55 Percent of Likely Voters Find ‘Socialist’ An Accurate Label of Obama?
I am convinced, from some personal experiences with the East Germans and Soviets, that Obama is a convinced Marxist Revolutionary. You won’t see this in public persona. You will see only the charming family man and the 24/7 Campaigner. Obama is a Front Man for the ideas of friends and backers like Maurice Strong and George Soros.
Obama can and does surround himself with socialists, collectivists and even known communists as advisors mixed in with Liberals and “moderates,” and Progressives. This allows him to claim “plausible deniability” when someone’s ideas like Billy Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn, Reverend Wright, Father Pfleger, and Van Jones percolate out into public view. He also has friends in the MSM who cry “Racism” when a critic says anything about his leadership or appointees. The Justice Department’s alleged mis-handling of the Black Panthers’ voter intimidation case, the reported instructions from Holder to not prosecute Black on White allegations, and the farcical case against Arizona are prime examples. He wields Labor Unions as if they were a part of the Executive Branch of the Federal Government. The former President of the SEIU [Andy Stern, who now holds an appointment as the Alice B. Grant Labor Leader in Residence at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations] was the most frequent visitor of Obama during his first year in office. Obama’s SCOTUS appointees, Sotomayor and Kagan, lack Constitutional fidelity and judicial gravitas. Both are political activists first and foremost.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Are Overdue Reports Concealing Obamacare Impact on Medicare?
Every year, the Annual Report of the Social Security Board of Trustees comes out between mid-April and mid-May. Now it’s July, and there’s no sign of this year’s report. What is the Obama administration hiding?
The annual report includes detailed information about Social Security and its financing over the next 75 years, produced by the Office of the Actuary of the Social Security Administration.
The Congressional Budget Office reported last week in its Long Term Budget Outlook that Social Security was already running a deficit this year. According to last year’s Social Security Trustees Report, that was not supposed to happen until 2015, with the trust fund to run out completely by 2037.
With the disastrous Obama economy, the great Social Security surplus that started in the Reagan administration is gone completely.
[…]
President Obama keeps telling us a fairy tale that he saved us from another Great Depression. But he is actually leading us into another Depression.
The National Bureau of Economic Research scores the recession as officially starting in December 2007. Thirty-one months later, with unemployment still near 10% and the work force still declining, the NBER says it still cannot determine an official end to the recession.
[…]
The implications for Social Security aren’t what the Obama administration is hiding by delaying the annual trustees reports. Those annual reports also include information regarding Medicare over the next 75 years. What the administration is trying to hide are sweeping draconian cuts to Medicare resulting from the ObamaCare legislation, which the annual report will document.
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Black GOP Candidate Slams Obama for Exploiting Race
One of the GOP’s handful of black candidates for Congress condemned President Barack Obama for exploiting race for political gain.
Allen West, the Republican challenging Rep. Ron Klein (D) in Florida’s 22nd congressional district, sharply criticized the Obama administration for having declined prosecuting the New Black Panther Party on voter tampering charges allegedly for political reasons.
“For an Administration that promised a new era in race relations, Obama and the Democrats in Congress have demonstrated that race will continually be exploited for political gain,” West said in a statement.
West was picking up on a meme that’s made its way through conservative blogs in recent days, based on whistleblower claims made by a former Justice Department employee. Charges against the New Black Panthers for their actions on Election Day 2008 weren’t pursued because of racial politics, the employee charged. The Justice Department says charges were dropped due to lack of evidence.
West drew on his own history with race to condemn the New Black Panthers, as well as other black Democrats who he said had “remained silent” when he’d been called racially-tinged names during the course of his campaign.
“The die has been cast in this election cycle — Democrats and their liberal progressive socialist allies will continue to play the race card when it is politically expedient,” West said. “I demand an investigation of the New Black Panther Party and the placement of it, along with any extremist group, onto the Terrorist Watch List if warranted. If that is not done prior to my taking the oath of office as a United States Congressman, it will happen soon thereafter.”
The words have more weight coming from this candidate, who’s seen as one of two black Republican candidates who have a good shot at making their way to Washington next year.
West is seen as a top challenger to Klein after having come closer than expected to the incumbent Democrat in 2008. Republican Tim Scott is seen as likely to win his race in South Carolina’s first congressional district this fall, too. Either man, if elected, would be the first GOP African-American lawmaker in Congress since former Rep. J.C. Watts (R-Okla.), who retired in 2003.
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Lawmakers Question Whether Obama Violated Law by Backing Pro-Abortion Kenyan Constitution
Republican Reps. Darrell Issa of California, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida and Chris Smith of New Jersey are calling for a probe to investigate whether Obama administration officials are violating federal law by using taxpayer money to lobby for a new constitution in Kenya that supports and legalizes abortion.
“The U.S. is spending taxpayer money on Kenya’s constitutional referendum,” Issa told The Daily Caller. “The underlying concern is that U.S. funds and efforts are being used to interfere in Kenya’s internal debate over abortion, which is part of the debate over the new constitution. There is evidence that U.S. funds are supporting groups and events with a pro-abortion agenda and that funds have been spent to advance a specific outcome on the referendum. If so, this would violate federal law.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Michigan Doctor Hangs American Flag Upside Down
It certainly caught people’s eyes. An American flag flying upside down in front of Dr. Thomas Byrd’s office over the Fourth of July weekend. The eye doctor says he did it when he asked himself some questions.
“What’s the state of our nation at this time? And I thought that she’s in distress. So, I thought I would flip the flag in the long-standing sign of distress,” said Byrd. “And by inverting the flag I would perhaps get a few people to ask themselves maybe the same question. How is the Constitution doing? How is my liberty? How is my freedom compared to a few years ago?”
Dr. Byrd says flying the flag upside down was never intended to be disrespectful. He simply wanted to get people’s attention, MyFoxDetroit reported.
“A lot of people misunderstood and somehow thought I had some beef with the United States or that I… disrespected the flag or the country, and that couldn’t be further from the truth,” Byrd said.
The U.S. Flag code says the flag should only be flown upside down as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life and property.
“We are certainly in dire danger of property. There’s a great deal of property being taken from people right now, but it’s not the intent that we are in dire and immediate need that we’re being overrun,” said Byrd.
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Oak Brook Hotel Backs Out on Muslim Group’s Conference
The controversial American arm of an international Islamic group has been bounced from the Marriott in Oak Brook, where organizers were set to host the group’s second annual conference this Sunday.
Organizers of Hizb ut-Tahrir, Muslim activists who publicly advocate peaceful government reform, hope to find another venue for their meeting before the end of July.
Critics believe the conference, dedicated to reviving the prevailing system of rule that immediately followed the death of the Prophet Muhammad, is an effort to turn American Muslims against the U.S. government.
[…]
But a Washington-based interest group called Responsible for Equality and Liberty, or REAL, said that although Hizb ut-Tahrir explicitly condemns violence, its ideology suggests otherwise. Speakers at previous conferences have denounced democracy and condoned the death penalty for people who leave Islam, said the interest group’s founder, Jeffrey Imm. He said he contacted the Marriott corporation last month when he saw the conference on the Oak Brook hotel’s calendar.
“I wanted to educate (the Marriott) about (Hizb ut-Tahrir’s) anti-democracy position,” Imm said. “I’m not looking to have their event canceled. I wanted them to be aware of who they are so they could have the appropriate security. These hotels have a right to know when there are groups that have been involved with or threaten violence against other people.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama & the Eighty-One Percent True Believers
Recent polls reveal a giant gap in Obama’s approval between parties, with 81% of Democrats approving Barack’s job performance, while only 12% of Republicans concur. Despite unprecedented failure, why do liberals strongly approve Obama’s performance? Barack’s hyper-political stance and stunningly inept decisions ought to repulse every patriotic American. Hasn’t Obama been revealed as the JaMarcus Russell (failed NFL #1 pick) of American politics, losing every contest while steadfastly refusing to study the offensive play-book, or ponder team history?
What explains such self-destructive Democrat loyalty, which will destroy the party if not renounced? American philosopher Eric Hoffer wrote on zealotry, explaining why fanatics join irrational mass movements such as the Communists and Nazis. His works are seminally important for understanding crazed leftist hysteria.
[…]
All fanatical mass movements are essentially premised on the promise of “Change.” Hoffer writes,
“It is a truism that many who join a rising revolutionary movement are attracted by the prospect of sudden and spectacular change in their conditions of life. A revolutionary movement is a conspicuous instrument of change.”
But why is change so attractive? Hoffer claims empty, dissatisfied yet ambitious people are prime candidates for such zealotry. He believed most at risk are word-smiths longing for some great artistic achievement, but stymied by mediocrity—like professors, journalists, writers and scholars.
[…]
Hoffer claims such an orientation towards deep self-sacrifice means followers are left in the dark about reality. He writes,
“The readiness for self-sacrifice is contingent on an imperviousness to the realities of life. He who is free to draw conclusions from his individual experience and observation is not usually hospitable to the idea of martyrdom… All active mass movements strive to interpose a fact-proof screen between the faithful and the realities of the world. They do this by claiming that the ultimate and absolute truth is already embodied in their doctrine and that there is no truth nor certitude outside it…It is the true believer’s ability to “shut his eyes and stop his ears” to facts that do not deserve to be either seen or heard which is the source of his unequaled fortitude and constancy.”
[…]
True Believers all regulated religion, or banned it. Obama is now increasingly touting Islam. The bizarre topper is turning NASA into a global Islamic evangelical unit. It’s no surprise the non-church attending and apparently anti-Christian and seemingly Marxist Obama touts a religion with shockingly intolerant views.
In the fanatic secular religions Hoffer describes, and in Islam, is a shocking disregard to death, murder, suicide and Jihad. Obama is America’s most pro-abortion president. His shielding of Jihadists while banning the “War on Terror” is simply shocking.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Wants to Create New ‘Super-Left’ Party?
Evidence reveals role Barack played in transforming Dems into socialists
A recently released book touts evidence showing President Barack Obama was a member of a socialist group whose aim was to move Democrats far leftward to ultimately form a new political party, one that had fully embraced a socialist agenda.
The book, “The Manchurian President: Barack Obama’s Ties to Communists, Socialists and Other Anti-American Extremists,” also documents how key leaders of the socialist New Party helped to craft recent White House legislation, including Obama’s “stimulus” bill.
[…]
Previously, it was documented that while running for the Illinois state Senate in 1996 as a Democrat, Obama actively sought and received the endorsement of the New Party.
The New Party, formed by members of the Democratic Socialists for America and leaders of an offshoot of the Communist Party USA, was an electoral alliance that worked alongside the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN. The New Party’s aim was to help elect politicians who espouse its policies to office.
[…]
New Party founder helped craft ‘stimulus’ bill’
“The Manchurian President” documents how the Apollo Alliance, whose board members include a slew of radicals, has been credited with helping to craft portions of the $787 billion “stimulus” bill signed into law by Obama.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obamacare: Dream Turned Nightmare
It turns out that… ObamaCare will make health insurance premiums rise rather than fall. This and other unpleasant truths are revealed in a new report from two Republican senators, which charges that “when measured against the administration’s own stated goals, the new health law fails to address the top health care concerns of the American people.”
Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and John Barrasso of Wyoming are the only two members of the U.S. Senate with M.D.s, and their prognosis in the report, titled “Bad Medicine: a Check-up on the New Federal Health Law,” is far from good.
“Independent experts have found that the new health law will increase the cost of health insurance and health care services,” the two doctor-senators say, noting the Congressional Budget Office concludes that “premiums for millions of American families in 2016 will be 10%-13% higher than they otherwise would be. This represents a $2,100 increase per family, compared with the status quo.”
Two thousand dollars more? Did something hidden in the 3,000 pages of the ObamaCare bill, which the White House and leading congressional Democrats moved heaven and earth to get passed, make those evil health insurers even greedier?
Or is it greedy Uncle Sam? As the senators point out, “According to an April 2010 memo from the Actuary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the medical device and pharmaceutical drug fees and the health insurance excise tax will generally be passed through to health consumers in the form of higher drug and device prices and higher insurance premiums, with an associated increase in overall national health expenditures.”
Add to that the fact that according to the Joint Committee on Taxation, much of ObamaCare’s new taxes will trickle down and end up being paid for by health care consumers. These include “the $60 billion tax on health plans, the $20 billion tax on medical devices and the $27 billion tax on prescription drugs.” Makes you wonder which party is on the side of the little guy.
One way premiums will increase is through Americans’ making rational economic decisions when faced with higher health costs or the paying of a penalty — something perhaps unjustly described as “gaming the system.” ObamaCare, it turns out, is a system begging to be gamed…
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Riots Without Cause: Protesting a Fair and Open Trial in Oakland
Rioters in Oakland have new tennis shoes today, as well as printer cartridges, jewelry, and cosmetic products—loot stolen from small businesses last night following the conviction for involuntary manslaughter of a white Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer who shot an unarmed black man in 2009. Within hours of that verdict, the United States Department of Justice issued an anodyne statement declaring that it was investigating the case “to determine whether the evidence warrants federal prosecution” on civil rights grounds.
Such DOJ declarations are undoubtedly all but routine in police shooting cases—even when, as here, there is not a shred of evidence that the trial was anything other than fair and vigorously prosecuted. But the implication that Officer Johannes Mehserle’s involuntary-manslaughter conviction poses even a possibility of justice miscarried is nonetheless absurd—and not only because due process, which should be the only standard for Justice Department review, was scrupulously observed. The verdict, which could send Mehserle to prison for 14 years, is, in fact, serious for an officer who was acting in good faith, as several witnesses confirmed…
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Scientists Expected Obama Administration to be Friendlier
When he ran for president, Barack Obama attacked the George W. Bush administration for putting political concerns ahead of science on such issues as climate change and public health. And during his first weeks in the White House, President Obama ordered his advisors to develop rules to “guarantee scientific integrity throughout the executive branch.”
Many government scientists hailed the president’s pronouncement. But a year and a half later, no such rules have been issued. Now scientists charge that the Obama administration is not doing enough to reverse a culture that they contend allowed officials to interfere with their work and limit their ability to speak out.
“We are getting complaints from government scientists now at the same rate we were during the Bush administration,” said Jeffrey Ruch, an activist lawyer who heads an organization representing scientific whistle-blowers…
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‘The Crisis at Which We Are Arrived’
We are not now quite at a founding moment, or even a re-founding moment. But we have arrived at a genuine crisis, or a set of crises, and we may well be at a decisive moment for the country.
[..]
…the Tea Parties are ahead of the two major parties. As established political parties are wont to do, both remain constricted in their views, attached to business as usual, and invested in established modes and orders—too much so to easily come to grips with a moment like the present.
Of course, the leaders of the Democratic party don’t want to come to grips with the present moment. Committed to stale progressive policies, they’re doing their very best to push more of them through, even as the failure of those policies becomes ever more evident. Serious reflection on the failure of their favored policies, both at home and abroad, would be too painful. It would require a rethinking too consequential and too disruptive to be willingly undertaken. After all, experience has shown that liberals are more disposed to have the rest of us suffer, than to right themselves by rethinking the dogmas by which they are enthralled…
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Neo-Nazism is Europe’s Hidden Terrorist Menace
Khaled Diab: The anniversary of 7/7 refocused attention on Islamist terrorism, yet the threat from neo-Nazis goes largely unreported
On the fifth anniversary of the 7 July terror attacks in London, the issue of Islamist terrorism and Islamic extremism is back in the media spotlight. While the threat posed by a small number of violent Islamist extremists is very real and the danger of Islamic fundamentalism should not be downplayed or understated, the seriousness of the situation is often exaggerated into a menace of Hitlerian proportions.
In contrast, Hitler’s ideological descendants, who have become increasingly emboldened in recent years, constitute a growing, if still minor, threat that largely goes unnoticed and under-reported.
An example of this menace is the Belgian neo-Nazi group Bloed, Bodem, Eer en Trouw (Blood, Soil, Honour and Loyalty), whose trial is to start soon. The group, whose members were arrested in 2006, stands accused of planning terror attacks targeting the National Bank and other institutions, plotting the assassination of a number of prominent politicians and conspiring to destabilise the Belgian state. BBET had even apparently managed to infiltrate the Belgian military and had amassed a large cache of guns and explosives.
More worryingly, perhaps, at least in terms of social cohesion, the neo-Nazi group had intended to sow the seeds of discord by carrying out a “false flag” operation to murder the popular Flemish far-right politician Filip Dewinter in the hope that the blame would be pinned on Islamists, stoking further hatred of the country’s embattled and marginalised Muslim minority. During the expected outrage that would ensue, they would then seize the opportunity to assassinate the radical Lebanese-Belgian politician and activist Dyab Abou Jahjah.
Had members of an Islamist cell been planning similar outrages, news of their forthcoming trial would have grabbed headlines across Europe and enough columns to support the Karnak temple complex would have been written on the subject. As it stands, the group has elicited little to no attention outside Belgium.
Not that I feel we should deal with neo-Nazi extremism and its violent manifestations with the same level of sensationalism and mass hysteria we reserve for extremist Islam — we need to be vigilant, not vigilante about it. More attention needs to be paid to the fact that it is a growing menace. We need to build greater awareness and better understanding of the socioeconomic and cultural factors feeding this phenomenon, especially since mainstream society is, in certain ways, complicit in the emergence of this troubling current.
Some, dare I say many, will consider my last assertion as an overreaction and will dismiss BBET and other violent far-right groups as little more than the outer reaches of the “lunatic fringe”. And at some level, this is true and can equally be applied to violent Islamist groups. But just because they’re mad and bad, that does not exclude the possibility that they are the symptoms of a deeper malaise — there is some warped logic to their madness.
Just like their Islamist counterparts, many people who are drawn to neo-Nazi and other far-right ideologies feel disempowered and marginalised, and believe that the way to overcome this is to turn back the clock to an idyllic “pure” past — based on religion, in the case of Islamists, and based on race and, to a lesser extent, religion for neo-Nazis.
And, as unemployment figures rise and government spending falls, this sense of exclusion and frustration will grow.
And minorities will continue to fill the role of convenient scapegoat, as has long been the case with far-right parties, many of which have gained a sheen of respectability in recent years. In fact, time and again, violent neo-Nazi groups and individuals have been linked to these parties. For example, there are reports that the BBET had ties to the Flemish nationalist Vlaams Belang party, as had a teenager who went on a racially motivated murder spree in Antwerp.
However, this does not exonerate the rest of society. The increasingly mainstream vilification and demonisation of Europe’s Muslim minority and Islam in general — based on fear, insecurity, ignorance and political expediency, as well as the worry that extremist groups will succeed in their bid to “Islamise” Europe — since the 11 September terror attacks in the US has created fertile ground for the far-right to lay down deeper roots. Some governments have been complicit in this for foreign policy purposes, while some politicians, such as Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, have skillfully manipulated the situation to enter the corridors of power.
In a bid to downplay the threat, some will play a macabre numbers game and claim that Islamic terrorism in Europe claims far more lives than far-right violence. Although it is true that there have been no spectacular, large-scale attacks, neo-Nazis are responsible for a regular and growing stream of violence against Muslims, Jews, blacks and other minorities across Europe.
Of course, neo-Nazis have yet to pull off any attack as spectacular as those in Madrid or London. But that doesn’t mean they don’t want to or don’t plan to, as the case of the BBET amply demonstrates. In May 2010, a British neo-Nazi father and son — who, in an worrying echo of a bygone era, had set up a group to overthrow the government because they believed it had been taken over by Jews — planned to poison Jewish, Muslim and black people with ricin.
In addition, neo-nazism seems to be going increasingly global, with groups in different European countries and the US building increasingly strong alliances. Examples of this include Combat 18 and Blood and Honour (of which BBET is a splinter group).
The most troubling threat posed by neo-nazism, and the far right in general, as opposed to Islamism, is that it is an indigenous ideology which once held powerful sway in Europe, even in countries that were not run by Nazi regimes. If we are not careful and do not learn the lessons of history, there is the future possibility that Nazi and fascist totalitarianism may rear its ugly face again.
| — Hat tip: TV | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Van Gogh Killer Has No Regrets
Six years after murdering film maker Theo van Gogh, his killer Mohammed Bouyeri has no regrets about his action, the AD reports on Friday.
The paper has got hold of a letter written by Bouyeri to a Muslim group which turned up in Belgium.
In the letter Bouyeri writes that he has ‘no regrets’ about the choices he has made and the road he has travelled, the paper says. ‘Not one second in all these years.’
Bouyeri is serving a life sentence for the killing.
The Dutch security service AIVD told the paper the letter is in line with other letters sent by him.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Bible Belt Says No to Football on Sunday, Whatever the Occasion
The Netherlands may be on the brink of its first football World Cup title, but in some parts of the Dutch Bible Belt, watching tv on a Sunday is totally forbidden, the Telegraaf points out on Friday.
And Kees van der Staaij, leader of the fundamentalist Protestant party SGP is one of those who will not be following events in South Africa.
‘Absolutely not,’ a spokesman told the Telegraaf. ‘He may watch television occasionally for work but never to relax and absolutely not on Sunday.’
In the village of Urk, which has 20 plus churches for its population of 17,000, three cafes have aroused the ire of religious leaders for deciding to open their doors during the match.
But in the Bible Belt heartland of Staphorst people who actually have a tv will watch quietly at home, a town council spokeswoman said. ‘Someone might run outside with a tooter, but they will go back in again straight away’.
In the village of Elburg the local minister has prayed for Oranje to lose. He has even advised parents to put a filter on their children’s computers so they do not watch such a ‘sinful’ match.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Jews Better at Sex Than Christians: Theologian
Jews are better at sex than Christians, according to a Swedish theology professor speaking at the Hönö Conference of Christian faith groups organised each year off the west coast of Sweden.
Leif Carlsson, a speaker at the Hönö Conference, wants Christians to come to terms with the faith’s negative views on sex and compare them with those found in Judaism, according to a report in Christian newspaper Dagen.
The Hönö Conference is has been held since 1945 and is organised by the Mission Covenant Church of Sweden (Svenska Missionskyrkan).
Since the days of the early church, Christians have devoted their energy devoted to evangelism, not reproduction, given that Jesus is coming soon and a new world will be established, the report surmised.
“There are few role models in the New Testament. Jesus is not married and does not say much about sex and we will not get into Paul,” Carlsson told Dagen. We could wish that the New Testament would say more about sex, but it says almost nothing.”
