Serious Fraud Office widens investigations into alleged corruption at BAE Systems

Image courtesy of Google Images

BBC: The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has widened its investigation into corruption allegations at UK defence giant BAE Systems.

Together with Ministry of Defence Police, the SFO raided three business addresses and a home earlier this week.

The SFO said the raids were not related to existing inquiries into BAE defence contracts in Romania and Saudi Arabia.

It is already investigating claims that BAE made secret payments to cement arms deals with those countries. Probe into BAE arms deals widens

Riddle of sheik's £100m secret fund

Arms firm's £60m slush fund

Saudi bomb victim's torture ordeal - and Britain's silence

Mark Alexander

The veil controversy spirals out of control. Now Italy has its problems with the Islamic mask

Photo courtesy of the BBC

BBC: An Italian politician will be given police protection following comments she made about the Islamic veil on television.

The MP, Daniela Santanche, from the right wing National Alliance, said the veil was not required by the Koran.

She was labelled an infidel by an imam appearing on the same programme and there are now fears for her safety.

Daniela Santanche recently published a critical book on living conditions for Muslim women called Woman Denied. Protection for Italy veil row MP

Mark Alexander

Infidels fear the spread of Islam, says Saudi cleric
Certainly, we people who do not adhere to the faith of Islam fear its spread in the free world. And rightly so. Unfortunately, we are being led by craven politicians who either do not understand Islam, are making too much money from the oil-rich Gulf, or are simply too craven to face the threat head-on. The result is there for all too see: Islam is growing apace in the West, and nobody has the courage to do anything about it.

Bush and Blair's ridiculous policy of trying to bring democracy to Iraq is coming to a sad end. They have busied themselves on a mission which was destined to end in failure, while all the while we are losing our democracy at home. I have consistently stated that to try and bring democracy to the Middle East is a grave error of policy and judgment. One cannot bring democracy to a people who are semi-literate (the illiteracy rate in the Arab world is very high), and further, one cannot bring democracy to a part of the world where the 'religion' of Islam prevails. Islam, as I have said so many times before, is totally and utterly incompatible with the Western notion of liberal democracy.

Islam neither understands nor allows the separation of politics and religion. In Islam the mosque and state are ONE. Moreover, in Islam, all power rests with Allah, and filters down to the people via his vice-gerents here on earth, and then filters down further to the people. In democracy, all power rests with the people and filters up to the leader(s). This circle cannot be squared, however much anyone tries.

Instead of trying to bring democracy to the Middle East, where in any case it is considered a Western concept of government to be viewed with suspicion by all good Muslims, it would have been far better and far more prudent for Bush and Blair to have expended their energy ensuring that democracy at home remained safe for future generations.

This has not been done; and this is why we are in the mess we are in vis-à-vis the growing strength of Islam here in the West.

©Mark Alexander

JOKE OF THE WEEK: In a Eid message, Saudi Arabia's king and crown prince urged Muslims to follow Prophet Mohammad's "message of love, forgiveness, mercy, unity and goodness."

WASHINGTON POST: RIYADH (Reuters) - A prominent Saudi cleric said on Monday that Pope Benedict's controversial remarks on Islam came from vexation at the spread of the Muslim faith. Saudi cleric says West fearful of spread of Islam

MIDDLE EAST TIMES: MECCA, Saudi Arabia -- Fear of the spread of Islam in non-Muslim countries motivates attacks on Muslims in the West, the imam of Islam's holiest shrine told worshipers celebrating Eid Al Fitr feast Monday.

"Did you wonder why this issue is raised every now and then?" Sheikh Saleh Bin Humaid, who also heads the Saudi-appointed Shura (consultative) Council, asked at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, western Saudi Arabia.

He was referring to controversial remarks by Pope Benedict XVI last month in which he cited a fourteenth-century Christian emperor who said that Islam's Prophet Mohammed had brought the world "evil and inhuman" practices "such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

The issue "was raised only because the hearts of observers among the adversaries are filled with resentment over the spread of this faith and its overcoming of all borders, barriers, and blocks in all eras and under all circumstances," Bin Humaid said. Non-Muslims fear expansion of Islam, says Mecca imam

Mark Alexander

Britain's Politicians choose dhimmitude over courage in fight over niqab

Photo courtesy of The Telegraph

THE TELEGRAPH: Britain's first Muslim comedian is being sent to India by the British Council to make jokes about the veil.

