Saturday, August 21, 2010
LOS ANGELES TIMES – Babylon & Beyond: You know a country's human rights situation is bad when even Amnesty International is urging that a guy be methodically whipped or caned on his back as a compromise to avoid an even harsher sentence.
Human rights monitors have grown alarmed over the case of a Saudi man who might have his spinal cord severed as punishment for badly injuring another guy during a fight a few years ago.
Amnesty International has urged Saudi Arabian authorities not to deliberately paralyze the man as a form of retribution for injuries he allegedly caused with a cleaver during a fight.
"We urge the Saudi Arabian authorities not to carry out such a punishment, which amounts to nothing less than torture," Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, acting director of Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa Program, said in a statement. "While those guilty of a crime should be held accountable, intentionally paralyzing a man in this way would constitute torture, and be a breach of its international human rights obligations." >>> Los Angeles Times | Saturday, August 21, 2010
MAIL ONLINE: The growing movement against the building of a mosque near Ground Zero has gained another prominent supporter: the first Muslim Miss USA.
Rima Fakih, 24, the daughter of Lebanese immigrants and a Muslim, criticised the location of the planned £70 million Islamic Cultural Center planned just two blocks away from Ground Zero.
'It shouldn't be so close to the World Trade Center,' Fakih, 24, told Inside Edition during a break from the Miss Universe pageant preparations in Las Vegas.
'We should be more concerned with the tragedy than religion.'
After wading into the highly-charged political issue, the Michigan-born Fakih then went on to support President Obama's statement on the constitutional rights of religious freedom.
'I totally agree with President Obama with (that) statement,' said Fakih.
Meanwhile growing number of New York construction workers are vowing not to work on the mosque planned near Ground Zero, according to the New York Daily News.
'It's a very touchy thing because they want to do this on sacred ground,' said Dave Kaiser, 38, a blaster who is working to rebuild the World Trade Center site.
The grass-roots movement is gaining momentum on the Internet, says the Daily News. One construction worker created the Hard Hat Pledge on his blog and asked others to vow not to work on the project if it stays in its current location.
'Thousands of people are signing up from all over the country,' said creator Andy Sullivan, a construction worker from Brooklyn.
'People who sell glass, steel, lumber, insurance. They are all refusing to do work if they build there. >>> Mail Foreign Correspondent | Saturday, August 21, 2010
CANADA FREE PRESS: Since the very first mention of the erection of a Muslim Mosque almost on top of the ground desecrated by Muslims in an attack to destroy Amerrica’s financial capabilities by fire-bombing the World Trade Center’s two skyscraper buildings, Obama and his favorite people on earth, the Muslims, have been lying about their plans for the new edifice.
These people have gotten accustomed to good, honest and hard-working Americans bending over backwards to accommodate their repulsive and insanely demanding dictates on how WE should behave toward THEM in OUR country.
Since Barack Hussein Obama usurped our presidency by failing to provide LEGITIMATE proof of his “natural born residency” the Islamic faith followers have considered America to be THEIR country. Obama has practically said so in many instances, particularly in speeches given in foreign countries alluding to “America being a Muslim country and not Christian.”
I don’t know about you, but I have had it up to here with this sort of balderdash and outright lies coming from the man who is pretending to be our leader. He is not a leader; he is a follower; a follower of a foreign religious faith that has as its primary goal the total destruction of the United States of America.
Barack Hussein Obama is the biggest enemy we have in this country. And he is slowly and deceitfully building an army of Muslim followers who will one day swoop down on us and try to physically destroy us and what we have held dear for over 234 years.
The sad part of this whole scenario is the fact that millions, yes I said millions, of deluded American citizens think that Obama is actually good for this country. He still polls about FORTY percent of our people as believing he is doing a good job as president. Where are their brains? These gullible fools will be rudely awakened one day to the truth; but it will be too late at that point to save them and us. >>> Jerry McConnell | Saturday, August 21, 2010
CANADA FREE PRESS: Obama Akbar: The media is all worked up over a poll that shows the majority of Americans don’t think Obama is a Christians [sic] and nearly a 1/4 of Americans think that Obama is a Muslim. Naturally the “mainstream” conservative blogs are embarrassed by these results. Politico is calling it a new Birtherism. Left unasked is the question of why people might think that. >>> Daniel Greenfield | Saturday, August 21, 2010
BIG JOURNALISM: Stop the presses! This just in: The Associated Press “standards center” has issued a “staff advisory” on covering what is to be known from here on out as “the New York City mosque.” From now on, the AP “staff” – and, therefore, everybody who still actually reads newspapers that still actually use the wire service’s copy – is supposed to conform to what amounts to the Muslim Brotherhood narrative about the Islamic cultural center formerly known as the “Ground Zero mosque.”
