A story from the UK somehow got filed under "Far East" and I'm darned if I know how to go back and fix it. The Baron automates everything and, in theory, one just has to fill in the blanks. Unfortunately, he can only make such "short-cuts" Dymphna-resistant, he cannot make them Dymphna-proof. Thus, for tonight, the UK is in China.
On the other hand, once you read the story, you may ask if some of these UK laws are not fittingly Chinese in their character...
...oops, that's probably racist. Well, I apologize to the Chinese for comparing them to Brits. So sorry.
And, yes, I can't wait for the Baron to get back either!
Thanks to Barry Rubin, Fjordman, Insubria, RB, Right Side News, Steen, TB, VH, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Details are below the fold.
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A Pistol-Packin’ Looby Loo: the Left’s Worst Nightmare
Frank Sinatra would have got the joke. In the words of the great political philosopher, they all laughed at Christopher Columbus when he said the world was round.
They’re all laughing, too, at John McCain for choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate. The usual suspects took one look at this pistol-packin’ momma and reacted like John McEnroe to a disputed line call: you cannot be serious!
Certainly, the pick came, as the Americans say, out of left field. But Sarah Palin is centre stage now, and suddenly it’s game on. […]
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
The McCain Gamble
The strategic gamble of the McCain camp is that this election will be decided by cultural values rather than the economy. They know that McCain’s personal character — based on his (and running mate Sarah Palin’s) undeniable courage and independence — is central to his appeal to political moderates, and they also know that this group of voters will decide the election. So, he is running on his biography, rather than on much of a specific governing agenda.
What we get in place of the latter is a fairly foggy, populist program of “reforming Washington” through the sheer personal courage, sincerity, and zeal of John McCain and Sarah Palin. Their pitch: As self-defined “mavericks,” they are beholden to no party or special interest. Their personal histories of courage and independence demonstrate that they will take on those special interests and “old-boy networks,” even reaching across party lines to Democrats and independents in order to engage in pragmatic problem-solving — and, when necessary, knocking heads together to get results.
But…exactly what results?…
| — Hat tip: RB | [Return to headlines] |
Al-Qaeda Commander Threatens Denmark
Denmark has yet again been threatened by the al-Qaeda organization in a video detected by the Site group that monitors Islamic websites.
"We have warned previously — and we warn once more — the Crusader states which insult, mock and defame our Prophet and Quran in their media and occupy our lands, steal our treasure, and kill our brothers that we will exact revenge at the appropriate time and place. And we tell them: what you have seen and experienced in the Danish embassy and prior operations is but the beginning, God willing, if you don’t end your errant ways and aggression. And we call on the Muslim youth in the West, those who know first-hand the Crusader states’ hostility to Islam and Muslims and long to revive the past glories of Islam in Europe and America, to fear Allah and retaliate on behalf of their Nabi [Prophet], their Quran, their Deen [faith] and their Ummah against the enemies of Islam and Muslims in whose midst they live”, says a high ranking al-Qaeda commander Mustafa Abu al-Yazid in the video.
Embassy only the beginning
Site says that the new video has been disseminated by the al-Qaeda media organisaiton al-Sahab and shows the Saudi suicide bomber who attacked the Danish embassy in Islamabad in June, as well as an animation of the attack.
“This is only the beginning if you do not refrain from straying from the straight and narrow path and from aggression,” al-Yazid says..
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
France:Trial Postponed Due to Ramadan and Aberrant Magistrates
The main unions of the French magistrates said they are “astonished” by the decision of the criminal court of Rennes to postpone “due to the Ramadan” a trial of abduction.
The trial had to begin on September 16, exactly in the middle of the sacred month for the Muslims, but the defending counsel has asked and obtained a postponement, affirming that his client, of Islamic faith, was “too weak” due to the fast. A choice which is “quite surprising considering the principle of secularity”, Laurent Bedouet, secretary general of the Unified Magistratés Union (USM), said. Much harsher was the comment of Emmanuelle Perreux, chairman of the magistrates’ union (SM), who defined the postponement as “aberrant”. “We must return to the big principles and remember that we live in a secular republic,” Perreux added.
