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Saturday, February 28, 2009
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NRC HANDELSBLAD: The wealthy Gulf state of Dubai has been hit hard by the global economic crisis. Tens of thousands of workers have been laid off and forced to return to their homelands. The Dutch community in Dubai is also feeling the pinch.
Jan Demmink has lived in Dubai for 28 years. It's the pleasant atmosphere, the entrepreneurial spirit and the climate that keep him in the Gulf state. He witnessed the transformation of what was once a tranquil and prosperous town into the vast collection of skyscrapers that makes up modern-day Dubai.
Under the leadership of Sheik Mohammed and his father Maktoum III, the emirate invested in the financial sector, tourism and real estate. The bigger, more expensive and more luxurious the better. Yet these are the very sectors that have been shaken to their foundations by the crisis and meanwhile Dubai has no major oil reserves to fall back on.
Financial nosedive
Jan Demmink works in the electronic security of complexes such as refineries, palaces and roads. His position is safe for the time being. "I work on long-running projects, so I have yet to feel the effects of the crisis," he explains. "But in construction you can see the signs already. A halt has been called to projects that were only started recently, or which have yet to get under way."
Dutch dredging company Van Oord is one of those in the firing line. The company hit the headlines worldwide with the construction of Palm Jumeirah, the first of Dubai's famous Palm islands and the construction of The World archipelago. Van Oord was all set to embark on a third island project, Palm Deira, an order worth 2.5 billion euros, the largest in the company's history. Part of the order has already been realised but the rest is on the back burner for the foreseeable future. The funding simply isn't there. Spokesman Bert Groothuizen says no one saw the rapid changes coming. "It was a nosedive. Especially in the fourth quarter of 2008. And I don't think these problems will be solved in six months' time." Expats Feeling the Economic Nosedive in Dubai >>> By Willemien Groot for Radio Netherlands Worldwide | Friday, February 27, 2009
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Hat tip: Always On Watch >>>
*Please excuse the profanity at the bottom of the screen. I have no control over that message. Because this video is too important to ignore, I am overlooking it. I hope you will too.
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Drama charting Margaret Thatcher's astonishing fall from power, one of the most extraordinary stories of political assassination the world has seen. It took only eleven days for Thatcher to go from being the most powerful woman in the world to the tearful figure in the back of the car. A major tragedy in the true Shakespearean sense, in Margaret we watch a woman lose the one thing she really cares about - power - changing from leader to victim before our eyes.
12th November 1990: As Thatcher prepares for her speech at the Lord Mayor's banquet at the Guildhall, Geoffrey Howe, her quietly-spoken former foreign secretary and chancellor, pens the resignation speech that will stun the country and seal her fate. The next day Howe makes his lethal speech in the Houses of Parliament and the final ten days of Margaret Thatcher's reign begin. >>> Broadcast, February 26, 2009
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Friday, February 27, 2009
THE LOCAL (SWEDEN): Three supermarkets were destroyed and a fourth damaged as a wave of arson attacks hit Södertälje in central Sweden in the early hours of Thursday morning.
Security police (Säpo) have been called in to investigate a connection between the attacks and an anti-US extreme left wing group.
"We have classified them all as arson and are working on the theory that they were started deliberately," said Kia Samrell at Södertälje police.
Police have not ruled out a connection to fires in the town in December which destroyed the Coop Forum and Ica Maxi supermarkets.
An extreme left wing group calling itself Global Intifada claimed responsibility for the December fires and according to reports in the Expressen newspaper, the two Willys stores destroyed on Thursday morning also received warnings from the group.
"We have not been able to confirm that the group were behind the December fires. But the investigation is not yet completed," underlined Kia Samrell.
Global Intifada, according to a Sveriges Radio report, has been responsible for dealing out leaflets in Södertälje encouraging the public to make Molotov Cocktails and use them on shops selling American products.
This threat, as yet unverified, has been communicated to the US Embassy in Sweden which considered it of sufficient importance to issue a statement confirming that it had been in contact with Södertälje police. The US authorities advised "caution while shopping and be attentive to suspicious behaviour".
The US Embassy was refusing to comment on Wednesday's attacks.
"As far as we're concerned it's a police matter," a spokesperson told The Local.
Commanding officer Lennart Sjöstrand is taking the events very seriously.
