New York High School Exam Praises Islam and Attacks Christianity
In the heat of the Ground Zero mosque debate, New York public high schools are pushing a test that slams the history of Christianity while exalting the spread of Islam. Some NY teachers were so upset when reading the Regents exam on Global History and Geography that they have complained to the press and even leaked their teacher’s guide on the test.
The exam gives high schoolers questions based on nine sources on the spread of Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism. Buddhism is given a slight positive, yet mostly neutral treatment in the exam. The spread of Christianity gets a mixed treatment of neutral statements and pretty blatant attacks. Islam, on the other hand, gets promoted and hailed as not only positive, but specifically better than Christianity.
[…]
The school board’s choice of John Esposito as a source is enough to reveal a bias toward promoting Islam. Esposito is a Georgetown professor who has spent his career defending Radical Islam. He placed the blame for 9-11 on the lack of pluralism and tolerance in America. Esposito has long decried American ‘imperialism’ while defending Islamic terrorism. He has asked Jews and Westerners to reject the “irrational fear of terrorism.” The professor refuses to even study Islamic violence because it “reinforces stereotypes”.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Analysis: More Talk of Belgium Split as Coalition Talks Fail
(Reuters) — If Belgium were a marriage it would surely have ended by now.
Each fresh election brings bickering between leaders of the Dutch-speaking majority and the poorer French-speaking region, and months of tortuous talks and mediation to bring both sides back together.
Friday’s collapse of coalition negotiations, almost three months after a parliamentary election, caused senior French-speaking Socialist Laurette Onkelinx to warn that a divorce was now in sight.
“We must start preparing for the end of Belgium,” she told Sunday’s edition of La Derniere Heure newspaper.
Rudi Demotte, president of the French-speaking region of Wallonia, told Belgian radio that francophones should start to consider their options, including a future without Belgium.
Analysts said the comment by Onkelinx was, for now at least, more political theatrics than a genuine warning, although one that could stir the interest of financial speculators.
PLAYING WITH FIRE
To date, Belgium’s political stalemate has had little impact on markets, mindful perhaps that it took nine months to form a government after the 2007 vote. But that could change.
“I’m afraid the political parties are playing with fire,” said Philippe Ledent, economist at ING in Brussels. “The financial markets may start discussing the probability, low as it is at the moment, that the country will split.” There are reasons for markets to be concerned about Belgium.
Principal among them is that the country’s debt-to-annual output (GDP) ratio is the third highest in Europe, and forecast by the central bank to rise above 100 percent next year.
The central bank chief said in May that drawn-out coalition talks would damage public finances and Belgium’s image, particularly as it has taken on the rotating presidency of the European Union in the second half of this year.
Caretaker Prime Minister Yves Leterme has bought some time with a bill to reduce the budget deficit to 4.8 percent of gross domestic product this year, from a previous plan of 5.6 percent.
However, a new government should already be setting out plans for 2011 and beyond.
The head of Belgium’s employers federation warned at the start of the year that Belgium risked becoming “Greece on the North Sea” without measures to improve its competiveness — measures that a new government would need to take.
Belgium is not a new Greece for now and its political crisis is unlikely to affect the euro. Unlike Greece’s, Belgium’s economy grew in the second quarter. According to an ING report this month, private savings could almost pay off Belgium’s national debt twice.
Still, the premium investors demand to hold Belgian bonds over benchmark German bunds could inch higher as the crisis extends and talk of a split grows.
“For now, there’s just a measure of uncertainty. If it progresses further, the spread would increase as who would still invest in a country that might no longer exist,” said Ledent.
Carl Devos, professor of politics at Ghent University, said Belgium was not really on the verge of breaking apart and that a sense of calm was returning — at least among the people that mattered.
The leaders of the two largest parties, Elio Di Rupo of the French-speaking Socialists and Bart De Wever of the Flemish separatist N-VA, have each led failed coalition talks. Both welcomed the king’s appointment of two new mediators.
The two could yet pull off a deal that balances Flemish demands to gain more powers for Dutch-speaking Flanders and the concerns of French speakers, who fear their poorer region will suffer from devolution.
“I think financial markets may have more intelligence than we assume,” said Devos. “We could have a deal tomorrow, but we would have another unstable government.”
“It’s better to take time to reach a good deal on state reform along with a clear savings plan.”
| — Hat tip: Henrik | [Return to headlines] |
Convicted UK Terrorist Cracks After Losing Jail Egg Race
A MEMBER of the failed London 21/7 suicide bombing gang threw a tantrum when he came second in a prison sports day egg and spoon race, it has emerged.
Convicted terrorist Manfo Kwaku Asiedu, 37, was competing at the high security Wakefield jail in northwestern England when he was beaten to first place by Rangzieb Ahmed, 34, British newspaper the Sunday Mirror reported.
Ahmed was jailed for masterminding the failed July 21 attacks on the British capital, the report said.
Infuriated by Ahmed’s narrow victory, Asiedu kicked his hard-boiled egg around the exercise yard before stamping on it, according to the newspaper.
A source at the prison told the newspaper” “He lost by a whisker, but couldn’t contain his anger, kicking the egg around the exercise yard in frustration then stamping on it. Both of them were very competitive and really wanted to win.”
The source continued: “These two convicted terrorists are supposed to be serving long sentences, not messing around like kids. It would have been hilarious if it wasn’t so sickening.”
| — Hat tip: JMH | [Return to headlines] |
European Trade Chief Accused of Anti-Semitism
BRUSSELS — The European Union’s chief trade negotiator was accused on Friday of “outrageous anti-Semitism” after comments made in an interview about Israel’s role in Middle East peace talks.
Karel De Gucht, the European commissioner for trade, told a radio station in his native Belgium that the “average Jew” had a belief that they are right, which was “difficult to counter with rational arguments.”
“It’s not so much whether these are religious Jews or not,” Mr. De Gucht argued on VRT radio. “Lay Jews also share the same belief that they are right. So it is not easy to have, even with moderate Jews, a rational discussion about what is actually happening in the Middle East.”