On May 29, passionate polemics had accompanied the decision of the court of Lille, in northern France, to annul a marriage between two Muslims because the wife had lied her husband about her virginity. The marriage was annulled because, according to the judge, it had been done “on the basis of an objective error, determining in the consent”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Irish Media Now More Eurosceptic, Warns Ec Report
Ireland’s media have become more Eurosceptic and more tabloid in their reporting in the years between the second Nice Treaty referendum and the Lisbon campaign, the European Commission has warned.
In a private briefing document circulated by the commission in Brussels, it warned that Ireland’s “changing media landscape” between 2002 and 2008 has implications for public opinion about the European Union..
RTÉ’s [Radio Telefís Éireann] broadcasting dominance has been hit by satellite broadcasters who increased their audience by nearly 10 percentage points since the 2002 Nice referendum, while “news content on the main commercial national station TV3 is of quite low quality. […]
“Since 2002 we have seen an increase in UK titles with “Irishised” editorial. Forty-one per cent of all Irish people read one or more of the following; the Irish Sun , Irish News of the World , Sunday Times , People , Irish Mirror , Sunday Mirror , Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday . These have proven to be significant opinion formers which in general have been more Euro-hostile,” it said…
The Rupert Murdoch-led media group News International has increased its hold over the tabloid and Sunday paper market, the document explained.
“Editorial is highly critical of the European Union and even more so of the Lisbon Treaty. What has changed is that these papers were previously printed in the UK, but now they are printed in Ireland. Also more of its editorial content is produced by Irish journalists on Irish issues — but subject to the London editorial line,” it went on. The Irish Sun , which has 309,000 mostly young male readers, has “taken a campaigning Europhobic stance in line” with its sister title in the United Kingdom.
However, the influence of the upmarket Sunday Times is particularly noted by the commission because it is read “by 363,000 middle-class, well-educated readers, who would traditionally have been European supporters. “Not only has the editorial been largely critical of Europe, it is rumoured that it has been refusing contributions from staff that are pro-Europe,” the commission’s paper said. […]
“Apart from official websites, the internet has largely been a space left to anti-European feeling. Given the ability to reach an audience at a much lower cost, and given the simplicity of the No campaign messages, it has proven to be easily malleable during the campaign and pre-campaign period.” […]
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Ramadan No Longer Private Practice in Spain
By Paola Del Vecchio
The just-begun Ramadan, which until several years ago went on quietly in Spain, is beginning to become visible in public life, especially along the Mediterranean coast, from Catalonia to Andalusia.
According to official estimates, some 1.5 million Muslims live in Spain.
“Besides on the Mediterranean coast…they are concentrated in the metropolitan areas of Madrid and Barcelona… Where…the working rhythm is not adapted to the effort that implies the abstention from food and water during the daily hours…”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Shame on India, Europe and the World
by Bernardo Cervellera
It is shameful that India’s Christians, an important element for the country’s social and economic development, are being massacred whilst the world’s governments and humanitarian associations remain silent in what is another example of “Christianophobia”.
Italian bishops call on the faithful to take part tomorrow in a day of prayer and fasting in remembrance of the Blessed Teresa of Kolkata.
…
Mahatma Gandhi’s India, a land of tolerance and democracy, has been shamed. “It is a disgrace for our country,” said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a view seconded by Card Oswald Gracias, archbishop of Mumbai. Both agree that what is happening to Christians in the state of Orissa since 23 August is a pogrom.
The toll so far is a heavy one and bound to rise. Tens of people have died (some estimates put the number at around 100). At least 52 churches (both Catholic and Protestant) have been destroyed. Hundreds of homes have been damaged. Four convents and five hostels and youth residences have fared no better. Six Catholic volunteer and social institutes have been devastated. Last but not least hundreds of cars have been set on fire and countless personal belongings have been lost.
Even now thousands of Christians are still in flight, running from slaughter, living in forests, terrorised, without food or clothing.
Orissa, a state located in north-eastern India, has seen such waves of persecution before. Last December on Christmas Eve, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), a Hindu fundamentalist organisation, attacked and destroyed 13 churches and chapels, killed three people and wounded scores of Christians in Kadhamal district, leaving many people homeless.
One of those who drove Hindu mobs against Christians was Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, a VHP leader.
The latest wave of persecution came right after the Swami met his maker at the hands of a Maoist terrorist group on the evening of 23 August.
Even though law enforcement authorities were quite clear about who was behind the Swami’s assassination, some VHP leaders immediately blamed Christians for his death.
