President Obama's Aide Catches Swine Flu
TIMESONLINE: The White House disclosed today that an official who helped to arrange President Obama's recent trip to Mexico had become sick and that three members of his family had later contracted probable swine flu.

The unnamed employee is an aide to Steven Chu, the Energy Secretary, and helped plan the Mexico trip. "This individual never flew on Air Force One," said Robert Gibbs, the press secretary. "He was asked specifically if he ever came within 6 feet of the president and the answer to that was no."

Although he attended a working dinner with Mr Obama on April 16, Mr Gibbs said the aide was never was close enough to put the President at risk.

Mr Obama himself has had no symptoms of the virus and doctors see no need to conduct any tests on his health, Mr Gibbs added. >>> Tom Baldwin | Thursday, April 30, 2009

Sara Miller – Opinion: Independence Day: I Am a Zionist and I Am Proud
HAARETZ: "I'll give you six months," said a close relative the day before I packed my life into two rucksacks and schlepped them 2,000 miles from Britain. A decade on, I'm still here, and proud to be an olah vatika (veteran immigrant).

Even within Israel the concept of Aliyah for Zionism's sake is often an alien one. Young Israelis in particular cannot understand why someone from an evidently prosperous country, with a culture-rich and progressive society and which is relatively terrorism free, would choose to throw it all over, leave their family and friends and move to a country so riddled with internal problems and violence.

My motivation can be summed up in one word. Zionism. In recent decades Zionism has become a dirty word in the world. It has been used as an insulting and disrespectful collective noun for the Jewish people, shorthand for the State of Israel within the context of its conflict with the Palestinians and even a synonym for the settlement movement.

It is time to reclaim the word as an expression of pride. Zionism is what has driven and will drive past, present and future Jews around the world to move to a miniscule spot of land in a war-torn region. >>> By Sara Miller | Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Israel to EU: Criticism of Netanyahu Government Unacceptable
HAARETZ: A Foreign Ministry official has been warning European countries that unless they curtail criticism of Benjamin Netanyahu's government, Israel will block the European Union from participating in the diplomatic process with the Palestinians.

The main target of the offensive is EU External Affairs Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, who recently called for a freeze in upgrading ties with Israel over its peace process policies.

Several days ago, the deputy director for Europe at the Foreign Ministry, Rafi Barak, began calling European ambassadors in Israel regarding the attitude toward the new government. The first conversations were with France's Jean-Michel Casa, Britain's Tom Phillips and the Charge d'Affaires of the German embassy.

Barak sharply protested the criticism by European ministers and senior EU officials about Israel's government.

Barak singled out Ferrero-Waldner in his rebuke and said her statements were troubling in their form, style and timing. >>> By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent | Thursday, April 30, 2009

50-Year-old Divorces Child Bride?
REUTERS INDIA: JEDDAH - A 50-year old Saudi man has agreed to divorce his 9-year-old bride, media reported on Thursday, after the marriage drew international criticism.

The decision, reported by newspapers Alwatan and Al-Riyadh, came after months of court hearings, criticism from the United Nations and an international media frenzy about Saudi Arabia's human rights practices.

"This is a good step and I think the man did it because he was in a lot of pressure from everyone," Wajeha Al-Huaider, founder of the Group for Women's Rights in Saudi Arabia, told Reuters by telephone.

Al-Huaider, who campaigned for the child, said she hoped the pressure generated by the case would eventually lead to a law banning child marriages. >>> | Friday, May 1, 2009

New Dark Age Alert! Denmark: 18% of Muslims Want to See Sharia Law Implemented
EUROPE NEWS: Close to a fifth of Muslims in Denmark want to see Sharia law implemented in Denmark. A study conducted by analysis institute Capacent for DR news shows that 18% of Muslims in Denmark declare they 'agree' or 'completely agree' with the statement: "Sharia law should be integrated into Danish law". >>> | Thursday, April 30, 2009

Geert Wilders Applauded at Florida Synagogue

ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE (ADL): ADL Condemns Anti-Islam Remarks Made by Dutch Parliamentarian During Appearances in S. Florida

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) strongly condemns remarks made over the last few days at various appearances throughout South Florida by Dutch Parliamentarian Geert Wilders. In his speeches, he claimed that "Islam is not a religion" and "the right to religious freedom should not apply to this totalitarian ideology called Islam." Mr. Wilders also stated that the Koran is a book of hatred, and that Mohammed was both "a pedophile and a warlord."

