Ayaan Hirsi Ali to Receive German Publishing Award
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is to receive an award from the German publishing house Axel Springer for “her courage and commitment to freedom as a women’s rights campaigner and critic of Islam.” She will be awarded the prize of €25,000 in Berlin on Thursday. » | Source: The Washington Post and Associated Press | Thursday, May 10, 2012

Merkel Honors Mohammad Cartoonist
YNET NEWS: German chancellor praises Dane who drew controversial Mohammad cartoon five years ago

German Chancellor Angela Merkel paid tribute to freedom of speech on Wednesday at a ceremony for a Dane whose cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad provoked Muslim protests that led to 50 deaths five years ago.


Merkel, who grew up in Communist East Germany, recalled her joy over the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

"Freedom for me personally is the happiest experience of my life," Merkel, 56, said at the conference on press freedom in Potsdam near Berlin. "Even 21 years after the Berlin Wall fell the force of freedom stirs me more than anything else."

She called press freedom a "precious commodity."

Honored at the event was Kurt Westergaard, who drew the most controversial of 12 cartoons of Mohammad which angered Muslims worldwide after appearing in a Danish paper in 2005. He thanked Merkel and the organizers for his award.

"We are living a good life despite all the threats," said Westergaard, 75. He added the publication of the cartoons had been out of respect for the Muslim community and that it was an act of inclusion, not exclusion.

Most Muslims consider any depiction of the founder of Islam to be offensive, and Westergaard's cartoon portrayed Mohammad with a turban resembling a bomb. At least 50 people died in riots by enraged Muslims in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. >>> Reuters | Thursday, September 09, 2010

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Bloggers of the World

First of all, I should like to thank Always On Watch for nominating me for the prestigious award of ‘Bloggers of the World’. I appreciate this accolade greatly. Again, thank you. It is an honour indeed.

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Thinking Blogger Award

Last Friday, I received word from my good friend Mustang at SocialSense that he had very kindly nominated my weblog for the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’.

First of all, I should like to thank him for nominating my weblog, and me. I appreciate it very much. It is an honour indeed.

There are many good blogs on the blogosphere, so it has been difficult for me to choose between them. After much hard thinking, however, I have come up with the following blogspots which, in my opinion, deserve this award. I have tried to span the spectrum. These are the ones I have chosen, in alphabetical order:

Gates of Vienna
Judah’s Journal
Michelle Malkin
Pedestrian Infidel
Wolfgang Bruno

If you accept the award, please follow these guidelines:

The rules of participation include:


For those nominees who wish to participate, pass the rules to the blogs you are tagging They include:

1. Write a post with links to five (5) blogs that make you think.

2. Link to this post so that others can locate the origin of the meme – the blogger who holds you in high regard.

3. Optional: Display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote.

Sincerely

Mark Alexander