An Afghan atheist has been granted asylum in the UK. He was born a Muslim, but became an apostate after arriving in Britain. The Home Office allowed him to remain in the country because he may face arrest and execution if he returns to his homeland.
In other news, European Commissioner Cecilia Malmström says that right-wing extremists pose the greatest threat to the EU.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, Steen, 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.
Foundations Aim to Save Pensions in Detroit Crisis
National and local philanthropic foundations have committed $330 million toward a deal to avoid cuts to Detroit retirees’ pensions and to save the Detroit Institute of Arts’ renowned collection, federal mediators involved in the city’s bankruptcy proceedings announced on Monday.
The city-owned Detroit Institute of Arts could be forced to sell many of its paintings to help Detroit pay its $18 billion in debts.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Gold to Tank in 2014: Goldman Sachs
Bad news for “gold-bugs”—bullion’s current beginning-of-the-year rally will not only lose steam, but prices could drop sharply by the end of 2014, according to Goldman Sachs’ Jeffrey Currie.
Currie, Goldman’s head of commodities research, told CNBC on Monday he had an end-of-year price target of $1,050 per ounce for gold, a 16 percent drop based from current prices of $1,251. The main culprit? Economic recovery.
“Our view there really is driven by the expectation of the U.S. economy reaching escape velocity,” Currie said on “Squawk on the Street.” “Essentially when you think about a short on gold … it’s essentially just a bet on a substantial recovery in the U.S. economy.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: 13% VAT Rate for Restaurants Extended
Until the December, 31st 2014
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, JANUARY 14 — The 13% reduced VAT rate for food and restaurants in Greece will be extend until the 31st of December 2014, as daily To Vima online reports quoting the regulation issued by the General Secretary of Public Revenue, Haris Theoharis. The lower VAT rate, which was implemented in August, is applicable to food delivery services, coffee and hot drink kiosks, as well as other goods intended for immediate consumption at restaurants. Theoharis clarified that the regular 23% VAT rate will remain in place for night clubs, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages accordingly and other related goods, which are not intended to be consumed immediately.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Industrial Production Ends 26-Mth Run of Falls
Output up 1.4% in November compared to same month in 2012
(ANSA) — Rome, January 13 — Italian industrial production ended a 26-month run of year-on-year falls in November when it increased 1.4% on the same month in 2012, Istat said Monday. The last time there was an increase in the year-on-year data for industrial production was in August 2011. The statistics agency added that output was up 0.3% in November on October.
The figures will be interpreted as confirmation that Italy is finally on course to return to positive growth after two years of recession, the country’s worst downturn since World War II.
Italy’s gross domestic product (GDP) was flat in the third quarter of last year, following eight consecutive quarters of negative growth.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: 2013 Inflation Hits Lowest Level Since 2009, Says ISTAT
Last year’s price increases well below rate in 2012
(ANSA) — Rome, January 14 — Italy’s annual inflation rate for 2013 averaged just 1.2% — a dramatic drop from the 3.0% average in 2012, national statistical agency Istat reported Tuesday. Last year’s rate was also the lowest level since 2009, the agency added. While high inflation is considered a serious problem for economies, an inflation rate that is too low is often judged a sign of serious weakness as it can indicate sluggish demand and growth.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Internal Devaluation Increases Income Inequality
The Obama Administration’s $5.8 trillion of big government deficit spending has caused the United States to suffer an “internal devaluation,” as American worker wages after inflation were forced down in each of the last five years.
American competitiveness increased by over 10% due to worker sacrifices, but all the benefits flowed directly to corporate officers and financial speculators. When the President recently lamented, “The combined trends of increased inequality and decreasing mobility pose a fundamental threat to the American dream,” he could count on the unwavering support from Warren Buffett, who was the last year’s biggest dollar gainer with a $12.5 billion jackpot. However, as recent polls demonstrate, American voters are now solidly against deficit spending.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Kelly Thomas Verdict: Support Your Local Police Uber Alles
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
Kelly Thomas died as a result of being beaten, tasered, and suffocated by a thugswarm of police on the July 5, 2011. A jury in Orange County, California — an authoritarian conservative community in which the “Support Your Local Police” movement took root and flourished in the mid-1960s — has acquitted the two ringleaders of that police gang, Manuel Ramos and Ken Cincinelli, of all charges arising from that atrocity.
Manuel Ramos, who harassed, taunted, and terrorized Thomas for nearly a half-hour before the beating began, was charged with second degree murder and involuntary manslaughter, and faced up to 15 years in prison. Cincinelli, charged with criminal assault, confronted a four-year prison term. Both were fired from the Fullerton Police Department following a public outcry.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Kelly Thomas Verdict: Cops Now Have License to Murder
[WARNING: GRAPHIC PHOTOS.]
The acquittal of two Fullerton, California police officers in the beating death of Kelly Thomas, a homeless man who was pummeled into a coma as he begged for his life, underscores the fact that cops now have a license to murder.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
MLA, or the Merit of Laconic Academics
by FormerCorr
Recently I wrote about the tensions bubbling up in US higher education, ahead of the annual conference of the Modern Languages Association. The point was that although high-profile debates about Israel/Palestine get more attention, more intense passions arise over the tensions between tenured “haves” and the vast armies of untenured teachers working on short-term contracts for low pay.
Some commentators noted that tenured staff who considered themselves radicals on issues of world importance were less interested in helping disadvantaged colleagues closer at home…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
New Declassified Docs Expose Obama’s Benghazi Lies
Newly declassified documents reveal that high-ranking members of the Obama administration were aware that the September 11, 2012 assault on the American consulate in Benghazi was a “terrorist attack” only minutes after the battle began.
In classified testimony given on June 26, 2013 to the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation, Gen. Carter Hamm, former head of the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) revealed he was the one who broke the news to former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. According to declassified testimony obtained by Fox News, Hamm testified that he learned about the attack only 15 minutes after it began at 9:42 p.m. Libya time. Thus, the administration’s carefully crafted narrative that the attack was based on a video has once again been revealed for the lie it always was…
The can be no doubt any longer what the president knew and when he knew it. On September 11, 2012 four Americans were killed in a terrorist attack. The president was aware of that reality shortly after 5 p.m. EST, even as a drone flew over the battlefield relaying video in real time. And despite all the lying, and incompetence, not a single person has been fired or held accountable, nor has even one member of the media asked the president where he was between the time he left Panetta and Dempsey, and boarded a plan for the fundraiser in Las Vegas.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama ‘Won’t be Waiting on Congress,’ Plans More Executive Orders to Advance Agenda
A senior White House adviser said Tuesday that President Obama will take more executive actions this year and “won’t be waiting on Congress to act” on his agenda.
“The president will use his executive authority, both his pen and his phone, to work with anyone to get things done,” presidential adviser Dan Pfeiffer told supporters in an email, adding that Mr. Obama intends to use “every executive tool available to him” to help middle-class families.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Only a Fool Still Believes the NSA
The NSA and other intelligence officials have been repeatedly caught lying about their spying programs.
Officials in the legislative, judicial and executive branches of government all say that the mass surveillance on Americans is unnecessary:
- 3 Senators with top secret clearance “have reviewed this surveillance extensively and have seen no evidence that the bulk collection of Americans’ phone records has provided any intelligence of valuethat could not have been gathered through less intrusive means”
- Another Senator with top secret clearance agrees, and so does the congress member who wrote the Patriot Act, and more than 100 congress members from both parties
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Supreme Court Hands Monsanto Victory Over Farmers on GMO Seed Patents, Ability to Sue
The US Supreme Court upheld biotech giant Monsanto’s claims on genetically-engineered seed patents and the company’s ability to sue farmers whose fields are inadvertently contaminated with Monsanto materials.
The high court left intact Monday a federal appeals court decision that threw out a 2011 lawsuit from the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association and over 80 other plaintiffs against Monsanto that sought to challenge the agrochemical company’s aggressive claims on patents of genetically-modified seeds. The suit also aimed to curb Monsanto from suing anyone whose field is contaminated by such seeds.
The group of plaintiffs, which included many individual American and Canadian family farmers, independent seed companies and agricultural organizations, were seeking preemptive protections against Monsanto’s patents. The biotech leviathan has filed over 140 lawsuits against farmers for planting the company’s genetically-engineered seeds without permission, while settling around 700 other cases without suing.
None of the plaintiffs are customers of Monsanto and none have licensing agreements with the company. The group argued that they do not want Monsanto’s genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) and want legal protection in case of inadvertent contact with the company’s products…
“If Monsanto can patent seeds for financial gain, they should be forced to pay for contaminating a farmer’s field, not be allowed to sue them,” said Dave Murphy, founder and executive director of Food Democracy Now!, in a statement “Once again, America’s farmers have been denied justice, while Monsanto’s reign of intimidation is allowed to continue in rural America.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The firing of Teller by Scalise confirmed the GOP’s war on conservatives, Cruz’s hiring of Teller confirms the war ain’t over.
In Washington Monday, Sen. R. Edward “Ted” Cruz (R.-Texas) poked his finger in the eye of the Republican House leaders, when he hired Paul S. Teller as his deputy chief of staff.
Teller, who has a doctorate in political science from American University, has worked on the House side of the Capitol since 1993, most recently as the executive director of the Republican Study Committee.
