China Pledges: We’ll Prop Up the Eurozone and Keep Greece Afloat
China last night offered to bail out debt-ridden Greece — and pledged to support the eurozone countries during the global crisis.
Premier Wen Jiabao made the offer at the start of a two-day visit to the crisis-hit country.
‘China is holding Greek bonds and will keep buying bonds that Greece issues,’ said Wen. ‘We will undertake to support eurozone countries and Greece to overcome the crisis.’
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Ireland’s Austerity Programme Was Bogus
It has not been a pleasant few days to be an Irishman. The Irish Government’s gamble in guaranteeing 100 per cent of all banking deposits, seen as a cheap way to avoid bank runs during the start of the financial crisis, committed it to enormous bailouts of any banks that ultimately did fail. This resulted in the Irish state having to bail out the property development bank Anglo Irish Bank last week. It was confirmed that worst-case scenario bill for bailing out the Irish banks will be over €50bn — roughly €25,000 for every taxpayer in the country. To compound this, the “bad bank” set up to purchase toxic property development assets is likely to cost at least another €50bn. Although this is said to be a once-off bailout, it is likely that further injections of public money will be required in the years to come. Ireland has tried to spend its way out of a banking crisis — a mistake which may ultimately cause the collapse of the state’s finances.
Many in Britain have held Ireland up as a model of austerity because of cuts to expenditure made last year, but this misunderstands the true extent of Ireland’s difficulties. Ireland’s structural deficit of 12 percent — the worst in the EU — means that for every three euros the Irish Revenue brings in, five euros are spent by the government. Although some cuts have been made, Ireland’s government is still the most profligate borrower in the EU. The consensus that some banks are “too big to fail” has ruined Ireland’s finances, and failure to make savage cuts in government spending may doom them. Bond markets agree: the Irish Minister for Finance is literally a laughing stock among bond investors. It hardly seems as if things can get worse for Ireland, but unless there is a swift change in the government’s thinking, things will. Ireland’s addiction to spending funded by borrowing will cripple it. Like all addictions, the only cure is immediate abstention — a slow weaning-off will not work if the global economy continues to stagnate. The Irish government should end all non-essential expenditures immediately.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Middle-Class Families Face Losing Child Benefit Under ‘Biggest Shake-Up of Welfare System in 70 Years’
Up to two million parents could lose their child benefit payments under the ‘biggest reform of the welfare system in 70 years’.
Plans are being drawn up to scrap the benefit for children over 16 as part of root-and-branch reforms to save £2billion a year. The benefit is currently paid until the child is 18.
Middle-class families could lose their child benefit altogether if the Chancellor, George Osbourne, decides to means-test the payments.
Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, today said the current range of dozens of benefits would be replaced by a single ‘Universal Credit’ after sealing a deal with Mr Osbourne.
Mr Duncan Smith said it was ‘bonkers’ that people on sizeable incomes were receiving benefits.
‘Under the last government, the whole benefit net rose up the income scale dramatically, where you had people on over £50,000 who were eligible for some form of benefit. I think that is completely bonkers,’ he said.
The two men had clashed repeatedly over how to fund the changes, with the heavy up-front costs causing alarm in the Treasury as the coalition struggled to slash budgets.
However, a compromise has been reached to stagger implementation of the reforms over two parliaments.
The Government has described the proposals as the biggest reform of the welfare system in 70 years.
Formally announcing the reforms as the Tory conference started in Birmingham, Mr Duncan Smith said they represented ‘the dawn of 21st-century welfare’.
‘To those that have been marginalised and abandoned to a life on benefits by Labour I say: we will get you back into work and in control of your life,’ he insisted.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Amanpour Gets an Earful on Islam
Christiane Amanpour had a kumbaya today on Muslims and America today. Daisy Khan of Victory Mosque fame and others were there.
Why can’t we just get along.
From the transcript (the show airs at 11:30 AM):
AMANPOUR: Let me ask you, Reverend Graham, you have said — and you said not so long ago — that President Bush and President Obama made a great mistake when they said that Islam is a peaceful religion. It’s not, you said. There’s no evidence in its history. It’s a religion of hatred. It’s a religion of war. And repeatedly you’ve said that Islam is wicked and evil. Why do you say that?
REV. FRANKLIN GRAHAM, PRESIDENT, SAMARITAN’S PURSE/THE BILLY GRAHAM EVANGELISTIC ASSOCIATION: First, Christiane, I understand what the Muslims want to do in America. They want to build as many mosques and cultural centers as they possibly can so they can convert as many Americans as they can to Islam. I understand that. And—
AMANPOUR: That’s what you — that’s your position?
GRAHAM: Sure. And I understand — I understand what they’re doing. And I just don’t have the — the freedom to do this in most Muslim countries. We can’t have a church. We’re not able to build synagogues. It’s — it’s forbidden. But let me just say something about Islam. I — I love the Muslim people. But I have great difficulty with the — with the religion, especially with Sharia law and what it does for women — toward women, toward non-believers, the violence that is given in — under Sharia law.
[…]
CHOUDARY: we do believe, as Muslims, the East and the West will one day be governed by the Sharia. Indeed, we believe that one day, the flag of Islam will fly over the White House. Indeed, there’s even an oration of the Prophet where he said, “The day of judgment will not come until a group of my oma… [interrupted] Conquer the White House.”
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Jon Stewart, TV Scourge of America’s Right, Turns His Satire Against Barack Obama
Jon Stewart, the famously smart host of the satirical Daily Show and habitual scourge of rightwing Americans, has embraced a remarkable new role as one of the fiercest critics of President Barack Obama and someone who is spearheading a wave of liberal discontent with the Democratic party.
The turnaround is a remarkable one for a man whose show soared to national and international fame during the George W Bush era, on the back of incessant ridicule of Republican policies and personalities.
But over the past year Stewart, who was a notable supporter of Obama in the presidential election campaign of 2008, has taken an increasingly strident tone on a wide range of White House policies, from the war in Afghanistan to gay rights and the economy.
Last week Stewart twice took on Obama head-on in brutal attacks during his trademark monologues at the start of the Daily Show. On Wednesday night he lambasted the president and the Democrats for their lack of backbone when it came to standing up to Republicans. “We came, we saw, we sucked,” Stewart mockingly quipped.