AP’s Deputy Managing Editor for Standards and Production, Tom Kent, sent this “guidance” out to his colleagues, with inputs from Chad Roedemeier in the New York bureau and Terry Hunt in Washington: “We should continue to avoid the phrase ‘Ground Zero mosque’ or ‘mosque at Ground Zero’ on all platforms. (We’ve very rarely used this wording, except in slugs, though we sometimes see other news sources using the term.) The site of the proposed Islamic center and mosque is not at Ground Zero, but two blocks away in a busy commercial area. We should continue to say it’s “near” Ground Zero, or two blocks away.”
Interestingly, among those who formerly used the now-proscribed descriptor “Ground Zero mosque” is none other than Feisal Abdul Rauf, its imam and chief promoter. He called it that even though the proposed venue has always been two blocks away from the World Trade Center site.
Perhaps Rauf used this moniker because his planned location for the mosque was part of the real estate attacked and damaged on 9/11 – the home of the Burlington Coat Factory until it was struck by a landing gear from a plane that struck one of the Twin Towers. Perhaps he used that term to brand his “Cordoba House” because body parts from the victims of those attacks have been found all over Lower Manhattan, including the old Burlington factory area, making it part of the hallowed ground.
Or perhaps, Imam Rauf called his project the Ground Zero mosque because he wanted to associate his 15-story, $100 million complex as closely as possible to the location where nearly 3,000 Americans and other innocent people – precisely because they were murdered there by people who wanted, as he does, to “bring shariah to America.”
The last explanation would certainly conform to the triumphalist past practice of adherents to shariah, the barbaric, totalitarian political program that masquerades as a religion. Indeed, there is a tradition of constructing mosques at the site of previous Islamic conquests for example in Jerusalem, Istanbul and Cordoba, Spain. Yes, it was for Cordoba – where a Catholic church was converted into the world’s third largest mosque by the Moorish conquerors of Spain – that Rauf wanted initially to name his Ground Zero mosque. Read on and comment >>> Frank Gaffney | Friday, August 20, 2010
HT: Jihad Watch >>>
THE TELEGRAPH: The United States has made an impassioned plea for Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the only man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, to be returned to jail.
The Obama administration used the anniversary of the bomber's release on compassionate grounds – because he had advanced prostate cancer – to condemn the decision.
The US president's office said it had advised Libyan officials of its view that Megrahi should not be free.
John Brennan, Barack Obama's counter-terrorism adviser, criticised the "unfortunate and inappropriate and wrong decision."
He said: "We've expressed our strong conviction that Al Megrahi should serve out the remainder – the entirety – of his sentence in a Scottish prison."
Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez, said that a "cloud of suspicion" hung over the decision to release Megrahi, who is now living with his family in the Libyan capital of Tripoli. >>> Andrew Alderson, Chief Reporter | Saturday, August 21, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: The US sought to reassure Israel that Iran is still a year away from building a nuclear weapon, as Iran's leadership hailed the fuelling of its first nuclear power plant on Saturday.
Iranian television showed live pictures of Iran's nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi and his Russian counterpart watching a fuel rod assembly being prepared for insertion into the reactor at Bushehr.
"Despite all the pressures, sanctions and hardships imposed by Western nations, we are now witnessing the start-up of the largest symbol of Iran's peaceful nuclear activities," Mr Salehi told a news conference afterwards. He described the plant as "a symbol of Iranian resistance and patience". >>> Agency in Tehran and Telegraph reporter | Saturday, August 21, 2010
NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE: That is the real question at hand in the Ground Zero mosque debate.
The real battle for religious freedom lurks beneath the Ground Zero mosque controversy. It is sadly ironic that our public debate presents the mosque proponents as the partisans of liberty: That includes everyone from imam Feisal Rauf, the project’s sharia-touting sponsor, to President Obama, Mayor Bloomberg, and the rest of the Islamist-smitten Left, to the GOP’s own anti-anti-terrorist wing. Yet, wittingly or not, when they champion this mosque and its sponsors, it is the agenda of an alien and authoritarian Islam that they champion — an Islam against which many American Muslims chafe.
