Extremists with Caliphate on Their Minds, Not Bombs in Their Belts
'All we do is talk,' Hizb ut-Tahrir spokesman Uthman Badar says. Photo: The Australian
THE AUSTRALIAN: Islamist organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir eschews violence, but it has no problem with incendiary rhetoric about the demise of Western democracy

WITH his neat beard, wire-rimmed glasses and woollen suit coat over a checked sweater, Uthman Badar has the look of a youthful professor. But the words of the mild-mannered economics PhD student sipping hot chocolate at a Turkish cafe in western Sydney carry the zeal of a revolutionary.

"Democracy is a bankrupt and irrational idea" and "all indicators are pointing to the decline and inevitable collapse of Western ideology", Badar opines. In the meantime, those dedicated to justice and progress must struggle against "those who seek to live decadent lives off the sweat and blood of the vast majority of humanity".

Badar is spokesman for the Australian branch of Hizb ut-Tahrir, an international Islamist organisation dedicated to the creation of a transnational Islamic state governed purely by sharia law. In pursuit of that vision, he and an expected 1000 fellow HT members will gather in Sydney this weekend for an international conference to promote their cause.

As Badar knows, Australia's spy agency ASIO and counter-terrorism authorities will be keeping a close eye on the event. HT is banned in many countries and, while it has avoided being outlawed in Australia, the views it espouses are regarded by the authorities as dangerously extreme.

Badar insists Australians have nothing to fear, as HT is "avowedly nonviolent" and has no wish to make Australia part of its caliphate. "All we do is talk," he says.

A contrary view is this assessment from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute: "HT's platform forbids its members from acts of terror. There's no clear evidence of HT engaging in the preparation of terrorism. HT's incitement and encouragement of religious hatred may be enough, however, to convince Islamists to perpetrate terrorist acts."

ASIO will no doubt find plenty to listen to as HT members from Australia and abroad discuss subjects such as the Western push to ban the burka, the Australian government's role in "the war on Islam", and the campaign for a caliphate, described as "the obligation of the age". >>> Sally Neighbour, The Australian | Saturday, July 03, 2010

"Le jeune imam", l'émission de télé-réalité qui fait un tabac en Malaisie
Les candidats de l'émission attendent le verdict des juges. Photo : Le Point
LE POINT: Ils ont entre 18 et 27 ans et vivent coupés du monde pendant dix semaines : huit jeunes hommes s'affrontent pour être sacrés le "meilleur imam" dans une émission de télé-réalité qui rencontre un grand succès en Malaisie. Le vainqueur d'"Imam Muda" ("Le jeune imam") sera récompensé par un pèlerinage, tous frais payés, à La Mecque, une bourse pour étudier dans une université saoudienne et un poste dans une mosquée importante de Malaisie.

Il lui faudra pour cela être le dernier en lice des épreuves éliminatoires qui testent leurs connaissances de l'islam. Les candidats, qui étaient dix au départ, ont ainsi dû réciter des versets du Coran, effectuer les ablutions sur deux morts et convaincre des jeunes de se détourner du sexe hors mariage et de la drogue.

L'émission "fera date car elle propose une approche rafraîchissante de l'islam", estime Azman Ujang, un expert des médias. L'ancien grand imam de la mosquée nationale de Kuala Lumpur, qui supervise l'émission, espère que les candidats vont jouer un "rôle modèle" pour "lutter contre la décadence sociale et morale qui affecte les musulmans". Flagellation pour adultère >>> AFP | Vendredi 02 Juillet 2010

Hamas Declines Israeli Offer for Prisoner Swap
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu making a statement regarding captured soldier Gilad Schalit for the press in his office in Jerusalem, 01 Jul 2010. Photograph: Voice Of America
VOA NEWS: Palestinian militants have rejected a new Israeli offer for a prisoner exchange.

The Islamic militant group Hamas has declined Israel's latest offer for a lopsided prisoner swap: 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the offer to mark the fourth anniversary of the soldier's captivity in Hamas-ruled Gaza.

But Mr. Netanyahu ruled out releasing dozens of top militants responsible for the deadliest terrorist attacks, describing them as "mass murderers." He said releasing such prisoners in the past led to new waves of terror.

Hamas responded that there will be no deal until Israel meet its demands and frees all the prisoners on the list. >>> | Friday, July 02, 2010

Iraq: Pope Urges More Protection for Christians
ADN KRONOS INTERNATIONAL: Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI has urged Iraq's authorities to give greater protection to Christians and other religious minorities. The pontiff reminded Iraq's new ambassador to the Holy See, Habib Mohammed Hadi Ali al-Sadr, that "since the earliest days of the Church, Christians have been present in the land of Abraham, a land which is part of the common patrimony of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.”

Iraq's new government needs to urgently implement measures designed to improve security for all sectors of the population but especially its various minorities, he said. >>> AKI | Friday, July 02, 2010

Our Royal Family Is Most Expensive in Europe
DAILY EXPRESS: THE Queen heads the most expensive Royal Family in Europe, a study revealed yesterday.