The aim of the trip by Shazia Mirza, which is expected to cost about £2,000, is to show that Britain is a free and civilised society and to build bridges with Muslims.

Miss Mirza, 30, has been told she can make jokes about the burkha but has been advised "not to upset Muslims in India".

Miss Mirza came to prominence immediately after September 11 when audiences were unsure how to react to her introduction. Wearing a hejab, she would say: "My name's Shazia Mirza — at least, that's what it says on my pilot's licence."

News of her trip came as politicians backed an appeal yesterday to end the "polarising" row over Muslim veils after the head of Britain's race relations watchdog warned that it could trigger race riots. Comic is sent abroad to joke about the veil

Mark Alexander

Civil unrest likely in UK

THE SUNDAY TIMES: THE head of Britain’s race relations watchdog has warned there will be “fire” on the streets unless growing racial tensions can be resolved.

Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, says divisions created by the recent row about Muslim women wearing the veil risk becoming “the trigger for the grim spiral that produced riots in the north of England five years ago. Only this time the conflict could be much worse”.

In what will be seen as his swansong before he becomes head of the new Commission for Equality and Human Rights, Phillips says: “All the recent evidence shows that we are, as a society, becoming more socially polarised by race and faith . . . In many of our cities things cannot get any worse.”

His warning is made in an article in The Sunday Times today about the need for a “civilised” debate on race. He paints a picture of a society whose institutions appear to be helpless in the face of mounting racial conflict. Race boss warns of ‘fire’ on streets

Mark Alexander

The pro-Muslim, anti-American bias of the trashy BBC

THE SUNDAY MAIL: It was the day that a host of BBC executives and star presenters admitted what critics have been telling them for years: the BBC is dominated by trendy, Left-leaning liberals who are biased against Christianity and in favour of multiculturalism.

A leaked account of an 'impartiality summit' called by BBC chairman Michael Grade, is certain to lead to a new row about the BBC and its reporting on key issues, especially concerning Muslims and the war on terror.

It reveals that executives would let the Bible be thrown into a dustbin on a TV comedy show, but not the Koran, and that they would broadcast an interview with Osama Bin Laden if given the opportunity. Further, it discloses that the BBC's 'diversity tsar', wants Muslim women newsreaders to be allowed to wear veils when on air. We are biased, admit the stars of BBC News

Mark Alexander

Sweden's tough Muslim minister turns on veil

Photo courtesy of Google Images

THE SUNDAY TIMES: THE latest media darling of Scandinavian politics is not only black, beautiful and Muslim; she is also firmly against the wearing of the veil.

Nyamko Sabuni, 37, has caused a storm as Sweden’s new integration and equality minister by arguing that all girls should be checked for evidence of female circumcision; arranged marriages should be criminalised; religious schools should receive no state funding; and immigrants should learn Swedish and find a job.

Supporters of the centre-right government that came to power last month believe that her bold rejection of cultural diversity may make her a force for change across Europe. Her critics are calling her a hardliner and even an Islamophobe.

“I am neither,” she said in an interview. “My aim is to integrate immigrants. One is to ensure they grow up just as any other child in Sweden would.” Sweden's Muslim minister turns on veil

Mark Alexander

Government in danger of losing "battle of ideas"
If Tony Blair needs proof of the failure of his open-door policy on immigration, here it is:

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: John Reid has issued a dire warning that the Government risks losing the "battle of ideas" with al-Qaeda.

The Home Secretary spoke out at an emergency meeting of ministers and security officials amid an ever-growing threat from home-grown Islamist terror groups.

He called for an urgent but controversial escalation in the propaganda war and said al-Qaeda's so-called "single extremist narrative" was proving ever more attractive to young British Muslims.

The Government needed to do much more to win the "battle of ideas", Mr Reid said. The meeting came as ministers — including Jack Straw, Ruth Kelly and Phil Woolas — started to take a much more aggressive stance against radical Islam.

