Sunday, August 14, 2011
Bitter laughter is my main response to the events of the past week. You are surprised by what has happened? Why? I have been saying for years that it was coming, and why it was coming, and what could be done to stop it.
I have said it in books, in articles, over lunch and dinner tables with politicians whose lips curled with lofty contempt.
So yes, I am deeply sorry for the innocent and gentle people who have lost lives, homes, businesses and security. Heaven knows I have argued for years for the measures that might have saved them.
But I am not really very sorry for the elite liberal Londoners who have suddenly discovered what millions of others have lived with for decades.
The mass criminality in the big cities is merely a speeded-up and concentrated version of life on most large estates – fear, intimidation, cruelty, injustice, savagery towards the vulnerable and the different, a cold sneer turned towards any plea for pity, the awful realisation that when you call for help from the authorities, none will come.
Just look and see how many shops are protected with steel shutters, how many homes have bars on their windows. This is not new.
As the polluted flood (it is not a tide; it will not go back down again) of spite, greed and violence washes on to their very doorsteps, well-off and influential Left-wingers at last meet the filthy thing they have created, and which they ignored when it did not affect them personally. » | Peter Hitchens | Sunday, August 14, 2011
THE MAIL ON SUNDAY: 'White chavs have become black': David Starkey TV outburst provokes race row as he claims Enoch Powell was right » | Chris Hastings | Sunday, August 14, 2011
Thursday, August 11, 2011
ON ISLAM: CAIRO – Hosting an iftar to mark the holy fasting month of Ramadan, US President Barack Obama has used the occasion to honor American Muslims and their contributions to their country.
“Like so many faiths, Islam has always been part of our American family, and Muslim Americans have long contributed to the strength and character of our country, in all walks of life,” Obama told members of the diplomatic corps and prominent Muslim figures at a Ramadan iftar the White House on Wednesday, August 10, The Time reported.
“This has been especially true over the past 10 years.”
Obama said many Muslims lost their lives in the 9/11 attacks by Al-Qaeda movement.
"They were taken from us much too soon,” Obama said.
“And today, they live on in the love of their families and a nation that will never forget.”
Obama said many Muslims raced to offer help to those injured in the attacks.
“Muslim Americans were first responders…the EMTs (Emergency Medical Technicians) who evacuated so many to safety; the nurse who tended to so many victims; the naval officer at the Pentagon who rushed into the flames and pulled the injured to safety.
“On this 10th anniversary, we honor these men and women for what they are — American heroes.”
Obama has hosted an Iftar each year since he assumed office in 2009. » | Thursday, August 11, 2011
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: La Libye et l'Iran dénoncent mercredi l'attitude des forces de l'ordre à l'égard des émeutiers en Grande-Bretagne. Mouammar Kadhafi affirme même que David Cameron doit quitter le gouvernement.
Considérés comme des parias par Londres et la communauté internationale, la Libye et l’Iran n’ont pas raté l’occasion pour dénoncer la "répression" des émeutiers en Grande-Bretagne, Tripoli allant jusqu’à affirmer que le Premier ministre britannique a "perdu sa légitimité".
"Cameron et son gouvernement doivent partir après les manifestations populaires contre eux et la violente répression exercée par sa police contre ceux qui ont participé à ces manifestations pacifiques", a déclaré le vice-ministre libyen aux Affaires étrangères, Khaled Kaaim, cité mercredi par l’agence officielle Jana.
"Cameron et son gouvernement ont perdu toute légitimité", a-t-il ajouté, au moment où Londres et ses alliés au sein de l’Otan s’efforcent de déloger le régime du colonel Mouammar Kadhafi accusé de réprimer dans le sang une insurrection qui s’est déclenchée en février.
Selon lui, "ces manifestations montrent que le peuple britannique rejette ce gouvernement, qui tente de s’imposer par la force". » | AFP | Mercredi 10 Août 2011
Tuesday, August 09, 2011
Sunday, August 07, 2011
Bahrain's government stamped down anti-government protests in February, and since then hardly any news has filtered out of the island nation due to strict control over the media.
Bahraini expatriates have set up a TV channel in London, with the aim of giving viewers around the world an unbiased account of what is currently happening in Bahrain.
Despite having been plagued with obstacles since their launch last month, the small team behind the channel is determined to continue, but for now it can be watched only on the internet.
