Currency War a Risk to Recovery, Warns IMF Chief
The head of the International Monetary Fund has waded into the growing international row over exchange rates, warning against governments using exchange rates as a weapon.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn said governments are risking a currency war if they use exchange rates to solve their own problems. He told the Financial Times: “There is clearly the idea beginning to circulate that currencies can be used as a policy weapon.”
He added: “Translated into action, such an idea would represent a very serious risk to the global recovery … Any such approach would have a negative and very damaging longer-run impact.”
Finance ministers from the G7 are set to discuss growing concerns over currency wars on the sidelines of the annual IMF gathering in Washington on Friday, as some governments manipulate their currencies to bolster exports.
The Bank of Japan reinstated its zero interest rate policy and pledged to buy ¥5tn (£37bn) of assets, leading to a drop in the yen. In recent weeks it also intervened in the currency markets to weaken the yen for the first time in six years, although the impact was short-lived. Brazil has threatened intervention to weaken the real, and on Monday doubled a tax on foreign investors buying local bonds to put a lid on a recent rally in its currency.
Brazil’s finance minister, Guido Mantega, coined the “international currency war” phrase last week, following a series of interventions by central banks in Japan, South Korea, Switzerland and Taiwan to make their currencies cheaper.
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| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
IMF Warns UK Cuts Must Stop if Growth Slows
Britain’s Coalition government would have to revisit its plans for deep spending cuts if growth substantially disappoints, the International Monetary Fund has warned.
The fund’s latest World Economic Outlook (WEO) report also raised the prospect of another fall in UK house prices, cautioning that property is overvalued. Although a recent IMF report praised the Government’s plans for fiscal consolidation, Olivier Blanchard, the fund’s chief economic counsellor, insisted these would have to be reassessed in the event of a upset to recovery.
The remarks were “generic”, said Mr Blanchard, adding that they applied to all advanced economies, not just the UK. Even so, they could put the IMF at odds with Chancellor George Osborne, who seems determined to push ahead with deficit reduction regardless of its impact on growth. Mr Blanchard said the UK’s plans would undoubtedly have a negative impact on growth, but did not think they would kill growth entirely and thought the risks of a double-dip recession were “low”. Speaking at the launch of the WEO, Mr Blanchard said the prospects of world growth falling below 2pc, a level in keeping with renewed recession the West, were less than 5pc. He added that the scale of the fiscal consolidation in the UK needed to be bigger than some other major, advanced economies because the initial deficit was also much bigger. Mr Blanchard said that monetary policy needed to be kept accommodative in advanced economies, though he warned “not much more can be done, and one should not expect too much from further quantitative or credit easing”.
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| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Recession in Ireland Leading to Rise in Sex Addiction
The number of people being treated for sex addiction and other addictive behaviour in Ireland has surged during the recession. Experts say thousands of Irish men particularly are using pornography to cope with stress and give them a sense of empowerment in their lives. Alcoholism, gambling and compulsive behavior is also on the rise Clinical practitioners believed that this is due to the people of Ireland finding ways to cope with street. Colin O’Driscoll , the Director of the private Forest treatment centre, in County Wicklow, said that the increase in pressures during recession was the cause of this increase. “I think there is a lead-in time so I don’t think we are seeing the level of sex addictions that are going to reveal themselves. I think we will see more over the years,” he said while speaking to the Sunday Tribune. “There are a few reasons; firstly (online porn) industries are marketing themselves very skillfully. The Internet is very new and 20 years ago this would have been an issue we wouldn’t be discussing. “You could almost call it aggressive marketing strategies. With Internet porn there are loads of pop-up ads and unsolicited emails come into your account.” O’Driscoll has also marked an increase in the number of people seeking professional help for compulsions such as gambling, eating and alcohol. He believes that all of these are bolstered by marketing tactics.
| — Hat tip: McR | [Return to headlines] |
Communism ‘Taking Over’ Stage in L.A.
Extremists boast ‘deeply gratifying’ to see many Latinos in attendance
Communism has taken over theaters in Los Angeles — the largest Spanish-speaking city in the U.S. — boasted the official publication of the Community Party USA.
“Communism has taken over the stage at the Los Angeles Opera,” began a review of a new Spanish opera, “Il Postino,” by Mexican composer Daniel Catán, now receiving its world premier at L.A.’s opera house.
The review, published in People’s World Weekly, the newspaper of the Communist Party USA, hailed the Spanish-language opera and the number of Latinos present in the audience.
“The fact that it is written and performed in Spanish is significant in Los Angeles of 2010, the largest Spanish-speaking city in the United States. It was deeply gratifying to see large numbers of Latinos in attendance.”
“Watch for Communism coming to your local operatic stage soon!” the communist newspaper exclaimed.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Democrats Look to Cultivate Pot Vote in 2012
Some pollsters and party officials say Democratic candidates in California are benefiting from a surge in enthusiasm among young voters eager to back Proposition 19, which would legalize marijuana in certain quantities and permit local governments to regulate and tax it.
Party strategists and marijuana-legalization advocates are discussing whether to push for similar ballot questions in 2012 in Colorado and Nevada—both expected to be crucial to President Barack Obama’s re-election—and Washington state, which will have races for governor and seats in both houses of Congress.
Already, a coalition of Democratic-leaning groups has conducted a poll in Colorado and Washington to test the power of marijuana measures to drive voter turnout.
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Democratic strategists liken the marijuana effort to the 2004 ballot drives to ban gay marriage in Ohio and 10 other states. Whether those measures helped then-President George W. Bush win that year remains a point of debate, as turnout was high even in states without the issue on the ballot. But many conservatives say the measure drove thousands to the polls in Ohio, the election’s central battleground, where Mr. Bush won by just two percentage points, or about 118,000 votes.
Now, some Democratic strategists say marijuana legalization could do the same for their party. Should they move forward in 2012, they likely would have the backing of liberal philanthropist Peter Lewis, chairman of Progressive Insurance Cos.
Mr. Lewis said through a spokesman that changing marijuana laws is “emerging as one of the leading national issues in the coming years.…Change is inevitable and my priority is to make that change positive.”
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Feds Build $1 Billion Virginia Office Complex Without Parking or Roads to Get to it
The federal government has built a one billion dollar office complex in Virginia to house some 6,400 Pentagon workers that are to be moved soon. It’s a beautiful new office complex that rises like a mountain next to Northern Virginia’s I-395. But there are a few little problems.
There is no parking for one thing and for another, even if there was a parking lot for 6,400 workers, there are no roads to GET them there!
That’s right, there is no access that won’t cause tremendous traffic jams for the area. Worse, there aren’t any bus or Metro train stops anywhere near the building so workers cannot even take advantage of the Washington area’s extensive public transportation network to get to their new offices.
Since the problem was fully realized the state and the feds have been arguing back and forth about the traffic problem all to no avail. No ramp from the highway has been built because the plan offered put that ramp too close to a nature area and no local roads can handle the additional traffic for 6,000 some workers.
But just think of what this means. The federal government approved the construction of a building for 6,400 Pentagon workers and never once had any idea how those workers were going to actually get to work! No road projects were approved, no parking arranged, no public transport set up.
A giant office complex sits nearing completion costing a billion dollars and no one can get to it.
This is the complete incompetence of government on full display.
And these people want to handle our vital healthcare?
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Gov’t-Run Health Care Death Sentence in Az: No More Liver Transplants for Hep-C Patients
Arizona’s Medicaid agency will no longer cover some non-experimental organ transplants for its adult members, including liver transplants for patients with Hepatitis C, a move blasted as “a death sentence” by one patient advocacy group.
[…]
In a memo announcing a number of benefits changes for adults 21 and older, the state’s Medicaid agency said it was responding to “significant fiscal challenges facing the State and substantial growth in the Medicaid population.”
As of October 1, the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System will no longer pay for liver transplants for patients with Hepatitis C; certain heart and bone marrow transplants; or lung and pancreas transplants.
The new transplant exclusions took effect Friday as part of broader Medicaid coverage changes mandated by the State of Arizona in response to budgetary pressures…
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How Social Entrepreneurs Heal the World’s Wounds
Kamel Jedidi and Bruce Kogut
Yes, you can do real good and do well at the same time.
In the wake of the fierce debate surrounding the potential establishment of an Islamic center a few blocks from Ground Zero, as well as the recent threat by a pastor of a small fringe evangelical church to hold a public Koran burning, there has been much talk about building bridges and interfaith dialogue. We believe in such initiatives, but we also strongly believe there are other ways of normalizing relations between groups that sometimes clash.
At Columbia Business School, we have found that building educational programs for diverse entrepreneurs around their common social and economic goals can provide a powerful setting for dialogue. Social entrepreneurship, which has grown from a niche phenomenon to an economic and political force, is proving to be a powerful force for bridging cultural divides.
Social entrepreneurship is defined in many ways. Some of its practitioners say they create sustainable organizations to drive social progress. Others say they use innovative methods to solve social ills. What we know is that if you put dozens of such people in one room, the energy can be astonishing. At Columbia, we just completed the second year of a fellowship program, in partnership with Cambridge University and the Edmond de Rothschild Foundation, that uses social entrepreneurship to reconcile diverse groups. The program’s participants are a mix of mainly Jewish and Muslim entrepreneurs, who live in Britain, France and the U.S.
Among the participants was Zakaria Nana, a French entrepreneur who seeks to open a Sharia-compliant investment fund, similar in some ways to a college savings fund, to help Muslims save for the large expense of pilgrimages to Mecca. Rachel Maryles helps direct the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding’s health care program, which trains providers to offer religiously and culturally sensitive care for patients of all backgrounds. Mussurut Zia is the founder of Practical Solutions, which brings awareness, guidance and training to people dealing with the issues of forced marriage and honor-based violence in Britain.
That one of these entrepreneurs is working with Muslims and another is working with Jews is secondary. What is far more important is how they work with scarce resources, with ambition and with eagerness to learn from one other. The fellows, having spent two weeks in New York City visiting mosques and synagogues amid discussions of business plans and Middle East politics, departed with tangible action steps to improve their organizations’ sustainability. There are issues they don’t agree on, like Israel and Palestine, but they know that they professionally and personally have more to gain from partnership than from division.