The silence surrounding sexuality went from being influenced by a body hostile to Greek thought to becoming a negative view of sex.
“However, the church’s skeptical attitude throughout history has changed such that one sexuality is view much more positively today,” Carlsson told Dagen.
Within Judaism, sexuality has always been viewed as something fundamentally good. According to Carlsson, this may be because the Jews were a minority and childbearing was essential for survival.
“In rabbinical Judaism, it is heavily emphasised,” Carlsson told Dagen. “They say that sex is more important than studying the Torah.”
There is also a generally more positive attitude to the body and desire, Carlsson added.
“Men have sexual obligations to women. There are old rules on how often the man must satisfy a woman, different for different occupational groups. For a sailor, it is once every six months, for an unemployed person, daily and a teacher of the Torah, every Friday,” he laughed.
The Jewish tradition has clear patriarchal features, but Carlsson sees signs that there is respect for women.
“In a Jewish Kabbalistic text from the 1200s, it prohibits forced sex within marriage. That only happened in the 1970s in Sweden,” Carlsson told Dagen.
As to why so many are hurt by sex if it is such a positive thing, Carlsson told Dagen, “The Jews would say that sexuality is one of the strongest forces that humans possess and must be tamed to have a positive effect.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Support for New Nuclear Reactors Grows: Survey
A decision in Sweden’s parliament, the Riksdag, to allow old nuclear reactors to be replaced has broad support among Swedes, according to a survey presented by the Liberal Party.
The only group with a majority against the decision is among Green Party members.
“The decision to build new replacement reactors obviously has very broad support,” said Carl B. Hamilton, the Liberal Party’s economic spokesman. “Only a small minority want to tear it up.”
The Riksdag narrowly passed a landmark government proposal allowing the replacement of nuclear reactors at the end of their life span on June 17th.
Two Centre Party members voted no along with the red-green coalition, including Solveig Ternström, who has appeared at Almedal Week in Visby together with Social Democrat leader Mona Sahlin and former EU Commissioner Margot Wallström.
The strongest support in the poll is among men and supporters of the centre-right parties, including the Centre Party, of which over 80 percent support the decision. Overall, it is supported by 72 percent, while 28 percent are opposed.
Even among Social Democrats, who have promised to reverse the decision if they win the autumn election, 66 percent of party supporters are in favour of the decision and only 34 percent are against it.
Among Trade Union Confederation (Landsorganisationen, LO) members, 71 percent support the decision, while Left Party supporters are still weighing the pros and cons. Only Green Party supporters are against the decision, but they are a slim majority at 55 percent.
The leaders of the Social Democrats are completely out of tune with their sympathisers and also with unionists on the energy issue, said Hamilton.
The survey was conducted by consulting company United Minds between June 21st to 26th and is based on 1,008 responses.
The centre-right government announced in February 2009 that it was reversing a decision to phase out nuclear power as part of an ambitious new climate programme. The country had voted in a 1980 non-binding referendum to phase out its 12 reactors by this year, a target later abandoned by officials.
Since 1999, two of the reactors have been closed. The 10 remaining reactors, at three power stations, account for about half of Sweden’s electricity production.
The nuclear plan is part of the government’s climate programme, which stipulates that by 2020, renewable energy should comprise 50 percent of all energy produced, the Swedish car fleet be independent of fossil fuels in 10 years and the country be carbon-neutral by 2050.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia Sentences Refugee for Terrorism
A Tunisian court sentenced a Swedish refugee and seven other Tunisians to up to 12 years in jail on charges of belonging to a militant group and inciting terrorism, a lawyer reported on Saturday.
Sami Bouras, a refugee in Sweden, and seven others had denied the charges and said their confessions were obtained under torture, lawyer Samir Ben Amor, who is also secretary general of the Association for the Defence of Political Prisoners, told AFP on Saturday.
Three of those convicted on Saturday were sentenced to 12 years in jail and included Bouras and Bilel Beldi, who is a refugee in France. Both were tried in absentia, said Ben Amor. Another was sentenced to two years and the remainder to five years.
They were convicted of belonging to a terrorist group that was not identified and for “incitement to commit terrorist acts”, Ben Amor said.
Beldi, 31, and Bouras, 35, were jailed in 2003 on similar charges and released on parole in 2006, when they left Tunisia to seek asylum in Europe. Human rights lawyers say more than 2,000 Tunisians have been jailed or put on trial for “terrorism” in recent years.
United Nations special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism Martin Scheinin said in Tunis in January that there were contradictions in the country’s anti-terrorism law and in most cases, mere intentions were punished.
Tunisia has been criticised for a decline in political freedoms, with the US condemning the jailing of television journalist Fahem Boukadous on Friday for reporting information deemed threatening to public order.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘Too Few Ethnic Officers’ And ‘Discrimination’ At GCHQ
Britain’s secret eavesdropping centre, GCHQ, has been criticised for failing to recruit enough ethnic minority staff to help fight terrorism.
An official report, leaked to the Sunday Times, also said black and Asian intelligence officers had complained of discrimination at the complex near Cheltenham, in Gloucestershire.
A GCHQ spokesman told the BBC policies and practices were now being improved.
Much of GCHQ’s work involves monitoring calls and e-mails from terror suspects.
But the report, authorised by the head of the civil service, Sir Gus O’Donnell, says a lack of officers with specialist knowledge of languages like Urdu and Arabic is hampering efforts to spot codes and cultural nuances in intercepted conversations.
“It is critical to have a diverse staff group who are able to profile and recognise certain behaviour patterns and communications,” the document says.
The report recommends better engagement with ethnic minority communities in order to boost recruitment and improve the image of the organisation.
“This is critical to good national security intelligence,” it adds.
The report says GCHQ has tried to improve its equality and diversity, but “the culture of the organisation has not been receptive to this” and it “is seen as a people issue which only applies to some people”. It points out that there are no black or Asian senior managers.
Several dozen ethnic minority intelligence officers were interviewed during its preparation, and among the complaints recorded was: “I wasn’t born here and although I have been security cleared, I am constantly challenged about my loyalty to Britain by my colleagues.”
Another employee said: “The security officers ask questions which are culturally inappropriate, insensitive and offensive.”
A third said they felt that ethnic minority employees had to work harder than white colleagues “and for less reward”.
Targeted recruitment
The director of communications at GCHQ, Chris Marshall, said the organistation had “long recognised that strict nationality and residency requirements for staff, and the specialist nature of our work, have made it challenging to develop a workforce which represents the diversity of the UK population”.
He said the organisation had tried to improve things with a targeted recruitment campaign, but a review in 2009 “reflected that GCHQ continued to fall short in meeting our targets”.
Mr Marshall said that in response to it, GCHQ was “making a number of improvements to our policies and practices”, including employing a dedicated diversity officer and focusing recruitment on specific universities with large ethnic minority populations.
“GCHQ is regularly recognised as a good employer but we aspire to be the best,” he said. “We recognise that recruiting a diverse range of people, treating them in a non-discriminatory way and supporting them to achieve their full potential is key to that aspiration.”
| — Hat tip: GB | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Ambassador’s Blog Removed Over Praise for Shia Cleric
London, 9 July (AKI) — The UK government on Friday said it removed a blog by its ambassador to Lebanon that praised the late Hezbollah spiritual leader Shia cleric Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah who died last week.
In the blog entry, titled ‘The passing of decent men’, Frances Guy wrote that she was saddened by Fadlallah’s death and that the world “needs more men like him willing to reach out across faiths.”
A spokesman from the UK foreign ministry said the blog had been removed because it expressed a “personal view” on the cleric which did not reflect Britain’s “disagreements” with him, particularly his attitude to Israel.
“When you visited him you could be sure of a real debate, a respectful argument and you knew you would leave his presence feeling a better person,” she wrote on her official blog.
“That for me is the real effect of a true man of religion; leaving an impact on everyone he meets, no matter what their faith.”
Fadlallah was a top authority in Shia Islam and many followers revered him for his moderate social views and support of womens’ rights.
He also didn’t shy away from criticising US support of Israel and supported suicide bombing as a means to fight for Palestinian rights.
The Guy incident follows the firing of a senior CNN editor for sending a message on Twitter praising the cleric.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Behave Like Christians on Issue of Women Bishops, Archbishop Sentamu Tells Warring Cofe
Archbishop of York John Sentamu issued an unprecedented rebuke to members of the Church of England over women bishops — calling on them to ‘start behaving like Christians’.
In his sermon to members of the General Synod, Dr Sentamu, the Church’s second most senior cleric, attacked lack of agreement between warring factions.
His intervention came as Michael Scott-Joynt, the Bishop of Winchester, warned the row could ‘destroy’ the Church amid fears clergy and churchgoers might leave en masse.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Council Forces Schools to Rearrange Exams and Cancel Lessons to Avoid Offending Muslims During Ramadan
A council has ordered schools to rearrange tests, cancel swimming lessons and stop sex education to avoid offending Muslims during the holy month of Ramadan.
All primary schools and secondary schools in Stoke-on-Trent have been issued with the guidance aimed at Muslim pupils who may still be fasting when the new term starts in September.
But critics dismissed the dictats as ‘over-zealous’ bureaucracy and said all pupils would be forced to miss out on activities as a result.
During Ramadan, all Muslims who have reached puberty are forbidden from eating food or drinking liquids between sunrise to sunset to encourage discipline and self-restraint.
Some younger children also choose to fast for all or part of the month.
To help them with this, Stoke-on-Trent City council advises schools not to schedule exams or hold parents’ meetings and social events after school.
They are also directed to avoid swimming lessons because some parents and pupils consider the risk of swallowing water too great.
The papers even advise schools to cancel sex and relationship education because Muslims are expected to avoid sexual thoughts and relations while fasting.
Although the guidance was specifically drawn up to help Muslims, it will affect every pupil in the roughly 90 schools in the area.
According to the last official figures in 2001, just 3.2 per cent of the population of Stoke is Muslim.
The guidance, which was issued at a council meeting, advises schools that fasting pupils who are eligible for free school meals should have the option to take their food home with them in a packed lunch.
Teachers are warned that fasting children should not be over-exerted during PE lessons as they may become dehydrated.
They are also told that they should provide more space for prayer in school and offer their support to pupils who may have had to get up before dawn to have their breakfast and may therefore be tired.
Critics from the Campaign Against Political Correctness said the document was an ‘over-bureaucratic waste of time’.
Co-founder of the campaign John Midgley said: ‘Instead of meddling in this politically-correct way the local authority should trust the judgement of pupils, parents and teachers.
‘They should be able to cater for what goes on within the schools without wasting time on an overly-bureaucratic and politically-correct piece of ‘guidance’.
‘The schools have to be even-handed in how they treat everybody and not single-out certain sections of the community in how they treat them.’
He warned that the guidance could prove counter-productive and encourage stigma towards the Muslim community.
And he added that the advice could ruin school activities for all pupils.
‘If there’s an over-zealous implementation of this guidance that may mean some pupils could miss out on activities they could reasonably expect at school,’ he added.
Ramadan is based on the lunar calendar, meaning the date it falls on a different date each year. It is between August 11 and September 9 this year.
This means that for most of the month, the pupils will be on school holidays. They will only be at school for the last week.
