Confident Investors Boost Italy’s Equity, Bond Markets
Good news from ECB, U.S. drive gains
(ANSA) — Rome, July 27 — Encouraged by good news from the European Central Bank and a better-than-expected American economic report, investors gave strong support to Italian financial markets Friday.
Indeed, all of Europe’s equity markets closed higher, with Milan’s FTSE MIB among the strongest, rising 2.93% to close at 13,596.88 points while the FTSE Italia All-Share gained 2.15% to reach 14,555.
The bond markets were swept up in the same tide of optimism.
The spread between 10-year Italian bonds and the benchmark German bund dropped sharply in early trading on Friday hitting 450.6 points with a yield of 5.87%. However, it began to climb during the day, reaching 480 points before closing the week back down at 455 points with a yield of 5.95%.
Earlier in the week, jittery markets drove up the spread between Italian bonds and the German benchmark to 537 points, a level not seen since last November, when Italy’s ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi was driven from office.
It dropped dramatically on Thursday to close at 473 points after ECB President Mario Draghi said the agency would do everything in its power to save the euro.
That comment continued to buoy markets, which were further encouraged when second-quarter GDP numbers from the United States came in slightly stronger than forecasters had expected.
Annual growth in GDP in the US slowed to 1.5% between April through June, a significant drop from the 2.0% growth reported in the first three months of this year, the Commerce Department said Friday.
Still, the figure beat analysts’ forecasts for an even slower growth rate of a mere 1.3% in Q2.
Slower consumption and higher imports as well as a drop in government spending all contributed to the slower growth rate in the US in the second quarter.
Any good news was seized on by investors who boosted Paris’s main stock index by 2.3% to 3,280 points on Friday; Madrid’s benchmark jumped by 3.7% to 6,617 points; Frankfurt’s DAX gained 1.62% on the day to close at 6,689.4 points; and London’s FTSE 100 closed up 1% at 5,627 points.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Money Back in Bank Accounts
Confidence rises after elections
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, JULY 27 — The recent victory at national elections of Antonis Samaras, leader of the conservative party Nea Dimocratia, which supports the EU and Greece’s permanence in the 17-member European currency, had a positive impact on investors’ confidence as Greek savers are quickly putting back their money in bank accounts after taking them away over fears that the country might leave the eurozone.
According to the online version of financial daily Capital, which quoted well informed bank sources, cash is flowing back into Greek bank accounts after national elections on June 17.
The report said that an estimated 200 billion euros are being cashed by Greek banks every day while capitals which have returned to the country’s financial institutions since the national vote total 10 billion euros and are expected to rise.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain Takes Out 8 Bln Euro Bank Loan for Regions
State lottery, treasury to cover rest of Liquidity Fund
(ANSAMed) — MADRID, JULY 27 — Spain will fund a new liquidity mechanism to help the regions repay their debts through an 8 billion euro bank loan, Secretary for Economy Fernando Jimenez Latorre said at a news conference on Friday.
The Spanish government announced earlier this month it would set up an 18-billion-euro fund to ease the autonomous communities funding concerns. The instrument will also be financed by an extraordinary payment of 6 billion euros from the state lottery while the rest will fall on the Treasury. The bank loan will ease pressure on the Treasury and enable it to face possible funding emergencies from the regions. The Treasury will not alter its bond issuance calendar, Latorre explained.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Unemployment at 24.6%, Highest Since 1976
Level in second semester record high since death of Franco
(ANSAmed) — ROME — Unemployment has risen to its highest level since 1976, a record after the death of dictator Francisco Franco. In the second trimester, the level of unemployment rose to 24.6% from 24.4% compared to the previous trimester, the highest rate recorded in the European Union, the National Statistics Bureau said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The Audit the Fed Bill Gets Passed by the House But Obama and the Democrats Are Going to Kill it
On Wednesday, Ron Paul’s bill to audit the Federal Reserve was overwhelmingly passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. The vote was 327 to 98. You would think that a bill with such overwhelming support would easily become law. But it won’t, because Barack Obama and the Democrats plan to kill it.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has already said that the Senate will not even consider the bill. But of course if Barack Obama called Harry Reid and told him that he wants this bill to get through the Senate so that he could sign it then Harry Reid would be singing a much different tune. Sadly, we all know that is not going to happen. Barack Obama’s good buddy Ben Bernanke called the Audit the Fed bill a “nightmare scenario” last week, and Obama is certainly not going to do anything to upset Bernanke — especially this close to the election. Obama needs Bernanke to do everything that he possibly can to stimulate the economy so that Obama will look as good as possible in November. The sad truth is that there is absolutely no chance that the Audit the Fed bill will become law and that is a crying shame.
So why is an audit of the Federal Reserve so important?
[…]
The Federal Reserve has more power over the economy than anyone else in the country does, and yet they are virtually unaccountable and the American people have very little idea what has been going on behind closed doors over at the Fed for the past 100 years.
A very limited audit of the Fed that was passed a couple of years ago that examined transactions during the last financial crisis discovered that the Federal Reserve had actually loaned out more than 16 trillion dollars in nearly interest-free money to the “too big to fail” banks between 2007 and 2010.
Keep in mind that U.S. GDP for the entire year of 2011 was only slightly more than 15 trillion dollars.
The Federal Reserve loaned out trillions upon trillions of dollars to their friends and never told the American people about it.
Whoa.
You would think that Congress would be quite eager to see what else has been going on over at the Federal Reserve.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A Guaranteed Minimum Income in the US?
If you think Obamacare is bad for America, if you think the UN’s Small Arms Treaty is going to disarm America (as I do), then you will not be surprised when the call goes out from the Obama Administration to replace the welfare system with a guaranteed income.
I am convinced that if Americans don’t wake up and get a grip and reclaim their/our country—the UN Small Arms Treaty will become the law in America NEXT YEAR and I am convinced there is a sub-Rosa movement to give America a guaranteed minimum income. (I spoke to a young man, over the past weekend, who told me emphatically that beginning this week he is going to begin buying all the ammunition he can lay his hands on—while he still can! He, too, is convinced that America’s weapons are about to be seized by the US government.)
A second term for Obama is America’s death knell. The damage from his first term will take generations to repair and restore.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bill Gates Funds Scheme to Spray Artificial ‘Planet-Cooling’ Sulfur Particles Into Atmosphere
Geo-engineers are finally coming out of the “chemtrail” closet, as reports are now emerging about deliberate plans in the works to dump untold tons of sulfate chemicals into the atmosphere for the purported purpose of fighting so-called “global warming.”
The U.K.’s Guardian and others are reporting that a multi-million dollar research fund, which just so happens to have been started and funded by Microsoft founder and vaccine enthusiast Bill Gates, is being used to fund the project. A large balloon hovering at 80,000 feet over Fort Sumner, New Mexico, will release the sulfates into the atmosphere within the next year.
The stated purpose for this massive release of toxic sulfate particles is that doing so will allegedly reflect sunlight back into the atmosphere, and thus cool the planet. But many environmental groups and advocates of common sense are decrying the idea as dangerous, and one that could result in permanent damage to ecosystems all across the globe.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Church, Mosque Plan to Build Park Together
The park they are planning to build together is just a concept now. An artist’s rendering of a wish list. Hope on paper. But both Cordova congregations have started before with less. Heartsong Church began in the late 1990s as 20 folks worshipping in another Methodist church’s chapel. Now its 800 members fill a 27-acre campus in Cordova. Memphis Islamic Center began with some area Muslims meeting to pray in a nearby Baptist church. Now, it’s a mosque and community center on 31 acres, serving the spiritual needs of hundreds of area Muslims. “It’s not the big things that change America, it’s the simple things,” said Dr. Bashar Shala, a local physician and MIC’s chairman.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Debunking the Great Carbon Tax Hype
With global temperatures flat-lining for 15 years, climate alarmist arguments are looking far more fragile than the earth’s (actually robust) eco-system. Of late, climate activists of all ideological shades have thus attempted to posit a “third way” between the “extremes” of interminable left-right, alarmist-sceptic arguments.
Thus the new climate mantra is for a global carbon tax. It is, so we are told, is the best way to “incentivize” people to act on the “problem” and provide a “solution”. Step forward Tim Worstall of the UK’s Adam Smith Institute (ASI) and his “third way” contentions.
[…]
Britain (and Germany’s) anti-carbon war has actually succeeded only in hiking taxes, providing a windfall for government, driving up energy costs, hobbling industry competitiveness, costing jobs and dumping half a million people into fuel poverty while having precisely zero impact on carbon emissions.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
DHS Prepares for Civil Unrest as Obama Poised to Destroy 2nd Amendment
Surveillance drones have a new mission. According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) they will be used for “public safety”. Janet Napolitano, Secretary of the DHS, told a House Committee meeting on Homeland Security that the more than 30,000 drones that will be deployed into American skies are just arbitrarily watching out for US citizens.
Napolitano stated : “With respect to Science and Technology, that directorate, we do have a funded project, I think it’s in California, looking at drones that could be utilized to give us situational awareness in a large public safety [matter] or disaster, such as a forest fire, and how they could give us better information.”
Secretly, DHS have been taking bid for contractors who can install “aerial remote sensing” which uses light detection and ranging (LIDAR) that would be part of the unmanned drone missions within domestic US territory.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Diana West: Spiking the Examiner
News flash: The Washingon Examiner spiked my syndicated column on the Muslim Brotherhood and why five House Republicans — Reps. Michele Bachmann, Trent Franks, Louie Gohmert, Tom Rooney and Lynn Westermoreland — were correct to call on Inspectors General to investigate MB influence on US government policy-making. And therein lies a tale.
If the newspaper’s online search function is accurate, it is even more perplexing to note that the Examiner hasn’t run a single news story on the media-politics feeding frenzy, led by Sen. John McCain, directed at Rep. Michele Bachmann for raising questions about strong indications of Muslim Brotherhood penetration of the Washington policy-making chain. The geyser of Left-cum-GOP-Establishment hysteria arose from Bachmann et al pointing out in a letter to the State Department IG that Huma Abedin, a top advisor of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, has close family members involved in MB-associated groups and movements, which are dedicated to the destruction of the West. Indeed, it was on the mention of Huma Abedin that the Examiner told me the paper turned down my column (full column reprinted below).
A little backstory.
I have noted before with dismay that the Washington Examiner automatically spikes any syndicated column I write regarding what might be referred to as President Obama’s identity issues.
These include: the debate over the constitutional requirement that the president and vice president be “natural born”; this same debate as it enters court in eligibility challenges litigated from New Jersey to Georgia to the US Supreme Court; and related pieces of “natural born” legislation introduced in some state legislatures, including Arizona’s. Since April 27, 2011, when Obama published a highly problematic illustration of a birth certificate on the White House website, the debate has taken a darker turn. There is now extensive evidence that fraud and forgery took place in the creation of the White House birth certificate. What that means to the Examiner is that it now also auto-spikes columns about this evidence and other sensational news coming out of the Cold Case Posse investigation mounted by the renowned Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
Regrettably, Townhall.com has this year decided to spike columns on this same subject by myself and others. In fact, the silence on this epic story extends across the public square, from Left to Right, from CNN to Fox, from Democrats to Republicans. When, earlier this year, this began happening to my column in a more systematic way, I was shocked. Others, too. I will note for the record that concerned scribes expressed outrage and alarm over such censorship, for which I remain grateful. It is a more than passing strange sensation to write about what clearly seems to be important news in our country’s history involving Americans from different states, from diferent walks of life — lawyers, judges, detectives, computer experts, government officials including the president, and more — knowing full well that some outlets won’t run it because the subject is verboten in the public square. I have even come to expect this treatment on the subject, which must be some dangerous stage of complacency.