"Property worth millions has gone up in smoke," he concluded. >>> TT/Peter Vinthagen Simpson | Thursday, February 26, 2009
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LE FIGARO: Cette fois, c'est un non définitif : la chef du parti centriste Kadima a officiellement refusé de participer au gouvernement, laissant Benjamin Nétanyahou isolé pour former un nouveau cabinet.
Un non ferme et définitif. La chef du parti centriste Kadima, Tzipi Livni, a annoncé vendredi qu'elle refusait de participer au gouvernement dirigé par le premier ministre israélien de droite Benjamin Nétanyahou, à l'issue d'une rencontre organisée dans un grand hôtel de Tel Aviv. Un refus qui fait écho à celui du chef du parti travailliste et ministre sortant de la Défense, Ehoud Barak, exprimé le 23 février dernier.
La ministre sortante des Affaires étrangères Tzipi Livni avait déjà refusé une première fois, mais en laissant la porte ouverte et en acceptant une nouvelle rencontre avec Nétanyahou. Vendredi, elle a finalement décidé de couper court aux discussions en rejetant de façon ferme l'offre du chef du Likoud. >>> Flore Galaud (lefigaro.fr) avec AFP | Vendredi 27 Février 2009
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SUEDEUTSCHE.DE: Der Vatikan hat die Entschuldigung des erzkonservativen Bischofs und Holocaust-Leugners Richard Williamson als unzureichend bezeichnet.
Der Vatikan hat die Entschuldigung des erzkonservativen Bischofs und Holocaust-Leugners Richard Williamson als unzureichend bezeichnet. Der Geistliche der Pius-Bruderschaft hatte am Donnerstag laut der katholischen Nachrichtenagentur Zenit erklärt: "Ich entschuldige mich vor Gott bei allen Seelen, die sich ehrlich über das empört haben, was ich gesagt habe."
"So, wie es aussieht, erfüllt (der Brief) nicht die Bedingungen, die das vatikanische Staatssekretariat gestellt hat", erklärte Vatikan-Sprecher Pater Federico Lombardi am Freitag in Rom.
Außerdem sei das Schreiben des britischen Traditionalisten weder an Papst Benedikt XVI. noch an die zuständige Päpstliche Kommission Ecclesia Dei gerichtet gewesen. Die mit den Traditionalisten befasste Kommission soll das Schreiben an eine Agentur weitergeleitet haben. Der Vatikan hatte von Williamson vor Wochen einen "absolut unmissverständlichen und öffentlichen Widerruf" seiner Holocaust-Leugnung verlangt. Dies bekräftigte er am heutigen Freitag noch einmal. >>> | Freitag, 27. Februar 2009
SUEDDEUTSCHE.DE: EU-Justizminister gegen Williamson
Der Holocaust-Leugner Williamson muss in Europa mit juristischer Verfolgung rechnen. Justizminister der EU suchen derzeit entsprechende Hebel.
Der europäische Rahmenbeschluss gegen Rassismus und Fremdenfeindlichkeit könnte eine Handhabe gegen den Priester der katholischen Pius-Bruderschaft bieten, meinte der EU-Ratsvorsitzende und tschechische Justizminister Jiri Pospisil vor Beratungen mit seinen Amtskollegen am Freitag in Brüssel. "Persönlich halte ich das für möglich, aber darüber muss diskutiert werden", sagte Pospisil. >>> dpa/sekr | Freitag, 27. Februar 2009
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COMMONDREAMS.ORG: Takes Issue with sponsorship of film by Senator Kyl
WASHINGTON - Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN) took issue with the screening of a film by the controversial Dutch Parliamentarian, Geert Wilders, in the United States Capitol. The film being screened, "Fitna", is said to compare Islamic terrorism to Nazism. The screening is sponsored by Senator John Kyl (R-AZ).
"I am a strong an advocate of First Amendment free speech. However, this is not about free speech, but rather an issue of propriety, timing and venue," Ellison said. "Senator Kyl has every right to host anyone he chooses, however it becomes a question of propriety to use the United States Capitol as a venue for the condemnation of an entire religion," Ellison said.
Mr. Wilders was denied entry by the British government because of his extremist views. A British Home Office spokesman stated: "The government opposes extremism in all its forms." The Dutch government has disavowed Mr. Wilders visit to this country and believes the release of this film "serves no purpose other than to cause offence." According to the London Telegraph, Wilders has stated that the Qu'ran should be banned.