During the guru’s funeral thousands of radical Hindus began the pogrom shouting “Kill Christians! Destroy their institutions!” Ultimately, by relentlessly attacking Christians and their institutions they can wipe out their mission.
For Tribals, who are often worked like slaves in farming, and Dalits or untouchables, Christianity is way out of their situation; a way to have their rights protected; a way to finally have some dignity as human beings. To some extent the degree of persecution is a measure of the Christian mission’s success.
But in being anti-Christian, Hindu fundamentalists are going against the Hinduism preached by the Mahatma Gandhi who wanted a secular India, open to all religions, without castes; a country that would give Dalits, or Harijian (children of God) as he called them, their dignity.
In its exclusivist nationalism the VHP is closer to Nazism for it aims at turning India into a country without Christians, Muslims, Parsees, etc, destroying India’s history, turning its back on the country where cultures and religions met and mixed.
But what is happening is not only India’s shame. It is also that of Europe and the world. Except for a few voices like that of Italian Foreign Minister Frattini, no government has dared to say anything about the massacres in Orissa, let alone calling for them to stop…
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Undercover Mosque — in One Single Video
all 47 minutes is a horrror movie
German text, but what the heck…
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
EU-Serbia: Barroso-Tadic, Candidate Status Possible in 2009
Serbia might get the status of candidate country to access the European Union in 2009, the president of the EU Commission, Jose Manuel Durao Barroso, said at the end of a meeting with Serbian President Boris Tadic. Barros, however, specified that the Commission does not wish to take up “specific calendar commitments” and that the achievement of this status depends on Serbia.
Tadic, standing by him, said to be sure that Serbia will be able to obtain this status because it will do everything possible to respect the conditions imposed by Brussels.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Algeria: Ramadan; Koranic Contest Also for Detainees
During Ramadan, also the detainees of the 127 prisons of Algeria will be able to take part in a special contest dedicated entirely to the knowledge of Koran and of religion in general. Organised by the Algerian Muslim Scouts (SMA) and by the prison administration, the contest will be reserved to under-age prisoners and women.
The initiative, a note from SMA, released by APS, explains, was “designed to entertain during the holy month, through knowledge”. The best candidate of each prison will be awarded on the 26th day of Ramadan, “the night of destiny”. During this month, many Koran reading contests will be organised by the various Mosques and religious institutions.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Gaddafi Appointed “King of Kings” by Tribe Leaders
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was appointed ‘King of Kings’ of Africa on the occasion of an unannounced meeting between a few dozens of African tribe leaders held yesterday evening in Benghazi, in east Libya. “We decide the recognition of our brother leader as ‘king of kings, of sultans, of princes, of sheikhs and of mayors of Africa’ and his appointment ‘king of kings’ from today,” a final statement of the ‘forum’ which gathered over 200 African tribe leaders on initiative of the Libyan leader, reads.
“The forum of the kings, princes, sultans and sheikhs of the traditional tribes in Africa,” which from now on will meet every year, also decided the creation of a permanent secretariat general, whose seat will be in Sirte, Libya.
The Libyan leader, in his turn, invited the tribal leaders to take their responsibilities in the capacity of local leaders “to put pressure on the governments of their countries in view of Africàs unification and the creation of the United States of Africa”, whose architect is Gaddafi. “I incite the tribes to move quickly and to put pressure for the creation of the United States of Africa,” he said during a speech, adding that he has allotted funds for those who will pursue this goal.
Dressed in animal leather and feathers, with crowns of massive gold on their heads, the tribe leaders followed one another on the tribune with their traditional coloured clothes to “praise the efforts of the Leader” of the Libyan revolution for the unification of Africa…
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: USA Turns The Page with Gaddafi
by Luciano Clerico
The United States are getting ready to shake hands with Muammar Gaddafi.
The person who was once called by Ronald Reagan a “mad dog” will once again become a formal leader with whom the United States plan to establish relations. Not yet a true friend, but close enough.
A USA Secretary of State returns to Libya for the first time since 1953. The last one to do it was John Foster Dulles, on May 28, 1953, when he met then Libyan Prime Minister Mahmud Montasser. Today it will be Condoleezza Rice (who was not even born in 1953) to arrive to Tripoli and return the official visit of Libyan Foreign Minister Shalgam to Washington last January 3. In this way, an historic page in the relations between the U.S. and Libya is formally closed. Like it has already happened with Italy after the visit of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to Tripoli, defined by the USA as “a good thing”.
