Friday, February 05, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: A record number of anti-Semitic attacks took place in Britain last year, according to new figures.
More than 924 reports of bigoted violence and abuse were received last year by the Jewish Community Security Trust (CST).
The charity, which monitors anti-Semitism in Britain, said the figures marked the worst year since records began in 1984.
Gordon Brown said the findings were ''deeply troubling.''
The incidents included violent street attacks, arson, egg-throwing, racist graffiti, website hacking and hate mail.
Researchers said the surge was fuelled by the ground invasion of Gaza by Israeli forces in January 2009.
Almost a quarter of incidents (23 per cent) included some form of reference to the controversial conflict.
The fighting was marked by protests around the world, including ugly confrontations outside the Israeli Embassy in London.
In a statement released through the charity, Mr Brown condemned the attacks and said more must be done towards securing Israel and creating a Palestinian state.
He said: ''Anti-Semitism is one of the most ancient of hatreds - and yet it constantly adapts to modern times, requiring ever greater vigilance from all of us who are determined to stand up for tolerance and for the truth. >>> | Friday, February 05, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: A 16-year-old girl has been buried alive by her relatives in Turkey as punishment for talking to boys, police have said.
Medine Memi was found in a sitting position with her hands tied, in a two-metre hole dug under a chicken pen outside her home in Kahta, in the south-eastern province of Adiyaman.
Her father and grandfather have since been arrested and are due to face trial over her death. Her mother was also charged but has since been released.
Police made the discovery in December after a tip-off from an informant, the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported on its website.
Medine had first been reported missing 40 days earlier.
The informant told the police she had been killed following a family "council" meeting.
Media reports said the father had told relatives he was unhappy that his daughter – one of nine children – had male friends. The grandfather is said to have beaten her for having relations with the opposite sex.
A postmortem examination revealed large amounts of soil in her lungs and stomach, indicating that she had been alive and conscious while being buried. >>> | Friday, February 05, 2010
TIMES ONLINE: A British national has begged forgiveness from an Iranian revolutionary court after being put on trial in Tehran for subversive activities, Iranian websites reported yesterday.
An unidentified woman, 24, the daughter of a British mother and Iranian father, has admitted some of the charges against her including encouraging and attending demonstrations, consorting with foreigners and drinking alcohol, government and opposition websites said.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has asked the Iranian Government for clarification of the reports, and that the woman be given consular assistance if true. That is unlikely to be granted, though, because Iran does not recognise dual nationality.
Relations between London and Tehran are already under strain. The Iranian regime has accused Britain of fomenting the worst unrest in its 31-year history, arrested Iranians working for the British Embassy and expelled the BBC’s correspondent. >>> Martin Fletcher | Friday, February 05, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, has apologised for calling Left-wingers Democrats '----ing retards'.
Mr Emanuel faced calls for his resignation less than a year since President Barack Obama apologised for comparing his ten-pin bowling skills to those of disabled participants in the Special Olympics.
The famously foul-mouthed political operator had used the offending term last summer to berate liberal groups attacking conservative Democrats whose votes the White House needed for health care reform.
But his characteristically colourful language has only just been reported, drawing immediate fire from Left and Right, including Sarah Palin, the conservative heroine and former Alaska governor who is the mother of a Downs' Syndrome baby.
She called on Mr Obama to "show decency" by sacking Mr Emanuel, a former Chicago congressman who is one of the most combative figures in Washington. >>> Toby Harnden in Washington | Thursday, February 04, 2010
MAIL ONLINE: Gay refugees from Africa should be granted asylum in the UK, David Cameron has said.
The Tory leader suggested that homosexuals should be allowed to stay in Britain if their lives would be put in danger were they sent home.
Under immigration rules, gay men are often sent back to countries with homophobic regimes - and advised to keep their sexuality a secret in case local police attack them.
But in an interview with gay magazine Attitude, Mr Cameron said the rules should be changed to protect homosexuals fleeing persecution.
He also promised to do more to stop rappers whose songs contain homophobic lyrics from performing in Britain, and said he would force faith schools to teach pupils there was nothing wrong with being gay. >>> Daniel Martin | February 05, 2010
Attitude >>> | Thursday, February 04, 2010
TIMES ONLINE: We may not agree with the Vatican line on homosexuality. But the State is trampling on our rights as individuals
There are times when human rights become human wrongs. This happens when rights become more than a defence of human dignity, which is their proper sphere, and become instead a political ideology, relentlessly trampling down everything in their path. This is happening increasingly in Britain, and it is why the Pope’s protest against the Equality Bill, whether we agree with it or not, should be taken seriously.
