Islam is now busy establishing itself here in the West; indeed, it is the fastest-growing religion in the West today. Therefore, the West is in great danger of being taken back 1400 years to a bygone age, an altogether less enlightened age, a dark age. Mark Alexander, Author: The Dawning of a New Dark Age: A Collection of Essays on Islam
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Tut, Tut, Gordo! Temper, Temper!
MAIL ONLINE: Sensational claims that Gordon Brown has physically attacked his staff in a series of outbursts in Downing Street - and once in America - have rocked the Government.
Well-placed sources say the Prime Minister has been accused of hitting a senior adviser, pulling a secretary out of her chair and hurling foul-mouthed abuse at aides while distraught over an alleged snub by President Barack Obama.
The claims, which are fiercely denied by Mr Brown's allies, are linked to a new book about Mr Brown by respected political journalist Andrew Rawnsley.
In researching the book, The End Of The Party, due to be published on March 1, Mr Rawnsley has investigated allegations that Mr Brown flew into a number of wild rages since he succeeded Tony Blair as Prime Minister. The publishers say his accounts are so detailed that readers will think he has 'bugs in the vases at No10'. Angry Gordon Brown 'hit out at aide and yanked secretary from her chair' >>> Simon Walters, Mail Online Political Editor | Sunday, January 31, 2010
Bill Gates’ Attack Berlusconi’s Vanity
MAIL ONLINE: Microsoft founder Bill Gates has launched a scathing attack on Silvio Berlusconi, accusing the Italian Prime Minister of spending more on his thinning hair than he does on foreign aid.
Billionaire Mr Gates hit out at Mr Berlusconi's 'stinginess' and said the controversial politican was the main figure on his 'list of shame'.
And, in a clear reference to Mr Berlusconi's hair transplant, he told German daily Sueddeut[s]che Zeitung that 'rich people spend a lot more on personal problems like baldness than they do to combat malaria'.
Obama Doing What Obama Does Best (Apart from Talking and Posing): Spending Taxpayers’ Money. This Time on Nuclear Warheads
MAIL ONLINE: President Obama is planning to increase spending on America's nuclear weapons stockpile just days after pledging to try to rid the world of them.
In his budget to be announced on Monday, Mr Obama has allocated £4.3billion to maintain the U.S. arsenal - £370million more than George Bush spent on nuclear weapons in his final year.
The Obama administration also plans to spend a further £3.1billion over the next five years on nuclear security.
The announcement comes despite the American President declaring nuclear weapons were the ‘greatest danger’ to U.S. people during in his State of the Union address on Wednesday.
Tobacco Firms Could Be Forced to Sell Cigarettes in Plain Packets
THE TELEGRAPH: Tobacco firms are set to be forced to sell cigarettes in plain, unbranded packets as the next step in the war on smoking.
Andy Burnham, the Health Secretary, will signal his support for the move as he launches the government's "tobacco control strategy" tomorrow which aims to halve the number of smokers in Britain by 2020.
In a major speech Mr Burnham will also pave the way for new "interventionist" policies aimed at stopping people smoking in their own homes or cars if they live with children.
However, he will stop short of planning an outright ban on domestic or in-car smoking – claiming this would be a move too far against freedom of choice.
Instead, ministers will consider banning the sale of cigarettes from vending machines, which they say currently provide far too easy access for children as they can be positioned near the entrances of pubs and clubs.
And the current ban on smoking in workplaces and "enclosed public places" such as pubs and workplaces could be extended to cover areas such as walkways and entrances to buildings, currently a favourite haunt of smokers exiled from inside.
Ministers will also announce a new crackdown on the import of cheap illicit cigarettes from abroad. >>> Patrick Hennessy, Political Editor | Saturday, January 30, 2010
Smokers to Face Doorway Ban in New Public Health Policy
THE GUARDIAN: Health secretary Andy Burnham keen to extend 2007 law / Plan to protect non-smokers and reduce UK smokers to 10%
Smokers could be forced to light up away from the entrances to public buildings under government moves aimed at ensuring that no more than one in 10 Britons smoke cigarettes.
The health secretary, Andy Burnham, now favours extending the 2007 landmark law which banned smoking in pubs, workplaces and other enclosed places, to prevent non-smokers having to walk through clouds of secondhand smoke.
The move comes as part of a wider attempt by Burnham to set out the case for state intervention to improve public health, insisting it does not amount to a nanny state. He will set out four principles where he says intervention is justified: where it protects the health of children, where a person's choice affects the choices of others, where barriers need to be removed to allow people to behave healthily, and where the environment can be shaped to offer healthier lifestyles.
Tomorrow's announcements will encourage cars and homes to remain smoke-free, but Burnham will stress that the state does not have a right to intervene in a private space, even to protect children. His department plans to "work with the public sector, business and the public to communicate the dangers of smoking in the home and the car".
Leading medical bodies such as the UK Faculty of Public Health back a legal ban on smoking in cars containing children, as does doctors' leader Professor Steve Field, who called it "a form of child abuse". But concern over what could be portrayed as an unwarranted interference in human rights is likely to limit any government action in advertising campaigns.
Burnham will also "carefully consider" the case for forcing all cigarettes to be stripped of their distinctive wrapping and sold instead in plain brown packets, in order to reduce their appeal. There will also be renewed action against black market tobacco, a ban on tobacco vending machines and extra NHS support for those who want to quit. >>> Denis Campbell and Patrick Wintour | Monday, February 01, 2010
Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake / Schwanensee
Ballet Company of Mariinsky Theater, St Petersburg – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker: Arabian Dance / Danse arabe / Arabischer Tanz
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Social Exclusion in Southern Yemen
Global Warming? You Can Blame America for That, Says Bin Laden
MAIL ONLINE: Osama bin Laden blamed the United States and other industrialised countries for causing global warming in an extraordinary message issued yesterday.
In a departure from his usual religious rants, the Al Qaeda leader lectured on the dangers of climate change, claiming the only solution was to 'bring the wheels of the American economy' to a halt.
Rather than vows to inflict death and destruction on the U.S. and its allies, the man behind the September 11 atrocity in New York discussed the environmental future of the planet and monetary policy.
'This is a message to the whole world about those who are causing climate change, whether deliberately or not, and what we should do about that,' he declared.
He blamed Western industrialised nations for hunger, causing flooding and the destruction of fertile ground across the globe.
And he warned solutions must be 'drastic' rather than 'partial'.
Although bin Laden has briefly referred to climate change and global warming in past messages, this fresh audiotape was his first dedicated to the topic.
The speech, which included almost no religious rhetoric, has been interpreted as an attempt by the terror leader to broaden the appeal of his message beyond Islamic militants.
'Talk about climate change is not an ideological luxury but a reality,' he said in the tape released to the Al Jazeera television network, adding: 'All of the industrialised countries, especially the big ones, bear responsibility.'
