Monday, December 31, 2007

Aus dem Herzen des Islam: Der Terror!

WELTONLINE: Dem wahren Gesicht des Islam begegnet man nicht auf der deutschen Islamkonferenz. Man begegnet ihm in Ländern wie Pakistan. Dieser Islam richtet sich gegen alle, die nicht nach den Regeln des Koran leben - gegen Demokraten, gegen Atheisten und vor allem gegen Frauen. Und die Welt schaut wie paralysiert zu.

Auch wenn die meisten Muslime es nicht wahrhaben wollen, der Terror kommt aus dem Herzen des Islam, er kommt direkt aus dem Koran. Er richtet sich gegen alle, die nicht nach den Regeln des Koran leben und handeln, also gegen Demokraten, abendländisch inspirierte Denker und Wissenschaftler, gegen Agnostiker und Atheisten. Und er richtet sich vor allem gegen Frauen. Er ist Handwerk des männerbündischen Islam, der mit aller Macht verhindern möchte, dass Frauen gleichberechtigt werden und ihre Jahrhunderte lange Unterjochung ein Ende findet.

Dem wahren Gesicht des Islam begegnet man nicht auf der deutschen Islamkonferenz. Man begegnet ihm in Ländern wie Pakistan. Dieser Islam hat einen Weltkrieg angefangen. Doch die Welt tut so, als wüsste sie immer noch nichts davon. Für viele Zeitgenossen schlagen weit hinten in der Türkei, die Völker aufeinander ein. Es gibt in unserer vernetzten Welt aber kein „weit hinten“ mehr. Sondern nur noch ein „draußen vor der Tür“. Der Totalitarismus der Taliban und der muslimischen Terrorzellen ist wahrscheinlich schlimmer als der Faschismus, denn er ist nicht das Ergebnis eines Zivilisationsprozesses. Er entsteht in einem Raum, in dem nichts mehr an zivilisatorischen Fortschritt erinnert. Der Terror kommt aus dem Herzen des Islam >>>

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Islam: Religion or Cult?


Hat tip: The Truth About Islam

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Sunday, December 30, 2007

Dr Isaac Kfir: Great Triumph for Radicals

YNET NEWS – OPINION: Expert says Bhutto assassination to gravely undermine Pakistan democracy hopes

“Benazir Bhutto’s assassination is an earthquake in Pakistan,” says Dr. Isaac Kfir, an international relations lecturer at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya and a Pakistan expert. Kfir believes that the terror attack that killed the opposition leader constitutes a grave blow to democratic aspirations in the Islamic state. “Her death will cause a huge shock in the country and lead to the opposition party’s collapse. This is an immense achievement for radical Islam,” he says.

Bhutto, the former Pakistani prime minister, was murdered Thursday in a shooting attack carried out by a suicide bomber. Dr. Kfir says that the opposition leader’s death will gravely undermine her party’s future. “Her death will neutralize the opposition party because there is no suitable candidate that could take her place,” he says. “This could lead to a party split and a leadership struggle.”

In addition, Kfir says that the murder significantly boosts the power of Islamists in Pakistan under the leadership of al-Qaeda activists. “The Bhutto assassination proves that radical Islam has shifted from Afghanistan to Pakistan and is moving from rural areas into the large cities. The Taliban may grow stronger and so would al-Qaeda – one of its leaders, Ayman al-Zawahiri, called for Bhutto’s murder and viewed her as a US and Western puppet,” Kfir notes. Great triumph for radicals >>> By Roee Mandel

YNET NEWS OPINION:
World peace at stake: Bhutto assassination could have far-reaching implications for global security By Ronen Bergman

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Islamophobia


In the Name of Allah

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Bhutto’s Death May Bring Musharraf Down

THE TELEGRAPH: As in Yeats's Easter 1916, death changes our view of certain people utterly. It's a tricky thing to broach the martyrdom and apotheosis of someone you didn't like and have publicly criticised.

The news reports after Benazir Bhutto's death repeatedly featured footage of her uttering the fateful words, "Don't worry, God willing, I will be safe. I will be safe."

I'd seen that same interview earlier and at the time I commented scornfully on the platitudes carefully chosen to appeal to her Western audience, the peculiar nasal delivery, the disingenuousness.

What I saw after her murder was only vulnerability, the uncertain smile that followed the words, and her bravery. And it made me profoundly sad.

Who can doubt that Benazir was physically brave? With an executed father and two murdered brothers, no one could have been more aware of the risks of entering Pakistani politics. But she refused to be intimidated by threats from local opponents and extremists who viewed her as an American stooge.

