"Christmas" wird in den USA wieder gefeirt!

Foto dank der NZZ

In den USA setzen sich die Weihnachts-Traditionalisten durch

NZZ: Der amerikanische Einzelhandelsriese Wal-Mart verbannt die christliche Tradition nicht mehr aus seinem Weihnachtsangebot. Nachdem im letzten Jahr die Vermeidung des Wortes «Christmas» eine landesweite Protestkampagne ausgelöst hatte, wird die Säkularisierung des Festes nun widerrufen. Dieser Trend setzt sich auf bei Firmen und Behörden durch. Es wird wieder «Christmas»

Mark Alexander

Papst betet Richtung Mekka!

Papst betet in Istanbul in der Blauen Moschee
NZZ: In einer grossen Geste der Versöhnung mit dem Islam hat Papst Benedikt XVI. am Donnerstag in Istanbul die Blaue Moschee und damit erstmals eine muslimische Gebetsstätte besucht. Zuvor hatte sich Benedikt mit dem Oberhaupt der orthodoxen Christen getroffen.

(sda)«Lasst uns für die Brüderlichkeit und die ganze Menschheit beten», sagte Benedikt und verharrte andächtig Seite an Seite mit dem Mufti von Istanbul vor der Gebetsnische in Richtung Mekka. Grosse Geste der Versöhnung

In pictures: Pope in Istanbul

Mark Alexander

First we have "red roses for a blue lady". Now we have a blue mosque for what must surely be a blue pope!

Photo courtesy of the BBC

During his tour of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, the pontiff turned towards Mecca in a gesture of Muslim prayer. - BBC

BBC: Pope Benedict XVI has visited one of Turkey's most famous mosques in what is being seen as an attempt to mend relations with the Muslim community.

During his tour of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, the pontiff turned towards Mecca in a gesture of Muslim prayer. Pope makes Turkish mosque visit

WATCH VIDEO: Pope visits Turkish mosque

Mark Alexander

Islam, the "religion of peace": Senior Muslim cleric calls for death of Azeri writer
This is yet more evidence of the compassion and mercy of Islam! It also shows how dedicated Muslims are to freedom of thought and expression. And this is the 'religion' our political leaders want to swamp Europe with by allowing Turkey to accede to the European Union! Doesn't it beggar belief that a 'holy' man can call for an innocent man's death? The man's greatest 'crime' is expressing what he thinks.

BBC: One of Iran's most senior clergymen has issued a fatwa on an Azeri writer said to have insulted the Prophet Muhammad.

The call on Muslims to murder Rafiq Tagi, who writes for Azerbaijan's Senet newspaper, echoes the Iranian fatwa against Indian writer Salman Rushdie.

It was issued by the conservative Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Fazel Lankarani. Iran issues fatwa on Azeri writer

Mark Alexander

Don't send the wrong signal to Turkey, warns Cock Sparrow

Photo courtesy of the International Herald Tribune

For a man who has shown, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he has zero understanding of Islam, this warning is pretty rich! He, with his big buddy, Bush, have cocked up BIG time in Iraq, because they tried to bring democracy to a country, nay to a region, which it is not possible to bring democracy to. Now, the same little Cock Sparrow wishes to cock up in Europe too! Now he wants the Europeans to accept his version of how events should unfold, he want us Europeans to accept Turkey into the Union. He says it would be a serious mistake for Europe, long-term, not to allow Turkey to accede. Well, have I got news for Cock Sparrow! He didn't understand Islam then (when he entered Iraq), and he doesn't understand Islam now, either. He has cocked up in Iraq; now, he wants to cock up in Europe, too! Don't listen to the man, folks! He has shown us what he understands about Islam: NOTHING, ZILCH, NIX! His views do not deserve to be listened to!

INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE: RIGA, Latvia: Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain said Wednesday that it would be a "serious mistake" to send Turkey a negative message on its bid to join the European Union. Blair warns of sending wrong signal to Turkey on EU bid

EU urged to freeze Turkey talks

Mark Alexander

Saudis get tough! Threat to sue tobacco firms for full cost of patients' treatment

BBC: Saudi Arabia has warned that it will sue global tobacco firms unless they pay the full cost of treating patients suffering from smoking-related illness. Saudi warning over tobacco firms

Mark Alexander

Further evidence of New Dark Age: Shari'ah law gains foothold in Britain!

THE TELEGRAPH: Islamic sharia law is gaining an increasing foothold in parts of Britain, a report claims.

Sharia, derived from several sources including the Koran, is applied to varying degrees in predominantly Muslim countries but it has no binding status in Britain.

However, the BBC Radio 4 programme Law in Action produced evidence yesterday that it was being used by some Muslims as an alternative to English criminal law. Sharia law is spreading as authority wanes by Joshua Rozenberg

Mark Alexander

Pope does U-turn on Turkey's accession to the EU. Islam is a "religion of peace", he says

BBC: ... The Pope told the prime minister he wanted to visit Turkey because it was a bridge between religions and cultures.

"I want to reiterate the solidarity between the cultures," he said. "This is our duty."

During his airport meeting with Mr Erdogan, the pontiff gave Turkey support for its bid to enter the European Union, the prime minister said. Pope begins landmark Turkey visit

NZZ: Papst Benedikt XVI. ist es zum Auftakt seines Besuches in der Türkei offenbar gelungen, seinen Gastgeber positiv zu stimmen. Ministerpräsident Erdogan interpretierte Aussagen des Papstes als Zustimmung zum EU-Beitritt der Türkei. Auch sei dieser der Auffassung, dass der Islam eine «Religion des Friedens» sei. Erdogan erfreut über Papst-Aussagen

Times Online Slide Show: The Pope visits Turkey

Mark Alexander

Pope strikes conciliatory chord in Turkey

THE TIMES: Turkey welcomed the Pope with swept streets, statues and bomb sniffer dogs today, signs of the excitement and hostility that are expected to accompany his first visit to a Muslim country.

