Decision on Next Greek Loan Payout Delayed Until October
Eurozone and IMF officials have said they will decide in October whether to approve the bailouts that Greece needs to keep it from bankruptcy. Finland has reiterated its demand for collateral in return for new loans. Officials from the eurozone and the International Monetary Fund have said they will decide in October whether to approve a batch of bailout loans that Greece needs to keep it from bankruptcy.
The news came as US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner urged eurozone ministers to leverage their 440-billion-euro ($606 billion) bailout fund and free more resources to tackle the debt crisis during a meeting of EU finance ministers in Wroclaw, Poland. US Treasury Secretary Timothy GeithnerGeithner believes European leaders have the capacity to actAnalysts say the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) — set up in May 2010 and so far used to bail out Portugal and Ireland — must be increased in size to build market confidence in Europe’s ability to contain the crisis. But Germany and others refuse to bolster the fund and eurozone national parliaments have yet to ratify new powers agreed for the fund two months ago that would allow it to make precautionary loans to countries in trouble and buy sovereign bonds to prop up struggling states.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Tension Remains Within Pasok Over Taxi Issue
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, SEPTEMBER 14 — The issue of the liberalisation of the profession of lorry drivers, considered closed a year ago by former Transport Minister Dimitris Reppas, was reopened yesterday evening by his successor Giannis Ragusis, who informed his party’s MPs on the draft law he had presented concerning taxi liberalisation. “In the draft law in question,” the minister said, “there will be, in addition to the articles concerning taxis, those on lorries as well. The liberalisation of lorry drivers will be complete, immediate and with rules not allowing cartels to be created.” “A Greece that says one thing, means another and in the end does something entirely different is unbearable to everyone, both its partners and its citizens. We must go through with everything we say in an absolute, integral and immediate manner,” the minister said, urging the MPs from Pasok, the socialist party in the government, to support the government’s efforts. The minister’s words gave rise to a reaction from many socialist MPs, who accused him of arrogance and requested the application of new criteria for the granting of taxi licences.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greece and Portugal Should Ditch the Euro, Says Top Economist
In an article published five years before the launch of the euro Martin Feldstein wrote that the new currency could lead to severe friction in Europe. Now the noted economist says several countries should leave the euro.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Japan, Switzerland and US Take Steps to Protect EU Banks
Five international central banks have decided to provide special loans of US dollars to European banks in a bid to restore confidence in their ability to survive a Greek default. The European Central Bank (ECB), using dollars swapped for euros from the US Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan and the Swiss National Bank will make the loans available at fixed interest rates on a three-month basis in three separate auctions, with the first auction on 12 October.
The move was unveiled on Thursday (15 September), the third anniversary of the collapse of the Lehman Brothers bank in 2008, which heralded the start of the global financial crisis. It follows a ratings agency downgrade earlier this week of French lenders Credit Agricole and Societe Generale, as well as an agency warning on BNP Paribas. The three banks have a collective exposure of €42 billion to Greek sovereign bonds, which are rated at junk status. Fears of a Greek default have seen US lenders shut down loan facilities to exposed European banks in recent weeks, creating a potential liquidity crisis.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
The Bond That Unites Europe is at Breaking Point
by Michael Burleigh
Disaster across the eurozone has all but destroyed the common purpose at the heart of European union.
Already jittery because of the financial crisis, members of the European Parliament spilt their coffee when the Polish finance minister, Jacek Rostowski, addressed them this week. “If the eurozone breaks up, the European Union will not be able to survive,” he said, as MEPs bleakly contemplated their vanished expense accounts and sandwiches instead of long lunches in Brussels and Strasbourg. But there was much worse to follow. Dr Rostowski, a British- born economist, former Tory party member, and Solidarity activist, told them about a chance meeting with an old friend at an airport.
As they discussed the eurozone crisis, the friend warned there would be “war in the next 10 years”. Rostowski added with a final flourish, “War! Ladies and gentlemen, those are the terms he used,” as the massed MEPs mentally translated wojna into guerre and Krieg. It was not supposed to end like this, for the European project has always had more than economic goals, as Rostowski confirmed when he said that “Europe’s great achievement is political peace. But it is not eternal”. As a Pole, he knows.
The original modest efforts, involving the integration of coal and steel industries, were designed to solve an urgent problem in the minds of people in 1945. Germany was too big and it had caused two world wars, the second of which saw 55 million people die. The idea was for the Lilliputians to tie down the German Gulliver in supranational structures, an idea that was then fleshed out, in a progressively more statist, federalist and welfarist direction, by the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats of the day. Relentlessly, a vainglorious political project was born, though no one in the Dog and Duck is clamouring for a state called Europe.
That process reached its apogee with what was sold as monetary union, rather than exchange rate integration, which might have raised some doubts regarding the impossibility of local devaluation and who was to pick up the tab when a country racked up excess debt while no taxes were collected. The big lie, told to all-too-credulous European publics, was that they would have no more fuss changing Deutschmarks into lire and pesetas when they sold their products or went in search of sun. How noble, how progressive!
Mr Rostowski’s old friend may seem overly alarmist, but there are plenty of others warning what will happen if the eurozone implodes in the next few weeks, when and if Greece defaults on its debts, and others follow. A stark UBS report on the consequences of break-up of the eurozone predicts that the countries most badly affected will see their GDP contract by up to 50 per cent, with tight controls imposed to stop the flight of capital and free movement of labour, and with state subsidies used to protect key industries. All of these measures would violate the basic rule of the Single Market, which is not likely to weather such a crisis. But who cares, since Europe is already in violation of its own rules about the transferability of national debt?
Perhaps this seems a tad technical? It is estimated that the cost per person of leaving the single currency will be between 9,500 and 11,500 euros in the exiting country in the first year, and then three to four thousand euros every year after that. And the remaining eurozone members won’t get off lightly, either. The political consequences of the breakdown of the euro are difficult to assess since there is scarcely a relevant precedent. The 19th-century Latin Monetary Union — involving France, Italy, Spain and Greece, among others — collapsed after the Papal States (and Greece) were caught debasing the silver content of what were supposed to be inter-exchangeable coins. More recently, the collapse of common currencies in Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union did not have quite the dire consequences some are predicting if the euro disappears.
Some of these consequences we can live with, such as warnings that Europe will forfeit what is pretentiously called its “soft power”. Like Nigel Farage, I am not sure what Mr Rompuy or Baroness Ashton are for; certainly they are not representing any wishes of ours on the world stage, as they nervously await help from the BRIC nations to escape a crisis of their own making. But the gloomy analysts at UBS are predicting civil disorder on a massive scale, probably necessitating an authoritarian solution. Again that seems overblown, although it is worth remembering that several states in southern and eastern Europe have only recently emerged from authoritarian or totalitarian pasts. Luckily, the enfeebled condition of Europe’s various armed forces probably makes a return to that unlikely.
Although one cannot find much support for bringing back the Greek colonels or Franco, one can all too easily see a growth of populist parties of the sort that are thriving in Scandinavia, most of which is not in the euro. Colossal resentments are afoot, in nations that are having austerity measures dictated down the phone, as well as among those, like the Germans, who see their hard-earned money being poured down various southern European drains. Where exactly did the first 156 billion euros already given to Greece go?
Every conceivable ethnic stereotype has had a revival, some of them not very far from the truth. The Greeks really owe 40 billion euros in unpaid taxes, and despite this scandal, Greek tax collectors really are on strike. The firesale of Greek assets will run into the minor obstacle of, say, an over-manned and heavily unionised electricity industry threatening to switch off all the lights. No wonder a senior German politician has compared sorting out Greece with telling a recalcitrant child to tidy its bedroom.
One should not underrate the impact of wounded national pride. It makes nations do funny things. They go to war over such unquantifiable notions as honour, in addition to the pursuit of gold or oil. Take the Turks. Having been rebuffed for membership of the EU, the Erdogan government is currently seeking a major role in the Arab world, as if it is trying to recreate the Ottoman Empire by adopting the Palestinians, whose plight makes Erdogan’s heart weep. A whole new diplomatic and economic axis is being cooked up, involving a partnership of Turkey with Egypt.
Who is to say that after being patronised by the Germans for their economic fecklessness, various southern European nations might not decide their fate lies on the northern shores of North Africa, in a more concrete Mediterranean Union than has hitherto been envisaged? If the European Union itself were to collapse, where would this leave countries such as Poland, the Czech Republic, the Baltic States and others, which already fear the shadow of Russia, and the hand of Vladimir Putin on their energy supplies? And remember who is offering to pick up European debt. The next three-way phone call will probably be from Beijing and Moscow to Brussels or Berlin, and they will mean what they say.
For the absurdity of where we have arrived at was symbolised by that three-way telephone conversation between Merkel, Sarkozy and Papandreou. Does the fate of the eurozone really hinge on that piece of PR theatre? In this panicked atmosphere, the only solution seems to be to reinforce past failure, repeating the same mistakes as before, like someone sticking their finger into an electric socket despite the earlier shock. Greece maxes out its finances: fine, shovel some more money to them. The euro reveals its cardinal problem: fine, deepen economic and political integration. For otherwise, all the other posts and institutions that have been dreamt up, from the European courts to the High Representative in Foreign Policy, will be exposed as the bogus things they are.
Of course, what “Europe” really needs is not deeper integration, but national leaders and parliamentarians with the statesmanship of the generation who after the war set a much more modest project in motion. To adapt Christopher Wren’s famous epitaph in St Paul’s, if they were alive to look around at their monument, they would weep — as the rest of us are about to do as reinforced folly reverberates in our daily lives.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Italian Entrepreneur Takes Up Challenge for Jobs
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, SEPTEMBER 15 — The presence of Italian entrepreneurs in Tunisia has been a reality for years. Even with some petty distinctions (between Italian businesses and Tunisian-registered and Italian-owned businesses) these enterprises have provided thousands of families with the means to survive in difficult circumstances, considering the international economic crisis and fears over the security situation in the country. But the Italian entrepreneurs who have been in Tunisia for a long time — with a few rare exceptions — are looking to stay. Or better yet, they are taking on the challenge posed by the economic situation. One such businessman is Isnardo Carta, a Vicenza native who had the Enfidha Industrial Park built, a hub that will stand near, when it becomes operative, a nearby port that is bound to “cause trouble” for other structures in Africa (Tangiers) and Southern Europe. “We have been working in Tunisia for years,” Carta explained to ANSAmed, “despite the many difficulties that we have had to deal with in the past.” He did not explain further, but it is not difficult to understand what could happen in a country which up until a few months ago was the land of the raids of the insatiable Ben Ali clan, which intervened heavily (bribes, as confirmed by many investigations underway) when an initiative had good margins for success and therefore earnings. The Enfidha Industrial Park spans thousands of square metres and already offers important global enterprises and industries spaces that are completely equipped, including urban infrastructure. This initiative is something that the former Tunisia should have encouraged, but in reality was preventing, due to their evident greed. Today Isnardo Carta confirmed that his commitment is unbothered, and he even upped the ante: “Tunisia needs to provide jobs to its many young people. We want to give them jobs, if there are opportunities, we will give them to them. There is just one bureaucratic obstacle: the approval to the original project allowing the venture to encompass 200 hectares compared to the current 50. “If all difficulties are overcome,” added Carta, “we may be able to respond positively to the strong interest that investors and business owners from all over the world have for Tunisia. And this is how we would give work to thousands of young people who are unemployed today and who unfortunately fuel the phenomenon of illegal immigration.” Youth unemployment in Tunisia is a concern of Isnardo Carta, almost a personal issue. “We (meaning the business owners in the Industrial Park, editor’s note) could potentially give work to hundreds of young people, even though the project that we were set up to serve, the port, is struggling to take off. You cannot even imagine how many people come knocking on our door, but who we are forced to tell: ‘Right now we have nothing to offer you’. They are secondary school and university educated, good and eager men and women, whose anger I feel mounting over what we could do and what we are not able to do.” But Carta is faithful: “The new governor is an intelligent person and understands the important social effects that our initiative would have, in addition to what it already has.” Carta, whose business has already constructed large public works (including many NATO structures) still has faith: “Those of us who are in Tunisia are staying here to give many young people a better future.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
US Pressures Eurozone Leaders on Greek Bailout Split
US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner went into exceptional talks with European finance ministers on the debt crisis on Friday, but Finland held to its objections to a new bailout for Greece. After the world’s main central banks joined forces to pump dollars to banks squeezed by fear of debt contagion, the EU is under strong pressure to end months of bickering over a second financial rescue for the near-bankrupt government in Athens. As European Union nations began critical talks in Poland, Austria said default for Greece could eventually prove to be the least costly outcome.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
World Bank Cautions Russia About Oil Shock
The domestic economy could shrink 1.5 percent next year if global oil demand falls sharply following a recession in Europe or the United States, the World Bank said Thursday. The bank suggested three possible scenarios for the country’s economic development in 2011 and 2012, with the severe shock scenario being the worst-possible case.
