorities to open borders with the coastal enclave. In the past three years, Jordan sent 242 aid convoys, involving around 1,500 trucks to the Palestinian territories. Oil rich Arab states use Jordan’s political ties with Israel as a bridge to deliver aid to Palestinians. Jordan is the second Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel after Egypt. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanon to be Ruled by Syria if March 14 Loses Poll — Jumblatt
Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt warned on Monday that a defeat for the March 14 Forces in parliamentary elections slated for next spring would mean a return of Syrian rule to Lebanon. “We are approaching pivotal and decisive elections,” Jumblatt, a leader of the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority in Beirut, told reporters after meeting with Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir.
“Now more than ever, the movement for a free, independent and sovereign Lebanon… and a [state] monopoly over weapons and equal relations with Syria are at risk,” he said.
The thorny issue of Hizbullah’s arms remains a major stumbling block for Lebanon’s rival leaders, while the Iran-backed Shiite group maintains its weapons are essential to defend the country against Israel. “If this movement for sovereignty fails in the elections, then Rustom Ghazali [the former head of Syrian military intelligence in Lebanon] will run Lebanon from an office in Syria,” Jumblatt added.
Damascus maintained an almost three-decade military presence in Lebanon before being forced to withdraw after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005. While the two neighbors have announced the establishment of diplomatic relations for the first time in history, relations remain tense. […]
“The new administration wants to loosen its disengagement of Syria or return to normal relations with Syria,” Jumblatt told reporters. “As the Cedar Revolution, we need to be careful not to allow activity on the Syrian-Israeli track to come at the expense of Lebanon.” […]
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Middle East: Abu Mazen ‘Palestine President’, Hamas Protest
(by Aldo Baquis) (ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, NOVEMBER 24 — Relations between Ramallah and Gaza are even more strained after Abu Mazen (Mahmud Abbas) agreed to hold the position which Yasser Arafat held of ‘President of the State of Palestine’’, going one step further than that of ‘Chairman of the Palestinian National Authority’. The first title comes out of the unilateral proclamation of Palestinian independence in 1988 and has been vacant since the death of Arafat in 2004. The other title comes from the agreement to recognition by Israel in 1993. But for Hamas, Abu Mazen’s appointment is a simple “political expedient”. Hamas repeated today from Gaza that Abu Mazen’s mandate expires in January 2009, four years after his election. After which, it will be necessary to choose another president. In his first speech as President of Palestine, shown on State TV, Abu Mazen displayed great determination. He immediately paid homage to Arafat and said that “one day the Palestinian flag will fly on the walls of Jerusalem, on its churches and minarets”. Then moving on to questions of a more immediate nature, he stressed the need to defend the unity of the Palestinian people against the “military coup of Gaza” or Hamas. If these think they can decide for a whole population, he exclaimed “they are fooling themselves, fooling themselves, fooling themselves”. After taking central command, police stations and refugee camps by force in June 2007, they now want “to create a separatist regime in our beloved Gaza” he complained: but this objective will not be realised, he promised. Finally Abu Mazen repeated the ultimatum launched yesterday: if Hamas does not repair relations with Ramallah by the end of 2008 it will be necessary in the coming months to hold new political and presidential elections in the Territories. Hamas replied to this speech by launching fresh barbs against Abu Mazen’s character. The election as President of Palestine, said Islamic MP Sallah al-Bardawil, has no value. The central Council of the PLO which ‘crowned’ him yesterday “represents only itself”. In the meantime the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains serious, after 20 days of the passes being closed by Israel over a recent outbreak of incidents at the borders and Palestinian rocket launches. Today the Defence Minister Ehud Barak agreed to the introduction of thirty lorries of provisions and medicines and new fuel supplies for industry. But the block against people is still in effect today: as a result the foreign press association in Israel has gone to the High Court of Jerusalem. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Mideast: Mahmoud Abbas, Vote in Territories, Hamas Says No
