“No Desire to Die Chinese”
La Stampa, Turin
Italian writer Antonio Scurati believes that the boom in Chinese investment in Europe and the influence of Chinese capitalism on the European economy are a threat to the freedom and sovereignty of Europeans and for their social and cultural model.
I don’t know what you think, but, as far as I’m concerned, I have no desire to die Chinese. Yet, the way things are going, it is highly probable that I will.
In mid-September, just at the time when Southern Europe was rushing towards disaster, during the Annual Congress of the World Economic Forum, which, since 2007 is held (is this a coincidence?) in China, and which is, this year, titled “New Champions 2011,” prime minister Wen Jiabao announced that his country would invest more and more in the “old” continent.
Are the Chinese going to save us or invade us?
With a terrifying sense of timing, some insistent voices were heard in the preceding days concerning Chinese intentions in making massive investments in Italian Treasury Bonds, as corroborated by the trip to Rome by the president of the China Investment Corp, one of the world’s wealthiest investment funds. He came to discuss the purchase of a consistent packet of shares in businesses strategic to our national economy. Since then, not a day has passed without us asking ourselves if the Chinese are coming to save us or to invade us.
In my own case, the question is all the more worrisome, because, as chance would have it, my most recent novel La seconda mezzanotte [Not translated into English] came out totally by chance on September 14, the very day press agencies were heralding the words of Wen Jiabao.
In the book, I imagined that in 2092, Italy would become a satellite state of China after having ceded its entire external debt and that Venice, following a terrible flood, was bought by a Beijing-based transnational company. Recast with the statute of Politically Autonomous Zone, its new destiny would be to become a theme park dedicated to luxury and the rampant vices of nouveaux riches from the East.
Clash of civilisations between Europe and China
Literary catastrophes aside, it seems clear that the arrival of Chinese political and financial sovereignty on our old continent would precipitate the decline of European civilisation as we have known, dreamed and loved it (even if only in our idyllic visions). I fear that this is a serious threat for the cultural foundations of modern Western European civilisation including: the people’s political sovereignty; freedom of thought and of expression; labour and citizens’ rights; personal autonomy; solidarity towards others in the society; personal worth; food safety and the respect for the sanctity of life.
Yes, I fear all this not only because I can still see in my mind’s eye the young man who, in Tiananmen Square, confronted a tank armed only with two grocery-filled bags (don’t forget the man was also Chinese), or because I foresee a conflict of civilisations between Europe and China, but because I am frightened by the drift of a financial capitalism in which Chinese sovereign funds today represent the spearhead and by the use made of capitalism which was conceived to finance labour and business but which has succeeded in burying both.
If in the near future politics isn’t capable of retracing its steps on the path that led from sovereignty to obscenity, there is in fact a risk that, in a not-so-distant future, a gigantic conflict will erupt between the speculative interests of stateless financial entities — whether they be Chinese, US or home-grown is of no import — and the needs, legitimate aspirations and hopes of each of us…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
China: Beijing Buys Into “Its” Banks to Prop Them Up
A sovereign fund buys shares worth 200 million yuan in China’s biggest banks in order to help the banking system stave off the crisis and the loss of confidence. However, the sector’s problems are structural. One of its elements is the apprehended real estate bubble. Meanwhile, hundreds of Chinese companies are going bust and not paying their workers’ salaries.
Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Beijing is putting 200 million yuan in the nation’s biggest banks. Shares responded positively to the news but expert warn that any benefit might prove short term, that structural changes are in act needed, especially a solution to the country’s real estate bubble and easy financing.
Huijin, part of the mainland’s sovereign wealth fund, bought 197 million yuan (US$ 31 million) worth of shares in the mainland’s big four lenders, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the Bank of China, the China Construction Bank and the Agricultural Bank of China.
Bank shares suffered most from the overall decline of the Shanghai Composite Index, which is down 16.4 per cent so far this year, after a 14.3 per cent decline in 2010.
Both expert and layman opinion believe that these financial institutions are overexposed with too many bad loans that will be hard to get back because they were given without adequate guarantees or offered to less than profitable businesses.
Still on the markets, the initial reaction to the government’s announcement was positive. China Construction Bank was up 3.9 per cent at the end of the morning session Tuesday, whilst the Industrial and Commercial Bank was 1.5 per cent higher. The Bank of China rose 2.4 per cent and Agricultural Bank added 2.0 per cent.
In Hong Kong, where the four Chinese banks are also listed, the gains were stronger. The Agricultural Bank surged 14.7 per cent by midday, while the Bank of China jumped 8.9 per cent.
However, experts are convinced that the government’s action will have only short-term effects, more symbolic than substantive because the amount of capital would have to be more significant to have a real impact. “Huijin isn’t expected to spend a big sum on the banking stocks in future because the [banks’] fundamentals will remain unchanged or [get] even worse.”
In 2008, Huijin invested 2.1 billion yuan to buy banking shares as a way to bolster the then-troubled market. But since the banks are state-owned, in time of crisis it is probable that the government will protect the interests of investors at the expense of the banks.
This has negatively affected the value of bank shares, especially in light of the overall crisis of the credit sector, with Western governments also forced to rescue their own financial institutions.
In order to favour economic growth, China has invested heavily in new infrastructures that have not generated expected spinoffs. In the recent past, many loans were made to lending companies who then loaned the capital for higher interest rates. Thus, any problems by end users will have repercussions on the banks, especially at times of crisis.
Many loans were used to invest in real estate on the expectation of rapid capital gains given the quick rise of real estate prices. However, this has led to a bubble with most people priced out of the market. Should there be any steep drop in prices, investors and banks that provided them with the capital are expected to incur in heavy losses.
For this reason, everyone believes that structural changes are needed, including less lending and more money for the population’s real needs in lieu of a never-ending quest for economic growth, which favours speculative bubbles.
In 2011, Zhejiang 228 companies, mostly small and medium-sized enterprises, owed about 76 million yuan in wages to nearly 15,000 workers.
Since many companies kept afloat only thanks to bank loans, they shut down as soon as funding ended. For experts, this is indicative of the perverse side of easy lending, which creates the illusion of wealth.
Eighty-four such enterprises are based in Wenzhou where provincial authorities apparently had to ask the central bank for 60 billion yuan from to help thousands of families in dire needs.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
EU’s Barroso Thanks Slovakia for Eurozone Bailout Approval
European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso thanked Slovakia on Thursday for finally granting its approval to a crucial rescue fund for debt-laden members of the eurozone. “I want to use this opportunity to congratulate Slovakia,” Barroso said after Bratislava approved the revamp of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF). “This is an important decision for all of us in Europe,” he told journalists in Sofia, where he was taking part in a meeting of the centre-right European People’s Party. “I never had any doubt that Slovakia would support it because it is in the interest of that country, in the interest of all euro-area countries, and in the interest of the European Union as a whole.”
The vote in the Slovakian parliament, which removed the final hurdle to expanding the European bailout fund to 440 billion euros ($600 billion), came however at a price, toppling Prime Minister Iveta Radicova’s centre-right government and setting the stage for early elections. Barroso congratulated Radicova on Thursday “because she has fought for what she believed was important for her country and for Europe.” “This is the kind of leadership that we need in Europe,” he added. The EFSF rescue mechanism was set up in May 2010 after Greece was first bailed out to save it from default. Slovakia was then the only eurozone member to abstain from the first Greek rescue package.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
German Studies Say Spain Will be Back in Recession in 2012
According to data published today by Germany’s leading economic institutions, Spain’s GDP will grow by 0.7% this year, and by barely 0.1% in 2012. The report, considered to be a reference point in Germany, forecasts that the Spanish economy “will contract temporarily” over the next few months because of “increasing insecurity” due to the debt crisis and the high unemployment rate.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Indignados: Call for Global Mobilisation 15/10 From Madrid
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, OCTOBER 13 — ‘Sorry to bother you, this is a revolution’: this is the start of a video released on the internet, in which the Spanish May 15 movement, created five months ago in Puerta del Sol in Madrid and the forerunner of protests on global level, calls a global protest on Saturday October 15 of the ‘indignados’, in which more than 600 cities in 80 countries on the five continents have agreed to participate. But the number of participants who register on website ‘15 october. net’ continues to increase by the hour. In Spain around twenty associations will participate in the protest, including Democracia Real Ya (Dry) and ‘Tomalaplaza’(Takethesquare). Sixty cities will be involved, starting with the capital, where five marches from different quarters will come together on Saturday 6 pm at Plaza Cibeles. From there the crowd will head for Plaza del Sol, symbol of the protest. In Barcelona the march of demonstrators will arrive at 7 pm at Plaza de Catalunya. The protest’s slogan is ‘United for global change’, meant to sent a clear message to politicians and the financial elite and to “claim the right to work and to have a future.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Ministries That Fail to Meet Targets Will Have Budgets Cut
(AGI) Rome — The ministries that don’t meet the spending cut targets will see their budgets reduced under the stability bill. A plan will also be presented by November 30 2011 laying down measures for a public spending review and the beginning of a spending review cycle. It emerges from a report outlining the measures included in the draft bill that will be examined by the Cabinet tomorrow.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Portugal: Cavaco Silva Takes a Stand Against “Merkozy”
Público, 13 October 2011
Following the example of Rome, Lisbon has moved to challenge the “Merkozy” couple and its vague attempt to control the destiny of the EU: Aníbal “Cavaco Silva has clearly taken up arms against Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy,” headlines Público. According to the Lisbon daily, the Portuguese President, while on a visit to Italy, expressed his concern over an “unrecognised EU board of directors, which treats community institutions with disdain and limits their room for manoeuvre.” The head of state added that the emergence of this unmandated power was evidence of a “poorly chosen” and “dangerous” response to the European crisis.
According to Silva, the solution to the euro crisis should first and foremost be provided by “greater European economic governance,” and a reinforcement of community method that would highlight the “pivotal role” played by the European Commission. This was “the speech that Europe needed,” announces an exultant Público. The newspaper argues that Cavaco knows “that fragile peripheral states like Portugal have everything to gain from a reinforcement of community institutions, and everything to lose if they are sidelined. This is probably the reason for his warning against the risk that power will be end up in the hands of member states — especially, the more powerful ones.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Temporary Relief: Slovakia Approves Euro Bailout Expansion
The Slovak parliament voted on Thursday to approve the expansion of the euro bailout fund. An earlier rejection forced the current government to agree to new elections in exchange for opposition support for the measure, which will increase the rescue package’s lending ability and reach.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mitt’s Muslim Problem
After a prominent Baptist minister proclaimed last week that Mormonism is a non-Christian “cult” that would ideally disqualify adherents from the White House, Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney enjoyed a full-throated defense from people all over the political spectrum who considered the pastor’s remarks an ugly example of religious bigotry. But Romney, a practicing Mormon, may soon find himself facing allegations of intolerance from another religious minority: American Muslims.
The Daily Beast has learned that the nation’s leading Muslim advocacy group sent a letter to the Romney campaign late Tuesday calling for the ouster of the candidate’s recently appointed foreign-policy adviser, Walid Phares. In the letter, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) refers to Phares as “an associate to war crimes” and a “conspiracy theorist,” citing ties to a violent anti-Muslim militia. Scholars and leaders throughout the Islamic community are adding pressure on Romney to drop the adviser immediately. (The Romney campaign and Phares did not immediately respond to requests for comment.)
The controversy comes at an awkward time for the campaign. Hours before CAIR’s letter was sent, Romney called on primary rival Perry to “repudiate” the anti-Mormon remarks made by the Rev. Robert Jeffress, who has endorsed the Texas governor, and touted the importance of tolerant discourse. “I just don’t believe that kind of divisiveness based on religion has a place in this country,” Romney said at a New Hampshire press conference.
Yet Phares is a divisive figure in the minds of some leading U.S. Muslims. To admirers, Phares is a well-regarded scholar who has testified before the Defense and State departments, and has worked as a terrorism expert for professional news outlets such as NBC and, most recently, Fox News. But to critics, Phares has long been a lightning rod for charges of Islamophobia and outright aggression toward Muslims. According to CAIR, Phares, who was born in Lebanon, worked as an official in the Lebanese Forces, a Christian militia that reportedly took part in “the 1982 massacre of civilian men, women, and children at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps.” In 1984, another Lebanese militia with which Phares was allegedly associated rounded up a group of men for questioning and then slaughtered them with guns and grenades, according to a news report. (There is no indication that Phares was directly involved in the violence; his roles in the organizations are reported to have been administrative.)
When he emigrated to the United States in the 1990s, Phares positioned himself as an expert on Islam and Middle East relations, allying himself with conservative think tanks and appearing frequently on television. Throughout his career as a pundit, he has warned that some Muslims are plotting a secret takeover of American institutions with the end goal of imposing Sharia.
This history of inflammatory rhetoric has drawn scorn from many corners of the American Muslim community, and CAIR’s concerns were echoed by a chorus of Islamic scholars reached by The Daily Beast. “[Phares] is hostile to Muslims and Romney has adopted an expert who is going to alienate him from a good section of the voting public,” said Ebrahim Moosa, a Duke professor of Islamic studies.
