Merry Christmas, everyone!The news feed is lighter than usual tonight — it seems that even our tipsters are taking a holiday. Or some of them, anyway.
Notice that Sweden is having an intifada for Christmas. God Jul!
Thanks to Abu Elvis, JD, VH, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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And You Call Yourself an Objective Reporter?
Media bias watchdog laughs at list of 2008’s worst quotes
An organization that says its purpose is to expose liberal media bias is having fun with this year’s election press coverage, announcing a lighter look back at some of the worst, most gratuitous and slanted statements of 2008.
Near the top of the list on the Media Research Center’s Best Quotables of 2008: The 21st Annual Awards for the Year’s Worst Reporting was a statement by Time’s Nancy Gibbs in the magazine’s Nov. 17 cover story.
“Some princes are born in palaces,” wrote Gibbs. “Some are born in mangers. But a few are born in the imagination, out of scraps of history and hope.”
For her not-so-veiled comparison of Barack Obama to Jesus Christ, the MRC honored Gibbs with the dubious “Obamagasm Award.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bush Springs Drug Dealers, Leaves Border Agents to Rot
President George W. Bush today added a convicted methamphetamine dealer, a cocaine distributor and two marijuana suppliers to the list of drug operators he’s pardoned while in office, bringing his total of drug suppliers who have been pardoned or had their sentences commuted to 36.
He’s also pardoned more than a dozen thieves, seven embezzlers, an arsonist, several mail thieves, a man who violated the Neutrality Act and eight Thanksgiving turkeys, but there’s been no clemency for U.S. Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, who were convicted of shooting at a fleeing drug smuggler.
Andy Ramirez, of Friends of the Border Patrol, long has been involved in the Ramos-Compean case, and said the questions just start piling up.
“First and foremost is the question that has to be asked, ‘Why is the president dug in so deep’ on Ramos and Compean?” Ramirez said. “Look at how many members of Congress have sent him letters, and have held hearings.
“You really have got to start to wonder — does this doper (in the Ramos-Compean case) lead to somebody really big?” he said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Michelle Obama’s Old Law Firm Defends ACORN
Michelle Obama’s old law firm is representing ACORN’s board in an internal embezzlement case that legal experts say could result in criminal charges.
During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama and his running-mate, Joe Biden, insisted they had nothing to do with ACORN after the inner-city advocacy group became engulfed in controversy over voter-registration fraud.
However, federal election records showed that the Obama campaign paid ACORN subsidiary Citizens Services Inc. $832,598 for get-out-the-vote activities, of which $80,000 went directly to ACORN. CSI and some 290 other ACORN subsidiaries operate out of the same building on Elysian Fields Avenue in New Orleans that serves as ACORN’s national headquarters.
A sister organization sharing that New Orleans address — Citizens Consulting Inc. — is at the center of the embezzlement scandal, court records show.
Dale Rathke, brother of ACORN founder Wade Rathke, worked at CCI, where he kept the books for all of the ACORN-affiliated groups across the country. He is accused of embezzling almost $1 million in faulty credit card charges while working there. He allegedly spent some $40,000 a month on lavish travel and entertainment.
[…]
Worried about its legal exposure over the handling of the embezzlement, ACORN’s board has retained Michelle Obama’s old Chicago law firm, Sidley Austin LLP.
Sidley Austin was founded by liberal activist Howard Trienens. Michelle Obama worked there as an associate lawyer from 1988 to 1991, overlapping briefly with the tenure of 1960s terrorist and ex-convict Bernardine Dohrn, once considered by the FBI to be “the most dangerous woman in America.”
Dorhn, who was not licensed to practice law, got a job at the law firm thanks to her husband Bill Ayers’ family connections to Trienens.
[…]
Matthew Vadum of the Capital Research Center in Washington, a think tank that studies the politics of philanthropy, says the government should investigate ACORN under federal racketeering laws.
He says the group has racked up more than $3 million in federal, state and local tax liens which appear to stem from its failure to pay employee payroll taxes.
He says ACORN’s financial operations are tightly controlled from the top and largely hidden from public view.
“ACORN moves money around its networks with a boldness and agility that (Colombian druglord) Pablo Escobar would have admired,” Vadum said.
Jim Terry of the Consumers Rights League agrees.