“The risks to the global economy are growing and so are the risks to Russia’s growth,” the World Bank said in a report. “The sharply rising uncertainties in the global economy call for thinking through alternative scenarios and their implications for the Russian economy,” the report said. Under the worst-case scenario, contraction in global demand is likely to result in oil prices sliding to $60 a barrel next year and Russia entering a recession, with unemployment rising to 7.5 percent and the budget deficit reaching about 5.3 percent of gross domestic product.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
CAIR Calls on Councilman to Apologise for Anti-Islam Facebook Comment
The Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA) today called on the City of Orange Councilman Jon Dumitru to apologize for an anti-Islam Facebook posting in which he falsely linked the “teachings of Islam and the Koran” to the 9/11 terror attacks. On the anniversary of 9/11, the Councilman posted a picture of the burning Twin Towers on his official Facebook page, and wrote underneath: “It was 10 years ago today that most Americans learned first-hand of the teachings of Islam and the Koran being filled with messages of peace…as they killed thousands of our fellow Americans! Today I remember those lost, left behind, and those across the world searching for these pure evil terrorists and dispatching them from this world! WE WILL NEVER FORGET, WE WILL NEVER FORGIVE!”
CAIR-LA sent a letter to the Councilman today informing him of the offensive nature of his comment and called on him to apologize to American Muslims. The letter also asked the Councilman to meet with members of the American Muslim community to discuss the negative impact of his inflammatory remarks. In the letter, CAIR-LA Executive Director Hussam Ayloush wrote:
“Your hateful statement in which you falsely insinuate that the teachings of Islam and the Quran would allow the terrorist attacks of 9/11 is deeply troubling to all Muslims, including many who live in your city. Muslims across the world, especially those here in the United States have unequivocally condemned the 9/11 attacks and all forms of terrorism. Using the tragedy of 9/11 as an opportunity to spread misinformed views about Islam and the Quran is a failure of leadership. At a time when our entire nation was mourning that tragic day and emphasizing unity among all Americans, you unfortunately decided to falsely blame an entire faith community. We have learned from history that such smears and stereotypes have only led to scapegoating of entire communities.”
CAIR-LA press release, 15 September 2011
Mind you, Jon Dumitru does have his admirers. Pamela Geller for one. Over at Atlas Shrugs she hails Dumitru as a patriot who is under attack from one of the “un-indicted co-conspirator Muslim Brotherhood groups that are working towards this nation’s destruction”. Geller urges her supporters to “rally behind the courageous Councilman” and email him messages of support. And the Christian News Wire has issued a press release from Dr Gary Cass of DefendChristians.org who demands: “Can anyone blame Dumitru for his feeling after seeing hundreds of his fellow first responders killed in the name of Allah?” Cass denounces CAIR’s complaint as “just another ploy to keep Americans off balance when confronting the threat of encroaching Islam”.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Cocaine, Wild Affairs and Child Neglect — the Chains That Could Derail Sarah Palin’s Bid for the Presidency
[…]
The book also revives various controversies over Palin’s record as Governor of Alaska, including her alleged hounding of a policeman who had split up with her sister, and her possible dalliance with Dominionism, a controversial evangelical philosophy that the U.S. government should be run according to strict Christian principles.
[The American press has just recently taken to labeling hard-core Islamists as being “self-motivated” to perform terror acts — that is “self-motivated” instead of Koran-motivated. Now, along comes Dominionism which is meant to be altogether quite as scary as Islamism. Evidently, the left’s plan is for godless Marxism to “save” us all from Dominionism and Islamism. — Egghead]
| — Hat tip: Egghead | [Return to headlines] |
FBI Says Training Lecture Critical of Islam Ended
WASHINGTON-The FBI said Thursday a lecture at the bureau’s training academy that was critical of Islam has been discontinued. The bureau employee who gave the lecture contended, among other things, that the more devout a Muslim is, the more likely he is to be violent. A federal law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity about the internal FBI training issue, says the lecture was given for just three days last April. FBI spokesman Christopher Allen says that in the aftermath of the lecture, policy changes have been under way to better ensure that all training is consistent with FBI standards.
The online publication Wired.com first reported on the instruction given to agents. Ever since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the FBI has stressed the importance of working with leaders in the Muslim community as an important part of the battle against terrorism. The law enforcement official said the bureau should have kept a closer watch on the content of the lecture before it took place. The official said that as soon as the instructor’s views were identified, the FBI stopped any further such lectures. The goal of training programs, said the official, is to provide diverse views, but with balance and context that do not cross into inappropriate comments.
The materials for the instructional presentation said that mainstream American Muslims are likely to be terrorist sympathizers, that the Prophet Mohammed was a cult leader and that the Islamic practice of giving charity is no more than a funding mechanism for combat. The FBI did not identify the lecturer. Wired identified an FBI intelligence analyst named William Gawthrop as the source for much of the material and said Gawthrop previously worked at the Defense Department’s Counterintelligence Field Activity. Allen said the instructor who conducted the training no longer provides training on behalf of the FBI. Allen also said that changes will help develop appropriate training content for new agent training and continuing education for all employees, as well as introduce a consultative element from experts outside the FBI.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
FBI Teaches Agents: ‘Mainstream’ Muslims Are ‘Violent, Radical’
The FBI is teaching its counterterrorism agents that “main stream” [sic] American Muslims are likely to be terrorist sympathizers; that the Prophet Mohammed was a “cult leader”; and that the Islamic practice of giving charity is no more than a “funding mechanism for combat.” At the Bureau’s training ground in Quantico, Virginia, agents are shown a chart contending that the more “devout” a Muslim, the more likely he is to be “violent.” Those destructive tendencies cannot be reversed, an FBI instructional presentation adds: “Any war against non-believers is justified” under Muslim law; a “moderating process cannot happen if the Koran continues to be regarded as the unalterable word of Allah.”
These are excerpts from dozens of pages of recent FBI training material on Islam that Danger Room has acquired. In them, the Constitutionally protected religious faith of millions of Americans is portrayed as an indicator of terrorist activity. “There may not be a ‘radical’ threat as much as it is simply a normal assertion of the orthodox ideology,” one FBI presentation notes. “The strategic themes animating these Islamic values are not fringe; they are main stream.” The FBI isn’t just treading on thin legal ice by portraying ordinary, observant Americans as terrorists-in-waiting, former counterterrorism agents say. It’s also playing into al-Qaida’s hands.
Focusing on the religious behavior of American citizens instead of proven indicators of criminal activity like stockpiling guns or using shady financing makes it more likely that the FBI will miss the real warning signs of terrorism. And depicting Islam as inseparable from political violence is exactly the narrative al-Qaida spins — as is the related idea that America and Islam are necessarily in conflict. That’s why FBI whistleblowers provided Danger Room with these materials. Over the past few years, American Muslim civil rights groups have raised alarm about increased FBI and police presence in Islamic community centers and mosques, fearing that their lawful behavior is being targeted under the broad brush of counterterrorism. The documents may help explain the heavy scrutiny.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Missing: The Face of the Age
by Diana West
Having passed the 10th anniversary of 9/11, I can now say with certainty that something major was missing from all of the ceremonies, the symbolism and the media coverage. It was something that not only captures the meaning of the attacks themselves, but better defines our response to them than any other single thing. It is the face of the age itself, and it is not Osama bin Laden’s.
I refer to the most familiar of the 12 Danish Muhammad cartoons, the one by Kurt Westergaard. I always think of this world-famous drawing as “Bomb-head Muhammad,” for the lit bomb that serves as Muhammad’s turban. (This is no fantastical image, as we learned last month when Afghan President Hamid Karzai prevailed upon local imams to implore their flocks to stop putting bombs in their turbans after three separate assassinations via turban bombs took place.)
I say “world-famous drawing,” but have you ever actually seen this cartoon printed in a newspaper, or shown on a news broadcast? No. With exceptions to be counted on one hand, this ultra-potent image has never received mainstream media display, despite its almost continual newsworthiness…
| — Hat tip: Diana West | [Return to headlines] |
Nina Shea: White House to Aid Islamic States Defy Free Speech
WASHINGTON (BP) — An unprecedented collaboration between the Obama administration and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC, formerly called the Organization of the Islamic Conference) to combat “Islamophobia” may lead to the de-legitimization of freedom of expression as a human right.
The administration is taking the lead in an international effort to “implement” a U.N. resolution against religious “stereotyping,” specifically as applied to Islam.
To be sure, the administration argues that the effort should not result in free-speech curbs. However, its partners in the collaboration, the 56 member states of the OIC, have no such qualms.
Many OIC states police private speech through Islamic blasphemy laws that the Saudi-based OIC has long worked to see applied universally. Under Muslim pressure, Western Europe now has laws against religious hate speech that serve as proxies for Islamic blasphemy codes.
Last March, U.S. diplomats maneuvered the adoption of Resolution 16/18 within the U.N. Human Rights Council (HRC). Non-binding, this resolution expresses, among other things, concern about religious “stereotyping” and “negative profiling” but does not limit free speech. It was intended to — and did — replace the OIC’s decidedly dangerous resolution against “defamation of religions,” which protected religious institutions instead of individual freedoms.
But thanks to a puzzling U.S. diplomatic initiative that was unveiled in July, Resolution 16/18 is poised to become a springboard for a greatly reinvigorated international effort to criminalize speech against Islam, the very thing it was designed to quash.
Citing a need to “move to implementation” of Resolution 16/18, the Obama administration has inexplicably decided to launch a major international effort against Islamophobia in partnership with the OIC. This is being voluntarily assumed at American expense, outside the U.N. framework, and is not required by the resolution itself.
On July 15, a few days after the Norway massacre, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton co-chaired an OIC session in Istanbul on religious intolerance. It was there that she announced the initiative, inviting the OIC member-states’ foreign ministers and representatives to an inaugural meeting of the effort to be hosted by the U.S. government this fall in Washington. She envisions it as the first in a series of meetings to decide how best to implement Resolution 16/18.
In making the announcement, Clinton was firm in asserting that the U.S. does not want to see speech restrictions: “The resolution calls upon states to ‘counter offensive expression through education, interfaith dialogue, and public debate … but not to criminalize speech unless there is an incitement to imminent violence.’“ (This is the First Amendment standard set forth in the 1969 Supreme Court case of Brandenburg v. Ohio.)
With the United States providing this new world stage for presenting grievances of “Islamophobia” against the West, the OIC rallied around the initiative as the propaganda windfall that it is. The OIC promptly reasserted its demands for global blasphemy laws, once again sounding the call of its failed U.N. campaign for international laws against the so-called defamation of Islam. It has made plain its aim to use the upcoming conference to further pressure Western governments to regulate speech on behalf of Islam.
The OIC’s understanding of the upcoming meetings, as stated in the Saudi-based International Islamic News Agency, is that they will “aim at developing a legal basis for the U.N. Human Rights Council’s resolution which [will] help in enacting domestic laws for the countries involved in the issue, as well as formulating international laws preventing inciting hatred resulting from the continued defamation of religions.”
In an August 17 op-ed on the initiative, OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu was enthusiastic. He expressed concern that “anti-Islam and anti-Muslim attitudes and activities, known as Islamophobia, are increasingly finding place in the agenda of ultra-right wing political parties and civil societies in the West in their anti-immigrant and anti-multiculturalism policies,” and that “their views are being promoted under the banner of freedom of expression.” This parallels the old Soviet-bloc attack on the First Amendment as an official sanctioning of racism.
Citing a familiar litany of examples — “the publication of offensive cartoons of the Prophet six years ago that sparked outrage across the Muslim world, the publicity around the film ‘Fitna’ and the more recent Qur’an burnings” -— Ihsanoglu was emphatic that “no one has the right to insult another for their beliefs or to incite hatred and prejudice” and that “freedom of expression has to be exercised with responsibility.”…
| — Hat tip: PK | [Return to headlines] |
Senate Panel Restores James Webb Space Telescope Funding
A U.S. Senate panel has proposed giving NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) about $150 million more for 2012 than the White House requested for the overbudget project, which appropriators in the House of Representatives voted this summer to cancel. The additional funding for JWST amounts to a 40 percent increase for the project and is part of a 2012 spending bill approved Sept. 14 by the Senate Appropriations commerce, justice, science subcommittee. Overall, the subcommittee’s bill would provide NASA with a total of $17.9 billion for 2012. That is about $500 million less than the agency got for 2011 and $800 million less than what U.S. President Barack Obama sought for NASA in the 2012 budget request he sent Congress in February.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
US Journalists Taught How to Cover Islam
WASHINGTON — In a bid to run correct news reporting about Muslims, two American universities have launched a project to teach journalists how to tackle Islam-related issues.
“In our increasingly polarized media landscape, having the facts about any topic is vital to good journalism,” said Howard Finberg, director of interactive learning at the Poynter Institute, reported Ahlul Bayt News Agency. “And this is especially important when covering topics such as religion.”
Titled “Covering Islam in America”, the project was co-launched earlier this week by Washington State University and the Poynter Institute’s News University. The course is designed to prepare reporters to run accurate information when reporting about Muslims and Islam-related issues. “We have no ax to grind, other than a desire to see accurate, balanced reporting of this topic, which has such broad impact on American society today,” said Lawrence Pintak, a former CBS News Middle East correspondent who developed the project.
The course covers a wide range of topics on Islam ranging from the Islamic teachings and the history of Muslim immigration to the role of women in Islam and the relationship between Islam and Christianity.”Our e-learning module on NewsU is an effective and accessible way for journalists to get the training they need to cover Islam and Muslims in America,” Finberg said.
In addition to the online course, a version with more readings and analysis called “Islam on Main Street” is offered through WSU’s Center for Distance Education. Sections about the diversity of religious expression, women and Islam, and Islam and the black community are also planned. Though it is mainly initiated for journalists, bloggers and students, the course is also useful to educators, government officials and anyone involved in the conversation about Islam in America.
Muslim Reporting
Reporters will be instructed by top-notch journalists and academicians, who have a long experience in reporting about Islam and Muslims. “We turned to the scholars who know this subject inside out and helped them present their knowledge in a way accessible to general assignment reporters on deadline,” Pintak, said. In addition to Pintak, instructors also include Stephen Franklin, a former Chicago Tribune Middle East correspondent, who spent years covering the Muslim world. Pintak said the online course offers the kind of education about the Muslim community that he wished he had received before he was assigned by CBS to Beirut 30 years ago. “I had been reporting on wars in Africa, so I knew how to dodge bullets. Of Islam, the dominant religion in the region, I knew essentially nothing,” Pintak said.
Hostile sentiments against US Muslims, estimated between six to eight million, have been on the rise since the 9/11 attacks. A US survey has revealed that the majority of Americans know very little about Muslims and their faith. Famed US academic Stephen Schwartz had criticized the Western media for failing to meet the challenge of reporting on Islam and Arab issues after the 9/11 attacks. Rabbi Eric Yoffie, head of the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), the US largest Jewish movement, had also accused US media and politicians of demonizing Islam and portraying Muslims as “satanic figures”, A recent British study accused the media and film industry of perpetuating Islamophobia and prejudice by demonizing Muslims and Arabs as violent, dangerous and threatening people.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Canada’s Ice Cores Seek New Home
Funding cuts may sacrifice glacial expertise.
An unusual ‘help wanted’ advertisement arrived in the inboxes of Canadian scientists last week. The e-mail asked the research community to provide new homes for an impressive archive of ice cores representing 40 years of research by government scientists in the Canadian Arctic.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
A Victim of Its Own Success: Berlin Drowns in Tourist Hordes and Rising Rents
Berlin is struggling to maintain its identity as its popularity soars. Budget tourists are flocking to the German capital, eager to sample the famous nightlife, while Scandinavian investors are snapping up cheap real estate. Residents are protesting, but the gentrification juggernaut seems unstoppable.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Anti-Roma Protests Turn Violent in the Czech Republic
For weeks there have been riots between Czech locals and newly settled Roma in northern Bohemia. What started as a series of brutal but isolated fights has grown into a popular movement in small towns along the eastern German border. Right-wing extremists have fanned the hatred.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Bossi: ‘Italy in Nose Dive, Alternative is Padania’
(AGI) Pian del Re — Umberto Bossi remarked that Italy is in a nose dive, and that the alternative is Padania. He said, “All over the region touched by the Po there is an army of thousands of men who are waiting for the lightning bolt to begin their march. That Italy is in a nose dive everyone understands, it is clear that an alternative needs to be prepared, Padania.” Bossi commented, “We knew that it would end up like this. There was no possibility, after the crisis, for the North to continue to support the whole country, Rome and the welfare to the South.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Britain Not to Attend UN Racism Conference in South Africa
(AGI) London — Great Britain will not take part in the 10th anniversary of the UN’s World Conference on Racism in Durban, South Africa. British Foreign Secretary, William Hague, explained that the “the conference, and the anti-Semitic atmosphere in which it was held, was a particularly unpleasant and divisive chapter in the UN’s history. It is not an event that should be celebrated.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Converts Must Die: Imam to Swedish Radio
Swedish public service broadcaster Sveriges Radio (SR) has been reported for hate speech after featuring a programme in which a Somali imam called for all converts from Islam to be killed. The programme in question was a panel discussion and was broadcast live by SR International’s Somali service. The police report was filed by Erik Johansson, at the Swedish Evangelical Mission (Evangeliska Fosterlands-Stiftelsen — EFS), after friends told him of the imam’s words underlining every Muslim’s responsibility to kill anyone who leaves Islam.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Danes Swing Left: Denmark to Get First Female Prime Minister
Danes awoke to a change of power on Friday after election results showed a narrow loss for the long-ruling center-right government. The country’s new center-left leader will be the first woman prime minister in Danish history, but Helle Thorning-Schmidt faces difficult coalition talks ahead.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
France: Paris Bans Use of Streets as Open-Air Mosques
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, an Islamist populist once convicted of inciting religious hatred, once quoted a poem:
“The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers…”
Today, Paris has banned prayers in the streets by supposedly devout Muslims who turn entire neighborhoods into open-air mosques:
Beginning this evening at midnight, holding Muslim prayers in the streets of Paris will be prohibited. The announcement was made by France’s Interior Minister, Claude Gueant, in an interview published today by the daily Le Figaro, which noted that “use of force” against those not complying with the regulation had not been ruled out. The minister underscored that a “convention” had been signed with Muslim associations so that a former barracks could be used as a place of prayer.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
France: Praying in Paris Streets Outlawed
Praying in the streets of Paris is against the law starting Friday, after the interior minister warned that police will use force if Muslims, and those of any other faith, disobey the new rule to keep the French capital’s public spaces secular.
Claude Guéant said that ban could later be extended to the rest of France, in particular to the Mediterranean cities of Nice and Marseilles, where “the problem persists”. He promised the new legislation would be followed to the letter as it “hurts the sensitivities of many of our fellow citizens”. “My vigilance will be unflinching for the law to be applied. Praying in the street is not dignified for religious practice and violates the principles of secularism, the minister told Le Figaro newspaper. “All Muslim leaders are in agreement,” he insisted.
In December when Marine Le Pen, then leader-in-waiting of the far-Right National Front, sparked outrage by likening the practice to the Nazi occupation of Paris in the Second World War “without the tanks or soldiers”. She said it was a “political act of fundamentalists”. More than half of right-wing sympathisers in France agreed with Marine Le Pen, at least one poll suggested.
Nicolas Sarkozy’s party denounced the comments, but the President called for a debate on Islam and secularism and went on to say that multiculturalism had failed in France.
Following the debate, Mr Guéant promised a countrywide ban “within months”, saying the “street is for driving in, not praying”. In April, a ban on wearing the full Islamic veil came into force. Holland today became the third European country to ban the burka, after Belgium, despite the fact fewer than 100 Dutch women are thought to wear the face-covering Islamic dress. Yesterday, Mr Guéant said the prayer problem was limited to two roads in the Goutte d’Or district of Paris’s eastern 19th arrondissement, where “more than a thousand” people blocked the street every Friday.
However, a stroll through several districts in Paris on a Friday suggests that Muslims spill into the streets outside many mosques. Under an agreement signed this week, believers will be able to use the premises of a vast nearby fire station while awaiting the construction of a bigger mosque. “We could go as far as using force if necessary (to impose the ban), but it’s a scenario I don’t believe will happen, as dialogue (with local religious leaders) has born fruit,” he said. Sheikh Mohamed salah Hamza, in charge of one of the Parisian mosques which regularly overflows, said he would obey the new law, but complained: “We are not cattle” and that he was “not entirely satisfied” with the new location. He said he feared many believers would continue to prefer going to the smaller mosque.
Public funding of places of religious worship is banned under a 1905 law separating church and state. Mr Guéant said that there were 2,000 mosques in France with half being built in the past ten years. France has Europe’s largest Muslim population, with an estimated five million in total.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
France: Gangs Clash in Mulhouse After Mosque Wedding
Violence broke out in the eastern town of Mulhouse over the weekend after rival gangs fought street battles, leaving at least six people injured including four police officers. Local newspaper Les Denières Nouvelles d’Alsace reported that problems started after an argument between two families, of Chechen and north African origins, in the Bourtzwiller neighbourhood of the city.
On Friday, after a wedding at a mosque in the city, a group of young men started shouting insults at the marriage party. Things got more serious on Saturday evening when fights broke out, this time with weapons, and police were called. “We’re not sure of the source of the tension,” said Alain Martinez, director of public security for the region. “Around 40 people calling themselves Chechens turned up to settle an argument after a marriage that didn’t end well on Friday.” After the initial fighting, the Chechen men took refuge inside the mosque and found themselves circled by around 100 men from the neighbourhood. Police were required to help them evacuate.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
France Herds Muslim Faithful Off Streets After Prayer Ban
A ban on praying in French streets came into effect on Friday, with thousands of the nation’s Muslim faithful being moved to temporary alternative spaces for their day of prayer. From Paris to Marseille, Friday’s midday prayers will be led from disused barracks or other temporary buildings, after the question of Islam’s visibility became a political issue under right-wing President Nicolas Sarkozy.
France, home to Europe’s largest Muslim population, this year banned the face-covering burqa and earlier this week Interior Minister Claude Gueant warned that “from September 16 there will be no more prayers in the street.” “If anyone happens to be recalcitrant we will put an end to it,” Gueant said, suggesting police could be brought in. “Prayers in the street are unacceptable, a direct attack on the principle of secularism,” Gueant told AFP last month, citing the government’s defence of the republic’s secular values as reason for the new policies.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Islam Prejudice Rampant in Europe’s School Books: Study
BERLIN — European school books present a distorted image of Islam and Muslims, using stereotypes that breed mistrust of the faith and its people, a five-country study published Thursday showed. This slanted view reflects “cultural racism,” concluded Germany’s Georg Eckert Institute for textbook research, which analysed 27 volumes used in classrooms in Britain, France, Austria, Spain and Germany.
The report, which was presented at the foreign ministry in Berlin, was billed as the first of its kind in Europe. “Islam is always presented as an outdated system of rules which has not changed since its golden age,” Susan Krohnert-Othman, the institute’s project director, told reporters. The researchers concluded that Islam is frequently presented as a homogenous entity without reflecting its diversity in different parts of the world. The report did not find major differences between the five countries studied.
The textbooks used at the secondary school level frequently set an “antiquated Islam” against a “modern Europe” and depict them as in conflict with each other. Krohnert-Othman said that such representations “cannot challenge populist Islamophobia” among pupils. “Even modern European school books include oversimplified presentations of Islam and they stand in the way of a credible intercultural dialogue with the Muslim world,” said Germany’s minister of state for European affairs at the foreign ministry, Cornelia Pieper, after reading the study’s findings.
The researchers called on schools to present information on reforms advocated by Muslim clerics and intellectuals as well as the modernisation process within the religion. And they said instruction on cultural diversity needed a major overhaul. “Muslims must no longer be classified as a separate group consisting of non-European immigrants whose traditions prevent integration,” the researchers concluded.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Germany’s Great Beers Face Sugary Pollution Crisis
Germany brews some of the world’s greatest beers in line with purity laws, but also has a strange custom of mixing them with soda and juice. A call to keep apart great beer and sugary, artificial sodas.
Years ago, when a Hamburg bartender first told me about Bananenweizen, I assumed she was kidding. I figured she wanted to see if she could fool an American into thinking that Germans, of all people, actually would mix banana juice with their famed wheat beers. But it was no joke.
Well-crafted German wheat beers often have subtle hints of banana, among many other flavors and aromas. It’s pleasant in small quantities, the hallmark of a careful brewer able to draw out many complex flavors from traditional ingredients through centuries-old craftsmanship. But there’s nothing subtle about bananenweizen. The sickly-sweet banana juice annihilates the beer’s flavor, smothering all the fruits of the brewmaster’s labor. Bananenweizen is just one example. Lemon-lime soda, cola, fruit syrup and all sorts of sticky industrial ingredients are regularly mixed with any number of styles of beer. They appear on the printed menus of bars and restaurants all over the country under various names.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Schoolbooks Distort Islam, Study Shows
European school books present a distorted image of Islam and Muslims, using stereotypes that breed mistrust of the faith and its people, according to Germany’s Georg Eckert Institute for textbook research. The organisation analysed 27 volumes used in classrooms in Britain, France, Austria, Spain and Germany, finding the slanted view reflects “cultural racism.” The report, which was presented at the foreign ministry in Berlin, was billed as the first of its kind in Europe.
“Islam is always presented as an outdated system of rules which has not changed since its golden age,” Susan Krohnert-Othman, the institute’s project director, told reporters. The researchers concluded that Islam was frequently presented as a homogeneous entity without reflecting its diversity in different parts of the world. The report did not find major differences between the five countries studied. The textbooks used at the secondary school level frequently set an “antiquated Islam” against a “modern Europe” and depict them as in conflict with each other. Krohnert-Othman said that such representations “cannot challenge populist Islamophobia” among pupils.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Blackface Obama Billboard Sparks Outrage
German comedian Martin Sonneborn is well-known for jokes bordering on the tasteless. But a satirical political billboard of him posing in blackface makeup as US President Barack Obama is sparking outrage. “Ick bin ein Obama (I am an Obama),” reads the poster at Berlin’s central Ernst Reuter Platz square, in an apparent play on John F. Kennedy’s famous “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech. On the poster, a “black” Sonneborn smiles as he raises his arm in the air.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Education Reform, Clashes in Central Athens
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, SEPTEMBER 15 — School and university students are continuing to demonstrate against the reform of the education system brought about by Prime Minister George Papandreou’s socialist government. The reform draft was approved by the vast majority of the Greek Parliament. Today’s protest march started just after noon at the Propylaea and was heading for the Parliament. A group of ten hooded youths armed with sticks and iron bars got away from the demonstration and started to smash windows and glass doors at a bank in Panepistimiou Street, in downtown Athens. The youngsters then attacked a passenger bus, smashing the windscreen . There is no evidence of anyone being hurt in the riots.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italians Losing Faith in Berlusconi
PM and government approval ratings drop to record low
(ANSA) — Rome, September 15 — Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s approval rating has dropped to a record low of 24% with a growing majority of the country having little or no faith in his ability to govern, poll results showed Thursday.
The approval figure was five points lower than in June, which was the last time the poll was commissioned by Italian daily La Repubblica.
The results further showed that more Italians than ever have little or no faith in the premier, creeping up four points to 64% of the voting population.
Approval for his government also appears to be slumping, dropping four points to 19%, another record low.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Clooney’s Italian Ex Launches Nude Animal-Rights Campaign
Canalis would ‘rather go naked than wear fur’
(ANSA) — Rome, September 15 — George Clooney’s former Italian partner Elisabetta Canalis has launched a new anti-fur advertising campaign for American animal rights association PETA in which she gets naked.
The 33-year-old, who split with Clooney earlier this year after two years together, is the face and body of a PETA campaign, which is suitable for family viewing, entitled ‘I’d rather go naked than wear fur’.
“I think this is the best reason why I got naked in my life,” the Sardinian model and actress said in May after the shoot for the campaign.
“(When) I was a kid I was watching TV at home and they showed a documentary.
“In the documentary I saw how they killed little animals, electrocuting them, drowning them, bludgeoning them.
“I was shocked because I was a little girl, but at that moment I thought that I would never, never, never, wear fur in my life”.
In the past other celebrities have stripped for PETA’s anti-fur campaigns, including Charlize Theron and Pamela Anderson.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi Could Face Another Trial
Preliminary judge refuses to drop wiretap case
(ANSA) — Rome, September 15 — Premier Silvio Berlusconi could face another criminal trial after a preliminary judge on Thursday ordered prosecutors to make an indictment request over a wiretap case.
In December prosecutors had asked for charges to be dropped against Berlusconi over his alleged involvement in receiving illegal obtained wiretap evidence, the contents of which his brother Paolo later published in Paolo’s conservative newspaper Il Giornale.
However, Stefania Donadeo, a preliminary judge in Milan, said Thursday that he had refused this request and commanded prosecutors to formulate a petition for Berlusconi to be sent to trial.
Another preliminary judge will then decide whether to indict Berlusconi, who already faces four trials in Milan, three for alleged corruption and one concerning allegations he paid to have sex with an underage prostitute. Prosecutors in Naples have also summoned the premier to face questioning about whether he was the target of extortion over his alleged use of prostitutes.
In the ongoing and several other previous trials, Berlusconi has always denied wrongdoing, claiming he is the victim of a minority group of allegedly leftwing prosecutors and judges who he says are persecuting him for political reasons.
In more than a dozen cases, the premier has never received a definitive conviction, sometimes because of law changes passed by his governments, while some other charges were timed out by the statute of limitations.
The wiretap case regards the publication of a conversation in 2005 between the head of the one-time opposition Democratic Left (DS) party, Piero Fassino, and Giovanni Consorte, the former chairman of Unipol, an association of insurers historically linked to the DS, Italy’s former Communist Party.
At the time Unipol came close to taking over one of Italy’s leading banks, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL), and Fassino was recorded as saying “we have a bank!”.
Fassino, now mayor of Turin, was widely criticised for the comment, especially among the rank and file of the DS, which has since turned into a slightly larger centre-left group, the Democratic Party.
Paolo Berlusconi has already been indicted over the case and the first hearing is scheduled to take place next month.
The preliminary judge also told prosecutors to put Maurizio Belpietro, the editor of Il Giornale when the wiretaps were published, under investigation.
“I don’t know anything about this affair,” Belpietro told ANSA. “I published a story that came from a colleague. I don’t know anything else about it”. Two other people have already been convicted for involvement in the case.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Tarantini Case — Arcuri Refused to Prostitute Herself
(AGI) Bari — Gianpaolo Taranto contacted the Manuela Arcuri to ask her to prostitute herself with Berlusconi, but she refused.
The actress was promised that the prime minister would help her become a presenter of the Sanremo festival. Tarantini recruited Tery and Nicolo’, Carolina De Freitas Barbosa, Daniela Lungoci and another unidentified girls to prostitute themselves, the former at Palazzo Grazioli and the other three at Villa San Martino, paying them and refunding travel expenses.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Tarantini Prosecutors — Slender Young Girls Recruited
(AGI) Bari — Prosecutors in the Tarantini case claim that slender young girls were recruited as prostitutes for Silvio Berlusconi. Gianpaolo Tarantini, Salvatore Castellaneta, Pierluigi Faraone, and Massimiliano Verdoscia are accused of being involved in the recruitment of women ‘who were to prostitute themselves with Silvio Berlusconi at the meetings organised at his various homes’. The prosecutors say that the girls were chosen according to ‘specific physical characteristics (youth, slight build, etc.,)’ also with instructions on what clothing to wear and how to behave at these meetings. The events in question took place between September 2008 and May 2009.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Alleged Escort at PM’s Parties Says She Acted Out of Love
(AGI) Rome — Sabina Began sais she is not worried, because everything she may have done, she did it out of love for Berlusconi. “I’m not worried, as I can’t be worried about something I had no role in. Everything I may have done, I did it out of love for prime minister Berlusconi”, Sabina Began said in a telephone interview with journalist Valentina Petrini, who is on the editorial staff of Piazzapulita, LA7’s new current affairs programme hosted by Corrado Formigli.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Bossi: ‘We Have Obtained the Territorial Labor Contract’
(AGI) Pian del Re — Umberto Bossi said that after federalism his party has obtained the territorial labor contract. Speaking from Monviso for the celebration of the Ampulla Ceremony, Bossi announced, “After federalism, we have obtained the territorial contract, that is, workers will have a contract that differs from region to region based on the cost of living.” The Northern League leader assured listeners, “This and federalism will, in coming years, push towards a great change.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Scientists on Trial: At Fault?
In 2009, an earthquake devastated the Italian city of L’Aquila and killed more than 300 people. Now, scientists are on trial for manslaughter.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Muslims Defy Outdoor Prayer Ban in France
Hundreds of Muslims defied a French ban on outdoor prayer — which came into force Friday —and took to the streets and sidewalks of Paris to pray. The French government announced Thursday it was banning praying outside, with officials pledging to enforce the ban from Friday. But 200 Muslims ignored the ban and prayed on the streets in the neighborhood of La Goutte d’Or, Le Parisien newspaper reported. French interior minister Claude Gueant said he had nothing against Islam but wanted it out of the public eye because France was a secular state. He added, “Street prayers must stop because they hurt the feelings of many of our compatriots who are shocked by the occupation of the public space for a religious practice.”
Although officials would persuade people to pray in mosques, Muslims who continued to pray in the street would be arrested, Gueant warned. The ban angered French Muslim leaders who said Muslims only prayed outdoors because of a lack of space in mosques in France.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Neanderthals vs Humans? German Scientists Bring Fossils Into the Computer Age
Researchers in Leipzig are compiling a ground-breaking digital archive of artefacts from around the world. Created to contrast Neanderthals with modern man, the archive could revolutionize their field — which is exactly why many oppose it.
Hublin advocates paying closer attention to the differences. For that reason he was bothered by the enthusiastic response given to the news that Neanderthal genes can be found in modern humans. “People made a stirring love story out of it,” he says. But he adds that history teaches that kidnapping and raping human women may have been the origin of this genetic merging. Hublin argues that many researchers paint an overly harmonious picture of the coexistence of these two rivals.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Dutch Burqa Ban — Maximum Fine to be 380 Euros
Women wearing the Islamic burqa (full body cloak) or niqab (face veil) in public will soon be subject to a maximum fine of 380 euros. The planned measure is to be discussed by the Dutch cabinet on Friday.
A ‘burqa ban’ formed part of the minority Dutch government’s programme agreed with the populist Freedom Party (PVV) on whose parliamentary support the cabinet relies.
Rather than singling out burqas and niqabs, the senior partner in the coalition, the conservative VVD, is in favour of a general ban on people wearing clothes that cover the face including balaclavas and helmets with opaque visors. On the VVD website, it is argued that people can find such clothing threatening. The extent of the ban will become clear after Friday’s cabinet meeting.
The Christian Democrats are the smaller party in the coalition and say: “Clothing covering the face makes it harder to indentify people, hinders communication and makes people feel less safe”. From 2007, the PVV has called for a ‘burqa ban’ punishable by higher fines and even imprisonment. It describes the garment as “an expression of the rejection of the West’s core values”. It is estimated that about 150 women in the Netherlands always wear the burqa or niqab when they go out in public. A maximum of a few hundred women wear the garments occasionally.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Nokia App Powers Portable Brain Scanner
YOU can now hold your brain in the palm of your hand. For the first time, a scanner powered by a smartphone will let you monitor your neural signals on the go. By hooking up a commercially available EEG headset to a Nokia N900 smartphone, Jakob Eg Larsen and colleagues at the Technical University of Denmark in Kongens Lyngby have created a completely portable system.
This is the first time a phone has provided the power for an EEG headset, which monitors the electrical activity of the brain, says Larsen. The headset would normally connect wirelessly to a USB receiver plugged into a PC. Wearing the headset and booting up an accompanying app designed by the researchers creates a simplified 3D model of the brain that lights up as brainwaves are detected, and can be rotated by swiping the screen. The app can also connect to a remote server for more intensive number-crunching, and then display the results on the cellphone.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Sixty Years of Germany’s Beate Uhse
When Sexual Liberation Arrived By Mail
In the 1950s, Germany was a place where many women were terrified of getting pregnant and kept woefully ignorant about sexual matters. One dauntless woman changed that almost single-handedly. The empire of Beate Uhse started small as a mail-order provider of sex-education brochures. But it grew to become the world’s largest seller of sex toys.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Conductor Nearly Tossed From Moving Train
A man travelling on a train between Kristianstad and Bromölla in Southern Sweden, tried to throw the conductor off the train as he was caught without a ticket. The aggravated man was travelling in the company of a woman on a train between Kristianstad and Bromölla when a female conductor asked to see his ticket around 12:40am Thursday morning. Unable to produce a ticket, the man then became aggressive, putting the conductor in a choke hold. He then managed to work the door open at which point he allegedly tried to toss her from the train, which was travelling at about 70 kilometres per hour at the time of the incident.
While the man’s attempt to throw the conductor off the train failed, and he and his companion managed to escape from the train, the incident angered union officials. In the wake of the incident, both the union and the safety representatives have met with officials from DSB First to discuss workplace safety issues. “We’ve really not agreed on anything so far,” Gadd told Sydsvenskan, “and that’s why we now have put in a safety stop (skyddsstopp) effective immediately.” The safety stop means that until a decision is made, the conductors will no longer be checking tickets on the trains of Öresundstågen.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
UK: First Free School for Muslims Gets the Go Ahead Amid Fears Over Segregated Schooling
The first free school for Muslims in the country will open in Blackburn, Lancashire, next year. The business case for Tauheedul Islam Boys’ School has been approved by the Government. But opponents have described the decision as ‘extremely bad news’ for community cohesion and claim it will deprive state schools of vital funds.
Tauheedul Islam Girls’ School principal Mufti Hamid Patel, who made the application with governors, has vowed that the school will be a beacon to raise overall achievements in all schools in Blackburn with Darwen. Mr Patel said he had developed a curriculum where the school would play an active role in all areas of the community and also had visions to enrol students into university at 16 thanks to accelerated learning
The detailed plan includes all students undertaking 500 hours of community service throughout their school life, specialisms in sport and the Big Society, outdoor pursuits such as canoeing and mountain climbing more than once a year and a finishing school. The school plans to benefit non-pupils by running GCSE and A-level revision sessions in areas such as Darwen and Shadsworth, as well as creating a Sports’ Academy for primary school children.
Since the plan was first mooted around 700 pre-registration admission forms have been submitted by parents — including from London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Dewsbury and Bolton — for the first 150 places. Free schools do not fall within local authority control and get their funding direct from the Government, but have greater freedom than academies to set their own agenda.
Mr Patel said: ‘This is a fantastic milestone. We are very excited and think it is good news. ‘The support is generally good from across all the communities. This has been 18 months in the planning and will be the first free school in the town and the first Muslim free school in the country.
And we are looking at all sorts of innovations and ideas. Though our intake will be comprehensive with learners from areas which are the most deprived in the country, our school will have an elite, but not elitist, philosophy. ‘It will be a ‘grammar’ school for ordinary kids. Every young person at Tauheedul Boys’ High School will have a sense of privilege and exclusivity.’
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Prison Doesn’t Achieve Anything, Says Ken Clarke
Prison is an “extremely expensive way” to house criminals, and fails to achieve anything, Ken Clarke has said.
The Justice Secretary was speaking ahead of official figures, published yesterday, which showed that the prison population has hit another record high. Mr Clarke was taking part in a television debate on how the criminal justice system treated the rioters after the disturbances in England last month. Mr Clarke said: “It (prison) is an extremely expensive way to accommodating people for a time and making no progress whatever in stopping them being criminals.” Mr Clarke also told the BBC2’s Newsnight programme on Thursday night : “The prison population has soared pointlessly. I would like to stabilise the situation.”
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Report on EDL to be Published at University of Northampton
A major report on the ideology, structure and development of the English Defence League (EDL) will be launched at an international conference at The University of Northampton next week. The conference is entitled “Populist Racism in Britain in Europe since 1945” and will be held between 22-23 September. The report, The EDL: Britain’s Far-Right Social Movement, also examines the EDL’s influence on far-right terrorism and “lone wolf” extremists. The latter are individuals who act alone with far-right extremist views; for example, Anders Breivik — perpetrator of the recent terrorists atrocities in Norway — allegedly acted alone and his manifesto praises the work of the EDL.
University of Northampton press release, 13 September 2011
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Kosovo: Witness Gets Two Months Jail for Contempt of UN Court
The Hague, 16 Sept. (AKI) — A witness for the in the trial of former Kosovo prime minister Ramus Haradinaj was sentenced to two months in jail on Friday by the United Nation War Crimes Tribunal for contempt of court.
Sefcet Kabashi, a key witness against Haradinaj, who is accused of war crimes against Serb, Roma and non-loyal Albanian civilians during 1998/99 conflict, refused to testify in 2007, saying several witnesses had been killed.
He was arrested by Netherlands authorities in August and handed over to the tribunal. But he again refused to answer questions by the prosecution at Haradinaj’s retrial which is currently going on in The Hague.
Haradinaj, a former military commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army, which fought against Serbian rule, was acquitted in the first trial for “lack of evidence”. But the tribunal’s appeals panel said the first trial was conducted in an “atmosphere of intimidation of witnesses” and ordered a retrial.
Kabashi could have been sentenced up to seven years in jail and/or 100,000 euros for contempt of court. But the tribunal said it took into account Akashi’s “family situation and post-traumatic problems” as mitigating circumstances.
He has already served one month in jail and will be freed after serving another thirty days.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Russian Ambassador Warns Serbia Against the West
Russia’s ambassador to Serbia warned Belgrade on Thursday not seek an ally in the West, which he said was acting “against Serbia’s national interests,” local media reported. NATO and European Union member states will be against your national interests …,” Tanjug news agency quoted ambassador Aleksandar Konuzin as telling a forum on global security in Belgrade.
Konuzin spoke as Kosovo prepared to execute its threat to take over disputed border crossings with Serbia, a move that Belgrade has strongly opposed. Noting that the United Nations Security Council would discuss the issue later Thursday, Konuzin said Russia would back “Serbia’s interests” at the session. “We have the same interests and we will defend your country,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
UN Warns Kosovo and Serbia Over Border Post Friction
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called on Serbia for restraint as tensions over the control of border posts in northern Kosovo mounts. Ethnic Serbs are reported to have blocked two crossings.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Arab Uprisings: Salafists on the Attack in Defence of Islam
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, SEPTEMBER 15 — Amid the wind of freedom blowing over North Africa even before the disintegration of dictatorial regimes (Tunisia, Libya and Egypt) or the implementation of less cautious programmes of reform (Morocco and Algeria), the only fear for intellectuals and secular figures was that a shift towards fundamentalism would find space in the predictable political void that might and, in some cases, did follow. This idea has indeed become a reality and in a process that targets the creation of confessional states based on the precepts of Islam (even in its more moderate form), the emergence of Salafists, with their ability to be politically subversive, is beginning to be felt.
It is the Salafists who have stolen the headlines, appearing some way from being monitored by security forces, who whether out of incompetence or suspicious disinterest, have allowed them to roam. The latest episode occurred last night in the Tunisian town of Menzel Abderrahem, in the governorate of Bizerte, where Salafists followed up their threats by physically attacking illegal alcohol retailers. In the absence of the police, the attack resulted in widespread clashes of a notable level of violence.
There have been similar explosions of extremist violence in Algeria, where other Salafists laid into other sellers of alcohol, smashing through what many people saw as a sort of accepted hypocrisy, whereby those selling alcohol — which is forbidden by Islam — were able to do so provided operations remained discreet. The compromise is an understandable one in officially Islamic countries, where consumption of alcohol is far from being an exception reserved for the chosen few (rich and poor, cultured and ignorant all partake). But the advent of democracy has removed the veil of hypocrisy, allowing the Salafists to take up the green flag of Islam and use it to violent ends.
Fundamentalist fury, when it is not infused with political motives (it was Salafists who laid waste to the Kasbah, which houses the Tunisian government and ministries), targets behaviour that is seen as offensive to the Koran and to the Prophet. There have been repeated examples of this in Algeria, where Salafist anger has erupted against prostitutes, who have been the subject of real expeditions. Whole residential buildings have been set ablaze because some of the flats were known to be used by women receiving their clients. No matter if the fire ripped through the homes of those who had nothing to do with the issue.
The question of whether Salafists are acting to make the most of a power vacuum or are aided by suspicious compliance still remains unanswered. One indication will come in the election of Tunisia’s Constituent Assembly, which is likely to see Ennadha, a religious party suspected of having two faces, gain a relative majority. The first, reassuring face of the party promises freedom, work and democracy. The second, meanwhile, fails to condemn those who use the Koran to justify violence. It remains to be seen on October 23 whether or not the supporters of Ennadha are joined by the “beards”, who today roam the streets of central Tunis, rebuking those who dress in western fashion.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya’s New Govt, A Ridiculous and Wretched Bunch, Says Del Boca
For the historian, the new Libyan government does not add up. Made up of former Gaddafi officials and Muslims extremists fighting among themselves, it will bring few benefits to the Libyan people. It might instead herald the beginning of a power struggle following planned elections.
Rome (AsiaNews) — With a government that includes former Gaddafi officials, radical Muslims and former al Qaeda operatives, the new Libya will not be that much different from the old one. “The presence of these characters shows that the new government is just a ridiculous and wretched bunch,” historian and Libya expert Angelo Del Boca told AsiaNews. For him, this war reflects its contradictory causes, more related to economics than a genuine desire for change.
“What surprises me these days is the appearance of many faces tied to Muslim terrorism and anti-Gaddafi tribal leaders from Cyrenaica,” he said.
In his view, they have nothing to do with democracy as claimed by Western governments, especially France and Great Britain, whose leaders just started a visit to Tripoli and Benghazi.
Instead, what worriers the historian is Abdul Hakim Belhaj, the current military governor of Tripoli and head of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, a jihadist movement close to al-Qaeda who supplied thousands of suicide attackers in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“In the coming months, rebel leaders will clean up their image for the elections, but the Libyan people will not get many benefits,” Del Boca explained.
For him, the National Transitional Council (NTC) is culturally unprepared to change the country and is already torn apart by a power struggle that could plunge Libya into chaos.
Great anti-Gaddafi dissidents and intellectuals like Anwar Fekini, who raised funds for the war against Libya’s fallen strongman, have been left out in the cold.
The future ideological order of the country is already feeling the pressures from Muslim extremists who provided most of the fighters for the battle for Tripoli. “The danger of a Sharia-based state is quite real,” Del Boca warns.
Indeed, a radical Libyan Muslim leader, sheikh Ahmed al-Salabi, yesterday said that he did not recognise himself in the new government, with its officials from the old regime, and that he would do everything to oppose it.
Meanwhile, the United Nations announced changes to Security Council Resolution 1970. Over the coming weeks, the arms embargo imposed on Libya will be gradually lifted and sanctions on Libyan banks and oil companies will be phased out. The No Fly Zone will however remain in place. (S.C.)
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: 15% of Forces Loyal to Gaddafi Still Operational
(AGI) Paris — NATO says that 15% of the forces loyal to Muammar Gheddafi are still operational and explained that they are concentrated in an area between Tripoli, the southern desert town of Sebha and the coastal town of Sirte. When asked about the whereabouts of Gaddafi, General Vincent Tesniere, who was speaking in a teleconference from the Italian base of Poggio Renatico, said, “the alliance is not looking for individuals.” .
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Rebels Forced to Withdraw From Bani Walid
(AGI) Bani Walid — After battling fiercely for hours rebels were forced to withdraw from Bani Walid that they had penetrated today. This is what journalists following Lybian rebel forces report. Rebels pulled out of the city at sunset under massive fire by Muammar Gheddafi’s forces .
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Cameron and Sarkozy Lap Up Triumph
Le Figaro, 16 September 2011
“Sarkozy and Cameron welcomed as liberators by the Libyans,” proclaims Le Figaro on its front page after the visit of the French head of state and British Prime Minister to Libya. “Nicolas Sarkozy and David Cameron have taken advantage of this moment […] to reap the fruits of their determination. That two European leaders should be hailed so warmly in an Arab country while the continent is struggling with the debt crisis has something comforting about it,” writes the pleased conservative daily.
Across the Channel, The Independent considers it “a visit that Cameron and Sarkozy might have delayed”. While the two European leaders indeed had every right to be the first Western leaders to visit Libya after Gaddafi and were welcomed during a walkabout, “the enthusiasm of Libyans does not let the British and French leaders off the charge that their visit was made in unseemly haste; a case of too much, too soon,” the London daily writes…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Erdogan Offers “Turkish Model” For Democratic Islam
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, SEPTEMBER 15 — The Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who arrived in Tunis last night, has been given a rock star’s welcome in the Tunisian capital, where he was met by large numbers of Palestinian and Turkish flags, but also many of Israel, burned and trampled. The greeting in Tunis shows that the acclaim he received in Cairo was not an isolated incident.
Erdogan is now a serious protagonist of Arab politics and his influence has now gone well beyond the boundaries of the Middle East, “conquering” Egypt and Tunisia, which, until yesterday at least, had appeared more secular. The visit by the Turkish Prime Minister, which officially began today, saw him hold talks with the Tunisian Prime Minister, Béji Caid Essebsi, and the President, Foued Mebazaa, (both of them in interim positions, ahead of a clarification of the Tunisian political scene expected as part of the election of the Constituent Assembly). The trip is cementing Erdogan’s position as one of the main political players in the area, and the Turkish PM has been able to capitalise — particularly with Arab masses demanding the creation of Islamic states — on the charm of taking up a very delicate challenge waving the banner of Islam. This is also shown by the Israeli flags torched by hundreds of people, literally in a state of delirium, as they awaited him at the airport.
Speaking in the Tunisian capital, Erdogan repeated what he has been saying for weeks and which puts him on the front line of the dispute with Israel, for whom he said the period of dictating events in the Mediterranean, in complete disregard of international law, was at an end. The “pretext” is that of last year’s attack by Israeli special forces on the flotilla that was aiming to carry humanitarian aid to Gaza, and which ended with the death of around ten activists, most of them Turks.
Erdogan added that three steps are needed if Israel wants to return to the negotiating table: an official apology for the attack; compensation for the families of the victims; and the lifting of the naval blockade imposed upon Gaza. The demands will fall on deaf ears, as by accepting even one of the three demands, Israel would act against the cornerstone of both its foreign and home policy. But Erdogan is continuing undaunted, in the knowledge that he is gaining popularity and that he is involved in an important battle.
Yet the Turkish Prime Minister is also keen to use his trip to Tunisia to launch a reassuring message, with the idea that the model that he has applied in Turkey can be exported to the protagonists of the Arab Spring. Islam and democracy are not contrasting, he said, and can even go hand in hand. Erdogan conveyed the message using the example of “his” Turkey, where 99% of the population is Turkish, but where Christians and Jews are free to practice their religions, as is right in a secular state in which all beliefs have the same value.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Islam Can Exist With Democracy, Says Turkish PM
By Mohamed Argoubi and Sylvia Westall
TUNIS (Reuters) — Tunisia’s new political order will show that Islam and democracy can co-exist just as they have in Turkey, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday.
Erdogan, in Tunis on the second stop of a North African tour aimed at asserting Ankara’s growing regional influence, said secularism should guarantee that people of all beliefs, as well as atheists, were treated fairly. He said there was nothing to stop a Muslim from governing a secular state.
Tunisia plans to hold elections on October 23 to select an assembly to rewrite the constitution, nine months after the revolt that swept away President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and sparked uprisings around the Arab world. Islamist party Ennahda, banned for two decades under Ben Ali, is expected to poll strongly, unnerving Tunisian secularists. Erdogan said the country should have nothing to fear from the influence of Islam in politics. “The most important thing of all, and Tunisia will prove this, (is that) Islam and democracy can exist side by side,” he told a joint news conference with counterpart Beji Caid Sebsi. “Turkey, as a country which is 99 percent Muslim, does this comfortably, we do not have any difficulty. There is no need to hinder this by putting forward different approaches. In the broadest sense, consultation will put forward the will of the people,” he said.
More than 90 political parties have sprung up in Tunisia since Ben Ali’s fall. Ennahda is seen with around 20 percent in the polls. “Tunisia and Turkey confirm that there is no contradiction between Islam and democracy,” Sebsi, a secularist, said.
Al Qaeda Threat
Erdogan has been holding up Turkey’s blend of Islam and democracy as a model for the movements which have toppled entrenched Arab autocrats in Tunis, Cairo and Tripoli.
“On the subject of secularism, this is not a secularism in the Anglo-Saxon or Western sense. A person is not secular, the state is secular,” Erdogan said. “A Muslim can govern a secular state in a successful way.” Sebsi said they had discussed the relation between religion and the state as well as ways to fight security threats in a turbulent region — with a reference to al Qaeda.
Tunisian officials have warned that al Qaeda could be exploiting the Libyan conflict to acquire weapons and smuggle them into other countries. Tunisia arrested several men with suspected links to the group’s North African branch near the border earlier this year. After Erdogan received a rapturous welcome in Cairo this week, hundreds of Tunisians turned out to greet the Turkish premier at Tunis airport late on Wednesday, clutching portraits of him and hoisting banners reading “Welcome Erdogan!”
Ennahda leader Rachid Ghannouchi joined the crowds, praising Erdogan as someone who had “worked hard for Islam”. Ennahda, a moderate Islamist movement which has close ties with Erdogan’s AK Party, has said Turkey’s political model is something it aspires to. Erdogan completes his tour in neighbouring Libya on Friday.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: A Genuine Islamist Democrat [Rashid Gannoushi]
The erudite Rashid Gannoushi believes pluralistic Muslim societies should welcome the cultural wealth brought by non-Muslim citizens
The founder of the Hizb Al Nahda (Renaissance Party), Rashid Gannoushi, was arrested, tortured, exiled and made to live for many years outside Tunisia. He returned to his native land after 20 years of absence on January 30, 2011, in the aftermath of the popular unrest that ousted Zine Al Abidine Bin Ali from the presidency. Because of the many uncertainties surrounding Tunisia and the anticipated Constituent Assembly elections, now scheduled for October 23, the very future of democracy in the country was in jeopardy. Gannoushi’s views and putative roles were critical and worthy of a careful investigation if for no other reason than to affirm how an Islamist supported democratisation.
Islamic Tendency Movement
Long before the 2010 demonstrations, which were precipitated by poor living conditions and high unemployment for the vast majority of Tunisians, young men and women who were educated overseas and who envisaged a society where political freedoms were the norm, mobilised against the Bourguiba and Bin Ali governments. Gannoushi, who hailed from Al Hama, in the Qabis province of southern Tunisia, lived for several years in Cairo, Damascus and Paris, which emancipated his outlook. Upon his return to his native land, the young Gannoushi founded the Harakat Al Ittijah Al Islami (Islamic Tendency Movement, better known by its French acronym MTI — Mouvement de Tendances Islamiques) in April 1981, an organisation that was quickly banned for harbouring Islamist affinities.
There was no doubt that Gannoushi was influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Syria, even if his chief objection at the time was towards various secular ideological principles incorporated by Tunis. Whether he became a Salafi — the way the word is understood today — was an entirely different proposition, though the young man was persuaded that social reforms based on the true principles of Islam were the salvation that his nation sorely demanded. In one of his more poignant declarations, Gannoushi said: “I remember we used to feel like strangers in our own country. After having been educated as Muslims and Arabs, we found our own country totally moulded in the French cultural identity.” This he rejected. What he and his supporters wanted was to promote Islamic principles, highlight and explain differences between these and Western ideologies, and live exemplary lives whenever possible.
The Bourguiba response
After 1988, Tunis tolerated the MTI and similar movements that, for the most part, focused on moral concerns. Earlier, the Bourguiba regime did not perceive Islamists as a threat to the state, whose nemesis were the so-called “leftists”, and which could be nicely balanced by the MTI and others. Ironically, at one point, even Bourguiba presented himself as favouring Islamic principles. In the event, and in the aftermath of the 1979 Soviet War for Afghanistan, which mobilised Islamist organisations against the USSR and atheism, the MTI took on a far greater political role. Coupled with the 1979 Iranian revolution, the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the rise of various movements across the Muslim world, Gannoushi’s MTI led to an open confrontation with the regime. The sting was so painful that interior minister Driss Guiga stated in 1981: “We are six million Tunisian Muslims. We are all the Islamic Tendency. No one can accept that certain individuals claim the monopoly of Islam and pretend to act under its name or its sacred values to hide their political goals.”
By May 1981, Gannoushi had entered into a political alliance with several other groups and called on the government to recognise the MTI as a political party. Neither Bourguiba nor his interior minister, Bin Ali, were interested and promptly arrested 60 leading members for forming an illegal organisation. At a time when the Tunisian economy was topsy-turvy, MTI officials spoke of prosperity, whereas the state was reduced to micro-management. Calamities followed one after the other. In 1985, a portion of the income flow from Tunisians working in Libya stopped after the maverick Colonel Muammar Gaddafi expelled 40,000 Tunisian workers — ostensibly the result of a downturn in the Libyan economy — because of political considerations, as the maverick colonel practised the “expulsion” tool as a weapon against what he concluded were uncooperative governments. Simultaneously, the Tunisian economy suffered another blow as tourists stayed away after the October 1, 1985, Israeli raid on the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) headquarters near the capital city.
These developments, coupled with high unemployment, improved MTI’s popularity as the movement positioned itself as an alternative to the state eager to look after the downtrodden. Tunis banned the group, as a major crackdown became the norm, and which eventually led to an MTI plot that, allegedly, planned to overthrow the Tunisian government and replace it with a religious one. In August 1987, 99 MTI members were charged with “forming an illegal organisation; plotting subversive actions with Iran; and attempting to overthrow the government”. Five were sentenced to death while another 69 received verdicts ranging from two years to life imprisonment.
The Bin Ali rejoinder
After his coup d’état, Bin Ali reaffirmed Islam as the country’s religion and adopted more conciliatory attitudes towards “moderate Islamists”. His appeasement granted a general amnesty for imprisoned MTI members, including Gannoushi; the creation of a consultative body empowered to address religious concerns, the High Islamic Council — which, interestingly, welcomed an MTI leader Shaikh Abdul Fateh Mourou to its rosters; the inclusion of the MTI in the National Pact that grouped leading parties to draft fresh participatory rules; allowing Islamists to run for office in the April 2, 1989, elections, albeit as independents; the legalisation of an Islamist student organisation; and the authorisation for Al Fajr, an Islamist newspaper, to publish freely. Remarkably, Gannoushi adhered to the 1988 law that prohibited the formation of political parties on the basis of religion, region or language and, consequently, changed its name to Harakat Al Nahda or the Renaissance Movement before it formally became a hizb (party).
Harakat Al Nahda
Unabashedly, Al Nahda envisaged a government that would apply Sharia while proceeding through the democratic process. Indeed, in the April 1989 elections, its “independent” candidates won 15 per cent of the total vote, with up to 40 per cent in major cities including Tunis. Regrettably, not a single parliamentarian was allowed to enter parliament, which led to further arrests and expulsions. What followed was a series of violent clashes and, while Harakat Al Nahda presented itself as a non-violent political party, Tunis ensured it was implicated in clashes with security forces. Whether all these collisions originated in the MTI or whether they were “encouraged” by the Bin Ali regime needed further elucidation. Suffice it to say that Harakat Al Nahda became “illegal”, with its leaders either jailed or exiled. In the post-9/11 environment, president Bin Ali opted for a proactive antiterrorist policy, which gained Western, especially American, backing.
An Islamist democrat
Whether Gannoushi, who lived in London between 1989 and 2011, would once again play a major role in his country’s politics remained an unknown proposition. Suffice it to say that writing and delivering countless lectures moulded his thinking. Like most Arabs, he supported various Palestinian movements, including Hamas. Unlike most Islamists, however, he developed an appreciation for multiparty democracy in the country that gave the world the Magna Carta. Long before the uprisings in the Arab world, which started when Mohammad Bouazizi immolated himself on December 17, 2010, in Tunisia, Gannoushi spoke of serious socio-economic reforms. His writings, including the Al Bayan Al Ta’sisi li-Harakat Al Ittijah Al Islami (The Founding Communiqué of the Islamic Tendency Movement), represented what was a progressive strain in Islamic reformism.
In additional writings, he stressed the need for innovation against social injustice and while this was not a fresh idea in the larger scheme of evolving Arab ideologies, he emphasised the importance of culture. In his view a correct Islamist movement took into account the needs of citizens — not just believers — as he distanced himself from “obscure theories”, such as the ones espoused by the famous Egyptian Islamist Sayyid Qutb. Again, perhaps because of his observations in Britain, Gannoushi concluded that there was value in the very idea of workers’ rights, unions and, the most emancipated view of them all, in women’s education. Of course, Islam recognised the value of work and granted women full rights from its inception, though few Islamists could reconcile themselves with such outcomes.
Philosophical legacy
Gannoushi started out opposing the Bourguiba and Bin Ali regimes but entertained pragmatic political views. While he preferred to rely on Sharia, he nevertheless wished to distance himself from the cherry-picking that, regrettably, became fashionable. He maintained, for example, that Islam recognised special roles for women with full rights and privileges, including education. Unlike the Taliban in Afghanistan, he insisted that women receive all the benefits that a community could offer, including access to learning.
In several of his writings, Gannoushi cited oppressive cultural codes in certain countries — especially Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco — as the leading reason why women turned to Western culture away from Islam. Genuine reforms, he argued, needed to address women’s rights. In numerous lectures, he frequently called on men to respect women and welcome them to add value to the nation.
An equally powerful argument in Gannoushi’s philosophy was his conclusion that pluralistic Muslim societies ought to stress the cultural wealth brought into the realm by non-Muslim citizens. Towards that end, he repeatedly pointed out that Arab citizens who happened to be non-Muslim ought not be barred from positions in the government, which was a position that was opposed by conservative Islamists. Except for Lebanon, where a political parity existed between Muslims and Christians, no other Arab country tolerated such an outcome according to their respective constitutions, though exceptions existed at certain times for a few well-placed individuals in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Iraq and Bahrain. For Gannoushi, nevertheless, the key feature of this perspective was to amalgamate citizenship (responsibility) with privileges (rights). On January 22, 2011, in an interview with Al Jazeera TV, Gannoushi confirmed that he opposed an Islamic Caliphate the way it existed in history. Rather, and unlike several other parties that emerged in the new Tunisia, the former Islamist voiced his support for democracy. That, he posited, was the true meaning of Islam.
The making of a leader
Rashid Gannoushi was born in 1941 outside Al Hama, in the Qabis province of southern Tunisia, into a relatively prosperous family. After secondary education and a Baccalaureate (high school + 1) in 1962, he enrolled at the University of Zaytunah, destined for a promising career in the sciences. To further enhance his training, he entered the school of agriculture at Cairo University in 1964, which was not the ideal learning forum at the time. When Egypt expelled Tunisians in the mid-1960s, ostensibly because of a dispute between Jamal Abdul Nasser and Habib Bourguiba (the latter was deemed too neutral in the Arab-Israeli conflict and pro-French in other instances), Gannoushi left for Syria. Rather than continue in agriculture, however, the young man opted to study Philosophy at the University of Damascus, from where he graduated in 1968. It was in Damascus that Gannoushi first joined the Socialist Party, which intrigued him for its egalitarian penchants. From Syria, Gannoushi moved to France, where he attended the Sorbonne dabbling in various subjects — including religious studies — before returning to Tunisia. His new goal was to reform Tunisian society through a political organisation that promoted Islamic principles.