The outburst created waves and prompted the influential gossip website Gawker to describe the incident under the headline, “The night Jon Stewart turned on President Obama”.
Stewart followed up the next night by mocking Obama’s recent campaign appearances in people’s backyards, as a way of attempting to reconnect with disaffected voters. “Sir, you’re the leader of the free world, you’ve taken the presidency from Air Force One to backyard number two,” he said.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Moderate Muslims Must Rein in Radical Brethren
We are living the age of discontent — with Islam.
Government leaders and ordinary people around the world seem to be giving up on the view, oft-argued since 9/11, that Islam is not to blame for the violent acts of its militant miscreants. That is spawning an epidemic of attacks on Muslims, their religion, its icons, practices and customs.
We all know about the long and acrimonious debate over the Islamic cultural center near ground zero in New York. We saw the violence that erupted over that wacko preacher’s threat to burn Qurans in Gainesville, Fla. He backed down, but then late last month British police arrested six men who had burned a Quran and posted a video of their antics on YouTube.
Those were the most public developments, but consider some of the less-known incidents, all in the past couple of weeks or so. The French Senate voted to forbid Islamic women to wear face-covering veils. Then, a few days later, the nation’s police chief warned of a “peak” terror threat from al Qaeda.
In Germany, Thilo Sarrazin, the author of a new book that disparages Muslim immigrants, was forced to leave the board of the state’s central bank because of controversy over his anti-Islamic views. More than 4 million Muslim immigrants now live in Germany, and the book prompted a broad national debate on the issue. Resulting surveys showed that “many ordinary Germans support Sarrazin and his provocative ideas,” the news magazine Der Spiegel reported.
In Sweden, an anti-immigrant party particularly obsessed with Muslim immigrants won seats in parliament for the first time. One of its leaders proclaimed Muslim population growth to be Sweden’s greatest foreign threat since World War II.
[…]
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Report Clears Obama Administration Over Role in Kenya Election, As Congressman Objects
A government watchdog has issued a report saying it found no evidence that the Obama administration illegally funded groups seeking to legalize abortion in Kenya for the first time with changes to the constitution — a conclusion that immediately was blasted by one of the administration’s top critics on the issue.
Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, the top Republican on the House Africa panel, said the report by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) inspector general was “poorly researched, superficial, incomplete and a whitewash.”
“This was not a well-researched investigation,” he said in a written statement. “We had expected the truth and nothing else. We had hoped the IG would dig deep for the facts. This is the most superficial report I’ve seen in my 30 years in Congress.“
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US to Issue Terror Warning to Americans in Europe
The US government is to warn its citizens to stay away from high-profile sites in Europe amid renewed fears over al-Qaida terrorist attacks, reports say.
American and UK officials are understood to have been in contact over the possibility of a broad alert being issued as early as today that would have significant implications for tourism across Europe. High-profile tourist sites and transport hubs are expected to be highlighted as potential targets.
However, reports suggested the warning was likely to be vague and urge people to exercise caution rather than cancelling travel plans altogether.
A senior US state department official said: “We are considering issuing an alert [today]. The bottom line is travel, but be vigilant.”
State department spokesman PJ Crowley would not comment on specific threats, but said the US remained focused on al-Qaida threats to US interests and would take appropriate steps to protect Americans.
The warning comes one week after intelligence officials in Britain intercepted a credible Islamist-linked terror plot. The attack would reportedly have been similar to the deadly commando-style raids in Mumbai, India, two years ago, with other European cities, in France and Germany, also targeted.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Britain Upgrades European Travel Advice Due to Rise in Terror Threat
Britain has followed the United States in upgrading its travel advice for Europe and warning of a heightened risk of terrorist attacks.
The foreign office said there was “a high threat of terrorism” in Germany and France, having previously identified a “general threat”.
The new advice comes after British security and intelligence sources said last week that a plot to launch “commando-style” attacks on Britain, France, and Germany had been intercepted and foiled by drone attacks on militants based in Pakistan.
The foreign office is warning that “attacks could be indiscriminate, including in places frequented by expatriates and foreign travellers”.
The move follows the US, which today issued updated advice for Europe as a whole, warning terrorist targets could include “public transportation systems and other tourist infrastructure”.
The state department said: “Current information suggests that al-Qaida and affiliated organisations continue to plan terrorist attacks. European governments have taken action to guard against a terrorist attack and some have spoken publicly about the heightened threat conditions.”
The home secretary, Theresa May, described the US advice as “consistent with our assessment”. “As we have consistently made clear, we face a real and serious threat from terrorism,” she said.
Britain’s terror threat rating remains at “severe”, the second highest rating, where it has been since rising from “substantial” in January.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Geert Wilders and European Democracy
The trial of the Dutch parliamentarian for ‘hate speech’ is of immense importance.
The outcome of the current trial of Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders on charges of “incitement to hatred” will represent a watershed in Europe’s response to the challenge of Islamic fundamentalism.
Wilders, nicknamed Mozart because of his blond hair, is somewhat of a maverick. Voted politician of the year in 2007 by the Dutch media, he is a charismatic and popular politician who displays refreshing contempt for the hypocritical political correctness relating to Islam that has enveloped Europe. Some polls suggest that in an election now, his Freedom Party could become Holland’s largest parliamentary party.
Wilders opposes what he regards as the craven appeasement of the Netherlands and most European nations to intimidation and threats of violence from Islamic fundamentalists.
Against the background of the massive influx of Muslim immigrants, he fears that having embraced post-modernism and cultural relativism, most Europeans lack the stamina to maintain their core values and are capitulating to Muslims determined to impose Shari’a law in Europe.
Wilders refers to Islam as “the Trojan horse in Europe” and predicts that “if we do not stop Islamification now, Eurabia will just be a matter of time. One century ago, there were approximately 50 Muslims in the Netherlands. Today, there are about one million. Where will it end? We are heading for the end of European civilization.”
