Euro Group Leader Exhorts Germany to Expand Rescue Fund
The influential head of the Euro Group of 17 countries that have adopted Europe’s common currency is warning that Germany must move to expand the money available in the EU rescue package to save the euro. Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker says he is “angry” about the tone of the discussion of the euro rescue in some parties.
Jean-Claude Junker, the prime minister of Luxembourg and president of the Euro Group, has warned the German government that it must take part in the planned reform of the European Union’s euro rescue package.
“It is now inevitable that we will have to effectively make available the €440 billion ($598 biillion) that we tentatively promised last May,” Juncker told SPIEGEL in an interview to be published on Monday. “I am confident the (German) government will not ignore this common European goal.”
Germany is not the only country that must take on additional burdens, Juncker added. “To make the rescue package more efficient, other countries like the Netherlands, Austria, Finland and Luxembourg must also contribute their share.” Juncker said it was conceivable that the euro rescue fund could purchase debt from troubled EU countries. “It would be wrong to create taboos,” he said. Last week, several leading politicians in the German government, comprised of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and the business-friendly Free Democratic Party (FDP), rejected calls to change the current euro rescue package.
‘I Am Angry’
In his SPIEGEL interview, Juncker expressed his displeasure with that development, particularly with the FDP. “I am angry about the way in which some (FDP) liberals are now gambling away their European policy legacy,” he said. “It is painful for me to see that some in the FDP are now flirting with a populist course.”
Juncker also complained that French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Merkel passed him over when considering candidates for the post of the President of the European Union Council, effectively the president of the EU. “I was never told why, despite the fact that most governments in Europe preferred me, that I was not allowed to assume this post,” Juncker said. “I would have liked to have assumed this function.”
At the end of 2009, leaders of EU states named former Belgian Prime Minister Herman van Rompuy to the post. Asked whether he believes Merkel is as good a European as former CDU Chancellor Helmut Kohl, the Luxembourg Prime Minister replied: “Helmut Kohl was good, and Merkel is not bad — but in this case, ‘good’ and ‘not bad’ are the same.”
Check back on Monday for the full English-language version of Juncker’s interview with SPIEGEL on Monday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Jittery Investors Take 2.5 Billion Dollars Out of the Country in a Week
Jakarta, 19 Jan. (AKI) — Jakarta Post — Foreign funds worth 2.5 billion dollars (22.5 trillion Indonesian rupiahs) in total flew out of the country within the last week mainly due to negative sentiments on the region, as inflationary concerns have worried investors, a Bank Indonesia (BI) spokesman said in a statement.
The central bank’s Wednesday data showed that from Jan. 10-14, foreigners sold 7.41 trillion rupias worth of government bonds, 10.64 trillion rupias in BI certificatesand 4.46 trillion rupias of their stocks.
“In line with negative sentiment in the emerging markets, due to mounting inflationary pressures, overall foreign placement in domestic financial assets slid, mostly in BI certificates and government bonds,” Spokesman Difi A. Johansyah said in a press statement on Wednesday.
Foreign ownership of government bonds and BI certificates slid to 29.4 and 26.4 percent from the previous 30.4 and 31.1 percent respectively in the second week of January.
“From BI’s assessment, the domestic financial market weakened as was reflected in higher yields for government bonds as well as a weakening stock index and rupiah,” Difi added.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Hizb ut-Tahrir: War Cannot be Won
The United States sponsored terror, argues Islamist group
A number of servicemen in uniform attened last night’s meeting (Photo: Scanpix)
Eight cabinet members joined a group of several hundred people protesting outside the city’s Royal Library last night during a meeting held by Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir.
The protestors were angered by Hizb ut-Tahrir’s position that Muslims had an obligation to engage in armed resistance against coalition troops in Afghanistan. Many said they had supported efforts by lawmakers, including the culture minister, to pressure the Royal Library not to allow the group to hold the meeting on its premises.
Inside, the group’s message was clear: the war in Afghanistan cannot be won.
The first debater, Saad Ali Khad, gave a presentation about the many “myths” that, according to Hizb-ut-Tahrir, are keeping the war in Afghanistan going. He pointed out that one of the US arguments in support of the legitimacy of the war is that terror networks can be found in the country.
“But that argument could easily be turned against the US, because the US is the only state in the world convicted of sponsoring terrorism. That happened when Reagan was president,” he said, referring to the former president’s support for right-wing groups in Nicaragua in the 1980s.
Khad was also critical of the argument that coalition soldiers were sent to Afghanistan to prevent terrorist attacks in the West. “That’s like extinguishing a fire with petrol. Violence breeds violence,” he argued.
Outside, at the demonstration, a number of politicians marked their resistance to Hizb ut-Tahrir’s views. “It is an insult to the Danish soldiers and our democratic and Christian values; it is an insult to our country” said Benedikte Kiær, the social affairs minister. “They are crossing the line when they’re encouraging resistance and violence against Danish soldiers.”
Maulay Jaw, who was moderator at the meeting, said that politicians failed to focus on the discussion, which was the war in Afghanistan. Instead, he said they were paying more attention to the group’s separate seating for men and women and to the flyers advertising the meeting, which featured coffins draped in the flags of Denmark, Sweden and Norway.
“Everyone has a view on whether wars and occupations are legitimate. The reality is that Danish soldiers kill — and get killed — in Afghanistan. But for what purpose?”
Lars Barfoed, the justice minister, has called on the Public Prosecutor to once again look into the possibility of banning Hizb-ut-Tahrir on the grounds that it promotes violence. In two previous investigations, in 2004 and 2008, the Public Prosecutor found that there was no reason for doing so.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Suspect Arrested in Mosque Arson Case
A 30-year-old man was arrested Friday evening in Berlin’s Neukölln district on suspicion of arson, following a series of attacks on several mosques in the German capital, a police spokesman said. Saarland’s state premier to leave post this year — Politics (22 Jan 11) Thousands protest industrial agriculture during Green Week — National (22 Jan 11)
Pharma firm probed for allegedly bribing doctors — National (22 Jan 11) Investigators apprehended the man at the Blaschkoallee U-Bahn station.
The arrest follows a wave of arson attacks on Muslim houses of worship in Berlin in recent months. No one was injured, but the fires caused property damage in every case.
The assailant or assailants routinely left messages behind at the scene. Police did not describe the notes in detail, but media reports said the messages were collages of newspaper articles.
Following a comprehensive investigation, state prosecutors reportedly obtained a warrant to search the offices of the Berlin daily newspaper B.Z. A police spokesman said investigators confiscated evidence that strengthened the case against the suspect.
According to the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, Peter Huth, the suspect contacted B.Z. in mid-December under false pretenses, requesting a copy of a newspaper article. Huth said an employee received the inquiry.
“Wisely, she took down the name and the address and was able to inform police officers on Friday afternoon, which allowed for an arrest within a few hours,” B.Z.’s editor said.
A police spokesman said the man arrested Friday is suspected of involvement in four of seven arson attacks on Berlin mosques since June of last year. Investigators are examining whether the suspect has any connection to the other incidents…
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
How a French Doctor Helped Create Forensic Science
A 19th-century French medical examiner and criminologist was even more skilled than the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. A new book recounts his biggest case, which heralded the age of forensic science.
On a good day, Joseph Vacher could win over a woman with his disarmingly innocent demeanor. In these states of mind, he wrote letters in an ornate, rounded feminine handwriting and amused children by making faces at them.
But then Vacher would go into uncontrolled rages. Once, he beat his small dog to death with a club because it wasn’t eating its food.
His crimes against human beings were much worse. In remote forests and barns, Vacher, the son of a farmer, raped and murdered a total of 11 people, most of them children.
In late 19th-century France, this diminutive serial killer epitomized ordinary citizens’ fears of the evil that lurks in the darkness. At the time, the guillotine was still used to execute dangerous criminals in France. In the Vacher case, however, the judges were hesitant to impose the death penalty. Was the mass murderer “a cannibal” who had to be beheaded, or was he a “certifiably insane person” who was to be locked up in an asylum?
Douglas Starr, a professor of journalism at Boston University, has now reconstructed the series of murders Vacher committed.
In his book, “The Killer of Little Shepherds,” Starr does not, however, assign the leading role to Vacher, the child murderer, but to the man who was to solve the Vacher mystery: Alexandre Lacassagne, the head of forensic medicine in the southern city of Lyon.
Lacassagne solved murder cases that seemed unsolvable at the time. To this day, students in police academies are taught the methods of the master criminologist from Lyon.
