At least three people have been killed in massive rioting among the Uighurs of Xinjiang Province in China. The trouble began with a rumor of a Han woman being raped by an Uighur, which precipitated a Han response and a violent Uighur counter-response.In other news, an inquiry has determined that those racist police in Paris are seven times more likely to stop Arabs than they are persons of French background.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Gaia, Insubria, Islam in Action, islam o’phobe, JD, KGS, TB, The Frozen North, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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Spain: Crisis, 2-Euro Tickets on Sale in 3,000 Cinemas
(by Paola Del Vecchio) (ANSAmed) — MADRID, JUNE 17 — Faced with plummeting numbers of spectators in Spain’s movie theatres, down by 25% in the past four years, the sector is launching promotional offers in an attempt to regain the magic of the experience of going to the cinema. The main initiative is the Film Festival, which will take place next week, starting on Sunday June 21 and lasting for three days in 3,000 movie theatres throughout the country. During the promotion, a movie ticket will cost only 2 euros, compared to the 7.50-euro average for a normal ticke. The only requirement to be eligible for the discount will be to buy a normally priced ticket on Sunday June 21. The ticket will be used as a coupon to receive the discounted ticket over the next three days in all theatres participating in the initiative, which is being promoted by producers, theatre managers, and distributors, all uniting for the first time to face the crisis. Public TV station TVE and Canal+ are also participating in the event. Spanish film is popular in Europe and worldwide, as demonstrated by the success of Almodovar’s films or directors like Amenabar, Isabel Coixet, as well as the recent Oscars awarded to actors like Penelope Cruz or Javier Bardem. This success has not yielded results on the Spanish market, which has suffered heavy losses. The number of spectators in 2008 was 1.4 million less than the previous year, a 9.1% decline, according to data provided by the Culture Ministry. As a result, total revenue, equal to 81.6 million euros, has fallen by 6% compared to 2007. Another sign of the crisis is the closing of many theatres, whose numbers dropped by 4.3% in 2008 compared to 2007. According to the President of Spain’s Federation of Film Distributors (Federcine), Luis Hernandez de Carlos, cited by El Pais, “the cause of the collapse of the number of movie-goers should be looked for in movie piracy, a phenomenon that is socially acceptable, even if it is illegal, and advancements in technologies that allow people to see movies at home”. The new unity, underlined Film Producers President Pedro Perez, will be able to lessen the effects of the crisis, although the alliance between distributors and theatre managers was made late. “We want to recover the magic of going to the theatre, the ritual of leaving the house and going to a theatre where the lights go out and the film starts,” he said, while promoting the festival. France was a forerunner in this type of event, obtaining positive results by bringing thousands of spectators to the big screen. The head of the Film and Audiovisual Arts Institute, former European MP Ignasi Guardans, appointed last week to the Culture Ministry, presented a ministerial order today to representatives of the sector, which will develop film-related laws, approved last year. Guardans announced a radical change in the system of public aid to the film sector. For example, the download of films from the Internet and DVD sales or rentals will be made equal to ticket sales at the box office, in order to receive subsidies from the Culture Ministry. Festivals and initiatives aside, staying realistic is key. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Attorney General to Classify Pro-Life, Pro-Gun, Americans as Terrorists
An amendment to a bill swiftly moving through the US Congress will allow the Obama Administration’s Attorney General to classify Americans as domestic terrorists if they are pro-life, pro-gun and anti-big government.
Impeached Florida judge — now a Democrat Party member of the House of Representatives — Rep. Alcee Hastings introduced what some claim is a disturbing piece of legislation. Hasting’s amendment calls for the Attorney General to have discretion over who is called a terrorist and what groups will be treated as terrorist groups.
“This is arguably one of the worst pieces of legislation to come down the pike in a long, long time. In essence Attorney General Eric Holder — a Bill Clinton retread — will have the discretion to label Americans terrorists. Hastings is a dangerous man and should be forced to resign from congress. He’s also proposed the creation of “emergency camps” that are nothing more than prisons,” warns political strategist Mike Baker.
“This amendment is part and parcel of the trend in this country to suppress dissent by patriots by calling them domestic terrorists,” he added.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Colorado Company Offers Banana Coffins
Casket makers catering to natural burials have offered biodegradable coffins made of such materials as recycled newspapers or cardboard. Ecoffins USA, based in Montrose, Colo., is selling caskets made of banana sheaves.
They take six months to two years to biodegrade.
Marketing director Joanna Passarelli says the company sold $40,000 worth of banana-sheaf or bamboo coffins to funeral homes last year.
At least 14 funeral homes around the country offer them.
“We either get an, ‘Oh, my,’ or, ‘That’s very interesting,’“ Passarelli said. “Some people think it’s a great idea. We’ve had funeral directors look at them and say, ‘I guess you can go to hell in a handbasket now.’“
[…]
In natural burials, bodies aren’t embalmed and eventually decompose into the earth.
Ecoffins USA is the sister company of The SAWD Partnership, which has helped fuel the “green” funeral movement in the United Kingdom.
[…]
Passarelli contends the bamboo and banana coffins, made in Asia, are better for the environment than the cremation process.
Her interest in ecofriendly coffins grew after her son’s school showed the movie “An Inconvenient Truth” in which Al Gore warns of climate change. Her son came home wondering why he should bother with homework if the world would be destroyed.
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Daily Presidential Tracking Poll
Thursday, July 02, 2009
[no more updates until July 6th
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows that 33% of the nation’s voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-five percent (35%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -2. This is the third straight day the Approval Index has been below zero (see trends).
A Rasmussen video report notes that 42% now give the President good or excellent marks for handling the economy . That’s his lowest rating to date (Premium Members can see crosstabs and trends.Thirty-seven percent (37%) say the country is heading in the right direction…
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Islam Investigator Ejected From D.C. Muslim Conference
Illegally detained: ‘CAIR and ISNA essentially tried to get me killed’
WASHINGTON — With a high-profile Christian keynote speaker, Rick Warren, the Islamic Society of North America billed its July 4 national convention here as a major outreach to non-Muslims, but it chose to eject by force an American investigating Islamist radicalism in the U.S.
Dave Gaubatz, a former Air Force special agent who has traveled the country investigating radical Islamist mosques and attempts at imposing Shariah law in the U.S., was forcibly removed from the conference after paying the $100 attendance fee.
“It was apparent I was ‘flagged,’“ he told WND. “Eight or nine ISNA and other men surrounded me. They refused to tell me who they were or why they wanted me to leave. One then said CAIR wants you out. They began crowding me. I was professional and told them to step away from me, tell me who they are, and why was I being illegally detained. I told them this could have been avoided if ISNA would have emailed me a cancellation. I told them I want my $100 back. Meanwhile I was asking them some tough questions they could not answer.”
After ISNA officials let Gaubatz out of the Washington Convention Center, he was quickly surrounded by Washington police.
“I was on the street and noticed at least three D.C. patrol cars,” he said. “I took pictures. Then I started walking toward my parked car. One patrol car was following me slowly. I stopped, took a few pictures of him. Then walked to my car. I got in my car. Three patrol cars surrounded me and surrounded my vehicle. I was told to get out. I asked what was the problem. Finally one officer showed me pictures CAIR had given them and told them I was a threat. There were four pictures — three were with me in Iraq with my M-16 and 9mm, and in two I was holding AK-47s in Iraq. CAIR had photocopied the picture of me helping a sick Iraqi child from the picture. Then CAIR had cropped my head shot onto a Nazi uniform, which was obvious.”
The police said members of CAIR had given them the pictures, saying he was a threat.
“I told them about the pictures, my background in Iraq, and who I was,” Gaubatz said. “They knew nothing of this. CAIR and ISNA had essentially tried to get me killed. The officer reminded me they just had the Holocaust Museum shooting. CAIR intentionally misled the officers to make them believe I was just someone who carries guns. CAIR failed to tell them these were pictures from Iraq when I was serving my country.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Marion Barry Charged With Stalking Woman
Police say former Washington Mayor Marion Barry has been arrested and charged with stalking a woman.
The United States Park Police said Barry, a current D.C. Council member, was arrested Saturday in Washington after a woman flagged down an officer and complained that Barry was stalking her.
Barry was charged with misdemeanor stalking and released.
[…]
Barry served four terms as mayor. In his third, he was videotaped in 1990 in a hotel room smoking crack cocaine in an FBI sting. He served six months in prison and in 1994 regained the mayor’s office.
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Racially Offensive Fireworks Off Wisconsin Shelves
A Wisconsin retailer agreed to stop selling a line of fireworks after Minnesota Muslims protested that it’s racist.
Fireworks called Run Hadji Run were pulled off the shelves of a Wisconsin store after Minnesota Muslims complained that they were racist.
The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN) said that the name and the packaging are demeaning. One side of the package has a drawing of Uncle Sam yanking the long beard of a man in traditional Muslim attire, while the other shows a Stealth bomber flying over a group of Arabs riding camels. In addition, “Hadji” is an honorific for those who have completed the pilgrimage to Mecca.
“I’ve seen other fireworks that I thought were pushing the line on being offensive, but this clearly went too far,” Jessica Zikri, the communications director of CAIR-MN, said Saturday. “Hopefully, this will help keep other groups from being targeted this way.”
The company that imported the fireworks from China, Missouri-based Red Rhino Fireworks, said that they are at least three years old and were distributed by the firm’s previous owners. But they are still listed in the company’s online catalog, which said they send off 16 red, green and blue “strobe comets” over a period of 28 seconds.
They were discovered by a shopper Friday afternoon at Fireworks City in Baldwin, Wis. Reports of their existence reached CAIR-MN, which demanded their removal and they were removed from the sales stock late Friday.
Because the fireworks were distributed several years ago, there’s no way of telling if other stores still have some, Zikri acknowledged.
“But we’re happy that this store saw the logic” of halting sales, she said. “We contacted [Red Rhino], and hopefully they will tell other stores to get rid of any remaining product they might have.”
| — Hat tip: Islam in Action | [Return to headlines] |
Will ‘Legal Jihad’ Silence Online Critics of Islam?