As a youngster, Wilders lived for two years in Israel, which he describes as “the West’s first line of defense,” and has visited the Jewish state more than 40 times. He says that “we in the West are all Israel… The war against Israel is not a war against Israel. It is a war against the West. It is jihad.”
Two years ago, Wilders produced an explosive film titled Fitna, which graphically depicted the violence and denial of human rights prevailing in many Muslim countries. It highlighted practices such as stoning of adulterous women, beheadings, execution of apostates, honor killings, hanging of homosexuals, forced child marriages, female circumcision and other odious practices prevailing to this day in many Islamic societies.
Wilders denies he is a racist or fascist, insisting that “I make a distinction between the ideology of Islam and the people,” emphatically reiterating that “my allies are not Le Pen or Haider… we will never join up with fascists”.
IN THE current political environment, the critique of Islam carries heavy personal costs beyond political fallout. The rewards offered by Muslim extremists to anyone who succeeds in killing Wilders are not idle threats, as evidenced by the murder by a fanatical Muslim of Dutch media personality Theo Van Gogh several years ago. Over the past five and a half years Wilders has been under 24-hour police protection.
However, Wilders may have over-reached himself when he called for the banning of the Koran, which he compared to Mein Kampf, alleging that it incites Muslims to resort to violence. Whilst such provocative statements may have been deliberately expressed to dramatize the dangers confronting Europe, they alienated many who would endorse his calls to heed the dangers of Islamic fundamentalism because it would require Muslims to renounce their religious identity and sacred texts and thus run counter to all democratic principles.
This, together with his production of Fitna, led to him being charged with incitement to hatred and provided a rationale for many European politicians and governments to accuse him of demagoguery and promoting Islamophobia for political gain. For a time, he was even banned from the UK as an “undesirable person.”
That is not to deny that the Koran contains problematic sections which are cruel, violent, anti-Semitic and conflict with the human values which we cherish. But offensive expressions can be selectively extracted from sacred writings of all the major religions, including Christianity and Judaism.
Religions must be judged by the manner in which teachings are applied today. Wilders would have been better served had he concentrated on the fact that today, the dominant elements in Christianity and Judaism promote peaceful coexistence and tolerance whilst global Islam is associated with violence and murder.
The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) is conscious of the growing anger and resentment of Islamic extremism in Western countries. To counter this, it has been employing its clout within the United Nations and other international organizations to create a climate in which any criticism of Islam, Islamic practices or behavior would be deemed a criminal offense and subject to prosecution. Since 2005, non-binding resolutions to this effect have been overwhelmingly endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly.
The OIC is now attempting to impose resolutions that would oblige UN member states to implement these draconian restrictions of freedom of expression. They appear to be succeeding…
| — Hat tip: CB3 | [Return to headlines] |
German President Welcomes Islam During Unity Speech
German President Christian Wulff said Sunday that Islam had a place in Germany, during a speech celebrating two decades of reunification.
The president, who holds a largely ceremonial position but is considered a moral authority for the nation, used the televised ceremony to wade into a debate over immigrant integration that has captivated public attention for weeks.
“First and foremost, we need adopt a clear stance: an understanding that for Germany, belonging is not restricted to a passport, a family history, or a religion,” he told an audience in the northern city of Bremen.
“Christianity doubtless belongs in Germany. Judaism belongs doubtless in Germany. That is our Judeo-Christian history. But by now, Islam also belongs in Germany,” he added.
Wulff’s speech was part of nationwide festivities marking reunification in 1990, after Germany spent a half-century divided into two countries following defeat in World War Two.
His comments came after a sustained public discussion on the role of immigrants, most of whom were seen until a decade ago as “guest workers” who would eventually return to other countries.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Italians Win Spoof Nobel for Advocating Random Promotions
Catania trio take management prize for improbable research
(ANSA) — Rome, October 1 — An Italian trio are among the winners of this year’s spoof Nobel prizes for improbable research for their study suggesting companies would be best promoting employees randomly rather than on merit.
Catania University’s Alessandro Pluchino, Andrea Rapisarda and Cesare Garofalo took the IgNobel prize for management, one of ten awards handed out by real Nobel laureates at Harvard University on Thursday.
The awards’ stated aim is to honour “achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think” and in the process “spur people’s interest in science, medicine, and technology”.
The Catania team did this with a work focusing on the implications of the so-called Peter Principle, developed in the 1960s by Canadian psychologist Laurence J. Peter.
According to this, in hierarchical organizations people rise up until they are out of their depth and reach their level of “maximum incompetence”.
Pluchino, Rapisarda and Garofalo used a game theory-like approach to look at alternative promotion strategies, and concluded that the best way to avoid the Peter Principle was to promote at random.
“It might appear paradoxical, but random promotions seem to give good results and increase the organization’s efficiency,” they said.
Other winners at this year’s awards included Britain’s Gareth Jones of Bristol University, who showed that female short-nosed fruit bats that perform oral sex on their mates copulate for longer.
The physics prize went to New Zealand researchers who revealed that people are less likely to slip on icy paths if they wear their socks outside their shoes.
A team at England’s Keele University took the peace prize for proving that swearing relieves pain.
Although receiving a spoof Nobel might seem a backhanded compliment to some, the Italian team were delighted to get one.
“It may get a cheap laugh at first, but the IgNobel is quite a prestigious prize and lots of people take interest in it,” the trio said at the ceremony attended by 2004 Nobel physics winner Frank Wilczek, among others.
“Let’s hope it gives further visibility to our research so that it can reach a broader public outside the field of science”.
Italy has a proud record at the spoof awards and Pluchino, Rapisarda and Garofalo are now the country’s fourth IgNobel winners. Two years ago Massimiliano Zampini, an experimental psychologist from northern Italy, showed in a study that potato chips that sound crunchier, taste better too, winning a nutrition gong.
In 2000 a Pisa University team found that love was like obsessive-compulsive disorder and in 2003 a Rome group won for a work entitled Politicians’ Uniquely Simple Personalities.
The Vatican also picked up a prize, for economics in 2005, for a study of “outsourcing prayer in India”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi: ‘Inquiry Into Left-Wing Judges’
Premier in unguarded remarks slams judicial ‘conspiracy’
(ANSA) — Rome, October 1 — Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi has repeated charges that left-wing magistrates and prosecutors are out to bring down the government and thinks a parliamentary commission should be set up to identify them.
