Flag courtesy of Google Images
I would like to take this opportunity to wish all our American visitors a very happy Independence Day.Mark Alexander
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
PUTRAJAYA: Islam has a higher status than other faiths in Malaysia, said a lawyer holding a watching brief for the Malaysian Muslim Lawyers Association. Islam has higher status in MalaysiaMark Alexander
Anti-terrorist police are tackling an "accelerating" number of plots by violent Muslim Jihadi extremists, according to Britain's most senior counter-terrorism officer.Mark Alexander
Scotland Yard anti-terrorism branch is involved in an "unprecedented" 70 investigations, Peter Clarke the head of the Metropolitan Police Anti-Terrorist Branch and national co-ordinator for anti-terrorist investigations, warned yesterday. More than 60 people are facing trial on terrorist allegations. Two-thirds of those have been charged since last July.
In one of the most sombre and detailed statements yet on the threat to Britain from Islamic extremist terrorists, Mr Clarke, who is heading the inquiry into last year's July 7 bombings said the intelligence picture includes some "sinister" threats. "There are some 60 individuals awaiting trial in the UK for terrorist-related offences. This is unprecedented and the flow of new cases shows no sign of abating - if anything it is accelerating," he said. Terror plots accelerating, warns police chief by John Steele
Monday, July 03, 2006
In the anguished weeks of debate and foreboding that followed the London bombings last July, dire predictions were made. British Muslims would become the targets of widespread intimidation and hate campaigns as the backlash against extremism took hold. Young British Muslims, it was said, would become further alienated from mainstream society, retreating into a paranoid world of conspiracy theories and religious fanaticism. The community would run into growing hostility and discrimination as perceptions of them as a Fifth Column closed opportunities and people’s minds. They would become isolated and embittered.Mark Alexander
The predictions were wrong. British society, and London in particular, rose above crude revenge. Politicians, faith groups and ordinary citizens reached out to the Muslim mainstream in support, sharing their bewilderment and supporting them in the painful selfexamination of why their faith had bred such violence. There were some isolated hate crimes, but no general spiral into communal violence and entrenched hostility. Islam in Britain
The hostility towards Islam that is experienced in European countries started to emerge when the Soviet Union dissolved and the Warsaw Pact countries regained their independence. In those years the enemy concept of Communism and Marxism vanished and people who were in need to find a new enemy concept started looking at the 1.2 billion Muslims living in 57 countries. And certain Islamist organizations gave reasons for this approach. Islam phobia by Faruk ŞenMark Alexander
Sunday, July 02, 2006
British Jihad group declares 'Israel is cancer, Islam is answer,' calls on followers to carry out holy war by Yaakov LappinMark Alexander
Radical Muslims in Britain have blasted Hamas for failing to carry out a "real" Islamic holy war, and have called for a Jihad against Israel following the recent escalation of the Israeli – Palestinian conflict in the Gaza Strip.
A number of British-based Muslim organizations have in recent days called on followers to wage war on Israel.
"What the Jews are doing in Palestine today will no doubt disturb any true Muslim," a statement authored by 'Abdul Aziz al-Dimashqi' said on the website of the Saved Sect group.
"However, what hurts us equally as much is to see the Muslims in Palestine calling for an independent Palestinian state, Palestinian constitutions, man-made law, democracy, freedom and so on. Hamas… have no intention of establishing the sharia (Islamic code), and are only concerned with having their own nationalistic state," the statement said. UK Islamists: Make Jihad on Israel
UK jihadists attack 'religion of soccer,' warn Muslims against taking part in 'colonial crusader scheme' by Yaakov LappinMark Alexander
A British jihadist website has warned Muslims against being drawn in to what they described as "the new religion of soccer."
The Saved Sect website, which calls on Muslims to work to establish an Islamic state in Britain, has attacked "football fever," saying that soccer has "captivated the masses, dedicating their time and effort towards it."
Comparing the allegiance of soccer fans to Islam and jihad, the organization said: "Football is the deen (religion) by which people live their lives by and are willing to die for. Their jihad is to fight against those who are arch rivals against their team. Their da'wah (call, invitation) is to publicize, defend and justify their team, inviting others to support them in this." Jihadist site: Soccer is against Islam
'We recognise the positive contributions immigration makes to the country and the economy," the Prime Minister's official spokesman said last week. "If we don't have migration, we don't have the growth from the economy that we all benefit from."Mark Alexander
He was responding to some concerns about the rate of immigration raised by Frank Field, the Labour MP for Birkenhead - but Downing Street's claim that "if we don't have immigration, we won't have economic growth" has been stated over and over again since Labour took office in 1997.
If you repeat something often enough, you can perhaps make people believe it. What you cannot do is turn it from being false into being true. And the Government's claim about the economic benefits of immigration is false. As an academic economist, I have examined many serious studies that have analysed the economic effects of immigration.
There is no evidence from any of them that large-scale immigration generates large-scale economic benefits for the existing population as a whole. On the contrary, all the research suggests that the benefits are either close to zero, or negative. Never have we seen immigration on this scale: we just can't cope by Robert Rowthorn
Saturday, July 01, 2006
In a brief, interesting and to-the-point letter published in the Galveston Daily News today, all our leaders really need to know:
The events in Florida in which the FBI arrested several followers of the “religion of peace” for conspiring to do America harm caused many to ask: Why would our own citizens want to do harm to America? Islam, Not Terrorism, Is Our Real National EnemyMark Alexander
Photo courtesy of the BBC
A new recording from al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden has been posted on an Islamist website.Mark Alexander
He praised Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq killed three weeks ago, as a "lion of holy war".
The video, lasting 19 minutes, shows a still picture of Bin Laden, and moving pictures of al-Zarqawi.
Unnamed US officials said the recording was authentic. It is the fourth audio message Bin Laden has released since the start of this year.
