Elderly Saudi [Syrian? – see below] Woman Sentenced to Lashings
UPI: RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- A 75-year-old Saudi Arabian woman has been sentenced to receive 40 lashes for hosting two unrelated men in her house, local media reported.

The Saudi daily newspaper al-Watan said the woman, Khamisa Mohammed Sawadi, has appealed her sentence after being charged with offenses against Islam by the religious police, the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, CNN reported Monday.

Sawadi says the two men in her house were a man she considers her son because she breast-fed him as a baby and a friend who was escorting him as he delivered bread to the elderly woman.

"It's made everybody angry because this is like a grandmother," Saudi women's rights activist Wajeha Huwaider told CNN. "Forty lashes -- how can she handle that pain? You cannot justify it."

The U.S. broadcaster reported that Saudi religious police last week also detained two male novelists for questioning after they approached a female writer, Halima Muzfar, for an autograph at a book fair in Riyadh. [Source: UPI] Monday, March 9, 2009

CNN: Saudis Order 40 Lashes for Elderly Woman for Mingling

A Saudi Arabian court has sentenced a 75-year-old Syrian woman to 40 lashes, four months imprisonment and deportation from the kingdom for having two unrelated men in her house, according to local media reports.

According to the Saudi daily newspaper Al-Watan, troubles for the woman, Khamisa Mohammed Sawadi, began last year when a member of the religious police entered her house in the city of Al-Chamli and found her with two unrelated men, "Fahd" and "Hadian."

Fahd told the policeman that he had the right to be there, because Sawadi had breast-fed him as a baby and was therefore considered to be a son to her in Islam, according to Al-Watan. Fahd, 24, added that his friend Hadian was escorting him as he delivered bread for the elderly woman. The policeman then arrested both men.

Saudi Arabia follows a strict interpretation of Islam called Wahhabism and punishes unrelated men and women who are caught mingling.

The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, feared by many Saudis, is made up of several thousand religious policemen charged with duties such as enforcing dress codes, prayer times and segregation of the sexes. Under Saudi law, women face many restrictions, including a strict dress code and a ban on driving. Women also need to have a man's permission to travel.

Al Watan obtained the court's verdict and reported that it was partly based on the testimony of the religious police. In his ruling, the judge said it had been proved that Fahd is not the Sawadi's son through breastfeeding.

The court also doled out punishment to the two men. Fahd was sentenced to four months in prison and 40 lashes; Hadian was sentenced to six months in prison and 60 lashes. In a phone call with Al Watan, the judge declined to comment and suggested the newspaper review the case with the Ministry of Justice.

Sawadi told the newspaper that she will appeal, adding that Fahd is indeed her son through breastfeeding.

The case has sparked anger in Saudi Arabia. >>> By Mohammed Jamjoom and Saad Abedine | Monday, March 9, 2009

THE TELEGRAPH: Saudi Court Sentences Widow, 75, to Lashes for 'Mingling with Men'

A 75-year-old widow has been sentenced to 40 lashes and four months in prison in Saudi Arabia for mingling with two young men who were reportedly bringing her bread.

The sentence has sparked new criticism of Saudi Arabia's ultraconservative religious police and judiciary.

Khamisa Sawadi, a Syrian-born woman who was married to a Saudi, was convicted and sentenced last week for meeting with men who were not her immediate relatives. Saudi law prohibits men and women who are not immediate relatives from mingling.

The two men, including one who was Mrs Sawadi's late husband's nephew, were also found guilty and sentenced to prison terms and lashes.

The elderly woman met the two 24-year-old men last April after she asked them to bring her five loaves of bread, the Saudi newspaper Al-Watan reported.

The men - identified by Al-Watan as the nephew, Fahd al-Anzi, and his friend and business partner Hadiyan bin Zein - went to Mrs Sawadi's home in the city of al-Chamil, north of the Saudi capital, Riyadh. After delivering the bread, the two men were arrested by a one of the religious police, Al-Watan reported.

