Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/4/2013

The world’s largest mosque is being planned for Azerbaijan, and will be built on artificial islands in the Caspian Sea. But the world’s tallest minarets are being planned for the “Erdogan the Magnificent” mosque, which will be built on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus in Istanbul.

In other news, Pakistan has deported three “Frenchmen” back to France. The men were suspected of planning to wage jihad against NATO troops in Afghanistan.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to AS, DF, Diana West, Fjordman, JD, JP, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Financial Crisis
» All of the Money in Your Bank Account Could Disappear in a Single Moment
» America’s Cyprus
» Cypriot Crisis Could Derail Greek Recovery
» Dogfight Ahead in Stockton, CA Bankruptcy
» UK: We’re About to Find Out if Foreign Aid Really Does Work
» Young Spaniards Give Up on Job Hunting
 
USA
» Anti-Gun Democrat Can’t Tell a Bullet From a Magazine
» Caught in Crossfire Over Soup Nazi Parody, Gunmaker Says He Meant No Harm
» Confronted by MSNBC’s Cupp, SPLC Rep Doubles Down on Labeling Family Research Council as ‘Hate Group’
» Delaware Mayor and Gun-Grabber Enjoys Concealed Carry
» Eric Holder Gets Busy: Enron’s Skilling May be Released From Prison Over a Decade Early
» Kansas Couple: Indoor Gardening Prompted Pot Raid
» Roger Ebert: Longtime Film Critic, Dies at 70, Chicago Sun-Times Reports
» U.S. Army Investigates Shooting at Fort Knox Base
» Warning: You Are About to Read a “Forbidden” Column
 
Europe and the EU
» Culture Instead of Cannabis: Amsterdam’s Art Mecca Ambitions
» Europe’s Counter-Jihad Extremists
» French People Mired in ‘Collective Depression’
» German Muslims Want Official Muslim Holidays in Germany
» Interview With a Uniquely Courageous Man: Gavin Boby
» NGO’s Cite Opposition to Mosque Building as Islamophobic
» Polish PM ‘Clear Favourite’ For Next Commission Chief
» UK: ‘Please Help Me or I Will Die’: Schoolboy’s Tearful Plea to Doctors as They Gave Him Calpol and Sent Him Home — With Meningitis That Killed Him
» UK: Aid in a Cold Climate
» UK: Alienated White Working Classes Should Attend Citizenship Ceremonies to Help Them Feel Part of British Society Again, Says Cameron’s Poverty Tsar
» UK: Bullfinch Trial: Sex Accused Tells Old Bailey There Was “Mutual Attraction” With Teen
» UK: Britain Second in World for Aid Spending
» UK: Plans for Giant £2bn Paramount Theme Park on Edge of London Halted by Discovery of Rare Jumping Spider Colony
» UK: Pensioner, 67, Collapses and Dies After Returning Home to Find it Had Been Raided by Burglars
» UK: Why BBC Lefties Hate Being ‘Middle-Class’
» UK: White Working Class Should Take Citizenship Ceremony, Poverty Tsar Claims
 
North Africa
» Egypt: US Backs Down in Twitter Row Over ‘Egypt’s Jon Stewart’
» Egypt Responds to U.S. Accusations of Stifling Freedom of Expression
» Freed Egyptian Cleric: Muslims Should ‘Hate Christians’
» More Face Charges in Egypt’s Escalating Free Speech and Dissent Crackdown
» The Pharaoh Weeps: Egypt is Perched on the Precipice of Chaos
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Rockets Barrage Launched Toward Southern Israel for 3rd Consecutive Day
» UN Suspends Gaza Food Centres After Compound Attack
 
Middle East
» New Fatwa Permits Rape of Non-Sunni Women in Syria
» Saudi Arabian Court ‘Orders Man to be Paralysed’
» Turkey: Work Commences on ‘Erdogan the Magnificent’ Mosque
» Turkey: Construction Works Start in Istanbul for Giant Çamlýca Mosque
 
Caucasus
» Biggest Mosque in the World to be Built in Azerbaijan
 
South Asia
» 3 Militants Killed, 3 Soldiers Injured in Cross Border Attack in NW Pakistan
» DfID, Its Worldwide Reach, And the Problem With Aid to Pakistan
» French ‘Militants’ Deported From Pakistan
» In Pakistan, Women Are the Target of Disfiguring Acid Attacks
» India: Miscreants Pelt Mosque With Stones, Break Window
» Pakistan: Aid Does Not Prevent Extremism, Say MPs
» Pakistan: Argument Between Christians, Muslims Turns Into Clash
» Pakistan Expels Three Suspected French Jihadists
» UK Aid to Pakistan Should Continue But Future Increases Must Rest on Domestic Tax Reform
 
Far East
» Arming for Virtual Battle: The Dangerous New Rules of Cyberwar
» Chinese Muslims: Mounting Tensions Between Han and Hui
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Nigeria: Jonathan Grants Amnesty to Boko Haram Sect
» Tanzania: Police Disperse Christians Trying to Torch Mosque
 
Immigration
» Netherlands: MPS to Debate the ‘Moroccan Problem’
 
Culture Wars
» Ohio School: Jesus Portrait Has Been Taken Down
» UK: Hate Crimes to Include Attacks on Punks, Goths and Metallers
» UK: Subculture Hate Crime Change Will Make ‘Vast Difference’
 
General
» Global E-Mail Patterns Reveal “Clash of Civilizations”

All of the Money in Your Bank Account Could Disappear in a Single Moment

What would you do if you logged in to your bank account someday and it showed that you had a zero balance and your bank had no record that you ever had any money in your account? What would you do if all of the money in your bank account suddenly disappeared in a single moment? If you had not kept any paper records, which most Americans do not, it would be exceedingly difficult to prove to the bank that you actually had any money in the bank. If you don’t think that something like this could ever happen in the United States, you might want to think again. Cyber attacks against major banks in the United States are becoming more powerful and more sophisticated with each passing month. In fact, major U.S. bank websites have been offline for a total of 249 hours over the past six weeks. And just last month, thousands upon thousands of Chase customers logged into their bank accounts only to discover that their balances had all been reset to zero. Anyone that would want to cause complete and total economic chaos in the United States could accomplish it very easily by wiping out all of our bank account records. So please do not keep all of your money in a single bank, and from now on please keep a paper copy of all of your bank account statements. At some point it is likely that one of these cyber attacks will cause permanent damage to our banking system, and you want to be protected.

The mainstream media has generally been very quiet about the massive cyber attacks against our major banks, but behind the scenes authorities are truly alarmed. They don’t know how to stop these attacks, and they just keep getting more intense and more sophisticated.

Could you imagine how you would feel if you logged in to your bank account and all of your money was gone? That is exactly what happened to some Chase customers last month. The following is from a recent CNET article…

[…]

And in the future, it may not be hackers on the other side of the globe that are attacking our banks. In fact, if someone wanted to “recapitalize the banks”, all they would have to do is wipe out all of our bank account records (including all backup records). Suddenly trillions of dollars of “unsecured liabilities” (that is what our bank accounts are) would be wiped out and the banks would suddenly be solvent again. Anyone that could not produce evidence that they actually had money in the banks would be in a lot of trouble. It would be the largest single wealth transfer in the history of the world, and it would throw the U.S. economy into utter chaos. This is a scenario that I am exploring in my new novel which will be coming out later this month.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

America’s Cyprus

Far worse was done to Americans in 1933 and it could happen again

While people around the world may be appalled at the actions of the Cyprus government to close their banks and confiscate a portion of certain accounts, many in America claim it “will not happen here.” Perhaps they are correct for at least the immediate future, but far worse was done to Americans in 1933 and it could happen again.

