A “right-populist” political party has backed Ahmed Aboutaleb as mayor of Rotterdam. Mr. Aboutaleb holds both Dutch and Moroccan passports, and both ends of the political spectrum are backing him.Is this the way Eurabia forms? Will a consensus that embraces the EuroMed concept emerge among the political elites of Europe? Stay tuned.
Thanks to Andy Bostom, C. Cantoni, Dr. Slogan, Insubria, JD, RRW, Steen, TB, turn, TV, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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Barack Obama Targets Kids
I saw the future and it was as dark as I was afraid it would be. And with a single click you can see too.
After I wrote about the danger that Sen. Obama’s association with people like Bill Ayers poses to the U.S. education and drew parallels between children singing praise to Sen. Obama and kids who grew up in police states, the reaction from the readers was somewhat mixed. Most people shared my concerns, but some doubted that an Obama-led government would bring politics into elementary and middle schools. Well, today my predictions have been confirmed by the most reliable source: Sen. Obama himself.
If you go Sen. Obama’s official site and click on People you’d see — among others — a recently added category called Kids. Yes, that’s Kids as in “your kids” or “your sister’s or brother’s kids”. Those kids. Sen. Obama and his staff have apparently realized that they’ve been ignoring this important segment of our society. And with their usual determination and perseverance they went after it.
The opening statement sets the stage: “In the words of Senator Barack Obama, the “Obama for America Campaign is a different type of campaign”. For the first time in campaign history, children ages 12 and under, have a place to go and actually vote—through their voice. What a great way to be introduced to politics and to express your support for Senator Obama.” On this one, I have to agree with Sen. Obama—this is certainly a very different kind of campaign.
The site features content for kids themselves, for adults who want to leverage others’ kids to get more votes for Sen. Obama and for parents who want to leverage their kids to promote their support of Sen. Obama
Every set of instructions is worth reading. Kids have “10 Ways Kids for Obama can get involved” at their disposal. These steps include suggestions such as…
[site: http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/kidskit]
| — Hat tip: Dr. Slogan | [Return to headlines] |
Government Computers Were Mined for Information on Joe the Plumber
The juicy part of this story is in bold — editor
“State and local officials are investigating if state and law-enforcement computer systems were illegally accessed when they were tapped for personal information about “Joe the Plumber.”
Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher became part of the national political lexicon Oct. 15 when Republican presidential candidate John McCain mentioned him frequently during his final debate with Democrat Barack Obama.
[…]
Public records requested by The Dispatch disclose that information on Wurzelbacher’s driver’s license or his sport-utility vehicle was pulled from the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles database three times shortly after the debate.
Information on Wurzelbacher was accessed by accounts assigned to the office of Ohio Attorney General Nancy H. Rogers, the Cuyahoga County Child Support Enforcement Agency and the Toledo Police Department.
It has not been determined who checked on Wurzelbacher, or why. Direct access to driver’s license and vehicle registration information from BMV computers is restricted to legitimate law enforcement and government business.
Paul Lindsay, Ohio spokesman for the McCain campaign, attempted to portray the inquiries as politically motivated…
Isaac Baker, Obama’s Ohio spokesman, denounced Lindsay’s statement as charges of desperation from a campaign running out of time…
The attorney general’s office is investigating if the access of Wuzelbacher’s BMV information through the office’s Ohio Law Enforcement Gateway computer system was unauthorized, said spokeswoman Jennifer Brindisi…
The State Highway Patrol, which administers the Law Enforcement Automated Data System in Ohio, asked Toledo police to explain why it pulled BMV information on Wurzelbacher within 48 hours of the debate…
| — Hat tip: turn | [Return to headlines] |
Mortgage Crisis: Summit, White House Explains Why G20
(ANSAmed) — WASHINGTON, OCTOBER 22 — The list of 20 participants in the world summit on the economic crisis on November 15 in Washington announced today by the White House (19 countries plus the European Union) has caused an immediate discussion by countries that were excluded, like Spain or Egypt. The White House explained today which criteria it used for its invitations: “We have decided to follow an existing model, that of the G20 of after the economic crisis of 1999” explained Tony Fratto. “It’s a model which includes important emergent countries and therefore it seems suitable for a crisis which has a global impact”. “I can think of at least half a dozen important countries which are no G20 members and which should participate in the summit based on the importance of their economies” said the White House spokesman, “but we must draw a line somewhere: too many countries would make it hard to come to an agreement”. Nineteen countries received an invitation — Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States — plus the European Union. Also present will be the leaders of four institutes: the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the United Nations and the Forum of Financial Stability (chaired by Mario Draghi). (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Obama, CAIR and Lawsuit
Oct. 23, 2008 update: Another reader points out that I missed a further Obama connection to CAIR — that Joseph E. Sandler of the law firm Sandler, Reiff, & Young is one of three lawyers who filed a motion to dismiss Philip Berg’s case claiming that Obama does not meet the citizenship requirements to become president of the United States. (I have posted both the original motion to dismiss and the first amended motion.)
As the Yid with Lid blog that broke this news puts it, Sandler is the legal hit man for CAIR; his “role for CAIR has been to stifle people from telling the truth about Islam. For example, last year he tried to get Jihad Expert Robert Spencer banned from speaking to the Young American Foundation, by using a threatening letter. Sandler followed up by threatening columnist Mike Adams for writing about the Spencer incident.”
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Somalis Will Sue Swift and the Mayor is Next, or So They Threaten!
This is an update of our now extensive coverage (54 posts in this category) of the Somali meatpacking conflicts in Greeley, CO and Grand Island, NE. (Hat tip: Janet) CAIR agitators are in Grand Island collecting stories from fired workers in preparation for their upcoming discrimination suit against the meatpacker. From KHAS-TV:
Members of a Muslim advocacy group [CAIR] said they will be filing discrimination claims against the JBS Swift Meat Packing Plant in Grand Island. It all stems from a prayer dispute between Somali Muslim workers and the company last month.
Chicago based [Chicago seems to be the epicenter of all things bad] representatives from the Muslim Advocacy Group were in Grand Island Tuesday and earlier Wednesday morning.
The group met with Somali residents to address the prayer dispute that left many Muslim workers jobless after they walked off the job repeatedly in protest.
Representatives from the American—Islamic Relations said they plan to file more than 20 discrimination claims against the company.
One of those discrimination claimants had this to say:
“Every person who came from Africa, we came here to find a better life. We could not find that better life and it is very stressful life,” said Ismail.Really Ismail, more stressful than life in that hell-hole Somalia? You know what we say!
| — Hat tip: RRW | [Return to headlines] |
Video — Obama: Constitution Fundamentally Flawed
Faults Warren court for not pressing for ‘redistribution of wealth’
Seven years before Barack Obama’s “spread the wealth” comment to Joe the Plumber became a GOP campaign theme, the Democratic presidential candidate said in a radio interview the U.S. has suffered from a fundamentally flawed Constitution that does not mandate or allow for redistribution of wealth.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Why I Can’t Vote for Obama
By Huntley Brown — a Jamaican concert pianist
Many of my friends process their identity through their blackness. I process my identity through Christ. Being a Christian (a Christ follower) means He leads I follow. I can’t dictate the terms He does because He is the leader.