The RSC’s chairman, Rep. Stephen J. Scalise (R.-La.) fired Teller Dec.11 after he discovered that his executive director was leaking details of the two-year budget compromise to conservative activists…
In the case of the two-year budget deal, the Democrats and Republican leaders negotiated in secret and then gave members of Congress 36 hours to read the budget before the floor vote — without an opportunity for amendments.
This is not the regular order of things. The regular order of things is to have hearings, amendments and committee votes. But, to have the regular order would have given conservatives the chance to speak up against the budget.
Just as Edward Snowden blew the whistle on the NSA, Teller, in a smaller way, was trying to let the American people know what was going on. Let’s be square: budget negotiations are not state secrets. They are the people’s business and if they cannot survive in sunlight — that is a clue that money is being wasted or stolen — or both.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Violence Becoming the New Norm in America
In most large city in America, such as Denver, newscasters relate killings every night of the week. Chicago, Houston, Detroit and Los Angeles suffer gang killings nightly.
One in four children suffers bullying by a teen thug in high schools across America every day during school terms. In other words, our children cannot attend school without fear of being beat up, harassed, called names and demeaned by meaner, bigger students who have no other purpose in life but to manifest their thuggery.
What bothers me: we promote horrific violence via our continuous wars promoted by bankers and the military industrial complex that profit at the cost of human lives. We promote TV violence such as “Criminal Minds” and “NCIS” where lots of people commit diabolical mayhem. We support social media arcade games for kids like “Doom” and worse. Our movies feature horrific violence that pours into our kids minds and emotions. It’s like the 60s movie “Clockwork Orange” seems normal. You can watch television “Cops” where violence becomes normal. Our drones in the Middle East kill any number of humans without identity.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Values Charter Opponents Wear Religious Symbols Ahead of Public Hearings
The ferment over the Parti Quebecois’ proposed secular values charter will only deepen as the minority PQ government launches hearings into the legislation this week.
A Muslim woman in Montreal organized a protest Monday calling on Quebecers to to wear overt religious symbols to register their opposition to the proposed charter.
Al-Obaid, who wears a hijab, set up a Facebook page after a confrontation on Montreal’s Metro a few weeks ago.
“A lady came up and tried to remove my hijab forcefully,” Al-Obaidy told CBC News. “She told me my hijab and myself don’t belong in Quebec and after a few exchanges of words she decided to start pulling on my veil. As it started getting loose I had to eventually stop her.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Airbus Outstrips Boeing in Orders But Not Deliveries
Over 50% market share
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, JANUARY 13 — Airbus just wrapped up a record year in terms of orders placed but has not yet managed to outdo its US rival in terms of deliveries. The year-end balance was illustrated Monday by Managing Director Fabrice Bregier in an annual press conference.
In the 2013 business year, the European aeronautics giant racked up some 1,619 gross orders overall and 1,503 nets ones (which exclude the impact of cancelled deals to buy aircraft) — an unprecedented level in the sector — gaining a 51% market share in gross terms and a 53% one in net ones after the cancellation of orders for aircraft seating over 100. Its US rival only managed 1,531 and 1,355 orders, mostly due to difficulties in the jumbo jet sector, in which Airbus A380 got 75% of orders (50 out of 67). Airbus can thus point to an orders portfolio of 5,559 aircraft as of December 31, 2013, equal to over eight years of production. Of them, 18% are earmarked for European companies, 12% for North American ones, and 34% to companies in the Asia-Pacific region, including a Japanese one — Japan Airlines, which in October underwrote an order for 35 new mid-sized A350 aircraft with an option for 25 — for the first time. As concerns production, despite a constant increase in volumes for the second consecutive year Airbus was behind top-ranked (since 2011) Boeing: 626 deliveries, compared with 648 by the US manufacturer.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Breivik Tried to Undermine Counterjihad, Admits Nazi Goals
By Daniel Greenfield
This won’t prevent the umpteenth New York Times article counting how many times Breivik’s manifesto had Robert Spencer’s name in it, never mind that most of those instances came from a pasted document filled with quotes on terrorism from mainstream experts and elected officials, but it does fit in with his actual plan of action which involved mass murder and allying with Islamic terrorists to take over parts of Europe.
Despite Muslim complaints, Breivik’s attack had nothing to do with Islam.
Reading through the original parts of Breivik’s manifesto and then catching the rest of his performance, it’s obvious that his connection to reality is very loosely tethered. It would not surprise me a great deal if a year from now he announced that he was a Communist or converted to Islam…
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: City Politicians to Skip Mosque Opening
Qatar’s funding of Denmark’s largest mosque a continued cause for concern
Copenhagen’s deputy mayor for culture, Carl Christian Ebbesen (DF), will not attend the opening of Denmark’s largest mosque in May. The mosque is being built on Rovsingsgade in Østerbro using a 150 million kroner grant from the former ruling emir of Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani. While Mohamed Al Maimouni — a spokesperson for Dansk Islamisk Råd (Danish Islamic Council), which is responsible for building the mosque — has previously told The Copenhagen Post that the donation will not impact the mosque’s religious line, city politicians are not convinced…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Extreme Right ‘Biggest Threat to EU’: Malmström
An EU push to counter extremism will give member states cash to help defectors, with Sweden’s European Commissioner identifying rightwing extremists as the biggest threat in the union today.
“The biggest threat right now comes from violent right wing extremism,” Commissioner Cecilia Malmström told Sveriges Radio (SR) on Tuesday. “For example in Greece and in Bulgaria, but also in Hungary.”
Malmström said both rightwing and leftwing extremists were radicalizing in Europe.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germans Undress for ‘No Pants Subway Ride’
Hundreds of Germans joined in on a ‘No Pants Subway Ride’ on Sunday, stepping out of their trousers and into U-Bahns in cities across the country.
Thanks to an unusually mild January, 2014’s No Pants Subway Ride (NPSR) drew a modest crowd in cities including Berlin, Munich, Cologne, Stuttgart and Hamburg.
After starting in New York 12 years ago, the flashmob movement has gone global, with people taking part in over 60 countries. In Germany the fun was organized through Facebook groups.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: European Elections Campaign Underway, Samaras Attacks
Premier accuses radical left of being anti-European
(by Demetrio Manolistakis) (ANSAmed) ATHENS, JANUARY 13 — Perhaps Antonis Samaras, the Greek prime minister and leader of conservative party Nea Dimokratia, could not have chosen a better time to open — though informally — the electoral campaign ahead of European and local elections in May.
He did it on the day Greece took over the rotating European Union presidency at a time when attention is on the country’s economic situation. The dilemma of elections in May, according to Nea Dimokratia’s leader, will not be on the memorandum anymore — as occurred in national elections in 2012 — but on the country’s permanence within the Union.
In upcoming European elections, Samaras said, ‘Greek citizens will have to choose whether they want Europe or not’.
Moreover the premier also placed far-left Syriza — the main opposition party in Greece — among anti-European, anti-Western and anti-Nato forces. And he did all this avoiding to cite the name of party leader Alexis Tsipras yet deploring the fact that he deserted the ceremony of inauguration of the Greek semester, a clear sign, according to Samaras, of deep anti-Europeanism. All these are signs of a polarization which is likely to deepen as elections get closer. Surveys carried out so far leave few doubts; the elections will be a match between Nea Dimokratia and Syriza which makes it impossible to forecast political developments in Greece.
Meanwhile the premier and his ministers insist saying that political elections will take place at the end of the legislature which expires in 2016. In a ‘normal’ country, this would be normal but things in Greece are different today. Here the political agenda in the immediate future will be mostly determined by external factors rather than the government including a small parliamentary majority, a comeback of terrorism, financial scandals unveiled every day and the growing popularity, according to polls, of neo-Nazi party Chrysi Avgi (Golden Dawn). All this without mentioning the troika (EU, ECB and IMF) which will soon return to Athens to resume inspections on the state of the country’s recovery programme.
All these factors can create at any time an accident and don’t leave room for forecasts. In other words the Greek political system, which is mostly responsible for the economic crisis gripping the country, remains extremely ‘fluid’. Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras told the Financial Times in an interview that a majority of 153 lawmakers out of 300 limits the government’s freedom of choice. The parliamentary majority, Stournaras told the paper, is too limited and therefore the cabinet needs to be cautious. The minister added that some things can be done and others can’t with such a small margin.
Moreover, terrorism is once again a concern for the Greek government. Too many signs are showing that groups are trying to destabilize the country. Greek anti-terror analysts appear convinced that the recent jailbreak by Christodoulos Xiros, 55, who was serving six life sentences plus 25 years for belonging to violent terror group ‘17 November’, is a sign that a network is being created by old and new terrorists.
According to experts, in the past few months a ‘strange alliance’ has been created between old-generation terrorists and new urban militants in which regular convicts currently detained also play a role.
All this is taking place amid the first important signs of a slow economic recovery including a primary budget surplus in 2013, which has nevertheless to be confirmed by April by Eurostat, and Stournaras’ announcement that Greece could return on financial markets by the end of 2014 when it will reportedly place five-year bonds worth 1.5 or 2 billion euros on the market.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Three Molotov Cocktails Found at Home of Pro-Tav Senator
Threats may be coming from opponents of high-speed rail
(ANSA) — Turin, January 13 — Political allies were rallying Monday around Democratic Party (PD) Senator Stefano Esposito after Molotov cocktails were found earlier in the day outside his home in the northwestern city of Turin.