Such power goes well beyond the Columbia program. Social entrepreneurs are creating multibillion-dollar businesses globally. Grameen Bank, a microlending organization founded by the Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, a Muslim Bangladeshi economics professor, now operates in the United States. Microlending has launched a revolution in the provision of democratic finance to those unable to borrow from formal financial markets.
The social and economic infrastructure for social entrepreneurship is quickly developing, involving some of the most sophisticated financial institutions in the world. Investment from venture capital and private equity sources is growing quickly, led by relative newcomers like Bridges Ventures in Britain and Root Capital and Acumen Fund in the U.S. Triodos Bank, ICICI Bank ( IBN — news — people ), Deutsche Bank ( DB — news — people ), Citibank and J.P. Morgan, among others, are creating new social financial products. The Rockefeller Foundation and the Global Impact Investors Network are introducing revolutionary new social investing models for commercial and nonprofit social entrepreneurs.
Wherever there is diversity, there will always be disagreements and debates. There will also always be fringe groups that gain media exposure through hateful acts, such as threatening to publicly burn a text that is sacred to 1.5 billion people in the world. And small bands of extremists may again commit heinous crimes in the name of faith. The good news is that smart social entrepreneurs know that when goals are tough to achieve, partnerships are fundamental. Those partnerships may be below the radar screen, and they aren’t likely to make the daily news, but over time the many small initiatives will prevail over the crimes that manage to steal our attention from real truth about interfaith cooperation in America and elsewhere. That is what the world should know and our media should remind us of, particularly now.
Kamel Jedidi and Bruce Kogut are professors at Columbia Business School, which hosted the Ariane de Rothschild Fellows program.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Judge Bars Major Witness From Civilian Terrorism Trial
Minutes before a major terrorism trial was about to begin, a federal judge barred prosecutors in Manhattan on Wednesday from using a key witness.
The government had acknowledged it learned about the witness from the defendant, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, while he was being interrogated while being held in a secret overseas jail run by the C.I.A.
The ruling by Judge Lewis A. Kaplan would be a setback for the Obama administration’s goal of trying former detainees in civilian courts because it would limit the kinds of evidence prosecutors can introduce. It was not immediately clear if prosecutors would appeal the ruling.
The defendant, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, was scheduled to begin trial on Wednesday in Federal District Court on charges he conspired in the 1998 bombings of the American Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The attacks, orchestrated by Al Qaeda, killed 224 people.
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Man Fires Pepper Spray on Protesters Outside Marine’s Funeral
(CNN) — A motorist fired pepper spray Saturday at a group of demonstrators and counter-protesters outside a funeral for a U.S. Marine in Omaha, Nebraska, police said.
The incident occurred shortly before 10 a.m. (11 a.m. ET) as members of a small Kansas church that protests at military funerals and counter-protesters stood nearly a block away from First United Methodist Church during services for Staff Sgt. Michael Bock, 26, who died August 13 in Afghanistan’s Helmand province.
A man in a Ford-150 pickup truck drove by, extended his arm and sprayed with a large can, police said. His vehicle was stopped a few minutes later.
“Initial indications are he was probably targeting the Westboro Baptist Church” protesters, said officer Michael Pecha, a spokesman for Omaha police.
Hear from a CNN iReporter hit with pepper spray at the event
George Vogel, 62, who lives just north of Omaha, was booked for 16 counts of misdemeanor assault and one count of felony assault on a police officer for the pepper-spray exposure, police said. Vogel also faces one count of child neglect because his child was in the truck, Pecha told CNN.
Westboro members, led by pastor Fred Phelps, believe God is punishing the United States for “the sin of homosexuality” through events including soldiers’ deaths. Members have traveled the country, shouting at grieving family members at funerals and displaying such signs as “Thank God for Dead Soldiers,” “God Blew Up the Troops” and “AIDS Cures Fags.”
A 2005 protest by church members at the funeral of a Missouri soldier prompted state lawmakers to pass legislation criminalizing picketing “in front or about” a funeral location or procession. A federal judge earlier this month rejected Missouri’s tight restrictions, saying they violated the free speech clause of the First Amendment.
It was unclear Saturday evening exactly who had been pepper sprayed, but a Westboro member said no one in her group was affected.
The incident occurred during the funeral and while nearly 600 members of the Patriot Guard Riders ringed the church and stood vigil, the group’s state leader said.
Scott Knudsen, Patriot Guard Riders captain for Nebraska, said no members of the Patriot Guard had any interaction with the church members or counter-protesters, which he numbered Saturday at about 12.
“We don’t get close to them,” Knudsen said of the Westboro members. “We have our backs to them.”
Patriot Guard members, who come when they are invited by families, shield families from distraction, Knudsen said.
“We don’t condone counter-protesters,” said Knudsen, adding he was troubled by Saturday’s incident.
“It’s inappropriate,” he said. “It’s a funeral service.”
Pecha also said that there were no altercations between Westboro members and the Patriot Guard.
Shirley Phelps-Roper, a member of Westboro Baptist Church, said Omaha police did not adequately control roughly 30 counter-protesters, who she said jostled with church members. She also challenged Knudsen’s and Pecha’s account, saying a few Patriot Guard members were among the counter-protesters.
The group was about 1,000 feet from the church when the driver came by. “Of course it was directed at us,” Phelps-Roper, who is Fred Phelps’ daughter, said of the pepper spray.
None of the 16 Westboro members on the corner were affected because they raised signs to shield themselves or turned away, Phelps-Roper said. The group returned home shortly afterward.
Extra officers were on hand for any possible altercations, but there were only verbal exchanges before the truck drove up, police said.
| — Hat tip: Zenster | [Return to headlines] |
Physicists Observe Electron Ejected From Atom for First Time
By Maria Callier Air Force Office of Scientific Research
Air Force Office of Scientific Research-supported physicists at the University of California, Berkeley in collaboration with researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, became the first researchers to observe the motion of an atom’s valence or outermost electrons in real-time by investigating the ejection of an electron from an atom by an intense laser pulse.
In the experiments, an electron in a krypton atom is removed by a laser pulse that lasts less than four femtoseconds (one femtosecond is one millionth of one billionth of a second). This process leaves behind an atom with a pulsating positively charged hole in the valence shell, which originates from electronic wave functions of the atom. The scientists led by Dr. Steve Leone, an ultrafast laser expert and the recent recipient of a National Security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellowship, used an extreme ultraviolet light pulse, the duration for which was 150 attoseconds (one attosecond is one billionth of one billionth of a second), to capture and photograph the movement of valence electrons for the first time.
This research into electron motions is expected to enable the scientists to better control processes and materials that will improve high-speed electronics and carbon-free energy sources that will benefit both the Air Force and consumers.
“If we want to understand high speed electronics, we need to work on changing molecular bonds in chemical reactions and the movement of electrons during chemical reactions or in complex solids which will only be possible by freezing time in a femtosecond,” said Leone.
Dr. Michael R. Berman, program manager at AFOSR who is overseeing the scientists believes their research is an elegant example of the new capabilities of attosecond pulses to probe the dynamics of electron motions.
“This program and instrumentation will open new doors into probing fundamental physical processes on time scales faster than ever probed before.”
Berman also noted, “These new tools will let us probe electron dynamics in materials and semiconductors and could help us understand and reduce electron loss processes to make electronics and devices like solar cells more efficient and to bring electronic data processing to its highest level.”
| — Hat tip: Zenster | [Return to headlines] |
Soda Wars in Washington State
Washington state consumers started paying more for soda, candy and gum this year amid a nationwide push to impose higher taxes on sugary foods. But the soft drink industry is fighting back.
The industry has spent more than $14 million and counting to overturn the Washington tax in a November ballot measure, hoping to stop the movement dead in its tracks here and send a powerful message to states contemplating similar efforts.
Several states considered raising taxes on candy and soda this year, but those efforts only gained traction in Colorado and Washington. Congress briefly considered a soda tax as part of health care reform, but the idea was dropped after heavy lobbying and spending by the soda industry and other groups.
Opponents of the Washington tax responded by gathering enough signatures to get a measure on the ballot seeking to overturn the law. The American Beverage Association, whose members include Coca-Cola Co., PepsiCo Inc. and Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc., has played a big role in the effort, demonstrating yet again the political muscle of the soft drink lobby.
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Stakelbeck: Final Segment: Defeating the Muslim Brotherhood
The concluding segment of my CBN special on the Muslim Brotherhood in America is now online. You can watch it at the link above.
The segment is part of the latest episode of my show, Stakelbeck on Terror. Watch it at here.
Here is the breakdown of this week’s show:
- FBI gives Muslim Brotherhood operatives tour of top secret govt. facility (top of the show).
- My exclusive interview with former Spanish President and PM Jose Maria Aznar on Israel (2:11 into the show).
- Shocking, on the ground report from France: The Islamization of Paris (6:11 into the show).
- Final segment: the Muslim Brotherhood in America (12:57 into the show).
- Interview w/Dani Dayan, chairman of the Yesha Council of Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza (20:15 into the show).
- Radical Islamist joins British Leftist George Galloway to raise funds for Hamas in an American mosque (23:48 into the show).
- “Son of Hamas” author says Hamas is the Muslim Brotherhood (26:33 into the show).
| — Hat tip: Erick Stakelbeck | [Return to headlines] |
West Va Sues Federal Govt Over Mining Restrictions
West Virginia is suing the federal government over strict mountaintop coal mining controls put into place last year, saying the regulations are hurting the state’s economy.
Gov. Joe Manchin announced the lawsuit Wednesday against the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers. The Democrat blasted what he called the Obama administration’s “attempts to destroy our coal industry and way of life in West Virginia,” The New York Times reported.
In 2009, the government instituted tighter rules for mountaintop removal, the method by which earth is blasted off hills to gain access to the coal underneath. Critics say the process pollutes the environment and destroys the landscape.
In a statement, the EPA said it would fight the suit and claimed West Virginia hasn’t done enough to balance the ecological and economical concerns over mining.
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Another Dutch Christian Democrat Resigns
A third local CDA politician has left the party. The party chairman in the eastern town of Hardenberg, Einte Faber, says he can no longer live with the fact that the CDA will be working with Geert Wilders’ anti-Islamic Freedom Party PVV.
