Events seem to be shaping up for a major confrontation between Israel and its various Muslim enemies. Hizbullah now has three times as many missiles in Lebanon as it did at the start of the war in 2006. Hamas is challenging Abu Mazen and continues to launch rocket attacks from Gaza. Some reports claim that Iran will have at least a few nukes operational before the end of next year.So something is going to blow before too long.
Thanks to AA, C. Cantoni, Fausta, Insubria, Islam in Action, JD, Steen, TB, turn, VH, Zenster, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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100,000 Resist Obama in 1st Week of Petition
Growing grassroots resistance says ‘No!’ to Obama’s socialist agenda
“As an American citizen, while I will show respect to President-elect Obama, I oppose the far-Left and socialistic elements that comprise the centerpiece of his agenda. I recognize that it will take a patriotic and resilient Citizen Resistance to block implementation of this agenda and I join with others who oppose these threats to our liberties.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
9-Year-Old Student Charged in Pencil Stabbing
A 9-year-old elementary school student has been charged with seriously injuring a classmate by stabbing her in the back with a pencil on Wednesday, lawmen said.
Cumberland County sheriff’s deputies charged the boy after he stabbed the 10-year-old girl at Cliffdale Road Elementary School, a news release said.
Investigators say the boy stabbed the girl with a pencil, causing a puncture wound on the upper portion of her back.
The boy stabbed the girl after an argument over a pencil box, authorities said.
According to the release, the boy found his missing pencil box in the girl?s possession.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Fed Bail Out Rich Arabs in Citigroup Deal
But Citigroup got $20 billion over the weekend from the Treasury Department without any national debate or discussion at all. The Federal Reserve simply issued a press release on Sunday afternoon announcing that the taxpayers were on the hook not only for the $20 billion but $306 billion in loans to the company. That’s on top of a previous $25 billion invested in the company by the Treasury Department.
[…]
Auto company executives may have flown to Washington, D.C. on private jets, as O’Reilly and others noted, but Saudi Arabian prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who has a major stake in Citigroup and also invests in the Fox News parent company, News Corporation, reportedly lives in a $100-million 317-room Riyadh palace. A nephew of Saudi King Abdullah, Alwaleed has been called the “Warren Buffet of the Gulf” and runs the Kingdom Holding Company.
Is this somebody who should be bailed out by American taxpayers?
The Citigroup bailout demonstrates, once again, that the Federal Reserve does anything it wants with our money, with no accountability to the Congress or the American people.
The Federal Reserve is so out of control that it refuses to comply with a legitimate and lawful Bloomberg News Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for information about nearly $2 trillion in loans extended to foreign banks and other interests during the current financial meltdown.
[…]
Consider the fact that Alwaleed, one of the richest men in the world, not only owns a stake in Citigroup but News Corporation, Time Warner (parent of Time and CNN) and The Walt Disney Company (parent of ABC News).
The stories appearing on Monday about the “rescue” of Citigroup suggest that the media are up to their old tricks of masking the looting of American taxpayers and will not bother to investigate what really happened.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Lawsuit’s Claim: CAIR No Longer Even Exists
Terror-linked Muslim lobby allowed registration to lapse
The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, a pro-Muslim lobby named as an unindicted co-conspirator in one of the largest terror-funding cases ever brought by the U.S. government, continues to operate even though it no longer exists as a corporate entity, according to a lawyer suing the organization.
[…]
CAIR, which receives financial backing from Saudi and Emirati royalty, denies charges that it has a secret agenda to Islamize America. But a Muslim Brotherhood document declassified in the Holy Land case reveals that CAIR’s parent was among Muslim organizations enlisted in a secret plot to destroy the American system from within and eventually take over the country.
Written early last decade in Arabic, the manifesto lays bare the subversive role of CAIR’s forerunner, the Islamic Association for Palestine, and other Muslim groups in America to carry out a “grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house by the hands of the believers, so that it is eliminated and Allah’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”
CAIR’s founder Ahmad, while claiming to be a moderate and patriotic American, last decade told a group of Muslims in Northern California that they are in America to help assert Islam’s rule over the country.
“Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant,” a local reporter quoted him as saying, adding, “The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth.”
Ahmad insists he was misquoted. However, an FBI wiretap transcript quotes Ahmad agreeing with terrorist suspects gathered last decade at the secret Philly meeting to “camouflage” their true intentions.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Rahm’s Plan for Mandatory Service
There has been a small uproar around Obama’s call for a “civilian national security force” especially one “that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded” as the military. But many have said that these words were taken out of context. If you read the whole speech, they argue, it is clear that he just wants to expand the Peace Corp a little bit.
Similarly, there was a mild uproar about his call for mandatory service from students, but many said that the programs were never intended to be mandatory. The college program was optional community service in exchange for a larger education credit, and the high-school one was no different from adding an art class or something to the public high-school curriculum. Obama initially called both mandatory on his change.gov website, but after the buzz began he changed the wording and removed several sections of the site.
But now there is new evidence that the critics are right. He does favor mandatory service and it might be worse than we thought. He has chosen Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff. Rahm Emanuel wrote a book called The Plan in 2006. On page 60-65 of the book Rahm calls for universal conscription of 18-24 year olds for civilian service in order to prepare for a potential terrorist attack.
All Americans between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five will be asked to serve their country by going through three months of basic training, civil defense preparation and community service.
In a 2006 radio interview Rahm explains more about the program. He speaks about the dangers of a chemical attack and about the wonderful common experience that all Americans could have by being drafted for 3 months into a civilian national security force training program. He seems to be using the fear of attack to justify drafting all youth into a militaristic civilian security force �” something more reminiscent of a dictatorship than a democracy. And all of his calls to unity and common experience only confirm his preference for nationalism or collectivism over individualism and freedom.
| [Return to headlines] |
US Convicts Islamic Charity of Funding Terrorism
The leaders of what was once the largest Islamic charity in the United States were found guilty Monday of funneling over $12 million to Palestinian group Hamas, which the U.S. considers a terrorist organization.
In the largest terrorism financing prosecution in American history prosecutors accused the Holy Land Foundation, which closed late in 2001, of using humanitarian aid to promote Hamas and allow it to divert existing funds to militant activities.
Defense attorneys said the charity was a non-political organization which operated legally to get much-needed aid to Palestinians living in squalor under the Israeli occupation and argued that the chief reasons their clients were on trial are family ties.
The defense also argued that the government was caving to Israeli pressure to prosecute the charity and said the case was based on old evidence.
[…]
“It’s hard to accept because I don’t believe the gentlemen are guilty. These guys are the sweetest, clean-hearted people,” John Wolf, a member of support group Hungry for Justice, told the paper, which added Wolf had known the defendants for 12 years.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Virginia:Two Muslims Offer to Sell Missile to FBI Informant
Two Muslim men from Virginia have been arrested in a FBI sting. They were caught trying to sell a missile that could reach the Pentagon. This comes from the same state where a Saudi school for children was busted preaching hatred towards non-Muslims. Virginia was also the home of the former Virginia Jihad Network.
| — Hat tip: Islam in Action | [Return to headlines] |
College Threatens Pro-Life Students With Arrest
University’s lawyers offer choice: Turn signs around or go to jail
Members of a university pro-life club have received a letter from school officials threatening them with fines, arrests and even expulsion if they set up their semiannual display depicting the horrors of abortion.
Each semester since 2006, members of the University of Calgary’s Campus Pro-Life student club, called CPL, have displayed a set of 4-by-8-foot signs from the Genocide Awareness Project that protest abortion.
This semester, however, lawyers for the university sent a menacing letter to CPL informing the students that their signs would only be permitted if turned away from passing foot traffic. Violation of this policy, the letter stated, would make pro-life protesters on campus “subject to arrest, fines or a civil lawsuit.”
CPL students involved in an outward display of the signs, the letter threatened, would also be subject to discipline, including suspension or expulsion.
“Being told to turn our signs inwards is like being told we can express our views as long as nobody can hear us,” CPL declares on its website. “[It’s] like telling black people they can ride the bus ? but demanding they sit at the back. It’s unconscionable!”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Anti-Semitism Arrives in Golders Green
by Hana Levi Julian
(IsraelNN.com) Anti-Semitism has begun to rear its ugly head in northwest London’s Jewish neighborhood of Golders Green.
Jewish students are increasingly being targeted by rock-throwing hate-mongers, according to a report published in The Jewish News. Concerned parents have organized a private bus to transport their children in order to keep them safe from the daily attacks on their way to school.
At the Hendon Park Café, vandals scrawled “dirty Jews” and a swastika on the walls of the eatery. A sketch of a gun and the word “kill” was scrawled alongside it as well.
The unsightly vandalism stunned the upscale neighborhood, including the outraged café owner, Jason Ezekiel, who told The Jewish News, “I was shocked when I saw it… I feel I’ve done something nice for the community. I feel, why target me? They did it at night in an area where they wouldn’t be seen. It was a cowardly act.
“I’ve lived in Golders Green all my life and this is the first I’ve seen of anything like this,” Ezekiel added. “Even the police officer I was speaking with said he hasn’t seen this kind of vandalism in many years.”
As in Israel, however, the incident was not allowed to disrupt business, nor did it remain visible for very long. Ezekiel said the graffiti was painted over by mid-afternoon, as soon as police had come and photographed the evidence, saying, “we didn’t want to encourage the people who did this; we didn’t want them to feel powerful.”
Local authorities strongly condemned the “disgusting incident of racist graffiti” in a statement issued by Barnet Police spokesman DI Alison Turner that appealed to the public to come forth with any information about the perpetrators.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Private Coach for Pupils as Gangs Attack School Buses
From The Jewish Chronicle
In one attack last week, a gang threatened to stab a JFS pupil travelling home to Golders Green, North West London.