Mr Midgley said the guidance was a ‘waste of time’ as pupils are rarely examined in the first week of term and parents’ evenings would be unlikely to fall at the beginning of the school year.
The guidance was put together with material produced by the Muslim Council of Great Britain and was presented to the city council’s Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Freed Russian Spy Igor Sutyagin ‘Dumped in a Town on the Outskirts of London With No Visa or Cash’
A Russian secret agent freed last week is stranded in a hotel in a ‘provincial’ town on the outskirts of London, it was claimed yesterday.
Igor Sutyagin is still in his prison clothes, without cash and only a phonecard with limited credit to make contact with his family.
The homesick Russian is said to be ‘lonely and confused’ about his alleged treatment by MI6, which shatters the James Bond image of last Friday’s choreographed spy hand-over by espionage chiefs in Washington and Moscow.
Sutyagin, 45, arrived in Britain on a CIA-chartered jet in the most dramatic spy swap since the end of the Cold War.
The nuclear weapons expert was one of four Russians exchanged for ten spies operating in the U.S, including ‘femme fatale’ Anna Chapman.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Will Brussels Make Us Work Till 70?
… or until we drop?
In a green paper on pensions, the European Commission argues that EU citizens will have to come to terms with an inevitable need to increase retirement age. The European press is not convinced.
“Europe to postpone retirement until age 70,” announces the front page of Diario de Noticias. Reporting on the green paper with recommendations on the financing of member-state pension systems presented by the European Commission on 7 July, Le Figaro notes that proposals put forward by the Commission “advocate increasing the age at which one stops working and draws a pension so as to prevent the collapse of social welfare systems.” European Commissioner for Employment Laszlo Andor, who is quoted by the Paris daily, explains that his cabinet “is calling on member states to promote a longer working life. They will need to adjust current pension systems to take into account demographic change; and preparations for this must be undertaken well in advance.”
In 50 years time, the number of over-65s will be equivalent to 50% of the working-age population. As the co-director of El Periódico de Catalunya, Juancho Dumall, points out, this means that every two potentially active people will have to finance at least one pension. It is on this basis that Europe has to contend “with a structural dilemma that has compounded the current economic crisis.” In response, he argues that “social democracies will have to establish a more encouraging road-map,” because there is no denying the “lack of economic sense in the current situation in which workers are being forced to postpone their retirement while young people are struggling to find jobs.”
Commission is walking on eggs
With regard to difficulties faced by Spain, where the number of unemployed graduates has doubled over the last two years, Juancho Dumall warns that “the right to a decent retirement is one of the pillars of a welfare state that took years effort to establish. If the crisis forces us to accept the loss of social rights that were long in the making, the adjustment will be extremely painful.”
Le Figaro points out that in presenting its recommendations, the “European Commission is walking on eggs” because “pension policy is supposed to be regulated by national governments without interference from the European Union, although the latter does have a brief to intervene on behalf of the internal market and to oppose discrimination in the workplace.” Now Brussels appears to have found a means to take action on this issue in the form of the green paper and the questions that it poses: “Should automatic adjustment mechanisms related to demographic changes be introduced in pension systems in order to balance the time spent in work and in retirement? What role could the EU level play in this regard?”
You cannot depoliticise everything
“Raising the retirement age and cutting back pension entitlements are possibly the most unpopular measures that any modern European government can take for the purpose of stabilising the public finances… “ remarks Tony Barber in his Financial Times blog. “This explains why there is growing interest among European Union policymakers in the idea of “de-politicising” the pensions issue, by making certain changes to pension systems automatic and not subject to endless, acrimonious political struggles.”
However, the FT’s Brussels bureau chief warns that “in the end, there is no substitute for solutions reached through free political discussion and, at times, conflict. The solutions will probably be temporary, and more efforts required. But that is the price for living in an open society. You cannot depoliticise everything.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptian Group Wants to Censor Arabic Classic
Arab writers and poets through the centuries have spiced their tales with explicit language and carnal desire. Even during the height of the Islamic Empire, when Sharia law dictated virtue across the Middle East, storytellers revealed a fondness for the unholy.
But nowadays fundamentalist Muslims are campaigning to “purify” one of the great works of Arabic literature, the “One Thousand and One Nights.”
“The book contains profanities that cannot be acceptable in Egyptian society,” said lawyer Ayman Abdel-Hakim, venting his disgust at one of the “Nights” poems in which a woman challenges Muslim men to fulfill her insatiable sexual urges. “We understand that this kind of literature is acceptable in the West, but here we have a different culture and different religion.”
Hakeem is a member of Lawyers Without Shackles, a group determined to delete salacious passages from contemporary literature and cherished classics. Its campaign against the masterpiece, also known in English as “The Arabian Nights,” is part of a religious conservatism that has been growing in Egypt since the mid-1990s.
[…]
Mohamed Salmawy, president of the Egyptian Writers Union, counters that it is cultural sacrilege to fiddle with an epic that was generations in the making…
…”The Islamist movement’s real target is to get back at intellectuals,” Salmawy said. “The Taliban ruined the Buddha statues in Afghanistan, and these people here are trying to destroy an equally important monument of our heritage.”…
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‘Illegal’ West Bank Wall Marks Six Years. Palestine and UN Against Israel
According to the United Nations more than 7 thousand Palestinians have restricted access to their lands and hospitals. The International Court of Justice declared the wall illegal in 2004. For Saeb Erekat, who leads Palestinian Authority negotiations with Israel, the barrier is “21st century colonization”.
Tel Aviv (AsiaNews / Agencies) — The UN has condemned the wall built by Israel around the West Bank. According to a report prepared by OCHA (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs), the Palestinians have restricted access to hospitals in East Jerusalem, ambulances are delayed by roadblocks and many farmers can not reach their lands that are beyond the wall.
Israel began building the “security barrier” in 2002, having suffered several suicide attacks. Yesterday was the sixth anniversary of the International Court of Justice ruling that declared the barrier illegal. The Israelis continue to ignore the ruling and claim it is necessary to ensure their safety, showing that suicide bombings have been drastically reduced. Tel Aviv has already built 707 km of wall covering 61 percent of the border with the West Bank.
According to the OCHA report, more than 7 thousand Palestinians live between the fence and the “Green Line”, drawn up in 1948 after the Arab-Israeli war, which separates Israel from the territories conquered even later during the Six Day War of 1967 such as the West Bank.
Many Palestinian farmers who find themselves living between the Green Line and the wall are separated from their fields. They have limited access to land through the 57 gates of the barrier which open for a few hours per day. The doors are closed at night and many also have limited access to hospitals and health facilities with ambulances arriving late to emergencies because of roadblocks.
According to Saeb Erekat, who leads Palestinian Authority negotiations with Israel, the barrier is “21st century colonization.” “The wall is one of the worst examples of serious violations of international law,” he adds. “It separates farmers from the land, children from schools and families from each other.”
The Israeli government insists that this is only a temporary measure, but does not act accordingly. Earlier this year, while the construction of the barrier continued, Israeli officials have thought to create electronic cards for farmers to enable them to access their fields.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Israel: We Won’t Let Ship Reach Gaza
have no intention of physically confronting IDF soldiers.”
Israel made clear on Saturday night it would not allow the Moldovan-flagged ship commissioned by a Libyan charity to dock in Gaza, amid conflicting reports about whether the ship was headed for Gaza or the Egyptian port of El-Arish.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak issued a statement saying that the ship was “an unnecessary provocation,” and it would have been better had it not set sail.
“It is possible to bring merchandise into Gaza, after it has been checked, through the Ashdod port,” Barak said. “However, we will not allow the entrance of arms and ammunition into Gaza. We recommend to the organizers of the flotilla to accompany Israeli naval ships into Ashdod or to sail directly for El-Arish.”
The Amalthea departed on Saturday evening from a port southeast of Athens, carrying 2,000 tons of cargo, including sacks of rice and sugar, and corn oil and olive paste, mostly donated by Greek companies and charities, organizers said…
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Ankara, Washington Singing Different Tunes Over ‘Alliance’ Spirit
For quite a while Ankara and Washington have kept on reminding each other what the requirements of an alliance relationship are.
Yet, obviously, their interpretations of the concept of an alliance are extremely different and it might take a long time for them to reach an agreement on a joint definition. Turkey is alienating its US supporters and needs to demonstrate its commitment to its partnership with the West, the Obama administration’s top diplomat on European affairs warned in remarks delivered around two weeks ago, and considered to be “a rare admonishment of a crucial NATO ally.” The US official had cited Turkey’s vote against a US-backed United Nations Security Council resolution on new sanctions against Iran and noted Turkey’s rhetoric after Israel’s deadly assault on a Gaza-bound flotilla on May 31. The Security Council vote came shortly after Turkey and Brazil, to Washington’s annoyance, brokered a nuclear fuel-swap deal with Iran as an effort to delay or avoid new sanctions.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry’s response came within days of that “admonishment” from Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Phillip Gordon and was clear and sharp.
“We find it unfair and unfortunate. Unfair because Turkey doesn’t need to prove its loyalty to the Western world, and unfortunate because the fact that these remarks came before Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and US President Barack Obama’s meeting makes one think that there is a problem regarding the timing as well,” spokesman Burak Özügergin said when reminded of Gordon’s remarks in Washington, which came only a few hours before Erdogan and Obama’s meeting in Toronto on the sidelines of a G-20 summit.
On suggestions that Turkey has been moving away from the West, US President Obama joined the debate earlier this week.
Although the dominant tone in Obama’s remarks could be and have widely been interpreted as a tribute to Turkey’s critical and strategic importance as a NATO ally, one particular expression was actually totally contradictory to how Turkey assesses its position within the Western world.
“I think the most important thing we can do with Turkey is to continue to engage, continue to hold out the advantages for them of integration with the West, while still respecting their own unique qualities and not acting fearful about the fact that they are a Muslim — predominantly Muslim country, and that’s going to reflect itself in its democracy,” Obama said in an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera published on Thursday.
Certain expressions which are used within the context of Turkey’s relationship with the Western world such as “a part of the Western world” or “whether Turkey’s ties with the West are breaking off” are particularly annoying for Ankara since it implies an annexation of Turkey to the West, or at least affiliation of Turkey with the West as though it were an outsider.
Thus Obama’s expression of “Turkey’s integration with the West” has led to a similar connotation in the Turkish capital.
“Turkey is not only a part of the West, but is in and of itself the West,” Özügergin told Sunday’s Zaman. “Like, for instance, how Greece is a different color of Europe, like how Germany is a different color of Europe, Turkey is just a different color of Europe as well,” he said. Turkey’s position within the Western world is not a position which could be subject to a “breaking off,” he added.
Subject, object, dependency
Turkey and the US do not have a relationship in which each side questions the other side’s authority, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Tuesday, in a bid to elaborate on Ankara’s interpretation of its alliance relationship with Washington.
“In bilateral relations, differences of views may sometimes create synergy, too, and that’s what is happening. I’m trying to protect the interests of the Turkish Republic. And our interests are not having sanctions, coups, conflicts and nuclear weapons in our region. Everybody has to fulfill the requirements of the alliance relationship,” Davutoglu said.
“We don’t have a relationship with the US where everybody questions each other’s authority. Our alliance relationship does not sway. If we don’t have any differences of views, then one side becomes the object and the other side becomes the subject and this leads to dependency. And society’s psychology doesn’t tolerate this [dependency],” he added.