In a way, then, I almost welcome this latest, very different spike as a salutary jolt of alarm.
Here’s how Examiner editorial page editor David Freddoso explained why the column didn’t appear:…
| — Hat tip: Diana West | [Return to headlines] |
Don’t Try That in Montana
By now, everybody in the country knows about the horrific shootings at a packed theater in the metro Denver area last week. Twelve people were killed and scores were wounded. Predictably, gun-control zealots nationwide are shouting for stricter gun control laws. Not only that, some are even calling for the TSA to set up airport-style screening devices in movie theaters.
So, if the TSA is going to set up screening devices for movie theaters, why not grocery stores, department stores, malls, strip malls, churches, boy scout meetings, girl scout meetings, soccer matches, little league baseball games, concerts, rodeos, etc., etc. Heck, let’s just put TSA screeners at any gathering that attracts more than, say, ten people! What about the cost, you ask? Who cares? It’s all about being safe, right? If big-government toadies have taught us anything over the past several years it is that the American people are a bunch of helpless, defenseless sheep who owe all of their safety and security to the all-powerful, all-knowing, all-caring federal government, right?
Whether the Denver shooter was a plain old wacko or a product of some sort of sophisticated MK Ultra-type assassination program, as some are suggesting, the reason twelve people died and so many were wounded is because the laws of the city and rules of the movie theater demanded that patrons disarm themselves. Had only one or two individuals in that movie theater been armed, the outcome could have been much different. Twelve people are dead, because the movie theater was a gun-free zone! Obviously, bad guys do not pay any attention to gun-free zones, except to note that such zones create a free-killing environment.
[…]
One thing the national news media will always ignore is the practice of lawful self-defense. For example, most people are probably not aware of the fact that American citizens use a firearm to defend themselves more than 2.4 million times EVERY YEAR. That is more than 6,500 times EVERY DAY. This means that, each year, firearms are used 60 times more often to protect the lives of honest citizens than to take lives. Furthermore, of the 2.4 million self-defense cases, more than 192,000 are by women defending themselves against sexual assault. And in less than eight percent of those occasions is a shot actually fired. The vast majority of the time (92%), the mere presence of a firearm helps to avert a major crime from occurring. That is what Congressman Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) concluded after extensive research. According to Rep. Bartlett, the number of defensive uses is four times the number of crimes reported committed with guns
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Environmental Protection or Global Governance?
Those who are determined to impose global governance on the rest of us have made great sport out of attacking anyone who dares oppose their plans. They have attacked those who challenge their claims of global warming by calling for “Nuremburg-style” show trials. Al Gore has actually called for violence against climate “skeptics.” The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has called those who oppose the policies of Barack Obama domestic terrorists. But if you watch and listen long enough, you will hear incredible things come out of their mouths. You will find that they really are lying about their intent. It’s not really about saving the environment — but about controlling the world — just like we opponents said. Amazing, isn’t it? Here, let them tell you in their own words:
We said the issue over Climate Change wasn’t really about protecting the environment but about redistribution of wealth. They called us “deniers.” But who is really denying the truth?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Eye in the Sky
America’s skies are filled with government spies watching you and me—and everything we do—around the clock. And it stinks!
America is now approaching the likeness of a police state. We will, in fact, BE a police state very soon. (Some argue that we are already a police state. I would argue—not yet—but we ARE getting there.)
“Since Jan. 1 of this year, according to congressional testimony presented Thursday by the Government Accountability Office, the Federal Aviation Administration has authorized 106 federal, state and local government “entities” to fly “unmanned aircraft systems,” also known as drones, within U.S. airspace.
“We are now on the edge of a new horizon: using unmanned aerial systems within the homeland,” House Homeland Security Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Michael McCaul (R.-Texas) said as he introduced the testimony.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Foreign Troops to Confiscate American Guns Under UN Treaty
For those who’ve been wondering how the domestic gun grabbers or the United Nations think they’re going to get away with gun control here at home, one need look no further than Article 15 of the UN’s Arms Trade Treaty.
Many American troops are patriots who understand their oaths to uphold the Constitution, so they can’t be counted upon to confiscate guns. But foreign troops are another story.
Article 15 of the UN Arms Trade Treaty, if ratified, provides for foreign “assistance to implement the Treaty,” and mandates that nations who can provide requested support must do so if requested by member nations. That includes legal, financial, technical as well as “material” assistance to enforce a treaty that declares “recreational, cultural, historical and sporting activities” to be the “exclusively” recognized reasons for lawful private ownership, and which further recognizes the “inherent rights” of the State (i.e. nations under the treaty) to self-defense, but makes no mention of the rights of the individual.
Read the language of Article 15 for yourself:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Former FBI Chief: Bachmann’s Muslim Claim ‘Morally Wrong’
Ronald Kessler reporting from Washington, D.C. - Rep. Michele Bachmann’s claim that an aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton could be connected to the Muslim Brotherhood is “morally wrong” and undermines the war on terror, former FBI Director William Webster tells Newsmax.
Because several living or deceased family members of Huma Abedin, Clinton’s deputy chief of staff, have connections to the Muslim Brotherhood or its operatives, Bachmann and four other Republican House members asked the departments of Defense, Justice, and Homeland Security and the State Department to investigate whether the U.S. government is being infiltrated by Muslim extremists.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
From Arab Spring to the Coming Nuclear Winter
Obama’s Muslim, Marxist and Communist agenda
As politically incorrect as this might sound before one gives it careful and thoughtful consideration, I’ve often stated the following during my many hours of talk radio. Imagine yourself standing among the rubble of what once were the World Trade Center towers, still smoldering and riddled with the carnage of nearly three thousand people in the wake of the 9/11 attacks just a few days earlier. Smell the sickening and acrid smoky haze of death as it invades your nostrils and clings to your clothes. Regardless of where you look, all 360 degrees of your vision is filled with nauseating devastation. Visualize the recovery efforts that surround you and listen to the sobbing as loved ones of the missing place photos on bulletin boards near Ground Zero, hoping and praying for a miracle that would never come.
Watch as others bring flowers, small stuffed animals and votive candles to the edge of makeshift fencing hastily erected to separate the crime scene from what still strives to be normalcy. Like the rest of mainstream Americans, you are still stunned by the worst attacks on America since Pearl Harbor, ostensibly at the hands of some obscure Muslim group known as al Qaeda.
Now imagine that I walked up to you and told you that ten years from that date, a man named Barack Hussein Obama II, who as a youngster in Indonesia studied the Qur’an and as a man, publicly admitted that the Muslim call to prayer was “one of the prettiest sounds on earth at sunset,” would occupy the White House. Then I proceeded to tell you that the construction of Islamic mosques would be at an all-time high across the United States, including the push for a new Islamic center less than a hundred yards of the very site on which we stood. I then added that a Muslim advocacy group known as the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), having ties to the Muslim Brotherhood (the ideological predecessor of Qaeda and Hamas), would be heavily involved in shaping U.S. policies ranging from domestic security to the implementation of Sharia (Islamic law) inside the United States.
Still standing amid the smoking ruins, I proceed to tell you that this man in the Oval Office, after years of legal stonewalling against providing authenticated, historical documentation of his personal and professional life, including his own Certification of Live Birth, was pressured into providing a copy of his Certificate of Live Birth that a commissioned law enforcement body in Arizona deemed a forgery. Not only is the man in the Oval Office Constitutionally ineligible to hold that position under the Natural Born Citizen Clause of the U.S. Constitution, but veteran investigators of that law enforcement body deemed the document that he ultimately provided to be a forgery!
[…]
Before you walk away from my narrative of conspiratorial madness, you allow me a few more seconds to continue. I then tell you that the man in the Oval Office will not only apologize for America’s historical foreign policy to the Muslim world, but embrace the very entities behind the attacks. He will be the impetus behind a major change of the landscape in the Middle East that not only allows for our abandonment of Israel, but an antagonism toward our ally. It’s all part of a larger, more sinister globalist plan of an Islamic-Marxist alliance that’s been planned and in place for decades. He will open his office, and the whole of the U.S. government, to the Muslim Brotherhood, and will not only change fundamentally America, but will “change the world.”
[…]
Promoting change in Egypt, the man called Obama has a private meeting with Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Egypt’s foreign minister. Gheit recounts the meeting to an audience of millions on Egyptian television that “the American president [Obama] told me in confidence that he is a Muslim.”
Events in Egypt move quickly, and the Mubarak government loses the support of the United States. Muslim Brotherhood Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi calls for “days of rage” in Egypt and throughout the Middle East, ultimately prompting riots in Egypt and elsewhere. Within months, Qaradawi, who was in exile from Egypt for 30 years, is welcomed back after the orchestrated fall of Mubarak.
The power vacuum that exists in post-Mubarak Egypt is quickly filled by the Muslim Brotherhood with the help of the U.S. State Department. It is at this time that Egypt’s new power structure advises Israel and the rest of the world that the peace treaty with Israel will be null and void.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Jesus Was a Muslim, Claims U.S. Religions Professor
Religions professor at the Luther College in Iowa, Robert F. Shedinger, has made a controversial claim in a new book, arguing that Jesus Christ was a Muslim.
In the beginning of his book, to be released this year, Shedinger asked “Was Jesus a Muslim?”
“I will answer with a very qualified yes,” he wrote.
In the spring of 2001, Shedinger’s methodology of teaching Islam was questioned by one of his students who was brought up in a Muslim family, according to a report by Fox Nation.
The student, a female, told her professor that the way he was conveying Islam to his students didn’t bare resemblance to the way she was taught about her own religion in her upbringing.
Shedinger said in an interview that the questioning of his view on Islam motivated him to completely re-think his whole concept about the religion and the way he was applying it to his teaching.
Shedinger, who is the head of the religious studies department at Luther College in Iowa, also argued that Islam is a better fit for Jesus since it is not a religion but a “social justice movement,” Fox reported.
“I had to rethink what Islam is… I came to the conclusion that it was a social justice movement and I think that’s who Jesus was in the first century so I conclude Jesus is more like a Muslim,” he said.
Islam’s Prophet Mohammed is believed to have received revelations that were eventually cited in the Quran at around 622 AD; the date historians, Muslims and Christians believe the birth of Islam to be. Jesus is believed to have lived more than 600 years earlier.
Shedinger’s book also addresses the relationship between Christians and Muslims and how they can “work together to promote social justice in the world.”
| — Hat tip: Hermes | [Return to headlines] |
Leaked UN Treaty Does Ban Guns
The text of the anticipated and hotly-contested United Nations Arms Trade Treaty has been leaked, with the treaty itself set to be adopted and signed by member States as early as tomorrow, July 27. President Obama, today joining the chorus for gun control inside the United States in the wake of the Batman massacre, has previously indicated that he would sign the treaty, which would then have to be ratified by the Senate.