Mr Faber has been a member of the party since it was founded in 1980 and before that was a member of the ARP, one of the Christian parties which merged to create the CDA.
Earlier this week two other local CDA politicians left the party in reaction to the forthcoming coalition with the conservative VVD, which will be supported in parliament by the PVV.
In the Frisian municipality of Wûnseradiel, councillor Hans Haarsma resigned his membership after 20 years when the parliamentary party approved the coalition agreement.
In Emmen in the eastern province Drenthe, councillor Rolf Mulder resigned, saying “It’s unacceptable that the CDA should form an alliance with a racist and hysterical party like the PVV.”
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Arrest Warrant Sought for Egyptian Muslim Cleric for ‘Hate Speech’
(AINA) — A Christian Coptic human rights group is seeking to initiate an international arrest warrant in the United Kingdom against the leading Muslim fundamentalist cleric Sheikh Yousef al-Badri for inciting Muslims to kill apostates from Islam in Egypt. Al-Badri, who is a member of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs and is associated with the primary Islamic institute of al Azhar University, is reported to have stated “God has commanded us to kill those who leave Islam.”
Although Christianity in Egypt is not illegal, it is under a common interpretation of Islamic law that conversion to another religion from Islam is punishable by death. Muslims, mainly fundamentalists, see no difference between apostasy and subversion; they fear that allowing conversion will ultimately undermine Islam.
“We expected the Egyptian Prosecutor General to take legal action against al-Badri, but unfortunately in Egypt impunity for Muslims prevails at all levels when it comes to the rights of Christians,” said Dr. Ibrahim Habib, President of United Copts of Great Britain who will initiate the arrest warrant. “Incitement to kill is a crime under legal and ethical norms.”
Sheikh Yousef al-Badri has called on several occasions for the “spilling of the blood” of Muslims who convert to Christianity, causing them to live in hiding under the constant threat of vigilantism and death from fundamentalists. “Even if we are killed, the government will not convict our killers,” said Mohamad Hegazy, a renown apostate from Islam, whose face is familiar all over Egypt.
In 2007, Mohamad Hegazy, a Muslim who converted to Christianity in 1998, was the first convert to sue the Egyptian government for rejecting his application to change his official documents to reflect his new Christian faith (AINA 2-27-2010).
This case sparked national uproar in Egypt, with al-Badri making a number of controversial statements, besides filing charges of inciting sectarian strife against Hegazy’s first lawyer, Mamdouh Nakhla, who had to withdraw from the case after receiving several death threats.
On August 25, 2007, Hegazy, who took the Christian name of Beshoy Boulos, was interviewed on Egyptian television together with Sheikh al-Badri, who openly called for Hegazy to receive the death penalty for leaving Islam because his new commitment to Christianity meant he had declared war on Islam, according the arrest warrant for — al-Badri. The legal basis of the arrest warrant is that Sheikh al-Badri has engaged in “hate speech” which threatens coverts to Christianity in Egypt with death, in a society where individuals will act on these incitements, as well as denying the fundamental right to change religion from Islam to Christianity which is protected by international law. Also “hate speech” causes individuals subject to this vitriol to sustain severe mental suffering which comes under the crime of ‘torture’ as defined by the Criminal Justice Act 1988, rising to a breach of international law. The United Kingdom is, therefore, under obligation to bring violators of the International Covenant to justice.
The arrest warrant states that al-Badri has also been engaged in a number of other provocative acts, such as calling for ‘Muslims to declare Jihad’ against America, preaching against Abu Ziad who had to claim asylum in Europe, supporting suicide bombings and endorsing wife beatings.
Hegazy is married to Katarina, a convert from Islam before meeting him, and has a 2-year old daughter named Mariam. He said he filed the lawsuit to set a precedent for other converts, and because he wants his child to be openly raised as a Christian.
In February 2008 Hegazy lost his case, with the court ruling that according to Sharia Law, a Muslim who converted to Christianity cannot legally change his religious status. The reasoning given behind this ruling was that ‘Islam is the final and most complete religion’ and since “monotheistic religions were sent by God in chronological order,” one cannot therefore convert to “an older religion.”
Hegazy believes that even after the media stopped reporting on his case, he still remains a target — as all converts do — of Islamic militants. According to Compass Direct News, He was forced into hiding after extremists, unaware of his escape, surrounded his former house for several days and set fire to his neighbor’s residence, killing the female occupant.
The European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ), an affiliate of the American Center for Law and Justice, submitted an application in January 2010, to the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights “seeking judgment against the Egyptian government for refusing to recognize the fact that Mr. Mohammed Bishoy Hegazy and his family members are Christians converted from Islam” (video).
Another victim of “hate speech” is Muslim-born Maher el-Gowhary who publicly converted to Christianity in 2008, after secretly being a Christian for over 35 years (AINA 9-26-2009). In August 2008, he filed the second lawsuit of a Muslim-born against the Egyptian Government to seek official recognition of his conversion. He lost the case on June 13, 2009. According to the Court ruling, the religious conversion of a Muslim is against Islamic law and poses a threat to the “Public Order” in Egypt.
The Fatwa (religious edict) issued by Sheikh Yousef al-Badri calling for the “shedding of his blood” caused Maher and his teenage daughter Dina, who also converted to Christianity, to live in hiding and be constantly on the run, fearing danger from reactionaries and advocates of the enforcement of Islamic apostasy death laws.
“We live in constant fear ever since radical sheikhs have called for my blood to be shed because I left Islam. We are mostly afraid of the uneducated people on the street,” Maher said in an interview aired end July 2010 on ZDF German TV (video).
Maher escaped many attacks on his life, the last taking place on Sunday, July 5, 2010, when a Muslim fundamentalist tried to behead him in broad daylight. His daughter Dina also escaped an acid attack (AINA 4-17-2010).
Commenting on the reason for the arrest warrant initiated by his group, Dr. Ibrahim Habib said that the Egyptian government must respect freedom of religion as a fundamental right. “Besides, criminals have to know that they are not immune from the legal systems in the West.”
By Mary Abdelmassih
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
British Man Set to Lead Islamic Terror ‘Army’ In UK Killed in Pakistan Drone Attack Against Militants
A terrorist suspect killed in a drone attack in Pakistan last month was a British man tasked with leading an Al Qaeda group in the UK.
A senior Pakistani security source said that Abdul Jabbar was a British citizen who had a British wife and was living in Punjab, Pakistan.
According to the source, he was chosen as the leader of a new group, to be called The Islamic Army of Great Britain, at a meeting in the North Waziristan region of Pakistan three months ago.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bulgaria Busts Radical Muslim Group
An unregistered branch of Islamist organisation Al-Waqf Al-Islam was bust in a joint operation by prosecutors, the Interior Ministry and the State Agency for National Security on October 6 2010, Bulgaria’s Interior Ministry said.
District prosecutors from Blagoevgrad, Pazardjik and Smolyan were involved in the raid.
During the raid, conducted at homes and offices, a large amount of propaganda material preaching religious hatred and the overthrow of Bulgaria’s constitutional order was found, along with financial documents showing illegal financial transactions and violations of tax laws, according to the ministry.
An organisation by that name was registered in Bulgaria in 1993. It has been involved in the financing of more than 150 mosques built in Bulgaria in recent years. In 1999, its representative in Bulgaria, Abdulrahim Taha, was expelled from Bulgaria for reasons of national security.
The October 6 Interior Ministry statement described the organisation that had been raided as unregistered.
The Eindhoeven headquarters have been the subject of monitoring by Western intelligence services. A 2002 report by the Netherlands intelligence service report alleged that Al-Waqf Al-Islam was linked to the propagation of radical Islam. The organisation describes itself as dedicated solely to charitable work.
The Interior Ministry statement said that the organisation was funded by circles in Saudi Arabia.
After the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, the US office of Al-Waqf Al-Islam was shut down because of alleged links between members of the group and those who had prepared the terrorist attacks.
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
German Muslims Must Obey Law, Not Sharia: Merkel
Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday Muslims must obey the constitution and not sharia law if they want to live in Germany, which is debating the integration of its 4 million-strong Muslim population.
In the furor following a German central banker’s blunt comments about Muslims failing to integrate, moderate leaders including President Christian Wulff have urged Germans to accept that “Islam also belongs in Germany.”
The debate comes against a backdrop of U.S. and British concerns over the threat of terrorist attacks by militant Islamists living in Germany, with Berlin toning down such fears.
Merkel faces corresponding discussions inside her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) about whether she is conservative enough, and the center-right leader’s latest comments seemed directed at those who think Wulff went too far in appeasing the Muslims.
Wulff, who has a largely ceremonial role, used a speech on Sunday celebrating two decades of German reunification to urge harmonious integration of immigrants who until a decade ago were considered “guest workers” who would eventually return home.
But whereas the media stressed Wulff’s comments about Islam, Merkel — the daughter of a Protestant pastor brought up in East Germany, who leads a predominantly Catholic party — said Wulff had emphasized Germany’s “Christian roots and its Jewish roots.”
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| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Minister Plaintiff in Arranged-Marriage Murder
Italy ‘with immigrant women when freedom attacked,’ Carfagna
(ANSA) — Rome, October 4 — Equal Opportunities Minister Mara Carfagna said Monday she would stand as co-plaintiff in the case of a Pakistani woman stoned to death by her husband after her daughter refused an arranged marriage near Modena.
Shahnaz Begum, 46, lost her life after her husband Ahmad Khan Butt’s furious reaction to her defence of her daughter Nosheen, 20.
Nosheen is in a coma in a Modena hospital after her brother Umair, 19, beat her with an iron bar.
“Standing as plaintiff is a way of showing my support for young immigrant women, to underscore that our country is with them every time their freedom and dignity are attacked,” Carfagna said.
She said men who thought they had life-and-death command over their female relatives “cannot receive any sort of welcome in Italy”.
Italian law was “very severe” on this “patriarchal madness,” she said.
A Senator for the Democratic Party, Vittoria Franco, was part of an outcry against such incidents, saying they were the product of a “medieval” mentality.
Franco urged “everyone, inside and outside institutional life, to work to prevent any recurrence”.