I can’t vote black because I am black; I have to vote Christian because that’s who I am. Christian first, black second. Neither should anyone from the other ethnic groups vote because of ethnicity. 200 years from now I won’t be asked if I was black or white. I will be asked if I knew Jesus and accepted Him as Lord and Savior.
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Black MP in Warning to ‘Racist’ Italy
The spectre of fascism is ‘haunting the country’ after a spate of attacks on African immigrants
Italy’s only black MP has warned of growing racism after a surge in attacks on immigrants across the country.
‘Immigrants are becoming the enemy,’ said Jean-Léonard Touadi, 49, who was born in Congo and went to Italy in 1979. ‘With an economic crisis under way, Italy has found a scapegoat to blame its woes on.’
Touadi, a member of the opposition Values party, spoke out after a spate of assaults on immigrants. In Milan last month Abdul William Guibre, 19, originally from Burkina Faso, was beaten to death in an attack which made headlines across Italy. After accusing Guibre of stealing a packet of biscuits, a bar owner and his son called him a ‘dirty black’ and set on him with a metal pole.
A Senegalese man selling handbags in a Milan street market was beaten with a baseball bat after stallholders reportedly accused him of ‘stealing work from Italians’. Outside Naples, six African migrants were shot dead recently by the local mafia, while in Rome a Chinese immigrant was beaten up by boys as young as 15. A Somalian-born woman claimed that at Rome’s Ciampino airport she was strip-searched and verbally abused when going through customs. The government’s response to the alleged airport incident was swift. The Interior Minister, Roberto Maroni, said he would personally sue the woman for lying. ‘Between her version and that of the police I would have no doubt about believing the police,’ said Senate leader Maurizio Gasparri.
The attacks have come as Italy begins to come to terms with a new generation of black Italians, born to African immigrants who began to arrive in greater numbers towards the end of the 1980s. Milan residents expressed astonishment to reporters when the young blacks who demonstrated after Guibre’s murder shouted slogans in thick Milan accents…
| — Hat tip: TV | [Return to headlines] |
Climate: France, Yes to Law From Socialists as Well
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, OCTOBER 22 — The bill containing long and medium term objectives in terms of the environment was approved yesterday by the French National Assembly with a vote in favour of the legislation, and in a first, from the Socialist opposition as well. A law that lays out the government’s stance, the measure sets out long terms goals like the division by four of green house gas emissions from here to 2050, compared to 1990 levels, and defines medium term objectives in key sectors like construction, transportation and energy. “In a context in which the ecological crisis is submerged by the financial crisis, it is necessary to send a strong signal to the citizens”, said the Socialist member of parliament in Philippe Tourtelier in announcing the vote. This is the first time a favourable vote from the Socialist opposition on an important legislative text since the beginning of the legislature in 2007. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
First Muslim Mayor of Rotterdam Will Need to Find Allies
The decision by Rotterdam city council to appoint Ahmed Aboutaleb as the city’s mayor is a historic one. If his nomination is approved by the Dutch cabinet, he will become not only the first mayor of a major Dutch city with dual nationality — he has a Moroccan and Dutch passport — but also the first Muslim.
While serving on the Amsterdam city council Aboutaleb (Labour) became a household name. But since becoming deputy social affairs minister he has been all but forgotten. Directly after his appointment as mayor of Rotterdam, Aboutaleb’s ethnic background, religion and dual nationality were strongly criticised.
Ahmed Aboutaleb, who has often been described as a ‘model non-Western immigrant’, was born in the town of Beni Sidel in Morocco’s Rif mountain region in 1961, the son of an imam. In 1976, Aboutaleb, his mother and siblings moved to the Netherlands to join his father who was already working in the country…
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
‘Meat Mountain’ Ex-Minister Slams Swedish Security Service
Sweden’s former Finance Minister Pär Nuder has criticized the country’s security service over its failure to protect assassinated Foreign Minister Anna Lindh.
In a new book released this month, Nuder describes the assassination of his Social Democratic party colleague as a blot on the copybook of security service Säpo.
Lindh’s death could have been avoided had Säpo recognized that a foreign minister is always at risk and guarded her at all times, Nuder argues.
“By 2003, seventeen years after the assassination of Prime Minister Olof Palme, Säpo does not seem to have realized that the state’s leading public figures are under threat simply because they are public figures,” he writes.
Göran Persson’s former right hand man also reveals details of his own brief encounter with the security service the day after a much-criticized speech in which he described the generation born in the 1940s as a köttberg, or ‘meat mountain’.
For his own safety, Säpo demanded that Nuder come to work at the finance ministry via a network of tunnels.
As an additional security precaution, the ‘Finance Minister’ sign was removed from the door of his office and he was assigned bodyguards.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Move to Blacklist Switzerland as Tax Haven
German and French finance ministers have issued a joint call for Switzerland to be placed on a blacklist of non-transparent tax havens.
The move was made during a conference on financial transparency in Paris on Tuesday, attended by representatives from 17 countries belonging to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Those present agreed that the OECD needed to update its blacklist of “uncooperative” tax havens — currently comprising Liechtenstein, Andorra and Monaco — by mid-2009.
The list identifies places that have not committed to work towards OECD standards of transparency and information exchange.
German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück told a press conference that Switzerland deserved to be on it and criticised the Swiss government for inadequate cooperation on tax matters.
Swiss law does not recognise tax evasion as a criminal offence and banks are only obliged to cooperate with the investigators of other countries if fraud can first be proved. Steinbrück said the system “permitted German tax-payers to commit tax fraud”.
Secret banking
German authorities have pressured Switzerland in the past to crack down on foreign nationals who deposit funds in Swiss banks to avoid paying taxes back home.
“We Germans cannot prove the tax fraud because Switzerland refuses to give us the necessary information,” said Steinbrück.
“I am not questioning the sovereignty of Switzerland or Liechtenstein. It is Germany’s sovereignty that has been harmed by the conditions offered by certain countries.”
He added that tax evasion was an economic and a social problem.
“Secret banking has reached its limits. Switzerland has made progress but its definition of tax fraud is much too limited, we need to go even further,” added French Budget Minister Eric Woerth.
The Swiss government, which turned down an invitation to attend the Paris conference last week, appeared unconcerned at the ministers’ announcement.
A Swiss finance ministry spokesman said they saw “no reason” to react in the short-term and reiterated that Switzerland used an OECD standard practised by the 30 member countries as its basis for sharing bank data.
The Swiss Bankers Association also rejected the criticism, with spokesman Thomas Sutter stating: “Switzerland is not a tax haven.”
He added that Switzerland followed numerous tax conventions that regulate judicial and administrative cooperation on the issue.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Right Backs Aboutaleb as Rotterdam Mayor
The local populist political party Leefbaar Rotterdam has given its tentative backing to the nomination of Ahmed Aboutaleb (Labour) as the city’s new mayor, even though its leader initially condemned the selection.
Aboutaleb, the current junior social affairs minister and a Muslim, is a controversial choice because he has dual Dutch and Moroccan nationality.
Leefbaar Rotterdam, the second biggest party on the city council behind Labour, was founded by Islam critic Pim Fortuyn who was murdered by an animal rights activist in 2002.