‘Fascinating Technique’
For example, unlike his colleagues, Lacassagne was able to identify a largely decomposed corpse and conclude that it was the body of a once-prominent Paris bailiff.
On another occasion, this predecessor of the forensic scientists on the “CSI” TV shows exposed a bizarre cock-and-bull story. It was alleged that a woman’s lover had tried to hide from her jealous husband by locking himself in a suitcase, where he then seemingly suffocated. After investigating the case, Lacassagne concluded that the victim was already dead before he was placed inside the suitcase.
At about the same time, Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous fictional character, the brilliant detective Sherlock Holmes, was busy solving impossible cases. “Fascinating technique,” Lacassagne concluded, “But why does he never perform an autopsy?” Criminologists considered Lacassagne to be far more capable than Holmes. Unlike the fictional London detective, the real-life criminologist from Lyon revolutionized his field. “He was one of the first to recognize that everything doesn’t end with death, but that instead the existence of the body enters a new phase,” says author Starr.
By tracing the movement of insects on a corpse, Lacassagne could determine with some certainty how long the process of decay had been underway in the body. He used traces of blood on the skin of a dead person to determine how the body had been moved. Using the arm and thigh bones of a dead body, he could precisely determine its height. Lacassagne also discovered that different types of rifles and pistols left different markings on the ammunition…
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Priest ‘Sorry’ For Anti-Gypsy Himmler Rant
Cleric praises ‘man who attempted ethnic cleansing, in vain’
(ANSA) — Arezzo, January 12 — A Tuscan priest has been forced to apologise for ranting against gypsies and praising Nazi Holocaust mastermind Heinrich Himmler following thefts from his church premises.
Father Virgilio Annetti vented his feelings in his parish newsletter in Arezzo after losing a camera and 300 euros in the third robbery in a week, pinning the blame on local Roma.
“I can’t take it any more. I’m reminded of that man who attempted true ethnic cleansing, in vain, in his time. He was called Himmler. He gave this order: add a wagon of gypsies to every convoy. God bless Himmler but why just one instead of two?” The tirade outraged several parishioners over the Christmas period and the local bishop ordered him to recant.
“I distance myself completely from the arguments used and the improper and offensive use of very sad historical events,” Father Annetti said in a statement.
“I am ashamed of what I wrote”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi Blasts Ruby Prosecutors
‘Methods worthy of Mafia probe’, PM claims, vowing ‘punishment’
(ANSA) — Rome, January 20 — Premier Silvio Berlusconi blasted prosecutors probing him for allegedly using prostitutes with young women including an underage Moroccan belly dancer called Ruby Wednesday night, saying they deserved to be “punished” for the methods they had used in the case.
In an often angry TV address, the premier accused the prosecutors of “incredible violations of the law” aimed at “subverting the popular vote” and claimed they had used surveillance techniques on guests at his Milan villa “worthy of a Camorra dragnet”.
The Milan prosecutors, who the media magnate said were attacking him for the 28th time since he entered politics in 1994, “want to use this affair as an instrument in a political struggle”.
The many young women who prosecutors say prostituted themselves were only “witnesses” but had been treated in a “violent way, unworthy of the state of law”, conduct which had to be “properly punished”.
Berlusconi vowed to press ahead with “the necessary reforms to ensure that no magistrate can try to illegitimately get rid of someone who has been elected by the citizens”.
He also said he would refuse a summons from the prosecutors this weekend, saying they were not territorially competent in the case. The premier denied having sex with any of the women and in particular Ruby, who he said had told him she was 24 when he met her.
He also denied pressuring police to get Ruby out of police custody when she was detained on an unrelated theft charge, an incident for which he is being investigated for alleged abuse of power.
The prosecutors’ union ANM said the premier’s accusations were “unacceptable” and they were “fully respecting” procedures.
The deputy head of the judiciary’s self-governing body, Michele Vietti, said “using expressions like subverting democracy is serious and unfounded”.
“We do not want to clash with anyone,” he said.
The centre-left opposition Democratic Party accused Berlusconi himself of being “subversive” and reiterated a call for early elections, two years before they are due in 2013. The Italian Communists’ Party on Thursday accused the premier of staging “a media ‘coup d’etat’“ while the premier’s People of Freedom party said the government would “go forward with major reforms, despite the prosecutors”.
Ruby also went on TV Wednesday night and said the premier “never laid a finger” on her. She denied claims she had asked him for money, saying he gave her 7,000 euros “without asking for anything in return”, and added she had told him she was 24 when they met.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Town Councillor Sacked for Giving Fascist Salute
Rapallo, 19 Jan. (AKI) — The mayor of the northwestern Italian coastal town of Rapallo has fired a local councillor who was snapped giving a fascist salute outside a church after a mass to commemorate late fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.
In the photographs, culture councillor Gianni Arena was also pictured with fascist era memorabilia, Italy’s La Stampa daily reported on Wednesday.
The photos were published by the Liguria region’s Secolo XIX newspaper after they were posted to an Italian fascist sympathiser’s page on the popular social networking website Facebook.
Rapallo’s mayor Mentore Campodonico sacked Arena as the centre-left opposition Democratic Party was gathering signatures from councillors in support of Arena’s removal from office.
In a statement announcing Arena’s dismissal, Rapallo’s mayor Mentore Campodonico said the “symbolic gravity” of Arena’s fascist salute was “clearly incompatible” with the role of town councillor.
Campodonico sacked Arena as the centre-left opposition Democratic Party had been gathering signatures from Rapallo councillors in support of Arena’s removal.
Amid a growing political row sparked by the photos, the ruling conservative People of Freedom party to which Arena belongs had referred him to its disciplinary body, La Stampa said.
Prosecutors in the nearby city of Chiavari are investigating the incident.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Muslims in Italy Tell Those Concerned Over Christianophobia: Convert to Islam!
“Islam is the true religion; convert to Islam!” was the demand issued by a Pakistani radical Islamic organization, led by Malik Shaib, to promoters of a demonstration to be held on January 26 in Rome. The demonstraters express concern over Christianophobia in Muslim-dominated countries and, in particular, the case of Aasi Bibi — a Pakistani Christian woman who was sentenced to death for blasphemy according to Islamic law.
The demonstration, known as “Italy for Asia Bibi: freedom, justice, human rights” has been promoted by a group of parliamentarians and Italian civil associations, including the multi-partisan Association of Parliamentary Friends of Pakistan, Association of Italy-Pakistan International Cooperation (Isiamed), Association of Pakistani Christians in Italy, Amnesty International — Italian Section, Community of Sant’Egidio, TV2000, Religions for Peace, and Padana Onlus.
The invitation, written in Urdu, Pakistan’s radical organization and forwarded to the Organising Committee, which has now informed the agency Fides, shows how the international initiatives enjoy attention and are significant for the scenario of Pakistan.
The demonstration aims to reaffirm the urgency of respect for religious freedom, dignity and inalienable rights of all Pakistani citizens, of any religion; to launch a message of peace, closeness and solidarity to Asia Bibi, seeking her immediate release. It also calls for the abolition of the blasphemy law and the death penalty in Pakistan. The initiative involves more than 35 associations from the academic world, the Catholic world, from other religious communities such as Sikhs, Jews and Muslims, giving a visible sign of the extensive involvement of civil society in Italy.
The Association of Pakistani Christians in Italy wrote “We thank the promoters and supporters. We want to fight for the freedom of Asia Bibi and we intend to send a message to Pakistani President Ali Zardari. We trust in the Pakistani justice system that it will verify her innocence. We support the abolition of the blasphemy law (art 295b and 295c) because it is exploited for private vendettas and jealousies, which have nothing to do with insulting the Prophet or the Koran.”
[…]
[DF — The date in the article must be wrong]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
UK: EDL Protest Held in Leicester City Centre
A spontaneous protest by a right-wing group in Leicester has been moved on by police.
About 40 members of the English Defence League (EDL) gathered at the Clocktower on Saturday morning.
A group of Muslim campaigners were handing out leaflets at the same location.
Police described the incident as “peaceful but noisy” and confirmed no arrests were made. Extra patrols were put on in the area…
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Islamophobia: Baroness Warsi Waxes Distinctly Fuzzy
As Baroness Warsi, the Conservative Party chairman, discovered rather brutally last week, it’s a tricky job being both an establishment politician and a member of a minority community. If you start lecturing your community too stridently, you will gradually drive away anyone you might hope to influence; if you defend it too robustly, you run the risk of infuriating the majority.
