Greece: Traders, Smoking Ban Will Create More Jobless
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, JANUARY 19 — “The slow-down in the economy has already caused a reduction in turnovers of around 48%. The total smoking ban announced by the Prime Minister will force between 15 and 20 thousand businesses to shut down, creating at least a further 80,000 unemployed. The sector is going through the worst crisis of the post-war period”. The Deputy President of Greece’s General Confederation of Commercial Businesses and Craft-workers, Gorge Kavathas, was addressing a press conference following a meeting with the sector.
During the meeting, the new anti-smoking law, which came into force in September, was discussed and it gave rise to an immediate reaction from the businesspersons present. Already hit by the economic crisis, they see customers staying away because of the ban on smoking in public places.
Faced with protests from bar, restaurant and cafe owners, Greece’s Health Minister was willing to backpedal somewhat, presenting some amendments to the law at a Cabinet meeting. But these were turned down by the Prime Minister.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Inflation Group Says U.S. Cities Will be Like Egypt in Four Years
The National Inflation Association has issued a chilling new advisory in which it warns that the inflationary time bomb being created by the policies of the Federal Reserve will lead to American cities experiencing similar chaos currently unfolding in Egypt by 2015.
Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak has been in power for three decades and in that time has managed to handle all manner of threats to the stability of his regime. But it was the huge unrest sparked by soaring food prices that finally led the Egyptian people to launch a revolution which is likely to see Mubarak forced out of office for good.
“Food inflation in Egypt has reached 20% and citizens in the nation already spend about 40% of their monthly expenditures on food. Americans for decades have been blessed with cheap food, spending only 13% of their expenditures on food, but this is about to change,” warns the NIA press release.
The NIA says that the world is in a state of “inflationary panic,” evidenced by numerous global revolts that can all be traced back to crippling food inflation.
“One thing NIA is almost 100% sure of is that come year 2015, middle-class Americans will be spending at least 30% to 40% of their income on food, similar to Egyptians today,” warns the NIA, advising Americans to stock up on storable food if they wish to avoid being impacted by empty shelves which have occurred in Egypt as a result of panic buying.
The report notes that the Obama administration will do nothing to cut the massive national deficit because Washington living within its means would cause a stock market collapse and a new Great Depression, “But at least it would save the U.S. dollar from losing all of its purchasing power. In fact, the standard of living for middle class Americans might actually improve if the government allowed the free market to put our economy into a depression, because goods and services would get cheaper.”
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Morocco: Estimates: Record Sum to Support Fuel Prices
(ANSAmed) — ROME, FEBRUARY 1 — The Moroccan government should allocate the record sum of 5 billion USD this year to support fuel prices if the oil price will continue to hover around 100 dollars per barrel. This forecast was made by Said Al Ufair, official of the Moroccan Energy Ministry, quoted by the newspaper Al Quds Al Arabi.
The official underlines that the Moroccan government allocated 3 billion USD in 2010. Despite the fact that Morocco is the only North African country without oil, the country is negotiating with several investors for the construction of a refinery with a capacity of 200 thousand barrels per day, Al Ufair added.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Treasury Sells 3.5 Bln in Bonds at Lower Rate
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, FEBRUARY 3 — The Spanish Treasury sold 3 and 5-year bonds today for a total of over 3.5 billion euros at a lower interest rate compared to the most recent bond auctions for three and five year notes, said sources from the institute. Today, 1.893 billion euros in 3-year bonds were sold at a interest rate of 3.297%, five-tenths of a point below the rate in December’s auction. As for 5-year bonds, 1.613 billion euros in bonds were issued at 4.08%, a lower interest rate than the previous bond auction in December (4.59%).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Tax Rise? The Middle Class Won’t Notice it, Says Clegg: Deputy PM’s Contempt for 3m Families Forced to Pay Higher Rate
Nick Clegg has invited the wrath of 3million middle-class families being forced into the higher-rate tax band.
He claimed yesterday that they would ‘barely notice’ the impact on their living standards.
The Deputy Prime Minister admitted that to pay for Liberal Democrat manifesto promises to the low-paid, millions more workers will be pushed into paying 40 per cent income tax over the life of this parliament.
But he made light of their extra burden, saying the money ‘has to come from somewhere’ and adding that middle-earners would hardly notice the difference as most would pay the higher rate of tax on only a small part of their income.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Keyes Attacks House Repubs for Capitulation on Debt
‘Just say NO to raising the cap,’ urges activist, former Reagan official
WASHINGTON — Former GOP presidential candidate and Reagan administration official Alan Keyes has joined the ranks of those calling on House Republicans to reject another hike in the debt limit that will permit the federal government to keep borrowing money to propel its spending programs.
He joins Sens. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and Reps. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., Ron Paul, R-Texas, and Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., in rejecting House Speaker John Boehner’s concession to raise the debt limit, which is expected to be reached toward the end of next month.
“We should demand of our representatives in Congress that they refuse to raise the debt ceiling,” said Keyes. “But we must also demand of ourselves that we refuse any longer to choose our political leaders from candidates produced by political parties intrinsically dependent on political vehicles fueled by unbridled government spending. Where politics is concerned, restoring the ceiling must be just the first expression of our determination to rebuild, as a home for responsible freedom, the house of constitutional liberty our forsworn elites are determined to destroy.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Man Charged in Greyhound Bus Hijacking
Henderson, N.C. — Warren County authorities charged a man in connection with the hijacking of a Greyhound bus along Interstate 85 late Thursday.
Jose Flores, 32, of 54 Eighth St. Arlington, Va., faces one count of kidnapping, said officials with the Warren County Detention Center. His bond hasn’t been set yet, and he was scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 16.
Passengers on the Greyhound bus from Richmond, Va., to Raleigh said it wasn’t clear what the suspect wanted.
“He was just irate, (didn’t) make no sense,” passenger Xavier Little said. “Nobody understood what was the purpose. He kept saying, ‘I want to go to the courthouse, the nearest courthouse.’“
Vance County Sheriff Peter White said that a passenger asked the driver a question, then pulled out a gun along Interstate 85 South in Warren County. He also implied that he had a bomb.
Passengers said he ordered them to get off the bus, but they were frozen.
“We were too scared. We didn’t know if he was going to shoot us in the back of the head for getting off the bus,” Little said. “He just kept yelling, ‘Y’all got a problem? Y’all going to do something? I got nine shots, and I’ll start killing right from the front.’“
Robert Fusco said the hijacker then pointed the gun at him and three other passengers in the front. “He talked about shooting us an example,” Fusco said.
The suspect forced the driver to stop along I-85, and all but two of the approximately three dozen passengers got out before the driver continued on, White said.
Meanwhile, a passing driver called 911 and followed the bus, White said. When the bus stopped at a gas station in Henderson, officers with drawn guns surrounded it.
The driver and two passengers got away safely, and authorities used a stun gun on Flores before taking him into custody, White said. A search turned up no explosives on the bus.
Greyhound sent another bus to take the passengers to Raleigh. Passengers said they were nervous to continue on their trips.
“I still got a long way to go, and these people expect me to get on another bus. Would you get on another bus after you had a gun stuck to your head?” Fusco said.
Fusco, who was traveling to visit family in Florida, called for increased security measures on buses.
“Something’s got to be done. I could have been dead tonight,” he said. “Anybody could walk up on here on a Greyhound bus and have a gun on them and without checking nobody. It might slow things down, but this ain’t right.”
Calls to Greyound Friday morning have not been returned.
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Pro-Brotherhood CAIR Lobbied Against Mubarak
Egyptian envoy rebuked Washington-based group over ‘interference’
A U.S. front organization for the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood has lobbied the State Department in recent years to pressure Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to open national elections to the banned Muslim Brotherhood, a book reveals.
The radical Muslim Brotherhood has organized rioters demanding the ouster of Mubarak, a U.S. ally. Its leaders are in talks with opposition leader Mohammed ElBaradei to form a unity government to replace Mubarak’s regime, which has honored the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace deal. The Brotherhood vows to end the treaty.
The Washington-based Council for American-Islamic Relations, which describes itself as a domestic “civil-rights advocacy organization,” took the unusual move of interfering in Egyptian politics after Mubarak made it harder for the Brotherhood to seize power.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Senate Probe Rips FBI, Pentagon on Fort Hood Shootings
WASHINGTON — In the first detailed report on the events leading up to the Nov. 5, 2009, shootings at Fort Hood, Texas, the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Thursday blamed both the Pentagon and the FBI for failing to recognize that Army Maj. Nidal Hasan had links to a key al Qaida operative and had become an Islamic extremist before he allegedly opened fire on fellow soldiers, killing 13 and wounding dozens of others.
The Senate report also warned that neither the FBI nor the Defense Department had taken the steps needed to make certain that the mistakes weren’t repeated. It said the FBI was using outdated methods to examine intercepted e-mails, that the post-9/11 system of investigating terrorist threats still discourages the sharing of information, and that the Defense Department hadn’t identified radicalization as a potential threat.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Super Bowl to Have No Cheerleaders for First Time in History
The Super Bowl, the most watched US television event of the year, is to be without cheerleaders for the first time in its 45 year history.
This year’s game is between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers, among the small number of teams that do not have professional cheerleading squads.
[…]
The event is taking place in Dallas, where members of the renowned Dallas Cowboys cheerleading squad have offered to step into the breach.
But they have been banned from the stadium because they are not affiliated with either of the teams taking part, and they will have to perform outside.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Terror Expert: Time for a Shariah Wake-Up Call
The Muslim cleric who warned Sean Hannity that radical Islam is at America’s backdoor personifies the threat to the West, and it is time to issue a wakeup call — particularly in the United States — that the menace is real, a terrorism expert said Thursday on Fox News.
Commenting on Hannity’s fiery exchange with Sheik Anjem Choudary (pictured) on Wednesday, Brigitte Gabriel of ACT! For America also said the cleric was a perfect example of a Western-born Muslim falling under a fanatical spell.
In addition, Gabriel noted the spread of Islamic radicalism, and the sheik’s threat the world eventually will succumb to Shariah, is fueled by the Muslim Brotherhood, as part of a master plan.
“Here is a perfect example of someone born in Britain, into a Muslim family, [he] became an attorney in Britain. Now, how can someone like him become so radicalized to the point where he loathes the West?” Gabriel said. “I mean here is someone who was exposed to our Judeo-Christian value system, our way of life, our democracy and he despises it.
“This is the problem we are facing all over the West right now,” she warned.
Gabriel said Choudary couldn’t bring himself to say the people who died on Sept. 11, 2001, were innocent as “he considers them all criminals, because Americans — infidels — who are not Muslims, who pay taxes to the United States government, who fund the wars against Muslims, they are not innocent — they deserve to die.”
Hannity conceded he and Choudary agreed on one point: “That the Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic radicals, want to take over Egypt, and Yemen, and Jordan, and the Middle East, and Israel, and the United States.” He showed Gabriel a clip of the video of their heated discussion on Wednesday, and she said:
“This is pure Islamic fanaticism. Under the banner of Islam, Muslims murdered Christians in Egypt, Christians in Lebanon, Armenians in Turkey, Hindus in India, Jews in Arab lands — all this happened before they ever turned their eyes to the United States, before we ever went into Iraq, or Kuwait, or anywhere else…
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
A Muslim Zionist
Joel Richardson interviews sheikh who enthusiastically supports Israel
In the following interview, Christian author Joel Richardson, discusses Jewish-Muslim relations, Zionism and the future status of Israel and the Jewish Temple with Italian Muslim leader Sheikh Abdul Hadi Palazzi. Sheikh Palazzi begins a U.S. tour this March speaking out against Saudi-funded Wahhabi Islam and in favor of Israel and the Jewish people.
Joel Richardson: Sheik Palazzi, thank you very much for agreeing to this interview. Please begin by introducing yourself.
Sheik Palazzi: I was born in Rome 49 years ago, studied Islamic Law according to the Shafi’i School and Quranic recitation at al-Azhar University (Cairo) and was appointed an imam for the Italian Muslim Community by the late Mufti Ali al-Badawi as-Siddiqi, who also appointed me as his representative for the Qadiri Sufi Order. I am presently directing the Cultural Institute of the Italian Islamic Community and serving as secretary general of the Italian Muslim Assembly and the Khalifah for Europe of the Qadiri Sufi Order.
I am promoting integration of the Muslim minority in Italy and opposing Wahhabi-oriented fundamentalism. I am involved in interfaith dialogue with distinguished representatives of Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and other faiths. I do believe that — as announced in Islamic sources — the Muslim world of today is affected by widespread aberrant beliefs as a result of the influence of Saudi-sponsored Wahhabism and extreme Shiaism. In my understanding, the medicine for this situation is reviving the traditional Sunni teachings preached by orthodox Sunni and Sufi masters, and this obviously involves the rejection of contemporary anti-Semitism and anti-Zionist education. Instead, Muslims should embrace what the Glorious Quran and the Islamic tradition teaches about the rights of the Jewish people and their return to the land of Israel.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Britain Facing ‘Unstoppable Wave of Home-Grown Suicide Bombers’ Warns MI6
Secret Intelligence Service official claims new Jihadists will slip ‘under the radar’
The terrifying prospect of a wave of suicide bombings by home-grown terrorists unknown to authorities was revealed today.
The problem is set to blight Britain for a generation, an MI6 officer warned in secret intelligence documents.
The Secret Intelligence Service official warned that radicalised British Muslims who undertake training will become ‘suicide operatives’ who will target innocent civilians.
British-born terrorists were behind the July 7 2005 London Tube bombings and the four men involved had been radicalised and received terror training abroad.
The warning came in a briefing of U.S. congressmen who visited the UK in 2008 and was contained in a cache of American diplomatic cables obtained by whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.
The documents also reveal American concerns that British intelligence workers are failing to contain domestic terrororist because of budget cuts.