Speaking after Aboutaleb’s selection was announced, Ronald Sorenson, leader of Leefbaar Rotterdam on the city council, said: ‘He is an Amsterdammer, he is a careerist and an Ajax [Amsterdam football team] supporter, but the worst thing is that he has two passports.’
It was wrong to appoint someone to the job who represented the problem-causing [Moroccan] community, he said. Rotterdam has a large (47%) immigrant population and some of the poorest areas in the country…
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Schools: Berlusconi, Differentiated Classes? Common Sense
(AGI) — Rome, Oct. 22 — “Differentiated classes? Not racism, simple common sense. It is impossible to teach maths, geography or any subject if you don’t know italian. There are classes that have 80% foreign students, who speak in 10 different tongues. First you must speak italian and then we can teach the rest”. Berlusconi is commenting on the idea of differentiated classes for immigrants, adding that “In Italy there are more than 600,000 foreign students. The idea is to offer the possibility, when requested by schools, to deliver italian lessons to kids who need them. These measures will integrate, the opposite of racism. The method has been in use for years in other countries such as France and Germany. In France access to classes is decided by the school council only when the student knows French
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Spate of Dismissals, Lladrò Cuts 275 Jobs
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, OCTOBER 17 — With the economic crisis, the dismissals are coming thick and fast in Spain. Following the 280 job cuts announced yesterday in Pirelli’s Manresa (Barcelona) factory and the reduction of 1,680 employees of the Catalonian Nissan plant, it is now the turn of the Valencian ceramics group, Lladrò, to announce a reduction of 275 staff, that is 20% of its workforce. The management of the group, in a communication issued today, blames the decision on the “current international economic situation”, which has made the “measures adopted over the last five years to boost sales in the different markets” in which the Valencian company operates, impossible to succeed. The company, because of the crisis situation, has already reduced the working hours of about a thousand employees, who now work four days a week. These are the first mass dismissals carried out by the group which was founded fifty years ago. The dismissals plan will be presented to trade unions next week. The repercussions of the employment crisis in Spain have led to a steady trickle of cuts. Together with Lladrò, also the factory committee of the construction company of Graus Jaso in Idiazabal (in the Basque Country) has announced in a communication released today that 32 employees will lose their jobs. The workers’ representatives, who called an assembly during the day, are asking the Basque government not to approve the plan for regulating employment, which will be presented by the company, as it “is not justified by the company’s situation”. Reporting that Jaso Idiazabal “is one of the companies with the highest recorded earnings over the last few year”, the workers intend to call an indefinite strike to defend their jobs. And more than 1500 employees of the Nissan plants in Catalonia took to the streets of Barcelona yesterday to protest against the decision by managers of the Japanese holding company to cut 1680 jobs by 2010. With the slogan “No to 1680 dismissals, yes to industrial plan”, demonstrators gathered in front of the Nissan factory in the Zona Franca against “the brutal company policies”, which risk causing “a harsh blow to the motor industry in Catalonia”. Regarding the industrial unrest caused by the rain of dismissals, the employees of the Figueruelas (Zaragoza) factory of General Motors Spain have today approved in a referendum the redundancy plan agreed between the factory committee and the management, which will affect 600 workers, will come into force on 1 November and will last a year. In the referendum, according to reports by the Europa Press agency, around 73% of the 71% employees in the workforce that participated in the consultation voted in favour. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Terrorism: Algeria: 100 Trials Begin in Boumerdes
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, OCTOBER 23 — More than 100 trials linked to terrorism are under way for the third criminal session of 2008 at the high court in Boumerdes, one of the hardest-hit areas for Islamic terrorist attacks in recent years. Among the most important cases are those of women linked to terrorism like Rabia, the daughter of Khaled, one of the most important members of the Salafite Group for preaching and combat (GSPC, the Al Qaida of Islamic Algeria), killed by security forces in March 2007, or the wife of Saadaoui Abdelhamid, an emir for GSPC killed in November last year. One of the many cases against Abdelmalek Deroukdal will reopen in this session. an emir for the Algerian wing of Al Qaida, and the trial of 24 assumed terrorists, 12 of them on the run, accused of the attack on 29 January in Tenia, Cabilia where 3 civilians were killed. Another 18, 8 of them under arrest, are believed to be responsible for the attack at Si Mustapha on 12 February 2007 where three people died. Since the start of the year more than 200 members of the North African wing of Al Qaida have been sentenced to death in their absence by several Algerian courts. Capital punishment is still in force in Algeria though the last execution was in 1993 when sever terrorists accused of the attack on Algiers airport were shot. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Middle East: Sick and Elderly Hard Hit by Strife, Says Red Cross
Gaza City, 23 Oct. (AKI) — Internal strife between the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip is taking a heavy toll on the sick and elderly, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Thursday.
In a strongly worded statement, the Red Cross said the situation was “extremely worrying” because several hundred seriously ill patients in the Gaza Strip cannot obtain urgent medical treatment, thus aggravating an already critical situation.
“This is having a serious impact, said Eileen Daly, the ICRC’s health coordinator for Gaza.
“Children suffering from cystic fibrosis, a serious lung disease, have not had access to proper medication for the past week. They need to take the medication every day, or their condition will deteriorate rapidly.”
A strike by Palestinian health workers since the end of August is also having an effect on the ability of hospitals to offer adequate care. Surgical operations have fallen by 40 percent, and hospital admissions are down 20 percent.
“Health issues should not to be politicised,” said the ICRC head of mission, Katharina Ritz. “Pragmatic solutions need to be found, because many lives are at stake.”
Yet another cause for concern is that the number of seriously ill patients referred for specialised treatment to hospitals in Israel, East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Jordan has dropped by half in recent months.
Those affected include cancer and cardiac patients, who will suffer from a gradual deterioration of their condition if they do not receive medical attention outside Gaza, the ICRC said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Unprecedented: Palestinians Control Israeli Neighborhood
Sign that town near Jerusalem to be ceded as part of U.S.-backed future deal
JERUSALEM — For the first time ever, Palestinian security forces deployed inside Israel yesterday and took control of parts of a small neighborhood on the outskirts of Jerusalem in a clear sign of expected future Palestinian sovereignty over the area.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Emirates: 2009 Budget Approved, 21% Richer Than 2008
(ANSAmed) — DUBAI, OCTOBER 22 — The government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) approved the budget for 2009 in an extraordinary meeting, a package worth 8.9 billion euros which pays particular attention to education and healthcare. The increase of 21% compared to the 2008 budget indicates the solid economy of the federation of the seven emirates in spite of the backlash of the global financial crisis that has infiltrated the world’s economies, analysts comment. “This budget is the confirmation of the fiscal strength of the UAE”, commented the head economist of the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), Nasser al Saidi, to Gulf News, adding that “the amount will send positive signs to the private sector”. The 2009 budget, approved yesterday evening, appropriates 23% of its total to education and 37% to health care “the means to the next level of growth” in the country. A choice that signals a change in priority from the banking and real estate sector focus of recent years. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: UN Helps Christians Seeking Refuge in Syria
Damascus, 24 Oct. (AKI) — The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is helping hundreds of Iraqi Christians who fled the northern city of Mosul to neighbouring Syria, which is already hosting at least 1.2 million refugees from the strife-torn nation.
