Dutch Banks Dumping Southern Europe
AMSTERDAM, 29/08/12 — Duch banks and insurers have been dumping state bonds from Southern European countries plus Ireland en masse in the past 12 months, Het Financieele Dagblad reports.
The newspaper bases this on first-half figures from six large financial institutions: ING, ABN Amro, Rabobank, Aegon, Delta Lloyd and ASR. They have reduced their positions by over 7 billion euros, from nearly 13 billion to about 5 billion.
The withdrawal of Northern European banks, insurers and other investors explains the rise in interest rates in Southern Europe. How much Dutch pension funds have in the peripheral countries is however not known.
ING, ABN Amro, Rabobank, Aegon, Delta Lloyd and ASR do not exactly make it clear where they are now putting the freed-up funds. In general, corporate bonds have become more popular. ABN Amro has invested more in Dutch state paper.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Government Offers to Pay Salaries of Tens of Thousands of Young People in Bid to Break 22% Unemployment
The French government is offering to pay most of the salaries of tens of thousands of young people hired next year, as part of President Francois Hollande’s promise to wage war on unemployment.
France’s unemployment rate is 10 per cent, but 22.8 per cent for those under 25 — an imbalance that many European countries are struggling with.
French employers are especially reluctant to hire young people because restrictive labour laws make it very hard for companies to lay off employees.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘Business Failures Up Due to Slow Payments’
Govt agencies some of slowest to pay
(ANSA) — Venice, August 29 — More than 46,000 Italian businesses have failed since the economic crisis began, many from cash-flow problems, the CGIA Mestre research agency said Wednesday.
And government agencies are some of the slowest to pay, the association for small businesses notes.
The number of business failures reached 46,400 as of June, and about 30% of those were due to slow payments for work performed by the struggling firm, says CGIA.
Italy’s problems in this area are higher than the European average of about 25% of businesses that collapse due to slow payments.
Part of the blame goes to the economic crisis, as payment delays in Italy have increased between 2008 and early 2012 — by eight days in commercial transactions between private companies and fully 45 days when a public agency is making the payment. The problem involving government agencies is “dramatic”, says the CGIA.
It says the Italian average length of time between a service performed and payment is 180 days — almost three times the 65-day average for payment in France and far higher than Britain’s 43-day period, or German’s 36-day average.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: 3 and 6-Month Bonds Auctioned at Low Interest Rate
Economy speeds up recession, second quarter -0.4%
(ANSAmed) — ROME, 28 AUG — The outlook looks promising for the Spanish treasury who today placed 3 and 6 month ‘bonos’ at 3.6 billion, above the expected target and with a significant drop in interest. 1.674 billion euro of three month bonds were sold, with a return of 0.988% compared to 2.650% at previous auction; and 1.933 billion euros of six month bonds went at 2.1% against 3.95% at previous sale. Interest on three month bonds will be reduced by 60%, and 46% on six month securities.
Spain’s treasury must find 79.968 billion euro to finance outstanding debts and public deficit by the end of the year. Maturities between August and December totaled 45.968 billion euro to which half the public deficit forecast for 2012 (6.3%) is added, amounting to around 30 billion euro, as well as 4 billion euro that the government must pump into the regions.
The auction coincides with the news that Spanish economy has boosted recession in the second quarter with a 0.4% fall in GDP from the previous quarter and between 1-3% over the year, according to data released today by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
The decrease is attributed to lower household consumption. A 1-3% contraction in GDP over the year is higher than the 1% quoted by the INE late July. The INE revised the quarterly figures for 2011 and 2010 when GDP grew 0.4% as opposed to the 0.7% previously indicated, and contracted 0.3% rather than the 0.1% previously published
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain Says Recession Deepening
Spain’s recession is deepening, official data showed Tuesday, also revealing that the initial downturn was steeper and began earlier than first thought.
As the government took an axe to spending, economic output slumped by 0.4 percent in the second quarter on a quarterly basis after a 0.3-percent drop in the first quarter, the National Statistic Office said.
On an annual basis, gross domestic product tumbled by 1.3 percent, much faster than the 0.6-percent decline registered in the first three months of 2012, the figures showed.
The latest figures confirmed previous estimates for Spain’s weak performance in the second quarter.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The Public Sector Pay Freeze That Wasn’t: Thousands of Civil Servants and NHS Workers Given Rises Despite Osborne’s Pledge
Hundreds of thousands of public sector workers have received pay rises since the general election, despite George Osborne’s pledge to freeze Whitehall pay.
Six government departments, the NHS, the Armed Forces and the police were unable to halt pay rises due to contractual obligations to staff.
Many were guaranteed annual increases if they passed an annual appraisal; for example, someone in a salary window of between £23,000 and £27,000 could move towards the top end, but could not progress to a higher pay grade.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
After Bloody Weekend, Chicago Mayor Pleads for Help: ‘You’re Not a Snitch’
After another violent weekend in his city, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has a message for anyone involved in the shootings that left nine people killed and 37 injured: Stop the culture of silence.
“I’d like to remind everybody that it also requires a community to step up,” Emanuel said Monday at an unrelated press conference. “You’re not a snitch, you have a role in community policing.”
The “s” word is a particularly powerful one in Chicago. Last year a Chicago mother was arrested after she allegedly drove her son and an accomplice to shoot a person they believed was a snitch. The year before, a dying 17-year-old took the name of his killer to the grave.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Apple Patent That Would Shut Down Cellphones.
“Cupertino has won a patent to enforce policies when your wireless device enters a specific location. Dry as that may sound, it means that your smartphone could automatically switch to silent and disable its display as soon as you enter a movie theater,” writes David Cooper.
It might also be used by the authorities to shut down your smartphone at their discretion, for whatever reason.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
DHS Source: “It’s Going Hot”
They want to portray Obama as a victim of racist hatred by the white gun owners.
“It’s going hot.” Those were the ominous opening and closing words from my source inside the Department of Homeland Security in two separate contacts we had within the last 72 hours.
[…]
According to my well-placed source within the DHS apparatus, what amounts to a final authorization was reportedly given to DHS directly from the White House. A “go signal” if you will.
“It’s going hot. The plan, or whatever specific operation that was devised, is going hot, being put into motion. You’ve got to let people know that something is up, approval has been given, and unless somebody stops it, we’re going to have a staged event inside the U.S., and it’s being set up so that it gets real ugly real fast.” Obviously, I asked for clarification and more details.
“Look, I’ll tell you everything I know, what I’ve heard and seen, and some of what I’ve been told, but you’ve got to get this public.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
DSA Marxists Fundraise for John Conyers
Because of redistricting, veteran Michigan congressman John Conyers is facing his first tough race in years.
Conyers is a ranking member and former chair of the powerful House Judiciary Committee, serving more than twenty term in Congress. He is the second most senior member of the House and dean of the far left Congressional Black Caucus. He was also a founding member of the DSA initiated Congressional Progressive Caucus and was an original member of President Nixon’s Enemies List.
Conyers has decades old ties to both the Communist Party USA and Democratic Socialists of America.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Marine Kidnapped Over Facebook Posts: ‘I Am Scared for My Country’
In his first public comments since being kidnapped by authorities over political posts on Facebook, former Marine Brandon Raub tells John Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute that he is scared for his country.
Raub’s case went viral on the Internet earlier this month when on August 16, the former Iraq and Afghanistan veteran was kidnapped from his home by police, FBI and Secret Service agents and forcibly incarcerated in a psychiatric ward by authorities in Virginia in response to Facebook posts which the FBI deemed “terrorist” in nature.
Raub was released after a week when a judge concluded that the original petition ordering him to be detained contained no information whatsoever on the reasons behind Raub’s incarceration.
Raub explained that one of his main concerns in being publicly vocal about his concerns with the activity of the U.S. government was executive orders that allow the state to seize dictatorial power in a time of crisis, including the seizure of private property, communications and the institution of forced labor camps.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mitt Romney Officially Named Republican Candidate
Republicans gathered in Tampa, Florida, have officially nominated Mitt Romney as their party’s candidate to challenge Barack Obama for the presidency of the United States.
