Italy: ISTAT Warns of Two Million Households in Poverty — Blue-Collar Workers Losing Ground
In 2009, 10.8% of families resident in Italy were living in relative poverty
MILAN — During 2009, 2.657 million families in Italy were living in relative poverty. This represents 10.8% of resident households, or 7.81 million individuals, or 13.1% of the entire population. The figures are practically unchanged from 2008, since the impact of the economic crisis has been buffered by unemployment and family benefits, but the situation is worsening among blue-collar workers and in the south. Conditions for poor families in southern Italy are deteriorating and absolute poverty, which indicates the poorest of the poor, is on the rise among the working class.
THREE MILLION IN ABSOLUTE POVERTY — According to the figures published by the national statistics institute ISTAT, in 2009 there were 1,162,000 families, or 4.7% of the total, in absolute poverty for a total of 3.074 million indigent Italians, or 5.2% of the entire population. Levels of relative and absolute poverty were substantially stable in comparison with 2008, both nationally and in the various categories. The threshold of relative poverty for a two-person household is equal to average monthly expenditure per person, which in 2009 was €983.01, a drop of 1.7% with respect to 2008’s threshold. The incidence of absolute poverty is calculated on the basis of a poverty threshold corresponding to the minimum monthly expenditure necessary to purchase the basket of goods and services which are considered essential for a family to be able enjoy a barely acceptable quality of life in the Italian context.
STRUGGLING SOUTH — The south of Italy confirmed the high incidence of poverty recorded in 2008 (22.7% relative poverty; 7.7% absolute poverty). The intensity of absolute poverty rose from 17.3% to 18.8% because while the number of absolutely poor families is almost exactly the same, their average condition has worsened. The incidence of absolute poverty rose in 2009 over 2008 from 5.9% to 6.9% for blue-collar families but the incidence of relative poverty for the same group rose only in central Italy, from 7.9% to 11.3%. Nationally, the incidence of poverty fell for households headed by a self-employed worker, from 11.2% to 8.7% for relative poverty and from 4.5% to 3% for absolute poverty, with a greater concentration in northern Italy.
English translation by Giles Watson
www.watson.it
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Stress Test; Banks Pass, Five Deposit Banks Fail
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, JULY 23 — Spain’s banks have all passed the ECB’s ‘test stress’, with nine financial institutions and 18 DEPOSITbanks showing that the Bank of Spain has sufficient capital to face an adverse financial situation, although a prolonged crisis would affect the latter more drastically. Less reassuring, however, according to a report by the EFE news agency, is the situation of the DEPOSITbanks. On this front, Spain is hit by five of the total of just seven fail marks given out by the ECB, as the so-far published findings of the watchdog stand.
The failed candidates include Caixa Catalunya, Caixa Tarragona and Caixa Manresa; the other Catalan fusion giving birth to Unnim, represented by Caixa Sabadell, Terrasa and Manlleu; the merger of the two main state DEPOSITbanks of Castille: Caja Duero and Spagna; the Cajasur (in administration) and Banca Civica, made up of Caja Navarra, Caja Burgos and Caja Canarias.
The other two European bodies to have failed the test are Germany’s Hypo Real State and Greece’s ATEBank.
The findings show the levels of capital the failed financial institutes would need to strengthen themselves should the situation worsen: Caixa Catalunya and partner banks would need 1.032 billion; the fusion of Caja Duero and Caja Espana, 127 million; Banca Civica, 406 million; Unnima, 270 million and Cajasur 208 million.
In all, the failed Spanish DEPOSITbanks would require 2.043 billion euros. As for the banks, the nine tested Spanish institutions passed the solvency test. The hypothetical adverse situation was of a profit loss totalling 207.473 million euros, or 7.3% of their overall portfolios.
Spain is the only European country to have examined 95% of its financial system according to these criteria. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Bank Official Says Economy Will be ‘Anaemic’ For Five Years
One of the Bank of England’s most senior officials has delivered a dire economic prediction of low growth, soaring unemployment and high inflation.
Spencer Dale, the Bank’s chief economist, spoke out as some of Britain’s biggest companies sounded the alarm that consumer confidence is falling.
Stoking the prospect of a double-dip recession, he warned yesterday that demand in the economy would be ‘incredibly anaemic’ for up to ‘five years’ and that the economy would not return to normal ‘for an awfully long time’.
Mr Dale said Chancellor George Osborne’s VAT hike in the Budget, which kicks in next January, will keep inflation higher for longer.
He predicted it will not return to the Government’s target of 2 per cent before the end of next year — 12 months later than had been forecast.
The Bank grandee gave the Chancellor credit for staving off a major debt crisis with his Budget cuts — a move that has reassured city investors he is serious about tackling the deficit.
But he warned that the prognosis for other parts of the economy had taken a nosedive.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Audio: GOP Attack Plan: ‘Starve Beast’ Of Obamacare
Bachmann calls for subpoenas, hearings, defunding of big-government ‘nonsense’
One GOP lawmaker has already formulated a 2011 plan of attack should Republicans take control of the U.S. House of Representatives: Serve subpoenas, conduct exhaustive hearings and slash funding to “starve the beast” of the Obama administration’s big-government programs.
“Oh, I think that’s all we should do,” Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., told the GOP Youth Convention in Washington, D.C., today. “I think that all we should do is issue subpoenas and have one hearing after another and expose all the nonsense that is going on.”
She added, “And it’s very important when we come back that we have constitutional conservative leadership because the American people’s patience is about this big, so we have to make sure that we do what the people want us to do.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Facebook Forced to Apologise to Sarah Palin it Deletes Note She Posted Slamming Plans for Ground Zero Mosque
Social networking site Facebook has apologised after a post by U.S. Republican politician Sarah Palin was deleted.
Facebook admitted that ‘note’ by Palin — voicing her opposition to the building of a mosque near the World Trade Center site in New York — had been deleted by an automated system.
Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said in the statement: ‘The note in question did not violate our content standards but was removed by an automated system. We’re always working to improve our processes and we apologise for any inconvenience this caused.’
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Lt. Col. West ‘Blacklisted’ From Charity Gala
Claims Democrat challenger’s wife ‘prodded’ sponsors to complain
Allen West, a retired U.S. Army officer and GOP candidate for Congress in Florida, claims he was disinvited from a high-profile charity fundraiser after his Democratic rival’s wife “prodded” donors to protest and “blackmail” the organization.
West, the GOP candidate for Congress in Florida’s 22nd District, and his wife, Angela, had accepted an invitation from the South Florida Cystic Fibrosis Foundation to be honored as South Florida Finest Couple on Sept. 24. They agreed to raise $10,000 for the foundation in accepting the nomination.
However, West said he received a phone call from the executive director of the foundation requesting that he and his wife withdraw from the affair.
“She informed me that she has received complaints from certain individuals who have threatened to withdraw their support to the Cystic Fibrosis gala event if Angela and I are honored,” West wrote in a July 19 letter to event Chairman William Lewis posted on Pamela Geller’s Atlas Shrugs blog. “She humbly asked if I would agree to step down and allow the event to proceed and not disrupt the support to the foundation. These individuals have called and complained to the National Foundation decrying ‘politicizing’ of the event.”
West said he was told the foundation could lose as much as $200,000 if it kept him on the list. His name has been removed from the foundation’s list of honorees. In his letter, he demanded a formal letter of apology to his wife.
West also said he has evidence that the person behind the complaints to the foundation was the wife of his Democratic challenger, Rep. Ron Klein.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Making Americans Sick
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius promised, “The U.S. government plans to increase funding to battle obesity and views healthcare reform as an opportunity to encourage better eating habits.” Rather than spending money and attacking the food industry, the secretary and others concerned with the health of Americans ought to go after the U.S. Congress. Let’s look at it.
According to a study by researchers at the University of California, Davis, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation (May 2009), widespread use of fructose may be directly responsible for some of the ongoing increase in rates of childhood diabetes and obesity. Consuming fructose-sweetened, not glucose-sweetened, beverages increases abdominal fat and decreases insulin sensitivity in overweight/obese people. The participants in the study who consumed fructose-sweetened food showed an increase of fat cells around major organs including their hearts and livers, and also underwent metabolic changes that are precursors to heart disease and diabetes.
Other studies have linked diets rich in high-fructose corn syrup to elevated risks of high triglycerides (a type of blood fat), fat buildup in the liver and insulin resistance, notes Dr. Gerald Shulman and his colleagues at Yale University School of Medicine.
“This is the first evidence we have that fructose increases diabetes and heart disease independently from causing simple weight gain,” said Kimber Stanhope, a molecular biologist who led the UC Davis study, adding, “We didn’t see any of these changes in the people eating glucose.”
You say, “Williams, glucose, fructose — what’s the fuss?” Glucose is the sugar sold in 5- or 10-pound bags at your supermarket that Americans have used as a sweetener throughout most of our history. Fructose is a sweetener that has more recently come into heavy use by beverage manufacturers and food processors. You ask, “How come all the fructose use now?”
Enter the U.S. Congress. The Fanjul family of Palm Beach, Fla., a politically connected family, has given more than $1.8 million to both Democratic and Republican parties over the years. They and others in the sugar industry give millions to congressmen to keep high tariffs on foreign sugar so the U.S. sugar industry can charge us higher prices. According to one study, the Fanjul family alone earns about $65 million a year from congressional protectionism.
Chairman Emeritus of Archer Daniels Midland Company, Dwayne Andreas, has given politicians millions of dollars to help him enrich ADM at our expense. For that money, congressmen vote to restrict sugar imports that in turn drive up sugar prices. Higher sugar prices benefit ADM, who produces corn syrup (fructose), which is a sugar substitute. When sugar prices are high, sugar users (soda, candy and food processors) turn to corn syrup as a cheaper substitute sweetener. Early on, some sugar-using companies found out they could import products like ice tea, distill out its sugar content and still beat the high prices caused by Congress’ protectionist sugar policy, but to do so was eventually made illegal.
Congress’ sugar policy not only reduces the health of American people, it reduces American jobs as well. Chicago used to be America’s candy manufacturing capitol. In 1970, employment by Chicago’s candy manufacturers totaled 15,000 and now it’s 8,000 and falling. Brach’s used to employ about 2,300 people; now most of its jobs are in Mexico. Ferrara Pan Candy has also moved much of its production to Mexico. Yes, wages are lower in Mexico, but wages aren’t the only factor in candy manufacturers’ flight from America. Sugar is a major cost and in Mexico, they pay one-third to one-half what they pay in the U.S. Life Savers, which for 90 years was manufactured in America, has moved to Canada, where wages are comparable to ours, but their yearly sugar cost is $10 million less.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mother Calls 911, Says She Strangled Children Because They Were Autistic
[Another cultural enrichment case. File under “Self-Chlorinating Gene Pool” — Z]
IRVING, TX — A mother accused of strangling her two young children told a 911 operator she killed them because they were autistic and she wanted “normal kids.”
Irving police released the 911 recording after Saiqa Akhter was charged with one count of capital murder in the strangling of her 5-year-old son, Zain Akhter, at the family’s apartment Monday night.
Police spokesman David Tull said another capital murder charge is pending in the slaying of her 2-year-old daughter, Faryaal Akhter, who died Tuesday night.