Ministers have told The Sunday Telegraph that 30 terror plots are being investigated and that 1,500 young Muslims — many more than previously estimated — are suspects. Al-Qaeda is winning the war of ideas, says Reid

Mark Alexander

Britain should ban the veil!

Photo courtesy of the Daily Express

DAILY EXPRESS: PRESSURE was mounting last night for veils to be banned in Britain – just as they are in some Muslim countries.

And rebels plotting fresh court protests were given a blunt warning by lawmakers: "Carry on, and we will bar you."

The threat came amid a public outcry over the costs being racked up by teaching assistant Aishah Azmi as her lawyers, funded by taxpayers, continued their fight for her right to wear a veil in class.

Daily Express readers responded in massive numbers to a poll on the crisis, with 99 per cent calling for the veil to be banned in schools, increasing pressure on the Government to act.

A ban would see Britain following many of its European neighbours, along with predominantly Muslim countries like Turkey and Tunisia in outlawing traditional Islamic headscarves in public schools and buildings. Ban it!

Mark Alexander

Even the tolerant British have their limits
The otherwise tolerant British do indeed have their limits! The veil stretches it to breaking point. The Muslim community would be wise not to push the British too far. There could be a backlash. That we have given these people a home when they might otherwise be living in far less salubrious surroundings is not something that they should overlook in arrogance.

If Muslims wonder why so many ordinary folk feel uncomfortable in their presence, then they need to start doing a spot of introspection. Muslims are past masters in putting the blame for their woes on others, expecially 'infidels'. In this regard, they are indeed arrogant, and, dare I say it, rather immature. If a normal person is disliked by someone else, then he will sit down and analyze whether he is doing something wrong. Not so the Muslim!

In the leader in today's Telegraph, it is suggested that there is a process of Arabisation of British Muslims going on. There is; and there is one simple answer as to why. It is going on because Islam is Arabo-centric. Having to toleratw this Arabisation is the price we pay for having so many Muslims in our midst. Take the Arabisation out of Islam, and what does one have left? Islam is nothing if not Arabo-centric. It was born in the heat of the desert. It is tribal in nature and Bedouin in outlook. Its propensity to savagery stems from there. As does its treatment of women.

©Mark Alexander

THE TELEGRAPH: Shahid Malik, the Labour MP for Dewsbury, spoke for almost the entire nation yesterday when he told Aisha Azmi – the Muslim teaching assistant suspended for wearing a veil – "to just let this thing go". An employment tribunal has rightly rejected Mrs Azmi's case for unfair dismissal, though – absurdly – it has awarded her damages for "victimisation" by her local council. Now is indeed the time for her to drop the matter, though, needless to say, she intends to take her case to a "higher court". (Radical Muslims in Britain are quick to explore legal avenues that are not open to Christians in the countries they admire.)

Mrs Azmi's unreasonable demands, coupled with Jack Straw's bold comments about the intimidating aspects of the full-face veil, have forced the British public to think carefully about the presence of Muslim ghettos and Islamic fundamentalists in our society. A clear conclusion has emerged. As a nation, we feel that our tolerance is being stretched to the limit. The veil stretches our tolerance to its limits

Mark Alexander

Alert! Dhimmitude from the Spanish government!

BBC: The Spanish government, Catholic Church and Muslim leaders have joined forces to publish a school textbook on Islam.

The book Discovering Islam - for primary school children - was written in Spanish by a Muslim leader.

Spanish officials say the book has no parallel among Spain's EU neighbours with large Muslim minorities. Spanish schools to use Islam book

Mark Alexander

This is a link to the original post; though I am not sure how long it will work for:

ORIGINAL POST

These were the original comments:

Eleanor © said...
One wonders if the book encourages Mulim integration into Spanish culture, and whether or not the term "Andalusia" is used instead of España.

I bet the primary reason for the book is not to help Muslim children better understand their faith, but to indoctrinate more Spanish-reading children into Islam.


10:22 PM, OCTOBER 19, 2006
Mark said...
Eleanor:

I bet the primary reason for the book is not to help Muslim children better understand their faith, but to indoctrinate more Spanish-reading children into Islam.