Masked behind the language of promoting peace in an international world by preventing genocide, the UN has unleashed a great Trojan Horse that calls upon States to enact national legislation sufficient to meet the minimum goals outlined in this treaty— including gun registries, background checks, import/export controls and more for arms of all types, including small & conventional weapons. “Each State Party shall adopt national legislation or other appropriate national measures regulations and policies as may be necessary to implement the obligations of this Treaty,” the treaty text states in part.
[…]
The first “principle” outlined in the preamble reads: “1. The inherent rights of all States to individual or collective self-defense.” While the language of the treaty appears to recognize the legal right to keep such arms, the text actually recognizes the “inherent right of States” to “individual and collective” self-defense.
This is NOT the same as individual persons’ inherent right to keep and bear arms as recognized and enumerated in the United States’ Bill of Rights. Instead, it puts the collectivist unit known as the State above the individual, in complete defiance of the system set-up in the United States. Individual defense for a State, for instance, refers to what is known on the international scene as “unilateral war,” while collective defense is recognize in such actions as that of NATO or other allied bodies. The States’ right to maintain internal order has also been recognized by the UN, but all other purposes for arms ownership are seen as illegitimate.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Local Muslims Strive to Maintain Cultural Traditions While Becoming Part of American Society
During the holy month of Ramadan, the Islamic Center invites the public to break bread at the end of the day.
With Berks County reflecting aspects of America’s growing Islamic community, local Muslims continue to seek interfaith understanding and strive to maintain cultural traditions while blending into the national fabric. Elsayed Elmarzouky, president of the Islamic Center, 18 Noble St., once again invited the public to break bread with the Muslims at the center. The invitation is open each evening after 8:30 p.m., at the end of the required day-long fasting during the holy month of Ramadan, which started last week.
Ramadan is a holy time set aside for spiritual purification, compassion, forgiveness of sins and prayers of thanks for life’s blessings. Estimating that more than 250 families belong to the mosque, Elmarzouky said 800 to 1,000 people are usually drawn to the Eid al-Fitr, or Festival of Breaking the Fast, at the Greater Reading Expo Center at the end of Ramadan on Aug. 18. “All this started with 15 to 20 people in the early 1990s, and so we have grown,” said Elmarzouky, 59, of Birdsboro, a native of Egypt, local restaurateur and father of four children.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Michele Bachmann is Right: We Need to Ask Questions About Radical Islamic Infiltration
by Cal Thomas
Like the ghosts of Shakespeare’s Banquo or Dickens’ Jacob Marley, the specter of the late commie-hunting congressman from Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy, will always be with us. It is summoned up today, by some on the left, who use it as a tool to thwart legitimate questions about people and ideologies that seek to destroy America. According to many commentators, the McCarthy spirit has inhabited Minnesota Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann. In several letters to high-ranking government officials, Ms. Bachmann has raised questions about Huma Abedin, a Muslim-American, who is deputy chief of staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
New Conservative Film Downplays Obama’s Marxism
The new conservative film, “Obama’s America: 2016,” offers a lot of good information but muddies the waters as Americans, during this critical election year, look outside the major media for information about their President.
Instead of educating people about communist influence over Obama, an unprecedented and shocking development for an American president, filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza claims that “anti-colonialism,” a philosophy exploited by communists, is behind his beliefs and policies.
The critical fact about the cause of anti-colonialism, ignored in the film, is that it was a tactic of the international communist movement, which attempted to create the Soviet Union’s own colonial empire.
This omission is strange, since D’Souza’s film touts his work for President Ronald Reagan, who fought the communists in Hollywood and confronted the Soviet “evil empire,” leading to the collapse of the system and the independence of countries formerly under its control.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Backs Race-Based School Discipline Policies
President Barack Obama is backing a controversial campaign by progressives to regulate schools’ disciplinary actions so that members of major racial and ethnic groups are penalized at equal rates, regardless of individuals’ behavior.
His July 26 executive order established a government panel to promote “a positive school climate that does not rely on methods that result in disparate use of disciplinary tools.”
“African Americans lack equal access to highly effective teachers and principals, safe schools, and challenging college-preparatory classes, and they disproportionately experience school discipline,” said the order, titled “White House Initiative On Educational Excellence.”
Because of those causes, the report suggests, “over a third of African American students do not graduate from high school on time with a regular high school diploma, and only four percent of African American high school graduates interested in college are college-ready across a range of subjects.”
“What this means is that whites and Asians will get suspended for things that blacks don’t get suspended for,” because school officials will try to level punishments despite groups’ different infraction rates, predicted Hans Bader, a counsel at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Bader is a former official in the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, and has sued and represented school districts and colleges in civil-rights cases.
“It is too bad that the president has chosen to set up a new bureaucracy with a focus on one particular racial group, to the exclusion of all others,” said Roger Clegg, the president of the Center for Equal Opportunity.
“A disproportionate share of crimes are committed by African Americans, and they are disproportionately likely to misbehave in school… [because] more than 7 out of 10 African Americans (72.5 percent) are born out of wedlock… versus fewer than 3 out of 10 whites,” he said in a statement to The Daily Caller. Although “ you won’t see it mentioned in the Executive Order… there is an obvious connection between these [marriage] numbers and how each group is doing educationally, economically, criminally,” he said.
The order created a “President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans.” It will include senior officials from several federal agencies — including the Departments of Education, Justice and Labor — which have gained increased power over state education policies since 2009.
The progressives campaign for race-based discipline policies also won a victory in Maryland July 24.
The state’s board of education established a policy demanding that each racial or ethnic group receive roughly proportional level of school penalties, regardless of the behavior by members of each group.
The board’s decision requires that “the state’s 24 school systems track data to ensure that minority and special education students are not unduly affected by suspensions, expulsions and other disciplinary measures,” said a July 25 Washington Post report.
“Disparities would have to be reduced within a year and eliminated within three years,” according to the Post.
The state’s new racial policy was welcomed by progressives, including Judith Browne Dianis, a director of the D.C.-based Advancement Project. “Maryland’s proposal is on the cutting edge,” she told the Post.
Dianis’ project is also a law firm that litigates race-related questions, and it gains from laws and regulations that spur race-related legal disputes.
“The combination of overly harsh school policies … has created a ‘schoolhouse-to-jailhouse track,’ in which punitive measures such as suspensions, expulsions, and school-based arrests are increasingly used to deal with student misbehavior,” claimed the group’s website.
This “is a racial justice crisis, because the students pushed out through harsh discipline are disproportionately students of color,” the group insisted.
The administration had previously advertised its support for the campaign to impose race-based discipline policies.
In February, Attorney General Eric Holder claimed that “we’ve often seen that students of color, students from disadvantaged backgrounds, and students with special needs are disproportionately likely to be suspended or expelled.”
“This is, quite simply, unacceptable. … These unnecessary and destructive policies must be changed,” he said in his speech, given in Atlanta, Ga.
| — Hat tip: Takuan Seiyo | [Return to headlines] |
Relations Fray at 2nd New Castle Mosque Hearing
Themes: Specter of lawsuit, sense of town identity and environmental impact.
There appeared to be a heightened sense of irritation at the second public hearing for the Upper Westchester Muslim Society’s proposed mosque for New Castle’s West End. Although turnout on Wednesday was lower than at last month’s Zoning Board of Appeals hearing meeting — the ZBA held the hearings for the building’s environmental review — frustration on both sides seemed to escalate. West End residents, who live near the proposed 8.33-acre site at 130 Pinesbridge Rd., reiterated their opposition rhetoric, while UWMS members responded.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Romneyshambles: Democrats Seize on Mitt Romney’s Gaffes
Democrats have seized upon Mitt Romney’s trip abroad — dubbed Romneyshambles — with a new video highlighting criticism from British politicians and the media.
The Democratic National Committee released the video which is a compilation of Mr Romney’s trip. One part of the video highlights a Telegraph Commentary, that said: “Mitt Romney is perhaps the only politician who could start a trip that was supposed to be a charm offensive by being utterly devoid of charm and mildly offensive.” As well as the media, David Cameron and Boris Johnson, Carl Lewis, the winner of nine Olympic gold medals, hit out at Mr Romney saying “seriously, some Americans just shouldn’t leave the country”. Mr Romney’s London trip has been filled with a series of missteps, starting with an NBC interview in which he questioned Britain’s readiness to host the Olympics.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
So That This Never Happens Again
The first reaction to the Aurora Massacre was the usual call for making sure that “this never happens again”. Everyone from New York City Mayor Bloomberg to author Salman Rushdie to mystery writer Patricia Cornwell called for imposing gun control to insure “this never happens again”.
And yet if we were to confiscate every privately owned firearm and outlaw the manufacture of new ones in the country, if we were to forcibly institutionalize anyone suspected of being mentally ill, and if we added naked scanners to movie theaters; we still could not insure that this will never happen again.
And yet Colorado has half the murder rate of Illinois, as adjusted for population. Idaho, Utah, Wyoming and New Hampshire, all full of guns, have far lower murder rates than gun control states like New York, California and Illinois. According to Bloomberg, “If we had fewer guns, we would have a lot fewer murders.” But guns are not proportional to murders.
Utah has the second highest gun ownership rate in the country and the eighth lowest homicide rate. Wyoming, the state with the fourth highest gun ownership rate has the fourth lowest homicide rate. Meanwhile, New York is 48th in gun ownership, but is the 18th highest in its murder rate.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Soros Open Society Now a Tourist Destination?
How did the George Soros Open Society logo get prominently displayed in the US Travel & Tourism ‘Land of Dreams’ video, televised in the United Kingdom, Japan and Canada for the past three months?
The $12.3 million ad campaign presents a display of photographs of beautiful scenic places in all 50 states that link to destination content pulled from ‘1,000 Places to See in the United States & Canada Before You Die’. (Forbes Magazine).
How the Open Society logo figures in with landmarks like the Rockies, Arizona Desert and New York City is one for the books.
Moving through breathtaking scenes with the Discover America’s signature song ‘Land of Dreams’ written and sung by Roseanne Cash, viewers don’t get a raincheck on the campaign’s multicultural theme and the spiral in the sand that builds the Open Society Logo in opening scenes. Such is the power of subliminal.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US Military and Local Police Working Together on American Streets
The US military is being used to protect civilian events, like the 2012 Democratic and Republican Party National Conventions in Tampa, Florida and Charlotte, North Carolina.
USNORTHCOM and Leon Panetta, US Secretary of Defense, has readily admitted that US armed forces will collaborate with local law enforcement “if called upon”.
In fact, more than 20,000 troops were brought home and readied for deployment within the US to assist in “civil unrest and crowd control”.
[…]
In Southern California, the TSA have been caught patrolling train stations and bus terminals.
The US Congress has given over $25 million in more funding to support unannounced TSA checkpoints.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Was Obama’s Communist Mentor His Father?
Arizona’s Joe Arpaio, known as “America’s Toughest Sheriff” for his treatment of criminals, has been sued by the Obama Administration but is running for re-election this year. He may already have had the last laugh, as his investigators probing President Obama’s birth certificate have come up with sure-fire proof that the document has been tampered with. The evidence shows that the identification of Obama’s father as “African” was not on the original document.
Arpaio says the tampering may represent a “national security threat,” a reference to the fact that, if Obama’s birth certificate is fraudulent, foreigners seeking entry into or citizenship in the United States could similarly obtain phony documents. He is asking Congress to investigate.