The warning was revealed by the Daily Telegraph as the independent reviewer of anti-terror laws claimed that European human rights rulings had made the UK a ‘safe haven’ for suspected terrorists.
Foreign Office officials astonished their U.S. counterparts by planning to hand millions of pounds in aid to leaders of a lawless region of Somalia.
They pledged the aid to the regional government of Puntland, despite knowing those involved had links to pirate gangs.
In a WikiLeak-published cable, it was revealed that Britain decided to plough ahead with the questionable policy, despite being ‘under no illusion about who they were dealing with and the connection of the Puntland authorities to piracy.’
The policy was expanded in January last year when a portion of a £9m grant to Somalia was earmarked for Puntland officials.
In his annual review of legislation, Lord Carlile of Berriew backed the Government’s attempts to deport foreign suspects with assurances over their treatment once returned home.
According to the U.S. embassy’s record of the congressmen’s visit, the MI6 official told them that the UK was ‘wholly or largely dependent’ on help from the CIA and other American sources for monitoring terrorism.
And he told them that ‘the internal threat is growing more dangerous because some extremists are conducting non-lethal training without ever leaving the country.
‘Should these extremists then decide to become suicide operatives, HMG (Her Majesty’s Government) intelligence resources, eavesdropping and surveillance would be hard pressed to find them on any “radar screen”.’
The document said that the officer ‘described this as a “generational” problem that will not go away anytime soon’.
Home-grown terrorists were responsible for the July 7, 2005 London Tube bombings in which 52 people died.
They included leader Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, the Edgware Road bomber, who was the son of Pakistani immigrants and was born in this country.
His accomplice Shehzad Tanweer, 22, the Aldgate bomber, was born in Bradford and visited Pakistan for terrorist training in 2004.
A secret campaign to combat British radical Muslims and their plans to attack targets in the UK and U.S. was hatched by the American Embassy, it was revealed.
A $50,000 grant was handed to officials concerned by the UK’s inability to get to grips with its domestic Islamic terror threat and was set to be spent on a two-pronged attack to convince those vulnerable to terrorist recruitment to take a more moderate path.
A WikiLeaks cable published by the Daily Telegraph showed the anxiety in Washington about the threat to America from British-based extremists such as Abu Hamza and ‘shoe bomber’ Richard Reid.
U.S. Embassy officials hatched a plan that involved spending $43,000 on an academic study to identify reformed British extremists who had stepped back from the brink of undertaking Jihad.
They also planned to spend cash on flying the American comedy group Allah Made Me Funny to perform their act for the Muslim community.
The message of the group, which features comedian Azhar Usman, above, is that it is acceptable to be both a Muslim and a proud citizen of a western country.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Canaries “Benefiting” From Tunisia and Egypt Crisis
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, FEBRUARY 4 — The political crisis affecting Tunis and Egypt is having unexpected positive effects on tourism in Spain, where international arrivals have gone up by an average of 30%, especially in the archipelago of the Canaries. This is according to hotel sources quoted by the Spanish media.
According to the federation of travel agencies, the average occupation in this period of the year in hotel chains in the Canaries has increased from 70% to 90%. Hoteliers are predicting that the figure will rise to 100% in Lanzarote, Fuerteventura and Tenerife if the uprising against the regime of Hosni Mubarak continues. The situation in Egypt has already caused paralysis in productive activities and services in Egypt, in particular the cancellation of tourist trips to Cairo.
Thousands of central and northern Europeans, especially Germans, Brits and Scandinavians, have changed the destination of their winter breaks from the more customary locations of Cairo and the Red Sea to the Canaries. British and German tour operators are promoting the Spanish archipelago on their websites, after the Foreign Ministers of both Tunisian and Egypt advised against travel in North Africa for security reasons.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Who is Mohamed Elbaradei? A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
At first glance, ElBaradei’s credentials suggest he could be a leader the West could support. Born to a middle-class family in Cairo in 1942, ElBaradei was largely educated in the West. After receiving his bachelor’s degree from the University of Cairo, he went on to earn an advanced degree in Switzerland and later a Ph.D. in international law from New York University. He is fluent in English, French, and German, aside from his native Arabic. He lived in the U.S. for some fifteen years, and more recently has resided in Vienna. He has served in various capacities for the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, as a United Nations diplomat, and as a speaker and lecturer in the U.S. and Europe.
However, the closer one looks at ElBaradei’s career and public statements, the more troubling the image becomes. Indeed, three clues tell us the answer is “no,” ElBaradei is not someone we can trust, and certainly not someone we want running Egypt. To the contrary, he is a wolf in sheep’s clothing and we must not let him gain power.
[…]
Third, ElBaradei is an apologist for the Muslim Brotherhood. For starters, in recent days the Brotherhood has begun opening supporting ElBaradei and saying that they want to form a “unity” government with him, and he is welcoming their support. What’s more, in an interview on CNN on January 30, 2011, ElBaradei flatly denied that the Muslim Brotherhood is a fundamentalist Islamic organization, claiming that this was “a myth that was sold by the Mubarak regime.” He went on to deny that if the Brotherhood gained control of the Egyptian government they wouldn’t create a Radical Islamic regime that would be similar to what happened in Iran in 1979.
In an interview last week with the German publication Der Spiegel, ElBaradei said: “We should stop demonizing the Muslim Brotherhood,” adding that “they have not committed any acts of violence in five decades. They too want change. If we want democracy and freedom, we have to include them instead of marginalizing them.”
Is he kidding? The Muslim Brotherhood has been one of the most anti-Western, virulently jihadist organizations in the Middle East for decades. They have believed and taught that Islam is the answer, and violent jihad is the way. This was true of its founder Hassan al-Banna. This was true of its intellectual leader Sayyid Qutb in the 1950s and 1960s. This is true of its most famous and deadly disciples, including Osama bin Laden (who was recruited into the Brotherhood by a Syrian high school teacher), and his deputy, Dr. Ayman Al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian national who was also part of the Brotherhood until he joined bin Laden to build al Qaeda as an even more violent and radical Islamist group. It remains true with the Hamas terror movement in Gaza, which is an offshoot of the Egyptian Brotherhood. I document all this in my 2009 non-fiction book, Inside The Revolution.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
EU: Armed Raid at European Parliament
Two men staged an armed raid at the European Parliament just a few hundred yards from the Brussels summit venue where David Cameron was holding talks with other EU leaders on Friday.
The robbers, armed with handguns, escaped with £6,750 in the third raid to hit the EU assembly in the last two years.
“There was a hold-up at the European parliament’s post office by two people who managed to escape the premises,” said a parliament spokesman. “Nobody was hurt.”
Timothy Kirkhope, a senior Conservative MEP, complained at the raid and getaway at an institution with an annual budget of £1 billion and hundreds of security guards.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
German State Risks Muslim Anger After Becoming First in the Country to Ban the Burka
A German state yesterday became the first region in the country to ban Muslim women from wearing burkas.
The country has been gripped for several months by an angry debate on multiculturalism with many Germans voicing their concerns over immigration.
Hesse, a state run by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats, has now became the first German region to ban Muslim face veils for public sector workers.
Hesse Interior Minister Boris Rheinsaid it was ‘not acceptable’ for a teacher in Frankfurt to wear a face veil because ‘public sector workers are obligated to have neutral religious and political views’.
The decision was prompted by a local teacher who had told her school she wanted to wear a burka in the classroom after returning from maternity leave. She had not previously worn one.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Parliament to Vote on ‘Federalism’ Measure to Satisfy Key Berlusconi Ally
Rome, 3 Feb. (AK/BloombergI) — Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, targeted in an underage-prostitution investigation, faces a parliamentary vote on giving more powers to local governments that could set the stage for early elections.
The parliamentary committee for fiscal federalism, the top priority of Berlusconi’s main Northern League ally, is due to vote today to activate a law giving more tax power to cities. Defeat could cost the premier the League’s support, while a split on the 30-member panel, which newspapers including la Repubblica say is likely, would leave his parliamentary majority in question, increasing chances of elections two years early.
“I believe I have a majority in both houses and I see no reason to hold elections,” Berlusconi, 74, said in Rome on 1 February. The premier, asked about the potential charges against him, said he had “nothing to fear because the allegations are unfounded and ridiculous.”
The Northern League, which in the 1990s campaigned for northern Italy to secede, has threatened to withdraw from the government if the vote fails. “If federalism doesn’t pass, we’ll all go home,” interior minister Roberto Maroni, a party leader, told Corriere della Sera in a 31 January interview.
Possible Trial
Berlusconi may find it increasingly hard to resist pleas for him to step aside as prosecutors push ahead with a criminal investigation into allegations Berlusconi paid for sex with underage women. Milan Prosecutor Edmondo Bruti Liberati said yesterday he will file a request as soon as 7 February for the start of the trial. Berlusconi also faces possible charges of abuse of power for helping get the woman released from police custody in an unrelated detention.
“It’s quite difficult to form a judgment on how much closer Berlusconi would be to ‘facing his Waterloo’ if the tax transfer package is not approved by the parliamentary commission,” said Marc Ostwald, a London-based strategist at Monument Securities. “The noises coming out of the Northern League are as ever incoherent, with Maroni blustering about forcing a general election, but others tip-toeing around what they might do.”
Women’s Protest
The probe, known as Ruby-gate after the nickname of the young woman at its center, has left the government paralyzed, said Michele Ventura, deputy head of the main opposition Democratic Party’s delegation in the Chamber of Deputies. Opposition parties backed by women’s groups plan national demonstrations on 13 Februaryto call for Berlusconi’s resignation.
“If the magistrates really do manage to bring charges this week in the Ruby case, it would beggar belief that Berlusconi could carry on hanging on for dear life, even though the history of his career suggests that he will not be willing to stand down,” Ostwald said.
Berlusconi’s popularity held at 35 percent last month, matching the lowest level since his re-election in 2008, IPR Marketing said in a poll released yesterday and based on a survey of 1,000 adults. Still, Ruby-gate does not appear to have further eroded his support and Berlusconi’s coalition would likely still win early elections, IPR said.
Special Tribunal
Berlusconi has said he’s willing to be questioned by prosecutors on the condition that the trial is moved to the tribunal of ministers, citing an alleged bias against him by the Milan court. That special three-judge panel oversees cases against government ministers. Such a move could buy him more time, according to former prosecutor Antonio Di Pietro, leader of the opposition Italian Values Party.
Anyone paying for sexual relations with a prostitute under 18, even if not engaging in intercourse, can face three years behind bars. Politicians found guilty of abusing their position can be sentenced to as many as 12 years in jail.
The probe announced last month comes after dozens of lawmakers quit the ruling People of Liberty party, prompting a confidence vote on 14 December that almost brought down the government. The defection was led by long-time ally Gianfranco Fini and left Berlusconi scrambling for a working majority in the lower house of parliament.
In an unprecedented bi-partisan gesture that underscored his growing political isolation, Berlusconi reached out on 31 January to the leader of the main opposition party and called for a joint plan for economic growth. He was promptly rebuffed.
The Democratic Party said it would support a “pact for growth” but not with Berlusconi at the head of the government. The premier, who called for cutting public debt by offering incentives for Italians to declare undisclosed assets, yesterday urged lawmakers not to use today’s vote to seek political gain.
“It’s a political issue and we’ll vote ‘no’ since toppling the Berlusconi government is the most important objective,” Di Pietro said on 31 January.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Rumours of Graphic Berlusconi ‘Bunga Bunga’ Party Photos Denied
Milan, 3 Feb. (AKI) — Sources close to Milan prosecutors have played down reports that “compromising” photos exist of alleged erotic after-dinner parties at Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s residence.
“They only have irrelevant or innocent pictures,” said an unnamed source.
The sources were denying reports that a guest at Berlusconi’s alleged sex or ‘bunga bunga’ parties at his villa in Arcore near Milan had released some “compromising” photos from the parties.
One of the “numerous” young women alleged to have attended Berlusconi’s orgiastic parties and to have had sex with the 74—year-old premier is 18-year old Moroccan nightclub dancer Karima el Mahroug, nicknamed Ruby.
The teenager denies the allegations she had sex with Berlusconi when she was aged 17 but admits receiving 7,000 euros, a car, jewellery and other gifts from him. Questioned by prosecutors in Milan last year, she said an erotic after-dinner sex game called ‘bunga bunga’ was played in Arcore.
Libyan leader Muammer Gaddafi introduced the ‘bunga bunga’ game to Berlusconi, according to el Mahroug.
Berlusconi has denied he had sex with el Mahroug or any prostitute and claims that any dinner parties he has hosted at Arcore or his other residences have been entirely “proper” and “above board”.
But Milan prosecutors spearheading the vice probe have compiled two dossiers totally 616 pages of wiretap transcripts and other documents and say they have enough evidence against Berlusconi to try him for using an underage prostitute and for abuse of office.
The Italian parliament was on Thursday due to vote on whether to authorise prosecutors to search the Milan offices of Berlusconi’s accountant in connection with the prostitution probe.
Berlusconi in May 2010 allegedly personally pressured police to release el Mahroug from custody in Milan on an unrelated sex charge and claimed she was Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak’s niece.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Muslims Must Embrace Our British Values, David Cameron Says
Entering the debate on national identity and religious tolerance, the Prime Minister will declare an end to “passive tolerance” of divided communities, and say that members of all faiths must integrate into wider society and accept core values.
To be British is to believe in freedom of speech and religion, democracy and equal rights regardless of race, sex or sexuality, he will say. Proclaiming a doctrine of “muscular liberalism”, he will say that everyone, from ministers to ordinary voters, should actively confront those who hold extremist views.
He will also warn that groups that fail to promote British values will no longer receive public money or be able to engage with the state. His speech, to an international security conference in Munich, comes after The Daily Telegraph disclosed the extent to which the British intelligence community fears the “unique threat” of terrorist attacks by radicalised British Muslims.