Police said they suspect the fire bombs, which did not explode, were placed there to intimidate the Senator over his support for a controversial high-speed rail project connecting France with northern Italy, known as the Tav.
Esposito, who is vice-chairman of the Senate’s transportation committee, has previously received threats.
The Molotov cocktails were placed on the doorstep of his home, hidden inside a garbage bag. Police said no one has claimed responsibility, and they are now reviewing film from surveillance cameras in the area.
“It is with great concern that we see yet another act of intimidation against…Esposito,” said Pietro Di Lorenzo, secretary general of the regional Siap union representating State police officers.
He praised “the courageous stance of Esposito,” in defense of the project despite the “continuous violent threats” by some elements of the opposition to the Tav project.
Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Maurizio Lupi said the government would not “retreat an inch” on the Tav project that he said is of strategic importance for Italy.
“I’m with Senator Esposito and not with the cowards who attack and threaten him,” said Lupi. Previously, Premier Enrico Letta has condemned the sometimes violent protests against the high-speed railway plan, saying some demonstrators have acted excessively.
Protesters have attacked regional offices of the center-left Democratic Party to convey their disapproval of the project, which supporters say will reduce highway traffic and associated pollution and improve efficiency.
Opponents argue the project linking Turin to Lyon is wasteful of public funds and will destroys pristine countryside.
“What is happening against Senator Stefano Esposito cannot but cause concern and alarm,” said Senator Altero Matteoli of the opposition Forza Italia party (FI) and chairman of the Senate’s public works committee.
He added that he is concerned that behind “these threats, intimidation and violence is someone hatching a plan much more dramatic and destabilizing”.
“Do not lower our guard and do not minimize the face of such serious incidents,” added Antonio Ferrentino, mayor of Sant’Antonio di Susa, where much of the work on the project is now centered.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Economy Minister Backtracks on Nationalists Victory ‘Joke’
‘Kidding that euroskeptic win could be healthy shock’
(ANSA) — Milan, January 14 — Economy Minister Fabrizio Saccomanni backpedaled on comments he made Tuesday that a victory for nationalist movements at upcoming European elections could be a “healthy wake-up call” for Europe.
“It was clearly a joke…addressed in a kidding tone to the audience at a conference,” said a statement from the economy ministry. Last month Italian Premier Enrico Letta said “up to 25%” of the European Parliament could be represented by euroskeptics and anti-Europeans following elections in May.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Parish Schoolworker Arrested for Molesting Boys
Layperson ‘touched teens as penalty in games’
(ANSA) — Milan, January 14 — Police outside Milan on Tuesday arrested a 40-year-old lay schoolworker for molesting four boys at a parish. Police said the crimes took place outside the parish building in 2011 and were reported by parents in 2013. The victims are between the ages of 13 and 16. The suspect, who has no prior police record, reportedly grew up in the same parish. Investigators say he touched the boys as “penalties” during games they would play. Priests reportedly removed him after learning of the episodes.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
New German ECB Member Favours ‘Stable Currency Union’
Germany’s new board member of the European Central Bank, Sabine Lautenschlaeger, currently deputy chief of the Bundesbank, told MEPs she is “in favour of a stable currency union.” Her predecessor Joerg Asmussen was seen as more doveish than the Bundesbank chief, Jens Weidmann. Lautenschlaeger said she’ll go her own way.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: ‘Nature Can Take No More’ Warns Stoltenberg
Norway’s former Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg on Saturday warned of the urgent need to strike a new deal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as he began his new role as one of the UN’s two special envoys for climate change.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Riots in Spain Over Costly City Plans
Local residents in the Spanish city of Burgos have resorted to street riots to express their frustration over a reported eight million-euro revamp of the city’s main thoroughfare.
During the three consecutive days of violent protests, 40 people were arrested and eleven police officers were said to have been injured.
The plans for the thoroughfare include decreasing the road’s size by half and taking away free parking spaces in favour of a new, underground, “pay and display” carpark.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden to Deepen Military Ties With Finland
Sweden has vowed to beef up defence cooperation with non-Nato member neighbour Finland, while the government’s current defence policy continues to face harsh criticism from all quarters.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Calls for the Next Met Chief to be From a Minority Background
SCOTLAND Yard has a “diversity crisis” and should be forced to consider appointing a black or Muslim officer as its next commissioner, an influential MP urged last night.
Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Committee, said trust in the country’s biggest force was being eroded and it was time for “dramatic” solutions. He said a form of positive discrimination was needed to ensure at least one candidate on the next shortlist to run the Yard was from an ethnic minority background.
The country’s highest ranking ethnic minority officer is the Met’s Deputy Assistant Commissioner Patricia Gallan, meaning a black woman could soon become Britain’s top police officer.
Sir Bernard said last week that the Met needed to create and retain a workforce that reflected London’s diverse population. Police insiders say he has made the task one of his main priorities and knows the Met is “too white”. The force is running a huge ”London is You” recruitment drive with a target to hire some 5,000 new officers by 2015, of whom up to 30 per cent should be non-white.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Coronation Street is set to get its first Muslim family ever — and the soap’s producer has admitted that increasing the show’s diversity is a long-overdue move. The new characters will be relatives of Kal Nazir, a former soldier played by Jimi Mistry, who joined the ITV hit two months ago. Although Coronation Street has been on the air for 53 years, it has never before featured a Muslim family, which producer Stuart Blackburn admitted was ‘bizarre’ given the multi-cultural makeup of Manchester where the soap is set…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Great Horton Mosque Plan Bid
The owners of a madrassa in Great Horton, Bradford, have applied to Bradford Council to lift conditions that prevent them turning it into a mosque.
Mazhar-e-Islam Ghosai was given permission to turn a workshop on Low Green into an Islamic education centre in 2011. A condition said the building could be used as a madrassa and for no other purpose without Council approval. The application asks that this condition be lifted “to allow the premises to be used as an Islamic centre and mosque”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Qipco to have “branding presence” on first day and Ascot looking for partners for other four days
The Queen has given permission for the ruling al-Thani family of Qatar to become her first commercial partner at Royal Ascot. In an unprecedented move, Qipco, a holding company for the Qataris, already known for its lavish sponsorship of Champions Day at Ascot in October, is set to be part of a new up-market branding initiative expected to raise millions for the Queen’s racecourse.
Until now, the Queen has resisted calls from within the racing industry to introduce sponsorship of select races at her world-famous five-day meeting in June. Now, she has left the door ajar. “Sponsorship [of Royal Ascot races] is just not on our radar,” Nick Smith, Ascot’s head of communications, said on Monday. “But Qipco will have partner presence, which means they will enjoy everything that forms part of the most overt branding ever seen at the Royal meeting.”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
Teenage thugs savagely beat a grandfather, breaking his nose and leaving him with two black eyes, after he remonstrated with them for over-turning bins in his local park.
Kyle Spencer, 19, and a 17 year-old who can not be named for legal reasons were sentenced to three years detention after they brutally beat and kicked Mark Earnshaw.
The 51-year-old accounts manager was punched repeatedly and repeatedly kicked by the yobs, suffering two black eyes, a broken nose, a badly-bruised jaw and a gaping wound to the side of his face after his teeth tore through his cheek during the beating.
He has permanent damage to his right eye and scars to his face, while the vision in one of his eyes is still impaired following the attack near his home in Anchorsholme, Blackpool, Lancashire in March last year.
Mr Earnshaw was celebrating becoming a grandfather to twins when he was dropped off at home by taxi following a birthday party at a nearby social club.
As he was getting ready for bed sat around 2am he hearing smashing noises and went outside to investigate…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Deadly Clashes Erupt Between Police, Morsi Supporters as Egypt Votes on Constitution
The Health Ministry says clashes between police and protesters loyal to former President Mohammed Morsi have left at least 11 people dead on the first day of a vote on Egypt’s new constitution.
The clashes began hours after Egyptians began voting on the new charter that represents a key milestone in a military-backed roadmap put in place since the ouster of Morsi last July.
The ministry says the deaths occurred in Cairo, the adjacent province of Giza and two provinces south of the capital, Bani Suef and Sohag. The statement says 28 people also have been wounded.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt’s Tourism Minister to Visit Italy to Promote Sector
Holiday period went well, large numbers now aimed for
(ANSAmed) — ROME, JANUARY 13 — After the Italian Foreign Ministry lifted its advisory against travel to the country and good results were achieved over the holiday period, Egyptian Minister of Tourism Hisham Zaazou will be in Milan for the BIT-Tourism Fair (February 13-15) to meet with Italian tour operators. Egypt is aiming for a substantial increase in the number of Italians opting to visit the country in 2014 and wants to gradually bring the levels up to those seen in previous years.