The flags of the Vatican and of Turkey flew side by side along the highway leading from Ankara's airport into the city centre as bomb disposal teams scoured bridges and tunnels for explosives. Roads were closed and police in camouflage set up roadblocks. Snipers manned the rooftops.

The official business began immediately, and reflected the awkwardness that is expected to accompany the entire trip. Landing in Ankara at 1pm local time, Pope Benedict XVI was due to have a short, passing meeting with the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was on his way to the Nato Summit in Riga. Pope seeks brotherhood in hostile Turkey

Mark Alexander

EU-Turkey talks halted

BBC: Talks between the EU and Turkey over Cyprus have broken down without agreement, Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja has said.

EU officials have said that a failure to break the impasse could lead to the collapse of Turkey's EU membership bid.

The EU had given Turkey until 6 December to open its ports to traffic from Cyprus, whose government Turkey refuses to recognise. Cyprus row halts EU-Turkey talks

Mark Alexander

Saudi Royal Family "incandescent with rage"

THE TELEGRAPH: Shares in BAE Systems fell 3pc this morning amid fears the government of Saudi Arabia may hand a £76bn deal to build fighter jets to a French rival.

The Saudis are understood to be poised to hand BAE’s Eurofighter contract to France’s Dassault because of the Serious Fraud Office’s probe into allegations that BAE officials have in the past bribed members of the Saudi royal family in order to win contracts.

Such a move, which the Saudis have threatened to do, would hit the company’s share price hard. The company’s shares have already fallen back from highs of 425p earlier this month and sunk to 392p, below the psychological threshold of 400p today. BAE feels Saudi wrath over bribe inquiry by James Quinn

BAE admits Saudi Eurofighter fear

Mark Alexander

A war to the death!

THE TELEGRAPH: Who would have thought it? Half of Europe – the half that was so smug about having buried God several generations ago – is waiting in real trepidation for the outcome of a theological argument. When Pope Benedict XVI flies to Turkey tomorrow, he will embody the most potentially incendiary confrontation between Islam and the West since the defeat of the Turks at Vienna in 1683 brought an end to Islamic conquest in Europe.

The Pope will take with him an understanding that at the root of our problems in dealing with the Islamist death cult, there is a fundamental debate to be had about the role of human reason in political affairs.

The remarks he made in a lecture in Regensburg, Germany, which implied that Islam rejected rationality while Christianity saw it as essential to faith were contentious (and almost certainly designed to be so), but they raised a question that almost no Western government has the courage to ask, let alone answer. How is a liberal democracy to deal with an illiberal religious minority in its midst? We are in a war to the death - craven concessions won't win it

Mark Alexander

Anxiety over Pope's visit to Turkey

THE TIMES: The Vatican is so anxious about the Pope’s safety during his trip to Turkey this week that it has vetoed use of the traditional “Popemobile”.

Instead, Pope Benedict XVI will travel in an armour-plated car, with several similar vehicles used as decoys, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, the former papal spokesman, said.

Officials have also drawn up contingency plans for him to wear a bulletproof vest beneath his papal vestments as Turkish authorities mount a huge security operation including rooftop snipers, special forces, helicopters and navy speedboats.

Before his first visit to a Muslim country, the Pope tried to defuse further protests yesterday, sending “cordial greetings” of “esteem and sincere friendship” to “the dear Turkish people” when he addressed pilgrims from his window above St Peter’s Square during Angelus prayers.

Papal aides confirmed that, in a conciliatory gesture to Muslims, the Pope had altered his official programme to include a visit to the Blue Mosque, or Sultanahmet, in Istanbul. Popemobile gives way to armoured car on visit to 'minefield' by Richard Owen

Young and old of Istanbul are happy to roar their disapproval

20,000 Turks protest over visit by Pope by Malcolm Moore

Mark Alexander

Turkey's bid to enter the EU is proving more difficult than expected

BBC: Few issues divide the Europeans as much as Turkey.

Divisions are becoming ever more apparent as the European Union nears the moment of truth in relations with its biggest and poorest applicant country, which also happens to be Muslim.

For EU leaders meeting in Brussels on December 14-15, the question will be how to punish Turkey if it fails to open its ports and airports to traffic from Cyprus. Turkey's promise to do so allowed it to open EU membership talks a year ago.

This week, several European commissioners pushed for the consequences to be spelled out in the Commission's progress report on Turkey.

According to officials, they were Markos Kyprianou of Cyprus, Stavros Dimas of Greece and Jacques Barrot of France.

Others - like Viviane Reding of Luxembourg, Louis Michel of Belgium and Jan Figel of Slovakia - raised serious concerns about the cost of integrating Turkey and the human rights situation.

Turkey's strongest advocates were Peter Mandelson of the UK and Charlie McCreevy of Ireland.

Germany's Guenter Verheugen even argued that Turkey should be treated as a special case.

That is hardly the official German line, but as a former enlargement commissioner, Mr Verheugen was bitterly disappointed when the Greek Cypriots rejected a UN plan that would have led to the reunification of the island in 2004, just days before Cyprus was welcomed into the EU. Turkish bid exposes EU rifts

Mark Alexander

I smell victory!

BBC: British Airways is to review its policy on uniforms in the wake of a row over a worker ordered to stop wearing a cross.

On Monday, Nadia Eweida, 55, from London, lost her appeal against a decision saying she could not wear the cross visibly at the check-in counter.

