Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
Sunday, March 02, 2008
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
DIE PRESSE: Ab Montag steht in Wien ein junges Paar vor Gericht, das wegen al-Qaida-Mitgliedschaft angeklagt ist. Die Frau kommt voll verschleiert. Darf sie das?
WIEN. Eine Angeklagte steht vor ihrem Richter. Dieser muss ein Urteil finden. Und hat ein Problem: Die Angeklagte ist verschleiert. Von oben bis unten verschleiert – bis auf einen schmalen Sehschlitz. Dieses konfliktträchtige Szenario prägt ab heute, Montag, erstmals in Österreich einen Prozess – das Terrorverfahren gegen Mona S. (21) und Mohamed M. (22).
Die beiden streng gläubigen Muslime (sie sind nach islamischem Recht verheiratet) sind der Mitgliedschaft im Terrornetzwerk al-Qaida angeklagt. Mohamed M. soll im Internet zu Anschlägen – etwa „auf Stadien und Zuseher der Fußball-Europameisterschaft 2008“ (Anklage) – aufgerufen haben. Auch soll er jenes Video veröffentlicht haben, in dem die österreichische und die deutsche Bundesregierung wegen der Entsendung von Soldaten nach Afghanistan bedroht werden. Mona S. soll als Übersetzerin von Terror-Botschaften aktiv geworden sein. Beide sind in U-Haft, beide bekennen sich nicht schuldig.
Da die Frau zur Tatzeit erst 20 war und somit als „junge Erwachsene“ gilt, steht das Duo vor einem Geschworenen-Senat unter Vorsitz eines Jugendrichters. Dieser hat zu entscheiden, ob er die Verschleierung der Angeklagten toleriert oder nicht. Und wenn nicht? Klar ist, dass im österreichischen Strafprozess die Prinzipien der Öffentlichkeit und der Unmittelbarkeit gelten. Demnach sind alle Beweise sozusagen vor aller Augen aufzunehmen. Es dient der Wahrheitsfindung, wenn Geschworene die Gesichter der Verdächtigen sehen können. Umgekehrt: Wie soll sich ein Senat ein vollständiges Bild machen, wenn nur eine schwarz verschleierte Figur zu sehen ist? Welche Mittel stehen also dem Vorsitzenden – im konkreten Fall handelt es sich um Norbert Gerstberger, einen routinierten und umsichtigen Richter – zur Verfügung? Terror-Prozess: Angeklagte zeigt nur die Augen >>> Von Manfred Seeh, Die Presse | 02.03.2008
DIE PRESSE:
Also sprach Mohammed?
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
MIDDLE EAST TIMES: What would be the most logical target Iran would strike in case of a U.S. or Israeli attack on its nuclear sites?
Qatar.
In fact, Iranian Revolutionary guards have already threatened to attack Qatari oil and gas facilities (hence crippling the world economy by creating an oil and gas shock) by sea and air by using suicide boats and air missiles.
For Iran, it's a no-brainer: Qatar hosts the largest U.S. base in the Middle East (8,000 U.S. soldiers are stationed there) and is also viewed by some as being friendly with Israel.
What is Qatar doing about it?
First and foremost, Qatar has been heavily using the diplomatic weapon. Its strategy is to befriend everyone: from Israel to Hamas, from Syria to France. First target for Iran: Qatar? >>> By Olivier Guitta, Middle East Times
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
ARABIAN BUSINESS.COM: California university UC Berkeley is in "secret talks" with Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), over a possible collaboration, US press reported on Saturday.
Under the planned partnership agreement, the two universities would collaborate on research, with Berkeley helping the Saudi school to hire professors, reported the San Jose Mercury News.
The move has raised concerns among some Berkeley staff that the $10 billion university will discriminate against women, and limit academic freedom, the newspaper said. UC Berkeley plans Saudi university deal >>> By Lynne Roberts
Cross-posted at The Shrewd Economist
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
BBC: Gunmen have kidnapped the archbishop of the Chaldean Catholic Church in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul and killed three of his aides, his church says.
Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho was seized as he left a church in the eastern al-Nour district, it added.
Pope Benedict XVI deplored the kidnapping as a "despicable" crime.