Court wades into brewing battle over rights of Internet journalists
When Internet journalist Joe Kaufman wrote an article exposing terrorist connections in two American Muslim groups, he was sued by a swarm of Islamic organizations, none of which he had mentioned in his online article.
The technique is called by some “legal jihad” or “Islamist lawfare,” and the Thomas More Law Center, which is representing Kaufman in the lawsuit, claims Muslim advocates are using the strategy to bully online journalists into silence.
“The lawsuit against Kaufman was funded by the Muslim Legal Fund for America. The head of that organization, Khalil Meek, admitted on a Muslim radio show that lawsuits were being filed against Kaufman and others to set an example,” claims a Thomas More statement on the case. “Indeed, for the last several years, Muslim groups in the U.S. have engaged in the tactic of filing meritless lawsuits to silence any public discussion of Islamic terrorist threats.”
The organizations suing Kaufman also sought to legally deny him certain legal protections granted to traditional journalists, claiming that as an Internet writer, his right to seek a quick and inexpensive dismissal of the case didn’t apply.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Deserts Spreading Across Mediterranean, Experts Say
(ANSAmed) — ROME, JUNE 25 — The Sahara Desert is crossing the Mediterranean, according to Italian environmental protection group Legambiente which warns that the livelihoods of 6.5 million people living along its shores could be at risk. “Desertification isn’t limited to Africa,” said Legambiente Vice President Sebastiano Venneri. “Without a serious change of direction in economic and environmental policies, the risk will become concrete and irreversible.” A recent report by Legambiente estimated that 74 million acres of fertile land along the Mediterranean were turning to desert as the result of overexploited land and water resources. Legambiente said that southern Italy was at severe risk in addition to the islands of Sicily and Sardinia where 11% of all arable land showed signs of drying up. “Semi-arid coastal regions like southern Italy are prone to the effects of desertification due to farmers’ dependence on water from underground aquifers instead of rainfall,” said Legambiente spokesman Giorgio Zampetti. According to Zampetti, pumping too much fresh water out of these underground deposits can result in seawater leaking in to replace it, effectively poisoning the groundwater. As an example of the long-term consequences, Legambiente pointed to Egypt where it said brackish groundwater had compromised half the country’s farmland. “The south of Italy isn’t the only part of the country at risk,” added Zampetti. “Aquifers around the Po Delta in northern Italy have also begun showing signs of saltwater contamination.” Experts said that the Po River, which is Italy’s longest waterway and nearly dries up in parts when industrial consumption peaks, is one of the most visible examples of desertifying climate change in Italy. Italy is not the only country in Europe losing fertile land. Legambiente estimated that desertification affects more than a fifth of the Iberian Peninsula with early indicators also present along the French Riviera. Across the Mediterranean, Legambiente said that countries like Libya, Tunisia and Morocco were losing 1,000 square kilometers of fertile land every year. Legambiente experts predict that between 1997 and 2020, desertification will have forced over 60 million people in sub-Saharan Africa to leave their homes, many of whom will head north to Europe. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome ranks desertification among the chief causes of worldwide famine. “In addition to destroying the biodiversity of ecosystems and exacerbating the problems related to global warming,” said Sebastiano Venneri, “desertification causes people to migrate, perpetuating a vicious cycle of social strife and overpopulation that has placed mankind’s survival at risk.” To turn back the tide on desertification, Legambiente is calling for drastic water conservation measures, particularly with regard to agriculture where it says flood irrigation is a chief culprit behind the exhaustion of local reservoirs. Simple measures like collecting rainwater for use during drier periods could make the difference in protecting water resources, according to Legambiente. In the household, it listed a number of novel steps Italian families could take to reduce waste, including recycling water used to boil pasta to degrease pots and pans or to water house plants. It also urges homemakers to wash fruits and vegetables in a basin with a pinch of baking soda instead of under running water. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Enviroment: NGOs Call for Protection of Tuna Spawning Area
(ANSAmed) — ROME, JUNE 12 — Immediate action is called for to protect the areas in the Mediterranean where the red tuna reproduces. Ocean and Marviva, two non-governmental organizations involved in protecting the marine environment, released today in Palma de Mallorca the results of their studies on red tuna. The report — as seen in the press release — is based on a study of the spawning areas of red tuna in the Mediterranean, and is aiming to promote the creation of protected marine areas. Ricardo Aguilar, research and project director of Oceana in Europe, has stressed the need to conduct in depth researches on the subject in the near future, not only focusing red tuna, but also on other commercial species, such as sword fish. “We have limited data on the spawning areas of red tuna in the Mediterranean, and practically no data at all on other species, such as white tuna. Still, protecting this areas is crucial to preserve them”. Together with the Southern Tyrrhenian Sea, the Balearic Islands represent the main spawning area of the red tuna in the Mediterranean and, at the same time, are one of the main fishing areas for the species. “Regarding the Balearic Islands”, said the executive director of Ocean in Europe, Xavier Pastor, “we already have all the necessary information to create a red tuna reserve. Still, relevant authorities are refusing to pioneer the first reserve of this kind in the Mediterranean”.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Hamburg Street Festival Ends With Riot
Anarchists from Hamburg’s autonomous scene battled police for six hours late Saturday and early Sunday in the trendy Schanzenviertel neighbourhood after a street fair. At least 67 rioters were arrested and 27 police officers injured.
Over 10,000 visitors visited the Schanzenfest street fair, but once it turned dark, over 1,000 young, masked anarchists came out to do battle, police said. The rioters threw bottles, stones and fireworks at police.
“The fusillade was extremely massive,” police spokesman Ralf Meyer told the daily Hamburger Abendblatt, who said the anarchists were more aggressive than in past years. For years, the Schanzenfest has often concluded with clashes between police and the left-wing, anti-fascist Autonomen, or “Black Bloc.”
Over 1,800 police officers were on duty at the event and deployed water cannons and riot sticks against the rioters. Many of the rioters were injured, though no specific numbers were available.
One police vehicle was torched by rioters, who also ignited trash cans and street barriers.
Two of the arrested rioters traveled to Hamburg from Berlin to take part. They were taken into custody after pulling out a backpack that contained a timing device that looked like it could set off explosives.
Police around Germany have warned in recent months that the ultra-left-wing anarchist scene appears to be becoming more violent. On June 21, thousands of anarchists tried to forcibly occupy Berlin’s Tempelhof airport. Police said rioters at this year’s annual May 1 riots in Berlin used Molotov cocktails against police, an escalation from recent years.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Rome Church Links Thefts to ‘Satanic Rites’
Rome, 12 June (AKI) — An Italian church outside Rome has stopped offering ‘holy water’ to worshippers because the parish priest fears it is being stolen for satanic rituals. Walter Palombi, the parish priest at the Santa Maria Stella Maris church at Fiumicino, on the outskirts of the capital, said the water is no longer provided for people to bless themselves.
“We fear that the water is being stolen for satanic rites. So we decided to remove it,” said Walter Palombi, quoted by Italian daily Il Messaggero.
Instead the church is placing flowers in the basins where the water was held and many worshippers think the move is “extravagant”.
“We asked ourselves for a long time why he had done it. We thought Father Walter wanted to give a personalised touch to the church,” said Bruno di Carlo, from the neighbourhood committee of Isola Sacra Nuova.
“In reality, poor thing, he was forced to do so. He is a very good man, he had tried everything.”
For many days, Palombi had tried to catch the thieves who were stealing the church water. Several chalices and tablecloths used on the church’s altar have also disappeared.
“We have motives to believe that these are used to for a ‘black mass’ (satanic mass). Usually the person who carries out these practices needs items that are ‘blessed’ as well as holy water,” said Palombi.
The parish church, Santa Maria Stella Maris was built in 1959 and is located near Rome’s international airport on the outskirts of the capital.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Govt Corruption Costing €60 Billion a Year
Rome, 26 June (AKI) — Italy’s state accountancy court says government corruption is costing the country up to 60 billion euros a year.
“The phenomenon of corruption in the administration of government is considerable and has serious consequences in this time of (economic) crisis … on the country’s economic development,” said the court’s chief prosecutor Furio Pasqualucci as he presented his office’s annual report on Thursday.
He said of the top five Italian regions in a ranking of graft probes in 2008, four were in the south of the country.
Sicily accounted for 13 percent of the total, followed by the Campania region with 11.4 percent, Puglia with 9.4 percent and southern the region of Calabria with 8.19 percent.
However, the northern region of Lombardy ranked between Puglia and Calabria with 9.39 percent.
However, Pasqualucci said crimes and convictions for corruptions had risen in Italy.
A leading international research organisation said in its latest report entitled Global Corruption Barometer 2009 recently said that the single institution or sector perceived to be the most affected by corruption in Italy were political parties.
Transparency International also said in a corruption report that Italy had become more corrupt in 2008 compared to the previous year.
Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index says Italy’s corruption worsened in 2008 because of several corruption cases, particularly in the government health sector.
The country’s score — ranked from zero to ten — fell from 5.2 to 4.8 in 2008.
Ottaviano Del Turco, the centre-left governor of the central region of Abruzzo and former finance minister, was arrested in July 2008.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Gang Boss Tells Son to Take Over and Passes on Bracelet of Command
Father urges son to take over “for the good of the family”
NAPLES — Letters from a prison cell. A Camorra gang boss wrote to his son handing over his criminal legacy and the symbol of command.
VESUVIUS CAMORRA — A Camorra gang boss from the Vesuvius area wrote a letter from his prison cell to his son, unversed in the ways of the underworld, to confer power on him and give him — “for the good of the family” (i.e., gang) — his own Christian name and a bracelet he regards as a symbol of command. This peek into gangland life emerges from investigations by Carabinieri at the Naples provincial headquarters. The inquiries prompted magistrates to issue sixty-four arrest warrants, which were executed last night. At the centre of attention is Giuseppe Orefice, head of the Orefice gang linked to the Arlistico and Terracciano families of Camorra hoodlums.