Let me make it clear that I believe homosexuals have rights that need defending. Like Jews, they have been a persecuted minority for far too long. They too, like Jews, were victims of the Holocaust. They have a case that should be heard.
I believe, too, that religious beliefs have no privileged status in a democratic society. Religions should have influence, not power. I do not believe that the religious convictions of some should be imposed on all by force of law. In a free society, the religious voice should persuade, not compel.
We all have an interest in freedom, the freedom to act differently from others. Indeed, at the core of human rights is a religious proposition: that we are all, regardless of colour, creed or culture, in the image of God. That religious vision burned brightly in the minds of those such as John Locke, who first formulated the idea of rights in the 17th century.
It was integral to the American Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal [and] that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” John F. Kennedy made a similar statement in his great inaugural address: “The rights of Man come not from the generosity of the State, but from the hand of God.”
That is why using the ideology of human rights to assault religion risks undermining the very foundation of human rights themselves. When a Christian airport worker is banned from wearing a cross, when a nurse is sacked after a role-play exercise in which he suggested that patients pray, when Roman Catholic adoption agencies are forced to close because they do not place children for adoption with same-sex couples and when a Jewish school is told that its religious admissions policy is, not in intent but in effect, racist, we are in dangerous territory indeed. >>> Jonathan Sacks | Wednesday, February 03, 2010
THE WASHINGTON POST: PARIS -- French authorities have denied citizenship to a man who forced his French wife to wear a face-covering veil, saying he had rejected national values of secularism and gender equality.
The government has been speaking out strongly against head-to-toe veils, and is moving toward banning them in public after a long public debate over French national identity in the age of globalization.
Critics call the face-covering veil a gateway to extremism, but the move to ban it has drawn fierce criticism from some of France's five million Muslims, who say such restrictions are based in fear and intolerance of Islam.
President Nicolas Sarkozy has called the veils degrading to women and unwelcome in France. Sarkozy, a law-and-order conservative whose relations with the Muslim community have often been fraught, has been a vocal proponent of an all-out ban on the burqa, niqab and other face-covering Muslim veils. >>> Jenny Barchfield, The Associated Press | Thursday, January 04, 2010
SAPHIR NEWS: Malgré les vives protestations d'une partie de la population, la ville allemande de Rendsburg, au nord de l’Allemagne, a autorisé l'appel à la prière du muezzin lancé par haut-parleur depuis les minarets de la Grande Mosquée, inaugurée en automne 2009, a annoncé, mardi 2 février, le maire social-démocrate, Andreas Breitner. >>> La Rédaction | Mercredi 03 Février 2010
AINA: According to a recent ABC report, “As many as three dozen criminals who converted to Islam in American prisons have moved to Yemen where they could pose a ‘significant threat’ to attack the U.S., according to a report on al-Qaeda from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. … Also of concern to U.S. officials, the Senate staff found, is a group of ‘nearly 10 non-Yemeni Americans who traveled to Yemen, converted to Islam, became fundamentalists, and married Yemeni women so they could remain in the country.’ … An American official described them as ‘blond-haired, blue-eyed types’ who fit the profile of Americans who al-Qaeda has sought to recruit for terror missions.”
These, of course, are not the first Americans — black, white, or in between — to convert to Islam and join the jihad: John Walker Lindh wound up fighting fellow Americans alongside Taliban forces in Afghanistan; Adam Gadahn became a major character in al-Qaeda’s propaganda machine; Gregory Patterson, Levar Washington, and Kevin James plotted terror strikes against the U.S.; Christopher Paul and Jose Padilla conspired to use weapons of mass destruction.
Then there are the countless European converts, such as the British “shoe-bomber,” Richard Reid, who attempted to achieve “martyrdom” by detonating explosives in his shoes while aboard a passenger aircraft; the late Germaine Lindsay, who did achieve “martyrdom” by killing himself and 56 of his fellow citizens and injuring over 700, in the London bombings of 2005; and Abu Abdullah, the native Briton-turned-fiery-Islamist-preacher who makes no secret of his vitriolic hatred of the West (all, of course, while enjoying that unique Western liberty, freedom of speech).
What causes such men, born and raised in the West, often from Christian backgrounds, to abandon their heritage, embrace Islam, and become radicalized to the point that they conspire to kill their fellow countrymen?
As for Islam’s intrinsic appeal, it has long been argued that, unlike Christianity, which can be “heavy” on theology, Islam is relatively simple and straightforward. Thus while Christianity may revolve around more metaphysical topics — the Trinity, Christology, etc. — Islam, in black-and-white terms, commands its adherents to do this and not do that. In fact, the Arabic word “Sharia,” that comprehensive body of laws Muslims are to obey, is etymologically related to the word for “pathway” — as in, “the pathway to paradise.”