She continued campaigning even after the attempt on her life the day she returned to Pakistan on October 18, which left up to 140 people dead. In the end she was killed just two miles from the spot where her father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, was hanged 28 years earlier. As prime minister, Benazir Bhutto did little >>> Says Jemima Khan

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Poles Could Split Church

THE TELEGRAPH: The leader of the country's Roman Catholics has sparked a row by accusing immigrants of creating a separate church in Britain.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster, urged the Polish community to do more to learn English and integrate into local parishes, claiming the Catholic Church in the UK was in danger of dividing along ethnic lines as the number of Polish-speaking churches rose.



Leading Polish community figures said they felt "violated" and "spiritually raped" by his words and called for talks on the issue.



New research, revealed last week by The Sunday Telegraph, shows that an influx of eastern Europeans boosts numbers attending Mass above those at Church of England Sunday services.

The research ended a momentous week which saw Tony Blair formally convert to Catholicism, while official figures to be released in the new year will show a rise in Mass attendance in 2006.

The number of churchgoers fell 40 per cent between 1963 and 1991, but the arrival of immigrants from Catholic countries in eastern Europe halted the decline and led to an increase in weekly Mass attendance from 917,500 in 2005 to 927,154 last year. Catholic leader claims Poles could split Church >>> By Jonathan Wynne-Jones and Vikki Miller

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Saturday, December 29, 2007

Gabor Steingart’s View on “West’s Year of Failure”

SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Ongoing difficulties in Iraq. A Taliban offensive in Afghanistan. And now the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan. For the West, 2007 has been a year of failure and missteps.

The following sentence is the most bitter compliment imaginable: The Thursday assassination (more...) of Benazir Bhutto is a huge, shocking and possibly even historic triumph for the enemies of democracy. Even worse, the attack was the gruesome culmination of what has been a successful year for them.

It is also not reaching too far to say that the shots that fatally wounded Bhutto in Rawalpindi Thursday also killed off any hope that the Islamic world could find peace of its own accord in the foreseeable future.

The West, too, is more troubled than it has been for a long time. The dismay in the corridors of government is genuine. US President George W. Bush's statement, which lasted little more than a minute, was eloquent testimony to his speechlessness. This world power has rarely looked so powerless -- and Bush has rarely looked so helpless.

Three Lessons to Be Learned

Now, as always when something goes wrong in the world, America is falling back on the rhetoric of violence. Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama has been saying for some time that Pakistan is the war we must win. The "war on terror" metaphor has long been one of Bush's favorites.

But the failures of 2007 require rethinking. There are three lessons to be learned from the strategy followed by the US to this point.

Lesson one: The conflict with radical Islam is not the hobby of a US president gone berserk. This will become all the more clear next November when American voters go to the polls. Bush, who cannot run for re-election due to term limitations, will go, but the conflict with Islam will remain. In fact, it is growing more intense. That, at least, is what the murder of this exceptionally brave woman in Pakistan has given to the West: a high degree of clarity. The radical Islamists will not tolerate any democrats, even if they come from their own countries. They are looking for a showdown, apparently at any price. They will even accept the failure of a country as big and proud as Pakistan.

Lesson two: Bush will not be in a position to do much to end this conflict. He is a war president and an unsuccessful one at that. Even if he talks about diplomacy, it sounds like preparation for war. His partners in Berlin, Paris and London will have to act cleverly in this difficult situation. Any belligerence or crowing must be avoided so as to not damage the Western position as a whole. As strange as it might sound, this beleaguered president must be ushered into retirement with dignity and civility.

Lesson three: The classic military intervention -- Bush's formula against the danger of terrorism -- has not been successful up to now and will not be so in the future. And the situation in nuclear-armed Pakistan is clearly not one where any sort of military operation should be considered. Bhutto Killing Caps West's Year of Failure >>> By Gabor Steingart in Washington

Spiegel Photo Gallery: Benazir Bhutto’s Remarkable Career

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Bin Laden droht Israel

NZZ: (ap) Der Anführer des Terrornetzwerks al-Kaida, Usama bin Ladin, hat in einer neuen Botschaft Anschläge in Israel angedroht. «Ich möchte unserem Volk in Palästina versichern, dass wir unseren Jihad dort ausweiten werden», sagte Bin Ladin in einer Audiobotschaft, die am Samstag im Internet veröffentlicht wurde.