Mr. De Gucht also said the Jewish community wielded its influence in the United States. “Don’t underestimate the power of the Jewish lobby on Capitol Hill,” he added. “That is the best organized lobby; you shouldn’t underestimate the grip it has on
American politics — no matter whether it’s Republicans or Democrats.”…
| — Hat tip: TV | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Support for Sarrazin Puts Politicians in Spin
Nearly a fifth of Germans would vote for a political protest party headed by Thilo Sarrazin, a poll revealed on Sunday, as mainstream politicians argue about how best to react to his statements on Muslims, immigration and Jews.
The survey, conducted by Emnid pollsters for the Bild am Sonntag newspaper, showed that 18 percent of Germans would vote for a political party headed by the Bundesbank board member.
He has created a furore in Germany with assertions about Muslim immigrants to Germany failing to integrate, and what he insists is a genetic element to intelligence — and the astounding proposal that people of a common religion are genetically related.
His theory is that genetically stupid immigrants are making Germany increasingly stupid as they are multiplying faster than Germans — and refusing to integrate into German society.
These kind of ideas seem to be welcomed by many conservative voters, with 17 percent of Christian Democrat Union (CDU) or Christian Social Union (CSU) voters telling pollsters they would vote for him if he were to establish a political party.
He appears to be even more popular among left-wing Die Linke supporters, with 29 percent saying they would vote for him.
The Social Democratic Party (SPD) is trying to throw Sarrazin out, although he says he loves the party and intends to remain a member. Yet its efforts to get rid of him are only damaging its image, according to Manfred Güllner, head of another pollster firm, Forsa.
He said the focus on Sarrazin — who used to be state finance senator for Berlin — could cost the SPD dear in next year’s Berlin state election.
“The SPD is spending so much energy on the exclusion of Sarrazin, but not on the concerns, fears and needs of the Berliners,” Güllner told the Berlin Kurier paper on Sunday.
He said Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit looks particularly bad for his attacks on Sarrazin, having worked with him in the capital’s government. “He supported him for years and used his abilities. Now he is damning him. It is not believable.”
Leading conservative politicians this weekend called for a more open discussion of integration policy, with some criticising Chancellor Angela Merkel for her dismissive attitude towards Sarrazin’s comments.
She described them as ‘completely unacceptable’ and has added to pressure for him to be dismissed from his post at the Bundesbank.
Yet Bavaria state interior minister Joachim Herrmann of the CSU said, “It would be wrong to now damn everything that Sarrazin says.”
Some of Sarrazin’s theories were awful, he said, but added, “But where there are problems, we clearly have to address them.”
Head of the CDU’s Baden-Württemberg state parliamentary party, Peter Hauk, also said that many Union supporters very much agreed with what Sarrazin had been saying. It would not be acceptable to simply criticise him, said Hauk. Instead the Berlin CDU leadership should more clearly identify problems with immigration and take tougher action on integration policies, he said.
Even Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, from the CSU, called for an intensive investigation of Sarrazin’s theories. An open, broad discussion was needed, he said, adding that the issues that Sarrazin had described were important to people in Germany.
The Bundesbank has armed itself with legal opinion in its preparation to try to remove Sarrazin from the board. According to Der Spiegel magazine this weekend, it has a 20-page report on Sarrazin’s public comments since he took office in 2009.
His interviews and the reaction to them during the last year or so will be used to show he has broken his employment contract, which stipulates that he must remain moderate and reserved in relation to the public in order to preserve the dignity of the job.
Federal President Christian Wulff is considering the Bundesbank’s request for him to dismiss Sarrazin — something he has already signalled his willingness to do.
Yet Sarrazin has already taken the initiative in this matter, calling for a personal audience with the president.
“The federal president will have to consider very carefully, whether he wants to carry out a kind of political show trial, which would later be quashed by the courts,” he said in Focus magazine.
It was also reported this weekend that Sarrazin had informed his colleagues on the Bundesbank board in writing last month that he was about to publish his controversial book Deutschland schafft sich ab — Wie wir unser Land aufs Spiel setzen, or “Abolishing Germany — How we’re putting our country at jeopardy.”
The report in the Bild am Sonntag newspaper said that neither Bundesbank president Axel Weber nor other board members reacted to the letter, or found out about the content of the book.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Get Ready for Break-Up of Belgium: Top Minister
BRUSSELS — A top Belgian politician warned the country’s citizens on Sunday to “get ready for the break-up of Belgium,” as King Albert II seeks to relaunch knife-edge coalition talks.
Leading francophone Socialist Laurette Onkelinx, considered a potential successor to party chief Elio Di Rupo, who gave up on negotiations with separatist Flemish leaders on Friday, gave her prognosis in a newspaper interview.
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that because if we split, it will be the weakest who will pay the heaviest price,” she told La Derniere Heure. “On the other hand, we can no longer ignore that among a large part of the Flemish population, it’s their wish.
“So yes, we have to get ready for the break-up of Belgium. Otherwise we’re cooked.
“When I look at the letters I receive, loads of people think it’s possible. (Our) politicians have to be prepared,” underlined the current caretaker federal minister for health and social affairs.
Albert II tasked late on Saturday the respective speakers of Belgium’s French-speaking Wallonia and Dutch-speaking Flanders state parliaments to try once more to navigate seven-party talks aimed at securing some form of government, other than the existing day-to-day formation.
That came after seven weeks of efforts by Di Rupo, who says that the biggest Flemish party, the independence-minded New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), rejected the widest set of concessions towards full autonomy for Flanders in Belgium’s tortured recent history.
Belgium, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union until the end of the year, adding a further layer to the pressure on the sovereign, has not been able to point to a stable government since June 2007.
The stark comments from Onkelinx followed those of another leading francophone Socialist, Philippe Moureaux, who has said Belgium was on the verge of a “progressive organisation of separation.”
Formerly taboo among the poorer francophone parts of Belgium, the prospect of going it alone is no longer considered so — with a third senior official, the head of the Wallonia state government, Rudy Demotte, also telling RTBF radio that “all options” are now open.
Demotte added that Wallonia and the capital region of Brussels, the third federal state and increasingly the focus of arguments about financial settlements, had the wherewithal “to see what we can do ourselves without waiting for tomorrow.”
While located within Flanders’ borders, Brussels is officially bi-lingual, although recent studies have shown accelerating numbers of registered French speakers, including the nearly one-in-three who hail from abroad.