The airline's chief executive Willie Walsh said it had become clear BA's uniform policy needed to change "in the light of the public debate".

He said BA would consider allowing religious symbols worn as lapel badges.

He said it was unfair that BA had been accused of being anti-Christian.

Ms Eweida said she was effectively forced to take unpaid leave after refusing to hide the cross symbol she wore round her neck when people of other faiths were allowed to wear visible religious symbols such as headscarves. BA uniform review after cross row

WATCH BBC VIDEO: BA review after cross row

BA to review uniform policy after outcry at ban on cross

Cross to bear

BA responds to backlash by lifting ban on small crosses

Mark Alexander

Muslims think Allah owns England!
With many thanks to Eleanor for drawing this excellent article to my attention:

COMMENTARY MAGAZINE.COM: The oldest Jewish cemetery in England is in Mile End, in the heart of the East End of London. It was created exactly 350 years ago on the orders of the Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell, who, overruling his own council, officially readmitted Jews to England for the first time since their expulsion in 1290. I came across it recently while visiting Queen Mary University, where I had once taught history, to give a public lecture.

The disused cemetery is now marooned on the Queen Mary campus, which is itself an island in the East End, an area long since abandoned by Jews and now populated mainly by Muslims. With its graves dating back to the 1660’s, Mile End is thus a reminder both of the continuity of Jewish life in Britain and of its precariousness. And the reminder is timely, for today the atmosphere in England has become less hospitable for Jews than at any time since Sir Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirts marched through the East End in the 1930’s.

You do not have to go far from Queen Mary University to discover one reason why Jews—and not only Jews—are feeling insecure. Less than a mile away stands the East London Mosque, whose chairman, Muhammad Abdul Bari, is also secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain. This makes him, in effect, the chief spokesman for British Muslims. On the eve of the fifth anniversary of 9/11, Bari told the Sunday Telegraph:

Some police officers and sections of the media are demonizing Muslims, treating them as if they’re all terrorists—and that encourages other people to do the same. If that demonization continues, then Britain will have to deal with 2 million Muslim terrorists—700,000 of them in London.

In fact, far from demonizing Muslims, the police have gone to inordinate lengths to accommodate their sensitivities. Scotland Yard now consults self-appointed community leaders like Bari before mounting anti-terrorist operations in “Muslim areas”—thereby risking the possibility that secret information might leak out and compromise public safety. Since the London bombings of July 7, 2005, which killed 53 people, the police have been obliged to keep thousands of Muslims under surveillance while investigating up to a hundred separate conspiracies to commit terror. But rather than expressing shame that such unprecedented measures have been necessary, “moderate” Muslim leaders like Muhammad Abdul Bari have responded with thinly veiled blackmail. As often as not, British support for Israel is invoked as high on the list of Muslim grievances. The message is simple: unless Britain withdraws that support, every Muslim will become a potential suicide bomber.

Such implicit threats have had their effect on the non-Muslim majority. At a dinner after my lecture, a professor remarked, as if it were a generally accepted platitude: “Of course, the only terrorist state in the Middle East is Israel.” Nobody contradicted him. The delegitimization of Israel in the British academic world has become one aspect of a new and more powerful wave of outright anti-Semitism, a phenomenon that has been greatly accelerated by the response to last summer’s war in Lebanon.

In some ways, the new anti-Semitism is much like the old. Consider Jenny Tonge, a legislator from the Liberal Democratic party who gained notoriety two years ago by empathizing publicly with Islamist suicide bombers. She thereby distinguished herself even among the ranks of her fellow Liberal Democrats, who have seized on resentments against Israel and the U.S. with all the zeal of a third party struggling to get noticed in a two-party system. Removed from her party post, though by no means disgraced, she was subsequently honored with a peerage. This summer’s war in Lebanon enabled her to go a crucial step beyond extolling suicide bombers by attacking not only Israel but Jews in general. “The pro-Israel lobby has got its grips on the Western world,” she said in a speech at a party conference in September. Pausing for effect, she added: “its financial grips.” Another pause. “I think they’ve probably got a certain grip on our party.”

The background to this heavy hint about undue Zionist influence on party politics was a scandal involving not the Liberal Democrats but Labor. In particular it was an allusion to Michael Levy, Prime Minister Tony Blair’s special envoy to the Middle East and until recently the Labor party’s chief fund-raiser. In July, during the course of a police investigation into possible corruption, Lord Levy was briefly arrested. (It is unclear whether he will actually be charged with any crime.) The fact that he is Jewish is, of course, irrelevant to the case—but not to Jenny Tonge’s inflammatory insinuation that Jewish money is corrupting British politics. Even so, she got away with it.

A second example comes from the other side of the political spectrum. Sir Peter Tapsell, a senior Conservative member of parliament, claimed at the height of the Lebanon crisis that Blair was colluding with President Bush “in giving Israel the go-ahead” to commit “a war crime gravely reminiscent of the Nazi atrocity on the Jewish quarter of Warsaw.” This obscene equation, another staple of the anti-Semites, was uttered during a televised debate on the floor of the House of Commons. Yet Tapsell, too, got away with it, including in the conservative press; following his lead, the Telegraph published a cartoon depicting two scenes of devastation, one labeled “Warsaw 1943” and the other “Tyre 2006.”

