Gates of Vienna News Feed 8/2/2008

I spent a bit of time today rewriting the script for the news feed, and added some additional features. Not only are the news items grouped by category, the headlines are now hotlinks to the named anchors for the text of each news item.

However, this latter feature will only work once you have clicked “read further” so that all the articles below the fold become available.

• Tyson Replaces Labor Day With Muslim Eid Al-Fitr
• Did Brits Miss Chance to Trace Hostages?
• ‘Lost MI5 Fax Could Have Stopped 7/7’
• Russian Church Urges European Christians to Answer Islamic Take-Over by Baby-Boom
• Reconsidering Sharia in Sweden
• Egypt: Sexual Harassment, Bill Envisages Prison and Fines
• Son of Top Hamas Leader Converts to Christianity
• Official: Olmert to Give Palestinians State Before Quitting
• Hamas-Fatah Mustache War
• Non-Muslims Praying on Temple Mount “Seek Religious War”
• Pakistan: Violent Clashes Between Army and Islamic Rebels in the Swat Valley
• ISI Helped the Kabul Bombers
• British [Muslim] Fighters Helping the Taliban
• Bullet-Riddled Bodies Found in Philippines
• Darfur: Hybrid Mission ‘Betrayed’ by International Community?
• Iranian Missiles in Venezuela a Reality
• Romania to Collaborate on Gypsies

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fausta, Insubria, LN, VH, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Details are below the fold.
- - - - - - - - -

Tyson Replaces Labor Day With Muslim Eid Al-Fitr

Chicken company: Workers wanted Islamic religious event recognized

Food workers at the Shelbyville, Tenn., plant for Tyson Foods, which boasts on its corporate website that it strives “to honor God,” will have time off for Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday closing the month of Ramadan, instead of the American tradition Labor Day.

Officials with the company told WND the labor union representing the 1,200 plant workers, including about 700 immigrants from Somalia who largely are Muslim, sought the holiday change in the new five-year contract, and the company agreed.

Officials with the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union issue a press statement about the new “contract [that] creates an additional paid holiday, [Eid al-Fitr,] a Muslim holiday that occurs toward the end of Ramadan.”

A spokeswoman at the union’s office told WND no one was in the office today who could comment on the request.

To the Shelbyville Times-Gazette, Gary Mickelson, Tyson’s media chief, said there is no new holiday, but at the union’s request the company agreed to discontinue the Labor Day holiday and implement Eid al-Fitr.


Did Brits Miss Chance to Trace Hostages?

Company accuses government of ignoring cell phone use

(See link for news story)


‘Lost MI5 Fax Could Have Stopped 7/7’

The crucial missed warning

(See link for news story)


Russian Church Urges European Christians to Answer Islamic Take-Over by Baby-Boom

The Moscow Patriarchate urged Christians who are scared of increasing Islamic influence in Europe protect values of traditional family.

“Many Christians fear that Muslims will gradually push them out of Europe as Muslim families have many children, while Christian populations is implacably decreasing,” Bishop Hilarion of Vienna and Austria said.

Bishop Hilarion believes that the main challenge for Christian mission in Western Europe is militant secularism that strives to push religion off the public sphere.

           — Hat tip: VH


Reconsidering Sharia in Sweden

[This essay can only be found if you have read the paper edition and know what you are searching for. — LN]

Sharia

I väst anses den islamiska lagen bara grym och föråldrad. Men den är till stora delar bättre än sitt rykte — och mycket som gått snett i samtida arabisk politik kan förklaras av att det traditionella rättssystemet tynat bort.”

‘Appologistisk essä av Carl Rudbeck i Dagens Nyheter’.

Translation:

Sharia

“In the West the Islamic law is regarded only as cruel and outdated. But it is largely much better than its reputation — and much that has gone wrong in contemporary Arab politics can be explained by the traditional justice system having languished.

‘Appologist essay by Carl Rudbeck in the Dagens Nyheter’“

           — Hat tip: LN


Egypt: Sexual Harassment, Bill Envisages Prison and Fines

(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, JULY 31 — For the first time a bill on sexual abuse was presented in Egypt. The project envisages the detention in prison and fines up to 120 euro for sexual harassment and prison up to 5 years for rape. The bill was presented by secretary-general of the National Council for Women, Farkhonda Hassan. In the text “whoever sexually bothers another person of the opposite sex will be sentenced to remain in prison for a period no more than a year and a fine no more than 1000 Egyptian pounds (120 euro), if this person abuses his or her authority giving orders or with behaviour which can be defined as sexual abuse, with words, with touching or with phone calls and messages,” Hassan told daily Masri El Youm. Farkhonda Hassan defines in the project sexual harassment as any behaviour aiming at sexual acts contrary to the will of the one suffering it, and adds that these types of behaviour could be carried out both by men and women in a position of authority towards the victim. In the past weeks, the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights (ECWR) released a research upon a limited sample of Egyptian women, plus an even smaller one of foreign women, according to which 83% of the women in Egypt are regularly subjected to sexual provocations in the street or on the means of public transport, but only 2% report it. As it was reported in the case, the abuse did not at all concern only women who provoked with their clothing style, but on the contrary all women: from the ones with hijab (headscarf covering the hair) or niqab (which leaves only the eyes uncovered), to the ones without a headscarf and foreign women. The survey was accompanied by a collection of signatures for a petition aimed exactly to change the current regulations. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria


Son of Top Hamas Leader Converts to Christianity

“I hope my father and family open their eyes to Jesus and the Kingdom of God”

(See link for news story)


Official: Olmert to Give Palestinians State Before Quitting

Prime minister plans to accelerate negotiations to reach deal on paper by next month

(See link for news story)


Hamas-Fatah Mustache War

Hamas has resumed its policy of shaving mustaches of political opponents to humiliate them, Fatah officials said Wednesday. Hamas, for its part, accused the Palestinian Authority security forces of shaving the beards of detained Hamas officials in the West Bank.

The latest victim of the mustache-shaving policy is Nafez al-Namnam, one of the commanders of Fatah’s armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades in Gaza City. He and his son Rami were arrested by Hamas policemen shortly after the mysterious explosion that killed five Hamas men on the beach in Gaza City last Friday.

Namnam wore an unusually large mustache for more than 30 years. But while in prison, his Hamas interrogators shaved it off before finally releasing him. The Aksa Martyrs Brigades issued a statement strongly condemning the shaving of Namnam’s mustache and threatening retaliation.

Earlier this year, another senior Fatah official, Ibrahim Abu al-Naja, also lost his mustache in the power struggle with Hamas. Abu al-Naja had worn a mustache for nearly 35 years.

           — Hat tip: VH


Non-Muslims Praying on Temple Mount “Seek Religious War”

Muslim authorities say even right to talk to God on the holy site is exclusively theirs… In an interview Azzam Khatib, director of the Islamic Trust (or Waqf) that safeguards the mosques that sit atop the Temple Mount, said that Jews and Christians who try to pray at the ancient holy site are effectively declaring war.

Any non-Muslim “who seeks such an approach is really seeking a religious war,” said Khatib, who insisted that the Temple Mount is an exclusively Muslim site and that Jews and Christians should not even want to pray there. He even took issue with the use of the term “Temple Mount,” angrily demanding the site be called al-Haram al-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary.

Khatib [who last year stated the Jewish state will very soon cease to exist and the whole of the country will come under Sharia] refused to consider the possibility that the site was once home to the First and Second Jewish Temples [of which the Waqf is trying to destroy all artifacts, calling such claims unsubstantiated myths. When presented with a citation from a 1929 tourist guide published by the Supreme Muslim Council that acknowledged the Temple Mount as the site of Solomon’s Temple, Khatib rejected the idea that such a book was ever published by a Muslim authority.

           — Hat tip: VH


Lebanon: Prisoners in Syria, Deputies Want Compensations

(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, AUGUST 1 — State compensations for the Lebanese formerly held in Syrian prisons, not only in Israeli prisons: this is what two Lebanese members of Parliament are demanding in a bill presented to the Parliament in Beirut, the local media reported today. Elie Keyrouz and Antoine Zahra, members of the Lebanese Forces, a Christian party opposing to the traditional Syrian influence in Lebanon, presented the bill for compensations to be paid to the former Lebanese prisoners in Syria or, in case they have died, to their families. According to the association of the families of Lebanese prisoners in Syria (Solide), some 600 are detained in Syrian prisons, “arrested for political reasons during the 30 years of Syrian military presence in the country”, between 1976 and 2005. A Lebanese law envisages compensations for Lebanese formerly detained in Israeli prisons. The last five Lebanese prisoners in Israeli prisons were released on July 16 under an agreement between the Shiite movement Hezbollah and Israel. According to the media in Beirut, the question of Lebanese prisoners in Syria will be on top of the agenda of an expected meeting in Damascus between Lebanese President Michel Suleiman and his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria


Pakistan: Violent Clashes Between Army and Islamic Rebels in the Swat Valley

The fragile peace instituted in May has been breached. In a few days, there have been dozens of deaths and civilian victims. The army is using artillery and helicopter fire, while the Islamic militants are burning state infrastructure and girls’ schools. In May, a highly criticized armistice, which may have permitted the Taliban to regroup.

Islamabad (AsiaNews/Agencies) — The provincial government is again calling the situation in the district of the Swat Valley “grave”. The valley is in the North-West Frontier Province. Authorities are asking for more soldiers to “protect lives and property”. The fighting between the Pakistani army and local rebels has resumed: yesterday in the village of Deolai, mortar fire struck a home, killing the entire family of seven, while other mortar rounds claimed scattered victims. The militants have burned bridges and other state infrastructure, and, to interfere with female education, they have burned a number of girls’ schools, including one yesterday. Also yesterday, soldiers abandoned a fortification in southern Waziristan, where they had suffered repeated attacks.