I appreciate the delicacy of the task, because I spent my youth watching politicians negotiate the explosive nuances of the overheated politics of Northern Ireland. But the chief problem with Baroness Warsi’s speech on faith in Leicester last week was different: amid some thoughtful points, there were large patches that were hopelessly confusing. Some of it struck home. She remarked that “Islamophobia has now passed the dinner-party test” in becoming socially acceptable. “Islamophobia” is a word I would rather avoid, because it is both incendiary and vague. None the less, I think she is broadly right: many people are undoubtedly less inhibited about verbally attacking Islam than they would have been 10 years ago, in part because Islamist militancy is on the rise. They are also more vocal, as it happens, in criticising Christianity. Since religions are belief systems, I see no problem in people questioning the principles upon which they are based. What is objectionable is when critics extend their attack to the believers, and lazily assume that “Muslims” are a solid mass who all think and behave in exactly the same way. I have, over the years, had sharp run-ins with many supposedly educated non-Muslims who bandy the label with a sweeping, arrogant mixture of fear and contempt. Such sloppiness makes no distinction between Salmaan Taseer, the late governor of the Punjab whose moral courage few in the West could hope to match, and his murderer.
Distinctions are vital. In the 1980s, when the “enemy within” was not Muslim but Irish, I winced every time a foreigner muddled up “Republican” with “Nationalist” or “Loyalist” with “Unionist”. The correct term was all-important, because there was a world of difference between supporting a united Ireland or the Union with Britain, and supporting those prepared to slaughter innocents in the name of those ideas.
Baroness Warsi knows the value of distinctions, which is why she herself reminds us that “extremists are a minority of a minority”. At the same time, she wants the rest of us to deny that value. She dislikes the use of the term “moderate Muslim”, she tells us: “We need to stop talking about moderate Muslims and start talking about British Muslims.” The trouble is that, as the Government and security services are painfully aware, there exists a small but significant minority of British Muslims — often radicalised young men — who are not moderate at all. Baroness Warsi might desire to strip them of the label “Muslim” and simply call them “extremists”, but they themselves are vociferous in championing a particularly intolerant brand of Islam…
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Old Girls’ School to be Reopened as Muslim Centre
A LEADING private school that shut down in the summer after the company that owned it plunged into administration could be revived as a Muslim community centre and education facility.
St Margaret’s School, which had around 350 pupils, closed its doors for good in June after 120 years in Newington.
Administrator KPMG put it up for sale in August and plans to use the proceeds to pay off the school’s creditors.
It has emerged that a bid has been launched to turn the historic building in East Suffolk Road into a national “Islamic Academy and Mosque”, including its own prayer and teaching areas.
A consortium of Muslim businessmen from the Newington area have put together a bid to create the £800,000 facility, which they intend to allow non-Muslim people from the local area to use as well.
The project, supported by the Blackhall Mosque, would see the building renamed as the Iqra Academy and would include a private nursery, fitness centre, educational classes and workshops, a youth centre, an Islamic Awareness Bureau, a conference and events centre and a public cafe.
Kamran Farooq, one of the businessmen behind the venture, said: “We want to encourage everyone to come and use this, not just seclude it for the Asian or Muslim community.
“We hope to get the youngsters in using it and to have a cafe for the locals and maybe a private nursery as well.
“I think it will be a huge asset for the area. There’s not a place like this in Edinburgh — a community centre where people can come and learn about each other’s religion and background. Our main objective is to bring people together.”
The consortium, which has set up Iqra Academy as a registered charity, has already raised 75 per cent of the £800,000 they need to buy and fit out the building. They have now launched a drive to secure the remaining £200,000 from the local community…
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
War of the Mosques in Europe
(ANSAmed) — ROME, JANUARY 21 — Mosques as a source of problems. Mosques as the apple of discord between followers who have immigrated to Europe on the one hand, and institutions and citizens on the other. A problem to build new ones, and complicated to manage those that have existed for years. In “LA GUERRA DELLE MOSCHEE. L’EUROPA E LA SFIDA DEL PLURALISMO RELIGIOSO’ (The War of the Mosques. Europe and the Challenge of Religious Pluralism), Stefano Allievi, a sociology lecturer at the Univeristy of Padua, offers a meticulous map of mosques in Europe and a comparative analysis of the Muslim presence in 15 countries. In the introduction to the book, he writes that everywhere there are “controversy, debates, stances, conflicts that have accompanied, increasingly often with the passing of time, the issue of mosques.” But Islam is not only a minaret or a prayer hall. It is also a veil, a burqa, a halal butcher’s, a follower who kneels on his piece of cardboard in the street and prays towards Mecca. And Islam is a way of life, explains the author, “which is now in the public space, and for this reason it is the subject of debate and cultural and political conflict.” Thus it is impossible to think that the issue could be simply wiped away.
Allievi tells ANSAmed that “altogether there are 16,790,000 Muslims in Europe, with a total of almost 11,000 mosques (10,989 to be precise).” These are numbers, he continues, “that we didn’t expect. We imagined much lower numbers.” It was complex work but thanks to this it is today possible to precisely photograph the reality in Europe. “Even where the Muslim presence is peaceful,” remarks the expert, “in Austria, for example, there are today disputes and discussions in public debate.” This was seen with the 2008 referendum (even before the Swiss one in 2009 to block the building of minarets), he underlines. A simple figure that leads the scholar to talk about the relative ‘exceptionalism’ of Islam, i.e. the tendency to consider Islam and the Muslims by and large as an exceptional case, not standard, not comparable to others, one that is not part of the relative cases of religious pluralism, and “which thus necessitates a specific interpretational framework, specific organisms, specific actions and reactions, specifically aimed and not used for other groups and religious minorities.” From Italy to Spain, from Greece to Bosnia, from Switzerland to Austria, from France to Germany, to Belgium, to Holland, to the UK, as far as Sweden and other states in Northern Europe: every country has its road to “Islamophobia”. Allievi concludes that Muslims’ freedom of worship in European countries is therefore not that peaceful.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Three Dead as Albanian Protesters Clash With Police
Three people were shot dead during an anti-government protest in Tirana on Friday while dozens were injured in clashes between demonstrators and security forces, a hospital official said.
“Three people are dead, seventeen policemen and soldiers were injured, including three seriously, along with 22 civilians,” Sami Koceku, head of the military hospital emergency services told AFP by phone.
The victims were already dead when they were brought to the hospital, he said.
Several thousand demonstrators gathered in the center of the capital after a call from the socialist opposition to protest against the government of Prime Minister Sali Berisha.
Demonstrators started throwing stones and other projectiles at the security forces who responded by firing tear gas into the crowd in front of the government buildings.
At least one police car was set on fire by protesters.
In the crowd people held up signs saying “Berisha get out” and “Down with the government.” New protesters were still coming into the center of Tirana as the atmosphere grew tense.
The socialist opposition, led by Tirana Mayor Edi Rama, called the demonstration to put pressure on the government to step down, accusing it of corruption and electoral fraud.
The demonstration follows the resignation last week of Deputy Prime Minister Ilir Meta, who is at the center of a corruption affair.
Ahead of the clashes the U.S. embassy slammed some politicians’ apparent support for violent protest as “unacceptable.”
“In recent days the rhetoric and the language of selected political leaders have assumed a tone that suggests an endorsement of disruptive and harmful acts and inappropriate conduct,” it said in a statement.
“The use of provocative rhetoric and the suggestion or tolerance of any form of violence is a deep disservice to the people of Albania.”
Albania has been in prolonged political deadlock since the elections last year as the opposition has refused to recognize the results of the vote, blocking legislation and reforms in parliament.
The opposition also blamed the government of failing to convince the European Union to agree on the country’s candidate status.
Albania has got the green light from Brussels for visa liberalization, but its request for EU candidate status was rejected.
Brussels urged the Balkan country to step up its fight against corruption and also expressed concern about the political crisis.
Rama, joined by leaders of other smaller opposition coalition partners, has led the protests claiming that the vote count at 2009 parliamentary polls was rigged to ensure the Berisha’s governing Democratic party was re-elected.
Though the opposition recognized the elections, they boycotted the parliament then started street protests, raising them to several day-long hunger strikes last summer.
Later, they decided to take part in the parliament’s sessions but not in the voting, making it hard for the country to pass much-needed reforms, especially those linked to the integration steps toward the EU.
Rama wanted a parliamentary investigation and a recount of ballots.
Berisha, who controls 75 of parliament’s 140 seats, has rejected their calls for a recount.
International efforts to mediate between the two sides have so far failed.