Since 1953 much water has gone under the bridge in the relations between Libya and the United States, much oil has been exported, but also many American flags have been burnt on the streets and many people have died: from the numerous victims of the USA bombings on Tripoli and Benghazi in 1986 — decided by Reagan after the terror attack in a Berlin night club — to the 259 passengers of Pan Am flight 103 from London to New York in 1988.
A bomb exploded on board of the plane which crashed in Lockerbie, Scotland. All people aboard as well as eleven people on the ground died. A total 270 dead in what is still considered the worst terror attack before the one of September 11, 2001 in New York. The Libyan secret services were accused of the death of the 270 people…
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Now Expelled Italians Can Return, Frattini
“It is obvious that we have not ignored at all the destiny of the Italians who were expelled from Libya” in 1970, and even if the media did not highlight it, as of the signature of the agreement between Libya and Italy, on August 30, “the right to re-enter the country, that is the visa to return to Libya, will be immediately granted to those Italians to whom it was withdrawn”.
Thus, Foreign Minister Franco Frattini spoke on Radio1 about the “historical” pact between Rome and Tripoli signed last Saturday. Talking about the economic compensations, the Foreign Minister stated that Italy plans to open “a negotiation” with Libya, which in turn for the first time showed “willingness” to refund, at least partially, also those credits for which there is no certain documentation. “I believe that Libya must pay also these credits”, Frattini concluded.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Israel Approves Jordanian Arms Shipment to PA
Jordan has transferred to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank some 1,000 Kalashnikov rifles and tens of thousand of bullets, Israeli media reported on Friday.
Defence Minister Ehud Barak authorised the transfer of arms following a formal request submitted by the PA, defence officials said.
The PA said the weaponry would be used in the campaign Prime Minister Salaam Fayad is currently waging in the West Bank against militants from Islamist Palestinian group Hamas.
Israeli army officials have expressed fears that the weapons will eventually find their way into militant hands.
Fayad’s West Bank campaign is targeted at money launderers, many of whom are believed to help finance Hamas.
Barak’s approval is considered to be a gesture to the Palestinian security forces for strengthening their operations against money-laundering in the Gaza Strip.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Strange Rumblings in Lebanon
Two years after the Israeli-Hezbollah war which left much of south Lebanon’s infrastructure in shambles, military analyst W. Thomas Smith, Jr. offers new insight into recent developments surrounding Hezbollah’s quest for power in that country. Lending a trained eye to the strength and activities of Hezbollah, challenges faced by Lebanese Army and police forces, as well as sharing a portion of a personal conversation with President Michel Sleiman, Smith unveils the truth behind Hezbollah: He describes the extremist state within the legitimate state, and expounds on the regional dangers of the Shiia terrorist organization and its newly acquired political powers.
A former U.S. Marine rifle-squad leader and counterterrorism instructor, Smith is today a columnist, author, and military analyst whose work has appeared in USA TODAY, U.S. News & World Report, Townhall.com, Human Events, the Middle East Times, Canada Free Press, and many others. Widely considered to be “a military expert” whose “sources are very deep,” Smith directs the Counterterrorism Research Center of the Family Security Foundation. He has covered conflict in the Balkans, on the West Bank, in Iraq (twice) and Lebanon. And he frequently provides information and analysis to the U.S. military.
Smith’s expertise and analysis in the field of international terrorism is invaluable for anyone attempting to grasp the complex strategic-military dynamics of the Middle East…
[interview follows]
| — Hat tip: Right Side News | [Return to headlines] |
Things We’re Not Told
Barry Rubin
In the olden days, when night watchmen patrolled the streets of towns, they had a standard chant: “Ten o’clock and all is well!” Sleep soundly; nothing’s wrong.
Each week, when I start to write this column I hope to be able to do the equivalent. I could just write one sentence: “This week, the stories are fairly and accurately reported so there’s nothing to write about.”
Unfortunately, for your reading time, my workload, and the state of the world, each week there is indeed something to write about. Alas, such is true this week.
Increasingly, print media coverage comes from Associated Press and Reuters as newspapers close down costly foreign bureaus. This should be good news since these two wire services are supposed to be fair, objective, and balanced—even bland—in their presentation of events. At times in the past they have been biased against Israel, though not all the time by any means and also aware that it was not right to slant their coverage slow. Like Adam and Eve, driven from the Garden of Eden, they knew their nakedness and were ashamed.