Meanwhile one of Italy’s largest Muslim associations, the Union of Islamic Communities in Italy, stressed that “there is nothing in Islam that justifies forced marriages”. Italian police say violence because of arranged marriages, as well as so-called ‘honour killings’, are on the rise among some immigrant communities.
In 2006 a 20-year-old Pakistani woman was killed by her father in Brescia because she was seeing an Italian. In 2009 a Moroccan woman met the same fate in Pordenone.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Court Hears Muslims’ Complaints Against Lawmaker
AMSTERDAM — Muslims in the Netherlands say that remarks by politician Geert Wilders have poisoned attitudes toward them, making them feel unwelcome and at risk, according to complaints disclosed at his hate speech trial Wednesday. “My family and I no longer feel safe in the Netherlands because Mr. Wilders is continually making hateful remarks about Islamic Dutch people,” said one complaint read out by the judge. “It’s getting scary. … Soon the kids won’t be able to say that they’re Muslim or half-Moroccan,” wrote the citizen, whose name was not released. Dozens of similar complaints filed with public prosecutors eventually led them to file charges against Wilders, citing frequent statements he has made comparing Islam to Fascism, calling for a ban on Muslim immigration and for banning the Quran. Wilders is charged with inciting discrimination and hatred and with insulting a people on religious grounds, punishable with up to a year in jail and a fine. Wilders, who polls suggest is the Netherlands’ most popular politician, denies any wrongdoing. He says that his opinions are protected by freedom of speech and endorsed by more than a million people who voted for him in national elections last June. He accused his judges of bias, but lost a motion this week to have them replaced. In an opening statement on Monday, he claimed his trial is political and he would remain silent in court. The case is seen as a test of how far a politician can go in speaking negatively about a religion without unlawfully infringing on religious freedom. He has never called for violence. The debate over immigration has dominated Dutch politics for a decade, as it has in much of Europe. Immigration controls have been continually tightened due to rising resentment over the growing Muslim presence and their difficulty in accepting Dutch values. Muslims, mostly from Morocco and Turkey, now comprise about 6 percent of the Netherlands’ 16.5 million population. Many people feel the government has been too naive about problems caused by immigrants and too politically correct.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Scots Domestic Abuse Legal Loophole Closed
Victims of domestic abuse have been given more protection after a legal loophole was closed.
A new offence of engaging in threatening or abusive behaviour came into effect just after midnight.
It was introduced after a court ruling in July 2009 meant that the common law offence of breach of the peace was no longer appropriate in such abuse cases.
The 2009 ruling had required breach of the peace cases to have a “public” element.
The case meant many domestic abuse crimes could go unpunished because they were committed behind closed doors.
Continue reading the main story
Abuse court ‘makes a difference’ Rise in Scottish domestic abuse The new statutory offence, created through the recently-passed Criminal Justice and Licensing Act, does not require any public element for an offence to have been committed.
Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said: “This will give victims greater legal protection, whilst ensuring prosecutors have the full range of powers available to them to bring about a conviction.
“We want to send out the message loud and clear that if you carry out this offence, there will be no escape, there will be no wriggle room to exploit, and you will be met with the full force of law.”
The new law states that it is an offence for a person to behave in a threatening or abusive manner where the behaviour would be likely to cause a reasonable person to suffer from fear or alarm.
| — Hat tip: 4symbols | [Return to headlines] |
Terrorist Attack in Britain is ‘Very Likely’ According to Extreme French Foreign Ministry Warning
The French have issued their most extreme warning in recent years about the dangers of visiting Britain, saying a terrorist attack is ‘very likely’.
A dramatic statement on the website of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs adds that visitors need to exercise ‘extreme vigilance’.
This is especially so in world famous sites like London’s Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus, and on the capital’s public transport system.
While Britain and the USA have already warned people to be careful when travelling in Europe, the French advice is by far the most extreme to date.
It invokes the 1990s and early 2000s when Gallic secret agents regularly monitored suspected Islamic radicals in a city referred to by the French as ‘Londonistan’.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
UK: As Millions of Decent Families Face Benefits Cuts, One Woman Who’s Never Worked in Her Life is Investing Hers… In a £4,500 Boob Job
Most families who are due to lose their child benefit are worrying about how they’ll make ends meet without it.
But for Kelly Marshall, who has five children by four different fathers, the handout has never been about paying for nappies, food and other everyday expenses.
She saved her benefit money to help pay for breast enhancement.
And as many parents envisage tightening their belts after the Tories announced plans to cut the benefit for higher-rate taxpayers, she plans to save more of hers for liposuction and a tummy tuck.
Miss Marshall, who has never worked, rakes in almost £29,000 a year from benefits — and last year spent £4,500 to go from a 34A to a 34DD.
[…]
Miss Marshall, 32, receives monthly payments of £870 in housing benefit, £975 in child tax credit, and £303 in child benefit, giving her an income equivalent to a pre-tax salary of £39,000.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: British Woman Deputy Ambassador Escapes Injury in Yemeni Rocket Attack
Britain’s deputy ambassador to Yemen survived a rocket attack on an embassy vehicle today.
Fionna Gibb was unhurt in the blast in the capital Sana’a, which injured one of her colleagues.
It is the second time in six months that British officials have been targeted in the country.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Human Waste Used to Power Homes
A pilot project run by Centrica in a plant at Didcot sewage works, Oxfordshire, is the first in Britain to produce renewable gas from sewage for households to use.
The waste is stored for 18 days and then turned into domestic gas which will supply about 200 homes with power.
The scheme sees sewage arriving at the Didcot works for treatment, and then sludge — the solid part of the waste — is further treated in a process known as anaerobic digestion in which bacteria break down the biodegradable material and creates gas.
The gas is cleaned before it is fed into the gas grid, in a process which takes around 20 days from lavatory flush to being piped back to people’s homes…
| — Hat tip: Lurker from Tulsa | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Outrage as Channel Four Drama Shows Prince Harry Taken Hostage by Taliban in Afghanistan
Channel 4 is to show a ‘dramatised documentary’ based on what would happen if Prince Harry were taken prisoner serving in Afghanistan.
The 90-minute film includes scenes showing the prince, played by actor Sebastian Reid, being held behind enemy lines while negotiations are carried out to free him.
The Taking Of Prince Harry shows the prince at one point with an unloaded gun pointed at his face before one of his captors pulls the trigger.
Although Clarence House has not responded to the documentary makers, royalists will be outraged by the programme and the potential risk to the throne.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Saudi Prince Killed Servant, London Court Told
LONDON (Reuters) — A Saudi prince killed his servant in their room at a luxury London hotel in a ferocious beating which had a sexual element, a British court was told Tuesday.
Bandar Abdulaziz, was found dead in bed at the Landmark Hotel in central London on February 15 this year, having suffered extensive injuries, including bite marks to his cheeks, the Old Bailey jury was told.
The 32-year-old had spent the previous three years traveling as an occasional companion of Saud Abdulaziz bin Nasser al Saud, whose father is a nephew of the Saudi king and whose mother is a daughter of the king, the court heard.
The servant had suffered “a series of heavy punches or blows to his head and face,” leaving his left eye closed and swollen, his lips split open and his teeth chipped and broken, prosecutor Jonathan Laidlaw said.
There also were injuries to his ears and internal bruising and bleeding to the brain, as well as severe injuries to the neck consistent with manual compression, the court was told.
The prosecution said the victim had deep bruising to the back, a rib fracture and trauma to the stomach caused by heavy punches or kicks, the Press Association reported.
“The post-mortem examination was to reveal the ferocity of the attack to which he had been subjected before he died,” Laidlaw said.
It was not the first time the victim had been subjected to beatings, including one incident after which his ear needed reconstruction, he said.
Closed-circuit TV cameras had caught Abdulaziz being hit by the defendant in the hotel lift on January 22 and February 5 and outside a restaurant on the night leading up to his death, Laidlaw said.
Saud had said his aide had been attacked and robbed on a London street three weeks before his death.
Laidlaw told jurors the 34-year-old prince now admitted the killing. He denies murder and one count of grievous bodily harm with intent.
Saud said he and his servant were “friends and equals” and that he was heterosexual, jurors were told.
But Laidlaw said:” The evidence establishes quite conclusively that he is either gay or that he has homosexual tendencies.”
| — Hat tip: Nilk | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Saudi Prince ‘Not in Gay Relationship With Victim’
A Saudi prince accused of murder was not in a gay relationship with the alleged victim, his lawyer has said.
Bandar Abdulaziz, 32, was found beaten and strangled in central London’s Landmark Hotel, on 15 February.
Saud Abdulaziz bin Nasser al Saud, 34, admits manslaughter but denies murder and a separate count of causing grievous bodily harm with intent.
Mr Al Saud had carried out several assaults on the victim before he died, the Old Bailey has heard.
Attacked and robbed
The jury has been asked to decide whether he is guilty of manslaughter or murder.
Dobomir Dimitrov, a porter from the Landmark Hotel in Marylebone, who went to their room during their stay, said: “I would describe them as a gay couple.”
But the prince’s barrister John Kelsey-Fry QC said in cross-examination: “It is not accepted that this was in fact a gay couple — but I readily accept that you had the impression they were a gay couple.”
Mr Dimitrov, who is gay himself, said he believed they were not behaving like two heterosexual men in the way they were hanging their clothes in colour-coded order.
He said of Mr Abdulaziz: “It was impossible not to notice that he was homosexual.”
Lift assault allegation
Mr Kelsey-Fry said: “You had an effeminate gay man sharing a room with another man and colour coding their clothing?”
“Yes,” Mr Dimitrov replied.
CCTV of Saud Abdulaziz bin Nasser al Saud and his servant was shown at the Old Bailey “That is why you were led to the impression of them being a gay couple?” asked Mr Kelsey-Fry.
“Yes,” the witness answered.
Another hotel porter, George Konis, told the jury he had seen Mr Abdulaziz apparently injured and that he seemed to be treated “like a slave”.
“There was something there definitely between them.
“They were both very camp,” he said.
“I suppose it is an assumption that they were gay.”
Meanwhile, George Rodrigues, a barman at Scalini’s restaurant in Chelsea, where the two men dined with a third man on 24 January, said one of the men was “very quiet” and was wearing sunglasses which he found “really strange”.
“He had swelling to his lips and he appeared to be having difficulty as he was eating his food, he said.