In April 1981, Gannoushi founded the Harakat Al Ittijah Al Islami (Islamic Tendency Movement), which promoted anti-violence and called for a “reconstruction of economic life on a more equitable basis, the end of single-party politics and the acceptance of political pluralism and democracy”. Notwithstanding democratic aspirations, Gannoushi and his followers were arrested in July 1981, tortured, tried and sentenced to 11 years in prison in Bizerte. Released in 1984, he returned to prison in 1987 with a life sentence, but was again released in 1988 a few months after the November 1987 bloodless coup d’état against Bourguiba. Gannoushi moved to Britain where he was granted political asylum, became a prolific author and continued to criticise the Tunisian government as corrupt. He returned to Tunis after the regime of president Zine Al Abidine Bin Ali fell in early 2011.
Dr Joseph A. Kéchichian is an author, most recently of Faysal: Saudi Arabia’s King for All Seasons (2008).
Published on the third Friday of each month, this article is part of a series on Arab leaders who greatly influenced political affairs in the Middle East.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Abbas Says Palestinians Will Demand Full U.N. Membership at Security Council
The Palestinian president announced Friday that he will seek statehood through the Security Council at the United Nations next week, a move strongly opposed by Israel and the United States and likely to provoke a major conflict over how to resolve one of the most intractable issues in the Middle East.
The announcement by the president, Mahmoud Abbas, in a speech delivered at his headquarters in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, was the first time he has so explicitly and publicly endorsed such a strategy, which Palestinian officials have been moving toward for months as their frustration over stalled peace talks with Israel has intensified. American and Israeli diplomats had struggled to dissuade Mr. Abbas and his aides from such a step.
| [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: The Palestinian Obsession
If nothing else, the Palestinians’ UN statehood gambit goes a long way towards revealing the deep-seated European and US pathologies that enable and prolong the Palestinian conflict with Israel.
In a nutshell, the Palestinian Authority — or Fatah — or PLO initiative of asking the UN Security Council and the General Assembly to upgrade its status to that of a sovereign UN member state or a sovereign non-UN member state is an act of diplomatic aggression…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
Israel Should Hold Fast and Let Muslims Vent Their Rage
Israel has rarely been so isolated. Consider the forces ranged against it:
- Jihadi entities — Hizbullah and Hamas — on its northern and southern borders that are itching for the moment when, behind their own civilian populations, they can rain down death upon Israeli civilians, forcing Israeli retaliation that inevitably causes Palestinian civilian casualties.
- An Arab Spring that has unleashed waves of anti-Zionism and empowered the Muslim Brotherhood, one of the first and most constant enemies of the Zionists.
- “Allies” in the Muslim world who are now turned or turning against it — Turkey, and Egypt following in the lead of Turkey: the closing of the Israeli embassy in Ankara, followed soon after by the takeover of the embassy in Cairo, illustrating how both bottom-up and top-down forces in the Muslim world militate for confrontation.
- A newly empowered Muslim media that spreads lethal narratives at lightning speed around the globe.
- The “progressive” West, especially the global tribe of the “Left,” and the “human rights” NGOs saturated with anti-Zionist diatribes, about to hold Durban III, commemorating one of the ugliest incidents in its depressing, demopathic career of betraying the very humanitarian causes they were created to protect.
- A Western news media and academia, enamoured of post-modern, post-colonial paradigms that present Israel as the Goliath victimizing the Palestinians, the paragon of an imperial and racist colonialism for which the West is trying to repent, and with whose sacrifice it might atone.
- A diplomatic elite that has long preferred to side with the oil-rich Arabs over a tiny, troublesome state.
- An internationally weak American president who, for reasons ideological, psychological, and practical, considers making friends with the Muslim world a far greater priority than protecting Israel.
- And now, in a few days, a Palestinian authority about to use the UN — currently a bastion of anti-Zionism — as a means to further isolate Israel diplomatically and legally.
Rumours are that it’s so bad that the stiff-necked, Right-wing Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is under heavy pressure to be more placating, to calm the storm. Of course, in so doing, Israel would be playing the role of sacrificial offering on the altar of jihadi warfare. Contrary to the exceptionally naïve expectations of the proponents of such a conciliatory stance, a reasonable, apologetic, concessionary Israel will not appease Muslim hatred, nor calm the roiling waters of Arab anger. On the contrary, it will play directly into the hands of the jihadis who aim at the — to us — ludicrous goal of world domination.
And any Western country that thinks sacrificing Israel in this manner will improve the situation, rather than weakening itself profoundly in a global battle it should be winning hands down, is deluding itself. Instead of pouring water on the fires of religious war — something virtually every thoughtful Westerner considers the most dangerous and destructive of forces — they would be pouring oil on the jihadi apocalyptic forest fire that grows with every passing year. If you’re worried about global climate warming, shouldn’t you also be worried about global jihad warming?
Israel, paradoxically, is also in a particularly strong position. Few alliances last long in this part of the world, and no sooner are reconciliations announced than they begin to fray. The very countries that, in their move to Islamism, have turned against her, have, at the same time, gutted their armies of their military professionals. Even as they strut on the international stage, making threats and demanding abject apologies, their military ability to confront Israel wanes. And of course, the Israel he’d meet would not be the wounded, defensive one with which he shadow-boxes daily. Israelis have always had more heart for fighting real wars than for constant low-grade battles with terrorists who hide behind civilians in order to gain a propaganda victory.
Indeed, the situation of the Turks is so perilous, that one (typical) conspiracy theory circulating in among them now is that Obama has been encouraging Erdogan’s intransigence so that Turkey will enter into a disastrous war with Israel and end up losing not only to them, but to their troublesome neighbours, the Kurds. Have Egyptians really believed their fantastic narrative about defeating Israel in 1973, a victory snatched from them (rather than from the Israelis) by meddlesome Westerners? Is the mob mentality in the street and in the media, so much in evidence in 1967, still capable of driving them to a war with Israel?
Behind the military weakness lies economic weaknesses. High wheat prices from drought-stricken China played a major role in both sparking the “Arab Spring” and the weakness of Arab economies (with and without oil) pose major threats to the largely dispossessed people. With problems like this, only fools and tyrants would resort to scapegoating one of the most economically successful and productive nations in the neighbourhood, as a way to move forward. If the Turks continue their belligerence, their Jewish population will leave Turkey, and the unemployment rate will, according to some estimates, almost double.
Israel should, if anything, hold fast and let the Arabs and Muslims vent their impotent rage; even to challenge them. Israel should call Turkey’s morally repugnant bluff about concern for Palestinians even as it crushes its own minorities. Western human rights activists would do everyone a favour by spotlighting Turkey’s troubling record, for more than just the purpose of keeping them out of the EU. I’m quite sure the Kurds and the Greek Cypriots would much prefer Israel as a neighbour than Turkey — indeed, honest Arab inhabitants of Jerusalem, like those who would say they would move out any parts of Jerusalem given to the PA, would admit the same.
Of course such pushback might lead to war. No one in Israel wishes for war. Every soldier’s death and every dead civilian, on both sides, is experienced as a national tragedy. Unfortunately, even impotent venting can lead Muslim leaders down dark tunnels that they can’t escape. The extremist street can and has propelled them into following through on their rhetorical flourishes and drum rolls. Foolish Arab leaders, fuelled by false pride, will lie to each other about their capabilities, as Nasser did to the Jordanians in 1967, forcing themselves into confrontations that will cost them, the West and Israel dearly.
Of course, Israel needs help. It will need sound and sane nations and peoples who, looking at the global situation, can distinguish between firemen and arsonists, between those who show concern for both their own citizens and those of their foes, and those who willingly sacrifice their own children in order to target those of their foes. It needs outsiders who can understand that turning on one’s friends and supporting one’s enemies, reveals to any many an observer not courage, but weakness. Israel needs outsiders who understand that they are the targets of jihad just as much as the Israelis. It does not need ideologues who can’t learn from catastrophic past mistakes.
In other words, Israel needs allies who love life, freedom, and critical intelligence. It needs them the way the Dutch needed the English as they tried to survive 80 years of vicious warfare that went on around them, and the assaults of the imperial neighbour, Spain. It needs them as the Czechs needed the Western democracies to protect them from the Nazis’ insatiable appetite. Israel needs people with discernment and a lively instinct for self-preservation.
If the West had the courage of its democratic convictions, it would make it clear to the representatives of the “Arab Spring” that the barrel of the gun only makes it possible to build democracies, but that sustaining them demands far more. It would tell the Palestinians — not just the leaders, but the people — to start doing the kinds of things that will lead to peace rather than conduct a war of ethnic cleansing masquerading as peace. It would explain to the Egyptians that scapegoating a neighbor when your own government continues to fail its people only makes the problem worse. Nato would tell the Turks to keep their ships out of the eastern Mediterranean.
Of course that would mean that we in the democratic West begin to understand our own political history, and appreciate that democracy is not merely giving the people the vote, that military alliances don’t give a free hand to hostile partners. Without a democratic culture of fairness, tolerance, ability to self-criticize, and respect for the “other,” and ability therefore to enter into positive-sum relations with the other — all attitudes for which there is little evidence (and much counter-evidence) in current Arab political culture — one can expect those newly empowered voters to fall prey to the first demagogue who sounds the right notes.
A Westerner can say to me, “Forget it. They’ll never change. And if we criticise them, we’ll just alienate them, even provoke them. Israel is lost.” Of course, that also means we Westerners are lost, that we just delay our place on the crocodiles’ menu. We have the choice between genteel suicide and mental battle.
For the Soldier who fights for Truth, calls his enemy his brother:
They fight & contend for life, & not for eternal death!
But here the Soldier strikes, & a dead corse falls at his feet,
William Blake, Jerusalem, II.41-43.
Do we have the resources for mental and moral strife, and the courage to think and act clearly?
[JP note: For the mot de jour, demopath see here http://www.theaugeanstables.com/reflections-from-second-draft/demopaths-dupes/ Quote: “Demopaths are people who use democratic language and invoke human rights only when it serves their interests, and not when it calls for self-criticism or self-restraint. Demopaths demand stringent levels of human “rights” but do not apply these basic standards for the “other” to their own behavior. The most lethal demopaths use democratic rights to destroy democracy.”]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
United Arab Emirates: 16 Women Embrace Islam
DUBAI — The department of Islamic Affairs and Charitable Activities in Dubai on Wednesday saw the conversion of 16 women into Islam
According to a senior official at the department, the new converts are all Asians and mostly from the Philippines. “The new Muslims willingly approached the department to officially declare Shahada (conversion words) believing that Islam is the true religion and reason for happiness in life and the Hereafter,” said Dr Omar Al Khatib Assistant Director General of the Department. The Islamic Department in Dubai, paying much attention to new Muslims, explains and educates them on how tolerant and merciful Islam is. “We develop their awareness about the new religion; its teachings and principles in an attractive, persuasive and gentle way as instructed in the Holy Quran.”
As per official statistics, Dubai hosts expatriates from around 204 nationalities. “Our staff preachers and counsellors, who speak 11 languages, including English, French and Asian languages, simply brief people about Islam in shopping centres, hospitals and community gatherings,” Dr Al Khatib said. New Muslims also join courses on the five daily prayers which top the most pivotal pillars of Islam. “They learn how to perform Prayers as instructed by Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him),” he added. Aisha Al Kash, Head of Religious Cultivation and Counselling Section, said the converted women were touched by the special treatment they received from both Muslim Emiratis and expatriates. “They have felt no discrimination here based on religion, colour, language, country, or ethnic backgrounds,” she said.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Planned Russian-Backed Pipeline Raises Concerns in EU
A new gas pipeline between Russia and southern Europe that bypasses Ukraine has raised concerns in the EU, although Germany’s Wintershall is part of the project and former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder is a chief lobbyist. State-controlled energy giant Gazprom is planning, along with western partners, two huge gas pipeline projects whose stated goals are to secure Europe’s energy supplies but which critics say will increase the EU’s dependence on Russia.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Polish FM in WikiLeaks: Germany is Russia’s Trojan Horse
Polish foreign minister Radek Sikorski in a private conversation with US diplomats in 2008 said that Germany protects Russian interests in Nato in return for access to the Russian market. According to a US cable recently published by Wikileaks, Sikorski, in a conversation with the then US under secretary for global affairs Paula Dobriansky in Warsaw on 23 April 2008 “Wryly commented that many accused Poland of being the US Trojan horse in the EU when it joined in 2004, but there is another Trojan horse in Nato”.
The cable went on: “Asked what the US strategy should be towards Germany and Russia, Sikorski responded that Germany appears to have a deal with Russia. ‘They’ll play with Russia and in return German companies will get hundreds of billions of euros of business there, a pretty good deal’.” Sikorski made the comment after Germany opposed giving Georgia and Ukraine a Membership Action Plan (MAP) at a Nato summit in Bucharest.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Imam Shot Dead in Russian Caucasus: Police
Gunmen shot dead an elderly imam at home in the troubled Russian Caucasus region of Dagestan, the regional interior ministry said Friday, in the fourth such killing since April. Two gunmen entered the house of the imam of a village mosque in the region’s northeast at 10 pm on Thursday and “shot him with automatic weapons, causing him to die at the scene,” the interior ministry said in a statement.