Nowadays, however, both shame and restraint are gone. Many articles—again not all—are extraordinarily biased. For this to happen requires several things…
| — Hat tip: Barry Rubin | [Return to headlines] |
Wilders to Show Anti-Islam Film in Israel
MP Geert Wilders is to show his anti-Islam film ‘Fitna’ in Israel in December. The showing is part of the ‘Facing Jihad’ summit.
Algemeen Dagblad newspaper reported yesterday that some 30 rightwing European politicians will meet at the summit in Jerusalem to join forces against the rise of Islam. They are coming from countries including Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Sweden and the UK.
As well as Wilders, two other members of his Party for Freedom (PVV) are to be at the meeting. Former Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali, now living and working in the US, is also getting an invitation, the newspaper said based on “the ultra-nationalistic” Israeli MP Arieh Eldad. He declined to give other names.
Eldad stressed that those present are not extreme right, but the represent the political centre, according to Algemeen Dagblad. “I do not want to insult any Muslims, I only want to show the real nature of Islam and ensure that Europeans and Israelis understand the real nature of the fight in which we are involved.”
The idea of the conference reportedly arose after meetings of the politicians in Europe. Eldad was approached by them to serve as host for the two-day meeting, beginning on 14 December. “If you organise such a conference in Europe, it is immediately given an extreme right label,” says Eldad.
On the first day of the summit, strategies will be discussed for halting the rise of Islam. These talks will be behind closed doors. Day two is open to everyone and will focus on education. Wilders will then show his film and give a speech.
At the end of the summit, the new alliance will sign a ‘Jerusalem declaration’ giving its aims. The intention is that the anti-Islam conference should become an annual event.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Chained Child Freed, Ready for Treatment
The Ministry of Social affairs has ordered its rehabilitation center in Najran to follow up on the case of a 6-year-old girl who was found chained to a tree inside her family’s house earlier this week, said Muhammad Al-Asmi, Director of Public Relations Department in the Ministry.
[…] When a committee from the Najran Rehabilitation Center visited the family’s house, they found Maryam helplessly trapped on a dirty mat which reeked of urine and chained to a tree from her ankle…
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Ramadan Fatwas for Your Consideration From Saudi Arabia
We are not making these up
Q- What nullifies the fast?
A-
• Sexual intercourse.
• Eating.
• Drinking.
• The emission of Mani (semen) due to desire.
• Whatever bears the characteristics of food and drink.
• Intentional vomiting.
• The emission of blood due to cupping.
• The emission of menstrual and postpartum blood. And Allah knows best.
On flight
Q- If the sun set upon a person and the Mu’azzin called the Adhan while he was in the airport and he broke his fast. Then after the plane took off, he saw the sun, should he fast?…
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
China Imposes Ramadan Security Crackdown in Muslim Northwest
Authorities in China’s Muslim-populated far northwest are seeking to prevent mass prayers and the distribution of religious material as part of a security crackdown for Ramadan, government notices said.
A series of attacks on police in Xinjiang around last month’s Beijing Olympic Games left more than 20 officers and security guards dead, and at least as many attackers killed or arrested, in the biggest unrest there in years.
As the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan began, local governments this week issued orders to clamp down on security in the region and stop its ethnic Muslim Uighur population from using the holy month to foment further unrest.
“Faced with recent violent and disruptive activities by religious extremists, separatists and terrorists, we must… step up ideological education of religious leaders and followers,” a notice posted on Xinjiang’s Zhaosu county website said.
The county government prohibited government officials, Communist Party members, teachers and students from observing Ramadan, while warning that “any person caught forcing another to observe Ramadan” would be punished. […]
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Labour’s 3,600 New Ways of Making You a Criminal
Ever tried selling a grey squirrel, impersonating a traffic warden, importing Polish potatoes or disturbing a pack of eggs without permission? If you do, you will be breaking the law. These are among the 3,605 new criminal offences created by the Labour [Socialist] Government since it won power in 1997 — almost one for every day it has been in office.
Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne has described the plethora of new laws as ‘legislative diarrhoea’…
The new offences are made up of 1,238 which were brought in as primary legislation — meaning they were debated in Parliament — and 2,367 by secondary legislation, such as orders in council and statutory instruments.