“Frankly, it is a pathetic reflection on Governor Romney to have surrounded himself with such a person for advice on the Middle East and Islam,” said Omid Safi, a professor of Islamic studies at the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill. “It would be akin to turning to [former KKK member] David Duke to get advice on race relations.” Correy Saylor, legislative director for CAIR, is willing to give Romney the benefit of the doubt and assume he was largely unaware of Phares’s past. Saylor credits Romney with showing an increased sensitivity to Islam over the years.
During his 2008 presidential candidacy, Romney reportedly told supporters in a private meeting that he would not appoint a Muslim to his cabinet. But he later walked back that comment, and in this election cycle he has occasionally found himself defending Islam against his opponents’ intolerance. Saylor cited an early primary debate during which Herman Cain hypothesized that appointing a Muslim to his cabinet could open the door to the implementation of Sharia in the U.S. Romney dismissed the paranoid theory, insisting that “people of all faiths are welcome in this country.” “He’s getting better,” Saylor concluded. “But this appointment is a step in the wrong direction.”
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Mosque Controversies Prompt Zoning Changes in DuPage
The DuPage County Board today voted unanimously to approve changes to its zoning laws that will restrict the operation of new houses of worship and other places of assembly in unincorporated residential neighborhoods. The measure, which the board approved in a 16-0 vote, came in the wake of five recent applications for new Islamic centers or mosques in residential areas in DuPage over the last two years. Three of those applications were approved by the board, one near Naperville was rejected and one, on Army Trail Road near West Chicago, has a zoning hearing scheduled for Dec. 8.
The new regulations would not affect any of those applications. However, among the restrictions is the prohibition of any new place of assembly in a single-family house without a variation granted by the County Board. Also, all new places of assembly in residential areas must have primary access on an arterial street and must use public sewer and water service, and not a private well and septic system.
The county originally had considered barring all new places of assembly from unincorporated residential neighborhoods, but scaled back on that plan. Along with religious houses of worship, the measure applies to other gathering spots, such as lodges for veterans groups. The provision dealing with single-family homes has drawn some critics. “You look back 250 years on this continent, and single-family homes have been the primary starting place for religious worship as a congregation, as an assembly,” attorney Mark Daniel, who has represented several Islamic organizations, told the board. “In this ordinance, you have a provision saying existing homes cannot be converted.”
However, several County Board members noted that the county’s zoning process does allow houses of worship to be placed in existing homes with a variance. “The idea of coming forward with a variance to place these places of assembly in these areas is still available,” said County Board member Jeff Redick, R-Elmhurst. “It places in our hands the opportunity as a County Board to evaluate each and every one of these applications on its face.” And County Board member Jim Zay, R-Carol Stream, said the measure is necessary to control disruptive changes to neighborhoods.
“What we’re worried about is people’s property rights,” Zay said. “In our district, we have a lot of single-family homes being bought, and the next thing you know, there are 25 cars in the driveway, and (neighbors) are up in arms.” Maryam Judar, a staff attorney with the Citizen Advocacy Center in Elmhurst, praised the board for working to develop the zoning regulations. However, she expressed concerns about possible religious discrimination in the County Board’s review process for variations. “There is still potential for abuse in the process when reviewing applications for variations by people who might have differing viewpoints from those of the current board or future board, or those (viewpoints) of the current or future Board of Zoning Appeals,” she said. “Our…sincere hope is that the zoning process is not used to shut out those who are different from some of us and those who seek to enhance their spiritual and religious life.”
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Multiculturalism Continues to Grow in Central Oklahoma
OKLA. CITY — Several weeks ago, a panel of judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals in Denver asked an attorney representing the state of Oklahoma questions regarding the legality of the constitutional measure approved by the voters of Oklahoma that prohibits the state courts from considering Sharia law when making judicial decisions. That enactment received overwhelming support from a majority of the Oklahoma electorate and was described by those who proposed it as a “pre-emptive strike” against efforts to introduce Muslim law in Oklahoma despite the fact that there has been no record of any such efforts by any parties.
Similar measures have been proposed in other states and those who have sponsored them often have said, without much evidence, that their enactment would serve to protect Muslim women who have emigrated to the U.S. But historian Phillip Mansel has written in “Levant, Splendor and Catastrophe on the Mediterranean” of a time when both Christian and Jewish women in the Turkish empire voluntarily submitted to Muslim courts because of the greater inheritance rights women had under Sharia law then they did under Christian or Jewish law at that time. He also documents how Christians and Jews who lived in the lands ruled by the Turkish sultan often voluntarily submitted to Muslim courts to resolve legal disputes.
Mansell describes how in the three great Mediterranean ports of Smyrna, Alexandria and Beirut, people of different faiths and creeds lived and work together in relative harmony until the Turkish Empire collapsed in the early decades of the last century. Those cities are now part of the nations of Turkey, Egypt and Lebanon, respectively. Beginning in the 17th century many merchants from Europe and other regions came to those cities to engage in trade, and by agreement of the Turkish authorities they were governed in most aspects of their lives by consular officials from their home countries. They also were permitted to practice their religion without interference from the Turkish government.
Some of those merchants founded commercial firms that engaged in international trade, and many of those firms were in existence for several centuries. The historian makes clear that those ports were cosmopolitan places where a variety of languages and religious traditions flourished. But he also sets forth how the rise of Turkish and later Egyptian nationalism resulted in the forced departure of Greeks, Europeans and Jews from both Smyrna and Alexandria, and how those cities lost their multicultural character and much of their prosperity as a result. While Beirut maintained some of its cosmopolitan character despite a bloody civil war that began in the 1970s, Mansell fears that the rise of the militant Shiite party Hezbollah, which now controls parts of Beirut, and the continuing migration of Christians from Lebanon, may portend a similar fate for that city.
And in recent years Oklahoma City has become an increasingly cosmopolitan place, where immigrants from across the world have come for the economic opportunities that are found here. Future historians of Oklahoma will be able to chronicle how by the early years of the 21st century Oklahoma City and Edmond both had Muslim, Catholic and Christian schools in operation, and that cricket matches played by Indians and Pakistanis were offered in those communities on a frequent basis. Spanish language media, including newspapers and a television station are now also in operation in the Oklahoma City area, and a Chinese language newspaper is currently being published in Edmond. And in time Oklahoma’s capital probably will enjoy the cultural and economic vitality that is the result of being a multicultural city.
WILLIAM F. O’BRIEN is an Oklahoma City attorney.
[JP note: I didn’t see that leap of the imagination in the last paragraph from Beirut to Oklahoma City coming.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
North County to Get a Taste of Islam
If the selective application of truth fosters lies as San Luis Obispo resident Dr. Rushdi Abdul-Cader suggests, the whole truth is the best cure.Abdul-Cader, Rev. Jane Voigts and Dr. Stephen R. Lloyd-Moffett have been sharing the truth about Islam for the past four years, primarily in San Luis Obispo. But due to popular demand, the group will present “A Taste of Islam: An Introduction to the Faith of Muslims” at the Atascadero Pavilion on the Lake on Saturday, Oct. 29 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., complete with a catered lunch.
In previous years, the presentation consisted of six one-hour classes held over six weeks in San Luis Obispo. For the North County crowd, the organizers decided to limit it to a one-day class broken up with a catered lunch. The lunch will be catered by Aasim Sajjad, owner of the Shalimar Indian Restaurant in San Luis Obispo. Sajjad has catered the class before. Though Sajjad downplayed the significance of the event, Abdul-Cader said that midway through the series last year, one of Sajjad’s customers said that if he, Sajjad, continued to cater the event, the customer would spread the word that he was supporting terrorism.
Which is an attitude that, Abdul-Cader said, illustrates perfectly the need for the class. “It’s an academic treatment of Islam,” Abdul-Cader said. “[The class is] not a propaganda thing.” Lloyd-Moffett, assistant professor of philosophy and religious studies program at Cal Poly, agreed with Abdul-Cader. “There’s enough interesting stuff about religion — any religion — without making stuff up,” Lloyd-Moffett said.
Lloyd-Moffett said he got involved in educating the public at large about Islam last year. He said he was tired of the misinformation being thrown around surrounding the idea of an Islamic center at Ground Zero in New York City. “So our job is to help people become intelligent consumers of the news they receive,” he said. Voigts, the pastor of San Luis Obispo Methodist Church, said she got involved because when one religious community is stigmatized, the others should stand up for it. “This is an example of how faith communities should support each other,” Voigts said. “If there weren’t any resistance to [Islam], the class wouldn’t be worth it.”
Abdul-Cader, himself a Muslim, said he is involved for two major reasons. First, he said he wants to combat what he calls “Mislam,” a term he uses to “differentiate the advocacy of misanthropes and malicious people who happen to practice the religion of Islam from the Abrahamic faith of 1.65 billion people.” The other reason he gave is that he doesn’t want his children to be looked at as anybody’s enemy. “It’s unfair for my wife and kids to be cast in the shadow of Mislam,” Abdul-Cader said.
To combat Mislam, the group has a very definite and practiced plan. Before lunch, Lloyd-Moffett said, he will lecture, classroom-style, about the history and philosophy of Islam, the Quran and its relationship with other religions. “There’s no agenda,” Lloyd-Moffett said. “It’s not from a positive point of view or an apologist point of view. It’s just the facts.” After lunch, which Voigts said would have vegetarian options, the group will address the major talking points: women, violence and paranoia. “Widespread fear mixed with widespread ignorance is a lethal combination,” Lloyd-Moffett said. “We live next to each other, so we have an obligation to understand each other. That doesn’t mean we’re all the same. But difference doesn’t mean you have to be disagreeable.”
Voigts echoed that thought. “It’s a chance for the folks of Atascadero to get to know one another,” she said. “We hope to help people meet people they might not have met otherwise.” But, above all, the three want to battle ignorance. And ignorance, Lloyd-Moffett said, is not necessarily the fault of the ignorant. “If someone tells me something about nuclear science, I don’t know if it makes sense or not,” Lloyd-Moffett said. “But we live in a world now where knowledge of religion is not just a nice thing to have, but I think it’s become a civic duty because we live in such a global environment.”
But Voigts said it’s not going to be a difficult class, and will actually be a lot of fun. “It’s to help people get a six-hour, helpful academic introduction to Islam, have a chance to meet some people they may not have known from cross cultures — and across town — and have a good time,” Voigts said. “It should be fun. I think we’ve kept it somewhat light and yummy — both in ideas and cuisine.” The event is open to everybody. The group suggests a $20 donation to help cover rental fees and to help pay for the next class, but said they would welcome any size donation, and folks should not think of the donation as a ticket price. mFor more information, contact Rev. Jane Voigts at 543-7580 or pastor@sloumc.com or Rev. Susan Brecht at 466-9108 or since
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Radical Islam: A Problem World Leaders Must Confront
Radical Islam is a growing problem throughout the world. In Europe, it’s a burgeoning issue that politicians have been unwilling to address properly because of the influence of Muslims there, but it’s a critical problem in the United States, too — especially in our nation’s prisons.
The mood in the U.S. is so anti-anti-Islam that politicians run for cover whenever Islam is raised as an issue. Not so with Representative Peter King (R-New York). He endured death threats and ridicule from liberals because he held hearings in the House of Representatives to investigate the Islamist threat we face as a nation. The people who castigated King because he took his job in the House seriously will be the first in line to raise a ruckus if/when a homegrown terrorist, maybe an ex-convict who is out on parole, attacks innocent men, women, and children in this country.
I’m reminded of a scene in the movie Ghost Writer. Pierce Brosnan plays a former British prime minister being charged with crimes against humanity in the International Criminal Court (ICC) in Geneva, Switzerland for trying to prevent terrorist attacks in Great Britain. Toward the end of the movie, Brosnan tells his ghostwriter (Ewan McGregor) that if he had it to do all over again, he would have two lines for people boarding planes out of England. The first line would lead to planes carrying passengers whose terrorist affiliations and connections were not investigated. The second line would lead to planes carrying passengers who had been cleared. He says, in effect, “You know which planes the chronic complainers would board. Every one of them would choose a plane that we cleared.”
The movie is fiction, but the problem is real. World leaders who attempt to deal with the growing Islamist militancy problem that’s spreading across the globe like a putrid infection are at risk of being charged with crimes against humanity or worse in the ICC. For example, President George W. Bush was forced to cancell a trip to Geneva in February 2011 to avoid being charged with crimes against humanity for the role he played as president of the United States in creating the federal prison in Guantánamo Bay, where the U.S. holds captured terrorists.