Yet there is another, more subtle, factor that may attract men to Islam: traditional male roles are well preserved in the religion. This may appeal to Western men who find it difficult to assert their “masculinity” in what may be perceived as gender-free Western societies. Harvey Mansfield’s book, Manliness, defines that term as “a quality both bad and good, mostly male, often intolerant, irrational, and ambitious. Our gender-neutral society does not like it but cannot get rid of it.”
Indeed, with an ethical code that coalesced in the seventh century — when the Muslim prophet and “perfect example” walked the earth, enforced his will, and conquered his “infidel” neighbors — Islamic culture can hardly be deemed “gender-neutral.” Even philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who despised religion and preached the need for man to be transformed into an amoral “hyper-man,” professed some admiration for Islam, describing it as “noble and manly” (The Antichrist). >>> Raymond Ibrahim | Thursday, February 24, 2010
Thursday, February 04, 2010
PARTIJ VOOR DE VRIJHEID: Wednesday February 3rd 2010 Dutch politician Geert Wilders launches two websites on the political trial against him and the freedom of speech. From now on both the Dutch (www.wildersproces.nl) and the international public (www.wildersontrial.com) are able to keep up with the trials’ proceedings.
Both websites not only include the latest news on the trial but also provide background information on the trials’ participants, the summons, the cause and the importance of this trial for freedom of speech in the Netherlands and –possibly- for the whole of Europe.
Geert Wilders: “This trial is not just about me. It is about the future of freedom of speech in the Netherlands. The outcome of this trial affects the freedom of all Dutch citizens. With these websites, I want to make it possible for people to follow the latest developments concerning the trial.” [Source: Partij Voor De Vrijheid] | Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Wilders on Trial: A sledgehammer blow to the freedom of speech >>>
Het Wilders process: Aanslag op de vrijheid van meningsuiting >>>
THE TELEGRAPH: The trial of the Dutch politician Geert Wilders recommenced yesterday with a ruling on which expert witnesses the defence would be permitted to call.
When the trial opened a fortnight ago, Wilders asked for a rather sparky list of 18 expert witnesses. They included some noted experts on Islam and social cohesion. And also a few, ahem, practitioners of the same. They were to include Mohammed Bouyeri, who shot, stabbed and partly beheaded the film-maker Theo van Gogh in Amsterdam in 2004. And also Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the jihadist cleric who was given the red-carpet treatment in London by former mayor Ken Livingstone a few years back.
Sadly the Dutch court haven’t allowed these witnesses or most of the others, leaving the defence with only three witnesses. They are expert Simon Admiraal and leading Dutch scholar Hans Jansen (author of numerous scholarly books and the hilariously titled recent Islam for Pigs, Donkeys, Monkeys and Other Beasts). Most interestingly the court has allowed Wilders to call as an expert witness the brave and eloquent Wafa Sultan.
Sultan made her name – and garnered her first fatwas – for a blinding hit-the-ball-out-of-the-stadium interview on Al Jazeera a few years ago viewable here. It caused terrible convulsions across the Muslim world, and also apparently in Sheikh al-Qaradawi who described her home-truths session as consisting of “unbearable, ghastly things that made my hair stand on end.”
I much look forward to seeing Wafa Sultan take the stand. Though I slightly pity the prosecution for having to attempt to cross-examine her. Read on and comment here >>> Douglas Murray | Thursday, February 04, 2010
TIMES ONLINE: Cherie Blair has been reported to the office overseeing judges' behaviour for apparently sentencing a man convicted of assault more leniently because he was religious.
The National Secular Society wrote to the Judicial Complaints Office on Friday complaining that Mrs Blair — a prominent Roman Catholic — suspended the six-month prison sentence passed on Shamso Miah, a Muslim who broke a stranger's jaw in row over a bank queue, on the ground that he was devout.
"We think this is discriminatory and unjust and we wish to make a formal complaint about it," wrote Terry Sanderson, the president of the NSS.
Today Mr Sanderson told The Times that the complaints office had acknowledged his letter and confirmed that it was going to investigate the case.
"We feel it's wrong that someone so high profile as Mrs Blair — and she is very high profile as a Catholic — should make such remarks in court," he explained.
"The man was incredibly violent and broke someone's jaw for no apparent reason. She said that he would have got a six-month sentence but was suspending it because he was a religious man and would know he was doing wrong, which we feel implies that a non-religious person wouldn't know it was wrong. >>> Jenny Booth | Thursday, January 04, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Adolf Hitler's autobiography "Mein Kampf" is to be republished in Germany in 2015 for the first time since being banned under the country's constitution at the end of the Second World War.
