Monday, November 08, 2010
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A TV channel aimed at Muslims has been censured by the media watchdog Ofcom for allowing its presenters to encourage violence against women and advocate marital rape.
In one programme on the Islam Channel, which broadcasts on Sky and Freesat, the presenter of a discussion of sex within marriage said that "it shouldn't be such a big problem where the man feels he has to force himself upon the woman".
During another programme, a woman phoned in to ask if she had the right to hit a violent husband back. The presenter responded: "In Islam we have no right to hit the woman in a way that damages her eye or damages her tooth or damages her face or makes her ugly. Maximum what you can do, you can see the pen over here, in my hand, this kind of a stick can be used just to make her feel that you are not happy with her."
In March this year, the channel was the subject of a report by the Quilliam Foundation, a London-based organisation that describes itself as "the world’s first counter-extremism think tank". >>> Neil Midgley, Assistant Editor (Media) | Montag, November 08, 2010
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A bishop who is defecting to Rome has likened the Church of England to a coffee chain that is going out of business.
Five bishops have announced that they are converting to Roman Catholicism in protest at liberal Anglican reforms and urged others to follow their path.
One likened the Church to a chain of coffee shops that is losing customers while a second accused it of adopting an increasingly “lax” attitude towards issues of morality, such as homosexuality and abortion.
As first reported in The Daily Telegraph, three serving and two retired traditionalist bishops announced that they are resigning in order to convert to Roman Catholicism.
The defections come as hundreds of worshippers prepare to take up the Pope’s offer to join a new section of the Roman Catholic Church which is being established for Anglicans who cannot accept liberal reforms such as the ordination of women bishops.
The new body, known as the English Ordinariate, is expected to be finalised next week and to begin operation as a full part of the Roman Catholic Church next year.
The Catholic Church in England and Wales welcomed the decision made by the Bishops of Ebbsfleet, the Rt Rev Andrew Burnham; Fulham, the Rt Rev John Broadhurst; Richborough, the Rt Rev Keith Newton; and two retired bishops, the Rt Rev Edwin Barnes, honorary assistant bishop of Winchester, and the Rt Rev David Silk, honorary assistant bishop of Exeter.
In a joint statement the bishops expressed their “dismay” and “distress” at recent liberal reforms to the Church, in particular the ordination of women priests and plans for the consecration of women as bishops. >>> Tim Ross, Religious Affairs Editor | Monday, November 08, 2010
TIME: Around 200 men flooded out of the al-Qa'id Ibrahim mosque into the midday sunlight following the Friday afternoon prayers in Alexandria. They held up banners before the hundreds of black-clad riot police who were there to greet them, and immediately began to chant. "Shenouda is the enemy of God," they yelled, referring to Pope Shenouda III, the head of the Coptic Church, Egypt's largest religious minority. "Shenouda is an infidel ... State security, where is your Islam? Why did you leave the criminals alone?"
Much of the rage expressed by the members of the hard-line Salafi sect of Islam stems from one woman. Not much is known about Camilia Shehata, a priest's wife from Upper Egypt, whose story (or lack thereof) has gripped the Middle East's most populous nation since the summer, sparking waves of angry protests and emotional editorials. Shehata disappeared from her home for several days in July after having reportedly converted to Islam — some say in an effort to get a divorce, which is not permitted by the Coptic Church. At first, the Christians protested — accusing Muslims of kidnapping a Christian and forcing her to convert. When she re-emerged, it was the Muslims' turn. Many now believe Shehata was forcibly returned to her home and the Coptic Church by state authorities, only to become sequestered against her will within the confines of a monastery.
"We do not know anything except that she was married to a priest and she ran away from that marriage. Everything else is just rumors, and that is the problem," says Amr Khafagy, the editor in chief of the independent al-Shorouq newspaper, which has run four stories and an editorial about Shehata. "The government never said the absolute truth and the church never said the absolute truth. And the media blew these rumors out of proportion."
It's not the first time a Christian has converted to Islam, but conversion has long been a sensitive issue in a state where Copts worry about rising Muslim religiosity and Muslims increasingly see Copts as existing outside the law. It is also one of the first times the state has interfered in an individual's conversion, claims Rafiq Habib, a Coptic intellectual. If they hadn't, he says, this never would have gotten so out of hand. "From the public perspective, it was a sign that the role of the church and the position of the Copts has changed in the last years — that they have become allies of the state and allies of the President."