However, no new video images of the al-Qaeda leader have appeared since October 2004.
Last week a video was broadcast purportedly showing the deputy leader of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahri, in which he paid tribute to Zarqawi and said his death would be avenged. New Bin Laden message is released
Friday, June 30, 2006
Incidents of Islamophobia are on the rise following the arrest of 17 Toronto-area men and boys on terrorism charges, Ontario human rights commissioner Barbara Hall says. Islam attacks risingMark Alexander
MISSISSAUGA — When it came time to write up the premarital agreement between Zakaria Amara and Nada Farooq, Ms. Farooq briefly considered adding a clause that would allow her to ask for a divorce.Mark Alexander
She said that Mr. Amara (now accused of being a leader of the alleged terror plot that led to the arrests of 17 Muslim men early this month) had to aspire to take part in jihad.
"[And] if he ever refuses a clear opportunity to leave for jihad, then i want the choice of divorce," she wrote in one of more than 6,000 Internet postings uncovered by The Globe and Mail.
Wives of four of the central figures arrested last month were among the most active on the website, sharing, among other things, their passion for holy war, disgust at virtually every aspect of non-Muslim society and a hatred of Canada. The posts were made on personal blogs belonging to both Mr. Amara and Ms. Farooq, as well as a semi-private forum founded by Ms. Farooq where dozens of teens in the Meadowvale Secondary School area chatted. The vast majority of the posts were made over a period of about 20 months, mostly in 2004, and the majority of those were made by the group's female members. Hateful chatter behind the veil
The Netherlands was without a government last night after the ruling coalition split over the behaviour of its immigration minister towards a prominent Somali-born Dutch MP.Mark Alexander
Moves by the immigration minister Rita Verdonk to strip Ayaan Hirsi Ali of her Dutch citizenship and a successful legal campaign to evict her from her apartment resulted in international outrage against the Netherlands. It also touched off a political firestorm at a time when anti-immigrant sentiment is at a peak.
Last night, Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, who only hours earlier was vowing to hold on, announced that he will tender the resignation of the Government to Queen Beatrix. The Government's smallest coalition member, D66, withdrew support from the coalition over Ms Verdonk's policies. Mr Balkenende's announcement ended 36 hours of political drama and came moments after three ministers quit the Cabinet following a vote earlier in the day by the D66 party in a no-confidence motion against the Government . Dutch government falls in row over MPs passport by Leonard Doyle, Foreign Editor for The Independent
Children play a game called "opposite day." Whatever someone says is taken to mean the opposite. Some Supreme Court justices have apparently never grown out of their appreciation of this game, to judge by their ruling in the Hamdan case involving military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay.Mark Alexander
Last year, Congress (you might have heard of it — it writes the nation's laws) passed a bill signed into law by the president of the United States (he also should be familiar — the nation's commander in chief). It said that "no court, justice or judge" shall have the jurisdiction to consider habeas corpus applications of detainees at Gitmo. It would take a legal escape artist on par with David Blaine to wiggle out of that one, but, sure enough, five Supreme Court justices were up to the task.
The Supreme Court has an important role in our constitutional scheme, but it is not fit to, nor was it ever meant to, render fundamental judgments about matters of war and peace. For that we have the elected branches, primarily the executive, which has the flexibility and the focus to prosecute wars. But today's court knows no bounds. The Supreme Court at War by Rich Lowry for the Jewish World Review
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Islam supercedes nationality," says media mogul Rupert Murdoch. "You have to be careful about Muslims who have a very strong, in many ways a fine but very strong religion, which supercedes any sense of nationalism wherever they go," he told Channel Nine. Mr Murdoch was present at a function in Sydney that described him as the most influential Australian of all times.Mark Alexander
It was indeed a bold remark from the media baron, considering the fact that mainstream media is sickeningly "secular". Is this an indicator of things to come? The Western media showed guts, even if misplaced, by republishing the cartoons of Prophet Mohammed in various newspapers across Europe, Israel, Australia and New Zealand. According to confidential sources, Prophet Mohammed's cartoons were republished across newspapers to preempt a reaction from the Islamic world.
The Western intelligentsia is increasingly becoming aware of the danger that West (along with rest of the world) faces from Islam. Niall Fergusson and Mark Steyn anticipate civil war (like French riots last October) taking place in European cities as Muslim demography burgeons and European population senesces. European demography will be ill-prepared to meet an Islamic challenge in, say, 2020. Can Islam be democratic? By Balbir K Punj
Then there's my own essay which first appeared on Saturday, November 12, 2006, on this very topic:
"Until 9/11, the western world was largely ignorant of the religion of Islam, of its goals, of its aspirations. Indeed, even since 9/11, most people, and that includes our politicians, would not score very highly in a test of their knowledge on the subject. It should be obvious to all thinking people that our politicians are actually unaware, dare I say blind, to the dangers that Islam will increasingly cause us. It is truly a case of the blind leading the blind! That means to say, uninformed and unthinking politicians leading an ill-informed electorate. But folks, this is what we have right now. The same can hardly be said of Muslims in the Islamic world, though; for their knowledge of Christianity far surpasses - even though much of their knowledge is quite distorted - any knowledge of Islam by the man in the street in the West." - ©Mark AlexanderIslam: The Enemy of Democracy and Freedom
As with every apologist for Islam, Aboo Mohammed totally obfuscates the real issue facing Islam today, which is certainly not whether Mohammed wrote the Quran. Such a fool's enigma is a non-issue at present. If it be true that Mohammed did not write the Quran, this in no way exculpates the religion of Islam from both its atrocious past and its contradictory present-- contradictory in that its most passionate defenders constantly refer to Islam as "the religion of peace."Mark Alexander
The real issue for Islam today, even since its conception , whose apologists indelicately aggrandize their claims to the realms of metaphysical truth by making reference to the Torah of Jewish people; Islam, whose theological germinations and hadiths were made efficacious through enervating the Jews, Judaism, more precisely, the Torah of the Jews; the real issue for Islam is the horrendous and bloody manifestations of this religion emanating from among those Muslim masses who have faithfully and traditionally adhered to its tenets. In light of such obvious imperfections, regardless of who actually wrote the Quran, whether Mohammed or his god, one prodigious detail remains clear to many thinking people in the Western world: wherever Islam sets its expansionist gaze, there also will be found, inevitably, anti-Jewish hatred, intermingled with intolerance of the non-Muslim, which, predictably, translates into Islam's irrevocable tradition of violence and bloodshed. To deter from this, Islam's shameful reality, to equivocate in the slightest, is to construct a sort of intellectual epidermis, a covering if you will, for the preservation of the animal Islam, a beast which has been grandiloquently appellated as "the religion of peace." Poetry it is not, and I find it difficult to comprehend how such an aggregation of primative hatreds could ever be interpreted as such. Apologist for Islam (Written by Michael Devolin)
I think this audio clip about what's supposed to be going on in Britain's Muslim community is worth listening to. I wonder what you think of it.