The court said it based its March 3 ruling on "citizen information" and testimony from Mr Anzi's father, who accused Mrs Sawadi of corruption.

"Because she said she doesn't have a husband and because she is not a Saudi, conviction of the defendants of illegal mingling has been confirmed," the court verdict read. >>> Telegraph’s Foreign Staff and Agencies, Riyadh | Tuesday, March 10, 2009

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Heather Price-Wright: Gay Marriage a Matter of Basic Civil Rights
DAILYWILDCAT.COM: The United States observes Black History Month in February, followed by Women's History Month in March. Both celebrate the stories and triumphs of historically oppressed demographics. Though neither group has entirely achieved equality in this country, this election cycle alone has seen huge strides for both African-African and women citizens.[.] Both Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sarah Palin were serious contenders for roles in the White House, and on Jan. 20, Barack Obama became the nation's first black president.

It's easy, especially in the midst of these celebratory months, to pat one's back and congratulate ourselves for the great strides we've made toward equality for all. Meanwhile, a new civil rights fight is brewing right under our national nose, and revealing that we haven't come nearly as far as we'd like to believe.

Last November, three states, including Arizona, voted to constitutionally ban gay marriage. The most notable of these states was California, which passed Proposition 8 with 52 percent of the vote. Prop 8 changed the California State Constitution to include a clause which reads, unequivocally, "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."

This amendment could nullify the nearly 18,000 same-sex marriages currently recognized in California, since the Supreme Court began granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples in mid-2008. That act seemed a major moment in the struggle for gay rights. Sadly, those opposed to marriage equality set out immediately to undo that paramount stride. The pro-Prop 8 campaign raised a whopping $43.3 million, making it the highest-funded campaign of the November 2008 election, apart from those of some presidential candidates.

When Prop 8 and the similar propositions in Florida and Arizona passed, the United States took a major step backwards; constitutions were never meant to enshrine prejudice or take rights away from people. Constitutional amendments were fundamentally designed, from the Bill of Rights onward, to protect the freedom of the American people - never to challenge it.

The last major battle in this country over marriage rights was the Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia, in which the court overturned an 1883 decision to allow bans on miscegenation. The case ended restrictions on marriage based on race, restrictions that had sprung up out of ignorance, hatred, and fear for the future of the American family. >>> By Heather Price-Wright | Monday, March 9, 2009

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British Foster Sharia Courts to Counter Afghan Extremists
WA TODAY: BRITISH officials are helping to establish informal sharia courts in southern Afghanistan to discourage Afghans from turning to the Taliban for justice.

State-sanctioned Islamic and tribal justice in remote regions of Helmand province has led to councils of village and tribal elders adjudicating disputes over land and water rights.

Verdicts based on Islamic law and Pashtun tribal code allow Afghans to bypass the notoriously slow and corrupt Government courts and are aimed at preventing the Taliban from exploiting festering disputes.

"Informal justice is almost what the Taliban started by offering - it is what they continue to focus on," the Foreign Office official leading the effort to rebuild Helmand, Hugh Powell, said.

The Taliban gained power in the mid-1990s by promising order after years of civil war and rule by predatory warlords.
Its courts mete out swift justice and are a popular alternative to the official system.

British officials helping the Afghan Government set up the justice councils acknowledge the new bodies compromise international plans to deliver a modern, largely secular, legal system. >>> Ben Farmer Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan | Monday, 9, 2009

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Obama Bid to Turn to Moderate Taliban 'Will Fail'
THE GUARDIAN: Co-opting fighters unlikely to succeed, say critics / Fighters view US overture as sign of weakness

Barack Obama's call for "moderate" Taliban members to be brought in from the cold met with scepticism yesterday from leading Afghan opposition figures, who warned that co-opting fighters would fail as long as Hamid Karzai's government appeared weak and corrupt.