Police say the mother called 911 after attacking the children. In the recording, the woman identifies herself as Saiqa Akhter and repeatedly tells the operator she killed her two children, describing how she first tried to poison them, then later strangled them with some type of wire.
At one point during the recording, the woman hangs up and the dispatcher calls her back.
“I killed them. I killed both of them,” she told the operator.
Later, she explained that both children were lying motionless on the bed in the master bedroom.
“They are not doing anything. They are just blue and they are not taking any breaths and … their heart is not beating,” she said.
She told the operator she initially tried to poison the children with bathroom cleaner but they refused to drink it.
When that didn’t work, “I used a wire on their necks,” she said.
When the operator asked the woman why she attacked her children, she said, “They’re both not normal, not normal. They’re autistic. Both are autistic.” Pressed further, she said, “I don’t want my children to be like that. …. I want normal kids.”
At one point, water can be heard running in the background and the dispatcher asks what the woman is doing. She told the operator she was trying to wash the smell of cleaner off of her hands. The dispatcher then told the woman to go sit on a couch in the living room and wait for police.
At the end of the recording, police can be heard arriving at the home.
If convicted of capital murder, Akhter could face the death penalty, though prosecutors have not said if they will seek that punishment. Otherwise, she could face life in prison without parole.
The children’s father, Rashid Akhter, emigrated from Pakistan in the late 1990s, the newspaper reported. He married Saiqa, who also is from Pakistan, several years later, it said. [emphasis added]
| — Hat tip: Zenster | [Return to headlines] |
Newspaper Chain’s New Business Plan: Copyright Suits
By David Kravets
Steve Gibson has a plan to save the media world’s financial crisis — and it’s not the iPad.
Borrowing a page from patent trolls, the CEO of fledgling Las Vegas-based Righthaven has begun buying out the copyrights to newspaper content for the sole purpose of suing blogs and websites that re-post those articles without permission. And he says he’s making money.
“We believe it’s the best solution out there,” Gibson says. “Media companies’ assets are very much their copyrights. These companies need to understand and appreciate that those assets have value more than merely the present advertising revenues.”
Righthaven CEO Steve Gibson is embarking on a copyright trolling litigation camapaign
Gibson’s vision is to monetize news content on the backend, by scouring the internet for infringing copies of his client’s articles, then suing and relying on the harsh penalties in the Copyright Act — up to $150,000 for a single infringement — to compel quick settlements. Since Righthaven’s formation in March, the company has filed at least 80 federal lawsuits against website operators and individual bloggers who’ve re-posted articles from the Las Vegas Review-Journal, his first client.
Now he’s talking expansion. The Review-Journal’s publisher, Stephens Media in Las Vegas, runs over 70 other newspapers in nine states, and Gibson says he already has an agreement to expand his practice to cover those properties. (Stephens Media declined comment, and referred inquiries to Gibson.) Hundreds of lawsuits, he says, are already in the works by year’s end. “We perceive there to be millions, if not billions, of infringements out there,” he says.
Righthaven’s lawsuits come on the heels of similar campaigns targeting music and movie infringers. The Recording Industry Association of America sued about 20,000 thousand file sharers over five years, before recently winding down its campaign. And a coalition of independent film producers called the U.S. Copyright Group was formed this year, already unleashing as many as 20,000 federal lawsuits against BitTorrent users accused of unlawfully sharing movies.
The RIAA’s lawsuits weren’t a money maker, though — the record labels spent $64 million in legal costs, and recovered only $1.3 million in damages and settlements. The independent film producers say they nonetheless expect to turn a profit from their lawsuits…
| — Hat tip: Takuan Seiyo | [Return to headlines] |
Pregnant British Mother Guilty of U.S. Terror Charges After Drawing Up Hit List of ‘Enemies of Islam’
A pregnant British mother has been convicted in the U.S. of lying to the FBI about drawing up a hit-list of possible terrorist targets.
The intelligence agency alleged that Nadia Rockwood, 36, along with her husband, compiled a list of 15 Americans who they believed were enemies of Islam.
The couple pleaded guilty to charges of lying to investigators and making false statements about domestic terrorism when they appeared in court in Anchorage, Alaska.
Under a plea bargain deal, Muslim convert Paul Rockwood, 35, who worked for the U.S. Weather Service, will get eight years behind bars, the maximum allowed.
His wife will be allowed to come back to the UK to serve five years of probation.
She was reportedly planning to return to live near her mother in England when the couple were arrested.
The alleged targets were not named in court, but none of them lived in Alaska.
Nadia, who is five months pregnant and has a four-year-old son, was brought up as a strict Roman Catholic in Harrow, North London and attended the Italia Conti performing arts school, where she studied ballet and jazz.
She worked as a professional dancer before moving to Japan to work as a bridal model, where she met Paul, who was then with the U.S. Navy.
The relationship caused furious arguments back home with her and her parents, Samuel and Piri Hawes. Last night they revealed that Paul had converted to Islam after 9/11 in order to try to control a serious drink problem.
Mr Hawes, a 67-year-old engineer, said he had spent years arguing with Paul about religion and had received threatening emails recently from his son-in-law after a row about Islam.
‘I’m against any form of terrorism, especially in the name of religion,’ he said.
‘I know my daughter. We are very close. She is not in any way a terrorist. Paul has strong views but he loves America.
‘He is a bit of a prat but I can’t believe he would have got himself involved in anything like this.’
Mrs Hawes, a 66-year-old psychotherapist, said her daughter, is struggling to cope while in custody and insisted she is innocent.
‘Doctors have put her on extra medication to try to make sure the baby stays healthy. And she has her boy, Zaid — what will happen with him?’
The case raised questions in the U.S. last night because the Rockwoods were not held in custody before appearing in court on Wednesday.
Prosecutors alleged that Paul Rockwood, also known as ‘Bilal’, converted to Islam a decade ago and began studying the teachings of American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who has professed hatred for the U.S. and supports acts of terrorism.
‘After his conversion, and while residing in Virginia, Rockwood became a strict adherent to the violent Jihad-promoting ideology of al-Awlaki,’ documents said.
‘This included a personal conviction that it was his religious responsibility to exact revenge by death on anyone who desecrated Islam.’
The FBI claimed Rockwood began researching and selecting possible targets for future execution by visiting websites.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Stakelbeck on Christians United for Israel Summit in DC
Christians United for Israel (CUFI) just wrapped up its annual summit in Washington, D.C.
I was honored to speak at the event and also covered it for CBN News. You can watch my report on the summit at the link above.
| [Return to headlines] |
Why Google Loves Democrats So Much
Writing for Politico on Friday, Kim Hart provides some details on how the company is becoming much more politicized than ever before:
Google boss Eric Schmidt is one of the nation’s most politically active business leaders — a man who uses the cachet of the company he leads, as well as his own charisma, to build strategic alliances in the Obama administration and on Capitol Hill.
Schmidt, 55, grew up in Washington and returns frequently to visit his mother, who still lives in Northern Virginia. Those trips often double as chances to meet with President Barack Obama, chat with staffers at the Federal Communications Commission and meet with top lawmakers.
[…]
After donating just $250 in the year 2000, Google’s employees have been handing out cash hand over fist, almost exclusively to Democrats. In the 2008 election cycle, Schmidt campaigned actively for candidate Barack Obama from very early in primaries. Schmidt and his Google colleagues donated over $800,000 to Obama’s war chest, making the company one of his top-five contributors.
The Democratic giving bias at Google has continued in the 2010 cycle. This year according to data gathered from the website OpenSecrets.org, Google employees have donated over $270,000 to Democrats and liberal campaign groups. They’ve given just $45,000 to Republicans and conservative groups.
This dedication to helping Democrats and President Obama in particular has given Google employees and contractors extraordinarily good insider connections, cause for concern that the company, like fellow Democratic-booster General Electric, is using public policy to boost its bottom line.
[…]
Well aware of its long record of favoring Democrats over Republicans and liberals over conservatives (something documented as early as 2005 by USA Today), Google insists that Schmidt and his employees are acting purely in their private capacities with their political activities.
That’s almost certainly true when speaking of Google employees—people who have no say in the highest-level operations of the company—but strains the bounds of credulity to imagine that Schmidt and other top executives to hermetically seal the knowledge acquired from work as top Obama advisers and strategists away from their work at the top of the corporate food chain.
The personal/business separation argument falls apart also when you look at Google’s actions rather than its words, especially on the topic of so-called “network neutrality,” a subject very dear to Google. It’s currently spending tens of millions of dollars trying to make it a crime for cable and cellphone companies to charge lower prices to people who use less data and higher prices to people who use more.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Wis. Candidate Can’t Use Controversial Description
MADISON, Wis. — A legislative candidate from Wisconsin can’t use a profane, racially charged phrase to describe herself on the ballot, an election oversight board decided Wednesday.
Ieshuh Griffin, an independent running for a downtown Milwaukee seat in the state Assembly, wants to use the phrase, “NOT the ‘whiteman’s b — — .’“
But the state’s Government Accountability Board voted to bar that wording, agreeing with a staff recommendation that it is pejorative and therefore not allowed.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
CSIS Can’t Ensure They Aren’t Using Evidence Obtained by Torture: Court
Federal Court sides with man accused of terrorist links, citing ‘reasonable grounds’ to believe information was obtained through torture
Canada’s national security agency does not have an “effective mechanism” for ensuring it does not rely on evidence obtained by torture, the Federal Court has found.
The court sided with a man accused of terrorist links, who Ottawa is trying to deport, in finding there are “reasonable grounds” to believe some of the information against him was obtained through torture and is therefore inadmissible.
Mohamed Mahjoub was arrested in 2000 and held on a national security certificate, accused of links to an Egyptian Islamic terrorist organization.
In a motion in his case, he argued that the policy of CSIS to “not knowingly” rely on evidence from torture doesn’t actually prevent it. The court agreed.
“In my view, these policies and practices do not provide for an effective mechanism to ensure that such information is actually excluded from the evidence,” writes Justice Edmond Blanchard.
“It is also clear from the record that the service does not have the means to independently investigate whether the information is obtained from torture.”
The court has ordered the government to review its information against Mr. Mahjoub and identify sources.
Mr. Mahjoub, married with three children, was initially released from prison under conditions amounting to house arrest in 2007. However, he asked to return to prison after the family supervising him said they could no longer deal with the onerous conditions imposed by the court.
He was ordered freed again in November 2009 after a months-long hunger strike — during which he lost more than 22 kilograms — to protest the conditions in the prison. Mr. Mahjoub was allowed to leave the holding centre in eastern Ontario as long as he wears a monitoring bracelet and honours other restrictions.
National security certificates are rarely used immigration tools for deporting non-Canadians considered a risk to the country.
| — Hat tip: SF | [Return to headlines] |
Burqa, The Cross We Must Bear
?The ban on the burqa in Belgium and France, now spreading to Spain, the UK, and even to universities in Egypt and Syria, points up the hypocrisy and double standards of Western Christian culture, writes German philosopher Andrea Roedig. If the burqa is an instrument of oppression, isn’t the cross we worship really a morbid fascination with torture?