Tens of thousands of Flemish people, meanwhile, took part on Sunday in an annual demonstration which consists in symbolically “encircling” Brussels by bike or on foot, to remind locals that they are surrounded by Flanders.
| — Hat tip: Henrik | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Sharia in Secular Societies at Venice Summer School
(ANSAmed) — ROME, SEPTEMBER 3 — The Summer School of the Marcianum High School — from September 6 to 10 in Venice — will also dedicate a session to Muslim law in secular communities, on September 9.
The initiative will be opened by the patriarch of Venice, card. Angelo Scola, who is also promoter of the International Foundation Oasis for dialogue between Christianity and Islam. International law experts will discuss various current topics: from privacy laws and wire taps to the right to information for newspapers and journalists, from the right to decide on one’s own death to the right to have a baby when and how you want. These issues have become more difficult due to the simultaneous presence in our modern plural society — a statement issued by the organisers reads — of different legal cultures that want to be recognised or, sometimes, want to be an alternative for the traditional legal culture for the country in which they are rooted, like the Islamic sharia. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Merkel Says Violence of Muslim Youths is a Problem in Germany
Berlin — Chancellor Angela Merkel has weighed in on Germany’s fierce immigration debate, acknowledging in an interview released Saturday that fervently religious Muslim youths tended to be more violent than others.
‘This is a big problem and we can talk about it openly, without arousing suspicions of xenophobia,’ Merkel said in the interview Bild am Sonntag newspaper, which is to be published Sunday.
Her comments came after central banker Thilo Sarrazin sparked outrage and debate with claims in his new book that Muslim immigrants are lowering German intelligence and harming society more than they contributed.
Merkel said it was important not to associate violence with a particular religion.
‘This is misleading. Violence amongst young people is often a sign that they see no perspective for themselves. All that helps is education, education, education.’
‘Our state is making many offers, but the main responsibility lies with the parents, and cannot be taken on by schools or the state,’ Merkel added.
Sarrazin, a member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) received partial backing from party leader Sigmar Gabriel, who said there was an element of truth in his book, entitled Germany Abolishes Itself.
‘I think we are experiencing much of what he is describing in (the book). There is no question,’ Gabriel said. However he did not share Sarrazin’s thesis that Muslim integration problems resulted from genetic predispositions.
The SPD has initiated procedures to evict Sarrazin from the party, while the central bank has asked President Christian Wulff to approve his dismissal from the bank’s board.
Merkel said it was crucial to maintain law and order in violent city districts with high migrant populations. She said one solution would be to hire more civil servants with a foreign background.
‘It would surely help if we had more migrants in the police, youth welfare offices and other authorities,’ Merkel told Bild.
| — Hat tip: Andy Bostom | [Return to headlines] |
Pro-Israel Groups Protest Berlin Al-Quds Day March
Head of German-Israeli Friendship Society: “Neo-Nazis use solidarity with the Palestinians as agitation against Israel, the only free democracy in the Middle East.”
BERLIN — Pro-Israeli organizations, Jewish community leaders and a representative of the Iranian opposition in Germany assembled in the heart of downtown Berlin’s bustling shopping district on Saturday to protest against an Iranian backed al-Quds Day march.
Jochen Feilcke, the head of German-Israeli Friendship Society in Berlin and Potsdam, criticized the “glorification of the Islamic Republic of Iran” by the al-Quds participants.
“Once again, the participation of neo-Nazis and other sympathizers of the mullah regime is expected and their goal is clear: Expressions of solidarity with the Palestinians will be used as agitation against Israel, the only free democracy in the Middle East,” Feilcke said.
The al-Quds demonstration has been an annual event in Berlin since 1996 and advocates the destruction of the Jewish state. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini established al- Quds Day in 1979 and it is now marked in the Islamic Republic and throughout the Arab world by calling for the abolition of Israel.
“These are people who only accept veiled woman, punish homosexuals, persecute political opponents and want to live according to Shari’a,” Maya Zehden, a spokeswoman for the Berlin Jewish community, said of the al-Quds Day protesters.
The “forces hostile to democracy, like radical leftists and rightist as well as religious fundamentalists, are marching with one goal: The destruction of Israel,” Zehden said.
“The people who call themselves peace activists” have aligned themselves with the anti-Israeli extremists, she said.
“Jewish institutions are receiving more threats in the meantime from… people from the Middle East [German Muslims] than from right-wing extremists,” Zehden said, addressing rising Islamic anti- Semitism in Germany.
“We expect our politicians to not allow themselves to agitate against Israel,” she said, in a reference to the Bundestag’s resolution slamming Israel for seizing May’s Gaza flotilla.
Zehden called on the German government to to clarify its foreign policy and engage in a debate about integration.
Dr. Kazem Moussavi, an Iranian living in exile in Germany, spokesman for the German chapter of the Iranian Green Party and a member of the Stop the Bomb coalition, called for the German government to “ban the anti-Semitic al-Quds march of the Holocaust-denying regime and the activities of its terror proxy organizations, Hamas and Hizbullah” in the Federal Republic.
Moussavi criticized German firms for supplying Iran with technology for nuclear weaponry and drone fighter planes.
He cited a September report in DerWesten, a newspaper in North Rhine-Westphalia state, on companies in the state propping up Iran’s military with made-in-Germany merchandise.
He blasted the 14 percent increase in German exports to Iran during the first half of 2010 over the same period in 2009.
Israeli, American, French, and British diplomats have complained about the Merkel administration’s failure to crack down on the trade relationship with Teheran. Critics at the pro-Israel rally said that despite UN, EU and US sanctions against Iran, German firms continue to defy sanctions seeking to force Iran to end its nuclear program.
A Berlin police spokesman told The Jerusalem Post that around 500 people appeared at the al-Quds Day. A police official at the anti-al-Quds protest told the Post that 150 people protested against the radical Islamists.
Jörg Fischer-Aharon, an organizer of the protest against al-Quds Day, said that 400 people attended the event.
As the pro-Islamic Republic march intersected with the Israel rally, a number of Islamists lunged at a demonstrator waving an American flag. Police pushed back the Iran-supporters.