From the New Statesman
Mark Alexander
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Three years ago, I [Melanie Phillips] wrote a proposal for a book about the alarming resurgence of anti-Jewish feeling in Britain, the way this had been taken up by the left and the fact that this was undermining Britain’s ability to defend itself against global Islamist terrorism. My literary agent thought it was good stuff and sent it round. Every publishing house said no.Mark Alexander
I was taken aside by a senior editor at a big-name imprint who was well-disposed towards me. ‘Drop it’, he said. ‘No British publisher will touch this’. Why? Because it defended Israel, already well on the way to becoming a pariah state, and worse still levelled the charge of anti-Jewish prejudice against the British intelligentsia.
I broadened out the proposal to include an analysis of what I thought was the true nature of the threat posed by the Islamic jihad; the back-to-front thinking in Britain which was turning Islamist aggressors into victims while western and Israeli victims were turned into aggressors; the role played in this process by multiculturalism; and the lethal threat this all posed to a free world under attack.
My agent sent this proposal to specifically Jewish publishers in the hope of touching a nerve. It touched one all right - the problem was it was the wrong nerve. ‘I don’t agree with this AT ALL so I won’t publish it’, said one. Another jovially observed: ‘I’d rather take ricin than publish this’. The battle to publish Londonistan
Buy Londonistan in the US
Buy Londonistan in the UK
Many Palestinian Christians identify with the struggle against Israel to such an extent that they find themselves on the side of Islamic fundamentalism. In some cases, Palestinian Christians have actually joined Islamic terror groups. Christian 'Martyr' for IslamMark Alexander
In the Mohammed-cartoon controversy, the Western world faced fundamental questions that will continue to evolve in the coming years. These include: the nature of Western identity; the internal solidarity of the Western world; to what extent Western societies can be intimidated; how Muslim violence should be confronted; whether a Western Islam can evolve; to what extent some of the Muslims living in the West are a fifth column for a violent non-Western culture; and whether right-wing trends in the West will increase.Mark Alexander
Israel and the Jews were drawn - almost inevitably - into the controversy between Muslims and the West once the violent protests against the cartoons rapidly accelerated in the first week of February 2006. This was yet another manifestation of the hard core of anti-Semitism that portrays the Jews as responsible for all evil in the world.
Western media contrasted Muslims' sensitivity about the cartoons with the stream of far more offensive anti-Semitic cartoons published in Muslim media. The Middle Eastern boycott of Danish firms also raised some questions about Danish boycotts of Israel.
Israel faces a serious risk of Western scapegoating as the Muslim-Western controversy develops over the coming years. In an increasingly unpredictable world, Israel may need to establish a rapid-analysis force to assess emerging global events. The Mohammed-Cartoon Controversy, Israel, and the Jews: A Case Study by Manfred Gerstenfeld
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Courtesy of the Ayaan Hirsi Ali Web-log
Her Dutch citizenship withdrawn, Ayaan Hirsi Ali is packing her bags for Washington. SPIEGEL spoke to her about leaving the Netherlands, her book project and the American Enterprise Institute, which has offered her a fellowship.Mark Alexander
She apologizes for the mess in her apartment. But it's a mess that says volumes about her life. Still to be unwrapped bouquets, complete with messages of support, are strewn everywhere. A treadmill stands in the center of the room -- running in the nearby park would be way too risky. Newspapers lie scattered across the glazed white desk, her portrait on the front pages. She looks spiteful, with a touch of fear and anger in her eyes.
"I never really got a chance to settle down," says Ayaan Hirsi Ali as she steps into the small kitchen, "and yet I felt very much at home here." Now, though, the luxury apartment high above the roofs of The Hague -- her refuge from the death threats of Islamic fundamentalists -- has become foreign to her. The neighbors have sued her out of the building because they were tired of dealing with the security detail assigned to protect Hirsi Ali from attack. Even worse, the Dutch Minister of Immigration and Integration, Rita Verdonk, stripped her of her citizenship early last week, citing minor lies on Ali's citizenship application. A chapter in Hirsi Ali's life -- and an era in Dutch politics -- has come to an end. Settling Scores with Old Europe and Source: Der Spiegel By Gerald Traufetter
PARIS - Al Fath Mosque is in a scruffy immigrant neighborhood not far from the neon-lit kitsch of Pigalle. On Friday afternoons the mosque is jammed, and the overflow of worshippers - all men - spills into the streets.Mark Alexander
Tourists who stumble on the scene reflexively reach for their cameras, struck by this unusual public manifestation of religiosity in a country where Christian belief has become passe.
In France and in almost every other European country, Christianity appears to be in a free fall. Although up to 88 percent of the French identify themselves as Roman Catholic, only about 5 percent go to church on most Sundays; 60 percent say they "never" or "practically never" go.