Andrew Rosenkranz, ADL Florida Regional Director, issued the following statement:

The ADL strongly condemns Geert Wilders' message of hate against Islam as inflammatory, divisive and antithetical to American democratic ideals.

This rhetoric is dangerous and incendiary, and wrongly focuses on Islam as a religion, as opposed to the very real threat of extremist, radical Islamists.

[Source: ADL] | Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Grippe mexicaine: Les porcs, victimes politiques en Egypte
L'EXPRESS.fr: L'abattage de quelque 250 000 porcs, décidé par les autorités égyptiennes en réaction à l'épidémie de grippe mexicaine, est une mesure bien plus politique qu'utile: elle reflète les tensions communautaires qui montent en Egypte. Décryptage de notre correspondant.

Des porcs marchent au milieu des habitations au Caire, le 28 avril. Photo grâce au Express
La décision prise mercredi 29 avril par le président Hosni Moubarak de faire abattre tous les porcs en Egypte n'a pas grand chose à voir avec la lutte contre la grippe porcine (depuis rebaptisée "grippe mexicaine"), même si elle en est une conséquence directe.

Les autorités égyptiennes ne s'en cachent d'ailleurs pas: "Nous profitons de cette occasion pour régler la question de l'élevage sauvage", a déclaré un porte-parole du ministère de la Santé. Les porcs sont pour la plupart élevés dans des conditions d'insalubrité extrême par la minorité chrétienne (environ 8% de la population) et notamment par les éboueurs du Caire, les fameux zabbalines dont Soeur Emmanuelle avait partagé la vie.

Leur abattage est "une mesure d'hygiène générale, pour transférer ce genre d'élevage dans de vraies fermes, pas dans des décharges", a précisé Saber Abdelaziz Galal, directeur du département des maladies infectieuses au ministère de l'Agriculture.

Ce que les autorités ne disent pas, c'est que cette mesure extrême et totalement inutile pour endiguer l'épidémie (elle est d'ailleurs critiquée par l'OMS et la FAO) est aussi -et sans doute surtout- politique. Depuis le début de la semaine, la pression n'avait cessé de monter en Egypte, où la majorité musulmane est très hostile à l'élevage des porcs, un animal considéré comme "impur" par l'Islam. >>> Par Tangi Salaün | Jeudi 30 Avril 2009

I. A. Rehman – Viewpoint: Pakistan’s Neo-Taliban
DAWN: THE militants’ tactical retreat from Buner, an armed operation against them in Dir and some formal assurances by the army top brass have given most Pakistanis a sense of respite. It should now be possible to comprehend the neo-Taliban phenomenon without which they cannot be overcome.

The neo-Taliban have lost all claim to leniency. They must be made to face the full might of the state, except for those who can be trusted with mending their ways. Photo courtesy of Dawn
The armed bands engaged in terrorist activities in the northern parts of Pakistan are called neo-Taliban because it is necessary to distinguish them from the Taliban that overran Afghanistan in the 1990s and about whom conservative Pakistanis entertain some wholesome notions. They condone the Afghan Taliban’s excesses against women and their animalistic hostility to arts and culture, because they want to see the same done in Pakistan. At the same time these elements still praise the Afghan Taliban for unifying their country, for checking violent disorder and for disarming non-state militias. And, latterly, they are hailed for resisting foreign intrusion.

While the neo-Taliban operating against Pakistan can outdo the Afghan Taliban in their animus towards women and democratic institutions, they display none of the characteristics attributed to the latter by their Pakistani supporters. Unlike the Afghan Taliban they are dividing Pakistan and not consolidating its unity; they are increasing violent disorder and not suppressing it; and they are raising non-state militias, not disarming the existing ones.