Most of Iraq's estimated 700,000 Christians are Chaldeans - Catholics who are autonomous from Rome but recognise the Pope's authority.
Many have been targeted since the 2004 invasion by Sunni extremists groups.
In January, bombs exploded outside three Chaldean and Assyrian churches in Mosul. Several Christian priests have also been kidnapped or killed during the past five years. 'Fervent prayer' >>>
BBC:
Who Are the Chaldean Christians?
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
Hat tip: Always On Watch
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
THE TELEGRAPH: The Government has failed to find a vision for the country and has not built a cohesive society, the Archbishop of York has claimed.
Dr John Sentamu said that racism had been allowed to flourish and that Britain was no longer the "great nation" it once had been.
Instead, it was a nation in crisis. "Britain is in a very, very uncomfortable place," he said. In a wide-ranging speech on the country's "broken society", the Ugandan-born archbishop called for Britain to regain the values of "mission and enterprise" that had made it so effective when it had an empire. His comments follow weeks of debate between political and religious leaders over the impact of multiculturalism on Britain, which has centred on claims from fellow senior bishops that the country has no-go areas for non-Muslims and will adopt aspects of Islamic sharia law in due course.
The criticism from the Church of England's second most senior figure will come as a blow to Gordon Brown, who yesterday, at Labour's spring conference, vowed to build "the Britain of our dreams" and a country where "security and opportunity for all is within our grasp".
Dr Sentamu said that it had suffered from a loss of identity, which had made it less able to welcome immigrants and had deepened tensions between communities.
"When I came here in 1974, we were treated with dignity, with love, and in the rest of the nation there was this sense of magnanimity, the will to meet another person. Over these 34 years, we've had a rant about immigration and haven't met major questions of race. Britain is in a very, very uncomfortable place." Britain has lost its way, says Archbishop >>> By Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Religious Affairs Correspondent
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: MOST homes will have broadband communication speeds up to 100 times faster than what is currently available, under the Rudd Government's plan to wire Australia for the 21st century.
Federal Broadband Minister Stephen Conroy told The Sunday Age that early discussions on the Government's promised broadband network indicated that it would be much faster than previously thought.
"This is going to revolutionise the way Australians live their lives," Senator Conroy said.
Before last year's election, Mr Rudd promised to contribute $4.7 billion to help build a national broadband network accessible to 98% of homes, with a guaranteed minimum speed of 12 megabits per second.
But by deploying VDSL, (also known as Very High Speed DSL) technology, Senator Conroy said the new network would be able to carry up to 25 megabits per second.
Most broadband users currently receive only 256 kilobits per second — 100 times less capacity than 25 megabits — using ADSL technology.
With internet speeds like 25 megabits per second, people living in the same house will be able to use the network simultaneously for different purposes.
This could include a broadcast-quality video telephone call , while someone else watches high definition internet television, and another person plays online gaming.
Pay television would also be delivered through internet cable, with people able to watch different channels at the same time in different parts of the home, while a feature length film was also being downloaded to a computer hard drive in another room. Lightning internet on way >>> By Jason Jason Koutsoukis | March 2, 2008
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
THE GUARDIAN: Italy's highest appeals court has ruled it is a criminal offence for Italian men to touch their genitals in public - a judgment that has far-reaching implications for superstitious males.
Anyone who has seen a hearse go past in Italy, or been part of a discussion in which some terrible illness or disaster is mentioned, will know it is traditional for men to ward off ill luck with a quick grab at what are delicately called their attributi.
The practice has become increasingly frowned on, but Io mi tocco i (I touch my) is a common phrase, equivalent to crossing fingers. The judges of the court of cassation suggested those seeking luck should return to the privacy of their homes before letting their hands stray trouserward.
The court was ruling on the appeal of an unnamed 42-year-old workman from Como near Milan. In May 2006, he was convicted of indecent behaviour for "ostentatiously touching his genitals through his clothing". His lawyer said it was merely a "compulsive, involuntarily movement, probably to adjust his overalls".