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Refuses to Work in Disco ‘Mecca’, Offends Islam
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, SEPTEMBER 2 — A Muslim of Moroccan origin has refused to work in a disco in Aguila (Murcia), due to the establishment’s name, La Mecca, which “offends a holy place for Muslims”. The incident, which took place in the past days, has caused a controversy in Spain, after the intervention of the president of the Spanish federation of Islamic religious organisations (FEERI), Mohamed Hamed Ali’, who took a stance in favour of the employee. “The name Mecca is sacred for us Muslims” Hamed Ali’ explained in statements quoted by the press, “because it is the place everybody goes towards for prayer and pilgrimage.
It is the holy place par excellence, because it is where our Prophet received the Koran”. Naming a disco ‘Mecca’, according to Hamed Ali’, is “grotesque and shows a lack of respect towards Islam and Muslims”. Entrepreneurs reopened the historic disco in Aguila in June, after it had remained closed for ten years. The club has always had the same name. The businessmen minimise criticism: “It is like saying that the Basques offend the Christian religion because they call the Bilbao stadium the ‘Cathedral”‘, the comment. Antonio Garcia Petite, lawyer and founding member of the Muslim committee for arbitration and good deeds, has admitted that the that the name is commonly used as literary metaphor, like the ‘Mecca of film’ for Hollywood or the ‘Mecca of jazz’ for New Orleans.
However, he added that in the case of the club, the name “is absolutely inadequate”. The lawyer rejects “the assimilation of names of Islam’s holy places with absolutely mundane activities, which clash with the elementary principles” of religion, “like the consumption of alcohol”. So, the controversy has served its purpose. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Breaking News: Fundamentalist Sympathiser ‘Wins Labour Nomination’
By Andrew Gilligan
Lutfur Rahman, a councillor with close links to Islamic fundamentalism, has won the nomination to be Labour’s candidate for the first directly-elected executive mayor of Tower Hamlets, according to three sources. He was kept off the shortlist three times by the party amid deep concerns over his links with the Islamic supremacist group, the Islamic Forum of Europe. Yesterday we exposed how he had signed up entire families of sham “paper” members to get himself the nomination. Turnout in the party selection contest today was extremely — perhaps suspiciously — high, at around 70 per cent, double the expected figure.
It’s very bad news for Tower Hamlets, but it’ll certainly keep me in work. Watch this space..
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Dead Codebreaker Was Linked to NSA Intercept Case
A top British codebreaker found mysteriously dead last week in his flat had worked with the NSA and British intelligence to intercept e-mail messages that helped convict would-be bombers in the U.K., according to a news report.
Gareth Williams, 31, made repeated visits to the U.S. to meet with the National Security Agency and worked closely with British and U.S. spy agencies to intercept and examine communications that passed between an al Qaeda official in Pakistan and three men who were convicted last year of plotting to bomb transcontinental flights, according to the British paper the Mirror.
Initial news stories indicated Williams had been stabbed, but police have since disputed that information, noting that — other than being stuffed into a duffel bag — there were no obvious signs of foul play. A toxicology report is expected Tuesday.
Investigators say they haven’t ruled out the possibility that the codebreaker was killed over something related to his work. Rumors that sexual bondage equipment was found in his apartment were also nixed by police, who said the rumors were untrue and they found no evidence yet to suggest that anything in Williams’ personal life led to his death.
[…]
Williams was said to have worked with the NSA on e-mails intercepted between Abdullah Ahmed Ali and Assad Sarwar and Rashid Rauf, a British national in Pakistan who was allegedly director of European operations for al Qaeda. The e-mails, intercepted by the NSA in 2006, allegedly contained coded messages.
[…]
An unidentified Western intelligence source told the Mirror that Williams’ job would have had him participating in “crucial high-level meetings with American intelligence officers. His job would have been crucial to the security of the UK and our interests abroad — and also to America and Europe.
“Although not particularly high up the GCHQ ladder, the importance of his role should not be underestimated. The man was a mathematical genius.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnia-Turkey: Gul, Speed Up EU and NATO Integration
(ANSAmed) — SARAJEVO, SEPTEMBER 2 — “We must act quickly and with courage to speed up the association and integration process in the Euro-Atlantic structures, because many problems can be resolved more easily under the umbrella of these institutions”.
This remark was made today in Sarajevo by the President of Turkey, Abdullah Gul, during his two-day visit to Bosnia, in the company of a large group of businessmen, after his meeting with the Bosnian three-party presidency.
“Turkey has friendly feelings towards all ethnic groups, minorities and religious communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina” said Gul. The Turkish President announced that Ankara will continue to organise meetings with the leaders of Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia for “peace, stability and prosperity in the Balkan region”, adding that “nobody will be able to keep us” from working together on these goals.
In the past months, Turkey has organised several meetings between Foreign Ministers of the Balkan countries. In April, the country hosted a meeting between Gul, Serbia’s President Boris Tadic and the President of the Bosnian and Herzegovina, Haris Silajdzic.
These meetings and the increased Turkish commitment to the Balkans have been criticised by the Bosnian Serbs led by the Premier of the Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, who accuse Ankara of interference and of supporting only the interests of Bosnian Muslims. “Turkey’,’ Dodik said, “has an important role in international relations, but that doesn’t mean that the Republika Srpska must applaud their hidden political agenda”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Pledges Support for Bosnia’s NATO Bid
(ANSAmed) — SARAJEVO, SEPTEMBER 3 — Turkish President Abdullah Gul said Thursday Turkey attached great importance to Bosnia-Herzegovina’s integration into EU and NATO, and he pledged support to Bosnia’s NATO bid. “Because, we believe security and stability in the Balkans could be achieved more easily under the roof of both EU and NATO,” Gul told a joint press conference with Bosnia-Herzegovina’s Presidency Chairman Haris Silajdzic in Sarajevo.
However, as Anatolia news agency reports, Gul urged Bosnian government to make necessary reforms on the path to NATO and said Bosnia-Herzegovina should act together with surrounding countries to become a member of EU and NATO. On his part, Silajdzic said that Turkish President Gul underscored the importance of security and stability in the Balkans at their meeting and thanked Turkey for its support to Bosnia. Silajdzic described bilateral relations as perfect and said “it is a relation which I could even describe as extraordinary.” (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Education: U.S. Increase Aid to Egypt
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, SEPTEMBER 3 — The United States educational aid to Egypt have increased by 59.5 million dollars.