“Many Christians from Mosul have been systematically targeted recently and are no longer safe there. We are ready to provide support for those Iraqis that seek refuge in neighbouring countries,” said Laurens Jolles, UNHCR’s representative in Syria.
“We are grateful that Syria continues to welcome refugees,” he added.
UNHCR says thousands of Christians have left Mosul in recent weeks, with many having sought safety in villages elsewhere in Nineveh province. About 400 of them have crossed into Syria.
The agency has begun registration of Christian refugees from Mosul who have turned up at its offices in Damascus and Aleppo. More than 20 families have sought UNHCR’s help in Aleppo in recent days.
There is also a UNHCR team at the Qamishli area close to Iraq, where about 20 families have arrived in the past few days.
Many of the refugees left their homes with little money and need help extending their visas to Syria. After they register with UNHCR, families with financial difficulties are assessed for emergency grants and food aid.
All the refugees said they hoped to be able to return to their homes soon, UNHCR noted.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: ‘We Are Killed Because We Are Christians’
Threat from Muslims in northern Iraq forces more than 13,000 to flee this month
One grey-haired woman understands more than most the fear that has gripped Iraq’s beleaguered Christian community over the past month. Her brother, Bashar al-Hazim, was among the first to be murdered in a wave of targeted killings that has forced more than 2,000 Christian families to flee the northern city of Mosul.
Masked gunmen walked up to Mr Hashim as he stood with his two children outside their house in the east-side of Mosul in late September. They demanded to see his identity card, confirmed he was Christian and executed the 41-year-old on the spot.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic Bankers See Sharia System Strengthening as it Overcame Global Financial Meltdown
JEDDAH- The global financial crisis is an opportunity for Sharia-compliant Islamic banking to further its position internationally, bankers said at a forum in Saudi Arabia on Saturday.
Islamic banks have been barely bruised by the global credit crisis so far, although falling property and commodity prices and slowing economies are starting to affect the sector.
But bankers at the forum, on how the world finance crisis could affect Islamic banking, saw the sector strengthening.
“It is a must for Islamic finance to seize the opportunity that came with this global financial crisis,” Ahmad Ali, president of the Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank (IDB) said at the discussion organised by IDB.
“Global investment banks should be set up that realise the Islamic economy and offer the world a new vision and different way to manage assets, invest wealth and create products.”
Sharia-compliant finance bans the receipt of interest and investments in companies dealing in alcohol, gambling and pornography.
Islamic financing deals are backed by assets, commonly real estate and commodities, due to the Sharia requirement that transactions must involve real economic activity.
There are more than 300 Islamic financial institutions worldwide and the sector is valued at about $1 trillion, just a fraction of the conventional global banking industry.
The growth of Sharia banking has been fuelled by an increasing focus on Islamic values and cash from Middle East oil exporters hungry for assets that comply with Islamic principles.
The falling oil price could affect that.
But with Muslims making up almost a fifth of the world’s population, the Islamic industry was seen as offering plenty of room for longer-term growth.
“Regulation by itself is not the answer,” a Saudi Islamic banking consultant said.
“Regulation is necessary but it has to be complemented by a structural change in the financial system and this is the structural change that Islam has suggested.”
Saleh Kamel, a Saudi entrepreneur who heads the General Council of Islamic Banks, said the global crisis suggested Islam was the “third way” after the failure of great ideologies.
“Perhaps through this crisis, that is a great evil for the world, Allah will lead us to the school of moderation,” he said.
“Communism has failed and capitalism failed, and only now are they starting to admit this failure,” he said.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanon: Press, Security Fears Over Nasrallah-Hariri Meeting
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, OCTOBER 23 — Questions “of security”, not “political opposition” have been preventing the meeting between leaders of the pro-Iranian Shi-ite Hezbollah, Hasan Nasrallah and the leader of the al-Mustaqbal Sunni movement, Saad Hariri, leader of the Lebanese anti-Syrian majority, daily pan-Arab paper al-Hayat reported today. Quoting “sources close to the two sides” the paper said that both Nasrallah and Hariri, chief representatives of the Lebanese Shi-ite and Sunni communities respectively “are concerned for their safety while travelling” in Beirut. The meeting should mark the “new political season of reconciliation and confession” following the bloody fighting last May in Beirut and in other areas of the country between Shi-ite supporters of the block led by Hezbollah and supported by Syria, and their Sunni rivals close to al-Mustaqbal’ and supported by Saudi Arabia. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia: Man Decapitated for Killing Wife
(ANSAmed) — RIYADH, OCTOBER 21 — A Saudi Arabian condemned to death for having beaten his wife to death was decapitated with an axe today in Gedda on the western coast of Saudi Arabia. This was announced by the Interior Minister. “Omar Ben Abid Wakdani beat his wife to death during a family argument”, specified the minister in a message. This decapitation brings the number of known executions in Saudi Arabia to 81 this year. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: US Raid, Damascus Press Denounces ‘War Crimes’
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, OCTOBER 27 — The official Syrian press has today called the American air strike on Syrian territory yesterday which killed eight (allegedly all civilians), a “war crime” and “political insanity”. “Even on its way out of the White House, the Bush administration seems intent on committing acts of political madness,” wrote al Baath, the body under the party of the same name currently in power. “The air strike yesterday was cold-blooded and a war crime in the true sense of the word,” wrote Tishreen. Al Thawra also denounced the silence kept by Arab governments as concerns the US raid, asking whether this will “encourage the occupying and usurping forces to commit something on an even larger scale.” Also the Arab press has today given large space on its front pages to the operation, which according to a Lebanese daily paper indicates that the US “has changed the rules of the game” with Damascus. “US raid in Syrian village, Washington changes rules of the game”, wrote the Beirut paper an Nahar, saying that the operation which Syria says has cost the lives of eight civilians marks “a dramatic change in the way the US has treated Syria since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.” The pro-Syrian Lebanese daily as Safir wrote that the raid is the “most dangerous American aggression in Syria since the Iraqi occupation”, and that “Damascus holds Washington responsible for the massacre and its consequences.” The two pan-Arab dailies published in London, Asharq al Awsat and al Hayat, devoted their front pages to the matter, but did not publish comments. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: US Air Attack; ‘Intolerable Violation’, Siniora Says
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, OCTOBER 27 — Lebanon’s Premier Fuad Siniora decribed yesterday’s US air attack on a Syrian village near the Iraqi border as an “intolerable violation of Syrian sovereignty”. “The attack represents a violation of Syrian sovereignty and, as a result, it was a despicable and intolerable dangerous aggression,” said Siniora in a statement carried by the official Lebanese news agency NNA. “This violation — the Lebanese premier’s statement said — is also a violation of international law and cannot be repeated, despite all pretext or allegation”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
India: More Troops Deployed to Prevent Protests
Srinagar, 27 Oct. (AKI/DAWN) — Indian troops were deployed across Muslim-majority Kashmir on Monday to prevent demonstrations in the town of Srinagar to mark 61st anniversary of Indian rule over the region.
Troops blocked roads leading to the offices of the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan or UNMOGIP. The group monitors a ceasefire line dividing Kashmir, a disputed territory between both countries.
