The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)
Friday, May 23, 2008
BBC: A decision by the Saudi owner of the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Cairo to ban the sale of alcohol and destroy millions of dollars worth of beverages has sparked a debate in Egypt.
The international company which runs the hotel has urged Sheikh Abdulaziz al-Brahim - a relative of the Saudi king - to revoke his decision, fearing it could drive away Western tourists and may even lead to the hotel losing its five-star rating.
The Grand Hyatt occupies one of the most expensive sites overlooking the River Nile. It is only minutes from the diplomatic quarter, where the British and American embassies are located.
Like all five-star hotels in Egypt, alcohol used to be available there - but not any more. It is unclear what prompted the owner Sheik Al Brahim to take this controversial measure.
Staff at the hotel are reluctant to talk about the whole affair. But a barman told me that they now only serve soft drinks and that he saw with his own eyes how expensive whiskey, liqueurs and fine wines were emptied down the drains of the hotel. Sheikh Bans Alcohol at Cairo Hotel >>> By Magdi Abdelhadi | May 23, 2008
Postscript:
This shows the creeping influence of Wahhabism. Its tentacles are tightening around the world; and nobody’s doing anything about it.
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)
YAHOO! NEWS: Detectives are searching a home linked to a suspected convert to Islam arrested after an explosion in a city centre restaurant.
Armed officers raided the home in King Street, Plymouth, connected to 22-year-old Nicky Reilly.
Devon and Cornwall Deputy Chief Constable Tony Melville said Reilly appeared to be a "vulnerable" individual who had been "preyed upon" and "radicalised".
The officer, near the Giraffe restaurant in Exeter where the blast happened just before 1pm on Thursday, said: "Our investigations so far indicate that Reilly, who has a history of mental illness, had adopted the Islamic faith. Convert's Home Searched After Blast >>> | May 23, 2008
THE TELEGRAPH:
White Muslim Convert Bomb Suspect Named >>> By Richard Savill and Andy Bloxham | May 23, 2008
DAILY MAIL:
Muslim English Teacher Admits Threatening to Blow Up Europe's Largest Shopping Centre with Limousines as Moving Bombs >>> | May 23, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)
YNET NEWS: Senior customs official says importation of neckties contradicts nature of Iranian culture
Iran's war on neckties: The importation of ties, which "contradict the nature of Iranian culture," must come to an end, a senior Iranian customs official said Thursday.
"We must adopt serious actions in order to put an end to the importation of ties," Iranian Customs Deputy Director Asgar Hamidi was quoted as saying by Iranian news agency Fars. "We must change import laws to that end."
In addition to his customs duties, Hamidi also heads the Iranian program for the "development of culture, modesty, and headdress."
The custom of wearing neckties developed in Iran during the Shah's regime. However, in the wake of the 1979 Islamic revolution, ties were banned by authorities because they were perceived as a sign of westernization. Since then, senior Iranian officials and government ministry employees have shunned ties.
Notably, volunteers for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard walk the streets with scissors in order to cut ties should they encounter them. Iran’s New Enemy: Imported Ties >>> By Dudi Cohen | May 22, 2008
Hat tip: Dhimmi Watch
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – USA)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardcover – USA)
This article, from February 2006, deserves to be read and re-read by all who love liberty! Our craven leaders are giving our freedoms away.
THE SUNDAY TIMES: Islamists are stifling debate in what was Europe’s freest country, says Douglas Murray
‘Would you write the name you’d like to use here, and your real name there?” asked the girl at reception. I had just been driven to a hotel in the Hague. An hour earlier I’d been greeted at Amsterdam airport by a man holding a sign with a pre-agreed cipher. I hadn’t known where I would be staying, or where I would be speaking. The secrecy was necessary: I had come to Holland to talk about Islam.
Last weekend, four years after his murder, Pim Fortuyn’s political party, Lijst Pim Fortuyn, held a conference in his memory on Islam and Europe. The organisers had assembled nearly all the writers most critical of Islam’s current manifestation in the West. The American scholars Daniel Pipes and Robert Spencer were present, as were the Egyptian-Jewish exile and scholar of dhimmitude, Bat Ye’or, and the great Muslim apostate Ibn Warraq.
Both Ye’or and Warraq write and speak under pseudonyms. Standing at the hotel desk I confessed to the girl that I didn’t have any other name, couldn’t think of a good one fast. I was given my key and made aware that the other person in the lobby, a tall figure in a dark suit, was my security detail. I was taken up to my room where I changed, unpacked and headed back out — the security guard now positioned outside my bedroom door.