On April 5, 1933, approximately one month after first taking office, Franklin D. Roosevelt commanded, via Executive Order No. 6102, “All persons are hereby required to deliver on or before May 1, 1933, to a Federal reserve bank … all gold coin, gold bullion and gold certificates now owned by them or coming into their ownership on or before April 28, 1933[.]”

By his executive order Roosevelt deprived Americans of their property “without due process of law” under the Fifth Amendment. To add injury to insult, he also ordered up to a $10,000 fine or ten years in prison or both for anyone who willfully violated any provision of his executive order.

America was deep into a financial crisis of its own at the time, known as the Great Depression, and his executive order was his chosen method for resolving it. The problem Roosevelt faced was a near total collapse of America’s banking system caused by the over expansion of credit from fractional-reserve banks.

[Comment: Recommended reading.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Cypriot Crisis Could Derail Greek Recovery

The economic crisis in Cyprus and the solution imposed on banks could derail Greece’s economic recovery and undermine European cohesion, Dimitris Daskalopoulos, head of the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (SEV) told a news conference on Wednesday, AFP reports. “The Cyprus crisis and European uncertainty could cost Greece dearly,” he said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Dogfight Ahead in Stockton, CA Bankruptcy

On Monday, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Klein ruled that the city of Stockton, CA, will be allowed to enter bankruptcy. Klein noted the move was necessary so that the city could continue to provide basic municipal services to its residents.

“It’s apparent to me the city would not be able to perform its obligations to its citizens on fundamental public safety as well as other basic government services without the ability to have the muscle of the contract-impairing power of federal bankruptcy law,” Klein said. Yet the real story has yet to unfold: it must still be determined whether the city’s creditors or its public employee retirement funds get paid off first.

Klein himself was unsure. “I don’t know whether spiked pensions can be reeled back in,” he said during his ruling. “There are very complex and difficult questions of law that I can see out there on the horizon.”

The biggest part of Stockton’s debt is the $900 million it owes to the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS). Since this is the first Chapter 9 bankruptcy case challenging state pension obligations, what Klein is essentially referring to is whether the 10th Amendment of the Constitution preserving states’ rights trumps federal bankruptcy law. Thus, it is likely this case will eventually end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

UK: We’re About to Find Out if Foreign Aid Really Does Work

by David Blair

As austerity bites in Britain, recipients of our largesse abroad are enjoying a windfall

Silence is the best response if you gain a windfall while others suffer. When the new financial year begins at midnight on Friday, the Department for International Development (DfID) will be careful not to celebrate its unprecedented stroke of fortune. At that moment, its budget will jump by 31.9 per cent — almost certainly the biggest percentage increase in a single year ever enjoyed by any government department in British peacetime history. While all around the rigour of austerity takes hold — the police, for example, are in the throes of cutting their budget by a fifth by 2015 — DfID will suddenly have an extra £2.6 billion in hand, bringing its total to £10.5 billion.

For years, campaigners and charities have told us that spending more on aid is the way to reduce poverty and improve governance in poor countries. Our politicians have fallen in line: the sudden largesse for DfID will ensure that Britain keeps a cross-party pledge to spend 0.7 per cent of national income on overseas development. So we are about to discover what happens when a big country gives pro-aid campaigners just about everything they have wanted for years. Now we should find out whether aid does indeed “work”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Young Spaniards Give Up on Job Hunting

Almost a million young Spaniards have given up looking for work since the crisis started, a new report shows.

Some 864,100 people under the age of 25 in Spain have decided hunting for a job just isn’t worth it, the study by Asempleo shows.

Nearly 33 percent fewer young people are now actively seeking work than when the crisis hit in the third quarter of 2007.

The figure represents a huge loss of faith in Spain’s job market among young people, Asempleo stated in a media release on Thursday.

Asampelo — which represents employers offering temporary contracts in Spain — also reported that the number of people aged under 25 actively looking for work in Spain had shot up to 930,000 by the end of 2012.

This is twice the number of people in this cohort who were seeking employment before the crisis (458,000).

At the same time, youth unemployment in Spain is 55.1 percent — up from 18 percent before the crisis, Asempleo said in its report.

Of this group, 45.9 percent had been looking for work for over a year, meaning they were classified as ‘long-term unemployed´’.

“There are two main ways to create jobs for young people: education and flexibility,” Asampleo spokesperson Lorenzo Rivare’s told The Local.

“Education will make young people more employable while flexibility can make access to various types of work experience possible,” said Rivare’s.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Anti-Gun Democrat Can’t Tell a Bullet From a Magazine

It is the goal of the Democrats to get rid of so-called “high capacity” magazines. What constitutes “high capacity?” Of course, it’s just an arbitrary number determined by the Democrats. In other words, they are telling us that no “common sense” American should have a magazine that holds more than ten rounds. Our course, criminals don’t necessarily fall into the “common sense” category, but Democrats don’t seem to understand that concept.

In any case, Democrat Rep. Diana DeGette from Colorado has been leading the effort to ban high capacity magazines. But as reported by the Denver Post, at a public forum hosted by the newspaper, DeGette revealed her complete lack of knowledge on the issue:

DeGette: “I will tell you these are ammunition, they’re bullets, so the people who have those now they’re going to shoot them, so if you ban them in the future, the number of these high capacity magazines is going to decrease dramatically over time because the bullets will have been shot and there won’t be any more available.”

You can watch her comments on this video. Just forward to the 31-minute mark to begin.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Caught in Crossfire Over Soup Nazi Parody, Gunmaker Says He Meant No Harm

TAMPA — When a light-hearted internet joke ruffled the wrong feathers, a Tampa gunsmith found himself in the midst of an online controversy that has gone viral.

Tampa gun designer Mark Serbu is used to making a lot of noise, but an online adventure this week has his ears ringing:

“Why don’t you go kill yourself, or the world would be better off without you,” he remembered aloud from recent Facebook messages. “I mean — are you kidding me?”

Those were just some of the pointed posts and e-mails (a percentage he estimates to be less than 1% of the online correspondence he’s seen so far) after word of his refusal to sell a 50-caliber sniper rifle to a member of New York City’s SWAT team.

“And I told the guy,” he recalled, “that we don’t sell to law enforcement or state entities that can’t be sold to a private citizen in that state.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Confronted by MSNBC’s Cupp, SPLC Rep Doubles Down on Labeling Family Research Council as ‘Hate Group’

The recent murders of local prosecutors in a north Texas county — possibly at the hands of white supremacists — was the news hook for MSNBC’s The Cycle to bring Heidi Beirich of the left-leaning Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) on to the April 2 program. In introducing the guest and justifying her expertise, co-host Ari Melber merely described the SPLC as “a group that documents that state of hate groups in America.”

It fell to token conservative co-host S.E. Cupp to remind viewers that SPLC leans to the left and has been criticized by conservatives for “smearing religious and far-right groups and ignoring far-left hate groups.” “Shouldn’t people be aware of your ideological biases before they take seriously [SPLC’s] claims of who they should be afraid of?” Cupp argued. A bemused Beirich insisted she had to “dispute the notion of the question on its premise,” adding that:

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Delaware Mayor and Gun-Grabber Enjoys Concealed Carry

The hypocrisy of the gun-grabbers knows no bounds. Dianne Feinstein has no problem ordering Mr. and Mrs. America to turn in their guns while brazenly admitting she had a firearms permit.

The same goes for Wilmington, Delaware mayor Dennis P. Williams, who is a member of New York mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a national campaign to restrict the Second Amendment under the cover of preventing the spread of guns the government insists are illegal and, of course, protecting the children.