Radical Islam Is a Global Threat
An article in a June 2011 issue of The Weekly Standard titled “From Somalia to Nigeria: Jihad” stops far short of revealing the extent to which radical Islamists have infiltrated countries around the world. “From Somalia to Nigeria” is across the heart of Africa, from the Arabian Sea to the South Atlantic, but jihadists have a major presence in every North African country, too, from Morocco to Egypt. Their presence in the Middle East is obvious as well, from Saudi Arabia to Lebanon and Syria, but it doesn’t stop there. They have created strongholds in Iran, Afghanistan, and the Indian subcontinent. Their reach extends from India to the Philippines and Indonesia and into the heart of Asia from China to Russia.
Jihadists are active in Europe, too, but their presence doesn’t stop there, either. They have footholds in most South American countries, including Venezuela, Bolivia, and Brazil. Like a thriving cancer, jihadists have extended their reach to North America from Mexico to the United States to Canada.
Radical Islam is a problem that the entire world must confront. It’s not about politics. It’s about eradicating a festering sore before it turns into gangrene and threatens our very existence.
The YouTube videos below showing recent violent outbursts in Cairo aimed at Coptic Christians who dared to stand up for their rights demonstrate what the Arab Spring has become. Discrimination against Christians and Jews in the Muslim world isn’t limited to Egypt. It exists in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq, and most other predominantly Muslim countries.
- 24 Dead in Worst Cairo Rioting in Months
- Raw Video: Deadly Sectarian Violence in Cairo
- Deadly clashes over Coptic protest in Cairo
The U.S. doesn’t need a president who bows and scrapes before Islamic despots in hopes of currying favor — something that President Obama is prone to do. We need a president who is willing to lead the leaders of the world in a global mission before it’s too late. We didn’t declare war on jihadists. They declared war on us, and they are deadly serious. We should be, too.
We Don’t Need Dilettantes in Leadership Positions
In a recent article, Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz pointed out that after a terrorist attack on Norway, Norway’s ambassador to Israel said that Hamas’ terrorist activity against Israel is more justified than terrorist attacks against Norway. The ambassador’s logic was simple, naïve, and asinine. “We Norwegians,” he said, “consider the occupation to be the cause of the terror against Israel.”
First things first: the land in question in Israel isn’t “occupied.” It’s “disputed land.” There’s a huge difference. People in Norway need to get it straight, and so do people in other nations around the world.
Second, Islamofascists have made it clear that they have set their sights on the entire world. They say that they want a one-world caliphate under sharia law. They don’t really mean that, though — they don’t want the rule of any law. They are subversive butchers, murderers, and thieves — Islamist anarchists, as it were. They are a threat to everyone, Muslims included. They don’t like even each other.
Third, the terrorist attack on Norway wasn’t carried out by a radical Islamist. It was perpetrated by Anders Breivik, a man who was reported by the Western media to be a Christian. His manifesto proves that that’s not so, but the anti-Christian point of view sells in a world where it’s okay to attack Jews and Christians, but not Muslims.
We may be witnessing the beginning of a global backlash against radical Islamists in the wake of government unwillingness to address the problem. In a nutshell, I’m saying that I don’t think Breivik was a lone wolf. Neither do I believe that the anti-Islamists of the world are connected in a formal sense — not yet, anyway, but that day may come.
When governments fail to do their jobs, people take matters into their own hands. I’m not excusing Breivik’s brutal, unprovoked attack on innocent victims, many of whom were children. I’m simply stating a fact, and I’ll repeat it to make sure that my message is crystal-clear. If people who are charged with the responsibility to secure our nations won’t do their jobs, vigilantism will result. It’s a dangerous consequence of government failure.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Sharia Law Suitable for the United States?
by Michael Waldron
The title of Eliyahu Stern’s 2 Sep 2011 column in New York Times, “Don’t Fear Islamic Law in America,” caught my eye so I swallowed hard and read a New York Times opinion piece. I’ve lived twice in Pakistan so most things Islamic interest me — that’s my excuse for reading the New York Times. I soon learned that Professor Stern equated 19th and 20th century anti-Jewish prejudice toward Jewish law with present concerns about Islamic Sharia law. He references Napoleon’s concerns about the loyalty of Jews and German philosophers’ attempts to harmonize Jewish culture with the predominant Christian community. Apparently, one of those Germans, Bruno Bauer, was concerned that Jews wouldn’t work on Saturday. Really!
Professor Stern, an assistant professor of religious studies and history at Yale, states in his column: “The crusade against Shariah undermines American democracy, ignores our country’s successful history of religious tolerance and assimilation, and creates a dangerous divide between America and its fastest-growing religious minority.” This is not just some academic exercise because there are a large number of Muslims in southeastern Michigan and there already have been some calls for allowing Sharia law in Michigan. Professor Stern’s academic credentials, notwithstanding, I cannot see any connection between anti-Jewish law sentiment and anti-Sharia law sentiment. Professor Stern theorizes that allowing Sharia law will promote a moderate form of Islam and increase the assimilation of Muslims. There are three major problems with that theory.
First, the British have experimented with allowing Sharia law in Britain for some time. If both parties in a civil suit agree, the British legal system allows Sharia law to decide the case. There is no evidence that this has promoted assimilation of Muslims in Britain. If recent civil unrest is any indication, it has not.
Second, Americans traditionally tolerate all religions, except where religions violate the rights of its members. For instance, the United States refused to admit Utah into the Union until Mormons renounced polygamy. Sharia law varies from country to country and from Sunni to Shia Islamic sects. Some aspects of Sharia Law would conflict dramatically with American law. For instance:
- Men may marry up to four women, although polygamy is rare.
- A man can unilaterally divorce his wife by stating three times “I divorce…” in front of witnesses.
- Testimony of two women equals the testimony of one man.
- Homosexuality is forbidden.
- The penalty for adultery is stoning.
- The penalty for thievery is the amputation of one hand.
- Apostasy is punishable by death.
- In some countries, blasphemy is punishable by death.
Third, is there any historical example where the United States recognized such a radical departure from our legal traditions, particularly equal protection under the law? Professor Stern provides no example.
I am no expert on Islam, and I must reiterate that Sharia Law is not the same everywhere; nevertheless, some of the aspects of Sharia law listed above are in effect in most Muslim countries. Especially regarding the status of women, there doesn’t appear to be any common ground between Sharia law and the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees equal treatment of men and women.
Would we really allow an Islamic community in America to stone to death an adulteress or execute a Muslim who converted to another faith? In other aspects of Islamic life, Americans make no restrictions where there is no conflict with American law. For instance, no one cares whether Muslims eat pork or drink alcohol or on which day Muslims pray together communally.
I should add that some aspects of Sharia law are good. Zakat or alms tax for the poor is one of them. Furthermore, there are protections for women and children in Sharia law.
This column concentrates on those aspects of Sharia law that conflict with our constitution. The last paragraph begs the question, “Why not allow parts of Sharia law that do not conflict with our Constitution if the parties involved want Sharia law to decide their case?” That’s what the British did. As I remarked, allowing Sharia law did not bring the Islamic community closer to the Anglo community. In fact, I think it emphasized the differences or at least perpetuated them.
There is another aspect of Islam that is troubling to non-Muslims. From the very beginning of the history of Islam, there has been the belief that the world is divided into Dar al Islam (House of Islam) where Islam is dominant and Dar al Harb (House of War) where Islam is not dominant. The obvious implication is that there will be war in all areas not dominated by Islam. Modern day jihadists are most adamant about converting the entire world to Dar al Islam by whatever means available.
Immigration is usually a voluntary act. Rather than placing the onus on the United States to make Muslims feel comfortable by allowing them to use Sharia law, Muslim immigrants must accept the U.S. Constitution, which grants freedom to all—even wives and daughters. America is a unique country in the world. An immigrant becomes a full-fledged citizen immediately when that person accepts the democratic ideals of our Constitution. We do not stigmatize immigrants because of their race, religion, or language. We only ask that they accept the democratic traditions of our constitution. That should extend to Muslim immigrants like it has to every other immigrant group.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
‘Wham! Bam! Islam!’ Review: Disappointing
Wham! Bam! Islam!: Documentary, on “Independent Lens,” 10 p.m. today [13 October 2011], PBS
You know those times when you’re watching a film or TV show and you wish you could magically thrust your hands through the screen, take the filmmaker by the scruff of the neck and strongly suggest he just knock it off? That’s the kind of reaction the season premiere documentary on PBS’ “Independent Lens” may provoke when it airs tonight at 10. “Wham! Bam! Islam” isn’t exactly bait-and-switch, but the merely adequate film misses its own point much of the time.
Director Isaac Solotaroff had a really fascinating subject to tackle in Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa, a Columbia-educated Kuwaiti psychologist who created a comic book series several years ago called The 99, designed to give Muslim kids superheroes they could identify with, as opposed to Western icons like Batman, Spider-man and Superman. The concept was far easier said than done. Working with a multinational team, including an artist and an editor who had experience in the creation of Western comics, Naif’s plan at first received a great deal of mostly positive media attention in the Muslim world, but then reality reared its objecting head.
The name and concept for the comic derive from the 99 virtues of Allah, which are embodied in young male and female superheroes around the world in the comic book. Fully understanding the restrictions of Islamic law when it comes to depictions of Allah and Muhammad, Naif and his team work hard to make sure the comic’s characters come across as human representations of the 99 attributes, not manifestations of the deity or the prophet.
Despite their good intentions, they run afoul of some Muslim communities. Saudi Arabia won’t allow the comics into the country at all, groups in other nations question the revealing costumes of some of the superheroes, and others argue that personification of the 99 attributes is itself forbidden under Islamic law. Those are the topics that make “Wham! Bam!” partially interesting. The problem is that the opposition Naif faces in the Islamic world thwarts his business plan, and that’s what Solotaroff finds more fascinating than the cultural conflicts.
The financial problems Naif encounters stem directly from opposition from within the Islamic community. But instead of focusing on those issues, Solotaroff concentrates on Naif’s money woes, including the rapid descent of his new company, leading to staff layoffs. After Naif got things back on track, he sold part of the company to an Islamic investment firm and began to expand the franchise with merchandising and an animated version of the comic book, which was supposed to air on the Hub channel in the United States.
However, as a printed postscript informs us, an article in the New York Post claimed the animated series was meant to indoctrinate young viewers and the Hub pulled the show.
What happened after Solotaroff finished most of the work on the film actually points up its shortcomings. But even if the animated version had sailed onto American television, we’d be left wanting to know more about the debate over culture and religion within the Muslim world.
There’s a particularly fertile scene in the film, showing a group of Muslim teens break-dancing. One of them talks about how tradition can be stifling in his country and about how the older generation needs, basically, to lighten up. He’s like any teenager anywhere, of course, but the scene and a handful of others leave us with more questions than answers.
This really isn’t a film about Islamophobia: It’s a film about marketing. “Wham! Bam! Islam!” may play well enough at Wharton, but for general viewers, it’s a disappointment
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Canadian University Appoints Terror-Supporter to Head Department
In March, Huron University College—an affiliated campus of London, Ontario’s University of Western Ontario—announced its intent to accept a $2 million endowment to install a Chair in Islamic Studies, as part of Huron’s Faculty of Theology. The money was to come from various sources, but the bulk of it from the Muslim Association of Canada, a Canadian Islamic organization that aims to uphold the values of the Muslim Brotherhood, and the International Institute of Islamic Thought, an organization indicted alongside al-Qaeda as a sponsor of terrorism.
The College dismissed concerns early on about financial links to radical individuals and organizations, with then-interim principal Trish Fulton saying, “Huron University College is aware of the allegations against IIIT… The funding was approved by our Executive Board after a thorough due diligence process, which we would implement in the event of any gift of this magnitude.”
Now, sources inside Huron University College have stated the College’s intent to announce their appointment tomorrow morning. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a member of the College’s search committee revealed the appointment to be Dr. Ingrid Mattson, a convert to Islam who is presently a Professor of Islamic Studies at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut, and Director of the MacDonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations.
The presence of a white, female, English-speaking, convert to Islam in such a leadership role for North American Muslims may seem like the community’s embrace of progressiveness, but Mattson is far from being a moderate.
In 2001, Mattson claimed that Wahhabism—Saudi-sponsored terrorism that was in play during the September 11 attacks—was “analogous to the European protestant reformation”. She denounced it had any role in 9/11, which has been disproven. More shockingly, in a post-9/11 PBS interview, she candidly stated that she couldn’t find “any difference” between Christian leaders criticizing Islam and Osama bin Laden claiming to represent Islamic theology.
This ‘expert’ in Muslim-Christian relations also claimed that, “Right-wing Christians are very risky allies for American Jews, because they are really anti-Semitic. They do not like Jews.” I must have missed this memo; I apologize to any of my Jewish friends whom I misled by claiming I liked them.
Mattson also justified Palestinian terrorism, inferring it’s the natural byproduct of a people being forced to “defend their families and lands,” even going so far as to lay some of the blame on American foreign policy. How about Muslim sleeper cells? Surely we can all agree that those aren’t ideal. Well, according to Dr. Moderate, they don’t exist.
The list goes on.