Not only do the Tapsells and Tonges go unreprimanded these days, they are admired and imitated. The loathing of Israel, once confined to oppositional groups, has penetrated to the very core of the British establishment. At the height of the Lebanon war, two peers of the realm reportedly came to blows within the hallowed precincts of the House of Lords. Apparently, Lord Janner, a prominent spokesman for Jewish causes, said something about Israel’s right to self-defense that so enraged the octogenarian Field Marshal Lord Bramall that he was moved to assault his seventy-eight-year-old interlocutor. One might have supposed that, like misogyny, anti-Semitism had ceased to be a characteristic vice of the English upper class; this incident suggests that it is back with a vengeance. Allah's England by Daniel Johnson

Mark Alexander

Happy Thanksgiving to One and All!
I should like to take this opportunity to wish all my visitors Stateside a VERY HAPPY and BLESSED THANKSGIVING.

Image courtesy of Google Images

Mark Alexander

The Pope and the Archbishop: "serious obstacles towards re-establishing the unity of the two Churches"

Photo courtesy of the BBC

BBC: Pope Benedict XVI has warned the Archbishop of Canterbury the Anglican community's difficulties had put a strain on the Churches' relationship.

Dr Williams, the leader of the worldwide Anglican Church, is on his first official visit to Rome. Pope warns Archbishop of 'strain'

Mark Alexander

The Lebanon: A country drawn in different political directions

BBC: Lebanon is the most politically complex and religiously divided country in the Middle East, which is what makes it such a potentially explosive factor in an unstable region.

Tiny Lebanon baffles outsiders. Even people in the Middle East find its politics confusing.

Set up by France after World War I as a predominantly Christian state, Lebanon is now about 60% Muslim, 40% Christian.

It has 18 officially recognised religious sects and sharing power between them has always been a complicated game.

Lebanese Muslims have tended to look east for support from the other Arab states and from Iran. The Christians have tended to look west to Europe and the United States. The Lebanese crisis explained

Mark Alexander

Pierre Gemayal has been murdered. Lebanon is plunged into crisis

Photo courtesy of the BBC

BBC: Pierre Gemayel, a leading anti-Syrian Lebanese minister and Maronite Christian leader, has been killed in the capital, Beirut.

Mr Gemayel, 34, was shot in his car in a Christian suburb and rushed to hospital, where he died. Lebanese Christian leader killed

BBC: Pierre Gemayel was a scion of one of Lebanon's most prominent Christian political dynasties - although he himself never touched the peaks of power and influence reached by his forebears. Obituary: Pierre Gemayel

WATCH VIDEO: Lebanese minister assassinated

Mark Alexander

Europe starts its tilt rightwards
With thanks to Heather for alerting me to this article.

NPR: A mood of nationalist introspection is sweeping over Europe.

The Sept. 11 attacks, the bombings in Madrid and London, the murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, the French ghetto riots and violent reactions by many Muslims to the Mohammed cartoons published by a Danish paper, are producing an anti-immigrant backlash bordering on xenophobia. Europe Looks Inward, Tilts to the Right

Mark Alexander

Ultimatum an die Türkei

NZZ: Spätestens nächste Woche muss die Türkei ihre Flughäfen und Häfen für Flugzeuge und Schiffe aus Zypern öffnen. Das fordert die EU, die ihren Zeitplan für die Verhandlungen mit der Türkei einhalten will. EU setzt der Türkei ein Ultimatum

Mark Alexander

Annan and Tutu make fools of themselves!

Photos courtesy of the BBC

BBC: It was an appropriate venue: an Ottoman Palace on one bank of the Bosphorus, with a view on to a vast bridge linking East and West.

"If we are to build bridges between civilisations, what better place to begin!" UN Secretary General Kofi Annan remarked in his opening address.

He was speaking to a group of 20 prominent world figures meeting in Istanbul to present him with the findings of more than a year of work.

The high-level group includes Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami. Myth and reality feed West-Muslim gulf

Mark Alexander

British Airways employee loses fight to wear crucifix

BBC: A British Airways (BA) employee has lost her fight to openly wear a cross necklace at work at Heathrow.

Nadia Eweida, 55, of Twickenham, has been on unpaid leave since her bosses told her she could not visibly wear her cross at the check-in counter.

She found out she had lost her appeal against the decision by BA when she met with the airline bosses on Monday. Woman loses fight to wear cross

WATCH VIDEO: BA defends jewellery ban

Mark Alexander

Tony Blair & Co show they have no respect for taxpayers' money. It's theirs for the spending!

THE TELEGRAPH: Tony Blair faced accusations last night that he is wasting nearly £7 billion of taxpayers' money on a failing war on terror after announcing massive sums of British aid to Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In the last three days, the Prime Minister and Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, have trumpeted special funding to the three countries totalling £844 million.

This is in addition to the estimated £5 billion cost to British taxpayers of the Iraq war so far, and the £1 billion spent to date on the British deployment in Afghanistan.

The funding announcements came just days after Mr Blair admitted in an interview with al-Jazeera, the English language Arabic television channel, that the 2003 invasion of Iraq was a "disaster".

No 10 officials have since dismissed the response as a slip of the tongue. But yesterday Henry Kissinger, the former US secretary of state, said military victory in Iraq was no longer possible. Anger at £7bn cost of war by Toby Helm and Brendan Carlin

Throwing good money after bad governance

Mark Alexander

"New life in these Christian soldiers"

THE SUNDAY TIMES: Reports of the death of Christianity in this country have been much exaggerated, by me among many others. Even the dear old Church of England is showing a few signs of revival. Some might attribute this change to the Holy Spirit, blowing where it listeth in that irritating way it supposedly has. I would attribute it to competition, pure and simple.