LETTER SEIZED — Carabinieri officers seized the letter, sent from prison to his son by Giuseppe Orefice. In the document, the gangster issued orders that look like a Camorra version of a formal investiture. It is almost as if a king were abdicating in favour of his direct heir. But it also shows the workings of the Naples Camorra underworld, in which a gang leader forces a son, obviously disinclined to get involved with criminal activities, to yield to the logic of wrong-doing and organised crime. The son is urged by his father to take his place “for the good of the family”. The investigating magistrate who issued the warrant notes: “It’s a supreme value that surpasses all other values, ethical or moral”. In the letter, Giuseppe Orefice transfers his own name to his son, who from that moment on will have to call himself “Peppe” like his father, obliges him to behave like a Camorra gangster and gives him a visible sign of command, a bracelet bestowed as a symbol of power. Orefice writes to his son: “From today, I will call you Peppe and for everyone, you will be me. I give you the bracelet that many others have already asked for, but I entrust it to you”.
Vito Faenza
27 maggio 2009
English translation by Giles Watson
www.watson.it
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Racism: Inquiry Shows Paris Police Harder on Arabs
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, JULY 1 — At the underground railway station Chatelet, right in the centre of Paris, an Arab or a black person are six or seven times more likely to be stopped and checked by police compared to a white person. This time it’s not an impression that could lead to accusations of self-pity, but a proven fact, following an inquiry which took place between October 2007 and May 2008 on the initiative of the Open Society Institute, an American foundation set up by billionaire George Soros. The inquiry, which was carried out at the Gare du Nord and Les Halles stations, confirms that “identity checks are mainly based on appearance: not on what people are doing but on what they look like”. “After studying the composition of the population available, by separating out the different ethnic groups, we were able to calculate which individuals were stopped the most often”, said Rene Levy, one of the report’s authors, who added that in the places which were under observation “a black person or an Arab are respectively 6.2 and 7.7 times more likely to be subjected to an identity check” than a white person. Even clothing was found to be a factor, with the hip-hop style of dress being the most targeted amongst the Arabs who were checked. But this race discrimination goes against French law, which says that “plausible reasons for suspecting a person of an offence and proceeding with an identity check” must first exist. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Scotland: Petrol Bomb Thugs Bring Disgrace on Their Community
IT TAKES backbone to stand up to bigots. You need guts and a stark refusal to be pushed around by the numbskulls who would try to impose their narrow views on you.
But if you have to wear a BULLETPROOF VEST to your work, then you need more than courage. You need the commitment of the police and the community to move in and sort the fanatics out.
So if ever we needed a wake-up call to the level of bigotry from Islamic fanatics who live among us, then the owner of the Pakistani Café in Glasgow has given us that.
Jimshaed Sharif has shown the kind of raw courage that should be applauded by the stance he has taken against the extremists who have threatened him in the name of their twisted view of religion.
The 50-year-old has become a target for Islamic thugs because he plays pop music and serves booze in his café on the city’s south side.
This is a man who was born a Muslim in Lahore, but grew up here. He considers himself a Scot, and Glasgow is his city. He has no religious beliefs whatsoever.
Not only has he fully embraced the Scottish way of life, he is an integral part of that Scottish way of life.
And has no interest in being a Muslim or any part of their faith or anyone else’s faith.
Even by calling his small eatery the Pakistani Café, he is attempting to dismantle the barriers — retaining a little bit of the culture, but opening it for other people to enjoy the mix of Asia and Scotland that we’ve lived with for decades.
And for this, the thugs have threatened to PETROL-BOMB his restaurant. They have tried to bully him and have smashed his windows with hammers.
Now, let’s be honest about this. If this was a café owned by a Rangers or Celtic supporter and he was being threatened by bigots, the police would be down on the hoodlums like a ton of bricks.
But, as usual when it involves anything that may upset the Muslim community, there has been a great deal of pussyfooting around with this case.
Why be over-sensitive?
A thug is a thug whether he goes to the mosque, the church or the synagogue.
The yobs who are threatening Jimshaed are bringing SHAME on their community.
The dad-of-two stood up to the extremists when they went mob-handed to his restaurant to demand that he stop playing western music and stop allowing alcohol to be consumed.
Then the maniacs attacked his windows and threatened to throw in a petrol bomb because he wouldn’t put up a sign calling for a new Muslim cemetery.
Hold on a minute. This is Glasgow, not Karachi.
The young men responsible for this campaign of terror were born and bred in SCOTLAND.
They are the sons and grandsons of decent Pakistani parents who worked all hours to make sure their kids were educated and had the best.
They had to face bigotry and small minds when they came here two generations ago, but now they are a crucial part of Scottish life and have enriched our culture.
Of course, they have their staunch religious beliefs and we have to respect that. But the parents and grandparents have a responsibility to deal with the yob behaviour in their midst.
We could all learn a little from the Muslim way of life, which has family values and respect for elders at its core.
However, there is more chance of the elders within the Muslim community dealing with the bigoted thugs than the police.
And the Muslim community cannot afford to turn a blind eye or shirk from their responsibility in this issue.
To do that would be no less than tacit approval. And I refuse to believe decent Muslims want their community and religion dragged down by morons.
Maybe the reason these idiots have rounded on Jimshaed is because his café is in an area with a large Muslim population.
But it’s still Scotland. And no matter how strict your faith is, you live by Scottish laws and the freedoms that are central to our lives.
If the thugs want to discover what it’s like to live WITHOUT those freedoms they enjoy here, they should get on a plane and go to Pakistan.
But my guess is they wouldn’t have the guts.
| — Hat tip: The Frozen North | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Police Officer Gives Rosengård Youths the Finger
A police officer has been re-assigned and reported for making insulting gestures with his middle finger at youths in the suburb of Rosengård in Malmö.
The officer’s superiors fear giving the gang of youths the finger could have jeopardized months of patient work to develop positive relations with local residents in the troubled suburb, according to local newspaper Sydsvenskan.
The incident occurred on Friday when two off-duty police officers visited Skåne police department’s station in the Herrgården area of Rosengård.
When the officers left the area by motorbike they passed a gang of youths who had assembled on the other side of the road. The police officer then proceeded to wave his middle finger in a provocative gesture.
The officer’s gesture was witnessed by several of his colleagues at the scene.
“It is indefensible. A police officer just does not behave like that. We have a sensitive situation in Rosengård where we have worked hard over an extended period of time to develop positive relations with residents. There is now a risk that this process has been set back,” said senior police officer Bengt-Åke Malm to the newspaper.
The police officer concerned has now been re-assigned to an internal post and has been reported.
The accompanying officer has been removed from service in Rosengård to avoid the risk of provocation.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Change and Repent, Bishop Tells Gays
The Bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, has defended traditional biblical teachings on homosexuality and said the Church should not be “rolled over by culture”.
Dr Nazir-Ali spoke as tens of thousands of people, including Sarah Brown, the Prime Minister’s wife, joined the annual Pride London march to celebrate homosexual culture. A war of words broke out between Labour and the Conservatives over the issue of homosexuality last week after a minister accused the Tories of having a “deep strain of homophobia” running through the party.
[…]
In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Dr Nazir-Ali said: “We want to uphold the traditional teaching of the Bible. We believe that God has revealed his purpose about how we are made.
“People who depart from this don’t share the same faith. They are acting in a way that is not normative according to what God has revealed in the Bible.
“The Bible’s teaching shows that marriage is between a man and a woman. That is the way to express our sexual nature.
“We welcome homosexuals, we don’t want to exclude people, but we want them to repent and be changed.”
The bishop added that it is not just homosexuals who need to repent, but all who have strayed from the Bible’s teaching.
He said: “We want to hold on to the traditional teaching of the Church. We don’t want to be rolled over by culture and trends in the Church. We want a movement for renewal. We need a reformation of the Church and the life of the Communion.”
Dr Nazir-Ali, who is resigning from his post in September, said there was a need for the new evangelical movement, called the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, because the Church is already divided.
“We’re two different sorts of religion,” he said. “One has a view of God and the Church and Christianity that is completely different from the other.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Wine: Export Boom for Spain, Second After Italy
(by Paola Del Vecchio) (ANSAmed) — MADRID, JUNE 19 — Spain has consolidated itself as the world’s second wine exporter, in spite of the drop in consumption provoked by the crisis. The data on exports for the first quarter of 2009 confirm Spain’s passing of France, already recorded for the first time in the last quarter of 2008, according to sources from the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV), cited by the Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade (ICEX). In 2008, Spain exported 16.9 million hectolitres of wine, behind Italy, with 17.2 million, and in front of France with 13.6 million. The solid results for the month of December, which were unexpected because of the crisis in world consumption, together with those from the first quarter, allowed Spain to close out 2008 with record figures for wine exports, with 16.9 million hectolitres with a total value of 1.994 billion euros, an 8% increase when compared to the figure for 2007. Another piece of significant data for 2008 was consumption, which due to the global recession, went down by 2 million hectolitres compared to 2007. The repercussions of the downturn in demand were felt most in the countries that produce and consume the most wine, like France, Italy, Spain and Germany. According to the OIV data, for the first time a country like the United States passed Italy in terms of consumption. This scenario, which left 2009 forecast as a difficult year for Spanish exports was in any case eased by the first quarter data, which according to the Spanish Observatory on the Wine Market (OEMV), allowed for moderate optimism. If, in fact, the first two months of the year showed very negative results, March returned to positivity, on a year to year basis, with an increase of 0.76% in exports, both in volume and value. Spain therefore maintained its second place as exporter in terms of volume; France remains the number one exporter in terms of value on a global level, and is one of the primary consumers of wine in the world. For this reason, Spain’s wine producers are looking to the most important international expo for the sector, Vinexpo, with particular interest. The expo is held every two years in France and for the next edition, in the pavilion set up by ICEX there will be some 89 Spanish exhibitors from 13 autonomous areas: Andalusia, Aragon, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla Y Leon, Catalonia, Valencia, Estremadura, Galicia, La Rioja, Madrid, Murcia, Navarra and the Basque Country. The objective is that of surpassing France in terms of export value as well. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Firmly Backs Croatia’s EU Membership Bid, Frattini
(ANSAmed) — ROME, JULY 1 — Italy is offering “strong and determined” support to Croatia’s bid to join the EU by early 2011. So stated Italian Foreign Minister, Franco Frattini, at the end of the Italy/Croatia Board of Ministers that was held today in Villa Madama. Frattini explained that negotiations must be resumed as soon as possible and that the current schedule, which states that negotiations should end by late 2010, must be respected. The Foreign Minister stated that “this is an ambitious target, which Italy will support”. Commenting on the dispute between Slovenia and Croatia, Frattini invited them to keep bilateral problems clear of EU membership processes, stating that “European rules must follow an independent route and bilateral issues must not interfere with applications to join the EU”. The Board meeting saw the conclusion of agreements over infrastructures (rail and marine), environment (to protect the Adriatic sea) and agriculture (cooperation in scientific research activities). At the end of the meeting Minister Frattini and his Croatian counterpart Gordan Jandrokovic signed a joint statement over exploitation of the “Anna Maria” gas deposit in the Adriatic. Frattini stated that “we need to increase Italian investment in Croatia”, and announced that in October there will be an economic forum in Croatia that will be attended by Adolfo Urso, deputy minister for economic development. Jandrokovic thanked Italy for its support for Croatia’s bid to join the EU, which is of “importance for peace and stability” in all of south eastern Europe, and invited Slovenia to put an end to the border dispute. He then invited Italy to invest more and in various sectors of the Croatian economy. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia Jails Muslim ‘Terrorists’
Twelve alleged Muslim radicals who were mostly arrested in Serbia’s southern region of Sandzak have been jailed for plotting attacks on an imam and others.