Palästina befreien

«Wir haben die Absicht, Palästina zu befreien, das gesamte Palästina vom Fluss (Jordan) bis zum Meer», erklärte Bin Ladin weiter und drohte ein Blutvergiessen an. Man werde keinen Zentimeter Land an Juden abtreten, wie andere muslimische Führer dies getan hätten. Bin Ladin und andere Al-Kaida-Führer haben in ihren Botschaften bereits mehrfach angekündigt, die Palästinenser zu unterstützen. Die neuen Äusserungen Bin Ladins waren jedoch deutlich schärfer formuliert als sonst. Bin Ladin droht mit Anschlägen in Israel: Neue Botschaft im Internet veröffentlicht - Warnung an Sunniten im Irak

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The Fickle Qur’an


In the Name of Allah

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”We Accuse Islam”


In the Name of Allah

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Benazir Bhutto: The Woman Who Knew Too Much


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Koran: The “Banned” Video


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Geert Wilders Wants to Ban the Koran


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Geert Wilders Interviewed by the Politically Correct Stephen Sackur on HARDtalk

WATCH BBC VIDEO: Stephen Sackur Interviews Geert Wilders

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Jihadists and This Disaster for Us All

DAILY MAIL: Last August, two months before her return to Pakistan from exile, Benazir Bhutto explained the essence of Pakistani politics.

"There are two fault lines," she said. "One is dictatorship versus democracy. The other is moderation versus extremism."

These fault lines converged lethally on her on Thursday when she was murdered by Islamic extremists while campaigning to restore democracy to her country.

Her death will plunge her already troubled country into a prolonged period of murderous chaos from which only Islamist fanatics can gain.

It is unlikely that Al Qaeda and their Islamist supporters would ever assume total control of a nuclear-armed Pakistan - the ruling generals will not willingly give up their weapons. But in the maelstrom that follows Bhutto's assassination the Islamists will be free to flourish in vast tracts of the country.

Huge areas will become a giant training camp for the sort of Anglo-Pakistani jihadists who struck in London in July 2005.

Entire regions in the north west are already violent badlands occupied by extremists, which the government can only enter with thousands of soldiers - and these badlands are now likely to expand massively. Jihadists and this disaster for us all >>> By Michael Burleigh

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Friday, December 28, 2007

Reuters: Violence Spreads Across Pakistan


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”Wer sich als Ausländer nicht an unsere Regeln hält, ist hier fehl am Platze”, so Ministerpräsident Roland Koch

DIE PRESSE: Der hessische Ministerpräsident Roland Koch kritisiert "multi-kulturelle Verblendung". Er fordert: "Wir müssen Schluss machen mit bestimmten Lebenslügen".

Nach dem brutalen Überfall auf einen Pensionisten in der Münchner U-Bahn hat sich der hessische Ministerpräsident Roland Koch (CDU) besorgt über die Kriminalität von jungen Ausländern in Deutschland geäußert. "Wir haben zu viele kriminelle junge Ausländer", sagte Koch in einem Interview mit der "Bild"-Zeitung (Freitag-Ausgabe).

"Multi-kulturelle Verblendung"

Zugleich machte der CDU-Politiker eine seiner Ansicht nach verfehlte Integrationspolitik mitverantwortlich für Gewaltausbrüche jugendlicher Ausländer. "Null Toleranz gegen Gewalt muss ganz früh beginnen und Bestandteil unserer Integrationspolitik sein", sagte Koch gegenüber der Zeitung. Bis vor kurzem seien "in multi-kultureller Verblendung" Verhaltensweisen toleriert worden, die inzwischen zu hoch explosiven Gruppen-Aggressionen führen könnten.

"Wir müssen Schluss machen mit bestimmten Lebenslügen. Die deutsche Position in der Integrationspolitik war lange leider nicht klar genug", erklärte Koch. Deutschland: "Wir haben zu viele kriminelle junge Ausländer" >>>

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Meinungen rund um Europa übers Attentat Benazir Bhuttos

DIE PRESSE: “Pakistans verlorene Führerin”

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Al-Qaeda Claims responsibility for Bhutto’s Assassination

"This is our first major victory against those [eg, Bhutto and President Pervez Musharraf] who have been siding with infidels [the West] in a fight against Al Qaeda and declared a war against mujahideen," - Mustafa told Asia Times Online by telephone.

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR:
Pakistan Mourns Bhutto, as Al Qaeda Claims Responsibility: Slain Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto laid to rest amid supporters' protests and security officials search for her killer By Simon Montlake

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Violence Across Pakistan in Wake of Bhutto’s Assassination


THE TELEGRAPH: Pakistani security forces were given orders to shoot on sight today to curb unrest as millions across the country mourned Benazir Bhutto.

The former prime minister and leading opposition figure was laid to rest in her family's mausoleum a day after her assassination by Islamic extremists.

Her simple coffin, draped in the red, green and black flag of her Pakistan People's Party, was greeted by huge crowds at her ancestral grave in the village of Garhi Khuda Bakhsh in the southern province of Sind.