It found that British taxpayers have to pay more for their Royal Family than those in seven other leading constitutional monarchies, even though the Queen’s Civil List payment has been frozen for the past 20 years.

The findings, by a leading public finance expert, will come as a blow to the Queen as she prepares for the publication of the monarchy’s annual accounts on Monday. >>> Richard Palmer, Royal Correspondent | Saturday, July 03, 2010

Exporting Jihad

Islamic Hard-liners in Indonesia Pledge War Against Christians; Government Remains Silent
THE CANADIAN PRESS: BEKASI, Indonesia — A banner with a picture of a young, bespectacled Christian man is draped in front of a mosque, a fiery noose around his neck and the words, "This man deserves the death penalty!"

Churches are shut down. And an Islamic youth militia holds its first day of training.

Though the events all occurred less than nine miles (15 kilometres) from Indonesia's bustling capital, making headlines in local papers and dominating chats on social networking sites such as Facebook, they've sparked little public debate in the halls of power.

"I really see this as a threat to democracy," said Arbi Sanit, a political analyst, noting leaders never like to say anything that can be perceived as "un-Islamic," because they depend heavily on the support of Muslim parties in parliament.

"Being popular is more important to them than punishing those who are clearly breaking the law," Sanit said.

Indonesia, a secular nation with more Muslims than any other in the world, has a long history of religious tolerance, though a small extremist fringe has become more vocal in recent years. Members of the Islamic Defenders Front, or FPI, have been known to smash bars, attack transvestites and go after minority sects with bamboo clubs and stones.

Now, they are targeting Christians in the fast-growing industrial city of Bekasi. >>> Niniek Karmini (CP) | Saturday, July 03, 2010

India Decriminalises Gay Sex
THE TIMES OF INDIA: NEW DELHI: India took a giant, albeit belated, step towards globalisation on Thursday when the Delhi high court delivered a historic judgement to amend a 149-year-old colonial-era law — Section 377 of the IPC — and decriminalise private consensual sex between adults of the same sex. It is the biggest victory yet for gays rights and a major milestone in the country's social evolution. India becomes the 127th country to take the guilt out of homosexuality. >>> Manoj Mitta & Smriti Singh, TNN | Saturday, July 03, 2010

The Colbert Report: Al Qaeda Starts Inspire

'Sadistic' Catholic Priest Jailed for Abusing Boys in Australia
THE TELEGRAPH: An Australian Catholic priest has been jailed for almost 20 years for "sadistic" sex attacks on young boys that spanned more than 18 years.

John Sidney Denham, 67, was sentenced to 19 years and 10 months after pleading guilty to a range of charges, including multiple counts of indecent assault against boys aged five to 16.

Denham was found guilty of abusing 39 boys at schools in Sydney and elsewhere in New South Wales between 1968 and 1986.

In sentencing, judge Helen Syme said that the abuse had been ignored by school authorities for many years, allowing it to continue. >>> Bonnie Malkin in Sydney | Friday, July 02, 2010

Il governo italiano ha preso congedo dei suoi sensi! Kissing in Cars, Feeding Stray Cats and Building Sandcastles All Banned in Italy
THE TELEGRAPH: Bans on kissing while driving a car, feeding stray cats and building sandcastles are among a rash of new laws Italians say threaten to turn the country into the ultimate nanny state.

More than 150 "public security" laws have been introduced since Silvio Berlusconi, the prime minister, granted extra powers to local councils to help them crack down on crime and anti-social behaviour.

In the latest episode in the fight to maintain "public decorum", Vigevano, a town near Milan, this week slapped fines of €160 (£130) each on a young couple who dared to sit on the steps of a local monument.

"It was really hot, so we just sat down for a moment," said Giada Carnevale, 24. "The only other alternative in the piazza is to go to a bar but there they charge you €5 just for a drink. We were just chatting – we weren't eating or drinking or smoking."

But the town's mayor justified the fine, saying the council spent precious time and money each month cleaning up after idlers on the steps.

Passionate Italians caught kissing in a moving car in the town of Eboli, south of Naples, face a €500 fine. >>> Nick Squires in Rome | Friday, July 02, 2010

LA STAMPA: I divieti del 2010: Le ordinanze più strane in vigore in Italia e punite con multe salate >>> Flavia Amabile | Venerdì 2 luglio, 2010

Minister Lynne Featherstone Indicates Gay Marriage a Step Closer
THE TELEGRAPH: Homosexual couples could be allowed to “marry” in traditional religious ceremonies for the first time, a government minister has said.

The proposals will delight equality campaigners who believe civil partnership is a 'second-class' status. Photo: The Telegraph
Lynne Featherstone, the equalities minister, said the Coalition was considering allowing same-sex couples to include key religious elements in civil partnership ceremonies.

In a parliamentary answer, she disclosed that homosexual couples could be permitted to use “religious readings, music and symbols”.

This would make civil partnerships practically indistinguishable from traditional weddings as Parliament recently removed the bar on same-sex unions in churches and other places of worship through an amendment to Labour’s Equality Act.