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, NOVEMBER 24 — The crisis between the president of the Palestinian authority, Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and the leaders of Hamas is reaching the moment of truth. In a speech to the Central Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Ramallah, Abu Mazen revealed that he wanted to set a deadline: if a common platform between the PNA and Hamas (which has been openly dissident since June 2007, when they seized the Gaza Strip by force) is not reached, then there will be new general and presidential elections set for the Territories at the start of 2009. In less than an hour, Abbas received the following unequivocal response from Hamas’ Mahmud a-Zahar, a local leader of the group: ‘‘Mahmoud Abbas has no right to order elections. Once more he ignores the Palestinian Legislative Coucil (PLC — the Territories’ parliament), once more he is trying to break the law’’. According to Hamas, the mandate of Abbas runs out in January 2009, four years after his election. In the past the president has upheld that he should remain in his post until the start of 2010 — when the PLC mandate will come to a close — in order to hold general and presidential elections at the same time. Yesterday, Mahmoud Abbas seemed to be taking a step backwards when he suggested that elections could be held as soon as next year. Abbas has told the members of PLO Central Committee that he has not yet given up hope of finding common ground with Hamas, but clarified that there were new ideas being brought to the table by Egypt. Egypt has suggested the formation of a transitional government which will allow both political and geographical schism between Ramallah and Gaza. Furthermore, the new plans foresee a reform of the Palestinian security services. But the problems still remain. Hamas has rejected the idea that Abbas’ executive ‘‘is based on the politics of the PLO’’ which in fact contains the recognition of Israel, the Oslo Accords and the Quartet peace treaty. For Ismail Haniyeh and Mahmud a-Zahar this amounts to admitting defeat. Hamas sees ‘‘a dangerous readiness to fulfill Israeli and United States’ expectations’’ in the president of the PNA’s government. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Mideast: PLO Proclaims Mahmoud Abbas ‘Palestinian President’
(ANSAmed) — RAMALLAH, NOVEMBER 24 — The Central Council of the Plo (Palestinian Liberation Organization) yesterday with a wide majority proclaimed Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) ‘President of the State of Palestine’, and not just President of the Palestinian National Authority anymore, reported Palestinian newspaper al-Quds today. The announcement of the Plo, added the newspaper, came from Salim Zaanun, according to whom, the official responsibility of ‘President of the State of Palestine’ was vacant after the dead of Yasser Arafat on November 11th, 2004. Starting today, the role will be filled by Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) who for the occasion, is expected to address the nation. From Gaza, Hamas immediately reacted negatively observing that it is “only a manoeuvre” of Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) to ignore the January 2009 expiration of his mandate as PNA president. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia’s Turn to be Accused of Funding Fatah Al-Islam
After denials from Damascus and fury from the Future Movement, Saudi Arabia has become the latest powerbroker in Lebanon to find itself accused of funding members of the Fatah al-Islam militant group.
An intelligence analysis published by Stratfor, a Texas-based company dubbed the “shadow CIA” by some, claims that Riyadh has been channeling money to Abdul Rahman Awad, a fugitive militant currently thought to be holed up at the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in Sidon.
The Stratfor report says that Fatah al-Islam had “long been sponsored by Syrian military intelligence,” but claims Damascus has recently cut its links with the group in an effort to build ties with new President Michel Sleiman.
