Zahra Rahnavard Demands Apology from Iran’s President Ahmadinejad
Zahra Rahnavard. Photo courtesy of TimesOnline
TIMES ONLINE: A diminutive 64-year-old grandmother who refuses to be bound by the rigid constraints imposed on women in Iran proved more than a match for the President of the Islamic Republic yesterday.

Zahra Rahnavard had already broken all precedent by actively campaigning for her husband, Mir Hossein Mousavi, a relative moderate who is President Ahmadinejad’s strongest challenger in Friday’s presidential election. Yesterday she went a step further by summoning the domestic and international media to a press conference at which she tore into the President for lying, humiliating women, debasing his office and betraying the principles of the revolution.

What sparked her fury was Mr Ahmadinejad’s televised debate with her husband last week in which he challenged Dr Rahnavard’s considerable academic qualifications, suggesting that they were earned not on merit, but through the patronage of a corrupt political elite.

“He wanted to destroy his rival through lies,” she declared in a 90-minute finger-wagging tour de force, and she vowed to sue the President if he did not issue a public apology within 24 hours.

It was a more forceful attack than any of Mr Ahmadinejad’s three male challengers have managed, and would have been remarkable in any election, let alone in male-dominated Iran. It also injected more uncertainty into a race that already has an outcome impossible to call. Dr Rahnavard’s boldness is likely to enrage conservatives, but should delight the women and young urban Iranians who must vote in great numbers if Mr Mousavi is to unseat the incumbent.

Dr Rahnavard offered further inducements. She promised that her husband, if elected, would appoint women to Cabinet posts for the first time, and name many female deputy ministers and ambassadors. He would end discrimination and ensure that women were no longer treated as second-class citizens. He would release women’s rights activists from prison and abolish the “morality police” who, during Mr Ahmadinejad’s first term, cracked down on women deemed to be dressed inappropriately. She even suggested that women should not be forced to cover their heads. >>> Martin Fletcher in Tehran | Monday, June 08, 2009

MEP Nick Griffin

THE TELEGRAPH: Anger as BNP Wins Two European Seats

European Elections 2009: The British National Party Wins First Ever Seat
THE TELEGRAPH: The far-Right British National Party won a seat in the European Parliament for the first time in its history after receiving 120,139 votes in the Yorkshire and Humber region.

Andrew Brons won the first ever Euro seat for the anti-immigration party, sending shockwaves through the mainstream political parties. Photo courtesy of The Telegraph
Andrew Brons won the last of six seats for the anti-immigration party, sending shockwaves through the mainstream political parties.

Health Secretary Andy Burnham said that it was "deeply uncomfortable" to see the BNP polling in such large numbers.

He said that they had been the beneficiaries of an "anti-politics mood" which had hit all the main parties in the wake of the MPs' expenses scandal.

"It is a sad moment in British politics," he said.

"The BNP is like the ultimate protest vote. It is how to deliver the establishment a two-fingered salute. I think largely it is a comment on Westminster politics."

Meanwhile, far-Right parties and extremists made gains across Europe on Sunday night as protest votes and low turnouts marked elections for the European parliament. >>> By Bruno Waterfield in Brussels | Sunday, June 07, 2009

Labour Facing Losses but BNP May Win Seat in European Parliament as Polls Show Other EU Voters Backing the Far Right
MAIL Online: Europe was leaning to the right tonight as exit polls showed voters were backing conservative parties amid a global economic crisis and anti-Islamic sentiments.

The British National Party could win its first seat in the EU parliament if the results elsewhere follow in the UK.

It comes after the party won its first seat on a county council at Thursday's local elections.

While official results for the elections to the European Parliament were not expected until late this evening or early tomorrow, the polls showed right-leaning governments edging the opposition in Germany, Italy, France, Belgium and elsewhere.

With most votes counted in Austria, the main far-right party was gaining strongly while the Social Democrats, the main party in the governing coalition, lost substantial ground.

The big winner was the rightist Freedom Party which, according to polls, more than doubled its strength over the 2004 elections to 13 per cent of the vote.

It campaigned on an anti-Islam platform, with posters proclaiming 'The Occident in Christian hands' and describing today as 'the day of reckoning.'

In the Netherlands, exit polls predicted the anti-Islamic party of Geert Wilders - who was banned from Britain earlier this year - would win more than 15 per cent of the country's votes, muscling in on the ruling alliance of Conservatives and Socialists. >>> | Sunday, June 07, 2009

Gordon Brown Doing Stand-up

Hat tip: Damian Thompson, Holy Smoke >>>

Sarkozy et Obama à mots voilés
leJDD.fr: Avant la cérémonie de Colleville-sur-mer, célébrant le 65e anniversaire du 6-juin, Barack Obama et Nicolas Sarkozy se sont rencontrés quelques instants, avant de donner une conférence de presse commune. Malgré de nombreux points d'accord, les deux présidents ont montré des divergences sur la question, épineuse, du voile islamique et sur l'entrée de la Turquie dans l'UE.

Avant de se rendre au cimetière de Colleville-sur-mer, Barack Obama a fait un détour par Caen pour une rencontre succincte - d'une heure, photo souvenir comprise - avec Nicolas Sarkozy. Lors d'une conférence de presse qui a suivi, le président français a loué l'action de son homologue américain au Proche et Moyen-Orient: "Ça fait bien longtemps qu'on attendait que les Etats-Unis d'Amérique, la première puissance du monde, prennent toutes leurs responsabilités pour éviter le choc des cultures entre l'Occident et l'Orient.". Le locataire de l'Elysée a même affirmé "être totalement d'accord" avec le discours que Barack Obama a prononcé jeudi au Caire. "Y compris sur la question du voile" islamique, a-t-il ajouté.

Pourtant, Nicolas Sarkozy est loin de la tolérance prônée par la Maison Blanche. La restriction du port du voile était même devenue son cheval de bataille quand il était au ministère de l'Intérieur. Il est l'artisan d'une loi sur la laïcité, entrée en vigueur le 2 septembre 2004, qui interdit le port de signes religieux ostensibles à l'école publique. Une limite qu'il n'a pas manqué de rappeler: "Parce que nous sommes un Etat laïque, [...] aux guichets des administrations, les fonctionnaires ne doivent pas avoir de signes visibles de leur appartenance religieuse. C'est ce que nous appelons l'impartialité de l'administration, la laïcité." >>> Par Gaël VAILLANT, leJDD.fr | Samedi 06 Juin 2009

TIMES ONLINE BLOGS – CHARLES BREMNER: Obama Keeps His Distance in France

After Barack Obama's two days in France and Germany, Europe is getting a clearer idea of the way the new US president operates. Lesson number one: he keeps his distance.

In Germany on Friday Chancellor Angela Merkel was put out by Obama's decision to steer clear of Berlin during his flying visit to the Buchenwald concentration camp. In France, Obama's way of imposing his own schedule has been more striking -- to the embarrassment of President Sarkozy.

As I write on Sunday morning, the US imperial cavalcade (30 vehicles), has just driven up to the Pompidou Centre. The Obama family are visiting the modern art museum before the President flies home and leaves Michelle and the children to lunch with Nicolas and Carla Sarkozy and their four offspring at the Elysée Palace (There's an echo of Sarkozy's 2007 barbecue with George W Bush at Kennebunkport, when Cecilia Sarkozy, the President's then wife, failed to turn up.)