After the role call vote of the several hundred delegates was postponed by one day due to storm concerns in the Gulf of Mexico, Romney’s nomination — which has long been all but secure — was made official on Tuesday at the Republican national convention.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Police: Stapling Attack ‘Not Definitely a Hate Crime’
East Lansing Police in Michigan have said there is not yet enough evidence to call an attack on Michigan State University student Zachary Tennen a hate crime. The second year journalism student was assaulted at a party in the early hours of Sunday morning after replying in the affirmative when asked if he was Jewish. The 19-year-old had his jaw broken, was knocked unconscious, and awoke to find a staple protruding through his gums.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
School: Teacher Helps Students Cheat Because She Says They’re ‘Dumb as Hell’
ATLANTA (CBS Atlanta) — A former fifth-grade teacher implicated in a cheating scandal reportedly gave students the illegal assistance because she thought they were “dumb as hell.”
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, math teacher Shayla Smith was accused of offering students the answers to a test they were taking at the time. She had reportedly been responsible for supervising them while the tests were being completed.
Schajuan Jones, who taught a fourth-grade class across the hall from Smith’s former room, overheard her talking to another teacher about the test.
“The words were, ‘I had to give your kids, or your students, the answers because they’re dumb as hell,’“ Jones was quoted as saying about the interaction between Smith and the unidentified third teacher.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tennessee’s Deadbeat Dads: The Three Men Who Have Fathered 78 Children With 46 Different Women… And They’re Not Paying Child Support to Any of Them
Three men in Tennessee have notched up a staggering 78 children by 46 different women between them — and are doing their best to squirm out of paying for a single one.
Terry Turnage has 23 children with 17 different women, while Richard M. Colbert has 25 children with 18 women. But Desmond Hatchett takes the record with 30 children with 11 women.
On rare occasions, they pay a few dollars to the long-suffering mothers but mostly leave the state to pick up the slack — while one eludes his responsibilities altogether thanks to a stint in prison.
The latest deadbeat dad to emerge from the state is Turnage, who was summoned before a judge over child support payments for his 23 kids by 17 different women — but didn’t show up to court.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish Society Beginning Work on Mosque
CHILI — With the area cleared out and construction crews on the way, a parcel of land on Beahan Road will soon become the site of something rarely seen in the Rochester area: a mosque built from the ground up. “We’ve been dreaming about it the last 45 years,” said Ali Calik, past president of the Turkish Society of Rochester. “Since day one, we always wanted to have some place to worship.” The mosque is the culmination of years of planning by the Turkish Society of Rochester, which has been trying to find a suitable place of worship since Turkish immigrants started moving to the area in significant numbers in the late 60s.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UN Agenda 21 — Got Milk, Cheese, And Hot Dogs?
UN Agenda 21’s 40 chapters outline human activities and decisions that are not sustainable based on environmental impact on global land use, global education, and global population control and reduction: family unit, farming, commercial agriculture, livestock, pesticides, herbicides, grazing cattle, irrigation, paved roads, private property, fossil fuels, golf courses, ski lodges, consumerism, logging, dams, reservoirs, fences, and power lines.
Food must be controlled through regulations and interdiction of agriculture
Food must be controlled through regulations and interdiction of agriculture achieved through water control, land usage control, genetically engineered seeds that do not germinate again after the first year’s crop, pesticides and herbicide use. The planet must be de-populated to manageable levels, no more than a billion people, and the family unit must be restructured. As Harvey Rubin, the Vice Chair of ICLEI (International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives) now called Local Governments for Sustainability, has said, “Individual rights must take a back seat to the collective.” Is that not communism but on steroids?
Education curricula must purposefully dumb down education for Sustainable Development. Agenda 21 for Dummies quotes, “Generally, more highly educated people, who have higher incomes, consume more resources than poorly educated people, who tend to have lower incomes. In this case, more education increases the threat to sustainability.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Weekly Featured Profile — Valerie Jarrett
Valerie Jarrett currently works as a senior advisor to U.S. president, Barack Obama, and has been referred to as “the other side of Obama’s brain.”
Born in Shiraz, Iran to American parents, Jarrett spent the first five years of her life there before her family moved to London. Jarrett comes from a family of highly influential leftists. In 1983, she married Dr. William Robert Jarrett, son of famed Chicago Sun-Times reporter Vernon Jarrett. Vernon Jarrett was a one time political associate of Communist Party USA activist and Obama mentor Frank Marshall Davis. Jarrett is the great niece of prominent Democratic Party leftist Vernon Jordan and her maternal grandfather was Robert Taylor, the first black chairman of the Chicago Housing Authority. Jarrett is a personal friend of Marilyn Katz who worked with Students for a Democratic Society, the 1960s group that banded radical left youth and students together under the New Left movement.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
What if … ?
Eventually, Americans are going to reject the “it’s for your own safety,” propaganda and the backlash will begin.
For weeks now there have been all sorts of stories of various government agencies buying up millions of rounds of ammunition. Try as they might, those agencies/the US government have/has not been able to present a plausible story to convince American citizens that they are NOT up to something nefarious.
Sad to say, we just don’t trust our government anymore … not that we’ve trusted them a great deal for a very long time, you understand. But the level of trust that we had—previous to the Obama Administration—has plummeted right through the floor.
[…]
I mean—using hollow point rounds for target practice is, well, laughable. Did you know that even the military is banned from using hollow point ammo by international agreement? Yep. It’s a fact. It is horrible what those rounds can do to the human body. Upon impact the leading edge of the round “mushrooms.” Think of a dime suddenly becoming a fifty-cent piece. It will often fragment with small metal pieces ripping and tearing away at the body’s vital organs—all the while that fifty-cent piece size slug is blowing a ragged hole along its trajectory.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Women Employed by New York Lawmaker Describe Sexually Hostile Office
Five women who worked for Vito J. Lopez, the assemblyman from Brooklyn at the center of a growing sexual harassment scandal, described in interviews an atmosphere of sexual pressure and crude language in his office, with frequent unwanted advances by him and others, requests for provocative dress, personal questions about their boyfriends and fears of reprisals if they complained.
By their accounts, Mr. Lopez told some women not to wear bras to work. He requested they wear short skirts and high heels. He gave them cash to buy jewelry and complimented them on their figures, giving special attention to those he called “well endowed.”
He asked about their personal lives, urging them to break up with boyfriends, and berated those women — all of whom were new to politics — who did not compliment him effusively enough, according to several of the women interviewed.
The sexual harassment scandal that has been roiling New York’s political world began last Friday, when the Assembly’s ethics committee substantiated claims that Mr. Lopez harassed two women. The Assembly released a letter censuring Mr. Lopez, one of the city’s last powerful political bosses, stripped him of his committee chairmanship and barred him from employing interns or anyone under the age of 21. The letter described “pervasive unwelcome verbal conduct” and found that Mr. Lopez verbally harassed, groped and kissed two of his staffers without their consent.
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Facebook Removes Post Threatening Protesters’ Dogs Will be Shot
TORONTO — A Facebook page inviting people to walk their dogs outside an east-end mosque is becoming a hotbed of hostility. Facebook administrators removed a post from the “Walk Your Dog in front of Mosque Day” page early Monday that threatened to throw attending dog owners in a “lake of fire” and shoot their beloved pooches on the spot. Posted by Ali Shirazi, who identified himself as an Iranian-born resident of Toronto, it was aimed at the dog owners who plan to attend the Sept. 14 event at the Salahuddin mosque and community centre. Some devout Muslims believe dogs to be unclean and vehemently avoid them.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Archaeologists Find “Unprecedented” Third Prehistoric Figurine Beneath Links of Notland
A Neolithic figurine has been uncovered at the Links of Notland on the Orkney Island of Westray, where two similar Bronze Age figurines were found. One of those figurines is thought to be the earliest representation of a human face to be unearthed in Scotland. The coastal village site is being excavated before erosion destroys it.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Archaeologists Set to Find Largest Coin Treasure in Bulgaria
Bulgarian archaeologists expect to find at the holy rock city of Perperikon the largest ever medieval coin treasure in the country.
The announcement was made by leading Bulgarian archaeologist, Prof. Nikolay Ovcharov, after his team recently found a total 11 gold and 6 silver coins.
The gold coins are from the 14th century while the silver ones are from the end of the 13th century.