The attack, which included the boy’s friends being called “Jewish pigs” and “scum”, follows the throwing of stones at bus windows and antisemitic taunts shouted at youngsters.
Parents have now arranged for a private coach, which already travels to the school from East London, to make an additional stop in Golders Green for youngsters who are now too frightened to catch public buses. It costs around £70 a month for each pupil to use the private service, which currently carries 80 children.
JFS headmaster Jonathan Miller said the incident, on Monday last week, had been taken “very seriously” and that staff had given pupils advice on keeping safe outside school grounds.
The school has 2,000 pupils and is thought to spend more than £130,000 a year on security at its site in Kenton, North West London.
Community Security Trust figures show there were 31 attacks on Jewish pupils travelling to or from UK schools last year…
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch TV Receives Terrorist DVD
The Dutch public broadcasting association NCRV has received a DVD containing threats of terrorist attacks.
The NCRV says it is the same DVD that the Belgian television stations VRT and VTM received on Monday.
That DVD shows three masked and armed men who say they will carry out attacks in Belgium because of its recent decision to send F-16s jets to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan. They say: “Your country will be in a state of chaos and bloodshed, with horrible attacks which can happen at any time and any place.” The DVD cites the terrorist attacks in Madrid, London and New York.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Fatwa Issued Against Italian Politician
A far right Italian politician — nicknamed “The Sheriff” — has reportedly been slapped with a fatwa in response to his anti-Islam, and anti-immigrant, rhetoric. But it may only encourage him.
He likes to express controversial opinions, like the notion that police should “ethnically cleanse” homosexuals or that immigrants in public parks should be “dressed up like rabbits” and used for target practice. But now Giancarlo Gentilini, the deputy mayor of the northeastern Italian city of Treviso, has reportedly had a fatwa declared against him.
“I defend my culture, my religion and civilization without any fear, and so it is natural that I will make some enemies,” Gentilini, who belongs to the anti-immigrant, far-right Northern League party, told the Italian news agency ANSA Friday.
Gentilini’s name can be found on a list of men to be killed on an Islamic Web site based in Lebanon, according to ilpadano.com, a news site with ties to the Northern League. The site’s name is related to the term “Padania,” which the party uses to denote northern Italy.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
First British ID Cards Introduced
The UK has taken the first significant step down the road towards rolling out a controversial new national ID card system.
Foreign students applying to study in Britain and those entering on marriage visas will now have to obtain a biometric identity card.
The Home Office expects 50,000 to 60,000 students will be affected in the first phase between now and March.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said the scheme would demonstrate “our commitment to preventing immigration abuse and protecting the prosperity of the UK”.
However, the move has been criticised by opponents of a national identity card scheme.
They accuse the government of using some of most vulnerable groups in society as guinea pigs for an untried and controversial system.
[…]
Initially this will mean around 200,000 airport workers will be forced to sign up as a condition of employment, because they work in highly sensitive positions.
In 2010, British students will be encouraged to register for an identity card before they open bank accounts.
>From 2012, the cards will become available to the general population.
People applying for a new passport will asked to register their biometric data — although they will be able to opt out of being issued with a card.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Moroccan Arrested in Florence for Beating Wife and Daughter
Florence, 24 Nov. (AKI) — A 28-year-old Moroccan was arrested in the central Italian city of Florence on Monday for abusing his wife and young daughter. He is alleged to have poured boiling oil and stubbed out cigarettes on his wife and having beaten her and their young daughter.
The man’s 25-year-old wife reported the man to the police last week after a particularly savage beating. The man is also alleged to have refused to send the child to school in case the teachers noticed bruises on her body.
She claims she was forced to marry him at the age of 20 and told police that her husband had stubbed out cigarettes on her arms and legs and on one occasion threw a pan of boiling oil over her, causing burns.
The man had no regular job, drank, and had become increasingly violent, his wife told police.
Italy’s Association of Moroccan Women has repeatedly denounced domestic violence against Muslim women in Italy.
The association’s president, Souad Sbai, earlier this year claimed there were women being kept chained up in their homes and girls as young as four or five being forced to wear the Islamic veil all year round.
“The problem of violence towards women in Italy is dire. Although many seek to hide it, violence towards women is growing at an alarming rate,” Sbai said ahead of a march in the Italian capital Rome last November to protest male violence.
The Rome march was attended by thousands of women and 400 women’s associations from across Italy.
Sbai, who is now an MP for the ruling conservative People of Freedom party, has urged specific policies to protect women’s rights.
The average age of the female victims is falling, according to the Italian official statistics agency ISTAT.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Muslim Football Players Make Headlines
Rome, 24 Nov. (AKI) — Ghanian Muslim footballer Sulley Ali Muntari has received a positive response from Italian Muslims after celebrating a goal by performing the Muslim ‘Sujud’ or prostration to God during an important Italian football match. Muntari, who plays for Italy’s Inter Milan, scored the winning 1-0 goal against Juventus on Saturday and thanked God on the field.
“Not because we root for Inter , but because we are Muslims, we cannot do anything but rejoice for the ‘Sujud ash-Shukr’, of Sulley Ali Muntari who reminded all of us how you honour Allah, even on a football field,” said the Italian Muslim website, Islam Online.
“We are certain that Muntari’s example will be important for thousands of young Muslims that make up an important part of the sport in Italy,” said Hamza Piccardo director of Islam-Online.it in an interview with Adnkronos International (AKI).
The position of Sujud — usually performed during prayers — involves having the nose, forehead, hands, knees and toes touching the ground together. The ‘Sujud’ of thankfulness used to be performed by Islam’s Prophet Mohammed, whenever he heard good news that made him happy. He would then perform ‘Sujud’ to thank God for it.
“We always see football players and other athletes who do the sign of the cross when they enter the field, and it pleases us that players from the top league remember their spiritual dimension in the moment of rejoicing,” said Piccardo.
“Contrary to what critics say, Islam is wholly compatible with all healthy lifestyles in the West and Muntari’s case is the proof in its most strong and spectacular way,” concluded Piccardo.
Meanwhile, another Muslim football player, Mohammed Sissoko who plays for Juventus, says he feels proud of being a Muslim and says he fasts during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.
“I am proud of being a Muslim and I follow Ramadan even during the football tournament,” the Malian-born with French citizen Sissoko told the Dubai-based Arab TV network al-Arabiya.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Convert Introduces ‘Islamic Yoga’ to UK
After searching for a year for a fitness routine compatible with her Islamic faith, Fatima Ismael, a 32-year-old British mother of three discovered Rakha, a new yoga-like workout that incorporates Islamic chants rather than Hindu mantras.
The new Islam-inspired total body fitness routine, designed by a British convert, may be the yoga alternative Muslims are searching for following a fatwa, or religious ruling, by a Malaysian sheikh denouncing yoga as un-Islamic.
Rakha, the Arabic term for prosperity, is gaining popularity among British Muslims eager for healthy lifestyles. A basic routine begins stretches and light cardiovascular exercise, which raises energy and increases awareness.
This is followed by a series of steps emulating prayer movements mixed in with tai chi techniques. Yoga breathing and stretching techniques are used throughout the routine to help center the body and relax.
Instead of Hindu mantras, anasheeds or Islam-inspired religious hymns are used to trigger the spiritual state of mind.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
New Alarm Over Prison Overcrowding
Deportation of foreign inmates urged
(ANSA) — Rome, November 24 — Prison workers sounded a fresh alarm on Monday about the dangerous levels of overcrowding in Italian jails. Italy’s two corrections officers’ unions, SAPPE and OSAPP, warned the situation was critical, after figures last week showed a system struggling to cope with a third more prisoners than its official capacity. ‘‘Emergency measures are needed or the whole system will implode,’’ said SAPPE secretary Donato Capece. ‘‘There is also a pressing need for a complete overhaul of the country’s prisons, starting with the expulsion of foreign inmates’’.
OSAPP, which raised the issue last week, said the government’s response had been ‘‘inadequate’’ so far. Justice Minister Angelino Alfano promised new prisons and more officers in response to an OSAPP report that 58,250 prisoners were being housed in facilities designed for 43,000 inmates. But the union said this was not enough. It called for immediate, emergency action to deal with the situation, pointing to Milan and Rome as particularly worrying examples of the problem. Rome’s Rebibbia complex, which has a capacity of 1,270, is now home to 1,470 prisoners. Six to seven inmates are being housed in four-bed rooms, and leisure rooms have been converted into makeshift dormitories, said OSAPP.
The situation in Milan’s San Vittore prison is even worse, the union continued, with 1,300 prisoners in a space designed for just 850 people. OSAPP and SAPPE said the overcrowding meant the guard-inmate ratio was dangerously low, while staff were being forced to do longer hours and additional unpaid work just to keep the facilities functioning. Antigone, a group that campaigns for better jail conditions, highlighted the impact of overcrowding on prisoners.
Antigone chair Patrizio Gonnella said around 1,000 additional prisoners are entering Italian jails each month, adding that revolts were ‘‘inevitable’’ if numbers continued to rise.
The alarm over prison numbers comes less than three years after an amnesty under the last government aimed at easing overcrowding. The pardon was approved with bilateral consensus, with 80% of MPs voting for it despite popular feeling against it. Since then politicians and prison officials have largely ignored the issue, OSAPP leader Leo Beneduci said. Approved in May 2006 by the then new centre-left government, the pardon knocked three years off sentences and led to the release of almost 27,000 inmates.
Some 20% of those released have since been re-arrested for committing fresh crimes.
The pardon also controversially covered all crimes committed before May 2, 2006, making it applicable to past, present and future sentences.
Given the slow pace of the Italian trial system, which allows two appeals before a sentence is considered definitive, the pardon will have an effect for years to come. A recent report released by prison health officials warned that at least 15% of inmates held in Italian jails have AIDS.