Ellison further stated, "At a time when President Obama has said to the Muslim world, ‘We are ready to initiate a new partnership based on mutual respect and mutual interest,' the showing of a film that denigrates the faith of 1.4 billion of the world's citizens does not foster mutual respect or mutual interest.
At a time when the US should be providing renewed leadership for peace and more understanding between the west and the Muslim world, one has to question the wisdom and judgment of promoting a film that erroneously condemns an entire religion-especially in the US Capitol," Ellison concluded. [Source: CommonDreams.org] Rick Jauert | Thursday, February 26, 2009
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WELT ONLINE: Bischof Williamson sorgt mit seiner Holocaust-Leugnung weltweit für Kritik. Dabei war seine Äußerung nur die Spitze des Eisbergs. Denn die Pius-Brüder sind nicht nur ein religiöser Bund, sondern hochpolitisch: Der Deutschland-Chef des Ordens wettert gegen Demokratie und Wirtschaft und will die Todesstrafe.
Darf sich ein weltanschaulich neutraler Staat, darf sich eine Bundeskanzlerin in die inneren Angelegenheiten der katholischen Kirche oder auch anderer Glaubensgemeinschaften einmischen? Ja, der Staat muss es sogar tun, wenn es extremistische Tendenzen gibt – im Falle der Anhänger der Pius-Bruderschaft sind es trotz wortreicher theologischer Argumentationen rechtsradikale Positionen.
Auch wenn die katholische Kirche selbst gefordert ist – und unbestreitbar distanzieren sich alle deutschen Bischöfe von den Pius-Brüdern –, so handelt es sich nicht nur um ein theologisches, sondern vor allem um ein weltlich-politisches Problem. In der Auseinandersetzung mit dieser religiösen Gruppe stand bislang die Holocaust-Leugnung des Bischofs Williamson im Vordergrund.
Doch wer sich die politischen Thesen von Franz Schmidberger, Chef der deutschen Pius-Bruderschaft, anschaut, wird erkennen, dass die judenfeindlichen Aussagen von Bischof Williamson nur die Spitze eines Eisberges darstellen. Die von Schmidberger in einer „Zeitschrift für das christliche Gemeinwesen“ niedergelegten „Grundsätze einer christlichen Gesellschaftsordnung“ offenbaren ein eindeutig antiplurales und antifreiheitliches Verständnis dieser katholischen Sekte.
Die Schmidberger-Grundsätze zeugen von einer bedenklichen politischen Gesinnung: Besonders problematisch ist die abstruse These von Schmidberger, dass es „legitime Regierungen“ gibt, „die nicht aus Wahlen hervorgegangen sind“. Demnach könnte eine Alleinherrschaft eine legitime Regierung sein, da es nicht auf die Zustimmung der Bevölkerung, sondern auf eine Anerkennung durch Gott selber ankomme. >>> Von Gerd Langguth* | Freitag, 27. Februar 2009
*Der Autor unterrichtet Politische Wissenschaft an der Universität Bonn
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L’EXPRESS.fr: Pour le tourisme ou les affaires, les Qataris adorent Paris. Immobilier de luxe, opérations financières, sponsoring sportif... ils investissent la capitale.
Un petit vent frisquet balaie les Champs-Elysées, cet après-midi de février. Emmitouflé dans une doudoune de marque, Fadi, 25 ans, fait quelques emplettes avec sa mère. Manteau long, foulard rehaussé de perles sur les cheveux, madame s'engouffre dans une boutique de luxe. "Nous sommes ici pour quelques jours, avec mes frères et soeurs, glisse le jeune homme. Nous descendons toujours au même hôtel, tout près d'ici." La conversation est rapidement interrompue par l'intervention d'un garde du corps, aux bras chargés de paquets. Une scène presque coutumière dans ce quartier chic: depuis quelques années, de nombreux ressortissants qataris, comme Fadi et sa famille, ont fait de Paris l'une de leurs destinations favorites. La Ville Lumière attire aussi bien les touristes fortunés que la famille de l'émir et les principaux groupes financiers du pays - ce qui revient parfois au même. Ces visiteurs, qui disposent de l'un des revenus par habitant les plus élevés au monde (48 900 euros par an), viennent goûter aux plaisirs de la culture, du luxe et du fameux "romantisme" made in France. Les hommes d'affaires, eux, investissent dans l'immobilier, l'hôtellerie quatre étoiles, le parrainage sportif, quand ils n'entrent pas dans le capital de grandes sociétés françaises. Alors que la Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) doit ouvrir une succursale à Paris, l'année prochaine, quelques lieux privilégiés de l'Ouest parisien prennent déjà de faux airs de Doha-sur-Seine.