The reason for the cover-up in Obama’s case, contends filmmaker Joel Gilbert, is that his real father was Frank Marshall Davis, a Communist under FBI surveillance who was Obama’s mentor while he was growing up in Hawaii. The Gilbert film, “Dreams from My Real Father,” makes this case, based on a series of striking photo comparisons between Obama and Davis, and informed speculation that Davis, a sex “swinger” and pornographer, had an intimate affair with Obama’s mother. The film includes nude photos that Davis took of her in Davis’s home.
Joseph Farah’s WorldNetDaily, which has been working with and covering the Arpaio inquiry, now seems focused on the critical issue of not where Obama was born but whether the identity of the father has been concealed. Gilbert argues that the “birthers” were on the wrong track all along and that the work of Arpaio’s team “confirms both the evidence and thesis” presented in his film that the father was left as “unknown” on Barack Obama’s birth certificate.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Western Wildfires — Horrific, Destructive… And Unnecessary
New fire-fighting technology could help put them out. Why isn’t it being used?
Once a fire erupts, there is no reason it should devastate homes, suburban developments or vast forest areas. The technology exists to stop these fires, long before they reach such intensities and proportions.
Two days before Waldo Canyon burst into flames, a revolutionary fire suppressant stopped a 300-acre fire north of Albuquerque, New Mexico almost in its tracks. Just nine single-engine planeloads of FireIce (about 7,200 gallons) were needed to douse the flames, prevent nearby trees and homes from igniting, and insure that the fire remained permanently extinguished.
Dutch Snyder, the independent 27-year veteran fire-fighting pilot whose airplane handled this successful mission, remarked afterward that he had “never seen a retardant hold a fire line” so well, or “any product knock down a fire so quickly.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Multiple Cars Vandalized Outside Winnipeg Mosque
Members of a Winnipeg mosque left a late-night prayer Thursday to find a man vandalizing their vehicles and yelling threats at them.
Witnesses told CTV News a man with no shirt on smashed about a dozen windshields and yelled threats at people leaving the Winnipeg Central Mosque on Ellice Avenue. Officials with the mosque said between 11 and 15 cars were damaged before the man ran into a nearby home.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
British Ambassador Says Pakistan is ‘World Leader’ In Visa Application Fraud
The British high commissioner to Islamabad has risked sparking a diplomatic storm after accusing Pakistanis of being “world leaders” in visa fraud.
During a news conference to publicise the London Olympics, Adam Thomson said UK visa officials had sifted out thousands of forged documents submitted by Pakistanis trying to obtain travel documents for Britain during the past year. His strong words will anger Pakistanis who are sensitive to allegations that they are visa cheats. “You are world leaders in the visa fraud business which is why we have to check very scrupulously every single application, every single passport, every single document,” said Mr Thomson, who is usually known for a more mild mannered approach to diplomacy. Last year we weeded out, I think, 4,000 forged documents or false passports.”
The issue has already threatened relations this week after revelations in The Sun that passport officials and travel agents in Lahore were selling bogus documents.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Exclusive in Bivol: Headshots of the Burgas Bus Bomber
18+ This publication contains photos, which can be shocking for children and adolescents
Bivol is publishing exclusive photos of the head of the person, who was announced as the suicide assailant by the Bulgarian authorities. A young, blue-eyed man with perfectly Caucasoid features, high forehead and thick black hair can be seen on the snapshots.
The photos are obviously manipulated with software, which had added rasterization to the image and retouching of the most dreadful marks of the explosion.
Bivol wrote earlier that the “kamikadze” version (the right word is “shahid”- an Arabic word, which means “martyr” or “witness”) given by the internal minister Cvetanov didn’t endure consequently and it is more likely that the young man had been used as a mule without knowing that he is going to be blasted. The perpetrators of the assault interrupted the connection to them and to the organizers by blasting the man by remote sensing methods.
This version was confirmed by the witness Gilat Kulangia, who had seen the man taking out suitcases from the rack of the bus and instead putting in his backpack. Then a scandal started between her husband and another tourist and after a few seconds the explosion echoed.
In an interview for Darik radio the brigadier Nitzan Nuriel, former head of the Office for Combating Terrorism to the Israeli National Security Council, said yesterday:
“He has had the mission to put the bags with the explosive in the bus, because if he had the right to decide alone whether to blow himself up, he then should have done it so that there are more victims and damages.”
Nuriel also explained that the Israeli services have experience with such assaults when the organizers choose people, who don’t know that they are going to die.
The suicide assault version was disseminated in the parliament today and the security services couldn’t do anything in order to prevent it.
The statements of the authorities about where the assailant came in Bulgaria were highly controversial. The prime minister Boiko Borisov claimed that the assailant came in Bulgaria from a country- member of the Schengen area and the internal minister Cvetan Cvetanov said that there is no evidence whether the person was in the territory of the European Union. The only countries fitting both conditions are Switzerland and Norway, but leaks from the investigation in Bulgarian media mentioned Belgium, or Luxemburg.
Bivol also wrote that the concessionaire of Burgas airport, who takes care of the security of the inner perimeter of the airport, is connected to the TIM group from Varna. The airport authorities in Burgas were sharply criticized by an Israeli security expert according to whom the assault was not fated:
“It’s a matter of fact that thousands of people from Israel visit Bulgaria and the whole world knows that these people are a target and a purpose for terrorists. We all know how many times the Israeli authorities had received information about prepared assaults which they have prevented. We also know very well that even the best intelligence could not detect each prepared assault. And because of this the most simple thing the security services could do at the airport was to have well-trained agents who could do one and only thing — to walk around the terminal and to look for suspicious persons, who also stroll indolently and have the most different behavior amongst all the other passengers. But the services didn’t do it.”
| — Hat tip: RR | [Return to headlines] |
France: Segolene Royal Says Minister Got Post Because Moroccan
(AGI) Paris — Segolene Royal said her ex-advisor Belkacem is now a minister only because of her Moroccan origin. Francoise Hollande’s former partner Segolene Royal, who was recently the target of a spiteful Twitter message from the French President’s current partner, Valerie Trierweiler, said her former advisor Najat Vallaud-Belkacem must accept the fact that she was chosen for the post of Minister for Women’s Rights because of her Moroccan origin. Royal told Le Point that Belkacem, who was born in Morocco in 1977 and was one of the former Socialist candidate’s spokespersons during the 2007 presidential election campaign “wouldn’t be there”, if her name were “Claudine Dupont”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
French Nationality Test Asking Name of National Anthem ‘Too Hard’ Says Minister
France’s new Socialist interior minister has vowed to scrap a Gallic civilisation test for candidates for French nationality, claiming that even fellow ministers would find it hard to answer such taxing questions as: “What is the French national anthem called?”
Manuel Valls has exposed himself to ridicule however, as it transpired the test was designed to be easy enough for a first year French secondary school pupil to answer. The minister told a Senate hearing on Wednesday that the test on French history, culture and society “surreptitiously put in place” by his predecessor from former President Nicolas Sarkozy’s conservative government “resembles a TV game show”. He said he would remove it as part of a wider overhaul of the naturalisation process in France, which he deemed deeply unfair.
His killer argument for getting rid of the tests, which candidates for French nationality were due to start taking this month, was: Ministers and senators would have difficulty answering them given how off-the-wall they are.” On making a closer inspection of some of the multiple choice questions, the rue89 website wondered whether Mr Valls might by underestimating his cabinet colleagues.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Students to Pay Up to Double Tuition if Behind
Spending review goes after bad grades
(ANSA) — Rome, July 27 — Italian university students falling behind in their coursework will pay up to double their tuition fees, according to an amendment to the government spending review. The amendment, which was approved by the Senate budget committee Friday, would be applied most heavily to students from wealthier families. Students with familiy incomes lower than 90,000 euros would pay a 25% tuition penalty. The measure is part of the government’s hotly contested plans to save 26 billion euros over the next three years after conducting a review of public spending.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘Super’ Mario Balotelli Demands Paternity Test From Ex
Rome, 4 July (AKI) — Mario Balotelli’s former girlfriend says she’s pregnant with the Italian footballer’s child. He’s not so sure the baby is his and is demanding a DNA test to prove paternity and give him a “peace of mind.”
“I would have preferred to not talk about my private life in public,” said Balotelli, who turns 22 next month.
Raffaella Fico in the latest issue of Italian gossip magazine Chi said she called the Manchester City striker while he was preparing for the semi-final match against Germany in the Euro 2012 to tell him the news. Balotelli score twice in that game to beat Germany 2-1.
“I’m forced to intervene. The relationship with Fico finished at the beginning of April and from then on we haven’t seen each other,” Balotelli said.
“I’ll assume my responsibilities only when I have the proof of my paternity.”
Fico, 24, a Neapolitan model and former contestant on Italy’s Big Brother reality show, said she found out she was pregnant in the middle of May.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Family Runs Secret Brothel in Rome, Daughter Arrested
(AGI) Rome- A brothel masqueraded as a massage center run by a 25 year old woman and her parents was discovered by police in Rome. Officers from the local police branch under Federico Gazzellone’s leadership grew suspicious when they noticed the continuous comings and goings of men to the somewhat anonymous building which lacked any sort of sign indicating the type of business. The daughter, V.C., was arrested, whilst charges have been pressed against her parents who have not been taken into custody. The brothel was immediately closed.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Olive Oil Labels Must be Better Regulated by EC, Says Italy
Quality is cornerstone for country’s agro-product image
(ANSA) — Rome, July 27 — Italy’s Ministry of Agriculture is asking the European Commission in Brussels to better regulate source information on the labels of bottles of olive oil.
Italy wants to be sure that operators are complying with EU labelling rules that require information regarding the origin of the oil be clearly stated and easy to understand. “Olive oil is a symbol of the Italian agro-products…(and) Italian growers understandably require a recognition for the quality of their product, which is not always remunerated by the market,” said Italian Agriculture Minister Mario Catania.
Italian producers struggle to be properly paid for the quality products, and therefore labelling that clearly distinguishes great oil from poor imposters is very important, said the minister.
The European Commission has been deliberating the issue of labelling.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Romania: Referendum Vote for Impeachment
Democracy, its political institutions, and constitutional checks and balances are fragile. Populist politicians, taking advantage of the economic crisis in the European Union created by the welfare nanny state, are attempting to take over hearts and minds with promises they cannot keep.
Populism is supposed to be a “political doctrine that supports the rights and power of the common people in their struggle with the privileged elite.” If you replace common people with proletariat and privileged elite with the rich, you have incipient, street level community organizing for communism.
That is how communism was sold to Eastern Europeans 60-70 years ago. That is how communism is sold again to Eastern European countries like Greece and Romania, faced with austerity measures that affect ordinary citizens.
[…]
The current power struggle is fought between the old guard communists with their wealthy families, turned into thriving billionaire capitalists, and the young neo-communists, who have had no memory or experience of Ceausescu’s communist dictatorship. These young neo-commies are lured and supported by European socialist and Marxist parties.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: London 2012: Muhammad Ali at Olympic Games Opening Ceremony
Muhammad Ali has appeared at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.
The former boxer, who has Parkinson’s Disease, appeared towards the end of the ceremony as the Olympic Flag was brought into the Stadium. He was greeted with raucous cheers. The flag was carried by people including Doreen Lawrence, mother of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and Liberty’s Shami Chakrabarti.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Lebanon’s Judo Team Refuses to Train Alongside Israelis
Lebanon’s Olympic judo team has refused to train next to Israeli competitors during a session ahead of London 2012. Olympic officials were forced to erect a special screen at the Excel venue following a complaint from a member of the Lebanese delegation. It is understood the two squads had been warming up next to each other when the complaint was made on Friday afternoon. An Israeli official at the venue confirmed a partition had been used to block the view and said the session had then continued with minimum disruption. He said the Israeli squad had been happy with the original training arrangements but had not objected to the screen being used. It is not known whether members of the Lebanon team will refuse to compete against Israel’s judo players if they are drawn together during the Olympics.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: London’s Olympic Park Toilets to Turn Away From Mecca Out of Respect for Islamic Law
Toilet facilities are being built at London’s Olympic Park so Muslims will not have to face Mecca while sitting on the loo.
The Olympic Delivery Authority has said it wants to produce an ideal venue for people of all cultures, faiths, ages and abilities for the 2012 Games and beyond.
The Islamic religion prohibits Muslims from facing the Kiblah — the direction of prayer — when they visit the lavatory.
An ODA spokeswoman confirmed that a ‘percentage of general toilets would not face Mecca’ out of sensitivity.
She could not say how many toilets would turn away from the East.
Also as part of the design, special washing facilities will be linked to Islamic prayer rooms.
It is not the first time toilets have changed direction to accommodate Muslims.
Last year, thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money was used to ensure toilets at Brixton prison in London did not offend Islamic law.
Muslim prisoners complained of having to sit sideways on toilets so as to not break code.
Faith leaders in the government pressured officials to approve turning the toilets 90 degrees.
But ODA chairman John Armitt said it was about making the London Olympic venue the ‘most accessible and inclusive public park’ for future generations.
Other design measures earmarked for the park include:
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Muslim Preacher Who Tried to Strangle His Daughter, 16, For Refusing an Arranged Marriage to Her Cousin Spared Jail
A Muslim preacher who tried to strangle his 16-year old daughter after she refused to enter into an arranged marriage with her cousin has avoided jail.
Abid Hussain, 56, grabbed the neck of Rabiyah Abid and said: ‘If you don’t follow my rules I will kill you’ after she rejected his plans for her to wed.
Hussain also left the teenager in fear of her life as he battered her about the head at the family home above the mosque he runs at Longsight, Manchester.
The father-of-five had snapped after discovering Rabiyah refused to follow strict Islamic tradition and embarked on a romance with a student she had met on Facebook.
She had previously run away from home to be with him and even helped police draw up a court order banning her father from forcing her into the marriage.
At Manchester Crown Court yesterday Hussain was convicted of assault and making threats to kill. He admitted his daughter’s conduct had ‘brought shame’ on his family and caused him ‘mental torture’ but denied wrongdoing.
His two sons Nawab Uddin, 23, and Bahaud Uddin, 21 were also convicted of assaulting the teen.
Henry Blackshaw, prosecuting said Rabiyah lived in a ‘very male dominated, patriarchal household’ where she was left ‘exhausted’ by cooking and cleaning.
In accordance with Islamic tradition she had been ‘betrothed’ by her father to his sister’s son in Pakistan at just 15 years old.
But she ended up falling for college student Gulraiz Sultan whom she had met on social media.
In November last year, while her father was celebrating Eid in Pakistan, Mr Sultan travelled from his home in London to Oldham to stay with a friend and Rabiyah fled her home to stay with him.
Nawab reported the teenager missing to police but when officers traced her, she told them of her fears that she would be forced to marry when she had finished her GCSEs at school.
When her father returned from Pakistan, he learned that she had stayed with her secret boyfriend, and to add ‘insult to injury’ he was served by police with a Forced Marriage Prevention Order stopping him from pressuring her into the arranged marriage.
When Hussain saw the document — which led to the girl’s passport being taken by the authorities — he regarded it as a ‘combination of her and the UK judicial system depriving him of his right to choose her husband within his own family’.
Weeks later, on December 26, last year he assaulted her leading her to send a text message to Sultan saying ‘I thought I was going to die last night’.
Two days later her brothers, Nawab and Bahaud were said to have snatched her phone from her — to stop the teenager texting Sultan and smacked her in the face and head.
She wore a veil to hide her injuries and the next day she reported them to police.
Describing the attack by her father, Rabiyah said: ‘He used his right hand to grab my neck. It was quite painful. He said “If you don’t follow my rules I will kill you.” He was quite angry, really angry.’
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Olympics Opening Ceremony: Great in Parts, But Surprisingly Parochial
by Andrew Gilligan
The opening ceremony was a bit of a grab-bag, wasn’t it? I thought some of it was great, some was rather bad and quite a lot of it will mystify the foreign TV viewers (95% of the audience) who it was supposed to dazzle. Things I liked: Thomas Heatherwick’s Olympic cauldron, a brilliantly imaginative reworking of the old flame. The Queen allegedly parachuting from a helicopter. The Mr Bean turn in the Chariots of Fire sequence — nicely self-mocking and also very translatable. The forging and coming together of the Olympic rings.
Some of the rest was bitty and disjointed; the sub-mobile-phone advert style of the digital section was particularly weak. It was more political than I expected. Voldemort loomed over the NHS. Tonight marked perhaps its final transformation from a healthcare system into a religion. Dancers made up the CND symbol. The Royal Family looked bored, but the new Right-On Royal Family — Doreen Lawrence and Shami Chakrabarti — got to carry the Olympic flag. The NHS segment in particular underlined how surprisingly parochial this ceremony was. The idea of the Health Service as a beacon for the world is, bluntly, a national self-delusion. Most other Western European countries have better state healthcare systems — and healthier people — than we do. Does the average Chinese person even know what the letters stand for?
But I suppose the whole Olympics is in a broader sense parochial. Three weeks ago, I was in Libya witnessing that country’s first free election in sixty years: an end, or at least a beginning of the end, to decades of madness and tyranny which killed tens of thousands and blighted the lives of millions. To borrow the words of tonight’s over-excited TV commentators, that really was an inspirational and historic moment. Tonight, by contrast, was just a show.
[Reader comment by Philip on 28 July 2012 at about 9:30 am.]
I have to admit I enjoyed much of the fun and spectacle of the ceremony (the technical presentation was mind-blowingly outstanding); but the heavy hand of the Media Division of the Marxist British Left was never far away. Almost every time there was a close-up of a child, it was one of ethnic minority. Black people in general were so massively over-represented, even they must have been left pondering as to why. In the NHS sequence, whites played a supporting role only. The ‘stars’ of the ‘social media’ sequence were suitably mixed race, too. And why the massively overlong and unfathomable NHS piece at all? What has our public health system (as opposed to that of any other country) have to do with the Olympic Games? Someone at Cameron Central clearly ordered/cleared its ‘bigging up’, to use the semiliterate vernacular of ‘modern’ Britain.
The low point for me, though, was Shami, Doreen, Ban and the rest of the the gaggle of libtard icons chosen to escort the Olympic flag to the flagpole — it was cringe-making to see these unpatriotic darlings of the left representing us. I’m really only surprised that they didn’t find a corner for Clive Stafford Smith. And was it just me, or was that palpable antipathy from them towards the impeccably turned-out military men who, metaphorically and actually, finished the job for them by raising the emblem?
Unfortunately, however — such is the devastatingly complete infiltration of our education system, public services and media/entertainment complex by the extreme Left — there really and truly was no one else to put on the show. That all this happened on the watch of a conservative project supremo and a (supposedly) conservative-led government is all the more reason to reflect on the current state of British mainstream politics. It would appear that they’re (not we’re) all lefties now.
[JP note: London 2012 is to multiculturalism what Berlin 1936 was to Aryanisation.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Romney’s Farcical Tour of Olympics London Exposes the Cultural Gulf Between Britain and America
by Tim Stanley
It’s official: Britain doesn’t like Mitt Romney. Papers on Left and Right have concluded that his string of unfortunate gaffes confirms his oddness, while the government has reacted to his insinuation that we couldn’t organise a booze up in a brewery with wounded indignation. Boris Johnson told a 60,000 strong crowd in Hyde Park, “I hear there is a guy called Mitt Romney who wants to know whether we’re ready. Are we ready? Are we ready? Yes we are!” What will happen if this “guy” wins the presidential election? Presumably, he won’t be inviting the Mayor of London to the White House anytime soon.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Radical Muslims Abandon Protest Outside Olympic Park
(Reuters) — A group of British Islamists called off a protest planned for outside the London Olympic Park on Friday and organisers said police had told them not to go ahead.
The group, led by some of Britain’s most prominent Islamist figures, had intended to gather outside the gates to the park ahead of the opening ceremony to denounce what they called the evil of the Games.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Rochdale Makes its Mark on the Olympics
The big day is finally upon us. Tonight, all eyes will be on the UK for the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games. And whilst 204 countries are taking parting the event, Rochdale’s certainly making its mark in a big way. At 8.12am this morning (27 July), church bells throughout Rochdale rang in the momentous occasion as part of the nationwide ‘All The Bells’ campaign. Robin Usher of Milnrow Parish Church loved taking part, saying: “We were happy to play a small part in the overall celebrations for the Olympics. We were short handed, so could only ring two of our eight bells, but were thankful to be able to do that.”
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Revenue and Customs Instructs Children to Rat Out Tax Avoiders
One module, headlined “tax responsibilities of a good citizen”, aims to help teenagers “understand the obligations if being a good citizen and discuss what should happen to hose who are not prepared to work under such obligations”.
One lesson plan — targeted at 14 to 16 year olds — requires students to “discuss whether it is good to pay the tax we do, considering the benefits we receive. If it is good, then why do people try not to pay?”
It continues: “Show class the remaining factfile slides on tax evasion. What do students think of those who refuse to pay tax or try and defraud the benefits system?
“Can they think of any example they may have heard of in their local area?”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Montenegro: Fire Destroys Roma Refugee Camp, 800 Homeless
Balkan war refugees homeless once more, arson suspected
(ANSAMed) — PODGORICA, JULY 25 — A fire that destroyed a Kosovo Roma refugee camp on the outskirts of the capital leaving 800 homeless last night was probably arson, local media said on Wednesday.
The Red Cross is working with local authorities to set up dozens of tents as temporary housing for the refugees, who fled here from Kosovo during NATO’s anti-Serb bombing campaign in the spring of 1999. No one was harmed in the blaze, which destroyed the refugee’s 50 or so shanties in the Konik neighborhood, media said. Approximately 12,000 refugees from the war in the former Yugoslavia currently live in Montenegro, pop. 650,000. Of these, 2,000 are Roma people, according to official figures. The unofficial estimate puts that figure at 10,000.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
A Muslim Convert Talks About Christ
By coming out openly on TV, with the danger of recognition and persecution for ‘apostasy,’ Mohammed Christophe reasserted the importance of conversion and baptism. In Muslim nations, various bishops and priests refuse to baptise Muslims who want to become Christian. Yet, conversion means a revolution in the relationship with God, the father, and Jesus, who gave his life, for one gives up everything putting one’s life at risk.
Rome (AsiaNews) — A few days ago, the website of Notre Dame de Kabylie posted a tape in which a former Muslim, Mohammed Christophe Bilek, talked about his conversion to Christianity. The original broadcast, which focused on the persecution of Christians, first appeared in ‘Dieu Merci’ (Thank God), a show that deals with religion on Direct 8, a French TV channel.