Most interestingly, Huron College claims that the appointment of a Chair in Islamic Studies, a first in Canada, serves to continue the College’s tradition of “building bridges” between religious communities, rather amusing given that Mattson has stated her opposition to intellectual discourse when it comes to Islam, saying, “It is not permitted for a Muslim to maintain a close friendship with a highly intelligent person who engages him or her in stimulating conversation[…] Clearly there are groups among American Christians and Jews who are so hostile to Muslims that we should not join with them even in shared concerns, lest we lend any credibility to their organizations.”
Radicalism is not born overnight. It’s accomplished when political correctness and complacency allow our conquerors to control debate, the flow of information, and more specifically, the process of education. Breeding radicals is not only done through mosques, but through publicly-funded universities.
The West is now on a road from which there is no turning back.
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British Government Seeks Royal Succession Reform
(AGI) London — The British government has started procedures to change the rules on royal succession. Under the government’s proposal, the first child of Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge would become monarch regardless of sex, which means that an elder daughter would no longer be passed over in favour of a younger brother. British prime minister David Cameron wrote to the 16 Commonwealth nations where Queen Elizabeth II is recognised as the Head of State to inform them of the planned reform which would also lift a long-standing ban on heirs to the throne marrying Roman Catholics.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Ceremonial Monarchy Growing in Popularity
While 75% of the Dutch population supports the monarchy, a growing number thinks it is time for modernisation, with 25% in favour of a ceremonial monarchy, according to figures released on Monday by the NOS.
The NOS asked agency Synovate to conduct the research ahead of a debate on the monarchy to be broadcast this evening. The discussion is about whether to remove the monarch from the Council of State, which would need a change in the constitution, or just end the monarch’s involvement in government, which needs a simple majority.
A growing number of people think the monarch should no longer be involved in government. In April this year the figure was 33%. That has now grown to 37%.
If there is a change to a ceremonial monarchy, 50% of those questioned said this should be done when Willem-Alexander succeeds to the throne.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Queen Should Pay Tax: Say MPs
The royal family will have to pay tax, pay rent on their palaces and lose their right to free air travel if proposals from the Labour party get majority support in parliament.
The royal family budget is set to be discussed today and a majority of MPs back ending the queen’s tax free status, according to Tuesday’s Volkskrant.
‘Everyone has to tighten their belts and that includes the highest in the land,’ said Labour MP Jeroen Recourt.
Clarity
Recourt also wants more clarity on the royal family’s spending. ‘The budget may have been modernised but there are still many hidden elements,’ he said. ‘I want that to be clearer.’
In particular, Recourt is concerned about the blurring of the line between the family’s public role and private spending.
The MP is not calling for a reduction in the queen, prince Willem-Alexander and princess Maxima’s annual allowances. ‘A queen should not have to make a state visit in dresses from [high-street retailer] H&M,’ he said.
Spending cuts
However, according to the Telegraaf, a majority of VVD MPs want the government to cut the royal family’s basic allowance — unchanged next year at €7.2m. The party is set to urge the prime minister to cut the royals’ budget from 2013.
There is considerable pressure from parliament for a change in the royal family’s role. The queen, for example, is officially head of the government and is central in the formation of new coalitions.
A survey for Nos television by Synovate found that 75% of the Dutch do not want the role of the monarchy to be purely ceremonial and two-thirds think Willem-Alexander should modernise the institution when he takes over from his mother.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Norway Killer Says 80 Militant Cells in Europe: Police
OSLO (Reuters) — Anders Behring Breivik, who has confessed to the bomb and shooting attacks that killed 77 people in Norway in July, says there are up to 80 cells in Europe with militant anti-Islamic ideals like his own, Norwegian investigators said on Thursday.
Norwegian police said previously that Breivik had said there were two or three cells in Norway, apart from himself, and “several” elsewhere in Europe that shared his plans to stop what they saw as an Islamic invasion of Europe.
“It’s more like three in Norway and 80 around Europe,” police prosecutor Christian Hatlo told Reuters, adding that Breivik had made the allegation since shortly after his arrest on July 22.
Hatlo added: “We have not uncovered a single one of them.”
He said the police had intentionally played down Breivik’s alleging of 80 like-minded cells in order to avoid causing panic across the continent at the time.
Police spokesman Roar Hansen, who has briefed reporters since the attacks, confirmed the number.
“The number I now have is between 60 and 80,” he said. “But I don’t think they (investigators) trust what Breivik is saying on this matter.”
Hatlo said Norwegian police had asked authorities in 20 nations to interview 35 non-Norwegians in connection with the July 22 killings caused by a bomb in Oslo and a gun massacre at a nearby island summer camp for Labor Party youths.
Fifteen of the 35 remain to be interviewed, he said, though none is considered a potential accomplice. He said the purpose of the international inquiries was to document Breivik’s travels, purchases and ideological alliances.
“We still think he (Breivik) did this alone and we have not uncovered any accomplices. But it is far too early to draw any final conclusions,” Hatlo said.
At a news conference on Thursday Hatlo said investigators had recovered 186 shell casings from the island where Breivik attacked the summer camp, killing 69 of his 77 victims.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Rich Tradition of Sagas Form Heart of Modern Iceland
Iceland’s sagas lie at the heart of the island nation’s modern culture. The tiny country’s oral traditions were a main form of entertainment when only a few thousand people were spread out across the island.
Icelandic sagas have had an undeniable impact on world literature. Previously, when Iceland was a scattered nation living in pretty poor conditions in turf huts, the sagas were a recreational outlet, Arthur Björgvin Bollason said. The author and translator who lives in Frankfurt, was long time director of Saga Center in southern Iceland. “The sagas helped people have more joy in life,” he said. “They have been handed down from one generation to another and played a role in everyday life, because the narrative was a kind of happiness, a form of entertainment. There was not so much entertainment in those days.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Train Track Attacks: Debate Over ‘Leftist Terrorism’ Erupts in Germany
So far, authorities have found at least 17 incendiary devices near German rail facilities in and around Berlin this week. Many are concerned that the country is seeing the beginnings of a wave of leftist terror. But others, including left-wing extremists themselves, aren’t so sure.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Harry Potter’s “Vincent Crabbe” Charged as London Rioter
(AGI) London- Jamie Waylett, who played bully Vincent Crabbe in Harry Potter, has been charged with rioting in London in August. Waylett took part in the rioting which put a Camden neighbourhood to the fire and sword on August 8. Marijuana plants were also found in Waylett’s home. Arrested on September 20, Waylett went before the Highbury court judge today after being released on bail.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Harris Tweed: The Champagne of Fabrics Recovers Its Fizz
Harris Tweed is Britain’s most famous fabric and is the only cloth in the world protected by an act of parliament. It has been made for centuries by inhabitants of the Isles of Harris and Lewis in Scotland. Once synonymous with aristocratic hunting-shooting party attire and later for somewhat stuffy men’s suits, Harris Tweed was launched into the realms of high-fashion by Vivienne Westwood in the 1980s. In recent years, however, its popularity has waned: falling sales and the development of modern outdoor materials like Gore-Tex cast a shadow over its future. But now, thanks to local passion and revised marketing strategies, the Scottish fabric is making a comeback: Production and sales are booming and the whole industry is sparkling once more.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Unparalleled Preservation: Near-Perfect Young Dinosaur Fossil Found in Bavaria
German paleontologists have discovered what they believe is the best-preserved dinosaur skeleton ever found in Europe. Some 98 percent of the fossil found in the southern state of Bavaria is intact, and it will soon be placed on display for a short time in Munich.
The discovery of young, unnamed dinosaur fossils is rare, but on Wednesday researchers in southern German state of Bavaria announced they had uncovered an almost perfect specimen. The flesh-eating member of the theropod subgroup, which walked on its hind legs, is among the best preserved specimens of its kind worldwide, said Oliver Rauhut, conservator of Bavaria’s state paleontological and geological collections (BSPG) in Munich. The fossil found in the central Bavarian community of Kelheim is about 98 percent complete, and also includes preserved bits of skin. “The around 135-million-year-old fossil is of outstanding scientific importance,” dinosaur expert Rauhut told the German news agency DPA.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
European Union: An Enlargement of Illusions
Dagens Nyheter, Stockholm
In opening up the prospect of accession to several candidate countries, the European Commissioner for Enlargement means to put on a show of optimism. But it only reinforces the impression that Europe doesn’t know where it’s going, writes the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter.
Annika Ström Melin
Poor Štefan Füle. On 12 October, the European Commissioner for Enlargement had the thankless task of presenting the annual report in Brussels on the nine countries — Croatia, Turkey, Iceland, Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, Serbia, Bosnia and Kosovo — that want to join the Union. The presentation was somewhat surreal, staged as if nothing serious was happening in the EU, as if everything was ticking over normally.
Štefan Fule is not what one might call a joker, which did not prevent him from declaring that the future of Europe is bright. See how successful the EU strategy is! Europe puts forwards its demands, and the countries that want to join become more democratic. 2011 was a good year for the expansion, Štefan Fule asserts. It’s a brave facade, for the Commissioner barely dares to believe it himself.
Iceland is the best prepared
The less encouraging truth is, first of all, that several countries waiting outside the door of Europe have serious problems, and so the EU is unlikely to be able to grow much more. Certainly, the negotiations with Croatia have been completed, and the Commission proposes to welcome the country into the EU in 2013. Štefan Fule also believes that Serbia and Montenegro have made progress and so will be able to take some further steps on the long road to membership.
But negotiations with Turkey have been suspended, and the country seems to have headed in the wrong direction, like Bosnia, Albania and Kosovo. It’s Iceland, which has already adopted large parts of European law, that seems most ready. It remains to be seen, however, whether the Icelanders will want to vote “yes” when the time comes to decide by referendum the question of accession.
The Union can not welcome more poor countries
Everyone knows, though, that the question of further enlargement does not concern merely the integration of candidate countries. It’s equally important to get a picture of how the 27 current members are doing. Can they overcome their difficulties, preserve their cohesion? Otherwise, how would the Union find the energy to welcome new countries, most of which are poor?
Štefan Füle has given assurances that the expansion will continue and that everything is “under control” in Brussels. At a time when the euro is wobbling, and with it the whole of the European Union, the European Commissioner is grooming the candidate countries with an undiminished enthusiasm. It’s a facade of self-assurance whose main effect is to deepen the sense of crisis…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: A Firsthand Account: Marching From Shubra to Deaths at Maspero
by Sarah Carr
The march from the Cairo district of Shubra was huge, like the numbers on 28 January. In the front row was a group of men in long white bibs, “martyr upon demand” written on their chests. A tiny old lady walked among them, waving a large wooden cross: “God protect you my children, God protect you.” The march started down Shubra Street around 4 pm, past its muddle of old apartment buildings, beat up and sad but still graceful compared with the constructions from the Mubarak era next to them — brutish and unfinished-looking.
A man explained why there were bigger numbers than the march last week in response to the attack on the St. George’s Church in Aswan: the army had hit a priest while violently dispersing Coptic protesters in front of the Maspero state TV building on Wednesday. A video posted online showed a young man being brutally assaulted by army soldiers and riot police.
At a traffic underpass at the end of Shubra Street, shortly after the march started, there was the sudden sound of what sounded like gunfire. Protesters at the front told those behind to stop — the march was under attack. Rocks rained down from left and right and from the bridge, underneath which protesters were taking shelter. Some threw stones back. Behind them, protesters chanted, “The people want the removal of the Field Commander.” The stone throwing eventually stopped sufficiently for the march to continue. A teenage boy crossed himself repeatedly as he moved forward toward the rocks.
Darkness fell just as the march reached Galaa Street. “This is our country,” protesters chanted, led by a man on a pickup truck full of speakers. An illuminated cross floated through the darkness. At the headquarters of state daily newspaper Al-Ahram, a single rock was thrown at the door, likely a comment on its coverage of violence against Copts. Outside the Ramsis Hilton Hotel, the chanting stopped momentarily — the exuberance of having escaped the attack in Shubra faded as the march rounded the corner toward Maspero. It was immediately met with gunfire in the air. As protesters continued moving forwards, the gunfire continued.
Suddenly, there was a great surge of people moving back, and something strange happened. Two armored personnel carriers (APCs) began driving at frightening speed through protesters, who threw themselves out of its path. A soldier on top of each vehicle manned a gun, and spun it wildly, apparently shooting at random although the screams made it difficult to discern exactly where the sound of gunfire was coming from.
It was like some brutal perversion of the military show the armed forces put on for the 6th of October celebration three days before. The two vehicles zigzagged down the road outside Maspero underneath the 6th of October Bridge and then back in synchronicity, the rhythm for this particular parade provided by the “tac tac tac” of never-ending gunfire, the music the screams of the protesters they drove directly at. And then it happened: an APC mounted the island in the middle of the road, like a maddened animal on a rampage. I saw a group of people disappear, sucked underneath it. It drove over them. I wasn’t able to see what happened to them because it then started coming in my direction. Later, as riot police fired tear gas at another small attempt at a demonstration and fires burned around Maspero, I found on the floor part of one of the white “martyrs upon demand” bibs the men had been wearing, and took it home. It had been ripped in half.
