British Budget Cuts ‘A Dangerous Experiment’
British Prime Minister David Cameron is embarking on a painful period of austerity. Some economists say his savings plan is dangerous. Some German columnists agree.
A day after revealing deep and far-reaching spending cuts — the country’s largest since World War II — Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has been busy defending the plan on Thursday. Interviewed on BBC Radio Four, Osborne said that he would not back track on his “harsh but fair” plan for the country to come to terms with its overspending ways.
There is hardly an aspect of British life that has been left untouched by the cuts. Ministerial budgets have been slashed by an average of 19 percent. Almost half a million public sector jobs will disappear over the next four years. State expenditures will plunge by 83 billion pounds (€94 billion, $131 billion) and taxes increased by 29 billion pounds (€32 billion, $45 billion). The retirement age is also set to rise.
The hope in London is that the massive cuts will ultimately trigger a long period of growth. Many economists, however, have their doubts, arguing that state spending is needed to spur the economy rather than cuts which, they say, could put a stop to any growth impulses.
German commentators on Thursday take a closer look at Prime Minister David Cameron’s plan.
The Financial Times Deutschland writes:
“That Britain must save is indisputable. The government’s plan to slim down the overweight public sector is absolutely correct in principle. However Prime Minister David Cameron and Finance Minister George Osborne want too much at once.”
“It may make good political sense to be this brutal when the next elections are so far off. But from an economic point of view, it would have made more sense to enact this savings package more gradually. The British economy has only just started to emerge from the recession. In such a situation, if politicians dampen demand to the degree that the savings package is suspected to do so, then it becomes a dangerous experiment. It could stifle the upturn, and by doing so, diminish the tax revenues that the government needs so badly.”
“There is no pressure from the financial markets to institute such drastic measures. The UK’s financial situation is much better than either Greece’s or Ireland’s…. The British government should consider all this. Nobody will be forcing them to enact the savings package as quickly as they promised on Wednesday. The only reason for the new coalition to hurry is to fulfill their election promise to consolidate the budget. But the political gains they make from that are not worth the economic risk that the whole of Great Britain must now face.”
The right-wing Die Welt writes:
“The British have now received the bill for more than a decade’s worth of irresponsible housekeeping. And it wasn’t just the government which lived well beyond its means during the allegedly never-ending boom. The €170 billion hole into which the country is now staring is just a mirror image of the spending culture engaged in by households across the country.”
“One could accuse the former Labour government of sending the false signals, or encouraging people to go into debt due to expectations of continuous economic growth. But the man on the street knows better. He makes his own luck — or his own misfortune. Perhaps it is this knowledge which explains the stoicism with which the British public now look at the sacrifices they must make.”
“Of course, not all Britons will react so calmly. Trade unions have already threatened strikes. But England is not like France. British union legislation is strict. And the strikers don’t get as much public sympathy as they are in France at the moment.”
“Last but not least the British coalition government, made up of the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, is standing together, unflinching. They are an exemplary picture of discipline. The EU should follow their example in solving its own economic misery.”
The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:
“Anyone that wants to strike almost half a million jobs from the public sector, cut social benefits, raise the pension age and make tertiary education more expensive, is only too pleased about other ideas for saving, that won’t cause half the country to take to the barricades.”
“The fact that the diplomatic service will have to cut jobs and that the royal family will have to do without a seventh of their budget is unlikely to get violent mobs protesting on Downing Street. And those living on Downing Street will be even more relaxed at the outcry from the (German) states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony which have to cope with the earlier-than-expected withdrawal of British troops from the Rhine area.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Fannie, Freddie Bailout Could Double
The federal bailout for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could double in size during the next three years, according to projections from the companies’ federal regulator.
Fannie and Freddie, the federally controlled mortgage finance giants, probably will need at least another $73 billion and perhaps as much as $215 billion from taxpayers in the next three years to meet their financial obligations, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said, but much of that money would automatically be returned to the government.
The growing taxpayer infusions will cover losses Fannie and Freddie suffer on home loans, as well as payments the companies must make to the U.S. Treasury in exchange for a federal guarantee to provide cash to keep the companies solvent.
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Housing Crisis Hits Blacks Hardest
(CNNMoney.com) — The foreclosure crisis has hit blacks harder than any other group in America and it will be tough for them to regain their footing in the housing market.
Blacks’ homeownership rate has plummeted nearly 6 percent to 46.2 percent since its peak in 2004. That’s more than twice that of any other racial or ethnic group, as well as the nation’s rate as a whole, which fell only 2.3 percent, according to U.S. Census data.
Also, among recent borrowers, nearly 8 percent of blacks have lost their homes to foreclosure, compared to 4.5 percent of whites, according to the Center for Responsible Lending. Latinos, who have also been pummeled by the mortgage meltdown, came in a close second behind blacks in foreclosure losses.
The consequences are devastating. Fewer blacks own their home now than any other racial or ethnic group and that makes it even more difficult for them to achieve financial security and attain wealth.
“We built the middle class on homeownership,” said Marc Morial, head of the National Urban League, which works to empower the black community. “How many people have built their business with the equity in their home? How many people have sent their kids to college with the equity in their home?”
The loss of homeownership is more than the difference between a mortgage payment and a rent check, experts say. Purchasing property is the key to building wealth, which not only allows people to improve their quality of life and provide more for their children, but also gives them a cushion during tough economic times.
CNNMoney: Foreclosures: Next to hit banks?
“Billions and billions of dollars were stripped away from a community that already had lower levels of wealth than white communities,” said Debbie Bocian, senior researcher at the Center for Responsible Lending, which estimates blacks will lose $194 billion in wealth through 2012 due to the mortgage meltdown. “It exacerbates all the socio-economic divides. The consequences are intergenerational.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Is Barney Frank?
You would be hard pressed to find a politician who is less frank than Congressman Barney Frank. Even in an occupation where truth and candor are often lacking, Congressman Frank is in a class by himself when it comes to rewriting history in creative ways. Moreover, he has a lot of history to rewrite in his re-election campaign this year.
No one contributed more to the policies behind the housing boom and bust, which led to the economic disaster we are now in, than Congressman Barney Frank.
His powerful position on the House of Representatives’ Committee on Financial Services gave him leverage to force through legislation and policies which pressured banks and other lenders to grant mortgage loans to people who would not qualify under the standards which had long prevailed, and had long made mortgage loans among the safest investments around. All this was done in the name of promoting more home-ownership among people who had neither the income nor the credit history that would meet traditional mortgage lending standards.
To those who warned of the risks in the new policies, Congressman Frank replied in 2003 that critics “exaggerate a threat of safety” and “conjure up the possibility of serious financial losses to the Treasury, which I do not see.” Far from being reluctant to promote risky practices, Barney Frank said, “I want to roll the dice a little bit more in this situation.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Nigel Farage Tells EU: No Taxation Without Representation
Nigel Farage MEP, UKIP, Co-President of the EFD group, made the statement during a meeting of the European Parliament in Strasbourg on October 20, 2010.
Transcript
Well, president Barroso, you’re certainly flexing your muscles, using the powers given to you with the Lisbon treaty which you pushed through using illegitimate means. You now do everything you can on the world stage and within the EU to acquire all the attributes of statehood.
And nowhere could that be more apparent than in your recent proposal for a direct tax to be levied by the European institutions on the peoples of this continent.
Of course in previous times there was a very successful independence movement that campaigned on the slogan of ‘No taxation witout representation’.
And you certainly, sir, are not a representative. We haven’t voted for you and we can’t remove you. So I think with this direct tax you actually made a mistake.
And what an expensive club it’s becoming. Just two years ago, Britain’s net contribtuion was £3 billion a year. This year it’s £6 billion. Next year it will be £8 billion. The year after that, it’s due to be £10 billion. And now we hear that you want to take away the British rebate. You want to get rid of the British rebate, which will mean by 2013 our contribution will be £13 billion. It would have quadrupled in the space of six years.
And simply, the taxpayers of Britain, realising all of this, seeing your direct tax will conclude that we simply can’t afford the European Union.
But I do see a ray of hope. The Doville deal between Merkel and Sarkozy — the thing that you’re all so terrified of today — I hope it happens.
Let’s have a new treaty. You yourself seem to be almost supporting it (to Barroso). Let’s have a new European treaty and let’s put it to a referendum — in lots of countries, particularly in Britain, and the British people will conclude that this is a very bad deal for Britain, they’ll vote for us to leave the European Union and begin the unravelling… [sarcastic applause]… Thank you. We;ll be happy to go, thank you.
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Sharia Advancing in the West Like a Snake in the Sleeve
While most people are still ignorant of the tremendous growth of Sharia Banking in the West, a recent report by International Financial Services London reveals that Britain’s Islamic banking sector is now bigger than that of Pakistan.
What is important to grasp is that Islam recognises no authority superior to Sharia law. When trillions of pounds and dollars are locked into them, Sharia banks will not recognize the superior authority of the law of the land.
One thing possibly many of the Westerners are yet to realize is, by simply opening an account with any of the Sharia compliance banks, they in other words are giving endorsement to — and enabling — the advance of Sharia law, which endorses, among other tenets, stoning for adultery; hanging for homosexuality, and an offically inferior status for non-believers and women.
Equally troubling is the potential cover provided by Sharia finance for the financing of terrorism. Sharia requires Muslims to tithe a percentage of their money to charity, called “Zakat.” But charity in Islam is more like a solidarity, so some of this money donated to Islamic charities finds its way to organizations promoting jihad and supporting suicide bombing, including Hamas, Hezbollah, the families of Palestinian suicide bombers, and Islamist madrassas in places like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia, Turkey, and Egypt, among others.
The UK now has five fully “Sharia-compliant” banks which prohibit interest payments, and investment in alcohol or gambling firms in accordance with Islamic Sharia law — while another 17 leading institutions, including Barclays, RBS and Lloyds Banking Group, have set up special branches or subsidiary firms for Muslim clients.
The $18 billion [£12bn] in assets of Britain’s Islamic banks are said to dwarf those of Muslim states such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkey and Egypt. There are also 55 colleges and professional institutions offering education in Islamic finance in Britain — more than anywhere else worldwide. Whether they know it or not, Western institutions that endorses Sharia-compliant banking therefore effectively endorse the extremist ideology behind it of conquering the West for Islam.
