Monday, September 22, 2008

Gates of Vienna News Feed 9/22/2008

USA
Black Conservative Stands Up to Obama
Expert on Islam Joins Naval Academy Faculty.
 
Europe and the EU
Abu Hamza’s Whinge Over Ice Cream
AK47 and Grenades Found in Immigrants Home
Attack on Halal in Denmark
Danish Cops Play Cops in Sweden
Diana West: the City Was Ready
Islam: Lonely Ramadan for Young Muslims in Italy
Italy: Suspect Arrested Over Southern Immigrant Massacre
Odense Declared Special Zone After Shooting
Politically Incorrect Press in Spain
Spain Will Pay Jobless Migrants to Return Home
TV Comedy About Wannabe Suicide Bomber is Rejected by BBC and C4
UK Police Told Off for Investigating Crimes
UK: Big Brother is Watching Your Wheelie Bins
‘We Should Take Pro Cologne Less Seriously’
 
Balkans
Three Books on Al-Qaeda in Bosnia
 
North Africa
Egypt: European Tourists Among 15 Kidnapped in South
Italy-Libya: Frattini, 450 Mln Company Refund Refused
 
Israel and the Palestinians
‘Peace Partner’ Funding ‘Al-Qaida’
 
Middle East
Saudi Women Beat Peeping-Toms at Mosque
Turkey Attempting to Confiscate Assyrian Monastery’s Land
Yemen: Six ‘Al-Qaeda Cell Members’ Arrested Over US Embassy Attack
 
Russia
We Won’t Go Back Behind the Iron Curtain, Warns Medvedev
 
South Asia
Afghanistan Analysis and Roundup
Archbishop of Delhi: Violence Against Christians Shows Crisis of Indian Democracy
Carmelite Convent Attacked in Madya Pradesh. Figures on the Violence Against Christians
Curry Bomb! Indian Army Chiefs Reveal Latest Weapon in War on Terror
Nepal, Maoists Promise Private Property, Confiscate Assets
Thai Govt, Muslims Agree to End Conflict
 
Australia — Pacific
Terror Academics’ Feud to Rage on
 
Latin America
“Relations With Islamic Countries Smell of Danger”
Danes Sentenced for Fundraising for FARC
 
Immigration
Immigration: Frontex Mission Should be Reinforced, Minister
Immigration: Spain; 311 Immigrants Landed This Weekend
 
General
Rai: Bible Reading Loses Chief Rabbi But Not Muslims
Terrorism: Al-Qaeda Leader Threatens France and Spain

Thanks to C. Cantoni, DC, Fausta, Gaia, Insubria, JD, JEH, SIOE Sverige, TB, Tuan Jim, TV, VH, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Details are below the fold.
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USA

Black Conservative Stands Up to Obama

Lloyd Marcus, a patriotic black American singer and activist, has confirmed he will be among the leaders of a national tour by the Our Country Deserves Better committee, which will feature 35 rallies in key states that will determine who will win the presidential election, coinciding with a television ad campaign that will be broadcast in these key states.

Mr. Marcus says he is amazed that some black Americans are voting based solely on race instead of “who would best serve our country.”

At a recent meeting Lloyd says, “One stern-faced woman kept watching me. I suspected she knew I was one of “them,” a traitorous Uncle Tom piece of excrement called a ‘black conservative Republican’. How dare I not vote for the black guy. How dare I not view myself as a victim whom America owes “big time!”

[Return to headlines]


Expert on Islam Joins Naval Academy Faculty.

Akbar Ahmed, an expert on Islam, a cultural anthropologist and the former high commissioner of Pakistan to Britain, will join the Naval Academy this fall, filling a new chair for Middle East Studies. Ahmed has promoted interfaith relations through his many books, television appearances and public dialogues with Judea Pearl, the father of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Ahmed, who also has worked in film and documentary, has previously taught at American, Princeton, Harvard and Cambridge universities. His most recent book, published in 2007, is Journey into Islam: The Crisis of Globalization. At the Naval Academy, he will teach courses, advise midshipmen and faculty, and assist in research projects.

           — Hat tip: Tuan Jim[Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU

Abu Hamza’s Whinge Over Ice Cream

HATE preacher Abu Hamza claimed his human rights were breached because he was served RUM ice cream in prison. The hook-handed cleric, 50, said the sweet broke halal rules because it contained alcohol.

A source at top-security Belmarsh jail in Woolwich, South East London, said: “It’s utterly barmy and a massive over-reaction — most prisoners would see it as a treat. All he has to do is say he doesn’t fancy his pudding.”

Other notorious terrorists in the jail — including dirty bomber Dhiren Barot, 35 — have joined the protest. It is backed by a website linked to controversial lawyer Mudassar Arani. The site said: “Muslims were provided with rum ice cream. This obviously contains alcohol and therefore could not possibly be deemed compatible with the Islamic faith.” […]

Egyptian-born Hamza is serving seven years for inciting murder and race hate. A prison source said last night: “Hamza spent his life urging fanatics to kill Jews and Christians yet has the gall to claim his rights are being abused over ice cream.” […]

           — Hat tip: VH[Return to headlines]


AK47 and Grenades Found in Immigrants Home

[Story in Danish]

           — Hat tip: TB[Return to headlines]


Attack on Halal in Denmark

The food industry

Pandering to muslims and their religious practises in the workplace is at the moment just the tip of the iceberg in Europe.

As in all walks of life this is changing as fast as our enemies (who are our elected politicians, judiciary and, increasingly, business leaders) can manage.

Already in Denmark all poultry, except organic, and a lot of the beef and lamb meat is slaughtered halal-style with about 12 oere (Danish cents) going to the cleric mumbo jumboing over the slaughter of each fully conscious animal.

It is not known if any of this money is finding its way to funding jihadist groups in Denmark, Europe or elsewhere in the world.

SIOE has no doubt that the Danish authorities have a tight rein on how this money is spent, just as the EU has a tight rein on its own spending. By the way, the EU has been unable to audit its accounts for the past 13 years, so we really suspect the Danish authorities neither know nor care whether money from halal slaughter on Danish soil is funding the slaughter of non-muslims across the world.

Muslim jihadists (whether funded by Danish halal slaughter overseers or not) have threatened to poison Denmark’s water supply

Why would such muslims stop at only poisoning the water supply?

SIOE has no idea how many muslims work in Europe’s food processing industries, but in the post “What Islam is not” the mechanism of how Islamisation ensures such jobs go to muslims is described.

Muslims work in considerable numbers in the USA’s food industry and often make demands on their employers to accommodate Islamic practises in order that muslim employees are not offended…

           — Hat tip: SIOE Sverige[Return to headlines]


Couples Join Bed-it Crunch

BRITAIN is heading for a baby boom as the credit crunch is forcing couples to entertain themselves at home. People have limited cash to splash at pubs and restaurants so are spending more time in the bedroom.

Sales of maternity clothes rose by nearly half last week. And chemists have reported a boost in sales of pregnancy testing kits and libido boosting remedies — proving that while the banks are in trouble at least the bonk-rate is up.

Miranda Levy, editor of Mother & Baby Magazine, said: “What’s cheaper and more fun than making babies? The trouble is, when they come out they are expensive.” […]

Sales at Mothercare were up by 20.7 per cent during the first three months of 2008. And upmarket baby chain Mamas & Papas revealed they saw a 46 per cent rise in sales of maternity clothes last week. Research shows that poor economic conditions — such as those in the 70s and early 90s — caused the birth rate to rise.

           — Hat tip: VH[Return to headlines]


Danish Agent Feared Dead After Islamabad Attack

A Danish national reported missing following Saturday’s terrorist attack in Islamabad was an intelligence agent.

A Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET) agent is reported missing following Saturday’s terrorist attack against the Hotel Marriott in Islamabad, according to an official confirmation from the intelligence service.

The service says that one of those killed is a person who could be a PET agent and the service is currently waiting for definite identification.

Embassy

The agent was in Islamabad as a security adviser to the Danish Embassy and was at or close to the Marriott Hotel when Saturday’s suicide terrorist explosion took place.

A female Danish diplomat has now been released from hospital after suffering minor injuries. Two other Danes at the hotel were unharmed.

At least 54 people died in Saturday’s explosion, including the Czech Republic’s ambassador to Pakistan. A lorry packing a suicide bomber and 600 kilos of explosives was detonated at the security entrance to the Hotel Marriott. The explosion ignited gas cylinders in the hotel kitchen, causing a fire that spread to the rest of the 300-room hotel.

           — Hat tip: TB[Return to headlines]


Danish Cops Play Cops in Sweden

Police management calls force spare time involvement in Malmo demonstration ‘embarrassing’.

Copenhagen Police have begun an investigation into why a large group of off-duty police officers went to Malmo in Sweden and interfered in Swedish policing during a major left-wing demonstration.

Swedish police have since called the behavior of plain clothes Danish policemen “very strange” and the Copenhagen police is finding it difficult to sort out what happened.

“I’ve heard that it was a dozen or so men who went over there to study things on the ground,” says Chief Superintendant Per Larsen.

Embarrassing

“You don’t go off and work on someone else’s territory. So if they didn’t have clearance from the Swedes beforehand, it’s embarrassing,” says Larsen, who adds that problems developed during the demonstration because demonstrators recognized the Danish policemen.

The Swedish Police Chief at the scene Håkan Jarborg told Sydsvenskan that Swedish policemen became ‘irritated’ with their Danish counterparts.

           — Hat tip: TB[Return to headlines]


Danish Cartoonist Criticized for Addressing Party Conference

Copenhagen — A well-known Danish newspaper cartoonist has conceded he made a mistake when he accepted an invitation to address delegates at a populist Danish party known for its criticism of immigrants, reports said Monday. Danish People’s Party leader Pia Kjaersgaard hailed Kurt Westergaard as “a hero” after his remarks at a party conference over the weekend where he also received a standing ovation.

