Iran: Nine Iranians Convicted of Adultery to Be Stoned to Death
FOX NEWS: TEHRAN, Iran — Eight women and one man convicted of adultery are set to be stoned to death in Iran, activists said Sunday.

Lawyer and women's rights activist, Shadi Sadr, said the nine were convicted of adultery in separate cases in different Iranian cities.

"Their verdicts are approved, and they may be executed at any time," she told reporters.

Sadr, who has been leading a campaign in Iran against stoning deaths since 2006, said trial protocol was not applied properly in the cases. Six of the nine were convicted based solely on judges' decisions with no witnesses or the presence of their lawyers during their confessions, she said.

Most of the nine come from areas of Iran that have low rates of literacy and some did not understand the cases against them, she said.

One of Sadr's colleagues, Mohammad Mostafai, said his client, Malak Qorbani, had plead guilty to adultery even though she did not know the meaning of the charge.

The nine are between 27 and 50 years old, among them a male music teacher who was convicted of adultery for having an affair with one of his students, the activists said.

"We are trying to stop the implementation of their verdicts. And secondly, we want to amend the country's penal law, in which death by stoning is prescribed," Sadr said. Activists: 9 Iranians Convicted of Adultery Set to Be Stoned to Death >>> AP | July 20, 2008

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Berlusconi lässt die Muskeln spielen
DIE PRESSE: Italiens Premier will sein Land und sich selbst innerhalb der EU wieder aufwerten. Mit seiner Unterstützungs-Erklärung für den türkischen EU-Beitritt geht er auch auf direkten Konfrontations-Kurs mit Sarkozy.

Wien/Brüssel. Er ist wieder da. Und er läuft sich langsam warm: Italiens Premierminister Silvio Berlusconi. Der Politiker, der in seiner ersten Amtszeit auf EU-Ebene vor allem durch Kasperliaden und verbale Ausrutscher auffiel und Italiens Position in Europa dadurch nachhaltig schwächte, legte seinen zweiten Auftritt auf der EU-Bühne vergleichsweise zurückhaltend an. Doch damit könnte es bald vorbei sein. Denn Berlusconi bemüht sich bereits nach Kräften, Italiens Rolle im Ensemble der 27 Mitgliedsländer wieder zu stärken.

Die Indizien dafür häufen sich. So gab Berlusconi an seine Minister die Losung aus, für die Stellung der italienischen Sprache in der EU zu kämpfen. In einem Brief, der in der englischen Zeitung „The Guardian“ zitiert wurde, wies der Premier die Mitglieder seiner Regierung sogar an, Sitzungen zu boykottieren, bei denen es keine Arbeitsunterlagen in italienischer Sprache gibt. Außerdem sollten die Minister auf Simultanübersetzung des Italienischen bestehen.
Mit dieser Sensibilität der eigenen Sprache gegenüber steht Italien allerdings nicht alleine da. Schon Deutschland und vor kurzem auch Frankreich stiegen gegen die zunehmende Vorherrschaft des Englischen als EU-Arbeitssprache auf die Barrikaden.

Für Beitritt der Türkei

Doch Berlusconi will Italien nicht nur in der Innenansicht der EU sichtbarer machen. Beim feierlichen Gründungsgipfel der Mittelmeerunion am Wochenende in Paris nutzte er jede Gelegenheit, das Erscheinungsbild seines Landes auch außenpolitisch aufzupolieren. So bot Berlusconi an, in Nahost zu vermitteln. Dafür prädestiniere ihn sein gutes Verhältnis zu den beiden Konfliktparteien: Den 2004 verstorbenen palästinensischen Präsidenten Jassir Arafat habe er „als Privatperson auch finanziell unterstützt“. Gleichzeitig habe er immer die Idee gefördert, dass Israel doch der EU beitreten könnte.

Auch bei einem der wichtigsten aktuellen EU-Themen bezog der italienische Premier Position: dem Beitritt der Türkei. In einem Gespräch mit dem türkischen Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Paris sicherte Berlusconi seinem Amtskollegen „volle Unterstützung für den EU-Beitritt“ zu. Berlusconi lässt die Muskeln spielen >>> Von Doris Kraus | 15. 07. 2008

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Pope Says ‘Spiritual Desert’ Is Spreading
Photo of Pope Benedict XVI courtesy of The Sunday Times
“In so many of our societies, side by side with material prosperity, a spiritual desert is spreading: an interior emptiness, an unnamed fear, a quiet sense of despair.” - Pope Benedict XVI in Australia

THE SUNDAY TIMES: The Pope launched a fresh assault on consumer culture and materialism today, warning of a “spiritual desert” spreading across the world in a speech to a sprawling, flag-waving crowd of about 400,000 worshippers at a mass in Sydney.

Benedict XVI, who yesterday apologised to children abused by paedophile priests, challenged young people to help build a “new age” by rejecting the “indifference, spiritual weariness and blind conformity” of the times. He also urged them to fill the growing gaps in the ranks of priests and nuns.

“A new generation of Christians is being called to help build a world in which God’s gift of life is welcomed, respected and cherished — not rejected, feared as a threat and destroyed,” the pope told the crowd, which the church claimed was the biggest on record in Australia.

Building on a theme he has developed over four days at the Catholic World Youth Day celebrations, Benedict used his final address to give a scathing assessment of the impact of secularism and the focus on material wealth. Pope Says ‘Spiritual Desert’ Is Spreading >>> By Roy Eccleston, Sydney | July 20, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – Australia)
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Interfaith Conference Fails after Argument between Muslims and Jews
MACAU NEWS: An interfaith conference which has been held in Madrid during the week has ended on a bad note with Muslims and Jews involved in a political argument.



Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah had gathered followers of the world's major faiths for the Madrid conference to seek religious reconciliation. 



It has been reported that exchanges between Muslim participants and Jewish Rabbis turned to a discussion on Zionism and became overheated, almost leading to blows.



It was the first time Saudi Arabia had invited Jews to such a meeting and the aim was to avoid hot issues like the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. [Source: Macau News] | July 18, 2008

Hat tip: Dhimmi Watch

BBC:
Mixed Views on Saudi Interfaith Forum >>> By Christopher Landau, BBC religious arrairs correspondent, Madrid | July 19, 2008

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Obama: Whatever the Politics Demand

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McCain POW Bud: Muslims ‘Going to Kill Us’
MIAMI HERALD:

Audio: Colonel Bud Day on the War in Iraq and Muslims
Read the story here.

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Massive Mosque Building Programme for Germany: NIMBY, Say an Increasing Number of Germans; Terra Christiana est
"The minarets are our lances, the domes our helmets, the believers our army." - Recep Tayyip Erdogan
SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: The planned construction of over 180 mosques in Germany is mobilizing right-wing xenophobes but also an increasing number of leftist critics. They fear the Muslim places of worship will facilitate the establishment of a completely parallel society.

The issue at hand wasn't the construction of a missile base or a new nuclear power plant. Yet the media reported "turmoil" and an "enraged" audience in a school auditorium in Ehrenfeld, a district of the German city of Cologne. The mood was almost comparable to that of the protest gatherings once held against nuclear missiles or reactors.

Instead the outrage was directed at a huge mosque planned for the area. Still, the words used by the project's opponents called to mind the protests of earlier times. "The minarets even look like missiles," railed one woman. A man said the mosque's dome reminded him "of a nuclear plant."

Ill will over mosques like the one being built in Cologne is spreading rapidly throughout Germany, often to the surprise of local politicians. For a long time the establishment of Muslim prayer rooms provoked little protest, housed as they were mostly in residential buildings, shops and back courtyards. Recently, though, there has been an increasing number of acts of protest, some violent. Molotov cocktails were thrown through mosque windows in the Bavarian town of Lauingen; Christians set protest crosses inscribed with "Terra christiana est," or this is Christian land, on the grounds of a mosque in Hanover; and construction trailers went up in flames in the Berlin district of Pankow.

The anti-Islam protest movement has also begun to spill over into city politics. In Cologne, for example, the extreme right anti-mosque initiative Pro Cologne captured five local government seats in recent elections. Now the group is aspiring to enter the national scene as Pro Germany, together with other like-minded organizations, some from the far-right fringe. Their approach follows the example of populist Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn, whose anti-immigration party garnered a surprising degree of support before he was murdered in 2002. Not in My Backyard, Say an Increasing Number of Germans >>> By Jochen Bölsche | July 16, 2008

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Pakistan: Judge Ratifies Marriage and Conversion of Kidnapped Christian Girls
ASIANEWS.IT: The district of Muzaffargarh rules in favour of the Muslims, rejecting the request from the family that wants to bring home the two sisters - 13 and 10 years old - kidnapped last June 26. Christian associations charge that they could end up as prostitutes.

Islamabad - District judge Mian Muhammad Naeem, of the section of Muzaffargarh, has ruled that the two Christian sisters "have converted in a legitimate manner to Islam", and for this reason they cannot be "restored to their family of origin". Setting aside the request from their father to regain custody of his daughters, the judge also admitted the "validity" of the marriage of the girls to two Muslims.

Saba Younas, aged 13, and her sister Anila were kidnapped last June 26 in the village of Chowk Munda, in the province of Punjab, where they had gone to visit their uncle, Khalid Raheel. This is the same uncle who in recent days reported their kidnapping, asking for help from news organisations and human rights groups. According to Raheel's account, a Muslim fruit vendor named Muhammad Arif Bajwa kidnapped the girls, and then handed them over to a friend, Falak Sher Gill, who then organised the marriage between his own son and the older of the Christian sisters, Saba. In court, moreover, father and son both stressed the "complete willingness of the girl to contract marriage".

The girls' uncle does not conceal his preoccupation, and denounces to AsiaNews that the Muslims involved in the kidnapping are acting as a "gang", recruiting the girls in order to "make them work in a bordello". This alarm has also been heard by the Catholic commission for justice and peace (NCJP) in the country, which confirms the words of Khalid Raheel: the kidnappers are believed to be human traffickers linked to prostitution, known to the police and under the protection of some local politicians. "For these unscrupulous people", charges Naeem Asghar, local coordinator of the NCJP, marriage is a pretence in order to control the girls, run their lives and exploit them for their own business purposes". Kidnapped Christian Girls, Judge Ratifies Marriage and Conversion >>> By Qaiser Felix | July 16, 2008

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US Attends Historic Iran Meeting
BBC: A senior United States official is taking part for the first time in international talks with Iran over its controversial nuclear programme.

The official, William Burns, is joining envoys from the EU and permanent members of the UN security council.

They are expected to discuss with the country's top nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, incentives for Iran to suspend uranium enrichment.

Mr Burns' attendance is being seen as a major shift in US policy.

The US and Iran have had no diplomatic relations since the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the taking of hostages at the US embassy in Tehran.

Formal contact between the two countries have been extremely limited, though last year they met at ambassadorial level to discuss security in Iraq. US Attends Historic Iran Meeting >>> | July 19, 2008

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Eurabia Edges Ever Closer: Spain-Morocco Link Decision Near
Photo courtesy of the BBC
BBC: Spain says a feasibility study for an undersea tunnel to connect Spain and Morocco is in the final stages.

If the project goes ahead and construction begins, trains carrying both passengers and goods are expected to start using the tunnel in 2025.

The tunnel would be 40km long and pass 300m under the Mediterranean Sea.

The undersea link would unite North Africa and Europe for the first time since the continents separated more than 200 million years ago. Spain-Africa Link Decision Near >>> By Danny Wood | July 19, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – USA)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardcover – USA)

Yusuf Islam Accepts Libel Damages
Photo of Yusuf Islam courtesy of the BBC
BBC: Musician Cat Stevens - now known as Yusuf Islam - has won libel damages over articles suggesting he refused to talk to women not wearing a veil.

The stories also claimed that the singer - a Muslim convert - would only speak to women other than his wife through a third party.

His lawyer told The High Court in London that "Mr Islam has never had difficulties working with women".

The World Entertainment News Network agency has already apologised. Cat Stevens Accepts Libel Damages >>> | July 18, 2008

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Was Ahmet Yildiz the Victim of Turkey's First Gay Honour Killing?
Photo of Ahmet Yildiz, Turkey’s first gay icon, courtesy of The Independent
THE INDEPENDENT: In a corner of Istanbul today, the man who might be described as Turkey's gay poster boy will be buried – a victim, his friends believe, of the country's deepening friction between an increasingly liberal society and its entrenched conservative traditions.
Ahmet Yildiz, 26, a physics student who represented his country at an international gay gathering in San Francisco last year, was shot leaving a cafe near the Bosphorus strait this week. Fatally wounded, the student tried to flee the attackers in his car, but lost control, crashed at the side of the road and died shortly afterwards in hospital. His friends believe Mr Yildiz was the victim of the country's first gay honour killing.