Finally, the Afghan Taliban could claim to be fighting for their motherland and resisting ‘imperialism’; the neo-Taliban have invaded their patrons’ motherland and are fighting for a brand of imperialism Allama Iqbal had denounced in his 1930 address. Thus, the neo-Taliban cannot be favourably compared with their Afghan predecessors.

A large number of Pakistanis have been confused by the neo-Taliban’s rhetoric that they want to enforce the Islamic Sharia. Nothing can be further from the truth. The neo-Taliban’s precursors in Afghanistan too were not driven by their love of the Sharia. For all one knows, Hikmatyar, Rabbani and Masud, targets of the Taliban offensive, also swore by the Sharia. The Afghan Taliban had a definite political objective — to capture Afghanistan for themselves. The neo-Taliban too have a purely political objective — to establish their rule in a part of Pakistan and if possible over the whole of it. >>> By I.A. Rehman | Thursday, April 30, 2009

Obama "sehr besorgt" über Lage in Pakistan
DIE PRESSE: Die Regierung in Islamabad könne die Sicherheit und Rechtstaatlichkeit im Land derzeit nicht garantieren, so der US-Präsident. Die US-Bürger bittet Obama um Geduld. Er werde alle Anstrengungen unternehmen, "Wohlstand und Sicherheit zu stärken".

Bild dank der Presse
US-Präsident Barack Obama hat sich "sehr besorgt" über die Lage in Pakistan geäußert. Die Regierung in Islamabad sei "sehr zerbrechlich" und könne die Sicherheit und Rechtstaatlichkeit im Land derzeit nicht garantieren, sagte Obama auf einer Pressekonferenz zu seinen ersten 100 Tagen im Amt am Mittwochabend (Ortszeit) in Washington.

Die USA sorgten sich derzeit aber nicht um die Sicherheit der Nuklearwaffen in Pakistan, sagte Obama. Allerdings brauche das Land in vieler Hinsicht amerikanische Unterstützung. Derzeit könnten die grundlegenden Bedürfnisse der Bürger Pakistans nicht befriedigt werden. Vor allem sei es wichtig, dass die Regierung in Islamabad erkenne, dass nicht Indien die große Gefahr für Pakistan darstelle, sondern vor allem die Extremisten im eigenen Land. >>> Ag | Donnerstag, 30. April 2009

Dutch Queen Escapes as Driver Crashes into Crowd, Killing Four
THE TELEGRAPH: A car travelling at high speed ploughed into a crowd waiting for Queen Beatrix of Holland, reportedly killing up to four people.


Witnesses said that the black Suzuki Swift appeared to deliberately target an open bus carrying Queen Beatrix and her family in the town of Apeldoorn during festivities to mark Queen's Day, a national holiday.

The car swerved across police railings, where crowds of people were waiting to see the queen pass, and slammed into the foot of a stone monument, where it came to a halt, its bonnet crumpled and scraped.

The royal bus was not hit, and no one in the queen's entourage was injured, officials said.

But television footage showed members of the royal family, riding in the open top bus, clutch their hands to their mouths in shock as the car sped through a barricade right before their eyes. >>> By Nick Squires | Thursday, April 30, 2009

Is 2009 the New 1929? Current Crisis Shows Uncanny Parallels to Great Depression
SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Is history repeating itself? The current global downturn has many parallels to the Great Depression. And if the current massive bailout packages fail, the effect on the world's economies could be similarly drastic.

The Germans have always had a penchant for looking to America to gain a glimpse into the future.

They marveled at the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. They admired the gray but affordable Commodore personal computer. And they succumbed to the spell of an Internet company with the odd name of Google.

Will the current crisis be as bad as the Great Depression? Photo courtesy of SpiegelOnline International
Now the Germans are looking across the Atlantic once again, but this time they see images that remind them of their own past, images of sad-looking people standing in long lines, hoping for work.

One of them is Michael Sheehan, who worked as an engineer with a large company until February. Not too long ago, Sheehan was the one doing the hiring. Today he is only one of 900 other job-seekers attending a job fair in a depressing hotel ballroom in Philadelphia.