But Islam is a thriving force. The 12 million to 15 million Muslims who live in Europe make up less than 5 percent of the total population, but the vitality of their faith has led some experts to predict that Islam will become the continent's dominant faith.
Princeton University historian Bernard Lewis, the dean of American Middle East scholars, flatly predicts that Europe will be Islamic by the end of this century "at the very latest." In France, Islam and secularism spread as Christianity lapses by Tom Hundley
Monday, June 26, 2006
Photo courtesy of the BBC
French President Jacques Chirac has marked 90 years since the Battle of Verdun by unveiling a monument to Muslims who fell in the key WWI battle.Mark Alexander
The memorial is the first to Muslims who died in 300 days of clashes over the strategically located French town and in other World War I battles.
Mr Chirac hailed the French army in Verdun as "France in its diversity". France marks Muslim dead of WWI
I have just taken the unprecedented step of deleting some comments on this website.
This is not something I do lightly, for I am committed to free speech. However, these deleted comments crossed the line of respectability. I cannot tolerate them any longer.
All are welcome to comment on this website: left-wingers, right-wingers, Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs, people of all other religions, and people of no faith at all.
But one thing I ask is that comments be placed in a reasonable and rational manner, without vulgarities and profanities, and without any racist intent. Please do not overstep the bounds of respectability and decency, for to do so can be very offensive to others. Furthermore, arguments written in this manner are never enhanced in any way.
From now on, any comments which I feel overstep these limits will be erased as soon as possible.
Mark Alexander
Sunday, June 25, 2006
I wonder how many of these demonstrators were arrested and charged after this demonstration? Is it really a strength of the West that we allow such demonstrations? Or should we, perhaps, start seeing this extreme tolerance as a weakness?
Mark AlexanderVideo courtesy of You Tube
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Mark AlexanderCourtesy of Google Video and Turn to Islam
Friday, June 23, 2006
Mark AlexanderVideo courtesy of Google Video and Turn to Islam
Thursday, June 22, 2006
In this very interesting interview by Danish television, Ayaan Hirsi Ali speaks out. It starts in Danish, but soons moves to English:
And here is the now famous short film, SUBMISSION:
Mark AlexanderVideos courtesy of Google Video
Images courtesy of Google Images
The world's scientific community united yesterday to launch one of the strongest attacks yet on creationism, warning that the origins of life were being "concealed, denied or confused".Mark Alexander
The national science academies of 67 countries warned parents and teachers to ensure that they did not undermine the teaching of evolution or allow children to be taught that the world was created in six days.
Some schools in the US hold that evolution is merely a theory while the Bible represents the literal truth. There have also been fears that these views are creeping into British schools.
The statement, which the Royal Society signed on behalf of Britain's scientists, said: "We urge decision-makers, teachers and parents to educate all children about the methods and discoveries of science and foster an understanding of the science of nature. Knowledge of the natural world in which they live empowers people to meet human needs and protect the planet. World scientists unite to attack creationism by Sarah Cassidy
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Cartoon courtesy of Google Images
Tony Blair, mere Prime Minister, needs the trappings of President! He cannot stem the growth of Islam in the United Kingdom, but that doesn't matter! He can luxuriate in his Blair Force One instead!Mark AlexanderOne suspects that, like certain African heads of state, Tony Blair feels truly at ease these days only when he leans back in his upholstered seat and feels the jet engines propel him away from his own country, towards other lands where he is not responsible for the state of the streets and can luxuriate in the dignity of a world leader.Blair should check in like the rest of us
How galling, then, to have to travel in a rented plane, or, worse, on a scheduled service. How embarrassing to step on to the tarmac, to be greeted with all the courtesies of diplomatic protocol, from a jumbo jet bearing a commercial logo. How unlike the dignity of the American President!
I would like to share this interesting video with you about Osama bin Laden:
Mark AlexanderWith thanks to Who Is bin Laden?
Photo courtesy of The Telegraph
The Government used "special accounting arrangements" on a controversial £20bn oil-for-arms deal with Saudi Arabia to make sure MPs were not able to vet it, The Daily Telegraph has learned.Mark Alexander
The news comes as ministers put finishing touches to a multi-billion pound successor to the original Al-Yamamah arms deal, agreed in 1985 by Margaret Thatcher.
Controversy has raged over claims that millions of pounds were paid in bribes to secure the original contract.
Two years ago the Serious Fraud Office launched an investigation into the claims that bribes were paid by companies used by BAE Systems, one of the main beneficiaries of the deal, to win orders for equipment.
Government documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that deal was structured to avoid Parliamentary scrutiny. Saudi deal 'hidden from MPs' by Christopher Hope
Britain's multi-billion pound Al-Yamamah arms contract with Saudi Arabia is the UK's biggest ever overseas defence order.
Yet little is known about it. The original deal was agreed by Margaret Thatcher, the then-prime minister, in 1985 and signed by Michael Heseltine and HRH Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud in the following year.
Analysts have estimated the value of the contract to be anything from £15bn to £150bn. Twenty years of smokescreen over Saudi deal by Christopher Hope
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
The following images were sent to me this morning from Australia by a friend. I want to share them with you. They show the suffering that went on in the Sudan in 1994 during the famine in that country. I dare say that it wouldn't take a photographer long to find similar images today.
The Sudan is largely an Islamic country. One can but ask oneself the question: What do the fabulously wealthy of countries like Saudi Arabia do to alleviate such suffering? Wouldn't they be better off spending their gazillions trying to alleviate such poverty and hunger than by spending it on trying to promote Islam in the West, trying to promote their religion where it is certainly NOT WANTED! By the way, for your information, the photographer that took these photos, Kevin Carter, committed suicide three months after taking them. From depression!