In remarks delivered at the Chatham House think tank in London on Thursday during an official bilateral visit to the UK capital, Davutoglu said that the question, “Are we losing Turkey?” is extremely annoying. Such a question is humiliating for Turkey and Turkey is not an object to be lost or to be found, he said, underlining that such a question should not be asked by anybody if the parties are in an alliance and a union.
“By definition, the essence of a real partnership is actually about the handling of differences of views in this relationship. The United States is still insisting on speaking in terms of the Cold War vis-a-vis requirements of an alliance relationship, while Turkey is tirelessly trying to explain that the definition and content of this alliance relationship has to be updated,” Turkish diplomatic sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Sunday’s Zaman.
Déjà vu: Yet another concept floated for defining prospects
Whenever a crisis looms over bilateral relations between the United States and Turkey, either because of an explicit rift on a particular issue or because of a new administration in Washington or a new government in Ankara — or just ahead of a key summit between the administrative leaders of the two countries — a hasty effort emerges to redefine the nature and future of the decades-old relationship between the two countries.
The Obama administration’s irritation with Turkey’s vote against a US-backed UN Security Council resolution on new sanctions against Iran adopted on June 9 and Turkish rhetoric after Israel’s deadly assault on an aid flotilla on May 31 appear to be at the center of the latest efforts to find a new description to the nature of the future relationship between the two NATO allies.
The most outstanding of those concepts or descriptions — offered nowadays by prominent analysts specializing in Turkey-US relations as an appropriate adjective for future relations — is “transactional.” The adjective has been circulating after the two aforementioned developments, which came at the expense of Washington’s uneasiness and before the June 26 bilateral meeting between Erdogan and Obama in Toronto.
Analysts such as Ömer Taspinar, a faculty member at the US National War College and a researcher at the Brookings Institution, and Henri Barkey, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, suggested that Ankara and Washington have been heading toward a new paradigm of “transactional partnership,” basically defining such a partnership as a “give-and-take relationship.”
Nonetheless, Ankara doesn’t seem to be eager to “buy” such a paradigm with regards to its relations with Washington, since such a paradigm would have meant the degradation of the relationship to a level where only mutual interests would be subject to that relationship.
“Such a definition has a limiting characteristic. Yet the circulation of this concept is also an admittance of the fact that right now things are not really great between the two capitals. It can also be interpreted as an attempt by some decision and policy-makers in Washington to salvage what can be salvaged in this relationship,” the same diplomatic sources told Sunday’s Zaman.
“This is not the tone we would like to see in our relationship with the United States, because it would be ignorance of the decades-old alliance relationship, which has a physical ground and which is based on values,” the same sources added, as an indication that Turkey will not stop explaining to the US its interpretation of the concept of “alliance.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Iran’s Last Exports Flourish in Israel
ÜMIT ENGINSOY
MOUNT CARMEL, Israel — Hürriyet Daily News
Four Persian fallow deer transported by the Israeli airline company on its last flight out of Tehran amid the turbulent Islamic revolution have created a healthy population in a country where the species had gone extinct
Amid bitter conflict between Israel and Iran, a symbol of the countries’ previous friendship — Persian fallow deer airlifted out of Tehran during the troubled late 1970s — is thriving in an Israeli national park.
Intensive hunting drove the deer, which have religious significance for Jews because they are mentioned in the biblical book of Deuteronomy as a kosher animal, to extinction in the early 20th century in the area that is present-day Israel.
A military general saw the chance to repopulate the species in the 1970s, and carried this goal out despite the turmoil surrounding the Islamic Revolution of 1978-79 in Iran, Israel’s last military attaché to Iran told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review in an interview last week.
“It was a chaotic time. I was already working on the evacuation of Jews [from Iran] and dealing with several other tough things at the same time,” Gen. Yitzhak Segev said. “But the fallow-deer matter also was a priority.”
Gen. Avraham Yoffe, a leading officer of the Israeli Defense Forces, had become aware of the animal’s ongoing presence in Iran in the 1970s, and was determined to bring the deer to Israel to re-establish the population. At the time, the two countries were close friends and Yoffe’s chance emerged in the late 1970s when Prince Abdul Reza Pahlavi, the brother of the Iranian Shah, Mohammad-Reza Shah Pahlavi, visited Israel and pledged to grant the country four Persian fallow deer.
Unusual operation
Yoffe delegated the job of organizing the deer’s transfer to Israel to Segev, who said he was forced to hide his identity and sneak around Tehran in civilian clothes amid worsening violence in the streets of the Iranian capital as the Islamic Revolution gained momentum, Iran’s Jews prepared to flee and the Shah’s family and associates went into hiding.
With the help of a zoologist from Israel, Segev eventually captured four deer in an area near the Caspian Sea, brought them to Tehran and obtained permission to transport them to the Netherlands. But on Nov. 8, 1978, the four deer were instead loaded onto the last flight out of Tehran by El Al, the Israeli airline company, and were safely brought to Israel.
“Now we have around 200 fallow deer in this park, and more than 420 in the country,” said Salman Abu Rukun, one of the managers of the Carmel Hai-Bar Nature Reserve.
The fallow deer is a Eurasian deer that is native to most of Europe. The Persian fallow deer, or Dama Mesopotamica, is a little bigger than the rest of the deer family.
“A fire devastated the reserve in 1989, and some of the deer perished, but the rest survived and continued to multiply under protection,” Segev said.
The Carmel Hai-Bar Nature Reserve is a 600-hectare breeding and reclamation center administered by the Israeli Nature Reserves and National Parks Authority, situated in the Carmel Mountains in northwestern Israel near Haifa. It is the Mediterranean-climate counterpart of the Yotvata Hai-Bar Nature Reserve in the desert.
Other endangered animals mentioned in the Bible are also bred at the Carmel Hai-Bar reserve, including the griffon vulture, the mountain gazelle, the roe deer, the white-tailed eagle and the fire salamander.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Iran: Hardline Authorities ‘Ban Sunni Religious Festival’
Teheran, 9 July (AKI) — Iranian authorities have banned Sunni Muslims from celebrating a religious festival in the eastern city of Zahdan in Sistan-Balochistan province, London-based al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper reported.
First, Iran’s hardline Revolutionary Guard corps put pressure on local authorities to limit celebration of the festival to one day — Thursday — instead of the three days it traditionally runs for.
Then Iranian secret service agents blocked a group of visiting Syrian and Malaysian scholars who had been granted visas to attend the festival.
The secret service agents seized the scholars’ passports, the paper said.
Some 200 thousand people had been due to attend the festival, which is considered the key event in the Iranian Sunni religious calendar.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanon: Security Council Meets Over Attacks on UN Peacekeepers in South Lebanon
Tension remains high. The Lebanese government merely “regrets” the incident. Open letter from the Commander of UNIFIL to the inhabitants of the area that aims to calm everyone down, but stresses “freedom of movement of UN peacekeepers”. Hezbollah launches accusations of pro-Israel partisanship.
Beirut (AsiaNews) — Tension in southern Lebanon between peacekeepers and local villagers, where Hezbollah is largely predominant, show no sign of abating. Patrols of soldiers of the United Nations (UNIFIL) were attacked and disarmed. France has requested a meeting of the Security Council later this evening to examine the matter, the Lebanese government “regrets” the incident and the commander of UNIFIL, Spanish General Asarta Cuevas, has sent an open letter to the inhabitants of the region which reaffirms the “close cooperation” between the Lebanese army and UN troops, deployed for “your peace and security”.
The issue is complex and controversial. Western diplomats resident in Beirut unofficially accuse Hezbollah of coercing local residents to block the action of blue helmets in implementing resolution 1701. Among other things, the resolution states that it is their duty to prevent the accumulation of weapons and contraband by “groups” other than the Lebanese army, namely Hezbollah, which certainly does not appreciate this.
Hezbollah, for its part, accuses the current UNIFIL management of not respecting an unwritten agreement according to which some villages, particularly those involved in the 2006 war, were not subject to inspections and instead of seeking, ultimately, to disarm its men. “Instead of defending us, they seem to want to defend Israel,” is the accusation that followed a recent UNIFIL exercise, which seemed to suggest the possibility of rocket attacks from Lebanon into Israel.
The Lebanese Government, despite its caution, and the same president, Michel Suleiman, stressed their desire for collaboration between UN peacekeepers and the military. The UN however has accused the Lebanese military of not having deployed the promised 15 thousand troops in the south of the country as outlined by 1701.
Beirut, however, has little room to manoeuvre, since it is a coalition government that includes Hezbollah. So, yesterday, in the Council of Ministers, one of the Hezbollah men, Mohammad Fneich, blocked the proposal of the Social Affairs Officer, Selim Sayegh, to open an investigation into what happened.
So the situation remains tense with the Lebanese government confirming its support of 1701, but reiterating the need for “coordination between the Lebanese army and UNIFIL,” the general commander of UN peacekeepers who reaffirms the right of his troops to have “freedom of movement” and Hezbollah, in essence, wanting the UN patrols not to search for weapons depots or sites for rocket launches. And not to ask too many questions either (PD)
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Making a Difference: Can We, The People, Actually Do So?
Sometimes, we can. For example, the worldwide campaign to stop Iran from stoning Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani has, apparently borne some fruit. Today the Iranian leadership has announced that it will not stone Sakineh. (Of course, after imprisoning her for four terrible years, the mullahs may choose to hang or shoot her instead).
[…]
I have written here before about the plight of estern women who have married Arab and Muslim men and who now find themselves trapped in a foreign country unable to leave together with their children, whose custody belongs to the father under Shariah law. Most recently, I have written about Yazmin Maribel Bautista. Yazmin is in hiding in Bahrain. Her case remains in the courts. She has, finally, met with the American Ambassador who is “concerned,” “aware,” but, after meeting with the Prime and Foreign Ministers of Bahrain, has become convinced that “matters are not easy.” Yazmin and her supporters have set up an account. You could make a difference by sending her a donation. It may help free two American citizens trapped behind the Veiled Curtain. C’mon, make my day…
[information at original link]
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The AKP’s Hamas Policy III: Countering Radicalization
Soner Cagaptay
For Turks today, after seven years of propaganda, Hamas appears to be a good organization as it has been a guest in Istanbul seven times and has had multiple contacts with the government. It even has fundraisers in Turkey. Therefore, one should not expect today that the Turks would oppose Hamas’ vision or policies. This would be the case especially with young people in their teens or twenties who have come of age under the AKP.
Various Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood meetings in Istanbul show the efforts of the AKP government and its supporters to cultivate a virtual network, usually funded by government money. These meetings held for any occasion, from a call to jihad to a call to save the environment, act as platforms to bring Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood members to Turkey. The meetings fulfill two additional purposes. They expose Turks to a worldview of “good Hamas versus evil Israel,” while whitewashing Hamas’ violent actions. Secondly, the meetings bring Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood members from across the world and connect them with the Turks, promoting the notion that these people and groups all belong to the new, politically-defined “Muslim world” whose charge is to fight Israel and oppose its policies and presence in the Middle East.