One of the flyers arranged on the tables exhorts the attendees to "Stay Positive." But Sheehan feels more outraged than positive. Someone at the fair asks him for his resume. "I don't have a resume," he says. "I worked at one company for more than 30 years."

Natalie Ingelido, 21, is standing nearby, trying to calm down her bawling two-year-old son, who clearly doesn't like it here. "I'm looking for a job, any job, in a restaurant, a bar, cleaning, whatever," she says.

In the past, says Ingelido, "Help Wanted" signs were plastered on the doors of shops and bars. The past she refers to is last summer, when Natalie and her husband still lived in their own apartment. Now they live with his parents.

Across America, people like Sheehan and Ingelido are standing in lines, waiting and hoping. At one job fair in New York, the line stretched for several city blocks. Many would turn away, embarrassed to be seen there, whenever TV reporters attempted to document their fates.

More than 5 million people in the United States have lost their jobs since the crisis began. As if the country were undergoing fever convulsions, more than 650,000 were catapulted into the streets in the last month alone. >>> By Spiegel Staff | Thursday, April 29, 2009

Obama Outsources His Presidency: He may come to regret letting Congress write his major legislation
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: While officials in the Obama White House dismissed yesterday's "100 Days" anniversary as a "Hallmark Holiday," they understood it was what sociologist Daniel J. Boorstin called a "pseudo-event." By that, Boorstin meant an occasion that is not spontaneous but planned for the purpose of being reported -- an event that is important because someone says so, not because it is.

What happens in a president's first 100 days rarely characterizes the arc of the 1,361 that follow. Jimmy Carter had a very good first 100 days. Bill Clinton did not.

Still, a president would rather start well than poorly -- and Mr. Obama has a job approval of 63%. That leaves him tied with Mr. Carter, one point ahead of George W. Bush, and behind only Ronald Reagan's 67%. Four of the past six presidents had approval ratings that ranged between 62% and 67%, a statistically insignificant spread.

Mr. Obama is popular because he is a historic figure, has an attractive personality, has passed key legislation, and receives adoring press coverage.

However, there are cautionary signs. Mr. Obama's policies are less popular than his personality, the pace of polarization with Republicans has proceeded faster than ever in history, and independents are thinking more like Republicans on the issues and less like Democrats.

The first 100 days can reveal a pattern of behavior that comes to characterize a presidency. In this respect, there are two emerging habits of Team Obama worth watching.

One is the gap between what Mr. Obama said he would do and what he is doing. His administration is emphasizing in its official 100 days talking points steps he has taken to "deliver on the change he promised." During the campaign, Mr. Obama denounced the $2.3 trillion added to the national debt on Mr. Bush's watch as "deficits as far as the eye can see." But Mr. Obama's budget adds $9.3 trillion to the debt over the next 10 years. What happened to Obama the deficit hawk?

From Mr. Obama's Denver acceptance speech through the campaign, Mr. Obama did not publicly utter the phrase "universal health care." Instead, his campaign ran ads attacking "government-run health care" as "extreme." Now Mr. Obama is asking, as he did at a townhall meeting last month, "Why not do a universal health care system like the European countries?" Maybe because he was elected by intimating that would be "extreme"? >>> By Karl Rove* | Thursday, April 30, 2009

*Mr. Rove is the former senior adviser and deputy chief of staff to President George W. Bush.

Ronald Reagan's "Evil Empire" Speech
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Ronald Reagan's Address to the British Parliament
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Barack Obama Can't Trust to Luck to Fix the Economy
THE TELEGRAPH: The President has dithered over the banks and the economy in his first 100 days in power, says Edmund Conway.

President Barack Hussein Obama needs to relax a little less and work a little harder to sort out the economic mess facing America right now. The US economy shrank by 6.1% in the first three months of this year. Largely under HIS watch! –©Mark. Photo: Google Images
Barack Obama is a pretty superstitious guy. During the marathon presidential campaign, he made a routine of playing basketball on each of the various polling days, and carried with him a pocketful of lucky trinkets, including a poker chip and a small golden statue of the Monkey King. So one rather fears for his reaction to the inauspicious omens yesterday, on his 100th day in office.