Mark
Monday, June 19, 2006
The Chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, Trevor Phillips, has shown that he has no understanding of the nature of the Jihad, and therefore no understanding of the danger posed to the West by Islam.Photo courtesy of the BBC
Britain's race laws need updating to help in the battle against terrorism, the chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) has said.Mark Alexander
Trevor Phillips has called for a debate on positive discrimination in favour of Muslims applying to join the police.
In a speech to be delivered on Monday he will question whether the police are "fit for purpose" for anti-terror campaigns.
He will also say race relation laws are stopping diversification in the police.
Mr Phillips will emphasise that it is not just a matter of fairness and equality, but an issue of national security.
Muslim commitment
In the speech to be given at the Social Policy Forum at the Government Office for London, he will say that British Muslims are as committed to tackling "terrorism" as anyone else. Race law update needed, Phillips
Photo courtesy of Google Images
A woman was last night elected as the first female leader of the American branch of Anglicanism in a historic but divisive development that could hasten the break-up of the worldwide Church.Mark Alexander
The Bishop of Nevada, the Rt Rev Katharine Jefferts Schori, who is a leading liberal on homosexuality, is the first women primate in the history of Anglicanism.
Her role as Presiding Bishop is the equivalent of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Her surprise election was greeted with whoops of joy by pro-women campaigners at the General Convention of the Episcopal Church, where she was chosen by her fellow bishops in four hours of voting.
But conservatives predicted that she would lead the Episcopal Church further along its liberal path on issues such as homosexuality, and her election will dismay traditionalists opposed to women priests. Anglican crisis as woman leads US Church by Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent, in Columbus, Ohio
Members of the Church of England take pride in portraying it as able to tolerate a wide diversity of opinion. By extension, they would like to apply this judgment to the Anglican communion as a whole. However, as the general convention of the Episcopal Church in Columbus, Ohio, reminds us, such optimism in regard to the wider Church is looking more and more like wishful thinking.
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, the Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, speaks dramatically of "virtually two religions in a single Church". A guest at the convention of the American branch of Anglicanism, he was dismayed to see its House of Bishops pass a resolution last Friday, without theological debate, in support of civil marriages for gay couples.
He believes that the Episcopal Church has departed so far from what is generally held to be Anglican theology that a point of no return has been reached. And he implies that Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, should recognise this fact by expelling it from the Anglican communion. The spectre of schism
I have been alerted to two very well-written, and extremely accurate, essays on the threat of Islam, and how to deal with it. These essays were written a little while ago by my good friend and colleague Jason Pappas, whose weblog, Liberty and Culture has much to contribute to the war we are engaged in.
Please take a look at these. The first is long, but well worth the time it takes to read it. It is full of insight and facts. The second one is somewhat shorter, but no less important for that.
Do conservatives recognize the threat?Mark Alexander
Rarely, in the course of history, has a nation gone to war while praising the enemy’s ideology. We can, however, see this absurd spectacle today. While terrorists attack our greatest cities in the name of Islam, we are told that these ideas have nothing to do with their actions. As Muslims cheer with joy throughout the Islamic world, we are told that we mustn’t rush to judgment and stereotype another culture. With each report of repression, misogyny, self-imposed poverty, anti-Semitic hatred, and suicidal glorification, we are told that they are human beings just like us – don’t judge! There is a pathological fear of saying anything negative about the motivating force driving our enemy: Islam.
At first this may seem like an exaggeration. But is it? We do condemn radical Islam but notice how we unduly minimize our criticism. We add the qualifier “radical” or “militant” to imply that it is something added to Islam. The problem must be this additional element – not Islam itself. Or we borrow a word from Christianity and call them fundamentalists as if there were differing versions of Islam. We presume fundamentalist Islam is spurned by the average Muslim, who, we imagine, sees this 7th century practice as a relic relevant to Mohammad’s time. How enlightened we imagine the modern Muslim!
Or we may complain that Islam needs some missing element that will transform it and bring it into the 21st century. We make a moral equivalence between Christianity’s failures centuries ago and Islamic backwardness today. If Christianity can move forward and adapt to the modern world, why can’t Islam? It must be this missing element, modernity, which Islam needs. It took Christians two thousands years to grow up, we are told; you can’t expect Islam to do that in 1400 years. At no point must we question the Islam religion itself.
The taboo against subjecting a religion to critical analysis is even greater when that religion is part of a foreign culture. Conservatives are quick to attack the relativism inherent in contemporary multi-cultural analysis – particularly on the left. There is indeed a wide-spread relativism and vitriolic anti-Americanism on the left but it is by no means universal. I will address this at another time. The contention of this article is that conservatives’ response to the Islamic threat is inadequate and they need to change if we are to fight this enemy effectively. The Conservative Response to the Islamic Threat. by Jason Pappas © September 5, 2004
Saudi Arabia spearheads the worldwide Islamist movement by the establishment of educational institutions around the globe dedicated to reawakening the jihadist ideology. A vast recruiting and training network produces hate-filled warriors eager to kill anyone in their path for the glory of Islam. Saudi powerbrokers finance global terror groups from Hamas to Al Qaeda. (See our review.) The time has come to reconsider our repugnant association with these duplicitous international criminals. What should we do in the face of this threat? Let’s start by severing all ties with Saudi Arabia – military, trade, travel, and diplomatic.
Impossible, you say? Given that 15% of our oil imports originate in Saudi Arabia, the idea of ending our Saudi trade relationship is deemed unimaginable or only possible in the distant future after the development of alternative sources of energy. Neither political party dares suggest such a move in the current context. Unfortunately, the economics is poorly understood but far worse, moral leadership is next to non-existent. First the economics:
Oil is a commodity. Like any commodity its price is determined by the market and it can be sold and resold any number of times. Oil isn’t made-to-order for a particular buyer like a custom suit from one’s personal tailor. The production, purchase, resale, and consumption of oil in today’s modern global economy are determined by market forces – not personal relationships. The path from producer to consumer is spontaneously rearranging. The Saudi Problem by Jason Pappas©
Saturday, June 17, 2006
Photo courtesy of the BBC
The upper house of the French parliament has passed a tough new immigration bill, weeks after it was adopted by the lower chamber.Mark Alexander
The bill makes it harder for unskilled migrants to settle in France and abolishes the rights of illegal immigrants to remain after 10 years.
Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who drafted the bill, says it will bring France into line with other countries.
Critics say it is racist and accuse Mr Sarkozy of pandering to the far-right.
Mr Sarkozy, who is seen as a potential contender in presidential elections next year, says France must be in control of immigration, rather than a passive recipient. French immigration bill approved
Thursday, June 15, 2006
9/11, a day that will go down in history as a ‘day of infamy’, should have marked a turning point in our dealing with the Islamic world. Alas, no such ‘turning point’ came about.
Instead, the President of the US, George W Bush, insisted that the US was not at war with the Islamic world. I dare say it was true – to a point. What he failed to say was its corollary: namely, that the Islamic world was at war with America, and by extension, the West!
That this was so should have been made clear to all Americans, and to all Westerners alike. It wasn’t. The result of this is that we now have fuzzy thinking on the war we are engaged in, fuzzy thinking on the problems we face, fuzzy thinking on the growth of Islam in the West, fuzzy thinking on how to tackle our enemy: Islam!
Make no mistake about it: Islam is our enemy. Islam represents all that is abhorrent to the West: coercion, lack of religious freedom, totalitarianism, and much else besides. But, as the West was built up on largely Christian principles, it is also the negation of the notion that Jesus Christ is man’s Saviour, man’s Redeemer. They say that Jesus Christ was not the Son of God; we say that He was! The West, as a civilization, has been built up on that notion.
No problem, you say. Let them believe what they will. Wrong! You are wrong, so wrong, to take this viewpoint.
Muslims have principles. Indeed, it may be said that they have very strong principles. And they fight for them. How many of YOU have principles that you will fight for? It would appear that Westerners have few principles they are willing to fight for; indeed, many Westerners are not sure what their principles are! And therein lies one of the major problems we face today: not knowing what the West stands for; and, by extension, not knowing what we must fight for.
Yes, all right, we have some vague notions of freedom and democracy. But let’s face it, they are just that: vague notions! How many people truly understand what freedom is, still less what democracy entails? Do we really understand both concepts? Freedom is not just being able to go on your favourite foreign holiday when you please; democracy isn’t just about voting for this handsome guy, or that one. No! It’s about more than that. Much more!
How is the West going to deal with the onslaught of Islam when Westerners don’t even know what they should believe in? In years gone by, Westerners knew exactly what they should believe in: in Judeo-Christian principles. But as churches have emptied, many people now know sweet little about Judeo-Christian principles, and care still less about them.
It may be said, in no uncertain terms I have to say, that we ignore our Judeo-Christian heritage at our own peril! Islam is knocking on our door; in fact, we have already let it in. And the religion is growing apace in the West; and make no mistake about it: it is DIAMETRICALLY-OPPOSED to EVERYTHING we stand for; and it is only biding its time to take us over. The sickness of out time is that ordinary folk have no understanding of what is going on!
It is my belief that George W Bush must shoulder a lot of the blame for this ignorance. For, in stubbornly refusing to apportion blame for the atrocities of 9/11 on Muslims, he has also brought confusion into the minds of many Westerners. Westerners, as a result, have little understanding of what motivates Muslims. To be fed the nonsense that Muslims are our friends is a lie. A damn lie! And Bush, unless he is stupid, knows that very well. Islam is our enemy. It has to be, for it seeks to destroy us.
Make no mistake about it: Islam is waiting in the wings; it is just ready to take us over. Do you think that Muslims don’t realize and understand that Westerners have little stomach for a fight? Have none of it! They perceive YOU as WEAK! Really weak! After all, look what we are allowing them to get away with!
Only this week, it has come to our attention that our bankers are allowing the ideas of Shari’ah banking to be put in place here in the West. Now, in the United Kingdom, Shari’ah banking is to be made available to Muslims and Muslimahs across the United Kingdom, on every high street. Imagine the uproar in the UK in the 1940s with headlines such as Nazi banking to be made available to Nazis by all high street banks across the United Kingdom! It would have been totally unacceptable to people then; and it should be totally unacceptable to people now, too.
In the States, shrines to Islam, our enemy, are to be built by the US Marines. Just how stupid and naïve is that? How many shrines to Christianity are there in Saudi Arabia? We are giving these people an importance above their station!
A war – and George W Bush tells us we are at war – has to be fought from a position of strength. Furthermore, for a war to be successful, it has to be fought in the right atmosphere. The enemy has to be - yes, wait for it – demonized! I make no apologies for the use of that word. We are either at war with an enemy, or we are not! It’s as simple and straightforward as that!
No war in history has been fought like this ridiculous war! We are trying to fight a war without demonizing the enemy. It cannot be done! Either we are at war, or we are not. To say that we are at war with some vague notion of terrorists is nothing less than absurd. Terrorism equates to the Jihad. Indeed, the Jihad is terrorism unadulterated. The Jihad is nothing more and nothing less than terrorism used for the furtherance of the cause of Islam. It is used to Islamize your country and mine. Make no mistake about that!
I am reading a very good book at the moment entitled Defying Hitler. In it, the author , Sebastian Haffner, talks about how the enemy was demonized during the Great War. He talks about France’s “lust for revenge”, England’s “commercial envy”, and Russia’s “barbarism”. That’s how to do it, folks! You cannot win a war when everything has been sanitized. Everything, today, must be sanitized! No war has ever been so won! No war will ever be so won! Either we are at war; or we are not. It’s as simple as that! If we are at war, then we have to demonize the enemy.