The report also revealed that 25% of the country’s inmates have tuberculosis while another 38% suffer from hepatitis.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Protestants Hope to Reform Calvin Image
Switzerland’s Protestant churches have launched the 500-year celebrations of the birth of John Calvin, a formative figure in the Reformation.
The organisers hope the year of events will challenge people’s often-negative image of Calvin, who transformed Geneva into a base for French Protestantism and an intellectual centre of Europe.
Officials from the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, the Swiss Protestant Church Federation and from Reformed congregations from around the world launched the commemorative year on Sunday at the Reformers’ Wall in Geneva.
“Calvin, the visionary Reformer, sparked off a movement which has spread to the four corners of the Earth: more than 80 million Christians living in 107 countries today acknowledge his legacy,” said Setri Nyomi, the general secretary of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches.
Calvin was a French Protestant theologian and a central developer of Calvinism, or Reformed theology. In Geneva, where he sought exile from 1536 to his death in 1564, his ministry both attracted other Protestant refugees and over time made Geneva a major force in the spread of Reformed theology.
Organisers of the anniversary year are planning a series of public exhibitions, plays, lectures and concerts. The high point of the year is an official ceremony in Geneva on July 10, 2009, the 500th anniversary of the reformer’s birth, to which key religious and political figures are invited.
The organisers are hoping these events will help redress some of the clichés and unfavourable images surrounding Calvin…
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Rabat: Dutch-Moroccans Should Integrate
Morocco’s Foreign Minister Taieb Fassi Fihri has told his Dutch counterpart Maxime Verhagen that Rabat does not want to impede the integration of Moroccans living in the Netherlands into Dutch society. Foreign Minister Verhagen is currently on a visit to Morocco.
The foreign ministers have already signed an agreement strengthening cooperation on a number of issues, including illegal immigration, the drug trade and terrorism. They also discussed Rabat’s influence on imams working in the Netherlands. Minister Fassi Fihri said Rabat only wants to help and he called on Moroccans living in the Netherlands to integrate fully into Dutch society.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Crucifix; Minister, if Offensive to be Removed
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, NOVEMBER 25 — “Any symbol at all that might offend anyone has to be removed”. Thus Spain’s Minister of Education, Social Policy and Sport, Mercedes Cabrera, speaking on Radio Cadena Ser, commented on the sentence passed down by the Valladolid administrative court, which upheld an appeal by lay parents to have the crucifix removed from a school’s classrooms. The discussion over the wisdom or otherwise of removing religious symbols, according to Ms Cabrera “is resolved for us in our constitution, which says that Spain is a non-confessional nation and therefore, its schools must be so as well”. In an interview published today on ABC, the Education Minister stressed that the Government “respects the ruling, as it has done others of the kind” and she pointed out that “parents and school advisors have the right to call for religious symbols to be removed”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Condom Ad Banned by Gothenburg Transit Agency
Bus and tram passengers in Gothenburg have been spared riding in cars with an advertisement featuring two young men which asks, “Do you want to see us put on a condom?”
Västtrafik, which operates public transit in Sweden’s second largest city, has put a stop to the ad, which is part of a campaign for UMO.se, a new web-based helpline for young people.
The ad features two young men and provides a text messaging code which allows people to download a short film featuring a tongue in cheek demonstration of how to put on a condom.
According to Västtrafik, the ad has been banned because it could be considered offensive, reports the newspaper Metro.
But Love Nordenmark from UMO.se believes Västtrafik has missed the point of the ads.
“The point of the campaign is to have young people know how to find UMO.se, where they can get accurate, clear information about safe sex, among other things,” she said in a statement.
“UMO wants to encourage condom use in a playful way and in so doing contribute to fewer people being infected by sexually transmitted diseases.”
Nordenmark added that the ads had been tested in a focus group and were found to be entertaining and provocative.
Public transit systems in Stockholm and Malmö have allowed the controversial ad to run.
While not allowing the condom ad, Västtrafik has approved a different UMO.se ad featuring a girl with the text, “Do you want to see me do something I like?”
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Security High for Visit of Rushdie and Saviano
Swedish police have put additional security measures in place for the appearance on Tuesday evening at a seminar in Stockholm of two of the world’s most endangered authors, Salman Rushdie and Roberto Saviano.
“We have at a dialogue with the organizers about the security arrangements,” police spokesman Ulf Göranzon tolld news agency TT.
The two writers are in the Swedish capital to participate in a discussion hosted by the Swedish Academy on ‘Freedom of speech and lawless violence’.
Roberto Saviano was forced into hiding after his book, Gomorrah, sparked death threats from the Neapolitan Camorra. In his home country, the writer has been provided with armed body guards for round the clock protection.
The Italian author is also planning to remain in the city for the Swedish premiere on Tuesday of a film adaptation of the controversial book at the Stockholm Film Festival.
Salman Rushdie was issued with a fatwah, or death sentence, in 1989 by the Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran following the publication of The Satanic Verses.
“Wherever they move in public, we’ll be there,” said Göranzon of the two writers.
He also confirmed the involvement of the Swedish security police, Säpo, in the security operation.
“There is an ongoing exchange of experiences, with Säpo among others,” said Göranzon.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Neo-Nazi Party Undergoes Makeover
The National Socialist Front (NSF), one of the dominant groups within Sweden’s white-power movement, has disbanded and is re-launching itself as the Folkfronten (‘People’s Front’) party.
“On Saturday, November 22nd, the National Socialist Front (NSF) decided to transfer all of its assets to the newly started People’s Front party as we feel this party has the ability to rebuild a Swedish Sweden. This also means a closing of the books for the National Socialist Front,” the group writes on its website.
According to the magazine Expo, the group has done away with all references to Hilter, but continues to fight for an ethnically homogeneous Sweden.
According to the party’s platform, ethnic Swedes own the right to the country because they share the “same genes and same blood” which belonged to people who “for thousands of years have worked the same earth”.
The party’s aim, therefore, is to “return to the Swedes their power and their rights”.
The new party will be led by two long-time activists in NSF’s national organization, Daniel Höglund and Anders Ärleskog.
The NSF was founded in 1994, but has been without a leader since 1999 when Anders Högström, the group’s leader at the time, surprised his colleagues and the country by announcing he was giving up on Nazism.
The violent radical right wing in Sweden has been in a state of flux and infighting between factions hoping to win over the few committed activists, similar to developments which have taken place among fringe groups on the left.
According to Säpo, Sweden’s security police, the competition has forced the NSF to re-launch itself as a parliamentary alternative, leaving other groups to continue taking the struggle to the streets.
While Folkfronten calls itself a party, it has no plans to participate in the democratic process, according to its newly launched website.
“The party does not participate in the ‘debates’ of parliamentary democracy about the fleeting, irrelevant, theoretical, splitting of hairs, but instead will work for the long term interests of ethnic Swedes,” writes the party.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
The Turkish Question
by Paul Belien
[…]
There are strong indications that the EU establishment in Brussels already considers Turkey to be a member of the European club in all but name. Turkish ministers are already allowed to participate in EU deliberations.
According to Pierre Lellouche, a parliamentarian of France’s governing party whom President Sarkozy has given the task of “relaunching Franco-Turkish relations,” Islamism will be defeated by bringing Turkey into Europe. “We have next door to us, a great secular Muslim country that wants to share our values. It is making the necessary reforms. We would be crazy to say no,” Mr Lellouche says.
He is, however, opposed to putting the matter of Turkey’s EU admission before the French electorate in a referendum because this is “to pollute the debate” with the fear of Islam. “Some play around with the fear factor: that is unworthy. Turkey is not Islamism or terrorism. Because of the fear of Islam and of Arabs, we are saying no for the wrong reasons.”
The question, however, is whether those who say yes to Turkey are not doing so for the wrong reason, namely to prove their point that Islam and democracy are compatible.
Why is it that, after 13 centuries of preserving European identity by opposing Muslim attempts to conquer Europe, some claim that Europe can only preserve its identity, its values and its freedoms by opening its doors to Turkey? Why can Turkey not remain free and democratic and “share our values” without becoming European? Is representative democracy only possible in Europe? Is secularism Europe’s only defining element?
Does it serve the interests of democracy and the West that the largest member state of the EU is an Islamic country, when ordinary Europeans oppose it? Is so, why should it not serve the interests of democracy and the West that Mexico becomes the largest member state of the USA? Does the religion of the Turks — even those of the secularized Muslims — matter to ordinary Europeans? Yes, it does. It matters as much as the language of the Hispanics matters to ordinary Americans. Only politicians intent on changing the nature of the peoples they were elected to represent do not care about such things.
| — Hat tip: AA | [Return to headlines] |
UK Middle Class to Face 61% Tax to Fund Bailouts
High earners face increased National Insurance payments and a new supertax under a raft of measures announced in today’s pre-Budget report.
As widely predicted, Alistair Darling introduced a new top level of tax, which will be imposed on people earning over £150,000 a year. They will pay 45p in the pound, up from 40p, from April 2011.
Less anticipated though was the clawback of the personal allowance for higher earners, which will see some taxpayers effectively paying paying 60p in the £1, according to leading accountants. These changes will not just affect the 1pc of taxpayers earning more than £150,000 a year. It will potentially affect 650,000 people earning more than £100,000 a year. To further rub salt into the wound these higher earners will also pay an additional 1pc in National Insurance costs, giving an effective taxation rate of 61pc — a rate not seen since the late 1980s.
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Bosnia: Radical Muslims Arrested for Entering Church
Sarajevo, 24 Nov. (AKI) — Bosnian police arrested two Muslims allegedly linked to a radical ‘Wahabi’ sect after they sought access to a Catholic church in Sarajevo on Sunday. Inspector Dragan Miokovic confirmed on Monday two men were detained by police.
Church of Trinity vicar Ivan Ravlic said the two men knocked on the door of the church late Saturday and asked to see inside the building.