Repeating a successful strategy in Iraq, Obama floated the idea of appealing to Taliban adherents who are alienated by the extremism of al-Qaida fighters and might be prepared to switch sides.

"Part of the success in Iraq involved reaching out to people that we would consider to be Islamic fundamentalists but who were willing to work with us because they had been completely alienated by the tactics of al-Qaida in Iraq," Obama said in an interview published yesterday. "There may be some comparable opportunities in Afghanistan and the Pakistani region."

But opposition figures warned that insurgents groups rarely ceded ground when they thought they were winning.

Ashraf Ghani, a former Afghanistan finance minister, who is to stand as presidential candiate in the elections in August, said: "I don't know of a single peace process that has been successfully negotiated from a position of weakness or stalemate."

A Taliban spokesman, who said that the US president's overture was a sign of weakness, poured cold water on the notion that "moderate" fighters could be easily turned. >>> Jon Boone in Kabul | Monday, March 9, 2009

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Violée, avortée puis excommuniée
leJDD.fr: L'Eglise est de nouveau au centre d'une polémique. Le Vatican a justifié lundi l'excommunication prononcée jeudi par l'Eglise brésilienne à l'encontre d'une femme qui avait fait avorter sa fillette de 9 ans, enceinte de jumeaux après avoir été violée par son beau-père. Ce dernier n'a pas été touché par la sanction, car "le viol est moins grave que l'avortement" explique le Vatican.

Après l'affaire Williamson, l'Eglise catholique se paye le luxe d'une nouvelle polémique, qui renforce son image rétrograde sur les questions de société. Le Vatican a officiellement pris parti lundi en faveur de l'Eglise brésilienne, ayant excommunié jeudi dernier une mère qui a fait avorter sa fillette de neuf ans. Violée par son beau-père, l'enfant était enceinte de jumeaux. L'équipe médicale qui a pratiqué l'opération a également été mise au ban de l'Eglise. Le beau-père en revanche, coupable de viol aux yeux de la loi, n'a pas eu à subir les foudres de l'Eglise. "le viol est moins grave que l'avortement", a justifié lundi le cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, préfet de la congrégation pour les évêques au Vatican. "C'est un triste cas, mais le vrai problème est que les jumeaux conçus étaient deux personnes innocentes, qui avaient le droit de vivre et qui ne pouvaient pas être supprimées", a déclaré Mgr Re, qui est également président de la Commission pontificale pour l'Amérique latine. >>> Par M.P., leJDD.fr | Lundi 09 Mars 2009

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Muslim PC Sues after Workmates 'Laughed at His Beard'
Photo of PC Javid Iqbal courtesy of the Mail Online
MAIL Online: A Muslim police officer claims he was forced out of his job by colleagues who made fun of his beard and called him a 'f***ing Paki'.

PC Javid Iqbal, 38, said white officers openly discussed in front of him how they were ' better' than their ethnic-minority colleagues.

The married father of two also claims officers pulled faces at each other if told they had to go out on patrol with him and forced him to walk home from a job instead of picking him up.

Mr Iqbal says he was sacked after fellow-officers in Luton launched a 'smear and witch-hunt campaign' during which they lodged a string of complaints about his performance.

He is taking the Bedfordshire force to an employment tribunal claiming he is the victim of racial and religious discrimination and unfair dismissal.

The claims will add to concern about institutional racism in police forces.

An employment tribunal in London recently heard evidence that an 'apartheid culture' was operated at Belgravia police station, with separate vans for white and black staff.

Mr Iqbal, who was born and raised in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, told the Daily Mail: 'My beard is an important part of my identity which helps other Muslims relate to me. >>> By Andrew Levy | Monday, March 9, 2009

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Illegal Immigrant Numbers Higher than Official Estimates
THE TELEGRAPH: There are nearly three quarters of a million illegal immigrants in Britain, research has suggested.

A study by the London School of Economics suggests that the number of people living in the UK without permission is much higher than previously thought.