In 39 hours in France, staying in Paris a one-minute walk from the presidential palace, Obama was unable to find a moment to accept Sarkozy's repeated invitations to drop by. They had a 20 minute working lunch with their advisers yesterday in Normandy but Obama has also had time to take his family to Notre Dame cathedral and to dinner at La Fontaine de Mars, a good brasserie near the Eiffel tower (230 euros for their dinner in a private upstairs room, with water, no wine).

Sarkozy could not hide his disappointment when they appeared yesterday in Caen, but he has clearly got the message. Theirs is a good working relationship but Obama is not out to play buddy-buddy with Sarko or any other European leader (Gordon Brown of Britain included). >>> Charles Bremner | Sunday, June 07, 2009

Europe Leans Right as Voters Choose EU Parliament
ASSOCIATED PRESS: BRUSSELS — Europe was leaning to the right Sunday as tens of millions of people voted in European Parliament elections, with conservative parties favored in many countries amid a global economic crisis.

Opinion polls showed right-leaning governments edging the opposition in Germany, Italy, France, Belgium and elsewhere. Conservative opposition parties were tied or ahead in Britain, Spain and some smaller countries.

Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands and five other EU nations cast ballots in the last three days, while the rest of the 27-nation bloc voted Sunday. Results for most countries were expected later in the day.

The EU parliament has evolved over five decades from a consultative legislature to one with the power to vote on or amend two-thirds of all EU laws. It has 736 seats and lawmakers serve for five-year terms.

With most votes counted in Austria, the main rightist party was gaining strongly while the Social Democrats, the main party in the governing coalition, lost substantial ground.

The big winner was the rightist Freedom Party, which more than doubled its strength over the 2004 elections to 13 percent of the vote. It campaigned on an anti-Islam platform, with posters proclaiming "The Occident in Christian hands" and describing Sunday as "the day of reckoning."

In the Netherlands, exit polls predicted Geert Wilders' anti-Islamic party would win more than 15 percent of the country's votes, bruising a ruling alliance of Conservatives and Socialists. >>> By Michael Weissenstein and Robert Wielaard | Sunday, June 07, 2009

New England Economy Could See Gay-marriage Boost
Gay marriage supporter Josh Drew shows off his wedding ring outside the Massachusetts State House in Boston November 9, 2006. Photo courtesy of Reuters
REUTERS: BOSTON - The expansion of legal gay marriage across New England could deliver an economic windfall by attracting a youthful "creative class" of workers to a region with an aging population.

In the past year, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine have joined Massachusetts, which in 2004 became the first U.S. state to allow same-sex weddings, in blessing gay and lesbian weddings.

That makes the region the first in the United States where same-sex couples can move from one state to another while retaining marriage benefits.

New arrivals include John Visser and Nick Keffer, who recently moved to Hartford, Connecticut, from Raleigh, North Carolina. They plan to wed later this month.

"The sole, only reason why we moved was because it was now legal for us to get married here," said Visser, 42. "No other reason whatsoever other than marriage equality. We were perfectly happy in North Carolina."

New England has long burnished an image of tolerance. Early European settlers in the 17th-century escaped religious persecution, although they imposed their own stern doctrines and sometimes expelled dissenters. Later, the region led the right for the abolition of black slavery.

Five out of the region's six states now endorse gay weddings after New Hampshire legalized same-sex marriage on Wednesday, leaving Rhode Island as the sole holdout.

The spread of gay marriage could serve as a recruiting tool for universities, health care companies and financial services firms that dominate the region's economy, experts said. >>> By Scott Malone | Thursday, June 04, 2009

The Taliban Will ‘Never Be Defeated’
THE SUNDAY TIMES: ‘Colonel Imam’, the Pakistani agent who trained Mullah Omar and the warlords to fight the Soviets, says the US must negotiate with its enemies

THE Pakistani intelligence agent who trained Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader, to fight has warned that Nato forces will never overpower their enemies in Afghanistan and should talk to them rather than sacrifice more lives.

“You can never win the war in Afghanistan,” said so-called “Colonel Imam”, who ran a training programme for the Afghan resistance to the Soviet Union’s occupation from 1979 to 1989, then helped to form the Taliban.

“I have worked with these people since the 1970s and I tell you they will never be defeated. Anyone who has come here has got stuck. The more you kill, the more they will expand.”

A tall, bearded figure, whose real name is Amir Sultan Tarar, he trained at Fort Bragg, the US army base where America’s special forces are stationed.

During the late 1970s and 1980s he controlled CIA-funded training camps for 95,000 Afghans and often accompanied his students on missions.

After the Soviet defeat and the collapse of communism, he was invited to the White House by the first President George Bush and was given a piece of the Berlin Wall with a brass plaque inscribed: “To the one who dealt the first blow.”

Today western intelligence agencies believe Imam is among a group of renegade officers from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) who continued to help the Taliban after Pakistan turned against them following the attacks of September 11, 2001. >>> Christina Lamb in Rawalpindi | Sunday, June 07, 2009

Sarkozy se dit "d’accord" avec Obama sur la liberté du port du voile islamique
LE MONDE: “Je suis totalement d'accord avec le discours du président Obama, y compris sur la question du voile", a expliqué le président Sarkozy, samedi 6 juin à Caen. Dans un discours sur l'islam prononcé au Caire deux jours plus tôt, M. Obama avait dit qu' "il importe que les pays occidentaux évitent d'empêcher les musulmans de pratiquer leur religion comme ils le souhaitent, par exemple en dictant ce qu'une musulmane devrait porter". La déclaration avait été vue comme une attaque contre la législation de certains pays européens, notamment la loi française de 2004 qui a de facto mis fin au port du foulard dans les écoles publiques françaises.

"En France une jeune fille qui veut porter le voile peut le faire. C'est sa liberté", a assuré le président français, estimant que la France y mettait "deux limites, parce que nous sommes un Etat laïque". "La première, c'est qu'au guichet des administrations, les fonctionnaires ne doivent pas avoir de signe visible de leur appartenance religieuse", a poursuivi le président. La "deuxième réserve" vise à s'assurer que la décision de porter le voile émane du "libre choix" des jeunes filles musulmanes et ne soit pas imposé "par leur famille ou par leur entourage". Car la France est un pays "où l'on respecte la femme". M. Sarkozy a affirmé avoir beaucoup fait lorsqu'il était ministre de l'intérieur "pour que les musulmans puissent vivre leur foi comme n'importe quelle religion". Dans la soirée, l'entourage de Nicolas Sarkozy précise tout de même : "Il est bien évident que le président de la République n'est pas pour le port du voile à l'école. C'est ce qu'impose la loi."

M. Sarkozy a qualifié le discours du Caire de "remarquable". "Il y a bien longtemps que nous attendions que les Etats-Unis, première puissance du monde, prennent toutes leurs responsabilités pour éviter un choc des cultures entre l'Occident et l'Orient", a-t-il poursuivi.

Barack Obama a explicité ses intentions: "Ce que j'ai essayé de faire au Caire, c'est d'ouvrir une conversation dans les pays musulmans mais aussi dans les pays non musulmans… Nous ne devrions pas avoir deux normes sur la liberté d'expression religieuse, l'une pour les musulmans et l'autre pour les non musulmans". >>> Caen, Envoyé spécial du Monde | Samedi 06 Juin 2009

AL ARABIYA NEWS CHANNEL(العربية): "Islam Is Also France," Sarkozy Says at Iftar

French President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed to protect Muslims' rights as he joined the Iftar feast Monday at the Great Mosque in Paris, marking the breaking of the daily fast in the holy month of Ramadan.



In the first such gesture by a French president to the country's sizeable Muslim minority, Sarkozy met senior Muslim clerics and promised: "I will be at your side to defend your rights. I ask you to be at my side to carry out your duties."