**
The Coptic Hospital tried its best to deal with the sudden influx of casualties. Its floors were sticky with blood and there was barely room to move among the wounded, the worried and the inconsolable. A man asked if we were press, and whether we’d like to film the morgue if we “were strong enough.” The morgue was a harshly lit two-room building surrounded by men and women screaming and hitting themselves in paroxysms of grief. In the first room there were two bodies, middle-aged men on the floor next to the fridge, which we were told held three bodies. In the other room there were the bodies of 12 men of varying ages.
A young woman sat by one of them clasping his hand and wailing. Vivian and Michael, who were engaged to be married. Michael had been crushed, his leg destroyed. Next to Michael was the body of a man whose face was contorted into an impossible expression. A priest opened his hands and showed me the remains of the man’s skull and parts of his brain. He too had been crushed. Outside a woman said out loud to the dead, “How lucky you are, now in heaven!” A man screamed, “We won’t be silent again.”
**
Even while the wounded were still being brought in, state TV was reporting that Christian protesters stole weapons from the army and killed soldiers, and that the busy “foreign hands” are back again, still trying to destabilize Egypt. There should be a finality in death, an unchallengeable truth when it happens with the simple brutality of last night. But even when death happens on Maspero’s doorstep, it can be rewritten, in order to lend a twisted sense where there is none, to justify the impossible and, above all, to sabotage any attempt to consider that the problem is within us, not without.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: The Cairo Pogrom
by Jeff Jacoby
HAVE YOU EVER seen a pogrom? Sarah Carr has. “The Coptic Hospital tried its best to deal with the sudden influx of casualties,” wrote Carr, a Cairo-based journalist and blogger, in her firsthand account of Sunday’s deadly attack on Christian protesters by the Egyptian military. “Its floors were sticky with blood and there was barely room to move among the wounded.”
In one room of the hospital morgue Carr counted the bodies of 12 people, some of whom had been killed when soldiers in armored personnel vehicles charged the crowd, firing and random and crushing the protesters they ran over. One of the victims was “a man whose face was contorted into an impossible expression. A priest . . . showed me the remains of the man’s skull and parts of his brain. He too had been crushed.”
What happened in Egypt on Sunday was a massacre. Government security forces assaulted Coptic Christians as they marched peacefully to the headquarters of the state TV network. They were protesting the recent burning of St. George’s, a Coptic church in the Upper Egypt village of El-Marinab. Yet broadcasters loyal to the ruling military junta exhorted “honorable Egyptians” to help the army put down the protests. “Soon afterward, bands of young men armed with sticks, rocks, swords, and firebombs began to roam central Cairo, attacking Christians,” the Associated Press reported. “Troops and riot police did not intervene.” Video of the violence was quickly uploaded to the Internet. So were even more graphic images of the murdered protesters.
Back during the Tahrir Square demonstrations against strongman Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian military was widely praised for not using force to crush the protests and keep Mubarak in power. Then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates, for example, declared that Egypt’s military had “conducted itself in exemplary fashion” and “made a contribution to the evolution of democracy.” Popular, too, was the notion that the uprising could catalyze a new era of interfaith solidarity. “Egypt’s religious tensions have been set aside,” reported the BBC in February, “as the country’s Muslims and Christians join forces at anti-government protests.”
But the “spirit of Tahrir Square” has ushered in neither liberal democracy nor a rebirth of tolerance for Egypt’s ancient but beleaguered Christian minority.One of the country’s leading liberal reformers, Ayman Nour, said Monday that with the latest bloodshed, the military has lost whatever goodwill it accrued last spring. It’s hard to believe that the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces cares. In the eight months since Mubarak’s ouster, the military has tried and convicted some 12,000 Egyptian civilians in military tribunals, often after using torture to extract confessions. The country’s hated emergency laws, which allow suspects to be detained without charge, not only remain in force, but have been expanded to cover offenses as vague as “spreading rumors” or “blocking traffic.” And just as Mubarak did, the generals insist that government repression is all that stands between Egypt and social chaos.
As for Egypt’s Coptic Christians, their plight has gone from bad to worse. Post-Mubarak Egypt has seen “an explosion of violence against the Coptic Christian community,” the international news channel France24 was reporting as far back as May. “Anger has flared up into deadly riots, and houses, shops, and churches have been set ablaze.”
With Islamist hardliners growing increasingly influential, hate crimes against Christians routinely go unpunished. Copts, who represent a tenth of Egypt’s population, are subjected to appalling humiliations. The mob that destroyed St. George’s had first demanded that the church be stripped of its crosses and bells; after the Christians yielded to that demand, local Muslims insisted that the church dome be removed as well. For several weeks, Copts in El-Marinab were literally besieged, forbidden to leave their homes or buy food unless they agreed to mutilate their nearly century-old house of worship. On September 30, Muslim thugs set fire to the church and demolished its dome, pillars, and walls. For good measure, they also burned a Coptic-owned shop and four homes.
Many Copts are choosing to leave Egypt, rather than live under this intensifying anti-Christian persecution. The Egyptian Union of Human Rights Organizations calculated last month that more than 90,000 Christians have fled the country since March 2011. At that rate, estimated human-rights advocate Naguib Gabriel, one-third of Egypt’s Coptic population will have vanished within a decade. Or maybe sooner — maybe much sooner — if Sunday’s anti-Christian pogrom is a sign of things to come.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptian Priest Says Coptic Church Was Not Attacked, Admits to Building Violations
While Egyptians, Muslims and Christians alike, are trying to fathom the tragedy that took place Sunday, when 25 people were killed in bloody clashes following protests by Copts against the demolition of a church in the south of the country, a statement made by a prominent monk has left people in an even more puzzled state. Monk Hedra, the archbishop of Aswan, in Upper Egypt, took everyone by surprise when he said that the Mar Girgis church in the village of al-Marinab was not subjected to demolition, as believed by Copts who staged massive protests outside the state TV building in Cairo to protest against religious discrimination in the country. “It is not true that Muslims in the village attacked Christians during the construction of the church, nor that they tried to demolish it or take the cross down from its dome,” the monk said in an interview with the Coptic channel Karma. “There have never been any aspects of sectarian strife in the village to start with,” he added.
Monk Hedra then recounted the story of the church that precipitated the clashes. The church, he said, was originally a place where residents of the village met to socialize, and Copts used to pray there on religious occasions. Masses were always performed under the protection of security. “This was the case for a long time until the place became very shabby and needed renovation. It was then that Monk Makarius Bolos made use of the contacts he has with security and the engineering administration in Edfou [the city in Aswan governorate to which the village is administratively affiliated] in order to issue renovation permits, citing the building as the Mar Girgis Church.”
Based on this permit, Monk Hedra went on, Monk Makarius demolished the house, which was owned by a Copt in the village, and started building a church. “The permit stipulated a specific height and Monk Makarius exceeded that. This is a fact no one can deny.” According to Monk Hedra, Monk Makarius counted on his good relations with Muslims in the village, many of whom helped with the construction. “The problem started after the construction, which rose higher than expected, was noticed by relatives of villagers who came to visit during the Lesser Bairam. They started rebuking the Muslims of the village for letting this happen and accused them of weakness.”
This incitement, he explained, resulted in some skirmishes between Muslims and Christians in the village, but Muslims did not come near the church and not one Christian was harmed in one way or another. “No crosses or bells were placed on top in the first place to be removed by Muslims or to make Muslims force Copts to remove them, as reported.”
By then, Monk Hedra added, rumors were spreading all over Egypt. “They were totally baseless and none of what was said happened in the village. No one thought of verifying the information from us.”
(Translated from Arabic by Sonia Farid)
URL: http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/10/12/171399.html
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Islam’s War on the Cross: Egypt’s Move to Democracy Under Threat After Latest Attack on Coptic Community
Christians in Egypt are used to persecution, but this week’s deadly attacks on a Copt demonstration threaten the country’s move from military rule to democracy.
In the 19 or so centuries since Christianity first took root in Egypt, the ritual of mourning has become an all-too-familiar experience for the majority of the country’s Coptic community. Egypt’s eight million Copts may claim to be their nation’s oldest surviving indigenous faith, but that has not spared them from prolonged periods of persecution, most recently at the hands of Islamist militants. In many respects, the tone was set for nearly two millennia of oppression of the Copts, one of the world’s oldest Christian sects, by the martyrdom of St Mark the Evangelist, the disciple who established the Christian faith in Alexandria just a few years after the ascension of Christ.
The establishment of a new religion was bitterly resented by the city’s pagan population, who feared it would turn Alexandrians away from the worship of their traditional gods. They exacted their revenge on Easter Monday in 68 AD when Roman soldiers put a rope around St Mark’s neck and dragged him through the streets of Alexandria until he was dead.
These days the methods used to persecute Egypt’s Copts might not be so primitive, but their overall effect is no less barbaric. During the latest outbreak of Coptic-related violence in Cairo on Sunday night, several Copts are reported to have been crushed to death by the tracks of an armoured military vehicle that ploughed into a group of protesters as they sang hymns and held aloft the Cross.
The roots of the current wave of anti-Coptic violence are murky. At first it was assumed that Islamist militants, who have waged a vicious campaign of intimidation, sparked the unrest by burning down a church in the southern province of Aswan. This attack was the latest in a series of clashes between Muslims and Christians, which began when 21 worshippers were killed as they left mass at a Coptic church in Alexandria on New Year’s Eve.
Thousands of Copts descended on the state TV building in Cairo on Sunday to protest against what many Christians regard as the growing strength of ultra-conservative Islamists since the overthrow of former Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak in February. But the uncompromising response of the Egyptian authorities, which resulted in government forces firing live rounds at stone-throwing protesters, has prompted accusations that the army, which has interim control of the country, is deliberately fostering sectarian hatred in order to disguise its own plans to maintain control of the country.
Following the high-profile protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square earlier this year — during which Muslim and Coptic protesters joined forces to demand the overthrow of President Mubarak — the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces assumed responsibility for creating a modern, pluralistic democratic state following decades of authoritarian rule. But the delays that have hindered plans to hold fresh parliamentary and presidential elections — they are now due to start at the end of next month — have led many to conclude that the military, which effectively ran the country during the Mubarak era, has no real interest in establishing democratic institutions. And what better way to abort the transition from military to democratic rule than to instigate nationwide sectarian violence?
As one Coptic protester commented in Cairo yesterday: “This is not about Muslim-Christian hatred. It is about the army trying to start a civil conflict for its own reasons, and we all know what those reasons are.” Certainly the vitriolic language used by state-controlled broadcasters during coverage of the protests undermined the interim government’s claim to represent the interests of all Egyptians, Christians and Muslims alike.Newsreaders appealed for “honest Egyptians” to protect their soldiers against Christian “mobs”, while the Copts were denounced as “sons of dogs”, despite the fact many moderate Muslims, who want Egypt to be free of sectarian divisions, supported the protesters.
But then Egypt’s Copts are used to state-sponsored persecution. Tens of thousands of Copts fled the country in the 1950s after Colonel Gamal Abdul Nasser nationalised Egypt’s private businesses, most of which were owned by Christians. Today it is estimated that two out of three Egyptians living in Britain are from Christian families. Egyptian communities in northern Europe, North America and Australia are also disproportionately Christian. Nor is the persecution of religious minorities in the Middle East confined to Egypt’s Copts. One of the more alarming trends of recent years has been the violent persecution of Christians throughout the region.
In Iraq, for example, the overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003 was supposed to herald a new era of sectarian harmony. Instead a wave of al-Qaeda-related attacks has had a devastating impact on Iraq’s once-thriving Christian community, which numbered around 1.4 million 10 years ago, but has now declined to around 400,000. As in Egypt, the exodus was hastened by a series of grotesque attacks on Iraqi churches, the worst of which was the suicide bomb attack on the Church of our Salvation in Baghdad at the end of last year, which killed 58 people. To mark their contempt for the Christian faith, the al-Qaeda bombers blew themselves up on the altar, together with a child hostage.
Not all the persecution of Christian minorities is as violent as that experienced in Iraq, but the refusal of even pro-Western countries such as Saudi Arabia to tolerate any expression of Christianity has forced believers to practise their faith in private. There are an estimated one million Catholics in Saudi Arabia, most of them guest-workers from the Philippines, but they risk immediate expulsion if they are found observing their religion.
In Iran, meanwhile, the persecution of Christians that began with the 1979 Islamic revolution resulted in a Christian pastor being sentenced to death in the provincial town of Rasht earlier this month for refusing to renounce his faith. The ayatollahs’ refusal to countenance any other faith has also resulted in an upsurge in the persecution of the country’s Baha’i sect, the world’s youngest monotheistic faith.