"Chez nous, les gens appellent les Champs-Elysées la ''route des Arabes du Golfe'", raconte, dans un français alerte, Talal, 21 ans, étudiant qatari en droit. L'été, les touristes de l'émirat prennent leurs quartiers dans les palaces voisins: George V, Fouquet's, Marriott, Crillon, etc. Dans ces établissements somptueux, où le prix d'une nuit peut atteindre 2500 euros, les clients bénéficient d'un confort et d'une confidentialité appréciables. "Ils se lèvent très tard, voire en début d'après-midi, car beaucoup d'entre eux sortent toute la nuit dans les cafés, restaurants et cabarets des alentours", confie l'employé d'un hôtel. >>> Par Boris Thiolay, Henri Haget, Olivier Saretta | Vendredi 27 Février 2009
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TIMES ONLINE: Shares across the UK, America and Europe tumbled today after it emerged that the US economy shrank at the fastest rate since 1982 in the final three months of last year, far worse than the US Government had initially estimated.
Gross domestic product (GDP) fell at an annual rate of 6.2 per cent between October and December, above initial estimates of a 3.8 per cent decline during the fourth quarter of 2008.
In response, London's FTSE 100 index plunged further below the 4,000 level today, losing 127.35 points to 3,788.29 and America's Dow Jones industrial average fell 132.45 points to 7,049.63.
Investors in Germany and France also took fright - Frankfurt's Dax fell 4.1 per cent while French-listed stocks dropped 3.3 per cent to 2,654.52.
With President Obama's fiscal stimulus packages not expected to become effective until the second quarter of this year, Wall Street is expecting growth numbers for the current quarter of 2009 to be as bad as the last three months of 2008.
According to the new GDP numbers, the US economy actually contracted by 6.2 per cent - the worst showing in 27 years - at the end of last year because American exports plunged by more than expected and the US consumer stopped spending.
The worse than expected numbers show that the US economy is struggling to cope on two fronts - on one side, foreign markets have applied the brakes to buying US goods as their own economies plunge deeper into recession.
On the other front, Americans have become so anxious that they may also join the soaring numbers of unemployed that they have stopped spending on all but essential items such as food and petrol. >>> Grainne Gilmore | Friday, February 27, 2009
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DAILY TIMES: OSLO: Norway’s leading opposition Progress Party slammed on Thursday what it termed the ‘gradual Islamisation’ of the country after an order allowing policewomen to wear the Islamic headscarf if they wished.
“We’ve hit bottom. Once again, we see an example of Norway and Norwegian society caving to the special demands of Muslims,” the populist party’s spokesman on immigration issues, Per Willy Amundsen, told news channel TV2 Nyhetskanalen.
“Sector by sector, Norway is adapting to Muslims instead of Muslims adapting to a country in which they, after all, have chosen to live of their own free will. I call that a gradual Islamisation of Norway,” he said. On Wednesday, Norway’s centre-left government announced that it would allow female police officers to wear the hijab if they wish. Several other European countries, including Sweden and Britain, have already allowed the wearing of religious headgear by their police officers. [Source: Dail Times (Pakistan)] afp | Friday, February 6, 2009
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TIME Photo Gallery: The Fed's doing it. The Bank of England says it plans to do it, too. With printing money back in fashion, TIME reflects on Germany's efforts in the 1920s — and the crisis that followed >>> | Friday, February 27, 2009
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COMPASS DIRECT NEWS: In case on whether he can legally change religion, Christian is accused of ‘apostasy.’
ISTANBUL – In the latest hearing of a Muslim-born Egyptian’s effort to officially convert to Christianity, opposing lawyers advocated he be convicted of “apostasy,” or leaving Islam, and sentenced to death.
More than 20 Islamic lawyers attended the hearing on Sunday (Feb. 22) in Maher Ahmad El-Mo’otahssem Bellah El-Gohary’s case to obtain identification papers with Christianity designated as his religious affiliation. Two lawyers led the charge, Ahmed Dia El-Din and Abdel Al-Migid El-Anani.