As if the first US death from swine flu weren’t bad enough, the President had to contend with news that the economy slumped by an annual rate of 6.1 per cent in the first three months of the year – far more than most experts were expecting. Jeff Frankel, a leading institutional economist, declared that this is now the longest and sharpest slump since the Great Depression.

The banking system is still in crisis, house prices are in freefall and unemployment is climbing rapidly; those seeking out green shoots are likely to be disappointed, since the economy is hardly through the danger zone. The only consolation comes from the stock market, which is more or less flat since Obama took over, and the fact that most other economies are in a worse state. More worryingly, the new president has yet to convince us that he is more Franklin D Roosevelt than Herbert Hoover. Those of us who hoped that the new president would infuse genuine urgency into the rescue plan, for either the economy or the financial system, have been sorely disappointed. The language may be more sincere, the speeches more glamorous, but the response is still nowhere near bold enough. All the criticisms of the initial Bush “rescue” – that it nationalised the financial system’s losses while allowing the bankers to make off with the profits; that it failed to draw a line under the institutions’ previous failures – remain applicable to Obama’s scheme. >>> By Edmund Conway | Wednesday, April 29, 2009

100-Tage-Bilanz: Obama verurteilt die Foltermethoden der Bush-Ära
WELT ONLINE: In Washington hat US-Präsident Barack Obama seinen Bruch mit der Bush-Ära und Foltermethoden wie dem "Waterboarding" verteidigt. "Die juristischen Rechtfertigungen" unter seinem Vorgänger für diese Verhörmethoden seien falsch gewesen. Zudem versprach Obama einen unermüdlichen Kampf für Wohlstand und Sicherheit.

US-Präsident Barack Obama hat das berüchtigte "Waterboarding", mit dem mutmaßliche al-Qaida-Häftlinge zu Geständnissen gezwungen werden sollten, als "Folter" verurteilt.

In einer Zwischenbilanz seiner ersten hundert Tage verteidigte Obama seine Entscheidung, mit vielen Entscheidungen seines Vorgängers George W. Bush zu brechen. >>> AFP/fsl | Donnerstag, 30. April 2009

Gordon Brown Suffers Humiliating Defeat in Gurkha Vote as Labour MPs Rebel
THE TELEGRAPH: Gordon Brown suffered a humiliating Commons defeat over his refusal to allow Gurkha veterans to live in Britain as a number of Labour MPs rebelled.

Joanna Lumley thanks Telegraph readers for Gurkha support.
In a significant blow to the Prime Minister's already fragile authority, MPs voted for a motion calling for the scrapping of new immigration rules that would prevent many Gurkhas coming to live in the country they served.

With the backing of Labour rebels and the Conservative Party, a Liberal Democrat motion demanding the admission of all Gurkha veterans and their families was passed by 267 to 241.

In all, 27 Labour MPs voted with the Opposition, and dozens more abstained, defying orders to support the Government. One ministerial aide, Stephen Pound, resigned from the Government to vote with the rebels.

Deepening the Government's embarrassment, the Commons defeat came despite last-minute concessions to Labour rebels from Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary.

Only hours before the vote, Mr Brown had told MPs that the Government could not afford to admit all the Gurkhas, claiming that doing so would cost £1.4 billion.

Campaigners and opposition leaders said that the Government must now drop its curbs on admitting Gurkhas and their families and allow all Nepalese veterans of the British Army to live in the UK. >>> By James Kirkup, Political Correspondent | Thursday, April 30, 2009

The Muslim Cleric Who Blames British Mosques for the 7/7 Bombings, Says Multiculturalism Is a Disaster and Would Throw Islamic Fanatics Out
The MailOnline is yet another newspaper – there are so many these days – which has fallen for the guff that the Islam of al-Qaeda is a warped and twisted version of the ‘religion’. Dr Taj Hargey comes along and says exactly what these soft-thinking, ill-advised journalists want to hear! They fall for the crap. It keeps these people in their comfort zone.