Much of the blame for the deterioration in relations between Islam and Christianity in the region can be laid at the door of the growing legions of Islamist militants who refuse to acknowledge the other main monotheistic faiths. They point to the comment made by the Prophet himself on his deathbed, when he instructed his followers that only one faith — Islam — could be tolerated in Arabia. This interpretation is disputed by moderate Muslims — such as those who joined the Copts for Sunday night’s protest in Cairo — who argue that Islam is a tolerant faith, which allows for peaceful co-existence with other religions. Unfortunately for Christians in the Middle East, this is increasingly the minority view among the region’s ruling elites, which are no longer prepared to recognise basic rights of their citizens, such as freedom of worship.
Arguably the most extreme example of this intolerance has been seen in Sudan, where decades of mistreatment of non-Muslims by the conservative Islamic government in Khartoum resulted earlier this year in the secession of the country’s Christian population to form South Sudan. The new state, which is the size of France but has just 38 miles of paved roads, is the world’s poorest, but simply to be free of the tyranny of their former Islamic rulers is reward enough for the new country’s four million Christian inhabitants. The break-up of neighbouring Sudan will serve as a warning to the military authorities in Cairo, who should be mindful of St Mark’s remark that “Every affliction tests our will”. The current wave of persecution directed at Egypt’s Coptic community constitutes not only a major test of the interim government’s ability to maintain order, but also of its desire to establish a government that represents the interests of all Egyptians, irrespective of their creed.
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Libya: Islamic Hard-Liners Attack Rival Shrines in Libya
TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Islamic hard-liners have attacked about a half-dozen shrines in and around Tripoli belonging to Muslim sects whose practices they see as sacrilegious, raising religious tensions as Libya struggles to define its identity after Moammar Gadhafi’s ouster.The vandalism has drawn concern at the highest levels as Libya’s new rulers seek to reassure the international community that extremists will not gain influence in the North African nation. Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, head of the governing National Transitional Council, reacted with alarm to reports that graves were being desecrated and appealed to a top Muslim cleric, al-Sadek al-Gheriani, to issue a fatwa, or religious ruling, on the issue. He also called for restraint. “I ask those destroying these mosques to stop doing that because this is not the time to do that,” Abdul-Jalil said Tuesday at a news conference. “What they did is not on the side of the revolution.”
The campaign appears to be aimed mainly at shrines revered by Sufis, a mystical order whose members often pray over the tombs of revered saints and ask for blessings or intervention to bring success, marriage or other desired outcomes. Hard-line Sunnis deem the practice offensive because they consider worshipping over graves to be idolatry.
In one case, witnesses said dozens of armed, bearded men wearing military uniforms ransacked a Sufi shrine in Tripoli this week, burning relics and carrying away the remains of two imams, or prayer leaders, for reburial elsewhere. The assailants arrived in pickup trucks mounted with heavy weapons and stormed the gate to the compound housing the shrine, then dug up the two imams, identified as Abdul-Rahman al-Masri and Salem Abu Seif, and took the remains to be buried in a cemetery, according to the witnesses.
Many residents in the Al-Masri neighborhood welcomed the attack, accusing worshippers at the shrine of practicing “black magic.” Sufism is a mystical tradition in Islam. The order says its mission is to live a simple life of contemplation and prayer but followers are frequently targeted by extremists. Witnesses offered conflicting details, with some saying the attackers were heavily armed and came from other parts of the city and others saying it was a small group of unarmed locals. Abdul-Hamid al-Sunni, one of the residents, said the presence of the bodies had prevented people from the neighborhood from praying there. He claimed it was a small group of some 20 people that exhumed the bodies.
He said residents had long wanted to get rid of the graves and he presented a petition signed by 120 people supporting the action, which began about 11 p.m. Sunday.
Dirt and rocks were piled high around the empty graves that had been dug in the floor of the white and light blue building in Tripoli’s al-Masri neighborhood. Blackened piles of ash and pieces of pottery were in the courtyard outside after the attackers burned relics and other items from the shrine, which sits next to a Quranic school in the same compound.
“We need to build a new school here, a Quranic school, and we need to build a mosque and we need to build a small hospital for the area,” al-Sunni said.
The attackers then jumped back into their vehicles and drove to another neighborhood where they dug up the grave of a man who had built a mosque there and was buried inside.
A shopkeeper in front of the al-Badri mosque who identified himself only as Mohsen said the men used hammers and shovels to exhume the remains, which they planned to bury in a cemetery. Mohsen said about 150 men blocked the roads leading to the compound and bragged about having come from al-Masri and planned to target more mosques. “They shouldn’t have done this because the relatives had already applied to rebury him anyway,” the witness said Wednesday in an interview outside his store, declining to give his full name because of fear of retaliation.
Nader Omrani, who oversees religious affairs for the Tripoli local council, said three or four incidents had been reported in Tripoli and one in the town of Janzour, six miles (10 kilometers) to the west of the capital. “Because of the public condemnation and quick action by this council … this conduct has been contained,” he said Wednesday. Council members said the attacks were under investigation and it was not yet known who carried them out. But observers familiar with the issue blamed Islamic fundamentalists known as Salafists and said talks were under way to persuade them to stop.
One man, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said many Libyans opposed Sufi traditions but did not want them handled violently. Al-Gheriani, who was a key supporter of Libya’s revolution, said in an audio recording posted Monday on his official website that he opposes the building of shrines over graves but he does not sanction their removal, particularly as fighting continues on two fronts, stalling efforts to form a new government. “The country doesn’t have a government with authorities imposed everywhere. Security is not prevalent, it is shaky and there are too many factions,” he said, calling on groups to stop the attacks. “The time is not right. It may cause sedition … and more bloodshed.”
Stephen Schwartz, the executive director of the California-based Center for Islamic Pluralism and a Sufi himself, said the act showed Islamic extremists were starting to make their move. He said the targeting of rival mosques and cemeteries has been used throughout history as a highly symbolic way to assert control. “It illustrates that there’s a void … and … the radicals, the fundamentalists are going to try to fill that void,” he said in a telephone interview. “They’ll go where the opportunity is, where Muslims are divided and authority is weakened.”
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50 Thousand Settlers Will Desecrate the Ibarahimi Mosque
(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) — The Israeli occupation forces are preparing for the protection of tens of thousands of Jewish settlers expected to head to the Ibrahimi Mosque during the Sukkot Jewish festival over the coming few days. Israel National News said on Wednesday that the IOF deployed soldiers inside the city of al-Khalil with the aim of protecting 50 thousand Jews expected to visit the city during Sukkot festival. The source added that as well as visiting the “Cave of the Patriarchs”, the name given to the Ibrahimi Mosque by Jews, the crowds aim to tour the city and visit the Qasaba and what they claim to be the tomb of Otni’el Ben Kenaz. According to a military statement, hundreds of troops will be deployed in the southern West Bank city and control the traffic and pedestrian flow through the streets. Roadblocks have already been setup and military police and medical teams have also been reinforced. The statement also said that there are fears that clashes between the settlers and the Palestinian residents of the city might take place and expect casualties in large numbers if such clashes occur. The statement further said that the numbers expected to head to the Ibrahimi Mosque will exceed last year’s numbers by a few thousand.
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Caroline Glick: A Pact Signed in Jewish Blood
No one denies the long suffering of the Schalit family. Noam and Aviva Schalit and their relatives have endured five years and four months of uninterrupted anguish since their son St.-Sgt. Gilad Schalit was abducted from his army post by Palestinian terrorists and spirited to Gaza in June 2006. Since then, aside from one letter and one videotaped message, they have received no signs of life from their soldier son.
There is not a Jewish household in Israel that doesn’t empathize with their suffering. It isn’t simply that most Israelis serve in the IDF and expect their children to serve in the IDF.
It isn’t just that it could happen to any of our families…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
In Jordan, Escalation in Anti-Israel Rhetoric, Threats
In recent weeks, Jordanian officials, including Jordan’s King ‘Abdallah II, have stepped up their statements against Israel, to the point of threatening military aggression against it. This escalation was in response to statements by Israeli officials describing Jordan as the Palestinian homeland. Also contributing to the tension were WikiLeaks documents published in September, which revealed that Jordan had talked with the U.S. about settling Palestinian refugees on its soil and had inquired about reparations that it had been promised. It should be noted that the notion of Jordan as the “alternative” Palestinian homeland is a highly sensitive issue in the kingdom, and a great source of concern for the Hashemite regime that represents a minority in the country.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tunnels Boost Gaza Mosque Construction
An increased flow of building materials entering the Gaza Strip via underground tunnels along the Gaza-Egypt border has allowed reconstruction work to begin on hundreds of religious sites damaged or destroyed during the 23-day Israeli offensive which ended in January 2009. Nearly a quarter of Gaza’s 850 mosques were affected; 45 mosques were totally destroyed, 107 sustained major damage, and about another 50 had minor damage such as smashed windows and doors, according to the Gaza public works and housing ministry, the religious affairs ministry, and private mosque owners.
An Egyptian above-and-below-ground steel barrier erected with US assistance was meant to stem the flow of goods through the tunnels, but since the overthrow of Mubarak in Egypt in February 2011, if anything, traffic through the tunnels has increased, say observers. Israel only allows building material to enter Gaza via Israeli-controlled crossings for approved projects funded by international organizations and UN agencies. According to UN estimates, in September 946 truckloads of authorized construction materials were allowed to enter Gaza via Israeli-controlled crossings for approved international humanitarian building projects: 665 truckloads (46,550 tons) of aggregate, 232 truckloads of cement (9,195 tons), and 41 truckloads of steel bars (1,418 tons).
An average of 90,000 tons of cement, 90,000 tons of aggregate and 15,000 tons of steel bars are entering Gaza via tunnel each month, according to UN estimates. The quantities of material now becoming available mean prices are going down: Today one ton of cement costs about US$135 in Gaza, down from up to $340 per ton in January, according to deputy housing minister Yasser Shante. “Business has increased over the last three months,” says Arafat Abu Hasira, owner of Abu Hasira Glass and Aluminum Company in Gaza City. Aluminium, only available via tunnel, costs about $6 per kg, down from about $135 a year ago, said Abu Hasira.
Israel says the mosques were used by Hamas to store weapons and that Hamas operatives regularly fired rockets into Israel from within or near mosques, but Hamas disputes this.
“Religious sites are separate from any activity related to security forces or resistance factions,” said deputy minister of religious affairs, Hassam Seifi, adding: “Our communities lost a lot with the destruction of each mosque.”
“Gaza is a religious society and mosques are the centre of our communities,” said religious affairs ministry official Abdullah Abugrboah, adding: “Gaza’s population is 99 percent Muslim [predominantly Sunni], with a Christian population of less than 1 percent.” It will cost about US$25 million to reconstruct the 45 mosques (an average $500,000 per mosque), said Shante, and about $10million to repair the 157 damaged mosques, at an average cost of US$100,000. “It is motivating to see new mosques. It’s a source of peace after the war,” said worshiper Mohamed Samara, a 30-year-old researcher at a nearby ministry who came to pray during his lunch break.
Three mosques in his neighborhood of Shujaya were destroyed during the war; one has been partially rebuilt, he said, adding: “A mosque is not only a place of worship, it’s our social fabric, where Palestinians meet.” Mosques are supervised by the religious affairs ministry (Waqf), in accordance with Islamic law. The ministry is under the Hamas-led government in Gaza, which is still deemed a “terrorist” organization by many Western countries.
According to international humanitarian law, there is no ban on the destruction of religious sites used by opponents for military purposes, said Yuval Shany, chair in public international law at Hebrew University, although there is a presumption that religious sites are civilian targets and should be spared (according to Article 52 of the 1977 First Additional Protocol, which reflects customary law on the matter). The Israeli army maintains that its forces operated in accordance with international law, only launching proportionate attacks against military objectives, and blames Hamas for any harm to Palestinian civilians. According to the Goldstone Report, an Israeli strike on the al-Maqadmah mosque on the outskirts of Jabilyah killed 15 and injured 40 people. Israel rejected the findings of the report and denies responsibility for the attack on al-Maqadmah mosque. Amnesty International reported the rampant destruction of Gaza mosques in its post-war assessment.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Cyprus: Turkish Ship to Go on Researches in Mediterranean
(ANSAmed) — NICOSIA, OCTOBER 12 — A Turkish ship set sail on Wednesday from Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) to go on seismic researches in the south of Cyprus, as Turkish-Cypriot media report. Turkish ‘Piri Reis’ ship left Famagusta port to carry out seismic researches in a 2,400-kilometer area in the Mediterranean. “We have collected data from 1,000-km area so far,” Piri Reis’ captain Cagdas Konusur told journalists. Piri Reis conducted geophysical research and seismic data collecting studies on behalf of the TRNC between September 26 and October 4. On September 21, Turkish Premier Tayyip Erdogan and Dervis Eroglu, leader of Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC, recognized only by Ankara) signed in New York an agreement on the delineation of the continental shelf between two countries in the East Mediterranean. The deal gives Turkey the green light to search oil and natural gas inside the Turkish Cypriot waters. The agreement follows a Greek Cypriot move to start offshore drilling for natural gas and oil in the southeast of the Eastern Mediterranean island.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Proposes Tripartite Economic Cooperation Involving Egypt, Iran and Turkey
Egypt’s minister of industry and external trade Mahmoud Issa said that his Iranian counterpart has proposed a tripartite cooperation between his country and Egypt and Turkey to exploit the human and economic resources available to them. The Egyptian minister confirmed his country’s desire to strengthen the economic cooperation with Iran.