Other aims include attracting greater Italian investment to Egypt and stepping up the cooperation that has traditionally marked relations between the two countries, in order to build a prosperous future together. The minister plans to discuss the best strategies for a relaunch of tourism and investment in the country with Italian tour operators. The government aims to maintain stronger relations with its Mediterranean partners — and especially with Italy, which it has long enjoyed solid relations with. Egyptian authorities continue to say that Egypt “is a safe destination that welcomes tourists with hospitality and cordiality. The country is working ceaselessly to maintain security and stability, aware that its security is the most important basis for tourism and economic development”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: ‘MB Terrorism Will Stay But Ready to Pay the Price’
MB-US alliance exploited secular activists, Coptic journalist
(by Luciana Borsatti) (ANSAmed) — ROME — “We have very high hopes that the Constitution will be endorsed by the Egyptian people in the referendum today and tomorrow. >From there we can move forward to presidential and parliamentary elections and build a modern State. As for the vicious terrorism against the Egyptian people, this terrorism will stay with us for a long time, but Egyptians have no regrets. We all knew that overthrowing the oppressive Islamist Muslim Brothers would come at a very high price,” Samia Sidhom, managing editor of Coptic weekly Watani, told ANSAmed in an interview.
Q. You cannot blame anybody for terrorism if you do not have a judiciary probe and clear evidence for it. A. The attacks against non-MB students in universities, the burning of university buildings, the assault of university faculty inside their offices, the torching of the trees on the streets around the campuses, the roadblocks and shooting and killing of civilians are all terrorist activity. And the MB are proud to claim responsibility for all of it and call for more of such activity on the official Arabic website of their political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party. They also proudly claim responsibility for attacking the police and torching police trucks and stations — mind you. Their leaders have officially said that they were attacking the police in order to exhaust them. The MB do that because, as they say, they wish to bring down the current regime and re-install Morsi, whom the Egyptian people have utterly rejected.
Q. The MB were accused of the bloody Mansoura attack on December 24, and banned as a terrorist organization, without any evidence of their role in the attack, and even though a jihadist group had already claimed responsibility for it. A. It’s true that Ansaar Beit al-Maqdis have claimed responsibility, but they’re another Islamist group spawned by the Muslim Brotherhood in order to do the ‘dirty work’ while the MB keep their hands ‘clean’. The link between these groups and the MB can be traced to the explicit declarations of a number of the leaders of the MB even before they got caught, and who are now under trial. Muhammad al-Beltagi said that “peace will return to Sinai the moment Morsi is back as president”. Moreover, the MB did not denounce the Mansoura attack in Arabic, but only in English, in order to create a decent international image only.
A. But in the last few months many innocent people have also been killed and arrested by the security forces.
Q. The people who were killed in the clashes with the police are not only MB and were not only killed by the police. The MB protestors are armed and violent, they killed many innocent people simply for standing up to them. They shoot to kill. Also, they have a ‘suicide mentality’, use their women and children as human shields, and many of their victims fall by friendly fire, shot from the back by bullets never used by the Egyptian police. All such incidents were printed, with evidence cited, in Watani.
Q. The repressive wave against the MB may endanger everybody’s liberties and basic rights. Secular activists have also been arrested and being given jail sentences, like some prominent activists of April 6 Movement. And it is dangerous when media sources are shut down by the authorities: today they do it with Al Jazeera, who will be the next one?
A. As concerns the so-called secular activists who have been arrested and tried before the courts, it has been proven beyond any doubt that they were exploited by the US-MB alliance to work against Egyptian interests. The US makes no secret of the fact that it was behind the foundation of the 6 April Movement. Egyptians today question very seriously the ‘revolution’ of 25 January 2011 and who exactly was behind the Facebook campaign which triggered it. In all cases, they are being tried in court and, contrary to what the western media likes to propagate, the courts and judiciary are not politicised. It’s just that the can of worms that was being sold to Egypt since the 2011 revolution has been uncovered and it can be seen clearly what was inside.
As to endangering freedoms and rights, we all realise we may have to give up some rights for the sake of national security. Look at the US and its Homeland Security plan. What does this say about rights? Right now, we need our country to be managed with a strong hand because we are facing a vicious enemy that is trying to obliterate Egypt and replace it with some Islamist entity that would be part of a pan-world Islamic caliphate. This is the international dream of the Islamists. Q. On the other hand, that part of the Brotherhood who had and still has a peaceful approach still represent a part of the Egyptian, which cannot be discriminated against in the path towards a new, democratic order. That’s the reason why Western diplomacy keep on talking about an ‘inclusive’ political process.
A. There are no Muslim Brothers with a peaceful approach, and time proves that there can be no ‘inclusion’ for the MB: they have refused any reconciliation time and again. And again I ask: Did Europe ‘include’ the Nazis? The Fascists? The Baader Meinhof? The Red Brigades? That’s how the majority of Egyptians see things. And that’s how the world does not see it. Too bad.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Three Brotherhood Supporters Killed in Sohag
Three Muslim Brotherhood supporters were shot dead and 20 were injured when security forces dispersed a demonstration they organized against the constitutional referendum in Upper Egypt’s Sohag on Tuesday, a security source said…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptians to Vote in Constitutional Referendum
The new text strips out disputed Islamist language while strengthening state institutions that defied Mohammed Morsi: the military, the police and the judiciary.
Egyptians will today vote in a constitutional referendum, the first ballot since the military overthrew Islamist president Mohammed Morsi and an event likely to spawn a presidential bid by army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
Few doubt that Egyptians, who staged mass protests against Mr Morsi’s rule before his ousting, will turn out in big numbers and vote “yes” in the two-day referendum, a milestone in the army-backed government’s political road map…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisians Celebrate 3rd Year Since Dictator’s Overthrow as New Constitution Nears Completion
TUNIS, Tunisia — Tunisians have marked the third anniversary of the overthrow of their dictator in 2011, which kicked off pro-democracy demonstrations around the region.
Tunisia’s elected assembly is on the verge of passing a new constitution, a major step in completing the democratic transition, which has remained on track despite the country’s setbacks.
The other Arab countries that deposed their leaders during the Arab Spring have been beset by continued instability and, in the case of Egypt, a military coup.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
With Muslim Brotherhood Crushed, Egypt Sets Sights on Hamas
(Reuters) — After crushing the Muslim Brotherhood at home, Egypt’s military rulers plan to undermine the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which runs the neighboring Gaza Strip, senior Egyptian security officials told Reuters.
The aim, which the officials say could take years to pull off, includes working with Hamas’s political rivals Fatah and supporting popular anti-Hamas activities in Gaza, four security and diplomatic officials said.
Since it seized power in Egypt last summer, Egypt’s military has squeezed Gaza’s economy by destroying most of the 1,200 tunnels used to smuggle food, cars and weapons to the coastal enclave, which is under an Israeli blockade.
Now Cairo is becoming even more ambitious in its drive to eradicate what it says are militant organizations that threaten its national security.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: Sharon’s Final Road
During his long career, Ariel Sharon built a lot of roads. As housing minister in the early 1990s and as national infrastructures minister in the late 1990s, Sharon played a key role in building everything from the Trans-Israel Highway to access roads to isolated communities.
Since he passed away on Saturday, his role in building Israel’s national infrastructures has been widely noted. But no mention has been made of the final and most important road that he paved.
That is the road to Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
Israeli Police Stop Palestinian PM for Exceeding Speed Limit
On his way from Nablus to Ramallah. PNA protests
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV — Israeli police on Tuesday stopped Palestinian Premier Rami Hamdallah’s car while he was travelling in the West Bank along a road between Nablus and Ramallah, Ynet reports. The newspaper said the premier’s car was stopped because the driver had exceeded the speed limit. Hamdallah reportedly protested and asked for a formal apology from Israel. The PNA issued a statement to protest against the incident.
The premier later told Palestinian news agency Maan he had the impression that the Israeli officers, who were together with a group of settlers, were waiting for his car and had carried out a planned ‘attack’. He said Israelis asked, in vain, for his bodyguards to get out of the car.
A few weeks ago former PNA premier Ahmed Qrei was stopped in the West Bank by Israeli police officers for allegedly exceeding speed limits.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
As Syrian Civil War Grinds on, Aid Officials Push for Renewed Pledges of Humanitarian Support
Relief aid officials are hoping wealthy Gulf states and other international donors gathering for a major fundraising drive in Kuwait will step up their giving to help Syrians affected by the country’s civil war, warning that conditions are fast deteriorating as refugee numbers grow and prospects for a cease-fire remain elusive.
Humanitarian needs have escalated dramatically since a similar donor conference in the oil-rich Gulf nation last January. The United Nations warns that more than 9 million people need assistance as the conflict grinds on.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Can Iraq Overcome Al Qaeda Insurgency?
A U.S. defense policy expert said Monday that Al Qaeda is using a longstanding feud between Iraq’s Shite-led government and the Sunni population to re-establish control in parts of the country.
In an interview with Fox News National Security Analyst KT McFarland, adjunct senior fellow for defense policy at the Council on Foreign Relations Stephen Biddle said, “Al Qaeda’s resurgence is a response to gradual decay in the relationship between Sunni and Shia Iraq and that’s the underlying problem here that needs to get solved or its going to get worse.”
Biddle, author of “Military Power: Explaining Victory and Defeat in Modern Battle,” explained the extremist insurgency never ended several years ago, but only weakened. “They were never completely destroyed even during the surge in 2007 and 2008.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU’s Top Diplomat Agrees to Landmark Iran Visit
BRUSSELS — EU foreign relations chief Catherine Ashton has agreed to visit Iran amid wider efforts to improve relations between the Islamic republic and the West. She told press while visiting Kuwait on Monday (13 January) that: “I read with interest the invitation to visit Tehran and it is my intention to do so in the course of the next weeks.”