“[El-Din] started to talk about the Quran being in a higher position than the Bible,” one of El-Gohary’s lawyers, Said Fayez, told Compass. “[El-Din said] people can move to a higher religion but not down, so people cannot move away from Islam because it is highest in rank.”
Memos submitted by opposing lawyers asserted that cases such as El-Gohary’s form part of a U.S. Zionist attack on Islam in
Egypt, that Christianity is an inferior religion to Islam and that Copts protect and defend converts from Islam at their own peril.
“We received 150 pages from them that talked about religion,” said Fayez. “We are not in a position to talk about religion, we are only talking about the law.”
El-Gohary Beaten
El-Gohary was not present at the hearing, as attendance would put him at extreme personal risk. He had planned to obtain papers authorizing attorney Nabil Ghobreyal to act as his proxy representation in court, but staff members at the registry office swore at and beat him, lawyers said.
Judge Hamdy Yasin was forced to adjourn the case until March 28 because El-Gohary did not obtain the necessary proxy representation documents.
“I am now in a position where I can’t do anything else,” El-Gohary, who has been in hiding, told Compass. “I have to go [to court] despite the danger. I believe God will protect me. It’s a very hard decision, but I have to go.”
Copts and Christian converts have to face such systemic prejudice daily in the battle for their rights, he said.
“Our rights in Egypt, as Christians or converts, are less than the rights of animals,” El-Gohary said. “We are deprived of social and civil rights, deprived of our inheritance and left to the fundamentalists to be killed. Nobody bothers to investigate or care about us.”
El-Gohary, 56, has been attacked in the street, spat at and knocked down in his effort to win the right to officially convert. He said he and his 14-year-old daughter continue to receive death threats by text message and phone call.
But he also has received text messages, he said, of encouragement from other Muslim-born converts too fearful to take a similar stand.
“Everyday I get calls from people who have converted but are secret,” said El-Gohary. “They ask me every day about what is happening, because it affects their future.”
The danger to himself and his daughter has led El-Gohary to suggest that he will most likely leave Egypt, but not until the case is over. >>> | Thursday, February 26, 2009
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THE SPECTATOR: James Delingpole talks to Jonah Goldberg about his book on the affinities between the modern Left and the totalitarian movements of the 20th century
Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism is a conservative’s wet dream. No, it’s better than that. The moment you read it — presuming you’re right-wing, that is — you will experience not only a rush of ecstasy, but also a surge of revolutionary fervour and evangelical zeal. You’ll want to email all your friends and tell them the wonderful news: ‘I’m not an evil bastard, after all!’
What Goldberg very effectively does is to remove from the charge sheet the one possible reason any thinking person could have for not wanting to be right-wing: viz, that being on the right automatically makes you a closet fascist/Nazi scumbag. By accumulating a mass of historical evidence so extensive it borders on the wearisome, Goldberg comprehensively demonstrates that both Nazism and fascism were phenomena of the Left, not of the Right.
The book, a New York Times No. 1 bestseller has, needless to say, enraged lefties (‘liberals’ as they’re more usually known in the States) everywhere. ‘In the first week I had half a dozen emails from total strangers saying, “How dare you accuse us caring liberals of being fascists!” and then going on to say what a shame it was that my family hadn’t been sorted out once and for all a few years back in the concentration camps,’ he says.
Goldberg is a New York Jew and growing up as a conservative in Manhattan’s impeccably liberal, Jewish Upper West Side, he said he often felt like a Christian in Ancient Rome. At school and university, whenever he spoke in favour of tax cuts or a free market economy, the response was invariably the same. ‘Nazi’, he was called. Or ‘fascist’. By the time he was established as a contributing editor to National Review, he’d had quite enough of this. He spent four years researching and writing the book which would put the record straight.
What he found astonished him. Nazism and fascism, it turned out, were closer kindred spirits of Soviet communism than he could ever have imagined. The first expressed itself through ideas about racial purity and Jew-hatred, the second with ideas about the primacy of the nation, but in most other respects they were all remarkably similar: seizing the means of production; empowering the masses; rule by experts; the elevation of youth and brute emotion over wisdom, tradition and intellect; the submission of the individual to the will of the state. As Goldberg wryly puts it, ‘The Nazis were not big on property rights and tax cuts.’ >>> James Delingpole | Wednesday, February 25, 2009
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Thursday, February 26, 2009
”Man is born free, but is everywhere in chains.” – Jean Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract, French political philosopher (1712 - 1778)
Politicians today are craven! They do NOT deserve our respect!