But Syrian support for the group has been replaced, the report says, by that of Saudi Arabia, whose operatives are accused of seeking to stir up anti-Syrian sentiment in Lebanon. The report notes that Riyadh and Damascus are “locked in a battle for influence over Lebanon.” […]
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Terrorism: Saudi Arabia to Issue New Law Against it
(ANSAmed) — ROMA, NOVEMBER 24 — The Experts Committee in the Saudi Council of Ministers is currently studying a draft law to punish those involved in terrorism and other criminal activities that undermine the country’s security, Arab News reported today. The discussion on the draft law, which should be approved soon, comes at a time when a security court in Riyadh is looking into the files of 991 suspects of being involved in terrorist operations across the Kingdom since May 2003. An informed source emphasized the need for such a law after the Kingdom’s judicial authorities issued different verdicts against people involved in crimes that undermine state security. Those involved in such crimes will be given a maximum sentence of capital punishment, the source added. Until recently, crimes related to state security had been looked into by general courts. Saudi Arabia has announced plans to set up specialized courts for traffic, trade and personal matters. Interior Minister Prince Naif said that the “criminal murderers” had carried out more than 30 terror attacks in the Kingdom, and described the various crimes of bombing, kidnapping and terrorizing people as crimes of ‘Haraba’ a Qùranic term for “sowing corruption and chaos on earth”. In the meantime, the Supreme Judiciary Council has appointed a six-member team of experienced judges led by Abdul Mohsen Al-Asheikh, chief judge of the security court, to study the files of terror suspects. The study of the suspects’ files will take time, the source said, adding that it would be completed by the third quarter of next year. Maximum security measures will be taken when the suspects are brought to the court for trial. According to one source, there is a shortage of judges in the Ministry of Justice and this might delay the actual hearings. Minister of Justice Abdullah Al-Asheikh said that extra precautionary measures had been taken in order to ensure privacy and maximum trial security. The Justice Ministry will provide details of the closed sessions to local and international media. The accused will have the right to hire lawyers for their defense in accordance with Saudi law, but number of lawyers have reportedly refused to defend suspects charged with terrorism. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Terrorism: Syria and Iran Benefit From Al-Qaeda, Says Jihadi Leader
Cairo, 24 Nov. (AKI) — Syria and Iran are happy about the existence of Al-Qaeda because its members attack their enemies for them, according to the leader of Islamic jihad in Egypt, Sayed Abdel Qader ibn Abdelaziz. Abdelaziz, also known as Doctor Fazel, makes his claims in a new book, excerpts of which are published in the Arab daily, Al-Sharq al-Awsat.
“There is no doubt that Syria and Iran are among the happiest about the existence of the Al-Qaeda organisation, because if it was not for them (Al-Qaeda), they would have to recruit people willing to blow up those who strike their interests,” he said.
The book entitled, ‘Memo on Exoneration’, has reportedly been written in response to several attacks launched against him by Al-Qaeda’s second in command, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, several months ago.
In this way, the Egyptian leader intends to refute the affirmations of Al-Zawahiri.
“The contrary is true. They are responsible for allowing the United States to enter Iraq and Afghanistan and the subsequent occupation,” Fazel said. “They gave the Americans false information about their relations with Iraq and the presence of weapons of mass destruction to give them the excuse to invade the country.
“They did that only to exhaust the Americans on the battlefield even if those from Al-Qaeda have killed double the number of Iraqis than the United States.”
The Islamic jihadi leader condemned the sectarian clashes in Iraq and said they had played a “destructive” impact on Muslims.
“We see how that is happening in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and in Waziristan in Pakistan. Iran and Syria are now taking advantage of all these deaths to pave the way for whoever wants to conduct jihad in Iraq.
“Do they do it perhaps for love of the Iraqi people or their interests? Don’t the top leaders of Al-Qaeda live in Iran, like the son of Bin Laden, who incite young people to fight in Iraq? Wasn’t Al-Zawahiri the one who sent his brothers to fight in Egypt, paid by the Sudanese secret service?.”
Elsewhere in the book Doctor Fazel said there were only three others, apart from Osama Bin Laden, who knew about preparations for the 9/11 terrorist attacks against the US.
He said Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Hafs al-Masri and a third man, who was not al-Zawahiri, knew about the attacks.
Khaled Sheikh Mohammed is considered one of the masterminds of the attacks on the World Trade Center, was arrested in Pakistan in 2003 and is imprisoned in the US.
Abu Hafs al-Masri was responsible for deadly attacks in Luxor, Egypt in 1997 and was killed in a US raid in Afghanistan in 2001.