Mohammed Christophe Bilek was born in Algeria in 1950 and has lived in France since 1961. He is the author of two books: Un algérien pas tre’s catholique (A not very Catholic Algerian), published by Cerf (1999) and Saint Augustin raconté à ma fille (Saint Augustine as told to my daughter), published by Éditions Qabel (2011). In the 1990s, he founded the Notre Dame de Kabylie (in French), a website devoted to evangelisation among Muslims and Muslim-Christian dialogue.
In the video, Bilek highlights the risk Muslim converts face when accused of apostasy, an offence that can be punished by death. Nevertheless, he insists on the importance of baptism, the encounter with Jesus Christ and affiliation with the Church.
His views go against those of priests and bishops in Muslim countries, who prefer to dissuade or even deny baptism to Muslims who want to convert out of fear for the consequences they and Christian communities might face.
Is baptising banned?
A few weeks ago, a bishop in an Arab country in the Middle East told me that police threatened to close one of his communities because members had advertised a Christian-Muslim meeting on dialogue. Police were concerned that this might be the first step towards so-called proselytising and apostasy. “If this is the reaction to a meeting on dialogue, imagine what it would be if we had a conversion,” an embittered bishop said.
It is no wonder then that the prelate is against conversions and baptisms for only this seems to be the way to preserve the little freedom of worship that exists in the country in question.
In places like Morocco, and until recently Algeria, the situation is such that dioceses were instructed not to baptise Muslims who want to convert to Catholicism because “local laws ban it.”
Fr Samir Khalil remembers that a few years ago, he met a Muslim whose request for baptism was rejected for 13 years. Baptism, he was told, would bring him a lot of trouble, force him to emigrate to avoid being executed for apostasy, and endanger the priest performing the baptism. And yet, for all this time, the would-be convert studied the Gospels and the catechism on his own and led a life of prayers.
In Egypt, the Christian clergy also tends to avoid baptising Muslims; only a few priests have done so in secret. Speaking to AsiaNews, a religious who has been in Egypt for decades, said that baptising at any cost “is against the Second Vatican Council because the Council said that non-Christians can also find salvation outside the Church.” Implicitly, this means that baptism is unnecessary and that people find salvation according to their circumstances.
This is not the place to start a theological debate about the faith in Christ and the salvation of non-Christians. Suffices it to say, that both Dominus Iesus and the Doctrinal note on some aspects of evangelization reiterate the importance of a ‘visible’ and socially relevant affiliation to Christ and the Church.
What is more, baptism is a life-changing experience, one that alters the convert’s perception of life. Changes occur in the here and now, not in some future ‘eternal’ life after death. For this reason, offering others the baptism is not a superficial deed but a gift of life and hope in the present. Being baptised or not being baptised are not equivalent.
Christians’ ‘solar’ God vs the Qur’an’s ‘lunar’ God
Faith changes the present in a profound and meaningful way. On Notre Dame de Kabylie, Mohammed Christophe explains his conversion by stressing his new understanding of God.
“If the God of the Qur’an is the same as that of the Christians, why did I, Mohammed, become Christophe,” he asked himself. “Having lived in Islam, practiced its precepts among people who are still Muslim (his family still is), I continue to be dazzled by the discovery of the Gospel,” he said by way of answer.
“The light that comes from the Gospel suggests a comparison, one based on a certain premise. Anyone who wants to talk about the God of Islam must refer to Qur’an. If we replace the word ‘God’ with ‘light’, the light of the Qur’an is lunar, that of the Gospel is solar.”
“Whether God is one, i.e. the creator, whatever the name we might have given him, is something I can accept. If we stuck to this premise, it would not be necessary to leave Islam and become Christian.”
“Yet, Jesus came to reveal, first to the Jews, then to all men, that ‘God is your Father, that God loves you and wants you with Him to give you His life!’ Upon such words, I do not hesitate one moment. I accept the offer, not once, but twice. I know that the Qur’an makes an offer in which I may deserve (but that is not certain) a carnal and materialist heaven (Sura 38, 50-52) that reminds me more of ads for vacation spots to idle away the time under the tropical sun than of the certainty of ‘knowing’ my God and Lord.”
What about the images we have of Christ and Mohammed? Two quotes say it all for Mohammed Christophe. In one case, Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep,” whilst in the other, Mohammed is told “O Prophet! We have made lawful to thee thy wives to whom thou hast paid their dowers; and those whom thy right hand possesses” (Sura 33, 50).”
“Let us be serious. It is one thing to say ‘there is but one God for all;’ it is another to say that He is interested in me, insignificant worm, to the extent that he ‘deifies’ me in Jesus. [. . .] Such revelation was my calling.”
Jesus, man’s freedom without submission
Mohammed Christophe also speaks about apostasy and the possibility of death that comes from following him.
Christ says, “Are you ready to follow me and leave everything for me? When one realises what Jesus asks, out of love, we can see how difficult it is to follow him. It is also one thing to say ‘yes’ with one’s lips; it is another to leave everything behind for Him.
“For those of us who come from Islam, this means breaking with one’s past, family and community as well as one’s moral or spiritual certainties.”
“I say it is much easier to remain a Muslim, not take a stance (since we have the same God). There are many easy excuses not to make the break, not to accept this transformation, not to die in oneself and not to follow Christ. Conversion is demanding and cannot be done without his help.”
“This is what the rich youth in the Gospel could not do, because, at least at the start, one must freely agree. Jesus does not impose on me any “submission” but only the freedom to love him.”
“This is an important difference. Does God create us as free men or slaves? Depending on our answer, God is not the same. In one case, I risk the punishment reserved for apostates or unbelievers; in the other, I am the prodigal son expected by his father, who calls all his servants as soon he sees him on the horizon.”
“Leaving Islam is dangerous. It is done at the risk of one’s life. Thus, dear brothers and sisters in the West, welcome and help those who do it.”
“I insist. I am not talking about the God of the Muslims but of the God of the Qur’an. Muslims are my brothers; perhaps one day, they may be my brothers and sisters in Christ.”
“Since the 1990s, this has not only been a hope but it has also been a reality that has made me rejoice and praise the Lord. Alleluia! Jesus has come to save all men, Muslims included.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Burnt Shirt Sparks Egypt Sectarian Clash
Muslims on Friday set fire to Christian homes in a village near the Egyptian capital after a fight between a Muslim man and a Christian laundry worker who singed his shirt while ironing it, police said. At least one person was wounded as Muslims and Coptic Christians also traded fire bombs, police officials said.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Constituent Assembly Divided Over Political System
At stake the role of parliament, president
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS — Political parties in Tunisia’s Constituent Assembly — Ennahdha, which has relative majority, on one side and most other political factions on the other — are at odds over the future role of parliament and of the president of the republic in the constitution they are drafting. Ennahdha is pushing for a parliamentary system while the other political parties in the assembly would like the president to have a more relevant role than a merely symbolic one.
The stake is high as the outcome of the current debate will define the roles of parliament, the prime minister and the president in post-regime Tunisia.
The parliamentary system endorsed by Ennahdha would have strong political meaning as parliament, which is voted by citizens, would hold the key role in the system and elect the prime minister.
The semi-presidential system would provide for the direct election of the president, granting the role specific functions and more power than in a parliamentary system where a president mostly signs laws and bills.
As an agreement currently appears impossible, Amor Chétou, the president of the Commission on legislative and executive powers of the assembly, has called for a popular referendum to decide the issue.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Israel’s War of Words
If you read the headlines, the biggest issue in Israel isn’t Iran’s nuclear program or Syria’s chemical weapons falling into the hands of Hezbollah or the Muslim Brotherhood; it’s how to draft Haredim, widely referred to as Ultra-Orthodox Jews, into the army.
Until recently, the Israeli left was feverishly complaining about the surplus of Religious Nationalist Jews in the army and the threat of religious fanaticism. Now it’s back to complaining that there aren’t enough Ultra-Orthodox religious fanatics in the army, after spending last year complaining that the ones in the army were too fanatical and the ones on buses were even worse.
Religious Nationalists in the army are a problem, because many of them are patriots and not too enthusiastic about giving up land to terrorists. The Ultra-Orthodox don’t care about the country or how much land it has, which makes them ideal recruits from the left’s point of view. Unfortunately, they don’t actually want to join the army.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Palestine — Jews and Arabs, The Mandate and the Law
The Levy Commission’s resurrection of the Mandate for Palestine as the legal title deed establishing Israel’s entitlement to claim sovereignty in the West Bank has come 48 years after the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) first tried to bury it.
A member of the Levy Commission — Alan Baker — stated this week that the three Commissioners were:
“legal experts examining a legal situation and making legally oriented recommendations.”
Two short statements made by the PLO in 1964 and 1968 had attempted to negate the unanimous decision of the League of Nations in 1922 to grant the Mandate for Palestine to Great Britain to enable the Jewish people to reconstitute the Jewish National Home in any part of former Palestine.
Those statements also became the opening shots in an ongoing and concerted Arab campaign of misinformation and disinformation to denigrate and vilify the Jewish People’s entitlement to its own state in its ancient and biblical homeland. They provide potent evidence to explain why the conflict between Arabs and Jews still remains unresolved in 2012.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Islam is Mocked on the Streets of Iran’s Capital and Many Are Turning to Christ, Ex-CIA Spy Says
By Mark Ellis
Underground believers
As a member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard he witnessed appalling human rights abuses that caused him to question his faith in Islam and the current regime. He became a CIA spy and later escaped to the West. His contacts on the ground in Tehran tell him Islam’s days are numbered there.
“Many have lost faith in Islam,” says Reza Khalili, a pseudonym taken by the ex-spy for safety reasons. “In the streets of Tehran, people are cursing at Mohammad,” he reports. “Millions wake up to text messages they send each other every day mocking the regime and the religion.”
Despite the stereotypes of Iran’s fundamentalist identity, Khalili says that many are surprisingly sympathetic to the West. “The majority of Iranians are westernized,” he maintains. “They are one of the most westernized countries in the region.”
Khalili says that before the 1979 revolution, those who adhered to Islam did so mostly for cultural reasons. Many were like his grandmother, who was a very loving person. “The older generation respected it because of what they learned from their parents,” he notes. “The younger generation respected it even though they didn’t adhere to it.”
Due to an enormous level of disillusionment with the course of their nation, a surprising number have turned their back on Islam. “Many in Iran are turning to Christianity underground,” Khalili reports.
Khalili himself became a Christian in the U.S. after watching the JESUS Film and exploring the Scripture with a friend.
His heart goes out to his brothers and sisters in Iran, who are paying a huge price if their Christian faith is discovered by the regime. He cites a report by a former intelligence officer in the Revolutionary Guard, who recently defected to Europe. “There is much torture and suffering the intelligence agencies are bringing upon the converts,” he notes.
Some of the techniques used against Christians reflect tortures of bygone centuries. “Some they keep them in underground holes in total darkness and only feed them every other day,” he reports. “They torture the prisoner’s families in front of them so they can get the names of others in Bible studies.”
The former intelligence officer reported that in the city of Shiraz alone there are 30,000 files at the intelligence headquarters on Christian converts.
Further, the Revolutionary Guard’s intelligence has assigned units in major cities to infiltrate Christian groups, identify pastors and underground church members and make arrests.