“October 27 is the blackest day in the history of Kashmir,” said Mirwaiz Umar Farooq the chairman of the separatist All Parties Hurriyat Conference alliance, who was placed under house arrest on Sunday to prevent him from leading a march to the UN office.
Farooq was referring to the day in 1947 when Indian troops arrived to take control of the region, just over two months after India and Pakistan won independence from Britain.
On 26 October 1947, the Hindu ruler of Kashmir said his Muslim-majority kingdom would accede to India and not join newly created Islamic Pakistan.
Kashmir has since been claimed by both India and Pakistan, and wracked with violence.
Separatist militancy and cross-border firing between the Indian and Pakistani armies has left a death toll running into tens of thousands and a population brutalised by fighting and fear.
So far 43,000 people have been killed, officials say, but human rights groups put the toll at 60,000.
On Monday, shops, businesses and schools remained closed in much of the region.
The deployment takes place a day after six other leaders of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference alliance were arrested in the area of Rajbagh.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
India: Troops Kill Five Militant Suspects in Kashmir
Srinagar, 27 Oct. (AKI) — Five suspected members of the Islamic militant Hizbul Mujahideen group were killed by Indian soldiers in the northern state of Jammu and Kashmir, army sources said. Indian troops had been deployed across Muslim-majority Kashmir earlier in the day to prevent demonstrations in the town of Srinagar to mark the 61st anniversary of Indian rule in the disputed territory.
Soldiers reportedly launched a search operation in the Nawapitchi area of the Kishtwar district, about 250 kilometres west of the state’s winter capital, Jammu, sources told Pakistan’s Geo News.
Five militants were killed in an exchange of fire, they added.
Army officials said the operation was important as militants were infiltrating the region from across the border with Pakistan, possibly with plans to disrupt elections in the state.
India’s Election Commission has announced a seven-phase election in Jammu and Kashmir from 17 November to 24 December.
An undeclared curfew was declared in the summer capital, Srinagar, as security forces sought to prevent further violence.
Troops blocked roads leading to the offices of the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan or UNMOGIP. The group monitors a ceasefire line dividing Kashmir, a disputed territory between both countries.
On 26 October 1947, the Hindu ruler of Kashmir said his Muslim-majority kingdom would accede to India and not join newly created Islamic Pakistan.
Kashmir has since been claimed by both India and Pakistan, and three wars have been fought by the two countries over its territory.
Separatist militancy and conflict between the Indian and Pakistani armies has killed tens of thousands and left people brutalised by fighting and fear.
So far 43,000 people have been killed, officials say, but human rights groups put the toll at 60,000.
On Monday, shops, businesses and schools remained closed in much of the region.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Islamic Leader Defends Child Marriages
Jakarta, 27 Oct. (AKI) — An Islamist party leader has defended child marriages in Indonesia saying it is normal to marry children as young as 11 or 12. Hilman Rosyad Syihab, deputy leader of the Islamic party Partai Keadilan Sejahtera (PKS), shared his views with Adnkronos International. The comments came after a Muslim cleric provoked public outrage in Indonesia by marrying a 12-year-old girl, and reportedly has plans to marry another two girls aged nine and seven.
Pujianto Cahyo Widianto married the girl in the central Java city of Semarang, during an unofficial religious ceremony.
Widianto, used Islam’s Prophet Mohammed’s marriage to a seven year-old, Aisha, in the 7th century A.D. to justify his actions.
He reportedly chose her from a pool of 20 girls, and gained her parents’ approval before flying to Singapore with his new bride. He also ..
“Many parents give their children for marriage when they reach 11 or 12 years of age,” Hilman told AKI. “It is a normal practice even if it is in decline.”
“If there is no conflict in the family, we should respect it and give them the opportunity to become a harmonious family.”
The religious cleric and the young girl married in the Islamic ceremony of ‘nikah siri’, a rite that is not recognised by the state.
According to the Indonesian government, a woman can marry from the age of 16 and a man when he reaches the age of 19. The age of sexual consent is 16 years.
“But what the law does is suggest an age, it is not an obligation, “ Hilman said.
Hilman, a member of parliament, is aligned with a party that is leading a moral crusade to pass an anti-pornography law considered draconian by many analysts.
He said he did not see any religious issue with wanting to marry another two children, even if they were younger.
“It is okay as long as the parents agree and there are no sexual relations before the children begins menstruating,” he said.
Komnas Anak, the commission for the protection of children, has said that the religious leader — whose first 26-year-old wife reportedly agreed to the marriage — and the parents of the child bride should be charged by the authorities.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Iran: Two Baluchis Hanged in Zahedan
Tehran, 27 Oct. (AKI) — Two Baluchis accused of belonging to a band of drug traffickers, were hanged on Monday in Zahedan, capital of Iranian Baluchistan.
In an official statement issued by Zahedan prison, the names of the two prisoners were not released, only their initials.
According to data released by the Italy-based human rights group, Hands Off Cain, the hanging of E.M and Kh.N lifted the number of executions in Iran to 230 since the beginning of 2008.
Last week, the Italian rights group said that Iran ranked close to China and Saudi Arabia for the highest number of executions.
“Iran was ‘distinguished’ by the high number of death sentences, carried out by public hangings, usually with a crane or low platform to assure a slow and painful death,” the organisation said in a statement.
“In 2007 at least 355 people were put to death, a third higher than at least 215 executions in 2006.”
Hands Off Cain also highlighted the execution of children. According to the report, in the first nine months of 2008 at least seven minors were executed in Iran.
It said it was the only country in the world in 2008 where the death penalty was used against people less than 18 years of age at the time of the crime.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysia: Islamic Council Bans Women From ‘Acting’ Like Men
Kuala Lumpur, 24 Oct. (AKI) — Women in Malaysia have been told to refrain from ‘imitating’ what is said to be masculine behaviour, including lesbian sex, by the country’s National Fatwa Council. According to the chairman of the NFC, Abdul Shukor Husin, women are violating their femininity and human nature by behaving, socialising and dressing like men.
Husin justified the decision reached late on Thursday, saying that masculine behaviour “becomes clearer” when they start to have sex with someone of the same gender, that is a woman and woman, said Malay state news agency Bernama.
“In view of this, the National Fatwa Council which met today have decided and taken the stand that such acts are forbidden and banned,” said Husin.
However, under Malaysian law, homosexuality or sodomy is illegal even if consensual. Lawyers have said that female homosexuality is permissible only because there are no provisions under the law.
Moreover, the NFC’s ruling has virtually no legal weight, since they do not have jurisdiction in civil law.
Muslims comprise 60 percent of the population of 27 million in Malaysia.
Once seen as a model of multi-ethnic coexistence, Malaysia’s religious minorities have been complaining recently that the government’s attempts to give Islam greater status as the country’s official religion is infringing their rights.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Filipino Church Prays for Persecuted Christians of India
The archbishop of Palo calls for the faithful to remember the persecuted Indian Christians in their daily prayers. Appeals are growing in the majority Catholic country not to forget their persecuted brethren. After demonstrations in Pakistan, signs of solidarity with Christians in Orissa, Karnataka, and Jharkand are coming from the Philippines as well.