In a video filmed outside his Roman residence on September 29 and posted on the website of left-leaning daily La Repubblica, Berlusconi is heard to tell young supporters: “We should ask for a parliamentary commission to name names and say, as I believe, whether there is a conspiracy within the judiciary…among left-wing judges who want to overturn the electoral result”.
“There’s an accord between left-wing judges…who want to eliminate an elected representative”. The premier, who is the subject of two trials in Milan, repeated his claim that “sovereignty is in the hands of the left-wing prosecutors”.
He described one of his trials, for allegedly paying British lawyer David Mills for favourable testimony, as “a joke”.
Berlusconi is reportedly planning a fresh shield to give him immunity from the Mills trial and another one involving alleged tax irregularities at his Mediaset media group.
Previous shields were struck down as unconstitutional.
Since his entry into politics in 1994 the premier has been the subject of some 15 cases but has never received a definitive guilty verdict, sometimes because of law changes by his own governments and sometimes on the statute of limitations. He has always denied wrongdoing.
All the cases stem from Berlusconi’s activities as a businessman before he entered politics. In comments on Berlusconi’s latest remarks, Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said it was “undeniable” that “for 16 years we have seen attacks from a small part of the judiciary which is politicised and dangerous for the country”.
The Party of Italian Communists recalled the premier’s conciliatory remarks on judicial reform in confidence speeches this week and accused Berlusconi of being a “Jekyll and Hyde” who “cannot be tolerated by a civilised society”.
“What crime has Italy committed to deserve Berlusconi,” it said.
Other left-wing parties, as well as the prosecutors and judges union, decried the remarks, some even saying the premier should resign.
Government parties defended them and said the issue should be addressed in upcoming judicial reforms.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Council Removes Conkers From Tree After Little Girl Suffers a Fractured Skull
They have been collected by countless generations of eager schoolchildren at this time of year for a spot of harmless fun.
But, if one council is to be believed, conkers are a major health and safety risk.
Nottingham City Council has removed all the conkers from one horse chestnut after a girl was hurt by a falling branch.
It said the branch was believed to have been thrown into the tree by a group of children who were hoping to dislodge the conkers so they could stage tournaments.
On Friday — more than a year after the accident — the council sent out staff with a cherry-picker to remove every single conker on the tree, which is on a school route.
Yesterday, the council’s actions provoked angry protests from residents who said it was a waste of money.
In an online forum, one said: ‘This is absolutely pathetic.’ Another added: ‘This madness must stop. This is why our council tax is so high.’
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Muslim Woman Sacked From Estate Agency for Refusing to Wear a Headscarf
A Muslim woman has been awarded more than £13,500 after she was sacked for refusing to wear a headscarf at the estate agency where she worked.
Ghazala Khan — a 31-year-old non-practising Muslim — was fired less than two weeks into her job at a company run by traditional Muslim businessman Masood Ghafoor simply because she refused to cover her hair.
Mr Ghafoor told Miss Khan, who had nine years experience in the trade, that his wife and female relatives all wore full veils or burkas, telling her that her parents had given her ‘far too much freedom’.
A tribunal heard that Miss Khan had been employed to run Mr Ghafoor’s Go Go Real Estate office in Leeds, West Yorkshire, in June 2009.
However, within days of working there she was left feeling ‘very uncomfortable and intimidated’ when Mr Ghafoor put it to her that she had not been brought up as a ‘good Muslim’ and that if she had been his daughter she would not be allowed to work and would have been long since ‘married off’.
He asked her to wear a headscarf at work — even though white non-Muslim women he employed in the same office were never asked to and never did.
On the day she was due to start her third week in the job, Mr Ghafoor told her not to bother coming in.
When she eventually caught up with him later that evening he told her that members of the Muslim community had been ‘gossiping’ and suggested that she was not ‘respectable’ and that there might be ‘something going on’ between her and members of staff.
Mr Ghafoor added that his cousin Shakeel, who was also employed in the office, was unhappy working with a female especially as she did not wear a headscarf, was not religious and was Westernised.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
UK: SAS Officers Warn That Britain is Unprepared for a Mumbai-Style Attack
Two former senior commanders of the SAS have warned that Britain’s security forces would be unable to cope with a Mumbai-style terrorist attack in central London.
Colonel Richard Williams and Lieutenant General Sir Graeme Lamb said that such a “paramilitary threat” would “overmatch” any land-based police force and turn London into a war zone.
Writing in The Sunday Telegraph the two officers said an attack launched against an office block in Canary Wharf could result in up to a thousand office workers being trapped in a single building, where they could be “murdered one by one, floor by floor”.
The two decorated SAS officers said the terrorist attack would equate to “9/11 in slow motion”.
He added: “This would temporarily create a war zone within London and one that cannot effectively be countered by the police alone. The police are good at policing but we doubt they would want to try war fighting.”
[…]
Both officers believe that such a threat could be countered in part by the creation of an armed reservist marine force equipped and trained to intercept and search every suspect vessel entering the Thames which could block “this avenue of attack”.
The officers argue that such a force would be relatively inexpensive, because it would be based on reservists who cost 80 per cent less than regulars, and would greatly add to home land security.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Several British Muslim Schools Forcing Every Pupil to Wear the Veil — and Ofsted Inspectors Have Approved Them
At least three Muslim faith schools are forcing girls as young as 11 to wear face-covering veils with the blessing of Ofsted inspectors, it emerged yesterday.
One of the schools insists that fees are paid in cash and warns parents against speaking to the local education authority.
All three schools have been approved by education watchdog Ofsted, which inspects private faith schools to ensure they prepare pupils for life in modern Britain and ‘promote tolerance and harmony between different cultural traditions’.
The schools’ dress codes yesterday provoked anger among mainsteam Muslims, who warned that pupils were in danger of being ‘brainwashed’.
The three schools causing concern were Madani Girls’ School in Tower Hamlets, east London, Jamea Al Kauthar, in Lancaster and Jameah Girls’ Academy in Leicester.
