Sarrazin Strikes Again: German Author Says Berlin Is Hostage to Holocaust in Euro Crisis

SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Germany is Europe's paymaster because it committed the Holocaust, claims a new book by Thilo Sarrazin, a firebrand author and former board member of the German central bank. The claim by the controversial writer achieved the desired effect of stoking publicity for Tuesday's launch of 'Europe Doesn't Need the Euro.'

Thilo Sarrazin, the former board member of Germany's central bank who caused outrage two years ago with a bestseller criticizing the impact of Muslim immigrants on German society, presented a new book on Tuesday that could strike a similar chord with Germans: "Europe Doesn't Need the Euro."

In his latest work, the combative politician, a maverick member of the opposition center-left Social Democratic Party, controversially argues that Germany is being pressured to bail out the euro zone because it perpetrated the Holocaust.

Sarrazin writes that supporters of euro bonds in Germany "are driven by that very German reflex, that we can only finally atone for the Holocaust and World War II when we have put all our interests and money into European hands," according to excerpts published in German media ahead of the book launch. » | cro | Tuesday, May 22, 2012

No God But God: Malaysia's "Allah" Controversy
FOREIGN AFFAIRS: Summary: The political trends behind Malaysia's recent "Allah" controversy could undermine the delicate sociocultural balance in one of the Muslim world's most developed nations.

Last December, the Malaysian High Court ruled that the Herald, a weekly Catholic magazine, was allowed to use the Arabic word "Allah" to refer to God in its Malay-language section. The decision overturned a government ban on non-Muslim use of the term and was met with protests in Kuala Lumpur's central mosque and decried online in numerous Malay Muslim chat rooms. In the days following the announcement, arsonists set fire to as many as eight churches around the country. Subsequently, several Muslim prayer halls were also attacked.

The arson attacks have caused a round of soul-searching among Malaysians, who are fond of celebrating their country's rich religious and racial diversity but who have seen its politics become increasingly sectarian in recent decades. Left unaddressed, these trends could undermine the delicate sociocultural balance in one of the Muslim world's most developed nations and deal a fatal blow to Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak's goal of national unity.

For many Muslims in the region, Christian use of the word "Allah" is relatively unproblematic. Jesus, who lived six centuries before Islam was founded, would most likely have used a similar Aramaic word, "Alah," in reference to God. In fact, the Arabic word "Allah" shares the same root as the Aramaic "Alah" as well as the Hebrew "Elohim." It is derived from two words, namely "Al," meaning "the" and "Elah" meaning God. In this sense, it can be argued that "Allah," "Elohim," and "Alah" or "Elah" are closely linked.

Today, the word "Allah" is used by Muslims and many Christians alike. When the Coptic Christians in Egypt celebrate their Christmas Mass, for example, their pope begins his sermon with the phrase "Bismillah" (in the name of God) and uses the word "Allah" throughout. In Southeast Asia, Catholics and Protestants use the term "Allah"; Indonesian Christians have sung prayers to Allah at every Easter and Christmas celebration since the arrival of Christianity on those islands a millennium ago.

The term is as important to Arab and Southeast Asian Christians as it is to Muslims because it stands for the notion of a singular, universal God. "Allah" literally means "the God," denoting a singular deity. This is particularly significant for Christians in Malaysia, who have been reluctant use the Malay "Tuhan," because the word does not have a monotheistic connotation. It even has a plural form, "Tuhan-tuhan," which is understood as "gods." >>> Joseph Chinyong Liow* | Wednesday, February 10, 2010

*JOSEPH CHINYONG LIOW is Associate Dean and Associate Professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He is author of Piety and Politics: Islamism in Contemporary Malaysia.

Vatican Controversy Spreads to the Netherlands
NRC HANDELSBLAD: The controversial rehabilitation of a Holocaust-denying bishop by pope Benedict XVI is arousing strong reactions in the Netherlands. A theologist is leaving the church and the minister of foreign affairs is getting involved.

Roman Catholic bishop Ad van Luyn of Rotterdam has said that the pope's decision to rehabilitate renegade British bishop Richard Williamson is "disastrous". Speaking on public television, Van Luyn said that Williamson's denial of the Holocaust and its gas chambers are "shocking, totally a-historic, and at odds with the second Vatican Council [the 1962-65 church reform - see below*]". Williamson has claimed that the Nazis did not kill six million Jews, but 300,000 at most.

Following his opposition to modernising the Roman Catholic church, bishop Williamson was excommunicated in 1988, together with three other traditionalist bishops who had turned against reforms. The pope reinstated the four conservatives last week, as part of his stated ambition to reunite all forms of Christian worship under the umbrella of Rome.

A professor of theology and ethics at the Roman Catholic Radboud University in Nijmegen is leaving the church over the issue. Professor Jean-Pierre Wils told Radio Netherlands Worldwide, "For many years it has been known that Williamson and the other three traditionalists are anti-Semites. The pope must have known about this. Only now are people beginning to see what is really happening in the Vatican. People were idolising the pope over the past few years without asking themselves what his political ambitions were. These are political actions, it's not just a theological problem. It is important that political consequences are drawn from this." >>> By Rob Kievit for Radio Netherlands Worldwide | Monday, February 2, 2009

*Traditionalists and the Roman Catholic church

The four bishops whose excommunications were remitted by pope Benedict XVI are Richard Williamson, Bernard Fellay, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, and Alfonso del Gallareta. They are the leaders of a schismatic society, the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) inspired by the late archbishop Marcel Lefebvre of Switzerland. Lefebvre, who died in 1991, founded the SSPX in 1970. It is named after pope Pius X, who firmly opposed modernism in the church.

The society rejects the Second Vatican Council of 1962-1965 which decided, among other things, that neither today's Jews nor the Jews of the time of Christ were all responsible for the death of Christ. The council also revised the liturgy, lifting some of the restrictions of the traditional Latin mass. Finally, the council aimed for pan-Christian unity (ecumenism) without requiring the conversion of non-Catholic Christians.

Traditionalists view the changes ordained by the Second Vatican Council as contrary to the interests of the church, and want to roll them back.

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback & Hardback – The Netherlands) >>>