The example of Islam in this country, for better and for worse, has powerfully concentrated Christian minds. Confronted with Muslim convictions, Christians — and particularly Anglicans — find themselves and their own faith renewed. There is nothing like a strong consciousness of a different identity for clarifying one’s own. Years of milksop tolerance and ecumenical dither have given way, here and there, to a new conviction. The church strikes back! Hallelujah, they're standing up for Jesus by Minette Marrin

Mark Alexander

Indonesians protest Bush visit

Photo courtesy of BBC

BBC: Thousands of people have taken to the streets of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, to protest against Monday's visit by US President George W Bush. Indonesia sees anti-Bush rallies

Mark Alexander

Protest gegen Rechtsextremisten in Brandenburg

Foto dank der Neuen Zürcher Zeitung

NEUE ZÜRCHER ZEITUNG: Fast 10'000 Personen haben am Samstag in Brandenburg friedlich gegen Rechtsextremismus protestiert und erstmals seit Jahren einen Neonazi-Aufmarsch vor dem Volkstrauertag am grössten deutschen Soldatenfriedhof in Halbe verhindert. Neonazi-Aufmarsch verhindert

Mark Alexander

Gordon Brown plays the philanthropist on taxpayers' money and promises £100m to rebuild Iraq

Photo courtesy of BBC

BBC: Chancellor Gordon Brown has made his first visit to Iraq and has promised an extra £100m ($188m) over three years to help rebuild the country's economy. Brown makes first visit to Iraq

Mark Alexander

Beburqahed and beniqabbed Muslimatoon debate women's rights in New York!

Photo courtesy of the BBC

BBC: Muslim women politicians, business leaders, academics, cultural figures and activists are meeting in New York to try to improve women's rights. Muslim women debate more rights

Mark Alexander

Blair admits Anglo-American intervention in Iraq has been "pretty much of a disaster"

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: There were times when Sir David Frost's interview with Tony Blair on al-Jazeera threatened to turn into a quick 40 winks, so languid was the great interrogator's delivery.

But seasoned Frost-watchers know that this is the moment when the man or woman in the hot seat should be most on his or her guard. The Prime Minister wasn't, and blurted out two monosyllabic words he will have plenty of opportunity to regret. Blair is badly nipped by a vintage touch of Frost by Neil Tweedie

Mark Alexander

Dutch government has the courage to take the lead: The ridiculous burqah is to be banned!

Photo courtesy of the BBC

BBC: The Dutch cabinet has backed a proposal by the country's immigration minister to ban Muslim women from wearing the burqa in public places.

The burqa, a full body covering that also obscures the face, would be banned by law in the street, and in trains, schools, buses and the law courts.

The cabinet said burqas disturb public order, citizens and safety. Dutch government backs burqa ban

Burqa ban splits Holland

Mark Alexander

NICK GRIFFIN (BNP leader) in combat on the BBC's 'MORAL MAZE'
LISTEN HERE
Mark Alexander

Milton Friedman, economist par excellence and advocate for human freedom, has died

"America has lost a true visionary and advocate for human freedom. And I have lost a great friend" - Gordon St Angelo, president of the Friedman Foundation

BBC: Nobel prize-winning US economist Milton Friedman has died at the age of 94. Economist Friedman dies aged 94

Milton Friedman: Free market thinker

An enduring legacy

WATCH VIDEO: Economist Milton Friedman dies

Le prix Nobel d'économie Milton Friedman est mort

Nobelpreisträger Milton Friedman gestorben

Mark Alexander

Radical Muslims will take over America

THE CONSERVATIVE VOICE: By Sher Zieve – Appearing on Wednesday’s Laura Ingraham’s radio program, the author of “Now They Call Me Infidel” Nonie Darwish said the ultimate goal of radical Islam is to take over the US. Ms. Darwish, a Muslim, said that hundreds of Islamic mosques are being quickly built throughout the US, which currently have no attendees. Radical Islam Plans to Take Over America

Mark Alexander

"Israel must collapse", claim editorials in Iranian newspapers

YNET NEWS: Iranian newspapers Kehyan and and Resalat have urged Muslims around the world to prepare for a 'great war' to destroy the State of Israel. Iranian paper: Great war to wipe out Israel coming by Yaakov Lappin

Mark Alexander

SMS now used to call the infidel to Islam!

Jeddah (AsiaNews) – “Call Me to Islam” is an initiative launched in Saudi Arabia by dawah activists to convert non Muslims to Islam via short message service (SMS) or receive information about Islam, Saudi daily Arab News reported. SMS from Saudi Arabia promoting conversion to Islam

Mark Alexander

Terrorist threat "very great" in UK, says Reid, but there's too little evidence to try the suspected terrorists!

YAHOO NEWS: LONDON (Reuters) - Britain is facing a "very great threat" from a wave of plots among Muslim extremists and a terrorist attack on the UK is highly likely, Home Secretary John Reid said on Wednesday.

Echoing a warning last week by the head of domestic spy agency MI5, Reid said authorities were aware of 30 active terrorist plots.

"There are a lot of conspiracies out there," Reid told BBC radio.

"These 30 are the ones we think are the most serious of them. They are ongoing, they are working, and they have the potential... some will be nearer preparation than others."

Asked how serious the situation was, Reid said: "It is a very great threat". Reid says terrorist threat "very great"

Mark Alexander

President Bush meddles in the future of Europe again. Turkish accession would be "in the United States' interests"
President Bush has done enough damage in Iraq. Iraq has ended up on the verge of civil war. We read reports of carnage and mayhem daily now. He has proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he has neither any understanding of Islam, nor of the the intentions of Muslims worldwide, nor of jihad, nor of the history of the conflict between the Christian and Islamic worlds. As if he hasn't done enough damage already, he now finds it necessary to create havoc with the future of Europe, too!

GWB wanted to bring democracy to the Middle East by imposing it in Iraq. He thought it would spread like a cancer throughout the Middle East. How wrong he was! How naïve! Had he known anything about Islam, he would have known that such an exercise would be futile. Alas, he was not so well-informed.