There are thought to be about 1.8 million Muslims in the United Kingdom, or 3% of the population, half in the London area; about half a million regular Muslim visitors to the UK, and approximately 12 million Muslims living in the EU, principally in France and Germany. Islamic financial products are available in the UK from a number of High Street banks, which offer current accounts and mortgages tailored for Muslims.
The UK is home to the first wholly Sharia compliant retail bank in the West, Islamic Bank of Britain, which was authorized by the Financial Service Authority [FSA] in 2004. The FSA has also authorized the European Islamic Investment Bank, the first such investment bank. In addition, London has become an important financial center with major international firms and the Middle East’s biggest traditional banks offering Islamic products. The main centers for Islamic banking still tend to be concentrated in the Middle East and Gulf region. Assets controlled by Islamic banks at the global level are estimated to be $200-500bn and are growing at a pace of 10-15% per year.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Top Corporations Helping U.S. Chamber of Commerce Influence Campaigns
Prudential Financial sent in a $2 million donation last year as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce launched a national advertising campaign to weaken the historic rewrite of the nation’s financial regulations.
Dow Chemical delivered $1.7 million to the chamber last year as the group took a leading role in aggressively fighting proposed new rules to tighten security requirements on chemical facilities.
And Goldman Sachs, Chevron Texaco, and Aegon, a multinational insurance company based in the Netherlands, donated more than $8 million in recent years to a chamber foundation seeking to limit the ability of trial lawyers to sue businesses.
These large donations — none of which were publicly disclosed by the chamber — offer a glimpse of the chamber’s money-raising efforts, which it has ramped up recently in an orchestrated campaign to become one of the most well-financed critics of the Obama administration and an influential player in this fall’s Congressional elections.
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Trio of Peers Suspended From the Lords for Wrongly Claiming Almost £200,000 in Expenses
Three peers were given lengthy suspensions from the House of Lords today after wrongly claiming thousands of pounds in expenses.
Labour peers Baroness Uddin and Lord Paul, and crossbencher Lord Bhatia, were suspended after the upper chamber approved the damning judgments of its Privileges and Conduct Committee.
Lady Uddin was suspended until the end of the parliamentary session in 2012 and told to repay £125,349.10.
Lord Bhatia was sidelined for eight months and has already repaid more than £27,000.
Lord Paul was suspended for four months and has already returned £41,982.
The sanctions are the toughest imposed on misbehaving members for more than 300 years.
Lady Uddin and crossbencher Lord Bhatia were found to have acted ‘not in good faith’ by incorrectly declaring their main homes in order to claim generous overnight allowances.
An initial investigation decided that Lord Paul had also acted “not in good faith” in his home designations.
However, the committee rejected this finding on appeal, accepting that although ‘utterly unreasonable’ and ‘negligent’, he had not been ‘dishonest’ and had already returned £41,982 last year.
The sanctions for Lady Uddin and Lord Bhatia are the toughest imposed on misbehaving members for more than 300 years.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Conservatives Behind the Curve on Obama
Dinesh D’Souza says in his new book that Barack Obama is an anti-colonialist. Stanley Kurtz has a new book, Radical-in-Chief, which says Obama is a socialist. The new book Dupes by Paul Kengor tells the unvarnished truth. And that’s because he make use of material we started releasing back in February of 2008 about Obama’s communist mentor, Communist Party USA member Frank Marshall Davis. New Zealand blogger Trevor Loudon broke that story and we confirmed it.
I hate to say, “We told you so,” but Herb Romerstein and I held a briefing in May 0f 2008 in Washington, D.C. releasing two reports, “Communism in Chicago and the Obama Connection,” and “Communism in Hawaii and the Obama Connection.” Then, in August of 2008, I released the 600-page FBI file on Frank Marshall Davis. The response from the media included Dana Milbank of The Washington Post making fun of us and Matt Drudge of the Drudge Report refusing to run paid advertising on the Obama-Davis connection. The liberal and conservative media had their heads in the sand. They couldn’t come to grips with the unprecedented prospect of a possible agent of influence for the international Marxist movement occupying the Oval Office.
[…]
Paul Kengor says that conservatives were reluctant to face up to the truth about Obama because they didn’t want to be accused of “McCarthyism” for raising the issue of his communist connections. The 600-page Kengor book includes the excerpts of the Davis FBI files that others have shied away from. Kengor, a professor at Grove City College, is not afraid to tackle the terrible truth. We need more like him in academia.
The difference between calling Obama an anti-colonialist, a socialist, or a Marxist mentored by a top operative of the CPUSA is that one category should immediately earn you an FBI investigation. Former FBI agent Max Noel says the Bureau used to investigate candidates for federal employment by analyzing Character, Associates, Reputation, and Loyalty to the United States. The first letters in those words make up the acronym CARL.
Obama could not have been elected president if he had been subjected to such an inquiry. Leaving Davis aside—and he was on the FBI’s “security index”— Obama’s relationship with communist terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn was enough to disqualify him for the presidency. These despicable people, who claim that they never killed anyone and never intended to, are notorious liars. Photos of the Weather Underground bomb factory they abandoned in San Francisco in 1971 reveal these Cuban-trained terrorists were working on anti-personnel weapons, including stabbing devices, and had C-4 plastic explosive.
The big news today is that some of the people who have been supporting Obama from the start in Chicago are now under investigation by the FBI, suspected of providing support to foreign terrorist organizations in Latin America and the Middle East. This is a trail that could lead all the way to the White House. Of course, the hiring and firing of communist and 9/11 “truth” advocate Van Jones was another scandal that could have implicated Obama, but it was dropped when things became too close for comfort for the White House. Jones went along with the power play, left the administration, and now works out of the offices of the Soros-funded Center for American Progress. A scandal that could have been bigger than Watergate was neatly avoided by throwing Van Jones under the bus.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Dining With the Enemy: Al Qaeda Leader Linked to 9/11 Hijackers ‘Was Invited to the Pentagon for Lunch After Attacks’
An Al Qaeda leader who is one of the most wanted men in the world was invited for lunch at the Pentagon in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks, a new report has claimed.
New documents have been obtained which apparently detail how Anwar Al-Awlaki, the first American on the CIA’s kill or capture list, rubbed shoulders with high-ranking military personnel just months after the atrocities.
Fox News claim to have acquired documents that state that Awlaki was taken to the U.S. Department of Defense’s headquarters as part of the military’s outreach program to the Muslim community in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks.
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Dizzy Gillespie’s Birthday Celebrated With Jazzed Up Google Doodle
Jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie’s birthday has been celebrated with a multicoloured ‘Google Doodle’ that replaces the search engine’s classic logo.
Dizzy Gillespie is the latest in a long line of figures to be celebrated by the search engine, which has replaced its classic logo with a multicoloured depiction of the pioneering jazz musician. The logo, which features a depiction of Gillespie blowing a trumpet to create the ‘G’ of Google, has been placed on the search engine’s homepage to celebrate the birthday of the late trumpet prodigy.
John Birks Gillespie, aka ‘Dizzy Gillespie’ was a father figure of the bebop sound of modern jazz, alongside saxophonist Charlie Parker. Born on 21 October 1917, Gillespie is considered one of the all-time jazz greats alongside Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. Gillespie spent much of his early career playing in orchestras while writing a number of big band numbers, before striking out as a freelance musician — most notably playing as part of jazz vocalist Ella Fitzgerald’s in 1942. Gillespie eventually teamed up with saxophonist Charlie Parker, before sowing the seeds of the modern bebop sound around the jazz clubs of New York.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Fired NPR Analyst Stands by Muslim Statements
“It’s an honest experience that when I’m in an airport and I see people who are in Muslim garb who identify themselves first and foremost as Muslims… I have a moment of anxiety or fear, given what happened on 9/11 — that’s just a reality,” he says. Juan Williams stands by his comments that he’s afraid of Muslims in an airport — even though he was fired as an NPR analyst Wednesday for expressing those thoughts. “It’s an honest experience that when I’m in an airport and I see people who are in Muslim garb who identify themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I do a double take. I have a moment of anxiety or fear, given what happened on 9/11—that’s just a reality,” Williams said Thursday on the Fox News Channel, where he also regularly appears as a talking head.
Williams said he was fired without talking to his bosses face-to-face, despite the fact that he’d been at the company for 10 years. Bill O’Reilly and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich have asked Congress to open an investigation into NPR and cut its federal funding as a result of Williams’ firing. “I’m calling immediately… for the immediate suspension of every taxpayer dollar going into the National Public Radio outfit,” O’Reilly told Scott on Fox News’ “Happening Now” Thursday. “We’re gonna get legislation, we’re gonna freeze it down… they don’t get any more money.”
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| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
In Its Rows About Islam, The US Must Avoid Catching a European Disease
The planned Islamic centre is not at Ground Zero, nor is the nearby strip club. It’s un-American to take such offence
Last Friday, in New York, I discovered a strip club near the site of the planned Islamic centre, described by its opponents as “the mosque at Ground Zero”. As pole dancers gyrated with all the sizzling eroticism of a weary Wal-Mart checkout assistant at the end of a long shift, I asked the burly front-of-house man — Scott, from Brooklyn — whether they had faced any protests about this profanation of hallowed ground. Had any Fox News commentators, for example, been beating an angry path to their door? Well, he replied, one or two passers-by had raised objections since the controversy erupted about the Islamic centre. “People are entitled to their opinions,” said Scott, but the “New York Dolls” Gentlemen’s Club had been here for 30 years and the folks working in it had to make a living.
Now a strip club at the memorial site of the worst terrorist atrocity on American soil would truly be a profanation. Though obviously not comparable to a strip club, planting a large new mosque directly on that site would nonetheless show an acute lack of sensitivity. Nine years on, the place where the twin towers stood is still a building site, but in a nearby exhibition you can see the plans for a commemorative ensemble of pools, trees and a museum, as well as a soaring new “freedom tower”. As at the sites of Auschwitz, Katyn, Hiroshima or Ypres, so in the footprint of the World Trade Center, historical tact and commemorative mission should override all other considerations.
But here’s the point: the strip club on Murray Street is not “at Ground Zero” any more than the site of the planned Islamic centre, a former Burlington coat factory in Park Place, is “at Ground Zero”. They are, respectively, three and two blocks away. Neither would be visible from the World Trade Center memorial site, which may in some important if secular sense be considered hallowed ground. In New York, two blocks is a country mile. By the time you get to Park Place, there is no doubt that you are already somewhere else, amid the city’s habitual huggermugger craziness, with the Amish Market on the corner selling Amish BBQ chicken, Amish fettucine and Amish sushi — all of them as authentically Amish as I am Chinese.
Then the critics of the proposed centre in Park Place — sorry, “Ground Zero Mega Mosque” — go on about dubious sources of funding and suspect statements by its principal protagonist, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf. And so, they say, it should be built further away. The leap of illogic is as big as any leap of faith. Were the centre to have terrorist sources of finance, or radical, bloodthirsty Islamist leadership, it should be stopped anyway, whether it is two blocks away from Ground Zero or 200.
In the event, these claims too turn out to be twisted, or absurdly thin. The anti-Islam blogger Pamela Geller, for example, has a characteristic rant on her website, arguing that Rauf was associated with a Malaysian peace group which funded the Gaza aid flotilla. Her headline: “Ground Zero Imam Rauf’s ‘Charity’ Funded Genocide Mission”. The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart did a fine riff on this kind of guilt by association, pointing out that the second-largest shareholder in Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, which owns Fox News, is Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal — who is associated with the Carlyle Group, which has done business with the Bin Laden family, “one of whose sons — obviously I’m not going to say which one — may be anti-American”.
In a clumsy, provocative comment during a television discussion soon after 9/11, Rauf said that US policies had been “an accessory to the crime that happened” and that Osama bin Laden was “made in the USA”. That was wrong, and offensive. But it has to be put against the rest of his words and deeds, which have been devoted to promoting a gentle Sufi version of Islam compatible with a free society. I’m not a huge fan of his kind of interfaith waffle, but if the Muslim world were comprised entirely of Raufs, we would not have the problems we face today — and there would have been no 9/11 attacks. That is why the state department has been funding him to travel round the Middle East explaining American Islam.
There is therefore no reasonable objection to this Islamic centre, with its mission to promote peace, love, interfaith dialogue and swimming, being built in Park Place. Yet in the runup to the US mid-term elections on 2 November, senior politicians, pundits and even supposed opponents of religious discrimination are either condemning it or ducking out with weasel words. Newt Gingrich, the Republican former speaker of the House of Representatives, denounced the scheme, saying: “Nazis don’t have the right to put up a sign next to the Holocaust Museum in Washington.” Fox star Bill O’Reilly says it should not be built because “Muslims killed us on 9/11”. Sarah Palin famously tweeted “Peaceful Muslims, please refudiate” (sic). Facing a tough re-election race even Harry Reid, the Democrat majority leader in the Senate, distanced himself from President Obama’s cautious endorsement of Muslims’ constitutional right to build the centre.
Most grotesquely, Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League insists it should be moved. Talking of the relatives of 9/11 victims who oppose it (though some other relatives support it), Foxman says “their anguish entitles them to positions that others would categorise as irrational or bigoted”. An organisation established to combat bigotry thus comes out in defence of … bigotry. And the upshot of all this is that, in a Pew poll this August, 51% of Americans asked said they opposed the building of the centre near the World Trade Center site.
There is now no good way forward. If it goes ahead, it will be a constant bone of contention. If it is moved, more Muslims will believe radical Islamists when they say: “You see, we told you so — America is Islamophobic.” Either way, America is doing something extremely stupid. As if it did not have enough problems of its own, it is conspiring to give itself a problem which, up to now, it has not had — or at least, has had much less than most European countries.
Yes, there have been a few home-grown American jihadists, but there is a lot of evidence that American Muslims are generally better integrated, and more supportive of the state in which they live than most of their European counterparts. There are several reasons for this, but one of the biggest is the First Amendment tradition of free speech and freedom of religion, which is now at issue in those blocks just up the road from, but not at, Ground Zero.
That great tradition, which Scott, the doorman at “New York Dolls”, seems to have understood better than Foxman, Gingrich or Reid, says: this is America, where Geller can rant, strippers can grind, Christians, Jews and Muslims can pray — and Stewart can make fun of them all. This is America, where no one has the right not to be offended. For God’s sake, America, don’t catch our European disease.
[JP note: Another European fop lecturing Americans about what it means to be American. There are insufficient words in the Thesaurus to delineate Timothy Garton Ash’s unfathomable asininity.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
My Take: NPR’s Firing of Williams Imperils National Conversation on Islam
I don’t know the heart of Juan Williams. Neither do I know whether NPR fired him because he said on the “The O’Reilly Factor” on Monday that seeing people on planes in traditional Muslim garb makes him nervous, or because of an accumulation of immoderate things he has said in the past on the Fox News Channel.
But NPR made a mistake either way. It was wrong to fire Williams for giving voice to fears that many other Americans, on both the left and the right, share.
Note what Williams was expressing. It was not a belief or even an opinion. He was not saying, as the Reverend Franklin Graham has said, that Islam is “a very evil and wicked religion.” He was expressing a feeling, a fear.
“I get worried,” he said. “I get nervous.”
Williams also took pains to tell O’Reilly not to blame all Muslims for the actions of a few “extremists,” any more than he would blame all Christians for the actions of extremists like the Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
Late last night NPR issued a statement justifying its decision to terminate Williams’ contract. “His remarks on The O’Reilly Factor this past Monday were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices,” the statement said, “and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR.”
There are broader issues here about the crossover of people like Williams from delivering the news on one station to offering commentary on another. And any news outlet that attempts, as does NPR, to be unbiased is right to be concerned about public perceptions that its employees are shills for one political party or another.
In this case, however, NPR is undermining its own claims to be fair and balanced, prompting, for example, a statement by the former Arkansas governor (and Fox talk show host) Mike Huckabee, calling for federal funding cuts at NPR.
As I have said repeatedly, the United States desperately needs a public conversation about Islam that is informed and civil. In order to have that conversation, however, people of good will (and I include Williams in that category) need to feel free to express not only their beliefs and opinions but also their worries and fears.
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
New York’s Lincoln Center Partners With Castro’s Secret Police
Cuban Ministry of Culture is controlled by the Cuban DGI, Castro’s KGB -trained Directorio General de Intelligencia
Wynton Marsalis and his Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (who in 2004 held a concert titled “Celebration of Human Rights and Social Justice”) spent all last week as grateful guests of a Stalinist/Apartheid regime that murdered more political prisoners in its first three years in power than Hitler’s murdered in its first six, that jailed political prisoners at a higher rate than Stalin’s, and that came within a hair of nuking The Lincoln Center.
Among the tens of thousands of men, women and—yes, even—children jailed, tortured and murdered by the Lincoln Center’s recent hosts were the longest-suffering black political prisoners in modern history. Within walking distance of where Wynton Marsalis and his Lincoln Center jazz luminaries hob-knobbed with Castro officials at Havana’s Teatro Mella, black political prisoners were being tortured for the crime of publicly quoting the works of Martin Luther King and the UN Declaration of Human Rights. Among these prisoners is Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, an Amnesty international prisoner of conscience who was awarded (obviously in absentia) The Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bush in 2008.
Here’s the Wall Street Journal’s report on this heart-warming “Cultural Exchange” with Stalinist Cuba: “(Wynton Marsalis’) invitation came under the auspices of the Cuban Institute of Music, an agency of the Cuban Ministry of Culture.”
OK, now here’s what Cuban Intelligence defector Jesus Perez-Mendes, during a de-briefing in 1983, disclosed to the FBI about the Cuban Ministry of Culture: “the Circulo de Cultura Cubana (Cuban Ministry of Culture) is controlled by the Cuban DGI (Castro’s KGB -trained Directorio General de Intelligencia.)” So leftists, kindly stifle the shrieks of Mc Carthyism at Canada Free Press!”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
NPR Fires Juan Williams for Muslim Remarks on Fox
NPR terminated the contract of Juan Williams on Wednesday after comments the veteran journalist and news analyst made about Muslims on Fox’s “The O’Reilly Factor.”
Fox News host Bill O’Reilly stirred up controversy last week on “The View” after making the blanket statement that “Muslims killed us on 9/11,” a comment that led to co-hosts Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg walking off the set.
On Monday, O’Reilly asked Williams if there is a “Muslim dilemma” in the United States. The NPR analyst and longtime Fox News contributor agreed with O’Reilly that such a thing exists, and added that “political correctness can lead to some kind of paralysis where you don’t address reality.”
“I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot,” Williams continued. “You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.”
Some commentators and a leading Muslim civil rights organization took issue with Williams’ comments.
The Atlantic’s Andrew Sullivan wrote Wednesday morning that Williams’ statement about fearing Muslims on planes is an example of bigotry. “What if someone said that they saw a black man walking down the street in classic thug get-up,” Sullivan wrote. “Would a white person be a bigot [if] he assumed he was going to mug him?’
The Council for American-Islamic Relations sent out a press release Wednesday afternoon calling on NPR to address the matter. Nihad Awad, the organization’s national executive director, called the comments “irresponsible and inflammatory” and said they “should not pass without action by NPR.”
They certainly didn’t. NPR took action Wednesday night and put out a statement regarding the severing of Williams’ contract: “His remarks on ‘The O’Reilly Factor’ this past Monday were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR.”
You can watch Williams’ comments below:…
| — Hat tip: ESW | [Return to headlines] |
Pentagon Says it Hosted Radical Cleric After 9/11
Radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki lunched at the Pentagon as part of a program to reach out to moderate Muslims in the months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a military official said Thursday.
The U.S.-born al-Qaida operative is now on a U.S. kill-or-capture list.
U.S. investigators say e-mails link al-Awlaki to the Army psychiatrist accused of last year’s killings at Fort Hood, Texas. They also say that he helped prepare Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, accused in the Christmas airline bombing attempt, and that he had links to the failed Times Square bombing.
Marine Corps Col. Dave Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman, said al-Awlaki was invited to the Department of Defense’s headquarters after 9/11 as part of a broader effort under then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to establish better ties with the Muslim community.
Al-Awlaki’s Pentagon lunch was first reported by Fox News, which cited FBI sources and documents.
