Sunday, March 29, 2009
RADIO NETHERLANDS WORLDWIDE: The Freedom Party of populist right-wing leader Geert Wilders has climbed again in the polls, this time to a record of 32 seats in the 150-seat parliament. The Freedom Party is in first place and is now four seats ahead of the Christian Democrats, the largest of the three parties in the governing coalition. Pollster Maurice de Hond attributes the rise in popularity to his departure from a parliamentary debate on Thursday. He walked out of the debate in a huff, describing the debate on the economic crisis as "a sham".
His ratings began to soar in February, when the British government refused to allow him to enter the country. Sixty percent of voters who describe themselves as right-wing say they will vote for Wilders' Freedom Party. [Source: RNW] | Sunday, March 29, 2009
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback & Hardback – The Netherlands) >>>
LA MIDDLE EASTERN POLICY EXAMINER: Unlike the positive news from Morocco in connection with International Women’s Day, the North African country recently narrowed the scope of personal freedom for two minorities, Shia Moslems and gays.
First, Morocco ended diplomatic ties with Iran, stating that Iran was spreading Shia Islam within Morocco. Since Iran is a prominent state sponsor of terrorism and Islamism, this might have been a mere pretext. However, the authorities went on to arrest several Moroccans for converting to Shia Islam. An Iraqi school in Rabat was closed following parents’ complaints that the school promoted Shia Islam.
Foreign Minister Taeib Fassi Fihri criticized Moroccan associations seeking to develop Shia Islam in the country, allegedly with Iranian support: “Morocco cannot accept that activities of this type be conducted, directly or indirectly, or via a so-called nongovernmental organization.” He called it an “attack on the foundations” of the country and on the “cement” of Malekite Islam, the form of Sunni Islam prevalent in Morocco.
Second, on March 21 the Interior Ministry issued a statement: “Certain media are taking a stand for certain ignominious behaviors, which is a provocation for the national public opinion. Any act contrary to moral or religious values will be repressed.” An anonymous ministry official said on March 24 that this was a reference to newspapers that had advocated greater tolerance for homosexuality. >>> Paul Kujawsky | Friday, March 27, 2009
HAARETZ: A former minister in the Iranian regime of the Ayatollah Khomeini accused Germany on Saturday of failing to apply the necessary pressure on Tehran to halt its controversial nuclear program due to financial reasons.
"Germany prefers to safeguard its financial interests in Iran, and prefers its billion-dollar business deals rather than applying the necessary pressure to bring an end to the Iranian nuclear program," said Ayatollah Dr. Mehdi Haeri Khorshidi, who fled to Germany in 1986 and remained there until 2003, speaking at a conference on Iran at Haifa University.
Khorshidi served as the justice minister in Ayatollah Khomeini's first administration, as well as serving as the advisor on religious affairs.
The Iranian minister was arrested in 1981 after voicing criticism against the Ayatollah's regime, and remained in prison for five years until he fled to Germany. In 2003, he left Germany for the U.S., where he lives today.
According to Khorshidi, Germany has stepped up its commerce with Iran, in blatant disregard of its nuclear program, which the West believes aims to manufacture a nuclear bomb, and its history of human rights violations. >>> By Fadi Eyadat, Haaretz Correspondent | Saturday, March 28, 2009
CANADA.COM: OTTAWA - George Galloway, the British MP who's been declared persona non grata by the Harper government, once demanded that Britain's Labour government block a visit by far-right French politician Jean-Marie Le Pen.
Galloway, an outspoken opponent of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, was informed Friday he won't be allowed into Canada for a scheduled four-city speaking tour because he led a convoy that delivered humanitarian aid to Hamas officials in Gaza earlier this month.
Canada considers Hamas a terrorist organization. In a letter, Robert Orr, the immigration program manager at the Canadian High Commission, told Galloway his "material support'' for Hamas makes him inadmissible under Section 34 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
Galloway has vowed to fight the ban in court. “That's the way the right-wing, last-ditch dead-enders of Bushism in Ottawa conduct their business,'' he sneered in an article he wrote in Saturday's Guardian.