“He kept his head down and never really looked at me directly in the face at any time.”
The dinner took place two days after the alleged assault on Mr Abdulaziz captured on CCTV.
The prince, 34, admits killing Mr Abdulaziz but denies murder and a separate charge of grievous bodily harm with intent relating to an alleged assault in a lift at the hotel weeks before.
The case continues.
| — Hat tip: Russkiy | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Tube Driver ‘Planned Violent Jihad Training Mission in Afghanistan’
A London Underground train driver planned to travel to Afghanistan or Pakistan with the intention to take part in a ‘violent jihad’, a court heard.
Amir Ali, who drove trains on the Bakerloo Line for five years, purchased a plane ticket to travel to Islamabad and wrote a farewell letter to his family telling them that ‘Allah and his prophet Mohammed’ came first, jurors were told.
When police searched the 28-year-old’s home they found pictures of him posing with weapons including two AK47 rifles and a self-loading pistol, prosecutor Duncan Penny said.
He said: ‘It is no coincidence that also in his possession were various forms of extreme literature and propaganda advocating the use of violence against the non-believer — or kuffar — in the name of Islam.’
Mr Penny said that in March 2009 Ali paid cash towards a flight from Heathrow to Islamabad and planned to leave his wife and four-year-old daughter and three-year-old son behind.
Mr Penny said: ‘When the flight was purchased, and until he decided not to travel, the defendant intended to travel to Pakistan and had the intention there, or in Afghanistan, to engage in violent jihad or to assist others to do so.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
UK: West is Being ‘Outspent, Outmanoeuvred and Out-Strategised’ By Islamic Extremism, Warns Blair
The West is being ‘outspent, outmanoeuvred and out-strategised’ by violent Islamic extremism, Tony Blair has warned.
The former prime minister said that there had been a failure to challenge the ‘narrative’ that Islam was oppressed by the West which was fuelling extremism around the world.
He said too many people accepted the extremists’ analysis that the military actions taken by the West following the 9/11 attacks were directed at countries because they were Muslim and that it supported Israel because Israelis were Jews while Palestinians were Muslims.
‘We should wake up to the absurdity of our surprise at the prevalence of this extremism’, he said
‘Look at the funds it receives. Examine the education systems that succour it. And then measure, over the years, the paucity of our counter-attack in the name of peaceful co-existence. We have been outspent, outmanoeuvred and out-strategised’.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Britain’s Deputy Ambassador to Yemen Survives Mortar Attack
It was the second major assassination attempt on a British diplomatic target in the country this year. The ambassador, Timothy Torlot, survived a suicide bombing also aimed at his car in April. Four men, including one German national, are currently on trial for that attack.
Few details have so far been released on the latest attempt. According to officials, the rocket landed near an armoured car carrying the deputy head of mission at the British embassy, Fiona Gibb, at around 8.15 on Wednesday morning. It missed, though the car was struck by shrapnel. The car, whose windscreen was cracked in the incident, was taking five embassy staff in total to work. At least two bystanders are thought to have been hurt, though it is not known how badly, while one British embassy employee was taken to hospital for treatment to minor injuries. A Foreign Office spokesman said: “A British embassy vehicle was attacked at approximately 0815 local time this morning in Sana’a, Yemen,” a spokeswoman said. “The vehicle was on its way to the British embassy, with five embassy staff on board.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
British Diplomats Come Under Attack in Yemen
Gunmen fired a rocket at a convoy carrying Britain’s No. 2 diplomat in Yemen on Wednesday, damaging a car and wounding four people amid heightened fears about growing al-Qaida influence in the impoverished Arab nation.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but Yemeni authorities recently boosted security around embassies in San’a after receiving information that the terror network was planning an attack.
The diplomatic car was on its way to the embassy with five staff members on board when it came under fire, Britain’s Foreign Office said in a statement. One embassy official suffered minor injuries and was undergoing treatment, while the rest were unharmed, the statement said.
A Foreign Office official said the embassy’s deputy chief of mission was in the car, but not injured.
| [Return to headlines] |
Lebanon Set to Allow Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Visit Israeli Border
US has been leading efforts to persuade country that presence of Iranian leader will pose security threat
Lebanon looks set to allow the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to make a highly controversial visit to its border with Israel next week.
The US has been leading diplomatic efforts to persuade the Beirut government that Ahmadinejad’s presence in strongholds of the Shia movement Hezbollah in south Lebanon will pose a security risk that could provoke serious violence. But the signs are that the trip will go ahead, diplomats said today.
According to some reports Ahmadinejad will symbolically throw stones across the border fence into Israel, which he regularly attacks as an illegitimate entity, as well as questioning the truth of the Nazi Holocaust. Israel is also concerned by Iran’s nuclear energy programme, which it claims is intended to produce nuclear weapons which would challenge its own undeclared atomic arsenal.
The reported two-day itinerary for Ahmadinejad’s first state visit to Lebanon includes Qana, where he is to lay a wreath on the graves of Lebanese killed by Israeli forces. Another likely stop is Bint Jbeil, the scene of heavy fighting between Hezbollah and Israel in the 2006 war.
Posters welcoming Ahmadinejad in Arabic and Persian have already appeared in the area amid reports that the Iranian leader, with a business delegation in tow, will bring investment, financing for oil exploration and a controversial offer to sell weapons to the Lebanese army.
Iranian embassy officials in Beirut have refused to confirm details of the southern leg of the trip, but Hezbollah is said to be massing supporters to welcome Ahmadinejad as a hero of the resistance
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Synod Priorities: Christians Must Remain in the Middle East, With a Mission
With only a few days to go until the assembly of bishops from the Middle East, the region is dominated by tensions between Sunnis and Shiites; stalemate between Israelis and Palestinians, persecution especially in Egypt. The Synod will also be able to make proposals for politics. But most of all it must reawaken the duty and mission of Christians in the Middle East: the freedom and right to offer witness to God’s love in front of Jews and Muslims.
Beirut (AsiaNews) — With only a few days to go to the opening of the Synod of Bishops for the Middle East (October 10 to 24), the Vatican Press Office has published the list of invitees. Among them, invited as an expert, Fr. Samir Khalil Samir, a great friend and collaborator of AsiaNews. We asked him about the expectations aroused by the Synod.
Just as the Synod is about to begin, there is a growing tension in the region, both in Iran and in the relationship between Israelis and Palestinians. Will all this affect the Synod? The preparatory documents very explicitly state that the political situation and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict affects the lives of Christians with regards their economic prospects, emigration and their freedom.
Inter-Islamic conflict between Sunnis and Shiites
On closer inspection it is obvious that underlying the current tension in the Middle East is a troubling inter-Islamic conflict, namely the relationship between Sunnis and Shiites. The whole crux of the problem is concentrated on the UN’s international tribunal which is expected to publish the results of its investigation into the assassination of the late Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri by the end of December.
Apparently, Hezbollah appears to have had an active role in the assassination. And since Hezbollah is armed, even by the Lebanese army, it is threatening conflict. On the other hand, throughout the Arab Muslim world, no one wants to start a war, or a serious confrontation with Iran. Behind Hezbollah is, in fact, Iran. The problem therefore does not relate primarily to Christians, but Muslims against Muslims. And this gives Christians and Lebanon as a whole a breathing space.
Meanwhile, Syria is, as has become its tradition, batting for both teams: it is distancing itself from Hezbollah, making increasing overtures to the Saudi king, but then, as has been the case in recent days, putting Lebanese who do not belong to Hezbollah on trial for the assassination of Hariri.
For this very reason I hope that the situation will prove to be one of empty threats aimed at emerging strongest in the relationship between Sunnis and Shiites. Everyone is afraid, but nobody wants a war, moreover, it would be an internal affair of Islam, which would divide and weaken all involved.
The Israeli-Palestinian question
There is also a lot of ambiguity surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian issue. Israel on the one hand, will not accept a moratorium on settlements, and on the other, even among Israeli hawks, there are some who admit the possibility of a Palestinian state. This is the most reasonable proposal. Of course there are still some pressing issues to be resolved: Jerusalem, water, the return of Palestinian refugees, Israeli settlers in the West Bank.
If we really want peace, then we should at least put some principles on paper and then put them into practice: two states with clear borders. Unfortunately, Israel has never accepted the border issue, while on the Palestinian side there are still those who reject the very existence of Israel. The decision for two states is the most reasonable, while leaving some issues still under discussion: Jerusalem, some boundaries. Lately there have even been some who speak of a one state solution bringing together Israelis and Palestinians, but for now I think it is difficult, if not utopian. How far the two leaderships are prepared to walk along this path, I do not know. Are the two peoples able to overcome their religious and historical passion in favour of a political realism that takes all aspects into account? I do not know, only history will tell.
The Synod, however, from this point of view, can only offer the most realistic solution: the reasonable, taking into account the circumstances of the Israelis and the Palestinians. Currently it seems that the Arab countries are the most willing to take this step, the Palestinians will have to follow them because without the Arab countries, Palestine can not exist. But if Israel does not decide to stop the settlements, everything will go down the drain! I hope that on both the Palestinian side and Israeli side there are politicians with enough good sense, aided by the international community, to take action.
Staying, because we have a mission to carry out
Above all the Synod must serve to enhance awareness of the mission of Christians in the Middle East. Until now, many bishops have spoken about the situation of Christians from emigration and the emptying of the churches, to the violence, as inevitable. But Benedict XVI, during his trip to the Holy Land in May 2009, started to say that the task of Christians is to “stay” in the Middle East because they have a mission to carry out.
Certainly the problems between Christians and Muslims in this region are many and widespread. This is evident in Egypt. Here there is tension and conflict between Copts and Muslims everyday. In recent times there has been a sustained media attack against Anba Bishoi, the patriarchal vicar. The bishop apparently said that in the early Koran, the Gospel and Islamic faith had a lot in common, that the diverging aspects were later additions to this original version of the Koran. I do not know if the bishop really said these things, which in any case, pertain to the realms of scholasticism. But the accusation has become a pretext for street demonstrations. When basically what he says (or apparently said) shows the bishop’s desire for dialogue and sharing with Islam.