When it comes to liberty, no one in this society has been given a wider berth than the Islamists, the purveyors of this authoritarian Islam, which is the mainstream Islam of the Middle East. Their vise grip on the American Muslim community has been cinched for two decades by the government, the media, and the academy. For our post-American ruling class, “Islamic outreach” means prostituting themselves for Saudi largesse; it means putting the “moderate” label on the Muslim Brotherhood — the Saudi-backed saboteurs whose American operatives boldly promise to “eliminate and destroy Western Civilization from within.”
The victims of this lethal charade include American Muslims. They, too, crave religious liberty and Western enlightenment. Our elites abandon them to the sharia-mongers. That freedom destroyers have been allowed to pose as freedom defenders ought to tell mosque opponents something: We have done a poor job of explaining the stakes. >>> Andrew C. McCarthy | Saturday, August 21, 2010
Friday, August 20, 2010
The Level Truth >>>
Eighth Scroll >>>
THE GUARDIAN: New York blogger Pamela Geller is a key force in the campaign to stop Islamic centre near Ground Zero
Pamela Geller is on a mission to save the free world and she's doing it, on this occasion, in a bikini as she writhes around in the sea.
"Here I am in my chador, my burka," Geller jokes to the camera in one of a string of video blogs campaigning against Islamic "world domination" shortly before kicking back in the waves. "There is a serious reality check desperately needed here in America and I'm here to give it to you, but I'm just not ginormous enough. What can I say? And on that note I'm going to go swimming in the ocean, and visit my mama, and fight for the free world."
This strange performance might suggest that Geller is a figure consigned to the margins of the widening and increasingly heated debate about the role of Muslims in America. Far from it.
The flamboyant New Yorker, who appears on her own website pictured in a tight fitting Superman uniform, has emerged as a leading force in a growing and ever more alarmist campaign against the supposed threat of an Islamic takeover at home and global jihad abroad – and never more so than in the present bitter dispute over plans to build an Islamic centre near the site of the World Trade Centre, brought down by al-Qaida.
Geller has been at the forefront of drumming up opposition to the centre, two blocks from Ground Zero, through an array of websites such as the Freedom Defence Initiative (FDI) and Stop Islamisation of America (SIOA). They have become increasingly influential as conservative politicians exploit anti-Muslim sentiment before November's congressional and state elections.
SIOA is behind a series of advertisements opposing the "Ground Zero Mega Mosque", as Geller calls it, which appeared on the sides of New York buses this week picturing a plane flying into one of the World Trade Centre towers and a mosque divided by the question: Why Here?
Geller's answer is that the planned centre is viewed by Muslims as a "triumphal" monument built on "conquered land".
As extreme as that may seem, Geller and her views have been embraced by leading politicians such as Newt Gingrich, the former Republican speaker of the US House of Representatives, and John Bolton, the conservative former US ambassador to the UN, who are scheduled to speak at a rally against the controversial New York Islamic centre organised by Geller for September 11.
Gingrich this week likened the planned centre to putting Nazi signs outside the Holocaust museum. >>> Chris McGreal in Washington | Friday, August 20, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Theresa May, the Home Secretary, has authorised a blanket ban on marches in a city on the day of a planned protest by the English Defence League (EDL), an [sic] right-wing campaign group.
The EDL had intended to demonstrate in Bradford on Saturday August 28 and Unite Against Fascism has planned a protest in the city on the same day.
A Home Office spokesman said: ''Having carefully balanced rights to protest against the need to ensure local communities and property are protected, the Home Secretary today gave her consent to a Bradford Council order banning any marches in the city over the bank holiday weekend. >>> | Friday, August 20, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Iran has test fired a surface-to-surface missile, according to the country’s defence minister.
Ahmad Vahidi’s announcement comes a day before Iran is scheduled to launch its Russian-built first nuclear power plant in the southern port city of Bushehr.
Television images showed the sand coloured Qiam (Rising) blasting into the air from a desert terrain, amid chants of “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest).
The words “Ya Mahdi” were written on the side of the missile, referring to Imam Mahdi, one of the 12 imams of Shiite Islam, who disappeared as a boy and whom the faithful believe will return one day to bring redemption to mankind.