Andrea Roedig
Just for the sake of argument: if Jesus were wearing a burqa, could he still be hung up on the walls of classrooms and public offices? The debate about the full-body veil is flaring up this year in all sorts of different places. It began with Belgian and French bills, now passed into law, to ban the burqa and niqab in the public domain, followed by similar proposals in Spain and Britain. The news that Syria now prohibits the wearing of face-veils at university fits and yet doesn’t fit into the picture: one has to distinguish between the arguments that apply to the Arab world and those of the European debate.?
Here in Europe, the discussion of the burqa ban invariably and automatically revolves around the Islamic challenge to Christian culture, where a double standard is often applied. Proposals to outlaw full-body veils do not meet with a storm of enthusiasm, to be sure, but with comprehension. After all, that much-mooted “mobile prison”, which is not required in such radical form by the Koran, is less the expression of a religious obligation than a horrible tool of patriarchal control, in which women are degraded to insects, as one woman journalist puts it. To Western sensibilities, the burqa seems like a Kafkaesque metamorphosis.?
The Cross is a nifty symbol?
But the morbid charm of the Christian cross, in comparison, isn’t all that harmless either. What does it really mean for a civilisation to venerate an instrument of torture as its emblem? Viewed with sufficient detachment, the exhibitionistic fetishism of suffering in the pictorial tradition of Western Christianity has got to look just as outlandish as the absurd mandatory veiling of women in some Islamic countries. If we hadn’t got so very used to them, all those crucified bodies dangling about in some areas of the Western world, writhing in agony and replete with painted blood-trickling wounds, could well be regarded as a form of indecent exposure.?
The cross, with or without Jesus, is a nifty symbol: it shows death and simultaneously signifies the triumph over death. This instrument of torture is supposed to be a sign of hope, of course, because the crucified Christ was resurrected. But that’s tricky because it’s doubtful whether pictures can really express the opposite of what they show.?
Naked Jesus versus muffled-up woman ?
It is understandable that Western culture should summon up more tolerance towards its own symbols than towards those of its southeastern neighbours. Nonetheless, it should be clear that its symbols are no more innocuous and no less cruel. The West shouldn’t go overboard in its outrage at Islamic misogyny either: after all, it still puts up with the occupational ban on women priests in one of its main churches, and many a nun’s habit is not such a far cry from the burqa.
?In the clash over permissible symbols — naked Jesus versus muffled-up woman — Christianity’s explicit pictorial tradition comes up against Islam’s traditional ban on images. That the West should find the veil so sinister and inhumane is partly owing to its culture of exhibition, which equates freedom with disclosure, whether it be the disclosure of sins, of the body, or of images of God. Islam, however, like Judaism, expresses itself not in images, but in the observance of laws.?
Need to ponder our own cultural biases ?
In affective terms, imposing a radical ban on the burqa in the public domain, but no such ban on the cross, replicates an old cultural struggle over faith, law and the commandment “Thou shalt not make thee any graven image” — which Christian culture never observed anyway. The Belgian and French burqa ban ends up looking like an attempt to ban the ban on images. Why do that, what is there to be so afraid of??In debating the burqa, we need to ponder our own cultural biases and cruelties as well, especially in Europe. That doesn’t mean to make light of the full-body veil. It is an instrument of oppression. But should it therefore be prohibited by the state??
A strictly secular purge of the public domain will create areas of freedom, but at the same time it impoverishes and imposes a form of secularistic paternalism on society. It might be better to take a more even-handed stance, as in the German constitution, for instance, which combines the principle of the neutrality of the state with the protection of the free practice of religion. That leads to a not entirely clear-cut separation of church and state, true enough, but it reflects the complexity of the whole issue of religion and tolerates not only the cross, but also the headscarf/burqa. The principle of “neutrality through plurality” puts its faith in enlightened citizens and their creative resilience. We needn’t expect more than that for Europe.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Corruption: Romania in the Dock, Still
Mired in internal debates regarding the future of its anti-corruption efforts, Bucharest has been severely criticised by the European Union. “Are the Romanians treated worse than the Bulgarians, their delinquent neighbours?” the local press wonders.
In its July 20 report on the state of justice in Romania and Bulgaria, the European Commission lauded the efforts of Bulgaria, while pointing a finger at Bucharest’s lack of progress. In particular, Brussels has accused the Romanian senate of “mutilating the law concerning the National Agency for Integrity (ANI)”. Last June the agency, which had been charged with verifying the tax declarations of Romanian dignitaries and bringing those not in accordance to trial, saw its powers greatly reduced.
No act in this Romanian soap opera has earned the good graces of the Commission: neither the fact that the Constitutional Court had ruled the law establishing the ANI contrary to the Constitution, nor the June vote relegating the ANI to puppet status. Even more alarming: several members and ex-members of the Romanian parliament accused of corruption have yet to be tried, while others are enjoying seemingly endless trials.
Where is the true seat of corruption in Romania?
“The ANI is not an institution that is found in most other member states. Nevertheless, the curtailing of its powers has met with a severe reaction on the part of the Commission,” notes Adevarul. “If other States have less corruption without an ANI, then why make such a big deal out of it?”
While the Constitutional Court has again been called upon to rule on the ANI legislation, this time at the behest of President Traian Basescu, the daily notes that “if someone whose papers are in order steals, then it is obviously difficult to find a trace of corruption.” Where is the true seat of corruption in Romania?” asks Adevarul. “It is in the special nature of corruption, because in the last 20 years, it has developed in a system that has made it into a legal phenomenon!”
Lagging behind Bulgaria
However, reports Gândul, “Traian Basescu has become unhinged by the comments that Romania has not respected its commitments to the European Union.” “Such a conclusion is inadmissible,” affirmed the president to the paper. To demonstrate his good faith, Basescu has decided to convene Parliament on 1 August to adopt a new law on the ANI that answers the European Commission’s complaints. At the same time, notes Gândul, Basescu has promised a counter-report which will be sent to all member states. “I have already informed president Barroso,” confirmed the Romanian president, who also wondered if the Commission “intends to interfere with the problem of Schengen Agreement compliance (applicable for Romania in 2011)”, since how could the “enlarging the scope of this report to domains such as public acquisitions” be seen as anything else?
“So once again Romania is lagging behind Bulgaria”, concludes Jurnalul national. “The tone of remarks made in the July 20 report couldn’t be more different toward these two countries, observes the daily. “Even on the question of organised crime, one of Sofia’s greatest problems, the Commission has mentioned significant strides, in spite of the fact that the trials are proceeding at a snail’s pace!”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Boys Growing Up in Pious Muslim Families Are More Likely to be Violent
A new German study shows that boys growing up in pious Muslim families are more likely to be violent. The study, which involved intensive questioning of 45,000 teenagers from 61 towns and regions across the country, was conducted by Christian Pfeiffer of the criminal research institute of Lower Saxony.
Pfeiffer was quick to assure the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper that he was not a racist or ‘Islamophobe’ and that, in fact, he had been dismayed by the results of the survey.
Pfeiffer’s work took into account the level of education and standard of living in the families of the children — aged between 14 and 16 — who were questioned. He also asked them how religious they considered themselves, and how integrated they felt in Germany.
Pfeiffer said that even when other social factors were taken into account, there remained a significant correlation between religiosity and readiness to use violence. There were some positive correlations too he said, noting that young religious Muslims were much less likely than their non-Muslim counterparts to drink alcohol — or to steal from shops. The increased likelihood to use violence was restricted to Muslim boys, Pfeiffer said — Muslim girls were only as likely to be violent as non-Muslim girls.
This led him to conclude that there was not a direct link between Islamic belief and violence — but an indirect one. He pointed to Christian teachings which justified domestic violence and male dominance of society for a long time.
His researchers asked the teenagers a range of questions about their ideas of manliness, for example whether they thought a man was justified in hitting his wife if she had been unfaithful. They also asked about what media and computer game violence they were exposed to, as well as whether their friends were involved in crime or violence.
The results showed that Muslim boys from immigrant families were more than twice as likely to agree with macho statements than boys from Christian immigrant families. The rate was highest among those considered as very religious, Pfeiffer said. They were also more likely to be using violent computer games and have criminal friends.
Added to that, the more religious Muslim boys felt the least integrated into German society, with only 14.5 percent of the very religious Turkish boys (the largest group of Muslims in the study) saying they felt German, although 88.5 percent had been born there.
Pfeiffer said he thought the responsibility for the macho culture lay with Imams in Germany, who he said usually come from abroad and often cannot speak German or have much understanding of the culture. “We have to prevent attempts at integration from being destroyed by Imams who preach Turkish provincial stories and a reactionary male image,” said Pfeiffer. He concluded that Germans should reconsider how they treat Muslims, noting that there had been a damaging loss of trust since the September 11 attacks in 2001.
This seems such an important issue that there should be a similar study carried out here. Sadly, the previous Government lacked the courage to commission one. Will the new Government be more inclined to do so?
| — Hat tip: TV | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Vandals Attack ‘Veil Martyr’ Memorial
Vandals have attacked an art project erected in honour of a pregnant Egyptian woman who was murdered in a German court room, organisers said Friday.
The Citizen.Courage group, which sponsored the display in the eastern city of Dresden, said that a few knife-shaped columns used in the open-air show had been knocked over several times and signs explaining the project were stolen.
“Citizen.Courage assumes this was a malicious, politically motivated attempt to destroy the project,” group chairman Christian Demuth said in statement.
“To warn against everyday racism, we will not restore the destroyed installations. But we will continue the project.”
A police spokeswoman said authorities had opened an investigation.
During a trial last July, a Russian-born defendant suddenly attacked Sherbini — who was Muslim and wore a headscarf — plunging an 18 centimetre kitchen knife at least 16 times into her while she was three-months pregnant with her second child.
Her son, Mustafa, three years old at the time, watched her bleed to death at the courtroom.
Sherbini’s husband, Egyptian geneticist Elwy Okaz, rushed to her aid but was also stabbed repeatedly and then shot in the leg by a police officer confused about who was attacking whom.
The 28-year-old assailant, who was sentenced to life in prison, attacked her out of revenge after she pressed charges against him for calling her a “terrorist”, “Islamist” and “whore” during a dispute over a playground swing.
The killing, and the initially muted reaction of Germany’s politicians and media, sparked outrage in Sherbini’s home country, as well as in the wider Muslim world.
Many newspapers dubbed her the “veil martyr” after her headscarf.
The “18 Stabs” installation, unveiled on the first anniversary of Sherbini’s death on July 1, featured 18 knife-shaped concrete pillars erected throughout the city with signs condemning racism and xenophobic violence.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Fiat Returns to Profit on Tractors and Trucks
Turin, 21 July (AKI) — Fiat, Italy’s largest carmaker, on Wednesday said it earned 90 million euros during the second quarter because of truck and tractor sales. It was the Turin-based company’s first profit in three quarters, Fiat said in a written earnings statement. The company lost 168 million euros during the second quarter last year.
Fiat also said its board gave the green light for the spinoff of its truckmaking and agricultural businesses before the end of the year. CNH Global NV, Iveco and the some industrial and marine units will become part of the newly created Fiat Industrial.
Sales between the beginning of April and the end of June gained 13 percent to 14.8 billion euros. Trucks sales rose 18 percent, while revenue from construction and agricultural equipment climbed 16 percent. Auto sales rose 6.7 percent.
Fiat forecast better performance in all of its units except the auto business during the second six months of the year. Demand for autos is still affected by the end of government incentives, the company said.