“My answer was that there was no need for them to look at the church at that late hour and that was when they explained they were disturbed by the church bell,” Ravlic said.
The church has its own surveillance system and Ravlic submitted video material to the police.
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Oil: Russian Lukoil Investes in Croatia
(ANSAmed) — ROME, NOVEMBER 21 — The large Russian oil company Lukoil has announced that it intends to open 150 petrol stations in Croatia and an oil terminal on the Adriatic coast by 2011. This was reported by the trade commission office in Zagreb. The Russian company, which has already invested USD 70 million in the local market in 2008, acquired the local oil company Europa MIL this spring, thus becoming the owner of 14 points of sale in Croatia and a terminal for the transhipment of oil in Vukovar, on the Danube. Moreover, Lukoil has announced that it intends to be the second-largest company in the local oil market by 2011 after the INA-MOL group. (ANSAmed).
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Serbia-Russia: Energy Deal Talks at Ministerial Level
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, NOVEMBER 21 — Talks on the energy agreement between Serbia and Russia that have been held over the last few days in Belgrade will move next week to Moscow, reports radio B92. Ministers will take over the negotiations from the expert groups. The Serbian delegation will include Deputy Prime Minister Ivica Dacic, Mining and Energy Minister Petar Skundric and Infrastructure Minister Milutin Mrkonjic, while the Russian side will be headed by Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu. The Serbian are going into the talks in Moscow on the basis of the hitherto unrevealed negotiating platform adopted by the government yesterday. Nor is it clear whether the two sides have agreed on any of the details of the gas agreement in Belgrade over the last few days. Under the initial plan, the agreement was due to have been signed no later than the end of the year, though the Russians expect it to happen earlier. The dialogue will continue in Moscow on Monday, but Trade and Services Minister Slobodan Milosavljevic would only reveal that the Serbian delegation had a pre-formulated platform. “I think one of the issues up for discussion with Minister Shoigu will be the gas-oil arrangement, and this is a chance for a solution to be reached in direct talks between the two co-presidents of the mixed commission, and for the interests of both sides to be satisfied in the best possible manner,” he underlined. Like Milosavljevic, nor was Russian Ambassador to Belgrade Aleksandr Konuzin keen to discuss the finer points of the talks. All that is known for the moment is that Gazprom representatives have accepted the pension plan and collective agreement for Serbian Oil Industry (NIS) employees. The most important issue, however, remains up in the air how the Russian side reacted to the government’s latest proposal to increase the investment in NIS and for the sale of the company to be tied in with the construction of the South Stream pipeline. (ANSAmed).
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EU Bids to Bring Africa Into Immigration Pact
(PARIS) — European Union ministers sought Tuesday to enlist counterparts from 27 African countries in a new effort to curb the flood of illegal immigration.
EU leaders last month adopted a new immigration pact, largely with France’s input, that seeks to tailor policies of the 27-nation bloc to meet labour needs while tightening the screws on illegal residents.
But African governments view the shift with unease, concerned that “Fortress Europe” is toughening its stance as they struggle with a food crisis at home.
“A policy on migration cannot be defined without or against Africa, but rather with Africa,” French Immigration Minister Brice Hortefeux told the opening of the EU-Africa ministerial conference in Paris.
“The objective of the European pact is to avoid a Europe that is a bunker or a sieve.”
“A willingness to hold a dialogue must be at the centre of our migration patterns,” he added, noting that two thirds of immigrants in France are from Africa.
Ministers are to adopt a cooperation programme for the next three years to step up the fight against illegal immigration and also look at development programmes to create work opportunities for Africans at home.
Moroccan Foreign Minister Taieb Fassi Fihri called on Europeans to be “realistic”, arguing that tough immigration laws would not discourage migrants from trying to reach Europe.
“We urge, we demand that our northern partners opt for a constructive and open stance,” he said, and called for “opening up legal immigration channels” as way to combat illegal flows.
Alain Bedouma Yoda, the foreign minister of Burkina-Faso, said more development projects were needed to bolster prospects at home and an easing of entry regulations to combat human-trafficking.
Some 80 delegations are taking part in a one-day meeting including the 27 nations of the European Union and 27 from northern, western and central Africa.
In the run up to the meeting, a coalition of 300 non-governmental organisations called “Bridges, not Walls” had denounced the EU’s new immigration stance as “essentially security-driven and self-serving.”
The European Pact on Immigration and Asylum adopted in October sets out principles for managing migration, fighting illegal immigration and forming partnerships with countries where people leave or travel through to get to Europe.
Rights groups charge that the new pact is repressive and puts too much emphasis on regulating immigration flows to allow more skilled workers and fewer refugees.
Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade this month used the historic win of Barack Obama, the first African American in the White House, to take a swipe at the EU’s new immigration pact.
“Why did they do that? They did it to close the doors to black people except for officials, managers, engineers, doctors: the people they need. There the racism disappears,” he said.
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Turkey, Germany Sign Deal on Financial Aid
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, NOVEMBER 4 — Turkish and German officials have signed an agreement on a 19.7 million euro loan and grant, a statement from the Turkish Treasury said as reported by Anatolia news agency. The deal was signed by German Ambassador in Ankara Eckart
z and Undersecretary for the Turkish Treasury Ibrahim Canakci, and it sealed a 18.7 million euro loan and one million euros grant from the German government. The loan and the grant will be allocated for water treatment projects and for funding small-scale enterprises. (ANSAmed).
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Cairo Film Fest Brings Islam to the Big Screen
A group of media students from Cairo University stood at the ticket counter of Good News Cinema waiting to purchase their tickets to Return to Hansala, the last of five films featured at the 32nd Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) under the newly added theme Islam in the International Cinema.
Even prior to watching the film, scepticism about the accuracy and fairness of portraying Islam and Muslims in Western media was high.
“How different will it be from other movies we have seen?” was Mahmud Shafi’s rhetorical question. “These movies try to understand Islamic culture but always end up resorting to stereotypes to wrap up a story,” 20-year-old Shafi told AlArabiya.net as he waited in line.
The festival, which kicked off on last Tuesday, has a history of launching new artistic initiatives every year to further develop the Arab film industry. It is the only Arab festival belonging to the International Federation of Film, which includes Cannes and 11 other major festivals.
“For this year’s competition we added two new categories which we found pressing and timely: Human Rights Films and Islam in International Cinema,” Egyptian media critic and CIFF Jury member Yusuf Sherif Rizqullah told AlArabiya.net.
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Violence Against Women: Algeria; Phenomenon on the Rise
(by Laura De Santi) (ANSAmed)- ALGIERS, NOVEMBER 24 — More than 4,500 cases of violence against women have been registered in Algeria in the first six months of the year, double compared to 2001. Numbers that are far away from reality in a country where due to fear and shame, most of the victims remain silent. According to data presented by the judiciary police headquarters, between January and June of 2008, about 2,700 women suffered physical violence, 1,400 cruelties, and 144 rapes. Four women were killed: two by their husband, one by their brother, and one by their father. “Indiscriminate violence is suffered by women of all ages”, revealed Commissioner Messaoudene Kheira, of the National Office for the Fight Against Infantile Delinquency, and Woman’s Protection, underlining that most of the victims do not follow up after reporting violence. “There are numerous cases in which they do not return to hand in the medical certificate requested to complete the report”, specified an officer, condemning a society “that judges and accuses woman, always, even when they are victims”. Among the cases of violence registered in the first 6 months of this year: 72% were carried out by “presumed” strangers, 15.8% by husbands, 4.21% by boyfriends, 3.21% by brothers, 2.9% by a son, and 0.77% by fathers. As for age of the victims: 28% are between 26 and 35 years old, 25pct between 18 and 25, 21% between 36 and 45, 13% between 46 and 55, and even cases of violence carried out on women over the age of 75 (1.7%) as well as woman between 56 and 65 (5.9%). “We know that in Algeria, the victims remain silent, and the phenomenon of family violence is the most widespread of those in the statistics”, said the president of the government Commission for Human Rights, Farouk Ksetini, speaking on the day against violence against woman in the world, reported Aps. A new law that allows “a simple witness, neighbours, doctors, to report it”, could for Ksentini mark a change in the fight against this type of violence. Current legislation allows only for the victim, in this case the woman, to present a report. The problem in Algeria remains the “Family Code” which since 1984 regulates family life giving women second class citizenship. “Why instead of thinking about an article for the constitution, don’t we abolish which ‘Code of Infamy’?, ask Algerian feminist associations. The revision of the constitution, approved on November 12th and centred on the elimination of a two mandate limit for the president of the republic, introduced and article to “support a greater participation of women”. But the in new government “despite reform, there are only three women” was the title a few days ago of the front page of independent newspaper ‘Le Soir d’Algerié. (ANSAmed)
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Women Violence: Maghreb; Too Many Inequalities in Couples
(by Cristiana Missori) (ANSAmed) — ROME, NOVEMBER 24 — Ignorance, suspicion, fear of social conventions, and masculine biases force Maghreb women to live out their marriages in a condition of inferiority compared to men. Saying this is the latest report by Global Rights, an international support organisation for the respect of human rights which for 30 years has been working together with local activists to oppose all kinds of injustices. Despite recent reforms in the family code which is in effect in Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria — read from a study done by doing singular and interviews, groups of women in the three countries, asking them to express their opinions on their marriage contract — the rights of married women are too often trampled. Laws — continued the study — like those which formally introduced equality between spouses in terms of rights and duties of the couple (towards their children and the management of family issues), which provide for the spouses to opt for a communal estate, or which sanction the elimination of marital protection for women (Morocco and Tunisia), and the ending of repudiation practices (not in Algeria where, among other things, polygamy has not banned) have been enacted. All regulations that are not widely applied or are completely ignored. Women, as the report highlights, are confused, and are not able to distinguish between what the law and common sense allow for them, and that which descends from customs and practices handed down for generations. In a majority of the cases, for example — wrote Global Rights — those interviewed ignored the content of the signed contract when they were wed, others know little more than that the text has the name of both spouses on it. Many believe that only the contract only concerns the man and only he should be concerned with conservation the document, while in many cases, the contract has been signed “in absentia”. In Zagora, in Morocco, reported Global Rights, only 1% of brides have admitted to have had anything to do with the contract, while in Tunisia, in Zaghouan, 90pct were completely without a contract. Many of the women were misinformed and confused. Like in Marrakech or Tetouan, where respectively from 70% to 80% of those interviewed did not know that, following the reform of the 2004 family code, it is possible to enter specific clauses into the Moroccan matrimonial contract. Those who knew more about the contract — confirmed the report — were young, educated women (between 28 and 38 years old). Sometimes, women are forced to hide this piece of paper from their husbands and/or family members, in order to protect themselves and their children. Their worst enemy, other than ignorance, is the mentality that still prevails in the Maghreb. Impeding wives, reminded the organisation, are adouls (officers of Muslim rights with notary functions), the state officials and judges who always favour men to the detriment of women. (ANSAmed)
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Barak: Hizbullah Now Three Times Stronger Than in 2006 War
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told the Knesset on Monday that Lebanon’s Hizbullah resistance group is three times stronger now than it was during the summer 2006 war. “The firepower of Hizbullah has grown threefold since the second Lebanon war,” he said.