The 9/11 Commission reported that al-Awlaki was interviewed at least four times in two weeks following the Sept. 11 attacks about his dealings with three of the hijackers aboard the flight that slammed into the Pentagon. But it said it didn’t know enough about Al-Awlaki’s relationship with the hijackers to say whether he was aware of the plot.
The report said he had also been investigated by the FBI in 1999 and 2000 for having been “contacted by a possible procurement agent for (Osama) bin Laden” and for connections to extremist fundraising groups. None of the investigations led to criminal charges against him.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Western Jihad, Anwar Al Awlaki & “The Saudi Factor”
Outreach to “moderate Muslims” and shameful pandering to Saudi interests: “field commander” of the Saudi cell that slammed an aircraft into the Pentagon attended a luncheon there just months after the attack.
As Americans, we were promised by President Bush that everyone responsible for the wholesale murder of nearly 3000 of our family members on September 11, 2001 and those harboring or aiding them would be brought to justice. Sadly, that promise was only partially true under the Bush administration, and demonstrably untrue under the current Obama administration. It is currently hindered by an unprecedented level of conflicts of interests within the Holder justice department.
Although the ongoing injustice for acts of Islamic terrorism waged against Americans pre-dates the Obama administration, the most egregious examples of pandering to Islamic terrorists have certainly occurred under his watch. The massacre at Fort Hood by Major Nidal Malik Hassan, the thwarted Christmas Day bombing attempt of a U.S. airline, and the failed bombing in Times Square are just a few of the higher profile incidents where the motives rooted in Islam were unquestionably clear yet not publicly acknowledged.
A look at the larger picture, however, reveals a more insidious problem of influence and infiltration that extends much deeper into U.S. politics and is not limited to any one political party or administration. That is the problem of Saudi influence and infiltration, or “the Saudi factor,” which has adversely affected U.S. counter-terrorism investigations for at least the last quarter century and the last five administrations. Their financial influence and fifth-column infiltration has successfully affected the media, government policies, and most absurdly, frustrated countless counter-terrorism investigators, field agents and derailed investigations.
[…]
Believing that they were about to take al Awlaki into custody on the felony arrest warrant, investigators were surprised and angered to learn that the arrest warrant was cancelled by David M. Gaouette, the interim U.S. Attorney for Colorado at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Denver the day before al Awlaki was scheduled to arrive in New York. This, despite the fact that al Awlaki was on a terror watch list and that Gaouette was fully briefed on Awlaki’s terror ties. Gaouette has since been appointed to his present post as the U.S. Attorney in Denver by Attorney General Eric Holder.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
As Britain Makes Drastic Cuts EU Vote for Bigger Budget and to Extend Maternity Leave
Maternity leave could soar to 20 weeks at full pay following an EU vote yesterday — a move which experts warned would damage the job prospects of young women.
Business leaders reacted with fury after MEPs voted in favour of plans which would more than double the cost of maternity leave in the UK.
The move, opposed by British ministers, would saddle the economy with £2.5billion a year in extra costs, according to the EU’s own figures.
Over 20 years the measure would cost the UK £48billion — half the cost across the entire EU.
But MEPs backed the measures by 390 votes to 192.
Portuguese Socialist Edite Estrel, who led calls for improved maternity leave, hailed the vote as ‘a great day for new parents’
Business leaders warned the move would impose crippling costs.
Current UK rules give pregnant women up to a full year off, six weeks of it paid at 90 per cent of the mother’s average pay, followed by 33 weeks on Statutory Maternity Pay of nearly £125 a week. The rest is unpaid.
The Institute of Directors said increasing this to 20 weeks on full pay amounted to a ‘tax on employing women’. Spokesman Alistair Tebbit added: ‘The Government needs to block this terrible proposal.
‘The state can’t afford 20 weeks of maternity pay at 100 per cent of earnings. If this measure comes into force the Government may require employers to pick up the £2.5billion bill, or at least a big part of it.
‘The effect on small firms, almost none of which can afford to supplement statutory maternity pay, would be very severe.’
David Frost, Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce, said: ‘On the day that the Chancellor announces £83billion worth of cuts to Government spending, it is outrageous that the UK Exchequer could be saddled with a bill for nearly £3billion.’
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‘Britain Can Ill Afford to Lose Men Like Him’: Charles’s Tribute to Grandfather Killed Defending Shop From Thugs
He was a decent hard-working man, devoted to his family, dedicated to his community and scrupulously honest.
When a group of youths tried to steal from his ‘open all hours’ corner shop Gurmail Singh did not think twice about trying to stop them.
Tragically, his courage cost him his life.
Yesterday the two thugs who battered the 63-year-old over the head with wine bottles from his shelves were facing life behind bars after being convicted of murder.
Muawaz Khalid, 20, and 18-year-old Nabeel Shafi shattered his skull with repeated blows and fled the scene, despite valiant attempts by members of the public to restrain them.
In the aftermath of the tragedy, Prince Charles wrote to Mr Singh’s widow to express his sympathy, saying: ‘This country can ill-afford to lose such special people.’
The prince recognised the extraordinary qualities of a man admired by law-abiding residents of Cowcliffe in Huddersfield.
Mr Singh worked up to 15 hours a day, seven days a week and often delivered groceries to housebound pensioners.
In last winter’s heavy snow, he took newspapers to customers doors on a sledge.
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Could Turkish and Kurdish Gangs Become New ‘Mafia’?
Two people have been convicted in connection with a war between two gangs in north London. One local MP fears a “mafia-style” conflict.
When 20-year-old Yusuf Arslan was stopped in the street one night in September last year he was not cowed by the sight of armed police.
Quite the opposite.
Kitted out in body armour, he claimed he was one of the main players in north London and could get hold of better weapons than Scotland Yard’s Heckler & Koch MP5 sub-machine guns.
A few weeks later Arslan, whose Tottenham Boys gang are involved in a bloody feud with the rival Hackney Turks, was on the streets again seeking to back up his boasts.
Armed with a Croatian-made Agram sub-machine gun, he flagged down a Ford Transit van in a Tottenham street.
He fired four shots at the occupants, Nasir Demir and Hamit Koban, but they escaped serious injury by reversing the van away at high speed.
At Arslan’s recent trial Mr Demir, giving evidence from behind a curtain, said he was an innocent businessman but, asked why he had been shot at, he said: “Gang-related. Because they want control. If you ever get in the way they get you out of the way.”
There are an estimated 50,000 Turks and 200,000 Kurds in London, not including Turkish Cypriots.
The Tottenham Boys and Hackney Turks gangs are understood to include both Turks and Kurds.
The feud has claimed at least two lives in the last 12 months — Oktay Erbasli, 23, and Cem Duzgun, 21 — and one local MP believes the violence could get worse.
David Lammy, MP for Tottenham, told the BBC: “Gang-related activity in the Turkish-speaking community is a serious issue on the streets of London and we need far more focused action.
“We need far more Turkish-speaking officers dealing with this and I sense that the community itself is fearful and racketeering, money laundering and intimidation is going on and it has to come to an end.”
Mr Lammy said: “I’m genuinely worried about the escalation of violence and the young lives that are being lost in this parallel world of criminality.
“I don’t want to see the kind of developments that exist in New York played out in the streets of London, a kind of mafia-style community.”
Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson rejected the criticism and said: “This is a challenge but we have had some successes.”
A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said the force had 24 Turkish-speaking officers and she said officers from the Safer Neighbourhoods Team in Hackney had recently visited Istanbul, Kahramanmaras and Elbistan as guests of the Turkish police.
She said they were now devising a training package to help them working among Hackney’s Turkish population.
‘Tit-for-tat crime’ Arslan — who was himself shot in 2007 and only survived after an operation to remove his spleen — was convicted at Kingston Crown Court of attempted murder and firearms offences last month.
A second man, Emre Kamalak, 24, admitted possessing a loaded snubnose Brocock revolver and a third man, Abdullah Cicekdegli, 26, was acquitted of possessing the gun.
The trio had been stopped by armed police in a minicab in the early hours of 9 December 2009.
Duncan Penny, prosecuting, told Kingston Crown Court: “These incidents were connected with an ongoing dispute between two groups — the Tottenham Boys and the Hackney Turks — both incidents arose from gang rivalry and tit-for-tat serious criminality that is associated with it.”
Mr Penny said Arslan mentioned Mr Erbasli’s death after his arrest on 8 October.
Mr Penny said: “He said at the end of the day he knew who had killed his friend but he did not know which one of the Hackney boys it was.”
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Edinburgh Zoo Culls Two Endangered Piglets Because of European Breeding Quotas
Cuddling up to their mother, these African piglets were more than an endearing attraction for zoo visitors.
They were also the successful product of a breeding programme aimed at keeping alive endangered species.
Zoo managers had hoped that many more of these rare Red River Hogs would be born in future. But yesterday it emerged the piglets had been killed by one of the zoo’s own vets.
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Germany: McAllister: UK Troops Leaving a ‘Sad Moment’
Lower Saxony’s premier David McAllister on Thursday told The Local parts of the state will be hit hard by the early closure of British military bases. But as the son of a British solider, the issue is also deeply personal for McAllister.
The 39-year-old Christian Democrat widely known as “Mac” was born to a Scottish father serving with the British Army in West Berlin and a German mother.
Despite the incessant questions about bagpipes and kilts, he has risen through German politics to lead the nation’s fourth-most populous state.
In the wake of the British Government’s announcement this week that it would pull half of its 22,000 troops out of Germany in the next five years and the rest by 2020, McAllister spoke to The Local about the impact on his state as well as his personal regret.
You’ve obviously followed this issue closely for some time. How do you feel about the outcome?
First of all, we’ve got to respect the decision of the British Government. Until now, we were sure the British troops would stay at least until 2035 in Germany … so of course that’s disappointing news for us because the British forces in Germany and especially Lower Saxony are welcome guests and friends who are very well integrated and have an important role for the local economies.
Were you surprised by the short time-frame for the withdrawal?
We all knew that October 20 was going to be a very important day when the British Prime Minister (David Cameron) was going to announce his strategic defence review and we knew that the presence of British forces in Germany would be an issue, so it wasn’t such a big surprise.
The surprise for us was that it is quite a tight schedule. It’s not a lot of time. In Bergen in Lower Saxony, for instance, new houses are just being built for the troops.