Williams is a former cop with a Delaware concealed carry permit. He doesn’t carry when he is accompanied by his security detail, but packs when visiting tough Wilmington neighborhoods. He also carried a firearm on the House floor back when he was a state representative.

“Did John Wayne carry one in the cowboy movie?” Williams asked when quizzed about the firearm. He wouldn’t answer questions about the gun except to say “it’s a firearm that works.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Eric Holder Gets Busy: Enron’s Skilling May be Released From Prison Over a Decade Early

Former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling may be the latest beneficiary of the culture of pervasive permitted, even according to some — encouraged, crime. After being sentenced to prison for 24 years in the aftermath of Enron’s spectacular 2001 bankruptcy, the former CEO may be released after serving well less than half of his term. As a result his prison term, which scheduled to end in 2028, may be cut by more than half as a result of a new agreement with the Department of Justice. It appears that AG Eric Holder is so busy not prosecuting Wall Street for being Too Big To Prosecute, he has decided it is far wiser to spend his time productively by commuting the sentences of convicted financial felons, because apparently there is nothing more important to do.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Kansas Couple: Indoor Gardening Prompted Pot Raid

LEAWOOD, Kan. (AP) — Two former CIA employees whose Kansas home was fruitlessly searched for marijuana during a two-state drug sweep claim they were illegally targeted, possibly because they had bought indoor growing supplies to raise vegetables.

“With little or no other evidence of any illegal activity, law enforcement officers make the assumption that shoppers at the store are potential marijuana growers, even though the stores are most commonly frequented by backyard gardeners who grow organically or start seedlings indoors,” the couple’s lawsuit says.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Roger Ebert: Longtime Film Critic, Dies at 70, Chicago Sun-Times Reports

Roger Ebert, the popular film critic and television co-host who along with his fellow reviewer and sometime sparring partner Gene Siskel could lift or sink the fortunes of a movie with their trademark thumbs up or thumbs down, has died.

His death was reported by The Chicago Sun-Times.

Mr. Ebert’s struggle with cancer, starting in 2002, gave him an altogether different public image — as someone who refused to surrender to illness. Though he had operations for cancer of the thyroid, salivary glands and chin, lost his ability to eat, drink and speak (he was fed through a tube and a prosthesis partly obscured the loss of much of his chin) and became a gaunter version of his once-portly self, he continued to write reviews and commentary and published a cookbook he had started, on meals that could be made with a rice cooker.

[Return to headlines]

U.S. Army Investigates Shooting at Fort Knox Base

CHICAGO, April 3 (Xinhua) — Investigation has been launched after a shooting caused a temporary lockdown of the Fort Knox army base in Kentucky on Wednesday afternoon, according to local news reports. There were no immediate reports of casualties, a fort spokesman told WDRB-TV. The lockdown was lifted about 7 p.m., but traffic in and out of the fort was slow because of increased security…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Warning: You Are About to Read a “Forbidden” Column

by Diana West

Get ready for the last straw.

First, though, I’d like to suggest that anyone reading this column in a local newspaper or news site pat the editor on the back for publishing what in our neo-medieval world of fear amounts to a “forbidden” column.

Yup, I am about to say something about the Great Barack Obama Identity/Eligibility Scandal again. I know that this is one rich and urgent topic that doesn’t see the light of day in certain so-called news outlets — and I say that from the experience of watching my own syndicated columns fail to appear when covering news of the White House press conference where the president’s long-form birth certificate was unveiled, news of courtroom proceedings in various states on Obama’s ballot eligibility and news of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s investigators presenting evidence that the online Obama birth certificate is a forgery (and much more).

So be it. This was, as noted, the last straw.

I refer to something radio host Sean Hannity said on his show this week. He was speaking in rebuttal to a Democrat arguing that racism was a problem among conservatives. As evidence, the Democrat brought up the “birther issue” — the label used to encapsulate any topic related to Obama’s identity documents and constitutional eligibility. Erroneously, it is a label that narrowly connotes, and derisively so, only the belief that President Obama wasn’t born in the United States.

In fact, the whereabouts of Obama’s nativity is in no way the main bone of “birther” contention, despite the blinkered focus on it by the enforcers of silence. Of far greater concern to me, for starters, is the purportedly original documentation President Obama belatedly provided the American people to attest to his identity.

I refer to the electronic image of a long-form 1961 Hawaiian birth certificate posted at the White House website. After studying various evidence and demonstrations (which I’ve written about in previous “forbidden” columns), I’ve concluded that this online image is in all probability a forgery.

So has Sheriff Arpaio’s Cold Case Posse out in Maricopa County, Ariz. So, too, has the Israel Science and Technology website, a national database and directory of science- and technology-related sites in Israel established by Benjamin Netanyahu’s former science adviser, molecular biologist Israel Hanukoglu, Ph.D.

If these investigations are correct, we are looking at the greatest fraud in modern history as put over by the flimflam administration and enabled by armies of accessories practically everywhere else.

There is a second issue to consider that also has nothing to do with what is commonly meant by the “birther” issue. Having weighed the arguments, it seems to me that by virtue of having a British subject for a father, Barack Obama Jr. is constitutionally ineligible to be president of the United States, no matter where he was born.

With a British father, Obama cannot meet the constitutional requirement of having been “natural born,” which is a different and more restrictive category than “native born.” Similarly ineligible, I would add, are Republican Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and, alas, Ted Cruz of Texas, both of whom have parents who were not citizens when they were born.

So, getting back to the Obama case, tell me where the “racism” is in these concerns. Where is it? Identity theft per se is hardly a pathology of black America. Meanwhile, British paternity, even if it does, in Obama’s case, come via Africa, is the very disqualifier the founders had in mind on crafting the “natural born” criterion more than two centuries ago to guard against a president with divided loyalties. Where is the racism in trying to address these weighty matters of the Constitution, law and state?

Nowhere. “Racism” is simply a buzzword to further stymie the already strangled “birther” issue.

So how did Hannity reply to the argument that conservatives were “racist” due to broaching the “birther” argument?

He challenged his interlocutor: “Name three prominent conservatives who were advancing the birther issue.”

With this reply, Hannity accepted the charge that the whole subject is “racist,” and the argument that this “racist” subject is also baseless. It was the last straw…

           — Hat tip: Diana West [Return to headlines]

Culture Instead of Cannabis: Amsterdam’s Art Mecca Ambitions

Half a billion euros is being spent in Amsterdam to renovate its major art museums. Will the city of canals and Van Goghs shed its grittier side and become the Florence of the 21st century?

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Europe’s Counter-Jihad Extremists

A valuable new report (pdf) from the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King’s College London lays bare a new form of extremism—something it identifies as the “European Counter-Jihad Movement” (ECJM).

Based on fieldwork and interviews with participants, the report sets out four distinguishing characteristics of the ECJM, each of which sets it apart from traditional far-right and fascist organizations and makes it difficult to categorize. First, the ECJM is focused on a single issue—what it sees as the existential threat to European culture posed by Islam and Muslim immigration. It raises the alarm about a conspiracy to “Islamize” Europe by terror and by stealth, a plot by Muslims centuries in the making, at once radically new yet also reassuringly old. The Islamic wave defeated at the Gates of Vienna in 1683 must now be defeated again, and the ECJM calls us to the ramparts…

[Reader comment by concerned on 3 April 2013.]

Where are the “moderate” Muslims?

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

French People Mired in ‘Collective Depression’

Seven out of ten French people now believe they are suffering from a ‘collective depression’, according to a new survey published on Thursday. The economic crisis and a ‘lost sense of identity’ are blamed for the nationwide malaise.