Mullah Omar, the head of the Taliban, opposed the attacks, Fazel said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey is Trying to Pull Arab Investments, Minister Says
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, NOVEMBER 24 — The capital of the Gulf countries would be best used by investments in Turkey, Turkish State Minister Kursad Tuzmen said as Today’s Zaman reports. Speaking to the Anatolian news agency in southern province of Mersin, Tuzmen said that “the Arab capital could be used to finance Turkey’s exports. The investment clouds of the Arabic capital will rain on somewhere definitely. We are trying to pull Arab investments to Turkey”. “Due to the ongoing economic crisis, the Arab capital does not trust the American and European markets as much as it did in the past. Arabic capital would be best valued in Turkey,” Tuzmen said. Turkey’s exports to the Middle East increased by 65% when compared to last year and the trade volume has reached an amount of USD 12 billion, Tuzmen also said. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish PM U-Turns on IMF, Says May Make USD 20-40 Bln Deal
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, NOVEMBER 20 — Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said an accord with the International Monetary Fund was close and Turkey may receive some $20 billion to $40 billion in loans, Radikal newspaper reported today. This signals an important shift in Erdogan’s stance towards the Washington-based fund as previously he slammed IMF for demanding tougher cost cutting measures. The AKP government desired to be the administration who ended the financial support of IMF ahead of the local elections in 2009. Turkey’s $10 billion loan accord with the IMF expired in May and business leaders have been calling for a fresh agreement to boost the flagging economy. “Talks are continuing. The conditions are on the verge of being agreed. There are not many problems remaining. There could be an agreement any moment,” Radikal reported Erdogan as telling his AKP’s central executive board on Wednesday evening. IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said at the weekend the Fund had not reached an agreement for a new loan deal with Turkey but that a package was close. Turkey and the IMF have been locked in negotiations for fresh funding but disagreement on issues such as spending by municipalities has hampered progress. Erdogan has said previously the government does not want to sign a new loan accord if the IMF program exerted excessive constraints on budget spending, taxes, economic growth and public investments. But Ankara is under increasing pressure to reach an agreement as its economy slows sharply under the influence of the global financial crisis, which has forced Ukraine, Hungary, Iceland and Serbia to seek IMF financial aid. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Women Violence: S. Arabia; Fines Against Workplace Harassment
(ANSAmed) — ROME, NOVEMBER 24 — Saudi Arabia is planning to impose tougher punishments to prevent harassment of women in work places. A new law calling for a maximum fine of SR100,000 (20,725 Euro) and three years jail will be passed soon by the Shoura Council. A special committee of the 150-member council is discussing the draft law and will present it to the full assembly after Eid Al-Adha, Arab News reported. The bill set a minimum fine of SR20,000 (4,145 euro) and six months in jail for the offense, said Mazen Balilah, the Shoura member who proposed the law. Balilah said the head of the company or organization would be questioned if there were any negligence on his part in preventing harassment. The draft law explicitly states that sexual harassment does not mean only physical contact, but may also take place over the phone or through physical gestures or speech. Actions that may constitute sexual harassment include hanging lewd pictures and provocative comments. The law states that any attempts to set up out-of-office meetings or offers of rides can also be considered harassment. Using managerial power to require women employees to stay longer at the office under the pretext of requiring them to work overtime will also be considered a sexual harassment crime. Article Three urges heads of government departments and directors of government institutions and private companies to create an atmosphere for preventing harassment and to set out strict internal laws for the purpose. Talal Bakri, chairman of the Shoura committee for social, family and youth affairs, urged women to dress modestly to avoid provocations. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Religion: Russian Imams to be Trained in Turkey
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, NOVEMBER 17 — Turkey will start actively preparing educational programs and training Islamic clergymen for Russia, Turkish dailies reported quoting Interfax russian news agency citing the declarations released by Ravil Gainutdin, head of the Russian Muftis Council. “Russia and Turkey have cooperated in the area of Islamic education, pilgrimage, book publishing and clergymen training for 15 years, and now need to broaden this cooperation”, Gainutdin said at a meeting with head of the Turkish Religious Affairs Department, Ali Bardakoglu, in Moscow. “For this purpose, the Russian Muftis Council and the Turkish Religious Affairs Department signed a cooperation agreement”, Gainutdin declared. “Like Russia, Turkey is a secular country, which attaches great importance to human rights, this is why I believe that we can maintain fruitful cooperation in the field of education and publishing”, the Turkish department director said at the signing ceremony. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan: US to Deploy More Troops Near Pakistan
Kabul, 23 Nov. (AKI/DAWN) — Up to 4,000 extra US troops due in Afghanistan in January will be deployed in the east of the country, in a bid to stop militants crossing from Pakistan, the US military has announced. The troops have been approved as part of Afghanistan’s fight against Taliban militants, US military spokesman Col Greg Julian told reporters in Kabul on Sunday.