"Even in the government, some are observing this fast (of Ramadan)…this shows that from the top to the bottom of our society Islam is an integral part of our country," Sarkozy told his hosts.

"Much as it might displease some of those I oppose, Islam is also France," he said.



But he also said France expected all its citizens to respect French core values such as the separation of Church and state, and he condemned extremists who were using Islam to spread hate.

"Those who want violence in the name of Islam, hatred for others in the name of Islam, have no business being on French soil," Sarkozy said.



"I haven't betrayed the commitment that I made to give all my backing to Islam in France, and to fight extremism with all my strength. The two things go together," he said.



"Certain extremists want to put an end to this peace which we have in our country. Those who kill in the name of Islam and want to push the world into a global religious war smear Islam by speaking its name," he said.



With about five million Muslims, France is home to Europe's biggest Islamic community.

Sarkozy has encouraged institutional dialogue between mainstream French Muslim clerics and the broader society, but his tough stance on immigration has made him unpopular among Muslims.



France is also one of the few countries to have passed legislation banning visible religious symbols in public schools, such as the Islamic headscarf.



The law sparked a wave of anger and incomprehension among Muslims worldwide, but in France the controversy that surrounded its adoption three years ago has all but died down. [Source: Al Arabiya News Channel] AFP | Tuesday, October 02, 2009

Barack Obama Extends His Hand to Islam's Despots
THE TELEGRAPH: The American President may not know it, but his 'Muslim world' is split by a war of ideas, says Amir Taheri.

Barack Obama's message was lost in a haze of rhetoric. Photo courtesy of The Telegraph
What do you do when you have no policy, but want to appear as if you do? In the case of Barack Obama, the answer is simple: you go around the world making speeches about your "personal journey".

The latest example came last Thursday, when Mr Obama presented his "address to the Muslim world" to an invited audience of 2,500 officials at Cairo University. The exercise was a masterpiece of equivocation and naivety. The President said he was seeking "a new beginning between the US and Muslims around the world". This implied that "Muslims around the world" represent a single monolithic bloc – precisely the claim made by people like Osama bin Laden and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who believe that all Muslims belong to a single community, the "ummah", set apart from, and in conflict with, the rest of humanity.

Mr Obama ignored the fact that what he calls the "Muslim world" consists of 57 countries with Muslim majorities and a further 60 countries – including America and Europe – where Muslims represent substantial minorities. Trying to press a fifth of humanity into a single "ghetto" based on their religion is an exercise worthy of ideologues, not the leader of a major democracy.

Mr Obama's mea culpa extended beyond the short span of US history. He appropriated the guilt for ancient wars between Islam and Christendom, Western colonialism and America's support for despotic regimes during the Cold War. Then came the flattering narrative about Islam's place in history: ignoring the role of Greece, China, India and pre-Islamic Persia, he credited Islam with having invented modern medicine, algebra, navigation and even the use of pens and printing. Believing that flattery will get you anywhere, he put the number of Muslim Americans at seven million, when the total is not even half that number, promoting Islam to America's largest religion after Christianity.

The President promised to help change the US tax system to allow Muslims to pay zakat, the sharia tax, and threatened to prosecute those who do not allow Muslim women to cover their hair, despite the fact that this "hijab" is a political prop invented by radicals in the 1970s.

As if he did not have enough on his plate, Mr Obama insisted that fighting "negative stereotypes of Islam" was "one of my duties as President of the United States". However, there was no threat to prosecute those who force the hijab on Muslim women through intimidation, blackmail and physical violence, nor any mention of the abominable treatment of Muslim women, including such horrors as "honour-killing". The best he could do was this platitude: "Our daughters can contribute just as much to society as our sons." >>> By Amir Taheri | Saturday, June 06, 2009

Iran's Presidential Candidate Seeks Votes by Campaigning with Wife
THE TELEGRAPH: If his performance in the television studios is anything to go by, Mir-Hossein Mousavi is scarcely the obvious choice to oust President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and bring Iran back in from the cold.

Iranian presidential candidate Mir-Hussein Mousavi and his wife Zaghra Rahnavard on a campaign rally in the north western Iranian city of Tabriz. Photo courtesy of The Telegraph
A former hardliner, whose plodding style evokes comparisons from John Major to Leonid Brezhnev, he is as much a blast from Iran's revolutionary past as a breath of fresh reformist air.

Yet the bespectacled 67-year-old, who was Iran's prime minister during its revolutionary heyday in the 1980s, has come out of retirement in an attempt to end what he describes as Mr Ahmadinejad's "disgraceful" presidency.

And in his bid to convince voters that he himself is now an agent of change, he has deployed a weapon no Iranian politician has dared use before. He is the first Iranian politician in 30 years to campaign with his wife alongside him - a bold nod to equality that has given credibility to his pledges to take Iran down the liberal, pro-Western route that Mr Ahmadinejad rejects.

True, Mr Mousavi's partner, Zahra Rahnavard, a grandmother, painter and ex-university chancellor, is no Michelle Obama. While the US president's wife raises eyebrows with dresses that show her bare arms, Ms Rahnavard, 61, sticks to the chador, the all-encompassing charcoal cloak that has long symbolised Islamc [sic] conservatism.

But that has not stopped supporters hailing her as Iran's first-ever "First Lady", and on the campaign trail, her speeches in favour of greater women's rights have stolen the show for her quietly-spoken husband.

"Why are there no women presidential candidates or cabinet ministers?" she asked her audience last week in the city of Tabriz, referring to a political scene still dominated largely by bearded clerics.

"Getting rid of discrimination and demanding equal rights with men is the number one priority for women in Iran."

Thanks to the "Zahra factor", Mr Mousavi is now the strongest of the three challengers to Mr Ahmadinejad in this Friday's poll, which is proving one of the liveliest presidential contests in Iran's post-revolutionary history. Mr Ahmadinejad's bellicosity on the nuclear issue, threats to Israel and quasi-Soviet economic policies has both alienated many of his own hardline followers and galvanised the reformist camp, which suffered in the 2005 elections from disillusionment and apathy.

"In your foreign policy, you have brought shame upon Iran," Mr Mousavi told Mr Ahmadinejad during a televised election head-to-head on Wednesday. "You have created tension with other countries, and heavy costs have been brought on the nation in these four years." >>> By Colin Freeman in Tehran | Saturday, June 06, 2009

THE SUNDAY TIMES: Can Iran’s Young Ring the Changes?

As a crucial election looms, young Iranians are once again standing up against a repressive and brutal regime

Four layers of curtains prevented Havva from ever seeing out of the window of the small apartment in an affluent neighbourhood of central Tehran that she once shared with her husband and young daughter. More importantly, as far as her husband was concerned, the thick folds of material ensured nobody could ever see in to catch sight of her — even though their apartment was on the second floor and overlooked only by a tall willow tree.

Not once in nine years of marriage was Havva allowed to pull those curtains back.

When I ask Havva gently what drove her to finally try to take her own life, she wrings her hands, revealing scars on her wrists. Over a period of four months she made numerous suicide attempts. The first were undoubtedly cries for help. The final time she thought she had ensured success by swallowing 140 tranquillisers and barricading herself in her home. But a last-minute call to a relative to say goodbye raised the alarm. Emergency services broke in, and she was rushed to hospital, where she remained on life support in a coma for several days. “There was no one incident that pushed me to do this, just very heavy pressure for a long time until I understood I couldn’t take it any longer,” says Havva, a strikingly beautiful 31-year-old who asks to be identified only by this pseudonym (meaning “Eve” in Farsi), since she comes from a rich and prominent Iranian family. “All my dreams were destroyed when I married at 17. There was no light, no hope in the way I was forced to live,” she says. She talks in a low voice of how she could never leave the house without her husband’s permission, nor make friends, work or resist him forcing himself on her several times a day. “But it is the traditional way. I thought that was all there was.”