Their alleged leader, Senad Ramovic, was sentenced to 13 years in prison for terrorist offenses and illegal possession of arms and explosives.
Eleven defendants got terms ranging from eight years to six months, two were acquitted and one faces retrial.
All pleaded not guilty when their trial opened in Belgrade in January 2008.
Most of the 15 defendants were arrested near Novi Pazar, Sandzak’s main town, in 2007.
Prosecutors said they had been planning to attack a police station and murder a Muslim cleric, and that they had close ties to fellow Islamists in neighbouring countries, as well as Saudi Arabia.
The defendants are believed to be followers of the radical Wahhabite sect of Islam.
During the trial, Ramovic told the panel of three judges: “We did not want to attack anyone. We are just Muslims devoted to Allah.”
Sandzak is a mainly Muslim region straddling Serbia and Montenegro.
| — Hat tip: islam o’phobe | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia-Italy: Afef to Take on Role as Govt Minister?
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS — Afef Jnifen Tronchetti Provera has been quoted in a front page interview in the Tunisian daily Le Temps as saying that “who knows, perhaps one day I’ll be a minister in the Italian government…”. The 41-year-old Tunisian born in Medenine had just been a guest on a programme televised live on Nessma T.V. (25 per cent held by Mediaset), in which she spoke about her activism for Arabs and Muslims. It is a commitment which she stressed immediately afterwards in the Le Temps interview. “I am leading a daily battle to fight prejudice against Arabs and Islam. Any and all opportunities are useful to me to defend this cause. I am putting my fame as top model and entertainer in Italy at the service of the ideal of tolerance which I preach.” It is a form of tolerance not shared with Magdi Allam, who was once her “partner in the fight”, but who “now, after converting to Christianity, virulently and unceasingly attacks Islam and its followers.” In reference to Italy (in which she has enjoyed citizenship since 1990), Afef complains that, in contrast with France, there are no “strong” associations in defence of the Maghreb and Arab communities. “However,” she stressed, “do not believe that all Italians are hostile towards us. Of course, the global crisis underway has exacerbated or reawakened some timeworn xenophobic reflexes (mostly against Arabs), but not to the point of making Italy into a hell for our community.” In any case, he said, she is constantly accompanied by a bodyguard on the wishes of her third husband, the entrepreneur Marco Tronchetti Provera. The final question in the interview was on her future, linked to her unceasing commitment to social concerns for the Arab-Islamic world. It is a commitment which, she claims, gives rise to much interest in Italy, which is why “efforts are made to label me as part of one political side or another, but I refuse to be pigeonholed in such a way. The moment has not yet arrived for me to belong to any specific group, but it will at some point soon. I have always thought that my career as top model and television entertainer was simply preparation for commitments of a more political sort.” Le Temps also noted that “Afef Jnifen was, for a certain period, an advisor to Berlusconi, but is today a technical advisor to various political parties, both right-wing and left-wing ones.” (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Africans on the Internet: Maghreb Most Sex Obsessed
A new tool by Google reveals how Africans use the Internet. Not being a surprise, “sex” is one of the most searched words in the Internet, but it may come as an embarrassment to many Muslim countries that their citizens are the world’s most frequent digital sex searchers; in particular North Africans. But also in sub-Saharan Africa, “sex” is among the most popular searches. The Google Trends tool also reveals Africa’s most popular celebrities and potential markets for African products.
When it comes to using the Internet to look for sex, North Africans in particular seem to have found a new outlet for societal taboos. The sex search on Google is topped by Pakistan, but closely followed by Egypt. Moroccans even reach the top-ten list both in English (6th on “sex”) and in French (2nd on “sexe”). Algerians top the search for “sexe”, showing twice as much interest as the French and Tunisians. A quick look inside the booming cybercafe’s in North Africa confirms this obsession.
On a regional outlook, Mauritanians, Malians and Nigerians are the most sex-searching West Africans, followed by the Senegalese…
In Southern Africa, Zambians and Malawians are searching twice as much for sex as Angolans and Mozambicans. Tanzanians however are even more interested in finding sex on the Internet, while Ethiopians and Somalis demonstrate a true obsession.
Even homosexuality, which is illegal in most Muslim and African countries, spurs much interest in Muslim Africa. While the search word “gay” is dominated by Latin Americans, it is mainly Filipinos and Saudi Arabians looking for “gay sex”.
The African “gay sex” list is topped by Kenyans, Tanzanians, Namibians, Zimbabweans and South Africans. In the francophone world, however, Algerians and Moroccans by far top the world’s search for “la homosexualité”. Algerians also by distance top the search for the “sexe gay”, with the French and the Moroccans being somewhat more timid on the issue.
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Egypt: 1st National Strategy to Combat Violence Against Women
(ANSAmed) CAIRO, July 1 — Dr Farkhunda Hassan, the secretary general of the National Council for Women (NCW), has said the council will finalize this year preparations for the first national strategy for combating violence against women. In statements on Wednesday, Hassan said the strategy depends on the participation of officials of the ministries concerned and the civil society in efforts to fight violence against women. Hassan pointed out that the UN rapporteur and the official in charge of referring reports to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights had called for more studies and efforts to curb violence against women. The NCW was established in 2000, directly under the President of the Republic, as an autonomous institution, aiming at ensuring women’s effective participation in all areas of development. President of the Council is Mrs.Suzanne Mubarak, Egypt’s First Lady. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt Denies Israeli Sub Sailed Suez Canal
A senior Egyptian security official on Saturday denied reports that an Israeli submarine had sailed the Suez Canal last month as part of a naval drill.
“Egypt does not allow Israeli warships to enter our territory,” Army Radio quoted the official as saying.
On Friday, defense sources reported that an Israeli submarine had sailed the Suez Canal to the Red Sea last month, describing the unusual maneuver as a show of strategic reach in the face of Iran.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Healthcare: Plague in Libya Not Worrying Tunisia
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, JULY 1 — Alarm has not been raised in Tunisia over the 18 cases of bubonic plague recorded in the past few days in Libya, in the Tobruk region near the Egyptian border. So stated the Tunisian office of the World Health Organisation (WHO). The organisation said that while there is no risk of an epidemic it is closely monitoring the situation given the proximity of Libya and the continuous flow of tourists and trade between the two countries, noting that the Tunisian health system meets appropriate standards. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Israeli Submarine Through Suez, Jerusalem Post
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, JULY 3 — An Israeli Dolphin submarine crossed the Suez Canal last month in order to participate in a drill in the Red Sea, near Eilat. The news was highlighted today in the Jerusalem Post, specifying that the canal has always been avoided by the Israeli Navy, considering it too risky to pass though it. The Israel Navy has changed its strategy, according to the newspaper. The Jerusalem Post specifies that the submarine was visible from land while it crossed the canal. The newspaper pointed out that this development shows a strengthening of ties between Israel and Egypt, and could be interpreted as a message to Iran. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
MEMRI July 2 Report: Al-Qaeda Attack on U.S. Embassy in Algiers Foiled
An Algerian newspaper reports that security forces have foiled a planned attack by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) on the U.S. Embassy in Algiers. The British and Danish Embassies were also reportedly targets…
[rest of story available at Memri by subscription]
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Hamas Attack on Mahmoud Abbas, Services Investigate
(By Aldo Baquis) (ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV — Reconciliation between Hamas and al-Fatah seems more unlikely than ever after the Palestine National Authority security services concluded that their Islamic rivals were about to carry out a series of destabilising attacks in the West Bank. Haaretz reports that these may have included an attack on Palestinan President Mahmoud Abbas. In Gaza, Hamas stated that these reports are “lies” aimed in substance to cast a negative light on Hamas, reflecting security coordination between PNA on one side and USA and Israel on the other. Only a few days ago Abbas was interviewed by a Russian network, to which he revealed that Hamas militiamen had been arrested in the West Bank while they were purportedly busy plotting attacks on PNA top officials. The president had said that “We know that Hamas set aside weapons and explosives in the West Bank. We discovered two tonnes of explosives. We know of the existence of a cell that has been ordered to assassinate PNA leaders.” During the interview Abbas revealed an evidently rather disturbing fact, namely that Hamas had stashed away uniforms of his presidential guard as well as weapons. Today Tel Aviv’s Haaretz paper commented on the issue pointing out that the PNA’s intelligence services discovered pictures and layouts in the hands of Hamas militiamen which indicated that Abbas was being followed and that information had been collected on security systems adopted by his escort. Haaretz stated that Palestinian investigators are convinced that Abbas could have been the target of a potential attack. The paper added that members of the cell caught by the PNA taped a confession in which they admitted to wanting to eliminate top PNA officials. More specifically, a PNA security centre was to be blown up in Nablus. A few days ago, and while in Gaza, Hamas published a tough attack on the PNA, claiming that in June six active Hamas members had been “assassinated” in the West Bank by security services working for Abbas: five died during a clash in Kalkilya, while a sixth man was ‘tortured to death” in jail. Hamas had also reported a wave of arrests of its supporters in the West Bank. Yesterday Israel’s military radio reported that numerous al-Fatah activists were arrested by Hamas in Gaza, to be used as “trading cards.” In light of these events the potential political understanding between Hamas and al-Fatah, which Egypt hoped to wrap up by the end of July, is becoming less likely. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
‘Kristallnacht’ At Homesh: Arabs Burned Holy Books
Arabs raided the yeshiva of Homesh in Samaria on Wednesday and torched dozens of books of the Talmud and of the Five Books of Moses, leaving behind a pile of ashes. The arsonists ignored personal equipment, including beds, tables and chairs, and concentrated all their energies on Jewish texts.