Truth is, though, that OBL’s version of Islam is the real thing, regardless of what Dr Taj Hargey says. Indeed it is, as I have stated before, every bit as much the real thing as Coke is to cola! Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

It raises the very important question: Where did Dr Taj Hargey learn his version of Islam? Certainly not from the Koran! – ©Mark

Violence: Dr Taj Hargey deplores fanatics such as the suicide bombers who targeted London. Photo courtesy of MailOnline
MAIL Online: You can usually find at least one in any saloon bar, ready to give you the benefit of their peppery views on the parlous state of Britain today.

This particular example is a clean shaven, middle-aged man with the de rigueur attire of carefully knotted mustard tie and blue, golf club-style blazer.

Brass cuff buttons flash as he pounds an angry fist on to his knee.

'I will give £5 to anyone in Britain who wants to live under Sharia law,' he declares. 'It will help pay for their ticket to Sudan, Yemen, Pakistan, or wherever it is customary to live under Sharia law.

'Please, please go and leave us alone. This is Britain, not 10th century Arabia!'

We are indeed sitting in a bar, on a busy main road in Oxford.

But the man before me is no stereotypical Islamophobe.

For one, he is sipping a glass of water rather than something more inflammatory.

More importantly, though by no means obviously, Dr Taj Hargey is himself an Islamic cleric; perhaps the most controversial imam in Britain today.

In an age when the highest-profile Muslim preachers are bearded, anti-Western firebrands such as Abu Hamza or Omar Bakri Dr Hargey seems an anomaly.

He does not care much for male facial hair. He believes that women can be both seen and heard, even in a mosque at Friday prayers.

And don't even get him started on the sort of fanatics who blow up London buses, or the poisonous teachings that inspired them.

After three men were cleared this week on charges of assisting the July 7 bombers, there have been calls for an inquiry into blunders made by the security services.

But Dr Hargey has little doubt who, and what, is truly to blame for unleashing such terrorism on our streets.

'It is the extremist ideology present in many UK mosques which is the cement behind nihilistic plots such as this,' he says.

'They are twisting Islam.' >>> By Richard Pendlebury | Thursday, April 30, 2009

Muslim Demographics: The Islamic Tidal Wave

Hat tip: Vlad Tepes >>>

The Muslim Viewpoint: Finally, Hijab in the Danish Politics?
Yes, "a historical day” indeed! The day Europe started moving in retrograde motion - officially! And when will we “finally” have a church in Mecca (Makkah) to mark our “historical day”? When will Westerners “finally” even be allowed to enter Mecca? And when will Westerners be able to walk down the streets in Saudi Arabia wearing mini-skirts or tight trousers? Now those truly would be “historical days”.

This is not a sign of integration at all; on the contrary, it is a sign that Muslims in Europe are NOT integrating, still less assimilating.

The Muslims of Europe are hell-bent on taking the advanced, Western world back to the Dark Ages, to a New Dark Age, as I wrote in my book.

This image of Asma is redolent of a woman in the pre-Victorian Age – the Middle Ages, in fact! If Muslims call this progress, and I'm sure that very, very many of them do, there is something seriously wrong with their judgement! – ©Mark

Asmaa Abd El-Hamid. Photo courtesy of Islam Online
ISLAM ONLINE: “A historical day,” that’s how the Danish media described the day when Asmaa Abd El-Hamid, a 27 Danish Muslim veiled politician of a Palestinian origin, attended a council meeting as a substitute for a member of the Unity List. It was the first time in Odense, the third biggest Danish city where she attended the meeting, and in the whole Danish history that witnesses a veiled woman taking part in a Local Council meeting.

Ms. Abd El-Hamid told IslamOnline.net (IOL)’s European Muslims Page that she is intending to put forward the social, economical, and international issues in the coming meetings as they are placed at the top of her agenda. By holding this position she is planning to discuss her main issues, such as the social equality between Muslims and Non-Muslims in both education and recruitment, the recognition of the independent Palestinian state, and the rejection of the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan.

Asmaa has a lot of creative social and political ideas which she aspires to work on. Although Ms. Abd El-Hamid regards this step as "unprecedented," she is not only aiming at the veil’s existence in the parliament or in the political field. She also insists that she has been elected for this position "by both Muslims and non Muslims votes." >>> By Salma El-Gazzar | Tuesday, April 28, 2009