“ACORN has a long and sordid history of employing convoluted Enron-style accounting to illegally use taxpayer funds for their own political gain,” he said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Authorized Emanuel to Pass on Names
WASHINGTON (AP) — An internal review prepared for Barack Obama found his incoming chief of staff had multiple conversations with the Illinois governor’s office, but said the talks did not involve any deal concerning whom the governor would appoint to replace Obama in the Senate.
The report was released Tuesday as a transition official disclosed that Obama and two of his top aides, Rahm Emanuel and Valerie Jarrett, have been interviewed in connection with the federal investigation into Gov. Rod Blagojevich. The transition official, speaking on a condition of anonymity before the report’s public release, also confirmed that Emanuel had been captured on wiretaps taken as part of the investigation.
[…]
The report said Obama authorized Emanuel to pass on the names of four people he considered to be highly qualified to take over his seat — Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes, Illinois Veterans’ Affairs Director Tammy Duckworth, Rep. Jan Schakowsky and Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Warning: Gitmo Still Has ‘Throat-Slitting’ Inmates
Detainees threaten soldier-support visitors worried about Obama plan to close prison
Closing down the Guantanamo Bay detention center for terrorism suspects as President-elect Barack Obama has planned would be to invite throat-slitting inmates into the United States, according to a delegation from a soldier-support organization that visited the Cuba facility.
“Some members of our tour group including Miss Florida 2007 and our executive director, Catherine Moy, were given hand gestures by the terrorists like they would slit their throats if they could get to them,” Melanie Morgan, chairman of Move America Forward, told WND today.
“What really offends me is the talk from Barack Obama’s upcoming administration that he wants to close the prison,” she continued.
“He better go down there and take a look at the facilities — and read the menus and look at the movie library — before he makes rash decisions that will endanger American lives,” she said.
[…]
“These are individuals who should never be in an American prison. I would challenge Obama to come to Gitmo personally to see the circumstances, to see how ridiculous is his proposal to bring these men into the United States,” said Morgan.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Christmas Unrest in Stockholm Suburb
For the second night running unrest broke out in the Stockholm suburb of Tensta. A massive police presence managed to gain control of the situation in the early hours of Christmas Eve. The Local reported on Tuesday that the fire service had come under attack from stone-throwing youths in the predominantly immigrant-occupied area of Tensta in north west Stockholm on Monday evening.
When police units arrived at the scene youngsters were found to have set fire to car tyres, rubbish bins and a skip. Jannes Hedlund at Stockholm county police described Tuesday’s rioting as in principle a repeat of the events of the night before. “Among other things they had set fire to a skip and thrown a Molotov cocktail at a police vehicle,” Hedlund said.
The police were prepared for the possibility of renewed unrest and had deployed eight specially trained units to the area. Hedlund said that he believed that similar preparations were in force for any potential trouble on Christmas Eve.
Several cars were also set alight in Vårberg in southern Stockholm, although local police were not connecting the incidents to the unrest in Tensta.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Anti-BNP Fanatics Exposed as Liars and Fascists
The so-called ‘UAF’ anti-BNP gang, run by senior figures in the Labour Party and the Socialist Workers Party, has been definitively exposed as an extremist totalitarian and anti-white political group with strong links to Islamic extremism.
The dramatic revelations about the ‘UAF’ group are contained in a six page report [pdf] just released by a number of independent research bodies.. Discussing the tactics and inner workings of the ‘UAF’ under a number of headings, the report concludes that the UAF, by its actions, has shown itself to be an anti-white, racist hate-group; proven liars; appeasers of Islamic Fascism; and utterly totalitarian in nature and tactics.
“It supports the criminalisation of dissent, of ‘speechcrime’, and promotes ‘no platform’ policies against its political opponents,” the report says. “It is also a racist organisation. It indulges in inciting hatred only against political parties and movements that represent the interests of the white, indigenous community.
The UAF is a “Marxist organisation that uses Nazi methods to pursue its purpose,” the report continues. “The UAF targets individuals — it attacks their personal reputation and content of character, and deliberately misrepresents the beliefs held by those individuals. […]
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Iran President Hits Out at ‘Bullying’ West in Alternative Channel 4 Christmas Message
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran has blamed the West’s ‘tyrannical’ economic and political systems for the global economic crisis.