All three are independent, fee-paying, single-sex schools catering for girls aged 11 to 18.
They insist that when girls are travelling to and from school they wear the niqab, a face veil leaving the eyes exposed, or the head-to-toe burka, which covers the eyes with a mesh screen.
School uniform rules listed on Madani’s website have been removed but an earlier version, seen by the Sunday Telegraph, said: ‘The present uniform conforms to the Islamic Code of dressing. Outside the school, this comprises of the black Burka and Niqab.’
The admission application form warns that girls will be ‘appropriately punished’ for failing to wear the correct uniform.
Madani, which charges fees of £1,900-a-year, also says on its website: ‘All payments should be made in cash. We do not accept cheques.’
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Waitrose Forced to Ditch Halal Lamb From Duchy Range
Waitrose is to introduce a range of non-halal lamb products as a response to customers’ concerns about its meat supplies.
Until now, all lamb sold by the store has been slaughtered in accordance with Islamic law, with a Muslim reciting a prayer in Arabic over the meat.
But Waitrose said last night that, from now on, organic Welsh lamb from its Duchy Originals range — established by Prince Charles to market produce from his estates — will no longer be halal.
Waitrose said they made their decision in order to give customers ‘more choice’. But their reversal of policy comes a week after The Mail on Sunday revealed how most British supermarkets were secretly selling halal meat — especially lamb — without telling customers.
The investigation found that most New Zealand lamb sold in major British supermarkets was halal, meaning that the prayer ‘In the name of Allah, who is the greatest’ is said at the time of slaughter. Stores selling lamb slaughtered according to Islamic law included Waitrose, Marks & Spencer, Tesco and Sainsbury’s.
After inquiries by The Mail on Sunday last week, Waitrose said: ‘We have decided to offer our customers an option to buy lamb which has not received the halal blessing.’ Waitrose said that all their other lamb produced in the UK and New Zealand will continue to be halal without being described as such on the packaging.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Wilders Trial Tests New Coalition
Geert Wilders, the anti-Islam politician and silent partner in the new Dutch government, is due in court today to face charges of incitement to racial hatred, in a trial that will further strain the consensual style of Dutch politics.
The case comes as the Netherlands prepares for its first stable government since February after members of the Christian Democrat party approved a coalition agreement with the VVD Liberal party and Mr Wilders’ PVV at a divided party congress on Saturday.
Though the far-right PVV will not receive any cabinet seats, it has agreed to support the new minority government in exchange for concessions on immigration, including a planned ban on the full Islamic veil announced last week.
A sizeable minority of Christian Democrats were uncomfortable sharing a platform with Mr Wilders even before the start of what promises to be a spirited trial over the next month.
The 47-year-old bleached-blond Mr Wilders is answering charges relating to his claims in a 2007 newspaper column that the Koran is “fascist”, and for encouraging Muslims to tear out pages of their holy book in a 2008 film. “Geert Wilders is convinced he has said nothing that is reprehensible,” Bram Moszkowicz, his lawyer, said.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Administration Tells Israel: Make Us Look Good For Election and We Will Reward You (A Little Bit)
By Barry Rubin
Contents of a White House letter have been published saying what the Obama Administration will offer Israel if it extends the moratorium on building inside West Bank settlements for two months. The specific proposals reveal again how the White House doesn’t seem to understand the situation, or perhaps is thinking of something other than the Israel-Palestinian peace process.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu couldn’t continue the freeze because there isn’t enough support in his coalition for doing so. Thus, minor U.S. offers don’t change that fact in any way. Moreover, the main underlying problem is lack of confidence that the Palestinian Authority (PA) wants peace with Israel, is willing to compromise, or will implement commitments in future. As you read this, keep in mind all of the problems I’ve written about which Israel must keep in mind in making any peace agreement.
When we consider the specifics, then, the U.S. offer isn ‘t relevant. But there are more problems:
First, the administration offers not to seek an extension of a two-month freeze. Why two months, why not three or four? Why not two weeks?…
| — Hat tip: Barry Rubin | [Return to headlines] |
The Netanyahu Goverment at Its Halfway Point: Keeping Things Quiet?
By Jonathan Spyer
The key policy challenge put forth by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been the threat of the Iranian nuclear program. Yet there is a sense of contradiction between his bold assertion of dangers that must be stopped (when in opposition) and his cautious, tentative treatment of issues once in office. This contradiction appears to mirror his performance as prime minister from 1996 to 1999. At its halfway point, the second Netanyahu premiership has been characterized by pragmatism, caution, and a general desire to preserve the status quo. This approach is, however, unlikely to prevent the emergence of a nuclear Iran, Netanyahu’s primary goal.
From 1996-2000, Benjamin Netanyahu served as prime minister of Israel. He was re-elected to the post in 2009. His second period of incumbency is taking place during a time of severe foreign policy challenges for the Jewish state. Building an effective response to these challenges is at the center of the agenda that Netanyahu has set himself.
The key challenge put forth by Netanyahu is the threat of the Iranian nuclear program. However, the perceived gravity of the Iranian nuclear threat is related to other aspects of the Israeli prime minister’s conception of the region, and the threats facing Israel therein. Unlike many of his predecessors, Netanyahu came to the prime ministership with a worldview and strategy clearly articulated and written. As such, it is possible to some degree to measure the success or failure of his prime ministership to date in its own terms against a fairly clear yardstick.
This article will attempt to outline the core foreign policy perceptions and goals of the Netanyahu government in a number of central areas. Key events from the time Netanyahu took office in March 2009 will be discussed. Throughout, the policy success or failure of the actions of the government will be assessed in terms of Netanyahu’s own professed goals and objectives. The domestic political constraints incumbent on the prime minister, and his success or failure in navigating these and ensuring the survival of his government, will also be considered.
The Make-Up of the Netanyahu Government
The second Netanyahu prime ministership emerged from an unprecedented political situation in Israel. Prior to the elections of 2009, following every election since the foundation of the state, the president had tasked the leader of the party with the largest Knesset (Israeli legislature) representation with forming a governing coalition. In the elections of 2009, however, Kadima under Tzipi Livni won the largest number of seats (28), while Netanyahu’s Likud won only 27.[1]
However, the overall right-wing bloc won more seats than that of the left, which presumably guided President Shimon Peres’s decision to give the task of attempting to form a government to Netanyahu. The president sounded out party leaders in the days following the election, and based on the apparent likelihood that a Netanyahu-led coalition would prove more stable, he approached the Likud leader.