Under the post-1945 German constitution, the dissemination of Nazi philosophy has been a crime punishable by fines and imprisonment.
But the copyright, held by the state of Bavaria where the Nazi movement began life in the 1920s, expires in 2015, 70 years after the death of its author in his Berlin bunker.
On Thursday the Munich-based Institute of Contemporary History (IfZ) pledged to publish an "annotated version" with historical notes that it hopes will see the book used in schools and colleges.
The finance ministry in Bavaria said it had still not decided whether to give its permission but it is understood that with the lapse in copyright, the IfZ will not need the green light from it. "Besides, we think our version, with sensible notes and comments pointing out the falsity of much of what he wrote, will be far better than neo-Nazis putting out their own versions," said the IfZ. >>> Allan Hall in Berlin | Thursday, February 04, 2010
LE TEMPS: Des études affirment qu’un excès pondéral d’une quinzaine de kilos n’a pas d’incidence notable. Les normes médicales seraient trop sévères
Si vous pesez entre 10 et 19 kilos de trop, mais que votre poids reste stable, rien ne vous oblige à tenter de maigrir! Il vaudrait mieux vous accepter tel que vous êtes. Voilà le message qu’un nombre croissant de médecins et de diététiciens essaient de transmettre au grand public, après des années de mises en garde contre le surpoids et l’obésité.
Fin janvier, une étude publiée dans la revue American Geriatrics Society révélait que les septuagénaires présentant de l’embonpoint avaient une espérance de vie supérieure de 13% à celle de leurs contemporains de poids normal. Selon l’auteur, le Dr Leon Flicker, ce résultat corrobore des observations antérieures selon lesquelles l’indice de masse corporelle ou IMC (BMI en anglais), utilisé pour déterminer le surpoids, est trop sévère. Le même constat avait déjà été dressé par le Journal of the American Medical Association, notamment. Corpulence idéale à la baisse >>> Francesca Sacco | Jeudi 04 Février 2010
TIME: Being Fat May Not Be All Bad — if You're 70: Putting a smile on chubby faces everywhere, a new study by Australian researchers finds that being overweight may be a boon for the elderly: among the 9,240 adults ages 70 to 75 in the study, those who were overweight were the least likely to die over 10 years, compared with people who were of normal weight or obese. >>> Sora Song | Thursday, January 28, 2010
WELT ONLINE: Berlin - Ein Amsterdamer Gericht hat im Verfahren gegen den niederländischen Oppositionspolitiker Geert Wilders beinahe alle Anträge des Angeklagten abgelehnt. Der Islamkritiker wollte unter anderem den Mörder von Filmemacher Theo van Gogh als Zeugen vor Gericht erscheinen lassen. Dies wurde nicht genehmigt. Auch gilt Wilders Immunität als Abgeordneter nicht uneingeschränkt.
Berlin - Ein Amsterdamer Gericht hat im Verfahren gegen den niederländischen Oppositionspolitiker Geert Wilders beinahe alle Anträge des Angeklagten abgelehnt. Der Islamkritiker wollte unter anderem den Mörder von Filmemacher Theo van Gogh als Zeugen vor Gericht erscheinen lassen. Dies wurde nicht genehmigt. Auch gilt Wilders Immunität als Abgeordneter nicht uneingeschränkt. Wilders reagierte auf die Ablehnung fast aller 18 beantragten Zeugen enttäuscht. Verschiedene radikale Imame und Strafrechtler wurden abgelehnt, nur drei Islamwissenschaftler dürfen aussagen. ,,Dieses Gericht hat kein Interesse an der Wahrheit. Das wird kein ehrlicher Prozess. Ich respektiere das nicht", sagte Wilders. Er spricht von einem "politischen Prozess". >>> Von Rob Savelberg | Donnerstag, 04. Februar 2010
NRC HANDELSBLAD INTERNATIONAL: Van Gogh's killer rejected as Wilders witness: Mohammed B. will not be allowed to testify in the case against Geert Wilders, leader of the populist PVV party, an Amsterdam court has ruled. >>> RNW, NRC | Thursday, January 04, 2010
leJDD.fr: Benoît XVI a annoncé mardi son voyage en Grande-Bretagne en septembre prochain. Mais le pape a soulevé la polémique en s'opposant à un projet de loi en cours d'examen, qui entend lutter contre la discrimination basée sur l'orientation sexuelle.