Politicians, at least in the United Kingdom, are career politicians who only rarely have pursued other careers before entering Parliament.
In years gone by, this was very different: Men, and I mean men, used to go into politics when they had achieved a great deal in the real world, and when they felt that they had enough money to spend the rest of their working lives in the pursuit of improving the lot of the people. They were beholden unto no one, because they had made their money before entering politics, and were thus prepared to work for a relatively modest remuneration in order to try and improve the lot of the masses. Because they were men of independent means, they could speak their minds.
What we have today is but a mere pathetic shadow of the politicians of yore. What we have today are ‘company men’, party men, if you will. They toe the party line; and are terrified of losing their positions. How many politicians have you heard of recently who have been prepared to resign on a point of principle? Few, I would wager.
We, at least in the UK, are all the poorer for this sad development. It means that our politicians are far more concerned about their next pay packet than they are about the real concerns of politics.
Recent events have shown us, and very, very clearly, that our politicians are craven, unprincipled, and weak. Weak beyond measure!
The Houses of Parliament are peopled not only by men, but they are peopled by women also. To a great extent, British politics has become feminized. Bringing women into the political arena is, in many ways, a great thing; but it can only be a great thing if the women coming into politics can take the tough decisions necessary to ensure that our Judeo-Christian civilization can survive and thrive. Of late, this has clearly NOT been happening. On the contrary, our Judeo-Christian civilization, a civilization which has given us so, so much, has been dangerously weakened.
Just observe what has been happening in the United Kingdom! Just observe the pathetically weak and craven way that this NuLabour government has dealt with the threat that Islam has posed this nation! The ministers and politicians, all of whom are running scared, have placated these Muslims, even to the point of banning Geert Wilders from entering the country to show his film, Fitna, in the House of Lords.
It is abhorrent, to say nothing of being craven, to say nothing of being unworthy, to have banned this courageous man from this country. The decision was as disgusting as it was undemocratic. We in the United Kingdom were raised to expect our freedom of speech, we were raised to expect liberty. Yet, what has this awful government given us? Nothing but surrender to the forces of evil, surrender to the forces of darkness, surrender to the Jihad being waged against us. How can our politicians expect us willingly to embrace Muslims when we can see so plainly – it is as plain as the nose on your face – that Muslims are the cause of our loss of freedoms? How can this bring harmony in the community? Of course, it cannot!
The war on Islamic terror over the past years has been fought by politicians hell-bent on taking away the freedoms of the innocent people upon whom the ‘war on terror’ has been waged – the victims. Instead of targeting the perpetrators of the crimes, our ‘leaders’ have chosen to bring hurt upon the innocent. Why? Because they lack the courage necessary to punish the people who are perpetrating the crimes. Why? Because they know that if they were to punish the perpetrators of the crimes, they would meet with fierce opposition, whilst they know that by punishing the innocent, they will meet with nothing but meek and mild opposition, if indeed they meet with opposition at all.
Our so-called leaders, craven leaders almost all, decided that the ‘war on terror’ would be waged by taking your freedoms away, and mine. They decided that they would take our freedom away to criticize religion in general, and Islam in particular. (Oh, for the love of Allah, don’t criticize Islam!) As a result of this, and other stupidities, we now find ourselves with our hands tied firmly behind our backs, we find ourselves with a pitifully weakened voice. That’s how stupid and craven the politicians are that now lead us.
But can I tell you this: It is our birthright to be able to criticize Islam; it is our birthright to be able to criticize the Prophet Muhammad.
This is why it is IMPERATIVE that we be given an ‘international first amendment’, which Geert Wilders has called for, and which the International Free Press Society has called for, too. No constitution that the EU will write will be worth a damn if there is within it no ‘first amendment’. The people need to be free to speak their minds; they need to be free to criticize religion, any religion, and they need to be free to criticize any prophets considered to be – at least by some – the expounders of those faiths. No prophet, no god, must be above criticism, for any god worthy of being worshipped will accept such criticism. A god which cannot accept such criticism, a prophet who cannot accept such criticism, cannot be worthy of being worshipped at all! NO religion worthy of its salt is above criticism!