Cameron promised to consult with the relevant German state governments, yourself included. Are you happy with that consultation?
The British liaison officer gave us early information and I had an hour-long talk with the former British ambassador, Michael Arthur, who’s just left Berlin. So … of course we’re disappointed and of course this will hit the communities hard, but I still say we’ve got to respect the decision of the British government and thank the British government and British forces for all the time they’ve spent in Germany. They have certainly made a large contribution to peace and security in Europe and in Germany.
What kind of impact will it have on smaller communities around these bases. What are their prospects now?…
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Police Warn Immigrants After Malmö Shootings
Police in Malmö issued a warning on Thursday urging residents with immigrant backgrounds to be extra careful when out alone at night or in the evenings.
The warning comes following information released by the police on Wednesday indicating that residents with immigrant backgrounds have been targeted in a number of recent shootings, up to 15 of which the police believe may be related.
Police also cautioned members of the public not to try to intervene if they witness a new shooting.
“You shouldn’t give chase. The first think you should think about is your own safety, then call the police,” J-B Cederholm of the Skåne County police said at a Thursday press conference, according to the Kvällsposten newspaper.
There have already been 50 shootings in the southern Swedish city this year. While a number of the shootings haven’t resulted in any victims, olice are nevertheless concerned about the situation.
They believe that one or a handful of dangerous individuals are behind up to 15 shootings in which all but one of the victims has had an immigrant background.
As a result, police have focused their investigation on groups of right-wing extremists.
“It’s part of our preliminary investigation. But we’re also looking wider than that,” police spokesperson Mats Lassén said at the press conference.
The first victim was a 20-year-old woman who was alone in a car with a 21-year-old man near the Rosengård neighbourhood in October 2009.
The woman died from her injuries, while the man, who had a foreign background, survived.
No one has been arrested in connection with the shootings, according to the police, who have established a special group with several officers to work on the investigation.
While no tips have come in which have led to a major breakthrough in the case, police are hopeful that they will be able to arrest the suspected shooter or shooters, Kvällsposten reports.
“And if the assailant continues, there is a greater risk that he’s make a mistake, that he’ll leave a trace of something behind,” said Cederholm.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Beginning of the End of European Multiculturalism
The attempt to get native Germans to live peacefully side-by-side with foreigners has not worked. In an unprecedented admission that is sure to transform the debate in Germany (and in Europe as a whole), over uncontrolled mass immigration, especially from Muslim countries, German Chancellor Angela Merkel now concedes that German multiculturalism has “failed utterly.”
Speaking to a meeting of her center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party in Potsdam outside Berlin on October 16, Merkel said: “We are a country which at the beginning of the 1960s actually brought [Muslim] guest workers to Germany. Now they live with us and we lied to ourselves for a while, saying that they will nott stay and that they will have disappeared again one day. That is not the reality. This multicultural approach—saying that we simply live side by side and are happy about each other—this approach has failed, failed utterly.”
Merkel’s sobering comments follow the publication in October of a survey by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, a think tank linked to the center-left Social Democratic Party [SPD], which found that 55% of Germans believe that Arabs are “unpleasant,” and over 33% believe the country is being “overrun” by immigrants. The study also noted that “far-right attitudes” are not isolated at the extremes of German society, but to a large degree “at the center of it.”
The debate over what to do about Germany’s broken immigration system has been simmering for years, but began in earnest in August, when Thilo Sarrazin, a prominent German banker, and also a long-time member of the SPD, published a controversial new book titled “Germany Does Away With Itself.” The book broke Germany’s long-standing taboo on discussing the impact of Muslim immigration by highlighting painful truths about the current state of affairs.
At the time, Merkel sought to distance herself from Sarrazin’s views and called for his dismissal from the German Central Bank. In a September 3 interview with the Turkish daily Hurriyet, for example, Merkel labelled as “ridiculous” Sarrazin’s view that there were too many immigrants, particularly Muslims, in Germany, and that their presence was damaging the country. She also told Germans they must get used to mosques as part of Germany’s changing landscape.
But pressure from within the CDU over integration may now be prompting Merkel to take a tougher line on immigration. Disastrous opinion polls and right-wing dissatisfaction with her perceived “left-wing” conservatism have led to an open discussion about an early replacement for Germany’s first woman leader.
In any event, Sarrazin’s concerns over Muslim integration are resonating with the German population at large, and politicians like Merkel are taking note. Sarrazin’s book has topped the bestseller list on bookseller Amazon’s German website since its publication, and book tour dates across the country are sold out. Polls show broad public support for Sarrazin’s anger that many Muslim immigrants shut themselves off from Germany, do not speak German and do not share the German or Western worldview.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Analysis: Picking Apart Miliband’s Shadow Appointments [Paragraph on Charles Farr]
by Martin Bright
[…]
The OSCT [Office of Security and Counter-terrorism] is headed by Charles Farr, a former Foreign Office mandarin who has long argued for closer dialogue with radical Islam. Last summer he clashed with Home Secretary Theresa May when she banned TV preacher Zakir Naik. May said Mr Naik had expressed support for Osama bin Laden and said every Muslim should become a terrorist. Documents filed by Mr Naik suggest Mr Farr believed the preacher had an important role to play in the fight against extremism as he had renounced violence.
[JP note: For more on Charles Farr see posts at Harry’s Place at http://tinyurl.com/27hlmpr and Conservativehome at http://tinyurl.com/2douzgz
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Cafe Owner Ordered to Remove Extractor Fan Because Neighbour Claimed ‘Smell of Frying Bacon Offends Muslims’
A hard-working cafe owner has been ordered to tear down an extractor fan — because the smell of her frying bacon ‘offends’ Muslims.
Planning bosses acted against Beverley Akciecek, 49, after being told her next-door neighbour’s Muslim friends had felt ‘physically sick’ due to the ‘foul odour’.
Councillors at Stockport Council in Greater Manchester say the smell from the fan is ‘unacceptable on the grounds of residential amenity’.
The fan has been in Beverley’s Snack Shack takeaway in the Shaw Heath area of the town for the past three years.
Mrs Akciecek and her husband Cetin, 50, — himself a Turkish Muslim — work more than 50 hours a week buying, preparing and cooking hot and cold sandwiches and hot-pots for their customers.
Today mother-of-seven Mrs Akciecek said she plans to appeal against the decision.
She said: ‘I just think it’s crazy. Cetin’s friends actually visit the shop, they’re regular visitors, they’re Muslim people, they come in a couple of times a week.
‘I have Muslim people come in for cheese toasties. Cetin cooks the food himself, he cooks the bacon.
‘When we go to a cafe my husband wouldn’t be offended by the smell of bacon. His friends are not offended by it, we have three visitors who come here for a sandwich, friends of my husband, and the smell doesn’t offend them at all.
‘My brother-in-law doesn’t flinch if he comes and we’ve just taken out three trays of bacon.
‘I’m going to find a local councillor. I’m waiting for the letter so I can appeal.’
The couple took over the take-away in 2007 from the previous owner and replaced the existing extractor fan, which had been there for six years, with a new modern one.
They claim they received no complaints about the cafe which is open from 7.30am-2.30pm six days a week, until around 18 months ago when they received a letter from environmental services to say their neighbour Graham Webb-Lee had complained about the smell.
Mrs Akciecek said: ‘We’ve never had a problem about the smell because everything is pre-cooked. We cook it in the oven so there’s no foul smell.
‘It’s pre-cooked so the smell isn’t as strong when we’re frying it off. It’s like living next to someone who’s cooking a Sunday breakfast but it’s not constant it’s just in the morning.
‘It’s been a sandwich shop for about eight years, cooking exactly the same stuff. The lady before me did double because they were actually building new houses across the road so she was really busy. She was here from 6am-4pm because they were so busy.
‘They were there before me but they were also there when the lady who owns the business was here and she was doing double what we are. She had five staff, you can imagine how bust that shop was and they never complained at all.’
They say that the council’s environmental services had been out to inspect their property after their neighbour complained about a foul odour last year, but they ruled that the smell was not causing a problem.
Mrs Akciecek said: ‘Environmental services said everything is ok. They kept coming back and guaging it and said there was no problem and because they didn’t take any action (the neighbours) complained again.’
The couple had never applied for planning permission as they had simply replaced an existing extractor fan with one of the same size and in the same position, but, following further complaints from their neighbour, they were informed by the council they would have to apply retrospectively as an objection had been raised.
They applied for planning permission in May this year, but the application was refused at a meeting of Stockport Area Committee on October 14.
Mr Webb-Lee objected to the aplication — complaining that his Muslim friends refused to visit him becase they ‘can’t stand the smell of bacon’.
Mrs Akciecek, who also attended the meeting, said: ‘He said he had a daughter with an eating disorder, the Muslim friends, and the bad smell all the time is making his clothes smell.
‘The councillors agreed with him without even asking me what I thought. It was as if they didn’t even realise I was there.
‘This cafe is our only source of income. There are only two of us working, we haven’t got any staff anymore. We work seven hours in the shop and my husband goes to the cash and carry and has all the prep work to do. We’re working long hours. He does about 50 hours a week easy and I’m working about the same and we work Saturdays.
‘The shop will be a lot harder work. It will be a good hour a day washing the walls down, I will not work anywhere with the grease falling down the walls. We can’t move it anywhere.
‘I’m not going to accept it and we’re going to fight it.’
Mr Webb-Lee said: ‘The vent is 12 inches from my front door. Every morning the smell of bacon comes through and makes me physically sick.
‘I have a lot of Muslim friends. They refuse to visit me anymore because they can’t stand the smell of bacon.’
A spokesman for Stockport Council said: ‘The retrospective application was rejected on the grounds of residential amenity, as the committee felt the odours given off from the vent were unacceptable for neighbouring residents.
‘We will ensure that the cafe complies with this decision and removes the extractor fan.’
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Huddersfield Men Guilty of Gurmail Singh Murder
Two men have been convicted of murdering a shopkeeper during a robbery at his village store in West Yorkshire.
Gurmail Singh was hit over the head with bottles of wine from the shelves of Cowcliffe Convenience Stores in Cowcliffe, Huddersfield, in February.