Manila (AsiaNews) — The archbishop of Palo, Jose Serofia Palma, has written a message to call upon bishops, priests, religious, and laity to pray for the persecuted Christians in India. The Filipino prelate addresses his appeal above all to the faithful of his diocese on the island of Leyte, where more than a million Catholics live. But the appeal for daily prayers on behalf of the Christians persecuted by Hindu extremism is addressed to all Catholics in the Philippines, who represent more than 80% of the population there.
The initiative of the bishop, who is a member of the commission for international Eucharistic congresses at the Filipino bishops’ conference, demonstrates the solidarity of Catholics in the country with the Christians of India.
Interviewed by AsiaNews, the mother general of the Augustinian Sisters of Our Lady of Consolation recalls the efforts of her congregation in praying for the community of Orissa, Karnataka, and Jharkand. Sister Mary Luz F. Mijares comments on events in recent months, affirming that “it is a matter of sadness that Hindu radical are persecuting Christians in India, where the Indian constitution guarantees freedom of religion.”
“We Filipinos must include India and our fellow Christians there in our daily prayers,” Rene Q. Bas, a writer for the Manila Times, tells AsiaNews. “What a great pity that at the time that India has proved to be the equal of the West and China in scientific prowess some of its people are plumbing the depths of religious intolerance. It’s no longer just in the state of Orissa where Hindu mobs have been attacking Christians, burning churches, convents and homes — and raping nuns.”
Solidarity with the persecuted communities of India is widespread among Filipino Catholics. One example is provided by the parishioners of the neighborhood of Tondo, one of the poorest in the capital, Manila. Fr. Ferie Fajordoha says that for some time, his parishioners have been praying for their persecuted Indian brethren during the Mass.
The appeal for prayer and demonstrations of concern by Filipino Catholics for the Christians of India are added to those that have come in recent days from Pakistan. On Sunday the 19th, in the capital of Islamabad, groups of Christians demonstrated their solidarity with their Indian brethren, and condemned the violence perpetrated by Hindu fundamentalists.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Philippines: Foreign Fighters ‘Could Join Renegade Muslims in South’
Manila, 23 Oct. (AKI) — Foreign Muslim fighters could join ‘renegade’ separatist commanders and escalate the ongoing conflict in the southern Philippines after the collapse of peace talks between Manila and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) separatist rebels, a leading think-tank has warned.
In its latest report, ‘The Philippines: The Collapse of Peace in Mindanao,’ the International Crisis Group said the possible involvement of foreign ‘jihadists’ could give the Philippines Army a green light for war against the MILF. Such a war remains unlikely, however, said the ICG.
The army is currently pursuing three renegade MILF commanders — Ameril Umbra Kato, Abdullah Macapaar alias Bravo, and Aleem Sulaiman Pangalian.
The three are accused of having attacked villages in North Cotabato and Lanao del Norte after an order by the Philippines’ Supreme Court blocked a peace agreement with the MILF. The deal would have created an expanded ancestral Muslim ‘domain’ or autonomous homeland on the southern island of Mindanao.
The Supreme Court injunction followed legal challenges raised by mainly Catholic politicians in Mindanao objected to what they feared was as a move to create an independent Muslim state, saying they had not been consulted on the content of the peace agreement.
Clashes between the MILF and the Army have since become more frequent but both sides have said that they do not want to escalate the conflict for an all-out war.
But the ICG warned that the rebels could recruit foreign jihadists to join the renegade commanders.
“Jihadis in Mindanao could decide to undertake retaliatory action, since Kato and Bravo have assisted them in the past. A major urban bombing could turn trigger a much wider conflict,” warned ICG.
A small, mobile jihadist unit led by Indonesian terror network Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) member Umar Patek is known to operate from the Sulu Archipelago in the southern Philippines.
Patek’s unit is believed to consist of some 10 men hailing from JI and two other jihadist organisations (KOMPAK and Darul Islam).
The peace agreement, which was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court last week, was the culmination of eleven years of negotiations. It was due to be signed in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on 5 August.
The Supreme Court’s effective scuppering of the peace accord has sparked fighting that by mid-October had displaced some 390,000 people.
MILF is the largest of several Muslim separatist groups in the predominantly Catholic country. With an estimated 11,000 armed fighters it has been been fighting for self-rule in the volatile south for over three decades. An estimated 120,000 people have been killed and at least two million people have been left homeless by the conflict.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Australia: Court Told Six Planned ‘Violent Jihad’
Sydney, 27 Oct. (AKI) — Six Australian men were driven by their Islamic faith to carry out “violent Jihad” and amassed large quantities of chemicals to make explosives, a prosecutor told a court in Sydney on Monday.
The six men have pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiring to commit a terrorist act and will stand trial in the New South Wales’ Supreme Court in Sydney next week.
Media reports say that a jury is being assembled for the trial which is expected to last up to 12 months.
Prosecutor Richard Maidment told the court the men “strongly adhered to the Islamic faith” and were motivated by political, religious and ideological causes to carry out an act of “violent Jihad” against the Australian community, local media reported from the court.
The six Sydney men conspired to carry out acts of violence, including the detonation of explosives and use of firearms, between July 2004 and November 2005, said Maidment
Around 5,000 people have been summoned as potential jurors and the final 15 will be picked from a short list before the end of the week.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Colombia Drug Ring May Link to Hezbollah
BOGOTÁ, Colombia — U.S. and Colombian investigators have dismantled an international cocaine-smuggling and money-laundering ring that allegedly used part of its profits to finance Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based Shiite militia, officials said Tuesday.