President Bush, the day after 9/11, came on TV, almost embracing the Qur’an, stating that the US was not at war with the Islamic world. What he should have stated was that the Islamic world was at war with America and the West. And it still is. Indeed, the war has been intensified. Had he done this, we wouldn’t today be seeing the growth of Islamic banking in the West, the building of shrines to Islam in the US Marines, and we wouldn’t be in such a mess with Islam in general. President Bush! You have failed! You have failed miserably! You’ve had your chance, and you’ve blown it. Move over, Sir! Let someone else try and clear up your mess!
©Mark Alexander
All rights reserved
Photo courtesy of the BBC
The gay US bishop at the centre of controversy over his consecration has told a convention of US Anglicans he is "not an abomination".Mark Alexander
Gene Robinson said the Episcopal Church should "stand up for right", adding that Anglicans should not be swayed by fear of deepening rifts over the issue.
The Ohio convention is to vote on how far to go in seeking to prevent the ordination of more openly gay bishops.
A senior conservative said it would be impossible to prevent a split.
"We've reached a moment where it is very difficult, indeed I think we've reached an impossible moment, in holding it together," Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh said, quoted by the Associated Press. Gay bishop 'not an abomination'
Photo courtesy of Google Images
JEMAAH Islamiyah's spiritual leader Abu Bakar Bashir - freed from jail yesterday - has said Prime Minister John Howard should become a Muslim if he wants to avoid going to hell. Become Islamic or go to hell, Howard toldMark AlexanderTHE deaths of more than 220 people in terrorist attacks on Bali were "God's will" and the bombers were not killers as they were only acting as God's means, says the freed leader of Indonesia's radical Muslims, Abu Bakar Bashir.TERRORIST leader Abu Bakar Bashir taunted Australia yesterday, saying the Bali bombing victims had to die "because it was God's will".
He has also rebuffed demands by the Prime Minister, John Howard, that Indonesia's President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, monitor his activities and restrict his movements.
On the veranda of his home inside the inner sanctum of his Ngruki Islamic boarding school near the central Java city of Solo, Bashir made outspoken comments to a group of journalists yesterday afternoon, after his release from prison on Wednesday. Bali bombings were God's will: defiant Bashir
As John Howard sent a terse letter to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono over this week's release of the radical cleric, Bashir insisted the terrorists behind the Bali bombings "were not the killers, but only Allah's conduit" for the deaths. Bali bombing was God's will: Abu Bakar Bashir by Stephen Fitzpatrick and Patrick Walters
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Photo courtesy of the BBC
Lloyds TSB is to offer current accounts and mortgages which comply with Islamic law through its 2,000 strong branch network from Wednesday.Mark Alexander
The bank has offered such accounts since 2005 but only in a few branches.
The bank will concentrate its main marketing push in about 100 branches in areas with a large Muslim population.
An Islamic scholar advising the bank told BBC News that access to such services would ultimately mean "less exclusion and less extremism."
Traditionally, many Muslims have shunned mainstream financial services and High Street banks because their products do not comply with Sharia law.
Under Sharia Islamic law, making money from money, such as charging interest, is usury and therefore not permitted.
Wealth should be generated only through legitimate trade and investment in assets.
Investment in companies involved with alcohol, gambling, tobacco and pornography is strictly off-limits. Islamic banaking goes nationwide by Julian Knight
Photo courtesy of The Globe and Mail
LONDON — Britain's highest court ruled Wednesday that four men who say they were tortured in Saudi Arabian jails cannot sue officials from that country over their imprisonment.Mark Alexander
The Law Lords ruled that Britons Ron Jones, Sandy Mitchell and Les Walker and Canadian William Sampson do not have the right to sue individual alleged torturers, because foreign government officials are immune from prosecution in Britain.
"This isn't over for us," Mr. Sampson, who holds both Canadian and British citizenship, told reporters, saying the four men would take their case to the European Court of Justice. Britain's highest court rejects bid to sue Saudis by Jill Lawless
I was alerted to this interesting viewpoint on the Jihad by a good friend in Australia. It has been written by Laurent Murawiec (Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute, Washington DC). I'd like to share it with you.
Deterrence works because one is able credibly to threaten the center of gravity of the enemy: the threat of inflicting unacceptable losses upon him, whether in a bar brawl or in nuclear escalation. The calculus deterrence relies upon is: is it worth it? Is the Price/Earning Ratio of the contemplated action so hugely negative that it would wipe out the capital? Deterrence works if the price to be paid by the party to be deterred hugely exceeds his expected earnings. But deterrence only works if the enemy is able and willing to enter the same calculus. If the enemy plays by other rules and calculates by other means, he will not be deterred. There was nothing the Philistines could have done to deter Samson. If the calculus is: I exchange my worthless earthly life against the triumph of Allah on earth, and an eternity of bliss for me, if the enemy wishes to be dead, if to him the Apocalypse is desirable, he will not be deterred.Mark Alexander
When Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the Mayor of Tehran, he insistently proposed that the main thoroughfares of Tehran should be widened so that, he explained, on the day of his reappearance, the Hidden Imam, Mohamed ibn Hassan, who went into the great occultation in 941 AD could tread spacious avenues. More recently, he told the Indian Foreign Minister that “in two years, everything will be settled,” which the visiting dignitary at first mistook to mean that Iran expected to possess nuclear weapons in two years; he was later bemused to learn what Ahmadinejad had meant, to wit, that the Mahdi would appear in two years, at which points all worldly problems would disappear.