This illustrates an extremely tense situation between Christians and Muslims. But it is not the case in Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine. In Iraq it depends on the moment and often the persecution of Christians is a result of power struggle between Sunnis and Shiites.
However does the plight of Christians depend on politics and on this alone? Of course politics is what decides the orientation of any nation and is crucial for a small minority, as is the Christian minority. We note, however, that the Christian minorities in the Middle East can not be compared to Muslim minorities in Europe. These have been in Europe for several generations: Christians were in the Middle East before Islam, they are the region’s indigenous peoples.
A mission of love
The Pope’s discourses in the Holy Land and the preparatory document for the Synod seem to say to Christians: “stay until the very end.” And above all, stay for a “reason”: for a mission. Recently in meeting some Lebanese Christians, I saw that they pose themselves the question of mission.
The Church of Korea, a country with nearly two centuries of Christianity, sends 700 missionaries out into the world. This is highly significant for us Middle Eastern Churches with thousands of years of tradition. The Korean missionaries — including Protestants — are commonplace in Iraq, Egypt, and in other realities of the Middle East. Missionary awareness must be reassessed in the churches of the Middle East.
It should be clear that we must remain in this region on a mission of love: to help the local people discover the gospel of Jesus Christ, who is the most amazing thing to save the life of a human being, freeing people from every weight. This is not a question of proselytism, but a matter of justice; even Muslims are entitled to know the Gospel, as Christians have a right to know the Koran.
The Synod must spell this out clearly: do not be afraid, stay in the Middle East, but remain to proclaim the beauty of the gospel.
Days ago I was flying back to Beirut. The man sitting next to me wanted to talk to me at all costs, and so we talked for over two hours. He is a Sunni Muslim doctor from northern Lebanon and he wanted to know the meaning of the Christian Trinity. I explained that the meaning of the Trinity is that God is love. The message of the gospel is that God is not only the Almighty, the tremendous God who demands retribution, who crushes evil. God is love and sharing. And since we are created in His image, we also live in love and mercy. And my interlocutor told me that it would be nice if Christians spoke about this more clearly, because it would be to the benefit of the faithful of all religions.
The Synod will be effective to the extent that we implement it. A text — such as the one that will come out from the Synod — does not a revolution make. Rather it suggests to the Christians of this region that they must remain because they have a message to share. Maybe some believe they have no choice but to leave. But even in the West, this Christian will have the same mission.
This mission gives true meaning to life.
The support of the Church universal a service to all
In this mission we will be helped by other communities, the universal Church. Among those invited to the Synod, there are members of several organizations working for Christians in the Middle East: Aid to the Church in Need, Missio, Œuvre d’Orient, the Neocatechumenal Way, the Focolare movement, Sant’Egidio, Caritas, Communion and Liberation, etc. …
Their testimony is important. Caritas, Aid to the Church in Need, and others, come without being presumptuous and support the Church, but not exclusively. The Caritas in Lebanon or Egypt or Jordan, help Christians and Muslims equally. Several Muslims have entered the executive board of these associations. The Knights of Malta in Lebanon, open clinics in Shia, Sunni, Maronite villages, Catholic nuns are loved by Christians and Muslims because they welcome everyone with love. Catholic universities have a good percentage of Muslims students, often supported by grants offered by Catholics.
The Church bears witness that it does not belong to a sect, but to a worldwide community that seeks not power but service. Even the Vatican, which is often seen as a power, it is actually an ethical, political, charitable service for the churches and the world. I must say that in the Muslim world, there is not a similar openness: instead there is increasing closure, increasingly strong proselytism. The Church is an institution at the service of man.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Synod’s message to Christians is: we want to remain in the region to create together with Muslims, with anyone, a society for man. We are not a foreign body, but we belong to this land and we have something specific to offer, to build a more peaceful and more humane society.
To those among Catholics, including bishops, who say: These are beautiful words, but then what? … I answer, the words will bear fruit if we make them flourish. We are the actors that can make the words of the Synod a reality.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Yemen Attack Underlines Growing Al-Qaeda Influence
Tuesday’s terrorist attack on Fionna Gibb, United Kingdom’s deputy ambassador to Yemen has underlined the country’s emergence as a hub for the global jihadist movement, along with Pakistan, Afghanistan and Somalia.
More than 30 terrorist strikes have taken place in Yemen this year, claiming the lives of over 50 Yemeni officials. The targets have also included expatriates, tourists and energy infrastructure. Both Timothy Torlott, the United Kingdom’s ambassador to Yemen and Prince Mohammad bin-Nayif, Saudi Arabia’s counter-terrorism chief, narrowly survived assassination attempts. The violence has grown ever since the formation of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) — a group that has caused growing concern among security services in the west because of its ability to recruit Muslims from the United States and Europe. The organisation was responsible for a plot to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight in December, 2009.
Jonathan Evans, the director-general of MI5, said last month that the organisation had been dealing with a surge of Yemen-related casework. The organisation’s key leader is Nasser Abdul Karim al-Wuhayshi, a former personal assistant to Osama bin-Laden, the al-Qaeda chief. Al-Wuhayshi fought against United States troops at the battle of Tora Bora in December, 2001. He was later arrested by Iranian authorities and extradited to Yemen, but escaped from prison in 2006. Saudi Arabia-based al-Qaeda operatives, hard-hit by targeted security force operations in their own country, joined al-Wuhayshi in Yemen. Several were, ironically, beneficiaries of a Saudi programme intended to rehabilitate jihadists held in Guantánamo Bay — a controversial enterprise that included everything from the provision of financial assistance to art therapy.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan: Gunpoint Diplomacy in the Taliban’s Lawless Borderlands
Amid talk of peace negotiations, all sides are hurting as Afghan war shifts into uncharted territory
Whatever is going on behind closed doors, the bloody preliminaries of an Afghan peace settlement are being played out at gunpoint along Afghanistan’s lawless border with Pakistan.
US helicopters shoot Pakistani soldiers; Nato trucks are blocked along the Khyber pass or blown up in Islamabad; an unprecedented surge in drone strikes; and a flurry of diplomatic tensions — the stakes are rising as the Afghan war shifts into uncharted waters.
With no party winning, both sides appear to have an incentive to talk. On the Afghan side of the border, last spring’s “mini-surge” by US and UK soldiers in Marjah in Helmand has made sludgy progress. A drive into neighbouring Kandahar has also become bogged down.
So far this year, coalition forces have lost 562 soldiers, according to the website icasualties.org, more than in all of 2009. This is modest compared with the deaths of thousand of Afghan civilians and soldiers.
The Taliban are also hurting. Their sanctuary inside Pakistan’s tribal belt — a key factor in their battlefield success — is not as warm and welcoming as it once was. The principal factor is a surge in CIA-directed drone attacks: 21 last month alone, the most intense barrage since the covert campaign started six years ago.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Death Penalty and Shari’a Are the Answer to Escalating Violence in the Maldives, Say MPs
Imposing the death penalty, following Shari’a, and harsher prison conditions are the best way forward for solving the increasing violence in Maldivian society, several MPs have stated.
Fares-Maathodaa MP Ibrahim Muththalib said the major problem faced by society today is the decision of the criminal justice system to ignore Shari’a. “We cast aside the Shari’a and adopted man-made sentencing laws”, he said, making today’s violent society possible.
“Instead of being put to death, murderers are allowed to languish in prisons, given the opportunity to get married and to procreate. We cannot stop the violence without stopping such practices. We cannot stop such problems without a death for death policy”, Muththalib told the Majlis.
“I believe that if you impose the death sentence on just two people in this country, there will no longer be anyone left who will kill. If you amputate the hands of two people in this country, there will be no more thieves left. We have to think about how we can establish these principles of Islam”, Muththalib said.
The debate began after an emergency motion tabled by Hoarafushi MP Ahmed Rasheed on Monday to discuss the violent murder of 81-year-old business man, Hussein Manik, on September 27 in Hoarafushi.
“Those who kill should be killed”, Rasheed said, introducing the motion. “We should amend our penal system to ensure that those who endanger the lives of others would be held in solitary confinement for life, and are never eligible for parole”, Rasheed told the Majlis.
If the murderers of Mohamed, or “any criminals of the sort” should ever return to Hoarafushi, he said, he would personally lead a campaign to provide justice to the people of the island. “I will not hesitate, even if it means that I personally get entangled in the law.”
Madaveli MP Mohamed Nazim agreed that the death penalty, as in the Shari’a, was the answer. “Islam is unequivocal that the penalty for death should be death”. The current violence in the country is a consequence of ignoring or violating the teachings of Islam, he said.
“Otherwise, had we maintained the principle of death for death the murderer would not be there to kill again, or to encourage others to kill. The problems we are confronting today is a consequence of ignoring this principle, which would have set an example for the Ummah and the nation’, he said.
Nazim also said there is no need to amend the country’s murder laws, as the death penalty already exists. “I do not see anything in the penal code that says the penalty for murder should be changed to 25 years imprisonment”.
Nazim said that unless and until the death penalty is imposed, as it is stated in the current penal code, the escalating violence in the Maldives could not be stopped.
Thoddoo MP Ali Waheed attributed the increase in violent crime to the lack of proper prisons. “People who should be behind bars are sitting around on the beaches, sucking on butts and all sorts of things — this is the result”, he said.
Drugs, agreed several MPs, were the main cause for the increase in violence in the Maldives. “We know that sometimes people can get intoxicated to such an extent that they become unaware of their own actions. Sometimes murder can be committed,” said Vilifushi area MP Riyaz Rasheed.
MPs themselves should set a good example, and allegations of intoxicating substances being found in their places of residence or their vehicles are not helping matters, Riyaz Rasheed said.
“Pictures of official delegations abroad show them drinking some sort of a yellow liquid”, he said. Unless such ways are amended, there would be no solution to the social problems of the Maldives today, Riyaz Rasheed said.
Maavashu member Abdul Azeez Jamal Abubakr suggested that religious scholars can make the most important contribution to the problems in society. Perjury, he said, is a major problem in Maldivian courts.
The gravity of such an act, as stated in Islam, should be made clear. “It is incumbent upon religious scholars to relay the ominous penalties that await such actions in Islam”, he said.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Driver Killed and Two Dozen NATO Fuel Tankers Are Torched as Gunmen Launch Sixth Attack on Stranded Afghan Convoy
Gunmen killed a driver today and torched more than two dozen stranded tankers carrying fuel from Pakistan to Nato troops in Afghanistan.