Since the collapse of Albania’s hardline communist regime in 1991, elections in the country have often been marred by violence and allegations of fraud. The current impasse is the longest political crisis the country has faced.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Cardinal Turkson, No-One Shall Stop Pope From Speaking
(ANSAmed) — VATICAN CITY, JANUARY 21 — “Every nation is entitled to react as it wishes but nobody can prevent the Pope expressing his feelings about what has befallen his children”.
So said to ANSA, Cardinal Peter Turkson, Chair of the Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace. The Cardinal was commenting on the decision taken by the Al-Azhar Academy to suspend dialogue with the Vatican following statements made by Benedict XVI on the need to safeguard Christian communities. According to the leading Vatican figure, “dialogue with Islam shall not be halted,” bearing in mind that it “is not limited to Egypt alone”. In a communiqué issued by the Academy yesterday, Secretary General Ali Abdel Dayem explained that the decision to break off any form of dialogue with the Vatican “results from a background of statements repeatedly criticising Islam by Pope Benedict XVI,” referring to his stance that Muslims oppress the other religions of the Middle East.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
How Tunisia’s Once-Suppressed Islamists Are Re-Emerging
Seif al-Aam, with his rimless glasses, navy pinstripe suit, black tie and woolen knee-length coat, looks more like a banker than a self-avowed Islamist as he walks out of the Al-Quds Mosque after Friday prayers in the LaFayette Belvedere neighborhood of Tunis. Tunisia’s Islamists, long pummeled into submission or exile by deposed dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, are not the stereotypical long-bearded, dishdasha-wearers seen across the Middle East. But he is a true believer.
“I am an Islamist, I was born one and I remain one, but I am not a terrorist,” Aam says, outside the front steps of the mosque as a group of men crowd in around him and jostle to have their say. Aam, a construction engineer, was imprisoned from 1995 to 2001 for being a member of Ennahdha, the Islamist party banned by Ben Ali in 1992 for allegedly trying to establish a Muslim fundamentalist state in strictly secular Tunis. Today, Aam says, was the first time that he prayed at his local mosque freely, without fear of the omnipresent plain-clothes policemen who were the eyes and ears of the despotic regime.
As Tunisians revel in their newfound freedom, the long-suppressed Islamists, like everyone else, are trying to figure out what role they can and want to have in the new Tunisia. Ennahdha leaders — including the party’s exiled founder Rachid Ghannouchi, who is waiting to return from London — have been quick to reject fears that they espouse, let alone want to impose, a radical Islamic view.
Many Tunisians interviewed by TIME in the week since Ben Ali’s spectacular fall, say there’s room for everyone, as long as their political agendas are clear. “We don’t want to live in a new dictatorship whether it claims to have heavenly or earthly credibility,” says Amene, 22, a university student who has been protesting in Tunis’s main Avenue Habib Bourguiba every day for weeks. A black-and-white keffiyeh, the symbol of Palestinian resistance, around her neck, the Chinese-language major says she doesn’t want the Islamists to be sidelined. “On the contrary. I think everyone can be represented but we want fair and real elections.” (The idea of a new beginning and a clean slate was reinforced on Friday when Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi he would step from office and leave politics as soon as new elections were held.)…
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Ministry Asks to Pray for ‘Revolution Martyrs’
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, JANUARY 21 — Tunisia’s Ministry of Religious Affairs invited all the Country’s Imams to pray in mosques today, on prayer Friday, for “the martyrs of the revolutions”. The statement was reported by the Tap agency.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia Islamist Leader Rejects Khomeini Comparison
Tunisia’s Islamist Ennahda movement is democratic and should not be feared, its exiled leader said on Saturday, rejecting any comparison between him and Iran’s late leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
The Tunisian government said this week that it would lift a ban on political groups including the Ennahda, or Renaissance, movement, which was suppressed during the 24-year rule of president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali who fled a week ago.
“We are a moderate Islamic movement, a democratic movement based on democratic ideals in … Islamic culture. Some people pull Khomeini’s robe over me, while I am no Khomeini nor a Shi’ite,” Rached Ghannouchi told Al Jazeera television.
Asked about hardliners who dismiss Western-style democracy and call for the creation of a traditional Islamic state, he said: “Our position is very far from this idea, … which we think has no place within the moderate Islamist tendency. It is extremist and … not based on a correct interpretation of Islam.”
Analysts say moderate Islamists in Tunisia may attract many followers after the overthrow of Ben Ali, while militants may be able to infiltrate from neighbouring Algeria, which has long fought Islamic hardliners.
Secularism has been strictly enforced in Tunisia since before its independence from France in 1956. Habib Bourguiba, an independence leader and long-time president, was a nationalist who considered Islam a threat to the state…
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia Imam Says He Isn’t Seeking Political Role
The head of Tunisia’s best-known Islamic movement said Friday his long-banned group isn’t seeking a role in the nation’s transitional government, and instead is working with other opposition groups to purge former members of the country’s previous regime.
Rachid Ghannouchi, the 69-year-old founder of the Ennahdha movement, said his religious group is eager to rejoin political life inside the North African country following a decision by the interim government to overturn a ban on all opposition movements, following last week’s surprise removal of former President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.
The veteran opposition leader said he wants to offer Tunisians a political choice he said would be similar to Turkey’s Islamic-leaning Justice and Development Party, but that he has no personal political ambitions himself.
“I am 69 years old and will not accept any public position in Tunisia—I have no personal political ambitions whatsoever,” Mr. Ghannouchi told The Wall Street Journal. “[We’ve] started rebuilding the party but in a very limited way. We’re not a religious party, we’re a democratic civil party which is inspired by Muslim values.”
The past week in Tunisia has seen a bloom of political parties and movements, following the removal of Tunisia’s ban on most opposition groups. Across the broader region, others have apparently been emboldened by middle-class Tunisians’ successful ouster of their former leader.
In neighboring Algeria, which has a much larger population than Tunisia but shares some of same problems of unemployment and economic discontent, several citizens have set themselves on fire, according to media reports, echoing an incident in Tunisia that is credited with setting off protests there.
Algerian opposition groups have used events in Tunisia as a backdrop for demonstrations, including a pro-democracy rally planned for Saturday. Algeria’s state news agency urged citizens not to heed the call to protest.
In Jordan, several thousand people participated in demonstrations last week, including what left-wing groups and trade unions yesterday called a “day of rage” over rising food and fuel prices. There were also demonstrations in restive southern Yemen, where protesters said recent government reforms didn’t go far enough…
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Why Obama Administration Peace Process Policy Will be a Total Waste of Time in 2011
By Barry Rubin
Since predicting the future is hard, to say the least, it’s always interesting when one can clearly see a crisis looming months ahead of time. The usual pattern is for the impending problem to be ignored until the last minute, then it is suddenly discovered by journalists and policymakers with great astonishment.
Often, they then misdiagnose the causes of the problem precisely because they never understood why it happened in the first place.
In this case, the Palestinian Authority (PA) foreign minister—remember when the 1993 Israel-PLO agreement said that the PA wouldn’t conduct foreign policy? Ha-ha-ha—Riyad Malki says he will seek recognition of a Palestinian state in September at the UN. For many years, Malki ran the terrorist group, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) on the West Bank. But it’s ok! He quit.
So far, recognition has been obtained from Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia and Ecuador, with Uruguay, Paraguay, Peru, and Chile considered next. Of course, almost 100 countries recognized the Palestinian state a long time ago, often 20 years ago, and that didn’t change anything. Indeed, I was present when a unilateral declaration of independence was made near Algiers on November 15, 1988, by the Palestinian National Council, the PLO’s parliament.
Everything the PA has obtained in the last 17 years has been due not to those diplomatic recognitions but to the 1993 agreement with Israel. To walk away from that agreement and negotiations in general would be a serious matter of violating every commitment the PA has understaken. It tells something about the PA’s pattern of behavior and reliability in keeping agreements. But who cares, right?
More immediately, though, I have not seen a single article in any mass media outlet that makes these most simple and obvious points:
| — Hat tip: Barry Rubin | [Return to headlines] |
Iran’s Execution Binge
By Jonathan Spyer
The power of the intelligence and security apparatuses has grown. This is reflecting itself in the brutal repression of dissent taking place in the Kurdishspeaking areas along the border with Iraq. Khazri was the latest victim of this repression. He was almost certainly not the last.
In the early morning hours of Saturday, January 15 in the isolated and overcrowded Urumiya prison in western Iran, the authorities hanged one of their opponents.
Hossein Khazri, an alleged activist with the Party for Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), was 29. He had been in custody since early 2009. His crime, of which he was convicted on July 11, 2009, was that of being an “enemy of God” in the eyes of the Islamic Republic.