In a Christmas Day message to be shown on Channel 4 the president said if Jesus Christ were alive today he would stand up to ‘ill-tempered and expansionist powers’ and fight globalisation.
President Ahmadinejad, delivering an alternative to the Queen’s traditional broadcast, also called for a return to the common values of all faiths and said people all over the world were now demanding change.
Iran has come under increasing international pressure over its nuclear programme.
Western countries fear it could be used to make atomic bombs, but Tehran denies this, saying it wants to produce energy only.
In his Christmas message, President Ahmadinejad said: ‘If Christ was on earth today undoubtedly he would stand with the people in opposition to bullying, ill-tempered and expansionist powers.
‘If Christ was on earth today undoubtedly he would hoist the banner of justice and love for humanity to oppose warmongers, occupiers, terrorists and bullies the world over.
‘If Christ was on earth today undoubtedly he would fight against the tyrannical policies of prevailing global economic and political systems, as He did in His lifetime.
‘The solution to today’s problems can be found in a return to the call of the divine Prophets. The solution to these crises can be found in following the prophets — they were sent by the Almighty, for the happiness of humanity.’
He added: ‘Today, little by little, the general will of nations is calling for fundamental change. This is now taking place.
‘Demands for change, demands for transformation, demands for a return to human values are fast becoming the foremost demands of nations of the world.
‘The response to this demand must be real and true. The prerequisite to this change is a change in goals, intentions and directions.
‘If tyrannical goals are repackaged in an attractive and deceptive package and imposed on nations again, the people, awakened, will stand up against them.
‘Fortunately, today as crises and despair multiply, a wave of hope is gathering momentum.
‘Hope for a brighter future, hope for the establishment of justice, hope for real peace, hope for finding virtuous and pious rulers who love the people and want to serve them — and this is what the Almighty has promised.’
Channel 4 defended the decision to use President Ahmadinejad for this year’s Alternative Christmas Message.
Head of News and Current Affairs Dorothy Byrne said: ‘As the leader of one of the most powerful states in the Middle East, President Ahmadinejad’s views are enormously influential.
‘As we approach a critical time in international relations, we are offering our viewers an insight into an alternative world view.
‘Channel 4 has devoted more airtime to examining Iran than any other broadcaster and this message continues a long tradition of offering a different perspective on the world around us.’
This year’s message will not be broadcast directly opposite the Queen’s message on other channels — it will air at 7.15pm.
Channel 4 said there would be a short introduction to the message which will place President Ahmadinejad’s appearance in context.
This is not the first time the channel has courted controversy with its choice of speaker.
In 2006 a fully-veiled British-born Muslim woman used the message to attack Jack Straw for his criticism of the face veil earlier the same year.
It is the broadcaster’s 16th alternative message since Quentin Crisp delivered the first in 1993.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Muslim Mother of Eight Living in £2.6m Council House…
…admits: ‘I’m not going to pretend it isn’t great’
A mother of eight living on housing benefit in a £2.6million home provided by her London council said today: “I’m not going to pretend it isn’t great.” Francesca Walker was given the property because of a loophole which means Kensington and Chelsea council had to fund a suitable home in the borough for a family of that size.
The 33-year-old Muslim convert has told of her new life in the Notting Hill townhouse with five bedrooms, three bathrooms, double living room, study and roof terrace on four floors which costs taxpayers £90,000 a year. Miss Walker, whose children by two fathers are aged from five to 16, said she would rather be in a job than caught in a benefits trap which leaves her worse off if she goes out to work.
She told London’s Evening Standard newspaper she was grateful to escape the appalling conditions she had raised her children in until now. “All my life I’ve lived in overcrowded flats on estates with gangs that kicked our door in and harassed my children, but now we’re living on a street of millionaires.”
Miss Walker found herself in the spotlight, cast as London’s very own “slumdog millionaire”, when it emerged that the taxpayer is funding her monthly rent of £7,600.
Kensington and Chelsea council moved her into the property in September, and she now has David Cameron, Hugh Grant and Richard Curtis as neighbours.
“Before we came here, we lived in some hellholes,” she says. “In one flat, there were dead mice and it stank so badly we couldn’t use two rooms. In another, there was a gas leak that made my children ill. For the past three years, nine of us have lived in a three-bedroom flat on the Lancaster West estate in Ladbroke Grove.