Then they are forced under torture to agree to appear on TV confessing to criminal activities and having connection with Israel or America.
“The Ayatollah Khamenei ordered the burning of thousands of Bibles,” Khaili says. “He said the Bible is not a holy book, so it’s okay to burn them. Tens of thousands of Bibles have been burned and nobody talks about it.”
While thousands of people have lost their lives at the hands of the regime, Khalili sees a new day coming. “The only good news is that when the change comes, Islam will be gone from Persia like it had never entered the country,” he predicts. “This is the promise from our Lord, that once again He will establish Himself in Persia.”
Kahlili teaches at the U.S. Department of Defense’s Joint Counterintelligence Training Academy (JCITA), is a senior fellow with EMPact America and a member of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security. He is the author of “A Time to Betray,” a book about his double life as a CIA agent in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. “A Time to Betray” was the winner of the 2010 National Best Book Award, and the 2011 International Best Book Award. The book is set to become a movie.
| — Hat tip: TV | [Return to headlines] |
Kuwait: Policeman ‘Abducts’ 12yr Old Iranian Girl
A policeman was arrested for flirting with a 12-year-old Iranian child and persuading her to elope with him. Case papers indicate that, after viewing her photos on a social network, the policeman thought she was older than she really was and convinced her to leave her family home. He picked her up and took her to his house situated in Hawally. Responding to the family’s report, police raided their colleague’s house and arrested them both. A case was filed.
| — Hat tip: RR | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia: Peoples of the World Gather Around One Iftar Table
MAKKAH — For people in the Kingdom, the holy month of Ramadan has a special taste and flavor due to the existence of the holiest place on earth for Muslims — Makkah. Makkah’s Grand Mosque, or specifically the Ka’aba, is the direction where Muslims all over the world pray toward. There there is also the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah. Millions of Muslims travel to these two holy mosques and feel the warmth of Ramadan in the most beautiful atmosphere of tolerance and coexistence with citizens of the Kingdom every year. The Ramadan dishes of these communities vary with their cultures.
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| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Britain Warns of ‘Devastating Loss of Life’
Britain has warned that the escalating Aleppo crisis in Syria could lead to a “devastating loss of civilian life and a humanitarian disaster”.
William Hague’s comments were echoed by France who said Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s president, is prepared to carry out a “slaughter” of his own people in Aleppo, France has warned. Mr Hague, the foreign secretary, said: “This utterly unacceptable escalation of the conflict could lead to a devastating loss of civilian life and a humanitarian disaster. It will add to the misery being endured by the Syrian people, and plunge the country further into catastrophic civil war.”
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Syria Crisis: Assad Forces Move in on Aleppo — Live Updates
Syrian government forces are closing in on rebel-held areas in the second city of Aleppo amid fears of a potential massacre. Follow for live updates
9.59am: Here’s another video that claims to show shelling of Aleppo by Assad’s forces today. Reuters has this video report about today’s clashes. The video, obtained from a social media website, claims to show rebel forces firing on a tank and a military helicopter being shot down.
9.55am: The Associated Press has a report about the impact of the Syrian civil war on the Druse people in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. The Druse have been loyal to Assad’s family as it has vowed to take back the territory from Israel. But now villagers in the area are divided between supporters of the uprising and those who continue to back the regime. A Druse doctor predicted his people would demand Assad’s downfall, while a butcher in a nearby town denounced the Syrian uprising as a foreign conspiracy, AP reports.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Islamic NATO as a New Step Towards Ottoman Empire Revival
The new organization first targets the Arab world, which Turkey is eager to attract under the “democracy protection” cover. Turkey is trying to become a more active player in the Near East, voicing ideas which then appear to be alarming, if not dangerous. Complete failure of the foreign policy pushes Ankara to seeking new ways of implementing the “neo-Osmanism”. This, first of all, assumes the endorsement of caliphate and restoration of the following title: “Sultan (given name) Khan, Sovereign of the House of Osman, Sultan of Sultans, Khan of Khans, Commander of the Faithful and Successor of the Prophet of the Lord of the Universe, Protector of the Holy Cities of Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem”, et cetera, et cetera.
This was not just a detailed listing of the sultan titles. Huge army that conquered vast territories in 400 years including Mecca and Medina, now under rule of Al Saudi dynasty, was of major importance for the Ottoman Empire. Establishment of a new caliphate needs an army as well — united Islamic forces, if possible. Mustafa Kamalak, chairman of the Turkish Saadet (“Felicity”) Party voiced this idea in Morocco last week. Saadet is the hardliner wing of the former Turkish Refah (“Welfare”) Party, the moderate Eurocentric wing of which is now Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Kamalak declared that “Islamic NATO” and Islamic peacekeeping forces need to be established urgently.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UAE: Islamic Scholar Says Spreading Allah’s Word is Responsibility of All Muslims
DUBAI: Renowned Islamic Scholar from the United States Sheikh Khalid Yasin called upon Muslims to realise their responsibility of delivering the message of Allah to their non-Muslim friends and acquaintances and invite them towards Islam. He also warned Muslims that they would be questioned about their negligence on the Day of Judgement if they failed to do so. He made the call while delivering a lecture on “The Purpose of Life” at the 11th Ramadan Forum organised by the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre, Dubai. Sheikh Khalid Yasin said that it is not difficult to find out the purpose of life, but people never think about it.
[…]
[JP note: For starters, a limited if necessary purpose might be to avoid or escape Islam enslavement.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Will Israel’s Attack on Iran Spark a Larger War? Devastate Global Economy?
The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Mike Rogers, has now stated publicly that Iran and its agents masterminded the recent terror attack on Israeli tourists in Bulgaria.
Rogers stated flatly: “I believe there were certainly elements of Hezbollah [involved] and I believe it was under the direction of their masters in Iran.”
And former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton has urged Israel to retaliate directly against Iran for this barbaric attack.
Such an attack, experts fear, could escalate quickly into a wider military action against Iran’s nuclear weapons program…
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Fight Over Islam, Money and Power Brings Violence to Volga
(Reuters) — Not far from glitzy boulevards where an oil boom has sent up stadiums and high-rises overlooking the Volga River, women in headscarves wander through Islamic bookstores selling pamphlets on the institution of sharia in Russia.
Kazan, capital of Russia’s mainly-Muslim Tatarstan region, has long had an image as a showcase of religious tolerance. But that reputation was shattered last week by car bomb and shooting attacks carried out only hours before the start of the holy month of Ramadan.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Wants Cuban Naval Base
Russia is talking to Cuba, Vietnam and the Seychelles about housing Russian navy ships, its naval chief has said.
Vice-admiral Viktor Chirkov told the RIA Novosti state news agency Russia was in talks with the three countries about setting up maintenance and supply facilities but would not give further details.
Russia’s only existing naval base outside the former Soviet Union is located in the Syrian port of Tartus. A squadron of Russian navy ships, including several assault ships carrying marines, is heading to Tartus in a show of support for a longtime ally that Moscow has protected from international sanctions and continues to supply with weapons.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Burma’s Monks Call for Muslim Community to be Shunned
Yangoon, July 27: Monks who played a vital role in Burma’s recent struggle for democracy have been accused of fuelling ethnic tensions in the country by calling on people to shun a Muslim community that has suffered decades of abuse. In a move that has shocked many observers, some monks’ organisations have issued pamphlets telling people not to associate with the Rohingya community, and have blocked humanitarian assistance from reaching them. One leaflet described the Rohingya as “cruel by nature” and claimed it had “plans to exterminate” other ethnic groups.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
India: Road Becomes a Border Between Bodos and Muslims
by Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar
Sporadic violence has been commonplace in Kokrajhar, but killing of four BLT workers triggered large-scale violence
There are no checkpoints on the Bilasipara-Karegaon Road that leads from Kokrajhar town to Badgaon, and further into Dhubri district.
But the road, popularly known as BK Road, is serving these days as an unannounced border between Bodos and Muslims, who are too scared to return to the township despite the presence in large numbers of security personnel and the visit of a steady stream of VIPs ever since violence broke out about 10 days ago.
It was here on this road that in retaliation for the firing on two student leaders — Mohibul Islam of the All-Bodoland Minority Student’s Union (ABMSU) and Abdul Siddique Sheikh of the All-Assam Minority Students’ Union — four former Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT) workers were killed a day later, on July 20. These killings triggered a spate of attacks and counter-attacks across Kokrajhar, Chirang and Baksa districts in the Bodoland Territorial Administered Districts (BTAD), as also Dhubri district, which is outside the cluster.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
India: Hindu Groups Protest Against ‘Mosque’
NEW DELHI: Old Delhi area was fraught with tension on Friday, as radical Hindu groups gathered to protest against the building of a mosque at the purported site of 17th-century Akbarabadi Masjid in Subhash Park. They shouted slogans demanding that the “illegal structure” built by locals be razed. Muslims from the area were barred from entering the Subhash Park ground, which has been sealed in accordance with orders by Delhi high court. Heavy police presence on the streets and traffic restrictions prevented any untoward
incident.
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| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Insurgent Attack in Eastern Afghanistan Kills 2 NATO Service Members
KABUL, Afghanistan — The NATO military coalition in Afghanistan says two of its service members have been killed in an insurgent attack in the east of the country. The military alliance says the attack happened on Saturday but doesn’t provide further details.
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| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Live Conversion of a Hindu Man on Pakistan TV Stirs Anger
A 20-year-old Hindu man was converted to Islam during a talk show in Pakistan. Although the man said he had volunteered to convert, some activists and commentators observed that the reaction to the event showed a lack of tolerance towards religious minorities
In just five minutes, the 20-year-old introduced as Sunil officially changed his religion under a cleric’s guidance. A packed studio audience congratulated him and shouted out suggestions for his new Muslim name before he was renamed Mohammad Abdullah — the consensus choice. Abdullah insisted on Friday that he had been a willing convert. “I have accepted Islam by my own will and my family has no objection,” he told AFP by telephone from the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust, where a staff member said he has worked as their office boy for the last six years.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Mosques Enveloped in Security Blanket
ISLAMABAD — On the first Juma-tul-Mubarak of Ramadan all mosques of the city were jam-packed during Juma prayers. Law-enforcement agencies made special arrangements for the security of people. Police mobile squads were deputed near mosques. Police and members of mosque committees checked people with metal detectors. The Ministry of Interior has already instructed the federal police that security measures for the mosques should be taken during Ramadan. In most of the mosques, all gates were closed except one to ensure the security.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
China: Woman Sterilised in Jiangxi After She Demanded Justice for Her Daughter
A 46-year-old woman is inhumanely treated by the authorities in Huangqiao, Jiangxi. She had petitioned Beijing demanding justice for her daughter who died in a quarrel with her boyfriend. Local authorities tied her to a table and performed a tubal ligation. China’s government is increasingly unable to control the violent behaviour of its officials.
Beijing (AsiaNews) — On the eve of Sino-US talks on human rights, another case of forced sterilisation has occurred, this time in Huangqiao, Jiangxi province, in particularly nasty circumstances. The authorities in fact acted out of vengeance against a 46-year-old woman “guilty” of presenting a petition to the central government, this according to Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, a group dedicated to women’s rights in China.