One could look at the rise of pro-Hamas and anti-Israeli sentiments in Turkey and dismiss them as a problem pertaining to Israel, and not to the United States. Others might even add that anti-Semitism in Turkey is not an American problem. Both of these approaches are short-sighted. Islamist thinking, as well as anti-Semitic, anti-Israeli and anti-American sentiments are all closely linked. The Islamist thinking goes along the following lines: “The Jews are evil, therefore Israel is evil. The Jews control America, and therefore America is evil.”
This thinking is the background to the post- September 11 call that all Muslims should unite around the new and politically-charged Muslim world to oppose Israel and the United States. The problem in Turkey is not that the country’s foreign policy towards the West is changing, for such changes can be reversed under a new government, but rather that under the AKP, Turkish attitudes towards Jews and Americans, and Israel and America are changing. In the Manichean post-September 11 world, once the Turks cross the line from the West to the “Muslim world” such changes may prove to be irreversible.
One suggestion for countering the transformation of Turkish public attitudes is a zero tolerance policy by the United States and Israel on the related anti-Semitic, anti-Israeli and anti-American rhetoric and meetings sponsored, funded and nurtured by the government. Just as the United States and Israel do not put Turks in a negative light in publicly-funded shows or international meetings, the Turkish government should not be doing the same about the United States or Israel. This is really not asking a lot. It’s basically saying: “Do as we do, and not as we wouldn’t.”
A second suggestion would be calling out on American Muslims, European Muslims, and Muslims elsewhere to recognize that the spread of anti-Western, anti-Semitic, anti-Israeli and anti-American sentiments is a manufactured and politically-masterminded process. If Muslims do not recognize this problem now, then down the road as more and more people adopt these sentiments, eventually others, including those in the West will forget that the spread of such attitudes is a politically-manipulated process. The danger here is that some of these people might then actually turn and blame all this on Islam’s reputation. People who deny that radicalization is a politically-manufactured process are actually helping give Islam a bad reputation.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Intellectual Make-Up of Turkey Changing With Anatolian Universities
Academics, poets, writers and other members of Turkey’s intelligentsia have gathered in the Tesvikiye Mosque courtyard, not wishing to leave a renowned man of literature alone in his final journey.
The crowd is much higher in number than the group of 20 or so people who are participating in the funeral prayer. Everybody is buried in a deep, dark silence. The imam is now heard saying Allahu Akbar, and the prayer begins. Some of those among the praying line have their hands in the wrong place, while others, clueless about what to do, are trying to cheat off of the person next to them.
Most of us are familiar with the members of this elite crowd in the courtyard, who are all over the age of 50 and well known from television, newspaper columns or university departments. It is easy to read the distance between our intellectuals and religion in a country where a majority are Muslim from this courtyard portrait. But this view is changing as Turkey’s intellectual composition changes. This transformation that we have seen in the last decade in the business world, bureaucracy, politics and the media is now being reflected in the country’s intellectual milieu. Academics from various provinces of Anatolia can now express themselves on television and in newspaper columns, with their views finding resonance among the society.
Istanbul’s hegemony over academia is being shattered by academics from provincial universities, just as the Anatolian Tigers have challenged and defeated the dominance of the Istanbul elite in the business world in the past few years. These academics are speaking to television channels that offer an alternative to the central media. These intellectuals who hail from universities in cities as Kayseri, Gaziantep, Konya, Kahramanmaras, Çorum and Denizli attract attention with their respect for national and conservative values, their peace with religion and their democratic identities.
White Turks aren’t white but bigoted
Professor M. Naci Bostanci, an instructor in Gazi University’s faculty of communications, said this change shows a parallel to the overall transformation the country has been undergoing. According to Bostanci, “The economic elite, the bureaucrats and politicians have changed, and intellectuals have also changed in parallel with this.”
Professor Atilla Yayla calls this situation “an Anatolian renaissance.” He says: “It used to be like a law that university professors and intellectuals renowned in academia were either Kemalists or socialists. In the past two decades, a sort of a liberal renaissance has occurred. Conservative intellectuals with democratic values have emerged.” Yayla says that with the emergence of this new intellectual class, the group previously known as intellectuals are now viewed as angry, conservative people who see catching up with the West only in terms of the way people dress and consume alcohol or wear swimsuits and go to the beach but oppose the supremacy of law and civilian oversight of the military. “It has become obvious that these intellectuals aren’t white Turks but are bigots,” he said, referring to the oft-used expression “White Turk” to refer to secular intellectuals with a Western lifestyle who adhere to Kemalist or left-wing values.
Ahmet Turan Alkan, who has been writing for Zaman for a long time, was one of the first to break the dominance of Istanbul in the Turkish intellectual world. Alkan, who started writing columns when he was an instructor at Sivas Republican University, says technology was the driving force behind the collapse of the huge gap between Istanbul and provincial areas. Alkan says thanks to a recent diversification in the media, Anatolian academics have gained greater visibility.
The role of the Internet in this transformation cannot be understated, according to communications expert Ali Atif Bir.
They are conservative democrats
A majority of the academics who are now making their voices heard from the Anatolian heartland are children of middle-class families who were born in the provinces. Most of them have been educated at good universities in Ankara and Istanbul and served in provincial universities for many years. Their most outstanding attribute is their democratic and conservative identity with a liberal approach toward the economy. These individuals can be seen on many television channels and generally write in the op-ed pages of the Zaman, Yeni Safak, Star, Taraf and Radikal Iki newspapers.
One such person is Berat Özipek, an associate professor of political science. He is a member of the Liberal Thought Association and was an instructor at Gaziosmanpasa University in Tokat until seven months ago. He is currently teaching at the Istanbul University of Commerce and is a regular op-ed contributor to Star. He was one of the regular panelists featured on “Yüzyüze” (Face to Face), a discussion show on TRT. He recently was at the center of media attention for suggesting that if the late President Turgut Özal were alive, he would immediately dismiss the chief of General Staff when a military action plan to overthrow the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government and undermine the religious Gülen movement was revealed.
Mazhar Bagli is an assistant professor in the sociology department of Dicle University. He has published various studies on modernism, multicultural societies, the modern conscience and privacy, urbanization, forced migration and the Kurdish question. He is a member of the AK Party’s Central Executive Committee.
Professor Yasin Aktay started his academic career in 1992 working as a research assistant in the sociology department of Selçuk University. He was tenured as a professor of corporate sociology in 2005. He is an op-ed contributor to the Yeni Safak newspaper.
Necdet Subasi, born in Savsat in 1961, works on religion and sociology. His thesis was on how Turkish intellectuals view religion. He worked at Mugla University for several years. In 2009, he assumed the responsibility of coordinating the government’s Alevi project. He is currently an instructor in Gazi University’s communications department.
Professor Yavuz Atar is an instructor at Konya Selçuk University. He worked with Professor Ergun Özbudun to draft a constitution for the AK Party. He is not known as a conservative, but rather as a liberal individual. He writes for various newspapers’ comment pages.
Gökhan Bacik is an assistant professor at Gaziantep Zirve University. He regularly writes for Radikal, the Hürriyet Daily News, Zaman and Yeni Safak.
Bilal Sambur is an associate professor at Süleyman Demirel University. He is the director of the Center for Religious Freedom Research of the Liberal Thought Association.
Ali Yasar Saribay is a professor of sociology and a graduate of Uludag University, where he still teaches. Some of his published books include “Religion and Turkey in the Global Society,” “Globalization as an Irony of Modernity” and “Postmodernism, Civil Society and Islam.”
Süleyman Seyfi Ögün is a professor of sociology who has published work on political culture, conservatism and nationalism.
Saban Çalis is a professor at Konya Selçuk University. He is most remembered for leading a signature campaign among intellectuals to allow the Islamic headscarf at universities. He is currently a consultant to the president of the Higher Education Board (YÖK).
Vahap Coskun is an associate professor of the faculty of law at Dicle University. He is one of the most frequent commentators to the media on the Kurdish question.
Yusuf Sevki Hakyemez is an associate professor at Karadeniz Technical University. He is a graduate of Ankara University’s political science department. He is frequently consulted by journalists and other media professionals for his views on public law and human rights.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish Author Illustrates Plight of Saudi Women
Originally a pilgrim to Islam’s holiest sites, Hicran Sehel stayed to marry and live in Saudi Arabia for nearly two decades. Her new book, however, delivers some harsh criticism toward the style of Islam practiced in the kingdom.
“I think had I first became familiar with Islam in Saudi Arabia, I would have gone out of religion,” she said, adding that Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance.
Sehel was just 16 years old when she first went to Saudi Arabia for a religious pilgrimage.
She went there again the following year. Two years later, she married a Turk who was a student at Medina Islamic University.
For 10 years she worked as a guide just like her husband. Sehel, who is now 33 years old, has just released her new book; the names have been changed but the events are true in the book called “Ikram.”
She met Ikram in 2001 at Istanbul’s Atatürk airport.
“I saw a woman taking off her veil and chador, screaming ‘enough is enough,’“ Sehel said.
Ikram’s mother is a Turk and her father is a known doctor in Jedda. Ikram divorced her first husband after she was the victim of violence from her husband, mother-in-law and sister-in-law. Afterwards, she was forced to marry the husband of her sister, who died while in childbirth. Ikram, who had nine children, ended up suffering a lot, just like her late sister.
“I wanted to write her story on behalf of millions of other Saudi women who, just like Ikram, are victim of abuse,” Sehel said.
Sehel is very critical of the understanding of Islam in Saudi Arabia.
Quoting a particular verse revealed to the Prophet Mohammed, she said: “You can only give advice. You can never be a dictator.”
“This is Islam,” she said. “Prophet Mohammed never asked, “Why are you drinking?” He said, ‘If there are some among you who were drinking, they have now given it up, right?’ Everything that is forced is done secretly in Saudi Arabia. It is known that alcohol consumption is at record levels.”
According to Sehel, many Saudi men look for Turkish girls that come on pilgrimage.
“Turkish girls are appreciated because of their light skin, beauty and talent. Wealthy Arab girls grow up with nannies and they are ignorant of household matters. Arab men are looking for a difference. As they are also Muslims, Turkish women are quiet in demand,” she said.
“I saw a Turkish woman who was given gold equal to her weight married to an old Saudi man,” she said. “Beautiful women are married to 60-, 70-year-old men. They accept becoming second or third wives.”
Sehel believes she will not be able to return to Saudi Arabia after the release of her book.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
What’s in a Name: Obama Can’t Figure Out (Or Pretends He Can’t) Why He Worries Israelis
by Barry Rubin
President Barack Obama insulted Israelis by saying they might distrust him because his middle name is Hussein. It’s a small detail but one that shows far more than even critical observers understand.
One reason why all of this is so important is that what a leader or politician says today is only for today. To explain behavior, to understand what’s likely to happen in future, you have to go beyond the words and posturing. (By the way, here’s a serious analysis of the Obama-Netanyahu meeting.)
First, let’s remember that Obama’s first name is Barack, which is as much of Semitic language derivation as Hussein. Of course, that first name is found in Hebrew as well as Arabic. After all, Israel’s defense minister is Ehud Barak and my Hebrew name sound the same though there are two different roots involved, while Hussein is more distinctively Arabic. But still, Obama’s lack of awareness about the implications of his own name doesn’t indicate a great depth of knowledge about the Middle East.
Second, Obama was initially—when he had the same name as he does now—quite popular in Israel as polls show. Only when he evinced hostility did the attitude of Israelis change sharply.