Bin Laden referred to the fact that while wealthy nations had agreed to the Kyoto Protocol that binds them to emissions targets, former U.S. President George Bush later rejected such limitations in deference to big business.
He called for a boycott of American products and the end of the U.S. dollar as a world currency. >>> Mail Foreign Service | Friday, January 29, 2010
Osama bin Laden Is a Global Warming Fighter?
Bin Laden Deplores Climate Change
AL JAZEERA ENGLISH: Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader, has condemned the US and other industrial economies, holding them responsible for the phenomenon of climate change.
In an audio tape obtained by Al Jazeera, bin Laden criticised George Bush, the former US president, for rejecting the Kyoto pact and condemned global corporations.
"This is a message to the whole world about those responsible for climate change and its repercussions - whether intentionally or unintentionally - and about the action we must take," bin Laden said.
"Speaking about climate change is not a matter of intellectual luxury - the phenomenon is an actual fact." >>> | Friday, January 29, 2010
Zwischen Gottesstaat und Demokratie
When Women Dressed as Ladies
La Malaisie se déchire au nom d'Allah
La semaine dernière, des extremists ont vandalisé l'église Sainte-Elizabeth dans la ville touristique de Kota Tinggi, dans l'État de Johor. Crédits photo : Le Figaro
LE FIGARO: Les actes de vandalisme contre les lieux de culte se multiplient et les relations entre musulmans et chrétiens s'enveniment.
Ils tendent leurs paumes vers un Christ auréolé de rose fluo et ils pleurent. De leurs prières, des mots s'échappent : «cocktail Molotov», «stupeur», «liberté religieuse menacée». La brume ne s'est pas encore dissipée sur les faubourgs de Kuala Lumpur, mais, dans l'église de l'Assomption, vandalisée il y a peu, les paroissiens sont venus nombreux pour évoquer la «querelle d'Allah».
La Malaisie est secouée par une vague de violences inédites contre ses églises. En quelques jours, onze lieux de culte ont été la cible d'attaques et de dégradations. Au départ de la polémique qui divise le pays : The Herald. Cet hebdomadaire catholique local revendique le droit d'user, pour désigner Dieu, du terme d'«Allah» dans son édition de langue malaise, destinée aux fidèles de l'île de Bornéo. À l'issue d'une longue bataille juridique, la Haute Cour de Kuala Lumpur a autorisé, le 30 décembre dernier, les non-musulmans à utiliser le nom «Allah» dans leurs écrits. Mais, face à la colère de groupes islamiques et aux pressions du gouvernement, qui a agité la menace de tensions interconfessionnelles, cette même cour a suspendu son autorisation le 6 janvier dans l'attente d'un jugement en appel. >>> Florence Compain, Envoyée spéciale du Figaro à Kuala Lumpur | Vendredi 29 Janvier 2010
Con Coughlin: Has the West Got the Will to Carry On Shedding Blood for Afghanistan?
THE TELEGRAPH: The strategy is finally right, but our resolve could be starting to waver, writes Con Coughlin.
It has taken the best part of a decade, and we have sacrificed an inordinate amount of blood and treasure in our ill-conceived and badly executed attempts to bring some stability to Afghanistan. However, it can now be said with confidence that we have the basis of a strategy for resolving the conflict.
But have we found the formula for resolving the country's ills too late? With no let-up in the death toll, do Britain, America and the other Nato states committed to rebuilding Afghanistan really have the willpower to see the job through? >>> Con Coughlin | Friday, January 29, 2010
If you were unable to listen to today's show live, you can listen to it here instead: >>> | Friday, January 29, 2010
Go to Work on an Egg!
TIMES ONLINE: Margaret Thatcher, who famously railed against Britain being fed a European “diet of Brussels”, made her ascent to power sustained by eggs — more than two dozen of them a week — and not much else.
Documents released fom the former Prime Minister’s archive today include an Economist diary for 1979, into which is tucked a single typewritten sheet reading: “Mayo Clinic Diet.” This told her to eat eggs for breakfast every day, for lunch Monday to Friday, and often for dinner too.
“Weight loss should be around 20lb in two weeks (!),” it added, warning her in capital letters not to stay on this regimen for any longer. She was, however, allowed to drink whisky “on days when no meat is eaten”. Other forms of alcohol are not mentioned, suggesting that this programme was customised for Mrs Thatcher, who had long since indulged in whisky mixed with water.
In places there are annotations in her own hand, showing how she varied a monotonous diet — which also included no fewer than ten grapefruit a week — with beef, salad or cucumber soup.
Modern-day nutritionists have reacted in horror to a regimen that they warned could cause “gastrointestinal side-effects”, namely wind, bad breath and constipation.
The Mayo Clinic, a renowned health group based in the US, swiftly condemned the diet as one of a number of quack cures that have circulated in recent years fraudulently using its name.
Dr Donald Hensrud, the clinic’s chief nutritionist, told The Times: “I would have told her to get off this diet immediately. It is a low-carb diet but very restrictive, no wholegrains, hardly any dairy. The more restrictive a diet, the more health problems there are. This is a potentially dangerous fad diet.” Thatcher went to work on an egg — and little else, archive reveals >>> Tom Baldwin | Saturday, January 30, 2010
Friday, January 29, 2010
Denmark to Curb, But Not Ban, Face-covering Veils
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: COPENHAGEN: The Government says face-covering Muslim veils do not belong in Danish society but no ban is needed because their use can be limited under existing rules.
The centre-right government said the burqa - an all-covering dress - and the niqab face veil were ''diametrically opposed'' to the country's values.
It called for the full use of rules that allow schools, as well as public and private employers, to demand that students, teachers and workers show their faces.
''The use of the burqa or niqab … deprives women of the right to interact in Danish society on an equal footing with men and women who do not wear [them],'' the Government said. >>> Associated Press | Saturday, January 30, 2010
Swedish Prime Minister (Frederik Reinfeldt): No Burqa Ban in Sweden
THE LOCAL (SWEDEN): Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said definitively on Thursday that he is against introducing legislation which would ban women from wearing burqas.
“No, that’s not something I want,” he told the TT news agency.
The clarification comes following a Wednesday night debate with Social Democratic leader Mona Sahlin on Sveriges Radio in which both offered their views on prohibiting burqas in Sweden.
A parliamentary commission in France recently used a public buildings and transport bill to proposed a law which would ban the wearing of head-to-toe veils in public.
During the debate, Sahlin clearly rejected the idea of a similar proposal in Sweden, while Reinfeldt expressed himself somewhat more cautiously, which led to questions as to where exactly he stands on the issue.
But on Thursday he attempted to clarify that he would not support a law banning burqas, which he said would be “counterproductive”.
“Legislation shouldn’t lead to certain women being isolated even more from Swedish society,” he said. >>> | Thursday, January 28, 2010
Egyptian Copts: The Fear and the Faith
French Authorities to Appeal Against Dominique De Villepin Acquittal
THE GUARDIAN: Justice officials seek retrial of former prime minister over Clearstream smear campaign against President Nicolas Sarkozy
French justice authorities will appeal against the judgment clearing the former prime minister Dominique de Villepin of involvement in a plot to smear President Nicolas Sarkozy, the Paris state prosecutor said today.