Khazri’s specific activities against the deity worshiped by the rulers of Iran appear to have consisted of political agitation for democracy and federalism in the country of his birth.
In the course of his incarceration, in prisons administered by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps and the Intelligence Ministry, Khazri had been severely tortured, according to human rights organizations. His hanging was the latest in a wave of executions of Kurdish activists and other opponents of the regime carried out in recent weeks. Fourteen other Kurdish activists are currently on death row, condemned for their political activities.
The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran this week described the authorities as on an “execution binge,” orchestrated by the intelligence and security agencies.
The hanging of Khazri brings the number of people executed by Iran since the beginning of the year to 47.
A spokesman for ICHRI said that the “execution of Kurdish activists, without fair trials and following torture, increasingly appears as a systematic, politically motivated process.” The roundups and executions of Kurdish activists are part of an ongoing, brutal and little-reported war waged by the Revolutionary Guards against a separatist insurgency in the predominantly Kurdish areas of western Iran. Urumiya jail, which was built to house 150, is currently teeming with 300 inmates, as a result of recent crackdowns on independent political activity.
PJAK HAS been fighting the Iranian authorities since 2004. It defines its fight not in ethnic nationalist terms.
Rather, it claims to be fighting for “federalism and secular democracy” in Iran.
Based in the Qandil mountain range on the Iraqi border, the movement engages in periodic raids into Iran. Since February 2009, it has been designated a terrorist organization by the US. PJAK is an offshoot of the Turkish-Kurdish PKK, and belongs to the same umbrella organization.
It lacks the deep roots among the Kurds of Iran which the PKK possesses among the Turkish Kurds, however.
Unverified media reports have suggested that despite the terrorist designation, the group has received US support, as part of a larger effort to foment unrest and instability in Iran. There have also been rumors of Israeli contacts with the organization. These supposed Western links feature prominently in the propaganda of the Iranian authorities against PJAK.
But whatever the particular provenance of PJAK, it is clear that the people in whose name it wishes to speak, the Kurds of Iran, currently endure something much less than a free life. The movement’s potential for growth is thus considerable.
The repression of it by the regime is correspondingly harsh…
| — Hat tip: Barry Rubin | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanon: Angelina Eichhorst New Head of EU Delegation
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, JANUARY 19 — Angelina Eichhorst has been appointed as new Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Lebanon. According to the Enpi website (www.enpi-info.eu), when presenting her credentials to the president of the Republic, General Michel Sleiman, Eichhorst said: “I am delighted to be in Lebanon. It is a great honour for me to serve as Ambassador to this wonderful country with which Europe has a deep and long-standing relationship. I look forward to meeting with, listening and talking to all our partners”. Eichhorst started her carrier at the European Commission in 1996 at the Directorate General for External Relations before she joined the Directorate General for Development in 1999. From 2004 to 2010, she successively was Head of Development and Regional Cooperation at the Delegation of the European Union to Jordan (2004-2008) and Head of Political and Economic Affairs, Press, Information and Culture at the Delegation of the European Union to Syria (2008-2010).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
MENA: The Gods That Are Failing
“What collapsed in Tunisia is the Kemalist model.” So read the headline of Yeni Asya, a Muslim Turkish daily, last Tuesday. And it summed up the doomed fate of the modern Muslim Middle East, and its erratically unfolding future.
What just happened in Tunisia, the smallest of all North African states, is a popular uprising dubbed the “Jasmine Revolution.” The fallen dictator, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who fled the county last week with one-and-a-half tons of gold, had been in power since 1987. Yet the country was no freer before: Ben Ali was just a sequel to Habib Bourguiba, another dictator, who had ruled the country single-handedly since its independence from French colonial rule in 1957.
Bourguiba’s juice
And that’s where the “Kemalist model” comes into the picture. Bourguiba was a great fan of Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic, and of his secularization agenda. So, Tunisia went through a radical era of reforms under his rule, in which a “modern way of life” was imposed by state powers. As in the Kemalist revolution, some of the reforms were undeniably helpful, such as the empowerment of women. But others were more controversial, such as Bourguiba’s famous campaign against fasting during the holy month of Ramadan, which he found incompatible with the needs of modern life. When Bourguiba appeared on TV sipping a glass of orange juice during the time of fasting and telling his people do the same, he was actually creating a deep fault line between modernity and Muslim piety.
For worse, the Bourguiba-Ben Ali regime grew increasingly brutal on political opposition. An important component of the latter was the Islamic-minded Tunisian Renaissance Party, or the Nahda. Led by the Sorbonne-educated Islamic thinker, Rashid al-Ghannushi, this was a more democratic and liberal-leaning Islamic party than any other in the Middle East. Yet this did not save it from persecution: In 1981, Ghannushi and his followers were arrested, tortured and sentenced to 11 years in prison. Since his release in 1988, Mr. Ghannushi has lived in Europe as a political exile.
This, indeed, was the “Kemalist model”: a dictatorship by a secular cadre that took its legitimacy from a particular form of “modernization” and that alienated conservative believers by both offending their values and repressing their freedoms. No wonder Kemalist Turks and secularist Tunisians admired each other. The late Ahmet Taner Kislali, a Turkish Kemalist, wrote a column titled “The Tunisian Kemalists” in 1998, and praised the achievements of the Ben Ali regime. “There are no bearded men on the streets,” Kislali wrote, “or veiled women.” That indeed was the case, for the “Tunisian Kemalists” had imposed bans on the headscarf as well.
Similar things had happened in Iran before, in which the subsequent shahs, again with a lot of inspiration from Atatürk, had banned Islamic practices. Under the first one, Reza Shah (1925-41), the police even attacked veiled women and tore off their scarves and chadors. The ayatollahs who protested the regime were flogged and killed. Soon, as a response, the first modern Islamist terror organization was born: Fadayan-e Islam, or “Devotees of Islam,” which wanted to resist and get revenge on the shah’s attack on Islam.
A somewhat similar pattern can be observed in Egypt, Syria and Iraq as well, in which independence from colonial rule led not to democracy but brutal autocracy. The secular dictators that dominated these countries promoted a combination of nationalism and socialism, while imprisoning, torturing and killing their political opponents, which included the Islamic groups. Factions among the latter grew radicalized, waging “jihads” against their oppressors, and, ultimately, their Western patrons.
The Turkish model
In other words, the Westerners who are understandably alarmed about “Islamic extremists” today should understand that there is a political context that helped create these people — a context to which their governments, knowingly or unknowingly, often contributed.
What makes Turkey unique in this whole story is not that it had gone through the secularist reforms of Atatürk, as it is often claimed. Several other countries of the region have had similar experiences. Turkey’s uniqueness is that it found its way to multi-party politics in 1950 — something unparalleled in the Muslim Middle East.
To put it differently, “the problem with Arabs” is not that they lack “their Atatürk,” as the popular saying goes. In fact, they did have their Atatürks — deified leaders who imposed authoritarian modernization. What they have rather lacked is their Menderes, their Özal, or their Erdogan — popularly elected leaders who promoted modernization within liberty, democracy and respect to tradition.
Today, the key question for the region is what will follow the inevitable end of Arab dictatorships — or the failure of these “gods,” to borrow a term from Arthur Koestler. Iran — secular authoritarianism replaced with an “Islamic” one — is certainly a bad model. But the Jasmine Revolution might turn out to be more promising. And the success of the Turkish model — secular authoritarianism evolving into democracy — remains utterly crucial.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Textile Sector Operating at Full Capacity, Expert
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JANUARY 6 — Significant growth in the Turkish economy has led textile and ready-wear clothing sectors to work at full capacity, with many companies putting a hold on accepting new orders. Speaking to the Anatolia news agency, Tarik Bozbey, head of the Mediterranean Ready-Wear and Textile Exporters’ Union, said the effects of the global financial crisis have started to disappear, causing countries to place orders with Turkish manufacturers. He also added that textile orders that went to Far Eastern countries for cost efficiency have returned to Turkey. “The Turkish textile sector is experiencing a second spring,” Bozbey said. Bozbey mentioned that people with large disposable incomes prefer Turkish brands over Chinese. “This is also true for Far Eastern countries. Their standard of living is increasing, which has led them to look for higher-quality clothing. These people now choose Turkish products instead of Chinese,” he noted. “The textile and ready-wear sectors have in the past five years done everything to stay afloat during the crisis. Now, they are cashing in on their rewards. Orders from foreign countries have returned to Turkey. Also, as they are already busy for the next six months, the manufacturers are not even taking any new orders,” Bozbey stated. Moreover, the head of the union noted that 250,000 people were laid off during the crisis period. “As many as 200,000 of these people are back on the job. We still need 100,000 more employees and expect to fill this gap in four months,” Bozbey said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish Soap Operas Total $50 Million in Exports
Turkish television series exports were worth more than $50 million last year, with more than 70 programs watched in more than 20 countries, particularly in the Middle East, Balkans and Turkic language-speaking countries.