Third, that same name belies the impliction that Israelis are biased against him because of his middle name. Israelis, after all, have dealt with two famous Husseins: King Hussein of Jordan and Saddam Hussein of Iraq. The former was a good friend, the most popular Arab leader in Israeli history. (Note 1)
So one can be a good Hussein or a bad Hussein. Of course the issue with this third Hussein is his policies. And that’s why I find his saying this thing far more upsetting.
I’d respect Obama more, and perhaps trust him a little more, if he had said something like this:
We’ve had our differences and we don’t see everything the same way. But we are so fundamentally on the same side that our friendship and alliance will overcome these smaller issues. And, of course, we know that our mutual enemies are out to destroy us and favor totalitarian dictatorship rather than democracy.
By denying there were ever some problems and underplaying the reality of what I’ll call for brevity’s sake the “bad guys”, Obama shows an ability to rewrite history in his own mind and forget what has happened. This may signal that in six months he will forget all of Israel’s cooperation and concessions, which is precisely what happened last time, between October 2009 and March 2010.
(The amnesia of its friends is a real problem for Israel which, for example, made huge concessions and took big risks for the 1990s’ peace process only to find that forgotten, withdrew from southern Lebanon and from the Gaza Strip only to have that forgotten, etc., etc. Makes me think of Charles Chaplin’s film, “City Lights,” for those who know that epic work of cinema.)
Equally, the problem is not that he’s reached out to Muslims but both the way he has done it and the fact that he has done a lot of reaching out to radical Muslims. A number of U.S. presidents have maintained strong relationships with post-Camp David Egypt, with Jordan, with Saudi Arabia and other countries (take Bill Clinton as an example) yet never stirred hostility or distrust from Israel.
Obama has reached out a lot to Muslims in the Iranian and Syrian government, with specific gestures toward Hizballah and Hamas, among others. He has made speeches in Cairo and elsewhere that have negative implications for Israel’s security and the U.S.-Israel relationship. Apologists may do verbal gymnastics on the text but this isn’t going to fool Israelis.
And by making himself the victim and implying that any misunderstanding is Israel’s fault, there’s a hint of continued animosity toward Israel…
| — Hat tip: Barry Rubin | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Anti-Graft Activist ‘Attacked and Critically Injured’
Jakarta, 8 July (AKI) — Indonesian anti-graft activist Tama S Langkun was hospitalised with severe injuries after being attacked on Thursday in Jakarta.He and fellow activists had been voicing concerns about the vast wealth amassed by a number of high-ranking Indonesian police officers.
Langkun, a researcher at Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) was knocked off his motorbike by a black Toyota Avanza car whose passengers then severely beat him around the head as he lay on the road, witnesses said.
“He was heading home after watching a World Cup match in Kemang. Suddenly, a black Toyota Avanza bumped his motorcycle from behind.
“Tama and his friend fell off the motorcycle and two men came out and tortured him. A witness saw they used metal bars to hit Tama’s head,” said fellow ICW activist Febri Diansyah.
The assault came just two days after the office of investigative Tempo magazine was firebombed in Central Jakarta.
Last week edition of the weekly ran a cover story on seven police officers who allegedly amassed billions of Indonesian rupiahs in their bank accounts.
Following the incident, ICW reported the violence to the police and Indonesia’s National Commission for Human Rights.
Indonesia is consistently ranked one of the most corrupt countries in the world in an annual index published by graft watchdog Transparency International.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Moluccas Clashes Between Christians and Muslims Three Dead and Five Injured
The violence erupted overnight, the result of a latent confessional conflict. One of the victims was a young man of 21, a soldier and a police officer wounded. The authorities have reinforced security measures to prevent renewed fighting, but tension remains high. 2002Truce between the two sides undermined .
Jakarta (AsiaNews) — three dead and five wounded, is the provisional toll from violence that erupted over night between two groups of young Christians and Muslims in Ambon, the capital of Maluku. The police intervened to quell the riots and the head of security has called on the two sides for calm. In the past the Moluccas was the scene of sectarian clashes that left thousands dead, destroying hundreds of churches and mosques.
Local sources tell AsiaNews that the violence is the result of a latent conflict between Christians and Muslims, that the fragile peace treaty signed in 2002 have failed to resolve, but the exact cause of clashes yesterday remain unknown. The incidents broke out at 1 .30 am (11.30 am on 9 July in Jakarta) between the villages of Batu Merah Dalam and Batu Merah Kampung, located in the Sirimau sub- district (Ambon). Security forces have so far identified a victim, Arman Syukur, 21 years old. Among the wounded there are also a soldier and a police officer.
The authorities have tightened controls in order to avert the danger of further violence. Tensions remain high and they have not excluded new clashes between Christians and Muslims. Brigadier General Totoy Herawan Indra, Maluku police chief, has called on the two sides for calm: “All this must stop,” he added as he visited the scene of the violence. H. Awat Tenate, head of the village of Batu Merah Negri, is calling on police to deploy more troops in the area, which already in recent days was the scene of brawls, this time caused by soccer hooliganism among supporters watching World Cup in South Africa 2010. In particular, there were clashes during the quarter-final between Holland and Brazil.
Between August 1999 and 2001 a bloody war was fought between Christians and Muslims in the Moluccas. There were thousands of victims of violence, hundreds of churches and mosques destroyed and thousands of homes razed to the ground, with nearly half a million refugees. In February 2002 a ceasefire was signed between the two fronts — Christians and Muslims are equal in numbers in the area — in Malino, South Sulawesi, as part of a government promoted peace plan.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Christian Students in Pakistan Are Victims of Violence and Discrimination
Minorities Concern of Pakistan denounces a climate of intolerance and exclusion in the classroom. Most of the violations are committed in government institutions, due to a “fragile” system that associates Pakistan to a “Muslims-only country”. An association of teachers demands action from the Chief Justice against the Federal Ministry of Education.
Lahore (AsiaNews) — Students of Pakistan’s religious minorities, including Christians, are victims of exclusion, discrimination and acts of violence because of their faith and their status. The complaint comes from Minorities Concern of Pakistan (MCP) which says that most of the violations take place in government run institutions and is committed by both classmates by teachers. The system to protect minorities, they add, is “fragile” and fails to safeguard their rights.
On 8 July the Pakistan Minorities Teachers’ Association (Pmta) sent a letter to Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, head of the judiciary, inviting him to take a “personal initiative” against the Federal Minister for Education. He is accused of having “violated the rights of students from minorities, including Christians, Hindus, Sikhs and Ahmadis.
MCP activists cite two cases of discrimination against Christian students, confirming the climate of intolerance. On 28 May a dozen armed men attacked the pastor Mubarak Masih and his family. The violence against the Christian leader was sparked by his 13 year old grandson Shaid grandson to recite verses from the Koran in the classroom. The incident occurred in a school in Smundri, Punjab. The police did not initiate any investigation into the attacks, despite the complaint lodged by the pastor.
Last year eleven year old Christian Nadia Iftikhar suffered violent beatings at the hands of her teacher in a school Dharema, also in Punjab. The teacher reacted to the girl’s claim to be both “Christian and Pakistani”. According to Ascari Hasan Rizvi, a political analyst in Lahore, the government has never wanted to start a serious reform of school curricula. And despite what is stated in the Constitution, in textbooks “Pakistan is associated with the Muslims … and says that Pakistan is a country only for Muslims”.
Rebecca Winthorpe of the Washington based Brookings Center for Universal Education, adds that “ Historically education in Pakistan has been used as a tool by successive regimes in pursuing narrow political ends”. Activists in defence of minorities, however, call for reform and a change of mentality that allows even the Christians, along with other minorities, to enhance the level of education (only 19% literate) and improve their quality of life .
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Punjab Soup Kitchen Forbidden to Christians
The service of cheap meals for the poor is widespread throughout the region and is sponsored by local authorities. In the district of Toba Tek Singh, the organizers of the kiosks, however, discriminate against Christians and claim that the canteen is only for Muslims. Moderate Islamic leaders condemn the incident and invited local authorities to take action.
Anaheim (AsiaNews / ANS) — In Toba Tek Singh in Punjab, the local government forbids poor Christians from taking advantage of a meals service because of their faith. This is revealed by a survey Assist News Service, an agency of the Protestant community.
Recently, the Punjab government decided to offer a free meal service called “dastar Khwan” for the poor, inviting entrepreneurs and philanthropists of every state to finance the project, built largely with public money. The authorities have opened canteens in different areas and villages in the province where every day from 13.00 to 15:00 lunch is served for poor people at a cost of only 9 cents. The initiative was a success all over the Punjab, but not in the district of Toba TAK Singh where many Christians were prevented from buying the meal token.
20 year old Christian Naqash Gill said: “I went to one of the stalls with some friends for a meal. There were four of us and we paid for the meal token. When food was being served, suddenly a security guard came out waving a gun, shouting, ‘Hey, you Christians, you have to leave here. The meals are not for you’. “ “We tried to speak to the manager, — he added — but the gunman continued to point his weapon at us and ordered us to shut up”.
Ashiqi Masih, a poor man who is well known among Muslims for his Christian faith, decided instead to rebel against the discriminatory treatment. “I argued with the manager of the kiosk — he said — stressing that the government has never allowed discrimination against Christians. I said if this was their policy, why not put a sign on the stand saying: ‘Only for Muslims ?”.
These facts have led the Christian community to turn to politicians, merchants, lawyers, journalists and Muslim religious leaders to resolve the situation which could lead to tension among the population. Some local leaders, including Labour Party of Pakistan member Tariq Mehmood and member of the Punjab AssemblyMohammed Rafique, have condemned discrimination. They explained the situation of the district administration, stressing that the concerns of the Christian community are shared by moderate Muslims.
In response to the accusations, a district spokesman says the government has no policy of discrimination toward Christians. “The citizens — he stated — have to resolve problems among themselves. The government only has the task of providing flour subsidies.”
Rasheed Jalal, head of minorities in the Pakistan Muslim League — PML says that if the problem is not resolved peacefully, Christians have the right to require the district to suspend the grants. “The subsidy — he says — is paid with public money collected from all citizens and must be used for a common goal”.
Ch Muhammad Saeed, President of the District Council on Agriculture and a member of Jamiat Islami, says he wants to build a free school meal service open to all poor people and without discrimination based on religion, ethnicity or caste. “Muslims — he says — will eat together with our Christian brothers to foster peace and harmony in the district of Toba Tek Singh.” The news was generally welcomed by the Christian community that hopes to see the actual implementation of these promises.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Lahore: Christians Accused of Blasphemy Flee Extremists and Police
Yousaf Masih, his wife Bashrian Bibi and their son-in-law Zahid Masih are hiding in a secret location. They were attacked by a group of Muslims, allegedly for using a metal banner with Qur’anic verses. CLAAS activists refute the version of events put forward by Muslims. Local sources blame “personal rancour and enmity”.
Lahore (AsiaNews) — A Christian family from Model Town, a residential suburb of Lahore, had to flee their home to escape a mob of local Muslims. Yousaf Masih, his wife Bashrian Bibi and their son-in-law Zahid Masih are accused of blasphemy for using a discarded metal banner, with Qur’anic verses printed on, as part of the roof to their bathroom. Police have issued an arrest warrant for the three Christians, and have taken into custody two other family members to force the fugitives to surrender.