In it, he described Jason Kenney, the minister of citizenship and immigration, as a “gay-baiter, gung-ho armchair warrior, with an odd habit of exceeding his immigration brief.''
Kenney could overturn the ban imposed by border security officials, but has stated he has no intention of doing so.
Being banned by Kenney, wrote Galloway, “is like being told to sit up straight by the hunchback of Notre Dame or being lectured on due diligence by Conrad Black.''
But in 2004, the shoe was on the other foot. Then it was Galloway who argued, unsuccessfully, that David Plunkett, then Britain's home secretary, should prevent Le Pen, the aging leader of the French National Front party, from entering Britain.
“Le Pen should not be allowed to set foot on to British soil at any time,'' he said then. "If the Home Secretary allows into this country someone who denies the Holocaust and who is on record as hating all Muslims, he will be siding with the neo-Nazi far-right against multicultural Britain.''
As well, there's no sign Galloway objected last month when Britain denied entry to Geert Wilders, a Dutch member of Parliament who has compared the Koran to Mein Kampf and blamed Islamic texts for inciting the 9/11 terrorist attacks. >>> By Don Butler, Canwest News Service | Sunday, March 22, 2009
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback/Broché – Canada) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback/Relié – Canada) >>>
INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE: Voters on Mayotte, a tiny island in the Indian Ocean, decide by referendum Sunday whether to become a full-fledged part of France, a change of status that would end local traditions like polygamy and Islamic courts.
Mayotte, 400 km (250 miles) east of Mozambique and 300 km west of Madagascar, is a former French colony that voted against independence in referenda in 1974 and 1976. It stayed French, with a status allowing legal differences from the mainland.
It has a population of about 186,000 people, of whom 95 percent are Sunni Muslims.
Keen to strengthen ties with mainland France that have kept Mayotte richer and more stable than the coup-prone neighbouring archipelago of Comoros, many islanders have long demanded to upgrade their status to a "departement," or full part of France.
"We may be black, poor and Muslim, but we have been French longer than Nice," Abdoulatifou Aly, a legislator from Mayotte, was quoted as saying in French weekly L'Express.
President Nicolas Sarkozy promised during his 2007 campaign a referendum to allow the people of Mayotte to decide.
If, as expected, they vote yes, a government road map says that Mayotte will become France's 101st department in 2011. >>> By Estelle Shirbon, Reuters | Sunday, March 29, 2009
L’EXPRESS: Mayotte bientôt 101e département français
Le référendum sur la départementalisation de l'île a débuté ce dimanche matin: un scrutin à l'issue duquel la victoire du "oui" semble assurée.
Les 70.000 électeurs de Mayotte votaient dimanche pour faire de leur petite île de l'Océan indien le 101e département français et le 5è DOM, dernière étape d'un long processus entamé en 1974, dont ils espèrent qu'il leur garantira la stabilité et une amélioration de leur niveau de vie. L'issue du référendum ne fait guère de doute dans cette île où l'ensemble de la classe politique et les syndicats ont fait campagne pour le "oui", et où les seules voix discordantes sont venues de dignitaires religieux musulmans, qui dénoncent la disparition progressive de certaines de leurs prérogatives.
Sous un ciel bleu et une chaleur accablante, les Mahorais se rendaient à la mi-journée dans les 130 bureaux de vote répartis dans l'île, les femmes drapées dans leur "salouva", grand tissu aux couleurs lumineuses, assorti au "kichali", voile porté sur la tête, et les hommes chapeautés du "kofia", couvre-chef traditionnel que l'on retrouve dans tout l'archipel des Comores. >>> | Dimanche 29 Mars 2009
THE NEW YORK TIMES: WASHINGTON — President Obama is facing challenges to American power on multiple fronts as he prepares for his first trip overseas since taking office, with the nation’s economic woes emboldening allies and adversaries alike.
Despite his immense popularity around the world, Mr. Obama will confront resentment over American-style capitalism and resistance to his economic prescriptions when he lands in London on Tuesday for the Group of 20 summit meeting of industrial and emerging market nations plus the European Union.