“It has missiles that can reach the towns of Ashkelon, Beersheba and Dimona [in southern Israel more than 200 kilometers from the Lebanese border]. Today Hizbullah has 42,000 missiles,” Barak told MPs.
Hizbullah fired nearly 4,000 rockets at northern Israel during the 34-day war in the summer of 2006, killing 160 people, the great majority of them soldiers. Israel carried out tens of thousands of air and artillery strikes, and spread about 4 million cluster bomblets, killing at least 1,200 people, most of them civilians, including hundreds of women and children.
Barak also renewed warnings issued by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert earlier this year that in any new war Israel would take even tougher action against Lebanon’s civilian infrastructure than it did in 2006. During that conflict, the Jewish state pounded civilian infrastructure, including schools, a power station, Beirut’s airport, dozens of bridges and thousands of homes. […]
“To all the warmongers I say: you have nothing to teach me about war or peace or my duties,” said Barak, a reserve general and former army chief. “I am defense minister, not war minister, and my job is to maintain as far as possible the maximum of security for Israeli citizens. In any case, if a pre-emptive operation proves necessary, the army will act.” […]
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Hamas Terrorist Threatens Palestinian Leader
‘We warn everyone of the consequences of giving him legitimacy’
TEL AVIV — Any agreement signed between Israel and the Palestinian Authority will not be recognized by the vast majority of the Palestinian people and will not be respected by terrorist groups here, a senior terrorist leader claimed to WND in an exclusive interview yesterday.
Muhammad Abdel-Al, spokesman and a top leader of the Hamas-allied Popular Resistance Committees terror group in Gaza, also took the occasion of the interview to threaten PA President Mahmoud Abbas against attempting to stay in office after his term expires in January.
“We warn everyone of the consequences of any attempt to give Abbas legitimacy after January 9th, because it will have very bad consequences toward Abbas, who in six weeks will not have any authority over the Palestinian people,” he said.
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Hizbullah Denies Carrying Out Military Maneuvers in South
Hizbullah denied on Sunday media reports that it had conducted military drills south of the Litani River over the weekend. The pan-Arab satellite news channel Al-Arabiya reported that Hizbullah had conducted secret military maneuvers north and south of the Litani River on Saturday morning while Lebanon was celebrating its 65th Independence Day with a parade organized by the Lebanese Armed Forces in downtown Beirut.
“The resistance is always ready to counter any Israeli offense, but the latest reports are the fruits of the imagination of Al-Arabiya television,” Hizbullah MP Nawwar Sahili told The Daily Star on Sunday.
Al-Arabiya said that the maneuvers had focused on force deployment in mountainous areas and did not include any live-fire exercises. But the channel’s report added that holding such exercises south of the Litani would constitute a breach of the terms of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which bans armed activities in the area.
UN Resolution 1701, which ended the summer 2006 war with Israel, called for a cessation of hostilities and the establishment between the Blue Line and the Litani River of an area free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons other than those of the Lebanese government and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
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Jordan Sends Aid to Besieged Gaza Strip
(ANSAmed) — KING HUSSEIN BRIDGE (JORDAN), NOVEMBER 24 — Jordanian officials today oversaw the departure of 10 trucks of humanitarian aid to Gaza strip through the West Bank of Jericho following the deterioration of conditions in the besieged coastal enclave. More than 10 trucks loaded with basic food items and medicine crossed king Hussein Bridge that links the kingdom with the west Bank, said Mohammad Majed Eitan, Secretary General of Jordan Hashemite Organization, the official body responsible for collecting aid. He told ANSA that more aid will be on its way to Gaza, expressing hope that Israel will not put obstacles infront of the convoy. “Ten trucks loaded with necessary food items and medical supplies have left for Gaza. There is another convoy ready to leave in 48 hours. The only obstacle to sending aid is the crossing points when they are closed,” said Eitan. Gaza has been sealed since November 4, as Israel cut food and fuel supplies, when its troops raided the area to destroy what the army described as a tunnel built by militants to kidnap Israeli soldiers. Israel and Hamas have said they want to improve the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire, which began on June 19 and calls on Hamas to halt rockets firing and other attacks against the Jewish state. More than a dozen Palestinian militants have been killed and scores of rockets and mortar shells have been launched at Israel since a few weeks. UNRWA, the UN agency responsible for caring for Palestinian refugees, last week warned of a human catastrophe in Gaza if the current blockade persists, calling on Israeli authorities to open borders with the coastal enclave. In the past three years, Jordan sent 242 aid convoys, involving around 1,500 trucks to the Palestinian territories. Oil rich Arab states use Jordan’s political ties with Israel as a bridge to deliver aid to Palestinians. Jordan is the second Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel after Egypt. (ANSAmed).
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Lebanon to be Ruled by Syria if March 14 Loses Poll — Jumblatt
Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt warned on Monday that a defeat for the March 14 Forces in parliamentary elections slated for next spring would mean a return of Syrian rule to Lebanon. “We are approaching pivotal and decisive elections,” Jumblatt, a leader of the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority in Beirut, told reporters after meeting with Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir.
“Now more than ever, the movement for a free, independent and sovereign Lebanon… and a [state] monopoly over weapons and equal relations with Syria are at risk,” he said.
The thorny issue of Hizbullah’s arms remains a major stumbling block for Lebanon’s rival leaders, while the Iran-backed Shiite group maintains its weapons are essential to defend the country against Israel. “If this movement for sovereignty fails in the elections, then Rustom Ghazali [the former head of Syrian military intelligence in Lebanon] will run Lebanon from an office in Syria,” Jumblatt added.
Damascus maintained an almost three-decade military presence in Lebanon before being forced to withdraw after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005. While the two neighbors have announced the establishment of diplomatic relations for the first time in history, relations remain tense. […]
“The new administration wants to loosen its disengagement of Syria or return to normal relations with Syria,” Jumblatt told reporters. “As the Cedar Revolution, we need to be careful not to allow activity on the Syrian-Israeli track to come at the expense of Lebanon.” […]
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Middle East: Abu Mazen ‘Palestine President’, Hamas Protest
(by Aldo Baquis) (ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, NOVEMBER 24 — Relations between Ramallah and Gaza are even more strained after Abu Mazen (Mahmud Abbas) agreed to hold the position which Yasser Arafat held of ‘President of the State of Palestine’’, going one step further than that of ‘Chairman of the Palestinian National Authority’. The first title comes out of the unilateral proclamation of Palestinian independence in 1988 and has been vacant since the death of Arafat in 2004. The other title comes from the agreement to recognition by Israel in 1993. But for Hamas, Abu Mazen’s appointment is a simple “political expedient”. Hamas repeated today from Gaza that Abu Mazen’s mandate expires in January 2009, four years after his election. After which, it will be necessary to choose another president. In his first speech as President of Palestine, shown on State TV, Abu Mazen displayed great determination. He immediately paid homage to Arafat and said that “one day the Palestinian flag will fly on the walls of Jerusalem, on its churches and minarets”. Then moving on to questions of a more immediate nature, he stressed the need to defend the unity of the Palestinian people against the “military coup of Gaza” or Hamas. If these think they can decide for a whole population, he exclaimed “they are fooling themselves, fooling themselves, fooling themselves”. After taking central command, police stations and refugee camps by force in June 2007, they now want “to create a separatist regime in our beloved Gaza” he complained: but this objective will not be realised, he promised. Finally Abu Mazen repeated the ultimatum launched yesterday: if Hamas does not repair relations with Ramallah by the end of 2008 it will be necessary in the coming months to hold new political and presidential elections in the Territories. Hamas replied to this speech by launching fresh barbs against Abu Mazen’s character. The election as President of Palestine, said Islamic MP Sallah al-Bardawil, has no value. The central Council of the PLO which ‘crowned’ him yesterday “represents only itself”. In the meantime the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains serious, after 20 days of the passes being closed by Israel over a recent outbreak of incidents at the borders and Palestinian rocket launches. Today the Defence Minister Ehud Barak agreed to the introduction of thirty lorries of provisions and medicines and new fuel supplies for industry. But the block against people is still in effect today: as a result the foreign press association in Israel has gone to the High Court of Jerusalem. (ANSAmed).