I had been invited to deliver the closing speech to the memorial conference on what would have been Fortuyn’s 58th birthday. I said I would talk on the effects of Europe’s increasingly Islamicised population and advocate a tougher European counterterror strategy. There was no overriding political agenda to the occasion, simply a desire for frank discussion.
The event was scholarly, incisive and wide-ranging. There were no ranters or rabble-rousers, just an invited audience of academics, writers, politicians and sombre party members. As yet another example of Islam’s violent confrontation with the West (this time caused by cartoons) swept across the globe, we tried to discuss Islam as openly as we could. The Dutch security service in the Hague was among those who considered the threat to us for doing this as particularly high. The security status of the event was put at just one level below “national emergency”.
This may seem fantastic to people in Britain. But the story of Holland — which I have been charting for some years — should be noted by her allies. Where Holland has gone, Britain and the rest of Europe are following. The silencing happens bit by bit. A student paper in Britain that ran the Danish cartoons got pulped. A London magazine withdrew the cartoons from its website after the British police informed the editor they could not protect him, his staff, or his offices from attack. This happened only days before the police provided 500 officers to protect a “peaceful” Muslim protest in Trafalgar Square.
It seems the British police — who regularly provide protection for mosques (as they did after the 7/7 bombs) — were unable to send even one policeman to protect an organ of free speech. At the notorious London protests, Islamists were allowed to incite murder and bloodshed on the streets, but a passer-by objecting to these displays was threatened with detention for making trouble.
Holland — with its disproportionately high Muslim population — is the canary in the mine. Its once open society is closing, and Europe is closing slowly behind it. It looks, from Holland, like the twilight of liberalism — not the “liberalism” that is actually libertarianism, but the liberalism that is freedom. Not least freedom of expression.
All across Europe, debate on Islam is being stopped. Italy’s greatest living writer, Oriana Fallaci, soon comes up for trial in her home country, and in Britain the government seems intent on pushing through laws that would make truths about Islam and the conduct of its followers impossible to voice. We Should Fear Holland’s Silence >>> By Douglas Murray | February 26, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)
THE TELEGRAPH: The teenage boy facing prosecution for holding a placard saying that scientology is a "cult" serves to demonstrate the ridiculous mess that the Government has made of its attempts to protect religious observance in law.
This nameless boy has been served with a summons under section five of the Public Order Act, which seeks to restrict signs that might be considered "threatening, abusive or insulting." Meanwhile, we have a Racial and Religious Hatred Act, which passed into law in 2006 with the express purpose of making it an offence to incite hatred on religious grounds.
By co-incidence, it was in 2006 that militant Muslims demonstrated at the Danish Embassy in London over the publication in Denmark of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed. Their placards variously read
"Slay/Annihilate/Butcher/Massacre/Behead…those who insult Islam." I am unaware of any charges that were brought against the bearers of these placards under either the Public Order Act or, more pertinently, the Racial and Religious Hatred Act. That's because the provisions of the legislation are almost meaningless in action.
But if the law is an ass, those who enforce it are whipped mules. The police in these circumstances are too inclined to side with the bullies. The violent Islamists outside the Danish Embassy were protected; far easier to feel the collar of a teenage boy with a harmless slogan. The bullies in the latter incident are those who worship their own lifestyle at the Church of Scientology.
Theirs is not the brutish violence of the Islamists. The Scientologists mess with people's minds. That's why the BBC's John Sweeney memorably lost it on air, while shooting a documentary on them. The pity is that they now seem to have warped the minds of the City of London Police. [Source: Scientology Arrest Makes a Mockery of the Law] By George Pitcher | May 21, 2008
STEVEN ALAN HASSAN:
Freedom of Mind Center
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)
BBC: Violence against foreigners in South Africa spread to Cape Town overnight with people assaulted and shops looted.
"Groups within the crowd started to loot shops owned by Zimbabweans and other foreigners," police spokesman Billy Jones told AFP news agency.
He said hundreds of African migrants had fled Cape Town's Dunoon squatter camp and 12 arrests had been made.
Officials are to meet to discuss how the wave of violence has hit South Africa's crucial mining industry.
More than 40 people have died and some 15,000 people have sought shelter since the violence initially flared up in the Johannesburg township of Alexandra almost two weeks ago. SA Violence Spreads to Cape Town >>> | May 23, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)
BBC: US presidential hopeful John McCain has rejected the backing of a Church leader who said Hitler was carrying out "God's will" in chasing the Jews from Europe.