The Pakistan Christian Post reported the incident, saying that the blasphemy accusation is based on “personal rancour and enmity” towards Zahid Masih and his in-laws. Last Monday, a mob of 2,000 angry Muslims tried to torch the Christians’ home. Before police could arrive, they had already escaped and have been in hiding in a secret location for the past three days, fearful of retaliation from local Muslims.
The Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS), on organisation that defends people accused of blasphemy, has launched its own investigation into the incident, speaking to law enforcement agents and interviewing local Christians and Muslims.
CLAAS activists found that the Christian family had been living in the house for the past four years, but was not paying rent because of its poor conditions.
The team led by CLAAS national director Joseph Francis said that last week, Lal Masih, Yousaf’s cousin, took a discarded advertising banner to reuse in the roof of his bathroom.
Local Muslims claim that the banner had Qur’anic verses printed on it and that they asked Lal Masih to remove the offending material. Last Sunday, Lal allegedly got into an argument with a Muslim neighbour, Mohammad Imran, over it.
The next day a group of Muslims went back to the Masih home, determined to remove the banner. No one was home, so the protesters turned to Yousaf’s son-in-law Zahid Masih. Faced with another rebuttal by a Christian, the Muslims reacted violently, and set tires on fire, blocked nearby roads and called the police to arrest the three Christians for violating the blasphemy law.
CLASS activists said, “At 6 pm on 5 July, Yousaf Masih, Bashrian Bibi and Zahid Masih fled; police were unable to arrest them.” Instead, they detained Lal Masih and James Masih, who will remain in custody “until their relatives surrender”.
Local Christians have refused to talk about the incident, fearing reprisal or new attacks.
After looking at the offending banner and having it examined by a local Muslim, CLASS concluded, “no words or sentences from the Qur’an are visible”.
Last of all, the Pakistan Christian Post noted that the Masih family is very poor, and none of its members can read or write; therefore, they could not know what was printed on the banner.
Local Muslims took advantage of their lack of education to charge Zahid Masih and his in-laws solely out “personal rancour and enmity”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Former Asylum-Seekers Given Housing Benefit for £8,000-a-Month Kensington Home
Taxpayers are footing the £8,000-a-month bill for a family of former asylum-seekers from Somalia to live in a £2.1million luxury townhouse.
Abdi and Sayruq Nur and their seven children are receiving housing benefit to cover the cost of renting their three-storey, five-bedroom property in the fashionable London district of Kensington.
Mr Nur, 42, an unemployed bus conductor, and his 40-year-old wife, who does not work, chose to move to the luxurious home because they didn’t like the “poorer” part of the city they were living in, according to The Mail on Sunday.
Their 1840s home is believed to be one of the most expensive houses ever paid for by housing benefit. It has two bathrooms, a fully fitted kitchen and a garden.
The revelation comes the month after the Government promised to tackle Britain’s £20billion-a-year housing benefit bill and bring the maximum claim for a four or five-bedroom home down to £400 a week.
Before moving to Kensington the Nurs lived in the Kensal Rise area of Brent in a five-bedroom property which cost £900 a week in housing benefit.
Mr Nur said: “The new house is good enough and it is near the school and the shops. We need a house this big because we have so many children.
“The old house was good but the area was not so good. It was a very poor area and there were no buses, no shops and the schools were too far.
“The old house was four or five bus stops away from the primary school attended by two of my children.
“Soon, all three of our younger children are going to be at primary school and we can’t take them all on the bus. Now they are going to a school which is just down the road.”
The couple’s youngest three children were born in Britain while their eldest four, aged 12 to 16, were born in Somalia.
Mr Nur worked for the Red Cross in the African country before the family fled the civil war and were granted asylum in Britain in 1999.
He lost his £6.50-an-hour job as a bus conductor 18 months ago but said he was now doing his best to get a new job.
The London borough of Kensington and Chelsea declined to comment on the Nur family’s claim.
A spokesman said: “We have been saying for some years now that the way in which the maximum level of housing benefit is calculated is flawed and we welcome the Government’s new changes which begin next year.
“The sums of money that many families claim for housing in the capital and elsewhere is an example of an unreasonably generous benefits system which is open to abuse.”
| — Hat tip: bewick | [Return to headlines] |
Betancourt Sues Commandos Who Risked Their Lives to Save Her
Betancourt ignored all warnings going into areas of Colombia known for their strong FARC presence to campaign as president
Colombians are outraged at the news that former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt is going to sue their country for a whopping $7 million for being kidnapped.
“It’s like a Colombian soap opera come to life,” Bogota Free Planet (BFP) publisher Jorge Luis Pardo told Canada Free Press (CFP) this morning. “She is suing the very people who put their lives at risk to save her.”
Soon after her release, Betancourt divorced her husband and departed for France where she was feted by President Nicolas Sarkozy as a France and Colombia dual citizen.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bomb Scare on Air France Jet Flying Same Route Where 228 Died Last Summer
An Air France jet flying on a route which claimed hundreds of lives last summer was forced into an emerged landing today following a bomb scare.
The jumbo jet had 405 passengers and 18 crew on board when it received a warning three hours into a flight from Rio de Janeiro and Paris.
An Air France Airbus A330 flying exactly the same route on June 1st last year crashed off Brazil en route for France, killing all 228 people on board.
The exact cause of the tragedy — the worst in the airline’s 75 year history — has not yet been established, but foul play, including terrorism, has largely been ruled out.
This time round the pilot was told to land at Recife in Brazil for an inspection of the aircraft, with all passengers being told to evacuate.
A woman had telephoned the warning to the Galeao Antonio Carlos Jobim airport in Rio.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
France Denies Citizenship to Muslim Man
A Moroccan man who refused to shake hands with a French female official and whose wife wears the full Islamic veil has been denied French citizenship, the immigration ministry said Friday.
The man, who has been living in France since 1999 and married a French woman in 2004, failed to “assimilate into French society” and displayed a “discriminatory attitude toward women,” said the ministry.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Three Arrested as Dozens of Illegal Immigrants Land in South
Lecce, 9 July (AKI) — Police in Italy’s southern Italian Puglia region on Friday arrested three suspected people smugglers after 36 illegal immigrants landed at Gallipoli. The migrants had made their way to Italy from Turkey and Afghanistan and included “numerous” minors, according to police.
The migrants were transferred to a holding centre near Puglia’s regional capital, Bari, where they will be allowed to request asylum. Four unaccompanied minors were taken to special centres in the province of Lecce, surrounding Gallipoli.
The suspected people traffickers, all of whom are Turkish, were identified on the basis of declarations from the migrants. They face charges of abetting illegal immigration.
Tens of thousands of illegal immigrants reach Italy’s southern shores each year by boat, undertaking dangerous journeys where they risk drowning, hunger and dehydration.
Although the dramatic images of rickety people traffickers’ boats packed with desperate migrants capture the headlines, more migrants enter Italy by air or by land, often staying on illegally after their visas expire.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Critics Fear Kagan Would Use Bench to Promote ‘Gays’
Former dean stocked Harvard with homosexual activist professors
Digging into Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s past at dean of Harvard Law School has revealed a pattern of promoting and praising radical proponents of the homosexual agenda.
[…]
Among those welcomed to teach at Harvard under Kagan’s eye included:
- The openly “gay” Professor William B. Rubenstein, a former litigator for the American Civil Liberties Union, who directed precedent-setting cases aimed at securing homosexual “rights,” and who at Harvard established classes focused on, in his words, “bisexuality, trans, genderf — — … polygamy, S&M [and] the sexuality of minors”;
- Visiting Professor Catherine MacKinnon, a radical feminist known for declaring that “all sex, even consensual sex between a married couple, is an act of violence perpetrated against a woman”;
- Professor Janet Halley, who Rubenstein refers to as “the country’s single most interesting and provocative queer law scholar” and who, he attests, refers to herself as a “gay man.”
[…]
One organization in Massachusetts, however, is criticizing the former dean’s record on appointments, accusing her of “unprecedented activism” in pushing homosexuality and transgenderism as civil rights.
Mass Resistance contends, “Kagan’s record while dean of Harvard Law School demonstrates her agreement with the goals of the radical GLBT [“gay,” lesbian, bisexual and transgender] movement and her solidarity with those activists.”
“Kagan’s celebration and active promotion of the radical homosexualist and transgender worldview has profound implications,” the group argues. “As a Supreme Court Justice, she could be expected to overturn traditional law and understandings of family, marriage, military order and even our God-given sex (what transgender radicals call “gender identity or expression”). She is a most dangerous nominee who must be opposed by all who care about religious freedom, the preservation of marriage and traditional values.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Governments Still Promote Climate Fears Despite Contradictory Advice From Thousands of Experts
According to climate activists, only a handful of unqualified naysayers dispute the CO2/dangerous global warming hypothesis. “On one hand, you have the entire scientific community and on the other you have a handful of people, half of them crackpots”, said Lord Robert May, former president of the Royal Society.
But Lord May is completely mistaken. Not only is there no known broad agreement in the “entire scientific community” about the causes of climate change (and it only matters what climate experts think, not all scientists), but literally thousands of scientifically qualified individuals have endorsed open letters and other declarations opposing, either directly or indirectly, the CO2/dangerous global warming hypothesis.
Here are 14 of them (all linked to the documents and endorser lists):
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Serial Killers and Politicians Share Traits
Psychopathy is a personality disorder manifested in people who use a mixture of charm, manipulation, intimidation, and occasionally violence to control others, in order to satisfy their own selfish needs. Although the concept of psychopathy has been known for centuries, the FBI leads the world in the research effort to develop a series of assessment tools, to evaluate the personality traits and behaviors attributable to psychopaths.
Interpersonal traits include glibness, superficial charm, a grandiose sense of self-worth, pathological lying, and the manipulation of others. The affective traits include a lack of remorse and/or guilt, shallow affect, a lack of empathy, and failure to accept responsibility. The lifestyle behaviors include stimulation-seeking behavior, impulsivity, irresponsibility, parasitic orientation, and a lack of realistic life goals.
Research has demonstrated that in those criminals who are psychopathic, scores vary, ranging from a high degree of psychopathy to some measure of psychopathy. However, not all violent offenders are psychopaths and not all psychopaths are violent offenders. If violent offenders are psychopathic, they are able to assault, rape, and murder without concern for legal, moral, or social consequences. This allows them to do what they want, whenever they want. Ironically, these same traits exist in men and women who are drawn to high-profile and powerful positions in society including political officeholders.
The relationship between psychopathy and serial killers is particularly interesting. All psychopaths do not become serial murderers. Rather, serial murderers may possess some or many of the traits consistent with psychopathy. Psychopaths who commit serial murder do not value human life and are extremely callous in their interactions with their victims. This is particularly evident in sexually motivated serial killers who repeatedly target, stalk, assault, and kill without a sense of remorse. However, psychopathy alone does not explain the motivations of a serial killer.
What doesn’t go unnoticed is the fact that some of the character traits exhibited by serial killers or criminals may be observed in many within the political arena. While not exhibiting physical violence, many political leaders display varying degrees of anger, feigned outrage and other behaviors. They also lack what most consider a “shame” mechanism. Quite simply, most serial killers and many professional politicians must mimic what they believe, are appropriate responses to situations they face such as sadness, empathy, sympathy, and other human responses to outside stimuli…
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
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