France as a nation are clearly down in the dumps and could do with some cheering up.

A new survey published on Thursday found that 70 percent of them see their country as afflicted by a ‘collective depression’, with two thirds believing that France is ‘in decline’.

This comes after an infamous 2011 poll found that the French were the world’s most pessimistic people, and a new academic study featured in The Local last week that caused controversy by suggesting France’s school system was to blame and that they would be far happier if they spoke better English.

The latest survey of the French mood, conducted by Viavoice and communications agency W & Cie, revealed that a variety of causes are blamed for the malaise, and makes for fascinating reading.

Denis Gancel, president of W & Cie, told The Local on Thursday that he was most intrigued by a gulf in attitude between two kinds of French person.

“There are there the traders and business people, who are outward-looking and at home in globalization, and they are quite optimistic. Then there are the traditionalist French, who feel disillusioned and pessimistic,” Gancel said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

German Muslims Want Official Muslim Holidays in Germany

The Central Council of Muslims in Germany proposed that federal authorities formalize two Islamic holidays as official holidays. This is not shocking news, as in some areas Muslims already have that right. Recent polls suggest that in the future the Turks want to see Germany as the country with a predominantly Muslim population. So far they have minimal representation in the legislature…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Interview With a Uniquely Courageous Man: Gavin Boby

Living under the threat of constant attack, one man travels the length and breadth of Britain, bringing assistance for free to communities in fear…

‘And I was saying to myself, “There are plenty of people talking. About Islam. There are plenty of very impressive people describing the nature of Islamic doctrine. There are plenty of blogs which describe the nature of Islam: Jihad Watch is a very good one, the Tennessee Freedom Coalition are very good, a man called Bill Warner talks very well about Islam.

But what I wanted to do was not to add to the number of people who were talking about Islam, or warning about it; I wanted to do something. So whereas people talk, people describe, people warn, and people debate; what we do, is we win. We go up against Islam and we: win. That’s what matters.”

And I think during that time [when Boby founded, the Law & Freedom Foundation] I was trying to work out a way to push back and to win; not just to add to the level of debate. And we’ve accomplished that: “We Win”. That’s our motto. …’ (0:14:45)

[…]

The complete interview…at URL above

[Return to headlines]

NGO’s Cite Opposition to Mosque Building as Islamophobic

The European Network Against Racism (ENAR) has called on the EU to recognise Islamophobia as a specific form of racism. ENAR claims that opposition to mosque building projects is a sign of hatred towards Muslims and is a manifestation of Islamophobia. The construction of new mosques across Europe has become a political hot potato. Cultural objections to often controversial mosque building projects are now slammed as a manifestation of Islamophbia by ENAR’s Sarah Isal…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Polish PM ‘Clear Favourite’ For Next Commission Chief

Polish PM Tusk and foreign minister Sikorski are “clear favourites” to become the next European Commission head or EU foreign affairs chief, according to a note by Hugh Brady, an analyst at the London-based think tank, CER. Other candidates for EU top posts include Nato’s Rasmussen and IMF head Lagarde.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

UK: ‘Please Help Me or I Will Die’: Schoolboy’s Tearful Plea to Doctors as They Gave Him Calpol and Sent Him Home — With Meningitis That Killed Him

[WARNING: * Disturbing content. * ]

A schoolboy dying from meningitis burst into tears and begged hospital doctors to help him, a hearing has heard.

Ten-year-old William Cressey was given Calpol and discharged with from Darlington Memorial Hospital after doctors decided he was suffering from a migraine.

Hours later his mother took him back to the ward, but by then he was beyond help.

Yesterday one of the nurses in charge of looking after the schoolboy appeared before the Nursing and Midwifery Council accused of misconduct.

Christopher Kirby, who is not implicated in the boy’s death, admits failing to carry out proper observations on William, and failing to record any observations in his notes.

But he denies a further allegation that when one of his colleagues pointed out the fact that William was having trouble closing his eyelids over his protruding eyes, he said: ‘Well you know what to do about that, don’t you?’.

According to the allegation the female nurse replied ‘No’, and Kirby said ‘Just don’t touch it’, before walking away.’

‘William heard this and said: “That was not very kind, was it mum?”

William’s mother Cheryl Cressey, who is now in her early 50s, said she repeatedly alerted doctors and nurses to her son’s deteriorating condition, but was dismissed as a ‘neurotic mum’ before her son died in 2005.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

UK: Aid in a Cold Climate

by Paul Goodman

Until fairly recently, Select Committee enquiries were a courtly and decorous business, and reports were written and presented in a style of headline-defying narcolepsy. Then culture change came, and they started to be — surprisingly often — sexed up. John (now Lord) McFall hauled credit card company bosses before the Treasury Select Committee, when he chaired it during the last Parliament, to be scragged over usurious interest rates. Keith Vaz was furthering the new ethos during this one when he summoned Russell Brand to give evidence about drug abuse…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Alienated White Working Classes Should Attend Citizenship Ceremonies to Help Them Feel Part of British Society Again, Says Cameron’s Poverty Tsar

The white working classes are so alienated from society that they should attend citizenship ceremonies alongside immigrants, David Cameron’s poverty tsar has said.

Frank Field, Labour MP for Birkenhead, said people from such backgrounds are increasingly unsure of their identities.

He suggested that attendance at ‘wonderful’ citizenship ceremonies could help the working classes feel like they are part of British society again.

The former social security minister under Tony Blair told a conference that English society has ‘lost confidence in what it is’ and needs to ‘relearn the rules’ by which it used to live.

[Comments to article: Citizenship ceremonies? I was born here and am condemned to live here, I don’t need reminding thank you. — Taxpayer , Rugby, 04/4/2013 19:02

Well. i’m white working class and have worked all my life , and i know one thing for sure Labour have bankrupt the country twice in my lifetime and if they ever return to power there won’t be any kind of British society left to be a part of.Their leftie ideology produces failed states. — Prole246L22 , reading, United Kingdom, 04/4/2013 18:47 ]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

UK: Bullfinch Trial: Sex Accused Tells Old Bailey There Was “Mutual Attraction” With Teen

A 32-YEAR-OLD man who had sex with a 14-year-old girl has told the Old Bailey there was a “mutual attraction” between them. Assad Hussain is one of nine men on trial accused of running a child sexual exploitation ring in Oxford. The former taxi driver told the court he had sex with the alleged victim known as Girl 5. But he said she never told him she was 14 or that she was living in a children’s home. And he told the jury he felt “betrayed” and “upset” when he found out she was underage when he was arrested in March last year…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Britain Second in World for Aid Spending

Britain is second on the world aid league table — spending more than Germany despite the fact that our population is smaller.

As many countries attempt to reduce their aid spending the latest figures show we spent £9billion on overseas aid in 2012, second only to the US which spent £20.1billion. Britain’s aid spending has now overtaken Germany, which has managed to cut its budget by £1billion in a year, according to figures compiled by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

[JP note: Truly Allah has enfeebled the minds of the infidels!]

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Plans for Giant £2bn Paramount Theme Park on Edge of London Halted by Discovery of Rare Jumping Spider Colony

Plans for a giant new £2bn theme park on the edge of London to rival Disneyland Paris have been halted — by a colony of rare spiders.

Developers say the Paramount scheme will be the third biggest theme park in the world and twice the size of the Olympic Park.

It is due to create 27,000 jobs and was set to be completed by 2019. But an environmental audit of the 872-acre brownfield site in the Swanscombe Peninsula in Kent has found it is home to distinguished jumping spiders.