The coins have been found dispersed in what has been used as a toilet hole with a 2-meter diameter, leading the experts to believe that they were hidden and buried during the Ottoman invasion of the area. Such treasures were usually placed in clay pots or similar vessels and then concealed, while for the latest find it is believed that the coins were put in some sort of a purse, which has decomposed over the years.
The coins were found in the central town of Perperikon, near the Citadel, in the area believed to have been the residence of the very wealthy bishops.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Belgium: Outrage as ‘Remorseless’ Ex-Wife of Child Killer to be Released From Prison to Spend the Next Ten Years ‘At Prayer’ In a Convent
The ‘remorseless’ ex-wife of one of Europe’s most reviled child killers is to be released from prison to spend the next ten years ‘at prayer’ in a convent.
Michelle Martin, 52, has served 16 years of 30-year jail term for complicity in the imprisonment and murder of the young victims of Belgian serial killer husband Marc Dutroux.
Families of Dutroux’s victims have branded the ruling by the Belgian court in Mons as ‘an outrage’.
Dutroux was arrested in 1996 and jailed for life in June 2004 for the kidnap, rape and torture of six young girls in the mid-1990s, four of whom died.
Martin was also arrested in 1996 and later found guilty of helping Dutroux hold his victims prisoner.
She was also convicted of complicity in the death of two of the small girls, found starved to death in a cellar in the southern city of Charleroi.
The traumatic case is still fresh in the minds of many in Belgium, which is also reeling from a Catholic church child abuse scandal involving more than 500 victims.
Under Belgian law, convicts can appeal for early release after serving a third of their sentence.
Martin has repeatedly requested to be freed to live in a convent but until now nuns in France and Belgium had all refused to house her.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Belgium: Gay Men Targeted as Robbers’ Favourite Victims
Two young men have been convicted after they enticed gay men to a desolate location and robbed them of their cash, bankcards and mobile phones.
Two young men have been convicted after they enticed gay men to a desolate location and robbed them of their cash, bankcards and mobile phones.
The criminals went online and teamed up with gay me visiting a Dutch dating site. The men thought that they were heading for a romantic assignation at the foot of the Chicago tower blocks on Antwerp’s Left Bank, but the gangsters had other intentions in mind.
The conmen also used violence. One victim was stabbed in arm and foot.
Gay men were selected as victims because they might be more reluctant to file a complaint. Six victims including one straight guy did file a complaint with the police.
The judge labelled the robbers’ actions despicable.
One of the criminals was earlier convicted of similar offences by a youth magistrate. He got a four year sentence, though eleven months were suspended. The other robber got two years, half of which was suspended.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Belgium: Group of Youths Beats Bus Driver Unconscious
Bus drivers working for the Flemish local transport company De Lijn in the Waasland area of East Flanders have walked out after a colleague was attacked on Monday evening.
Bus drivers working for the Flemish local transport company De Lijn in the Waasland area of East Flanders have walked out after a colleague was attacked on Monday evening.
The driver on a service between Melsele and Antwerp was attacked by a group of about ten youths and beaten unconscious.
Eight of the attackers were detained for a while. Zwijndrecht police are attempting to identify the culprits uusing CCTV footage. They are working together with Antwerp police’s youth crime unit. The bus driver who was attacked is also being questioned.
The eight youngsters who were detained have meanwhile been released untiol the identity of the attackers can be established.
Bus services in the Waasland area are seriously disrupted.
The incident happened shortly after 8PM on an 81 bus between Melsele and Zwijndrecht. The driver received blows to the face and needed to be hospitalised.
What triggered the attack is still unclear.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Birmingham Mosque First in UK to Get Cashpoint Machine
BIRMINGHAM Central has become Britain’s first mosque to have a cash withdrawal machine. The machine has been provided by Birmingham-based Islamic Bank of Britain (IBB), the UK’s only wholly Sharia compliant retail bank. The machine has been installed as a pilot with more planned across the country over the coming months. Birmingham Central Mosque opened in 1975 as the largest in Western Europe. The number of worshippers attending the mosque ranges from 4,000, when the Friday afternoon prayer service is held, to 15 to 20,000, when it holds five prayer services on the days Muslims celebrate Eid.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
ECB’s Draghi Prepares Ground for ‘Exceptional Measures’
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi has spoken out in favor of taking exceptional steps to ensure price stability in the eurozone. But he said such measures would still have to be within the bank’s mandate.
ECB President Mario Draghi told the German newspaper Die Zeit on Wednesday the central bank would do what is required to safeguard price stability in the debt-stricken eurozone.
“The ECB will remain independent and will always act within its mandate, but it should be understood that fulfilling our mandate sometimes requires us to go beyond standard monetary policy tools,” Draghi said.
His comments were made amid Italian and Spanish hopes that the central bank might resume its controversial bond-buying program to keep borrowing costs at bay.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Finland: SUPO Concerned About Online Threats Against Parliament
Parliament’s security chief sees online discussion as isolated incident
Finland’s Security Intelligence Service (SUPO) is taking a serious view of online threats against Finnish Members of Parliament. Messages have appeared on a Finnish-language chat room this summer pondering the feasibility of an armed attack against the Finnish Parliament.
The thread started on the same day that a gunman in Colorado killed 12 people in a cinema in Aurora, Colorado in the USA, and two days before the anniversary of the terror acts of Anders Behring Breivik in Norway came two days after the first entry in the discussion.
According to Paaso’s study, the writings are similar in content and ideology to those contained in the manifesto of Anders Breivik, which came out over a year ago. Paaso says that Breivik’s manifesto is linked with anti-immigration and anti-Muslim online discussions known as the “counter-jihad”.
SUPO communications chief Liinu Lehto-Seljavaara says that SUPO monitors counter-jihadist discussions on line. “We need to keep in mind that the internet is also a magnificent forum to air thoughts and feelings. But if it fills the description of a crime, then we will certainly get worried.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Websites Hit by Islamist Hackers
France has been victim of a spate of website attacks by Islamist hackers, Group HP-Hack, in the past few days.
The website of the small town Dieulefit, near Grenoble, was taken over last weekend. Instead of the welcome page, visitors saw videos and text praising Jihadist Muslims.
A picture of a man wearing a balaclava and holding a gun was also displayed, with an song in Arabic playing in the background.
Hackers managed to take control of the site for two days before the town could do anything.
In the same weekend, websites for academies in Reims and Nanteuil-le-Haudouin, north east of Paris, were also hacked in a similar manner.
All three attacks have been reported to the authorities, who are taking the incidents very seriously. The Group HP-Hack has already hit several French websites in the past, and is known to police.
In 2011 numerous websites in France fell victim to a hacker based in Algeria — about 10 police websites were taken over, as well as that of the Prime Minister at the time.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Munich WWII Bomb Could Have Damaged Buildings
Structural engineers were examining buildings in central Munich on Wednesday after the detonation of a 250-kilo World War II bomb on Tuesday night. The huge explosion caused a fireball, smashed windows and set nearby buildings alight.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Youths Attack Rabbi, Threaten 6-Yr-Old Daughter in Berlin
Four youths attacked a rabbi and threatened to kill his six-year-old daughter in Berlin on Wednesday, according to the World Jewish Congress (WJC.)
The rabbi, 53, was walking in downtown Berlin with his daughter when the youths, reportedly of Arab origin, saw him wearing a kippah. “Are you a Jew,” they asked him, and then proceeded to attack him. He was admitted to a hospital with head wounds.
German police said they would treat the incident as a hate crime. Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit condemned the attack, saying “intolerance, xenophobia and anti-Semitism are not tolerated,” according to WJC.
European Jewish Congress (EJC) President Dr. Moshe Kantor condemned the attack urging religious leaders to speak out with a stronger and clearer voice against violence.
“After the murders in Toulouse we expected one of two things to happen. On the one hand it could have sent shock waves across Europe that there is a massive problem and it has to be dealt with, leading to a lessening of these types of attacks,” Kantor said. “The other option was that the reaction would be meager and it would send a message to extremists that life continues as normal.”