He is also not well-informed on Europe or Turkey, either. Yet he finds it necessary to meddle in the internal affairs of the European Union, and all in the "interests" of the United States.

I thought Dubya was committed to the concept of democracy? Were he really to be committed, then he would know that democracy functions according to the will of the people. The vast majority of the people of Europe do not want to admit Turkey to their Union, for they know, and understand, that it will be disastrous for the Judeo-Christian culture that Europe has as its underpinning. They know that Islam will spread throughout Europe like wildfire if the Turks ever get the chance to accede. But Bush doesn't give a damn: he soldiers on with his ridiculous and damaging policies, regardless.

Bush should know one thing now: If he is dismayed by the anti-Americanism in Europe today, he needs just to wait to see how anti-American sentiment will grow once Turkey becomes dominant in Europe. And with the population of Turkey set to increase substantially, it will become the dominant power in Europe. Further, if Bush thinks the Turks will thank him in years to come for his support of their application to join, he is deluding himself. Nor need he think that the Europeans will thank him. They won't. George W Bush will have messed up the continent.

It is common knowledge that President Bush is not popular in Europe. Is there any wonder? If Bush continues with this policy, then Europe is destined to become a hotbed of anti-Americanism for many years to come!

President Bush has done enough damage already. For God's sake, don't let him do anymore!

©Mark Alexander

EU OBSERVER: The United States has waded into the debate on the fate of Turkey's EU accession talks, questioning an EU deadline for Ankara to lift a blockade on Cypriot trade while proposing to continue the talks in any case.

UK daily The Guardian quoted a senior US diplomat as saying that the EU never put a clear-cut deadline on Turkey to open its ports and airports to trade from Cyprus, when the bloc opened formal membership talks with Ankara on 3 October last year. US makes fresh intervention in EU-Turkey row

Mark Alexander

Of course they should ban it!

Photo courtesy of the BBC

BBC: A senior Vatican cardinal has expressed concern over the use of some Muslim veils by Islamic immigrants in Europe.

This is the first time that the Vatican has joined in the Europe-wide debate on how women who insist on wearing the veil affect the integration of Muslims.

Cardinal Renato Martino said immigrants must respect the traditions, culture and religion of the nations they go to.

They ought to abide by local laws banning the wearing of certain types of Muslim veils, he added.

"It seems elementary to me and it is quite right that the authorities demand it," said Cardinal Martino, who heads the Vatican department dealing with migration issues. Vatican enters Muslim veil debate

Mark Alexander

Kofi Annan: What a twerp!

"There are tensions, there are even hostilities but they are not caused by religion, by culture or by civilisations " - Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Myth and reality feed West-Muslim gulf

Mark Alexander

Iran tries to call the shots

BBC: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad has said Tehran is ready to talk to the US - once it changes its attitude.

His remarks follow suggestions that the US should start direct talks with the country to reduce the violence in Iraq.

US President George W Bush has said Iran must halt nuclear activities before any talks could begin, but Mr Ahmedinejad rejected this. Iran will talk to 'corrected' US

WATCH VIDEO: Bush maintains hard Iran line

Mark Alexander

Tony Blair clutches at straws

Blair addressing the Lord Mayor's banquest last night

Photo courtesy of The Telegraph

THE TELEGRAPH: Iran is trying to form an unholy alliance with al-Qa'eda by grooming a new generation of leaders to take over from Osama bin Laden, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.

Western intelligence officials say the Iranians are determined to take advantage of bin Laden's declining health to promote senior officials who are known to be friendly to Teheran.

The revelation will deal a major blow to Tony Blair's hopes of establishing a "new partnership" with Teheran.

Addressing the Lord Mayor's banquet in London last night — an occasion traditionally used by the Prime Minister to set out the Government's foreign policy — Mr Blair said he wanted to launch a diplomatic initiative to secure peace in Iraq by establishing dialogue with Iran and ending threats of military force against the regime. Iran plotting to groom bin Laden's successor

Leader: Blair's desperate new plan for the Middle East

Mark Alexander

Bush and the protest vote

The mid-term elections have swept the Democrats to power in both houses of Congress. But the vote is a protest against the Republicans.

They're calling it a Blue Wave, a sweeping rejection for President Bush. A re-alignment of the political makeup of the United States. In handing power over from one party to the other, just what did American voters really say on Tuesday?

The War in Iraq - change course. The people who run the country in Washington - throw the bums out. The direction of the country - terrible. Protest vote turns the tide 'A point of view' by Tim Egan

Mark Alexander

The new Neville Chamberlain
The US and UK can't do it alone, so now they call on Syria nd Iran! If this isn't appeasement, what is? What hope have they got now of stopping Iran get the nuclear bomb?

Photo courtesy of the BBC

BBC: Britain's policy towards Iran and Syria has not softened, Downing Street says, despite the prime minister's call for them to help bring stability to Iraq.

In a major foreign policy speech in London, Tony Blair said a "whole Middle East" policy includes co-operation with the two states.

But his spokesman insisted that did not mean offering new concessions to the governments in Tehran and Damascus. 'No softening' on Iran and Syria

Blair für Gespräche mit Syrien und Iran

Mark Alexander

Dr John Sentamu, Archbishop of York, despairs of the 'chattering classes'

Photo courtesy of the Daily Mail

DAILY MAIL: Behind the handsome façade of Bishopthorpe Palace there is a maze of cold and shabby offices. It is here that the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, is wrestling with the spiritual decay in Britain.

It is his job, he believes, to defend the 72 per cent of Britons who described themselves as Christians in the last census against the prevailing secularism of the 'chattering classes.'