It was the sixth attack on convoys since Pakistan closed a key border route almost a week ago after a Nato helicopter attack left three of its troops dead.
Last week’s closure of the Torkham crossing along the fabled Khyber Pass has left hundreds of trucks stuck on the country’s highways, causing a bottleneck heading to the one route into Afghanistan from the south that has remained open.
An unidentified number of gunmen in two vehicles attacked the trucks as they sat in the parking lot of a roadside hotel on the outskirts of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province. The tankers were on their way to the Chaman crossing.
At least 25 were destroyed by fire that spread quickly from vehicle to vehicle.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Family Fears Own Government; Won’t Return to Home
‘We are trying to sell our house and move our stuff out of the country’
A family — exiled to live as visitors in foreign countries for nine months already — has decided to leave Sweden permanently because of the threat of government action against them over their choice to homeschool their children, according to a new report.
The report on the “Pettersson” family, described as using a pseudonym to avoid retaliation, comes from the American-based international Home School Legal Defense Association, which supports homeschool families worldwide.
Previously, the organization documented the case of Dominic Johansson, who was “state-napped” by authorities as his parents were departing on a family move from Sweden to India over their decision to homeschool.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Taliban in ‘Secret Talks’ With Karzai’s Government to End the War in Afghanistan
The Taliban and President Hamid Karzai’s government have started secret peace negotiations to end to the war in Afghanistan, the Washington Post has reported.
The newspaper quoted unnamed Afghan and Arab sources who believe the Taliban representatives are authorised to speak for the Pakistan-based Quetta Shura and its leader, Mohammad Omar.
Talks are only in the preliminary stages, according to the Post following inconclusive meetings hosted by Saudi Arabia that ended more than a year ago.
President Karzai’s spokesman Waheed Omer declined to confirm or deny the report.
Speaking in Kabul, he said: ‘There were contacts in the past and may now be direct or indirect ones. There have been regular contacts over the past two years.There haven’t been any substantive talks, there have been contacts only.’
Fighting has dragged on for nine years since U.S. forces led an invasion in 2001 to topple the Taliban regime who harboured the al Qaeda network responsible for the September 11 attacks on the Twin Towers.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
US and Afghan Governments Make Contact With Haqqani Insurgents
Both the Afghan and US governments have recently made contact with the most fearsome insurgent group in Afghanistan, the Haqqani network, the Guardian has learned.
Hamid Karzai’s government held direct talks with senior members of the Haqqani clan over the summer, according to well-placed Pakistani and Arab sources. The US contacts have been indirect, through a western intermediary, but have continued for more than a year.
The Afghan and US talks were described as extremely tentative. The Haqqani network has a reputation for ruthlessness, even by the standards of the Afghan insurgency, and has the closest ties with al-Qaida. But Kabul and Washington have come to the conclusion that they cannot be excluded if an enduring peace settlement is to be reached.
A senior Pakistani official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said “you wouldn’t be wrong” when asked whether talks involving Haqqani, Karzai and the US were taking place. But he refused to comment further, citing the sensitivity of the matter.
A senior western official said the US now considers the Haqqani network to be more powerful than the Quetta Shura, the 15-man leadership council headed by the Taliban’s leader, Mullah Omar.
“The Quetta Shura is still important but not as much as people thought two years ago. Its prestige and impact have waned, and they are increasingly less important on the battlefield. Now the military threat comes from the Haqqanis,” the official said.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Australian Muslim Cleric Calls for Beheading Dutch Politician — Who Cares?
by Larry Elder
What happens when an Australian(!) Muslim cleric calls for the beheading of a Dutch politician?
Not much.
What happens when an American pastor no one ever heard of threatens to burn a Koran?
It ignites an international outcry.
Terry Jones, pastor of a 50-member church in Gainesville, Fla., threatened to burn the Koran as a protest against the proposed construction of a mosque near the site of the World Trade Center. Democrats and Republicans denounced Jones. Gen. David Petraeus, U.S. commander in Afghanistan, warned that Jones’ action would put American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan at risk, and he personally telephoned the pastor to dissuade him.
Those who would desecrate the Koran or who would draw a cartoon of Prophet Muhammad or who would otherwise “disrespect” Islam run the risk of being murdered. This is quite a response from followers of what President George W. Bush called a “religion of peace,” the “hijacking” of which motivated the 9/11 hijackers. Bush repeatedly distinguished between a war against Islamofascism and a war on Islam. But the distinction apparently collapses if one pastor doesn’t get the memo.
How dare this pastor of some church-nobody-heard-of show insufficient respect for Islam, many of whose followers support a global jihad that demands replacement of all non-Islamic governments, as well as the conversion of all to Islam, by force if necessary?
Where is the international outcry from this recent story from Reuters?
“A well-known Australian Muslim cleric has called for the beheading of Dutch anti-Islamic politician Geert Wilders. …
“The Sydney-born (Feiz) Muhammad has gained notoriety for, among other things, calling on young children to be radicalized and blaming rape victims for their own attacks.
“(De Telegraaf, the Netherlands’ largest newspaper) posted an English-language audio clip in which he refers to Wilders as ‘this Satan, this devil, this politician in Holland’ and explains that anyone who talks about Islam like Wilders does should be executed by beheading. …
“Wilders is currently on trial in the Netherlands for inciting hatred and discrimination against Muslims.
“The Freedom Party leader made a film in 2008 which accused the Koran of inciting violence and mixed images of terrorist attacks with quotations from the Islamic holy book.
“Wilders was also charged because of outspoken remarks in the media, such as an opinion piece in a Dutch daily in which he compared Islam to fascism and the Koran to Adolf Hitler’s book ‘Mein Kampf.’“
Civil libertarian groups vigorously defend vile but protected speech. Where are the free-speech groups denouncing Wilders’ prosecution for making abrasive comments? Or does the right to free speech only apply to the nasty comments routinely made on cable shows by Sarah Palin/Glenn Beck/tea party-hating lefties?
If a proposed Koran burning generates international news and condemnation, isn’t the call by an Australian Muslim cleric for the beheading of a democratically elected European politician worthy of a few moments on the network nightly news?
Offensive acts by non-Muslims provoke calls for sensitivity and understanding. Offensive acts by Muslims generate indifference rather than denunciations of the barbarous statements and acts that Muslim clerics and others call for in the name of Islam.
Why the double standard?
Dr. Fred Gottheil is an economics professor at the University of Illinois. He calls himself a “Keynesian-type economist” who is “not afraid of deficit spending” — not exactly Reaganesque.
In January 2009, some 900 academics signed a four-page petition calling for a U.S. abandonment of the support of Israel. Gottheil learned that many of the petition signatories belonged to faculty from women’s and gender studies departments. He decided to conduct an experiment.
Would the same professors sign a “Statement of Concern” over the anti-human rights, anti-gay, anti-woman practices in the Muslim Middle East? Gottheil composed a four-page document citing evidence of atrocities, along with the names of Muslim clerics and scholars defending these violations of human decency. He e-mailed his statement to 675 signers of the anti-Israel petition.
What happened? “The results were surprising,” Gottheil said, “even though I thought the responses would be few. They were almost nonexistent.”
Bottom line: Barbarity in the name of Islam is not even remotely condemned to the degree that the West condemns insensitivity by cartoonists, politicians and anti-Islam clerics. Why? A denunciation of Muslim practices suggests a superiority of American values and culture. The left finds the very notion objectionable.
Gottheil put it this way: “If leftist ‘progressives’ really cared about women, gays and lesbians, then they would be fighting for their rights in places where such rights are really violated — like under Hamas in Gaza and under the mullahs in Iran. But doing so would legitimize their own society and its values and therefore completely cripple their entire identity and life purpose, and so their purported concern for women, gays and lesbians has to go out the window.”
It is a bizarre and dangerous double standard that allows a Pastor Jones to become more notorious than a Feiz Muhammad.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
NZ: TV Presenter Under Fire Over Indian Slurs
A New Zealand TV station has come under fire after featuring a clip with Indian slurs targeting a Commonwealth Games official’s last name.
Paul Henry, co-host of NZTV morning show “Breakfast,” couldn’t contain his laughter while talking about Delhi’s chief minister Sheila Dikshit during a live broadcast last Friday.
Despite being corrected on the pronunciation, the colourful TV and radio broadcaster said: “Well it looks like ‘D*ck sh*t”.
He continued: “And it’s so appropriate because she’s Indian… So she’d be d*ck in sh*t, if you know what I mean?”
The chief minister’s last name is pronounced “Dixit”. Ms Dikshit had been tasked with fixing the problems at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi.
The clip had been promoted heavily by TVNZ on the Video Extras section of its site under the banner “Paul Henry laughs about the name Dikshit” before being taken down.
New Zealand Indian Central Association president Paul Singh Bains said TVNZ had lost credibility after the race furore.
“TVNZ have lost the plot. I honestly think the credibility of TVNZ is down the tubes through this,” he told stuff.co.nz.
“He should be sanctioned more than that. He should be eliminated from that spot. He should be sacked and given another role somewhere else.
“He has an attitude about Indians and all other ethnicities for that matter. If we sound different, if we look different, he thinks there’s no place for us in New Zealand.”
Henry again fell into trouble this week after asking New Zealand prime minister John Key on Monday whether the country’s governor-general, Sir Anand Satyanand, was actually a Kiwi.
“Is he even a New Zealander?” Henry questioned Mr Key, who replied that every governor-general since Sir Arthur Porritt, who was appointed in 1967, had been born in New Zealand.
“Are you going to choose a New Zealander who looks and sounds like a New Zealander this time … are we going to go for someone who is more like a New Zealander this time?” Henry asked Mr Key.
The quip sparked a number of complaints to the television station, and Henry was forced to apologise on live TV the next morning.
“Sir Anand was born in New Zealand. His lineage, as far as I can ascertain, is far more dignified than mine, which makes him a better candidate for Governor-General than me,” Henry said.
“Like the Governor-General, I was born in New Zealand. However, I’m at least half what they colloquially call in Europe a Gypo.