“The first brigade that is coming will go into the (NATO-led) RC-East (Regional Command East) and they are going to move into areas that are currently not covered,” Col Julian said.
The area includes about a dozen provinces, many of which border Pakistan.
“We recognise that there are certain lines or avenues that the insurgents come through (from Pakistan) and we are focusing our efforts on those,” he said.
International and Afghan troops and their counterparts in Pakistan this month launched the anti-militant ‘Operation Lionheart’ along the border.
“This operation will help to deny the enemies of Afghanistan safe havens in Pakistan,” the spokesman for a NATO-led force Brig-Gen Richard Blanchette, told the media.
Cooperation between NATO troops and the Pakistani army was the best it had ever been, said Brig-Gen Blanchette.
The cooperation was the result of tripartite meetings between the NATO-led ISAF security force in Afghanistan, the Afghan military and Pakistani forces, said Blanchette.
There are currently around 53,000 troops in Afghanistan from around 40 countries making up NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Labour Unrest Alarms China
(Source: The Times of India) By Saibal Dasgupta
BEIJING: Chinese leaders have finally admitted that the country is facing a “grim” situation on the employment front owing to the global economic crisis. An official survey has shown that demand for labour has fallen 5.5% in the third quarter of this year across 84 different cities.
Yin Weimin, head of the ministry of human resources said that labour discontent was a “top concern” of the government as the employment situation has turned “grim”.
The government is clearly worried that unrest among jobless workers would result in protest demonstrations and unruly scenes. The past weeks have seen strikes by taxi drivers in four cities and a workers’ riot at the party headquarters in Gansu province.
China has nearly 150 million migrant workers, who have left their rural homes in central and west China to work in the factories of South China. The extent of unemployment caused in factories cutting back production following loss of export orders is still not known. But the number might prove to be big enough to cause social tension, sources said.
| — Hat tip: turn | [Return to headlines] |
Somalia: Oil-Tanker; Pirates Deny Lowering Ransom
(ANSAmed) — NAIROBI, NOVEMBER 24 — A spokesman for the Somali pirates that seized the Saudi oil-tanker Sirius Star on the 15th of November have denied the amount of the ransom they requested for the liberation of the vessel which went down from 25 million dollars to 15 million, affirming that it had never changed, reported Nairobi radio. In the morning, a spokesman for the Islamic group declared that the request for the ransom had gone down from 25 to 15 million. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Chávez Lets Colombia Rebels Wield Power Inside Venezuela
[…]
For years, President Chávez has denied giving refuge to the FARC and Colombia’s National Liberation Army, or ELN, both considered terrorist organizations by the U.S. and Europe. But as the Colombian military has stepped up pressure against rebels, the number of guerrillas using Venezuela as a safe haven has swelled, according to Colombian officials, intercepted e-mails and dozens of interviews on both sides of the border.
Colombian and U.S. officials say Venezuela’s military and police authorities turn a blind eye to guerrilla activity, and at times cooperate in areas including the trafficking of arms and cocaine. As these groups expand operations here, often in brutal competition with each other, Venezuela has suffered a sharp increase in kidnapping, drug trafficking and extortion.
The guerrillas’ presence in Venezuela could prolong Colombia’s decades-long civil conflict, and hamper U.S. and Colombian efforts to crack down on the drug trade that feeds the violence. The rebels could also prove to be a drain to Mr. Chávez’s political capital in Venezuela, where their activities are unpopular.
| — Hat tip: Fausta | [Return to headlines] |
The Latin American Nuclear Club
[…]
“Hugo Chávez joins the nuclear club,” Russian’s Vedomosti newspaper trumpeted yesterday.
This should not come as a surprise to Latin America watchers, since Chavez has been hinting for quite a while, and France and Venezuela have been working on a nuclear energy deal, too.