A jury convicted Huddersfield men Muawaz Khalid, 20, and Nabeel Shafi, 18, of murder at Bradford Crown Court.
Three other men, Umare Aslam, 20, Shoaib Khan, 18, and Rehman Afzal, 18, were cleared of murder.
Khalid, of Blackmoorfoot Road, and Aslam, of Coniston Avenue, Dalton, were also convicted of robbery.
Khan, of Calton Street, Hillhouse, was also cleared of the robbery charge. The jury was told he had earlier admitted a charge of assisting an offender.
Sharfi, of Park Hill, Bradley, and Afzal, of Jacinth Court, Fartown, pleaded guilty to robbery at a hearing earlier this year.
‘Utterly decent man’ Sentencing was adjourned until 16 November so pre-sentence reports could be prepared.
During the six-week trial the prosecution said Mr Singh was attacked on the night of 20 February after he refused to “meekly hand over his property, his hard-earned money” during the robbery.
He died in hospital the following day.
The court heard smokers outside the pub opposite the shop realised something was wrong when they saw two men running from the scene.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Rape-Lie Woman, 21, Who Falsely Accused Man of Sex Attack is Told by Judge: ‘You’Re Going to Prison’
An office worker who falsely cried rape is facing jail after her lies led to an innocent man being arrested.
Samantha Merry, 21, who calls herself ‘Sexy Sam’ on her MySpace web page, admitted making up the allegation against a 37-year-old man.
The suspect was arrested at his home and faced a four-month police investigation, with the possibility of a lengthy jail term if convicted.
Judge Anthony Goldstaub QC, sitting at Chelmsford Crown Court, told Merry: ‘Sort out your affairs on the assumption you’re likely to be sent to prison.’
Merry, of Great Baddow, Essex, was charged with perverting the course of justice on July 14. She pleaded guilty and will be sentenced on November 15.
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UK: Student Jailed for ‘Executing’ Torquay Couple
A student has been convicted of what prosecutors described as the cold-blooded execution of an elderly couple.
Odai Salah, 29, strangled Rosemary Windle, 72, and suffocated Maurece Smith, 71, at their flat in Torquay, Devon, to get their money.
After the killings in January Salah took cheque books and credit cards and kept watch to ensure the bodies had not been discovered.
Salah was jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum of 30 years.
The prosecution told Exeter Crown Court the law student got to know the couple when he tried to do business with them through his failed food and wine company.
Mrs Windle had a successful business selling linen and other goods to wealthy clients in the Middle East and Salah, a Lebanese national, told them he could help by putting her in touch with his contacts.
At the time of the killings he was studying for a PhD at Glasgow Caledonian University.
However, Salah was £170,000 in debt and had credit card companies, banks and other organisations demanding he repay what he owed, the prosecution said.
Det Supt Steve Carey, who led the murder investigation, described the murders as a “wicked crime”.
He said Salah quickly came to the police’s attention because he tried to cash a cheque for £27,000 in Mrs Windle’s name at a bank in Exeter on the day of the murders.
He said: “He was bound to come to light sooner or later as he started interfering with the victims’ accounts.”
Police discovered the bodies three days after the murders.
Mr Smith’s body was in an armchair covered with blankets and pillows and a cushion over his face. A broken knife blade was found under his body.
Mrs Windle’s body was found in the garage covered by a blanket.
Salah’s DNA was found on the victims and the murder weapon was traced to a set from his home, the court heard.
Prosecutor Paul Dunkels QC described the killings as a “cold-blooded execution” in order to get money.
It was not clear what triggered the attack, Mr Dunkels said.
He said: “He must have determined that the only way to get money from them was to kill them both. That is what he did.”
Jailing Salah, the judge, Mr Justice Jack, said: “I come to the conclusion that you are devoid of any morality.”
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Wilders’s Remarks About Islam Were Criticism, Not Defamation, Lawyer Says
Freedom Party Leader Geert Wilders criticism of Islam in newspapers and a film weren’t intended to defame Muslims, his lawyer told a Dutch court and asked for his client’s acquittal on incitement of hatred charges.
“Criticism on religion should be possible,” Wilders’ lawyer Bram Moszkowicz told the Amsterdam District Court today. “When Wilders says something about Muhammad, that doesn’t incite discrimination against Muslims.”
Wilders, 47, is on trial for calling the Koran “fascist” and comparing it to Adolf Hitler’s book Mein Kampf in a 2007 Dutch newspaper editorial. A year later, he released his movie “Fitna,” in which he calls on Muslims to rip out “hate- preaching” verses from the book.
“Wilders finds it terrible he needs to answer to a criminal court for his comments” as a politician and has chosen to remain silent, Moszkowicz told Presiding Judge Jan Moors. “This trial puts a heavy burden on his political existence.”
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Report Links Mubarak to ‘Severe Persecution’ Of Christians by Muslims
The Egyptian regime of President Hosni Mubarak is said to be inciting the Muslim majority against the nation’s Christians.
A leading Middle East analyst asserted that the Mubarak regime has facilitated what he termed “severe persecution” by Muslims of Egypt’s Christian minority. Raymond Ibrahim, who lectures at the National Defense Intelligence College, said Egypt has transformed into the spearhead of the Muslim Brotherhood, which has intimidated the nation’s estimated eight million Coptic Christians.
“Indeed, recent events indicate that the Mubarak regime is intentionally inciting Egypt’s Muslims against the Copts,” Ibrahim said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Netanyahu: Fundamentalist Islam is ‘Enemy’
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu says “fundamentalist Islam” is the greatest enemy to peace in the Middle East.
Addressing the Israeli Knesset during a session to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the assassination of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Netanyahu also said construction in existing West Bank settlements “does not contradict the aspiration for peace and an agreement,” the Palestinian Ma’an News Agency reported.
Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians broke down after Netanyahu refused to extend restrictions on settlement expansion despite pleas by the United States, the United Nations and the European Union, the report said.
Quoting from Rabin’s final speech before the Knesset, Netanyahu said, “The land of the prophets, which bequeathed to the world the values of morality, law and justice, was, after two thousand years, restored to its lawful owners — the members of the Jewish people. On its land, we have built an exceptional national home and state.”
The Palestine Liberation Organization’s Executive Committee Saturday reiterated its stance that peace talks won’t resume until Israel stopped expanding settlements on land which would be a future Palestinian state.
Israeli and Palestinian leaders have criticized a recent bill passed by the Knesset requiring everyone seeking citizenship to swear loyalty to a Jewish state.
“Fundamentalist Islam” has strengthened exponentially, and is the greatest enemy to peace, Netanyahu said, adding that Israel must “join hands with the free world” to face “the enemy of our country.”
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Secretly Trying to Establish Banks in Muslim Nations
Iran is secretly trying to set up banks in Muslim countries around the world, including Iraq and Malaysia, using dummy names and opaque ownership structures to skirt sanctions that have increasingly curtailed the Islamic republic’s global banking activities, U.S. officials say.
The Treasury Department has blacklisted 16 Iranian banks for allegedly supporting Iran’s nuclear program and terrorist activities; other countries have followed suit with their own measures. Tehran’s search for new banking avenues is a sign of the growing effectiveness of the sanctions, U.S. officials said.
Still, they think that Iran has had limited success, if any, in secretly setting up banks.
“The Iranians, we believe, are trying to set up operations in a number of places, and it’s an indication that they can’t do normal banking,” a senior administration official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk publicly. “They want to buy banks and set up banks in various places where they believe they will be able to carry out business without the United States being able to impede it.”
M. Bak Sahraei, a spokesman for the Iranian mission to the United Nations, said he could not immediately comment but would seek guidance from officials in Tehran.
The U.S. official said the Obama administration is aware of Iran’s efforts in “a number of neighboring countries and not-so-neighboring countries.”
In Iraq, an Iraqi official said, Tehran has established at least two banks in Baghdad, including one affiliated with Bank Melli, Iran’s largest commercial bank. The U.N. Security Council listed Bank Melli in 2008 as being involved with Iran’s nuclear activities, and the European Union has shut down all of its offices in Europe. Iran also has tried — without success — to establish commercial banks farther north in Iraq, in the Kurdistan region, the Iraqi official added.
Treasury officials have fanned out across the globe in recent weeks, visiting such countries as Azerbaijan, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Lebanon to bolster compliance with sanctions. Treasury and State Department officials have warned “local authorities of the risks of letting these operations take root,” the U.S. official added.
Azerbaijan has a branch of Bank Melli in Baku, its capital, and last month Iran offered to create a joint bank for the two countries, according to Azeri news reports. In 2008, the U.S. Treasury Department alleged that Futurebank in Bahrain was controlled by Bank Melli, but it continues to operate there.
Iranian Finance Minister Shamseddin Hosseini told reporters in Washington this month that while “Iran has faced some trouble from sanctions,” it has had few problems trading with other countries or securing hard currency.
“The world is big, and the people who are trading [with us] find ways to transfer money,” Hosseini asserted. “When you block the stream of water, it goes another route.”
“It has always been a cat-and-mouse game with Iran,” said Matthew Levitt, a former Treasury Department official and director of a counterterrorism and intelligence program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He said the banking operations, even if successfully created in other countries, are likely to be small-scale and insufficient to make up for the volume of banking activity Iran has lost.
For years, the United Arab Emirates was an important conduit for Iranian goods and financial transactions. But since the latest U.N. Security Council sanctions were approved in June, the UAE has cracked down on Iranian activities, in part by curtailing financial dealings with Iranian banks blacklisted by Washington. In response, Iran appears to have tried to enlist Malaysia as a new financial hub, but without success, the U.S. official said.
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| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Syrian Boy, 5, Gets Engaged to Three-Year-Old… And Parents Buy Rings for the Happy Couple to Exchange
Their engagement in Syria after a whirlwind holiday romance could set an unenviable world record.
Khalid, the would-be groom, is five. Hala, his fiancee, is a tot of three.
Their parents, astonishingly, are not only taking the betrothal seriously — they even arranged the ceremony and bought the rings which the ‘couple’ exchanged as if they were adults.