Yu can be sure of that! You can take it to the bank!


10:33 PM, OCTOBER 19, 2006
usiconoclasticpatriot said...
This is manifestly absurd and traitorous to Western Civilization.


11:29 PM, OCTOBER 19, 2006
Pastorius said...
I posted on this too, over at IBA. This makes me sick. Spain is so craven. They really need to get themselves an AIDS test for all the time they spend bent over like this.


4:48 AM, OCTOBER 20, 2006
Mussolini said...
With special sections on:

The Joys of Beheading!
How to Beat Your Woman!
Taqiyyah: Learn it Live it!

It's so noble!


4:52 AM, OCTOBER 20, 2006
mirrorman said...
Pass me the Taqiaa sauce to put on my Bacon lettuce and dhimmi sandwich.

Joke is, it was published by Caholic printers!

It was only a 15000 run, a lot less than the book that was given out free, mentioned recently in a previous post.
"Islamic Imperialism, a History."

Ahmadinejad warns Europeans of their proximity to the Middle East!

BBC: Iran's president has warned that Muslims around the world will take revenge on states who supported Israel against the Palestinians.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad again questioned the extent of the Holocaust, when German Nazis murdered six million Jews.

Israel was founded on "claims about the Holocaust" for which the Palestinians were paying the price, he told a rally.

He was speaking on Jerusalem Day, when there are large demonstrations in Iran in support of the Palestinians.

BBC Tehran correspondent Frances Harrison says the tone of the speech was hardline, even by Mr Ahmadinejad's standards. Iran warns of revenge over Israel

Mark Alexander

French get tough at Charles de Gaulle Airport

BBC: Four Muslim baggage handlers are appealing against a decision to bar them from working at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris.

They say that the local government's decision to revoke their security passes is evidence of anti-Muslim discrimination.

A local government spokesman says the decision was based on an assessment of the terrorist risk.

He denied the move was linked to the men's religion. Muslim staff in Paris airport row

Fearful Europe feels post-9/11 chill

Mark Alexander

So Sorry!
Please forgive me! Blogger has been behaving badly this evening. As a result, I have inadvertently erased a valuable blog about the publication in Spain of a school-book on Islam for Spanish children. There were some very valuable and interesting comments on that post. Alas, they have all been erased along with the blog.

Blogger must be having server problems. That's all I can think of. Please bear with me.

Mark Alexander

Some anti-dhimmitude from the court but Kirklees council must shell out for victimization

Image courtesy of the BBC

BBC: A Muslim classroom assistant suspended by a school for wearing a veil in lessons has lost her claim of religious discrimination at a tribunal.

Aishah Azmi, 23, was asked to remove the veil after the school in Dewsbury, W Yorks, said pupils found it hard to understand her.

The tribunal dismissed her claims of religious discrimination and harassment on religious grounds. 'No discrimination' in veil row

The tribunal says her feelings have been hurt. Diddums. Diddums. Diddums.

I won't be treated as an outcast, says Muslim teacher in veil row

Niqab nonsense

Mark Alexander

Al-Qaeda: Great Britain prime target

BBC: Al-Qaeda has become more organised and sophisticated and has made Britain its top target, counter-terrorism officials have told the BBC.

Security sources say the situation has never been so grim, said BBC home affairs correspondent Margaret Gilmore.

They believe the network is now operating a cell structure in the UK - like the IRA did - and sees the 7 July bomb attacks "as just the beginning". UK 'number one al-Qaeda target

Mark Alexander

Ethics and Public Policy Center distributes books highly critical of Islam

INSIDE HIGHER ED: Trustees all over the country have been receiving a book critical of Islam, with no cover note, leading some to worry about why they were receiving the packages.

The address on the packages referred to their trustee status.