Kantor said that unfortunately, the second option appeared to have prevailed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: World War II Bomb Detonated in Heart of Munich
Authorities detonated a World War II bomb in Munich on Tuesday night after efforts to defuse it were unsuccessful. Residents across the city heard the blast as windows shattered and several small fires started on area rooftops. It wasn’t the only bomb scare in Europe this week.
World War II bombs, however, are not just a problem in Germany. Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport on Wednesday morning closed Terminal C, which handles most flights to destinations in Europe, parts of Terminal D and a landing strip after workers there found an unexploded World War II bomb. Several flights were cancelled and others were delayed as a result. The airport was heavily bombed during World War II as it was used by German troops during the occupation of the Netherlands.
Furthermore, a 1.5 ton bomb was discovered in Warsaw on Tuesday, forcing the evacuation of 3,000 people in the center of the city. The explosive was of German origin, presumably a result of the 1944 bombardment of the city by the Nazis.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Jewish Community Criticizes Sentence Against Man Who Stabbed Rabbi in Frankfurt
FRANKFURT (EJP)—-A 23 year-old German man of Afghan origin was sentenced to three-and-half years in prison on Tuesday for attacking a rabbi with a knife in the centre of Frankfurt in September 2007.
Prosecutors had sought four years prison.
Sajed Aziz stabbed Rabbi Zalman Gurevitch, co-director of the Chabad-Lubavitch community in Frankfurt, in the lower abdomen while he was walking home from his synagogue with two friends. Witnesses said the attacker shouted “Bloody Jew, I’m going to kill you.”
The rabbi received emergency surgery but his injuries were not life-threatening.
Aziz, described as an unemployed troubled young immigrant with a history of minor offences,conceded stabbing Gurevitch on September 7 but called it self-defense, saying the rabbi had grabbed him by the collar.
He denied shouting racist insults…
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Hundreds View ‘Restored’ Christ Painting in Spanish Town
It’s been dubbed the “world’s worst restoration”, but a 102-year-old church painting of Christ that now resembles a pale monkey is drawing visitors by the hundreds to a sleepy Spanish town.
The northeastern town of Borja garnered global press attention after residents decried the well-meaning restoration efforts of Cecilia Gimenez, described as being in her 80s, who made a horribly botched attempt to restore a flaking oil painting of Christ wearing the crown of thorns.
The “restored” painting looks like a pale monkey’s face surrounded by fur, with misshapen eyes and nose, and a crooked smudge for a mouth. Some media have called it the worst restoration in history.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Farmer ‘Paid No Taxes for Five Years’
Two million euros dodged, police say
(ANSA) — Alessandria, August 28 — A farmer near this northwestern Italian city paid no taxes for five years, police said Tuesday.
He evaded taxes worth some two million euros, they said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Mullah Krekar Jailed Again for Norway Threats
Mullah Krekar, the founder of a radical Iraqi Kurdish Islamist group, has been sentenced to a year in jail in Norway for issuing threats against Norwegians, an Oslo court announced on Wednesday.
The 56-year-old mullah, who founded the Ansar al-Islam group and who has lived in Norway since 1991, has already been given a five year prison sentence for threatening the life of a former government minister.
The court found Krekar, whose real name is Najmeddine Faraj Ahmad, guilty of calling for violent acts if he was convicted at his first trial five months ago.
On the chat forum www.paltalk.com, Krekar warned on March 24th that his conviction could lead to “a suicide operation” or random attacks on Norwegians by his supporters, suggesting possible kidnappings and hinting that Norway’s former prime minister, Kjell Magne Bondevik, could be a target.
Two days later, Krekar was jailed for five years for making death threats and calls to murder, including a death threat against ex-minister Erna Solberg who signed his expulsion order in 2003 because he was considered a threat to national security.
This latest conviction also covers witness coercion during his first trial and the sentence is to be served consecutively.
The prosecution had called for an 18-month prison sentence, while the defence wanted him acquitted, arguing that his statements were not threats but a reminder of the rules of Islam.
Krekar is, like his organisation, on terrorist lists drawn up by the United Nations and the United States. While he acknowledges having co-founded Ansar al-Islam, he insists he has not led the group since 2002.
He has avoided expulsion since the order was signed nine years ago because Norwegian law prevents him from being deported to Iraq until his safety can be guaranteed and as long as he risks the death penalty there.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Doctors and Chemists Agree on Joint Euthanasia Guidelines
Doctors and dispensing chemists have agreed a joint guideline on euthanasia, doctors’ federation KNMG and dispensing chemists’ organisation KNMP said on Tuesday.
The new guidelines will replace those drawn up five years ago by dispensing chemists and underline the cooperation between the two sets of medical professionals on the subject.
‘The guidelines not only contain technical information about, for instance, the amount of a drug to be administered, but also explain for the first time why a certain method has been chosen,’ a KNMG spokesman told website nu.nl.
‘You never build up experience with euthanasia so joint guidelines are very practical,’ Annemieke Horikx of the medicine information centre told the website. ‘These guidelines are the standard for the medical testing commission.’
Euthanasia is legal in the Netherlands under strict conditions. For example, the patient must be ‘suffering unbearably’ and the doctor must be convinced the patient is making an informed choice. The opinion of a second doctor is also required.
The number of reported deaths by euthanasia rose 13% to 2,636 in 2009. Some 80% of people who opt for mercy killing die at home.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Plane Hijack Rumours Lead to Drama at Dutch Airport
A passenger plane was forced to land at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport and boarded by Dutch forces amid fears of a hijacking that proved unfounded.
Dutch F-16 fighters were scrambled to intercept the aircraft, en route from Malaga, Spain. Once it landed at Schiphol it was boarded by armed security forces who discovered the false alarm. A miscommunication between the pilot and the control tower reportedly triggered the confusion.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Norwegian Army Allows Religious Headgear
The Norwegian defence ministry has given the all-clear for uniformed soldiers to wear religious headgear such as turbans, hijabs and kippahs.
With little fanfare, the armed forces relaxed the rules for religious garb earlier this summer, an advisor to the Norwegian defence chaplaincy told newspaper Stavanger Aftenblad.
“The use of religious symbols with armed forces uniforms was cleared on July 1st this year,” said Major Tor Simen Olberg.
Among the symbols approved by the military were turbans for Sikh soldiers, as well as different forms of Jewish skull-caps, which may also be worn under standard military caps.
Muslim women meanwhile will be permitted to wear a hijab, or head scarf, with their uniforms.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Intelligence Agency Spends £500,000 on James Bond-Themed Party
Sweden’s intelligence agency has been left red faced after it emerged that it held a James Bond themed party for its spies, at a cost of more than half a million pounds.
The lavish event included casino tables, an evening dinner, trays of martinis and even a guest of honour from England — the head of MI5 Jonathan Evans. Bosses at the Swedish intelligence agency have since struggled to explain the extravagant expense, which cost 5.3m Swedish krona (£508,000) and took place during a government austerity drive in which the agency underwent several budget cuts. General Anders Thornberg, head of the Swedish intelligence service (Sapo), said the event had followed “a unique and extraordinary time” for staff at the organisation. In 2010, Islamic extremists were plotting to attack Sweden and in December that year a suicide bomb killed one and injured three others. “We thought that we needed a special gathering for the whole security police team,” he told Sweden’s Dagens Nyheter newspaper, adding: “We’d been subjected to extreme pressure.”
[…]
[JP note: Never say never again.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Swiss Mercenaries Banished to History
BERN, SWITZERLAND — One of Switzerland’s most famous historical roles, as a supplier of mercenaries to the world’s armies, will soon come to an end, with the federal government saying 29 August it is asking the Police and Justice Department to draft legislation making it illegal for Swiss companies or individuals to take part in armed conflicts elsewhere.
Switzerland itself has been neutral for centuries, but many of its citizens, especially the poor or sons who would not inherit, sought their fortunes in the past by fighting for pay in other armies. More recently, security companies have been questioned about their roles, often unclear, in foreign armed conflicts.
A public consultation by Bern made it clear that the Swiss want to ban mercenaries, but the cantons have insisted that any new law apply outside the country only: laws governing police and security guards are the domain of the cantons, not the federal government.
The new law will oblige security companies to declare all their activities abroad and will ban any activities related to conflicts that could harm neutral Switzerland’s interests.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tomato Battle Drenches Spanish Town in Red
Tens of thousands of revellers hurled 120 tonnes of squashed tomatoes at each other Wednesday, drenching the streets in red in a gigantic Spanish food fight known as the Tomatina.
A sea of more than 40,000 alcohol-soaked men and women packed into the Plaza Mayor square of Bunol, eastern Spain, many with their shirts off and wearing swimming goggles to keep out the stinging juice.
Spectators peered over the balconies of surrounding buildings, some also chucking tomatoes on chanting, dancing food-fighters below, who covered the square like a carpet.
Five trucks loaded with the tomatoes struggled to find space in the crowd to enter the square, which was packed solid.
But as they unloaded the edible ammunition, the square and surrounding streets were suddenly awash in a sea of tomato-sauce, covering the crowds of festival goers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Do Three Months of Unpaid Work or Lose Your Dole: Warning to Young Jobless in Benefit Crackdown
Thousands of the young unemployed are to be barred from receiving benefits unless they agree to do three months of unpaid work to prepare them for the jobs market.
A pilot scheme launched yesterday will apply to new benefit claimants aged 18-24 unless they can show they have already had a significant job.
They will be expected to spend 30 hours a week on ‘community benefit’ work experience in places such as charity shops and care homes or delivering meals on wheels.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: New Mosque Work Starts
Work is to start on controversial plans to build a multi-million pound mosque in a Preston conservation area. Trustees at the Masjid-e-Salaam, on Watling Street Road, Fulwood, have also applied for permission to build a temporary mosque for worshippers just yards away. They want to build on land at Sharoe Green Lane, earmarked for a second large mosque, while building work gets underway in the Fulwood conservation area. The mosque secured planning permission after a four-year battle which saw it accepted and then thrown out, before winning an appeal against the city council’s rejection.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Sitcom Citizen Khan Prompts 185 Complaints to the BBC
The BBC has been accused of stereotyping Muslims in its new sitcom, Citizen Khan.
The broadcaster has received 185 complaints since the first episode aired on BBC One on Monday, with some claiming it was a “tasteless depiction of Islam”. Complaints have risen overnight, however, the BBC said it has evidence of a lobbying campaign. The six-part series follows a Muslim community worker in Birmingham. It was created by British Muslim, Adil Ray, who also stars in the show. Other members of the cast include My Family star Kris Marshall as a mosque manager and Shobu Kapoor, who played Gita in EastEnders, as Mrs Khan.
“Insulting”
The media watchdog, Ofcom, said it received in the region of 20 complaints about the programme. One viewer who complained to the BBC said the show “insulted” and “ridiculed” Islam.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Tim Yeo MP: Even When He’s Right He’s Wrong
by James Delingpole
Tim Yeo MP is agitating vigorously for the creation of a third runway at Heathrow airport. This can only mean three things:
| 1. | David Cameron is even more stuffed than we thought. When a Cameroon Wormtongue as assiduous and slimy as Yeo starts going so flagrantly off-message, you know the ship really is thinking. | |
| 2. | The third runway is clearly a much, MUCH worse idea than any of us may hitherto have imagined. Personally I was quite pro the idea till Yeo gave it his endorsement. I now recognise that the only solution to Britain’s air traffic problems must be the rival Boris Island scheme. | |
| 3. | It’s likely, given his past form on wind farms, that “Trougher” Yeo stands to benefit from the enterprise he is promoting. And, yep, sure enough, Guido has the dirt. |
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Waltham Forest Police Say They Have No Intelligence to Suggest an EDL March in Walthamstow Will Result in Violence.
POLICE have told the Guardian they have no intelligence to suggest that a controversial march by the far right English Defence League (EDL) this weekend will be violent or disrupt the community. The extremist group, which describes itself as a movement against Islamic extremism but which critics say is racist, is set to protest in Walthamstow this Saturday (September 1) despite widespread opposition from residents. A meeting of councillors, community leaders and police was held on Tuesday evening (August 28) to discuss the possibility of banning the march, but the Met has declined to apply to the government for such a move and the protest is still due to go ahead.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Vatican Received 404 Reports of Child Abuse in 2011
‘Considerably higher’ than 2005-2009
(ANSA) — Vatican City, August 28 — The policy of transparency pursued by Pope Benedict XVI concerning paedophilia in the Church has led to a “considerable” increase in the number of reports of child abuse by clergy according to the 2011 edition of the annual report “The activity of the Holy See” published by Libreria Editrice Vaticana at the end of July.
In 2011 the disciplinary office of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith opened a total of 599 procedures, of which 404 concerned cases of abuse perpetrated by members of the priesthood against minors. This was fewer than in 2010 but considerably more than in the period 2005-2009, the volume said. The Congregation initiated a total of 37 judicial proceedings and 189 administrative proceedings in 2011. It also submitted to the Pope a request for the removal “ex officio” from the clerical state of 125 priests and for dispensation from priestly obligations for a further 135.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Analysis: Brotherhood Taking Total Control of Egypt
With rise of Morsy, a new dictatorship may be replacing the old while world persists in looking for signs of pragmatism.
While the world persists in looking for signs of pragmatism in the Egyptian president, Mohamed Morsy is quietly taking over all the power bases in the country.
Having gotten rid of the army old guard, he replaced them with his own men — officers belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood or known sympathizers. Then he turned his attention to the media, replacing 50 editors working for the government’s extensive and influential press empire — including Al- Ahram, Al-Akhbar, Al-Gomhuria. He is now busy appointing new governors to the 27 regions of the country.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt Has World’s 2nd Cheapest Gasoline Prices
After Venezuela, followed by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain
(ANSAmed) — DOHA, AUGUST 24 — After Venezuela, Egypt has the world’s second cheapest car fuel prices, according to a survey by Arabian Business published on Friday.
In Egypt, gas costs 14 US dollar cents a liter, against 12 cents in Venezuela. They are followed by Saudi Arabia (0.16 dollars a liter), Qatar (0.19 dollars) and Bahrain (0.24 dollars)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Can Islam Ever Accept Higher Criticism?
by Ed West
Last night’s Islam: The Untold Story will have made uncomfortable viewing for some people. It certainly seemed to be for one of the featured experts, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, an Iranian Islamic philosopher who had the look of a man whose faith is facing the rising tide of scepticism and godlessness. It is one Christians from the past century and a half, from the early days of higher criticism to the recent plummet in religious attendance, will recognise well.
In this atmospheric and intelligent documentary Tom Holland, whose recently published In The Shadow of the Sword took the burgeoning study of early Islam to a popular audience, looked at the early history of the religion and sought to explain what evidence we have for the traditional history, as viewed by the faithful. “The evidence is almost nonexistent,” he says. “When you start looking, everything is up for grabs.”
[…]
[JP note: Grab it and run.]
[Reader comment by danoconnor on 29 August 2012 at 1154 am.]
Islam is a parasitical narcissistic pathological and spiritually barren 7th century ponzi-scheme organised crime racket based on perpetual outrage, violence, duplicity, conquest, plunder, domination and religious apartheid, sanctioned by a divine manifesto, with a few pious words thrown in to give it an air of respectability and to stop people asking too many awkward questions. And wouldn’t you know it, the trendy Western “anti-racist” Left have at last found a religion they actually like. This time the Left really have bet on the wrong horse. From a historical perspective, this will be the last blunder the flower power hippies ever make.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Iranian General Admits ‘Fighting Every Aspect of a War’ In Defending Syria’s Assad
Iran, in continuing to support the Syrian government’s crackdown against protesters, publicly stated that it is sending military personnel from its elite Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps to Syria.
“Today, we are involved in fighting every aspect of a war, a military — one in Syria, and a cultural one as well,” Gen. Salar Abnoush, a Revolutionary Guard commander, said to a group of volunteer trainees Monday, as reported by Daneshjoo News Agency, an online pro-regime student-run media platform.
Though many have pointed for quite some time to the symbiotic relationship between Tehran and Damascus, including Iran’s training of Syrian cyber police and sending tactical support and cash, the statement appears to be the Iranian regime’s first public account of military participation in Syria.
More than 23,000 Syrians, including many women and children, have been massacred in the more than 17 months of uprising against the Bashar al-Assad regime.
Public acknowledgment of Iran’s manpower support and military involvement in Syria comes at a time when international pressure against Syria is at its peak and the Syrian regime’s massacre against its civilians is most violent. Syrian military defections are on the rise, and many soldiers are often unwilling to fire at protesting crowds.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Court in Ukraine Upholds Tymoshenko Conviction
The top court in Ukraine has rejected an appeal filed by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. The judge upheld her conviction and seven-year jail sentence on charges of abuse of power.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Radical Islamic Attacks in a Moderate Region Unnerve the Kremlin
A string of violent attacks by Islamic militants has shattered this city’s reputation as a citadel of religious tolerance and unnerved federal officials in Moscow, who have worked for decades to prevent the spread of radical Islam out of the southern borderlands and into places like this city 500 miles east of Moscow.
Officials have long sought to contain Islamic fervor in the Caucasus to the south while insisting that places like the republic of Tatarstan, where Kazan is the capital, were different, representing a moderate “Russian Islam,” said Aleksei Malashenko, the co-chairman of the Carnegie Moscow Center’s religion, society and security program.
But that comfortable assumption began to crumble just before the start of Ramadan in late July, when a senior cleric in charge of education was shot outside his apartment building on Zarya Street. Roughly an hour later, the city’s chief mufti survived a bomb attack that demolished his Toyota Land Cruiser. A previously unheard-of group, the mujahedeen of Tatarstan, claimed responsibility.
On Sunday, a car carrying three men, an automatic rifle and Islamic pamphlets blew up in Zelenodolsk, about a half-hour west of Kazan, in what the authorities described as the inadvertent detonation of a homemade explosive. “That radical direction exists in Tatarstan,” Mr. Malashenko said. “And it’s dangerous.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Female Suicide Bomber Identified in Russia
Russian police on Wednesday identified the female suicide bomber who killed an influential Muslim leader in a terrorist attack that could worsen a longstanding confrontation between radical Islamists and moderate Muslims in the volatile Caucasus region.
Said Afandi, 74, the powerful leader of a Sufi Muslim brotherhood in Russia’s unstable province of Dagestan, was killed Tuesday along with six other people, including an 11-year-old boy, in the central village of Chirkei by the bomber, who approached his house disguised as a pilgrim. Afandi’s tens of thousands of followers included influential officials, clerics and businessmen.
Police in Dagestan said Wednesday that the bomber was Aminat Kurbanova, a 30-year-old resident of Dagestan’s capital, Makhachkala. The Interfax news agency claimed she was an ethnic Russian woman who had converted to Islam after marrying an Islamist militant.
Afandi’s killing follows a string of attacks on moderate Muslim leaders in the Caucasus who have publicly denounced the spread of radical Islamic groups known as Salafis whose followers advocate an independent state, or emirate, that would include Caucasus and parts of southern Russia that contain a significant Muslim population.
Afandi had recently initiated peace talks between Sufis and Salafis.
Dagestan, a multiethnic and predominantly Muslim province of nearly 3 million people on the oil-rich Caspian Sea, is a focal point of the Islamic insurgency in the Caucasus, and shootings, bombings and police operations against rebels occur there almost daily.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russian Police Identify Female Suicide Bomber Who Killed Muslim Leader in Dagestan
MAKHACHKALA, Russia — Russian police on Wednesday identified the female suicide bomber who killed an influential Muslim leader in the volatile province of Dagestan in a terrorist attack that could worsen a longstanding confrontation between radical Islamists and moderate Muslims in the Caucasus region. Said Afandi, 75, was the powerful leader of a Sufi Muslim brotherhood in Dagestan whose tens of thousands of followers include influential officials, clerics and businessmen. Afandi was killed Tuesday along with six other people, including an 11-year-old boy and a woman, in the central village of Chirkei after the bomber disguised as a pilgrim approached him in his house.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Suicide Bomber Kills Islamic Leader, 5 Others in Dagestan
A female suicide bomber killed an Islamic spiritual leader and at least five other people on Tuesday in Dagestan in the North Caucasus, a police source said. Said Atsayev, a leading Sufi Muslim cleric in the mostly Muslim region, was killed along with five followers and the bomber at his home in the village of Chirkey, the source said. Meanwhile on Tuesday, a border guard killed eight fellow servicemen in a shooting spree at a frontier post also in Dagestan, Interfax reported. There was no indication the shootings were related to the suicide bombing.
The attacks came as President Vladimir Putin visited Tatarstan, a mostly Muslim region far to the north, and called for religious tolerance following attacks on mainstream Muslim leaders there last month. “Religious tolerance has been one of the foundations of Russian statehood for centuries,” Putin said before granting a state award to Tatarstan’s chief mufti, who survived a car bombing in July on the same day one of his deputies was shot dead.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan: A Ragged Retreat Threatens to Turn Into a Slow-Motion Rout
by Simon Tisdall
The latest killings in Afghanistan are a stark reminder to western leaders of the folly of ignoring the situation in the country
The killing of 17 people by Taliban insurgents in Musa Qala, the deaths of 10 Afghan army personnel in a separate, large-scale assault in Helmand, and the killing of two US soldiers by an Afghan national army recruit could be dismissed as just another bloody day in Afghanistan. Alternatively these gruesome events, taken together, might sensibly be seen as another urgent warning to neglectful western politicians that their policy of gradual, go-slow withdrawal is rapidly unravelling. It is a warning they may ignore at their peril. Barack Obama and David Cameron have set a departure date for Nato forces of 2014. But the deteriorating security situation, the rank unreliability or underperformance of large sections of the Afghan army and police, and the fearful persistence of the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban may yet force their hand, turning ragged retreat into slow-motion rout.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
‘Hitler’ Clothing Store Causes Stir in India
A clothing store called ‘Hitler’ has upset residents and the small Jewish community in Vastrapur, in Ahmedabad, India. The shop owners do not find the name objectionable. “We had put up a cloth banner for over a month saying ‘Hitler opening shortly’, no one objected to the name then,” Rajesh Shah, the co-owner of the shop told Times Of India.
“Hitler was a nickname given to my business partner Manish Chandani’s grandfather because of his strict nature. Frankly, till the time we applied for the trademark permission, I had only heard that Hitler was a strict man. It was only recently that we read about Hitler on the internet. We have spent Rs 40,000 on the banner, couple of other thousand on visiting cards and branding activity. We have run out of money now. We are willing to change the name if we are compensated for the board,” said Shah.
However, the Friends of Israel organization from Vadodara objects the name of the store and wants the owners to change it. They ask how can anyone celebrate a person like Hitler in the city of Mahatma Gandhi and non-violence.
A member of the Jewish community who visited the shop recently claims that the owners knew exactly who the Hitler was and what he stood for. In a conversation, the owners told him that the name brings good business since the store’s launch a week earlier.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
India: 26/11 Mumbai Attack Gunman Death Penalty Upheld
India’s Supreme Court has cleared the way for Ajmal Kasab, the last surviving member of the Pakistani terrorist organisation that killed 166 people in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, to be executed.
Kasab, who was one of 10 ‘fidayeen’ commandos trained by Pakistan’s Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist group, had claimed he had not received a fair trail and appealed for his death penalty to be commuted to life imprisonment. The attack brought New Delhi and Islamabad to the brink of war after India’s prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh accused elements of Pakistan’s security services of supporting the plot. Kasab’s lawyer however had told the court he had not been part of a broader conspiracy against India.
The decision was eagerly anticipated by commentators who voiced their support for a speedy execution. “Today is Kasab’s verdict day! Let’s hope he gets the death sentence and is done away with! Am tired seeing him have tax-payer’s biryani,” said Suhel Seth. His comment reflected resentment in India over the £2million the government has paid to date to keep Kasab in in a high security cell in Mumbai’s Arthur Road jail. In their verdict, two Supreme Court judges rejected his appeal and said: “We are left with no option but to award death penalty….The primary and foremost offence committed by Kasab is waging war against the government of India.”
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
‘Somali Students Recruited in Pakistan for the Hague Terror Attack’
A Pakistan newspaper is claiming terror organisation Al-Qaeda recruited two young Somali students in Karachi to carry out a terrorist attack on The Hague.
Independent paper The Friday Times made the claims this week saying the two men ‘were to be sent to The Hague to carry out a 26/11 type attack,’ a source told the paper. That string of coordinated bombings and shootings across Mumbai in 2008 killed over 160 people and injured over 300.
The two men intended to travel to Europe as Christians — one as David Azubuike, 21, with a Spanish passport and the other as Jonathan Boipelo (no details) — on stolen passports, The Friday Times said, quoting sources.
The Telegraaf claims the Dutch security service AIVD set up a special taskforce to combat the terror threat. The Telegraaf said the Somalis had Dutch nationality.
The AIVD refused to answer the Telegraaf’s questions.
‘We take all these threats very seriously,’ the Netherlands embassy in Karachi told The Friday Times. ‘We are working closely with our Pakistani counterparts to eliminate such threats.’
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Berlin’s Cozy New Relationship With Beijing
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and much of her cabinet are headed to Beijing on Thursday for a two-day diplomatic offensive. China has quickly become one of Germany’s key partners, but several heated disagreements remained to be solved.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Gungahlin Mosque Gets Green Light
A 500-capacity mosque will be built on The Valley Avenue in Gungahlin, after the ACT Planning and Land Authority approved the development today. In their assessment of the development, ACT planners found surrounding roads could cope with traffic generated by the mosque and that the proposed 43 on-site parking spaces were sufficient. Planners also said several objections to the mosque on religious and cultural grounds were found to be “irrelevant” and “unsubstantiated”. “Some of the representations included statements or reports concerning lack of community integration, assimilation, differences in faiths and beliefs, differences in worldviews, security concerns, perceptions about values and sources of funding and alleged links between members of the Muslim community and/or adherents of the Islamic faith to crime, organised crime, violence and terrorism and the like,” chief planning executive David Papps said in his report.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Kenya PM Blames Killing of Muslim Cleric on Nation’s Foes
(Reuters) — Kenya’s prime minister said on Wednesday the country’s enemies were behind the killing of a Muslim cleric that triggered riots he described as being conducted by an “underground organisation” to create divisions between Christians and Muslims.
Aboud Rogo, accused by the United States of helping al Qaeda-linked Islamist militants in Somalia, was facing charges in a Kenyan court of possessing weapons when he was shot in his car by unknown attackers in Mombasa on Monday.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
The Self Destruction of Africa’s ANC
South Africa’s legendary African National Congress, the party of Nelson Mandela, is destroying itself. Corruption, cronyism, internal divisions and, more recently, the mine massacre in Marikana are draining support from the party’s base — and destroying the country’s economy.
He was still a child 18 years ago, when the white racists lost power and black South Africans liberated themselves from apartheid. Now Mhlangabezi Ndlelen is sitting in front of his corrugated metal shack in Wonderkop, a township about 100 kilometers (62 miles) from Johannesburg. The tiny hut — all six square meters (65 square feet) of it — houses Ndlelen, his wife and their children. Ndlelen has a bed and a table, but no running water.
He pulls a pay slip from his jacket. The Lonmin mining company pays him the equivalent of €600 ($750) a month to operate winches 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) underground. “It simply isn’t enough,” he says. “I have to feed my wife and three children with the money.” Ndlelen was among the 3,000 workers who went on strike at the Marikana platinum mine more than two weeks ago.
The workers were demanding that Lonmin double their wages. They danced, sang songs and even waved spears and machetes. On Thursday, August 16, police officers finally lost their patience and fired into the crowd with automatic weapons. When it was over, 34 of Ndlelen’s fellow miners lay dead.
Black police officers had mowed down black workers, just as the apartheid police had once fired on black demonstrators. The bloodbath is a disaster for the African National Congress (ANC), which has governed the country since 1994. But the party of national hero Nelson Mandela has already been losing authority and credibility for years. Nowadays, it is primarily viewed as corrupt, incompetent and arrogant.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Three People Enter Into Civil Union in Brazil
Three people have been allowed to enter into a civil union in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo.
Claudia do Nascimento Domingues, a public notary, granted the wishes of the man and two women, saying there is nothing in law that prevents such an arrangement. The trio have lived together in Rio de Janeiro for three years, and have a joint bank account, sharing bills and expenses. The union was made formally three months ago, according to Globo TV, but only became public this week. “We are only recognising what has always existed. We are not inventing anything,” said Ms Domingues. “For better or worse, it doesn’t matter, but what we considered a family before isn’t necessarily what we would consider a family today.” The decision has sparked criticism in the country however.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
The Muslim Tide That Wasn’t
by Doug Saunders
Immigrants have large families. Any social service agency will tell you that public-housing apartments built for four-person families are inadequate for big new-immigrant families. This is nothing new. Recently arrived immigrants have always had big families: The seemingly limitless issue of Roman Catholics and Jews in the neighbourhoods of Western cities was the subject of national hysteria throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. But within a generation or two, their family sizes were little different from those of the general population.
Still, many in the West believe that Muslims are different: Not only do they have larger families than the people around them, but they sometimes have higher fertility rates than their cousins back in the home country. Moroccan women in the Netherlands, for instance, have a fertility rate of 2.9 children, while Moroccan women in Morocco have 2.4 children each. Bangladeshis in Britain have 3.0 children, while those in Bangladesh have 2.4. So even if fertility rates at home are falling toward Western levels, relatives who have migrated to the West appear to be maintaining larger families. This, to some observers, is proof that there is a conspiracy of deliberate population growth, an invasion by reproductive means.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Predatory Iraqi Immigrant Who Claimed Asylum Begs to Leave Britain and Return Home as He is Jailed for String of Sex Attacks
Rasul Abdullah told the judge ‘I don’t want to stay in this country anymore’ after he got four years in prison.
An immigrant sex attacker who managed to claim asylum in Britain begged to go home to Iraq after he was jailed for four years.
Rasul Abdullah, 31, was branded a ‘menace’ and a ‘sexual predator’ after he groped two women in a nightclub on the same night and then took a young mother captive and molested her while on bail.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Govt Likely to Appeal Reproductive Ruling
Opponents of contested law call for its demise
(ANSA) — Rome, August 29 — While the Italian government said Wednesday that it would likely appeal a human rights ruling against its restrictive reproductive law, opponents of Law 40 cheered the ruling and called for the law’s demise.
One day earlier, the European Court of Human Rights said parts of Law 40 that forbid families from screening embryos for ailments were too restrictive and violated the rights of an Italian couple that wanted to screen for cystic fibrosis Italian Health Minister Renato Balduzzi said that the government would most likely appeal the ruling out of concern that it could be misinterpreted.
“There are passages in the judgment…which can give rise to worrying interpretations,” Balduzzi told Vatican Radio Wednesday But, he added, it might also be possible to revise the law if the government saw strong public demand and a better balance could be found between legal rights and concerns about eugenics.
Eugenics involves a highly unpopular branch of science that advocates weeding so-called “undesirables” from the gene pool. The Strasbourg ruling has given the Italy government the opportunity to create a better law, said Roberta Agostini, spokesman for the National Conference of Democratic women.
Law 40, passed eight years ago with strong cross-party Catholic backing, was poorly conceived with a strong ideological bent “that has not held up to the appeals that many couples have presented,” she said.
“This ruling is an opportunity to rewrite in a radical way, taking into account the case law, and deleting absurd and controversial parts in order to respect the rights of women and couples.” The remaining elements of the Italian law still stand, including a ban the use of embryos for scientific research.
Italy has three months to appeal the decision of the human rights court, which also ordered 17,500 euros in compensation for the couple that launched the challenge. Italy’s caretaker government has no legitimate right to appeal the Strasbourg ruling because it was appointed to deal with the economic crisis, not reproductive matters, said Aurelio Mancuso, president of Equality Italy.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Government Likely to Appeal Strasbourg Ruling, Says Minister
Judgement needs ‘judicial clarification’
(ANSA) — Rome, August 29 — Italian Health Minister Renato Balduzzi said that the government would most likely appeal the European Court of Human Rights ruling passed Tuesday striking down parts of the country’s reproductive law forbidding certain types of embryo screening.