“It was a horrible sight to see dozen of holy books of the Talmud and Bible burned almost completely,” said Rabbi Elishama Cohen, head of the yeshiva that has been the stronghold of the community the past two years. Homesh was one of four towns in northern Samaria that the government destroyed after expelling the residents during the “Disengagement” program four years ago.
“The Arabs did this very thoroughly and carefully,” Rabbi Cohen added. “We succeeded in saving the remains of some of the burned books and several pages where the letters still are recognizable, the same pages we learned the past several days.”
Return to Homesh leader Yossi Dagan said that the yeshiva students gathered the remains of the books to bury them according to Jewish law. “We demand that the Prime Minister establish a community larger than the original Homesh. This needs to be the answer of the government to this desecration and national humiliation.”
The Return to Homesh movement re-established the town two years ago and has maintained a constant presence despite several subsequent expulsions by Israeli police, who also have destroyed a wooden building the yeshiva students built for study.
Rabbi Cohen said that instead of the spirit of the yeshiva students being broken, their numbers will increase next year as a reaction to desecration. Samaria Regional Council chairman Gershon Mesika called on the police to search and arrest the perpetrators. Police said they have begun an investigation.
Communications Minister Moshe Kahlon commented, “Whoever has not yet understood with whom we are dealing should look at the pictures of the burnt holy books. If Jews had burned dozens of Muslim books, the whole world would be shaking.”
Yuli Edelstein, Minister of Information and Diaspora Affairs, said. “To my sorrow, this grave incident is a result of classic anti-Semitism and a reminder of the dark days of the past. It is sad to think that if there were permanent homes and official security, we would not be witness to this grave incident.”
Shas Knesset Member Rabbi Chaim Amsallem called on Defense Minister Ehud Barak to allow the construction of a permanent yeshiva with proper security. The vandalism of the enemies of Israel proves that decision makers are playing in to their hands.”
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
National Geographic Blames Israel for Christianity’s Decline in Middle East.
In its June 2009 issue, National Geographic demonstrated just how far it is willing to go to scapegoat Israel for suffering in the Middle East. The magazine also showed how far it is willing to go to downplay the role Islam played in contributing to Christianity’s decline in the region. In an article written by Don Belt, the magazine’s senior editor for foreign affairs, National Geographic portrays the departure of Christians from the Holy Land as largely a consequence of Israeli (and American) policies in the region. The article offers no honest description of the well-documented mistreatment of Christians at the hands of Muslim majority populations in the Middle East.
The Crusades
Belt’s efforts to whitewash the role Islamic conquest played in the decline of Christianity in the Middle East becomes obvious in the third paragraph of the article which states that “it was during the Crusades (1095-1291) that Arab Christians, slaughtered along with Muslims by the crusaders and caught in the cross fire between Islam and the Christian West, began a long, steady retreat into the minority.”
In reality, Arab Christianity began its “long, steady retreat” into minority status hundreds of years before the European crusaders ever set foot in the Holy Land. As Bat Ye’or and other commentators have documented, the process of forced conversion and subjugation of Christians in the Middle East began soon after the death of Mohammed in 632. Ye’or writes that after unifying the Arabian Peninsula under Muslim rule, Abu Bakr, Mohammed’s successor, brought war to non-Muslims, including Christians, outside Arabia.
[…]
Key passage
In one key passage, Belt lays out his agenda: Obscure the facts about where Christianity is growing in the Middle East (Israel), downplay and minimize the role Muslim extremism plays in marginalizing Christians in Palestinian society, and blame Western Christians for the misdeeds of Muslims in the region.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Report: Gaza Religious Police Now Official
(IsraelNN.com) A violent group calling itself “The Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice” has carried out attacks in Gaza since shortly after Hamas took over the area in mid-2007. Now a female Arab journalist reports that the “unaffiliated” group is clearly an official branch of Hamas, charged with enforcing the group’s strict interpretation of Islamic law.
The journalist, Asma abu-Ghul, told Al-Arabiya that she was stopped by the committee’s policemen at the beach. Ghul said she was detained for allegedly laughing too loudly and appearing in public with uncovered hair.
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The “prevention of vice” police body reports directly to Hamas’s Ministry of Waqf Affairs, Ghul said. The force is increasingly visible on the streets of Gaza, she reported, and its officers patrol public beaches and parks as well as businesses such as restaurants and coffee shops.
Hamas Denies Connection
Hamas officials admit that Hamas police patrol beaches and may tell women who they believe are dressed immodestly to go elsewhere. However, Hamas has not claimed any affiliation to the Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, and has refused to even admit that the group exists.
The committee lists its goal as hunting down “slaves of the devil who commit blasphemy.” Its first public act, in late 2007, was to beat a local singer for giving a concert. Soon afterwards, members of the group carried out a vicious assault on two residents of southern Gaza accused of “disrespect for Allah.”
A similarly-named group exists in Saudi Arabia as an official government body. The Saudi Arabia organization is tasked with enforcing religious laws, such as ensuring that men and women who are not immediate family members do not interact and maintaining Islamic dress codes.
Police forces responsible for enforcing Islamic law exist in other Muslim states as well, among them Afghanistan and Iran.
Hamas Funds Koran Studies, Supports Covering Girls’ Hair Hamas recently announced that it would cut its employees’ salaries by 1% in order to finance Koran studies in Gaza. Former Hamas terrorists and those imprisoned in Israel report that Koran study centers are often the place where young boys in Gaza are first recruited to Islamic terrorist groups.
Last year, the group officially adopted the traditional Muslim criminal code, which includes penalties such as lashes, amputation and crucifixion.
According to the Jerusalem Post, residents of Gaza believe Hamas plans to make hair covering mandatory for all girls in school in the near future. The requirement would affect girls as young as age five.
| — Hat tip: islam o’phobe | [Return to headlines] |
‘They Accused Me of Laughing in Public’
A Palestinian female journalist complained over the weekend that Hamas policemen attempted to arrest her under the pretext that she came to a Gaza beach dressed immodestly and was seen laughing in public.
The journalist, Asma al-Ghul, said that the policemen instead confiscated her passport. Since the incident, she added, she has been afraid to leave her home, especially after receiving death threats from anonymous callers.
“They accused me of laughing loudly while swimming with my friend and failing to wear a hijab,” Ghul told a human rights organization in the Gaza Strip. “They also wanted to know the identity of the people who were with me at the beach and whether they were relatives of mine.”
In a phone interview with the Dubai-based Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya news Web site, the journalist said that the policemen who stopped her belonged to the Hamas government’s Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice security force.
The Hamas government, according to local reporters, has refrained from publicly admitting that the force exists out of fear of being branded fundamentalist.
The Hamas force consists of dozens of plainclothes police officers who patrol beaches, public gardens, restaurants, hair salons and coffee shops to make sure that males and females are not mixing together and that the women are dressed modestly.
Ghul said that many Palestinian women have noticed the presence of the police officers at the beaches and other sites. She said that the talk in the Gaza Strip these days was about Hamas’s intention to impose the hijab on all female school children from first to 12th grade.
She said she was astonished by the fact that the Hamas security forces were providing security to hotels that are frequented by women wearing miniskirts while at the same time targeting “common people” who go to the beaches and public parks.
Ghul said that Hamas has banned men in the Gaza Strip from swimming topless. “And as in my case, Hamas has banned women from laughing while swimming,” she added.
She and her friends were stopped by Hamas policemen while swimming in the sea. She said that the policemen confiscated her passport and laptop after accusing her of laughing loudly and appearing in immodest clothes in a public place.
Two of her male friends were detained for questioning for three hours. They said the police officers beat them and abused them verbally before releasing them.
Hamas security commanders initially said that the journalist and her friends were stopped because they were having a mixed party at the beach. Later, one of the commanders said that Ghul was stopped because she was not wearing a hijab while swimming. Another commander claimed that the journalist and her friends were stopped because they had been seeing smoking nargilas and partying in a public place.
Islam Shahwan, spokesman for the Hamas security forces, said that policemen have been deployed at the beaches at the request of the Ministry for Waqf Affairs. He said the policemen’s task is to impose law and order and prevent harassment of families picnicking and swimming at the beaches.
“We are there for the safety of the people,” he said. “We operate there to prevent men from harassing women. We’ve received many complaints about these negative practices.”
Shahwan said that Hamas does not interfere with the way women want to dress. However, he stressed, “we must preserve our Islamic culture and traditions. If there’s a woman who wants to dress as she wishes, she must go to a private swimming pool and not to a public place.”