The last official estimate of illegal immigration, a Home Office report in 2001, put the figure at 430,000.

Because of the nature of illegal immigration, accurately charting numbers is difficult. The LSE team said the figure lies somewhere between 524,000 and 947,000, with a "midpoint" figure of 725,000.

The LSE study was commissioned by Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, who is advocating a form of amnesty for illegal immigrants, something both the Government and the Conservative Party leadership oppose.

Many illegal immigrants work without paying taxes. Mr Johnson said that it is not realistic to try to find and expel all illegal immigrants, so it is better to try to bring them into the system and make them pay taxes.

"What I am trying to get people to recognise is that there are limits to what the policy to expulsions is able to achieve at the moment. Failing that, and it is failing, we need to think of a better alternative," Mr Johnson told the BBC. >>> | Monday, March 9, 2009

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North Korea Threatens Full Scale War If Rocket Is Intercepted
THE TELEGRAPH: North Korea says it will wage war on America, Japan and South Korea if any attempt is made to intercept the launch of a rocket it claims is intended to put a satellite into space.

A military parade in Pyongyang, North Korea. Photo courtesy of The Telegraph
It has also cut off its border and telephone links with the South in protest at military exercises by American and South Korean troops which began on Monday.

Plans for a launch were first picked up by satellite imagery, with foreign intelligence agencies saying it was a test of a long-range Taepodong-2 missile with the capacity to hit parts of the United States.

The United States said it would shoot down the missile if it headed towards its territory. Japan has suggested it might try to intercept any launch, even if the payload is a communications satellite as claimed by Pyongyang.

"If the enemies recklessly opt for intercepting our satellite, our revolutionary armed forces will launch without hesitation a just retaliatory strike operation," the general staff of the North Korean army said in a statement on state media. It singled out the United States, Japan and South Korea as targets.

"Shooting our satellite for peaceful purposes will precisely mean a war," it said. >>> By Richard Spencer in Beijing | Monday, March 9, 2009

BERLINER ZEITUNG: Nordkoreas Truppen in voller Kampfbereitschaft

Das nordkoreanische Militär hat im Fernsehen mögliche Schläge gegen militärische Stützpunkte der USA, Japans und Südkoreas angekündigt. Foto dank der Berliner Zeitung
Seoul - Wegen eines Großmanövers der US-Streitkräfte mit Südkorea hat Nordkorea seine Truppen in volle Kampfbereitschaft versetzt und auch die letzte Kommunikationsleitung zum Nachbarland gekappt.

Zugleich warnte die nordkoreanische Volksarmee am Montag vor Versuchen, einen «Satelliten» abzuschießen, den Nordkorea ins All befördern wolle. Ein Abschuss käme einer Kriegserklärung gleich und würde mit Vergeltungsschlägen gegen die USA, Südkorea und Japan beantwortet. Wann der Satellit starten soll, blieb unklar. Für die Dauer des Manövers soll den Angaben zufolge der «heiße Draht» zu Südkorea abgeschnitten werden, der bei Bedarf die Kommunikation zur Lösung akuter Konflikte sicherstellen soll. >>> ©dpa | Montag, 9. März 2009

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Plus d'un millier de catholiques manifestent à Lucerne
TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: EGLISE | Près de 1500 personnes se sont rassemblées dimanche pour protester contre la politique conservatrice du pape et pour appeler les fidèles à rester dans l'Eglise.

Photo de la manifestation à Lucerne contre la politique conservatrice du pape grâce à la Tribune de Genève
Près de 1500 catholiques se sont rassemblés dimanche à Lucerne pour protester contre la politique conservatrice du pape. Cette manifestation se voulait aussi un appel à ne pas sortir de l'Eglise. >>> ATS | Dimanche 08 Mars 2009

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Former Muslim Facing Death Threats In Egypt
BOS NEWS LIFE: CAIRO, EGYPT -- A former Muslim who converted to Christianity in Egypt was in hiding Sunday, March 8, after Islamic lawyers demanded that he be executed on charges of "apostasy," Egyptian Christians and rights investigators monitoring the trial said.