Exported productions include extremely domestically popular series such as “Ask-i Memnu,” “Ihlamurlar Altinda,” “Ezel,” “Gümüs,” and “Yaprak Dökümü,” and set new export records for Turkish television programs last year.
The share of Turkish television series in the foreign programs category in the Middle East is around 60 percent, according to Firat Gülgen, board chairman of Calinos Holding. “There are more than 300 television channels and they show a great interest and demand from Turkish series’,” Gülgen told Anatolia news agency.
Calinos Holding’s distribution of content such as films and television series to domestic and international markets represents 80 percent of the country’s total television exports.
The export price of an episode of the more popular Turkish shows used to vary between $30 and $50, Gülgen said. “The price of an episode of a series is now varying between $500 and $20,000. Turkish soap opera Ezel is now the most expensive.”
“Deli Yürek” (Wild Heart) was the first Turkish television series Calinos exported, in 2001, Gülgen said. “We exported Deli Yürek first to Kazakhstan. However, Binbir Gece, or Thousand and One Nights, another soap opera focusing on a Turkish love story, have beaten ratings records in many countries and generated growth in the market.”
Some countries such as Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan that share similarities with Turkish culture were the first countries to import Turkish series. “Sales to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are still ongoing,” Gülgen said.
“After markets in the Middle East, we have opened to the Balkan countries,” Gülgen said. “Some 30 series are currently being exported to different Balkan countries. After Macedonia, Bosnia, Kosovo and Albania, we entered the Greek market last year and plan to enter the Ukrainian market in April this year.”
“In a sense, we export culture,” Gülgen said. “One of the most important factors in Turkish series’ popularity is Turkish culture. More than 300,000 tourists have visited the waterside house where the soap opera ‘Gümüs’ is shot, according to the Ministry of Tourism and Culture. These series have huge potential.”
Calinos is also currently working with a Qatari company on a project about the conquest of Istanbul, Gülgen said. “We will make a 30-episode series and have allocated $25 million for the project.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
400 Year-Old Malaysian-Latin Dictionary: Proof of Use of the Word Allah
Christians in Malaysia still can not use the word “Allah” to refer to God, because the Ministry of the Interior has requested a suspension of sentence in favour of a Catholic newspaper. The Church has reissued a dictionary from 1622 as evidence of the use of “Allah” well before the twentieth century, contrary to Muslims claims.
Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews / Agencies) — While the Malaysian Court hesitates to close the case of the use of the word “Allah” by Christians, in a dispute that has dragged on for over a year, the Catholic Church has reprinted a rare Malay-Latin Dictionary that appears to be an invitation to resolve the dispute, as well as proof of the Christians claims. The “Dictionarium Malaicum-Latinun” and “ Latinum — Malaicum” was published for the first time in 1631 in Rome. Church leaders say that is proof that the missionaries played a key role in the exchange of knowledge and culture between Europe and the countries of southeast Asia 400 years ago.
Lawrence Andrew, a priest who worked for 11 years to reprint the dictionary, said it is a critical tool to minimize the wrong belief that the spread of Christianity in the local languages of Malaysia is a recent phenomenon of the twentieth century. “This is to say that Christianity has been here for a long time: 400 years, “says the director of the Herald Weekly, the local Church newspaper.
The newspaper has defended the right to use the word “Allah” to mean the Christian God against the Interior Ministry. It won the High Court battle on December 30, 2008, but the Ministry was able to get a suspended sentence, and the newspaper still can not use the term.
The Court of Appeal in Putrajaya has yet to set a date for the hearing. And there is much to be done to speed up the procedure: there are no time limits, and it is not unusual for years to pass before a case is reviewed. Andrew presented a copy of the dictionary as historical evidence to support the request of the Church, after the Interior Ministry sought the opinions of Islamic scholars to support its thesis.
The priest says he had received permission to reprint the dictionary from the Vatican 12 years ago, but that he did not have the resources to carry out the project. A single copy of the original still exists, and must be kept at the Pontifical Urbanianum University in Rome. Andrew said that the pronunciation of words can be difficult to transliterate and to read for a person today, but he decided not to update the form and the pronunciation of the words “so that no one can say that we have changed it”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch Director Pursues Indonesian Family at US Fest
Dutch director Leonard Retel Helmrich pursues his exploration of Indonesia’s social and economic revolution, in the last part of a trilogy about a Jakarta family shown at the Sundance film fest. “Position among the Stars,” released a decade after the first instalment, is in competition at the prestigious independent movie festival, which opened Thursday in the western US state of Utah. It follows the day-to-day travails of the Shamsuddin family, whom the Dutchman first introduced in “The eye of the day” in 2001 and took up again in “Shape of the moon,” which won the jury prize at Sundance in 2005.
Retel Helmrich, born in the Netherlands to a Dutch father and an Indonesian mother, was invited into the Shamsuddin family home in 1998, when he was working on a film about the popular uprising which brought down Suharto.
“I noticed that this family concentrated what was happening in the whole country. And I thought that this was a more a human story,” he told AFP at the Sundance festival, which runs until January 30. So he decided to plunge into documenting the daily life of Ramidjah, a Christian grandmother living in a Jakarta slum with her two Muslim convert sons and her granddaughter Tari.
A few years had passed since he filmed the Shamsuddins for “Shape of the moon,” when he decided to go back. “One day I learned that Tari wanted to go to Jakarta to finish high school …I thought, that’s the moment,” he said.
This time he spent 14 months with the family, following the daily troubles of Tari’s father Bakti and his wife, who keeps the household going by selling food she makes on the doorstep, and his welfare handout-blagging brother Dwi.
But the beating heart of the movie remains Ramidjah, the matriarch who looks on, powerless at the repeated failures of her sons. The only hope for the family seems to be Tari. But at 17 years old, she is more interested in her new mobile phone than the fate of her family. “She really represents the potential of Indonesia at the moment. The country itself is very young. It’s a young democracy, and people expected that. They wanted more democracy, get richer…
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistani Actress Slams Cleric for Criticism
A Pakistani actress castigated for appearing to cuddle with an Indian actor on a reality show lashed out at a Muslim cleric who had criticized her during a widely watched television exchange this week. The unusual outburst, punctuated by tears, came at a sensitive time in a country where Islamic fundamentalism is spreading and liberals are increasingly afraid to express their views.
“What is your problem with me? You tell me your problem!” an angry Veena Malik asked the Muslim scholar, who accused her of insulting Islam. Earlier this month, a liberal Pakistani governor was shot dead for opposing the country’s harsh laws against blasphemy. In the aftermath, his killer was cheered as a hero among many in the public, shocking the country’s small liberal establishment.
Malik, 26, participated recently on Bigg Boss, an Indian version of “Big Brother.” Clips of the show on the Internet include ones in which she appears cozy with Indian actor Ashmit Patel. Those scenes, and her involvement with a show in Pakistan’s archrival India, prompted criticism online and on the air.
“You have insulted Pakistan and Islam,” Mufti Abdul Qawi accused her on the Express TV channel talk show via a television link. The exchange first aired Friday and then again Saturday…
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Relatives of Pakistani Drone Victims to Sue CIA
Almost every day, people in the Pakistani region of Waziristan are killed or seriously injured by drone attacks carried out by the CIA. Now a group of victims’ relatives is standing up to Washington — by suing the US government.
An eye and both legs: That was the price that 17-year-old Sadaullah Wazir paid for living in a part of the world that is deemed a “terrorist haven” and that has been a target for US drones over the past few years. Since Barack Obama became US president, these attacks have become increasingly frequent. The Pakistani newspapers now report daily on those killed and injured in the tribal areas in the west of the country.
“War is hell,” the American Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman said more than a century ago. And Sadaullah Wazir certainly ended up in hell, despite never having sought out a war, nor having fought in a single battle. The war came to him on Sept. 7, 2009, as he was sitting in front of his family home in the village of Machikhel, in northern Waziristan.
On that day, a drone flew over the village. Wazir was used to the sound; he had spotted the aircraft every few days in the sky. It was an evening during the fasting month of Ramadan, and most of the members of his family had gathered inside the house for prayers. After the prayers, they were to break the fast together.