Havva’s experience is far from unusual in modern-day Iran. Despite some advances in women’s rights over the past decade, and the fact that 60% of the country’s university graduates are now female, legally and socially women are still considered far inferior to men. In the words of the lawyer Shirin Ebadi, winner of the Nobel peace prize, “criminal laws adopted after the revolution took away a woman’s human identity and turned her into an incapable and mentally deranged second-class being”.

When Havva refers again to the curtains that she felt symbolised the crushing restrictions imposed on her by her marriage, the apartment feels claustrophobic and suffocating. It’s an all-too-common feeling in Iran today. As the country sits on the cusp of what many regard as the most significant presidential election since Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini deposed Reza Shah Pahlavi from his Peacock throne at the start of the Islamic revolution 30 years ago, denouncing westernisation and ordering every woman to cover herself with the chador, there is wide acknowledgment that Iran is sitting on a powder keg of barely suppressed fury at the stifling political, economic and social constraints its citizens have had to endure under the leadership of the current president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. >>> Christine Toomey | Sunday, June 07, 2009

In Pictures: D-Day Commemorations
Click here >>> | Saturday, June 06, 2009

Élections Européennes: Philippe de Villiers : « Pour Sarkozy, l’islamisation de l’Europe est inéluctable »
FAMILLE CHRÉTIENNE: Alors que la campagne des européennes, particulièrement atone, cherche toujours ses thèmes, Philippe de Villiers pousse un coup de gueule sur la Turquie. Pour lui, les élites politiques connaissent bien le phénomène de l’affaiblissement démographique européen et de « l’inéluctable » progression des populations musulmanes sur le continent. Propos recueillis par Jean-Claude Bésida.

Pourquoi êtes-vous autant focalisé sur le thème de la Turquie et de l’islamisation ?

Tout simplement parce que nous verrons les premières transformations d’églises en mosquées dans les trois ans qui viennent. En tout cas, c’est ce que m’a dit Nicolas Sarkozy.

Quand ?

J’ai eu une discussion de fond avec lui à l’Elysée à la fin de l’année dernière ; il m’a dit : « Toi tu as les intuitions, moi j’ai les chiffres. Et tes intuitions sont confirmées par mes chiffres. L’islamisation de l’Europe est inéluctable. » Attention : c’est un processus qui ne se fera pas instantanément, mais qui prendra quelques décennies.

Pourquoi cette question vous paraît-elle centrale ?

La plupart des hommes politiques ont une douce ignorance de ce qu’est l’islam et se proposent de transformer l’Europe en supermarché des religions concurrentes. Sans prendre conscience que l’islam n’est pas seulement une religion, mais que, confondant le temporel et le spirituel, il impose un droit. Mais derrière cette douce ignorance des hommes politiques, il y a ceux qui savent. Et ceux qui savent ont rédigé le livre vert paru en 2000, qui est un outil stratégique de la Commission de Bruxelles. Il fait le constat suivant : dans les années qui viennent se prépare un effondrement démographique qui porte sur des dizaines de millions de bras manquants. Pour y faire face, l’Union européenne propose un apport de peuplement nouveau – c’est dit en toutes lettres. La réalité c’est que nous allons vers un chassé-croisé avec, d’un côté en Europe l’avortement de masse et la promotion du mariage homosexuel et, de l’autre, l’immigration de masse qu’on appelle maintenant l’immigration choisie et qui ajoute à l’absurdité du déracinement un élément moralement scandaleux qui consiste à piller les élites des pays pauvres. >>> Par Jean-Claude Bésida | Jeudi 04 Juin 2009

THE BRUSSELS JOURNAL:
Sarkozy: “Islamization is Inevitable” >>> Tiberge | Saturday, June 06, 2009

Obama to Iran: Don’t Develop Nukes

Drittes Reich Dokumentation
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Das Dritte Reich in Farbe >>>

Column One: Obama's Arabian Dreams
THE JERUSALEM POST: US President Barack Obama claims to be a big fan of telling the truth. In media interviews ahead of his trip to Saudi Arabia and Egypt and during his big speech in Cairo on Thursday, he claimed that the centerpiece of his Middle East policy is his willingness to tell people hard truths.

Indeed, Obama made three references to the need to tell the truth in his so-called address to the Muslim world.

Unfortunately, for a speech billed as an exercise in truth telling, Obama's address fell short. Far from reflecting hard truths, Obama's speech reflected political convenience.

Obama's so-called hard truths for the Islamic world included statements about the need to fight so-called extremists; give equal rights to women; provide freedom of religion; and foster democracy. Unfortunately, all of his statements on these issues were nothing more than abstract, theoretical declarations devoid of policy prescriptions.

He spoke of the need to fight Islamic terrorists without mentioning that their intellectual, political and monetary foundations and support come from the very mosques, politicians and regimes in Saudi Arabia and Egypt that Obama extols as moderate and responsible.

He spoke of the need to grant equality to women without making mention of common Islamic practices like so-called honor killings, and female genital mutilation. He ignored the fact that throughout the lands of Islam women are denied basic legal and human rights. And then he qualified his statement by mendaciously claiming that women in the US similarly suffer from an equality deficit. In so discussing this issue, Obama sent the message that he couldn't care less about the plight of women in the Islamic world.

So, too, Obama spoke about the need for religious freedom but ignored Saudi Arabian religious apartheid. He talked about the blessings of democracy but ignored the problems of tyranny.

In short, Obama's "straight talk" to the Arab world, which began with his disingenuous claim that like America, Islam is committed to "justice and progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings," was consciously and fundamentally fraudulent. And this fraud was advanced to facilitate his goal of placing the Islamic world on equal moral footing with the free world.

In a like manner, Obama's tough "truths" about Israel were marked by factual and moral dishonesty in the service of political ends.

On the surface, Obama seemed to scold the Muslim world for its all-pervasive Holocaust denial and craven Jew hatred. By asserting that Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism are wrong, he seemed to be upholding his earlier claim that America's ties to Israel are "unbreakable."

Unfortunately, a careful study of his statements shows that Obama was actually accepting the Arab view that Israel is a foreign - and therefore unjustifiable - intruder in the Arab world. Indeed, far from attacking their rejection of Israel, Obama legitimized it. >>> By Caroline Glick | Friday, June 05, 2009

Bibi, Wake Up
YNET NEWS: Obama’s speech in Cairo presents Netanyahu with unequivocal dilemma

President Barack Obama’s speech in Cairo is supposed to be no less than a terribly loud bell ringing through the corridors of Israel’s political establishment. For those who thus far did not understand – or did not wish to understand – the winds blowing from Washington, Obama left no room for doubt: The United States supports Israel, yet the era of trickery, promises, and the gradual annexation in Judea and Samaria is over. The time has come for action; the time has come for moving towards a resolution of the Palestinian problem. And in Obama’s view, there is only one solution: A Palestinian state.