Middle East Concern (MEC), an advocacy group with closely follows the case, told BosNewsLife that Maher Ahmad El-Mo’otahssem Bellah El-Gohary has been trying to obtain identification papers with Christianity designated as his religion, despite death threats.

"Maher is involved in a legal battle to officially change his religious registration from Islam to Christianity so that both he and his daughter may be identified as Christians," MEC said.

However at a trial on February 22 some 20 Islamic lawyers strongly opposed that move, MEC and other sources said.

Egyptian law allows Muslim lawyers to become involved in a court case if they believe the outcome will run counter to Islamic law "harmful" to society. "These lawyers described Maher as an apostate from Islam and asked that he be sentenced to death," MEC said. >>> BosNewsLife Middle East Service | Sunday, March 8, 2009

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Blair Urged to 'Reconsider' Job
BBC: Lord Levy has told the BBC he thinks Tony Blair should consider whether to continue his job as an envoy for the Middle East Quartet.

The former prime minister's ally said he should examine if he had "the time and tools" to help the peace process.

Lord Levy, the former prime minister's representative to the region, was speaking on BBC Radio 4's Week in Westminster programme.

He said he should think about what his role was "precisely" going to be.

Asked if he thought Mr Blair should step down, Lord Levy said: "As a friend I would say to him, do you feel you have the time, do you feel you have the tools, to really make a difference in this arena?

"And if you do, then what are you going to do and how are you going to go about it?"

Lord Levy said if there were not enough "ticks in all those boxes" he would advise someone else should take over.

Mr Blair has been criticised for trying to combine business roles, speechmaking and work with his faith foundation with trying to resolve the dispute. >>> | Saturday, March 7, 2009

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Dialogue Essential, Says King
SAUDI GAZETTE: RIYADH – Dialogue among religions and cultures has become a clear and inevitable way to serve humanity, King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, said in an address to the Saudi-French Symposium on dialogue among civilizations which opened here Saturday.

“Based on the eternal principles of Islam which urge justice, equality and peace and call for building, friendship and fraternity among people, I welcome you in this blessed symposium which deals with an important issue of establishing contacts among peoples and transforming feelings of hatred among them into affection and understanding,” the King said in a speech delivered by Dr. Khalid Al-Anqari, Minister of Higher Education.

Saudi and French academics and researchers are participating in the symposium which the King hoped would come out with positive recommendations.

“The issue is civilization dialogue among Saudi and French academics and researchers,” the King said, praying that the dialogue would help replace conflicts and wars with understanding and peace.

The symposium is an outcome of the Madrid Interfaith Conference last July and the subsequent United Nations forum on dialogue among religions and cultures in New York in November. >>> SPA | Sunday, March 8, 2009

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Raketenabwehr: Medwedew lässt Obama abblitzen
STERN: Absage aus Moskau: Russlands Präsident Dmitri Medwedew will sich im Streit um den geplanten US-Raketenschild nicht auf politische Tauschgeschäfte mit Washington einlassen. Der Kremlchef lässt damit US-Präsident Barack Obama ins Leere laufen, der Moskau offenbar einen Deal in Sachen Iran vorschlagen wollte.

Der russische Präsident Dmitri Medwedew hat in einer neuen Runde des Streits um die US-Raketenabwehrpläne in Mitteleuropa "Tauschgeschäfte" mit Washington abgelehnt. US-Präsident Barack Obama hatte Medwedew nach einem Bericht der "New York Times" (NYT) angeboten, auf die Aufstellung des Raktenschilds [sic] zu verzichten. Im Gegenzug solle Moskau dabei helfen, die Entwicklung von iranischen Langstreckenraketen zu verhindern.



Russland werde sich nur mit konkreten Vorschlägen zur Raketenabwehr befassen, die den amerikanischen, europäischen und russischen Sicherheitsinteressen genügten, sagte Medwedew am Dienstag nach Angaben der russischen Agentur Interfax bei einem Besuch in Madrid. Politische "Tauschgeschäfte" werde es nicht geben. >>> DPA/AP/Reuters | Dienstag, 3. März 2009

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Le pape Benoît XVI se rendra en Terre Sainte du 8 au 15 mai
24 HEURES: VATICAN | Le pape Benoît XVI a annoncé dimanche lors de la prière de l'angélus, un "pélerinage" du 8 au 15 mai au cours duquel il priera pour "l'unité et la paix du Moyen-Orient".

La préparation de ce voyage – qui sera le premier du pape dans cette région – avait été évoquée par Benoît XVI lui-même le 12 février lors d'une audience avec une délégation d'organisations juives américaines, mais la confirmation du déplacement et des dates n'avaient pas encore été annoncées. >>> AFP | Dimanche 08 Mars 2009

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Islamofascist George Galloway

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William Dalrymple: Wahhabi Radicals Are Determined to Destroy a Gentler, Kinder Islam
THE OBSERVER: Rahman Baba, "the Nightingale of Peshawar," was an 18th-century poet and mystic, a sort of North West Frontier version of Julian of Norwich.

He withdrew from the world and promised his followers that if they also loosened their ties with the world, they could purge their souls of worries and move towards direct experience of God. Rituals and fasting were for the pious, said the saint. What was important was to understand that divinity can best be reached through the gateway of the human heart - that we all have paradise within us, if we know where to look.

For centuries, Rahman Baba's shrine at the foot of the Khyber Pass has been a place where musicians and poets have gathered, and his Sufi verses in the Pukhtun language made him the national poet of the Pathans. As a young journalist covering the Soviet-mujahideen conflict I used to visit the shrine to watch Afghan refugee musicians sing their songs to their saint by the light of the moon.

Then, about 10 years ago, a Saudi-funded Wahhabi madrasa was built at the end of the track leading to the shrine. Soon its students took it on themselves to halt what they saw as unIslamic practices. On my last visit, I talked about the situation with the shrine keeper, Tila Mohammed. He described how young Islamists now came and complained that his shrine was a centre of idolatry and superstition: "My family have been singing here for generations," said Tila. "But now these Arab madrasa students come here and create trouble.

"They tell us that what we do is wrong. They ask people who are singing to stop. Sometimes arguments break out - even fist fights. This used to be a place where people came to get peace of mind. Now when they come here they just encounter more problems, so gradually have stopped coming."

"Before the Afghan war, there was nothing like this. But then the Saudis came, with their propaganda, to stop us visiting the saints, and to stop us preaching 'ishq [love]. Now this trouble happens more and more frequently."

Behind the violence lies a long theological conflict that has divided the Islamic world for centuries. Rahman Baba believed passionately in the importance of music, poetry and dancing as a path for reaching God, as a way of opening the gates of Paradise. But this use of poetry and music in ritual is one of the many aspects of Sufi practice that has attracted the wrath of modern Islamists. For although there is nothing in the Qur'an that bans music, Islamic tradition has always associated music with dancing girls and immorality, and there is a long tradition of clerical opposition. >>> William Dalrymple* | Sunday, March 8, 2009

*William Dalrymple 's Last Mughal won the Duff Cooper Prize and the Crossword Indian Book of the Year prize.

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Muslims Find Refuge in Finland

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Islam and Freedom of Speech
THE BOSTON GLOBE: Geert Wilders is a member of the Dutch Parliament and head of the Freedom Party. In 2008 he released "Fitna," a controversial film about the Koran and jihadist violence. Wilders was condemned as an anti-Muslim agitator but also hailed as a defender of Western values and free speech. In January, a Dutch court ordered Wilders prosecuted for allegedly inciting hatred against Islam. Last month he was invited to screen "Fitna" at Westminster, but the British government barred him from entering the country. He was recently interviewed by Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby, who prepared the following edited excerpts:

Q: You've said that England today is more Chamberlain than Churchill. Explain what you mean.