They are found on only two sites in the UK and are on a biodiversity priority species list.

The spiders are one of the few creatures that like the alkaline land created from the cement kiln dust produced by the former works on the site to the east of the Dartford Crossing.

London Resort Company Holdings, the consortium behind the theme park, will now have to find a new home for the colony.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

UK: Pensioner, 67, Collapses and Dies After Returning Home to Find it Had Been Raided by Burglars

[WARNING: * Disturbing content. * ]

A pensioner collapsed and died yesterday after discovering his home had been ransacked by burglars.

The man, named locally as Stanley Amarasinghe, 67, called police after finding his home in Croydon had been broken into.

Neighbours said today that the father-of-three was recovering from a heart bypass.

Police found Mr Amarasinghe collapsed when they responded to the burglary call and he was rushed to hospital but later died.

Neighbours in Beckford Road, Croydon, said today that Mr Amarasinghe was a devoted family man who had been burgled at least twice since moving to the area.

Sheila Peterson said he would have been ‘devastated’ by the break-in and had just finished building an extension on the house.

Mrs Paterson, 65, said: ‘I came out last night and his sons were all crying. They were heartbroken.

‘To lose your father when you’re so young is awful. The boys are all aged between 10 and 14.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

UK: Why BBC Lefties Hate Being ‘Middle-Class’

by Cristina Odone

The BBC has unveiled its “Great British Class Calculator” — and everyone’s doing it. We are supposed to answer questions (based on research from the LSE) ranging from who we know socially — teachers, lorry drivers or CEOs — to whether we’re home owners or tenants. Our answers determine which class we belong to. It’s a great wheeze, and shows that the Beeb knows that it’s lying when it proclaims that “traditional British social divisions of upper, middle and working class seem out of date in the 21st century, no longer reflecting modern occupations or lifestyles”.

Britons are as class-obsessed as ever. The only difference is that inverse snobbery is so widespread — especially at the BBC — that no one wants to be middle-class anymore. So Twitter has been spluttering all morning with Lefties who want more than anything to be “working-class”, but fail miserably because they have a mortgage and hang out with university profs. Damn it, they’re thinking: there goes my chance to be on the Today programme or Newsnight…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: White Working Class Should Take Citizenship Ceremony, Poverty Tsar Claims

White, working-class people have become so disenfranchised they should take citizenship ceremonies alongside immigrants arriving in England, the government’s poverty tsar said.

Labour MP Frank Field said that society has lost confidence in what it is and needs to “relearn the rules” by which it used to live. The MP for Birkenhead told an audience of academics that the working class, who used to “run the Labour party”, are now “almost forgotten” by the party. There are growing concerns about the white working classes, who are seeking solace in the far right as immigration rises…

[JP note: Unsurprisingly, there are also grave concerns about the country’s academics and politicians who all appear to have gone completely loopy.]

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Egypt: US Backs Down in Twitter Row Over ‘Egypt’s Jon Stewart’

The US has erased a tweet about Bassem Youssef, the Egyptian satirist arrested for insulting his country, after being accused by Egypt’s government of spreading “political propaganda”.

America’s Embassy in Cairo on Tuesday posted a link to a clip of The Daily Show, the US political comedy programme, in which Jon Stewart, its host, criticised Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s president. Stewart spoke out against Morsi’s detention of Youssef for “insulting Egypt and Islam”, telling viewers: “A democracy isn’t a democracy if it only lasts up until someone makes fun of your hat.”

The US embassy’s tweet prompted a sharp response from the Twitter account for Mr Morsi’s office. “It’s inappropriate for a diplomatic mission to engage in such negative political propaganda,” it said. Mr Morsi’s Freedom and Justice Party also weighed in, describing the post as “another undiplomatic and unwise move” and accusing the US embassy of “disregarding Egyptian law and culture”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Egypt Responds to U.S. Accusations of Stifling Freedom of Expression

Egypt’s ministry of foreign affairs has said that freedom of expression is entitled to everyone, in response to accusations rendered by American administration that the Egyptian authorities “stifle” these freedoms. In a statement issued by the foreign affairs ministry, it stressed, “Freedom of expression is one of the most important gains of the January uprising,” reported the Middle East News Agency…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Freed Egyptian Cleric: Muslims Should ‘Hate Christians’

Dr. Abdullah Badr—an Egyptian Muslim scholar, Al Azhar graduate, and professor of Islamic exegesis, who spent ten years in prison under Mubarak, but, along with any number of Islamic terrorists and agitators, was released under Mohamed Morsi—recently gave an excellent summation of the second half of the highly divisive Muslim doctrine of wala’ wa bara’ (or, “Love and Hate”)—namely, that the true Muslim should love and help fellow Muslims, while hating and being disgusted by non-Muslims.

During a conference last week (see video below, with English subtitles) he explained how he is so “disgusted” by Christians, to the point that, if a Christian were to touch his cup, he would not drink from it:

[It’s] not a matter of piety, but disgust. I get grossed out. Get that? Disgust, I get grossed out man, I cannot stand their smell or … I don’t like them, it’s my choice. And they gross me out; their smell, their look, everything. I feel disgusted, disgusted. I get disgusted not only by that, but by many things.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]

More Face Charges in Egypt’s Escalating Free Speech and Dissent Crackdown

Today’s charges against yet another comedian for ‘defaming religion’ are part of an alarming new escalation of politically-motivated judicial harassment and arrests, Amnesty International has said. In a mounting crackdown on freedom of expression, up to 33 people have been targeted within the last two weeks, with arrests and charges…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

The Pharaoh Weeps: Egypt is Perched on the Precipice of Chaos

by Judith Miller

The Cairo subway was one of Hosni Mubarak’s proudest achievements. Built at a cost of several billion dollars in the late 1980s, it reflected Egypt’s ancient civilization and modern Egypt’s national pride. Air-conditioned in summer, quiet as a pharaoh’s tomb, the subway was well-lit and beautifully appointed. Display boxes of ancient Egyptian artifacts lined its platforms. A special police unit kept the stations clean, safe, and graffiti-free.

Then came the Egyptian revolution in January and February 2011. Today, the subway that transports roughly 4 million passengers a day throughout this vast city of roughly 17 million is a wreck. The tile walls of its central hub, Tahrir Square—the epicenter of the protests that forced Mubarak from power—are chipped and filthy. Its platforms are strewn with litter. A main passageway from the platform to the square has been dark for weeks; no one has changed the burned-out bulbs. There are no policemen in sight. The passageways stink.

The subway is a metaphor for post-revolutionary Egypt. The square that symbolized the revolution is now occupied by riffraff and protestors who assemble periodically to show the government that the people remain in control. Traffic around the Middle East’s largest public square has been diverted.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Rockets Barrage Launched Toward Southern Israel for 3rd Consecutive Day

JERUSALEM, April 4 (Xinhua) — For the third day in a row, a rockets barrage of three mortar shells was launched by militants in the Gaza Strip toward southern Israel Thursday morning, the IDF confirmed to Xinhua. According to initial police reports, one rocket landed in an open territory in the Eshkol region near the Gaza Strip while two others landed in Gaza’s territory…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UN Suspends Gaza Food Centres After Compound Attack

The UN says it is suspending all its food distribution centres in the Gaza Strip after protesters angered by aid cutbacks stormed one of its compounds.

The UN Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa) said the centres would stay closed until it received security assurances for its property and staff.

It said it was trying to mitigate the effects caused by cuts in cash payments to some of Gaza’s poorest families.

Unrwa provides aid for an estimated 800,000 Palestinians in Gaza.