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Arab Women Moving Towards Equality But at Different Speeds
(by Cristiana Missori) (ANSAmed) — ROME — “Access to employment for Arab women is not just a right but a necessity: emancipating women financially means giving them the freedom to choose what is best for them”, Dyala Aref, Syrian Minister for Employment and Social Affairs said in Rome during a conference on Arab Women in the 21st century. The meeting was organised by ISIAO, the Italian Institute for Africa and the East, the Italian Foreign Office and the League of Arab States. As the minister emphasised, obtaining a sufficient level of education and literacy is the first step towards giving women more freedom. Not all countries in the Arab League are at the same stage however. In fact, what has been illustrated in the first day of the conference is that progress is moving at very different rates in the various different countries. There is large gap between countries in the Gulf, such as Kuwait and Jordan, where women’s literacy rates are much higher, and countries like Yemen, where many fewer women can read or write than men. Arab women tend to get university degrees in humanities subjects rather than in sciences, according to Fatma Al Shamsi, secretary general of the United Arab Emirates University. “Arab women traditionally find more employment in the public sector than in the private sector,” she said. The number of women in the work force also changes from country to country: in Morocco women comprise around 30% of the work force, while the average in the Arab world is 20%. The real problems for the economies of the countries in the Arab League are unemployment (which is four times higher than the Arab League’s average in Egypt and Morocco), poverty, lower quality jobs, lower pay than men, and far too often the fact that they gain employment in the underground economy, particularly in Palestinian areas and Egypt. The Egyptian Minister for Families, Mushira Khatab, observed that the conflict in the Middle East, “has reduced the resources available, resources which could have been used for development.” She did add that many improvements had been made in Egypt recently however: “Since 1961 there have been many more female ministers, there are numerous female ambassadors and the third-largest university in the country is even run by a woman,” she said. In any case, cooperation between national, international and supranational organisations is fundamental if development policies to improve gender equality are to be successful. The first step has been taken, said ISIAO’s honourary president, Tullia Carettoni Romagnoli, thanks to the Memorandum of Understanding signed between Italy and the Arab League in 2008, which made way for cooperation in various sectors and led to the organisation of the conference. The senator stated that it would be “A permanent focal point, based in Rome, for Arab countries and Italy to meet and discuss the situation of women. Alliances made between women can also make a difference. They can unite, work on ideas and propose initiatives to try to solve problems faced by women across the world. Italian MP Patrizia Paoletti concluded, “We are disappointed and tired and we need you. We haven’t got very far, even after sixty years of struggle. You are full of life and energy.” This approach led to various concrete proposals being drawn up which will be voted on by participants tomorrow. These include the creation of an ISIAO-Arab League watchdog or permanent commission, the creation of a network for women working in the same sector, training courses for Arab women with degrees in science and the setting-up of a medical project, involving screening for and preventing the Papilloma virus. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Armenia-Turkey Thaw Tinged With Pain
Attempts to reconcile Armenia and Turkey with a “roadmap” towards the restoration of full diplomatic ties have delighted some villagers near the countries’ border — and angered others.
Armenia’s border with Turkey has not been open since 1993 — and it shows.
The path to an old rusty kiosk, where once people would have had their passports stamped, is overgrown with weeds.
Russian border guards and Armenian soldiers keep watch for anyone trying to cross illegally. And in a startling echo of the Cold War, troops from Nato member Turkey look back from the other side.
The lush border village of Margara is about as far south as you can go in landlocked Armenia. But residents are now hopeful that an open border could change everything. Gharnik Kharibyan is in favour of it..
“The prospect of a border opening is not only a personal issue. It will help everyone. We want to become friends with the Turkish people — they are our neighbours,” he says.
From the end of his garden you can see across to the Biblical Mount Ararat, whose snow-capped peaks rise above lush vines and tomato plantations in Turkish Anatolia.
Mr Kharibyan points across to Ararat, and turns to me with an air of nostalgia.
“You see the mountain?” he asks. “A lot of our history is rooted there on the other side of the border, and it will be good to be able to go there again.”
The chapter of history Mr Kharibyan refers to is the time when hundreds of thousands of Armenians were killed during their mass deportation from Anatolia, in World War I. Armenia wants the atrocities to be internationally recognised as genocide.
Turkey does not see them as systematic killings.
That is why some Margara residents, like Sonik Ghazaryan, still have concerns — even though now she is prepared to move on.
| — Hat tip: islam o’phobe | [Return to headlines] |
Business: Tuscany, Furniture Sector Mission to Gulf Region
(ANSAmed) — POGGIBONSI (SIENA), JUNE 12 — Important opportunities for Tuscany’s furniture sector in the Gulf region, especially in Qatar and Oman. Initial data from several missions to the area in March and April by the Poggibonsi (Siena) Experimental Centre of Furniture and Interior Design — sponsored by the regional government through the Toscana Promozione organisation — were presented recently in Pistoia and Siena. Five countries in the Gulf region and over 80 businesses — including architectural and design firms, retailers, importers, distributors, agents and builders — were surveyed, resulting in sufficient data and information to clearly establish the current state of development in various markets and their potential regarding the furniture sector, both for contract and residential channels. About 150 companies made presentations to foreign businesses, with the former averaging 30 employees each and a total turnover of about 1.7 billion euros. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Environment: Italy and Turkey, NGO Reports Illegal Fishing
(ANSAmed) — ROME, JUNE 15 — The illegal fishing and unloading of tonnes of red tuna is a practice that is being carried out with impunity on the southern shores of the Tyrrhenian Sea and in Turkish waters. Oceana, an international organisation dedicated to safeguarding the marine environment, issued a report on the matter. “Today is the last day of tuna fishing for most industrial vessels fitted with nets. The fishing season was denoted by the lack of transparency and unlawfulness. Oceana indicates the Italian and Turkish fleets as the main responsible parties for the over-exploitation of the species”. On the dawn of May 21 Oceana observers watched the unloading, which they deemed illegal, of approximately two tonnes of large red tuna fish in Porticello, Sicily. According to the NGO both the vessels and the port had no right to unload tuna. Oceana Europe CEO Xavier Pastor stated that “This is not an isolated episode. It happens almost every day and with total impunity in most Tyrrhenian ports. Since the season opened and with the help of the coast guard more than 55 tonnes of red tuna have been seized in ports in southern Italy such as Porticello, Sant’Agata and Cetraro. As for Turkey, Oceana reports that the country’s fishing fleet, the largest in the Mediterranean, “is still unsupervised”. Only days ago Oceana observers witnessed in the port of Alanya how some of these vessels were busy fishing white tuna, red tuna and small tuna with dragnets. Pastor said that “the absence of controls in the Mediterranean is unacceptable as regards the fishing of red tuna and is not limited to dragnet fishing”. He accused the EU of being “the main party responsible for the current situation” because “the authorised quota, equal to 22,000 tonnes, is far greater than the scientific recommendation, which sets the number at 15,000”. Pastor concluded that “The current context deserves only one reaction: shutting down fishing activities until the tuna fish population shows some sign of recovery”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Eurofighter Says Turkey Deal to Take at Least Two Years
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JUNE 17 — Eurofighter believes Turkey has a strategic need for its combat jets but expects an agreement to take at least two years, Chief Executive Enzo Casolini said at the Paris Air Show on Wednesday as daily Hurriyet reports today from Paris. “We think Turkey is a country that’s right for two platforms, like Italy and the UK have done. That is, JSF for ground attack and Eurofighter for air superiority”, Casolini said, referring to the Lockheed Martin Corp-built (LMT.N) F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. “Wére not close to a deal yet, we are still working on it. I think that it will take at least a couple of years,” Casolini said. The Eurofighter contract was conceived 25 years ago and involves Germany, Spain, Italy and Britain building more than 600 high-performance combat jets. The Eurofighter consortium comprises Britain’s BAE Systems, Italy’s Finmeccanica and EADS, representing Germany and Spain. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Iran: Aide to Iran’s Supreme Leader Calls Mousavi a U.S. Agent
TEHRAN, Iran — A top aide to Iran’s supreme leader called the country’s main opposition figure a U.S. agent and said in an editorial Saturday he should be tried for committing crimes against the nation.
While hard-line figures had previously demanded Mir Hossein Mousavi to be prosecuted for describing Iran’s June 12 elections fraudulent and leading demonstrations afterward, the editorial was the first public declaration that the opposition leader was a foreign agent.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Iran: Leading Clerics Defy Ayatollah on Disputed Iran Election
CAIRO — The most important group of religious leaders in Iran called the disputed presidential election and the new government illegitimate on Saturday, an act of defiance against the country’s supreme leader and the most public sign of a major split in the country’s clerical establishment.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanon: Unprecedented Judgement, Citizenship From Mother
(ANSAmed)- BEIRUT, JUNE 19 — An “unprecedented” judgement issued by a court north of Beirut allowed a Lebanese woman to transfer citizenship to her sons after the death of her foreign husband. Lebanese law normally only allows citizenship for children of Lebanese fathers and not from mothers. John al Azzi, the judge in Mount Lebanon who made the rulling, told the Daily Star newspaper that it amounts to “an important precedent that gives hope to thousands of families in the same conditions.” “The constitution establishes equal treatment by the law of men and women,” the judge said, explaining his decision. Feminists’ groups in Beirut said they were satisfied by the judgement that “finally breaks a taboo and crowns a 10 year battle with success.” The movement for rights of women in Lebanon recently has been supported by the Interior Minister, Ziyad Barud.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanon: Death Sentence Requested for 7 Spy Suspects
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, JUNE 30 — At the military tribunal in Beirut, the public prosecutor has requested the death sentence for the seven people accused of spying for Israel, reports the local press. Lebanese daily newspaper Al Safir specified that two out of the seven suspected spies have fled the country “into occupied Palestine”. The paper continues to state that both suspects had served in a pro-Israeli militia of the South Lebanon Army (SLA), which operated between 1982 and 2000 during the Israeli occupation of the southern regions of Lebanon. Security forces in recent months have uncovered what they call “spy cells” that serve Mossad, the Israeli secret services, arresting dozens of people in various parts of Lebanon. Those arrested and awaiting trial include three officers from the Lebanese army and security forces. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Movie Exposes Dark Underbelly of Shariah Law
Editor’s note: The following is not a review, but an exlusive interview with the producer of “The Stoning of Soraya M.”
Opening in select theaters today, “The Stoning of Soraya M.” is a movie based on a true story, depicting how women behind the Muslim curtain are victimized by corrupt forces wielding Shariah law to justify and cover their tyranny.
WND interviewed Stephen McEveety, maker of cutting-edge films such as “An American Carol” and “The Passion of the Christ” and producer of “The Stoning of Soraya M.”
“When we started this movie, I had no idea that it would be as relevant as it has become today, on the date we’re releasing the film,” McEveety said. “Now, with the elections turning out the way they did in Iran, it’s particularly interesting because it gives an insight into the way politics can corrupt a society.