The book is Islamic Imperialism: A History, published by Yale University Press. The author is Efraim Karsh, a professor at the University of London who is highly regarded in neoconservative circles, but who has been harshly criticized by many in Middle Eastern studies. According to the Yale press, the book argues that the attacks on 9/11 reflect Islamic imperialism, and “Islam’s war for world mastery.” Book on Islam Surprises Trustees

Mark Alexander

Multiculturalism officially dead in the UK!
As I argued in my book, multiculturalism is a nonsense. Multiculturalism was doomed to failure from the start. One culture will always dominate in the end; and that will be the strongest one. With Islam, a very strong geo-political system clothed in a deity, growing apace here in the West, and with our birthrate so precariously low, it was always extremely dangerous for us to embrace multiculturalism anyway. There was always the fear that the Muslim population would swamp the indigenous population.

I stated in my book, The Dawning of a New Dark Age, that there was only ONE sensible policy for any Western government to adopt: the insistence on the integration of the immigrants into OUR culture.

It seems that the British government has at last seen the light. It is starting to come to its senses. It's a little late in the day; but it is welcome nevertheless. Now we need to hear from the government what it proposes to do about the people who will not integrate, the people who preach hatred, the people who demonstrate in favour of beheading the people who insult Islam, the people who are here illegally, and the people who want to introduce Shari'ah law.

Governments around the Western world desperately need to send a STRONG message to Muslim immigrants, namely that NONSENSE WILL NOT BE TOLERATED, and that people who persist in behaving CONTRARY to the laws of the land will be DEPORTED. Not jailed, but deported. Then we might start seeing some different behaviour from the immigrants. The way things stand, they are running amok.

©Mark Alexander

THE TELEGRAPH: At his press briefing yesterday, the Prime Minister made it clear his Government's approach to cultural diversity had changed. He may have couched his position in careful language, but the conclusion was inescapable: integration, rather than multi-cultural separatism, is now official policy. By saying that he "fully supported" the decision of Kirklees council to suspend the Muslim teaching assistant who had refused to remove her veil at work, and then reinforcing this point with the observation that the veil was a "mark of separation", Mr Blair removed any doubt about the Government's position.

He was, in effect, affirming that the contentious views expressed over recent weeks by Jack Straw, Ruth Kelly and John Reid were not maverick individual opinions, but part of a larger, concerted revision of the Cabinet's stand. Mr Blair, unsurprisingly, wanted to avoid the appearance of an outright volte-face: at one point, he suggested that there should be "a balance between integration and multi-culturalism". This would be a logical impossibility, since the policy of multi-culturalism, as it has been understood and practised, is antithetical to integration. Labour loses faith in multi-culturalism

Mark Alexander

Talk of Thailand introducing Shari'ah law in southern Thailand

INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE: YALA, Thailand After two and a half years of ceaseless violence and more than 1,700 people killed, the wary residents of the southernmost provinces of Thailand are expressing measured optimism that the government installed by the military will help ease one of the most intractable conflicts in Asia.

Although daily killings by insurgents continue here, just a few hundred kilometers from the country's tourist- filled beaches, the new government is showing a softer touch, agreeing to peace talks with Muslim insurgents and working to revive a system that allowed local politicians and religious leaders to take part in setting policies.

Thailand also appears to be encouraging a rapprochement with neighboring Malaysia on the issue of the insurgency, which at times has divided the two countries. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont will visit Kuala Lumpur, where government officials have said they are willing to serve as mediators.

"The attitude of the new government is certainly much more positive toward dealing with the south, not through the use of force but through having a dialogue, a discussion," said Mahathir bin Mohamad, the former Malaysian prime minister who was frequently critical of the previous government's handling of the insurgency.

Muslim leaders in Thailand are debating proposals that would give them a special status in predominantly Buddhist Thailand. Nimu Makaje, a Muslim scholar in this violence-racked southern city, enthusiastically tells a visitor that the time has come to implement an Islamic legal system in southern Thailand. New hopes in Thailand's restive south by Thomas Fuller

Mark Alexander

Blair on Islam

INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE: LONDON Prime Minister Tony Blair said Tuesday that Britain needed a debate about the position of Muslims, but that the faith also needed to decide how it comes to terms with modernity.

At his monthly news conference, Blair said he supported a local school authority's decision to bar a Muslim woman from working as a teacher while wearing a veil.

He said, however, that should be just one issue in a broader debate about "the relationship between our society and how the Muslim community integrates with our society." Prime minister says Britain needs debate about Islam

Mark Alexander