The president will not even try to overcome NATO’s unwillingness to provide more troops in Afghanistan when he goes on later in the week to meet with the military alliance.
He seems unlikely to return home with any more to show for his attempts to open a dialogue with Iran’s leaders, who have, so far, responded with tough words, albeit not tough enough to persuade Russia to support the United States in tougher sanctions against Tehran. And he will be tested in face-to-face meetings by the leaders of China and Russia, who have been pondering the degree to which the power of the United States to dominate global affairs may be ebbing. >>> Helene Cooper | Saturday, March 28, 2009
THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY: The crown prince is seriously ill, and Saudi Arabia's normally secretive royal family is openly clashing over who will take the throne, reports Hugh Miles
A dispute over Saudi Arabia's royal succession burst into the open yesterday, revealing a power struggle in which one of the most senior princes in the oil-rich kingdom is reported to have disappeared. The prospect of instability in a country that is not only the world's largest oil exporter but also a key Western ally at the heart of the Middle East will cause serious concern in Washington, London and beyond.
Rumours are rife over the position of Prince Bandar bin Sultan, 60, son of the heir to the Saudi throne, who has not been seen in public for weeks. Prince Bandar is better known abroad than almost any other member of the Saudi royal family, not only for his extravagant lifestyle, but because of his daring foreign policy initiatives during 22 years as the Saudi ambassador in Washington, where he played an important role after 9/11 and during two Gulf wars. His absence from public life comes at a sensitive time in Saudi Arabia: his father, Crown Prince Sultan, is gravely ill with cancer, throwing the succession to King Abdullah into question.
One theory in political circles in Riyadh is that Prince Bandar was seeking to oust King Abdullah before Prince Sultan dies, thus placing his father on the throne. Other rumours claim that Prince Bandar is ill, or that he angered King Abdullah by dabbling in Syrian politics without authorisation. The Saudi embassy in London could not be contacted for comment last week, but this weekend political tensions in the kingdom came dramatically to the surface.
On Friday night King Abdullah unexpectedly announced the appointment of one of his half-brothers, Prince Nayef, the 76-year-old interior minister, to the post of second deputy prime minister, which had been left vacant. This was immediately taken as an indication that he would become crown prince when Prince Sultan dies or becomes king. But yesterday Prince Talal, another senior figure, publicly demanded that the king confirm that the appointment did not mean Prince Nayef would automatically become the next crown prince. Such public disagreement among senior Saudi royals is highly unusual. Another indication of friction among the many descendants of the founder of Saudi Arabia, … >>> Hugh Miles | Sunday, March 29, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: The Bishop of Rochester has surprised the Church of England by announcing that he will stand down this year to become a defender of persecuted Christians.
Dr Michael Nazir-Ali is only 59 and could have stayed for another decade in his post, one of the most senior in the Church, but has chosen instead to devote the rest of his career to working in communities where Christians are in a minority.
While this is likely to see him involved in the Middle East and Pakistan, the bishop revealed that he also plans to work with Muslim converts to Christianity in Britain.
He said he has been inspired by the story of Hannah Shah, an Imam's daughter who faced being killed by her family for refusing an arranged marriage before becoming a Christian.
"Bishop Michael is hoping to work with a number of church leaders from areas where the church is under pressure, particularly in minority situations, who have asked him to assist them with education and training for their particular situation," said a spokesman. >>> By Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Religious Affairs Correspondent | Sunday, March 29, 2009
MAIL Online: Bishop Nazir-Ali, Scourge of Church Liberals, Steps Down
One of the Church of England’s most outspoken bishops is to resign a decade early after years of disenchantment with the liberal drift of Anglicanism.
The Bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir-Ali – the Church’s only Asian diocesan bishop – is planning to devote much of his time to helping persecuted Christians in Muslim countries such as Pakistan and Iran.
But Dr Nazir-Ali, who boycotted the Lambeth Conference last summer in protest over gay clerics, is also certain to remain a powerful spokesman for Anglican conservatives.
The 59-year-old bishop – who has been in the post for 15 years and could have stayed there until he was 70 – has never been afraid of controversy.