Mr Cameron will promise a new willingness to argue against and “defeat” extremist ideologies that lead some to engage in terrorism. That means abandoning the notion that different communities should be able to live according to their own values and traditions as long as they stay within the law. “Under the doctrine of state multiculturalism, we have encouraged different cultures to live separate lives, apart from each other and the mainstream,” Mr Cameron will say. “We have failed to provide a vision of society to which they feel they want to belong.” All Britons should believe in basic values of freedom and equality, and actively promote them, he will say. That means ensuring that immigrants learn to speak English and that all schools teach “elements of a common culture and curriculum”.
The Prime Minister will accept that multiculturalism has left some members of the white community feeling unfairly treated. Racism and intolerance are “rightly” condemned, he will say. “But when equally unacceptable views or practices have come from someone who isn’t white, we’ve been too cautious, frankly too fearful, to stand up to them.”…
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Refusing Handshakes is Undesirable, Says Amsterdam Mayor
Amsterdam mayor Eberhard van der Laan thinks it ‘undesirable’ that a lecturer at Amsterdam’s hbo college has decided he will no longer shake women’s hands because of his religion, news agency ANP reports.
Van der Laan made the comment during a council meeting on Thursday afternoon. The college has given the man permission to bow to female colleagues instead.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
The Obama Administration Betrays Britain to Appease the Russians Over New Start
The latest revelation from Wikileaks is the most damaging so far to the Anglo-American Special Relationship. The disclosure in The Telegraph today that the Obama Administration “secretly agreed to give the Russians sensitive information on Britain’s nuclear deterrent to persuade them to sign a key treaty” points to an astonishing betrayal of America’s closest friend and ally, that may have significant implications for the relationship between David Cameron and Barack Obama.
According to The Telegraph report:
Information about every Trident missile the US supplies to Britain will be given to Russia as part of an arms control deal signed by President Barack Obama next week.
Defence analysts claim the agreement risks undermining Britain’s policy of refusing to confirm the exact size of its nuclear arsenal. A series of classified messages sent to Washington by US negotiators show how information on Britain’s nuclear capability was crucial to securing Russia’s support for the “New START” deal. Although the treaty was not supposed to have any impact on Britain, the leaked cables show that Russia used the talks to demand more information about the UK’s Trident missiles, which are manufactured and maintained in the US.
Washington lobbied London in 2009 for permission to supply Moscow with detailed data about the performance of UK missiles. The UK refused, but the US agreed to hand over the serial numbers of Trident missiles it transfers to Britain.
In December I wrote extensively on the White House’s relentless drive to sign the New START Treaty with Moscow as part of its controversial “reset” policy, despite the fact that it represented a staggeringly bad deal for the United States, and a remarkably good one for the Russians. The Telegraph report confirms the extraordinary lengths to which Washington stooped to meet Russian demands, which stunningly included passing on British nuclear secrets to a major strategic adversary. As the Prime Minister and senior British ministers head to Germany this weekend to take part in the Munich Security Conference, key questions must be asked of their US counterparts, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as to the exact nature of the deal struck with Russia, and what more has been compromised in relation to British national security.
The matter is serious enough to merit Congressional hearings in Washington as well as parliamentary hearings in London. It is easy to see why the Obama team refused to allow the US Senate access to the negotiating documents for New START, as they would have sparked outrage on both sides of the Atlantic that would almost certainly have killed the Treaty. The Telegraph report clearly contradicts repeated claims by the Obama negotiating team that no side deals were struck with their Russian counterparts. Not for the first time, the current US administration has been eager to appease America’s enemies while shamelessly undercutting her allies…
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘That’s Him Dad!’: Rapist Cornered by Father of Teenage Victim After She Spots Him in the Street
A rapist who attacked a teenage schoolgirl was caught when he was spotted by his victim days later and chased down by her father.
Mohammed Alim, 30, was cornered and arrested after police joined the pursuit. Today, he was jailed for seven years for a ‘cold and calculated attack’.
Minshull Street Crown Court heard how the failed asylum seeker stalked his victim as she walked along a road in Chadderton, Oldham, Greater Manchester, on the evening of September 18 last year.
Alim pulled the teenager into an alleyway and throttled her before raping her twice. He then ran off with her handbag.
However, just days after the attack took place, the teenager spotted Alim on the streets of Oldham while driving with her father.
Her father pulled over the vehicle and called Alim over, pretending he was lost.
But Alim ran off after catching sight of the girl, who had tried to conceal herself from view.
The father gave chase and was joined by two nearby PCSOs on patrol. The attacker was finally cornered by police when he ran into a stranger’s house.
Alim, who came to the UK from Bangladesh aged 16 and whose previous attempts to claim refuge had been refused, pleaded guilty to one count of rape after DNA evidence was recovered from the scene.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Concern Over Anti-Semitic Incidents
The second highest number of anti-Semitic incidents was recorded last year, a Jewish security charity said.
More than 639 reports of bigoted violence and abuse were received last year by the Community Security Trust (CST).
They included street attacks, hate mail, threats, and the vandalism and desecration of Jewish property.
The charity, which monitors anti-Semitism in Britain, said the figures marked the second worst year since records began in 1984.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: EDL Founder Claims He is Target of Islamist Death Threat
Stephen Lennon says police have urged him to leave his home before English Defence League’s anti-Islamist protest in Luton
The founder of the English Defence League claims he has been warned that his life is in danger if he leads a protest in Luton.
Stephen Lennon, 28, said senior police officers were urging him to leave his home town ahead of the anticipated arrival of thousands of EDL supporters.
The militant anti-Islamist campaigner said he was under police protection. He claimed Bedfordshire police had issued him with an “Osman warning”, which are given by the police to advise individuals that they are at serious risk of being killed by someone who appears to have the capability to make good their threat.
Lennon, who routinely wears a bulletproof vest, said the warning followed a text message threatening to kill his children.
He said a written warning given to him by police states the Islamic community are “agitated” by tomorrow’s EDL demonstration.
The message added: “There is a threat to the life of leader Stephen Lennon. This is likely to be aggravated by the visit to Luton. You would be advised it would more appropriate if you leave the area for the foreseeable future.”
Bedfordshire police, which has been preparing for the demonstration for weeks, declined to comment on Lennon’s claim.
It is understood that an unarmed police officer has been stationed outside Lennon’s home.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Islamic Extremist Landed Job With British Airways ‘In Terror Plot to Blow Up a Flight to the U.S.’
An Islamic extremist landed a job as a British Airways computer expert with the aim of blowing up a plane bound for America, a court heard.
Rajib Karim, 31, is accused of plotting with terror mastermind Anwar al-Awlaki to commit a ’spectacular’ atrocity that would lead to ‘widespread loss of life’.
Desperate for martyrdom, the Bangladesh-born fanatic volunteered to train as cabin crew in the hope of blowing up aircraft, it was alleged.
The software engineer is also said to have planned to hijack BA computer systems to ground flights, causing chaos for millions of passengers.
Karim had already begun to build a terror cell in Britain, recruiting a baggage handler from Heathrow Airport and a security guard, it was claimed.
Woolwich Crown Court heard that in the final encrypted email he sent to al-Awlaki before his arrest last February, Karim said he would speak to his brothers ‘to find out the possibilities of shipping a package to a U.S.-bound plane’.
Yesterday the jury was told that Karim acted as a terrorist mole for American-born al-Awlaki — the commander of the Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula — passing him crucial information on the airline’s computer and security systems.
The zealot came to Britain in December 2006 with his British wife, Zijarin Raja, to seek cancer treatment on the NHS for his baby son, now five. It later transpired the boy did not have the disease and he has now recovered.
But Jonathan Laidlaw QC, prosecuting, said that from his arrival Karim was ‘entirely committed to an extreme Jihadist and religious cause’.
‘Karim believes that terrorism, including the murder of civilians, is permissible to establish, as he views it, a true Islamic state.’
‘He believes that terrorism, including the murder of civilians, is permissible to establish, as he views it, a true Islamic state,’ Mr Laidlaw said. ‘Karim was anxious to carry out such an act and he was determined to seek martyrdom.’
Karim had been given indefinite leave to remain in the UK in January 2009, and just a month before had completed an application form for naturalisation as a British citizen.
But the court heard that when he first travelled from Bangladesh to the UK it was to see if the country ‘could be exploited for terrorist purposes’.
In one email, recovered by police, he said: ‘From the moment I entered this country my niyah (purpose) was to do something for the deen (faith), it was not to make a living here and start enjoying life.’
However, he settled in at work and bided his time, Mr Laidlaw told the court, joining a gym and playing football. ‘It was as far as anybody could tell a perfectly ordinary life he was living,’ he said.
The father of one signed up to BA’s graduate training programme in Newcastle in 2007, becoming a software engineer in ‘as good a job as could be obtained’ for terrorist purposes,
His pass gave him ‘unsupervised access’ to BA computers running its website, email, crew roster, engineering systems, HR and finances.
In late 2009, Karim became depressed that he had failed to achieve an attack and offered to wage war in Afghanistan.
But al-Awlaki said he should remain in position, from where he ‘might be able to provide us with critical information’.
Karim responded saying he had ‘knowledge of key people in BA’ as well as key computer hardware locations.
Following strike action by cabin crew in 2009, BA sought volunteers from its ground staff to train as cabin crew.
Karim completed an application form for a customer support role — he did not have enough service for cabin crew duty — two weeks before his arrest.
He has admitted several charges including fund-raising for terrorism, but denies four counts of engaging in the preparation of terrorist acts.
The trial continues.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Jailed for Playing the Race Card, Sales Rep, 45, Who Falsely Claimed He Had Been Racially Abused by a Traffic Warden and a Doctor
A sales rep who falsely claimed a traffic warden had racially abused and attacked him in a bid to avoid a parking ticket was today jailed for 12 months.
Father-of-three Ben Hlal — originally from Tunisia — had parked on double yellow lines outside an Asda supermarket when he was caught by civil enforcement officer Andrew Lynch.
Mr Lynch warned the 45-year-old he would give him a ticket if he did not move on and gave him time to move his car.
But Hlal moved to another section of road, also with double yellow lines, and phoned the police from his mobile claiming Mr Lynch had racially abused him and grabbed him around the neck.
Mr Lynch was later arrested, interrogated by officers for three hours and suspended from his job at Fareham Borough Council.
He was only allowed back to work five weeks later when police decided there was no case to answer, Portsmouth Crown Court heard.
Hlal also made a false allegation of racial abuse against a doctor who challenged him for parking in a disabled bay at a Royal Hampshire County Hospital, Winchester, without displaying a badge.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Now a Mere 37% of NHS Doctors Are White British
AN influx of foreign doctors means just one in three is now classed as white British, astonishing new figures revealed yesterday.
Experts last night said they feared the tide of foreign-trained medics could put patients’ lives at risk because some may have poor English language skills.
The warning comes after a survey by the General Medical Council found only 37 per cent of the 240,000-strong medical register declared themselves as white British.
Separate figures revealed that more than 88,000 of that number were trained abroad.
The NHS now has doctors trained in 147 countries including Mongolia, Papua New Guinea and even Haiti, the poorest nation in the western world. More than 25,000 come from India.
Last year, Nigerian-born German doctor Daniel Ubani was banned from working in the UK after killing 70-year-old David Gray by giving him 10 times the maximum dose of a painkiller.
Ubani, who was on his first shift as an out-of-hours locum GP, later admitted his “fatal mistake” happened partly because he was unfamiliar with the drugs he was using.
“It’s a ridiculous situation. There are always issues with communication.
“You need to have confidence in the doctor. They need to understand you and you need to understand them.
“If a patient calls an out-of-hours doctor, they are grateful to see any doctor, but they know it won’t be a British one.”
Tory MP Dr Sarah Wollaston, a member of the Commons health select committee, said there was growing unease over the number allowed to work here without any checks.
“We have many safeguards against bad medical practice but these seem not to adequately address the issue of doctors from the EU with poor English.
“You can practise here from Australia and have to take a test but from Poland no language test may be applied under EU regulations,” she said.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: NHS Nurse Denied Free Cancer Scan and Branded ‘Health Tourist’… Because She Volunteered Abroad After Retiring
A nurse who devoted 40 years of her life to the NHS was refused a free cancer scan because she volunteered to help terminally-ill patients abroad — for just three months.
Cancer nurse Ann Read, 66, became ineligible for free care after she retired last year and volunteered to work with terminally ill patients in the Amazon rainforest.
She returned home in December following a cancer scare but was stunned when bosses at the Addenbrooke’s Hospital, in Cambridge, branded her a health tourist and tried to charge her £900.
The mother-of-four today branded the rules ‘grossly unfair’ and described the rules as ‘crazy’.
But hospital chiefs defended their decision claiming government guidelines make her ineligible for the scan because she has spent an ‘extended period’ abroad.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Prison Vote Vultures: No-Win, No-Fee Lawyers Line Up Thousands of Convicts to Claim Compensation for Being Denied Their Polling Rights
Lawyers have set up shop in dozens of prisons, encouraging inmates to claim compensation for not having the right to vote.
They have already collected 2,500 clients seeking payouts at the European Court of Human Rights.
If David Cameron loses a looming constitutional battle with the Strasbourg-based court over prisoner voting, tens of thousands more could join the queue.
The ultimate price to the taxpayer of compensation and legal costs could run to more than £100million. The no-win no-fee circus is even being subsidised by the state through the prisons themselves. They provide dedicated officers whose job is seek out inmates who might have a legal grievance and put them in touch with a legal-aid lawyer.
The scale of the compensation bandwagon became clear as Mr Cameron prepared for a showdown with Strasbourg over its insistence that prisoners have the right to vote.
The Strasbourg court first ordered Britain to give prisoners the vote in 2005 in the case of John Hirst, who served 25 years after killing his landlady with an axe.