Beyond its expected effect within the Muslim world, the Cairo speech is no less than an effort to outline a path for Israel’s political establishment; a clear signal where things are headed. Ever since Obama’s election, officials in Jerusalem have sought ways to explain, interpret, and circumvent what has been obvious for a while now. With arrogance and contempt, officials here attempted to downplay the tension vis-à-vis the Americans, blur the disagreements, and hide behind various “natural growth” arguments. Now, Obama has made it clear: Wasting time and continued settlement construction are out; negotiations on the establishment of a Palestinian state are in. This message will affect Israel’s public and political discourse in the near future.

For Netanyahu, this is a major junction that offers only two directions: A collision course with the world’s greatest power, which will lead to Israel’s isolation and ostracism in the international arena – or a dramatic policy shift [e] that will exact difficult political prices. In other words: The prime minister must decide whether he’s going with Likud’s more rightist members, or with Obama.

When these are the options, Netanyahu has reason for concern in political terms. Wherever he turns, he will be hurt: If he folds in the face of the American pressure and modifies the narrative that has been accompanying him since he took office, he will encounter domestic resistance and an “Intifada” on the part of the Right and the settlers. Yet if he insists on going along with the conservative line that characterizes him and his government, in the face of the American pressure, he will quickly lose the Israeli public’s support, and possibly also the support of the Labor party, which is committed to the two-state solution. In both cases, Bibi’s current coalition may be shaken up. >>> Attila Somfalvi | Saturday, June 06, 2009

Wesley Pruden*: 'Inner Muslim' at work in Cairo
THE WASHINGTON TIMES: OPINION/ANALYSIS:

Now it's on to Normandy, to apologize to the Germans. It's the least an American president can do after the way the Allied armies left so much of Europe in rubble. There's a lot of groveling to do for what America accomplished in the Pacific, too.

This prospect should appeal to Barack Obama, who relishes the role of Apologizer-in-Chief. Apologizing for manifold sins against civilization is not always easy, but it's simple enough: "Blame America First." You just open a vein and let it flow. In Cairo, Mr. Obama opened an artery.

America, unlike the president, is guilty of hubris, arrogance and cant. All that must change. "Change" is what the smooth-talking Chicago messiah says he is all about. "Given our interdependence, any world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another will inevitably fail," he told the Muslim elites Thursday at Cairo U. "So whatever we think of the past, we must not be prisoners of it." It's not "a world order" that elevates America, but events. No other country is as generous, as forgiving, as willing to sacrifice blood and bone when the world calls for help. If not America, who? Hasn't the president heard?

Big talkers don't know when to stop when they're on a rhetorical roll because they can't remember which facts are actually facts and which "facts" they're making up. Mr. Obama even attributed the Golden Rule, from the teachings of Christ, to "every religion." In an interview before the Cairo speech, he called the United States one of "the largest Muslim countries," based on its Muslim population, and he later put the number of Muslims in America at 7 million, more than even most Islamic advocacy groups claim. The most reliable estimate, by the nonpartisan Pew research organization, is 1.8 million. That would make the United States the 48th "largest" Muslim nation, just behind Montenegro. Mr. Obama often has trouble with numbers, big and small; he once boasted of having campaigned in 57 states.

Mr. Obama described himself as "a Christian, but," and offered a hymn to the Muslim roots he insisted during the late presidential campaign he didn't have. He invoked his middle name, "Hussein," as evidence that he was one of "them." The Obama campaign insisted last year that anyone who uses the middle name was playing with racism. >>> Wesley Pruden*, Copyright 2009 The Washington Times, LLC | Friday, June 02, 2009

*Wesley Pruden is editor emeritus of The Washington Times.

Barack and Michelle Obama Decline Dinner with the Sarkozys
What a stupid, idiotic thing to do! The Obamas are behaving like petulant children. Shame on them! Most undignified! – ©Mark

TIMES ONLINE: The Obamas turn up in Paris this evening, but have declined a dinner invitation from the couple next door: the Sarkozys.

President Obama’s reluctance to spend more than minimum time with the French leader on his visit for the D-Day anniversary has come as an embarrassment to the Elysée Palace.

America’s First Family will not be dining with President Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Bruni, even though they are staying at the residence of the US Ambassador, yards from the Elysée apartments where the Sarkozys spend their weekends. >>> Charles Bremner in Paris | Friday, June 05, 2009

Verneigung Obamas vor den Holocaust-Opfern: Viele ehrende Worte, aber wenig Wärme beim Treffen mit Merkel
Obama und Merkel mit Friedensnobelpreisträger Elie Wiesel auf dem Gelände des Konzentrationslagers Buchenwald. Bild dank der Neuen Zürcher Zeitung
NZZ Online: Präsident Obama hat mit einem Besuch im früheren Konzentrationslager Buchenwald deutlich gemacht, dass der Holocaust auch in seinem Politikverständnis eine entscheidende Rolle spielt.

Zusammen mit seiner Gastgeberin, der deutschen Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel, hat der amerikanische Präsident Barack Obama am Freitagnachmittag das Nazi-Konzentrationslager Buchenwald bei Weimar besucht. Damit machte er deutlich, dass seine Dialogbereitschaft gegenüber der islamischen Welt nicht etwa als Abwendung von den Juden oder vom Staat Israel zu verstehen ist. Nach einem Rundgang durch das Lager riefen er und Merkel zu Wachsamkeit gegenüber Unmenschlichkeit und Terror auf. Er werde nie vergessen, was er hier gesehen habe, sagte Obama, der sichtlich zutiefst bewegt war.

«Nie wieder»

Obama ist der erste amerikanische Präsident, der Buchenwald besichtigt. Mit dem Lager, in das unter der Herrschaft der Nationalsozialisten rund eine Viertelmillion Menschen verschleppt wurden und in dem mehr als 56'000 zu Tode kamen, verbindet sich in seinem Fall auch ein Stück Familiengeschichte. Laut Angaben des Präsidenten gehörte der heute 84 Jahre alte Bruder seiner Grossmutter 1945 zu den amerikanischen Soldaten, die einen Teil des Lagers befreiten. «Dieser Ort lehrt uns, wachsam zu sein in unserer eigenen Zeit, damit so etwas nie wieder passiert», sagte Obama. Am Denkmal für alle Häftlinge auf dem einstigen Appellplatz legte er eine weisse Rose nieder. Merkel machte klar, dass es Teil deutscher Staatsräson sei, die immerwährende Erinnerung an den Zivilisationsbruch durch den Völkermord an den Juden wachzuhalten. Der KZ-Überlebende und Nobelpreisträger Elie Wiesel erzählte Obama von seiner Zeit in dem Lager. >>> U. Sd. Dresden | Freitag, 05. Juni 2009

Local Elections 2009: The Nation Knows the Game Is Up
THE TELEGRAPH: What is happening to Gordon Brown now makes John Major's government look like a triumph, observes Simon Heffer.

Pass him a bottle of Scotch: Gordon Brown leaving a press conference on Friday. Photo courtesy of The Telegraph
Watching an embalmed-looking and robotic-sounding Gordon Brown giving his press conference, one recognised one of the failings of our otherwise revered constitution: that it places no bar on a man who has taken leave of his senses still holding Her Majesty's commission as first minister. No government has had so bad a day since Black Wednesday, 17 years ago; and let us not forget the revenge the country took for that.

What is happening now makes John Major's government look like a triumph. We do not need to rehearse here the litany of disasters affecting Mr Brown and his administration, but let us anyway: the haemorrhaging of cabinet ministers, the demands from backbenchers that he go, the withering contempt of former colleagues, the abuse from the feminist "sisterhood", the inability to handle the expenses scandal, the shattered wreck of the British economy, the botched reshuffle, a backbencher walking out and forcing a by-election, a slaughter in the local elections and, on Sunday, the possibility of Labour's being beaten by both the Lib Dems and Ukip.