“The group expects all of its sectors to significantly improve performance over the prior year in the second semester, with the exception of the automobiles business,” Fiat said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Religious Provocation or a Woman’s Right?
Europe’s Fear of the Burqa
The French are close to passing an outright ban of the burqa. Spain and Italy may soon follow suit. But is legislating prohibitions on the wearing of the veil the right way for Europe to deal with the cultural conflict?
One of the first burqa offenses in Europe was reported in the northern Italian city of Novara. It was committed by Amel Marmouri, 26, an immigrant from Tunisia. Marmouri had no previous police record — at least not until that spring day two months ago, when she entered the post office dressed in a full-length coat, with her face hidden behind a black scarf, leaving only a narrow slit for her eyes.
As she left the post office, she was stopped by members of the Carabinieri, Italy’s national police force. But she refused to reveal her face, and was issued a warning: A €500 ($645) fine for wearing a full-body veil in public. Marmouri’s husband responded by saying that his wife would no longer leave the house in the future.
Depending on one’s interpretation, Marmouri is either a Muslim whose detainment in a “mobile prison” has been brought to an end, or she is a victim of European burqa phobia. She has either been protected from cultural oppression for her own good — or one of her basic rights has been violated, namely the freedom to exercise her religion.
Burqa-Free Zones in Italy
One thing is clear though. Marmouri violated a clause in Italy’s 1975 anti-terror legislation that prohibits men and women from covering their faces in public. Last January, the mayor of Novara introduced a local ban on the burqa, based on this legislation. The mayor, a member of the conservative Lega Nord, or Northern League, political party, said this was “the only way to stop behaviour that makes the already difficult process of integration even harder.”
There are similar bans in the areas of Como, Bergamo, Montegrotto near Parma and Fermignano. Soon all of Italy could become a burqa-free zone, although no one has counted just how many women would be affected by a burqa ban. Former model Mara Carfagna, now the federal minister for equal opportunity, has announced that Italy will soon follow France in introducing a national ban on the burqa and the niqab. Draft legislation has already been prepared.
The underlying sense of suspicion that many in Europe feel towards Islam is exacerbated by a handkerchief-sized piece of cloth. Made of silk, synthetic material or cotton, it is called a niqab and worn primarily in the Arab Gulf states. It covers the head and is often used in combination with other full length garments. Politicians, however, prefer to focus on the burqa, a full-length garment that conceals the wearer completely, including the face which is behind a net mesh. It is widely seen as the symbol of women’s oppression under the Taliban.
Rejecting Western Values?
Many believe that those who hide their faces are rejecting Western values along with integration and participation in the society in which they live. And, worst of all, those who hide their faces reject Europe’s most precious birthright: Respect for the individual.
Life in the French Republic “is carried out with a bare face:” That is French Justice Minister Michele Alliot-Marie’s new battle cry. And it is supported by an unusual cross-border alliance of feminists, leftists and conservatives who fear for the Continent’s Christian identity. They see tolerating the full-body veil as another step towards surrender to fundamentalist Islam.
According to a survey by the Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project, based in Washington, a clear majority of Germans, French, Spanish and British all support a ban. Most Americans however would reject such a ban.
Yet do the majority of citizens have the inherent right to see the faces of their fellow citizens? Are people obliged to participate in society? Is a ban really necessary for security reasons — or do current bans on covering the face fulfill these requirements?
Artificial Debate
These are questions worth debating. Instead, though, politicians are pursuing an odd and artificial debate that revolves around issues like the risk of highway accidents caused by veiled motorists and health problems arising from an inadequate supply of oxygen. But it all boils down to one thing: A quick answer to people’s understandable fear of the fundamentalism on their own doorsteps.
Last Tuesday, the French National Assembly, the lower house of French parliament, approved a bill whose official name is “the bill to forbid concealing one’s face in public.” This draft legislation does not contain the words niqab, hijab or burqa, but it clearly targets the less than 2,000 Muslim women in France who wear full veils. The bill was passed with only one dissenting vote, even though the country’s Council of State, which gives the executive branch legal advice and acts as an administrative court of last resort, had previously expressed reservations concerning the constitutionality of a total ban.
In the future, anyone entering a supermarket wearing a burqa could be fined €150 ($190) and forced to take a French citizenship course. Any man caught forcing a woman to wear a veil could be subjected to a fine of €30,000 and sentenced to one year in prison.
Provocative Expression
The law must still be approved by France’s upper house of parliament, the Senate and reviewed by the Constitutional Council, the country’s highest constitutional authority whose duty is to ensure that principles of the French constitution are upheld. This would be followed by a six-month transitional period which would be used to try to convince burqa wearers to voluntarily embrace the open-faced approach.
Whether this is for fashionable, political or religious reasons, whether they are really forced to do so or whether, as Olivier Roy, a leading French analyst of Islam maintains, they generally do so voluntarily, as a radical affirmation of Islam and a provocative expression of their identity in society — little of this has been discussed. There have also been few mentions of the fact that one-quarter of burqa wearers are French women who have converted to Islam, meaning that the veil issue is not exclusively an integration problem.
France’s national burqa ban is not unique. Elsewhere in Europe similar legislation is also being prepared or has been implemented. In Belgium last April, members of the national parliament united across political and cultural lines — both Walloons and Flemings, left and right — to agree to ban full-face veils in buses, shops and on the streets. In the meantime, their shaky coalition collapsed over linguistic and identity issues. For the past year, there has already been a ban on wearing veils in schools.
Protest beyond European Borders
In Spain, following a vote by the Senate a few weeks ago, the Socialist government now has to prepare a burqa-ban bill and introduce it to the second chamber of parliament. Nine Catalonian cities and communities, including Barcelona, have already banned the burqa. The Socialist mayor of Barcelona explained the move was to do with security, saying that it was necessary to ban anything that “hinders personal identification in any of the city’s public installations.” Most Spanish Muslims live in Catalonia and the anti-immigration Platform for Catalonia has a reasonable chance of winning more votes in regional elections there this fall.
In the Netherlands right-wing populist Geert Wilders ran an election campaign based on banning burqas and mosques. In Switzerland the northern canton of Aargau has called for a national ban on full-face veils and in the Austrian state of Upper Austria, the right-wing populist Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) recently failed to push through a similar move at the state level.
But there are also signs of protest beyond Europe’s borders. In Australia a robbery allegedly carried out by a man wearing a burqa has sparked a debate among liberal politicians about a ban. In the Canadian province of Quebec, the government has proposed a law that would ban full-face veils in all public institutions.
No Burqa Debate in Germany
In Germany, however, anti-burqa initiatives — such as those launched by the former governor of the state of Hesse, Roland Koch, a member of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Silvana Koch-Mehrin, a member of the European Parliament with the pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP) — have met with no support. A preliminary investigation for the German parliament, the Bundestag, revealed that a ban would clearly be unconstitutional.
There will be no debate about it in Germany, says Bülent Ucar, a professor for Islamic religious studies and a member of the German Conference on Islam. “I also don’t approve of the veil, either aesthetically or religiously,” he says, “but do we really need a ban for such a quantitatively marginal problem?”
Ucar says that such bans only marginalize Muslims more. Anyone who wants to emancipate Muslim women should make it obligatory for them to take language and vocational courses. Furthermore, he says that the state should support the training of modern imams because they can justify bans better than any German authority figures and dissuade fundamentalists from an extremist path.
Western states are, after all, not the only ones struggling with this contentious issue. In Turkey there is a strict ban on headscarves in schools, universities and public offices. In Tunisia civil servants are not allowed to wear the niqab. And in Egypt, a country where most women wear headscarves, the country’s highest ranking Muslim cleric ordered a ban last year on face veils for all female students and instructors at Cairo’s Al-Azhar University.
The explanation offered by the recently deceased Grand Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi was as simple as it was correct: “The niqab is a tradition and has nothing to do with religion.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘Cover-Up’ Storm Over G20 Death: Fury as DPP Rules Policeman Who Hit News Vendor Won’t be Charged
The family of a newspaper seller who died after being struck by a policeman during the G20 protests reacted furiously yesterday after learning that the officer will not face any criminal charges.
The decision came despite prosecutors admitting there was evidence that Ian Tomlinson, 47, had been assaulted by riot squad officer PC Simon Harwood.
The main obstacle to a prosecution appeared to be a post mortem conducted by pathologist Dr Freddy Patel, who concluded that Mr Harwood died of natural causes, although two other pathologists decided that his death was the result of internal bleeding from ‘blunt force trauma to the abdomen’ as well as cirrhosis of the liver.
Yet last night it emerged that Dr Patel’s career is in jeopardy. He could be struck off within months as the General Medical Council examines claims that he bungled four autopsies.
He has been suspended from the Home Office register of forensic pathologists and barred from examining others who have died suspiciously.
It also emerged that PC Harwood had left the Met while facing misconduct proceedings several years ago before being allowed to rejoin.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: JP is Forced to Apologise for Saying Migrant ‘Abused Our Hospitality’
A magistrate has been forced to apologise for complaining that a foreign defendant was ‘abusing our hospitality’, it was revealed yesterday.
The JP was punished by senior judges for having ‘displayed prejudice’ against people who are not British.
A disciplinary board found the magistrate had failed to show ‘the qualities of social awareness and sound judgement’ expected of a court official.
They even considered sacking him from the bench, it was revealed.
Ministers in the Coalition government have previously used similar phrases about foreign criminals abusing British hospitality.
The action against the magistrate brought a wave of protest from MPs and criminal law experts who questioned why the use of such a phrase about a defendant accused of crime was in any way insulting or biased.
There was also criticism of the Office for Judicial Complaints, the organisation led by judges that polices wrongdoing on the bench, for its failure to name the male magistrate or give details of the case for which he was disciplined.
The magistrate was ‘reprimanded’ on the orders of Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge and ordered to ‘ undertake further training’.
He was also removed from a mentoring list of JPs who help to train other magistrates.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Limbless Soldier Has Benefits Axed After Walking 400 Metres on Prosthetic Leg
A soldier who lost a leg in Afghanistan has been stripped of his disability benefit despite only being able to limp a few hundred metres with the help of a prosthetic limb.
Private Aron Shelton, 26, had his left leg amputated in December 2008 after he was injured in an explosion in Helmand province a year earlier.
The heroic soldier also faces losing his other leg by the time he is 40 because of arthritis linked to his injuries.
He said: ‘I go to war and fight for my country, but I come home and the Government doesn’t even look after me.
‘I feel like I’ve left one battle and got into another.’
Despite excruciating pain, the father-of-one was determined to regain his independence and learnt to walk on a prosthetic leg.
But because of his brave actions he will now lose his £180-a-month Disability Living Allowance from the The Department for Work and Pensions.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Labour’s Ghastly Mistake: The Introduction of 24-Hour Drinking Was New Labour at Its Silliest, Says This Party Grandee
After a bad day in the House of Commons, confusion over the date of withdrawal from Afghanistan, repudiation of Nick Clegg’s view of the Iraq war as illegal, and rejection of Vince Cable’s hope of introducing a graduate tax, the coalition Government did something to redeem its reputation.
It announced its firm intention to take action against 24-hour drinking.
Looking back to 2003, when the new and undeniably disastrous licensing law was passed, it is almost impossible to understand why New Labour ministers expected anything except a rise in alcohol-related crime and nights of misery for honest citizens who lived near pubs, clubs and wine bars.