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Mideast: Mahmoud Abbas, Vote in Territories, Hamas Says No
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, NOVEMBER 24 — The crisis between the president of the Palestinian authority, Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and the leaders of Hamas is reaching the moment of truth. In a speech to the Central Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Ramallah, Abu Mazen revealed that he wanted to set a deadline: if a common platform between the PNA and Hamas (which has been openly dissident since June 2007, when they seized the Gaza Strip by force) is not reached, then there will be new general and presidential elections set for the Territories at the start of 2009. In less than an hour, Abbas received the following unequivocal response from Hamas’ Mahmud a-Zahar, a local leader of the group: ‘‘Mahmoud Abbas has no right to order elections. Once more he ignores the Palestinian Legislative Coucil (PLC — the Territories’ parliament), once more he is trying to break the law’’. According to Hamas, the mandate of Abbas runs out in January 2009, four years after his election. In the past the president has upheld that he should remain in his post until the start of 2010 — when the PLC mandate will come to a close — in order to hold general and presidential elections at the same time. Yesterday, Mahmoud Abbas seemed to be taking a step backwards when he suggested that elections could be held as soon as next year. Abbas has told the members of PLO Central Committee that he has not yet given up hope of finding common ground with Hamas, but clarified that there were new ideas being brought to the table by Egypt. Egypt has suggested the formation of a transitional government which will allow both political and geographical schism between Ramallah and Gaza. Furthermore, the new plans foresee a reform of the Palestinian security services. But the problems still remain. Hamas has rejected the idea that Abbas’ executive ‘‘is based on the politics of the PLO’’ which in fact contains the recognition of Israel, the Oslo Accords and the Quartet peace treaty. For Ismail Haniyeh and Mahmud a-Zahar this amounts to admitting defeat. Hamas sees ‘‘a dangerous readiness to fulfill Israeli and United States’ expectations’’ in the president of the PNA’s government. (ANSAmed).
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Mideast: PLO Proclaims Mahmoud Abbas ‘Palestinian President’
(ANSAmed) — RAMALLAH, NOVEMBER 24 — The Central Council of the Plo (Palestinian Liberation Organization) yesterday with a wide majority proclaimed Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) ‘President of the State of Palestine’, and not just President of the Palestinian National Authority anymore, reported Palestinian newspaper al-Quds today. The announcement of the Plo, added the newspaper, came from Salim Zaanun, according to whom, the official responsibility of ‘President of the State of Palestine’ was vacant after the dead of Yasser Arafat on November 11th, 2004. Starting today, the role will be filled by Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) who for the occasion, is expected to address the nation. From Gaza, Hamas immediately reacted negatively observing that it is “only a manoeuvre” of Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) to ignore the January 2009 expiration of his mandate as PNA president. (ANSAmed).
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Saudi Arabia’s Turn to be Accused of Funding Fatah Al-Islam
After denials from Damascus and fury from the Future Movement, Saudi Arabia has become the latest powerbroker in Lebanon to find itself accused of funding members of the Fatah al-Islam militant group.
An intelligence analysis published by Stratfor, a Texas-based company dubbed the “shadow CIA” by some, claims that Riyadh has been channeling money to Abdul Rahman Awad, a fugitive militant currently thought to be holed up at the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in Sidon.
The Stratfor report says that Fatah al-Islam had “long been sponsored by Syrian military intelligence,” but claims Damascus has recently cut its links with the group in an effort to build ties with new President Michel Sleiman.
But Syrian support for the group has been replaced, the report says, by that of Saudi Arabia, whose operatives are accused of seeking to stir up anti-Syrian sentiment in Lebanon. The report notes that Riyadh and Damascus are “locked in a battle for influence over Lebanon.” […]
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Terrorism: Saudi Arabia to Issue New Law Against it
(ANSAmed) — ROMA, NOVEMBER 24 — The Experts Committee in the Saudi Council of Ministers is currently studying a draft law to punish those involved in terrorism and other criminal activities that undermine the country’s security, Arab News reported today. The discussion on the draft law, which should be approved soon, comes at a time when a security court in Riyadh is looking into the files of 991 suspects of being involved in terrorist operations across the Kingdom since May 2003. An informed source emphasized the need for such a law after the Kingdom’s judicial authorities issued different verdicts against people involved in crimes that undermine state security. Those involved in such crimes will be given a maximum sentence of capital punishment, the source added. Until recently, crimes related to state security had been looked into by general courts. Saudi Arabia has announced plans to set up specialized courts for traffic, trade and personal matters. Interior Minister Prince Naif said that the “criminal murderers” had carried out more than 30 terror attacks in the Kingdom, and described the various crimes of bombing, kidnapping and terrorizing people as crimes of ‘Haraba’ a Qùranic term for “sowing corruption and chaos on earth”. In the meantime, the Supreme Judiciary Council has appointed a six-member team of experienced judges led by Abdul Mohsen Al-Asheikh, chief judge of the security court, to study the files of terror suspects. The study of the suspects’ files will take time, the source said, adding that it would be completed by the third quarter of next year. Maximum security measures will be taken when the suspects are brought to the court for trial. According to one source, there is a shortage of judges in the Ministry of Justice and this might delay the actual hearings. Minister of Justice Abdullah Al-Asheikh said that extra precautionary measures had been taken in order to ensure privacy and maximum trial security. The Justice Ministry will provide details of the closed sessions to local and international media. The accused will have the right to hire lawyers for their defense in accordance with Saudi law, but number of lawyers have reportedly refused to defend suspects charged with terrorism. (ANSAmed).
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Terrorism: Syria and Iran Benefit From Al-Qaeda, Says Jihadi Leader
Cairo, 24 Nov. (AKI) — Syria and Iran are happy about the existence of Al-Qaeda because its members attack their enemies for them, according to the leader of Islamic jihad in Egypt, Sayed Abdel Qader ibn Abdelaziz. Abdelaziz, also known as Doctor Fazel, makes his claims in a new book, excerpts of which are published in the Arab daily, Al-Sharq al-Awsat.
“There is no doubt that Syria and Iran are among the happiest about the existence of the Al-Qaeda organisation, because if it was not for them (Al-Qaeda), they would have to recruit people willing to blow up those who strike their interests,” he said.
The book entitled, ‘Memo on Exoneration’, has reportedly been written in response to several attacks launched against him by Al-Qaeda’s second in command, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, several months ago.
In this way, the Egyptian leader intends to refute the affirmations of Al-Zawahiri.
“The contrary is true. They are responsible for allowing the United States to enter Iraq and Afghanistan and the subsequent occupation,” Fazel said. “They gave the Americans false information about their relations with Iraq and the presence of weapons of mass destruction to give them the excuse to invade the country.
“They did that only to exhaust the Americans on the battlefield even if those from Al-Qaeda have killed double the number of Iraqis than the United States.”
The Islamic jihadi leader condemned the sectarian clashes in Iraq and said they had played a “destructive” impact on Muslims.
“We see how that is happening in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and in Waziristan in Pakistan. Iran and Syria are now taking advantage of all these deaths to pave the way for whoever wants to conduct jihad in Iraq.
“Do they do it perhaps for love of the Iraqi people or their interests? Don’t the top leaders of Al-Qaeda live in Iran, like the son of Bin Laden, who incite young people to fight in Iraq? Wasn’t Al-Zawahiri the one who sent his brothers to fight in Egypt, paid by the Sudanese secret service?.”
Elsewhere in the book Doctor Fazel said there were only three others, apart from Osama Bin Laden, who knew about preparations for the 9/11 terrorist attacks against the US.
He said Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Hafs al-Masri and a third man, who was not al-Zawahiri, knew about the attacks.
Khaled Sheikh Mohammed is considered one of the masterminds of the attacks on the World Trade Center, was arrested in Pakistan in 2003 and is imprisoned in the US.
Abu Hafs al-Masri was responsible for deadly attacks in Luxor, Egypt in 1997 and was killed in a US raid in Afghanistan in 2001.
Mullah Omar, the head of the Taliban, opposed the attacks, Fazel said.