After a two-year investigation, authorities have arrested at least 36 suspects in recent days, including an accused Lebanese kingpin in Bogotá. Chekry Harb, who used the alias “Taliban,” acted as the hub of an unusual alliance between South American cocaine traffickers and Middle Eastern militants, Colombian investigators alleged.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration: Mantovano, USD 10,000 Fare for Illegal Immigrants
(ANSAmed) — ROME, OCTOBER 22 — Criminal organisations are charging illegal immigrants up to 10,000 dollars per ‘fare’ for their transport to Italy. The Undersecretary to the Ministry of the Interior, Alfredo Mantovano, revealed this fact during the conference on “Slavery in the 21st century: the Treatment of Human Beings and Forced Labour”, which was organised by the Forensic Union for Human Rights Protection. “Even in the final part of the journey, between north Africa and the European coast — Lampedusa, for example — the fare is around 1,000-1,200 dollars”. Big business, then, the criminal exploitation of illegal immigrants who are “often forced into black market labour, prostitution or begging in order to pay back the debt”. “It is an undeniable fact”, he added, “that there is a fine line between the trade of human beings and the flows of illegal immigrants”. With regard to the fight against this phenomenon, “Mayoral rules are not a magic wand, but still an important factor, which contributes real results, because they force the exploiters to change strategy”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration: Spain-Morocco, 50 Storm Melilla Border
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, OCTOBER 27 — A group of some 50 immigrants from the sub-Sahara region stormed today the fence along the Melilla border near the Beni Enzar crossing point, the main one among those connecting the Spanish enclave to Morocco, news agency reports said today quoting Civilian Guard sources. To try to enter Spanish territory illegally, the immigrants took vantage of the damages caused to the double six-meter-high fence by the heavy rains which battered Melilla Sunday and triggered the third flood in a month. In the area of the Beni Enzar customs point, where works are underway to strengthen the border line, a stream of mud and rocks triggered by the rains made it impossible to shut the safety gates in the fence. Despite a higher number of Civilian Guard men called in to supervise the border, some of the immigrants who assailed the fence managed to get into Spanish territory, but the sources didn’t say how many they were. Some 70 sub-Saharians tried to break through the Beni Enzar point last June, overpowering Moroccan police and Spanish policemen and Civilian Guard officers. It was the first mass assault at the Spanish enclave border in Morocco since 2006, when three immigrants lost their lives trying to climb over the fence. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration: Maroni in Malta to Discuss Collaboration
(ANSAmed) — VALLETTA, OCTOBER 27 — The cooperation between Italy and Malta as concerns illegal immigration and the taking-in of refugees are the key issues on the agenda of talks this morning in Valletta between Interior Minister Roberto Maroni and his Maltese counterpart Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici. Maroni’s meeting with Maltese authorities is a follow-up to the meeting last week at the Interior Ministry of the National Committee for Public Order and Security, in which prevention and ways to oppose illegal immigration by sea — as a consequence to the high-pressure situation arising on Italian coasts since this spring — and the measures necessary to prevent mass landings of migrants on the Sicilian and Calabrian coasts. The opportunity proved useful both as a way to take stock of the general situation as concerns the granting of asylum and the taking-in of refugees, and as a way to reflect more widely on countries of origin, the nationalities of those arriving by sea and a possible build-up of police and armed forces to contain the levels. Specific attention was given to the routes which, as is well-known, connect Libyan parts with Lampedusa, as well as to Frontex activities and possible diplomatic and collaboration initiatives which could be developed with Libyan authorities. Sea patrols and the implementation of the agreement signed last year with Libya are still the main aims Minister Maroni would like to achieve as part of a resumption of collaboration with Libyan authorities recently re-launched by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. The Maltese government has meanwhile asked Italy to be able to take part in the accord with Tripoli. “We are strongly interested in this agreement,” said Minister Mifsud Bonnici, “since it would help us to fight against the same problem by the same means.” This year Malta saw a record number of immigrants arrive on its shores. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration: Italy to Lead New Med ‘Group of Four’
(ANSAmed) — VALLETTA, OCTOBER 27 — Italy is to lead a new ‘Group of Four’ including Malta, Cyprus and Greece to raise the European Union profile of Mediterranean problems like migration. “We’re determined to make our voice heard in Brussels to combat the problems we’re all facing in the Mediterranean, especially illegal immigration,” Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said after signing an accord to set up the new group with his Maltese counterpart Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici. Maroni said the new group would push for the other 23 EU members to share the burden of the migrants picked up by Frontex security patrols in the Mediterranean. “Otherwise we will be left alone to face the problem without any interest from Brussels,” he said. Maroni called for a “fair distribution” of the migrants intercepted by Frontex off countries like Italy and Malta. Frontex has stepped up patrols but failed to halt a steady flow of migrants from Africa. Another 400 reached today the southern Italian island of Lampedusa. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration: 11 Sailboat Illegal Immigrants Held
(ANSAmed) — VIESTE (FOGGIA, ITALY), OCTOBER 27 — Officers of Italy’s customs have held 11 illegal immigrants who disembarked overnight on the Gargano coast near Vieste. Nine of them are from Kosovo and two are Albanians. The group includes seven minors. Soon after disembarking, the immigrants underwent medical check-ups which confirmed that they were in good health. According to reports, the immigrants arrived on the coast on board of a sailboat. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: 392 Illegal Immigrants Land on Southern Lampedusa Island
Palermo, 27 Oct. (AKI)j — A total 392 illegal immigrants arrived on the southern Italian island of Lampedusa overnight aboard two people smugglers’ boats.
The first boat had 260 passengers on board, including four women and four children. It was intercepted some 50 nautical miles from Lampedusa and escorted into port by an Italian navy vessel.
The second boat, with 132 illegal immigrants on board, was spotted by the Italian navy at at 4 am local time.
Over 22,500 illegal immigrants have landed on Lampedusa so far this year — more than twice the number that arrived over the same period of 2007, Italian Interior Ministry Roberto Maroni announced earlier this month.
The number of illegal migrants heading for southern Mediterranean countries such as Italy aboard people traffickers’ boats surges during the warmer months from April to October.
Lampedusa is a tiny island that is closer to Africa than the European continent and a favourite drop off point for the people smugglers.
Hundreds arrive each week in search of a better life in Europe aboard people smugglers’ boats which mostly set sail from North Africa.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Rome Film Festival: US Actor Likens Leaders to Nazi Regime
Rome, 26 Oct. (AKI) — Acclaimed American actor Viggo Mortensen has likened Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi and US President George W. Bush to the leaders of Nazi Germany, accusing them of exploiting fear and paranoia to strengthen their power.
Mortensen was speaking on Sunday at the third annual Rome Film Festival where he was launching a British-Hungarian film entitled, ‘Good’.
The film focuses on the rise of National Socialism in the 1930s in Germany. Mortensen plays a literature professor whose mother suffers from dementia. His career takes off after he advocates compassionate euthanasia and he is drawn towards Nazism.
Mortensen said German Nazism, like the dictators of Brazil and Argentina, eight years of Bush in America and Berlusconi’s leadership in Italy, all reflected power without any restrictions and exploit fear and paranoia.
In the film, directed by Vicente Amorim, Mortensen’s character at one point wears the uniform of the notorious paramilitary SS guards, many of whom were accused and prosecuted of crimes against humanity after World War II.
Mortensen said when he wore the uniform for the first time he felt a “strange sensation” and he thought it was due to the heat in Budapest, where the film was shot.
But he said he realised it was his reaction to the significance of the uniform and he sought to portray his character without judging him.
Mortensen said ‘Good’ was not a film about Hitler, but a family story.
Mortensen, an Academy Award-nominated actor and poet, is perhaps best known for his role as Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
He is appearing in ‘Appaloosa’, an American film screened at the festival. It focuses on the friendship of two men hired to protect a small town from a ruthless rancher, a classic western story set in 1882.
More than 150 films are featured at the festival which ends on 31 October.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Demographic Implosion in Muslim Societies
Just as the world at large is experiencing an unprecedented collapse of demography, the UN Population Division reports a sharp decline of fertility rates (number of births per woman) in Muslim and Arab countries, excluding Afghanistan and Yemen.
The myth of “doubling population every 20 years” has been shattered against the cliffs of demography. The director-general of UNESCO, Koichiro Matsuura, stated, during a UNESCO conference on “Population: From Explosion to Implosion,” that “there is an abrupt slowdown in the rate of growth… also in many countries where women have only limited access to education and employment… There is not the slightest reason to assume that the decline in fertility will miraculously stop just at replacement level (2.1 births per woman)… Before 2000, the young always outnumbered their elders; for some years now it has been the other way around.”
THE collapse of fertility rates in Muslim countries is a derivative of modernization and Westernization, rapid urbanization and internal security concerns by dictators fearing the consequences of the widening gap between population growth and economic growth. As a result, the UN Population Division has reduced its 2050 population projections by 25 percent, from 12 billion to 9 billion, possibly shrinking to 7.4 billion.