Westergaard, 73, has been the target of numerous threats after the September 2005 publication of his controversial cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed with a bomb in his turban.

The cartoon was one of 12 images published by the Jyllands-Posten newspaper. They sparked worldwide violent protests in 2006 and Danish companies were boycotted in many Muslim countries.

In February this year, the Danish security and intelligence service PET said it had uncovered a plot to murder Westergaard.

After learning of Westergaard’s appearance, Jyllands-Posten’s editor-in-chief Jorn Mikkelsen on Sunday criticized the decision, saying it jeopardized the newspaper’s nonpartisan policy and he would not have given approval to such a request.

           — Hat tip: TB[Return to headlines]


Diana West: the City Was Ready

Here’s a morning-after appraisal in Der Spiegel of how wonderful it really was that rioters in Cologne were able to prevent the anti-Islamization rally from taking place last weekend. It opens this way:

When radical-right activists from around Europe arrived in Cologne on Saturday for a rally, the city was ready. Thousands of protesters flooded the rally site, disrupted city transportation and even attacked a river boat where a press conference was supposed to be held.

Notice how the city being ready equates with thousands of protestors flooding the rally site.

Police had prepared for about 1,500 far-right activists, organized by the local “Pro Cologne” movement, to make a public show of discussing what they called the “Islamization” of Europe.

The suggestion here is that no non-”far-right activist” could possibly be so “far right” as to imagine Europe is being Islamized.

Pro Cologne had invited prominent members of Europe’s radical right—

apparently, “far right” needs to be ramped up to “radical right” to be sufficiently scary

—like Filip Dewinter, who heads Belgium’s ultra-nationalist Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest) party, and members of the UK’s whites-only British National Party, to attend and speak.

Just by the way, BNP members were not on the roster.

The immediate reason for the rally was a recent go-ahead by local authorities for a mosque in the city’s Ehrenfeld neighborhood. Pro Cologne (“Pro Köln”) had been founded to resist the mosque.

But an estimated 40,000 protesters turned up in Cologne’s downtown Heumarkt area, many wearing clown suits, to disrupt the rally. They blocked urban trains to keep delegates away and raided a tourist boat shaped like a whale — called the “Moby Dick” — where the far-right gathering had been hoping to hold a press conference. A Pro Cologne spokesman said, “Stones, bricks and paint bombs were thrown and the panoramic windows of the Moby Dick were shattered.”

I.e., the city was ready.

Police cancelled the rally after 45 minutes. Pro Cologne organizers had to dismantle microphones and other equipment in Heumarkt while the overwhelmed riot cops tried to hold back the crowd of protesters. Some demonstrators — police estimated the violent faction at about 100 — flung paint bombs at the organizers or lit fires near barricades in the streets.

Even away from the rally, the anti-Islam conference was massively unpopular within Cologne. The city’s motto for the weekend seemed to be “No Kölsch for Nazis,” Kölsch being a local style of beer. About 150 bars hung banners and handed out beer mats bearing that slogan, and the bar owners refused to serve any obvious far-right visitors.

           — Hat tip: TV[Return to headlines]


Govt May Send Army to Camorra Zone

Troops could flank 400 police deployed after massacre

(ANSA) — Rome, September 22 — The Italian government may send in the army to help fight the Neapolitan Mafia in a bloody fief north of Naples, Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said after last Thursday’s worst ever Camorra massacre.

A cabinet meeting Tuesday will assess whether to send troops to the area around Caserta to flank the 400 extra policemen deployed there Monday, Maroni said.

‘‘We will see whether we should deploy troops alongside the police as we have done with great success in other parts of Italy,’’ Maroni said.

Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa said the cabinet would examine the ‘‘feasibility’’ of sending troops but would not want to move any of the 3,000 he said had been ‘‘greatly appreciated’’ by the public since their deployment alongside police in major Italian cities this summer. Earlier on Monday, La Russa had appeared reluctant to bring the army in, saying ‘‘Caserta is not Kabul’’.

If deployed, it would be the second time since the 1990s that the army has been sent in to combat organised crime in southern Italy.

Some 150,000 soldiers were sent to Sicily in 1992 following the murder of anti-Mafia judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.

They stayed on the southern island until 1998 in an operation dubbed Sicilian Vespers.

The Italian government weighed sending the army to stop a turf war in Naples itself two years ago, but eventually decided against it.

An Italian and six African immigrants were murdered Thursday night by six killers believed to belong to the powerful Casalesi Camorra clan.

SUSPECT ARRESTED.

A suspect, 29-year-old Alfonso Cesarano, was arrested Monday morning and police are seeking two fugitives.

It later emerged that Cesarano had been under house arrest on drug-trafficking charges when he allegedly joined the killing gang.

Earlier this year Cesarano was among 60 arrested on suspicion of belonging to the Casalesi clan but a court quashed the arrest warrant. Interior Minister Roberto Maroni and other officials criticised the alleged leniency of the courts, saying such dangerous Mafia suspects should not be placed under house arrest.

Police said the murders in the small Campania town of Castelvolturno were drug-related but also ‘‘a signal’’ that the Casalesi were still strong in the area despite a raft of recent arrests.

Maroni stressed they were not racially motivated.

Cesarano was arrested in his parents’ house opposite the amusement arcade where Thursday night’s massacre started with the murder of a 53-year-old Italian known to have had links with the Casalesi.

The arcade owner was killed with 20 rounds of automatic weapon fire. Twenty minutes later, in another part of town, the six immigrants were mown down in a 120-round hail of fire from semi-automatic pistols and kalashnikovs.

Three Ghanaians, two Liberians and a Togo national were shot dead at an ethnic clothing shop where local residents often brought clothes for minor adjustments.

A third Liberian died in hospital on Friday morning.

Police are waiting to speak to a man from Ghana who survived the attack and is in hospital in Naples.

According to investigators the killers may have been posing as policemen, since witnesses reported seeing four men wearing uniforms pull up in a car with flashing lights.

The Casalesi clan is one of the most feared Camorra outfits.

Its criminal empire was exposed in Roberto Saviano’s worldwide bestseller Gomorra, now also a film that won the second prize at Cannes this year.

           — Hat tip: Insubria[Return to headlines]


Islam: Lonely Ramadan for Young Muslims in Italy

(by Cristiana Missori) (ANSAmed) — ROME, SEPTEMBER 19 — To experience Ramadan in Italy is not that simple for the young Muslims. In fact, they are often forced to spend it alone, far away from the wide context of parents and acquaintances in the country of origin and without an adequate place to pray. This is the opinion of Sumaya Abdel Qader, 30, born in Perugia to Palestinian parents, who has just put into print her book ‘I wear headscarf, I adore Queen’ (Sonzogno). “For most of the people at my age living here and like me without Italian citizenship it is important to keep this tradition alive,” Sumaya, who is still a Jordan citizen and who has graduated in political science, explained. “Perhaps they prey little, but the fasting month is an important moment for them to be shared with the Muslim community,” she said. A community which these weeks is facing also the draft law proposed by the Northern league, which envisages control over the mosques in Italy. “Doing it, they do not care about the feelings of the Muslim believers, and even worse, they are playing with the feelings of Italians, suggesting to them and scaring them with what it is said is done in the places of worship,” Sumaya, married with two little daughters and a representative of the young people in Milan, said. Which is why fears, distrust and concerns exist on the part of the citizens, but also curiosity and various questions coming from Italians at the age of Sumaya. “It is easier to speak with them, I have rarely felt awkward or offended,” she stressed. “Our task is also to break the wall of distrust which surrounds us and to tell that, contrary to what is commonly believed, we are happy, nice and spiritual.” Words of Sumaya which however show the efforts that the youngsters from the second generation are facing when trying to be accepted by friends and acquaintances, mostly during the holy month of fasting. “Following our religious tradition in Italy, a country with a Catholic majority, is more complicated,” Sumaya sighs, adding that a celebration such as Iftar, the diner interrupting the fast, “can be sad when one is far from home.” There are, however, positive sides, such as the multiculturality of the Muslims in Italy (some 1.2 million according to the official estimates), from whom it is possible to learn customs and traditions. According to Anas Breigheche, the President of Young Italian Muslims, between 300,000 and 500,000, to experience this month dedicated to God in a serene way in our country depends also on the partners one is facing. “It depends on the people you deal with, many of them understand our needs, others do not want to hear a word about Islam and fasting in any way.” he explained. As a student and later during the military service in the mountain troops “I had a nice experience. The graduates understood my needs both in terms of food and during the Ramadan, the month during which even the less religious Muslims leave the worse sins aside to live it with dedication, despite the difficulties.” Difficulties which, however, could be eased if an accord between the state and Islam is reached, he pointed out. An accord which would help overcome the deep differences in the jagged galaxy of the Italian Islam, he concluded. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni[Return to headlines]


Italy: Suspect Arrested Over Southern Immigrant Massacre

Caserta, 22 Sept. (AKI) — Police on Monday arrested one of the suspected Mafia killers of six immigrants gunned down last week near Naples in a drive-by shooting that shocked Italy.

Police arrested Alfonso Cesarano, following an investigation in Castel Volturno, where the six immigrants died last Thursday.

Cesarano was arrested in the nearby Baia Verde coastal resort, where he was under house arrest at his parents’ home, Italy’s Interior Minister, Roberto Maroni, said.

Cesarano has a police record for drugs and has strong ties to the Naples Mafia, the Camorra, for whom he has done several jobs, the province of Caserta’s of Police, Carmelo Casabona told journalists on Monday.

In last Thursday’s attack, four men drove past a group of African immigrants outside a tailor’s shop and fired a hail of bullets at them from automatic pistols and a Kalashnikov assault rifle.

The same day, suspected members of the Naples Mafia or Camorra pumped 60 bullets into the head and chest of a gambling arcade owner, Antonio Celiento, in Baia Verde, killing him outright after he refused to pay ‘protection money’.

Immigrants in Castel Volturno rioted after the massacre, claiming it was a racist act and strenuously denied that the victims were drug pushers muscling in on Mafia territory and refusing to pay ‘protection money’ to their Mafia godfathers.

The Casalesi clan’s activities were exposed by the international bestseller ‘Gomorra’, written by Italian investigative journalist Roberto Saviano.

Social tensions are running high in Castel Volturno, a small town of 20,000 inhabitants 50 kilometres north of Naples. The town is home to 2,000 legal immigrants and up to 11,000 illegals who work without residency permits, many of them in the garment industry.

At a press conference in Castel Volturno on Monday, immigrants claimed they were discriminated against and exploited, calling for more rights and greater protection.

Many local immigrants work on the land, in sweatshops or on building sites for 25 euros a day and are forced to live in squalid accommodation, with up to 9-10 people sharing the same room, they said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria[Return to headlines]


Odense Declared Special Zone After Shooting

Police declare all of Odense a special inspection zone after Saturday night’s attack against a biker stronghold.

Police in Odense, the main city of Funen, have declared the entire city a special inspection zone following Saturday night’s attack against a biker stronghold on Petersmindevej. The decision allows police to search individuals without due cause.

Hitherto, the zone has only extended around the stronghold.

“This means that my officers can carry out searches of individuals throughout the entire city if they fnd it necessary,” says Funen Police Deputy Commissioner Bjarne Sørensen.

Although shots were fired at the Hells Angels headquarters, it does not necessarily mean that the gang warfare of recent weeks has spread to Funen.

“For obvious reasons, we are unable to say whether there are links to the unrest in Copenhagen. We cannot rule it out, because it has been obvious for some time that there has been tension in that particular environment,” Sørensen says.

Investigation

Shots were fired at the biker stronghold in Odense from a black Opel Vectra which was later found destroyed by fire in the Vollsmose district. Police say that until their investigation is concluded it will not be possible to say whether the battle between the Hells Angels and immigrant gangs has spread to other parts of the country.

           — Hat tip: TB[Return to headlines]


Politically Incorrect Press in Spain

La ultraizquierda impone la ley de la selva en Colonia: ‘Congreso Anti Islámico prohibido por la policía’

“Extreme left wing imposes the law of the jungle in Cologne: ‘Anti-islamic congress prohibited by the police’“.

[in Spanish]

           — Hat tip: DC[Return to headlines]


Radical Islam is Not a Reaction Against the “Injustices” in Palestine

Three years after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon Europe experienced its own September 11. Europe has learned, at its own expense, that the main threat to the democracies is, from now on, Islamist totalitarianism.

Despite this real electric shock, a number of experts on Islam continue to nod in agreement that Islamo-terrorism is nothing else but a reaction to the American-Zionist imperialism and that it does not strike anyone except the Westerners supporting Sharon, Ehud Olmert, Bush and their Muslim lackeys. The Madrid tragedy (2004) has enabled us to see to what extent a mass of foolhardy Europeans is struck by the Stockholm syndrome. It is a sickness which reached the point if absurdity when, on the 22 of March, the European Ministries of Justice — with Monsieur de Villepin at their head — condemned the assassination by the Tsahal of the spiritual chief of Hamas, Sheikh Yassin who was, at the same time, one of the most formidable sponsors of the Green Terror and, and therefore, one of the people responsible for the degradation of the situation in the Middle East…

           — Hat tip: Insubria[Return to headlines]


Spain Will Pay Jobless Migrants to Return Home

Spain will pay jobless immigrants to go home under new plans revealed. The measure was approved at a Cabinet meeting after a largely symbolic fast-track passage through Parliament.

The plan, which will come into force in around a month, targets tens of thousands of non-EU citizens who have been laid off in Spain and are entitled to unemployment benefits.

Under the scheme a jobless worker would receive a payment based on how long they have been working and how much they have been contributed into the social security system.

The average lump sum is expected to be between six and 18 months worth of unemployment benefit. They will receive the sum in two parts — 40 per cent while in Spain and 60 per cent when they have returned to their native country.

The programme is voluntary, and applies to people from 19 non-EU countries with which Spain has agreed that social security benefits accrued in one nation can be paid out in the other.

People who sign up for it must agree not to come back to Spain for three years, with the promise they will be able to recover their work and residency permits after that.

The initiative is the latest thrust by a government grappling with ever-swelling jobless ranks in an economy that had posted more than a decade of solid growth but is now flirting with recession. Spanish unemployment is now an EU-high of 10.7 percent, according to the statistical agency Eurostat.. […]

No figures have been released but the government said in July it believed 10,000 jobless non-EU citizens — out of a total of 165,000 recorded as of that month — would go along with the plan.

           — Hat tip: VH[Return to headlines]


TV Comedy About Wannabe Suicide Bomber is Rejected by BBC and C4

Channel 4 and the BBC have refused to commission a new comedy about a wannabe suicide bomber by Brass Eye creator Chris Morris. It is believed the programme, about a jihadist cell in the North of England, was deemed unsuitable for prime-time audiences.

There are attempts to secure funding from Film4 for the project. Channel 4 would have first refusal on any subsequent TV broadcast. The film is Morris’s first major venture since Nathan Barley, a satirical comedy about ‘cool’ Londoners. He is best known for his cult TV show Brass Eye..

In 2001, he was slammed over a ‘Paedophile Special’ episode, which generated 2,000 complaints and resulted in politicians condemning Morris. A source close to the new project said it had effectively been refused because of its subject matter. The source said: ‘It is subject matter that needs debate and is absolutely hilarious.’

The programme’s producer said Morris had carried out research to ensure the programme was acceptable to the Muslim community. Mark Herbert, from Warp Films, said: ‘Chris’s research has been meticulous. It is fatwa-proof.’ […]

           — Hat tip: VH[Return to headlines]


UK Police Told Off for Investigating Crimes

A watchdog has criticised a police chief — for sending officers out to take statements from all reported crime victims.

No-nonsense Essex Chief Constable Roger Baker has won widespread support for his back-to-basics approach.

And his tactic has paid clear dividends, with thousands of fewer crimes reported last year.

But in an incredible move, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary questioned whether sending officers to every reported crime is the best use of resources.

The attack was last night ridiculed by MPs and crime victims, who rushed to praise Mr Baker’s methods.

And, writing in the Daily Express, he defended his position, insisting it is about “giving the public the service they want”. He said: “We promise to do business face-to-face wherever we can.

“The public are our biggest partner and we will continue to listen to them and work with them.”

Mr Baker caused a stir when he took over in Essex in 2005 when he promised a zero tolerance approach to all crime.

In July this year he warned that too many officers were being removed from the beat, and announced plans to recruit 600 more within five years.

He also vowed to return to traditional policing methods, meaning that members of the public would always be able get through on the phone and would know that an officer would turn up if they reported a crime.

In the last year alone, recorded crime in Essex has dropped by 13,000 offences.

But an inspection report into neighbourhood policing by the HMIC suggested that the chief’s insistence on sending officers to take a statement from every crime victim put a strain on resources.

The report said: “While attending every crime is a highly effective method of engagement, it is felt by a number of staff that taking a statement at each crime is not always necessary and can be time-consuming.”

           — Hat tip: JD[Return to headlines]


UK: Big Brother is Watching Your Wheelie Bins

‘Thieves’ stealing wheelie bins from backgardens turn out to be COUNCIL snoops searching for illegal dustbins

When wheelie bins began to go missing from outside their homes, residents wondered whether they should call the police.

But when the thieves were unmasked, their identities proved to be something a shock.

The two men responsible were council officers assigned to secretly snoop in back gardens.

They were employed to find out which residents were using extra ‘unauthorised’ wheelie bins to dispose of their rubbish — and took those bins away if they considered them to be unlawful.

[Return to headlines]


‘We Should Take Pro Cologne Less Seriously’

Protesters and other citizens in Cologne worked en masse on Saturday to shut down their city and prevent a demonstration by Europe’s radical right. But have they given too much attention to the fringe group, Pro Cologne, which organized the rally?

When radical-right activists from around Europe arrived in Cologne on Saturday for a rally, the city was ready. Thousands of protesters flooded the rally site, disrupted city transportation and even attacked a river boat where a press conference was supposed to be held.

Police had prepared for about 1,500 far-right activists, organized by the local “Pro Cologne” movement, to make a public show of discussing what they called the “Islamization” of Europe. Pro Cologne had invited prominent members of Europe’s radical right, like Filip Dewinter, who heads Belgium’s ultra-nationalist Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest) party, and members of the UK’s whites-only British National Party, to attend and speak.

The immediate reason for rally was a recent go-ahead by local authorities for a mosque to be built in the city’s Ehrenfeld neighborhood. Pro Cologne (“Pro Köln”) had been founded to resist the mosque.

But an estimated 40,000 protesters turned up in Cologne’s downtown Heumarkt area, many wearing clown suits, to disrupt the rally. They blocked urban trains to keep delegates away and raided a tourist boat shaped like a whale — called the “Moby Dick” — where the far-right gathering had been hoping to hold a press conference. A Pro Cologne spokesman said, “Stones, bricks and paint bombs were thrown and the panoramic windows of the Moby Dick were shattered.”

Police cancelled the rally after 45 minutes. Pro Cologne organizers had to dismantle microphones and other equipment in Heumarkt while the overwhelmed riot cops tried to hold back the crowd of protesters. Some demonstrators — police estimated the violent faction at about 100 — flung paint bombs at the organizers or lit fires near barricades in the streets.

Even away from the rally, the anti-Islam conference was massively unpopular within Cologne. The city’s motto for the weekend seemed to be “No Kölsch for Nazis,” Kölsch being a local style of beer. About 150 bars hung banners and handed out beer mats bearing that slogan, and the bar owners refused to serve any obvious far-right visitors. But on Monday morning German papers are wondering whether the flare-ups of violence on Saturday didn’t contradict the whole point of the city’s resistance.

           — Hat tip: TB[Return to headlines]

Balkans

Three Books on Al-Qaeda in Bosnia

Marko Attila Hoare, from DEMOCRATIYA

Unholy Terror: Bosnia, al-Qa’ida, and the Rise of Global Jihad by John R. Schindler Zenith Press, 2008, 368. pp.

Marko Attila Hoare

Also under review: Christopher Deliso, The Coming Balkan Caliphate: The Threat of Radical Islam to Europe and the West, Praeger Security International, 2007;

Shaul Shay, Islamic Terror and the Balkans, Transaction Publishers, 2007.

The role of al-Qa’ida and the foreign mujahedin in the wars in the former Yugoslavia of the 1990s remains controversial, but the controversy is not over whether the phenomenon was a positive one or not. Reading some of the coverage of the subject, one might be forgiven for thinking that the wars fought in Bosnia and Kosova were merely individual fronts in something much bigger: the global struggle between the warriors and opponents of radical Islam. Yet as is so often the case, it is the smaller, local struggle that is more bitter and protracted than the global one, and that inspires the greater loyalty and commitment. The recently published books by John R. Schindler and Christopher Deliso, Unholy terror: Bosnia, al-Qa’ida, and the rise of global jihad and The coming Balkan caliphate: The threat of radical Islam to Europe and the West respectively, are really books about the Balkans more than about radical Islam; and it is the rights and wrongs of the Balkan conflicts, more than the threat posed by radical Islam, that motivate the authors. Schindler and Deliso share a hostility to Islam and to the politics of Western liberal interventionism which goes far beyond any mere concern with the alleged Islamist threat in the Balkans.

Deliso’s thesis of a ‘coming Balkan caliphate’ embraces Bosnia, Albania, Kosova, Macedonia and Turkey. Deliso’s animosity in particular is directed against the Albanians, and he faithfully upholds anti-Albanian stereotypes popular among the Balkan Christian peoples. He writes of ‘the opportunism they [the Kosovo Albanians] have shown in siding at various times with the Turks, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Mussolini, Hitler, and, most recently, NATO’ (p. 51), thereby repeating the myth popular among Serbian nationalists, of the Albanians as stooges of repeated foreign invaders, though the Kosova Albanians’ record in this regard is absolutely no worse than that of other Balkan peoples. He attributes the emigration of Serbs from Kosova in the decades before 1999 to the fact that they were fleeing ‘from a culturally and socially incompatible land dominated by clan-based Muslim Albanians’ (p. 37). He complains of the high birthrate of the Balkan Muslims, writing ‘it seems that Muslims, already outright majorities in some countries and political “kingmaker” minorities in others, are still expanding and will thus continue to enjoy all of the political, social, and economic benefits that this position entails.’ And while Deliso recognises that the Balkan Muslim birthrate may eventually fall, he fears that ‘these processes take considerable time and may take effect only after it is “too late” for the Christian populations to avoid returning to their Ottoman status — that is, second class citizens in their own countries.’ (p. 113). Deliso also complains about mosques being too noisy, on account of the call to prayer from the minaret: ‘Although it is not terribly politically correct, the term “sonic cleansing” is an apt one to describe the process by which aggressively visible and audible Islam gradually grinds away at non-Muslims, who gradually move out of what become, essentially, ghettoes by choice.’ (p. 86)

Deliso makes many sweeping statements about the dangers allegedly posed by the Balkan Muslim peoples, which are then refuted by his own account. Hence, he writes that ‘the most fundamentally surreal dimension of the West’s Balkan misadventures must be that specific policies have directly benefited Islamic fundamentalism, as attested by the Western support for Muslim-dominated secessionist movements and paramilitaries with demonstrable ties to terrorists and mafia groups in Bosnia, Kosovo, Albania, and Macedonia’. Indeed, it is self-determination and democracy that are themselves apparently to blame for the alleged Balkan Islamist threat: ‘Ironically, the creation of liberal democracies in docile, pro-Western nation-states also enables the rival development of radical Islam within them.’ (p. 143)

           — Hat tip: Insubria[Return to headlines]

North Africa

Cinema: Egypt, Al-Gezira to Vie for 2008 Academy Award

(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, SEPTEMBER 18 — Sherif Arafàs blockbuster ‘al-Gezira’ (The island) has been picked to vie for the 2008 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The action movie was declared a winner in a vote organized by the Egyptian Oscar committee under writer Mohamed Salmawy to select Egypt’s filmmaking representative in the prestigious event. Al-Gezira, starring Ahmed al-Saqqa and Mahmoud Yassin, grossed EGP 20 million (about EUR 2.5 mln) in 8 months. It is a multi-genre picture: a thematic film on Egyptian politics, but also a drama, action, and thriller/suspense film. It is the story of a community of Upper Egypt residents living in El Gezira. They have their own set of rules, ethics and traditions. But they also plant drugs and buy arms from Sudan. The officer in charge of the region turns a blind eye to these happenings, and in the beginning, the government takes no heed of the Island, but finally decides to take action. Being one of the moviés stars, Yassin, a member in the committee, abstained from voting. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria[Return to headlines]


Egypt: European Tourists Among 15 Kidnapped in South

Cairo, 22 Sept. (AKI) — Five Italians, five Germans and a Rumanian were among 15 people reported to have been kidnapped in southern Egypt on Monday.

The Egyptian government confirmed that members of the group were tourists on a safari and were abducted near the city of Aswan, about 260 kms south of Cairo.

“The tourists kidnapped today at Aswan have been seized by a band of criminals,” Egyptian Tourism Minister, Zoheir Garrana, told the BBC in Arabic.

An Egyptian driver, two tour guides and a border guard are reported to have been kidnapped with the foreign tourists.

There were unconfirmed reports that the group may have been taken across the border into Sudan and that the kidnappers were demanding a hefty ransom.

But it is not clear who is responsible for the abductions or whether they have made any claims.

The Italian Foreign Minister, Franco Frattini, due to fly to the United States on Monday, issued a statement to say that ministry staff were closely following developments.

In a statement, the ministry also said it had offered its full co-operation and was working with its diplomatic staff in Egypt for the release of the tourists.

           — Hat tip: Insubria[Return to headlines]


Italy-Libya: Frattini, 450 Mln Company Refund Refused

(ANSAmed) — ROME, SEPTEMBER 17 — Italy has not forgotten the problem of credits claimed by Italian companies and co-nationals expelled from Libya in 1970, an issue which “will be discussed in a parallel negotiation which we pledge to start” with Tripoli after the signing of the agreement between Italy and Libya on August 30, Italian Foreign Minister, Franco Frattini, said in Parliament. The head of the Italian diplomacy said that the Italian negotiators have already refused 450 million euro which Libyans offered to pay as compensation for the credits claimed by Italian companies. Italy did not accept the offer because the sum is insufficient and Libya “accepted to continue the talks”, Frattini said. “Italy has launched a more efficient collaboration, much more efficient than in the past, in the fight against human trafficking and illegal immigration,” the minister addedd, commenting on the recent signing of the friendship and collaboration agreement between Rome and Tripoli. The minister also said that with this agreement Italy was hoping to achieve “strengthening of the partnership in the fields of energy and industry” between the two countries. Recalling the motives that urged Italian negotiators to accelerate the talks “on the invitation of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi”, Frattini said that the time had come to “close definitively the chapter of the colonial past” and create “the juridical framework for a new stage in the bilateral relations”. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria[Return to headlines]


Negotiations Opened to Free 11 Foreigners Taken at Aswan

(ANSA) — Cairo, September 22 — Five Italians were among 11 foreign tourists kidnapped in the southern Egyptian tourist city of Aswan Monday, the Italian foreign ministry said, citing Egyptian police.

Five Germans and a Romanian were the others in the tourist group.

Negotiations have been opened with the unidentified kidnappers, Egyptian Tourist Minister Zoheir Garana.

The kidnappers have asked for an unspecified sum for the hostages, police said.

The 11 tourists were accompanied by two Egyptian tour guides, a border guard officer and a driver.

           — Hat tip: Insubria[Return to headlines]

Israel and the Palestinians

‘Peace Partner’ Funding ‘Al-Qaida’

Pumping money, support to most radical Islamist terror groups in Gaza

JERUSALEM — Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah organization has been providing financial support to al-Qaida allies in the Gaza Strip, including some of the most radical Islamist organizations in the territory, according to information obtained by WND.

[Return to headlines]

Middle East

Kuwait Blocks YouTube

KUWAIT: The Ministry of Communication has issued a memo to all internet service providers in Kuwait asking them to block YouTube access. The popular video website came under fire from the ministry due to content considered offensive to Muslims, a source within the industry told Kuwait Times. The Ministry pointed to content including a video of a man signing verses from the Holy Quran while playing the oud and another video showing caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).

A Fasttelco source confirmed receipt of the memo. “It’s supposed to be blocked right now. But due to technical preparations the blocking may take until tomorrow [Monday],” said the source. The site was still accessible yesterday evening. The Ministry of Communication regularly issues memos to ISPs asking them to block certain websites, including those containing pornographic photos or ones like Skype that can be used to make international phone calls over the Internet.

YouTube is widely used in Kuwait. A search of the word ‘Kuwait’ turned up 59,000 videos, including everything from videos of car crashes on Fahaheel Expressway and Jessica Simpson’s concert for US troops in Kuwait to protests in front of Abdullah Al-Salem hall in the run up to the 2006 parliamentary elections.

I’m not for blocking it. One should be able to choose what to watch.. The YouTube itself has so many beneficial things that can help people get information and interact with each other,” says Abdelatif, a Muslim living in Kuwait. “Censorship equals ignorance as far as I’m concerned. Everything is there, it’s up to you to decide what to see or not.

YouTube has an option that allows users to report offensive content. It will then remove content deemed offensive.

The website has been banned or parts of its content blocked by several countries around the world. A Turkish court banned Youtube in March 2007 after Greek and Turkish users posted insulting videos on the website. Thailand banned the video sharing website a month later over content insulting the king. A Brazilian court ordered the website blocked after users posted a video of Brazilian supermodel Daniela Cicarelli having sex on a beach with banker boyfriend Renato Malzoni. The court decision was later reversed and YouTube can now be accessed from Brazil.

Content offensive to Muslims and considered insulting to Islam however led Pakistan in early 2008 to ban YouTube. Both Iran and the United Arab Emirates block controversial content on the video sharing site. The UAE also censors content in photo sharing site Flickr. Blocking a website, though, has limited effect as most Internet users are savvy enough to use proxy services to access banned content.

           — Hat tip: VH[Return to headlines]


Saudi Women Beat Peeping-Toms at Mosque

A pair of peeping-Toms hoping to get an illicit look at a group of women at a mosque in Saudi Arabia got a beating instead.

A group of Saudi women beat two young men who sneaked into a mosque in the northwestern city of Hail to watch women praying during the taraweeh, a nightly prayer recited during Ramadan, the Saudi newspaper al-Riyadh reported on Sunday.

A woman noticed that two men had sneaked into the women’s section of the mosque and were peaking at the women. She called other women praying in the mosque and they pounced on the intruders. The women beat them with their shoes and water bottles.

The women said they did not report the male intruders to the mosque’s imam because they did not want to interrupt the prayers.

The girls then called security. The two men tried to run away but failed. They are currently being interrogated.

           — Hat tip: TB[Return to headlines]


Turkey Attempting to Confiscate Assyrian Monastery’s Land

The St. Gabriel Assyrian monastery, of the Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch, was established in 397 AD, hundreds of years before its neighboring villages of Yayvantepe, Eglence and Candarli were founded. During the reign of the Ottoman Empire the monastery was officially declared as a foundation and is still legally regarded as such.

Since its establishment the monastery has developed and continuously improved its environment. Over the last three decades it has developed into a major center that attracts tens of thousands visitors from Turkey and abroad. The entire region has benefited from this development.

Kurdish leaders from the villages of Yayvantepe, Eglence and Candarli, in cooperation with influential members of the ruling Justice and Development party (AKP), are now trying through dubious “lawful means” to confiscate the land of the monastery by claiming that the monastery has “too much” land for prayer and that land is needed as a meadow for these villages. […]

The Monastery has issued a detailed appeal to the Human Rights Office of the Turkish Parliament. A quick response is not expected. […]

           — Hat tip: VH[Return to headlines]


Yemen: Six ‘Al-Qaeda Cell Members’ Arrested Over US Embassy Attack

Yemen, 22 Sept. (AKI) — Police have arrested six members of an alleged Al-Qaeda cell that claimed last week’s deadly attack against the United States embassy in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, according to a ministry of defence website.

Local Al-Qaeda commander, Abu al-Gheith al-Yemeni and head of the alleged cell is among the six people arrested in connection with the attack last Wednesday on the US embassy which killed 19 people, the website said.

The US State Department has said the embassy bombings bore “all the hallmarks” of an Al-Qaeda attack.

The attack was the biggest militant operation in Yemen since the attacks on the French tanker Limburg in 2002 and the US warship Cole in 2000.

In a message claiming the attack, the cell threatened attacks against Arab embassies in Yemen, the British embassy and British interests in the country.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni[Return to headlines]


Yemen Seen as Both Target and Platform for Al-Qaeda

From attacks on Western ships to last week’s US embassy bombing, Yemen is no stranger to Al-Qaeda, but security analysts say its real value to the network may be as a place to regroup and prepare for strikes elsewhere. Seventeen people were killed in Wednesday’s twin suicide car bombing at the US embassy compound — the largest attack in Yemen since the 2002 bombing of the French supertanker Limburg.

Security analysts say the sophistication of the attack, in which the assailants were disguised in military uniforms and cars, suggests al Qaeda is gathering strength in a country that lacks the resources to crush militants, with a view to mounting attacks elsewhere in the world’s biggest oil exporting region. ““No one should just sit back and watch what is happening in Yemen…I think we will witness more ‘quality’ operations and see the possibility that this will cross into other Gulf states,” said Dubai-

based analyst Mustafa Alani.

We will see more links between the Yemen group and those in Pakistan or Afghanistan. Qaeda has suffered a lot in Iraq but if you push them down in one state they will appear elsewhere.” Situated on strategic shipping lanes and next to top oil exporter Saudi Arabia, Yemen faces a raft of problems — a revolt in the north, discontent in the south and an influx of Somali refugees — that raise red flags beyond its own borders.

           — Hat tip: VH[Return to headlines]

Russia

We Won’t Go Back Behind the Iron Curtain, Warns Medvedev

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev yesterday accused Nato of stoking up the Georgia conflict. He said the alliance’s role in the clash showed it was unable to provide security in Europe — underlining the need for its replacement. ‘What did Nato secure, what did Nato ensure?’ he demanded. ‘Nato only provoked the conflict, and not more than that.’

A Nato spokesman said: ‘There is nothing provocative in promoting democratic reform, economic reform and supporting a country’s aspirations to move closer to the Euro-Atlantic community.’

Medvedev’s comments appeared to be a response to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who warned Russia yesterday that its policies have put it on a path to isolation and irrelevance. […]

Dr Rice warned Russia that its policies have put it on a path to isolation and irrelevance. In a speech in Washington, she said: ‘The attack on Georgia has crystallised the course that Russia’s leaders are taking and brought us to a critical moment for Russia and the world. […]

In a show of defiance, Russia has threatened to block Nato from using its air space for operations in Afghanistan.

The 26-member alliance upset the Kremlin by saying that its use of force in the recent conflict was disproportionate. Nato has also said that Georgia will eventually be allowed to join — putting it at odds with Russia, which is fiercely opposed to any further expansion of the organisation.

In a further provocation, Moscow has also offered aid to its old Cold War ally Nicaragua. The deal appears to be a payoff to the Central American country for its recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states after they broke away from Georgia.

Russia has already renewed warm relations with Cuba, the island at the centre of the missile crisis in 1962 which proved an iconic moment of the Cold War. […]

Moscow’s push for influence in Latin America is Russian premier Vladimir Putin’s hawkish response to what he sees as U.S.. interference in his own sphere of influence in the Caucasus and Black Sea..

           — Hat tip: VH[Return to headlines]

South Asia

Afghanistan Analysis and Roundup

A very comprehensive roundup of Afghanistan coverage (copious links, analysis, counterpoints, Taliban quotes, etc.).

[Return to headlines]


Archbishop of Delhi: Violence Against Christians Shows Crisis of Indian Democracy

Archbishop Vincent Concessao emphasizes that Hindu extremism does not only deny minority rights, but also co-existence and respect for human rights, bringing the constitutional pillars of the country into crisis. In Delhi, Hindu radicals occupy the garden of the Catholic church of Trilokpuri, because they want to build a temple there.

New Delhi (AsiaNews) — The “violence and terror” underway in Orissa and in other states in India are not only a problem of “respect for the minorities”, but also involve the future of “India’s democracy”. This is affirmed by the archbishop of the capital, Vincent Concessao, in an interview with AsiaNews. “India, the world’s largest democracy, was recognised as a vibrant multi-ethnic, multi-religious, and multi-lingual democracy. Sadly, today the image of ‘democratic India’ is at stake”.

In addition to the violence taking place in Orissa, Karnataka, Madya Pradesh, and Kerala, Archbishop Concessao also cites abuses by Hindu fundamentalists in Delhi. Just yesterday, a Hindutva group occupied the property in front of the church of Prabhu Prakash Girija, in Trilokpuri, in the eastern part of Delhi. The property is used as a garden by the Catholics, and the city authorities have placed limitations on construction on the spot. The church has been maintaining the garden since 1991. But the extremist group has threatened to build a temple there. Last week, they placed statues of Hindu divinities in a niche set up against the wall of the church.

In the past, there have been many clashes between Hindus and Muslims because of attempts by radical Hindus to take possession of Islamic places of worship.

“This is another incident of the growing anti-Christian wave that is spreading its evil tentacles all over our beloved country and sadly, it will have long-term disastrous consequences on secular democracy. These misguided extremists are indoctrinated with the Hinduvta ideology and their methodology and strategy is ‘muscle power’, they do not respond to either reason or dialogue. It is very much like Nazism, they are brainwashed into believing that India should be exclusively Hindu, they do not believe in secular democracy”.

“This is very unfortunate, on the one hand on the global stage, India is emerging as a world power in the 21st century, while in our own country, there is growing religious intolerance and human rights and freedom of faith are blatantly violated. The international community and the world leaders who believe in secular democracy must oppose and condemn this gross violation of constitutional rights in India. It is much larger than ‘minority rights’, it is a question of the future of democracy in India”.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni[Return to headlines]


Carmelite Convent Attacked in Madya Pradesh. Figures on the Violence Against Christians

The convent guard was injured. A statue of Our Lady of Lourdes was destroyed in Kolar. In the state of Orissa alone, 45 have been killed, 5 are missing, and 18,000 have been wounded.

Mumbai (AsiaNews) — The guard at the Carmelite convent in Banduha (Ujjain, Madya Pradesh) has been wounded while trying to protect the sisters; in Karnataka, the Syro-Catholic church of St George in Ujire was devastated and burned; a statue of Our Lady of Lourdes was destroyed in Kolar. This is some of the new violence against Christians recorded today. All of these attacks took place overnight, or in the early morning. The wave of violence, which began in Orissa three weeks ago, has so far killed at least 45, and wounded more than 18,000.

At 1:30 this morning, a group of five people with air guns came to the Carmel Convent in Banduha and wounded the guard, Amar Singh, shooting him three times. He is in the hospital, and is not in serious condition. Amar Says that “the culprits asked me to call the sisters but I told them that they were not available. They beat me and asked me to cry loudly so that sisters would come out. They shot me with air guns when I disobeyed, and went away”.

One of the sisters, Sr Dhanya, says that four days earlier, a group had surrounded the convent making noise and shouting slogans, but the guard chased them away. The police have opened an investigation on the incident. Last week a church was burned in Ratlam. But the police attributed the responsibility to the guards.

Fr Anand Muttungal, spokesman for the bishops of Madya Pradesh, affirms that these incidents are not random: “in Madhya Pradesh, there is a series of attacks taking place here. It is always done with different methods; we are in touch with the higher officials and leaders from different socio-political organizations. We are peace-loving people, so violence is not our way of living”.

In Ujire, at 5 o’clock this morning, a group of unidentified persons entered the Syro-Catholic church of St George. They burned bibles, missals, prayer books, desecrated the tabernacle, destroyed the crucifix, the statues and icons. They also poured kerosene on the curtains to burn the building, but fortunately it did not catch fire.

Fr Joseph Valiaparambil, spokesman for the diocese of Belthangady, says “We are peace-loving people. We, the Catholic community, with all like-minded people forgive the culprits and pray for them as our Lord Jesus Christ taught us to do. Ours is a democratic country and all the citizens enjoy equal rights and privileges . . . The violence and brutality against Christians in Karnataka is perpetrated on the basis of false ideologies and distorted notions that violate the very fabric of democracy and the spirit of the constitution of India”.

Early this morning, a replica of the grotto of Lourdes was also attacked, near the church of St Mary, in Kolar. The culprits broke the statue of the Virgin Mary and the panels protecting it. Christians, Muslims, and Hindus all venerate the statue of the Virgin Mary. The custodian and cleaning person at the grotto is a Hindu woman.

On September 14, 20 churches were attacked in Karnataka. The police are accused of not preventing the attacks, even though they knew about them. Catholics have organized demonstrations to criticize the attitude of the security forces. In many cases, police savagely beat the faithful.

The new wave of attacks against Christians and their institutions began in Orissa, after Maoists ordered the killing of radical Hindu leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati on August 23. Hindu fundamentalist organizations accuse the Christians of being the authors of the assassination, and for this reason launched a pogrom, killing and wounding the faithful, destroying and burning churches, schools, social centers, homes. From Orissa, the violence is spreading to Madya Pradesh, Karnataka, and Kerala.

According to the All India Catholic Union, so far the violence in the state of Orissa alone has killed 45 and wounded 18,000; 5 are missing. 56 churches, 11 schools, and 4 NGO offices have been destroyed; 300 villages have been attacked; more than 4,000 homes have been burned or destroyed, forcing more than 50,000 people to flee. Of these, 40,000 are still hiding in the forest; 12,000 are sheltered in the refugee camps provided by the government.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni[Return to headlines]


Curry Bomb! Indian Army Chiefs Reveal Latest Weapon in War on Terror

Indian army chiefs are set to deploy a ‘curry bomb’ to win the war on terror. India’s weapons development experts have developed an eye-watering spice bomb, packed with a potent mix of red chilli and pepper which will be used to smoke out militants during counter-insurgency operations.

           — Hat tip: JEH[Return to headlines]


Nepal, Maoists Promise Private Property, Confiscate Assets

The Maoists, with the backing of the agriculture minister, are appropriating land and homes, forcibly removing the occupants and clashing with police. Now the population is taking to the streets in defense of citizens’ rights.

Kathmandu (AsiaNews) — In spite of the superficial slogans that the government and constitutional assembly are using to assert the right to private property and to promise the restitution of assets confiscated during the years of insurgency, Maoist groups in the country continue to usurp the land and property of private citizens.

Defying the orders of the government and parliament, the Nepalese minister for agrarian reform, Matrika Yadav, has led an expedition of Maoists who wanted to regain control of numerous homes and properties in a village in the district of Siraha, in the eastern part of the country. The communist guerrillas have “retaken” control of the properties, telling landless locals to rebuild their huts on the land. Minister Yadav also threatened “the use of force” and “resignation from the executive branch” if the Maoists were removed from the recently reclaimed land.

Police intervention led to a series of conflicts with the Maoists, who have no intention of leaving the area: late in the evening, the local authorities imposed a curfew, while those injured on the disputed land were counted (12 in all). In the end, the police preferred to withdraw — with some embarrassment — in order to avoid further clashes with the rebels, emboldened by the support of the agriculture minister. “On the one hand, we were ordered to remove the illegal occupants from the houses and land”, says one police official, “on the other, a minister himself shows up at the site to encourage this unlawful act”.

The new wave of raids unleashed by the Maoists has sharpened social conflict in the country, bringing thousands of demonstrators to converge on the capital for a public protest calling for the right to private property and the restitution of expropriated assets. They are also lodging harsh accusations against the Maoists, saying that they don’t practice what they preach, promising the restitution of property but continuing their expropriations to the detriment of private citizens.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni[Return to headlines]


Regarding Violence in Orissa: an Unholy War:

Hindu radicals are accused of trying to cleanse Orissa of Christians, and the authorities are doing little to stop them

The first thing Niranjan Naik heard was a panicked cry from the house of his neighbour: “Help us, we are attacked, they are killing us … help us…” Mr Naik, 42, who was preparing to go to bed after saying his night prayers, immediately knew that Hindu arsonists were attacking the houses of Christians in the Kandhamal district in the east Indian state of Orissa — and that his would be next. …

           — Hat tip: Tuan Jim[Return to headlines]


Thai Govt, Muslims Agree to End Conflict

Indonesia-mediated peace talks between the Thai government and representatives of the Muslim community in southern Thailand concluded Sunday with a commitment to ending years of conflict that have claimed 2,700 lives.

The two sides pledged to resume negotiations in November at the same location in Bogor, West Java, to find ways to meet the Muslim group’s demands for justice, economic development and use of the Malay language in Thailand’s three southernmost provinces — Pattani, Narathiwat, and Yala — while maintaining Thailand’s territorial integrity. […]

The country’s southern Muslims were represented by leaders of the Pattani Malay Consultative Congress (PMCC), an umbrella organization of insurgent groups in southern Thailand. […]

Demands by Thai Muslims include the introduction of Islamic law and making ethnic Pattani Malay (Yawi) a working language in the region, as well as the improvement of the local economy and education system. […]

           — Hat tip: VH[Return to headlines]

Australia — Pacific

Radical Pacifists Deny Murderous Reality

IT was an eventful week in the war on terror. It began with the conviction of key members of the Benbrika Muslim terror cell in Victoria, whose plans for mass murder included using huge bombs in “an attack that would kill 1000 people”, at railway stations, Crown Casino, and football matches, including the 2005 AFL grand final.

And it ended with the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad in flames, devastated by a huge truck bomb. Gruesome images showed emergency workers struggling around a gaping crater and through the ruined building, helping maimed survivors soaked in blood, dazed, confused and in pain. People on the upper floors, trapped by flames, were forced to leap to their deaths. At least 60 people were reported dead and 200 injured, with possibly many more buried under the debris.

Such sinister and tragic episodes are all too common reminders of the extreme levels of destruction planned and executed by modern terrorist organisations.

They remind us of the demands being made on Australian troops serving in Afghanistan, and Iraq where, as major-general Jim Molan, chief of operations of coalition forces in Iraq in 2004, observed, “I saw evil in a form I had not seen anywhere else, and values that are inimical to everything that has shaped our society since the Enlightenment.”

Yet one can only wonder what those engaged in critical terrorism studies make of these events. For these postmodernists reality is a social construct and terrorism not primarily as an act of murderous violence in the real world, but a signifier in a discourse.

In their journal, terrorism is described as “a myth and an object of fear”, “a negative ideograph of Western identity”, used to “induce powerful emotions”, “encourage moral panics” and even to decide elections in the US and Australia.

Do such theories help produce graduates at the Australian Defence Force Academy, “who approach issues with an open mind, in a critical spirit”, as a senior academic at the ADFA insists, or are they just “unmitigated rubbish” and “naive in the extreme”, as Molan has observed?

           — Hat tip: Tuan Jim[Return to headlines]


Terror Academics’ Feud to Rage on

A UNIVERSITY has washed its hands of feuding academics who are waging their own culture war over the teaching of terrorism subjects, insisting it is an issue for scholarly debate, not disciplinary action.

As reported in The Weekend Australian, Anthony Burke, an associate professor at the Canberra-based Australian Defence Force Academy, last week demanded that James Cook University investigate his chief adversary, senior lecturer Merv Bendle, for academic misconduct.

Dr Bendle had taken up the cudgels on behalf of researchers and security analysts who believe university terrorism studies have been hijacked by left-leaning academics pursuing an apologist, postmodernist agenda.

Dr Burke, 42, fumed that Dr Bendle had improperly suggested he was pro-terrorist and called for JCU to investigate whether this amounted to “serious academic misconduct”. However, he last Friday withdrew his demand to vice-chancellor Sandra Harding for an investigation, conceding “it may be that administrative action is not the best way to address the problem”. […]

Another prominent academic, Paul Wilson, chair of criminology at Bond University, weighed in on Dr Bendle’s side. Professor Wilson wrote to Professor Harding last week to defend the JCU man, even though he said he was known to be more “liberal” than Dr Bendle on terrorism issues.

Welcoming the decision by JCU to bow out of the feud, Professor Wilson said yesterday: “I think universities have to be very careful about repressing academic debate on contentious social issues and sanctioning academics who speak out with unpopular positions.” […]

           — Hat tip: VH[Return to headlines]

Latin America

“Relations With Islamic Countries Smell of Danger”

[In Spanish] Venezuelans are speaking out against the Islamist invasion that Chavez invited.

Summary by Fausta: Alejandro Peña Esclusa, president of the Solidarian Force association in Venezuela, stated while on a book tour of Bolivia that the new populist undercurrent fostered by Chavez brings together alliances that will work against the people of Latin America.