A: Well, Chamberlain was the biggest appeaser to a totalitarian ideology called fascism. Now we face the threat of another totalitarian ideology called Islam, at least according to me. And instead of defending our freedom, defending our values, when I was invited a few weeks ago to show "Fitna" in the House of Lords, they denied me entry to the United Kingdom.

Q: The letter from the British home secretary said: "Your statements about Muslims and their beliefs . . . would threaten community harmony, and therefore public security, in the UK."

A: What really happened is that she was pressured. In the English press, there was a lot of news that Lord Ahmed [Nazir Ahmed, a British peer] threatened to have 10,000 Muslims demonstrating in front of Westminster.

Q: If you were allowed into the country.

A: Yes. And this is what I meant by Chamberlain. The UK government is giving in, appeasing the enemy. They should stand up and say: We might not like the political view of this guy, but he should be allowed to come here and say it. >>> By Geert Wilders | Sunday, March 8, 2009

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Resetting US-Russia Relations
Watch Reuters video: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meets with her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov as the US takes steps to revive its relationship with Russia.(02:03) >>>
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Guy Bechor Asks the Question: Can Jews Live in Europe?
YNET NEWS: For increasingly helpless European Jews Israel is the solution, not the problem

Anti-Semitism is on the rise in Europe. Sadly, Guy Bechor feels the need to ask if Jews really have a future in Europe. Photo courtesy of YNet News
It's hard to believe that this question is being asked [a]gain, but sadly, after 70 years it has emerged nonetheless: Is there room for Jewish existence in Europe? Can Jews continue living as a proud community, in 2009, in that same continent with the terrible memories? The answer, in light of what has been materializing in the past few weeks – yet not only because of this – is negative.

A Jew can no longer walk the streets while displaying Jewish trademarks, or visit Jewish institutions that are not surrounded by police officers and guards; they must remain behind locks and bars, scared for their lives.

Meanwhile, those who hide any Jewish attributes and assimilate into society will continue to live – until they face an unpleasant situation with their colleagues, at school, or anywhere else in life.

In recent months I visited and spoke before several Jewish communities in European countries, including Turkey, France, and Britain – even before the Gaza operation. During the trip I saw with my own eyes the miserable Jewish existence. Yes, if they hide the Star of David and the unique dress, and if they agree that their synagogues will look like locked fortresses, like ghettos in fact, and if they are forced to experience threats on the street and hear about the growing number of anti-Semitic incidents – well, we can say that there is Jewish existence; scared, embarrassed, and submissive.

But what about feeling secure in their countries? There is none of that.

Anti-Semitism is a European phenomenon*, with millions of Muslims sweeping the continent and turning the conflict with Israel and the Jews into a cause that enables them to reinforce their hold on Europe. The global economic crisis is being exploited in order to incite against the Jews and against the investment banks which the world enjoyed for half a century. Yet now, when we see losses, "Jewish money still rules the world," as the South African deputy foreign minister startlingly asserted.

The trend is growing across the world and it has nothing to do with Israel: Israel is the tool used in order to secure achievements. Israel is what the Jews used to be in the past.

When we see, in Turkey or Italy, Jewish-owned stores being marked so the locals refrain from buying there, what kind of future do the children of the 750,000 Jews in Western Europe have? You worked for a country that will always view you as foreigners. Following World War II, you made some countries rich, but now we see a quiet Jewish rally in the Swedish capital being banned because of fears of Muslims violence there. What kind of future do you have in this continent, which is becoming increasingly Muslim? >>> | Friday, March 6, 2009

*Really? What about the anti-Semitism in the Muslim world?

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