Netanyahu and Livni failed to reach agreement regarding a possible national unity coalition bringing Likud and Kadima together. The issue that prevented this was Livni’s insistence on the rotation of the prime ministership, which Netanyahu was not prepared to consider. Rotation would have involved Netanyahu and Livni agreeing that one of them would hold the prime ministership for the first two years of the government, after which the other would take over. Such an arrangement has a precedent in Israel in the national unity government of 1984 to 1988, when the premiership was shared between Shimon Peres of Labor and Yitzhak Shamir of Likud.
Netanyahu then set about creating a coalition that would bring in parties to the right of the Likud and religious parties, as well as the left of center Labor Party. Labor, once the main party of Israel’s center-left, went from being the second largest party to fourth place in the 2009 elections, making it a viable secondary coalition partner.
The government eventually formed by Netanyahu and the Likud included Labor, the right-wing Russian immigrant party Yisrael Beiteinu, and the Sephardic Haredi party Shas. Also in the coalition were the Haredi United Torah Judaism list and the small, nationalist religious Habayit Heyehudi list. This coalition gives Netanyahu a comfortable Knesset majority of 75 seats in the 120-member Knesset.[2]
As shall be seen, from the point of view of Netanyahu’s preferred policy direction, the coalition that emerged was favorable. Had he succeeded in bringing Kadima, along with Labor, into the coalition the Likud would have represented the rightist edge in the government and thus would have been vulnerable to the possibility of being “ganged up on” by the two large parties to its left. In the coalition that emerged, the center-right Likud was in the comfortable position of occupying the center ground—between Labor to its left and Yisrael Beiteinu and Shas to its right. The presence of the right-wing elements (Yisrael Beiteinu, the small Ha’Bayit Ha’Yehudi party, and Shas) in the coalition would also provide a certain “balance” for Netanyahu from the demands of the U.S. administration, a situation that would not have pertained in a Likud-Labor-Kadima coalition. The element of balance derives from the fact that Netanyahu could credibly claim that reckless or hasty moves with regard to the Palestinians could lead to the collapse of his coalition, hence the need for him to tread carefully…
| — Hat tip: Barry Rubin | [Return to headlines] |
Armenian Church Outraged by Turkish Nationalist Prayer
The Armenian Apostolic Church on Saturday expressed outrage at a Muslim religious service held in an Armenian holy site in eastern Turkey, calling it a serious blow to efforts to improve Turkish-Armenian relations.
In a written statement, the church’s Mother See in the Armenian town of Echmiadzin strongly condemned the Turkish government for allowing the country’s leading ultranationalist party to hold a Friday prayer at the 11th century Holly Virgin Cathedral in Ani, the ruined capital of a medieval Armenian kingdom.
“This action is a political provocation that has nothing to do with spiritual-virtuous feelings and religious freedom and rights,” read the statement. “At the same time it is an attempt to negate the Armenian origin of the Ani cathedral, which was deprived of prayer as a consequence of the [1915] Armenian Genocide.”
“It is also absolutely unacceptable to make a Christian shrine available for ‘namaz’ (Muslim prayer) while consistently forbidding legal heirs to the Christian heritage [in Turkey] to perform worship in their own temples,” it said. “Thus, the Turkish authorities are continuing their steps aimed at destroying Armenian monuments and misappropriating historical Armenian holy sites and cultural treasures.”
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Bomb Threat Forces Russian Plane to Land
The Yak-42 plane, en route from Moscow to the Chechen capital of Grozny, landed at an airport near the city of Volgograd, said Sergei Izvolsky, a spokesman for Russia’s federal aviation authority, Rosaviatsia. “All of the passengers are safe,” Izvolsky told Reuters. He said authorities had evacuated the plane and were searching for explosives. Russia is fighting an Islamist insurgency in Chechnya — where separatist rebels have fought two wars with Moscow since the mid-1990s — and neighbouring provinces in the mainly Muslim North Caucasus.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Computer Games Firm Scraps Plan to Allow Players to Take Role of Taliban Fighters Killing U.S. Troops
The makers of a popular video game have scrapped plans to allow players to take on the role of a Taliban fighter and kill U.S. troops.
Electronic Arts said it had dropped the Taliban option from its forthcoming ‘Medal of Honor’ video game following protests from politicians and families of troops in Afghanistan.
[…]
As is common in many video games, players can switch sides to play the enemy.
When opting to play as part of the anti-U.S. force, the player will select ‘OPFOR’ — a military term for opposing force — instead of ‘Taliban’.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Dozens of Europeans in Terror Training
ISLAMABAD — Dozens of Muslim militants with European citizenship are believed to be hiding out in the lawless tribal area of northwestern Pakistan, Pakistani and Western intelligence officials say, training for missions that could include terror attacks in European capitals. Officials have used phone intercepts and voice tracking software to track militants with ties to Britain and other European countries to areas along the Afghan border. Al-Qaida would likely turn to such extremists for a European plot because they can move freely in and out of Western cities. Fear that such an attack is in the planning stage has prompted the U.S. State Department to advise Americans traveling in Europe to be vigilant. American and European security experts have been concerned that terrorists based in Pakistan may be plotting attacks in Europe with assault weapons, similar to the deadly 2008 shooting spree in Mumbai, India. U.S. intelligence officials believe Osama bin Laden is behind the plots. A senior official of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI, told The Associated Press that there are believed to be “several dozen” people with European citizenship — many of Pakistani origin — among the Islamic extremists operating in the lawless border area. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not supposed to talk about classified information to the media, said foreigners in the area also include Chechens, Uzbeks, Arabs and Turks, one of whom was a former F-16 pilot in the Turkish air force. “That shows you that some of the people who are coming are very well educated,” he said. “It was very surprising for us but they come thinking this is the pure (Islamic) ideology that they are seeking.”