The Labour government responded by delaying any move to comply with the court’s orders. Mr Cameron was told by Strasbourg in a further ‘right to vote’ case in November, won by rapist Robert Greens, that he must change the law by the summer.
The involvement of the lawyers, known as ambulance-chasers because they encourage accident victims to sue, angered Tory MPs anxious to ‘draw a line in the sand’ and assert the authority of Parliament over a democratically unaccountable foreign court.
Philip Hollobone, Conservative MP for Kettering, said: ‘It seems the legal industry has reached a new low.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Respect Leader Denies Soldier Standing Ovation ‘Snub’
The leader of the Respect Party has defended her decision not to take part in a standing ovation for a Royal Marine who was awarded for his bravery in Afghanistan.
Lance Corporal Matt Croucher was awarded the George Cross during a ceremony in Birmingham, for throwing himself onto a grenade in Helmand in 2008.
Salma Yaqoob, who is a Birmingham councillor, was one of only two people who stayed seated. She told the BBC News Channel that her actions were directed at the other politcians and not Lance Corporal Croucher.
| — Hat tip: 4symbols | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Shameful… Muslim Pair Who Refused to Honour a War Hero
TWO Muslim councillors were branded “shameful” yesterday after refusing to honour a war hero awarded the George Cross.
Salma Yaqoob and Mohammed Ishtiaq drew fierce criticism after “sitting with their arms crossed” and failing to join a standing ovation in honour of Lance Corporal Matthew Croucher.
The 27-year-old, from Solihull, was decorated with the George Cross for flinging himself on a Taliban grenade to save his comrades during an ambush in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province.
L/Cpl Croucher, serving with 40 Commando, survived because his backpack took the force of the blast, in February 2008.
He became the most highly-decorated serving Royal Marine when he received the George Cross for “outstanding bravery not involving direct contact with the enemy”.
More than 100 members of Birmingham City Council attended a meeting to pay tribute to L/Cpl Croucher, but councillors Yaqoob and Ishtiaq, both members of the Respect Party, refused to get to their feet for the standing ovation.
Conservative councillor John Lines said: “They should be ashamed of themselves.
“This was not the time or place to stage an anti-war protest — this man risked his life for his comrades.
“Not so long ago, these two would have been locked up as traitors. Sadly, we can’t do that any more — but these two deserve it.
“We invited L/Cpl Croucher to our meeting because we are proud of him. He was introduced as someone who had put his life on the line for Queen and country.
“Everyone immediately rose to their feet and applauded him, apart from these two horrible traitors, who sat with their arms crossed. They talked among themselves while this brave lad talked about his work with the Royal British Legion.
“Whatever your beliefs are regarding the reasons for going to war, there is no reason not to show respect to the people who are risking their lives for this country.”
His fellow Conservative councillor Peter Douglas Osborn said: “As far as I am concerned it is no longer the Respect Party, but the Disrespect Party.”
L/Cpl Croucher, who now runs a security firm, was at the meeting on Tuesday to highlight his work with the Royal British Legion.
He said: “Obviously not everyone is behind the work we are doing in Iraq and Afghanistan, and they have their point of view. On the other hand, it was nice to be shown respect for the job we do by the overwhelming majority of councillors.”
Councillor Yaqoob, Respect Party leader and head of Birmingham’s Stop the War Coalition, remained defiant last night. She said: “It was more about the politicians feeling good about themselves for sending our young men to fight for reasons that have proved to be false.
“I have every sympathy for our soldiers on a human level, they are only doing their jobs. But this ovation was just a big public show, it was false patriotism.
“Wrapping coffins in the flag and awarding medals does not make it right. If these so-called politicians want to give a standing ovation, why don’t they go and fight themselves? What we did was out of principle.”
L/Cpl Croucher’s citation for his bravery stated that he had been quite prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice to save others. It concluded: “Without question, L/Cpl Croucher’s courageous and utterly selfless action prevented death or serious injury to at least two members of his team.”
Writing on her blog, Ms Yaqoob, 38, said: “I have every sympathy with Lance Corporal Croucher and all his comrades serving in Afghanistan.
“I have spoken out before now on the disgraceful lack of support that returning soldiers receive from the very governments that sent them to war.
“But I refuse to stand with those politicians who lack the moral courage to question sending our soldiers to lose lives and limbs in a war that they know cannot be won.
“If our politicians really want to demonstrate their support for our troops, they should put their efforts into getting these soldiers home and safe where they belong.”
| — Hat tip: Sicarius | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The Days of Doing Deals With Muslim Extremists Are Over
Television plays a strange role in this great unfolding drama in the Middle East. On the one hand, it drives everything. It turns a few streets and squares in Cairo into the world stage, and then incites local actors to perform there. (I am not sure, by the way, that it has managed to rustle up quite as many extras as it would like: the struggle looks somewhat inconclusive.) Personally, I am getting a bit sick of being told what to think by the famous presenters — Jon Snow, John Simpson, George Alagiah — who are “big-footing” their local colleagues. They call supporters of President Mubarak “thugs”. I expect they are right, but the attempt to use their cameras to bring about a revolution is arrogant. There is no doubt, though, of the power of the moving image.
In the Muslim world, I suspect, the role of television is stronger still. For the first time on a large scale, on channels such as Al Jazeera, Arabs can see people in their own streets being asked those interviewer’s questions we in the West all take for granted — “What do you think?”, “How do you feel?” — and hear ordinary people give straight answers. If your main experience of political life is of helplessness and hopelessness, the sight of the opposite parading through nation after nation, each setting off the other, must be intoxicating. “Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive” — and to see it on film. But television, let alone Twitter, is not a medium that is any good at explaining things. After all those news bulletins, few of us are much the wiser about who has power in Egypt or what this great turmoil is really about. The famous Wordsworth lines quoted above celebrated the French Revolution, which ended in terror and tyranny. The same happened with the Russian Revolution. The Iranian Revolution of 1979 began with the overthrow of an unpopular autocrat and ended with the triumph of a murderous theocrat. What are the omens this time? The feebleness of the media in guiding us through this is particularly reprehensible, because much of what we need to know is happening here at home.
Lenin lived in London and other parts of western Europe before returning to Russia as a revolutionary leader. The Ayatollah Khomeini flew in from Paris. Today, no city is more important in fomenting revolt in the Muslim world than London. The place is awash with exiles, and with British-born extremists. Rachid Ghannouchi, the leader of Tunisia’s version of the Muslim Brotherhood, the most significant global Islamist organisation, has been living here for several years. Last week, he returned to his country as the old regime fell. And although the Muslim Brotherhood began life in Egypt, and claims 20 million followers there, its power centres have grown in the West. Much of the propaganda for Hamas, and for one of the Brotherhood’s religious gurus, Yusuf Qaradawi (a big pal of Ken Livingstone), is generated here. Money from charity fund-raisers in Britain is used for its work in Egypt. The Muslim Association of Britain is the Brotherhood’s vehicle in this country. The Muslim Council of Britain, which supposedly represents all Muslims here, contains leaders who are highly sympathetic to the Brotherhood. We think of everything about the Middle East as “abroad”, but many of the truths about the state of the Muslim world are also home truths…
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Unstoppable Wave of Brit Suicide Bombers
A WAVE of homegrown suicide bombers is ready to attack the UK, says MI6.
Our security services fear a new generation of British jihadists, according to WikiLeaks files.
MI6 believe trained suicide operatives, like the July 7 bombers Shehzad Tanweer and Mohammad Sidique Khan, exist under the radar and will “not go away any time soon”.
The revelation came as PM David Cameron, 44, was due to give a rallying cry for Britain to confront Islamic extremism.
He will use a speech today at a global terror summit in Germany to call on “those within Islam” who despise extremism to play their part in stopping radicalisation.
He believes terrorism can only be defeated if young British Muslims are protected from fanatics.
He will say that core values must be respected by everyone, including Muslims, to tackle hatred. He will add that “at stake are not just lives, it’s our way of life”.
Mr Cameron will warn it is time to reinforce a sense of belonging through British citizenship and cut off Government funding to Islamic groups promoting extremism.
He is due to say: “Islamist extremism and Islam are not the same thing. Let’s give voice to those followers of Islam in our own countries, the vast often unheard majority, who despise the extremists and their world view…
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
WikiLeaks Cables: US Agrees to Tell Russia Britain’s Nuclear Secrets
Information about every Trident missile the US supplies to Britain will be given to Russia as part of an arms control deal signed by President Barack Obama next week.
Defence analysts claim the agreement risks undermining Britain’s policy of refusing to confirm the exact size of its nuclear arsenal. The fact that the Americans used British nuclear secrets as a bargaining chip also sheds new light on the so-called “special relationship”, which is shown often to be a one-sided affair by US diplomatic communications obtained by the WikiLeaks website.
Details of the behind-the-scenes talks are contained in more than 1,400 US embassy cables published to date by the Telegraph, including almost 800 sent from the London Embassy, which are published online today. The documents also show that:
- America spied on Foreign Office ministers by gathering gossip on their private lives and professional relationships.
- Intelligence-sharing arrangements with the US became strained after the controversy over Binyam Mohamed, the former Guantánamo Bay detainee who sued the Government over his alleged torture.
- David Miliband disowned the Duchess of York by saying she could not “be controlled” after she made an undercover TV documentary.
- Tens of millions of pounds of overseas aid was stolen and spent on plasma televisions and luxury goods by corrupt regimes.
A series of classified messages sent to Washington by US negotiators show how information on Britain’s nuclear capability was crucial to securing Russia’s support for the “New START” deal. Although the treaty was not supposed to have any impact on Britain, the leaked cables show that Russia used the talks to demand more information about the UK’s Trident missiles, which are manufactured and maintained in the US.
Washington lobbied London in 2009 for permission to supply Moscow with detailed data about the performance of UK missiles. The UK refused, but the US agreed to hand over the serial numbers of Trident missiles it transfers to Britain.
Professor Malcolm Chalmers said: “This appears to be significant because while the UK has announced how many missiles it possesses, there has been no way for the Russians to verify this. Over time, the unique identifiers will provide them with another data point to gauge the size of the British arsenal.”
Duncan Lennox, editor of Jane’s Strategic Weapons Systems, said: “They want to find out whether Britain has more missiles than we say we have, and having the unique identifiers might help them.”…
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
WikiLeaks Cables: US Launched Anti-Extremist Campaign to Reverse UK Radicalisation
The plan, backed by tens of thousands of dollars, followed secret warnings from MI6 to the US that Britain was struggling to cope with the “unique” terrorist threat from “home grown” extremists. The fact that America sought to mount its own counter-extremism programme in Britain demonstrates Washington’s anxiety over the threat from British radicals who intended to attack the US. Dispatches from the American embassy in London, obtained by the website WikiLeaks, show that US officials were given a private tour of Finsbury Park Mosque, in north London, which was once the home of the notorious extremist Imam Abu Hamza al-Masri.
They found the mosque, which both the “shoe bomber” Richard Reid and al-Qaeda terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui attended, was “apparently cleansed of its extremist past”. However, mosque leaders criticised the police for failing to intervene sooner to prevent Abu Hamza’s radicals from taking control.
In 2007, Washington was engaged in a policy of “seeding” anti-extremism projects in countries around the world where radical Islam was seen as a growing threat.
The UK was apparently among these countries. The US proposed flying a moderate Muslim comedy troupe from America to perform in London, using reformed British extremists to engage with young radicals, and hiring Bollywood actors to make anti-jihad films. American officials also toured the country — making visits in England, Scotland and Wales to meet British muslims and assess the scale of the extremist problem. Dell Dailey, the US “ambassador at large”, specialising in counter-terrorism, offered the London Embassy $50,000 to spend on anti-extremism schemes in Britain.
In April 2008, the deputy chief of the US Embassy in London, Richard LeBaron, wrote back, enthusiastically welcoming the funds and suggesting two fresh proposals for how to prevent British youths from becoming Jihadists.
The first would involve hiring an American academic at a cost of $43,000 to study reformed British extremists who have “stepped back” from radical Islam, with advice from the UK government. The aim would be “to create a pool of individuals that could serve as a source of information on radicalization in the UK — its causes and what they believe will work to deflate it”, Mr LeBaron wrote. The project would “determine which of these individuals we might use to support counterterrorism efforts and how best to use them”. Mr LeBaron’s second suggestion was to spend $39,000 flying in the “Allah Made Me Funny” comedy troupe to the UK to participate in the Ramadan Festival UK…
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
WikiLeaks Cables: How America Spied on the Foreign Office
The disclosure casts a new light on the so-called “special relationship” between Britain and America, which has come under strain amid apparent indifference from the Obama administration towards Britain. Leaked diplomatic cables show that within weeks of the appointment of Ivan Lewis as a junior foreign minister in 2009, US officials were briefing the office of Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, about rumours that he was depressed and had a reputation as a bully. They also were desperate for more information on Mr Lewis’s relationship with David Miliband, the then foreign secretary, and other senior Foreign Office staff.
A cable said Mrs Clinton’s office was keen for more information about “how Lewis works with Foreign Secretary Miliband and the FCO staff”. Mr Lewis was appointed as minister of state in the Foreign Office on June 10, 2009.
Just over two months later, the US embassy in London was reporting back with gossip on Mr Lewis, apparently in reply to a request from Washington.
A communiqué sent on Aug 12, 2009, reported that Mr Lewis was possibly prone to depression. It said: “Contacts who know him well report ‘he’s very up one minute, very down the next’ and at least one FCO colleague has described Lewis as a ‘bully’.”
The cable added that Mr Lewis “had been forced to apologize in 2007 to a female in his office who accused him of sexual harassment”. The remark is thought to refer to an episode when he apologised for sending suggestive text messages to an assistant who worked in his office in a different department.
The cable suggested the incident was leaked by Downing Street in 2008 to discredit Mr Lewis after he criticised Gordon Brown following a by-election defeat.