In this regard, Egypt’s International Cooperation Minister Fayza Abul-Naga signed an agreement to this effect on Thursday.
The US educational aid to Egypt currently stands at 492.3 million dollars.
In statements to reporters, Abul-Naga said that the US aid aims at supporting the education sector in Egypt, which is a top priority in the country.
The increased aid would also contribute to raising the level of efficiency of the workers in the education sector, she said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: TV Show Creates Tension With Morocco
(ANSAmed) — ROME, SEPTEMBER 2 — Egyptian TV show “Alaar the shame”, in which a Moroccan actress plays a woman of loose morals, is generating tension between the two Countries.
The matter was reported today by Arab news site Al Moheet.
The website reported that matters worsened when certain Moroccan press sources attacked Egypt accusing the government of adopting reactionary policies and of having forfeited the defence of Arab causes.
Moroccan hackers also attacked and damaged the website of Egypt’s Ministry of Information as a result of the TV show, as also reported in recent days by Cairo’s daily paper Al Ahram.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Talks: Palestinian Armed Groups Gather Forces
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, SEPTEMBER 3 — Seeing the conciliatory images from Washington that displayed Palestinian and Israeli leaders sitting at the same table, Hamas decided to raise its voice. While premier Benyamin Netanyahu and president Abu Mazen (Mahmud Abbas) ended their meeting, the armed wing of Hamas (the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades) sent its spokesperson Abu Obeida to the streets to announce a cooperation agreement with another 12 Palestinian fighting groups.
Abu Obeida, who claimed that new attacks are possible after the two recent ones in the West Bank, announced that “On August 30 we set up a common operations room”. Hamas and its allies will also strike in Israel and he warned that the return of suicide attacks cannot be ruled out. Two of the groups (Islamic Jihad and the Peoples’ resistance committees) were already gravitating around the al-Qassam Brigades. The others are deemed to be of small size, at least in Gaza. Meaningfully, some of the groups mentioned by Obeida (Saif al-Islam Brigades, al-Ansar Brigades, Humat al-Aqsa) seem to be connected to the Salafist movement, which is pro Al Qaeda.
In recent weeks Hamas drastically increased the virulence of its verbal attacks on Abu Mazen. from Damascus Khaled Mashaal, the political leader of Hamas, accused him of leading the Palestinian issue “to the slave market” when he accepted negotiations under the patronage of US president Barack Obama.
From Gaza another Hamas leader, Khalil al-Haya, warned that “the heads of PNA leaders will be trampled by the Hamas militia” should Abu Mazen give in to Israel. Yesterday Mahmud al-Zahar, the Hamas strong man in Gaza, stated that “the West bank must be freed, just like Gaza was set free” with the bloody coup against the PNa in June 2007.
Pro-Hamas websites believe that “Ramallah will become a new Baghdad”, in other words that some day pro-Wet Palestinians could be targeted. Another website calls for “people’s tribunals” for Palestinians negotiating with Israel. Already today the members of PNA security organisations are labelled by Hamas as “criminals and cowards” because of the wave of arrests that followed this week’s attack against four Israeli civilians that were killed near Hebron, in the West Bank.
According to the humanitarian organisation Pchr in the West Bank the PNA has arrested at least 150 Hamas activists, and hundreds more were questioned. Daily paper Haaretz explained that these massive investigations are driven by substantial foreign funds received by Hamas, especially through Palestinian businessmen. Abu Mazen’s security services were caught off guard and are trying to make up for lost time. Haaretz claimed that they have the feeling that sleeper cells in the West Bank received orders and means to destabilise the situation.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Blair Warns Against Deep-Rooted Radical Islam
Former British prime minister Tony Blair warned Sunday that the roots of radical Islam are far deeper than we think and said al-Qaeda would have killed 300,000 on Sept. 11, 2001 if they could.
“This is actually more like the phenomenon of revolutionary communism,” Blair said in an interview with ABC News, commenting on the reach of Islamic extremism.
“It’s the religious or cultural equivalent of it, and its roots are deep, its tentacles are long, and its narrative about Islam stretches far further than we think into even parts of mainstream opinion who abhor the extremism, but sort of buy some of the rhetoric that goes with it,” he added.
Blair said he didn’t understand fully the phenomenon at the time of 9/11, when al-Qaeda operatives hijacked planes and crashed two of them into the World Trade Center in New York, killing about 3,000 people.
“If these people could have killed 30,000 or 300,000, they would have,” Blair warned.
The former British prime minister’s remarks came just a week before the ninth anniversary of the attacks, which he said changed his outlook and led to perhaps the most controversial decision of his tenure — his support for the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
Blair said he felt “an enormous responsibility” for the lives lost in the conflict, which was fiercely opposed by many in Britain.
But he said sanctions aimed at crippling Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein were “crumbling” and there were real fears that his regime could help terrorists acquire weapons of mass destruction.
“My view was in the circumstances after 9/11, you have to send such a strong signal out on this issue,” he said.
The former leader took a similarly hard line on Iran, which many in the international community fear is seeking nuclear weapons under the guise of a civilian nuclear energy program.
“I would tell them they can’t have it, and if necessary, they will be confronted with stronger sanctions and diplomacy. But if that fails, I’m not taking any option off the table,” he said.
Blair said he did not favor war with Iran but added: “I’m saying I think you cannot exclude it because the primary objective has got to be to prevent them from getting a nuclear weapon.”
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Iranian Woman Facing Death by Stoning is ‘Lashed 99 More Times’ After Newspaper Prints Picture of Her Without Headscarf
An Iranian widow sentenced to death by stoning for adultery has been lashed 99 times for “spreading corruption and indecency” after a newspaper published an alleged picture of her without a headscarf, her son said last night.
Sakineh Mohammad Ashtiani, 43, was convicted of “adultery while being married” and given the death penalty after a trial over her husband’s murder in 2006.
