Thursday, January 22, 2015
Jindal: Some Muslims Want to 'Colonize' West
WASHINGTON (CNN) - Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on Wednesday stood by his controversial comments about "no go zones" in European cities, insisting that some Muslim immigrants are trying to "colonize" European cities and "overtake the culture."
And the United States could be next, warned Jindal, a Republican who is considering a 2016 presidential run.
"They may be second, third, fourth generation, they don't consider themselves part of that country. They're actually going in there to colonize, to overtake the culture," Jindal said. "If people don't want to come here to integrate and assimilate, what they're really trying to do is ... overturn our culture." » | Author: Jeremy Diamond CNN | Thursday, January 22, 2015
German Anti-Islam Movement Suffers Blow With Loss of Central Figure
BERLIN—Germany’s swelling anti-Islam movement suffered the biggest blow in its four-month existence Wednesday with the resignation of one of its central figures after photos of him posing as Hitler surfaced along with derogatory remarks he had made regarding refugees.
Lutz Bachmann, co-founder of the European Patriots against the Islamization of the Occident, told The Wall Street Journal that he would resign from the board of the group, known by its German acronym Pegida.
He said his decision was a result of the online comments, which were published by the German branch of the Anonymous hacker collective. They included screenshots of a private Facebook chat in which Mr. Bachmann called asylum-seekers “scumbags,” “animals” and “trash.”
In a written statement released by Pegida, he apologized “to all citizens who feel attacked by my postings.” He added: “I am sorry that I’ve damaged the interests of our movement and am drawing the consequences.” Read on and comment » | Andrea Thomas | Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Ayatollah Urges Western Youth to Examine Islam
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| Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks at a public gathering at his residence in Tehran, Jan. 7, 2015. |
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei has appealed to youth in North America and Europe to seek out their own understanding of Islam and ignore prejudice in the media.
In the letter published on his Twitter account Wednesday night, Khamenei said he was addressing Western youth because “the future of your nations and countries will be in your hands.” » | Naina Bajekal | Thursday, January 22, 2015
Top US Academic: 'Let Me Be Lashed Instead Of Saudi Blogger'
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| Academics who have volunteered to take the lashes for Raif Badawi, clockwise from top left: Richard P George, Hannah Rosenthal, Mary Ann Glendon and Zuhdi Jasser |
A group of top American intellectuals have volunteered to "take" the 1,000 lash sentence imposed by the Saudi government on a prominent liberal blogger.
In a remarkable intervention on behalf of Raif Badawi, who received the sentence for insulting his country's hardline Islamic clerics, seven US academics have agreed to take the flogging for him.
The move, which follows widespread international outrage at the sentence, is being led by Robert P George, a leading professor at Princeton University and vice-chairman of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.
In an email to The Christian Post newspaper, Professor George said: "Together with six colleagues on the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, I sent a letter to the Saudi Ambassador to the US calling on the Saudi government to stop the horrific torture of Raif Badawi — an advocate of religious freedom and freedom of expression in the Saudi Kingdom."
"If the Saudi government refuses, we each asked to take 100 of Mr. Badawi's lashes so that we could suffer with him. The seven of us include Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives, Christians, Jews, and a Muslim." » | Colin Freeman, Chief foreign correspondent | Thursday, January 22, 2015
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
What Is Salafism and Should We Be Worried by It?
In the days after the attacks on Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket in Paris, attention has focused on the rise of Salafism in Europe.
Salafism is described as "the fastest-growing Islamic movement in Europe" by Soren Kern of the New York Daily News. He accuses European leaders of failing to confront the rise of a dangerous ideology on their own turf.
Germany's intelligence chief, Hans-George Maassen, says the number of active Salafists in his country has grown from 3,800 to 6,300 in three years, according to Deutsche Welle.
Maassen says that most recruits are men aged from 18 to 30, with families from migrant backgrounds who have struggled to adjust to their new home. Salafism provides them with a sense of belonging and purpose, he said, "giving the impression that they will go from being underdogs to top dogs".
What is Salfism?
Salafis are fundamentalists who believe in a return to the original ways of Islam. The word 'Salafi' comes from the Arabic phrase, 'as-salaf as-saliheen', which refers to the first three generations of Muslims (starting with the Companions of the Prophet), otherwise known as the Pious Predecessors. » | Monday, January 19, 2015
Muslims in Fear: Anti-Islamist Sentiments Rise by 110% in France
The National Observatory Against Islamophobia said over one hundred incidents have been reported to the police since the terrorist attacks of January 7-9. Three French Islamists killed 17 people during their shooting spree. The human rights group says there have been 28 attacks on places of worship and 88 threats have been made, as reported by AFP.
The rise in attacks over the last two weeks represents an increase of 110 percent over the whole of January 2014, the organization said on Monday. » | Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Pegida-Demonstration: Wenige Tausend Legida-Anhänger versammelt
Leipzig gleicht seit Stunden einer Festung: Die Polizei ist mit einem Großaufgebot in der Stadt, Läden haben geschlossen, Straßen wurden gesperrt, Hubschrauber kreisen über der Stadt. Rund 4.000 Polizisten aus ganz Deutschland sind im Einsatz, darunter etwa 1.000 Bundespolizisten. Sie haben bis zu 100.000 Teilnehmer bei der Legida-Demonstration und den 19 Gegenveranstaltungen erwartet.