In making the proposal, the Iranian minister of trade, industry and mining said that a start should be made by Egypt by changing its foreign policy toward the neighboring countries after the January 25 revolution.
The discussion between the two took place during a meeting of the D8 which comprises the eight emerging Islamic countries that include Egypt, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Nigeria and Malaysia. The D8 is an attempt to create an Islamic economic order parallel with that of the G8 countries [US, Canada, Japan, Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, and Russia].
In this connection, it was reported that Turkey plans to organize a workshop from December 3-6, for 2,000 businessmen under the auspices of Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Islam is Compatible With Democracy, Says Journalist
In his new book “Islam Without Extremes,” Turkish journalist Mustafa Akyol expresses his belief that the path to a democratic Middle East lies not in anti-clerical secularism but in the essentially moderate nature of Islam. Speaking before the Discovery Institute, a public policy think tank, on Friday, Akyol said that the “noble message” of the Quran is one that supports religious freedom. “[There are] sources of liberalism, in a classical sense, in classical Islam,” said Akyol.
Akyol, who writes in English and Turkish, is a columnist for two different Turkish newspapers who draws a sharp distinction between “pious Muslims” and “crazy radicals,” comparing ultra-conservative Muslims to biblical Pharisees. “[They have] more passion to impose who they are rather than a genuine religious connection…[They are] losing the meaning of religion to appear pious. The majority of Muslims in the world are just concerned with putting bread on the table,” Akyol said.
According to Akyol, coercive measures do not create a genuinely pious society. The extreme aspects of Islam, like the apostasy laws in Iran, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia that make renouncing Islam punishable by death, are not endemic to Islam or Muslim theology, but are the result of political manipulation. He gave the example of an early debate in Islam over free will, in which predestination was made a policy of the state to solidify state power. Much of what has become Islamic law is holdover from medieval scholars attributing words to Muhammad, often to serve contemporary ends.
“One reason why most Muslims respect Islamic law is that it has protected the rights of the individual from the tyranny of despots,” said Mark Sheel, reporting for the Common Ground News Service in his article “New Book Breaks Down Muslim ‘Monolith.’“ “Throughout the 20th century, Turkey and other Middle Eastern countries were offered a choice between secular and religious authoritarianism,” said Mathew Kaminski, reporter for the Wall Street Journal in his article “Piety and Pluralism.”
Akyol equates the repression of “Islamic autocrats” with “secular autocrats.” The forceful imposition of secular changes, like those imposed in Iran under the notoriously violent Shah, “has made Muslims more reactionary,” Akyol said. So when faced between the two forms of authoritarianism mentioned by Kaminski, it is not so hard to see why Muslims might prefer religious authoritarianism. “We have apostasy laws in Turkey, too. Not against renunciation of Islam, but against slander of the secularist first President of the Republic Atatürk. Atatürk merely brought new sacred objects,” Akyol said.
For Akyol, a secular state, in the sense of one that tolerates all religions, is good, while secularism is not. Despite the complexities of the issue, the young journalist is optimistic.
“The Arab Spring is taking us to a new phase where the democratically-minded can enter government…The trend [in the Muslim world] is not toward radicalism. Iran will be left as the only crazy country in the Middle East,” Akyol said. Akyol’s vision for the Middle East is a blend of two forces he sees as naturally encouraging individual freedom, though they are often called antagonistic: liberal democracy and Islam.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Nobel Peace Panel Stands Behind Muslim Brotherhood Winner
The chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize committee has dismissed concerns that one of this year’s three recipients, Tawakkul Karman of Yemen, represents a party directly linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. Thorbojern Jagland told reporters in Oslo this weekend that he disagrees with the “perception” widespread in the West that the Brotherhood is a threat to democracy. “There are many signals that that kind of movement can be an important part of the solution,” he said. “We have included the Arab Spring in this prize, but we have put it in a particular context.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Oman: First Opera House in Gulf Region Opens
(ANSAmed) — ROME, OCTOBER 13 — In Muscat, Sultan Qabus bin Said of Oman inaugurated the first opera house in the entire Gulf Region with Puccini’s Turandot directed by Franco Zeffirelli and with Placido Domingo performing. Oman’s opera house represents the realisation of a personal dream for Qabus, according to Al Arabiya’s website, as he is a great admirer of classical music as well as an architectural work that unites Islamic culture to global music. The opening of the Oman Opera House is “an historic event”, according to the director of the theatre and Minister of Higher Education, Rawia Al Busaidia. The opera season began yesterday with Turandot and will come to a close at the end of March. The opera house, underlined Al Busaidia, will host global musical events that have never been presented in the region. The theatre will host Placido Domingo again on October 18 in a concert entitled “Songs for Oman”, followed by a performance by Andrea Bocelli on November 1. The first season is packed with events which include many operas, as well as concerts dedicated to Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum and Lebanese singer Majida Al-Roumi.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Report: Iran Attempt to Launch Monkey Into Space Fails
An attempt by Iran to launch a rocket carrying a live monkey into space in September has met with failure, stalling the country’s program to pursue a human spaceflight capability, according to press reports. The Iranian Space Agency reportedly attempted to launch a Rhesus monkey into space atop a Kavoshgar-5 rocket (Kavoshgar means “Explorer” in Farsi) during the Iranian month of Shahrivar, a period that ran between Aug. 23 and Sept. 22, according to an Agence-France Press report.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tourism: Turkey Ready to Help Greece, Minister Says
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, OCTOBER 13 — Turkey’s culture and tourism minister Ertugrul Gunay said on Wednesday that Turkey was ready to extend touristic assistance to Greece, which was in an economic bottleneck, without expecting any response. “The Aegean Sea will be a destination which would like to be visited the most in the world if Turkey and Greece cooperate in tourism,” Gunay told reporters in Athens, as Anatolia news agency reports. Gunay is visiting the Greek capital for the Eighth Turkish-Greek Tourism Forum. Gunay said Turkey and Greece should facilitate travel and simplify visa procedures, and Turkey was expecting such a move from Greece. Gunay later spoke in the opening session of the forum, and said improvement of Turkish-Greek cooperation would not only be for the best interests of the two countries but also bring the two nations closer to each other. The Turkish tourism minister said two countries should hold such meetings more often, and recalled that the previous meeting was in the southern province of Antalya in 2006. Also speaking in the meeting, Greek Minister of Culture and Tourism Pavlos Geroulanos welcomed Gunay’s proposal to meet more often, and improvement of cooperation in tourism would have positive effect on Turkish and Greek economies.
Geroulanos said two countries could achieve many things together, and Greece would work to facilitate Schengen visa procedures for Turkey.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UAE: Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque Center Launches Series of Workshops for Licensed Tourist Guides About Visiting Regulations
Workshops’ objective is to improve understanding of visiting procedures, requirements among private sector tourism organisations to ensure improved visitor experience to Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque.
ABU DHABI — The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque Center (SZGMC) on Monday, 10th of October, conducted the first of a series of workshops for licensed tourist guides and tour operators on visiting regulations for the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. Approximately 400 representatives, from different tourism companies across the UAE registered for the workshop series and approximately one hundred attended yesterday’s inaugural session. The overall objective of the workshops is to improve understanding of the visiting procedures and requirements among the private sector tourism organisations to ensure an improved visitor experience.
The SZGMC Culture Guides facilitated the program which included a full site tour and introduction to the dedicated on-site library. The participants were briefed about SZGMC code of conduct and given guidelines on how to organize a professional site visit inside the SZGM. The program also included knowledge sessions plus a documentary highlighting the building materials and phases of construction. After completing the registration and workshop process, the licensed tourist guides will receive a SZGMC site pass to conduct a site visit at Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, as part of the Abu Dhabi City Tour. Registration is ongoing for licensed tourist guides and details can be found at www.szgmc.ae
The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque is a place of worship and Friday gathering; and a center of learning and discovery through its education and visitor programs. As one of the most visited and important Islamic cultural attractions the UAE, the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque plays an important role in the ‘cultural and educational tourism offering’ of the United Arab Emirates. The SZGMC has a team of dedicated National Culture Guides to offer complimentary tours on a daily basis. For more information http://www.szgmc.ae/en/plan-your-visit
The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque Center, which is affiliated to the Ministry of Presidential Affairs is sponsored and followed up by His Highness Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs.
The SZGMC was established to be a nucleus for a cultural and intellectual movement focused on the Mosque. This is based on the cultural and national values expressed in the concepts and values established by late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, may God bless his soul. It is these values that are deep-rooted in sentiment and consciousness, and form an extension of the national identity inspired from the teachings of our tolerant religion.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
‘Cheese’ Attack on Lenin Statue Foiled
Three young people in the Far East city of Nakhodka have been detained for allegedly painting part of a Lenin statue to resemble a block of cheese, Interfax reported on Wednesday, citing local police. The painters, all in their 20s, said they wanted to amuse local residents by repainting the pedestal under the statue of a seated Lenin staring thoughtfully into space and holding a copy of Pravda. They were apprehended, paint cans allegedly in hand, before they were able to finish the job. “Such pranks involving statues are unacceptable,” a police spokesman said, adding that the vandals would be brought to justice. Pranks involving statues of Lenin, which are ubiquitous in provincial Russia, have been common since the fall of the Soviet Union.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
For Moscow Patriarch, Arab Uprisings Are Ambiguous, Europe Not to be Perceived as Aggressor
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church warns that Arabs should not perceive Europe as an invader. In the Middle East, the “interreligious factor” should be avoided “because this all can backfire very painfully” in Europe. He calls on the world to protect the Copts of Egypt.
Moscow (AsiaNews) — It is important that the situation in the Middle East and North Africa not be perceived as a confessional clash between Christians and Muslims and that Europe not be seen as an aggressor in the Arab world, warns Kirill, patriarch of Moscow an All Russia. In an interview with the Russian news TV channel Rossiya-24 in Chisinau, he said that it was not wholly clear how much the uprisings from Libya to Syria were the “spontaneous and natural” expression of people’s will.
“It is absolutely unacceptable if Europe is perceived as an aggressor in the Arab world’s eyes. This must be prevented by any means, because, although Europe today is, excuse me, godless and secular and does not associate itself too much with Christianity, the deeply religious Islamic population still sees Europe as Christians,” Kirill said.
“At the market and street level, many see Europe’s engagement in the problems of the Arab world—not only political but also military—as some combat between Christians and Muslims,” he noted. Thus, it is important to prevent “an inter-religious and inter-civilisational factor, because this all can backfire very painfully in the globalizing world, and not only in the Middle East, but also in European counties.”
Sharing the Kremlin’s point of view, Kirill expressed concerns about the difficulty in understanding the uprising that brought down various regimes in the Muslim world. No one, “neither you, nor me or the international community understand clearly what share in everything that is going on there today belongs to the people’s initiative and what share is a result—let’s choose the mildest wording possible—of assistance to this process from abroad,” he said.
In the interview, the patriarch made a plea to the United Nations and international organisations to protect Christian Copts in Egypt, following last Sunday’s clashes, saying that “Christians must raise their voice in defence of their Coptic brothers”, asking the world “not to be indifferent”.
In a direct appeal to religious leaders, he said that on such occasions, which threaten the future of Muslim-Christian dialogue, they must show a “commitment to peace and mutual understanding”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: HSBC Offers Haj Pilgrimage Banking Services
JAKARTA: HSBC’s sharia division, Amanah Syariah, is teaming up with the global bank’s Saudi Arabia-based branch Saudi British Bank (SABB) to offer haj and umroh (minor haj) pilgrimage banking services for both individuals and travel bureaus. “We help individual customers from haj fund planning to support during their stay in Saudi Arabia, including cash withdrawal in Saudi Arabian riyal at all SABB ATMs without extra charge,” HSBC Amanah Syariah Indonesia head Herwin Bustaman said in a press release on Wednesday.
In total, 109 SABB ATMs offer cash withdrawals in Mecca, Madina and Jeddah, with strategic locations near the Masjidil Haram grand mosque and Nabawi mosque, including Hilton Hotel in Mecca and Oberoi Hotel in Madina. HSBC also offers Global Safety Net, a service in which the bank provides support of up to US$100,000 to customers who have lost their money or their ATM cards during their stay. The corporate service includes the opening of Amanah Business Account, the issuance of a bank guarantee to apply for visas for pilgrims and demand draft, a facility to cash a large amount of money in one day at all SABB branches.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: MUI Tells Jakarta to Sell Brewery Shares
The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) has strongly urged the Jakarta administration to sell its shares in a publicly listed brewery, saying that the government could be seen as a promoter of alcohol, considered haram or forbidden under sharia. A member of the MUI review commission, Cholil Nafis, said the city administration should not allow profit to get in the way of producing a better policy for Jakarta residents. “Clearly, alcohol is not good to consume and the city administration is certainly not playing a role in educating the people by supporting a brewery,” Cholil told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday. He said that money from alcohol was of no benefit to Jakarta residents. “It’s better for the city to invest in a nobler business,” he said.