How much more proof of his utter unsuitability to lead a party or a government does Mr Brown need? And, now the momentum has started, how much more encouragement does his party need to boot him out, and to live up to their rhetoric of doing what is right for the country?

For most people in Mr Brown's position, just watching a recording of their own press conference would be enough to make them reach for the revolver and the bottle of Scotch. But Mr Brown isn't most people. He is never wrong – or at least, despite his hints about mistakes, can never admit he is, even to himself. Mistakes are things inevitably made by others. He has an entourage of oiling and greasing cronies, many of them mediocrities powered by rampant ambition, some of whom prospered in the reshuffle. Those who offer differing opinions are reviled, humiliated, and see the rough side of Mr Brown's occasionally infantile personality. That is why several politicians can no longer bear to work for him. However bad the public find him, the reality is even worse. >>> By Simon Heffer | Friday, June 05, 2009

Hallelujah! Europe Voters Swing to Right
TIMES ONLINE: The party of far-right anti-Muslim MP Geert Wilders, who was banned from entering Britain earlier this year for his xenophobic beliefs, has won its first four seats in the European Parliament, according to a Dutch exit poll last night.

The result, which places the Freedom Party second in the Netherlands behind the ruling Christian Democrats and ahead of Labour, suggests that many continental voters will swing behind fringe anti-immigrant parties in the European poll.

An exit poll for the Dutch national broadcaster NOS gave Mr Wilders’s party around 15 per cent of votes, with the ruling right-of-centre party on 20.3 per cent. It confirms forecasts that the Right will be the main victors of this week’s European Parliament elections, with results set to be declared officially in Sunday night after polls have closed in all 27 EU countries.

Mr Wilders, who will not be among his party’s MEPs, lives under police protection after numerous death threats for his outspoken views on closing mosques and blocking immigration in Europe’s most densely populated country.

The party’s message found a resonance in a backlash against the tolerance of immigrants for which the Netherlands has become known. Mr Wilders, 45, instantly recognisable with his shock of dyed platinum hair, last year made a controversial film which portrayed images of extremist violence against a backdrop of the Koran.

“Turkey as [an] Islamic country should never be in the EU, not in 10 years, not in a million years,” he said while campaigning on the slogan "More Netherlands, less Europe". Europe Voters Swing to Right, Say Pollsters >>> David Charter, Europe Correspondent | Friday, June 05, 2009

De Seno: Obama’s Christian-Muslim Double Standard: Our First Dhimmi President
THE FOX FORUM: With every speech he gives, President Obama goes further and further in diminishing Christianity in America while inflating Muslims here and around the world.

For Americans this appears to be at best an incredibly bad choice of rhetoric or at worst the manifestation of a prejudice hidden in Obama, finally making its way out.

To Muslims though, it has a much deeper meaning tied to the concept of “Dhimmi,” the subjugation of other religions to Islam. I’ll define that in more detail at the end of this column, but first let’s examine the proof that Obama is diminishing Christians while inflating Muslims.

It started in a speech he gave in 2007 when he stated, “Whatever we once were, we’re no longer a Christian nation.” At that same speech he criticized Christian leaders, claiming they have used their religion for political purposes.

I guess he thinks “Jihad” is a Christian word.

He repeated again that “America is not a Christian nation” a few weeks later. Little was made of it during the Presidential campaign because the media protected Obama from controversy at all costs. Either that or they just didn’t grasp for themselves the “Dhimmi” implications Obama’s words had for Muslims around the world.

One of his campaign promises was to give a speech “in a major Muslim capital” in his first 100 days in office.

The only such speech he made was in Turkey. At a press conference before his speech, Obama said, “[O]ne of the great strengths of the United States is — although as I mentioned, we have a very large Christian population, we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation…”

He went on to say that America is also not a Muslim or Jewish nation, but no one has ever assumed that. His point therefore was to once again make sure the world knew he doesn’t consider America, comprised of 78.5% Christians, a “Christian nation.”

Three times in two years is enough, Mr. President. I fully understand you don’t consider America a “Christian nation.”

Perhaps what the President is referring to is that America has a secular government. We do, after all, have a secular Constitutional Republic that explicitly allows no state religion while allowing the practice of any religion.

The question then becomes does he see nations that are majority Muslim the same way? Has he made it a point to tell them three times they are not “Muslim nations?” In hypocritical fashion, no he hasn’t.

If Turkey was his first speech in a “Muslim capital,” why does he call it that? Like America, Turkey is a secular Constitutional Republic that explicitly allows no state religion while allowing the practice of any religion. See the double standard? According to Obama, Turkey is Muslim but America is not Christian. >>> By Tommy DeSeno | Friday, June 05, 2009

Gordon Brown Declares He Is the Right Man for the Job
All I can say is: I’m glad he thinks he’s the right man for the job. Many wouldn’t agree with him. – ©Mark

BNP Wins First Ever County Council Seat in Major Victory for Far-right Party
MAIL Online: The British National Party won its first ever county council seat in the UK today.

The far right party won its first seat in Lancashire in the party's stronghold of Burnley as Labour was routed.

Sharon Wilkinson was elected to Lancashire County Council with a massive 30 per cent of the vote as electors dumped Labour in their droves.

Her victory in the Padiham and Burnley West ward, where she was born and brought up, is a major victory for the party. >>> By Jaya Narain and Beth Hale | Friday, June 05, 2009

Las imágenes censuradas de Berlusconi: Fotografías publicadas en exclusiva por EL PAÍS
Haga clic aquí para verlos >>>
EL PAÍS:
El escándalo de las fotos privadas sacude la campaña de Berlusconi: La fiscalía requisa cientos de imágenes de las fiestas en su casa de Cerdeña >>> Miguel Mora | Domingo 5 mayo 2009

EL PAÍS:
Berlusconi califica de "inocentes" las fotos de sus fiestas publicadas en EL PAÍS: El primer ministro italiano denuncia la publicación de las fotos de sus fiestas como una "agresión" a la intimidad, pese a que defiende que no son escandalosas >>> ELPAIS.com – Madrid | Viernes 5 junio 2009

Al-Qaida: Neues Terrorvideo mit dem Deutschen Breininger
WELT ONLINE: In dem Video treten erstmals ranghohe Führer der al-Qaida und der Islamischen Dschihad Union (IJU) gemeinsam auf. Breininger droht mit dem Kampf gegen die "Ungläubigen". Sicherheitskreise bestätigen WELT ONLINE, dass die IJU und al-Qaida derzeit eine[n] ganze Flut neuer Videobotschaften veröffentlichen.

Der deutsche Islamist Eric Breininger in einem Terror-Ausbildungslager. Bild dank der Welt
Vom deutschen Islamisten Eric Breininger ist erneut ein Terrorvideo aufgetaucht. Das Video, das WELT ONLINE vorliegt, ist auf den 28. Mai 2009 datiert und dokumentiert erstmals eine direkte Verbindung zwischen den Terrororganisationen al-Qaida und der Islamischen Dschihad-Union (IJU).