"I have decided to file an appeal against this decision," Jean-Claude Marin told Europe 1 radio. "Whatever happens, there will be a second trial."
A retrial would offer Sarkozy one last chance to see his loathed rival convicted of allegedly orchestrating the campaign against him.
De Villepin denounced what he called "a political decision" which showed "that Nicolas Sarkozy prefers to persevere in his fury, in his hatred".
De Villepin was cleared yesterday of all charges levied during the "Clearstream affair", leaving Sarkozy disappointed and humiliated. >>> Lizzy Davies in Paris and agencies | Friday, January 29, 2010
Johann Hari: This Corruption in Washington Is Smothering America's Future
THE INDEPENDENT: How do you regulate banks effectively, if the Senate is owned by Wall Street?
This week, a disaster hit the United States, and the after-shocks will be shaking and breaking global politics for years. It did not grab the same press attention as the fall of liberal Kennedy-licking Massachusetts to a pick-up truck Republican, or President Obama's first State of the Union address, or the possible break-up of Brangelina and their United Nations of adopted infants. But it took the single biggest problem dragging American politics towards brutality and dysfunction – and made it much, much worse. Yet it also showed the only path that Obama can now take to salvage his Presidency.
For more than a century, the US has slowly put some limits – too few, too feeble – on how much corporations can bribe, bully or intimidate politicians. On Tuesday, they were burned away in one whoosh. The Supreme Court ruled that corporations can suddenly run political adverts during an election campaign – and there is absolutely no limit on how many, or how much they can spend. So if you anger the investment bankers by supporting legislation to break up the too-big-to-fail banks, you will smack into a wall of 24/7 ads exposing your every flaw. If you displease oil companies by supporting legislation to deal with global warming, you will now be hit by a tsunami of advertising saying you are opposed to jobs and the American Way. If you rile the defence contractors by opposing the gargantuan war budget, you will face a smear-campaign calling you Soft on Terror.
Representative Alan Grayson says: "It basically institutionalises and legalises bribery on the largest scale imaginable. Corporations will now be able to reward the politicians that play ball with them – and beat to death the politicians that don't... You won't even hear any more about the Senator from Kansas. It'll be the Senator from General Electric or the Senator from Microsoft." >>> Johann Hari | Friday, January 29, 2010
Gay Rugby Star Hosts 'Coming Out' Party to Thank Friends
THE INDEPENDENT: Sport and stage stars turn out to show solidarity with Wales's 'role model' player
For one of the rugby world's more eloquent stars, the speech was surprisingly brief – but then Gareth Thomas has done a lot of talking in recent weeks. Just before Christmas he did the unthinkable and became the first professional player in Britain to admit he is gay. Last night was his chance to celebrate the announcement.
"Everybody here tonight is celebrating that the world is changing," he said. "We are here to send the message that it's OK to be a sportsman and it is also OK to be gay."
The venue was Movida, a glitzy London club with a bright pink bar and equally garish cocktails – not a very likely hangout for burly rugby players. But this was no post-match celebration, rather an opportunity to tell the world that the sport was longer a place in which gay players had to hide their sexuality. Last night, the former Welsh captain's friends and supporters joined Britain's gay glitterati for Thomas's official "coming out" party – a remarkable display of solidarity that many hope will signal the beginning of the end of homophobia in sport. >>> Jerome Taylor | Friday, January 29, 2010
The Prophet Muhammad Would Not Be Best Pleased! Eating Pork Is Good for Your Sex Life, Argentine President Claims
THE TELEGRAPH: Eating pork is at least as effective as popping a Viagra pill to spice up your romantic life, according to Argentine President Cristina Kirchner, who claims to have tested the theory.
Argentina's President Nestor Kirchner (L) listens to his wife, senator and presidential candidate Cristina Fernandez during a swearing-in ceremony of the new Economy Minister Photo: The Telegraph
"Pork consumption improves sexual activity," Mrs Kirchner informed a gathering of business people at a meeting at the presidential palace.
"This is not a small detail," she said at the gathering to announce a reduction in the price of pork.
"Besides, some nicely grilled pork is much more gratifying than taking Viagra." >>> | Thursday, January 28, 2010
Sarkozy Calls for Tolerance with Islam
DAILY NEWS (Sri Lanka): French President Nicolas Sarkozy called Tuesday for tolerance with French Muslims and highlighted the need to remain aloof from fratricidal fights due to old state anti-clericalism.
In a speech at the national cemetery Notre Dame de Lorette in Pas-de-Calais, in northern France, Sarkozy also expressed his opposition to the the burqa, the piece of clothing that covers a woman from head to foot.
“We could not bear practices that insult the French converted to the Islam”, pointed out the President in the cemetery, where the graves of Muslim soldiers were outraged three times in 2007.
He stressed that the principle of laicism in France does not mean rejecting religious beliefs and practices, but the opposite, it means tolerance and respect in concordance with civic-mindedness and peace. Sarkozy paid tribute to French Muslims soldiers dead in military missions, among them Marshal Harouna Dio, who died in Afghanistan last January 13. [Source: Daily News] | Thursday, January 28, 2010
ZEIT ONLINE: Aber einen Abzug aus Afghanistan kann es nur mit den Amerikanern geben. Deutschland darf sich nicht isolieren Weiter lessen und Video anschauen >>> Von Helmut Schmidt | Donnerstag, 28. Januar 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Rowan Williams Goes to Wall Street to Tell the Money Men to Repent
TIMES ONLINE: The whole world, and not just Britain, is broken, with continents such as Africa feeling forgotten and uncared for, the Archbishop of Canterbury said in the heart of New York’s financial district yesterday.
Any money men who might have happened in to Trinity Wall Street to shelter from the snow would have found a different sort of chill as Dr Rowan Williams delivered his lesson.
Standing at the lectern of the famously wealthy US Episcopal church, which lies at the head of Wall Street, the leader of the Anglican Communion condemned the “straw man” of self-interest.
His theme was that financiers, wordsmiths — in fact anyone in the Western world connected in any way with economic reality — should look at themselves in the mirror and repent.
Economic life had become independent of intelligent thought and “wildly irrational”, the Archbishop said. He condemned the “uncritical” way in which bankers and traders pursued wealth regardless of the consequences, selling expensive mortgages to the poor and repackaging them into complex products that few understood.
The “invention of more and more recondite metaphysical, unreal forms of wealth generation” existed, he said, simply to “produce noughts on the end of the balance sheet”.