It comes after the comments by evangelical preacher Rev John Hagee, which were made in the 1990s, re-emerged on a US news website.
In a sermon, Rev Hagee said the Nazi leader was carrying out a divine plan to gather Jews into the Holy Land.
The Republican candidate described the comments as "crazy and unacceptable".
Senator McCain had been criticised for seeking the endorsement of the controversial minister.
Rev Hagee has also described the Roman Catholic Church as "the great whore" and a "false cult system", as well as suggesting that Hurricane Katrina was God's retribution for homosexual sin.
But while Senator McCain condemned those comments, he had not rejected Rev Hagee's endorsement until Thursday, when an audio recording of the preacher saying that God sent Hitler to help Jews reach the promised land was published on the Huffington Post website.
Pastor problems
The BBC's correspondent in Washington, James Coomarasamy, says that the senator had actively courted the pastor's support, in order to improve his standing within the evangelical community. McCain Drops Backer over Sermon >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)
THE INDEPENDENT: Will a black American president shake hands one day with a gay president of France? Barack Obama has already taken strides towards reversing the conventional, racial wisdom of US politics. Bertrand Delanoë, the popular, successful, gruff, acerbic – and gay – Mayor of Paris took his first step yesterday on a four-year obstacle course which could, in theory, take him to the Elysée Palace in 2012.
In the introduction to a book of interviews, outlining a market-oriented and even Blairist future for Socialism in France, M. Delanoë hinted strongly that he would run for the leadership of the Parti Socialiste in November and probably seek the party's presidential nomination in four years' time. He was ready, he said, to "invest my convictions and energy in my country" if "democracy and the Socialist Party call on me... to act".
In a brief reference to his sexual orientation, M. Delanoë rejected the view – often voiced in the provinces but a taboo subject for the Paris media – that La France profonde is not ready to elect a homosexual as president of the republic. "People say that homosexuality is acceptable in Paris but not in the suburbs or in the provinces but that's a false idea," he said. "So long as people feel that it is not a problem for me, then it's not a problem for them." Gay Mayor of Paris Sets His Sights on French Presidency >>> By John Lichfield in Paris | May 23, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Broché)
The Dawning of a new Dark Age (Relié)
Thursday, May 22, 2008
BBC: Human Rights Watch has called on Saudi judges to overturn a decision to drop charges against a Saudi couple accused of severely abusing an Indonesian maid.
A judge in Riyadh awarded $670 damages to the maid, Nour Miyati, but dropped all charges against her employers.
The female employer, who admitted the abuse and was originally sentenced to 35 lashes, had her sentence overturned.
Human Rights Watch said the ruling on Monday was "outrageous", and sent "a dangerous message" to Saudi employers. Saudi Maid Verdict ‘Outrageous’ >>> | May 22, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)
SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: After centuries of denying a common history with Islam, Spaniards are once again trying to live together with Muslims. In Granada, home of the Alhambra and former center of Moorish Spain, a multicultural revival is taking shape that sees Christians and Muslims coexisting in mutual respect.
The panoramic terrace of the Plaza San Nicolas becomes a magical setting at sunset. Gypsy boys play deeply melancholic melodies on the guitar while their girls dance to the music and whirl brightly colored ribbons. Bohemians pass around liter bottles of beer and cheap red wine, Japanese tourists set up their cameras, and Latin Americans sing cheerfully.
From the head of this square on the Albaicin hill sounds the lingering call of "Allahu akbar." The muezzin has climbed the 59 steps of the tower. He stands between the open Moorish arches and cups a hand to his mouth so everyone who is listening for his call can hear "God is great." In the day's last rays of light, the gilded outlines of Arabic ornate lettering glitter mysteriously under the pointed roof.
Across from the brand new, whitewashed mosque, the floodlights are lit, bathing the Alhambra palace and its ramparts, located on the other side of the river, in a rosy sheen that transforms the architectural ensemble into a veritable "red fortress." Off in the distance, the snows of the Sierra Nevada gleam in the setting sun. As men -- and the occasional woman dressed in a long coat -- hasten from the windy, narrow cobbled streets of the Albaicin district to pray in the mosque, the evening bells of the cathedral ring out over the city.