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Yemeni Blogger Nashwan Ghanem in Last Post Before “Suicide, “ Accuses Yemeni Gov’t of Complicity in Al-Qaeda Attack on US Embassy
Nashwan Ghanem was found dead of an “apparent suicide” by gun in Ibb today [October 18th]. These are his last posts, on his fourth blog, the one they didn’t know he had. The other three sites were shut down by the Yemeni authorities. He had been writing me for some time, saying they were trying to kill him. Nashwan accused leaders of the Yemeni military of complicity in the al Qaeda attack on the US embassy in Sept ‘08. That post brought a 24 month avalanche of state harassment and retribution…
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[Links to Ghanem’s blogs can be found at URL above]
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India: Barack Obama May Avoid Sikh Temple on Asia Visit Over Fears of Being Branded a Muslim
A VISIT by Barack Obama to the holiest of Sikh shrines may be cancelled because his advisers do not want the US President to wear a headscarf — fearing that it could fuel false rumours that he is a secret Muslim.
Everyone who enters the Golden Temple in the northern Indian city of Amritsar must cover their head, and the US President’s advisers fear it could fuel false rumours that he is a secret Muslim.
Most tourists cover their heads with a square piece of cloth, thousands of which are given away each day, while many Sikh men, and some women, wear elaborately folded turbans.
Mr Obama had planned to see the temple when he travelled to India next month but his advisers are said to have ruled out the headscarf option, fearing that in some people’s minds, it would connect him with militant Islamism.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Muslims Besiege Christian Slum in an Attempt to Kill Christian Men
Police does not register Case against the powerful invaders
SARGODHA, PAKISTAN (ANS) — A group of Pakistani Muslims have been patrolling the streets of the Kalupura Christian slum in Gujarat in a bid to find and kill Christian residents who have since gone into hiding.
ANS has learned from various local sources, including the Rev. Dr. Suleman Nasri Khan that on Friday, October 8, 2010, Muslim militants, brandishing deadly firearms had partly besieged the Kalupura Christian slum.
Since Wednesday, September 8, 2010, he alleged that Christian have been attacked several times by around 40 Muslim militants armed with deadly weapons.
In a bid to bring attention to the attacks, Christians have since protested in front of the Islamabad National Press Club and Interior Minister Rehman Malik took notice of the complainants.
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Talking about the reaction of the six Christian families wanted by the Muslim militants, Khan replied they were “fed up” because no one, not even any one of the Christian legislators of Punjab or National Assembly or Christian Ministers including Federal Minister for minorities affairs, Shahbaz Bhatti or Kamran Michael, the provincial minister of Punjab for minorities affairs, were helping them morally, financially or legally.
Harassed and starving Christian family members said it would be better for them in the prison.
“At least they would be able get proper meals there that than die of starvation,” said Allah Rakha Khan.
Rev. Dr. Nasri Khan reiterated now they have reached their breaking point because the more the Islamists protest the more they are emboldened.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistani Troops Linked to Abuses Will Lose U.S. Aid
The Obama administration plans to refuse to train or equip about a half-dozen Pakistani Army units that are believed to have killed unarmed prisoners and civilians during recent offensives against the Taliban, according to senior administration and Congressional officials.
The cutoff of funds is an unusual rebuke to a wartime ally, and it illustrates the growing tensions with a country that is seen as a pivotal partner, and sometimes impediment, in a campaign to root out Al Qaeda and other militant groups.
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Nigeria: Feared Muslim Sect Issues New Threats
A Muslim sect suspected of a series of targeted killings and a massive prison break has issued new threats in northern Nigeria, this time invoking al-Qaida’s north Africa branch. Posters by the Boko Haram sect appeared at key intersections in the city of Maiduguri this week, bearing the name of Imam Abubakar Shekau, the group’s de facto leader. The two top corners of the posters bore a symbol of an opened Quran, flanked on each side by Kalashnikov assault rifles and a flag in the middle — mirroring of the logo of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb. The message warned the public against assisting the police or going near soldiers guarding the town at night. The message also acknowledged a recent reward offered for information leading to the arrest of suspected sect members. “Any Muslim that goes against the establishment of Sharia (law) will be attacked and killed,” the message read. Boko Haram — which means “Western education is sacrilege” in the local Hausa language — has campaigned for the implementation of strict Shariah law. Nigeria, a nation of 150 million people, is divided between the Christian-dominated south and the Muslim north. A dozen states across Nigeria’s north already have Shariah law in place, though the area remains under the control of secular state governments. The poster said it was from Shekau on behalf of “The Group of the People of Sunnah, Call and Jihad.” Police officers began removing the signs late Wednesday. “These publications and messages on Boko Haram activities are seditious and could jeopardize our investigations into the four-month serial attacks and killings in the state,” Borno state police commissioner Mohammed Abubakar said Thursday.
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| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
North African States at Risk of Being Overrun by Al-Qaeda
Mauritania, Mali and Niger have seen a steady escalation of al-Qaeda activity targeting Western aid workers and experts. Somalia, to their east, has disintegrated in the face of Islamist assault. In Yemen, across the Red Sea from Somalia, security forces have been waging a losing battle against resurgent jihadist armies that have claimed the lives of dozens of troops.
Amadou Marou, the President of Niger’s National Consultative Council has been in Europe with a grim message for governments. “Somalia got away from us”, he said, “and northern Mali is in the process of getting away from us”.
Mohamed Abdillahi Mohamed, Somalia’s new Prime Minister, has also called on the US and Europe to “step up to the plate”. Aid to Somalia, he said, “is not an option, it’s a necessity. We are dealing with al-Shabaab, who are extremists and seeking to take their war throughout the world”. Al-Qaeda’s regional affiliates have expanded dramatically throughout this belt of states, exploiting the administrative weaknesses and corruption of their governments.
Large swathes of Somalia are already under the control of al-Shabaab, a Somali al-Qaeda affiliate, which is known to have hundreds of US and UK citizens among its ranks. Western intelligence services say they have evidence that those recruits are preparing for attacks on the West.
Last month, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, its north African branch, kidnapped seven people, including five French citizens, from a uranium mine in Niger. AQIM has demanded a ransom of £5 million and a rollback on France’s burka ban for the lives of the hostages Mauritania has been engaged in pitched battles with AQIM, and the country’s air force has been bombing jihadist targets in northern Mali the region where British tourist Edwin Dyer was executed by terrorists last year.
Mauritanian jihadists also murdered an American aid worker last year, and earlier attacked Israel’s embassy to the country.
Yemen, which is home to another al-Qaeda affiliate called al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, has served as hub for several plots targeting the West, often carried out by western citizens inspired by the charismatic Islamist televangelist Anwar al-Awlaki.
“There’s obviously a lot that needs doing in countries like Somalia”, says Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, an American counter-terrorism expert, “but it isn’t obvious how to do what needs doing”.
Local efforts to address the problem have had little success. Amisom, the African Union’s 7,000-strong peacekeeping force in Somalia, has been unable to restore government control over even the capital, Mogadishu. Peacekeepers received no wages for six months last year. Poor security conditions have made aid work all but impossible.
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| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
College Student Named Police Chief in Mexico; No One Else Applied
A town near drug cartel capital Juarez, Mexico, had just one applicant for police chief after a spate of killings of public officials in drug-related violence.
So now the new chief in Guadalupe, a town of 10,000 residents near the Texas border, is 20-year-old college criminology major Marisol Valles Garcia.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
“Child Sexuality” And the Fraud of the Alfred Kinsey Reports
A 70-year-old woman going by the pseudonym “Ether White” has claimed that she was sexually abused for years by her father and grandfather, and that the pair was paid by Dr. Alfred Kinsey as part of his bizarre sexual experiments. The findings from this “research,” which included producing charts on how long it took children as young as two months old to achieve orgasm with adult partners, became the foundation for how we view healthy sexuality in this country.
In other words, Kinsey used data from child rapists in his reports which are even now used to define what normal, healthy sexual behavior is.
Kinsey defenders have long attacked this assertion as the work of the “religious right” and anti-sex moralists, but even the Kinsey Institute itself has admitted that the Alfred Kinsey’s sources for information were child rapists.
Their own “debunking” of the charges Kinsey had children raped in the name of science still contains shocking admissions:
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Indiana Legislators Want to Defund Kinsey Institute
‘I went down to that place and toured it. It’s just a pit. It’s just a porno pit’
In light of voluminous evidence that pioneering sexologist Alfred Kinsey and his associates were guilty not only of scientific fraud but serious criminality — culminating this week with WND’s exposé of one victim of Kinsey’s notorious “child sexuality” studies conducted by pedophile “researchers” — Indiana legislators are calling for the defunding of the Kinsey Institute, located on the campus of state-subsidized Indiana University.
State representatives Cindy Noe and Woody Burton emphasized that any effort to cut off the Kinsey Institute hinges on electing Republican majorities in the state legislature.
“I don’t think the Kinsey Institute is a proper use of taxpayer money. Given the pressure that higher education is under now I can’t think of a better time to defund them,” said Noe.
Burton has spearheaded efforts in the past to defund the Kinsey Institute. The veteran legislator noted that gerrymandered districts have kept Democrats in power in the state legislature, frustrating Republican attempts to bring Kinsey funding to a vote.
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Burton noted that much of the Kinsey collection of sexual paraphernalia and research files are not open to the public — not even to the state legislators who fund it.
“I was trying to get a legislative order to go in and see that stuff. A video was sent to me about this guy on the Kinsey Institute board, who said they have a system set up to destroy their files immediately if anybody tries to get in to see it with a court order. “
Clark has long been a leader in social conservative efforts to cut off the Kinsey Institute state subsidies.
“We have battled with Indiana’s legislature for years to stop supplying money to Indiana University for the Kinsey Institute,” Clark told WND.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
One Nation Under Allah?
President Eisenhower famously observed that “our form of government has no sense unless it is founded on a deeply felt religious faith, and I don’t care what it is.” Now that we are beginning to see the consequences when Muslims act on their deeply felt faith, it’s time to revisit Eisenhower’s statement. The question is, can we still afford to take an “I don’t care what it is” attitude toward religion? In short, does the content of a religion matter?
Or are we to assume that all religions share the same essential truths, as Eisenhower seemed to assume?