Dr Williams, conscious that he was speaking close to a general election, echoed the social thought of the Roman Catholic Church when he added that society was founded on love, and there would be no sustainable model until this was recognised. >>> Ruth Gledhill and Alexandra Frean | Friday, January 29, 2010
US Grants Home Schooling German Family Political Asylum
THE GUARDIAN: Couple who fled to Tennessee fearing persecution for keeping their children out of school win first case of its kind in US
A US judge has granted political asylum to a German family who said they had fled the country to avoid persecution for home schooling their children.
In the first reported case of its kind, Tennessee immigration judge Lawrence Burman ruled that the family of seven have a legitimate fear of prosecution for their beliefs. Germany requires parents to enrol their children in school in most cases and has levied fines against those who educate their children at home.
Christians Uwe Romeike, a piano teacher, and his wife, Hannelore, moved to Morristown, Tennessee, in 2008 after German authorities fined them thousands of euros for keeping their children out of school and sent police to escort them to classes, Romeike said. They had been holding classes in their home.
Along with thousands of torture victims, political dissidents, members of religious minorities and other persecuted groups who win political asylum every year, the Romeike family will now be free to live and work in the US. The case does not create a legal precedent unless the US government appeals and a higher immigration court hears the case.
"Home schoolers in Germany are a particular social group, which is one of the protected grounds under the asylum law," said Mike Connelly, attorney for the Home School Legal Defence Association, who argued the case. "This judge looked at the evidence, he heard their testimony, and he felt that the way Germany is treating home schoolers is wrong. The rights being violated here are basic human rights." >>> Daniel Nasaw in Washington | Wednesday, January 27, 2010
J.D. Salinger, Reclusive Author of 'Catcher in the Rye', Dies
THE TELEGRAPH: 'Catcher in the Rye' author J.D. Salinger has died at age 91 at his home in New Hampshire.
The author's son, in a statement from the author's literary representative, says Salinger died of natural causes. He had lived for decades in self-imposed isolation in the small, remote house in Cornish, New Hampshire.
Salinger is best known for his coming-of-age novel 'The Catcher in the Rye' about rebellious teenager Holden Caulfield, which came out in 1951 during the time of anxious, Cold War conformity. >>> | Thursday, January 28, 2010
LE FIGARO: L'écrivain américain s'était retiré du monde en 1953 et n'avait pas publié depuis 45 ans. Il est mort mercredi à l'âge de 91 ans. Il reste un auteur mythique pour les adolescents du monde entier avec son roman L'Attrape-cœurs.
Cette fois, c'est pour de bon. J. D. Salinger avait déjà disparu en janvier 1953. L'auteur le plus célèbre des États-Unis prenait une retraite anticipée. Le succès de L'Attrape-cœurs (1951) l'avait transformé en légende vivante. Le héros, Holden Caulfield, était devenu l'idole des campus. L'écrivain est harcelé, considéré comme une diva. Cela pèse un peu trop sur ses épaules. « Disons que j'en ai plein le dos de lutter contre cet agrandissement de mon portrait au dos de la couverture du livre.»
Avant de se retirer à Cornish (New Hampshire), Salinger accorde un dernier entretien. La presse sera sa bête noire. Salinger fut très fort, de ce côté-là : aucun journaliste ne réussira à le coincer. Il y aura juste quelques photographies prises à la sauvette, au téléobjectif. On y voit un vieux monsieur furibard, qui brandit le poing contre ses agresseurs. Salinger était fait pour le secret. Son silence joua en sa faveur. Avoir écrit ce qu'il avait écrit et tirer la porte derrière soi, voilà la bonne méthode. Ce type était un objet de culte. Un groupe punk, The Wynona Riders, intitula un de ses albums J. D. Salinger. Don DeLillo s'est inspiré de son personnage dans Mao II . Son ombre flotte sur le rôle de Sean Connery dans le film de Gus Van Sant A la rencontre de Forrester. Mark Chapman, l'assassin de John Lennon, avait dans sa poche un exemplaire de L'Attrape-cœurs quand la police l'a arrêté. >>> Éric Neuhoff | Jeudi 28 Janvier 2010
The Gathering Storm Radio Show
Yours truly will be the guest on WC and Always On Watch’s excellent radio show tomorrow, Friday, January 29th at 3pm Eastern Time. (That’s 8pm UK time, and 9pm Central European Time.)
I hope you can join us.
The number to call with your questions is 1 646 915 9870. If you are calling from the UK or Europe, the number is 00 1 646 915 9870. Callers are welcome.
Nicolas Sarkozy Humiliated as de Villepin Cleared of Smear Charges
THE TELEGRAPH: Dominique de Villepin, the former French prime minister, was cleared on Thursday of charges that he plotted to smear his arch-rival Nicolas Sarkozy and scupper his campaign for the presidency in 2007.
Dominique de Villepin*. Photograph: The Telegraph
The verdict in the Clearstream case is a hammer blow to Mr Sarkozy, a civil plaintiff in the case whose enmity towards Mr de Villepin - an eloquent former diplomat - is legendary. The president reportedly told aides during the investigation: "When I shoot, it's to kill, not to wound." However, the acquittal has revived Mr de Villepin's political ambitions, turning him into a potentially dangerous fellow Right-wing contender for the presidency in 2012.
The Clearstream case centred on a bogus list of account holders at a financial clearing house in Luxembourg who allegedly took bribes from the sale of French warships to Taiwan.
The president, one of 39 plaintiffs, had reportedly promised to "hang on a butcher's hook" whoever had tried to discredit him by adding his name to the list and sending it to an investigating magistrate in 2004. At the time, he and Mr de Villepin were locked in a vicious battle to succeed the then president Jacques Chirac, under whom both had served as ministers. Mr Sarkozy went on to win the presidency while Mr de Villepin's political career remained in limbo following his order to stand trial.
One of five defendants, Mr de Villepin had faced a five-year prison term and 45,000-euro (£41,000) fine for complicity to slander, complicity to use forgeries, dealing in stolen property and breach of trust.
But in a 326-page ruling read out to a packed Paris courtroom, the judge on Thursday said while Mr Villepin had handled the bogus list, there was no firm proof that he knew it was falsified nor that he had sought to discredit Mr Sarkozy by having it sent to a judge. >>> Henry Samuel in Paris | Thursday, January 28, 2010
*Gel bronzant par Clinique, peut-être, M. de Villepin?
Photograph: Google Images
How Bush's Grandfather Helped Hitler's Rise to Power
THE GUARDIAN: Rumours of a link between the US first family and the Nazi war machine have circulated for decades. Now the Guardian can reveal how repercussions of events that culminated in action under the Trading with the Enemy Act are still being felt by today's president
George Bush's grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany.
The Guardian has obtained confirmation from newly discovered files in the US National Archives that a firm of which Prescott Bush was a director was involved with the financial architects of Nazism.
His business dealings, which continued until his company's assets were seized in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act, has led more than 60 years later to a civil action for damages being brought in Germany against the Bush family by two former slave labourers at Auschwitz and to a hum of pre-election controversy.