Today's Granada is a cultural melting pot. Five centuries after the Christian royalty known as the Catholic Monarchs drove the last Muslim ruler from what is now Spain and raised their cross in the throne room of the Alhambra, Muslims and Christians in the city of Granada are once again living side by side in peace. For nearly 800 years, the inhabitants of al-Andalus, as the Arab dynasties called their empire on the Iberian Peninsula, allowed Jews, Christians and Muslims to coexist in a spirit of mutual respect -- a situation that benefited all. The red fortress symbolizes this period. Originally, a rich Jewish merchant had the walls of red clay built on the ruins of an old castle. Later, the Muslim Nasrid Dynasty expanded the complex of palaces up until the late 14th century, creating shady gardens and fountains and building a splendid mosque. The house of worship was consecrated as a church by the Christian conquerors 150 years later.
It is here, in this last bastion of the old multicultural society of Moorish Spain, that an extremely vibrant Islamic community is taking shape today. Thanks to its rich history, many even see Granada as the future Islamic capital of Europe. Others fear that Andalusia could once again become the gateway for a "reconquista" -- this time under the green banner of the Prophet.
After the death of the Prophet Mohammed, and once the rule of Islam had been firmly established on the Arabian Peninsula, the first wave of conquest began. The Berber tribes of North Africa were converted to the new faith. As early as 710, the first Berber leader, Tarif Abu Sura, crossed the Straight of Gibraltar. To this day, the place where he made landfall is called Tarifa. One year later, some 7,000 Muslim warriors defeated the army of the Visigoth king Rodrigo. Afterwards, the Hispanic-Latin inhabitants offered little resistance, and a quarter of them became Muslims within the first generation. The Visigoth nobles even fled Toledo, leaving the field open for the conquerors to advance to the Cantabrian Mountains of northern Spain in just three years. At his point, the invaders were halted by the Asturian resistance.
Starting in 1055, a number of Christian kingdoms began to expand south of their northern mountain refuges as part of the "Reconquista" -- the so-called reconquest of al-Andalus under the banner of the Crusades. The successors to the Castilian throne, Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon -- the Catholic Monarchs -- united the Christian military forces through their marriage and, following the fall of Granada in 1492, formed a purely Catholic kingdom on the Iberian Peninsula. They immediately banished the Jews. The Muslims, who represented the vast majority of the population of al-Andalus, were forcibly baptized, and the last group was permanently expelled in 1614. The Spanish Inquisition guarded over the "purity of the blood," under threat of torture and execution by being burned alive at the stake. A Multicultural Model for Europe >>> By Helene Zuber in Granada, Spain | May 22, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)
NZZ Online: Nach einer Koran-Entweihung im Irak ist bei gewalttätigen Protesten in Afghanistan ein amerikanischer Soldat getötet worden. Auch zwei Zivilisten kamen bei den Unruhen ums Leben.
(ap) Bei gewalttätigen Protesten in Afghanistan sind ein Nato-Soldat und zwei Zivilpersonen getötet worden. Der Soldat wurde von einer Gewehrkugel getroffen, wie ein Nato-Sprecher mitteilte. Wer die Kugel abgefeuert hatte, war zunächst unklar.
Die Proteste richteten gegen die Entweihung eines Korans durch einen amerikanischen Soldaten im Irak. Dort hatte ein Scharfschütze der Besetzungstruppen einen Koran als Ziel für Schiessübungen verwendet. Er wurde nach dem Vorfall, der am Sonntag bekannt wurde, aus dem Irak abgezogen. Protest gegen Koran-Entweihung endet blutig: Nato-Soldat und zwei Zivilisten in Afghanistan getötet >>> | 22. Mai 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – USA)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardcover – USA)
WELT ONLINE: Der US-Ökonom und Journalist Paul Krugman beriet jahrelang sowohl demokratische als auch republikanische US-Präsidenten in Wirtschaftsfragen. Mit WELT ONLINE spricht Krugman über den Dollar-Kurs und den Ausgang der US-Wahlen. Dabei übt er scharfe Kritik an Barack Obama und der Wirtschaftspolitik der Demokraten. Barack Obama, Risikofaktor für die Demokraten >>> | 22. Mai 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)
LE FIGARO: Le gouvernement veut introduire dans le Code pénal le délit d'immigration clandestine, assorti d'une peine de prison de six mois à quatre ans.
Depuis mercredi, être clandestin en Italie devient plus risqué. Le paquet de mesures adoptées mercredi par le Conseil des ministres renforce considérablement les moyens à la disposition des forces de l'ordre et de la magistrature pour contrer un phénomène qui concerne quelque 650 000 sans-papiers. Trois sujets brûlants ont été abordés lors de ce Conseil de quatre heures convoqué à la préfecture de Naples, dans une ville parcourue sans incident notable par plusieurs cortèges de protestataires et quadrillée par d'importantes forces de police.