Mr Vahidi, who was speaking during Friday prayers in Tehran, did not say when the launch took place nor did he disclose the precise range of the missile. >>> | Friday, August 20, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Pakistan has threatened to arrest charities linked to Islamist militants amid fears their role in delivering aid to flood victims could undermine the fight against extremists.
Islamist charities, some with alleged links to terrorists who carried out the 2008 Mumbai attacks, have moved swiftly to fill a void left by a government overwhelmed by a disaster that has left eight million people in desperate need of help. >>> Rob Crilly, Islamabad | Friday, August 20, 2010
THE GUARDIAN: Liberal Democrat leader says reform of electoral system, always a central plank of party's policy, is not his 'sole purpose in life'
Nick Clegg today risked the anger of the Liberal Democrat grassroots by suggesting he would not abandon the coalition with the Tories even if the key plans for electoral reform were blocked.
In a radio interview to be broadcast this weekend, the Lib Dem leader declared that reform of the electoral system, which has always been a central plank of the party's policy, was not his "sole purpose in life".
The comments came at the end of a week in which Clegg provoked unease among some within his party for agreeing with the appointment of Philip Green, the Top Shop boss whose tax affairs have been questioned, to advise on public sector cuts.
In the interview with Radio 4's Westminster Hour, the Lib Dem leader rejected suggestions that his party was being damaged by the alliance with the Tories, insisting no one would be taking "any notice" of the Lib Dems if they were not in government. >>> Staff and agencies | Friday, August 20, 2010
THE GUARDIAN: Leon Brittan, Tory who discovered Nick Clegg, returns to politics after 24 years: Coalition asks former home secretary, who gave Lib Dem leader job in Brussels, to return to frontline as a paid trade advisor >>> Allegra Stratton, political correspondent | Thursday, August 19, 2010
NZZ ONLINE: Eine neue Volksinitiative verlangt die Wiedereinführung der Todesstrafe bei «Mord mit sexuellem Missbrauch». Der Text ist noch nicht veröffentlicht. Die Europäische Menschenrechtskonvention verbietet die Todesstrafe.
Ein Initiativkomitee hat vor einem Monat eine Volksinitiative mit dem Titel «Todesstrafe bei Mord mit sexuellem Missbrauch» bei der Bundeskanzlei zur formellen Vorprüfung eingereicht. Laut Marcel Graf, Mitglied des Initiativkomitees, hat die Bundeskanzlei die formelle Vorprüfung vorgenommen. Diese sei positiv ausgefallen. Dies würde bedeuten, dass der Initiativtext demnächst im Bundesblatt veröffentlicht wird und danach mit der Unterschriftensammlung begonnen werden kann. Nach Informationen der NZZ ist diese Aussage korrekt.
Die Diskussionen um die Gültigkeit und die Umsetzbarkeit von Volksinitiativen haben in letzter Zeit zugenommen, besonders im Falle der Verwahrungs-, der Anti-Minarett- und der Ausschaffungsinitiative. Die neue Volksinitiative für die Wiedereinführung der Todesstrafe bei Sexualverbrechen wirft ebenfalls rechtsstaatliche Fragen auf. Weiter lesen und einen Kommentar hinterlassen >>> Peter Eggenberger | Donnerstag, 19. August 2010
TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: CRIMES SEXUELS | Une initiative pour le rétablissement de la peine de mort en Suisse serait sur le point d'être lancée. Elle vise à sanctionner les meurtres avec violence sexuelle.
L'information a été donné vendredi par la NZZ. Le texte de l'initiative a pour objectif de restaurer la peine capitale pour les meurtres avec violence sexuelle. >>>
Rédaction online | Vendredi 20 Août 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Women-only train carriages have been introduced this week in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, in an attempt to avert groping and sexual harassment on packed commuter trains.
Women can choose to board the female-only, orange and pink-seated carriages at the front and rear of trains in Jakarta, the latest in a growing number of cities to offer women-only services.
The state-owned railway operator, PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI), said it had not received many complaints about sexual harassment but the company had noticed that many women avoided densely-packed trains.
"The women-only carriages are aimed to make women feel comfortable," an official at PT KAI said.
PT KAI is now providing 20 female-only carriages and plans to add more in the next three months. >>> | Friday, August 20, 2010
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