For instance, the fertility rate in Iran — the flagship of radical Islam — has declined from nine births per woman, 30 years ago, to 1.8 births in 2007. The Muslim religious establishment has also played a key role in decreasing fertility rates in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, from eight and seven births per woman 30 years ago, to less than four and less than 2.5 respectively in 2007.
Jordan, which is demographically close to Judea and Samaria, and Syria have demonstrated a diminished fertility rate: from eight, 30 years ago, to less than 3.5 in 2007. A substantial dive of fertility rates in Muslim countries — trending toward two births per woman — is documented by the Population Resource Center in Washington, DC.
Demographic precedents suggest only a very slight probability of resurrecting high fertility rates following a sustained period of significant reduction.
THE Bennett Zimmerman-led American-Israel Demographic Research Group (AIDRG) has documented a similar demographic trend among the Arab population of Judea and Samaria (currently four births per woman, and trending downward).
The decline in fertility and population growth rates has resulted from escalating emigration (which has characterized the region since 1950), accelerated urbanization (70% rural in 1967 and 60% urban in 2008), the expansion of education infrastructure, especially among women, the entrenchment of career mentality; the increase of median-marriage-age, an all-time high divorce rate, the contraction of teenage pregnancy and the UNRWA/PA-led family planning campaign.
The sharp lowering of fertility rate among “Green Line” (pre-1967 Israel) Arabs, from nine births per woman in 1969 to 3.5 in 2007, has been the outcome of their successful integration into Israel’s education, employment, commerce, health, banking, cultural, political and sports infrastructures. The annual number of Arab births stabilized at approximately 39,000 between 1995-2007. The Arab fertility rate converges swiftly toward the Jewish fertility rate (2.8 births per woman).
ON the other hand, Israel’s Jewish demography has been non-normative as far as the impact of education and income levels on the level of fertility rates is concerned. The annual number of Jewish births (including among those immigrants from the former USSR who have yet to be recognized as Jews by the rabbinate) rose by 40% between 1995-2007.
The number of Jewish births has increased from 69% of total births in 1995 to 74% in 2006 and 75% in 2007. The secular sector — and particularly the immigrants from the former Soviet Union — has been by and large responsible for such an impressive rise. The Jewish demographic tailwind is bolstered by the (highly under-utilized) potential of immigration — which has increased due to the global economic collapse — from the former USSR, the US, West Europe, Latin America, South Africa, etc…
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch Government Permits Anti-Islam Attacks Again
AMMAN- It seems that Iranian-born Dutch artist, Sooreh Hera, is prepared to take the heat for producing “artwork” which she claims is a provocative approach to religious norms with regards to homosexuality.
Hera’s work is purely based on the idea that the masks she used were meant to represent The Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) and his cousin and son-in-law, Ali bin Abi Taleb (RA).
She recently launched an exhibition for her work titled “Adam and Ewald” in Holland. The Expo was due to be launched on December
Last year, according to the Ammon News website, the director of The Hague Museum cancelled the exhibition after he ascertained that Hera insulted Islam in her art.
Hera claimed that she received threatening emails. An anonymous Jordanian national, residing in Amsterdam, denied that Hera had received these emails. He said that this claim is made by everyone who attacked Islam in order to attract public attention and gain fame.
Ranti Tjan, the director of Museum Gouda, a gallery in the Gouda district in Holland, told the Dutch newspaper, The Times, that ‘freedom of expression is great’ and that he is determined to go ahead and hold the exhibition in his gallery.
On her website Hera said her paintings have an artistic message on the difficulties related to homosexuality and religion and she is trying to portray the ‘beauty of homosexuals which cannot be imagined by many people.’
Many Dutch newspapers republished the cartoons demeaning the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) and the Dutch MP, Geert Wilders, produced a film called “Fitna” insulting the Holy Quran, the Prophet (PBUH) and Islam.
The Dutch media coverage of this issue created an anti-Islam notion among the Dutch people.
Now many Dutch mass media newspapers, no matter what their ideological background, are publishing anti-Islamic news in third world countries reinforcing the stereotype image of Islam as a religion of violence. The Dutch government stands silent on this issue under the pretext that it is freedom of expression.
It is worth mentioning that the Amman-based “Messenger of Allah Unites Us” Campaign filed a lawsuit in April against and asked for compensation from the foreign newspapers that took part in demeaning Islam and Prophet Mohammed (PBUH).
The Campaign also filed a lawsuit against the Dutch MP for producing and releasing his anti-Islam film “Fitna.”
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Hitler and Jihad
By Andrew G. Bostom
A recent report (summarized in translation here) by the Hamburg intelligence service —the Office for the Protection of the Constitution [Verfassungsschutz]— stressed the hostility of the neo-Nazi North German Action Office toward “Anti-Islamification” efforts in Cologne. At the North German Action Office’s [Aktionsbüro Norddeutschland], “campaigns” page website, links are featured with titles such as “National Socialists in Lower Saxony,” “Free! Social! National!,” and “May 1 — Day of struggle for national Socialism.” The Hamburg domestic intelligence report noted the neo-Nazi group’s repeated allusions—commonplace in Nazi “analyses”—to the American “east coast,” which are meant to characterize “Jewish” domination of America and, by extension, the world. And in a statement published on its website (German link) September 25, 2008, five days after an “Anti-Islamification Congress” was banned by Cologne municipal authorities, the North German Action Office elucidated its solidarity with the global jihad:
Inasmuch as it is a determined opponent of the western-plutocratic one-world policy, we regard Islam, globally considered, as an ally against the mammonistic dominance of the American east coast. The freedom of nations is not threatened by Islam, but rather by the imperialism of the USA and its vassals from Jerusalem to Berlin.
Such concordance between Nazism and jihadism reflects an historical continuum evident since the advent of the Nazi movement. This nexus was already apparent in Hitler’s own observations from 1926, elaborated upon over the following decades by both the Nazi leader, and other key Nazi officials, and ideologues. Not surprisingly, there are two predominant, recurring themes in this discourse: jihad as total war, and the annihilationist jihad against the Jews…
| — Hat tip: Andy Bostom | [Return to headlines] |
Synod: Bible Ties Christians and Jews, Dialogue With Islam
(ANSAmed) — VATICAN CITY, OCTOBER 24 — The Synod of bishops at the Vatican, in its conclusive Message, reminded about the brotherhood with the Jewish population starting with the word of God: “In the streets of the world — read in the text of a publication today — the divine Word generates for we Christians an intense encounter with the ‘Judaic people’ with whom we are intimately tied to by the recognition and common love of Scripture of the Old Testament, and because ‘from Israel, Christ was born into the flesh’’. But the tension of the text is for dialogue with various religions, from Judaism to Islam to the eastern religions, avoiding however, syncretism. “The Synod of bishops, in its conclusive message — said Ahmad Gianpiero Vincenzo, president of Intellectual Italian Muslims — returns to giving the correct centrality of dialogue with Jews and Muslims”. “Furthermore — he added — it is growingly evident that there is a necessity for a permanent forum between Jews, Christians, and Muslims which can coordinate and yield various initiatives, which risk, with the lack of a common point of reference, to have a periodical and limited form”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
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