Al Jazeera's Jonah Hull reports from London.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Yesterday’s decision by the British Government to recognise Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC) as the “sole governmental authority” of that country has limited practical but considerable symbolic significance.
It follows the decision a fortnight ago by the Libya Contact Group, meeting in Istanbul, to accept the rebels as the legitimate governing authority in Libya. A total of 30 countries, including the US and France, have now taken similar action.
In practical terms it means the expulsion from London of the Gaddafi regime’s remaining diplomats and the transfer of the embassy building and £91 million in frozen assets to the NTC.
William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, said it would also enable the UK and its allies to offer greater practical assistance to the NTC on the ground. But it is the underlying symbolism of the measure that matters most.
This looks like the start of a process that the Nato alliance has been desperate to avoid – the effective partition of the country. » | Telegraph View | Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Somalia's al-Shabaab group has banned samosas after ruling the popular snacks are 'offensive' and too Christian.
Militant Islamist fighters last week used vehicles mounted with loudspeakers to announce the bizarre ruling across the regions of the war-torn country it controls.
The extremist group has offered no official explanation for the ban on the triangular snacks, which are commonly cooked up and served across the Horn of Africa. Islamist group in Somalia bans samosas after deciding they're too Western » | Stewart MacClean | Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Monday, July 25, 2011
Sunday, July 24, 2011
The Belgian parliament passed the law by a vote of 149-1 in April 2010. But due to the fall of the government shortly thereafter and an inconclusive election that left the country with a caretaker government, its implementation was delayed until now.
The law does not explicitly mention niqabs or burqas. But it prohibits the covering of one's face in public for security reasons -- effectively banning the two Islamic garments. Violators will face fines of 137.50 euros ($197.50) and up to seven days in jail.
Support for the legislation crossed the ideological spectrum, with supporters calling it an effort to promote gender equality. » | Rikard Jozwiak | Saturday, July 23, 2011
Anders Behring Breivik, the man accused of the murder of at least 92 Norwegians in a bomb and gun massacre, boasted online about his discussions with the far-right English Defence League and other anti-Islamic European organisations.
The Norwegian prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg, said Norwegian officials were working with foreign intelligence agencies to see if there was any international involvement in the slaughter. "We have running contact with other countries' intelligence services," he said.
Breivik was arrested on Utøya island where he shot and killed at least 85 people, mostly teenagers, at a youth summer camp for supporters ofNorway's Labour party after bombing Oslo's government district just hours before. Dressed as a police officer, he ordered the teenagers to gather round him before opening fire. Survivors described how dozens of people were mown down. The massacre led to the largest death toll ever recorded by a single gunman on the rampage. » | Mark Townsend in Sundvollen, Peter Beaumont and Tracy McVeigh | Saturday, July 23, 2011
THE GUARDIAN: Anders Behring Breivik: motives of a mass murderer: Killer is not ashamed of his terrorist act of massacring Norwegians and bombing government offices in Oslo » | Jamie Doward | Saturday, July 23, 2011
Saturday, July 23, 2011
THE DAILY MAIL: Suspect named by Norwegian media as Anders Behring Breivik / Police believe he acted alone and not connected to Islamist organisations
The massacre in Norway was the work of a man with extreme right wing views who hated Muslims, police said this morning.
Officers found a series of raving internet posts by 32-year-old Anders Behring Breivik, who was arrested for gunning down children on the island of Utoya yesterday.
National police chief Sveinung Sponheim told public broadcaster NRK that the suspected gunman's Internet postings 'suggest that he has some political traits directed toward the right, and anti-Muslim views, but if that was a motivation for the actual act remains to be seen'. » | Daily Mail Reporter | Saturday, July 23, 2011
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Russia's Muslim Chechen Republic is moving to ban non-alcoholic energy drinks like red bull as "un-Islamic," it has been reported.
Chechnya's increasingly draconian interpretations of Islamic law, with alcohol all but banned and women required to wear head scarfs in state buildings, has drawn criticism that the North Caucasus republic is introducing laws that are often in breach of the Russian constitution.
"Energy drinks are comparable to beer," Rukman Bartiyev, Chechen deputy health minister said. » | Roland Oliphant in Moscow | Tuesday, July 19, 2011
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