Her decision comes after Iranian deputy foreign minister Abbas Araqchi on Saturday told media she has “an open invitation” to visit any time. It also comes after Iran and the UN Security Council veto countries plus Germany in Geneva on Sunday agreed details of an interim deal on Iran’s nuclear programme.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French President: 700 Extremists Have Left France to Fight in Syria
French President Francois Hollande says 700 people have left France to fight in Syria and that authorities must crack down on terrorist networks in France.
At a wide-ranging news conference Tuesday, Hollande stressed the need for a peaceful solution to the civil war in Syria. France’s government has backed Syria’s divided, moderate opposition. He says 700 young French citizens and residents have gone to fight with extremists in Syria. That is much higher than previous estimates, which have been closer to 400.
Hollande says French authorities, who have worried that these fighters might stage attacks upon their return, should “fight against a certain number of networks and households that are harboring terrorism.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
German Diplomats Survive Shooting Attack in Saudi Arabia
Two German diplomats survived a shooting attack on their car while on a visit to eastern Saudi Arabia on Monday, the state news agency SPA reported, but their vehicle was burned. SPA quoted a police spokesman as saying that authorities were investigating the rare incident, which took place in the town of Awamiya on Monday evening. No other details were immediately available…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: Gunmen Seize More Areas in Iraq’s Ramadi as Battles Continue in Anbar Province
RAMADI, Iraq, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) — Gunmen on Tuesday regained control of more districts in Ramadi, the capital of the volatile Anbar province in western Iraq, after fierce clashes with Iraqi army backed by Sunni tribes.
The gunmen, including al-Qaida militants, fought the troops and the tribesmen in several districts in Ramadi, some 110 km west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, since Monday’s evening. On Tuesday, they managed to retake control of most areas in central and northern city, a provincial police source told Xinhua…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Isolated and Misinformed, Syrian Refugees in Lebanon Struggle to Get Access to Aid
Fear, confusion and a lack of information are preventing many Syrian refugees in Lebanon from knowing where to turn for aid. With a constant surge of refugees now fighting the bitter winter cold, humanitarian organizations are struggling to find ways to reach them with the information they need to survive — and are recruiting some refugees to help out.
In Lebanon, where displaced Syrians now equal one-third of the population, the problem is made worse by the government’s refusal to establish official refugee camps, leading to a chaotic, fractured operation with major gaps in coordination.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
More Than 20 Belgian Islamists Killed in Syria: Minister
More than 20 of the 200 or so Belgian Islamists who have left for Syria to fight President Bashar al-Assad’s regime have been killed, Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said Monday. “More than 200 people have been clearly identified or are being identified… Most have joined the most extremist groups, including the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL),” an Al-Qaeda-linked group, Reynders said in a newspaper interview. “More than 20 have already died in Syria,” he told the daily La Libre Belgique newspaper. Reynders also reiterated growing concerns among governments across Europe over “how to keep track of these jihadists to see whether they are dangerous once they return here or elsewhere”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Anti-Assad Rebel Infighting Leaves 700 Dead, Including Civilians
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ( Isil ) yesterday regained the city of Raqqa in the north -east of Syria and executed more than 100 prisoners. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the Islamic group has launched 16 suicide bombings in nine days in Homs, Idlib and Aleppo, killing hundreds of civilians.
Damascus (AsiaNews / Agencies) — The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) has won the battle against Syrian Islamist rebel groups and recaptured the province of Raqqa. Violent fighting is being reported in the province of Aleppo.
According to local sources the civil war between the rebels for the conquest of Raqqa ended in a massacre. The Isil militiamen executed at least 100 prisoners belonging to the groups of al- Nousra (al-Qaeda in Syria) and Ahrar al-Sham Brigades. They had been captured in recent days during the taking of the city of Tel Abiad situated on the border with Turkey. In ten days, the internal conflict between the rebels against the regime has left at least 700 people dead. Of these deaths more than 500 are militants, while 16 Isil suicide bombings in Aleppo , Idlib , Homs and Raqqa killed and estimated 100 civilians.
The coalition of Mujahideen to fight Isil extremists was born on January 3 and brings together 8 various factions of rebel groups: Free Syrian Army , Ahrar al- Sham , the Al- Nusra terrorists, a group linked to al — Qaeda and the main rivals of Isil. In an official statement the anti- Isil coalition claims it “wants to defend the honor of the rebels and Syria”. The militants say they will fight against “Isil, who has violated the dictates of Allah, until it announces its dissolution”.
The Assad regime has taken advantage of the clash between the rebels to continue its offensive against Homs and Aleppo. According to sources in the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights , yesterday in Homs alone at least 20 civilians were killed in Syrian air raids.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: 400 Million Dollars in Aid From Islamic NGOs
Tomorrow 2nd UN conference donor countries, 6.5 bln requested
(ANSAmed) — KUWAIT CITY, JANUARY 14 — Islamic Non Government Organizations and charities across the world have vowed to raise together 400 million dollars (over 290 million euros) to ease the humanitarian crisis caused by the war in Syria. The engagement was taken on Tuesday in Kuwait City at the Second Humanitarian Pledging Conference for Syria, on the eve of the donors’ conference for the war-torn country, to be attended by the NGOs together with UN agencies and some 60 countries including Italy. It will be hosted for the second consecutive year by the Gulf emirate under UN patronage.
The difficult appointment takes place one week before the Geneva II conference as the international community has been asked by the UN to honor an application for urgent aid on behalf of Syria worth 6.5 billion dollars, an unprecedented sum in UN history for a single crisis at a time when Western countries are struggling with a difficult economy.
Tuesday’s conference was organized in Kuwait by the organization grouping Islamic charities whose president Abdullah al-Matuq called on the ‘generosity’ of participants, in a statement along the lines of those expected Wednesday from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and host, Kuwait’s emir Sabah al-Ahmas al-Jaber al-Sabah to donor countries.
In January 2013 NGOS used a total of 190 million dollars out of the 1.5 billion dollars pledged by donors for Syria of which, according to the UN, 72% was bestowed. According to Kuwaiti Kuna news agency, among the most generous organizations today were the British Islamic Relief Charity with 80 million dollars, the UAE Red Crescent with 35 million, the Thani Foundation of Qatar with 15 million while NGOs from the host emirate offered a total of 142 million.(ANSamed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish Police Raid Islamic Charity Near Syria Border
Turkish police raided the office of an Islamic charity in a town near the Syrian border on Tuesday, the organisation said. No reason was given for the action against the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH). But it comes two weeks after security forces stopped a truck loaded with weapons being sent to Syria reportedly on behalf of IHH.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Yemen: Gunmen Kill Six in Attack on Norway Oil Plant
Yemeni gunmen killed six soldiers on Sunday in an attack on an oil facility operated by Norway’s DNO, just days after the company received a warning to cease all operations in the area.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
YouTube Partially Inaccessible From Turkey
(ANSAmed) — ISTANBUL, JANUARY 14 — The popular video sharing website YouTube has been blocked in Turkey for some Internet users who connect via TurkNet and a number of other servers, the Hurriyet daily reported late on Monday. Internet users were surprised to see the message “This website has been blocked by court decision” when trying to access YouTube. The US-based video-sharing website Vimeo, which had been blocked in Turkey by a court late on Thursday, was accessible late on Friday after a 24-hour ban, leading to confusion over whether the court decision was temporary or not. The banning of the website led to deep concerns that an amendment to the law on cybercrimes recently submitted by a deputy from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) may seriously damage freedom of expression on the Internet and social media.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
City Hall to Reject Rally Against Islamophobia
City Hall plans to turn down a petition by Muslim activists to hold a rally “against Islamophobia and Caucasus-phobia” on Manezh Square, a Moscow security official said. The area “doesn’t have the conditions for holding mass actions,” the city’s regional security department head Alexei Mayorov said, adding that an official ruling would be issued later, Interfax reported.
Rally organizers said in their petition, filed Monday, that they expected the event to attract 1 million people, Moskovsky Komsomolets reported.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan: One Killed in Kabul Gunfight
KABUL, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) — At least one person was killed following a gunfight between gunmen and security guard in western Kabul on Tuesday, said a source.
“Several gunmen tried to seize a building in Dar-ul-Aman road at around 6:00 p.m. local time. The exchange of fire between security guard and the gunmen lasted for a while. As a result one gunman was killed,” the source told Xinhua…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Britain ‘Backstabbed’ Sikhs by Advising India on 1984 Golden Temple Raid
Britain betrayed us by advising Indira Gandhi on her fatal raid against militants barricaded in Amritsar’s Golden Temple, say Sikh leaders
Britain’s involvement in the massacre of hundreds of Sikh separatists in an Indian temple in 1984 will be urgently investigated, David Cameron has ordered. Previously secret documents released by the Government have shown that a SAS officer was drafted in to help the Indian authorities with plans to remove dissident Sikhs from the Golden Temple at Amritsar, Sikhism’s holiest shrine.