           — Hat tip: Fausta[Return to headlines]


Danes Sentenced for Fundraising for FARC

[In Spanish, Summary by Fausta] Six Danes were sentenced to 2-6 months in jail for fundraising for the FARC, which is now designated as a terrorist organization. They had been selling t-shirts on line with FARC and PLO logos.

           — Hat tip: Fausta[Return to headlines]

Immigration

Immigration: Frontex Mission Should be Reinforced, Minister

(ANSAmed) — VALLETTA, SEPTEMBER 22 — Malta’s Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici does not agree with Frontex chief Illka Laitinen that the anti-immigration patrols are a failure, and says the country has ‘‘reaped many benefits’’ from them. The comments come in reaction to the admission of failure by the Frontex chief himself in an interview published in ‘The Sunday Times’. Speaking about the ‘‘increasingly alarming’’ situation in the Mediterranean, Laitinen said that the increased patrols were effectively attracting rather than deterring immigrant arrivals. Bonnici said Malta should not pull out of Frontex, adding that abandoning this mission would not be a good political decision. ‘‘We want this process to be strengthened and not abandoned. We have reaped many benefits from it and we need to increase it and show that the EU presence in the Mediterranean is strong,’’ he said. According to Bonnici, the situation would have been worse had Frontex not been in operation. ‘‘Frontex is a good measure and would be more effective if there were a stronger presence in the Mediterranean. The principle is good and needs to be strengthened.’’ Still, the statistics cited by Laitinen seem to make a strong case for his own analysis of the situation. Arrivals on the Italian island of Lampedusa increased by 190 per cent in the first six months of 2008, compared with the same period last year, while Malta received a record number of illegal immigrants, registering an increase so far of 32 per cent on the whole of 2007. On the diplomatic front, behind the scenes, the government has been playing a tougher card. Last week Malta insisted that it will not accept an immigration deal currently being discussed among EU countries unless there is clear reference to burden sharing. Nonetheless, Bonnici would not say whether Malta is prepared to use the veto should an agreement not be reached. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria[Return to headlines]


Immigration: Frontex Chief Admits Failure in Mediterranean

(ANSAmed) — VALLETTA, SEPTEMBER 22 — The EU’s increased patrols off Malta and Lampedusa might be one of the main reasons why the two islands received a record number of illegal immigrants, according to the Frontex chief. The anti-immigration patrols being carried out in the centre of the Mediterranean are not achieving the desired results, Illka Laitinen, the executive director of the EU’s Border Control Agency, has admitted. Laitinen was speaking to Maltàs newspaper ‘The Sunday Times’ about the immigration situation in the Mediterranean which he described as “increasingly alarming”. “Unfortunately, increased EU patrols in the Mediterranean are failing to prevent an increase in clandestine migrants reaching Italy, Malta and Greece by sea,” he said. According to the Frontex chief, arrivals on the Italian island of Lampedusa increased by 190 per cent in the first six months of 2008, compared with the same period last year. Although Malta has not experienced the same levels as its Italian counterpart, this year it still received a record number of illegal immigrants, registering an increase so far of 32 per cent on the whole of 2007. The Libyan authorities’ refusal to stem the flow of departures from their country remains the main reasons for illegal immigrant crossings, but Laitinen said the presence of more patrols by the EU in the area might also be a contributory factor. “This is the saddest part of the story. We have an increased level of operational activities which might be serving as a pull factor for traffickers.” According to Laitinen, traffickers are forcing immigrants to sink the boats they are sailing on close to the coasts of Malta and Lampedusa so that they will be saved by Frontex vessels and taken ashore. Nicknamed Nautilus III, the patrols are a joint EU mission coordinated by Frontex on the central Mediterranean route surveying the stretch of sea between Sicily, Malta and Libya against migrant trafficking. This is the third year that the EU is coordinating these patrols with the contribution of the Armed Forces of Malta, Italy, France, Germany and Greece and is costing the 8 million euro. Statistics from Frontex show that since the start of this year’s operation in May, 12,641 illegal immigrants arrived in Lampedusa and 2,192 landed in Malta. None of the immigrants intercepted by Frontex has been directed back as Libya does not accept any responsibility for the immigrants fleeing its coast. This, in fact, seems to be the main reason for the mission’s failure. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria[Return to headlines]


Immigration: Spain; 311 Immigrants Landed This Weekend

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, SEPTEMBER 22 — The arrivals of illegal immigrants on the Canary Islands continue. A total 164 illegal immigrants landed last night, bringing to 311 the number of Africans of Sub-Saharan origin who arrived at the archipelagòs islands during the weekend. According to the sources from the sea rescue team, the boat on which the 164 immigrants were travelling was intercepted on Sunday at dawn by the patrol boat Conde de Gondomar, 170 miles south of Grand Canary. Rescued in open sea and escorted to the port, the boat arrived in the night at the Argineguin Port, in the municipality of Mogan (Grand Canary), where the illegal immigrants were met by Red Cross volunteers and transported to the immigration centres waiting to be repatriated. On Saturday at dawn another boat with 15 people onboard landed at La Garita Beach, in Lanzarote. A few hours later, around 0930 local time, on Saturday, another boat transporting 100 immigrants, including some 15 minors, reached the port of Los Cristianos, in Tenerife. Again late in the morning on Saturday a cayuco, a small wooden boat used by African fishermen, with 32 immigrants onboard, landed at the coasts of Teguise, in Lanzarote. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria[Return to headlines]


Immigration: 80 Immigrants Stranded Near Siracusa

(ANSAmed) — SIRACUSA, SEPTEMBER 22 — A 20-metre-long motorboat with dozens of immigrants aboard ran aground at the La Spiaggetta di Fontane Bianche beach, bathing the area of Siracusa, today at dawn. A total 80 illegal immigrants were detained on the nearby streets by the Police and by the port authority soldiers. The immigrants were taken to the soldiers’ barracks in Arma di Cassibile, where they underwent medical checks and were allowed to refresh themselves. According to the estimates of the investigators, some 140 immigrants were aboard the stranded boat. The vessel was removed from the beach by the port authority personnel and was detained. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria[Return to headlines]

General

Europeans on Left and Right Ridicule U.S. Money Meltdown

They list greed and Greenspan among the culprits, and there are comparisons to . . . Albania. But amid the gloating, there is fear for financial systems in Britain, Spain, Italy and elsewhere.

LONDON — It’s a rare day when finance officials, leftist intellectuals and ordinary salespeople can agree on something. But the economic meltdown that wrought its wrath from Rome to Madrid to Berlin this week brought Europeans together in a harsh chorus of condemnation of the excess and disarray on Wall Street.

The finance minister of Italy’s conservative and pro-U.S. government warned of nothing less than a systemic breakdown. Giulio Tremonti excoriated the “voracious selfishness” of speculators and “stupid sluggishness” of regulators. And he singled out Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, with startling scorn.

“Greenspan was considered a master,” Tremonti declared. “Now we must ask ourselves whether he is not, after [Osama] bin Laden, the man who hurt America the most. . . . It is clear that what is happening is a disease. It is not the failure of a bank, but the failure of a system. Until a few days ago, very few were willing to realize the intensity and the dramatic nature of the crisis.”

           — Hat tip: JD[Return to headlines]


London: Walking for Gilad

Photos from Sunday, 21 Sept.

           — Hat tip: Gaia[Return to headlines]


Rai: Bible Reading Loses Chief Rabbi But Not Muslims

(by Luciana Borsatti) (ANSAmed) — ROME, SEPTEMBER 19 — ‘The Bible day and night’, the inter-religious Bible marathon scheduled on the RAI channels, lost somewhere along the road the chief rabbi of Rome, Riccardo Di Segni, but does not lose its Muslim readers who confirm their participation in the 139 consecutive hours of reading but ask from the state TV space for Islam too. The reasons presented by Di Segni for his walkout (a too ‘Catholic’ formulation of the programme) are “fully shared by us”, specifies the chairman of the Muslim Intellectuals, Ahmad Giampiero Vincenzo, “but confirm our presence, choosing the spiritual value of the initiative but also hoping that in the future the state television will dedicate space to all the religions of the Abrahamic tradition”. Basically, “we and Di Segni want to be on the same side, but in different ways,” Vincenzo explains. If, however, Di Segni, who already boasts television access, he is able to tell this, just with an absence, “our relation with the public TV is yet to be built and we choose the way to be, even though in a programme with a strongly religious character.” “I share what Di Segni said, even though, knowing him very well, I am surprised of his decision,” Mario Scialoja, the councillor of the Big Mosque in Rome, present at the Bible marathon with two speakers from the community, said. In any case we know that, because in the West we always need expressions of spirituality and transcendence.” A certain confirmation also on the part of Algerian writer and journalist Nacera Ben Ali, who participated independently, convinced in the “strength of the message” which derives from a participation showing that “the Bible is a holy book for us as well.” Even though it is true that Islam, unlike other religions, “really has little access” to TV. “We regret for Di Segni, but the framework of the programme keeps its ecumenical and inter-religious character,” director of Rai, Vaticano Giuseppe De Carli, who is in charge of the programme, said in turn, emphasising that Di Segni will, however, make a declaration to join the initiative.” So, the rabbi made a step back “only personal”, he continues, considering that other Jews took part in the reading, together with Evangelists, Protestants, Orthodox Christians and Muslims. Moreover, among the patrons there are also the Italian Jewish Communities for the Hebrew Bible, De Carli specifies. As regards the Basilica of Holy Cross in Jerusalem where the bible marathon is being held, “during the reading it changes into a hall for listening of God’s Word”, losing the sacred character related to Catholicism. “Even if a few Jews will read from there, for others a neighbouring place was prepared”. De Carli expresses satisfaction with the “joining of a few enlightened Muslims” who share the intention to “overcome the barriers”, and agrees on the request for more rooms in Rai for Muslims too, as already for Jews and Protestants. “Rai Vaticano has asked for many time Raìs board of directors to change the name in Rai Religione or Informazione religiosa (Religious Information),” he said. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria[Return to headlines]