The judgment of the Strasbourg Court “needs judicial clarification,” Balduzzi said on Wednesday. The Strasbourg court said parts of Italy’s Law 40 that forbid families from screening embryos for ailments were too restrictive and violated the rights of an Italian couple that wanted to screen for cystic fibrosis.
Opponents of the law cheered.
“It is time for Parliament to delete the law”, said a spokesman for the scientific research organization Luca Coscioni following the ruling.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Black Hole ‘Bonanza’: Millions Found by NASA Space Telescope
A jackpot of previously unknown black holes across the universe has been discovered by the infrared eyes of a prolific NASA sky-mapping telescope.
The cosmic find comes from data collected by NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey (WISE) telescope, which scanned the entire sky in infrared light from December 2009 to February 2011. The full catalog of observations by WISE during its mission was publicly released in March, and astronomers are still poring through this celestrial trove for discoveries.
“WISE has found a bonanza of black holes in the universe,” astronomer Daniel Stern of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., said during a news briefing today (Aug. 29). WISE turned up about three times as many black holes as have been found by comparable surveys in visible light, offering up a total of 2.5 million new sources across the sky.
These black holes aren’t the average tiny, dense objects created by the collapse of dead stars, but rather humongous “supermassive” black holes that have been caught feasting on matter falling into them. Such active black holes are known as quasars, and are some of the brightest objects in the universe, because of light released by the infalling matter.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Islam: The Untold Story’s Sceptical Academic Rigour Clashes With Religion
TV review: In Islam: The Untold Story the host applied his sceptical academic rigour to questions of religious belief and in the process gave himself a mountain to climb.
When did Islam begin? It sounds like a simple question but, as historian Tom Holland discovered for the exercise in chasing shadows that was Islam: The Untold Story (C4), it’s one that’s all but impossible to answer. Tradition holds the birth of Islam was the launch pad for the Arab Empire, which swept halfway across the known world in the sixth and seventh centuries. What bugged Holland’s inquiring mind was that there was no written record or historical reference to the Prophet Muhammad to base it on. Written acknowledgement of Muhammad only came decades after the empire was established.
At its crux, the issue came down to a matter of mindset. Holland applied his sceptical academic rigour to questions of religious belief and gave himself a mountain to climb. Religion is, in itself, a leap of faith that you either buy into or you don’t. All of Holland’s querying of Islam’s roots could equally well be applied to any religion — not least Christianity -because, unlike history, the key questions are not concerned with who did what to whom and where, or when. It’s a question of how a belief system embeds itself in a society at a given time and, to truly grasp that, you’d need Doctor Who’s Tardis to actually take you there. Defeated by the lack of facts, Holland offered a crestfallen: ‘We’re not supposed to unlock the tradition.’ Gazing out at the desert, he turned poetic: ‘The emptiness is the answer.’
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Islam: The Untold Story, Review
Christopher Howse reviews Islam: the Untold Story, in which writer Tom Holland set out in search of “the origins of Islam”.
Were the Arabs of the seventh century Muslim at all? Tom Holland, the populariser of ancient history in bestsellers such as Rubicon, which examined the triumph and tragedy of the Roman Republic, kept on asking questions like that during Islam: the Untold Story (Channel 4). Untold it remained. After scrolling through typescripts on microfilm he exclaimed, “There’s nothing there,” as if it was rather annoying that Mohammed had not taken the trouble to leave behind a miniaturised account on spools of celluloid. That wasn’t the most annoying thing for the viewer of this disjointed programme. If the microfilm machine made an unpleasant whirring it was nothing to the lengthy scenes in old Jerusalem punctuated by repeated robotic gasps made by security cameras on street walls.
[…]
Nothing emerged but a metaphorical “black hole” from the decades after the Muslim Prophet’s death in 632. The first caliph to put the name of Mohammed on coins did so more than 60 years after his death. We were expected to find this rather a long time, but it sounds quick to me. It was as if Roman coinage had borne the name of Jesus while the Apostle John was still alive.
[…]
Holland’s equivalent talking head to the Germans was the Danish Professor Patricia Crone. Even she does not doubt that Mohammed existed or even that the Koran is a collection of his utterances. But she questioned the centrality of Mecca in the origins of Islam, believing it had Jewish as well as Arabian roots. Holland, however, makes it a very Arab invention indeed. His overarching theory was that Islam did not provoke Arab expansion, but was itself formed by the Arab conquests that rapidly won an empire. He likes seeing things in terms of empires, and suggested that a ruler such as the caliph who put Mohammed on the coin endorsed the prophet in the same way Constantine used Christ — to bolster his authority. But surely that would only work if the Prophet already had a defined following.
By then my mind was distracted by the documentary’s crowning annoyance: Holland’s habitual pause in mid sentence, like someone announcing the winner of an Oscar. He wanted to know “where the Koran might actually, PAUSE, two, three, four, have come from”. We got no answer, being sidetracked into historiography, a subject even less suited to pictorial representation than a hole in the manuscript evidence. Holland’s confident conclusion was: “Studying ancient history is a process of paint-stripping.” I hope his next subject is not Leonardo.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Last Night’s Viewing — Islam: The Untold Story, Channel 4
“History is like a labyrinth,” said Tom Holland at the beginning of Islam: the Untold Story, “who knows where it may lead?” In the case of Islam, he’d suggested just a little earlier, it had led him into a “black hole”, a vacant space where he’d expected to find a profusion of evidence. He didn’t say that it might also lead to trouble, but one of his contributors did it for him and there can’t have been many viewers who weren’t thinking it as he set about questioning the origin myths of Islam. You sure you want to go into that black hole, you found yourself thinking. You might get badly hurt in there.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
TV Review: Islam: The Untold Story; Accused
Historian Tom Holland tried to get to the truth about the birth of Islam, but was his quest was hampered by a surfeit of religious sensitivity?
“Can a non-Muslim hope to understand the origins of the Muslim world?” asked historian Tom Holland. “No,” was the emphatic one-word response of Dr Seyyed Hossein Nasr, professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University. Even though the question came right at the beginning of Islam: The Untold Story (Channel 4), it was still far too late, as Holland had already published the — generally — well-received In the Shadow of the Sword earlier this year, in which he attempted to do just that. And this programme was basically more of the same.
The starting point was that there are a number of serious discrepancies between the Qur’an and the surviving documentary evidence for the birth of Islam — most fundamentally that the first Arab conquerors didn’t appear to identify themselves as Muslims and there is no mention of Mecca in any dateable text (apart from one ambiguous reference in the Qur’an) until 100 years after the Prophet Muhammad’s death.
Holland is no attention-seeking, neo-Conservative, Niall Ferguson lookalike. Indeed, I’d guess his heart bleeds liberalism and, to my western sceptic eyes, his contention that the Arab empire gave birth to Islam, rather than the traditionally held belief that it was the other way round, seemed well-argued, fascinating — I learned a lot of history I didn’t know in a short space of time — and uncontentious. I would find it a great deal more surprising if a religious text written 1,400 years ago turned out to be wholly accurate. But for those who believe the Qur’an is the word of God passed directly to man and that inconvenient lacunae of knowledge are merely events that have yet to be properly explained, then Holland’s view is almost certainly blasphemous.
Herein lay another parallel story that was seldom far from the surface but which remained steadfastly untold. For decades — centuries even — scholars have felt free to contest the accuracy of other religious texts. Not least the Bible; what’s true, what’s parable and what’s just wishful thinking has all been up for grabs without any serious damage being done to Christian beliefs. Not so with Islam, around which non-Islamic scholars tread with extreme caution. I’m all for cultural and religious sensitivity, but the degree to which Holland tiptoed around the subject and apologised for his findings went way beyond what was required. Or would have been on offer for any other religion. It was almost as if he was looking over his shoulder, half expecting a fatwa at any minute.
None should be forthcoming, as towards the end of the programme Holland returned to Dr Nasr for reassurance that he hadn’t caused any lasting offence. Which he more or less got, as Nasr told him that what he had discovered was “quite interesting, so long as you don’t try to impose your view on the Muslim world”, as that would be tantamount to “western imperialism”. Holland crept out of Nasr’s office more or less insisting that the last thing he wanted was for any Muslim to take him seriously, so no harm was done. The gap between western liberalism and Islamic liberalism suddenly looked frighteningly large.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
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