The plan was ordered with the full knowledge of then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher the documents say. Hundreds of Sikhs were killed in the attack…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
India: Bangalore: Hindus in Uproar Against the Return of the Preacher Benny Hinn
The well-known American evangelical minister set to visit the city for the Conference of Christian prayer scheduled for mid-January. But parties and movements demand he be denied a visa: He “is coming to carry out conversions, and this is forbidden by the Constitution .” Leader of the Global Council of Indian Christians tells AsiaNews: “specious accusations that question the tolerance of our country”.
Bangalore ( AsiaNews) — The announcement of the return to India of the famous evangelical preacher Benny Hinn has sparked a furious series of protests by the BJP ( Bharatiya Janata Party, the political party of the opposition Hindu mold ), which accuses him of wanting to visit the country to “convert Hindus and violate our Constitution.” For Sajan K. George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians , this is a “ trumped-up charge” that “casts doubt on the reputation of India as a pluralistic and tolerant nation”.
Hinn, an American clergyman, known for what he calls “miraculous healing crusades”, is set to attend the Conference of Christian prayer to be held in Bangalore January 15 to 17 , organized by the Bethel Assembly of God Church . His last visit to India, in 2005 , had already sparked protests from the Hindu fringe of national politics : Hindu extremists had threatened the organizers with “heavy retaliation”.
The former minister and BJP leader S Sureshkumar has asked the government not to grant a visa to the preacher , “he is coming to convert people , and this goes against our Constitution.” Same position taken by Pravin Togadia , general secretary of the Vishwa Hindu Parishat ( VHP movement that seeks to “ preserve the Hindu identity of India .) Over 3 thousand members of the extremist group demonstrated in Bangalore January 3 to demand “no entry” for the foreigner.
The church hosting the event is trying to calm tensions: “The conference will not be a ‘ crusade of healing ‘ , but there will be a time when the pastors taking part will pray for the sick. That’s all .” Sajan George adds: “ The general secretary of the VHP is an extremist, well known for his hate campaigns against ‘ those who convert ..’ But three consecutive censuses conducted by the government show that the Christian population is slowly declining: to date there has not been a single case of conversion contrary to the Constitution which has been tested in court”.
For the Christian leader , also, “foreign Hindu preachers and holy men are welcome in India during the celebration of religious holidays. Moreover, ours can go to America and Europe also to proselytize openly in favor of Hinduism. How do we return this custom? Blocking the entry of Benny Hinn will only worsen the perception of religious minorities and increase the violence. We are putting into question the reputation of India as a pluralistic and tolerant nation”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Military Undecided in Thailand Conflict
For two and a half months Thailand has been rocked by protests. The army, one of the country’s central pillars of power, seems reluctant to get involved. But rumors are spreading about a potential military coup.
Thailand’s recent history has been a succession of political crises. Thai society is deeply divided. The so-called “Red Shirts” have been fighting against the “Yellow Shirts” for years.
The former support the democratically elected government led by interim Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. The latter back the opposition headed by former MP Suthep Thaugsuban and the monarchy. Over the past years, the country’s political class has failed to reconcile these differences.
The military has always played a key role in political disputes, carried out 18 coups over the past over the past 80 years. The last time this happened was in 2006 when former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted. Michael Winzer, Thailand expert at the foundation Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) in Bangkok, explains that every time the country has reached a point where no solution could be reached through political means, the military has intervened. Now the country is facing yet another political impasse, but the military is hesitating.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Still Has “Faith” In Afghanistan Mission
WASHINGTON, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) — U.S. President Barack Obama defended his Afghanistan policy on Monday, saying he continues to have “faith” in the U.S. mission in the country.
“What’s important is we got the policy right, but this is hard and it always has been,” Obama told reporters at the White House, rejecting criticism from former Pentagon chief Robert Gates…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan “Islamizes” Women: Head and Face Covered in Obedience to Men
According to a recent study, 32% of the population is in favor of the niqab for women. Only 2 % want to be free of all head coverings. For the majority wives must obey the husband, and only 7 % believe that marriage should be based on love. Criticism of civil society, Muslim activist: women must be ‘free to wear what they want”.
Faisalabad ( AsiaNews) — Activists , civil society, Christian and Muslim leaders have repeatedly denounced a gradual “ Islamization “ of Pakistan in recent years, marked by terrorist attacks and attacks on schools, as well as threats against individuals involved in the struggle for human rights and civil liberties. A recent survey prepared by the Population Studies Center of the University of Michigan (United States), and based on the answers given by the citizens of diverse Muslim countries in the field of women’s clothing, seems to confirm this trend. Citizens of the Asian nation believe women must cover their faces (or at least the head ), wearing the niqab or abaya , and only 2% of respondents ( 51 % of whom are men) believe that women can be seen in public with their faces and hair uncovered.
The university scholars conducted their research between 2011 and 2013, examining the inhabitants of seven different Muslim majority nations: Tunisia, Pakistan, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon , Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Starting from the question of how women should appear “in public” to be morally “appropriate” and consistent. Respondents were shown six different images that depicted a burqa , the niqab, three different forms of the veil (more or less adherent), and finally an uncovered woman’s face.
Of the more than 3 thousand respondents in Pakistan , 32% chose the niqab; the abaya was the second choice with 31 % of the vote; only 3 % want the burqa; a meager 2 % no covering .. In general, in the seven Muslim states picture showing a woman wearing a veil that leaves only the face uncovered prevailed. Only in Lebanon, the majority (about 50% ) opted for the woman with their hair and face uncovered .
In Pakistan, only 22 % believe that women can “dress as they see fit”, while more than two thirds are in favor of precise directives in the field of clothing; finally , 92% of respondents felt that wives should “always” obey husbands and only 7 % believe that marriage should be based “on love”.
The results have sparked criticism and comments from activists and members of civil society. Interviewed by AsiaNews, the leader of the Christian youth Aila Gil says that “women should be able to dress up as they wish. it’s their fundamental right, we are living in a society dominated by men where women lack the freedom to make small choices even they have their dress dictated by men”. The young pacifist leader and human rights advocate Yousaf Benjamin says new generations must “ bring a change in mentality ,” hoping at the same time for “a future based on human dignity and freedom.”
The Muslim political activist Iftikhar Ahmed has some doubts about the quality of the investigation, because it is a “cornucopia of conservative thinking. The veil system in Islam has no roots at all. Women have full right to wear whatever they want so I totally disagree these kind of surveys and conservative thinking”. In contrast , the survey results are not surprising at all for feminist Nazia Sardar because they are a mirror “of the scenario that we have created over the past five decades.” She hopes for the removal of all “discriminatory” laws and policies marking gender “differences” in society. “Such kind of study is the clear picture of the product which has been produced by the education where we feed the mind of a child from childhood that women are less than men and they must be controlled by men”.
For Shazia George , on the other hand , people should cover their faces “ only in places of worship”, while the practice “should be discouraged in the open spaces and public places for security and anti- terrorism reasons”. These fears are also shared by activist Amina Zaman , according to whom “you can not know “ who is behind a veil, it is “male or female” , and this practice would ultimately “ encourage terrorism and provide a shield for supposed terrorists. “
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Thai Protesters Target Ministries, Threaten Stock Exchange
(Reuters) — Protesters trying to topple Thailand’s government moved to tighten the blockade around ministries on Tuesday and a hardline faction threatened to storm the stock exchange, while major intersections in the capital Bangkok remained blocked.
The turmoil is the latest chapter in an eight-year conflict pitting the Bangkok-based middle class and royalist establishment against the mostly poorer, rural supporters of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, a former premier ousted by the military in 2006.
Although the capital was calm and the mood among the tens of thousands of protesters remained festive, analysts said the scope for a peaceful resolution of the crisis was narrowing.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China Doctor Jailed for Selling Babies to Traffickers
A Chinese obstetrician has been given a suspended death sentence for stealing newborn babies and selling them to child traffickers. Zhang Shuxia was found guilty of abducting and selling seven babies in Fuping, Shaanxi province, the sentencing court said. She told parents their infants had serious diseases and convinced them to give up the babies, the court said.
Zhang has been sentenced to death, with a two year reprieve. Suspended death sentences are normally commuted to life imprisonment in China.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Chinese Protesters Use Steamed Buns to Voice Anger
Petitioners and activists are deploying steamed buns to air their discontent after the Chinese president, tried to burnish his ‘man of the people’ credentials by eating buns
Chinese protestors have recruited an unlikely ally in their often-thankless quest for social justice: steamed buns.
China’s so-called “baozi” steamed buns became a hot topic in China last month after Xi Jinping, the president, was photographed lunching at a Beijing bun restaurant in what many saw as an attempt to show he was in touch with the lives of ordinary people.
Mr Xi’s steamed bun outing initially earned him praise in some quarters but Chinese protestors have now adopted the bun as a symbol of their troubles.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Geneva — The UN refugee agency reported on Tuesday that more South Sudanese civilians were deserting their homes and crossing into neighbouring Uganda, Ethiopia and Kenya, as well as volatile regions of Sudan to escape from continuing violence.
UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards told journalists in Geneva that some 78,000 people had fled to neighbouring countries since mid-December. More than half have headed for Uganda’s West Nile region straddling South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Mozambique: Renamo Gunmen Strike in Funhaloro
Maputo — Gunmen of the former rebel movement Renamo killed at least one person in an attack in the early hours of Tuesday morning against Mavume locality, in the southern province of Inhambane, according to a report on Radio Mozambique…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: Update — Maiduguri Blast — Up to 50 Feared Dead
Latest information on Maiduguri bomb blast indicates that no fewer than 30 people lost their lives while twenty vehicles and many roadside tents destroyed. A police traffic warder, women selling bean cake; many motorists and a popular suya meat seller and four of his boys who were all by the road near a mosque at the GSM village lost their lives…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Atheist Afghan Man Granted Asylum in UK to Protect Him From ‘Religious’ Persecution
An Afghan asylum seeker who become an atheist has been granted leave to remain in Britain because he would face ‘religious’ persecution for abandoning Islam
A young Afghan man who became an atheist after coming to Britain has been granted asylum on the grounds that the threat to his life for having no faith would amount to “religious” persecution.
In what is thought to be the first case of its kind in the UK, the Home Office accepted that sending the man back to his country of birth could put him in danger specifically because of his lack of religious beliefs. The man, who is not being named for safety reasons, was born a Muslim but abandoned his faith after coming to the UK as a teenager around five years ago. Apostasy — or abandoning the faith — can be punished with the death penalty under Afghan law.
Central to his case to the Home Office was the example of Abdul Rahman an Afghan man who was put on trial and faced death in 2006 for converting to Christianity. He was released and given asylum in Italy only after the intervention of the Afghan President Hamid Karzi who had come under intense international pressure over the case…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Britain is ‘Emotional and Misguided’ Over Immigration, Says EU Commissioner
Senior EU figure says the lack of an influx from Romania and Bulgaria shows that arguments should be based on fact
Britons will become less “emotional and misguided” over EU immigration after seeing there is no flood of Bulgarians or Romanians into their country, says Laszlo Andor, Europe’s social affairs commissioner
The public will “pay more attention to the facts” and become less hysterical or easily manipulated by politicians in the absence of an influx of migrants from Bulgaria and Romania this year, the European Commission has said. Laszlo Andor, the European Union’s social affairs commissioner, dismissed “emotional and misguided discussions in certain member states” over alleged benefit tourism as being driven by “the domestic political agenda”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
‘Don’t Judge us Roma by Our Criminals’
Colin Freeman travels to Plovdiv in Bulgaria to meet a ‘Gypsy King’ who says his people are misunderstood
In the eyes of some, Kiril Rashkov is just the sort of person that Britain should be worried about when work restrictions on Bulgaria and Romania relax next year. A self-styled “Gipsy King” from the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv, he has a reputation as fearsome as the 120-proof brandy he sips while sitting on his gilt-framed throne.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Spells Out Rules on Migrant Access to Benefits
BRUSSELS — The European Commission on Monday (13 January) outlined ways national authorities can prevent EU migrants from abusing state benefits while preserving the right to free movement. “The guide published by the commission today will make it easier for member states authorities to apply the habitual residency safeguards in practice,” social affairs commissioner Laszlo Andor said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Is Big Business Trying to Cheat the Free Market System?
Big Business wants immigration reform
Big Business wants to cheat the system by flooding the workforce with more workers. Not only that, but workers who will work for a lower wage on both ends of the spectrum. Immigrants allow Big Business to not raise the wage paid for a job to attract a worker because it just imported someone who will do the job at the lower wage instead of raising it to its true free market value. On the opposite end the of the spectrum, they upset the natural tendency of a job’s wage to lower at slow rate as demand increases by flooding that area as well with workers who will dilute the workforce and accept the wage paid at a much lower rate than it naturally would had the workforce been stable.
I propose this is why Big Business wants immigration reform. It allows them to cheat the free market system by undercutting the current workforce as I explained above.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: M5S Voters Support Decriminalizing Clandestine Immigration
(AGI) Rome, Jan 13 — The on-line M5S referendum on decriminalizing clandestine immigration attracted 24,932 respondents, who expressed their vote on Beppe Grillo’s blog.
15,839 voters were in favour of decriminalization and 9,093 were against.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Immigration Has a Positive Impact, Says Office for Budget Responsibility Head
Head of the OBR Robert Chote expands on their long-standing assessment that Britain needs a steady flow of migrant labour to fund public services in the coming decades
Immigration has “beneficial” economic effects and cutting the number of foreign workers in the UK will make it harder for the Government to clear its deficit, the Treasury’s own economic forecasters have said. The Office for Budget Responsibility told MPs that immigration has a positive impact on the public finances.
Robert Chote, head of the OBR, said that immigration “does tend to produce a more beneficial picture” for the Government’s finances. “Because they’re more likely to be working age, they’re more likely to be paying taxes and less likely to have relatively large sums of money spent on them for education, for long-term care, for healthcare, for pension expenditure,”
Mr Chote was expanding on the OBR’s long-standing assessment that Britain needs a steady flow of migrant labour to fund public services in the coming decades…
[JP note: All hunky dory then.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UN Wants EU to Resettle More Syrian Refugees
The United Nations commissioner for refugees, Antonio Guterres, told the Guardian newspaper on Monday that EU member states need to take in more Syrians refugees. “I find it disconcerting how many Syrians struggle to find protection in Europe,” he said. The UN says 30,000 need to be resettled immediately.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Website of Top House Republican Drops Opposition to Amnesty
By Fred Bauer
A key Republican player on immigration may be changing his tune on amnesty. In January 2012, the “Immigration Reform” page on the official House website of Representative Bob Goodlatte, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said: “In no event should we grant amnesty to those who have broken our laws and entered the country illegally. Doing so would simply invite more illegal immigration in the future.”
Throughout 2012 and much of 2013, the Virginia Republican’s House “Immigration Reform” page denounced “amnesty.” As late as April 2013, it said “we must not grant amnesty to individuals who have broken our laws.” Now, though, this prohibition has been scrubbed from his “Immigration Reform” page.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Welfare for Immigrants: EU Wants Fortress Germany to Open Up
Brussels is demanding that even foreigners who have never worked in Germany should have access to the country’s unemployment benefits if they hail from an EU member state. The EU is firing Germany’s already overheated immigration debate.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Palermo Awards Foster Custody to Gay Couple
Second such case in two months
(ANSA) — Palermo, January 14 — A court for minors in the Sicilian city of Palermo has awarded temporary foster care of a 16-year-old to a gay couple, the city announced Tuesday. The gender of the teen was not made known. In November a court in Bologna made the same decision for a three-year-old in Bologna, awarding custody to a gay couple close to the girl’s family. Under Italian legislation, only married couples are entitled to adopt while temporary foster care can be given to any ‘family community’ formed by two people acting as parents or by a single person.
Last January Italy’s supreme court, the Cassation, recognized the right of gays to become foster parents.
Gay marriage is not recognized in Italy.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
What Should be Done to a Country That Kills 56 Million of Its Own People?
Do you know how many babies have been murdered in America since 1973? It is a number that is almost too horrible to think about. An astounding 56 million American babies have been killed by various abortion methods since Roe v. Wade was decided back in 1973.
So what should be done to a country that kills 56 million of its own people? We rightly condemn other totalitarian regimes throughout history such as Nazi Germany, the USSR and Communist China that have killed millions (or tens of millions) of their own people. But what about us? What do we deserve for slaughtering more than 50 million of our own precious children on the altar of convenience? What kind of punishment would be large enough to fit such a monstrous crime? I hope that you will share what you think by posting a comment at the end of this article. Sadly, most Americans don’t even think much about abortion these days. Most Americans consider it to be a “political issue” that has already been “settled”. But of course that is what most Germans thought about the treatment of the Jews during World War II as well. And the truth is that the percentage of Americans that consider themselves to be “pro-choice” has been declining over time. Perhaps it is still possible to see a shift on this issue in the United States. We just need more people to start standing up for those that cannot stand up for themselves. The following are 26 facts about abortion in America that every American should know…
#1 There have been more than 56 million abortions performed in the United States since Roe v. Wade was decided back in 1973.
#2 There have been well over a billion abortions performed around the world since 1980.
#3 When you total up all forms of abortion, including those caused by the abortion drug RU 486, the grand total comes to more than a million abortions performed in the United States every single year.
#4 Approximately 47 percent of the women that get an abortion each year in the United States have also had a previous abortion.
#5 The number of American babies killed by abortion each year is roughly equal to the number of U.S. military deaths that have occurred in all of the wars that the United States has ever been involved in combined.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Manned Mission to Mars by 2030s is Really Possible, Experts Say
Sending humans to Mars by the 2030s is affordable, a group of experts finds, but some key changes are needed if it is going to happen.
A workshop group of more than 60 individuals representing more than 30 government, industry, academic and other organizations has found that a NASA-led manned mission to Mars is feasible if the space agency’s budget is restored to pre-sequestration levels. Putting the first humans on the Red Planet would also require international cooperation and private industry support.
There is a growing consensus among the space community that a manned mission to Mars should be a priority worth working toward in the coming years, according to Chris Carberry the executive director of Explore Mars Inc., the organization that hosted the workshop with the American Astronautical Society.
Human exploration of Mars is technologically feasible by the 2030s.
Mars should be the priority for human spaceflight over the next two to three decades.