Wafaa Constantine, who was also the wife of a priest, reportedly converted to Islam in 2004 and wound up in a monastery as well. Neither woman has appeared in public since their returns to the church, and the Salafi protests of late have invoked both names. "Today we hold a standoff to free our sister hostages from the church," explained one of the protesters, Atef Wael. "Whenever a sister converts to Islam, they keep her in the church and they torture her to make her appear before the media saying that she is a Christian, not a Muslim." Other protesters outside the mosque on Friday and in recent weeks have displayed pictures of women they allege are Shehata, Constantine and others held captive by the church. Some sobbed as they chanted slogans comparing their struggle to the Crusades. >>> Abigail Hauslohner, Alexandria | Monday, November 08, 2010
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Security around Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the French first lady, has been "drastically" beefed up following al-Qaeda warnings that France is a priority terrorist target.Last week, Osama bin Laden issued a threat to kill French nationals for their government's support of the war in Afghanistan and a ban on the full Islamic veil.
Shortly afterwards, Greek police intercepted a booby-trapped parcel bomb addressed to President Nicolas Sarkozy.
According to the Pure People website, security services have received "credible intelligence" that the threat to the President but also his wife has increased.
The website said: "There is no question of the couple ever going out without an armed escort. Details of all their movements are being kept secret until the very last moment. Their schedule is randomly changed and family and friends informed at the at the latest possible moment." >>> Henry Samuel in Paris | Monday, November 08, 2010
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A US-born radical Yemeni cleric has called for the killing of Americans in a new video message posted on radical web sites on Monday.Anwar al-Awlaki said Americans are from the "party of devils" and so don't require any special religious permission to kill.
In the 23-minute Arabic language message entitled "Make it known and clear to mankind," al-Awlaki said it was "either them or us". He also called all Arab and Yemeni leaders "corrupt" and said it was time for religious scholars to take charge.
"Kings, emirs, and presidents are not now qualified to lead the nation, or even a flock of sheep," he said. "If the leaders are corrupt, the scholars have the responsibility to lead the nation." >>> | Monday, November 08, 2010
FRANKFURT-LIVE.COM: Regierungswechsel wird begrüßt: Die Deutschen sehen den Islam nicht als Bestandteil Deutschlands >>> | Montag, 08. November 2010
WELT ONLINE: Mehrere schwule Pärchen haben in Barcelona gegen den Papst-Besuch von Benedikt XVI. und die Diskriminierung von Schwulen demonstriert
Sunday, November 07, 2010
LE POINT: Le pape Benoît XVI a consacré dimanche la basilique de la Sagrada Familia à Barcelone, chef-d'oeuvre de Gaudi, symbole des valeurs traditionnelles de la famille qu'il a défendues en dénonçant le mariage homosexuel et l'avortement. Peu avant, Benoît XVI avait été accueilli sur le chemin de la Sagrada Familia aux cris de "pédophile", "va-t-en" par 200 homosexuels s'embrassant à pleine bouche pour dénoncer les "discriminations" dont ils se disent victimes.
Au deuxième jour de sa visite en Espagne, un pays qui a légalisé le mariage homosexuel et libéralisé l'avortement, où la laïcité gagne du terrain, le pape, dans son homélie, a défendu la famille comme union "indissoluble d'un homme et d'une femme". Il a dénoncé l'avortement, dont la libéralisation cette année est l'une des réformes phares du gouvernement socialiste de José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, en rappelant que l'Église "s'oppose à toute forme de négation de la vie". >>> Source AFP | Dimanche 07 Novembre 2010
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Government plans to force the long-term unemployed to do unpaid manual labour could drive vulnerable people into a ''downward spiral of uncertainty, even despair'', the Archbishop of Canterbury warned.
Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith will this week unveil plans for four-week programmes of compulsory community work doing jobs like litter-picking or gardening for jobless people deemed to have lost the work ethic.
His Cabinet colleague Danny Alexander today said the Work Activity placements would be used as a ''sanction'' against benefit claimants who fail to take advantage of available support to find employment.
But the proposal came under fire from Labour and the unions, with the TUC warning that it would harm jobless people's prospects of finding paid work and would undercut the employment of existing manual labourers.
Asked about the proposed scheme, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, told BBC WM Radio: ''People who are struggling to find work and struggling to find a secure future are, I think, driven further into a sort of downward spiral of uncertainty, even despair, when the pressure is on in this way.''
Under Mr Duncan Smith's plans, job advisers will be able to direct jobseekers who they believe would ''benefit from experiencing the habits and routines of working life'' to undertake a 30-hour-a-week work placement.
Postings are likely to be provided by charities or councils and will be designed to offer the jobseeker the opportunity to gain work discipline and skills while benefiting their local community. They will be required to continue seeking permanent work while on a placement.
Anyone refusing to take part or failing to turn up on time could have their £65-a-week Jobseekers Allowance stopped for at least three months. >>> | Sunday, November 07, 2010
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Work-shy will be 'pushed' into working for free by welfare revolution: People who do not try hard enough to find a job will be forced to work for free or lose their benefits, the Government will announce this week. >>> Melissa Kite, Deputy Political Editor | Saturday, November 06, 2010
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Ofsted and the Charity Commission are today accused of "whitewashing" hardline Islamic schools which are helping to radicalise a new generation of young British Muslims.
An investigation by The Sunday Telegraph has established that the education watchdog has published positive reports praising Muslim schools for their contribution to community cohesion — even in the case of a school which openly states that Muslims “oppose the lifestyle of the West”.
The Ofsted inspector responsible for many of the reports, Michele Messaoudi, has been accused of having links to radical Islamist organisations.
This newspaper can reveal that another recent Ofsted inspector, Akram Khan-Cheema, is the chief executive of a radical Muslim educational foundation, IBERR.
Its website describes Islamic schools as “one of the most important factors which protect Muslim children from the onslaught of Euro-centrism, homosexuality, racism, and secular traditions”.
Ofsted has also passed the inspection of dozens of Muslim schools to a new private “faith schools watchdog”, the Bridge Schools Inspectorate, which is co-controlled by Islamic schools’ own lobbying and trade body, the Association of Muslim Schools.
The Bridge Schools Inspectorate allows Muslim head teachers to inspect each other’s schools.
Among the schools directly inspected by Ofsted was the Madani Girls’ School, a private Islamic school in London’s East End.
Its Ofsted report, written by Mrs Messaoudi, said it made pupils “aware of their future role as proactive young British Muslim women” and left them “well-prepared for life in a multicultural society”.
However, the Madani Girls’ School’s own website openly states: “If we oppose the lifestyle of the West, then it does not seem sensible that the teachers and the system which represents that lifestyle should educate our children.”
It says that under western education “our children will distance themselves from Islam until there is nothing left but their beautiful names”. >>> Andrew Gilligan | Saturday, November 06, 2010
THE GUARDIAN: Long-running controversy, including death threats, "takes its toll" on Right Rev Gene Robinson who plans to call it day seven years ahead of schedule
An openly gay bishop whose appointment split the Anglican church is to resign, saying the last seven years had "taken their toll" on him, his family and his flock.
The Right Rev Gene Robinson, of New Hampshire, revealed his plans yesterday, at at annual diocesan meeting. He will be 65 when he steps down, seven years below the retirement age.
He told the convention that being in the eye of the storm had proved too much.
He said: "Death threats, and the now-worldwide controversy surrounding your election of me as bishop, have been a constant strain, not just on me, but on my beloved husband, Mark, who has faithfully stood with me every minute of the last seven years, and in some ways, you.
"While I believe that these attitudes, mostly outside the diocese, have not distracted me from my service to you, I would be less than honest if I didn't say that they have certainly added a burden and certain anxiety to my episcopate."
He said he would continue his work with the "unchurched" and "dechurched" on college campuses and public forums, showing no intention of retiring from public life. >>> Riazat Butt, religious affairs correspondent | Sunday, November 07, 2010
THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY: Burma's political heroine has spent 15 of the past 20 years under arrest. Now, as the country goes to the polls, her fate hangs in the balanceShe is by some stretch the most abused political heroine alive today. She has been confined to her crumbling family home in Rangoon for more than 15 of the past 20 years. Her two sons, Alex and Kim, have for many years been barred from visiting her – Kim, now 33, is in Bangkok trying to get a visa so he can see his mother for the first time in 10 years. The last wish of her gravely ill husband, Michael Aris – to die in her arms – was brutally snubbed.
But in one week's time all that could be in the past and Aung San Suu Kyi could walk through the rusty iron gates of 54 University Avenue, Rangoon, a free woman again.
Or will she? >>> Peter Popham | Sunday, November 07, 2010
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