Wazir was enjoying the last rays of sunshine and stayed outside. Suddenly there was a whoosh and a drone fired a rocket that hit Wazir’s house. The young man jumped up in an attempt to help his family when the building collapsed. Wazir was just at the entrance. A wall collapsed on him and severed his legs, and a splinter tore into his eye. Two uncles and a cousin died in the inferno.
War Is Always a Propaganda War
The next day the newspapers wrote that “several terrorists were killed by a drone attack.” The reports only ever mention that “terrorists,” “militants” and “extremists” are killed, never civilians. After all, war is always also a propaganda war.
Wazir has now come together with 12 other victims to defend himself. He has joined a lawsuit initiated by Karim Khan, a 43-year-old who lost his son and brother four months after Wazir was injured during another attack on the same village. Ten other residents of Waziristan are supporting Khan, all people who have lost relatives in the attacks. They include 14-year-old Fahim Qureshi, who on Jan. 23, 2009, lost his left eye, suffered a fractured skull and was hit by several shards in the stomach. Ilyas Kashmiri, one of the most wanted terrorists in the world, was initially reported to have been killed in the attack. That report later turned out to be false. The seven people who died were ordinary people, relatives of the young Qureshi.
Waziristan, a sparse, mountainous region on the border with Afghanistan, is regarded as a haven for extremists. The Pakistani state has no influence here. The militia, tribal leaders and extremists are the ones who maintain their own version of order. When the Western allies marched into Afghanistan after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, many Taliban fighters fled across the border to this region. It was only eight years later, under pressure from Washington, that Pakistan’s army started an offensive in southern Waziristan. Since then, the extremists have concentrated themselves in northern Waziristan. It remains unclear if there will ever be a military operation there.
Does that, however, make all of the people living in Waziristan enemies? Is there, in war, something like clan liability? And should rockets be fired into the homes of civilians?…
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Christian Clergymen Arrested to Stop Him From Attending Conference in Hong Kong
Wang Yi, a well-know house church leader, was detained at Chengdu airport as he was boarding a plane bound for Hong Kong, where he was scheduled to speak at an Evangelical conference. Tens of millions of Christians practice their faith underground to avoid state-sponsored persecution.
Hong Kong (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Chinese authorities have prevented Wang Yi, a well-known underground Christian leader, from boarding a plane in Chengdu (Sichuan) on his way to Hong Kong, where he was scheduled to attend an evangelical conference.
Wang, a house church organiser and human rights campaigner, told Radio Free Asia that yesterday he and three other church members were stopped. “As soon as we arrived at the Shuangliu Airport around 6 am [. . .], plainclothes police officers stopped us, taking us to the nearby [police] station on Jiangxi Street,” Wang said.
Whilst Wang was held, the other three Church members were shortly released and left for Hong Kong.
After several hours, Wang was also let go. He travelled directly to the airport, but was detained again by police and taken back to the police station.
Rev Wang and his fellow churchmen were planning to attend a training conference in Hong Kong for evangelical development and organisation.
“Police said to me, ‘You cannot go to Hong Kong.’ But I said they didn’t have any reason to block me from travelling, so ‘If you release me I will definitely [try to] go to Hong Kong again because the conference will last until Saturday’,” he said by mobile phone.
His companions confirmed Wang’s version of events, but Chengdu police denied the Christian leader was arrested. They failed however to explain why he was held in the first place.
China wants all believers to practice their faith within the state-sponsored religious organisations under the control of the Communist Party.
Officially, 23 million Chinese belong to Protestant Churches, but many experts estimate the real number to be 100 million and more. The difference is due to many believers’ refusal to register with the official state Christian organisation. Instead, Protestants are organised into “house churches”, small groups that pray together in private homes.
Despite the constant persecution, the number of Christians is growing rapidly.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Ivory Coast: U.S. Pushing Muslim to Replace Christian
Threatens sanctions if Ivory Coast fails to comply with leadership change demands.
The Ivory Coast is facing the forced Islamist takeover of its government, a move being pushed by the United States and United Nations, whose leaders reportedly are ignoring the nation’s own procedures that determined Laurent Gbagbo, a Christian, legitimately was re-elected president, according to a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
The standoff has placed the country on the brink of a civil war as the U.S. and other Western countries seek to force the installment of Alassane Ouattara, a Muslim who, like Gbagbo, claims the presidency following a recent contested election.
The forced selection of Quattara by outside influences runs contrary to constitutionally established procedures in the Ivory Coast regarding such determinations, critics contend.
The forced selection of Quattara by outside influences runs contrary to constitutionally established procedures in the Ivory Coast regarding such determinations, critics contend.
In this case, the issue centers on whether the United States and U.N. will select the next Ivory Coast president or allow the decision by the country’s constitutional council to prevail.
The constitutional council had determined that there was sufficient evidence of vote-rigging in the northern part of the country controlled by Islamists to make the final determination that Gbagbo, the incumbent president, had won the hotly contested election last November.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Did U.S. Agency Smuggle Guns to Mexico to Justify Its Budget?
The death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent north of Nogales, Ariz., on December 14, 2010 might turn out to be the death knell for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF.
Allegations have surfaced suggesting that one of the guns used by Mexican bandits during the firefight in which Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed might have been smuggled into Mexico with the knowing assistance of ATF officials. If these allegations prove to be true, it is quite possible that the long troubled agency could be dismantled. Even if there proves to be no connection with Agent Terry’s death, the scrutiny generated by an investigation could crash the agency.
There are actually four separate but connected accusations against ATF officials: First, that they intentionally arranged to have hundreds of firearms “walked” across the U.S. border into Mexico. Second, that they instructed U.S. gun dealers to proceed with questionable and illegal sales of firearms to suspected gunrunners. Third, that they intentionally withheld information about U.S.-sanctioned gun smuggling from the Mexican government. Fourth, that one of the guns ATF allowed or helped to be smuggled into Mexico was involved in the death of Agent Terry.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
500 Algerians Held in Morocco
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, JANUARY 20 — About 500 Algerian migrants were arrested in 2010 and are still being held in Morocco.
The official figures published in the Moroccan daily Assabah have today triggered polemics within Algerian press sources.
“The Moroccan government,” wrote El Watan, “has barricaded itself behind a disquieting silence on the destiny of Algerians.” Irregular Algerian migrants have been arrested in a number of operations “along the Algerian-Moroccan border between Nador, Melilla, Tangiers and Ceuta”.
“These people,” noted Assabah, “including some women, had tried to cross the land border” instead of “taking to the seas in the direction of Spain”.
Migrants are regularly abandoned at the border at night, added the Algerian press, “but this time the Algerians were arrested in non-compliance with the international law, which calls for clandestine immigrants to be handed over to their country of origin.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK Can’t Deport Asylum Seekers Back to Greece as They Will be Subjected to ‘Inhumane or Degrading Treatment’
An immigration watchdog warned the ruling is likely to mean thousands of asylum seekers will make their way to Britain from Greece, or will say they have come from Greece, because authorities will have no power to return them.
The judgment, by the European Court of Human Rights, will also act as a fresh constraint on Britain’s right to remove individuals considered undesirable.
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
Bonuses to Boost Gender Equity at Swedish Unis
Swedish universities should be offered cash ‘equality bonuses’ for making significant strides toward increased gender equity, a government commission has proposed.
“It’s obvious that the problem of a lack of gender equity at higher education institutions isn’t going to solve itself,” the chair of the commission, Pia Sandvik Wiklund, said in a statement.
“We’re convinced that an economic incentive is necessary to stimulate the will to change which does in fact exist at higher education institutions.”
Writing in a debate article in the Dagens Nyhter (DN) newspaper, Sandvik Wiklund was more succinct:
“Money talks.”
For the last two years, Sandvik Wiklund has chaired a government mandated delegation on gender equity in higher education.
The group, which was tasked with developing proposals to promote gender equity at Sweden’s colleges and universities, presented its final proposals to deputy education minister Nyamko Sabuni on Friday.
“It’s obvious that gender equity should be integrated into the regular systems of governance, follow-up, and evaluation. This is where things fall apart,” said Sandvik Wiklund.
To that end, the delegation proposed offering an ‘equality bonus’ of 50 million kronor ($7.5 million) per year to be divided among Swedish college and universities where “gender equity has been judged to be significantly good or to have improved significantly”.
Other proposals put forward by the delegation include more stringent follow-ups of university’s recruiting to ensure improvements in the recruitment of femail professors as well as reviewing the guidelines for handing out research funding and quality evaluation from a gender perspective.
The delegation also wants to task Sweden’s Equality Ombudsman (Diskrimineringsombudsmannen — DO) with reviewing universities’ work to promote equality between the sexes.