Accompanied by her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, and three children, her body was carried in a white ambulance as it made its way towards the white Mogulesque mausoleum surrounded by hundreds of thousands of mourners. Violence as millions mourn Benazir Bhutto >>> By Isambard Wilkinson, Pakistan Correspondent

The West’s greatest test since September 11 By David Blair

Pakistan faces horror of civil war after Benazir Bhutto is assassinated in suicide attack By Isambard Wilkinson, Pakistan Correspondent, Richard Edwards and David Blair

Bhutto's death is victory for Islamic hardliners By Con Coughlin

Why the fanatics wanted Benazir Bhutto dead By David Blair, Diplomatic Correspondent

NZZ:
Mächtiger Trauerzug begleitet Bhuttos Sarg zum Grab: In Familienmausoleum beigesetzt

WELTONLINE:
Atomwaffen und Islamisten sind sich nah wie nie

LE MONDE:
Benazir Bhutto a été inhumée devant des centaines de milliers de Pakistanais

Edito du "MONDE":
Le Pakistan en danger

Un attentat que "la Sultane" redoutait : "J'en rendrai Musharraf responsable", confiait-elle

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Obituary: Benazir Bhutto

Photobucket
Photo of Benazir Bhutto courtesy of Google Images

BBC: Benazir Bhutto followed her father into politics, and both of them died because of it - he was executed in 1979, she fell victim to an apparent suicide bomb attack.

Her two brothers also suffered violent deaths.

Like the Nehru-Gandhi family in India, the Bhuttos of Pakistan are one of the world's most famous political dynasties. Benazir's father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was prime minister of Pakistan in the early 1970s.

His government was one of the few in the 30 years following independence that was not run by the army.

Born in 1953 in the province of Sindh and educated at Harvard and Oxford, Ms Bhutto gained credibility from her father's high profile, even though she was a reluctant convert to politics.

She was twice prime minister of Pakistan, from 1988 to 1990, and from 1993 to 1996. Obituary: Benazir Bhutto >>>

WATCH BBC VIDEO:
Matt Frei interviewed Benazir Bhutto

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Thursday, December 27, 2007

Benazir Bhutto Assassinated


BBC: Pakistani former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has been killed in a presumed suicide attack.

News of her death was confirmed by a military spokesman and members of her Pakistan People's Party (PPP).

Ms Bhutto had just addressed an election rally in Rawalpindi when gunfire and an explosion occurred.

At least 15 other people are reported killed in the attack and several more were injured. Ms Bhutto had twice been the country's prime minister.

She had been campaigning ahead of elections due in January. Benazir Bhutto killed in attack >>>

WATCH BBC VIDEOS:
Bhutto killed in Pakistan blast

Scenes of chaos and panic at the scene of the assassination

THE TELEGRAPH:
Obituary: Benazir Bhutto

SPIEGELONLINE:
Benazir Bhutto ermordert – Pakistan unter Schock Von Hasnain Kazim

Geliebt, bewundert – verhasst Von Hasnain Kazim und Björn Hengst

NZZ:
Tod von Bhutto stellt Wahl in Pakistan in Frage

LE FIGARO:
Violences au Pakistan après l'assassinat de Benazir Bhutto

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Sunday, December 23, 2007

Britannia Turns Catholic

Photobucket
Photo courtesy of The Sunday Telegraph

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Roman Catholics have overtaken Anglicans as the country's dominant religious group. More people attend Mass every Sunday than worship with the Church of England, figures seen by The Sunday Telegraph show.

This means that the established Church has lost its place as the nation's most popular Christian denomination after more than four centuries of unrivalled influence following the Reformation.

Last night, leading figures gave warning that the Church of England could become a minority faith and that the findings should act as a wake-up call. Britain has become a 'Catholic country' >>> By Jonathan Wynne-Jones

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Saturday, December 22, 2007

”Europe Will Become a Muslim Continent"

Hat tip: Robert Spencer of JihadWatch:

ADNKRONOS INTERNATIONAL: Tehran, 21 Dec. (AKI) - Europe will eventually become a Muslim continent, according to a representative of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.

"In a dozen years, Europe will be an Islamic continent," said Rasul Jalilzadeh on Friday as he was speaking to the basiji, a voluntary organisation in the capital Tehran.

"The Islamisation of the European continent is imminent and this step favours the arrival of the Mahdi," he said, referring to the 12th imam of Shiite Islam. Iran: Europe will become a Muslim continent, says Khamenei's spokesman >>>

MEMRI:
Leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan: 'Allah Willing, America Will Soon Be Annihilated… We Will Reach America… The Eyes of the Nation of Muhammad are set on Washington, London, Moscow, Paris, Delhi, Beijing'

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