In der Stadt ist kaum ein Durchkommen, vereinzelt ist es bereits zu Zusammenstößen zwischen Legida-Anhängern und Gegendemonstranten gekommen. Offenbar weil mehrere Zugänge zur Legida-Demonstration blockiert sind, versuchen deren Anhänger auf anderen Wegen zu ihrer Veranstaltung zu gelangen. Der Auftakt der Legida-Kundgebung auf dem Augustusplatz begann etwas verspätet gegen 18:45 Uhr, nur wenige tausend Menschen waren bis dahin auf dem Platz versammelt. Sie skandierten "Wir sind das Volk". » | Quelle: ZeitOnline, dpa, AFP, sk | Mittwoch, 21. Januar 2015
Germany Pegida: Protest Leader Quits in 'Hitler' Row
Mr Bachmann stepped down just as tens of thousands of people were expected to rally in the eastern city of Leipzig for the latest Pegida rally.
Prosecutors are investigating insulting comments about refugees attributed to him by German newspapers.
A Pegida spokeswoman sought to play down the Facebook photo as a "joke".
But the German government condemned the photo. Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel told Bild: "Anyone in politics who poses as Hitler is either a total idiot or a Nazi. Reasonable people do not follow idiots, and decent people don't follow Nazis." » | Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Hate Attacks on Jews Soared 94% Last Year, Police Figures Show
The number of hate crimes against Jews nearly doubled last year, according to latest police statistics.
Figures from the Metropolitan Police, released amid growing concern over anti-Semitic attacks in the wake of the Paris terrorist atrocities, showed there were 297 hate crimes against Jewish people in the year to August.
The figure was up from 153 in the previous 12 months, a rise of 94 per cent.
In the same period the number of anti-Muslim hate crimes in the capital dipped slightly from 518 to 495 last year, a four per cent fall.
Last week police announced they were stepping up patrols in areas with large Jewish populations. » | David Barrett, Home Affairs Correspondent | Wednesday, January 21, 2015
John Boehner Invites Netanyahu to Congress on Iran
The move is seen as a rebuke to President Barack Obama's threat to veto any additional sanctions on the country during his State of the Union address.
The White House has said it believes new sanctions will be harmful to negotiations on its nuclear programme.
Mr Boehner also criticised the president's other proposals, including a tax hike for the rich.
He confirmed on Wednesday he had invited Mr Netanyahu to speak to Congress "on the grave threats radical Islam and Iran pose to our security and way of life".
The Speaker accused Mr Obama of "papering over" the threat of both militant Islamic groups and Iran's nuclear programme in his speech. Congree in Netanyahu snub to Obama » | Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Kampf gegen Islamismus: Le Pen will Grenzkontrollen wieder einführen
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| Die Vorsitzende des Front National, Marine Le Pen, macht die EU für die Schwäche Frankreichs in der Bekämpfung mitverantwortlich. |
Marine Le Pen hat der französischen Regierung, namentlich Außenminister Laurent Fabius, vorgeworfen, auch nach den Anschlägen in Paris die Augen vor der Realität zu verschließen und die Probleme Frankreichs nicht beim Namen zu nennen. Die Vorsitzende des Front National schreibt in einem Gastbeitrag für die New York Times, anstatt die Terroristen als „Islamisten“ zu bezeichnen und ihre Organisation, den Islamischen Staat, offen zu nennen, wage Fabius es nur, von „Mördern„ oder „Daesh-Mördern“ zu sprechen („Daesh“ beziehungsweise „Da’ish“ entspricht den Anfangsbuchstaben der alten Bezeichnung ISIS im Arabischen: ad-Dawlah al-Islāmīyah fī al-’Irāq wash-Shām). Den Grund hierfür sieht Le Pen in der Angst, die Begriffe Islam und Islamismus zu vermischen. » | Susanne Kusicke | Montag, 19. Januar 2015
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Rich Lowry: Of Course It Is Islam
Consider that on the one hand, you have the chilling new tape of the Charlie Hebdo attackers declaring, "We have avenged the Prophet Muhammad," and on the other, you have the tortured assurances of White House spokesman Josh Earnest. Which are you going to believe?
The Obama administration's mind-bogglingly determined refusal to say that we are at war with "radical Islam," together with the left's evasions about Islamic terrorism, means that there has been a haze of euphemism around what should be a galvanizing event in the West's fight against terror.
In the aftermath of the attack, Howard Dean opined on "Morning Joe" that the Muslims who had killed the staff of Charlie Hebdo aren't Muslims. Not usually known as a leading Orientalist, the former Vermont governor shared his interpretation of one of the world's leading Islamic terror groups: "I think ISIS is a cult. Not an Islamic cult. I think it's a cult."
Dean didn't specify what kind of cult ISIS is, if not Islamic. Or what otherwise accounts for its strange obsession with taking over territory in Syria and Iraq to establish a caliphate and to impose a harsh version of Islamic law. » | Rich Lowry | Monday, January 19, 2015
‘Anti-Islamization’ Demos Spread in Europe as PEGIDA Voices Agenda
Initially based in Dresden, the self-styled "Patriotic Europeans Against Islamization of the West" (PEGIDA) is spreading its weekly ‘night strolls’ into other European countries. In Copenhagen, the Danish PEGIDA branch staged its inaugural rally on Monday. » | Tuesday, January 20, 2015
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