En premier lieu, la sécurité, avec un décret-loi entré immédiatement en vigueur, et deux projets de loi qui seront débattus en juin au Parlement. Ensuite, la lutte contre les ordures ménagères qui envahissent Naples, avec la centralisation des efforts au sein du gouvernement. Enfin, diverses mesures économiques qui devraient dégager 3 à 5 milliards d'euros de ressources pour accroître le pouvoir d'achat des familles. Sur le versant sécuritaire, le dossier préparé par le ministre de l'Intérieur, Roberto Maroni, dirigeant de la Ligue du Nord favorable aux peines les plus dures, a été longuement débattu. Plusieurs membres du gouvernement se sont montrés soucieux de ne pas prêter le flanc aux critiques de Bruxelles et du Parlement européen, ravivées par les remontrances de Madrid. Berlusconi s'attaque à l'immigration >>> De Richard Heuzé | 22/05/2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Broché)
The Dawning of a new Dark Age (Relié)
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Is this comparable to Winston Churchill apologizing for a British soldier shooting at Mein Kampf? From the look on Bush's face, what do you suppose he has been doing?
BBC: US President George W Bush has made a personal apology over the shooting of a Koran by an American soldier, the White House has confirmed.
Mr Bush made the apology during one of his regular video conferences with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki.
The soldier was sent home by the US military after the Muslim holy book was found riddled with bullet holes at a shooting range by Iraqi police.
The US military said last week that the soldier would be disciplined. Bush Apology for Koran Shooting >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – USA)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardcover – USA)
BBC: US Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy has a malignant brain tumour, doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital say.
Mr Kennedy, 76, was flown from Cape Cod to the hospital in Boston at the weekend after suffering a seizure.
Doctors says tests reveal a tumour in Mr Kennedy's left parietal lobe. His wife and children have been with him but have not issued a statement.
The youngest brother of assassinated President John F Kennedy, he is one of the best-known Democratic politicians.
"Preliminary results from a biopsy of the brain identified the cause of the seizure as a malignant glioma in the left parietal lobe," doctors Lee Schwamm and Larry Ronan said in a statement.
Mr Kennedy's treatment will be decided after more tests but the usual course includes radiation and chemotherapy, the doctors said.
"He has had no further seizures, remains in good overall condition, and is up and walking around the hospital," they added.
He is expected to remain in hospital for the next few days. Edward Kennedy Has Brain Tumour >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – USA)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardcover – USA)
IRNA: Iran on Tuesday expressed concern over violation of human rights in the West and growing number of victims to violence against Muslims.
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said that the growth of violation of human rights and organized Islamophobia in the West is alarming.
Mottaki made the remark in a meeting with his Ghanaian counterpart Akwasi Osei-Adjei, expressing concern about the violation of human rights and prevalence of anti-Islam moves in the West. Iran Concerned over Violation of Human Rights in West >>> | May 20, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – USA)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardcover – USA)
IRNA: Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday that the world's situation now is different from what it was 20 years ago and that nations' awareness and self-confidence have forced the US and other bullying powers to retreat.
The world's equations are constantly changing and this has brought defeat for global arrogance, said Ayatollah Khamenei in a meeting with visiting Eritrean President Issaias Afeworki in Tehran on Tuesday. Supreme Leader: Nations [sic] Vigilance Accounts for US Retreat >>> | May 20, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)
ISRACAST: How does Iran view the possibility that Barack Hussein Obama, a former Muslim, might win the U.S. presidential election? Menashe Amir, an Israeli expert on Iran, says not only Iran but also the rest of the Muslim world, will view it as victory for Islam. In an interview with IsraCast, Menashe Amir quoted an important Iranian personality who declared: 'If Obama enters the White House, Islam will have conquered the heart of American society!' However, President Ahmadinejad has said that he did not believe the U.S. establishment would let Obama win.
'If Barack Hussein Obama wins the U.S presidential election, Muslims will view it as a victory and forget that he converted from Islam to Christianity' - that's the view of Israeli analyst Menashe Amir. In fact one leading Iranian personality recently said: 'If Obama enters the White House, Islam will have conquered the heart of American society'. However, President Ahmadinejad expressed concern that the U.S. establishment would not allow the Democratic frontrunner to win the presidential election. On the other hand, the Iranian foreign ministry did not foresee any meaningful change in U.S. foreign policy and that Obama, Clinton and McCain had more or less a similar approach to Iran. Iran prefers Obama >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – USA)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardcover – USA)
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