"He fell victim to a war between old mentalities and growing civil liberties," says Sedef Cakmak, a friend and a member of the gay rights lobby group Lambda. "I feel helpless: we are trying to raise awareness of gay rights in this country, but the more visible we become, the more we open ourselves up to this sort of attack."

Turkey was all but closed to the world until 1980 but its desire for European Union membership has imposed strains on a society formerly kept on a tight leash. As the notion of rights for minorities such as women and gays has blossomed, the country's civil society becomes more vibrant by the day. But the changes have brought a backlash from traditionalist circles wedded to the old regime. Was Ahmet Yildiz the Victim of Turkey's First Gay Honour Killing? >>> By Nicholas Birch in Istanbul | July 19, 2008

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Church Rallies Round Williams as African Bishops Boycott Lambeth
THE INDEPENDENT: An international coalition of bishops is rallying to the support of the Archbishop of Canterbury in a move that appears likely to ensure Anglican unity as the church enters one of its most crucial weeks since the Reformation. In all, 650 bishops from around the world are gathering at the University of Kent in Canterbury for this week's Lambeth Conference. Apocalyptic scenarios have been predicted, but it now appears that the broader Anglican family will hold together thanks to a series of sermons by Rowan Williams appealing for unity and the desire among bishops – including many from Africa – not to be seen to be the wreckers of the communion. Church Rallies Round Williams as African Bishops Boycott Lambeth >>> By James Macintyre, Religious Affairs Correspondent | July 19, 2008

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Analysis: Islam Body for the UK
Here follows Hazel Blears talking absolute and utter NONSENSE! - ©Mark

Listen to BBC audio: Communities secretary Hazel Blears and Azzam Tamimi, of the IIPT, on new plans to prevent extremism >>>
BBC: "Guarding the self against committing adultery and fornication is achieved by avoiding its causes and there can be no doubt that leaving eyes free to gaze and the mixing of men and women at work… are some of its major causes."

So says the late Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia in a booklet about women in the workplace available in Islamic bookshops around the UK.

And it is this clash of ideas between a particular religious take on the world and the reality of modern Britain that is at the heart of what could become an extremely controversial government move.

The Department for Communities is responsible for driving the "Prevent" package of measures in the government's counter-terrorism strategy.

It has been placing bets on projects and initiatives which it hopes will strengthen the hand of mainstream Muslims and marginalise militants.

Its plan to fund an Islamic theology board at Cambridge and Oxford universities is an exceptionally high-risk move that is fraught with dangers for both communities and government. Analysis: Islam Body for the UK >>> By Dominic Cagsiani | July 18, 2008


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Morocco Sends Moderate Muslim Preachers to Europe
YAHOO! NEWS: RABAT, Morocco - Morocco plans to send scores of moderate Muslim preachers to Europe during the holy month of Ramadan to help fight extremism in the Moroccan community abroad, the ministry for religious affairs said Thursday.

The government will send 167 men and nine women preachers to address Moroccan immigrants during Ramadan, which runs during September this year. Muslims traditionally fast and attend sermons at mosques during the holy month.

The preachers are instructed to "answer the religious needs of the Moroccan community abroad, to protect it from any speeches of extremism or irregular nature, and to shelter it from extremism and fanaticism," said a statement from the religious affairs ministry in Rabat, the Moroccan capital.

Abdellatif Begdouri Achkari, the religious affairs minister's chief of staff, said Morocco has been sending preachers to minister to expatriates for many years but hand-picked the latest batch to make sure they specifically address extremism. Morocco Sends Moderate Muslim Preachers to Europe >>> AP | July 17, 2008

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Telling the Truth Is Islam-Bashing?
THE NEW MEDIA JOURNAL.US: I am bombarded by hate and threats by the Allah-fearing fanatics, simply because I speak the truth about Islam. If telling the truth about Islam is Islam bashing, then mea culpa.

Question: Does Islam get a pass because it is a religion? Who says Islam is a religion? Millions do? What is the evidence? The words of masses of brainwashed carriers of the Islamic virus, transmitted to them by their parents, are worthless as evidence. What counts is the irrefutable fact that this creed, claimed to be the one and only religion of Allah, has been and continues to be a source of great suffering for non-Muslims as well as the ignorant masses of Muslims themselves.