“The council had no five-bedroom council properties available and said the only way we could move was to join their LetStart Scheme, where you rent from a private landlord. It wasn’t my preference but eventually I went to Foxtons and got this place, signing a three-year contract.”
Miss Walker, a British-born Muslim studying psychology through the Open University, said she had been taken into care at 14 after her mother suffered a nervous breakdown, and had since attempted to rebuild her life.
She is not the only one to do well from government benefit rules, introduced in April, that oblige councils to house tenants in private properties if suitable council homes are unavailable.
This was intended to promote fairness but has led, in some cases, to a gross waste of taxpayers’ money.
In October, it was revealed a family of eight Afghan immigrants were being housed in a £1.2million private home in Ealing for an annual taxpayer-funded rental of £150,000.
Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell says he will review the failing system next month but until then, insists a Kensington and Chelsea spokesman, the council’s hands are tied.
He said: “When Miss Walker came to us, she was technically homeless and we had a statutory obligation to house her. We could not move her to a property outside the borough because her children go to local schools and the rules say you can’t uproot them.”
Miss Walker gets £15,000 a year in benefits in addition to the £91,260 rent paid by the Government via the council to the landlord’s agency, Foxtons. […]
Asked if she thought her landlord was charging the taxpayer inflated rents, Miss Walker told the Standard: “I don’t think so because I’ve seen similar properties in the area rented for double my £1,755 a week. People complain that it’s a waste of taxpayers’ money, but it wasn’t so long ago that various councils put us up in hotel rooms costing £300 a day.” […]
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Police ‘Secretly Taped Damian Green Arrest With Bugs Used on Al Qaeda Terror Suspects’
Police officers who arrested MP Damian Green were fitted with secret recording devices normally used for Al Qaeda terror suspects, it was revealed last night. The Tory immigration spokesman was being taped without his knowledge by officers wearing covert microphones.
A superintendent cleared the surveillance operation before the MP was arrested into an inquiry about leaks from the Home Office by a civil servant.
The bugging techniques officers used to arrest Mr Green are usually employed by only anti-terrorist specialists. The Metropolitan Police said the extraordinary lengths were used to ensure everything said by officers and Mr Green was on tape.
A Scotland Yard statement last night said: ‘A tape sound recording was made of the MP’s arrest and period in police charge. ‘This was authorised at superintendent level to provide an accurate record of anything that may have been said by the officers or the MP. ‘This was done with the best of intentions but to ensure total transparency this matter has been referred to the Office of the Surveillance Commissioners for their advice.’
The Metropolitan Police is considering ways of dropping the case in the New Year amid tensions with the Crown Prosecution Service over the lack of cooperation between lawyers and police.
Crucially, acting Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson is understood to believe that Mr Green should not have been arrested in such a dramatic way but should have been invited voluntarily to attend a police station for questioning…
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
6 Palestinians, Including 4 Children, Injured in Gaza Due to Misuse of Weapons
In the past three days, 6 Palestinians, including 4 children, were injured as a result of the continuation of the misuse of weapons. The wounds of 3 children were described as serious. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) remains deeply concerned over the re-occurrence of such incidents that are part of the state of security chaos and misuse of weapons plaguing the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).
According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 16:15 on Monday, 22 December, 2008, 3-year-old Myassar Mousa Wahdan, was injured in the abdomen and chest and her 5-year-old brother, Mohammed, was injured in the head by shrapnel from a locally produced rocket that was fired by members of the Palestinian resistance. The rocket fell on agricultural land near Beit Hanoun Agriculture College in the north to Beit Hanoun town in the northern Gaza Strip. The two children were immediately transferred to Beit Hanoun Hospital for treatment. Medical sources described the wounds of Myassar as serious and reported that she was admitted into the intensive care unit. The wounds of Mohammed were described as moderate.
In another incident, at approximately 17:30 on Sunday, 21 December, 2008, Hanan Sohwail, 32, was lightly wounded by shrapnel to the right hand when a locally produced rocket exploded near her house in al-Zaytoun quarter in the west of Beit Hanoun Town. She was immediately taken to Beit Hanoon Hospital for treatment.