Cuba’s nuclear plants may present a threat to the US, but for a different reason: Cuba’s crumbling infrastructure: As this 1992 Heritage Foundation report explains, the two Soviet-designed VVER-440 nuclear reactors in Juragua, near Cienfuegos, just 250 miles from Miami, are mired in faulty design, shipshod construction, and the support structure of the plants contains numerous faulty seals and structural defects…
| — Hat tip: Fausta | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration: Morocco; 28 Sub-Saharans Blocked
(ANSAmed) — RABAT, NOVEMBER 24 — Some 28 sub-Saharan migrants have been arrested by Moroccan security forces on a beach a few kilometres from Laayoune (south-western Sahara). The group of migrants had build a fragile boat from wood and an outboard motor, in which they intended to take on the Atlantic in a bid to reach the Spanish Canary Islands. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration: UNHCR, Asylum Requests in Italy on the Rise
(ANSAmed) — PALERMO, NOVEMBER 24 — “Asylum requests in Italy are on the rise, even if there is not an emergency”. Simply, our country is coming in line with the European average. Up until now, over 20,000 requests have been made, mostly from migrants who have arrived in Italy by boat”. This data was reported by Laura Boldrini, spokesperson in Italy for the UN High Commission for Refugees, in a meeting with 180 students from all of Europe in Palermo, for a seminar on human rights promoted by a linguistic high school. “In 2007 — she added — there were 14,000 requests, 7,000 of which were made by migrants who have arrived on ‘boats of hope’. But coming by sea is becoming growingly risky: those who put their life in danger are in desperate conditions, and have nothing to lose”. Boldrini face the topic of the condition of the refugees speaking about article 14 of the universal Declaration of the Human Rights which talks about asylum. “These initiatives — she said to students from 13 countries — must have support from the institutions. Italian schools have to make a greater effort to prepare young people to become citizens of the world. The condition of refugees — she concluded — is not a choice; anyone can find themselves in such a situation tomorrow”. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Furor Over Racism in Swedish School Book
Parents in Karlskoga in central Sweden are up in arms over what they see as racist and sexist passages in a book designed to help first graders learn how to read.
“The book is entirely inappropriate and solidifies outdated stereotypes about diversity and gender, things which our curriculum is designed to work against,” said the county’s equality strategist Bruno Rudström to the Karlskoga-Kuriren newspaper.
One passage of the book portrays a little boy with thick glasses sitting alone.
In explaining why the boy is alone, the book offers the following explanation: “Because he is a Jew.”
Entitled, Kom och läs! (‘Come and read!’), the book was published in 1999 and is the first in a series called Förstagluttarna, a common nickname for first graders.
Elsewhere in the book, boys are portrayed as being skilled in mathematics, while the girls have trouble counting.
The leadership of Karlskoga county’s equality advisory group discussed the book at a Monday night meeting.
Moni Nilsson-Brännström, the book’s author as well as the publisher, Natur och Kultur, contend the book, published in 1999, consciously raises problematic issues, arguing that teachers should then present opposing views which call the book’s contents into question.
But Rudström doubts the merits of such methods.
“They’re reading in order to learn how to read and that is not the time to start questioning what you’re reading,” he said.
The book will now be discussed further in the county’s board for children and education.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Getting the Picture
The saddest thing I heard this week was a comment made to me by a member of the audience I had just been speaking to at Denmark’s Free Press Society in Copenhagen on Tuesday.
‘We worry that Britain is lost, gone,’ the woman said. ‘That is what we are told by other speakers we have had here. We have always looked to Britain as a defender of liberty, ever since the war, but we no longer can. It is not Britain anymore.’
This sentiment was echoed a number of times in different ways that evening, by people who are hugely dismayed and concerned about the in-roads made into freedom of speech by fear of radical Islam, aided and abbetted by a self-hating liberal elite. This is the country, remember, which reaped a whirlwind when one of it’s newspapers, Jyllands-Posten, published cartoons of Mohammed in 2005.
UK colleagues who’ve spoken in other European countries report the same kind of pessimism about this country. It is not difficult to see why. They are very well-informed about developments here. They are incredulous that this country’s foremost religious leader could say that Britain should expect the inevitability of some forms of Sharia law. There is disbelief when they hear that it’s government ministers attempt to rebrand terrorism as ‘anti-Islamic activity.’