The third penal division of the Rome court was having none of it. It said that public genital-patting "has to be regarded as contrary to public decency, a concept including that nexus of socio-ethical rules requiring everyone to abstain from conduct potentially offensive to collectively held feelings of decorum".
The judges said such actions risked generating "awkwardness, disgust and disappoval in the average man", unexpectedly perhaps failing to mention the average woman. Groin turns into no-go zone for luckless Italians >>> By John Hooper in Rome
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
Saturday, March 01, 2008
NIS NEWS BULLETIN: AMSTERDAM, 28/02/08 - The terrorist network Al-Qaeda has given orders for the assassination of MP Geert Wilders, newspaper De Telegraaf reports. The Party for Freedom (PVV) leader must be 'slaughtered', the orders say, because he has insulted Islam and the prophet Mohammed.
The newspaper based its report on a recent message on a protected web forum of internet site al-ekhlaas.net, which De Telegraaf claims is affiliated with Al-Qaeda. The internet threat, which was posted on 28 January, was intercepted by the American research institute SITE Intelligence Group, the newspaper reports.
"In the name of Allah, we ask you to bring us the neck of this unbeliever who insults Islam and the Muslims and ridicules the prophet Mohammed," the site says about Wilders, according to the newspaper.
The message honours Mohammed Bouyeri as a hero. This Amsterdam-born Moroccan Muslim cut Islam-critic Theo van Gogh's throat on 2 November 2004. The message also appeals for readers to "terrorise" the Netherlands to prevent Wilders' controversial film on the Koran from being broadcast. 'Al Qaeda Fatwa against MP Wilders' >>>
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
IRNA: Iran would not attend Paris book fair this year in protest at France's invitation of the Zionist regime as a guest of honor in the fair, it was announced on Saturday.
The fair is to be held in the French capital from March 14-19.
Iran was a regular participant of Paris book fair each year but this time it has refused to take part in the event protesting at the presence of the Zionist regime, Deputy Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Ali Ali-Pour told IRNA.
On February 27, Lebanon announced a boycott of the book fair after its organizers said that 39 Israeli writers were invited to the event.
The 50-nation Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISECSCO), had earlier called for a boycott of the event by Islamic states.
"The crimes against humanity that Israel is perpetrating in the Palestinian territories... constitute, in themselves, a strong condemnation of Israel, making it unworthy of being welcomed as a guest of honor at an international book fair," the group said.
The Tunisian publishers' union also announced on Friday its refusal to take part in the Paris book fair.
Twenty-five Egyptian groups, as well as the Union of Algerian Writers and Yemen's Public Book Authority have also said they will not attend the fair. [Source: Iran not to attend Paris book fair in protest at Israel presence >>>]
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
DAILY MAIL: Prince Harry has been warned that serving in Afghanistan made him a prime target for terrorists.
Muslim extremists say the young royal is a "legitimate target" after ten weeks secretly fighting the Taliban.
Two Al Qaeda-affiliated websites are calling on jihadists to "slaughter" the third in line to the throne. Harry the No 1 terror target as Al Qaeda threatens to take revenge for 'royal aggression against Muslims' >>> By Rebecca English and Matthew Hickley
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
Friday, February 29, 2008
BBC: A Berlin art gallery has temporarily closed an exhibition where one of the posters made fun of Islam's holiest shrine, the Kaaba in Mecca.
The decision came after threats believed to be from Muslims.
The exhibition was organised by the Danish group Surrend, which said it wanted to oppose religious extremism.
A poster on display showed the Kaaba - the black granite cube-shaped building in Mecca. The words "stupid stone" in German were superimposed on it.
It is toward the Kaaba that Muslims must pray.
Confronting ideology
The poster - among 22 on display - also showed the faithful walking around it with speech bubbles saying "Zionist occupied government", which referred to the title of the exhibition.
The Danish artists said they wanted to satirise the conspiracy theory that Jews are behind everything - a view they say is prevalent among neo-Nazis and in parts of the Arab world.
The director of the art gallery in Berlin said there had been threats of violence if the poster was not removed, so they had decided to shut for a while. Berlin gallery in Islam art row >>> By Frances Harrison, BBC religious affairs reporter
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
RADIO NETHERLANDS WORLDWIDE: Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende says he's "gravely concerned" about the consequences of the yet-to-be-broadcast anti-Qur'an film being produced by right wing politician Geert Wilders.