It continued: “Lewis reportedly remains a bit of a hound dog where women are concerned. He was married quite young — in his very early 20s — and has had marital troubles in the last few years.” The cable also suggests that Mr Lewis had been appointed to the Foreign Office because of his Jewishness.
It said: “For Lewis it is a large part of his identity. “After his appointment to the Foreign office in June 2009, there was whispering among the UK Jewish community that Lewis was moved to the FCO to counter balance the pro-Palestinian view point of Foreign Secretary David Miliband, and that the UK’s Jewish community will seek to control Lewis’ agenda.”…
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Young Swedish Workers Abuse Sick Leave: Study
An increasing number of young Swedes are taking sick leave even when they are healthy, a new study has revealed.
Nearly one in five Swedes, or 29 percent, have taken sick leave despite feeling healthy. “Feeling tired” or “worn out” were the most common reasons and the sick leave takers were overwhelmingly born in the 1980s and 1990s, according to Manpower’s work life survey conducted in conjunction with Kairos Future.
“In the case of younger workers’ willingness to take sick leave despite feeling healthy, there are grounds for employers to create a work environment that motivates and engages the generations that are now entering the labour market,” said Carina Riedler, CEO of Manpower Health Partners Manpower Sweden.
At the same time, slightly more than every other Swede goes to work despite being sick, the survey showed.
“The fact that so many managers work despite being sick raises questions about whether the standing requirements for availability, combined with slimmer organisations, resulting in absolutely no scope to take sick leave at the managerial level,” said Riedler.
Those in their late teens and 20s living in Stockholm and working in customer service or office and administration took sick leave more often when healthy.
However, Stockholm managers in their 30s would probably often or always go to work despite illness. Among managers in general, 68 percent went to work sick, the survey showed.
The survey was also conducted in Norway, where 70 percent of respondents said that they go to work despite illness, compared with 56 percent in Sweden. In the case of healthy absences, the results were similar between the two countries.
The survey also looked at the work ethic of both countries. The Swedes came out on top, with a clear majority, or 78 percent, who answered that they felt morale is generally good in Sweden, while just over half of all Norwegians said the work ethic was good in Norway.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Croatia: Radio Prompts Couples to Conceive on St. Valentine
(ANSAmed) — ZAGREB, FEBRUARY 3 — Today a local radio station in Zagreb proposed a game to fifty Croatian couples involving a romantic weekend in the days before St. Valentine and promised to reward all of those who manage to conceive a baby in the process. Radio Sounset Plavi will provide the 50 couples who join the game with the clothing and almost all that is needed to take care of a baby during his first year of life. The radio announcement stated that “Our idea was to help couples to revive their passion during St. Valentine’s day, and should this lead to a baby being born, we will help the couples to purchase everything that is needed during the baby’s first year of life”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Algeria: Deputy Premier, We Won’t End the State of Emergency
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, FEBRUARY 3 — The possibility of lifting the state of emergency that has been in effect in Algeria for 19 years “is currently not being considered” by the authorities, said former Interior Minister and current Deputy Premier Yazid Zerhouni during his closing speech in Parliament. “With the threat of terrorism,” he said, “it is unreasonable to ask for the state of emergency to be removed,” which is “a tool that allows the actions of the army, secret services and the administration to be coordinated in order to fight against terrorism”.
“We never made any decisions in the name of the state of emergency that would reduce individual and collective freedoms,” he said, cited by several Algerian dailies. He continued: “Are there political prisoners? Journalists write whatever they want without any censorship.” Zerhouni also reiterated that the march on February 12 organised by the national Coordination for Democracy and Change to demand that the state of emergency be removed “is unauthorised”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Berlusconi Hopes for Smooth Transition From ‘Wise’ Mubarak
Italian premier gives backing to Egyptian President
(ANSA) — Brussels, February 4 — Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi on Friday said he was hopeful that ‘wise’ Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule would end with a smooth transition.
Violence has continued in Egypt despite Mubarak saying neither he nor his children will stand for election at the end of his current term later this year and more clashes are feared on Friday, the deadline demonstrators have set for him to leave the country.
“I am confident, and I believe all westerners think the same, that there can be a transition in Egypt to a more democratic system without ruptures with a president like Mubarak, who has always been considered one of the wisest men in the Middle East by all the West, United States included,” Berlusconi told reporters at a European Union summit. At least 10 people were killed and 800 wounded in clashes between Mubarak’s supporters and opponents Thursday, the 10th day of protests in Cairo calling on him to quit.
Foreign journalists also faced intimidation, with some briefly detained while others were attacked or threatened, prompting Italy, France, Spain, Britain and Germany to issue a joint condemnation.
The statement described the violence against the media as “unacceptable” and said the “transition process must start now”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
‘Day of Departure’ In Cairo, US Works on Mubarak’s Exit
(ANSAmed) — ROME,FEBRUARY 4 — A calm but tense atmosphere, after yesterday’s violence and intimidations and a relatively quiet night, can be felt in Cairo on the morning of the Friday prayer. The opposition, which has staged demonstrations for ten days now, hopes to transform this day into the “day of departure” of Mubarak, with at least a million people asking for his resignation. According to Al Jazeera and BBC tv, thousands of demonstrators have been gathering this morning in Tahir Square.
CNN reports that riot troops carrying automatic weapons have been deployed in large numbers around Tahrir Square and that security forces have arrested several people who were leaving the square or on the nearby 6 October bridge, making them lay down on the ground at gunpoint. Al Jazeera International adds that the communication blackout of the past days has been lifted and that the protesters are mainly using social networks like Facebook and Twitter.
Journalists, most of them confined to their hotels after yesterday’s arrests and intimidations, fear that they will not be able to guarantee adequate coverage of the events.
Meanwhile, America is increasing its pressure on Mubarak, urging the Egyptian President to leave office immediately. Last night the Obama administration made it clear that it is talking with “Egyptian authorities” about a series of options that include the immediate exit of Hosni Mubarak and the formation of an interim government. The White House has used a cautious approach for days, but is now speeding up — on the wave of protests-, negotiating directly with Vice President Omar Suleiman and working side-by-side with the closest collaborators of the Egyptian leader. The US hopes that these collaborators will convince Mubarak that his time has come to leave the stage.
The confirmation of Washington’s change of tack arrived in the middle of the night in Egypt via anonymous American and Egyptian sources, who had talked with the New York Times.
According to these sources, the plan is simple: Mubarak must yield his power to an interim government led by Vice President Omar Suleiman with the supervision of the armed forces and the consent of the powerful Muslim Brotherhood. The White House has opened several communication channels with this movement. In fact the US has not denied these speculations: we are discussing a “variety of different ways” with the Egyptians of moving towards a peaceful transition in Egypt, announced the White House when asked about the New York Times reports. Tommy Vietor, spokesman of the White House national security council, added: “We have discussed several different ways to continue the process with the Egyptians, but all these decision must be taken by the Egyptian people”.
Now Mubarak is clearly isolated and the power is shifting from his hands to the army.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: ‘Lost, ‘ or Found?
by Andrew G. Bostom
Across the political spectrum, the pundits have been sharing their profound analytical wisdom on the Egyptian protests, and resultant political turmoil. Two dominant misconceptions have emerged from these analyses: delusive celebratory predictions about the “democratic” uprising in Egypt from both mainstream (i.e., Left) and conservative pundits, or ahistorical drivel already assigning blame to the Obama administration for the “loss” of Egypt.
Amid this cacophony of uninformed nonsense, motivated by the twin perversions of cultural relativism and partisan hackery, I read these sobering observations written by an Egyptian student, Sam Tadros:
The opposition, you wonder? Outside of the Muslim Brotherhood, we are discussing groups that can each claim less than 5,000 actual members. With no organization, no ideas, and no leaders, they are entirely irrelevant to the discussion.
The perspicacious Mr. Tadros’ concern raises larger questions-almost entirely ignored-about the Muslim Brotherhood’s unequivocal ideology, and societal goals, but more importantly, why its message resonates with the Egyptian Muslim masses.
The 1928 charter of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood (MB) states, “Allah is its target, the Prophet is its model, the Koran its Constitution; Jihad is its path, and death for the sake of Allah (i.e., murderous jihad “martyrdom”) is the loftiest of its wishes.” Hamas, popularly elected by Egypt’s Palestinian Muslim neighbors, is a self-avowed branch of the MB as proclaimed in its charter (Article 2), “The Islamic Resistance Movement is one of the wings of the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine. The Muslim Brotherhood Movement is a universal organization which constitutes the largest Islamic movement in modern times.” Both the Egyptian MB, and its Hamas affiliate seek, progressively, locally, regionally, and ultimately, global imposition of Islam’s totalitarian religio-political code-the Sharia-through nonviolent and violent jihadism.
Mirroring the attitudes of its Palestinian constituents, elective democracy has already brought Hamas to power. Are there consistent trends discernible in Egypt? In a rigorously conducted, face-to-face University of Maryland/WorldPublicOpinion.org interview survey of 1,000 Egyptian Muslims conducted between Dec. 9, 2006, and Feb. 15, 2007, 67% of those interviewed-more than two-thirds, hardly a “fringe minority”-desired this outcome (i.e., “To unify all Islamic countries into a single Islamic state or Caliphate”). The internal validity of these data about the present longing for a Caliphate is strongly suggested by a concordant result: Seventy-four per cent of this Muslim sample approved of the following proposition: “To require a strict application of Sharia law in every Islamic country.”
Subsequent confirmatory survey data just released in December 2010 by Pew indicates that three-fourths of Egyptians favor these draconian Sharia-based punishments: lethal stoning for adultery, execution for “apostasy” from Islam, and limb amputations for theft. Moreover, Historian David Littman reported to the UN Human Rights Commission on April 23, 2010, “The FGM (female genital mutilation) figure for Egypt . remains today a deadly 97%.” This barbaric practice is sanctioned by the Shafiite school of Sunni Islamic Law that predominates in Egypt. The predictable medical complications of this barbarity-acute (“severe pain, shock, infection, bleeding, acute urinary infection, tetanus, and death”) and chronic (“chronic pain, difficulties with micturition and menstruation, pelvic infection leading to infertility, and prolonged and obstructed labor during childbirth”)-are described in this 1993 British Medical Journal report. Indeed, it has been the semi-secular, authoritarian military regime of Mubarak that made FGM illegal in a vain attempt to protect Egyptian Muslim women against the obvious wishes of its citizenry. Finally, reflecting longstanding attitudes of Egypt’s Muslims engendered by the canons of mainstream Islam, the late Sunni Muslim pope, Sheikh Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, grand imam of Cairo’s Al-Azhar University from 1996 till his death in March 2010, wrote a 700-page treatise rationalizing traditional Islamic Jew-hatred, past and present. Tantawi also sanctioned homicide bombings against Israeli noncombatants, and supported “martyrdom” attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq-although under pressure he eventually equivocated on this latter justification,
This is the overall context that explains the MB’s popularity in Egypt…
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Egypt: EU Leaders; Mandate to Ashton for Package of Measures
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, FEBRUARY 4 — EU leaders asked EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton to developing a package of measures from the EU to support the transitional and transformation process in Egypt, particularly focussing on the strengthening of the democratic institutions, promoting economic governance and socials justice, and assisting in the preparation and conducting free and fair elections. In the draft of their conclusions, cited by ANSA, the EU leaders made an appeal for rapid progress in the measures for the development of trade and investments in the regions “with the goal of promoting social and economic opportunities”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Mubarak: I Would Go But I Fear Chaos
(ANSAmed) — ROME, FEBRUARY 4 — “I would leave if I could, but I fear the chaos, after 62 years in public services I’ve had enough. I want to leave”: this remark was made by President Hosni Mubarak last night on America’s ABC television. The President added that he has “never had plans to run away, or to make (my son) Gamal the new President after me”. Interviewed by Christiane Amanpour, in the presence of Gamal, Mubarak claimed that he doesn’t “think about the insults” aimed at him in the demonstrations, because, he said, “I care about my country, I’m interested in Egypt”. “I will die on this land”, said the elderly leader. Mubarak spoke on the day on which the regime again invited the opposition to open a dialogue, through his vice, Omar Suleiman.
But the Muslim Brotherhood is unwilling to negotiate as long as the old leader stays in power. “We are ready to negotiate after (the end of) the Mubarak regime”, said a leader of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed El-Beltagi, in a statement on Al Jazeera television. El-Beltagi added that the regime “is flirting” with the Brotherhood, and that the movement has no plans to stand for the Egyptian presidency.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Suleiman, Unrest is Foreign and Brothers’ Conspiracy
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, FEBRUARY 3 — The unrest in Egypt is the result of a ‘conspiracy’ set up by “foreign Countries, the Muslim Brothers and some parties”: the statement was made today by Egyptian vice president Omar Suleiman while being interviewed by the Egyptian national TV.
Suleiman specified that “the foreign Countries, the Muslim brothers movement and other Egyptian parties have their own specific agendas” and that “the young people now in Tahir square are needed to meet these agendas”. Addressing the country on national television, the vice president explicitly invited the Muslim Brothers to open talks with the government. Suleiman explained that he contacted the Muslim Brothers but that the movement is “hesitant”. He stated that “opening talks is in their interest”, and explained that he plans on meeting, between Friday and Saturday, with the opposition forces that today refused to meet him.
During the interview the vice president also stated that “the presidential elections will be held before September, probably in August”. Suleiman stated that “time is needed for reforms” and that the latter “cannot be carried out from morning to night”. “The young people are demanding the disbandment of senate and parliament. But how can we disband them if the demonstrators are asking for constitutional amendments that only the chambers can provide?”, is the question raised by the deputy head of State. Suleiman stated that “What I instead proposed is to immediately open national talks with all political forces up to June, and in the meantime parliament and senate can carry out, in approximately 70 days, the reforms of the articles of the constitution that concern the presidential elections. Starting in July we will be able to start the electoral campaign for the presidential election by August”. Suleiman added that “tow years are needed for a full review of our constitution and this can only be started after the election of the new head of State”.