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Turkey is Trying to Pull Arab Investments, Minister Says
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, NOVEMBER 24 — The capital of the Gulf countries would be best used by investments in Turkey, Turkish State Minister Kursad Tuzmen said as Today’s Zaman reports. Speaking to the Anatolian news agency in southern province of Mersin, Tuzmen said that “the Arab capital could be used to finance Turkey’s exports. The investment clouds of the Arabic capital will rain on somewhere definitely. We are trying to pull Arab investments to Turkey”. “Due to the ongoing economic crisis, the Arab capital does not trust the American and European markets as much as it did in the past. Arabic capital would be best valued in Turkey,” Tuzmen said. Turkey’s exports to the Middle East increased by 65% when compared to last year and the trade volume has reached an amount of USD 12 billion, Tuzmen also said. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish PM U-Turns on IMF, Says May Make USD 20-40 Bln Deal
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, NOVEMBER 20 — Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said an accord with the International Monetary Fund was close and Turkey may receive some $20 billion to $40 billion in loans, Radikal newspaper reported today. This signals an important shift in Erdogan’s stance towards the Washington-based fund as previously he slammed IMF for demanding tougher cost cutting measures. The AKP government desired to be the administration who ended the financial support of IMF ahead of the local elections in 2009. Turkey’s $10 billion loan accord with the IMF expired in May and business leaders have been calling for a fresh agreement to boost the flagging economy. “Talks are continuing. The conditions are on the verge of being agreed. There are not many problems remaining. There could be an agreement any moment,” Radikal reported Erdogan as telling his AKP’s central executive board on Wednesday evening. IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said at the weekend the Fund had not reached an agreement for a new loan deal with Turkey but that a package was close. Turkey and the IMF have been locked in negotiations for fresh funding but disagreement on issues such as spending by municipalities has hampered progress. Erdogan has said previously the government does not want to sign a new loan accord if the IMF program exerted excessive constraints on budget spending, taxes, economic growth and public investments. But Ankara is under increasing pressure to reach an agreement as its economy slows sharply under the influence of the global financial crisis, which has forced Ukraine, Hungary, Iceland and Serbia to seek IMF financial aid. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Women Violence: S. Arabia; Fines Against Workplace Harassment
(ANSAmed) — ROME, NOVEMBER 24 — Saudi Arabia is planning to impose tougher punishments to prevent harassment of women in work places. A new law calling for a maximum fine of SR100,000 (20,725 Euro) and three years jail will be passed soon by the Shoura Council. A special committee of the 150-member council is discussing the draft law and will present it to the full assembly after Eid Al-Adha, Arab News reported. The bill set a minimum fine of SR20,000 (4,145 euro) and six months in jail for the offense, said Mazen Balilah, the Shoura member who proposed the law. Balilah said the head of the company or organization would be questioned if there were any negligence on his part in preventing harassment. The draft law explicitly states that sexual harassment does not mean only physical contact, but may also take place over the phone or through physical gestures or speech. Actions that may constitute sexual harassment include hanging lewd pictures and provocative comments. The law states that any attempts to set up out-of-office meetings or offers of rides can also be considered harassment. Using managerial power to require women employees to stay longer at the office under the pretext of requiring them to work overtime will also be considered a sexual harassment crime. Article Three urges heads of government departments and directors of government institutions and private companies to create an atmosphere for preventing harassment and to set out strict internal laws for the purpose. Talal Bakri, chairman of the Shoura committee for social, family and youth affairs, urged women to dress modestly to avoid provocations. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Religion: Russian Imams to be Trained in Turkey
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, NOVEMBER 17 — Turkey will start actively preparing educational programs and training Islamic clergymen for Russia, Turkish dailies reported quoting Interfax russian news agency citing the declarations released by Ravil Gainutdin, head of the Russian Muftis Council. “Russia and Turkey have cooperated in the area of Islamic education, pilgrimage, book publishing and clergymen training for 15 years, and now need to broaden this cooperation”, Gainutdin said at a meeting with head of the Turkish Religious Affairs Department, Ali Bardakoglu, in Moscow. “For this purpose, the Russian Muftis Council and the Turkish Religious Affairs Department signed a cooperation agreement”, Gainutdin declared. “Like Russia, Turkey is a secular country, which attaches great importance to human rights, this is why I believe that we can maintain fruitful cooperation in the field of education and publishing”, the Turkish department director said at the signing ceremony. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan: US to Deploy More Troops Near Pakistan
Kabul, 23 Nov. (AKI/DAWN) — Up to 4,000 extra US troops due in Afghanistan in January will be deployed in the east of the country, in a bid to stop militants crossing from Pakistan, the US military has announced. The troops have been approved as part of Afghanistan’s fight against Taliban militants, US military spokesman Col Greg Julian told reporters in Kabul on Sunday.
“The first brigade that is coming will go into the (NATO-led) RC-East (Regional Command East) and they are going to move into areas that are currently not covered,” Col Julian said.
The area includes about a dozen provinces, many of which border Pakistan.
“We recognise that there are certain lines or avenues that the insurgents come through (from Pakistan) and we are focusing our efforts on those,” he said.
International and Afghan troops and their counterparts in Pakistan this month launched the anti-militant ‘Operation Lionheart’ along the border.
“This operation will help to deny the enemies of Afghanistan safe havens in Pakistan,” the spokesman for a NATO-led force Brig-Gen Richard Blanchette, told the media.
Cooperation between NATO troops and the Pakistani army was the best it had ever been, said Brig-Gen Blanchette.
The cooperation was the result of tripartite meetings between the NATO-led ISAF security force in Afghanistan, the Afghan military and Pakistani forces, said Blanchette.
There are currently around 53,000 troops in Afghanistan from around 40 countries making up NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Labour Unrest Alarms China
(Source: The Times of India) By Saibal Dasgupta
BEIJING: Chinese leaders have finally admitted that the country is facing a “grim” situation on the employment front owing to the global economic crisis. An official survey has shown that demand for labour has fallen 5.5% in the third quarter of this year across 84 different cities.
Yin Weimin, head of the ministry of human resources said that labour discontent was a “top concern” of the government as the employment situation has turned “grim”.
The government is clearly worried that unrest among jobless workers would result in protest demonstrations and unruly scenes. The past weeks have seen strikes by taxi drivers in four cities and a workers’ riot at the party headquarters in Gansu province.
China has nearly 150 million migrant workers, who have left their rural homes in central and west China to work in the factories of South China. The extent of unemployment caused in factories cutting back production following loss of export orders is still not known. But the number might prove to be big enough to cause social tension, sources said.
| — Hat tip: turn | [Return to headlines] |
Somalia: Oil-Tanker; Pirates Deny Lowering Ransom
(ANSAmed) — NAIROBI, NOVEMBER 24 — A spokesman for the Somali pirates that seized the Saudi oil-tanker Sirius Star on the 15th of November have denied the amount of the ransom they requested for the liberation of the vessel which went down from 25 million dollars to 15 million, affirming that it had never changed, reported Nairobi radio. In the morning, a spokesman for the Islamic group declared that the request for the ransom had gone down from 25 to 15 million. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Chávez Lets Colombia Rebels Wield Power Inside Venezuela
[…]
For years, President Chávez has denied giving refuge to the FARC and Colombia’s National Liberation Army, or ELN, both considered terrorist organizations by the U.S. and Europe. But as the Colombian military has stepped up pressure against rebels, the number of guerrillas using Venezuela as a safe haven has swelled, according to Colombian officials, intercepted e-mails and dozens of interviews on both sides of the border.
Colombian and U.S. officials say Venezuela’s military and police authorities turn a blind eye to guerrilla activity, and at times cooperate in areas including the trafficking of arms and cocaine. As these groups expand operations here, often in brutal competition with each other, Venezuela has suffered a sharp increase in kidnapping, drug trafficking and extortion.
The guerrillas’ presence in Venezuela could prolong Colombia’s decades-long civil conflict, and hamper U.S. and Colombian efforts to crack down on the drug trade that feeds the violence. The rebels could also prove to be a drain to Mr. Chávez’s political capital in Venezuela, where their activities are unpopular.
| — Hat tip: Fausta | [Return to headlines] |
The Latin American Nuclear Club
[…]
“Hugo Chávez joins the nuclear club,” Russian’s Vedomosti newspaper trumpeted yesterday.
This should not come as a surprise to Latin America watchers, since Chavez has been hinting for quite a while, and France and Venezuela have been working on a nuclear energy deal, too.
Cuba’s nuclear plants may present a threat to the US, but for a different reason: Cuba’s crumbling infrastructure: As this 1992 Heritage Foundation report explains, the two Soviet-designed VVER-440 nuclear reactors in Juragua, near Cienfuegos, just 250 miles from Miami, are mired in faulty design, shipshod construction, and the support structure of the plants contains numerous faulty seals and structural defects…
| — Hat tip: Fausta | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration: Morocco; 28 Sub-Saharans Blocked
(ANSAmed) — RABAT, NOVEMBER 24 — Some 28 sub-Saharan migrants have been arrested by Moroccan security forces on a beach a few kilometres from Laayoune (south-western Sahara). The group of migrants had build a fragile boat from wood and an outboard motor, in which they intended to take on the Atlantic in a bid to reach the Spanish Canary Islands. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration: UNHCR, Asylum Requests in Italy on the Rise
(ANSAmed) — PALERMO, NOVEMBER 24 — “Asylum requests in Italy are on the rise, even if there is not an emergency”. Simply, our country is coming in line with the European average. Up until now, over 20,000 requests have been made, mostly from migrants who have arrived in Italy by boat”. This data was reported by Laura Boldrini, spokesperson in Italy for the UN High Commission for Refugees, in a meeting with 180 students from all of Europe in Palermo, for a seminar on human rights promoted by a linguistic high school. “In 2007 — she added — there were 14,000 requests, 7,000 of which were made by migrants who have arrived on ‘boats of hope’. But coming by sea is becoming growingly risky: those who put their life in danger are in desperate conditions, and have nothing to lose”. Boldrini face the topic of the condition of the refugees speaking about article 14 of the universal Declaration of the Human Rights which talks about asylum. “These initiatives — she said to students from 13 countries — must have support from the institutions. Italian schools have to make a greater effort to prepare young people to become citizens of the world. The condition of refugees — she concluded — is not a choice; anyone can find themselves in such a situation tomorrow”. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Furor Over Racism in Swedish School Book
Parents in Karlskoga in central Sweden are up in arms over what they see as racist and sexist passages in a book designed to help first graders learn how to read.
“The book is entirely inappropriate and solidifies outdated stereotypes about diversity and gender, things which our curriculum is designed to work against,” said the county’s equality strategist Bruno Rudström to the Karlskoga-Kuriren newspaper.
One passage of the book portrays a little boy with thick glasses sitting alone.
In explaining why the boy is alone, the book offers the following explanation: “Because he is a Jew.”
Entitled, Kom och läs! (‘Come and read!’), the book was published in 1999 and is the first in a series called Förstagluttarna, a common nickname for first graders.
Elsewhere in the book, boys are portrayed as being skilled in mathematics, while the girls have trouble counting.
The leadership of Karlskoga county’s equality advisory group discussed the book at a Monday night meeting.
Moni Nilsson-Brännström, the book’s author as well as the publisher, Natur och Kultur, contend the book, published in 1999, consciously raises problematic issues, arguing that teachers should then present opposing views which call the book’s contents into question.
But Rudström doubts the merits of such methods.
“They’re reading in order to learn how to read and that is not the time to start questioning what you’re reading,” he said.
The book will now be discussed further in the county’s board for children and education.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Getting the Picture
The saddest thing I heard this week was a comment made to me by a member of the audience I had just been speaking to at Denmark’s Free Press Society in Copenhagen on Tuesday.
‘We worry that Britain is lost, gone,’ the woman said. ‘That is what we are told by other speakers we have had here. We have always looked to Britain as a defender of liberty, ever since the war, but we no longer can. It is not Britain anymore.’