Do not give up on us, is what I urged. And on my return I had the chance to test the waters of our resolve again, when on Thursday I took part in a panel discussion, at the SaLon Gallery in London, on the controversy over the exhibition of pictures by artist Sarah Maple. Her self-portraits have resulted in death threats and a brick through the gallery’s window, and she was on the panel to answer questions.
What was depressing was that the other members of the panel — an Islamic studies scholar, a specialist in ‘identity’ issues and an art critic — didn’t seem able (or were reluctant) to fully grasp the basic issue at stake — which is the absolute need for freedom of expression and that there is no such thing as the right not to be offended.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Mons. Plaza, Cross Symbol Does No Harm
(ANSAmed) — VATICAN CITY, NOVEMBER 24 — A sentence that causes “displeasure” because the cross “doesn’t hurt anyone”. Moreover, the use of religious symbols is a part of religious freedom”. This is how the Archbishop of Valladolid, Braulio Rodriguez Plaza, comments on Vatican Radio the decision of the Spanish courts to remove the cross from the halls of a public school in Valledolid. “For me — he explains — the ruling was a disappointment and I know that the Scholastic Council is made up of good people. It seems to me that the cross in a culture like ours doesn’t do any harm to anyone, because it symbolises love and peace”. “On the basis of this ruling — the archbishop continues — any religious symbol can be cancelled or taken down anywhere, because it can potentially hurt the feelings of many people. Now I will make an example of a European city like Bruges, where there are corners, streets and intersections where there are many small images of the Virgin, of Christ, and I don’t think that people, whether they are religious or not, are particularly harmed by this. I am sure that people will tell me that the issue is different when a school is involved, where there are children present. Well now, at this point will we have to ask for permission to say “I believe in God and Our Lord Jesus Christ”? I don’t know if we want to get to this point… I — Mons. Rodriguez Plaza concluded — want to continue to show religious symbols, because I think that this is a part of the religious freedom we all hold dear”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: PSOE Castile, Crucifix Out of All Schools
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, NOVEMBER 24 — The Psoe of Castile and Leon, after the sentence of the court of Valladolid, which ordered the removal of the sacred symbol from local public school, Macias Picavera, wants all crucifixes to be removed from all public schools in the region. In announcement of the definition of the sentence, the spokesperson of the Psoe of the national regional council, Ana Redondo, asked authorities of the region to apply the policy adopted by Judge Alejandro Valentin, of the Regional Tribunal, “to all public schools” of Castile and Leon. In the regional council of Castile and Leon, the Psoe is the opposition party. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Muslim Leader Defends Pope on Inter-Faith Dialogue
Roma, 24 Nov. (AKI) — Pope Benedict XVI’s praise for a new book which argues Europe should stay true to its Christian roots should not be misinterpreted, the head of the association of Italian Muslims, Ahmad Gianpiero Vincenzo, told Adnkronos International (AKI).
In comments made in the preface to Italian center-right politician Marcello Pera’s forthcoming book ‘Why We Must Call Ourselves Christian’ Benedict XVI appeared to cast doubt on the possibility of inter-religious dialogue.
The Pope also called for more discussion of the practical consequences of religious differences.
In a quotation from the preface which appeared in Italian newspapers on Sunday, Benedict said the book “explained with great clarity” why “an interreligious dialogue in the strict sense of the word is not possible.”
“The pontiff’s words in his forward to Marcello Pera’s latest book must be correctly interpreted without any manipulation by those who are seeking a clash of civilisations “ Vincenzo told AKI.
“For us Muslims, inter-religious dialogue has a fundamental role in today’s world, where more than ever before the underlying principles that religions have in common need to be underlined, starting with faith in the same God,” he said.
“We totally agree with Benedict that it is not possible to advance dialogue between religions that plays down the specific doctrines and rituals of individual faiths.
“Otherwise, we slide into the relativism of those who believe all religions are the same and that individual religious doctrines and ritual practices are no longer needed,” said Vincenzo.
Benedict XVI’s potentially controversial comments came only a couple of weeks after the Vatican hosted a landmark inter-faith conference in Rome with Muslims religious leaders and scholars, aimed at improving ties between Islam and Christianity. Members of the association of Italian Muslims attended the conference.