It’s ironic that the part of Eisenhower’s statement which evoked criticism in the early 1950’s would pass almost unnoticed today, while the part that seemed unremarkable then would be challenged in many quarters today. When Eisenhower said, “our form of government has no sense unless it is founded on a deeply felt religious faith,” he was merely echoing a widespread belief. Even William O. Douglas, the most liberal member of the Supreme Court at the time, and not a particularly religious man, opined in a 1952 decision that “We are a religious people, whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being.” Since then, however, we’ve grown accustomed to the notion that religion ought to have little or no influence on our government and institutions. More and more, religion is looked upon as something that should be confined to the private sphere. As a result, religion has been pushed steadily out of public life—one Christmas creche, one school prayer, one court decision at a time. These days, most of our institutions, particularly the press, the courts, and the schools, seem to presume that secularism is the officially established belief.
Conversely, the part of Eisenhower’s statement that caused many to snicker in the 1950’s would strike most today as self-evidently true. Numerous priests, pastors, rabbis, and theologians took Eisenhower to task for adding, “and I don’t care what it is” to his endorsement of religion. Long before the threat of Islamization, thoughtful Americans realized that the content of a religion mattered very much. They protested that a vague “faith in faith” would not be enough to sustain our form of society in difficult times.
By contrast, after several decades of multicultural indoctrination we have now reached a pass where “I don’t care what it is” seems the height of enlightened wisdom. Our present society is so thoroughly invested in the doctrine of cultural equivalence that hardly anyone dares to publicly express a preference or partiality for one religion over another—except, of course, if the religion happens to be Islam. In that case the neutrality rule seems dispensable. For example, New York’s city fathers granted almost immediate approval to the Ground Zero mosque project, but after nine years, the plan to rebuild St. Nicholas Orthodox Church, which was destroyed by the 9/11 blast, has met with nothing but opposition. But, apart from the occasional favoritism shown to Islam, the notion that all religions are equally OK suits us just fine.
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| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Biodiversity: Replaces Climate Change as the Weapon for Political Control
The reality that global warming and climate change are natural and current patterns are within historic patterns is taking hold. Fundamental common sense embedded in the majority of people joined with truth pursuers and the healing perspective of time to bring reason. As always, those who profit politically, financially, or both, fight a rearguard action. Partly to defend the misdirection, but often to move the focus, while maintaining the target. Some of these different foci hover around the edge of the main battleground, but most are unaware how they’re interconnected.
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An underlying theme of environmentalism is anti-humanity and anti-evolution. Accordingly, human progress is not a natural evolution, but an unnatural aberration. Humans are exploiting and ravaging nature, essentially as a parasite that must be eliminated. Ron Arnold, Executive Vice-President of the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise, said, “Environmentalism intends to transform government, economy, and society in order to liberate nature from human exploitation.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mars or Bust! One-Way Trip to the Red Planet Could Kick-Start Colonization
The vast plains of Mars may be the most promising place beyond Earth for human colonization, but is it enough for a one-way trip to the red planet? Two researchers seem to think so.
In an article published this month in the Journal of Cosmology, Earth scientist Dirk Schulze-Makuch and physicist Paul Davies argue that a manned one-way mission to Mars would not only make economical sense, but would also mark the beginning of long-term human colonization of the planet.
The researchers contend that while a manned flight to Mars and back is technically feasible now, the steep financial and political costs make such a mission unlikely to launch anytime soon.
And since the greatest portion of expenses will be incurred by the safe return of the crew and spacecraft to Earth, the authors conclude that a manned one-way mission to Mars would both cut costs and help initiate Martian colonization. [Photos: Mars Base of the Future]
“We envision that Mars exploration would begin and proceed for a long time on the basis of outbound journeys only,” said Schulze-Makuch, who is associate professor in the School of Earth & Environmental Sciences Washington State University in Pullman. “One approach could be to send four astronauts initially, two on each of two spacecraft, each with a lander and sufficient supplies, to stake a single outpost on Mars. A one-way human mission to Mars would be the first step in establishing a permanent human presence on the planet.”
On Oct. 11, President Barack Obama signed a major NASA act into law that outlines the agency’s future in space exploration. The signing paves the way for a manned mission to an asteroid by 2025, with an expedition to Mars to follow sometime in the 2030s.
Next stop: Mars
A manned trip to Mars would take roughly six months using available launch options and current chemical rocket technology, according to the new study. The Red Planet has atmosphere, moderate surface gravity, abundant water and carbon dioxide, and range of essential minerals — making it an attractive target for potential human colonization.
But a one-way mission to Mars would be accompanied by obvious and undeniable risks. However, danger is often an inherent part of exploration, and has been throughout history, the researchers said.
“It would really be little different from the first white settlers of the North American continent, who left Europe with little expectation of return,” said Davies, a cosmologist at from Arizona State University in Phoenix. “Explorers such as Columbus, Frobisher, Scott and Amundsen, while not embarking on their voyages with the intention of staying at their destination, nevertheless took huge personal risks to explore new lands, in the knowledge that there was a significant likelihood that they would perish in the attempt.”
The scientists stress that such an expedition would not amount to a suicide mission, but would instead culminate in a series of missions over time, with an eye toward suffiently supporting long-term colonization.
The proposed project would begin with selecting an appropriate site for the Martian colony, ideally associated with a cave or other natural shelter, as well as other nearby resources, such as water, minerals and nutrients.
“Mars has natural and quite large lava caves, and some of them are located at a low elevation in close proximity to the former northern ocean, which means that they could harbor ice deposits inside similar to many ice-containing caves on Earth,” Schulze-Makuch said. “Ice caves would go a long way to solving the needs of a settlement for water and oxygen. Mars has no ozone shield and no magnetospheric shielding, and ice caves would also provide shelter from ionizing and ultraviolet radiation.”
Schulze-Makuch and Davies propose that the astronauts would periodically be supplied with basic necessities from Earth, but would otherwise be expected to become increasingly proficient at harvesting and utilizing the resources available on the foreign planet. The researchers envision that the settlement would eventually reach self-sufficiency, and could then serve as a hub for expanding human colonization.
A lab away from home
Schulze-Makuch and Davies suggest that by building a human presence on Mars, it not only provides humanity with a “lifeboat” in the event of a mega-catastrophe on Earth, but would also be a unique platform for further scientific research.
Astrobiologists agree that there is a fair probability that Mars hosts, or once hosted, microbial life, perhaps deep beneath the surface, and Davies and Schulze-Makuch suggest that a scientific facility on Mars might therefore be a rare opportunity to study an alien life form and a second evolutionary record.
“Mars also conceals a wealth of geological and astronomical data that is almost impossible to access from Earth using robotic probes,” the researchers said in their report. “A permanent human presence on Mars would open the way to comparative planetology on a scale unimagined by any former generation… A Mars base would offer a springboard for human/robotic exploration of the outer solar system and the asteroid belt. And establishing a permanent multicultural and multinational human presence on another world would have major beneficial political and social implications for Earth, and serve as a strong unifying and uplifting theme for all humanity.”
But would anyone actually want to sign up for a one-way ticket to Mars? Apparently so.
“Informal surveys conducted after lectures and conference presentations on our proposal, have repeatedly shown that many people are willing to volunteer for a one-way mission, both for reasons of scientific curiosity and in a spirit of adventure and human destiny,” the researchers said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pathfinders: The Golden Age of Arabic Science, By Jim Al-Khalili
Reviewed by Kenan Malik
One of Raphael’s most famous paintings, The School of Athens, is a fresco on the walls of the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican, depicting the world’s great philosophers. At the centre stand Plato and Aristotle. Surrounding them are figures such as Socrates, Pythagoras and Diogenes.
Among the celebrated Greek philosophers is a lone Muslim: Ibn Rushd (or Averroes, as he would have been known to Raphael). His presence is an indication of the extent to which he was revered by the leading figures of the Renaissance. That he is the only Muslim philosopher in the painting is also telling. Ibn Rushd was but one in a line of monumentally important Islamic thinkers, whose work was central to the making of the Renaissance. Few were known to Christian Europe.
Half a millennium later, the situation is not much different. Educated Westerners have probaby heard of Ibn Rushd, and possibly Ibn Sina, or Avicenna as he is better known in Europe. Few know of any other Muslim philosophers. The conventional view is that little of intellectual value happened between the heights of Greek philosophy and the flourishing of the Italian Renaissance. In between lay the so-called “Dark Ages”.
In fact, in those Dark Ages an intellectual tradition flowered as lustrous as that which went before and came after. Centred first in Baghdad and then in Cordoba, Arab philosophy and science played a critical role not just in preserving the gains of the Greeks and laying the foundations for the Renaissance and the scientific revolution, but in expanding the boundaries of knowledge.
Jim Al-Khalili is a theoretical physicist who also holds a chair in the Public Engagement in Science. He has a passion for bringing to a wider audience not just the facts of science but its history. Al-Khalili was born in Baghdad, and one senses also a burning personal desire to resurrect a history in which that city played such a prominent part.
The origins of “the golden age of Arabic science” lay in the pragmatic needs of the new Islamic realm that expanded in the seventh and eighth centuries, eventually to stretch from India to the Atlantic. To ensure better administration and access to technology, the new Caliphs insisted on translating documents into Arabic.
Soon they developed a thirst for knowledge for its own sake. The new empire had within its borders a treasure house of texts, mainly Greek and Persian. Books on medicine, natural history, astronomy and philosophy were all translated into Arabic.
In the mid-eighth century, the Caliph al-Mansur built the new city of Baghdad to be his imperial capital. Here his great grandson, the Caliph Al-Ma’mun, created the “House of Wisdom”, a celebrated library and centre for scholarship that helped turn Baghdad into the greatest intellectual centre of its time.
By the second half of the tenth century, the translation movement had come to an end largely because all the great works had already been translated and studied. By now a new movement had begun — that of original Arabic scholarship, a movement that grew out of a desire to check empirically the claims of the Ancients in texts such as Ptolemy’s Almagest, long considered unimpeachable as an astronomical work. Al-Ma’mun set up an observatory near Baghdad, the “first state-funded large-scale science project”, as Al-Khalili puts it. Together with an even greater observatory built near Tehran, it helped transform astronomy and established the mathematics without which Copernicus “would certainly not have been able to arrive at his heliocentric model”.
Not just astronomy was revolutionised. Arab scholars invented algebra, helped develop the decimal number system, established the basis of optics, and set the ground rules of cryptography…
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
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