“This movie puts you right there in Iran,” McEveety continued. “It’s real, it’s honest, it’s truthful and you get a very good indication of what parts of society are like in that country.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Saudis Give Nod to Israeli Raid on Iran
The head of Mossad, Israel’s overseas intelligence service, has assured Benjamin Netanyahu, its prime minister, that Saudi Arabia would turn a blind eye to Israeli jets flying over the kingdom during any future raid on Iran’s nuclear sites.
Earlier this year Meir Dagan, Mossad’s director since 2002, held secret talks with Saudi officials to discuss the possibility.
The Israeli press has already carried unconfirmed reports that high-ranking officials, including Ehud Olmert, the former prime minister, held meetings with Saudi colleagues. The reports were denied by Saudi officials.
“The Saudis have tacitly agreed to the Israeli air force flying through their airspace on a mission which is supposed to be in the common interests of both Israel and Saudi Arabia,” a diplomatic source said last week.
Although the countries have no formal diplomatic relations, an Israeli defence source confirmed that Mossad maintained “working relations” with the Saudis.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Crimes of Honour, Assad Raises Penalty to Two Years
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, JULY 3 — Perpetrators of ‘crimes of honour’ against their wife, sister or cousin, suspected of having had ‘illicit’ sexual relations, will no longer be acquitted in Syria but could be sentenced to at least two years in prison, reported the pan-Arab newspaper al Hayat published in London today. The newspaper specified that Syrian President Bashar al Assad has passed a decree that includes stricter punishment of such crimes against women in the perpetrator’s own family. The decree states that “anyone who kills or injures, also not intentionally, his wife, sister or another relative after catching her while committing adultery or while having sexual relations against public morality, will be granted extenuating circumstances and will be sentenced to at least two years in prison”. “Crimes of honour” are widespread in traditional Arab communities and are tolerated by justice authorities in several countries. In Syria, in the past eight months 29 cases were recorded, in 2007 38 of the 533 committed crimes were “crimes of honour”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Killed Over Dowry
Mother of 2 beaten up, ‘forced’ to drink poison
A 29-year old woman lost her life in Narsingdi yesterday after her dowry demanding husband beat her up and allegedly forced her to drink poison.
Suraiya Akhter, 28, a mother of two from Joshor village under Shibpur upazila, died on the way to the local hospital.
Relatives said that Suraiya’s husband Anwar Hossain, 32, of the same village has long been torturing his wife for dowry from her parents. He wanted Tk 1 lakh in cash.
As her parents were not able to cough up this amount, Anwar regularly tortured his wife.
On Friday night, an argument broke out between the husband and wife again over this matter, and Anwar mercilessly beat his wife and later tried to strangle her with his own hands.
As she struggled to breathe, Anwar allegedly forced her to drink poison before taking her to the hospital.
She died on the way, and Anwar told everyone that Suraiya had committed suicide. Suriaya’s relatives refuted this, citing the regular beatings she received at his hand for dowry.
When they confronted Anwar and accused him of murdering Suraiya, Anwar and his brother Iqbal attacked Suraiya’s relatives with a daa (curved chopper), seriously injuring Arun, Al Amin, Sohrab, Saidur, Khokan and Shamim.
The injured men were admitted into different clinics.
A case has been filed in this regard with Shibpur thana.
Police sent the body to Narsingdi Sadar Hospital for an autopsy.
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
Bomb Hits Philippine Church-Goers
A bomb blast outside a Roman Catholic cathedral in the southern Philippines has killed five people and injured at least 26 others, officials say.
The military immediately blamed the attack in the town of Cotabato, Mindanao, on a militant group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
The group has been fighting to establish a separate Islamic state.
One of its leaders denied any involvement in the attack, saying there was no religious conflict in the south.
The bomb went off outside the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception as people were leaving Mass, the army said.
Police told AFP news agency that two of the dead were soldiers guarding the cathedral.
Militant denial
A military spokesman, Col Jonathan Ponce, said rogue MILF militants were suspected of planting the bomb.
“The rebels are getting desperate and they are no longer choosing their targets,” he said.
“They are now attacking even places of worship.”
But a leader of the MILF, Mohaqher Iqbal, denied his group had been involved in the attack.
“Who needs a Christian-Muslim conflict?” he told Reuters news agency in a mobile phone text message.
“There’s no religious conflict in the south. We’re fighting for our right of self-determination. We’re only defending our people and our communities.”
| — Hat tip: islam o’phobe | [Return to headlines] |
China in Deadly Crackdown After Uighurs Go on the Rampage
Police fought to restore order last night after thousands of members of China’s Muslim Uighur minority rampaged through city streets, burning vehicles and blocking traffic.
At least three people were killed in a rare outburst of violence in Urumqi, the capital of China’s restive westernmost region of Xinjiang, where many Uighurs chafe at Beijing’s rule and the limits imposed on their religion and cultural traditions.
Witnesses said that up to 3,000 rioters went on the rampage, smashing buses and overturning police barricades during several hours of violence.
Thousands of police and anti-riot troops later swept through the city, using teargas and water hoses to disperse crowds. “Now the whole city is on lockdown,” one witness said.
The violence flared days after reports of ethnic clashes between Han Chinese and Uighur workers at a toy factory in the southern Guangdong province in which two Uighurs were killed and 188 wounded.
In the late-night brawl at the Early Light toy factory in Shaoguan city, a group of Han Chinese fought with Uighurs who had been recruited to the factory recently. A rumour that Uighur workers had raped two Han Chinese girls brought swift and violent retaliations from the Chinese workers.
Police have now arrested a Han Chinese for rumour-mongering after he was found to have made up the rape report in a fit of anger after losing his job at the plant.
Riots are rare in Urumqi, where ethnic Han already outnumber the local Uighur population, and the widespread presence of riot police has for years served as an effective deterrent to those wanting to stir up antiChinese unrest.
The latest violence erupted around the city’s Sunday market, an important weekly opportunity for Uighurs to meet.
Their gatherings take place under the watchful eye of police, always on the alert for any signs of unrest among the populace of China’s only Muslimmajority region.
Urumqi has for years been one of the most well-controlled cities in Xinjiang because of the high and rapidly growing population of Han and the large presence of security forces.
Uighurs are extremely reluctant to speak openly for fear of police retribution and are anxious that their conversations may be overheard by China’s all-pervasive secret police. Ilham Mahmut, the head of the Japan Uighur Association, said he had heard through internet communications with China that at least 300 people had been arrested by last night.
He said that the confrontation involved about 3,000 Uighur and 1,000 police who used electric cattle prods and fired gunshots into the air to try to break up the demonstration.
Dilxat Raxit, for the Germany-based World Uighur Congress, said sources told him that more than a hundred people had been detained.
Tensions are already running high in Xinjiang. On a recent visit to the fabled Silk Road trading town of Kashgar, The Times saw sullen, scared Uighurs watching with despair and resignation as officials demolished swaths of the ancient city, saying that its centuries-old mud-and-straw buildings could not protect residents against earthquakes.
They will be replaced by modern streets and the Uighurs moved out of their homes into modern apartments on the edge of town. Uighurs feel that Han immigrants to Xinjiang are depriving them of jobs and diluting their unique culture.
Days before the opening of the Olympic Games in Beijing last year, two Uighurs ploughed a truck into a group of Chinese police border guards on an early morning jog in Kashgar and then attacked the survivors with knives and home-made grenades. At least 17 police were killed. Both were later executed. Xinjiang has had a reputation for unrest over recent years.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Pariah States Collaborating on Nukes?
North Korea suspected of helping Burma
LONDON — MI6, Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, believes North Korea is helping Burma, the world’s other pariah state, to build a nuclear weapon, according to a report in Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Australia: Police ‘Fudge’ Reports for Lower Crime Statistics
SENIOR police say they are being forced to “fudge” reports, and test drivers for drink-driving at times and places they know few offenders will be caught, to manipulate crime statistics.
Officers from at least three Local Service Areas have told AdelaideNow it is common for reports to be manipulated and for traffic blitzes to be held to improve statistics and meet specific targets.
The officers, who do not wish to be named, say police often blitz areas for the drug and alcohol testing of drivers at times and in places where results are not expected to be significant, a practice commonly referred to as “dumb testing”.
In a statement Assistant Commissioner Neil Smith, of the Performance Management and Reporting Service, said police complied with the National Crime Reporting Standard governing crime statistics.
“SAPOL refutes any suggestion that our crime statistics misrepresent the incidence of crime,” he said.
Crime statistics are analysed daily from police incident reports (PIRs) and one senior officer has described how reports are commonly manipulated to keep crime statistics lower and apprehension rates higher.
“Say a car gets broken into and something gets stolen,” the officer said. “Rather than two charges, illegal interference and theft, it just gets entered as a theft — one charge.
“If we happen to stumble across someone who’d broken into a car, then they would get charged with both, so your statistics show your crime rate lower, but your apprehension rate being high.”
In offences with multiple victims, the victims are often grouped or become witnesses and the matter is entered as one incident report.
Assistant commissioner Smith said: “The rule is one victim per one PIR.
“SAPOL has clear strategies to ensure data integrity and consistency across the state,” he said.
One person told AdelaideNow one management directive was to redirect schoolyard assaults back to the school so they were not recorded as crimes.
“That way the LSA can claim a downturn in assaults,” the person wrote. Patrol police say traffic benchmarks are a “stats game”, with directives from upper management to chase the numbers.
“We get memos from the Assistant Commissioner asking why haven’t you got your numbers . . . even traffic statistics are fudged to a degree,” an officer said.
To collect numbers, police will “dumb test”. “Once we get close to what we need for the month, then we’ll do smart testing and specific targeting, where we know we will get results,” the officer said.
| — Hat tip: islam o’phobe | [Return to headlines] |
10,000 Girls to be Repatriated to Nigeria
[…]
The girls reportedly from Edo State, the southern part of the country, aged between 13 and 17, had been held captive by sex slave traders, the statement said.
[…]
The committee said it would further stage an aggressive campaign to educate parents and girls on the dangers of prostitution, especially for young girls in remote areas. “We are going to be working with you and the committee will try to tackle this matter. We are going to sensitise people in the states,” the statement said.
The local NGOs have also expressed concern on the situation of young girls saying a number of them were taken as sex slaves from Nigeria en route to Europe before they were trapped in Morocco and Libya.