In dem Film droht Breininger den "Ungläubigen". Dabei nennt er auch seinen Aufenthaltsort. Während der deutsche Islamist in einer Felsschlucht mit einer Kalaschnikow posiert, sagt Breininger: "Wir befinden uns hier in Afghanistan, um uns gegen die Kufr vorzubereiten." Der arabische Begriff Kufr steht für Ungläubige, also Nicht-Muslime. >>> Von Florian Flade | Freitag, 05. Juni 2009

Can Barack Obama's Soothing Rhetoric Douse the Muslim Militants' Flames?
THE TELEGRAPH: The President's plea for a new beginning will face formidable obstacles, says Con Coughlin

Metrosexual Barack Obama in Egypt. Photo courtesy of The Telegraph
Short of declaring his intention to convert to Islam, it is difficult to imagine what more Barack Obama might have said during his speech yesterday to demonstrate his seriousness about healing the poisonous rift between the West and the Muslim world.

After invoking the traditional Muslim welcome – "Assalaamu alaykum" or "Peace be upon you" – the President proceeded to explain how, despite his being raised a Christian, his father's family came from generations of Muslims. He acknowledged the enormous debt Western civilisation owes to Islam, from the development of algebra to the elegant refinement of calligraphy, and stressed the Islamic faith's espousal of religious tolerance and racial equality. He reminded his audience at Cairo University that John Adams, one of America's founding fathers, wrote that "the United States has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquillity of Muslims".

Regarding the more contemporary conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the President articulated a very different set of objectives to those of the previous administration, which had regarded the forceful transformation of Iraq from Ba'athist dictatorship to Western-style democracy as a template to be replicated throughout the Muslim world. Mr Obama has no desire for American troops to be kept abroad a day longer than necessary. While conceding that Iraq was a far better place without Saddam Hussein – an admission he struggled to make during last year's presidential campaign – the president made it clear that he wants to leave Iraq to the Iraqis, and has no desire to establish a permanent presence in Afghanistan.

By any test, Mr Obama's attempt to reverse decades of mounting contempt, anger and violence within the Muslim world towards the West left no stone unturned. It was a skilful attempt to persuade his sceptical audience that America is not, and never will be, at war with Islam. But try telling that to the mullahs in Iran, or the leadership of the Taliban and al-Qaeda, or the millions of other Muslims who have no desire to be dissuaded from their visceral hatred of the West and all that it stands for. >>> By Con Coughlin | Thursday, June 04, 2009

Geert Wilders' Anti-EU Party Biggest Election Winner
RADIO NETHERLANDS WORLDWIDE: The biggest winners in Thursday's European Parliament elections in the Netherlands are the two most outspoken parties: Geert Wilders' nationalist anti-EU party and the firmly pro-EU social-liberal party D66.

Fielding candidates for the first time, Mr Wilders' staunchly anti-European party will be returning four of the 25 Dutch MEPs. The other winners are social-liberal D66 and Green Left, both of whom are firm advocates of the European Union; each will send three MEPs to Brussels.
 


The Freedom Party MEPs will be headed by Barry Madlener; Mr Wilders will remain an MP in The Hague. The Freedom Party has ruled out joining any of the existing multi-party factions in the EP. In his victory speech, Mr Madlener repeated he will go for "less Europe, more Netherlands, Turkey never an EU member". >>> By Rob Kievit | Friday, June 06, 2009

NRC HANDELSBLAD INTERNATIONAL: The Netherlands Is Now a Polarised Country

Stable government coalitions may be a thing of the past in the new, polarised Netherlands.

In politics, things can turn on a euro cent. Just six month ago Wouter Bos was celebrated for the way he dealt with the financial crisis. The Dutch Labour party leader and finance minister soared in the opinion polls. But all that was forgotten when people went to vote on Thursday, and dealt Bos' party a devastating blow: Labour lost four of its seven seats in the European parliament.

The Christian democrats, the other major coalition partner, also took a severe beating: it went from seven to five seats. That didn't keep prime minister and party leader Jan Peter Balkenende from claiming victory: "We said we wanted to remain the biggest party and that's what happened," Balkenende said, adding nevertheless that his coalition government will have to work hard to regain the public's confidence.

The big winner of Thursday's election was undoubtedly Geert Wilders, whose Party for Freedom (PVV) went from zero to four seats, making it the second biggest Dutch party in the Brussels parliament in its first European election.

Low turnout

The mainstream parties had silently hoped that the traditional low turnout for European elections would prevent a PVV breakthrough, going on the assumption that Wilders supporters are not that interested in Europe and wouldn't bother to vote. That turned out to be wrong. Despite a record low turnout - 36.5 percent, 2.5 points less than in 2004 - the PVV was able to attract 16.9 percent of all voters. According to research by public broadcaster NOS, many PVV voters were men and/or over fifty.

At a party meeting on Monday, Wilders had correctly predicted that the PVV would become bigger than his old party, the right-wing liberal VVD, which he broke away from in 2004. Still, VVD party leader Mark Rutte was not entirely unhappy with his party's three seats - down from four. Opinion polls had predicted a bigger loss. Just ahead of the election, Rutte had caused a controversy by proposing to broaden the definition of freedom of speech to include Holocaust denial. No matter how hard he tried to explain what exactly he meant, Rutte was ruthlessly attacked by political friends and foes alike. "This is a good result, " Rutte said on Thursday night.

But even Wilders had not expected his party to become bigger than Labour. "This the day the PVV finally made its breakthrough," he said. "People have had enough of the Balkenende and Bos cabinet." Wilders will not be going to Brussels himself; preferring to concentrate on national politics. Instead, an aide, Barry Madlener, will lead the PVV's four-man delegation to the European parliament, an institution it would like to see abolished. >>> By Herman Staal in The Hague | Friday, June 05, 2009

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Rehn Says Turkey Has "Plenty of Works" [sic] to Do in EU Accession
HÜRRIYET: WASHINGTON - Turkey must speed up long-delayed reforms to keep its bid to join the European Union on track amid fatigue over expanding membership of the 27-nation bloc, the EU's enlargement chief said on Thursday.

EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said there was "plenty of work" for Turkey to do on issues such as freedom of expression and the media, as well as trade union rights, if it wanted entry into the bloc.

"Turkey needs to seriously resume reforms enhancing fundamental freedoms," Rehn told Reuters in an interview in Washington, where he was meeting U.S. State Department and World Bank officials to discuss a range of issues, including Turkey.

He said Turkey must adopt a law on trade unions respecting the standards of international labor organizations -- a demand made for the past three years.

"It was last promised in January and then by April and we have not seen it. Therefore we cannot open a chapter (negotiations) on social policy in employment as there is no agreement," Rehn said.

In Turkey, skepticism about the EU and the belief it is unfairly hindering the majority Muslim but secular nation's accession talks have grown, with powerful conservative opponents having said they will resist attempts to change the constitution.

Opinion polls show many Turks feel the EU has cooled toward the country and that the bloc will not accept Turkey as a member state, even if Ankara meets all political and economic requirements for EU accession. >>> | Friday, June 05, 2009

Symbiotic US-Saudi Partnership Continues
SAUDI GAZETTE: JEDDAH - US exports to the Kingdom are rising in value, but represent a falling percentage of total Saudi imports, the Saudi British Bank said in its latest report on US-Saudi Trade Relations released on Thursday.

It said, moreover, that a huge expansion in Saudi Arabia’s oil production capacity is set to help meet US and global needs.

The bank noted that the relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia is based on a symbiotic relationship involving an understanding, but not always agreement, about politics, economics and security issues.

The sum of these three elements makes the relationship “special”, but also symbiotic. It is a relationship in which the partners cannot be easily disentangled. It is also a relationship that is often misunderstood and subject to misinformation. For the US, Saudi Arabia is a politico-strategic partner in the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia is a voice of moderation and stability - and undoubtedly the single most important country in the world of energy. It is the driving force that tries to bring moderation in prices and to supply global markets with sufficient oil.