This attitude, truly, is not new, nor should it surprise us: religious notions and their estranged cousins, ideological representations, determine not only their believers’ beliefs but also their believers’ actions. Reality, as it were, is invaded by belief, and belief in turn shapes the believer’s reality. The difference between the religious and the ideologically religious is this: the religious believer accepts that reality is a given, whereas the fanatic gambles everything on a pseudo-reality of what ought to be. The religious believer accepts reality and works at improving it, the fanatic rejects reality, refuses to pass any compromise with it and tries to destroy it and replace it with his fantasy. Deterring Those Who Are Already Dead
Photo courtesy of the BBC
Prime Minister John Howard has said Australians would be "distressed" by Indonesia's release of a Muslim cleric convicted over the 2002 Bali bombings.Mark Alexander
Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, found guilty in March 2005 of conspiracy over the bomb plot, was released in Jakarta after serving 26 months in prison.
Security experts say the cleric is a founding member of regional Islamic militant group Jemaah Islamiah.
Families of people killed in the Bali blast also criticised the release.
Mr Howard told parliament he had a message for Indonesian politicians.
"I want them to understand from me on behalf of the government how extremely disappointed, even distressed, millions of Australians will be at the release of Abu Bakar Ba'asyir," he said.
Eighty-eight of the 202 victims of the 2002 Bali bombings were Australian. Australia angry as cleric freed
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Image courtesy of Google Images
We are at war with militant Islam, but you wouldn't know it from the Pentagon, which is busy erecting a shrine to Islam just five short years after Islamic terrorists destroyed a good chunk of its own building and killed more than 100 of its occupants. Worse, it's consulting on the project with a Wahhabi-educated cleric posing as a moderate.Mark Alexander
Last week, military brass -- along with representatives from the terror-tied Council on American-Islamic Relations -- dedicated the first Muslim prayer center for the Marines as a symbol of the military's "religious tolerance" and "respect" for the faith the enemy uses to attack us. Already, plans are in the works to build by 2009 a bigger mosque at the Marine base in Quantico so Muslim service members can have a "proper place" to worship, and one that "honors their religious heritage," officials say, not realizing that the mosque can also be used by the enemy to build a Fifth Column inside the Marines.
The idea for the center came from Navy Lt. Abuhena Mohammed Saifulislam, a young, smooth-talking Muslim chaplain, who wanted a permanent place of worship -- and "education" -- for the growing number of soldiers who are interested in -- and converting to -- Islam. US Marines Build Shrine To Islam by Paul Sperry
Photo courtesy of the BBC
The US Anglican Church is meeting over the next week to discuss a motion to appease Church leaders critical of its gay bishops stance.Mark Alexander
The debate comes three years after the Church approved the openly gay Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire, a move that angered conservatives.
Correspondents say the Anglican communion could split if the US body, the Episcopal Church, shuns the motion.
But US Anglicans are not anxious to exacerbate the crisis, they say.
The discussion comes within the framework of a week-long Church convention that ends on 21 June. US Church in gay bishops debate
Images courtesy of Google Images
OTTAWA — The federal government is considering changes to the Anti-Terrorism Act to make it clear police and security agents do not engage in racial or religious profiling.Mark Alexander
Justice Minister Vic Toews said last night he is troubled by the ATA's definition of terrorism as an offence motivated in whole or in part for a "political, religious or ideological purpose."
As an opposition MP when Parliament adopted the ATA four years ago, Mr. Toews said he thought the motivation section of the definition would open the door to racial profiling.
As Justice Minister, he told a Senate committee, he has seen no evidence that in fact the RCMP, CSIS or any other federal law enforcement or security agency has engaged in profiling.
Nevertheless, he fears the motive section "may be at cross purposes to Canadian values" of respect for human rights and equality before the law.
Moreover, the definition might actually make it more difficult to prosecute a terrorism suspect if the authorities have to prove that beliefs motivated the crime, he added.
Mr. Toews said the Conservative government is open to dropping this portion of the definition and wants to hear the views of the Senate and House special committees that are reviewing the ATA.
Senator Mobina Jaffer, a Liberal, said members of minorities believe racial or religious profiling takes place, and the motive section feeds this distrust of the authorities. Change sought in definition of terrorism by Jeff Sallot for the The Globe and Mail
Monday, June 12, 2006
Photo courtesy of the BBC
EU foreign ministers have agreed on a common position to start membership talks with Turkey after Cyprus raised last-minute objections.Mark Alexander
The agreement came after crisis talks between the Austrian EU presidency and Cyprus on Sunday night and Monday.
Cyprus wanted the EU to press Turkey to recognise Cyprus - divided since 1974 - and open its ports to Cypriot ships.
Turkey threatened to boycott the meeting of foreign ministers in Luxembourg unless Cyprus compromised. EU agrees to start Turkey talks
Turkey sets off on EU road after late hitch
Turkey's foreign minister asks the EU for blasphemy laws to protect Islam
"Europa wird islamisch"
NEW: Europe's leaders ponder EU future
Sunday, June 11, 2006
"Jetzt verlangen in Umfragen immerhin 41 Prozent eine Verminderung der Zahl von Einwanderern aus muslimischen Ländern, während anderseits die Forderung lauter wird, allgemein die Kriterien zu verschärfen."
Die Aushebung von Terroristen hat in Kanada einen Schock ausgelöst. Jetzt folgt eine Phase der Selbsthinterfragung.Mark Alexander
Die Nachricht über die Verhaftung von islamistischen Terroristen in Kanada vor einer Woche hat zuerst einen Schock bewirkt, inzwischen aber eine Welle des Nachdenkens und der Gewissenserforschung ausgelöst.
Im ersten Rummel zeigte sich die Öffentlichkeit davon beeindruckt, dass 400 Polizisten nötig waren, um der 17 Verschwörer habhaft zu werden und drei Tonnen Ammoniumnitrat zu beschlagnahmen. Auch die zunächst ans Licht gebrachten Pläne der Verschwörer - die Rede war von Sprengstoffattentaten in Toronto, von der Erstürmung des Parlaments in Ottawa und sogar von der Enthauptung des Premierministers - wurden von der Bevölkerung mit Entsetzen aufgenommen. Kanada zweifelt an sich selbst von Christian Jaekl in Ottawa
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