It has fallen to a Ugandan, educated by Christian missionaries to take up the sword. In a speech he attacked the 'illiberal atheists, who, under the cloak of secularism, insist that Religion must be a private matter.' Archbishop blames 'chattering classes' for collapse of Britain's spiritual life by SARAH SANDS

Mark Alexander

Muslims in the United Kingdom fear the rise of far-right extremism and urge Christians to celebrate Christmas

Photo courtesy of The Telegraph

Muslims in Britain, fearing the growth of far-right extremism, have helped their Christian counterparts to launch a broadside on politicians and town halls that play down Christmas.

THE TELEGRAPH: Muslim leaders joined their Christian counterparts yesterday to launch a powerful attack on politicians and town halls that play down Christmas.

They warned that attempts to remove religion from the festival were fuelling Right-wing extremism. Leave Christmas alone, say Muslims by Jonathan Petre

Mark Alexander

Iranian actress causes outrage in Iran

Photo courtesy of the Daily Mail

DAILY MAIL: She has been dubbed Iran's Paris Hilton after appearing in a sex video on the internet.

But while Paris's exploits propelled her to worldwide stardom, Zahra Amir Ebrahimi faces ruin, a public lashing and even a jail term.

Ebrahimi is one of the best-known actresses in the strict Islamic country and made the 20-minute sex tape privately with her boyfriend on a camcorder at the flat they shared two years ago.

Unbeknown to her, it was posted on the internet and widely released as a DVD - angering millions in Iran. Outrage in Iran as actress does a "Paris" and her sex video ends up on the net by Richard Creasy

Mark Alexander

Shift to the right in France: Far-right poses credible threat in French presidential elections

THE TELEGRAPH: Besides his penchant for champagne and singing outmoded French songs, far-Right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen is known to like a practical joke.

So when he strode purposefully out of his private office at the National Front's presidential convention outside Paris this weekend towards the press tent, camera crews in tow, nobody seemed overly surprised when he veered off at the last minute into the lavatory.

The cameras were still rolling when he reappeared with a grin, chin jutting forth, to carry on with the presidential show.

At 78, Mr Le Pen can afford such low farce: his popularity ratings have never been better.

An IFOP poll in this weekend's Le Monde showed that 18 per cent of the French say they will "definitely" vote for the National Front chief.

That is nine points more than at the same period before the 2002 election, in which he horrified Europe by coming second to Jacques Chirac. No longer a joke – France is having to take Le Pen's threat seriously by Henry Samuel

Le Pen pledges

Mark Alexander

Neo-Nazis in "the capital of the German Reich": "One day we will control this country"

Image courtesy of YNET NEWS

"Skin heads and uniform-wearers are already a minority. The convention participants were well-kept, well-dressed people from all levels of German society." - Eldad Beck

YNET: BERLIN - Decades after World War II, Germany isn't the same Germany, but whoever came across the neo-Nazi convention Saturday in Berlin couldn't help but sense a slight chill crawl up his back.

And yet, just as the hall in Munich in the 20s of the previous century was too small to contain the ambitions of a former corporal, the venue in the worker's quarter of Berlin is seen as just a starting point for the former paratrooper and current chairman of the neo-Nazi party.

"One day we will control this country, and not from some remote town, but from Berlin," declared National Democratic Party (NPD) Chairman Udo Voigt at the convention. The declaration received roaring applause from those in attendance. NeoNazis: One day we'll control Germany by Eldad Back

Mark Alexander

Dana Olmert says support wanting for Jerusalem's Gay Pride happening

YNET: Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's daughter Dana told Army Radio on Sunday that the struggle of the homosexual community in Israel has just began, charging that the community's rights remain violated.

"There is a continuing history of violence and hatred, there is homophobia. Coming out of the closet is not a one-time struggle," Dana, a lesbian, said. PM's daughter slams lack of support for gay parade

Mark Alexander

Mubarak: Carrying out the death sentence on Saddam "will explode violence like waterfalls in Iraq"

BBC: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has warned that hanging former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein will lead to even more bloodshed in Iraq.

A Baghdad court condemned Saddam Hussein to death on Sunday for the killing of 148 Shia Muslims after a 1982 assassination attempt against him.

Mr Mubarak said hanging the former president would only exacerbate ethnic and sectarian divisions between Iraqis. Mubarak warns on Saddam execution

Mark Alexander

UN plan of action to overcome "mutual feelings of fear and suspicion" between Muslims and Christians!

BBC: UN Secretary General Kofi Annan will be presented with a plan of action on Monday to ease increasing polarisation of Muslim and Western societies.

The report is by a group of prominent international figures, including Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu and ex-Iranian president Mohammad Khatami.

They have been brought together under the United Nations initiative, the Alliance of Civilisations. UN tries to heal religious divide by Sarah Rainsford

Alliance of Civilizations

Mark Alexander

Is this guy for real?

Photo courtesy of the BBC

BBC: Sir Elton John has said he would like to see all organised religion banned and accused it of trying to "turn hatred towards gay people".

Organised religion lacked compassion and turned people into "hateful lemmings", he told the Observer.

But the musician said he loved the idea of the teachings of Jesus Christ and the beautiful stories about it which he had learned at Sunday school. Sir Elton: Ban organised religion

Mark Alexander

Remembrance Day

Photo courtesy of Google Images

In deep gratitude: Remembering those who died for our liberty.

WATCH VIDEO: Remembrance Day ceremony

WATCH VIDEO: Ceremony honours war dead

Mark Alexander

Bulent Ecevit buried in Ankara

BBC: Thousands of Turks have demonstrated in support of secularism during the funeral of the veteran statesman Bulent Ecevit in the capital Ankara.