In handing over the proposal, Sandvik Wiklund emphasised the importance of promoting gender equality in higher education.
“This is also about the legitimacy of the academy as a pillar of society and about Swedish society’s development and competitiveness,” she said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Chrislam and the Lost Art of Critical Thinking
Recently, the Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church, Houston, joined Christian communities in Atlanta, Seattle, and Detroit to encourage “ecumenical reconciliation” between Christianity and Islam. Theirs was a celebration of a sort of worldview potpourri mixing together elements of Christianity and Islam. Predictably called Chrislam, this brand of ecumenicalism qualifies both the Bible and the Qur’an as holy texts. Hence, in a show of equal authenticity, Qur’ans were positioned in church pews next to Bibles.[1]
Not surprisingly, the American version of Nigerian Chrislamology hops the political correctness bandwagon. For the sake of harmonious coexistence, ecumenical reconcilers value elastic syncretism over orthodoxy, a milk-toast conciliatory gospel over the New Testament Gospel of Jesus Christ. This paradigm shift appears to be compellingly “tolerant”; however, the case for recognizing Chrislam within Christian churches relies solely on fallacies of logic, certainly not biblical compulsion.[2]
Conflict Escalation: Slippery Slope Fallacy
Some argue that if American “tolerance”—i.e., as in the form of Chrislam—were rejected, then the ongoing conflict between East and West would escalate beyond repair. This slippery-slope fallacy presumes a sort of chain reaction, destined to end with dire consequences that otherwise might have been averted.
Truth be told, embracing tolerance in the name of Chrislam—not the opposite— is what really leads to a slippery slope. After all, the Qur’an explicitly subjugates People of the Book (Jews and Christians) as second-class citizens, subject to burdensome fees and Shariah Law. Believers may live, yes, but only under Islamic terms.[3]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Father Jailed for Visit With Son Set Free
‘Released today, after 2 terrible months!’
A Swedish father who was jailed by authorities for taking his son, in state custody because social services workers worried he was being homeschooled, home for a visit has been released from his incarceration.
Word came to WND tonight via an e-mail from Christer Johansson, who said, “I was released from jail today, after 2 terrible months! … When the judge read the verdict, he said, ‘2 months in jail, already served, 15000 [kroner] in compensation to Domenic and then 2 years probation.’“
The case has been the focal point of work both by the internationally known Home School Legal Defense Association as well as the Alliance Defense Fund, which has brought a case before the Europe Court of Human Rights on behalf of the family.
The case developed in mid-2009 when social services and police forcibly took custody of Domenic, then 7, over government concerns he was being homeschooled. The local courts later denied the parents the legal representation they sought, demanding instead they be represented by a government-approved attorney. The courts ultimately ruled the state must keep custody of Domenic.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Baroness Warsi Was Right to Speak Out: Hatred of Muslims is One of the Last Bastions of British Bigotry
It is not in the least surprising that Sayeeda Warsi’s speech last night against Islamophobia has created anger. Many people will disagree profoundly with her claim that British Muslims suffer discrimination. This is because of the common assumption that Muslims have brought almost all of their problems on themselves, above all through their refusal to assimilate and play a full role in mainstream society.
Nor is that all. It is often claimed that Muslims have behaved differently from other immigrant groups, such as Sikhs or Hindus, by refusing to accept the legitimacy of the British state. Of course, there is some truth in this assertion. The Islamic political organisation Hizbut-Tahrir (to give one example) gives its fealty not to the national state but to the misty vision of an international caliphate, something which has not existed in substantive form since the collapse of the Ottoman empire in 1922.
The fear of terrorism adds greatly to the atmosphere of suspicion and there is no question that the London bombings in 2005, which killed 52 Britons and maimed many others, were linked in some perverted way to the religion of Islam. So I have no doubt that Norman Tebbit, one of my political heroes and a man of rare moral and physical courage, was speaking for many readers when he called on his Telegraph blog yesterday for a “period of silence” from Baroness Warsi.
Yet I believe that the Baroness was right to make her speech and that Lord Tebbit was in the wrong. Indeed, I would go further and argue that the Baroness is showing exactly the same kind of moral courage that made Lord Tebbit such a towering figure among his time-serving colleagues in Margaret Thatcher’s cabinets of the 1980s.
Baroness Warsi is not stupid. She would have calculated well in advance that yesterday’s speech was a wretched career move. It is less than a week since she found herself in hot water after her injudicious remarks about the attitude of what she called the “Tory Right” to the party’s strategy in the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election. The prudent reaction to this minor storm was to remain silent rather than grant fresh succour to her growing body of enemies inside the Conservative Party.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Islamophobia Under Academic Scrutiny
MCB is organising a book launch for Thinking Through Islamophobia: Global Perspectives The event hosted is by the Rt Hon Sadiq Khan MP, at the House of Commons. The launch will take place on Monday 31st January 2011, commencing at 6 pm and concluding by 8 pm.
The programme includes brief presentations by the co-editors AbdoolKarim Vakil (King’s College London) and S Sayyid (University of Leeds, & Centre for Muslim and Non-Muslim Understanding, University of South Australia) and several of the book’s contributors including Professor Tariq Modood [University of Bristol], Samia Bano [University of Reading], Nadia Fadil [Catholic University of Leuven] and Nasar Meer [Northumbria University].
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Kids Put on ‘Hate Crimes’ List for Schoolyard Taunts
Teachers required to report ‘homophobic’ jibes on permanent record
Nearly 30,000 British schoolchildren last year alone had their names added to a “hate crimes” bullying list for making taunts deemed racist or “homophobic.”
More than 10,000 of those children are in elementary school, and the figures even include nursery school students down to toddler age.
Schools were required by the United Kingdom’s Labour government in 2002 to monitor and report all racist incidents to the local education authorities, or LEAs, following the U.K.’s Race Relations Act of 2000.
London’s Daily Mail reports many of the LEAs also require schools to report “homophobic” incidents and keep the offending students’ names in a register. The record can then follow the student into higher grades, or even to another school at the request of the new school’s administration.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: MCB Welcomes Baroness Warsi’s Comments
The Muslim Council of Britain welcomes the intervention of Minister without Portfolio & Co-Chairman of the Conservative Party, Sayeeda Warsi, for drawing attention to the very real scourge of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hatred. Muslim communities in Britain have been viewing with consternation the gradual build-up of incidents, ranging from clumsy references to Muslim practices in the media (e.g. the recent references to the ‘Islamification’ of Britain because of conversions), the sensationalist headlines (“Why are 36% of our universities training Muslim terrorists?” — in a recent Sunday paper) and finally the intimidation outside mosques, physical damage to mosques and cemeteries and bodily attacks.
Farooq Murad, Secretary General of the MCB noted, “We particularly welcome Baroness Warsi’s acknowledgement of the role the media plays in this process of normalising Islamophobia, as well as the counter-productiveness of categorisations such as ‘moderate’ and ‘extremist’ Muslims. Islamophobia is the number one concern of all Muslims in this country, illustrated recently by an internal survey of issues conducted by the MCB of its affiliates who prioritised rising anti-Muslim hatred as the biggest concern for the community. Responsibility also rests with our political leadership because unfortunately the language often used with reference to Muslims is feeding into stigmatisation of one section of our society”.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Al-Awlaki: Rob Christians, Jews to Finance Jihad
‘Those fighting Muslims do not have sanctity over their lives or their wallets’
The American-born fugitive Muslim leader Anwar al-Awlaki says the costs of fighting jihad around the world are so high that Christians and Jews should be paying for it.
In an article in the Winter issue of al-Qaida’s Inspire magazine he says it’s permitted, even encouraged, for jihadis to steal from unbelievers — anyone not Muslim — to help finance jihad.
In his article “Dispossessing the Disbelievers,” al-Awlaki writes that because world-wide jihad is expensive, it’s too much of a burden to ask Muslim faithful to continue paying for spreading Islam and Islamic law around the globe.
Al-Awlaki’s remedy is simple: Steal from the wealthy kafirs (unbelievers) and give the money to imams who teach and promote jihad.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Earth ‘To Get Second Sun’ As Supernova Turns Night Into Day
The Earth could soon have a second sun, at least for a week or two.
The cosmic phenomenon will happen when one of the brightest stars in the night sky explodes into a supernova.
And, according to a report yesterday, the most stunning light show in the planet’s history could happen as soon as this year.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
One of the Great Frontiers for Modern Physicists: Poker
What are so many physicists doing playing cards for hours on end in gaming rooms from Vegas to Monaco? Probably winning.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
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