It further said that despite the political proclamations of Washington (made by every US administration since President Nixon), the US will become more dependent on foreign oil, particularly Middle Eastern oil.

The report said US-Saudi trade relations have remained solid, albeit with imports from the US progressively declining over the years as a percentage of total imports. But Saudi Arabia remains one of the US’s top 15 trading partners. >>> Saudi Gazette staff | Friday, June 05, 2009

‘Shariah Does Not Bar Women from Driving’
SAUDI GAZETTE: HAIL – Abdullah Al-Mutlaq, a professor of Comparative Fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence) and a former judge at Hail court, has called for women to be allowed to drive, saying that there are no objections to it in Shariah and that “customs and traditions in our society must not rule us absolutely.”

Al-Mutlaq, speaking to Okaz newspaper, said that the study he was currently carrying out on the issue was motivated by a wish to tackle problems associated with foreign drivers being responsible for transporting Saudi females.

Al-Mutlaq said the move would serve to “prevent corruption” and noted “many negative observations concerning drivers.”

Al-Mutlaq said women should be allowed to drive, and cited the fact that many already do in rural areas with no resultant problems.

“They have earned respect with their abidance of traffic laws,” he said.

Al-Mutlaq called upon youth to respect women driving and expressed a wish for the issue to be treated as “normal”.

Al-Mutlaq’s comments support those expressed by Islamic thinker and former Minister of Information Dr. Mohammed Abdo Yamani, who told Al-Watan newspaper on Wednesday that women should be allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia.

Yamani appealed in an interview with Al-Watan to “the Grand Mufti, the Board of Senior Ulema’ and the Shoura Council to resolve the issue and relieve Saudi women of this injustice”.

“How can a person stop his wife and daughters driving a car without a Shariah text to support him, and then go and permit them to get in a car with a foreign man?” Yamani asked.

Yamani was quoted by the newspaper as calling for “some adaptation to the requirements of the age, as has happened in other cases.” – Okaz/SG [Source: Saudi Gazette] By Metib Al-Awwad | Friday, June 05, 2009

A Warning from Buchenwald
YNET NEWS: Israel has no intention of allowing Ahmadinejad to have history repeat itself

President Obama delivered an important speech in Cairo Thursday directed to the Muslim world, in an effort to seize the opportunity and inject momentum into the stalled Middle East peace process. At the same time, on the very next day, the president seeks to engage and reassure the Jewish community by visiting Buchenwald Concentration Camp, which his great uncle helped liberate.

By making this visit, and bringing back the tragic memories of the past, the president is signaling Israel’s supporters that he understands their fears and concerns.

The president surely knows that, for Jews, those memories are at the very heart of the current impasse in the Middle East. How can they not be when the chief funder of terrorist groups like Hamas and Hizbullah is Iran – the same country that just successfully tested a new Sejil-2 surface missile with a range of 1,200 miles that can reach Europe; a country whose president denies the Holocaust, calls for the eradication of Israel and continues to defy the world by seeking to develop nuclear weapons.

However, to really understand the existential threat that Iran poses to Israel, the president and fellow world leaders gathering in France on June 6th to commemorate the 65th anniversary of D-Day, might recall a similar fear that gripped Winston Churchill in the days just prior to the launch of Operation Overlord.

Churchill was obsessed over what the Nazi response to the massive allied operation might be. On May 18, 1944, he wrote to his Chief of Staff, General Ismay: “I do not myself believe the Germans will use poison gas on the beaches ... the reason is that we could retaliate tenfold (with poison gas) ... however, the temptation to use it on the beaches might be strong enough to override prudence – it’s worth considering whether a warning should not be uttered by me and the President (Roosevelt) that if any form of gas or toxic substance is used upon us or any of our allies, we shall immediately use the full power of our forces to drench German cities and towns.” >>> Marvin Hier | Friday, June 05, 2009

Rabbi Hier is the Founder and Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center

A Triumphant Day for Geert Wilders in the Netherlands
TELEGRAPH: Geert Wilders' far-Right anti-immigration party made significant gains in the European Parliament elections in the Netherlands on Thursday, according to exit polls.

Geert Wilders, who was banned from Britain by the Home Office because of his controversial views on Islam, won support from Protestant and Catholic voters. Photo courtesy of The Telegraph
The European Parliament elections had been widely expected to punish governments struggling to cope with the global economic crisis, and polls released by the ANP news agency and broadcaster NOS put the Right-wing Freedom Party on course to win four of the 25 Dutch seats in the parliament, after having none in the previous assembly. This put Mr Wilders' party second only to the ruling Christian Democrats, which got nearly 20 per cent of votes, according to the poll.

Mr Wilders, who was banned from Britain by the Home Office because of his controversial views on Islam, won support from Protestant and Catholic voters disenchanted with what has been perceived as the growing influence of the nation's 800,000 Muslims, many of them immigrants from Morocco and Turkey.

Mr Wilders, whose party was contesting European elections for the first time, campaigned on an anti-EU platform and criticised Turkey's bid to join the EU.

"Should Turkey as an Islamic country be able to join the European Union? We are the only party in Holland that says, it is an Islamic country, so no, not in 10 years, not in a million years," he said. Dutch Far-Right Comes Second in European Parliament Election >>> | Thursday, June 04, 2009

NRC HANDELSBLAD INTERNATIONAL: Wilders Big Winner of Dutch EU Elections

The Party for Freedom of the populist politician Geert Wilders becomes the second biggest party representing in the Netherlands in Europe.

Geert Wilders and his populist Party for Freedom (PVV) appeared to be the big winners of Thursday's elections for European parliament in the Netherlands. Exit polls released soon after the Dutch voting stations closed at 9 p.m. on Thursday evening predicted he would get four of the 25 Dutch seats in the European parliament, making the PVV the second largest of all Dutch parties in Brussels.
Wilders, who has become popular in the Netherlands running on an anti-Islam and anti-political establishment platform, promised voters he would be tough on immigration and criticised Turkey's bid to join the EU. "Should Turkey as an Islamic country be able to join the European Union? We are the only party in Holland that says, it is an Islamic country, so no, not in 10 years, not in a million years," Wilders said. >>> NRC Handelsblad News Desk | Thursday, June 04, 2009

Inshallah Somebody Will Shut This Man Up! Shahid Malik on His Objectives for Parliament

Sharia Law 'Same' as Krays' Rule, Says Lord Tebbit
Lord Tebbit has reignited the row over Islamic courts and their role in the British justice system. Photo courtesy of MailOnline
MAIL Online: Veteran Tory Lord Tebbit provoked anger among Muslims yesterday by comparing Islamic sharia courts to gangsters.

He likened the tribunals to the 'system of arbitration of disputes that was run by the Kray brothers'.

Lord Tebbit told the Lords: 'Are you not aware that there is extreme pressure put upon vulnerable women to go through a form of arbitration that results in them being virtually precluded from access to British law?'

The intervention from Lord Tebbit, the former Tory chairman and cabinet minister whose leading role in the Thatcher years has made him a revered figure for many in the party, reignited the row over Islamic courts and their role in the British justice system.

Muslim critics called his remarks 'baseless and ignorant'.

Last autumn, ministers confirmed that sharia tribunals may deal with family and divorce disputes among Muslims, and that sharia decisions need only the briefest scrutiny in a law court to win full legal effect.

Five sharia courts currently operate mediation systems approved under the 1996 Arbitration Act.

Their decisions on divorce, money and children can be approved by a family court if they are submitted to a judge for approval. >>> By Steve Doughty | Thursday, June 04, 2009