"Turkey is secular and will remain secular," crowds chanted as his coffin reached the city's main mosque.

They also booed the arrival of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose party has its roots in political Islam. Chants as Turks bury ex-PM Ecevit

Turkey holds Ecevit funeral

Mark Alexander

Al-Qaeda gloats over mid-terms and taunts Bush

"We will not rest from our jihad until ... we have blown up the filthiest house -- which is called the White House" - al-Muhajir (Abu Ayyub al-Masri)

THE WASHINGTON TIMES: BAGHDAD -- The head of al Qaeda's Iraq operations yesterday gloated in a new audio tape over the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and praised U.S. voters for punishing President Bush and the Republicans in Tuesday's midterm elections.

Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, in the first public statement by a senior al Qaeda figure since the vote, said in an Internet-posted recording that his group now had 22,000 armed fighters and reserves in Iraq and taunted Mr. Bush not to copy Mr. Rumsfeld and "flee the battlefield."

Al-Muhajir, also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri, urged the United States to stay in Iraq so his group would have more opportunities to kill American troops. Al Qaeda gloats over U.S. election by Christopher Bodeen

Mark Alexander

Anti-Semitism far from dead in Germany

CNN: BERLIN, Germany (Reuters) -- German neo-Nazis, some shouting "Sieg Heil," rampaged in the eastern city of Frankfurt on Oder and destroyed wreaths placed to mark the anniversary of the 1938 Nazi pogrom against the Jews, police said on Friday.

A police spokeswoman said the group had launched an attack on Thursday evening, shortly after a memorial service by community and Jewish leaders at a monument where a synagogue once stood.

She said the neo-Nazis trampled floral wreaths placed at a memorial stone to the synagogue in the Polish border city that was destroyed 68 years ago in the Nazis' Kristallnacht or "Night of Broken Glass." Neo-Nazis attack Jewish memorial

CNN: MUNICH, Germany (AP) -- Nearly 70 years after Adolf Hitler declared Munich's main synagogue an "eyesore" in the center of his power base and personally ordered it torn down, the city's Jews are celebrating a return to the heart of the southern German city.

On Thursday, the 68th anniversary of Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass, Torah scrolls were marched with fanfare through the winding, cobblestone streets of downtown Munich to a newly built synagogue in the heart of the city. After 68-year wait, a new synagogue for Munich

NPD darf ihren Parteitag in Berlin abhalten: Gericht macht Weg frei

Mark Alexander

An oedipal battle between Bush and Bush

Intense rivalry between father and his wayward son has given way to mutual concern about the family legacy

THE TIMES: THE White House was in no mood this week to discuss President Bush’s psychological state after an election defeat that he himself had described as “a thumping”. Tony Snow, Mr Bush’s press secretary, said: “The President is not a guy who — he doesn’t get on the couch — what he does is [say], ‘What it is, is what it is’ ”.

But if the President ever did lie down on a therapist’s couch, any psychoanalyst worth the name would begin by asking about his relationship with his father, George H. W. Bush. The 41st US President is a figure that his son, George W. Bush, the 43rd President, has variously ignored, clung to, sought the approval of and competed with. Some commentators have long since taken to describing an oedipal struggle between them.

Bush v Bush: an oedipal battle between men of rigid beliefs by Tom Baldwin

Mark Alexander

Gates und Alwaleed wollen Geschäft machen. Ziel: Hotelkette Four Seasons aufkaufen!

Foto dank der Welt

DIE WELT: Prinz Alwaleed besitzt das größte Privatflugzeug der Welt, einen Palast mit 317 Räumen und 20 Milliarden Dollar. Nun will der Saudi zusammen mit Bill Gates die Hotelkette Four Seasons kaufen.

Was geschieht, wenn die beiden mächtigsten Investoren der Welt aufeinander treffen? Sie tauschen Höflichkeiten aus. So fühlt sich Prinz Alwaleed, Nummer acht auf der Forbes-Liste der reichsten Menschen der Welt, geschmeichelt, wenn die "New York Times" ihn als "Saudi Arabiens Warren Buffett" bezeichnet. Umgekehrt lässt der amerikanische Großinvestor und zweitreichste Mann der Welt den saudischen Prinzen wissen, dass er in seiner Heimatstadt Omaha im US-Bundesstaat Nebraska der "Alwaleed von Amerika" genannt wird. Nach den Schmeicheleien kommt das Geschäft, oder eine Partnerschaft mit dem allerreichsten Mann der Welt: Buffett beglückte jüngst seinen Bridgepartner Bill Gates mit einer Spende von 30 Mrd. Dollar für dessen humanitäre Stiftung. Und der Prinz legte zu Wochenbeginn gemeinsam mit dem Microsoft-Gründer ein Übernahmeangebot von 3,7 Mrd. Dollar für die Hotelkette Four Seasons vor. Der reichste Mann Arabiens von Von Katja Ridderbusch

Mark Alexander

Nick Griffin, the leader of the BNP, acquitted of race hate

Photo courtesy of the BBC

BBC: BNP leader Nick Griffin and party activist Mark Collett have been cleared of inciting racial hatred after a retrial at Leeds Crown Court.

Mr Griffin, 46, from Powys, Wales, had denied two charges of using words or behaviour intended to stir up racial hatred in a speech in Keighley.

Mr Collett, 26, of Leicestershire, was cleared of four similar charges.

Chancellor Gordon Brown has told the BBC race laws may have to be revised in light of the acquittal. BNP leader cleared of race hate

WATCH VIDEO: BNP chief celebrates victory

Brown hints at new race hate law as BNP chiefs are cleared by Paul Stokes

Bringing case was own goal as Griffin makes political capital

Mark Alexander