The evidence has also prompted one former US Nazi war crimes prosecutor to argue that the late senator's action should have been grounds for prosecution for giving aid and comfort to the enemy.
The debate over Prescott Bush's behaviour has been bubbling under the surface for some time. There has been a steady internet chatter about the "Bush/Nazi" connection, much of it inaccurate and unfair. But the new documents, many of which were only declassified last year, show that even after America had entered the war and when there was already significant information about the Nazis' plans and policies, he worked for and profited from companies closely involved with the very German businesses that financed Hitler's rise to power. It has also been suggested that the money he made from these dealings helped to establish the Bush family fortune and set up its political dynasty. >>> Ben Aris in Berlin and Duncan Campbell in Washington | Saturday, September 25, 2010
Painting: Google Images
Academics Fight Rise of Creationism at Universities
THE GUARDIAN: More students believe Darwin got it wrong / Royal Society challenges 'insidious problem'
A growing number of science students on British campuses and in sixth form colleges are challenging the theory of evolution and arguing that Darwin was wrong. Some are being failed in university exams because they quote sayings from the Bible or Qur'an as scientific fact and at one sixth form college in London most biology students are now thought to be creationists.
Earlier this month Muslim medical students in London distributed leaflets that dismissed Darwin's theories as false. Evangelical Christian students are also increasingly vocal in challenging the notion of evolution.
In the United States there is growing pressure to teach creationism or "intelligent design" in science classes, despite legal rulings against it. Now similar trends in this country have prompted the Royal Society, Britain's leading scientific academy, to confront the issue head on with a talk entitled Why Creationism is Wrong. The award-winning geneticist and author Steve Jones will deliver the lecture and challenge creationists, Christian and Islamic, to argue their case rationally at the society's event in April.
"There is an insidious and growing problem," said Professor Jones, of University College London. "It's a step back from rationality. They (the creationists) don't have a problem with science, they have a problem with argument. And irrationality is a very infectious disease as we see from the United States." >>> Duncan Campbell | Tuesday, February 21, 2006
The World's Most Surreal Landscapes
Salt flat near the crest of the Andes – Salar de Uyuni. Photograph: The Telegraph
THE TELEGRAPH: Blindingly white and dizzyingly high, this vast salt flat near the crest of the Andes could easily be mistaken for a Salvador Dali painting. Eerie and otherworldly, Salar de Uyuni holds intensely blue skies, red and green lagoons, pink flamingos, smoking volcanoes, giant cacti, hot springs and spitting geysers. Salar de Uyuni >>> | Thursday, January 28, 2010
Iranian Activists Hanged at Dawn
The protesters clashed with police and Islamist militiamen. Photograph: Times Online
This is just another manifestation of Islam’s credentials to be called the ‘religion of peace’! Geert Wilders in the Netherlands is on trial for highlighting its excesses and weaknesses of this self-same religion. And it is this self-same religion whose book, the Koran, in all its surahs (chapters) bar one, begin with the injunction, 'In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful'!
If Allah is so merciful and compassionate, I wish that Muslims would remember this when they pass sentence on hapless individuals who feel cheated by the repressive Islamic régimes they live under. If Muslims want Allah to show compassion and mercy on them, then maybe it’s time for them to show compassion and mercy on their brothers in Islam!
TIMES ONLINE: Two Iranians convicted of being "enemies of God" and trying to topple the Islamic regime were hanged at dawn today.
It was the first known execution of opposition activists since June's disputed presidential election prompted massive street protests - although the lawyer of one of the two men insisted that her client was arrested at least two months before the election and was not involved in any demonstrations.
The ISNA news agency said that Mohammad Reza Ali Zamani and Arash Rahmani Pour were "hanged on Thursday morning" after their sentences were confirmed by a Tehran appeals court, were hanged on Thursday morning”.
Both were convicted of being "Mohareb" - enemies of God - and of trying to overthrow the "Islamic establishment". They were also convicted of belonging to armed opposition groups.
Iran has tried more than 100 political activists and protesters since August. According to official media reports, five have been sentenced to death and more than 80 to prison terms ranging from six months to 15 years.
Reports today suggested that nine more had been sentenced to death in those trials and an appeals court is reviewing their cases.
Some of the latest nine death sentences were reportedly related to deadly clashes on December 27, when at least eight people were killed in the most violent day of protests since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed a resounding re-election win. >>> Philippe Naughton | Thursday, January 18, 2010
Douglas Murray – Geert Wilders: On Trial for Telling the Truth
THE TELEGRAPH – BLOG: There is nothing hyperbolic in stating that a trial which has just started in Holland will have unparalleled significance for the future of Europe. It is not just about whether our culture will survive, but whether we are even allowed to state the fact that it is being threatened.
The trial of Geert Wilders has garnered hardly any attention in the mainstream press here. Fortunately the blogosphere can correct some of this.
Wilders is a Dutch MP and leader of Holland’s fastest-growing party, the Party for Freedom. Just a few years ago he was the sole MP for his party. The latest polls show that his party could win the biggest number of seats of any party in Holland when the voters next go to the polls.
His stances have clearly chimed with the Dutch people. They include an end to the era of mass immigration, an end to cultural relativism, and an end to the perceived suborning of European values to Islamic ones. For saying this, and more, he has for many years had to live under round-the-clock security protection. Which you would have thought proves the point to some extent.
Now the latest attempt of the Dutch ruling class to keep Wilders from office has begun. Last week, apparently because of the number of complaints they have received (trial by vote anyone?) the trial of Wilders began.
The Dutch courts charge that Wilders ‘on multiple occasions, at least once, (each time) in public, orally, in writing or through images, intentionally offended a group of people, i.e. Muslims, based on their religion’.
I’m sorry? Whoa there, just a minute. The man’s on trial because he ‘offended a group of people’? I get offended by all sorts of people. I get offended by very fat people. I get offended by very thick people. I get offended by very sensitive people. I get offended by the crazy car-crash of vowels in Dutch verbs. But I don’t try to press charges.
Yet, crazily, this is exactly what is going on now in a Dutch courtroom. If found guilty of this Alice-in-Wonderland accusation of ‘offending a group of people’, Wilders faces up to two years in prison.
If anyone doubts the surreal nature of the proceedings now going on they should simply look through the summons which is available in an English translation here. It shows that Wilders is on trial for his film Fitna. And for various things he has said in articles and interviews in the Dutch press.
Now some people liked Fitna and some people didn’t. That’s a matter of choice. But by any previous interpretation it is not the job of courts in democratic countries to become film-critics. In fact it would create a very bad precedent. I thought the latest Alec Baldwin film stank. But I don’t think (though the temptation lingers) Baldwin should go to prison for it. Read on & comment here >>> Douglas Murray | Thursday, January 28, 2010
Kristallnacht (The Night Of Broken Glass): A Documentary
TIMES ONLINE: Britain is ready to contribute millions of pounds to a fund to buy off Taleban gunmen who are fighting British troops in southern Afghanistan.
More than 60 delegations, from Colombia to Australia, will gather in Lancaster House this morning to draw up an exit strategy from Afghanistan. Much of it is based on reintegrating the Taleban rank and file, wooing the Taleban leadership and gradually handing security to the Afghan Army and police.
The conference is expected to agree a $500 million (£310 million), five-year fund for President Karzai to “buy off” insurgents who are not ideologically committed to destroying the West.
Downing Street confirmed that Britain will make a contribution of a “few million”. Germany has agreed to $70 million over five years and the bulk of the money will come from the Japanese aid budget to Afghanistan, diplomats suggested.
In return, the Afghan leader will have to agree to international monitors to strengthen an anti-corruption campaign in his Government.
President Karzai, Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State and Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General, flew in yesterday for the talks, which will be chaired by David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary. >>> Sam Coates, Chief Political Correspondent, and James Bone in New York | Thursday, January 28, 2010
Malaysian Fury Over Pig Head Insult at Mosques
THE TELEGRAPH: Severed pig head[s] have been left at two Malaysian mosques in a development that threatens to inflame communal tensions amidst a row over the use of the word "Allah" by Christians.
It was the most serious incident to hit Islamic places of worship following vandalism and other assaults at 11 churches, a Sikh temple, a mosque and two Muslim prayer halls across the Muslim-majority country in the past three weeks. Pigs are considered unclean by Muslims.
The attacks followed outrage among Muslims over a court verdict that allowed non-Muslims to use "Allah" as a translation for "God" in the Malay language. Many Malaysian Muslims believe the word should be exclusive to their religion, and that its use by others could confuse some Muslims and even lure them to convert.
Several men who went to a suburban mosque to perform morning prayers Wednesday were shocked to discover two bloodied wild boar heads wrapped in plastic bags in the mosque compound, said Zulkifli Mohamad, the top official at the Sri Sentosa Mosque on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's largest city.
Two similarly severed heads were also found at the Taman Dato Harun Mosque in a nearby district. Wild boar are common in Malaysia's forests.
Government leaders denounced the incidents and pledged to track down the culprits.
"We are dead serious about this," Hishammuddin told a news conference. "We will bring them to justice." >>>The Telegraph’s Foreign Staff | Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Hermann Goering’s Great-niece: ‘I Had Myself Sterilised So I Could Not Pass on the Blood of a Monster’
MAIL ONLINE: Descendants of the leaders of the Nazi regime have spoken on camera for the first time about the feelings of pain and revulsion they have for their ancestors.
They include Bettina Goering, great niece of Adolf Hitler's second in command Hermann Goering, who says she has had herself sterilised so she would 'not pass on the blood of a monster'.
Adolf Eichmann's son Ricardo says he simply cannot find a way to explain why his father became the chief architect of the Holocaust.
While Hitler himself had no offspring, many others at the heart of the Reich had families and some of the children can remember being patted on the head by the Fuhrer.
One is Hitler's godson Niklas Frank, whose father Hans was Nazi governor of occupied Poland responsible for the death camps in which six million Jewish people were killed.
He says in the documentary Hitler's Children, by Israeli director Chanoch Zeevi, that he 'despises' his father's past and describes him as 'a slime-hole of a Hitler fanatic'.
The film also shows Monika Hertwig, daughter of Amon Goeth - the death camp commandant played in the movie Schindler's List by Ralph Fiennes --meeting a man who tells her how her father shot women and babies 'for sport'.
Zeevi said he found 'fascinating similarities' between the emotions of those related to Holocaust perpetrators and those of survivors, some of whom meet the children of their tormentors in the programme.
Frank lectures about his infamous father to young people in the former East Germany in a bid to prevent them from straying into the far-right scene that preys on the young unemployed and desperate.
'I have never managed in my life to get rid of the memory of him,' he said. 'I live with this deep shame about what he did.'
Bettina Goering lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she practices herbal medicine. 'Either side of me live Jewish neighbours,' she says, 'and they are always quarrelling. It's left to me to sort them out!'
Bettina told the programme both she and her brother were voluntarily sterilised. >>> Allan Hall | Thursday, January 21, 2010
Muslimischer Antisemitismus in Deutschland
Journal Interview: Charlotte Knobloch, Präsidentin Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland
Charlotte Knobloch: Antisemitismus an deutscher Schule
Mussolini Audio Is Italy’s No. 2 iPhone Application
BLOOMBERG.COM: A collection of speeches by fascist dictator Benito Mussolini is Italy’s second-most downloaded iPhone application on Holocaust Memorial Day.
The application, called iMussolini, is available on Apple’s online store for 79 euro cents ($1.11). It has been downloaded more than a video game based on the blockbuster film Avatar, according to Apple Inc.’s Italian iTunes store. A wallpaper application is the most downloaded item.
The Mussolini application makes 100 of the so-called Duce’s speeches available on the iPhone. Mussolini ruled Italy from 1922 until his death in 1945 at the end of World War II. His granddaughter, Alessandra Mussolini, is a politician and ally of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s government. >>> Flavia Krause-Jackson | Wednesday, January 27, 2010
The Holocaust in Color: Nazi Rising Terror and Concentration Camps
Dachau Concentration Camp – Liberation
Netanyahu at Auschwitz: World Must Unite to Confront New Threats
HAARETZ: Holocaust teaches that murderers must be stopped before they act, says PM in apparent reference to Iran.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told dignitaries gathered at the Auschwitz extermination camp on Wednesday that the world must learn from the Holocaust to unite against new threats.
In what was apparently a thinly veiled reference to Iran, Netanyahu called on the international community to come together to confront "impending dangers".
Israel believes Iran to be building a nuclear bomb and views the Islamic Republic as an existential threat. Iran insists its nuclear program is purely for civilian purposes.
"We must warn of the impending danger to the rest of the world and at the same time to be ready to defend ourselves," Netanyahu said. "The most important lesson from the Shoah is that murderous evil must be stopped as soon as possible, before it can realize its schemes."
"We the Jewish people learned the lesson [of the Holocaust] well after we lost one-third of our people," Netanyahu said, adding that a strong state of Israel with a powerful army was the only guarantee of preventing a second Holocaust.
"I pledge as prime minister that we will never let the hand of evil harm our people and our state, never again," he said.
Netanyahu added: "All enlightened nations must absorb this lesson," pledging that as the head of the state of he would not to allow a "new Amalek" to threaten again to destroy the Jewish nation - a reference to a biblical king who waged war against the Jews.
Earlier on Wednesday, Pope Benedict XVI recalled the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz, and event which revealed "the unprecedented cruelty," of the Nazi Holocaust.
The 82-year-old pontiff made the remarks in his native German during his weekly general audience.
"On 27 January 1945, the gates of the Nazi concentration camp near the Polish city of Oswiecim, better known by its German name of Auschwitz, were opened and the few survivors freed," Benedict said.
"That event, and the testimony of those who survived, revealed to the world the horror of the crimes of unprecedented cruelty committed in the extermination camps created by Nazi Germany," added the pope, who as a teenager - like most others at the time - had been a member of the Hitler Youth in the waning days of the war.
International Holocaust Remembrance Day which is being marked in several European nations, serves, according to Benedict, to recall "the planned annihilation of the Jews, and to honor those who, at the risk of their own lives, protected the persecuted and sought to oppose the murderous insanity." >>> Cnaan Liphshiz, Haaretz Correspondent, Haaretz Service, and News Agencies | Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Warnung vor Gleichgültigkeit: Mahnende Worte zum Holocaust-Gedenktag in Deutschland
«Der Mangel an Empathie, die Gleichgültigkeit gegenüber dem Schicksal des Anderen und die fehlende Bereitschaft, für die Werte einer demokratischen und toleranten Gesellschaft einzutreten, waren es, die dem verbrecherischen Hitler-Regime den Weg geebnet haben.» – Charlotte Knoblauch, die Präsidentin des Zentralrats der deutschen Juden
NZZ ONLINE: In Deutschland ist am Mittwoch der Holocaust-Gedenktag begangen worden. Während die Präsidentin des Zentralrats der deutschen Juden vor der Gleichgültigkeit warnte, sprach der israelische Präsident Peres von der Gefahr, die von Iran ausgehe.
Zum Holocaust-Gedenktag hat der Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland vor «Gleichgültigkeit gegenüber dem Schicksal des Anderen» gewarnt. «Es ist nicht hinnehmbar, dass Rechtsextremisten 65 Jahre nach dem Ende der nationalsozialistischen Schreckensherrschaft braunes Gedankengut verbreiten», monierte Präsidentin Charlotte Knobloch am Mittwoch. Sie versuchten, mit perfiden Strategien die Demokratie zu unterwandern. >>> ddp | Mittwoch, 27. Januar 2010
Avertissement de l'antisémitisme! Avertissement du fascisme! Cimetière juif profané à Strasbourg
TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: TRISTE ANNIVERSAIRE | Dix-huit tombes du cimetière juif du quartier Cronenbourg de Strasbourg ont été marquées de croix gammées, vraisemblablement la nuit dernière, annoncent le Conseil représentatif des institutions juives de France (Crif) et la police.
"Le cimetière juif de Cronenbourg a été profané, 18 stèles ont été taguées avec une croix gammée inscrite en couleur brune et 13 ont été renversées", a déclaré Patrick Roussel, commissaire principal de la Sûreté départementale du Bas-Rhin (est).
Laurent Schmoll, président de la communauté israélite de Strasbourg, a ajouté que l’inscription "Juden Raus" (Les Juifs dehors) avait également été relevée sur une tombe. >>> AFP | Mercredi 27 Janvier 2010
'We Are Not Really Germans': New Study Looks at Challenges Faced by Germany's Muslims
Many women in Germany who wear the headscarf say they experience barriers to employment, according to a new survey published by the Open Society Institute. Photograph: Spiegel Online International
SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: It's no secret that many immigrants have a hard time in Germany. A new study has found that women wearing headscarves have a particularly hard time on the job market and a quarter of those with Turkish backgrounds face discrimination when looking for work.
It is early afternoon at Internet Treffpunkt, a convenience store in Kreuzberg, a neighborhood in Berlin that is home to many Turks and other minorities. Hedi Dashti, the store's proprietor, is busy. One customer hands over her parcel to send through his DHL counter. Another customer buys cigarettes. The door swings open, ushering in the blustery winter wind, and a third customer waves hello.
Dashti -- an immigrant from Iraq who fled to Germany 20 years ago with his family -- speaks to customers in English, German and his mother tongue, Kurdish. He has adjusted to life in Germany and made German friends, while also maintaining his religious identity: Dashti is a practicing Muslim, abstains from eating pork and observes Friday prayers.
And despite occasionally feeling like an outsider, he really wishes he had German citizenship. ''We are not really Germans, but Germany is our country,'' Dashti said.
It is a dilemma shared by many of Germany's approximately four million Muslims. And a new survey supports the widespread feeling of dislocation that many of them feel. >>> Sheila Lalwani in Berlin | Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Requiem for the Pain: 65 Years After Auschwitz Horror
L'hommage du monde aux victimes d'Auschwitz
L'entrée du camp. Auschwitz-Birkenau, seul camp d'extermination à avoir conservé des traces tangibles de la Shoah, est aujourd'hui très abîmé par le temps. Crédits photo : Le Figaro
LE FIGARO: Des dirigeants d'une vingtaine de pays commémorent la libération du camp, il y a 65 ans.
Une centaine d'anciens prisonniers - contre deux mille il y a cinq ans - participent ce mercredi au 65e anniversaire de la libération d'Auschwitz-Birkenau. Dans quelques années, les derniers témoins de l'Holocauste auront disparu. Sans eux, quelle mémoire en garderons-nous ? À quoi sert le Musée d'Auschwitz, puisque d'autres génocides ont montré qu'il avait échoué dans sa mission de prévention ? Comment donc enseigner Auschwitz à des générations qui n'ont ou n'auront plus de lien direct avec cette tragédie ? C'est sur ces questions que les ministres de l'Éducation des pays membres de l'Union européenne, réunis exceptionnellement à Auschwitz, sont invités à plancher ce mercredi matin, en marge des cérémonies officielles auxquelles assisteront le président et le premier ministre polonais, Lech Kaczynski et Donald Tusk, le chef du gouvernement israélien Benyamin Nétanyahou et les délégués d'une vingtaine de pays. En l'absence du ministre de l'Éducation Luc Chatel, la France est représentée par le secrétaire d'État à la Défense Hubert Falco, accompagné de Simone Weil, de l'historien Serge Klarsfeld, de parlementaires et d'une trentaine de lycéens. >>> D’envoyée spéciale du Figaro à Auschwitz, Arielle Thedrel | Mardi 26 Janvier 2010
Julian Kossoff – Holocaust Memorial Day: Pieces of a Puzzle
Photograph: The Telegraph
THE TELEGRAPH – BLOG: I have spent the last week wondering how to mark Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) on my blog and have failed to come up with a coherent idea. It’s a subject that plays tricks with the psyche.
So please excuse me if I just spill some ideas out on the page, pieces of my unfinished Shoah jigsaw.
- Holocaust Memorial Day is commemorated internationally on 27th January each year. This date was chosen as it is the anniversary of the day in 1945 on which the Soviet Army liberated the largest Nazi concentration camp.
HMD aims to raise awareness and understanding of the events of the Holocaust and subsequent genocides as a continuing issue for all humanity, based on a recognition that it could happen again anywhere and at any time, unless we ensure that our society opposes discrimination, persecution and racism.
- If you have the opportunity, go to Auschwitz. It’s the great anti-wonder of the world. Part pilgrimage, part journey to the heart of darkness: apocalypse then. Wander its tombs, its mansions of horror.