The only answer to the conundrum is that this ghastly error represented New Labour at its silliest, as personified by Tessa Jowell, then the Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport, who pioneered the legislation and took responsibility for its implementation.
On television a couple of weeks ago, Ms Jowell said that, since the general election, she had been able to spend more time tending her window boxes.
Let us hope that she does not damage her peonies and geraniums to the extent that her ideas on ‘liberalising’ opening hours damaged the peace and quiet of so much of England. the fashionable theory of the time, no doubt very popular at North London dinner parties, was that we English should be encouraged to develop a ‘cafe culture’ and, learn, like the French, to sip our drinks with Gallic elegance in boulevard restaurants.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Stonehenge ‘Twin’ Found: Archaeologists Discover Ancient Wooden Circle at Famous Site
A wooden version of Stonehenge has been discovered just a few hundred yards from the world famous stone circle.
The new monument — described as the most exciting find of its kind in a lifetime — was a vast circle of wooden posts up to 19ft tall, surrounded by a ditch and bank.
It was built around the same time as its big sister and may have been used for ritual Bronze Age feasts, experts say.
Just like Stonehenge, its entrances are aligned with the summer solstice, allowing the sun’s rays to enter the centre of the circle on Midsummer’s Day.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Union for the Mediterranean: UfM, That Sinking Feeling
“The outlook for the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) is very poor,” writes La Vanguardia, reporting on the conclusions of a European Commission report. Two years after its launch, the Barcelona based UfM, an international political community comprising a total of 43 countries (EU member states and countries that border the Mediterranean Sea) has made little progress in addressing the region’s many problems.
“Nothing has been done,” notes the daily, listing many deadllocked issues including the Arab-Israeli conflict, water shortages, and demographic imbalances. The report warns of an increased potential for ethnic and religious conflict in the main EU member states.
The General Director of IEMed, Senén Florensa, complains that “the Arab states have made no effort” to pursue the process of regional integration and that no states on the southern shore are planning to embrace democracy in the near future. There is no mystery as to the solutions to these issues, La Vanguardia notes : a drive to promote pluralist democracy, investment to facilitate access to water supplies and education, and an increased diplomatic effort to resolve conflicts. However, the Barcelona daily is not convinced that “partners in the UfM have either the will or the resources” to put such solutions into practice.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Disappearance of Priest’s Wife Leads to Coptic Demonstrations in Egypt
By Mary Abdelmassih
(AINA) — The unexplained disappearance of a Coptic priest’s wife in Upper Egypt has led today a sit-in staged by thousands of Copts at the Coptic Patriarchate in Cairo, to protest what they consider “collusion by the state security services.” There are rumors that Islamists have abducted her. They promised to continue with their sit-in until the state security divulges her whereabouts.
Nearly three thousand demonstrators, joined by clergy, protested the lack of protection for Copts by state security, chanting “They abducted the wife of our priest, tomorrow they will abduct us” and “Where are our abducted girls or is it because they are Christians?” (video)
Police surrounded the Cathedral to prevent the demonstrators from going out to the streets.
On Monday, July 19, Father Tedaos Samaan, priest at St. Georges Church in Deir Mawas, Minya Governorate, returned home to find that his wife was missing from the previous night. He said that he was on a short visit to his parents with his toddler son, as his teacher wife Kamila Shehata was on a short placement to another school.
According to Father Tedaos (aged 30), the last times he spoke to his wife (24) was at 9.15 PM when she told him that she was at home, and was on her way to overnight at her parent’s home, 100 meters away. She never arrived there.
Anba Agapios, Bishop of the dioceses of Delga and Deir Mawas, deplored the treatment by officials of the state security apparatus in Minya. They told him that they have the priest’s wife with them and promised to deliver her to her family within hours and then they came back and retracted their statements and their promises to him. Consequently he asked his congregations to go to Cairo and stage a sit-in at St. Mark’s Cathedral, until state security acts. He appealed to Copts in all the Egyptian governorates to stand together alongside their brethren during their sit-in.
In an aired interview on July 21 with the newly launched US-based Coptic Hope TV, Father Tedaos said that nearly 3000 of Deir Mawas youths and the neighboring villages “have hired buses to go to the Cairo for the sit-in, however, state security intercepted and detained them on the roads. “Where is the freedom? Are we not allowed to go to our father’s house [the Pope] and speak out of what is ailing us?” he said. “But their brothers in Cairo and the other areas will make their voice heard,” he assured.
The priest complained of the treatment by the authorities. “Whenever I phone them, they say they have no news and they do nothing. They only give me pain-killers, nothing more.” He said state security knows the whereabouts of everyone, “they can even find a needle anywhere in the whole of Egypt.”
Father Tedaos said that he obtained the last calls his wife received on her mobile phone from her service provider, and it was a call from an Azhar (related to Al-Azhar) colleague. Father Tedaos went as far as saying in his interview that this Azhar colleague has been planning for one year to send his teacher wife to a placement to another village school. “I gave this information to the security officers, but no one bothered to interrogate him. Now he has completely disappeared,” he added.
Coptic activist Sherif Ramzy said that the priest represents the Copts and any assault on him is an assault on all the Copts.
Father Tedaos said that apart from his wife, there have been five other Coptic females who were abducted from Deir Mawas in the last 50 days. “But to abduct a wife of a priest is something else, as he represents the Church,” said Sherif Ramzy.
“It is a sin what is happening to the Christians in Egypt,” Father Tedaos said. “If the Islamists want to kill us, let them go ahead and do it,” he said.
Father Tedaos appealed to President Mubarak for the return of his wife.
| — Hat tip: Mary Abdelmassih | [Return to headlines] |
Bad News: “Peace Process, “ UK, Hamas, Turkey; Good News: Boycotts Fail; U.S. Public Opinion; True News: Dead Turkish Flotilla Attackers Sought Martyrdom
by Barry Rubin
If you have any belief that there is going to be Israel-Palestinian peace in the near future or that the Palestinian public has been in any way prepared for a two-state solution by its leadership here’s a simple point that proves the contrary.
The year is 2010. A child born on the day the Oslo agreement, the basis for a supposed peace, was agreed to by Israel and the PLO would soon be celebrating his 18th birthday and be an adult. The “peace process,” however, is still in diapers. Yet according to the latest Palestinian poll, 82 percent of West Bank residents won’t give up the demand that any peace agreement must let all Palestinians who were refugees in 1948 or their descendents return to live in what is now Israel. In fact, even if compensated for lost property they still demand repatriation. The Palestinian Authority has done nothing to oppose this position, which makes peace with Israel impossible, on the contrary it has consistently supported the idea.
This has always been a peculiar concept. If Palestinians were nationalist they would not go and live in another, non-Palestinian and even non-Arab and non-Muslim country. The point of this demand is, of course, to eliminate Israel’s existence over time. The amount of bloodshed that would ensue if this idea was implemented would be catastrophic.
And don’t get me started on the ridiculousness of trying to make peace with a revolutionary Islamist, genocide-seeking Hamas ruling the Gaza Strip.
Remember, though, that the American people—and others in the West—are smarter than much of their elites. The respected Gallup poll last February, at a time when President Obama was evincing anger at Israel, shows that 63 percent of Americans support Israel as compared to only 15 percent backing the Palestinians. This is a record, except for a short period in 1991 when Israel was under Scud attack and the PLO was siding with a country, Iraq, that U.S. forces were fighting.
Asked if they were favorable toward Israel generally, 67 percent of Americans said “yes,” one of the highest scores of all countries.
Will peace some day come to the Middle East? Of the respondents, 67 percent said “doubtful” and 30 percent said “there will come a time.” Among Republicans only 25 percent said there would be peace some day while the number was 39 percent, still quite low, among Democrats. So the claims of the media, academics, and government officials have not persuaded people. (And the question underestimated this factor since “there will come a time” could mean in 50 years.)
By the way, it is being said that U.S.-Israeli security ties are stronger than ever before now under the Obama Administration. This is a bit misleading since many of the programs cited were agreed to under the preceding president…
| — Hat tip: Barry Rubin | [Return to headlines] |
US on Better Terms With PNA; Washington’s PLO Flag
(ANSAmed) — WASHINGTON, JULY 23 — The United States has taken some tangible steps forward to improve relations with the Palestinian National Authority. The Obama administration has decided to grant the Palestinian diplomatic presence in Washington the status of “general delegation”, the same given to many European countries. So reports the Politico.com website, in a quote from an article from the website of Israeli daily, Haaretz.
This diplomatic presence does not yet have the status of a fully-fledged embassy, nonetheless the significance of this rapprochement is not merely formal. For example, Palestinian officials living in the USA will be given the diplomatic immunity they have been denied until now. Further, the PLO flag can now be unfurled outside their offices, an innovation of plain symbolic value. According to White House spokesperson, Thomas Vietor, “This decision reflects our confidence that through direct talks between the parties the conflict can be brought to a solution of peace and security in line with the formula of two peoples , two states”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: Change We Must Believe in
Change has come to the Middle East. Over the past several weeks, multiple press reports indicate that Turkey is collaborating militarily with Syria in a campaign against the Kurds of Syria, Iraq and Turkey.
Turkey is a member of NATO. It fields the Western world’s top weapons systems.
Syria is Iran’s junior partner. It is a state sponsor of multiple terrorist organizations and a proliferator of weapons of mass destruction.
Last September, as Turkey’s Islamist government escalated its anti-Israel rhetoric, Ankara and Damascus signed a slew of economic and diplomatic agreements. As Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu made clear at the time, Turkey was using those agreements as a way to forge close alliances not only with Syria, but with Iran…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
Claim: Mossad Chief Secretly Visited Saudi Arabia
Arab countries working with Israel on Iranian nuke threat
TEL AVIV — Israeli Mossad chief Meir Dagan went on a secret visit to Saudi Arabia in recent weeks to discuss the threat of Iran, according to informed Arab security sources.
The security sources did not disclose specifics of the discussions except to say the topic was Iran, which is accused of building a nascent nuclear program.
Saudi Arabia does not maintain an open diplomatic relationship with Israel. But the Sunni Muslim country, together with Egypt, Jordan and other so-called moderates, is threatened by the growing influence of Iran, dominated by Shiite Islam.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Emirates: Power Cut in Sharjah as Temperatures Hit a Hellish 45° C
Power outages caused by excess demand are creating hell for the city’s residents. There is not enough fuel to run the power plants without regular cuts. Night and day, people seek solace in their air-conditioned cars. Without traffic lights, driving has come to a virtual standstill. Without power, offices are dark and computers are off.
Sharjah (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Power cuts are trying the patience of the people of Sharjah, one of the richest emirates of the United Arab Emirates. With temperatures as high as 45º during the day, and 33º at night, residents’ health is also being affected. Unable to work during the day or sleep at night, many are driven to seek solace in their air-conditioned cars.
Droves of residents have tried to flee daytime power cuts by finding refuge in shopping malls. Without air-conditioned offices and working computers, many companies and business have had to send their employees home.
Drivers and their passengers have been left cooking on congested roads because traffic lights are not working.
All this is happening because for the past three days, a heat wave has caused demand for power to surge, far exceeding the capacity of the local utility. The Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority (SEWA) has said that its generation plants have become strained, and it has run out of diesel fuel. This is why it has had to cut power on a regular basis.
SEWA has apologised to its customers and set up an emergency number, but even that service has not worked with thousands of calls going unanswered. This is a serious problem, especially for people who are caught in elevators when power is down.
Similarly, without power gas stations cannot operate their pumps, and remain deserted for hours.
Many foreign workers are in a difficult situation because they cannot find a place to cool during their lunch break.
Many of them have said that at night they sleep on the floor. “At least it is a bit cooler than sleeping on the bed,” one said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Kurdish Oil for Iran Causes Row Between Baghdad and Erbil
Central and Kurdish governments blame each for oil smuggling to Iran. Iraq’s constitution is ambiguous about who is in charge of oil exploration, drilling, refining and exports.
Baghdad (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Oil has reignited tensions between Iraq’s central government and Iraqi Kurdistan. The issue this time is not contracts signed by the Kurdish regional government without authorisation from Baghdad or the distribution of profits from the oil industry of northern Iraq, but rather large-scale crude oil and by-products smuggling to neighbouring Iran.
The New York Times recently wrote, citing anonymous Kurdish and Arab officials in the Iraqi capital, that each day, without formal authorisation from Baghdad, more than a thousand tankers travel from Sulaimaniyah Governorate to Iran.
Not only are the two major Kurdish parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) led by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) President Massoud Barzani and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) headed by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, benefitting from the trade, but so are an estimated 70 mostly unlicensed mini-refineries, which dot the Kurdistan region and Kurdish-controlled areas in nearby Kirkuk and Ninawa Governorates.
However, according to Kurdish officials, oil smuggling also takes place in the southern part of the country. Around 100,000 barrels a day of Iraqi crude oil from the country’s southern fields are being smuggled to Iran via the Abadan crossing point, KRG Oil Minister Ashti Hawrami said.
Both regional and central governments have rejected the smuggling claims. However, Iraq’s Federal Oil Minister Husain al-Shahristani announced an investigation into the situation.
In Iraq, both the federal and Kurdish governments have their own oil ministry, the federal one led by al-Shahristani and the other by Hawrami.
Since the Iraqi state was restructured, the two ministries have had big differences on how to deal with Iraq’s almost sole source of hard cash: oil.
For the government in Baghdad, oil exploration, drilling, refining and exports fall under its jurisdiction.
The KRG has challenged that claim, saying that the constitution recognises its power in the matter.
However, the latter is somewhat vague. In any event, the KRG has developed several oil fields and signed about 20 contracts with foreign firms, actions that Baghdad considers unlawful.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Where Islamists and Post-Modern Islamists Come Together
I regret for having to devote this space to a reply to my column neighbor Mustafa Akyol’s “reply to my reply to his reply to an op-ed I wrote” last week (“Would Mr. Erdogan kindly care for this Muslim woman?,” July 8, 2010).
When I wrote that piece, I was hoping that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan could perhaps explain the distasteful discrepancy between his selective caring for Muslims and Turks who suffer all around the world and his muteness on the tragedy of an Iranian woman of Turkish descent who was awaiting execution by stoning under a Sharia ruling.
Instead, Mr. Akyol appeared on the scene in defense of the Islamic cause with the generously common rhetoric Islamists and post-modern Islamists share to, borrowing Mr. Akyol’s description, ‘whitewash Islam’ i.e., the Islamist’s reflexive habit of going for a literalist interpretation of the Koran when in question are commandments like abstinence from pork and alcohol and his apologetic inclination toward a figurative interpretation when he thinks ‘the cause’ needs to look pretty to western friends.
Islamist Muslims (Muslims with a political agenda for the advancement of Islam both regionally and globally) have that bad habit: The perpetual feeling of fear that the western powers they need as tactical (not strategic) allies may view them with suspicion because a Muslim with a literalist interpretation of most verses of Islam’s holy book may do the same with other verses — verses that, for instance, command amputations, lashes, two women equal one man jurisprudence, sexually discriminative inheritance laws and, most importantly, hostility against other monotheistic religions, especially Judaism.
In his weekend piece, Mr. Akyol accused me for having an ad hominem attack on him probably because I asked him a few theological questions on subjects the Islamists prefer to bury deep under ground — and wrote that I did not believe Mr. Akyol was a jihadist. I was wrong to expect a more powerful text from him since his comrades have been ‘spinning better’ — an essential effort in Islamists’ global ambition to play the modern day, Muslim Trojan Horse at the gates of western civilization.
To maintain the fine ethos of our intellectual debate I would rather expect Mr. Akyol to answer my questions without dancing around them or distracting from the essential ideas and behaving too prickly and fabricating friendships between myself and people like Geert Wilders with whom I have never met or exchanged a word, electronically or verbally. But I don’t take that as an ad hominem attack. I am merely sorry for the shallow run-away demagoguery in which Mr. Akyol claimed I labeled his logic as “anti-Semitic,” something I never thought or claimed.
But Mr. Akyol did not disappoint me with his (OK, non-anti-Semitic) logic when he commented on some of the verses I mentioned (5:13, 5:14, 5:51 and 5:82). This is 5:51: “O ye who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians for friends. They are friends one to another. He among you who taketh them for friends is (one) of them. Lo! Allah guideth not wrongdoing folk.” Mr. Akyol hoped to ‘whitewash’ 5:51 with 60:9: “God merely forbids you from taking as friends those who have fought you in religion, and driven you from your homes and who supported your expulsion.”
I am not going to ask Mr. Akyol why does 5:51 exist in such plain language if its real intention was what is commanded in 60:9. But since he recommends me to “get a fair sense of Islam,” I am going to ask him a couple of other questions, hoping that he might perhaps help:
This 60:9 reminds me of some episodes in recent political history! Why did the majority of the ‘devout’ Justice and Development Party, or AKP, parliamentary deputies vote in 2003 for the opening of a northern front (and later for the opening of Turkey’s airspace for U.S. bomber aircraft) in George W. Bush’s war on Iraq and ally with their ‘Christian’ American friends “who fought Muslim Iraqis, killed them, driven them from their homes and supported their expulsion?”
Why are Muslim Turkish soldiers part of a Christian alliance fighting, killing and driving Muslim Afghans from their homes? Is that halal? Does 60:9 command that Muslims can ally with Christians against other Muslims if these other Muslims chose to terrorize? Is 60:9 one of the verses that is not applicable to 21st century politics?
I am so sorry, Mr. Akyol, that Mustafa Kemal Atatürk destroyed your dreams of having an Ottoman Caliph in the year 2010 — which, as I understand, you blame on ‘anti-Islamists.’ You are right to think that the Caliphate was the political authority in the Muslim world. But I am not going to ask you how would the concept of Caliphate fit into Koranic teachings which strictly forbid associating God with anyone/anything. Nor am I going to remind you of the beauty of a faith with no clergy, or ask you how, in Islam, could a mortal — even a Caliph — speak on God’s behalf.
I am not going to mention, either, how your beloved Arabs felt about the Ottoman Caliphate for centuries, or how most Muslim Arabs allied with Christians against the “ultimate authority of Islam.”
But I must remind of the not-so-Koranic lives of several Caliphs, including addiction to alcohol a drop of which the Koran strictly forbids. History mentions at least a dozen non-Ottoman and about 10 Ottoman such Caliphs, including Fatih the Conqueror, Sultan Süleyman, Selim II, Murad IV, Yavuz Sultan Selim, Ahmed III, Mahmud II and, most recently, Sultan Abdülmecid. It might be better if we did not speak of certain Caliphs’ private lives which were too Hedonistic even at today’s standards let alone the standards of “the ultimate authority of Islam.”
But do not give up, Mr. Akyol. Mr. Erdogan does not drink alcohol or sport any Hedonistic weakness. He can be your ideal revivalist Caliph in the 21st century. Alternatively, you can always have a post-modern Caliph reign the Muslim world from a predominantly Christian country where he resides.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Afghans Disenchanted by Clinton, Karzai & Associates
The day after the International Conference, scepticism and misgivings among the Afghan population for the new Peace Programme. Doubtful and expectant to see what will change.
Kabul (AsiaNews) — Disenchantment prevailed among the Afghan population as they watched the latest International Conference unfold. It was held yesterday in Kabul to discuss how to make the country safe and to allow the withdrawal of foreign military forces. AsiaNews sources on the ground testify that hope is still alive, but the people are waiting to see results.
In Kabul yesterday representatives of some 70 countries and international organizations met. Sources tell AsiaNews that “ these mega-meetings count up to a point for the people”. In the immediate aftermath of the ouster of the Taliban, there was real enthusiasm, but now “they no longer expect the latest meeting to be any more revolutionary or innovative than the previous ones”.
After years of foreign military and financial support (with aid topping 40 billion dollars), the fruits are still insufficient, the rivers of money that have poured in to the country had had modest results, roads and schools, hospitals and sewers are still lacking, people see luxury houses sprout like mushrooms on the outskirts of Kabul and criticize the government for widespread corruption. In this scenario the request of President Hamid Karzai to have direct control over at least 50% of donor aid is viewed with scepticism and even fear.
“It is not yet clear — says a volunteer involved in social work in Afghanistan — if this 50% includes the money from foreign states and international bodies or funds for social activities from private NGOs, which often are self-financing or dependent on international aid”.
Until now these bodies have managed 100% of their funds, although under strict government control. Every 6 months the Kabul government demands a detailed statement, showing all money received in analytical detail and its use in respect of specified parameters (eg a certain percentage of expenditure is allocated to salaries for Afghan employees).
“This control is right — continues the AsiaNews source — to ensure that 50-60% of the money does not end up paying wages, salaries, big cars, as happened in the past. But if some of these funds were transferred to the State, it would be fatal for many initiatives, little known but essential and much appreciated by the people. “
Other sources note that the Afghan Peace and Reintegration program proposed yesterday is expected to involve groups present in the area (involved in construction of infrastructure and services) in efforts to secure the cooperation of former rebels and moderate Taliban.
“This — they say — would jeopardize the safety of these groups and all of their activities. Militants have often attacked those who they believe are abetting the government. “
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
India: Jammu-Kashmir, Government Oblivious to Deportation Order for Fr. Jim Borst
Two weeks ago, Catholic missionary Fr Jim Borst was ordered to leave the country by the end of July. Archbishop Peter Celestine met Omar Abdullah, chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, who declared that he was not aware of the order. Even Samuel Vargeese, Commissioner of the Interior, said he was not informed about it. A friend of Fr Borst: “The whole thing is a mystery.”
Srinagar (AsiaNews) — Omar Abdullah (pictured), Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, and Samuel Vargeese, Commissioner of the Interior, said yesterday that they were not aware of the deportation order sent two weeks ago to Dutch Catholic missionary Fr. Jim Borst.
Fr. Jim Borst is the only member of the Mill Hill missionary Institute in the Kashmir Valley, where he has lived since 1963. Since 1997 he has directed two schools in Kashmir famous for their standards of teaching, one in Pulwama the other in Shivpora, Srinagar. The diocese of Jammu-Srinagar had expressed great grief and astonishment at the news of the impending expulsion of Fr Borst, because the missionary’s permission to stay until 2014 was renewed just four months ago.