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
US ‘To Increase Drone Attacks in Pakistan’
Predator and Reaper drones have been lent by the US military to the CIA as part of a shift in strategy that underlines the Obama administration’s view that Pakistan is unable or unwilling to target Islamist sanctuaries on its own soil. Tensions between the US and Pakistan have flared after a key route used to supply American troops in Afghanistan was shut after three Pakistani soldiers were killed in an attack by a Nato helicopter gunship.
On Friday, insurgents attacked fuel tankers in Pakistan in another indication of the increasing vulnerability of Western supply routes. The additional drones enabled the CIA to increase the number of strikes in Pakistan in September, averaging five strikes a week that month, up from an average of two to three per week. This increase in drone activity was partly aimed at disrupting a suspected terrorist plot to strike in Western Europe. Americans officials believe Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders are behind plots potentially aimed at Britain, France and Germany.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
China’s Sea Power, Among Other Powers
May God help us, and our Asian allies too, if we don’t right now step back from our own self-immolating socialist precipice
Recent publications (such as the attachment) have highlighted China’s dramatic improvements in naval power. It’s not just China’s navy. The army & air force, as well as rocket force, have dramatically improved their capabilities in the last decade. And modernization is only starting, now with a powerful coal-fired economic engine to generate it. “It” may well end up being far more than just a military of just a China that we recognize on maps today. “It” may be a far different looking and behaving China than what we have seen in nearly two centuries.
China’s designs could end up like a world-changing meteor crash.
[…]
China’s sea power wasn’t the first warning sign, but it is the most easily visible warning sign. We could have noticed the signs outlined above. We might also have noticed who is financing the USA’s massive federal debts, ever since President Clinton pronounced China is the USA’s “strategic partner” and “Made In China” began to supplant all else in the USA’s department stores, automotive supplies, and hardware aisles … and computer components.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
I Migrated to Europe With Hope. Now I Feel Nothing But Dread
When I arrived with my mother in Rotterdam in the late 1970s, we thought we had found a safe haven. Coming from the sharp-edged mountains of north Morocco, the streets of the Low Countries felt like a place where everything could be done better. It did not seem possible that, 30 years later, the likes of Geert Wilders would wield influence, pushing his ban on the burqa, but then there were no burqas to be seen in the street.
The Netherlands felt like a country that would never betray me. I was greeted with enthusiasm at kindergarten; my name was the longest among the pupils and it was assumed I was very proud of that. Dutch culture was like a tattoo being imprinted on my brown skin. I learned the language and delighted in excelling at it in front of my teachers. I was their dream of multiculturalism: a foreigner who showed he could adapt to their culture through language. The mothers of classmates would inform me that they loved Moroccan cuisine, especially couscous. They would speak vividly, romantically about foreign cultures such as mine, and I felt proud. The fact that I was different made me feel special. And the Dutch created wonder in me as a child. They tolerated their dogs on their couches; they gave generously to faraway peoples suffering from disaster and sickness. I didn’t only read fairy tales, I lived one.
Then came the fall of the Wall, the 1990s and change. Europe decided it needed immigrants. The first change I saw was at home. My parents, growing older, gave up hope of the family returning to Morocco. Slowly, the feeling took over that we were here to stay, maintaining the privileges and opportunities of living in Europe. With that came the unease that their children would lose their identity. Already, we spoke Dutch, not Berber.
Meanwhile, the Dutch were waking up to the reality that most immigrants would never go back. Friday evening in Rotterdam saw large groups of immigrant children in the streets, estranged from their roots, trying to find solace in consumerism and urban culture, but also feeling alienated from Dutch society. Turks hung out with Turks, Moroccans with Moroccans. The melting pot didn’t heat up, the elements weren’t mixing. In my neighbourhood, former convicts stopped me to talk about Islam. They felt that my staunchly secular lifestyle would not only bring disaster to me, but also to the spiritual community of Islam. A young friend introduced me to his uncle who had just came back from Afghanistan. He was a mujahid.
I failed to see the shift. Immigrants had been seen by most Dutch as a marginal, colourful people from whose shops they could buy their meat and vegetables at ridiculously low prices. I knew this because my father had a butcher’s shop and I would sell them their lamb chops. As the 1990s progressed, the difference between allochtoon — one “originating from another country” — and autochtoon — “one originating from this country” began to be emphasised. Allochtoon started becoming synonymous for criminality, big families, bad living and Islam. This wasn’t restricted to Holland. In Germany, questions were being raised about Turkish immigrants adhering to a fundamentalist Islam. Thousands of young French-Algerian football fans stormed the pitch when France played Algeria, their way of saying: “We don’t feel we belong in this country.”
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
C-Span Uses Tea Party Rally Photo Shot for Leftist “One-Nation Rally”
CSPAN is airing the leftist “One Socialist Nation” rally today in Washington DC.
Unfortunately, they didn’t have a good crowd shot of the turnout… So they used a photo from a Glenn Beck tea party rally.
[Look at images at Gateway Pundit for photo verification and links. Even C-Span…]
| [Return to headlines] |
Dueling Realities
See the instant animated GIF comparison between the 8/28 and 10/2 rallies.
“No match. At all. May it be a foreshadowing of the coming election…”
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Now ‘Under God’ Dropped From Gettysburg Address!
‘We now have positive evidence they know exactly what they are doing’
Barack Obama twice in recent days has dropped from a quotation from the Declaration of Independence a reference to the “Creator,” and now a columnist at First Things has documented how a self-described “leading progressive legal organization” has simply dropped “under God” from the Gettysburg address.
[…]
Now comes word from Robert George, the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton, writing in the August/September edition of the First Things website, which is run by The Institute on Religion and Public Life, a nonpartisan research and education institute designed to “advance a religiously informed public philosophy.”
He wrote of attending a conference where the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy was distributing copies of a pamphlet with the Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg Address and the Constitution.
[…]
He described how, since he had memorized the Gettysburg address in school, he started reciting it, then stumbled on the final paragraph, so he opened the booklet and read: “It is rather for us, the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that, from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here, gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth.”