The imam, named as Zainudin Daiziyev, was born in 1927, a regional police spokeswoman told AFP. The killing was the fourth murder of an imam in the mainly Muslim region of Dagestan since April this year. The Caspian Sea region experiences almost daily shootings and bombings that officials blame on local criminals and Islamists with links to Chechnya. Fuelled by endemic poverty and corruption, the militants are seeking to establish an independent Islamic state across the North Caucasus.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Following Deadly Jet Fighter Crash, Taipei Presses Washington for New Aircraft
Two ageing F-5 fighters F5 crashed into a mountain in the east of Taiwan, and the deaths of the three airforce pilots triggered new demands for a US arms sale. While Taiwan’s democratic candidate criticises president Ma and says: “We support peace, but we do want security from China”. For the first time in 10 years the State Department may shirk the US-Taiwan industry conference on defence and security.
Taipei (AsiaNews) — Taiwan’s army aircraft are now no more than “flying coffins”, and the United States must sell new fighters to the Island: “This is no longer a question of simply defence. The lives of our military are at risk”. This is the unanimous reaction of society and politics in former Formosa following the deadly fighter crash on 13 September in which all three pilots lost their lives.
On Tuesday two Taiwan ‘Air force ‘ F5 fighters disappeared from radar shortly after take-off from Hualian base in the east of the Island. The two jets were seen by eye witnesses as they crashed in the nearby mountainous area: although the causes of the accident are still to be ascertained, Taiwan officials blame the age of the jets. The bodies of the three pilots were found yesterday.
Luo Shou-he, national army spokesman, confirmed the accident and renewed a call to the US government in Washington to unfreeze the sale of new F16 aircraft: “We are in dire need of replacements “. Taiwan airforce fleet comprises mainly aircraft built some 35 years ago: China however, which considers the Island no more than a ‘rebel province’ under its own control, is pushing the US to cancel the arms sale.
Washington, according to the “Taiwan Defence Act”, in theory is obliged to sell Taipei all the arms it needs for defence against mainland China. But economic pressures from Beijing and the coming to power of Ma Yingjeou — a nationalist who has made several openings towards mainland China— had brought the situation to a standstill. However the question is now back in the news, with the US increasingly wary of angering Beijing.
Precisely yesterday came confirmation that for the first time in 10 years, there will be no leading member of the US State department at the up-coming US-Taiwan industry conference on defence and security ties between the two countries. The gathering is to be held in Virginia 18 to 20 September. However the conference will see the attendance of a leading member of the Pentagon.
A new voice in the Taiwan arms sales debate is that of Tsai Ing-wen, Democratic Party candidate set to challenge Ma in presidential elections next January. On a recent visit to Washington, Ms Tsai acknowledged that during this democratic presidency — licensed to Chen Shui-bian, independence champion from the very beginning — relations between the two states have been “difficult” but, she underlined: “We have grown together with our democracy”.
Speaking at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, she added: “Our approach to China will be stable and balanced “. But immediately criticised the president in office because, while asking the United States to go ahead with the sale of new aircraft to Taiwan,, “she has failed to set aside the promised 3 % of the GNP for the purchase of arms. We support peace but we also want to security”.
America’s President Barack Obama is expected to come to a decision on the US — Taiwan F 16 sale before the end of this present month of September.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Platypus Sex is XXXXX-Rated
The weird and wonderful duck-billed platypus just got even more weird and more wonderful. Platypuses are famous for laying eggs yet producing milk, having a bird-like bill and a skeleton with reptilian features. Now it turns out that the mammal has an equally eye-catching way of deciding its sex, according to a study by Frank Grützner and Jenny Graves at the Australian National University in Canberra, and colleagues.
In most mammals, including humans, sex is decided by the X and Y chromosomes: two Xs create a female, while XY creates a male. In birds, the system is similar: ZW makes for a female, while ZZ makes for a male. But in platypuses, XXXXXXXXXX creates a female, while XYXYXYXYXY creates a male. In other words, rather than a single chromosome pair, platypuses have a set of ten-chromosomes that determine their sex.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Woman in NSW Burqa Case Seeking Costs After Appealing Her Conviction
A MUSLIM who was at the centre of a legal case about the removal of her burqa is attempting to win costs.
Sydney woman Carnita Matthews launched her battle to win costs in the NSW District Court on Friday after successfully appealing against a conviction for falsely accusing a police officer of trying to remove the facial covering.
Ms Matthews was sentenced to six months in jail in November 2010 after being found guilty of falsely claiming the officer tried to remove her burqa during a traffic stop in Woodbine, southwest Sydney.
NSW District Court judge Clive Jeffreys overturned the conviction in June after ruling he was unable to conclude beyond reasonable doubt it was Ms Matthews who made the complaint — because the person who did so was wearing a burqa.
Ms Matthews’ lawyer, Stephen Hopper, told a brief hearing he would argue that his client should be awarded costs because the police investigation was conducted in an “unreasonable manner”.
He said he would also argue that the investigation was initiated without reasonable cause and that the case against his client was prosecuted in an “improper manner”.
Crown prosecutor Thomas Spohr is opposing the costs application.
The total amount of costs being claimed remains unclear.
Mr Hopper told reporters after Ms Matthews’ conviction was quashed that the costs sought would likely be “modest”.
The Matthews case led the NSW government to strengthen police powers to compel people to identify themselves.
Citizens are now required to remove burqas, niqabs or any other type of obscuring headwear when asked by police, or face a possible fine.
| — Hat tip: Nilk | [Return to headlines] |
Development Aid for Africa: ‘The Problems Don’t Disappear With Sacks of Rice’
Does aid to Africa do more harm than help? In a SPIEGEL interview, Zambian author and economist Dambisa Moyo explains how Western efforts have stalled real progress in Africa for the last 40 years and why it should be stopped. Africans, she argues, need to finally take responsibility for themselves.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
S. African Court Blocks Purchase of Small Chinese Condoms
(AGI) Pretoria — A South African court has blocked the acquisition of 11m Chinese made condoms due to ‘size issues’.
The dispute featured contracts between Pretoria’s finance ministry and Siqamba Medical, who in turn are supplied by China’s Phoenurse. Competitors Sekunjalo Investments Corporation have challenged the contract in court, submitting that their condoms are 20pc larger than those imported from China.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Iraqi Asylum Seeker, 17, Took Part in Gang Rape Just Four Months After Arriving in Britain
A 17-year-old Iraqi asylum seeker who had only been in Britain for four months took part in a gang rape and laughed as he humiliated the victim.
Salman Ahmed, who was thought to be drunk at the time of the assault in Oxford, was told that he would be deported after serving his sentence of five years and three months at a young offenders’ institution.
The teenager ‘enjoyed the humiliation, pain and harm’ during the attack on March 16, according to Judge Anthony King at Oxford Crown Court.
Ahmed and an accomplice, who police are still trying to track down, repeatedly raped the 23-year-old victim, after snaring her while on a night out.
According to the prosecution they told the unnamed woman: ‘You have been making two guys happy.’
Mr King heard how Ahmed and his accomplice held the woman down as each raped her.
He said: ‘When you had no reason to believe that this young woman would consent to any form of sexual contact you and a man with you took hold of her, detained her and while you lay upon her the other man then raped her.
‘Throughout she protested and sought to escape. Once that first man had raped her with your help you then separately raped her while he held her down.
‘That was not enough for you. Both of you then raped her again, each assisting the other to do so.
‘You were clearly laughing as you were enjoying the humiliation, the pain and harm you were inflicting upon her.’
He added: ‘These were grave offences. I find there was an element of pre-planning between you and the other man who has not yet been brought to justice.’
The judge was told that the victim had been sober on the evening of the attack, however, Ahmed had suffered an ‘alcoholic blackout’ and could not remember the incident.
Jeannie Mackie, defending, said he was previously ‘without sexual experience’.
Ahmed pleaded guilty when DNA evidence linked him to the crime.
His lawyer said: ‘Alcohol has been an issue in my defendant’s life.
‘Although he comes from a Muslim family he had not drunk alcohol until November 2010 when he came to this country, and alcohol has become a problem.’
Ahmed was also placed on the Violent and Sex Offender Register for life.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Cabinet Tightens Up Immigration Laws
THE HAGUE, 16/09/11 — The cabinet is virtually certain to adopt five legislative proposals from Immigration and Asylum Minister Gerd Leers which will substantially tighten up immigration and asylum policy.
Leers wants to make it easier to deport aliens who commit crimes. Should they have been in the Netherlands for less than three years, they will run the risk of deportation if they are given a jail sentence regardless of the length of the sentence.
Taking action against systematic foreign criminals will also become easier. Leers wants to deport anyone convicted of a crime three times within three years. The minster is not taking into account here how long an alien has already been living in the Netherlands. If offenders have, for example, been living in the Netherlands for 20 years, they can still be sent back to the country of origin.
The minister also wants to view family migration and reunification more stringently. Only the so-called ‘core family’ will still be eligible for coming to the Netherlands. This means the partner and underage children. Grandpas, grandmas, nephews and nieces will no longer be eligible for family reunification in future.
Additionally, a waiting period of one year will be introduced for people who are bringing their partner over. An ‘import bride’ or bridegroom will only be eligible for independent residency after five years — until that time, he or she is legal only on the basis of the relationship with the partner. Currently, the period is three years. In this way, the Christian democratic (CDA) minister hopes to prevent marriages of convenience.
Illegal residence in the Netherlands will also become a crime. In his proposals, Leers has also worked out the sanctions for this. Illegals can in future face a prison sentence of up to four months or a fine of up to 3,800 euros.
A stricter asylum and immigration policy is one of the core points of the tolerance accord between the conservatives (VVD), CDA and the Party for Freedom (PVV). For Geert Wilders’ PVV, such a more stringent policy was an important condition for supporting the minority cabinet.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: ‘Poles Are Now Stealing Our Fish’
Polish nationals are fishing Dutch lakes and rivers free of carp and pike to eat or sell on the black market, the Telegraaf claims on Friday, quoting local fishing clubs.
The situation is so serious that the clubs are now employing extra controllers and publishing information in Polish, the paper says.
The problem has arisen because eastern Europeans do not put the fish they catch back, the paper says. ‘The have other ethics and culture,’ a spokesman for the national fishing organisation Sportvisserij Nederland said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UN Rights Chief Welcomes Australia Transgender Passport Move
The UN rights chief on Friday welcomed Australia’s move to allow citizens to choose “indeterminate” as a gender option on their passports, describing it as a “victory for human rights.” Canberra had previously required a person whose gender was different from that of their birth to have sex change surgery before they could change their passport details to reflect their preferred sex, and there was no “indeterminate” option.
“This is something that will be welcome news for many transgender and intersex people in Australia who from now on will not be required to undergo surgery or hormonal treatment in order to be able to express their gender identity,” said Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. “By its action, Australia has placed itself in the vanguard of change and has scored an important victory for human rights,” she added in a statement.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Why Are We Pushing Multiculturalism on France, Russia, The World?
By Henry McCulloch on September 14, 2011
A “Festival of the Cultures of Islam” is now (September 7-17) in full swing in Paris. You’re paying for it. Why? This bit of multiculti showbiz was ginned up by the City of Paris and the U.S. Embassy-which has gone so far as to lend the Stars And Stripes to the islamopropaganda-along with (what a surprise) Harvard University. The Institut’s website says the Festival has been “organized through a partnership (réalisé en partenariat )between the City of Paris, the United States Embassy in France and Harvard University.” Such réalisations always cost you money.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Pluto’s Icy Exterior May Conceal an Ocean
PLUTO could hide a liquid ocean beneath its icy shell. Indeed, other bodies on the solar system’s frigid fringe could also harbour subsurface oceans, and these could provide the conditions to sustain life. Temperatures on Pluto’s surface hover around -230 °C, but researchers have long wondered whether the dwarf planet might boast enough internal heat to sustain a liquid ocean under its icy exterior. Now Guillaume Robuchon and Francis Nimmo at the University of California, Santa Cruz, say there is a good chance it does. They calculate that an ocean depends on two things: the amount of radioactive potassium in Pluto’s rocky core, and the sloshiness of the ice that covers it.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
‘Tatooine’ Alien Planets Should be Common, Scientists Say
The first alien planet with two suns in its sky has just been found, but many more of them are almost certainly out there, scientists say. At a press conference yesterday (Sept. 15), researchers using NASA’s Kepler space telescope announced the discovery of the planet, which is known as Kepler-16b. Like Tatooine — the home world of Luke Skywalker in the “Star Wars” films — Kepler-16b orbits a pair of stars rather than a singleton like our own sun. Though Kepler-16b is the first such “circumbinary” planet to be unambiguously detected, it won’t be the last, researchers said.
Astronomers had long suspected that binary star systems could sport planets. After all, they’ve seen dusty debris disks — the raw materials from which planets are made — cloaking young double stars. But binary systems are complex environments, Laughlin said, where gravity perturbations can toss alien planets out into space or send them barreling into one of their double suns.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
0 comments:
Post a Comment