As for the request to depose Egyptian president Mohammad Hosni Mubarak, Suleiman defined it alien to the Egyptian people.
And he thanked the “young demonstrators” in Tharir square, calling them “the torchbearers of reform”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt’s Coptic Christians Fear Life Without Mubarak
The Copts have protested the harassment directed at them under the Egyptian president’s rule, but worry that things would be far worse if Islamist extremists gained power.
Reporting from Alexandria, Egypt —
The morning bells of All Saints Church beckon worshipers a little later these days, and Mass is celebrated more frequently.
The schedule shift for the early service has come in response to the government-imposed overnight curfew. The extra services? Coptic Christians in Egypt’s second-largest city say they have a lot of reasons to pray amid the nation’s ongoing turmoil.
But in a surprise even to them, many Copts say they now find themselves praying for President Hosni Mubarak’s government to last as long as possible.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt, “Hurriyya” Vs. Freedom, And “Muslim Moderates”: A Cautionary Tale
by Andrew Bostom
What Bat Ye’or left for Elliot Abrams (in vain) and others (hopefully) to learn
Ominous polling data from the contemporary Egyptian population reflect their deep, longstanding favorable inclination toward the Sharia, in all its totalitarian, brutally anti-freedom “glory.” The electorally successful Algerian Sharia supremacists of two decades ago came up with an apt expression of where such sentiments lead, given a one man, one vote (and likely, one time) opportunity: “Islamic State by the Will of the People!”
Despite ebullient appraisals of events in Egypt—which optimistic observers insist epitomize American hopes and values at their quintessential best—there is a profound, deeply troubling flaw in such hagiographic analyses which simply ignore the vast gulf between Western and Islamic conceptions of freedom itself. The current polling data indicating that three-fourths of the Egyptian population are still enamored of the totalitarian Sharia confirms that this yawning gap still exists—strikingly so—in our era.
Hurriyya (Arabic for “freedom”) and the uniquely Western concept of freedom are completely at odds. Hurriyya ‘freedom’ is — as Ibn Arabi (d. 1240) the lionized “Greatest Sufi Master”, expressed it — “being perfect slavery.” And this conception is not merely confined to the Sufis’ perhaps metaphorical understanding of the relationship between Allah the “master” and his human “slaves.”
The late American scholar of Islam, Franz Rosenthal (d. 2003) analyzed the larger context of hurriyya in Muslim society. He notes the historical absence of hurriyya as “…a fundamental political concept that could have served as a rallying cry for great causes.”
An individual Muslim, “…was expected to consider subordination of his own freedom to the beliefs, morality and customs of the group as the only proper course of behavior…”.
Thus politically, Rosenthal concludes,…
| — Hat tip: SF | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: We Meddle at Our Peril if West Imposes Values on Middle East
Who not been moved by the sight of thousands of Egyptians pouring each day into Tahrir Square in central Cairo, demanding the removal of their authoritarian president of 30 years, Hosni Mubarak, and the democratic freedoms that we in Britain take for granted?
Our emotions have been further stirred as we have seen violent clashes between the demonstrators and pro-Mubarak groups, who, we are told, are hired thugs and plain-clothes police intent on provoking mayhem and a fear of change.
World opinion has been drawn further still into the crisis through the medium of Twitter, whose blizzard of vivid, staccato messages from Egypt has been almost as eloquent as the pictures on our screens.
Egypt’s agony is part of a great contagion that has swept the Middle East like a virus. It has incubated in the polluted waters of poverty, repression, mass youth unemployment and rising prices. And it has been spread with lightning speed by the internet and TV.
It started in Tunisia, where pro-reform demonstrations forced into exile the repressive and corrupt President Ben Ali, who had been in power almost as long as Mubarak.
President Ali Abdullah Saleh of the Yemen, another repressive president in office for more than three decades, is under similar pressure.
Earlier this week, King Abdullah of Jordan replaced his government in the hope that this would defuse increasingly strident calls for reform in a country which, by Middle East standards, is relatively enlightened.
There have been protests and rumblings in a number of other Muslim countries such as Algeria and Sudan. But Egypt is the big one.
With the exception of Saudi Arabia, there is no other country in the Middle East where the possibility of radical change gives rise to such international concern.
With 80 million inhabitants, Egypt is the most populous nation in the region and has one of the Middle East’s largest economies.
With its rich civilisation, Egypt is seen as the intellectual and cultural leader of the Arab world.
It is one of the great centres of Sunni Islam. Under Mubarak’s predecessor, Anwar Sadat, Egypt changed its Cold War allegiance from the old Soviet Union to the U.S. in 1972.
From then on Egypt became a key ally of the U.S., so joining a family of ‘moderate’, pro-Western Arab nations comprising Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the Gulf states.
Egypt had the added virtue of being, with Jordan, one of only two Arab nations to have signed a peace treaty with Israel, the closest American ally of them all.
It is no exaggeration to say that, under Mubarak, it became the linchpin of a ÂMiddle East order on which the U.S., Britain and the West, including Israel, have relied for three decades.
Until this week.
As a retired Israeli general put it to U.S. commentator Thomas Friedman: ‘Well, everything we thought for the past 30 years is no longer relevant.’
The suddenness with which a seemingly stable structure has started to crumble has shocked the world.
At the end of this week, it is unclear how events in Egypt will unfold. Mubarak and his regime could survive or fall.
The situation is getting more tense in Cairo with the violence increasing. Hopes of an early and peaceful conclusion to the crisis have vanished.
It looks like a struggle of wills between pro and anti-Mubarak demonstrators in the squares and streets of Cairo, with a nervous army watching from the sidelines.
But the harsh truth is that we in the West know very little of what makes this huge and complex country tick. For example, we do not appear to know much about what is Âhappening in Egypt outside Cairo, Alexandria, Suez and the larger cities.
Is the uprising just an urban phenomenon? Is it class-based? What is going on in the countryside?
Most observers agree that the army is key. But this only Âtriggers further questions.
The reformers draw comfort from the army’s statement that it will not fire on protesters. But is it united on what to do about Mubarak and his regime?
Will the military clear the way for a genuinely democratic transition? Or will it prefer to continue Mubarak’s system with one of his associates at the helm, such as the new Vice President, Omar Suleyman? Is the strength of popular feeling such that even the much-revered army would not be able to get away with this?
Then there is the problem of who leads the protesters and opposition groups. Mohamed ElBaradei, Nobel Prize winner and former head of the International Atomic Energy Authority, is a leading opposition figure, but his popularity is untested.
The radical Muslim Brotherhood, long suppressed by Mubarak, but whose network permeates Egyptian society, is enormously influential and is expected to do well in free and fair elections — but how well?
Would it dominate a democratically elected government? And if it did, would it seek to follow Iran’s example after the fall of the Shah in 1979 and turn Egypt into an Islamic Âtheocracy, hostile to the West? The Brotherhood has denied any such ambition.
So, the uncertainties could not be greater or the stakes higher — for Egyptians, the Middle East and Egypt’s friends in the West. If ever there was a moment to weigh words carefully, it has been this week…
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptian Revolution — Muslim Face, Marxist Brain
Many Westerners struggle to understand that radical Islam, is in many ways a tool of the Marxist — Leninist left.
While the two philosophies appear completely at odds, they do share a mutual hatred of “capitalism” and the Western values of individual responsibility and limited, constitutional government.
While many would argue the point, I would go so far as to say, that without a Marxist left to enable and manipulate them, there would be only a very minimal radical Islamic problem.
Below are experts from a circa 2008 document by Egyptian Trotskyist Hossam El-Hamalawy, on how his comrades have worked to unite the Egyptian left and to “court” the Muslim Brotherhood in recent years. This has been a worldwide Trotskyist pattern for more than a decade.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Soros-Funded “Expert” Defends Muslim Brotherhood on Matthews Show
Chris Matthews has found an “expert” on Egypt he can trust and his name is Brian Katulis of the George Soros-funded Center for American Progress. He told Matthews on the Monday edition of Matthews’ MSNBC “Hardball” show that, on the matter of Egypt, “We have got to [go] beyond this addiction to dictators…” He welcomes the participation of the Muslim Brotherhood in a new Egyptian government, saying, “…let them be part of the Egyptian politics.”
When Katulis told Matthews that he had opposed the invasion of Iraq, that clinched it in Matthews’ mind. This meant Katulis was a geopolitical genius. “I was against going in [to Iraq], and I think we needed to get out as quickly as possible,” Katulis said. Matthews replied, “Well, then I trust you.”
It apparently never occurred to Katulis or Matthews to make the elementary point that, by invading Iraq in 2003, the U.S. had removed a dictator. Although it has many flaws, Iraq has a more democratic form of government today and is not a threat to its neighbors. The same cannot necessarily be said for the kind of new government that Katulis and his allies in the Obama Administration have planned for Egypt.
What is the Katulis plan for Egypt, now that the Obama Administration has helped destabilize the pro-American Egyptian government of Hosni Mubarak? Katulis didn’t say much about that on the Matthews show, except that the Muslim Brotherhood will and should be a part of a new regime. What’s more, he claimed, “We can actually secure our counterterrorism concerns, our regional security concerns, while also helping Egyptians open the door to their democratic reforms.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Tim Rutten on Egypt and the Muslim Brotherhood: Beware the Islamists in the Wings
From the American perspective, the transition now underway in Egypt confirms John Kenneth Galbraith’s famous appraisal of politics as a choice between “the disastrous and the unpalatable.”
What the Obama administration must dread is not the prospect of Cairo repeating the disaster that was Tehran in 1979 but St. Petersburg in 1917, when one revolution — its leadership democratic but hopelessly divided — was followed within months by a second, its leaders murderously disciplined and malevolently focused. In other words, will Mohamed ElBaradei or some other liberal reformer ultimately play Kerensky to some as-yet-obscure Islamist strongman when the Muslim Brotherhood seizes power, as the Bolsheviks did from the parliamentary democracy to which the czar handed power when he abdicated?
That possibility arises because a democratic or more broadly based Egyptian government inevitably is going to include the Muslim Brotherhood, which was founded in 1928 and is the world’s oldest and largest Islamist organization. History suggests that political liberalization, no matter who wins it, sets off its own revolution of rising expectations. And whoever succeeds Hosni Mubarak will have a hellish time satisfying the needs of a country where more than 30 million people live on $2 a day or less, and where the population includes more unemployed university graduates than any other in the world.
Moreover, since decolonization, secular Arab regimes haven’t excelled at much but repression. That makes a focused organization like the Muslim Brotherhood, with its twin appeals to folk piety and populist politics, not simply a ready alternative but the only one. The handful of scholars who’ve studied the Muslim Brotherhood agree that the organization contains both hard-line Islamists and more flexible “reformers,” though they’re divided on which faction predominates.
Take, for example, the Brotherhood’s claim of rejecting violence while supporting attacks on Israel. Palestinian terrorism, it insists, isn’t violence but “resistance.”
Some analysts have compared the Brotherhood’s latest iteration to the West’s Christian Democratic parties, but that simply doesn’t wash. No Christian Democrat ever has claimed that the party’s creed is the only legitimate organizing principle for every aspect of personal, communal and political life, as the Muslim Brotherhood has for more than 80 years. Nor has any Christian Democratic party ever made the transnational claims the Brotherhood does — its ultimate goal being the restoration of an Islamic caliphate stretching from the South China Sea to the Pyrenees.
There’s also no looking away from the fact that the Brotherhood isn’t just committed to the Palestinian cause or hostile to political Zionism, which it has been since its founding. It’s a thoroughly anti-Semitic organization that has actively distributed Arab-language editions of “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” and actively collaborated with the Nazis during World War II. It also advocates discrimination against women and believes that non-Muslims should not be allowed to hold office.
Finally, we can’t ignore the fact that in the two places where offshoots of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood have managed to gain political power — Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the wretched cabal in Sudan —the results have been both bloody and disastrous.
As uncertain and fraught with danger as the prospects may be, there also are facts on the ground that not even the most committed of the Brotherhood’s hard men will be able to ignore. One is that, for all the political window dressing with which Mubarak has surrounded himself, Egypt is — as it has been since Gamal Abdel Nasser — a military dictatorship. The army and its economic interests are woven throughout the fabric of the country’s society, and the generals aren’t likely to sit in their villas and watch all that swept away for the sake of Sharia.
What would follow from a military coup wouldn’t be pleasant for the Egyptian people, but neither would the imposition of an Islamic regime…
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Transcript of Sean Hannity Confrontation With Controversial Imam: ‘You’re One Sick, Miserable, Evil Sob’
This is a rush transcript from “Hannity,” February 2, 2011. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: President Hosni Mubarak’s 30 year reign appears to be coming to an abrupt and violent end in Egypt. Now, the turbulence witnessed on the streets of Cairo today shut much of the international community. And it has helped remind us all that the critical question now facing the rest of the world is who will fill the power vacuum when Mubarak officially steps down? Will democracy take shape or will a radical Islamic caliphate soon form?
Well, the man who will join me now live from London believes that this is the beginning of an Islamic uprising in the Middle East. And perhaps, even more alarming, he thinks the extremist group known as the Muslim brotherhood will likely rise to power in Cairo. Here to explain those predictions and much more is controversial Muslim cleric, Imam Anjem Choudary. Welcome to the program.
ANJEM CHOUDARY, RADICAL IMAM: Yes. Thank you very much.
HANNITY: You know, I actually read a transcript of an interview yesterday. And as I was reading this, it was interesting to me, because I found myself agreeing with you. And I probably agree with you on very little else. And you were making the case that in fact, this is, as you said, this is the Islamic revolution going on in Cairo. Can you explain that?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ben-Eliezer: Americans Don’t Realize What They’ve Done
First Israeli politician to castigate Obama: Former Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer says Americans still don’t realize the catastrophe into which they have pushed the Middle East.
Binyamin Ben-Eliezer — a former army general, Labor Party Chairman and Cabinet minister — praises Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, whom he has known for many years, and has strong criticism for U.S. President Obama’s abandonment of him.
“When I watched his speech in which he said he would step down, “ Ben-Eliezer said on Wednesday about Mubarak, “it pained me to see his collapse. He stood by our side for 30 years, he was a strong leader, he kept proudly to Sadat’s commitments and followed in his path. He always emphasized the strategic importance of peace with Israel, and that this peace was the basis for stability in the Middle East.”
[…]
Ben-Eliezer does not agree that he is being too pessimistic: “We learn from history. We remember what was said when Carter proposed that the Shah of Iran give up nicely and allow Khomeini to take his place. In Gaza, too, when the Americans came in, they supervised the democratic elections [via which Hamas came into power]. If there are elections in Egypt the way the Americans want, I will be surprised if the Muslim Brotherhood does not win… This will be a new Middle East — radical, Islamic and extremist.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
AKP’s Rhetoric on Alcohol Regulation Not Convincing
Last week I was invited to the premier of two theater plays. No alcohol was served during the cocktails that followed the plays. The writer of the first play, which was shown at the private Kenter teather in Osmanbey, could not attend the gala. He sent a message. At one part it said, “I apologize for breaking the decades-old tradition of serving alcohol at the reception. I asked my lawyer, he said don’t.”
The second one took place at Akatlar Theater, which belongs to Besiktas Municipality, which has a mayor from the opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP. Alcoholic beverages were brought in, but at the last minute, the theater group was told not to serve them.
What struck me at that time was the speed by which a new regulation that came into force just a few days ago was put into implementation.
Unlike the Germans or some other Nordic countries, Turks are not known to be among the nations that are the most respectful of rules and regulations. I believe it was fear that led this speedy implementation. So much so that even the CHP municipality could not allow the service of alcohol. That was simply because everyone knew well that there would be immediate consequences in case of non-compliance with the regulation.
That was also because everyone knew that those who were at the position of controlling the compliance will make it their first and foremost duty to make sure the regulation is respected. Some of those inspectors would do it to please the ones in power whose mentality has been genuinely reflected by Bülent Arinç, who said, “Life is not just about alcohol and sex.” Others because they genuinely share Arinç’s mentality, which no matter what he said later on, could not hide his discontent for those who might lead lives that are just about alcohol and sex.
For some “adults” life can really be just about alcohol and sex and so long as they are not being destructive to others, it should not be up to the government to offer them another type of life. At least in the case of Turkey, that cannot be a priority.
Lifestyles matters for the AKP and that shapes their priorities. I can recall the former head of the Women Entrepreneurs Association of Turkey, or Kagider, Gülseren Onanç’s complaint about the fact that despite all the amendments in the law on the right direction for empowerment of women, implementation proved too weak. “I only wish the laws on women’s rights could be implemented with the same voracity as the smoking ban,” she once said.
The implementation of laws for gender equality is slow because the head of the government said openly he did not believe in gender equality. Unfortunately effective implementation of certain laws in Turkey depends on the attitude of the head of the government.
Imagining his fierce dislike of a lifestyle that is just about alcohol and sex, it is no surprise to see all the interested parties get scared about the new alcohol regulation. Ironically, the head of the institution that prepared the regulation made a statement late last week, clarifying the regulation and saying alcohol could be served in galas and premiers.
One cannot imagine all those who decided not to serve alcohol to read the regulation and come up with the same mistaken interpretation. The regulation was not clear from the beginning; it was intentionally left vague. In Turkey when you leave something vague be sure that officials responsible for supervising compliance will read the restrictions at their widest interpretation and freedoms at their narrowest.
It did not come to me as a surprise when the institution in question looked for every possible way that the regulations could restrict alcohol consumption, as I believe their criteria was not so much the protection of youth but rather pleasing the head of the government. That is why their identification of “young” went up to 24 years.
I am personally not convinced by the prime minister’s statement that the AKP is not intending to impose a way of life. It is empty rhetoric and the implementation proves otherwise.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: Israel and Arab Democracy
Over the past week, Israel has been criticized for being insufficiently supportive of democratic change in Egypt. While Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been careful to praise the cause of democracy while warning against the dangers of an Islamic takeover of the most populous Arab state, many Israelis have not been so diplomatic.
To understand why, it is necessary to take a little tour of the Arab world…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
Iran: Khamenei: Bring Down ‘Traitor’ Mubarak
(ANSAmed) — TEHRAN, FEBRUARY 4 — The Supreme Leader of Iran, ayatollah Ali Khamenei, today urged people in Egypt to continue their fight against President Hosni Mubarak, saying that he has “betrayed his people”, that he is an “enemy of the Palestinians” and “the most important protector of the Zionist regime”, that is, Israel. “The most important goal” of the popular uprising in Egypt and in other Arab countries is to eliminate “dependence on the United States”, Khamenei continued, adding that if this movement can continue on its path, “it will inevitably lead to the defeat of the Americans”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Iran: Khamenei: Reflection of Our Revolution
(ANSAmed) — TEHRAN, FEBRUARY 4 — The protests in several Arab countries, Egypt in particular, are “a reflection” of the Islamic revolution in 1979 in Iran. This remark was made today by the Supreme Leader ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who spoke during Friday prayer in Tehran. Khamenei said amid celebrations in Iran for the 32rd anniversary of the revolution that “this year the anniversary takes on a new meaning. After years the people can see that the echo of their voices has been heard clearly in other parts of the Islamic world”.
According to Khamenei, “ Islamic vigilance and awareness are emerging today”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia: Bin Laden Group Wins Railway Station Tender
(ANSAmed) — ROME, FEBRUARY 3 — The contracts for the construction of four railway stations in Saudi Arabia were awarded yesterday to the Bin Laden group and the Saudi company Oger. The news was reported by sources in the Saudi Railway Board, quoted yesterday by newspaper Assharq Al Awsat.
The stations are part of the high-speed train project in the cities of Mecca, Medina, Jeddah and the Economic City of King Abdallah. The four stations will cost around nine billion Saudi riyal, the equivalent of 2.4 billion USD. The train project will link the holy city of Mecca to Medina, and Jeddah to the Economic City of King Abdallah, over a length of 450 km. The trains will move an estimated 20 million passengers per year.
The Bin Laden group will build the station of Mecca, the largest one, and the station of Medina, the smallest of the four.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia: Giant Archaeological Trove Found in Google Earth
Indiana Jones, put down your whip. To scour the globe for archaeological sites these days all you need is a desktop computer.
Almost two thousand potential archaeological sites in Saudi Arabia have been discovered from an office chair in Perth, Australia, thanks to high-resolution satellite images from Google Earth.
“I’ve never been to Saudi Arabia,” says David Kennedy from the University of Western Australia, Australia. “It’s not the easiest country to break into.”
Instead Kennedy scanned 1240 square kilometres in Saudi Arabia using Google Earth. From their birds-eye view he found 1977 potential archaeological sites, including 1082 “pendants” — ancient tear-drop shaped tombs made of stone.
According to Kennedy, aerial photography of Saudi Arabia is not made available to most archaeologists, and it’s difficult, if not impossible, to fly over the nation. “But, Google Earth can outflank them,” he says.
Kennedy confirmed that the sites were vestiges of an ancient life — rather than vegetation or shadow — by asking a friend in Saudi Arabia, who is not an archaeologist, to drive out to two of the sites and photograph them.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Walid Shoebat: The Emerging Muslim Union
PREPARE [Wa-a-iddou] is a single Arabic word that appears on the Egyptian-based Muslim Brotherhood’s logo written under the sign of the two swords, the symbol of Islamic Jihad. “Prepare” actually comes from the Quranic verse:
“Prepare against them as you are able of force and cavalry to terrorize Allah’s enemy and yours. …” (Al-Anfal:60)
Warfare and terror is their motto. It started when many Egyptians were angered at Arabia’s collaboration with the West in the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire, especially since the Caliphate fell with it. That dismantling was the primary reason the Muslim Brotherhood was created four years later in 1928; its sole purpose was the resurrection of the Caliphate. They made inroads, especially after the failure of Arab Nationalism; the Brotherhood gave birth to the slogan “Al-Islam-Huwa-Alhal” (Islam is The Solution), which became their main slogan.
The Brotherhood even adapted and learned from the al-Qaida experience as well as the revolution in Iran, which contributed to a bad image of Islam in the West. Despite this, many Arabs envy Iran’s success, especially since it grew in influence, becoming a formidable power in the region after the fall of Iraq, influencing Syria, Lebanon and the Arab Gulf states, creating a Shiite horn that extended from Iran west through Iraq and Syria into Lebanon, with its tip pointing at Israel’s head. Iran wants to dominate the Middle East and emerge as a mini-super power in the region. What we now see forming as a result of the latest unrest in Tunisia and Egypt is the beginning pieces of another puzzle, another horn — the Sunni alliance.
But this one is different. Using new Western-style slogans of democracy, freedom and social justice, it comes across as a lamb while its inner soul speaks like a dragon. Soon, it will emerge with the two horns of a Shia base in Iran and a Sunni one based temporarily in Egypt; it will find its resting place somewhere else the West never expected. This Sunni horn sparked by the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood is currently seeking a non-Arab axis to represent it. To the West, this red dragon will come as a shocking surprise.
In order to find out which non-Arab nation they seek, we need to read the thoughts of the Arab-pro-Muslim-Brotherhood scholars in Arabic, not in English. Take the renowned Islamic scholar Louay Safi who served as the executive director of research for the International Institute of Islamic Thought in the U.S. (IIIT), who recently wrote:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Moscow Airport Bomber Named
The young terrorist was named by sources in local media as Magomed Yevloyev, saying he was from a village in the impoverished internal Russian republic of Ingushetia, which borders Chechnya. He left home last September to join forces with Islamist terrorists and had not been seen since, they added.
His identity has yet to be officially confirmed yet but media holding Lifenews.ru, which is thought to have contacts deep within the FSB security service, published a picture of Mr Yevloyev when he was a 14-year-old school boy, juxtaposing it with a grisly image of the suicide bomber’s decapitated head.
Alexander Bortnikov, the head of the FSB, told Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, on Thursday that a “huge amount of highly powerful drugs and psychotropic substances” had been detected in fragments of the bomber’s body, suggesting he was heavily dosed up. There is little in Mr Yevloyev’s background to suggest he would turn to terrorism. The son of a school teacher and a retired bus driver, he was thrown out of a local college where he was studying accountancy for low marks.
Since then, he appears to have dodged military service and to have stayed at home before disappearing last September on the pretext of finding work.
Security service officials say they know who the bombing’s mastermind is, that several suspects are already in custody, and that an active manhunt for others is underway.
Among those being sought is an ethnic Russian couple who converted to Islam after becoming radicalised. One hundred and nine people injured in the airport bombing remain in hospital, three of them in a critical or extremely critical condition.
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Archbishop of Tokyo: Neocatechumenals Should Stop Their Mission for a While
Archbishop Peter Takeo Okada suggests a period of reflection to open a new dialogue with the Japanese bishops. Less than a month ago, the Pope removed the five year ban on Neocat activities in Japan, called for by the Episcopal Conference. Among the suggestions of the Bishop of Tokyo: think of the 30 thousand Japanese suicides a year; attention to the needs of the population; aid in the care for the sick and the disabled.
Tokyo (AsiaNews) — The Neocatechumenal should halt their activities in Japan “for a while” in order to reflect and prepare the ground for a new dialogue with the Japanese Church.
This is the authoritative advice that Msgr. Peter Takeo Okada, Archbishop of Tokyo, has given in a message published yesterday, recalling that for 20 years, the bishops have had to deal with problems arising from the presence of the Neocatechumenal Way in the Land of the Rising Sun. The prelate stresses that the problems created by the presence of the Neocatechumenal movement in Japan sadden him, particularly in seeing the “division, conflict and chaos that the movement has brought among us.”
The statement by Mgr. Okada come less than a month after a meeting at the Vatican between some Japanese bishops, Neocatechumenal representatives, members of the Roman Curia and the Pope himself (11/01/2011 Pope reverses five-year suspension of Neocatechumenal Way in Japan.)
In front of the Pope, the Secretary of State opposed the decision of the Japanese Bishops’ Conference for a five year to ban on the activities of Neocatechumenals. The meeting had suggested some steps for greater dialogue between Neocatechumenal members and the bishops, leaving the pastors of each diocese to decide how to integrate them into the Church’s mission.
Archbishop Okada stresses that what he says does not claim to be a decision for the entire bishops’ conference, but only for his diocese, while he recognizes that there are big problems in the relationship in Tokyo, unlike other dioceses in Japan.
In his message, the Archbishop calls for Neocatechumenals to reflect on the emergence of an evangelization “more suited to the needs of the population of Japan.” Several prelates accuse the Way of operating in mission countries without a thorough inculturation. For their part, Neocatechumenals members often claim the pastors of the Church in Japan concentrate on practising dialogue rather than on announcing the Gospel.
Archbishop Okada suggests that members of the Way rethink their missionary style recalling the wounds that plague the country, such as the 30 thousand suicides per year. He suggests Neocatechumenals focus primarily on caring for the sick and disabled, although they have so far distinguished themselves by their commitment to the new evangelization and catechesis.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Japan ‘Should Develop Nuclear Weapons to Defend Itself’
Shintaro Ishihara, 78, a former actor and author who has been governor of Tokyo since 1999 and has frequently provoked anger among Japan’s neighbours, made his latest demand after a diplomatic row sparked by the arrest of a Chinese fishing vessel captain operating in Japanese waters. “If Japan had had nuclear (weapons), there would not have been any (Chinese encroachment) on the Senkakus,” he said. “And North Korea would not have abducted our citizens.”