At approximately 14:40 on Saturday, 20 December, 2008, a locally produced rocket fired by members of the Palestinian resistance fell near a group of children who were playing in a bystreet to the east of the industrial zone, west to Beit Hanoon town. Shrapnel from the rocket wounded two children. The two children were taken to Beit Hanoun Hospital for treatment and then transferred to the intensive care unit at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, since their wounds were serious. The two children were identified as Sari Mana’a al-Sama’ana, 9, and Safi ‘Eid al-Sama’ana, 8.
Also on Saturday, 20 December, 2008, at approximately 00:30, gunmen on a motorcycle fired at Nayef Nasser al-Mahmoum, 20, while standing near his house in al-Tannour neighborhood in Rafah town in the southern Gaza Strip. Al-Mahmout was wounded by a bullet to the left arm. He was taken to Martyr Mohammed Yousef al-Najjar Hospital for treatment.
PCHR is gravely concerned over increasing casualties resulting from the misuse of weapons, which is part of the state of security chaos prevailing in the OPT. PCHR calls upon concerned authorities to investigate these attacks and bring the perpetrators to justice. PCHR calls also upon Palestinian resistance groups to be far away from civilian populated area when conducting military actions.
| — Hat tip: Abu Elvis | [Return to headlines] |
As Christmas Approaches, Muslims Erect ‘Allah Has No Son’ Banner in Nazareth
A banner proclaiming a verse from the Koran that denies God has a son hangs in front of the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth (Photo: Julie Stahl)Nazareth, Israel (CNSNews.com) — As Nazareth’s Christians prepare to celebrate Christmas, they are playing down the appearance of a confrontational Islamic banner that challenges an elemental Christian belief.
Journalists visiting the city saw two large banners—one in English, one in Arabic—hanging in the plaza in front of the Basilica of the Annunciation, with a verse from the Koran (112:1-4) contradicting the New Testament proclamation that Jesus is the “only begotten” of God.
“In the name of Allah, the most beneficent, the most merciful, Say (O Muhammad): He is Allah, (the) One and Only. Allah, the Eternal, the Absolute. He begetteth not, nor was begotten, and there is none like unto him,” the banner reads.
Nazareth Mayor Ramiz Jaraisy played down concerns that a banner effectively denying Jesus’ deity was provocative to Christians, although he did question its position, in front of Nazareth’s most prominent landmark.
“I don’t think that it’s provocative against anyone,” he said. “My point of view [is] that it’s not the right place to put it and it’s not the right way to do that.”
But Jaraisy said he would not remove the banner because some Islamic fundamentalist groups were looking to provoke a confrontation in order to promote their cause. He did not want to provide them with that opportunity…
| — Hat tip: Abu Elvis | [Return to headlines] |
British Minister Calls for Removal of Illegal Israeli Settlements
UK-Israeli settlements
British Foreign Office Minister for the Middle East Bill Rammell toured the southern West Bank city of Hebron on Monday and called for removal of illegal Israeli settlements in the city.
“I saw the facts in Hebron and witnessed the tyranny of settlers against its people,” Rammell was quoted by a British Foreign Office statement as saying.
“British Minister of state for Middle East Bill Rammell called for removing settlements that according to international law are considered illegal,” the statement said.
At the end of his tour in the old city of Hebron, Rammell reiterated his government’s support for the two-state solution and for the withdrawal of Israel from settlements in order for peace to be achieved in the Middle East.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Israel, PNA: Fresh Barrage From Gaza Strip Reported
A barrage of mortar and rocket fire from the Gaza Strip rained down on Israel early Dec. 24, in what Hamas said was retaliation for the deaths of three fighters in a clash with Israeli troops the previous day. Israeli officials said Palestinian militants were planting explosives along the border fence in northern Gaza as well, The Associated Press reported. Violence has surged in recent days since a temporary truce expired. Israel had agreed to open border crossings into the Gaza Strip on Dec. 24 to allow food, medicines and fule to be brought in, but canceled that decision after the most recent barrage.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Israeli-Palestinian ‘Peace Deals’ Meaningless?
Hamas forming new PLO to compete with U.S.-backed group
JERUSALEM — In a move that could have monumental ramifications, the Hamas terrorist organization is quietly working to create its own Palestine Liberation Organization, or PLO, to compete with the well-known group of the same namesake headed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, according to Hamas officials speaking to WND.