Under Tony Blair, Labour introduced 160 new offences in its first year, but in 2003, 493 offences were created. Offences brought in during the past five years include:
* Sell types of flora and fauna not native to the UK, such as the grey squirrel, ruddy duck or Japanese knotweed
* Disturb a pack of eggs when instructed not to by an authorised officer.
* Offer for sale a game bird killed on a Sunday or Christmas Day.
It has slowed slightly in the past two years with 288 new offences in 2007 and 148 so far this year.
Mr Huhne said: ‘In what conceivable way can the introduction of a new criminal offence every day help tackle crime when most crimes that people care about have been illegal for years. This legislative diarrhoea is not about making us safer, because it does not help enforce the laws that we have one jot. It is about the Government’s posturing on punishments.’
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has proved the most prolific law creators, introducing some 852 new offences. Meanwhile the Home Office has been responsible for 455 new offences. […]
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Why Diversity Can Be a Problem
by Razib @ Gene Expression
…Last week there were mass demonstrations of Buddhists in South Korea against the religious parochialism of the current president, a Presbyterian elder. The president is already unpopular for other reasons, so I don’t personally believe that this unrest is a necessary outcome of religious tension. Rather, as documented in books such as “The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth”, a social context where individuals feel under stress and insecure will often produce intergroup conflict. In an age of plenty there is elbow room between factions because of the growing pie…
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Antilleans Outraged by Ethnic Database Plan
By Frank Scimone
Plans for a special database of Antillean youths have caused an outcry among the Antillean community and sparked calls to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights.
A ruling by the Dutch Council of State to allow the creation of a database called the Antillean Reference Index has led to an outcry among human rights groups, the Antillean government and the Antillean community in the Netherlands. There are now plans to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights. The international legal group the Open Society Justice Initiative says the database violates “the internationally-protected right to be free from racial and ethnic discrimination”.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Children’s Ombudsman Critical of Tighter Asylum Policy
The Children’s Ombudsman, Reidar Hjermann says the Government’s new, tighter asylum policy does not give enough consideration to children.
He questions whether the new policy is in the child’s highest interest, as required by the UN Children’s Convention.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark is the Only Country So Far to Challenge the EU
Despite the prime minister’s assertion that 10 other European countries support Denmark’s bid to have an EU directive changed, it looks like the Danes are standing alone.
July’s EU ruling could make it possible for immigrants to get around Danish immigration law by asserting their EU rights. Danish politicians have accused the ruling of rendering the national immigration policy useless.
Birthe Rønn Hornbech, the integration minister, will raise the issue at a meeting of European ministers with Jacques Barrot, the EU Commissioner for Justice, on 25 September. This follows a number of meetings between Danish and EU public officials.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in early August that 10 other European countries supported the changing of the directive, but officials from the EU say otherwise.
Barrot’s spokesperson Michele Cercone confirmed that the Danish government has been the only one to approach the Commission about changing the directive.
Sources in the EU Commission told Jyllands-Posten newspaper that it will be very difficult for Denmark to get the directive changed by itself. If others join Denmark in the bid, it will still take a long time to get the changes approved by the EU Commission, ministers and parliament. (kr)
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
4 comments:
Dymphna, you make me laugh.
Natalie--
Good! We need a few laughs around this place, don't you think?
Buncha glum chums lately.
Ramadan Fatwas for your consideration...
What the heck is "cupping"? I thought that was a Chinese thing?
And yes, I agree with Natalie, Dymphna you are too funny!
My memory's going. By the time I get to the end of the news feed, I've forgotten the various items of interest.
So here's just one comment on the killing and general harassment of Christians, this time by Hindus in India but it goes on all the time around the world especially in Muslim countries. In this case it's brown Hindus attacking brown Christians (probably mainly for challenging the Hindu caste system) and there's still no condemnation from the world so it seems pretty clear that Christians are the low man on the religion totem pole everywhere, including where they still form the majority. Just imagine the reverse and the coverage it would receive if Christians went on the rampage against Muslims or Hindus! We'd never hear the end of it.
In Canada, every religion gets to claim offense but Christians have the distinction of being the only religion constantly hauled before the misnamed Human Rights Commissions on one pretext or another and penalized. Meanwhile, Christian complaints are either not even accepted by the commissions or ruled against. This one-sided flogging has been highlighted by Ezra Levant bless his Jewish soul while fighting his own case brought against him by Muslims for publishing the Danish cartoons.
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