Bishop Peter Celestine, Bishop of Jammu-Srinagar, met yesterday with Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to demand the withdrawal of the notice of expulsion. The bishop told AsiaNews about the incredible success of the meeting: “The Chief Minister was surprised. Omar Abdullah is also interior minister and said that no notice to leave the country was issued by his ministry. Indeed, he confirmed that they had renewed his visa. He assured me that they will investigate the matter and let us know”.
Christian convert Joseph Dhar, a former Brahmin Hindu, and friend of Fr. Borst, told AsiaNews that Vargeese Samuel, Commissioner of the Interior, was unaware of the deportation order.
“It remains to be discovered who issued the expulsion order — said Joseph Dhar — the whole thing is a mystery. The Bishop, Fr. Borst and all the faithful are confused”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesian Ulema Allow Civet Coffee
After a long diatribe, the country’s highest Islamic authority has banned the “Kopi Luwak” coffee from beans partially digested by civet cats. One of the most expensive drinks in the world.
Jakarta (AsiaNews / Agencies) — The Indonesian Ulema Council — the highest Muslim religious authority in the country — has decided to allow the consumption of the most expensive coffee in the world, “Kopi Luwak”, despite being made from beans eaten, partly digested and then defecated by a small mammal, or the civet cat owl.
The discussion on the consumption of this drink has abounded in the Muslim world for years considered by the more hardlin wing “haram” forbidden in the religious sense and therefore unfit for consumption. But after the plenary meeting, the Council decided not to publish a fatwa banning the “civet coffee” to Muslims.
“After a long discussion, we decided that drinking Luwak coffee is not a sin,” said Ma’rouf Amien, chairman of the highest religious authority in the country. “It is not prohibited as long as the coffee beans are passed under water to remove traces of excrement” he said.
The “Luwak” is produced by the civet cats, small mammals similar to weasels, which eat the coffee beans. But they do not fully digest them and they are expelled, after being fermented, naturally. Once dried and roasted, they are used to prepare a traditional drink of coffee less bitter in taste with caramel and chocolate.
Worldwide, every year, just 200 pounds of Luwak coffee are produced, the price varies between 400 and 500 Euros per kilo. The civet, among others, was in the headlines a few years ago: a very common animal in Asia, it was one of the major carriers of the terrible SARS.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Bekasi, Insults and Threats From Islamic Extremists at a Protestant Prayer Meeting
More than 500 blocked the entrance to the field where the function was being held. The Huria Protestant Church celebrates in the open because their prayer hall was declared illegal. Thanks to the police, there were no consequences for the faithful.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) — A group of 500 Islamic extremists blocked Christians from the Huria Protestant Church (Hkbp) in a field where the Sunday service was taking place. The incident occurred last July 18 in the city of Pondok Timur in Mustika Jaya subdistrict, district of Bekasi (West Java).
Muslims blocked all routes to prevent Christians leaving the field and began to insult them, terrorizing them. The group of Protestant believers pray outdoors because their hall for religious functions was closed on the grounds that it was illegal.
The situation improved when a representative of the Bekasi Office for Religious Affairs, along with 200 policemen, arrived at the site. Luspida Simanjutak, head pastor at the Hkbp church, told AsiaNews: “ We were forced to sign a pact with them, forcing us to stop our faith celebration but we strongly rejected the proposal. We asked the representative to help our congregation to leave the site without harm. Their goal is one and one alone, to eradicate all churches from Mustika Jaya”.
It is not the first time that the Hkbp church was targeted by Islamic extremists. “At Pondok Timur — continued the pastor — the Muslims have forced local government to outlaw the place where we held our services. They’ve already done so twice”.
That’s why different Hkbp communities decided to hold their services in an open field. Theopilus Bella an activist for interfaith dialogue, believes the incident last Sunday was premeditated. “Many of the faithful — he tells AsiaNews — received text messages from Islamic extremists which warned them of what they would do” and what in fact happened.
Despite threats by Islamic Rev. Simanjutak says that her community will continue to recite the Mass in the same place.
For years the Christians of Bekasi have been targeted by Islamic fundamentalists. Early in 2010, radical groups blocked religious services, prevented Christians from access to existing churches and stopped the construction of new churches. Since 2009, more than 17 churches have been affected by Islamic extremists. The Hkbp church, besides having to close its premises many times because deemed “illegal” in 2010, suffered the destruction of a church in 2004, after receiving permission to construct it.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesian Police Tears Down House Church
After years of peaceful coexistence with residents, Muslim organisation gets the authorities to tear down the building. Ten people are arrested. The Pentecostal Church announces legal action against local authorities.
Jakarta (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Police demolished a residential building in Bogor (West Java) that regularly hosted a house church. Police also detained, interrogated and released ten people, Compass Direct News (CDN) reported.
Last Monday, police raided a house used for worship by Narogong Pentecostal Church in the village of Limusnunggal, Cileungsi sub-district. The action was followed by clashes between agents and worshippers. The building was eventually torn down and ten people arrested.
“Local residents, including non-Christians, had accepted the presence of the church,” said local Block Captain Junaedi Syamsudin, “but a group called the Forum of the Muslim Brotherhood of Limusnunggal has worked since 2008 to have the church eliminated.”
“Three months ago members of the forum went to Cileungsi offices to object to the church’s presence,” Syamsudin added, “and the regent promised to demolish the house.”
Bogor Police Chief Eddy Hidayat said that the house “lacked a use permit”, but Pentecostal Church coordinator Hotlan P. Silaen retorted that police were not neutral in the dispute.
“The clash with citizens could have been avoided if the police had been neutral and not been goaded into a situation that caused bodily harm,” Silaen said.
Rev Rekson Sitorus announced that the Church would take “legal action” against those responsible for demolishing the house, including the Bogor administration.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Christians Killed Because Innocence ‘Doesn’t Matter’
Attack on 2 accused of blasphemy followed by Muslim riots
Two Christians were shot and killed on their way from a courthouse to jail after being accused by Pakistani Muslims of blasphemy because, according to an analyst, innocence in such a situation “doesn’t matter.”
“It’s not rational,” Jonathan Racho of International Christian Concern told WND. “It’s not something you can justify with reasoning. In the minds of radicals, if a Christian is accused of blasphemy, even if the Christian has not done it, and even if the police have proved that the person hasn’t done it, it doesn’t matter for them.”
Racho was commenting on the recent rioting that broke out in the Pakistani city of Faisalabad after two Christians, a pastor and his brother, were murdered. Authorities report 36-yearold Rashid Emmanuel and his brother, Sajid, 30, were shot and killed on the Faisalabad courthouse steps.
They had been taken there on accusations of blaspheming Muhammad, the founder of the 1,400-year-old religion of Islam.
[…]
Racho said a forensic analysis of the handwriting showed that the brothers could not have written the document.
“The police came up with an expert witness and the expert testified that the handwriting on the pamphlet doesn’t match Rashid or Sajid’s handwriting. So obviously, someone else must have written it and put the brother’s names and phone numbers on it,” Racho said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Woman Freed After Spending 14 Years in Prison Without Trial for “Blasphemy”
Zaibul Nisa had been arrested on vague blasphemy charges. The judge who released her is dismayed by her long and unjust confinement. Her lawyer complains that she “was sent to jail and then forgotten by everyone.”
Lahore (AsiaNews/Agencies) — The High Court in Lahore has ordered the release Zaibul Nisa, a 60-year-old woman who spent the past 14 years in the prison section of a mental asylum for blasphemy, on allegations of desecrating the Qur’an. Back in 1996, police arrested her and then locked her up without a shred of evidence.
Expressing his “dismay” over her long and unjust confinement, the chief justice of the Lahore High Court, Khawaja Mohammad Sharif, “ordered the release of Zaibul Nisa after no evidence was found against her,” a court official said.
Nisa was arrested in the town of Rawat, near the capital Islamabad, after a local resident filed a complaint at a police station that someone had desecrated the Koran, defence lawyer Aftab Ahmad Bajwa said.
Nisa’s name was not even mentioned in the police complaint, Bajwa explained, and “Nobody, not even her relatives, pursued the case. She was sent to jail and then forgotten by everyone”.
Police arrested her on the basis of the infamous blasphemy law, namely article 295, sections B and C, of the Pakistan Penal Code, which respectively impose life in prison on anyone defiling the Qur’an and the death penalty on anyone defaming Prophet Mohammed.
However, very often blasphemy charges are falsely laid or motivated by sordid reasons, generating scandals and stirring angry people to seek mob justice.
For example, two Christian brothers (one a Protestant clergyman) accused of writing a blasphemous pamphlet critical of the Prophet Mohammed were shot dead last Monday outside a court that was going to acquit them.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Applied Materials Drops Sunfab Sales
[This is a seismic event in the photovoltaic solar energy world. Considering that less than a year ago Applied Materials had inked a five-year contract with ENN Solar Energy to support the China-based thin-film developer’s photovoltaic (PV) module manufacturing facility in Langfang, Hebei Province, this sudden turnabout — along with the shuttering of German SunFab user Sunfilm AG — means that there are now significant questions regarding the viability of amorphous silicon thin film based photovoltaic technology.
Attendees to San Francisco’s 2009 Intersolar exhibition were astounded to see Applied Materials dominate the show with a gigantic booth that dwarfed all comers. Equally disturbing was how this long-established semiconductor capital equipment vendor did not display a single working integrated circuit fabrication tool at the Semicon side of this same 2009 show.
Needless to say (then why say it?), Applied Materials’ kept a substantially lower profile at this year’s 2010 Intersolar show. Supposedly, as of just last April, Best Solar of China just scaled back a $1.9 billion (with a “b”) purchase of Applied Materials’ solar fabrication equipment to a paltry $250 million (with an “m”). — Z]
Applied Materials Inc. this week announced plans to restructure its Energy and Environmental Solutions (EES) segment. As part of this plan, the company said that it will stop sales of its SunFab thin-film solar lines and refocus on its LED business.
The company will support existing SunFab customers with services, upgrades and capacity increases through its Applied Global Services segment. Applied’s solar R&D center in Xi’an, China will concentrate on advancing its c-Si solar and other technologies.
Upon completion of the restructuring plan, annual operating expenses are expected to decrease by at least $100 million on an annualized basis. The restructuring plan is intended to make EES a profitable segment in fiscal year 2011.
As part of the restructuring, Applied will discontinue sales to new customers of its SunFab fully-integrated lines for manufacturing thin film solar panels and will offer individual tools for sale to thin film solar manufacturers, including chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and physical vapor deposition (PVD) equipment. R&D efforts to improve thin film panel efficiency and high-productivity deposition will continue.
INSET: The company will support existing SunFab customers with services, upgrades and capacity increases through its Applied Global Services segment. Applied’s solar R&D center in Xi’an, China will concentrate on advancing its c-Si solar and other technologies.
“While Applied has delivered significant innovations with our SunFab production line and made substantial progress on our technology roadmap, the thin film market has been negatively impacted by several factors, including delays in utility-scale solar adoption, solar panel manufacturers’ challenges in obtaining affordable capital, changes and uncertainty in government renewable energy policies, and competitive pressure from crystalline silicon technologies,” said Mike Splinter, chairman and CEO of Applied Materials.
| — Hat tip: Zenster | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Blushing Bride and Groom Thrown Into Cells After Officers Bust ‘Sham Wedding’ Moments Before They Tie the Knot
Dressed in an expensive off-the-shoulder turquoise dress and white stilettos, she looks every inch the blushing bride.