The widow’s son Sajad, 22, has campaigned for her to be released and after the plight caused international uproar her execution was halted in July.
But supporters’ hopes have been dashed after Sajad said that his mother has been whipped 99 times after an apparent picture of her without traditional head-dress appeared in The Times last week.
The newspaper quickly withdrew the picture claiming it was of a different Iranian woman living in Sweeden but Sajad now fears that his mother could be hanged.
He said the photograph was an excuse to punish his mother and that the hardline Iranian government’s real purpose was to silence the international campaign to save her.
‘If it wasn’t the picture they would have found another excuse to try and silence her supporters outside Iran’, he said.
The Times said that it had been sent the photo “in good faith” by Mohammad Mostafaei, who was Sakineh’s lawyer in Tehran until he was forced to flee Iran at the end of July for publicising her plight.
There was no immediate independent confirmation of her son Sajad’s claim that the latest whipping sentence against his mother had been imposed or carried out.
Sajad has now begged Pope Benedict XVI to stop his mother’s execution. The Catholic Church opposes the death penalty.
Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said that no formal appeal had reached the Vatican. But he hinted that Vatican diplomacy might be employed to try to save Ashtiani.
He said: ‘The Holy See is following the case with attention and interest.
‘When the Holy See is asked, in an appropriate way, to intervene in humanitarian issues with the authorities of other countries, as it has happened many times in the past, it does so not in a public way, but through its own diplomatic channels.’
In response, the Vatican has raised the possibility of using behind-the-scenes diplomacy to try to spare Sakineh’s life.
But the mother-of-two could still face execution by hanging — and she was reportedly subjected to a mock execution last week.
And an extreme state-run newspaper last week branded Carla Bruni, France’s first lady, a “prostitute” after she condemned the stoning sentence against Sakineh.
Sakineh’s ordeal began when she was lashed 99 times in 2006 after being convicted of having an ‘illicit relations” with two men following her husband’s death.
Sajad, then just 17, chose to witness the flogging because he did not want his mother to suffer the terrifying and humiliating punishment alone.
Sajad said yesterday that his mother was strong at the time but expressed grave concern she could endure similar punishment now. “She has deteriorated so much since and, as she has been denied visits, we have no way of finding out how she’s coping,” he said.
Sakineh was originally acquitted of complicity in her husband’s murder but found guilty of adultery and sentenced to death by stoning.
But when her case provoked international outrage in recent weeks, the Iranian authorities claimed she was an accomplice in her husband’s murder. Her lawyers have accused the government of inventing new charges against her.
Italy’s foreign minister, Franco Frattini, said yesterday that a ‘gesture of clemency from Iran is the only thing that can save her.’
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Medicine: Mideast; Boom in Male Plastic Surgery
(ANSAmed) — ROME, SEPTEMBER 3 — In the last few years, there has been a staggering rise in men in the Middle East turning to plastic surgery and, although the figures are certainly higher for women, their partners are becoming increasingly involved in the process. In order to have “sculpted” bodies, they undergo operations from mammary reduction — which doctors in Dubai say are on the up — to liposuction, rhinoplasty, hair transplants and botulin.
“The number of men turning to plastic surgery has risen enormously,” says Sanjay Parashar, from the Cocoona Centre for Aesthetic Transformation. “Five years ago, I would see one male patient a week, around 15% of my clients. Now there are days when I have only male patients”. Care of appearance has become a significant issue for a growing number of men, partly as a result of the spread of internet and satellite television, complete with reality shows packed with footage of men untroubled by the passing of time and immune to physical defects. Looking younger or getting rid of a paunch seems to be the motivation that leads male clients to go under the knife in specialised clinics, which themselves have risen exponentially.
Jaffer Khan, a reconstructive surgeon at the Medical International Specialist Centre in Jumeirah, says that despite the difficulty in establishing firm figures due to the lack of a recognised order, there are currently around 25-30 specialists, compared to “the handful that operated in Dubai ten years ago”. There are no statistics available, but insiders say that the male market is made up of 50-60% of Western expats and 40-50% of local and regional clients, with the latter rising slightly.
Dubai is not the only place experiencing such a trend. In Bahrain, too, there has been debate for some time between those who consider it acceptable to go under the knife only in case of physical damage or accidents and those who believe that personal satisfaction can also come from the doctor’s table, without traditional virility taking a blow.
The trend has been welcomed by operators who have drawn up innovative new ways of attracting patients old and new, breathing new life into the region’s economy. In the light of this, July 2009 saw the creation of the Dubai Image Concept, the first agency specialising in “aesthetic tourism” in Lebanon: an all-inclusive package featuring an operation, post-op stay in luxury centres and even summer camps for the children of patients.
The scheme earned the plaudits of Nada Sardouk, the general director of Lebanon’s Tourism Ministry. “Aesthetic tourism is an idea that is widely recognised and appreciated and we sincerely hope that this initiative will contribute to our economy,” he said. Lebanon is indeed the favourite destination for surgery aficionados, thanks to the excellent value for money, with state-of-the-art facilities and specialist doctors charging rates significantly below average. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sri Lanka — Saudi Arabia: Colombo Activists and Religious Leaders Call for End to Abuse of Migrants in Saudi Arabia
In front of the Saudi Embassy in Colombo hundreds accuse their governments of failing to defend migrant rights. Protests triggered by the brutal story of a domestic worker tortured by her employers in Saudi Arabia who returned home with nails hammered throughout her body.
Colombo (AsiaNews) — Hundreds of human rights activists, religious leaders and local film stars have protested against the torture suffered by Sinhalese migrants in Saudi Arabia for work. On August 30 a crowd of people gathered in front of the Saudi Embassy in Colombo, shouting out slogans against the governments of Rhyad and Colombo, accused of doing nothing against the violation of human rights of migrants.
The protests were triggered by the brutal incident of LP Ariyawathi, a domestic worker of 49, tortured by the Saudi family where she worked. As punishment, employers hammered nails in her hands and forehead. Currently the Saudi authorities have denied the fact, accusing the woman of inventing everything for the purposes of extortion.