The proposals will delight equality campaigners who believe civil partnership is a “second-class” status, but they prompted fierce opposition from mainstream Christian leaders who believe marriage can only take place between a man and a woman. >>> Martin Beckford, Religious Affairs Correspondent | Friday, June 02, 2010

Obama: Our First Female President
Obama. Photo: The Washington Post
THE WASHINGTON POST: If Bill Clinton was our first black president, as Toni Morrison once proclaimed, then Barack Obama may be our first woman president.

Phew. That was fun. Now, if you'll just keep those hatchets holstered and hear me out.

No, I'm not calling Obama a girlie president. But . . . he may be suffering a rhetorical-testosterone deficit when it comes to dealing with crises, with which he has been richly endowed.

It isn't that he isn't "cowboy" enough, as others have suggested. Aren't we done with that? It is that his approach is feminine in a normative sense. That is, we perceive and appraise him according to cultural expectations, and he's not exactly causing anxiety in Alpha-maledom.

We've come a long way gender-wise. Not so long ago, women would be censured for speaking or writing in public. But cultural expectations are stickier and sludgier than oil. Our enlightened human selves may want to eliminate gender norms, but our lizard brains have a different agenda.

Women, inarguably, still are punished for failing to adhere to gender norms by acting "too masculine" or "not feminine enough." In her fascinating study about "Hating Hillary," Karlyn Kohrs Campbell details the ways our former first lady was chastised for the sin of talking like a lawyer and, by extension, "like a man."

Could it be that Obama is suffering from the inverse?

When Morrison wrote in the New Yorker about Bill Clinton's "blackness," she cited the characteristics he shared with the African American community:

"Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald's-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas."

If we accept that premise, even if unseriously proffered, then we could say that Obama displays many tropes of femaleness. I say this in the nicest possible way. I don't think that doing things a woman's way is evidence of deficiency but, rather, suggests an evolutionary achievement.

Nevertheless, we still do have certain cultural expectations, especially related to leadership. When we ask questions about a politician's beliefs, family or hobbies, we're looking for familiarity, what we can cite as "normal" and therefore reassuring.

Generally speaking, men and women communicate differently. Women tend to be coalition builders rather than mavericks (with the occasional rogue exception). While men seek ways to measure themselves against others, for reasons requiring no elaboration, women form circles and talk it out.

Obama is a chatterbox who makes Alan Alda look like Genghis Khan. >>> Kathleen Parker | Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Beautiful and Islamic: The New Look on the Catwalk
THE INDEPENDENT: Jerome Taylor witnesses a fusion of fashion with traditional Muslim dress

Hana Tajima, founder of Maysaa, on a shoot in north London for her new collection. Photograph: The Independent
Perched on a stool in a cavernous warehouse in north London, a model with bright blue eye make-up carefully adjusts her top as a photographer works the light around her. She is dressed in a beautiful, sleek, black satin shirt, topped off with a simple, unadorned hood.

As the photographer lifts up his camera, the model brings the hood up to cover the back half of her head. “That’s it,” he says, as the flash fires. “Beautiful.”

Welcome to the world inhabited by the “Hijabistas”, a trendy set of up and coming Muslim fashion designers who are doing their bit to forge an indigenous British Islamic identity. Until relatively recently, young Muslim women who wanted to dress according to Islamic rules of modesty (hijab) had pretty limited options. They could either adopt the type of immigrant clothing worn by their parents, or try to cobble something together from high street chains, where modesty isn’t exactly seen as a best seller, especially in the summer.

Frustrated by this lack of variety, a small number of devout young Muslims are making their own way into the fashion industry to try and provide a middle road – sleek, elegant clothing that is both beautiful and Islamic.

The seeds of this particular sartorial movement have only just begun to be sown and the number of Hijabistas in Britain can probably be counted on one hand. But their arrival heralds a shift reflected in the wider Muslim demographic of a community making their way towards the mainstream and forging their own indigenous identity. >>> Jerome Taylor | Friday, July 02, 2010

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Secret Israeli-Turkish Talks Backfire on Netanyahu
THE TELEGRAPH: US attempts to broker a détente between Israel and Turkey misfired after secret talks between the two states yielded little but a new domestic crisis for Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Photo: The Telegraph
Far from the diplomatic triumph he had hoped for, the Israeli prime minister found himself the target of a withering tirade from Avigdor Lieberman, the Israeli foreign minister and coalition partner, who had been excluded from the negotiations.

Striking a blow at the fragile unity of Mr Netanyahu's unwieldy government, Mr Lieberman refused to answer repeated telephone calls from the prime minister yesterday and instead took to the airwaves to vent his fury.

At the heart of the row was a well meaning but arguably injudicious effort, initiated by President Barack Obama, to end Israel's estrangement from its erstwhile Turkish ally caused by the naval raid a month ago on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, resulting in the deaths of nine activists, eight of them Turkish.

At Mr Obama's behest, secret talks took place in Brussels on Wednesday.

While the Turks sent their foreign minister, Israel decided to pass over the hawkish Mr Lieberman in favour of Benjamin Ben Eliezer, the left-wing trade minister who has long advocated closer ties with Turkey. >>> Adrian Blomfield in Jerusalem | Thursday, June 01, 2010

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