The effort is part of a larger expected Hamas campaign to de-legitimize Abbas after his term as PA president expires Jan. 9.
According to sources close to Abbas, of all the moves Hamas is planning, the PA figure is most worried about the creation of a second PLO to compete with the group he heads, which has long been dominated by his Fatah party.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Palestinian Militants Pummel Southern Israel
Gaza militants pummeled southern Israel towns on Wednesday with the largest barrage of rockets and mortars since June, when Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers agreed to a six-month cease-fire. The wave of attacks followed the official expiration of the deal, putting talks for a renewed truce in jeopardy and increasing the likelihood of a large-scale military campaign into Gaza.
More than 60 rockets and mortars rained down on southern Israeli town and communities, forcing residents into their shelters. No one was injured in the attacks, but medics treated dozens of panicked citizens. A factory, a home and other structures were damaged. The military said the rockets reached as far as 20 kilometers from Gaza City and included strikes against the Israeli city of Ashkelon.
“We won’t be apathetic. We demand the government take action,” Ashkelon Mayor Benny Vaknin told Israel’s Channel 1 TV. “People are hiding in bomb shelters and our children are taking cover under desks at school. This cannot continue.” […]
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Iran is Critical of Using Human Rights as Political Tool
Iran-Rights-Elham
Government spokesman, Gholam-Hossein Elham said on Wednesday that it has become clear to everyone now that the issue of human rights was being used as a political tool against Iran.
Addressing a local seminar on Armed Forces’ Public Relations offices, he said the contemporary world was engaged in a “soft war” which is fought by media and in form of psychological war and propaganda.
Elham said that the enemy has started a massive campaign against Iran both from inside and outside the country to undermine efficiency of the Iranian government and force it to become passive at international scenes.
The spokesman stressed the role of public relations offices in defusing enemy’s plots and its psychological warfare. “Adopting proper ways to defeat enemies’ psychological war is one of the major duties of the public relations offices.”
He said that Iranians should take the initiative in confronting enemies propaganda.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
US Attempt to Designate Muslims as Terrorists Failed
Iran-US-Terrorism
The attempt made by the US, Zionists and West to designate Muslims as terrorists has failed, Iran’s Minister of Culture and the Islamic Guidance, Mohammad-Hossein Saffar-Harandi, said Sunday evening.
Speaking in a press conference at the Iranian Embassy in Damascus, Harandi said that after 9/11, the West tried to portray Muslims as terrorists “but the vicious bid is no longer effective.”
The Iranian minister is in syria to attend Iran’s Cultural Week and review issues of mutual interest with senior Syrian officials.
Referring to some disagreement among Muslim countries, Harandi urged them to stay vigilant against enemies conspiracies.
The minister and his entourage are to visit historical sites in the city of Halab northern Syria.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Young Jordanians Rebel, Embracing Conservative Islam
Muhammad Fawaz is a very serious college junior with a stern gaze and a reluctant smile that barely cloaks suppressed anger. He never wanted to attend Jordan University. He hates spending hours each day commuting.
As a high school student, Fawaz, 20, had dreamed of earning a scholarship to study abroad. But that was impossible, he said, because he did not have a “wasta,” or connection. In Jordan, connections are seen as essential for advancement and the wasta system is routinely cited by young people as their primary grievance with their country.
So Fawaz decided to rebel. He adopted the serene, disciplined demeanor of an Islamic activist. In his sophomore year he was accepted into the student group affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, Jordan’s largest, most influential religious, social and political movement, one that would ultimately like to see the state governed by Islamic law, or Shariah. Now he works to recruit other students to the cause.
“I find there is justice in the Islamic movement,” Fawaz said one day as he walked beneath the towering cypress trees at Jordan University. “I can express myself. There is no wasta needed.”
Across the Middle East, young people like Fawaz, angry, alienated and deprived of opportunity, have accepted Islam as an agent of change and rebellion.. It is their rock ‘n’ roll, their long hair and love beads. Through Islam, they defy the status quo and challenge governments seen as corrupt and incompetent.
These young people — 60 percent of those in the region are under 25 — are propelling a worldwide Islamic revival, driven by a thirst for political change and social justice. That fervor has popularized a more conservative interpretation of the faith.