Ariyawathi worked for five months in a Riyadhi family. On August 21 she returned home telling the family she had been tortured by her employers for her inability to communicate in Arabic with the nails and pins planted in various parts of her body. Doctors at the Kamburupitiya Hospital (south of Sri Lanka) who last week visited the girl, confirmed the 24 nails five inch removed from her body long during an operation that lasted three hours.
In recent days, a Sri Lankan delegation was sent to Saudi Arabia to discuss the situation with Riyadh officials and seek an investigation. Kusuma Chandrakanth, a friend of the woman, told AsiaNews: “The Government Agency for foreign employment simply sends workers outside the country and are not interested in their suffering.”
Even Buddhist monk Baddegama Samithi, ,accuses the government of not doing enough for migrants. “Its not enough to send people to other countries to meet the demand for labour. The authorities have a great responsibility in defending the rights of all those who work abroad and send money home. “
Saudi Arabia employs over 1.5 million foreign nationals. Most of them are women from Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Philippines, Nepal. In recent years Human Rights Watch and other human rights groups have denounced the poor condition of workers. They are often victims of abuse, such as torture, unpaid wages and subjected to gruelling work hours without rest.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: In Jakarta, Ministers and Lawmakers Involved in Corruption Scandal
Golkar’s Paskah Suzetta is accused of corruption and bribery to favour the re-election of Miranda Gultom as deputy chief of Indonesia’s central bank. Many lawmakers are involved in the scandal. Ms Gultom has not yet been charged but it is believed that she provided the money needed to “buy” her appointment.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) — The Indonesian Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has added former National Planning Board Minister Paskah Suzetta (pictured) on its list of suspects after charges were laid against him for corruption and bribery. The affair is bound to widen since former Indonesian Central Bank Deputy Governor Miranda Gultom and the wife of former Indonesian Police Deputy Chief, Nunun Nurbaeti Daradjatun, also appear to be involved in the scandal. Ms Gultom’s re-election in 2004 was apparently made possible by bribes and a flow of cash into the pockets of many lawmakers.
Mr Suzetta, a senior politician with the Golkar Party, is among 25 high profile suspects involved in the KPK investigation, which touches dozens of lawmakers and top political leaders.
Wednesday night, KPK deputy chief M. Jassin outlined the latest developments in the anti-corruption investigation, causing uproar and controversy in public opinion.
Agus Condro Prayitno, an ex-politician with former President Megawati’s PDIP party, made the revelations about the kickback scheme that could lead to Miranda Gultom’s downfall. He said that he and dozens of other lawmakers received billions of rupiahs to guarantee Ms Gultom’s re-election as deputy governor of the Bank of Indonesia, Indonesia’s central bank, in 2004. Her bid for a second term was in fact successful.
Agus Condro, who is also suspected for corruption, said he decided to disclose the facts to clear his conscience, stating that he had returned the money gained unlawfully.
According to Bibit Samad Riyanto, another KPK deputy chief, some members of parliament got more than 1.45 billion rupiahs (US$ 160,000) for supporting Miranda Gultom.
Altogether, 51 lawmakers from the Ninth Commission of the House of Representatives (People’s Representative Council), which oversees banking affairs, are accused of corruption.
In exchange for a favourable vote, the politicians received money from Nunun Nurbaeti Daradjatun, a broker close to the former deputy chief of the Bank of Indonesia.
Ms Nunun, the wife of former Deputy Police Chief Adang Daradjatun and current Member of Parliament for the pro-Islamic PKS party, is in Singapore at present for health reasons. She is believed to have channelled a total of 24 billion rupiahs into the pockets of members of parliament.
Indonesian public opinion has welcomed the latest developments in the anti-corruption probe. Graft and corruption are endemic in Indonesia, and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono made them a key part in his re-election campaign.
Still, despite suspicions over her role in paying out kickbacks, Miranda Gultom has yet to be officially charged.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pak Minister Wants Obama to be “Leader of All Muslims”
Islamabad, Sep 2 (PTI) A Pakistani minister wants US President Barack Obama to offer Eid prayers at Ground Zero in New York and become the “Amir-ul-Momineen” or Caliph of Muslims.
Minister of State for Industries Ayatullah Durrani, who belongs to the ruling Pakistan People”s Party, said the upcoming Eid-ul-Fitr festival, expected to be observed on September 11, would be a “golden opportunity” for Obama to offer Eid prayers and declare himself the leader of all Muslims.
“In this way, all the problems of the Muslim world would be solved,” Durrani told The Nation newspaper.
Durrani, a former member of the Pakistan Ideological Council, contended that the Muslim world is in “dire need” of a Caliph and occupying this distinguished slot would provide Obama “exemplary titles” like “Mullah Barack Hussain Obama” or “Allama Obama”.
He said: “The time is approaching fast. Barack Hussain Obama must act now. This is a golden opportunity, Muslims badly need it.”
Obama”s elevation to the Islamic Caliphate would be the “key to success, he claimed but did not offer any explanation for his remarks.
“Ground Zero” is the former site of the fallen twin towers of the World Trade Center.
| — Hat tip: Andy Bostom | [Return to headlines] |
China’s Secret Satellite Rendezvous ‘Suggestive of a Military Program’
Earlier this month, two Chinese satellites met up in orbit. Depending on who you believe, it’s either a sign of China’s increasingly-sophisticated space program — or a sign of its increasingly-sophisticated space warfare program.
A well-regarded Russian space watcher was the first to note that the two satellites, newly-launched SJ-12 and two-year-old SJ-06F, had performed maneuvers indicating a cutting edge procedure called non-cooperative robotic rendezvous. A loose network of amateur space spectators and astronomers soon congregated online, and confirmed that the sats had, indeed, converged.
This kind of rendezvous can have extremely useful, and benign, applications: removing space debris, refueling satellites or repairing craft in orbit. But the military apps are massive, and include up-close inspection of foreign satellites, espionage — and the infliction of some serious damage to adversarial space infrastructure. In other words, orbital warfare that, given just how reliant we are on satellite technology, would have widespread consequences on the ground.