“So, let me make it quite clear. I will never apologise for causing outrage. However, I will and do apologise sincerely for causing real hurt and upset to anyone, no matter what their background, who works to make this country a better country.
“So in that spirit, I apologise unreservedly to Sir Anand and his family.
“He’s a very distinguished man. I am a Gypo television presenter.”
TVNZ suspended the controversial presenter till October 18 without pay as a result.
| — Hat tip: Nilk | [Return to headlines] |
Trial in Muslim School Fraud Case Begins
A trial has begun in a Perth court for a man accused of falsifying student numbers at a Muslim college to fraudulently obtain hundreds of thousands of dollars in government funding.
Anwar Sayed is accused of falsifying the school roll at the Muslim Ladies College of Australia at Kenwick in Perth’s south.
Fifty-year-old Sayed, from nearby Canningvale, is the director of Muslim Link Australia, which runs the school.
He appeared in the District Court on Wednesday charged with fraudulently obtaining a portion of the $1.125 million total his school received from the state and federal governments.
Prosecutor Wayne Roser said the Crown aimed to prove that Sayed knowingly signed a declaration that in the 2006-07 census year there were more than 180 students when in fact there were 80 to 100 fewer than that.
The school received about $164,000 from the state government and about $961,000 from the federal government.
Witnesses expected to be called during the five-week trial include former teachers at the school, police who investigated the case and public servants.
Sayed’s lawyer Mark Trowell said the prosecution’s inability to give an exact amount of money involved and its reliance on teachers who had a “gripe” against Sayed provided a “flimsy” case.
One of the teachers stole the register with the student information and gave it to police who subsequently lost it, he said.
Mr Trowell said Sayed, who is originally from Afghanistan, was a liberal Muslim who believed women did not have to wear the burqa if they did not want to, and that boys and girls should be allowed to mix in school.
He said there had been “religious tension” at the school because some of the teachers who would be called as witnesses for the prosecution were fundamental Muslims who did not agree with Sayed’s stance.
“Every one of these teachers has some gripe against Mr Sayed,” Mr Trowell said.
| — Hat tip: Nilk | [Return to headlines] |
Congressman Introduces Bill to Force Obama to Deploy at Least 10,000 National Guardsmen at Mexican Border
Rep. Ted Poe (R.-Texas), who served for 30 years as a Texas prosecutor and judge before being elected to Congress, introduced legislation last week designed to force President Barack Obama to deploy a minimum of 10,000 National Guard troops at the U.S. Mexico border for the specific purpose of patrolling the border and intercepting aliens and smugglers attempting to cross illegally into the United States.
The legislation would allow the president to deploy more than 10,000 National Guardsmen, but not fewer, and would leave the National Guard troops under the supervision of the governor in the border state where they are deployed.
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UK: Immigrants Caught After They Leap From Talcum Powder Tanker… And Leave a Massive White Trail
Four immigrants drew more attention to themselves than they may have anticipated when they stowed away in a tanker of talcum powder and left a massive white trail when they fled.
The group of Afghans — two men and two young boys — are thought to have hopped on board in Calais, France.
But they were caught after they made a bid for freedom and left clouds of powder in their wake.
It is understood police were alerted when the tanker arrived at a chemical plant in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, on September 20.
Covered in talcum powder, the group fled to a lake to wash.
But officers soon caught up with them and they were later arrested.
They are thought to have survived the journey by leaving a hatch open for fresh air.
Rob Allen, Assistant Director of the UK Border Agency said: ‘Increasingly sophisticated attempts are being made to try to smuggle people into Britain so our officers use technology such as carbon dioxide probes and heartbeat detectors, as well as sniffer dogs, to find stowaways.’
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Population ‘Will Soar to 70m by 2027’: Official Figures Reveal Full Impact of Migrant Influx
Britain’s fast-growing population will hit 70million in just 17 years’ time if immigration goes unchecked, official figures revealed yesterday.
The projections mean that numbers are racing towards a point which even Labour politicians believe will mean overcrowding and extra costs.
The breakdown from the Office for National Statistics shows how the population is expected to rise if different rates of immigration are sustained over the next 25 years.
It indicates that numbers will reach 70million in 2027 if net migration — the number of immigrants arriving in the country minus those who leave — continues at last year’s level.
The 196,000 added to the population by net migration last year — the equivalent of a city the size of Portsmouth — was the fourth highest level on record. The ONS projections, which are based on estimates of where the British population stood two years ago, give details for various levels of net migration up to a maximum of 180,000 a year.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A Stronger Sun Actually Cools the Earth
An increase in solar activity from the Sun actually cools the Earth, suggests new research that will renew the debate over the science behind climate change.
The research overturns traditional assumptions about the relationship between the sun and global warming. Focused on a three-year snapshot of time between 2004 and 2007, the findings will be seized upon by those who believe that man’s role in rises in the earth’s temperature has been overstated. As solar activity waned at the end of one of the Sun’s 11-year cycles, the new data shows the amount of light and heat reaching the Earth rose rather than fell. Its impact on melting polar ice caps, and drying up rivers could therefore have been exaggerated by conventional climate models during the period. Scientists also believe it may also be possible that during the next upturn of the cycle, when solar activity increases, there might be a cooling effect at the Earth’s surface. However while this may support climate change sceptics’ arguments in the short term, long term analysis suggests it actually provides further evidence that the heating of the planet is more than a natural, cyclical phenomenon. Over the past century, overall solar activity has been increasing and should therefore cool the Earth, yet global temperatures have increased. Professor Joanna Haigh, from Imperial College London, who led the study, said: “These results are challenging what we thought we knew about the sun’s effect on our climate. “However, they only show us a snapshot of the sun’s activity and its behaviour over the three years of our study could be an anomaly. “We cannot jump to any conclusions based on what we have found during this comparatively short period and we need to carry out further studies to explore the sun’s activity and the patterns that we have uncovered on longer timescales. “However, if further studies find the same pattern over a longer period of time, this could suggest that we may have overestimated the Sun’s role in warming the planet, rather than underestimating it.”
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Businesses Pull Out of Climate Campaign After Green PR Disaster
Businesses have begun to distance themselves from the carbon-cutting campaign 10:10 over a promotional film the organisation premiered last week that depicts schoolchildren, office workers and celebrities being blown up for not taking action on climate change.
Sony UK and Kyocera Mita, two corporate partners of the 10:10 campaign, both condemned the short film ‘No Pressure’, directed by Richard Curtis, today, for being “tasteless” and “shocking”. The film was intended to be funny, but had to be pulled by 10:10 at the weekend, following a storm of protest over its content after being premiered on The Guardian newspaper website. The four-minute spoof features two schoolchildren, office staff and ex-footballer David Ginola and actress Gillian Anderson being blown up for not signing up to carbon-cutting action.
Business reaction
In a statement, today, Sony said it “strongly condemned the release” and that it was “disassociating itself” from the climate change campaign group for the time being as a result.
“Sony considers [this film] to be ill-conceived and tasteless,” the company said.
Document imaging company Kyocera Mita, one of the first companies to become an official 10:10 partner earlier this year, said it was “shocked” by the film, describing it as “a grave error” of judgement.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Repent for Your Environmental Sins!
Gaia replaces God as the source of all life, the central relationship for man and the keystone of his morality
All societies and ideologies need a purpose, a comprehensive metaphor that explains the role of man in the universe. For the left, the calls for social justice have to be attached to a larger understanding of who we are and why we are here for them to have a mission that is about more than just band aids and sociological surveys. Social justice provides a social argument, and for those on the left who still believe in a creator deity, even a theological justification. But as the left largely trends secular, it needs a secular theology that lays out its mission. Environmentalism provides that theology.
Environmentalism replaces the individual transcendence of death found in conventional spiritual religions, with a materialistic creed of subsumption within a biological metaphor. Immortality is not achieved through a community of faith, but an ecosystem. Gaia replaces God as the source of all life, the central relationship for man and the keystone of his morality. Eco-morality replaces human-centered morality. People become just another species in a vast collection of them, no more worthy of respect or protection, than the badger or the snake. Less worthy even, because humanity has overstepped its bounds, through the “original sin” of fire, capitalism and innovation. This time around the “apple” is actually a diesel fueled engine and if we smash enough of them, the spirits of the earth will let us back into the garden where we can all go around naked, live in caves and die at the ripe old age of thirty.
It’s insane, yes. But it’s also a belief system, one that has given rise to a post-human left, which is far less concerned with the question of human rights, and much more concerned with managing humanity, as if it were an invading pathogen. Environmentalism provides moral cover for the left’s disengagement from the issues of human rights that it once pretended to care about. Its coldness toward human beings is a sign of how much it “cares” about something bigger than man. About the whole planet. Suddenly environmentalists aren’t sociopaths, even when they make videos featuring the murder of children who don’t go along with their creed, they just happen to be supremely caring people who are operating on a level beyond that of mortal men. Their cruelty is actually a higher form of morality.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
West ‘Outmanoeuvred’ By Extremists
The West is being “outspent, outmanoeuvred and out-strategised” by violent Islamic extremism, Tony Blair has warned. The former prime minister said that there had been a failure to challenge the “narrative” that Islam was oppressed by the West which was fuelling extremism around the world. He said too many people accepted the extremists’ analysis that the military actions taken by the West following the 9/11 attacks were directed at countries because they were Muslim and that it supported Israel because Israelis were Jews while Palestinians were Muslims. “We should wake up to the absurdity of our surprise at the prevalence of this extremism,” he said “Look at the funds it receives. Examine the education systems that succour it. And then measure, over the years, the paucity of our counter-attack in the name of peaceful co-existence. We have been outspent, outmanoeuvred and out-strategised.” Speaking in New York to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Mr Blair warned that it was impossible to defeat extremism “without defeating the narrative that nurtures it”. Moderate Muslims who believed in co-existence and tolerance were, he said, being undermined by the unwillingness of the West to take on the extremists’ arguments. “We think if we sympathise with the narrative — that essentially this extremism has arisen as a result, partly, of our actions — we meet it halfway, we help the modernisers to be more persuasive,” he said. “We don’t. We indulge it and we weaken them. Worse, a reaction springs up amongst our people that we are pandering to this narrative and they start to resent Muslims as a whole.”
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
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