The hostilities broke out on July 29, when rebels captured more than 30 soldiers and policemen in an assault at a checkpoint, after killing three intelligence officials on the 28th. Since then, at least 10 soldiers and 25 rebels have died. The area has become a war zone again, and people are fleeing by the hundreds. The soldiers are firing with helicopters and artillery on rebel positions. There is a curfew, lifted for only two hours before noon, to allow the population to buy provisions.

In May, the Pakistani government, incapable of defeating the insurgents, allowed the Taliban militias to occupy part of the province, and even set up their own Islamic courts to judge according to sharia, the Qur’anic law. In exchange, they set precise limits on their power, requiring them to pledge not to carry out attacks. The United States and NATO have always criticized this agreement, and now say that, instead of allowing Islamabad to regain control of the situation, it has allowed the Taliban and al-Qaeda to intensify their attacks in neighboring Afghanistan.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni


ISI Helped the Kabul Bombers

According to the USA

(See link for news story)


British [Muslim] Fighters Helping the Taliban

British Muslims are actively helping the Taliban and al Qaida to attack coalition forces, the former commander of UK forces in Afghanistan has said.

Suspicions that Brits were fighting for the Taliban were raised earlier this year after that RAF experts overheard secret transmissions spoken in broad Midlands and Yorkshire accents. Now Brigadier Ed Butler has also said militant Islamic groups in Helmand Province are suspected of assisting terrorist plots in the UK.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Brig Butler, who led British troops in Helmand Province for six months, said: “There are British passport holders who live in the UK who are being found in places like Kandahar. There is a link between Kandahar and urban conurbations in the UK. This is something the military understands, but the British public does not.”

           — Hat tip: VH


Bullet-Riddled Bodies Found on Philippines

Police searching for two women kidnapped by Islamic Abu Sayyaf group in the southern Philippines instead discovered the bullet-riddled bodies of two men, a senior police officer said Saturday.

Jolo [a Phillipine island in the southwest of the Philippines and a Muslim savages sanctuary par excellence] has long been a haunt of outlawed armed [Muslim] groups such as the Abu Sayyaf, a small group of [Muslim] militants founded with money provided by Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in the early 1990s.

The Abu Sayyaf Muslim group has been blamed for the country’s worst terrorist attacks as well as kidnappings of western tourists and Christians.

           — Hat tip: VH


Darfur: Hybrid Mission ‘Betrayed’ by International Community?

“Many of the helicopters provided by NATO states are gathering dust in hangars or flying in air shows when they could be saving lives in Darfur”, says a report, endorsed by 36 rights groups and think-tanks, published today and entitled “Grounded: the International Community’s Betrayal of UNAMID” (United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur). The report, researched by military experts, names “the Czech Republic, India, Italy, Romania, Spain and Ukraine” as countries which between them could readily provide a fleet of over 71 transport helicopters to the mission, “four times the number required by UNAMID”. The rights groups remind that the joint mission commander General Martin Agwey has repeatedly called on the international community for 18 to 20 helicopters, “of vital importance for peacekeeping operations and assistance to the population of Darfur in the rain seasons, when many roads become inaccessible”. After nine months, continues the report, “the number of helicopters provided to the UNAMID remains the same: zero”. The report, with the forward signed by ex-US President Jimmy Carter, South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi and child rights activist Graca Machel, calls on the UN Security Council, which convened today to renew the mandate of the mission, to act immediately to avoid a failure of UNAMID that would imply years of delay in peace prospects for the nation.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni


Iranian Missiles in Venezuela a Reality

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard are actively

collaborating extensively and secretly in the field of missile technology transfer to Venezuela

The National Council of Resistance of Iran Foreign Affairs Committee explains,

During the past 5 years, the Iranian regime has established extensive military and political relations with Venezuela, with its investments in that country totaling roughly 10 billion dollar [sic). Mullahs’ former president, Mohammad Khatami, and their current president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have each traveled to Venezuela twice, while the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, has also reciprocated with his own trips to Tehran on a number of occasions…

[more at Fausta’s]

           — Hat tip: Fausta


Romania to Collaborate on Gypsies

President Basescu pledges ‘shared plan’ to resolve problem

(ANSA) — Rome, July 31 — Romanian President Traian Basescu on Thursday said Romania would cooperate with Italy to resolve the problem of Italy’s gypsy camps.

Speaking after a meeting with Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, Basescu said Romania wants to create a ‘‘shared plan’’ to help free gypsies with Romanian citizenship living in Italian camps ‘‘from the degrading state of poverty in which they find themselves’’.

‘‘We realise that we share the problem of the Roma (gypsy) minority, and we want to collaborate with the Italian government to resolve the issue, which we have been unable to do at home,’’ Basescu said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria