EU Judge Gives Jean-Claude Juncker the 'Key Task' of Defeating Euroscepticism

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Your mission is to defeat Eurosceptics, the EU's most senior judge tells the president of the European Commission

Europe’s most senior judge has told Jean-Claude Juncker that his political mission is to prevent Eurosceptics from trampling on “the fruits of European integration”.

Vassilios Skouris, the president of the Court of Justice, Europe’s highest judicial body, made the extraordinary comments in a ceremony aimed at upholding the political independence of the European Commission.

He instructed Mr Juncker that his “key task” was to prevent the critics of the European Union from reducing the powers of institutions such as the Luxembourg court he oversees, or the commission in Brussels.

“I would like to say a few words about your mission,” Mr Skouris said.

“You are taking up office during the worst financial and economic crisis that Europe has suffered at a time when the European ideal is beset by criticism from Eurosceptic circles. Thus your key task is to prevent the fruits of European integration being trampled in the dust.” » | Bruno Waterfield, Brussels | Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Isil Terrorists Throw Man Off Roof 'For Being Gay'

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Pictures of the murder posted on jihadist website provide further evidence of Islamic State's reign of terror in Syria and northern Iraq

Isil terrorists have released pictures of themselves throwing a man off a roof for allegedly being gay.

The murder took place in an area of northern Iraq controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).

Nine armed insurgents, their faces concealed by black balaclavas, are shown gathered on the roof of a three-storey building, while their victim plummets to the ground below. » | Telegraph’s Foreign Staff | Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Deutschland wacht auf. Wir sind das Volk! - PEGIDA

Friedlich und vereint gegen die Islamisierung und Verfremdung unserer Heimat! Für den Erhalt unserer Kultur, unserer Werte und für den Schutz unserer Familien.

Wir distanzieren uns von Gewalt und jeglicher Art von Extremismus.

British Christianity: Churches Decline While Islam Grows; Is America Next?

CHRISTIAN POST – OPINION: Gov. Mike Huckabee recently retraced the steps of Pope John Paul II, Margaret Thatcher, and Ronald Reagan with a group of ministers and faith leaders. After touring Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and the Churchill War Rooms, he remarked that both Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill were heavily criticized and often dismissed yet they remained steadfast to name and fight evil.

"During two periods of massive global change," Huckabee argued, "if these world leaders had been ambiguous about evil the world would be quite different."

For Churchill, evil was Nazism and fascism. In 1936 he said of Stanley Baldwin's government, "They go on, in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent."

For Thatcher, evil was socialism and communism. She said, "I am in politics because of the conflict between good and evil, and I believe that in the end good will triumph.

"And what a prize we have to fight for: no less than the chance to banish from our land the dark divisive clouds of Marxist socialism." Ronald Reagan alone stood with her, as the only world leader to call the Soviet Union what it was: "the Evil Empire."

Why did they fight, despite their opponents' incessant impotence, ignorance, and impudence?

According to Huckabee, they fully understood what evil is: "Evil creates oppression and takes from the human soul that which is most like God—because freedom, creativity, and joy all come from God. And when a government devalues human beings, it sins against God."

They also knew what is good. Thatcher said, "We want a society where people are free to make choices, to make mistakes, to be generous and compassionate. This is what we mean by a moral society; not a society where the state is responsible for everything, and no one is responsible for the state." » | Bethany Blankley | CP Op-Ed Contributor | Tuesday, December 09, 2014

David Cameron: I Still Want Turkey to Join EU, Despite Migrant Fears

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The Prime Minister says a European Union without Turkey is 'not stronger but weaker'

David Cameron has said that he still “very much supports” Turkey joining the European Union, despite his Government's inability to control numbers of EU migrants coming to the UK.

The Prime Minister was quizzed about his support for Turkey’s accession to the EU during a visit to Turkey to meet the country’s Prime Minister and President.

Mr Cameron said he had discussed Turkey’s accession to the EU during talks in Ankara on Tuesday afternoon with Ahmet Davutoglu, the Turkish Prime Minister.

The visit was his first since 2010 when he told the Turks the backed the country’s goal of joining the EU. He said then that he wanted to “make the case” for Turkey’s EU membership.

Asked if he still felt that way despite his Government’s inability to control inward migration from EU countries and bring net migration down to the tens of thousands of people, he said that he had discussed it again with Turkish Prime Minister.

He said: “In terms of Turkish membership of the EU, I very much support that.

“That’s a longstanding position of British foreign policy which I support. We discussed that again in our talks today”.

In a speech at the Turkish parliament in Ankara in July 2010, Mr Cameron said: “I’m here to make the case for Turkey's membership of the EU. And to fight for it.” » | Christopher Hope, Ankara, Turkey | Tuesday, December 09, 2014

Pegida: Patriotische Europäer gegen Islamisierung

Begleitet von Gegenprotesten sind in Dresden erneut rund 1.700 Menschen gegen eine von ihnen befürchtete Islamisierung auf die Straße gegangen. Es war bereits die fünfte Kundgebung des sogenannten Pegida-Bündnisses, "Patriotische Europäer gegen Islamisierung des Abendlandes", in der Elbestadt in Folge.

«Hass in Deutschland wird salonfähiger»

20 MINUTEN: Demos gegen Flüchtlingsheime, Proteste gegen eine angebliche Islamisierung Deutschlands, Randale von Hooligans und Rechten. Experten warnen vor gefährlichen Entwicklungen.

Was ist los in Deutschland? In Dresden versammeln sich seit Wochen selbst ernannte Patrioten zu Montagsdemonstrationen und protestieren gegen alles Mögliche: gegen angeblichen Asylmissbrauch, muslimische Extremisten, eine Verwässerung der deutschen Kultur und die vermeintliche «Islamisierung des Abendlandes».

Anfangs waren es ein paar Hundert Leute, nun sind es jede Woche mehrere Tausend. Und inzwischen gibt es in vielen anderen Städten Ableger der Dresdner Bewegung, bei der sich auch Neonazis, Hooligans und bekennende Islamfeinde unter das Bürgertum mischen.

Es mehren sich rechtsextreme Übergriffe auf Asylbewerberheime und Proteste gegen neue Flüchtlingsunterkünfte. Auch der Gewaltausbruch eines Mobs von Hooligans und Rechten in Köln vor einigen Wochen – im Namen des Kampfes gegen Salafisten – sorgt noch immer für Ratlosigkeit. Rechtsextremismus-Experten beobachten die Entwicklung mit Sorge und fürchten, dass sich etwas zusammenbraut im Land. » | sda | Montag, 08. Dezember 2014

Aufmarsch in Dresden: 10.000 Islamfeinde bei Pegida-Demo

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Das rechte Bündnis "Patriotische Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes" zieht immer mehr Anhänger an. An einer Kundgebung in Dresden nahmen 10.000 Personen teil, offenbar kam es zu Zusammenstößen mit Gegendemonstranten.

Dresden - Anhänger wie Gegner des rechtspopulistischen Bündnisses "Pegida" haben am Montagabend in Dresden Tausende Menschen mobilisiert: 10.000 Demonstranten nahmen nach Polizeiangaben auf der Seite der "Patriotischen Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes" (Pegida) teil - so viele wie noch nie. An den Gegenprotesten, zu denen unter anderem Kirchen und das Islamische Zentrum aufgerufen hatten, beteiligten sich 9000 Menschen.

Wie der MDR berichtet, kam es im Verlauf des Abends zu kleineren Auseinandersetzungen, bei denen von beiden Seiten Feuerwerkskörper flogen. Ein Pegida-Unterstützer sei festgenommen worden. Weitere Zwischenfälle wurden zunächst nicht bekannt. Die Polizei war mit 1200 Beamten aus mehreren Bundesländern im Einsatz. » | eth/dpa/AP | Montag, 08. Dezember 2014

PEGIDA »

Geert Wilders Defends ‘Fewer Moroccans’ Chant, Quotes Martin Luther King

DUTCHNEWS.nl: PVV leader Geert Wilders is sticking by his ‘fewer Moroccan’ statements made earlier this year, the anti-Islam campaigner said in a statement on Monday.

‘I am not taking back a single word I said,’ Wilders said in the statement he gave to police investigating claims he incited racial hatred.

Wilders was interviewed on Monday morning on the orders of the public prosecution department. The department said in October Wilders is ‘suspected of having insulted a population group with respect to their race and of incitement to discrimination and hatred’. Read on and comment » | Monday, December 08, 2014

Germans Take to the Streets to Protest against 'Islamisation'

Participants hold up their mobile phones and wave a German
national flag during a demonstration called by anti-immigration
group PEGIDA in Dresden

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Anti-immigrant protests claim to want to preserve Judeo-Christian culture as critics accuse it of harbouring neo-Nazi elements

A new type of anti-immigration protest is sweeping across Germany, as thousands take to the streets against what they say is the growing “Islamisation” of the country.

The new protests, which began in the city of Dresden in the former East Germany, feature no neo-Nazi slogans and have nothing to do with the traditional far right.

Instead the demonstrators have adopted the old rallying call of the protests against the East German communist regime that brought down the Berlin Wall 25 years ago, “Wir sind das Volk”, or “We are the people”. They say they want to preserve Germany’s Judeo-Christian Western culture.

The protests come as Bavaria’s ruling Christian Social Union (CSU) is seeking to distance itself from a draft proposal for its party conference which said that immigrants should speak German not only in public, but at home as well.

Germany is now the second most popular destination in the world for migrants, after the US, and the country is struggling to cope with an unprecedented influx of asylum-seekers.

While Angela Merkel’s government has made clear it will block any attempt by David Cameron to curtail freedom of movement within the EU, the German debate over immigration has focused on those coming from outside the bloc, and on Muslims in particular. » | Justin Huggler, Berlin | Monday, December 08, 2014

DEUTSCHE WELLE: Dresden, Dusseldorf prepare for PEGIDA anti-Islamist protests: Right-wing groups have organized protests with less politically extreme citizens to voice their concern over what they see as the Islamization of Europe. Counter demonstrations, however, are expected to be bigger. » | Monday, December 08, 2014

Recep Tayyip Erdogan Vows to Impose 'Arabic' Ottoman Lessons in Schools

Recep Tayyip Erdogan is planning to make Arabic-alphabet
Ottoman language compulsory in high schools

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Turkish premier wants to reintroduce the language of the old empire, comparing its abolition to cutting Turkey's "jugular"

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed to make lessons in the Arabic-alphabet Ottoman language compulsory in high schools -- a highly symbolic move which enraged secularists who claim he is persuing [sic] an increasingly Islamist agenda.

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, abolished the Ottoman language in 1928, replacing its Arabic alphabet with a Latin one.

He also purged the language of many of its Arabic, Persian and Greek words to create a new "pure" Turkish closer to the language people spoke.

Critics claimed Erdogan's vow to reintroduce teaching of the language "no matter what they say" was another bid to roll back Ataturk's secular reforms, which were based on a strict separation between religion and state.

Turkey's National Education Council, largely made up of members backed by Erdogan's Islamic-rooted government, voted over the weekend to make classes compulsory at religious high schools and an option at regular high schools.

The council also voted to ban bartending classes at tourism training high schools. » | AFP | Monday, December 08, 2014

Protests Erupt over British Decision to Open Military Base in Bahrain

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Human rights groups say Britain is being rewarded by the Gulf state's monarchy for its silence over political jailings

Britain’s decision to open a major naval base in Bahrain despite concerns over the country’s human rights record has been met with protests by opposition groups and human rights activists.

Hundreds of protesters were filmed marching through the town of Sitra, a Shia opposition stronghold, calling for the removal of the British ambassador, Iain Lindsay, after the decision was announced.

Activists said Bahrain’s decision to largely fund the base was a “reward” for Britain’s recent silence over the jailing of opponents to the Sunni monarchy.

International groups also objected to the decision. “As Bahrain pursues brutal crackdown, what better time for UK to build military base there?” said Kenneth Roth, Human Rights Watch’s executive director. » | Richard Spencer, Manama | Sunday, December 07, 2014

Im Netz der Salafisten: Islam in Deutschland | ARD Doku 2014

Suisse : Fribourg: réunion du Conseil central islamique interdite

Islam Strikes in Warsaw

Arabien: Die Barbaren sind unter uns

Eine ägyptische Musikerin bei einer traditionellen
Aufführung in Kairo

ZEIT ONLINE: Die arabische Zivilisation ist zusammengebrochen. Zu meinen Lebzeiten wird sie nicht mehr auf die Beine kommen.

Mit seiner Entscheidung, militärisch gegen die Extremisten des "Islamischen Staates" (IS) vorzugehen, begibt sich der US-Präsident Barack Obama mitten in das Chaos einer Zivilisation, die zusammengebrochen ist. Denn die arabische Zivilisation, wie wir sie einmal kannten, gibt es nicht mehr. Die arabische Welt von heute ist so gewalttätig, so instabil, so fragmentiert und so sehr von Extremismus getrieben – Extremismus sowohl von Herrschern als auch von Oppositionellen – wie noch nie seit dem Ende des Osmanischen Reiches vor hundert Jahren.

Alle Hoffnungen der modernen arabischen Geschichte sind enttäuscht worden. Politische Mitwirkung, die Wiederherstellung der Menschenwürde – die Versprechen aus der Blütezeit der arabischen Aufstände sind verweht. Zurückgeblieben sind Bürgerkriege, ethnische, konfessionelle und regionale Konflikte sowie die Wiederkehr eines militaristischen Absolutismus. Nur die antiquierten Monarchien und Emirate am Golf sowie möglicherweise Tunesien widerstehen vorläufig noch den Fluten. Ansonsten existiert in der arabischen Welt von heute keine Legitimität mehr. Und abgesehen von den Amerikanern und den Staaten des Westens, ist niemand mehr da, der den Schlamassel aufräumen könnte, den wir Araber angerichtet haben. » | Ein Gastbeitrag für Zeit Online von Hisham Melhem | Samstag, 06. Dezember 2014

Japon : Un quotidien s'excuse pour une publicité antisémite

TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: Le journal avait fait la promotion des livres d'un écrivain antisémite. Celui-ci prétend que les Juifs sont derrière le tsunami de 2011.

Un quotidien conservateur japonais a présenté ce samedi 6 décembre ses excuses pour avoir publié une publicité pour les livres d'un écrivain qui prétend que les Juifs sont derrière le séisme et le tsunami qui ont provoqué une catastrophe au Japon en 2011.

La publicité en question a été publié le 26 novembre dans une édition régionale du Sankei Shimbun, un quotidien national. Elle concernait les oeuvres de Richard Koshimizu, activiste et prétendu journaliste qui soutient également que les Juifs sont responsables des attentats terroristes du 11 septembre 2001 aux Etats-Unis. » | afp/Newsnet | samedi 06 décembre 2014

«Les chrétiens sont en train d'être chassés du Moyen-Orient»

TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: Le pape François a dénoncé l'exil forcé des chrétiens «chassés du Moyen-orient», dans une allocution vidéo qui doit être diffusée samedi 6 décembre au soir à Erbil dans le nord irakien.

Le pape François a abordé les difficultés rencontrées par les chrétiens du Moyen-Orient dans une séquence vidéo, à l'occasion d'une visite du cardinal Philippe Barbarin au Kurdistan irakien, où des dizaines de milliers de membres de la minorité chrétienne ont trouvé refuge après l'offensive du groupe djihadiste, sunnite Etat islamique.

«Les chrétiens sont en train d'être chassés du Moyen-orient, dans la souffrance», s'est ému le souverain pontife qui a pointé la responsabilité de l'EI, sans toutefois nommer ce groupe qui s'est emparé de larges pans de territoire en Irak comme en Syrie voisine, selon le texte de la déclaration reçu par l'AFP. » | afp/Newsnet | samedi 06 décembre 2014

Kuwaiti Cleric Tareq Al-Suwaidan: Our Struggle with the Sons of Zion Pertains to Our Very Existence, Requires Jihad

Jordanian MP: I Hate the Jews, I Hate the Jews, I Hate the Jews. They Are Worthy of Hatred