The Dutch cabinet discussed the repercussions of the film at length during their weekly meeting. The cabinet clearly wants to get a message of tolerance and moderation out before the film is released.
In a statement to the press, the Prime Minister said the Netherlands stands for freedom, but also for respect. He stopped short of calling on Mr Wilders not to broadcast the film, but, he said, "the first person who has to take responsibility for the consequences, is Mr Wilders himself. And that's not a call for him to do anything, but he should look into his own conscience, and ask what his responsibility here is."
Capitulating to Islam
In reaction to the Prime Minister, Mr Wilders said "The cabinet is capitulating to Islam. I will never, ever do so." Earlier in the week, in an unusual move, Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen called on Mr Wilders not to broadcast the film. Mr Wilders was even stronger in his response to the Foreign Minister, telling him to "stuff it".
Mr Wilders is the leader of the populist Freedom Party, the fifth largest party in the Dutch parliament. He has long been making headlines with his claims that Islam's holy book of is fascist, and should be banned. His film, which is said now to be finished, has been creating controversy in the Netherlands and abroad since the plan to make it became known in early December. The film is fifteen minutes long, and is called Fitna, Arabic for trial or ordeal. Dutch cabinet gravely worried about Wilders film >>>
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
J GRANT SWANK JR: What fuss over “Fitna,” the Dutch anti-Islam film soon to be out.
There should be countless numbers of these films shown worldwide to stop Islam World Rule enthusiasts who would lay down their bodies for the take-over.
Per The Washington Times’ Leander Schaerlaeckens: “Europe's uneasy relationship with its Muslim minority faces another blow next month, when Dutch politician Geert Wilders releases a 15-minute film that compares Islam to Nazism and communism.
“The film is called ‘Fitna,’ an Arabic term for ‘discord.’ It intersperses verses of the Koran with footage of terrorist attacks and other Islamist-inspired violence.”
To begin with, all civil individuals around the planet should read the Koran just to know what they are talking about. The Koran in its complete form is on the Internet. Anyone can get to it via ”Koran.”
Then the knowledgeable individual will realize why these kinds of films are necessary to stave off the enemy encroaching at freedom countries’ doors.
"’The film will show that the Koran isn't a dead work, but the face of Islam — a tremendous hazard,’ Mr. Wilders told the daily newspaper NRC Handelsblad.
“He said the film calls the Koran ‘the latest test to Western democracies since Nazism and communism.’”
That is so true. Following Nazism and Communism, civil nations are now confronted with Islamic murderers espousing [that] all non-Muslims [be] slain. There are so-called moderates? All moderates will be considered cowards if they do not play out the final scene of erasing non-Muslims from the world. If they persist in being cowardly, they will be slain.
The Koran’s Allah demands it. ’Fitna’: There Should Be a Million ‘Dutch Anti-Islam’ Films >>> By J. Grant Swank Jr.
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
WASHINGTON TIMES: BRUSSELS — Europe's uneasy relationship with its Muslim minority faces another blow next month, when Dutch politician Geert Wilders releases a 15-minute film that compares Islam to Nazism and communism.
The film is called "Fitna," an Arabic term for "discord." It intersperses verses of the Koran with footage of terrorist attacks and other Islamist-inspired violence.
"The film will show that the Koran isn't a dead work, but the face of Islam — a tremendous hazard," Mr. Wilders told the daily newspaper NRC Handelsblad.
He said the film calls the Koran "the latest test to Western democracies since Nazism and communism."
Mr. Wilders said the film will be finished tomorrow and will be posted on a Web site, www.fitnathemovie.com, when it airs on television.
Several Pakistani Internet providers tried this week to block YouTube on the orders of the government because it carried a movie trailer for the film. The effort caused a worldwide crash of the popular online site for sharing videos.
In recent years, other perceived insults to Islam in Europe have turned deadly.
Worldwide riots after the 2005 publication of editorial cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad left more than 100 people dead. Dutch Film to Slam Islam >>> By Leander Schaerlaeckens
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
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