This sentiment was echoed a number of times in different ways that evening, by people who are hugely dismayed and concerned about the in-roads made into freedom of speech by fear of radical Islam, aided and abbetted by a self-hating liberal elite. This is the country, remember, which reaped a whirlwind when one of it’s newspapers, Jyllands-Posten, published cartoons of Mohammed in 2005.
UK colleagues who’ve spoken in other European countries report the same kind of pessimism about this country. It is not difficult to see why. They are very well-informed about developments here. They are incredulous that this country’s foremost religious leader could say that Britain should expect the inevitability of some forms of Sharia law. There is disbelief when they hear that it’s government ministers attempt to rebrand terrorism as ‘anti-Islamic activity.’
Do not give up on us, is what I urged. And on my return I had the chance to test the waters of our resolve again, when on Thursday I took part in a panel discussion, at the SaLon Gallery in London, on the controversy over the exhibition of pictures by artist Sarah Maple. Her self-portraits have resulted in death threats and a brick through the gallery’s window, and she was on the panel to answer questions.
What was depressing was that the other members of the panel — an Islamic studies scholar, a specialist in ‘identity’ issues and an art critic — didn’t seem able (or were reluctant) to fully grasp the basic issue at stake — which is the absolute need for freedom of expression and that there is no such thing as the right not to be offended.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Mons. Plaza, Cross Symbol Does No Harm
(ANSAmed) — VATICAN CITY, NOVEMBER 24 — A sentence that causes “displeasure” because the cross “doesn’t hurt anyone”. Moreover, the use of religious symbols is a part of religious freedom”. This is how the Archbishop of Valladolid, Braulio Rodriguez Plaza, comments on Vatican Radio the decision of the Spanish courts to remove the cross from the halls of a public school in Valledolid. “For me — he explains — the ruling was a disappointment and I know that the Scholastic Council is made up of good people. It seems to me that the cross in a culture like ours doesn’t do any harm to anyone, because it symbolises love and peace”. “On the basis of this ruling — the archbishop continues — any religious symbol can be cancelled or taken down anywhere, because it can potentially hurt the feelings of many people. Now I will make an example of a European city like Bruges, where there are corners, streets and intersections where there are many small images of the Virgin, of Christ, and I don’t think that people, whether they are religious or not, are particularly harmed by this. I am sure that people will tell me that the issue is different when a school is involved, where there are children present. Well now, at this point will we have to ask for permission to say “I believe in God and Our Lord Jesus Christ”? I don’t know if we want to get to this point… I — Mons. Rodriguez Plaza concluded — want to continue to show religious symbols, because I think that this is a part of the religious freedom we all hold dear”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: PSOE Castile, Crucifix Out of All Schools
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, NOVEMBER 24 — The Psoe of Castile and Leon, after the sentence of the court of Valladolid, which ordered the removal of the sacred symbol from local public school, Macias Picavera, wants all crucifixes to be removed from all public schools in the region. In announcement of the definition of the sentence, the spokesperson of the Psoe of the national regional council, Ana Redondo, asked authorities of the region to apply the policy adopted by Judge Alejandro Valentin, of the Regional Tribunal, “to all public schools” of Castile and Leon. In the regional council of Castile and Leon, the Psoe is the opposition party. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Muslim Leader Defends Pope on Inter-Faith Dialogue
Roma, 24 Nov. (AKI) — Pope Benedict XVI’s praise for a new book which argues Europe should stay true to its Christian roots should not be misinterpreted, the head of the association of Italian Muslims, Ahmad Gianpiero Vincenzo, told Adnkronos International (AKI).
In comments made in the preface to Italian center-right politician Marcello Pera’s forthcoming book ‘Why We Must Call Ourselves Christian’ Benedict XVI appeared to cast doubt on the possibility of inter-religious dialogue.
The Pope also called for more discussion of the practical consequences of religious differences.
In a quotation from the preface which appeared in Italian newspapers on Sunday, Benedict said the book “explained with great clarity” why “an interreligious dialogue in the strict sense of the word is not possible.”
“The pontiff’s words in his forward to Marcello Pera’s latest book must be correctly interpreted without any manipulation by those who are seeking a clash of civilisations “ Vincenzo told AKI.
“For us Muslims, inter-religious dialogue has a fundamental role in today’s world, where more than ever before the underlying principles that religions have in common need to be underlined, starting with faith in the same God,” he said.
“We totally agree with Benedict that it is not possible to advance dialogue between religions that plays down the specific doctrines and rituals of individual faiths.
“Otherwise, we slide into the relativism of those who believe all religions are the same and that individual religious doctrines and ritual practices are no longer needed,” said Vincenzo.
Benedict XVI’s potentially controversial comments came only a couple of weeks after the Vatican hosted a landmark inter-faith conference in Rome with Muslims religious leaders and scholars, aimed at improving ties between Islam and Christianity. Members of the association of Italian Muslims attended the conference.
The conference agreed to condemn religious freedom and protect religious freedom, but did not address issues of conversion and the rights of Christians in majority Muslim countries to worship.
Ahmad said the conference had however proposed the creation of a permanent Catholic-Islamic Inter-religious Forum to resolve conflicts — at a time when these are intensifying.
“This would be an exceptional opportunity to counter the actions of fundamentalist extremists and reiterate the basic ethical values shared by the Christian, Muslim and Jewish faiths — respect for life and religious traditions,” Vincenzo concluded.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Lenovo [Cinese Company] Adds ‘Remote Kill’ Feature to Thinkpads
Lenovo and Phoenix Technologies will begin adding a feature to Lenovo notebooks that allows them to be disabled, or “remotely killed,” via a text message sent from a cell phone.
The technology, called Constant Secure Remote Disable, was launched on Tuesday. It will be embedded within the notebook’s BIOS.
This new security feature allows a user to send an SMS (short message service) text message from a cell phone to a Lenovo ThinkPad that has been lost or stolen. Once the kill command is sent, the lost or stolen ThinkPad is either disabled immediately or the notebook is disabled after the PC has been turned back on, said Stacy Cannady, Lenovo’s product manager of security.
| — Hat tip: Zenster | [Return to headlines] |
Soros: ‘The Economy Fell Off the Cliff’
George Soros, 78, has made billions as a hedge-fund manager and investor. SPIEGEL spoke with him about the current financial crisis, how he expects President-elect Barack Obama to respond to the economic disaster and the responsibilities borne by speculators.
SPIEGEL: Mr. Soros, in spite of massive interventions by governments and federal banks the financial crisis is getting worse. The stock markets are in free fall, millions of people could lose their jobs. More and more companies are in trouble, from General Motors in Detroit to BASF in Ludwigshafen. Have you ever seen anything like it?
Soros: Never. I find the present situation dramatic and overwhelming. In my latest book “The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of 2008” I predicted the worst financial crisis since the 1930s. But to tell you the truth: I did not actually anticipate that it would get as bad as it did. It has gone beyond my wildest imagination.
REUTERS
George Soros has made a fortune with hedge funds. “I find the present situation dramatic and overwhelming.”
SPIEGEL: What are your fears for the coming months?
Soros: I think that the dark comes before dawn. The financial markets are under great pressure because of the lack of leadership during the transition period. In the next two months, the markets will experience maximum pressure. Then we will see some initiatives from the Obama administration. How long the crisis lasts will depend on the success of these measures.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
UN Anti-Blasphemy Measures Have Sinister Goals, Observers Say
UNITED NATIONS — Islamic countries Monday won United Nations backing for an anti-blasphemy measure Canada and other Western critics say risks being used to limit freedom of speech.
Combating Defamation of Religions passed 85-50 with 42 abstentions in a key UN General Assembly committee, and will enter into the international record after an expected rubber stamp by the plenary later in the year.
But while the draft’s sponsors say it and earlier similar measures are aimed at preventing violence against worshippers regardless of religion, religious tolerance advocates warn the resolutions are being accumulated for a more sinister goal.
“It provides international cover for domestic anti-blasphemy laws, and there are a number of people who are in prison today because they have been accused of committing blasphemy,” said Bennett Graham, international program director with the Becket Fund, a think tank aimed at promoting religious liberty.
“Those arrests are made legitimate by the UN body’s (effective) stamp of approval.”
Passage of the resolution is part of a 10-year action plan the 57-state Organization of Islamic Conference launched in 2005 to ensure “renaissance” of the “Muslim Ummah” or community.
While the current resolution is non-binding, Pakistan’s Ambassador Masood Khan reminded the UN’s Human Rights Council this year that the OIC ultimately seeks a “new instrument or convention” on the issue. Such a measure would impose its terms on signatory states.
“Each time the resolution comes up, we get a measure of where the world is on this issue, and we see that the campaign has been ramped up,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based monitoring group UN Watch.
While this year’s draft is less Islam-centric that resolutions of earlier years, analysts note it is more emphatic in linking religion defamation and incitement to violence.
That “risks limiting a broad range of peaceful speech and expression,” Neuer argues…
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
2 comments:
About the Swiss Calvin-promo:
"..The organisers are hoping these events will help redress some of the clichés and unfavourable images surrounding Calvin.."
That's nice, reformed apologists trying to reform the unfavourable image of a "Reformist". It's all about image, that's for sure.
Let's wait for the 500-year anniversary of Marx's birthday and see what the organizers then have to say about "clichés surrounding dear Karl".
;-)
Sag.
Calvin was 100% French from a university somewhere in the midst of France, responsible for forming the modern French language just like his contemporary F. Rabelais ("son francais grecisé"), who made great jokes about him. His real name was something like Chauvin or Chauvain - the Bald one.
Compare Rabelais and Calvin. One is almost like a Hindu, absorbing everything, the other one like a jihadi, discarding everything.
And both fall under category "christianity" (??).
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