Wrote George, “Deeply moving — but…”
“Did you notice what had been omitted? What’s missing is Lincoln’s description of the United States as a nation under God. What Lincoln actually said at Gettysburg was: ‘That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Saturday’s “One Nation Working Together” Rally
Organizers of Saturday’s “One Nation Working Together” rally at the Lincoln Memorial are proud of their diversity. Before the event, they predicted it would be the “most diverse march in history.” It turned out they were right. Looking around the rally, there were Teamsters Local 311, Service Employees International Union Local 1199, Communications Workers of America Local 2336, American Federation of Teachers Local 1, United Auto Workers Amalgamated Local 171, Transport Workers Union Local 100, and representatives of many, many other unions. That’s a lot of diversity
[…]
The union presence was so ubiquitous and so organized that it made for a kind of color coding in the crowd. Looking around, there were large groups of people bunched into separate areas, all wearing the same color T-shirts to mark their union affiliation. There were groups wearing the purple SEIU shirt, others wearing the red CWA shirt, others wearing the blue AFT shirt, and still others wearing green shirts and yellow shirts and so on. There were long rows of tables where union workers sat waiting to get people connected to their groups and their buses. There were thousands of union-printed signs.
[…]
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Non-Believers Under Muslim Law
Discussed in this essay are the laws and status of those persons in Islamic lands who are not Muslims. This group is mainly composed of Jews and Christians, called dhimmis. What is important about this topic is it communicates better than any other method the true historic beliefs of Muslims towards Westerners. Therefore, it indicates how a good Muslim should view a non-believer, especially if they ever achieve control of a formerly non-Islamic state, like America.
The problem in Muslim lands for dhimmis (protected non-Muslims) is summed up by Patrick Sookhdeo, in Freedom To Believe, where he explains that most Muslim countries have dual justice systems with Western civil courts, and also Muslim Shari’ah (Islamic Law) courts. Most of these countries have signed various world human rights agreements. So how do these Islamic states get away with categorizing Muslim and non-Muslim with different status in the Muslim courts? By subverting these agreements under the Shari’ah, according to Sookhdeo.
Every Islamic country has different application of Shari’ah law. Further, modernity has made great inroads against regimes attempting to use primitive Muslim law. But enough Shari’ah remains in various countries, such as Saudi Arabia and Iran, to cause concern. Also, bear in mind America’s worst Muslim enemies call for pure Shari’ah. But the main lesson to take from this study is how Muslims see unbelievers and how they choose to treat them when no one is looking. This alone should help us better understand people like the Ground Zero Mosque Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, and his secret aspirations.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
We Allow Them to Blackmail Us — Islam vs. The West
The Muslim world does not have to fire a single shot; the Western world is capitulating to the Islamists’ every demand. Three recent events show the continuing and relentless interplay among Islamists worldwide.
The latest assault is playing out in Spain. La Meca, a popular “discotheque in southern Spain, has agreed to change its name and architectural design” because of pressure from Islamic extremists who find the name of the discotheque and its design “offensive and insulting to their religion.”
Like the Danish cartoon uproar in 2005 when Muslims took to the streets in outrage because the newspaper Jyllands-Posten published a series of twelve cartoons about the prophet Muhammad, the Spaniards now find themselves being threatened and sued by Islamic organizations. Moreover, this incident has sparked a diplomatic confrontation and has created an international uproar within the Muslim world.
The Spanish nightclub event began in August 2010 “when a Senegalese immigrant rejected a job offer at La Meca because the club’s name offended his religion. Soon after, a group of Muslim radicals posted a video on the Internet calling for a boycott of Spanish goods and a jihad against those who ‘blaspheme the name of Allah.’“
In fact, in early September, Spain’s intelligence agency actually warned La Meca’s owners that the discotheque was being directly targeted by Islamic extremists. Mohamed Ali, of the Spanish Federation of Islamic Entities stated that “calling a place for dancing and drinking by that name is grotesque and constitutes a lack of respect for Muslims.” A suit against the discotheque is being considered “for insulting the honor of [Islam.]”
The net effect is that yet another European country is now surrendering to the demands of Muslims who claim that “territories once occupied by Muslims must remain under Muslim domination forever.” In September of this year, the Spanish intelligence agency “reported a jihadist ‘media offensive’ unlike any seen since the March 2004 attacks in Madrid. Analysts say that … jihadists are now calling for a ‘crusade’ that involves Spain’s two North African enclaves, Ceuta and Melilla.”
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
2 comments:
Moderate Muslims Must Rein in Radical Brethren
From the full article: And it is certainly true that the vast majority of the world's 1.5 billion Muslims oppose the violence instigated by some of their religious leaders.
Really? What proof is there for making this assertion? Where are the mass rallies in every Muslim-majority country whenever another terrorist atrocity is perpetrated? Where are the influential Muslim clerics and imams vociferously condemning Islamic intolerance for other faiths?
This is just more of the usual cultural relativism. Muslims believe that they are the Master Race™ and there is little in the way of any indication to the contrary.
But until these Muslims step up and make a concerted effort to curtail the provocateurs, they will continue to take some of the blame. It's just human nature.
Welcome to the world of cognitive dissonance. Cultural relativism does not allow for collective blame or guilt. So, it suddenly becomes a moral failing of people or "just human nature" to collectively blame Muslims for Islamic terrorism.
Pure horseradish! It is "just human nature" to hold responsible those who are most to blame for a given problem.
Those who are best suited to quashing Islamic terrorism are Muslims. Far less well-suited are Western militaries. Yet, it is most likely to them that the task will fall. There is no reasonable expectation that Western troops will make any sort of delicate or fastidious effort at segregating terrorists from Muslim ranks.
Howl though they might, Muslims will find themselves bearing the brunt of their collective inaction. They will have no right to complain. That time has already passed and continued Muslim silence is now overt consent to ongoing global terrorism.
C-Span Uses Tea Party Rally Photo Shot for Leftist “One-Nation Rally”
A comment by gus at Gateway Pundit encapsulates the outrageous fraud of this latest fauxtography from the Leftist MSM:
So they tell us that the BECK RALLY wasn’t that big ,then they use the Beck Rally photo it to make the LIBTARD rally look big.
Priceless!
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