There is the ‘room of hair’, great rotting mounds of the stuff, shaved from the 1.1m heads.
Another door opens on a pile of human spare parts. A grotesque, twisted sculpture of wooden legs, prosethic arms, trusses, metal hands, neck braces, rusting callipers, clunking fists – all hinges and brackets – that the crematoria could not devour.
There is the ‘playroom’, no nursery rhymes just ghost stories, no sweet dreams just nightmares. It stores the toys of all the ‘lost boys and girls.’
There among the broken animals and forgotten battalions tin soldiers sit forlorn teddy bears, last cuddled by tiny arms in a stinking cattle truck heading east one freezing night, while glassy eyed dollies stare into the abyss waiting for ‘mummy’ who will never return. >>> Julian Kossoff | Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Auch Italien will Gesichtsschleier verbieten
DIE PRESSE: "Burka ist kein religiöses Symbol", sagt Italiens Frauenministerin Mara Carfagna. Muslimen solle die Staatsbürgerschaft verweigert werden, wenn sie ihre Frauen zwingen, einen Schleier zu tragen.
Nach französischem Beispiel wird jetzt auch in Italien über ein Verbot des Ganzkörperschleiers für muslimische Frauen diskutiert. Die italienische Frauenministerin Mara Carfagna sprach sich für eine Revision des in Italien geltenden Vermummungsverbots aus, wonach man sich in Italien in der Öffentlichkeit nicht so stark verschleiern darf, dass das Gesicht nicht mehr zu erkennen ist.
"Man muss in das Gesetz auch ein ausdrückliches Verbot einführen, den Gesichtsschleier zu tragen, der nur Sehschlitze für die Augen offen lässt (Niqab; Anmerkung) oder diese sogar noch mit einem Gitter verdeckt (Burka; Anmerkung). Das Justizsystem hat sie in den Jahren legitimiert, weil sie mit der Religion zusammenhängen", sagte die Ministerin im Interview mit der Turiner Tageszeitung "La Stampa" am Mittwoch.
"Nur so kann es Integration geben"
Laut der Ministerin sollte man Muslimen die italienische Staatsbürgerschaft verweigern, wenn sie ihre Frauen zwingen, den Gesichtsschleier zu tragen. "Nur so kann es wahre Integration geben", meinte Carfagna. Die Burka sei kein religiöses Symbol, wie auch die geistlichen Führer des Islam anerkannt hätten, sondern "ein Akt der Unterdrückung der Männer gegenüber der Frau". "Auf diese Weise will man Frauen lebenslang unmündig halten. Den Gesichtsschleier zu verbieten, heißt die jungen Migrantinnen von den Ghettos zu befreien, in denen man sie halten will", erklärte Carfagna. >>> APA/Red. | Mittwoch, 27. Januar 2010
Steven Spielberg's Message for Yad Vashem's Visual Center
Prime Minister Netanyahu at Yad Vashem: International Holocaust Remembrance Day
Peres at Bundestag: Never Again
YNET NEWS: In historic speech to German parliament on International Holocaust Day, Israeli president addresses dangers of past and future, focusing on Iranian nuclear program. ' No more ignoring blood-thirsty dictators hiding behind masks of demagogy and voicing slogans of murder,' he says, stressing that 'peace is needed to prevent another Holocaust'
President Shimon Peres delivered a historic speech to members of the German parliament in Berlin on Wednesday afternoon on the occasion of International Holocaust Day, 65 years after the end of World War II.
"No more ignoring blood-thirsty dictators hiding behind masks of demagogy and voicing slogans of murder. They are a threat to the entire world," Peres stressed.
The German parliament heard a translation of the speech, which was carried out in Hebrew. Peres said the Kadish prayer in honor of the Holocaust victims, which include his grandparents, who were burned alive in their town's synagogue.
"In the State of Israel and across the world, Holocaust survivors are slowly retiring from the world of the living. Their number is reduced every day. At the same time, those who were involved in the most despicable work on earth – genocide – are still living on German soil. Please do all you can to bring them to justice," Peres said.
The president referred to his memories from his hometown of Belarus when it was conquered by the Nazis, as well as to his grandfather's image, which has left a great mark on him to this very day. He went on to speak about the establishment of the State of Israel, saying that if the "delay in its establishment" had been prevented, the Holocaust could have been prevented as well.
"As an Israeli, I lament the tragic delay in the establishment of the Jewish state, which left my people without a haven of rest. I cannot accept the loss of a million and a half children – the biggest human and creative potential which could have changed Israel's fate. I am proud about Israel's revival, which is the moral and historic response to the attempt to wipe the Jewish people off the face of the earth," the president said.
Peres went on to direct his words at Iran. "We are now left with the crucial lesson: Never again. No more racist doctrine, no more feelings of superiority, no more so-called divine authority to incite, murder, break the law, deny God and the Shoah." >>> Roni Sofer | Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Grande-Bretagne : L’islam inquiète les Britanniques
LE TEMPS: Une étude révèle l’hostilité de la population à l’égard des musulmans. Le modèle multiculturel chancelle
Longtemps admiré pour ses capacités d’intégration de différentes communautés ethniques, culturelles et religieuses, le modèle multiculturel britannique est en train de chanceler. Selon l’enquête annuelle British Social Attitudes Survey, publiée mardi par le National Centre for Social Research, un centre de recherche indépendant, près de la moitié des Britanniques estiment qu’il a échoué. En effet, pour 45% d’entre eux, le pluralisme religieux a causé du tort au pays; 52% pensent que la religion est un facteur de division majeur dans le pays. L’islam est la religion qui suscite le plus de préoccupations. Seuls 23% des Britanniques ont des sentiments positifs à l’égard des musulmans, alors que 34% expriment une opinion hostile; 55% s’opposeraient à la construction d’une grande mosquée dans leur voisinage.
Selon David Voas, professeur spécialisé dans l’étude des populations à l’Université de Manchester, et coauteur du chapitre de l’enquête consacré à la religion, l’islam est perçu comme une «menace pour la cohésion sociale» et «l’identité nationale». Dans l’analyse des résultats de l’enquête qu’il a livrée pour le DailyTelegraph, il cite la «taille et la visibilité» des communautés islamiques comme des facteurs de préoccupation pour la société britannique. En conséquent, une majorité de la population se dit favorable à une limitation de la liberté d’expression. L’enquête constate une grande suspicion à l’égard des personnes qui expriment des points de vue très religieux et une large réticence envers l’intrusion des questions de religion dans la sphère publique.
Ces inquiétudes commencent à être prises au sérieux par les autorités britanniques. A la mi-janvier, le gouvernement a interdit un groupe islamiste radical, Islam4UK. Celui-ci projetait d’organiser une manifestation à Wootton Bassett, une ville située non loin de Londres, où sont rendus les hommages aux soldats tués en Afghanistan. >>> Patricia Briel | Mercredi 27 Janvier 2010