But instead of an important appointment to tie the knot, Andrea Kalejova had a very different rendezvous to keep.
For she was appearing before a judge accused of arranging a sham marriage to allow an immigrant to remain in Britain.
Czech-born Kalejova, 22, and her husband-to-be Abdul Majid, 32, were arrested just moments before they were due to marry.
They were hauled from Manchester Register Office by immigration officers before the nuptials could begin and questioned.
And instead of a luxurious bridal suite the pair were ushered into cells where they spent the next two days waiting for their date in court.
A judge sitting at Manchester Magistrates heard the pair had been arrested for conspiring to obtain a right to stay in Britain for Majid.
Noel Griffiths, for Kalejova, said that was not the case and the couple had genuinely wanted to marry and they would ‘strenuously’ deny the charges.
Kalejova was granted bail while Mjid was remanded in custody until they appear before Manchester Crown Court in September.
Their arrest came the day before a major crackdown on sham marriages was announced by immigration minister Damian Green. He has promised a major overhaul of the UK Border Agency and said the Government was determined to send out a signal that Britain was no longer a soft touch for those people who arrived illegally but hoped to use the system in order to stay.
The number of sham weddings in the UK soared to 529 last year — a 54 per cent rise on 2008.
The UK Border Agency believes the tightening of immigration controls, the economic climate and efforts to clamp down on illegal workers are to blame.
An increasing number of EU citizens are marrying non-EU foreigners to help them settle in the country and enjoy the same rights as British nationals.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Abortion Businesses Ignore Closure Order
Pennsylvania locations ‘snubbed the health department and remain open’
A Pennsylvania abortionist who repeatedly has been in trouble with the law continues to operate four abortion clinics even though the state health department ordered them to be closed, according to the pro-life Operation Rescue.
“It’s bizarre,” OR President Troy Newman told WND shortly after his report was posted. “We talk about a double standard: GOP-Democrat, conservative-liberal, Christians-non-Christians, but it’s never been more apparent than when you see the double standard in the abortion industry.”
The abortionist is Steven Chase Brigham, who has operated abortion businesses in Allentown, Erie, Pittsburgh, and State College, as well as in other states.
A document from the state health department dated July 7 stated there was evidence of a “reckless and careless attitude toward those whom they have served and seek to continue to serve.
[…]
Even the National Abortion Federation issued a statement agreeing with the Pennsylvania order to close Brighton’s clinics, the report documented.
“When the NAF won’t have you, you know it’s bad, since the NAF runs some of the nastiest, most dangerous abortion clinics in the country,” Newman said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Big Claims, Little Evidence: Sweden’s Law Against Buying Sex
A new review of Sweden’s ban on buying sex has provided little hard evidence that the policy of prohibition has worked, writes Laura Agustín, but few politicians have dared to point out its obvious failings.
Every Swede knows that the famed law against buying sex — sexköpslagen — is a hot potato. Few politicians have commented one way or another on the evaluation of the law announced on 2 July, and only one government official claimed it proves the law is a success. Given that the report has been strongly criticised as empty of evidence and methodology but full of ideology in its very remit, debate has been curiously muted, even for the time of year.
At another period in history the sex-purchase law might have been considered a minor piece of legislation on a lesser social problem. Few people die, are maimed for life or lose their homes and jobs because of prostitution here; other threats to national security and happiness might seem more pressing.
But one feminist faction promotes the ideology that prostitutes are always, by definition, victims of violence against women. As victims, they can’t be criminals, so their side of the money-sex exchange is not penalised, whereas those who buy are perpetrators of a serious crime. This ideology, a minority view in other countries, predominates among Swedish State Feminists who claim that the existence of commercial sex is a key impediment to achieving gender equality. Such a dogma is odd, given the very small number of people engaged in selling sex in a welfare state that does not exclude them from its services and benefits. It is not illegal to sell sex in Sweden, just to buy it.
The evaluation leaned heavily on small-scale data about street prostitution, because that was the easiest to find. No one doubts that most street sex workers went somewhere else after the law came into effect, and no one knows where they went. But evaluators bolstered their case by claiming that street prostitution had increased in Denmark, where there is no such law, using information from a Copenhagen NGO whose inflated data was exposed in parliament last year. Street prostitution is known, in any case, to constitute a tiny, diminishing part of the whole of commercial sex.
The report confesses that ‘prostitution on the Internet’ was difficult to research but exhibits a poor understanding of the multiplicity of businesses, jobs and networks that characterise the sex industry. Asking police officials and social workers what they think is going on is no substitute for true research, and no academic studies pretend to know the extent of prostitution here. A government report from 2007 admitted it was difficult to find out much of anything about prostitution in Sweden.
The evaluation gives no account of how the research was actually carried out — its methodology — but is full of background material on Swedish history and why prostitution is bad. Only 14 sex workers were actually canvassed for their opinion of the law, seven of whom had already stopped selling sex. It is a rather pathetic display.
Several media commentators took the occasion to attack the law itself, since, despite regular government affirmations that the majority of Swedes support the law, opposition is fierce. In the blogosphere and other online forums, liberals, libertarians and non-conforming members of the main parties relentlessly resist a reductionist view of sexuality in which vulnerable women are forever threatened by predatory men.
But most politicians undoubtedly feel little good will come from complaining about legislation now symbolic of Mother Sweden. The Swedish Institute has turned the abolition of prostitution into part of the nation’s brand, what they call a ‘multi-faceted package to make Sweden attractive to the outside world.’ The SI, claiming to represent the most ‘socially liberal’ country on the planet, celebrates gender equality and gay love along with Ingmar Bergman, high technology and pine forests.
Sweden indisputably ranks high on several measures of gender equality, such as numbers of women who work outside the home, their salaries and length of parental leave. But other policies considered as part of gender equality are much harder to measure: cultural change, how people feel about sexual difference and, not least, the effect of a ban on buying sex. So it is hardly surprising that the government’s evaluation presents no evidence that relations between men and women have improved in Sweden because of the law. The evaluation’s main recommendation is to stiffen the punishment meted out to men who buy sex.
There was something new in Justice Minister Ask’s positioning of the law to the international media, however — a claim that it has been proved to combat organized crime, particularly the kind called sex trafficking. Citing no evidence, the report maintains there is less trafficking in Sweden because it is now ‘less attractive’ to traffickers.
Such naïve statements argue that without a demand for commercial sex there will be no supply, ignoring the complicated ways sex-money markets work in cultures with different concepts of family and love, reducing a wide range of sexual activities to an abstract notion of violence and brushing aside the many people who confirm that they prefer selling sex to their other livelihood options.
As for combating trafficking, there is no proof. Statistics continue to be a source of conflict in international debates, because different countries, institutions and researchers do not agree on what actually constitutes trafficking. It does not help that fundamentalist feminism refuses to accept the distinction between human trafficking and human smuggling linked to informal labour migration, as enshrined in the UN Convention on Organised Crime.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
It’s Freedom of ‘Religion, ‘ Mr. President
Commander-in-chief’s term ‘gross departure from the intent of 1st Amendment’
It’s just one more “fiber” of the U.S. Constitution, but if enough are torn, the document itself will unravel, according to a Washington-based faith organization that is chiding Barack Obama for repeatedly referring to the “freedom of worship” in the United States, when the Constitution actually calls for “freedom of religion.”
Officials with the Faith and Freedom Institute have dispatched a letter to the president, asking that he correct himself.
“While some may deem the words ‘worship’ and ‘religion’ to be synonymous, and thus interchangeable, they are most definitely not!” said the letter from Faith and Freedom Institute President Gary Dull, Vice President Dave Kistler and historian Don Kistler.
[…]
Dull told WND the change in terminology is significant. “Worship” usually is done behind the walls and closed doors of a building set aside for that purpose. “Religion,” on the other hand, includes the biblically mandated activity of declaring the Gospel to all nations.
Freedom of religion, he said, “actually means that we can practice religion in public space. Freedom of worship is more personal and often behind the doors of a church.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Lose Christianity or Face Expulsion’
Georgia student told to read ‘gay’ lit, attend ‘pride parade,’ change beliefs
A lawsuit against Augusta State University in Georgia alleges school officials essentially gave a graduate student in counseling the choice of giving up her Christian beliefs or being expelled from the graduate program.
School officials Mary Jane Anderson-Wiley, Paulette Schenck and Richard Deaner demanded student Jen Keeton, 24, go through a “remediation” program after she asserted homosexuality is a behavioral choice, not a “state of being” as a professor said, according to the complaint.
Also named as defendants in the case that developed in May and June are other administrators and the university system’s board of regents.
The remediation program was to include “sensitivity training” on homosexual issues, additional outside study on literature promoting homosexuality and the plan that she attend a “gay pride parade” and report on it.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘The Inquiry Reports Are Lousy’ — An Interview With Steve McIntyre
Alex Reichmuth, Die Weltwoche, 22 July 2010: In November 2009, just days before the big climate summit in Copenhagen, thousands of internal e-mails from leading climate researchers at the University of East Anglia were made public. In the e-mails, the researchers at the university’s Climatic Research Unit discussed how to manipulate data series. They discussed with colleagues from other research centres how to sideline critics of mainstream climate science. And they requested each other to delete scientific data in order to protect the scientific information from the clutches of their critics. The affair — soon referred to as “Climategate” — was explosive because the IPCC, in its reports, had again and again relied substantially on the research conducted at CRU — for example, in reconstructing the climate of the last thousand years with the help of so-called proxy data, such as tree rings or ice cores. In addition, CRU researchers also play a leading role in determining the global temperatures today.
The e-mail scandal forced CRU chief Phil Jones to temporarily relinquish his post. The university commissioned several supposedly independent inquiries in order to clarify the affair. The reports of these inquiries are now available and they largely exonerate the CRU researchers. In early July, the inquiry panel under Muir Russell stated that there could be no doubt about the ‘rigour and honesty’ of the CRU scientists. The panel found no indications that the researchers had manipulated data. One could at most accuse them of not being transparent enough with their research methods and not to be sufficiently open to criticism.
Two other inquiries — one conducted by the University of East Anglia with support from the Royal Society and one by the Science and Technology Select Committee of the British Parliament — had previously come to similar conclusions. In the published internal e-mails the name of the Canadian mathematician Stephen McIntyre appears very often. The retired mining expert has repeatedly revealed statistical fallacies by climate scientists and has thus become one of their sharpest critics. Researchers at the University of East Anglia do not like McIntyre. In their e-mails, they often discuss how to prevent him from getting access to more scientific data. Die Weltwoche met up with Stephen McIntyre for an interview in London.
[…]
Q: So, is it necessary to have another inquiry?
A: I am a bit frustrated now. I do not know what will happen. For example, the famous “trick” to “hide the decline”: I think there needed to be some statement in the reports that this is not an acceptable way of doing things, but there was none. From their point of view, they could perhaps have resolved the problem by acknowledging the real issue, without necessarily severely punishing the scientists involved. It needed to be said that such statistical methods should not be done anymore. When I talk to people in business and legal communities used to reporting financial statements, they are in disbelief that such statistical methods are accepted in the climate science community. Because, in their jobs, it would be an offence to do such things.
[Comments from JD: see article url for interview transcript.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
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