The woman posted the following account on the internet. “On March 14, my husband was being escorted back from making a petition. To retaliate for his petition, the town government sent more than 20 strong men. I could no longer give birth to a child at that time, but they still dragged my legs, treated me like an animal, and forcibly performed a tubal ligation on the operating table of the Family Planning Office. Guoqing Luo (the Deputy Town Secretary) also exclaimed, ‘The Government takes the consequences! The Government has the money!’ it was terrible.”
Women’s Rights Without Frontiers phoned the victim’s husband and learnt of the tragic circumstances that led to the petition. The couple’s second daughter fell to her death from a fourth floor window during a quarrel with her boyfriend.
Her parents took the boyfriend’s parents to court and won a judgment of 43,000 RMB (US$ 6,700), but they were never paid. The victim’s husband petitioned to enforce the judgment. In retaliation for this petition, that local government forcibly sterilised his wife.
The local government told the victim’s husband that if he and his wife kept quiet about the forced sterilisation, they would receive compensation. The couple, however, decided to post the incident on the Internet.
Under Chinese law, people have a right to seek redress by petitioning higher authorities. However, Communist officials tend to thwart this right out of fear that they might lose their job.
Increasingly, people are going public with their complaints about forced abortions and sterilisation. The recent case of Feng Jianmei, a woman forced to have an abortion in her seventh month of pregnancy, is a case in point. The picture of her in a hospital bed with her dead child went viral online.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
China: Beijing Residents’ Wrath at Flood in City Without Sewers
Heaviest rains in 61 years. 37 victims — drowned, electrocuted by collapsed polls or lightning — and seven missing. Sewer system, which dates from the Ming period, focus of anger. Flooded roads, motorists trapped in their vehicles, collapsed houses, 500 flights canceled, 66 thousand people evacuated. Dozens of deaths in Hebei, Shaanxi, Sichuan.
Beijing (AsiaNews) — The residents of Beijing reacted with fury after a torrential downpour — the heaviest in 61 years — killed 37 people, with seven others still missing. The comments of people on blogs and those of experts accuse the city government for failing to modernize the sewage system, even though the capital has become a metropolis with 20 million inhabitants.
By this morning at least 9 million people posted comments on Sina Weibo, the “Facebook” of China, accusing the government of not having given any official warning and lack of maintenance of the sewer system.
The rain fell uninterruptedly for 16 hours, from July 21, Saturday afternoon until the early hours of the next day. Some areas of the city were under water, which came to about one meter in height; traffic tunnels were flooded, creating traffic problems, several houses collapsed; at the airport 500 flights were canceled, stranding at least 80 thousand passengers. At least 66 thousand people were evacuated from their homes.
The death toll is severe: 25 people drowned, six died in the collapse of their home, five were killed by electric shock from collapsed light poles, a person was struck dead by lightning.
Many motorists were trapped in their cars, unable to get out of them because of flooding, emergency crews had to dive into the sea of ??mud to try to open the manhole covers and drain the water.
The Beijing-Guangzhou highway, towards the south is still flooded, creating traffic problems.
Some of the criticism of Beijing residents are unfair: the Met Office warned that in northern China (and Beijing), heavy rains were coming; personnel had been placed at the entrance of the approximately 100 subways that risked flooding. The government attempted to defned itself revealing that at least 4 trillion Yuan has been spent on modernizing the infrastructure of the city. But people wonder how much of that 4 trillion was spent on upgrading the sewer network. Beijing, in fact, is flooded every year when it rains, even when the downpour is less intense.
According to some experts, the great building boom that is transforming Beijing has completely ignored the issue of sewers for the nearly 20 billion people living in the metropolis. Much of the drainage structure dates back to the Ming period of the sixteenth century!
It is also a serious problem in other parts of China. The city of Qingdao (Shandong) prides itself on having one of the most “modern” sewer-systems, but they date from the early 1900s, when the city hosted a German concession. And the sewers are the work of German engineers.
Heavy rains have caused deaths in other parts of China: in Hebei, three people died and one is lost, 17 people are missing in Shaanxi, in Sichuan eight people have drowned due to heavy rains.
According to initial government data, the torrential rains of recent days have already caused damage to the tune of 10 billion Yuan.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Hong Kong’s Schools Set Against Beijing’s Forced Patriotic Education
After the diocese and democratic movements, liberals and even publishers balk at the introduction of the new subject imposed by Beijing, aimed at “brainwashing students.” In all likelihood, its introduction postponed to next September.
Hong Kong (AsiaNews) — After the Catholic Church and the Territory’s democratic movements, it is the turn of the Liberal Party and even educational publishers to oppose the effect of the new “National Education” school subject in Hong Kong schools. According to critics, the subject is too broad and too vague to be inserted in the normal school curriculum, in addition, as pointed out by the diocese for years, it aims at “brainwashing” local students.
It all began with the school reform desired by the Chinese central government in 2002 and launched in 2004, which sets out that in every school — from elementary onwards — non-defined “national education classes” must be introduced. Moreover, the topic must be treated as a separate subject.
Last year, speaking to a forum on education in the Territory, the bishop emeritus Card. Joseph Zen Ze-kiun had attacked these arguments that “will only brainwash students. What did they expect? That we would approve the work of the Communist Party?”. Some days ago, the diocesan offical for education made it clear that hundreds of Church schools will not introduce the subject when they reopen in September.
Among other things, there are no publishers in Hong Kong — even those close to the Beijing government — able to prepare educational materials for this subject. Ben Mak, Deputy Regional Director of the Oxford University Press, explains: “Normally we need two years of preparation. But this subject was introduced in April for September. We will never be ready on time.”
Not even well-heeled industry sharks have succeeded, many of whom produced several books along the lines of those in use in mainland China but who have failed to find any buyers. Shek Kwok-kei, of Pilot Publishing, explains that his company has spent a year putting together the materials needed but now the schools “do not want them. I wanted to be a pioneer, but institutions do not know the game and do not want to play “.
The Liberal Party has joined in the deepening row, organizing a rally in front of the Office for Education in Hong Kong and has delivering a petition to the local government asking for a new round of consultations between the parties. Miriam Lau Kin-yee, Chairman of the party, said: “We are not against the national education, but we have found many gray areas in educational materials.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Uganda: Muslims Should Stick to UMSC Constitution
have heard some Sheikhs giving President Museveni ultimatum about the Kabwegyere committee he set up to establish the issues behind the Muslim wrangles. It is not Museveni to put our house in order. It is Muslim leaders themselves who need to reform their behaviours.
It is not Kabwegyere or his committee that directs us to preach hatred, neither is it Museveni who instructs us to malign our Muslim leaders. Abusing personalities and making sensational statements has become a lucrative business. One of the issues those opposed to the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council (UMSC) have consistently raised is that of Muslim property. However, those errant Sheikhs are using it as an excuse to pursue their motives.
[…]
The writer is the UMSC Spokesperson
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Will Ethiopian Crackdown Stir Islamist Backlash?
Peaceful protests continue in Addis Ababa this week among Muslims angry over what they see as Ethiopian government interference. The government sees foreign extremist threat.
With arms raised and wrists crossed, silent Muslim worshippers surrounding the largest mosque in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, again today peacefully protested what they call a violent government response to legitimate demands.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Ban Guns: Some Modest Proposals
The diversity of the media was going full tilt after the terrible murders in Colorado. At the gym the TV’s by the bikes, as usual, were showing CNN, MSNBC and FOX. All featured non-stop ‘coverage’ of the shootings and the message from pundits and the mayor of NY that guns must be banned.
The exploitation of the tragedy was relentless. It was almost as if the violence had been planned as a rationale for abrogating the 2nd amendment, another Reichstag fire to justify an enabling act, heaven forbid. A UN conference focused on gun control will soon begin.
This recalls a robust man in hunter’s gear outside a sport shop being picketed by gun controllers. He wanted spoons banned because, as his sign proclaimed, “spoons made me fat.” Ban spoons!
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Irish Bores, A Scottish Bigot and the Worst Piece of Classical Music Ever Written
by Damian Thompson
Here’s a trenchant headline for you: “Transgender community celebrates ‘great diversity of gender identity’ in new book.” And another: “President tells youth groups to be vigilant against racist attitudes and to value diversity in society.” Care to guess which venerable organ published them? Here’s a clue: “Multicultural awards take place in Dublin following three-year break.” Actually, that last one is a bit of a scoop. To anyone who knows modern Ireland, the notion that Dublin went a whole three years without multicultural awards is frankly incredible. Somebody really screwed up. They’re supposed to happen every month at least. The newspaper is the Irish Times, which these days makes the Guardian look like the bulletin of the Prayer Book Society. Rumour has it that it employs a special nurse to soothe joints sprained by marathon sessions of finger-wagging.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Milan Okays Register Recognising Gay Couples
Milan, 27 July (AKI) — The northern city of Milan on Friday backed a register that recognises same-six unions after an eleven-and-a-half-hour debate.
A total of 29 city councillors backed the registry recognising common law unions of unmarried, co-habitating couples, while seven councillors voted against and four abstained.
Most of the councillors who opposed the measure were conservative Catholics.
The city council will “safeguard and support” civil unions in a range of areas including access to housing, health, social services, schooling, transport, sport and leisure facilities, according to the by-law establishing the register.
The definition of the unions to go on city records was changed to “two people linked by emotional bonds” from “a set of persons linked by emotional bonds” amid fears the by-law could be interpreted as sanctioning polygamy.
The adoption of the registry was hailed by Milan’s centre-left mayor, Giuliano Pisapia. “From today onwards there are more rights in Milan,” he said.
Gay rights organisations welcomed the measure as a step toward granting legal rights and privileges similar those of married couples.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Normalization of Islam
This article may seem a little long and, to some, boring history; but a basic understanding of how Islam began in war and violence will help the reader understand the threat of Islam today to The United States, Canada, and Europe. Far from being a religion of peace Islam is, and has always been, a cult of war. And today Islam controls most of the world including the United States and Europe. I have condensed my original essay down to one sixth of what I originally wrote.
50 years ago Islam was referred to as Mohammedanism. Politicians worldwide ignored it or treated it as an unruly little boy who should be gently controlled but mostly ignored. Governments determined to continue to use Islamic oil and reap great profits for Multi-National Oil companies. Christian teachers taught it as a cult in which its status was on the same level as Buddhism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Shintoism, Hindoism, and perhaps even Seventh Day Adventistism. Today it is thought of as one of the three great religions, Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
But Islam cannot be ignored. Muslims believe the Koran teaches them to take over the world by force if nations and individuals do not comply. Where did it all Start?
Mohammed was born in Mecca, Arabia in AD 570. The Arabian Peninsula (now known as Saudi Arabia) was in those days divided by warring mini states that constantly fought against one another for control of the area. He was born into the tribe of Quarish which controlled the religious center of Mecca and the centerpiece of the local religions, the Ka’aba, to which Arabs made an annual pilgrimage ( and Muslims still do today). Mohammed was brought up from age six by his uncle and trained as a shepherd. He began robbing caravans in his teens and later married Khadeejah a rich widow who was 15 years older than him. They had six children who all died at a very young age except one daughter, Fatima.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
2 comments:
When the Olympic opening ceremony began with the abominable tune, Jerusalem, one could tell it was going to go downhill from that; and it did.
-- Robert Pinkerton, underwhelmed
Bit Anglophobic are we?
Just as well it was Jerusalem and not the Internationale.
Peter
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