Utilizing the International Space Station, including international partnerships, is essential for human missions to deep space.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Study Shows Al Qaeda Responsible for 95 Per Cent of Suicide Bombings
Al Qaeda is responsible for 95 per cent of the world’s suicide bombings, and poses an ongoing threat to the Israel, according to a new study.
Researchers at Tel Aviv’s Institute for National Security Studies found that the jihadist terrorist network, which has promised to wipe Israel of the map, was responsible for the vast majority of suicide attacks last year…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Video: The Truth About Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx is known as a German philosopher, economist and revolutionary socialist. How did the man who railed against economic and sexual exploitation treat those around him? What is the truth about Karl Marx?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Re: What should be done to a country that kills 56 million of its own people?
I know this is a particularly emotive question for many Americans, where religious belief- Christian in particular- dominates the political agenda more than here in Britain, and northern Europe generally. I make no claim to be an angel, so I’ll rush in like the proverbial fool…
I believe the bible’s only reference to abortion is in Numbers, where a recipe is given for producing one if a woman is suspected of being unfaithful to her husband. So, sorry JD, but you have NO religious authority for your viewpoint. Christ had nothing to say on the matter either way.
Some Christians, or other religious believers, may claim that the matter is covered by the injunction “thou shalt not kill”. Objective observers, if there are such, might argue that this applies only to live humans, i.e. from birth (or viability) onwards. If they’ve got it wrong, and God (Christian or other) regards abortion as a sin (but has failed to provide written evidence of that commandment), then the perpetrators will face His (Her?) judgement. Isn’t a major reason for the existence of GoV and related forums, our opposition to religious believers’ attempts to impose their dogma on others?
If of course there is no deity, or they’ve left it up to us to work it out for ourselves, then that’s what we must do, to the best of our reason and conscience. It goes without saying that medical practitioners who believe abortion to be wrong should not be compelled to carry it out- like clerics opposed to gay marriage- but like those clerics, they should refer clients to others who have different, and probably equally deeply held, convictions.
Forgive my repeating myself: if God exists and condemns abortion, those responsible will be judged. If not, then we’re on our own. and must answer to our particular consciences.
A person can be grated asylum in the UK because as an atheist he will executed by Mahometans for apostasy. So how does it make sense to allow these Mahometans to flood into the UK?
“Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget , yet will I not forget thee.”
Isaiah 49:15 KJV
King James Version
Jesus was a Jew so it makes sense to look at Jewish law regarding abortion.
Rabbinic literature
“The verse in Genesis says ‘Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man’. The Talmud(57b) understands this verse to be talking about the kiling of a fetus; that is a fetus is considered to be alive with regard to the prohibition against murderer and all are warned not to kill him. The fetus however, although being considered ‘alive’ to the extent that his or her life is protected, is not considered to be fully alive to the extent that if it endangered the mothers life it takes precedent. Thus if a pregnancy risks the life of the mother the Rabbis rule that the mother’s life takes precedent and that the child may be aborted so as to save the mother’s life.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judaism_and_abortion
But, what about early Christian law regarding abortion?
“Christians throughout church history have affirmed with a united voice the humanity of the preborn child.”
The Christian Answers website effectively refutes the personal opinions provided by Mark regarding the Numbers passage and “Thou shalt not kill” idea as each relates to abortion. The whole article with citations is worth a read.
http://christiananswers.net/q-eden/edn-abortioninthebible.html
I often learn something new from Egghead’s posts, and links when I read them, as I have here.
I deliberately didn’t state my own view in my comment above, which is that I’m not comfortable with abortion except in particular circumstances- rape, incest, underage mother, likely birth defects; and certainly not to be used as a convenience.
I still maintain my position that it should be a matter of individual conscience, to be decided by the potential mother and, one hopes, father. Excuse my repeating myself, but intervention by outsiders, on religious or other moral grounds, sails too close to Muslims’ attempts to impose Sharia on those who do not share their beliefs, for which they can of course provide ample support from their own scriptures.
Thanks, Mark. You gave a very gracious response here. 🙂
I feel that you have tangentially hit upon an extremely important idea which is that each person is ultimately responsible for the effect of his or her actions upon the self and the other (including God in whose image man is made).
“I still maintain my position that it should be a matter of individual conscience, to be decided by the potential mother and, one hopes, father. Excuse my repeating myself, but intervention by outsiders, on religious or other moral grounds, sails too close to Muslims’ attempts to impose Sharia on those who do not share their beliefs, for which they can of course provide ample support from their own scriptures.”
Let’s consider your paragraph:
1. In the Catholic Church, marriage is a sacrament intended to sanctify the creation of families via the procreation of children into a loving heterosexual marriage with one mother and one father committed to each other first and then to children. The original and defining “matter of conscience” is the nature of the relationship between the mother and father. Are either – or both – of the parents using each other for casual sex or are they creating a loving family to raise children for the greater glory of God?
2. Assuming that the “it” to which you refer is abortion, the brutal painful execution of a late term baby is truly a “matter of conscience” for third party abortion providers and funders. As a pre-condition of medical licensing, should citizens allow the state to require ALL hospitals and physicians to perform late term abortions for mothers (which is quite likely to happen under Obamacare)? As a pre-condition of being a citizen of the state, should citizens allow the state to require ALL citizens to pay for abortions (as happens with the abortion surcharge imposed by Obamacare upon too many citizens)? Should the “reproductive rights” of mothers override the “matter of conscience” for all others? Do individual mothers have MORE rights to their bodies (to execute innocent babies) than individual physicians (to refuse to execute innocent babies) and individual citizens (to refuse to fund the execution of innocent babies)?
http://www.conservativecrusader.com/articles/obama-s-healthcare-rules-will-shut-down-catholic-hospitals-nationwide
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2014/01/obamacares-many-loopholes-forcing-individuals-and-taxpayers-to-fund-elective-abortion-coverage
3. Should fathers have equal or more rights than mothers when mothers bear the pregnancies and suffer the side effects? What if the father impregnated the mother via rape (which is often nearly impossible to prove in a court of law)? If the baby is born, should a rapist father be allowed to threaten to sue for visitation with the child in order to quash criminal prosecution (which might result in jail time that would prevent another rape) – as has happened here in the USA?!
http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/22/opinion/prewitt-rapist-visitation-rights/index.html
4. What about “intervention by outsiders” based on public health grounds? Many abortionists run very unclean clinics with very questionable health practices and negative outcomes that are given a pass by bureaucrats who want to keep abortion legal. People who are willing to gruesomely execute thousands of innocent babies as a profession tend to exhibit serious personal issues that show up elsewhere on the job. Convicted murderer Abortion “Doctor” Kermit Gosnell collected dead babies’ feet.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/05/13/jury-split-on-2-counts-in-trial-abortion-doctor-kermit-gosnell/
5. What about “intervention by outsiders” based on political, environmental, or economic grounds? Should the state be allowed to regulate abortion to increase population – or require abortion to decrease the population? Obama’s Science Czar John Holdren thinks so.
http://zombietime.com/john_holdren/
My main point here is that an “individual” abortion has a ripple effect that nearly always involves “intervention by outsiders” – fathers, family members, doctors, hospitals, taxpayers, policy makers – who all face inter-related “matters of conscience” that affect the development of many souls.
No woman is an island.
Thanks for your thoughtful reply, Egghead.
1) Having been brought up nonconformist*, and become a nonbeliever, I’ve never had much time for the Catholic church (apart from the architecture and art), and they’ve lost any moral authority they had by arrogantly trying to sweep priests’ sexual abuse of children under the carpet rather than hand them over to the civil authorities.
2) I’m not justifying late term abortions, except to save the mother’s life; I mentioned “viability” of a foetus as a possible guide to when it can be regarded as a person, without reference to sacred texts, which should not (IMHO) be binding on non-believers.
3) Of course I’m not saying rapists should have “rights”, just expressing opposition to some feminists’ view that fathers shouldn’t be involved in deciding about a possible abortion. Of course this cuts both ways; if a woman deliberately impregnates herself with a man who has no current plans to have children, should she expect moral and financial support from him, for herself and the child? And if on the other hand he wants to be involved, does she have the right to exclude him?
4) The situation in the UK is different; most abortions are carried out by the NHS under clean and safe conditions. I carry NO torch for the disgusting and wicked Dr Gosnell.
5) Absolutely not. The results of misguided intervention, government or individual, can be seen in China and India- I’m sure you know the results.
*My father’s family were Methodist; my mother’s Quaker and Presbyterian. He married her the day after his 21st birthday in 1942 (looking smart, and so young, in his RAF uniform), because his parents didn’t consent. For decades my siblings and I were told his parents objected to her lower class (curse of the Brits), or her religion (his mother thought only Methodists went to Heaven; as you see, a prejudice not exclusive to Catholics!) Only when quite old did Mum tell us she was illegitimate, which was the real reason for the opposition, and only after our parents’ deaths did we discover that Dad’s father had a mistress and another family. Hypocrisy hardly covers it, and you’ll understand why I have little time for religious people trying to tell others how to live. Hell, I’m a reasonably mature and intelligent person, and I don’t think I’m smart enough to do so!
I’m against abortion, but at the same time I don’t think it’s feasible to outlaw it today, that number is absolutely crazy though. Wow. I wonder what the numbers in Europe would be.