Rai: Bible Reading; We Shall Go But TV Give US Space, Muslims

(ANSAmed) — ROME, SEPTEMBER 19 — “We fully share the considerations of Di Segni, but confirm our presence, choosing the spiritual value of the initiative but also hoping that in the future the state television will dedicate space to all the religions of the Abrahamic tradition”, chairman of the Muslim Intellectuals, Ahmad Giampiero Vincenzo, said explaining the association’s decision not to withdraw from RAI’s biblical marathon, after he was informed that Romés chief rabbi had however decided not to participate, not sharing the programmés “entirely Catholic” formulation. Basically, Vincenzo explains specifying he had had since the beginning the same perplexities as the chief rabbi, “we and Di Segni want to arrive on the same side but in different ways. He and his community having a well-established relation with the state television, Di Segni chose to do it this way. Our relation with the public television is however all to be built, and we choose the way to be there, even though in a programme that has a strongly confessional character. And in which we would have also wanted, from a truly inter-religious point of view, the involvement of the holy places of each religion”. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria[Return to headlines]


Rai: Also Muslims at Bible Reading Opened by Pope

(ANSAmed) — ROME, SEPTEMBER 19 — “A symbolic participation, significant to reconsider the heritage of Abraham which unites us”. Thus Adnane Mokrani, theology professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University, commented his presence, together with other five Muslims, at the unabridged reading of the Old and New Testament which will be broadcast from October 5 to 11, for 140 consecutive hours, on RAI Uno and RAI Edu 2. The initiative, “The Bible day and night”, will be opened on RAI Uno by Pope Benedict XVI, live from the Vatican, will have as background the Basilica of Santa Croce in Jerusalem and will end on Saturday October 11 with the speech of the state secretary Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. Over 1,300 readers, who in the past month have subscribed via Internet, will participate, including — the coordinator of the project for RAI, Giuseppe De Carli, specified — also Orthodox Christians from two Rom and Sinti families. A “sacred marathon” which recalls — Mokrani remarked — the Islamic tradition of the cyclical reading of the whole Koran, the book which, mentioning previously revealed sacred scriptures, like the Torah, the Psalms and the Gospel, calls them “guidance and light”. This opening of the Koran towards the heritage of Abraham, he pointed out, “has been unfortunately neglected” in the history of Islam, in favour of an identity approach which privileged the differences instead of the common grounds. In the Biblical “marathon” will take part also another lecturer of the Gregorian University, Shahrzad Houshmand, the president of the Muslim Intellectuals Ahmad Gianpiero Vincenzo, two exponents of the community of the Great Mosque in Rome and a young Algerian journalist who has been living in Italy for years, Nacera Ben Ali, author of the book “Clash of non-civilisations. Italians and Muslims: misunderstandings and prejudices”, (Sperling & Kupfer 2005). “I accepted the proposal with great pleasure, because I believe that there is a great need for tolerance, from all sides, and to discover different faiths, given that we are forced to live on the same planet”, Nacera Ben Ali said. Even if, she added, she would have expected to find more Muslims next to her. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria[Return to headlines]


Terrorism: Al-Qaeda Leader Threatens France and Spain

Algiers, 22 Sept. (AKI) — A leader of the Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb has threatened France and Spain in an audio message broadcast on jihadist Internet forums on Monday.

“To those that are involved in the war against Islam and have betrayed the Islamic nation, we say to them: Repent before God punishes you with his hands and with ours,” said Abdel Malik Droukedel, who uses the name Abu Musab Abdel Wudud.

“This is because judgement day is close and punishment is imminent. And whoever among the treacherous apostates thinks that France is in a position to ensure its safety, we tell them they are wrong, because France will not be in a position to do it, and will be worried for its safety.”

In the audio message, entitled “Message to our nation in the Islamic Maghreb”, Droukedel reminds his listeners about Spain and Morocco’s territorial dispute over the enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla.

“Dear nation, it is not conceivable for any Muslim that loves Islam to speak of the Maghreb without remembering Ceuta and Melilla, occupied by Spain without remembering the injustice suffered by our nation,” said Droukedel.

“The complicity between Spain and international organisations such as the Arab League, the Islamic Conference and the United Nations is clear.”

Melilla and Ceuta are autonomous cities administered by Spain and considered by neighbouring Morocco to be an integral part of its territory and of immense political and economic significance.

Morocco claims both locations to be “despoiled” territories, calling them by their Arabic equivalents of Sebta and Melillia. The cities have been under Spanish control for over 400 years.

In the message, Droukedel also speaks against new NATO military bases in North Africa and accuses Moroccan King Mohammed VI of having betrayed the prophet Mohammed by having a Danish embassy in his territory.

Regarding Tunisia, Droukedel accuses the government of being anti-Islamic and of passing laws against the implementation of Islamic Sharia law.

Speaking about Mauritania, he reminds his listeners about Nouakchott’s diplomatic relations with Israel, while he claims that Algeria is suffering from political ‘interference’ by France.

“I assure you all that we do not kill innocent people and we will prevent the spilling of Muslim blood,” he said.

The Al-Qaeda leader says he will continue his fight to drive “France and the US from our country” and asks Algerian citizens to stay away from foreign organisations or government buildings because they are targets for attacks.

Droukedel’s message was aimed at Muslims in North Africa, and was also translated into French.

The Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb evolved from the Salafite Group for Preaching and Combat, initially formed to create an Islamic state in Algeria, but now believed to have more widespread goals.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni[Return to headlines]

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Spanish unemployment benefit story may seem positive at first, but there are a few issues here. First, this money will be spent outside of the EU. So money earned and taxed in the EU will leave. This is not good for the European economy.

Also, in the U.S., for instance, unemployment insurance is only collected as long as people are unemployed. People are expected to look for work and go back to work as soon as possible, at which point they stop collecting. But in this case, the immigrant workers get a lump sum. They can live off the money in their own country (free vacation, courtesy of Europe) or even work in their home country and keep the profit.

This is so corrupt and unfair. And after this cycle, they get to come back and repeat the whole thing. I would only support this if it were a one-time only thing, and not voluntary. The jobs should be higher paying and available only to Europeans. This will fix a lot of economic and social problems. As it is now, it's only a public subsidy for private business, and drains a lot of money out of Europe.

Anonymous said...

re Abu Hamza: He's not completely worthless. Here, he's doing something useful (funny).

Abu Hamza does something useful

improvementmethod said...

I believe the profit from Halal food across the world is 64 Billion dollars.

Afonso Henriques said...

So nice to hear that Danes face consequences if they finance the FARC.

Here, the Communists organise every year the greatest party related to prties: The prty of "Avante"!

It has something to due with their himn: "Avant(e) Comrade, Avant(e)!"

Well, they did invited three high ranking officials from Colombia, from the FARC who are considered terrorists by the Unted States, to discourse. They were considered Freedom Fighters. Disgusting.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Baron Bodissey said...

wiredgrenadier — INSTRUCTIONS ARE AT THE TOP OF THE FULL POST PAGE (i.e. the permalink page).

Please don't paste long URLs into the comments; they make the post page too wide and mess up the appearance of the permalink page.

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wiredgrenadier said...

I think this article is in serious need of a rebuttal:

"The 'Eurabia' myth deserves a debunking"

link.

(Sorry, Baron, don't know hwo to use the tags. :-( ).

John Rohan said...

To Latte Island - it's even more unfair when you consider that a few years ago, Spain had its huge amnesty for illegal immigrants. So it seems that they think it's better to make illegal immigrants citizens, and then pay them to go home. Seems like it would have been cheaper and simpler just to send them home in the first place.

And to Wiredgrenadier - the article you linked to has some huge flaws; he uses all of Europe in his statistics but knows that Steyn and others are primarily talking about Western Europe, where the vast majority of immigrants land. He also uses birth rate numbers but incredibly ignores the far larger population increase from the immigration itself, including from family reunification and bringing in spouses from abroad.

Syed Shamsu Nazar said...

DARE TO FACE THE MIRROR !

WAR through MEDIA and SOPHISTICATED WEAPONS is "war" to destroy the rest.Wether it is CRUSADING(Holy) or State Terrorism (Ugly) war. There was no muslim in VIETNAM and ANGOLA etc. 1.5 millions both Muslims nd NON Muslims alike have been killed by the IMPERIALISTS and GLOBAL TERRORISTs since 1960. Even WW I and II was not started by the Muslims which resulted undiscriminated killing of 20 millions lives.

You KNOW ! the crusaders used to EAT FLASH OF THE MUSLIMS IN THEIR RATION during two hundred years of crusadings, ASK the Western Historians. The SKULLS of the Muslims butchered are still in the archives in Europe. Many skulls were of the babies and teenagers which presented to thier friends as RELICS. Although the Muslims are NOT anti Christ. No Muslim can be a MUSLIM without having FAITH on Holy Christ. Actuallt the JEWS are ANTI CHRISTS and declare Him as bustard and heretic. NOW these Zionist R meauvering all the affairs even the Chritianity.

Do not be so innocent and rather fool about Muslim fundamentalism and RADICALISM. The world Powers have to exploite their weapons, Media and POWER to establish their hegemony and monarchy over the world by any pretence and pretext.

The underworld powers, the conspirators and the 300 elites of the world ruling , commanding and controlling the world are the REAL TAALIBAANS and TERRORISTS. Generate TAALIBAAN and promote ur diplomacy and Democracy in the world. KILL THE GOYIMS the NON CHRISTIANS and JEWS wether muslims or not muslims.

OR not it was a BIG LIE exposed through non biased WESTERN INVESTIGATORS about the REAL story of 9/11.

What is the USE of knowledge and RESEARCH if U R still fool and INNOCENT, and cannot sift and surf the RIGHT and WRONG. for further sharing pls contact: ssfatimi@gmail.com


S Nazar