It runs dozens of schools and medical clinics and distributes food to many of the territory’s 1.7 million residents, but says it is grappling with a huge budget deficit.

Correspondents say the suspension of food aid will cause more hardship for people in Gaza already hit by Israeli and Egyptian controls on its borders.

An Unrwa statement said the storming of its Gaza field office was “a dramatic and disturbing escalation in a series of demonstrations that have taken place over the past week”.

“We fully understand the impact the decision to suspend cash assistance had on some of our beneficiaries,” Robert Turner, head of the agency’s Gaza operations, said in the statement.

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]

New Fatwa Permits Rape of Non-Sunni Women in Syria

By: Raymond Ibrahim

Yet another Islamic cleric recently made it permissible for the Islamic fighters waging a jihad in Syria—politely known as “the opposition”—to rape the nation’s women.

Salafi Sheikh Yasir al-’Ajlawni, a Jordanian of origin who lived in Damascus, Syria for 17 years, posted a YouTube video last week where he said he was preparing to issue a “legitimate fatwa” making it legal (in the eyes of Islam) for those Muslims fighting to topple secular president Bashar Assad and install Sharia law to “capture and have sex with” all non-Sunni women, specifically naming Assad’s own sect, the Alawites, as well as the Druze and several others, basically, all non-Sunnis and non-Muslims.

The Sheikh used Islam’s legitimate Arabic term for these hapless, non-Muslim women, melk al-yamin, a phrase that appears in Islam’s sacred book, the Koran, and which is simply a reference to non-Muslim sex-slaves. For example, Koran 4:3 commands Muslim men to “Marry such women as seem good to you, two and three and four… or what your right hands possess.” Islam’s ulema, or “scholars,” are unanimously agreed that “what your right hands possess” is, according to Islamic law, simply a sex-slave. Linguistic evidence further suggests that she is seen more as an animal, a possession than a human—hence this inhuman fatwa.

Jordanian Sheih Yasir al-’Ajlawni is certainly not the first cleric to legitimize the rape of infidel women in recent times. Calls to capture and rape non-Muslim women are appearing with increasing frequency and from all corners of the Islamic world.

[Return to headlines]

Saudi Arabian Court ‘Orders Man to be Paralysed’

Saudi Arabia is facing appeals to over-rule a court that ordered a man paralysed as retribution for a stabbing that left a man unable to walk a decade ago.

Ali al-Khawahir, 24, was reportedly sentenced to Qisas, or retribution, in the Eastern Province town of Al-Ahsa and could be paralysed from waist down if he fails to pay compensation of one million riyals ($270,000), the rights watchdog said, citing Saudi media reports. It said Khawahir had stabbed his friend in the back in 2003, rendering him paralysed from the waist down. He was 14 at the time…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Turkey: Work Commences on ‘Erdogan the Magnificent’ Mosque

On hill over the Bosphorus, highest minarets in the world

(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, APRIL 3 — Polemics, accusations, and sarcasm have failed to put a damper on Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s plans to build an enormous mosque towering over the Bosphorus.

The mosque will be gigantic, covering a surface area of some 15,000 square meters on the Camlica hill on Istanbul’s Asian side, with another 250,000 square meters housing a park, museum, bar, restaurants, amusement park, and a terrace with a breathtaking view over the Bosphorus and Byzantine and Muslim Istanbul. Erdogan had announced the project a year ago, saying that the ‘‘enormous’’ mosque would be ‘‘visible from anywhere in the city’’ with ‘‘the highest minarets in the world’’…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Turkey: Construction Works Start in Istanbul for Giant Çamlýca Mosque

Excavation works for a giant mosque on Istanbul’s Çamlýca Hill have started while the plan for another controversial mosque, to be built in Istanbul’s central Taksim, has changed. Ahmet Vefik Alp, the head of a team running the project for the Taksim Mosque, said the team had been revising the previously revealed project, in line with the expectations of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan, according to daily Habertürk…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Biggest Mosque in the World to be Built in Azerbaijan

The biggest mosque in the world will be built in “Caspian islands” built on the artificial islands in the Caspian Sea, in Garadag district of Baku. The statement came from the author of the Caspian islands project, head of Avesta Concern Haji Ibrahim Nahramli, Gun.Az reports. Currently, the Shah Faisal Mosque located in Islamabad is considered the biggest mosque in the world…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

3 Militants Killed, 3 Soldiers Injured in Cross Border Attack in NW Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, April 4 (Xinhua) — At least three soldiers were injured and four militants killed when a group of Afghan assailants stormed an army check post in Pakistan’s northwest tribal area of Kurram Agency on Thursday morning, local media reported. ARY TV said that in a pre-dawn incident, the militants coming from Afghanistan attacked the check post located in Ali Zai area of Lower Kurram Agency, a militancy-hit tribal region at Pakistan Afghan border…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

DfID, Its Worldwide Reach, And the Problem With Aid to Pakistan

The Department for International Development is set to receive a 31 per cent increase in its budget on Friday. But today a report highlights some of the concerns in its spending in Pakistan — spending which will almost double next year.

The International Development Committee today publish a report into the efficacy of British aid to Pakistan. Pakistan received £267m in British aid this year, but that will rise to £446m in the year 2014/15. This means the troubled nation will become the largest recipient of UK support.

In the report, Sir Malcolm Bruce, chairman of the Committee, states that: “we see a case for maintaining bilateral aid to Pakistan, not just because of the extent of poverty but due to the security situation, as well as the UK’s long established ties with the country.”

However, he adds a significant caveat. “We cannot advocate that the British people finance, through taxation, the proposed substantial increase in development assistance to Pakistan unless there is clear evidence that the . government is also willing to make the necessary changes so as to contribute more to improving the livelihood of its people.”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

French ‘Militants’ Deported From Pakistan

Pakistan has deported three Frenchmen who have been held in secret since they entered the country illegally 10 months ago to fight NATO troops in neighbouring Afghanistan, officials said on Thursday.

Investigators are expected to question the men in France, where the case is likely to draw parallels with Mohammed Merah, the 23-year-old who shot dead seven people in southwest France in March 2012 after returning from Pakistan.

Investigators said Pakistani police arrested the trio on May 28th last year after they entered the country illegally from Iran.

They were detained along with Naamen Meziche, another Frenchman of North African extraction previously known to Western security services as a presumed member of Al-Qaeda.

“They said they came to Pakistan to deepen their knowledge of Islam and to fight in Afghanistan,” one investigator told AFP on condition of anonymity.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

In Pakistan, Women Are the Target of Disfiguring Acid Attacks

It’s a shocking crime, no matter where it’s committed. Acid thrown in someone’s face, leaving the victim burned, maimed and disfigured. Sadly, it happens more often than you think around the globe, and almost always, the victims are women. In India for example, police are investigating a recent acid attack against four sisters. This is a kind of crime that’s also all too common in neighboring Pakistan. At least 150 acid attacks were reported there last year. Many more are not reported, because victims are pressured by their community to keep quiet. A new law gives acid burn survivors some legal recourse, but as correspondent Beenish Ahmed reports, the scales of justice are often stacked against them from the start…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

India: Miscreants Pelt Mosque With Stones, Break Window

A group of miscreants threw stones and broke a window of the Jamia Masjid in Nejar late Tuesday night, creating tension in the area. The miscreants came on bikes around 11.30 pm and threw stones while Moulana Aboobakkar Musliyar, Moosa Kunhi, Basheer Sa-adi and others were inside. They fled before the police arrived…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Pakistan: Aid Does Not Prevent Extremism, Say MPs

A £300 million education programme that Britain funds in Pakistan is not preventing Pakistanis turning to extremism, according to a parliamentary inquiry.

At the same time, a survey has revealed that Sharia beats democracy as the most popular form of government among young Pakistanis. Britain is increasing its aid to Pakistan, with more than half the outlay being spent on education programmes.

A leading assessment in the report, published by the select committee on international development today, concluded that there was no clear link between education and preventing extremism. It also recommended that any increase in British aid — due to rise to almost £450 million per year in 2015 from £267 million in 2012 — should be tied to increases in tax collection among the country’s rich. “The connections between education and extremism are unclear. The UK Government believes that education will counter extremism, but others are sceptical,” the report concluded.

The surge in spending has so far made little impact on the attitudes of young Pakistanis. A survey by the British Council, published on Wednesday, found that those who believed the country should be governed by Islamic law outnumbered those who backed democracy…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Pakistan: Argument Between Christians, Muslims Turns Into Clash

LAHORE / GUJRANWALA: What started off as an argument between a group of Muslims and Christians in Gujranwala turned into a fierce riot on Wednesday in which three people, including a police officer, were injured.

According to details, Christian residents of Naroki, a neighbourhood of Francisabad in Gujranwala city had a minor argument on Tuesday with a group of men — Adeel, Akash, Waqas and Mehran — which was resolved by a third party. However, one of the parties registered a complaint with the local police station against the other which triggered the violence.

The trouble, which continued for hours, saw a charged mob wielding sticks and guns attacking dozens of vehicles, shops and the police station. A group of people also reportedly tried to attack a church in the locality. Thousands of armed youths emerged on Sheikhupura Road and started chanting slogans and beating up passengers travelling on the road.

Realising the gravity of the situation, the district coordination officer (DCO) of Gujranwala and several police officers arrived on the scene to defuse the tension, but failed. Some members of the mob then opened fire, injuring three people…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Pakistan Expels Three Suspected French Jihadists

Pakistan has deported three French nationals who planned to fight NATO forces in Afghanistan, officials said Thursday. The case is likely to draw parallels with Mohammed Merah, who shot dead seven people in 2012 after returning from Pakistan.

Pakistan has deported three Frenchmen who have been held in secret since they entered the country illegally 10 months ago to fight NATO troops in neighbouring Afghanistan, officials said Thursday.

Investigators are expected to question the men in France, where the case is likely to draw parallels with Mohammed Merah, the 23-year-old who shot dead seven people in southwest France in March 2012 after returning from Pakistan.

Investigators said Pakistani police arrested the trio on May 28 last year after they entered the country illegally from Iran.

They were detained along with Naamen Meziche, another Frenchman of North African extraction previously known to Western security services as a presumed member of Al-Qaeda.

“They said they came to Pakistan to deepen their knowledge of Islam and to fight in Afghanistan,” one investigator told AFP on condition of anonymity.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

UK Aid to Pakistan Should Continue But Future Increases Must Rest on Domestic Tax Reform

The Department for International Development is undertaking valuable work to improve health and access to education in Pakistan, writes Sir Malcolm Bruce. But there is room for improvement.

Bilateral aid to Pakistan reflects the UK’s long established ties with a country where one in three people currently live on less that 30p per day. It also respects the basic fact that with more than a million British citizens who have Pakistani origins, we as a nation have an unassailable link with a country set to miss many of the Millennium Development Goals…

[Reader comment by John ‘nobullman’ Mills on 4 April 2013 at about 9:30 am.]

Pakistan’s reaction to aid from the UK …’Truly Allah has enfeebled the minds of the infidels!’

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Arming for Virtual Battle: The Dangerous New Rules of Cyberwar

Now that wars are also being fought on digital battlefields, experts in international law have established rules for cyberwar. But many questions remain unanswered. Will it be appropriate to respond to a cyber attack with military means in the future?

The attack came via ordinary email, when selected South Korean companies received messages supposedly containing credit card information in the middle of the week before last.

Recipients who opened the emails also opened the door to the enemy, because it was in fact an attack from the Internet. Instead of the expected credit card information, the recipients actually downloaded a time bomb onto their computers, which was programmed to ignite on Wednesday at 2 p.m. Korean time.

At that moment, chaos erupted on more than 30,000 computers in South Korean television stations and banks. The message “Please install an operating system on your hard disk” appeared on the screens of affected computers, and cash machines ceased to operate. The malware, which experts have now dubbed “DarkSeoul,” deleted data from the hard disks, making it impossible to reboot the infected computers.

DarkSeoul was one of the most serious digital attacks in the world this year, but cyber defense centers in Western capitals receive alerts almost weekly. The most serious attack to date originated in the United States. In 2010, high-tech warriors, acting on orders from the US president, smuggled the destructive “Stuxnet” computer worm into Iranian nuclear facilities.

The volume of cyber attacks is only likely to grow. Military leaders in the US and its European NATO partners are outfitting new battalions for the impending data war. Meanwhile, international law experts worldwide are arguing with politicians over the nature of the new threat. Is this already war? Or are the attacks acts of sabotage and terrorism? And if a new type of war is indeed brewing, can military means be used to respond to cyber attacks?

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Chinese Muslims: Mounting Tensions Between Han and Hui

by Patrick Han

As I mentioned in the previous column about Meiri Anto’s experience growing up in China, the Chinese government officially recognizes 55 ethnic minorities within its borders in addition to the Han majority. As I said, my parents and I belong to the ethnic Korean minority (Chaoxianzu), the 14th most populous minority in China, while Anto is part Han, part Korean, and part Manchu (Manzu), the third largest ethnic group. The second largest minority are the Hui people, a predominantly Muslim, Chinese-speaking ethnic group defined to encompass all Muslim communities within the country’s borders not included by other ethnicities in China. Numbering approximately 9.8 million, the Hui are scattered more evenly across the geographical landscape of China than most ethnic minorities in the country but are mostly concentrated in the Ningxia, Qinghai, and Gansu provinces. These areas are situated along the transcontinental trading route known as the Silk Road, which resulted in strong influences from Persian and Middle Eastern culture in addition to influences from Han culture…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Nigeria: Jonathan Grants Amnesty to Boko Haram Sect

Indications emerged last night that President Goodluck Jonathan may have resolved to declare amnesty for the Boko Haram sect. This was the outcome of a meeting between the president and the leadership of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) at the presidential villa, Abuja. This is even as Jonathan has summoned a security meeting with chiefs in the country, which will be held today at the presidential villa. Jonathan also used the occasion to deny ever ruling out amnesty for the sect…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Tanzania: Police Disperse Christians Trying to Torch Mosque

Police in southern Tanzania used teargas Wednesday to disperse about 200 Christian rioters attempting to torch a mosque over an animal slaughtering conflict. “The situation is now under control and there is not much damage, but two people including a policeman sustained stone injuries,” Mbeya Regional Police Commander Diwani Athumani told AFP. Police arrived at the mosque in time to put out the fire. Athumani said the estimated 200 rioters also destroyed property of a Chinese firm building a road between the town of Tunduma where the incident took place and Sumbawanga…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Netherlands: MPS to Debate the ‘Moroccan Problem’

MPs will this evening take part in a debate called by the anti-immigration PVV to discuss the ‘Moroccan problem’, as it is officially described in parliamentary papers.

The PVV gathered enough support for the debate in the wake of the death of football linesman Richard Nieuwenhuizen last year. He was attacked by youth players from a team of largely immigrant youngsters from Amsterdam and died in hospital a day later.

MPs were quick to distance themselves from the official title of the debate to Nos television. Social affairs minister Lodewijk Asscher said that while there are some problems with Moroccans, there is no such thing as a ‘Moroccan problem’ as the PVV states.

‘We have a problem with a large group of Moroccan youngsters and this needs to be solved,’ Asscher said. ‘But I do not consider it sensible to make every Moroccan in the Netherlands responsible for that problem.’

‘The term ‘Moroccan problem’ gives the impression there is a problem with an entire population group, that their origin is an issue,’ said Labour MP Keklik Yucel. ‘I distance myself from this position.’

‘There is no Moroccan problem in the Netherlands but you do see that Moroccan-Netherlanders have considerable contact with the police. You must not walk away from debating this,’ VVD parliamentarian Melik Azmani told the broadcaster.

Figures from the government’s socio-cultural think tank SCP last year said 65% of Dutch-Moroccan youths under the age of 23 have been questioned by police. However, it is unknown how many of them were actually convicted of a crime.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Ohio School: Jesus Portrait Has Been Taken Down

CINCINNATI (AP) — A Jesus portrait that has hung in a southern Ohio school district since 1947 was taken down Wednesday, because of concerns about the potential costs of a federal lawsuit against its display.

The superintendent of Jackson City Schools said the decision was made after the district’s insurance company declined to cover litigation expenses. He said the faculty adviser and two student members of the Hi-Y Club, a Christian-based service club that the school says owns the portrait, took it down at his direction.

“At the end of the day, we just couldn’t roll the dice with taxpayer money,” Superintendent Phil Howard told The Associated Press. “When you get into these kinds of legal battles, you’re not talking about money you can raise with bake sales and car washes. It’s not fair to take those resources from our kids’ education.”

The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio and the Madison, Wis.-based Freedom from Religion Foundation had sued on behalf of a student and two parents, calling the portrait an unconstitutional promotion of religion in a public school. The student and parents weren’t identified publicly by the groups, saying they would face backlash from portrait supporters, some of whom had suggested that they should leave town and find another school.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

UK: Hate Crimes to Include Attacks on Punks, Goths and Metallers

Attacks and abuse aimed at punk rockers, heavy metal fans, Goths and other subcultures are to be recognised as hate-crimes for the first time, it has been announced.

Greater Manchester Police is to become the first force in the country to officially record such offences in the same way as those based on disability, race, religion and sexual orientation. The move means victims of crime who feel they have been targeted because of their distinctive clothing, hairstyle and even musical tastes will receive special support from the police. At the moment courts only consider hate as an aggravating factor when sentencing if it is based on religion, ethnicity, disability and sexual orientation. But campaigners want the law to be broadened to include a much wider range of groups and subcultures…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Subculture Hate Crime Change Will Make ‘Vast Difference’

Greater Manchester Police has become the first force in the UK to record hate crimes against groups such as goths and punks. Assistant Chief Constable Garry Shewan told the BBC why the force decided to classify crimes this way and how he hopes other forces will follow suit…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Global E-Mail Patterns Reveal “Clash of Civilizations”

Most political scientists consider the Cold War as a conflict between capitalist countries in the west and the Communist Bloc in the East. As such, it was essentially a conflict of ideology.

At the end of the Cold War, the question arose of what would drive the next wave of conflicts.

In 1992, the Harvard-based political scientist Samuel Hartington suggested that future conflicts would be driven largely by cultural differences. He went on to map out a new world order in which the people of the world are divided into nine culturally distinct civilisations.

These include: Western civilisation; Latin American civilisation; the Orthodox world of former Soviet Union countries; the Sinic civilisation including China, the Koreas and Vietnam; the Muslim world of the greater Middle East; Sub-Saharan Africa and so on.

His argument was that future conflicts would be based around the fault lines at the edges of these civilisations. He published this view in a now famous article called “The Clash of Civilizations?” in the politcal journal Foreign Affairs.

Certain events have since been used to support Huntington’s thesis—the War on Terror, for instance.

But an interesting question is whether there is evidence at the social scale of a “Clash of Civilisations”.

Today, we get an answer of sorts thanks to the work of Bogdan State at Stanford University in California and a few pals. These guys have analysed a global database of e-mail messages, and their locations, sent by more than 10 million people over the space of a year. State and co say that the pattern of connections between these people, clearly reflects the civilisations mapped out by Huntington. In other words, the way we send e-mails is a reflection of the mesh of civilisations that is an important driver of future conflict.

This was by no means an easy study to carry out. The messages were gathered by the internet company Yahoo!—all users had agreed to their data being used for research purposes. The data included each user’s profile giving their self-entered location and the geo-location of the IP address (only users with matching self-reported and IP locations were used).

The researchers then counted the instances in which users swapped messages with each other, considering this to be evidence of a tie between the countries where these users were located. This gave them a simple count of the number of ties between pairs of countries around the world.

But that was just the start. The hard work was in cleaning up the data…

[…]

…Indeed, they crunched the data using a number of community detection algorithms which all found a similar kind of grouping.

“This result provides evidence towards a division of the world into civilizational blocks following Huntington’s theory,” say State and pals.

But there are other patterns too. “The findings (unsurprisingly) support the idea that geography, transporation and administrative decisions are all important determinant of between-country communication: distance decreases density, as do visas, while direct flights increase it,” say the researchers.

And there are surprising results as well. For example, a common border…

[…]

[Definitely, a READ THE REST page — see cluster pattern visuals]

           — Hat tip: AS [Return to headlines]

6 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/4/2013

  1. Re: Current article by Diana West, titled:

    “Warning: You Are About to Read a “Forbidden” Column”

    The Constitution does not define the phrase natural-born citizen, and various opinions have been offered over time regarding its precise meaning. A 2011 Congressional Research Service report stated

    The weight of legal and historical authority indicates that the term “natural born” citizen would mean a person who is entitled to U.S. citizenship “by birth” or “at birth”, either by being born “in” the United States and under its jurisdiction, even those born to alien parents; by being born abroad to U.S. citizen-parents; or by being born in other situations meeting legal requirements for U.S. citizenship “at birth”. Such term, however, would not include a person who was not a U.S. citizen by birth or at birth, and who was thus born an “alien” required to go through the legal process of “naturalization” to become a U.S. citizen.

    The natural-born-citizen clause has been mentioned in passing in several decisions of the United States Supreme Court and lower courts dealing with the question of eligibility for citizenship by birth, but the Supreme Court has never directly addressed the question of a specific presidential or vice-presidential candidate’s eligibility as a natural-born citizen.

    • That aside if the on line certificate was a forgery, and I believe it is then what does that say about president Hussein? sheesh if he cannot find a competent forger coming from Chicago then he really is second rate or worse!

  2. The mail never publish my comments so I’ll vent my spleen here.
    Re Frank Field says white working class should attend citizenship classes to make themselves ”feel more British’ .http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2304010/White-working-classes-attend-citizenship-ceremonies-help-feel-society-again.html Well I, my friends and and my family have already passed our citizenship tests, they were called world war one, world war two, Korea, Malaya, Northern Ireland, Falklands, Gulf 1, Gulf 2, Afghanistan. Our ancestors have served for generations, back to Waterloo and beyond. This country was built on the sweat of our backs in industries such as coal mining, agriculture, steel and countless others, OVER GENERATIONS, somebody doesn’t understand what it means to be a citizen of this country AND IT AIN’T US.
    So I have a message for Frank Field and his like [commit an anatomically impossible act upon yourself]. You hear me? [Engage in solitary carnal knowledge].

    • I left! the disgrace of what the socialists have done to my old country is shocking.

  3. Isnt Istanbul seismically really unstable? mm god should have fun with that we should make a fuss, say they dont have the ability to build it, chide them for not making them talle and having so few, !!

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