The Jakarta administration announced on Tuesday that it had decided not sell its shares in brewery PT Delta Djakarta (Delta), despite an initial plan to do so. “We have yet to see any strong reason to get out of Delta and divest. The company caters to a very specific business niche and it has contributed a fair amount of money to city revenue,” Jakarta Investment and Promotions Board (BPMP) head Terman Siregar said.
In 2006, Governor Fauzi Bowo, then deputy governor, said it would be better for the city to sell its shares in Delta and use the money to build public health centers and repair damaged school buildings. In 2008, the city government begun muling whether to sell its shares in Delta, and in other companies, saying that it would invest only in businesses that served the public directly. Selling its shares was also aimed at preventing annual losses caused by share devaluation. Terman said that Delta raked in Rp 39.93 billion (US$4.47 million) in 2009 and Rp 44.14 billion last year.
The city owns 26.3 percent of Delta. The company lists San Miguel Malaysia (L) Private Limited as a major shareholder alongside the city government on it website, www.deltajkt.co.id. Delta is a brewer and distributor of well-known beer brands such as Anker, Carlsberg and San Miguel. Since its founding in 1932 by German firm Archipel Brouwerij NV, Delta’s ownership has changed hands many times. During World War II, control of the company was turned over to a Dutch firm before being passed to a Japanese company in 1942. A few years later, the Dutch regained control of the company. In 1970, the Jakarta administration acquired a number of shares in the company and changed the company’s name to PT Delta Djakarta during the tenure of Jakarta’s most controversial governor, Ali Sadikin.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysia: German Pre-Schoolers Visit Mosque
KUALA LUMPUR (Ahlul Bayt News Agency) — Forty pre-schoolers from the German School Kuala Lumpur (DSKL), supervised by seven teachers, recently visited the Wilayah Persekutuan mosque in Jalan Duta. The children, aged between two to four years, were first separated into two groups, with two volunteers overseeing each group. They were then showed how to take ablution (wudhu), which is required before prayer. The one-hour tour then proceeded to the main prayer hall where they were showed how the Muslims perform their prayers. There were many questions posed by the children to the volunteers. Later, the children and their teachers visited the library, kindergarten and religious school located within the mosque compound. One of the schoolteachers, Silvia Uchtmann, said the visit was part of the kindergarten’s co-curriculum. “We want the children to learn about the cultures in Malaysia, the country that they are currently living in,” she said. “For this visit, it is hoped that they will have better understanding about other religions.” One of the tour volunteers, Hasliza Ahmad, added that such a tour was meant to share the information on Islam to all visitors regardless of their religion or nationality. “It is good to see that even though they are still young, they love to ask questions throughout the tour,” she said.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Darebin Council to Tackle Ramadan Traffic Issues Using Anti-Terror Funds
A $100,000 taxpayer-funded grant aimed at countering violent extremism among Muslims will be used to help deal with traffic issues during the religious festival of Ramadan.
Darebin Council will use the federal cash to appoint a Muslim outreach officer in a bid to ease tensions between people attending the Preston mosque and local residents.
Each year the council receives complaints about parking and noise during the month-long festival despite efforts to manage the influx of worshippers. But a council review of parking during Ramadan has revealed that a $100,000 grant from the federal Attorney-General’s Department will be used to hire an outreach officer to address the complaints. According to a department media release, the grant is part of a program aimed at building resilience to violent extremism in ethnic and religious communities.
Darebin group manager people and performance, Fred Warner, said yesterday that the council had been given the money to build community relationships and promote social inclusion. “The project officer will facilitate the mosque community’s engagement with the wider community and will help non-Muslims in Darebin understand more about their Muslim neighbours,” he said. Mr Warner said that the Cramer St mosque had one of the biggest congregations in Australia and the officer would focus on the neighbouring community.
However, Ratepayers Victoria president Jack Davis said the council should just deal directly with the traffic and noise issues during Ramadan. “We’re better off funding programs that benefit the whole community as one rather than individual groups,” he said. Australian Multicultural Foundation executive director Hass Dellal said the federal grants helped preserve social cohesion.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Oldest Artist’s Workshop in the World Discovered
Grind up some ochre, melt some bone-marrow fat, mix the lot with a splash of urine — and paint your body with it. It sounds like an avant-garde performance but it may have happened some 100,000 years ago, in the oldest known artist’s workshop — a cave in South Africa. The complex pigments that humans mixed there, and the tools they used to do it, are revealing just how cunning some of our earliest ancestors were.
The purpose of the paint is unknown, but the researchers who discovered the workshop at the Blombos cave on South Africa’s southern coast think it was most likely applied to skin for decoration or ritual, or perhaps even as an insect repellent.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Oldest Human Paint-Making Studio Discovered in Cave
A group of Home sapiens came across a picturesque cave on the coast of South Africa around 100,000 years ago. They unloaded their gear and set to work, grinding iron-rich dirt and mixing it gently with heated bone in abalone shells to create a red, paint-like mixture. Then they dipped a thin bone into the mixture to transfer it somewhere before leaving the cave — and their toolkits — behind.
Researchers now have uncovered those paint-making kits, sitting in the cave in a layer of dune sand, just where they had been left 100,000 years ago. The find is the oldest-known example of a human-made compound mixture, said study researcher Christopher Henshilwood, an archaeologist at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. It’s also the first known example of the use of a container anywhere in the world, 40,000 years older than the next example, Henshilwood told LiveScience.
“To me, it’s an important indicator of how technologically advanced people were 100,000 years ago,” Henshilwood said. “If this was a paint, it also indicates the likelihood that people were using substances in a symbolic way 100,000 years ago.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spanish Aid Workers Kidnapped on Kenya-Somali Border
Two Spanish doctors working for the medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) were kidnapped at gunpoint near Kenya’s border with Somalia today.
The two women were seized from the Dadaab refugee camp (pictured), about 80km from the Somali border, which houses about 450,000 refugees fleeing famine in the Horn of Africa.
In recent weeks, two other foreign women — one English, the other French — have been kidnapped near the border.
Kenyan police confirmed that they were pursuing the kidnappers towards the Somali border by road and by air. They say the border has been sealed. According to MSF, the doctors’ Kenyan driver was wounded by the kidnappers and is now in hospital.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Amnesty Slams Dutch Asylum System
Asylum seekers in the Netherlands are kept in detention too often, for too long and under unnecessarily severe conditions, says a report from Amnesty International. The refugees are kept in custody while their asylum claims are processed. At the end of 2010, a majority in the Lower House called on the government to look into alternatives to the present rigorous system of detention for asylum seekers. It was said alternatives would be both cheaper and less severe than the present regime.
Amnesty accuses Immigration Minister Gerd Leers of not making enough of an effort to come up with viable alternatives. The organisation has done its own research into systems other than that used by the Dutch government. Better than in the Netherlands Dutch Amnesty director Eduard Nazarski says no one country has the answer to the problem but that “there are definitely countries where certain elements are far better than in the Netherlands”. He points to the more flexible asylum detention regimes in Sweden, Australia and Great Britain. In Sweden, for instance, most asylum seekers are allowed to live with relatives or in open centres with bedrooms rather than cells. This means Sweden needs only 245 asylum detention places compared with 2,280 in the Netherlands.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Shaping Perceptions and Attitudes to Realise the Diversity Advantage (SPARDA)
A European Union / Council of Europe Joint Programme (January 2011 — June 2012)
Context
Shaping perceptions and attitudes to realise the diversity advantage (SPARDA), a joint action of the Council of Europe and the European Union, builds upon previous work of the Council of Europe in the field of integration and intercultural dialogue, in particular the White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue, the Intercultural cities EU / CoE joint action and the Speak out against discrimination Campaign.
Successful integration of migrants depends strongly on the perceptions of the host community of migrants and ethno-cultural diversity. Such perceptions are a product of a complex web of factors and circumstances but to a certain extent they can be influenced by the way opinion leaders, in particular political leaders and media, address such issues. While many cities and organisations around Europe make significant effort to shape public perceptions of migration and diversity in a balanced way, here is a lack of systematic evidence of the impact of such actions; neither there is a comprehensive assessment of communication and awareness strategies which deliver best results.
Objectives
To generate evidence to support the postulate that negative perceptions and attitudes towards migrants/diversity are not a fatality and that cities can put in place successful communication strategies to manage attitudes in a positive way.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Guest Post: My hope for #occupy wall wtreet
By now, I’m sure most of you have heard about Occupy Wall Street. Inspired by Adbuster’s call for action in July, protesters have occupied Zuccotti Park near Wall Street in New York City since September 17th. I’ve covered the story since the beginning, and am in full support of its stated goals. But I want to talk for a minute here about my hopes for the future of the protest, and in particular the importance of its continued radical inclusivity.
Occupy Wall Street’s General Assembly operates under a revolutionary “progressive stack.” A normal “stack” means those who wish to speak get in line. A progressive stack encourages women and traditionally marginalized groups speak before men, especially white men. This is something that has been in place since the beginning, it is necessary, and it is important.
“Step up, step back” was a common phrase of the first week, encouraging white men to acknowledge the privilege they have lived in their entire lives and to step back from continually speaking. This progressive stack has been inspiring and mind-boggling in its effectiveness.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Children Like Teamwork More Than Chimps Do
Chimpanzees and humans are fairly close cousins, evolutionarily speaking. But a new study finds they lack something that we have (besides written language and hairlessness): a desire to work together.
When all other things are equal, 3-year-old children prefer to do a task collaboratively rather than alone, while chimpanzees show no such preference, said study researcher Yvonne Rekers, a cognitive scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany.
“We expected that difference between human and chimpanzee cooperation, because we can see it nowadays,” Rekers told LiveScience. “Humans collaborate in a larger variety of contexts and in more complex forms.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Missions Proposed to Explore Mysterious Tilted Planet Uranus
Earlier this year, the Planetary Science Decadal Survey recommended that NASA consider sending a mission to the planet Uranus. With all the attention paid to Mars, Jupiter and even poor little Pluto, what’s the draw in going to Uranus? Lots, says Mark Hofstadter of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. “Uranus is a type of a planet that we know very little about,” Hofstadter said. “Thirty years ago, we thought Uranus and Neptune were just smaller versions of Jupiter and Saturn.” We now know, however, that the two outermost planets in our solar neighborhood are not gas giants filled with hydrogen and helium gas, but rather “ice giants” containing a large mixture of water, methane, ammonia and carbon dioxide. Current tallies of exoplanets suggest that ice giants are more common in our galaxy than the larger gas giants.
“We’d like to study our local examples of this common type of planet,” Hofstadter said. If you had to pick one, Uranus is probably the better destination than Neptune. It challenges scientific models with its unique rotation and puzzling internal structure. Moreover, planet number seven is easier to get to than planet number eight. Hofstadter is one of a group of scientists exploring the potential of sending an orbiter to Uranus. One particular proposal, called Uranus Pathfinder, was recently considered by the European Space Agency (ESA). “Both the European and American sides are convinced that an orbiter is needed rather than a flyby,” said Chris Arridge of University College, London, principal investigator of Uranus Pathfinder. “But then costs rear their ugly head.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Perfect Fossil Could be Most Complete Dinosaur Ever
Dinosaur fossils don’t come much more impressive than this. With 98 per cent of its skeleton preserved, this young predatory theropod from southern Germany may be the most complete dinosaur ever found. Oliver Rauhut, curator of the Bavarian State Collection for Palaeontology and Geology in Munich, announced the find yesterday. Although Chinese bird and dinosaur fossils are famed for delicate details such as their feathers, they don’t match this 72-centimetre-long theropod in terms of clarity and completeness of preservation. The young dinosaur has been dated at 135 million years old, putting it in the early Cretaceous, but it has yet to be named and described formally. It will go on show to the public at the Munich Mineral show, which starts on 27 October.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UN Warns Hunger is Rising Amid Major Price Swings
The United Nations say massive fluctuations in the price of food have heightened the hunger crisis in developing countries, particularly in Africa. The latest UN report shows that the situation is getting worse.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
1 comments:
RE: Cluture Wars
"Guest Post: My hop for #occpy wall street"
Here is my "mid-western-state" perspective on this protest movement:
A bunch of unwashed hippies with nothing else to do, living in less-than-hygienic conditions in support of a cause that they can't really explain.
But we're the bad-guys for pointing it out.
Whatever these people think they are accomplishing, they're gaining no sympathy from within what we call the "heart-landers" here in the U.S.
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