Benoît XVI est le pape de la polémique. Ces voyages génèrent souvent des remous, comme en Israël, en Afrique ou aux Etats-Unis. L'annonce de sa visite en Grande-Bretagne a aussi soulevé une vague de protestation. Le souverain pontife s'est en effet adressé aux évêques gallois et anglais et leur a confirmé sa venue à l'automne prochain, en septembre. Certes les visites papales sont très rares dans le pays, ce sera la deuxième en cinq siècles, après celle de Jean Paul II en 1982. Certes l'Eglise anglicane s'est construite par opposition à Rome. Mais la visite ne devait pas susciter une telle polémique.
La levée de bouclier est venue du contenu de l'intervention papale devant les 35 évêques. Benoît XVI a en effet critiqué un projet de loi sur l'égalité des sexes. Le texte, actuellement examiné par la chambre des Lords, interdirait la discrimination basée sur l'orientation sexuelle. "Votre pays est bien connu pour son engagement ferme dans l'égalité des chances pour tous les membres de la société. Cependant, la législation ayant pour objet de parvenir à ce but a eu pour effet d'imposer des limites injustes à la liberté des communautés religieuses d'agir conformément à leur croyance", a-t-il dénoncé. Les catholiques comme les anglicans redoutent notamment de ne plus pouvoir choisir les professeurs sur la base de leur foi dans leurs établissements scolaires. Ils ont aussi exprimé leur préoccupation face à une possible obligation de célébrer le mariage d'un transsexuel. "Par certains aspects, elle (la législation, ndlr) viole en fait la loi naturelle sur laquelle est fondée l'égalité de tous les êtres humains et par laquelle elle est garantie", a ajouté le pape. >>> M.V., leJDD.fr | Mercredi 03 Février 2010
LE POINT: Le président américain Barack Obama a indiqué mercredi que la Corée du Nord ne serait pas à nouveau inscrite sur la liste noire américaine des Etats terroristes, malgré des appels en ce sens émanant du Congrès.
L'administration du président George W. Bush avait retiré Pyongyang de cette liste au vu des progrès faits par le pays pour rendre son programme nucléaire plus transparent en 2008. Mais après une série de gestes provocateurs de l'Etat stalinien, dont un essai nucléaire et des tirs de missile l'an dernier, certains parlementaires éminents avaient demandé à Barack Obama de revoir cette décision. En juillet dernier, le Sénat américain avait ainsi adopté une résolution non contraignante appelant le président à réfléchir à une inscription de la Corée du Nord sur la liste, qualifiant le pays de "menace pour l'Asie du Nord-est et pour la paix et la sécurité internationales". >>> AFP | Jeudi 04 Février 2010
LE FIGARO: Dix ans après les sanctions de l'UE, l'euroscepticisme reste vivace.
Dix ans après, Andreas Khol n'a rien oublié. L'ancien président du Parlement autrichien et député du parti conservateur autrichien (ÖVP) se souvient parfaitement de cette conversation téléphonique avec Jacques Chirac, le matin du 27 janvier 2000. Ce jour-là, le président de la République française a tenté de convaincre l'ÖVP de ne pas s'acoquiner avec le Parti autrichien de la liberté (FPÖ, extrême droite) dans un gouvernement de coalition inédit. L'Europe ne pourrait laisser passer une telle provocation. Andreas Khol a beau expliquer qu'il est impossible à son parti d'ignorer le FPÖ et ses 27 % de voix, voire 33 % d'intentions favorables, rien n'y fait. «On va vous isoler , menace le chef de l'État français. L'Autriche va le payer cher.» Le 4 février 2000, le gouvernement «noir-bleu» de Wolfgang Schüssel est intronisé à Vienne. L'extrême droite se hisse triomphalement au pouvoir, tandis qu'un vent de panique souffle sur l'Europe prise de court. L'Union européenne vote en catastrophe des sanctions. Du jour au lendemain, ministres et diplomates autrichiens affrontent quolibets et portes closes. Des programmes d'échanges scolaires sont annulés. Le Guide du routard barre son édition Autriche 2000 d'un bandeau noir symbolique. Le bras de fer va durer six mois, jusqu'à ce qu'en septembre, de guerre lasse, l'Europe renonce aux sanctions.
Une décennie plus tard, les choses ont bien changé. L'extrême droite a quitté le gouvernement en janvier 2007, usée par le pouvoir. Son leader emblématique, Jörg Haider, s'est tué dans un accident de voiture en octobre 2008. En Europe, le souvenir même des sanctions s'estompe lentement, surtout depuis l'irruption de l'extrême droite au gouvernement en Italie, en Slovaquie ou encore au second tour de l'élection présidentielle française en avril 2002. >>> Maurin Picard, Vienne | Jeudi 04 Février 2010
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