I will share with you just a few of thousands of horrific things that Muslims do to people of other religions or those without any religion at all. In model Islamic states such as Saudi Arabia and Iran, for instance, women don’t dare complain about their Allah-decreed chattel status. If they protest in the least, they are beaten by their husbands. And if they dare to demonstrate in public for equal family rights with men, they get severe beatings by the police and hauled to jails for additional indignities and violence.

One may wonder then why is it that millions of Muslim women meekly submit to their subservient rank and worship and thank Allah for it. These women are virtually imprinted by their parents and the clergy from birth to adopt the gender inequality as well as the entire pathological Islamic ethos. Telling the Truth is Islam Bashing? >>> By Amil Imani | July 17, 2008

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Muslims Push for a Caliphate: Its Currency
CALIPHATE ONLINE: The Caliphate’s currency is based on the gold and silver standards where the coins and notes in circulation are 100% backed by gold and silver. Islam did not leave any question unanswered, especially questions concerning the complexities of economic life. The Shari’ah has therefore defined the Islamic currency as gold dinars and silver dirhams along with their corresponding weights in gold or silver. The Shari’ah rules related to money such as zakat, blood money (diyah) and hoarding all specify values in gold and silver.

Unlike the paper standard operating in the world today, the Bait ul-Mal (State Treasury) is not allowed to print any money unless it has the corresponding amounts of gold and silver in its reserves. This means the persistent inflation found in the world today would not exist in the Caliphate as the currency always keeps its value. Currency of the Caliphate >>> | July 17, 2008

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British Citizenship Lessons for Young Muslims
Hazel Blears is at it again! Teaching young Muslims British citizenship will not keep them away from Islamic extremism, as hoped. Islam is an extreme religion. There will always be a propensity for adherents to the faith to become more extreme the more devout they become.

To try and teach these young people that there is no conflict between Islam and British values is so blatantly untrue that it is absurd!

When are we going to get a government in this country which will protect the British people and their values? - ©Mark

Photo of Muslims at prayer courtesy of The Times
TIMESONLINE: Muslim children will be taught British citizenship in mosque schools as part of a Government attempt to keep them away from the influence of Islamist extremism.

A trial of the new lessons will begin in several cities at the start of the new school year in September, according to Hazel Blears, the Communities Secretary.

The initiative, designed to show young Muslims that there is no conflict between their religion and being British, is part of a package of measures being published today.

It also includes a new independent board of academic and theological experts, and a group of community leaders to advise on local responses to tackling extremism. British Citizenship Lessons for Young Muslims >>> | July 18, 2008

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Brown Betrays the People; Lisbon Treaty Ratified without the Promised Referendum
DAILY EXPRESS: GORDON Brown was last night accused of betraying Britain with a “grubby”surrender to Brussels.

Under a cloak of secrecy, the Government finally ratified the Lisbon Treaty earlier this week and committed the country to a new deluge of European meddling.

In a sign of the Prime Minister’s personal embarrassment over the betrayal, the historic step was only made public yesterday – 24 hours after the covert ceremony had taken place.

The instrument of ratification was signed by the Queen, who had no choice. Because Mr Brown had signed the treaty, she was constitutionally forced to follow suit.

The document was then flown in a diplomatic bag to Rome and delivered to the Italian Foreign Ministry at noon on Wednesday.

Mr Brown was last night facing widespread revolt and even the threat of further legal action after forcing the treaty into law without the promised referendum. Sold Out to Europe: Brown Makes Queen Sign Away Our Sovereignty >>> By Macer Hall, Political Editor | July 18, 2008

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Iran Executes Six “Wicked” People in Public
REUTERS: TEHRAN - Iran has executed six people in public in the northeastern city of Sabzevar, state radio said on Monday, the second report of a public execution in the Islamic Republic in less than a week.

Judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi in January ordered a halt to public executions in Iran unless they had his approval, "based on social necessities."

The radio described the convicts as "wicked" people but did not say what crimes they had been convicted of nor when they were put to death. Iran usually carries out executions in prisons by hanging. Iran Executes Six People in Public: Radio >>> By Hashem Kalantari (Reporting), Fredrik Dahl (Writing), Dominic Evans (Editing) | July 14, 2008

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