Multi-culturalism, secularism and liberal theology have all been among his targets.
Last year he faced death threats for writing in a Sunday newspaper that Islamic extremists were creating ‘no-go’ areas for non-Muslims in parts of Britain.
The Bishop, his wife Valerie and their two sons were placed under police protection.
Earlier this year, he told The Mail on Sunday that the Church of England was not doing enough to convert Muslims. >>> | Sunday, March 29, 2009
THE SUNDAY EXPRESS: RADICAL Muslim Anjem Choudary has brushed aside a Scotland Yard probe into his inflammatory speeches to demand that Britain should become a Sharia state.
His voice rising with passion and vigour, he told his growing army of followers in central London on Friday night: “Let me tell you something – the Sharia will be implemented in Pakistan, it will be implemented in India and Bangladesh and even down the road in Downing Street.”
He was sharing a platform with four other senior members of Islam4UK, a new organisation which is attracting the sort of believers who loyally followed hate preacher Abu Hamza before he was locked up.
Muslims around the world will rise and eventually conquer the White House, said Choudary, comparing the struggle ahead with that faced by Muslims hundreds of years ago, who constantly brushed the dust of battles from their eyes as they conquered nations.
Astonishingly, he compared himself to Noah from the Old Testament in one ranting outburst.
“People said ‘look at that man building that boat in the mountain’,” he said. “Now they say ‘look at that lunatic calling for the Sharia in Britain’ ... they say the same thing.”
Like those doubters in centuries past, Muslims will be tested but they must hold true to their convictions.
“The question is, will your footsteps be in the struggle?” he asked the audience of more than 100 young Muslim men who share a deep-seated and worrying loathing of everything that Britain stands for.
The old Islamic army was 60 million strong and stretched from the “east of the east to the west of the west” and those days will come again, he said, although there are no countries in the world ruled by Sharia.
To whip up the crowd he boasted of how His Greatness Mohammed had “eradicated” the Kaafir non-Muslims from the Arabian peninsular and they responded with a huge cheer.
Stroking his beard while sitting behind a banner calling for Sharia Law for the UK, he said: ‘‘President Nixon once said if the Muslims in the Asian continent gathered together they would be a superpower. >>> By James Murray | Sunday, March 29, 2009
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback & Hardback) – Free delivery >>>
Saturday, March 28, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: Hands off the heads that wear the crown, says Andrew Roberts.
The news that Gordon Brown has opened talks with Buckingham Palace over altering the 1701 Act of Settlement, which bars members of the Royal family from succeeding to the throne if they marry Roman Catholics, has profound implications for the long-term future of this country. For the Act of Settlement is not the bigoted, irrelevant and obsolete law that Downing Street presents it as – it is one of the key pieces of legislation that has defined what Britain was and still is. For a Prime Minister who claims to care deeply about the concept of Britishness, the Act should be sacrosanct, rather than sacrificed in a gross bout of politically correct gimmickry.
Britain is a Protestant country today largely because of the Act of Settlement. It secured the Hanoverian succession 13 years after the Glorious Revolution replaced the Catholic King James II with the Protestant William III (of Orange) and Mary II. Since the only surviving son of their daughter, the future Queen Anne, had died, it settled the Crown after her upon the Electoress Sophia of Hanover, a granddaughter of James I, and her heirs – if they were Protestants, and married to Protestants, as indeed the four King Georges were.
Because it is a central tenet of the Catholic Church that the children of Catholics should be raised as Catholics, it was understood that marriage of a Royal opened up the possibility either of a Catholic one day sitting on the Throne, or a Catholic parent committing apostasy by allowing their child to be raised as a Protestant – neither of which were desirable outcomes politically, religiously or morally. Since the monarch is also Supreme Head of the (Protestant) Church of England, above whom there is no one in the Church hierarchy – including the Pope – the ban on Catholics makes further sense. Gordon Brown's Assault on the Traditions of the Monarchy Is Preposterous >>> Andrew Roberts | Saturday, March 28, 2009
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback & Hardback) – Free delivery >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback & Hardback) – Free delivery >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback & Hardback) – Free delivery >>>
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