Some of the girls are reportedly pregnant and infected with various diseases including HIV/AIDS and had been sent to jail in the two countries while others are now at the mercy of their slave masters according to reports.
The Libyan and Moroccan authorities are reportedly fed up with the presence of the girls, putting them in jail time and again. The girls are also living at a high risk as they could be eliminated or subjected to different inhuman treatment by the host nations according to reports.
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Gunmen Slay American in Mauritanian Capital
NOUAKCHOTT (AFP) — Gunmen have killed an American teacher in the capital of Mauritania, where the slaying of foreigners by suspected Al-Qaeda militants in 2007 has already heightened fears of extremism across West Africa.
The man was shot several times in the head from close range after he resisted an apparent kidnap attempt, a witness told AFP.
Al-Qaeda militants were blamed for the killing of four French tourists in Mauritania on December 24, 2007 that heightened concerns about extremist attacks.
A gun attack on the Israeli embassy on February 1 2008 left three people wounded and was claimed by an Al-Qaeda offshoot.
Tuesday’s shooting happened around 8:30 am (0830 GMT) outside a private language and computer school run by the American in Nouakchott, which overlooks the city’s Ksar market and is situated opposite the district’s oldest mosque.
“A foreigner has been shot dead, apparently by youths who fled. We are investigating the case,” police said, adding that the victim was an American and that US embassy officials were quickly on the scene.
The interior ministry identified the man as Christopher Logest, “born in the United States in 1961”. It said he also worked for a charity, Noura.
Authorities “do not rule out any motive in this crime”, said a ministry statement which “strongly condemned” the killing while presenting it as an “isolated incident”.
The ministry rejected opposition claims that the government had failed to guarantee citizens’ and foreigners’ security, saying it was “sacred”.
According to a resident who witnessed the incident, the man apparently tried to resist being bundled into a black Toyota car by a group of youths.
“When they failed to get him into the car, the youths killed him,” the witness told AFP by telephone.
Top security officials, the governor of Nouakchott and the state prosecutor visited the scene, where the body lay for several hours after the shooting.
Another witness said bystanders went to the man’s aid thinking it was a fistfight when the attackers pointed their guns at them.
“The American put up very strong resistance, forcing one of his attackers to the ground, who shot him in the head. He fired three times,” said the witness.
The caretaker of a nearby building said the attackers were “young, fair-skinned, Mauritanians wearing little beards, who had been waiting for the American since dawn.”
She added that the attackers “were talking among each other and appeared very agitated” as they waited for their victim.
The US national was resident in Nouakchott for several years and spoke the local Arab dialect well, locals in the central Ksar district said.
The attack came weeks before a presidential election in Mauritania, and 10 months after a military coup which ousted the country’s first democratically elected president and ushered in military rule.
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Obama to Avoid Father’s Kenyan Homeland on Trip to Africa
President Obama says his first trip to Sub-Saharan Africa won’t include a stop in his father’s Kenyan homeland because of his view that the violence-plagued country still has a long way to go in becoming a free and open democracy.
Obama will make a stop in Ghana next week at the end of a trip to Russia and Italy. In an interview with allafrica.com, he said Kenya’s leaders “do not seem to be moving into a permanent reconciliation that would allow the country to move forward.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
44 Migrants Found Off Sardinian Coasts
(ANSAmed) — CAGLIARI, JULY 3 — Another attempted landing has been made off the southern coasts of Sardinia by illegal immigrants from North Africa. Yesterday evening Cagliari port authorities intercepted two rafts carrying 44 migrants 9 and a half nautical miles to the south of Capo Teulada. Taken onboard a patrol boat, the migrants — most likely Algerians — were transported to Porto Canale in Cagliari, where they arrived at 11.30pm, to then be taken to the temporary holding centre for immigrants in Elmas. Among them was a pregnant woman who instead has been hospitalised at the San Giovanni di Dio hospital in Cagliari.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Frattini, Law Will Not Cause Suffering
(AGI) — Rome, 3 Jul. — Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini believes that the perplexities expressed by the Vatican on the law on security approved yesterday “are understandable. We respect the Church’s concerns, but we will prove that the implementation of this law will not cause the suffering that is feared.” On his arrival at the auditorium in Rome to take part in the “People before everything else” conference organised by the Craxi foundation, Frattini added that “there will only be just punishment of people who commit crimes. Law-abiding people are always protected.” He believes that the law on security “involves regulations that will work and are in line with what has been established by Europe. Increased strictness against illegal immigration and openness to honest immigrant workers. I believe it to be a good package.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Rejects Vatican’s Criticism of New Immigration Law
(ANSAmed) — ROME, JULY 3 — Foreign Minister Franco Frattini on Friday rejected criticism from the Vatican over a controversial security law cracking down on illegal immigration that was passed definitively by the Italian parliament on Thursday. “We respect the concerns of the Vatican,” he said, but stressed that the security package “will not bring suffering but only punishment to those who commit crimes,” Frattini said. “People (who come here) legally are always safeguarded”. Msgr Agostino Marchetto, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Migrants, said Thursday he felt “great concern” over the new laws, which he claimed go against basic human rights and focus on crime while “ignoring the real issue” of integration. Marchetto described the package as “a reason for sadness” and slammed the criminalisation of clandestine immigration as an “original sin”. Marchetto’s superior and the Vatican’s immigration ‘minister’, Msgr Antonio Maria Vegliò, made a less explicit attack on the security package in the Jesuit magazine Aggiornamenti Sociali, in which he said the arrival of immigrants should not be perceived as a “danger”. “Is it an invasion from which a country must defend itself? Or don’t the poor have a right, simply because they are poor, to knock at the doors of well-off societies?” he asked. Under the new immigration crackdown, people caught entering or living in Italy without a permit will not be arrested but they will given immediate expulsion orders and face fines ranging from 5,000 to 10,000 euros. The law also says that Italians — unless they are doctors or school heads who will be exempted — will be obliged to report illegal immigrants. It triples the period of time that foreigners can be held in detention centres from two to six months in order to allow sufficient time to process their deportation, should they not be granted asylum. Other aspects of the law include tough fines for landlords who rent to illegal immigrants, no public services for babies born in Italy to parents without legal status and a longer waiting period for foreigners seeking citizenship through marriage. The law also authorises ‘citizen patrols’, which the government has stressed will only be tasked with reporting crime but the opposition claims could result in vigilante gangs. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Bishop Urges Gay People to Repent
The Bishop of Rochester has been accused of going “against Christ’s gospel” after he urged homosexuals to “repent and be changed”.
Equality campaigner Peter Tatchell said Dr Michael Nazir-Ali should “repent his homophobia” which went against Jesus’s teachings of love and compassion.
The Church of England bishop, who is stepping down from his post in September, told The Sunday Telegraph: “The Bible’s teaching shows that marriage is between a man and a woman. That is the way to express our sexual nature. We welcome homosexuals, we don’t want to exclude people, but we want them to repent and be changed.”
Mr Tatchell said: “As an Asian man, the Bishop knows the pain of racial prejudice. I am shocked that he wants to inflict similar prejudice on gay people.
“Homophobia is a social and moral evil, just like racism. Bigotry, even in the guise of religion, has no place in a compassionate, caring society. I call on the Bishop to repent his homophobia. His prejudice goes against Christ’s gospel of love and compassion.”
Derek Munn, director of public affairs for gay rights group Stonewall, also criticised Dr Nazir-Ali’s comments.
“It is unfortunate that in 2009, a church leader should continue to promote inequality and intolerance,” he told the newspaper. “Stonewall knows that most people of faith are accepting of lesbian and gay people. We also know that many lesbian and gay people who are themselves religious believers are not well served by some of those who claim to speak on their behalf.”
The Bishop’s comments came after more than half a million people, including the Prime Minister’s wife Sarah Brown, took to the streets of London to celebrate gay culture at the annual Pride festival..
The remarks also come ahead of the launch in the UK and Ireland of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, a coalition of conservative parishes from around the world.
The evangelical group, which campaigns against active homosexuality in the Anglican communion, counts Dr Nazir-Ali among its supporters.
| — Hat tip: islam o’phobe | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Council Halts Plans to Put Boy With Gay Foster Parents
A council has halted plans to place a ten-year-old Catholic boy in the care of homosexual foster parents against the wishes of his mother.
The case was highlighted last month by The Mail on Sunday, the day before the boy was due to arrive at his new home, a hotel in Brighton run by a middle-aged male couple.
Brighton and Hove Council has now told the mother it is reviewing its decision after her lawyer argued it was obliged to try to place the boy with foster parents of the same faith.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
4 comments:
"At least three people have been killed in massive rioting among the Uighurs of Xinjiang Province in China. The trouble began with a rumor of a Han woman being raped by an Uighur, which precipitated a Han response"
Why this never happens in "The West" just shows how our Civilisation is deseased and has become in many, many ways inferior to other once clearly inferior civilisations.
WELL DONE, CHINA!
"Police have now arrested a Han Chinese for rumour-mongering after he was found to have made up the rape report in a fit of anger after losing his job at the plant.
"
Yeah, rumor-mongering to increase ethnic tensions - that's a good way to go about it.
Seriously - cracking down on riots is one thing, but there should never have been any riots to begin with in this incident.
The Uyghurs got off very lightly, the Chinese don't take too kindly too foreign religions pulling their chain. The Chinese eradicated and I use that word advisedly, approximately 20,000,000 Muslims in a series of muslim revolts during the later part of the 19th century. And that is apart from the 30,000,000 that died in the Tia Ping rebellion a few years before. The Tia Ping rebellion by the way was lead by a so called Christian who thought he was the brother of Jesus Christ and took regular vacations in heaven. The Tai Ping rebelion is very interesting by the way as the fight against the rebels was organized by an American from New England I think until he got killed and China Gordon took over. When you think about it the total number of deaths in the Chinese rebelions during the later part of the 19th century is more that the total no. of dead world wide from the Second World War or as Kutze said the Horror the Horror. Allah doesn't stand a chance.
The thing I find interesting about the Tai Ping rebellion is that many of it's survivors went on to father the Maoists.
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