The conference agreed to condemn religious freedom and protect religious freedom, but did not address issues of conversion and the rights of Christians in majority Muslim countries to worship.
Ahmad said the conference had however proposed the creation of a permanent Catholic-Islamic Inter-religious Forum to resolve conflicts — at a time when these are intensifying.
“This would be an exceptional opportunity to counter the actions of fundamentalist extremists and reiterate the basic ethical values shared by the Christian, Muslim and Jewish faiths — respect for life and religious traditions,” Vincenzo concluded.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Lenovo [Cinese Company] Adds ‘Remote Kill’ Feature to Thinkpads
Lenovo and Phoenix Technologies will begin adding a feature to Lenovo notebooks that allows them to be disabled, or “remotely killed,” via a text message sent from a cell phone.
The technology, called Constant Secure Remote Disable, was launched on Tuesday. It will be embedded within the notebook’s BIOS.
This new security feature allows a user to send an SMS (short message service) text message from a cell phone to a Lenovo ThinkPad that has been lost or stolen. Once the kill command is sent, the lost or stolen ThinkPad is either disabled immediately or the notebook is disabled after the PC has been turned back on, said Stacy Cannady, Lenovo’s product manager of security.
| — Hat tip: Zenster | [Return to headlines] |
Soros: ‘The Economy Fell Off the Cliff’
George Soros, 78, has made billions as a hedge-fund manager and investor. SPIEGEL spoke with him about the current financial crisis, how he expects President-elect Barack Obama to respond to the economic disaster and the responsibilities borne by speculators.
SPIEGEL: Mr. Soros, in spite of massive interventions by governments and federal banks the financial crisis is getting worse. The stock markets are in free fall, millions of people could lose their jobs. More and more companies are in trouble, from General Motors in Detroit to BASF in Ludwigshafen. Have you ever seen anything like it?
Soros: Never. I find the present situation dramatic and overwhelming. In my latest book “The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of 2008” I predicted the worst financial crisis since the 1930s. But to tell you the truth: I did not actually anticipate that it would get as bad as it did. It has gone beyond my wildest imagination.
REUTERS
George Soros has made a fortune with hedge funds. “I find the present situation dramatic and overwhelming.”
SPIEGEL: What are your fears for the coming months?
Soros: I think that the dark comes before dawn. The financial markets are under great pressure because of the lack of leadership during the transition period. In the next two months, the markets will experience maximum pressure. Then we will see some initiatives from the Obama administration. How long the crisis lasts will depend on the success of these measures.
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UN Anti-Blasphemy Measures Have Sinister Goals, Observers Say
UNITED NATIONS — Islamic countries Monday won United Nations backing for an anti-blasphemy measure Canada and other Western critics say risks being used to limit freedom of speech.
Combating Defamation of Religions passed 85-50 with 42 abstentions in a key UN General Assembly committee, and will enter into the international record after an expected rubber stamp by the plenary later in the year.
But while the draft’s sponsors say it and earlier similar measures are aimed at preventing violence against worshippers regardless of religion, religious tolerance advocates warn the resolutions are being accumulated for a more sinister goal.
“It provides international cover for domestic anti-blasphemy laws, and there are a number of people who are in prison today because they have been accused of committing blasphemy,” said Bennett Graham, international program director with the Becket Fund, a think tank aimed at promoting religious liberty.
“Those arrests are made legitimate by the UN body’s (effective) stamp of approval.”
Passage of the resolution is part of a 10-year action plan the 57-state Organization of Islamic Conference launched in 2005 to ensure “renaissance” of the “Muslim Ummah” or community.
While the current resolution is non-binding, Pakistan’s Ambassador Masood Khan reminded the UN’s Human Rights Council this year that the OIC ultimately seeks a “new instrument or convention” on the issue. Such a measure would impose its terms on signatory states.
“Each time the resolution comes up, we get a measure of where the world is on this issue, and we see that the campaign has been ramped up,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based monitoring group UN Watch.
While this year’s draft is less Islam-centric that resolutions of earlier years, analysts note it is more emphatic in linking religion defamation and incitement to violence.
That “risks limiting a broad range of peaceful speech and expression,” Neuer argues…
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