[…]
“There’s still a vague possibility that this was a matter of computational bias and coincidence,” Oberg says. “But the silence here is suggestive of a military program.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
France Says Turkey Not Safe for Refugees
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, SEPTEMBER 1 — The French Office for Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (OFPRA) has excluded Turkey from its list of safe countries for refugees, Haberturk daily newspaper reports today. In July the top French administrative court concluded that the decision to add Turkey to the list of safe countries was a mistake. Habertürk says that the French decision was “shocking.” (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
New Evidence Undermines Feds’ Case Against Arizona
You’ve heard a lot about the Justice Department’s lawsuit to stop the new Arizona immigration law. But that’s just one part of the Obama administration’s multi-front war on immigration enforcement in Arizona.
In addition to the drive to kill the new law, Attorney General Eric Holder is also suing the Maricopa Community College system in Phoenix, alleging it broke the law by requiring a job seeker to provide a green card before being hired. And on Thursday the Justice Department filed suit against the Maricopa County Sheriff’s office, run by the flamboyant Joe Arpaio, as part of an extended investigation into alleged civil rights violations there.
Despite the splash of attention from the newest lawsuit, the Justice Department’s investigation of Arpaio could end badly for Holder. When the Department first informed Arpaio that a probe was under way, back in March 2009, it sent a letter saying the investigation would focus on “alleged patterns or practices of discriminatory police practices and unconstitutional searches and seizures.” But now we learn that just six months before that, in September 2008, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, known as ICE, did its own investigation of Arpaio’s office — and gave it a clean bill of health. Arpaio’s lawyers recently got a copy of the ICE report through the Freedom of Information Act.
[…]
The report, crammed with acronyms and bureaucratese, is not light reading. But struggle through it, and the key sentence is this: “The OI and DRO supervisors consider the conduct and performance of the MCSO … officers to be professional and meeting the requirement of the MOA.” Translated, that means officials from the Homeland Security Department’s Office of Investigation (OI), along with officials from the Detention and Removal Operations office (DRO), concluded that the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO), in its handling of illegal immigrants, acted in a professional manner and complied with a memorandum of agreement (MOA) under which the government gave them the authority to enforce federal law. That agreement included a ban on racial profiling.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Yes, BBC Was Biased: Director General Mark Thompson Admits a ‘Massive’ Lean to Left
BBC Director General Mark Thompson has admitted the corporation was guilty of a ‘massive’ Left-wing bias in the past.
The TV chief also admitted there had been a ‘struggle’ to achieve impartiality and that staff were ‘ mystified’ by the early years of Margaret Thatcher’s government.
But he claimed there was now ‘much less overt tribalism’ among the current crop of young journalists, and said in recent times the corporation was a ‘broader church’.
He claimed there was now an ‘honourable tradition of journalists from the right’ working for the corporation.
His comments, made in the New Statesman magazine, are one of the clearest admissions of political bias from such a senior member of its staff.
The BBC has long been accused of being institutionally biased towards the Left, and an internal report from 2007 said it had to make greater efforts to avoid liberal bias.
That report criticised the BBC for coming late to several important stories including euroscepticism and immigration, which it described as ‘off limits in terms of a liberal-minded comfort zone’.
Speaking of the time when he joined the BBC, Mr Thompson told the magazine: ‘In the BBC I joined 30 years ago [as a production trainee, in 1979] there was, in much of current affairs, in terms of people’s personal politics, which were quite vocal, a massive bias to the Left.
‘The organisation did struggle then with impartiality. And journalistically, staff were quite mystified by the early years of Thatcher.
‘Now it is a completely different generation.
‘There is much less overt tribalism among the young journalists who work for the BBC.’
He told the New Statesman: ‘The BBC is not a campaigning organisation and can’t be, and actually the truth is that sometimes our dispassionate flavour of broadcasting frustrates people who have got very, very strong views, because they want more red meat.’
Mr Thompson also connected his religious faith as a Catholic with working at the corporation.
He said people joined the BBC because it is an organisation moved by a sense of values.
He added: ‘I do think the BBC is very much — sometimes frankly, almost frighteningly so — a values driven organisation.’
‘People’s sense of what’s right and wrong, and their sense of justice, are incredible parts of what motivates people to join.
‘I’m part of that. For me, that’s connected with my religious faith but the key thing is: you don’t have to be Catholic.’
Mr Thompson described relations between the BBC and the recently ousted Labour government in its last few years as ‘quite tetchy’.
But he said he was optimistic about a good settlement in forthcoming licence fee discussions with the Coalition.
He denied the organisation was one of ‘glorious freeloading’ but conceded: ‘We had our moments in the past’.
The interview came after Mr Thompson gave the prestigious MacTaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh Television Festival last month where he said millionaire stars face the axe or having their salaries slashed.
Yesterday it also emerged the BBC is facing the threat of strikes after thousands of journalists, technicians and other staff voted massively in favour of industrial action in a row over pensions.
Members of the National Union of Journalists and the technicians’ union Bectu backed walkouts by more than 9-1 in protest at ‘punitive’ changes to the staff pension scheme.
Unions held back from naming strike dates so that talks can be held over the next two weeks in the hope of resolving the dispute.
| — Hat tip: Henrik | [Return to headlines] |
Eugenics: The Real Reason for Legalized Abortion
For almost 40 years, we’ve been told that the legalization of abortion was about “reproductive freedom” and “women’s rights” and “choice.” Now, an explosive new documentary is exposing this rhetoric as nothing more than marketing hype designed to conceal a nasty hidden agenda.
With a mountain of documentation, Maafa 21, is proving to audiences all across America that the real motivation behind the legalization of abortion was eugenics and racial genocide. In just over two hours, the documentary shows that the legalization of abortion was part of a campaign that had been created, promoted, and financed by a small cartel of ultra-wealthy elitists.
Most frightening of all, Maafa 21 shows that this effort continues today with massive financial and political backing from a new generation of ultra-wealthy elitists.
[…]
Some people are also surprised to learn about the numerous links among America’s number one abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, its founder Margaret Sanger, and the American eugenics movement. They learn that Sanger gave a speech to a chapter of the Ku Klux Klan and was then invited back to speak to 12 “similar groups,” as she wrote in her autobiography.
They learn that Planned Parenthood was an integral part of the sterilization boards that operated in more than 30 states. They learn that Sanger once tried to merge Planned Parenthood with the American Eugenics Society.
The revelations go on and on and each one is fully documented.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
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