Mr Ishihara is chairman of a group of prefectural governors who have been demanding progress on the issue of Japanese nationals seized by North Korean agents in the 1970s and ‘80s.
In early 2009, he criticised the outgoing administration of President George W. Bush for not doing enough to support Japan’s demand for their release.
Washington has “not displayed great interest in the matter,” he said. “North Korea is a country with nuclear weapons, but when the United States had issues with Libya, they bombed Tripoli,” he said. “Some children died and that was a tragedy — but Libya changed. “A more serious approach is needed with regard to North Korea.”…
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Two Dead in Thai-Cambodian Border Clash Over Temple
Thai and Cambodian soldiers exchanged heavy fire on the two countries’ shared border on Friday killing one soldier and a civilian, as tensions between the neighbours boiled over.
One Cambodian soldier died in the skirmishes amid the 900-year-old ruins of the disputed ancient Preah Vihear temple, a Cambodian military commander on the scene who did not wish to be named said.
A Thai villager was also killed by artillery shelling and five Thai soldiers were injured, Thai public health minister Jurin Laksanawisit said.
Both Thailand and Cambodia accused the other of starting the fighting, the deadliest since April 2009.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sarkozy Immigration Plan Thrown Out by French Senate
The proposal intended to deny nationality to people naturalised as French citizens for less than 10 years who uses violence against police or public officials. It had been approved by the National Assembly last year.
But members of France’s upper house of parliament, the Senate, rejected the law on Thursday night by 182 votes to 156. Nathalie Goulet, a centrist senator said during the debate: “It was the Vichy regime of occupied France which invented denaturalisation.” She told how members of her own family was stripped of its nationality in 1941 before being sent to Auschwitz.
David Assouline, a Socialist said: “The National Front party has made proposals for a similar law, which would create two categories of French citizens.”
The rejection of the law was later hailed as a “victory over inhumanity” by French immigrants’ rights groups.
President Nicolas Sarkozy called for the law in the wake of a crackdown on Roma gipsies last summer widely seen as an attempt to woo far-Right voters amid record low approval ratings.
A revised draft of the Immigration, Integration and Nationality Law will be written and presented to MPs later this year…
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
‘Chrislam’ In Protestant Churches
A Protestant renewal organization is concerned about the recent efforts of some mainline Protestant churches to produce an ecumenical reconciliation between Christianity and Islam.
According to a recent blog post from The Last Crusade, congregations in several metropolitan areas — Houston, Atlanta, Seattle, and Detroit — preached sermons and held Sunday school lessons recently on the founder of Islam, Mohammad, whom Muslims consider a prophet. Qurans were also placed in the pews next to Bibles.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
EU Silent as Muslims Persecute Christians
TOP Eurocrat Cathy Ashton faced outrage last night after the EU failed to condemn attacks on Christians in the Islamic world.
Diplomats accused the baroness, who is EU foreign affairs supremo and the world’s most highly-paid female politician, of seeking to appease Muslims by wiping out any reference to the Christian faith in statements.
One Christian pressure group even urged the Labour peer to resign over the shambles.
The row erupted yesterday when a meeting of EU foreign ministers, chaired by Baroness Ashton, broke up in acrimony after failing to agree a statement about religious persecution in Egypt and Iraq.
Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini savaged Lady Ashton over the debacle, saying: “This position is an excess of secularism, which is damaging the credibility of Europe.
“The final text didn’t include any mention of Christians, as if we were talking of something else, so I asked for the text to be withdrawn.” Mr Frattini had demanded a response from the EU after a New Year suicide bombing at a Coptic church in Egypt in which 23 people died.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Multiculturalism Has Failed in Britain — Cameron
State multiculturalism has failed and left young Muslims vulnerable to radicalization, Prime Minister David Cameron will say on Saturday, arguing for a more active policy to heal divisions and promote Western values.
Cameron, in a speech to a security conference in Munich, will argue that Britain and other European nations need to “wake up to what is happening in our countries” as well as tackling terrorism through military operations overseas.
“It is time to turn the page on the failed policies of the past,” he will say, according to extracts from his speech released by his office.
“So first, instead of ignoring this extremist ideology, we — as governments and societies — have got to confront it, in all its forms.”
His comments echo those made by German leader Angela Merkel last year and reflect a push by European governments to better integrate immigrants, given persistent domestic tensions between different cultures.
Conservative leader Cameron will also deny that cuts to defence spending as part of efforts to tackle a record budget deficit mean that Britain was retreating from an “activist” global role.
“That is the complete reversal of the truth,” he will say. “Yes, we are dealing with the deficit, but we are also making sure our defences are strong.”
DIRECTION OF TRAVEL
Aides say his comments on multiculturalism and radicalization give a direction of travel for future policy, and it remains unclear how the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition intend to turn his vision into a reality.
Critis point out that Western foreign policy in the Middle East and beyond, not just a clash of cultures at home, has played a big part in stirring up anti-Western sentiment.
“Under the doctrine of state multiculturalism, we have encouraged different cultures to live separate lives, apart from each other and the mainstream,” Cameron will say.
“We have failed to provide a vision of society to which they feel they want to belong … All this leaves some young Muslims feeling rootless.”
Some members of Cameron’s centre-right Conservative party, activists in right-wing movements and some voters believe that Britain has become a safe haven for people with anti-Western political views…
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Murdering Uganda
Uganda is being murdered. The nation once called “The Pearl of Africa” by Winston Churchill, a lush and beautiful country as fertile as the Nile Delta. It is the nation that retained its self-rule through centuries of African colonialism, the society that survived even the atrocities of the cannibal cultist Idi Amin, the culture that has been thriving in Christian revival for over a dozen years.
This great and honorable nation, alone in Africa to have all but conquered the scourge of AIDS through abstinence — and whose First Lady led a holy gathering of thousands of believers on the eve of the millennium, dedicating her homeland “to Jesus Christ for a thousand years” — this Uganda, a shining light in the Dark Continent, is being murdered.
The murderers are the lavender Marxists, the now-global network of sexual revolutionaries bent on remaking the entire world in their own perverted image, whose juggernaut has toppled even once mighty Britain, crushing under their lavender boots after eight centuries the symbol of its Christian power: the Magna Charta, whose first principle had proclaimed “The English church must be free!” These revolutionists of Sodom, who march triumphantly through all the major cities of the western world to flaunt their defeat of moral law, and who hold both Hollywood and the heart of America’s president in their iron grip: These very same zealots have fixed their malevolent gaze on Christian Uganda.
Uganda is the only country in the world with a national holiday commemorating its rejection of sexual perversion. Every June 3 it honors the 22 young men and boys who were tortured and roasted alive in 1886 by homosexual King Mwanga, because they refused to submit to sodomy. Is it any wonder, then, that Uganda has reacted violently against the army of agitators, led by George Soros, who now seek to re-homosexualize Ugandan culture?
| [Return to headlines] |
UK: Brit Sacked for Twitter Joke Re: Mohammed… Muslims Want Jail Time!
U.K.: Voting reform campaigner dismissed over tweet poking fun at Muhammad, Muslim MP wants case referred to police That’s right. The police. That’s what they’re there for, right? To serve and protect against murder, rape, theft, assault, and… insults to a stone-dead man who isn’t even around to have his feelings hurt.
What if Ben Donnelly had said something on the same level about Jesus? Well, we know there would be no demonstrations with placards calling for “Death to those who insult our Lord and Saviour” (“saviour” with a “u,” because it’s Britain). There would be no blackmail to give into in the form of public paroxysms of outrage.
And it would be properly seen as ridiculous to try to make it a police matter. “Voting reformer gets the sack for ‘anti-Islam tweet’,” by Craig Woodhouse for the Evening Standard, February 2:
A voting reform campaigner was sacked today after posting an “outrageous Islamophobic” joke on Twitter.
Ben Donnelly was dismissed from his volunteer post as a phone bank manager for the Yes To Fairer Votes campaign after his comments provoked a political storm.
The part-time music teacher could yet face disciplinary action from his employers at Kidbrooke School in Greenwich, who are looking into the matter.
The Yes to Fairer Votes campaign, which wants a switch from first-past-the-post to the alternative vote (AV), moved quickly to axe Mr Donnelly after details of his tweet were leaked to the Standard. Posted yesterday afternoon, it read: “Says in the Holy Qu’ran Mohammad used to get his neighbours to vote by AV which of his 4 wives he’d shag each night.”
In the interest of accuracy, Muhammad couldn’t stop at just four.
Muslim groups were outraged, with Labour MP Khalid Mahmood calling for Mr Donnelly to be referred to the police. “This is outrageous and totally Islamophobic,” Mr Mahmood said. “What has Islam got to do with AV?”
Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of Muslim youth organisation the Ramadhan Foundation, described the joke as “disgusting”. A Yes campaign spokesman said: “These comments were utterly disgraceful. Conduct like this will not be accepted by the campaign. We apologise for any offence taken and are as offended by these appalling comments as any other right-thinking person.”…
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Our Multi-Cultural Failures Have Bred Hatred, Warns PM
DAVID Cameron will today warn that the threat of home-grown Muslim extremism is increasing.
And he will blame decades of failed multi-cultural policies for breeding hatred and fanaticism.
In an uncompromising “wake-up” call, the Prime Minister will say that the danger of terrorist outrages is increasing because governments across Europe are not doing enough to tackle Islamist militants in their midst.
And in a scathing attack on Labour’s record, he will demand an end to the state “showering money” on Muslim organisations in a mistaken attempt to cultivate so-called “moderates”. Instead, he is to argue for a “muscular liberalism” that defends Western values and does not allow immigrant communities to live in ghettos separate from mainstream society.
“We won’t defeat terrorism simply by the actions we take outside our borders,” the Prime Minister will say. “Europe needs to wake up to what is happening in our own countries.”
Mr Cameron’s controversial remarks will come in a keynote speech at an international summit on security in Germany.
It will be his first speech on the subject of Islamist extremism since becoming Prime Minister and follows warnings from the security services that the terrorist threat is increasing.
“We need to be absolutely clear on where the origins of these terrorist attacks lie — and that is the existence of an ideology, Islamist extremism,” Mr Cameron will say in Munich.
His remarks will strike a marked contrast with a recent speech by Conservative Party chairman Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, who argued that Islamophobia was becoming acceptable around middle Britain’s dining tables.
Downing Street aides yesterday said her comments had gone too far, and said Mr Cameron’s speech would seek to “recalibrate” the Government’s stance on the issue of Islamist extremism.
The Prime Minister will say that a hard core of Islamists remain determined to use terrorism to promote their goal of establishing an Islamic realm, governed by their interpretation of Sharia law. And he will say that failed state multiculturalism — promoted by many Labour politicians — has bred alienated young Muslims with no sense of belonging. Mr Cameron will say that the “British experience” of the rise in Islamist extremism has general lessons for the rest of Europe. “In the UK, some young men find it hard to identify with the traditional Islam practised at home by their parents whose customs can seem staid when transplanted to modern Western countries,” he will say. “But they also find it hard to identify with Britain too, because we have allowed the weakening of our collective identity. “Under the doctrine of state multiculturalism, we have encouraged different cultures to live separate lives, apart from each other and the mainstream.
“We have failed to provide a vision of society to which they feel they want to belong. We have even tolerated these segregated communities behaving in ways that run counter to our values. So when a white person holds objectionable views — racism, for example — we rightly condemn them. But when equally unacceptable views or practices have come from someone who isn’t white, we’ve been too cautious, frankly even fearful, to stand up to them.”
Mr Cameron will also argue that extremism has nothing to do with being a devout Muslim.
“It’s vital we make this distinction between the religion and the political ideology. Time and again, people equate the two. They think whether someone is an extremist is dependent on how much they observe their religion.
“So they talk about ‘moderate’ Muslims as if all devout Muslims must be extremist. This is wrong. Someone can be a devout Muslim and not be an extremist.
“We need to be clear: Islamist extremism and Islam are not the same thing.”
He is to conclude: “We are all in this together. At stake are not just lives. It’s our way of life.”…
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Video: Convicted: Woman ‘Disobeyed’ Illegal Order
Constitutional questions raised when officer orders halt to activity that’s allowed
An appeal is challenging a Christian activist’s conviction for failing to obey a police officer’s order to shut down her camera while she was filming fellow Christian missionaries at last year’s Dearborn Arab Festival because the command apparently wasn’t legal.
According to the Thomas More Law Center, whose attorneys have filed the appeal with the Circuit Court for Wayne County, Mich., the city ordinances in Dearborn require that if a police officer wants his orders followed he or she has to be acting “in the lawful performance of his duty.”
However, testimony at the trial revealed that it was legal for the filming to be taking place where it was, and the law firm is arguing that a police officer “who violates the constitution rights of a private citizen is not ‘acting in the lawful performance of his duty.’“
[…]
“Astonishingly, at the trial, the officer admitted that the filming by Mayel was in fact not a crime,” the law firm said.
[…]
The law firm said since Dearborn is considered home to the largest Muslim population in America, “many city officials, including the mayor, engage in official action solely to please this significant voting bloc.”
The lawyers explained, “In this case, police effectively replaced our constitutional guarantees of free speech with Shariah law, which forbids Christians to proselytize Muslims.”
[…]
In a video posted after the arrest, Qureshi said his group took “extra precautions” to prevent disruptions by not handing out pamphlets and to speak only to people “who first approached us.”
“This was to limit accusations of instigation and disruption,” he explained. “We knew people have a tendency to accuse us of being disruptive, of inciting and instigating. So we wanted to make sure we did absolutely nothing of the sort.”
[…]
Dearborn Mayor O’Reilly released a five-page letter defending the police department’s arrest.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
1 comments:
Any payments to convicted criminals due to the denial of the vote should immediately be paid to their victims. It is worth noting that the Cameron regime is withdrawing legal aid from those wishing to sue drug companies for negligence but is quite happy to give legal aid to thwe dregs of society.
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