“Islamism for us is what pan-Arabism was for our parents,” said Naseem Tarawnah, 25, a business writer and blogger, who is not part of the movement.
The long-term implications of this are likely to complicate American foreign policy calculations, making it more costly to continue supporting governments that do not let secular or moderate religious political movements take root.
Washington will also be likely to find it harder to maintain the policy of shunning leaders of groups like the Brotherhood in Egypt, or Hamas in Gaza, or Hezbollah in Lebanon, which command tremendous public sympathy.
Leaders of Muslim countries have tried to appease public sentiment while doing all they can to discourage the West from engaging religious movements directly. They see the prospect of a thaw in relations with the West, and see these groups as a threat to their monopoly on power.
Authoritarian governments view relative moderation as more of a political challenge than extremism, which is a security problem that can be contained through harsh methods.
“What happens if Islamists accepted the peace process and became more pragmatic?” said Muhammad Abu Rumman, research editor at the newspaper Al Ghad in Amman. “People see them as less corrupt and as the only real opposition. Israel and the U.S. might look at them differently. The regime is afraid of the Brotherhood when it becomes more pragmatic.”
The financial crisis only adds to the anxiety of governments in the Middle East that had hoped economic development could appease their citizens, create jobs for legions of unemployed and underemployed young people and dilute the appeal of Islamic movements. But the crisis and the drop in oil prices have hit hard, throwing the brakes on once-booming economies in the Gulf region, and modest economic growth elsewhere in the region.
In this environment, governments are forced to confront a reality of their own creation. By choking off democracy and free speech, the only space where groups could gather and discuss critical ideas became the mosque, and the only movements that had room to prosper were religion-based.
Today, the search for identity in the Middle East no longer involves tension between the secular and religious. Religion has won. […]
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Bangladesh: Massive Security Ordered for Dec. 29 Polls
An unprecedented security operation — involving 50,000 military personnel and 6,000 members of the elite Rapid Action Battalion force — has been ordered in Bangladesh ahead of Dec. 29 elections, which will follow two years of emergency rule, Channel News Asia reported Dec. 24. The nationwide military deployment is meant to help avert pre-election violence and attacks by Islamist militants, while another 600,000 police and paramilitary officers will be on patrol at voting places to guard against vote-rigging or political intimidation. Those have been problems in previous elections, which have not been held in Bangladesh since 2001.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Dubai Says No to Miss Israel, Trump Moves Miss Universe to Vegas
By Debbie Schlussel
As longtime readers know I’m not exactly a fan of Donald Trump or his attached enormous ego. But I have to give him credit for doing the right thing. He moved the Miss Universe Pageant from Dubai, after Dubai said the country would not allow the pageant to go on with Miss Israel in it—something about not wanting pretty women to enter the Arab Muslim world.
On the other hand, Trump had no choice. Many of his business partners are Jews, as are many of the people with whom he socializes on the Manhattan rich people’s cocktail circuit. Still, perhaps I’m giving both Trump and New York Jews too much credit. I doubt they’d shun him if he went on with the pageant excluding the Jew (although Miss Israel has been a Muslim Arab before, such as Rana Raslan). They really don’t care a whit about anti-Semitism or anti-Israel sentiment. Look who most of ‘em voted for in the Presidential election.
Plus Trump shouldn’t have considered Dubai in the first place. It’s no secret the nation boycotts Israel, etc. That’s not to mention Trump’s good friend, Russell Simmons, who employs an anti-Semitic Muslim—Benjamin Chavis Muhammad—as head of his Hip Hop Summit Action Network. So, it’s not like anti-Semitism really bothers Trump all too much.
Trump isn’t exactly bothered by Dubai anyway. He was supposed to build a Trump International Hotel and Tower, there, which is now “delayed.” And the cancellation of Miss Universe there might have more to do with that, then any moral stand against anti-Semitism in Dubai and the other United Arab Emirates.
Regardless, though, Dubai’s anti-Israel policy has been publicly dissed by no less than Trump, and that’s a good thing…
| — Hat tip: Abu Elvis | [Return to headlines] |
2 comments:
Merry Christmas Baron and Dymphna. Thank you for all your work here.
Thank you for your courage, Baron and Dymphna, and Merry Christmas to you both.
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