But our politicians are weak and craven and lacking in spunk: they cannot find it within themselves to criticize those who perpetrate crimes in the name of their pathetic religions, still less to criticize the religions themselves.
This is why our politicians are not worthy of being followed. This is why our politicians are not worthy of the title of ‘leaders’. This is why there is need of change at the top, this is why we are in need of change in the establishment.
We need leaders of spunk, but all I see around me are leaders of custard!
©Mark Alexander
All Rights Reserved
THE TELEGRAPH: A defector from Germany's hard-core neo-Nazi party the NPD has painted a chilling picture of the rise of new Hitler worshippers and their plans to build the "Fourth Reich".
Uwe Luthardt was a senior member of the NPD but quit to inform on the party which Germany tried unsuccessfully to ban several years ago.
He told of weapons stores and how members greet each other with "Heil Hitler" salutes, sing the banned songs of the Third Reich and relish the idea of a new Holocaust against the Jews.
Last year neo-Nazi attacks in Germany reached an all-time high and authorities are battling to stop youngsters from being attracted to the politics of the right – particularly now that Germany is in a deep recession and jobs are being lost by the thousands every day.
Luthardt, a former board member of the party, said he was threatened that he could "disappear" if he informed on its inner workings.
"Someone who just quits usually gets a lot of problems, and can find himself waking up in intensive care," he said.
"It wasn't really my world. When you went along to evening meetings, you saw all the shaven heads, and a black sun or other Nazi symbols tattooed on arms. They usually just boozed or were abusive. If there's no opponent around, they just fight among themselves.
"Many have an IQ close to my shoe size. Most of them are simply failures: failed pupils, people who dropped out of school or their apprenticeships, alcoholics that can't find a foothold anywhere else, thugs. But every local organisation has three to five men who don't have criminal records. They're the ones sent to face the press or man information stands.
"I joined because I wanted to do something for Germany, I wasn't interest in a Greater Germany. And suddenly everyone was saying we'll take back Silesia in Poland and then we'll give the communists a thrashing."
He said old Nazis living in South America still donate to the party and other funds come from the staging of skinhead-music concerts.
He went on: "The simple aim is the restoration of the Reich in which a new storm trooper organisation takes revenge on anyone who disagrees with them. >>> By Allan Hall in Berlin | Thursday, February 26, 2009
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BBC: It would be bizarre in any country to find that its lingerie shops are staffed entirely by men.
But in Saudi Arabia - an ultra-conservative nation where unmarried men and women cannot even be alone in a room together if they are not related - it is strange in the extreme.
Women, forced to negotiate their most intimate of purchases with male strangers, call the situation appalling and are demanding the system be changed.
"The way that underwear is being sold in Saudi Arabia is simply not acceptable to any population living anywhere in the modern world," says Reem Asaad, a finance lecturer at Dar al-Hikma Women's College in Jeddah, who is leading a campaign to get women working in lingerie shops rather than men.
"This is a sensitive part of women's bodies," adds Ms Asaad. "You need to have some discussions regarding size, colour and attractive choices and you definitely don't want to get into such a discussion with a stranger, let alone a male stranger. I mean this is something I wouldn't even talk to my friends about."
In theory, it should be easy enough to get women to staff lingerie shops, but parts of Saudi society are still very traditional and don't like the idea of women working - even if it's just to sell underwear to each other. >>> By Stephanie Hancock, BBC News, Jeddah | Wednesday, February 25, 2009
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TIMES ONLINE: President Obama set up a long and bloody battle with Republicans today when he unveiled an almost $4 trillion budget that raises taxes, slashes military spending and increases the national deficit to its highest level since World War II.
Mr Obama's first budget included a series of contentious provisions that produced howls of protest from Republicans, triggering what will be a major fight on Capitol Hill where the president has to get it passed by both the House and Senate.
The 140-page budget outlines forecasts an enormous $1.75 trillion deficit for this fiscal year, which ends in October, in part because it makes clear that Mr Obama is anticipating yet another massive bailout for the banking sector, on top of the $700 billion package passed last October.
Such a move would be unpopular with the American public and strongly opposed by Republicans and some Democrats on Capital Hill, because the banking sector is widely blamed for the economic crisis. The document includes a $750 billion set-aside in case more rescue funds for Wall Street are needed. President Barack Obama Unveils $4 trillion Budget >>> Tim Reid in Washington | Thursday, February 26, 2009
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